Lesa's Book Critiques: October Treasures in My Closet – Part 1
Tuesday, September 01, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: The Art Heist: Guest Post by Claudia Hagadus Long
Mystery Fanfare: The Art Heist: Guest Post by Claudia Hagadus Long: I have a really hard time killing anyone. For a normal person, not being able to murder would be, well, expected. Or at least hoped for. But...
SleuthSayers: Writing Changes
SleuthSayers: Writing Changes: At the Merrion Hotel in Dublin last year, telling James Joyce how a real writer works. As I write this, my wife and I are packing for our ...
Publication Day Review: Hidden Currents: A Sheriff Hank Worth Novel by Claire Booth
Branson County Sheriff Hank Worth is
always trying to help people. He’s been trying to help Gursey Rugg, a 23-year-old
meth addict, and very well known to all for his very low-level shoplifting. As Hidden
Currents: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth begins, he has
been arrested yet again.
But this time he stole enough in one
take to rise to a felony level. He swiped 14 hand tied feather lures from the
local Reel Life Outfitters store. A two-store chain with stores on the opposite
ends of the Lake Taneycomo. The chain is now managed by the new owner, Gene
Willard, who seems very much determined to press charges.
The same Gene Willard who has no chance
to pursue charges, or change his mind, and he is soon very much dead in one of
his stores. That means Sheriff Hank Worth, Deputy Sheila Turley, and the others
have to figure out who did it and why. The fact that Gene Willard was going
through a contested divorce just means the suspect pool is even bigger.
While that case is the main storyline,
quite a lot is going on in secondary storylines. Among the various threads is the
fact that the attackers of Chief Deputy Sheila Turley are finally about to
stand trial. It’s been a long time coming, thanks to the pandemic and other
issues. Just seating a jury is going to be hard enough in the small community
where everybody knows you and your business. Having to deal with being a
witness in a trial is bad enough, but trying to investigate a murder at the
same time means she and everyone in the department will have a lot on their
plate
The latest installment in a great series
that began with The Branson Beauty is another good one. Much is
going on in Hidden Currents: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery and
things remain complicated and evolving. This is a series that must be read in
order as events happen, create consequential ripple effects just like in real
life, and people change. These characters have been through a lot in these
books, so I very much recommend reading
them in order.
I also encourage you to read the
“acknowledgments” section at the end of the book as the author goes into some
background detail on location and other issues.
I also encourage you to read Lesa Holstine's review here. And, if you are not already paying attention to her site, slap yourself with a wet noodle, and get onboard.
Strongly recommended as is the entire series.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4d5CLzR
The read will also be added to the Kindle
Unlimited program on publication day.
I picked this up through NetGalley by
way of the publisher, Severn House, which has me on their preapproved reviewer
list. A fact I am very grateful for as the ability to instantly download and
get reading, as I did here, is a wonderful thing. There was no expectation of a
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Monday, August 31, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday: It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news: THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES David Finch...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder at the End of the World (2022) by Akane Araki
Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder at the End of the World (2022) by Akane Araki: I previously reviewed Ross Montgomery's The Murder at World's End (2025), a classically-styled, retro-Golden Age mystery, which is ...
Little Big Crimes: Treat or Trick, by Mark Thielman
Little Big Crimes: Treat or Trick, by Mark Thielman: "Treat or Trick," by Mark Thielman, in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2026. This is the twelfth appearance in t...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Ninth Circle: A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery by James R. Benn
The 21st
appearance of Billy Boyle is scheduled for 1 September 2026. How is it possible
this series has trundled along for 21 books? A book a year consistently since
the introduction of Billy and his colleagues in 2006. With publishers dropping
outstanding authors and wonderful series right, left, and center, James Benn
continues to turn out solidly researched, strongly plotted, and beautifully
written historical crime fiction and wonder of wonders, Soho Press stands back
and lets him do it! Readers everywhere owe Soho their gratitude.
The Ninth
Circle (Soho, September 2026) is the latest outing of Billy, part of a
large Boston cop family and cousin by marriage to General Eisenhower. Only
months before Germany surrenders, Billy and his sidekick Lieutenant Piotr
Kazimierz go to Havana where ostensibly Billy is to liaison with the Cuban Army
and Piotr is a business man seeking to establish himself in the busy capital
city. Really they are to investigate the death of Lieutenant Commander Hugh
Sinclair of the Royal Navy, who was shot while outside drinking his morning
coffee. Someone is suspicious of them even with the plausible cover stories, as
within days of their arrival a bomb is set off in a bar where they are waiting
for an informant. While they escape, their informant is not so lucky, turning
their job into a double homicide investigation.
Royal Navy Lieutenant
Commander Ian Fleming, crime boss Meyer Lansky, and the Duke and Duchess of
Windsor all appear in the story, as do increasingly desperate German spies.
Fleming is anxious to capture one of the new German U-boats before the Russians
can, conscious of the respect he would earn by doing so. Lansky has established
a popular and profitable casino in Havana and has targeted Bermuda as a
potential extension of operations, even though gambling is illegal there. The
Duke was appointed governor of Bermuda during the war, where he and the Duchess
were relatively safe.
Billy ends up
working with the local thugs and Lansky himself before the homicides are
resolved. Lansky assures him that he is as committed to the Allies as anyone
and demonstrates that loyalty, even as he maneuvers to expand his gambling
empire. Billy isn’t sure if Fleming is help or hindrance at first; he turns out
to be a bit of both.
The Havana
setting and its people are vividly described with historical details worked
invisibly into the narrative. Faultless research, I always appreciate the
author’s notes at the end. Another very good entry in the series. Historical
crime fiction fans will want to add this title to their reading lists.
Recommended.
·
Publisher: Soho Crime
·
Publication date: September 1, 2026
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 400 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1641297484
·
ISBN-13: 978-1641297486
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4gFcZDA
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night
Sunday, August 30, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: How 20 years of Southwest Backcountry Hiking Inspired a Mystery About a Grieving Archaeologist: Guest Post by Skye Griffith
Mystery Fanfare: How 20 years of Southwest Backcountry Hiking Inspi...: My journey writing Bone Hash , developed from years of adventures on the Colorado Plateau. Ever since I visited Mesa Verde National Park, I’...
SleuthSayers: See You in the Funny Pages
SleuthSayers: See You in the Funny Pages: I started collecting comic books when I was about eight, and for many years took the hobby very seriously indeed--witness the twenty or so l...
Guest Post: The Detective Prays with His Eyes Open by D. L. Gray
The
Detective Prays with His Eyes Open
When
I tell many of my friends and potential readers that my detective is a lay
Dominican brother who unlocks a Cleveland church at seven and runs skip-traces
by nine, I see the flinch arrive. It is a perceptible and honest flinch. I
imagine they have been burned before. They bought a crime novel and got handed
a tract with a body in it, and they have learned to smell an altar call three
chapters out. So let me put my working rule on the table first: if the reader
can smell the sermon coming, I have already failed twice. Once as a novelist,
and once as a man selling a book under an honest label.
Here
is the thing, though. The praying detective is not a trespasser in this genre.
He helped found it. Father Brown was solving murders decades before Philip
Marlowe took his first retainer, and Chesterton’s whole trick was that the
little priest’s religion was not a message but a method. The confessional had
taught him what people actually are. Harry Kemelman ran the same engine on
Talmud with Rabbi Small, and Ellis Peters ran it on the cloister with Brother
Cadfael. None of those books preach, because in none of them is the faith
decoration. It is the lens. So the craft question was never whether a praying
man belongs at the center of a crime novel. The question is what the praying
does on the page.
I
gave myself three rules when I wrote ARTICLE 7.
First
rule: the
prayer has to do detective work, not be his work. My Brock H. Winters is a
pardoned felon, a forensic accountant by instinct, and the sacristan of
St. Joseph’s. The night before the worst day of his life, he walks the
arena district at one in the morning and prays the perimeter. By name, where he
has names. For the candidate asleep in her hotel. For the old cop walking a
sector on bad knees. And for a would-be shooter he believes he has never met.
He prays for that unknown young man, as the book says, with real love and total
blindness, not knowing he has already taught that boy the bells. That prayer is
a surveillance sweep, a threat inventory, and a piece of dramatic irony wearing
a devotion. My test is simple: If I can cut a prayer and the case does not
change, the prayer goes.
Second
rule:
the code must cost, and never pay. Every private eye worth his license carries
a code. Marlowe had one. Spenser recited his. Brock’s is just older and better
notarized: the Rule of the Dominican Brothers of Saint Joseph, thirteen
articles, seven centuries old, and the seventh article is the reason he takes a
case he knows better than to take. On the page, a code is only interesting when
it removes options. Brock cannot hand a grieving woman the comforting lie that
would end her questions, because, in his words, a laundered lie is a forged
entry, and he went to prison once for exactly that. Faith that solves the
hero’s problems is a cheat code. Faith that creates them is an engine. Nobody
has ever called Marlowe’s code a sermon, and the reason is that it never once
paid him either.
Third
rule:
keep the actual sermon offstage – don’t preach to the reader. There is exactly
one homily in my novel, and the reader never hears a word of it. What the
reader gets is the review Brock hands his pastor in the sacristy afterward:
“Three points and a boat. Bishop Sheen sleeps secure.” God, meanwhile, keeps
His own counsel during business hours. Prayers in this book get interrupted by
the case, go unanswered for weeks, or get answered sideways and late, and the
interruptions are the honest part. There is a scene where Brock kneels for his
nightly examen and the stakeout rolls in uninvited and, as he puts it, parks
itself between two sins he was fonder of. Any praying reader will recognize
that man. Any noir reader will recognize him too, because prayer occupies the
exact slot the genre has always kept for what a detective does with his
solitude. Marlowe played chess against dead masters. Bosch has his jazz. Brock
has a kneeler, a notebook, and a habit of praying the way a prison guard eats:
fast, standing up, before something happens.
Underneath all three rules is the one conviction I carried over from my first writing life, which was Catholic theology. Theology tells you what is true. Fiction gives you a beautiful image of what it costs. A doctrine can be stated correctly in one sentence and still leave a man with no idea what it would do to him. Crime fiction has never had that problem. Cost is our native currency. The whole genre is a ledger where we tally what our codes charge us, which is why a praying man does not break a crime novel. He balances it.
ARTICLE 7 is the first novel of the Brock H. Winters series: a man vanishes from an ordinary Cleveland job, nobody comes looking except the woman who lit a candle for him, and the pardoned felon she asks to find him has seventeen days to learn who is watching whom in an American city. D. L. Gray is the fiction byline of David L. Gray, whose books on Catholic history and doctrine run under his own name. He comes from the Cleveland area and writes from Germany. ARTICLE 7 is available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook. Follow the series at BROCKHWINTERS.COM.
D. L. Gray ©2026
Saturday, August 29, 2026
SleuthSayers: If You Don't Know Your Burro from a Burrow
SleuthSayers: If You Don't Know Your Burro from a Burrow: For today's post, I'm updating and expanding a column I wrote for the Criminal Brief mystery blog many moons ago. If you never saw t...
KRL Update
Up on KRL this week a review and giveaway of "A Murder at the Mansion" by Ellie Alexander https://kingsriverlife.com/08/29/a-murder-at-the-mansion-by-ellie-alexander/
And reviews and giveaways of 2 more fun historical mysteries-"The Abduction of Rosalind Thorne" Rosalind Thorne Mysteries by Darcie Wilde & "Murder at Rosecliff" by Alyssa Maxwell https://kingsriverlife.com/08/29/pair-of-historical-mysteries-by-darcie-wilde-alyssa-maxwell/
We also have the latest Queer Mystery Coming Attractions from Matt Lubbers-Moore https://kingsriverlife.com/08/29/queer-mystery-coming-attractions-september-2026/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "Purple, Blame, Game" by Joanna Campbell Slan https://www.krlnews.com/2026/08/purple-blame-game-by-joanna-campbell.html
And a review and giveaway of "Either Enchanting Elixirs" by Lynn Cahoon https://www.krlnews.com/2026/08/eight-enchanting-elixirs-by-lynn-cahoon.html
For those who enjoy fantasy with their mysteries, we have a review and ebook giveaway of "Dark Secrets" by Keri Arthur https://www.krlnews.com/2026/08/dark-secrets-by-keri-arthur.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 84 Calls for Submissions in September 2026 - Paying Markets
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 84 Calls for Submissions in September 2026 - Payin...: This September there are seven dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always, eve...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Middlemarch: George Eliot
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Middlemarch: George Eliot: I read Middlemarch by George Eliot for my 20 Books of Summer list . I had never been interested in reading Middlemarch until recently, but...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Ethnic Detectives
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Beneath the Stains of Time: The Murder at World's End (2025) by Ross Montgomery
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Murder at World's End (2025) by Ross Montgomery: Last year, Ross Montgomery , a British author of more than twenty children's books, debuted with his first novel for adults, The Murder...
Scott's Take: Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum by W. Maxwell Prince and artist Martin Morazzo
Superman: The Kryptonite
Spectrum by W. Maxwell Prince and artist Martin Morazzo is a Black
Label Elseworlds tale. Black Label is supposed to be for more mature Elseworlds
tale so this is a non canon adult story, but usually despite the Black Label
they are not really that mature. In this case, the Black Label is not really
used to its full extent.
Superman is dealing with 4 new
Kryptonite variants and has the brilliant idea to test them on himself to
figure out what kind of threat they represent. Yes, there are safer ways, but
this is what he decides to do. Batman goes along with this idea. So, a buddy
cop adventure ensues exploring trauma, the damage caused by home (since
Kryptonite is made from Krypton), grief, and more. Making things more complicated
is that Lex Luthor has his own plans to take advantage of Superman’s idea to do
this testing.
This is a five issue miniseries
with action, comedy, and character exploration. The art is strange and Lois
Lane looks the worst she has ever looked in my opinion. Her story arc is
dealing with the fact that she is forty and wants kids. Something which,
depending on the version of Superman, he can or can’t provide. Somehow, she is
drawn more like she is fifty plus. The ending of her story arc is divisive.
Also, I don’t get why Bruce, Alfred, Lex, and Jimmy,
look the same as they typically look. If Lois is way older than usual, they
should be too. This version of Lex is quirky and never feels like Lex. His
version of Superman and Batman are the closest to what one would expect, but
they are off too. Supergirl never plays any role in this story which one would
expect. Krypto does. I think Krypto might have been the smartest character in
the book.
The ending sets up the potential for more series, but I am not sure if there will be more. This is a sliver age inspired wacky adventure with an ending that left me with mixed feelings. I don’t know how I feel about the very strange ending. It is really weird.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/458LWv3
I read this through the DC Universe Infinite app.
Scott A. Tipple ©2026
Thursday, August 27, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange: The winner and runner-up were announced for this year’s Glencairn Glass Crime Short Story Competition, held in partnership with the Bloody ...
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 44 Writing Contests in September 2026 - No entry fees
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 44 Writing Contests in September 2026 - No entry f...: This September there are more than three dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes r...
In Reference to Murder: Bookstore Signing-Palooza
In Reference to Murder: Bookstore Signing-Palooza: For those readers who still love print books , here are some mystery bookstore signings coming up in September where you can still see some ...
Thursday Treats: 8/27/2026
Some reading opportunities of interest this week...
SMFS list member Terena Elizabeth Bell reported that her short story, As We Go Along, was recently published by Americana UK. You can read it, for free, at their online site.
SMFS
list member Lynne Bronstein
reported that her short story, The Bite That Hurts, was published at the
Literary Garage. You can read the flash tale, for free, at their online
site.
SMFS
list member John Timm
reported that his short story, Jazz Cafe,
appears in WayWords Issue 23: Time. Available for purchase at Amazon, it is also part of the Kindle Unlimited program.
SMFS
list member Abe Margel
reported that his short story, It Was No Stroll in the Park, appears in the
recently published anthology, Legends: Monsters that Go Bump in the Night.
Published by Wordcrafter Press,
the read is available at Amazon and numerous
other
vendors.
SMFS List Member M.A.B. Lee reported that her short story, Taking the Plunge, was published at Literally Stories. You can read it, for free, at their online site.
SMFS
list member James T. Bartlett
announced publication of his book, True Crime Burbank. Published
by The History Press, you , can pick it up in paperback format at the publisher,
Amazon, and other vendors.
Black
Cat Weekly #260 is out and one of the larger issues in
some time. The cover story is by SMFS list member Josh
Pachter (The Stone Stairs of Death). You can
pick up the latest issue here. I have long
though that often the covers remind me of the old OMNI Magazine
and such is the case here.
SMFS
list member Robert Lopresti announced that his short story, Catch as Cat Can,
is in the just released anthology, Midnight Mousers: 12 Original Cat Tales.
This is the second volume in Thalia
Press’ Nine Lives
Library. Yu can pick it up in digital or
paperback formats at Amazon.
There
are series that I keep meaning to start and then the author gets yet another
book out. Such as the Detective Nathan Parker series by James
L'Etoile. The fifth book in the series, Darkness
Falls: A Detective Nathan Parker Novel,
is out at Amazon. Published by Level Best
Books.
I mentioned last week, that the latest read from prolific author, D. V. Berkom, False Dawn: A Mackenzie Reynolds Thriller, had been released. The second book in the series, published by Duct Tape Press, is scheduled to come out in the middle of September. It is up for preorder at Amazon. It will also be part of Kindle Unlimited when it comes out on September 16th.
Canada
is the focus of at least two different upcoming anthologies. You have to wait until
September 8th for Crimeucopia presents Canadian Chronicles.
Published by Murderous Ink Press,
Edited by John Connor, the read includes several short stories by SMFS list
members, Susan Daly (Borderline
Illegal), Abe Margel (A Passion for Mining), Rosemary McCracken (The Millennium Project), donalee Moulton (Étoile Rouge), Judy Penz Sheluk (Murder in the Marsh),
and other authors. The read is available through Amazon and other vendors.
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A reminder that the upcoming new anthology, Capital Crime Writers Presents: A Capital Mystery (Volume 2) is coming later this month. Edited by Bernadette Cox and Mike Martin, these short stories take readers back to Ottawa, Canda, and follows the first book, A Capital Mystery. Available at Amazon now for preorder, it will also be on Kindle Unlimited when it releases on August 31st.
Also out later this month, The Tipping Floor. This is the latest in the 509 Crime Stories series by Colin Conway. Published by High Speed Creative, LLC., the read is available for preorder on Amazon
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 30 Spectacular Writing Conferences and Workshops in September 2026
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 30 Spectacular Writing Conferences and Workshops i...: This September there are more than two dozen writing conferences and workshops. Some conferences and workshops will be held online, but most...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MAGIC WHITE SUIT
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MAGIC WHITE SUIT: "The Magic White Suit" by Ray Bradbury (first published in the Saturday Evening Post , October 4, 1958; republished as "The...
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
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