The G8 conference is about to open in Gleneagles, Scotland, during the first week of July 2005. Hundreds of thousands of anti-glob­al­iza­tion activists are heading to Edinburgh to protest.

Edinburgh cop, DI John Rebus, is about the only police officer in Britain who's not on G8 duty. He's been sidelined because of his propensity for pissing off his superiors. Instead, he gets involved in two different in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

A Labour MP plunged to his death from the walls of Edinburgh Castle. Suicide or murder? Why does Rebus keep …continue.

At End of Day is Higgins' last novel, published after his death. McKeach and Cistaro are crime bosses who have avoided arrest for more than 30 years. Partly because they're very smart, very competent, and quite paranoid. Partly because they have a secret deal with the local FBI office: they provide in­for­ma­tion in return for protection. All good things come to an end, of course.

Higgins' style is odd, conducted largely in monologue. His characters jaw and jaw. Boy, do they love the sounds of their own …continue.

Michael Forsythe is an illegal immigrant from Northern Ireland, working for a crime boss in Harlem in 1992. When he sleeps with his boss's girlfriend, he and three others are set up to take the fall for a drug bust in Mexico. He breaks out of a hellhole prison, losing a foot and his friends along the way, and makes his way back to New York to exact revenge.

McKinty writes lush, at­mos­pher­ic prose, with a good turn in dialog. Forsythe grows from a bright, feckless teenager, with a …continue.

Karl Dahl is about to go on trial for the obscene murders of a woman and her two young children, and everyone wants to lynch him. Judge Carey Moore rules that Dahl's prior criminal record is in­ad­mis­si­ble. Hours later, she's beaten up in the courthouse parking garage. Is it (a) an enraged member of the public, (b) the family of the murder victims, (c) a hit man sent by her estranged husband, or (d) the sidelined detective driven out of his mind by the horrors of the case? Then Karl Dahl escapes....

The …continue.

The book that introduces Serge A. Storms, the hy­per­ac­tive serial killer, and his stoner sidekick, Coleman.

The frenzied plot follows a large cast of characters chasing $5 million of drug money down Florida to the Keys. Most of them are Unnice People who will come to well-deserved bad ends.

Dorsey is not in control of his plot. Random flashbacks lay down the backstory for newly introduced characters. The plot jumps about with wild abandon, revving on all cylinders. Somehow it comes together at the end, with some funny moments along the way.

(I read the …continue.

A fast-paced comedy about an almost likable serial killer. Who'da thunk it?

There must be something about the coffee they serve in Florida newsrooms. Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, and Tim Dorsey. All Florida-based newsmen now known for their funny writing.

This is the first book that I've read by Dorsey. According to Wikipedia, all of his books feature Serge A. Storms, said serial killer, though he's not always the prime character.

Serge spends much of the book racing around Florida, chasing hurricanes with his stoner sidekick, Coleman. He's feeling put upon because …continue.

So, there's this two-time loser Eddie Coyle, see. Eddie Fingers. They call him that on account of the time that he screwed up and some other guys had to break his fingers. Eddie deals guns and he's facing time in New Hampshire, so he's talking to the police hoping to get his sentence reduced. His friends wouldn't like that if they knew.

This was the first novel published by George V. Higgins (no relation). Written in an im­pres­sion­is­tic, dialog-heavy style, Higgins clearly knew his lowlifes. He …continue.

Three very screwed-up Londoners kidnap a Rilke-spouting busi­ness­man and hold him for hostage. There's a horrified fas­ci­na­tion as it inevitably goes pear shaped. Written in a spare, first-person style, it's short, but certainly not sweet.