Gambit (Nero Wolfe #37) 3.5Stars

 

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Title: Gambit
Series: Nero Wolfe #37
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 147
Words: 56K
Publish: 1962

A book involving chess and murder. It was ok and I didn’t dislike it but it definitely is not high up on the list of most enjoyable Nero Wolfe books.

Part of it is that there is just too much uncertainty and while Wolfe and Archie figure out who the killer is, they can’t prove it legally. So Wolfe does his thing and the perp kills himself to prevent the truth from coming out because of a woman.

If I was forced to pick and choose which Wolfe books to re-read or to skip, and someone held a gun to my head to force me to skip some, this would get cut. It just lacked “something”...

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

Sally Blount's father, Matthew Blount, has been arrested for the murder of Paul Jerin, a chess master. Blount had arranged for Jerin to play twelve simultaneous games of blindfold chess at his club. Well into the contest, Jerin complains of physical discomfort and cannot continue. Shortly thereafter, Jerin dies of what tests show to be arsenic poisoning.

During the contest, Jerin had been sitting by himself in a small library off the chess club's main game room. He had nothing to eat or drink except a pot of hot chocolate, brought to him by Blount. After Jerin fell ill, he was diagnosed by a doctor who was playing in the contest; the doctor called for an ambulance but Jerin died at a hospital.

Not only had Blount brought the hot chocolate to Jerin, he had washed out the pot and the cup after Jerin complained that he didn't feel well. Blount is charged with murder.

The only people to enter the library where Jerin sat, other than Blount, were four messengers, who relayed the moves between the main game room and the library. The messengers apparently had no good opportunity to put arsenic in Jerin's chocolate.

Dan Kalmus is Blount's corporate lawyer, and represents Blount after he has been jailed without bail. Blount's daughter Sally is convinced, however, that Kalmus is in love with Blount's wife Anna, and that he won't be inclined to give Blount his best legal efforts. Furthermore, Kalmus' specialty is business law, not criminal law, and he might not have the needed background.

But Sally is certain that her father is innocent, so she hires a reluctant Wolfe to investigate on her father's behalf. Neither Wolfe nor Archie seems to have his heart in the case because the circumstances point so clearly at Blount. And Wolfe learns from the police that their own inquiries discovered no connection between the messengers and Jerin, whereas Blount was unhappy that Jerin had been seeing Sally.

Because none of the messengers could have a motive to kill Jerin, and because he has assumed that Sally is correct that her father didn't, Wolfe conjectures that Jerin was poisoned not because the murderer had it in for Jerin, but to get at Blount, whose apparent motive would surely get him arrested. Wolfe's hypothesis, then, is that Jerin was a pawn, sacrificed in a gambit to get rid of Blount.

Wolfe speaks with each of the messengers as the best alternative suspects, to try to determine which of them might have wanted Blount, not Jerin, out of the way. Each of the four has a possible motive: Sally thinks Kalmus is in love with her mother, Farrow would like to take over Blount's firm, Yerkes wants Blount's vote in a board election but won't get it, and Hausman resents Blount for going easy on him in chess games but winning anyway.

Wolfe learns that there is, in Blount's words, "a certain fact" known only to Blount and to Kalmus that will demonstrate his innocence. The fact turns out to be that Blount really did put something in Jerin's chocolate, but it was sedative in effect, not poisonous. This puts a very different face on things, and as a result Wolfe and Archie, independently, are able to infer both the murderer's identity and how the arsenic got into Jerin.

• All My “Nero Wolfe” Reviews

Mythago Wood (Mythago Wood #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mythago Wood
Series: Mythago Wood #1
Author: Robert Holdstock
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 261
Words: 97K
Publish: 1984

This book typifies why I hate British “Lit”. In fact, it feels almost identical to American “Lit”! It’s whiny, spineless, cowardly and so full of bile and self-hatred that you need to cover your hands in pepto-bismol just to touch the pages.

Normally, something like that would get an automatic 2stars and I’d write a screed against the author and condemn him for a multitude of sins, mainly of being a commie pinko who I would then shoot.

Alas, Holdstock’s skill at writing managed to overcome even my patriotic hatred of commie pinkos hiding in the closet.

But not enough to break the 3star barrier. I believe the series centers around the Mythago Wood itself and not necessarily the characters from this book. That gives me hope.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia & Bookstooge (because whoever did the entry for wikipedia is a complete….)

The events of Mythago Wood occur between 1946 and 1948. Stephen Huxley returns from service (after recuperating from his war wounds) to see his elder brother Christian, who now lives alone in their childhood home, Oak Lodge, just on the edge of Ryhope Wood. Their father, George, has died recently (their mother, Jennifer, died some years earlier). Christian is disturbed but intrigued by his encounters with one of the mythagos, while Stephen is confused and disbelieving when Christian explains the enigma of the wood. Both had seen mythagos as children, but their father explained them away as travelling Gypsies. Christian returns to the wood for longer and longer periods, eventually assuming a mythical role himself. In the meantime Stephen reads about his father's and Edward Wynne-Jones's studies of the wood. Part of his research on the wood causes him to contact Wynne-Jones's daughter, Anne Hayden. Stephen also meets a local man named Harry Keeton, a burn-scarred ex-RAF pilot, who encountered a similar wood when he was shot down over France and has since been trying to find a city that he saw there. Stephen and Harry try to survey and photograph Ryhope Wood from the air, but their small plane is buffeted back by inexplicable winds each time they try to fly over the trees. Stephen soon has his own encounters with the woodland mythagos (and an older Christian) and eventually, to save both his brother and a mythago girl named Guiwenneth (also referred to as Gwyneth or Gwyn), he ventures deep into the wood, accompanied by Harry.

Christian, being chased by the mythago of his father, chases down Gwyn to possess her and kills her. Steve fights his bro and saves the Mythagos from Christian, but doesn’t kill him.

Indomitus (Warhammer 40K: Necrons) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Indomitus
Series: Warhammer 40K: Necrons
Author: Gave Thorpe
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 277
Words: 91K
Publish: 2020

This story was really an Astartes/Space Marines story and not a Necron story. But the Necrons are the protagonists and I enjoy reading about these millions of years old Terminator civilization instead of the genetic freaks of the Empire of Man.

This followed the same pattern for the Space Marines. One Captain who has decisions to make and two underlings who are as jealous of each other as they are xenophobic about the Necrons. Unlike in Blades of Damocles, the Space Marines in this story weren’t total jackasses, just mostly jackasses. It made reading their parts of the story less painful and rage inducing. Not necessarily enjoyable, but I wasn’t raging against them out loud like I was for Blades of Damocles.

As I have read deeper into the Warhammer 40K universe, I always wondered WHY the Necrons weren’t top dog. They killed gods when those gods proved false in their deal for goodness sake. I still don’t even know why the Necrons ended up “sleeping” for millions of years. I understand they have code errors and go insane easily, but I always wondered why they didn’t rule. Well, this book helped explain it. The Necrons are as riven with factions as medieval Europe and this story shows how nepotism and revenge keeps the entire race from moving forward. The leader of the Necrons in this story is related to Szarekh, the Silent King and last ruler of the Necrons. This “cousin” is a complete incompetent but loyal. He can’t carry out the simple plan given him and is also hindered by another Necron royal who is secretly working against Szarekh and his goal of uniting the Necrons under him. This other royal is willing to give up her existence if it means the death of the cousin and the stopping of Szarekh’s plans. Aye yi yi. But now I know why the Necrons haven’t taken over. To put it simply, they are as selfish and idiotic and short sighted as any of the flesh species that currently inhabit the universe :-D

I’m ending this review with a picture of Szarekh the Silent King from when he was a Magic the Gathering card:

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

For nearly ten years, the Indomitus Crusade has waged a war of defiance and reconquest in the war-torn Imperium. Attached to Crusade Fleet Quintus – dubbed the Cursed Fleet by many – the Ultramarines of the Ithraca's Vengeance are drawn to a stricken world. With millions enslaved, a malign necron technology siphons the souls of the innocent and heralds the Silent Kingdom's expansion. The Ultramarines face an impossible decision: mount a desperate last stand to destroy the Pariah Nexus, or break away and damn the entire sector to bring word of this ancient foe's resurgence to the only being capable of halting it – the Lord Primarch Roboute Guilliman.

The Shadow’s Shadow (The Shadow #23) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Shadow’s Shadow
Series: The Shadow #23
Authors: Maxwell Grant
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 154
Words: 48K
Publish: 1933

A criminal finally gets smart and figures out that The Shadow has agents and uses those agents to track down the alter-ego of The Shadow. Only thing is, said criminal doesn’t realize that The Shadow has multiple aliases. That means The Shadow still gets to beat the bad guys, on all fronts. We as readers also learn a possible history of The Shadow as a WWI ace pilot.

Another enjoyable pulp romp between the world wars. The action takes place in New York City and down into New Jersey a little bit. I’ve done enough traveling up and down the East Coast that I was actually familiar with some of the roads and tunnels described in the story. Not greatly familiar, but enough so that I could visualize things (I’m sure it looked totally different in 1933 than it did in the 1990’s, but come on, a tunnel is a tunnel, right?) and I just found that I liked that familiarity.

This was the 23^rd Shadow novel and it’s taken that long for at least one bad guy to twig on to the fact that The Shadow might have an alter-ego. AMAZING!!! At first it made me shake my head but then I began to wonder, does it seem naive to me not because we are smarter as a society today but because we’re so much more evil? The utter gratuitousness of crime today is beyond what they could have imagined back in 1933. It made me ashamed to be honest. Of course, then people like Ira Levin come along a mere 20 years later and write books like A Kiss Before Dying and I realize the rot was already at the heart of the tree even back then. Which makes me feel better, because I realize that people were just as evil back in the 1930’s as they are today.

"God's in his heaven, all's right with the world"

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge

It was to be the perfect crime. A daring heist that would net the greedy mobsters undreamed-of millions. And with internation criminal mastermind Felix Zubian and ace gunman Gat Hackett at the head of the determined gang, nothing could go wrong.

Nothing, that is, except the unwelcome intervention of The Shadow, phantom of the night, scourge of evildoers everywhere. The conspirators of crime h it upon a grim, ingenious scheme--use The Shadow's own dreaded techniques of stealth and surprise against him. In short, shadow The Shadow--and blast him into the grave!

An International criminal, Felix Zubian, trails The Shadow. It is revealed that during WWI, Zubian learned of an aviator in the air forces of the United States, one called "The Black Eagle," because of his penchant for flying at night. Zubian believes he has found the aviator who has now taken on a new identity as The Shadow!

The Shadow knows the evil in men’s hearts though and turns the tables on the gang and destroys them where they thought to destroy him.

• All of My “The Shadow” Reviews

John the Balladeer (Silver John #6) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: John the Balladeer
Series: Silver John #6
Author: Manly Wade Wellman
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Folk Fantasy
Pages: 222
Words: 90K
Publish: 1988

This was a good end to my Silver John read by Manly Wade Wellman. I will say though, Wellman likes telling us that the women in the stories (if they are bad) don’t wear underwear. Make of that what you will.

This was a collection of the short stories that Wellman wrote about Silver John from 1951-1987 and showcases many of the instances that John references in the full novels. We also get the story of how John and Evadaire meet and marry. There is a section of what I’d call “micro-fiction”, little stories 1-2 paragraphs long that still manage to tell a whole story. I was actually quite impressed with the ability of Wellman to get an Idea across with so few words. No blather and filler here!

I don’t see myself ever re-reading these Silver John books. I enjoyed my time with them, really enjoyed the covers and it brought back good memories of seeing the books in the public library in the 90’s. Speaking of covers, I’m including the 2023 re-release version here. Not sure why, as it seems like the artist was on drugs when he drew it, but it still captures that fey and wild feel of American Folklore that Wellman was going for with Silver John.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher & Table of Contents

In John the Balladeer, Manly Wade Wellman created one of the great characters in all of horror and fantasy literature. Armed with his silver-stringed guitar and an endless trove of folk songs, John travels the backwoods of Appalachia, battling supernatural evil with his own brand of down-home charm and endless resourcefulness. In these tales, John wanders the Southern mountains, encountering hoodoo men and witch women, strange supernatural beasts, malevolent spirits, and even George Washington's ghost.

Edited by horror legend Karl Edward Wagner, this volume contains the complete John the Balladeer stories in their original, unaltered form, as they first appeared in magazines and anthologies between 1951 and 1987. Also featured is a foreword by Wellman's friend and literary executor David Drake and an introduction by Wagner.

Introduction to the
Electronic Publication
of John the Balladeer

O Ugly Bird!
The Desrick on Yandro
Vandy, Vandy
One Other
Call Me From the Valley
The Little Black Train
Shiver in the Pines
Walk Like a Mountain
On the Hills and Everywhere
Old Devlins Was A-Waiting
Nine Yards of Other Cloth
Wonder as I Wander:
Farther Down the Trail
Trill Coster's Burden
The Spring
Owls Hoot in the Daytime
Can These Bones Live?
Nobody Ever Goes There
Where Did She Wander?

House of Assassins (Saga of the Forgotten Warrior #2) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: House of Assassins
Series: Saga of the Forgotten Warrior #2
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 411
Words: 142K
Publish: 2019

Now, if I could just read books like this ALL of the time, I’d be set for life. I read this after The Idiot and I was still stressed about my double vision and being out of work for 6+ weeks, I still needed a new-to-us car AND the medical bills had started to come in, so things were not any better. But I had so much fun reading this. This was what I needed, something well written, escapist and most importantly, not depressing in any way.

Ashok, the main character, begins to get a real personality. He found out in the first book that HE was a magical construct of personality and that his reason for existence is no longer valid. He has to figure out now who he is, what he is and do it while trying to lead a revolution that his old self would oppose. He’s still pretty cardboard here, but once again, it is on purpose and Correia (the author) does a great job of creating little cracks in that cardboard so that Ashok can start growing into a real person. He’s having his very existence crammed down his throat in the space of weeks or months, instead of decades like a normal person. But he doesn’t whine or complain or crack up. He endures. I like that, especially during this time.

Correia does a good job of balancing the story amongst the various side characters and I never felt like I was being cheated by reading about one character instead of another. We get enough from each to advance the whole plot and to make me feel like I had gotten a whole story and not just some random events thrown together and called a novel.

I continue to like Larry Correia’s writing and this dive into a more Indian culture keeps things fresh and interesting. Also, just to make it better, Correia actually finished this series. What a guy! ;-)

★★★★☆

From the Publisher

Ashok Vidal was once a member of the highest caste in all of Lok. As a Protector, he devoted his life to upholding the Law, rooting out those who still practiced the old ways and delivering swift justice with his ancestor blade Angruvadal. None was more merciless than he in stamping out the lingering belief in gods and demons among the casteless. His brutality was legendary and celebrated.

But soon Ashok learned that his life to that point had been a lie. He himself, senior member of the Protector Order, was casteless. He had been nothing more than an unwitting pawn in a political game. His world turned upside down and finding himself on the wrong side of the Law, he began a campaign of rebellion, war, and destruction unlike any Lok had ever seen.

Thera had been first daughter of Vane. A member of the Warrior Order, she had spent her life training for combat. Until a strange sight in the heavens appeared one day. Thera was struck by lighting and from that day forward she heard the Voice. A reluctant prophet with the power to see into the future, she fought alongside Ashok Vadal and his company of men known as the Sons of the Black Sword until a shapeshifting wizard with designs on her powers of precognition spirited her away. He holds her prisoner in the House of Assassins.

Ashok Vadal and the Sons of the Black Sword march to rescue Thera. With his sword Angruvadal, Ashok was unstoppable. But Angruvadal is gone, shattered to pieces on the demon possessed husk of a warrior. Now, Ashok must fight without the aid of the magic blade for the first time. Thera’s life depends on it.

But there is much more at risk in the continent of Lok. Strange forces are working behind the scenes. Ashok Vadal and the Sons of the Black Sword are caught up in a game they do not fully understand, with powerful forces allied against them.

Ashok no longer knows what to believe. He is beginning to think perhaps the gods really do exist.

If so, he’s warned them to stay out of his way.

They would do well to listen.

Hurloon Minotaur - MTG 4E

See, that's the kind of hymnody I don't want to deal with!