Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,065
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Post by Confessor on Jun 14, 2016 20:34:35 GMT -5
The Lord of the Rings: Book 2 – The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien. So, my re-read of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings continues with The Two Towers, which I finished last week. As I noted in my write up of The Fellowship of the Ring, I spent a lot of my teenage years engrossed in these books, but I began to revisit them less often as I entered my 20s and 30s. The thing is, re-reading this instalment of the epic novel now, I think I actually enjoyed The Two Towers more than I did back then. The book's structure is unusual and not at all like that of the first volume: it's divided up into two distinct halves, with the first segment following the adventures of Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf and the Hobbits Merry and Pippin, as they oppose the evil wizard Saruman, while the second half follows the journey of Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee and Gollum, as they journey towards the evil land of Mordor. As a teen, the first half was always my favourite part, with its sweeping scenery, epic battles, mysterious forests, and thrilling narrative. But this time around I really enjoyed the chapters dealing with Frodo's journey into Mordor too. It was a lot more exciting than I remembered and the chemistry between Frodo, Sam and the tragic figure of Gollum, along with how their relationships with each other change as they get closer to Mordor, is fascinating to read. The first volume of the LotRs has always been my favourite part, but this second instalment really is an extraordinary work, filled with dramatic tale-telling and gripping adventure. Tolkien's writing conjures the settings and characters in beautifully vivid detail, while his prose style is full of joy – and not just the joyous excitement of the story, but with a professor's joy of language too. Something that occurred to me on this read through is that The Two Towers begins and ends with betrayal; the book opens with the aftermath of Boromir's betrayal of Frodo, when he tries to seize the ring, and at the end of the book Frodo and Sam are betrayed by Gollum, when he leads them through the path of Cirith Ungol and into the lair of Shelob the giant spider. Actually, while I'm on the subject, the scenes with Shelob are creepy as all hell and the storytelling in this part of the book is masterful. It's also interesting how time plays tricks on your memory; I could've sworn that Boromir died at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, but actually his death takes place at the start of this book. I guess that's the result of watching Peter Jackson's cinematic adaptation of LotRs too much! Something else I want to mention is that I love how the ecological themes that were present in The Fellowship of the Ring are ramped up here. The march of the Ents (or tree herders) to overthrow the evil wizard Saruman, who has been destroying the countryside and chopping down huge swathes of forest to fuel the machinery of war, is inspiring, exhilarating and uplifting. The moral being that if you f**k with the environment, there will be consequences! Overall, The Two Towers is a much more complex novel than its predecessor, I think, and it also has more momentum to it. You get a real sense of the dark storm clouds gathering, as the evil lord Sauron prepares to unleash his wrath on Middle-earth, juxtaposed with and contrasted against the lives of the "little people" who would strive to prevent it. Anyway, on to The Return of the King now!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 17, 2016 11:45:55 GMT -5
The Pale Horeman by Bernard Cornwell. The second book of The Saxon Stories is better than the first (and it was pretty good). It follows up on the short-lived peace following the Battle of Cynuit and finds Uhtred heading home. But life as a farmer doesn't suit him and he ends up using one of Alfred's warships to go a-Viking, plundering along the Cornish and Welsh coasts. This ultimately gets him in trouble with Alfred...but that is taken care of by the treaty-breaking attack by the Danes across Wessex. Alfred is driven into the tidal swamps in Wessex, but ultimately he and Uhtred rally and army and win a surprising victory at the Battle of Edington which keeps the entirety of England from being dominated by the Danes. Cornwell clearly knows his history and let's us know in his Historical Notes when he fudges history for dramatic effect. If you like historical fiction or are interested in medieval history this is a darn good read.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 17, 2016 14:56:48 GMT -5
The Lord of the Rings: Book 2 – The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien. So, my re-read of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings continues with The Two Towers, which I finished last week. As I noted in my write up of The Fellowship of the Ring, I spent a lot of my teenage years engrossed in these books, but I began to revisit them less often as I entered my 20s and 30s. The thing is, re-reading this instalment of the epic novel now, I think I actually enjoyed The Two Towers more than I did back then. The book's structure is unusual and not at all like that of the first volume: it's divided up into two distinct halves, with the first segment following the adventures of Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf and the Hobbits Merry and Pippin, as they oppose the evil wizard Saruman, while the second half follows the journey of Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee and Gollum, as they journey towards the evil land of Mordor. As a teen, the first half was always my favourite part, with its sweeping scenery, epic battles, mysterious forests, and thrilling narrative. But this time around I really enjoyed the chapters dealing with Frodo's journey into Mordor too. It was a lot more exciting than I remembered and the chemistry between Frodo, Sam and the tragic figure of Gollum, along with how their relationships with each other change as they get closer to Mordor, is fascinating to read. The first volume of the LotRs has always been my favourite part, but this second instalment really is an extraordinary work, filled with dramatic tale-telling and gripping adventure. Tolkien's writing conjures the settings and characters in beautifully vivid detail, while his prose style is full of joy – and not just the joyous excitement of the story, but with a professor's joy of language too. Something that occurred to me on this read through is that The Two Towers begins and ends with betrayal; the book opens with the aftermath of Boromir's betrayal of Frodo, when he tries to seize the ring, and at the end of the book Frodo and Sam are betrayed by Gollum, when he leads them through the path of Cirith Ungol and into the lair of Shelob the giant spider. Actually, while I'm on the subject, the scenes with Shelob are creepy as all hell and the storytelling in this part of the book is masterful. It's also interesting how time plays tricks on your memory; I could've sworn that Boromir died at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, but actually his death takes place at the start of this book. I guess that's the result of watching Peter Jackson's cinematic adaptation of LotRs too much! Something else I want to mention is that I love how the ecological themes that were present in The Fellowship of the Ring are ramped up here. The march of the Ents (or tree herders) to overthrow the evil wizard Saruman, who has been destroying the countryside and chopping down huge swathes of forest to fuel the machinery of war, is inspiring, exhilarating and uplifting. The moral being that if you f**k with the environment, there will be consequences! Overall, The Two Towers is a much more complex novel than its predecessor, I think, and it also has more momentum to it. You get a real sense of the dark storm clouds gathering, as the evil lord Sauron prepares to unleash his wrath on Middle-earth, juxtaposed with and contrasted against the lives of the "little people" who would strive to prevent it. Anyway, on to The Return of the King now! When I re-read The Two Towers a few years ago, some time after seeing the Peter jackson trilogy, I was struck by how short the battle of Helm's deep is in the book. Isn't it like ten pages or less?
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Post by Calamas on Jun 19, 2016 13:04:29 GMT -5
RECENTLY FINISHED:
Voodoo River by Robert Crais Private Investigator Elvis Cole’s fifth outing is reputed to be one of Crais’ best. Ostensibly about a search for the medical history of a popular TV actress who was adopted as a child, once in her home state of Louisiana Cole finds things are more complicated than expected. The process of the untangling her past brings to light other reprehensible activities permeating a small parish about an hour outside of Baton Rouge. It is the early stages of the investigation that keeps this from being a great novel. The first six chapters or so, some seventy pages, are deathly dull, saved only by Cole’s attraction to, and his person pursuit of, the female attorney with whom he is assigned to work. As adoption law and Louisiana are both unfamiliar territory to him, she is a necessary touchstone, and their interaction, professionally and otherwise, helps alleviate the boredom until the case takes off. But once it does, Voodoo River deserves it reputation. You will spot the mistake that ruins Cole’s plan and leads to the riveting conclusion, and unlike in previous novels, this time the mistake is not Cole’s. As usual, Cole’s laconic partner Joe Pike is on hand once backup is needed, a presences that is always welcome. All things considered, Voodoo River is well worth the trip.
The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons by Lawrence Block Bernie Rhodenbarr returns for his 11th adventure, the first in nine years, and if there’s any complaint it is same one that has been cropping up regularly with Block in the last decade or so: meandering. I’ve been guilty of such complaints and I also recognize a certain hypocrisy in making them. In Block’s Matt Scudder series Matt can wander anywhere in conversations with TJ or Ray Gruliow and we’re gladly along for the ride. Yet Keller, the protagonist of his most recent series, frustrates while doing everything but fulfilling his contract. I suspect familiarly is the difference. Matt and Bernie have a supporting cast that are like old friends to longtime readers. We want to know what they have to say.
In Spoons Block’s tangents happen early and those that are not particularly interesting are at least not terribly distracting, in part because he never strays too far from the main stories. In the first Bernie, a success as a profession burglar and not quite so much as a bookstore owner, is engaged by a new client to steal several collector’s items. As always, Bernie is entertaining as he surveys, plans and accomplishes his thefts. In the second concurrent story he assists his “friendly adversary” of several novels, Detective Ray Kirschmann, in an advisory capacity. Kirschmann catches a case where a burglary resulted in murder. There had to be a murder, of course. Bernie books traditionally end with him holding court before the suspects with a Rex Stout/Agatha Christie style denouncement.
Lighthearted, humorous and satisfying, Spoons is a welcome return of old friends. And as an aside: it contains perhaps the shortest chapter in history. Which, I promise, will get no complaints and not a small laugh.
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley I often use the word “protagonist” because I don’t want to have explain why I picked whichever side I did in the hero/antihero debate, not with line becoming increasingly blurry, certainly not in a synopsis or capsule review, where space is at a premium. One thing is without doubt. James Crumley’s private detective C. W. Sughrue is no role model. A daytime night crawler, he spends more time drunk than sober.
Hired to track down a wayward writer on a multi-state binge, the bar fight begins the novel and ends Sughrue’s quest strands him in Sonoma for a few days, where he promptly picks up another case. The bar owner asks him to find her daughter, who ran away ten years earlier. An impossible task yet he gives it a genuine effort, if not steady one. This is 1978, so sifting through the remnants of the hippie culture allows plenty of opportunity to partake in alcohol, sex and drugs, particularly as the writer Sughrue originally sought has taken a liking to him and has invited himself along on the investigation. Feeding into each other, they actually find time to do some investigating between the bars and parties. And when Sughrue meets the writer’s family, a self-described viper’s nest, sobriety seems even more like the poorest of options.
But as the case untangles and serious acts require serious responses, Sughrue’s deeper code of ethics, long buried somewhere under his surface of self-destruction, comes forward without hesitation. It’s the contradictions--in all the characters, not just Sughrue--that make the tapestry so rich. And the atmosphere. There is such a foreboding layered into the story that you know that even as Sughrue works things out, the pages are not going to wind down to a happy ending.
The reader is the better for it. This is an excellent example of elevating the genre.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 20, 2016 15:30:21 GMT -5
The Quallsford Inheritance by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
It was quite interesting reading a version of Holmes that is so very different from the 'high functioning sociopath' that is popular right now. Biggle's Holmes is kind, gentle, and practically fatherly to his 'Watson'... former Baker Street Irregular made apprentice Edward Porter Jones.
He downplays the natural magic of Holmes' detective skills in favor of simply knowing what leg work to do and doing it, and having an amazing network of contacts.
As is usually the case when writers come up with their own Watson, the actual Watson is not involved in the case.. he makes a cameo at 221 Baker St., and gets the usual short shrift (though not as bad as some).
The story itself was decent, but not a great mystery.. I had it figured out pretty early on, and was a bit disappointed that I there was no cool twist to mislead me. Perhaps most disappointing was the impetus for Holmes to take the case, a nonsense word shouted at the market that the victim used regularly as a joke, turned out to be completely irrelevant, and was only used to, I guess, point out that any small thing can lead to an interesting case. For an item that 1/3 of the book focused on, and that gave it's character to the cover, it was disappointingly useless.
I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't leave me wanting more of Edward Porter Jones or Mr. Biggle's version of Holmes.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,065
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Post by Confessor on Jun 20, 2016 17:57:07 GMT -5
When I re-read The Two Towers a few years ago, some time after seeing the Peter jackson trilogy, I was struck by how short the battle of Helm's deep is in the book. Isn't it like ten pages or less? Yeah, it is quite short in comparison, although everything that happens in the book is replicated in Peter Jackson's movie. Jackson certainly makes more of a meal of it and inserts plenty more swash-buckling -- and rightly so, frankly, given that he's working in the medium of film. Tolkien's description of the battle is epic enough, but had it been as convoluted and involved as Jackson's version it would've been interminably long.
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Post by Calamas on Jun 26, 2016 9:48:38 GMT -5
RECENTLY FINISHED:
The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver When I decided to add to the mix some new writers and series (new to me, anyway), this one was already on the list. I’d heard so many good things about it that I pointedly avoided the movie adaptation, despite the quality cast. Deaver was respected by too many people to risk a movie ruining the surprises.
Clearly Deaver belongs to the John Sandford school of writing, though I believe Deaver stared first. The philosophy is the same. The emphasis is not on plot or character or atmosphere, but on structure. Keep the readers breathlessly turning the pages at all cost. Then, and only then, can you sprinkle in the other elements that make a story work, particularly in regard to your lead character. At this, The Bone Collector is a success.
Lincoln Rhyme, once the brilliant head of the Crime Scene unit of New York City, is now a quadriplegic due to a freak on-the-job accident. When someone starts kidnapping people and later killing them in bazaar and very public ways, Rhyme is pulled out of retirement, at first against his will. His intelligence and knowledge is an asset that can’t be ignored. Deaver has stated that his intent was to create a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps Nero Wolfe would have been a better inspiration as Rhyme promptly recruits his own Archie Goodwin in Amelia Sachs. The first officer on the first crime scene, she did everything right, forensically speaking. Originally needed only for her first-hand impressions, she is also quickly drafted into service, also against her will. The two learn to like and respect each other as they pursue their quarry.
If there is any fault it is in Deaver’s efforts to provide obstacles for the middle part of the story. There’s the cliché of the FBI trying to take over the case. And Amelia keeps losing her lifelines. She loses her gun in a tunnel, loses a fire extinguisher in a blazing basement, crashes her vehicle by looking away at the wrong time. That it doesn’t reflect on her competence, however, is a testament to Deaver’s other skills.
In fact, on the whole, The Bone Collector is a testament to Deaver. The complaints are minor compared to what he accomplishes.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 28, 2016 5:39:43 GMT -5
Reading Ursula Le Guin's the lathe of heaven, I was entertained by the description of the near-future through 1971 eyes. It's both amazingly prescient and amusingly wrong!
The Greenhouse effect is accurately depicted (as early as '71, that's pretty amazing!) but... People still smoke in a doctor's office!!!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 28, 2016 11:40:24 GMT -5
Th e Fabulous Clipjoint by Fredric Brown The first full-length novel by Brown is also the first novel in the Ed and Am Hunter detective series and the first and only Brown was nominated for a writing award, winning the Edgar Award for Best First Novel for 1948. Ed Hunter's father is murdered in an apparent street robbery. Ed contacts his Uncle Am(brose) who he hasn't seen in years and together the work to find out who killed their father and brother. The journey isn't just a search for the killer but also becomes a voyage of discovery as Ed Hunter finds that his alcoholic, hen-pecked father wasn't all he seemed and had lived a life that Ed could have only dreamed of. This is a fine hard-boiled detective novel with a bit more hear than is typical of the genre. More than worth a read it's one of the best books I've read in the genre in quite some time.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 29, 2016 18:30:41 GMT -5
Reading Ursula Le Guin's the lathe of heaven, I was entertained by the description of the near-future through 1971 eyes. It's both amazingly prescient and amusingly wrong! The Greenhouse effect is accurately depicted (as early as '71, that's pretty amazing!) but... People still smoke in a doctor's office!!! That's one of my favorite parts of old sci-fi... to see what they got right and what they didn't. I do often feel as though we've failed as a society though when they so often assumed we'd have space colonies and such. Starship(also published as Non-Stop) Brian Aldiss c. 1958 This was Aldiss' first novel.. and I know I like some of his others, so I had high hopes. It's a cool concept.. a multi-generational ship has gone wrong, and the survivors live aboard the runaway ship, which has become a world of itself. They have this strange defeatist non-religion sorta based on the foundations of psychoanalysis (Freud and such). The main character, Roy Complain, goes on a quest to find meaning in his life and discovers both the history of his 'world' and the reality of it. This COULD have been a really cool exploration of evolution and societal development, but about 1/2 way through it changed to a battle against the 'Outsiders' that was super predictable and completely abandoned the other themes. Then there's this race of almost sentient rats that developed, which I thought were going to be really important but then were just kinda forgotten. Sadly, the overall effect was just not that great.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 1, 2016 21:08:38 GMT -5
Choice Cuts by Joe Clifford Short story collection by neo-noir writer. The stories had all appeared in various e-pubs and I actually got this one for my Kindle because of an Amazon credit. Clifford's work has shown up in Thuglit and Shotgun Honey...if you like that type of neo-noir you'll enjoy this collection. I did...though it wasn't without fault. It definitely could have used some editing...copy and content. I definitely found copy-editing problems. More problematic were a couple of serious problems with story editing one of which completely invalidated the outcome of one of the stories. Still worth a look, particularly at the price for the e-pub.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 1, 2016 21:18:48 GMT -5
Death Therapy by Richar Sapir and Warren Murphy. I've been reading the Destroyer books now and then. I'm up to #6. They're pretty much formula but fun formula.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 5, 2016 7:48:32 GMT -5
Made to Kill by Adam Christopher
I mean, how could I not read this book... mixing a Noir PI story with Robots? Unfortunately, the concept is alot more interesting than the actual story. Christopher creates a super intriguing world.. one where robots are created to do all those tasks people don't want to do after WWII, but are then discarded when those people don't have jobs. The main character is the last one, and he's designed to act more human. The trick is he only has 1 day of memory space, so he has a supercomputer handler named Ada. Of course, Ada is smarter than her programmers, and things go a bit askew.
Oh, and did I mention Kennedy didn't get shot, and is in Cuba, while the Russians are using Hollywood actors to try to subvert the country from within?
This book SHOULD be great, but instead of expanding on all this great world building, the story turns quickly into a rather pedestrian crime story, with a predictable sub par ending.
I may give the next book a shot if/when it comes out, but with low expectations.
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Post by Calamas on Jul 10, 2016 9:22:23 GMT -5
RECENTLY FINISHED:
“E” Is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
Easily my least favorite Kinsey Millhone so far. Was it a bad book? No. A bad mystery? No. Was there a lack of any kind of emotional stake? No; can’t claim that either. Maybe the cliché of Kinsey being framed? Not even that. It happens early and there was only one person who could have done it; it was never the gist of the story. Then, why?
When I choose to follow a series I’m not only there for the author and her hero, I’m looking forward to revisiting the world she’s created. The supporting cast, when done right, become old friends. In Evidence they are scattered to the winds. With Christmas fast approaching Henry, her beloved landlord, leaves town to visit relatives. Rosie, who owns the neighborhood tavern, is closed until the new year. Even Jonah Robb, Kinsey’s contact on Santa Theresa police force, is unavailable, and just when she needs his access to information most. I understand what Grafton wanted to accomplish. Isolating Kinsey allows for more impact when she suddenly finds herself without an office or job and facing charges of falsifying a report and accepting a bribe. And these feeling are promptly compounded by the return of her ex-husband, who left almost ten years earlier without word or warning.
I like Kinsey and, honestly, this was far from a bad experience. It’s just not the experience I was expecting. So I’m willing to concede that the problem is almost certainly with me. I fully expect your mileage to vary.
Hap and Leonard by Joe R. Lansdale
Thank you.
Even if I hadn’t enjoyed the series of the same name that ran on the Sundance Channel recently, I’d be grateful for its existence because it is almost certainly the reason this book came to be. Is somebody going to reprint an entire run of books to tie into a six-week series? Probably not. But it is feasible to collect the odd and ends created over the years, the short stories and novellas. I’m particularly happy because the two novellas, Hyenas and Dead Aim, are considered #’s nine and ten in the progression and were hard to find at a reasonable price. So, thank you.
You get five shorts in this collection too. One is co-written with Andrew Vachss, an interesting piece called “Veil’s Visit,” and the only story here I had read before. It contains the serious matters that are hallmarks of Vachss but retain the humor characteristic of the series. There is also a brilliant entry called “The Boy Who Became Invisible.” It’s only about five pages but it will stay with you. The lightest story is called “Death by Chili,” a promotional piece written for the fourth book, Bad Chili. The rest of the package is uniformly very good.
But more importantly, my Hap and Leonard collection is now complete. Well, for the moment anyway. Joe Lansdale is still out there, still creating work. But only a complete idiot would complain about that.
The Devil’s Code by John Sandford
Now this is more like it. In the first novel featuring Kidd, The Fool’s Run, the computer hacker was hired to illegally retrieve losses to industrial espionage. After the twist and turns and betrayals, we get to see the villain outfoxed and forced to watch everything gained through treachery taken away; and there is a satisfaction when the final defeat is conceded. The second Kidd novel, which involved wresting power from a corrupt Delta town, ends in a physical confrontation with one of the demented villains. It fulfilled the thriller aspect of the story but there was something lacking. When the protagonist’s primary skill is manipulation--even if it is mainly the manipulation of data--there simply needs to be more to the victory.
The Devil’s Code gives us the best of both. When a fellow hacker dies under suspicious circumstances, his sister brings Kidd a coded, pre-death message. Before he can even make plans to proceed Kidd discovers the government is interested in a radical hacker group called Firewall--and he, under his hacker name, is listed as a member. He knows some of the other names listed, has heard of some others, but they are not an organization. Kidd and his friends have to uncover the truth before the government runs them to ground.
LuEllen, Kidd’s friend and occasional lover, returns to help and her skills as a professional thief again compliment his as a computer genius. Better, Sandford arranges an ending that gives us the final battle befitting a thriller but leaves a lingering enemy for a checkmate. This time out, satisfaction delivered.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 12, 2016 12:06:56 GMT -5
I really need to look up that Hap and Leonard show... I'm sure it doesn't do justice to the books, but I'd love to see their world on screen. Actually, could we get a crossover with Raylan Givens? That would be EPIC.
Devil Red by Joe Lansdale
Generally, series like this don't totally NEED to be read in order... sure, relationships develop, and the character grow and change, but you're not generally lost, it's more like 'OH, they got married' or 'oh, a promotion', or , 'oh yeah, that didn't happen yet.'
In this case, I really felt a little lost having not read the previous couple books (I grabbed this one because it was on the shelf at the library and sounded fun)... so it definitely wasn't a good plot wise as most of Lansdale's books are.
The character moments with Hap and Leonard, though, were amazing, and more than made up for it...definitely 5 stars if the ending was so easy to see coming (or perhaps even just if I had read the previous book or two.
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