A sequel of sorts to T. Jefferson Parker’s L.A. OUTLAWS, which dealt with a Robin Hoo-like figure in today’s California, THE RENEGADES finds Charlie Hood a few years older and being teamed up with a new partner, Terry Laws, nicknamed Mr. Wonderful.
Laws seems like a perfect partner for Hood for the short time they are together; right before his eyes, Hood witnesses Laws get shot down, with all evidence pointing toward a gang slaying. Hood is called upon by Internal Affairs to investigate the shooting, since it seems Laws — despite his nickname — was hiding some serious secrets, which are slowly uncovered like a peeling onion.
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One need not be a fan of Asian cartoons — filmed or printed — to pick up SCHOOLGIRL MILKY CRISIS: ADVENTURES IN THE ANIME AND MANGA TRADE, but I think you’d be bored otherwise. For this eyebrow-raising-titled collection, journalist Jonathan Clements has rounded up nearly 20 years’ worth of columns, articles and speeches he’s written on the subject for various magazines like NEWTYPE USA.
Divided handily into niche categories from games to porn, the book is thick, thick, thick, with each essay generally numbering but three pages (exception: a few speeches and DVD notes run longer), making the flip-through rate as high as an anime character’s eyes are wide.
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A sampling of some of the bizarro search terms with (thankfully) low numbers that brought people to BOOKGASM over the last 30ish days:
• kathleen turner hurt penis
• half human half horse
• how do you stop people from sitting in your chair
• fat fryer accident
• “limp with excitement” native americans
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Kim Harrison has a new urban fantasy out — the seventh in the series starring kick-ass witch/bounty hunter Rachel Morgan — called WHITE WITCH, BLACK CURSE. And the winner of the novel, along with a T-shirt and a tomato seed packet (tomato seeds?!? — yeah, read the contest explanation) is Tim D’Allaird of Troy, N.Y. Our congrats go out to him, and as for the rest of you, another recession-friendly opportunity to win a free hardcover comes next week!
Buy it at Amazon.
Preview it online.
Given the sheer amount of Charlie Chan movies that were made (nearly 50), it’s easy to forget Earl Derr Biggers only wrote six novels about his Asian police detective. Academy Chicago is in the process of reissuing all half-dozen — long out-of-print this year, starting with Chan’s 1925 debut, THE HOUSE WITHOUT A KEY.
The mystery concerns one Dan Winterslip, a well-to-do man who lives in a spacious mansion on Waikiki Beach, estranged from his brother. One day, he makes an odd request of his young Bostonian nephew John Quincy Winterslip: Go to Uncle Dan’s pad in San Francisco, retrieve a box, don’t open it, and throw it overboard on your way over here. Oh, and when you get here, please take your Aunt Minerva with you when you leave.
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