Booked (and Printed): May 2025

 

Booked (and Printed) May 2025   We’ve all heard the rhyme, “April showers bring May flowers”—which is popularly thought to come from a poem written by Thomas Tusser in 1557; although his version reads, “Sweet April showers / Do spring May flowers”—but a more accurate maxim for Vermont would be: “May showers bring June flowers.” Yeah, May was chilly and wet around here, but all the trees have leafed and as I write this the sun is shining and the temperature is hovering at a comfy 70-degrees. But we’re still waiting for the promised flowers even as I took a leisurely, but ill-considered swim in the icy waters of Lake Bomoseen on Memorial Day. I’m certain I’ll still have goosebumps in July from that misadventure. But, all that rain made a nice excuse for spending some of May’s the spring-time weather reading. And I took advantage of it by finishing an impressive (for me at least) eight novels and two short stories. Before I go on, you’ll notice this Booked (and Printed) is shorter than usual even though my reading in May was higher than average and my reviewing for the blog was below normal. I only reviewed three of the eleven titles I read, and one, THE BLUE HORSE, by Bruce Borgos, isn’t scheduled for release until July 8—so come back and read my review then. So, since I’ve had recent trouble with eye strain, I’m going to be brief for once. First up is David Housewright’s fourth McKenzie mystery, DEAD BOYFRIENDS (2007). This is my last out-of-order title in the series and while it isn’t top-tier McKenzie, it’s still pretty good for the usual reasons: well-painted setting, a bunch of action, a solid mystery, and well, McKenzie is at the helm. Next up is Mailan Doquang’s second Rune Sarasin caper thriller, CEYLON SAPPHIRES (2025). I liked it. You can read my review here. A read a trio of titles from John Lutz, starting with a couple short stories: “TOUGH”—published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine in 1980—and “HIGH STAKES,” which originally appeared The Saint Magazine in 1984. Both tales are hardboiled and fun with “High Stakes” coming out the clear winner for overall quality. In fact, I reviewed “High Stakes” here. The third Lutz title is his 1988 novel, KISS, which is private eye Fred Carver’s third outing. The Carver books are top-notch, and Kiss is no exception. The mystery is taut, the suspense is built scene-by-scene until that final climax, and Florida’s brutally hot and wet climate is perfectly detailed. An absolute winner.

ROBAK’S FIRE, by Joe L. Hensley (1986)—which is the eighth Don Robak—is a book I intended to review, but time got away from me and…. In nutshell, Robak’s Fire is a nice mixture of a private eye novel and a legal thriller. Robak’s investigative genius is done in the streets while his partners are stranded in the courtroom. The rural Indiana setting is bleak, the suspects—in what begins as an insurance case and morphs into something else—are nicely cut, and Robak’s no nonsense demeanor perfectly makes the case. Robak’s Fire isn’t brilliant, but it is a competent and an entertaining fiction. Another title I had hoped to review is John D. MacDonald’s THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY (1964). This was my third reading of the first Travis McGee novel and I was even more impressed this time than I had been the first two. The Deep Blue Good-by is, by my estimation, the best in the McGee series and perhaps one of the best men’s adventure-type detective novels ever written. JDM manages to tell a tightly plotted and a surprising story with a minimal of the cultural asides that clutters many of the other books in the series. My May foray into the literary was THE RED PONY, by John Steinbeck (1933), which is comprised of four interconnected tales about a boy named Jody growing up in the late-Nineteenth Century on a farm in northern California. The titular red pony only appears in the first tale and while that title gives the quartet a “book for kids” vibe it is anything but. There is loss, heartache, joy, and everything in between. It is realistic and damn good.  The month ended with Terry Shames’s disappointing DEEP DIVE (2025). The second book in her Jesse Madison series—Jesse is a scuba diver with aspirations of joining the FBI’s diving program, USERT—is short on plot, high on implausibility, and climaxes with a ho-hum sigh. It was good enough to finish, but it could have been so much better. As for my favorite read of the month? I’m going to break all the rules and choose The Deep Blue Good-by, even if I’ve read it before. It’s just that good.  Fin— Now on to next month…