Extra! Extra! Read all about it...three Paul Doiron reviews in one!

During our last snowstorm I was trying to find a new mystery author that I hadn't read. I stumbled upon Bad Little Falls which is the 3rd book in the Mike Bowditch series.  

 

Bowditch is a young rookie game warden in upstate Maine.  He has a troubled past, a new ex-girlfriend, a severe loner complex, and a very large-sized chip on his shoulder. In his relatively short law enforcement career he has managed to get himself exiled to the most remote county in Maine.

 

I didn't have a choice (because of availability) and read the trilogy out of order...knowing full well that this was a major no-no in the "Official Guide to Mystery Readers'" handbook. I'm glad I did.  In retrospect, I learned that by book three, Doiron had smoothed out the sharp edges on his main character, Bowditch, making him a little more likeable. 

 

Hooked on the cold, vast setting of northeastern Maine and the remarkable characters, I then read the second book in this series: Trespasser, which involved a mysterious missing murdered female, who was a car accident victim, and several similar past crimes.  Bowditch, who again has the misfortune of occupying the right space at the wrong time, becomes entrenched in a multiple-murder investigation where he is considered one of the primary suspects. 

 

Consuming these 2 books lead me to the inevitable: reading Doiron's first award-winning novel: The Poacher's Son. In this story, Bowditch's estranged father, Jack, was on the run for multiple-murders.  Against direct orders, and all reason, son Mike sets out to prove his father's innocence. In all three books there are the reoccurring themes of man-against-nature and bitter cold vs. bitter people. Can a damaged man ever find peace within himself?   

Bryan Ferry's music has always been tinged with a retro feel. Even the jarringly eclectic first album by Roxy Music featured his Cole Porter-styled crooning. Now he's gone even further back in the musical time machine, adapting some of his best-known songs into early jazz-age arrangements (think Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke). He even used special recording techniques to give the sessions a true 1920s feel.  The songs have also been turned into instrumentals and Ferry doesn't actually play anything--he's more of a conceptualist/arranger. So, how do things fare? Once you get past the "how can he possibly make 'The Bogus Man' work that way?" stage, surprisingly well. Significant stylistic liberties are taken--"Avalon" loses its silky groove and gets a bit more of a stomp--but it all turns into a very delightful listen. In the long run, it may be better in doses, though.

Not a history, not quite a memoir, You Were Never In Chicago is a highly personal rumination about what it means to be a Chicagoan...or, more precisely, what it means to be an non-Chicagoan whose job it is to chronicle the city and who's come to love it.  Steinberg is a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, born in Berea, Ohio and currently living in Northbrook.  He deftly intertwines details of Chicago's colorful past, his own arrival as a Northwestern University student in 1978, tales of his somewhat haphazard career path and profiles of fascinating Chicagoans (both well-known and obscure) he's met, profiled or written obituaries for along the way (the obituary details are especially enlightening).  Steinberg takes special pride in getting to know parts of the city most people miss (the deep-tunnel project, the Jay's potato chip plant, a paper tube manufacturer) and he writes in a colorful style that makes the book a quick, entertaining read.  If you love Chicago, you'll enjoy this book!

I'm an unabashed fan of  "progressive rock." I hum Mike Oldfield music in my sleep (this really annoys my wife). Imagine my delight at seeing that his 1980 album QE2 was reissued in late 2012. Frankly, it's an under-appreciated album. His longer works (Tubular Bells, Ommadawn, etc.) are classics, but you sometimes had to wade through the long, repetitive quiet parts to get to those great Oldfield guitar solos. Not in QE2. The songs are shorter and with a stronger, more accessible rock feel than his earlier work. That's not to say that there's not the necessary pomp--snippets of Bach in "Conflict," a brief horn fanfare in the title track, African drums, kettle drums...you get the idea. Ultimately, though, it's Oldfield's guitar that gets you. It's, well, majestic...and you never have to wait too long to hear it. The use of 1980s vocoders (synthesizers that give the singer kind of a robot voice) make the album seem a bit quaint and retro in a few places, but that's part of the fun. The bonus alternate takes and live tracks are OK (the stripped down live performances have an even harder edge), but lack the expansive sound of the main album. Ultimately...if you like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing you'll like.