Showing posts with label August 2025. Show all posts
Showing posts with label August 2025. Show all posts
Sunday, August 31, 2025
Mystery Fanfare: NGAIO MARSH AWARDS FINALISTS
Mystery Fanfare: NGAIO MARSH AWARDS FINALISTS: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards Finalists The finalists for the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards were announced in three categories: Best Novel, Best First ...
SleuthSayers: There's Always A Catch
SleuthSayers: There's Always A Catch: Because I work at home, I've been looking for opportunities to get out into the community and have some social contact with actual … um ...
Sweet Freedom: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links to the reviews and more, 29 August 2025
Sweet Freedom: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: the links to the revie...: Patti Abbott: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell Brad Bigelow: The Great Day by Georgette Carneal Ben Boulden: Front Sight: Three Swagger Nove...
Review: Splintered Justice: A Linder and Donatelli Mystery by Kim Hays
Splintered Justice: A Linder and Donatelli Mystery by Kim Hays is the latest read
in this complicated police procedural series that began with Pesticide.
Set in Bern, Switzerland, social issues have always been a part of the series
as they impact the crimes in the books in one way or another. That happens here
as the events in Croatia in the 90s has a significant impact on one of the two primary
storyline police cases. So too does a long-ago case that may or may not have
led to a wrong conclusion.
The
church known as the Bern Münster Cathedral of St.
Vincent is a historic and special place. Many years ago, a death happened there
that may or may not have been a suicide. The incident was not deeply
investigated and most folks accepted the ruling of suicide and have moved on.
In
the here and now, Detective Renzo Donatelli has had a rough afternoon at the
dentist. Finally free from the chair and feeling the aftereffects of work in
his mouth, he is walking adjacent to the Bern Münster Cathedral in Bern, Switzerland,
and headed back to work. He’s thinking about having a coffee as well as case
that Detective Giuliana Linder has and that he is assisting on, when a young
boy crashes into him. The sight of Renzo’s service weapon makes the kid panic
and he scrambles to his feet and flees.
Detective
Renzo gives chase and soon loses him in the traffic and pedestrians. Thinking about
how much the sight of his weapon terrified the kid, he checks in with dispatch to
see if there are any reports of a crime that has been committed in the nearby
vicinity. While dispatch does not have any reports of a crime, they do have a
report that somebody shook the scaffolding at the nearby Bern Münster Cathedral
of St. Vincent and a worker was hurt in the incident.
He
returns to church and goes inside to find another officer as well as Denis
Kellenberger who has been injured. He is an apprentice glassmaker and was high
up in the church working on a window that is hundreds of years old. Hew says
somebody started shaking the scaffolding and screaming that he was a murderer.
He fell off the scaffolding and now has a broken wrist and other injuries.
Some
of the other people in the church at the time he fell have a lot of harsh
things to say about the victim. Then there are their accounts of what happened
to consider. Clearly, this was not a prank with unintended consequences. The
person that shook the scaffold did it with malicious intent and is lucky the
apprentice glassmaker is not dead.
Detective
Renzo Donatelli has a lot of reasons to investigate this case as a serious
crime and does. His doing so means that he has far less time to assist with a
case that Detective Giuliana Linder had drop in her lap a few days earlier when
the detective handling it had to suddenly take a leave.
Tamara
Hofstetter is sure that her father was murdered and her step mother did it. Her
brother, Sebestian Allemann, does not seem to be as sure and is just going along
with his sister who is clearly on a warpath. For Detective Giuliana Linder,
this new case that has been thrust upon her is the death of their stepfather a
few months earlier. The adult children believe that their stepmother, Ruth Seiler,
murdered their father, Werner Allemann.
The
man had been suffering dementia for some time and had gotten much worse in the
months preceding his death this past February. Sometime in the fall, they
realized that their dad was very sick and urgently needed help. They are very
upset that they were not told earlier and that his illness was hid from them. As
soon as they found out how bad things truly were, they wanted him admitted to a
specialized nursing home. Such a place would have been incredibly expensive. That
financial cost and the impact to their savings was why their stepmother did not
want it to happen.
But,
it was finally going to happen over her objections. Then he suddenly died.
It
is the daughter’s belief that their stepmother deliberately poisoned their 82-year-old
father with insulin in the short time before he was to be admitted in order to
keep her half of the inheritance. The stepmother, Ruth, has already admitted to
giving him the insulin and has been arrested and charged.
As
the case proceeds in the legal system, it is now Detective Guilianna Linder’s
job to go over the previous detective’s work, and the case as a whole, verify
everything, add context and background, and stand ready to assist the
prosecution in court. Tamara wants everyone involved, his doctor and others, as
well as her stepmother fully prosecuted and in jail. The case is complicated
and troubling which is part of the reason Detective Renzo Donatelli is
involved.
Those
two cases drive the police procedural side of the book. As always, the family
lives of Linder and Donatelli are their own major storylines. Their evolving family
life stories arc through the series and this read. Change is coming and not
always in the way either one would like it to happen. Things there, as well as
in the cases, develop slowly, and the very complicated read gradually works
towards a conclusion that works completely.
A
series that should be read in order, Splintered Justice: A Linder and
Donatelli Mystery from Seventh Street Books is another solidly good
read. Author Kim Hays continues to craft books that are highly entertaining and
educational and are very much worth your time.
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4fV0tyU
My
reading copy came in digital format through the Hoopla App and the Dallas
Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Saturday, August 30, 2025
SleuthSayers: Oldies but Goodies
SleuthSayers: Oldies but Goodies: One of the favorite subjects of those (like me) who like to write mystery/crime short stories is the sad fact that there are so few current ...
Jerry's House of Everything: WOMEN OUTLAWS (SEPTEMBER 1949)
Jerry's House of Everything: WOMEN OUTLAWS (SEPTEMBER 1949): Why should men have all the fun, robbin' and killin' and all that? Isn't it time for the distaff side to prove their worth? Bel...
Scott's Take: G.O.D.S. by Jonthan Hickman and Valerio Schiti (Illustrator)
G.O.D.S. by Jonthan
Hickman and Valerio Schiti (Illustrator) and others collects the eight-issue
miniseries which ends on a cliffhanger. There is no word on if or when this
series will continue. So, it is a hard volume to review since the story feels
unfinished. This book is supposed to shake up the cosmic hierarchy of the gods
in the Marvel Universe and there are a lot of big ideas thrown around in the
book. The read mostly features new characters even though there are cameos by
multiple heroes. The only familiar face that sticks around for long is Dr.
Strange and he has a line that is said which does not fit him.
So, there are two main factions that
basically control the universe and keep it running. They don’t get along. There
is the magical side led THE-POWERS-THAT-BE which has one main guy named Wyn.
The other side, THE-NATURAL-ORDER-OF-THINGS, has several hundred science types with
the main one that is focused on being Wyn’s ex-wife, Aiko. Then there are several
secondary factions that want to tear everything down and start over. There is
also the rogue entity, behold to no group or person, named Cubik Core who is
committing sabotage and murder to destabilize the cold détente. He is the main
reason that things escalate.
Each issue is widely different. New big
ideas are thrown out without a lot of time being done to finish setting up. The
final issue is a time skip issue where time travel is used and things get
potentially very messy.
Wyn is our cynical romantic while Aiko
is our logic-based character who regrets her actions. Of course, they have
sidekicks, and there is a lot of new characters introduced. There is supposed
to be a tie into the One World Under Doom project, but that is
not collected here.
I read all eight issues through the Marvel Unlimited App through
the basic way. There is another version supposed to be formatted specially for
electronic devices, but I don’t like the way those are displayed, so I did not
do that version. The art is great and it is an interesting read. I just wish it
was longer. I can’t say enough good things about the art.
The ending is abrupt and, as noted stops
on a cliffhanger. There is no return date planned at this time because Hickman’s
Ultimate Universe is a major hit and this did not sell as well. Hickman
is also busy writing Imperial which is a Marvel event that is
shaking up the galactic seating of all the alien factions out in the cosmos.
Readers might just be stuck in limbo
forever. I still think its worth reading if you can accept that fact that there
might be no resolution anytime soon if ever.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3UozPEH
As noted, I read this through the Marvel Unlimited App.
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
Friday, August 29, 2025
Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – Throwing Shadows by Claire Booth
Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – Throwing Shadows by Claire Booth
Mystery Fanfare: LABOR DAY AND LABOR UNION CRIME FICTION for the Labor Day Weekend!
Mystery Fanfare: LABOR DAY AND LABOR UNION CRIME FICTION for the La...: Labor Day Weekend! I'm only aware of a few mysteries set during the Labor Day Holiday, and I've updated my list accordingly...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Spell the Month in Books — August 2025
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Spell the Month in Books — August 2025: Spell the Month in Books is a monthly meme hosted by Jana at Reviews from the Stacks . The link up post is posted on the first Saturday o...
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: SMFS Members at Bouchercon 2025
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: SMFS Members at Bouchercon 2025: Bouchercon 2025, the International Mystery Conference, will be held in New Orleans from September 3-7. Many members of the Short Mystery Fi...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: One Night's Mystery
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: One Night's Mystery: May Agnes Fleming (1840-1880) was one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction, reportedly...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: NOTHING BUT A DRIFTER
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: NOTHING BUT A DRIFTER: Nothing But a Drifter by Lee Hoffman (1976) Brian (no last name ever given) is a drifter, never having the urge to settle down. After a...
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