Review: Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series by Howard Owen

It is May 2020 as Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series by Howard Owen begins and just a few days after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody occurred in Minneapolis. There have been Black Lives Matter protests all across the county and that includes Richmond, Virginia, where reporter Willie Black has been on the story. A story that is expanding as the protests become increasingly violent.

 

A story that soon changes and becomes far more personal with the discovery of two bodies in an apartment over a nearby bookstore. There had been protests in the area and there had been vandalism and damage. Checking out the situation as the door of a used bookstore stored open, officers checked the bookstore on the ground floor, and went upstairs. On the second floor, those two officers soon found a woman and a man tied to chairs in the living room. Both were bound and gagged and each had been shot in the chest and head.  As they checked the rest of the apartment, they found a baby alive and unharmed in her crib.  

 

The deceased are soon identified as William and Susan Keller, both of whom were in their early thirties. While they do not have a motive, the local cops quickly have an identified suspect. Adam Walker, the son of Willie Black’s first wife, Jeanette. Willie Black is not be the boy’s biological father, but he was Jeanette’s first husband, so that means a lot. That personal angle means that he has access to information that others do not have as the days pass and the investigation moves forward. It also puts him in the crosshairs of at least one person who determined to shut up the pesky reporter once and for all.

 

Monument is the latest in the long running Willie Black mysteries. This latest one is set against the backdrop of the BLM protest, the Covid pandemic, and various societal issues that have been at the forefront of the news these past months. Intense and powerful, the book also spins a mighty good mystery read. Strongly recommended by myself as well as Publishers Weekly who gave it a starred review.

 

Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series

Howard Owen

http://www.howardowenbooks.com

The Permanent Press

https://thepermanentpress.com/products/monument-willie-black-mystery-11

November 2021

ISBN# 978-1579626471

Hardback

232 Pages 

 

 

I received a PDF of the book from the publisher with no expectation of a review. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021

Lesa's Book Critiques: RECAP – RANDOM ROAD BY THOMAS KIES

 Lesa's Book Critiques: RECAP – RANDOM ROAD BY THOMAS KIES

Review: Evergreen: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen

It is New Year’s Day in 2018 as Evergreen: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen begins in a way that is very familiar to many of us of a certain age. Between his bladder and the cat sitting on his chest, sleeping much past eight in the morning is proving impossible. While hosting a party at your own place solves the transportation issue, there is one heck of a mess to clean up on the morning after. Cleaning up and thinking about having to go work at the paper later gets pushed aside when Richard Slade calls.

Richard Slade and Willie Black have a complicated history familiar to readers of the series. In the here and now, his mother, Philomena Slade, is in the hospital and is not doing so well. According to Richard Slade, she wants to tell him something important about Artie Lee.

Artie Lee was Willie Lee Black’s father and he died a little over a year after Willie was born.  Peggy never talks about him and Wille knows next to nothing except that he was African American. Back in 1960, African Americans and Caucasians could not legally marry. The simple act of dating was frowned upon by a significant portion of society. That belief that the races should not mingle extended to the child of such a union. That reality has been a major part of Willie Black’s entire life.

As it turns out, Philomena Slade has been quietly maintaining Artie’s grave in a local cemetery that has been nearly forgotten in the mists of time. All she wants is for Willie to maintain the grave site after she passes. A simple request that is far more complicated than it first appears. Now that he has been told of the grave site, something he has never known until now, all Willie wants is to learn all he can about his father and what happened that fateful night decades ago. That night and his death changed everything for everyone.

Willie Black digs into the past in a quest to find out what happened long ago. His mother, Peggy, refuses to talk about it so he has to talk to others who were around at the time and know what happened. Getting folks to talk is not easy and it soon becomes clear that what he thought he knew all these years was not true. History and race relations have always been a subtext if not a main theme of this series and such is the case here as Willie unearths hard truths that some would much prefer left buried in the past.

Evergreen: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen is the latest published installment of a complex and very good series that began with Oregon Hill. This is not a static series. Characters age, people die by the hand of man or natural causes, and relationships evolve and change, so it is strongly recommended that readers start at the beginning and work their way forward. Additionally, this read contains frequent references to past events and are detailed enough to be considered spoilers. 

My review copy came by way of the Bachman Branch of the Dallas Public Library System shortly before the shutdown in mid-March due to the pandemic. Next in the series is Belle Isle which I have here in my print TBR pile after my ongoing reviews of this series came to the attention of the publisher.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

Review: Scuffletown: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen

Scuffletown: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen is the seventh book in The Willie Black Mystery Series that began with Oregon Hill. For readers new to this series, this is a series that is best read in order as the characters age, relationships change, and much like in the real world, the past is always present and not always in a good way.

It is a lovely afternoon in early April as the book opens and Scuffletown Park is about to be in the news in a big way. A small park surrounded by homes and apartments, it is where Willie Black and the first of four wives started their lives as young married people. Based on the amount of blood splashed across one of the brick walkways, something did go down the night before. The cops had been called out around midnight for a fight of some sort. Upon their arrival, there was nobody in the park. They certainly did not find a body in the dark park and never saw the blood on the bricks. With no body and no signs of a struggle or anything amiss, they soon packed up and moved on to other crimes in the city.

It was not until this morning, a Thursday, that it became clear something bad had gone down in the old park. A jogger cutting through by way of the alley that runs down on side of the park called the cops after he saw the massive amount of blood on the brick stones. Despite a thorough search and spending hours at what clearly is a crime scene, the police still do not have a weapon, a body, or any evidence of an actual crime.

That soon changes when a video, taken by a resident, suddenly turns up. A video that clears shows Willie’s friend and roommate, Abe Custalow, clearly standing over what appears to be a dead man. Almost everyone at the paper, on the police force, and at various local watering holes, knows that Abe has a bedroom in Willie Black’s condo unit. Abe is family and that has not changed. What has changed is that he is now a suspect and the police are looking hard for him. Abe has a criminal record, one that is far more complicated than it would appear from a dry read of the facts. Willie is absolutely positive that Abe did not do this no matter what one can see on a video.

Even though, from the start, Abe wants nothing done on his behalf, Willie begins digging into what Abe has been doing lately and what could have happened in the park. Even though Abe and almost everybody else wants him to stay out of it, reporter Willie Black is not about to stop in his quest to save Abe from himself. Before long he is risking his job, his life, and even his friendship with Abe to prove that his old friend did not do the crime. He does so because the past always matters.

This installment of a complicated series is yet another very good read. While the primary storyline is the case as outlined above, there are ongoing secondary storylines at work that continue previous events from earlier books. The result is another complicated read of complex characters, family drama, and plenty of mystery.

This is a really good series and one that should be read in order. Scuffletown: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen is highly recommended.

The series to this point and my reviews:

Oregon Hill (June 14, 2019)

The Philadelphia Quarry (July 19, 2019)

Parker Field (September 2019)

The Bottom (October 4, 2019)

Grace (November 15, 2019)

The Devil’s Triangle (January 10, 2020)

My reading copy came from the Timberglen Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

FFB Review: Parker Field: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen

For the full list of reading suggestions for this Friday in September 2019, head over to Todd Mason's Sweet Freedom Blog.

The third in the series, Parker Field: A Willie Black Mystery begins in April and with a gunshot. The weather cuts like a knife and feels more like the middle of March so nobody really should have been sitting on a bench in Monroe Park. Yet, somebody was out there and was shot. That park is just across the street from Willie’s apartment building. As he is the reporter for the crime beat, one of his several bosses at the paper sends him over to cover the story.

It isn’t until he is on scene and sees the victim that Willie realizes the man that was shot is Les Hacker. For all intents and purposes, the man is his father as he has had such a huge presence and role in his life in recent years. Not that they are related by blood, they are still family and he has been the best thing to ever happen to Willie’s mom, Peggy. Les Hacker has no enemies and yet somebody has deliberately shot him.

Answering the question as to who shot him and why seems to be a police matter so Willie is more than content to let them figure out the case as he spends time at the hospital. As many contacts and family friends begin to show up at the hospital, one is Jimmy Deacon, better known to all as “Jumpin’ Jimmy.” A man of nervous energy with a nearly constant ability to speak in the third person about himself, the man is intense. He is also a reservoir of knowledge regarding minor league baseball in Richmond, Virginia, and the surrounding areas. So, he knows a considerable amount of history regarding the last team Les Hacker played for, the 1964 Richmond Vees.

As Jumpin’ Jimmy explains it, Les Hacker isn’t the only one on the team to be shot. Fellow players Lucky Whitestone and Phil Holt were both victims of gun violence as well in recent years. They are not the only players who are dead before their time either.

The more he learns from Les when he is awake enough to talk and from Jumpin’ Jimmy, the more it seems that the shooting has to be connected in some way to that 1964 team. Many of whom who have died in the years since and often in violent ways long before their age and health issues would have naturally struck them down. Pitching the story to the newspaper bosses as a follow-up to the members if the 1964 team—a where are they now type piece--- gets Willie the freedom to chase leads as he starts trying to identify the motive of the shooter as well as that person’s identity. Hopefully, chasing the story won’t get Willie Black killed.

Third in the series behind Oregon Hill and The Philadelphia Quarry, Parker Field: A Willie Black Mystery is another very good read. All the established characters make return appearances. Some of those appearances result in discussions of past events. Plenty of mystery and the frequent flashes of sarcastic humor prevalent in the previous books are also present here. Parker Field: A Willie Black Mystery is another very good read in a series that should be read in order. 

Parker Field: A Willie Black Mystery

Howard Owen

http://www.howardowenbooks.com

The Permanent Press

http://www.thepermanentpress.com

July 2014

ISBN# 978-1-57962-361-6

Hardback (also available in audio and digital formats)

224 Pages

Material supplied by the White Rock Hills Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

FFB Review: The Philadelphia Quarry by Howard Owen

After a recent unplanned hospital stay and complications from that as I am still not back to my crummy normal, FFB here finally returns today with an all new review from yours truly. This is the second book in a series that started with Oregon Hill. This is a series that should be read in order. For more reading suggestions, make sure you head over to Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom blog.

As we learned in the first book of this series, Oregon Hill, reporter Willie Black is not one to back off the story even when his bosses or the powerful elite order him to do so. While those in charge may think it is a character flaw, like his drinking, others would see it as his way of being principled when justice is being denied. The same is true in The Philadelphia Quarry where a wrongfully convicted man is once again arrested for a crime he did not commit.

In August 1983 in the good city of Richmond, Virginia, Richard Slade was arrested for the rape of sixteen year old Ashley Simpson. In May of 1984 he was convicted on little evidence and sent to prison. In the middle of January 2011, he was finally released when DNA evidence proved without a shadow of a doubt that he did not do it despite the fact that Ashley Simpson identified him as her rapist those many years ago. Her accusation was the main evidence against him at the time.

Did she make a horrible mistake or did she deliberately lie?

The Innocence Project may have successfully proven the point that Mr. Slade was innocent of the crime of rape, but nothing can restore Mr. Slade’s reputation in the minds of many or undo what Mr. Slade has gone through all these years in prison.  As he was held for a crime he did not do, his reputation took a beating over the years, in large part, due to scathing editorials that came out in the same newspaper that Willie Black works for as a reporter. The paper, through those editorials, has been very vocal in the belief that Mr. Slade was guilty and a threat to the community. Then, as in now, many people did not understand that editorial writers and news reporters share little in common other than being employed by the same paper.

Decades ago, reporter Willie Black worked the night crime beat and reported on the case from the start. All these years later he is back on that same crime beat and thus back on the story of Richard Slade and the victim, Ashley Simpson.  In the hours following Mr. Slade’s release, Willie Black is trying to do follow ups with the two principals and isn’t getting any traction with either one of them. Simpson and her well connected family want their privacy while Mr. Slade’s family sees Willie Black as the enemy thanks to the editorials from the paper.

He is getting nowhere at all and then everything changes. Within hours of Mr. Slade’s release, Simpson is shot and dies. Who has the best motive to kill her? A man recently released from prison after being convicted of a rape he did not do or somebody else?  Within hours of her death, Richard Slade is again arrested for a crime he did not commit. The elite and powerful close ranks and before long Willie is being asked to choose employment over chasing a story that is clearly going in a different direction than his bosses would like.  

The Philadelphia Quarry is a powerful sequel to Oregon Hill. It is a timeless crime fiction tale with plenty of twists and turns. Set in the twin dying worlds of journalism and newspapers, the read powers along at a steady clip while also delivering societal observations that are even more relevant today six years after publication. It is also a mighty good mystery read. 

The Philadelphia Quarry

Howard Owen

http://www.howardowenbooks.com

The Permanent Press

http://www.thepermanentpress.com

July 2013

ISBN# 978-1-57962-335-7

Hardback (also available in audio, digital, and paper formats)

240 Pages

Material was received and read by way of the Interlibrary Loan Program where a copy owned by the Rockwall County Library System was shared with the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

FFB Review: Oregon Hill by Howard Owen

It has been a tough week physically and emotionally, but I did manage to get a book read for FFB this week. Today I offer you my review of OREGON HILL by Howard Owen. For more reading suggestions, head over to Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom blog.

                   

As Oregon Hill by Howard Owen begins, Will is back on the night cop’s beat. He is luck he still has a job at the Richmond newspaper where he has worked for many years. Lucky to have a job and not just because of the status of the newspaper industry as a whole. He is lucky to have a job because his own personal behavior has been pretty rocky in recent years on and off the job. Mixed race with a serious drinking problem, a history of divorce, and a daughter, Andi, who is at the local college with little direction in her life, Willie Black, is a newspaper reporter trying to keep a job in a dying industry. He is very much on old school reporter knowing he is one corporate mandated layoff away from being homeless and without a job. In short, he is as close to rock bottom as he can get, without actually hitting rock bottom.

Isabel Ducharme also attended classes at Virginia Commonwealth University. Andi did not know her directly, but she sort of knew of her through friends. She went to school there until somebody killed her and put her headless body into the South Anna River. It might have gone away with no one the wiser if not for the body getting snagged on a tree branch in the river.

It takes the cops two days to identify the killer who also confesses very quickly. Martin Fell is in police custody and he very well may have done the horrible crime. He is known to have spent time with Isabel in prior weeks and there are witnesses that state they were together and arguing the night she was murdered. He also confessed.

Paperback

Willie Black thinks it is all wrapped up, but then an ex-wife of his, Kate, who is a successful attorney about to make partner at her firm takes on Mr. Fell’s case. He begins to learn things that indicate Mr. Fell may not have done it. He begins to pursue the idea that Mr. Fell is innocent and that puts him at odds with his newspaper bosses, the police, and just about everyone he knows.

Oregon Hill by Howard Owen is a very good and complicated start to this series featuring Willie Black. Along with the main complicated mystery, there are several secondary storylines featuring the complicated relationships he has with his mother and the current man in her life, his daughter, and various other folks. These secondary storylines are in as much rich detail as the primary storyline, making the nearly 240 page read a meaty one with plenty to work through as the pages pass. Through it all, the main mystery remains in focus to power much of the action forward.

Willie Black is a bit cynical, a bit sarcastic, and at all times a realist regarding everything around him. He sees the windmills, tilts at one or two anyway while being very self aware as to what he is doing, and keeps going forward through his days and nights as best as he can. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Oregon Hill by Howard Owen is highly recommended. 

Oregon Hill

Howard Owen

http://www.howardowenbooks.com

The Permanent Press

http://www.thepermanentpress.com

ISBN# 978-1-57962-208-4

Hardback (also available in audio, digital, and paper formats)

241 Pages

Material was received and read by way of the Interlibrary Loan Program where a copy owned by the Houston Public Library System was shared with the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2019

The Rap Sheet: Inkslingers Turned Investigators

The Rap Sheet: Inkslingers Turned Investigators

Saturdays With Kaye: Unpunished by Lisa Black

Unpunished by Lisa Black

The first thing I love about this thriller is the dedication, to the newspapers of America. I, too, would miss my morning paper if it disappeared. Unpunished is the second in a series.

The two main characters are Gardiner and Renner: Maggie Gardiner and Jack Renner, she a forensic investigator, he a law enforcement officer with a vigilante-killer streak that he keeps well concealed. But not from Maggie, who has her own secrets.

The initial crime, a copy editor at the Cleveland Herald being hung above the noisy, churning printing apparatus of the newspaper, sets the stage. The rest of the plot involves digging deep into the news business, finding out why the next murder happens, and trying to stop them before the newspaper is decimated.

If you want to read That Darkness first, it wouldn’t be amiss for a grounding for these complex, appealing characters.

Read carefully. Every page counts in this tightly plotted adventure.

Reviewed by Kaye George, author of Death on the Trek, for Suspense Magazine.

Bruce DeSilva: OBITUARY FOR THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS (The Cockeyed Pessimist Blog)

Bruce DeSilva: OBITUARY FOR THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS  (The Cockeyed Pessimist Blog)

That Wild Man Gary Cartwright: The mad, mad, mad life of a Texas wordsmith (The Austin Chronicle)

That Wild Man Gary Cartwright: The mad, mad, mad life of a Texas wordsmith (The Austin Chronicle)

Review: "The Good Cop" by Brad Parks

The death of a police officer is always a tragedy. The fact that it is being described as a suicide and then wouldn’t be covered in any depth by the Newark Eagle- Examiner is something that reporter Carter Ross does not know when he goes off to interview the widow. Noemi Kipps is a formidable woman who thought that the happy family would soon be going to Disney World. Instead, she has to plan the funeral of her husband and somehow raise their 7 year old daughter and 5 month old son alone.

Police Officer Darius Kipps was an outstanding police officer, a devoted father, and a class act human being.  There was absolutely no reason for him the Sargent and Detective to commit suicide. According to his fellow officers that is exactly what he did in the bathroom at a precinct in Newark. It is something both the widow and, as he learns more, reporter Carter Ross can’t believe or accept.

The series that began so strongly with Faces Of The Gone continues here in another complex and interesting read. The Good Cop is the fourth novel in the series by award winning author Brad Parks. Flashes of humor and cynicism do not get in the way of a complex story involving the search for truth and justice amidst the shifting agendas of politicians, religious figures and others. As always in this series, the role of reporters and newspapers play a major role in the book, as do the evolution of relationships between Carter Ross and others in a business where getting the story correct and in detail should matter far more than getting it first.

While The Good Cop could be read as a stand-alone, those who have not read the series and take the time to do so before reading this book will appreciate this book far more than those who just grab this one. Fans of Cater Ross and his creator Brad Parks will find much to enjoy in this latest installment of a very good series.

The Good Cop

Brad Parks

http://www.bradparks.com

Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

2013

ISBN# 978-1-250-00552-6

Hardback (also available as an audio book and an e-book)

324 Pages

$24.99

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

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013

My review of  FACES OF THE GONE can be found here. 

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