Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 41 Glorious Writing Conferences in June 2022
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 41 Glorious Writing Conferences in June 2022: June is bustin' out all over! This June there are more than three dozen writing conferences. Some conferences and workshops will be held...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis: Note: We do not have a Nevermore report for today, so instead we have a review from a former employee. Nancy's reviews were legendary....
Beneath the Stains of Time: Ripples (2017) by Robert Innes
Beneath the Stains of Time: Ripples (2017) by Robert Innes: Over the past two-three months, I discussed only three good, notable locked room mystery novels and short stories, Theodore Roscoe's Z i...
Casual Debris: Casual Shorts: Jack Finney, Of Missing Persons (1955)
Casual Debris: Casual Shorts: Jack Finney, Of Missing Persons (1955): Finney, Jack. "Of Missing Persons." Good Housekeeping, March 1955. First published in Good Housekeeping , March 1955. A publicatio...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday -- Catfantastic: Nine Lives and Fifteen Tales
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday -- Catfantastic: Nine Lives ...: Recently my son went through his paperback books for books to donate to the book sale. He offered me three short story anthologies in the Ca...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE VALLEY OF UNREST
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE VALLEY OF UNREST: 'The Valley of Unrest: A Book without a woman: Edgar Allan Poe: An Odd Oddity Paper" by Douglass Sherley first published in boo...
Little Big Crimes Review: Dreaming of Ella by Francelia Belton
Little Big Crimes: Dreaming of Ella, by Francelia Belton: " Dreaming of Ella," by Francelia Belton , in Denver Noir, edited by Cynthia Swanson, Akashic Press, 2022. The publisher sent ...
Short Story Wednesday Review: Blood Moon: A Kate Burkholder Short Mystery by Linda Castillo
Blood Moon: A Kate Burkholder Short
Mystery by Linda Castillo begins as more than
one tale in the long running series has--- a buggy crash. In this case, Merle
Beachy is on his way home from The Strawberry Festival and things are going
wrong. He was already running late and had missed the evening meal. The thick
fog certainly isn’t helping as the damp and cold settle in on man, beast, and
every surface, including the roadway.
Things go way worse when a loud noise in the woods
just after a bridge crossing causes his horse to spook and run flat out. The terrified
horse plunges off the roadway, through a ditch, and towards the trees where it
soon becomes clear that the buggy is not going to slide in between the trees. Merle
is thrown clear of the damaged buggy only to be, within a couple of minutes, attacked
by the creature that spooked the horse.
After fighting off the creature, which he thinks
might be a bear, the injured man makes his way to a nearby farm. As it happens,
that farm is Levi Miller’s place. Levi Miller and Kate Burkholder have known
each other since they were kids, so when she learns his call is why dispatch is
calling her, she knows that his request for her presence is legit and needed.
Before long, Chief Burkholder and her partner, John Tomasetti, are in her unit
and headed towards Miller’s farm.
Good thing too as there will be more incidents this
foggy dark night. Something is in the woods and things are definitely rapidly escalating.
What it is and how to deal with it are two of several questions in Blood
Moon: A Kate Burkholder Short Mystery.
An interesting tale that is a bit of a change of
pace from what goes on normally in this series. While billed as a “short
mystery” this read is a novella and is action orientated with virtually no
character development and very little backstory. It is just a fun short visit
with some characters long known to readers and new folks.
Also included in the eBook is the opening chapters of the next novel in this long running series, The Hidden One.
I picked this up, pre-publication, using funds in my Amazon Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2022
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune: Reviewed by Jeanne Attorney Wallace Price is not a happy man. He’s already had to fire one employee, a previously reliable woman w...
SleuthSayers: What Fired Me Up to Write a Fireworks Story by Barb Goffman
SleuthSayers: What Fired Me Up to Write a Fireworks Story: Shortly before July 4th last year, I posted this on my Facebook page: One day I am going to write a story in which someone who sets off fire...
Publication Day for Back Road Bobby and His Friends Editor Colin Conway
If you read my story, I hope you like it. If you don’t,
at least you have eleven other short stories to read so I am sure you will find
ones you do like in Back Road Bobby and His Friends.
Monday, May 23, 2022
Coming Next Month
Noir at the Bar: Dallas returns to Wild Detectives with our headliner, Joe Lansdale!
Once again, yours truly will also be reading. Make sure to book the date.
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Last Seen Wearing: Hillary Waugh
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Last Seen Wearing: Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh, published in 1952, is an early example of a true police procedural. I have wanted to read this book for...
SleuthSayers: Writing Outside the Outlines by Steve Liskow
SleuthSayers: Writing Outside the Outlines: Two weeks ago, I attended an interview with Don Winslow at which he was autographing his new novel. During the Q & A, someone asked abou...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Skelton's Guide to Suitcase Murders by David Stafford
I seldom burble about
books, having read too many to think that they are all exceptional, but I find
myself burbling about the second book in the Skelton’s Casebook series by David
Stafford. I cannot remember who was so ecstatic about the first book that I
felt compelled to find the sequel but I located Skelton's Guide to Suitcase Murders (Allison & Busby, 2021) and was
straightaway enthralled.
Set in 1929, this
series follows the career of barrister Arthur Skelton, who had the reputation of
salvaging the most hopeless of defenses. In this book a woman’s corpse is found
in a suitcase and her husband, an Egyptian doctor, is accused of killing her.
She was believed to have been straying from the marriage, and potentially
incriminating materials are found in their home. There was no real evidence
against the doctor and the condition of the corpse was such that identity could
not be categorically proven. However, the doctor appeared to be on his way to
the gallows from sheer xenophobia. Skelton and his clerk Edgar Hobbs are
determined to do their best to save him.
In addition to
this major homicide case, Skelton is defending a man accused of knowingly
driving a truck full of stolen peacock feathers. He is also defending a young
tearaway charged with burglarizing a factory and setting it on fire to cover up
his depredations. His novel approaches to both cases are mesmerizing.
On the home front,
Skelton has another set of challenges. His wife is determined to buy an
airplane and fly it to Australia. His father is newly retired from his job and
is at a loss as to what to do with himself. He is sad and depressed, sitting in
his chair all day long.
This tale gently parodies
the classic mysteries of the Golden Age while delivering a cracking good
puzzle. The witty writing and deliciously eccentric characters are icing on the
cake. The thread about a guinea pig named Primrose Moorfield is worth the price
of the book all by itself.
Like the Bryant
and May books, this mystery captures the flavor of the time beautifully. Again
like Bryant and May, there are periodic data dumps of incredibly esoteric
information. I now know more about peacock feathers than I ever thought
possible. The tongue-in-cheek narrative has a spot-on sense of comedic timing,
no doubt gathered from Stafford’s theatre experience.
This book is utterly delightful and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
·
Publisher: Allison & Busby
(September 23, 2021)
·
Language: English
·
Paperback: 352 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0749026987
·
ISBN-13: 978-0749026981
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on
Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Guest Post: Gilded Age Genre Blending: 3 keys to hist/myst/fantasy concoctions by Jayne Barnard
Please welcome author Jayne Barnard to the blog today.
Gilded Age Genre Blending:
3 keys to hist/myst/fantasy concoctions
by Jayne Barnard
After decades of ceding the historical costume drama to British
television, it’s high time for American production to back some territory. HBO’s
lavish new series, The Gilded Age, is a late-1800s drama rooted among the
fabulously wealthy NYC families that used to crowd their debutante daughters into
Mrs. Astor’s 400-person ballroom. The debs dancing at glittering balls were the
Kardashians of their day: followed, photographed, and interviewed. Their lavish
weddings and cutting-edge wardrobes were guaranteed to sell magazines, their
lives the envy of millions. You don’t need to know all the political and social
and geographical forces to enjoy the show; you need only see characters whose actions
and motives are understandable to you despite that foreign-to-you context.
As well as villains and victims, mysteries need to show the
reader sleuths, suspects, red herrings, and character development that builds credible
motivation. On top of the basic year or era, historical fiction should include
politics, social structures, setting, and appropriate technology. SFF demands questing
characters, adventurous plotting, and often a world that differs startlingly
from our own. Each element adds to the word count.
Here are three keys
to cutting word waste and blending genre elements smoothly:
- Don’t
describe anything about the story-world except the bare essentials that readers
will need to ground them in the unfolding action. Yes, we love our
imaginary settings, but for blended genre stories we must concentrate on
what’s different from the reader’s default contemporary mental image. Into
the POV character’s thoughts, actions, and dialogue work in a few vital technological
and geographic elements. Then trust readers to fill in that backdrop’s
gaps for themselves. In my Maddie Hatter Adventures, my fashion reporter
sleuth has a clockwork bird that can capture images and record conversations.
Once the reader realizes the bird is a semi-sentient flying clockwork smartphone,
they no longer need detailed explanations for other new technologies. They
simply accept each one exists in that world.
- When
introducing characters, focus on what makes the alien, orc, or historical personage
different from the reader’s neighbour or coworker. Costume is key but so
is the way they were raised, if different from contemporary American. Maddie
Hatter grew up in a British ‘Steamlord’ family similar to the newly rich
Vanderbilts of Gilded Age NYC, but her mother comes from an Old Nobility family
in Britain and raised her as a young lady in that constrained mode. All
this family complexity, more than her clothing or hair color, gives Maddie
(and thus the reader) insight into the social hierarchies at play in GILDED
GAUGE, a fantastical adventure set in an alternate 1899 NYC. Again, integrate.
Don’t info-dump. You need to know it all to know which are the important
bits; the reader doesn’t.
- Make one
element of your mystery something that could only occur in that historical
era or alternate reality. Two examples:
- In
Nancy Springer’s delightful alternate-history detective tale, ENOLA HOLMES,
the motive driving the young marquis could only work at that precise moment
in English history: when a parliamentary battle was brewing over the
future of the country. The marquis’s vote would decide whether the landed
nobility continued to hold near-absolute power over the landless, and
therefore voteless, workers, or whether workers would gain the right to
be represented in Parliament. The novel and the later movie masterfully
blend light fantasy & crime with a piece of real, impactful English
history: the Third Reform Act (also known as the Representation of the
People Act) was a real bill that passed in 1884, with the related Redistribution
of Seats Act being passed in 1885.
- SFF crime
stories that could happen down the block but are set on a space station
will not be as widely engaging as those that require, nay, demand the fictional
setting you’ve created for them. Star Trek Deep Space Nine took flack for
being a soap opera set in space, but one S7 episode created a tense,
psychologically suspenseful murder mystery in which the killing was both
fully understandable to contemporary viewers/readers and committed with technology
that only exists in that alternate future world.
This then is the essence of genre blending: integrate your world-building
with the lead characters’ thoughts and actions; make the crime’s motivation
specific to those characters with their era/alt-world upbringing; commit your crime—or
solve it—with technology or other elements unique to that time/place/culture.
The Gilded Age gets
the mystery treatment in the “Gilded Newport” novels by Alyssa Maxwell: these same
NYC families, but at their multi-story marble mansions in Newport Beach, as
seen through the cynical eye of a poor relation who writes for a newspaper. In the
second of my Maddie Hatter Adventures, Gilded Age NYC and some historical personages
overlap with Alyssa’s, and my heroine also writes for a newspaper. Maddie faces
far more than fearful Society matrons and fashion faux pas, though: she must
tackle impostors, kidnappers, and industrial spies seeking to steal a new millionaire’s
unique clockwork gauge.
That blend of crime, historical, and fantasy elements in ‘Gilded
Gauge’ won the Alberta Book of the Year (which usually goes to local history
novels or literary fiction) and a Prix Aurora nomination for Canadian science
fiction & fantasy, as well as hitting local bestseller lists four times and
starting a new worldwide Steampunk sport: parasol dueling.
Whatever genres you’re blending, start with the foundation
garments—those essential elements of each---and then add texture afterward,
like beadwork and ribbons on a Gilded Age gown.
Jayne Barnard ©2022
Jayne Barnard’s novels won her the Canadian Crime Writing Award of Excellence and the Alberta Book of the Year. She’s been shortlisted for both the Prix Aurora and the UK Debut Dagger. With dozens of short stories sold, she’s won the Calgary Crime Association Award, the Bony Pete/Bloody Words award, and was 3x bridesmaid for the Great Canadian Story prize. She lives in a vine-covered cottage between two rivers, keeping cats and secrets.
Find her on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/JayneBarnard1
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/je_barnard/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaddieHatterAdventures
Peek into her Maddie Hatter Adventures at http://ow.ly/niW150F74tX
Saturday, May 21, 2022
KRL: KRL This Week update for 5/21/2022
Up on KRL this morning a review and giveaway of "Strawberried Alive" by Jenn McKinlay (the winner also gets a cupcake bakery jar opener) https://kingsriverlife.com/05/21/strawberried-alive-by-jenn-mckinlay/
And a review and giveaway of "Murder in the Community Garden" by Judith Gonda, along with an interesting interview with Judith https://kingsriverlife.com/05/21/murder-in-the-community-garden-by-judith-gonda/
We also have a review and giveaway of "Double Shot Death" by Emmeline Duncan along with a cold brew coffee recipe from Emmeline, a perfect drink for your summer reading https://kingsriverlife.com/05/21/double-shot-death-by-emmeline-duncan/
And the latest Queer Mystery Coming Attractions from Matt Lubbers-Moore https://kingsriverlife.com/05/21/queer-mystery-coming-attractions-june-2022/
For those who prefer to listen to Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast directly on KRL you can find the player here for our latest episode which features the mystery short story "Death on the Rocks" written by Guy Belleranti and read by local actor Larry Mattox https://kingsriverlife.com/05/21/new-mysteryrats-maze-podcast-featuring-death-on-the-rocks-by-guy-belleranti/
Up during the week, another special midweek guest post, this one by mystery author Amy McNulty about her new book "Vampires and Video Games'' you can also enter to win a copy of the first book in the series https://kingsriverlife.com/05/18/vampires-and-video-games/
And another special midweek guest post, this one by mystery author Rebecca Jones about the differences between herself and her main character and about her new, and first, book "Steadying the Ark" https://kingsriverlife.com/05/18/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and ebook giveaway of "Adventures, Abduction, and Arrest"by Tonya Kappes
https://www.krlnews.com/2022/05/adventure-abduction-arrest-by-tonya.html
And a review and giveaway of "First Bite" by Avery Daniels https://www.krlnews.com/2022/05/first-bite-accidental-vampire-pi-by.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle: We are delighted to welcome back Kevin Tipple to the BPL Bookblog! Kevin is an award-winning blogger and author. Check out Kevin'...
SleuthSayers: Reading About Writing by John Floyd
SleuthSayers: Reading About Writing: Earlier this week, at the latest of what we've been calling our "watercooler" Zoom meetings in the Short Mystery Fiction So...
Scott's Take: The Death Of Doctor Strange by Jed Mackay
This tale is a love letter to the
character of Dr. Strange while showcasing how important he is to the Marvel Universe.
This tale includes Clea (Dr. Strange’s wife), Wong, Bats (the ghost dog),
various Avengers, and various enemies of Dr. Strange dealing with the aftermath
of his death. His death had many far-reaching repercussions.
My main complaint is that there is
not enough time dealing with the grief of Dr. Strange’s death because the focus
is so much on moving the plot forward. For example, there is very little time
spent on how his death affects the students at his academy. The art is very
good and there is plenty of action and mystery for fans of Dr. Strange. I
highly recommend The Death Of Doctor Strange by Jed Mackay for
both new and experienced fans of Dr. Strange.
This series
is followed by Strange which deals with the new Sorcerer Supreme.
That series has only a couple of issues out and not enough to be released yet
in trade paperback. As such, there is no release date for the trade book.
My reading
copy came from the Polk-Wisdom Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Mummy Case Mystery (1933) by Dermot Morrah
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Mummy Case Mystery (1933) by Dermot Morrah: Dermot Morrah was a British journalist for The Times , chiefly as an editorial writer, but was best-known during his lifetime as an expert o...
FFB Review: SINS FOR FATHER KNOX (1973) by Josef Skvorecky Reviewed by Barry Ergang
Another review by Barry Ergang found in the massively
magnificent archive here at Casa Tipple and Home Eatery Library….
SINS FOR FATHER KNOX (1973) by Josef Skvorecky
Reviewed by Barry Ergang
Father Ronald A. Knox, aside from being a clergyman, was one of the early
exponents of what has become the “Golden Age” mystery story: the formal, fairly-clued
whodunit and—in some cases— howdunit.
Among hardcore history-of-mystery buffs, Knox is probably best remembered for
his Ten Commandments for writing a detective story. In 1973, Czechoslovakian
author Josef Skvorecky wrote the novel Sins
for Father Knox, a chapter of which (“chapter” here loosely defined because each is actually an individual short
story with an occasional reference to one of its predecessors) violates one of Knox’s commandments. Chapter
descriptions—no spoilers!—follow.
Lieutenant Boruvka has his doubts about the guilt of Eve
Adam, who has been convicted of and imprisoned for the murder of film director
Rudolf Weyr. Despite being married and a parent, Boruvka can’t help finding Eve
attractive as he interviews her at the Czechoslovakian women’s prison,
listening to her story and remembering vital testimonies from her trial. Apart
from finally being able to solve the case and exonerate Eve, he finds that
investigation, like film-making, can be “An Intimate Business.”
Performing as a lounge singer at the Moulin Rouge in Sweden
and sharing an apartment with a stripper named Zuzka, Eve while breakfasting
one morning is approached by a large American who calls himself MacMac. He
presumes to know who she is because each has a book with the word Thursday in the title. He assures her
that her problem will be taken care of that day, and not to worry. Unnerved but
fascinated, Eve doesn’t correct his “Mistake in Hitsungsee,” but instead plays
along, thus getting herself caught up in a locked-room murder.
In “The Man Eve Didn’t Know from Adam,” Eve is in Rimini,
Italy, performing, visiting, and picnicking with Czech girlfriend Lubomira, now
known as Laura. The two observe, from a considerable distance, a young woman
hitchhiker enter a raspberry-red sports car, and later discover that she’s been
murdered. The police, led by the arrogant Hercule Potarot (yes, I spelled his
surname correctly), have stopped five raspberry-red sports cars of different
makes. Eve must help him determine, putting it charitably, which driver is the
“sex-murderer” responsible.
At
the bar in the Majestic Hotel in Sweden, where she’s performing, Eve meets and
shares a drink and a cigarette with the inebriated Mr. Jensen. He tells her
“Order anything you want, as much as you want. I’m picking up the tab. Because
tonight, I’m going to be murdered.” In a story complicated by time elements and
multiple characters’ activities, Jensen is indeed murdered. Investigating is
Detective Niels C. Kölln, whom Eve met in Hitsungsee,
and who is now married to Zuzka. Amid some of the Köllns’ amusing domestic conflicts, Eve delves into “A
Question of Alibis” to solve the case.
Now performing at The Pink Jungle in New York City,
Eve makes time with—and correctly identifies—McGrogan as a private detective. While
they schmooze, the pair also observes the attractive—and married—Connie
Starrett being attentive to a number of prospective lovers. When Connie and a
man named Leary are murdered, as well as three private detectives—all Irish,
McGrogan among them—Eve and a cop named O’Raglan spend a lot of time trying to geometrically puzzle out the answer
to “Why So Many Shamuses?” I personally tried to puzzle out why it’s such an
overlong and tedious story.
In “Miscarriage of Justice,” Eve is visiting American
relatives in a small town in upstate New York. They’re gathered at the airport
to see Bob Cornhill off to Buffalo when, from the waiting room window, they see
that a house in town is on fire. Cornhill’s daughter thinks it’s their house,
and shortly thereafter, an announcer over the public address system confirms
it, advising Cornhill to return home. When he does, police Sergeant O’Mackey
tells him the fire wasn’t set, that someone planted a bomb, and that he
suspects Ben Turpin, who has done work for Cornhill in the past, because Turpin
is African-American and Cornhill once testified against an underground—and
vengeful—black organization. What ensues eventually pits O’Mackey against Eve.
Now singing at a San Francisco bar called The
Sailor’s Dream, and after chatting with him there but not learning his name,
Eve is invited to the Berkeley home of Marcus Twisten, one of several of “The
Mathematicians of Grizzly Drive.” As a result of their burgeoning relationship,
she becomes involved in trying to solve the kidnapping of his niece in a
39-page story that was about 30 pages too
long for yours truly. I was a disaster at math in school, have managed to reach
the age of 71 without ever needing algebra, and was thus bored out of my socks
as I skimmed 10 wearisome pages of what allegedly (you couldn’t prove it by me
and I don’t care) explains the solution to the mystery.
Eve is a passenger in tourist-class aboard a
transatlantic liner bound from New York to Europe in “An Atlantic Romance.”
Here she makes the acquaintance of several fellow passengers, some of whose
recollections and personal histories go back to World War II, and one who has a
dubious history when it comes to the amorous intentions he displays toward her.
When one of the passengers is murdered, Eve has to grapple with matters of
right, wrong, and a kind of nosiness, as well as the solution.
“Just Between Us Girls” has Eve’s girlfriend Zuzka recounting
to two young men, Georgie and Brucie, an incident involving what amounts to a
girls’ night out and the resultant murder of one of them. Why she was slain and
by whom was—for this reader—another tedious tale that necessitated skimming just
to reach its end even though it was mercifully briefer than some of its
predecessors. Overloaded with characters that are only names on the page—as are
many in other chapters—I didn’t care who the murderer was.
“The Third Tip of the Triangle” concludes where everything
began: in Prague, and with the usually saturnine Lieutenant Boruvka feeling
even gloomier upon learning his teenage daughter is pregnant. Complicating his professional
life is a phone call summoning him to the scene of the death of electrical
engineer Ludvik Arnold. His investigation includes a number of suspects, one of
whom is his daughter’s age who happens to be the offspring of a friend. He is
also reunited him with Eve Adam, who helps solve this, another case I couldn’t
wait to reach the end of.
Although I’ve
known of it, and have seen his Ten Commandments previously, I’ve never read any
of Father Knox’s fiction. In each chapter of Sins for Father Knox, and in homage to the mysteries posed in the
early Ellery Queen novels, there is a challenge to the reader about solving
the crime and identifying the commandment violated. I think its concept is
clever, some of the violations neatly subtle, but the overall execution too
often tedious and thus disappointing.
Barry Ergang ©2018, 2022
Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s mystery novelette, “The Play of Light and Shadow,” is available at Amazon and Smashwords, along with some of his other work.
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Update on Medical Morning
Back home from the podiatrist. He is pleased with the progress thanks to the cream he has me using. He spent about a half an hour working on both of my feet. Wants me back in three months.
Medical Morning
After the cancer scare with the toe on my right foot last month, I am on the way this hour back to the podiatrist. This is the one month follow-up as he had concerns and wants to recheck both feet. It is a bit of a drive --45 minutes one way--and not one I want to do at all. Doc and staff are great. I just don't feel like peopling or dealing with the traffic.
Hopefully, not long after noon I will be back home and inside where I belong. The heat continues to fry things here and we are supposed to hit 100. Then there is the smoke in the air on top of the ongoing pollen and air pollution problems. The outside is not good for yours truly so there is that issue too.
Blah. If we just had the Federation's transporter technology.....
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Potter of Bones, Deathwatch Beetle, Parable of the Sower, All Boys Aren't Blue
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Potter of Bones, Deathwatch Beetle, Pa...: Reported by Garry “The Potter of Bones” by Eleanor Atwood Arnason is an award-winning short story that originally appeared in Asim...
Review: Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt
Shifty’s Boys
by Chris Offutt picks up a bit after The Killing Hills and begins
with the local taxi driver, Albin, finding a body. At first, he thinks he has
found somebody passed out from drinking way too much. Has happened before in
Rocksalt, Kentucky, so he is not very concerned as he sees the odd shape up
against the fence in the parking lot of the local Western Auto. It is only when
he gets out of the cab and walks towards the male figure, he realizes that it
is not mud on the man’s clothes, but blood.
Mick Harden is home on medical leave thanks to an
IED attack that nearly killed him. It didn’t. Getting divorced, once he signs
the paperwork, might kill him. The pain pill addiction he has might as well.
Staying at his mom’s house, now owned by his sister, Linda Hardin, the sheriff,
might also kill him. While she cares about him, they don’t get along that well
in the best of times, With him home on medical leave and dealing with pain,
grief, and trauma, and her running for election, these certainly are not the
best of times.
He does not know it, but he really needs a project
to do while he continues his painful rehab for his leg injury. Mick thinks too
much and he needs something to do that will fully occupy his mind as he works
to rehab the leg, wean himself off the painkillers, and deal with moving
forward.
That project will soon be investigating the death at
Western Auto on behalf of Mrs. Kissick. It was her son, Barney, who was found
dead. While Mick and Mrs. Kissick, also known as “Shifty,” have history and
were not on very good terms the last time they spoke, she needs help. She wants
Mick because she knows that his being a miliary cop will come in handy as the
case is stagnated.
Local police know that drugs probably were involved,
but beyond that, they have zero clues or any ideas as to what happened. Shifty knows
full well that drugs might have been involved as that is the family business.
She also knows that it was not a drug deal gone wrong, like the local police
think, as Barney never did business in the city. They had a rule about that.
The city cops figure a drug dealer got what he had
coming and can’t be bothered to do much at all to find the killer or killers.
Shifty is enraged, has money, and wants to hire Mick to find out who did it and
why. She figures Mick, who grew up with her sons, will be able to do so. Mick
agrees to poke around a little bit and soon figures out that there is a lot
going on in Shifty’s Boys.
While this read does tie into the first book, The
Killing Hills, this one easily could be read as a standalone. A complicated
read full of interesting characters that are doing what they need to do
survive, there is a lot of grey here in terms of morality and temporary
alliances. As in the previous read, the author’s obvious love for the land and
the people of the region comes through loud and clear.
Like The Killing Hills, Shifty’s Boys is well worth your time. The book is currently scheduled to be released on June 7, 2022.
My reading copy came by way of a digital ARC from
NetGalley.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2022
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