When you see blurbs from Pat Cadigan and William Gibson on a book, it better be something special. And Richard Kadrey’s BUTCHER BIRD does manage to live up to its blurbage, providing a remarkably edgy look at alternative worlds living in concert with our human experience.
Yes, this is one of those books where the protagonist’s eyes are opened to the fact that demons and hellbeasts walk among us. But sometimes they are actually in our world under a disguise, and sometimes their world impinges on ours, but we are completely unaware as to their existence. There are multiple spheres of existence that overlap, each with the other, and only certain individuals are able to see these other spheres, and move between their respective planes of existence.
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After being out of print for more than 20 years, FIVE ROUNDABOUTS TO HEAVEN gets a well-deserved reissue. This is considered one of John Bingham’s greatest works, and who am I to disagree? A former MI5 agent, Bingham is also a master of the crime novel.
The story is pretty straightforward: how a normal man like Philip Bartels can arrive at the idea of murdering his own wife. We are told the story from a close friend of Philip, a schoolboy chum of his named Peter Harding. If this plot seems simple, you are mistaken, since Bingham has crafted a true classic.
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Our monthly depressing look at the search terms that bring pervs to BOOKGASM!
INTRUDERS alert! For what certainly will prove to be one of 2007’s strangest reads in mainstream crime fiction, reach for THE INTRUDERS by Michael Marshall. Even if it may not emerge as a year’s best-ender, it will not fail to confound and surprise – both on purpose.
Bear with me: Jack Whalen is a former cop turned photographer/author, who lives seemingly happily and childless with his wife, Amy, in Washington. One day, a tangential friend from his past named Gary Fisher shows up, seeking his help/advice/perspective in a strange home-invasion murder case.
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FROM HELL TO MIDNIGHT. What a great title for a traditional Western. Too bad this novel isn’t exactly a traditional Western.
Most of Richard S. Wheeler’s books should be described that way, but most of them contain elements that move them to the head of the line. Wheeler is a fine writer with a sense of tragedy underlining the melodrama that is the genre’s great appeal. Even this book, which is a comedy, hints at tragic circumstances: One woman, we learn, has been used repeatedly as a “poker chip” in her husband’s gambling.
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