Just a quick note. We’re finally out of the deep freeze here in Iowa. Feeling some warmth and sun, which you can’t always count on in March.

Making good progress on the new book. Don’t want to say much about it yet, although I hope to have it for you later this spring.

In the meantime, I recently read Don Winslow’s Power of the Dog, which is the first of his novels that deal with the US war against drugs in the 1980s and 1990s. So it’s the DEA up against corrupt cops and narco-terrorists. Well-written, gritty, exceptionally realistic portrayal of corruption and violence in the war-on-drugs quagmire.

Also read Richard Stark’s The Dame. As you know, I’m a big fan of the Parker crime thrillers. Donald E. Westlake (writing as Richard Stark) also wrote four books that feature Alan Grofield (a sometime Parker accomplice) as the lead character. The Dame is the second of those novels and starts out as a locked room mystery—you know the drill: a crime has been committed at a remote location so someone who is already there must have done the deed. Who is it? Agatha Christie wrote several of these, including Murder on the Orient Express, but The Dame is written in Richard Stark’s unique hard-boiled style and does not disappoint.

Finally, Don’t Know Jack (The Hunt for Jack Reacher Series Book 1) by Diane Capri is free today. I’ve been wanting to check out this series, so I picked up a copy. Here’s the link if you’re interested. (There’s nothing in this for me. Just though you might like to know.)

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Jack-Hunting-Reacher-ebook/dp/B0072JJTIG

That’s all for now. Happy reading!