Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Sweet Freedom: SSW: "The Dead Women" by by Marguerite Young, AMERICAN PREFACES, a 1943 issue, edited by Louise Garrigus/Jean Garrigue; "The Day They Got Boston" by Herbert Gold, METRONOME, January 1961, edited by Bill Coss: Short Story Wednesday
Sweet Freedom: SSW: "The Dead Women" by Marguerite Young, AMERICA...: stories by Herbert Gold (March 9, 1924-November 19, 2023) and Marguerite Young (August 26, 1908-November 17, 1995) One of Wilbur Schra...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE SURGEON OF SOULS
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE SURGEON OF SOULS: "The Surgeon of Souls" by "Victor Rousseau" (Avigdor Rousseau Emanuel) (a series of 12 short stories, most appeari...
Short Story Wednesday Review: Morale Was Down by Evan Ronan
From the massive archive….
Morale is always down and the complaining is always up no matter where you work. In this case you work in an office on the 3rd floor. You know things are not better anywhere else because the green pastures elsewhere you hear about through the rumor mill don’t exist.
Besides, if you were somewhere else you would not have a note on the fridge about a fellow employee taking Marvin’s Stromboli. The fact somebody took it is not good. That does not help morale. As a middle manager, you know you have no authority to do much of anything. Your job is to keep the morale of your team up and things like this are not good. You also know that when the boss tells you to make some discreet inquiries about the missing sandwich you have to do it. This is not the first food related item to go missing though this is the first you have heard of it. When she wants to you identify the serial food taker by the close of business you know this Monday is worse than normal.
Featuring some adult language and plenty of humor this short story written in the second person works very well. Filled with characters that work in every environment, Morale Was Down is quirky and a good read.
Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014, 2023
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
SleuthSayers: Embarking on a Series by Alan Orloff
SleuthSayers: Embarking on a Series: I'm happy to have my friend Alan Orloff taking over my slot today. He's a great writer and a heck of a guy. Today he's talking a...
Monday, November 20, 2023
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs by Willie Nelson
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Son...: Reviewed by Jeanne Some people think Willie Nelson is a national treasure. I happen to one of them. I’ve listened to his songs f...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Through Three Rooms (1907) by Sven Elvestad (a.k.a. Stein Riverton)
Beneath the Stains of Time: Through Three Rooms (1907) by Sven Elvestad (a.k.a...: Sven Elvestad, " sybarite extraordinaire ," was a Norwegian journalist, essayist and an industrious mystery writer who penned over...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Hostage Zero by John Gilstrap
John Gilstrap’s
series of thrillers about an ex-military officer who runs a security services company
and who performs high-risk hostage and kidnap rescues as an unadvertised capability
has become my go-to for absorbing but predictable reading. Predictable because
the main characters have become familiar. There’s Jonathan Grave, owner and
brains of the outfit, who loves the outcomes of his work but doesn’t always
like the paths to achieving them or the collateral damage. His friend Brian Van
de Meulebroeke, known as Boxer, supplies the brawn and expert knowledge of
explosives. I can always count on at least one spectacular scene involving C-4,
Semtex, or their relatives, resulting in mass destruction of something. The
third member of their team is Venice, whose computer skills include hacking,
esoteric research, and satellite networks. At least once in every book I’ve
read, she saves Jonathan and Boxer from certain death through her deployment of
advanced technology. Secondary characters are Grave’s friend Father Dominic,
who serves as an external conscience for Grave, and Irene Rivers, FBI director
whose association with Grave extends well into the past. She and Grave feel
free to call on each other for help and to use their influence to keep the
other out of trouble.
Gilstrap takes
this well-rounded set of characters and plops them into one original scenario
after another, always managing to save the victims while delivering justice to
the bad guys. Think of a modern version of the 1950s television Westerns and it
might look a lot like these books.
In Hostage
Zero (Pinnacle, 2010) Grave and Boxer are pulled into the rescue of two
teenage boys who have been inexplicably kidnapped from their boarding school in
Virginia. Grave is happy to bring them home but first he has to find them,
which turns out to be far more difficult than expected. Add killers for hire,
organized crime, corrupt politicians, cocaine production in Colombia, and a
homeless veteran who wanders into the middle of it all, and the result is a
complicated story with multiple threads that unwind at breakneck speed.
Gilstrap
always incorporates a political backstory into the plot. He lived in northern
Virginia near Washington for years and keeps his thumb on the pulse of the action
there. He is also deeply knowledgeable about firearms; entire paragraphs are
devoted to the firepower that Grave and Boxer carry with them on any venture.
I especially
enjoy the way Gilstrap works actual local landmarks into the story. In this
volume he references the Torpedo Factory, a building once devoted to World War
II munitions production but now is an art gallery and studio. The detail about
Vienna, Virginia, a small town in Fairfax County that Gilstrap clearly knows
well, is great. He’s used the Vienna library as a meeting place for a couple of
spies, referencing the tiny parking lot, which in real life is the bane of
residents. In this outing Grave meets River at the “Maple Inn”, a pseudonym for
the genuine Vienna Inn on Maple Avenue in Vienna, known as a local hangout and
for its killer chili dogs.
I read these
books as I find them, reading them out of publication order doesn’t affect
understanding the story at all. Highly recommended for fans of intelligent
thrillers and political crime fiction.
Starred review from Publishers Weekly.
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works
on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Little Big Crimes: Spear Carriers, by Richard Helms
Little Big Crimes: Spear Carriers, by Richard Helms: Spear Carriers," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November/December 2023. As far as I can tell, this is only the se...
Saturday, November 18, 2023
SleuthSayers: The Storia Story by John Floyd
SleuthSayers: The Storia Story: It's my great pleasure today to feature a guest post by my friend Josh Pachter. He's practically a regular here at SleuthSayers late...
Scott's Take: Scarlet Witch: Vol. 1: The Last Door by Steve Orlando
Scarlet Witch: Vol. 1: The Last
Door
by Steve Orlando is a new series where the Scarlet Witch has moved to a new
town. She has opened up a shop to help people with their problems by way of
magical items she sells such as potion, elixirs, and more. There is also some
sort of teleportation door affixed to her shop that allows people from all over
the world with nowhere else to go to arrive at her shop so that she can help
them in addition to her local walk-in customers.
Each issue in this collected volume introduces
a new supporting character with a new problem or a new guest star. The final
issue is mostly a setup for the Contest of Champions Event. As those of us who
have read other series already know, and Wanda does not, her former mentor,
Agatha, has gone evil. So, the fact that Agatha is visiting in the last issue of
the volume is not just because, supposedly, Agatha is worried about her former
protégé.
The guest stars are drawn from Wanda’s
complicated family tree are featured for an issue here and there and are moved
on with nothing more said about them. Wanda faces villains that are powerful in
their own right, but would not seem to be much of a challenge for her if she
was not holding back. She is, in different ways, for the reasons that come
clear during the read and does casually performing massive spells.
There is humor, action, and drama in
interesting storylines accompanied by pretty art. This series is continued with
Volume 2: The Magnum Opus.
Sometime after that book is released,
the series is scheduled to be relaunched as Quicksliver and The Scarlet
Witch. This is planned to be a buddy cop style series dealing with Magneto’s
death. Before he died, Magneto sent a letter to Wanda that was supposed to read
by his children, Wanda and Pietro (Quicksilver), after his death. But, Wanda
burned it before Pietro was able to read it. Pietro is peeved about this and
there are consequences. This upcoming series is undercut in some ways by Marvel
and their marketing choices since we already know sometime next year Magneto
will be resurrected. It’s hard to mourn a character when Marvel has already
announced his return.
My reading copy came by way of the
Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2023
Friday, November 17, 2023
SleuthSayers: How do you do it? by O'Neil De Noux
SleuthSayers: How do you do it?: Keep getting asked how do I manage to write one or two novels a year, plus some short stories. There's nothing to brag about, it's...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Birthright
series
by Gabrielle Zevin
Reviewed by...: Birthright series by Gabrielle Zevin Reviewed by Kristin Bookblog readers may remember a few months ago I was reading and reviewing Ga...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: ANTI-MAN
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: ANTI-MAN: Anti-Man by Dean R. Koontz (1970) Anti-Man is an early Dean Koontz novel, dating back to the days when he signed his work using his middle...
FFB Review: Starvation Lake: A Mystery by Bryan Gruley
This is my 2009 review of the first book in a great three book series. From the massive archive here at Casa Tipple and Home Eatery Library….
The plan was to leave Starvation Lake,
Michigan and never come back. But 1998 finds Augustus Carpenter, known to all
as “Gus” back home after his successful newspaper career exploded on him in
Detroit. Both he and the town are still haunted by the goal he let in close to
the end of the state championship game and both have never been the same.
Now at thirty-four, Gus is backing home,
once again working for the local paper, Pilot. He lives in a small apartment
above the storefront news room and across the street from the local bar where
his teammates frequently congregate. The same issues that faced them as boys
are now part of the power struggles and conflict they have as men.
Simmering disagreements are fueled by
the fire of the past when parts of a damaged snowmobile wash up on the shore at
the lake. While the snowmobile seems to be the same one Coach Blackburn was
driving years ago before both disappeared through a hole in the ice, it can’t
possibly have made it here since that accident happened miles away. No body was
ever recovered, but the assumption was that Blackburn was dead. While he
probably is dead, the fact that the recovered snowmobile shows evidence of foul
play ignites a local firestorm that finally explodes in a tale of deceit, treachery,
and unspeakable pain.
A debut novel that packs a punch, Starvation
Lake, by Bryan Gruley develops slowly through a variety of emotionally
scarred and complex characters. Billed with the totally unnecessary subtitle, A
Mystery, the book operates on several levels with multiple mysteries
and complex multiple storylines featuring heavily flawed characters. To delve
into any of this at any level would seriously impact reader enjoyment by giving
away far too much information.
Suffice it to say, if you are looking
for a thriller or a simplistic mystery full of lightweight characters and
violent action, this is not the novel for you. However, if you are looking for
a meaty novel where the characters are very human and occasionally vile, where
there is plenty of back story and long descriptive scenes leading to powerful
dialogue and emotional impact for the characters and readers, along with multiple
mysteries, this is the book for you.
Material provided by the good folks of
the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2009, 2023
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Six Years Later
This has been a very tough day...... six years ago today Sandi came home her final time just after six in the evening. It was the beginning of hospice ... and the beginning of the end. I did not want her here as I was very afraid of what was coming and not being able to care for her as she needed and deserved. That turned out to be the reality as after about a week they lost pain control and she suffered horribly before lapsing into unconsciousness those last few days. It was hell for her and for us too.
Sandi, on the other hand, did not want to die in the
hospital. She desperately wanted to be at home here with us. I agreed as that
was what she wanted and there was no way I could tell her no. In a sense she is
still here as her urn sits here in the den.
I wish for so much that can't be......and I miss her
so much. Every day is hard....some are worse than others....and then there are
days like today. I turn 62 Monday and she is not here to tell me not to be
grumpy about another birthday and to have fun.
Then we have Thanksgiving, Christmas, and her birthday
in January. What should be a great time of year is instead a hard, painful
slog. Six years later, nothing has changed. At least she is not here to watch
me slowly get sicker as what little I inherited vanishes like sand through the
hourglass.
Beneath the Stains of Time: Monkey See, Monkey Murder (2023) by James Scott Byrnside
Beneath the Stains of Time: Monkey See, Monkey Murder (2023) by James Scott By...: The 1920s began in the United States with an amendment to the constitution banning the sale of beer, wine and spirits, effective January 19,...
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
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Starter Villain, Deaf Republic, Covenant of Water
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Starter Villain, Deaf Republic, Covena...: Reported by Rita Starter Villain by John Scalzi is a sci-fi story about a substitute teacher named Charlie who lives alone with his cat...
MAKE MINE MYSTERY: A Decadent Rest Well Earned
MAKE MINE MYSTERY: A Decadent Rest Well Earned: by Janis Patterson I am so happy. And so tired. My republishing blitz is over. Twenty-two books, each re-edited, re-formatted and most with ...
SleuthSayers: Dancing The Jig
SleuthSayers: Dancing The Jig: We are headed deep in the lexicographic woods today. If that's not your jam you have my blessing to move on. As I mentioned previously,...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE FAMILY PORTRAITS
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE FAMILY PORTRAITS: "The Family Portraits" by Johann August Apel (supposedly first published in 1805, although no record of this has been found; fi...
Sweet Freedom: SSW: "Dead Women" by Allie Mariano, PHILADELPHIA STORIES
Sweet Freedom: SSW: "Dead Women" by Allie Mariano, PHILADELPHIA S...: Can be read here: https://philadelphiastories.org/article/the-dead-women-second-place-winner-of-the-marguerite-mcglinn-prize-for-fiction/ T ...
Short Story Wednesday Review: The Perp Wore Pumpkin: A Humorous Crime Anthology to Benefit Second Harvest Food Bank
Edited by J.
Alan Hartman, the recently released Misti Media anthology, The Perp Wore Pumpkin: A Humorous Crime Anthology to
Benefit Second Harvest Food Bank, is a highly entertaining read.
This is especially true if you like puns and slap stick humor. The book also
includes four Thanksgiving related recipes offered by Jay’s sister, Lisa Lynn.
After a short
introduction by Jay explaining why he did a charity anthology and how it will
help give back in many locations, it is on to the stories.
“The
Thanksgiving Parade” by Sandra Murphy begins where two people are working
undercover in a holiday parade. Both are very much undercover as one is
costumed as a baked potato with fixings and the other as jellied cranberry
sauce. They are not the only ones dressed as food items. They also may not be
the only ones Arlo in a certain bank, the First Federal Bank of Orlo.
The Finley Family
Thanksgivings are a notorious deal going back many years. It is happening again
in “The Vic Wore Yams” by Heidi Hunter. The kitchen fire had caused a delay in
meal prep. Then the narrator’s dad lacerated the heck out of a finger as he
tried to carve the turkey. The dog got the meat the blood hit. But, the death
at the table, and the resulting family commotion really brought things to a
halt.
Janet saw the
stumbling man from her third-floor window as “A Regular Harvest Moon Blowout”
by Daniel Sohn begins. It is only as he gets closer to her apartment building
in Columbia, Missouri, she realizes he is bleeding. She goes to help and he has
been stabbed. Stanley Tiller appreciates the help. He also just wants to get
back to his hotel room where he is supposed to be hosting the annual holiday
dinner. She agrees to give him a ride and things get even more interesting.
“A Diverse
Thanksgiving” by Debra H. Goldstein comes next where Warden Oscar P. Weiner is
just trying to make it through his final two weeks to retirement without any
problems. That includes never having to deal with inmate Joshua Randall ever
again. While on paper he is an absolute model prisoner, Randall is always
stealing from his office as he negotiates on behalf of his fellow inmates. This
year, the annual thanksgiving dinner is not enough as he wants more than the
usual fare. The latest round of negotiations is soon underway with Warden
Weiner doing his best to control the damage and the outcome.
The rich
tradition of hobos riding the rails is the background of “Hobo Hannah and the
Great Pumpkin Heist” by Lesley A. Diehl. Hanna, her friend, Lily, and their
Maine coon cat, T-rex, gave up the hobo life to go to home to where Hannah came
from all those years ago. They did. Soon after, Hannah was elected sheriff and
replaced the high school bully and sheriff, Hiram Noggins. The guy is still a
bully and did not take losing well. He has made threats to expose her for being
incompetent. Now pumpkins are vanishing from fields right before harvest and
pumpkin products are being stolen from stores. The loss of everything pumpkin
related could ruin Thanksgiving for everyone miles around.
The first two
stories that specifically reference Texas author Earl Staggs come next with and
begin with Barry’s Ergang’s groaner filled tale, “Buffet, the Umpire Slayer.”
Normally, Hardy Boyle stays home on Thanksgiving eating tacos, drinking beer,
and watching football. But, he was recently involved in the hunt for and rescue
of the daughters of the managing partners of the talent agency, Binthair-Dunthat.
Second rate actor, Macdonald Adamia, took them in misguided attempt to get
acting jobs. Hardy Boyle solved the case and got the daughters rescued and back
home. Now, one of the partners, Lucas Binthair, is having a holiday meal and
celebration at a closed public restaurant and Hardy Boyle is in attendance. Good
thing as when death strikes, Boyle’s friend, Detective Lieutenant Paul Ohnius handles
the case at the Belladonna. An entertaining mystery that is packed full of
groaners which is why Earl frequently referred to the author as the “Guru of Groaners.”
Bennet is less
than thrilled to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He isn’t surprised his new son-in-law
has screwed up and there is no turkey in “The Last Turkey in Tulsa” by Jim
Fusilli. His daughter, Cammy, is quite upset. With her being married to a man
that never even asked for her hand in marriage, Bennet thinks her new husband,
Owen, should deal with it. Bennet’s wife, Charlene, thinks Daddy (Bennet)
should help. So, like many a smarty married man before him, after some
grumbling, Bennett sets out trying to help by trying to find a turkey for the
holiday dinner. Far easier said than done at this late hour.
Dinner at Ann
Marie’s is clearly going to be problematic and not just because the sister-in-law
is not at all hygienic in “The Chile Pumpkin Pie Rebellion” by Linda Kay
Hardie. Though that is now going to help our narrator deal with her verbally
abusive husband, Jamie. How she goes about it, and all that she has to deal
with to make things happen, is the crux of this short story that also
references the late Texas author, Earl Staggs.
Every year Aunt
Sadie makes pumpkin whoopie pies. The things are horrible because she
substitutes ingredients at random giving them a horrible taste. In “Making Woopie”
by Shari Held, it is that time of year again. The newest member of the family,
Trevor, is about to experience the annual nightmare Hopefully this year
great-great Aunt Sadie has not decided to substitute pickle chunks for pecans
again or use salt instead of sugar. Something is coming and once again
everybody assembled will just have to deal with it.
The final story
is “Pie à la Poison: A Vermont Radio Mystery” by Nikki Knight and one with a
far more serious tone and subtle humor. Jaye Jordan is divorced, a single mom,
and back home in Vermont at the radio station, WSV. She first started out there
just after college, and when everything went so wrong in NYC, she came back home
and bought the station. With her daughter with her dad and his family on this Thanksgiving
night, she is alone in the station and handling everything including the
request line. The same phone line where an elderly woman has confessed to
setting up a double murder. The question is whether Jaye Jordan can get
authorities involved in enough time to stop it in this very good mystery tale.
One final recipe
and the often extensively detailed bios of the authors brings this entertaining
holiday anthology to a close. If you read the previous holiday anthologies
edited by Jay Hartman and you liked them, you will definitely like this one.
Many of the same authors are involved as are the usual elements of puns and
slapstick humor. As always, the recipes are a nice touch for those cooking at
home.
The Perp Wore
Pumpkin: A Humorous Crime Anthology to Benefit Second Harvest Food Bank is a fun and
entertaining quick read. It features plenty of humor, action, and mystery, and
thus leaves the reader well fed at the end.
Pick it up at Amazon, at other vendors, or at the publisher where the price is a little lower. Also check out Jay's short video regarding the book here on the Misti Media YouTube page.
My review copy
came from the publisher, MistiMedia, with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Review: Kiss and Kill in Texas: An Al Quinn Novel by Russ Hall
The eighth book in
the Al Quinn series, Kiss and Kill in Texas by Russ
Hall starts off with a bang.
Literally.
Al Quinn had
been on his bass boat moments earlier along with his wife, Fergie. They had
shot across Lake Travis to the boat ramp at Muleshoe after Bobby Ray Champion
called and said he needed to see Al immediately. They were just in time to see
Bobby shot dead due to a sniper’s bullet.
Al knew the man
was dead before he hit the ground, but gave chase hoping to see the shooter.
All he was able to do was get up on some higher ground nearby in time to hear a
pickup truck start somewhere close and pull away. So, neither he nor Fergie
have much to tell Sheriff’s Department Detective, Victor Kahlon, when he
arrives at the murder scene.
That might have
been the end of it. Bobby Ray was what some would call a troubled soul and had
not told Al much on the phone other that it was life or death and to come
quick. He’d recently been to Al’s place looking to bunk on the couch once again,
but these days Al has a full house. Not only is Fergie there, but his brother
Maury, his wife, Bonny, and their baby is, as is Patty Belle, who they recently
rescued from several very bad people. Not to mention the awesome dog, Tanner.
There was simply no room at the inn this time and Al had to send Bobby on his
way.
The result is
the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have much to go on. Fergie and Al do a little
poking around and find out that Bobby Ray was trying to make a musical
comeback. Their poking around soon draws interest in a very negative way. Al
and Fergie aren’t the only targets either.
That negative
attention escalates rapidly putting everyone in danger. The only choice is to
leave the house at Lake Travis and hit the road. Al and Fergie figure the one
place the bad folks won’t be looking for them is in the belly of the beast,
Port Dexter. Apparently Bobby’s Ray’s latest round of trouble is tied into
there. Who, what, and why are just three of the big unknowns.
What follows is
another intense and complicated mystery/adventure read in this long running
series. This is the eighth book in the series, so the characters are pretty
much fleshed out as is the family dynamic. The focus here is on the fishing
industry, the Texas gulf coast, and those that would exploit others for fun and
profit. Kiss and Kill in Texas: An Al Quinn Novel is another high
octane read like the other books in the series.
This read, as
well as the others in the series, are highly recommended.
Using funds in my Amazon Associate account, I purchased this in eBook format back in September 2022.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
Monday, November 13, 2023
Little Big Crimes: Prisoner of Love, by James W. Ziskin
Little Big Crimes: Prisoner of Love, by James W. Ziskin: "Prisoner of Love," by James W. Ziskin, in Get Up Offa That Thing: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of James Brown, edited by...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet by Jo Carson
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet by Jo Carson: Reviewed by Jeanne In her preface, Carson says that this collection of poems is based on conversations; at the heart of each is someth...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny
Hanging the
Devil
(Poisoned Pen Press, November 2023) is the fifth book about private
investigator Cape Weather which Tim Maleeny has been leisurely producing over a
span of several years. The first volume of this fine series was published in
2007 and we’re only getting #5 some 16 years later. Some of us wish he could
write a bit faster. On the other hand, we have plenty of time to savor each
title about Weathers and his sidekick Sally Mei, trained by the Triad as an
assassin and now watching over San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Mei is just
the right person for Grace, an eleven-year-old girl in trouble, to find. Grace
was in the Asian Art Museum, where her uncle was security guard, when a
helicopter crashed into one of the plate glass windows in an attempted robbery.
The crash killed the pilot and Grace’s uncle but the robbers swept through the
museum anyway and took a valuable Buddha before the police arrived. They saw
Grace and gave chase but she escaped and Sally hid her in her secure loft
apartment. Sally views any crime in Chinatown as a personal affront, and she
enlists Weathers to assist her in identifying the lowlifes who had the impudence
to raid the museum. The scene shifts periodically to Hong Kong, where Grace’s
father Wen is imprisoned for his incorrect political views and he discovers some
chilling medical experiments underway in the jail.
The plot
threads link seamlessly across the major elements down to the final words in
each chapter beginning the next one. Very slick. The action is nonstop and the points
of view are complex, as the crime draws together Chinese mobsters, Russian
gangsters, an Interpol agent, and the local police, along with Grace, Weathers,
and Mei. The Chinatown setting is rife with realistic detail, reflecting Maleeny’s
long association with the area. Amusing dialogue and polished writing top off a
very good read. Highly recommended.
Starred
review from Library Journal and LJ’’s September Mystery Pick of
the Month.
(Get it here as things at Amazon are not working quite right. KRT)
·
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (November
14, 2023)
·
Language: English
·
Paperback: 416 pages
·
ISBN-10: 172827916X
·
ISBN-13: 978-1728279169
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
My Short Story Reading at Noir At The Bar: Dallas
Last Sunday evening I read my short story, Package of Pain,
at Noir At The Bar: Dallas at The Wild
Detectives. Those that were there and heard it seemed to have really liked
it. It was originally written around thirty years ago. I never could get any market to pick it up so
it eventually wound up in my short story collection, Mind Slices.
It is again going to see the light of day as it will appear
in the anthology, Crimeucopia: Say it Again. The anthology of
reprints is due out in January. If you can’t wait, please go buy Mind
Slices at Amazon
or Smashwords.
Beneath the Stains of Time: Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931) by Francis Beeding
Beneath the Stains of Time: Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931) by Francis Beeding: " Francis Beeding " was the shared pseudonym of two writers, John Palmer and Hilary St. George Saunders, who collaborated on more ...
Saturday, November 11, 2023
SleuthSayers: Don't Get All Twisted
SleuthSayers: Don't Get All Twisted: Twist endings in short fiction aren’t mandatory. There. I said it. You hear the "gotta have a twist" advice now and again, and tw...
Scott's Take: New Avengers: A.I.M. Vol. 1: Everything Is New by Al Ewing
New Avengers: A.I.M. Vol. 1: Everything Is New
by Al Ewing was published back in 2016 when the Secret Wars had just
finished. Marvel made the publishing decision to sideline the big-name Avengers to give the reading public a bit off a break from them. However,
the world still needs Avengers.
In New Avengers: A.I.M. Vol. 1: Everything Is New,
Sunspot (X-Men and Avenger and will be a main character in X-Men 97 on Disney+
sometime next year) has already taken over the group A.I.M. (a group of mad
scientists dedicated to global domination). He is incredibly wealth and used
part of that to buy A.I.M. He plans to now use their mad science for good
alongside a new group of Avengers he has formed. He also bought an island and
told world that his new group of Avengers will protect the world now. Of
course, a hero buying a terrorist organization makes people very nervous and
that’s before the bad guys get involved.
The new team consists of Hawkeye (Clint), Wiccan (Billy, one of the Scarlet Witch’s sons), Hulkling (a Kree-Skrull hybrid), Songbird (former supervillain turned hero). and others. There is also a ton of mad scientists acting as support. Add in a number of villains including one major villain ( that if you read the name now, it would a spoiler) as well as an evil space wizard, and others. Then, make this group a force of time traveling Avengers, and you have tons of weird story possibilities showcased with great art by Gerardo Sandoval. The problems are huge, but Sunspot has ambitious plans to handle them.
There are two more volumes of this series along with a
sequel series. New Avengers: A.I.M. Vol. 2: Standoff is the
second volume of the series.
My reading copy came from the North Oak Cliff Branch of the
Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2023
Friday, November 10, 2023
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Valiant Women, Nothing to Envy, Dragon Teeth
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Valiant Women, Nothing to Envy, Dragon...: Reported by Rita Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II by Lena Andrews is the story of the...
Barry Ergang's FFB Review: OH, MURDERER MINE (1946) by Norbert Davis
From the massive archive….
In the course of
an arduous trek through a sluggish mystery novel, I took a break and tore
through this little gem, the third and—alas!—final novel about the unlikely
team of Doan and Carstairs (the other two are The Mouse in the Mountain and Sally's in the Alley). Doan is a chubby,
pleasant-faced private detective; Carstairs is the regal, haughty Great Dane he
won in a crap game and who disapproves of him.
Doan is hired by
54-year-old cosmetics magnate Heloise of Hollywood to bodyguard her husband,
26-year-old meteorologist Eric Trent—a.k.a. "Handsome Lover Boy" in
Heloise's magazine ads. Heloise, though still quite attractive herself, is
afraid younger women will hit on Eric and wants Doan to supply the necessary
discouragement.
Things get going
when Melissa Gregory, an anthropology instructor at Breckenbridge University,
is incensed by Trent's usurpation of her office, as sanctioned by T. Ballard
Bestwyck, the university president. She confronts Trent about it, but her
impetrations have no effect. Trent is arrogant and stubborn. Melissa learns he
might even be taking over the apartment she maintains on campus.
That night,
Melissa returns home after a date with assistant English professor Frank Ames
to find an intruder in her apartment. The intruder knocks her out and flees,
but not before Melissa has had time to scream. Hearing her, Doan and Carstairs
investigate, and in the course of their pursuit, Doan is shot at and barely
missed by the assailant. He subsequently discovers Frank Ames's body in a trash
can. Ames's throat has been sliced open.
It's only the
beginning. More bodies remain to be discovered before Doan wraps things up. I
won't go on—the book is only 128 pages long—except to say that the chapter in
which Carstairs runs amuck in Heloise's salon is worth the price of the book. I
recommend this one and its predecessors, along with the out-of-print The
Adventures of Max Latin from The Mysterious Press (five novelettes
originally published in Dime Detective), as wonderful examples of the
screwball comedy school of mystery a la Jonathan Latimer and Craig Rice. Forget
about realism, thematic explorations, or character depth—although some of
Davis's characters are memorably wacky. This is storytelling as pure
entertainment. Davis could and did write stories as hardboiled as those of
Dashiell Hammett, Frederick Nebel, and Raymond Chandler, but his best work
features an off-the-wall comic perspective on the tough detective story.
For more on
Norbert Davis, see http://www.blackmaskmagazine.com/norbertdavis.html
Barry Ergang
©2011, 2017, 2023
Derringer Award winner
Barry Ergang’s own fiction can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.
Thursday, November 09, 2023
Beneath the Stains of Time: Scientists and Sorcerers: Q.E.D. vol. 31-32 by Motohiro Katou
Beneath the Stains of Time: Scientists and Sorcerers: Q.E.D. vol. 31-32 by Mot...: I closed out last month with a selection of favorite cases from the detective series of the 21st century, " The Hit List: Top 10 Favori...
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