Midnight Blue-Light Special

This is Seanan McGuire‘s second InCryptid novel, and it not only lives up to the first book’s promise but, I rather think, exceeds it.

This is still told from Verity Prices point of view (a critical note for those who keep up enough to know that not all InCryptid tales are nor will be), and continues where Discount Armageddon left off.

It’s simply more of everything, except possibly Dominic. More Sarah, more Istas, more of the mice, and more excitement.

Personally I don’t like the end. That said, it’s a good end, well written, noble, etc. As a writer, my hats off to Ms McGuire for the ending. As someone who is very fond of that character I’m sad, but at least there’s nothing says it won’t all turn out all right by the end of the series.

In fear of giving spoilers I’ll say it as, if you want to read about someone kicking monsters’ asses with the awesome power of ballroom dance, then this as with its predecessor is well worth your us$8. The book is available through all major booksellers, electronic and print.

On technical notes, Seanan is a sound writer and her editorial team too, I imagine, deserve a big hand. The book is one of the cleanest I’ve seen in a long time, possibly topping the first book on lack of typos and mistakes. Again, I can’t laud the story telling enough. Lovable characters in hearty helping. Humour, suspense, action, and excitement abound in proportions that I think would make her a master chef were this food instead of text.

A better review, I suppose, might have simply been three words: buy this book!

Keller’s Therapy

‘Keller’s Therapy‘ is a fairly interesting new addition to a short story series by Lawrence Block, and published by Mr Block via Amazon‘s KDP service.

That’s right, this is an ordinary indie review … of the man who brought us the grand adventures of one Bernie Rhodenbarr.

The Keller stories, I’ll be honest, I’ve never tried to get into until this one.  I picked it up on Amazon when I stumbled across the fact that it was on sale (no longer as of this writing, sorry).

It could use slightly better editing — the grammar and punctuation looks fine, but there’re occasional missing words.  Also, the cover is odd — it’s not about dogs.

The story is only 32 pages, so I’m not sure I can sum it up very well.  I suppose a few basics would suffice.  The stories are about one J. P. Keller, a professional hit man.  This particular one is about Keller’s sessions with a psychotherapist.

It’s simply a very engrossing tale.  Hard to put down, easy to finish:  an all-round fantastic read.  I will say, it’s drier and less fun than the Bernie’s, so if you know Block for them and are looking for more of the same you might be disappointed, if you simply are enamoured with Block’s overall style you’ll certainly dig it.