--- Karin Montin <
kmontin@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Unlike miker, I thought Jason Starr's Tough Luck
was
> pretty good.
>
> This was the first I'd read by Starr, and
I
> thoroughly enjoyed it.
>
> Nothing Personal, another one by Starr,
also
> involves gambling on sports.
This book has the bleakest ending I've read in
> a long time. A very good read and
unqualifiedly
> noir. It even says so on the back cover.
I haven't read TOUGH LUCK, but I've read COLD CALLER and
NOTHING PERSONAL and liked them both very much. COLD CALLER,
in particular, felt like an enjoyable updating of Willeford,
especially making wise use of the Willeford psycho -- the
protagonist who's a bad guy but doesn't really understand
he's a bad guy.
>
> Running Blind, by Lee Child,
I've read some of this. I have KILLING FLOOR somewhere. My
general feeling about Child is that there's good lean hb
tales lurking somewhere underneath the bestseller bloat. Jack
Reacher is a very appealing protagonist (shades of Travis
McGee) but the plots are overstuffed and the impact is
lost.
(I think Child might be very effective at about 75-100 pages
less.)
I'm currently rereading stuff I've gotten out of storage.
Lawrence Block's EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE is, I think, the
best Scudder novel, with one of the best representations of
prostitution I've ever read in the genre. I also looked at
Block's WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES and have come to the
conclusion that the original source novella, "By the Dawn's
Early Light", is much superior.
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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