Saturday Mail Call

KRL Update: Kings River Life Magazine for 2/29/2020

Up in KRL this morning a review and giveaway of "The Lucky One" by Lori Rader-Day along with an interesting interview with Lori

https://kingsriverlife.com/02/29/the-lucky-one-by-lori-rader-day/

And reviews and giveaways of 3 more fun mysteries-"Claw Enforcement": A Second Chance Cat Mystery by Sofie Ryan, "Last Licks": A Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery by Cynthia Baxter, and "Poppy Harmon and the Hung Jury": A Desert Flowers Mystery by Lee Hollis

https://kingsriverlife.com/02/29/more-mystery-fun-cats-ice-cream-and-pi/

We also have an interview with another fun mystery podcast-the first in a series of interviews with mystery podcasters-this one with the team behind "It Was a Dark & Stormy Book Club"

https://kingsriverlife.com/02/29/it-was-a-dark-stormy-book-club-mystery-podcast/

And the latest mystery Coming Attractions from Sunny Frazier

https://kingsriverlife.com/02/29/coming-attractions-march-edition/

We also have reviews of the 2 latest mystery movies from Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel-Picture Perfect Mysteries: "Dead Over Diamonds", and Martha's Vineyard Mysteries: "Riddled with Deceit"

https://kingsriverlife.com/02/29/new-hallmark-movies-mysteries-picture-perfect-marthas-vineyard-mystery-series/

For those who prefer to listen to Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast directly on KRL, the player is now up here for the latest episode featuring the first chapter of "Five Manners of Death" by Darden North, read by local actor Ariel Linn

https://kingsriverlife.com/02/29/the-five-manners-of-death-by-darden-north/

Up this week in KRL News and Reviews we have a review and giveaway of "Microphones and Murder" by Erin Huss, Author

https://www.krlnews.com/2020/02/microphones-and-murder-by-erin-huss.html

And a review and ebook giveaway of "Dark Rum Revenge" by Nicole Leiren and Elizabeth Ashby, published by Gemma Halliday Publishing

https://www.krlnews.com/2020/02/dark-rum-revenge.html

Happy reading,

Lorie

Scott's Take: Book of Sith: Secrets From The Dark Side by Daniel Wallace

Book of Sith: Secrets From The Dark Side by Daniel Wallace is an expanded universe novel from before Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise and threw the canon into the trash. This book collects various pictures, documents, journals and more by various Sith members throughout their history. If one would like to read the original history of the Sith or would like to see how things were before Disney blew it all up, this is a good read for that.

Book of Sith: Secrets From The Dark Side answers questions like how did the rule of two begin? How were the Sith originally formed? How did the Sith go from being thousands to two? How did Palpatine plan the clone wars? What was the first war between the Sith and the Jedi like?

   

This book answers those questions and more. There is also commentary provided by Mace Windu, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, and more, in the margins of the page refuting the points the Sith writers argue. It is just a fun varied read that covers various points in Sith History. I recommended it for Star Wars fans, especially ones who would like to know more about the Sith and their history. At hundred fifty nine pages Book of Sith: Secrets From The Dark Side is not a very long read, but it is an interesting one.

My reading copy came from the Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library.

Scott A. Tipple ©2020

Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and The Luck of the Irish Giveaway

Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and The Luck of the Irish Giveaway

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters: Reviewed by Laura               As I was reading this novel, I thought that I had figured it out before I was halfway through ...

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 44 Calls for Submissions in March 2020 - Paying ma...

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FFB Review: Drum Beat-Madrid by Stephen Marlowe

For this final Friday in February 2020, it seemed like a good time to blow the dust off of this review which first ran back in 2014. After you read his review of  Drum Beat-Madrid by Stephen Marlowe. Make sure to head over to Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom Blog where he will have the roundup of the FFB reviews for this week posted as soon as possible. 

DRUM BEAT--MADRID (1966) by Stephen Marlowe

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

His primary office is in Washington, D.C., but private detective Chester Drum has also opened one in Geneva, Switzerland because his cases so frequently take him out of the United States. One of his most prominent clients, and a recurrent character in several books in this series, is Axel Spade. As Drum explains, “Axel Spade gives professional advice to black marketeers and smugglers. His going rates for an interview are a hundred bucks a half hour, and if you need the kind of advice Spade gives, a half hour of his time is the best investment you can make.” Spade has homes in New York City and Geneva, but must be careful about traveling elsewhere. He’s wanted in more than twenty countries.

When Drum Beat--Madrid opens, Spade and Drum are driving to Navarre, Spain, specifically to the ranch of Captain General Don Santiago Sotomayor, retired commander of the Guardia Civil. The purpose of the trip? Spade is going to marry Sotomayor’s niece, Luz Robles. Drum is to be his best man and, because he has a fair number of enemies, his bodyguard.

The Sotomayor family, the reader soon learns, is as dysfunctional as any outside of a Ross Macdonald novel. Don Santiago’s brother Hernando was a Loyalist during the Spanish Civil War. Don Santiago turned him in, and Hernando was executed. His son José was raised by Don Santiago. His wife and daughter went to Caracas, Venezuela. The wife died there, and Luz was raised by the Robles family. Son Ramón was adopted and raised in Baltimore, Maryland by Hernando’s closest friend. He’s now in the American Army, stationed in Spain, and calls himself Ray Moyers. He clearly has more than a platonic interest in his sister.

The schedule calls for José, who hasn’t seen his sister since they were children, to fly Luz from Madrid to Don Santiago’s ranch. When he lands and Luz is not with him, he explains: “We met in Madrid in the Ritz bar at noon. She had some shopping to do, she said. We were to meet later at the airport. I waited. She did not come. Still I waited. And then, at last, she sent a note saying she was afraid to fly with her señorito of a brother and had decided to take the train to Pamplona instead.”

A ransom note arrives at the ranch the next morning demanding fifty thousand dollars for Luz‘s return, leaving Drum and Spade to wonder why the ransom amount is so low, since Don Santiago can afford a great deal more. Drum spent two years with the FBI before going private, and has more experience handling kidnappings than the Guardia Civil. But Spade is initially unable to persuade Don Santiago to keep the two of them in the loop, let alone to permit Drum to investigate. It’s only after the kidnappers fail to appear at the designated ransom site they send Don Santiago to that the old man grudgingly agrees to let Drum take over. Take over he does, heading immediately to Madrid to try to retrace Luz’s steps and get a line on her current whereabouts--and those of her kidnappers. In doing so he encounters his share of colorful and well-delineated characters; surprises and revelations, not the least of which is the secret of the Sotomayor family treasure; some moral and ethical issues; and plenty of action, especially in Pamplona during the running of the bulls.   

According to Marlowe’s obituaries in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, he was well-traveled and lived in France, Spain and Switzerland. To anyone who has read any of the Chester Drum novels, this will come as no surprise: Marlowe’s sense of place and its culture was always meticulously and vividly rendered. Drum Beat--Madrid is no exception.

Barry Ergang ©2014, 2020

Among other works, Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang's own impossible crime novelette, The Play of Light and Shadow, is available at Amazon and Smashwords as is his recently released book of poetry, Farrago, and other entertaining reads. For more on Barry’s books as well as his editing services, check out Barry’s website.  

In Reference To Murder: Mystery Melange for 2/27/2020

In Reference To Murder: Mystery Melange for 2/27/2020

Writer Beware: MASS CONTRACT CANCELLATIONS AT MYSTERY PUBLISHER HENERY PRESS

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Beneath the Stains of Time: Death and the Professor (1961) by E. and M.A. Radf...

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Terrible Minds: Running A Con, Conference Or Festival In The Age Of A Burgeoning Pandemic!

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Guest Post: Jeanne and Treadmill Books: The Tell Tail Heart by Cate Conte (A Cat Café Mystery)

Maddie James’ life seems to be well on track.  Her cat café, JJ’s House of Purrs (named for her beloved cat JJ) is doing well, as is her love life.  She’s been building up a steady clientele, folks who enjoy a treat while communing with adoptable kittens and cats.  Recently, a man has been coming in with his laptop who seems more intent on working than interacting—which is fine, of course, but just a little unusual. After all, he’s paying $15 an hour when he could be going somewhere else (his local library, to use a totally random example) for free. As it turns out, he probably has a reason for avoiding libraries full of alert readers: the man is Jason Holt, a best-selling author of thrillers whose books have been turned into blockbuster movies.   Rumor has it that he’s trying something new, a non-fiction book about an unsolved case.  Maddie’s mother, an aspiring writer, is an avid fan and anxious to meet Holt and get tips.

But while Maddie can already envision the marketing campaign she can spin out of Holt’s patronage, she has something even more important on her mind: the strange woman who showed up and announced that JJ was her cat, and she wants him back.

As if that isn’t enough to worry about, a body turns up in a canal and Maddie finds herself in the middle of murder investigation.

This is the third in the Cat Café Mystery series.  The characters and setting are in place, though readers who pick up this one first shouldn’t have any problem keeping up.  I felt the plot was more complex than in the first two books, which I like; one of the supporting characters played a more prominent role and readers learned about his past.  This is a light, enjoyable series with an adorable cat, and offers enough entertainment to keep me walking (and don’t underestimate the importance of that!)

Mail Call

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Sandra Ruttan Reviews: The Prisoners of Stewartville by Shannon Felton

Stewartville is a “vortex of weird”. It is a place where urban legends overlap with the very real fear that comes from the town’s isolation and the fact that there are prisons nearby. Blaring sirens indicating a prisoner is on the loose overshadow people’s daily lives. It seems like everyone in town is headed towards those prisons. They’ll either work there or be sent there. That is, perhaps, the closest one will get to the real truth of the town.

Or is it? When a group of teens dare to visit the site where several children died, one spots muddy fingerprints on the back of the car, and yet the road had been empty. Then a strange car follows them and fear sets in.

Two of the boys also find a tunnel connected to a basement. Their easy friendship starts to sour as Denny’s obsession with the tunnel grows. His mom has changed since their move to Stewartville, and tensions are rising in his home.

His friend is being raised by his brother—their mom is locked up —is surrounded by people who aren’t acting normally. His brother fixates on keeping him straight and clean so that he can make something of his life, but that same brother now seems to be using drugs. The house is messier, the food supplies dwindle.

Then people snap. One shocking murder is only the beginning. Is it the ley lines? The tunnels? Something crawling out from beneath the town to wreak vengeance for prior wrongs?

Author Shannon Felton does a great job of creating and building tension throughout this story. She provides just enough info to keep you guessing about what’s really going on, and then still manages to pull the rug out from under your feet with unexpected developments. The town feels all too real, with a lot of people lacking direction and succumbing to their unwelcome fate. There’s a hopelessness that permeates every page, and has you feeling like the characters are under constant pressure to surrender to the pull of the prisons. Whether the curse is real, whether some other evil force is at work, is for you to decide.

Sandra Ruttan ©2020

Sandra Ruttan is the YA, sci fi, fantasy and horror acquisitions editor for Bronzeville Books http://www.bronzevillebooks.com/ and the managing editor for Bronzeville Bee http://www.bronzevillebee.com. Stay up to date via twitter @sandraruttan

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The Rap Sheet: Revue of Reviewers for 2/24/2020

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