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...

Review: A Study in Secrets: A Redacted Man Mystery by Jeffrey Siger

 

As A Study in Secrets: A Redacted Man Mystery by Jeffrey Siger begins, Michael likes to sit in his penthouse window and imagine the lives of the people he sees that pass by his home. The wealthy recluse has a good perch as his townhouse faces an entrance to the neighborhood park directly across the street. A former intelligence operative who gave a lot to this country, physically, emotionally, and every other way possible, lives a life of quiet isolation. He rarely goes out and has very limited social contact. If it wasn’t for his housekeeper, Mrs. Baker, he might not speak to another person for days.

 

He has many people to people watch from his perch as he envisions their imaginary lives. He does not know their names, their occupations, or anything else real about them. He watches them, the strays and the regulars, and creates stories in his head of them and how they are going about their day. That includes a regular, a young woman in her gray coat, who daily sits on one of the park benches at the entrance to the park. She arrives shortly before dawn each day, and once the sun is up, walks deeper inside the park and becomes lost to his view.

 

While he imagines her life one way, her actual reality is far different. She has a routine that she must follow, with no exceptions. Her boss made that very clear on her first day. The same boss who is soon very dead on the floor of the apartment she shares with two other women.

 

Thanks to her boss being shot in the head, she now has no job. She can’t stay there. She can’t go to the cops. She certainly can’t tell anyone about her job. How much the roommates know about what she does, she has no idea, but they can’t be trusted either. She has no money, no resources, and no option other than to sleep on the bench at the edge of the park. It is dangerous, but that park bench is the one place that she feels any safety at all.

 

Fortunately, for her, Michael is awake and watching when she goes to the bench and lies down to sleep. He has always been intrigued by her. Haunted by those he failed to save, the elderly man is not going to let her sleep there unprotected. He certainly can’t just walk over and bring her home. With no other choice, as he sees it, he calls a person he has not spoken to in decades to ask for help for her.

 

That action by Michael starts a domino chain of events as the figure on the bench needs a lot of help. That help will come in many different ways as the threat to her life evolves again and again.

 

Beyond the obvious references to the legendary Sherlock Holmes, what struck my me most was how much this setup reminded me of the original The Equalizer TV show. During the last half of the 80s, CBS aired the drama. Edward Woodward was the dashing and sophisticated Robert McCall. He was a former intelligence operative and a man of considerable means. He was also your way out if you had no one else to help. All you had to do was call him by way of his newspaper ad. Back then, it was must see viewing for my late wife and me. It was also far and away superior to the rebooted version that CBS came up with in recent years.

 

That premise seems to be at work here, as I read the novel. Elderly man with a cane and plenty of money, a recluse who retired after a long career in the intelligence services, disengaged from the world, is pushed into a situation where he is compelled to help a very vulnerable young woman. That push to help begins to break him free of the protective shell he has created around himself. He gradually reengages with the world and the people around him, one slow step at a time.

 

That decision to contact somebody he has not spoken to in decades to get her help as she laid on the bench that cold night, starts a chain that changes everything for quite a few people in this very enjoyable first book of the new series. A solidly good read that gradually builds the tempo to a very satisfying conclusion. A Study in Secrets: A Redacted Man Mystery by Jeffrey Siger is well your time and attention.

 

 

For another perspective on the book, make sure you read Lesa Holstine’s recent review here.

 

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3LPgXhO 

 

 

My digital ARC came by way of the publisher, Severen House, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

Thursday Treats: 2/5/2026

Welcome back to “Thursday Treats.”  Viewership dropped more than half from week one to last week, so that was less than thrilling. So too was our weather event though things easily could have been way worse.

 

We survived the three inches of sleet and a dusting of snow, though not completely unscathed. Scott fell twice last week on back to back days trying to get stuff out to the bins. With my cane, there was no way I could do it. He did not break anything, but his neck remains sore and stiff. 

As to publishing news of interest….

 

Author Nikki Knight has the third book in her Gracie “The Hit Mom” Mystery series coming out next week. Murder on the Sea Otter Express: A Grace "The Hit Mom" Mystery takes readers to the New Haven Aquarium where Gracie’s intended target dies without her taking action. Comes out Tuesday in hardback, paperback, and eBook.

 

Author Michael Bracken, and many others, appear in Black Cat Weekly #231. This is a weekly publication featuring short stories and novellas in multiple genres. You can buy individual issues or one of the far better subscription deals at blackcatweekly.com.

 

Also out now is Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 16 Winter 2026. Edited and published by Brandon Barrows, the issue includes short stories by Mr. Barrows, Vinnie Hansen, and others. I am way behind on my reading, but I have enjoyed and reviewed previous issues.

 

Fellow SMFS list member Ron Clyburn announced on the list that his short story, The Fence, was available to read online at The Literary Garage. This is a free read and well worth your time.

 

Speaking of free reads, Michael Bracken announced that his short story, Store-Crossed Lovers, appears at the Substack of Cold Caller Magazine. You can read it here. By the way, he also recently announced that he, Joe R. Lansdale, Cheryl Head, and Warren S. Moore, will lead a writing workshop for the month of July on learning how to write crime fiction. Looks like it will be a really cool thing to do. You can learn more at the Newberry College website.  

 

M. E. Proctor also announced that her short story collection, A Book to Live By: Stories from a Different World, is now out. Published by Wordwooze Publishing, the read is available in eBook and paperback.

 

Jeffrey Siger announced on Facebook that his book, A Study In Secrets is the first book in his new The Redacted Man series. He explains the background of the book in this blog post as well as at his website. It is at Amazon as well as at other places.  I have read the book, enjoyed it, and will have my review up on this blog soon.

 

Until next time…. 

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Study in Secrets by Jeffrey Siger

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Study in Secrets by Jeffrey Siger

Mystery Fanfare: My Not So Secret Love Affair: Guest Post by Jeffrey Siger

Mystery Fanfare: My Not So Secret Love Affair: Guest Post by Jeffre...: Thank you, Janet Rudolph, for inviting me to share with your Mystery Fanfare readers the essence of what’s driven me to set my fourteen-volu...

Publication Day Review: Murder in Mykonos: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery by Jeffrey Siger

 

Murder in Mykonos: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery by Jeffrey Siger is the first book in the series originally published by the Poisoned Pen Press. Now published by Severn House, the book begins a series of at least fourteen police procedurals set in Greece. In this case, specifically, the Greek island of Mykonos.

 

At thirty-four, Andreas Kaldis has been a hot shot homicide detective in the capital city of Athens. But, he annoyed those in power, so he has been “promoted” out of town. He is the new Chief of Police for the island of Mykonos. One of the smallest places in the Cyclades Islands, it has become a go to spot for the wealthy who are taking over everything. Those wealthy folks are calling the shots, the locals be damned, and Kaldis is the answer. Not only is he good at his job, it also gets him out of multiple cases in Athens, and allows some powerful people there to sleep better at night.

 

Politics and orders mean that he arrives on the island in early June along with numerous tourists. The first couple of weeks in the new job are rocky as he makes changes, but he has hope of surviving the summer, and getting back to Athens.

 

That hope takes a body blow when a worker discovers a body inside a small church. Kladis is supposed to immediately report the find to the Central Police Headquarters on the bigger island of Syros, but Kladis is here because he tends to do his own thing. So, he wants to see the situation for himself before folks from elsewhere trample all over his possible crime scene.

 

Upon arriving at the church and hearing the story from the worker, it does not take long for them to see the body in the floor of the church. The body inside the very small chamber is recent, decomposing, and clearly posing in place. With confirmation of the body, Kladis has his people report the situation to those who need to know on Syros.

 

A team is dispatched to him and arrives by boat to the island. That assemblage includes a man by the same of Tassos Stamatos, Chief Homicide Investigator for the Cyclades. Though he has several decades of experience on him, he has the same attitude about finding the truth and getting the guilty caught as Kladis. Those additional decades of experience make him better at navigating both local and national politics. That fact will be a huge help as the case moves forward.

 

Primarily because they have stumbled on the unthinkable—a serial killer. The body is the work of a serial killer who has been active for quite some time. A serial killer, who in all likelihood, has taken the daughter of Ambassador Vanden Haag. Young Annika Vanden Haag is also the niece of the Deputy Minister for Public Safety. She is missing and going to be his next kill if Stamatos and Kaldis don’t find him first. 

 

Full of Greek politics and history that does not slow down the mystery at work, Murder in Mykonos: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery by Jeffrey Siger is a very good read. Rich in details, both investigators do the work the old-fashioned way of going to a lot of places and asking question.

 

The result is a very complex and extremely entertaining read well worth your time. If you are new to the series, as I am, this is well worth your time and attention.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3WuetHj

 

 

My digital ARC came from Severn House, where I am preapproved, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review. While NetGalley does not yet list the second book, Assassins of Athens, Amazon has it coming out on November 20^th along with the entire rest of the series on the same day.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Lesa's Book Critiques: Not Dead Yet by Jeffrey Siger

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Not Dead Yet by Jeffrey Siger

Lesa's Book Critiques: AT ANY COST BY JEFFREY SIGER

 Lesa's Book Critiques: AT ANY COST BY JEFFREY SIGER

Lesa's Book Critiques: ONE LAST CHANCE BY JEFFREY SIGER

 Lesa's Book Critiques: ONE LAST CHANCE BY JEFFREY SIGER

Lesa Book Critiques: A DEADLY TWIST BY JEFFREY SIGER

 Lesa Book Critiques: A DEADLY TWIST BY JEFFREY SIGER

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger

 

Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger (Poisoned Pen Press, 2008) is the first book in the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis police procedural series. Kaldis has run afoul of his superiors in the homicide department in Athens and is banished to the island of Mykonos to serve as chief of the small police force there. He is trying hard to fly under the radar in what he considers a backwater until he can work his way back to Athens. Mykonos is an international resort with round-the-clock drinking and partying and an affluent tourist trade that provides the backbone of the island’s economy. Not much serious crime there to interest a homicide professional.

 

When a body is discovered in an abandoned church, the town authorities are only concerned about the effect on tourism, until another one turns up and then another. It appears that a serial killer has been operating under their collective noses for years, and blonde female tourists seem to be his target. Kaldis is required by protocol to report the crime to the Central Police Headquarters on another island. Their lead homicide investigator named Tassos and Kaldis team up to identify the killer while fending off the interference of the self-serving local administration. Since the murders display familiarity with the area, they are forced to look at island residents, another reason the mayor is unhappy. Mykonos is home to several eccentrics, some of whom can’t be accounted for during crucial times. Kaldis and Tassos investigate each one, knowing that the killer could be someone else entirely.

 

The island life is vividly depicted, showing the hedonistic present against the spiritual past. Siger lives part-time in Mykonos and his first-hand knowledge of the land and its people shows throughout. The setting is one of the best parts of the book. The two main characters were great, walking a fine line between commitment to their work and the need to appease a local bureaucracy full of nepotism. The culprit isn’t identified until the very end of the book, maintaining a consistent level of suspense. Siger released 10 more books in this popular series after this one with the twelfth due in 2021.\

 

  

·         Hardcover : 288 pages

·         ISBN-10 : 159058581X

·         ISBN-13 : 978-1590585818

·         Publisher : Poisoned Pen Press; First Edition (December 2, 2008)

·         Language:  English

 

 

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Murder in Mykonos: Jeffrey Siger

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Murder in Mykonos: Jeffrey Siger: Inspector Andreas Kaldis has been assigned to the beautiful island of Mykonos as Police Chief, a promotion of sorts. He is not happy with ...

Lesa's Book Critiques Review: Santorini Caesars by Jeffrey Siger

Lesa's Book Critiques Review: Santorini Caesars by Jeffrey Siger

Devil of Delphi by Jeffrey Siger (Lesa's Book Critiques)

Devil of Delphi by Jeffrey Siger (Lesa's Book Critiques)

Lesa's Latest Contest-- Mystery giveaway - Siger and Delany

As posted elsewhere ....

This week, I'm giving away books by two favorite authors - Jeffrey Siger's Sons of Sparta and Vicki Delany's Under Cold Stone. Details on my blog, http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com. Entries from the U.S. Only, please.

 Lesa Holstine

lesa.holstine@gmail.com http://www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com