Lesa's Book Critiques: The Tale of the Wicked by John Scalzi
Friday, December 05, 2025
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: You Only Live Nine Times by Gwen Cooper
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: You Only Live Nine Times by Gwen Cooper: Reviewed by Jeanne Rachel Baum came to Coacoochee, Florida to start over. She landed a great job in a bookstore, and is enjoying not o...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Troublemaker
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Troublemaker: American author Joseph Hansen (1923-2004) was born in South Dakota, the son of a shoe shop owner who lost the business during the Depressi...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: TOFFEE TURNS THE TRICK
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: TOFFEE TURNS THE TRICK: Toffee Turns the Trick by Charles F. Myers (first published in Fantastic Adventures , February 1949; issued as a chapbook, date uncertain; ...
Barry Ergang's FFB Review: UNFAITHFUL SERVANT (2004) by Timothy Harris
From the archive….
I might as well say this right at the beginning: Unfaithful Servant is one of the best hardboiled detective novels I’ve read in a long time.
I discovered Timothy Harris’s work in the early 1980s when I stumbled upon a paperback edition of Good Night and Good-Bye. Cover copy hyped it as being “in the tradition of The Long Goodbye,” which automatically demanded that I read it because The Long Goodbye is my favorite novel. Read it I did, and found some similarities to Raymond Chandler’s masterwork, but was also pleased to see that, unlike too many other authors who tried unconvincingly to imitate Chandler, Harris chose to write in his own style, which is colorful and entertaining. As a result of loving the book, which I later acquired in hardback, I bought a copy of Kyd for Hire, Harris’s first novel about Southern California private investigator Thomas Kyd, which I recall thinking reminded in me ways of The Big Sleep, and which I also quite enjoyed.
Then I waited over thirty years for
another Thomas Kyd novel. Fortunately, Unfaithful Servant—which
description can refer to Kyd as well as to others in the story—was eminently
worth the wait.
When Kyd is approached by
fourteen-year-old Hugo Vine, who offers him a fifteen-thousand-dollar Rolex to
watch his parents, his refusal sets the boy raging insults and obscenities at
him. A few months later he encounters Hugo yet again. Their conversation is
brief because Kyd is on a case and hasn’t time for a lengthy chat.
Hugo is the son of Hollywood actress Sally Vine and her late producer husband Daniel Vine, as Kyd learns when he’s contacted by Sally’s lawyer and summoned to the Vine home, threatened with the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In attendance at the meeting are the lawyer, Hugo’s therapist, a deputy city attorney, and a Robbery-Homicide detective with an attitude. It isn’t until the meeting ends that Kyd meets Raj LaSalle, Sally’s current husband, and Sally herself. The actress transparently manipulates the reluctant Kyd into accepting the job of keeping an eye on Hugo, who may or may not be using or dealing drugs, to learn what he’s up to and to prevent him from getting into trouble.
Doing so results in a stormy
relationship with a determined, possibly disturbed, and ultimately endangered
Hugo because it isn’t long before Kyd learns that the boy is certain his
father’s death was not a skiing accident but a deliberate murder, and that he,
Hugo, is not only sure he knows who the killer is, but also knows someone who
claims to have witnessed the crime. As Kyd probes further, additional deaths
occur, at least one of which he’s accused of, and he has to contend with cops
who are honest but suspicious as well as others who are corrupt and
brutal; sycophants with delusions of cinematic grandeur and their monied idols;
tabloid “journalists;” a lawyer friend whose eye is always on the big,
constantly-remunerative score; and those who would harm a savvy but justifiably
depressed fourteen-year-old kid.
A successful screenwriter, Timothy
Harris knows his turf, vividly evoking the Hollywood film community and the
southern California landscape, external and internal. Building
steadily to an intense finish, this is an excellently-paced novel in which the
characters, major and minor alike, are three-dimensionally configured and
examined insightfully. Not the least of these is Kyd himself. Unlike the heroes
of most private eye series, about whom we’re told mostly superficial things and
shown only their quotidian routines, Kyd reveals significant moments about his
past, including boyhood and familial circumstances and events that shaped the
man he has become, that were the geneses of some of the demons he must contend
with now.
Unfaithful Servant was originally released in a
hardcover edition from Five Star Publishing, which sells mainly to libraries.
From what I’ve seen at Internet sites, booksellers are asking high prices for
it both in hardcover and advanced reading copy paperback editions. As far as
I’m aware, it has never been released in a trade or mass market paperback
edition. I read it in reasonably-priced Kindle edition from Endeavour Press,
which came out in 2014, but have not been able to find it in other electronic
formats.
As has become all too typical in both
physical and electronic books nowadays, this one has a few typos and some
incorrect punctuation. Fortunately they’re relatively few, and most readers
will find them ignorable. Two errors that stood out for me were venal,
in discussing sin, when venial was the intended word;
and Invisible Man model when the old Visible Man plastic
model is what Harris meant. The other errors are not likely to disrupt a
reader’s flow.
Unfaithful Servant is a must-read for fans of
hardboiled private eye novels—provided they aren’t squeamish about
street language and graphic violence. Although Harris doesn’t inundate the
reader with raunchy verbiage, he doesn’t shy away from it when it serves to
delineate someone’s manner of expressing himself and his feelings. Some of the
violence is very explicit, especially that in a climactic moment in which a
character gets his comeuppance. I found it satisfying; others may find it
gross.
Timothy Harris, in my estimation, is a top-tier writer who merits the same kind of accolades and esteem accorded to masters of the genre Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Lawrence Block, among others. I highly recommend the title under consideration here and its two predecessors, which I should reread one of these days. The big question is whether there will be another Thomas Kyd novel—and when. I hope the answers are Yes and Soon because I probably don’t have another thirty years ahead of me.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/44aEnE7
Barry Ergang ©2015, 2019, 2025
Derringer
Award-winner Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications,
print and electronic. Some of it is available at Amazon and at Smashwords. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/ and he can be reached there for your editorial needs.
Thursday, December 04, 2025
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange: The Goodreads Choice Awards winners were announced today, including those in the Mystery and Thriller category. The top vote-getter for 2025...
Mystery Fanfare: CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES: AUTHORS A-E
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Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Listen for the Lie, Abraham’s Curse, The Crooked Cross
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Listen for the Lie, Abraham’s Curse, T...: Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera won rave reviews from one of our club members, who listened to the audio version while on a trip....
Wednesday, December 03, 2025
SleuthSayers: Dear Abi, or the Ultimate Unreliable Narrator by Robert Lopresti
SleuthSayers: Dear Abi, or the Ultimate Unreliable Narrator: "As for myself, I belong to that delicious subgenre, the self-confessed unreliable narrator." - Matt Coward Back in 2021 I wrot...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Tragedy at the Unicorn (1928) by John Rhode
Beneath the Stains of Time: Tragedy at the Unicorn (1928) by John Rhode: Tragedy at the Unicorn (1928) is only the fifth novel, of more than seventy, in the Dr. Lancelot Priestley series by " John Rhode ,...
Little Big Crimes: Night Passage, by Peter W.J. Hayes
Little Big Crimes: Night Passage, by Peter W.J. Hayes: "Night Passage," by Peter W.J. Hayes, in Celluloid Crimes, edited by Deborah Well, Level Short, 2025 I have a story in this boo...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Two Christmas Stories by Lorrie Moore
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Two Christmas Stories by Lo...: In May 2024, I read several stories in Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. The first few stories were confusing to me, and it took me a whi...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MAGIC OF THE CANNIBAL
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MAGIC OF THE CANNIBAL: Achmed Abdullah (1881-1945) was a popular novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter in the early and mid-twentieth century. Today, he ...
Short Story Wednesday Review: You Can Call Me Lucky (Kit Tolliver #3) by Lawrence Block
She saw him at the craps table. Western
clothing in style, but it was the fancy haircut that drew her attention. It
stood out and commanded attention from anywhere in the room. Clearly the man is
a long way from home as he works the craps table in the casino in Michigan.
He’s noticed her as well in You Can Call Me Lucky by Lawrence
Block.
There is a game at work here between
these two that has nothing to do with craps or casino action. Much more can’t
be said without ruining the story. It is a complicated tale and quite the
read from setup to finish. Billed as the third read in the Kit Tolliver
stories, You Can Call Me Lucky, has a lot going on in these fourteen
pages and is well worth it.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3XZEOgV
According to Amazon, I picked this up
back at the end of January 2016. I still have no idea if I got it as a free
read offered by the author or by way of funds in my Amazon Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2016, 2025
Tuesday, December 02, 2025
SleuthSayers: Mining the Files
SleuthSayers: Mining the Files: Some of the many publications containing my stories, including those that were mined from the files. If you’ve been writing for any length ...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: New Books in December!
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Publication Day Review: EDGE: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller
EDGE: A Detective Harriet Foster
Thriller
is the latest read in an excellent police procedural series that began in
January 2023 with HIDE.
This series by Tracy Clark is one that builds off of the previous books as characters evolve
over time. This is not a static series as characters are affected by cases as
well as personal life events. As a result, it is strongly recommended to have read
the previous books in order before embarking on this complex and very enjoyable
read.
It is spring in Chicago and the season
of renewal and yet the rain and the cold make it clear otherwise for Detective
Harriet Foster. Known to all as “Harri,
she is on a path at the lakefront thinking about the past, her dead, and scores
that have not been settled. The justice she has sought these many months over
past events has not happened nor has her ability to deal with those traumas
really improved. Her mind is full of turmoil as she walks, putting one foot
forward, as she does every day at work, the best she can.
That is until she sees the prone figures
in some sort of concrete bowl in the local skate park. The weather has been
horrible so partying is not happening. They aren’t moving either and don’t seem
to hear her or to be able to respond from where they are behind the locked
chain link fence. A fence that somebody from the city should have unlocked hours
earlier.
Detective Harriet Foster has no choice.
She has to get over the fence and check on the people lying motionless. It
takes some time to get over that fence and get to them. It is pretty clear that
they had been drinking. It is also clear that they each took something and
things went very bad. The young man is dead. The young woman snuggled against
him is alive, barely, and Detective Foster summons help. She does everything
she can to keep her amongst the living during an agonizing long wait for
assistance.
The young woman who almost died from the
drugs as well as hypothermia thanks to the rain, wind, and the cold, is Ella
Louise Byrne. A sophomore at the University of Chicago, she also has a business
card for Detective Matt Kelley. The same Detective Matt Kelley who is on her
team.
The same Detective Matt Kelly who is engaged
at what happened to his niece. He is willing to burn down his career and the
city itself to find those responsible. That means it is up to Detective Harriet
Foster and the rest of the team to not only find and arrest those responsible,
but to make sure a good cop doesn’t go totally rogue and do something stupid that
will ruin his career and maybe his life.
Seeking justice has long been a theme throughout this series. It is front and center here in EDGE: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller by Tracy Clark. If you have not read these excellent police procedurals, you are really missing out.
Strongly recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/418cDyw
My reading copy from the publisher, Thomas
& Mercer, though NetGalley, months ago with no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Monday, December 01, 2025
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday: It's the start of a new week and that means it's time for a brand-new roundup of crime drama news: THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES Benedict Cu...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Italian Secret: A Novel by Tara Moss
Tara Moss is a
Canadian-Australian author, documentary producer, journalist, and UNICEF
national ambassador for child survival. Her Billie Walker character is another
post-war woman similar to Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge of the Allison
Montclair books, looking for her place in a world turned upside down.
The Italian Secret (Dutton, 2025) is her third
book about Australia-based Billie, whose journalist career has ended because
the newspapers want to hire returning soldiers. Billie reopened her late
father's private investigation agency in Sydney and business is booming. A new
operative who can easily mingle among the servants in upper class households has
joined her staff. Sam, her trusted secretary and security guard, is still Billie’s
mainstay as she gives the women of Sydney seeking desperately to leave abusive
marriages the ammunition they need for a legal exit.
Billie is wrapping up another
domestic case as the book opens. The violent and philandering husband in the
case appears in Billie’s office to threaten her. Billie chases him off, knowing
with the photographic evidence of his infidelity in hand, her client can easily
obtain a dissolution of the marriage. Billie’s only worry is that an unsavory
private investigator with ties to the Camorra seems to be on the husband’s
payroll.
With a lull in the demands on
the agency Billie settles down to sort her father’s old case files. In the
bottom of one cabinet, near the back, she finds a bundle of faded letters to
her father from someone named Francesca in Italy, an aging photograph of her
father with a beautiful woman and a child, and a box with 500 pounds in old
notes. (Equal now to $37,692.63 Australian dollars and $24,686.79 U.S. dollars.)
While she is mulling over her
discovery and trying to broach the subject with her mother, her recent client
dies suddenly, ostensibly of a quick-acting influenza virus but Billie fears
poison of some kind. She urges Lieutenant Hank Cooper of the Sydney police to
have an autopsy conducted, especially since her husband was the beneficiary of
a large insurance policy.
Billie’s search for Francesca
takes her to Naples, well off her usual beat, but complications from the
recently ended domestic case follow her. The life aboard the luxury ocean liner
was well researched and described without devolving into a data dump, as was
the Naples setting, with its bombed-out buildings, the different neighborhoods,
and the wide range of stores and bazaars.
A good historical mystery with
an original protagonist and interesting secondary characters. Fans of Kerry
Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher will want to look at this series.
·
Publisher:
Dutton
·
Publication
date: December 2, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print
length: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10:
0593474759
·
ISBN-13:
978-0593474754
Amazon Associate Purchase
Link: https://amzn.to/4p7t3Rz
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.