#40: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter gets a heaping helping of teen angst in this installment, trying to figure out girls as well as murderous wizards in the fifth installment of the long-running series.

Although I don't think Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix held the dramatic tension of the prior two entries in the series, this novel does include who I think is (to date) the series' greatest villain in Dolores Umbridge, a sickly-sweet-acting teacher with a cruel streak who rises to prominence at the Hogwarts School as Harry's stock continues to plunge. Umbridge does help fill the gaps left by the lack of some of the other memorable characters, including Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Sirius Black, gone for unfortunately long stretches of the narrative.

I did enjoy how the storyline continues to pick up threads and minor characters from earlier novels to create its own rich, full world. I still find interest in the depictions of the casual cruelty of the British boarding school, though Harry Potter fans I have spoken to generally don't agree that Hogwarts, when looked at in a clear-eyed fashion, is a rather poorly-run and shabby-appearing school.

As with the other Harry Potter novels, I listened to the very good audio book version by Jim Dale, checked out from the Morrison-Reeves Library in Richmond, Indiana.

#39: The Turnaround by George Pelecanos

A racial incident between teens that leads to murder in 70s Washington, D.C. reverberates in the lives of the adult survivors in George Pelecanos' compelling The Turnaround.

Although Pelecanos is often billed as a crime fiction writer, I have found his work a bit more philosophical, with few easy answers and fewer pat conclusions. I enjoyed his previous two novels, Drama City and The Night Gardener, and find here a lot of similiar themes, including parallel storytelling with events in the past and using Washington D.C. as almost a character onto itself. Pelecanos has a clipped style, but a knack for dialogue and interesting characterizations.

Pelecanos is a worthwhile read, and I will be on the lookout for his next novel.

#38: Short-Trigger Man by Merle Constiner

Former gunslinger turned barkeep gets framed for a murder and has to unholster his guns once more in Merle Constiner's agreeable Western Short-Trigger Man.

Constiner's sure-handed plotting, leavened by some surprisingly wry humor, made this an enjoyable read.

I have heard pulp writer Merle Constiner's name used in warm terms by fans but was only modestly impressed by the first novel of his I found (reviewed earlier). There were many similarities between the two novels, including a hard-headed protagonist with his own code of honor, a spitfire love interest, and an older, wiser man who helps out the hero. There is another Constiner on the flip side, so I will have to see if this trend continues. Constiner's personal story is interesting, so I keep looking for his work; and Short-Trigger Man I would recommend to fans.

This edition was again part of an Ace Double Western that I found for a quarter at a street fair. The pages were falling out as I read it, but I felt compelled to soldier on.