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
Mystery Fanfare: CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES: AUTHORS A-E: Crime for the Holidays. Christmas time is a major time for murder! Every year I post a list of mysteries set during the Christmas holiday...
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!
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: New Books in December!: Armitage, Rebecca The Heir Apparent Arnaldur, Indridason The Quiet Mother (Det. Konrad) Atkins, Ace Everybody Wants to Rule the...
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.
Sunday, November 30, 2025
Review: The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes: A Samuel Craddock Mystery by Terry Shames
This comes out Tuesday...
It is always a great pleasure when
another book in the long running Samuel Craddock Mystery series by
Terry Shames comes out. The latest, The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes,
is another solidly good one.
As the book begins, it is the fall of Craddock’s
discontent. He thought he was in love and they had a future together. But, Wendy
Gleason is gone as she has reconnected with her high school love who has come
back into her life. It has been a bit of a whirlwind these last few weeks for
them and they are about to be married. A break up is hard enough, but with
Jarret Creek so small, everybody for miles around knows every excruciating
detail.
Loretta has stopped by this morning, as
she almost always does, with some food and news. This time the news is a bit
strange as one of two twin sisters thinks the other is trying to kill her. Lily
and Jewel, part of the Barnes family, have lived together their entire lives. They
live a couple of blocks over from the family home. Much of their lives, they
have bickered, but nothing too serious and nothing ever got out of hand to the
point that anyone else, in the family or outside, had to really intervene.
That may have changed in the here and
now of mid-November. Loretta says she has heard from Hannah, another sister,
there is some sort of serious feud going on. Lily is sure her twin sister is trying
to poison her and, to hear Loretta tell it, the fear that Lily has is very
real.
Chief Samuel Craddock does not think
much of it as everybody in that family has a temper and there is always some
sort of petty disagreement going on. Some families are just like that. Not only
that, but the twins are in their mid-forties so Craddock believes they should
both have some sense. Beyond that, why would one try to kill the other one now?
Loretta does not know, but she is
clearly concerned as is Hannah who told her some of the details. So, he agrees
to see each of the twins and check in, but that takes awhile as various other
problems take precedence. That includes the possibility of an illegal dumpsite
just outside the limits of his jurisdiction. A site that, it soon becomes clear,
nobody wants to talk about or have it investigated.
Soon, Jewel is dead from an apparent
poisoning. Lily is the main suspect. She is also devastated by the death of her
twin sister. That death also has rocked Hannah and the entire family. A death
that has to be investigated by Craddock and others as either it was an accident
or deliberate.
If that wasn’t enough, Wendy’s kids who
have always thought the world of Craddock are concerned about the return of the
old flame and his criminal history. It doesn’t take long for Craddock to
realize they have reason to be concerned though he has no idea what to do about
it. Where is the line between being a lawman and a concerned ex-boyfriend?
As always in this series, much is going
on via many fronts, and Samuel Craddock does his best. The Curious Poisoning
of Jewel Barnes: A Samuel Craddock Mystery brings back numerous
characters that are old friends/ The latest installment of a great series that
began with A Killing at Cotton Hill is another solidly good read.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3JmQlU1
My digital ARC came by way of Severn
House, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Saturday, November 29, 2025
Beneath the Stains of Time: Dance of Death (1938) by Helen McCloy
Beneath the Stains of Time: Dance of Death (1938) by Helen McCloy: I previously reviewed Tage la Cour festive short story, " The Murder of Santa Claus " (1952), before that Benjamin Stevenson's...
SleuthSayers: The Long Road to River Road
SleuthSayers: The Long Road to River Road: I probably shouldn't admit this, but I've never been good at setting goals, in either my life or my work. I've always just tried...
Scott's Take: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt
Dinniman is the first book in a multi book series. There is also a graphic
novel version that you can read each chapter weekly through Webtoon for free as
it is released. Those issues will be version which will be collected into a
finished volume later. I first read some of the graphic novel that is out and
decided to read the book version. The graphic novel version cuts out some of
the adult content and seems to be more teen friendly than the book.
In this series, Carl is an ex-Coast
Guard member who has recently broken up with his cheating girlfriend. He is
alone with her prize-winning show cat, Princess Donut. It is a snowy night and
Princes Donut has decided to escape their dwelling. This means Carl has to,
without pants or shoes, chase after the cat before it freezes to death. Since
they are both outside, they are some of the few survivors of a massive alien
attack that causes all buildings everywhere to suddenly collapse killing anyone
who is inside a building at the time.
Those who were outside and survived are
then rounded up by the aliens who have plans for them. They will now be forced
to fight for their lives in a televised game show that will be watched by other
space aliens elsewhere. The aliens have designed this gameshow based on video
game logic, so Princess Donut and Carl must face goblins in level 1 if they
wish to survive. This is just the beginning of their journey as a man and a cat
must face the apocalypse together.
This book has plenty of adult content.
There is drinking, smoking, peeing, violence, and even an AI generated sex tape
comes to pass. This is a violent humor
filled adventure. There will be death and a talking cat. Princess Donut is
leveled up by the aliens to be a true partner for Carl. So now the cat can talk
and cast magic spells.
I read the large print version of this from
my local library which included a bonus short story from the perspective of one
of the goblins. There are seven books in the series out now. Book eight, A
Parade of Horribles, comes out in 2026.
The second book in the series is called Carl’s
Doomsday Scenario as a man and his cat continue their quest to survive
the game. Carl still has no pants and no shoes. There is an important reason
why this is, but I am not going to ruin it for you.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/448BhQX
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
Friday, November 28, 2025
Mystery Fanfare: Black Friday: Death in Department Stores By Aubrey Nye Hamilton
Mystery Fanfare: Black Friday: Death in Department Stores By Aubrey...: Department Stores: perfect for murder, and Aubrey Nye Hamilton's Death in Department Stores is the perfect article to post for Black Fr...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Night the Gods Smiled
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Night the Gods Sm...: Eric Wright was born in London, England in 1929 to a poor working-class family, an experience he later detailed in his memoir, Always Give a...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: NOBODY TRUE
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: NOBODY TRUE: Nobody True by James Herbert (2003) James Herbert (1943-2013) was a bestselling British horror writer whose books sold more than 54 mill...
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange - Thanksgiving Edition: Thriller author James Patterson and Bookshop.org are launching a literary award called the James Patterson and Bookshop.org Prize. The firs...
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Jerry's House of Everything: CASEY, CRIME PHOTOGRAPHER: HOLIDAY (NOVEMBER 25, 1948)
Jerry's House of Everything: CASEY, CRIME PHOTOGRAPHER: HOLIDAY (NOVEMBER 25,...: Casey, Crime Photographer was a CBS radio mystery program that ran from July 7, 1943 until November 6, 1950, and was then revived for sixte...
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 69 Calls for Submissions in December 2025 - Paying Markets
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 69 Calls for Submissions in December 2025 - Paying...: This December there are more than five dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As alw...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Cracking Nuts: "The Murder of Santa Claus" (1952) by Tage la Cour
Beneath the Stains of Time: Cracking Nuts: "The Murder of Santa Claus" (1952) ...: Tage la Cour's "Mordet pa julemanden" ("The Murder of Santa Claus," 1952), a parody-pastiche, originally appeared in...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: TWO GENTLEMEN AT FORTY
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: TWO GENTLEMEN AT FORTY: "Two Gentlemen at Forty" by August W. Derleth (from 10 Story Book , July 1931; never reprinted) I'm a big fan of August Derl...
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Little Big Crimes: Poison is the Wind That Blows, by C.W. Blackwell
Little Big Crimes: Poison is the Wind That Blows, by C.W. Blackwell: "Poison is the Wind That Blows," by C.W. Blackwell, in On Fire and Under Water, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place...
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 43 Writing Contests in December 2025 - No entry fees
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 43 Writing Contests in December 2025 - No entry fees: This December there are more than three dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes ra...
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 Daisy Ridle...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Artifact by Gigi Pandian
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Artifact by Gigi Pandian: Reviewed by Jeanne Professor Jaya Jones has found her niche as a tenure-track history professor in California, but her life is about t...
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 6 Distinctive Writing Conferences in December 2025
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 6 Distinctive Writing Conferences in December 2025: Because of the holidays, writing conferences are sparse in December. That doesn't mean there are none worth attending. The Write to Pitc...
Monday, November 24, 2025
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Closing Time: A Michael Gannon Thriller by Michael Ledwidge
Michael
Ledwidge is a New York author who wrote 14 books with James Patterson, most of
them about New York City detective Michael Bennett. Beginning in 2020, he has
written a thriller series about Michael Gannon, a former Navy SEAL, who
inadvertently attracts the attention of formidable international groups who
prefer to wield their power from the shadows.
The fifth
book Closing Time (Hanover Square, 2025) will be released in early
December, just in time for holiday gift giving. It starts off innocuously, as
so many thrillers do. Gannon is in Key West, recuperating from his last
adventure and watching his son pitch in minor league baseball games. He’s
connected with a new love Colleen and they seem to be settling into a long-term
arrangement. All in all, everything is good. Then Colleen gets a call about her
father in New York, sudden illness, she has to go. Gannon accompanies her to
the airport and then misses the ferry back to his place. He decides to look up
an old buddy who is running a bar in the area and meets John Hayden, an amiable
but worried-looking Australian who offers personal security work to Gannon.
Gannon is
focused on his son’s burgeoning professional baseball career and turns the job
down but the two share a couple of beers. After they leave the bar, Hayden
enters a convenience store while Gannon continues down the street. When he
hears gunfire and screams behind him, he realizes the trouble Hayden was
expecting has found him and returns to help, thus launching himself into a
maelstrom of elite killers, Albanian gangsters, a years-old crime, and a
quantum computing chip being sought by criminals from all over the world.
I am a huge
fan of thrillers that start with the protagonist minding his own business and
suddenly stumbling into a situation not of his making. Gannon is an engaging
protagonist, not the usual loner that so often appears in thrillers. He is
devoted to his son and delights in the success that his son has achieved.
Gannon tends to find ways to appropriate vehicles that do not belong to him
when he’s in crisis, leading to some exciting car chase scenes.
Publishers Weekly calls the book “riveting” and readers on Goodreads, a notoriously tough audience, have given the book 4.5 stars. For fans of thrillers with breakneck pacing and international overtones.
·
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
·
Publication date: December 2, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1335090525
·
ISBN-13: 978-1335090522
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/47WfT3M
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, November 23, 2025
Writers Digest: My Battle to Keep My Novel Series in the Marketplace
Annoyingly, now that this has happened, the Dallas Public Library System has pulled his entire series from the shelves except for the audio eBooks. I don't do audio books at all as my mind won't stay locked in on a story. It wanders off deeper into the land of worries. Having read the first one through NetGalley and enjoyed it immensely, I plan to continue on with the series, but even in eBook at Amazon, it is too expensive. Very frustrating as a reader.
Writers Digest: My Battle to Keep My Novel Series in the Marketplace
Guest Post: MINOR CHARACTERS HAVE LIVES TOO by Mary Reed
Please welcome author Mary Reed to the
blog today…
MINOR CHARACTERS
HAVE LIVES TOO
Mystery novels often feature an unusual type of character -- one who appears in the story only when interviewed by the detective in the course of his investigation. Although such characters appear on stage briefly for the purpose of providing information, treating them like spear carriers risks turning a mystery novel into a succession of staccato question and answer sessions. They need to be given some interest beyond their function as informants.
Our protagonist John, Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, necessarily encounters many people from all walks of life in the course of his investigations. Given Constantinople's colourful cosmopolitan population we've created a number of minor characters who are, we hope, memorable in their own way.
To do this we mention a few interesting details about their lives in addition to whatever clues or information they need to supply to advance the plot. This not only brings the individual to life but also gives the reader some insight into how Romans lived during the sixth century.
For example there's Helias, creator of water clocks and what he calls shadow traps, in other words sundials. He suffers badly from what would today be diagnosed as sciophobia. He therefore strongly dislikes strong sunlight and avoids it as much as possible because it causes shadows, which he views as nasty things that move fast and trip people up. He is so terrified of them his workshop is underground. At one point John personally observes how crossing a sunlit square is a positive torment for the poor fellow. Helias' useful information is provided to John not to be helpful but rather given in the spirit of spite because he intensely dislikes his merchant neighbour.
Take Aristotle, seller of antiquities and oracles, and one of seven witnesses to an oral will made by the shipper Nereus. Set during the Justinianaic plague, John's locating these witnesses is a particularly urgent matter given thousands die daily in the city. Aristotle was present in Nereus' household when the will was made, having visited to show him an oracular statue he was interested in purchasing. In conversation with Anthemius. a brickmaker who shares a work place with Aristotle, John hears an anecdote which turns out to be of some importance though not the way it implies at first glance.
Then there's Pedibastet, purveyor of faux cat mummies in Alexandria. He has no information to impart, his assistance to John being merely a matter of business but one still vital to the investigation. Pedibastet's is an unpleasant trade for he grows his own cats to use as materials for his business. Due to circumstances, John has to purchase one of the poor little cat mummies to use as a prop in a scandalous street theatre performance he and his two companion put on. This extraordinary event collects enough money from appreciative passersby to pay for the trio's passage up the Nile, their destination an estate where John has been ordered to investigate why sheep are cutting their own throats.
In these and other cases our goal was to sketch out a character with a life beyond his function as a source of information, one larger than his brief talk with John, someone who might be interesting enough to star in his own novel, or at least his own short story.
Mary Reed
Mary Reed and Eric Mayer co-authored twelve novels about John, Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, set in sixth century Constantinople as well as two World War II Grace Baxter mysteries taking place in England. Their short stories have appeared in EQMM and various historical mystery anthologies, including thirteen of the Mammoth Book series edited by Mike Ashley. Their website is at https://reed-mayer-mysteries.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
