Category: Fiction

Slow Horses AND Dead Lions By Mick Herron

7/25/2023

Slow Horses by Mick Herron isn't your typical spy book. This is not James Bond nor is it John le Carré. It might be closer to Get Smart...ok, not really but it is about a collection of spies who are not particularly good at their jobs.

They've done ridiculously stupid things or pissed off ridiculously powerful people (or both). Some of them are out and out incompetent and others made a single but unforgivable mistake. They are then sent to an out of the way, dingy, office called (unofficially) Slough House. This leads to the nickname "Slow Horses." There they sit, watching their careers die.

Of course the book is not about a bunch of wayward spies sitting around counting paper clips until retirement. There is SPY STUFF going on and lots of intrigue, backstabbing and hilarity.

Dead Lions is a continuation of the espionage (and pratfalls) of the denizens of Slough House, necessitating that they, once again (sort of) save the day. Old spies from days gone by play a part in this installment.

It is rare thing when I get enthusiastic about a SERIES of books that is more than two or three books but these Slough House books? I have to hold myself back from reading the next one because, while i want to read and read and read? I don't want them to be over. At the moment I am poised before the third book, Real Tigers after finishing Dead Lions.

I will ration them out over time!

Also? The Apple TV show based on these books, starring Gary Oldman and Kirsten Scott Thomas is also pretty good. It diverges enough from the books to keep from being simple rehash as well. It also gives fans of the book something to talk about; "so and so is NOT who I pictured in that roll" or "so and so is exactly who I pictured farting his way through that role!"

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The Destroyer Of Worlds --A Return To Lovecraft Country By Matt Ruff

7/23/2023

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I was introduced to Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country via the HBO mini-series. As soon as I was done watching I bought the book. Imagine my surprise when I found that, despite loving the series, I loved the book even more.

I eagerly awaited a second book, The Destroyer of Worlds :A Return to Lovecraft Country, even though HBO nixed the show after a single season.

The second book follows up on the action in the first. The Freeman family are still working on their guide for black travelers and running afoul of a variety of supernatural entities. The beauty of both "Lovecraft" books is that they are told from the perspective of black characters and are uncompromising in the excoriation of the systematic oppression of black people. Ron DeSantis would not like these books. He'd probably ban them from Florida Barnes & Nobles if he could.

Is this book as good as the first? No. It isn't. There seems something abbreviated about it. I wanted MORE to this story. There are two threads of the story that seem, if not unfinished, then abridged. I am making an effort to not summarize so I will leave it at that. It is, however, a huge compliment from me to say "I wanted another 100 pages of this."

Ultimately the book does weave the various threads into a satisfying ending and it is, like its predecessor, a book that is hard to put down but there is a little bit of a "sophomore slump" here.

These books make more use of H.P. Lovecraft's name than his universe(s). There are, of course, references to the creatures and background created by the writer. His various "universes' ' were creative, horrific and unique but he was also an inveterate racist. His depiction of anyone with skin slightly darker than Wonder Bread is, uniformly, derogatory and demeaning. He was also an anti-semite (yes, I am aware he married a Jewish woman).

The problem with Lovecraft is that his short stories are often great. No one, not even Poe, was as good at creating a sense of dread. He changed how horror was written. Most of his stories did not deal with issues of race even though his racism is on view for all to see in many, if not most, stories (Herbert West: Reanimator, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Rats in the Walls etc etc etc). Some publications sanitize the racist bits and you are unlikely to see his writing that is actually dedicated TO the issue of race re-printed ANYWHERE these days. An example of his poetry is specifically dealt with in the first Lovecraft Country book. His correspondence is where you can find more than "hints" of his racism but good luck finding most of that sort of correspondence with a cursory browser query.

So what to do with Lovecraft? Do we ignore the racism? Do we take it for what it is and acknowledge both the creativity and the racism? I have a hard time with what to do, frankly.

Ruff figured out a way to confront and acknowledge Lovecraft. Take his worlds and his views and make strong, intelligent, black characters the protagonist in a world loosely based on Lovecraft's. I look forward to more books in this series.

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Razorblade Tears By S.A. Crosby

7/22/2023

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This is not the sort of thing I usually read. It is a crime drama and mystery. While I have nothing against the genre it usually isn't what leaps off the shelf and into my hands. I read Razorblade Tears by S. A. Crosby in less than 48 hours. I couldn't put it down.

In fact, the only time I put it down was when it made me nervous for the safety of the characters. That is a sign of good writing, when the characters become real in our minds.

The plot (and this is nothing you won't find on the dust jacket) revolves around the murder of a gay married couple and how their father's react to the crime.

They do not join a support group. The fathers are not accountants.

On both sides of the equation dad is a hardened ex-convict; one has made a new life for himself outside the penitentiary while the other has not. What unites the two is their lack of understanding of and cruelty to their sons during their lives. Yet, in death, the two men mourn not only their children but feel remorse and even despair at the mistreatment of their boys. They repeatedly confront the helplessness of no longer being able to make amends.

The two come together to find their sons' murderer.

For what is basically a "revenge mystery" this book has some of the best vignettes on racism and homophobia I've read recently. That is what this book is really about. That is the subtext but it never stops being about action the action and solving the crime.

It is violent, it is brutal and it sometimes stretches the reader's credulity but the characters genuinely come alive, even the peripheral ones. You may want to read more about some of these personalities created by Crosby but I wouldn't bet on that happening. The bow is pretty neatly tied at the end.

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This is really to motivate me to read and remember what I am reading. I'd love to hear what YOU are reading.

The dates are not an indication of when I finished really. I fell behind.

Slow Horses AND Dead Lions By Mick Herron

The Destroyer Of Worlds --A Return To Lovecraft Country By Matt Ruff

Razorblade Tears By S.A. Crosby

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