Life is Good in the Area of Crime Entertainment

Lots of stuff showed up at the same time. I might need to take another week off.

The Shield's final season premiered last night. Wow! Not an episode for those with a delicate constitution. Shane Vendrell got a real work-out. New female character was introduced, Olivia Murray, who works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I think that is what ICE stands for). She and Vic are eying each other. Definite interest there. Vic got a 30 day stay on his forced retirement. Don't call me Tuesday's between 10 and 11 p.m.

Amazon is shipping Declan Burke's The Big O early and my copy should be here on Sept. 5. This will help satisfy my need for more Irish crime fiction. Here is a review of The Big O at Crime scene NI and another at Euro Crime.

Speaking of which, through Declan's Blog, Crime Always Pays, I learned about Adrian McKinty. His "dead" books are available from Audible and I downloaded Dead I May Well Be, The Dead Yard, and The Bloomsday Dead. I'm about 3 hours into Dead I May Well Be and it is a terrific story with a great reader, Gerald Doyle. More on this series later.

Sweetheart, Chelsea Cain's sequel to Heartsick is currently near the top of of my to-be-read stack. When I picked it up at Borders last night the salesperson asked me if I had read Heartsick. He thought I should know that Heartsick was graphic in its presentation of violence. I guess he didn't want me to be shocked with Sweetheart.

Finally, Jason Starr and Ken Bruen's latest collaboration, The Max, finally arrived. I guess you can call it a series since there are now three books with continuing characters - Bust, Slide, and The Max. They are immensely entertaining. More later on these books.