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Happy Hour
Alaska bush pilot Alex Price was content with his day job flying between the villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, until an urgent call from his best friend, the elegant novice bar owner Renaldo, brought him into 1970s Anchorage and danger. Alaska hovered on the edge of the Age of Big Oil. The smell of money was in the air, and like the smell of blood, it drew predators from far away. Renaldo sent the men offering "insurance"—or else—packing and bleeding, and now his life was in danger. The embattled Anchorage barkeepers pull together long enough to draft Alex as their own combination of Wyatt Earp and Sherlock Holmes. Now all Alex has to do is stay alive long enough to fight off the Russian mob and keep himself and his friends healthy and making a profit...
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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August 17, 2024
Aug 16, 2024 ~~ Doing some housekeeping on the Zapata Reading Club list. The first year or so of this project I did not add new read dates to some titles and I did not update the original reviews. I still won't be doing that, but I wanted to have the dates properly recorded.
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I think it was on one of my trips north last year that I found a copy of this author's book Humpy Cove in the thrift shop. It was a fun read, and I filed Don G. Porter away on my mental Look For More list.
In November when I was in Arizona again, I visited the library, renewed my inactive card, and prowled the stacks, wishing I had remembered to write down a few of the titles that had appealed to me from reading friend's GR reviews. Somehow in the flurry of packing and preparing I forgot that little detail. But then I saw Don G. Porter on the shelf ~~ three books! I snapped them up, got home, lined them up in order of publication, and started reading.
Naturally this was the first one and it eventually turned out to be my favorite. Alex Price is a bush pilot in Alaska, back in the 70's when Alaska was still Alaska and men were men and so on and so forth. The author had been a bush pilot himself, and one of the interesting (usually) things about his books is that he adds details about flying that most of us don't know. Too much of that can become mind-numbing, but in this book the mix was perfect, at least for me.
But Alex is not just a bush pilot. He is also a licensed private investigator, so when he is called on to fly the police to a crime scene he can legally carry a weapon and be named in reports as a credible witness.
Alex has a friend, Renaldo, who recently bought a bar in Anchorage and was appalled to find that he was expected to pay protection money to certain shady characters. He calls Alex for help and since they have that kind of friendship, Alex goes right away. And then the fun truly begins. A very handy catch and toss of a Molotov cocktail, a meeting of the local bar owners (Pauline is priceless!), and Alex being put in charge of fixing the mess.
I had a blast with this book. The good guys are witty and fun. The bad guys are deliciously stupid, getting into all sorts of trouble because they think they know what is happening when they really don't. And when the main bad guy goes to Seattle for help from the Italian mafia....well, I bet he wished he had never done that!
I also have a tip for you from Alex Price himself. When he was waiting in a little rented helicopter for time to trail the guy who was going around collecting the protection money, he was reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky. Here's why:
"I can recommend that book for any long vigil. You can read it for hours, have no idea what, if anything, is going on, pick it up anywhere and keep reading, but for some reason you never get sleepy."
I don't know if that is true, just thought I would share.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think it was on one of my trips north last year that I found a copy of this author's book Humpy Cove in the thrift shop. It was a fun read, and I filed Don G. Porter away on my mental Look For More list.
In November when I was in Arizona again, I visited the library, renewed my inactive card, and prowled the stacks, wishing I had remembered to write down a few of the titles that had appealed to me from reading friend's GR reviews. Somehow in the flurry of packing and preparing I forgot that little detail. But then I saw Don G. Porter on the shelf ~~ three books! I snapped them up, got home, lined them up in order of publication, and started reading.
Naturally this was the first one and it eventually turned out to be my favorite. Alex Price is a bush pilot in Alaska, back in the 70's when Alaska was still Alaska and men were men and so on and so forth. The author had been a bush pilot himself, and one of the interesting (usually) things about his books is that he adds details about flying that most of us don't know. Too much of that can become mind-numbing, but in this book the mix was perfect, at least for me.
But Alex is not just a bush pilot. He is also a licensed private investigator, so when he is called on to fly the police to a crime scene he can legally carry a weapon and be named in reports as a credible witness.
Alex has a friend, Renaldo, who recently bought a bar in Anchorage and was appalled to find that he was expected to pay protection money to certain shady characters. He calls Alex for help and since they have that kind of friendship, Alex goes right away. And then the fun truly begins. A very handy catch and toss of a Molotov cocktail, a meeting of the local bar owners (Pauline is priceless!), and Alex being put in charge of fixing the mess.
I had a blast with this book. The good guys are witty and fun. The bad guys are deliciously stupid, getting into all sorts of trouble because they think they know what is happening when they really don't. And when the main bad guy goes to Seattle for help from the Italian mafia....well, I bet he wished he had never done that!
I also have a tip for you from Alex Price himself. When he was waiting in a little rented helicopter for time to trail the guy who was going around collecting the protection money, he was reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky. Here's why:
"I can recommend that book for any long vigil. You can read it for hours, have no idea what, if anything, is going on, pick it up anywhere and keep reading, but for some reason you never get sleepy."
I don't know if that is true, just thought I would share.
June 10, 2014
AUTHOR: Porter, Don G.
TITLE: Happy Hour
DATE READ: 06/09/14
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS: Crime Fiction/2005/McRoy & Blackburn/139 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: 1st in Alex Price series
TIME/PLACE: 1970's Alaska
CHARACTERS: Alex Price : bush pilot & private detective
FIRST LINES: "In another 5 minutes I'd have been out of radio range, but Vickie nailed me."
COMMENTS: It is before the big oil boom and Alaska is ripe for pioneers to settle down. The cities here are like any other… crime is rampant, only maybe still in the early stages of being more organized. Alex has a friend Renaldo who buys a bar at a fraction of the price it is worth. Renaldo is blinded by the low price and feels that is the true indicator of a good deal. Shortly after he opens he realizes that the price for running his business is much higher than expected. Every month a strange Russian man resembling Ed Asner visits for his $5,000 Insurance payment. For years the other bars have been paying for fear that there is a large Russian syndicate demanding the money. Renaldo calls in his friend Alex for assistance. I enjoyed the background story of Josef -- the Russian who basically worked on his own w/ only a few to do his leg work. The setting was definitely a draw, it was nice to read about Alaska in the 1970's and also the story line was better than expected.
TITLE: Happy Hour
DATE READ: 06/09/14
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS: Crime Fiction/2005/McRoy & Blackburn/139 pgs
SERIES/STAND-ALONE: 1st in Alex Price series
TIME/PLACE: 1970's Alaska
CHARACTERS: Alex Price : bush pilot & private detective
FIRST LINES: "In another 5 minutes I'd have been out of radio range, but Vickie nailed me."
COMMENTS: It is before the big oil boom and Alaska is ripe for pioneers to settle down. The cities here are like any other… crime is rampant, only maybe still in the early stages of being more organized. Alex has a friend Renaldo who buys a bar at a fraction of the price it is worth. Renaldo is blinded by the low price and feels that is the true indicator of a good deal. Shortly after he opens he realizes that the price for running his business is much higher than expected. Every month a strange Russian man resembling Ed Asner visits for his $5,000 Insurance payment. For years the other bars have been paying for fear that there is a large Russian syndicate demanding the money. Renaldo calls in his friend Alex for assistance. I enjoyed the background story of Josef -- the Russian who basically worked on his own w/ only a few to do his leg work. The setting was definitely a draw, it was nice to read about Alaska in the 1970's and also the story line was better than expected.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews