Monday, January 21, 2019
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame: Reviewed by Ambrea Yaichi is a divorced, single father who spends his days working from home and looking after his precocious daugh...
Guest Blogging is the Best FREE Publicity for Writers: 12 Tips for Landing Effective Guest Blog Spots
Guest Blogging is the Best FREE Publicity for Writers: 12 Tips for Landing Effective Guest Blog Spots
TEXAS BOOK LOVER: Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar January 21...
TEXAS BOOK LOVER: Monday Roundup: Texas Literary Calendar January 21...: Bookish goings-on in Texas for the week of January 21-27, 2019: Special Events: 14th Annual MLK Symposium , Dallas, January 21 Lampas...
Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Defendants by John Ellsworth
The
Defendants by John Ellsworth (Subjudica House, 2014) is the first book
in his Thaddeus Murfee legal thriller series, although a prequel released in
2018 makes it the second in the chronology of series events. Less than two
years of legal practice in the small town of Orbit, somewhere in southern
Illinois, has left Thaddeus ill-prepared to take on a defense for murder, but
his client, poor but honest waitress Ermeline Ransom insists he’s the only
lawyer she trusts.
Ermeline unfortunately got between the local public
works contractor and the Chicago mob to whom the contractor had discontinued
kickbacks. When a visit from a mob enforcer did not shake the overdue payments
loose, the enforcer attacked Ermeline and set the stage for the contractor to
be accused of the crime. After the Orbit Attorney General declined to prosecute
for lack of evidence, Ermeline then retained Thaddeus to pursue civil damages.
This was not what the mob had in mind; they did
not want any competition for the money they believed the contractor owed them.
They decided to squash these upstarts from nowhere once and for all by killing
the contractor and slickly framing Ermeline. The local police had no choice but
to arrest her on the face of the evidence but Thaddeus knows she didn’t do it.
How he outsmarts the cutthroat prosecuting attorney from Chicago while
collecting the proof and testimony needed to bring the crime home to its
perpetrators make a lively absorbing read.
The author says these books, about a dozen in
the series, are based on his early days as a practicing lawyer, and I believe
him. Thaddeus makes some rookie mistakes that his more experienced friends and
paralegal manage to undo. He makes up in zeal what he lacks in experience,
though. The residents of Orbit come together around Ermeline and her son to
protect them as much as they can, showing some of the best reasons to live in a
small town. Readers of legal thrillers will especially like this book.
·
Paperback: 262 pages
·
Publisher: Subjudica
House (January 15, 2014)
·
Language: English
·
ISBN-10: 0615953778
·
ISBN-13: 978-0615953779
Aubrey Hamilton ©2019
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It
projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
SleuthSayers: Police Training by O'Neil De Noux
SleuthSayers: Police Training: Police Training in the 21st Century by O'Neil De Noux The cover story of the Fraternal Order of Police Journal's December 2018...
RTE Update for January 19, 2019
The
January 19 2019 issue of RTE is out and includes new reviews as well as an
interview from the archive:
A repeat
of a previous interview with Reginald Hill in the 'Sixty Seconds with . . .'
interview hot seat:
This, the
first issue for 2019, includes a list of the reviewers' most memorable
book of 2018.
REVIEWS
THIS WEEK:
TOMBLAND
C.J. Sansom Reviewed by Yvonne Klein
UNEASY
LIES THE CROWN Tasha Alexander Reviewed by
Cathy Downs
A
SORROWFUL SANCTUARY Iona Whishaw Reviewed
by Lourdes Venard
SMILE OF
THE WOLF Tim Leach Reviewed by Meg Westley
THE
LEGACY Yrsa Sigurdardottir Reviewed by
Anne Corey
RUPTURE
Ragnar Jónasson Reviewed by Yvonne Klein
LIVES
LAID AWAY Stephen Mack Jones Reviewed by
Susan Hoover
SCRUBLANDS
Chris Hammer Reviewed by Meredith Frazier
THE NEW
IBERIA BLUES James Lee Burke Reviewed by
Anne Corey
FALL DOWN DEAD Stephen Booth Reviewed by
Jim Napier
THE SPITE
GAME Anna Snoekstra Reviewed by Keshena
Hanson
NO
MERCY Joanna Schaffhausen Reviewed by Susan
Hoover
NO PLACE
FOR WOLVERINES Dave Butler Reviewed
by Sharon Mensing
ONE TASTE
TOO MANY Debra H. Goldstein Reviewed by PJ
Coldren
CREWEL
AND UNUSUAL Molly MacRae Reviewed by PJ
Coldren
We post
more than 900 new reviews a year -- all of them are archived on the site
-- as well as a new interview with a top author every issue.
Yvonne
Klein
Editor: ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Corporal's Leave (1945) by Christo...
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Corporal's Leave (1945) by Christo...: The Case of the Corporal's Leave (1945) is Christopher Bush 's twenty-ninth mystery novel about his two detectives, Ludovic Trav...
Mystery Fanfare: Mystery Bytes: Quirky & Interesting Mystery & Book...
Mystery Fanfare: Mystery Bytes: Quirky & Interesting Mystery & Book...: Here's my Round-Up of interesting and sometimes quirky mystery-related links on the Internet . Just wanted to share in case you missed...
KRL This Week Update for 1/19/18
Up in KRL
this morning a review and giveaway of "The Whispered Word"
by Ellery Adams along with a fun recipe from Ellery
And a
review and ebook giveaway of "Spiked" by Avery Daniels
We also
have a review and giveaway of "The Coloring Crook" by Krista
Davis long with a fun guest post by Krista about the coloring craze
And a
review and giveaway of "Gone Fishing in Lottawatah" by Evelyn
David aka Marian Borden and Rhonda Dossett and an interesting guest post
by them about writing as a team
And a
review and ebook giveaway of "The Mortality of Matias"
by Annette Moncheri and an interesting interview with Annette
We also
have a mystery short story by Ilene Schneider
Up on KRL
News and Reviews this morning we have a review and giveaway of "Catch Me
If Yukon" by Maddy Hunter
And a
review and giveaway of "Death's Favorite Child" by Frankie Y.
Bailey
And a
review and giveaway of "A Vintage Death" by Mary Ellen Hughes
Happy reading,
Lorie
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Sandi's Birthday--January 19, 2019
 |
| Sandi--October 2014 |
If life would have gone right, she would be here to celebrate her 59th birthday today. The fact that she is not hurts deeply and continues to be a devestating loss for all of us.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Beneath the Stains of Time: Death Knell (1945) by Baynard Kendrick
Beneath the Stains of Time: Death Knell (1945) by Baynard Kendrick: Baynard Kendrick was a detective novelist and one of the founding members of the Mystery Writers of America, even serving as their first...
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: UNCLE AND ANTS TOUR AND GIVEAWAY
A Writer's Life....Caroline Clemmons: UNCLE AND ANTS TOUR AND GIVEAWAY: Don't miss the giveaway at the end of the post! Uncle and Ants A Silicon Valley Mystery Book 1 by Marc Jedel Genre:...
FFB Review: MISCHIEF IN MAGGODY (1988) by Joan Hess Reviewed by Barry Ergang
For the full
list of reading suggestions today, make sure you head over to Patti’s blog.
MISCHIEF IN MAGGODY
(1988) by Joan Hess
Reviewed by Barry
Ergang
The second novel in Joan
Hess’s comical mystery series, Mischief
in Maggody is primarily but not exclusively concerned with the
disappearance and eventual murder of Robin Buchanon, one of many of the Buchanon
clan inhabitants of Maggody, Arkansas, population 755: “There are hundreds of
them sprinkled across Stump County, worse than hogweed. Incest and inbreeding
are their favorite hobbies…They aren’t strong on intelligence; the most they can
aspire to is animal cunning. An anthropologist from Farber College once tried
to sort out the genealogy, although nobody ever figured out why anybody’d want
to do that. Rumor has it she tried to kill herself at the county line, and
ranted in the ambulance about third cousins twice removed and fathers who were
also uncles and half-brothers. Her family hushed it up with some story about a
diesel truck, but everybody in Maggody knew better.”
Ariel “Arly” Hanks, who was raised here but
eventually married, moved to Manhattan, ultimately divorced, and moved back to
Maggody where she has become Chief of Police, has quite a number of problems to
contend with, not the least of which in her current case, is the well-being of loose-morals
moonshiner Robin Buchanon’s five children, one of whom is an infant.
Arly and/or the reader will
also encounter—via first- and third-person viewpoints—in no particular order—Madame
Celeste, a psychic who may or may not be phony; Celeste’s brother, obliging
Mason Dickerson; Brother Verber, preacher at the Voice of the Almighty Lord
Assembly Hall; school counselor David Allen Wainwright; Arly’s mother Ruby Bee
and Ruby’s friend Estelle Oppers; the
consummately inept Kevin Buchanon and his lady love, Dahlia O’Neill; student Carol
Alice Plummer and her “best friend in the whole world,” Heather Riley; and the
new hippie owners of the Emporium: Nate, Rainbow, Zachery and Poppy, the latter
being very pregnant. Extremely
memorable is Maggody’s mayoral wife and devout Christian known throughout as “Mrs.
Jim Bob,” and occasionally as Mizzoner,her husband Mayor Jim Bob being off in a
conference in Hot Springs.
A modern take on the
screwball comedy mystery that Craig Rice might have loved—albeit with some
implied sexuality and blatant raw street
language—the novel is one I can recommend to non-squeamish readers of
entertaining whodunits.
© 2019 Barry Ergang
As regular readers of this blog know, some of
Derringer-winner Barry Ergang’s work is available at Amazon and Smashwords. His free e-book Criminalities includes the essay “Impossible Pleasures,” about
impossible crime fiction.
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