Friday, September 04, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: LABOR DAY AND LABOR UNION MYSTERIES: Updated Lists
Mystery Fanfare: LABOR DAY AND LABOR UNION MYSTERIES: Updated Lists: Labor Day Weekend! With the holiday weekend beginning, I give you my updated lists of Mysteries that take place during the holiday w...
SleuthSayers: Going After Publicity for Your (small, precious) Book
SleuthSayers: Going After Publicity for Your (small, precious) Book: So you've got a novel coming out? If you are with one of the Big Five publishers - Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simo...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Speaking of Murder
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: Speaking of Murder: We owe many thanks to Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg for the variety of collections and anthologies they've edited through the year...
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: FAITHFUL
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: FAITHFUL: Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King (2004) Full disclosur...
Review: First Chance by Kasey Lansdale
It is summer in deep Southeast Texas and
all that entails as First Chance by Kasey Lansdale begins. Heat,
humidity, drought, and a side of murder. It has been 10 months since 16-year-old
Patience Milroy had been found with her throat cut, missing a shoe, and her
clothes on backwards. She had not been raped. So why was she killed. And why
were her clothes put back on her backwards? Local police have not figured out
either question and are no closer to doing so than the day she was found tossed
into the high grass along a roadside.
Darla Weaver, married, and sister to
Patience, has come to see Chance Kirby. She wants to hire her to look into the
case and find the killer of her baby sister. This is going to be her first case
as a fully licensed private investigator, but Chance has worked cases before for
her step mom, Harper Jones. So, she knows some things. Her dad, John Kirby,
also does investigative work, and it seems that the apple did not fall far from
the tree.
As the local private eye in Hopeful,
Texas, down near Houston, Chance Kirby knows some people. While Chance knew a
bit about the Patience case, she did not know about the case, in a nearby small
town, where another young woman was found dead in nearly identical circumstances.
That case seems to mirror what happened a few months later with Chance.
According to Darla, the respective police departments didn’t tell each other
about their cases. The cops now call it all a coincidence, but Darla does not
buy that. She also does not think much of the cops, or even Chance now that she
has met her.
Yet, Darla is desperate, and at her
whits end. She decides to go ahead and hire Chance to try and get some answers.
Good thing Chance has contacts in her local police department and some other
folks she can count on in the weeks ahead.
Finding the truth about what happened to
Patience and others is going to take considerable time. Chance also has her
hands full with a teenage foster daughter, a dog that gets loose, and a
complicated relationship with her family. All of those situations provide an
enjoyable backdrop to the main story line of
Chance finding out what happened to Patience and trying very hard not to
get killed doing it.
While it reads to me as this could be
the first book of a planned series, I have no idea if that is the plan or not.
It could just be a really good stand alone, but there are a lot of support
beams here for the floor of a series. Either way, First Chance by
Kasey Lansdale is a complicated and really good mystery. It is very much worth
your time.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/46Ctrjm
My digital reading copy came from the
publisher, Blackstone Publishing, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a
positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple 2026
Thursday, September 03, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange: This weekend, from September 4-6, St. Hilda's Mystery & Crime Conference returns to Oxford, England. The 33rd Crime Fiction Weekend...
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in June and July 2026
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in June and July 2026: I read a lot of good books in June and July. For various reasons I only read 3 books in June, and I was grateful that I was able to finish...
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: The McClintocks: A Family to Visit Again
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: The McClintocks: A Family to Visit Again: My mother, Caroline Clemmons, wrote many kinds of Western romance, but some of her most satisfying stories are the ones that invite reader...
Thursday Treats: 9/03/2026
Some reading opportunities of interest this week.
SMFS
list member Pam Ebel announced that her short story, Happy Hour at the Holy
Grail Bar, was published online at The Yard: Crime Blog. You can read it for
free here.
Pistol
Jim Press has announced their published short stories for their most recent
call. “Doors, Gates, & Portals” was edited by M. E. Proctor of the SMFS. You can read,
for free, the ten stories as well as vote on them at the Substack.
SMFS
list member David Hendrickson
announced that his short story, If Only I Were Pretty, appears in the recently
released Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem: Spring Break. Published by Knotted
Road Press, you can pick it up at the publisher
and Amazon.
Quite
a few SMFS list members are in the new anthology, Hooked on Urban
Legends—and Murder! The members are Editor Barb Goffman (Into the Woods), Shari Held (The House of Blue Lights
Revisited), Alan Orloff (Face to Face), KM Rockwood (They Lurk In The
Lake), Shannon Taft (The Cave Man),
and Joseph S. Walker (The Things We
Remember). Published by Wildside Press,
the read is available in digital format now at Amazon with the print version coming out on September 8th.
I
have been a fan of author Frank Zafiro
for quite a few decades now. His latest read in his River City police
procedural series, The Quick of the Night, is coming out on September 15th.
Published by Code
4 Press, the read is available now for
preorder at Amazon and will be part of the Kindle Unlimited program at time of
publication.
Also
out on September 15th is the latest read from author C. W.
Blackwell. The Cold Dark Forever: A Novel, published by Shotgun Honey Books,
is a crime fiction read set in 1942. The read is now available for preorder at Amazon.
Also
out on the 15th is the young adult read, It Should Have Been
You: A Novel by Lynn Slaughter. Now published by Picarones Press, an
imprint of Misti Media Publishing,
the book is available for preorder at the White City Press.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
The recent lunar eclipse photographed by another Dallas area resident. I could not see it at all in my part of NE Dallas.
Wednesday, September 02, 2026
Mystery Fanfare: The Detection Club: A new Golden Age Mystery series
Mystery Fanfare: The Detection Club: A new Golden Age Mystery series: Britbox has announced a new detective drama, The Detection Club, a 10-part mystery series. It's just begun filming, so no news on when ...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE COFFIN BEARER
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE COFFIN BEARER: "The Coffin Bearer" by Tess Gerritsen (from Birds of Prey , edited by Harlan Coben and C. J. Box, 2026) Maggie Bird is a fifty-ei...
Review: Tear the City Down: A Novel by Andre Hardy
One last deal and then get out. Coltrane
Davis had already been thinking about pulling up stakes and leaving San Diego.
That idea gained momentum in Florida recently as his teen daughter competed in
a tournament. She did not win. But, she did really well. She has the chance to
be somebody great in the tennis world with the right coaching and support. It
would also give her a chance to put some physical distance from a tragedy that
has haunted them both these past few months and caused incredible grief in
their lives.
All he has to do is manage his boss,
Saul Sollman, for one more deal. The problem is Saul Sollman is certified nuts.
He’s the crooked kingmaker who allowed Coltrane Davis into his world. That
decision has financially rewarded them both. Saul is not pleased with Coltrane
Davis right now. Getting summoned to Saul’s in the middle of the night,
especially on a date night, is the latest reminder that it is time to get out.
Coltrane is also less than pleased. Not
only because he was summoned to Saul’s place like he is some sort of indentured
servant working for his white king, Dylan Banks also arrived. Coltrane has to
work to hide his disgust as Dylan Banks is one of those white guys who appropriates
language, culture, and mannerisms not his own when speaking to others outside
of his race. Then, when there are consequences, hides behind the wall of privilege.
The agent has a huge problem. His
client, Anthony Riddell, an all-pro running back for the Chargers, is in a
situation that could cost him everything. Riddell has his own history and it is
not good. In the here and now, Riddell is being extorted because of a picture
that shows him in a sexually compromising position with another man. Coltrane
wants no part of any of it at all and the hard sell by Saul and Dylan begins in
earnest.
Dylan is sure that his client was set up.
That the whole deal is a plot by the GM to low ball him as they argue about the
next contract. The Chargers already declined his fifth-year option, didn’t negotiate
a fair market deal, and then put the franchise tag on him. Then stories started
getting leaked to the press about health issues, domestic violence, and gang
ties.
Being black in the NFL brings issues
that white players don’t have to deal with at all. Things between the Chargers
and the player are very heated. Now this problem. If word of it, let alone the
pictorial proof, go out he could lose his football career, his endorsements,
everything.
Coltrane grudgingly agrees to poke
around and try to clean up the matter. He soon gets involved deeper than ever
intended, as he looks for a way out for the player as well as the people Coltrane
loves.
Along the way, readers are treated to a
side of San Diego they never see and how race plays a major factor in the NFL
and far beyond. It’s a complicated tale, a debut novel, and a good crime
fiction read.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4zopxHZ
My ARC digital reading copy came by way
of the publisher, Grand Central Publishing, through NetGalley, with no expectation
of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
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