“I”m getting too old for all this stuff,” says Joe Leaphorn — retired Navajo Police Lieutenant. A few minutes later he is gunned down, right outside a diner full of Navajo Police, and the only witness to the crime is Officer Bernadette Manuelito, the wife of Leaphorn’s former subordinate and occasional partner, Sgt. Jim Chee.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the venerable man’s tough enough to survive being shot through the head. Unfortunately for Bernie, she’s a witness to the crime, and therefore shouldn’t be working the case.

Of course, that doesn’t stop her from poking into it, both with and without her husband. But once the direct trail of the shooter’s vehicle becomes more than a little obscured by multiple drivers and uncertain motives, and the FBI gets involved, Bernie has to look beyond the immediate crime to find answers — and has to do it under the guise of helping a possibly-dying friend get his affairs in order, rather than as a Tribal Police Officer.

With the only person who could positively identify the shooter fighting for his own life, Bernie and Jim must assemble the shards of this broken pot with care. One wrong move could alert the killer, so this tangled web must be carefully unwoven, strand by strand.

The answer may lie in a project that Leaphorn was working on — helping an arts council vet their collection of Native American pottery for an overseas client. Or maybe the mysterious exit of his long-time lover, away at a “conference” she doesn’t want to talk about over the phone.

Or has an old enemy from one of Leaphorn and Chee’s many cases come back to haunt him and take revenge..?

Fans of the late Tony Hillerman may not welcome another hand writing Chee and Leaphorn, even if it is his daughter. Indeed, this isn’t what one would consider a typical mystery by him; no supernatural crime masks or competes with the mundane one, for example, and superstition does not get in the way of its solving. And while it shares his concern for the culture and well-being of Native Americans, any number of authors could provide a similar feel.

But long-time devotees of his writing should give Anne Hillerman’s voice a chance to win them over. If they do, they will find Spider Woman’s Daughter to be a good mystery, full of the honest and hopeful exploration of Native American life that Tony Hillerman was known for. They will also find Anne Hillerman to be a worthy author in her own right, and as good of a chronicler of his characters as we will find anywhere; even if the traditional formula has been altered, somewhat, she continues in the spirit of his works, which is what is truly important, here.

Spider Woman’s Daughter comes out in October of 2013.

If you had to name the most dangerous and well-connected person in all of Los Angeles, Irwin Dressler would be right at the top of the list. Studio bosses and Union heads used to call him to find out what to do, that day, and lived in fear of him calling them. And let’s not even get started on his mob connections…

So when Junior Bender — unofficial (read “press-ganged”) detective to LA’s criminal classes — gets snatched off the streets by Dressler’s thugs, and plopped in front of the testy and talkative nonagenarian, he knows he’d better mind his Ps and Qs. And that’s a good thing, because the case that Dressler wants Bender to take this time is an unusual one: who stole the career of the most beautiful woman in the world, and left her a Hollywood exile?

It’s a good question, though. Once upon a time, Dolores La Marr was really going places; working her way up from bad movies to good, from the bottom of the bill to the top of the credits, and from casting couches to made men. In time she might have been another Marilyn Monroe, but then a bad night in Las Vegas left her arrested, exposed, humiliated, and dragged in front of Senate committees.

And after that, all she had to look forward to was ridicule and shame, unanswered phone calls, and a lifetime in hiding.

As a professional burglar, Junior knows a thing or two about taking the most important thing from someone’s life. As a divorced dad trying to maintain a decent relationship with his daughter, he also knows a thing or two about having it taken from him. And as someone trying to be some shade of a decent human being — professional activities notwithstanding — he can’t help but feel for the sassy and sharp, but clearly broken woman he goes to interview.

So Bender does what he does best, and starts poking around at the past to find an answer. But the more you dig in the stagnant water of times gone by, the more things float to the surface, and not all of them are happy to be disturbed. Before long, Bender’s list of witnesses starts to get rubbed out, and there’s every chance he might be next.

And just when he didn’t need any more complications, it turns out a very dangerous hitwoman is calling on him, wanting him to help her settle some unrelated family problems. And his wife’s dating a sleazy real-estate snake-charmer, and his daughter’s too smart for her own good, and his new girlfriend needs attention… oh, and there might be a genuine ghost involved in the crime, too.

What’s a burglar under the gun to do? If you’ve already read Crashed and Little Elvises, you know that Junior Bender isn’t without resources to call on if his plans backfire. But this time he may have had his face shoved into a meal he might not be able to chew on his own…

Three books into this series, Timothy Hallinan is succeeding in giving his readers a light-hearted noir crook to cheer for, along with intriguing characters, and an underworld saga that keeps building on itself from book to book. The Fame Thief is not as breezy or fast as the previous two books, as there’s flashbacks and senate transcripts involved, but Hallinan proves as adept with showing us the past that doesn’t turn up in LA’s history books as he is with showing us the parts of the town that don’t appear on the tourist maps. The potentially-risky move of changing the mix pays off, making this book as fun as its predecessors, and still possessing of a gold heart under all those dirty secrets and second-story capers.

The Fame Thief drops on July 2nd, 2013. Shine a light on it as soon as it comes out.

There’s nothing like a murder to ring in the Christmas spirit in Oslo.

The victim was a Salvation Army bell-ringer — a common sight in a country where the organization wears uniforms and speaks of “holy war.” What wasn’t common was the fact that the killer struck the man in public, and then simply melted into the crowd. The signs point to a professional hit, which would make the assassin a hired gun. But who in the world would want to kill a man engaged in charitable work?

Tasked with solving that puzzle is Harry Hole*, who has the distinction of being an excellent and demanding detective, and the curse of being all too flawed of a human being. Harry’s a recovering alcoholic who’s just one or two bad pieces of news away from tipping back into a bottle. He’s still trying to get over the end of his last relationship, the murder of his last partner, and a few other crosses he’s bearing at any given time.

Chief amongst the new crosses is his new boss, who is either a well-meaning stickler for rules or a jerk looking to fire him — maybe both. And then there’s the lady in AA who gets off on both him and his horror stories, and the police telling him he needs to carry a gun, now,  and worrying about the blasted lump of sorrow his former boss has become.

A lesser person might just slip into a bottle, drink himself sober, and narrowly avoid freezing to death on the streets. But Harry’s made of sterner stuff — he’ll at least make some headway on his current case before allowing himself such a selfish luxury.

The mystery deepens as the assassin strikes again, right when Harry’s in the apartment with the new target. This unnerving occurrence sheds a little more light on the case, but also deepens the mystery even more. Why is a rubber-faced Croatian gunning for Salvation Army members? Is the answer somewhere in the overlapping and complex relationships between the major players in this case? Or has something from that other nation’s past finally stirred itself to life, and come to seek blood for blood?

Can Harry crack this case before he cracks up, or the assassin strikes true? Will there be any redemption for anyone, here, this Christmas?

Reading one of Jo Nesbø’s Hole novels is like trying to solve a complicated puzzle while being stomped in the face by the cold and heavy boots of an evil, laughing clown. The mystery is dense and the atmosphere is crushing, but the pace is swift and the characters unpredictable, which makes it less of a nihilistic slog through old world treacle and more of a measured stroll along the enlightened wreckage of a society that doesn’t understand how broken it actually is.

It’s a testament to Nesbø’s writing that he doesn’t telegraph his moves in advance (you can never tell who’s going to live or die, for example) and that the grim has just enough dark humor in it to keep it from being a total downward spiral. But there’s always the sense that, even if Hole triumphs this time, there’s still some worse, larger conundrum to solve, and we might not like the answers we find, or fully understand or agree with how Hole resolves things.

Will you understand or agree? That’s for you to discover. But whether you’re a fan of Jo Nesbø’s other Harry Hole novels, or someone who enjoys the current vogue of post-Dragon Tattoo, European Dark, You should investigate The Redeemer when it arrives.

The Redeemer will be published May 21st, 2013

* Pronounced “HEU-lay,” apparently

- Jim Tremlett, Eastwood

Did you enjoy our last post about great graphic novels arriving at Schuler Books and Music recently? Well, there’s still more illustrated goodness out there! This time, we’ll look at exciting stuff coming from the independents, as well as from DC’s Vertigo imprint.

Hot off the presses is the latest installment of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Nemo: Heart of Ice. It’s 1925, and, a decade and a half after taking control of Captain Nemo’s dread legacy, his daughter Janni — last seen in Century:1910 — is finding the role rather heavy and tiring. So she decides to try and outdo her late father by taking up his unfinished exploration of the strange, Antarctic regions. But the dangerous forces she disturbed on her last bit of piracy are out to get revenge.

And if they don’t kill her, the otherworldly things that lurk out the South Pole just might…

As always, the team of Moore and O’Neill provide an adventurous feast for the eyes and the mind. Those who enjoy Moore’s deft manipulation of overlapping fictions will find this a satisfying read, and have quite the jolly time spotting literary references. And those who’ve been wondering what the author would make of all the various spooky goings-on at that particular locale will find it intriguing, to say the least.

Another recent treat from the independents comes to us direct from Mega-City One! Just in time for the DVD release of the skull-smashingly good Judge Dredd, the scribe-droids from the galaxy’s greatest magazine, 2000 AD, have released a now-classic story from the vaults of the Justice Department.

And it is no less than the story, itself: the definitive origin story of, well… everything.

A mysterious package is dropped off at the Grand Hall of Justice — a simple Mutant-tinged message containing a strange ultimatum that the Judges cannot ignore. Answering that call requires Judge Dredd to take a search party into the Cursed Earth in search of a secret. And, as their mission goes more than a little askew, Dredd finds himself compelled to tell the truth about a number of unsettling subjects, most notably the truth about the fabled Chief Judge Fargo.

But to tell the story of that great man, Dredd also has to tell his own story, for the two are quite inseparable. And that means talking about the creation of the Mega Cities, the rise of the Judges, the Apocalypse War, the last American President, and everything that’s followed after.

Will this unsettling knowledge help Dredd’s fellow Judges in their quest to discover another, even more unsettling truth? Or are they doomed to take their hard-earned knowledge with them to a dusty grave in the Cursed Earth?

This story has been a long time coming, so it’s only fitting that Judge Dredd: Origins is primarily told by two of Dredd’s oldest chronicler/creators: John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Fans of the series’ unique blend of brutal sci-fi action, dark comedy, and wry social commentary will doubtless be thrill-powered for decades by this stunning event.

(In fact, failure to possess this work of art carries a five-year iso-cube sentence, Citizen!)

Meanwhile, over at the darker corner of DC Comics, the Vertigo imprint continues to deliver sophisticated stories of suspense, horror, and imagination. One title that’s stood out quite a bit is Saucer Country, where the first Hispanic woman to run for the Presidency of the United States of America might also be the first President to have been kidnapped by aliens…

… or is she? Did it happen it all, or is something else playing her behind the scenes? Is she the only one this has happened to, or have other successful politicians been abducted as well? And if so, what’s the ET’s angle in American politics?

Whatever the truth is, Arcadia Alvarado won’t stop searching for it. But while her staff goes digging for the truth, something else starts digging back. And the man she’s turned to for answers to her confusion is dealing with quite a bit of his own — in fact, if he’s not being contacted by aliens, himself, then he might just be going insane…

Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly deliver a taut and fiercely-imagined blend of post-Roswell conspiracy theories, American politics, sci-fi paranoia, and strange mystery. Launched during the 2012 elections, Saucer Country couldn’t have been a more timely a title, and the first volume, Run, is currently available. It should be snapped up before the Greys try and make you forget you saw it.

Another amazing release is The New Deadwardians — an alternate history set in Edwardian England, some years after the zombie wars. Much of the country’s upper class took “the cure” (vampirism) in order to defeat the ravening hordes of the undead, and this has left them bloodless, joyless, and barely able to enjoy their now-eternal life. But they maintain a stiff upper lip, and do their best to hide their fangs in public, keep up appearances, and avoid turning into monsters.

So when a murder takes place in a world where hardly anyone dies, anymore, an intrepid and well-meaning police detective must seek out what’s happened. Finding the answer will take him into the company of higher vampires and lesser humans, and into the wastelands where the hungry dead still hold sway. But will the truth help him become more human, or rip their staid world apart?

Written by prolific scribe Dan Abnett, and illustrated by horror-star I.N.J. Culbard, this title could best be described as Downton Abbey mixed with 28 Weeks Later, with more than a little Anno Dracula thrown in. And if all that sounds like an unappetizing mess, then I challenge you to just nick the surface of this novel with your teeth, just to see.

I can almost guarantee you’ll slurp it right down in one go.

And that’s all for this month, but there’s always new graphic novels coming our way. So if you love this form of storytelling, or are curious about what’s become of the four-color funnybooks, be sure to stop by any of our locations and get a recommendation for something new and interesting.

- Jim Tremlett, Eastwood

In the mood for some great graphic novels? So are we! Here’s a collection of some of the cool things that have flown into the store, both in April and over the last few months.

Just in time for the build-up for Iron Man 3, we have the final volume in Matt Fraction’s epic run on old shellhead life and times, appropriately-entitled The Future. It’s been a very tumultuous few years, what with the Civil War, the reign of Normal Osborn, putting his life back together after the Siege, and having that uneasy peace shattered again by Fear Itself. But now, after succumbing to the bottle once more during that last crisis, Tony Stark faces the ultimate indignity: he’s been stripped of his armor and his free will, and forced to work for his arch-enemy, The Mandarin.

Stuck in the powerful tyrant’s city, harried by modified foes, and threatened with pain and death every time he steps an inch out of line — or, worse, even slightly disappoints — Stark toils to create mega-weapons for this singularly dangerous man. But what is the Mandarin really up to, and can he stop the man’s dire plans with his head wired up?

Up against the ultimate deadline, Stark forges a coalition of friends and foes. Will it be enough? And if he wins, what shape will the future take…?

As ever, Salvador Larroca’s art is brilliant, and acts as a perfect medium for the satisfying finale of a well-done run that’s been just as brilliant, and paves the way for the new Marvel we’re currently enjoying. If you’ve been snapping up the collections as they’ve been coming out, you’ll want to get this as soon as possible. And if you’re new to Iron Man, you’ll want to go back to the start, just to be able to understand how good a book this has been.

Speaking of brilliant runs, the latest collection of Mark Waid’s run on Daredevil is another work not to be missed. After the events of Shadowland, Matt Murdock was just getting his life back together, but then he came across a piece of dangerous technology, which painted a very large target on his back. The Omega drive has a lot of incriminating and complete information on the world’s major science terrorist groups, and they’re all sending their soldiers out to get it from him, any way they can.

Faced with such a terrible team-up, Daredevil turns to a good friend (Spiderman) and a pair of allies he’d rather not have (The Punisher, and his new recruit). But will his plan to deal with his multiple antagonists actually work, given that the seeds of betrayal are already within his band?

And if he does survive his plan, what — or who — is waiting in the wings for him?

(See the cover for helpful hint)

Fans of hornhead will enjoy this latest chronicling of Murdock’s complicated life; the series has continued to get stronger — playing to the strengths of the character and his backstory — and  the crossovers with Spiderman and the Punisher are timely and well-executed. Even if you’ve only had a passive interest in the character, you might want to grab Volume 3 and see if it doesn’t just make you a believer.

Meanwhile, over at DC, the march of 52 titles continues! You think you know the story of Jaime Reyes, better known as the Blue Beetle? Well, maybe you do, but in this post-reboot DC universe nothing is certain — especially since there was no Ted Kord around to be BB before him, now.

As before, Jaime’s a decent kid trying to get by in a less-than-decent world. He makes the mistake of falling for the right girl with the wrong family, and this gets him in the wrong place at the right time to be claimed by a powerful piece of alien technology — the sort of thing that can conquer the world, or maybe save it.

Normally, this would be a cool thing. But the scarab that bonds with Jaime is a terrifying thing with its own ideas, and a very hefty amount of baggage and enemies. And these enemies aren’t above coming for Jaime, his family, and his friends, which means things get really dangerous and tragic really quickly.

Worse, the right girl’s aunt is a dangerous woman with a craving for power, and quite the collection of puissant artifacts. And this puts poor Jaime right in her cross-hairs, because she wants that scarab, and will stop at nothing to get it…

Sounds great? Well, it is — the art is awesome, the story is compelling , and the character was, as no less than the New York Times noted, “off to a good start.” Which makes it all the more tragic that DC cancelled this series before it really hit its stride and got going. If there was any title that deserved a break, it was Blue Beetle, but hopefully we will see more of Jaime somewhere else in the DCU, and hopefully they let Tony Bedard write for him.

But until that happens, Vol 1: Metamorphosis is available now, and Vol 2: Blue Diamond will be out very shortly. Read them both and weep.

Speaking of weeping, one man who never wasted any tears on anyone or anything was the one and only Jonah Hex — outlaw, bounty hunter, gun for hire, and ten tons of trouble in one pair of pants.

His time in Gotham City put him in the way of some dangerous and spooky goings-on, and hooked him up with a smart fellow by the name of Amadeus Arkham. And now, after making some friends — and a whole lot of dangerous enemies — the pair have high-tailed it to New Orleans to deal with some unfinished business.

However, some of the business they left unfinished in Gotham is coming after them, and with trouble ahead and behind they’re going to need more than one pair of guns to save them. Lucky for them, Nighthawk and Cinnamon are in town and willing to help. But when they get back up North they’re going to be heading right back into trouble, again — and not all of it unfriendly.

All Star Western has been nothing short of a revelation. Not only is it a successful and enjoyable revival of the 1970′s DCU Western series, it’s been packed with enough shout-outs to modern-day costumed antagonists (especially the Court of Owls) to keep people who might otherwise be less-inclined to read a “Western” comic to pick it up, go “oh, yeah! I know them” and keep reading. Add that to Palmiotti’s excellent writing, a bevy of artists who suit the mood of each story, and intriguing backup features that re-introduce or re-invent other Western-era DCU characters (as well as create new ones) and you have a title that has amazing possibilities.

Vol 2. The War of Lords and Owls is out now, and Vol 1. Guns and Gotham is also available.

That’s all for this time! Be sure to check out the graphic novel sections in our stores for old classics, new entries, and the occasional surprise or rare gem.

- Jim Tremlett

If there’s one thing we Booksellers at Schuler Books and Music love, it’s when a customer wants a total, complete,  no-holds-barred recommendation for a good book. You could comb through our Staff Picks section or the Indie Next list, of course, but nothing beats having someone talk you into taking a chance on a new book from an up-and-coming author, or an old favorite, or something that slipped everyone’s notice but deserves to be read. We call it a Hand-Sell, and it’s one of the best parts of the job.

In keeping with that idea, I thought I’d do something a little different, this week, and try to remotely Hand-Sell you on three of my favorite, understated titles. They run from spooky to tense, with a little funny-but-sad thrown in for good measure.

So, are you ready to be sold on something? Then let’s begin…

When Jacob Logan’s big-city business venture goes down in flames, he heads back to his family’s home to recuperate and decide what to do next. But right from the start, he gets the distinct feeling that things are just not right in the small, Southern town he grew up in. The people he remembers are a little too welcoming, or not welcoming at all, and while things seem familiar they also feel just a little off, like he’d walked into an imperfect retelling of his childhood.

And then the real trouble starts. Unseen forces try and compel him to leave, but other, equally unseen hands force him to stay. Being pushed and pulled in this spooky fashion, he soon finds himself in genuine jeopardy, but no one will believe his crazy stories. Can he unravel the mystery his dead parents have left for him, and survive? Or did he come back to this town to die?

With its spooky, modern-day Southern Gothic atmosphere, and tales of dueling ghosts, Firefly Rain proves that you can go home again, but it might just kill you.

* * *

So these two junkies meet up in rehab in LA: one is the scion of a wealthy Hollywood family who’s been given one last chance to clean up, or else he gets cut off from the family’s largesse, and the other is the lover of a now-dead police investigator who’s decided to kick the junk as he starts a new life. And here they are, sharing a room at a center being run by a celebrity shrink whose method of treatment leaves a lot to be desired.

At any other time, this might sound like the start of a joke, but the lover of the dead cop has a story to tell. His sugar-daddy was an infamous sort who was at some of the Valley’s more interesting crime scenes, and not above filching some of the evidence for his own use, or as a souvenir. This included the Tate-LaBianca murders, where the bent cop managed to steal a homemade porn movie, featuring some of the family’s famous friends, all of whom are dead now, either due to the murders, natural causes, their own subsequent tragedies, or — in Mama Cass’ case — a ham sandwich.

In the right hands, this film could be worth a lot of money. The Hollywood money guy might know the right hands, and so a partnership is struck. But can these two junkies manage to get clean, get out of rehab, and make this deal happen — especially when a very scary character comes looking for the dead cop’s lover?

Sick City alternates between harrowing and hilarious, with enough pathos to have you reaching for a box of tissues by the end.

* * *

Photographs aren’t supposed to come to life, years later, and try and kill you, but that’s exactly what’s happening to Falques.

An internationally-renowned  war photographer, Falques has given up his camera for a brush, and intends to spend his days painting a diorama inside a lighthouse, instead. One day, as he’s going about his work, a strange man comes up to him and asks if he recognizes him. It turns out this man was the subject of one of Falques’ more famous photographs, and being seen the world around brought this man nothing but tragedy and pain.

Now he’s here to kill Falques, but he leaves and promises to come back the next day. Each day, when he comes back, he and Falques talk about life, and art, and pain, and the strange way these things are all bound up together. And with each pointed discussion, as we wonder if this is going to be the day the stranger carries out his threat, we find out more and more about the woman Falques loved and lost, and what has truly brought him to this lighthouse.

Can Falques survive this hazardous and heady dialogue, or is he already dead?

Better known for his Captain Alatriste novels, Arturo Perez Reverte’s The Painter of Battles shows how versatile his talents truly are. This story is a tense masterpiece that should be savored by anyone who loves a laid-back thriller with an understated menace, where the real stakes are more than can be delivered with a bullet to the head or a knife to the back.

And that’s all for me, today. If your closest Schuler Books and Music doesn’t have these titles, we’d be happy to try and order them for you.

But I’m not the only one with recommendations to make! Be sure to ask one of our Booksellers for a recommendation the next time you visit. It would truly be a pleasure.

- Jim Tremlett, Eastwood

Meet Carter Tomlin. Once, he was a hardworking and successful businessman who was proud to be able to provide for his family. He had a wife, kids, a nice house, a good track on a senior position, and things were great.

But then he lost his job, courtesy of recent harsh economic realities, and his life started coming apart. And that’s because Carter was too proud to declare bankruptcy, and with the severance package money dwindling, and bills coming due, he made a bad decision that changed everything.

He robbed a bank, like a total amateur, and got away with it.

Flash forward a while later. Carter has a posse, now, and they’re knocking over banks fairly handily. He’s making good money, and has a good rhythm, but  the take’s just not enough to handle his massive bills, or get him where he needs to be. They’re going to have to start taking unacceptable risks if he’s going to clear the hurdle and finally stop.

The problem is, he’s starting to really like it. He may not actually want to stop, when the time comes.

Cue the heroes of our story: FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere and Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens, last seen tracking down the surprisingly-successful amateur abductors in The Professionals. Their initial tracking of the robbers takes them in different directions, but they eventually wind up in the middle, again, and slip back into their complementary partnership — one that might be a little too cozy for one of them, and not nearly enough for the other.

Can they track down this group of robbers before the leader’s disintegrating moral fiber allows him take a deadly risk? And how close to home is this one going to hit — especially when the Kirk realizes that he may actually know one of the crooks in question, even if Windermere doesn’t quite believe him…

Fast, furious, and all-too-timely, Criminal Enterprise proves that The Professionals was not a one-off success. The dynamic between Agent Windermere and Kirk Stevens is electrifying, and the tragic story of Carter Tomlin may just haunt you well after you’ve finished the book.

If I have one complaint, it’s that this is the second novel where Laukkanen’s used the “good people gone bad because the economy stinks” trope to explain people’s criminal actions. Like the abduction gang in Professionals, Tomlin’s initial descent into crime is blamed on desperation in the face of monetary troubles, and then accelerated by subsequent moral disintegration. While this is not an unrealistic portrait of such persons — indeed, it’s all too common, though rather sympathetic — I hope that, come the third Windermere and Stevens investigation, we might get a different motivating factor.

That quibble aside, this book is a dynamite thriller, coming from an author who’s proving very worthy of the big-name approvals on his dust jackets. If you like your crime thrillers packed with a good mix of action, detection, and thrills, with good characters you care about and criminals you can sympathize with, though still condemn,you should make your next enterprise a Criminal one.

Criminal Enterprise drops on March 26th, and will be available in most Schuler Books and Music locations.

- Jim Tremlett, Eastwood

To those of you who care – Happy March Madness! If watching two or three dozen games over the next few weeks isn’t enough, you can always grab a copy of Tom Hagar’s excellent The Ultimate Book of March Madness to read between tip-offs (tips-off?). If you fall on the normal side of the fence, however, and that would just be way too much basketball, here are a few suggestions of a completely different kind: 

Devil in the Grove - Gilbert King. One of the paradoxes of reading is how much you can enjoy the experience of a book even though the subject matter may be repulsive and shameful. Mr. King’s book is a meticulously researched and skillfully written account of the Groveland Boys trial in Florida, shortly after World War II. The story, young black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in the Jim Crow-era South, played out countless times over several decades. What makes this book page-turningly compelling is the size of its heroes and villains.

Young NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall saw this case and a handful of others as opportunities to slowly pick away at the “separate but equal” laws on the books in many states. He and his staff risked their lives on many occasions, in states where the KKK was riding a crest of power and influence. Future Supreme Court Justice Marshall and the men and women who braved the battles with him were true American heroes – driven, daring and passionate. On the other side, I can’t recall in the darkest of fiction a more repellent villain than Sherriff Willis McCall of Lake County, Florida. Both a pawn of the powerful citrus-growers of the era and the standard-bearer of racism to his constituents, there’s no temptation as you read to excuse him as a product of a different time or influenced by his environment. This was a man fully capable of hating anyone not sharing his skin color or beliefs and acting on that hatred without conscience. That he held office until 1972 is a glaring reminder of how slowly change can happen.

A disturbing, yet thrilling read, too true to have a simple happy ending. It would be fair to say we’re still working toward the book’s resolution.

The Art Forger - Barbara Shapiro. Ms. Shapiro takes a true event, the theft of thirteen major works of art from Boston’s Isabella Gardner Museum in 1990, and turns it into a fine left-field mystery novel. You’ll learn more about the world of art forgery, both legal and not, than you ever thought you needed to know; but it’s all part of a compelling romp through the surprise and suspense of a very well told story. It’s pure coincidence that the FBI announced just last week that they had finally indentified the real-life thieves, and were much closer to solving the case after all these years. I can’t help but wonder if Ms. Shapiro’s research for her book played any part.

Breakfast for Dinner - Lindsay Landis & Taylor Hackbarth. I’ve never been one to adhere to the rules of certain-foods-for-certain-times-of-day in the first place. If I want something savory for breakfast or sweet and comforting for dinner, I don’t let the clock make the decision for me. The authors take that idea even further; creating original, unfussy and delicious recipes that bring the ingredients and flavors of breakfast food to the evening meal. The recipe titles alone will give you a great idea of both the author’s playful creativity and why I’ve become so attached to this book – Italian-Style French Toast, Parmesan Beignets, Breakfast Sausage Ravioli, Bacon Fried Rice, Espresso Baked Beans – need I say more?

Thanks for taking the time to read, and I always welcome and appreciate any feedback you may care to offer. Let’s share recommendations – that well never runs dry.

Until next week,

Neil

Who the hell is Richard Hell? If you have to ask that question, you haven’t been paying attention.

In the 70′s and early 80′s, Hell (real name Richard Meyers) was the cofounder of three bands: Television, the Heartbreakers, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. He quit both Television and the Heartbreakers due to conflicts with other band members, and then went on to form the Voidoids, where he could actually drive the bus for a change.

While saying that all three outfits were incredibly influential is simply stating the truth, that’s like saying that Beethoven was a great composer, or Shakespeare wrote some pretty nifty plays. It can be argued that, had there been no Richard Hell to help mold and form the early influences of the music that came out of New York City in the mid to late 70′s, the resulting punk explosion simply would not have happened the way that it did, or with as much ferocity, or the same style and esthetics.

Which means that, if you were slamdancing at hardcore shows in the 80′s, had Sex Pistols or Clash posters up on your walls in high school or college, and still sneer at “punk rock” acts that play large stadiums and charge an arm and a leg for tickets, then you have Richard Hell to thank.

And if you close your eyes and make believe, you might just imagine he’s sneering right alongside you — safety-pinned shirt and all.

Richard retired from music in 1984, after the Voidoids broke up. Since then, he’s been concentrating on writing, producing novels and a wealth of poetry, commentary, and criticism. I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp is his long-awaited autobiography.

And saying that it’s phenomenal is, again, like saying that that Beethoven guy was really something.

When it comes to an autobiography, you have to understand that you’re being told a story. A biography is an exercise in provable facts (so as to avoid very angry editors and highly-litigious estates) because you’re telling someone else’s story, and you really need to get it right. But an autobiography is like sidling up to a stranger at a bar, and buying them a drink in exchange for them telling you about their childhood, or their first job, or the first in a long string of lovers who did them wrong.

If you pass them enough drinks they might just pass out, but hopefully not before you get to the real meat of their life and work, and maybe a revelation or two. If you’re lucky they’re really good at telling stories.

As anyone who’s  listened to his lyrics or read his poems or novels can tell you, Richard Hell is really damn good at telling stories. Tramp sings the song of his life up until 1984, when he quit music, and it’s told in what appears to be naked honesty — quite literal, in many spots — complete with his triumphs and failures, slights and revenges, and a philosophy that may bend but not quite break. There are lines in here worthy of song, and for all we know they may have already been performed, somewhere along the way.

By the time you’re done with it, you feel like you were there, laughing and loving and crying along with him, and feeling like maybe you missed something by not cohabiting his sphere of existence. Whether it’s entirely true or not is a matter for others to parse out and argue over; this book was meant to be a rich and filling feast — who cares what went into the sausage?

But one thing this autobiography isn’t — for which I call it phenomenal, as opposed to just darn good — is a story with a purpose.

Far too many autobiographies are written for a reason other than just telling the story of a life: the reporter who wants to say why she got fired from the major newspaper; the possible or failed presidential candidate; the outed spy or the crapped-upon victim; the man who cut his hand off to escape a hungry rock. All these stories are presented to us in order to give their side of “the story,” or get some kind of revenge or justice by way of the court of the public eye, or else justify their having lived instead of died.

Tramp hasn’t been written to denigrate Hell’s cohorts, excoriate his exes, or prove how valuable he was to the time where he had the most input. Like the perfect song, it exists simply for its own sake, and can be enjoyed without worrying about devious subtexts, or having to watch out for the bill of goods it might stick you with.

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp: An Autobiography is out now, in Hardcover, and available at all Schuler Books and Music locations.

- Jim Tremlett

Junior Bender? He’s a burglar. He’s also a really smart guy — the sort of person that other crooks press-gang into solving their problems when things get a little too cerebral for them to handle. In fact, he just handled a pretty complex and nasty problem for a few fairly nasty people. Maybe you read about it?

Well, no sooner does Junior extricate himself from one set of problems than he gets tied up in another. But this time, it’s a detective who’s trying to pull his strings. It seems his uncle — former music impresario Vinnie DiGaudio — is being accused of killing a scumbag reporter who wouldn’t stop sticking his nose into his business. Unfortunately, the uncle actually did threaten that reporter a couple times, and was planning on killing him, which makes it a little harder to prove he didn’t.

Not an easy matter to handle, but that’s not the only problem with this case. For one thing, Junior’s being hit on by the dead journalist’s very foxy wife, who’s really not too seemingly sorry that he’s dead. The fact that she’s playing the merry widow to the hilt makes it harder for him to ignore that a spouse is often the number one suspect in the murder, but there’s just something about her that makes him hope this isn’t the case.

He’s also stalked by a very disturbing and violent fellow who seems to want him out of this matter. And then there’s the landlady of the hotel he holes up at, and the fact that her daughter’s missing, and wouldn’t it be nice if he could find her? And what is up with that crazy, unpleasant woman who looks after Vinnie?

And if you think that’s complicated?It also turns out that Junior’s ex-wife and daughter have both started dating men he really doesn’t care for.

It’s enough of a crash-up to hobble any well-meaning art thief, especially when he finds a number of very weird and disturbing things going on under the surface of all these concerns. But, after how masterfully Junior handled the problem in his first book, Crashed, you just know he’s got a few tricks up his sleeves.

With Little Elvises, Timothy Hallinan provides another fun and intriguing LA caper, replete with swift action, good characters, and a payoff that’ll have you cheering. If you like a book where you want to root for the crook, and be shown the parts of the city of angels that the tourbooks warn you away from, the latest installment of this series is a sure bet. It’s fast, fun, and has a heart of gold under the grime.

Little Elvises is out now, and can be ordered from any of our stores.

- Jim Tremlett, Eastwood