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THIS STORM + CELTIC EMPIRE - Review

I am working/reading my way through a pretty warm Autumn in greater Los Angeles plus there was a small brush fire in Griffith Park near my home last night. But the sun is out now so better things ahead. 

Both books are 2019 releases, these are the last of the 2019's on my shelf. [Editor's Note: Watch this blog for a Best of 2019 post coming never!] Other than the occasional sidetrack for pleasure, most everything moving forward should be a release in the current calendar year. And that is exciting...

THIS STORM - James Ellroy.

I have done my fair share of complaining about Mr. Ellroy's writing style in this blog. The thing is when it works his writing style helps to super-charge his stories in thrilling ways (i.e. AMERICAN TABLOID). It draws you closer to his stories, the immediacy of his kind of writing is propulsive. Except when it only serves to prolong his narrative. Anyway, I quite like THIS STORM, and in liking the book I identified another issue with Mr. Ellroy's later work. There have not been many people to root for. Mr. Ellroy has never written good guys v. bad guys story in his life. There are no good guys in his book's. There are bad guys and worse guys. In his better books, though, I have always been able to latch on to one of those not so bad guys. In THIS STORM it is the character of Kay Lake and because that is true THIS STORM is a success.

CELTIC EMPIRE - Clive + Dirk Cussler

An enjoyable yarn, and pretty quick read. Over the last 9-10 Dirk Pitt books these have become reliably good reads if a bit shallow. Shallow mainly owing to underdeveloped villains. In Celtic Pride, Pitt, et. al. must confront a women who wants to wipe out all the men of the world, and she has developed a way for women to reproduce their own off-spring to do it. So, yeah, fun read.

Current Read: RIVIERA GOLD - Laurie R. King
To Be Read Pile: 7


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