Lesa's Book Critiques: KEVIN’S CORNER ANNEX – HAWKE’S PREY BY REAVIS Z. WORTHAM
Saturday, September 30, 2023
KRL This Week Update 9/30/2023
Editorial Note: As it always does, the message today references the morning, but this did not arrive in my inbox until a couple of minutes ago and long after the noon hour had passed.
Up on KRL this morning we have reviews and giveaways of 4 more fun mysteries, one is set at Halloween, and one has a supernatural twist--perfect for the Halloween season-"A Clue in the Crumbs": A Key West Food Critic Mystery by Lucy Burdette, "A Shimmer of Red": An Odessa Jones Mystery by Valerie Wilson Wesley, "Mischief Nights Are Murder" by Libby Klein, and "Murder at the Elms" by Alyssa Maxwell https://kingsriverlife.com/09/30/end-of-september-mystery-catch-up/
We also have a review and giveaway of "Death 101: Extra Credit" by Kelly Brakenhoff: Author page along with an interesting interview with Kelly https://kingsriverlife.com/09/30/death-101-extra-credit-by-kelly-brakenhoff/
And the latest of the new version of Mystery Coming Attractions from Shawn Stevens https://kingsriverlife.com/09/30/mystery-coming-attractions-october-2023/
For those who prefer to listen to Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast directly on KRL, you can find the player here for the latest episode which features the prologue and first chapter of "Secret Identity" by Alex Segura, read by local actor Cady Mejias https://kingsriverlife.com/09/30/mysteryrats-maze-podcast-featuring-secret-identity/
And we have a mystery short story with a big of spooky to it as we approach Halloween season--"The ESC Choice" by Chuck Brownman https://kingsriverlife.com/09/30/spooky-mystery-short-story-the-esc-choice/
And another local ghost story from Sarah Peterson-Camacho, perfect for the beginning of Halloween season! https://kingsriverlife.com/09/30/the-haunted-palace-wayward-spirits-of-a-bad-luck-bordello/
Up during the week we posted another special midweek guest post, this one by mystery author J.M. Donellan https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/threats-regrets-and-a-dante-themed-restaurant/
And another special midweek guest post, this one by mystery author Joe Cosentino where he interviews the voice actor for his new audiobook of "Drama Christmas" https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/audiobook-of-drama-christmas-by-joe-cosentino/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "Darjeeling and A Deadly Disappearance" by Victoria Tait https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/darjeeling-and-deadly-disappearance-by.html
And a review of a fun middle-grade mystery, "Drew Leclair Crushes the Case" by Katryn Bury, along with a giveaway of this book and the first book in the series! https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/drew-leclair-crushes-case-by-katryn-bury.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Mystery Fanfare: The Poison Book Project: Arsenic & Other Heavy Metals in 19th Century Bookbinding
Mystery Fanfare: The Poison Book Project: Arsenic & Other Heavy Met...: The Poison Book Project: Arsenic & Other Heavy Metals in 19th Century Bookbinding Presented by The Book Club of California Monday, Octob...
Scott's Take: The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman
The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman
has four protagonists, but only two are included in the book jacket synopsis and
for good reason. The first one is Sally, who intends to leave the ship she is
being trained on to go find her father’s fleet. Her attempts to flee her
current situation are stopped when a prince,
a powerful magician, hires the ship Sally’s training on to escort him to the
Isle of the Gods so that he can make a sacrifice to their country’s god.
While he is doing that a pleasure cruise
of his rich friends is on a route to another country under public banner of
being a diplomatic mission to prevent a war between the prince’s country and a
nearby country. While they are supposed to be doing diplomatic stuff they treat
it all like a party boat. Of course, things do not go as planned. The short
voyage that they were supposed to embark quickly becomes a fight to survive
instead.
If you are familiar with the books of Amie
Kaufman, you know what you are getting. As expected here one has, excellent
world building, complicated characters, and the usual slow burn romance where one
character has major misconceptions of another and hates them on sight. Likeable
characters who would be main characters in other works die horribly here. The
good guys suffer a lot and there is surprising amount of dark content for a
young adult series. The villains are
interesting and have their own reasons for doing what they are doing.
The Isles of the Gods is a high seas
fantasy novel. So, of course, ships, crews, and the weather, etc., play a huge
role. There is strong LGBTQ representation if you care about that, but it is
not overwhelming. The sexuality of a character is part of their character, but
it is not their whole character. The sequel will come out next year and based
on the ending here, that should be a better book than this good one as that
ending sets up something incredibly interesting. At this time, the title of the
sequel has not been announced.
My reading copy came from the Lakewood
Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2023
Friday, September 29, 2023
FFB Review: Fantasy in Death: Eve Dallas Mysteries by J.D. Robb
Burt Minnock is one of 4 partners in the business
named U-Play. A small startup high tech computer company, they are working on cutting
edge computer and gaming technologies. He loves the classic Star Wars movies
and loves technology. He especially loves gaming. It is the year 2060 and he is
wealthy and a three-level home. One level is a hologram room where he can run his
own hologram program and try out video games. That includes his latest company
project. It is also the locked room he will be found dead in hours later in Fantasy
in Death by J. D. Robb.
As it happens, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Detective
Peabody get the case. Murder by way of hologram video game is a new one and
sure to shock jaded New Yorkers once the news gets out in the media. As it also
happens, Roarke knows Minnock and his partners. While he doesn’t own the
company, but he gave them business advice, and liked Minnock a lot.
Like Dallas, he takes the murder personally for his
own reasons, and helps her and her team work the case. In this instance, a game
was used to kill, despite all the safeguards. That means that if it happened
once, it could happen again.
Fantasy in Death is the 30th installment in the series and is a good one. All the usual caveats apply. One notes again that having wealth and success does not immune one in this series from dying the hard way.
My reading copy in eBook format came from the Dallas
Public Library System through the Overdrive/Libby app.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2023
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 92 Calls for Submissions in October 2023 - Paying Markets
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 92 Calls for Submissions in October 2023 - Paying ...: This October there are more than seven dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As alw...
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Short Story Wednesday.... And A Little News
Like last week,
there is not a short story Wednesday review from me today. I have not read
anything the last two weeks that would qualify. I also decided not to search
for an old repeat of mine as I did not want to take the time. Like always, I
will link to other short story reviews as I see them later today.
I did not want to
take the time as I have been busy with some things here. Not only was that the Longmire
review you saw yesterday, but I have also been writing a new short story.
I recently was
gifted a membership to the Sisters in Crime North Dallas Chapter and the National
group because a certain wonderful person in the leadership here decided she
really wanted me to write something and submit it for the next Dallas
anthology. I thought she was wasting her money and tried very hard to talk her
out of it.
I have not written
anything new since February of 2022 and that tale wound up in the Back Road
Bobby and Friends anthology. What you have seen come out in Crimeucopia: Strictly
Off The Record and will again in January in another Crimeucopia
anthology, have been reprints. I just have not been writing and thought I was pretty
much done.
Grief remains a
major presence in my life and I struggle almost daily to deal with it. December
1st will mark six years since Sandi passed and I am still having a
very hard time with it. Whatever muse I had, tat creative side of things,
seemingly died with her as there just has not been any inspiration to do
anything.
I tried to explain
all this to my benefactor who insisted that she wanted me to have the chance to
do something for it and understood that money is a serious issue for me. Money is
a huge issue and I have been cancelling things and scaling back as best as I
can as what little I have left from my inheritance after my Mom passed is like
sand passing through the hourglass. Things are kind of grim.
Anyway, after
several back-and-forth emails and Scott pushing me to say yes, I finally
agreed, she did, and I became a very grateful member.
I still had no idea
at all. I used to easily get ideas, but after Sandi passed, once I came out of
the fog about six months later, and I started functioning a bit again and
actually taking a daily shower and all the rest of it, the ideas were gone. I
had nothing.
Coming up with
something for Backroad Bobby and Friends was brutal and it did
not happen until very last minute. That time I suddenly had an image in my head
one morning and built a story around that image.
This time has been
a little better and it has helped that they just moved the deadline back to
October 18th.
About a week and
half ago, I got up just before dawn to use the bathroom as one must once one
gets to that certain age, and then went back to bed. I did not get back to sleep
right away and was in that weird state where you are not asleep, but you are
not awake. My mind tends to drift when I am like that and I started thinking about
the anthology and the fact that I had zero ideas and the clock was ticking. As
I laid there, trying to not think so I could go back to sleep, a gem of
something drifted through.
A title.
That was it. Just
a title for the story. A three word title.
It would not go
away.
Instead of going
back to sleep, the thing flickered to life like an ember in a cold fireplace. I
lay there and mentally poked at it and gradually realized there was something
to it. I think I dozed off a couple of times and yet kept walking back up and
thinking about it.
Eventually, after
about an hour, I gave up and got out of bed. Once I was dressed and had my morning
pills in me, I went out on the back wooden deck outside my house with a pen and
pad of paper. I do everything longhand whether it be reviews or my own fiction.
Then it gets typed. Scott types my reviews, but for the fiction I do it as I
edit and tweak as I go once the longhand first draft is written.
Things have fallen
cooled off enough here that one can sit out there in the morning before the sun
really gets going. That morning I wrote for about an hour and a half before
Scott joined me out there. Over the next several days, I sat out there each morning
and wrote a bit in the quiet of the morning. The story just unspooled every day.
I would make a note or three about what was going to happen at the end of each
writing session. The next day I would glance at the notes, though I usually did
not need the reminder, and got to work.
It just rolled
along as the entire thing came alive in my head with very little thinking
effort.
It took about a
week and then the rough draft was finished. That was last Friday.
I started typing yesterday
afternoon and got a little over 1700 words down (about four pages of my
horrible handwriting) before the body screamed enough and my hands started
acting up too much to keep going. I hunt and peck so I am slow as it is. Even
slower when I tweak things as I go. But, the words are getting down on the page
and that is what matters.
So, in a few days,
I just might have the second draft done.
I have no idea
what this means for my ability to write going forward. Right now, I am just
focused on getting this one done and off before deadline.
And now you know
why I am not reading as much as normal. I am writing.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
SleuthSayers: Be Careful What You Wish For
SleuthSayers: Be Careful What You Wish For: Hanging out at Bouchercon San Diego. I swore I would never edit an anthology of “crime fiction inspired by the songs of —.” That’s Josh Pach...
Review: The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson
The Longmire Defense by Craig
Johnson finds Sheriff Longmire thinking about the past and a future beyond
being the good Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. The next election is coming
in a few months and Longmire might be done as Sheriff. Between the politics, the
strain and stress of running for office yet again, and recent events, he could
be working his way around to calling it quits.
He’s out at the family cabin in the
Bighorn National Forest as the book begins and Cady, his daughter, inadvertently
stirs up the past by cleaning the place. She came across an old picture of her
great grandfather, Lloyd Longmire. Cady and his granddaughter are out at his
place cleaning and keeping an eye on him as he recovers from recent events. She
has questions about her great grandfather and Walt would just as soon not talk about
him.
He might have been family in name, but
he was a man that Walt had a rocky relationship with despite, or maybe because,
of the family tie. He was a hard man with strong expectations and constantly passed
judgement of others. That included his grandson, of whom he apparently did not
think much of at all. The picture shows Lloyd Longmire and a group of others
outside the Bank of Durant many years ago. That picture has started a line of
questioning that Walt Longmire could do without as he lies in a hammock holding
a book and his sleeping granddaughter.
Then Undersheriff Victoria Moretti shows
up and drags him with her to go looking for a missing woman. The woman from
Minnesota, who was following the navigation map on her phone and thus followed
bad directions, got her car stuck on a relatively nearby Forest Service Road.
She walked a bit, finally got cell service, called for help, and then instead
of staying put and waiting for that help, left the area. Now she is missing and
Undersheriff Moretti wants Longmire to come do a ride along with her to go
check out a possible route the missing woman might have taken.
Recent events in Montana have a taken a
toll and though he is physically healed, mentally and spiritually he isn’t, and
he really doesn’t want to do it. But, with Cady pushing him as well, he goes
with Moretti. and it isn’t long before the problem of the missing woman lost in
the mountains.
Longmire finds Trisha Knox.
He also finds a rifle, a specially
customized rifle, that could be tied into a killing from long ago.
The killing of Bill Sutherland, known as
“Big Bill,” happened back in 1948 and was declared a hunting accident. Maybe it
was. Maybe it wasn’t. But, Lloyd Longmire as well as Walt’s dad were involved.
Finding the gun brings ghosts and more to life in a complicated tale of oil
money, mercenaries, and politics in The Longmire Defense.
Much is going on in the read that spends
most of the time looking at events in the past with a somewhat morose Walt
Longmire more contemplative than usual. In the here and now, Walt is facing the
possibility of big change in a couple of areas as well so that means he has a
lot on his mind. Introspection is good and all that, but it does get to be a
bit much here at times as it grinds the read to a near halt. This reader also
gets the impression that the series might be ending fairly soon. One hopes not.
Despite everything, The Longmire Defense is a good read. The story keeps the reader engaged, even when it moves forward at a glacial pace, and we learn more about the Longmire family and their legacy. All in all, a good read.
My reading copy came in eBook form from
the Dallas Public Library System by way of the Libby/OverDrive App.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
Monday, September 25, 2023
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Perfect Insider (1996) by MORI Hiroshi
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Perfect Insider (1996) by MORI Hiroshi: Back in 2020, I reviewed MORI Hiroshi's " Sekit ō no yane kazan " ("The Rooftop Ornaments of Stone Ratha," 1999), a...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: For the Love of Pawpaws: A Mini Manual for the Growing and Caring for PawPaws – From Seed to Table by Michael Judd
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: For the Love of Pawpaws: A Mini Manual for the Gro...: Reviewed by Jeanne I remember eating my first pawpaw as a child, being given one of the fat green fruits while waiting on my grandparents ...
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 32 Outstanding Writing Conferences and Workshops in October 2023
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 32 Outstanding Writing Conferences and Workshops i...: This October there are more than two dozen writing conferences and workshops. Some conferences and workshops will be held online, but many w...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: It Dies with You by Scott Blackburn
Scott Blackburn is an English
instructor living in High Point, North Carolina. His debut novel, It Dies
with You (Crooked Lane Books, 2022), is also set in North Carolina.
Hudson Miller
was scraping a living as a bartender and a bouncer in Greensboro while he waited
out a suspension from his boxing career. His boxing wasn’t much above mediocre
but he worked at it and thought he could go somewhere eventually. A call from
the police of Flint Creek, where he grew up, changed everything: his estranged
father had been shot at his salvage yard on the edge of the community.
Hudson
returned to the small town to learn that his father was killed in what appeared
to be a burglary. Then the police discovered a cache of guns hidden in the
office. Leland Miller had supplemented his income from used auto parts with
trading illicit weapons, which increased the potential suspects and motives for
the shooting.
The next
surprise for Hudson was to learn that his father had left the property to him,
hoping that he would continue to run it. Hudson knew nothing about automobile
parts or the salvage business; he struck a deal with his father’s sole employee
to run the yard while Hudson learned the ropes.
Within a few
days the discovery of a body buried on the lot put both Hudson and his
part-time employee under suspicion. The local police seemed only too willing to
pin the crime on one or the other or both, even though no evidence pointing to
either of them was found. They were outsiders and therefore eligible scapegoats
in the small insular town. In self-defense Hudson starts looking into both
murders and uncovers long-hidden secrets.
A fine piece
of Southern noir. Fans of authors like Brian Panowich, Ace Atkins, and Chris
Offutt will especially be interested.
·
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (June 7, 2022)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 304 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1643859390
·
ISBN-13: 978-1643859392
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 24, 2023
Little Big Crimes: Never Enough, by Liza Cody
Little Big Crimes: Never Enough, by Liza Cody: "Never Enough," by Liza Cody, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September/October 2023. This is Liza Cody's third ap...
Saturday, September 23, 2023
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: NEW COVER REVEAL
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: NEW COVER REVEAL: By Caroline Clemmons Each of us likes new clothes occasionally. For books, that means a new cover. The three books I’m featuring today have...
KRL This Week 9/23/2023
Up on KRL this morning a review and giveaway of the first in a new series, "Board to Death" by CJ Connor, along with an interesting interview with CJ https://kingsriverlife.com/09/23/board-to-death-by-c-j-connor/
And a review and giveaway of "Wedding Bride and Doom" by Mary Karnes, along with a fun guest post by Mary about being a wedding planner herself https://kingsriverlife.com/09/23/wedding-bride-and-doom-by-mary-karnes/
We also have the latest Queer Mystery Coming Attractions from Matt Lubbers-Moore <https://kingsriverlife.com/09/23/queer-mystery-coming-attractions-october-2023/> https://kingsriverlife.com/09/23/queer-mystery-coming-attractions-october-2023/
And a mystery short story by Herschel Cozine <https://kingsriverlife.com/09/23/mystery-short-story-charity-begins-at-home/> https://kingsriverlife.com/09/23/mystery-short-story-charity-begins-at-home/
Up during the week we posted another special midweek guest post, this one by mystery author Jacqueline Seewald about mystery and history and her new book "Heart of Wisdom" https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/mystery-and-history/
And another special midweek guest post this one by mystery author Charlotte Morganti about the special traits of main characters and her new book "The End Game" https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/finding-characters-special-traits/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "No Mistaking Death" by Shelley Costa https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/no-mistaking-death-by-shelley-costa.html
And a review and giveaway of "Tokyo Time" by Dawn Farnham published by Brash Books <https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/tokyo-time-by-dawn-farnham.html> https://www.krlnews.com/2023/09/tokyo-time-by-dawn-farnham.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in August 2023
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in August 2023: I read nine books in August and completed all of the books on my 20 Books of Summer list. I did not review them all, but did better than usu...
Scott's Take: Spider-Man: Animals Assemble! (A Mighty Marvel Team-Up) by Mike Maihack
Spider-Man: Animals Assemble! (A
Mighty Marvel Team-Up) by Mike Maihack is a short graphic novel for kids and
the first book in this new series. Spider-Man is babysitting the pets of various
super heroes as they deal with a problem in Central Park in New York City.
The art is good and the humor is good.
The biggest flaw, in my opinion, is that it is so short. The sequel is currently
scheduled to be released in January 2024 and is titled, Spider-man:
Quantum Quest (A Mighty Marvel Team-Up).
My reading copy came from the Dallas Public
Library System through the OverDrive/Libby app.
Scott A. Tipple © 2023
Friday, September 22, 2023
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: But Have You Read the Book? 52 Literary Gems that Inspired Our Favorite Films by Kristen Lopez
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: But Have You Read the Book? 52 Literary Gems that...: Reviewed by Jeanne In her foreword, Lopez writes that she likes reading the book before seeing the movie because she enjoys feeling as...
FFB Review: The End of Everything: A Novel by Megan Abbott
Before it happened, it seemed to 13 year
old Lizzie Hood that the Verner family next door was perfect in every way.
Lizzie had been friends with Evie for what seemed like forever and spent almost
every waking moment in her company. Evie’s mom is bland and unassuming. Evie’s
sister, Dusty, rules home and school where nearly every guy wants her and yet
none can have her. Unlike lizzie’s own father who has left the house and moved
on with his life thanks to the divorce, Evie’s father, Mr. Verner, is not only constantly
around, he might be the most perfect father and man on earth. All is right in
the world as school winds down and the two girls have a summer to look forward
to before starting High School.
Then, the unthinkable happens and Evie
vanishes one afternoon. Evie and Lizzie were going to walk home, but Lizzie’s
mom picked her up instead so that they could go to the Mall. Evie was supposed
to go on home, but never made it there. Now Evie is missing and the perfect
world next door is starting to crack in so many ways.
As the days pass with Evie missing,
author Megan Abbott skillfully weaves in clues, backstory, and tension to show
characters that are evolving and changing in many ways while the story itself
becomes much more complex. The disappearance truly does bring about The
End of Everything in so many ways as Lizzie comes to grips with the
idea that things next door were not so perfect after all. While the Verver
family fractures in ways that one would somewhat expect as well as ways one
wouldn’t, Lizzie’s whole world changes. Perceptions of what was real and what
was fantasy, before and after the abduction, change as does her understanding
of her own motivations and feelings. In a way, there is a certain coming of age
aspect to this complex novel as Lizzie is forced to confront things that were,
in some form, always there but far beneath the surface.
From a reviewer standpoint, this is a
difficult book to review without sharing far too much. It is also one that is
hard to explain concisely as the complex book goes in many different ways at
the same time raising far more questions than it answers. Adult, and sometimes
disturbing, themes are very strong in this book and will produce strong
reactions from some readers. Much is implied or hinted at though how seriously
to take it as actual character feeling/motivation is up to the reader.
As reviews elsewhere make abundantly
clear while also often telling far too much, this is one of those novels that
how the reader reads between the lines will determine much more about what the
book means or says to the reader than what the author actually wrote.
Deceptively short at 246 pages of actual story this is a very good book. The
End Of Everything by Megan Abbott is a book packed with complex
characters, deep emotion, and a complex mystery that will keep you thinking
long after you close the book.
Material supplied by Patti Abbot via a contest on her blog several months ago with no expectation of any review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011, 2016, 2023
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Devil's Flute Murders (1951/53) by Seishi Yokomizo
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Devil's Flute Murders (1951/53) by Seishi Yoko...: Pushkin Vertigo has since 2015 been publishing translations of crime-and detective classics from all around the world, Argentina, France, I...
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Hilma Wolitzer
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Hilma Wolitzer: Yesterday I finished reading all thirteen stories in Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer. I have read only a few sh...
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
SleuthSayers: Bouchercon takeaways: being a successful panelist
SleuthSayers: Bouchercon takeaways: being a successful panelist: Like some of you reading this, I recently attended this year's Bouchercon, which is touted as the world's largest mystery convention...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Hillerman & Dark Winds
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Hillerman & Dark Winds: Reviewed by Jeanne Although Tony Hillerman wrote his first Navajo police mystery in 1970, I didn’t encounter his work until the ‘8...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Face Value (1983) by Roger Ormerod
Beneath the Stains of Time: Face Value (1983) by Roger Ormerod: Last time, I discussed Anthony Lejeune's Key Without a Door (1988), second and last novel in the short-lived James Glowrey series, whic...
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.
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