Books: Jack & Susan in 1953 By Michael McDowell (1985)

“It is 1953 New York and Jack Beaumont is working as a financial planner to a rich woman named Libby.  She has a thing for Jack and wants to marry him, but he doesn’t share her affection.  Then there’s Susan Bright, who’s going out with the charming but shady Rodolfo.  Susan stands to inherit a sizable amount of money and Jack is secretly in love with her.But when word arrives that someone is trying to poison Susan’s long-lost uncle, she and Jack (and Woolf!) head for Havana, the better to rescue Uncle James, apprehend the bad guys and—hey, why not?—hit a few casinos on the side.” 

A mostly fun book, with a storyline that tends to be silly and a bit predictable in places and more than a bit over the top, but I found it entertaining. The romance angle works much better than the mystery. Apparently, McDowell was contracted to write 10 Jack and Susan books, one for each decade of the last century. But after doing three of them - first for 1953, then 1913 and 1933 - the author bowed out of his contract for whatever reason. 

Stephen King once called Michael McDowell "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today". However, some know him for his best-known work, which was the screenplay for the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice. McDowell then went on to collaborate with Tom Holland on adapting the Richard Bachman (AKA Stephen King) novel Thinner. But those of a certain age – young teens of the 1980s, maybe- he is probably arguably best known for his novels of Southern Gothic horror, like The Amulet (1979) Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980), Gilded Needles (1980), The Elementals (1981), Katie (1982), The Blackwater saga (1983), and Toplin (1985). However, he also collaborated with his close friend Dennis Schuetz in writing four mysteries starring Daniel Valentine and Clarisse Lovelace: Vermillion (1980), Cobalt (1982), Slate (1984), and Canary (1986). Those four novels were published under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne, though. Also during that same period, they released two psychological thrillers, Blood Rubies (1982) and Wicked Stepmother (1983) under the pseudonym Axel Young. Both books were over-the-top parodies of Sidney Sheldon-type suspense novels. 

Sadly, McDowell was diagnosed with AIDS in 1994. After that, he went to teach screenwriting at Boston University and Tufts University while continuing to write commissioned screenplays. His final projects he was working at the time of his death in 1999 at the age of 49, was a sequel to Beetlejuice and what would be his final, unfinished novel, Candles Burning. That book would be eventually completed by novelist Tabitha King and released in 2006.

Books: Jack Finch Believes in Ghosts by Connor Bryan (2022)

“Skeptic meets psychic. Jack Finch is a ghost hunter on the webshow "The Ghost Checkers", currently threatened with cancellation by their production company if views don't increase. To save their show, the team enlists the help of a popular YouTube psychic named Cecil Cooper. The only problem? Jack hates psychics. When Cecil relays the prophecy that Jack must accept things as they are or lose something dear, Jack must either fight against his very nature, or risk losing everything he loves.” 

For the most part, I think Jack Finch Believes in Ghosts is actually a good idea that somehow forgets its premise as it goes along. So this started out pretty good, but weirdly, I continued through, I realized there is a lack of ghost hunting in a book about ghost hunting. 

There is some self-reflection on my part here, as well. Jack is an asshole most of time, I often wondered why such a skeptic (there is no such things as demons) did a show like this. I could identify with some of Jack’s issues, some of ways he acts towards his co-workers and friends, but I hope I’m not seen so horribly as the way Connor Bryan writes him. Also, the crew that helps them is weirdly underdeveloped and seem shallow and more concerned with views on their Youtube Channel. 

The love story here, between Jack and Cecil is okay – even if a bit unrealistic. It comes across as rather obvious, though I did appreciate that they never really ended up together until the end – after significant time apart. 

What ultimately fails is the ending. Connor Bryan creates a crazy “villain” by the name of Caty – a fan who has zero boundaries. There is no real desire to make her less crazy, or even attempt to explore her craziness. She’s in and out the book because she’s required to be there to move the tale forward. I mean, she shows up at a meet and great, sexually harasses Jack and nothing comes of it. Like how does this happen in today’s world? She has spent years stalking him, sending texts, and by the end, threatening to end his career if he goes public with his relationship with Cecil (because she believes Jack is her boyfriend). To me, with what she’s done would involve a injunction against her. And what happens after her threats gets Ghost Checkers canceled? Nothing. All we get is an epilogue set 12 months later where everyone has moved on, because Caty won. 

That really ruins what was only a so-so romance novel. And I can’t forgive Connor Bryan for ending her book this way. 

Glad I only spent dollar on it.

Books: Dungeon Crawler Carl By Matt Dinniman (2019/2024)

“Carl, having just been cheated on by his girlfriend and left with her cat, Princess Donut, decides to enter the dungeon and finds himself thrust into a deadly competition with uncountable viewers across the galaxy watching their every move. Upon entering the dungeon, all "crawlers" are given a virtual HUD (heads-up display) along with an assignment of stats representing their physical and mental abilities, which can later be increased and various other enhancements. Early in the first novel, Princess Donut becomes able to communicate with humans due to a special consumable item known as a Pet Biscuit that Carl received for bringing the first cat into the dungeon. The biscuit also enhances Princess Donut's base stats, causing the dungeon to view her as the leader of her and Carl's two-person group, which she dubs the "Royal Court of Princess Donut". As the series continues, Carl and Princess Donut encounter several other dungeon crawlers that become both enemies and allies of the Royal Court. 

“The dungeon levels are filled with traps, puzzles and monstrous creatures ("mobs", short for mobile or mobile object), all designed to test the contestants' strength, cunning, and teamwork. As Carl progresses through the dungeon, he gains experience, levels up, and acquires new skills and equipment, typical of litRPG stories. Carl also learns that there is an ongoing power struggle between the corporations that run the various seasons of Dungeon Crawler World, which has caused the Borant Corporation to speed up the competition in order to stave off its competitors from acquiring it.” 

I had been aware of this series for some time (probably when Ace Books acquired the originally self-published titles in the spring of 2024), but as person who was not into Role Playing Games or oftentimes very violent Grimdark video games, or reading novels based on these games, I kept putting them off. Plus, there was a rapid release of the books (two in 2024 and five in 2025) that would’ve meant clearing a lot of my TBR read shelf space to add them. As well, beyond book two, the rest of the series (including book one), averaged 400 plus pages, with book six and seven clocking in at 832 and 880 pages, respectively. I just don’t have the time to get through so many long novels anymore. 

The book is not boring, though, because it has a lot of dark humor and over-the-top violence (which becomes a huge problem as the book progresses). It’s bizarre, outlandish, and absurd, and sometimes silly (the foot fetish part being one of them), but there were at times I found the book repetitive. I’m unsure if it needed at 440 pages to tell its tale. But this is a thing I have taken umbrage with a lot of today’s fiction – books that take too long to arrive at their point, and then they just end abruptly. 

Still, I now know I’m not the target audience of this series and will probably not venture further than book one. Mostly for the cartoon violence, but mainly I found that Dinniman really does not take a serious look into Carl’s physiological effect that all this killing is doing to him. There are hints, buried in the jokes, but me thinks that Carl –if he survives all the levels- will come out more damaged than anything he’s wrought in this game.

Books: The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (2023)

“Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so.  But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain. Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history.”

The plot of this book starts in the present, though about two years before Bad Actors (it is also set in 1994, but we’ll get to that later). Also, in the novella Standing by the Wall (which hinted at the back stories of Jackson Lamb and Molly Doran in Berlin circa 1994), the readers learn about Operation Monochrome inquiry, and in The Secret Hours we learn more of the story behind said inquiry. 

But as noted, this isn’t as simple as it sounds, as Fleet’s and Kyle’s progress has been blocked at every turn (mostly by the First Desk, who is familiar character longtime Herron readers know). That is until a person unknown literately drops another secret file, called OTIS, into Kyle’s lap (or grocery cart). OTIS turns out to be a spy operation in Berlin, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

The Monochrome panel is beginning to interview the first OTIS witness –one Alison North who was a new spy back in 1994 and who is sent by David Cartwright to learn about a joe named Brimsley Miles -when Monochrome is shut down. It's clear the government does not want OTIS to become public knowledge. Nevertheless, Griselda and Malcolm fabricate a loophole so they can hear the witness's whole story, which is riveting.  

The Secret Hours is billed as a stand-alone story. And it does work as a stand-alone, but those familiar with the Slough House series will appreciate it all the more. So it can be either an astounding entry point for new readers who can then go on and read the Slough House tales (so spoilers, I guess) or a reward for long-time readers as Herron finally delivers some backstory on some major players within the Slough House universe. 

It’s more dark than main series, but it’s still filled with some of Herron’s trademark snark and poignancy we’ve all come to accept. His look at politics and spies, the tradecraft of both, is frighteningly realistic, the more he goes on:  

“It’s fiddling while the city burns, isn’t? Look at Green Shoots…I mean, we barley know which way we should be facing. Looking under stones for the next bomb factory, or over our shoulders for whichever Downing Street heavyweight you’ve –we’ve- pissed off.” 

“It’s not the colour of the money, though is it? it’s handling over control of services to people who shouldn’t have it.” 

Also, in case ever need to make a fast getaway, here are the contents of a flight kit: a passport with a fake name; a grand in cash; two prepaid credit cards worth 5,000 Euros; one change of clothing; a basic toiletries kit that includes hair dye and tinted contact lenses; and a pair of insoles that will alter your gait enough to fool a camera.

Books: The Book Tally for 2025

 

01. Buying the Farm By Chad Darnell

02. Welcome to Pawnee by Jim O’Heir

03. Dr. Dimension By John DeChancie and David Bischoff

04. The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks

05. Frances Hunt’s Body Shop and Boneyard by Chad Darnell

06. Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

07. Somewhere Beyond the Sea By TJ Klune

08. A Calling For Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris

09. Dead Lions by Mick Herron

10. Real Tigers by Mick Herron

11. Pompeii by Robert Harris

12. The Long Walk By Richard Bachman/Stephen King

13. The List By Mick Herron

14. Spook Street by Mick Herron

15. The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross

16. London Rules by Mick Herron

17. The Marylebone Drop by Mick Herron

18. Stormy Weather By Carl Hiaasen

19. The Dry By Jane Harper

20. Never Flinch By Stephen King

21. The Wager By David Grann

22. Joe Country By Mick Herron

23. The Catch By Mick Herron

24. Condominium By John D. MacDonald

25. We Solve Murders By Richard Osman

26. Stone and Sky By Ben Aaronovitch

27. The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

28. Slough House By Mick Herron

29. Bad Actors By Mick Herron

30. Standing By The Wall by Mick Herron

31. All the Sinners Bleed By S.A. Cosby

32. Kahawa By Donald E. Westlake

33. The Apocalypse Codex By Charles Stross

34. Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

35. Roderick By John Sladek

36. Clown Town by Mick Herron

37. The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

38. Doctor Who: Dracula! By Paul Magrs

39. The Impossible Fortune By Richard Osman

40. Gerald’s Game By Stephen King

41. Doctor Who: Frankenstein and The Patchwork Man by Jack Heath

42 The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

43. The Devils By Joe Abercrombie

44. Sandwich By Catherine Newman

45. Falling by T.J. Newman

46. Curtain Call to Murder by Julian Clary

47. Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World by Mark Waddel

48. The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross

49. Project Hail Mary By Andy Weir

50. Endless Night By Agatha Christie