Saturday, September 17, 2016
Mystery Fanfare: Barry Award Winners 2016
Mystery Fanfare: Barry Award Winners 2016: Barry Awards 2016 Winners from Deadly Pleasures Magazine . Winners were announced at Bouchercon in New Orleans. Congratulations to all. ...
Nasty. Brutish. Short.: "A Perfectly Ordinary Case of Blackmail", by A.A. ...
Nasty. Brutish. Short.: "A Perfectly Ordinary Case of Blackmail", by A.A. ...: A.A. Milne is, of course, best known as the creator of Winnie the Pooh and the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, but he dabbled in...
Mystery Fanfare: Shamus Award Winners
Mystery Fanfare: Shamus Award Winners: PRIVATE EYE WRITERS OF AMERICA SHAMUS AWARD NOMINEES 2016 for works published in 2015. The winners were announced at the PWA Banquet at...
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Jan Christensen: "HOW PAULA MITCHELL, PI, WAS BORN...
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Jan Christensen: "HOW PAULA MITCHELL, PI, WAS BORN...: Former SMFS President Jan Christensen explains her writing process for this series.... Jan Christensen: "HOW PAULA MITCHELL, PI, WAS...
Wag The Fox: The Importance of Peer Reviews and Workshops: a gu...
Wag The Fox: The Importance of Peer Reviews and Workshops: a gu...: After surviving a demon attack, disgraced police detective Victoria Martin tracks down the Valducans in search for answers. Recognizing he...
KRL This Week Update for 09/17/16
Up this morning in KRL a review & giveaway of
"Cheddar Off Dead" by Julia
Buckley along with a fun food guest post & recipe from her
http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/cheddar-off-dead-by-julia-buckley/
And a review & giveaway of "Downfall" by JA
Jance http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/downfall-by-j-a-jance/
Also a review & giveaway of "Stalking Ground",
a Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret
Mizushima, & an interesting interview with Margaret
http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/stalking-ground-by-margaret-mizushima/
We also have a review & giveaway of "In the Land of
Milk and Honey" by Jane
Jensen http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/in-the-land-of-milk-and-honey-by-jane-jensen/
And an interesting article about Agatha Christie and the
orderly art of murder, & a bit about the new Poirot books by Sophie Hannah
http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/agatha-christie-and-the-orderly-art-of-murder/
And we have a review & giveaway of "A Story to
Kill" by Lynn
Cahoon http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/a-story-to-kill-by-lynn-cahoon/
For those who also enjoy fantasy, up this morning in KRL a
review & giveaway of "The Sight" by Chloe Neill
http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/the-sight-by-chloe-neill/
And a mystery short story by Nancy
Sweetland http://kingsriverlife.com/09/17/run-of-the-mill-mystery-short-story/
Over on KRL Lite we have a review & giveaway of "The
Dead Hand" by Michael A. Kahn http://kingsriverlife.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-dead-hand-rachel-gold-mystery-by.html
Happy Reading,
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/
mystery authors & bookstores! Ask me about it!
Mystery section in Kings River Life http://KingsRiverLife.com
Mystery Fanfare: Macavity Award Winners 2016
Mystery Fanfare: Macavity Award Winners 2016: The Macavity Award Winners 2016 The Macavity Awards are nominated by members of Mystery Readers International , subscribers to ...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: Reviewed by Christy H. I’m not sure what can be said about Margaret Atwood ’s dystopian classic that hasn’t alre...
New Issue of Crime Review
We feature new 20 reviews in each issue of Crime Review (www.crimereview.co.uk), together with a top industry interview. This time it’s author Paul Finch in the Countdown hot seat.
We’re on Twitter at: Crime Review: @CrimeReviewUK Linda Wilson: @CrimeReviewer Sharon Wheeler: @lartonmedia This week’s reviews are: OUT OF BOUNDS by Val McDermid, reviewed by Linda Wilson A DNA test done on a teenage car thief throws up an unexpected connection to a case of rape and murder 22 years ago. STRANGERS by Paul Finch, reviewed by John Barnbrook A woman, is murdering men in public pick-up spots. PC Lucy Clayburn forms part of the undercover team seeking to find the killer. As a result she unpacks much more about her life than she expected. DIE OF SHAME by Mark Billingham, reviewed by Linda Wilson When a member of a therapy group is murdered, DI Nicola Tanner finds the resulting wall of silence hard to penetrate. THE ONE MAN by Andrew Gross, reviewed by Arnold Taylor A 92-year-old man in a Chicago care home is visited by his daughter. Although known to have been a Holocaust survivor, he has never revealed any details of his past. She persuades him to tell his story, one that begins with two men running for their lives. THE VANISHED by Lotte and Soren Hammer, reviewed by Ewa Sherman When Detective Konrad Simonsen returns to work after a heart attack, he’s called as an observer to a violent school shooting, and assigned to deal with a minor case of a dead postman. He soon finds a tenuous link between these two and decides to follow it. DEATH SHIP by Jim Kelly, reviewed by Sharon Wheeler DI Shaw and DS Valentine find themselves with 60-year-old case on their hands following an explosion on Hunstanton beach. THE SINGER FROM MEMPHIS by Gary Corby, reviewed by John Cleal Athenian investigator Nicolaos and priestess wife, Diotima, are hired by would-be historian Herodotus to guard him on a research trip to war-torn Egypt. THE EARTHLY GODS by Nick Park, reviewed by Linda Wilson Imperial agent Cassius Corbulo has to help track down three kidnapped girls as well as continuing the search for his missing bodyguard. BREAKING DEAD by Corrie Jackson, reviewed by Sharon Wheeler Journalist Sophie Kent finds herself entangled in the dark side of the fashion industry after a Russian model she’d just interviewed is found dead. DARKTOWN by Thomas Mullen, reviewed by John Cleal When a young black girl, last seen in the car of a white man, is found dead, new black Atlanta policemen Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith go against the rules to investigate.
THE INVISIBLE GUARDIAN by Dolores Redondo, reviewed by John Barnbrook The discovery of a teenage girl strangled and displayed in a Basque forest awakens fears in the local village that a spirit of the forest is at work. Local-born Inspector Amaia Salazar is put in charge of the case, but has her own demons to fight. THE CASE OF LISANDRA by Helene Gremillon, reviewed by Arnold Taylor When a beautiful young woman is found dead at the foot of an apartment block in Buenos Aires, the police are convinced that they are dealing with a case of murder. EASY MOTION TOURIST by Leve Adenle, reviewed by John Cleal Guy Collins, a British journalist visiting Lagos, stumbles into a brutal killing. A mutilated female body is discovered and Collins is picked up as a suspect. THE BURSAR’S WIFE by EG Rodford, reviewed by Chris Roberts The wife of the bursar of Morley College seeks the assistance of George Kocharyan, Cambridge Confidential Services, to check on her daughter. What he finds turns out to be revealing about his own family. CAPTCHA THIEF by Rosie Claverton, reviewed by Linda Wilson When a famous painting is stolen from the National Museum of Wales, police turn to ex-con Jason Carr and his hacker boss Amy Lane for help. A COP’S EYES by Gabu Yakumaru, reviewed by Chris Roberts Nobuhito Natsume is a detective working in a Tokyo suburb, whose personal brush with crime lies behind both his late entry to his profession, and the special qualities he brings to his work. ZAMBEZI by Tony Park, reviewed by John Cleal Special Forces Master Sergeant Jed Banks flies to Africa to find the truth about his conservation researcher daughter, supposedly killed by a man-eating lion, and finds himself in the frontline of the war against terror. A BODY IN BARCELONA by Jason Webster, reviewed by Chris Roberts Detective Max Camera is assigned to the murder of a boy, son of a supermarket magnate. He receives information from a source high up in a government intelligence agency, but is he being manipulated? SO NUDE, SO DEAD by Ed McBain, reviewed by John Cleal Former pianist and heroin addict Ray Stone wakes up in a cheap motel with a dead girl in his bed. The only way he can stop the police charging him with her murder is to find the real killer. AS BLACK AS EBONY by Salla Simukka, reviewed by Linda Wilson Finnish teenager Lumikki Andersson is being stalked and doesn’t know to whom she can turn. She’s unable to decide between new boyfriend Sampsa, or Blaze, who broke her heart and has now reappeared in her life. Best wishes Sharon
Friday, September 16, 2016
WELCOME TO HELL ~ by Glenn Walker: Pete's Dragon 2016
WELCOME TO HELL ~ by Glenn Walker: Pete's Dragon 2016: Pete's Dragon ~ We were lucky enough to be on board the Disney Fantasy when this remake of the 1977 Disney classic premiered so we ...
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!: By Caroline Clemmons Yes, Happy Birthday to me. Or, as we say in our family, “Happy Annual Celebration of My Thirty-Ninth Bi...
Medical News
Sandi had her appointment with the cancer doc folks this morning. Blood work seems to indicate things are relatively stable. They did a minor in office procedure and will be running some tests to make sure what was removed was/is nothing. All in all they seem pleased at how she is doing and recovering from the radiation treatments.
The current plan is to have her do a PET Scan as soon as possible. Hopefully, that will happen in about two weeks.
In a month she is back to see the cancer doctor and get everything checked and to discuss the planned treatment from that point.
While we don't have any clue what the cancers are doing right now, everything they can assess seems to indicate things are stable and she is regaining her strength.
The current plan is to have her do a PET Scan as soon as possible. Hopefully, that will happen in about two weeks.
In a month she is back to see the cancer doctor and get everything checked and to discuss the planned treatment from that point.
While we don't have any clue what the cancers are doing right now, everything they can assess seems to indicate things are stable and she is regaining her strength.
FFB Review: REAPER (1998) by Ben Mezrich (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)
Friday means Friday’s Forgotten Books. Make sure you
check out the list over at Patti’s blog
after you read Barry Ergang’s review of Reaper by Ben Mezrich. Mr. Mezrich is
the author of fifteen books. A number of his recent releases are nonfiction
including the release earlier this month, The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway.
REAPER
(1998) by Ben Mezrich
Reviewed
by Barry Ergang
When nine attorneys seated around a conference
table simultaneously succumb to a bizarre, excruciating virus, readers are off
to the promising start of a thriller. Readers eventually learn that several other apparently
isolated incidents occur involving disparate victims, each of whom has either a
computer or television prior to the Big Turn-On. This is Telecon Industries’
major event, which will occur in a few days, affecting nearly the entire
country, because Telecon has provided everyone who wanted one a free set-top
box for it.
Probing these events is virologist Dr. Samantha
Craig, who works for the government. Dr. Nick Barnes, a former surgeon turned
paramedic because of an accident that damaged his right hand, was among
the first to see the bodies of the attorneys, and manages to inveigle himself into
the investigation.
The other principal characters are the billionaire
founder of Telecon, Marcus Teal; Melora Parkridge, Telecon’s director of
research and development and a woman with an agenda of her own who has ties to
a mysterious organization known as Pandora; and software engineer Ned
Dickerson, Parkridge’s assistant, who seems to be coming apart physically and mentally.
As I suggested earlier, this 407-page novel (in the
paperback edition) starts out promisingly—but it quickly devolves into
sluggishness, tedium, and predictability. A medical and scientific thriller,
its discussions about the nature of viruses and computer technologies, though meant
to be understood by average readers, seemed abstract and often impenetrable—at
least, to this reader—and slowed the
pace to a slog. Cover blurbs from reviews from People and Kirkus compare the author to Michael Crichton and Robin
Cook. I’ve read exactly one novel by Cook, but it was so long ago I remember
nothing about it. I’ve read my share of Crichton’s work, including much of it
written under his own name and the pseudonyms John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson, and
technical discussions in those, as I recall, moved more swiftly and were far
more comprehensible than those in Reaper.
Every one of the aforementioned major characters has
emotional baggage from the past that predictably affects him or her in the
present. Barnes and Craig have on-again off-again feelings toward one another,
but only the most naïve reader can think that this won’t turn out to be a love
match or that a coupling won’t ensue.
If it sounds like a typical Hollywood (I
accidentally typed Hollywoof, and
that is appropriate, too) opus, stick around for some of the climactic moments.
Among these are chase scenes wherein author Mezrich indulges in needless
descriptive passages of dioramas in the Smithsonian Museum of American History
while Barnes pursues someone in control of the deadly Reaper virus. I’m sure
the author thought these cloggish interludes would heighten suspense, but all
they really do is heighten reader irritation and impatience to get on with the
crux of the story so it’ll end and we can move on to better-wrought fictions.
There are at least two more Hollywoof (with apologies to my own little dog Duncan and other
canine savants) moments to comment on. One involves one of those
improbabilities too many movies are fond of, in which a villain seems to be
defeated but still manages another miraculous appearance. The other is
the “shock” ending, which here comes in the novel’s last sentence.
I, for one, yawned and appreciated that it was the last sentence.
The back cover of the paperback says, “Soon to be a
major TBS made-for-TV movie.” I looked it up—you can find it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171689/—and
it appears that the filmed version took considerable liberties with the novel,
and not necessarily as an improvement.
I genuinely hate writing negative reviews like this
one because it means I’ve had to waste my time reading a book not worth my time
or, to my way of thinking, anyone else’s. In this specific case, it was a
turkey not even pardonable by the president on Thanksgiving.
© 2016 Barry Ergang
Some
of Derringer Award-winning author’s Barry Ergang’s work is available at Smashwords and Amazon.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Update on the Angel Rings
Sandi now has orders for 26 angel rings. She is making more as she can when she is up to it. Her iOffer store remains closed by them until they process her check payment of $5.14 that she had no idea she owed. Thanks to donations and the orders she has made the $275 she needed for the Oncology installment payment for this month.
Things are very rough right now, but we are doing our best to hang in....
Things are very rough right now, but we are doing our best to hang in....
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Beneath the Stains of Time: Kingdom Come
Beneath the Stains of Time: Kingdom Come: " On a lonely sword he leaned, Like Arthur on Excalibur ." - G.K. Chesterton ( The Ballad of the White Horse , 1911) ...
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