Skeleton Crew, by Stephen King

Steven King is such a good writer.  I really enjoyed most of the stories in this collection.  In reading these stories, it occurred to me that King excels at three of the six core competencies:  character, concept and writing voice.  He creates characters we care about, he always has an interesting, novel hook, and he strikes just the right balance of writing interesting descriptions without writing purple prose.  These three elements combine to create stories that begin wonderfully, draw the reader in and set up big expectations for the end.  Unfortunately, this is usually where King's stories fall short.  Because the stories aren't planned out with a structure, the endings are hit-or-miss.  Some in this collection, like The Jaunt, The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands and Survivor Type, had great endings.  Others, like The Raft, Uncle Otto's Truck, and The Milkman Stories just peter out without a strong conclusion or theme.  Nonetheless, all these stories are worth reading for their imaginative concepts and characters as well as their wonderful examples of strong writing.

A Cold Day in Paradise, by Steve Hamilton

A Cold Day in Paradise is Steve Hamilton's first novel.  While not as good as The Lock Artist, it was still a good read.

I never cared too deeply about the main character even though he was given a lot of background.  Perhaps it's because he wasn't striving for something.  Rather, he was merely responding to events and trying to solve a mystery.

The ending to the novel also seemed forced.  Perhaps more structure and planning could have helped lead up to the conclusion better.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

[Note at 25% read]  So far, the book isn't drawing me in too much.  It's moving slowly because the author spends a lot of time giving details which aren't relevant.  However, I do like how the story switches back and forth between the current day and the past when the two main characters were kids.

The best thing about this book is the theme which is that a lack of courage to do the right thing can greatly affect other people to the point of ruining their lives.  The book was slow until this theme was revealed, but after that point it was enjoyable.

The book also did a nice job of getting into the two main characters which were flawed but likeable.  However, the author continued to give details which weren't relevant to the story line and which slowed down the narrative.

Blue Heaven, by C. J. Box

Notes while reading:

1)  C. J. Box has a style very similar to what I aspire to with lots of sensory description to get the reader into the scene.  Early on, the author overdoes it and it becomes a distraction.  Probably just one or two sensory descriptions are enough at the beginning of a scene.  This is something I'll have to keep in mind while writing.

2) The first five chapters or so introduced all of the characters without going back to continue the story with previous characters.  This was annoying because it was too much to remember.  I think it would be better to introduce new characters slowly throughout the first quarter of the book rather than all at once at the beginning.  You don't want to choke the crow!

Having finished the book, I now rate this book as one of my top three for 2010 (the others are A Simple Plan and The Lock Artist).  The book built nicely after introducing all the characters.  The writing style also limited the descriptions and was no longer a distraction.

The conclusion wrapped together different story lines in a very satisfying way.  The scene construction was also well done and I can see this book being made into a very good movie.