Scott's Take: The Last Ronin: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Novel by Erik Burnham

 

The Last Ronin: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Novel by Erik Burnham adapts The Last Ronin comic into a prose novel. In this novel set in the far future, New York is a dystopia ruled by the Foot Clan led by the Shredder’s grandson. The last surviving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle has returned to New York to climb the Foot Clan tower and kill him. He is on a suicide mission out for revenge against the man who killed his family.

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This is a violent novel full of death, dismemberment and plenty of action. The story is told from three main perspectives with some flashbacks to how the Turtles died and other flashbacks. The deceased turtles are frequently around as ghosts to bug the Last Ronin.

 

I enjoyed the novel way more than I enjoyed the comic book version. My two main complaints with the book are the same ones I had regarding the comic book version. The main villain is too generic and uninteresting. The Last Turtle is stripped of personality in order to have the mystery of the identity of the turtle survivor. Once the identity is revealed to the reader, the Last Turtle is still depicted as nothing more than the generic revenge seeker.

 

Still, I would recommend this book. By the way, there is a video game and a movie adaption being worked on for this story. Hopefully, both will address these issues.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3SpJI7F

 

 

I read this through Hoopla by way of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2026

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Every Lie I Told by Hilary Davidson

Hilary Davidson is a Toronto native now living in New York City. Her first work of crime fiction The Damage Done (Forge Books, 2010) won the 2011 Anthony and Crimespree awards for best first novel and was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis and Macavity awards for best first. She’s written dozens of short stories. Every Lie I Told (Blackstone, June 2026) is her eighth work of crime fiction.

Jackie Swift is just another hamster on the enormous wheel of New York, running endlessly trying to reach the next rung on the ladder of success. Her parents died when she and her sister Madi were young, leaving them to the questionable care of an uncle. Jackie has been trying to overcome the disadvantages of her early life ever since, while pretending to have the upper-crust life that she wants. She learned early that her lack of family connections and resources would keep her out of her chosen field of journalism, no matter how hard she worked. She slid sideways into a dubious public relations firm with some credible clients and a lot of shifty ones. Her habit of shading the truth about her life quickly expanded to covering up for wealthy people behaving badly. Dissembling about everything, from her customers’ actions and intentions to the store where she bought today’s outfit, became routine.

Jackie is overwhelmingly protective of Madi, who dabbled far too often in drugs and made other unwise decisions. Jackie had come to keep Narcan on hand for emergencies so when Madi called in the early hours of Monday morning that she needed help, Jackie scrambled for the naloxone and drove to an Upper East side townhouse. She could not find Madi but she did find the quite dead body of her former mentor and employer. The police focus early on Madi as the likely killer and as they search for her, Jackie does everything she can to throw suspicion on others, including an ex-wife who tried to kill the dead man more than once.

The story delivers credible insight into the inner workings of publicity firms and marketing psychology, which I found thought-provoking. With a driving pace and one surprise after another, the story held my attention to the end despite my lack of sympathy with most of the characters, who were singularly unpleasant. Fans of contemporary psychological thrillers and unreliable narrators will love this book.

 

·         ISBN-13: ‎979-8228475151

·         Publisher: ‎Blackstone Publishing, Inc.

·         Publication date: ‎June 16, 2026

·         Edition: ‎Hardcover

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎371 pages

  

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/4fv3o3j 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026

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

Publication Day Review: From the Dust: A Novel by David Swinson

 

Death is something the retired DC Metropolitan Police Department Detective is very familiar with, professionally and personally. Graham Sanderson has quiet working homicides in Washington, DC, and moved into his dad’s house in upstate New York. Most of his possessions sit in storage as he came to the house to help his brother, Tommy, after dad died. Tommy is agoraphobic and has not left the property in many years. With dad’s death, he had nobody to help him, so Graham came with a few things and moved into a guest bedroom in the house.

 

He came with some clothes and a few mementos. That includes the urn with his late wife’s ashes. It sits, top off, next to his bed and he talks to her on a daily basis. The grief remains strong and he is coping with that, and other issues, as best as he can. With no hobbies and the memories of a lifetime of police work, he has far too much time on his hands to think and brood.

 

In the hours after the service for dad, William Finn, who is the Chief of Police, asks for his help as the small local department is very short staffed. A patrol officer was just recently promoted to investigator. The guy is good, or he would not have been promoted, but Chief Finn would like Sanderson to consult as they have a serious problem.

 

There has been a killer at work in the area and clues are scarce. Suspects are non-existent. Chief Finn wants to keep the investigation in house and not ask for outside agency help as the second, and most recent, victim was his nephew. He wants Sanderson’s help. Something Sanderson is reluctant to do at all as he is burned out, adjusting to being retired, mending a relationship with his younger brother that he has not seen in many years, losing his dad, among other things, and does not want to annoy anyone inside or outside the department.

 

But, Chief Finn is persistent, and Sanderson finally agrees to review the case file to this point and take an impartial fresh look. The rookie investigator, Mike Gottert, welcomes him with open arms and quickly invites Sanderson to go along as he goes back to the scene of the second body with a plan to recanvass the area, knock on doors, and poke around.

 

Before long, while not carrying a shield, Sanderson is almost as involved in the case as if he were a member of the department. Working helps occupy his mind, even if the case keeps coming closer and closer to home. A case that may have also, once again, made him a target.

 

From the Dust: A Novel by David Swinson is a complex and extremely enjoyable police procedural. With its rich characters and storytelling, it is also a testimony, in a way, about coping with complex mental health challenges in a world that often does not understand what folks are dealing with on a daily basis. This is one of those books that comes fully alive for the reader in a variety of ways and keeps the reader turning pages long after one should quit for the night.

 

All in all, From the Dust: A Novel by Doug Swinson is a mighty good read and very much recommended.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ccY7vQ

 

 

My digital ARC reading copy came by way of the publisher, Mulholland Books, imprint of Little, Brown and Company, through NetGalley with no expectation of a positive review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Underfoot in Show Business by Helene Hanff

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Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Mayors of New York: S.J. Rozan

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Dangerous Play by Elise Hart Kipness

After reading the second rip-roaring mystery about sports reporter Kate Green, I would have known without being told that author Elise Hart Kipness was a former sports reporter herself. The book is overflowing with the authentic detail available only to the subject matter expert. Some of the very best parts describe the pressure of live reporting from a dynamic scene while simultaneously coordinating with producers and technical staff back at the broadcasting station. These sections will give readers a new appreciation for live action reporters, who make what they are doing look easy.

The book tells two stories, one about Kate Green the budding soccer star who helped bring an Olympic gold medal home years ago, and the second about an older Kate Green who moved on from the game and turned her experience into a live network sports reporting career. The first thread describes the grueling training Olympic hopefuls and their families endure, and the cutthroat competition among the players for a few coveted places on the final team.

The second thread takes place in the present during the Olympics summer games being hosted in New York, where Kate gets the on-air reporting assignment because the coach of the U.S. soccer team is one of her former Olympics team mates and Kate’s management assumes she will be able to capitalize on the relationship to gain access to the team and exclusive material.

One of the U.S. soccer players is displaying shockingly poor sportsmanship and creating a disruptive locker room, and the media’s focus is on her antics until the body of a former Olympic hopeful from Kate’s playing days is found in the medical treatment area underneath Madison Square Gardens. Both Kate and the U.S. soccer team coach knew the victim well at one point in their lives, and naturally the police assume they had something to do with the death. Not unnaturally Kate decides to investigate on her own.

Kate’s father, who had chosen his law enforcement career over his marriage when Kate’s mother gave him an ultimatum, is active in the investigation and he is Kate’s source for forensic information. So often in amateur sleuth mysteries the nonprofessional relies on a police boyfriend, a device that has been overused, so supplying a parent as an inside source is a refreshing change.

Another good bit is the incident involving the release of false information. While it was pulled within the hour, the release was so deliberately sensational that it spread like wildfire across the Internet and did some damage. Some pointed comments about the media’s responsibility in stopping misinformation instead of chasing ratings were completely on target.

I realized about two-thirds through what the motive for the killing was, which pointed at an obvious culprit but other readers may well not be as jaded as I am. Even so, the strength of this very good mystery is in the portrayal of the cutthroat world of Olympic sports and the similarly vicious ecosphere of network media.

 

·       Publisher: ‎Thomas & Mercer (September 17, 2024)

·       Language: ‎English

·       Paperback: ‎285 pages

·       ISBN-10: ‎1662512686

·       ISBN-13: ‎978-1662512681 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3X7JUqK 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

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

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Mayors of New York by S. J. Rozan

The Mayors of New York (Pegasus Crime, 2023) is the fifteenth title in the excellent Lydia Chin and Bill Smith private investigator series by S. J. Rozan. Chin is a first-generation American-born Chinese whose battle with her traditional mother’s expectations runs through each book. Kentucky-born Smith is a prototypical private eye, rumpled, cynical, world-weary. Their partnership is unconventional and successful.

I was delighted to win the character name that Rozan donated to a charity fundraiser a couple of years ago and was especially pleased to see what a fat role she gave my name in this book.

In this case Smith is approached by a former girlfriend who works for the mayor of New York. The mayor’s teenage son Mark has disappeared. He has run away before and his mother believed that he would turn up after a day or two but he hasn’t this time. Since the mayor is deep in negotiations for the new police union contract, she does not want to ask the police to search for him. She fears she would appear beholden to the group she is supposed to be standing firm with. She wants Smith to quietly search for her son and bring him home. Smith doesn’t like Madam Mayor and feels no compulsion to take the assignment and he really doesn’t like the former girlfriend. He agrees to look for Mark because he was a teenage runaway too.

Mark’s parents are divorced and do not co-parent. They barely parent individually. Neither of them really knows what Mark has been up to. His twin sister doesn’t know much more as she’s deeply involved in her own life. The member of the mayor’s household who does know Mark is the chef, with whom Mark spends time. He describes Mark’s interests and activities and gives Chin and Smith far more insight than his family did. It sends the pair across New York, where they meet neighborhood leaders, unofficial mayors who watch out for their patch of the city. Each of them proves helpful.

This series is about New York as much as it is solving crime and this book showcases the city more strongly than ever. It also delivers a great plot twist, revealing unexpected sinister motivation for what seemed to be an innocuous minor character. The final confrontation scene is spectacular.

Starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Highly recommended.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Pegasus Crime (December 5, 2023)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎288 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1639365257

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1639365258\

 

The Amazon Associate image system is not working, still, so please go to https://amzn.to/422O1GF  to pick it up.

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

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

The Hard Word: TWO GREAT DANES: A REVIEW OF TWO TIMOTHY DANE BOOKS BY WILLIAM ARD

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Death Trick by Richard Stevenson

Richard Lipez (1938-2022) was the crime fiction reviewer for the Washington Post for years. Under the name Richard Stevenson he wrote a series of mysteries about a gay private investigator named Donald Strachey in Albany, New York. The first book was groundbreaking for the time, portraying Strachey as a personable and conscientious individual, at ease with himself in the years after Stonewall but before the AIDS epidemic unleashed its wrath. Lipez finished the 17^th title in the series before he died. For more about him, see the following links:

·         https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/local/an-advocate-for-the-under-represented-journalist-and-author-richard-dick-lipez-dies/article_bd2e3de4-a563-11ec-9904-9b11836dc4b2.html

·         https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/books/richard-stevenson-lipez-dead.html

In Death Trick, initially published in 1981 and reprinted several times since, Strachey makes his first appearance, so broke he is not sure he can pay for lunch. The wealthy Stuart Blount hires him to look for his son Billy because Strachey has a reputation as being an excellent finder of missing persons. Billy is accused of killing a man and Blount thinks, because Billy and Strachey are both gay, that Strachey will have insight into where Billy might be. Strachey heartily dislikes the Blounts but he needs the work so he accepts the assignment.

The more Strachey learns about Billy, the more he is convinced that Billy is not the killer. He is alone in that belief, however, as the police see Billy as the answer and have not bothered to consider other alternatives with such an easy out available to them. Strachey unilaterally broadens his assignment to searching for the killer, a search that makes him look at the dead man’s past as well as Billy’s.

In addition to a detailed and careful investigative process, the freewheeling gay lifestyle before AIDS terrorized the world is vividly portrayed along with the overt discrimination and abuse the gay community endured and in some ways still does. The depressing lengths to which some families will go to force their gay children into a straight life are described. It’s nice to realize that some progress has been made in the intervening forty years. Well written and witty. A fine example of late 20^th century private investigator crime fiction.

 

  

·         Publisher: ‎ReQueered Tales (March 18, 2022)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎264 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1951092589

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1951092580

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023

 

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

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

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