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Sample Sunday: Excerpt From Chapter One of "Buried Uunder Clutter: A Tina Tales Mystery" by Jan Christensen

Please welcome back Texas author Jan Christensen who shares the opening from her latest book, Buried Under Clutter. This is the second novel in her Tina Tales series following 2012’s Organized To Death which I reviewed here. After the synopsis below is the excerpt from Chapter One. For more on her books and writing in general make sure you check out her website at: http://www.janchristensen.com

BURIED UNDER CLUTTER SYNOPSIS

Following the first in the Tina Tales series, Organized to Death, Jan Christensen’s newest mystery novel is called Buried Under Clutter.

 Someone screams inside the old, neglected Victorian house next door, and Tina Shaw runs to find out what’s wrong. A woman bursts out the door saying her aunt is dead. Murdered. Tina notices that the hallway is piled high with cartons. Later when the woman begs her to help clean up the house, Tina hesitates. She’s just begun a career as a professional organizer, though, and her hands itch to start on a new job. 

As Tina sifts through the clutter, she finds clues the murdered woman left behind. She learns the woman was rich, and all her relatives are suspects. But when the will is read, Tina and her family also become suspects. After her mother is arrested, Tina begins investigating in earnest with the help of her boyfriend, Hank (the Hunk). Will she find out who the killer is before her own life is put in danger?

CHAPTER 1

The scream pierced the cold winter air. Tina whirled around in her driveway and stared at the old, decaying Queen Anne next door, then began running toward it. Fumbling in her bag for her cell phone, she stumbled on the cracked sidewalk leading to the house. 

Another scream. 

Tina dashed up the steps to the porch, then hesitated at the front door. Common sense told her not to go in. She dialed nine-one-one and waited. The silence from inside the house seemed more ominous than the screams.

Dispatch answered on the second ring. “What is your emergency?”

“Someone screaming next door to my house.”

“Address?” 

Tina told her. “I’m standing outside. Should I go in?”

Before the dispatcher could answer, a distraught-looking woman burst out of the front door and banged into Tina, making her drop her cell. Tina bumped against the rotten railing, which gave way behind her. She caught herself by grabbing onto the also-decaying post. At least it saved her from flying into the dead bushes in front.

“Sorry. Sorry,” the woman mumbled. Her eyes were wide, her face pale as death. She ran her hand through her brown hair and plopped herself down on the faded green metal chair in front of the bay window. Tina shuddered. The paint was peeling. What would it do to the woman’s clothes? Nice clothes; expensive clothes, she noticed.

“What’s wrong?” Tina began to search for her phone. A stench from the open front door made her hesitate, but she couldn’t place the smell, so she continued the hunt.

“My aunt. It’s my aunt. She’s… she’s dead.” 

“Mrs. Blackwell’s dead?” Tina stopped looking for her cell and stared at the woman. 

A tinny voice from under the glider helped Tina find her phone.

“Hello? You there? Hello?”

“Yes.” Tina grabbed the phone and looked for a place to sit down because her legs were shaking. Nothing appealed to her—the other metal chairs were rusting and the glider looked dangerous. 

“Apparently there’s a dead woman in the house. Her niece found her just now.”

Mrs. Blackwell’s niece nodded. And nodded. Couldn’t seem to stop. Tina asked her, “You the one who was screaming? Is anyone else in there?”

More nodding. Then a shake of the head.

Tina made an effort to loosen her cramping hand on the cell. “She was screaming, but she’s not hurt. There’s no one else here. That we know of.”

A lone siren sounded, coming closer. The patrol car stopped in front, and two officers jumped out and ran toward the house.  Another siren wailed, and an ambulance parked behind the police car.

Tina saw her mother and great-uncle come through their front door and approach the yard. Her mother’s eyes were wide and a little frightened. Uncle Bob had his service dog on her leash and had a determined set to his jaw. Here comes trouble. Tina said goodbye to the dispatcher and faced the two officers. 

“Who called? And why?” the one who had been driving asked.

Mrs. Blackwell’s niece didn’t answer, so Tina said, pointing to her, “I called. She found her aunt inside. Dead.”

The officers dashed inside, the EMTs close behind. 

“What’s going on?” Tina’s mother asked. “Olivia’s dead?” She gave the niece a sharp look. “Jenny, you all right?”

So, her mother knew the niece. Why wasn’t Tina surprised? Tina didn’t remember ever seeing her before. Must not have been a frequent visitor.

Jenny nodded. Tina noticed she wasn’t tearful. Just shocked.

The smell coming from the house was getting to her. She approached the doorway and peeked inside. Recoiled. The place was crammed with junk, piled to the ceiling in the hallway. It smelled like a dumpster in there. Tina backed away and caught her mother’s eye. Laura frowned at her and raised her eyes heavenward. So, she knew Mrs. Blackwell had been a hoarder. 

Why hadn’t Laura told her about that? Tina had come back to Newport just a few months ago and started a professional organizing business. Laura should have known Tina would be interested in a hoarder living right next door. Oh, right, Mom didn’t approve of my new profession. She certainly wouldn’t want me anywhere near this awful mess. Tina had no enthusiasm for mucking around in there, either.

One of the officers, the cuter one with the spikey blond hair, stepped onto the porch. He held a white handkerchief over his nose, and his eyes were watering. But he wasn’t crying. Tina realized the stench caused the tears.

He talked to the radio on his shoulder as he moved down the steps and onto the cracked sidewalk. “We need the M.E. Yes, looks like a homicide.”

Jan Christensen ©2014

http://www.janchristensen.com

Review: "Providence Rag: A Liam Mulligan Novel" by Bruce DeSilva

Liam Mulligan, investigative reporter for The Providence Dispatch newspaper has come a long way since June 1992. Back then he was a young reporter working the sports beat who, by the luck of the draw and the fact that no one else was available, was forced into helping cover from the start one of the worst murder cases in the history of Rhode Island. A case that ultimately resulted in the very justified conviction of a killer who is definitively going to kill again if he ever gets out.

In the spring of 2012 that release is looking more and more likely. Not only is the killer going to get out, Mulligan probably will see that happen very soon as well as the death of his employer, The Providence Dispatch. Newspapers are a dying industry thanks to a population that either reads online or doesn't read at all. Mulligan knows the end is near every time he walks into the nearly empty newsroom and considers all the empty workstations, but looking for a new job isn't a high priority right now. Mulligan instead is focused on the case and the huge ethical dilemma it has created.  It seems increasingly clear that prison officials were fabricating charges to keep the killer behind bars beyond his original sentence because the laws passed by the legislature were never ever designed to handle this unique situation. If prison officials really could make up charges and did so the obvious implication is that they could do it again with somebody else. Where does the public’s all-encompassing right to know about corruption and other matters fit into this situation? Beyond the thorny issue of what they did, if it did happen and Mulligan and possibly other reporters write about it, all heck is going to break loose with the most likely result in a killer being released to kill again. A killer who, no doubt, is far smarter about how to do what he wants to do without getting caught than when he went in all those years ago.

Inspired by two famous Rhode Island murder cases, Providence Rag: A Liam Mulligan Novel is the third book in the very good Liam Mulligan series. While Mulligan is getting older and maybe wiser---through that is questionable--- he is certainly more and more aware of the fact that he is the last of his breed in a dying industry. The obvious question as to who is going to expose corrupt politicians and flawed government actions when newspapers are gone is one that comes up again here as well as the ethics in reporting all that one knows about a situation.

This latest in the series is another good one from author Bruce DeSilva. Shifting in time from various dates in 1989 to 2012 the complicated read features further development of many characters as well as an illustrative history of what is being lost as the newspaper industry dies before our eyes. The world has changed a lot in those years and readers are reminded of those changes as the book works its way through and increasingly suspenseful situation on various fronts. Based on real life events with names and other details fictionalized Providence Rag: A Liam Mulligan novel, like the preceding two books Rogue Island and Cliff Walk, is absolutely well worth your time.

Providence Rag: A Liam Mulligan Novel

Bruce DeSilva

http://www.brucedesilva.com

Forge (A Tom Doherty Associates Book)

http://www.tor-forge.com

March 2014

ISBN #978-0-7653-7429-5

Hardback (also available in e-book)

304 Pages

$25.99

ARC was provided by the author for my use in an objective review.

Bruce DeSilva was a participant in the Sunday Sample series here on the blog back in February and you can read his piece here if you are so inclined.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Via Sons Of Spade--- Providence Rag (Liam Mulligan) by Bruce DeSilva

Review of the new (and in my TBR pile) book  Providence Rag (Liam Mulligan) by Bruce DeSilva

Sample Sunday: Bruce DeSilva

Another Sunday and another author whom I am honored to know and be a part of things here. Author of Rogue Island (reviewed here) and Cliff Walk (reviewed here) I was amazed and absolutely thrilled when he wanted to contribute something in advance of his new novel Providence Rag currently scheduled for release on March 11. Instead of the normal sample from a book, author Bruce DeSilva wanted to do something a little different. I was not about to say no.

Like most newspaper professionals these days, Liam Mulligan, a fictional investigative reporter at The Providence Dispatch, fears the future. 

The paper’s longtime-owners, a group of wealthy Rhode Island families who have controlled the Dispatch since the Civil War, always ran the place as a public service. For decades, they held out against the nationwide trend of local owners selling out to chains, and Mulligan has been grateful for that. But now, after too many years of declining circulation and advertising, the owners have reluctantly put the paper on the market. And the only suitor is a bottom-feeding media conglomerate that cares about nothing but the bottom line.

Mulligan is a wisecracking tough guy. Not much phases him. But he shudders when he thinks about what’s coming. For him, investigative reporting has always been a calling—like the priesthood but without the sex. But he’s in his forties now, and he knows his days as a newspaperman are numbered. He doubts he could ever be any good at anything else.

For where he sits, other metropolitan newspapers aren’t much of an option. Nearly all of them, hemorrhaging readers and revenue, have become mere shells of the vital institutions they once were. And few of them are hiring. They are laying people off. 

Television news and online news websites don’t look like much of an option either. Network television news departments, never all that great to begin with, have shriveled into irrelevance. Twenty-four-hour cable news channels spew endless loops of trivial celebrity gossip, provide soap boxes for blowhards, and poison the public discourse with partisan distortions and misinformation. And the handful of internet news websites striving to be more than propaganda organs for the left and right lack the revenue streams required to cover the news with breadth and depth. 

Mulligan, the protagonist of my Edgar Award-winning series of hardboiled crime novels, sees nothing on the horizon to replace newspapers as honest brokers of information. He’s appalled at how much damage their demise is doing to the American democracy.

If I were younger, I’d be in the same fix Mulligan is in. In recent years, I grew weary of being part of a rear-guard action and dispirited over the inevitability of the journalism’s decline. But I fought the good fight. The last major project I oversaw as a senior Associated Press editor, an investigative series about the exploitation of child gold miners in Africa, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. But five years ago, when the AP offered an early retirement package—part of its own retrenchment in the face of economic pressures—I decided it was time for a second act.

I’m a full-time novelist now, and the third novel in my Mulligan crime series, Providence Rag, will be published in hardcover and e-book editions on March 11.  The book has already received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist. 

In each Mulligan novel, my protagonist shows his grit by investigating crime and corruption in the state of his birth. In Rogue Island, he investigates an arson spree that is destroying the working class Providence, R.I., neighborhood where he was raised. In Cliff Walk, he investigates political corruption that has allowed the state’s rampant sex trade to thrive. And in Providence Rag, he and the entire state struggle with the ethical dilemma of what to do about a psychopath who is being held in prison on phony charges because he is too dangerous to be set loose. 

I want my novels to be enjoyed as suspenseful entertainment—but they are also about something more. It is my hope that as readers follow the skill and dedication with which Mulligan pursues the truth under increasingly difficult circumstances, they will gain a greater appreciation for what all of us are losing as newspapers fade into history.

Bruce DeSilva ©2014

Bruce DeSilva grew up in a tiny Massachusetts mill town where the mill closed when he was ten. He had an austere childhood bereft of iPods, X-Boxes, and all the other cool stuff that hadn’t been invented yet. I this parochial little town, metaphors and alliteration were also in short supply. Nevertheless, his crime fiction has won the Edgar and Macavity Awards; has been listed as a finalist for the Shamus, Anthony, and Barry Awards; and has been published in ten foreign languages. His short stories have appeared in Akashic Press's award-winning noir anthologies. He has reviewed books for The New York Times Sunday Book Review and Publishers Weekly, and his reviews for The Associated Press have appeared in hundreds of other publications. Previously, he was a journalist for forty years, most recently as writing coach world-wide for AP, editing stories that won nearly every major journalism prize including the Pulitzer. He and his wife, the poet Patricia Smith, live in New Jersey with two enormous dogs named Brady and Rondo.

Review: "Organized To Death: A Lighter-Side Mystery Story" by Jan Christensen

Life was supposed to be less stressful and a bit simpler in the fall of 2007 when Tina Shaw came back home to Newport, Rhode Island. Having given up her psychology practice at age 29 in favor of a new profession as a professional organizer, life should be less stressful with her new career as her clients should not die. Her first job should also be easy, all things considered, as she will be working with a

client, Rachel, whom she has known since they both were kids. Rachel obviously needs her help as her house is packed. Clutter has filled every nook and cranny except for the perfect baby nursery that is in pristine condition.

That is except for the dead body sprawled across the floor in a pool of blood with several bullet holes in the back.

Crystal is very much dead and for Rachel the loss is tremendous. Crystal could be over bearing and judgmental, but they were sisters and Rachel loved her dearly. If Rachel already needs mental health help, as Tina suspected considering the stat of the house, she certainly does now.

She might not be the only one who needs someone to talk to in Tina's circle of friends and acquaintances. Not only does a killer walk among them, but nearly everyone has a major secret. Some of those secrets unite the characters in various ways, while other secrets will ultimately destroy relationships and cost lives.

Organized To Death: A Lighter-Side Mystery Story by prolific short story and novelist Jan Christensen is a suspenseful page turning read. First in a new series, it features Tina Shaw a complicated young lady with secrets of her own. She also can't get a decent home cooked meal to save her life, has three potential romantic partners who annoy and intrigue her, and the serious unwanted interest of the police who see clear evidence linking her to at least one murder. A rich dynamic character who has yet to find herself, this first novel of a planned series is a tale of personal exploration weaved into a suspenseful cozy style mystery.  Rich in detail and populated with complicated multi-dimensional characters in every role, this latest book from author Jan Christensen is another good one.

Organized To Death: A Lighter-Side Mystery Story

Jan Christensen

http://www.janchristensen.com

CreateSpace (Self Published)

December 2012

ISBN# 978-1481139779

Paperback (also available as eBook)

234 Pages

$11.99

Material supplied by publicist PJ Nunn owner of BreakThrough Promotions.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013

Review: "CLIFF WALK: A MULLIGAN NOVEL" by Bruce Desilva

Reporter Liam Mulligan from the start knows this is going to be a very unpleasant story. Cosmo Scalici raises hogs and hogs will eat just about anything that ends up in their pens. That includes a child’s arm. While local law enforcement now has killed the hog so they can hopefully retrieve whatever is left of some little girl’s arm and hand, finding out to whom it belonged to and where it came from is going to be very hard. When Cosmo Scalici isn’t dealing with the hogs, he runs company, Scalici Recycling. They collect garbage from schools, jails, and restaurants all over Rhode Island. That means the arm could have come from just about anywhere.

That isn’t the only story Mulligan is working on though it is the most gruesome one right now. Mulligan is also working on figuring out who is doing some waste dumping, who is trying to buy the governor this time through campaign funds, and how long his paper, Providence Dispatch, is going to survive.

It is because he is sent out to Newport to attend an event during the weeklong Newport Jumping Derby that he witnesses Salvatore Maniella in deep conversation with the governor. The same Salvatore Maniella who is found hours later splattered across the rocks below Newport’s world famous Cliff Walk. The same Salvatore Maniella who is linked to various forms of pornography, prostitution, and others things.

In chasing the various stories, Mulligan finds himself a target as well as a confident to a number of people. He might make headway on his stories if the newspaper he works for wasn’t in such a state of collapse. The newspaper is crumbling around him with more and more layoffs, circulation cutbacks, financial cuts and other problems. Like any other business these days, it means that those that are left, Mulligan and others must increasingly share the workload to keep the paper afloat. His personal problems in terms of his health as well as an ex that just won’t leave him alone add to his burdens. Mulligan is at a crossroads, both personally and professionally, in a tale where faith and politics play increasing roles in cases that get darker as the weeks pass into the fall months.

Bruce DeSilva won both the 2011 Edgar and Macavity Awards for his debut novel, Rogue Island. Rightfully so, as that was a powerful book that firmly established the Liam Mulligan character as well as several others. Simply put, CLIFF WALK just might be a better book. Featuring the same occasionally sarcastic tone and laugh out loud moments (the obits are a must read on their own), several complex storylines where nothing is as it seems, and a sense that you right there with Mulligan every step of the way, he book is a good one from the start to the moving finish.

While it can be read as a stand-alone, those who have read Rogue Island will get far more out of CLIFF WALK as the characters and relationships continue to evolve.

CLIFF WALK: A MULLIGAN NOVEL

Bruce DeSilva

http://www.brucedesilva.com

A Forge Book (Tom Doherty Associates)

http://www.tor-forge.com

May 2012

ISBN# 978-0-7653-3237-0

Hardback  (also available in e-book and audio book)

318 Pages

$24.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012

FFB Review: "Rogue Island" by Bruce DeSilva

Normally I don’t select such a recent book for Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. In this case, I made an exception because this book is really good and I will be reviewing the sequel, CLIFF WALK: A MULLIGAN NOVEL tomorrow. It all began here with Rogue Island. As you can tell from the original review I had concerns, with the way publishing is today, this might be a one book deal. I’m sure winning the 2011 Edgar and Macavity Awards helped make sure that didn’t happen. Rightfully so as this book and series is really good.

This debut novel by Bruce DeSilva is getting a lot of attention and rightfully so. Not just because, as has been done in several recent novels, the ongoing demise of the newspaper industry plays a central role. The main theme of the book, chasing an arsonist burning buildings and killing people, is a good one with plenty of twists and turns.

Liam Mulligan is your classic newspaper reporter. He knows everybody on all sides of his beat. When he isn't working or fielding abusive calls from his someday ex-wife, he hangs out at the local bars and with his bookie and smokes cigars every chance he gets. He finds time to chase stories such as the one about an arsonist who is burning down one building at a time in the small neighborhood known as Mount Hope located in Providence, Rhode Island. The latest fire took five-year old twins to an early death the hard way and he wants to work the story.

Instead, his editor would rather Mulligan work on a story about a dog who supposedly followed his owners from the west coast all the way to Rhode Island. The dog’s family is hungry for media attention and is threatening to give the story to one of the local TV stations and Mulligan’s editor does not want that. The editor wants good news fluff stories to try and keep circulation numbers up and he wants Mulligan to get the dog story done and done now.

Beside the fact that the dog story is implausible at best, Mulligan wants to see an end to the fires and the deaths. He grew up in the neighborhood, an old friend is on the front lines as a fire fighter, and people are dying. The stupid dog story can wait.

Chasing the arson story soon makes him a target for his angry bosses at the paper, a fire bug that won't quit, and local fire investigators who hold a grudge and decide he is a suspect. As buildings burn and bodies pile up, Mulligan works hard to stay alive and identify those behind the fires before the carnage takes everybody he loves.

This debut novel is a bit dark at times which is not surprising considering the illustrious list of authors acknowledged in the back of the book.  Either inspiration or direct involvement, those mentioned are some of the best in the business and they don’t write light fluff featuring feel good stories where everything is perfect in the end.

One hopes that this novel full of colorful detailed characters, plenty of action, love of baseball and the Red Sox, as well as a mighty good mystery tale is the start of a series. It would be hard to imagine all this potential being used for used for just one stand-alone novel as the reservoir is deep with these characters. No mention is made on the jacket copy of another book, either as a sequel or something else, and one hopes that there is more to come from Mr. DeSilvia. Good stuff and well worth your time.

Rogue Island

Bruce Desilva

http://www.brucedesilva.com/

A Tom Doherty Associates Book

http://www.tor-forge.com

October 2010

ISBN#978-0-7653-2726-0

Hardback

303 Pages

$24.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System. Times remain very hard for libraries so please do your part to support public libraries any way you can.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2010, 2012

Reviewing: Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva

This debut novel by Bruce DeSilva is getting a lot of attention and rightfully so. Not just because, as has been done in several recent novels, the ongoing demise of the newspaper industry plays a central role. The main theme of the book, chasing an arsonist burning buildings and killing people, is a good one with plenty of twists and turns.

Liam Mulligan is your classic newspaper reporter. He knows everybody on all sides of his beat and when he isn't working or fielding abusive calls from his someday ex-wife, he hangs out at the local bars and with his bookie and smokes cigars every chance he gets. He finds time to chase stories such as the one about an arsonist who is burning down one building at a time the small neighborhood known as Mount Hope located in Providence, Rhode Island. The latest fire took five-year old twins to an early death the hard way and he wants to work the story.

Instead, his editor would rather Mulligan work on a story about a dog who supposedly followed his owners from the west coast all the way to Rhode Island. The dog’s family is hungry for media attention and is threatening to give the story to one of the local TV stations and Mulligan’s editor does not want that. The editor wants good news fluff stories to try and keep circulation numbers up and he wants Mulligan to get the dog story done and done now.

Beside the fact that the dog story is implausible at best, Mulligan wants to see an end to the fires and the deaths. He grew up in the neighborhood, an old friend is on the front lines as a fire fighter, and people are dying. The stupid dog story can wait.

Chasing the arson story soon makes him a target for his angry bosses at the paper, a fire bug that won't quit, and local fire investigators who holds a grudge and decide he is a suspect. As buildings burn and bodies pile up, Mulligan works hard to stay alive and identify those behind the fires before the carnage takes everybody he loves.

This debut novel is a bit dark at times which is not surprising considering the illustrious list of authors acknowledged in the back of the book. Either by inspiration or direct involvement, those mentioned are some of the best in the business and they don’t write light fluff featuring feel good stories where everything is perfect in the end.

One hopes that this novel full of colorful detailed characters, plenty of action, love of baseball and the Red Sox, as well as a mighty good mystery tale is the start of a series. It would be hard to imagine all this potential being used for used for just one stand-alone novel as the reservoir is deep with these characters. No mention is made on the jacket copy of another book, either as a sequel or something else, and one hopes that there is more to come from Mr. DeSilvia. Good stuff and well worth your time.


Rogue Island
http://www.brucedesilva.com/
A Tom Doherty Associates Book
http://www.tor-forge.com/
October 2010
Hardback
303 Pages
$24.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System. Times are hard for libraries these days so please do your part to support public libraries any way you can.



Kevin R. Tipple © 2010