Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Short Story Wednesday Review: Eleven Numbers: A Short Story by Lee Child


Eleven Numbers: A Short Story by Lee Child is something far different than one would expect from the author of the legendary Jack Reacher series. Instead, this quick read is all about math and mathematician Nathan Tyler. But, as the publisher synopsis makes clear, spy stuff is also at work here.

 

Despite the advice from the airline, the State Department, and his boss, Nathan Tyler is headed to Russia for a mathematics conference.  Tyler is sure that the Russians value and respect math. He is sure that the conference will an island of calm in a sea of chaos and noise. Besides, he is a man on a mission and operating on a need-to-know basis and other folks do not need to know everything that is in his head.

 

Of course, things go sideways. The questions are twofold. How did they go sideways? Is he going to get home, alive and in one piece?


A pleasant change of pace, Eleven Numbers: A Short Story by Lee Child is a fast moving and fun read. Even if you hated math in school and can’t balance a checkbook to save yourself, like me, you will learn a thing or two about numbers. Especially, eleven very important ones.

 

Recommended.


Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Q78zIZ

 

My reading copy came by way of a digital ARC, made available by the publisher, Amazon Original Stories, through NetGalley, after the publication date earlier this month. Good thing to for this reader as the Dallas Public Library System does not carry it.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey

SleuthSayers: Broke, Drunk, and Horny

SleuthSayers: Broke, Drunk, and Horny: I’ve recently read a great many private eye short stories, both published and in manuscript form, and I’ve recognized three character traits...

Review: Passions in Death: In Death Series by J. D. Robb


The 59th book in the series, Passions in Death, takes readers back to the Down and Dirty club where three years earlier, Dallas and friends spent a wild night. What was supposed to be a pre wedding party for Dallas was interrupted with a killer trying to kill Dallas the night before the wedding. The fact that she survived the violent encounter is already on her mind as her and Roarke walk into the club.

 

It is three years and a little more later since that night and on this August 2061 night another bridal wedding party has been interrupted. This time, Erin Albright, has been murdered just before her wedding to Shauna Hunnicut. She was murdered in the same back room where Dallas fought for her life. Erin Albright was killed by a garrote around her neck.

 

This isn’t the first time the past has haunted Dallas. It certainly does so here, as Lieutenant Dallas of the NYPSD, Detective Peabody, and others work the case with occasional valuable assistance from Roarke. The club, and the people that own it, make things personal for all involved. As if they need that extra motivation.

 

Another fast and enjoyable read in the long running series.


 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/422v6xQ

 

My LARGE PRINT reading copy came from the Arcadia Park Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Monday, February 10, 2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – Murder New York Style

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – Murder New York Style

Dark City underground: “The Longest December” by Richard Chizmar Cemetery Dance, 2023

 Dark City underground: “The Longest December”  by Richard Chizmar  Cemetery Dance, 2023

Little Big Crimes: The Guardianship of Willie Musselburgh, by Kevin Egan

Little Big Crimes: The Guardianship of Willie Musselburgh, by Kevin Egan: "The Guardianship of Willie Musselburgh," by Kevin Egan, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2025. I was su...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Gone Away by Hazel Holt

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Gone Away by Hazel Holt:   Reviewed by Jeanne Mrs. Sheila Malory is a literary scholar specializing in 19 th century authors who lives in the English village of...

In Reference To Murder 2/10/2025

 In Reference To Murder 2/10/2025

Markets and Jobs for Writers 2/10/2025

 Markets and Jobs for Writers 2/10/2025

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Someone to Blame by J. J. Green


J.J. Green is an Irish writer from Donegal and lives in Derry. She’s always been a writer and has honed her creative writing skills throughout her adult life. As a social and environmental activist, she also writes political essays for ZNetwork that mainly focus on economic and environmental injustice. Unfortunately there is an Australian sci-fi writer of the same name so their books can be mixed up on Goodreads and similar sites.

Someone to Blame (Book Guild Publishing, 2024) provides a modern twist on the time-honored poison pen plot, one of my favorite mystery tropes. Shay Dunne lives in the Irish village of Kilcross, where everyone knows everyone else and knows their business too. She has had a hard life, raising her son alone because his father was forbidden by his family to marry her. But fate keeps delivering blows, and this last one is just more than she can take. She is angry and she is upset and she is determined to make someone pay for the wrongs she has suffered.

She selects the two people she most believes at fault and she writes a carefully vague but threatening anonymous letter to each of them. Printing it on plain white paper that she handles with gloves and using the same laser printer to address the envelopes, she is faultlessly careful to not leave anything traceable to her. She mails them, not in the claustrophobic small village where they all live, but in the closest town and sits back to wait. As might be expected, events unfold unpredictably while rumors and accusations fly in all directions.

It's hard to say much about this book without giving some of the key plot elements away. Green writes very well and she has created a sympathetic character in Shay Dunne. Even when her judgment is most flawed, it’s hard not to root for her anyway. Deeply sad in some places, plot twists keep the action moving and I was enthralled all the way through the satisfying ending. Recommended!


·         Publisher: Book Guild Publishing (October 18, 2024)

·         Language: English

·         Paperback: 328 pages

·         ISBN-10: 183574060X

·         ISBN-13: 978-1835740606

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41425kj

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Sunday, February 09, 2025

Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: No Surprises

 Kathleen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: No Surprises

Lesa's Book Critiques: Red, White & Blue Murder by Bill Crider

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Red, White & Blue Murder by Bill Crider

Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder Reeks: "John Archer's Nose" (1935) by Rudolph Fisher

Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder Reeks: "John Archer's Nose" (1935) by Rudol...: Last year, I reviewed The Conjure-Man Dies (1932), "A Harlem Mystery," by African-American physician, radiologist and budding aut...

Joan Leotta Reviews: Killing Time: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)


Please welcome author Joan Leotta back to the blog today…

  

Killing Time: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin Mysteries) Hardcover – October 8, 2024

by M. C. Beaton (Author), R.W. Green (Author)

Review By Joan Leotta

 

Yes, M.C. Beaton, aka Marion Chesney, did leave this world for the next in 2019. However, she wanted her two series protagonists, Agatha Raisin, and Hamish MacBeth to continue to have adventures and  solve mysteries even after she would no longer be able to wield a pen. To that end, late in her life, she invited R.W. Green to become the author of these mystery series. She put Green through rigorous training in the ways and whiles of her characters and her various plot techniques..

 

This fourth Agatha Raisin installment by Green—Killing Time—shows he has indeed mastered

the elements readers expect while also developing the characters in directions true to their Beaton-given nature, but with a bit of his own experience to further enrich our entertainment and their arc.

Raisin is an especially difficult character to write because she requires a delicate balance of feisty, hard-nosed, irascible, yet with enough vulnerability to elicit enough empathy from readers to make them care about what happens to her and even cheer her on in her adventures. 

This entry into the canon takes Agatha temporarily out of the Cotswolds to Pollonsea in Mallorca, for her to meet with her newest love interest, a retired cop turned cruise line dance instructor, John Clarke. Never fear,  Killing Time is stepped in Cotswold lore and the hiatus at the sea is not a diversion, but also proves to be another important strand in the unraveling of the mystery. 

The novel begins with an ordinary investigation into robberies in the area. Then, ever susceptible to flattery, Agatha, in spite of a full schedule, is talked into managing an area-wide festival for charity in support of  an old friend’s winery venture. After deciding that a charity auction would attract large spenders, Agatha approaches a local  antique dealer who takes Agatha to an auction. At the auction Agatha falls in love—with a clock. After a viscous bidding war,  she purchases a gaudy antique clock,  paying far more than it’s evaluated worth. Learning that the clock does not work, the dealer offers to take it to his shop for her to have his brother, a clock savant of sorts to examine it for her. 

The situation takes an urgent turn and the pace of the novel ramps up when that same antique dealer is murdered, and her clock is the only thing missing from his shop. In the usual wonderful way of these novels, Agatha, with the help of the ever-lovely Toni and others from her Detective agency staff, finds connections between various people, the clock, and other events in the area. In the midst of the action,  wanting to take a break from all the stress, Agatha decamps for a brief jaunt to Mallorca to meet John, her new love interest when his ship docks and he will have a few days off from his dance instruction duties. However, upon landing there, her hopes for a continuing and true romance with ex-cop John are shattered and she decamps to the lovely Pollonsea in another part of the Island until it is time for her to return home.

The plot process and action along with some occasional petulance on Agatha’s part are  a delight as always. I reveled in the descriptions of this new place in Mallorca as well as the usual entanglements and hijinks and was totally captivated by the ending. And yes, the antique timepiece at the center of the mystery becomes  a character in itself—well done, Mr. Green!

All of these threads are skillfully embroidered into the fabric of the tale with a solution that covers all of the crimes, and the issues Agatha had with John. As always, Agatha’s sharp mind is the needle that works out the solution from these seemingly disparate threads.

Is there a happy conclusion? Well, I will leave that for you to discover but I will say this--future tension  with her old beau Charles this time leaves promising himself to try to win Agatha back instead of the more often seen reverse situation.

In short, this is fast -paced and fun read. I finished this installment on one dismal afternoon and put it down with a smile. If you crave a mystery with a side of smiles, seek out the Raisin Mysteries. Agatha plows ahead with all her usual intelligence, cupidity, and bluster even after her creator’s demise. Although I always enjoy a series in order, this book works as a single read so pick up Killing Time if you have some time on your hands. Note well: if you possess a gaudy antique clock, you might want to start researching its history.

Five stars 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/416SiKb

 

Joan Leotta ©2025

Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her poetry, essays, cnf, short stories, and articles are widely published. Mysteries are favorite things to read.. short and long.. and to write. 

Saturday, February 08, 2025

Review News 2/2 to 2/8/2025

 

This past week on the blog review wise….

 

Today, Scott reviewed FANTASTIC FOUR BY RYAN NORTH VOL. 4: FORTUNE FAVORS THE FANTASTIC by Ryan North (Author), Carlos Gomez (Illustrator), Ivan Fiorelli (Illustrator), and Alex Ross (Cover Art).

https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2025/02/scotts-take-fantastic-four-by-ryan.html

 

Thursday, I reviewed Random in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J.D. Robb.

https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2025/02/review-random-in-death-eve-dallas-novel.html

 

Wednesday, Scott reminded you of the novella, The Builders by Daniel Polansky/

https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2025/02/short-story-wednesday-review-builders.html

 

Tuesday, I reviewed Robert B. Parker’s Buried Secrets: A Jesse Stone Novel by Christopher Farnsworth

 https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2025/02/publication-day-review-robert-b-parkers.html

 

Monday brought the latest review by Aubrey Nye Hamilton as she reviewed, An Excellent Thing in a Woman by Allison Montclair.

https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2025/02/aubrey-nye-hamilton-reviews-excellent.html

 

Last Sunday, Don Crouch returned to the blog with his review of Karma Doll by Jonathan Ames.

https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2025/02/don-crouch-reviews-karma-doll-by.html

 

Stay up to date by following the blog and get reviews, news, and other posts as they go live, by subscribing by way of the Follow-It app over on the left side of this blog. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Slant of Light by Kathryn Lasky

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Slant of Light by Kathryn Lasky

KRL Update 2/8/2025

We have a lot of Valentine's fun up this week! Up on KRL this week we have a review and giveaway of "Chocolate Can Be Deadly" by Kim Davis, along with a recipe from Kim perfect for your Valentine's Day celebration! https://kingsriverlife.com/02/08/chocolate-can-be-deadly-by-kim-davis/

And a review and giveaway of "A Victim at Valentine's" by Ellie Alexander https://kingsriverlife.com/02/08/a-victim-at-valentines-by-ellie-alexander/

And a review and giveaway of "Mrs. Morris and the Venomous Valentine" by Traci Wilton along with a Valentine's guest post by Traci https://kingsriverlife.com/02/08/mrs-morris-and-the-venomous-valentine-by-traci-wilton/

We also have a mystery short story by Ron Katz with a connection to romance, perfect for Valentine's Day season https://kingsriverlife.com/02/08/mystery-short-story-the-mystery-of-the-blonde-bachelorette/

Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and ebook giveaway of "Soft Serve Sleighing" by Lena Gregory https://www.krlnews.com/2025/02/soft-serve-sleighing-by-lena-gregory.html

And a review and giveaway of "The Second Grave" by Jeffrey B. Burton https://www.krlnews.com/2025/02/the-second-grave-by-jeffrey-burton.html

Happy reading and Happy Valentine's Day!
Lorie

Dru's Book Musings New Releases ~ Week of February 9, 2025

 Dru's Book Musings New Releases ~ Week of February 9, 2025

Mystery Fanfare: SUPER BOWL CRIME FICTION AND OTHER FOOTBALL MYSTERIES: Super Bowl Sunday!

Mystery Fanfare: SUPER BOWL CRIME FICTION AND OTHER FOOTBALL MYSTER...: Super Bowl Sunday! I'm stoked, of course, because my original home team will be playing! Go, Eagles (or Iggles as they say in Philly)!!!...

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Two Reviews: Japanese Literature Challenge

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Two Reviews: Japanese Literature Challenge:   In this post I am reviewing two books for the Japanese Literature Challenge 18 , hosted at Dolce Bellezza . It started in January and cont...

Scott's Take: FANTASTIC FOUR BY RYAN NORTH VOL. 4: FORTUNE FAVORS THE FANTASTIC by Ryan North (Author), Carlos Gomez (Illustrator), Ivan Fiorelli (Illustrator), and Alex Ross (Cover Art)


FANTASTIC FOUR BY RYAN NORTH VOL. 4: FORTUNE FAVORS THE FANTASTIC by Ryan North (Author), Carlos Gomez (Illustrator), Ivan Fiorelli (Illustrator), and Alex Ross (Cover Art) is the fourth volume in the Ryan North Fantastic Four run, but could be read as the first. Most of the tales in this run are pretty stand alone. In this book, Franklin Richards’ secret is uncovered, the heroes are put in a noir style Elseworld, The Thing and the Human Torch compete against each other to be the best grocery store employee, and then in the last two issues, the Fantastic Four faces vampires in a Blood Hunt tie in. This volume collects issues 18-22. Each tale is very different except for the last two vampire ones.


The art is great and very fitting for each tale. I read each issue in Marvel Unlimitied. Franklin Richards’ issue is a disaster movie. Franklin Richards (is the reality warping son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman) and, allegedly, has no powers now. The noir episode is fun if you like that stuff. The grocery issue is a comedy. The Fantastic Four vampire issues are action packed and full of bloody violence. Each issue for the most part has its own feel except for the last two. Ryan North still maintains a great understanding of each character and so far I think his run is the best for beginners new to the Fantastic Four.


Blood Hunt for those who have read it know that the ending has major implications for the future of this series. FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 5: ALIENS, GHOSTS AND ALTERNATE EARTHS by Ryan North (Author), Carlos Gomez (Illustrator), Ivan Fiorelli (Illustrator), Marvel Various (Illustrator), and Alex Ross (Cover Art), is the next volume and will come out on April 15th and collects issues 23-27. I am currently on issue 26 through Marvel Unlimited. So far, each issue is very scifi heavy as the team deals with some of the aftermath of Blood Hunt. 



Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/40mgrLp 


This material was read by way of the Marvel Unlimited App.


Scott A. Tipple ©2025

Friday, February 07, 2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: Lindy Gomm’s Favorites of 2024

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Lindy Gomm’s Favorites of 2024

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister:   Reviewed by Jeanne   Wenna left home nearly a decade ago, running away from her family’s legacy and the stifling home life ruled ove...

Happiness Is A Book: Friday’s Forgotten Book: Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson

 Happiness Is A Book: Friday’s Forgotten Book: Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: DIRTY MONEY

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: DIRTY MONEY: Dirty Money  by "Richard Stark" (Donald E. Westlake)  (2008) The is the final novel that Westlake wrote about master criminal Park...

Thursday, February 06, 2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: What Are You Reading?

 Lesa's Book Critiques: What Are You Reading?

In Reference To Murder: Mystery Melange 2/6/2025

 In Reference To Murder: Mystery Melange 2/6/2025

Review: Random in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J.D. Robb

 

Growing up, my parents always cautioned against us kids about going to clubs or concerts. They were convinced they were places where bad things happened. Probably why I have never been to a rock concert and did not club much. If they were alive to read Random in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J.D. Robb, they would say it proves their point.

 

Jenna Harbough and her friends were having a blast hearing the rock band, Avenue A. at their concert at Club Rock It. Jenna is 16, a budding musician and singer, and she is having the greatest night of her life. Jake Kincade, leader of the band, saw her and smiled directly at her. She has a demo disc in her purse and hopes to get it to him that night. She knows she is good and the band started at her age too.

 

She’s talking to her friends, LeeLee and Chelsea, when something stings her arm. In pain and holding her arm, she turns and sees some guy grin at her as he flips her off. Before she can say anything, he disappears into the crowd. Within seconds, she feels off. She feels like she is overheated and will throw up. She soon is dead in the alley as Jake Kincade holds her in her last moments. The same Jake Kincade that is dating Nadine Hurst, a huge television news star in New York City.

 

The same Nadine Hurst who is friends with the Lieutenant Eve Dallas, Homicide, of the New York Police and Security Division. Nadine sees the mark on the girl’s arm and is sure that this dead girl is not a junkie. She knows they need help and they need the best. She contacts. of Dallas.

 

It was Saturday evening and that mean a vid, popcorn, and sex with her husband Roarke. It may or may not have been in that order. The fact that on this summer 2061 Saturday night that Summerset, Roarke’s major-domo and serious annoyance, is out of the house, the possibilities were huge. It is almost 11 and Roarke and Dallas were starting a bout of intimacy when Nadine calls.

 

Dallas starts the process of having cops and others respond to the scene. Soon, Roarke and Dallas are also there. He probably would have gone with her anyway, but he owns the building, and has some knowledge of the club and the folks that run it. He can also drive while she starts running things from the car.

 

While designed to look like am overdose, Dallas is not so sure. Besides, she has a personal interest as Nadine and Jake are involved. It also does not take long to conclude it was murder.

 

It also is not the first.

 

As the hours tick by Dallas, Roarke, Peabody, and the whole gang are in a race to stop a killer or killers who are targeting young people in crowded musical venues. It is summer and concerts galore. That means plenty of targets that are going to be potential victims in Random in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J.D. Robb.

 

While all the usual writing quirks still happen in this installment of the long running series, they also soon fall away in the rush of the story. A story that twists and turns and is not as predictable as one might have thought in the beginning. A solidly good read to escape the constant stings of a real world that has seemingly gone mad in so many ways.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Ynb3Ib 

 

My reading copy came by way of the OverDrive/Libby App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025