Reading Sanctum Potpourri is one of our continuing features of quick cut book reviews to help you find some otherwise innocuous books that might have escaped your attention.
Because our geekdom includes so many disparate genres and incorporates and includes so many various media, I have only done one previous Potpourri. However, I have written other Reading Sanctums where I just review one book, or book collections. In either case, you might enjoy what we do here.
Show Me a Hero is an independently published Scandinavian police procedural mystery. It involves the very public feud between two track and field stars and the very natural suspicion of one upon the murder of the other. However, things are not always what they seem and it takes two plodding detectives, Johanna Apelgren and Andreas Stenman, to solve the mystery of who killed Thor the Thunder.
It’s a quick read (only 119 pages.) Interesting story, not perfect by any means. I would have liked more story. Some parts are hokey and a little pedantic. The ending is supposed to pack a punch and it fell flat. It was advertised as spellbinding and that pisses me off when the product doesn’t meet the hype.
I take a full point and a half away for hyping a mediocre offering. I take a full point away for not giving me a complete story. Having said that it is available on Amazon for $3.99. I got it for free and wish they would have give me more for my money soooo. . .
The Housewife Assassin’s Handbook is the first in a series of books about a housewife that becomes more than what she expected to become. She is married to a secret agent, but when he doesn’t make the birth of their third child, she must come to terms with the idea of making an income sufficient to care for her three children as a single parent.
Her husband’s boss remembers her husband telling him about his wife’s ability to shoot a gun. Intrigued, he offers her a job to train and remain undercover. Also, he offers her the opportunity to get back at the one’s who killed her husband. She likes the idea, and hence begins her career as an elite assassin.
There are about 20 books about this character. Clearly, the author, Josie Brown has managed to tap into the psyche of the American Housewife. This is a really good read. It provides action, suspense, humor, and even a little erotic interplay in its 288 pages. This kind of has the feeling of a guilty pleasure, but better. It is currently available as an ebook on Amazon for free. You can’t beat that.
Dynamite Comics has been providing a lot of really stellar work. One of the additions I’ve been fortunate enough to read is the Dawn/Vampirella team-up by Joseph Michael Linsner. Linsner is clearly multi-talented as he does double duty as the Writer/Artist.
I’m going to apologize in advance if some of the things I write are pedantic to you. For the benefit of non-Vampirella or non-Dawn fans some of the background maybe new to you, but not completely necessary for the purposes of reading this Trade Paper Back. It collects 5 issues into one gorgeous compilation.
The demon Masodik has captured the goddess, Dawn, and the vampire, Vampirella. He wants one to be the bearer of his seed, but they must fight to the death to see which will be the “lucky” one. They refuse to fight. They will tell stories, though, and whoever tells the best story will bear the heir to Masodik’s realm.
The artwork is incredible. The story is entertaining. The characters are iconic. It’s available on Amazon for $10.99 or you can read it online on readcomiconline.to for free. That’s where I read it!
The Mustache and The Beard 