Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Euro Crime: Published 27-31 May 2022

 Euro Crime: Published 27-31 May 2022

SleuthSayers: Where I Write by Michael Bracken

SleuthSayers: Where I Write: Even after a half-day spent cleaning, my desk is still a mess. Over the years, I’ve written in many places, most often a room in my home th...

One Bite at a Time: Colin Conway, the Brain Behind The 509

One Bite at a Time: Colin Conway, the Brain Behind The 509:   Colin Conway is a force of nature, though you wouldn’t know it to look at him. Author, editor, publisher, not to mention a list of side hu...

CrimeReads: CRIME NOVELS WITH A STRONG SENSE OF PLACE AND INIMITABLE ATMOSPHERE by Matt Goldman

 CrimeReads: CRIME NOVELS WITH A STRONG SENSE OF PLACE AND INIMITABLE ATMOSPHERE by Matt Goldman 

The First Two Pages: “Nostalgia” by James McCrone

 The First Two Pages: “Nostalgia” by James McCrone

Lesa's Book Critiques: A RIP THROUGH TIME BY KELLEY ARMSTRONG

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A RIP THROUGH TIME BY KELLEY ARMSTRONG

Review: Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor


It is late winter as Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor begins and Joe Gunther, Field Force Commander of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, have been summoned out to a scene bathed in a sea of strobe lights from numerous agencies. It appears that the only party not there is the local dog catcher.

A stolen Mercedes four door sedan has been discovered abandoned. The car was reported stolen by the owner, Lemuel Shaw several days ago. Thanks to problems with the onboard GPS system, it was not tracked from the house in New Hampshire to the final resting place here in Vermont.

If it was a simple stolen car that would be one thing and would not have generated the massive law enforcement response. In addition to numerous obviously stolen items in the car, there is a dead body in the trunk.

If that was not enough, there were six cell phones in the car. At least one of the phones has pornographic images of a young child on it and the pictures are clearly very recent. That phone is also tied into New Hampshire which creates an avenue for Joe and his team to join an Internet Crimes Against Children Task force with their New Hampshire colleagues. It also gives them a way to retain jurisdictional control over a rapidly more complicated case.

One that will cross state lines repeatedly as Joe Gunther and his team works to figure out what caused Don Kalfus to wind up dead in the trunk of a rich man’s car. Along the way, they rescue a young girl from a horribly abusive situation, and solve at least one cold case from long ago.

The books in this series are always very complicated and this one is no exception. The police family are always a major factor in these books, on and off the job, and such is the case in this read as well. All hands are on deck and repeatedly a part of everything as the team works to clean up a nasty and extremely entangled mess.

Complicated and highly entertaining, Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor is a solidly good read that keeps readers guessing in right to the end. 


My reading copy was a digital ARC courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books, via NetGalley. The book is currently scheduled to be released September 27th.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2022

 

Monday, May 30, 2022

Lesa's Book Critiques: FORGIVENESS BY JOE LEE

 Lesa's Book Critiques: FORGIVENESS BY JOE LEE

Dark City Underground: Reprobate by Ben Boulden

Dark City Underground: Reprobate  by Ben Boulden 

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter:   Reviewed by Kristin Charlotte and Samantha Quinn are teenage sisters whose happy though eccentric family has been ripped apart. Firs...

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 12 Paying Markets Open to Speculative Fiction Short Stories, Novellas and Novels - No agent required

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 12 Paying Markets Open to Speculative Fiction Shor...: Here are a dozen markets for speculative fiction short stories, poems, novellas, and novels. They want every subgenre of science fiction, fa...

SleuthSayers: Crime Fiction Rules: Rules, Schmules by Elizabeth Zelvin

SleuthSayers: Crime Fiction Rules: Rules, Schmules: At the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Watercooler, the group's monthly Zoom gathering, as well as on its lively e-list, members fre...

In Reference To Murder: Media Murder for Monday 5/30/2022

 In Reference To Murder: Media Murder for Monday 5/30/2022

Markets and Jobs for Writers for 5/30/2022

 Markets and Jobs for Writers  for 5/30/2022

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Cheater’s Game by Paul Levine


Paul Levine is a former journalist and lawyer who lives in Florida. He has won the John D. MacDonald Fiction Award and been nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, Shamus, and James Thurber awards. His publishing career began in 1990 with the first novel about Jake Lassiter, a lawyer in Miami, Florida. Both Levine and Lassiter are graduates of Pennsylvania State University, where the fictional Lassiter played football for the famous Joe Paterno. Lassiter went on to play professional football with the Miami Dolphins. Levine’s most recent legal thriller about Lassiter, the thirteenth, is dedicated to Paterno.

Cheater’s Game (Herald Square Publishing, 2020) highlights the recent college admissions scandal in which wealthy parents bribed top universities to admit their children who otherwise would not be accepted. Jake Lassiter comes out of retirement to defend his 20-year-old nephew Kip who has been accused of taking SAT tests in the place of college applicants. Max Ringle, the mastermind of the bribery and testing scam, turned informant as soon as he realized the FBI was investigating and made Kip his scapegoat.

Lassiter is hardly at the top of his game. His past as a football player has caught up with him and he’s been diagnosed with progressive brain damage. His doctor and fiancé Dr. Melissa Gold does her best to bolster him for the strain of the job he’s undertaken, but the stress of defending his nephew exacerbates his visible symptoms. He can’t always control them in the courtroom. His scenes with the unpredictable Federal judge trying the case are among the best in what is a very good legal thriller. Of course the pivotal segment is Lassiter’s questioning of the wealthy entitled parents and their spoiled children, most of whom were not charged. They show themselves to be positively despicable, presenting them as blameless in a racket that could not have existed without them.

A secondary theme is the largely unrecognized but widespread brain trauma so many football players suffer; the story relays a great deal of data about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The attempts of interested parties to spin the research findings to their own benefit and to the detriment of the players are highlighted. Unfortunately this part is probably fact-based too.

A thought-provoking, informative, and entertaining legal thriller. Highly recommended.

·         Publisher:  Herald Square Publishing (April 20, 2020)

·         Language:  English

·         Paperback:  422 pages

·         ISBN-10:  173425100X

·         ISBN-13:  978-1734251005

 


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 29, 2022

Euro Crime: Published 23-26 May 2022

 Euro Crime: Published 23-26 May 2022

SleuthSayers: The Boyz by R. T. Lawton

SleuthSayers: The Boyz: The Boyz The long journey actually started on January 19th when MWA announced the six short stories nominated for the Edgar, but you've...

Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of May 29, 2022

 Dru's Book Musings New Releases: Week of May 29, 2022 

Lesa's Book Critiques: FLY GIRL BY ANN HOOD

 Lesa's Book Critiques: FLY GIRL BY ANN HOOD

Guest Post: Practice Makes Perfect by Paula Messina


Please welcome Paula Messina back to the blog today with her second guest post about public speaking. You can read the first one here.

  


Practice Makes Perfect 

by Paula Messina 

 

After the publication of his novel, a writer I know told me he was petrified of reading in public. His admission was hardly surprising. Speaking before an audience is said to be our number one fear.

I’d like to share with you the advice I gave my friend, who not only excelled at his readings. He learned to enjoy them.

First, let’s get the nitty gritty stuff out of the way. Before you decide what section of your opus to read, you need to nail down a few details. The time and place of the event. Duh. The audience. Is it the local Little League team or the Society for Classics Studies? Are you the only writer or will you be sharing the stage? Will there be a question and answer period? Will you be paid? May you sell your books? Will there be a signing after the reading? You can probably think of more questions.

 How much time will you have? This is one of the most important questions to ask. You don’t want to show up with ten minutes’ worth of material when you’re expected to speak for an hour. Nor do you want to show up hoping to cram an hour’s worth of material into twenty minutes. It’s wise to have more material than you need in case something happens. Maybe the other scheduled speaker has laryngitis or his plane is still hovering over Logan Airport.

If possible, go to the venue beforehand to get a lay of the land. If that’s not possible, arrive early so you can get a feel for the room and request any adjustments you deem necessary. Make sure you’ll have water. If you’ll be using a microphone or any other equipment, test it. Perhaps you don’t want to speak from behind a gigantic rubber plant or you don’t want to share the stage with a life-sized poster of Bozo the Clown. Ask for them to be removed.

If it’s a Zoom session, make sure you are framed nicely on the screen and that your background is pleasing to the eye. Instruct the host to mute the audience while you speak. Above all, make sure the equipment is working beforehand.

Agatha-Award-winning author Sarah Smith (https://www.sarahsmith.com) says, “If you're reading on Zoom, consider using a teleprompter.” She recommends Teleprompter Pro (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/teleprompter-pro/9wzdncrfjss3#activetab=pivot:overviewtab).

Provide an introduction that is short and sweet. I recently attended a poetry reading where the introduction went on for five minutes. Boring. Unnecessary. Just the highlights, please. Tell the person introducing you to read the introduction exactly as written.

This is rather obvious. Decide which passage(s) you’ll read.

Joan Leotta, a story performer, spoken word artist, poet, and author (https://www.facebook.com/joanleotta), says, “Select material you like a lot. Balance the emotional arc of what you are presenting...serious, humorous, poignant....don’t make it all of one kind.”

“Shorten your text. Text that reads well on paper doesn't always work aloud,” Sarah Smith says. “You don't have to read one long text. Read a little, talk a little, read some more.”

Whenever I read in public, I take advice I stumbled upon in a book by Dorothy Sarnoff, who worked with Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, and Danielle Steel. Read your selection out loud a minimum of three times. This isn’t the same as memorizing the piece. It’s becoming familiar and comfortable with it. This allows you to glance down at the page, know what comes next, look up at the audience, and say it. This takes practice, but it’s easy to master.

This works even if you only as a few moments to prepare. When I’m asked to read at the last minute, I find a quiet corner where I can read the passage out loud at least the requisite three times. This has never failed me. I am able to read with confidence.

Time yourself. You don’t want to read a passage that takes 15 minutes to read when you only have ten minutes. This is comparable to a word count. You don’t want to give your editor ten thousand words than she asked for three thousand, nor do you want to submit five hundred words when he requested five thousand.

It’s helpful to record yourself. You’ll know if you are hitting the allotted time, and it will help you with your interpretation and delivery. Audacity is open-source software (https://www.audacityteam.org/) that is easy to use. It’s also useful to practice in front of a spouse or friend, but only if that person will be honest and constructive.

When you practice reading aloud, identify the pauses. You might find it helpful to mark them. If you’re reading dialogue, consider highlighting each character’s lines in a different color. You spent a lot of time making each character’s dialogue distinct. You want to bring those distinctions alive in your reading.

Pauses are part of your interpretation. They also help the listener. At that poetry reading mentioned above, the poet read as if he were attempting to break a world record for the fastest poetry reading. His poems went by in a blur.

Your audience needs time to process your words. Now I’m not suggesting you join the Slow Talkers of America (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysHUfjSMGWQ), but this isn’t a time for speed reading.

Robert Frost was a master of the pause. Listen to him read “The Road Not Taken” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBHd41YqTc). Frost takes his time. He milks the pauses. He demands that you listen to him, that you hang on his every word.

Breathe.

Ten out of ten doctors recommend their patients develop this habit. It’s advice worth taking. After all, breathing has numerous benefits.

You’ll survive the reading.

Breathing steadies your nerves.

Breathing helps project your voice. If you are soft spoken, as I am, it’s helpful to imagine that you’re speaking to someone at the back of the room or even across the street. You could also ask someone to sit at the back of the room during the event to signal if you are not loud enough.

Breathing helps with your inflection and interpretation. Think about it. You used punctuation, sentence and paragraph length to create pacing and tension. Those are the places where you breathe. Those are your pauses.

Breathing helps your audience absorb what you’re saying. I once watched a demonstration of a pat down. The instructor said, “Slow down. If you go too fast, you’ll miss something because your brain won’t be able to keep up.”

Stephen D. Rogers (https://stephendrogers.com), author of Shot to Death and more than eight hundred shorter works, explains it this way, “Breathing creates a space where the last thought can echo and grow.”

How you breathe is also important. We’re told to use diaphragmatic breathing, expand our belly, but what is diaphragmatic breathing? It’s rarely properly explained and often improperly explained.

Place your hand below your belly button. That’s where you want to start breathing. Now, place your hands on your sides. If you breathe properly, you’ll feel your rib cage expand three hundred and sixty degrees. Here’s a useful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sgb2cUqFiY

Listening to great orators and actors is an excellent way to improve your own speaking skills. Listen to Multi-award-winning writer David Dean read his short story, “The Duelist” (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/eqmm/episodes/2020-07-02T06_44_37-07_00).

If anyone had a reason to gallop through a speech, it was Winston Churchill during World War II. At any second, a bomb could have crashed through the roof of Parliament, but Churchill, one of the greatest twentieth century orators, took his time delivering his famous “We Shall Never Surrender” speech. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_LncVnecLA).

To spare the audience from staring at your bald spot, make eye contact. If you read your piece aloud at least three times, you’ll be able to make eye contact with you audience.

Sarah Smith says, “Your audience wants to like you. They want to have fun and be amazed. Remember that and have fun too.

One way to make your audience like you is eye contact, something else we’re told to do but that is rarely explained. Eye contact is simple. Select a member of the audience and look directly into his eyes for a sentence or two or until you need to glance down at the page. When you look up again, select another audience member and look into her eyes. Repeat, working the room. If this seems too scary, look at a person’s forehead. Eye contact also takes practice. Eventually it becomes second nature.

Appearing before an audience can seem overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. Practice these simple steps and you’ll be fantastic. Practice reading out loud a minimum of three times. Pause. Breathe. Slow down. Make eye contact.

Finally, you worked hard. Enjoy yourself.

 

Paula Messina © 2022

When Paula Messina isn't walking along the United States' first public beach, she's working on a novel set in Boston during the 1940s.

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Lesa Holstine: THE DIVA SAYS CHEESECAKE! BY KRISTA DAVIS

 Lesa Holstine: THE DIVA SAYS CHEESECAKE! BY KRISTA DAVIS

Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder in Mandalay (1961) by Aster Berkhof

Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder in Mandalay (1961) by Aster Berkhof: Back in 2020, I reviewed Een onmogelijke moord voor Markus ( An Impossible Murder for Markus , 1969) by "Aster Berkhof," a pseudo...

KRL: KRL This Week for 5/28/2022

Up on KRL this morning reviews and giveaways of 3 more fun mysteries for your summer reading-"Poppy and the Backstabbing Bachelor": A Desert Flowers Mystery by Lee Hollis, "A Margin for Murder": A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery by Lauren Elliott, "‘Til Death": A Witch City Mystery by Carol J. Perry https://kingsriverlife.com/05/28/end-of-may-mystery-catchup/ 

We also have a review and giveaway of "Something Wicked" by David Housewright along with an interesting interview with David https://kingsriverlife.com/05/28/something-wicked-by-david-housewright/

 

And the latest Mystery Coming Attractions from Sunny Frazier https://kingsriverlife.com/05/28/june-coming-attractions-books-to-bring-on-vacation/

 

And reviews of more BritBoxTV mysteries-"Life on Mars", "Ashes to Ashes" and the latest season of "Shakespeare and Hathaway" https://kingsriverlife.com/05/28/shakespeare-hathaway-life-on-mars-ashes-to-ashes/

 

Up during the week we posted another special midweek guest post this one by thriller author Brian Lebeau about some of the research for his first book "A Disturbing Nature" along with some of his own background https://kingsriverlife.com/05/25/fear-hovers-somewhere-between-11-and-54/

 

Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and ebook giveaway of "Mrs. Odboddy's Desperate Doings" by Elaine Faber
https://www.krlnews.com/2022/05/mrs-odboddys-desperate-doings-by-elaine.html

 

And a review and giveaway of "The Lady with The Gun Asks Questions" by Kerry Greenwood
https://www.krlnews.com/2022/05/the-lady-with-gun-asks-questions-phryne.html

 
Happy reading and Happy Memorial Day Weekend,
 
Lorie

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Bangkok 8: John Burdett

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Bangkok 8: John Burdett: This is the first book in a series of six books set in Thailand. The main character is a Thai policeman, Sonchai Jitpleecheep. In the openin...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Pride, Prejudice, and Peril by Katie Oliver

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Pride, Prejudice, and Peril by Katie Oliver:   Reviewed by Jeanne Jane Austen fan Phaedra Brighton took the adage “Find what you love and then make a living with it” to heart and beca...

Scott's Take: Robin Vol.1: The Lazarus Tournament by Joshua Willamson


Robin Vol.1: The Lazarus Tournament by Joshua Willamson collects the first six issues of Damian Wayne’s solo adventures into one volume. The son of Batman has run away from home and he is in mourning after the death of Alfred and wandering the globe without purpose. That is, until he discovers a martial arts tournament on an island hosting the world’s greatest fighters. He quickly learns that there is more going on than he suspected on arrival.

This action-packed mystery features great art and several legendary fighters. There are cameos by various members of the Bat family, but for the most part, this is a solo story featuring Damian trying to reconcile with his life. Robin Vol.1: The Lazarus Tournament by Joshua Willamson is a violent tale with plenty of fights as one would expect in a martial arts tournament.  I highly recommend this series for fans of Robin or just DC comic readers looking for a mostly self-contained story.

This series is continued in Robin Vol. 2: I Am Robin which is currently scheduled to be released in September.


 

My reading copy came from the Dallas Public Library System via the Hoopla App.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2022 

Friday, May 27, 2022

Patti Abbott: FFB: DIRTY WORK, Larry Brown

 Patti Abbott: FFB: DIRTY WORK, Larry Brown

Trace Evidence: Janice Law on “The Fitz”

 Trace Evidence: Janice Law on “The Fitz”

Lesa's Book Critiques: A BLUE BOOK GIVEAWAY

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A BLUE BOOK GIVEAWAY

Euro Crime: Published 23-26 May 2022

 Euro Crime: Published 23-26 May 2022

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 77 Calls for Submissions in June 2022 - Paying markets

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 77 Calls for Submissions in June 2022 - Paying mar...: This June there are more than six dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always, ...

Happiness Is A Book: FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOK: TRUTH COMES LIMPING BY J. J. CONNINGTON

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In Reference To Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction

 In Reference To Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: MURDER, LONDON--AUSTRALIA

Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: MURDER, LONDON--AUSTRALIA:   Murder, London--Australia  by John Creasey (1965) The sublimely prolific John Creasey's thirty-third novel about Superintendent Roger ...

The Rap Sheet: Canada Commends Its Own

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In Reference To Murder: Mystery Melange for 5/26/2022

 In Reference To Murder: Mystery Melange for 5/26/2022

FFB Review: Tequila Sunrise: Hardboiled P.I Nathaniel Rose: Bullets, Booze and Broads by Michael Bracken


While these days Mr. Michael Bracken is busy editing numerous anthologies that are often nominated and win awards, he is also a very talented writer in his own right. This is just one example from my magnificently massive archive.  

 

Having read and enjoyed very much the novel, Deadly Campaign by this author, I have been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time. But, getting my hands on a copy wasn't easy for a number of reasons. Finally, I got one and I wasn't disappointed in this hard hitting collection featuring private Investigator Nathaniel Rose.

 

The 103-page book is made up of seven complex stories involving Nathaniel Rose and a recurring cast of characters over a significant period of time. In almost every case, the women are sexy, the violence is hard hitting, and Rose gets the crook by any means necessary.

 

The book opens with the story "Partners" where Rose is nearly killed when his Mustang explodes. He survives and, with little idea who wanted him dead, starts looking.

 

"Fair Warning" follows and is a case involving a missing husband, fast food, and a tantalizing wife.

 

"Heartbreak Hotel" comes next in the book as well as in the book arc in terms of character development and time, and involves a missing fiancée. Simply making photocopies can get one killed it seems.

 

"Lucky Seven" is another aptly named story. In this case, seven witnesses can all detail for court how they saw a man kill his wife and her lover. The client just needs to know how good the case is, which on the surface, seems simple enough.

 

"Even Roses Bleed" revolves around a beautiful woman and her need to have her husband dead. Word on the street is Nathaniel Rose would fit the bill nicely, in more ways than one.

 

Strippers have always been a hallmark in detective fiction but rarely used to such good effect in "Tequila Sunrise and the Horse."

 

But after all, for any P.I. the cases are "Only Business." Something to remember in the sometimes stormy waters of love.

 

With an overall story arc linking the stories in this anthology and providing character development, this book is a very good read and more complex than many novels. The writing style is terse and hard hitting and usually in dialogue form. At the same time, scene descriptions come alive for the reader who will quickly become lost in the murky world of Bullets, Booze and Broads. 

 

 

Material received from the author in exchange for my objective review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2004, 2010, 2015, 202

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Something Is Going To Happen: Writing and Squirming (by W. Edward Blain)

 Something Is Going To Happen: Writing and Squirming (by W. Edward Blain)

Dark City Underground: REVIEW: THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH / ONE ENDLESS NIGHT BY DAN J. MARLOWE

 Dark City Underground: REVIEW: THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH / ONE ENDLESS NIGHT BY DAN J. MARLOWE

Lesa's Book Critiques: WHAT ARE YOU READING?

 Lesa's Book Critiques: WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 55 Writing Contests in June 2022 - No entry fees

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 55 Writing Contests in June 2022 - No entry fees: This June there are more than four dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes range f...

Review: Dangerous Consequences: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth

 

As Dangerous Consequences: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth begins, the ripple effects of the recent termination of several deputies, continue. New staff is being brought in while some of the still employed old guard continue to work from within against Sheriff Hank Worth and Chief Deputy Sheila Turley. The rot within the department still lingers, but getting rid of the rest of the folks who need to go is not going to be easy.

A far more immediate issue is the recent spate of emergency cases in the local hospital. Sheriff Worth’s wife, Maggie McCleary, is a doctor and personally knows of a couple situations that troubled her. She did some quiet investigating on her own and identified at least ten cases of elderly patients who have to be treated in the last month for dehydration and other issues. All were tourists. All were part of various tour groups. Whether it is all a massive coincidence or something the Sheriff’s department as well as Branson City Police Department should be looking at, she does not know. She does now something is not right and she is worried.

So, she brought what has been happening to her husband. Like those of us who were lucky to have been married to a very smart women and caring woman, Sheriff Worth knows Maggie is almost never wrong. If she believes something is going on, it most certainly is happening. The real question is why it is happening, who is involved besides the elderly victims, and how to stop it before more are imperiled and somebody dies.

These storylines and others combine into another excellent installment with Dangerous Consequences. A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth. As in the preceding books, ongoing character development and storyline arcs  continue, so it is best to have read the preceding books. Mystery, action, and the occasional laugh out loud funny moment make this read, and the series, one of my favorites. Highly recommended.

 

The series in order and my reviews:

The Branson Beauty (September 2016)

Another Man’s Ground (January 2018)

A Deadly Turn (March 2019)

Fatal Divisions (January 2021)


 

My reading copy came from the author with no expectation of a review. For another take on the book, make sure you check out Lesa Holstine's review

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022

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...

George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #74: THE GIRL WHO DREAMED ONLY GEESE AND OTHER STORIES OF THE FAR NORTH By Howard Norman

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Patti Abbott: Wednesday Short Stories" Nighthawks" Michael Connelly from In Sunshine or in Shadow, ed, Lawrence Block

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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

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Little Big Crimes Review: Dreaming of Ella by Francelia Belton

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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

The First Two Pages: “Riviera Red” by Sarah M. Chen

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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


Today is publication day for the new anthology, Back Road Bobby and His Friends. Edited by Colin Conway and published in print and eBook formats, the new book includes my short story, “The Beetle’s Last Fifty Grand.” This is the first short story I have written since Sandi passed. She is always with me. There are pieces of her scattered throughout the tale.


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. 



Submitted by Barry Ergang for Your Amusement: Bookstore Cartoon

 


Lesa's Book Critiques: BURIED IN A GOOD BOOK BY TAMARA BERRY

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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...

In Reference To Murder: Media Murder for Monday for 5/23/2022

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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...

Markets and Jobs for Writers for 5/23/2022

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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.