Noir

by Christopher Moore
339 pgs

Christopher Moore's latest book Noir is set in San Francisco in 1947. As the title implies, it's a moody crime story in the spirit of Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler. The protagonist is Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin, a bartender at Sal's Saloon who falls in love on page one with Stilton, the blonde bombshell who walks in one day wearing a dress two sizes too small and knowing it.

Because of the genre Moore writes in this time, there's also a dirty politician, a profane rug rat, a boxer, a dirty cop, and a group of gangsters. But, because it's Moore writing, there're also drag queens, a Chinese man obsessed with collecting snake urine, a snake (the supply of said urine), men in black, and a little alien affectionately called moonman.

What I enjoy most about Moore's books is the witty, and frequently hilarious dialogue and descriptions he writes. In this area the book doesn't disappoint. Where I was left feeling a little disappointed however was in the plot. The story never grabbed me. While I enjoyed reading it, I never felt excited and anxious to pick it back up again. This is not the book of his I'd recommend to the uninitiated.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Listener

by Robert McCammon
332 pgs

Robert McCammon's latest book The Listener takes place in New Orleans in 1934. John "Pearly" Partner and Ginger LaFrance are both lifetime con artists who, separately, have been running their own cons for many years. They arrive in a town or city, scam a modest amount of money out of as many locals as they can, and then move on to the next place on the map. When they both end up in New Orleans at the same time and recognize each other for what they are, they decide to work together on a scheme far more dangerous than anything either of them has done before, with the potential for a huge payoff.

Taking inspiration from the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby boy a couple years earlier, they decide to kidnap the two children of one of the wealthiest business men in the city and ransom them for $100,000 each.

Curtis Mayhew is a young black man who works as a red cap baggage handler at the New Orleans train station. Curtis has a special gift that only his widowed mother knows he possesses: he can communicate with others who share his same gift in his mind. When he "listens" he can connect with someone who is broadcasting his or her thoughts to him and they can carry on a conversation telepathically.

For the past little while he has been periodically communicating with a young girl who has recently discovered her own gift and is trying to understand it. He doesn't know who she is or where she lives until one day when she reaches out to him panicked and tells him she and her brother were just kidnapped.

What unfolds is a fantastic genre-bending story told by an author in the prime of his career. Every time I've reviewed one of McCammon's books, I'm sure I've said he's one of my favorite authors writing today, and The Listener is a great example of why. His stories are captivating, his characters are well written (Curtis is one of his best), and while I'm never happy to get to the end of one of his books, I'm always happy about the way it ends.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Dying of the Light

by George R.R. Martin
339 pgs

Nearly twenty years before A Game of Thrones was published, George R.R. Martin's first novel Dying of the Light was released. Having taken a sabbatical from reading his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series until Martin finishes it (or dies first), I decided I'd go back into his earlier catalog and see what he wrote back when he was releasing books at a less infuriating pace.

Dying of the Light is a science fiction story set in Martin's "Thousand Worlds" universe, in which I understand several of his other earlier works also take place. Worlorn is a dying planet. it doesn't revolve around its own star like most planets do. Instead, a decade or so ago, its took it temporarily near enough to a red giant star for the planet to become temporarily inhabitable. Terraformers, biologists, and architects from neighboring worlds came to Worlorn and formed a civilization. But now, Worlorn has moved further and further away from the red giant, the civilization built there has almost completely died off.

The story Martin sets on this unique planet is ambition and quite entertaining. But for myself, I inevitably compared it to the ASOIAF books, and not surprisingly, I ended up feeling a little let down. Martin's potential as a writer and storyteller is evident in this book. But the book shows he had a long way to go before he was ready for the magnitude and scope of the series that solidified his place among the greats in the genre...a series I hope both of us live long enough to complete.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

by David Sedaris
257 pgs

In Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, humorist David Sedaris has compiled 22 of his essays, most of which share the common theme of his family life, both the one he had growing up in his borderline neurotic family and the one he shares now with his partner Hugh.

In "Us and Them," the essay he opens with, he tells the story of the Tomkey family, who lived in his neighborhood growing up, and who didn't own a TV, a fact that fascinated him to no end. The family had other idiosyncrasies as well, like the year their children went door to door for Halloween candy on November 1st, because they were gone the night before, forcing Sedaris to preemptively stuff as much of it in his mouth as he can, rather than give any of it up.

In "Possession" he tells of touring Anne Frank's home in Amsterdam with Hugh and of being obsessed with it from a real-estate-ownership perspective, asking himself "Who do I need to knock off in order to get this apartment?"

"Six to Eight Black Men" is a hilarious comparison between the differences between the American and Dutch Christmas traditions. While the idea of Santa and his sleigh-pulling reindeer might seem bizarre to some, he points out how it pales in comparison to the Dutch's tradition of St. Nicholas and his six-to-eight black men who show up every year.

To the uninitiated in Sedaris's writing, the idea of reading essays about someone else's family life might sound boring and uninteresting. But that's definitely not the case with this collection. Sedaris never pulls his punches, especially when they're directed at those closest to him. And he spares no one--including himself--from his scathing humor and wit. The end result will make you grateful for both the family and life you had growing up, as well as the one he had. Because if he hadn't had his, there would have been nothing worth writing about.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Spoonbenders

by Daryl Gregory
399 pgs

Thirty years ago, the Talamachus Family was quite famous. They traveled the country, performing in front of large crowds, and amazing them with demonstrations of their psychic abilities. They each had their own unique gift. Irene was known as the human lie detector and could immediately tell when someone was lying. Frankie had telekinetic powers and could move things with his mind. Buddy, the youngest, could see the future. And their mother Maureen, known as the World's Most Powerful Psychic, could leave her body behind and travel on the astral plane. Even Teddy, the father, who had no psychic abilities himself, was a world-class con man, who tricked everyone into believing that he did.

But their fame and notoriety came to an end after a disastrous appearance on live television.

Now, in 1995, Irene is a single parent struggling to hold down a  decent job, Frankie is in debt to the Chicago mob, and Buddy, who is afraid to talk to anyone now for fear of altering the future, spends all of his time inexplicably digging holes in his father's yard and refilling them. Maureen passed away years ago, and Teddy dreams of someday achieving fame again.

Irene's 14-year-old son has recently learned of his own abilities (which are the same as his dead grandmother's) and he may be the key to solving everyone's problems. And why can't Buddy see anything beyond a specific date fast approaching in September?

Gregory takes his story back and forth between now and the 1960s, describing the lives of the members of the Talamachus family and how their gifts, for the majority of their lives, were more of a curse than a blessing. The story is humorous and fun. It's fast-paced and surprisingly dark. Spoonbenders is the first book by Daryl Gregory that I've read. And while I thought the writing and the story had some issues, I enjoyed it enough to want to read more.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Farm

by Tom Rob Smith
352 pgs

I was a little hesitant to pick up The Farm by Tom Rob Smith. Having enjoyed his "Child 44" trilogy as much as I did, I was worried I would inevitably be disappointed by this stand-alone story and would have to take him down from the pedestal I'd placed him on in my mind. Fortunately, my worries were unnecessary.

Daniel is a 29-year-old man who lives in London. He is the only child of his Swedish mother Tilde and his English father Chris, who, years ago sold their business in London and moved to a small farm in Sweden.

The story begins with Daniel receiving a call from his father informing him that his mother had recently experienced a psychotic episode, was committed to an institution for treatment, and had subsequently disappeared. Very shortly afterwards, his mother shows up at his London apartment carrying what she tells him is evidence that his father had gotten involved with a group of men in Sweden who sexually exploited young women and is among those responsible for the disappearance of a teenage girl named Mia.

Daniel listens as his mother tells him about the circumstances around Mia's disappearance, and as he does, he can't help but find her story more and more believable the more he hears. What he hears does not sound like the delusions of a broken mind. His mother is meticulous and comprehensive as she lays out the evidence against his father and the other men, and she claims they tried to institutionalize her in order to discredit her and protect themselves.

The Farm was written a few years ago, back when there were a lot of authors trying to capitalize from the success of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and her use of an unreliable narrator to tell the story. Even though The Farm was written during that time, I don't think Smith was jumping on the bandwagon when he wrote it. This has an entirely different feel to it.. But the result is very similar. For most of the book, you're left questioning the veracity of Tilde's claims and wondering whether they should be believed or not. It' snot until Daniel decides to travel to Sweden himself to learn the truth that things are ultimately made clear.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Bearskin

by James A. McLaughlin
343 pgs

I love it when a new author publishes his or her first book and it's excellent. I'm always hopeful a quality first book portends a whole bookshelf worth of great books yet to come from the author. That's now my hope about James A. McLaughlin after reading his debut novel Bearskin.

Rice Moore is the caretaker on a privately-owned nature preserve in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. He hasn't had the job very long, but he's hoping the remoteness of where he now lives and works will allow him to hide from his violent past. But the peace and isolation he thought he'd experience becomes fleeting when he comes across the carcasses of bears, which are missing their paws and gallbladders. He learns that these are worth thousands of dollars on the black market, where the Chinese buy them and use them for medicines.

When Rice begins hunting for the bear killers, he finds he's up against more than just the poachers. His search angers many of the locals, who resent the family who owns the land the preserve is on and forbids them from hunting on it. When he learns that the woman who was caretaker before him was brutally assaulted and raped by a group of men while on the property, he decides to add them to the list of men he's now hunting. And as Rice's hunt for the bear killers and his predecessor's assaulters comes to a head, his past catches up with him and he finds himself being hunted as well.

The first three fourths of the book are a steady lead up to the final hundred or so pages, and it's these pages that made me so excited for what's to come from McLaughlin.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆