2005 Reading

The Bookman's Promise by John Dunning. After a too-long absence, Cliff Janeway returns, sleuthing out what Richard Burton was doing in the US just before the Civil War. Good beginning and ending, but things drag a bit in between. Dunning's prose is unusually flowery for a detective novel.

Nobody Runs Forever by Richard Stark. The taciturn Parker puts up with the usual array of goofballs and miscreants in an attempt to knock over an armored car convoy.

Melancholy Baby by Robert B. Parker. The intrepid Sunny Randall needs a shrink; it turns out to be [spoiler alert] Dr. Susan Silverman. (Amusingly, Sunny speculates that Susan's boyfriend must be a "Harvard geek." But later she thinks maybe not.) In the meantime, Sunny's client is a young college student even more messed up than Sunny.

The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais. Elvis Cole, the World's Greatest Detective, is finally back, after too long an absence. This book continues Crais's tendency of the last few years of piling hefty emotional baggage on his protagonists. I miss the old Elvis, who seemed to crack wise on every page. However, Crais is a joy to read whether he's writing Funny Elvis or Angst-Ridden Elvis.