“And do you know what? In my job? That doesn’t even make the top thirty of the weirdest things I’ve seen or heard.”

Jessica Jones was once a costumed superhero who hung up the cape and opened up a private detective agency. When not smoking or drinking herself into an early grave, she helps people — better than she ever did as a superhero, and often her path crosses those who still wear the cape.

See a graphic novel you’re interested in? Click the mouse on the book covers to order this graphic novel from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

TITLE:

ALIAS

WRITER:

by Brian Michael Bendis

ARTISTS:

by Michael Gaydos (art)
and Bill Sienkiewicz (Sidekick illustrations)

SERIES:

Alias #1
Collects Alias comics #1-9

PUBLISHER:

Marvel Comics/MAX Imprint

CHARACTERS:

Jessica Jones, former superhero turned detective.
Warbird/Carol Danvers, an Avenger and friend to Jessica.
Power Man/Luke Cage, a Hero for Hire and Jessica’s friend.
Daredevil/Matthew Murdock, Blind lawyer and superhero.
Clay Quartermain, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and former boyfriend.
Malcolm Powder, a teenage geek who pesters Jessica.
Captain America/Steve Rogers, superhero, leader of the Avengers.
Man Mountain Marko, very strong hired thug.
Rick Jones, former sidekick of The Hulk, Captain America and Captain Marvel or a con artist?

MATURITY:

Contains violence, mature situations and language.

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collected), Hard-Boiled Detective, Mystery, Fantasy, Superhero

DESCRIPTORS:

Murder, Private Detective, Framed for Murder, Betrayal, Paranoia, Conspiracy, Mental Illness, Cult of Personality, Superhero, Self-Destructive Tendencies.

SUMMARY:

Jessica Jones was once a superhero named Jewel and she had super strength, resistance to damage and the power of flight although the ability to land eluded her. She didn’t make it as a superhero and eventually hung up her cape. Now she’s a private investigator doing more good than she was ever able to do as Jewel.

We’re introduced to Jessica and her gritty, dark world. It’s a world where she runs into Luke Cage accidentally and sleeps with him in an effort to feel something. What she’s after she can’t say. It’s a world where she and Carol Danvers have a broken relationship from an earlier betrayal. It’s a world where not everyone is who they say they are.

In the first storyline, Jessica agrees to find out how a woman’s estranged sister is faring and stumbles on to Captain America’s secret identity when she stakes out the apartment. Paranoia shifts into overdrive as the estranged sister is found murdered and Jessica gets framed for the killing.

Then the woman who hired Jessica dies while fleeing from questioning and the clue from the cell phone leads Jess to a man so powerful that he dares to unseat a President with a cooked up scandal and casually threatens to kill Miss Jones anytime he chooses.

In the second storyline, Jane Jones hires Jessica to find her missing husband Rick Jones — a famous Marvel sidekick and rock star. She locates him but he seems to be on the run from the Skrulls or Kree who are out to get him for his role in assisting the Avengers in the Skrull/Kree wars. When she tries to get a high powered hero in on the case, he seems reluctant to get help or return to his wife. But then, is this the real Rick Jones?

APPEAL:

This is a mature label (the MAX imprint) and a lot of four letter words, adult themes and even a scene of sitting on the toilet can be found here. There is a drawn out interrogation scene between Jessica and the arresting detective which is so well written that I’ve read it a dozen times or more.

Bendis takes his time with the pacing of the stories in Alias. He is more interested in the character of Jessica Jones and the people around her, in and out of costume. Skillful use of dialogue propels the stories and often creates tension thicker than the fight scenes.

Jessica was once a superhero and now she is a detective even though she still has her powers. Why did she leave and what sort of person is she are some the questions that Bendis develops in this series. We learn most about Jessica by watching her interact with the people around her.

The story is told in 3rd person limited omniscience from Jessica’s point of view. The few captions that pop up are in Jessica’s voice and serve the place of thought balloons, but Bendis seldom employs captions and never employs thought balloons. He relies on dialogue and the art work to relay the text and the subtext and leave you to figure it out.

These stories take place in the Marvel Universe but on a level that most heroes never operate on.

READALIKES:

Brian Michael Bendis has another graphic novel series which has a similar feel to it. Powers is about two homicide detectives who are assigned the special cases involving super-heroes or super villains. The artwork is by Michael Avon Oeming. The stories are grim and gritty, as is Alias and it deals with mature subjects and nudity although to a lesser degree than Alias. In Powers the universe is all Brian’s so things can and do change in that series, whereas he is somewhat restricted in his stories set in the Marvel Universe.

NOTES:

Brian Michael Bendis grew up in the Greater Cleveland area before moving away.

Artist Michael Gaydos graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Stieg Larsson was an investigative journalist and an activist who wrote a projected ten book series of mysteries as a hobby until his sudden death by heart attack. His series ended with three complete books and a partial fourth and notes for two more stories. All three books were published after his death.

For more information, click on Scandanavian Mystery Writers — Then and Now, by Jo Ann “The Head Rat” Vicarel.

Each week I pick a new series and detail it here — giving you the proper order. Click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (The Millenium Trilogy #1) Author: Larsson, Stieg Translator: Reg Keeland Format: Hardcover Type: Novel Page Count: 480pp. Pub. Date: September 16, 2008 Publisher: Knopf
Nominated for the 2008 International Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel Translated into English Nominated for the 2009 Anthony Award for Best Novel Nominated for the 2009 Anthony Award for Best First Novel Nominated for the 2004 Barry Award for the Best British Crime Novel Nominated for the 2004 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel. Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
	The Girl Who Played with Fire (The Millenium Trilogy #2) Author: Larsson, Stieg Translator: Reg Keeland Format: Hardcover Type: Novel Page Count: 512pp. Pub. Date: July 28, 2009 Publisher: Knopf
Nominated for the 2009 International Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel Translated into English Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. But he has no idea just how explosive the story will be until, on the eve of publication, the two investigating reporters are murdered. And even more shocking for Blomkvist: the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to Lisbeth Salander — the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker who came to his aid in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and who now becomes the focus and fierce heart of The Girl Who Played with Fire. As Blomkvist, alone in his belief in Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation of the slayings, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous hunt in which she is the prey, and which compels her to revisit her dark past in an effort to settle with it once and for all.
	Castles in the Sky (The Millenium Trilogy #3) Author: Larsson, Stieg Translator: Reg Keeland Format: Hardcover Type: Novel Page Count: ???pp. Pub. Date: 2010 ? Publisher: Knopf
No summary available — not yet announced. All information, including the title, is subject to change.

For More Information:

Jo Ann “The Head Rat” Vicarel talks about Swedish mysteries in the article: Scandanavian Mystery Writers — Then and Now.

Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo are the husband and wife team that created the ten books in the The Inspector Martin Beck Mystery Series, when ended when Per died of cancer. They are currently being reprinted in trade paperback — only the last two stories wait to be reissued.

Don’t forget to check out the other blog posts listed below for more information.

Each week I pick a new series and detail it here — giving you the proper order. Click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

	Roseanna (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #1) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 224pp. Pub. Date: September 2008 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1965
The masterful first novel in the Martin Beck series of mysteries by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck hunting for the murderer of a lonely traveler. On a July afternoon, a young woman’s body is dredged from Sweden’s beautiful Lake Vattern. With no clues Beck begins an investigation not only to uncover a murderer but also to discover who the victim was. Three months later, all Beck knows is that her name was Roseanna and that she could have been strangled by any one of eighty-five people on a cruise. As the melancholic Beck narrows the list of suspects, he is drawn increasingly to the enigma of the victim, a free-spirited traveler with a penchant for casual sex, and to the psychopathology of a murderer with a distinctive — indeed, terrifying — sense of propriety. . . .
	The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #2) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 208pp. Pub. Date: September 2008 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1966
The masterful second novel in the Martin Beck series of mysteries by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck searching for a well-known Swedish journalist who has disappeared without a trace. Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad has his summer vacation abruptly terminated when the top brass at the foreign office pack him off to Budapest to search for Alf Matsson, a well-known Swedish journalist who has vanished. Beck investigates viperous Eastern European underworld figures and — at the risk of his life — stumbles upon the international racket in which Matsson was involved. With the coolly efficient local police on his side and a predatory nymphet on his tail, Beck pursues a case whose international implications grow with each new clue.
	The Man on the Balcony (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #3) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 180p. Pub. Date: February 2009 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1967
The chilling third novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Martin Beck investigating a string of child murders. In the once peaceful parks of Stockholm, a killer is stalking young girls and disposing their bodies. The city is on edge, and an undercurrent of fear has gripped its residents. Martin Beck, now a superintendent, has two possible witnesses: a silent, stone-cold mugger and a mute three year old boy. With the likelihood of another murder growing as each day passes, the police force work night and day. But their efforts have offered little insight into the methodology of the killer. Then a distant memory resurfaces in Beck’s mind, and he may just have the break he needs.
	The Laughing Policeman (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #4) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 224pp. Pub. Date: February 2009 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1968
Winner of the 1971 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel The incredible fourth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Martin Beck heading a major manhunt in pursuit of a mass-murderer. On a cold and rainy Stockholm night, nine bus riders are gunned down by a mysterious assassin. The press portrays it as a freak attack and dubs the killer a madman. But Superintendent Martin Beck thinks otherwise — one of his most ambitious young detectives was among those killed — and he suspects it was more than coincidence. Working on a hunch, Beck seeks out the girlfriend of the murdered detective, and with her help Beck reconstructs the steps that led to his murder. The police comb the country for the killer, only to find that this attack may be connected to a case that has been unsolved for years.
	The Fire Engine That Disappeared (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #5) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 224pp. Pub. Date: June 2009 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1969
The lightning-paced fifth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck investigating one of the strangest, most violent, and unforgettable crimes of his career. The incendiary device that blew the roof off a Stockholm apartment not only interrupted the small, peaceful orgy underway inside, it nearly took the lives of the building’s eleven occupants. And if one of Martin Beck’s colleagues hadn’t been on the scene, the explosion would have led to a major catastrophe because somehow a regulation fire-truck has vanished. Was it terrorism, suicide, or simply a gas leak? And what if, anything, did the explosion have to do with the peculiar death earlier that day of a 46-year-old bachelor whose cryptic suicide note consisted of only two words: “Martin Beck”?
	Murder at the Savoy (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #6) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 240pp. Pub. Date: June 2009 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1970
The shocking sixth novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by the internationally renowned crime writing duo by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck investigating a brutal assassination. When Viktor Palmgren, a powerful Swedish industrialist is shot during his after-dinner speech in the luxurious Hotel Savoy, it sends a shiver down the spine of the international money markets and terrifies the tiny town of Malmo. No one in the restaurant can identify the gunman, and local police are sheepishly baffled. That’s when Beck takes over the scene and quickly picks through Palmgren’s background. What he finds is a web of vice so despicable that it’s hard for him to imagine who wouldn’t want Palmgren dead, but that doesn’t stop him and his team of dedicated detectives from tackling one of their most intriguing cases yet.
	The Abominable Man (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #7) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 240pp. Pub. Date: October 06, 2009 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1971
The striking seventh novel in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, finds Beck facing one of the greatest challenges in his professional career. The gruesome murder of a police captain in his hospital room reveals the unsavory history of a man who spent forty years practicing a horrible blend of strong-arm police work and shear brutality. Martin Beck and his colleagues feverishly comb Stockholm for the murderer, a demented and deadly rifleman, who has plans for even more chaos. As the tension builds and a feeling of imminent danger grips Beck, his investigation unearths evidence of police corruption. That’s when an even stronger sense of responsibility and something like shame urge him into taking a series of drastic steps, which lead to a shocking disaster.
	The Locked Room (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #8) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 416pp. Pub. Date: December 1992 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Original Pub: 1972
The stunning eighth installment in the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo is a masterful take on a classic locked room mystery. A young blonde in sunglasses robs a bank and kills a hapless citizen. Across town, a corpse with a bullet shot through its heart is found in a locked room — with no gun at the scene. The crimes seem disparate, but to Martin Beck they are two pieces of the same puzzle, and solving it becomes the one way he can escape the pains of his failed marriage and the lingering effects of a near-fatal bullet wound. Exploring the ramifications of egotism and intellect, luck and accident, this tour de force of detection bears the unmistakable substance and gravity of real life.
	Cop Killer (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #9) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 416pp. Pub. Date: June 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group Original Pub: 1974
Martin Beck investigates the murder of a woman in Southern Sweden, and begins by looking at the murderer he put away in “Roseanna”. At the same time, Malm leads a manhunt for the surviving partner of a teenage criminal who killed a policeman during a gunfight. Description provided by Wikipedia: Cop Killer (novel) page.
	The Terrorists (The Martin Beck Mystery Series #10) Author: Sjowall, Maj and Per Wahloo Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 416pp. Pub. Date: June 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group Original Pub: 1975
The story opens with a trial where an eighteen-year old woman is accused of a bank robbery she never intended to commit. Later, a pornographic film producer is found murdered at the home of his mistress. The main plot of the book involves Martin Beck leading a team of policemen to prevent a presumed terrorist attack on a highly unpopular American senator who is paying an official visit to Sweden. The attack is led by terrorist Reinhard Heydt, born by a Danish mother in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Description provided by Wikipedia: The Terrorists page.

For More Information:

Jo Ann “The Head Rat” Vicarel talks about Sweedish mysteries in the article: Scandanavian Mystery Writers — Then and Now. Pat “The Excitable Rat” Gray discusses The Laughing Policeman in her post The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo: Sweden in the 1960’s.

Originally published in England, Meg Gardiner’s Evan Delaney Mystery Series was published in mass market paperback over a series of a few months. Her first novel, when reprinted in the United States, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.

Each week I pick a new series and detail it here — giving you the proper order. Click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

	China Lake (The Evan Delaney Mystery Series #1) Author: Gardiner, Meg Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 416pp. Pub. Date: June 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group
Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Evan Delaney learns that not only has her ex-sister-in-law joined a religious cult, but the unstable young mother plans to regain custody of her son and disappear with him into the fold of the fanatical group. But when murder raises the stakes, Evan is dragged even deeper into the nightmare.
	Mission Canyon (The Evan Delaney Mystery Series #2) Author: Gardiner, Meg Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 352pp. Pub. Date: July 1, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group
After a hit-and-run accident leaves a friend dead, Evan Delaney wants justice. But she underestimates the power of the person responsible. When the witnesses begin dying one by one, Evan is unprepared for the dark places retribution will take her.
	Jericho Point (The Evan Delaney Mystery Series #3) Author: Gardiner, Meg Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 384pp. Pub. Date: August 5, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group
When a woman’s body washes up on the shore of California’s Jericho Point, she’s identified as Evan Delaney. Except that Evan is very much alive — apparently the victim of an identity thief who’d been scamming Hollywood elite. The thief may be dead, but the crimes she was murdered for — committed in Evan’s name — are turning Evan’s life into a nightmare. Now it’s all Evan can do to survive in the shadow of a dead woman’s lies.
	Crosscut (The Evan Delaney Mystery Series #4) Author: Gardiner, Meg Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 384pp. Pub. Date: September 2, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group
Evan Delaney knew China Lake was a tough place to grow up. She never knew how tough until she returns to the desert military base for her high school reunion and learns that several of her classmates have died young. Then, on the first night of the reunion, another one dies — this one savagely butchered. And she’s just the first. Someone has an ax to grind. And Evan’s graduating class has something to fear.
	Kill Chain (The Evan Delaney Mystery Series #5) Author: Gardiner, Meg Format: Mass Market Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 384pp. Pub. Date: October 7, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Group
When Evan Delaney’s father disappears, the cops think he’s fled the country to avoid prosecution. But Evan is sure he’s been abducted or killed for reasons associated with his work for Naval Intelligence. As Evan hunts for clues, she’s attacked by an armed man. The attacker ends up dead — and turns out to be a federal agent. Now Evan is on the run, implicated in his murder. And then she’s contacted by a sinister duo — a madam and gigolo mother-and-son team who claim her father was mixed up in their very dirty business. Can Evan save her father’s reputation — and his life?

Each week I pick a new cross-genre series and detail it here — giving you the proper order. Click the mouse on the book covers to order these books from the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

Zoe Martinique has turned her unusual ability to leave her body and travel in the astral plane into a career. Unfortunately, she isn’t the only one that can do that and somethings out there . . . aren’t human.

	Wraith (The Zoe Martinique Investigations Series #1) Author: Weldon, Phaedra Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 384pp. Pub. Date: June 5, 2007 Publisher: Ace Trade/Penguin (USA)
First in an excitingly different and new paranormal series. Zoe Martinique has turned her unusual ability into a career. When she’s traveling, she can’t be seen which makes her an ideal professional snoop. Industrial espionage, surveillance, whatever. But one night things get out of hand while she’s out-of-body. She witnesses a murder and a soul stealing, and discovers she has unwelcome company: Trench-Coat, a ghostly killer who can see and hurt her. Teaming up with a blue-eyed police detective, she tries to solve the case and improve her love life. She also enlists the support of her psychic mother and the ghostly couple who haunt her house. And with murderers, kidnappers, and a desperate ex-porn star involved, Zoe needs all the help she can get.
	Spectre (The Zoe Martinique Investigations Series #2) Author: Weldon, Phaedra Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 368pp. Pub. Date: June 3, 2008 Publisher: Ace Trade/Penguin (USA)
Zoe Martinique has the extraordinary ability to travel outside her body at will. When she is drawn into an investigation of a series of bizarre murders, in which the victims are missing body parts, Zoe hopes to help her boyfriend, Atlanta homicide detective Daniel Frasier, stop the killer — one she’s sure is from the darkest levels of the astral plane — without letting him find out about her special abilities. Then danger strikes close to home when Zoe’s mother disappears, and Zoe must use all the powers at her command to save her — even though Zoe knows that, in doing so, she may make herself into something no longer entirely human.
	Phantasm (The Zoe Martinique Investigations Series #3) Author: Weldon, Phaedra Format: Trade Paperback Type: Novel Page Count: 368pp. Pub. Date: June 2, 2009 Publisher: Ace Trade/Penguin (USA)
Just when Zoe Martinique, formerly ordinary twenty-something, was getting used to the idea that she was possessed of extraordinary powers, she lost them. Without cause or warning. And at the worst possible time. Now, unless she can figure out how to go Wraith again, she won’t be able to rescue her mother, whose soul is trapped on the Abysmal plane. Her only hope is to join forces with an old enemy, who has his own dark reasons for helping her. From him she learns that only a traumatic experience can bring the Wraith back. To get out-of-body, Zoe will have to look for big, dangerous trouble — and fast. For there is a deadly and powerful being within the Abysmal that wishes Zoe never existed . . . and it’s coming for her.

The second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week is coming around the bend and Amy of My Friend Amy has put together a little Meme as a quick icebreaker — a way for you to get to know your book blogger a little better.

The Undead Rat Answers the BBAW Meme

1) What was the highlight (something that happened, a post, an activity, etc.) of BBAW for you last year?

A fellow book blogger featured my blog in a contest. Participants had to come to my blog and leave a comment somewhere, then return and leave a comment telling the book blogger that they’d done it. I had an all-time high number of visitors for The Lair of the Undead Rat that day. A couple of people who found me decided to keep visiting.

2) What is one new blog you discovered during BBAW last year?

I discovered the Book Zombie’s blog called The Book Zombie and I love the tagline: Better Books for Better Brains. She is a librarian (if my addled memory serves me right — she’ll let me know if I’m wrong) and reads an impressive array of fiction.

I love the design of her website and I’m learning to be a better book blogger from reading her posts. Don’t be surprised if I steal an idea or two from her — we zombified types don’t have much in the way of ethics.

3) What tips would you share to help others get the most out of their BBAW experience?

Throughout the pre-season and especially during the week Amy will have several occasions to let book bloggers strut their stuff through a device called Mr. Linky. It lists the book blogger’s name and links to their blogs. Check them out. You’ll never know when a random book blog becomes the one you fall in love with.

You can find one of the first Mr. Linky lists here in this post: A Book Blogger Appreciation Week Meme!.

Also check out the Book Blogger Appreciation Week blog for up-to-date information on what’s going on during BBAW!

Don’t Forget to Vote

Don’t forget that one of the special events of BBAW is the contest. Right now until August 15, 2009 you can cast your vote for your favorite book blogger. Just click on the image next to this paragraph and scroll down to the Wednesday July 15, 2009 entry. Below that is a description of each category.

(This post was originally published in …With Intent to Commit Horror.)

If your RSS Feed to this website is suddenly broken, I apologize.

I’ve had the wrong RSS feed address for The Lair of the Undead Rat for the past couple of months. Go ahead and delete the old feed from your feed service and install the new, better feed.

Then look for a new post this Monday, August 3. If your feed with the new RSS address still isn’t working use the Contact Me page to let me know.

Thank you for your patience.

A couple of weeks ago, Jo Ann Vicarel and Greg Fisher put together a list of books to introduce novice readers to the cross-genres or slip-stream novels. This is a continuation of the list. Cross-genre novels have become so popular that even with this additional list, there are a lot that have been left out. But between our first list and this one, you should have plenty of choices to begin exploring.

Please try one or two and let us know what you thing in the comments section below this list.

Below are cross-genre books and all of them are available through the libraries of the CLEVNET Consortium — many are owned by the Cleveland Hts-University Hts. Public Library System. You can click on the title if you’d like to order the book through the CLEVNET webcatalog.

Fiction:

Armstrong, Kelley
The Darkest Powers Series

The Summoning

The Awakening

The Reckoning

Arthur, Keri
The Riley Jenson Guardian Series

Full Moon Rising

Kissing Sin

Tempting Evil

Dangerous Games

Embraced by Darkness

The Darkest Kiss

Deadly Desires

Bound to Shadows

Banks, L. A.
The Crimson Moon Series

Bad Blood

Bite the Bullet

Undead on Arrival

Banks, L. A.
The Vampire Huntress Legend Series

Minion

The Awakening

The Hunted

The Bitten

The Forbidden

The Damned

The Forsaken

The Wicked

The Cursed

The Darkness

The Shadows

The Thirteenth

Black, Jenna
Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist

The Devil Inside

The Devil You Know

The Devil’s Due

Speak of the Devil

Bowker, David

The Death Prayer

Caine, Rachel
Morganville Vampires Series

Glass Houses

The Dead Girls’ Dance

Midnight Alley

Feast of Fools

Lord of Misrule

Carpe Corpus

Caine, Rachel
Outcast Season Series

Undone

Caine, Rachel
Weather Warden Series

Ill Wind

Heat Stroke

Chill Factor

Windfall

Firestorm

Thin Air

Gale Force

Cape Storm

Chance, Karen
The Cassandra Palmer Series

Touch the Dark

Claimed by Shadow

Embrace the Night

Curse the Dawn

Chance, Karen
The Dorina Basarab Series

Midnight’s Daughter

Death’s Mistress

Cook, Glen
The Garrett P.I. Series

Sweet Silver Blues

Bitter Gold Hearts

Cold Copper Tears

Old Tin Sorrows

Dread Brass Shadows

Red Iron Nights

Deadly Quicksilver Lies

Petty Pewter Gods

Faded Steel Heat

Angry Lead Skies

Whispering Nickel Idols

Cruel Zinc Melodies

Daniels, Casey
The Pepper Martin Series

Don of the Dead

The Chick and the Dead

Tombs of Endearment

Night of the Loving Dead

Dean, Cameron
The Candace Steele Vampire Killer Series

Passionate Thirst

Luscious Craving

Eternal Hunger

Everson, John
The Joe Kieran Series

Covenant

Sacrifice

Farago, Gina
The Lykanthrop Series

Ivy Cole and the Moon

Luna

Frost, Jeaniene
The Night Huntress Series

Halfway to the Grave

One Foot in the Grave

At Grave’s End

Destined for an Early Grave

Gagliani, W. D.
The Det. Nick Lupo Series

Wolf’s Trap

Wolf’s Gambit

Grabien, Deborah
The Haunted Ballad Series

The Weaver and the Factory Maid

The Famous Flower of Serving Men

Matty Groves

Cruel Sister

New-Slain Knight

Gruber, Michael
The “Jimmy” Paz Trilogy

Tropic of Night

Valley of Bones

Night of the Jaguar

Hallaway, Tate
The Garnet Lacey Series

Tall, Dark and Dead

Dead Sexy

Romancing the Dead

Dead If I Do

Harris, Charlaine
The Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery Series

Dead Until Dark

Living Dead in Dallas

Club Dead

Dead to the World

Dead as a Doornail

Definitely Dead

All Together Dead

From Dead to Worse

Dead and Gone

Harris, Charlaine
The Harper Connelly Series

Grave Sight

Grave Surprise

An Ice Cold Grave

Grave Secret

Hecht, Daniel
A Cree Black Mystery Series

City of Masks

Land of Echoes

Bones of the Barbary Coast

King, Stephen and Peter Straub
The Jack Sawyer Series

The Talisman

Black House

Lukyanenko, Sergei (also spelled as: Sergey Lukianenko)
The Night Watch Tetralogy

Night Watch

Day Watch

Twilight Watch

Last Watch

Macdonald, James D.

The Apocalypse Door

Mead, Richelle
The Dark Swan series

Storm Born

Thorn Queen

Mead, Richelle
The Georgina Kincaid Series

Succubus Blues

Succubus on Top

Succubus Dreams

Succubus Heat

Mead, Richelle
The Vampire Academy series

Vampire Academy

Frostbite

Shadow Kiss

Blood Promise

Merz, Jon F.
The Lawson Vampire Series

The Fixer

The Involker

The Destructor

The Syndicate

Pettersson, Vicki
The Zodiac Series

The Scent of Shadows: The First Sign of the Zodiac

The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac

The Touch of Twilight: The Third Sign of the Zodiac

City of Souls: The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac

Priest, Cherie
The Eden Moore Trilogy

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Wings to the Kingdom

Not Flesh Nor Feathers

Saintcrow, Lilith
The Dante Valentine Series

Working for the Devil

Dead Man Rising

The Devil’s Right Hand

Saint City Sinners

To Hell and Back

Saintcrow, Lilith
The Jill Kismet Series

Night Shift

Hunters Prayer

Redemption Alley

Flesh Circus

Saintcrow, Lilith
The Watcher Series

Dark Watcher

Storm Watcher

Fire Watcher

Cloud Watcher

Mindhealer

Smith-Ready, Jeri
The WVMP Radio Series

Wicked Game

Bad to the Bone

Straub, Peter
The Timothy Underhill Series

Koko

The Throat

Lost Boy, Lost Girl

In the Night Room

Swann, S. Andrew
The Kline Maxwell Series

The Dragons of the Cuyahoga

The Dwarves of Whiskey Island

Swann, S. Andrew
The Moreau Series

Forests of the Night (Reprinted in the Moreau Omnibus)

Emperors of the Twilight (Reprinted in the Moreau Omnibus)

Specters of the Dawn (Reprinted in the Moreau Omnibus)

Fearful Symmetries

Thurman, Rob
The Cal Leandros Series

Nightlife

Moonshine

Madhouse

Deathwish

Thurman, Rob
The Trickster Novels: Heaven, Hell and Earth

Trick of the Light

Vincent, Rachel
The Shifters Series (also called The Faythe Sanders Series)

Stray

Rogue

Pride

Prey

Vincent, Rachel
The Soul Screamers Series

My Soul to Take

My Soul to Save

Walton, Jo
The Small Change Series

Farthing

Ha’penny

Half a Crown

Wellington, David
The Vampire Series

Thirteen Bullets: A Vampire Tale

99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale

Vampire Zero: A Gruesome Vampire Tale

23 Hours: A Vengeful Vampire Tale

Wilson, F. Paul
The Repairman Jack Series

The Tomb

Legacies

Conspiracies

All the Rage

Hosts

The Haunted Air

Gateways

Crisscross

Infernal

Harbingers

Bloodline

By the Sword

Ground Zero

Nightworld

Although published after Tomb and before Legacies, Nightworld is said to be the last book in the series.

Recently Brian Clark in an article posted at Copyblogger informed me of the Federal Trade Commission’s view on failure to “disclose compensation for reviews and endorsements” on people’s blogs. In a nutshell, they don’t like it. And since it is a form of advertising, they get to have a powerful say about it.

That’s okay. I’ll gladly come clean.

Affiliate Links and Advertising

Although I have standing affiliate relationships with three online book stores on my personal blogs (…With Intent to Commit Horror and The GamerRat) there are no affiliate links on the Cleveland Heights University Heights Public Library sponsored blog — The Lair of the Undead Rat (That’s this blog — in case you weren’t paying attention).

Neither I nor my fellow RATS bloggers receive any compensation — as in money, gifts or free vacations — for writing about books, music or movies.

You may notice that the book covers displayed on this blogs serve as links — just like my other blogs. However the links here lead to the CLEVNET Webcatalog.

If you are a resident of Northeastern Ohio, chances are you live near a CLEVNET library. The links from the book covers and sometimes book titles will lead to their page in the CLEVNET Webcatalog where you can see if your library owns it and request a hold if it doesn’t.

If you don’t live in Northeastern Ohio, then copy down the title, author’s name and ISBN number and ask a librarian in your library if they own it or can get it through inter-library loan.

Cleveland Heights University Heights Public Library is a non-profit library and her blogs (and this is one of her blogs) are not monetized — set up with affiliate links, advertisements, sponsorships, etc., to make money. That’s just not how we roll.

In Summary

I think that’s it.

Now that I’ve come clean, what do you think? Leave me a comment below and we’ll talk.

“The back of Cruez’s right hand gleamed with gun oil. Crease knew that he could walk right up to the monster and shoot him in the heart and Tucco would just smile about it.”

Crease is am undercover narcotics cop whose life is falling apart, returns to the town of his childhood where his father, the sheriff, fell to disgrace. He’s been gone fifteen years and now he suddenly needs to know what happened the night his father fell.

Remember, if you are interested in this book, click the mouse on the book cover to order it from your local CLEVNET library.

TITLE:

THE FEVER KILL

WRITER:

by Tom Piccirilli

GENRE:

Noir, Thriller.

DESCRIPTORS:

Crime, Criminals, Police, Undercover Police, Sheriff, Drugs, Prostitution, Organized Crime, Revenge, Love, Desire, Greed, Mystery, Insanity, Murderers,

CHARACTERS

Crease, An undercover cop who is tainted.
Joan, Crease’s meek wife.
Stevie, Crease’s son who may also have the fever kill.
Mimi, Joan’s hard edged sister — Crease adopted some of her kids.
Tucco, A powerful vice-lord that Crease has been working for/reporting on.
Morena, Tucco’s woman who is also the only woman Crease loves . . . or wants.
Rebecca Fortlow, Once Crease’s lover, now she’s a woman who wants the money.
Jimmy Devlin, A poor schmuck who once tormented Crease but has turned out to be a loser.
Sheriff Edwards, He’d like to think he runs Hangtree but he’s gone to seed.
Mary Burke, The kidnapped girl that Crease’s father accidentially shot.

SUMMARY:

For seven years Crease brought his alcoholic father home until the last night of his life, when he admitted to Crease that he probably shot Mary Burke the day he was supposed to ransome her from the kidnappers. He had intended to steal the money himself but it all went wrong, leaving a girl dead and the money missing.

Crease was quickly shown the way out of town and he was gone for fifteen years. Now he’s returning. An undercover cop, he proved to be so good at his job because he was bent. He killed for Tucco and enjoyed the life as the drug lord’s right hand man . . . until he went after Tucco’s woman. His life, never stable to begin with, began crashing down when Morena announced she was pregnant with Crease’s child.

Tucco knows and now its only a matter of time before Crease has to face his former friend — an encounter that could spell his end. With the end of his life looming before him, Crease runs back to Hangtree to find out what really happened the night Mary Burke was killed.

APPEAL:

The story is told in third person, past tense but told strictly from Crease’s point of view. We get his thoughts and his outlook on things — such as his disdane for Jimmy Devlin’s attempt to knife him, right before he disarms the punk.

The Fever Kill is a grim noir tale — the protagonist is a bent cop who participates in criminal activities as he gets close to the drug lord Tucco. He left a wife and kid then struck up an obsessive affair with Morena, Tucco’s woman. He is not a nice guy but he does have a code of honor. He is bent but not a total criminal. But he has spent his undercover life becoming addicted to living life on the edge — the very extreme edge.

Crease is a complicated character. Most of the time even he doesn’t know why he does the thing he does. And there is the matter of the Fever kill — that fever that washes through him, sure signal that violence will soon follow. Crease is full fleshed out and many of the other characters feel real too. Piccirilli has a talent for creating memorable characters with just a few lines.

READALIKES:

If you enjoy The Fever Kill, try The Cold Spot and The Coldest Mile. Check out Piccirilli’s earlier noir novel The Midnight Road, about a Child Protective Services investigator who was revived after being dead only to find that the people around him are now dying.

I learned about Tom Piccirilli when he was writing horror full-time. He was one of my favorite horror authors — and hey, I’m following him into the thriller genre! I read A Choir of Ill Children twice and own several copies (two mass market editions with different covers and the hardcover edition with the dragonfly boy painting). If you’d like to try some smart, scary horror fiction, besides Choir, I’d recommend The Dead Letters, Headstone City, November Mourns and the Stoker Award winning The Night Class.