With the political season not taking a break, Ed Gorman’s mystery SLEEPING DOGS is a perfect respite from the headlines. Longtime political advisor Dev Conrad works for Sen. Warren Nichols, who is trying to hold onto his seat while his opponent Jim Lake seems to be gaining ground.

The novel opens with the two candidates about to have another debate, where things will change for everyone involved, once Nichols goes down from either a stroke or a heart attack. Lake comes off as the savior after trying to revive his opponent, but Dev believes that somebody might have screwed around with the dead’s drink.

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Two things become readily apparent reading EVERY SIGH, THE END: 1) I’m not the only person in the world who thought that LESS THAN ZERO was actually the scariest zombie book ever written, and 2) author Jason S. Hornsby boldly takes on the undead genre with a challenge I haven’t read before. EVERY SIGH, THE END — yes, another novel about zombies — is hip, referential and daring.

The plot requires a bit of explaining — maybe a couple of flow charts, possibly even fractions. I suck at math, so I’ll try and sum it up the best I can: New Year’s Eve, 1999. Professional layabout Ross Orringer is complaining about his life and jaded affair with his girlfriend’s best friend. Ross and his asshole buddy Preston, when they aren’t getting stoned, dub those hard-to-find classics you saw in the back of old-school FANGORIA. It’s not much of an existence, but it beats being dead.
 
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THE MONEYPENNY DIARIES proposes one of the greatest “what if”s in modern literature: What if Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were based on real people? That is the line of logic that author Kate Westerbrook, even portraying herself as the niece of one Jane Moneypenny, who — 10 years after her death — has sent Kate her private diaries. It’s a brilliant idea for a series that is now hitting the final book overseas, while in the U.S., we are finally being treated to the first one.

For those unfamiliar with Bond, Miss Moneypenny works for Bond’s boss M. Moneypenny has a very rich history to mine through, thanks to the very clever plotting of Westbrook. We find out all about Moneypenny’s life leading up to joining the service in her youth in Africa to her first meeting with her future employer.

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It’s always best to read from an author who knows his subject inside and out, and can weave together a story the layman can understand. Police officer Michael A. Black does both in RANDOM VICTIM.

What happens to a case that’s so cold, it has icicles forming off it, especially in an election year? You form a task force with the idea that it will get good press, and if the case gets solved, even better. This is what Sgt. Frank Leal had put upon him after a little outburst at a judge, and is thrown into a no-win situation with two green officers and a fellow sergeant who knows Leal shouldn’t be in charge.

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

THE 5TH WITCH is a ho-hum witch-meets-gangster thriller by Graham Masterton. Bizarre killings are occurring in the City of Angels, and what looks like a mob war is overshadowed by the presence of four of the aforementioned witches. Fortunately, there’s a neighborhood white witch available to investigate and uncover the real reasons behind the grisly deaths. Masterton is a prolific writer, but this isn’t one of his better works; perhaps Lifetime may come calling. There’s nothing very unique in this cross-blending of subject matter, but he does manage to make the concept work the first few pages. Still, it ultimately fails more in conception than execution. A quick, easily forgettable read — kinda like a literary Smarties. —Matt Adder

Medical thrillers aren’t as in vogue as in the past, despite — or perhaps because of — their scenarios becoming ever too close for comfort. Robin Cook had this genre practically to himself, but now that he’s on autopilot, some newbies are taking up the slack, like Michael Palmer and Joshua Spanogle. Add to that list Daniel Kalla, who delivers his latest with COLD PLAGUE. His all-too-real virus tales peg him as fiction’s answer to Richard Preston – a rep worth strengthening with this number about a mad-cow-like disease that rages the systems of animals and humans. It’s just a tad too lengthy, but its science feels legit, which of course, makes it frightening if you let it get to you — something any med-thriller should aspire to achieve.

I may have graduated from college 15 years ago, but I can still remember how entirely terrifying it seemed to join the real world. For artist Kate T. Williamson, she chose to postpone life by staying in her parents’ house for a couple of months to work on a book. That time stretched into more than a year, all chronicled in the autobiographical ink-and-watercolor graphic novel AT A CROSSROADS: BETWEEN A ROCK AND MY PARENTS’ PLACE. It’s not a conventional narrative, but admirably brave and real, full of both joy and depression as Williamson wonders if she isn’t letting life pass her by. She draws with a style that reminds me of Roz Chast, but tidier, and the emotions are as genuine as they come (loves laying in bed at night and hearing the sounds of the train — me, too!). Transitionary spreads depicting the changing of the seasons are gorgeous. She’s an amazing talent.

In the laboratory, sometimes you cure a disease, and sometimes the experiment just blows up in your face. It’s the latter that neuroscientist Simon LeVay explores in WHEN SCIENCE GOES WRONG: TWELVE TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE OF THE DISCOVERY. To me, the well-intentioned failures are always the most interesting than the eventual successful, so LeVay’s nonfiction collection of essays is fascinating. They play out like mini-mysteries, and I was particularly disturbed by the account of a Parkinson’s-stricken jogger who underwent highly experimental fetal transplants; not only did they not work, but an autopsy found hair growing in his brain from it. Other chapters of note involve explorers who stupidly descended into an active volcano and a rape case where CSI-style methods fingered the wrong guy. Because LeVay went out of his way to interview the actual people we read about (at least those who agreed to talk), this book has the benefit of being that much more credible. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Sometime in the 1960s — 1968, to be exact, DC Comics had the bright idea* to strip Wonder Woman of her dumb-ass costume** and give her a mod makeover that’s equal parts Emma Peel and James Bond. The groovy results are now collected in DIANA PRINCE: WONDER WOMAN – VOLUME ONE, you dig?

So here’s how it all goes down: Diana’s boy toy Steve Trevor is convicted of a murder he didn’t commit and makes a run for it. Meanwhile, she’s lost her powers temporarily***, so the star-spangled shorts get kicked to the curb in favor of high-fashion duds straight from the pages of MS.

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It’s coming to that time when all my reading takes place on the porch so I can enjoy the summer breeze. To mark that occasion, I’ve picked three books that deliver in the fun-in-the-sun variety, be it a story about ships, an old pulp hero or a thief who never, ever seems to get caught.

THE MONA INTERCEPT by Donald Hamilton — At more than 500 pages there is one word to describe this 1980 effort: sprawling. Giving John D. Macdonald a run for his money on the paperback original front, Hamilton came up with a multicharacter story that tells this adventure from a variety of perspectives … which is also its downfall, in my opinion, since it hits the point of overload.

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THE PRICE OF BLOOD is the third book from Declan Hughes, the man who writes nothing but feel-good Irish crime stories … if you think “feel-good” means gut-wrenching and skin-crawling. Again, Hughes paints such a picture — such a disturbing picture — that you can’t tear yourself away from it, no matter how close to the bone the story gets.

Returning from THE COLOR OF BLOOD is P.I. Ed Loy, thrown into a case that would make Lew Archer envious: dealing with priest Vincent Tyrell asking for help in the search of a man named Patrick Hutton, a former jockey who also happened to race for Vincent’s brother F.X., the big man of racing in these parts.

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Throw up the devil horns, readers, and crank up WAR PIGS. It’s time to worship at the altar of evil, as Anton LaVey has picked out three books for us to read. All right, not really, but they all have a common bond: the devil and his minions.

KISSES FROM SATAN by George B. Mair – Another in the long run of spies who came out of the cold and into focus after James Bond, Dr. David Grant works against the evils of an organization called SATAN in this 1966 paperback. For you laymen, that stands for Society for Activation of Terror Anarchy and Nihilism.

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Warren Murphy and James Mullaney’s THE NEW DESTROYER: DEAD RECKONING represents the third entry in the reboot of The Destroyer series, and this one goes all the way back to the start of the whole franchise, with its sights set squarely on certain public figures that have been in the news. It might upset some readers, but most people going into a Destroyer novel understand its leanings.

We are introduced to Mustafa Mohammed, the “20th hijacker” on that fateful day of Sept. 11, 2001. Mustafa’s problem is that he overslept and is now sitting in a jail cell with only his family Koran as company. We learn of Mustafa’s family history of never becoming sick, no matter the disease that plagued the area. This led the whole family to be rounded up by Saddam’s scientists to be tested with all sorts of chemicals and other forms of pain.

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No Indiana Jones is present in THE CRYSTAL SKULL, but Manda Scott’s novel still has plenty of archaeology-oriented adventure. The hero here is a heroine: Stella, the scholar who’s freshly married to Kit, a Bede’s scholar who’s obsessed with finding the blue-glowing titular object – his holy grail of ancient artifacts.

After much blood, sweat and tears, Kit has located the secret cave of Cedric Owen, the 16th-century physician to whom the skull once belonged, so the newlyweds are busy spelunking as the book begins. They find the skull almost immediately, but something finds them, too.

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As becomes more and more clear with each trade paperback issued, SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE is the greatest comic of the ’90s that no one seems to talk about. SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE: THE HOURMAN AND THE PYTHON is the sixth such collection, with eight issues, two complete story arcs and one damned excellent concept.

Wesley Dodds is like the nerdy version of Bruce Wayne: a bespectacled, mild-mannered, slightly doughy bachelor who moonlights as a crimefighter – in this case, The Sandman, of course, clad in a regular, 1930s-era suit, hat and overcoat, plus the telltale gas mask. His gun emits a gas that acts as a truth serum.

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In the start of a new series from Tom Piccirilli, THE COLD SPOT gives us a new character in the mold of one of the true greats of crime fiction. The best way to sum it up: What if Richard Stark’s Parker became a grandfather, and raised his grandson in the same way of life, only for the two of them to come head to head at some point?

As a young boy, Chase served as his getaway driver for his grandfather Jonah, who’s a take on Parker with a heavy dose of alpha male thrown in. This was the life Chase grew up in after his mother was brutally shot to death, and his father died soon after, not being able to deal with the grief.

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I’ve really wanted to do an all-Remo Williams column for a long time, but felt I should do something truly special for it. So instead of covering the usual three books, I read 10 DESTROYER novels. Some are fan favorites; others were suggested as must-reads. So settle back and enjoy, since there is no way I’m ever going to attempt this one again. Well, at least not soon.

THE DESTROYER #11: KILL OR CURE by Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy – Someone has figured out a terrible secret that only a select few know about: There is a secret organization gathering information to be used to clean up messes like some sort of secret police force. This is what sets this early 1973 DESTROYER novel.

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DIRTY MONEY marks the return of Donald E. Westlake’s alter ego Richard Stark and his famous creation of Parker. This is a direct sequel to the events of NOBODY RUNS FOREVER, with ASK THE PARROT being an interlude between the two, and all three books taking place within a two-month period.

Again, we enter the dark and never-easygoing life of lifetime criminal Parker. For those who’ve read the previous books, you’re plopped right back into the action, but some new readers might feel a bit left out with talk of a bank job that went horribly wrong.

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Life behind the badge is explored by 19 top crime authors in MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS THE BLUE RELIGION: NEW STORIES ABOUT COPS, CRIMINALS, AND THE CHASE. Writes editor Michael Connelly in his introduction, “It holds that the best story about the badge is not about how a cop works on a case. It is about how the case works on the cop.”

Take, for instance, the opening “Skinhead Central” by T. Jefferson Parker. In it, a retired cop and his wife attempt to adjust to an idyllic, lakeside life of retirement, but open up a can of worms when they agree to let a local boy – a skinhead, no less – help them move in.

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Frank Cho may not be involved, but the jiggling jungle girl he resurrected returns in Marvel Comics’ SHANNA, THE SHE-DEVIL: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, written by the JONAH HEX team of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and drawn by Khari Evans.

The four-issue story begins when jewel thieves steal a load of diamonds from a luxurious cruise ship – one which then is attacked by a leviathan and swarmed by its sharp-toothed babies. Our modern-day pirates escape on a boat that crash-lands on Monster Island. No sooner have they stepped foot on sand than they’re staring face to face with hungry velociraptors.

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Picking up a few months after the events of BIG NUMBERS, Jack Getze’s follow-up BIG MONEY finds Austin Carr once again in a world of hurt – this time in the form of a gun-toting female killer. Getze starts off his sophomore effort just like the first: sticking our hero in the middle of a mess, only to flashback to the start of all his troubles in the next chapter.

Carr has been left in charge of the securities firm he’s been working at for years by his boss, who has run off to Italy for a bit of relaxation. Only much later does Carr discover the real reason for this unexpected trip. Carr has nothing but problems at work, beginning with a knockout brawl between the boss’ daughter and her husband.

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Look at all the pretty paintings in this column! We have two well-known artists providing the visuals: Robert McGinnis and Robert Maguire. For anyone who has a few Stark House reprints handy, you actually have the photos that Maguire used for reference to paint his covers. Think of this column as a Maguire sandwich with two slices of McGinnis.

A MAN IN THE MIDDLE by M.E. Chaber – A little bit of a beef before I tackle my review: Don’t worry, I enjoyed this 1967 book, but I’m pissed about the numbering. As you can see, the cover says it’s book two in the series. Well, guess what? That’s way off: It’s actually number 18. That means there is a small amount of carryover and continuity that will screw with readers, since Chaber constantly mentions previous adventures throughout.

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Was high school geometry a nightmare for you? Just wait until you see the horrors that triangles wreak in INFECTED, Scott Sigler’s heavily hyped hardcover debut.

Both the CIA and CDC take notice – and then action – when a string of unusual killings occur: Otherwise normal people make phone calls to complain about “the triangles,” then hack up their entire family before doing themselves in, too. One guy even cuts off his own legs with a hatchet just at the knee before turning himself flammable, just to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere else.

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