No comments about Christmas Instrumental Solos: Clarinet W CD.

No comments about Complete Method for Clarinet Op. 63 (Carl Baermann, 3rd Division).

No comments about Melodious and Progressive Studies for Clarinet (Book 2).

No comments about Ballads: Play-Along Solos for Clarinet.

No comments about Brahms: Clarinet Quintet (Cambridge Music Handbooks).

5 comments about Mr. Clarinet.

1. How to see the world that is hidden.In this masterful terror thriller we step into the dark world that is Haiti.After the chaos of Baby Doc and the puppets that are hand picked by the US a frightening world emerges where the power of the Loas and the Bokar turn life into a zombie style existence in order that the people may "live".Mingus finds himself searching for the son of a privelged white family ,but what he finds is the nightmare world of child traders that exist to feed the sexual fantasies of the super rich.Brilliant terrifying and very thought provoking.I look forward to his next book with anticipation.



2. MR CLARINET is a highly acclaimed thriller, that won both the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award (for best adventure/thriller novel) and an International Thriller Award (for best debut novel of 2007). I think it's largely deserving of those awards.
   
   The plot of MR CLARINET is straightforward. Max Mingus is a police detective who served seven years in prison for a vigilante killing. After being released, Mingus is offered a job by a rich man named Allain Carver. He is asked to find Carver's son Charlie, who disappeared three years ago on the island of Haiti. If he succeeds, he will get paid $10 million. Mingus then travels to Haiti, and learns the case is much more complicated than it seems.
   
   Overall I thought MR CLARINET was well written. Nick Stone's writing style reminds me a lot of another UK author, John Connolly. Stone's the type of writer who takes a lot of time to set up the story, the main character's background, and the surrounding atmosphere. This is not what I would describe as a leanly written, fast-paced novel.
   
   In MR CLARINET, Stone does a great job detailing the realities of Haitian society in the mid-1990s. Needless to say, it's not a great place to live. If you have a pre-existing interest in this region, this novel provides some fascinating insights into what daily life is like in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. If you couldn't care less about Haiti, you might find all the detail to be tedious.
   
   Personally, I though Stone paid a bit too much attention to the setting, and not enough time on developing the characters. Other than the anti-hero Max Mingus, I didn't feel most of the characters in this book had much depth. I also felt that the plotline was a bit too convoluted for my tastes, with one clever twist too many.
   
   MR CLARINET is gritty to the extreme. This book has a ton of graphic violence and sexual content (of the non-erotic variety), and readers sensitive to such material should definitely stay away.
   
   But in the end, I very much enjoyed MR CLARINET. The story was well told, and the writing of very impressive quality. This is the first book in a series, and I look forward to future installments.



3. Author: Think I'll write a crime novel for my debut!
   Agent: Okay but whatever you do try to be original! But don't ignore the tried and tested formula - make sure you stick with it.
   Author: Oh don't worry; originality was at the forefront of my mind. In fact I've already done quite a bit of research.
   Agent: Okay - I'm listening.
   Author: Well, for a start the `hero' has to be tough, you know, a bit like Burke's Robicheaux and Connelly's Bosch.
   Agent: Like it! And his wife must have died horribly a bit like John Connolly's Charlie Parker's! and, because of it, he has to be all haunted and bitter and twisted and vicious; a bit like Connelly's Bosch! And someone who can barely wait for his shot of Jack Daniels; a bit like Burke's Robicheaux!
   Author: Wow, didn't think of that but great! He's got to be a big guy who despises villains and good with guns and things; a bit like Child's Jack Reacher!
   Agent: We're onto something here! And he's got to be a brilliant investigator a bit like Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme!
   Author: You read my mind! The villain must be a twisted, vicious, homicidal maniac whose lackeys look upon him as some sort of messiah, a bit like the twisted, vicious, messianic, homicidal maniac in Hecht's Babel!
   Agent: That's it! And he's got to have a recognizable patch, a bit like Bosch's L.A., Parker's New England, Davenport's Minneapolis, Robicheax' New Iberia, Brunetti's Venice, Zen's Rome; Morse's Oxford.
   Author: Blimey! Is there anywhere left?
   Agent: er, how about, er, Haiti?
   Author: Brilliant! Where is it?
   
   Pause
   
   Agent: Besides, isn't originality overvalued?
   Author: Well, who'll notice anyway?
   Agent: He's got to have a ridiculous name! You forgot the ridiculous name!
   Author: No I didn't.



4. I'll start with the bad things. 1) The prose is descriptive but artless, but there is a good point to it (see below).
   
   2) There is an awful black guy-white guy buddy element that screams to Hollywood from the very HP LaserJet home printer the first draft was pounded out on. And the "twist" on the "black guy's" character is he is a Bruce Springsteen fan. Daaawwwwwgggg, where you cum up wid dis sheeah? Yep, it is that obvious a "Novel writing 101: Developing Interesting Characters" in vomitous transparency. 3) the evil guy is over-the-top evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever and completely unsympathetic...purposefully so, which makes it kinda adolescent and Manichean. 4) the rich creepy guy is rich and creepy and evil too. Has it ever occurred to an author that someone who is rich might be kind, intelligent, holy, benevolent, and filled with gemutlichkeit? No. All rich people in pop novels are evil. Evil evil evil. Class warfare comrade! Novelists of the work unit! You have nothing to loose but your stupidity in perpetuating stereotypes! 4) the "tender" moments are about as brief as a ten-second "touching moment/double head-shot" in a movie script, and about as deep.
   
   Happily, the good points overcome these weaknesses. There are funny metaphors throughout: horses pissing on wind chimes for a sound was my favourite.
   
   The plot is excellent and the back story for the hero well thought out. Perhaps this is a strength and flaw, for the hero is so compellingly constructed that the other characters, other than his dead wife, are less interesting in comparison.
   
   The excellent dual locations of Miami, and Haiti are fun, and there are unblinking passages about Haiti that recall overwhelming memories for anyone who has visited there.
   
   Needless to say, the complex backdrop and intersection of the random and the supernatural and the rational world and voodoo make for arresting points and twists, although the supernatural is simultaneously a great motivating force for the characters, explicit supernatural events that could *ONLY* be supernatural are left intentionally and artfully ambiguous.
   
   Detailed torture scenes are not for the squeamish. Please consider this a warning, as this does not happen "offstage" in the prose.
   
   This is excellent pop literature that overcomes its flaws with tremendous and compelling thought. Certainly not the depth of erudition of Thomas Harris or Donna Tartt, but a compelling novel that touches on crime, procedural, and outsider cultures that shows tremendous promise. Highly recommended.



5. I would have liked more passages about genuine ritual and trance, and suggestion/magic.
   
   As it is, the book was surprisingly civilised and mundane. In my view, it didn't exploit to the full the exotic atmosphere, if there continues to be one (I was last there in the 80's!). Maybe it's the writing style that puts a gloss that shouldn't be there -like, say, a Hollywood musical about slum life- over everything Haitian: you don't FEEL the grittines and destitution.
   
   It's predictable and clichéed, also, that nothing is as it seems; and the main danger to Mingus never materialises, although on the other hand if the series continues, there's the possibility of a future romance (by the way, Mingus' Haitian chaperone, if properly exploited, could have bloomed into an interesting major character; but didn't).
   
   The Miami parts were awful. Max and Liston, Mingus' ex-partner, strike me as unattractive characters. Take the booze away, and what's left of them and their friendship? Also Max's dead wife, Sandra: did you ever hear of a real love like that? Some characters are staight out of "Advise and Consent".
   
   Nonetheless, I'll be buying the prequel when published in a sensibly small format. Most of my gripes are really about failed expectations created by the ads.

No comments about High School Musical 2 Clairnet BK/CD (Hal Leonard Instrumental Play-Along).

No comments about Music Minus One Clarinet: Weber Concerto No. 1 in F minor, op. 73; STAMITZ Concerto No. 3 in B-flat (Book & CD).

1 comments about The Complete Clarinet Player: Book 1 (Complete Clarinet Player).

1. This book is for the beginner clarinet player, it is not for anyone who has been playing the clarinet for over three months.

No comments about Seventy-Eight Duets for Flute and Clarinet Volume 1 (Rubank Educational Library No. 196.