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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After six years of being published over in England, Charles Cumming’s debut novel A SPY BY NATURE makes it to our shores. It’s a taut thriller of how one becomes a cog in the greater spy world.

Alec Milus is a young man whose has been working for a petty con man, selling advertising for a journal that is sent just to the people who buy advertising. Alec works on commission and makes a living, but he understands this is a total dead-end future. Then he is approached by a family friend about working in the foreign office. What this person means by “foreign office” is really MI6: the British version of the CIA.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste … and today, an all-comics edition!

Marguerite Dabaie offers a few quick glimpses into the life of a Palestinian living in America in her autobiographical comics collection THE HOOKAH GIRL AND OTHER TRUE STORIES: VOLUME 1. These eight brief confessionals and remembrances include watching the elder women in her family rolling grape leaves; the time her one-legged, surly uncle scared everyone at her birthday party; an incident in which someone told her an anti-Palestinian joke, not knowing she was one; and indifference as to which perspective of her race she feels she is most like. Even with political overtones, Dabaie’s work is loose and funny. And with a range that veers from cartoony to near-photographic, this girl can draw!

From the first two issues of SCARFACE: DEVIL IN DISGUISE, it’s evident that comics is an ideal medium for telling a prequel story of cinema’s favorite coke dealer, Tony Montana. It shows him as a young boy in Cuba, being left behind by his mom and meeting his right-hand man Manny. It also shows him as a young man, being tortured and practicing a hobby of decapitating his enemies. The only downside is that the book constantly jumps back and forth throughout time, so no definitive story yet has taken shape. Instead, we get fragments that eventually will add up to a finished whole, kinda like channel-surfing. For rabid fans of Brian De Palma’s movie – and there are plenty, although I’m not one of them – this should satisfy. Joshua Jabcuga’s words accurately capture the film’s grimy tone, and Alberto Dose makes his nice art cinematic with slightly washed-out colors.

Pick up SHOWCASE PRESENTS BATMAN: VOLUME 2 if you liked VOLUME 1, because it’s 500 more pages of the same 1960s insanity and inanity, obviously both influencing and influenced by the then-phenomenal TV show. In these adventures from DETECTIVE COMICS and the Caped Crusader’s own title, Batman and Robin grapple with doubles, a Hulk-ish Blockbuster, flying rocketmen, a guy in a cheap skeleton costume (even in the courtroom!), a guy with a wolf’s head, the Riddler and even that hot bitch Poison Ivy. In the craziest story, Joker’s sidekick is a dwarf named Gaggy. In the silliest story, our heroes fight The Eraser, a man with a mask shaped like – yep – a giant pencil eraser. In the most self-referential story, writer Gardner Fox breaks the fourth wall to directly address the reader, asking what would happen if Batman died? And in just about every story, the boys throw out a pun while fighting (example: Robin kicks a baddie and quips, “Now I’ll serve up a helping of soles!”). Oh, and Alfred the butler comes back to life. Sometimes overly wordy, but fun for all.

Heavy in subject matter and weight, the David Kendall-edited THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST WAR COMICS is a multicultural, decade-spanning anthology of 26 tales of rarely glorified combat from real-life battles both old and new. It opens with Keiju Nakazawa’s “I Saw It!,” a slightly primitive but knowing account of being a child in Hiroshima when America dropped the bomb. Other highlights include two late-career bits from Will Eisner, John Severin’s WWII-set “Souvenirs!” and a short Vietnam saga from Archie Goodwin and Joe Orlando. The best part is the color section in the middle, reprinting three Dell comics in color – yellowed pages and all! – from AIR WAR STORIES and COMBAT, all drawn by Sam Glanzman. You’ll learn more about Pearl Harbor from his story than any textbook. What’s interesting is that no matter what decade, what country or what mindset – mainstream, indie or underground – the entries come from, the message pretty much stays the same: War is hell.

Speaking of that, more than any movie I’ve ever seen or any book I’ve ever read, Vertigo’s five-issue THE OTHER SIDE brings the horror of the Vietnam War home. The fact that it holds eerie parallels with what’s going on in the world today makes it that much more powerful. Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Cameron Stewart, the graphic novel tells the story of two soldiers on two different sides: one American, one Vietnamese. Though they’ve been conditioned by their respective countries to hate one another, they actually have a lot in common: fighting someone else’s war. Then there are the rotting corpses that hang around and tell the cornpone hick to kill. This is harrowing stuff, expertly penned and illustrated. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

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Okay, so it doesn’t look promising. The very apt cover looks straight off a bodice-ripper; the text is filled with flowery, purple descriptions of lush jewels and fabric; and the back cover states it’s an “amazing mix of romance, mystery, and occult adventure.” What have I gotten myself into now?

Well, actually, a pretty darn good read. THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE from Nathalie Mallet and Night Shade Books may not be your normal fantasy cup of tea, but it has an intriguing concept, and enough going on with its characters that you might look forward to a sequel.

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As you can guess, we’re covering three books that were all made into movies in the 1970s, when things like “CGI” and “blockbusters” were not even thought of yet. This column easily could be called “UHF Days,” since all three films were shown all the time on my local TV station. Two of these books should be known by all from their movie versions; the third should be.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON by Patrick Mann – “Attica! Attica!” is what Al Pacino was yelling in the middle of the street in one of the great moments of the movie. I think most people know the plot: that of Littlejoe and his pal Sam robbing a Brooklyn bank. Even with everything planned out beforehand, Littlejoe has it all blow up in his face.

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Doing a zine is hard work. I should know. But the hard work is worth it when it results in a book deal. But I wouldn’t know about that. Yet.

For married writers Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, all that blood, sweat and Xerox bills pays off with the publication of THE BEST OF LADY CHURCHILL’S ROSEBUD WRISTLET, collecting the cream of the crop from their biannually published zine’s first decade. Certainly this is one of the strangest anthologies of the year, and at times, one of the most rewarding.

Although you’ll also find poetry, film reviews, fake advice columns, random lists and other miscellany within, WRISTLET is mostly about short fiction, and – no surprise for anyone familiar with the editors’ own work or that of their famous friends they’ve called upon to contribute – speculative fiction at that.

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All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

SADDLE UP!
Though Westerns may be dead at bookstores, they still have their fans (us included). But none may be as big as the boys behind Saddlebums Western Review, a new website dedicated to the genre. They’ve kicked off with an interview with author Brian Garfield. (Speaking of Garfield, his novel DEATH SENTENCE is the basis for the new Kevin Bacon movie. Would it have killed some publisher to reissue a tie-in?)

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In a move that will surprise no reader but satisfy a million of them, that ever-quirky, ever-sophisticated FBI Agent Pendergast is back, in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s eagerly awaited THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS. Though taking place directly after the events of the Pendergast trilogy completed by last summer’s THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, this greased WHEEL is a stand-alone adventure.

It’s a cruel joke that the novel opens with a theme and setting of inner peace, since it soon explodes with utter chaos. Pendergast and his ward, Constance Greene, visit a monastery, where they’re told an invaluable object has been stolen from the monks. Called the Agozyen, it’s something the monks never have laid their eyes upon. All they know is that it has the potential to bring about the end of world.

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Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!

In Camille DeAngelis’ debut novel, the character of MARY MODERN is the carbon copy of Lucy’s grandmother from the 1920s, brought to life in modern times. The story really isn’t Mary’s at all, but Lucy’s – a 20something researcher who decides to impregnate herself using the DNA of her grandmother in the basement of the mansion where Mary once lived. When she gives birth to Gramma – albeit in the form of a 4-year-old toddler – you have solid proof that what you’re reading is certainly original. The book is part science fiction with soft suspense and the feel of a time-travel story, due to Mary trying to get used to all the technology and modern conveniences of today, such as the “upright coffin” we call a refrigerator. Initially, there are too many details and Lucy is not a likable character – purposely, I believe – but midway through, it picks up greatly and keeps you going with one great plot twist after another. The novel doesn’t given an answer as to whether cloning is good or evil, but it does hint at the problems it can create for love and the history of a family, a la FRANKENSTEIN. Prepare yourself for a big shock at the eerie but satisfying end. Comparisons to THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE are not out of the question. –Malena Lott

Six previously published short stories by Stephen King collected in an oversized hardcover with large print – so what’s the big deal? Well, quite a bit, actually. In Cemetery Dance’s THE SECRETARY OF DREAMS: VOLUME ONE, illustrator Glenn Chadbourne (BLOODSTAINED OZ) supplements King’s chilling text with gruesomely detailed, black-and-white ink drawings. Three of the six stories carry these generous spot illustrations, which wouldn’t be all that special … until you hit the full two-page spread of an astronaut in space disintegrating into maggots. But it’s the three other stories that make this SECRETARY worth the attention, as they’re rendered in comic-book form. Every. Single. Word. Chadbourne’s lettering leaves a lot to be desired, but his art is über-creepy, especially in “The Road Virus Heads North,” with the carnage in “Uncle Otto’s Truck” meriting a close second. The non-comic stories are such favorites as “The Reach,” the zombie-fied “Home Delivery” and the precursor to ‘SALEM’S LOT. With the slipcased packaging, this one is for collectors, and will be highly valued by such, impressive as it is.

I’ve now moved my bowels enough to finish THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE by “professional writer” John Hodgman, perhaps best known representing PC computers in that series of Mac ads. It’s a parody of an almanac that’s so tongue-in-cheek, the tongue has broken through. Separated into section dealing with the future, the past, the present and hoboes – each prefaced with a handy timetable for seasonal werewolf transformations – the book tackles such gripping topics as alternatives for asthmatic kids who can’t play in the snow like other children, terrible haircuts throughout history, and nine presidents who had hooks for hands. The list of 700 hobo names – yes, 700 – is much more digestible than you’d think, but the state-by-state section on America gets to be tiresome. Pick a page at random, and you’re bound to find a gag that makes you laugh out loud. With photos, charts and graphs that recalls a heavy Spy magazine influence, this book is best read in, um, short sittings.

Two or three times in my childhood, I started Ellen Raskin’s kid-lit novel THE WESTING GAME, only to never finish it. Since it recently was reissued in a Puffin Modern Classics edition, I thought I’d give it a final shot, nearly three decades later. I can see why I never stuck with it so long ago: too many characters, too-precious dialogue. The setup is intriguing enough: six floors’ worth of tenants in a new apartment building are named as beneficiaries in the will of a mysterious multimillionaire. But it’s not as simple as receiving a check: The deceased’s will claims he was murdered – by one of them, no less – and whoever figures out whodunit gets the entire take. He gives them each clues to help them out. I think it’d make an awesome mystery if only it were “written up” for adults. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Like Scott Smith’s THE RUINS, David Angsten’s DARK GOLD knows that being a young, white American unwelcome in a foreign country is far scarier than any haunted house. For fresh college grad Jack Duran, that happens to be Mexico, where he and two buddies have gone in search of his mysteriously missing, ne’er-do-well adventurer of a brother. Instead, they find trouble – on land, by sea and many feet below.

A pair of hot topless women leads – lures? – the trio to board the luxurious yacht of Leopold Bellocheque, an amiable enough rich black guy who’s perusing the ocean waters for fabled sunken treasure, which Jack’s brother may have hit upon before his vanishing act. Bellocheque knows a little something of the sibling’s disappearance, so he engages Jack and his pals in a little you-scratch-my-back-etc. fair play – namely, help me find the gold and I’ll help you find your brother. Oh, and watch out for that horned “white devil” that supposedly haunts these waters and kills people.

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Charles Kelly’s debut novel PAY HERE is something of a misfire. You can see he had the right idea, but it’s told in a manner that’s frustrating for readers. If it’s not the constant switching between first- and third-person viewpoints, then it’s the overly detailed passages of characters and their wardrobe, to the point where I got lost a few times just trying to keep things straight.

Michael Callan is a reporter for a local paper in Arizona, but acts more like Mike Hammer. For what there is, the plot meanders a bit too much, revolving around a dead woman named Rhea, who was the local boss of various illegal operations, be it immigrant smuggling or other schemes.

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To those who know his comics work, Warren Ellis inspires extreme polarity: The people that love him really love him, and those that don’t care for him are just waiting for an opportunity to sodomize him with a baseball bat. His debut words-only novel, CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, will do little to change the opinions on either side; Ellis brings his twisted sensibilities to print with no holds barred and no illustrator to water things down.

Let’s get this out of the way: CROOKED LITTLE VEIN is sick. It’s explicit and weird on a pornographic level. If you read it in public, you’ll feel ashamed, dirty and maybe a little excited, like you’re not wearing any underwear (or for that matter, pants). It’s also one of the best things he has written.

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Sometimes, column ideas come to me really fast. Then I get sidetracked by other ideas. Well, after two months of being on the back burner, here’s the long-awaited tool-themed column, with the trade, of course, being murder.

THE AX by Donald E. Westlake – Ten years after the publication of this 1997 novel, the job market still is pretty bad, so this is still pretty relevant. Ever been laid off from a job with no employment opportunities in sight? What would you do to secure a position? Would you figure out ways to kill your competition? That’s the gist of Westlake’s stand-alone thriller.

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True terror exists in the corner of your mind, in the shadows – always behind you, but never in front. After all, what’s more frightening: the plane crashing down or the dread that it actually could? H.P Lovecraft was the master at this, albeit driven by his own neuroses. His mom dressed him as a little girl for several years and his father was bughouse nuts. Fortunately, we are all the better for it.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I had never heard of Laird Barron before reading his excellent collection THE IMAGO SEQUENCE AND OTHER STORIES. If you’re looking for an heir to the Lovecraft legacy, Barron holds the title. I’m guessing you won’t be able to read any review about Laird without also coming upon the word Lovecraft. And that is awesome.

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Richard K. Morgan has reached the next level.

Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs books – ALTERED CARBON, BROKEN ANGELS and WOKEN FURIES – were great. Full of the dark nihilism, noir stylings, cool tech and awesome action that supremely catered to the hardcore post-cyberpunk science-fiction scene, these books brought Morgan to the fore. Luckily for us, he’s not sitting on his laurels.

Set in the future America in which the “red” states have been left to rot by the majority of the “blue” states on either coast, THIRTEEN, at its beginning, seems a bit obvious, cliched, even; calling the red states “Jesusland,” while funny, isn’t exactly original, but that’s all part of the plan.

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DC Comics’ 52: VOLUME TWO continues the rather intriguing saga of a year without Earth’s biggest heroes. Corporate-sponsored media hound Booster Gold so desperately wants to fill that void, but his dreams are soon dashed. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor steps up to the plate by granting super powers to normal citizens who want to comprise his first superhero team, but what they don’t know is that his plans are anything but for the public good, and that he can turn those powers off – and does – at any given moment, however inopportune.

Half a world away, in Kahndaq, Gotham City detective Renee Montoya and The Question search for the Intergang to squash, while Black Adam is tamed by the feminine wiles of Isis. And if you’ve seen her lately, you know how this would be entirely possible.

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