Tip the Wink

I’ve had some increasing trouble with my eyes for more than a month, and it got so I could hardly see anything, near or distance. Honestly, I was afraid I was on the road to blindness. My optometrist referred me back to Oregon Eye Associates, the folks who did my cataract surgery in November 2017. Turns out scar tissue was the problem, and it was removed with lasers. Now I’m seeing really well, though I’ll still need a new pair of glasses to sharpen everything up.

Last week we watched one of PBS’ pledge specials, Jeff Lynne’s ELO in Hyde Park. I’ve been a huge ELO fan since I first heard them way back in 1971, and a lot of their songs are real favorites, so it was a treat to hear this version of the band in live concert doing many of their hits. Needless to say, the next day I pulled up their CDs and played several of them. Very nice.

All that kept me from doing much reading, though I waded through an ebook with the print size turned way up. Since the laser work, I’ve managed to finish one book.

Loaded Dice by James Swain, (c) 2004, my copy Ballantine Books 2005 mass market paperback. Fourth in Tony Valentine series.

“When Tony Valentine, a master at catching casino cheaters, jets to Las Vegas to look for his missing son, he lands in the middle of a dangerous turf war between rival casinos. Valentine’s longtime pal then taps him to figure out how an amateur won $25,000 at his blackjack tables. But the job is full of land mines. For starters, the suspect bears a strong resemblance to his late wife. Upping the ante, a dead stripper is found with Valentine’s calling card–and her grief-stricken policeman boyfriend is vowing revenge.”
— Goodreads

I liked this pretty well, and it was certainly a change from the other books I’d been reading, so that was nice. If you haven’t tried this series, it’s fascinating for the gambling tricks and scams alone.

How are your eyes?
Are you an ELO fan?
What have you been reading?

Railroad Stories – The Legend of King Lawson byE. S. Dellinger, Bold Venture Press 2015 trade paper, short story / novelette collection

The Pulp Railroad Stories published these five stories in 1932 and 1933. At the time it was a very popular pulp aimed at both railroaders and fans. These five tales give the story of King Lawson, one of Dellinger’s best known characters.

From his beginning as a gandy dancer (track worker) to his rise to brakeman and telegraph operator, King met every challenge and conquered it, until he found his wife in another man’s arms. That’s when he took to the boomer trail, the name for railroad workers drifting from one railroad to another, picking up whatever job they could.

King succeeds against stiff odds, most often imposed by nature in the form of fire, flood and landslide. If you enjoy a little railroad fiction as a change of pace, this makes a nice choice.

Back in the days when cassettes were the most popular medium for  listening to music on the go, and for taping / creating our own playlists, I made a cassette with the Go-Go’s on one side and The Motels on the other.

Not too long ago, a short story anthology came out, Murder-A-Go-Go’s edited by Holly West, (which includes a great story by Patti Abbott) and reading it I got to thinking about that cassette, and the more I thought, the more I wanted to hear it. Not being able to find it after an hour or so of searching through poorly labelled boxes, I gave it up and ordered a couple of CDs.

The Best ofThe Motels – The Motels
On listening, it’s obvious to me this isn’t the Motels album I recorded on that cassette, but that’s okay. There is, apparently, a longer 2-disc version, but again, this is adequate. Good if you want a dose of Motels, which is what I wanted.

Track Listing:
1. Suddenly Last Summer (link to YouTube with long ad and cheesy video)
2. Total Control
3. Danger
4. Celia
5. Only The Lonely
6. Shame
7. Take The L
8. Remember The Nights
9. Shock
10. Mission of Mercy

Greatest Go-Go’s – The Go-Go’s
Again, not the album I originally recorded, but again that’s fine. Between the two, in my opinion this is definitely the better band. Here’s the Track Listing:

1. Our Lips Are Sealed  (link to video)
2. Cool Jerk
3. We Got The Beat
4. Head Over HeelsGo-Go’s
5. Get Up And Go
6. Vacation
7. Beatnik Beach
8. You Thought
9. I’m The Only One
10. This Town
11. Lust To Love
12. Mercenary
13. How Much More
14. Turn To You

Last September I read and reviewed the first in Spencer-Fleming’s series set in Miller’s Kill, New York, In Bleak Midwinter. (here). Now I’ve finished the second one, A Fountain Filled With Blood and liked it even more. The title comes from a line in the Common Book of Prayer, and isn’t indicative of the plot, though there is some violence as Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne and his small force deal with a series of crimes, including a murder, all of the victims gay. Are these just violent attacks by a group of red-necked gay-haters, or is there a deeper threat against a plan to open an upscale spa in Miller’s Kill?

Episcolal Preist Claire Ferguson is the discoverer of the third victim, which pulls her into the case. She and the Sheriff work together to stop the crimes from continuing.

My take:
I like the setting in the Adirondacks, the characters and the plot. I’ll be reading the next in the series right away.

The Claire Ferguson / Russ Van Alstyne series:

In the Bleak Midwinter – 2002
A Fountain Filled with Blood  – 2003
Out of the Deep I Cry – 2004
To Darkness and To Death – 2005
All Mortal Flesh – 2006
I Shall Not Want – 2008
One Was A Soldier – 2009
Through Evil Days – 2013
Hid From Our Eyes – scheduled for April 2020

On April 28, I posted (here) on the first of the three Sheriff Hank Worth novels by Claire Booth. Here are the second and third.

Another Man’s Ground by Claire Booth, Claire Booth, 2017 St. Martin’s Press Minotaur Books, mystery, Sheriff Hank Worth # 2

Sheriff Hank Worth is called out to investigate the theft of elm tree bark, apparently, once processed, a valuable herbal supplement. There he meets the talkative and combustible property owner, Vern Miles, who is trying to make enough money off the land he just inherited to pay the taxes on it.

The thieves have stripped so much of the bark that the trees are now dying, so Miles decides to go ahead and cut the whole grove down. The only thing is, he uses undocumented workers to do it, and when Hank and Sam stop by the clearing in the woods to check on things, the whole crew takes off like a flock of birds. One unfortunate runaway laborer tumbles into a deep crevice and lands on not one, but two bodies—a month-old rotten corpse and a decades-old child skeleton.

Hank suddenly finds himself in the midst of two separate murder investigations, not to mention tree bark theft, all while running for re-election as county sheriff.

A Deadly Turn by Claire Booth, 2018 Severn House Publishers, mystery, Sheriff Hank Worth # 3

Hank Worth thinks he’s performed a good deed when he pulls over the car of six teens caught speeding on a Saturday night and lets them off with a warning and instructions to go home. When he responds to an urgent call minutes later, he realizes he made a fatal error of judgement – the car has smashed on a turn, every teen is dead. Struggling to come to terms with his role in the crash, Hank begins to suspect foul play. While notifying the parents of the children involved, his suspicions grow when an unidentified body is discovered in one of their homes and a teenage girl is found after apparently attempting to commit suicide. Hank believes the incidents are connected, but those around him disagree. Is Hank right, or is his guilt making him search for answers where there are none?

My take:
I read the books in this series out of order; first seeing an interview with the author on Jungle Red Writers blog, in which she discussed the latest book, then later seeing a review of it.

I liked it quite a bit so I hunted up the first two at the library. I enjoyed seeing the growth of the main character and the books are well plotted and written. They get better as the series progresses. I’ll be on the lookout for the next whenever it’s published, which is soon, I hope.

The Hank Worth series:

The Branson Beauty – 2016
Another Man’s Ground – 2017
A Deadly Turn – 2018