The Book Report

I'm behind on my Book Reports, just like a kid nearing the end of summer. So, some quick recaps:

A truly forgotten novel from 1966 (there is almost nothing on this online) and undeservedly so. This is a brilliant, frightening story about a renegade group of right-wing warriors bent on taking global politics into their own hands. Their scheme involves the securing of a particular Florida Key and the hijacking of a coast-guard cutter. Ed McBain/Evan Hunter is such a great writer that he manages to flesh out about twenty-five characters. My only complaint is that he goes for a somewhat rushed ironic ending and the book ended far too soon.

I'm not a fan of that "meh" expression but it fits sometime. I think it's a way of saying there's nothing particularly bad about a book (or whatever) but it just didn't float your boat. That's how I felt about this particular Saratoga mystery.

This 1970s French noir is somewhere between a straight-ahead high-body-county existential thriller and a satire of capitalism. It's pretty riveting, and very very strange, either way.

Not the best Wexford, although the mystery, involving illegal birth surrogacy, is fairly well thought out. What took this one down a few notches was a subpar subplot (I should start a lit magazine and call it that) involving an overly-PC police detective with a crush on a co-worker. Forgettable.