Thursday, March 19, 2026
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) by P.J. Fitzsimmons
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) by P.J....: P.J. Fitzsimmons ' The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) is the sixth entry in the Anthony "Anty" Boisjoly series of Wo...
Thursday Treats: 3/19/2026
The latest reading opportunities…
Murderous Ink
Press
released the new anthology, Crimeucopia - A
Coterie Of Dicks. SMFS list members Josh Pachter, Gerald Elias, Jim
Guigli, M. Proctor, and others, have short stories in the read. Pick it up at Amazon and elsewhere.
Rock and A Hard Place announced their
new book, A Woman’s Guide
to True Crime by Mary Thorson was now out. Each piece
in the book details a historical event by way of the victims, the killers, or
the woman impacted by the crime. You can learn more about the book at their website.
Musician and author Tim Bryant has been busy. The Ballad of Peechie Keen: A Dutch Curridge Mystery is out as is
the short story collection, Angels, Unaware:
Stories from East Texas.
SMFS list member Nikita Costiuc announced that his short story,
A Yellow Speck, appears online at the Canadian literary journal, Moonlit
Getaway. He bills it as a “southern gothic” tale. You can read it for
free at the website.
SMFS list member DK Snyder announced
that her solve-it-yourself mystery, Harmonica Blues, was published in the March
23rd issue of Woman’s World Magazine. The issue is available
now on newsstands, grocery stores, and elsewhere. You are looking for the issue
with Valerie Bertinelli on the cover.
For Friday the 13th, Punk
Noir published, Find What You Love and Let It Kill You #2 — a PUNK NOIR
Magazine series. This series of short stories are all free to read online at
their website. SMFS list
member Elizabeth Dearborn (Shop Till You Drop) and Wil A. Emerson (Scored Zero),
short stories appear as do others.
SMFS member Barb Goffman shared the news of the latest issue of Black Cat Weekly. As always, the issue is full of short stories, novellas, and more. You can pick it up here. A single digital issue is $2.99, but the longer subscriptions are the real deal and the way to go.
Inkd Publishing announced their
Kickstarter for the
anthology, Detectives, Sleuths, & Nosy Neighbors III. The
book will include short stories by SMFS list members, N. M. Cedeño (The
Assassination Game), Shari Held (The Mansion on the Hill), Kathleen Marple Kalb
(Spring Death Cleaning), Aime Kluck (Peril in Provincetown), Bev Myers (Three Fingers
of Fate), Karen Oden (Murder at Angelique), and SB Watson (The Silent Herd), among
others, are going to be in the anthology scheduled to be out in June.
Bev Myers also has a short story in the
new anthology, The Dichotomy of Love. Published by Lowell &
Benson Publishing, the read is available at
Amazon and other vendors.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
SleuthSayers: Back to the Bay
SleuthSayers: Back to the Bay: Getting Historical with Aubrey Hamilton, Diana R. Chambers, Karen Odden, S.J. Rozan I spent the last week in San Francisco, eating Rice-a-...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE DEATH CRY
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE DEATH CRY: "The Death Cry" by Arthur B. Reeve (first published in Weird Tales , May, 1935; reprinted in The Television Detectives' Omni...
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Hey, Kids! Check Out Some Fantastic Recent Tales f...
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Hey, Kids! Check Out Some Fantastic Recent Tales f...: With 2026 in full swing, the members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society are continuing to turn out the very finest short stories for fans ...
Monday, March 16, 2026
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Trust in Me: A Novel by Luca Veste
Luca Veste is a UK author who has published a dozen crime fiction novels in as many years. Seven of them combine a police procedural with elements of psychological thrillers and the others are stand-alone thrillers. The paperback edition of Trust in Me, a psychological thriller, is being released by Black Spring Crime in early April 2026.
Sara grew up in a small town in southwestern England and ended up married to a U.S. citizen, living in suburban Connecticut. She’s developed a successful career as a trauma counselor and she’s immersed in her role as a mother to her two children Olivia and JJ. Her husband Jack is deeply engrossed in his investments job, to the extent that he routinely misses family events and meals.
A new client arrives at Sara’s office one day and under the seal of patient confidentiality tells Sara she killed someone. Dumbfounded, Sara listens to the circumstances of the murder which are eerily similar to a situation that occurred to Sara some 20 years earlier in England, where her then-boyfriend got into a drunken fight with another young man, who died as a result of the brawl. Only according to the new client, she was responsible for the death, not her boyfriend.
Sara was staggered that someone else should have had a similar experience. The situation was never reported and as far as Sara knew, only she and her then-boyfriend knew about it. In the following days she became convinced that the new client in fact was talking about her and the long-past incident and was trying to make her admit to it. A car with a couple of strangers follows her, she receives random threatening telephone calls, and other eerie episodes make her increasingly frightened and unnerved, resulting in erratic behavior on her part. What follows is an adrenalin-fueled nightmare that twists and spins in unpredictable ways to a stunning conclusion.
Veste creates tension-filled scenes, credible characters, and a surprise conclusion that in retrospect I realized had been hinted at all along. Fans of domestic thrillers and psychological suspense will want to add this title to their reading lists.
• Publisher: Black Spring Press
• Publication date: April 7, 2026
• Language: English
• Print length: 362 pages
• ISBN-10: 1917788029
• ISBN-13: 978-1917788021
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4uq0SQO
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Little Big Crimes: Glass Beach, by Michael Bracken
Little Big Crimes: Glass Beach, by Michael Bracken: "Glass Beach," by Michael Bracken, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2026. This is the twelfth appea...
KRL Update
Up on KRL this week reviews and giveaways of 2 mysteries by Victoria Gilbert-"Schooled in Murder" and "A Deadly Clue" https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/a-pair-of-cozy-mysteries-by-victoria-gilbert/
And a review and ebook giveaway of "More Than You Know" by Anne Canadeo, along with an interesting interview with Anne https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/more-than-you-know-by-anne-canadeo/
And in honor of Saint Patrick's Day, we have a review and giveaway of "Buried in Shamrocks" by Lisa Q. Mathews https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/buried-in-shamrocks-by-lisa-q-mathews/
We also have a fun mystery short story by Michael Bracken https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/mystery-short-story-wealth-of-knowledge/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "Missing" by David Beckler https://www.krlnews.com/2026/03/missing-by-d-e-beckler-reviewgiveaway.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Round Up the Unusual Suspects" by Elizabeth Crowens https://www.krlnews.com/2026/03/round-up-unusual-suspects-by-elizabeth.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Guest Post: Reprise - Kansas City Breakdown by M.E. Proctor
In the
middle of next month, Kansas City
Breakdown, will be released by Cowboy Jamboree Press. The book by
M. E. Proctor and Russell Thayer is a sequel to their Bop City Swing of last year. Please
welcome back M. E. Proctor to the blog today as she explains how the new book came
to be in this guest post.
Reprise - Kansas City Breakdown
by M.E. Proctor
When
Russell Thayer and I started Bop City Swing two years ago (already!),
neither of us had ever written a piece of fiction in collaboration. My only
experience with a vaguely similar joint effort goes back to producing a
200-page report with a colleague on the dry subject of alternative forms of
work organization (I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of that) when I
was on a research contract with a European university. I don’t remember how we managed
the writing part. What I recall is how much fun we had in the sandbox coming up
with wild ideas. And how much fun my research partner was. I can still picture
him. A dude tall as a giraffe, under thirty but with less hair left on his head
than a newborn chicken. He was quirky and brilliant. Christopher Lloyd in Back
to the Future. I suspect he smoked more than the cigarettes that he puffed
on constantly when we were together. Damn it, man, open the window! We
shared a tiny office, next to a rumbling mechanical room, blissfully remote
from the rest of the Economics Department and its stern director. We locked the
door to keep snoops away.
So
yes, I like to work with people. They should be a little mad and chaotic, to
balance my very organized mind.
If we
had sat down to ponder methods and objectives, Russell and I might never have
gotten out of the starting blocks. We just said, what the hell let’s do it, let’s
write a story featuring these two characters that we have put in a bunch of
stories already, and see where it takes us.
We created
an inciting incident, a political assassination in 1951 San Francisco, and threw
our characters into it. My protagonist, SFPD Homicide Detective Tom Keegan,
worked the case. The role of Russell’s leading lady—Vivian Davis aka Gunselle,
a killer-for-hire—was more of a head-scratcher. We brainstormed options,
discarded a bunch of them before landing on a promising one: Vivian was hired
to shoot the guy but somebody beat her to it. She’s pissed off because she was
robbed of a fat paycheck. Both Tom and Viv are hunting the killer. They each
have part of the solution. Eventually their paths will cross with explosive
results.
Bop
City Swing was conceived as a
stand-alone. Then we found a publisher (Cowboy Jamboree Press) and started
thinking about a follow-up. Tom and Vivian were great characters and deserved
another walk in the spotlights.
Follow-ups,
reprises, book #2 in a series can be tricky.
First
problem. The characters have a common history now. Supporting players have been
introduced. There’s a chronology of events, and continuity to think about. No
more meet-cute: he’s a cop and she’s a killer. Their interactions are ambiguous,
by definition. Add to that the attraction she feels for him and the temptation
she represents for him. The sexual tension between them added spice to the
first book. In the second one, it has to be picked up and given an extra tug.
To make things even more complicated, Tom is in a long-term relationship with a
spunky San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter.
Second
problem. The plot and the theme. Bop City Swing revolved around politics
and the misdeeds of the moneyed class. It was also a story of revenge and
trauma wrapped inside a murder investigation. Book #2 has to go in a completely
different direction.
One
way to mark a radical shift is to change locations. We left San Francisco and
decided to go to Kansas City. Jazz music, still, but with a side of barbecue. Then
we opened the Noir Codex on a couple of new pages. Under G and M for Gangsters
and Goons, Mobsters and Molls. And Russell and I went to work using our
favorite technique, the key questions:
Why would Vivian and Tom get together and what are they doing in Missouri?
As is
always the case when you put all the ideas in a big pot and stir vigorously, answers
come and keep coming as the plot progresses. Secondary characters walk on stage
and demand attention. Some almost get killed but survive because we like them
so much. Others aren’t so lucky. And the end is never exactly what you have in
mind at the beginning.
Here’s
how we answered our key questions.
The book starts with an FBI undercover operation. The plan is to infiltrate a
high-level Kansas City Mob meeting to gather information. A San Francisco
gangster is going to the conference and is considered a ‘soft’ target. He can
be seduced. A honey trap. If the right woman for the job can be found. Tom
knows somebody who could pull it off, but what will he have to do to convince
her? Vivian doesn’t work for the police. Tom has a stake in the success of the
mission. He’s her designated handler. His job is to get her out alive.
The
book is called Kansas City Breakdown.
In
music, according to Wikipedia, a ‘breakdown’ is a section of song characterized
by solo performances. Vivian and Tom have their starring moments. They also
play well together.
--
Latest Publication:
Kansas City Breakdown
By M.E. Proctor and Russell Thayer
Publisher: Cowboy Jamboree
April 2026
Paperback
eBook
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4sJcEnQ
M. E. Proctor ©2026
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 two short story collections, Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By. She’s also the co-author with
Russell Thayer of two retro-noirs: Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown. 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, March 14, 2026
Murder is Everywhere: The Top Ten Best Short Story Mysteries of All Time
Murder is Everywhere: The Top Ten Best Short Story Mysteries of All Time: Jeff–Saturday There is so much (good) news I have to share...but cannot talk about quite yet. All I can say is that it's kept me so bu...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Panic Party: Case Closed, vol. 97 by Gosho Aoyama
Beneath the Stains of Time: Panic Party: Case Closed, vol. 97 by Gosho Aoyama: Gosho Aoyama 's 96th volume of Case Closed starts out, as is tradition, with the conclusion to the story that closed out the previous v...
Jerry's House of Everything: PEP COMICS #1 (JANUARY 1940)
Jerry's House of Everything: PEP COMICS #1 (JANUARY 1940): Pep Comics was the third anthology comic book published by MLJ Publications. In issue #42 (December 1941) it introduced the character of A...
Scott's Take: Absolute Flash Vol 1: Of Two Worlds by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles (Illustrator)
Absolute Flash Vol 1: Of Two
Worlds by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles (Illustrator) is a read in the Absolute
Universe where The Flash is reimagined. In this universe, the legacy of
The Flash is gone, there is no speed force, and Wally is on his own. After an
accident at a government facility military brat Wally West became a speedster.
Feeling overwhelmed by these new powers and dealing with the loss of his mother
he went on the run. The government is going to track him down and bring him
back. They want his powers at any cost. His father thinks he can control the
situation and protect his son. Of course,
the government does not care about the boy. They just want his powers at any
cost. They will bring him in either alive or dead.
The art is excellent. It’s also
nice to read a Jeff Lemire title in the DC universe again. I like his writing,
but he is mostly doing indie horror comics now, and I am just not a horror guy.
I really like this new version of Grodd that is introduced in this volume. The
Rogues are now government operatives instead of just bank robbers. They are now
“the good guys” instead of the bad guys. This series will continue with Absolute Flash Vol 2: Still Point.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4c2z2DF
I read the eBook copy of this
through the DC Universe Infinite
App.
Scott A. Tipple ©2026
Friday, March 13, 2026
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: How to Support Your Favorite Authors (Even When Money Is Tight) by Caroline Clemmons
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: How to Support Your Favorite Authors (Even When Mo...: Why Your Support Matters Books and groceries now compete more than ever for the same dollars, and I know many of you are watching every p...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCartney, edited by Ted Widmer
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCa...: Reviewed by Kristin How many books have been written about The Beatles, individually or collectively, and/or about their post-Beatle m...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: A Different Kind of Summer
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: A Different Kind of S...: Gwendoline Butler (1922-2013) had limited success as a writer before she began a police procedural series featuring a young Scotland Yard In...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: MY BROTHER MICHAEL
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: MY BROTHER MICHAEL: My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart (1959; reprinted in omnibus volume Three Novels of Suspense , undated, but 1960) This was the March sel...
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange: Libby, the leading library reading app, unveiled the winners of the third annual Libby Book Awards. Celebrating the best in digital reading,...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in February 2026
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in February 2026: This was another good reading month. Mostly mysteries this month, but that is OK. I read a very long, very heavy graphic memoir, but it wa...
Jerry's House of Everything: BOX 13: THE BITER BITTEN (JULY 17, 1949)
Jerry's House of Everything: BOX 13: THE BITER BITTEN (JULY 17, 1949): Box 13 was a syndicated radio show which ran for fifty-two episodes in 1948-49. It followed the adventures of reporter turned mystery nove...
Paula Messina Reviews: Strange Houses by Uketsu
Strange Houses
by Paula Messina
Strange Houses by Uketsu is
one strange book. I can imagine English teachers throughout the country hurling
it against a wall and screaming, “There’s no character development.”
They’d be right.
There’s also no plot, setting, or the requisite digging for clues in a mystery.
But that’s mere
quibbling.
After all, who
needs plot, character, and setting when the reader has Uketsu?
Houses isn’t nearly as
strange as the writer. Well, that might be nitpicking. Both book and writer are
bizarre. The strangest thing of all is that I, a connoisseur of the those
typical requirements -- you know, plot, character, setting – for labeling a
manuscript a novel, especially character development, read through to the end.
Truth is I’m a
sucker for books with pictures. Houses has a ton of them, so many that
it’s probably a novella disguised as a novel.
The “About the
Author” at the back of the book states that Uketsu “only ever appears online,
wearing a mask and speaking through a voice changer.” He has 1.5 million
followers, and his mysteries have sold “nearly 3 million copies in Japan since
2021.”
His real name
and identity are unknown. In the lower right hand corner of the book’s cover,
there’s a minuscule photo of Uketsu wearing a white mask. Well, we’re supposed
to believe it’s the author. It could be anyone wearing a mask, or a badly
carved pumpkin, or Angelina Jolie getting a facial. Take your pick.
According to
Wikipedia, “Uketsu's fiction blends conventional prose with visual elements
(drawings, diagrams, floor plans) that are presented as clues within the text.”
Indeed, Houses is replete with renderings of different houses that
harbored murderers. In one sense, those drawings are reminiscent of the Golden
Age mysteries that contained maps or layouts of buildings. Those drawings were
never the focus of the story. They were visual aids. Uketsu’s renderings are
vital to the story.
I question that
Uketsu uses “conventional prose.” In fact, there is little prose for most of
the book. Instead, there’s lots of dialogue that is presented in a format
reminiscent of a play minus stage directions.
As for setting,
yes, the book is about houses, but they are explored as architectural
renderings or through dialogue, not as environments occupied by characters.
The story begins
when a friend calls the unidentified narrator—is he Uketsu?—to say he’s
considering buying a house. However there’s something odd about it. It has an
inaccessible space in the kitchen, a space that could not possibly serve any
purpose. The friend is wisely leery about moving in any time soon.
The narrator
agrees to investigate. He doesn’t put on his deerstalker hat and grab a
magnifying glass. No. He calls Kurihara, “a draughtsman with a prestigious
architectural firm.” Through Kurihara’s amazing powers of deduction, the
narrator learns that many other aspects of the house are weird. The strangest
aspect of all is that it’s a charnel house.
I’m positive
Kurihara will never replace Sherlock Holmes as the world’s most beloved
detective. Sherlock was a genius, but he worked to solve his capers. Kurihara,
on the other hand, has an uncanny ability to discover a house’s secrets by
simply looking at its layout. He never tests his hypotheses, and he’s never in
doubt. If he were a professional baseball player, his end-of-season batting
average would be one thousand. Not even the Babe achieved that record.
Back to that
inaccessible space. Kurihara quickly determines its use without considering and
rejecting other possibilities. For example, maybe the husband wanted a
dumbwaiter so he wouldn’t have to carry his late-night snacks upstairs. Or the
wife wanted shelves for her cookbooks and changed her mind. Kurihara simply
knows the space’s purpose.
Armed with
Kurihara’s insight, the narrator, a freelance writer, does what any writer in
that circumstance would do. He writes an article about the strange house his
friend is leery of buying.
And then a body
is found. Missing a left hand.
Yuzuki Miyae,
the wife of the dead man, approaches the narrator. With her input, the narrator
connects the house to the Katabuchi family. A series of houses and the gruesome
details of that family’s curse begin to unfold.
It was difficult
to keep all the names straight. Many begin with the same letter, which can be
confusing even when the names are familiar. At least Kurihara is not a member
of the Katabuchi family. The friend who got the ball rolling at the beginning
of the story is Yanaoka. Yuzuki’s mother is Yoshie. It’s enough to make a
reader yell, “Try some other letters of the alphabet.”
Strange Houses, as much as it
examines anything, examines what happens when a family believes it’s been
cursed and must go to extremes to maintain its status. Uketsu likes to pepper
his work with drawings. It would have been beneficial if he’d included one
more, a road map so the reader could keep straight all the Katabuchi
generations and their efforts to save the family’s status. He piled twist upon
twist to tie up all the loose ends. By the time I approached the finale, I
needed a stiff drink.
Strange Houses was translated
by Jim Rion. The cover states that it is “the chilling Japanese mystery
sensation.” I wouldn’t describe it as chilling. I’m not sure it qualifies as a
mystery sensation either. It’s all talk and little action. The narrator and
Kurihara never step foot in one of those strange houses. Kurihara’s analysis of
those architectural drawings is pretty much the sum and substance of the
detecting. The great reveal is a long narration. The many twists at the end
were a bit overwhelming.
I’m glad I read Houses.
It’s an intriguing writing experiment of how far an author can go and still
maintain reader interest. And sell enough copies to make most writers jealous.
Readers who like the unusual will enjoy this book. More conventional readers
might find it annoying.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4sC5BND
Paula Messina ©2026
Paula Messina is writing an historical mystery set in Boston’s North End. Donatello Laguardia, the WIP’s main character, solves crimes in Devil’s Snare and Snakeberry. Her contemporary fiction appears in Black Cat Weekly, The Ekphrastic Review, THEMA, and Wolfsbane. And yes, her Donatello Laguardia stories have recurring characters.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Thursday Treats: 3/12/2026
The latest reading opportunities…
SMFS member David Hendrickson announced the start of his Kickstarter project to find the publication of his mystery, Pain Train. Billed as “Travis McGee meets Mathew Scudder,” the read drops late next month. You can learn more at Mr. Hendrickson’s Facebook page.
Speaking of Andrew Welsh-Huggins, he has
a new book coming out on the 24rth. The Delivery: A
Mercury Carter Thriller, is being released by The Mysterious
Press.
This is the second book in the series that began with, The Mailman. Released in
January 2025, it was reviewed by Aubrey Nye Hamilton that same month here.
Last, but not least, SMFS member Michael Bracken announced
on Facebook that his short story, “Under the Proctor Street Bridge,” was
published in the anthology, Time After Time: 13 Original Mysterious Tales
Inspired By History. Published by Thalia Press, the read is available in
eBook and paperback formats at Amazon.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
SleuthSayers: Tips for Writing Humor
SleuthSayers: Tips for Writing Humor: Later this week I'm going to be one of the speakers at a Short Mystery Fiction Society zoom meeting. The topic is writing humor. Humor i...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Fear of Fear (1931) by Florence Ryerson and Colin ...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Fear of Fear (1931) by Florence Ryerson and Colin ...: Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements were an American husband-and-wife writing tandem, " of varied and prodigious talent ," whose o...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner: Reviewed by Jeanne Haven’s father was a diver and a dreamer. He never did quite get the big find he was always searching for, but he...
Monday, March 09, 2026
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 Jason Cla...
Little Big Crimes: Dear Mr. Townsend, by E.A. Aymar
Little Big Crimes: Dear Mr. Townsend, by E.A. Aymar: "Dear Mr. Townsend," by E.A. Aymar, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2026. This is the second appeara...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Poet’s Game: A Spy in Moscow by Paul Vidich
Paul Vidich was an executive
in the entertainment industry, specifically in music and media at Time Warner,
AOL, and Warner Music Group, where he was Executive Vice President in charge of
global digital strategy. He presently serves as an independent board director,
investor, and advisor to internet media companies in video and music. He also
works on the boards of directors of Poets and Writers, The New School for
Social Research, and the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation. He is the author of
several well-regarded novels.
The Poet’s Game: A Spy in
Moscow
(Pegasus, 2025) is his seventh spy thriller, conjuring up memories of John
LeCarre and his books about Cold War espionage. CrimeReads called it a
Top Five Espionage Novel of the Year and The Financial Times listed it
among the Best Thrillers of 2025.
Alex Matthews was the Moscow
Station chief at the CIA for years. With the change in administrations came a
change in agency priorities, and Alex did not hold back his criticism of the alterations.
His dissatisfaction with the new agency direction in addition to dramatic
changes in his personal life led to a timely retirement that seemed mutually
beneficial. Matthews turned his knowledge of Russia into investments in the
Russian economy and created a thriving financial business. He still spent a
good bit of time in Russia, putting pressure on his marriage and his
relationship with his teenage son.
Because he could travel freely
to and within Russia, the CIA director asked him to meet one of Matthews’
former agents to collect information the agent said was critical to the
protection of the sitting U.S. president. Matthews wanted to say no but the CIA
could throw roadblocks into his dealings with Russia and he agreed to this one
last job as he made arrangements to sell his Russian business and wrap up his
life there.
Nothing about the job is as
simple as he was told it would be. Fortunately he didn’t expect it but the
degree of scrutiny he received from multiple levels of Russian authority told
him matters were more complicated than he understood.
Layers upon layers of
duplicity and double-dealing, some expected as merely part of the job, but others
were surprises; one betrayal rocked Matthews to his core. The long-term impact
of living a double life in an authoritarian regime meant every agent never knew
entirely who could be trusted. A truly prepared agent had an exit strategy that
could be exercised at any time. This is a paranoia-laden story of Cold War
espionage filled with the unexpected right through to the end.
- Publisher:
Pegasus Crime
- Publication
date: May 6, 2025
- Language:
English
- Print
length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10:
163936885X
- ISBN-13:
978-1639368853
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link:
Aubrey
Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, March 08, 2026
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Six Degrees of Separation: from Wuthering Heights to Dancing in the Dark
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Joan Leotta Reviews: Death Times Seven: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry and Victoria Zackheim
Death
Times Seven: A Daniel Pitt Novel (Book 7 of 7 in the series)
by Anne Perry and Victoria Zackheim
Publication
Date: Apr 14, 2026
Available
in Kindle, HB, ($30) and Paper
ISBN#: 978-0593982518
Published
by Ballantine Books
Pages: 288
in HB
Review
by Joan Leotta
Imagine
that you’ve been out of touch with an old friend for a while and then,
unexpectedly, you meet again. That’s how I felt about reading the newest Daniel
Pitt mystery from the pen of the late great Anne Perry. I’m a hardcore Perry
fan—all of her series. Several of the lines ran their course naturally, but the
Daniel Pitt series and the Elena Standish series have young protagonists, so it
was harder to say good-by to them when news of Perry’s death was published.
However, it seems that before her death she entrusted Daniel and his wife Miriam and the other regulars of this series which follows the young lawyer and wife in their quest for justice for individuals and for society as a whole, in the early twentieth century. By allowing Victoria Zackheim, a close friend as well as an editor to finish this book she has given us a gift from beyond the grave, a legacy of words.
Death
Times Seven takes place in 1913 England. Daniel is asked to take over (mid
-trial) for a more senior person in the law firm, fellow attorney, Toby
Kitteridge, who had to leave London upon learning of the sudden brutal attack
on his parents in their parsonage—mother dead, accused father.
Miriam
Ifford Croft (Daniel’s wife), of course, as always, has much to offer, helping
Daniel to defend the hapless Peter Ward, the client, whose innocence it seems
was only believed by Kitteridge and then herself and Daniel. As the two cases
develop, we are given entry to the courts as the trial proceeds as well as to
the workings of forensic pathology in that era. New evidence surfaces. We are
also party to the mystery in the countryside where Toby is valiantly trying to help
his father recover and clear the cleric’s name. Daniel travels out to the
countryside to help his friend. It’s a satisfying dual mystery, well plotted,
character driven, and full of excitement.
I’m
often wary of these posthumous additions to a series. But this one is a true
gem. Zackheim has seamlessly woven whatever part of the story she was to
finish.
How
did she do it? From a reader’s standpoint, plot and structure are well done.
But what brands this book as a piece true to Perry is the way the characters
are handled, particularly young Daniel. As I was reading the book, reserving
judgment as I traversed the paragraphs, I was confronted with a scene that made
me realize the depth of Zackheim’s commitment to the sharing the character of
Daniel as Perry had oft portrayed him---she sets a scene where Daniel cuts off
a thick slice of bread and slathers it with butter (jam in another place) and
eats it as much as for its comfort as for its value as sustenance.
This
gesture, one that defines Daniel as a man who enjoys the simple things, is typical
of Perry and the particular gesture is one that reminds us of Daniel’s youth
and even harks back to the time when we knew him as a boy in the William and
Charlotte Pitt (his parents) series. I could not stop reading it. Stayed up all
night, not wanting to miss any part of it. Will likely read it a second time
for the shear enjoyment of the language and to say goodbye once more to these
characters. I suppose ending with the seventh is a series is fitting since
seven is considered one of the perfect numbers, but I would certainly not be averse
to reading number eight, even if wholly penned by Zackheim.
But
if this is the end, the last new novel by Perry to read, it is certainly a
fitting tribute to her talent and her love of the characters she has created
and we, her loyal readers, have come to know and love.
My
electronic copy came from a reading service. I’m already on the wait list at my
local library; I’d like to hold the hardback in my hand to read. Definitely one
of my top three books so far this year.
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4bbv3Cw
Joan Leotta ©2026
Joan
Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her poetry, essays, cnf, short
stories, and articles are widely published. Mysteries are favorite things to
read.. short and long.. and to write.
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