{"id":14106,"date":"2020-08-24T18:12:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T22:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=14092"},"modified":"2020-08-24T18:12:40","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T22:12:40","slug":"coasts-of-christmas-past-and-ship-of-fools-by-rodney-riesel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=14106","title":{"rendered":"‘Coasts of Christmas Past,’ and ‘Ship of Fools,’ by Rodney Riesel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dan yanked his pistol from his waistband, ejected the magazine from the grip, and looked at the bullets. Then he jammed the magazine back into place with the palm of his hand.<\/p>

\u201cWhat was that for?\u201d Red asked.<\/p>

\u201cI have no idea, but they always do it on TV.\u201d<\/p>

(Coasts of Christmas Past)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just tooling along <\/strong>through Rodney Riesel\u2019s Dan Coast novels, because they\u2019re short, mostly likeable, and not too demanding. I\u2019ll do two books tonight \u2013 Coasts of Christmas Past<\/a><\/em> and Ship of Fools<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan Coast, Key West lottery winner and dilettante private investigator, aims for a life of quiet self-destruction on the beach, drinking heavily to suppress memories of his great personal loss. However, in Coasts of Christmas Past<\/em>, his friend Red and his parents have different plans. His parents show up unexpectedly, organizing a big Christmas for him, whether he wants one or not. Christmas was once his favorite time of the year. But that was before\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The preparations get interrupted when a close friend gets injured. The police believe he was hurt in a botched drug deal, but Dan and Red know better than that. So they ride to the rescue in Red\u2019s borrowed pink Volkswagen. There\u2019s also a touching subplot in this book that will break your heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ship of Fools<\/a><\/em> finds Dan where he\u2019s been headed for some time \u2013 confined in a mental hospital, drying out at a judge\u2019s orders. That\u2019s how he gets to know \u201cOfficer Mel,\u201d a fellow patient who wears a cardboard badge and thinks he\u2019s a policeman. Nobody believes Mel when he says that somebody has kidnapped his sister, but Dan starts to think there\u2019s something there. So, ruthlessly using his money and snooping skills, he orchestrates his own release and takes Mel with him. Thus begins a madcap adventure with some interesting twists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I liked the serious aspects of these stories better than the humor. Humor is hard to do, especially the wisecracking kind. One expects drunks to be inappropriate, but even when he\u2019s sober, Dan can be a real jerk. On the other hand, when he gets his priorities straight, he can be a pretty good guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author still needs a proofreader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mild cautions for language and adult themes. Good light entertainment, if you can get through the annoying parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan yanked his pistol from his waistband, ejected the magazine from the grip, and looked at the bullets. Then he jammed the magazine back into place with the palm of his hand. \u201cWhat was that for?\u201d Red asked. \u201cI have no idea, but they always do it on TV.\u201d (Coasts of Christmas Past) I\u2019m just … Continue reading ‘Coasts of Christmas Past,’ and ‘Ship of Fools,’ by Rodney Riesel<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[534,628,2409,2567],"class_list":["post-14106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-coasts-of-christmas-past","tag-dan-coast","tag-rodney-riesel","tag-ship-of-fools"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}