Pat's BEST REVIEWS
From time to time I review novels and other works that interest me. I have included some of those reviews here and I will be adding more from time to time. Thank you for visiting and please come back.
" I am totally sated ....", Pat Mullan, March 9, 2005
No, I won't use any reference to cocktails, jiggers, shots, or mixers ...they've been overused already.
If you have a strong stomach for graphic murders, a soft spot for a star-crossed heroine like Jack Daniels, a thirst for the well written crime thriller, an affinity for great characters bruised by life, an appreciation for sharp and funny dialogue, then rush out and buy WHISKEY SOUR !
How many times have you been drawn into a novel by a superb opening, held by a page turning middle, and then dashed by a weak ending. Very often, I'd say. But not with WHISKEY SOUR. Joe Konrath's well crafted ending left me fully satisfied. Totally sated!
Joe Konrath has raised the bar. Other writers will have to jump higher to compete with him. I look forward to his next offering.
"Believable, in-your-face, and real....", Pat Mullan, February 6, 2004
Believable, in-your-face, and real; you are there, sitting across the table, eavesdropping at the next bar stool. It leaps off every page and makes you part of Jack Taylor's world. I was grabbed from the first sentence of the first page by the self-destructive soul of Jack Taylor; a soul that could only be cauterized by alcohol and cocaine. Yes, that's dark. But it's too narrow an assessment. If you have a dark side ( and how many of us have, if we're honest) you will find a memory or two in the lost evenings and anguished mornings of Jack Taylor. But where there is dark, there must also be light. And that light is there, perhaps dim at times, but it's there. It's there in the women who love him, in the people who still trust him, in the friends who care for him, in himself too: his ability to pick himself up again, his sense of justice, his attempts to find and punish the evil ones. There's the humour too, always there, black humour maybe, but it's the fabric that saves Jack Taylor and the people who populate Ken Bruen's Galway from absolute despair. Yes, Jack Taylor finds his anaesthetic in cocaine and alcohol. But he also finds it in books. It seems at times that he could just as easily be tempted into Charlie Byrne's as into his local pub. If you love to read (and I suspect you wouldn't be reading this unless you do) you'll be able to 'stack' Jack Taylor's selections on your own book shelves as you get lost in this dark trek through the netherworld of Galway.
Maybe Ken Bruen is doing for Galway what Joyce did for Dublin in Ulysses: giving us a map of a Galway that is rapidly disappearing under the paws of the Celtic Tiger.
That's it. Buy the book, tell your friends, buy some more................
"Storytelling at its finest !", Pat Mullan, February 28, 2005
When I was a child, in our Irish farmhouse home, men would wander in every night to sit by our fireside. My mother would supply them with plenty of hot tea and they would regale us with stories into the wee hours of the morning. Stories of people, of legends, of past and present, of ghosts and apparitions, of the natural and supernatural world; all of these finding their own reality in the storytelling. This was the tradition of the seanchai, the storytelling historian of the Celts.
In The Blues Ain't Nothin' : Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub Tina Jens' resident ghost Jayhawk accomplishes the same feat for her: merging the past with the present, and showing that the Blues is music, language, art, communication, that lasts for an eternity ... and beyond.
Three weeks ago I spent an evening in Kingston Mines in Chicago, soaking up the Blues. I only wish that I had read The Blues Ain't Nothin' before that evening. It would have explained the feelings that I had ... the very same feelings that I experienced when I sneaked out of bed, glued my ears to the slightly ajar bedroom door, and with my eyes and mouth wide open, listened to those ghost stories around the fireside of my youth.
Tina Jens is a true seanchai !
"He has dipped his pen in the darkest depth of our fears !", Pat Mullan, January 18, 2005
The title, FIRE & FLESH, does not do justice to this work of incendiary horror. The cover should carry warning labels:
- DANGER: ONCE OPENED,CAN NOT BE CLOSED!
- DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO SLEEP TONIGHT!
- WARNING! THIS WILL HAUNT YOU FOR WEEKS!
The story opens in Calcutta, in streets so alive and so viscerally real that one tends to cross over from the imagined world on the page. Few works ever capture me like this.
The story moves to Miami, another place of unrelenting heat. I lived there for seven years and I can still feel the steering wheel of my car sear my hands in the parking lot. Well, from steamy Calcutta to searing Miami, this story burns, burns, burns!
Evan Kingsbury is Robert Walker, the author of the INSTINCT and the EDGE series. A sure hand, he has dipped his pen in the darkest depth of our fears in FIRE & FLESH !
GRAND PRIZE WINNER - FRANKFURT eBOOK AWARDS
"It's the language, the language! Excellent!", Pat Mullan, July 9, 2003
I could describe this book, the plot, the characters and do a classic review. But I won't! This book deserves to be read simply because of the use of the English language. E.M.Schorb writes in a style that places the book alongside contemporary literature of the very period that he writes about. That is not an easy feat. If you're a fan of Poe you should read it too. And if you've just seen (or plan to see) Scorcese's 'Gangs of New York' then come and visit the Five Points district of New York, so capably brought to life here. And if you're Irish, get familiar with part of your history: did you know that Poe was of Irish descent? I'll bet you didn't!
"Let the trial begin. I can't wait !," Pat Mullan, May 17, 2003
"You are what you eat". I'm sure we're all familiar with that saying. Well, it's what this book is about. MitchWeiss takes us on a journey from our origins to the present, showing that we are the result of natural selection. As such the experiences and behaviors that ensured our survival as a species are coded into our genes and, even more intriguingly, are stored in that vast data base of our subconscious. Not all of the behaviors that ensured our survival were noble. They manifest themselves today in our aggression and in our racism: thus the title 'Taming The Beast Within'.
Perhaps the most speculative premise is the one that suggests that our subconscious may carry recorded memories of the past existence of our ancestors, that 'some of our ancestor's actual conscious memories downloaded into our head by our genetic instructions'. That would explain the feeling of d?j? vu that we all experience. Even a talented child prodigy may have inherited the talents of a number of direct ancestors.
A work of such scope and depth as this would be remiss if it ignored religion. And it does not. It challenges our beliefs, our insistence that our God is the true and only one and that our neighbor's is the false one. And of course our neighbor believes the exact same thing.
These are just glimpses into this ambitious work and, in some ways, do it an injustice because you may be tempted to think that this is one of those boring scholarly tomes that you avoid like the plague. Well, it isn't. It's very accessible and very readable. The author's conversational style is engaging and seductive. He can take a thesis of this magnitude, from the atomic structure of matter to the chemistry of the brain, and present it in language that all of us will find interesting and even entertaining.
So what is this book all about. To borrow the author's own words his 'intention is to 'indict' the conventional wisdom and ideologies so that they may stand trial using common sense rules of evidence'.
Let the trial begin. I can't wait !
"Totally believable, superbly well written, absorbing to read ", Pat Mullan, January 15, 2003
When I was in my teens in Ireland, I devoured every Zane Grey western that I could find. When the movies came to town I was there: riding, in my imagination, alongside Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne, Rory Calhoun, Alan Ladd, Roy Rogers, Guy Madison ..... Later in life my reading interests changed. I haven't read a western in years until 'The Reckoning'. I won't reprise the story or the plot in this review. I see that others, like The Midwest Review, have done that very well. No - I just want to convey my satisfaction to John McLain for a most absorbing read, for a Western better than those of my youth, for a real story of 'The West', truly of the America of my youth and of my imagination .... enough then to have started my romance with America, to lead eventually to my pioneering journey to America, to lead to becoming an American ... Yes, 'The Reckoning' is totally believable, superbly well written, absorbing to read, a classic of the genre.
"Buy this one ....you won't be disappointed !", Pat Mullan, October 21, 2001
If you like thrillers, you'll enjoy 5GTC. I call it the 'intelligent reader's thriller'. If its subject matter didn't automatically place it in this genre, you would find it in that section of literature that deals with human nature, conflict, and endurance. Bruce St. John is a hero filled with human frailty. Far from being a fictional superhero like James Bond, Bruce is worn out, jaded, has a heart condition and a life of failed relationships -- but he is long on experience and brings to the table common sense, intuition, and a gift for uncovering the plot. Kenneth Tolliver's own life experience brings a huge measure of credibility to this story. ...And, don't get me wrong: this is a good yarn that picks up the pace as it moves along. It kept me up long past my bedtime because I had to finish it. It gave me no option! That's the test of a fine read.
So, go out and get it. You won't be disappointed!
My only criticism: I don't like the title '5GTC' and I don't like the cover. 'Five Gates to Cairo' would have been a better title and a well designed cover would add much value.
"a most elegant looking book ..an excellent first effort ", Pat Mullan, March 12, 2005
'Chronicles of the Planeswalkers' is a most elegant looking book: quality is immediately evident just to the touch, cover of good stock that shouldn't roll (often happens on 6x9 books), paper superb .... but most of all: layout and design: just outstanding and well complemented by Philip Rogers art. LBF Books deserve kudos for such fine publishing work.
Next to the read. I'll admit that it's not my chosen genre but I enjoy reading across the spectrum. I'll admit that I'm probably a good candidate for fantasy. I daydream a lot, I believe in parallel universes, perhaps even UFOs. So why don't I read this kind of work? No answer. Maybe B.T. Robertson has changed that. If you've been to see Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, which did you prefer? I thought Lord of the Rings was so much better. Well, in Chronicles of the Planeswalkers, we find a fantastical universe, with lands as diverse as the planet we live on. The natural and supernatural worlds are merged (not difficult for a Celt like myself to understand) and evil threatens. Aerinas, son of Tristandor, leader of the elves, is chosen to fight that evil. Aerinas is an unlikely hero who often rebels against his father and the rules and mores of his society. But aren't all our true heroes here on Earth just like that? I won't do a synopsis of the book here. That's not my intent. I simply want to convey my feelings about this work. It's an excellent first effort from B.T. Robertson.
Finally my criticism: I found the language syntax and structure odd but I eventually reconciled myself to the fact that B.T. Robertson may have constructed this form of language quite intentionally to create the cultural ambience of his world. If this has been his intent, I recommend that he inform his readers of this in the introduction. It will deflect uninformed critiques.
And - yes - there are numerous grammatical and other errors. This does not diminish the work but they should never have passed the edit. I understand from the author's website that the first printing has sold out. Let's hope all of these items are corrected in the second printing.
"Excellent thriller ! Up there with the best!", Pat Mullan, April 20, 2001
Ron Cutler now joins a very small list of thriller writers on my bookshelf: Jack Higgins, James Patterson, Tom Clancy, Jeffery Deaver, Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follett. No need for me to talk about this book or to summarize it. It's just great: well written, superbly plotted, fast paced, international locations, intrigue, suspense, mystery, high stakes plot of world class thriller level - and gripping until the very last sentence.
Congratulations, Ron Cutler! I envy you !
'If you're worried about our fragile home here on Earth ...', Pat Mullan, June 12, 1999
If you want a thriller, read Tom Clancy or Jack Higgins. If you want to read about alienation and crisis of identity, read Douglas Kennedy. If you want to enjoy novels at the cutting edge of the art form, read Ian Banks. But, if you are concerned about the environment and worried about our fragile home here on Earth, read Kevin Ready. You've been fed a regular news diet about 'global warming', 'El Nino', and the 'ozone layer'; these are practically household words to you. Now you skip over such stories in your local paper but you still have a sense of unease. You summers seem warmer than you ever remember, statistics invade your consciousness about the increase in skin cancer, and the nightly news brings pictures of natural disasters into your living room. Yes, you are worried about it all, but you don't want to be fed dry scientific arguments from either the 'doomsday' camp or the 'don't worry it'll never happen'camp. Well, you don't have to be fed such arguments to educate yourself on the threat facing our fragile planet. Read GAIA WEEPS instead. Kevin Ready has written a work about the threat facing us all. Kevin has used the novel form to convey a docudrama, to take the matter out of dry scientific argument and humanize it, to make the subject accessible to you and me.
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"You will be haunted by this story ...", Pat Mullan, September 9, 2005
I've just finished page 341, the last page. It's midnight here in these Connemara hills and I can't rest. I'm unsettled. I need to write something about this book. But what? Do I love it? Do I hate it? In the beginning I felt like quitting after every ten pages, then continuing after the next ten pages, and so on, and so on. I felt myself both repulsed and seduced. Eventually I gave in. Gave in to Nick Flynn's words, sentences, story, language, world, universe. The universe of Nick Flynn's disfunctional family: his alcoholic, delusional, absentee father and his suicidal mother, form the foundation of this memoir. In large measure it's a journey in search of his father, a man who lives by his wits, fuelled by alcohol, driven by the delusion/fear of writing the 'Great American Novel' (with a million dollar advance and the Nobel prize certainties in that delusion), to eventual homelessness on the street. It's also Nick Flynn is search of himself. But it's none of the above. It's truly a work of literature that sets out, on every page, to capture, and lose, the mystery of the human condition. It's surreal, a glimpse at a parallel universe that we may all be living. This book finds a kinship with Joyce and Beckett, and it's no wonder that Nick Flynn chooses an excerpt from Beckett's 'Endgame' to open the story: HAMM: Scoundrel! Why did you engender me? NAGG: I don't know. HAMM: What? Why didn't you know? NAGG: That it'd be you.
You will be haunted by this story long after you've finished reading it.
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"The premise of NOTES FROM A COMA is completely intriguing and I'm looking forward to the read", Pat Mullan, November 6, 2005 I was fortunate to be invited by Mike to the recent launch of his new book, NOTES FROM A COMA, at Nimmo's (near the Spanish Arch in Galway). Highly successful launch, packed to the rafters with people.
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"David Lee Summers is the Master Chef of the vampire feast ..."
Pat Mullan, November 21, 2005
How many people know that Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula, was an Irishman? They all know about Yeats and Wilde and Shaw - but few know that Bram Stoker was born in Dublin. Being an Irishman myself, I've always felt ownership of the vampire story, Bella Lugosi's Transylvanian accent notwithstanding.
In Vampires of the Scarlet Order David Lee Summers has raised the vampire story away from those simple, but dramatic, tales of blood-sucking creatures of the evening who return to their coffins in the morning. He chronicles a parallel vampire world that has marched through the momentous events of our history, starting in 15th century Europe and emerging in contemporary times in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Ah, Las Cruces, The Crosses, what a potent image and location for his family of vampires.
Starting in Spain in 1491, we meet Lord Draco who heads a group of vampire mercenaries, The Scarlet Order, operating for the Vatican. (Yes, Dan Brown isn't original when it comes to Vatican conspiracies and skulduggery). Lord Draco turns Rodolfo de Cordoba, a young Castillian who has lost his father in the war with the Moors, into a vampire and initiates him into the Scarlet Order.
We move through dramatic events of the 16th to the 20th centuries with a surprise waiting especially for me in the 16th century when Lord Draco and Rudolfo de Cordoba meet the legendary Irish Sea Captain and Pirate, Grace O'Malley (Granuaille) in the late 16th century - in the middle of the battle for Venice between the fleet of the Ottoman Empire and the fleet of the Pope's Holy Roman Empire. (Granuaille still 'lives' here in the west of Ireland - the castle she shared with one of her partners, Donal O'Flaherty, is now a fine up-market hotel!).
Reaching the present time in New Mexico we find the canvas enlarged to capture another parallel universe where the Manitou of the Native Americans act as guides to The Scarlet Order as they fight secret government agencies operating out of the Los Alamos laboratories who are creating their own brand of soldier, scientifically designed to incorporate the abilities of the vampire.
David Lee Summers' dialogue is believable, his storytelling strong, his artistry strengthened by his scientific background as an astronomer. He has used a diary-like method of telling the story, much of it told in the first person from the points of view of each of the central characters in the story. This is difficult to do without interrupting story continuity for the reader. But he has accomplished it by making us care about the characters, about making us feel sympathy for a vampire who has just killed and is suffering remorse and loss of human existence.
Just like a master chef, David Lee Summers, folds all these ingredients together in a totally seamless way. If you like the world of vampires, you'll like Vampires of The Scarlet Order.
Chicago marches proudly through this dark suspense filled story, April 4, 2006
I love Chicago. The name itself intrigues. When I was a kid in Ireland it was a famous name in my head, filed there from many Hollywood movies: the dark side with Capone, O'Bannion, and the St. Valentine's Day massacre; the crying side with Mrs.O'Leary's cow almost burning the city to the ground; and the political side of Chicago's Irish bosses, with pride and shame in equal measure. Later in life I became intimate with Chicago when I attended Northwestern's Kellogg School and looked forward to every weekend spent in the windy city. And, tell me, whose heart doesn't find a home in Tony Bennett's `Chicago, Chicago, my home town." Chicago today, what could be better?
I'll tell you what: Chicago of 1893 in Robert W. Walker's CITY FOR RANSOM, which takes you back in time as surely as any H.G. Wells time machine, back to a city that's the most important character in this superb, dark, skillful, hypnotic work. Calling it a mystery, or crime noir, or thriller, or work of suspense or horror would be short-changing this masterful creation. Yes, it's a gripping dark suspense filled story but always, always, it's Chicago that marches proudly through these pages, breathing life into them as only a master like Rob Walker can accomplish.
I won't review the story, the plot, or the marvellous characters. I'll leave that to other reviewers. I'm just glad that Rob Walker chose Chicago for this new series. If you know Chicago, read this. If you don't know Chicago, then you must read it to understand and share my passion.
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