Kevin's Corner: NetGalley

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Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Publication Day Review: The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026, Editor Megan Abbott, Series Editor Steph Cha

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026, Editor Megan Abbott, Series Editor Steph Cha, reprints twenty of their favorite short stories of the year. There are also thirty more tales listed in the honorable mention section to consider. This means you have a lot of good reading here. I won’t try to mention them all. What follows below are the several that really struck a chord with me for one reason or another.

“Smoke and Mirrors” by Charles John Harper originally appeared in an unspecified issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It features Private Investigator Darrow Nash, in Los Angeles, and quite the historical mystery tale. If you like a whodunit style read, this one is for you. I am not about to ruin it by saying more.

“Finding Jimmy Baldwin” by Cheryl A. Head originally appeared in the anthology, Crime Ink: Iconic: An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons. It is June 1954 and Roy has shown up at the diner on schedule. Jimmy is a no show. That isn’t good news. The fact That Jimmy, full name James Arthur Baldwin, now has a missing person’s report according to the officer, a Sergeant Peterson, is worse news. Especially for Roy.

“The Corpse Collector” by David Morrell also appeared in an unspecified issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. A dental hygienist needs a second job to make ends meet. One of her patients, a funeral director, suggested that she could collect the dead for him. Especially in the middle of the night. The pay would be really good and she agreed to do it on weekends. That has led to a lot of interesting pickups, and she will tell you about several of them, and then tell you about the big one last weekend.

“Small Things” by Wanda M. Morris previously appeared as an Amazon Original Story. Hannah Ferguson loves the shed out back. She does her art in it and hides her creativity in the small space. Her marriage is on a downhill slide. At least she still has her art and the freedom it can bring her.

For Rosalie, With Love” by M. E. Proctor originally appeared in the anthology, Myopic Duplicity: Do the Ends Ever Justify the Means? The plan is, as it always has been since they first met. Do anything and everything for Rosalie.

“Mama” by Rob D. Smith originally appeared In Too Deep. Jimmy “Ton” Roy thought it was all clear to boost the white Corvette. He’s behind the wheel when the beautiful driver comes back for her purse. Jon’s plan to boost the cool car changes as does his future.

“Slow Ride” by Mark Thielman originally appeared in Chop Shop. The young guy known as “Lil Meathead” swiped the Ford F-250 and got away with it. He did the work though the boss of the crew, Woody, fueled by meth and ego, will take much of the credit. Huey, the overall boss and the owner of the day time garage and night time chop shop did not really want another pickup truck. Here in Dallas so the truck won’t bring top dollar. But, there is a possibility of a really big payday. Lil Meathead knows of a 2022 Bently set up for American driver. It has the steering wheel on the left, is purple, and has all the bells and whistles. Huey is interested. That means soon Lil Meathead and Woody are dee in conversation while headed up the Dallas North Tollway to swipe the car.

The seven stories highlighted here are my personal favorites. No doubt your selections would probably be different. There isn’t a bad one in the bunch. The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026 will provide you a lot of good reading and is well worth your time.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4spesnf

My digital ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Mariner Books, by way of NetGalley with no expectation of a positive review.

Friday, October 16, 2026

Review: Split Screen by Lee Goldberg

Split Screen by Lee Goldberg is the seventh installment of this thriller series. It opens with Homicide Detective Eve Ronin of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department out running solo because her partner, Duncan Pavone, is desk bound. He is going to be there on his desk in the Lost Hill substation for the foreseeable future as the powers that be are still pondering his fate. Detective Eve Ronin is feeling a ton of guilt as he is taking the very public fall for a decision they both made a few months ago. So, she is responding solo to the home of actress Juliette Winter who was found dead that morning in her sprawling home in a gated community in Calabasas.

A predictable and tragic end for the former child star who became known for drugs and partying more than anything she accomplished in front of the camera. Her assistant found her in the steam room. Clearly, she had been there for quite some time before discovery. That same assistant, Georgina Sabella, had last seen her around 7 the evening before when she left.

According to Ronin’s fellow LASD Deputies manning the perimeter, the house was locked and the security alarm was on when Georgina arrived earlier that morning. The firefighters that responded to the initial call had also reported that the steam room door was not locked and that the door was unblocked.

Ronin went up to the second-floor steam room and found Medical Examiner Emilia Lopez and the head of Crime Scene Unit, Nan Baker, assessing the body and the scene. With Juliette Winter’s history, it would be very easy to assume she just overdosed and died.

But, did she really?

That is just one of the questions Ronin has to answer while also dealing with departmental politics and pressure. Her celebrity status continues to dog her career. The last thing she ever wanted was for the publicity to overshadow her actual work doing the job. So, she tried very hard to keep considerable distance between herself and the job and the very fictional tv series based on her.

That plan is out the window now as there is a new sheriff in town. Sheriff Waylon Gifford is well known for coming in and taking over a law enforcement agency for a year or too, improving the image of that agency, and then leaving for a bigger and more prestigious job. He took over the LASD, the biggest in the nation, two weeks ago and has a very preconceived notion of who she is, how she got to her position, and what she has done in the department.

He demands that Detective Eve Ronin use her celebrity status to help the department and has several expectations of how she will do that. Not only does she have to participate in the new ad campaign, she also has to actively participate in the department’s active social media. She has to participate a certain number of times a day, every day. She also has to conduct a week-long ride along with the actress, Erin Casey, who plays her on the show and participate in their social media videos as well. Otherwise, there will be huge consequences for herself as well as her partner, Duncan Pavone.

If that was not enough, she has to deal with the hatred and death threats coming from within the department. While that has always happened, it had died back some, until recent events stirred everything back up again. At least she can still count on Duncan Pavone and a few others who see her for what she actually is and still have her back.

And there is the Juliette Winter case to solve as well as some other crimes.

The result is another fast paced and highly entertaining read in this great series. The author has steadily built, book after book, a complicated primary character, and a host of interesting secondary characters while still delivering on a heady mix of action, mystery, and suspense. The latest read, Split Screen, fits that mandate and delivers from start to finish.

As the author notes at the front of the book, a reader can safely start here, if they wish. But, if you intend to read the second book in the series, Bone Canyon, you absolutely should read that one first as there are huge spoilers for it in Split Screen.

Strongly Recommended.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3S9emlp

Entire Series Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/447nfP7

My digital ARC came from the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Publication Day Review: Truth to Power: A Luke Cage Marvel Crime Novel by S. A. Cosby

Truth to Power: A Luke Cage Marvel Crime Novel by S. A. Cosby is the author’s latest read. S. A. Cosby switched genres for this read, but brings his usual themes of racism, greed, and racial oppression while adding in superhero powers.

In this case, Luke Cage, who lives in Harlem, is initially having a quiet morning on the streets. He is a superhero with phenomenal strength, an impervious skin to most projectiles, and other abilities. Those abilities make Luke Cage a formidable opponent. He is on the phone with Jessica Jones, whom he is dating and in a serious relationship, when the conversation is interrupted because a dude just came crashing down out of a 12th story window and landed in the street. Polar Bear Man is definitely alive and looking for a battle.

In the aftermath, Luke Cage realizes he missed a call from family in Majestic, Virgina. Luke had asked his cousin, Rashon, to keep his eyes and ears open, as he was working in the area of a medical factory that might have been working on some sort of high-tech cybernetics. Stuff that was winding up in the hands of low-level street criminals. Rashon was not supposed to do anything more than pay attention and call if he spotted something or heard something. Now Rashon is dead, Aunt Letty is devasted, and Luke has to go down there and find out what happened and why.

He can’t bring Rashon back. But, he can find out what happened and who did it as those in charge probably are not doing anything on the case. The massive confederate flag still flies just outside town. The local police are incompetent, corrupt, or both. Luke is going to look into what happened and will tear the place apart figurately, and maybe literally too, until he finds out what happened.

If you have read this author before, it is no surprise that the same themes of his other books are present here. The difference in this fast-moving and action filled tale is that Luke is not a mere mortal. Luke has superhero powers. Those outfitted with the cybernetics are, at worst, his equal if not better.

The result is an entertaining read and one worthy of your time.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4jzG7ze

My digital ARC came from the publisher, Hyperion Avenue, through NetGalley with no expectation of a positive review.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Lesa's Book Critiques: Damned If I Do by Alexandria Bellefleur

Friday, September 04, 2026

Review: First Chance by Kasey Lansdale

It is summer in deep Southeast Texas and all that entails as First Chance by Kasey Lansdale begins. Heat, humidity, drought, and a side of murder. It has been 10 months since 16-year-old Patience Milroy had been found with her throat cut, missing a shoe, and her clothes on backwards. She had not been raped. So why was she killed. And why were her clothes put back on her backwards? Local police have not figured out either question and are no closer to doing so than the day she was found tossed into the high grass along a roadside.

Darla Weaver, married, and sister to Patience, has come to see Chance Kirby. She wants to hire her to look into the case and find the killer of her baby sister. This is going to be her first case as a fully licensed private investigator, but Chance has worked cases before for her step mom, Harper Jones. So, she knows some things. Her dad, John Kirby, also does investigative work, and it seems that the apple did not fall far from the tree.

As the local private eye in Hopeful, Texas, down near Houston, Chance Kirby knows some people. While Chance knew a bit about the Patience case, she did not know about the case, in a nearby small town, where another young woman was found dead in nearly identical circumstances. That case seems to mirror what happened a few months later with Chance. According to Darla, the respective police departments didn’t tell each other about their cases. The cops now call it all a coincidence, but Darla does not buy that. She also does not think much of the cops, or even Chance now that she has met her.

Yet, Darla is desperate, and at her whits end. She decides to go ahead and hire Chance to try and get some answers. Good thing Chance has contacts in her local police department and some other folks she can count on in the weeks ahead.

Finding the truth about what happened to Patience and others is going to take considerable time. Chance also has her hands full with a teenage foster daughter, a dog that gets loose, and a complicated relationship with her family. All of those situations provide an enjoyable backdrop to the main story line of Chance finding out what happened to Patience and trying very hard not to get killed doing it.

While it reads to me as this could be the first book of a planned series, I have no idea if that is the plan or not. It could just be a really good stand alone, but there are a lot of support beams here for the floor of a series. Either way, First Chance by Kasey Lansdale is a complicated and really good mystery. It is very much worth your time.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/46Ctrjm

My digital reading copy came from the publisher, Blackstone Publishing, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

Kevin R. Tipple 2026

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Publication Day Review: The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan

Who would kill a bespoke tailor?

That is the initial central question for DS George Cross of the Avon and Somerset police in The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan. This eighth book in the series opens with a murder on a train. There is absolutely no question it was a murder.

The deceased man was found in the first-class bathroom of a passenger train headed from Bristol to Paddington Cross in London. Apparently, the plastic bag over his head did not fully do the job, so the killer deeply slashed the victim’s throat. He cut so deeply that the killer almost severed the head from the body.

That got the job done.

He also got away with it with nobody noticing anything at all.

Because the victim was wearing a bespoke suit with the label of “Titcomb & Titcomb’s of Park Street,” Detective Sergeant George Cross believes there is a good chance that the deceased is one of their clients. Within a short period of time, they learn that the deceased is one William Titcomb.

Not a client, but one of the owners of a long running family business. A third-generation tailor, William Titcomb was married to Min, and had two small children. His twin sister, Gwen, is also heavily involved in the business.

According to Gwen, he was headed to Heathrow Airport to board a flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for fittings with two clients. Then he was to travel on to Xiamen, China, where they have a tailoring operation and check in there. Min comes from China, has contacts, and the facility in China has been a huge boost to the family business. Mr. Titcomb was traveling with two suitcases, presumably full with the suits for the clients in Dubai. Those suitcases and their contents are missing.

Where are the suitcases? Who killed the bespoke tailor? Was he killed for the suits?

Just some of the questions that DS George Cross and the assembled team must answer in The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan. If the case was not enough, Cross and several others have to deal with professional and personal upheaval in their lives. For one thing, as long-time readers know, Josie Ottey, has been promoted. That means she is now superior in rank to Cross.

An issue that Cross is slowly adjusting to as it has been very hard for him as social situations are very difficult. Ottey’s promotion means that she will no longer be with him in the field conducting interviews and gathering information. That fact also means that she won’t be around to manage him or smooth over awkward situations with those he talks to as he goes about investigations. That has the potential to be a real problem for Cross and a huge problem for the next person in that role.

Then there is a family situation for Cross that is best left to the reader to discover. I don’t want to reveal more as it could be construed as a spoiler as it is a major piece of the plot. However, for those readers, like me, who have gone through the death of a loved one due to cancer and absolutely hate cancer storylines, it is not that. In fact, the issue here is not remotely medically related in any way, shape, or form. You can rest easy on that aspect of the read.

The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan is a complicated, fast moving, and highly entertaining read. Much is going on in many different ways in the latest book in this long running series. This review just skims the surface of this very good book.

Strongly Recommended.

Author Website: https://timsullivanusa.com/

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4fjUNAD

My digital ARC came from the publisher, Grove Atlantic, of Atlantic Crime, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

Sunday, August 09, 2026

Review: Death at a Scottish Halloween: A Scottish Isle Mystery by Lucy Connelly

This comes out Tuesday....

As I noted long ago when I reviewed the first book of this series, An American in Scotland: A Scottish Isle Mystery by Lucy Connelly, I am not a cozy mystery kind of guy. I lean more towards police procedurals as well as grittier mystery and crime fiction. But, I enjoyed that first book quite a lot and have enjoyed every read since. That includes the latest book, fifth in the series, Death at a Scottish Halloween: A Scottish Isle Mystery.

Dr. Emilia McRoy left it all behind to move to Sea Isle, Scotland, and she could not be happier. As the book begins, she is working on her room in an extensive haunted house. Halloween, or as the locals refer to it, All Hallows Eve, is a big deal. Doctor McRoy missed it last year due to attending a wedding so her and her assistant, Abigail, are going all out to create the spookiest doctor’s office ever. Their room is one of several that people will walk through and experience scares a plenty.

It is a fun evening until, after nearly everyone has left, they discover a body in the room across the hall from their own. Not only is Duncan, a man they just met a few hours earlier, dead, a butcher knife is planted in his chest. The same butcher knife that Dr. Emilia McRoy had brought from home and was using as a prop in their horror scene. With all the people that came through and the loud commotion these past hours, neither the good doctor nor Abigail noticed who took it or when it went missing. But, it is definitely is now planted in the dead man’s chest. Probably right through his heart.

Despite the fact it was her knife that is the murder weapon, and their multi hour close proximity to the victim, they are never considered as suspects by Constable Ewan or the other locals. Instead, as part of their jobs, they handle this situation as they have before with other murders and get to work with the removal of the body, the autopsy, and the investigation of the crime.

So, if they did not do it, then who did?

That is the question that Constable Ewan and his team, along with the good doctor and Abigail must answer. A second murder soon happens and that ratchets up the pressure. At the same time, other things are going on and the good doctor is getting threats and more.

The latest in the series is another good read. I recommend reading the series in order from the beginning as significant character development has happened over the course of the series and relationships have changed and evolved. Those who are fans of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, will get far more out of this read than those of us who don’t care for any of it at all.

A very good read in a very good cozy mystery series, Death at a Scottish Halloween: A Scottish Isle Mystery by Lucy Connelly is well worth your time.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4eFU5wu

Entire Series Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4uA7nj6

My digital ARC came from the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

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