Senior News Column---January 2014

For several years now I have been writing a monthly book review column for the Senior News newspaper. The Senior News is aimed for the 50 and over readership with news relevant to seniors regarding various issues, humor pieces, and my review column among other things. The newspaper is a giveaway at doctor offices, stores, etc. and can be received by mail via a paid subscription. There are multiple editions across the state of Texas and therefore there is some fluctuation in content in each edition.

My column every month focuses on books of interest to the Texas audience. Therefore the books selected for the column, fiction or non-fiction, are written by Texas residents, feature Texans in some way, or would have some other connection to the Texas based readership. At least two books are covered each month in the short space I am given.

Below is/was my January 2014 column …

Long Fall From Heaven

George Wier and Milton T. Burton

Cinco Puntos Press

ISBN# 978-1-935955-52-8

Paperback (also available as an e-book)

224 Pages

Cueball Boland, owner of NiteWise Security Company as well as a couple of other things in Galveston, Texas has a very unpleasant task when he knocks on Micah Lanscomb’s trailer.  Cueball needs Micah’s help because a fellow guard, Jack Pense, is dead. Jack was on the job in the Demour warehouse when somebody hit him on the head, tied him up, and then beat him to death. Cueball wants Micah to go have a look at the crime scene before they have to call the cops.

Both Cueball and Micah have extensive law enforcement backgrounds and distaste for local law enforcement which means they will ultimately work the case themselves. A case that will have links to the past when Galveston was a criminal paradise where anything went.

Featuring twin Texas story lines with one set in the late 1980’s and the other in the mid to late war years of World War II, Long Fall from Heaven is a powerful novel co-written by Texas authors George Wier and the late Milton T. Burton. Rich in Texas history and details, the book is a complex multilayered read that is incredibly good.

Compound Murder: A Dan Rhodes Mystery

Bill Crider

Minotaur Books (A Thomas Dunne Book)

ISBN# 978-0312641658

Hardback (also available in e-book form)

272 Pages

It is the middle of October and still very hot and dry in Blacklin County, Texas. The weather has not been right for years and that isn’t all. Sheriff Dan Rhodes has already had a busy morning when the call comes in about the dead body. English Teacher Earl Wellington is dead. Probable cause of death is the obvious visual sign that part of his head is bashed in. Considering what looks to be blood and hair in the right place on one of the dumpsters at the branch campus of the local community college, it appears that a sharp corner did it with some help by person or persons unknown. Wellington was a bachelor, but he was also an English teacher and unpopular one at that. As Dean King points out, “It's always the English teachers.”

This latest in the series is number eighteen and is another good mystery with plenty of laugh out loud moments. Texas author Bill Crider has another very good read in the series with Compound Murder: A Dan Rhodes Mystery.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014