Little Big Crimes: The Million Dollar Legs Matter, by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: The Million Dollar Legs Matter, by Richard Helms: "The Million Dollar Legs Matter," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September/October 2026. This is Helms...

Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – Bump and Run by Richard Helms

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – Bump and Run by Richard Helms

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Bump and Run: A Wade Durham Novel by Richard Helms

 

Bump and Run (Black Arch Books, August 2025) is the 26^th book by retired clinical/forensic psychologist and college professor Richard Helms. He is the recipient of the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award (twice); the Mystery Readers International Macavity Award; the Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Award (twice); the International Thriller Writers Thriller Award; and the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award (twice). His story “See Humble and Die” was featured in Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt’s Best American Mystery Stories of 2020, edited by Otto Penzler and C.J. Box. His short stories have appeared frequently in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and various anthologies and collections.

Wade Durham of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and part-time race car driver makes his debut here as he investigates the gruesome murder of a one-time football star in the small town of Choctaw. Win Savage had achieved fame through a fluke play during a Super Bowl game and then parlayed it into a broadcasting career. When his newscaster popularity faded away, he retired to his home town where he continued to capitalize on his name through product sponsorships and speaking engagements. He currently was doing his best to stop a ski resort from being built near Choctaw. Almost everyone else in the town saw the resort as the only way to reverse the slow economic disintegration of their town, so Wade was currently at odds with a lot of folks but no one admitted to being so upset with him that they would kill him, much less hang his body in a barbecue smoker.

Helms captures the politics and personalities of small towns perfectly here, contributing to the story’s strong sense of place. There are always a handful of people who hold an outsized amount of power and influence in small towns, and everyone else has to go along with them or be ostracized, which Wade’s interviews illustrate. Choctaw’s power brokers were the largest investors in the proposed ski resort and therefore had the most to lose if the deal didn’t go through. They became the focus of Wade’s investigation although Savage’s womanizing streak could not be overlooked. He tended to leave a trail of angry women behind him, and Wade met several of them.

A community of off-the-grid dwellers, a hamlet of ruffians and moonshiners, a 45-year-old cold case, and some vivid descriptions of North Carolina nature all contribute to an entertaining police procedural. I always appreciate a well-concealed murderer and I didn’t guess this one. Wrapping up the cold case along the way with a second murderer who had every reason to believe they had escaped justice was a bonus.

Wade Durham has been compared to the Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension books by John Sanford. This particular story reminds me of the Donald Harstad police procedurals set in small-town Iowa and perhaps the Alex McKnight novels by Steve Hamilton. Fans of soundly plotted mysteries based on realistic forensics and evidence collection with a strong sense of place should look at this absorbing series launch.

·         ASIN: ‎B0FP2L2GGT

·         Publisher: ‎Barbadoes Hall Communications/Black Arch Books

·         Publication date: ‎August 27, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎406 pages

·         ISBN-13: ‎979-8990041226

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4n6jRLM

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025 

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

Review: Bump and Run: A Wade Durham Novel by Richard Helms

 

Bump and Run: A Wade Durham Novel by Richard Helms is the first book in a new series. Wade “The Blade” Durham, part time stock car driver, is also a full-time agent for the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). He has just finished a race and is settled in to eat his victory steak when the boss calls with a case.

 

Choctaw, North Carolina, is dying small town. The population is dwindling and so is the local economy. It is the same story that is playing out across the country. The place will be gone in a couple of years unless something is done to save it. Industry isn’t the answer so the town leadership and other parties are all in on the tourism angle. The multimillion-dollar plan is to make a major area of the local mountain a ski resort in order to save the place.

 

Not everybody is onboard with the idea. Leading the charge against the project is home town hero and to some, villain, Winlock Savage. An aging former NFL QB who spent far more years in the broadcast booth after his playing days were over, has used his wealth to file a lawsuit to stop the project. Just as surely as he puts it to various women in his bed, he means to put it to those who are supporting the project.

 

It would be best for many people if he, at the very least, withdrew the lawsuit. He could go away and that would even be better. Especially if he quietly went away permanent like.

 

That has now happened.

 

Either he was killed or he committed suicide by hanging himself like a hog in the legendary local smokehouse. Either way, he has been smoked.

 

It probably wasn’t a suicide.

 

State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge, Malik Mourning, wants Wade “The Blade” Durham in Choctaw pronto and working a case that is going to gain national attention. The local police are not equipped to handle such a case and need the help. The local police chief, Navarro, has only been on the job about a year and is more than willing to have the SBI send somebody to work this kind of high-profile case. Or any high-profile case, for that matter, as they have not had a murder in forty years and the pandemic killed the last detective. The position remains unfilled.

 

Durham hits town, visits the smokehouse scene, talks to the locals, annoys some and amuses others, and basically starts poking under all the rocks. Those rocks lead to a case from 1977 and a ton of folks doing all sorts of shady stuff. The list of potential suspects is long. Winlock Savage was a large former NFL athlete and kept himself in shape. He did not commit suicide and then hang himself on a meat hook to get smoked. The man was murdered. Putting a man of his size on the hook in the smokehouse to hang like a butchered hog probably took more than one person.

 

What follows is a highly entertaining novel. Very reminiscent of the Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford, you have the same sort of main character here, albeit with less colorful language. Same attitude about fools that get in the way and a willingness to push authority aside to get the job done. Like Virgil Flowers, Wade Durham gets sent in to clean up messes. Unorthodox, he also might be their best agent. He gets in, finds the responsible parties, and moves on to the next messy situation the boss sends his way.  

 

This is going to be one heck of a series.

 

Bump and Run: A Wade Durham Novel is a fast-moving novel that has a few laughs and a lot of action. Strongly Recommended.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41XK72L

 

Author Update: "The ebook edition will be free on Amazon for five days beginning on Monday, September 15th."

 

My digital reading copy came directly from the author with no expectation of a review. But, truth be told, as soon as Mr. Helms mentioned that he was doing his version of a Virgil Flowers novel, he had me hooked like a fat bass on the line.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Brittle Karma by Richard Helms

 

Richard Helms is a retired forensic psychologist turned college professor turned full time writer. He has written more than two dozen novels and many short stories. His books have been nominated eight times for the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award, winning the award for Brittle Karma in 2021. He has also won the Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Award, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion, the Macavity, the ITW Thriller Award, and the Shamus.

His series characters include San Francisco private investigator Eamon Gold, forensic psychologist and jazz musician Pat Gallegher in New Orleans, North Carolina police chief Judd Wheeler, and former Charleston police detective and private investigator Whitlock.

Eamon Gold, a contemporary private investigator in San Francisco, has appeared in four books so far; the fifth is expected to be released in 2026. In Brittle Karma (Barbadoes Hall, 2020) Gold is approached by a potential new client: Abner Carlisle has been recently released from prison after a 30-year stay for his part in an armored car heist that yielded $20 million, more than $49 million in 2025. He is looking for the surviving member of the gang, Eddie Rice, who escaped capture and was supposed to hold the take for everyone else. As might be expected, Rice vanished along with the money.

Gold isn’t interested in working for Carlisle. He strongly suspects that Carlisle plans to retrieve the money from Rice and then administer a bullet or two. Gold refers him to another local PI and forgets about it until a local homicide detective tells him Carlisle’s body was found in a low-rent hotel room. Rice is the obvious suspect but no one knows where he is, what he has been doing for the past 20 years, or even what he looks like.

Gold is curious enough to ask a few questions and learns that the insurance company paid the claim on the lost money long ago but would be happy to accept any of it that Gold might be able to locate, less of course a finder’s fee. Money is always nice of course so Gold undertakes a search in earnest, encountering a range of well-rounded characters such as the hard-drinking wife of a City supervisor, an elderly elementary school lunch lady living in a high-end retirement community with all expenses paid, and a retired Army Ranger serving as a prominent mobster’s bodyguard. The compulsive car thief who steals Gold’s ride is my favorite.

The plot is outstanding; a tightly integrated story line yields a completely unexpected solution. The writing is reminiscent of the early Nameless Detective stories by Bill Pronzini, who also made San Francisco his beat. Fans of Spenser, Elvis Cole, and Nameless will want to look at Eamon Gold’s adventures.

 

·         Publisher: Barbadoes Hall Communications (November 14, 2020)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎267 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎097101597X

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0971015975

 

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

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

 

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

Little Big Crimes: The Scarlatti Skip, by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: The Scarlatti Skip, by Richard Helms: "The Scarlatti Skip," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2025.  This is the twelfth story by H...

Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – The Mojito Coast by Richard Helms

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Kevin’s Corner Annex – The Mojito Coast by Richard Helms

FFB Review: The Mojito Coast by Richard Helms

From the massive archive.... 

 

Miami private investigator Cormac Loame isn't at all thrilled with the idea of going to Cuba on a case. He has been there before, done that, and was rather lucky to get back home to Miami alive and in one piece. But, when Cecil “Madman” Hacker walked into his office just before the Christmas holidays while Cormac pushed paperwork and fantasized about buying a brand new 1958 Buick Roadmaster, he didn't have any really good way out. Hacker's fourteen year old daughter Lila has been taken by Danny McCarl. Danny was an employee of Madman and served as a sort of bodyguard. Hacker, who is a retired boxer with mounting troubles of his own, can’t very well go to Cuba right now and bring his daughter home. He wants Cormac to do it and does not care if McCarl does not make it back stateside alive. Cormac isn’t going to kill McCarl unless he absolutely has to and makes that clear before he takes the job and the money. After all, with Madman’s connections, he gets what he wants and you don’t tell the man no.

 

The last time Cormac was in Cuba it was in 1952 and he was lucky to do his business and get out of the country. Back then Batista was firmly in control and thanking his buddies in organized crime for their help by opening the island to anything they wanted to do. Now in late 57 the crime syndicate connected hotels have been built, organized crime is getting their share across all aspects of entertainment and vice, but Castro and the rebels are coming with a vengeance. State controlled radio says the government is winning the battle, but everyone knows reality is that now it is matter of time, maybe just a few days, before the rebels capture the capital city and the corrupt Batista government collapses. Against that backdrop, Cormac has to find the girl in a land that has never been that friendly to him where old alliances are dead or crumbled and powerful enemies are facing desperate times. The clock is ticking on the Batista government as well as on the case itself and survival goes to the luckiest.

 

Scheduled to be released next month, The Mojito Coast quickly pulls the reader deep into the heavily conflicted world of Cormac Loame. A world where he can safely trust no one and where the past five years that he has been gone has changed many and hardened others. A world when he wants to get the girl and get out and is constantly dealing with new obstacles in his quest. A world where the fires of revolution fill the reader's senses while Cormac struggles to stay alive in this excellent thriller that blends together a special mix of mystery and adventure. Award winning author Richard Helms has crafted quite the book with The Mojito Coast and it is very much worth your time.

 

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

 

An ARC of this title was provided by the author in exchange for my objective review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013, 2024

Little Big Crimes: The Four-Nine Profile, by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: The Four-Nine Profile, by Richard Helms:  "The Four-Nine Profile," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2024.  This is the eleventh appe...

Little Big Crimes: Spear Carriers, by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: Spear Carriers, by Richard Helms:  Spear Carriers," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November/December 2023. As far as I can tell, this is only the se...

Little Big Crimes: West of the Ashley, by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: West of the Ashley, by Richard Helms:   "West  of the Ashley," by Richard Helms, in Prohibition Peepers: Private Eyes During the Noble Experiment, edited by Michael Br...

My Favorites of 2022, So Far

Earlier this month, Lesa Holstine shared her favorite books to this point of the year with her post Favorites of 2022, So Far. So, today I offer you my favorites of the year so far. Five very good reads.

 

First off, I told you about A Kind And Savage Place back in February. I wrote then, “The new book by author Richard Helms, A Kind And Savage Place is a prequel to Six Mile Creek and others that are part of the Judd Wheeler series. While Judd plays a role in this book that runs from 1942 to 1989, he is not the central character.” It is one heck of a book and you can read the rest of my review here.

 

In April I told you about Movieland by Lee Goldberg. This is the fourth book in the very good Eve Ronin series. My copy came by way of NetGalley. My review started with, “It is April as Movieland begins and Sheriff’s Department Detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan “Donuts” Pavone are dispatched to Malibu Creek State Park on a homicide call. A scenic location used by both movies and television programs over the decades, it is now the scene of at least one murder with a second victim in critical condition.” You can read the rest of my review here. I also recommend reading this series in order.

 

May was a good reading month. Book Two of the Mick Hardin series came my way thanks to NetGalley. My review of Shifty’s Boys began with “Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt picks up a bit after The Killing Hills and begins with the local taxi driver, Albin, finding a body. At first, he thinks he has found somebody passed out from drinking way too much. Has happened before in Rocksalt, Kentucky, so he is not very concerned as he sees the odd shape up against the fence in the parking lot of the local Western Auto. It is only when he gets out of the cab and walks towards the male figure, he realizes that it is not mud on the man’s clothes, but blood.” You can read my review here.

 

I have long been a fan of the Sherriff Hank Worth series. Back in late May, I told you about the new one titled Dangerous Consequences: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth. My review began with, “As Dangerous Consequences: A Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery by Claire Booth begins, the ripple effects of the recent termination of several deputies, continue. New staff is being brought in while some of the still employed old guard continue to work from within against Sheriff Hank Worth and Chief Deputy Sheila Turley. The rot within the department still lingers, but getting rid of the rest of the folks who need to go is not going to be easy.” The rest of my spoiler free review can be found here. This is another series I strongly recommend reading in order. 

I have also long been a fan of the Joe Gunther series by Archer Mayor. I told you about the new one, Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel back at the end of May. My reading copy came by way of NetGalley. I opened my review with, “It is late winter as Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor begins and Joe Gunther, Field Force Commander of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, have been summoned out to a scene bathed in a sea of strobe lights from numerous agencies. It appears that the only party not there is the local dog catcher.” The rest of the review can be found here. While it is better to have read these in order, you could get away with reading this one first.

Enjoy the reads. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022

Review: A Kind And Savage Place by Richard Helms

The new book by author Richard Helms, A Kind And Savage Place is a prequel to Six Mile Creek and others that are part of the Judd Wheeler series. While Judd plays a role in this book that runs from 1942 to 1989, he is not the central character.

Instead, this is a book about how daily interactions, even minor ones, have a major impact. Each contact has a reverberation to it for all involved. Then there are the reverberations of childhood and the random role of dice regarding who are parents are as we enter the world. That childhood, and the families we come from and their legacy, for good or ill, reverberates throughout our lives. Even death, at a young age or after a full life have a reverberation through others on and on. People talk about the fall of a single domino and how that changes everything. They miss all the dominoes that lead up to that single domino being in a certain place at a certain time and thus there to fall.  

That idea, all the dominoes that must fall to cause the certain domino to fall in a major way—seen by some and unseen by many others—is the heart of this complex tale that spans generations, families, and decades. While a central act plays a major role and triggers all sorts of events across decades, many minor daily interactions played a role for that event to happen. Life is complex as author Rick Helms beautifully illustrates in A Kind and Savage Place as he illustrates through a number of characters in this complex tale.

One of those daily interactions that was unremarkable at the time and yet put many things into motion was when Arlo Pyle hired Everett Howard to work in his auto shop. Pyle, a while man who had been to Europe and fought the Nazis before coming back home, hired Everett Howard to work in his shop and run errands. Howard was black, a young kid, and had dropped out of the segregated school, which wasn’t much to begin with, as was common at the time in North Carolina and elsewhere. It didn’t help Howard’s educational prospects that he was also a bit slow. He soon proved to Pyle that he was a hard worker.

Despite doing everything he knew to do and doing a job well, that did not stop others from accusing him of misdeeds. The fact that Howard had not done any of things he was accused of never mattered to those who could not see beyond the color of his skin.

An inability to see others as they truly are also played a major role in life as Rennie Poole was able to parlay a humble start as a local businessman, into a political force. Some folks saw him for what he was at the start and avoided him. Many others did not and became part of his world to manipulate. Long before his political career and the creation of his political machine, one of his projects was a local dancehall where teens hung out.

It was there, on a warm Saturday night in May 1954, Coral Pyle, one of four daughters of Arlo Pyle, and Adele Pyle, met Jude Pressley. A recent graduate and QB of ­considerable talent at the local level, Pressley is currently drifting through life and enjoying the adoration as a county football champion who set more than a dozen records. He also has good looks and has certainly caught the attention of Coral Pyle. That meeting in the dance hall put into motion a series of events that changed their lives forever while also directly and indirectly impacting nearly every character in this wide ranging and complicated book.

Set against the social movements of the various decades with themes of politics, greed, racism, and more, author Rick Helms tells a complicated and engrossing tale. Far more is at work beyond the brief premise. To explain more would create spoilers as things and people are tightly interlocked in this wide ranging and complex read.

Life, death, drama, and a lot more, are at work in A Kind and Savage Place by Rick Helms.

Strongly recommended. 

 

My reading copy was an ARC provided by the author with no expectation of a review.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022

Little Big Crimes Review: Capes and Masks by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: Capes and Masks, by Richard Helms,:   "Capes and Masks," by Richard Helms, Mystery Weekly Magazine, June 2021. This is the third time in ten years of weekly reviews t...

Little Big Crimes Review : Goodnight Saigon by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: Goodnight Saigon, by Richard Helms:  "Goodnight Saigon," by Richard Helms, in Only the Good Die Young: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel, edited by J...

Little Big Crimes: Shooting Stars, by Richard Helms

Little Big Crimes: Shooting Stars, by Richard Helms: "Shooting Stars," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September/October 2015. Mr. Helms makes his third a...