SUMMARY:
In a new story, Larry Niven tells of the earliest days of the first Man-Kzin War. The surviving Kzin have been caged and are being studied. The monkey-boys have told them that their war is over. Incomprehensible to the Kzin, for whom no war is ever over. The humans are sure that the huge warcats cannot escape their prison--but they shouldn't make such bold assumptions. Views: 38
Investigating a lighthearted prankster, Homer Kelly finds murder instead There are frogs in the pond at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A balloon has been tied to one of the sculptures in the small museum's hallowed halls. And, worst of all, someone has moved paintings while no one was looking. At most museums these pranks would be an annoyance, but at the Gardner—whose founder stipulated that the museum be disbanded if the original collection is ever disturbed—they could spell disaster. The Gardner's board hires Harvard professor and former police lieutenant Homer Kelly to investigate the mischief. Hardly an art lover, Kelly has trouble taking the threat seriously at first. But when a museum patron is found dead after catching the prankster in the act, Homer springs into action. He may know nothing about art, but murder is something he understands all too well. Views: 38
A Tough Town In A Tough Time -- Detroit during World War II was where the United States' furious effort to out-manufacture the Germans and Japanese occurred. Industry imported workers to replace men gone to war -- Southern whites and blacks working side by side fo the first time. Detroit had it all: rationing, the black-market, the Mafia, fortunes to be made, a new kind of jazz for seething summer nights -- it was a powder keg.Through this tense, troubled world cuts a killer, a self-appointed soldier savaging ordinary people, the elderly and the defenseless. Lieutenant Zagreb's most important job is to keep the city from exploding, then to catch a mad killer with a cop roster of 4Fs and near-retirees. And finally, he must save his own soul. He cannot succeed at all three.Wartime Detroit is dazzingly recreated in Loren Estleman's latest tour de force crime novel. Great auto manufacturers labor mightily; blacks struggle for an economic toehold; whites strive for decent lives in the chaos. The climax, during America's nastiest race riots, is unforgettable.Amazon.com ReviewOne of the most interesting new trends in crime fiction is the regional historical thriller, and nobody does it better than Loren D. Estleman, whose books about Detroit's past--Aces and Eights, Billy Gashade, City of Widows, Edsel, Red Highway, Stamping Ground, Stress--turn that city's muscular and often bloody heritage into absorbing fiction.In Jitterbug, Estelman shows us Detroit during World War II, where Lieutenant Maximillian "Zag" Zagreb heads up a team of overage misfits at the police department's racket squad. A particularly nasty killer called Kilroy appears to be targeting and then slicing up hoarders of ration coupons, and Lieutenant Zagreb's investigators are the thin red line deployed to stop him. They use some extremely unorthodox tactics and find themselves in the midst of a race riot, but Kilroy continues to elude them and fight his private war against profiteers. The heavy is a masterful creation, a believable psychopath who wears a stolen Army Air Force uniform and has made up a heroic career to cover his rejection by military psychiatrists. "On those rare occasions when he did not stand outside himself," Estelman writes, "he could hear the thump of the mortars and chomping of the heavy machine guns behind their sandbags on the hills." --Dick AdlerFrom Publishers WeeklyWriting with wit and carefully crafting a chilling suspense plot, Estleman (Journey of the Dead) delivers another spine-tingling crime novel set in Detroit. This time, however, unlike in his Amos Walker novels (Never Street, 1997, etc.), the action tales place during WWII. The heat is on Racket Squad leader Lieutenant Maximilian Zagreb and his three detectives (known collectively as The Four Horsemen for their unorthodox, brutal, mostly illegal methods) when someone starts killing people for hoarding ration coupons. Using some artful manipulation and some very unsubtle pressure, Zagreb leans on a couple of unlikely sources for help. Frankie "The Conductor" Orr, a local mob boss, and Dwight Littlejohn, a black riveter in an airplane factory, are unwilling participants in Zagreb's efforts to smoke out the killer dubbed Kilroy by the newspapers. As the cops twist arms and Kilroy's victims pile up, Detroit explodes in a bloody race riot that summer of 1943, making Zagreb think that Anzio might be safer. Terrific, tough characters, snappy dialogue, crackling action and some imaginative applications of the third degree, make this a triumph for Estleman. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 38
Santo and Maria discover a 4,000 year old cave in Turkey, a war fortress once belonging aliens from the Great Earth War. Technology not understood turns the cave into a death trap that they struggle to escape from. Views: 37
As the wet lakeland fells grow misty and the holiday season draws to a close… As the tourists trickle away from the campsite, along with the sunshine, and the hot water, and the last of the good beer… A man accidentally spills a tin of green paint, and thereby condemns himself to death. Views: 37
Review"Loop is a Suzuki masterpiece and will shake you to your core whether you like it or not." - Book Magazine (Japan)"[Suzuki] does not disappoint... Loop satisfies better than the original or its sequel when you want real answers." -* bookslut.com"High-flying science-fictional redefinition of reality... [Suzuki] is more interested in separating your head from your body philosophically than physically." - The Agony Column*About the AuthorKoji Suzuki was born in 1957 in Hamamatsu, southwest of Tokyo. He attended Keio University where he majored in French. After graduating he held numerous odd jobs, including a stint as a cram school teacher. Also a self-described jock, he holds a first-class yachting license and crossed the U.S., from Key West to Los Angeles, on his motorcycle.The father of two daughters, Suzuki is a respected authority on childrearing and has written numerous works on the subject. He acquired his expertise when he was a struggling writer and househusband. Suzuki also has translated a children's book into Japanese, The Little Sod Diaries by the crime novelist Simon Brett.In 1990, Suzuki's first full-length work, Paradise won the Japanese Fantasy Novel Award and launched his career as a fiction writer. Ring, written with a baby on his lap, catapulted him to fame, and the multi-million selling sequels Spiral and Loop cemented his reputation as a world-class talent. Often called the "Stephen King of Japan," Suzuki has played a crucial role in establishing mainstream credentials for horror novels in his country. He is based in Tokyo but loves to travel, often in the United States. Birthday is his sixth novel to appear in English. Views: 37
