Booked (and Printed): September 2025

 

Booked (and Printed) September 2025   It was a difficult month at Casa Boulden. You’ve probably noticed me whining regularly about my eyes and everything finally came to a head last month. But a little backstory first. All the way back in June my left eye went wonky when a cloud appeared at the top of my vision and bursts of black dots began floating like so many bugs. I went to my GP, who referred me to an ophthalmologist, who diagnosed the ailment as a cataract. In late August, the vision in my left eye began going dark; there were inky shadows and faded, splotchy light—without many (any, really) details. As it turned out, the eye doc’s diagnosis was wrong and my retina had detached. So I went to another ophthalmologist, this one specializing in the retina, who performed surgery to save my eye. So far, the surgery has been successful. The retina is reattached and the shadows have receded, which is wonderful. But my vision will never be as it was. In fact, the best I can hope for is 20-70 with corrective lenses and honestly, I’m a long, long way from there now. This prologue is something of an explanation as to why the blog has been so quiet in recent weeks and why my September reading was so damn lame. I finished one lousy novel, Brian Freeman’s PHOTOGRAPH (2025)—which is a damn terrific thriller with a supernatural element and an enough suspense to fill any two ordinary thrillers. And yeah, there are a handful of genuine surprises and a likable heroine. You can read my detailed review here.

But that was it. There were no short stories, no novelettes, or novellas— Unless you count a solitary audio book, MARKED MAN, by Archer Mayor (2021), I listened to during those long days of my recovery. It is Vermont Bureau of Investigation detective, Joe Gunther’s 32nd outing and a whale of an entertaining mystery. Nathan Lyon built his dream in an old mill in Brattleboro, Vermont—with enough room for his children and grand children to live and space enough for their businesses, too. But the old man died a year earlier of what everyone thought were natural causes and when Gunther and his team begin sniffing around, they find everything about Nathan Lyon is a lie. Even his name, which (until he moved to Vermont) was Nick Bianchi. There are crazy and conniving relatives, low-grade mobsters, and enough paternal hatred to make the story interesting from beginning to end. There are a couple surprises, too. Marked Man’s narrator, Tom Taylorson, nails Gunther’s gritty voice and showed a real flair for hitting all the right notes, especially with character dialogue. My favorite book of the month? I’m going with Photograph. Fin— Now on to next month… May it be better than this one.