Monday With Kaye: Panacea by F. Paul Wilson (Reviewed by Kaye George)

Like zombie novels anything billed as a medical thriller is a no go for me right off the bat. For this final Friday in August,  Kaye George reviews the July release of Panacea by F. Paul Wilson. 

Unfortunately, this also marks the final Monday With Kaye blog post for awhile. Kaye has a lot going on and desperately needs to take a break. With huge thanks and anticipation of her glorious return to this time slot sometime in the future....

 

Panacea by F. Paul Wilson

Here’s a medical, slightly supernatural thriller from this multi-dimensional writer, and it’s a good one. I believe this is a stand alone, but there could be more planned.

The storyline touches down in the Yucatan, Israel, and other places—usually with disastrous results. However, Laura Fanning, medical examiner for Suffolk County, and her silent, dangerous-looking bodyguard, feel they’re drawing closer to discovering what the panacea is about with each foray.

Laura has a daughter who is recovering from cancer and is in precarious condition. Laura is reluctant to leave her with her father (Laura’s ex), but she receives a stupendous offer from an ailing billionaire to journey to a Mayan village and learn about a miracle cure. She’s the perfect person for the job because of her medical knowledge and because she’s half Mayan and speaks the local language.

It all starts amid an arson investigation with a murdered victim. It appears that the dead man has been growing something in his house, marijuana is what law enforcement assumes. When another case pops up that is almost identical, people take notice. Both victims have similar back tattoos and both were connected with a startling series of seemingly miraculous recoveries from unrelated illnesses. On her journeys, Laura finds herself entangled with two opposing groups, one called 536 and the other called the panaceans. The latter has possibly been secretly curing people for centuries and the former has been attempting to prevent them for almost as long.

Laura not only has to deal with the warring clandestine factions with some incredible abilities, and searching for a cure she doesn’t believe exists, but also is having problems trusting her bodyguard—while being drawn to him against her will.

Complete with twists and turns and high adventure, this thriller will grip you to the end.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Eine Kleine Murder, for Suspense Magazine
 

Monday With Kaye: Guilty Minds by Joseph Finder (Reviewed by Kaye George)

Released last June, Guilty Minds is the third book in the Nick Heller series by Joseph Finder. If you wish to read in order you need to start with Vanished  followed by Buried Secrets.

Guilty Minds by Joseph Finder

This is a dark tale of intrigue and underhanded politics. It hits the stands in June, just in time for the height of our own political entanglements.

Nick Heller says his job is figuring out who’s lying and why, since he has a knack for detecting lies, but there’s a lot more to it than that. He calls himself a private intelligence contractor, a nebulous job description that gives him leeway. Gideon Parnell, a Washington DC as well as national legend, wants Nick to look into a high powered friend of his, who going to be attacked in the sleazy online Scandal Sheet for using a prostitute. Parnell is reluctant to even give Nick the name because, it turns out, he’s the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Nick starts digging and finds that the author of the exposé is Mandy Seeger, who used to be a hot shot reporter for the Washington Post. He’s intrigued by her. She says she’ll send the story out in 48 hours unless Nick can prove it’s false. He follows the trail, finds out who the prostitute is, and who paid for her, a wealthy casino owner, but before he gets further, the prostitute is murdered.

Now he’s investigating a murder and the scandal. Wading through muddy waters, trying to find out which leads are dead ends, which are false, and where the truth is, puts all of his powers to the test.

If you’re a Finder fan, this book will not disappoint you. If you’re not, you might become one after this read.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Requiem in Red for Suspense Magazine

Monday With Kaye: "Do or Diner" by Christine Wenger (Reviewed by Kaye George)

No zombies and nothing paranormal as Kaye George offers another cozy mystery that is first in the series for your consideration. Personally, I have enough trouble with food ads on television especially during all the sports stuff I watch. I don’t need a book series based around food, but it does seem to be the thing these days as a lot of authors are doing them.

Do or Diner by Christine Wenger

This is the first cozy mystery from Ms. Wenger, who also writes romance. The book earns its billing as A Comfort Food Mystery since it comes with not one, not two, but seven mouth-watering recipes. This reviewer intends to try most, if not all of them.

Trixie Matkowski finds herself in possession of the Silver Bullet Diner in upstate New York, on the shores of Lake Ontario, and in the fictional town of Sandy Harbor (fictional as far as I can tell). She’s not sure whether she’s excited or anxious about inheriting the place from her Aunt Stella. The diner gives this thirty-something a chance to start over after her divorce from Deputy Doug Burnham and the loss of her job working as a tourist information specialist or the City of Philadelphia. Aunt Stella’s husband, Uncle Porky, has just died and Stella has decided to get out of the diner business and cruise around the world. 

It’s quite a big job, taking over a place that has always been open 24 hours a day, but Trixie loves to cook and thinks it will work out well. She thinks she’ll try to avoid that handsome cowboy, Tyler Brisco, from Houston, Texas, who has moved in over the bait shop next door. She finds she needs his help, however, when she learns he’s a new local Deputy, and when the health inspector, Marvin P. Cogwwell III, a man universally disliked in the area, keels over dead with his face in a dish of the special that day, pork and scalloped potatoes. The dish has been poisoned and after a negative health inspection report is found, suspicion falls on Trixie.

Trixie must figure out who actually killed Mr. Cogswell and there are other suspects, from her own cook to the mayor of the town who owns a rival restaurant. Her business has fallen off drastically and a payment is due on the property. The small town quirky characters are very well done. This is a fun, light read.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Eine Kleine Murder for Suspense Magazine

Monday With Kaye: “Unthinkable” by Clyde Phillips (Reviewed by Kaye George)

Kaye George is back this week with a review of Unthinkable by Clyde Phillips. If you are anything like me, and I am very sorry for that, you will want to start this series at the beginning. That would be the 1998 release Fall From Grace.

“Unthinkable” by Clyde Phillips

This is the long-awaited fourth in the Jane Caniotti/Kenny Marks police procedural series. Jane has been told to take it easy on the job, since she’s pregnant with the couple’s first child, but you know how that will go for a hard-charging officer.

As the story opens, people are dying one after another—our clue that this is a serial killer case. Each person is seen in connection with Stella’s, a San Francisco deli, either entering the restaurant or working there. There don’t seem to be connections between most of them, which makes the case a real puzzler. One victim, however, has a connection to the police department, a young man who is the nephew of one of the police officers who was first on the scene.

Jane is not only pregnant, but she’s forty years old, which puts her at even more risk. She can’t back down on this case, though. Tenuous connections between the dead are explored and lead to dead ends, time after time, until the break comes and leads to the thrilling conclusion.

The mystery is a worthy addition to this series by the former executive producer of the television series, Dexter.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of  Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine
 

Monday With Kaye: "Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains" by Catriona McPherson

Mondays mean it is time for “Monday With Kaye” and this week Kaye George reviews Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains. Apparently my preferred treatment of burning them out with a flamethrower is not appropriate. Who knew?

Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson

This mystery is amusing in a reserved, Scottish way. It's the fifth in the Dandy Gilver series, published in this country in 2012, but 2009 in Great Britain.

 Dandy, an aristocrat from a bygone age, 1926 according to the back cover text, is actually named Dandelion Dahlia Gilver. Her family inhabits Gilverton, but that place isn't seen in this novel. Instead, she spends her time at another aristocratic mansion, as a lady's maid. She takes an undercover assignment for the mistress of the house, Walburga Balfour, called Lollie. Lollie needs to stop her husband from killing her, as she tells Dandy he's been threatening to do. Lollie is doubting her sanity and needs confirmation, and her life saved.

She tells how her husband, Pip, has been whispering into her ear snatches of a gruesome Robert Browning poem about strangling his mistress. Dandy must embark on this adventure without her good friend, Alec, as she immerses herself in the workings of a place with the incredible number of twelve servants. When Pip himself turns up dead, most of the servants are suspects, along with Lollie and some others.

A flavor of the times is helped along with the character of Harry, the valet and the resident “Red.” Other eddies and whirlpools of relationships lurk under the surface below stairs. But there are upstairs suspects as well, and Dandy faces the potentially fatal problem of maintaining her disguise in front of the servants, any of whom may have murdered their master.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Choke for Suspense Magazine
 

Review: "The Setup Man" by T. T. Monday (aka Nick Taylor)

The appeal for me is the same as it ever was. Playing a child’s game for money can be hard on your self-respect. Even now, I’m still not a doctor or a diplomat, but I’m more than I was. I’m more than a guy on a bench cracking seeds, waiting for a lefty to bat in the eighth.

God help me if a man’s not entitled to that. (Page 5)

Johnny Adcock is 35 and for more than a decade he has a secondary career to fall back on when his playing days are over. Major League Baseball these days is primarily made up of situational players who come in and out for this situation or that. Johnny Adcock is one of those guys as he has a very simple job as “the setup man.” He is the guy who comes in during the eighth inning to pitch to one guy, usually a lefty, in a pressure situation with men on base to get the out.  If he does his job right in getting the out and preserving the potential win, the closer comes in to deal with the final few batters and finish the game on a winning note. Being 35 Adcock knows his playing days are numbered and that the money, 1.5 million a year, is really good for the amount of work he has to do. He has a lot of idle time to fill when he isn’t on the field and his secondary career is a great fit. It kind of came about by accident, but he really enjoys moonlighting as a private detective. Ball players frequently need a private detective and the word among his fellow players is out about Johnny and his second career.

Johnny plays for “The Bay Dogs of San Jose” and the backup catcher is a guy named Frankie Herrera. Frankie has a big problem regarding his wife and does not want it getting out. Adcock is discrete, but telling him and letting him see the evidence is very hard on Frankie. Way back in the day before they were married, Maria, was a stripper in the clubs. When money was really short she took the next logical step and made some very adult movies. One of the videos is now up on a free porn site on the internet. If Frankie and his wife Maria didn’t have two twin boys who will be five in the fall it might not matter so much. But, they do and Frankie does not want to the kids to ever learn what their mom did long ago.

Somebody sent the site link to Frankie’s cellphone as proof the video was out there on the internet. So far there has not been an actual request for money, but the intent is pretty clear to Frankie and his wife as well as Johnny. If Frankie wants Johnny’s help the first step is to hand the cell phone over to Adcock for as long as he needs it. Adcock will need to watch the video so that he can start trying to figure out if this is, as Adcock suspects, an extortion/black mail attempt. It seems like the typical “rip the ball player off” type case that Johnny has seen quite a few times before. But, there is nothing typical about this one as things very quickly escalate with a murder and more.

Those who are baseball fans will really enjoy The Setup Man as there are numerous references to living and past players, teams, and more. Baseball becomes a significant secondary character in the book while never burying the main storyline of the mystery. Billed as a thriller by the publisher, the book is more of a mystery that quickly expands in depth as the tale featuring plenty of interesting characters, a variety of detailed settings, and lots of complexity unfolds. The various storylines combine together in The Setup Man making it a read that keeps the reader solidly entertained from start to finish. 

The Setup Man

T. T. Monday (aka Nick Taylor)

http://www.ttmonday.com

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/b/on-the-page?i=35

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Doubleday)

http://www.doubleday.com

March 2014

ISBN# 978-0-385-53845-9

Hardback (e-book, audio, and paperback also available)

274 Pages

$24.99

Material was picked up to read and review via the Plano Public Library System because Kaye Gorge wrote about it last month in one of her “Monday With Kaye” review segments.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

Monday With Kaye: "Catch Me" by Lisa Gardner (Reviewed by Kaye George)

This week for “Monday With Kaye” the subject is CATCH ME by Lisa Gardner. Please welcome back Kaye George……

“Catch Me” by Lisa Gardner

             Gardner’s long time readers will know that she doesn't shy away from tough themes. And this is a tough one. My upfront warning is that this novel deals with pedophiles and their victims, as well as some graphic parental abuse. But I’ll immediately follow that with the opinion that this is an excellent read, a psychological thriller as well as a police procedural, done in Gardner’s usual excellent style.

The prologue plunges the reader into the lives of two girls coping admirably with their mentally unhinged mother. Then we’re whisked into the future and the life of twenty-eight-year-old Charlie (Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant), whose best friend was murdered two years ago on the 21^st of January. One year ago, on the same date, her other best friend was also murdered. The three girls were inseparable as children, after Charlie was sent to live with her Aunt Nancy as a young girl. Charlie figures that, since it’s now the 17^th, she’ll be murdered, too. She doesn’t know why, or how to prevent it, but wants the serial killer to at least be caught and punished. So she contacts the person she deems best suited to catch the killer, Boston Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren.

D.D. is dealing with her new baby, Jack, who doesn’t sleep much, and with moving into Alex’s tiny suburban ranch house. Alex, a crime scene expert and the father of Jack, wants to marry D.D., but she’s not ready to make that commitment. To add stress to her already precarious life, her parents are coming for a visit in two days. She’s also trying to track down the killer of a series of pedophiles.

Charlie, a 911 operator, leads us, holding our breath, through some tense emergency calls. The police don’t discount her weird request, to find her killer after she’s dead, since she’s on their team.

The author admits to terrifying herself as well as her reader, but she lightens the sometimes-grim mood with flashes of brilliant humor. I was terrified, breathless, and hanging on every word as I read this book.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Choke, for Suspense Magazine

 

Monday With Kaye: "The Setup Man" by T. T. Monday (Review by Kaye George)

Kaye George returns for another “Monday With Kaye” segment that has quickly become one of the more popular ones on the blog. This week she considers The Setup Man by T. T. Monday…..

The Setup Man by T. T. Monday

Don’t shy away from this mystery if you’re not a baseball fan. The industry is seamlessly interwoven into the story and you’ll pick up all you need to know without any effort. If you are a baseball fan, dive in headfirst.

Johnny Adcock is a setup man for the San José Bay Dogs baseball team. A setup man, in modern baseball, is a pitcher who is called in for only a few pitches and not in every game. And he hardly ever bats. He has plenty of free time and gets paid more money than he knows what to do with. So he does private investigating in his off time, a profession he fell into but now loves.

The team’s backup catcher, a young, genuinely nice kid named Frankie Herrera approaches Adcock to solve his problem: some porno films his wife made before they were married. When Frankie is killed in a car accident soon after that, the whole mess doesn’t smell right. Adcock swings into action, assembling his off-diamond team, a rainbow mix of oddballs. He soon discovers that what he knows is the tip of a very deep, very dirty iceberg. Toss in his ex-wife and fourteen-year-old daughter, and you’re in for a good read.

This is the author’s first thriller, but I hope it’s not his last.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine

 

Monday With Kaye: "Long Knives" by Charles Rosenberg (Review by Kaye George)

As it is Monday, “Monday With Kaye” returns as she reviews Long Knives by Charles Rosenberg. Make sure you check the blog for her previous reviews after you read the review for today.

Long Knives by Charles Rosenberg

This is the second book in Rosenberg’s Jenna James series. Ms. James is happily teaching a course in the legalities of maritime salvage in spite of not making the money she made as a lawyer for the firm of Marbury Marfan, or M&M as she calls it. In fact, she is firmly on the tenure track.

One of her students, a handsome Italian named Primo Giordano, visits her office one morning wanting advice on a treasure map, purporting to give an exact location of a Spanish galleon that sank in 1641 with a load of valuables. When she steps out of the room to take a private phone call that turns out to be long and tedious, her troubles begin. She returns to her office to find Primo dead and the map nowhere to be found. The cause of death isn’t apparent, but he drank the coffee in her office and she didn’t have any. As the cause of his death narrows down to her coffee, she becomes the prime suspect in Primo’s death.

The extremely detailed courtroom procedural alternates between her disintegrating love life with Aldous Hartleb and the relationships with the two former associates she calls upon to help her through this crisis. Even though James’s nickname in college was Steel Boots, she is in danger of falling apart and losing everything, including her chance at tenure.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine
  

Monday With Kaye: “Jailhouse Glock” by Lizbeth Lipperman (Review by Kaye George)

Mondays are a little more bearable thanks to “Monday With Kaye.” This week she is reviewing Jailhouse Glock by Lizbeth Lipperman.

“Jailhouse Glock” by Lizbeth Lipperman

As you can tell by the title, this is a light-hearted mystery. It’s the sequel to “Heard it Through the Grapevine” to carry through with the rock and roll titles. These are the first two in the Dead Sister Talking Mystery series. The dead sister is Tessa, naughty and hilarious, but helpful for solving crimes as she can go where others can’t and hear things they don’t.

Tessa has four sisters who are still alive. Maddy, the main character in this novel, is a sheriff’s deputy, but this isn’t a serious role, as no one can ever imagine her shooting anyone. She is widowed and the mother of Jessie, the daughter she loves fiercely.

Another sister, Lainey, is married to Sheriff Colt Winslow, a man to whom Tessa used to be hitched. Some cute complications arise from this.

The sisters, especially the ghost Tessa who appears randomly, provide laughs along the way. The interactions between Maddy and the other law officers are well developed and fun to follow.

Maddy is being framed and it’s an elaborate setup, one that will be hard for Colt, who firmly believes in her innocence, to expose. It appears that she killed a prisoner in her care. She was the only one in the jailhouse and her own gun was used. There’s even video of Maddy shooting the prisoners, one of whom dies.

The stakes get higher as the plot gets deeper. Maddy fears that not only herself but also her daughter is in danger from some hardened criminals if she can’t figure out how to clear herself and figure out just what is happening.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of  Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine