May 2012 Archives

Writer Max Allan Collins has completed yet another unfinished manuscript left to him by the late Mickey Spillane, this one titled Lady, Go Die! (Click here to reserve it from us.)  Dating from around 1945, just after Spillane submitted his first novel, I, The Jury, to the publishers, Lady, Go Die! is actually the belated original sequel to Jury, finally available to readers.  And as with last year's Spillane/Collins collaborations, Kiss Her Goodbye and The Consummata, Lady, Go Die! was worth the wait.

The fifth book in Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom" series, 1922's The Chessmen of Mars, (click here to reserve a copy) trods some by-now familar narrative ground yet still has some great sequences and bizarre characters to keep the reader involved.  This time around, the protagonists are John Carter's daughter Tara of Helium and her would-be suitor, Gahan of Gathol, who "meet cute" at a reception at the beginning of the novel. 

Before I begin, be sure to check my Twitter page to find out when my review of Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Chessmen of Mars will be posted.  Meanwhile, this current blog entry is the first in a series of reviews of books that are currently out-of-print and not available from Greenwich Library other than through our Interlibrary Loan service.  (Click here to access the ILL page.)