REVIEWS FROM MANYA NOGG
LONE STAR
EDWARD IFKOVIC
Poisoned Pen Press April, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59058-587-0
Author Edward Ifkovic has taken an idea that I've reviewed before in a "supporting" player level, for want of a better word, and elevated their status to star. Simply put, his protagonist is Edna Ferber, the famous author of GIANT and numerous other best sellers.
Ferber has been given co-producer status on the film (one feels it's a token title, despite meetings, dinners, etc.). It would seem the most important thing is to photograph her with stars Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson and, of course, wunderkind James Dean.
And therein lies the tale. He is in awe of her, she is intrigued given all the comments folks make about him. Obviously he is a very complex young man, but she/we are not sure if at times he is playing games re some of his mannerisms and mood swings. But when it comes to her evaluation of his work, she remarks, "It's as though he had entered my book before I'd written and told me what to say".
But one thing is certain, he has left a string of jealousy, unrequited love, pure lust and everything else you can name in his drifting through relationships. And when his latest paramour is found murdered the plot does thicken and, of course, James is considered suspect number one, even though there are other potential candidates.
Dean and the victim had a brief affair when the cast was bored at a wide-place-in-the-road Texas location. And now Carisa has claimed James is the father of her unborn baby, and she wanted money not to sell her story to Confidential magazine.
The story is peopled with everyone from Jack Warner to enough crazies to fill a mental ward. Everyone has his or her own axe to grind. From the weird twins who follow James everywhere, to his friend Tommy who copies his clothes, hair and, hopefully, his life style. Edna's comment to them sums up their attitude, "I suppose it's easier to copy someone else's life. Making your own up is hard work."
LONE STAR reads like the inmates are running the asylum, but shining through this is a close verbal relationship between Ferber and Dean which unfolds as a look at an unsure, troubled young man who in some ways may be drowning in his fame.
This is a right on the money, bittersweet look at life in what I call the Woods of Holly. As an ex-inmate of those good old days, I can tell you Ifkovic gets it right when describing life among the lotus eaters.
- Manya Nogg
HOLLYWOOD BUZZ
MARGIT LIESCHE
Poisoned Pen Press March, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59058-579-5
Poisoned Pen Press does a great job of having stories with unusual concepts and this one is no exception. Author Liesche has chosen an interesting time in history and an exceptional protagonist.
The time, World War II, in the fall of 1943. Pucci Lewis is a member of the WASP, the Women Air Force Service Pilots, whose job was to ferry planes across the country between various air force facilities. She arrives at dawn expecting to return home when she receives a call from Jackie Cochran, the first lady of flight who organized the WASP
division.
Cochran tells Pucci her orders are changed and she is to report to Hollywood to work on one of the government's information films, geared to let the public know about all the various service groups. There is a slight problem. Frankie Beall, the pilot who was assigned to the job crashed the day before and is in critical condition. The director is determined to reshoot the dangerous scene. One of the reasons Cochran has chosen Pucci is that earlier she had attended a three month training session with the OSS, which later became the CIA.
At the studio, the government is using people like Clark Gable, Cary Grant and even Ronald Reagan for many of these films so it was an exciting change of pace, but Pucci senses an undercurrent among the variety of folks working at cross purposes.
Pucci is told to stay with friends of Jackie Cochran's, the Dunns, which leads to her being billeted at a mansion in the hills, peopled by a strange group of folks. The "house caretaker" is a young refugee named Ilka who, in addition to her caretaker duties, works as an extra in film But the most interesting member of the entourage, though not living there, is Bela Lugosi. He claims to be Ilka's uncle and has brought her to this country. And from there it is all over the place. Writers, directors, craftsmen, most have been drafted but are still pursing their civilian craft and are now making propaganda and information films.
A member of the production is murdered which opens another can of worms.
It is an interesting story, weaving in the actual operations of the information film division, the WASP duties and the aura of Hollywood during the war, including some actual Japanese attacks from the water that penetrated the West Coast.
My only caveat is that some folks may not enjoy the amount of technical information about army and flight protocol; but it is an interesting trip down memory lane for folks who remember those days, as well as giving younger people a sense of that time in history.
- Manya Nogg
ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE SANCTION
ERIC VAN LUSTBADER
Based on characters created by Robert Ludlum
Grand Central Publishing pb 4/09
Every so often I find myself between a rock and a hard place re doing a review. It usually involves a New York Times best selling author whose current work doesn't ring my chimes for some reason.
Well this is one of those times. But let me begin by saying that I've enjoyed both the books and films centering around Jason Bourne. Until now. So what's my problem? I guess the easiest, and fairest way to explain it is by dividing the review into two parts.
Positive Things :
The stories are fast and snappy; most "scenes" only taking a few pages so the action keeps moving and you don't get bogged down in long drawn out episodes.
The author draws swift, yet detailed descriptions of the characters and the action sequences.
The author has certainly done his homework re all the details and technical aspects of these politically oriented plots.
For readers who enjoy very multi- layered stories, plot reversals, etc. this will be a feast
Negative Things:
A cast of characters that reads like a big city phone book. And to add to this memory teaser, some of them have several aliases, and we are dealing with English, German, Muslim and Russian names; the latter often using all three names of the infidel. I'm not kidding when I say I should have listed each name as they were introduced so I didn't have to go back and figure out who some of them were. Granted many appeared repeatedly, but some did not.
And as often is the case in this type of story, many things never are what they seem to be and the reader is faced with 484 pages of machinations.
But I think the thing that bothered me the most was that I'm really tired of hearing repeatedly about his lost memory, wife, family etc. and going through the motions of a killing machine on auto pilot. A cardinal rule in writing is that whether you love or hate the protagonist, there has to be something that draws the reader to care about or be interested in that person.
There are only so many knife, or gun fights, twisted necks, slashed throats or other body parts, broken bones, bloody encounters, stalking, running scared, hiding out, etc. situations that can be repeated until it becomes predictable.
By the middle of the book, I felt like there was a grid laid out, fight here, run there, talking heads here and plane rides there. Many writers are taught to lay out an overview and refer back to it in order to see where something needs to be plugged in. It's a valuable tool, but in this case I felt like I could see it coming.
This may seem irrelevant but I tried to figure out why I haven't felt this way about the James Bond series because, heaven knows, they are formulaic too. My only thought is that there's a bit of humor, an occasional person, villain or sexy female, who offers an interesting or off beat persona to relieve the predictability
But my job is only to give you my opinion as to whether I would buy or recommend it. So here's my summation:
If you are a diehard Bourne fan and don't mind the repetitiveness of some plot concepts, go for it. Just keep a note book handy to write down names so you'll remember "who's on first," "what's on second," etc.
If you want something new or fresh, in my opinion you wont find it. I know this may be heresy to some fans, but perhaps the plots and situations have become a "cottage industry" and the time has come to ride off into the sunset.
Come on Manya, don't be shy, tell us how you really feel.
- Manya Nogg
DEVIL'S GARDEN
ACE ATKINS
G.P. Putnam's Sons April, 2009
This is the third book in a row that involves real people, film people, where the book's author uses scenes with the thoughts of these people as his spokesperson for that section.
Author Ace Atkins has done his homework in spades. Not only did he live in San Francisco at one time, but has memorized everything that his "star" Dashiell Hammett did. In his 20's, before his writing career took off, Hammett was known by his first name, Sam, and he was a $3 a day Pinkerton detective.
It was this job that brought Hammett to investigating some folks for the defense attorney handling the investigation into Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's notorious wild party at the St. Francis Hotel, an event which ended with the death of a second rate actress named Virginia Rappe. This true story made headlines in 1921 and the more that was discovered about the situation the more bizarre the case became.
Was Virginia Rappe raped by Fatty and crushed to death under his weight? Where did various men and women who were there with her fit into the weird tale, all with a variety of versions of the story, some changing in the wind. Witnesses were spirited away for "safe keeping," a witness was poisoned who would have cleared Fatty of some situations, and a coroner's report stated some of Rappe's internal organs were missing. You name it, there's something here for everyone.
But the piece de resistance is the question: Why is William Randolph Hearst, the malevolent publisher of the powerful Hearst newspaper syndicate, so instrumental, to the point of obsession, in seeing Arbuckle convicted?
Almost as an aside is Sam's life with his wife and small child and his encounter with a "dry" prohibition agent and their investigations and assorted shadowings, interviews and especially the gritty side of the often times boredom of stake outs.
The biggest mystery to me is why a man (Hammett) who is suffering severe lung problems smokes so much that you can almost smell the smoke seeping off the pages.
Character-wise it's a wild ride, so be sure and pay attention. And I'm doing something I've never done before in a review, and that's quote another reviewer, but the Tampa Tribune hit the nail on the proverbial head. "He doesn't so much write them as unleash them upon the page." HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Manya Nogg
STRANGLE A LOAF OF ITALIAN BREAD
DENISE DIETZ
Five Star May, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59414-760-9
For those readers who have missed the genre referred to as "cozy" you will be happy to know that this tome could be classified as such since we have no excessive blood, guts, gore, stalkers, etc. etc. Oh, we do have murders most foul, but they hardly get in the way of ruminations that go on and on about a variety of things.
Our protagonist is Eleanor "Ellie" Bernstein, diet club leader, trivia maven and self-proclaimed amateur sleuth. And she just happens to have a boyfriend who is a homicide detective. Unfortunately, at least for this reader, she has a habit of rambling on in areas no way related to the plot, i.e. the opening short chapter has her cutting out coupons while talking back to the TV. And she admits she'll just throws the coupons out again but it's some edifying connection to a habit of her mother's.
And now to Chapter Two.
We at least get a murder, and what becomes a case of connect the dots. The Colorado small town is a backdrop for small people trying to be big shots. There are scams and infidelities to satisfy most readers, but these were hampered for me by the author's expounding on minutia. Every time she is cooking anything -- from a lasagna dish to dog food -- we get an unofficial recipe. Actually, at the end of the book we even get an actual recipe.
Ellie's ongoing relationship with Lt. Peter Miller rarely gets in the way of her sticking her nose into homicides just for the hell of it. And her trivia mania, especially with that silly six degrees of separation with Kevin Bacon bit, is as stale as last week's loaf of Italian bread.
What pushed my buttons was Ellie agreeing to take over club member Rachel Lester's dog while she went out of town. Her excuse was an ill sister in Houston, but in actuality she was retreating to a friend's cabin in the mountains to look at her options with regard to a cheating husband who had belittled her for years. Those chapters, which include a new possible relationship, were the most cohesive of the story.
If you can ignore copious pages of dialogue with her cat and Rachel's dog, jumping on every trivia bit and regaling us with cooking steps, there are mysteries here. Not only was the murderer not apparent until near the end, but the final chapter is worth the trip. No way did I see that coming.
- Manya Nogg