Thursday, September 21, 2023
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Devil's Flute Murders (1951/53) by Seishi Yokomizo
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Hilma Wolitzer
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
SleuthSayers: Bouchercon takeaways: being a successful panelist
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Hillerman & Dark Winds
Beneath the Stains of Time: Face Value (1983) by Roger Ormerod
Review: Blessing of the Lost Girls: A Brady and Walker Family Novel by J. A. Jance
Blessing
of the Lost Girls: A Brady
and Walker Family Novel by J. A. Jance is an engrossing
read currently scheduled to be published on September 19th. One should make sure to read both of the
afterwords as they are very important to the context of the story.
Readers are
first introduced to Charlie Milton and it is clear very soon that he is a
really bad guy. One of those guys that neighbors always say afterwards during
media interviews that the guy was odd and just didn’t fit in right with other
folks.
It is February
2019 as the book begins and Charlie Milton is in town for the Tucson Rodeo.
Charlie Milton is a serial killer. He likes to hunt for the right victim. He
has a type. He prefers women of color, especially those from Indian
reservations. He counts on law enforcement arguing over which agency should
handle the missing person case which means the case went cold long before it
ever started. That works well for serial killers like Charlie Milton. Once he
has killed, he soon hits the road in his RF and drifts to the next place.
What he didn’t
count on was that fact that DNA from a kill he did several years ago would make
its way into the system in 2022. It did. Field Officer Dan Pardee works for a
new federal agency, Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force. Known
as “MIP,” they are part of the Department of The Interior. Their mission is to
work cases involving the disappearances and deaths of Native Americans.
Dan Pardee, an
investigator with a background in Border Patrol, is assigned the case of Rosa
Rios. With the DNA match, it makes it clear to everyone that it was her charred
body was found three years ago on a rancher’s land in the jurisdiction of
Sheriff Joanna Brady of Cochise County. He is going to work the case. He will
need Sheriff’s Brady’s help in bringing justice and, hopefully, a little peace
to her family.
What follows is a complicated read. Dan Pardee is the focus, but Brady and her family make a number of appearances in this very enjoyable read. A tale that also, in addition to providing a complicated and enjoyable mystery, brings attention to what has been going on for decades for missing indigenous women. Complicated and fast moving, Blessing of the Lost Girls: A Brady and Walker Family Novel by J. A. Jance is well worth your time and attention.
My reading copy
came by way of a NetGalley ARC with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
Monday, September 18, 2023
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Vinyl Detective: The Run-Out Groove by Andrew J. Cartmel
Andrew J. Cartmel is a British
script editor, author and journalist. He was the script editor of Doctor Who between
1987 and 1989. He also worked as a script editor on other television series, as
a magazine editor, as a comics writer, as a film studies lecturer, and as a novelist. The Vinyl
Detective, whose name is never revealed, is a specialist in old and rare vinyl
recordings. His sidekicks are his girlfriend Nevada, who haunts the charity
shops for vintage clothing, and Tinkler, a computer whiz and collector of
vintage rock memorabilia. Their friend Agatha Dubois-Kanes collects vintage
Penguin paperbacks. Their various hobbies engender a great interest in the
thrift shops and estate sales of London.
In The Vinyl Detective: The Run-Out
Groove (Titan Books, 2017) John Drummond and Lucy Tegmark approach the
Vinyl Detective to hire him to help with the book on Valerian, a famous rock
singer of the 1960s, that Lucy’s father, a journalist who followed Valerian’s
band, had started but dropped after Valerian’s sudden death. Drummond is the
singer’s brother who wants to find Valerian’s child who disappeared about the
same time Valerian died. Drummond also wants a 45 single that was due to be
released at the same time as his sister’s last album but in view of her death,
the record company destroyed most of the copies. Tegmark has a wealth of
original source material that needs to be verified and prioritized. Drummond
thinks that the three lines of research overlap and that the Detective can
assist with them.
Tracking down people who knew the singer
proved to be more difficult than expected. The Detective did manage to locate
the photographer who shot the big rock groups of the time, Valerian’s
psychiatrist, and some of her friends. None of them have worn well. When the
Detective manages to interview a few of them, he hears a different theory about
the child from each person. The 45 single was a little easier to find but
someone else wanted it too. The Detective’s apartment was thoroughly tossed, as
was the shop of the record seller where they found it. They found themselves
locked into a house set ablaze in one scene and under attack by a goose trained
to guard her home in another.
The book is full of references to the English music scene of
the 1960s with its personalities. It’s worth reading just for the social
history. The complicated Drummond family story alternates between the
preposterous and the somber. The antics of The Detective and his friends are
entertaining and the ending was ingeniously plotted. The
seventh book in this very good series is scheduled for publication in April
2024. Recommended.
·
Publisher: Titan Books (May 9,
2017)
·
Language: English
·
Paperback: 320 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1783297697
·
ISBN-13: 978-1783297696
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023
Aubrey Hamilton is a
former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at
night.
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Little Big Crimes: Lavender Diamond, by Edward Sheehy
Saturday, September 16, 2023
KRL This Week Update for 9/16/2023
Up on KRL this morning a review and giveaway of "Murder in the Book Lover's Loft" by Ellery Adams https://kingsriverlife.com/09/16/murder-in-the-book-lovers-loft-by-ellery-adams/
And reviews and giveaways of 3 more fun mysteries for your fall tbr-'All that Glitters Isn’t Gold": A Whit and Whiskers Mystery by Gabby Allan, "Death of a Clam Digger": A Hayley Powell Food & Cocktails Mystery by Lee Hollis, and Steeped in Malice: A Tea by the Sea Mystery by Vicki Delany https://kingsriverlife.com/09/16/mysteries-for-your-fall-tbr/
We also have a review and giveaway of "Seams Deadly" by Maggie Bailey along with an interesting interview with Maggie https://kingsriverlife.com/09/16/seams-deadly-by-maggie-bailey/
And a review of the second season of "The Chelsea Detective" on Acorn TV https://kingsriverlife.com/09/16/the-chelsea-detective-season-2-on-acorn/
For those who prefer to listen to Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast directly on KRL, you can find the player here for the new episode which features "Murder Faux Paws" by T.C. LoTempio and is read by local actor Ariel Linn https://kingsriverlife.com/09/16/new-mysteryrats-maze-podcast-featuring-murder-faux-paws/
Up during the week we posted an excerpt from Martin Clark's new thriller "The Plinko Bounce" https://kingsriverlife.com/09/13/the-plinko-bounce-by-martin-clark-excerpt/
And a special midweek guest post by mystery author Rebecca K. Jones about her latest book "Stemming the Tide" https://kingsriverlife.com/09/13/damsels-in-distress/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "Desert Deadline" by Michael Craft https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/desert-deadline-by-michael-craft.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Sliced, Diced, and Dead" by JC Eaton https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/sliced-diced-and-dead-by-j-c-eaton.html
Beneath the Stains of Time: DeKok and the Immortal Death (1998) by A.C. Baantjer
SleuthSayers: The Scene of the Crime by Josh Pachter
Scott's Take: Invincible Iron Man Vol. 1: Demon in the Armor by Gerry Duggan
Invincible Iron Man Vol. 1: Demon in the
Armor by Gerry Duggan is the latest new Iron Man
series. This book is heavily crossing over with the X-Men titles and is
considered part of the Fall of X series. Iron Man
is an X-Men title and is being run by the X-Men editors. The Fall of X
is about the X-Men losing their island and being scattered across the globe and
elsewhere. They are being hunted by the organization, Orchis, and the general
public has turned on the X-Men. This volume is set before that stuff and helps
setup how the X-men lose their island. The next volume is set during the Fall
of X and the Hellfire gala (3rd one).
So, this is another Iron Man loses everything while
he is being introspective about himself run. Yes, that is the book. I realize
this is pretty much covers the same ideas has the previous Slott, Bendis, Cates
runs.
But, this one is done way better than these runs
even if the core ideas are the same.
It’s hard to talk about the villain for this run
since it is a character that heavily ties into the X-Men books. There is
murder, a conspiracy, and hostile takeover of Tony Stark’s company. He has a
new place and new status quo. If one keeps up with the current promotions by Marvel
comics, one probably knows that this (major spoiler) series is building to the
wedding of Emma Frost of the X-men to Tony Stark (aka Iron Man).
The art is good and Gerry Duggan has a good grasp on
the character of Iron Man. This is the most interesting Iron Man book in a long
time, in my opinion. I still don’t like the current Iron Man suit. I also think
that Tony’s mustache is a really bad look. Outside of those nitpicks, Invincible
Iron Man Vol. 1: Demon in the Armor is a really good book even if it is
reusing the same ideas that all the previous other most recent writers have
done.
The second volume of this series currently does not have a title or a release date.
My reading copy came from the Dallas Public Library
System and the Hoopla app. This read was read on hoopla.
Scott A. Tipple ©2023
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