Spell of Desire: Witches With Problems

I read Spell of Desire, Vol. 4

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

Review: CASH LANDING

CASH LANDING
HARPERCOLLINS/Harper – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: James Grippando – @James_Grippando
ISBN: 978-0-06-229545-3; hardcover (June 2, 2015)
384pp, B&W, $25.99 U.S.

Cash Landing is a 2015 crime novel from author James Grippando, the second book by the author to be released in 2015 (following January's Cane and Abe).  Cash Landing is based on real-life crime that occurred during the fall of 2005.  Grippando's novel focuses on a band of amateur thieves that is successful in pulling of an airport heist, but is less successful in dealing with all that money.

Cash Landing introduces Karl “Ruban” Betancourt, a guy who has always played by the rules.  Being a goodie-good didn't stop the bank from taking his house, nor did it stop his restaurant business from going bust.  Ruban thinks that he and his wife, Savannah, deserve more than what life has given them.

Every week, a hundred million dollars in cash arrives at Miami International Airport.  That money is shipped by German banks to the Miami branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and only a select group of trusted workers moves the bags through customs and loads them into armored cars.  These commercial jets pregnant with bags of U.S. currency are called “money flights.”  Ruban plans on “catching” one of those flights in order to get the money he believes he deserves.

In November 2009, Ruban makes the big move with his crew:  Jeffrey Beauchamp, Ruban's coke-head brother-in-law; Craig “Pinky” Perez, Jeff's uncle who is also an ex-con; Octavia Alvarez, Ruban's longtime friend who came over from Cuba with him; and bit-player, Marco Aroyo.  Their target is Lufthansa flight 462 (a Boeing 747), and Ruban and company pull off a successful heist, speeding away with $7.4 million in cash.  However, FBI Special Agent Andrea “Andie” Henning believes the best way to catch these thieves is to follow the money, but there are actually several interested parties looking to follow the money.

Cash Landing is the fourth James Grippando novel that I have read.  I loved the first three, but I am disappointed in Cash Landing.  It really isn't a heist novel so much as it is a crime drama.  The problem is that the drama is boiler plate and the characters are mere shadows, unable to become fully developed characters, even by the end of this novel.

Honestly, I don't like the characters in this book.  I don't care about their motivations, and I took only a little more interest in their conflicts.  Even Andie Henning, who has been an exciting character in other Grippando novels, is flat here.  Spoiler alert:  Jack Swyteck, the star of several of Grippando's novels, makes a cameo appearance in Cash Landing.  I squealed when he was revealed; yes – squealed.  I did not know that I liked this fictional dude so much.

Anyway, Cash Landing is not so bad that it is unreadable, but if an unknown or unpublished writer tried to sell this book to Harper, he or she would receive a form rejection letter from the publisher.  Die hard fans of James Grippando may be the only ones who want to read Cash Landing.

C

www.JamesGrippando.com
facebook.com/jgrippando

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux; support on Patreon.


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

LBX: New Hope

I read LBX: New Hope, Vol. 5

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

Read Webcomic Grumble: Chapter Two - Page 10

Grumble Chapter Two, Page 10 is here: http://www.comicbookbin.com/grumbletwopage010.html

NOTE:  Last year, I printed some promotional copies of Grumble: Chapter One through a POD printer.  I will sign and number a copy of this "rare" comic book for $5 post paid, which you can purchase here or http://ireadsyou.blogspot.com/p/i-reads-shopping.html

I am also on Patreon.

Review: FRAGMENTS OF HORROR

FRAGMENTS OF HORROR
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTONIST: Junji Ito
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jocelyn Allen
LETTERS: Eric Erbes
EDITORS: Masumi Washington, Nick Mamatas
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8079-1; hardcover with dust jacket (June 2015); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
224pp, B&W, $17.99 U.S., $21.00 CAN, £10.99 UK

After an eight-year absence from the genre that made his famous, mangaka Junji Ito returned with Fragments of Horror, a collection of macabre manga short stories.  Ito is the creator of such stellar horror manga as Uzumaki and Gyo, as well as numerous short manga.

Fragments of Horror contains eight short stories and an “Afterword” written by Ito in 2014.  VIZ Media recently published an English edition of Fragments of Horror under its VIZ Signature imprint.  The release is a deluxe, hardcover print edition carrying a MSRP of $17.99 U.S. and $21.00 CAN, and it is rated “T+” for “Older Teens.”

Fragments of Horror opens with the story, “Futon.”  The story focuses on a young couple who eloped and are currently living together.  However, Madoka discovers that her boyfriend, Tomio, has basically sealed himself inside a futon.  He blames “dark nature spirits” as the reason for his current predicament.  Madoka is getting tired of this nonsense, but what if Tomio is telling the truth?  Madoka and Tomio return in another story, the neck-traumatizing “Tomio · Red Turtleneck.”

In “Wooden Spirit,” a beautiful and historic wooden house turns crazy-creepy after a new tenant moves in with the current owners.  Feeding and eating turn gruesome and bizarre in the tale, “Blackbird.”

In previous reviews of Junji Ito's manga, I have basically revealed myself to be an acolyte of this modern master of horror.  There have been many adaptations of the work of famed horror and dark fantasy author, H.P. Lovecraft.  There have also been countless comics inspired by Lovecraft.  Junji Ito has named Lovecraft as an influence on his work.  I will take that one step further and say that Ito is the true comics descendant of Lovecraft, and the stories in the Fragments of Horror manga convinces me that I am right.

I will say that not all of the eight stories contained in this volume are exceptional or great.  The stories, “Futon” and “Magami Nanakuse,” are good ideas that fall somewhat flat in execution.  “Whispering Woman” is a classic Gothic tale of troubled and haunted unions, but the ending snatches defeat from the jaws of literary, short story victory.

“Dissection-chan” is creepy and ultimately chilling.  In this volume, the macabre “Blackbird” follows it, and together, the two stories make a blood-curdling one-two punch that might have made even Lovecraft gasp.  Like a Sam Rami movie, “Tomio · Red Turtleneck” is gleefully gruesome.  “Gentle Goodbye” is a masterpiece; it is one of the best short comics that I have ever read.  Every short story collection needs one truly great story that alone can make that collection memorable.  The beautifully haunting “Gentle Goodbye,” with its creepy poignancy, is that story.  Fans of Junji Ito and of horror/dark fantasy comics must have Fragments of Horror on their shelves.

A


Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux; support me on Patreon.


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Review: NATCHEZ BURNING

NATCHEZ BURNING
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Greg Iles
ISBN: 978-0-06-231109-2; mass market paperback (March 31, 2015)
880pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.50 CAN

Natchez Burning is a 2014 novel written by author Greg Iles.  It is the first book in Iles' Natchez Burning Trilogy and the fourth book in his “Penn Cage Series.”  Harper recently reprinted Natchez Burning in a mass market paperback edition, after originally publishing the novel in the spring of 2014.

Natchez Burning covers a wide variety of genres and sub-genres, including mystery, thriller, suspense, crime, and family and local history.  The novel centers on Mayor Penn Cage, as he tries to discover the truth about his father who is accused of murdering a former employee.

Natchez Burning opens with former prosecutor, bestselling author, and current mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage, describing his father.  Growing up in the rural Southern hamlet of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn learned everything he knows about honor and duty from his father, Tom Cage, a family doctor beloved by the poor for how he helped and continues to help them.  It is 2005, just months after Hurricane Katrina stuck, and Dr. Cage is accused of murdering Viola Turner, the beautiful nurse with whom he worked in the 1960s.

Penn has been a fighter who has always stood for justice, so he is going to fight for his father, of course.  However, Penn's quest for answers sends him deep into the past—into the turbulent 1960s of Natchez, Mississippi and of Concordia Parish, Louisiana.  Here, Penn discovers a conspiracy of murder, greed, and racial hate that involves a vicious KKK offshoot, the Double Eagles, financed and directed by one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Louisiana.  Determined to save his father, Penn's goes on a journey that spans forty years and discovers that the truth will endanger everyone – black and white and young and old.

I think that Natchez Burning is probably the best 862-page novel that I have ever read.  If, somewhere along the way, I discover a better one, then, it will almost certainly be a work of art and it will certainly leave me astounded.  It won't be easy to top Natchez Burning, although the second book of the trilogy, The Bone Tree, is already out in hardcover.

There is a blurb on the paperback cover of Natchez Burning.  It contains two lines of praise from bestselling author Stephen King that says:  “Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down.”  If you are a fan of King, would you suspect him of lying?  How can you defy him?  Read this book.

Seriously, several times, personal and professional obligations demanded that I stop reading Natchez Burning.  When I could read it, however, I did not want to stop.  Every page is practically a cliffhanger, and many pages offer a cliffhanger, of sorts.  Holding this book is like holding a small package of literary dynamite, and I didn't mind how many times it exploded in my hands and in my face.

Natchez Burning is our dark, racist, Jim Crow, segregation, church-bombing, black man-assassinating past turned into the proverbial must-read, potboiler novel.  This is the Southern-fried humdinger that John Grisham wishes he could write.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux; support me on Patreon.


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for June 24, 2015

DC COMICS

APR150217     AQUAMAN #41     $2.99
MAR150265     AQUAMAN AND THE OTHERS TP VOL 02 ALIGNMENT EARTH (N52)     $16.99
APR150256     BATGIRL #41     $2.99
FEB150248     BATMAN & ROBIN HC VOL 06 THE HUNT FOR ROBIN (N52)     $24.99
MAR150266     BATMAN & ROBIN TP VOL 05 THE BIG BURN (N52)     $16.99
APR150259     BATMAN 66 #24     $2.99
APR150220     DEATHSTROKE #7     $2.99
APR150320     EFFIGY #6 (MR)     $3.99
APR150225     FLASH #41     $2.99
APR150267     GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #6     $2.99
APR150269     GRAYSON #9     $2.99
APR150193     GREEN LANTERN THE LOST ARMY #1     $2.99
APR150232     INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #4     $2.99
FEB150261     JSA OMNIBUS HC VOL 03     $125.00
APR150197     JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #1     $2.99
APR158428     MAD MAX FURY ROAD NUX & IMMORTAN JOE #1 2ND PTG (MR)     $4.99
MAR150283     SECRET SIX TP VOL 02     $19.99
APR150323     SUICIDERS #5 (MR)     $3.99
APR150252     SUPERMAN #41     $3.99
APR150240     TEEN TITANS #9     $2.99
APR150215     WE ARE ROBIN #1     $3.99