Thursday, December 18, 2025
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: The Count of Monte Cristo, No Ordinary Bird
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Market Call Facebook -- One Eyed Press
Shotgun Honey is relaunching this and they want novellas 8k to 30K. More info at https://submissions.shotgunhoney.com/publication/one-eye-press/
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: More Stories from Christmas Stalkings
Jerry's House of Everything: ALMOST SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: MURDER PICTURE
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Clock House Murders (1991) by Yukito Ayatsuji
SleuthSayers: Half-Topless?
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Twelve Jays of Christmas by Donna Andrews
Mystery Fanfare: CHRISTMAS MYSTERY SHORT STORY ANTHOLOGIES AND NOVELLAS
Monday, December 15, 2025
Jerry's House of Everything: BIT & PIECE -- INCOMING ONLY
Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Satan Sampler: Victor Canning
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Softly Calls the Devil by Christopher Blake
Softly
Calls the Devil (Echo, November 2025) by Christopher Blake is the second
book about New Zealand cop Matt Buchanan. The first book was shortlisted for
the Best First and the Best Novel of the 2018 Ngaio Marsh awards.
Here Matt is
happier in his new job, an ostensible demotion from his high-powered Criminal
Investigation Bureau role to the rural community of Haast, where he is doing
routine small-town policing. After a year he’s settled in to the slower pace of
life and has grown to like the people of the area. Breaking up the intermittent
teenage party and warning the local pothead about his marijuana crop and
navigating the occasional traffic snafu is right up his alley these days.
Matt is good
friends with his predecessor Gus, who retired when Matt took over the job but
stayed in the area. Over a beer or two Gus tells Matt that he’s been looking
into an old case of murder-suicide that wasn’t what it seemed, and he wanted to
tell Matt about it some time. A day later Gus is found shot in the head. No
chance of a hunting accident. Matt had to wonder if Gus was killed because of
what he had learned about the old case. And just who heard Gus tell Matt he
wanted to hand off his research to him.
The murder
investigation was the province of the CIB and therefore out of Matt’s
jurisdiction but nothing kept him from looking at that old case, an especially
ugly story of a father killing his daughter and wife and then killing himself,
to try to find the new information that Gus had uncovered. It led him to a
forgotten commune and to an older gang, both of which had ties to some of the
present-day Haast locals.
Blake is a
serving police officer himself and he knows what he writes about, which gives
the story more than superficial realism. He runs the Behavioural Science unit
of the New Zealand Police in Wellington, see https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/new-zealand-cop-makes-stunning-killer-admission/news-story/d9aff330076fe36b13dcd1fa00ff9ff9.
I particularly like that Blake has made Matt a team player who follows the
rules and respects his management, who in turn appear to respect Matt. I am really
tired of the lone wolf cop.
What starts
out as a police procedural turns into so much more: a multi-faceted cold case, a
meditation on mid-life re-invention, a scenic tour around the Haast region of
the island, and a reminder that old sins can come to light long after the
evildoer thinks they are buried.
A complicated
and fascinating read. Highly recommended.
·
Publisher: Echo
·
Publication date: November 4, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 278 pages
·
ISBN-13: 978-1786585417
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4rP613P
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, December 14, 2025
Little Big Crimes: Picture Palace Blues, by Colin Campbell
Saturday, December 13, 2025
KRL Update 12/13/2025
Up on KRL this week reviews and giveaways of 3 more Christmas mysteries-"O, Deadly Night" A Year-Round Christmas Mystery by Vicki Delany, "The Snow Lies Deep" by Paula Munier, and "Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife" by Martin Edwards https://kingsriverlife.com/12/13/trio-of-christmas-mysteries-for-the-holidays/
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: How I Write by Caroline Clemmons
Beneath the Stains of Time: An English Murder (1951) by Cyril Hare
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Death at a Castle Christmas by Veronica Bond
Scott's Take: Red Hulk Vol. 1: Prisoner of War by Benjamin Percy and Geoff Shaw (Illustrator, Cover Art)
Red Hulk Vol. 1: Prisoner of War by Benjamin
Percy and Geoff Shaw (Illustrator, Cover Art) is a tie in series to One
World Under Doom. Doctor Doom has conquered the world and kidnapped
various people including military strategists like Thunderbolt Ross aka Red
Hulk. He is forcing these people into working in a think tank on how to
maintain Doctor Doom’s power. Of course, Red Hulk wants to escape. But, even if
he does. he is far from home in the country of Latveria and Doom owns America
now too.
The art is good and this is an action
packed series where the odds are against Red Hulk. Joining him on this journey
is Deathlok and Machine Man. A Deathlok is a zombie cyborg solider and there
have been a lot of them. I am not even sure which one this was. Machine Man is
an android. I have never cared about any of them before this read, but this was
still a fun read.
There will be a second collected book in
this series titled Red Hulk Vol. 2: Mission: Latveria. That will
be the last volume that Red Hulk will tie into the current Captain
America Series and probably be a part of the aftermath of One
World Under Doom.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3KkdXZO
I read this through Marvel Unlimited.
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
Friday, December 12, 2025
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Death of a Dutchman
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE JOHNNY MAXWELL TRILOGY
FFB Review: A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel by Darynda Jones
From the archive….
Sunshine
Vicram is back in Del Sol, New Mexico, with her teenage daughter, Aurora,
better known as Auri. She is also less than thrilled about living in the small
tourist town of Del Sol again. Even if it is home for her parents and she and
Auri are in the guest house about fifty feet from their backdoor. She is also
not thrilled about being the newly elected sheriff. Especially when she wasn’t
even running for sheriff far as she knew.
But, being elected in
Del Sol when you are not even running for sheriff is not the strangest thing to
happen in Del Sol as Sunshine Vicram well knows. She has been gone for nearly
fifteen years and now that she is back, she is reminded again that Del Sol has
a sun that never quits and neither does the strange.
While her fourteen year
old daughter deals with her first day at Del Sol High School, Sunshine Vicram
arrives at the station in her full uniform to see what her first day will
bring. It soon brings a visit from the Mayor and a basket of muffins. The mayor
is a problem, but nothing she can’t handle at this point. The muffins are
another and, according to everyone else, a far more serious problem. Homemade
by Ruby Moore, they certainly look and smell good. Ruby Moore can certainly
bake as all can attest. The problem is that when she sends in food, trouble
always follows. It does not matter if they eat the delicious offering or not,
trouble is coming. They just do not know it yet.
Minutes after consuming
the delicious goodness, they soon find out that they have a major problem on
their hands. Wealthy new resident Mrs. St. Aubin reports that her daughter,
Sybil, same age as Auri, is missing. She vanished during the night. Mrs. St. Aubin
woke up this morning and realized that her daughter was missing. Having
searched the house in an increasing panic she came to town in a full panic
looking for help. If that is not enough, then comes word that an incarcerated
prisoner known for kidnapping has escaped custody and could be in the area. Are
the two situations linked? Does he have Sybil? Or is something else going on?
At about the same time
as her Mom has her hands fill with her job, Auri has her hands full with her
own issues at school. Being the daughter of the newly elected sheriff on top of
being the new girl in school comes with a lot of pressure. A number of her
fellow classmates are being less than welcoming. Three or four are being
downright hostile as they take a page of the mean girls playbook. Her first day
is turning into a real doozy and just like her Mom’s situation, thiings are
only going to escalate.
A Bad Day for Sunshine:
A Novel by Darynda Jones
is a really good book. It reminds this reader of J. A. Janice’s Sheriff Joanna
Brady series with considerably more humor and a tad more romantic intrigue. It
shifts at the start of each chapter as well as occasionally in a chapter between
Sunshine and Auri as they deal with various events and situations. The
backstory, told through memories and dialogue discussions, is very complicated
and applies to both Auri and Sunshine.
At its heart, it is
still a police procedural in many ways and that fact is not sidelined by the
backstory, the personal dramas, and potential romantic entanglements. Plenty is
at work in A Bad Day For Sunshine: A Novel is a fun and
fast read that lays an excellent foundation for the series. A Good Day for Chardonnay is
currently scheduled to be released in late July 2021.
A Bad Day for Sunshine:
A Novel by Darynda Jones
is strongly recommended.
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aFiYqE
My large print reading
copy came from the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025
Thursday, December 11, 2025
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Stocking Stuffers from the Short Mystery Fiction Society
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
Criminal Minds: Some Great Books I’ve Read Recently from James W. Ziskin
In Reference to Murder: Author R&R with M.B. Courtenay
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Mystery Fanfare: CHANUKAH (HANUKAH) MYSTERIES
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Short Stories from Christmas Stalkings
Mystery Fanfare: CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES: Authors F-L // Christmas Crime Fiction
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Moving House of Foscaldo (1925/26) by Charles Chadwick
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Christmas at the Women’s Hotel: A Biedermeier Story by Daniel M. Lavery
Tuesday, December 09, 2025
Review: The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel by Jim Nesbitt
Some would call it justice. Some would call it
revenge. No matter what you call it, the concept has been a long running theme
of the Ed Earl Burch series. The same is very much true in the
fifth book of the series, The Fatal Saving Grace: An Ed Earl Burch Novel
by Jim Nesbitt.
This novel picks up a few months after The
Dead Certain Doubt. This read addresses those events and brings
some of the characters back while also addressing events earlier in the series.
That means that it is impossible to review this read without referencing some spoilers
if you have not read the previous book. I am doing my best to minimize that aspect
of things. But, if you keep reading you were warned….
This is a novel of tying up loose ends and settling
scores. It begins with Ed Earl Burch barely surviving a far Southwest Texas
ambush. These days he carries a shield as an investigator for the Cuervo County
District Attorney. Technically that would make the DA his boss, but the reality
is that he reports to the Cuervo County Sheriff Sudden Doggett as well as a
retired Texas Ranger by the same of Dub McKee. McKee has connections to powerful
people and made it happen and roped Sudden Doggett into the plan to give Burch
a badge again despite what happened with the Dallas Police way back when. Burch
tends to be a burr under Doggett’s saddle as the two men don’t mesh well for a variety
of reasons.
Based out of the Sherrif’s Office in Faver, and
within a couple of hours drive down to Marfa and Presidio, Burch is teamed up
with Deputy Sheriff Bobby Quintero as the two chase down leads on who might have
tried to ambush Burch on his way home.
Not only is Bobby good company, he has great skills
as he was a Ranger and worked in some of the worst trouble spots on the globe.
Still, Burch would prefer to go it alone. Because Burch does his own thing.
Always.
Being a one-man band fits his personality best. Having
the badge back after losing it many years ago in Dallas is great and all, but
it has not been as good as he thought it would be. He is feeling a bit
suffocated by being forced to work with others, go through a chain of command,
follow orders, and control his outlaw impulses. He was brought in to get things
done as he had the reputation of being a loose cannon that got results, and now
he is supposed to work with others after years of going his own way to get
justice and settle scores.
He is also missing the heck out of Carla Sue
Cantrell who recently took off and said she might be back whenever. He has
found solace in the arms of a couple of local women, but they are a poor substitute.
Inleading the certain lady that can make one heck of a chicken fried steak.
(Don’t read this while your hungry as food comes up
a lot. Especially if you have not had a good chicken fried steak in years.)
In the here and now, Burch was chasing leads on one
Lonny Dalrymple and apparently that stirred up somebody to try the ambush. There
was a big murder case awhile back and it was believed there were three killers
involved. Two are dead. One is death row where he belongs. The case was
supposed to be closed and done.
But, the supremely talented County Crime Tech, Katie
Navarro, was able to identify some additional latent prints from the victim’s
Airstream trailer. They belonged to Lonny Dalrymple. Burch had been going
around Presidio asking questions and was headed back to his isolated home when
a flash of light off of nearby rocks made him react. He jerked the wheel of his
old truck and the first shot of many to come hit the roof of his truck instead
of his head.
The resulting gun battle left the shooter dead and
Burch fuming. He is going to go back and brace the people he already talked to,
for starters, to track down the parties involved. He wanted to go alone, but Sheriff
Doggett told him Quintero was going with him, and that was that. He didn’t want
company, but if he has to have some, Quintero is good to have along.
Especially when the dead and gone don’t stay either
way.
As always in this crime fiction series, there is
nearly constant graphic violence and quite a lot of graphic sex. There is also
a lot of settling scores as this novel winds up several different story arcs. A
fast moving read that is over all too soon, The Fatal Saving Grace
is also a mighty good read.
Strongly recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Xtq3mn
My ARC digital reading copy came from the author
with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Monday, December 08, 2025
Mystery Fanfare: MIDSOMER MURDERS, Series 25, starts streaming today!
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Six Degrees of Separation: From Seascraper to Tokyo Express
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Masked Band: A D. I. Jim Garibaldi Novel by Bernard O'Keeffe
The Masked
Band (Muswell, 2025) is the fourth book with Detective Inspector Jim
Garibaldi, who lives and works in Barnes, a pleasant London suburb on the
Thames. It’s an engaging read with a novel premise. Garibaldi is well read and
is given to quoting bits of literature during serious team discussions,
throwing his colleagues off and irritating his boss, with whom he has exchanged
confidences of a personal nature in the past. Garibaldi’s parents were killed
in a car accident and he has never learned to drive. He may be the only contemporary
detective on a bicycle I have encountered. (I think Father Brown rode a
bicycle.)
The Okay
Boomers is a group of celebrities from various parts of the media world who
wear masks of David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, and Mick
Jagger and play occasional gigs in the local pub. They gather at one member’s
house after a successful performance and the next morning a young man is found
dead in the garden wearing one of the masks. No identification on the victim
and band members all deny knowing him. The remaining masks are missing.
The more the
police press the members of the band to find a link between the dead man and
the group, the more the individuals begin to crack. On the surface they are all
congenial; behind closed doors they don’t much like each other and don’t
hesitate to throw each other under the proverbial bus. One member is especially
venomous, he has stabbed each of the others in the back; they all heard about
it and haven’t forgotten. To see him on the law enforcement hot seat doesn’t
bother them at all.
The killer
didn’t exactly come out of the blue but it was certainly an unexpected if
reasonable resolution.
O’Keeffe
works some sly digs about the concept of celebrity into the story and how
overrated some individual media stars are. No need to read the earlier books in
this police procedural for this particular storyline to make sense. Overall, a
satisfying read!
This book is only available in paperback, unfortunately. I had to order it from Waterstone’s in England earlier in the year when it first came to my attention. While I see it is listed on Amazon now, the seller that is offering it is in England so expect slower than usual shipping. A potentially good use for that Amazon gift card you might find in your stocking.
·
Publisher: Muswell Press
·
Publication date: February 20, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1738452883
·
ISBN-13: 978-1738452880
Amazon Associate Purchase
Link: https://amzn.to/4a0x1qv
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, December 07, 2025
Little Big Crimes: The Skies Are Red, by Richie Narvaez
Saturday, December 06, 2025
Gravetapping: Booked (and Printed): October 2025
KRL Update 12/6/2025
Up on KRL this week a review and ebook giveaway of "Crescent City Christmas Chaos" by Ellen Byron https://kingsriverlife.com/12/06/crescent-city-christmas-chaos-by-ellen-byron/
SleuthSayers: Where'd THAT Ending Come From?
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Nature of Things: C.M.B. vol. 7-8 by Motohiro Katou
Scott's Take: The Rocketfellers Volume 1: First Family of the Future by Peter J. Tomasi (Author) and Francis Manapul (Illustrator)
The Rocketfellers Volume 1: First
Family of the
Future by Peter J. Tomasi (Author) and Francis Manapul (Illustrator) is a new
series in the Ghost Machine Universe like Exodus
and several other books I have reviewed on here. The Rocketfellers are from the
25th century and they have time traveled backwards to our more primitive time to
hide as part of a witness relocation program. They are to remain here until the
bad guys can be stopped in their time. All they have to do is not cause any
trouble and eventually they can go back. Of course, like any dysfunctional
family, they could not do that.
This is an action-packed sci-fi
adventure with excellent art. Each issue does not really connect very well
together and it is done in a strange way, but I still liked the read. For
example, they do the origin issue, then a Christmas issue, then another issue. There
is not a lot of answers provided about what is going on in the big picture.
That is supposed to be explained in Volume 2.
This first volume is focused on getting
to know the family. You have an ex special forces soldier grandpa, a mad
scientist dad, a former astronaut adrenaline seeking mom, a brainy but immature
son, and a kind hearted young daughter. Also, there is a robot dog.
I am looking forward to reading Volume 2
whenever it does come out. Hopefully, among other things, they will explain the
secret of the eyeball (Yes, there is a mysterious cybernetic eyeball involved).
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4pdhQyy
I read this through Hoopla App by way of
the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
Friday, December 05, 2025
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: You Only Live Nine Times by Gwen Cooper
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Troublemaker
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: TOFFEE TURNS THE TRICK
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.