Comments for SCORPION PRESS

Comment on James Crumley, The Mexican Tree Duck by Tom de Haven

Tom de Haven — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:49:55 +0000

“The pleasures of a James Crumley novel (rare pleasures, indeed: This is his first new one in 10 years) derive mostly from the zing of its characters, the bite of its epigrams (”The bear of real life is waiting for everybody”), and a restless, almost manic vitality-prose on amphetamines. When the mix of black humour, violence, and trivia is this persuasive, and the setting is evoked as crisply as the landscape of an Ansel Adams photograph, you scarcely notice (till you’re about 30 pages from the end and begin to scratch your head) that the plot has more holes in it than a road sign used for target practice. Along with most of the bad guys, and some of the (relatively) good ones, logic is a casualty here. Maybe that’s just the point, though: In Sughrue’s world, cause and effect, as well as heroes and happy endings, have long since parted company. This sure as shooting isn’t John Wayne’s Wild West. But it’s probably ours”. Review by Tom de Haven at ew.com

Comment on Barbara Cleverly, Ragtime in Simla by "Booklist"

"Booklist" — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:45:31 +0000

“Scotland Yard Commander Joseph Sandilands, a World War I hero, has accepted an invitation to spend his vacation at the guest house of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal in Simla, the summer capital of the British Raj. A noted Russian opera singer who will be performing there shares a ride with him from the train station in the governor’s car. As they climb the steep mountain road, a sniper kills the singer and Sandilands’ vacation turns into an investigation. Working with the police, he discovers that there was an identical shooting a year earlier that remains unsolved. As he learns more about Simla, a transplanted slice of England in the Himalayan hills, he finds a web of blackmail, vice, and other nasty secrets behind the proper British façade. Ms. Cleverly deftly transports readers to an exotic locale filled with intrigue, suspense, and characters skilled in the art of deception. This is perfect armchair travel for historical mystery fans”. Booklist

Comment on Harlan Coben, Just One Look by "Kirkus Review"

"Kirkus Review" — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:37:53 +0000

“Suburban thriller from the prolific Coben (No Second Chance, 2002, etc.), about a perfect husband who disappears when a photo from the past shows up in the latest batch from the photomat.
Perfectly in love since their romantic meeting in France 15 years earlier, Jack and Grace Lawson are living the suburban dream: Windstar, Saab, daughter, son. He makes lots of money, she makes lots of art. There is a teeny flaw. Grace limps. It’s the scar she bears from the trauma she endured before the trip to France. There was this rock concert. Shots were fired. Panic. Deaths. Heroism. Cowardice. Badly mangled Grace made it out of a coma with a week or two of memory gone and a healthy dislike of big crowds. Suddenly the superperfect life she has built from the ruins has gone off the rails. Tucked in among a set of newly developed photos is a snap taken sometime in the ’80s. It shows a group of young people, possibly hip for the decade, and one of the lads, while hairier and callower, is clearly Jack. The insertion could only have been at the hands of the slacker in the Kodak kiosk, but he’s disappeared. And, upon viewing the photo, so has Jack, leaving Grace to ask that old reliable story-starting question: “Just who is this man I thought I knew?” Answers must be found quickly, for handsome Jack has been captured by a cold-blooded, sadistic, Korean killer and lies senseless in the boot of the stolen family minivan. Detective assistance comes from a rogue District Attorney, a wacky girlfriend, a lovelorn neighbour, a tough Jewish cop with a hole in his heart where his wife used to be, a shadowy, powerful mob guy whose son died at the rock concert, and possibly from Jimmy X, the rocker whose concert seems to have started the present subdivisional mayhem all those years ago.
Tepid terrors along the way to a mildly surprising end”. Kirkus Review

Comment on Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Fury by “Kirkus Review”

“Kirkus Review” — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:20:05 +0000

“Captain Richard Sharpe sees action in the battle to keep Cadiz out of the hands of the Corsican Monster.
Basing his story again on historic military action, Cornwell continues the long-running Sharpe series (Sharpe’s Escape, 2004, etc.) with a side trip away from Portugal to southern Spain, where the British are helping the Spanish hold on to the port of Cadiz, their last scrap of sovereign territory. The Anglo-Spanish alliance is an uneasy one; there are plenty of Spaniards who remember when Britain was the enemy — just a few years before. Many believe the British have far-reaching plans to take over trade with Latin America and some so detest the Redcoats that they are willing to cut a deal with Bonaparte that would put a subservient Spanish monarch on the throne. Among the bitterest anti-Brits is a priest, Father Montseny, who has gained possession of letters that could be used to split the allies. They are love letters from the English ambassador to his Spanish girlfriend, used by Montseny both to blackmail the ambassador, younger brother of Lord Wellington, and to inflame the populace. Montseny intends to alter their content to suggest plans for British treachery against Spain. Sharpe, under the command of the stubborn and inimical Brigadier Moon, has just made a spectacular escape from the French, destroying a critical bridge on his way off the battlefield. Reeling from a last-minute bullet to the brainpan, he becomes involved in the struggle to regain the letters, working alongside some murderously tough Irish soldiers, his trusty Sergeant Harper and a gay diplomatic spy. The business with the letters leads him straight into the crucial battle at Cerro del Puerco, where the greatly outnumbered Brits, under a wonderfully heroic Scots general, face the French at the Battle of Barossa while the Spanish enjoy a picnic.
The confusion of battle is, unsurprisingly, confusing. But Cornwell has this stuff down cold, so it’s great fun even with all the smoke and noise”. Kirkus Review

Comment on Ted Allbeury, Show me a Hero by “Kirkus Review”

“Kirkus Review” — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:16:39 +0000

“Prolific thriller specialist Allbeury … backtracks in a rather nostalgic bit of historic fiction about a loyal communist who spent his life in the US spying for a glorious USSR that never existed. “Based on truth” and covering a cold war that has ended, leaving no doubt about the outcome, this is more memoir than thriller. Motherless little Andrei Aarons follows his father, a Jewish glove-maker and loyal communist, into Parisian exile in the last days of the Romanovs. Spotted as a comer by the Bolsheviks on their way to power, Andrei gets sent to spy school and a lifetime assignment as the Soviet man on the scene in New York, where, with his loyal communist French wife, he sets up as a bookdealer and political spy. Although he’s expected to run the usual nuts-and- bolts espionage and crack the whip over the American communist cells, his speciality is soon seen to be his ability to read the Americans and interpret them for the leaders in Moscow. Admiring the optimistic Americans among whom he lives but steeped from infancy in the purest Communist theory, the keenly analytical Aarons is uniquely able to understand and predict US opinion on and reaction to anything the Muscovites might come up with, including the treaty with Nazi Germany. When WW II ends and Stalin’s expansionist madness increases, Aarons, who has never lost the communist vision, becomes concerned for world peace and – thanks to the machinations of a Wall Street lawyer and a Franco-Russian CIA employee – steps into a role as personal interpreter of the Russians for Truman and then, years later, for Kennedy. He seems to have been largely and frequently responsible for the avoidance of WW III. Allbeury, a Briton, never gets American speech nailed down, but his heart’s in the right place. This is gentle reading for pensioned cold war soldiers”. Kirkus Reviews

Comment on Ted Allbeury, Show me a Hero by Len Deighton

Len Deighton — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:14:45 +0000

“Ted’s writing reflects his own eventful life and the tragedies that have scarred him. The way in which his four-year-old daughter was stolen from him, and the lengths he went in his searches for her, is as dramatic as any fiction anyone ever invented. His adventures in the real world of espionage are even more astounding than those he writes. His compassionate treatment of the enemy and the almost inevitable sadness of the finale have become something of a Ted Allbeury trademark. And yet there are always surprises and it’s a bold reader who tries to predict the end of one of Ted’s stories.” Len Deighton

Comment on Mark Billingham, Lifeless by "The Observer" and the "Birmingham Post"

"The Observer" and the "Birmingham Post" — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:15:50 +0000

“Lifeless is his best novel yet: complex, thought-provoking, moving and, in parts, very funny. With each novel, Billingham takes us deeper into the personality of Thorne. The result in Lifeless is something of a tour de force.” The Observer
“Lifeless is moving, chilling, exciting and brilliantly atmospheric.” The Times
“Lifeless is very good indeed, possibly the best to date in his series. Billingham creates truly memorable characters which linger long after the plot of stunning topicality has reached its conclusion.” The Birmingham Post.

Comment on Lawrence Block, All the Flowers are Dying by "Milwaukee Sentinel"

"Milwaukee Sentinel" — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:13:17 +0000

“Block’s extraordinary skill as a writer is evident in the way he brings together the different parts of his plot into one electrifying whole. He spins his story with such cunning ability that you can’t help being drawn into his web. The suspense is acute enough to make you hold your breath. Combine that with a hero for the ages and a villain to match, and Block has given us yet another triumphant entry in this fine and memorable series” – Milwaukee Sentinel