Cell by Stephen King

Stephen King is one of my favorite writers, even though most people I know think he’s not worth reading. I like his characters, and I like how he writes the normal everyday things into scariness. When I heard he had written another end of the world type book, like one of my top 10 favorite books of all time, The Stand, I had to get it and read it as quickly as possible. I couldn’t even wait for paperback. I liked this book so much that I read it in a few hours over a couple of days.

Clayton Riddell is in Boston where he has just finished selling his comic book idea. He is happy and looking forward to getting home to tell his wife and son. While he is in line to buy an ice cream cone, the woman in front of him answers her cell phone, and then, the whole world around him breaks into hell. Everyone who had a cell phone and used it was hit, and turned into their basic forms of self. They attack at will, without weapons or with. Riddell seeks shelter and groups up with two others, Alice, a teenage girl, and Tom, a middle aged man who was with Riddell at the first attacks. They decide to head to Maine to find out the fate of Riddell’s son and wife. Along the way, they discover more and more about the people affected by the “pulse” and find many “normies” along the way. Problem is, people have reacted to the event in many ways, and some don’t like them much. Everyone is heading north, and for some reason, the crazies want Riddell and his group safely transported into the middle of enemy territory. What will happen to our group of travelers, and will Riddell find his son in one piece? Will he be able to save him?

The only real issue I had with the book is that it, at times, seems to be a retread of The Stand, mostly the passages about survival, walking instead of driving, and some of the secondary “bad people” characters. Two of the guys in particular reminded me of The Kid that Trashcan Man meets up with on the way to Vegas. It was a bit disappointing, but it did make me want to read The Stand again. I still enjoyed the book immensely, anyway.

Cell is more than just a cool zombie, end of the world book. It is the journey of a man to find his salvation and to make amends with the son he left behind. It’s a peek into what we as a people are like after 9/11. What if there was another attack? How would we react? Stephen King just adds an element of the unnatural to bring the idea into the forefront. It’s a good read, albeit a scary one. It made me think twice about answering my cell phone after I read it.

Rating: 4 ½ Purrs

The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy

Ever since a friend of mine handed me The Black Dahlia, I knew I would have to get James Ellroy’s other books. The Big Nowhere is the second book in the L.A. Quartet after the Dahlia, and it is quite a long, convoluted, but enjoyable read.

The Big Nowhere is set in Los Angeles in 1950, where the heads of the city are chomping at the bit to fend off the Commies and Howard Hughes just wants to get the latest little starlet into bed. Someone is killing gay men, mutilating them, and leaving them out in public places for all to see. Danny Upshaw is a Sheriff’s deputy that becomes obsessed with the murders. His investigative techniques are up and coming, but the case has him all twisted up because he is struggling with his sexuality himself. In his desperate attempt to solve the murders, he gets involved with a task force charged with infiltrating the Communist labor groups in the movie industry. Dudley Smith (a regular character in this quartet of novels) is leading the task force against the Commies. Smith is a rough guy who knows how to grease the right people to move up in the police system, and you see him do so as the book goes on. Mal Considine is working in the task force for the D.A., just so he can advance his career and gain custody of his adopted son. Buzz Meeks is working for the money, so he can take the ex-stripper he’s in love with, who also happens to be a mob boss’s gal, away from L.A and off to safety. Of course, the task force and the murders end up being connected, and lots of blood is spilled before the end.

Danny Upshaw infiltrates the labor group and struggles with his new responsibilities. He is torn between who he is and what others expect him to be. Upshaw is the most well rounded character of the book, but in truth, all three main characters are well sketched out. It does get somewhat difficult to keep track of all the various side characters, especially when I wanted to try and tie them backwards to The Black Dahlia and forwards into L.A. Confidential (the movie anyway, since I haven’t read the book).

As for the plot, Ellroy pulls all of the ugly in 1950’s L.A. out into the open. No one is really clean, and everyone wants something from someone else. Once the cases are solved and you come to the conclusion, you are satisfied. Some things are resolved; others are left open for the upcoming novels.

Overall, The Big Nowhere left me satisfied and ready to read L.A. Confidential, the next in the quartet. If you like hard-boiled detective novels mixed up with noir, you’d like James Ellroy and his L.A. Quartet.

Rating: 4 Purrs

Miracles (Cancelled TV Show with Skeet Ulrich)

Miracles is a cancelled TV show from 2003, and in my opinion it was cancelled way too soon. The show had a good first season, and showed real potential for a second season.

Miracles centers around the story of Paul Callan (Skeet Ulrich), who is a young man raised in an orphanage who investigates supposed miracles for the Catholic Church. When he witness what he sees as a real miracle, and the leaders of the church ignore his report, he resigns and begins working for Sodalitas Quaerito, a group who investigate weird happenings and supposed miracles. Avla Keel (Angus MacFadyen) leads the group, and plays a skeptic to Paul’s religious beliefs. Evelyn Santos (Marisa Ramirez) is a former cop who helps the two in their investigations.

During the season, you get good character development on all three main characters. You have “monster of the week” type episodes, plus an overlying story arc that involves Paul trying to find out who his family was and why he was the one person to see a certain message in the first episode. The most memorable episodes were of course, the pilot (some great imagery there, and stunts), plus:

• “The Friendly Skies” has great moments with the sub characters, and delves deeply into Paul’s nature.


• “Hand of God” continues the underlying story arc of Paul’s true parentage and potential.


• “You are my sunshine” is a great ghost story.


• “Mother’s Daughter” has Maggie Grace from Lost as a young Amish girl who becomes possessed by the soul of a girl long dead.


• “Paul is Dead” is a great season ender, with the appropriate cliffhanger. Unfortunately, we will never know the truth about Paul because of shortsighted TV execs.

Miracles is a good X-Files type show. It’s a pity they cancelled it after six episodes. It could have been a great show with a little time.

Death and Restoration by Iain Pears

I picked up this book because I loved Iain Pears' other books, An Instance of the Fingerpost and Dream of Scipio. Unfortunately, this book requires nowhere near the brainpower to absorb that those two did. It's an okay book that touches on a subject dear to my heart (art restoration, art history, all that good stuff), but it's more like "Iain Pears Lite."

Death and Restoration is a mystery immersed in Roman culture and European iconic lore. You have Jonathan Argyll, an art history professor, and Flavia, one of the members of the Italian police art squad. They are engaged to be married, if she can just take off work long enough for them to set a date. Rumors begin circulating that a valuable painting belonging to a monastery will be stolen while a boisterous art restorer is cleaning it. Flavia is on the case, especially when she sees that her old nemesis, Mary Verney is in town. Mary Verney is a retired art thief, or she was retired, until a Mafia guy gives her an offer she can't refuse and sets her on the path to steal not the painting, but the icon displayed in the same monastery. When the icon turns up missing, the crossing and double-crossing begins.Jonathanthon is keen to find out why the icon would be important enough to steal, and that investigation is what really held my attention. He pokes around in the archives to find out the true story of the icon, finds out some nasty secrets the monastery holds and in that, he finds the truth of the mystery.

Despite the slow start to the book, the end is exciting, with all sorts of twists and turns, and is well paced to keep you reading. Once it starts, it keeps rolling until every one is accounted for. I can't help but like Jonathan Argyll; how can you not like an art history professor, struggling with disinterested students and lesson plans, who still has time to dig through dusty libraries in search of the truth about a piece of art most people have forgotten? It's like a dream come true. I couldn't decide whether to fan girl it or just be jealous.

I liked Death and Restoration. It was, after all, about the study of my favorite subject. However, I was expecting something heavier, so I think that might have colored my judgment overall. I was expecting something I would have to read and reread to follow the intricate plot. That was not the case with this book. It's a bit more cultured than your usual mystery, but it's not a brain twister by any means.

Rating: 3 ½ Purrs

Recent Acquisitions to the Library

After a quick trip to Half-Price Books, I was able to pick up a bunch of books I had been looking for:

• Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan, Bluebeard
• Stephen King - Cell
• Patricia Highsmith - Those Who Walk Away, The Cry of the Owl, Edith's Diary
• James Ellroy - Brown's Requiem
• Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House

I was at a disadvantage, seeing as how I left my iPod at home and didn't have my "want" lists.

Slither

I was just blessed with NetFlix sending me Slither, and while it wasn’t all that I hoped for, it was a fun time. I must admit I am a huge Joss Whedon fan, much to Pandabob’s chagrin, so when I saw Nathan Fillion was in this I had to rent it. And of course, it involved slimy space alien slugs infecting a town, so, bonus!

It was funny, it was gross, and it wasn’t all that groundbreaking. Night of the Creeps was funnier and with a very similar plot, with its extremely dorky heroes and 80’s pastel flair. Nathan Fillion is the town sheriff, who holds a flame for Starla (Elizabeth Banks), who is married to the richest man in town. Michael Rooker is that man, Grant Grant, who, of course, ends up finding a weird piece of space trash (The Blob anyone?) and after awhile ends up becoming a big slimy thing himself. There’s a teenage girl that survives an attack and becomes the Chorus for the movie, explaining everything as you go along.

It’s pretty standard fare, with both good and bad. It was funny, and there were bits of dialog that were worthwhile. The CGI was disappointing, but Grant Grant the slimy man and his transformation into Queen Slug were really well done. It seems like everyone had a good time filming the movie, so there is a sense of joviality underneath.

Slither overall is just a bit too much like Night of the Creeps (which was 80’s cheese ball perfection to me) and just not quite as funny B-Movie as Tremors or horror comedy as Shaun of the Dead. Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t end up buying it.

Rating: 4 Purrs

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Dexter came to me as a suggestion from my book club, just like many of the surprises in my bookcase. As usual, the paperback book club did not steer me wrong, and I devoured the first Dexter book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, in a couple of hours. I anxiously awaited the sequel Dearly Devoted Dexter to reach paperback (cause I am cheap reader like that) and when it finally did, I ordered that puppy as fast as Amazon could ship it to me. Jeff Lindsay and his friend Dexter did not disappoint me.

Dexter is a blood splatter expert for Miami-Dade PD. He has a girlfriend, a sister, and is the foster son of a cop. He is also a serial killer who preys on other killers, if they pass the Harry Test (Harry was his cop father. You learn in the first book that he knew about Dexter’s tendencies and instead of stifling them, trained them to “benefit” society). This time around, Dexter has to deal with his sister coming to terms with what he is, an angry cop trailing him wherever he goes, a girlfriend who expects to move to the next level of the relationship, and a particularly icky serial killer who maims his victims in a really disturbing way. I won’t spoil it for you, cause you need to read that first encounter with fresh, unspoiled brain cells.

The whole premise sounds a bit cliché, and I suppose it is on one level. Serial killers are all the rage, especially since Silence of the Lambs. It’s not often though, that you read about a guy like Dexter and find him to be the hero of your novel. He’s funny, but he’s also cold, and believes that his punishment should fit the crimes of those he kills. He is not a good guy, but somehow you forget that. Somehow, Jeff Lindsay makes Dexter into someone you like, someone you scarily enough, can identify with. That’s what makes these books.

I’m not sure if I found Dexter’s comments about his “Dark Passenger” more annoying in this book because this was my second time around with Dexter, or if it was because Lindsay mentioned it more this time. I do know the killer Dexter hunts is not someone you would want to meet on a dark street, but even so, he too is a believable antagonist. He’s scary, but not so scary that you have to imagine that people like him could not possibly exist. You see too much in the news these days to not believe he could, and that adds even more unease to your psyche while you read.

I wasn’t scared while reading this book, but it did give me chills. I would give the first installment of the Dexter story 5 Purrs, but I can’t give this one a perfect score. Too much “woe is me, Dark Passenger” musings this time for my taste, but it was well worth the read.

Rating: 4 Purrs