Magnum Mania!

Stephen King's latest, The Outsider. 50 pages in, totally hooked!

"An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can."

I finished the Apollo book and am now reading Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules for Life."

My wife and I have discovered three new writers at our local library. Sheldon Siegel, Karin Slaughter and Lisa Scottoline. They write crime mysteries many with a heavy emphasis on the attorneys.

I'm 100 pages into Steve Canyon Vol. 2, 1949-50. The series republishes the classic Milton Caniff adventure comic strip, which ran from 1947-1988. I first discovered Steve Canyon in 1983, during the time I was first obsessing over Magnum, P.I., so there are fond memories as well as great reading and magnificent artwork.

Got these huge hardcover books cheap. There are eight volumes so far, with the ninth (covering 1963-64) due out this January.

I am partway through Quartered Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser. A private soldier's memoirs of the Burma campaign. Very boots-on-the-ground nuts-and-bolts stuff and plenty of opinions on how the war was viewed and is viewed now, as well as how the views have changed over time, etc. All Higgins aficionados should give this a read! If you have a Kindle (or smartphone with Kindle app) you can read it for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Quartered-Safe-O ... e+out+here

K Hale wrote:I am partway through Quartered Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser. A private soldier's memoirs of the Burma campaign. Very boots-on-the-ground nuts-and-bolts stuff and plenty of opinions on how the war was viewed and is viewed now, as well as how the views have changed over time, etc. All Higgins aficionados should give this a read! If you have a Kindle (or smartphone with Kindle app) you can read it for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Quartered-Safe-O ... e+out+here

Hi K Hale,
Excellent book by the author of the Flashman series, though the British slang at times might hinder the understanding of some bits for those never
exposed to it before.
You are spot on regarding Higgins fans enjoying it, as Higgy baby would no doubt have had this on his bookshelf.
Field Marshal Slim's 14th Army may have been the most diverse army in history, with troops from all over the empire plus Americans and other Allies.
After Slim identified and corrected the tactical and strategic mistakes that had allowed the Japanese so much success before he took over, he then inflicted on them one of the most complete defeats EVER in history.
Of the 150 to 200,000 Japanese(with some Quisling Indian troops) soldiers who invaded India in March 1944, just about every single one was dead by July, 1944.
In 1945 he liberated Burma in another brilliant campaign under brutal conditions.
For every man lost under Slim's command during 1944 and 1945, the Japanese lost 100 and more.
One of the war's greatest achievements, made with men from Africa to Scotland to New Jersey and Calgary to Australia/NZ and India, who supplied the majority of the effort. The fact that Slim made a cohesive and effective army out of this mini United Nations was by itself a great feat.
The next time you hear some jackass bray that we Americans won the war practically by ourselves point out Slim, the greatest general you never heard of.

Here's a sample that actually gave me a chill. Fraser is talking about Burma being the "forgotten war," a world away from the European theater and still fighting in mostly the old fashioned way:

"Set a man apart and he will start to feel special. We did; we knew we were different, and that there were no soldiers quite like us anywhere. Partly it sprang from the nature of our war. How can I put it? We were freer, and our own masters in a way which is commonly denied to infantry; we were a long way from the world of battle-dress serge and tin hats and the huge mechanised war juggernauts and the waves of bombers and artillery. When Slim stood under the trees at Meiktila and told us: "Rangoon is where the big boats sail from", the idea that we might one day get on one of those boats and sail halfway round the world to home might seem unreal, but it was a reminder that we were unique (and I don't give a damn who knows it). We were Fourteenth Army, the final echo of Kipling's world, the very last British soldiers in the old imperial tradition. I don't say we were happy to be in Burma, because we weren't, but we knew that Slim was right when he said, "Some day, you'll be proud to say, 'I was there.'"

Those last three words sent shivers up my spine. All I could think of was Higgins saying that so often.

Currently enthusing over The Subterranean Railway by Christian Wolmar. Learning lots and the book is well-written, never dull. Highly recommended.

After a spotty reading period I finally finished John D. MacDonald's Pale Gray For Guilt, the 9th book in the Travis McGee series.



Next up is Dan Simmons' Song of Kali. I love Dan's work and I'm looking forward to where it all started.

My wife and I are just starting the Michael Connelly novels about crime mysteries and lawyers.

KingKC wrote:My wife and I are just starting the Michael Connelly novels about crime mysteries and lawyers.

I'm a big fan of the Bosch series, and I have also read and enjoyed "The Lincoln Lawyer." Great books!

I'm currently reading "Angels Flight."

Finished Song of Kali . . . Dan Simmons always delivers.

Next week Mrs. Conch and I are off to Italy for her birthday celebration. Keeping with my pattern of reading about where I'm visiting, I'm rereading Dan Brown's excellent . . . Angels & Demons. It's our first trip to Italy, we'll be staying in Florence and Rome. The highlight will be visiting the village that my MiL and her siblings were born in back in the day.

Just finished Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima, 1944. https://www.amazon.com/Road-Bones-Ferga ... d+of+bones

What a story.

I recently finished "The Client" (John Grisham) and several of Michael Connelly's Bosch series.

Most recently, I read "The Phoenix Project."

Next up: The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.

Just started A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin.