Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Y: THE LAST MAN by Brian K. Vaughn: I’m not much of a fan of graphic novels—they don’t seem to work with my reading style at all. But this one had such a good premise that I had to at least give it a try, and six volumes later I am completely hooked.
What happens is that all the men (and male animals) in the world suddenly die, all at the same time, for no explainable reason. Except one guy, an escape artist and general slacker named Yorick (and his pet monkey). He meets up with a Secret Service agent who has been ordered to protect him at all costs, and a genetic scientist who may have invented a way to continue the species, even without men.
Their adventures in the post-apocalyptic landscape of the US are totally kickass and also make some interesting points about the roles of women in society and their (our?) expectations of each other. 01/07 Jenne Bergstrom

THE YARD DOG by Sheldon Russell: Near the end of Word War II, one-armed yard dog (railroad detective) Hook Runyan is investigating the death of a harmless indigent Spark Dugan who winds up dead in the Waynoka, Oklahoma rail yards. In spite of everyone pressuring him to close the case, Hook decides Dugan’s death was no accident, particularly after he learns that mild-mannered Dugan may have been involved in a local ring smuggling army goods. With the help of the camp cook and community moonshiner as well as the POW camp’s English teacher, Runyon and his friends are soon ensnared in a dangerous investigation that’s anything but routine railroad detective work. This one was particularly poignant for me as my Dad was a railroader in World War II prior to being killed in a train wreck in 1947. 1/11 Jack Quick

YEAR OF THE DOG by Henry Chang: In a disappointing follow-up to Chang’s 2006 Chinatown Beat, Detective Jack Yu has been redeployed to the Ninth (Manhattan South) precinct, where he’ thinks he is leaving Chinatown behind. But within days he is involved in a murder-suicide that kills and entire Chinese family and the brutal killing of a Chinese-American honor student, barely in his teens, beaten to death for sneaker money. Whereas Chinatown Beat reflected the vibrancy and undercurrents of excitement of this unique portion of New York City, Year of the Dog tends to plod along, overly detailed with frequent digressions that cause the reader to lose focus. Hopefully, Chang can re the magic next time out. Unless you are really into the minutia of New York and its Chinese-American inhabitants, I’d give this one a pass. 01/09 Jack Quick

YELLOW MEDICINE by Anthony Neil Smith: Deputy Billy Lafitte is not a rogue cop so much as he is a maverick cop. His rule-breaking and bribe taking cost him his Gulfport, Mississippi job after Katrina and led to his divorce. Fortunately his ex-brother-in-law is the sheriff in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, and offers him a chance for redemption. Booze and young women continue to plague him until one day he is speeding down a snowy Minneapolis road with a severed head in the cab of his truck and no idea how this outing is going to end. Terrorists, meth dealers, homeland security – Billy can sure get into a mess. You may remember the author as the long tim editor of the online noir journal Plots With Guns. 05/08 Jack Quick

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION by Michael Chabon: An interesting experiment by Mr. Chabon and he almost pulls it off. Probably he could have gotten away with simply writing his noir crime fiction story about a Jewish detective solving the death of a crackhead chess player all by itself. (I would note that Mr. Chabon, like Mr. Collins, appears to appreciate the link between noir fiction and pulp comic literature.)
Unfortunately, Mr Chabon thought that his book would be enhanced if it were set in Sitka, Alaska. (If you want mysteries from Alaska, go back and dig out John Straley’s superb books.) My belief in the importance of setting was offended by not only this, but the further leap of proclaiming Sitka the Jewish homeland after a failed effort to establish a state in the Middle East. That would probably have made a good book too, but he didn’t write it either. The lack of discussion of this background left me at loose ends throughout much of the book he did write. I simply couldn’t suspend my disbelief.
Having said all that, I still give Mr. Chabon high marks for writing well and trying something no one else has. Sometimes our greatness is measured by what we have dared. 07/07 Geoffrey R. Hamlin
YOU ARE SO NOT INVITED TO MY BAT MITZVAH! by Fiona Rosenbloom: Every once in a while I read a book aimed at the young adult market and this one just beckoned me, probably because my daughter became a bat mitzvah a little more than a year ago and the memories are still fresh, plus the main character’s name is Stacy. And I just saw the very funny movie (to anyone who’s gone through this process), Keeping Up with the Steins, about a bar mitzvah. I couldn’t resist this book – but I should have. This was whiny New York Jewish American Princesses at their worst. Stacy has a crush on Andy, is embarrassed by her overweight brother, her parents are separated and her plastic surgeon father is dating a Barbie doll look-alike. Typical teenage angst brought to a head when her best friend starts dating Andy. Will Stacy win Andy back, not that she ever had him? Will her brother lose weight? Will her parents get back together? It all culminates at the bat mitzvah where Stacy finally does realize that becoming an adult means more than whining about your problems. Made me glad I moved to Florida. 02/07 Stacy Alesi, AKA The BookBitch

YOU BET YOUR LIFE by Stuart Kaminsky: Toby Peters, Private Eye to the Stars, is away from his usual Beverly Hill haunts in this third outing. Chico Marx has gotten himself into a problem with gambling debts and Toby has been sent to correct the situation. Freezing cold, Frank Nitti, and Chicago Mayor Daley combine to give Toby a very unpleasant experience in the Windy City. This series just keeps getting better. 04/09 Jack Quick

YOU COULD CALL IT MURDER by Lawrence Block: Private eye Roy Markham has been hired by a good friend to find his missing college student daughter. What starts as a routine investigation in the remote winter bound college town of Cliff’s End, New Hampshire quickly becomes dark and dangerous. Pornographic photos and blackmail cause a brutal and baffling murder, and no one is safe, including Markham. I don’t know if Block wrote any other Markham books. If not, it’s a pity, as Markham reminds the reader of Pronzini’s Nameless Detective – an outstanding series. 07/06 Jack Quick

YOU SUCK: A LOVE STORY by Christopher Moore: Jody, Tommy and supporting cast are back in this somewhat belated sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends. It’s been just a few weeks since the events of Fiends, the Animals – those turkey bowling stockboys from the Safeway – have run to Vegas with their part of the money earned from hocking the old vampire Elijah’s artwork (see the end of Bloodsucking Fiends) and hired a blue, that’s right blue, hooker. Meanwhile, Jody and Tommy have decided to take the next step in their relationship. Yep, Tommy is now a fellow bloodsucker. Tommy and Jody are faced with even more everyday relationship hurdles, like finding a minion to do their bidding during the day and keeping a handy food supply, all the while keeping their new secrets under wraps and staying out of trouble. Everything is working out fine until the Animals, and their hooker, get wind of Tommy’s recent transformation. Then, Elijah gets loose, the blue hooker gets her way, and the city is once again under siege. If it is at all possible, this book is even funnier than the last. Be warned, Moore is a very twisted man and his books are the ultimate guilty pleasure. 01/07 Becky Lejeune

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED by James Patterson: Reading Patterson has become similar to eating cotton candy. You know its bad, but occasionally you have to try it again. Kristin Burns wants to become a major fashion photographer. In the meantime she is working as a nanny for two children, as well as being the mistress of their father. Then she starts having nightmares that begin intruding into her daytime hours as well. Is reality real, or is the real world what is seen only through her camera? I found the whole thing unsatisfying, but then again, so is cotton candy. To each their own. 01/08 Jack Quick
ZEN ATTITUDE by Sujata Massey: Rei Shimura has found herself a new Scottish lawyer boyfriend and a new profession as a Tokyo-based, Japanese-American freelance antiques buyer. She finds herself with an overpriced, ersatz Edo-period tansu. Bad karma comes with this to-die-for chest of drawers, and Rei becomes, in rapid succession, murder suspect, then murder target. Confused, Rei runs from her boyfriend and takes refuge on the grounds of the famous Zen temple Horin-ji. She must now discover what a young monk, a judo star and an ancient scroll have in common in order to save her life. 07/06 Jack Quick

ZERO COOL by John Lange: “From the moment I arrived in Spain,” Ross said, “things were very dangerous.” He sighed. I found myself with a girl who thought I was a square, and said I had zero cool…: Thus begins #41 from Hardcase Crime. All American radiologist Peter Ross wanted was a vacation. After four years working continuously in the hospital to earn his certification, he came to Spain for a month in search of beer, beach and broads. What he got was involvement in a murderous crossfire between two criminal gangs and included in the search for a lost artifact that had already caused the deaths of many. Fast paced and well written. 03/08 Jack Quick

ZERO DAY by David Baldacci: In writing a review of one of David Baldacci’s books I must confess that I have been a fan of his since he first started being published. With this said, Zero Day is one of his strongest and most engrossing to date. John Puller the principal character of the book is a professional soldier that has seen plenty of action in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is currently assigned to the army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID). The initial action sees John sent by his supervisor to a small coal mining town in West Virginia to investigate the murder there of an active duty officer, his wife and two children while on furlough. Point is made that in dealing with such a crime the CID would normally send a cadre of experts in to help with pinpointing the facts in the investigation. This is not done and John is sent in alone with the explanation that he should try and establish the facts before the army sends in groups of experts. More on this as the book develops. John teams up with a female sergeant of the local police force and together they begin to ferret out great gobs of seemingly interrelated facts about the crimes. In looking around Puller and Samantha (Sam) Cole quickly discover that two other individuals living across the street from the army officer and family were also killed. Puller seems to be getting closer to what the reason for the killings is, and bombing attempts on his life are made. There are enough permutations and combinations to keep anyone guessing and the reason for the killings is not what the reader would think until the ending; which is truly a surprise and so well documented in it’s own right that this alone would have required more research than any other portion of the book.
Puller is brought to life quite well by Baldacci, and this novel has got to be the first involving him and his very discerning investigations. He is not painted as completely superhuman which would not have done the character justice and has more than enough romantic feelings towards his partner Sam Cole to show him as very human. 12/11 Paul Lane
ZERO DAY by David Baldacci: John Puller is Jack Reacher’s cousin who elected to stay in the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigative Division. Not really, but if you are a Jack Reacher fan, Puller is cut of the same cloth. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. He is called out on a case in a remote, rural area in West Virginia coal country far from any military outpost. Someone has stumbled onto a brutal crime scene, a family slaughtered. The local homicide detective, a headstrong woman with personal demons of her own, joins forces with Puller in the investigation. As Puller digs through deception after deception, he realizes that absolutely nothing he’s seen in this small town, and no one in it, are what they seem. Facing a potential conspiracy that reaches far beyond the hills of West Virginia, he is one man on the hunt for justice against an overwhelming force. One of Baldacci’s best. 2/12 Jack Quick

ZOO STATION by David Downing: Back in the 19060’s our local television station would air black and white “B” features after school each afternoon. This one is evocative of those movies and when I visualize the action my visualization is in sepia tints. John Russell is a British journalist in Germany in 1939. Although Russell despises the Nazis and thinks war is war inevitable, he wants to remain in Germany to be near his girlfriend, beautiful actress Effi Koenen, and his son, Paul, from whose mother he’s divorced. After 15 years working in Germany he also has many contacts on all sides of the potential upcoming conflict. Specifically, he is asked by the Soviet NKVD to write a series of articles praising Nazi achievements. While he doesn’t care for this, the money is good, and he finds a way to make the job palatable by involving the British consulate and their chief intelligence officer. Soon he is a player within the espionage web of not only the Russians and British but also the Germans. The outstanding plotting left me looking forward to further Russell adventures. 09/09 Jack Quick