Lesa's Book Critiques: EVERY TIME I GO ON VACATION, SOMEONE DIES BY CATHERINE MACK
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Mystery Fanfare: McDONALD & DODDS: Season 4
Mystery Fanfare: McDONALD & DODDS: Season 4: At last. News on Season 4 of McDonald & Dodds. I really enjoy this series set in Bath. I especially like the mismatched police duo. Sea...
Monday, April 29, 2024
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Flight Risk by Cherie Priest
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Flight Risk by Cherie Priest: Reviewed by Jeanne Leda Foley is a psychic who moonlights as a travel agent—or maybe it’s the other way around. Her one-woman travel...
Little Big Crimes: Coming Attractions, by Vinnie Hansen
Little Big Crimes: Coming Attractions, by Vinnie Hansen: "Coming Attractions," by Vinnie Hansen, in Invasive Species: Stories by Northern California Crime Writers, edited by Josh Pacht...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Humans: Matt Haig
Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Humans: Matt Haig: I enjoyed reading this book so much. It brightened my life, it improved my mood, it helped me to feel more love and acceptance for others....
Aubrey's Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Witching Hour by Catriona McPherson
The sixteenth
book in the Dandy Gilver historical mystery series by Catriona McPherson is
scheduled for release in the UK on 2 May 2024 and in the US on 3 September
2024. I had the great good fortune to receive an advance copy of the story so I
don’t have to wait until September.
The series
began shortly after the end of World War I in 1922, with Dandy the epitome of a
bored housewife, and has progressed chronologically through the social and
economic upheaval of the interwar years. The Witching Hour (Hodder & Stoughton/Mobius) takes
place in spring of 1939, with a second war imminent, to the great fear of Dandy
whose two sons are now the right age to be called up.
Hugh Gilver’s
60th birthday was being observed with all the pomp it deserved. The
family and close friends were gathered for an enormous feast and the family
cook had done herself proud. Of especial interest to Dandy is the guest her
younger son had invited. To all appearances Dandy was to acquire a second
daughter-in-law. Dandy’s close friend Daisy Esslemont was there alone, her
husband Silas had pleaded a previous unbreakable engagement, and Daisy was
peeved about it. Silas has a long history of philandering and Daisy has
tolerated much from her sadly deficient husband.
In the night
the telephone unexpectedly rang. The police in a remote village are looking for
Daisy. Silas has been found dead, and they think Daisy has killed him. Dandy is
happy to advise them Daisy was sound asleep in Dandy’s guest bedroom. But on inquiry,
Dandy learns both Daisy and Dandy’s automobile are gone. She and Alec Osborne,
Dandy’s investigative partner, tear off to the village where Silas was found
and hope that Daisy is not there.
The village
turns out to be an odd little place with hints of otherworldliness and
witchcraft. No one is especially helpful but Dandy is desperate to clear Daisy
and Alec, who had his own reasons for disliking Silas, is up for the challenge.
I am once
again reminded that this series is not cozy, despite blurbs that say otherwise.
Inevitably there are serious underlying issues at play in each book, even if
perhaps the overall premise is lighthearted and improbable. The UK is facing
the advent of war once again, and this time Dandy knows she may lose her sons.
The memory of the earlier war is all too clear and her entire generation is
devastated at the thought of a repetition. Dandy also has the opportunity to
review her very fortunate marriage compared to that of her friend Daisy. While
Hugh is boring, he is also kind and would never humiliate her the way Silas mistreated
Daisy. The contrast emphasizes how little freedom women had then to improve
their circumstances. A bad marriage was something to be borne, not discarded.
The
resolution was entirely reasonable, considering the life that Silas led, but I
found the fact so many others suffered from his thoughtlessness deeply sad.
For fans of social
history the bits about proper dinner table and drawing room behavior are
fascinating. The conversation between Dandy and Hugh about their potential new
daughter-in-law reveal the conventions about appropriate marriages in the
landed gentry and just how much those conventions had changed.
A fine
addition to a solid historical series. Recommended.
·
Publisher: Mobius (September 3,
2024)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 320 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1399720392
·
ISBN-13: 978-1399720397
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4dfrw6s
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works
on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?: By Caroline Clemmons Do you wonder about what was going on in the world at the time of a series you’re reading? Okay, I’m a history nut, so...
SleuthSayers: Is That a Derringer in Your Pocket?
SleuthSayers: Is That a Derringer in Your Pocket?: First things first: my deepest thanks to the SleuthSayers for inviting me to be a contributor to this blog. I had to fight off a bit of impo...
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Burnt Bohemian (1953) by Christopher Bush
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Burnt Bohemian (1953) by Christoph...: Christopher Bush 's 42nd Ludovic Travers novel, The Case of the Burnt Bohemian (1953), takes place during the period in the series when...
Guest Post: Could this be the beginning of a great friendship? The making of a novella … by M.E. Proctor
Please
welcome M. E. Proctor to the blog today…
Could this be the beginning of a great
friendship?
The making of a novella …
By M.E. Proctor
I don’t
know how often I’ve heard these words: We
should do something together. Considering I’m neither into bank robbery,
quilting bees, or barn raising, the suggestion always has some relationship
with a writing project. It is also always comfortably vague and about as
binding as the clichéd “let’s do lunch one of these days”.
I’m not
sure why an innocuous social media chat on December 12, 2023, with writer
friend Russell Thayer turned into something completely different.
On that
cold December day, Russ typed: “Tom should go after Gunselle someday. Imagine
the interrogation scene!”
The
comment wasn’t completely out of the blue. Russ is the author of over twenty
short stories featuring the contract killer nicknamed “Gunselle”. She’s a hot
hit number. All the stories take place between the late 1930s and the early
1950s. Russ had a new one coming out and I had just placed a piece of retro noir
at The Yard Crime Blog. The coincidence was the spark that started our
conversation. My recurrent character (a dozen stories so far) is Tom Keegan, a
homicide detective in 1950 San Francisco.
As it
often happens in a chat, when both parties have time and like to talk craft, we
got into a fun back-and-forth. We threw a few plot ideas against the wall. What
if she’s hired to bump him off. What if they’re after the same killer…
It didn’t go any further that day. Or the
next. It didn’t go anywhere until January 30.
We must have both been unconsciously chewing on the idea
of bringing our two characters together, Ã
la CSI
meets NCIS,
because we picked up our chat right where we left it six weeks earlier.
Neither of us had ever written anything in collaboration.
How it would work, who would do what, was there a process, a kind of division
of labor … could we pull it off, would we fight over stuff, shout at each other
through email? We didn’t talk about any of that. All we knew was that we wanted
to write a story with our characters in the lead roles. What that story might
be, we had no idea. We
weren’t flying completely blind however. Russ had read my Keegan pieces and I knew
everything about Gunselle’s dangerous life. Our writing styles were different
but not jarringly so, and we were improvising in the same time period with a
strong flavor of classic crime fiction. If there were rough edges in the
writing, they could be polished off later once the story was laid out.
We
brainstormed a few ideas and decided to build the story around a political
assassination that would involve both characters, coming at it from their
respective angles. The detective investigating the case, in straight procedural
fashion, and the contract killer being embroiled in it sideways, yet not guilty
of the crime.
Russ sent
me a snippet of Gunselle being hired for a job she disliked—fixing somebody
else’s mess, i.e. the assassination—and a few days later, I sent him Tom’s
arrival at the crime scene, the ballroom of a luxury hotel. The suspect was a
musician in the jazz band hired for the event.
These simple
first steps turned out to have an enormous impact on the structure and the vibe
of the story.
It would
be told from a double point of view (POV). Each of us writing scenes from the
perspective of our protagonists. It felt natural and we never discussed that
choice or had any reason to revisit it later. It worked and we could write in
the particular voice of our characters, which took care of the differences in
our writing styles.
Everybody
knows that most of the research should be done before starting to write a story, it’s a lot more efficient, but we
were both eager to get something going. Now, with two scenes drafted, we had to
make sure we were historically correct on the when and the where.
It was a
stroke of luck to find out that 1951 was an election year. That November, San
Francisco re-elected the incumbent republican mayor. It put a time stamp on the
assassination and the identity of the victim: June, at a fundraiser for the
democratic mayoral candidate. The Palace Hotel is conveniently located
downtown, with a good size ballroom. An internet deep dive delivered
period-accurate floorplans. We were in business. We knew when, where and who,
but like our two lead actors, we were stumped by the motive. Why was Charles
Forrester shot? We wouldn’t find out for a while.
Writing a
story is like a treasure hunt. Every sentence, written on the fly, contains
potential clues. Here’s an example. The decision to make the killer a jazz
trumpeter gave the plot a definite slant. It also gave us the opportunity to
dig into the rich Bay Area music scene of the early 50s, the various clubs, the
talent on display, the racial tensions, the lure of the city at night, the
early involvement of the Mob in the drug trade. Russ had touched on the music
angle in some of his stories and brought all that background into the plot,
with great secondary characters. One of them, Maggie, became central to nailing
down the motive and the final resolution. Through Maggie, we also brought in
the war, only six years in the past, and its aftermath, how deeply it scarred many
characters in the story.
Very soon,
the project got bigger, a lot longer than a short story, maybe not a book, but
close.
During the
two months it took to complete a solid first draft (I’m writing this in
mid-April, we’re in the final polishing stage, and the word count sits at
50,000), we had a couple of mini-debates, all of them civil and considerate.
One of them was about who would enter the scene first.
Homicide cops
always get there after the fact, it’s the nature of the job. We decided to start
with Gunselle and put her at the scene, at the very beginning, before the shots
ring out. That was the story hook. She was hired for the hit and somebody beat
her to it. She’s pocketed the down payment. For doing nothing. As a
professional, it sticks in her craw.
Another
discussion was about the key scene where we bring our two characters together.
Up to that moment, they’d both been going through their moves separately, with
only a glancing accidental contact that showed mutual interest. Yes, this is
where it gets sexy … Who would write that hot scene, in whose POV? We briefly
considered writing it twice, in a “he says, she says” tango, but it proved
clunky. I wrote the initial scene, from Tom’s voice, then Russ took it and
turned it around. It worked a lot better that way, Gunselle initiated the event
and was the more active character.
Those were
the only scenes that required a decision on who does what. The rest flowed
naturally. After writing separate scenes for a couple of weeks, we built a
master document that we carried all through to the end, highlighting changes,
giving each other a go at adjusting things. Our different writing styles became
apparent. Russ writes snappy action scenes and I tend to be atmospheric. Using
the master document, we started blending things. He added bite to my stuff and
I added background.
As the
story evolved, the beginning needed continuous revisions. It’s the inevitable
result of not having an outline, of letting the story be told by the characters
to be taken wherever it wants to go. Somebody will throw a curve ball once in a
while and provoke a scramble. It keeps things fresh and exciting.
Mid-way
through the process, having a timeline became critical. The characters were all
in motion and the investigation picked up speed. A detailed timeline helped us
figure out the ending. None of what happens in the last act was in the cards from
the start.
We’re now
done with the novella, except for minor tweaking, and as I look back on the
collaboration, I wouldn’t change a thing in the way we proceeded. The time
taken in considering options, writing them and discarding parts of them, might
appear to be a waste but was crucial in coming up with the best solution.
Multiple iterations, trial and error. It happens the same way when writers work
individually (unless they’re rigorous plotters). The fun of the collaboration
is having your partner put something on the table that you would not have come
up with on your own.
And, in
closing, the personalities have to match … that is the secret sauce. Unfortunately,
there’s no readily available recipe for that.
The title
of the novella is “Bop City Nocturne”. Will there be more? When will it be
published? To be continued …
What
Russell says …
Martine asked
me to slide in with a comment or two. When I first brought up the idea of Gunselle
and Keegan appearing in a story together, it was in a joking way, but it did
seem appropriate. Both characters move through the hilly streets of San
Francisco at the same time. They might have stood on the same ground at some
point, one with a pistol in her hand, then the other, later, with a notebook
and a furrowed brow under his fedora.
I knew
Martine liked to do the research, as do I, and though I was joking a little
when I suggested the idea, I was hoping she would say yes. And I’m glad she
did, because this project, whether it ever comes to print, has been a joy from
beginning to end. No struggles, except for me keeping up with my partner, who
is an extremely fast worker. Our styles are a little different. She writes
longer scenes, full of detail and observation. I like mine short and jazzy,
with lots of humor. I write a little differently now that I’ve watched
Martine’s process, and we’ve both had fun working with each other’s characters.
May I add that there is some natural sexual tension between these two Bop City toughies?
And though they ply their trade on opposite sides of the law, and live by their
own rules, they manage to find common ground as they pursue the villains.
As Martine
says, perhaps this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Cut to:
Gunselle and Tom walking into the mist.
Read a
Gunselle story here: Par
for the Course
(Urban Pigs Press).
Read a Tom
Keegan story here: Footwork (Mystery Tribune). He also takes
the lead in A
Redhead and a Green Car in the great “Motel” Anthology from Cowboy Jamboree.
M. E. Proctor
©2024
M.E.
Proctor’s short story collection Family
and Other Ailments is available in all the usual places. She’s currently
working on a contemporary PI series. The first book, Love You Till Tuesday, comes out from Shotgun Honey in 2024. Her
short fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon
Review, Black Cat Weekly, and Thriller Magazine among others. She’s a Derringer nominee. Website: www.shawmystery.com
Russell Thayer’s stories have been published in magazines such as Bristol Noir, Apocalypse Confidential, and Shotgun Honey. A “Gunselle” collection is in the works. Find him on Twitter @RussellThayer10.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Scott's Take: Jean Grey: Flames of Fear by Louise Simonson
The art and the stories are excellent.
But. one must be somewhat familiar with her history as a character to
appreciate the stories. One example, is in the first issue that deals with the
question -- what if Jean when she was a teen and the rest of the original X-Men
that had been sent to the future did not have their memories of the future
wiped from them and instead chose to keep those memories to change their
present.
This was a good book even if the final
issue connects to an Immortal X-Men Volume I have not read yet
since it was not out as I was reading this. This is a good Jean series, but one
would get the most out of it if they are familiar with the comic book
character’s history.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TPZQ0f
My reading copy came by way of the
Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2024
Friday, April 26, 2024
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 85 Calls for Submissions in May 2024 - Paying markets
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 85 Calls for Submissions in May 2024 - Paying markets: This May there are more than seven dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always,...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Finding Mr. Purrfect by Codi Gary
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Finding Mr. Purrfect by Codi Gary: Reviewed by Jeanne Charity Simmons is a baker with a love for cats, so she and her veterinarian friend Kara pool their resources to op...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE DEAD WORLD
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE DEAD WORLD: The Dead World by F. Paul Wilson (first published in Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs , edited by Robert T. Garcia & Mike Resnick, 2013; ...
FFB Review: Carnosaur Weekend by Garnett Elliott
Imagine, if you will, a world where it is possible
to go back in time to play golf in relative safety while dinosaurs move around
you. That idea is just a small part of the three highly entertaining tales in Carnosaur
Weekend. The three tales in the book are all good ones and highly
entertaining.
“Carnosaur Weekend” opens the book where pterodactyls
fly above the golf course and an allosaurus and a carnosaur are on the
fairways. A RPG is a most helpful weapon in times like this where the
super-rich are being courted by real estate developers selling time shares in
the late cretaceous period. Those running this deal somehow got their hands on
a “Zygma Projector” making their very questionable venture in the timeline
possible. Damon Cole is already working the case in the far distant past and is
under deep cover. Kyler Knightly is being sent in to assist because the deal
has to be shut down before they screw up the past and cause irreversible
changes in the present.
“The Zygma Gambit” comes next and was also published
in the very good The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform and Other Stories. Set a bit
before the preceding story, Kyler Knightly is one of those very special people
known as “dreamers” and is employed by Continuity Inc. Through their dreams the
dreamers have the ability to foresee the future. Kyler has been awakened by a
dream in his own bed in the early morning hours of April 14, 2223. For this to
happen outside of the Precog bays where he normally works means that this dream
was very powerful and definitely coming true. Kyler has to get to his Uncle
Damon Cole and tell him about the dream before Cole goes on his mission.
The final story title “The Worms of Terpsichore” is
very good and highly reminiscent of the classic type of science fiction many of
us grew up on. The spaceship Sallust sent off a one word message via their
orbital beacon and then went radio silent. No further transmission has come
from where they landed on the surface. The one word message also does not make
sense. Clearly, something has happened.
Raj and Thea will go down to the site by way of a lander from their
spaceship known as the Astarte. This type of search and rescue mission is just
part of what they do as members of “Frontier Swift Response.” While this isn’t
at time travel story and Damon Cole and Kyler Knightly are not involved at all,
it is still a very good tale. After all, any story that uses a flame-gun is
automatically pretty good.
Author Garnett Elliot’s bio and ads for other books
from Beat To A Pulp including installments of the excellent Jack Laramie Drifter
Detective series finish out the book.
The three science fiction tales in Carnosaur
Weekend quickly yank readers to a very different time and place. The
multiple characters involved have considerable depth that never gets in the way
of the science fiction adventure. These are adventures when anything is
possible as the dangers are many and one has to stay alive by one’s wits. The
tales of Carnosaur Weekend are all very good ones very much worth your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3xShuYR
Material supplied by the publisher in exchange for
my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014, 2020, 2024
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Jerry's House of Everything: THE INSPECTOR CHEN MYSTERIES: A CASE OF THE TWO CITIES
Jerry's House of Everything: THE INSPECTOR CHEN MYSTERIES: A CASE OF THE TWO C...: On December 15, 2015, BBC Radio broadcast the first of ten episodes of The Inspector Chen Mysteries , beginning with Qui Xiaolong's Anth...
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 72 Writing Contests in May 2024 - No entry fees
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 72 Writing Contests in May 2024 - No entry fees: This May there are six dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes this month range fr...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Golden Doves, Anxious People, Dreamland
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Golden Doves, Anxious People, Dreamland: Reported by Rita The Golden Doves: a Novel by Martha Hall Kelly To finally secure justice and protect the ones they love, two for...
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Hit List: Top 5 Intriguing Pieces of Impossible Crime Fiction That Vanished into Thin Air
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Hit List: Top 5 Intriguing Pieces of Impossibl...: Earlier this year, I put together a depressing list of our genre's so-called "lost media" section, " The Hit List: Top 10...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: The Habit of Widowhood and Other Murderous Proclivities
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: The Habit of Widowhood and ...: Robert Barnard (1936 - 2013) is one of my favorite authors. He wrote about 50 novels between 1974 and 2012. Some were series books but a lar...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT: "Love at First Sight" by Richard Middleton (from New Tales of Horror by Eminent Authors , edited anonymously by "John Gaws...
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Little Big Crimes: The Lover of Eastlake, by Sam Wiebe
Little Big Crimes: The Lover of Eastlake, by Sam Wiebe: "The Lover of Eastlake," by Sam Wiebe, in The Killing Rain, edited by Jim Thomsen, Down and Out Books, 2024. This is the fourth ...
SleuthSayers: The Magic of Malice
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Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian: Reviewed by Jeanne Former stage magician and current designer for Secret Staircase Construction Tempest Raj is invited to a recent cli...
Review: Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller
Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery
by Marcia Muller finds Sharon working a complicated case involving private
street ownership. In San Franciso, there are more than 200 streets that are
owned by private individuals or entities. As these streets are not city
property, they are lucrative targets for land speculators and others.
As the book opens, it is almost midnight Halloween,
and Sharon McCone is on a stake out. Being a co-owner of the agency with her
husband, Hy Ripinsky, who is currently overseas, she is out in the rain so that
she does not have to fool with trick-or-treaters and somebody else does not
miss a party or spending time with their kids this dark night. The rain fits
her mood. One that she has been in for months now. A mood that she can’t really
explain to herself or others that have noticed.
She is on Rowan Court trying to prevent another
vandalism attack. McCone & Ripinsky International has been hired by the
wealthy homeowners on the street to stop a rash of vandalism that has been
happening to their homes and vehicles. Not just stop it, but identify the
culprits and why they are doing it. One of their members has been reaching out
to other folks and have discovered that this sort of thing is happening on
other private streets, rich and poor, across the city.
Soon McCone finds things are linked across various
neighborhoods. Events start to move forward and become deadly.
Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery
is a complicated and often slow-moving read. At least a third of the book, if
not more, consists of reminisces of previous cases and things that happened to
McCone, Hy, and many others in the past, and an acknowledgment and recognition
of how far all those involved have come in the here and now. Even if one had
not seen the guest post by the author at SleuthSayers
announcing this book is the end of the series, it is clear with the way the
book unfolds for the reader.
It is also a good read. The case is complicated and chugs along at a semi steady pace between the many memories of the past. Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery ends the series well.
My ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Grand
Central Publishing, via NetGalley with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2024
Monday, April 22, 2024
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in March 2024
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Aubrey's Nye Hamilton Reviews: Robbed Blind by Roy Hart
Between 1987
and 1994 Roy Hart, a British avionics engineer, wrote nine police procedurals fronted
by Detective Superintendent Douglas Roper of the Dorset County Criminal
Investigation Department on the southern coast of England. In line with the procedural
that was popular in the 1980s, they are all set in villages and the plots all
focus on the investigation rather than the psychology of the crime. While there
are quirky characters, they take a back seat to the detailed and systematic
description of police activities in collecting and sifting clues to find the
culprit. The fifth in the series Robbed Blind (Macmillan London, 1990)
is a good example.
The night of
Good Friday in the village of Little Crow Stella Pumfrey was found dead at the
foot of the stairs in her home. Her shoe caught in the carpet on the landing
bore mute testimony to an accidental fall that caused Stella’s head to collide
with ferocity against the newel post. The post-mortem, though, showed the
damage to Stella’s skull could not have been caused by the fall.
By the time the
police received the autopsy report recommending further investigation, the
crime scene had been thoroughly contaminated, much to Roper’s frustration.
Initial inquiries reveal that Stella had money and her husband and her sister
were in line to inherit it. Neither of them was on good terms with the victim.
Then there was the lover rumored to be in the background. But perhaps it was
not personal at all: an exquisite and valuable pair of earrings is missing.
Could she have been surprised by the burglar that was known to be in the
neighborhood? As Roper talks to Stella’s family and friends, he finds no
shortage of possible scenarios and people with adverse interests to Stella’s.
This series
seems to have flown under the radar in the U.S. The first two titles were not
published here, and none of them seem to have been reprinted after the initial
hardback and paperback issue. Roper isn’t given much of a back story, although
there is some information about him, and perhaps he wasn’t vivid enough to
capture lasting interest. A review from Publishers Weekly said he lacked
the edge of a Sherlock Holmes, although both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus
spoke highly of the series. While nine books is a respectable run, timing
probably also affected its popularity, as reading tastes were moving towards
gritty, violent crime fiction with lots of action.
I found this
series entry a solid, capable detective story with complex plotting, plenty of
red herrings, and plausible suspects. Recommended for fans of police
procedurals and admirers of traditional mysteries.
·
Publisher: St Martins Press; First Edition
(January 1, 1990)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 206 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0312044143
·
ISBN-13: 978-0312044145
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link:
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is
a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries
at night.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
OUT NOW!! Notorious in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries Volume III
Though it was not supposed to be out yet, Notorious
in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries Volume III, is now out at Amazon and should be available within days
at Barnes and Noble. Published by the Sisters in Crime North Dallas
chapter, the read is edited by Michael Bracken, and includes a forward from
author Kathleen Kent. It also includes my short story, Whatever Happened To…?,
set in my little part of NE Dallas.
I am very grateful to Michael Bracken, Karen
Harrington, and to everyone involved in the process. It is my understanding
that there will be book signings in early June and other events. My hope is
that, health permitting, I will be at those events.
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Conjure-Man Dies (1932) by Rudolph Fisher
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Saturday, April 20, 2024
SleuthSayers: Dryer Is a Noun
SleuthSayers: Dryer Is a Noun: We all know that. It's the big appliance that sits beside your washing machine. If you want to compare the moisture content of things...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Shimmer of Red by Valerie Wilson Wesley
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Shimmer of Red by Valerie Wilson Wesley: Reviewed by Jeanne Things are finally looking up for Odessa Jones. The pandemic has made real estate a hot commodity with houses a...
Scott's Take: X-Men: Hellfire Gala: Fall of X by Gerry Duggan
X-Men: Hellfire
Gala: Fall of X
by Gerry Duggan collects the issues that compose the third Hellfire Gala
book. This book kicks off the Fall of X books. The Fall of
X is the banner name for a series of titles for the X-Men. Since this is the beginning, there are a lot
of plot points setup that are not finished here. In this story, the X-Men are
hosting their third annual party trying to build relations between humans and
mutants. Of course, things go horribly wrong for the X-Men.
There is plenty
of gore, violence, and death as the party is ruined. Some big-name characters
are killed along with several lower-level names. The big names of course will
return quicker since they already have books set after the events depicted here.
The art for the most part is spectacular in the main Hellfire Gala
issue, the free comic book day issue, and the Iron Man issue.
However, the art
is just adequate in the X-Men unlimited issues which are set before the gala.
Marvel has a series of comics that are exclusive to their app Unlimited. In
this case, the X-Men Unlimited issues are short stories that
expand on minor plot points using lower tier art and lower tier, name
recognition wise, writers. They don’t get the budget the main titles get.
Additionally,
the prequels are presented in this collection after the main issue. By doing it that way, the momentum of the
collection is derailed. It also kills the idea of giving some character
development to certain characters who are later killed.
Jean Grey is the
highlight in this read, in my opinion, as she has some impressive moments.
However, there are plenty of cool scenes for other characters such as
Wolverine, Talon, Emma Frost, and Iron Man. The Kingpin (who has now joined the
X-Men) also has a cool moment himself. Professor X is put through the ringer in
this Gala. The villains are impressive and well prepared. They remain
formidable foes as the X-Men are forced to go on the run.
Overall, I
enjoyed this volume despite some hiccups in how Marvel chose to handle this
story.
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/43rPhUo
My reading copy
came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
We Have A Cover!
As shared by Sisters in Crime North Dallas earlier today, the anthology comes out next month. It includes my short story, "Whatever Happened To...?" In my tale, I make extensive use of aspects of my life and my NE Dallas neighborhood.
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 37 Marvelous Writing Conferences and Workshops in May 2024
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 37 Marvelous Writing Conferences and Workshops in ...: This May there are more than three dozen writing conferences and workshops. Some conferences and workshops will be held online, but most wil...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE LAST CHRISTMAS
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE LAST CHRISTMAS: The Last Christmas by F. Paul Wilson (2019) More of a How The Hell Did This Slip Under My Radar Book than a Forgotten Book. I am a big f...
Barry Ergang's FFB Review: Fast One by Paul Cain
From the massive archive…
I can enthusiastically recommend Fast One
to any reader who loves the hardboiled school—especially from the pulp era—but
don’t ask me for a detailed plot summary. That’s next to impossible. Suffice it
to say that a tough character named Gerry Kells, who is visiting L.A. from New
York and who seems to know every major racket boss in southern California, is
in the first chapter framed for a murder he didn’t commit, and who spends the
remainder of the book either dodging or deliberately confronting cops and hoods
with words, fists, and firearms. Along the way he considers trying to take over
L.A.‘s rackets himself.
It’s an aptly titled book because the story roars
along at a hectic pace. The pace is aided in no small measure by Cain's
staccato prose style, which almost redefines “lean and mean.” But the pace and
the story’s complexity are the book’s undoing because there is no
characterization for readers to relate to. Most of the players—including the
principal female—are referred to only by their last names. The absence of
character definition reduces them to mere names on the page. It’s frequently an
effort trying to recall from one chapter to another who's who and who's done
what to whom.
Fast One has long been hailed as the ne plus ultra
of hardboiled gangster tales by the likes of Bill Pronzini, E.R. Hagemann, and
Raymond Chandler. David A. Bowman, in his introductory essay to the 1987 Black
Lizard edition I have, writes: “Cain took the hardboiled style as far as anyone
would want to. Fast One is the Antarctica of hardboiled writing. There is
nowhere else to go.”
Forget about any insights into the human condition
or any other sorts of profound meanings. Just buckle up and go along on the
wild ride.
For more on this novel or the Golden Age of
Detection follow the link to the GA Detection wiki. http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Fast-One
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aX3gnK
Barry Ergang © 2007, 2014, 2024
Some of Derringer
Award winner Barry Ergang’s work can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.
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