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Let me backtrack for a second...

[Editors Note: I wrote this post about six weeks ago. I have been tinkering with it since. It is a bog standard post so I don't understand my reticence. Even now I don't think it is done.]

My latest purchases are Edward Gorey books. I'll talk about them, but first let me go back. I bought the four most recent books by Adrian McKinty. I read them in about six weeks. The books were restorative in the exact way that I had hoped. A solid author turning in solid work. Perhaps that sounds like damning them with faint praise, not all. I found the Duffy Trilogy along with FALLING GLASS to be the most evocative books I've read in sometime. Along with the McKinty, the latest Michael Connolly, and likely the best Easy Rawlins in fifteen years means that I can't even remember the last book I read that was a dud. 

The California Antiquarian Book Fair happened more than a few months ago now. I talked up the lock I felt that purchasing James Lee Burke's HEAVEN'S PRISONERS was. It didn't happen. I never even saw the book among the 200-250 vendors. I get the show is not geared away for Crime Fiction, but I hoped Mr. Burke's work would be among the genre authors to make an appearance. I looked for other delights, primarily following Ricky Jay around for about thirty to forty-five minutes.

On a positive note there were small caches of Edward Gorey to be found. I ran across two copies of THE LOATHSOME COUPLE, both were only in fair condition. I also found some of the more pricey limited edition works that are fun to see and dream about owning. Finally, I found a copy of THE LOATHSOME COUPLE in what amounted to an unread copy in the last row. Easy purchase. The fact that it came under the amount that I had prepared to spend on the Burke made it all the better.

Anyway. I'm headed home in a few days. I'll hunt down some James Lee Burke's from the list, maybe get lucky on The TOURIST by Olen Steinhauer. [Editors Note: I did not, and came home with nothing]

More soon.
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