And When She Was Good, by Laura Lippman

The story of Helen/Heloise Lewis, a rather secret person who leads a very complicated life. Helen is a young woman with an abusive father who leaves home with a young man who is no better. Later in life we find Heloise, nee Helen, running a successful "escort service." She has, along the way, made some questionable decisions and involved herself with some very dangerous people. All of this is beginning to come together as we enter this captivating novel. I read this in a weekend, it was just great.

Girl on a Train, by Paula Hawkins

This book contains pure evil. It's a very effective thriller, captivating, written in an innovative style that suits the subject matter very well.

Rachel is the girl on the train, a young woman who rides to London, passing the same houses every day. On the terrace of one of them, she frequently observes a young couple whose life seems idyllic. That changes.

Furthermore, we learn much more about Rachel, as well as the other principle characters in this book, and we are led expertly down the path of mystery and suspense to its amazing conclusion.

The New Centurions, by Joseph Wambaugh

This book, which was published circa 1970, is quite dated, but nevertheless I devoured it. The writing pulled me into seamy early 1960s Los Angeles, seen through the eyes of three young policemen. The story begins in the Academy, and progresses through five years of experience, through the Watts riot of 1965.

My friend Marshall loaned me this book, a very old paperback copy with extremely dark and brittle pages. This was not a shortcoming, it lent to the ambience of the story, taking place in a dim, smoky, black and white world of heat, humidity, and uncomfortable clothing.

So many cigarettes, cigars, and pipes were smoked that I was suffering from literary bronchitis by the end. It's odd how, in 2013, one recoils at the use of the word "Negro," once considered a respectful term for an African-American person. At least, as a white person in that time, I was taught that it was respectful. I don't believe that it's considered to be so anymore.

What an excellent novel, and a terrifically entertaining read. It's the first Wambaugh I've read, and I look forward to many more.

Watts Riot, Wikipedia Page

Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King

This book contains four stories:

• 1922 -- Murder on the plains, and its consequences.
• Big Driver -- a writer returning from a public appearance has bad luck on the road.
• Fair Extension -- in which one of literature's more classic characters makes an appearance.
• A Good Marriage -- a wife finds out more than she would like to about her husband.

Stephen King is someday going to be known as a great writer of our time. Unfortunately, I think he's been given short shrift by the literary community, probably considered a "genre" writer, and isn't seriously considered to be among the current greats. No matter: I have spent some genuinely wonderful hours reading King's work, and this book was everything I could have hoped it to be. 

King has perhaps matured, or cooled down, or become a little less fantastic in his storytelling; but I wish to say that such great works of fantasy as "It," "The Stand,"  "Salem's Lot," or "The Shining" lose nothing by their inclusion of forces and beings from dimensions not normally experienced in reality. For that matter, "The Shining" was not driven by fantasy so much as alcoholism, and a terrible dementia no less real for having been vividly described. 

Full Dark, No Stars contains almost no ghosts. The gentleman in "Fair Extension" may be fantastic, but his existence has been fairly well accepted by human beings for many centuries. Instead, this book has, in King's own words, "ordinary people in extraordinary situations." (from the Afterword) 

I have tried my best in Full Dark, No Stars to record what people might do, and how they might behave, under certain dire circumstances. The people in these stories are not without hope, but they acknowledge that even our fondest hopes ... may sometimes be vain. ...nobility ... resides ... in trying to do the right thing ... when we fail ... hell follows. (ibid)

I know from other readings that King has a background of New England Protestant religion, and whether or not he personally believes in Hell, I know that its geography is familiar to him. King is a journeyman writer, who has literally written more books than I have been able to read, and I admire him beyond measure.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Go get it, and read it. Enjoy.