Soul Patch is the most troubling book in the Moe Prager series. Prager investigates the death of a cop important in his past. Meanwhile Prager’s marriage is on the rocks. I found the subplot of Moe and Katy’s relationship a big yawn. More troubling is the fact that we know what’s going to happen to Moe and Katy because Reed Farrel Coleman already told us in the first Moe Prager book, Walking the Perfect Square. So there’s no suspense there. And it takes not one, but two incredible coincidences for Prager to solve this obvious mystery.
Empty Ever After (aka, The Inconvenient Child) is the most outlandish and unbelievable Moe Prager case so far. Someone is harassing Prager and his wife, Katy, by desecrating the graves of Katy’s father and her brother. But the grave desecrations are just the beginning. Katy hears from her dead brother Patrick and freaks out. Prager doesn’t believe in ghosts so he does what he does best: investigates. What he finds is a crazy, contorted scheme of revenge along with outlaw bikers and a meth lab. If you decide to read the Moe Prager series, read them in order because Reed Farrel Coleman constantly throws in fistfuls of spoilers about the previous books. GRADE: C+ (for both books).
Thrilling Wonder Stories published Leigh Brackett’s Sea Kings of Mars in the June 1949 issue. In 1953, ACE BOOKS published Sea Kings of Mars under the title of The Sword of Rhiannon (as half of an ACE DOUBLE with Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror on the flip side). PLANET STORIES should be praised for bringing back Leigh Brackett’s classic novels, especially this wild adventure of time travel, epic warfare, and alien super-science. There’s a cruel, beautiful princess, a crafty archeologist, and the evil reptilian Dhuvians in Leigh Brackett’s breathtaking story. They just don’t write books like this any more, sadly. 
It takes about 85 pages before The James Deans gets moving but when it does, the plot takes you on a wild roller coaster ride. Moe Prager is recruited by a powerful businessman to investigate a missing political intern, Moira Heaton. But Moira’s disappearance is just part of the puzzle that takes Prager into an exploration of a decades old murder. Jeff Meyerson said The James Deans is the best book in the Moe Prager series. He’s right. GRADE: B+.
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Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson played by Kyra Sedgwick is now married to long-suffering Special Agent Fritz Howard played by Jon Tenney. But I’m sure there will be plenty of murders to investigate and suspects to question in the quest for a confession. I don’t watch much TV, but I do watch this. Underrated.
Five minutes into UP I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. When Carl Fredricksen’s house takes to the air, I felt elation. When the menacing talking dogs attacked Fredricksen and his explorer scout friend, I felt like jumping out of my seat to help them. The chase scenes in and on the dirigible equaled anything in an Indiana Jones movie. Pixar’s 10th film is terrific, the 3-D effects are great, and for moments in the movie I thought I was watching real people not animation. Go see UP and experience that “sense of adventure” again! GRADE: A 
If you’re a fan of classical music, particularly piano music, you’ll want to check out the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. No, you don’t have to go to Fort Worth, it’s available for you to watch online at: 
Hugh Kenner, once considered one of the great literary critics (now forgotten), wrote an amazing work on poet Ezra Pound (nearly forgotten). The Pound Era is completely unique. It’s part biography, part intellectual history, and part literary analysis. Readers of this great work learn about the culture of the early 20th Century, the literary scene, and Ezra Pound’s influence on the ethos of the time. Kenner brings his vast knowledge of literature, philosophy, sociology, and psychology to bear on Pound and his era. This classic work is well worth rediscovering, reading, and pondering. I highly recommend all of Hugh Kenner’s works, but The Pound Era is in a class of its own.
Reading Redemption Street reminded me of an old Mike Shayne mystery. Retired cop Moe Prager finds himself pummeled quite a bit in this book, reminiscent of Mike Shayne’s constant beatings. Prager gets involved in an investigation of a decades old fire in a Catskill hotel where 17 people died. Reed Farrel Coleman throws plenty of elements into the mix: a neo-Nazi cult, a colony of Hasidic Jews, an aging comedian, an ambitious politician, a corrupt police force, a mysterious real estate magnate, and crazy brother searching for his missing sister. There are a few sour notes in this story. And there’s one incredibly implausible scene near the book’s conclusion. But, if you can get by those flaws, Redemption Street is a compelling story. GRADE: B