High-jinks in the heather.
348575
Disappointing effort from one of my favorite authors. Totally lacking in substance. After the success of the James Bond novel, Mr. Boyd is still writing like Ian Fleming. I enjoyed Solo, but I hope he gets back to writing like William Boyd.
1159323
this was scary for some reason.  Nature is scary.
4366751
I love all of Heathers books, they keep me intrigued  and on the edge of my seat. Very hard to put down.
2428781
If, on the Amazon hunt for your next sexy and riveting backwoods thriller, you stumble or fall into Bad Way Out by C. Hoyt Caldwell, you will have landed in an infested nest of raunch and dirty thrills and one great summer read. If it were not for the breeze of human decency blowing through these savage and carnal events, this book's many pleasures might be found guilty. You might even think James Lee Burke abandoned Cajun lit, but left his prose to spit and smolder under a stretch of hot asphalt that cuts through God's Little Acre.

Having dropped into this den of vipers and criminal intent you will soon meet many a dark heart where the sun refuses to shine. Take a deep breath and leave the wrangling to C. Hoyt Caldwell. Because, Caldwell, he knows these folk, and to read his pages is to let these intoxicating tongues in, under your skin, where the tension coils like a copperhead.

Caldwell's voice slashes through the modern canebreak of plagued hill folk, the moonshine trade, the meth heads, the lure of fast money in meagre doses, and the occasional freak of nature one must take in stride to walk--then run for your life--through these troubled hills. At times Caldwell's writing hurls us along at a spare but breakneck pace, with the surety of some Hemingway riding the horn and rails on his midnight express through the pines. There are no super heroes here. But there is the stray good man and good beast of the woods. Blessedly, there are good women to be had here too, if a man makes an effort. Some effort is required because, for better or worse, these hollers are still endowed with those shirt-busting lusty country girls who would turn most any man to beast and then make the beast go bad.

Pipe-puffing bootlegger E.R. Percy is aware of the beast within him. Yet he is one of those stray good men, a common man, unadorned. He is wise to the woods where he must hide to cook his brain-curdling brew, doing his business in the dark places. He is wise to the evil and the freaks that too often crawl out of those trees. Even if that cold-blooded evil snakes into Percy's life and business out of a slimy, big city cesspool. In this modern cautionary telling, Percy soon finds he must call on homefolk and kinfolk, uneasy friends and even freaks, to fight this urban viper in their midst.

You see, E.R. Percy is a bit of Dixie-fried Raymond Chandler, a turn I find refreshing. Instead of Chandler's mean streets, E.R. Percy is a character who is not mean but must travel these mean backroads, cleaving to his own countryman's code, remaining "neither tarnished nor afraid", lest he lose his very soul. In the process, Percy remains the only hope for salvation to so many of the lost souls he encounters daily in this nefarious neck of the woods. He knows that most will end their days washed only in the blood money of outsiders.

Bad Way Out is one damn good book, a relentless and hellbent ride, and it deserves to be read.

C. Hoyt Caldwell rips the skin off any Dollywood (or Deliverance) delusions of the Blue Ridge fantasy, revealing the often cruel and grinding poverty in the hopeless hollers, hidden behind the tourist traps. He does not flinch. He does not blink. He shines naked light on the despair that drives the two-bit psychobilly underworld of today--where common but nasty acts, ruthless doings, and dirty cash can leave you only a bad way out.
46314
Despite the premise being over the top and wacky, this was a fun book.  The H/h fit together well, and are both reasonably interesting and intelligent.  The love scenes are steamy, so all in all, a good read.  Total fun.
2204231
Fun.  Hard to put down murder mystery with unrequited love combined in a majestic woodland setting.  Interesting cast of characters as well.
2600442
Another typical damsel in ( ghostly) distress.  Enter a new Krewe member who saves the day.  They fall in love, she probably joins the Krewe, and everyone lives happily ever after.  But that's EXACTLY why we LOVE Heather Graham's Krewe of Hunters trilogies.  We can't get enough of them, so please, Heather Graham, hurry up with the next release!
I do look forward to the history lesson provided in each book.  An awful lot of  background research into the local area of each book, and the writing style is so smooth that you don't realize how much you're "learning" as well as being entertained. Keep up the great work Ms Graham!
3473890
The clothing is warm.
Neck is frustrating .
556674
Wow. Hugh is super funny. I love the visitors and the new people that come to this town. Love the animals and the cover is awesome.
4600912
A Band of Heather is Colleen and Noah's story. They meet and fall in love at school in Scotland. Their whirlwind romance is beautiful but not without it's troubles. Will Noah stand by Colleen when he learns about her abilities?
1322189
My Grandma lived in Gooligulch,

Near Bandywallop East,

A fair way north of Murrumbum

(Five hundred miles at least)...

In Sydney and in Melbourne Town,

They all knew Grandma's name,

And all about the animals,

That Grandma used to tame.

THe Australian place names and the premise of the Grandma taming exotic animals (exotic to most non-Australians kids) is as colorful as Grame Base's 11 2-page spreads.  The story concerns Grandma (while we're told that everyone "knew her name," we're never told what it is), her taming, training, and befriending of wombats, kangaroos, dingos, goannas and local birds, including kookaburras, galahs, magpies, and coots.  The color pictures are beautiful and often wonderfully improbable:  A goanna (some kind of reptile) is shown in an easy cair, quaffing some type of drink (Foster's?), while he and a dingo (wild dog) watch a rat balance an Australian coin.

After introducing the animals who overrun Grandma's house, Base's brief plot concerns Grandma's journey (via pelican) over the desert sands and mountins, "until at dusk they reached a place, Where giant tree-ferns grew. There's a lush picture of this riverbank oasis, followed by a dark, fun/scary night illustration of the wombats--their eyes open in fear--"looking nervously around...for a wombat-eating snake." Grandma and pelican journey to next to the sea, where she dons "frilly bathing gear," and rides the waves on a blowup sea-dragon.

HOwever, things take an unexpected turn when Base decides that Grandma will be taken by the tide: "ANnd no-one's seen my Grandma/Even to this very day." This sudden disappearance is tempered by the narrator's speculation that Grandma probably landed on an island and thence to England , Spain, San Francisco, or Tingoor, or (her best bet), that Grandma's "back in Gooligulch, just like before."  While the fantasy elements of the book make Grandma's fate less important, and the narrator's speculation more plausible, this turn of events may make the book somewhat unsettling for toddlers, restricting the book's audience to those around the ages 4-9 or so.  You'll have to use your judgement.  There's no hint that Grandma had a disaster, she pictured (in the narrator's fantasy taming animals "in thejungles of Tingoor" an d heading to San Francisco "On a Western Union train."  Still, you might want to consider whrther the ambiguity of what happened to Grandma will be upsetting to your readers. Still, in keeping with the light, silly narrative poem (which is very imaginative and well-written), I think a zanier, more explicit conclusion would have been a better fit.

The other non-color picture are a monochromatic dark brown, made interesting by Base's lined shadings. Unfortunately, these are sometimes too dense, his most effective picture leave more "white space." In addition, Base introduces some of the animals without a nearby reference illustration: You have to go to the inside of the front cover to get the  key to the two-page illustration of all the animals located inside the back cover! This is a little inconvenient. Overall, a very good book, with excellent color illustrations, and a clever poetic narrative that will draw engage individuals kids or in group reading.
2900068
Book 2 of the Walk on the Wild Side series.

You remember Heather's friend, Carla, from Vanilla on Top?  She was the out-going, flirty girl who convinced Heather to step out of her box.  It's Heather's turn to push her friend.  Carla has hidden insecurities that she shows no one, but her co-worker, Andy, decides she's his.  Get ready for some steamy scenes and big reveals.

If you're looking for a spicy sequel, this is definitely it!
905136
Checkered Crime is a rollicking tale of a quirky, larcenous orphan who goes in search of her roots and finds out more than what she bargained for. Laurel London's misspent youth proved to be too much for the residents of Walnut Grove, Kentucky, whom she's bilked in one way or another (including the pastor), ever since she hit the double digits, as a t'weenie.

Laurel got fired from her only job, and needs a car to find work. She cons her best friend, Derek, to rebuild a clunker checkered cab for wheels. She takes her new wheels out for a spin and accidentally picks up a fare, Trigger Finger Tony Cardozza, who happens to be a mobster from Louisville, and things go south from there. But the job pays well. Enter the FBIdreamy Jax Jackson, her old Porta Potty boss, and warring factions of the Mob, in a merry goosechase. Batty Trixie, Laurel's foster mom, adjusts her tinfoil hat, as there are some inexplicably strange goings-on in Walnut Grove.

Nuts and bolts. Minor editing issues include typos: it's chicken coop, not "chicken coupe," unless it's a name of a car. A compound word failure: "ear shot" should be earshot. Unless of course, his ear got shot. Then fire away. Mondegreen alert: it's not "throws of danger," but, "throes of danger." Ok, so there are a few squirrely transitions, sometimes the sentence structure (or word choice) was odder than a lovesick adder on a hot caduceus, and I gotta admit that it was a highly improbable plot, but it was oh-so-entertaining. Witty dialogue keeps this story moving along. I haven't laughed out loud or snorted so much in public in ages.

Hysterically funny writing. I give it four snorts.

The Laurel London series:
Checkered Crime
Checkered Past
Checkered Thief
950320
This book had a little different story from most of Heather Graham's books. Not one of my favorites but I would reccomend reading it.
1183929
Very entertaining and the group comes off as lovely pack of friends . Sort of an airborne  version of Friends.
3736995
The neck has a very funny, hard ribbing that is not comfortable.
2537352
So much fun. The quality is middling, but I don't care. Watching that giant b*st*rd flutter into the air is probably the most exhilarating thing that's every happened to me. Complete strangers cheered when it took off. Little children materialized out of no where with looks of wonder on their faces. The sun came out. Watching those tentacles swish and flick in the breeze was like looking into the face of god.