Book Review Roundup #3 — Debbi Mack
I did a lot of reading over the weekend (well, last weekend, when I made the video), which is hard to do when you’re reading 10 or 20 books at time screenplays at the same time. I started to confuse two of the characters and situations in two of the books-no names, please!-and it just kind muddled my mind briefly.
But I swear I’m reading as fast as humanly possible. Really!
Hi everyone. Well, I got to tell you, it’s getting to the point where I’m going to have to do these monthly roundups by video because I just have to, it’s just easier for me. I mean, oh my God. Anyway, I have been trying so hard to catch up on reading the books that people kindly send me. They’re publicists, so that’s their job, and of course it’s to promote the book, but I cannot possibly review all of them in time. That’s what it comes down to because once you get involved with a book and you stick with it, but you don’t read particularly fast or you don’t read all the time, because I write, I do a lot of writing. Anyway, point is, let me just start off with this one. This was like a “could not put it down” thriller. I mean Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris. Just a great, great read.
I was just breathless and totally on the, totally into this. It’s about two sisters and they both have reasons to leave town, let’s put it that way, and they keep running and running, and I won’t go into the details because read this book. Yes. Okay. Now this was interesting. This is true crime. Murder at Teal’s Pond, David Bushman and Mark T. Givens, forward by Mark Frost, co-creator of . [ Very interesting.] That’s because this is the story of Hazel Drew and the mystery that inspired Twin Peaks. So I was of course drawn to this because I’m a huge fan of Twin Peaks and David Lynch in general, but be that as it may, this is really quite an interesting and excellent book if you’re into true crime, let me tell you. They go into some detail in this thing. They come up with potential explanations and it was kind of hard to follow because there are a lot of players in this thing and stuff going on and timelines and family stuff, and it’s just, well, it was fascinating, especially if you happen to practice law, I think you might want to read this or if you’re interested in the legal and the justice system because this is covering a very old case and it is fascinating to see how their investigation took place and so much politics.
Yeah. Anyway, but another thing that was interesting is that the case that inspired Twin Peaks did not take place in the Northwest. It took place in New York State. Yeah.
Anyway, all of that’s very interesting, but here’s another book I liked a lot, Bindle Punk Bruja, I want to say pink, but no, it’s Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa and I started this and I really got into it right from the first chapter, and yet I kept all these other books started coming in, and I would have to set it aside because it’s beautifully written, beautifully written, beautiful prose, and so rich and so evocative of the era, but the heroine is so independent. I loved her for that. I loved her for that, and she’s strong. She’s got these kind of magical powers. I love that part of it. She wants to own her own nightclub. She gets involved with some pretty shady characters and some of her relationships with men are extremely interesting. So that’s all I will say about that. But yeah, I mean, great stuff.
Okay. Liquid Shades of Blue by James Pokinghorn. Yeah. “A ride on the lethal waves of corruption and murder.” That’s a blurb from Michael Connelly. So there you go. Well, I got to tell you, this book did have me very, very interested.
And I-but how can I put this? The ending did not surprise me. It just did not surprise me. It’s funny because I was reading another review where somebody said, I cannot believe that ending, or I did not see that coming. Oh, I saw that ending coming. I saw it coming, but then I write mysteries, so there you go. I mean, sometimes it’s the thing you really, really don’t expect will happen that I seem to expect will happen. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve had so many unexpected things happen in my life, but yeah, this book is pretty darn good. Pretty darn good. Pretty, pretty, pretty darn good. I mean it, I really needed to read this thing to the finish. It was one of those books where you just got to, to keep going after a certain point because you got to see what’s going to happen and yeah, I figured it out, I guess.
I don’t know. I didn’t quite figure it all out really. That conversation with the lovely native woman, I don’t want to say native, it was, she was a native Key Wester, I guess. It’s about a guy who becomes estranged from his father for what is very obvious reasons. He’s a real asshole. I mean, asshole magnified to the umpth degree, and his mother apparently commits suicide. What was that? Yeah, suicide. They’ve ruled it suicide, and he doesn’t believe it, but he’s drunk most of the time. Well, I’m not going to go into it any further, so there you go. Okay. Those are those books. Hang on one sec, because I have other books I’m reading right now, but I have not finished that I’m loving that I want to tell you about because I’ll never be able to finish them in time to really do a proper review. Maybe later.
For the entire transcript of my review, click here!
Along with the books I’m reviewing, I thought I’d share some short stories. Because they’re awesome!
But to read those, you’ll have to go here.
You can support the podcast and get early access to book review and other perks by becoming a patron.
Originally published at https://www.debbimack.com on August 18, 2023.
