Publication Day Review: Illusion of Truth: A Novel by James L’Etoile

 

The third book of the police procedural series that began with The Face of Greed delivers in every possible way for the reader. Illusion of Truth: A Novel begins a few months after River of Lies and starts with a bang.

 

The call out to a local church was a ploy to get police officers to respond. Allegedly, according to the caller to dispatch, there was some sort of disturbance involving a large crowd looting a church in North Sacramento. The church is located on the edge of the territory held by a certain gang though the church itself is supposed to be neutral territory and safe from all the gangs. For the several officers that responded to the scene, the place was anything but safe. Within minutes of their arrival, two separate improvised explosive devices are detonated.

 

Several officers are seriously injured in the blasts. That includes Sergent Brian Connor who recently asked Homicide Detective Emily Hunter to move in with him. She said she wasn’t ready. With his injuries now, she may never have the chance to change her mind.

 

Homicide Detective Emily Hunter is very used to getting the middle of the night call to go to a crime scene. This time the call is from a lieutenant who tells her to respond instead at the hospital. It was supposed to be his night off. Instead, Brian Connor is fighting for his life in the trauma unit.

 

Detective Hunter wants in on the investigation. One that is being led by her partner, Javier Medina. Not that he is not a good detective. He certainly is. But, she can’t just sit by. She is going to be involved, no matter what. Since that will happen anyway, her Lieutenant gives her the go ahead to work the case, but she has to follow Medina’s lead to the letter or she is benched. She agrees. Before long the case leads them in ways they never saw coming.

 

This third book in the police procedural series published by Oceanview Publishing is a good one. A read that could stand on its own if you are new to the series. But, those who choose to read the series in order will get far more out of the book.

 

One aspect of this series is the developing relationship between Hunter and Connor. So too is the evolving political scene as well as the fallout from earlier cases Hunter has worked. There are other aspects as well that continue to be developed and evolve. Those aspects are why this is a series that should be read in order.

 

Bottom Line---A very good read and strongly recommended.

 
 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3YynS1j

 

 

My digital ARC came from the author with no expectation of a read or a review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2026

Review: River of Lies: A Novel by James L’Etoile

 

River of Lies: A Novel by James L'Etoile is the second book in the Detective Emily Hunter Mystery series that began with Face of Greed. Like any good police procedural series does, this read builds on previous events and ongoing issues so I strongly recommend reading that book first before you get to this one.

 

Detective Emily Hunter of the Sacramento Police Department has had her date for the evening with Brian Conner ruined as he got called into work suddenly. She is familiar with the problem and understands that things happen. Still, she is a bit bummed when she gets back home. She is barely inside the house when she gets her own call from the Watch Commander.

 

Other folks have had a far worse horrible evening than a cancelled date. The disturbance that her date was called in to work for has turned into some sort of mass casualty event at a local homeless camp. Fire swept through the camp displacing many who were already having a very hard time. There are casualties tonight at the third fire in a homeless camp in the last two weeks. Lieutenant Terri Williams does not yet know if they have any homicides, but the Chief wants her out there and working the case. She has a reputation and that is playing a major role in this situation. She heads out the door and calls her partner, Javier Madina, to arrange picking him up on the way to what is left of the homeless camp.

 

When they arrive at the still smoldering scene along the banks of the river, it is clear that it is a bad deal. The number of ambulances makes it clear that many folks were hurt. As they talk to witnesses and fire personnel, it is clear that the fire was a deliberate act of arson intended to do a lot of damage and burn everyone out of their shelters. If that wasn’t enough, various witness state that there was also a person attacking folks with a baseball bat Not only that, they have at least one body with a clear gun shot wound to the head.

 

While Detectives Simmons and Taylor had been the primary on the first two fires, those incidents and this new one are now all Hunter’s and Medina’s. The fires are obviously linked and escalating. Even the media has figured that much out and the public pressure is mounting by the hour. As things heat up in Sacramento, literally and figuratively, it is up to Hunter and Medina to find the culprits responsible and put an end to it.

 

This second book in the Detective Emily Hunter Mystery Series is another solidly good read. I am skipping a lot of things so as to not ruin the read for others, but this book, and the series, has a lot of storytelling meat on the bones. Detectives Hunter and Media are fully fleshed out human beings with their own personal lives beyond the job. The same is true for many of the secondary characters. Interpersonal relationships matter as these are not cookie cutter caricatures. Such details add a richness to the read that does nothing to slow down the story in any way.

 

River of Lies: A Novel by James L'Etoile is well worth your time.

  

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/44kSq9u

 

I picked this up awhile back at Amazon using funds in my Amazon Associate account.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Review: The Life and Death of Rose Doucette: A Novel by Harry Hunsicker

The Life and Death of Rose Doucette: A Novel by Harry Hunsicker brings readers to Dallas, Texas, and private investigator Dylan Fisher. His ex-wife asked to meet a bar in a certain hotel. They have not seen each other in three years, and while it has been a long time, neither is ready to forgive.

 

While he left the force a few years ago, Rose is still a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department. From the first look at her, he can tell things are off with her. Further proof is the fact that she wants to hire him. She’s willing to do that because she is scared. A 20-year officer with the DPD is scared over a case.  She had a gunshot victim, white guy, early 40’s, was found dead in a cabana out by the pool at the same hotel they are meeting at today.

 

The dead man was Josh Gannon. He had been out of Huntsville for a few days. He had no income, no job, and no reason to be staying at an expensive hotel. He was shot in the chest. From the top down, the DPD brass want her to call it a suicide and let it go. So does the staff of the hotel who made sure to clean up all the evidence anything happened. She’s been pulled off their case. She wants to hire Fisher to find the killer. As they discuss the scene, the hotel manager and security show up to boot them off the property.

 

She was already mad at Fisher for the direction of the conversation, and getting booted off the property despite her badge, is the last straw. She takes off and Dylan realizes that she is being followed. He gets in his car and follows. He keeps following and trying to reach her on her cell phone and getting voice mail. He trails her to the Northeast Dallas police substation where he is in time to see her killed.

 

Arrested as a suspect, because he has her blood on him as he tried to save her, it gives a chance for old enemies on the force to go after him. Some would love to see him in state prison and are not going to do anything but help it happen. Obviously, he isn’t going to let that happen. Before long, he and people he cares about are in deep to their eyeballs in a mess that goes back decades.

 

As one expects from a Henry Hunsicker book, it is a complicated and mighty good read. Not only is the The Life and Death of Rose Doucette: A Novel a superb mystery, it is full of Dallas area landmarks. References that are often not positive and may bring a snicker while delighting those of born and raised in this city. A city where not everything is golden and good. A great read and well worth your time.

  

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

  

 

My reading copy came as an ARC by way of Oceanview Publishing through NetGalley.

  

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024

Review: Face of Greed: A Detective Emily Hunter Mystery by James L’Etoile

 

Last week, Aubrey Nye Hamilton reviewed Face of Greed: A Detective Emily Hunter Mystery by James L’Etoile. If you have read her review, you know she liked it a lot. After setting up her review, I went looking for it at my local library with no luck. I went looking at NetGalley where I remembered recently seeing it offered. Oceanview Publishing still had it listed and so I requested it. Thankfully, it was instantaneously available with no gatekeeper delay and I was soon hooked. 

 

Detective Emily Hunter and Detective Javier Medina are working in Sacramento, California. In recent years she has been assigned to the Detective Bureau of the Sacramento Police Department. She is on call one evening when Lieutenant Ford, Watch Commander, calls her with an assignment. One is dead, one is injured, at what according to the initial report, is some sort of home invasion gone very wrong.

 

If that was not enough, both the Mayor and Chief of Police are already on scene. That means politics, powerful people, and probably pressure to get results quickly and quietly from on high. It is a cold evening this night in April and the neighborhood is clearly upscale where a murder just does not happen. But, it did this night, and Rodger Townsend is very much dead.

 

The deceased was fairly wealthy and had donated a considerable sum of money to Mayor Stone’s last campaign. Not only that, but Ridger Townsend was also the campaign manager. Those facts at least partially explain why the Mayor is involved. The Mayor makes it clear from the start he expects how the investigation is to be done and that includes leaving the widow, Lori Richardson, alone.

 

Something Detective Hunter is not willing to do as she follows the evidence and believes that Lori is involved all the way up to her beautiful face and then some. That puts her and her partner on a repeated collision course with the Mayor and her own internal police chain of command. She enjoys poking the bear with people of power and intends to do it regardless of how much it could cost her professionally or how it reflects on her partner.

 

At the same time, she is dealing with a serious issue at home as her elderly mother has dementia. Connie Hunter is 74 and slowly getting worse. How Emily Hunt will help her mother and whether she can or not she can is a major secondary storyline in the book.

 

An entertaining read, Face of Greed: A Detective Emily Hunter Mystery by James L’Etoile is a good police procedural. As Aubrey pointed out in her review, it relies significantly on the trope of a smart good cop beset by incompetent supervisors. A hallmark of police procedurals and one that is long familiar to readers.

 

Despite that issue, the overall read is fast moving and highly entertaining. According to the note in the beginning of the digital ARC, there is a second one coming in the pipeline. I very much look forward to the read.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/40khNa1  

As noted in the review, my reading copy came from the publisher, OceanView Publishing, by way of a NetGalley ARC.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Face of Greed by James L’Etoile

James L’Etoile worked within the criminal justice system for 20 years. His crime fiction is laden with the authentic detail only someone with that kind of experience can supply. His stand-alone novel Black Label (Level Best Books, 2021) won a 2022 Silver Falchion award at Killer Nashville. Dead Drop (Level Best Books, 2022), first in the series about Maricopa County Detective Nathan Parker, was nominated for 2023 Anthony and Lefty awards. Now Oceanview Publishing is releasing L’Etoile’s first book in a series about Sacramento, California, police detective Emily Hunter and her partner Javier Medina on November 7, 2023.

Hunter and Medina are called to what appears to be a violent home invasion in which the home owner is killed and his wife beaten. Both the mayor and the chief of police were on the scene when Hunter and Medina arrived, signaling the victims had political connections. In fact, the home owner was Roger Townsend, who ran the mayor’s last election campaign. The Townsends’ social and political pull permeated and hindered the investigation considerably, yet Hunter and Medina, who make a good team, managed to uncover some questionable alliances between the Townsends and local gangs. They soon began to wonder if the ostensible home invasion wasn’t a cover for something else entirely.

This is an encouraging start to a new police procedural series. The interaction and collaborative cooperation between Hunter and Medina are among the best parts of the book. The subplot of Hunter’s search for care for her failing mother hits home for a lot of folks these days. The mingling of gangs and politicians with questionable ethics is well done.

However, I feel compelled to point out that I am really tired of the competent cop fighting inept upper management trope that is so common now. Not that useless managers don’t exist, I have had more than my fair share of them. But portraying upper management as blithering idiots is not realistic. It’s more accurate to show them as consumed with the administrative demands of their positions: the higher up the chain any employee in any organization moves, the more attuned they have to be to financial and political dynamics. I always thought Steven Havill handled the uninformed manager in the early Bill Gastner books exceptionally well. Gastner made a point of getting along with his boss, no matter how little he knew, because Gastner understood it was part of his job. Gastner also recognized the strengths his boss brought to the sheriff’s office and acknowledged them openly. It’s an approach more writers of police procedurals should consider.

Booklist gave this title a starred review.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Oceanview Publishing (November 7, 2023)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1608095878

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1608095872

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/40khNa1   

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023

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

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Saving Myles by Carl Vonderau

Former banker and money laundering expert Carl Vonderau gives crime fiction readers the benefit of his extensive knowledge in his latest thriller, Saving Myles, scheduled for release by Oceanview in mid-August. Wade and Fiona Bosworth have done everything they know to do to get their teenaged son Myles away from drugs and a crowd of young adults who use them. They finally borrow heavily to send him to a treatment center for a year. Upon his return, he seems changed but in a few months he slips across the border into Mexico to buy illicit pharmaceuticals, where he is kidnapped.

The Bosworths are deeply in debt and have no recourse but to accept the offer of a loan from Fiona’s boss Andre. Wade soon learns that the loan has strings--Wade has to leave his senior officer position at a large bank to work for Andre. As well as the nonprofit where Fiona works, Andre runs a small bank with a sketchy vibe; Wade soon realizes Andre is seeking to boost his bank’s standing in the San Diego region via Wade’s previously impeccable reputation.

From the first page I was pulled into the story, which is written in taut, hard-driving prose that slowly reveals just how dire the predicament of the Bosworths is. By the book’s midpoint the pace slows but it does not stop while Fiona and Ward search for a way out of an apparently hopeless situation.

The drug cartel as a theme in crime fiction has been done and overdone but the focus here is a little different, centering on their attempts to rehabilitate themselves into superficial respectability. It reminded me of that section of The Godfather in which the Corleones strategize to turn the family legal. Consequently parts of the plot are all too predictable while other sections are novel. The greater spotlight is on Fiona and Ward, who want the best for their son but do not agree on how to achieve it. The characterization of sometimes unlikable people in crisis is excellent.

I found the detail surrounding money laundering exceptional. Financial skullduggery is not highlighted often in crime fiction which is unfortunate, as it’s an area with a lot of felonious potential. Granted, watching paper and electrons move around is not as cinematic as car chases and shootouts but Vonderau explains the process of money laundering and the implications clearly, which gives the criminal activity punch. I really liked this one. Recommended.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Oceanview Publishing (August 15, 2023)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎336 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1608095584

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1608095582

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023

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

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Remi Bone by William L. Myers, Jr.

William L. Myers, Jr. is a Philadelphia lawyer with 30 years of trial experience in state and federal courts. He still actively practices law while writing the Philadelphia Legal series. He branches out into noir territory with his latest book Remi Bone, to be released by Oceanview in September.

Remington Bohne became Remi Bone in elementary school and the name followed him into his adulthood. After tours in the Gulf War and a brush with the law, Bone settled into life with the love of his life, working as a highly skilled mechanic on foreign-made automobiles. When Bea died he was devastated but he vowed he would finish raising Bea’s daughter Kayla. He has been saving for Kayla’s college expenses in the four years since, doing without, working overtime, while Kayla focused on making good grades and acing the college entrance exams.

A visit with a cardiologist throws a huge wrench into Bone’s plans. His heart is failing and he is unlikely to survive to see Kayla through college. He is reeling from that news, then Kayla is admitted to the university of her dreams. He needs to expedite his savings program so when his shady boss offers him $25,000 to rub out a gang member pushing heroin to high school students, he agrees to do it. He isn’t happy but he does it. Once the job is done, other contract killings follow, each with a higher price tag than the one before. Bone’s determination to provide for Kayla balanced against his consciousness of wrongdoing keeps him on edge while gritting his teeth and carrying out the murders.

A fast-moving, tightly woven story about how sometimes none of the choices we have are good, and the only way forward is to choose the one with the least awful consequences. Bone is a deeply principled man and far more intelligent than the sleazoids who picked him to be their hired shooter understand. His scenes with Kayla, from whom he has hidden his illness, are among the best parts of the book. The ending is as powerful as it is unexpected. Recommended.

  

·         Publisher: ‎Oceanview Publishing (September 19, 2023)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎160809572X

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1608095728 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023 

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

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Go Find Daddy by Steve Goble

Go Find Daddy by Steve Goble (Oceanview Publishing, July 2023) is the third book in the series about Ed Runyon, former detective in the Mifflin County, Ohio, sheriff’s office and now private investigator focusing on locating missing children. Runyon saw far too many cases of lost children shuffled around in the understaffed and overworked sheriff’s office and he set up shop on his own to concentrate on the problem. He takes whatever skip traces and background investigations necessary to pay the bills but any situation involving children gets his full attention.

When Amy Blackmon asks Runyon to find her husband, Runyon isn’t interested. Donny Blackmon is the subject of an intense months-long manhunt, suspected of killing Mifflin County Officer Brandon Gullick. Law enforcement personnel for miles around are looking for Blackmon and when he is found most of them will likely shoot first and ask questions later. Blackmon has been vocal about his dislike and distrust of the police and the criminal justice system in general, expressing his thoughts openly and thoroughly on his blog. Runyon doesn’t want anything to do with the Blackmon family until Amy explains that she needs him to tell her husband that their daughter was diagnosed with cancer after he disappeared. He needs to know that she is not likely to recover.

Runyon is devastated at the news and does not feel that he can refuse her request, although he’s not happy about it. He sets out on a cold trail and encounters hostile police officers, law enforcement representatives who think he knows more than he is telling, and bounty hunters anxious to claim the reward. It’s an ugly situation and gets worse when Runyon realizes that the homicide investigators overlooked some important evidence that points away from Blackmon as the killer.

Oceanview is developing quite an impressive roster of mystery authors. Matt Coyle, Patti Sheehy, T. J. O’Connor, James Ziskin, D. P. Lyle, Bonnar Spring, and James L'Etoile are all writers with whom I am familiar. I can add Ed Goble to the list now. Goble has put a fresh spin on the stock character of disenchanted law enforcement officer turned private investigator. The plot is effective and original, and its momentum is consistent and relentless. The descriptive bits about the countryside were a nice touch. This is a compelling read and I completed it in one sitting. For fans of private investigator books and of rural law enforcement crime fiction.

·         Publisher: Oceanview Publishing (July 11, 2023)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1608094472

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1608094479

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023

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

Lesa's Book Critiques: Rigged by D.P. Lyle

Lesa's Book Critiques: Rigged by D.P. Lyle

Lesa's Book Critiques: Gumshoe Rock by Rob Leininger

Lesa's Book Critiques: Gumshoe Rock by Rob Leininger

Guest Post: Sandra Ruttan Interviews R. G. Belsky

Please welcome back Bronzeville Books Submission Editor Sandra Ruttan back to the blog today. Her interview subject this time is author R. G. Belsky whose new novel is BELOW THE FOLD…

Fun Fact: 

R.G. Belsky says, "I was part of the newsroom team at the New York Post that created the most famous tabloid headline of all time: HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR. I spent many years working on a lot of big stories as a journalist, but if you google me you’ll find that’s what I’m most famous for. Go figure!"

SR: What’s your new book/work in progress about?

RGB: BELOW THE FOLD is about the seemingly meaningless murder of a homeless woman on the streets of New York City (“below the fold” is a journalist term for a story not worthy of big play) - until TV newswoman Clare Carlson links the woman’s death to long buried secrets involving powerful public and political figures.

SR: Was there a specific issue or incident that really motivated you to write this particular story? What was the prompt?

RGB: Murder is not treated equally in the media, only the most sensational murders make it to the front page or onto the TV news headlines. I know that from personal experience in newsrooms over my career. So I decided to write a mystery novel about what might happen if a totally insignificant murder suddenly turned into a huge news story. That’s what happens in BELOW THE FOLD.

SR: How do you think your protagonist would respond if aliens landed in the center of town on page 57?

RGB: She’d make sure she got a video crew there! She’s a TV news editor and aliens landing in the center of town is a pretty damn big story...

SR:  What conspiracy theory is your protagonist most likely to believe in? Roswell? JFK? Princess Diana? What about you? Any conspiracy theories that you think might have some truth to them?

RGB: Oh, definitely JFK for me. I don’t believe a word of the Warren Commission Report. In fact, I wrote a whole mystery novel a few years ago called The Kennedy Connection on this very topic. As for my protagonist, she believes whatever conspiracy theory I believe. Hey, I’m the one that writes her, right?

SR:  Is your protagonist more likely to go insane or end up in prison?

RGB: Neither. She’s more likely to drive someone else insane or put them in prison.

SR: Is there something you hope the reader carries away with them after they’re done reading? An insight or philosophy that you wanted to come through in your work?

RGB: Integrity. That may sound corny, but integrity is the most important thing my TV newswoman character Clare Carlson brings in my books. Journalistic integrity is very important to me, and Clare has built her life and career on that. She makes a lot of bad decisions and breaks a lot of rules along the way, but she’s basically a good honest person.

  

SR: What’s the first book you remember reading that had a huge impact on you? How did that story affect you? How do you think it shaped your desire to be a writer?

RGB: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I picked it up by chance as a young man out of college, was fascinated by Chandler’s writing and the Philip Marlowe character. I read all the rest of Chandler’s books, then Agatha Christie, then Robert B. Parker’s Spenser....and on and on. I knew then that I wanted to try to write mystery novels myself.

SR:  What’s the best thing about writing?

RGB: Me, I’m one of those who actually loves the writing process. Sitting down every morning in front of a blank piece of paper (or a blank screen) and just seeing what comes out. It’s fun and rewarding to see how creative I can be on any given day.  

SR:  What’s the worst thing about writing?

RGB: Editing. Especially the line editing at the end of the process. Making sure every fact/every spelling is right. That’s not so much fun. I spent much of my life as a journalist where my job is checking and working with facts all day. One of the great things about being a mystery novelist is I get to make facts up. Most of the time anyway, until that damn final edit....

SR: What detail in your writing do you obsess over the most? Character names? Locations? Description? Dialogue? Research?

RGB: All of them! Seriously though, getting the characters and their dialogue right is the most important thing. To me, that’s what makes a book come alive. I’ll read a book with terrific characters and dialogue and not much of a story before I’ll read a meticulously plotted one without them.

SR: Are you drawn to things that are really popular or wary of them? Do you find it helps you to market your work if you’re familiar with what’s currently selling or do you ignore all of that and focus on what you’re interested in?

RGB: It’s easy to say I’m not interested in what’s selling in the market, but most of us are. Look, I may not write a book just like Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train - but I certainly am aware of their popularity. And I suppose that can play a role in some of the writing decisions I make about my own book. In the end though, an author has to write what is important to them, not anyone else. And just hope the market agrees!

SR: Do you relate more to Sherlock Holmes or Professor Moriarty? Why?

RGB: Sherlock Holmes. I always root for the good guy.

SR:  If you have to live in a potential natural disaster zone, would you pick blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions? Why? If you had to describe your protagonist as a weather system, what would they be?

RGB: Hurricanes. I’ve survived a few of them (one on a remote island) so I know what they’re all about. Of course, I know about blizzards too but I hate them. My biggest fear would be an earthquake (they sound really scary) and I really tend to stay away from areas where there are volcanic eruptions.

SR: What movie or TV world do you wish you could live in? Why?

RGB: Seinfeld’s apartment. You get to make jokes for a living and cool people like Kramer, Elaine and George keep coming into your apartment.

SR: You strike it rich. What charity are you going to create or support?

RGB: Any charity (probably several of them) that benefits animals.

SR: What factors influence you when you’re choosing a book to read?

RGB: First page. And the voice of the author on that first page. I can usually pick up a book on a store shelf, read that opening page and know whether or not its a book I want to read.

SR: Do you have any special events coming up? Where can people catch up with you in person or on a podcast?

RGB: I will be making a number of appearances over the next several months to promote BELOW THE FOLD, including a book launch party at Mysterious Bookshop in New York City on May 9. I also will be at all the major mystery conferences - Bouchercon, ThrillerFest, Killer Nashville, Deadly Ink and Malice Domestic. See the events section on my website at www.rgbelsky.com for more details about where I’ll be.

R.G.  Belsky is an award-winning mystery author and journalist. His new novel is BELOW THE FOLD, the second in a series about TV newswoman Clare Carlson. He is also the author of 11 other mystery novels. As a journalist, he has worked as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News.

Sandra Ruttan is the submissions editor for Bronzeville Books and an author. 
http://www.bronzevillebooks.com/