Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and the Supernatural
Publication Day Review: The Girl from Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance
The Girl from
Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance is one of those books
where the reader knows the identity of the killer almost from the beginning. This
is done by way of alternating chapters from the killer’s point of view. The book
opens in Fertile, Minnesota, in 1956 where a child hears voices in his head and
eventually kills. That prologue is followed by numerous chapters detailing the
point of view of the killer that strikes again and again. Eventually, the
killer relocates to Bisbee, Arizona, and continues his work, undetected, while
becoming a pillar of the local community in a variety of ways.
The same Bisbee,
Arizona, where in the time of the main storyline, November 2023, Sheriff Joanna
Brady just recently won reelection. Her department is under intense strain due
to the political climate, things at the border, jail over population, being
short staffed, and other factors. Her tenure as the Sheriff for the Cochise County
Sheriff’s Department will continue. As a result, her daughter, Jenny, who is
about to graduate from the Arizona Police Officer Academy, will be accepting a
job to go to work in Pima County. Sheriff Brady not only will be in attendance
at graduation to see Jenny graduate, Sheriff Brady will be giving the main
graduation speech. So, it is a big event for all involved.
A lot of things
have changed since Sheriff Brady graduated decades ago after her first election
in the wake of her first husband’s death, but hazing and sexism is still a huge
problem. While noting that and calling it out, she also notes in her speech the
fact that in the decades since she graduated, the world of law enforcement has
gotten darker and more violent. That the border, drug trafficking human
smuggling, and the cartels are just a few of the reasons that things are more
difficult and dangerous now that they were when she first started out. Now she
not only has to worry about her safety and the safety of those under her command
she also, like any other parent, has to worry about her daughter as she takes
her first real job in law enforcement.
A few days
later, just after Thanksgiving, as the rain pours down on Bisbee and the
surrounding area, Sheriff Brady gets a call that pulls her away from the family
and their delayed Thanksgiving celebration. Floods are happening and her people
are on it and handling everything well. But, a highway worker trying to clear
debris from a local bridge so that the flood waters could move through
unimpeded has found a duffle bag wedged in a debris pile. Inside that bag was
the body of a young child.
The waters of
the San Pedro River originate somewhere in Mexico before crossing the border
and making their way to the bridge near St. David. So, though the body was recovered
here, the young boy probably came from Mexico. She knows Captain Arturo Peña,
head of the Federales unit in Naco, Sonora, really well and has worked with him
many times. That will come in hand as the case is complicated and crosses both
sides of the border.
It is also the
first death in the here and now of the main storyline as the walls begin to
close in on a local serial killer who has killed for decades.
The Girl from
Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance is marketed as the
21st book in this long running series. As such, it does not break
any new ground with these long-established characters. Not that it was expected
as that would be out of form for the series and this author.
As a reader, I
personally find chapters from the point of view of the nutjob killer, in this
case one who has gotten away with it for decades, tedious and completely unnecessary.
In my opinion, it is clichéd writing that almost does nothing expect pad word
and page counts. However, it must work for many readers as authors continue to
write it and publishers release books with it right and left. So, if you like
it, you will be happy here as there is a lot of it.
Overall, despite
the caveats mentioned above, The Girl from Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of
Suspense by J. A. Jance, is a good read and worth your time. If you are
new to the series, you could easily start here as previous events are only
touched on briefly if mentioned at all.
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4lUbG5L
My reading copy
came from the publisher, William Morrow, through NetGalley, and with no expectation
of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Monday, September 29, 2025
Mystery Fanfare: The Marlow Murder Club, Season 3 News!
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Murder at Somerset House by Andrea Penrose
Murder at
Somerset House (Kensington, 30 September 2025) is the ninth book in the
Regency historical mystery series by Andrea Penrose. Set in late March 1815,
England is enjoying a spell of peace now that Napoleon is sequestered on the
island of Elba off the coast of Italy. Charlotte Sloane is hopeful that her
household can focus on family matters for awhile. Her hopes are doomed, as her
husband the Earl of Wrexford is asked to assist in the investigation of the
death of a scientist who was killed outside the headquarters of the Royal
Society in Somerset House a few hours after a presentation that claimed that
electricity and magnetism were related forces. His ideas were met with open
anger and Scotland Yard first assumed the murder was personal.
Wrexford
declines at first and then is pulled into the larger puzzle surrounding the homicide
when England learns that Napoleon has escaped and is marching on Paris,
pitching the nation back into war. Spies report that the French are also
looking into the practical uses of electromagnetism and were believed to have
developed an early form of the telegraph, which would give them advanced
communications capability on the battlefield. Suddenly the death of the
scientist takes on broader potential meaning.
Fact is woven
invisibly into the investigation. During their inquiries Charlotte and Wrexford
meet the young Michael Faraday who established the principles of
electromagnetism. The budding stock market and the financial equations that
explain the impact of stock profits and losses on the overall economy are
explored. The early use of messenger pigeons as a communications device also is
examined.
Like the St.
Cyr series by C. S. Harris, these books are as much history as they are
mystery. The Regency was a fascinating time, socially, politically, and
scientifically. Fans of historical mysteries will want to look at this latest
adventure.
·
Publisher: Kensington
·
Publication date: September 30, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10: 149673999X
·
ISBN-13: 978-1496739995
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4nRVi5G
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
SleuthSayers: Living the HI Life
Saturday, September 27, 2025
KRL Update 9/27/2025
Up on KRL this week reviews and giveaways of 2 Halloween Cozy Mysteries-"Halloween Night Murder" by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Liz Ireland and "Mrs. Morris and the Day of the Dead" by Traci Wilton https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/two-halloween-cozy-mysteries-to-start-off-the-spooky-season/
And a review and giveaway of the first in a brand new series by Penny Warner, "Murder at Blackwood Inn." We also have a fun Halloween related guest post from Penny https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/murder-at-blackwood-inn-by-penny-warner/
And a review and giveaway of "The Dead Husband Cookbook" by Danielle Valentine https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/the-dead-husband-cookbook-by-danielle-valentine/
We also have the latest Queer Mystery Coming Attractions from Matt Lubbers-Moore https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/queer-mystery-coming-attractions-october-2025/
Up during the week we posted our first Halloween post of the season! This one from paranormal romance author Ann Rose where she talks about why Halloween is the best holiday, and you can learn about her new book ,"A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love", which is perfect for your Halloween reading! https://kingsriverlife.com/09/24/why-halloween-is-the-best-holiday-the-top-ten-reasons/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review of "Fatal Sign-Off" by Sarah E. Burr, along with a $10 gift card giveaway https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/fatal-sign-off-by-sarah-e-burr.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Death Whisk" by Catherine Bruns https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/death-whisk-by-catherine-bruns.html
And a review of "Puppy Peril" by Hazel Smith https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/puppy-peril-by-hazel-smith.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 75 Calls for Submissions in October 2025 - Paying Markets
Beneath the Stains of Time: Black Lake Manor (2022) by Guy Morpuss
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
Scott's Take: Justice League Unlimited Vol. 1: Into the Inferno by Mark Waid, Jep Loeb, and Dan Mora (Illustrator)
Justice League Unlimited Vol. 1: Into the Inferno by
Mark Waid, Jep Loeb, and Dan Mora (Illustrator), and other artists, is the new
Justice League title set after Absolute
Power. I read this through partly through Hoopla and partly through
the DC Infinite app. There has not been a new Justice League title in several
years.
This new league has formed by including every hero
in the DC Universe. There are a few prequels and spin offs not included in this
main collection. Since Waller’s takeover new metas are appearing on Earth. Before
this volume, Waller had robots that could steal superpowers from people. When
the robots were destroyed, the stolen superpowers either went back to the original
people or went to random new people across the planet. There is also a massive
power vacuum in the universe after Darkseid’s suicide/ascension to become a
separate universe.
In the here and now of this volume, it is all heroes
on deck to stop the chaos that has been unleashed. Additionally, there is a
terrorist organization calling itself Inferno is attacking the planet while the
league has a traitor in their midst.
This is an action-packed epic with incredible art.
It is a who’s who of heroes as there are more than twenty heroes used in this
book. The key players are Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, and
Mister Terrific. The cover has Captain Atom, Star Sapphire, and Black Lightning
as main characters, but they have limited use in this first volume and are more
important to other titles connected to this title. There are so many heroes
that I think new readers might be a little confused. There is a lot of
backstory and tie ins explained in this read.
The Inferno villains were interesting, but the
reveal of their real identities was ruined by how this trade is collected.
There is a variant cover before issue 5 which unveils all the identities before
you find out in the story. In short, this is a global crisis story. I really
enjoyed it. This is basically a big budget action movie in comic book form.
The adventure will continue in Volume 2 which does
not have a title yet as it collects multiple issues and specials. There is also
a crossover collection with World’s Finest coming out in November titled We Are Yesterday. Both books will
include time travel elements as time has become broken because of the events
over the last few years.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/45Z4Nss
I read part of this through the Hoopla App by way of
the Dallas Public Library System and part through the DC Infinite app.
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
Friday, September 26, 2025
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Pesticide: Kim Hays
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Murderous Schemes
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: BLACK CREEK CROSSING
FFB Review: Within Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery by Bruce Robert Coffin
Portland, Maine has gone from the
season of ice and snow in the last novel, Beyond
the Truth, to the season of heat and great humidity in Within
Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery. It is middle of July in 2017 as
the read by Bruce Robert Coffin begins and it is just after 5 in the morning
when Police Detective Sergeant John Byron arrives on scene. As the lead
homicide detective, it will be up to him and his team to identify the murder
victim, identify the killer, and arrest the person or persons who did it.
Clearly she met with foul play and clearly that event happened some unspecified
time earlier at another location. A quick overview of the scene indicates to
Detective Sergeant Byron they have little to go on as forensics are going to
have to provide some avenues of inquiry.
It would really help the case if
they also had her head.
Unfortunately, they only have her body that was dumped in the weeds of a long since derelict lumberyard. Specifically, the weeds and dirt inside an open-air drying shed, one of several such sheds and other decaying structures, on the long since abandoned property. Though it is not completely abandoned as a roving security guard found the body inside the fenced lot and called it in to the 911 system. Whether it is the work of a serial killer known as the “Horseman” who has been active over in the Boston area, a copycat of some type, or something entirely else is going to take time to determine. Time they don’t have once the media gets wind of the case and events begin to escalate in dangerous ways.
The fourth book in the series
that started with Among
the Shadows continues to build on that initial police procedural.
While these are billed as mysteries, they only are in the sense that the
criminal or criminals are not known to the reader or the team. These books are
police procedurals and each one builds on the preceding read. Characters
develop and change, even die, in this series as things are not at all static.
Politics and the personal lives of a number of characters are interspersed with
the complex cases, flashes of humor, and plenty of action. Each read is an
intense one that delves deep into police work and the complexities and personal
consequences of doing the job. Such is the case again here in Within
Plain Sight: A Detective Byron Mystery. This book and the entire series
are strongly recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3VUsjCB
My reading copy was a print
edition from the author with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 51 Writing Contests in October 2025 - No entry fees
Sweet Freedom: UNo MAS magazine: Number 3 (1991) and some other issues; short stories by Zachary A. Barocas and Dan Vergano: Short Story Wednesday
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
In Reference to Murder: Author R&R with Dan Buzzetta
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
Little Big Crimes: Wax On, Wax Off, by Nina Mansfield
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Beneath the Stains of Time: Reckoning at the Riviera Royale (2022) by P.J. Fitzsimmons
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 40 Outstanding Writing Conferences and Workshops in October 2025
Jerry's House of Everything: OVERLOOKED FILM: THNK FAST, MR. MOTO (1937)
Monday, September 22, 2025
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: 6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk
Eva Jurczyk is a librarian
performing collection development for University of Toronto Libraries by day
and an author by night. She’s published two novels, the third is forthcoming
this fall.
6:40 to Montreal (Poisoned Pen Press, 2025) is
clearly a nod to Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, including the
main character’s name. Agatha lives in Toronto, she is married to Teddy, a
restaurant manager, and they have a son named Freddie. Agatha is an aspiring
writer with multiple rejection slips to show for it. A couple of years ago,
strictly as a lark, she wrote a fluffy murder mystery about a yoga instructor
and would-be media influencer modeled on a young woman who had worked in her
husband’s restaurants for several years. The book became a runaway hit, to
Agatha’s surprise. The yoga instructor, whom Agatha thought would not see the
book, recognized herself in the story and boiled over with rage, threatening Agatha
with violence.
In addition to her unexpected
status of bestselling author, Agatha was also diagnosed with advanced stage melanoma.
She’s undergone surgery and is taking medication to reduce the likelihood of a
recurrence. She is overwhelmed with grief at the thought of not living to see
her son grow up and she’s been unable to do much of anything, include write another
bestseller.
To cheer her up and give her
time to write, Teddy gives her a round-trip train ticket to Montreal. Agatha
arrives at the station early despite the building snowstorm, takes her seat,
and soon after an older man demands that she give him her place. The car is
nearly empty and she moves across the aisle.
The snowstorm turns into a
furious blizzard; the train slows and eventually stops. About that time they
notice the older man who took Agatha’s seat is dead. Murdered, the group
realizes.
The loss of power caused the wifi
connection to vanish, the doors to lock, and the internal telephone to close
down. Agatha has plenty of time to wonder if she is supposed to be dead instead
of the man who took her place.
Another death, a passenger in
diabetic coma, a missing attendant, and a small group of passengers who grow
increasingly frantic. There’s a twist at the end that could be interpreted in
more than one way.
Reviews on GoodReads are
mixed. Some readers loved it, some disliked it, a few didn’t know what to think
about it. I find myself in the latter camp, mostly because of a gap or two in
the plot, the ambiguous final surprise, and Agatha’s reaction to it.
·
Publisher:
Poisoned Pen Press
·
Publication
date: October 28, 2025
·
Language:
English
·
Print
length: 352 pages
·
ISBN-10:
1464244464
·
ISBN-13:
978-1464244469
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4gznnMP
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, September 21, 2025
Guest Post: But Why? Give Me a Motive by M.E. Proctor
Earlier
this month M. E. Proctor’s latest novel, Catch Me on a Blue Day: A Declan
Shaw Mystery, was published by Shotgun Honey Books. Available on Amazon and other platforms, this is the
second book in the series that began last year with Love
You Till Tuesday. Please welcome back M. E. Proctor as she discusses motive
and characters in her latest guest post.
But Why? Give Me a Motive
By M.E. Proctor
One reason often cited for the lasting
popularity, almost two centuries, of detective stories is that they satisfy
people’s sense of order. In modern fiction this doesn’t always mean justice or
retribution; people who do wrong sometimes get a pass or don’t pay the full
load for their transgressions. Our grandparents might have scoffed at the idea
of a free ride, and upholders of the Hays Code would have wagged their
collective disapproving finger, but current readers and viewers are more
forgiving. We have generations of anti-heroes in our background.
Still, the notion of order remains, in a
slightly amended version. Detective stories convey the message that the world
can be understood, that mysteries, if human-made, can be decrypted and
resolved. That we have a degree of control. It is reassuring because real life
doesn’t provide much of that.
Take any high-profile case splashed over your
screens.
The first question, ‘who did it’, will be answered, most of the times. How they
did it, gets handled too. But the why, the what made them do it … is where it
gets blurry. The great basic drivers of crime fiction, greed and jealousy,
rarely make headlines, unless the money is really big or the victim/suspect
famous. People with trigger tempers who lose it in a fit of rage don’t get a
lot of media airplay either. It’s the other stuff that keeps audiences
enraptured. The hard to explain cases. Because we want to understand, it’s in
our nature.
We want to know what makes a person click and what caused them to go off the
rails. Why they took the fateful step, why they behaved in a way that’s hard to
comprehend. Probably we wonder about ourselves. We want cause and motive. Satisfying
answers are hard to find despite all the pundits chiming in and the 24-hour
news cycle. They’re mentally ill. Voices told them to do it … Over time,
comic books have been blamed, violent movies, video games, online porn, TikTok,
AI. The quest for cause and motive continues. And conspiracy theories,
inevitably. When you can’t get the answers you like, you manufacture your own.
What every tin foil hat wearer wants is to understand. And some version of the
truth, forever out of reach.
Not unlike fictional detectives and their
readers. How would you rate your favorite sleuth if he/she left you hanging at
the end of the book, with a shrug and quipped: ‘Oh, there’s nothing to it, they’re
just nuts.’ Wouldn’t you think that character is a dweeb? Pull their license and
send them back to PI school, or their rose garden if they’re an amateur in a
cozy.
In a recent story published in the Celluloid
Crimes anthology, Garbo’s Ghost,
I let my character, homicide detective Tom Keegan, react like a real-life
harried and tired cop. He’s seen too many gruesome crime scenes. He just wants
to go home:
Freddy
couldn’t understand why Tom was leaving so soon.
“You don’t want to know who they are and why they did it? Why they took the
shoes and where they hid them? They’ll talk, Tom. It’s the only way they can
hope to avoid the gas.”
“Killers never have anything interesting to say, Freddy. I plan to get so drunk
that by tomorrow I won’t be able to remember their names.”
I don’t feel bad doing this in a short story. Endings
that don’t tick all the boxes are allowed. In a book, after 300 pages, and
readers invested in the characters and the plot, some kind of explanation is
required, otherwise it smells like cheating.
Book 2 of the Declan Shaw PI series, Catch Me
on a Blue Day, is the hunt for a killer, across time and borders. At the
root, there’s a thirty-year-old cold case and a connection to the Salvadoran
civil war. Both events have dramatic repercussions in the present. The story
starts with the suspicious suicide of a veteran frontline reporter. He was
writing a book on Central America that promised to be explosive. Declan Shaw
who was hired to help with research for the book uses fragments of the
manuscript, notes, and conversations to build the case and zero in on the
murderer.
Protagonist, antagonist, supporting roles … I
believe that to make characters real, the writer needs to feel some empathy for
them, however reluctant, and an understanding of their predicament. Their underlying
motive. In Catch Me on a Blue Day, the villain is a homicidal maniac
with few redeeming qualities. But he is not irrational and should not be shrugged
off as a lunatic on a killing spree. The horrible cold case murder was an act
of rage and revenge by a proud man being repeatedly rejected and humiliated. It
is the reason for the crime, as the killer sees it and justifies it to himself.
The violence that follows is his reaction to the fear of being found and
caught. Monsters never picture themselves as such.
There is logic in the madness, and because the
murderer is coherent, in his twisted version of the world, the detective can follow
in his footsteps and unravel the mystery.
Find the motive, crack the case. It’s what we all wish for.
Publisher: Shotgun
Honey Books
September 2025, ISBN 978-1-956957-87-7
Paperback: 294 pages
eBook
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ndYjxv
M. E. Proctor ©2025
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of
the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch
Me on a Blue Day (Shotgun Honey Books).
She’s the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Short fiction in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among
others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer short story nominee.
Author Website: www.shawmystery.com.
On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com.
Saturday, September 20, 2025
Jerry's House of Everything: SHOWCASE #30 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1961)
Mystery Fanfare: MYSTERIES SET DURING THE DAYS OF AWE: Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur
KRL Update 9/20/2025
Up on KRL this week we have a review and giveaway of "Homecoming Homicide" by Kelly Brakenhoff, along with a fun guest post from Kelly about the pet in her book (or you can choose the first book in the series) https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/homecoming-homicide-by-kelly-brakenhoff/
And a review and giveaway of "Picking Up the Pieces" by J.B. Abbott, along with an interesting interview with the two authors who make up J.B. Abbott https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/picking-up-the-pieces-by-j-b-abbott/
And a review and giveaway of "Crime Ink: Iconic" an Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/crime-ink-iconic-an-anthology-of-crime-fiction-inspired-by-queer-icons/
We also have a fun mystery short story with a sci-fi twist written by Guy Belleranti https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/mystery-sci-fi-short-story-killing-time/
For those who prefer to listen to Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast directly on KRL, here is the player for the latest episode which features the first chapter of "Murder at the Royal Albert" by Gerald Elias, read by local actor Ariel Linn https://kingsriverlife.com/09/20/new-mysteryrats-maze-podcast-featuring-murder-at-the-royal-albert/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "Mystique and Murder in Morocco" by Victoria Tait https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/mystique-and-murder-in-morocco-by.html
And a review and giveaway of "Midnight Burning" by Paul Levine https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/midnight-burning-by-paul-levine.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Crime Writer" by Vinnie Hansen https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/crime-writer-by-vinnie-hansen.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
SleuthSayers: A Letter to the Editors
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
Sweet Freedom: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: links to the reviews and more: 19 September 2025
Scott's Take: The Avengers in the Veracity Trap by Chip Kidd and Michal Cho (Artist)
The Avengers in the Veracity Trap
by Chip Kidd and Michal Cho (Artist) is a 4th wall breaking adventure featuring
the original Avengers crossing over into the real world because of a trick by
Loki. This is a colorful short adventure that is pretty original. How do the
Avengers handle the fact that they are just comic book characters without any
real agency?
So you have Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and others trying
to figure out how to stop Loki while navigating an extensional crisis. This is
a fun, but way too short, read. The art is colorful and pretty. Hopefully, this
is a going to get a sequel with a longer length than can do more to explore the
premise.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4g1uw8b
I read this through the Hoopla app by way of the
Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
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