Books: What have you been reading?

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

Pray for Darkness by James Michael Rice
A fiction book published this decade so not long since it's under a decade old.

The plot is straight forward Ben Sawyer and his friends are on a adventure tour in the remote section of the Amazon Jungle except the worst thing does happen because their riverboat captain so now they are stranded in the Amazon Jungle with rlthis vacation becoming a nightmare because of a battle for survival because something wicked is stalking them using the darkness as a cloak, watching them, and won't allow them to leave the Jungle alive.

So a combination of Brokedown Palace, Predator and Anaconda.
A possible animal of the Amazon Jungle is the 1 that murdered the boat captain and will kill other humans.
It's not a dull book because of the mystery add in the Amazom Jungle the Green Hell it's unlikely Ben and his friends will be able to avoid all dangerous animals.

My guess is a Jaguar murdered the boat captain, and is what doesn't want them to leave the Jungle alive add in watching and stalking them.
Jaguars live in the Amazon Jungle, they are a formidable animal because their bite is incredible since a jaguar's bite can pierce a skull.
Also they can run, and could without sweating kill unharmed humans.

I don't recall a creature feature or animal intentionally killing humans fiction story with a Jaguar so that's why it being something new and original, along with the above reasons of why Jaguar is a Formidable animal is why I'm guessing it to be a jaguar.

So far it's been entertaining and a page turner.

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop

[The Darknight Detective]

I'll begin tomorrow Dorothy L. Sayers' Unnatural Death, which is the third Lord Peter Wimsey book from that series and the seventh one I will have read.

[JBatmanFan05]

I've been reading a lot of Robert Bloch short stories. And Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer.

"That Hellbound Train" is a great Robert Bloch short story. (just learned now that they did a comic adaptation, which is cool but I won't be reading it like I don't read comic adaptations of Lovecraft)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Hell-Bound_Train

[The Darknight Detective]

I've been reading a lot of Robert Bloch short stories. And Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer.

"That Hellbound Train" is a great Robert Bloch short story. (just learned now that they did a comic adaptation, which is cool but I won't be reading it like I don't read comic adaptations of Lovecraft)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Hell-Bound_Train

I have read quite a few Bloch short stories in horror anthologies I either own or have taken out from the library, but I'm sad to say I have never read a book based solely of his work. Like Spillane (of whom some of us have talked about recently here), that needs to be rectified by me.

Wait! I do own This Crowded Earth on my Kindle, but haven't read it yet.

[JBatmanFan05]

I have read quite a few Bloch short stories in horror anthologies I either own or have taken out from the library, but I'm sad to say I have never read a book based solely of his work.

I recommend 4 books as far as short stories: (sadly, really no fewer you can get, he still doesn't have super comprehensive collections, which might be very hard to do anyway given he wrote so much)
The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 1: Final Reckonings (1987) - "complete" is highly inaccurate, softcover or I have a rare set of these in HC that I had to pay hundreds for
The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 2: Bitter Ends (1987)
The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 3: Last Rites (1987)
The Best of Robert Bloch (Del Rey / Ballantine Books, 1977) - Robert's faves chosen by himself, really good collection and intro and all, softcover only

"That Hell-Bound Train" is definitely his best short story for me (and I think most agree), very poignant. "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" is great too.


Maybe Barnes and Noble someday will combine these books into something more available and meaty for people. Throw in Psycho perhaps.

[The Darknight Detective]

I recommend 4 books as far as short stories: (sadly, really no fewer you can get, he still doesn't have super comprehensive collections, which might be very hard to do anyway given he wrote so much)
The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 1: Final Reckonings (1987) - softcover or I have a rare set of these in hardcover that I had to pay hundreds for
The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 2: Bitter Ends (1987)
The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 3: Last Rites (1987)
The Best of Robert Bloch (Del Rey / Ballantine Books, 1977) - Robert's faves chosen by himself, really good collection and intro and all, softcover only

Thanks for the recommendations, JBats.

"That Hell-Bound Train" is definitely his best short story for me (and I think most agree), very poignant. "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" is great too.

I own both of those stories. They are indeed classics. The latter, IIRC, was either an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or Thriller.

Maybe Barnes and Noble someday will combine these books into something more available and meaty for people. Throw in Psycho perhaps.

Before I die I will have read that book. I have seen the movie countless time, FWIW.

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

[The Darknight Detective]

As of today on my Kindle, I'm finally reading The Aeneid by Virgil and translated into English verse by E. Fairfax Taylor.

[The Darknight Detective]

Read the first 50 pages of Larry McMurtry's non-fiction work The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America.

[The Darknight Detective]

I should be able to begin Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher, sometime today. On my Kindle tomorrow, History of the Great War, 1914-1918 by Carlton J. H. Hayes will be my next eBook to read.

[Ragdoll]

Finished reading The Complete Stories, by Edgar Allen Poe. God-tier writing here, lives up to all the hype. I'm obsessed with Lovecraft and now can see where he learned lots of his tricks from.

Now in the middle of One Hundred Years Of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Really really good. I hear this invented magical realism and I see how tons of books I love were inspired by it, from Haruki Murakami to Niel Gaiman.

I should be able to begin Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher, sometime today.

I'm thinking of dropping that series, I'm 4 books in and just haven't gotten hooked. They feel very generic in terms of plots, like a procedural TV detective show with the supernatural involved.

[SwangBlck]

Before I fall by Loren Oliver

[Deathstroke]

My review of the Attica Locke thriller Bluebird, Bluebird is a Mystery Scene magazine online exclusive.

[The Darknight Detective]

Finished reading The Complete Stories, by Edgar Allen Poe. God-tier writing here, lives up to all the hype. I'm obsessed with Lovecraft and now can see where he learned lots of his tricks from.

Read all of Poe's short stories years ago and loved them. Yes, Lovecraft was obviously inspired by him, too.

I'm thinking of dropping that series, I'm 4 books in and just haven't gotten hooked. They feel very generic in terms of plots, like a procedural TV detective show with the supernatural involved.

I enjoyed the first book greatly and the second looks very promising so far. You're right about them being, for all all intents and purposes, police procedurals, yet... they're so much more, IMO.