Sunday, May 24, 2026
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Signing up for 20 Books of Summer 2026
SleuthSayers: The Urge to Kill
Review: The Brothers McKay: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson
Pepper McKay is very dead. Hated by
nearly everyone, Pepper McKay ran his life, his family and pretty much
everything and everyone else, for miles around for many decades. While he had
his business interests, his marriage a number of years ago gave him control
over what is known as the “O-Kay Ranch.” Located at the mouth of Crazy Woman
Canyon, the dude ranch, is in Absaroka County, Wyoming. That means his death
has to be investigated by the local sheriff, Walt Longmire.
That means the good sheriff and his
number, two, Victoria Moretti, need to get to the scene as fast as possible. It
does not help that they are stuck in a barely moving traffic jam on the road in
thanks to one of two lightning caused wildfires that started overnight. The
fires are running wild, thanks to drought and dead trees and whatnot, and will
go where they want and when they want.
Eventually, they get to the former
working ranch that is now operated as a dude ranch. For decades it was operated
by the Harris family. Then the granddaughter, BeeBee, turned it into a dude ranch,
then married Pepper McKay, and then he went work taking control and running
roughshod over everyone and everybody.
Pepper McKay, a hard drinker, and pretty
much hard at everything, had gone fishing in Crazy Woman Creek that morning. He
had lunch and other food with him, but hadn’t been seen since. One of the long-time
ranch hands had gone looking for him and had finally found him floating face
down in the water. The ranch hand had pulled the body up onto the bank and then
called 911.
Walt Longmire had a long history with
Pepper McKay going back some four decades. So, the fact that the man was drinking
in his last hours is no surprise. Beyond that obvious fact, as Vic examines the
body, she advises Longmore and the newly assigned to the area Wyoming Highway
Patrol Trooper, Shane Wilson, that the back of Pepper McKay’s head shows
obvious signs of some sort of traumatic brain injury. She also notes the
numerous contusions and abrasions, but those could have happened as the body moved
downstream through the churning waters and hit rocks and such. She also notes
that by how heavy he feels, his lungs are probably full of water.
It is clear to all three of them that an
intoxicated Pepper McKay could easily have slipped and fallen, striking his
head in the process, before drowning. It is also very possible to all that he
might have been hit in the head with a rock and left to drown. So, the question
is—accident or murder?
If it was a murder, it would also be a
very complicated case with a laundry list of suspects. For decades Pepper McKay
lived his life like a human wrecking ball—he smashed through obstacles and
people with wild abandon. That means the suspect list, inside and outside the
family, is a long one and complicated. Some neutral observers, if they knew
what had happened decades ago, might put the good Sheriff on that suspect list
too.
As Walt Longmire spins up outside resources
to assist his investigation, another problem is dumped into his lap by the
newly appointed Wyoming Attorney General, his own daughter. Maxim Sidorov wants
to relocate to Durant. With no parole officer in the area, that would mean that
Sheriff Longmire would have to be his parole officer despite the fact that the
man tried to kill him awhile back. Maxim Sidorov lost an eye in that attempt.
He also gained a lot of respect for him and is trying to help him find a great
aunt, Ruth One Heart.
Maxim Sidorov is soon in town, living in
the jail, and advising Walt on what has turned out to be the definite murder of
Pepper McKay. He is instrumental to the investigation which also manages to bug
the heck out of Longmire. He also briefly annoyed this reader who had an out
loud “Duh” moment when Sidorov pointed things out.
The Brothers McKay: A Longmire
Mystery
by Craig Johnson is a highly entertaining read that keeps the reader turning
pages. Part murder mystery, part survivalist action read, it also sets up what
will clearly be the focus of the next book in the series. Unless the author has
juked and head faked this reader on this too.
Recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4e6xQ3e
My digital ARC came by way of Viking
Penguin, through NetGalley, and with no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Saturday, May 23, 2026
KRL Update
Up on KRL this week a review and giveaway of "Gimme Shelter" by Libby Klein https://kingsriverlife.com/05/23/gimme-shelter-by-libby-klein/
Mystery Fanfare: Memorial Day Mysteries // Memorial Day Crime Fiction
Scott's Take: Marvel: What If...Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force? (An X-Men and America Chavez Story) by Rebecca Podos
Marvel: What If...Kitty Pryde
Stole the Phoenix Force? (An X-Men and America Chavez Story) by Rebecca Podos is the
fourth book in the What If… series, but you could read this one
on its own. This one is a complicated time travel book with multiple timelines
and flashbacks throughout.
Billed as an X-Men and America Chavez
story, the main character is actually Kitty Pryde. Kitty Pryde is experiencing flashes
of another life. One where she had way different friends and is not a servant
of the Hellfire Club (mutant led organization that uses its powers for their
own ends) under Emma Frost. These flashes promise a better life.
Soon, a stranger, Betsy Braddock, finds
her and tells her that she has a psychic trail. A trail that leads into the
past. With her help, she can get back the life she should have led. She also
needs Pryde’s help to fix her own timeline as she too has a life she should
have led.
They are not the only ones seeking a way
to go back into the past and fix the timelines. America Chavez is as well.
They are trying to go back in the past
to where the X-Men have lost Jean Grey due to her murder by Dr. Doom and his
multiversal counterpart, The Whisper. They want to steal the Phoenix Force and
Jean Grey’s status as a Nexus Being. The Whisper knows that if they do that,
they will kill everyone who will ever live in this reality. The Whisper does
not care. The fact that there are two timelines, one of which were the X-Men
are all dead, means the heroes failed to save their teammate. Can the heroes
from the broken timelines save Jean Grey and reality?
This is a book with extensive
connections to X-Men history and is an action-packed adventure with strong
character development and romance. I think this book would be hard to follow
for people not very familiar with the X-Men as this read takes place over many
eras of X-Men history. This is a really good book if you are a fan of Kitty
Pryde or the X-Men.
It ends on a bit of cliffhanger since
there is setup for the last book, Marvel:
What If...The Multiverse Was Doomed? by DaVaun Sanders, which comes
out in August. Do not read the synopsis for the fifth book before finishing
this one.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/48Pq2zc
My hardback reading copy came from the
Central Branch, aka Downtown, of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2026
Friday, May 22, 2026
Review: Seldom Seen Road: Burnt River Mysteries by John Degen
These days, there are few books that just grab me
and don’t let go. Seldom Seen Road: Burnt River Mysteries by John
Degen is one of those books. Maybe because I identified so closely to the
central character, Mark Roth. His grief and his isolation very much hit home
for this reader.
Life often happens in unplanned and devesting ways.
Living in the isolated cabin on the north shore of Lake Huron was planned, in a
way. After all, they had bought the cabin and planned to live there a lot once
Mark retired. The two of them aging day by day together. He never contemplated
the unthinkable. Mark never planned on being a widower.
But, he is.
Sara is gone and he spends a lot of his waking time
at the cabin drinking in isolation. His
life has closed down to visits with a police cousin who patrols the area,
fishing, baseball games, an occasional phone call or visit with their academic daughter,
and all the booze one man alone can drink. Their daughter, Stephanie, is a criminalist
and college professor living many hours away in Thunder Bay. He is a lonely man
living at a very isolated cabin deep in the woods and locked in a world of
grief and loss.
As the book opens, Mark Roth is out in his boat and
fishing as the night begins to overtake Lake Huron. By way of his hearing aids,
a Bluetooth connection, and his cellphone, he is listening to the visiting Toronto
Blue Jays take on the Cleveland Indians at the stadium several hundred miles to
the south. It is a nice night and he is deeply focused on the game and the
images he sees of it by way of the audio byplay.
It is only when he can no longer see his bobber
floating in the darkness, and can easily see the lights of a large tanker
coming far too close for his very small craft, that he decides it is time to go
back to the shore. He reels his last cast in, fires up the boat motor and
running lights, and swivels in his seat to look at the nearby shoreline and the
lights of the very small town.
It is only then that he sees the strobing lights of
at least eleven emergency vehicles lined up around the mouth of the river as
well as numerous more flying down the Trans-Canada Highway at high speed. Something
very bad has happened and he realizes he can also hear sirens like crazy. The
small town of Burnt River is hopping tonight.
He heads back in to the marina where he rented the
boat earlier and finds the owner, Madeline Colby. She says somebody was found
in the water, tangled up in the roots of a tree on her shoreline. A kid at the
local diner saw the man and freaked out. Soon, Mark’s cousin, Constable Jeremy
Roth, was first on the scene and jumped into the cold waters to rescue the guy.
Not that he actually needed to do that as the man
had been long dead by the time Jeremy got to him. And it wasn’t just a few
minutes dead either. Snagged in the limbs of a fallen tree, the dead man had
very live lamprey eels feeding off his face. From the way the body appears,
somebody murdered the man, and then came here to dump the body. The killer or
killers most likely expected the body to drift out into the cold deep waters of
Lake Huron to never be seen again. So much for that.
Who is this man and why was he murdered?
Identifying the dead is the easy part. Why it
happened and who did it is a puzzler. Mark Roth has considerable interest as
his cousin, Jeremy, is involved thanks to his actions. Constable Jeremy Roth
may be on the outside of the case looking in, for a variety of reasons, but he
does have some access, and Mark wants all the details.
If Stephanie had her way, her dad would abandon the
isolated cabin and move to her in Thunder Bay or in a home somewhere where he
wasn’t alone. She worries. She always did, but it is way worse with her mom
gone and how her dad is in the aftermath. She is very aware that her dad is
doing little more than marking time. The last thing she wants is for him to
start poking around at the fringes of a murder.
Yet, that case seems to be the one thing that gets
her retired dad going a bit. His life was in music, not police work. But, he is
very interested and wants to bounce case ideas off of her despite the fact that
she is an academic and not an actual investigator. A part of her, whether she
truly wants to admit it, interests her as well. A murder like this just does not
happen in Burnt River.
Yet, it did.
That murder is just the start of things in this
complicated and highly atmospheric mystery read. Shifting in point of view to
follow Mark, Jeremy, Stephanie, and others, the case gets bigger and bigger.
Quite a lot is going on in these characters lives and even more is going on
outside them. The woods may be lovely, dark, and deep. But they hold a lot of menace
and violence as well.
Billed as the first book in the Burnt River
Mysteries series, the foundation is well laid in Seldom Seen Road.
The read is strongly recommended.
Make sure you read the author’s guest post on
setting, Is
that a real place?, at Kings River Life Magazine.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4wY3xCO
John Degan’s website: https://www.jkdegen.com/
My digital ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Latitude 46 Publishing, through
NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: BARBECUE MYSTERIES
Beneath the Stains of Time: Blind Man's Buff (1933) by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements
Thursday Treats: 5/21/2026
The latest reading opportunities…
I have known talented author Frank
Zafiro for more than a couple of decades now. He writes multiple series and is
a force of nature. His latest book, Shades of the Job: A Stanley Melvin
P.I. Story, is now up on Amazon
for preorder. Published by Code 4 Press, this is the second book in the series
that began with Hallmarks of the Job: A
Stanley Melvin P.I. Story.
Author Kathleen Kent used to live here in Texas and appeared at various “Noir at the Bar: Dallas” events. She survived unscathed the experiences of reading at the same events I read at as well, but eventually her and her husband, Jim David, fled to the high ground of Colorado. She announced on Facebook earlier this week that her short story, Last of the Kilgore Boohags, was published in the new anthology, Beneath the Bluebonnets: Tales of Terror by Texas Women. Published by Castle Bridge Media, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors.
Fellow SMFS list member Tori Eldridge announced on the
list that her new book, Hawai'i Rage: Ranger
Makalani Pahukula Mystery,
was now out. Published by Thomas & Mercer, this is the second book in the
series that began with, Kaua'i Storm.
You can pick up the new book, or both, in a variety of formats at Amazon and other vendors.
The latest issue of Black Cat Weekly
also came out. Black Cat Weekly #246 includes a short story by SMFS list
member Al Sirois (Knife Edge) among other works. The tale set in ancient Egypt
features Investigator Weni-Ka, a frequent character in his trilogy, The
Imhotep Chronicles. You can pick up the latest issue of this
weekly, multi genre, magazine here.
Finally, also coming out next week are
the very good, and very different, books by Craig Johnson and Lee Goldberg. The Brothers McKay is the latest in
the long running Longmire Mystery series
by Craig Johnson. I will have my review for that read this Sunday. And,
on Tuesday, I will have for you my review of Murder by Design, the first book is
a new series by Lee Goldberg.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
SleuthSayers: The Second Time Around
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in April 2026
George Kelley: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #271: THE SPACE OPERA RENAISSANCE Edited by David G. Hartwell and Khatryn Cramer (Section IV)
George Kelley: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #271: THE SPACE OPERA RENAISSANCE Edited by David G. Hartwell and Khatryn Cramer (Section IV)
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE RETURN OF THE SPECKLED BAND
Short Story Wednesday Review: Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House Editors Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson
When the publisher Down & Out Books went under, it took down a lot of good crime fiction reading. Slowly, those books are coming back with new publishers. Such is the case here as Editor Michael Bracken recently announced on Facebook that the eBook version was now up at Amazon and elsewhere for preorders. So, I thought I would remind you of this great read that is now being published by Audecyn Books. I would also warn you that, at the time of this writing, to ignore the book description at Amazon and elsewhere as it pertains to a totally different anthology.
Edited by Michael Bracken and Stacy
Woodson, Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction
Inspired by Waffle House is a fun crime fiction read. Some of the tales
are noirish in style while others are more middle of the road crime fiction
reads. There is humor, plenty of food references, and a number of folks who
really should have known better than to do what they did.
There are sixteen short stories in the
read. Every one of them is a good one. The short stories referenced here with
my brief comments are those that really resonated with me. Your choices, no
doubt, would vary.
It should also be noted that I am one of those people who just reads an anthology straight through from front to back. I don’t poke around reading people I know first or anything like that. So, the listing below is in the order that I came across them as I read and not any implied ranking of my favorites.
Alan Orloff’s “Well Done” features a place in a bad way, a need for money, and an arsonist that is willing to work cheap. Of course, the arsonist’s name is “Scorch.” It had to be his name and there is also one heck of a fire.
Win’s Waffles, owned and operated by
Winfred Perkins III, is also having a hard time of things. The long running
family business is going under in “The Price of Blood” by Nils Gilbertson. He
knows the legacy is almost dead. He also knows that Duncan Dudley is an idiot
who is constantly involved in failed money-making schemes. But, his latest
venture is just crazy enough that it could work.
Editor Michael Bracken’s “Windfall”
takes three characters and, on one hand, drops them in the exact right place at
the right time. Another way of looking at it is that the three are in the wrong
place at the absolute worst time. An armored car robbery and human nature is at
work in this tale.
Lucie Heinz has always tried to keep her
brother safe, not that he has listened very well over the years. Her brother,
Carson, has made it very hard in “The Ham & Egger” by J. D. Allen. They have been hiding, for good reason, and
big sister thought that she could indulge her brother’s desire to get out after
being house bound for days. She thought they could safely go out to the Silver
Saddle Saloon for a couple of hours. What had seemed like a good idea, clearly
wasn’t. Hindsight won’t help them now.
“The Heart of Darkness” by Tammy Euliano
also features a sibling who was expected to do everything to protect the
younger brother. When he left, Dad took it hard, and told him to never come
back home. Mom is dead so he is back for the funeral and trying to figure out
what happened during her last days.
Like when Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel shows up in your town, when the Waffle House closes, you know things are really bad. That has happened in Donna Andrew’s “When Even Waffle House Closes.” The winter storm is causing havoc and she is in trouble as the storm could kill her. So could the robbers who are as deadly as the southern snowstorm.
The sixteen short stories that are present here are all entertaining reads. The detailed bios at the end of the book help readers in their quest to read more by these authors.
Scattered, Smothered, Covered
& Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House is an
interesting and highly entertaining crime fiction read. It incorporates a
premise that could easily be used again and again for additional volumes in a
potential series. This reader hopes that happens as Scattered, Smothered,
Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, edited
by Michael Bracken and Stacy Woodson is a mighty good read. It also might make
you hungry
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4tOt12p
Published by Down & Out Books, my
reading copy was a digital edition and purchased by yours truly using funds in
my Amazon Associate Account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025, 2026
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Little Big Crimes: It's Complicated, by Nick Guthrie
Jerry's House of Everything: OVERLOOKED FILM: BEHIND THAT CURTAIN (1929)
Publication Day Review: Ironwood: A Catalina Novel by Michael Connelly
As Ironwood: A Catalina Novel
by Michael Connelly begins, it is approximately one year after the events of Nightshade.
While it is always preferable to have read the first book in a series first,
one could start here as there are minimal references to the past events.
In the aftermath of a police operation
gone horribly wrong, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Detective Sergeant
Stilwell of the Catalina substation, is in a world of trouble. At least he is
alive and relatively uninjured. Not that he cares. One of his deputies is dead.
Another is very seriously wounded and may not survive the emergency medical
helicopter ride to the mainland.
Making things worse, if that is
possible, is the fact that the suspects got away. The Department will conduct
an extensive investigation. Every decision and action by Detective Sergeant
Stilwell will be heavily scrutinized and second guessed.
That process begins with the arrival
from the mainland of his immediate boss, Captain Corum, accompanied by members of
a team of investigators. After he is questioned by a number of people over a
multi hour period where he has to go through everything over and over, detail
by detail, Captain Corum finally tells him that he is in the clear, for now. He
is grounded to the substation and on the bench. When he is on duty, he is to
confine himself to the substation for his shift, and to take care of paperwork,
storage concerns, and other issues. He isn’t to involve himself in the investigation
of the events out on the tarmac which allowed a drug plane to escape and left
one deputy under his command dead and another one near death.
As if being told to stay out of it is
going to ever happen. Detective Sergeant Stilwell is used to working around the
bosses. Part of the reason he is out on Catalina Island is the fact that the
Department sends problematic folks out there for various disciplinary reasons. The
posting is supposed to be a punishment. For him, it has grown into a very
positive situation for many different reasons. At his heart, he is still law enforcement,
and isn’t just going to sit around and do nothing.
He knows he chased a suspect down a
hillside even though there is very little proof of that fact. He also has a
pretty good idea of what the suspect looked like. That suspect is probably
still on the island and holed up waiting for the first ferry of the day. Obviously,
staking out the ferry and its passengers is the way to go.
His work leads him to a suspect, an
arrest, and then an incident that gets him deeper into trouble. It also leads
him into a separate cold case murder investigation, a serial killer, and work with
Ballard and her team.
I’m intentionally skimming the surface,
if that much, of this read in order to avoid spoilers. Simply put, Ironwood:
A Catlina Novel is a might good read from the intense beginning right
to the last sentence. Well worth your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4sPe4h9
My digital ARC reading copy came from
the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, by way of NetGalley, with no expectation
of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Monday, May 18, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Hero: A DS Walker Thriller by Patricia Wolf
The fifth book in the DS Lucas
Walker series by Patricia Wolf, to be released later this month, is as good as
the earlier titles. Wolf has the gift of creating immersive and original narratives
that immediately pull me in. I raced through this one in a day.
Hero (Embla Books, May 2026) finds
Walker back in Queensland, after being caught up in an internal political
fracas within the Australian Federal Police. He ended up on the Queensland
force, in a tiny town called Katima, an easy drive from his hometown Caloodie,
where he spends his weekends with his family, something he couldn’t do in his
previous job.
The body of a young man
hanging from a tree was the first big case for Walker in his new job. Walker
was suspicious of the supposed suicide arrangement from the start and sure
enough the autopsy revealed the man had died of an overdose. Walker was
attempting to identify the victim when a retired member of the force mentioned
a cold case with strong similarities. The earlier victim was never identified
and it always worried the retiree. A call from the Conroy estate sent the two
cases from Walker’s mind, as Caden Conroy, the professional cricket player and
national hero, had been bloodily murdered in his drawing room. The killing set
off frantic demands for immediate arrests, and political strings were pulled at
all levels. Walker as part of the local police was considered incapable of
handling a major investigation. While he was forced to hand the Conroy case
over to the federal police, he still had the other two cases to work, which
began to show odd connections to the Conroy family and the cricket academy they
ran.
The craze for sports gambling
of all kinds and the potential for its abuse as well as the tendency to hold
sports figures up as objects of adulation are examined thoroughly in this
story. My knowledge of cricket, which is considered to be Australia’s national
sport, is unfortunately limited to a chapter in Murder Must Advertise by
Dorothy L. Sayers where Lord Peter Wimsey displays his skill at the game.
A thread about Walker’s niece
demonstrates his attachment to his family and his desire to stay close to them.
His late grandmother and her house remain deeply important to him, giving him a
depth of humanity not always seen in crime fiction protagonists.
The settings are exotic, the
characters are terrific, and the plots in this series are innovative and well
executed. Fans of outback noir and police procedurals should definitely add
these books to their TBR lists. Readers of the series will be delighted with
this new entry. Recommended!
- Publisher:
Embla Books
- Publication
date: May 20, 2026
- Language:
English
- Print
length: 432 pages
- ISBN-10:
1471422666
- ISBN-13:
978-1471422669
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4nv7Qkx
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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