Departed, the Destroyer: Rest in peace, Warren Murphy

I’ve been away for awhile, so a quick word before I get started. Sorry to those who have e-mailed me or tried to contact me via Twitter. I think I got back to everyone, in some cases two months late. I had a much-needed vacation, the happy occasions of two friends’ weddings, and other […]

Parker, Reacher, Hammer: Macho series characters suddenly hot

Hollywood gets on kicks all the time. In 1997, we had the Year of the Volcano (Volcano, Dante’s Peak), followed in 1998 by the Year of the Meteor (Armageddon, Deep Impact), which was also the Year of the Animated Insect (A Bug’s Life, Antz) on the Chinese movie calendar.

It looks like 2013 will […]

Review: The Destroyer: Savage Song by Warren Murphy

As I’ve mentioned a few times in posts and in the comments, I’m a huge fan of Warren Murphy and the late Richard Sapir’s Destroyer series. I have all of them, and I’m not sure how many I’ve read but it’s got to be around sixty. Maybe more.

If you judge a book […]

Grab-bag post: SFFaudio podcast on Donald Westlake’s The Comedy is Finished, plus the Destroyer and John Carter (of Mars)

The Comedy is Finished

I recently recorded a podcast on The Comedy is Finished, hosted by Jesse Willis of SFFaudio and also featuring DEW’s son Paul Westlake, who, needless to say, had much more to add than I did.

This is a free-ranging discussion of both the novel […]

Reviews: The Dead Man–Face of Evil (#1) by Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin and Ring of Knives (#2) by James Daniels

Dead Man #1: Face of Evil

 

Matt Cahill is having a tough time of it. First, his wife Janey dies from cancer. A year later, he is perhaps willing to entertain the idea of seeing another woman. Their first date is to a ski lodge, where he hits the slopes and is promptly buried by an avalanche.

[…]

An essay on The Hunter by Duane Swierczynski, plus 100 thrillers

Duane Swierczynski (or, as I like to call him, “Coach K”) is the author of, amongst many others, The Wheelman, a most excellent Parker homage–I’ve been meaning to give it a proper writeup for some time now, but I can’t find my (inscribed!) copy in order to deliver the reread and writeup it deserves. […]