After seeing Mark Sullivan's weeding out lists, I went to the
mini-reviews that I write about books I have read. The
reviews began as information for a friend who reviewed modern
fiction for a daily newspaper and a number of magazines, but
now they are basically for my own information. My grading
system tops out at four stars and none of the books I have
read on Mark's list received that high a rating. Uncivil
Seasons by Michael Malone received 3 1/2 and I also enjoyed
the three Pete Hamill books and often wondered why he didn't
continue this PBO series. Probably too many other books on
the go.
I called Blues for Charlie Darwin by Nat Hentoff "a
disappointment" and wrote that I couldn't keep the characters
straight. I read several of William DeAndrea's Matt Cobb
series, which I enjoyed, but gave his The Hog Murders a
similar rating to Blues. The only Colin Wilcox I read,
Stalking Horse, didn't get me looking for others, but I do
have his collaboration with Bill Pronzini in my library. I
can't find my reviews on Doug Hornig's first two books
featuring P.I. Loren Swift, Foul Shot and Hardball, but
remember enjoying them. Never got to The Dark Side, which
also has shelf space. I gave David Littlejohn's non-mystery,
Going to California, a very good ***1/2 review and wrote that
I was going to find his first book. I did, but "Mick Jagger'
has stayed in the TBR stack for years.
Tony Fennelly received an Edgar nomination for her first
novel, The Glory Hole Murders featuring gay New Orleans
amateur detective Matt Sinclair. I read the second, The
Closet Hanging, and enjoyed it, but didn't remember it when I
met Fennelly at Bouchercon in the Twin Cities in 1996. I
won't forget her now because when I bought a copy of her
third book, The Hippie in the Wall, directly from her at a
cocktail party hosted by Winnipeg's mystery bookstore,
Whodunit, the redheaded former exotic dancer inscribed it, To
Kent, in memory of that passionate weekend in St. Paul.
Perhaps I'll remember it that way as the years pass. As for
weeding out, Mark should keep the Hamills, Fennelly and
Malone and get rid of the others mentioned. But that's easy
for me to say when I have trouble getting rid of
anything.
Kent Morgan surrounded by books in Winnipeg
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