BITS & PIECES

Openers:  

You

Your fluttering eyelids are mouths, mouths that talk too fast because they are lying.  You press your palms into your eyes to slow the lids down, to shut them the hell up.

While hidden within a brief, warm respite of darkness, a muttering, mumbling discussion percolates.  You drift in their sea of sibilants and plosives that form old. forgotten words, until someone rises above the frothing fray, asking, "What are the signs?"

You -- yes, you are you for the duration of this, whatever this is -- roll the stones in your hands away from your eyes.

A man, dressed in a red tracksuit with a white, orderly zipper splitting his chest, sits in a creaking wooden chair.  If the room is a sundial, then the complaining chair is a gnomon.  This room is a living room belonging to a modest house, a house that is unfamiliar to you, but you are not weighted by an oppressive feeling of unfamiliarity.  The living room is ill-lit and dank and the plaster walls a beige shade no one would purposefully choose.  Pitted Styrofoam tiles chessboard the ceiling, tattered woven throw rug spills across the hardwood floor.  A collection of out-of-date furniture molders in the areas where shadows are thickest, and the pieces swap positions withing the room whenever you blink.

-- Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep  by Paul Tremblay  (2026)

The book's title, as Ian Mond stated in Locus, "pays attention to the themes that Philip K. Dick made his own:  conflicted identities, altered consciousness, fractured realities."

Julia Flang, a semi-professional gamer estranged from her high-powered tech CEO mother and struggling to work two menial jobs, is hired for a tech job with a pay that is difficult to refuse -- she must chaperone a man in a vegetative state from California to the East Coast.  The catch is that the man is dead -- well, mostly dead -- and has been implanted with an AI chip in his brain that will allow him to function physically or sorts.  The nameless victim had died of a stroke and was brain dead, his movements now controlled by an experimental handheld gaming control device.  To test the chip and the device, Julia is selected to take Bernie (Julia's name for the man, from Weekend at Bernie's) on this initial journey.  As the novel progresses, Bernie changes, but are the changes due to the AI chip teaching itself or to something that is happening in Bernie's brain-dead cortex?

The boom is divided into sections, one covering Julia and her journey, the other -- title You -- takes us inside the maybe-dead, maybe-mostly dead, maybe AI trying to access Bernie's brain -- a mad kaleidoscope of memory, fantasy, fear, allegory, confusion, phobia, imagination, terror, and glimmerings of what may really be happening, all trying to make sense of the world both around and within Bernie.  These Bernie sections are difficult plodding at first, but as awareness grows within Bernie, so does it also within the reader.

 At the novel's core is the dread feeling that this new technology will be used in the worst possible way, but the reader learns to cheer Julia and Bernie on with the hope that they will prevail.

Not an easy read but an important one.  This is Tremblay's twelfth novel and with each book he has ventured into newer and more rewarding territory.

 Incoming:

• The Adams Round Table, Murder Among Friends.  Mystery collection with eleven stories.  The Adams Round Table, mystery fiction's answer to the Algonquin Round Table, was founded in 1982 by Mary Higgins Clark and Thomas Chastain, meeting every month to discuss their craft.  This was the sixth anthology the group published.  Authors are Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Stanley Cohen, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Mickey Friedman, Susan Isaacs, Judith Kelman, Warren Murphy, Justin Scott, Peter Straub, and Whitley Strieber.  It is bit disturbing to know how many of these fine authors have left us.
• Kingsley Amis, The Russian Girl.  Mainstream novel.  "Richard Vaisey is a respected scholar specializing in Russian studies when Anna Danilova arrives on campus.  A visiting Russian poet with a mission more than literacy, Anna challenges his integrity -- and his marriage.  Richard's beautiful but unspeakably monstrous wife, Cordelia, seeks revenge on her adulterous husband, determined to ruin him by cancelling his credit cards and reporting his car as stolen to the police.  But Richard must face further humiliating consequences, for the seductive Anna is also an irremediably bad poet.  "A captivating battle of the sexes and the conflicting claims of love and integrity -- and a pointed satire on art, literature, political correctness, and the gender wall -- The Russian Girl is vintage Kingsley Amis:  entertaining, thought-provoking and wittily wise."   
• Clive Barker, Coldheart Canyon.  Literary horror novel.  "Hollywood has made a star of Todd Pickett.  But time is catching up with him.  He doesn't have the perfect looks he had last year.  After plastic surgery goes awry, Todd needs somewhere to hide away for a few months while his scars heal.  As Todd settles into a mansion in Coldheart Canyon -- a corner of the city so secret it doesn't appear on any map -- Tammy Lauper, the president of his fan club, comes to the City of Angels determined to solve the mystery of Todd's disappearance.  Her journey will not be an easy one.  The closer she gets to Todd the more of Coldheart Canyon's secrets she uncovers:  the ghosts of the A-list stars who came to the  Canyon for wild parties; Katya Lupi, the cold-hearted, now-forgotten star for whom the Canyon is named, who is alive and exquisite after a hundred years; and, finally, the door in the bowels of Katya's dream palace that reputedly open up to another world, the Devil's Country. 
• Laird Barron, The Wind Began to Howl.  Mystery with possible supernatural elements, featuring P.I. Isaiah Coleridge, an "all-new story set after the events of Worse Angels.  A seemingly benign case gradually pulls mob enforcer-turned-P.I. Isaiah Coleridge into a chilling mix of music, movie magic, and madness.  This time, Coleridge's dark journey forces him to confront a brutal truth:  For some who try to escape the past, there is no way out."
• John Bingham, Five Roundabouts to Heaven.  The classic crime novel.  " 'Death is of no consequence -- it is not dying that matters, it's how you die.'  Nineteen years is a long time.  But when Pete and Barry meet up again in the idyllic French landscape of their youth, the old rivalry is still there.  So are their shared secrets.  And the passion and jealously still hang in the air, ready to ignite should the  right mischance arise.   John Bingham's second novel is a powerful study of how murder can enter the minds of ordinary people."   Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, was a one-time MI5 counterspy who was one of two models for John le Carre's George Smiley. 
• James Blaylock, The Aylesford Skull.  A Langdon St. Ives steampunk fantasy.  "It is the summer of 1883 and Profressor Langdon St, Ives, brilliant but eccentric scientist and explorer, is at home in Aylesford with his family.  A few miles to the north a steam launch has been taken by pirates above Egypt Bay, the crew murdered and pitched overboard.  In Aylesford itself a grave is opened and possibly robbed of the skull.  The suspected grave robber, the infamous Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, is an old nemesis of Langdon St. Ives.  When Dr. Narbondo returns to kidnap his four-year-old son Eddie and then vanishes into the night, St. Ives and his factotum Hasbro race into London in pursuit..."
• Dorothy Bowers, Deed Without a Name and Fear and Miss Betony.  Two Golden Age mysteries featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Dan Pardoe.  Deed:  "Three times young Archy Mitford escaped  murderous attacks.  Knowing then identity of his would-be killer and anticipating further attempts, he contrived to leave behind clues that would lead Scotland Yard to his killer's doorstep.  Or course Archy thought himself clever enough to avoid actually being murdered and assumed these clue -- mostly bird sketches -- would never actually be needed.  Archy was wrong.  Unfortunately for Inspector Dan Pardoe and Sergeant Tommy Salt, Archy's clues were so obscure that they defied interpretation.  Word Was II was only weeks away and it looks like Archy's brief flirtation with the pro-Nazi Nordic Bond might be behind his murder.  Anti-German feelings were at their height during this 'phony war' period as Londoners blacked out their windows to German bombers that  were months aways from attacking.  On the other hand, Archy's death also seemed somehow connected to the disappearance of a camera-shy British philanthropist.  It will take all of Pardoe's celebrated ingenuity to nab the killer."  Fear:  "Emma Betony was content to live out her remaining years in a home for decayed gentlewomen when she receives an urgent appeal for help from a former student.  Grace Aram is running Makeways, a struggling boarding school for girls, newly relocated in a former nursing home in Dorset far from the falling German bombs.  But Grace isn't interested in Mis Betony's teaching skills.  She needs someone she can trust to expose the culprit behind a series of troubling events, including the possible poisoning of one of the two remaining nursing patients.  What Mis Betony finds is an overwhelming sense of fear on the part of the Makeway's inhabitants.  Miss Betony follows a series of clues that eventually led her to The Great Ambrosio, a charismatic, extremely handsome fortune teller with more than on trick up his sleeve.  First published in 1941, Fear and Mis Betony marks the final appearance of Inspector Dan Pardoe.  But it is Miss Betony herself who fights through fear and solves the case."
• Pamela Branch, Murder's Little Sister.  "A comedy of murder and mismanners," which American mystery writer Carolyn Hart listed among her five favorite mysteries of all time.  "Short-tempered Enid Marley has a foolproof system for answering questions from the many fans of her advice column in You magazine, but she has no  sense at all when it comes to solving her own problems.  When her latest  husband strays, she decides to get his attention with a fake suicide attempt, but he plan misfires horribly.  While she's teetering on the window ledge outside her office waiting to be noticed, hands reach out for her, causing her to lose her balance and fall.  She survives, thanks to a well-placed awning and an unfortunate passer-by, leaving everyone to debate if it was Suicide, Murder, or Misadventure.  In her absence, an unemployed ballet dancer named Rex is hired to fill in for her, making a hopeless hash of her system and sending alarmingly wrong advice to many readers, who eventually join forces to wreak vengeance on You.  Meanwhile, Inspector Willis searches for an escaped killer while little Doctor Felz, one of Enid's colleagues, lives in fear that his past will catch up with him and Kidder, a hard-drinking crime reporter, takes up residence in the lift.  Equal parts satire and farce, it's the last of four hilarious crime novels from a brilliant writer whose career was cut short by her untimely death."
• Fred Chappell, I Am One of You Forever.   Southern novel.  "Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever is a perfect balance of fantasy, tall tale, and fact.  Written in extraordinarily lucid prose, this novel describes the experiences of a boy growing up in North Carolina in the 1940s.  Through a series of family vignettes that circle a central; unspoken tragedy, Chappell co bines dramatic and lyrical talents to produce as high-spirited elegy.  Among living Southern writers, only Eudora Welty has this range of tone." -- Thomas Carlson, Southern Magazine.
• Loren D. Estleman, The Hours of the Virgin.  The thirteenth Amos Walker private eye novel.  "An art expert hires Walker to ride shotgun involving a priceless illuminated manuscript called the Hours of the Virgin.  But when the deal goes down in a porn movie house, so does a hit.  Suddenly Walker is searching for not just some pricey old paper but a gun that could put his former partner's murderer behind bars.  In prose that sails like a Detroit muscle car, Loren Estleman takes us for a wild drive -- proving that in a field crowded with poseurs, amateurs, and virgins, he's the real deal."
• Christopher Fowler, Full Dark House.  The first Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery featuring Bryant and May.  "A bomb rips through present-day London, tragically ending the crime-fighting partnership of Arthur Bryant and John May begun more than a half-century ago during another infamous bombing:  the Blitz of World War II.  Desperately searching for clues to this saboteur's identity, May finds  the notes his old friend kept of their very first case and a past that may have returned...with murderous vengeance.  It was an investigation that began with the grisly murder of a pretty young dancer.  In a city shaken by fear, a faceless killer stalked London's theater row, creating his own sinister drama.  And it would take Bryant's unorthodox techniques and May's dogged police work to catch a fiend whose ability to escape  detection seemed almost supernatural -- a murderer who decades later may have returned to kill one of them...and won't stop until he kills the other,"  This one won the 2004 August Derleth Best Fantasy Award.
• Phil Hardy, editor, The BFI Companion to Crime.  An encyclopedic look at crime films, listed alphabetically from A bout de souffle (Breathless) to the 1974 Polish film Zapis zbrodni (Chronology of a Crime)  -- over 500 international films are covered and I will never live long enough to see them all.
• Libby Fischer Hellman, editor, Chicago Blues.  Anthology of 21 stories, many original, about crime in Chicago.  Authors are:  Stuart M. Kaminsky, Kevin Guilfoile, Libby Fischer Hellman, Jack Frederickson, Sara Paretsky, "Kris Nelscott," JA Konrath, Sean Chercover, Max Allan Collins, Michael Black, Steven B. Mandel, David J. Walker,  Michael Allen Dymmoch, Sam Reaves, D.C. Brod, Mary V. Welk, Sam Hill, Marcus Sakey, Ronald Levitsky, Bfian Pinkerton, and Barbara D'Amato.  Singed by the editor.
• Charlie Huston, A Dangerous Man.  A Henry Thompson crime novel.  "Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times.  His grip on life is disintegrating, his pistol hand shaking, his body pinned to his living room couch by painkillers -- and his boss, Russian mobster David Dolokhov, isn't happy about any of it.  So Henry is surprised when he's handed a new assignment:  keep tabs on a minor league baseball star named Miguel Arenas.  Henry has no pity for the slugger and the wicked gambling problem that got him in trouble, but he can't help liking the guy.  After all, Henry used to be just like him:  a natural-born ball player with a bright future.  But hell, that was long ago.   Before Henry did some guy a favor and ended up running for his life.  Before his girlfriend and buddies got gunned down by someone on his tail.  Before he agreed to buy his parents' safety with a life of violence.  And when Miguel gets drafted by the Mets and is sent to the Brooklyn Cyclones, Henry must head back to New York, back to the place where all his problems began -- and where Henry might find a real reason to keep living, a reason that may just cost him his life."
• Jonathan Letham, The Feral Detective.  2018 detective novel, Letham's first since 1999's Motherless Brooklyn.   "Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a strip mall office on the eastern edge of Los Angeles.  She's looking for her friend's missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist as a guide.  A laconic loner who keeps a recue opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help.  The unlikely pair navigate the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and find that Arabella is in serious trouble -- caught in the  middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end.  Phoebe's trip to the desert was always going to be strange, but it was never supposed to be dangerous..."  
• Charlotte MacLeod, editor,  Christmas Stalkings and Mistletoe Mysteries.  Two holiday themed original anthologies.  The first has thirteen stories by Robert Barnard, Dorothy Cannell, Bill Crider, Mickey Friedman, Reginald Hill, Charlotte MacLeod, John Malcolm, Margaret Maron, Patricia Noyes, Elizabeth Peters, Medora Sale, Evelyn E. Smith, and Eric Wright.  The second has fifteen stories by Isaac Asimov, Mary Higgins Clark, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Susan Dunlap, Aaron Elkins, Howard Engel, Edward D. Hoch, Peter Lovesey, John Lutz, Charlotte MacLeod, Sharyn McCrumb, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Henry Slesar, and Eric Wright.  All-star line-ups both.
• Louise Penny, A Rule Against Murder.  A Chief Inspector Gamache mystery.  "It's the height of summer, and the wealthy Finney family have gathered at the Manoir Bellechasse to pay tribute to their late father.  But as the temperature rises, old secrets and bitter rivalries begin to surface.  When the heat wave boils over into a mighty storm, a dead body is left in its wake.  Chief Inspector Gamache, a guest at the Bellechasse, finds himself with  building full of suspects.  With the hotel locked down, the murderer is trapped.  But a cornered predator is always the most dangerous of all..."
• Douglas Preston, Blasphemy and Tyrannosaur Canyon, plus The Lost City of the Monkey God and The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder.  I've been on a kick of the thrillers Preston has written with Lincoln Child and was able to come across these two fiction and two nonfiction books by Preston solo.  Blasphemy:  The world's biggest supercollider, hidden deep in an Arizona  mountain, will  probe what happened at the very moment of creation:  the Big Bang itself.  The brainchild of Noble Laureate Gregory North Hazelius, Isabella is the most expensive machine ever built.  Will it unlock the mysteries of the universe?  Will it, as some warn, suck the earth into a mini black hole?  Or is it, as the powerful evangelist Reverend Don T. Spates thunders, a Satanic attempt to disprove Genesis and challenge God Almighty on the very throne of heaven?  The day is looming when Hazelius and his team of twelve scientists will turn on Isabella...and what they will then discover must be hidden from the world at all costs.  The entire world is holding it breath.  Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped by the U.S. government to wrest from the team their secret, a secret that will ither destroy the world...or save it.  The countdown begins..."  Wyman Ford went on to appear in two additional novels from Preston and was on of the man in characters in the earlier Tyrannosaur Canyon, Speaking of which, Tyrannosaur:  "A moon rock missing for thirty years...Five buckets of blood-soaked sand found in a New Mexico canyon...A scientist with ambition enough to kill... A monk who will redeem the world...A dark agency with a deadly mission...The greatest scientific discovery of all time...What fire bolt from the galactic dark shattered the Earth eons ago, and now hides in that remote cleft in the southwest United States known as...TYRANNOSAUR CANYON?"  And the nonfiction... Monkey God:  "Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God.  Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.  In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost city of the Monkey Go -- but then committed suicide without revealing its location.  Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a new quest.  In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety plane carrying the machine that would change everything:  lidar, a highly advanced technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy.  In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.  Venturing into this treacherous but breathtaking wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes.  But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck:  Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal -- and incurable -- disease."  Tomb:  Thirteen articles about true crime and the mysterious, divided into five sections:  Uncommon Murders, Unexplained Deaths, Unsolved Mysteries, Uncommon Crimes, and Old Bones.  Includes the original article "The Monster of Florence," which Preston later expanded into a bestselling book with Marion Spezi.
• Speaking of the devil(s), Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Thunderhead, an early standalone novel which introduces Nora Kelly to the Preston-Child universe.  "Archaeologist Nora Kelly is adrift in her career and her personal life when a violent, unexpected incident leaves her in possession of a mysterious letter.  Written  by her father, who vanished sixteen years ago in the remote desert, the letter reveals the location of a legendary site hidden in the redrock canyon country of southern Utah:  Quivira, the Anasazi Indians' wondrous lost city of gold.  Convinced that her father has truly found Quivira, Nora puts together an expedition and takes a team up Lake Powell to the  mouth of Serpentine Canyon.  In the stark labyrinth of canyons and slickrock desert she will find her deepest nightmares.  For hidden in the shadows of the sunbaked cliffs are untold treasures, the solution to the greatest riddle of American archaeology -- and implacable, suffocating death.  From the colossal fury of a savage desert storm to sunlight penetrating a mass grave for the first time in a thousand years, [the book] becomes an epic tale of discovery, human deceit, and a desperate struggle for survival in a place that has guarded its extraordinary secrets for centuries -- and will not give them up without a devasting fight." Kelly went on to become a major character in several books in the authors' Pendergast series and eventually starred in her own series of five (thus for) novels.  Moving on, we have Still Life with Crows, The Book of the Dead, and Verses for the Dead, three Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast thrillers.  Crows:  "Medicine Creek, Kansas.  In a town where nothing changes, where Main Street is a two-block stretch of old and dusty businesses, a ghastly murder has taken place.  The unknown victim has been placed in a small clearing in a sea of corn, mutilated and arranged in an elaborate tableau.  within twenty-four hours the sheriff is assuring a flood of reporters and tense residents that this is an isolated death -- until Special Agent Pendergast arrives in the stifling August heat to declare it the work of a serial killer.  Soon neighbors begin to disappear -- only to reappear as the lifeless centerpieces of unspeakable displays.  Convulsed with terror, the townsfolk whisper of the legendary Curse of the Forty-fives.  No one is safe from a killer who stalks his prey in the blackness of night...and whose grotesque crimes are revealed by circling buzzards under the cruel summer sun.  With the help of Corrie Swanson, an eighteen-year-old misfit, Pendergast unearths the secrets of this isolated town -- from the dark histories of its inhabitants to the darker mysteries hidden in the endless cornfields.  And ultimately, as he unravels the local curse and the truth of Medicine Creek's greatest enigma, the Ghost Warrior Massacre of 1865, Pendergast comes face-to-face with the unimaginable evil that lies at the heart of this small town."  Corrie Swanson will become a main figure in Preston and Child's Nora Kelly series (see below), while Kelly herself had a role in the previous Pendergast novel, The Cabinet of Curiosities.  Book:  The third volume in the Diogenes trilogy within th Pendergast series.  "An FBI agent, rotting away in a high-security prison for  murder he did not commit...His brilliant, psychotic brother, about to perpetrate a horrific crime...A young woman with an extraordinary past, on the edge of a violent breakdown...An ancient Egyptian tomb with an enigmatic curse, about to be unveiled at a celebrity-studded  New York gala..."  Verses:  "After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI's New York Field Office, A.X.L. Pendergast is abruptly forced to accept an unthinkable condition of continued employment:  the famously rogue agent must now work with a partner.  Pendergast and his new teammate, junior agent Coldmoon, are assigned to Miami  Beach, where a rash of killings by a bloodthirsty psychopath is distinguished by a confounding M.O.:  cutting out the hearts of his victims and leaving them -- along with cryptic handwritten letters -- at local graveyards, unconnected except for one bizarre detail:  all belong to women who committed suicide.  For the seeming lack of connection between the suicides and the new murders is the least of Pendergast's worries.  As he digs deeper, he realizes the brutal new crimes may just be the tip of the iceberg:  a conspiracy of death that reaches back decades."  Also, The Scorpion's Tale and Dead Mountain, the second and fourth novels in the Nora Kelly series.  Scorpion:  "A mummified corpse, over half a century old, is found in the cellar of an abandoned building in a remote New Mexico ghost town,  Junior FBI Agent Corrie Swanson [told ya -- JH] is assigned to ID the body and determine the cause of death, and brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to excavate the body and lend her expertise to the investigation.  Together they uncover something unexpected and shocking:  the deceased apparently died in agony, in a fetal position, skin coming off in sheets, a rictus of horror frozen on his face.  Hidden on the corpse lies a sixteenth century Spanish gold cross of immense value.  When they at last identify the body -- and the bizarre cause of death -- Corrie and Nora open a door to a terrifying, secret world of ancient treasure and modern obsession:  a world centered on one of the most defining, frightening, and transformative moments in American history."  Mountain:  "In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains.  At their final campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene:  something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard.  Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing their eyes.  The case, given the code name 'Dead Mountain' by the FBI, was never solved.  Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide.  Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago -- and to find the ninth vistim.  But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light."
• J. D. Rhoades, Good Day in Hell.  A Jack Keller thriller.  "Bail enforcement officer Jack Keller is doing a skip trace on a young woman from the right side of the tracks who somehow got involved with the wrong kind of man.  But Laurel Marks's history doesn't matter to Jack -- she's wanted on a parole violation, and his paycheck depends on his tracking her down.  Meanwhile, Keller's girlfriend, sheriff's deputy Marie Jones, is called to the scene of a grisly murder -- a gas station owner has been shot point-blank in the face, and his teenage stepson, plus the cash from the register, are missing.  But something in the back of her mind tells Marie not to jump to conclusions...   When a bloody, merciless killing spree starts in a church on the other side of the county, it seems impossible that Keller's skip and Marie's murder/kidnapping case could be related.  But the local media are soon involved, and the mess they make of the situation soon reveals what Keller, Marie, and every other police officer in the state of North Carolinaa doesn't want to believe:  three people are viciously angry, incredibly well armed, and they're ready to strike at any time." 
• John Saul, The Manhattan Hunt Club.  Suspense novel.  "The promising future of New York City College student Jeff Converse has suddenly been shattered by a nightmarish turn of events.  Falsely convicted of a brutal crime, Jeff sees his life vanishing before his eyes.  But someone has other plans for Jeff in a far deadlier place than any penitentiary.  He finds himself beneath the teeming streets of Manhattan, in a hidden landscape of twisting tunnels and forgotten subterranean chambers.  Here, an invisible population of the homeless, the desperate, and the mad has carved out its own shadow society.  But they are not alone,  The pitch-dark tunnels and abandoned subway stations are haunted by the unmistakable sounds of predators in search of game.  Someone has made this forsaken civilization beneath a city a private killing ground...and the hunt is on."
• Jim Thompson, Heed the Thunder.  Crime novel, Thompson's second book.  "Old Lincoln Fargo has spent his life engaging in almost every vice imaginable -- and his only regret is that he once stole a horse.  His son Grant, a shiftless dandy with a resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe, is conducting an affair with is voluptuous and volatile cousin.  And behind everyone's back, Grandmother Pearl has just signed the family property over to the almighty.  In the literature of the American prairie, few families are as brawling, as benighted, or as outrageously vital as the Fargos of Verdon, Nebraska.  And when Jim Thompson chronicles their life and times, the result suggest Willa Cather steeped in rotgut -- and armed with a .45."
• Robert Weinberg, editor, The Louis L'Amour Companion.  Nonfiction, a collection of more than fifty articles, listings, and interviews with the bestselling western author.  Contributors include Walter M. Tompkins, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Jon Tuska, Harlan Ellison, Robert Sampson, Scott A. Cupp, Ed Gorman, and the interview team of Lawrence Davidson, Richard Lupoff, and Richard Wolinsky.  Everything you ever wanted to know and then some about L'Amour and his writing.
• Thomas Wheeler, Cursed.  Arthurian fantasy novel, illustrated by comic book great Frank Miller.  "Whosoever wields the sword of power shall be the one true King,  But what if the sword has chosen a Queen?  Nimue grew up an outcast.  Her connection to dark magic made her something to be feared in her Druid village, and that made her desperate to leave...  That is, until Red Paladins slaughter her entire village, and Nimue's fate is forever altered.  Charged by her dying mother to reunite an ancient sword with a legendary sorcerer, Nimue is now her people's only hope.  Her mission leaves little room for revenge, but the growing power within her can think of nothing else.  Nimue teams up with a charming mercenary named Arthur and refugee Fey Folk from across England.  She wields a sword meant for the one true king, and battles paladins and the armies of a corrupt ruler.  She struggles to unite her people, avenge her family, and discover the truth about her destiny.  And perhaps the one thing that can change destiny itself is found at thesas edge of a blade."  Wheeler and Miller were co-creators of the 2020 Netflix television series based on this book.

Doris Miller:  Then upcoming Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) was designated to be the first aircraft carrier named for an African-American and an enlisted man, Cook Petty Officer First Class Doris ("Dorrie") Miller.  Miller, then a Mess Attendant Second Class, was serving on the battleship USS West Virginia when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  He first helped carry wounded sailors to safety and then manned an anti-aircraft gun -- despite having no training in gunnery -- and was officially commended for shooting down one plane, although Miller and a number of eyewitnesses said the true count was between four and six. 

On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions during the December 7 attack --   among them was a recommendation for an "unnamed Black man."  The NAACP asked President Roosevelt to award the Distinguished Service Award to the unknown Black sailor.  On March 12, the Associated Press identified the man as Miller.  He was the first African-American ever to receive the Navy Cross; it was given to him on May 27, 1942 by Admiral Chester Nimitz.  But many sailors and officers felt that Miller's heroism was worthy of a Congressional Medal of Honor; then-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was a vocal opponent against Black sailors serving in the United States of having any combat role -- no Black service member was awarded the Medal of Honor between 1941 and 1945. (Army First Lieutenant Vernon Baker was the only Black recipient of the Medal of Honor while he was still alive; he received the Medal in 1997 for his actions in 1945 near Viareggio, Italy.)  Despite efforts to have Miller award the Medal of Honor, nothing official has happened to date, although there are hints that the ward my be in the offing.

There are also stories that the Navy may rescind naming the aircraft carrier for Miller in  favor of naming it for Donald Trump -- nothing official, but the story smacks of a trial balloon sent out by the current Administration.  Our current president has a long record of disparaging our service members and callously placing them in harm's way while at the same time bloviating his own reputation.  If there is any truth to this story, it would be a stain on our country and the men and women who serve it.

To date, there have been nine U.S. Navy ships named in honor of African Americans:

• USS Harmon (DE-678) launched in 1943 to honor Mess Attendant First Class Leroy Roy Harmon, who died in action at age 25 at Guadalcanal and was a posthumous recipient of the Navy Cross
• USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine named for the fanous scientist and inventor
• USS Jesse L. Brown (DD-1089), named for the first African-American naval aviator in the U.S. Navy
• USS Miller (FF-1091), a Knox-class destroyer escort was named for Doris Miller and commissioned in 1973; in 1975 she was reclassified as a frigate, then decommissioned in 1991, transferred to Turkey as a hulk in 1999 and sunk as a target in a Turkish naval exercise two years later
• USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60) an Oliver Hazzard Perry-class guided missile frigate named for a marine sergeant posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Vietnam War
• USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer named for a marine PFC who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Vietnam War
• USS Pinckney (DDG-91) an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer named for Cook First Class William Pinckney, who received the Navy Cross for rescuing a shipmate during World War II; Pinckney was the second African-American ever to be awarded the Navy Cross

May we as a nation and as citizens continue to pay tribute those men and women, many of whom are unsung, who have given so much for our country.

Today's Joke:  The owner of a drugstore shows up to work one day to find a man leaning against the wall with a terrible look on his face. 

He asks his clerk, "What's with the guy over there leaning on the wall?"

"Well" the clerk said, "He came in about 7:00 this morning and wanted something for his bad cough.  I looked around and couldn't find any cough medicine so I gave him some laxatives."

"You what!" exploded the owner.  "You can't treat a clough with laxatives!"

"Oh, yeah?" the clerk replied.  "Look at him.  He's afraid to cough."

Labor Day Joke:  I was going to tell you a Labor Day Joke, but it just didn't work.

More Holidays Today:  Today is also National Beer Lovers Day.

    - At a big beer festival in London, the heads of several major breweries decided to go out for a drink          at the local pub.  The guy from Corona tells the bartender, "Give me a Corona, the world's best              beer."  And the bartender gives him one.  The guy from Budweiser says. "I'll have the King of Beers,       a Budweiser."  And the bartender gives him one.  The guy from Coors says, "I'll have a beer made         from Rocky Mountain spring water, a Coors."  And the bartender gives him one.  Then the guy from        Guinness looks at his fellow drinkers and their orders and asks for a Coke.  The others look back at

     and ask why did not order a Guinness.  He said, "Well, if the rest of you aren't drinking real beer,             neither will I."

And today is also Buy a Book Day:

    - A man went into a  bookstore and complained, "I bought This book yesterday, Cowards in History,       and when I got home all the pages fell out.  The bookstore clerk explained, "That's because it has no        spine."

And it is also Grandma Moses Day.  there's not too many Grandma Moses jokes out there, but there are some great quotes from her, including, "Life is what you make it, always has been, always will be."  She was a pretty smart lady.

And today is National Acorn Squash Day.  Here's a few recipes for your taste buds:

    - https://www.allrecipes.com/article/beshttps://www.allrecipes.com/article/best-acorn-squash-                     recipes/t-acorn-squash-recipes/

Not to be outdone by squash, today is also National Salami Day.  It's not just for sandwiches, as these recipes can attest:

    - https://www.dufourgourmet.com/blogs/foodie-blog/ingenious-ways-to-use-salami?                                  srsltid=AfmBOoprnU__iVPWGsSFc-3B59ZA-CyafKKx4dCtBXAvrzpKYCbHFWvv

And today marks a number of observances worth celebrating:  International Day of Clean Air, Indigenous Literacy Day, National Feel the Love Day, National Grateful Patient Day, and Superhuman day  (which recognizes the in credible achievements of people with disabilities). 

Feel free to celebrate them all joyfully.

Graffiti:  One of the most cherished icons in Pensacola is the Graffiti Bridge, a tribute to free speech and expression -- one sanctioned by the city.  First built as a railroad overpass for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1888, locals and neighboring residents first began decorating the trestle as early as 1935.  Over the decades, the concrete pilings and walls evolved into a "public diary" where birthday wishes, memorials, public commentary, personal tributes, marriage proposals, local sports, and student congratulations were regularly posted.  In 2008, the Pensacola City Council officially recognized the bridge as and acceptable site for legal public expression.  I cannot tell you how much paint has covered the bridge over the decades, but typically, the artwork lasts about a day before it is painted over by a new message.

The day after Dolly Parton's death, her image took over the entire bridge in tribute.  Amazingly, it remained for there for ten days -- something unheard of for the bridge's graffiti.  It was then altered with political announcements about 9-11, project 2030, and vaccines; those announcements were up for a day before the Dolly Parton tribute was restored, adding the quotation, "Find out who you are and do it on purpose."

Eventually the Dolly mural will go away to be replaced by something meaningful, inspiring, newsworthy, or just plain tacky.  That's how things roll on the Graffiti Bridge.

But for now, let it be said that Pensacola loves Dolly.

Yes, anyone can leave a message on the Graffiti Bridge.  If you are ever in Pensacola and wish to do so, here's how:

https://thegraffitibridge.com/blogs/news/so-you-wanna-paint-the-graffiti-bridge-a-guide-to-the-ins-and-outs-of-pensacola-landmark

Relatively Speaking:  David Langford, an icon in the British science fiction field, writes (among other things) Ansible, a monthly newsletter of the field.  Alas, he had been under the weather for a week or so before issuing the September edition (#470), which explains this blunder I brought to his attention:  "Am I right in assuming that African-American bass-baritone legend Paul Robeson was the evil twin brother of Kenneth Robeson?"  All is forgiven, David; it's an easy mistake to make, the man who sang "Ol' Man River" and the creator of Doc Savage.  Now, I am imaging the greatest crossover of all time...if only...

Florida Man Woman Moos (with a side-jaunt to Aussie-land):  Justice can be swift in Florida, and sometimes it comes on four hooves, as Jennifer Anne Kaufman found out when she stole a vehicle in Seminole County:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/08/florida-seminole-county-cows-capture-suspect-jennifer-anne-kaufman

The bovines may not have acted from a sense of justice; they probably followed her, knowing that a person in their field might mean that they would be fed.

Meanwhile...a herd of breakaway cattle in Queensland, Australia, headed to the drivethrough window at a local local McDonalds.  No word on what they ordered:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8snHrBBeGS4 

Good News:  And there's always a lot of it.

• Hope for coral.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/red-sea-coral-dying-from-heat-stress-is-being-revived-using-probiotics/
• And for salmon.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/endangered-salmon-return-to-california-rivers-in-incredible-numbers-everybodys-just-ecstatic/
• A cleaner New York City.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/neighbors-gets-swept-up-in-mans-viral-journey-to-clean-1-nyc-street-block-every-day-for-100-days/
• In the midst of horror, hope -- 900 students saved.  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/last-minute-flood-warning-saved-over-900-nepal-students-school-principal-said/
• Traffic pollution falls in London as children's lungs grow.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/in-london-childrens-lungs-grow-faster-as-traffic-pollution-falls/
• Pokemon fans rally after a child is scammed.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pokemon-fans-rally-to-help-child-after-he-was-scammed-out-of-his-most-valuable-card/
• Teens design charity app to help deliver "pizza with a purpose."  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/florida-teens-design-charity-app-to-help-generous-locals-deliver-pizza-for-a-purpose/
• World's oldest person turns 117.    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/worlds-oldest-person-celebrates-117-years-of-a-nonconfrontational-approach-to-life/
• "Fridge free" vaccines could save millions of wasted doses.      https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/resurrecting-plant-inspires-fridge-free-vaccines-that-could-save-the-millions-of-doses-wasted-annually/
• A waterless toilet for astronauts could solve global sanitation crisis.  https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/inventor-envisioned-a-waterless-toilet-for-astronauts-realized-it-could-solve-a-global-sanitation-crisis-instead/
• Kids becoming more financially literate.     https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/california-became-26th-state-to-require-financial-literacy-courses-in-every-high-school/

Something To Remember:  "Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." -- Jean Anpouilh

Today's Poem:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives might be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light.  For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

-- Wendell Berry (1934-2026), the Kentucky farmer 

who asked us to see the world around us and savor the good.  

He will be missed.

HYMN TIME

Elvis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKHVtJcG3Is

SHOWCASE #19: ADAM STRANGE (MARCH-APRIL 1959)

Adam Strange was created by DC comics editor Julius Schwartz in 1957 when the powers that be determined they needed a science fiction hero.  Strange was a present-day archaeologist working in Peru when he was suddenly transported by "Zeta-beam" altered by cosmic radiation to the planet Rann in Alpha Centauri.  There, he is attacked by a predator and rescued by the lovely Alanna.  Strange is tasked with protecting the planet from extraterrestrials using Rann's technology. 

Gardner Fox was assigned to write Strange's adventures; the character was designed by Murphy Anderson and penciled by Mike Sekowsy.  The first Strange adventure ran in Showcase #17 (November 1958); after a three-month trial period, the character was moved to Mystery in Space, where Strange's adventures ran for 49 issues (#53-100 and #102).  Following his Mystery in Space, Strange continued to have guest appearances in a number of DC titles.  He was a backup feature in Green Arrow in the early 1980s (#132-147), and has continued in the DC universe to this day.

Adam Strange has been portrayed on television, in films, and in video games.  IGN, the video gaming and entertainment company ranked Adam Strange as the 97th greatest comic book hero of all time.

In "Challenge of the Star Hunter," Strange faces an alien who can change shape at will and who challenges Strange to capture him -- or the planet Rann and its people will face utter extinction.  Not lnly does he outwit Leothric, the Star Hunter, but he also saves a number of other worlds from the same fate.  What a guy!

The Strange returns for another adventure, Mystery of the Mental Menace."  The energy being Zakkad of Ekelon, the outermost planet of the Alpha Centauri system, has created a magnetic meteor that will allow him to gain Adam Strange's secrets of teleportation go conquer the universe.  It Strange does not reveal the secret, Zakkad will use the meteor to pull Rann out of orbit and launch it on a forever journey through space.  Gee willikers, gang, that sounds serious!

Despite the typical 1950s DC silliness, this is a pretty interesting issue.

Enjoy.

https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/CB/SC_1959_04.pdf

FORGOTTEN BOOK: FAITHFUL

 Faithful:  Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King  (2004)

Full disclosure:  I am not a sports fan.  I have gone to my grandkids' games and cheered them on, although I had no idea what was going on.  Although for the glorious year of 1967, I did find myself as a Red Sox fan, but for that year and that year only.

So, this book was a difficult one for me, chockful of minutia -- personalities, plays, strategies, rankings, and personal quirks; enough detail that I could read about 20 pages at a time.  So why did I put myself through the torture of reading the book?  Because it really wasn't torture; it was a fascinating look at a side of life that has avoided me thus far, and probably will far into the future.

Two bestselling writers, Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King, decide to chronicle the 2004 baseball season from start to finish with no idea what would happen...and they got a book contract to do so.  O'Nan is the prize-winning author of now 22 novels, including Snow Angels, Everyday People, and Last Night at the Lobster.   King is one of the world's bestselling authors with at least 69 novels and twelve collections published; his latest book, due next month, is Other Worlds Than These, the third novel in the Talisman series written with Peter Straub.

The writing process here was simple.  Each writer who record their feelings and experiences, game by game, over the year; interspersed with these pieces are various text messages between the two.  I did not bother to make an actual count, but O'Nan's reflections were far more detailed than King's going in at times to an almost play-by-play reportage.  Both King and O'Nan rely on a fan's knowledge of the players, often using nicknames and assuming the reader will know who is who and what team they are playing for.

Two things are clear:  this is serious business for the pair, and the Yankees are hated.

2004 started off well, as has many other seasons.  Typically, however, the Sox slowly sink in the rankings.  Much of the first parts of the books are spent worrying about the rankings in relationship to the dreaded Yankees.  What the authors did not expect was that 2004 would be a banner year for the Red Sox, culminating in a World Series championship.  Their excitement and enthusiasm along the way -- and specifically toward the end -- are addictive.

Anyway, here's a flavor of the writing, this is Stewart O'Nan from the April 9th game with Toronto:  "In thee Toronto eighth, righty Josh Phelps leads off, so Francona opts to go with Mike Timlin, who only threw two-thirds of an inning last night.  Timlin Ks Phelps, but then has to face lefty Eric Hinske, who singles, and the switch-hitting Hudson, who doubles to the left-center gap, tying the game.  Timlin gets pinch hitter Simon Bond, but number nine hitter Kevin Cash doubles to the exact same spot, and the crowd boos.  There's nobody warming -- again, the effect of last night.  Timlin hits Johnson with a pitch, and people are screaming.  Catalanotto lines one over Millar's head.  Miller turns and does his impression of running, giving a blind wave of his glove.  We're lucky -- the ball hops into the stands for a ground-rule double, and Johnson has to go back to third.  When Timlin finally gets wells to pop up for the third out, it's 7-5 Toronto."

O'Nan is the consummate fan.  From May 3:  "In anticipation of Saturday's front-row Monster seats, I drive around town in the rain to find a fishing net so we can haul the shots just short of the Wall.  I go to Sears, figuring they might have a Ted Williams model in his fishing line.  The floor associate tells me they no longer carry fishing gear -- or baseball gear, for that matter.  All they have is home fitness equipment.

"I find a net with a telescoping arm at thee Sports Authority.  It's big, and I doubt the gate attendants will let me in with it, but what the hell.  Worst case, I take it back to the care.  At home, the dogs are afraid of it.  Trudy shakes her head. 'How much?' "

And here's King:  "Bottom line?  Baseball's a wonderful game.  There's no greater thrill than when your team pulls one out.  And you can't get that from a newspaper story.  TV's better,  but there's really noting on God's earth ;like being at the ballpark and getting on your feet in the bottom of the ninth , hot dog still in hand, when the Sox pull one out.  If Heaven's that good, I guess I want to go."

On May 10, Mannie Ramirez misses a game.  Here's King on May 11:  "He has played every game this season except for this Monday's (May 10) trouncing by Cleveland, his old team.  Manny was unavailable to play on that day because he was taking his U.S. citizenship test...which he passed.  At the start of tonight's game he ran out to his position in left field with a big grin on his face and a small American flag in his right hand.  Manny's people in left gave him a standing O.

"Way to go, Manny Ramirez -- welcome to the real big leagues."

And here's King on a devasting game against the Blue Jays:  "Orlando Hudson has scored five of the Jay's runs, tying a team record. (Ask me if I give a shit.)  And on the radio, color commentator Jerry Trupiano has been reduced to wondering how the sitcom Frazier, which finishes it run tonight, turned out.

"It's been that kind of game."

And O'Nan, on May 19:  "Later, checking my e-mail;, I come across a story that says the Yankees are dropping Cracker Jack from their concession stands, going instead with Crunch 'N Munch, which they say tastes better (and still comes in a  box).  George, You're insane."

And there's this .little bit of worldly advice from King:  "When they don't announce the game-time temperature at Fenway, you know you're in trouble."

Through trials and tribulations, errors and flubs and triumphs, egos and idiosyncrasies, the Sox -- no SPOILER ALERT NEEDED -- made it to the top, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to zero and ending a 86-year drought.

Game 4 was on O'Nan's 20th anniversary.  At his wife's insistence, they cancel their long-standing dinner reservations at the best restaurant in town.  O'Nan:  "It's more than must a win; it's a statement.  By winning tonight, we broke the record for consecutive playoff wins, with eight straight.  Another stat that every commentator unpacks is the we're only one of four championship teams to have never trailed in the Series...And to make it all sweeter, the last out was made by Edgar Renteria who wears -- as a couple of folks noted -- the Babe's famous #3."

And King:  "I hardly could [believe it], and I wasn't the only one.  A hundred miles away, my son wakes up his five-year-old son to see the end.  When it was over and the red Sox were mobbing each other on the infield, Ethan asked his father, 'Is this a dream or are we living real life?' "

And let's give O'Nan the last word:  "Well, the one year you write a book a bout the club, we win it all.  Another fake curse reversed...[B]ut tonight I ate that Break the Curse cookie I got on Opening Day.   A vow's a vow.  Washed that stiff six-moth-old biscuit down with champagne and enpoyed every morsel of it.  Life is sweet,"

As I said, I am not a baseball fan and I had to slog through the book, wading through more detail than I thought was possible, but the end result was worth it.  I got to see the hearts of two of my favorite writers and explore their passion with them.

I have to recommend Faithful, not just for baseball or Red Sox fans, or for O'Nan or King completists, but also for experiencing the pure joy and heartbreak that major sports can bring to people.

SATURDAY-NIGHT THEATRE: AGATHA CHRISTIE'S FIVE LITTLE PIGS (JUNE 18, 1994)

American fans may better recognize this story under its U.S. title MURDER IN RETROSPECT.

John Moffett stars as Hercule Poirot in this tricky case of a sixteen-year-old murder.

"Sixteen years after her mother was convicted of murdering her father, the young Carla Lemarchant seeks the help of Hercule Poirot...Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects:  Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Else Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecelia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried 'wee wee wee' all the way home.  It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can't get that nursery rhyme out of his mind."

One of Dame Agatha's most lauded mysteries.

Lending their vocal talents to the cast are Graham Crowden, Derek Waring, Carmel McSharry, Suzy Aitchison, Charlotte Attenborough, Jemma Churchill, John Hartley, Clare Heyhoe, John Woodnutt, and David Kossoff.

Dramatized by Michael Bakewell and directed by Enyd Williams.

Can you match your wits against Hercule's little grey cells?

https://archive.org/details/agatha-christie-five-little-pigs

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE COFFIN BEARER

"The Coffin Bearer" by Tess Gerritsen  (from Birds of Prey, edited by Harlan Coben and C. J. Box, 2026)

Maggie Bird is a fifty-eight-year-old spending thee summer on remote, tiny Gam Island off the Maine coast.  Gam Island is small and has only one building, a sparce cottage, and the ruins of a burned -out cottage that had gone up in flames twenty years before; the only approach to Gam Island is by water.  Maggie is halfway back to Gam Island from making her weekly grocery run on Tucker Harbor when she notices a large flock of seagulls in the Penobscot Bay fog.  It was odd to have the bords flock in the middle of the bay like that, so Maggie turned her boat to investigate.  The birds were flocking over a boat that Maggie recognized belonging to Ben Bouchard, a local lobsterman.  There was no evidence of Ben on the boat, so Maggie pulled over and boarded it.  There was no sign of Ben, but his pot hauler is under tension, indicating that three lobster pots had been lowered down into the bay.  Knowing that boatman can be easily pulled overboard if their legs got tangled in a loop of rope, and not being strong enough to haul the heavy traps from the water, Maggie dons her wet suit and enters the cold water, hoping that Ben might still be alive.  There was no sign of Ben, but the rope that held the third pot had been severed.

Ben Bouchard was not a well-liked individual in Tucker Harbor.  He had a bitter divorce from his wife, who now lives with her daughter and five-year-old granddaughter.  Few people attended Ben's funeral and none of them were actually mourning.

A few days later, she finds Ben's body stuck on the rocks of the island.  It appears that he was killed there and the boat was set out to sea to hide that fact.  Maggie is concerned about any publicity she might get from finding Ben's abandoned boat.  It turns out that Maggie is not her real name and that she is most likely in witness protection.  She chose Gam Island because of its remoteness and that she would be able to spot any unfamiliar boat approaching.  She wonders if Ben's death had anything to do with her and those who are after her, or if it was simply a local murder completely unrelated to Maggie.  After all, it appears that Ben was smuggling drugs:  there was a half kilo of white heroin hidden in his boat.

Tucker Harbor is a small community where everybody knows everybody and family connections go back generations.  Could these connections have been responsible for the death of a disliked citizen?

An interesting mystery with an interesting protagonist, and a character study of rural Maine.

Tess Gerritsen is an internationally bestselling mystery author and a retired general physician.  she is best known for her series about homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles and for her Martini Club mysteries; she has also published a number of medical thrillers and romance thrillers.  Gerritsen's books have been published in 40 countries and have sold 25 million copies.  She won a RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America in 2002  for her novel The Surgeon and a 2006 Nero Award for Vanish.  Her Rizzoli and Isles series was the basis for a 2010-2016 television series.

Birds of Prey is an anthology from the International Thriller Writers; eleven writers were asked to pick a bird of prey and use it as an inspiration for a short story.  Gerritsen, who lives in Maine, chose the seagull, in part because she once made the mistake of feeding a seagull some dinner scraps and the gull kept returning for a month, rapping on her window, demanding more scraps, to the point where he cracked the glass.  In her story that seagull is immortalized as The Nuisance, a black-backed seagull (Larus marinus), "also known by the unsettling nickname of the coffin-bearer gull."  Birds of Prey also contains original stories by Kelley Armstrong, Ace Atkins, C. J. Box, Allison Brennan, S. A. Cosby, Robert Dugoni, Heather Graham, Gregg Hurwitz, Kathy Reichs, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

OVERLOOKED SCHLOCK: MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953)

As far as cinematic values goes, it's hard to sink lower than Mesa of Lost Women, a bottom of the budget horror flick directed by Herbert Tevos and Ron Ormand (King of the Bullwhip, White Lightnin' Road, The Grim Reaper -- Ormond has 27 director, 42 producer, 36 writer, and 6 acting credits on IMDb) .  Tevos had written a  number of unfilmed (and unfilmable) scripts and managed to get one script credit for 1951's Tarantula (not to be confused with the Jack Arnold 1955 film of the same name), which was so bad that it never got released.   Enter low-budget specialist Ron Ormand ( ) the following year, who filmed new material, edited it into Tarantula, and came out with Mesa of Lost Women, now recognized as one of the worst movies ever filmed.  Tevos claimed to have been a famous director in Germany and that he directed Marlene Deitrich in The Blue Angel, but that appears to be pure puffery; there is no record of him directing anything in Germany and Mesa of Lost Women remains his only known credit.  It turns out that Tevos was really Herbert von Schoellenbach, who was an employee of the film manufacturing company Agfa; Agfa sent him to the United States, where he worked as head of the paper testing department in Agfa's Rochester, New York, facility.  The script for Mesa of Lost Women was by Tevos and Poverty-Row scribe Orville H. Hampton, although Hampton got screen credit only for dialogue supervision.

Former child star and latter-day Uncle Festus Jackie Coogan stars a the reclusive Dr. Aranya (the Spanish word for spider), who "is creating giant spiders and dwarfs in his lab on Zarpa Mesa, Mexico.  He wants to create a master race of superwomen by injecting his female subjects with spider venom."  One of these women is Tarantella (pin-up model Tandra Quinn -- perhaps born Derline Jeannette Smith -- , featured in Problem Girls, The Neanderthal Man, and as an uncredited fourteen-year-old schoolgirl eight years earlier in Week-End at the Waldorf, who has spider-like claws on her feminine hands.

the film quickly moves from the very sub-sublime to the overtly ridiculous in just 109 minutes.

Narrated by Lyle Talbot and also featuring Allan Nixon, Richard Travis, Delores Fuller, Katina Vea, Paula Hill, and Robert Knapp, and if you look closely you might notice Angelo Rositto as one of the dwarfs.

The film is so bad that it has become a minor cult classic.  How bad? you ask.  Harken to some of the film critics;  "lapses in judgment that boggle the mind," "a dull, tepid mess," "incoherent," "muddled and misguided," "incompetent [and] awkward," "ridiculously complicated plot hides the fact that nothing really happens," and "so bad you have to ask yourself, is it actually evil?"

You have been warned.  Now dive in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs3OIggg334