Tuesday, May 05, 2026
Sunday, April 12, 2026
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Announcing HOT SHOTS: CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF THE SHORT MYSTERY FICTION SOCIETY
Monday, April 06, 2026
Sunday, March 01, 2026
Little Big Crimes: Love is Blue, by Lawrence Maddox
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Review: Diversion: A Probation Case Files Mystery by Cindy Goyette
Diversion: A Probation Case Files
Mystery
is the third book in the highly enjoyable series that began with Obey
All Laws. While you could start here, it would be best to read that
book and the second one, Early
Termination,
before embarking on this read. There are backstory and character development
aspects in this read that build on storylines of the previous books.
Pulled from very boring mandatory staff
training, Phoenix probation officer Casey Carson teams up with Betz, her
ex-husband and cop, to pay a visit to one Martin Phills as the read begins. He
is a murder suspect and hasn’t been on parole supervision long. Her plan is to tell
him she needs to conduct the usual home visit. Her home is that with his guard down,
Betz and his partner, Anita Moody can get the double murder suspect in custody
before he knows what hit him.
For Casey Carson, it is her last day
before she takes a vacation. Not that her time off is really going to be that
relaxing or even a vacation. She is going to go on a diversion program to
support her sister, Hope, on her new job. (What happened is just one of several
reasons to read the earlier books, so I am not telling you why.) the program is
aimed to help kids with issues better ways of getting high on life instead of
drugs and alcohol. They will be hiking in the mountains around Flagstaff and on
their own.
Because Martin Phillips is very much
armed at the time of custody, as well as his violently resisting arrest, it
should be easy to keep him in custody, regardless of how the murder
investigation pans out. She can go on vacation secure in the knowledge that everything
is handled.
It does not take long for everything on
the diversion program vacation has gone wrong in every way possible. Casey Carson,
Hope, and others face a lack of supplies, an out-of-control wildfire, and,
among other issues, a killer who wants what he wants and is stalking one of
them order to get it.
An interesting and fast-moving read, Diversion:
A Probation Case Files Mystery by Cindy Goyette is also a mighty good
book and well worth your time. This read is published by Level Best Books, as
are the earlier installments of the series.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4u3CGnf
My digital ARC came by way of the author
with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Monday, February 16, 2026
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Little Big Crimes: The Right to Lose, by Wil Medearis
Sunday, February 08, 2026
Little Big Crimes: The Summer Tournament, by Jason Starr
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Little Big Crimes: The Cutting Room Floor, by Eric Beetner
Friday, September 26, 2025
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Tuesday, September 09, 2025
Publication Day Review: Crime Writer by Vinnie Hanson
Any police officer will tell you there
is no such thing as a routine traffic stop. Things can go bad in a second. That
is exactly what happened to Officer Austin, and his ride along, Zoey Kozinski,
in the new novel, Crime Writer by Vinnie Hansen.
Zoey is a writer and in the police car
this September evening because she is working on her project. The novel is
pretty much stalled and she is hoping that the ride along might provide some real-world
inspirational details that will help get it going. Her agent certainly would
like to see some progress too.
It is the night shift for those on the
job in Playa Maria County in the central coast of California and the ride along
isn’t doing much at all for her. Officer Austin isn’t sharing much with her at
all despite her best efforts.
After several unremarkable situations,
Officer Austin decides to pull over a random car. It takes a considerable distance
for the driver to stop as the person seems oblivious to the lights and siren.
Once it does stop, the officer approaches the vehicle. Within seconds he is
dead on the roadway.
The shooter immediately speeds off and
then, within a couple of minutes, as Zoey tries to comprehend what she saw and
get help, comes back and passes the scene. There is no way the shooter did not
see her as the car came by. That means the shooter knows she is a witness.
A witness that needs to be eliminated.
A witness that the police believe is
actually the suspect.
A witness the devastated widow firmly believes
needlessly distracted her husband and father of their children and thereby got
him killed.
What follows is Zoey trying to come to
grips with what she saw and the aftermath of the tragedy. At the same time, she
has to deal with suspicious members of law enforcement who treat here as a
suspect as well as killer who is trying to find her and silence her. Things are
complicated in her life before the shooting. All that gets way worse afterwards
and gets even more complicated before long.
Don’t forget Mom. She is sure she knows
best on all things and Zoey isn’t having it.
Crime Writer by Vinnie Hansen
is an entertaining fast moving read. It starts with a compelling idea about an
officer killed during a ride along (a thankfully rare event) and builds out
from there in a myriad of ways. Zoey is smart, funny, emotional, and a fiery
redhead bundle of energy and contradictions.
It all makes Crime Writer
by Vinnie Hansen a solidly good read.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4n6abkC
My ARC digital reading copy came from
the publisher, NetGalley where I was already preapproved and with no expectation
of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Monday, April 14, 2025
Little Big Crimes: Being Alive, by Brian Cox
Tuesday, April 01, 2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Short Story Wednesday Review: Angel City Beat: A Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Anthology Editor Barb Goffman
I’m not one to get excited about book covers. In my
opinion, book cover reveals, especially these days, are utterly meaningless.
But, when Angel City Beat: A Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Anthology
came out and I saw the cover, I was hooked. I thought it was a very cool cover
and would be a book of police procedural short stories. After all, with a
police badge prominently displayed on the cover, that was the visual impression
for this reader. So, I didn’t pay much attention to the synopsis when I picked
it up by way of funds in my Amazon Associate account.
To be fair, Angel City Beat: A Sisters in
Crime Los Angeles Anthology, edited by Barb Goffman, does have a few
police procedurals in it. But, the vast majority of stories are not. As made
clear in the introduction written by Naomi Hirahara, the goal was to go beyond
police stories and include stories that were reporter based, screenwriter
based, musician based, and other folks that have a “beat” in what they do. Set
in various places across the county of Los Angeles, the resulting anthology of
fifteen short stories is an interesting and entertaining read.
“The Missing Mariachi” by Aime Kluck starts off the
stories with a missing person’s case. In Boyle Heights, a woman has been
abducted. She is part of a mariachi band playing at a quinceañera and was taken
from a banquet hall. The description of the abductor is lousy, but they do have
a photograph of the vehicle the suspect was driving. For Isabella “Izzy” Zavala,
Major Crimes Unit Detective, LAPD, it is a start and not nothing.
A fellow member of the writers’ room for the show, Murder
Unjustified, is now dead in “Murder Unjustified” by Daryl Wood Gerber. Her
best friend, Suzy, is dead and Angelica might have been the last person to see
her alive before she was killed. There had been a lot of tension in the writers’
room and a lot of personal drama. Angelica was in charge, but had no knowledge
of the many things that were going on behind her back. Being a suspect pushes
her to investigate everything and everyone.
It is after 9 in the morning and yet the fog is
still hanging in when reporter Charie Walter shows up on the scene. Detective
Galuppo gives her a few details off the record. A finger was found by a hiker walking
his dog. Detective Galuppo believes, based on the finger and other evidence,
that the body is of a USC student who went missing ten years ago. If it is him,
thanks to the internet, she now knows the names of some folks she should hunt
down and talk to in “Getting Warmer” by Kate Mooney.
It is 1998 in “What’s Really Unforgettable” by Ken
Funsten, CFA. Quentin Kieper runs a hedge fund, Acorn Financial, in Greenwich Connecticut.
Detective Hank Chinaski calls with questions as a beaten and unconscious man
was found at a parking structure near LAX. The victim had nothing on him except
Mr. Keiper’s business card. As they talk, Mr. Kieper realizes that the man
could be Wyatt Hu. The same Wyatt Hu who was about to take his company public in
a deal would be worth a lot of money. Keiper has a lot of reasons to help the
LAPD and that means he has to go to Los Angeles and get directly involved in
the case.
It could easily be argued that Lace and Lisa are in
the wrong place at the wrong time even though all they are doing is their jobs.
It is Christmas Eve and they are in De La Rosa’s fish market selecting items
for the dinner party they are to cater for a wealthy client. That is if they
make it out alive in “The Feast of the Seven Fishes” by Gail Alexander.
As one who went through a very hard hospice
situation with my late wife, the next story was really tough for me to read.
Not that the story is a bad one. It certainly isn’t. It just brought up a lot
of very painful stuff. The people who work hospice are very special folks and I
don’t know how they do it.
Ella is a hospice nurse who usually works the night
shift in “Death Beat” by Meredith Taylor. Of course, this is hospice care, so
folks are going to die and soon. But, she has noticed that some patients seem
to be dying too fast. She has her suspicions and investigates.
It is a few years into the future and water scarcity
has become a huge problem in California. So much so there are distribution
centers, severe water rationing, armed guards, and desperate people in
“Everything’s Relative” by Jenny Carless. Blanca and Gemma each want more out
of life in this science fiction tale and are intent on getting it for their
family.
Somebody is killing in ingenuous ways those who
would become the lead conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in
“Settling The Score” by Anne-Marie Cambell. The outgoing music director,
Octavio Herrera, has culled the list of qualified applicants to take over from
him to a final four. Each person will perform an audition of sorts in public
with the full orchestra. Assuming they each live long enough to perform.
It is a day in early May of 2024 and a female grad
student is relaxing with a book when the diver’s body washed up on the Santa
Monica beach. She was there and watched it happen. For reasons soon detailed,
her life just got a bit better in “A Thesis On Murder” by Paula Bernstein. Her
life also got more complicated.
The movie Paige watched on television that evening
was very familiar as ‘Underbelly” by Jaquie Wilvers begins. It sure should be
as she wrote the screenplay. The version on her tv is slightly different in a
couple of spots, but clearly it is her stolen work. Thanks to the credits at
the end, she knows the identity of the thief. The question is what to do about
it.
Ken Funsten, CFA, has a second story in the book. “A
Dead Hire” is focused on a young guy working in a boiler room. Not only is the
gig a better deal than what his parents wanted him to do over the summer, the
entire room is filled with fellow high school students and they are all female.
Each person has a list of names to cold call and work and Brent figures it will
be fun and easy. Will it?
Michaela Franklin found the body in the library. Now
she is waiting for the police to arrive in “Fatal Return” by Sybil Johnson. She
knew what to do, and more importantly, what not to do when she found Library
Director Janice Appleton very much dead that morning. She also knows Detective
Ben Dewey who has questions for her and others on staff.
Two interconnected parts drive “Crime Doesn’t Pay”
by Norman Klein. The NYPD Detective is on vacation with his family when his
boss called the Beverly Hills Police Chief to offer the vacationing detective’s
services. After all, he is in the area. The two bosses know each other and the
case is getting massive media attention. The unconscious man in the hospital
needs help. That case will play a role in the second case in this story.
Daisy Campbell is a professional pet psychic. She
has been brought in to work with the exceptional race horse, Frontier Justice. His
jockey, Rob Cushing, died just days earlier after falling off the stallion
during a workout and getting trampled by the horse. Daisy Campbell has been
brought in to assess the mental state of the horse in “Unbeatable” by Melinda
Loomis. The Santa Anita Handicap is just days away and the wealthy owners need
to know what the horse is thinking about it all.
In the final story of the anthology, Barbie Bivens
and Madison McKay are reporters at the LA Times. It is fitting with her
name and her dad’s connections, that Barbie covers entertainment. Madison McKay
has general assignments for the main news section of the paper. It is 1998 and
actress Mimi Howards, Oscar winner, has been arrested for the murder of her
husband, Steve Sloan. Witnesses and evidence indicate she did it in “Byline For
Murder” by Nancy Cole Silverman. Editor Harry Simms wants the two reporters to
work together, no matter how they feel about it and each other, and cover the
story. Easier said than done.
Angel City Beat: A Sisters in Crime Los
Angeles Anthology, edited by Barb Goffman, is an
entertaining read. The fifteen stories presented here are all complex tales
that bring their settings alive while also providing, in each case, a mystery
or a crime well worth your time and attention. Showcasing a variety of writing
styles and perspectives, there is sure to plenty here for you to read and enjoy.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3X0uR2M
As noted, my digital ready copy came by way of an Amazon
purchase as the Dallas Public Library System was not going to carry it. I used
funds in my Amazon Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Review: Early Termination: A Probation Case Files Mystery by Cindy Goyette
Released earlier this month by Level Best Books, Early Termination: A Probation Case Files Mystery by Cindy Goyette is the very enjoyable sequel to Obey All Laws. As storylines from that book continue here in this read, I recommend for those new to the series to be sure to read that book first.
It is late September in Phoenix,
Arizona, and Probation Officer Casey Carson has been summoned to a crime scene.
Detective Ramsey asked her to come out to a canal where a body has been pulled
out. The body is in a very bad shape. It also has one of her business cards in
his mouth. That card was inside a plastic bag inside his mouth thus making sure
to send a message no matter how long it took for the body to be found and
retrieved from the water.
The deceased was/is Brian Johnson. He
had not checked in with Carson in a few weeks and clearly never will now. She believed
he had relapsed and was getting ready to file for an arrest warrant for
probation violations. Carson thought he was an okay guy. She has far more
questions than answers she can give to Detective Ramsey.
On the other hand, she is sure that
Tony Romero, her new probation officer who she is training, is not an okay
guy. He is clearly a bit of a jerk. But his dad is the manager of the
community service unit, So Tony’s short comings have been overlooked by others
to this point. Her mission is to make him either good enough to do the job or
finding an infraction big enough to get him fired. So far, he isn’t giving her
enough to work with either way.
If that was not enough stress, Marcus
is on his way back to Phoenix and clearly wants way more than platonic friendship.
Her ex is still around and he wants them to give it another go as a couple. The
biker gang still wants her to suffer and die for reasons made clear in the
first book.
If all that was not enough, the bodies
soon start piling up, and bad goes to worse as she becomes a suspect in the
deaths.
What follows is a complicated and
highly entertaining read. Character development for Carson and other characters
continues here, as does plenty of action and mystery. Early Termination:
A Probation Case Files Mystery by Cindy Goyette is a fun read and well
worth your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4js1Fv0
The author provided a digital ARC of
the read with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Short Story Wednesday: Treacherous: Grifters, Ruffians, and Killers by Gary Phillips
Treacherous:
Grifters, Ruffians, and Killers by Gary Phillips is an interesting short story collection.
Beyond the various crimes, the backdrop is often deals with issues of race,
privilege, class, and economic standing. The book is broken into four
categories with each section containing 4 to 7 previously published stories.
The result is 21 crime fictions tales. While they are all good ones, a few that
I very much liked are below.
The book
opens with the first section “Grifters.” A highlight is the opening short
story, “The Performer.” An aging lounge singer is making small talk with a
woman after a set. One thing leads to another, and soon he is, apparently, in
the middle of a mess.
Another
highlight is “Rodger Crumbler Considered His Shave.” 50 years old Rodger Crumber is pleased with
things, but is pretty sure it could be way better. He has a plan to make things
even better and that plan is underway.
The “Bad
Juju” section comes next. These stories are all about messing with people and
things that should not be messed with at all.
“The Snow
Birds” sees folks play polo by using bikes. It is street polo where grudges are
settled and crimes are plotted.
Glen Murry, aka
Junie, is a teen and he does some things for the gamblers in “Sportin’ Men.” He
makes drinks and food and works on his plan. He isn’t the only one with a plan.
“Both of
Shadows and Substance” comes next as the third section.
A truck
driver by the name of Roosevelt Hopkins stops for a meal on the way to the
port. A waitress, a legendary car, and more are at work in “Can’t Be Satisfied.”
Maybe you are
in the mood for zombies? In “Disco Zombies,” taking the drugs and more seems to
have worked out. Then the damn zombies showed up looking to take it all back.
The plan was
to rip off the aging rock star in “House of Tears.” The plan isn’t going as
well as they had thought it would in the first story of section 4, “Hell Bent.”
Racists and
other scumbags, are hard at work in “Masai Back in Town.” Swanmoor put one down
and got intel from the other. He soon learns that the one he left alive is also
now dead as there are multiple agendas in play.
The 21 tales
that make up Treacherous: Grifters, Ruffians, and Killers are all
good ones. These short stories are graphic crime fiction. That means they are
graphic in use of language and also frequently depict in detail violence and sexual
situations between various characters.
Along the way,
the tales consider race, class, economic status, and a lot more. These tales
are not light hearted. Regardless of time period, these feature characters
doing their best to survive. As we all are, every single day, in a world often
stacked to benefit the wealthy and powerful.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41KuVa4
My ARC
digital reading copy came from the publisher, Level Short (Level Best Books),
through NetGalley with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R.
Tipple ©2024
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