Charlie's Books

Charlie's Books
Buon Giorno, Amici!

Our motto ...

Leave the (political) party. Take the cannoli.

"It always seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela

Right now 6 Stella crime novels are available on Kindle for just $.99 ... Eddie's World has been reprinted and is also available from Stark House Press (Gat Books).

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Ten Thousand Reviews ... Line-Up 4 ... Suspicious Circumstances ... Foreign Flicks ... Obama’s Sleepwalk ...

Amici:

Lineup 4 ... Today is TK's turn at hosting the So Dark For April Blog Tour for the Lineup 4, a collection of brutally honest poetry that will rock the soul. This is the 4th such collection of powerful poetry from an eclectic group of terrific writers (such as Ken Bruen, Michael Casey, Reed Farrel Coleman, David Corbett, Mary Agnes Dalrymple, Mary Christine Delea, Jeanne Dickey, H. Palmer Hall, Paul Hostovsky, David Jordan, Laura LeHew, Thomas Michael McDade, Peter Meinke, Keith Rawson, Chad Rohrbacher, Stephen Jay Schwartz, Nancy Scott, Kieran Shea, J.D. Smith, J.J. Steinfeld, John Stickney, Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson, Randall Watson, Charles Harper Webb, Steve Weddle, Germaine Welch). “A collection of poetry more than worth the time to read and reread. There’s power in these poems; genuine and uncomfortable power—the only kind worth reading."


Suspicious Circumstances ... Lara Kelly is the reporter, Tymen Farraday is the detective. A suspicious video of a woman committing suicide (or being murdered) starts the action that rarely pauses. There’s a corrupt police department in need of an enema, a psychotic rich old bastard in need of a meat grinder, a ruthless (and slimy) lawyer in need of the same meat grinder, and several other characters in and around the two protagonists (Kelly & Farraday) with their individual subplots, including child porn, drug dealing, a sex slave trade and murders most foul. I’m a fan of author Sandra Ruttan’s going back to her Royal Canadian Mounties (Nolan, Hart and Tain) series ... this one excels in plot twists that do not quit until the very end. As the relationship between journalist and cop build, so does the tension and the reader’s investment. A dynamite read that pleasantly avoids the too often crassness in dialogue featured in books like my own. You read enough street dialogue of the uneducated, you look very forward to intelligent people speaking intelligently. The next best thing to the read itself was learning there’s going to be a follow-up with these two protagonists; the author makes you like them and want to see more of them. Plots twists galore, clever dialogue and likeable characters you want to read more about.

Foreign Flick Picks ...


The Edge of Heaven (German) ... A Turkish prostitute is killed accidentally and the killer’s son travels to Istanbul to find the daughter of his father's victim. This was very well done as well as heartbreaking. Big time Kudos to this production.


A Bad Day To Go Fishing (Spanish) ... A somewhat simple, washed up wrestler and his sleazy manager are touring South America and hoodwinking small towns with an offer of $1,000 fazoolies for anybody who can last 3 minutes in the ring with the one time world champion. Dark dramedy ... a good one.


Summer ’04 (German) ... hot fun in the summer time, but very well done as a passively dysfunctional family drifts apart when the 12-year-old girlfriend of their 15 year-old (needs a severe kick in the ass) son vacation together. Sailboats crazy folk, you ask me ... good movie.


Baader Meinhof Complex ... a scary movie based on what happened in Germany after the Shah Pahlevi visited Deutschland in 1968; the terrorist group born of a protest gone awry and the key players in the movement. A bit long, but a good movie.


Obama sleepwalking through his mostly Republican Administration ... A GREAT article from Rolling Stone about the wives of two Wall Street bigwigs who managed to get $220 million of OUR money via the bailouts ... this goes back to how the bailout legislation was rush through without any stipulations protecting workers ... but this administration went one better and allowed those who bankrupted the economy not only to reward themselves with record bonuses ... they got their wives in there too. Great Change, Mr. Obama ... Christ, if this guy gets another four years, I do believe the Republicans will change the two term presidential limit and nominate him on their ticket in 2016. Change we can believe in alright ... yeah, sure.

—Knucks

And the Iron Sheik says fuck Hulk Hogan ... ten thousand interviews ...