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Staff
Picks 2003 |
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Ken
Bruen has written a masterful police procedural. Tough justice, tough
town. The setting is today's London, the crime infested parts where even
the pit bulls travel in pairs. Fans of Ed McBain will move seamlessly
into Bruen's The White Trilogy. Chief Inspector Roberts and Detective
Sergeant Brant are obverse sides of the same tarnished coin. One cool
and calculating, the other cerebral and deadly. Good cop, bad cop slightly
magnified. This is busted knuckle crime writing at it's best. Call it
London noir. Maybe death and redemption. Even love and betrayal. They're
all here pointing to the thin line between chaos and the rule of law.
-Sterling |
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Sinister
Pig is the latest of Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn-Chee mysteries. This
one involves a murder in Chee's jurisdiction on the Navajo Reservation
and some suspicious activity discovered by Bernie, Chee's former subordinate
now with the Border Patrol. Leaphorn, though retired, is called upon for
help as bad forces advance their scheme. This is one of Hillerman's better
written books. Always a fan of law enforcement bureaucracy, he has some
fun with the final arrest which results in at least a six way squabble
over credit for the bust. Hillerman's questioning the motives for the
War on Drugs is another theme here. The Sinister Pig smuggles drugs over
the border with Mexico. Powerful men in Washington are behind the drug
running. The result is another satisfying Hillerman yarn. -Ed Gregory |
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Local
Wonders by Ted Kooser is the feel good book of the year. This is a
book about a place. Specifically the southeastern corner of Nebraska,
known to the locals as the Bohemian Alps. You may chuckle here because,
as Ted admits, there are no Alps in Nebraska. But the area was settled
by Czechs and Bohemians, thus the grandiose name. This book is arranged
into four sections, one for each season. Kooser is a sharp, insightful
observer and a writer at the peak of his considerable powers. Nothing
is too big or small for his attention. Childhood memories are juxtaposed
with current observations and the images he creates are plump and tasty
as your grandmother's dumplings. Books like this can restore a person's
faith in his fellow man and glue smiles all over the reader's face.
-Sterling |
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One
of the hit novels of this year is Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
For those of you who have read it, and are looking for additional material,
an excellent choice would be "The Templar Revelation" by Lynn
Picknett and Clive Prince. This is a remarkable achievement of historical
detective work. Here you will delve into the mysterious world of the Freemasons,
the Cathars, the Knights Templar and the occult to discover the truth
behind an underground religion with roots in the first century that survives
even today. Even Europe's gothic cathedrals offer clues if you only know
where to look. This is a fascinating look at a part of history that is
little known. -Sterling |
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One
of America's best, though little-known authors, is James Salter. Reading
him is like remembering what your Mom's fried chicken tasted like when
you were a kid. You just can't get enough. Is anybody going to eat that
last drumstick? I've heard Salter's work described as "mandarin."
I don't know what that means, but somehow I agree with it. At the end
of each story you will know more about yourself than you did at the beginning.
Undoubtedly, Salter is a writer's writer but he's also a reader's writer
and you'll be rewarded again and again by his gifts. A Sport and a
Pastime, one of his novels, would be an ideal starting place. -Sterling |
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