Wow this was well-written. Not just, y'know, solid prose that doesn't get in the way of the story, but on every level, genuinely a level or four above, what a pleasure to dive right into something so well-crafted. The remote west of Ireland setting is brilliantly depicted in all its closeness and friendliness and its insularity and secretiveness. There's a magnificent scene of a night in the pub that manages to be hilarious and warm but also with a carefully and subtly conveyed sense of threat. The voice and point of view of the ex-Chicago divorcee cop are brilliantly maintained, the outsider's view as he navigates the landscape and personalities when unexpectdly persuaded to look into the disappearance of a local young man is splendidly sustained, his rocky relationship with the younger sibling who seeks him out both scary and touching. Fantastic plot, great characters, wonderful writing.

I recently stumbled across the information that Avram Davidson had ghost-written two Ellery Queen books, and one of them was this, which happens to be the only Ellery Queen book I've ever read, having purchesed it at a sale of work in, I think, Castleconnell some time during my teens, and which was the weirdest, strangest most haunting murder mystery I've ever read.

1944, Ellery Queen, after a stint as a writer of propaganda films for the war effort in LA, brilliantly depcited in the opening section, gives up and sets off home, driving cross-country in a state of near ecstatic exhaustion, then stumbling on a remote hidden desert valley where a small religious community has lived undisturbed for sixty or seventy years in a peaceful idyll. His coming is foretold, apparently, and heralds something terrible happening, which it soon does when a member of the community is murdered in their most sacred space. How do you solve a murder in a place that has hardly ever known crime?

The mystery itself isn't that difficult to work out, but it is carefully worked through. Of more interest is the strange atmosphere, the scraps of erudition, the murky history of the sect and its odd traditions and how the murder could threaten all of it. It even has a 'and the book turned out to be!' twist, but it works and is played for poignancy rather than a cheap stab at shock.

With a large cast of characters and an intricate game and a puzzling mystery, Raskin's novel is so deftly composed, cunningly plotted, and briskly paced, such the reader is constantly jumping back to make sure they haven;t missed something - they usually haven't, it's all there. I'm not sure I've ever read a kids' book that that could challenge most adult books for complexity of plot, yet it all skims along lightly until the final unexpected twists and satisfying turns. A small masterpiece, perhaps even a work of witty genius.

After rescuing a woman from a bayou late one night, and a dead body discovered near the spot the next day, a Houston lawyer finds himself enmeshed in causes and conspiracies and corruption he wants no part of, his young radical self confronting his cynical present, unwillingly appointed as go-between between a union set to go on strike and the Mayor, but also being followed and threatened and bribed for reasons he can't understand.

Cool, elegant, country noir, with shades of Daniel Woodrell as a an army investigator home on leave is asked by his sister the sherrif to look into a woman's death. He navigates the countryside and the people and their ways with skill and insight, trying to stave off more revenge killings

Blew my tiny mind with its high concept and epic span when I first read it back in, as they say, the day, blew it again this time because of the sheer storytelling skill - this is like Iain Banks crossed with Guy Gavriel Kay, to give a woefully inadequate sense of what it does. Massively mind-boggling science fiction melded with a deep love of storytelling, which enables the author to skilfully draw the reader across a tangled plot spread over thousands of years and multiple settings, all contained within a planetray system that is both a disassembled starship and a trap for a particularly nasty and malevoelent enemy that preys on the long-extinct but newly-ressurected race of humans who are bait in the trap. The complexity of the worldbuilding and the story is actually kind of stunning. Self-contained, by the way, I haven't read any of the other Radix books - which is weird considering the way this exploded in my head - with no trouble. I think one supporting character comes from the previous books. A love story at its heart, too, which is nice. 

I remember being quite disappointed in this when it first came out because it was supposed to be some sort of sequel to Last Call, but seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with it. On rereading (relistening, actually) I find it is top-notch Powers. Haunted LA, full of ghosts and ghost-eaters, a young boy on the run with the ghost of Thomas Edison, a tramp electrician whose sister just killed herself drawn back to the place where they grew up and later worked together for a very strange woman, a psychiatrist whose group therapy 'seance' ended in fire and death two years before looking for expiation, and a giant fish washes up on a beach with a secret passenger on board. The plot unfolds, twists and turns, the strange milieu and quasi-science of the ghosts drives the story and the characters and it all ends up in a specatcular climax aboard the Queen Mary. Delighted younger me was proved wrong.

Seven detective stories, each one ilustrating aspects of a mathematical analysis of detective fiction, form a collection lost in obscurity now to be republished, as a young editor and an elderly author go through the manuscript, discussing each story and the theory that pertains to it. But there are odd inconsistencies in each story, and more than that, there is something off about each story. An odd game of hidden secrets is being played between the two characters - is one or both of them a detective, a suspect, or a victim? 

I have to say there was something about this that didn't quite come off - or rather came off too well? - but I can't go into it without spoilers, nonetheless, this is an exceedingly clever and well-crafted homage to the whodunnit

There's no denying these are well-written, well-conceived books. There's also no denying that no matter how cute and radicalised the dragon is and how stalwart and sympathetic his officer is, I still sneakily want Napoleon to win. I'm not proud of it, I would have thought myself above such primal nationalist urges, but there it is. The Wild Geese are in there somewhere fighting for liberty! What was left of them at that point, which wasn't much. Oh well. I swear I didn't have this problem with Patrick O'Brian. But throw in a dragon, apparently, and the blood of Wolfe Tone stirs. Weird. 

Scareltt and Browne have become a formidable pair of bandits, using their respective talents to commit robberies all over post-apocalyptic Merrie Engerlande. But notice has been taken, and someone has been despatched to track them who is more like Browne than Scarlett. Meanwhile they're on a desperate race to execute a dangerous heist with a tight deadline to save the lives of two friends taken hostage by Scareltt's old cronies. 

Moves fast, full of snappy dialogue, an intriguing world, greater depth added to Scarlett and her troubled past, has a spectacular psychic duel as a climax. Breezily glorious action and and adventure.