Sunday, January 18, 2026
Little Big Crimes: Squirrel Day Afternoon, by Gregory Fallis
Little Big Crimes: Squirrel Day Afternoon, by Gregory Fallis: "Squirrel Day Afternoon," by Gregory Fallis, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November/December 2025. This is the fi...
KRL Update
Up on KRL this week we have a review and giveaway of "Murder at the Scottish Games" by Traci Hall https://kingsriverlife.com/01/17/murder-at-the-scottish-games-by-traci-hall/
And a review and giveaway (book and a goodie bag) of "A Ferry Long Way to Go" by Misty Simon, along with a fun guest post by Misty about her writing https://kingsriverlife.com/01/17/a-ferry-long-way-to-go-by-misty-simon/
And a review and giveaway of "Vows and Villainy" by Elizabeth Penney, https://kingsriverlife.com/01/17/vows-and-villainy-by-elizabeth-penney/
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Itch of Greed" by Christa Nardi, along with an interesting interview with Christa https://kingsriverlife.com/01/17/itch-of-greed-by-christa-nardi/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and ebook giveaway of "How Deep is the Body?" by Ivanka Fear https://www.krlnews.com/2026/01/how-deep-is-body-by-ivanka-fear.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "The Lizzie Borden House Anthology" Edited By Sèphera Girón https://www.krlnews.com/2026/01/the-lizzie-borden-house-anthology.html
Happy Reading,
Lorie
Beneath the Stains of Time: Best Served Cold: Case Closed, vol. 96 by Gosho Aoyama
Beneath the Stains of Time: Best Served Cold: Case Closed, vol. 96 by Gosho Ao...: This is probably going to be a slightly shorter review than usual, because Gosho Aoyama 's 96th volume of Case Closed only has one comp...
Guest Post: THE ASSASSINATION WE CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF by Jim Nesbitt
Please
welcome author Jim Nesbitt back to the blog today with his latest guest post
review …
THE
ASSASSINATION WE CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF
America
is a conspiracy-crazed nation, addicted to the breadcrumbs of "insider
information" that only the few are smart enough to suss out, hyped on the
latest finger-pointing revelation of shadowy string-pullers manipulating
dastardly deeds too many are fervently willing to believe without question.
How
did we get this way? Don't just blame the rise of social media that can inject
a fresh dose of outlandish intrigue from your smartphone right into your
brainpan. Look to the mother of all cabals, the malignant fountainhead of dark
machinations and evil intrigue, the gateway to America's addiction to
conspiracy theories -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
JFK's
shocking murder in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 was one of the
first major temblors of the turbulent 1960s. It was a seminal event that ripped
a huge rift in America's cultural and political fabric and taught us a searing inaugural
lesson about mistrusting our own government, hammered home by the
assassinations of JFK's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
as well as the violent upheaval and unrest caused by the Vietnam War.
More
than sixty years after those fatal shots rang out, we're still morbidly
fascinated, fixated on the question that still remains unanswered for many
Americans: who killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the nation's 35th president?
Author
Terrence McCauley shrewdly capitalizes on this eternal interest in JFK's murder
with a superbly written historical novel, The Twilight Town: A Dallas '63
Novel, the second in a planned trilogy. It is work firmly rooted in the record,
including a prequel novella focused on the squad of Cuban gunmen that fruitlessly
awaited Kennedy's arrival in Chicago earlier that year. The book also leans on
the most plausible alternatives to the official finding that an overwhelming
majority of Americans don't believe -- Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed
Kennedy.
McCauley,
a talented author of thrillers, Westerns and crime fiction, deftly weaves
characters of his creation with the real-life figures of this American tragedy,
including former Major Gen. Edwin Walker, a rabid right-wing extremist; Jack
Ruby, the transplanted minor mobster and strip club owner who killed Oswald;
J.D. Tippit, the Dallas police officer who was gunned down less than an hour
after Kennedy's assassination, a murder pinned on Oswald by the Warren
Commission; and, George de Mohrenschildt, a Russian-born geophysicist and
occasional CIA asset.
But
it's a smart move to center the narrative on a character of his own creation --
Dan Wilson, an ambitious Dallas police detective seconded to an FBI unit
eavesdropping on the cop and criminal patrons of a popular diner. That way, the
reader discovers the scattered pieces of this lethal puzzle as Wilson does,
meeting the players along the way, both real-life, like Tippit, a fellow Korean
War vet styled as Wilson's former partner, and fictional, like Harry Denton, a
Dallas cop and sharpshooter who is part of cadre of hard-core segregationists
and right-wingers commanded by a hyper-political captain.
Wilson,
the son of a legendary Texas Ranger named Duke, is trying to parlay his FBI
work into a gig as one of J. Edgar Hoover's boys and figures digging up dirt on
Walker and his minions is the quickest way to climb this ladder.
He
also befriends Oswald, turning him into a snitch and trailing him on a
gun-running trip to camps in the Louisiana swamps used to train Cuban exiles
for a possible sequel to the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion.
The
camps are connected to two New Orleans figures who become targets of Orleans
Parish DA Jim Garrison's later investigation of JFK's assassination, former
Eastern Airlines pilot David Ferrie and former senior FBI agent Guy Banister,
both rabid anti-Communists. Oswald spent the summer of 1963 in New Orleans,
where he frequently passed out pro-Castro pamphlets printed at the building
where Banister's private eye agency was located, which puts his political
stance in question.
The
pace is swift and the action is sudden and often violent, like Wilson's
decision to murder one of Walker's key minions after he delivers a
not-so-veiled threat toward Wilson's wife, leaving the body on Swish Street, the
"pink part" of downtown Dallas.
It's
a line you don't expect Wilson to cross and when he does, without as much as a
blink, you instantly think of James Ellroy's murderous cops and that author's
flawed masterpiece, American Tabloid. McCauley skillfully treads some of
the same ground but refrains from the juddering and distracting gimmicks to
tell a straight, edgy story we think we know but find out we don't.
So,
let's ask the question again. Who killed Jack Kennedy? The Mob, pissed about
Bobby's relentless prosecutions and the botched Cuba invasion? Gen. Walker's right-wing
crazies who helped make Dallas a city of hate? How about the CIA, also angry
about Cuba and Kennedy's desire to negotiate with the Soviet Union to ease Cold
War tensions and get us out of Vietnam.
Or,
it could have been D, all of the above, a hellish confluence of conspirators,
with freelancers and operatives keeping a foot in several camps. McCauley does
a masterful job portraying the criss-crossing connections and the swirl of
deadly plots with no Mr. Big to rule them all.
Take
your pick. Remember, though -- none of these players are a sure thing, but all
had a reason for wanting Kennedy dead. And if you want to know where McCauley
stands, buy his book. And the prequel, Chicago '63, as well as the sequel.
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4pLE0I2
Jim Nesbitt ©2026
Jim Nesbitt is the award-winning author of five hard-boiled Texas crime thrillers that feature battered but dogged Dallas PI Ed Earl Burch. The fifth Ed Earl Burch novel, THE FATAL SAVING GRACE, has just been released. Nesbitt was a journalist for more than 30 years, serving as a reporter, editor and roving national correspondent for newspapers and wire services in Alabama, Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. He now lives in Athens, Alabama, where he is writing his sixth Ed Earl Burch novel, THE PERFECT TRAIN WRECK.
Saturday, January 17, 2026
2025 Critter's Poll Results: Kevin's Corner wins "Best Review Site"
The results have been announced today and this site
has won Best Review Site in the annual poll.
This means, the last six of seven years, this blog has won. After taking a year
off and not entering, this place has again won BACK to BACK to BACK.
FOR THE SECOND TIME!!!! Just amazing.
We were once again the only place reviewing
mysteries and crime fiction. We were also the only site that was not one of the
big guns with book giveaways, special events, and the like. We just do what we
do and roll on. No bells. No whistles. No gimmicks. Just reviews, guest posts,
and news of other things in the massive book world.
On behalf of myself, Scott, Aubrey, and numerous
other folks who have been a part of things here for another year, Thank
You. If it was not for all the guests who contribute to this blog every
month, this award and the recognition does not happen.
A massive and heartfelt THANK YOU goes
to you, the readers, who come by here and read this blog. You have stuck by the
place as things have gotten slower due to my health challenges and other
issues. If it was not for your support over these years, this never would have
happened one more time. I’m grateful.
I have always said I have a very hard conceiving of
the idea that anything I do, especially with the blog, really impacts other
folks. People tell me otherwise on a fairly frequent basis, but I have a very
hard time wrapping my head around that idea. Then this happens and I just shake
my head in amazement.
Thank You. It truly means a lot.
Kevin
SleuthSayers: Christmas Movie Night
SleuthSayers: Christmas Movie Night: Around this time last month, we did the same thing we've done every Christmas for years: Our whole family--my wife and I and our three...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Murder at Royale Court by G.P. Gardner
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Murder at Royale Court by G.P. Gardner: Reviewed by Jeanne Cleo Mack is settling into her job as director of Harbor Village, a retirement community in Fairhope, Alabama but t...
Scott's Take: The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien De Castell
The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien De
Castell is second book in the Malevolent series that began with The Malevolent Seven. At this point
there is supposed to be a third book in the series, The Malevolent Nine,
but the publishing date is unknown. All we have, for now, is the reference to
it in the author’s multi page acknowledgement section at the back of the book.
Spinning out of the events of the first
book, The Lords Celestine (their version of angels) and the Lords Devilish
(their version of demons) are recruiting humans to wage war against their
counterparts on the Mortal Plane (quasi Earth). Cade and his friends (The
Malevolent Seven) are attempting to stop the war before it truly gets going by
murdering people both sides until they call it off. Of course, things only get
worse from there. As happened with the first book, the plot synopsis does not really
reflect what the book is actually about and I am not going to ruin with a more
accurate description.
This book has humor, action, sex,
extensive and graphic torture scenes, and much more. If you enjoyed the first
read, you should enjoy this book as it is more of the same. As was true with
the first one, this is very much an adult book. Like the previous read, this
one also gets weird at times, but in a good way. For example, one of the new
characters introduced to join the team includes a vampire Kangaroo from another
dimension. About halfway through the read, the Kangaroo also learns and can
speak Samuel L. Jackson’s favorite movie curse word.
I read the hardback book through my
local library and enjoyed it a lot. I am eagerly awaiting the third book which
is supposed to be the final book in the series.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aRlp9V
My hardback reading copy came from the
Central, aka Downtown, Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2026
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