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How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization by David Hopkins

How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization by David Hopkins

Courtesy of Barry Ergang who sent this to me and pointed out that there is adult language in the piece.

Little Big Crimes: Heathen Springs, by James L. Ross

Little Big Crimes: Heathen Springs, by James L. Ross: "Heathen Springs," by James L. Ross, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, April 2016. Nice private eye-type story by Mr...

FREE Book Alert--"Tussinland" by Mike Monson

Also published by All Due Respect Books and currently free on Amazon in the eBook format is  Tussinland by Mike Monson. My review is here.

Amazon Synopsis:

"Addicted to cough syrup, television and Sugar Frosted Flakes, Paul Dunn is living in a state of torpor while staying at his mother's house after the humiliating ending of his third marriage. His inertia is broken when he becomes the chief suspect in the murders of his soon-to-be ex-wife and her new lover. Set in the town of Modesto, deep in California's Central Valley, Tussinland is about sex drugs, addiction, smart phones, Facebook and the internet, digital cable, anti-government militias, reality TV, fundamentalist homophobic Christians, families, 12-step groups, pornography, marriage, death, disease, and love. So noir it hurts."

FREE Book Alert-- "Selena" by Greg Barth

Selena by Greg Barth is currently FREE in the eBook format over on Amazon. If you buy a book published by All Due Respect Books you know going in violence and graphic language will be on full display.  All Due Respect publishes graphic crime filled books where cozy style tales have no place. The cover alone should make it clear what you are getting so don't complain later.

Having read this-- working on my review--- and enjoyed it a lot I can tell you it is one heck of a ride. 

Amazon synopsis:


Scatter shot revenge.

Selena is living the dream on her terms – carefree and sloppy and all in the pursuit of pleasure. When a careless act of petty theft puts her in the crosshairs of a violent crime syndicate, her choices are clear – either curl up and die, or tear down the whole damned organization one bloody shotgun blast at a time.

Nothing will satisfy her but savage retribution. Nothing can stop her. Get ready.

Cover design by Dyer Wilk. Edited by Chris Rhatigan and Rob Pierce. Published by Mike Monson and Chris Rhatigan.

Review: "Resume Speed" by Lawrence Block

Resume Speed by Lawrence Block is a quirky stand-alone novella. The stranger with little more than the clothes on his back gets off the bus in the small town of Cross Creek, Montana after seeing a help wanted sign in a local diner. He goes by the name Bill Thompson. He keeps to himself and slowly begins a quiet existence in the small town.

He does that by taking the job as a fry cook. He takes a room in a local boarding house, gets a library card, and gradually begins to assume an identity among some of the locals. They know him to be a quiet and unassuming man who may or may not have suffered a great loss. While it is not clear to them it is clear to the reader that Bill Thompson is running from something though he seems like a good guy.  There are the occasional hints that make the reader wonder what happened before he came to town.

Currently only available as a kindle single e-book this sixty page read is a good one. Not all questions are answered in this highly entertaining read and that is more than okay. A whisper of mystery begins the tale and a gale of mystery ends it. In between there is plenty of complexity and details/allusions to ponder before one can Resume Speed.

Material was provided by author Lawrence Block in response to a comment I had made on Bill Crider’s review. 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

Working Outside

Warmer days means I am back out on the apartment back porch in the evening working on things by way of the laptop. Working on reviews and blog posts as I have the porch light on. Apparently I have again become an object of curiosity as a number of neighbors have come by at different times and watched from across the creek as I worked. I distinctly heard some lady say to the guy she was with as they followed their little dog and failed to pick up after it, "I bet he is watching porn."

I wanted to yell out to her-- Never before ten pm.

But, that would be a lie and I am not a politician.

A Message from Author Kaye George

There's a great little book store in the suburbs of Austin that's in trouble. I NEVER do this like this, but I'm doing it now. They've started a GoFundMe drive to try to keep their doors open. The Book Spot in Round Rock has been a great friend to local authors for many years. I can even keep this topical, because they hosted me and two other writers who had done a short story anthology a few years ago. If you can, and if you want to see small, friendly, local bookstores stay in business, here's a link to help out:

https://www.gofundme.com/bookspot

(If this is against the rules, I suppose no one will see this and I apologize for feeling strongly about this.)

Kaye George/Janet Cantrell~~
National Best-selling & Agatha-nominated mystery author~~
FAT CAT TAKES THE CAKE April 5, 2016~~
REQUIEM IN RED April 12, 2016~~
DEATH ON THE TREK June 13, 2016~~
http://kayegeorge.com/ and http://janetcantrell.com/
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Coming Soon: Spring 2016 Issue! (Flash Bang Mysteries)

Coming Soon: Spring 2016 Issue! (Flash Bang Mysteries)

HOUSTON WRITERS GUILD ANNUAL CONFERENCE APRIL 29, 30 and MAY 1, 2016

HOUSTON WRITERS GUILD ANNUAL CONFERENCE APRIL 29, 30 and MAY 1, 2016

KRL This Week Update

Up this morning in KRL a review & giveaway of a perfect mystery for Easter weekend, "When Bunnies Go Bad" by Clea Simon http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/when-bunnies-go-bad-by-clea-simon/

Also up a review & giveaway of "Silenced in the Surf" by Kate Dyer-Seeley http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/silenced-in-the-surf-by-kate-dyer-seeley/

And a review & giveaway of "Unreasonable Doubt" by Vicki Delany http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/unreasonable-doubt-by-vicki-delany/

We also have the latest mystery Coming Attractions from Sunny Frazier, along with a giveaway of "The Grim Steeper" by Amanda Cooper http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/april-coming-attractions-spring-forward-edition/

And a review & giveaway of "Requiem For Red" by Kaye George http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/requiem-in-red-by-kaye-george/

And we have a mystery short story by John M. Floyd http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/creativity-a-mystery-short-story/

Also, it's TV pilot season, check out some of the interesting shows of all sorts, including mystery, that are being made into pilots this year http://kingsriverlife.com/03/26/welcome-to-the-pilots/

Happy reading & Happy Easter,

Lorie

--

KRL is now selling advertising & we have special discounts for
mystery authors & bookstores! Ask me about it!
Mystery section in Kings River Life http://KingsRiverLife.com

Check out my own blog at http://mysteryratscloset.blogspot.com/

Guest Post: Jeanne on "Location, Location, Location: A Very Personal View of the Power of Place"

As a reader I tend to prefer books set in the West or Southwest because as a child my parents took me camping a lot and I have been to locations across Texas and almost every western state. You take me to say, Martha’s Vineyard, that is one thing. You move that mystery with the required adjustments to New Mexico and you already have me hooked before I open the book. I may not notice the fact that you use the same house in multiple books. But, you get the details wrong on a location I have been too such as the sunrise or a well-known landmark  and I will notice that big time. A sense of place is incredibly important to me. Please welcome back Jeanne of the Bristol Public Library as she has some thoughts about the importance of place in a mystery. This is part one of a two part guest post.

 

Location, Location, Location:  A Very Personal View of the Power of Place

Kevin has been very generous in giving me a space to ramble on about various things connected to mysteries.  Lately I’ve been thinking about places.  The main questions in a murder mystery are usually who, how, and why.  I happen to think where is an important ingredient, at least in the books I enjoy.  True, there are some books that get by without letting a reader know much about the setting beyond the necessities such as murder location and possible exits.  Those can work just fine, but for a series I like to have some idea of where in the world I am.  The inciting incident for all this was when I realized I had no idea where a particular book was set.  It was Generic Small Town USA, which was a little disappointing.

Where really encompasses a lot of things, I realized belatedly, and so this little essay has expanded accordingly.  I apologize in advance!

Houses, or buildings in general, are important.  That’s where the action is and those aforementioned exits and entrances.  Let me start by saying that I am directionally challenged.  I am terrible at spatial relations.  My house has two stories.  When I hear a noise or spy a leak in the basement, I have no idea as to what room upstairs is the point of origin.  I laughed at one my cats for peering intently down a grate and then running up the downstairs cat tree to stare up at a grate because I knew that was the wrong grate.  Of course, the cat had the last laugh because she was right and I was wrong.  She understood the layout of the house better than I did—or do.

So when I read a description of a house or village in a book, I never envision the physical layout of the setting.  Authors can get away with moving streets or rooms to their hearts’ content and I will probably never notice.  The “probably” is only in there because one book I did read recently had a character step into a room from the kitchen and I would have sworn that she couldn’t have gotten there from the kitchen, but since I’m used to being wrong about such things, it didn’t worry me unduly.

On the other hand, I have friends who definitely do not have that problem.  They can draw maps of St. Mary’s Mead and throw in a floorplan of Miss Marple’s house.  They can describe each shop and house in Three Pines. They know if an author gets it wrong, and they adore authors who provide maps or floorplans.  The latter has definitely fallen out of favor; I remember them from some of the classic locked room mysteries.  Maps, however, still show up.  The last one I noticed was in G.M. Malliet’s Max Tudor series, where endpapers show readers all the features of Nether Monkslip.

Some readers notice if an author re-uses structures.  One friend was a fan of Barbara Michael’s books, but gave up in disgust on one because “it was the same damn house” that had figured in at least two other books. (I, of course, noticed nothing.)

While architecture doesn’t make much of an impression on me (see spatial relations above), a few well-chosen details of structure or furnishings can convey a feeling for an area.  Breezeways in houses or the occasional pie safe or gingerbread trim give clues.  Of course, just say the word “brownstone” and New York pops into mind.  I couldn’t even tell you what a real brownstone looks like, but Rex Stout made that description such an integral part of the Nero Wolfe novels that I have a knee-jerk reaction to the term.

One house I do picture is the one inhabited by Dixie Hemingway in the Cat Sitter Mysteries by Blaize and John Clement.  Dixie shares a house with her brother and his partner, but she lives in an apartment over the garage.  I couldn’t draw you a diagram, but I feel I know the house well enough to borrow Dixie’s bathroom should the need arise.

At this juncture, I decided to take pity’s sake on the readers and save my comments on non-building aspects of place for another post.  You’re welcome.

Crosswise (Tommy Ruzzo) by S.W. Lauden (Review at Sons Of Spade Blog)

Crosswise (Tommy Ruzzo) by S.W. Lauden (Review at Sons Of Spade Blog)

Mystery Fanfare: Easter Crime Fiction: A List

Mystery Fanfare: Easter Crime Fiction: A List: Even if you don't live in Norway where Paskekrim ( Easter Crime Fiction ) is a crime fiction Easter Holiday tradition , you can enj...

Pet Scan Friday

The Pet Scan is completed and we are back home. The results should be in by Monday afternoon so we should know where we stand on Wednesday before they do the IVIG.

FFB Review: "A Knife In The Back: A Case for Professor Sally Good" by Bill Crider

A Knife In The Back: A Case for Professor Sally Good by Bill Crider is the second one in the series following Murder Is An Art.  Head of the English and Fine Arts of Hughes Community College located between Houston and Galveston, Dr. Sally Good she is still trying to live down her reputation for solving the recent murder case. Her plan is to focus on student essays and dealing with the daily various difficulties of being the department chair. She has to deal with all that and her ongoing addition addiction to chocolate bars.

Mass Market Paperback

Then Ralph Bostic gets himself killed. One of the trustees of Hughes Community College, Ralph Bostic was considered to be a less than stellar human being before he got himself stabbed by a knife. A certain knife made by one of Dr. Good’s department members, Jack Neville. The same Jack Neville who helped her in the previous situation and a guy she is developing some sort of attachment to because she had said yes to a date.

As others in the HCC system overreact to the situation and local police believe no further investigation is needed, Dr. Sally Good is well aware that somebody needs to figure out who actually did the crime. She knows that based on prior experience and long before the murderer strikes again on campus. Once again it is going to be up to Dr. Sally Good to solve the case that literally begins with A Knife In The Back.

Building on the previous character development for Dr. Sally Good, Jack Neville, and others in Murder Is An Art this read is another good one in the series. As in the Carl Burns Mystery series the author is clearly using his background in academia to craft these mysteries. Subtle humor, a dash of romance, and plenty of mystery where there are lots of suspects make A Knife In The Back a mighty good read. While I personally prefer Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, the author’s many other series and stand alones also provide an excellent Bill Crider writing fix even without the Dr Pepper. 

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System. They do not care one whit whether I read it or even if I review it. They just want their book back in the same shape it came to me.

Make the rest of your Friday a reading quest by heading over to Patti Abbott’s blog and checking out the FFB list. Make sure you make time to pick up a copy of her Concrete Angel. A mighty good read that is well worth it.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

Plano Hail

Yesterday was one of those days where every few hours the forecast got worse. By late afternoon we had slipped into the "marginal" risk zone of severe weather. Since that often seems to mean that severe weather is definitely coming I was worried. Especially since radar seemed to indicate the storm line was beginning to the west way further out than had been predicted.

By around ten last night I knew we were in trouble for sure as there was one particular nasty storm in the line that was aimed right at us. The same storm had tried to spin up a tornado in north Fort Worth before morphing into a major hail storm. In the picture to the right from one of the local radars, the light pink area is hail to the size of golf balls. Our apartment is located just a few miles north of where it says Shepton. The Shepton deal refers to Shpeton High School where both the boys went to school.

I moved my car under the carport into the empty parking spot for the vacant apartment next door and hoped for the best. Then a few minutes later the hail began smashing down. It quickly escalated to ping pong and golf ball sized hail that tore up the few plants on the porch and broke the edges of the pots. Fortunately, we were not hit with the 50 plus mph winds that were seen elsewhere in the area. That meant that a lot of the hail came down straight or on a slight angle and missed the apartment windows and did not go under the carport.

Local media is full of images this morning showing what hail can do when it is coupled with wind and blasted into homes and cars. We got lucky. The apartment windows held despite being hit repeatedly in cringe worthy impacts and the cars seem to be okay.

Our nerves are fried. The next round of storms is supposed to be on Ester Sunday which traditionally can be a very rough day weather wise.

Review: "Gunfire Ridge: Bodie Kendrick Bounty Hunter Book 4" by Wayne D. Dundee

Gunfire Ridge is the fourth and apparently final installment of the Bodie Kendrick Bounty Hunter Series. It opens with Kendrick in the company of a soiled dove in the town of Ford’s Bottom. The quiet is disturbed by the pounding on their room door, followed by threats, and very soon gunfire. When the lead stops flying and the dust has settled a bit town marshal, Cotton Mayhew, makes it clear that the bounty hunter has overstayed his welcome in these parts. Thanks to the Sheriff up in Laramie already having authorized his bounty pay at the local bank, Kendrick can collect his monies due him and head on out of town immediately.

That would be just as well as for all involved as some folks are no doubt coming to town to settle a score with Kendrick. Today’s attempt at killing him traces back to an event earlier in the series and the far flung family members, of which there are quite a few, seem to be of no mind to let things go. Kendrick also has work to do near Pine Ridge, Nebraska and would like to get out of northern Colorado before the winter snows set in. That is going to be a way easier said than done in Gunfire Ridge.

Gunfire Ridge: Bodie Kendrick Bounty Hunter Book 4 is another good one.  Starting with Hard Trail To Socorro, Rio Matanza, Diamond In The Rough and now Gunfire Ridge, the very good reads in this series are well worth your time. Kendrick is a man’s man--- he loves hard, he drinks hard, and he works hard. When killing needs to be done he does it as that is the cards he was dealt. A very good western series where there is plenty of action and adventure with a hint of romance and mystery thrown in the mix. Award winning author Wayne D. Dundee simply can’t write a bad story. This is another good one. 

According to Amazon I picked this up in early April 2015. I have no idea now if it was a free read or I used funds in my Amazon Associate account. I suspect the latter.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

PublishAmerica / America Star Books Lawsuit Against Writer Beware Settled (Writer Beware Blog)

PublishAmerica / America Star Books Lawsuit Against Writer Beware Settled (Writer Beware Blog)

Review: "The Ehrengraf Fandango" by Lawrence Block

The Ehrengraf Fandango is the twelfth short story featuring the lawyer Martian H. Ehrengraf. He has a small room at his home reserved for attorney-client meetings. The room is a bit reminiscent of such a room at a police station as both the table and the chairs are bolted to the floor. The surroundings lean towards the austere and Ehrengraf may or may not be recording everything that goes on in the room. It is not exactly clear from the start that he pushes the legal boundaries hard if not flat out obliterating them. That talent comes in handy with his latest client, Cheryl Plumley, as the story begins.

The entire world knows she fired the gun that killed three people in a house on Woodbridge Avenue. She has no memory of actually going into the home and shooting Mary Beth and Richard Kuhldreyer as well as their neighbor, Patricia Munk. While her only explanation other than sheer madness for the crime would be satanic intervention, Ehrengraf has a much more down to earth explanation. Not only does he know how he can help her with the case, he has a few other ideas to help her and her future.

Along with a touch here and there of subtle humor, The Ehrengraf Fandango by Lawrence Block is a complicated multiple case mystery. The Plumley case is just part of a much larger tale in this work. Martian H. Ehrengraf is a lawyer who bends the law to suit himself and enjoys the fruit of his labors in the process. He only defends innocent clients and he never loses a case. If you need his services it is always best to pay his free promptly and without delay.

Also present at the end of the book is the original introduction to the first story, The Ehrengraf Defense, written by Edward D. Hoch for the 1978 initial appearance in Ellery Queen’s mystery magazine. That is followed by two different afterwards from the author, first in 1994 and then 2014. Those pieces by Hoch and author Lawrence Block provide intriguing details about the dapper lawyer, the other eleven tales in the series, as well as publishing in general. 

Material was picked up to read and review when the author made it free back in January. 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016