Cosmonaut Keep - Ken MacLeod

   2000; 336 pages.  Book One of the “Engines of Light” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Science-Fiction; Space Opera; First Contact; Romance.  Laurels : Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee (2001); Hugo Award Nominee (2002, Best Novel).  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

    It’s 2040 AD, and the excitement level in Matt’s life have just escalated quickly.  One moment he’s living a somewhat mundane life as an outlaw computer programmer (“hacker” has such a negative connotation), and a minor member of the Resistance.  A moment later, he finds himself on the run: a wanted man by the government, and all because of some classified information he’s procured by practicing his craft.

    He’s also romantically involved with a fellow resistance member, Jadey.

    Meanwhile (and we’re using that term loosely), a couple centuries in the future and halfway across the galaxy, Gregor is trying to develop a trade agreement on behalf of the port city of Kyohvic, located on the backwater planet Mingulay.

    He’s also romantically involved with the daughter of Esias de Tenebrethe, a Nova Babylonian business magnate,

    Well, it doesn’t really seem like the two storylines have much in common, as Matt and Gregor are separated by hundreds of years and hundreds of light years.  But the two men do have one thing they share.

    They have the same last name.

What’s To Like...

    Cosmonaut Keep is Space Opera at its finest, with fabulous descriptions of faraway worlds, a kewl species of sentient raptors (the “saurs”), and of course, lots of sex.  The chapters alternate between Matt’s adventures and Gregor’s, with different POV’s (Matt’s: 1^st person; Gregor's: 3^rd-person), so there’s no confusion as to who, where and when you’re reading about.  The writing is superb.  This is a vocabularian's delight.

    The chapters are of moderate length – 22 of them to cover 336 pages.  The book has its share of cussing and sex, but we'd expect that from Space Opera stories.  The Romance consists of a pair of love triangles: Matt/Jadey/Camila and Gregor/Lydia/Elizabeth.  But don't worry about things getting mushy.  One person in each triangle pretty much disappears in the second half of the book, leaving the remaining pair to have lots of guilt-free, weightless rolls in the proverbial hay.

    Outside of the saurs, there aren’t a lot of alien critters to meet:  a few gigants (an alternate word for giants), and some pithkies.  All the saur characters are richly developed, and I always enjoy meeting species who are intellectually and ethically superior to humans.  To boot, their limited tolerance to the effects of cannabis makes for some hilarious interludes in the story.  I also chuckled at the “Scoffer’s church service” and the appreciated the smattering of French phrases thrown in.

    The first half of the book was a bit of a slog and suffered from “PWP?” (“Plot? What plot?”) as well.   Matt’s on the run with some secret flying saucer information (which may or may not be bogus), but his mode of fleeing is via a slow boat to America, so there’s not much tension.  Most of Gregor’s problems stem from his blithely naïve approach to the love triangle.

    But things pick up in the second half of the tale, when Matt makes it into outer space and Gregor goes searching for the “First Crew”.  So fear not, fellow readers, Cosmonaut Keep is heavily science-fiction, with just a thin veneer of Romance.

Kewlest New Word  ...

Anhedonic (adj.) : pertaining to a lack of pleasure or the capacity to experience it.

Others : Bolide (n.); Pong (n.); Bravura (n.); Noachic (adj.); Mole (n., its ‘harbor’ definition ).

Excerpts...

    “Okay,” she said.  “What next?”

    “I pull together a small company to investigate this thing.”  I turned back to the screen.  “I have a lot of good contacts for this.”

    “Maybe you do,” she said.  “But not tonight.”

    “What?”

    She stared at me, then reached out and caught my hand.  “Come on.  I’ve had a murderously long day.  Let’s go down to the bar, then I’ll take you up on the offer of a bed for the night.”

    First I knew of the offer, but I didn’t refuse.  (pg. 67)

    The saur’s superior intelligence and honesty would make him, as any trader as experienced as this one was sure to know, unlikely to bullshit.  (Salasso had once explained to her, with perfect aplomb, that the qualities of intelligence and honesty were linked: with sufficient intelligence one could see the ramifying consequences of a lie, the sheer cost in mental processing-power of sustaining it, and draw back from it.  “Perhaps this relationship does not hold for the homidae,” he’d added, with wounding tact.)  (pg. 139)

 “The dream you guys have of treating the Solar System as raw material for orbital mobile homes, guns, and beer cans is right out.”  (pg. 196)

    There were a couple disappointing aspects to this book, which were directly related to the fact that Cosmonaut Keep is the first book in a trilogy.  I was drooling over the trilobites, tethys, krakens, and ichthyosaurs that show up in the first couple pages, but then they leave the stage, never to be seen again.  Perhaps they play a bigger role in the next two books.

    More importantly, there’s the problem with the ending, or rather, the lack of one.  The two storylines do finally converge (page 302), and a case can be made that the tale ends at a logical point.  But none of the story’s threads are resolved, and I kinda got the feeling that the only purpose of the ending was to set up the sequels.

    That may be fine if you have all three books setting on your TBR shelf, but I don’t.  I found my copy of Cosmonaut Keep at a used-book store, and Books 2 and 3 weren't available there, or at my two local libraries, in any form: hardback, paperback, or as an e-book.  So my options are to either fork over $7.99 apiece for the next two books in Kindle format, or wait patiently until I come across them as used books.

    I don’t begrudge Ken MacLeod for writing this saga as a series or wanting to be paid his fair share for his stories, but I do expect each and every book to have a self-contained, complete story.  Cosmonaut Keep doesn’t, and I was frankly surprised that it got nominated for two prestigious awards despite this.

    7 Stars.  Let’s be clear, this is still a well-written piece of sci-fi Space Opera, and readers looking for an entertaining book in that genre will not be disappointed.   But a reader is entitled to self-contained storyline in any and every book he guys, even if it is part of a series.

Gilgamesh The King - Robert Silverberg

   1984; 404 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Historical Fiction; Myths & Legends.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

    I know what you’re thinking: just who the heck was Gilgamesh?

    Well, he's a legendary hero of an ancient (Akkadian) epic called The Epic of Gilgamesh, written on clay tablets and in cuneiform somewhere around 2100 BC.  That in turn was based on an earlier (Sumerian) account about presumably the same guy, although in that version he was called Bilgamesh.

    The Akkadian version is quite complete; the Sumerian version is fragmentary.  You can read about all this by looking up ‘Gilgamesh’ in Wikipedia.  

   Although the Gilgamesh in the ancient story is legendary in nature, there is evidence that there really was also a historical Gilgamesh, a king of Uruk, and that the clay tablet tales are just legends that cropped up about him as time went on.  The case can be made, therefore, that The Epic of Gilgamesh is in fact the earliest work of fiction that has ever been found.

    But using cuneiform to write a book on clay tablets is a PITA, and there is a practical limit to just how long such a tale of fiction can be.

    It almost screams for an enterprising modern-day writer to come along and flesh out Gilgamesh’s story.

What’s To Like...

    Make no mistake about it, Robert Silverberg is a revered and renowned Sci-Fi writer, but Gilgamesh The King has zero science fiction and zero fantasy.  It is 100% Historical Fiction, and Silverberg does a wonderful job of making you feel at home in the Mesopotamia of 4,000 years ago.  The details of the settings flow smoothly, without any hint of being an info-dump.  Some of them did seem like anachronisms to me – antimony, planets, steel, the phalanx, and beakers – but I’ll trust in the author’s research that such things really were around way back then, albeit probably viewed and spoken of in different terms than we do nowadays.  I do have some serious doubts about a vampire working its way into the story though, which does occur here.

    There’s a lot of holy sex going on, as well as a lot of not-so-holy sex; and a lot of nakedness to boot.  The chapters are short (41 of them to cover 404 pages), and the Introduction and Afterword, although similar are well worth your time to read.  The story is told in the first-person (Gilgamesh’s) POV.  I seem to be reading a lot of those lately.

    I’ve never read the historical version of this story, but in reading the Wikipedia entry for it, it is obvious that Robert Silverberg’s rendering of it sticks closely to the Akkadian version.  Still, I also enjoyed the ways in which the modern story goes its own way.  While Gilgamesh sees gods, goddesses and demons in just about everything, Silverberg carefully presents how natural events could just as easily explain everything.   I especially liked the alternate version of the Flood narrative, and of Ziusudra’s supposedly “eternal life”.

    The main themes that Gilgamesh seeks enlightenment about are : a.) what happens after you die?, b.) can you avoid death if you’re partly divine?, c.) the roles that gods seemingly play in the daily affairs of the world, and d.) are gods and demons real or not?  Those questions are still asked today.  Gilgamesh receives answers to some of these, but not all.

    The ending is good, and the epilogue is even better.  Gilgamesh The King is a standalone novel, a one-off effort by Robert Silverberg in a genre quite foreign to him, and AFAIK, he’s never contemplated a sequel to it.

Excerpts...

    “We are a free city!” I cried.  “Are we to surrender?”

    “There are wells to dig and canals to dredge,” said Ali-ellati.  “Let us pay what Agga demands, and go about our business in peace.  War is very expensive.”

    “And Kish is very mighty,” said Enlil-ennam.

    “I call for your pledges,” I said.  “I will defy Agga: give me your support.”

    “Peace,” they said.  “Tribute,” they said.  “There are wells to dig,” they said.  (loc. 1994)

   I sat upon my high throne, thinking, Enkidu has died and shuffles about now within that place of dust, cloaked like a bird in gloomy feathers, making his evening meal out of cold clay.  And soon enough I must go to that dark place too.  One day a king in a grand palace, the next a mournful creature flapping his wings in the dust – was that the fate that awaited me? (…)

    Flies, flies, buzzing flies: we are nothing more than that, I told myself.  What sense in being a king?  King of the flies?  (loc. 3700)

Kindle Details...

    Gilgamesh The King sells for $7.99 at Amazon.  Robert Silverberg has been a prolific writer of science-fiction since the 1950’s, and there are a slew of his novels available for the Kindle, ranging in price from $5.99 to $13.19. There are also a number of his short stories and novellas available for a lesser price.  If you are patient, though, a number of his works are periodically discounted at Amazon, which is how I snagged this book.

 (T)here are times when it is perilous to think.  (loc. 1811)

    I had some difficulties with Gilgamesh The King.  There were some significant slow spots, particularly in the early going, when Gilgamesh is telling us how wonderful he is at everything.  As a protagonist, I found him to be a royal a$$hole, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the good citizens of Uruk felt likewise.

    Also, as a storyteller, Gilgamesh leaves a lot to be desired.  Spoilers abound, and he tends to “telegraph” the plot twists that are coming down the pike.  I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been better to tell the tale in the 3^rd-person POV.  Then again, I also wonder if I would’ve appreciated the story more if I had read (a translation of) the Akkadian version, or at least the Wikipedia article first.

    But patience is a virtue, and things pick up around 50%, when Enkidu and Gilgamesh become buddies and set out upon their quest.  And the myth-busting portions of the second half of the book will give you pause when any theology wants you to practice “blind faith”.

    6 Stars.  Add 2 stars if you’ve read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, and loved it.  You’ll find Gilgamesh The King to be a fascinating book.  For the record, I found Siddhartha to be boring from beginning to end.

The Graveyard Game - Kage Baker

   2001; 298 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 4 (out of 9 or 11, depending what you include) of the “Company”.  Series. Genre : Dystopian Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Just how would you go about eliminating an immortal?  Is it even possible to do that?  Joseph and Lewis, two cyborgs who have been working as agents for Dr. Zeus Inc. (aka the “Company”) for thousands of years, are pondering those questions.

     Theoretically, it’s impossible.  Chop a cyborg’s head off, and the nanobots within him are programmed to make repairs and put everything back into tiptop working order.  It may take a while to do the job, but thanks to 24^th-cetnury technology, it’s proven engineering.

    And yet…

    Lately, a number of Joseph and Lewis’s fellow cyborgs have disappeared.  Heck, the whole squadron of the “Enforcers”, used extensively by the Company back in prehistoric times, are now nowhere to be found.  The official line is that they’ve “retired”, but to where?  It seems funny that none of them has ever been seen again.

    It behooves Lewis and Joseph to find an answer to this enigma.  After all, they might be the next pair of agents that Dr. Zeus Inc. “retires”.  And for Lewis, it’s also a personal matter.  His fellow agent, Mendoza has gone missing and no one has seen her.

    And he’s in love with her.

What’s To Like...

    It’s always a treat to read an author who can write well  in addition to being able to tell a great story, and Kage Baker had a gift for this.  The Graveyard Game transitions the reader from the recent past (1996) through the present, and then several centuries into the future, ending at 2276 AD.  Overall, the series is closing in on its most critical point in time – 2355 AD, after which nothing more is known, even though time-travel technology is available.

    I loved the details of our future world.  Coffee, cream and chocolate are all illegal, although you can still get Toblerones on the black market, and you can get high on Theobroma, a cacao-like substance.  The Beast Liberation Party was a neat twist: they make PETA look like a bunch of wimps, and are pushing for the banning of silk, out of concern for the silkworms.  And the Yorkshire literary tour was a hoot.

    The Graveyard Game is a complex read, with a number of plotlines interweaving throughout the book.  Where’s Mendoza?  Why does her first love (who isn’t Lewis) seem to keep reincarnating?  What happens in 2355 AD?  Why does it seem like the Company is covering a lot of things up?  What’s become of the Enforcers?

Some threads remain unresolved at the end of the book.  The “little people” are a clear and present danger to the immortals, and while they don’t seem to be of the Company’s doing, all the same the agents are given no help in defending against this threat.  A mysterious “Site 317” is whispered about, but no one seems to know anything concrete of it.

    The Graveyard Game is heavy on the intrigue, with enough action to keep it from bogging down.  It is not a standalone novel; you really should read the books in this series in order.

Kewlest New Word...

Jitney (n.) : a bus or other vehicle carrying passengers for a low fare.

Excerpts...

    “You actually want to go see a necropolis tomorrow?”  (…)

    “It’s psychological,” Joseph said, pushing away from the coping and rotating slowly in his pool float.  “People are designed by nature to need a last resting place.  The idea of one, anyway.  We immortal guys never get graves.  The programming we’re given in school keeps the urge off for the first few millennia, but after a while you find yourself wondering what it would be like to just – lie down in a tomb and stop moving forever.  So it helps, see, to go and look at the reality.  Bones and dust.  Makes you glad to be alive.”  (pg. 131, and the explanation of the book’s title.)

    Religion isn’t illegal, but is increasingly being regarded with genteel horror by most people, except the Ephesians.  Faith is so … psychologically incorrect.

    Sex isn’t illegal, but there isn’t a lot of it going on these days.  There’s talk about how it’s a distasteful animal urge, how it victimizes women and robs men of their primal power.  It creates codependency.  It presents a terrible risk of catching a communicable disease.  Relationships of any kind, in fact, are probably a bad idea.  (pg. 217)

 “Really, Joseph, there weren’t any druids yet when Stonehenge was finished.  I was one, I should know.”  (pg. 17)

    It should be noted, and this is not really a spoiler, that the star of this series, Mendoza, doesn’t make an appearance in The Graveyard Game at all.  The story really revolves around Joseph and Lewis endeavoring to find out what has happened to her.

    On a larger scale, it felt like Kage Baker was using the book to fill in the non-Mendoza details of events that are leading up to whatever climax is coming in 2355 AD.  Since there are at least five more books to go in the series, I’m left wondering whether the timeline pace is about to slow down.

    It’s been five years since I’ve read the previous book in this series, Mendoza In Hollywood (reviewed here).  So I appreciated the short backstory given at the very beginning of this book, which is further fleshed out in the first couple chapters.  I was bummed  that Mendoza didn’t show up, but it was a pleasure getting to know Joseph and Lewis in greater detail.

    8 Stars.  Revolution is nigh!  I’m sure I’ll be reading the next book in the series, The Life of the World to Come, in the not-to-distant future.  I’m hooked on finding out what and where Site 317 is, and how the simpleminded but highly focused “little people” figure into all this.

Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

   2001; 310 pages.  Book 1 (out of 13) of the “Sookie Stackhouse” series, aka “The Southern Vampire Mysteries”.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Vampires; Paranormal Mystery; Gothic Romance.  Laurels : Winner, Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery (2001).  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    It was love at first fright for Sookie Stackhouse when Bill Compton came through the door at the restaurant/bar where she works as a waitress.  Not that Sookie’s an authority on the subject, since most guys tend to shy away from her because of her “disability”.

   For it seems Sookie has the ability to read the thoughts of people around her and most guys, when they’re trying to hit up on a girl, really don’t want her to be able to do that.  You could call Sookie a telepath, although sometimes all she can read are emotions and feelings, not words.  Strangely though, she can’t read her boss’s mind, a fellow named Sam Merlotte.

    Nor Bill's.  How her boss manages to mask his thoughts is a mystery, but that’s not so with Bill’s.  He’s a vampire.

    Which is pretty creepy, except he’s a handsome, dashing, well-built hunk of a vampire.  And if nothing else, hanging around Bill is going to give Sookie some much-needed peace and quiet.  Hearing other people’s thoughts all the time can get quite noisy.  And tiresome.

What’s To Like...

    I’m not a big reader of vampire novels, and I’m even less a fan of anything in the Romance genre, but I still enjoyed Dead Until Dark.  The writing is good and the mystery portion of the storyline was well-constructed.  I don’t recall any slow spots.  It’s easy to see why this became a hit series.

    The story is told in the first-person POV (Sookie’s).  The chapters are long – only 12 of them to cover 327 pages, but it’s a fast-read, and there are usually several places in a given chapter where a scene-shift allows you to break off reading.

    There are multiple storylines.  First off, there’s Sookie’s coming-of-age story, including a love triangle that she has to deal with.  But we also get to follow her as she tries to figure out who’s been killing a number of local women.  The victims all were strangled, but they also have bite marks on them, so any and all vampires quickly become suspects.

    The overall tone of the book is light as Sookie starts to fall in love with Bill.  Both the reader and Sookie find the answer to questions such as “Can vampires do ‘it’?”, “Are they good at ‘it’?”, etc.  But there is a more serious theme explored - bigotry, as the residents of Sookie’s hometown of Bon Temps, Louisiana get used to “others” coming to live in their neighborhood.

     There’s a lot of killing-off of characters, almost to a GRRM degree.  Most of the vampires, other than Bill, seemed only 'adequately' developed, but this of course could change as the series progresses.  Similarly, while there are lots of vampires, there’s only two other cases of “otherworldly” creatures.  I’m almost certain that list expands in the subsequent books.  I liked the coining of the word “fang-banger”, and chuckled at the choice of the main vampire’s name.  ‘Bill Compton’ is a revered figure in (my local) Phoenix music lore; as a DJ at the fledgling KDKB radio station, he made this city a national beacon for cutting-edge rock-&-roll music.

    Dead Until Dark is a standalone story, as well as the introduction to a (completed) 13-book series.  The e-book ends at 88%, with the remaining 12% consisting of a preview of Book Two.

Kewlest New Word…

Codicil (n.) : an addition or supplement that explains, modifies, or revokes a will or part of one.

Others : Stertorous (adj.)

Excerpts...

    I’d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.

    Ever since vampires came out of the coffin (as they laughingly put it) two years ago, I’d hoped one would come to Bon Temps.  We had all the other minorities in our little town – why not the newest, the legally recognized undead?  But rural northern Louisiana wasn’t too tempting to vampires, apparently; on the other hand, New Orleans was a real center for them – the whole Anne Rice thing, right?  (loc. 46, and the opening paragraphs to the book)

   I pulled a dress from the back of my closet, one I’d had little occasion to wear.  It was a Nice Date dress, if you wanted the personal interest of whoever was your escort.  It was cut square and low in the neck, and it was sleeveless.  It was tight and white.  The fabric was thinly scattered with bright red flowers with long green stems.  My tan glowed and my boobs showed.  I wore red enamel earrings and red high-heeled screw-me shoes.  (loc. 1512)

Kindle Details...

    A Dead Red Heart sells for $2.99 at Amazon.  The next book in the series, Living Dead in Dallas, sells for $5.99, the rest of the books all go for $7.99 apiece.  This is a completed series, the last book (#13) having been published in 2013.  Charlaine Harris has started several new series since then.

 “You won’t find a vampire in a Ford Fiesta.”  (loc. 3029)

    I’ve been meaning to get acquainted with the Sookie Stackhouse series since eight years ago, when I was in a collaborative group book blog, and one of the other participants gave it a "highly  recommended" review/rating.  For some reason I was under the impression it was a YA series.  It is not.

    There is some cussing and at least a discussion of child molesting.  Sex tapes also get mentioned, and there is a fair amount of sex itself.  So all in all, it is probably not something you want little Susie or Timmy reading at an early age.

    That being said, there is nothing lurid or smutty about the sex scenes.  Indeed Dead Until Dark reminded me of a Stephanie Plum novel, but with vampires thrown in.  I seem to be  unintentionally reading a lot of this niche genre lately.

    8½ Stars.  I concur with my former book blogmate and highly recommend Dead Until Dark.  I bought Book Three in the series, Club Dead, while it was discounted recently, and was happy to see my local library had 7 of its 10 copies of the first book available for the Kindle to borrow and download.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and find a copy of Book Two, Living Dead in Dallas, available as well.

A Dead Red Heart - R.P. Dahlke

   2011;3101 pages.  Book 2 (out of 5) of the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Women Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Billy Wayne Dobson is getting to be quite a pest in Lalla Bains' life.  He’s been writing love notes on little white heart-shaped cut-outs, and leaving them all over her car.  It’s annoying as heck, and it’s time to do something.  And since Lalla’s a crop duster by trade, getting rid of pests is what she does.. 

   But when she confronts him, in an alleyway behind Mr. Kim’s  Vietnamese restaurant, he falls into her arms and whispers a sweet nothing.  That may sound romantic, but what he says is “The more there is, the less you see.”  And then he dies of a broken heart.  Weird, huh?

    You know, a pair of scissors poking out of your chest generally does that sort of thing.  And while Lalla is a suspect, at least for a little while, the reader knows she didn’t do it.  She’s the star of this series.

    But it begs the question.  Who would kill s homeless, ex-veteran street person without a dime to his name?  And why?

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Heart is a worthy sequel to the recently-read A Dead Red Cadillac, featuring the crop-dusting, ex-model, unlucky-at-love Lalla Bains and the trouble she seems to always get into in the otherwise unexciting city of Modesto, California.  The storyline moves at a crisp pace, and the structure is similar to the first book, and I mean that as a plus.  Lalla sleuths a bit in her spare time, mostly because nobody else seems to care who killed Billy Wayne, and the murderer of course takes steps to convey to Lalla that it’s not in her best interests of health to persevere in such meddling.

    The story is told in the first-person POV (Lalla’s), and the action starts right away, literally on the first page of the book.  There’s a heapload of characters for you to suspect of the dastardly deed, and a nice blend of new and recurring ones.  Lalla’s no longer torn between two boyfriends; one good, one bad.  Instead she’s ponders whether putting up with the pressure that her beau’s career (a sheriff) puts on their relationship is worth it.

   The Dead Red series seems to be in what I’d call the “quasi-cozy” genre.   Yes, there is some cussing, but it’s not done to excess.  And yes, Billy Wayne bleeds from the scissors insertion and dies onscreen, but I wouldn’t label it as “blood and gore”.  What is present in abundance is wit, sassiness, and humor.

    I was amused to see one of Lalla’s father’s medications, “Lasix”, mentioned by name.  I had to take this stuff during my stay in the hospital last year, and it is a brutal way to flush liquids out of one’s body.  And I was happy to see that Lalla’s cherry-red Cadillac, the centerpiece in the first book, is back in Book Two.

    A Dead Red Heart is a standalone story as well as part of a now 5-book series.  I happen to be reading these in order, mostly because I picked up the first three books in a “bundle” deal, but I think they can be read in any order and still be enjoyed.

Kewlest New Word…

Soporific (adj.) : tending to induce drowsiness or sleep.

Excerpts...

    From the sycamores overhead, birds sang, hopped from branch to branch, fussed at each other, and generally went about the business of making more birds.  In a nearby bush, a bird trilled, coughed, tried again, coughed, and finally gave up.  Del Potts knocked aside a couple of dusty branches and waved me over.

    I strolled to the bush and gave him a hand out.  “Everybody has been looking for you, Del.”

    “I know, I know, but I’ve got to stay incognito.”  (loc. 5826)

   With mixed feelings, I dressed and went downstairs and into the kitchen.  Juanita was whisking batter for pancakes and my dad was sipping a cup of coffee and mashing eggs into his toast.

    “Is that tofu on your toast, or are you off your low cholesterol diet?”

    “What’re you, the food police?  I get two eggs a week, miss nosy-butt.”

    I shrugged off the surly comment.  Another cup of coffee, and he’d go from surly to just crabby.  (loc. 6799)

Kindle Details...

    A Dead Red Heart sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  The first book in the series, A Dead Red Cadillac, sells for $0.99, the rest of the books all go for $3.99 each.  The first three books in the series are also available in a bundle, which is how I’m reading the series thus far.  R.P. Dahlke also has two books to offer in another trilogy, titled “Pilgrim’s Progress”.  Those books go for $2.99 each, or you can get them bundled with the first three books in the Dead Red series, all for only $7.99.

 “You have a cell phone with you?”  “Do bunnies live in trees?”  (loc. 6703)

    I had a couple quibbles, but nothing major.

    There are some French phrases scattered throughout, and that’s a language I love.  But here it's all butchered (“n’ce pas”, “s’il vou plat”, for two examples), and I couldn’t figure out if this was bad French on R.P. Dahlke’s part, a deliberate mangling by Modesto natives, or spellchecker running amok in the editing process. 

    Also, one of the main clues, which for spoiler reasons, I’ll relegate to the comments section, left me confused.  Was it a red herring, a MacGuffin, or did the author write herself into a corner and just leave it dangling, hoping that no one would notice the lack of resolution?

     But I pick at nits.  I found A Dead Red Heart to be a quick read, devoid of any slow spots, with wittiness aplenty, and just as entertaining as the first book.  Here’s hoping that the rest of the series is as much fun.

    8 Stars.  For the record, I did guess who the perpetrator was.  But that’s only because at various points along the storyline, I guessed it was any one of about a dozen suspects, and one of those 12 guesses turned out to be correct.