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Monthly Archives: June 2014

June 2014 Book Round-Up

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 2 Comments

127: CR: The Case of The Silent Prisoner(ebook) – Satyen Rohit

128: TH: Supreme Justice – Max Allan Collins

129: CR: 42 Days For Murder(ebook) – Roger Torrey

130: TH: Damascus(The Syrian Revolution # 1)(ebook) – Jad Ziade

131: TH: The Forsaken – Ace Atkins

132: MY: Peril In The Park: A Jaime Quinn Mystery(ebook) – Barbara Venkataraman

133: HR: Beyond The Clearing – Robin Mahle

134: HR: On A Hill(ebook) – Michael Whitehouse

135: SS: The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform (Veridical Dreams) (Volume 1)(ebook) – edited by David Cranmer

136: WE: Law of The Trigger(ebook) – Clifton Adams

137: CR: Murdermorphosis(ebook) -Jeffrey A. Apostol

138: SF: Creatures, Incorporated(ebook) – Larry Maddock

139: SF: Alien For Hire(ebook) – Larry Maddock

140: SF: When In Doubt(ebook) – Larry Maddock

141: WW: Brimstone Deep(ebook) – Laurian Smith

142: MY: Riders On The Storm – Ed Gorman

143: TH: Treasure Coast – Tom Kakonis

144: WE: Tejon Trail(ebook) – Will Murray

145: WE: The Ghost of Windy Ridge – Hal C. Morgan

146: CR: Just So You Know I’m Not Dead(ebook) – Anonymous-9

147: HM: The Professional Freelancer(ebook) – Rory Scherer

148: TH: The Ways of The Dead – Neely Tucker

149: SF: The Last Policeman: World of Trouble – Ben H. Winters

150: SF: Warchild: Pawn(ebook) – Ernie Lindsey

151: CR: Red-Headed Sinners(ebook) – Jonathan Craig

152: CR: The Book of Souls – James Oswald

153: TH: Gray Retribution – Alan McDermott

154: SF: War Child: Judas(ebook) – Ernie Lindsey

155: SF: Adam’s New World(ebook) – Lawrence Lapin

156: TH: Black Lion – Carlos Viola

June 2014 Movie Round-Up

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

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The Shopworn Angel(1938)

Each Dawn I Die(1939)

I, The Jury(1953)

Rojo(1966)

seven Pistols For A Massacre(1967)

Bullitt(1968)

Cry For Revenge(1968)

Two Brothers, One Death(1968)

Shooter(2007)

Assault of The Sasquatch(2009)

New In The House

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 3 Comments

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1: Gray Retribution(ARC) – Alan McDermott: Tom Gray is enjoying time with his family after the birth of his daughter, now three months old, and just wants an easy home life. However, trouble has a way of finding him. While he is visiting his uncle’s new grocery store, thugs arrive demanding protection money, and in the ensuing fight, Gray is hurt. As he recuperates, Gray learns that a team of friends is facing grave danger on a mission in a tiny war-torn African nation, where an evil warlord is kidnapping boy soldiers to do his work in his bid for supremacy. Gray sets off on a rescue mission, but with his attention now divided between two continents, events are spiraling out of control, and Gray must fight to save all that is dear to him.

2; Color of Evil(ARC) – Armondo Rodera: When the daughter of a prominent politician and her boyfriend disappear, officials suspect foul play. Seasoned inspector Francisco Bermejo and rookie brainiac Pablo Roncero team up to investigate, but their hope for an open-and-shut case quickly crumbles. They are on the trail of a serial killer—one whose motivations are as mysterious as the horrific, elaborate tableaus he leaves behind as clues. Bermejo and Roncero must overcome their differences, a byzantine bureaucracy, and the distraction of a beautiful journalist as they race across Spain in pursuit of the murderer. They can only guess where he will strike next—and with the gruesome game the killer’s playing, guesswork is not nearly good enough.

3: Unmanned(ARC) – Dan Fesperman: As an F-16 fighter pilot, Darwin Cole was a family man on top of his world. Now he’s a washout-drunk and alone in a trailer in the Nevada desert, and haunted by what he saw on the display of the Predator drone he “piloted,” especially by the memory of an Afghan child running for her life. He reluctantly teams up with three journalists seeking to discover the identity of the anonymous-and possibly rogue-intelligence operative who called the shots in Cole’s ill-fated drone mission. But in a surveillance culture, even the well-intentioned must sometimes run for their lives, especially when they’re tracking leads to the very heart of that culture-in intelligence, in the military, and among the unchecked private contractors who stand to profit richly from the advancing technology…technology not just for use “over there,” but for right here, right now.

4: Star Trek: Serpents In The Garden – Jeff Mariotte: Early in his five-year mission commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk found himself caught up in a grow­ing conflict on the planet Neural. To maintain the balance of power against a force being armed by the Klingons, he provided weapons to his new friends, the Hill People. Years later, Admiral Kirk learns that the Klingon presence on Neu­ral has grown considerably, and in possible violation of the Treaty of Organia. Did his impulse as a young captain turn out disastrously wrong? Could he have done more to eliminate the Klingon threat? To find out, Kirk must embark on a secret mission back to Neural—where he might just be the only person who can prevent an interstellar war. . . .

And the ebooks:

5: Warchild: Judas(review copy) – Ernie Lindsey:
Caroline Mathers, Forward Scout of the People’s Republic of Virginia, leads her people to safety after a harrowing escape through the Appalachian Mountains. But, the security of their capitol city won’t last for long…maybe even less than a night. Old friends are left behind, while inside the walls, new alliances are formed and trust betrayed.

Empowered by the strength of a massive army, their northern enemies suffocate the city outside the walls, preparing to take control of what they believe is rightfully theirs: citizen slaves.

With the help of her fellow Kinder, Finn, and an ill-equipped group of volunteer soldiers, Caroline must defend her city to the last breath or watch her people marched away in chains.

6: NETfold: Aliens Science Fiction(review copy) – Gur Shomron: Why waste time on Earth, when you have 24 times more time in the NET?
Life was good in the NET ”” the Earth-size virtual world”” until hackers opened a forbidden door and something alien sneaked in” …
Welcome to the NET – an Earth-like virtual-world, where you surf in person and every Earth hour is a full NET day. A place where you can spend long hours preparing for a test, and lose only a few Earth minutes; or own a magnificent NET-estate, and entertain friends from all over Earth for a weekend – each of you would lose only a couple of Earth hours!

7: Johnny Nothing(review copy) – Ian Probert: This book will seriously damage your funny bone. The poorest boy in school has just inherited £1 million. But there is a catch: If he can hold on to his cash for a whole year he will earn ten times that amount. Enter Felicity MacKenzie, the ugliest, sweatiest, vilest, cruelest, hairiest mother in the western world. When she steals her son’s money and goes on the spending spree to end all spending sprees it seems that Johnny Nothing will stay poor forever. However, Johnny has a plan – he will imprison his parents and force them to do homework and go to bed early as punishment. Join Johnny Nothing, Bill and Ben the bouncer men, Ebenezer Dark and a cast of literally dozens in (probably) the funniest book you will (most likely) ever read in (some of) your lifetime. Learn why solicitors like handbags; why dead people are windier than the North Sea; why parents dislike electrocution; and what happens to you after you die.

8: Dragons Shall Weep(review copy) – L. B. Conahan: Half human royalty, Sara, contests with her duties as the princess of two worlds and her growing love for a demigod. She treasures Arie for who he is inside, but another lusts for his power and excellence. Mei comes in the night with thick plans and an army behind her. She strikes Sara down and kills her family, leaving her to her own convictions. A princess then becomes a queen, refusing to fail the merfolk and men that need her.
Caught between fearful gods of old and the modern vessels of war, Arie must ride the line between love and hate as his gifts of prophecy guide him through the thickest. Lord Arie not only fights for his own city, he battles for the freedom of all: earthly, otherworldly, and fey souls alike.
Yet, when Mei’s plans of total domination unfold into an army of millions, both devotion and claws are tested…in Shu’alu…the spirit realm of the dead.

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Today’s Humor: Superhero Style

29 Sunday Jun 2014

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Posted by Randy Johnson | Filed under Humor

≈ 2 Comments

Rojo(El Rojo)1966

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Richard Harrison, spaghetti western

rojo2210ROJO, or EL ROJO, is a curious mishmash of a movie. Too many hands, seven, in the writing, directors changing(the original in a disagreement with star Richard Harrison). There’s a decent plot here and a bit of mystery not completely revealed until the end.

Richard Harrison is a man seeking revenge on four men. The opening sequence is a badly done wiping out of the Sorensen family, a Scandinavian family headed west where one of the sons had found gold. It looks to be an Indian attack with arrows striking down the family one by one, the final victim a small boy who’d been fishing at a nearby stream. It’s some distant event in the past never quite dealt with in terms of explanation.

Next we see our hero walking with a saddle slung over his shoulder. He tries toel_rojo hitch a ride with a passing wagon, but is ignored. In just a minute, the wagon is waylaid by a couple of bandits, driven off by Harrison, thus earning a ride.

We meet Hank(Jose Jaspe), a stout salt-and-pepper bearded gentleman, a medicine man of sorts. He’s also a weapons inventor. In the English, he’s a Civil War veteran, the South, the original Italian a participant in a war there who moved to the States. Another aide of our hero is an Indian called Cochise, no, not that one, played by Andrea Fantasia. We also get a weird character with a disfigured lower half of his face that he hides hides behind an iron mask. He’s known as Black Bart in the English dub, Nero Rourke in the Italian. He appears long enough to lend his clothes to Harrison to kill one of the four, then pops in for an odd business at the end, calling Harrison Red, the only time it’s used, and he the black.

texas-el-rojoThe four men he hunts are Lasky(Piero Lulli in the third week in a row here), Ortega(Andrea Aureli), Navarro(Mirko Ellis), and Wallace(Franco Ressel). The quartet are the heroes that drove out the Indians that massacred the Sorensen family, founding the town of Gold Hill on the site. At a celebration hailing that, the four prominent businessmen get an arrow shot near them with a note attached telling them they all deserve to die and in what order they will.

As he takes them out, he tells them his name is Donald Sorensn. Who’s he? Possibly the small boy who was fishing at the beginning and survived the nassacre. We don’t know until the end.

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FFB: Red-headed Sinners – Jonathan Craig

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in Books

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Jonathan Craig.

redsinJonathan Craig was one of a number of pseudonyms Frank E. Smith wrote under. The Pete Selby novels were a popular series. RED-HEADED SINNERS was a standalone novel about a man with problems.

Jeff Stoner had been a cop for twelve years and a good at that. But even he couldn’t explain why he attacked and nearly killed a red-headed woman in an interrogation room at the police station. She wasn’t wanted for anything, but was simply there to get a location of a boy friend, Piggy Ferris, wanted for a forty thousand dollar jewelry heist. When the matron stepped from the room, Jeff’s hands ended up being peeled from around the redhead’s throat.

It cost him his job as a cop.

But Jeff had a plan. Find Piggy Ferris and recover the jewels. That should get him his job back. Not to mention the good graces of his fiancee Marcia.

But Jeff had more problems than one. He drank too much and death followed him wherever he went. Someone, some thing, didn’t want him saved.

An interesting novel, not Craig’s best work by any means. But a satisfying read.

Robert Cray – Strong Persuader

26 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in music

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Blues, Robert Cray

One of the great blues players today. This was the first album I ever bought of his. Had a chance to see him live in Greensboro once. A buddy and I had seen Stevie Ray the year before opening for Huey Lewis and The News. Cray was opening for the current tour and we decided we couldn’t stand another round of Huey. Screaming teenagers had booed Stevie while he played, fools, and we figured it would be more of the same to see Cray.

We may have made a mistake.

The Adventures of Bud Flanek, The Kentucky Columbo

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in Youtube

≈ 3 Comments

Lee Goldberg’s new Youtube channel featuring three shorts, two of which were written and directed by himself.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOVQsQcyFK8tZlh2X-rsDuA/feed

Assault of The Sasquatch(2009)

24 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in movies

≈ 2 Comments

bigfoot-assault-of-the-sasquatch-dvd-cover-artworkI’m a sucker for Sasquatch/Bigfoot movies, good or bad. To ‘borrow’ a phrase from Bill Crider, “I want to believe.” This one definitely fits into the latter category. I’ll tell you about the worst one I ever saw another time. Unfortunately I don’t remember the title and haven’t come across it in the many years since I saw it on TV.

This movie would have been right at home as a SyFy project, except for the nudity in the shower scene and the excessive profanity, faded of course and the nudity, as one wag once put it, “the lady parts were blurred.”

Here we have some bear poachers catch more in a spring loaded trap than they bargained for. The headman is Terry Drake(Kevin Shea), he of the long flowing snow-whiee hair and eyepatch. He cares nothing about his two mwn. One is killed at the site, he leaves the body, and he shoves the second into the back of his big truck when the drug wears off the Sasquatch, doses it with three or four darts, then slams it shut when two forest rangers drive up.

Ryan Walker(Greg Nutcher) is a former cop and Krystle Morin(Christina Santiago) is his partner. Walker, ten years ago, catches two brothers who’d broken into his home, cut his wife’s throat and were threatening his young daughter, killing one of them, the wrong one, and sending the real killer to jail for eight years. He’s part of the film of course.

Drake is arrested and Walker drives the big van into the city behind his partner in their vehicle. Not once did either of them bother to check out the cargo area of the truck. Of course finding a dead body and an unconscious Sasquatch would have ended the film pretty quickly.

When the Sasquatch comes to and breaks out of the truck, the movie descends into a cut-rate ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, only with a SASquatch insread of a gang. And not nearly as well done.

Now for some of the characters: A pair of nerdy dudes, one a large economyassault-sasquatch size with a high-pitched screech of a voice(see the trailer below) and a police station being renovated so there’s only a skeleton crew. A hot secretary that suddenly turns into Xena Warrior Princess against the Sasquatch(again the trailer or the photo), complete with shield and a knife in a thigh garter.

A bad movie, perhaps avoided by most of you, and I certainly wouldn’t be interested in a second viewing. Well maybe with lady parts unblurred. I am an unrepentant male.

New In The House

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Randy Johnson in ebook

≈ 2 Comments

Ebook week.

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1: Day of The Gun – Ben Bridges: novelization of the western film.

2: Hangman: San Francisco Slaughter – Jack Baudelaire: California, 1973. Back home after three years in the jungles of Southeast Asia, former Green Beret Jamie “Hangman” Lynch is enjoying the good life, drinking beer and chasing skirts along San Diego’s Mission Beach. But Lynch finds himself growing increasingly restless, and dreaming of getting back into the fight again.

Lynch asks his former commanding officer for guidance, and is offered a chance at some excitement: a private sector job working for the CEO of a San Francisco tech company in need of a man who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The assignment? Hunt down a man named Roth, a whiz-kid engineer in debt to the Vegas mob. Roth has stolen an advanced military prototype and is looking to sell it to the highest bidder.

Lynch accepts the job and finds himself working with Richard, an enigmatic Texan mercenary, and Blake, the company’s head of security. The three men face off against Cranston, a murderous ex-cop turned enforcer-for-hire, who’s got an army of ruthless thugs turning San Francisco upside down looking for Roth. If Cranston gets to Roth before Lynch and his partners do, Roth can kiss the prototype – and his life – goodbye.

3: Warchild: Pawn(review copy) – Ernie Lindsey: The world ended long before Caroline Mathers was born, but that doesn’t mean life stops for the fourteen-year-old army scout for the People’s Republic of Virginia. Abandoned by her parents, raised by her grandfather, she slinks through the forests surrounding her encampment, monitoring the woods for nomadic bands of criminals known as Republicons, all while keeping a watchful eye on her northern enemies from the Democratic Alliance.

It’s a hard life, but a simple one, at least until the day Caroline hears the sound that everyone dreads: distant drums echoing throughout their quiet valley, pounding to the beat of the war rhythm. With some help from two unlikely allies, Caroline leads her people in a breathtaking retreat, praying they’ll find salvation in their capitol city. Along the way, haunting dreams may reveal a look into her mystifying past.

The first book of the Warchild series is a powerful, coming of age, dystopian thriller full of fast-paced action, tragic choices, and the undeniable strength of the human bond.

4: Dimones(review copy) – Massimo Marino

5: Once Humans(review Copy) – Massimo Marino

6: The Rise of The Phoemix(review Copy) – Massimo Marino: SF trilogy: Dan Amenta woke up one morning to discover the world had changed…the Apocalypse had arrived.

Death, destruction, and disaster were wreaking havoc across the globe. Yet Dan and his family remained untouched and he sensed some sort of supernatural power had left them the only three people alive on Earth. They were not.

The efforts to survive and find others brought Dan to discover the disturbing truth about the human extermination. He met Laura, who brought revelations about the catastrophe, and her presence – a young, sexy, disruptive girl – raised questions about what was moral and ethical in the new reality. Other survivors reported what they had seen, forcing Dan to seek explanations from his own past.

Ancient hallucinations strike Dan with the force of a sledgehammer and bring him face-to-face with his new role in a scenario with roots millions-of-years old. Planet Earth was now in the hands of an older power but not the one Dan had envisioned throughout his life…

——–
“Even with the best of intentions, cruelty is just around the corner.”

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