Blood on the Mink
Robert Silverberg, 2012

The titular novel was originally published in a crime story magazine in 1962, although in the afterword Silverberg noted that he had originally written it sometime in 1959. It tells the story of a deep-cover federal agent who has to take down a counterfeiting ring based in Philadelphia. He does so by assuming the identity of a high-level mobster from LA who was traveling to Phillie to strike a deal with the counterfeiting mob to move their product on the West Coast (said mobster, Lowney, was quickly and quietly taken into custody by feds at the Chicago airport during a layover) As Lowney, our protagonist manages to convince everyone that he's on the up and up, and in the process also learns the whereabouts of the closely guarded engraver who’s making the plates for the fake bills. However, matters get complicated when the head of a New York counterfeiting gang contacts him on the side, asking him to steal the plates for them, while the leader of a rival Southern California mob who knows the real Lowney also arrives in town to strike his own deal. When you add in two femmes fatale, this one has checks off pretty much every box for a pulp story, and man, does Silverberg deliver: this is tightly plotted, fast-moving and suspenseful, pretty much everything you want from a good crime thriller.
The book otherwise includes two of Silverberg’s short stories from around that same period that were also published in various crime story magazines, both of them sort of thematically tied to the main novel: “Dangerous Doll,” originally published in 1960, involving a courier for the Chicago mob delivering counterfeiting plates to a crime syndicate in LA; and “One Night of Violence,” originally published in 1959, about a travelling salesman who unwittingly stumbles into a mob-related kidnapping in a motel somewhere on the backroads of Wisconsin.

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

Tom Stein is a rising agent in Hollywood with a client who has become a breakout star.  Now his boss wants him to take on a new client as his primary focus.  The catch...it's a race of aliens that want to be introduced to Earth.  But they aren't cuddly aliens.  They look like The Blob and smell like low tide in a rank estuary.  So Tom has his work cut out for him. 

This was Scalzi's "starter" novel.  Written to see if he could write a novel-length work it was then published on his website, as a short-run book and then through a traditional publisher.  It has some hallmarks of a first novel.  It's a bit rough around the edges.  The premise is interesting, but not ground-breaking.  But it's quite readable.  It was actually going quite well until it took a turn in the third act that I didn't care for.  Ultimately it worked out okay and I didn't hate the ending, but it was weak.  It's worth a read if you're a fan of Scalzi's work.  And if you want some fairly light SF it's not a bad option. 

A Swift and Savage Tide
Chloe Neill






This was another random one I got wandering around the library...it seemed like an easy win... a Naval book with magic? That's not a combo you see much. Much to my chagrin, it's mostly a romance, with very little naval action (the fights are just glossed through, and are all very easy for the good guys) and a whole lot of 'will-they-or-won't-they'.

I didn't realize this was the 2nd book, but I don't feel as though I missed much.. the world is a very slightly disguised Europe in 1810, where the 'Gallic' emperor (and Napoleon stand in) was probably defeated in the 1st book.. this book he escapes his island prison and is trying to take back over. (though he never is actually 'on screen', just talked about).

The really big question, though, has no answer... is Kit ACTUALLY blue like on the cover? I know its probably just the shadows, but sadly it was the most interesting thing in the book which was probably closer to a Regency romance with a twist than naval fiction.

Based on where the plot stopped I expect there was the intent for more books,

Little Girl Lost
Richard Aleas (pseudonym for Charles Ardai), 2004

Well, this is the third time this book is being reviewed in this thread; the first time was by wildfire2099 and then by Slam Bradley. But what the heck, I’ll throw my hat into the ring, too.
Anyway, Slam in particular summed up the basic plot pretty well, so I’ll just add that I agree with their general impressions: this is a very readable mystery novel – yes, I also figured out what the twist would be before I was halfway through, but even so, it’s a pretty good ride because it’s quite competently written, and Aleas/Ardai creates some good characters and sets up his world pretty well. I’d definitely recommend it for light reading. And I agree with wildfire: I wouldn’t have minded a follow-up story with Susan as the main protagonist.

Ship of Ishtar
by A. Merritt





This is among the last of my big pile of sci fi books from a few years back (I'd say I'm down to maybe 20-30 of them from that big purchase). I hadn't read of the the A. Merritt books because I wasn't clear if they were a series or not.. it seems the are not.

This is very much in the vein of the 'travelogue' adventure of the early pulps (as the time it was written would indicate)... the hook is that it is steeped in Babylonian mythology. The hero receives an artifact (a model ship) and it transports him back to that era, and smack into a conflict of the gods.

The book has a bunch of fun (if stereotypical) characters and some good pulpy action. It's of course very dated and has some stuff in it that will strike modern readers.. the good guys keep slaves and have no concern whipping them, and of course the female lead is totally subservient, but as long as you get past that it's a fun book with a bit of Babylonian mythology info-dumped in. Not the smoothest read ever but worth the time for sure.

The Count of Nine
Earle Stanley Gardner (writing under the pseudonym A.A. Fair), 1958

This is the first Cool & Lam book I’ve ever read, and only the second book by Gardner (the first was one of the Perry Mason novels a long time ago). Our pal Slam_Bradley briefly mentioned that he’d read this one recently and found it a “fun, breezy, fairly light” read. That’s a pretty good description, as it’s a real page-turner.
The basic story is that Bertha Cool is hired to do security at a swanky party in the penthouse of a rich world traveler named Crockett who’s worried about some of his valuable trinkets and knick-knacks being stolen – as happened a few weeks prior, when one of two tiny jade Buddhas disappeared. Low and behold, two items – the other Buddha and a unique blow-gun from the Amazon – still get stolen. Donald Lam is charged with finding said items, but then the plot thickens when Crockett is found dead – killed by blow-gun dart – in his private study, and the widow wants Lam to find out whodunit.