The Western Star

by Craig Johnson
295 pgs  (Longmire series #13)

The Western Star is the 13th book in Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series and I'm excited by the fact that it's one of my favorites so far. It tells two distinct, but interconnected stories, both of which involve the most ruthless killer Walt ever went up against.

The first story took place back in 1972, when Walt was a brand-new deputy with the Absaroka County Sheriff's department. He was accompanying Sheriff Lucian Connelly and 23 other Wyoming sheriffs on the Western Star, a sheriff's train that ran from Cheyenne to Evanston, when one of the sheriffs is killed. Walt, who is the newest and least experienced lawman on the train, is the one who identifies the killer and it's this investigation that solidifies his decision to become a Wyoming lawman.

The second story takes place in current times and involves the same killer from the Western Star. Every four years, Walt travels to Cheyenne to complete his weapons recertification and he plans that trip to coincide with the scheduled four-year parole hearings for the Western Star killer. Walt has made it a point over the years to attend each of the parole hearings in order to ensure parole is never granted. This year, armed with a diagnosis of less than a year to live, the man who has spent nearly the last 50 years behind bars, is trying to get a compassionate release, so he can live out what little time he has left outside of a jail cell.

As the story jumps back and forth between the two time frames, Johnson does a fantastic job of building towards the book's conclusion. And while this one ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, it's still a very satisfying conclusion. Fans of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express should enjoy the book that much more, as it's clearly an homage to it, and a worthy one at that.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Just Watch Me

by Jeff Lindsay
358 pgs

Riley Wolfe is a thief. But he's not the typical steal-your-identity, snatch-a-purse, shoplift, or even rob-a-bank variety. Those things are all far below Riley and the jobs he pulls off. For Riley, who doesn't need the things he steals, or even the money he could get from selling them, it's the challenge of stealing something that no one in their right mind would go after that drives him and makes him feel alive. If he's going to steal a piece of art, it's going to be the Mona Lisa. If he's going to break into a vault, it's going to be Ft. Knox.

Just Watch Me begins with Riley's successful theft of a 12.5-ton sculpture in downtown Chicago on the day of its unveiling. But soon afterwards, he falls into a state of near depression, feeling like what he does has become too easy for him. He needs to find the next great, and possibly impossible challenge

It's a diamond called Daryayeh-E-Noor that eventually brings him back to life. Riley learns that it, along with the rest of the Iranian crown jewels, will be traveling to New York, on loan from Tehran in the coming weeks and Riley knows what kind of security will be protecting it. Stealing that diamond is exactly the type of challenge that gives meaning to Riley's life.

Just Watch Me is obviously a heist story, and as such, it's the meticulous planning and tireless preparation needed for pulling off the job that sucks me in, and it's here where Jeff Lindsay's story shines the brightest. Ever since he wrapped up his Dexter series a few years ago, I've been excited and anxious to see what he would come up with next. Thankfully, Just Watch Me is a pretty good second act. I didn't find Riley to have the same appeal as Dexter did (not sure what that says about me), but the story was entertaining and fun, enough so that if I'm right in assuming this is the first book in a new series, I'll be picking up the next book as soon as it's out.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Atmosphæra Incognita

by Neal Stephenson
97 pgs

I haven't read much by Neal Stephenson, but what I have, I've really enjoyed, enough so that I have several more of his books sitting on the bookshelf right now, yet to be read. The reason they're still to-be-read, is because I feel like I need to prepare myself sufficiently before I start each of his books. For one, they're usually door stoppers, at around 1,000 pages each. But they're also dense and cerebral books, full of big ideas that I worry could potentially cause a brain aneurysm in a a person like me, if I'm not prepared beforehand.

So, I was interested to see what Stephenson could accomplish with a story less than 100 pages long. Atmosphæra Incognita is about the building of a 20-kilometer-high tower in the Nevada desert. The purpose of the tower is given, but it's not an important part of the story, nor are the limited characters it contains. What Stephenson instead focuses on in the few pages he uses is the architectural innovation needed to realistically build a structure that reaches into space.

Atmosphæra Incognita is an interesting read, but not the one I'd recommend for an introduction to his work. For that, do some mental stretches and calisthenics and then pick up one of his fictional tomes.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

East of Eden

by John Steinbeck
602 pgs

I attempted, like I usually do with the other books I've reviewed, to begin by writing a brief summary of East of Eden, considered John Steinbeck's most ambitious book. But I didn't get very far before I realized I was not going to be able to do it justice and still keep it relatively brief. There's just so much to this story that I feel is worth mentioning, and in trying to figure out what characters or elements to leave out, it became an exercise in frustration.

Fortunately, remembering this is a classic book, and one that has been around for nearly 70 years, I realized I really didn't need to write a summary after all. I assume most people have either read it already or plan to one day, so a summary isn't necessary for the former and could potentially ruin the experience for the latter. And I think those who don't fall into either of those two categories don't deserve to know what they're missing.

At its core, East of Eden is Steinbeck's investigation into good and evil, along with mankind's ability, or inability, to choose freely between the two. He took a lot of his inspiration from the fourth chapter of Genesis, the story of Cain and Abel, and patterned two of his main characters after the brothers. But each of the characters in the book is impacted by his theme to some degree or another throughout the story.

Until now, Of Mice and Men, which is one of my all-time favorite books, was the only other Steinbeck novel I'd read, and my plan had been to read The Grapes of Wrath next, eventually. But a friend mentioned he was about to reread East of Eden soon and said I should read it at the same time (like being in a little manly book club). So, I picked it up...and had a hard time putting it down. Now, I not only plan to read The Grapes of Wrath (sooner now, rather than later), but I feel like I should read several more of his books as well now.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The Cabin at the End of the World

by Paul Tremblay
270 pgs

Wen, who is about to turn eight years old, and her two adoptive fathers, Andre and Eric, are staying at a rented cabin near a lake in New Hampshire. It's a remote cabin, without cell reception and a mile or so from its nearest neighbor. The perfect place for an extended vacation, where they can be alone as a family.

As the book begins, Wen is out capturing grasshoppers and delicately placing them inside a mason jar with a ventilated lid, when a large and friendly man jogs up the dirt road to the cabin and introduces himself as Leonard. Wen knows she's not supposed to talk to strangers, but Leonard is so friendly--even helping her catch a few more grasshoppers for her collection--and since Andrew and Eric are just on the other side of the cabin, Wen quickly relaxes and enjoys talking to her new friend for a few minutes.

But soon, when three more people--two women and another man all carrying strange, home-made weapons and dressed oddly similar to Leonard--appear at the bottom of the road and begin walking up to the cabin, Leonard's behavior changes and he tells Wen he and his friends need to talk to her and her dads about something very important.

Wen and her two dads try to barricade themselves inside the cabin, but Leonard and his friends are soon able to break in. Once inside, in an eerily calm and reasonable manner, they explain to the family of three that the world is going to end very soon, and the only way to stop it, is for Andrew, Eric, and Wen to voluntarily make a gut-wrenching sacrifice.

The Cabin at the End of the World is the type of book that will stick to your brain long after you finish the last page. It's a psychological horror story that keeps you off balance and uncertain of what you think you, and to say much more than that only risks ruining the experience for the next person. So that will have to do. It will not be long before I pick up another of Tremblay's books. I'm guessing it'll be around this coming Halloween.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Shakespeare for Squirrels

by Christopher Moore
271 pgs  (Shakespeare series #3)

A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play. So, I was excited when I learned that it was to be (or not to be) the next one to receive the "Christopher Moore" treatment. Moore began his homage to the Bard with Fool, in which he introduced Pocket, King Lear's diminutive and bawdy court jester, and unleashed him into the literary world. He followed it up with The Serpent of Venice, in which he sent Pocket to thirteenth-century Venice and had him deal with, among other things, a sea monster prowling the city's canals.

In Shakespeare for Squirrels, Pocket, along with his sidekick Drool and pet monkey Jeff, find themselves in Athens. Pocket hopes to become the Duke's fool, but instead manages to insult the Duke and has to flee for his life into the nearby forest, which is ruled by the fairy king Oberon, who happens to be in need of a new fool himself, since his last one, Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck) was found murdered. Oberon promises Pocket he can become his fool, and receive his protection from the Duke, if he can find out who killed Goodfellow.

The story that follows is a great example of why Christopher Moore is one of my favorite authors. First and foremost, his books are hilarious. They're crude, irreverent, and not the type I'm inclined to recommend to those with sensitive literary palates. But that's kind of why I like them so much. There's something to be said for a book that will regularly shock me into laughing out loud on occasion, and his always do. But Moore doesn't just tell a story in a fantastic way, he also tells fantastic stories, and Shakespeare for Squirrels is up there with his best.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Dark Age

by Pierce Brown
751 pgs  (Red Rising series #5)

Darrow, the former slave who led the revolution against the caste system that had enslaved him along with every other red, is back. And not just in the sense of this new installment in the Pierce Brown's series being released, but back to his merciless and vengeful ways.

It's been ten years since he led the revolution and founded the Republic. But now Darrow has been abandoned by it, even labeled a traitor and deemed an outlaw. Along with what remains of his army, Darrow, the once great Reaper, now finds himself waging a rogue war on the fields of Mercury. But he's no longer interested in the politics that restrained him in Iron Gold, and he's determined to continue what he started decades ago.

His wife Virgina still leads the fragile demokracy, their son Pax has been abducted by their enemies, and Darrow is willing to kill billions, if that's what it takes to get back what he's lost.

This is the fifth book in the series, the longest so far, and Pierce Brown appears to have found yet another gear to move forward in. The action and the pacing are relentless, which is a good thing, because that's where Brown shines the brightest. I'm enjoying the series more now than ever before, but don't know how much more I can take, You'd think this far in, some things would have been resolved by now, but that's not the case. The space opera that Brown is writing keeps getting more and more intriguing and complex.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆