Finished: "Tsar" by Ted Bell

Tsar is the fifth Ted Bell novel in the Alex Hawke series. His sixth, Phantom, is sitting on my "to do" shelf, but I have to be in an ambitious mood to tackle Bell, because, as wonderful as they are, they are thick. This one was 705 pages! Fortunately, a snow storm hit us and we were without electricity for almost three days, so that gave me plenty of reading time.

Since I don't do reviews very well, I'll give you the highlights, which include the * and underlines and X's I make in a book for things that stand out to me for sometimes odd reasons, but usually because I thought it was a clever turn of a phrase, neat description or just something I just want to remember.

For starters, I gave it a 7, on my 1-10 scale. That's one of the higher ratings I've given in quite some time.

Other notes:

"Sometimes a man just had to bury his past and bloody well get on with it." Words we can all appreciate in some aspect.

In one scene Hawke is wearing a "double-ended black satin tie." I thought that sounded like something I might like and Googled double-ended ties and can't find anything. Hmm, a mystery within the mystery. I'll keep looking.

He also referenced "Yeats" as being sublime. I haven't read the Irish poet since college, and don't remember him being sublime, but then again didn't consider much to be sublime when I was 20. So I'm making it a point to check out some Yeats this week. Stay tuned.

"You know my definition of a committee?"

   "A group that keeps minutes and wastes hours."

To that I say: Amen, brother.