Showing posts with label September 2025. Show all posts
Showing posts with label September 2025. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Gravetapping: Booked (and Printed): September 2025
Gravetapping: Booked (and Printed): September 2025: Booked (and Printed) September 2025 It was a difficult month at Casa Boulden. You’ve probably noticed me whining ...
Publication Day Review: The Proving Ground: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly
Set two years after the events in Resurrection
Walk, Micky Haller is doing things quite differently now. Gone,
except for one car, are the Lincolns that made him very well known as “The
Lincoln Lawyer.” Gone as well is the old office. Now his office is in the
warehouse that used to store, among other things, the fleet of cars. He still practices
law, but he is no longer fighting criminal cases. He now practices civil law
which can be just as important.
The team remains intact. The cases
remain huge. And, as always, vitally important for his clients.
That is certainly true for the major
case that Haller and the team are handling as The Proving Ground: A
Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly begins. The case is Randolph
Versus Tidalwaiv Technologies LLC before Federal District Court Margaret
Ruhlin. The case, basically, boils down to this: a mom had her only child, a
teenage daughter, murdered by another teen because the AI program told him to
kill. Not only are the big tech companies watching the case, and possibly considering
buying Tidalwaiv Technologies, the mainstream media is covering the case to
some extent.
Haller is fighting an uphill battle
against a cutting edge tech company with money, resources, numerous non-disclosure
agreements, attorneys, and much more in their arsenal to force an end to the case,
one way or the other. They are willing to settle the case at an amount, that for
them, is less than pennies on the dollar. They also refuse to make an admission
of wrongdoing or apologize for what happened and the tragedy that occurred because
of their product.
But, they are dealing with a mom who
will never get back what she wants most—her daughter alive and well. She knows
the AI companion told her daughter’s ex-boyfriend to kill her. She is sure it
never would have happened without that thing telling him to do it. If she can’t
have her daughter back, she wants the next best thing—a judgement against the
company to force them to be accountable for what they knowingly did and didn’t
care.
Brenda Randolph is not going to settle
for less, no matter what.
What follows is a complex read full of
cross and double-cross inside the courtroom and out. Going in, you know Haller
is probably going to win as that is what he usually does. The question is how?
Along with entertaining readers in that journey,
author Michael Connelly provides some scary insight into aspects of Artificial
Intelligence and the use of it to generate companions for teens and others. It
isn’t just the possibility of terminator robots that should scare you.
The Proving Ground: A Lincoln
Lawyer Novel
is a mighty good read and well worth your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/46mcxoO
My digital ARC came from the publisher,
Little, Brown and Company, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Wednesday, October 01, 2025
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and the Supernatural
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and the Supernatural: Reviewed by Jeanne This is a DK production, so of course it’s packed with information and illustrations. It's arranged chronologic...
Publication Day Review: The Girl from Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance
The Girl from
Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance is one of those books
where the reader knows the identity of the killer almost from the beginning. This
is done by way of alternating chapters from the killer’s point of view. The book
opens in Fertile, Minnesota, in 1956 where a child hears voices in his head and
eventually kills. That prologue is followed by numerous chapters detailing the
point of view of the killer that strikes again and again. Eventually, the
killer relocates to Bisbee, Arizona, and continues his work, undetected, while
becoming a pillar of the local community in a variety of ways.
The same Bisbee,
Arizona, where in the time of the main storyline, November 2023, Sheriff Joanna
Brady just recently won reelection. Her department is under intense strain due
to the political climate, things at the border, jail over population, being
short staffed, and other factors. Her tenure as the Sheriff for the Cochise County
Sheriff’s Department will continue. As a result, her daughter, Jenny, who is
about to graduate from the Arizona Police Officer Academy, will be accepting a
job to go to work in Pima County. Sheriff Brady not only will be in attendance
at graduation to see Jenny graduate, Sheriff Brady will be giving the main
graduation speech. So, it is a big event for all involved.
A lot of things
have changed since Sheriff Brady graduated decades ago after her first election
in the wake of her first husband’s death, but hazing and sexism is still a huge
problem. While noting that and calling it out, she also notes in her speech the
fact that in the decades since she graduated, the world of law enforcement has
gotten darker and more violent. That the border, drug trafficking human
smuggling, and the cartels are just a few of the reasons that things are more
difficult and dangerous now that they were when she first started out. Now she
not only has to worry about her safety and the safety of those under her command
she also, like any other parent, has to worry about her daughter as she takes
her first real job in law enforcement.
A few days
later, just after Thanksgiving, as the rain pours down on Bisbee and the
surrounding area, Sheriff Brady gets a call that pulls her away from the family
and their delayed Thanksgiving celebration. Floods are happening and her people
are on it and handling everything well. But, a highway worker trying to clear
debris from a local bridge so that the flood waters could move through
unimpeded has found a duffle bag wedged in a debris pile. Inside that bag was
the body of a young child.
The waters of
the San Pedro River originate somewhere in Mexico before crossing the border
and making their way to the bridge near St. David. So, though the body was recovered
here, the young boy probably came from Mexico. She knows Captain Arturo Peña,
head of the Federales unit in Naco, Sonora, really well and has worked with him
many times. That will come in hand as the case is complicated and crosses both
sides of the border.
It is also the
first death in the here and now of the main storyline as the walls begin to
close in on a local serial killer who has killed for decades.
The Girl from
Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance is marketed as the
21st book in this long running series. As such, it does not break
any new ground with these long-established characters. Not that it was expected
as that would be out of form for the series and this author.
As a reader, I
personally find chapters from the point of view of the nutjob killer, in this
case one who has gotten away with it for decades, tedious and completely unnecessary.
In my opinion, it is clichéd writing that almost does nothing expect pad word
and page counts. However, it must work for many readers as authors continue to
write it and publishers release books with it right and left. So, if you like
it, you will be happy here as there is a lot of it.
Overall, despite
the caveats mentioned above, The Girl from Devil’s Lake: A Brady Novel of
Suspense by J. A. Jance, is a good read and worth your time. If you are
new to the series, you could easily start here as previous events are only
touched on briefly if mentioned at all.
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4lUbG5L
My reading copy
came from the publisher, William Morrow, through NetGalley, and with no expectation
of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Monday, September 29, 2025
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday: This is the new (hopefully permanent) home of In Reference to Murder , following Typepad's shutdown of its platform as of October 1, 202...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Murder at Somerset House by Andrea Penrose
Murder at
Somerset House (Kensington, 30 September 2025) is the ninth book in the
Regency historical mystery series by Andrea Penrose. Set in late March 1815,
England is enjoying a spell of peace now that Napoleon is sequestered on the
island of Elba off the coast of Italy. Charlotte Sloane is hopeful that her
household can focus on family matters for awhile. Her hopes are doomed, as her
husband the Earl of Wrexford is asked to assist in the investigation of the
death of a scientist who was killed outside the headquarters of the Royal
Society in Somerset House a few hours after a presentation that claimed that
electricity and magnetism were related forces. His ideas were met with open
anger and Scotland Yard first assumed the murder was personal.
Wrexford
declines at first and then is pulled into the larger puzzle surrounding the homicide
when England learns that Napoleon has escaped and is marching on Paris,
pitching the nation back into war. Spies report that the French are also
looking into the practical uses of electromagnetism and were believed to have
developed an early form of the telegraph, which would give them advanced
communications capability on the battlefield. Suddenly the death of the
scientist takes on broader potential meaning.
Fact is woven
invisibly into the investigation. During their inquiries Charlotte and Wrexford
meet the young Michael Faraday who established the principles of
electromagnetism. The budding stock market and the financial equations that
explain the impact of stock profits and losses on the overall economy are
explored. The early use of messenger pigeons as a communications device also is
examined.
Like the St.
Cyr series by C. S. Harris, these books are as much history as they are
mystery. The Regency was a fascinating time, socially, politically, and
scientifically. Fans of historical mysteries will want to look at this latest
adventure.
·
Publisher: Kensington
·
Publication date: September 30, 2025
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10: 149673999X
·
ISBN-13: 978-1496739995
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4nRVi5G
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
SleuthSayers: Living the HI Life
SleuthSayers: Living the HI Life: This one may ramble a bit, folks, and the connection to writing mystery fiction may be a bit oblique--except in the sense that what I'm ...
Saturday, September 27, 2025
KRL Update 9/27/2025
Up on KRL this week reviews and giveaways of 2 Halloween Cozy Mysteries-"Halloween Night Murder" by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Liz Ireland and "Mrs. Morris and the Day of the Dead" by Traci Wilton https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/two-halloween-cozy-mysteries-to-start-off-the-spooky-season/
And a review and giveaway of the first in a brand new series by Penny Warner, "Murder at Blackwood Inn." We also have a fun Halloween related guest post from Penny https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/murder-at-blackwood-inn-by-penny-warner/
And a review and giveaway of "The Dead Husband Cookbook" by Danielle Valentine https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/the-dead-husband-cookbook-by-danielle-valentine/
We also have the latest Queer Mystery Coming Attractions from Matt Lubbers-Moore https://kingsriverlife.com/09/27/queer-mystery-coming-attractions-october-2025/
Up during the week we posted our first Halloween post of the season! This one from paranormal romance author Ann Rose where she talks about why Halloween is the best holiday, and you can learn about her new book ,"A Hexcellent Chance to Fall in Love", which is perfect for your Halloween reading! https://kingsriverlife.com/09/24/why-halloween-is-the-best-holiday-the-top-ten-reasons/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review of "Fatal Sign-Off" by Sarah E. Burr, along with a $10 gift card giveaway https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/fatal-sign-off-by-sarah-e-burr.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Death Whisk" by Catherine Bruns https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/death-whisk-by-catherine-bruns.html
And a review of "Puppy Peril" by Hazel Smith https://www.krlnews.com/2025/09/puppy-peril-by-hazel-smith.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 75 Calls for Submissions in October 2025 - Paying Markets
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 75 Calls for Submissions in October 2025 - Paying ...: This October there are more than six dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As alway...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson: Reviewed by Kristin Madeline Hill (Mad) and her mom have a farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. When a man pulls up to their farm stand one d...
Scott's Take: Justice League Unlimited Vol. 1: Into the Inferno by Mark Waid, Jep Loeb, and Dan Mora (Illustrator)
Justice League Unlimited Vol. 1: Into the Inferno by
Mark Waid, Jep Loeb, and Dan Mora (Illustrator), and other artists, is the new
Justice League title set after Absolute
Power. I read this through partly through Hoopla and partly through
the DC Infinite app. There has not been a new Justice League title in several
years.
This new league has formed by including every hero
in the DC Universe. There are a few prequels and spin offs not included in this
main collection. Since Waller’s takeover new metas are appearing on Earth. Before
this volume, Waller had robots that could steal superpowers from people. When
the robots were destroyed, the stolen superpowers either went back to the original
people or went to random new people across the planet. There is also a massive
power vacuum in the universe after Darkseid’s suicide/ascension to become a
separate universe.
In the here and now of this volume, it is all heroes
on deck to stop the chaos that has been unleashed. Additionally, there is a
terrorist organization calling itself Inferno is attacking the planet while the
league has a traitor in their midst.
This is an action-packed epic with incredible art.
It is a who’s who of heroes as there are more than twenty heroes used in this
book. The key players are Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, and
Mister Terrific. The cover has Captain Atom, Star Sapphire, and Black Lightning
as main characters, but they have limited use in this first volume and are more
important to other titles connected to this title. There are so many heroes
that I think new readers might be a little confused. There is a lot of
backstory and tie ins explained in this read.
The Inferno villains were interesting, but the
reveal of their real identities was ruined by how this trade is collected.
There is a variant cover before issue 5 which unveils all the identities before
you find out in the story. In short, this is a global crisis story. I really
enjoyed it. This is basically a big budget action movie in comic book form.
The adventure will continue in Volume 2 which does
not have a title yet as it collects multiple issues and specials. There is also
a crossover collection with World’s Finest coming out in November titled We Are Yesterday. Both books will
include time travel elements as time has become broken because of the events
over the last few years.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/45Z4Nss
I read part of this through the Hoopla App by way of
the Dallas Public Library System and part through the DC Infinite app.
Scott A. Tipple ©2025
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