INCOMING

Some great reading crossed my doorway this week.

• Ken Bruen & Reed Farrel Coleman, Tower.  Crime novel by two of the best.
• Mikhail Bulgakov, The Heat of a Dog and Other Stories.  The title short novel with three additional stories from the Russian fantasist.  I had had a separate edition of The Heart of a Dog, but it went walkabout.  I'm happy to get the novel again and the extra stories are an extra bonus.
• Declan Burke, The Big O.  Mystery novel by our man in Ireland, perhaps best known as the father of Princess Lilliput..
• Fred Chappell, Brighten the Corner Where You Are.  Novel.
• Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain, Manhattans & Murder.  This is the second in the series, published in 1994; the series has now hit #34.  The "Jessica Fletcher" credit is still on the series because there is still three persons left in the world who actually think she's real -- that's my theory and I'm sticking with it.
• Charlie Huston, Caught Stealing and The Shotgun Rule.  Mystery novels.
• Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk in Outer Space.  Number 5 in the series.  Goldberg is a treasure.
• Stephen King, editor, The Best American Short Stories 2007.  Twenty short stories selected from American and Canadian magazines.  Heidi Pitlor, series editor.
• David Markson, Epitaph for a Tramp & Epitaph for a Dead Beat:  The Harry Fannin Detective Novels.  Mystery omnibus of books from 1959 and 1961.
• John Steinbeck,  The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights.  Seven Arthurian tales reimagined by the Nobel Laureate.  Another book that had gone walkabout sometime over the years.