Heartbeat Away
Michael Palmer
St. Martin's, Feb 2011, $27.99
ISBN 9780312587529
American President James Allaire begins the annual State of the Union address. Small containers explode releasing a viral WRX3883. Over seven hundred people inside the House Chamber are infected by the toxin. The impact is disastrous as those hurt include the President, leaders of Congress, the Vice President, the Supreme Court judges, and cabinet leaders. Allaire takes charge of inside the chamber, locking it down.
The Director of the Department of Homeland Security is the selected “survivor” who remained in Minnesota during the calamitous speech. He is the leading government official outside of the quarantine zone. As the country seeks a cure for the infections disease, a domestic terrorist group Genesis on the “Fourth Day” demands the repeal of the Patriot Act and the end of surveillance on Americans or further terrorist acts will follow. Allaire led the WRX3883 virus development team and knows who he must turn to for help. Virologist Griffin Rhodes who is designated as a terrorist under the Patriot Act was placed in solitary confinement although he has no idea why he was locked away in a maximum federal pen.
Though over the top of the Capital Building as the Genesis motive along with their insiders seem inane for even an extreme group, Heartbeat Away is an exciting action-packed biological terrorist thriller. Fast-paced, readers who can ignore the plausibility of key events and linear characterizations will enjoy Michael Palmer’s entertaining State of the Union.
Harriet Klausner
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Delirious-Daniel Palmer
Delirious
Daniel Palmer
Kensington, Jan 25 2011, $25.00
ISBN 9780758246646
In Massachusetts, software engineer Charlie Giles, who works at SoluCent, develops InVision, a quantum technical leap ahead in automobile entertainment systems. Charlie is excited as the firm’s top management arranges to meet with General Motors on a deal to standardize InVision in their cars.
However, he is stunned when a SoluCent employee Anne Pedersen informs Charlie that his boss Jerry Schmidt will nix the GM deal. Fuming and out of control, Giles crashes into an executive meeting where he confronts Schmidt. Thinking his employee is insane; Schmidt insists he supports the deal with GM. Giles apologizes but explains marketing employee Anne Pedersen fed him the crap. Charlie is shocked when he learns no Pederson works for the firm. In spite of his creative skills, he is fired. Meanwhile Giles fears he suffers from mental illness just like his father and brother. His trepidation being besieged by his failing mind is further exasperated when he finds a note written by him naming those SoluCent executives who must die. He wonders if he needs to join his sibling in a ward lock up before he hurts someone; that is if has hasn’t already.
This is a super psychological thriller that enables the reader to get inside the apparent sick mind of a brilliant technician who fears he has become as Delirious as his family and ergo a dangerous threat to others. The story line focuses on Giles’ deteriorating mental state leaving the audience to wonder what is real and what did he imagine as real. Although the climax is a major let down for such an otherwise strong thriller, mindful of the Hoffman movie Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? fans will appreciate Daniel Palmer’s exciting spotlight on mental health.
Harriet Klausner
Daniel Palmer
Kensington, Jan 25 2011, $25.00
ISBN 9780758246646
In Massachusetts, software engineer Charlie Giles, who works at SoluCent, develops InVision, a quantum technical leap ahead in automobile entertainment systems. Charlie is excited as the firm’s top management arranges to meet with General Motors on a deal to standardize InVision in their cars.
However, he is stunned when a SoluCent employee Anne Pedersen informs Charlie that his boss Jerry Schmidt will nix the GM deal. Fuming and out of control, Giles crashes into an executive meeting where he confronts Schmidt. Thinking his employee is insane; Schmidt insists he supports the deal with GM. Giles apologizes but explains marketing employee Anne Pedersen fed him the crap. Charlie is shocked when he learns no Pederson works for the firm. In spite of his creative skills, he is fired. Meanwhile Giles fears he suffers from mental illness just like his father and brother. His trepidation being besieged by his failing mind is further exasperated when he finds a note written by him naming those SoluCent executives who must die. He wonders if he needs to join his sibling in a ward lock up before he hurts someone; that is if has hasn’t already.
This is a super psychological thriller that enables the reader to get inside the apparent sick mind of a brilliant technician who fears he has become as Delirious as his family and ergo a dangerous threat to others. The story line focuses on Giles’ deteriorating mental state leaving the audience to wonder what is real and what did he imagine as real. Although the climax is a major let down for such an otherwise strong thriller, mindful of the Hoffman movie Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? fans will appreciate Daniel Palmer’s exciting spotlight on mental health.
Harriet Klausner
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Love Me To Death-Allison Brennan
Love Me To Death
Allison Brennan
Ballantine, Dec 28 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345520395
Six years ago, Lucy Kincaid met a seemingly nice man on-line. When they finally met in person, he proved to be a psychopath. He attacked her, but she survived while her molester died.
Since the assault, Lucy dreams of becoming an undercover FBI agent. In the meantime in DC waiting for the feds to call, she works obsessively as a volunteer for Women and Children First! Her role is to lure web predators and other sex offenders into traps. However, Lucy becomes concerned with her endeavor when she realizes several of those she busted have been executed since leaving prison. A friend and business cohort of Lucy’s concerned brothers, private investigator Sean Rogan, tries to keep her safe. They are attracted to one another, but are hesitant to act on their feelings. Meanwhile Lucy probes the connections that seem chaotic, but at the same time the FBI is scrutinizing her actions as she is more than just a person of interest in what is believed a serial killer’s vendetta.
Love me to death is a taut “FBI” romantic suspense thriller starring family members from Sudden Death and Cutting Edge. The story line is fast-paced but driven by obsessed Lucy who is stunned to realize someone is following up on her efforts to capture sex predators by killing the psychopaths. Although purposely serpentine with surprising but fun chaotic misdirection and red herrings that confuse the heroine (and readers), this approach enhances the investigation that Lucy and Sean conduct. There are also a ton of support characters who can overwhelm the reader at times trying to remember who’s who, but this also adds to the fog of a convoluted inquiry as Allison Brennan provides a tense twisting thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Allison Brennan
Ballantine, Dec 28 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780345520395
Six years ago, Lucy Kincaid met a seemingly nice man on-line. When they finally met in person, he proved to be a psychopath. He attacked her, but she survived while her molester died.
Since the assault, Lucy dreams of becoming an undercover FBI agent. In the meantime in DC waiting for the feds to call, she works obsessively as a volunteer for Women and Children First! Her role is to lure web predators and other sex offenders into traps. However, Lucy becomes concerned with her endeavor when she realizes several of those she busted have been executed since leaving prison. A friend and business cohort of Lucy’s concerned brothers, private investigator Sean Rogan, tries to keep her safe. They are attracted to one another, but are hesitant to act on their feelings. Meanwhile Lucy probes the connections that seem chaotic, but at the same time the FBI is scrutinizing her actions as she is more than just a person of interest in what is believed a serial killer’s vendetta.
Love me to death is a taut “FBI” romantic suspense thriller starring family members from Sudden Death and Cutting Edge. The story line is fast-paced but driven by obsessed Lucy who is stunned to realize someone is following up on her efforts to capture sex predators by killing the psychopaths. Although purposely serpentine with surprising but fun chaotic misdirection and red herrings that confuse the heroine (and readers), this approach enhances the investigation that Lucy and Sean conduct. There are also a ton of support characters who can overwhelm the reader at times trying to remember who’s who, but this also adds to the fog of a convoluted inquiry as Allison Brennan provides a tense twisting thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Monday, December 20, 2010
The Devotion of Suspect X-Keigo Higashino; translated by Alexander O. Smith
The Devotion of Suspect X
Keigo Higashino; translated by Alexander O. Smith
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312375065
In Tokyo, mathematics teacher Ishigami worships recently divorced beauty Yasuko Hanaoka. He decides to do something for his perfect fantasy and for himself by changing his perceived triangle (with his idol and her ex as the other cortexes) into a straight line by eliminating one of the angles. Thus, lonely Ishigami strangles to death Yasuko’s abusive former husband Togashi who threatened his paragon using their daughter Misato as an extortion pawn. No one will mess with his beloved and live.
Police detective Kusanagi leads the homicide investigation. Yasuko finds herself mentally confused by the deranged mathematician’s perfect logic to keep her safe from the arrest for the murder of her ex. Meanwhile Kusanagi literally plays chess with the mathematician’s schoolmate physicist Yukawa and figuratively with Ishigami, who he suspects may be the killer. However, Yasuko repairs the triangle by adding the third angle wealthy Kudo; which leads to Ishigami to become obsessed with eliminating one third again.
Once the reader adapts to the Japanese names, this deep dark thriller grips the audience as the logic of adulatory worship is used to justify murder. This grim tale is character driven by caring people including the deranged lonely mathematician. The Devotion of Suspect X is a fabulous psychological thriller as everyone plays the game of relationships, but no matter what one does to simplify the equations of life ultimately everyone shares in common being checkmated.
Harriet Klausner
Keigo Higashino; translated by Alexander O. Smith
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312375065
In Tokyo, mathematics teacher Ishigami worships recently divorced beauty Yasuko Hanaoka. He decides to do something for his perfect fantasy and for himself by changing his perceived triangle (with his idol and her ex as the other cortexes) into a straight line by eliminating one of the angles. Thus, lonely Ishigami strangles to death Yasuko’s abusive former husband Togashi who threatened his paragon using their daughter Misato as an extortion pawn. No one will mess with his beloved and live.
Police detective Kusanagi leads the homicide investigation. Yasuko finds herself mentally confused by the deranged mathematician’s perfect logic to keep her safe from the arrest for the murder of her ex. Meanwhile Kusanagi literally plays chess with the mathematician’s schoolmate physicist Yukawa and figuratively with Ishigami, who he suspects may be the killer. However, Yasuko repairs the triangle by adding the third angle wealthy Kudo; which leads to Ishigami to become obsessed with eliminating one third again.
Once the reader adapts to the Japanese names, this deep dark thriller grips the audience as the logic of adulatory worship is used to justify murder. This grim tale is character driven by caring people including the deranged lonely mathematician. The Devotion of Suspect X is a fabulous psychological thriller as everyone plays the game of relationships, but no matter what one does to simplify the equations of life ultimately everyone shares in common being checkmated.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, December 19, 2010
A Special Relationship-Douglas Kennedy
A Special Relationship
Douglas Kennedy
Atria, Jan 4 2011, $16.00
ISBN: 9781439199138
American journalist Sally Goodchild and British reporter Tony Hobbs meet on a Red Cross helicopter flying over the flooded Juba River Valley in Somalia. They are immediately attracted to one another. When they escape a harrowing near death incident, their desire for each others grows; she especially believes he saved her life. The two reporters begin a tryst while continuing their coverage.
When Sally becomes pregnant, the duet agrees to move to London to raise their offspring together. Her pregnancy contains health problems and not long afterward Sally loses her job. Sally struggles emotionally too, but Tony is not there for her. After their son Jack is born, Sally suffers from a severe case of postpartum depression that leads to her placement in a psychiatric ward. Finally released from the hospital, Sally learns of Tony’s duplicity as he concealed key elements of his life from the mother of his son. With no place else to turn as a stranger in a strange land the alienated American seeks relief in the alien British courts.
Told from Sally’s perspective, A Special relationship is a special contemporary drama as two individuals used to working the foreign beat try to adapt to family-hood in Hobbs’ home front as Douglas Kennedy captures the major differences between British and American societies. Insight into the British law enhances an engaging character driven medical-legal thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Douglas Kennedy
Atria, Jan 4 2011, $16.00
ISBN: 9781439199138
American journalist Sally Goodchild and British reporter Tony Hobbs meet on a Red Cross helicopter flying over the flooded Juba River Valley in Somalia. They are immediately attracted to one another. When they escape a harrowing near death incident, their desire for each others grows; she especially believes he saved her life. The two reporters begin a tryst while continuing their coverage.
When Sally becomes pregnant, the duet agrees to move to London to raise their offspring together. Her pregnancy contains health problems and not long afterward Sally loses her job. Sally struggles emotionally too, but Tony is not there for her. After their son Jack is born, Sally suffers from a severe case of postpartum depression that leads to her placement in a psychiatric ward. Finally released from the hospital, Sally learns of Tony’s duplicity as he concealed key elements of his life from the mother of his son. With no place else to turn as a stranger in a strange land the alienated American seeks relief in the alien British courts.
Told from Sally’s perspective, A Special relationship is a special contemporary drama as two individuals used to working the foreign beat try to adapt to family-hood in Hobbs’ home front as Douglas Kennedy captures the major differences between British and American societies. Insight into the British law enhances an engaging character driven medical-legal thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Brooklyn Story-Suzann Corso
Brooklyn Story
Suzann Corso
Gallery (Pocket), Dec 28 2010, $23.99
ISBN: 9781439190227
In the summer of 1978, fifteen year old Samantha Bonti of Bensonhurst dreams of becoming a writer living on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Being half-Jewish and with no father in the household since her Italian dad abandoned her and her mom, Sam is treated as a pariah by the Italian Catholic neighbors. Her Jewish mother Joan is filled with rage at humanity including her daughter and alcohol fuels her bitterness; while Grandma Ruth is her cheerleader encouraging Sam to go for it. Sam’s BFF is fellow outcast Janice Caputo who loathes her heritage that she sees as stifling crap in which males thrive to be the next great gangster.
Sam’s world spins out of control when she meets half-Sicilian, half-Dutch Tony Kroon, a mobster in training. She falls in love with him as she believes he understands her dual heritage. However, Tony warns her to never question his work. Her mom normally ignores her but tells her to dump him as he is no good; Grandma Ruth tells her bubelah to drop him before she loses her dream and becomes her mother’s clone.
This is an entertaining character study of a teen seeking to belong while also dreaming of escaping to that other island across the water. Sam makes the tale work as readers will dream a little dream with her (paraphrasing Mama Cass) while also wondering whether she will cross the East River to truly go after her desires or remain in Brooklyn with Tony who climbs the ladder of his chosen vocation.
Harriet Klausner
Suzann Corso
Gallery (Pocket), Dec 28 2010, $23.99
ISBN: 9781439190227
In the summer of 1978, fifteen year old Samantha Bonti of Bensonhurst dreams of becoming a writer living on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Being half-Jewish and with no father in the household since her Italian dad abandoned her and her mom, Sam is treated as a pariah by the Italian Catholic neighbors. Her Jewish mother Joan is filled with rage at humanity including her daughter and alcohol fuels her bitterness; while Grandma Ruth is her cheerleader encouraging Sam to go for it. Sam’s BFF is fellow outcast Janice Caputo who loathes her heritage that she sees as stifling crap in which males thrive to be the next great gangster.
Sam’s world spins out of control when she meets half-Sicilian, half-Dutch Tony Kroon, a mobster in training. She falls in love with him as she believes he understands her dual heritage. However, Tony warns her to never question his work. Her mom normally ignores her but tells her to dump him as he is no good; Grandma Ruth tells her bubelah to drop him before she loses her dream and becomes her mother’s clone.
This is an entertaining character study of a teen seeking to belong while also dreaming of escaping to that other island across the water. Sam makes the tale work as readers will dream a little dream with her (paraphrasing Mama Cass) while also wondering whether she will cross the East River to truly go after her desires or remain in Brooklyn with Tony who climbs the ladder of his chosen vocation.
Harriet Klausner
Mortar and Murder -Jennie Bentley
Mortar and Murder
Jennie Bentley
Berkley, Jan 4 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425239261
From Waterfield, Maine, Avery Baker and her significant other Derek Ellis sail to the remote Rowanberry Island to renovate their latest fixer-upper, a late eighteenth century Colonial owned by the latter. However, besides being unwelcome on the other side of the barrier island by the “KGB” like caretaker for the away in Florida thriller writer Gert Heyerdahl, they find the corpse of a woman in the water. They call the local police who quickly determine a homicide occurred.
After warning Avery to stay out of harm’s way (see Plaster and Poison), Waterfield Police Chief Wayne learns a paper the dead Jane Doe carried contained in Russian. The address of the Realty firm is owned by Avery and Derek. He wants to interview the previous owner Irina Rozhdestvensky and asks Avery to join him when he does though he cautions her not to investigate. Avery, having worked on mysteries before, agrees. Soon a second body is pulled from the water.
Mortar and Murder is an engaging amateur sleuth whodunit as the former Manhattan designer “competes” with the police. The story line is lighthearted fun though readers will wonder why Avery felt an urge to investigate. Still readers cannot help but like her and Derek who make for a fun coastal Maine whodunit.
Harriet Klausner
Jennie Bentley
Berkley, Jan 4 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425239261
From Waterfield, Maine, Avery Baker and her significant other Derek Ellis sail to the remote Rowanberry Island to renovate their latest fixer-upper, a late eighteenth century Colonial owned by the latter. However, besides being unwelcome on the other side of the barrier island by the “KGB” like caretaker for the away in Florida thriller writer Gert Heyerdahl, they find the corpse of a woman in the water. They call the local police who quickly determine a homicide occurred.
After warning Avery to stay out of harm’s way (see Plaster and Poison), Waterfield Police Chief Wayne learns a paper the dead Jane Doe carried contained in Russian. The address of the Realty firm is owned by Avery and Derek. He wants to interview the previous owner Irina Rozhdestvensky and asks Avery to join him when he does though he cautions her not to investigate. Avery, having worked on mysteries before, agrees. Soon a second body is pulled from the water.
Mortar and Murder is an engaging amateur sleuth whodunit as the former Manhattan designer “competes” with the police. The story line is lighthearted fun though readers will wonder why Avery felt an urge to investigate. Still readers cannot help but like her and Derek who make for a fun coastal Maine whodunit.
Harriet Klausner
The Collaborator-Gerald Seymour
The Collaborator
Gerald Seymour
Overlook, Feb 3 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781590204467
In London, Italian Immacolata Borelli attends school for a degree in accounting. When she learns of the death of her best friend Marianna Rossetti from leukemia, Immacolata flies to Naples to attend the funeral. However, Marianna’s grieving raging parents treat her with scorn even spitting on her. They blame their daughter’s death on the Borelli crime family that belongs to the vicious Camorra network of families; her kin controls Naples whose trucks dumped toxic material in the fields and waters.
Immacolata is traumatized by the experience and believes redemption is in order for her implicit failure to acknowledge the harm her family causes. She returns to London where she calls the Palace of Justice in Naples offering her services as an informant turning in her family. Speciale Investigator Mario Castrolami works the Camorra case; he understands the danger Immacolata will face as the mob will kill anyone who betrays them; collateral damage being acceptable. On the other hand Immacolata failed to consider her English boyfriend Eddie Deacon a teacher; as ruthless "Il Pistole" enforces the mob rules, which means killing any informer even the daughter of a cherished leader.
This is a great suspense thriller as the reader anticipates with each spin an OK Corral confrontation on the streets of Naples and perhaps London. Fast-paced with a strong cast on all sides of the law, Immacolata makes the tale as the title character who expects to die but believes she is finally doing the morally correct thing.
Harriet Klausner
Gerald Seymour
Overlook, Feb 3 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781590204467
In London, Italian Immacolata Borelli attends school for a degree in accounting. When she learns of the death of her best friend Marianna Rossetti from leukemia, Immacolata flies to Naples to attend the funeral. However, Marianna’s grieving raging parents treat her with scorn even spitting on her. They blame their daughter’s death on the Borelli crime family that belongs to the vicious Camorra network of families; her kin controls Naples whose trucks dumped toxic material in the fields and waters.
Immacolata is traumatized by the experience and believes redemption is in order for her implicit failure to acknowledge the harm her family causes. She returns to London where she calls the Palace of Justice in Naples offering her services as an informant turning in her family. Speciale Investigator Mario Castrolami works the Camorra case; he understands the danger Immacolata will face as the mob will kill anyone who betrays them; collateral damage being acceptable. On the other hand Immacolata failed to consider her English boyfriend Eddie Deacon a teacher; as ruthless "Il Pistole" enforces the mob rules, which means killing any informer even the daughter of a cherished leader.
This is a great suspense thriller as the reader anticipates with each spin an OK Corral confrontation on the streets of Naples and perhaps London. Fast-paced with a strong cast on all sides of the law, Immacolata makes the tale as the title character who expects to die but believes she is finally doing the morally correct thing.
Harriet Klausner
Friday, December 17, 2010
Lucky Stiff-Debbie Coonts
Lucky Stiff
Debbie Coonts
Forge, Feb 15 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765325440
On the Vegas Strip, the Babylon Resort and Casino is perhaps the glitziest of the glitzy. Customer Relations chief Lucky O’Toole understands where she works attracts people who “Wanna Get Lucky?” However, even Lucky is unprepared for the honeybee horde just in front of the hotel caused by a truck tipping over as a fight weekend begins. O’Toole cannot remember the last time the Strip shut.
The next morning O’Toole learns the county District Attorney hides in a closet after becoming the third wheel in a tryst. That same morning, private investigator Jeremy Whitlock argues in public with ruthless bookie Evelyn Wabash "Numbers" Neidermeyer. Later that day, Numbers' number is up in Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s shark tank; cops suspect Jeremy as the murderer. On a more normal note, Lucky’s mom the Madame plans a "virginity auction" and Lucky’s songwriting lover Teddie Kowalski is in Los Angeles on a recording deal. Musing O’Toole knows life in Vegas is never dull.
This is an amusing Vegas thriller in which the heroine feels she crapped out as one hell of a night has become one hell of a day. The jocular story line is character driven with Lucky the hub of the zaniness and the support cast like her mom, her lover, her P.I. hunk and the unlucky stiff the speaks to. Although there is a similarity in the glitzy lampoon tone and its Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes Bad Luck lyrics to the first tale and over the top of the tower of the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower; fans will enjoy this casino caper.
Harriet Klausner
Debbie Coonts
Forge, Feb 15 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765325440
On the Vegas Strip, the Babylon Resort and Casino is perhaps the glitziest of the glitzy. Customer Relations chief Lucky O’Toole understands where she works attracts people who “Wanna Get Lucky?” However, even Lucky is unprepared for the honeybee horde just in front of the hotel caused by a truck tipping over as a fight weekend begins. O’Toole cannot remember the last time the Strip shut.
The next morning O’Toole learns the county District Attorney hides in a closet after becoming the third wheel in a tryst. That same morning, private investigator Jeremy Whitlock argues in public with ruthless bookie Evelyn Wabash "Numbers" Neidermeyer. Later that day, Numbers' number is up in Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s shark tank; cops suspect Jeremy as the murderer. On a more normal note, Lucky’s mom the Madame plans a "virginity auction" and Lucky’s songwriting lover Teddie Kowalski is in Los Angeles on a recording deal. Musing O’Toole knows life in Vegas is never dull.
This is an amusing Vegas thriller in which the heroine feels she crapped out as one hell of a night has become one hell of a day. The jocular story line is character driven with Lucky the hub of the zaniness and the support cast like her mom, her lover, her P.I. hunk and the unlucky stiff the speaks to. Although there is a similarity in the glitzy lampoon tone and its Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes Bad Luck lyrics to the first tale and over the top of the tower of the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower; fans will enjoy this casino caper.
Harriet Klausner
Heaven is High-Kate Wilhelm
Heaven is High
Kate Wilhelm
St. Martin’s, Feb 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312658601
After leaving her father’s high pressured legal firm, Barbara Holloway works out of her home in Eugene, Oregon handling minor legal problems for her neighbors. Former pro football player Martin Owens and his wife Binnie come to her for help. He insists Binnie who is mute was with her mother at sea when pirates kidnapped her mom and forced her into prostitution in Haiti.
When Binnie sees Martin, she swims to his boat and he hides her. The Coast Guard was looking for her because the man who pimped for her mother is saying he is her father and wants her back. Barbara finds a paper in an item that links Binnie to her mother and in it Binnie’s background is explained. The INS wants proof that Binnie is not a Haitian citizen and the man looking for her is not her father. They consider deporting her back to Haiti. Needing documents to prove she is a citizen of Belize, Barbara goes to Haiti and eludes a kidnapper who does not want her to go on to Belize. DEA and drug cartel agents go after her too. Barbara realizes even if she obtains proof, which looks nearly impossible, she still has to come home with her evidence while adversaries, including some busted out of jail, want her stopped at any cost.
Heaven is High reads more like a thriller than a whodunit as reader will have trouble trying to figure out the good guys from the bad guys. The protagonist is similar to Joan Wilder in the movie Romancing the Stone as she goes from one peril to another with no respite in between her harrowing escapades; Barbara never expected an attorney’s quest in the Caribbean would be such a frightening and dangerous time like the one she has had.
Harriet Klausner
Kate Wilhelm
St. Martin’s, Feb 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312658601
After leaving her father’s high pressured legal firm, Barbara Holloway works out of her home in Eugene, Oregon handling minor legal problems for her neighbors. Former pro football player Martin Owens and his wife Binnie come to her for help. He insists Binnie who is mute was with her mother at sea when pirates kidnapped her mom and forced her into prostitution in Haiti.
When Binnie sees Martin, she swims to his boat and he hides her. The Coast Guard was looking for her because the man who pimped for her mother is saying he is her father and wants her back. Barbara finds a paper in an item that links Binnie to her mother and in it Binnie’s background is explained. The INS wants proof that Binnie is not a Haitian citizen and the man looking for her is not her father. They consider deporting her back to Haiti. Needing documents to prove she is a citizen of Belize, Barbara goes to Haiti and eludes a kidnapper who does not want her to go on to Belize. DEA and drug cartel agents go after her too. Barbara realizes even if she obtains proof, which looks nearly impossible, she still has to come home with her evidence while adversaries, including some busted out of jail, want her stopped at any cost.
Heaven is High reads more like a thriller than a whodunit as reader will have trouble trying to figure out the good guys from the bad guys. The protagonist is similar to Joan Wilder in the movie Romancing the Stone as she goes from one peril to another with no respite in between her harrowing escapades; Barbara never expected an attorney’s quest in the Caribbean would be such a frightening and dangerous time like the one she has had.
Harriet Klausner
The Attenbury Emeralds-Jill Paton Walsh
The Attenbury Emeralds
Jill Paton Walsh
Minotaur, Jan 4 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312674540
In 1951, Harriet Vane and her husband Lord Peter Wimsey leisurely eat breakfast while reading the newspaper. Harriet peruses Lord Attenbury Arthur Abcock’s obituary, which mentions the Attenbury emeralds.
Peter knows first-hand about the infamous emeralds that was the motive of his first detective investigation. He and his manservant Mervyn Bunter tell Harriet what happened in 1921 when the Attenbury emeralds vanished and Lord Peter solving the case. As they complete their tale of exotic thievery, Lord Attenbury's grandson Edward arrives. He asks Lord Peter to help solve a new problem involving the family emeralds. Peter accompanied by Harriet and of course Bunter, investigates as thefts and murder abound.
Jill Paton Walsh’s latest Wimsey-Vane (see A Presumption of Death) captures the essences of Dorothy L. Sayer’s great detective while bringing her own spin to the story line; in other words this is not Sayer’s light, but instead a homage to the great writer in Ms. Walsh’s style. The story line captures two historical post world war eras in Great Britain that enables the audience to compare how society adjusted to peace in their times. Fast-paced, readers will enjoy the doting father of teens on an investigation accompanied by his wife and his manservant.
Harriet Klausner
Jill Paton Walsh
Minotaur, Jan 4 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312674540
In 1951, Harriet Vane and her husband Lord Peter Wimsey leisurely eat breakfast while reading the newspaper. Harriet peruses Lord Attenbury Arthur Abcock’s obituary, which mentions the Attenbury emeralds.
Peter knows first-hand about the infamous emeralds that was the motive of his first detective investigation. He and his manservant Mervyn Bunter tell Harriet what happened in 1921 when the Attenbury emeralds vanished and Lord Peter solving the case. As they complete their tale of exotic thievery, Lord Attenbury's grandson Edward arrives. He asks Lord Peter to help solve a new problem involving the family emeralds. Peter accompanied by Harriet and of course Bunter, investigates as thefts and murder abound.
Jill Paton Walsh’s latest Wimsey-Vane (see A Presumption of Death) captures the essences of Dorothy L. Sayer’s great detective while bringing her own spin to the story line; in other words this is not Sayer’s light, but instead a homage to the great writer in Ms. Walsh’s style. The story line captures two historical post world war eras in Great Britain that enables the audience to compare how society adjusted to peace in their times. Fast-paced, readers will enjoy the doting father of teens on an investigation accompanied by his wife and his manservant.
Harriet Klausner
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Angel’s Verdict-Mary Stanton
Angel’s Verdict
Mary Stanton
Berkley, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425239872
Brianna “Bree” Winston-Beaufort is a lawyer with two practices; one pays the bills enabling her to conduct her other unlisted work at 666 Angelic St; as the celestial advocate pleading for the souls of her clients otherwise condemned to Hell. She seeks evidence in the celestial records to mitigate or acquit the sentence on appeal.
In Savannah a film based on the life and murder of Haydee Quinn, a stripper who caught a rich man, but his mother disinherited him. Actress Justine Coville hires Bree to get the Bulloch sisters to grant permission her to wear their mother’s brooch during the filming; one of the siblings agrees. Mr. Dent is working the client side of the film and he knows the writers believe the movie about the life and murder of Haydee will be a hit. Dent believes that too as he was there all those decades ago he was the detective on the case, but he a drunk too who ran a poor investigation. To make it back home, he had to do the 12 step program and find the real killer not the one who died in the electric chair. When Bree looks at the brooch, she sees the spirit of Consuela Bulloch who begs her to be her advocate at the Celestial Court hearing because she wants to get out of where she is.
The fourth Beaufort and Company legal thriller (see Angel’s Advocate and Defending Angels) is an exciting supernatural mystery. The woo-woo elements are a Mary Stanton trademark that adds mysticism to the mix and enable readers to believe that Bree defends condemned spirits in the highest court. Brave Bree tries to do what she believes is the right thing regardless of which court she defends her mortal and otherworldly clients in. The support cast (still breathing, angelic or otherwise) enhances an entertaining mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Mary Stanton
Berkley, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425239872
Brianna “Bree” Winston-Beaufort is a lawyer with two practices; one pays the bills enabling her to conduct her other unlisted work at 666 Angelic St; as the celestial advocate pleading for the souls of her clients otherwise condemned to Hell. She seeks evidence in the celestial records to mitigate or acquit the sentence on appeal.
In Savannah a film based on the life and murder of Haydee Quinn, a stripper who caught a rich man, but his mother disinherited him. Actress Justine Coville hires Bree to get the Bulloch sisters to grant permission her to wear their mother’s brooch during the filming; one of the siblings agrees. Mr. Dent is working the client side of the film and he knows the writers believe the movie about the life and murder of Haydee will be a hit. Dent believes that too as he was there all those decades ago he was the detective on the case, but he a drunk too who ran a poor investigation. To make it back home, he had to do the 12 step program and find the real killer not the one who died in the electric chair. When Bree looks at the brooch, she sees the spirit of Consuela Bulloch who begs her to be her advocate at the Celestial Court hearing because she wants to get out of where she is.
The fourth Beaufort and Company legal thriller (see Angel’s Advocate and Defending Angels) is an exciting supernatural mystery. The woo-woo elements are a Mary Stanton trademark that adds mysticism to the mix and enable readers to believe that Bree defends condemned spirits in the highest court. Brave Bree tries to do what she believes is the right thing regardless of which court she defends her mortal and otherworldly clients in. The support cast (still breathing, angelic or otherwise) enhances an entertaining mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Midnight Caller-Leslie Tentler
Midnight Caller
Leslie Tentler
Mira, Feb 1 2011, $7.99
ISBN 9780778329343
In 1981 British guitarist Gavin Firth murders Goth singer Desiree Sommers, the mother of his two years old child Rain. Gavin then kills himself in a shocking murder-suicide. Decades later in New Orleans, their daughter Dr. Rain Sommers hosts the late night talk radio show Midnight Confessions.
FBI Violent Crimes Unit Special Agent Trevor Rivette hunts Dante the Vampire serial killer. The psychopath slashes the throat of his victim before leaving behind a rosary just like that worn by Desiree. This beast has murdered five women across the country. After stops in DC, Atlanta, Memphis and Raleigh, he has arrived in New Orleans where he kills three teenage Goths. His next chosen one is Rain, but not if Trevor has any say.
Although the theme of a “vampiric” serial killer has been used before and not just in urban fantasy (see Violets Are Blue by James Patterson), readers will relish this well written tense thriller. The key trio seems genuine as Rivette knows the stakes are personal when he falls in love with Dante’s next intended victim. Romantic suspense fans will enjoy Midnight Caller as the taut tale means leaving the lights on after midnight.
Harriet Klausner
Leslie Tentler
Mira, Feb 1 2011, $7.99
ISBN 9780778329343
In 1981 British guitarist Gavin Firth murders Goth singer Desiree Sommers, the mother of his two years old child Rain. Gavin then kills himself in a shocking murder-suicide. Decades later in New Orleans, their daughter Dr. Rain Sommers hosts the late night talk radio show Midnight Confessions.
FBI Violent Crimes Unit Special Agent Trevor Rivette hunts Dante the Vampire serial killer. The psychopath slashes the throat of his victim before leaving behind a rosary just like that worn by Desiree. This beast has murdered five women across the country. After stops in DC, Atlanta, Memphis and Raleigh, he has arrived in New Orleans where he kills three teenage Goths. His next chosen one is Rain, but not if Trevor has any say.
Although the theme of a “vampiric” serial killer has been used before and not just in urban fantasy (see Violets Are Blue by James Patterson), readers will relish this well written tense thriller. The key trio seems genuine as Rivette knows the stakes are personal when he falls in love with Dante’s next intended victim. Romantic suspense fans will enjoy Midnight Caller as the taut tale means leaving the lights on after midnight.
Harriet Klausner
Dead Zero-Stephen Hunter
Dead Zero
Stephen Hunter
Simon and Schuster, Dec 28 2010, $26.00
ISBN: 9781439138656
In Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, U.S. marine sniper team Whiskey 2-2 is deployed on a covert operation to kill Taliban commander Ibrahim "the Beheader” Zarzi. However, someone betrayed the unit leaving them massacred by professionals in the tribal area.
Several months later, Zarzi quits the Taliban. He travels to America where he meets the president and congressional leaders. The State Department believes he is the best choice to bring a corrupt free stable government to the war torn nation. At the same time, apparently Marine Gunnery Sergeant Ray "the Cruise Missile" Cruz, thought dead in the Zarzi massacre especially with the crater remains of the unit as proof, has reported by radio using last years codes. He resolutely will complete his final mission. The FBI deploys retired Marine sniper Bob “the Nailer” Lee Swagger to prevent Cruz from beheading the Beheader while someone in the shadows tracks Bob in order to kill Cruz before he can be debriefed.
The latest Swagger thriller (see I, Sniper and Night Thunder) is a fabulous entry with a strong cast especially the lead male trio. Besides non-stop action, the story line contains an insightful look at political strange bedfellows in which yesterday’s most wanted for assassination becomes today’s most wanted ally or visa versa; think of Reagan-Bush 41 befriend Hussein in the 1980s becoming public enemy number one for Bush 41 and Bush 43. Swagger understands this as his mission is to do whatever including kill a fellow marine to protect an Afghan who probably led the slaughter of Whiskey 2-2. Fast-paced, fans anticipate the collision as The Cruise Missile targets the Beheader with The Nailer targeting the Cruise Missile while someone waits in the shadows to clean up the mess.
Harriet Klausner
Stephen Hunter
Simon and Schuster, Dec 28 2010, $26.00
ISBN: 9781439138656
In Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, U.S. marine sniper team Whiskey 2-2 is deployed on a covert operation to kill Taliban commander Ibrahim "the Beheader” Zarzi. However, someone betrayed the unit leaving them massacred by professionals in the tribal area.
Several months later, Zarzi quits the Taliban. He travels to America where he meets the president and congressional leaders. The State Department believes he is the best choice to bring a corrupt free stable government to the war torn nation. At the same time, apparently Marine Gunnery Sergeant Ray "the Cruise Missile" Cruz, thought dead in the Zarzi massacre especially with the crater remains of the unit as proof, has reported by radio using last years codes. He resolutely will complete his final mission. The FBI deploys retired Marine sniper Bob “the Nailer” Lee Swagger to prevent Cruz from beheading the Beheader while someone in the shadows tracks Bob in order to kill Cruz before he can be debriefed.
The latest Swagger thriller (see I, Sniper and Night Thunder) is a fabulous entry with a strong cast especially the lead male trio. Besides non-stop action, the story line contains an insightful look at political strange bedfellows in which yesterday’s most wanted for assassination becomes today’s most wanted ally or visa versa; think of Reagan-Bush 41 befriend Hussein in the 1980s becoming public enemy number one for Bush 41 and Bush 43. Swagger understands this as his mission is to do whatever including kill a fellow marine to protect an Afghan who probably led the slaughter of Whiskey 2-2. Fast-paced, fans anticipate the collision as The Cruise Missile targets the Beheader with The Nailer targeting the Cruise Missile while someone waits in the shadows to clean up the mess.
Harriet Klausner
The Dangerous Edge of Things-Tina Whittle
The Dangerous Edge of Things
Tina Whittle
Poisoned Pen, Feb 1 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590588178
Tai Randolph recently moved from Savannah to the Atlanta area as she her brother Eric inherited a gun store in the northern suburb of Kennesaw. Her sibling the psychologist goes on a cruise so she house sits his home. However, she notices a woman in a parked car across the street from the house. Tai goes to see if the woman is okay only to find her dead as someone shot the victim who also has Eric’s business card.
She calls the police who place the siblings on the top of their list of suspects due to the gun store and Eric’s departure. Not one to sit idly by, Tai investigates at the same time experienced rivals from APD and private security detective Trey Seaver, hired by Eric to protect his sister, make inquiries. Trey has no long term memory since he had an on the job as a cop injury. Meanwhile Tai concludes she and her brother, when he comes home, are in trouble from an unknown adversary who may be willing to kill the siblings and she figures the cops and the private sleuth could not care whether she and Eric live except if it muddles their respective “lucid” case.
The first Tai Randolph amateur sleuth is a terrific suspense thriller due to the cast especially the two terrific T, Tai and Trey. Each has personal issues that enhance a strong whodunit. Eric’s exit adds to the fine Atlanta tale as his sister and his hired gun want to know why he suddenly left town; while the cops believe they know why he fled to the Caribbean. This is a winning murder mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Tina Whittle
Poisoned Pen, Feb 1 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590588178
Tai Randolph recently moved from Savannah to the Atlanta area as she her brother Eric inherited a gun store in the northern suburb of Kennesaw. Her sibling the psychologist goes on a cruise so she house sits his home. However, she notices a woman in a parked car across the street from the house. Tai goes to see if the woman is okay only to find her dead as someone shot the victim who also has Eric’s business card.
She calls the police who place the siblings on the top of their list of suspects due to the gun store and Eric’s departure. Not one to sit idly by, Tai investigates at the same time experienced rivals from APD and private security detective Trey Seaver, hired by Eric to protect his sister, make inquiries. Trey has no long term memory since he had an on the job as a cop injury. Meanwhile Tai concludes she and her brother, when he comes home, are in trouble from an unknown adversary who may be willing to kill the siblings and she figures the cops and the private sleuth could not care whether she and Eric live except if it muddles their respective “lucid” case.
The first Tai Randolph amateur sleuth is a terrific suspense thriller due to the cast especially the two terrific T, Tai and Trey. Each has personal issues that enhance a strong whodunit. Eric’s exit adds to the fine Atlanta tale as his sister and his hired gun want to know why he suddenly left town; while the cops believe they know why he fled to the Caribbean. This is a winning murder mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat-Sofia Kelly
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
Sofia Kelly
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451232496
Her boyfriend leaves Boston for two weeks without her only to return married. He informs her she is not spontaneous enough for him. Angry and hurt, Kathleen Paulson leaves her home and job to move to Mayville Heights, Minnesota where she is hired to oversee the renovation of the library. The townsfolk welcome her and Kathleen makes plenty of new friends; especially two stray cats, catnip addict Owen and Barry Manilow fan Hercules. Her only problem is that contractor Will Redfern has the knack of vanishing when needed.
Kathleen goes to the Stratton Theatre where she finds the body of guest conductor Gregor Easton on the piano seat. He died from a blow to the head. The lead detective makes Kathleen feel she is a suspect in the homicide case. So she decides not to wait for this idiot to continue to target her; she investigates the murder. She has unusual helpers including her new feline friends who appear and disappear as if they walk through walls and any solid surface. Her allies give her clues, but they remain enigmatic as she struggles to figure out who killed Easton before the cop busts her.
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat is a whimsical charming cat caper starring a determined intrepid amateur sleuth and two magical cats who affirm WC Fields’ comment on never performing with animals as they steal the show; except in this case Kathleen needs their help. Readers will appreciate this fun murder mystery as the librarian and her magical meows seek who killed the quiet artist before that insistent cop arrests Kathleen.
Harriet Klausner
Sofia Kelly
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451232496
Her boyfriend leaves Boston for two weeks without her only to return married. He informs her she is not spontaneous enough for him. Angry and hurt, Kathleen Paulson leaves her home and job to move to Mayville Heights, Minnesota where she is hired to oversee the renovation of the library. The townsfolk welcome her and Kathleen makes plenty of new friends; especially two stray cats, catnip addict Owen and Barry Manilow fan Hercules. Her only problem is that contractor Will Redfern has the knack of vanishing when needed.
Kathleen goes to the Stratton Theatre where she finds the body of guest conductor Gregor Easton on the piano seat. He died from a blow to the head. The lead detective makes Kathleen feel she is a suspect in the homicide case. So she decides not to wait for this idiot to continue to target her; she investigates the murder. She has unusual helpers including her new feline friends who appear and disappear as if they walk through walls and any solid surface. Her allies give her clues, but they remain enigmatic as she struggles to figure out who killed Easton before the cop busts her.
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat is a whimsical charming cat caper starring a determined intrepid amateur sleuth and two magical cats who affirm WC Fields’ comment on never performing with animals as they steal the show; except in this case Kathleen needs their help. Readers will appreciate this fun murder mystery as the librarian and her magical meows seek who killed the quiet artist before that insistent cop arrests Kathleen.
Harriet Klausner
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Curse-Maker -Kelli Stanley
The Curse-Maker
Kelli Stanley
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312654191
In the latter half of the first century, the Roman Governor of Britannia Agricola's physician Arcturus goes on a needed vacation. However, the thirtyish Arcturus is called back to work rather quickly when a homicide occurs; as his other job is investigating crimes that might impact his employer.
Someone strangled scribe Rufus Bibax, who mostly wrote down curses. His corpse was found floating in in a reservoir in Aquae Suli. Inside the victim’s mouth is a piece of lead etched with the inscription Ultor (the Avenger). Arcturus quickly learns of other unsolved recent murders and soon more people die by what the physician begins to believe is a second killer. The cases seem to focus on a nearby mine, but who the Avenger or Avengers are remain unsolved.
The second Ancient Britannia mystery (see Nox Dormeinda) is a superb whodunit that provides readers with insight into the use of curses, apparently a thriving business of the times. The engaging investigation is fast-paced once Arcturus is on the case or as he fears and curses cases; he understands two killers is not twice the fun. Armchair travelers will enjoy feeling a sense of being in first century Roman Britain with Arcturus as the tour guide.
Harriet Klausner
Kelli Stanley
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312654191
In the latter half of the first century, the Roman Governor of Britannia Agricola's physician Arcturus goes on a needed vacation. However, the thirtyish Arcturus is called back to work rather quickly when a homicide occurs; as his other job is investigating crimes that might impact his employer.
Someone strangled scribe Rufus Bibax, who mostly wrote down curses. His corpse was found floating in in a reservoir in Aquae Suli. Inside the victim’s mouth is a piece of lead etched with the inscription Ultor (the Avenger). Arcturus quickly learns of other unsolved recent murders and soon more people die by what the physician begins to believe is a second killer. The cases seem to focus on a nearby mine, but who the Avenger or Avengers are remain unsolved.
The second Ancient Britannia mystery (see Nox Dormeinda) is a superb whodunit that provides readers with insight into the use of curses, apparently a thriving business of the times. The engaging investigation is fast-paced once Arcturus is on the case or as he fears and curses cases; he understands two killers is not twice the fun. Armchair travelers will enjoy feeling a sense of being in first century Roman Britain with Arcturus as the tour guide.
Harriet Klausner
The Curse-Maker -Kelli Stanley
The Curse-Maker
Kelli Stanley
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312654191
In the latter half of the first century, the Roman Governor of Britannia Agricola's physician Arcturus goes on a needed vacation. However, the thirtyish Arcturus is called back to work rather quickly when a homicide occurs; as his other job is investigating crimes that might impact his employer.
Someone strangled scribe Rufus Bibax, who mostly wrote down curses. His corpse was found floating in in a reservoir in Aquae Suli. Inside the victim’s mouth is a piece of lead etched with the inscription Ultor (the Avenger). Arcturus quickly learns of other unsolved recent murders and soon more people die by what the physician begins to believe is a second killer. The cases seem to focus on a nearby mine, but who the Avenger or Avengers are remain unsolved.
The second Ancient Britannia mystery (see Nox Dormeinda) is a superb whodunit that provides readers with insight into the use of curses, apparently a thriving business of the times. The engaging investigation is fast-paced once Arcturus is on the case or as he fears and curses cases; he understands two killers is not twice the fun. Armchair travelers will enjoy feeling a sense of being in first century Roman Britain with Arcturus as the tour guide.
Harriet Klausner
Kelli Stanley
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $24.99
ISBN 9780312654191
In the latter half of the first century, the Roman Governor of Britannia Agricola's physician Arcturus goes on a needed vacation. However, the thirtyish Arcturus is called back to work rather quickly when a homicide occurs; as his other job is investigating crimes that might impact his employer.
Someone strangled scribe Rufus Bibax, who mostly wrote down curses. His corpse was found floating in in a reservoir in Aquae Suli. Inside the victim’s mouth is a piece of lead etched with the inscription Ultor (the Avenger). Arcturus quickly learns of other unsolved recent murders and soon more people die by what the physician begins to believe is a second killer. The cases seem to focus on a nearby mine, but who the Avenger or Avengers are remain unsolved.
The second Ancient Britannia mystery (see Nox Dormeinda) is a superb whodunit that provides readers with insight into the use of curses, apparently a thriving business of the times. The engaging investigation is fast-paced once Arcturus is on the case or as he fears and curses cases; he understands two killers is not twice the fun. Armchair travelers will enjoy feeling a sense of being in first century Roman Britain with Arcturus as the tour guide.
Harriet Klausner
Mr. Monk on the Road-Lee Goldberg
Mr. Monk on the Road
Lee Goldberg
Obsidian, Jan 4 2011, $24.95
ISBN: 9780451232113
Adrian Monk suffers a severe case of obsessive compulsive disorder so intense that he is a walking encyclopedia of phobias that makes it impossible for him to operate in the outside world without assistance. With Natalie’s help, Monk, a former cop, earns a living as a consultant to the police mostly SFPD. He actually has recently found relief because t the murder of his wife Trudy back in 1997 has been solved. To celebrate, Monk decides to visit his agoraphobic brother Ambrose for his sibling’s birthday.
Monk wants to show the world to Ambrose who has not left his home in years. He puts sleeping pills in the cake and places a knocked out Ambrose in his RV camper. Shockingly Ambrose awakens and is not raging at his brother. Along the highway, Monk finds crimes that he cannot ignore though Natalie refuses to allow him to solve them because this is Ambrose’s time. Instead Monk silently works the puzzles in his head until he finds a frightening pattern of a serial killer in the area.
Lee Goldberg is the grandmaster of capturing the essences of TV mystery shows’ personalities as he has done with Monk through eleven novels and Diagnoses Murder. He does it again with this brisk Monk road show as the multi-phobic hero hits the highway with his agoraphobic sibling and his assistant Natalie. On the road, Monk solves crimes as Natalie pleads with him to take a respite and enjoy the scenery, but though she keeps them moving so he cannot narrowly focus on a crime rather than the trip she ends up also assisting him when she can no longer ignore him. Fans will enjoy the brisk ride as the siblings (and Natalie) get out of the house, sort of.
Harriet Klausner
Lee Goldberg
Obsidian, Jan 4 2011, $24.95
ISBN: 9780451232113
Adrian Monk suffers a severe case of obsessive compulsive disorder so intense that he is a walking encyclopedia of phobias that makes it impossible for him to operate in the outside world without assistance. With Natalie’s help, Monk, a former cop, earns a living as a consultant to the police mostly SFPD. He actually has recently found relief because t the murder of his wife Trudy back in 1997 has been solved. To celebrate, Monk decides to visit his agoraphobic brother Ambrose for his sibling’s birthday.
Monk wants to show the world to Ambrose who has not left his home in years. He puts sleeping pills in the cake and places a knocked out Ambrose in his RV camper. Shockingly Ambrose awakens and is not raging at his brother. Along the highway, Monk finds crimes that he cannot ignore though Natalie refuses to allow him to solve them because this is Ambrose’s time. Instead Monk silently works the puzzles in his head until he finds a frightening pattern of a serial killer in the area.
Lee Goldberg is the grandmaster of capturing the essences of TV mystery shows’ personalities as he has done with Monk through eleven novels and Diagnoses Murder. He does it again with this brisk Monk road show as the multi-phobic hero hits the highway with his agoraphobic sibling and his assistant Natalie. On the road, Monk solves crimes as Natalie pleads with him to take a respite and enjoy the scenery, but though she keeps them moving so he cannot narrowly focus on a crime rather than the trip she ends up also assisting him when she can no longer ignore him. Fans will enjoy the brisk ride as the siblings (and Natalie) get out of the house, sort of.
Harriet Klausner
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Fates Will Find Their Way-Hannah Pittard
The Fates Will Find Their Way
Hannah Pittard
Ecco, Jan 25 2011, $22.99
ISBN: 9780061996054
On Halloween night, sixteen years old Nora Lindell fails to come home. The next morning, her worried father, realizing his daughter did not come home, begins the phone tree with the Boyd family. As he breaks tree etiquette, Mrs. Boyd begins the orderly tree system.
The boys her age begin telling each other what they know about Nora. Over the next few months with nothing new on Nora, the teen males focus on her sister Sissy who is still in town. The years go by and the boys are fathers, but Nora never returned. Instead her legend in the small town is like Elvis sightings everywhere, but beneath their macabre musings that their wives accept as imprinted on their brains when two of them get together, each wonders what happened to Nora on Halloween years ago that haunts each of them?
This is a terrific low-key suspense thriller that hooks readers as much as the boys with a need to know. Nora’s legend grows with each passing Halloween as none of the boys even as adult fathers can let the mystery go. Readers will appreciate this entertaining mystery that uses everyday normal family living over the years to tell the myth of missing Nora.
Harriet Klausner
Hannah Pittard
Ecco, Jan 25 2011, $22.99
ISBN: 9780061996054
On Halloween night, sixteen years old Nora Lindell fails to come home. The next morning, her worried father, realizing his daughter did not come home, begins the phone tree with the Boyd family. As he breaks tree etiquette, Mrs. Boyd begins the orderly tree system.
The boys her age begin telling each other what they know about Nora. Over the next few months with nothing new on Nora, the teen males focus on her sister Sissy who is still in town. The years go by and the boys are fathers, but Nora never returned. Instead her legend in the small town is like Elvis sightings everywhere, but beneath their macabre musings that their wives accept as imprinted on their brains when two of them get together, each wonders what happened to Nora on Halloween years ago that haunts each of them?
This is a terrific low-key suspense thriller that hooks readers as much as the boys with a need to know. Nora’s legend grows with each passing Halloween as none of the boys even as adult fathers can let the mystery go. Readers will appreciate this entertaining mystery that uses everyday normal family living over the years to tell the myth of missing Nora.
Harriet Klausner
A Red Herring Without Mustard -Alan Bradley
A Red Herring Without Mustard
Alan Bradley
Delacorte, Feb 8 2011, $23.00
ISBN: 9780385342322
In Bishop’s Lacey, England the Gypsy looks into her crystal ball to inform eleven year old chemist and amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce her future. However, the hag tells her she has never in her life seen a darker future. Flavia is not one to be concerned as the child deals with an odd household on their Buckshaw Estate. Her widowed father the Colonel lives for his philately collection; her oldest sister Ophelia "Feely" loves her music; and the middle sister thirteen years old “Daffy” Daphne hides in her books. Flavia, who never met her mother Harriet (outside the womb that is), uses her late great-Uncle Tarquin’s fully loaded chem lab as her escapism into the savory world of poison.
Soon after the dark reading, Flavia finds the corpse of the ancient Gypsy. Someone stabbed the woman to death in her wagon. Flavia on her bike Gladys investigates the homicide while she contemplates that the murder appears to be one of passion perhaps vengeance; similar to what she thrives for against her older siblings though not with murderous malice. Instead of solving this killing, Flavia finds a second body. Her inquiry leads to an intriguing clue to what she considers the key mystery.
This is a terrific post WWII whimsical amateur sleuth as Flavia follows the murder clues while eluding the demands of her older sisters and her father is to busy with his stamps. As with her previous cases (see The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), the tweener keeps the story line focused as she investigates two homicides in which the clues twist into something personal.
Harriet Klausner
Alan Bradley
Delacorte, Feb 8 2011, $23.00
ISBN: 9780385342322
In Bishop’s Lacey, England the Gypsy looks into her crystal ball to inform eleven year old chemist and amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce her future. However, the hag tells her she has never in her life seen a darker future. Flavia is not one to be concerned as the child deals with an odd household on their Buckshaw Estate. Her widowed father the Colonel lives for his philately collection; her oldest sister Ophelia "Feely" loves her music; and the middle sister thirteen years old “Daffy” Daphne hides in her books. Flavia, who never met her mother Harriet (outside the womb that is), uses her late great-Uncle Tarquin’s fully loaded chem lab as her escapism into the savory world of poison.
Soon after the dark reading, Flavia finds the corpse of the ancient Gypsy. Someone stabbed the woman to death in her wagon. Flavia on her bike Gladys investigates the homicide while she contemplates that the murder appears to be one of passion perhaps vengeance; similar to what she thrives for against her older siblings though not with murderous malice. Instead of solving this killing, Flavia finds a second body. Her inquiry leads to an intriguing clue to what she considers the key mystery.
This is a terrific post WWII whimsical amateur sleuth as Flavia follows the murder clues while eluding the demands of her older sisters and her father is to busy with his stamps. As with her previous cases (see The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), the tweener keeps the story line focused as she investigates two homicides in which the clues twist into something personal.
Harriet Klausner
The Omega Theory-Mark Alpert
The Omega Theory
Mark Alpert
Touchstone, Feb 15 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9781416595342
Iran tests a nuclear device; a Columbia University physicist, based on readings from scientific instruments, claims that for a nanosecond the test ripped asunder the universe as if the Big Bang was about to explode. On the same day, the Upper Manhattan Autism Center informs science historian David Swift and his physicist wife, Monique Reynolds that their nineteen years old autistic adopted son Michael Gupta was snatched.
The True Believers cult kidnapped Michael, whose ancestor is Einstein and who has memorized his late relative’s little known Unified Field’s Final Theory. Worried for their son, FBI special agent Lucille Parker joins Swift and Reynolds on the rescue quest because the True Believers plan to deploy the Omega Theory as those who know the Big Bang of alpha creation also know the Big Crunch of omega nothingness.
From New York to Jerusalem to Turkmenistan, the chase is on as the good guy scientists (angels) battle the bad guy cultists (devils). Although none of the cast is developed beyond their role in the potential apocalypse final war, fans will enjoy the non-stop action as Mark Alpert provides an exhilarating Big Crunch thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Mark Alpert
Touchstone, Feb 15 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9781416595342
Iran tests a nuclear device; a Columbia University physicist, based on readings from scientific instruments, claims that for a nanosecond the test ripped asunder the universe as if the Big Bang was about to explode. On the same day, the Upper Manhattan Autism Center informs science historian David Swift and his physicist wife, Monique Reynolds that their nineteen years old autistic adopted son Michael Gupta was snatched.
The True Believers cult kidnapped Michael, whose ancestor is Einstein and who has memorized his late relative’s little known Unified Field’s Final Theory. Worried for their son, FBI special agent Lucille Parker joins Swift and Reynolds on the rescue quest because the True Believers plan to deploy the Omega Theory as those who know the Big Bang of alpha creation also know the Big Crunch of omega nothingness.
From New York to Jerusalem to Turkmenistan, the chase is on as the good guy scientists (angels) battle the bad guy cultists (devils). Although none of the cast is developed beyond their role in the potential apocalypse final war, fans will enjoy the non-stop action as Mark Alpert provides an exhilarating Big Crunch thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Solid as Steele-Rebecca York
Solid as Steele
Rebecca York
Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 11 2011, $4.99
ISBN: 9780373695232
Baltimore private investigator Mack Steele has loved Jamie Shepherd from the moment he'd met her, but she was married to his partner Craig. Now a widow, Mack still keeps his distance from Jamie though is there for her if she needs anything.
Jamie suffers a frightening nightmare in which a woman Lynn Vaughn trapped in a deadly funhouse needs help immediately; her gift has returned in the one place she preferred not to be, her home Gaptown. She calls her late husband’s place of work Light Street Detective Agency wanting to speak with her friend Jo O’Malley. Mack responds instead. Jamie and Mack drive to Gaptown where her estranged mom Gloria and her mother’s boyfriend Clark greet her with contempt and deny sending a letter to her. As Jamie falls in love with the protective Mack, a killer has already set in motion her death plot to add to those already murdered by this diabolical psychopath.
The latest 43 Light Street thriller (see Guarding Grace) is a terrific paranormal investigative mystery starring two likable leads and a powerful support cast. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Jamie calls the agency and never slows down as a serial killer stalks Gaptown. The key is the romantic subplot is developed enough, but never intrudes on the prime story line of a predator murdering people with the two Baltimore residents on the top of the killer’s list. Solid as Steele is a solid psychological drama.
Harriet Klausner
Rebecca York
Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 11 2011, $4.99
ISBN: 9780373695232
Baltimore private investigator Mack Steele has loved Jamie Shepherd from the moment he'd met her, but she was married to his partner Craig. Now a widow, Mack still keeps his distance from Jamie though is there for her if she needs anything.
Jamie suffers a frightening nightmare in which a woman Lynn Vaughn trapped in a deadly funhouse needs help immediately; her gift has returned in the one place she preferred not to be, her home Gaptown. She calls her late husband’s place of work Light Street Detective Agency wanting to speak with her friend Jo O’Malley. Mack responds instead. Jamie and Mack drive to Gaptown where her estranged mom Gloria and her mother’s boyfriend Clark greet her with contempt and deny sending a letter to her. As Jamie falls in love with the protective Mack, a killer has already set in motion her death plot to add to those already murdered by this diabolical psychopath.
The latest 43 Light Street thriller (see Guarding Grace) is a terrific paranormal investigative mystery starring two likable leads and a powerful support cast. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Jamie calls the agency and never slows down as a serial killer stalks Gaptown. The key is the romantic subplot is developed enough, but never intrudes on the prime story line of a predator murdering people with the two Baltimore residents on the top of the killer’s list. Solid as Steele is a solid psychological drama.
Harriet Klausner
Twilight Warrior-Aimee Thurlo
Twilight Warrior
Aimee Thurlo
Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 11 2011, $4.99
ISBN: 9780373695201
Former FBI Agent turned New Mexico private investigator Laura Perry visits her childhood BF but not forever Nancy near Flagstaff, Arizona. She arrives as a man stumbles out of Nancy’s home. Inside she finds Nancy naked and dead. Laura vows to catch Nancy’s killer who she assumes is the man who left as she arrived; he mumbled she was too late for herself as well as her friend.
Detective Travis Blacksheep works the serial case that Laura has become personally interested in. They were teen buddies watching each other’s back. Now she offers herself up as bait though unaware she needn’t do so as the killer already has focused on her; while Travis and his big dog Crusher watch her back.
The second exciting Long Mountain Heroes (see Alpha Warrior starring Travis’s older brother Nick) is an engaging investigative serial killer thriller. The key to this entertaining and powerful tale is the realism of the relationship between the lead couple outside of the case which remains mostly in the background as ending a reign of terror comes first. Aimee Thurlo fans will relish her latest romantic mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Aimee Thurlo
Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 11 2011, $4.99
ISBN: 9780373695201
Former FBI Agent turned New Mexico private investigator Laura Perry visits her childhood BF but not forever Nancy near Flagstaff, Arizona. She arrives as a man stumbles out of Nancy’s home. Inside she finds Nancy naked and dead. Laura vows to catch Nancy’s killer who she assumes is the man who left as she arrived; he mumbled she was too late for herself as well as her friend.
Detective Travis Blacksheep works the serial case that Laura has become personally interested in. They were teen buddies watching each other’s back. Now she offers herself up as bait though unaware she needn’t do so as the killer already has focused on her; while Travis and his big dog Crusher watch her back.
The second exciting Long Mountain Heroes (see Alpha Warrior starring Travis’s older brother Nick) is an engaging investigative serial killer thriller. The key to this entertaining and powerful tale is the realism of the relationship between the lead couple outside of the case which remains mostly in the background as ending a reign of terror comes first. Aimee Thurlo fans will relish her latest romantic mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Operation Bonnet-Kimberly Stuart
Operation Bonnet
Kimberly Stuart
David C. Cook, Feb 1 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780781448918
In Casper, Ohio, luminary twenty years old Nellie Monroe is an eccentric genius whose burnt orange Afro alone would maker her a stand out in much larger Cleveland as Irish-Americans do not have curly hair like she has. However, it is her brain power that makes her an odd duck. While her parents tour golf courses everywhere, she stays home to take care of her octogenarian Nona while working for Tank at the local club. She wants to be a private investigator, is taking on line classes and has a business card with her full name of Nellie Augusta Lourdes Monroe inscribed on it. However, she also believes she will need to relocate as the divorce rate in the country hovers around fifty percent while in Casper it is under twenty-five percent.
Tank hires Amish dropout Amos Shetler. Nellie meets Amos by punching him in the stomach. Hurting, he admits she does not hit like a girl. She warns him not to sneak up on someone. A few days later he hires her to conduct surveillance on the Amish girl he considers marrying Katie and his rival John. Amos tells her no pictures just listen to what she says. Nellie brilliantly sets in motion Operation Bonnet only to alienate her BF Matt, her professor, her family, her client, the Amish community, and perhaps everyone residing in the Buckeye State.
This is an intriguing coming of age “student” investigative tale told by Nellie. Her side commentary is amusingly acerbic, but also slows down the prime exciting subplot of her going undercover causing havoc for seemingly much of Ohio and locked lips with one male hunk. Fans will enjoy Operation Bonnet as Nellie learns about people from the tsuris she caused with her first case.
Harriet Klausner
Kimberly Stuart
David C. Cook, Feb 1 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780781448918
In Casper, Ohio, luminary twenty years old Nellie Monroe is an eccentric genius whose burnt orange Afro alone would maker her a stand out in much larger Cleveland as Irish-Americans do not have curly hair like she has. However, it is her brain power that makes her an odd duck. While her parents tour golf courses everywhere, she stays home to take care of her octogenarian Nona while working for Tank at the local club. She wants to be a private investigator, is taking on line classes and has a business card with her full name of Nellie Augusta Lourdes Monroe inscribed on it. However, she also believes she will need to relocate as the divorce rate in the country hovers around fifty percent while in Casper it is under twenty-five percent.
Tank hires Amish dropout Amos Shetler. Nellie meets Amos by punching him in the stomach. Hurting, he admits she does not hit like a girl. She warns him not to sneak up on someone. A few days later he hires her to conduct surveillance on the Amish girl he considers marrying Katie and his rival John. Amos tells her no pictures just listen to what she says. Nellie brilliantly sets in motion Operation Bonnet only to alienate her BF Matt, her professor, her family, her client, the Amish community, and perhaps everyone residing in the Buckeye State.
This is an intriguing coming of age “student” investigative tale told by Nellie. Her side commentary is amusingly acerbic, but also slows down the prime exciting subplot of her going undercover causing havoc for seemingly much of Ohio and locked lips with one male hunk. Fans will enjoy Operation Bonnet as Nellie learns about people from the tsuris she caused with her first case.
Harriet Klausner
The Second Son-Jonathan Rabb
The Second Son
Jonathan Rabb
FSG, Feb 15 2011, $26.00
ISBN: 9780374299132
After years of dedicated police work, Berlin Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner is forced to quit the Kriminalpolizei. Some believe he lasted longer than a stinking half Jew should. Others will miss his professional diligent work.
With no where to go in Hitler’s Olympic Germany, Nikolai decides to search for his missing second son Georg; sadly he knows he has written off his oldest boy Sascha who salutes wholeheartedly the Nazis. Nikolai travels to Barcelona where the heat melts his bones while the Civil War has ignited as fascists, communists, anarchists and foreign agents compete in deadly combat. The former German cop fears his second son like his first son is ideologically trapped by one of the extremists.
The third Hoffner between the world wars noir (see Rosa and Shadow and Light) is an exhilarating bittersweet thriller that brings to life Spain during the violent civil war. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Nikolai is downsized due to his religious heritage and never slows down although the climax is overly difficult to follow. Still fans will appreciate this entertaining historical as Nikolai prays he can save at least the soul of one of his offspring.
Harriet Klausner
Jonathan Rabb
FSG, Feb 15 2011, $26.00
ISBN: 9780374299132
After years of dedicated police work, Berlin Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner is forced to quit the Kriminalpolizei. Some believe he lasted longer than a stinking half Jew should. Others will miss his professional diligent work.
With no where to go in Hitler’s Olympic Germany, Nikolai decides to search for his missing second son Georg; sadly he knows he has written off his oldest boy Sascha who salutes wholeheartedly the Nazis. Nikolai travels to Barcelona where the heat melts his bones while the Civil War has ignited as fascists, communists, anarchists and foreign agents compete in deadly combat. The former German cop fears his second son like his first son is ideologically trapped by one of the extremists.
The third Hoffner between the world wars noir (see Rosa and Shadow and Light) is an exhilarating bittersweet thriller that brings to life Spain during the violent civil war. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Nikolai is downsized due to his religious heritage and never slows down although the climax is overly difficult to follow. Still fans will appreciate this entertaining historical as Nikolai prays he can save at least the soul of one of his offspring.
Harriet Klausner
The Brotherhood-Jerry B. Jenkins
The Brotherhood
Jerry B. Jenkins
Tyndale, Feb 1 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9781414309224
Chicago police officer Boone Drake feels his life is perfect. He loves his family which includes his wife Nikki who stays home with their child Josh. Boone enjoys his work as he has a great partner in Jack Kelly and his superiors think the world of him. Boone lives his ideal of Eden mowing the lawn while caring for his loved ones and thanking God for all he has and the trio attends church led by Pastor Sosa regularly.
A home fire kills Josh and leaves Nikki more dad than alive. Dr. Sarangan who goes to the same church tells Boone that he does not believe in euthanasia, but Nikki would be better off dead with the injuries she suffered. He lies to her about their son, but she knows and soon joins him in death. Boone is over the top in grief as he wonders how God could allow such a tragedy to two innocent caring people. His family, Pastor Sosa and Jack are there for him. He begins to leave his hell raging at God when he meets two new people, single mom Haeley and dynamic vicious gang leader Pascual Candelario.
Though an exciting action-packed Precinct 11 thriller from the moment Jack takes the phone call in the squad car (the radio is inappropriate), The Brotherhood is also a reflective tale as God allows free will, but is there for us while we heal from tragedies. The secondary characters in many ways set the overarching theme with their respective relationships with the protagonist. Perhaps the most interesting player is the gangbanger as the cops, the gang members and readers wonder if he seeks redemption as the Lord gives second chances or setting up an ambush so he could sing The Day Chicago Died. Blending police, gangs and God, this is a strong inspirational thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Jerry B. Jenkins
Tyndale, Feb 1 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9781414309224
Chicago police officer Boone Drake feels his life is perfect. He loves his family which includes his wife Nikki who stays home with their child Josh. Boone enjoys his work as he has a great partner in Jack Kelly and his superiors think the world of him. Boone lives his ideal of Eden mowing the lawn while caring for his loved ones and thanking God for all he has and the trio attends church led by Pastor Sosa regularly.
A home fire kills Josh and leaves Nikki more dad than alive. Dr. Sarangan who goes to the same church tells Boone that he does not believe in euthanasia, but Nikki would be better off dead with the injuries she suffered. He lies to her about their son, but she knows and soon joins him in death. Boone is over the top in grief as he wonders how God could allow such a tragedy to two innocent caring people. His family, Pastor Sosa and Jack are there for him. He begins to leave his hell raging at God when he meets two new people, single mom Haeley and dynamic vicious gang leader Pascual Candelario.
Though an exciting action-packed Precinct 11 thriller from the moment Jack takes the phone call in the squad car (the radio is inappropriate), The Brotherhood is also a reflective tale as God allows free will, but is there for us while we heal from tragedies. The secondary characters in many ways set the overarching theme with their respective relationships with the protagonist. Perhaps the most interesting player is the gangbanger as the cops, the gang members and readers wonder if he seeks redemption as the Lord gives second chances or setting up an ambush so he could sing The Day Chicago Died. Blending police, gangs and God, this is a strong inspirational thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Wench-Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Wench
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Amistad, Jan 5 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780061706547
In 1852 their four respective owners took the wenches with them while they vacation at Tawawa House in Ohio. The four females accompanying these men are slaves, but though limited in time to meet with each other, they forge a friendship. Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu are slaves who are their master’s mistress.
Ohio opens their eyes when they meet free blacks and learn of the abolitionist movement from Glory the white female Quaker who speaks to each of them as equal humans. Ironically these free blacks are uneasy with the slaves amidst them. Reenie belongs to her half-brother who is far from a protector of his sibling; she relishes freedom. Sweet is pregnant and frightened, but still wants her liberty. Mawu covets the idea of belonging to herself especially since her owner is a cruel sadist. Lizzie considers the concept but in her way she loves her kind Master and does not want to leave him; however she wants him to free her children. Her fellow slave Phillip likes the idea of freedom too. They discuss running away, but a frightened Lizzie betrays them to her Master.
Wench is a super historical thriller with a powerful cast whose personalities develop for the reader over the insightful but at times meandering story line. Each key player, especially the four titled characters, are unique with different needs and wants. It is easy to diss Lizzie, but once the reader knows her, they will understand why. Fans will appreciate this strong antebellum tale of life as a mistress-slave in the decade prior to the Civil War.
Harriet Klausner
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Amistad, Jan 5 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780061706547
In 1852 their four respective owners took the wenches with them while they vacation at Tawawa House in Ohio. The four females accompanying these men are slaves, but though limited in time to meet with each other, they forge a friendship. Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu are slaves who are their master’s mistress.
Ohio opens their eyes when they meet free blacks and learn of the abolitionist movement from Glory the white female Quaker who speaks to each of them as equal humans. Ironically these free blacks are uneasy with the slaves amidst them. Reenie belongs to her half-brother who is far from a protector of his sibling; she relishes freedom. Sweet is pregnant and frightened, but still wants her liberty. Mawu covets the idea of belonging to herself especially since her owner is a cruel sadist. Lizzie considers the concept but in her way she loves her kind Master and does not want to leave him; however she wants him to free her children. Her fellow slave Phillip likes the idea of freedom too. They discuss running away, but a frightened Lizzie betrays them to her Master.
Wench is a super historical thriller with a powerful cast whose personalities develop for the reader over the insightful but at times meandering story line. Each key player, especially the four titled characters, are unique with different needs and wants. It is easy to diss Lizzie, but once the reader knows her, they will understand why. Fans will appreciate this strong antebellum tale of life as a mistress-slave in the decade prior to the Civil War.
Harriet Klausner
Crying Blood-Donis Casey
Crying Blood
Donis Casey
Poisoned Pen, Feb 1 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590588314
In 1915 Oklahoma, Shaw Tucker, accompanied by his dog Buttercup, is hunting in nearby woods when his canine finds a human skeleton with a bullet hole between the bones of the eye sockets. Shaw knows he has found the remains of a murder victim.
A few weeks later, Shaw caches a teenage boy on his ranch. The lad explains he is Crying Blood searching for those who murdered his brother. Not sure what to do with Crying Blood, Shaw locks the adolescent in his barn before going to sleep as he will decides in the morning. The next day, Shaw finds the youngster dead with a lance protruding through his heart. Feeling guilt and a belief he owes the siblings, Shaw and his wife Alafair investigate the two homicides.
The latest Tucker historical mystery (see The Drop Edge of Yonder and The Sky Took Him) is a terrific entry that provides readers with a deep look at Oklahoma inside of the two mysteries that haunt Shaw. The story line starts a bit slow, as the time and place as well as the cast and the homicides have to be set, but once done accelerates rather quickly. Armchair traveling readers will appreciate a visit to the Sooner State just a few years after the Oklahoma and Indian Territories were consolidated into a state.
Harriet Klausner
Donis Casey
Poisoned Pen, Feb 1 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590588314
In 1915 Oklahoma, Shaw Tucker, accompanied by his dog Buttercup, is hunting in nearby woods when his canine finds a human skeleton with a bullet hole between the bones of the eye sockets. Shaw knows he has found the remains of a murder victim.
A few weeks later, Shaw caches a teenage boy on his ranch. The lad explains he is Crying Blood searching for those who murdered his brother. Not sure what to do with Crying Blood, Shaw locks the adolescent in his barn before going to sleep as he will decides in the morning. The next day, Shaw finds the youngster dead with a lance protruding through his heart. Feeling guilt and a belief he owes the siblings, Shaw and his wife Alafair investigate the two homicides.
The latest Tucker historical mystery (see The Drop Edge of Yonder and The Sky Took Him) is a terrific entry that provides readers with a deep look at Oklahoma inside of the two mysteries that haunt Shaw. The story line starts a bit slow, as the time and place as well as the cast and the homicides have to be set, but once done accelerates rather quickly. Armchair traveling readers will appreciate a visit to the Sooner State just a few years after the Oklahoma and Indian Territories were consolidated into a state.
Harriet Klausner
Thursday, December 9, 2010
One True Sentence -Craig McDonald
One True Sentence
Craig McDonald
Minotaur, Feb 15 2011, $25.99
ISBN 9780312554385
In 1924 in Paris, a serial killer targets the editors of small literary magazines. The culprit’s M.O. is never the same with each murder more gruesome than any of the previous ones. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas order mystery writers and potential lovers Hector Lassiter and Brinke Devlin to solve the case before someone else dies.
The pair finds clues that point towards Ernest Hemingway. However, the writing sleuths believe that is too simple of a solution for a clever predator so they assume it is a set-up. They make further inquiries that lead to occultist Crowley and a Satanist, but nothing quite comes together as time seems to have run out on Lassiter after a brothel bloodbath.
The latest Lassiter 19202 mystery (see Print the Legend) contains more twists than Lombard Street in San Francisco, but all that spinning makes for a difficult to follow the somewhat non-cohesive story line. Still this is an enjoyable historical amateur sleuth as readers meet a who’s who to include Hemingway as well as the two grand dame authoresses ordering Lassiter, Devlin and other crime novelists to find the killer before someone else fall off the Left Banke dead.
Harriet Klausner
Craig McDonald
Minotaur, Feb 15 2011, $25.99
ISBN 9780312554385
In 1924 in Paris, a serial killer targets the editors of small literary magazines. The culprit’s M.O. is never the same with each murder more gruesome than any of the previous ones. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas order mystery writers and potential lovers Hector Lassiter and Brinke Devlin to solve the case before someone else dies.
The pair finds clues that point towards Ernest Hemingway. However, the writing sleuths believe that is too simple of a solution for a clever predator so they assume it is a set-up. They make further inquiries that lead to occultist Crowley and a Satanist, but nothing quite comes together as time seems to have run out on Lassiter after a brothel bloodbath.
The latest Lassiter 19202 mystery (see Print the Legend) contains more twists than Lombard Street in San Francisco, but all that spinning makes for a difficult to follow the somewhat non-cohesive story line. Still this is an enjoyable historical amateur sleuth as readers meet a who’s who to include Hemingway as well as the two grand dame authoresses ordering Lassiter, Devlin and other crime novelists to find the killer before someone else fall off the Left Banke dead.
Harriet Klausner
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Comes a Time for Burning-Steven F. Havill
Comes a Time for Burning
Steven F. Havill
Poisoned Pen, Feb 1 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590588277
In 1892 in Port McKinney, Washington, healthy twentyish Lucy Levine, who works at the Clarissa Hotel, becomes very ill. Clinic Dr. Lucius Hardy asks his former medical school crony Dr. Thomas Parks to join him. Parks is confused by Lucy’s her symptoms and the speed in which her condition worsens. They are distraught when everything they try fails as Lucy dies. A second female Flora Snider has the illness and others like Lucy’s boyfriend logger Ben probably do too.
Hardy and Parks inform Constable Aldrich that the Asian Cholera has attacked the village and that tClarissa must be quarantined. The disease spreads like a wildfire overwhelming the helpless doctors. Parks panicked over the safety of his wife and newborn; yet curious as to the origin.
The second Parks historical medical thriller (see Race for the Dying) is a great tale that focuses on the state of medicine in rural Puget Sound in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The cast makes the tale as the doctors struggle to contain an epidemic that threatens the village and nearby towns, but the impact on everyone is deeply felt by the audience. Steven F. Havill’s series is a strong saga worth reading.
Harriet Klausner
Steven F. Havill
Poisoned Pen, Feb 1 2011, $24.95
ISBN 9781590588277
In 1892 in Port McKinney, Washington, healthy twentyish Lucy Levine, who works at the Clarissa Hotel, becomes very ill. Clinic Dr. Lucius Hardy asks his former medical school crony Dr. Thomas Parks to join him. Parks is confused by Lucy’s her symptoms and the speed in which her condition worsens. They are distraught when everything they try fails as Lucy dies. A second female Flora Snider has the illness and others like Lucy’s boyfriend logger Ben probably do too.
Hardy and Parks inform Constable Aldrich that the Asian Cholera has attacked the village and that tClarissa must be quarantined. The disease spreads like a wildfire overwhelming the helpless doctors. Parks panicked over the safety of his wife and newborn; yet curious as to the origin.
The second Parks historical medical thriller (see Race for the Dying) is a great tale that focuses on the state of medicine in rural Puget Sound in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The cast makes the tale as the doctors struggle to contain an epidemic that threatens the village and nearby towns, but the impact on everyone is deeply felt by the audience. Steven F. Havill’s series is a strong saga worth reading.
Harriet Klausner
Treachery In Death-J.D. Robb
Treachery In Death
J.D. Robb
Putnam, Feb 22 2011, $26.95
ISBN: 9780399157035
In the summer of 2060, NYPSD Eve Dallas assigns her partner Peabody to look into the death of a shopkeeper by apparently stoned young men. Detective Peabody takes them down and puts them in the cage. Eve tells Peabody she did well but she was a bit slow in physically fighting them knowing it was her first time for the detective to take the lead. Peabody know to get in shape she must exercise three days a week.
While Peabody showers after a workout in the police gym, two cops enter the room. She overhears Chief of Illegal Squad Lieutenant Renee Oberman and her subordinate Detective William Garnet discuss crimes they are going to commit including murder. Peabody tells Dallas who wants to take out the pair and other corrupt officials under Renee’s control, but has to be careful as she has no idea who the others are.
As expected from J.D. Robb, the great author has written another fabulous futuristic police procedural. Much of the fun is watching Eve, who loves her job, work a case as even when it comes to internal affairs she diligently seeks clues to support the truth. Recurring characters add to the sense of continuity and enhance the suspense (Roarke brings the romance) as Eve obstinately leads the internal affairs inquiry.
Harriet Klausner
J.D. Robb
Putnam, Feb 22 2011, $26.95
ISBN: 9780399157035
In the summer of 2060, NYPSD Eve Dallas assigns her partner Peabody to look into the death of a shopkeeper by apparently stoned young men. Detective Peabody takes them down and puts them in the cage. Eve tells Peabody she did well but she was a bit slow in physically fighting them knowing it was her first time for the detective to take the lead. Peabody know to get in shape she must exercise three days a week.
While Peabody showers after a workout in the police gym, two cops enter the room. She overhears Chief of Illegal Squad Lieutenant Renee Oberman and her subordinate Detective William Garnet discuss crimes they are going to commit including murder. Peabody tells Dallas who wants to take out the pair and other corrupt officials under Renee’s control, but has to be careful as she has no idea who the others are.
As expected from J.D. Robb, the great author has written another fabulous futuristic police procedural. Much of the fun is watching Eve, who loves her job, work a case as even when it comes to internal affairs she diligently seeks clues to support the truth. Recurring characters add to the sense of continuity and enhance the suspense (Roarke brings the romance) as Eve obstinately leads the internal affairs inquiry.
Harriet Klausner
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
To Have and to Kill-Mary Jane Clark
To Have and to Kill
Mary Jane Clark
Morrow, Dec 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780061995545
No longer getting acting roles after her two year part in the soap A Little Rain Must fall ends with her character’s death, having her romance implode and worried about her mom’s heath Piper Donovan crosses the Hudson to return to her hometown of Hillwood, New Jersey. The late twentyish Piper works with her mom at the family owned bakery, Icing on the Cupcake, but uses social networking to stay in touch with her friends and fans.
Her acting friend Glenna Brooks, a star of A Little Rain Must Fall, hires Piper and her bakery to make her wedding cake. However, the homicide death of A Little Rain Must Fall cast member Travis York shakes up everyone associated with the TV drama. Soon more murders occur, so Piper asks her friend FBI Agent Jack for advice on conducting an investigation.
This is a warm fast-paced cozy starring a likable heroine who fears she may be on a sort of soap opera List of Adrian Messenger. The whodunit is lighthearted fun as Piper knows the culprit must be associated with the show but it is her parents, the family dog and Jack who enhance the mystery by providing poignant Icing on the Cupcake.
Harriet Klausner
Mary Jane Clark
Morrow, Dec 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780061995545
No longer getting acting roles after her two year part in the soap A Little Rain Must fall ends with her character’s death, having her romance implode and worried about her mom’s heath Piper Donovan crosses the Hudson to return to her hometown of Hillwood, New Jersey. The late twentyish Piper works with her mom at the family owned bakery, Icing on the Cupcake, but uses social networking to stay in touch with her friends and fans.
Her acting friend Glenna Brooks, a star of A Little Rain Must Fall, hires Piper and her bakery to make her wedding cake. However, the homicide death of A Little Rain Must Fall cast member Travis York shakes up everyone associated with the TV drama. Soon more murders occur, so Piper asks her friend FBI Agent Jack for advice on conducting an investigation.
This is a warm fast-paced cozy starring a likable heroine who fears she may be on a sort of soap opera List of Adrian Messenger. The whodunit is lighthearted fun as Piper knows the culprit must be associated with the show but it is her parents, the family dog and Jack who enhance the mystery by providing poignant Icing on the Cupcake.
Harriet Klausner
The Girl in the Green Raincoat-Laura Lippmann
The Girl in the Green Raincoat
Laura Lippmann
Morrow, Jan 18 2011, $11.99
ISBN: 9780061938368
Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan requires plenty of bed rest due to her high risk pregnancy as she has signs of preeclampsia which can lead to life threatening seizures. Sleuthing is out of the question, but resting proves more difficult than a tedious surveillance for someone as hyper as Tess is. She needs something to occupy her mind, but finds nothing of interest.
That is until she watches from her window a female stranger in a green raincoat walking an Italian greyhound wearing green also. Playing a mental game about the woman helps pass time. However when Tess notices the woman’s dog running loose, she fears something happened to the owner who has been very careful with walking her canine on a leash. Tess persuades her support crew – her boyfriend Crow, best friend Whitney Talbot, middle-aged assistant Mrs. Blossom, and researcher Dorie Starnes to seek clues as to what happened to The Girl in the Green Raincoat that they are to bring back to her to analyze.
With nods to the films Rear Window and the teen remake Disturbia, the latest Tess Monaghan mystery is a wonderful sort of family affair as she directs her team with assignments; some being comical. Tess is wonderful working the convoluted case through her agents who doubt there is any wrong doing but humors her as she struggles with prenatal trimester mental and physical issues; pity Crow with the postpartum blues. This is a great novella that has Tess at her best even at rest in this life changing novella.
Harriet Klausner
Laura Lippmann
Morrow, Jan 18 2011, $11.99
ISBN: 9780061938368
Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan requires plenty of bed rest due to her high risk pregnancy as she has signs of preeclampsia which can lead to life threatening seizures. Sleuthing is out of the question, but resting proves more difficult than a tedious surveillance for someone as hyper as Tess is. She needs something to occupy her mind, but finds nothing of interest.
That is until she watches from her window a female stranger in a green raincoat walking an Italian greyhound wearing green also. Playing a mental game about the woman helps pass time. However when Tess notices the woman’s dog running loose, she fears something happened to the owner who has been very careful with walking her canine on a leash. Tess persuades her support crew – her boyfriend Crow, best friend Whitney Talbot, middle-aged assistant Mrs. Blossom, and researcher Dorie Starnes to seek clues as to what happened to The Girl in the Green Raincoat that they are to bring back to her to analyze.
With nods to the films Rear Window and the teen remake Disturbia, the latest Tess Monaghan mystery is a wonderful sort of family affair as she directs her team with assignments; some being comical. Tess is wonderful working the convoluted case through her agents who doubt there is any wrong doing but humors her as she struggles with prenatal trimester mental and physical issues; pity Crow with the postpartum blues. This is a great novella that has Tess at her best even at rest in this life changing novella.
Harriet Klausner
Cold Shot to the Heart-Wallace Stroby
Cold Shot to the Heart
Wallace Stroby
Minotaur, Jan 18 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312560256
Her beloved “instructor” is up for parole, but that costs under the table money to grease the skids in order to insure a positive outcome. Crissa Stone does not have that sum of cash, but wants her mentor free. Thus, loyal Crissa signs onto a robbery worth millions in Fort Lauderdale with her cronies though she is concerned about the skill level of her partners in crime. Nothing goes right with the heist of a high stakes poker game with the worst element being the shooting of a New Jersey mob connected Lou Letteri.
Hit man Eddie “the Saint” Santiago has just been let out of jail. Since he has no cash, he needs to find some easy money fast. He knows of the shooting from the mob who hires him to kill the culprits ending with the person who has the money Crissa.
This tense crime thriller pits a cold hearted professional killer stalking a kind hearted thief, one partner at a time. The story line is linear with each step of the way that The Saint takes being one closer to the confrontation. That High Noon climatic altercation that readers anticipate lives up to the expectations that the preliminary lethal encounters provided. Cold Shot to the Heart is a terrific taut tale.
Harriet Klausner
Wallace Stroby
Minotaur, Jan 18 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312560256
Her beloved “instructor” is up for parole, but that costs under the table money to grease the skids in order to insure a positive outcome. Crissa Stone does not have that sum of cash, but wants her mentor free. Thus, loyal Crissa signs onto a robbery worth millions in Fort Lauderdale with her cronies though she is concerned about the skill level of her partners in crime. Nothing goes right with the heist of a high stakes poker game with the worst element being the shooting of a New Jersey mob connected Lou Letteri.
Hit man Eddie “the Saint” Santiago has just been let out of jail. Since he has no cash, he needs to find some easy money fast. He knows of the shooting from the mob who hires him to kill the culprits ending with the person who has the money Crissa.
This tense crime thriller pits a cold hearted professional killer stalking a kind hearted thief, one partner at a time. The story line is linear with each step of the way that The Saint takes being one closer to the confrontation. That High Noon climatic altercation that readers anticipate lives up to the expectations that the preliminary lethal encounters provided. Cold Shot to the Heart is a terrific taut tale.
Harriet Klausner
World’s Greatest Sleuth-Steve Hockensmith
World’s Greatest Sleuth
Steve Hockensmith
Minotaur, Jan 18 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312379438
In 1893 the Amlingmeyer brothers, Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red, travel to Chicago to participate in a detectiving contest to determine who the world’s greatest sleuth is held at the Exposition. Internationally renowned detective William Pinkerton will lead the competition.
The siblings are not that interested in meeting the legend though they wonder why he gave his name to this challenge. They attend the Chicago Exposition of 1893 for one purpose to meet Diana Corvus, the woman of a thousand faces. However, the games turn macabre when someone shoves contestant Armstrong Curtis into a vat of cheese. The homicide and the contest mean less to the Reds who prefer solving whether the relationship between Diana and her boss Colonel Crowe is purely professional, but follow clues throughout the city seeking the killer.
The latest Holmes on the Range historical mystery (see The Crack Lens) is a super late nineteenth century spoof mindful of the movie Murder By Death. The novel needs a warning label not to read in public as your hysterical laugher will have anyone nearby wondering. The Reds are as usual over the top, this time, of the Ferris Wheel especially Big Red who has a lot to say about anything. Outrageously humorous yet interwoven with detailed historical tidbits that bring Chicago alive, readers will wonder who will win the prize as the World’s Greatest Sleuth.
Harriet Klausner
Steve Hockensmith
Minotaur, Jan 18 2011, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312379438
In 1893 the Amlingmeyer brothers, Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red, travel to Chicago to participate in a detectiving contest to determine who the world’s greatest sleuth is held at the Exposition. Internationally renowned detective William Pinkerton will lead the competition.
The siblings are not that interested in meeting the legend though they wonder why he gave his name to this challenge. They attend the Chicago Exposition of 1893 for one purpose to meet Diana Corvus, the woman of a thousand faces. However, the games turn macabre when someone shoves contestant Armstrong Curtis into a vat of cheese. The homicide and the contest mean less to the Reds who prefer solving whether the relationship between Diana and her boss Colonel Crowe is purely professional, but follow clues throughout the city seeking the killer.
The latest Holmes on the Range historical mystery (see The Crack Lens) is a super late nineteenth century spoof mindful of the movie Murder By Death. The novel needs a warning label not to read in public as your hysterical laugher will have anyone nearby wondering. The Reds are as usual over the top, this time, of the Ferris Wheel especially Big Red who has a lot to say about anything. Outrageously humorous yet interwoven with detailed historical tidbits that bring Chicago alive, readers will wonder who will win the prize as the World’s Greatest Sleuth.
Harriet Klausner
Deadly Ties-Vicki Hinze
Deadly Ties
Vicki Hinze
Multnomah, Feb 8 2011, $13.99
ISBN: 9781601422064
In 1987, Dr. Charles Harper is killed near Orlando while his seven years old daughter Lisa is abducted. Not long afterward Lisa escapes and manages to return home to her mom Annie in Seagrove Village, Florida. Grieving and worried for her daughter’s future, Annie hastily marries kindhearted Dutch Hauk, but quickly realizes she made an error as he is an abusive control freak instead of the nice man she thought he was. Her religion will not allow her to divorce this beast, but Annie protects her daughter eventually giving custody to a family friend.
Years later, Lisa is about to obtain her medical degree. She looks forward to liberating her mother who she rarely speaks with except through the efforts of Seagrove Village Security Chief Mark Taylor. Lisa and Mark are attracted to one another.
NINA operative Lone Wolf attacks Annie leaving her in a coma and Lisa is abducted from the hospital where her mom rests. Mark, brought his former comrades in arms the Shadow Watchers to keep the two females safe and now he blames himself for not doing a more diligent job. He soon realizes NINA is involved when killer Lone Wolf is spotted nearby, but remains unsure how Dutch fits in on the attacks.
The latest Crossroads Crisis Center inspirational thriller (see Forget Me Not) is an exciting action-packed suspense novel that is enthralling. The fast-paced story line focuses on female trafficking in which Lisa’s beliefs sustains her and give hope to the other three captives through the ordeal. Although OCD Dutch has no redeeming qualities while even Lone Wolf shows his humanity with his Angel and saving Annie’s life (after he took it), fans will relish Deadly Ties; as Lisa’s beliefs in prayer give her hope and Mark’s beliefs in his beloved gives him hope.
Harriet Klausner
Vicki Hinze
Multnomah, Feb 8 2011, $13.99
ISBN: 9781601422064
In 1987, Dr. Charles Harper is killed near Orlando while his seven years old daughter Lisa is abducted. Not long afterward Lisa escapes and manages to return home to her mom Annie in Seagrove Village, Florida. Grieving and worried for her daughter’s future, Annie hastily marries kindhearted Dutch Hauk, but quickly realizes she made an error as he is an abusive control freak instead of the nice man she thought he was. Her religion will not allow her to divorce this beast, but Annie protects her daughter eventually giving custody to a family friend.
Years later, Lisa is about to obtain her medical degree. She looks forward to liberating her mother who she rarely speaks with except through the efforts of Seagrove Village Security Chief Mark Taylor. Lisa and Mark are attracted to one another.
NINA operative Lone Wolf attacks Annie leaving her in a coma and Lisa is abducted from the hospital where her mom rests. Mark, brought his former comrades in arms the Shadow Watchers to keep the two females safe and now he blames himself for not doing a more diligent job. He soon realizes NINA is involved when killer Lone Wolf is spotted nearby, but remains unsure how Dutch fits in on the attacks.
The latest Crossroads Crisis Center inspirational thriller (see Forget Me Not) is an exciting action-packed suspense novel that is enthralling. The fast-paced story line focuses on female trafficking in which Lisa’s beliefs sustains her and give hope to the other three captives through the ordeal. Although OCD Dutch has no redeeming qualities while even Lone Wolf shows his humanity with his Angel and saving Annie’s life (after he took it), fans will relish Deadly Ties; as Lisa’s beliefs in prayer give her hope and Mark’s beliefs in his beloved gives him hope.
Harriet Klausner
Blast from the Past-Toni L. P. Kelner
Blast from the Past
Toni L. P. Kelner
Berkley, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425239902
Freelance reporter Tilda Harper writes articles on the famous and not so famous Hollywood personalities for the entrainment magazines. Don, the owner of a security company, works for the Pharos movie team who are filming outdoors on the Cape. He and Tilda know each other from when she was dating his son Nick. He invites her to interview the star of the movie John Laryea.
She is invited to stay at the hotel and watch the shoot, which she agrees to do as she can sell a lot of stories about the experience. Three days after she arrives she is on the side of the road when a speeding car hits two people the star and his assistant. Everyone but Tildy believes Pete Ellis the chauffeur who works for Don is guilty as his limo killed her assistant. When the police find Pete, he is passed out drunk and taken into custody. Tildy promises to snoop around to exonerate him with the truth at the same time she seeks Leviathan the author who wrote the comic book the movie is based on.
Watching the protagonist conduct two different inquiries is fascinating as each involves a person with a secret to hide. This entertaining journalist investigative mystery is filled with vivid descriptions leading to armchair readers believing they are on location. The movie support cast adds quirky humor to a serious whodunit as like her other blasts from the past (Curse of the Kissing Cousins and Who Killed the Pin-Up Queen, the latest Where Are They Now? Harper tale is a great read.
Harriet Klausner
Toni L. P. Kelner
Berkley, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425239902
Freelance reporter Tilda Harper writes articles on the famous and not so famous Hollywood personalities for the entrainment magazines. Don, the owner of a security company, works for the Pharos movie team who are filming outdoors on the Cape. He and Tilda know each other from when she was dating his son Nick. He invites her to interview the star of the movie John Laryea.
She is invited to stay at the hotel and watch the shoot, which she agrees to do as she can sell a lot of stories about the experience. Three days after she arrives she is on the side of the road when a speeding car hits two people the star and his assistant. Everyone but Tildy believes Pete Ellis the chauffeur who works for Don is guilty as his limo killed her assistant. When the police find Pete, he is passed out drunk and taken into custody. Tildy promises to snoop around to exonerate him with the truth at the same time she seeks Leviathan the author who wrote the comic book the movie is based on.
Watching the protagonist conduct two different inquiries is fascinating as each involves a person with a secret to hide. This entertaining journalist investigative mystery is filled with vivid descriptions leading to armchair readers believing they are on location. The movie support cast adds quirky humor to a serious whodunit as like her other blasts from the past (Curse of the Kissing Cousins and Who Killed the Pin-Up Queen, the latest Where Are They Now? Harper tale is a great read.
Harriet Klausner
Monday, December 6, 2010
Winter Break-Kayla Perrin
Winter Break
Kayla Perrin
St. Martin’s Griffin, Jan 4 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780312644581
BFFs Didi Randall, Roxanne Miller and Jolene Martin go on a Caribbean cruise during winter break stunned by what has happened on their Lancaster University in Pennsylvania campus. Apparently students Rachel Jepson committed suicide and Natalie Laymon was raped. The Lan-U's Gossip Hour blog claims Didi’s boyfriend Drake Shaw is the rapist.
Drake and Natalie are on the ship too with the latter having an incredible makeover from geek to glamour queen. With their four year relationship in jeopardy, Didi’s hopes to save what they had but he vanishes before she wakes up on deck totally confused. When she learns Drake is missing Didi investigates his disappearance; finding shocking clues that imply he was dumped overboard by someone with ties to her high school past.
Although this exciting thriller lacks the cautionary elements of being smart and safe while on a college break and the sense of dread and doom that made Spring Break ominous, this is an exciting well written amateur sleuth as the heroine’s inquiries lead her to wonder if she is the next victim. Still armchair readers, especially high school and college aged, will want to accompany Didi on her deadly Winter Break Caribbean cruise.
Harriet Klausner
Kayla Perrin
St. Martin’s Griffin, Jan 4 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780312644581
BFFs Didi Randall, Roxanne Miller and Jolene Martin go on a Caribbean cruise during winter break stunned by what has happened on their Lancaster University in Pennsylvania campus. Apparently students Rachel Jepson committed suicide and Natalie Laymon was raped. The Lan-U's Gossip Hour blog claims Didi’s boyfriend Drake Shaw is the rapist.
Drake and Natalie are on the ship too with the latter having an incredible makeover from geek to glamour queen. With their four year relationship in jeopardy, Didi’s hopes to save what they had but he vanishes before she wakes up on deck totally confused. When she learns Drake is missing Didi investigates his disappearance; finding shocking clues that imply he was dumped overboard by someone with ties to her high school past.
Although this exciting thriller lacks the cautionary elements of being smart and safe while on a college break and the sense of dread and doom that made Spring Break ominous, this is an exciting well written amateur sleuth as the heroine’s inquiries lead her to wonder if she is the next victim. Still armchair readers, especially high school and college aged, will want to accompany Didi on her deadly Winter Break Caribbean cruise.
Harriet Klausner
Hollywood Forever-Susan Goldstein
Hollywood Forever
Susan Goldstein
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149337
Beverly Hills matron Samantha Crowley is the forgotten wife of arrogant bestselling author Benjamin Crowley. He wants to rid himself of his spouse for a younger sexier trophy wife. Meanwhile everyday Sam walks in Hollywood Forever Cemetery; where she pays her respects to murder victims, mobster Bugsy Siegel and film director William Desmond Taylor.
Sam helped create her husband’s famous character Hunter McCall; since she developed the star, she feels she should kill the star. Associates of Benjamin die soon after they meet Sam. His publicist Peter Perkal was killed in a hit-and-run; someone poisoned his agent Carol Haber, and novelist Jonathon Harley was stabbed to death. Following a phone call with a woman threating blackmail and demanding he meet her, Jack Sharrow heads to the rendezvous Hollywood Forever Cemetery where the only other person is Sam. He assumes she is his blackmailer so he pulls out a gun while considering killing her.
This terrific suspense thriller runs on two strong elements: a twisting murder mystery and references to historical Hollywood. The spins are incredible and plausible in a case of few degrees of separation; as Sam knows this is Hollywood.
Harriet Klausner
Susan Goldstein
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149337
Beverly Hills matron Samantha Crowley is the forgotten wife of arrogant bestselling author Benjamin Crowley. He wants to rid himself of his spouse for a younger sexier trophy wife. Meanwhile everyday Sam walks in Hollywood Forever Cemetery; where she pays her respects to murder victims, mobster Bugsy Siegel and film director William Desmond Taylor.
Sam helped create her husband’s famous character Hunter McCall; since she developed the star, she feels she should kill the star. Associates of Benjamin die soon after they meet Sam. His publicist Peter Perkal was killed in a hit-and-run; someone poisoned his agent Carol Haber, and novelist Jonathon Harley was stabbed to death. Following a phone call with a woman threating blackmail and demanding he meet her, Jack Sharrow heads to the rendezvous Hollywood Forever Cemetery where the only other person is Sam. He assumes she is his blackmailer so he pulls out a gun while considering killing her.
This terrific suspense thriller runs on two strong elements: a twisting murder mystery and references to historical Hollywood. The spins are incredible and plausible in a case of few degrees of separation; as Sam knows this is Hollywood.
Harriet Klausner
A Gift for Murder--Karen McCullough
A Gift for Murder
Karen McCullough
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149313
In Washington DC as the Commerce & Market Show Center employees prepare for the always difficult Gift and Decorations trade show, office assistant Heather McNeil finds a corpse in the dumpster. Someone bashed exhibitor Tim Bethel with a crowbar that remains imbeded in the deceased. Heather calls the police.
Police Detective Peter Gilmont investigates the homicide. He wonders who would have had the motive and opportunity to kill the co-owner of Grantwood & Bethel; one of the firms displaying their gifts and accessories at the show. At the same time Heather and her maybe boyfriend new employer as a Center security guard Scott Brandon make their own inquiry ignoring the objections of Gilmont, Heather’s superior Janelle Addison and the exhibitors including the deceased’s partner Stan Greenwood.
This Market Center Murders tale is an engaging tale that contains competing solid investigations and a fabulous look deep into what goes on behind the scenes to insure a successful trade show. Heather is an enticing protagonist who anchors the story line and the trade show as a cynical stable influence in the midst of chaos. The vivid glimpse at the trade show environs steals the plot from the whodunit whose spins and twists readers will anticipate in this charming cozy.
Harriet Klausner
Karen McCullough
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149313
In Washington DC as the Commerce & Market Show Center employees prepare for the always difficult Gift and Decorations trade show, office assistant Heather McNeil finds a corpse in the dumpster. Someone bashed exhibitor Tim Bethel with a crowbar that remains imbeded in the deceased. Heather calls the police.
Police Detective Peter Gilmont investigates the homicide. He wonders who would have had the motive and opportunity to kill the co-owner of Grantwood & Bethel; one of the firms displaying their gifts and accessories at the show. At the same time Heather and her maybe boyfriend new employer as a Center security guard Scott Brandon make their own inquiry ignoring the objections of Gilmont, Heather’s superior Janelle Addison and the exhibitors including the deceased’s partner Stan Greenwood.
This Market Center Murders tale is an engaging tale that contains competing solid investigations and a fabulous look deep into what goes on behind the scenes to insure a successful trade show. Heather is an enticing protagonist who anchors the story line and the trade show as a cynical stable influence in the midst of chaos. The vivid glimpse at the trade show environs steals the plot from the whodunit whose spins and twists readers will anticipate in this charming cozy.
Harriet Klausner
The Illuminated Vineyard-Jean Moynahan
The Illuminated Vineyard
Jean Moynahan
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149344
In Birchwood, Oregon middle-age Widow Rachel Jarvis hires the young traveling couple Michael Broom and Cara Littleton to make repairs to her home. Rachel's daughter Clarissa disapproves the arrangement. Her other child Brett approves her mom’s hiring because he is attracted to Cara.
Someone murders small-time thief Brady Devon at Fargeau Vineyards. Police detective Greg Linsky suspects Michael stabbed Devon as he is a stranger with apparent ties to the vineyard owner Rob Fargeau. Three decades ago, Rachel and Rob had a tryst. Someone tries to poison the late Brady's girlfriend, Vonda Gallard, who vanishes without a trace. Rachel investigates the odd happenings, but cannot prevent a second brutal homicide.
The Illuminated Vineyard is a terrific relationship mystery in which what happened twenty years ago kept secret has roared out into the open in the present. The story line is in many respects a cautionary tale that warns readers that even with good intentions to protect loved ones; not to conceal major occurrences from those you cherish because if they learn the truth from another source the road to hell becomes exponentially much more horrific. Fans will appreciate the trip to Oregon for this winner.
Harriet Klausner
Jean Moynahan
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149344
In Birchwood, Oregon middle-age Widow Rachel Jarvis hires the young traveling couple Michael Broom and Cara Littleton to make repairs to her home. Rachel's daughter Clarissa disapproves the arrangement. Her other child Brett approves her mom’s hiring because he is attracted to Cara.
Someone murders small-time thief Brady Devon at Fargeau Vineyards. Police detective Greg Linsky suspects Michael stabbed Devon as he is a stranger with apparent ties to the vineyard owner Rob Fargeau. Three decades ago, Rachel and Rob had a tryst. Someone tries to poison the late Brady's girlfriend, Vonda Gallard, who vanishes without a trace. Rachel investigates the odd happenings, but cannot prevent a second brutal homicide.
The Illuminated Vineyard is a terrific relationship mystery in which what happened twenty years ago kept secret has roared out into the open in the present. The story line is in many respects a cautionary tale that warns readers that even with good intentions to protect loved ones; not to conceal major occurrences from those you cherish because if they learn the truth from another source the road to hell becomes exponentially much more horrific. Fans will appreciate the trip to Oregon for this winner.
Harriet Klausner
Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs-Blaize Clement
Raining Cat Sitters and Dogs
Blaize Clement
Minotaur, Dec 28 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780312369583
In Siesta Key, Florida, former police officer turned pet sitter Dixie Hemingway goes to the vet to pick up Big Bubba, a fan of TV police dramas who shouts at the screen. While in the reception area Dixie meets hysterical teenager Jaz who brought in an injured wild rabbit. A man with her claiming to be her stepfather says he accidently hit the rabbit with his car.
Dixie’s gut screams at her that something is not right with this pair. Soon afterward three punks assault Dixie demandong she tell them where Jaz is. Dixie consults with her boyfriend homicide detective Jean-Pierre Guidry, who says the trio is the prime suspects in the murder of an elderly man. The pair now fears for Jaz’s life and begin a search for the girl before the street thugs find her.
The fifth Dixie Hemingway pet sitter mystery (see Even Cat Sitters Gets the Blues and Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof) is a wonderful tale as Dixie knows Jaz is not her responsibility but once a cop always a cop. The story line engages the audience from the moment Big Bubba the African parrot gives Dixie and others a mouth full. Combining humor with a serious missing person’s search, Blaize Clement provides a strong tale.
Harriet Klausner
Blaize Clement
Minotaur, Dec 28 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780312369583
In Siesta Key, Florida, former police officer turned pet sitter Dixie Hemingway goes to the vet to pick up Big Bubba, a fan of TV police dramas who shouts at the screen. While in the reception area Dixie meets hysterical teenager Jaz who brought in an injured wild rabbit. A man with her claiming to be her stepfather says he accidently hit the rabbit with his car.
Dixie’s gut screams at her that something is not right with this pair. Soon afterward three punks assault Dixie demandong she tell them where Jaz is. Dixie consults with her boyfriend homicide detective Jean-Pierre Guidry, who says the trio is the prime suspects in the murder of an elderly man. The pair now fears for Jaz’s life and begin a search for the girl before the street thugs find her.
The fifth Dixie Hemingway pet sitter mystery (see Even Cat Sitters Gets the Blues and Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof) is a wonderful tale as Dixie knows Jaz is not her responsibility but once a cop always a cop. The story line engages the audience from the moment Big Bubba the African parrot gives Dixie and others a mouth full. Combining humor with a serious missing person’s search, Blaize Clement provides a strong tale.
Harriet Klausner
Though Not Dead-Dana Stabenow
Though Not Dead
Dana Stabenow
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $25.99
ISBN 9780312559113
In Alaska octogenarian Samuel “Old Sam” Dementieff dies. His friends like his niece and one time ward private detective Kate Shugak assumed “Old Sam” would live forever. Kate still believes her beloved foster father will live forever in hearts likes hers.
His death also ignites a deadly treasure hunt frenzy. Just a few years before Sam was born a flu epidemic devastated Alaska and much of the world in 1918. Years later, Sam was part of a party who found the state’s biggest gold mine, the Suulutaq which produced a legendary gold nugget that everyone seems to want to own and some are willing to kill to possess it. However, gold fever is not the only value, the survivors want with Sam’s demise. From when Sam met Dashiell Hammett, rumors spread that the writer left behind in the Aleutians an unpublished manuscript. Finally he also served in WWII as part of the Army’s Castner's Cutthroats unit while a shocked Kate learns of his many trysts. All these major events in the late Sam’s life converge with a rash of lethal crimes as Kate wonders what her cherished Old Sam meant in his will to find his father.
This is a great Alaskan mystery that fans of the Shugak saga (see A Night Too Dark) will thoroughly enjoy. The story line is fast-paced even when the plot goes back in time to key moments in Old Sam’s life that cleverly parallel major events in twentieth century Alaska. The crime frenzy makes for a fine whodunit, but the interweaving of the past makes for a great novel that readers will appreciate.
Harriet Klausner
Dana Stabenow
Minotaur, Feb 1 2011, $25.99
ISBN 9780312559113
In Alaska octogenarian Samuel “Old Sam” Dementieff dies. His friends like his niece and one time ward private detective Kate Shugak assumed “Old Sam” would live forever. Kate still believes her beloved foster father will live forever in hearts likes hers.
His death also ignites a deadly treasure hunt frenzy. Just a few years before Sam was born a flu epidemic devastated Alaska and much of the world in 1918. Years later, Sam was part of a party who found the state’s biggest gold mine, the Suulutaq which produced a legendary gold nugget that everyone seems to want to own and some are willing to kill to possess it. However, gold fever is not the only value, the survivors want with Sam’s demise. From when Sam met Dashiell Hammett, rumors spread that the writer left behind in the Aleutians an unpublished manuscript. Finally he also served in WWII as part of the Army’s Castner's Cutthroats unit while a shocked Kate learns of his many trysts. All these major events in the late Sam’s life converge with a rash of lethal crimes as Kate wonders what her cherished Old Sam meant in his will to find his father.
This is a great Alaskan mystery that fans of the Shugak saga (see A Night Too Dark) will thoroughly enjoy. The story line is fast-paced even when the plot goes back in time to key moments in Old Sam’s life that cleverly parallel major events in twentieth century Alaska. The crime frenzy makes for a fine whodunit, but the interweaving of the past makes for a great novel that readers will appreciate.
Harriet Klausner
Stitch Me Deadly-Amanda Lee
Stitch Me Deadly
Amanda Lee
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451332519
In Tallulah Falls, Oregon, Marcy Singer proudly owns the Seven-Year Stitch, a very popular crochet store. Her best friend Sadie works next door with her husband Blake, who own Mackenzies’ Mochas. Sadie persuaded Marcy to move to Oregon after her San Francisco boyfriend dumped her.
Elderly Louisa Ralston comes into Marcy’s shop for the first time. She asks her to find ivy, but while waiting she falls down and dies. At first it was assumed she had a heart attack, but the police learn she was murdered by someone who gave her the drug Halumet. The cops come to Marcy’s store asking to search the Seven-Year Stitch and her home. She allows them and they find the drug in her home. Marcy insists she never saw it before although her mother swears she left it there. Marcy remains a suspect. Her situation turns dire when she visits Louise’s husband and he dies with the same drug in his system that killed his wife. Desperate to clear her name before she gets arrested, Marcy investigates.
As occurred in The Quick and The Thread, the heroine is under suspicion of murder again and as she did then Marcy methodically seeks clues one stitch at a time in search of the real killer. Amanda Lee’s deft use of her small-town cast keeps the intelligently crafted story line fresh as Marcy works her inquiry finding one viable suspect after another.
Harriet Klausner
Amanda Lee
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451332519
In Tallulah Falls, Oregon, Marcy Singer proudly owns the Seven-Year Stitch, a very popular crochet store. Her best friend Sadie works next door with her husband Blake, who own Mackenzies’ Mochas. Sadie persuaded Marcy to move to Oregon after her San Francisco boyfriend dumped her.
Elderly Louisa Ralston comes into Marcy’s shop for the first time. She asks her to find ivy, but while waiting she falls down and dies. At first it was assumed she had a heart attack, but the police learn she was murdered by someone who gave her the drug Halumet. The cops come to Marcy’s store asking to search the Seven-Year Stitch and her home. She allows them and they find the drug in her home. Marcy insists she never saw it before although her mother swears she left it there. Marcy remains a suspect. Her situation turns dire when she visits Louise’s husband and he dies with the same drug in his system that killed his wife. Desperate to clear her name before she gets arrested, Marcy investigates.
As occurred in The Quick and The Thread, the heroine is under suspicion of murder again and as she did then Marcy methodically seeks clues one stitch at a time in search of the real killer. Amanda Lee’s deft use of her small-town cast keeps the intelligently crafted story line fresh as Marcy works her inquiry finding one viable suspect after another.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Deadly Heat-Cynthia Eden
Deadly Heat
Cynthia Eden
Grand Central, Feb 1 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780446559263
In Charlottesville, Virginia, FBI arson investigator Kenton Lake rushes into a burning building to save informer Larry Powell who he was to meet there. A firefighter uses force to make him leave; Lora Spade cannot understand the man’s death wish. The firefighters rescue a man who is not the informer. They later find Larry’s remains inside a padlocked area. Coroner Heather Jennings informs Kent that Larry was dead before the fire. Lora joins them and Kent identifies himself as Special Services Division who she asked to intercede when the county arson investigator Seth MacIntyre rejected her belief a serial arsonist was lighting the fires. Lora explains to GQ as she calls him the pattern is the culprit kills with the fire. Kent agrees with Lora’s assessment.
Kent’s chief Hyde sends top profiler Monica Davenport to assist. Hyde tells Seth that Kent is in charge. Monica believes a firefighter is the culprit as the person is extremely knowledgeable. Attracted to each other, Kent and Lora agree to meet at her house after work. They make love and he sees her fire scars. She says she sees Kent in bed with her and not her late lover who died in one of the fires. As the SSD team and Lora work the case, she and Kent fall in love, but disagree strongly as to who the killer could be.
The suspense grips the audience from the moment the brave strong lead couple meets within an inferno. The support cast, including the leads from the first SSD thriller Deadly Fear, plays key but diverse roles. Although the serial killer would have had to pull off an Academy Award performance to be in such plain sight and a major coincidence enables the culprit to continue to hide, readers will relish Cynthia Eden’s strong romantic suspense.
Harriet Klausner
Cynthia Eden
Grand Central, Feb 1 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780446559263
In Charlottesville, Virginia, FBI arson investigator Kenton Lake rushes into a burning building to save informer Larry Powell who he was to meet there. A firefighter uses force to make him leave; Lora Spade cannot understand the man’s death wish. The firefighters rescue a man who is not the informer. They later find Larry’s remains inside a padlocked area. Coroner Heather Jennings informs Kent that Larry was dead before the fire. Lora joins them and Kent identifies himself as Special Services Division who she asked to intercede when the county arson investigator Seth MacIntyre rejected her belief a serial arsonist was lighting the fires. Lora explains to GQ as she calls him the pattern is the culprit kills with the fire. Kent agrees with Lora’s assessment.
Kent’s chief Hyde sends top profiler Monica Davenport to assist. Hyde tells Seth that Kent is in charge. Monica believes a firefighter is the culprit as the person is extremely knowledgeable. Attracted to each other, Kent and Lora agree to meet at her house after work. They make love and he sees her fire scars. She says she sees Kent in bed with her and not her late lover who died in one of the fires. As the SSD team and Lora work the case, she and Kent fall in love, but disagree strongly as to who the killer could be.
The suspense grips the audience from the moment the brave strong lead couple meets within an inferno. The support cast, including the leads from the first SSD thriller Deadly Fear, plays key but diverse roles. Although the serial killer would have had to pull off an Academy Award performance to be in such plain sight and a major coincidence enables the culprit to continue to hide, readers will relish Cynthia Eden’s strong romantic suspense.
Harriet Klausner
Dead Like You-Peter James
Dead Like You
Peter James
Minotaur, Nov 23 2010, $25.99
ISBN: 9780312642822
Brighton, England Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and his major crimes unit investigate two brutal rapes in which the predator used the woman’s shoes to penetrate. The cases are horrific but more so to Roy as the shoes are the same M.O. as the unsolved 1997 serial rapes of five known victims by the "Shoe Man."
As he is engaged to his pregnant girlfriend, this case sends Roy also back to a time of his most haunting personal tragedy; the disappearance of his wife during that same period. Roy is disturbed by his memory of who he assumes was the sixth female victim twentyish Rachael Ryan but her body was never found; the DS believes she was the only one the rapist murdered.
This is a great British police procedural due to the various viewpoints from obviously Grace, but also other cops, victims and potential rapists. The story line is fast-paced throughout and most harrowing when a rape victim explains her feelings of violation; yet Peter James keeps these revelations flowing within the strong investigative plot. Readers will relish the latest “dead” Grace thriller while seeking his previous works published on this side of the pond (see Dead Tomorrow and Dead Man’s Footsteps).
Harriet Klausner
Peter James
Minotaur, Nov 23 2010, $25.99
ISBN: 9780312642822
Brighton, England Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and his major crimes unit investigate two brutal rapes in which the predator used the woman’s shoes to penetrate. The cases are horrific but more so to Roy as the shoes are the same M.O. as the unsolved 1997 serial rapes of five known victims by the "Shoe Man."
As he is engaged to his pregnant girlfriend, this case sends Roy also back to a time of his most haunting personal tragedy; the disappearance of his wife during that same period. Roy is disturbed by his memory of who he assumes was the sixth female victim twentyish Rachael Ryan but her body was never found; the DS believes she was the only one the rapist murdered.
This is a great British police procedural due to the various viewpoints from obviously Grace, but also other cops, victims and potential rapists. The story line is fast-paced throughout and most harrowing when a rape victim explains her feelings of violation; yet Peter James keeps these revelations flowing within the strong investigative plot. Readers will relish the latest “dead” Grace thriller while seeking his previous works published on this side of the pond (see Dead Tomorrow and Dead Man’s Footsteps).
Harriet Klausner
A Decadent Way To Die-G.A. McKevett
A Decadent Way To Die
G.A. McKevett
Kensington, Jan 25 2011, $24.00
ISBN: 9780758238108
In Southern California legendary for her designing the Helene doll, octogenarian Helene Strauss owns a doll manufacturing company. However, recently there have been incidents that one cannot write off as an elderly person’s accidents; at least that is what her granddaughter Emma Strauss believes while her niece Ada, who runs the business, thinks otherwise.
Emma hires plus-sized private investigator Savannah Reid to uncover who is out to harm her grandmother. She explains she saw the news clip in which Savannah and her visiting grandma from Georgia solved a homicide case so she thought Reid would be perfect for her Oma Helene. The client also mentions that Helene hates Ada who wants to run her life too. The simple case proves convoluted so Savannah lines up help from San Carmelita Police Officer Dirk Coulter who owes her for being at his side during the Murphy brothers’ case and from her office assistant-investigator in training Tammy Hart. All hell breaks loose when a double murder occurs on Helene’s estate.
This is a deep Reid tale that focuses on domestic abuse and contains an afterward with a short analysis of what is abuse and where to get help. Action-packed from start to finish, A Decadent Way To Die is a poignant mystery that grips fans from start to finish with its powerful emotional story line whether it is Reid’s early childhood or Helene’s in Nazi Germany (her short discussion about her best friend Esther is heart-wrenching yet less than a page). This is a winner that well be on everyone’s short list twelve months from now.
Harriet Klausner
G.A. McKevett
Kensington, Jan 25 2011, $24.00
ISBN: 9780758238108
In Southern California legendary for her designing the Helene doll, octogenarian Helene Strauss owns a doll manufacturing company. However, recently there have been incidents that one cannot write off as an elderly person’s accidents; at least that is what her granddaughter Emma Strauss believes while her niece Ada, who runs the business, thinks otherwise.
Emma hires plus-sized private investigator Savannah Reid to uncover who is out to harm her grandmother. She explains she saw the news clip in which Savannah and her visiting grandma from Georgia solved a homicide case so she thought Reid would be perfect for her Oma Helene. The client also mentions that Helene hates Ada who wants to run her life too. The simple case proves convoluted so Savannah lines up help from San Carmelita Police Officer Dirk Coulter who owes her for being at his side during the Murphy brothers’ case and from her office assistant-investigator in training Tammy Hart. All hell breaks loose when a double murder occurs on Helene’s estate.
This is a deep Reid tale that focuses on domestic abuse and contains an afterward with a short analysis of what is abuse and where to get help. Action-packed from start to finish, A Decadent Way To Die is a poignant mystery that grips fans from start to finish with its powerful emotional story line whether it is Reid’s early childhood or Helene’s in Nazi Germany (her short discussion about her best friend Esther is heart-wrenching yet less than a page). This is a winner that well be on everyone’s short list twelve months from now.
Harriet Klausner
Merciless-Mary Burton
Merciless
Mary Burton
Zebra, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9781420210197
He diligently selects them; he cleverly kidnaps them; he hedonistically tortures and rapes them; but he leaves it to the Other to make the final kill. A group of boys in Angel Park find her bones nearly arranged on a table. Detectives Malcolm Kier and Deacon Garrison lead the official investigation. After scrutinizing missing person’s reports, the cops identify the victim as actress Sierra Day, who was a client of defense attorney Angie Carlson and a patient of plastic surgeon Dr. Dillon Dixon who the lawyer recently got the doctor acquitted of a charge of assault and torture of a hooker.
A second victim appears; she was the prostitute who testified against Dixon in court. The two deceased are connected by Angie, who Kier believes is the next target of the killer who seems to be cleansing those women who were in court. However, neither Kier nor his partner knows there are two predators involved; both want Angie dead.
Known for her exciting suspense thrillers (see Senseless starring Garrison), Mary Burton provides another taut police procedural with a romantic subplot enhancing the tension. Perspective changes between Kier, Carlson, and the two culprits. The killers’ viewpoints provide insight into deranged minds as this dark story focuses on people who know right from wrong intellectually but are so amoral they could not care less about others; reminiscent of Compulsion and Murder By Numbers.
Harriet Klausner
Mary Burton
Zebra, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9781420210197
He diligently selects them; he cleverly kidnaps them; he hedonistically tortures and rapes them; but he leaves it to the Other to make the final kill. A group of boys in Angel Park find her bones nearly arranged on a table. Detectives Malcolm Kier and Deacon Garrison lead the official investigation. After scrutinizing missing person’s reports, the cops identify the victim as actress Sierra Day, who was a client of defense attorney Angie Carlson and a patient of plastic surgeon Dr. Dillon Dixon who the lawyer recently got the doctor acquitted of a charge of assault and torture of a hooker.
A second victim appears; she was the prostitute who testified against Dixon in court. The two deceased are connected by Angie, who Kier believes is the next target of the killer who seems to be cleansing those women who were in court. However, neither Kier nor his partner knows there are two predators involved; both want Angie dead.
Known for her exciting suspense thrillers (see Senseless starring Garrison), Mary Burton provides another taut police procedural with a romantic subplot enhancing the tension. Perspective changes between Kier, Carlson, and the two culprits. The killers’ viewpoints provide insight into deranged minds as this dark story focuses on people who know right from wrong intellectually but are so amoral they could not care less about others; reminiscent of Compulsion and Murder By Numbers.
Harriet Klausner
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Outsourced-Dave Zeltserman
Outsourced
Dave Zeltserman
Serpent Tail, Feb 11 2011, $14.95
ISBN: 9781846687327
In New England software engineers Dan and Shrini are fired when their positions are outsourced to India. Middle aged Dan worries for his family as he only brings small change as a freelance contractor and his wife Carol works as a legal assistant though her hours have been cut. He also knows he needs health insurance as he is going blind unless he has surgery. Shrini finds it ironic that he cannot score work in the States, but once home in India will receive outsourcing offers from the same companies who rejected him.
After working on a bank security program in which the safety protocols were developed extremely poorly overseas, Dan sees the major flaw. He and Shrini work on a plan to rob the bank. Dan asks his former mentor out of work Joel to join the team, which he reluctantly does, but insists on Eric be on their heist unit so the latter can supply untraceable weapons. The final player is strange Gordon. The scheme is perfect on paper but the execution not so as people die. As the Feds, local cops led by Detective Resnick, and former KGB turned mobster Petrenko search for the money, the thieves struggle with each other and their fears that their families will learn of their crime caper.
Dan is the center of this crime caper as an upper middle class good citizen whose life has imploded due to Outsourcing of his job. Ironically the quality of work is irrelevant to the software companies as that takes away from the bottom line leading to the middle aged men (and the younger Shrini) being fired and able to draw up the perfect plan. Readers will feel for Dan. Although Petrenko and several of Dan’s cronies are more caricatures seemingly employed to enable the protagonist’s woes to stand out further, fans will enjoy this exciting amateur criminal Noir with a powerful poignant coda while the body count will remind readers of the line “War, friend only to the undertaker” from Edwin Starr’s War.
Harriet Klausner
Dave Zeltserman
Serpent Tail, Feb 11 2011, $14.95
ISBN: 9781846687327
In New England software engineers Dan and Shrini are fired when their positions are outsourced to India. Middle aged Dan worries for his family as he only brings small change as a freelance contractor and his wife Carol works as a legal assistant though her hours have been cut. He also knows he needs health insurance as he is going blind unless he has surgery. Shrini finds it ironic that he cannot score work in the States, but once home in India will receive outsourcing offers from the same companies who rejected him.
After working on a bank security program in which the safety protocols were developed extremely poorly overseas, Dan sees the major flaw. He and Shrini work on a plan to rob the bank. Dan asks his former mentor out of work Joel to join the team, which he reluctantly does, but insists on Eric be on their heist unit so the latter can supply untraceable weapons. The final player is strange Gordon. The scheme is perfect on paper but the execution not so as people die. As the Feds, local cops led by Detective Resnick, and former KGB turned mobster Petrenko search for the money, the thieves struggle with each other and their fears that their families will learn of their crime caper.
Dan is the center of this crime caper as an upper middle class good citizen whose life has imploded due to Outsourcing of his job. Ironically the quality of work is irrelevant to the software companies as that takes away from the bottom line leading to the middle aged men (and the younger Shrini) being fired and able to draw up the perfect plan. Readers will feel for Dan. Although Petrenko and several of Dan’s cronies are more caricatures seemingly employed to enable the protagonist’s woes to stand out further, fans will enjoy this exciting amateur criminal Noir with a powerful poignant coda while the body count will remind readers of the line “War, friend only to the undertaker” from Edwin Starr’s War.
Harriet Klausner
The Left-Handed Dollar-Loren D. Estleman
The Left-Handed Dollar
Loren D. Estleman
Forge, Dec 7 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765319548
The car bombing left Detroit investigative journalist Barry Stackpole disfigured and still healing from his injuries. The police arrests mobster Joseph "Joey Ballistic” Ballista on charge of attempted murder as the bombing has his “DNA” trademark and a “witness” has stepped forward. A jury convicts Ballistic known for his rage and his pleasure in blowing up things.
Ballista's lawyer, Lucille "Lefty Lucy” Lettermore hires private investigative Amos Walker to find evidence that her client did not bomb Stackpole’s car. Although he knows his only friend Stackpole will be livid, Walker takes the case as the attorney persuades him her client is innocent. Instead of tracking Ballista’s steps right before the car bombing Walker interviews lying former wives and probes into what the informant who accused Ballistics of the crime was doing at the time of the explosion and what his or her motive is. His efforts do not prevent more murders from occurring; it probably is the catalyst.
The latest Walker hardboiled Motor City private investigative thriller (see American Detective) is a great entry that plays out on two interrelated levels. First there is the usual kick-butt Walker inquiry; and second is Stackpole’s feeling betrayed. Fast-paced with several terrific twists, The Left-Handed Dollar is a great Michigan mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Loren D. Estleman
Forge, Dec 7 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765319548
The car bombing left Detroit investigative journalist Barry Stackpole disfigured and still healing from his injuries. The police arrests mobster Joseph "Joey Ballistic” Ballista on charge of attempted murder as the bombing has his “DNA” trademark and a “witness” has stepped forward. A jury convicts Ballistic known for his rage and his pleasure in blowing up things.
Ballista's lawyer, Lucille "Lefty Lucy” Lettermore hires private investigative Amos Walker to find evidence that her client did not bomb Stackpole’s car. Although he knows his only friend Stackpole will be livid, Walker takes the case as the attorney persuades him her client is innocent. Instead of tracking Ballista’s steps right before the car bombing Walker interviews lying former wives and probes into what the informant who accused Ballistics of the crime was doing at the time of the explosion and what his or her motive is. His efforts do not prevent more murders from occurring; it probably is the catalyst.
The latest Walker hardboiled Motor City private investigative thriller (see American Detective) is a great entry that plays out on two interrelated levels. First there is the usual kick-butt Walker inquiry; and second is Stackpole’s feeling betrayed. Fast-paced with several terrific twists, The Left-Handed Dollar is a great Michigan mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Shot Through Velvet-Ellen Byerrum
Shot Through Velvet
Ellen Byerrum
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451232502
LaceySmithsonian writes her column Crimes and Fashion for the Washington DC based Eye Street Observer. The columnist is a murder magnet (see Grave Apparel, and Armed and Glamorous) so sometimes she writes about a homicide investigation. However murder is the last thing on Lacey’s mind when she attends the Dominion Velvet Plant’s closure due to the imports arriving from China and India.
Everyone is horrified to see a corpse tied to a roll of blue velvet in a vat of dye. The section worker recognizes the victim as part owner Rid Gibbs. Listening to chatter, Lacey learns Gibbs made enemies in his personal life including his wife and at the firm when he cheated people and fired them without cause. To complicate the case, Lacey’s boss is a part owner too. A strip of blue velvet is sent to her boss and at Gibb’s funeral there is a strip in his hand. Lacey visits board member Walt only to find him dead and holding that same blue velvet strip in his hand. The killer targets the publisher while Lacey, knowing the danger she places herself in, targets ending the killer’s reign of terror.
Ellen Byerrum writes a clever, complex and obviously colorful journalist investigative tale that will have readings singing Bobby Vinton’s tune Blue Velvet every time the protagonist trips over a murdered body. With a humorous romantic subplot to enhance the whodunit and filled with action, but character driven by Lacey, fans will enjoy her latest murder investigation.
Harriet Klausner
Ellen Byerrum
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451232502
LaceySmithsonian writes her column Crimes and Fashion for the Washington DC based Eye Street Observer. The columnist is a murder magnet (see Grave Apparel, and Armed and Glamorous) so sometimes she writes about a homicide investigation. However murder is the last thing on Lacey’s mind when she attends the Dominion Velvet Plant’s closure due to the imports arriving from China and India.
Everyone is horrified to see a corpse tied to a roll of blue velvet in a vat of dye. The section worker recognizes the victim as part owner Rid Gibbs. Listening to chatter, Lacey learns Gibbs made enemies in his personal life including his wife and at the firm when he cheated people and fired them without cause. To complicate the case, Lacey’s boss is a part owner too. A strip of blue velvet is sent to her boss and at Gibb’s funeral there is a strip in his hand. Lacey visits board member Walt only to find him dead and holding that same blue velvet strip in his hand. The killer targets the publisher while Lacey, knowing the danger she places herself in, targets ending the killer’s reign of terror.
Ellen Byerrum writes a clever, complex and obviously colorful journalist investigative tale that will have readings singing Bobby Vinton’s tune Blue Velvet every time the protagonist trips over a murdered body. With a humorous romantic subplot to enhance the whodunit and filled with action, but character driven by Lacey, fans will enjoy her latest murder investigation.
Harriet Klausner
The Perfect Prey-James Andrus
The Perfect Prey
James Andrus
Pinnacle, Jan 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780786022168
Detective James Stalling is in a very bad place at this time in his life. His then sixteen years old daughter disappeared three years ago, which leaves him to wonder if she still lives, and he is separated from his wife. John also remains raw from his last case involving the capture of a nasty serial killer (see The Perfect Woman). The last thing he needs at this time is another high profile investigation, but he cannot say no to a young adult or child missing person’s case.
The predator selects blonde hair blue eyed females who are in Florida during mid-term break. He gives them ecstasy and has sex with her before The Other kills her. When college student Allie Marsh vanishes, her mother knows people in high places so the Jacksonville police department makes her disappearance a top priority. John and his partner Patty Levine learn of several young women with ecstasy in their system who were found dead. They realize these females did not commit suicide or overdosed. They conclude a predatory serial killer is on the prowl, but knows how to hide by blending into the youth scene.
James Andrus has written a very exciting police procedural that for the most part leaves readers breathless with the faster than the speed of light story line. Fans will feel they are part of the investigate team as they will feel the frustrations of the lead cops; although that also leads to some repetitiveness on the part of how the detectives feel, and to a lesser degree the euphoria of the killer, who is front and center in several chapters. This is a winning thriller.
Harriet Klausner
James Andrus
Pinnacle, Jan 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780786022168
Detective James Stalling is in a very bad place at this time in his life. His then sixteen years old daughter disappeared three years ago, which leaves him to wonder if she still lives, and he is separated from his wife. John also remains raw from his last case involving the capture of a nasty serial killer (see The Perfect Woman). The last thing he needs at this time is another high profile investigation, but he cannot say no to a young adult or child missing person’s case.
The predator selects blonde hair blue eyed females who are in Florida during mid-term break. He gives them ecstasy and has sex with her before The Other kills her. When college student Allie Marsh vanishes, her mother knows people in high places so the Jacksonville police department makes her disappearance a top priority. John and his partner Patty Levine learn of several young women with ecstasy in their system who were found dead. They realize these females did not commit suicide or overdosed. They conclude a predatory serial killer is on the prowl, but knows how to hide by blending into the youth scene.
James Andrus has written a very exciting police procedural that for the most part leaves readers breathless with the faster than the speed of light story line. Fans will feel they are part of the investigate team as they will feel the frustrations of the lead cops; although that also leads to some repetitiveness on the part of how the detectives feel, and to a lesser degree the euphoria of the killer, who is front and center in several chapters. This is a winning thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Outsourced-Dave Zeltserman
Outsourced
Dave Zeltserman
Serpent Tail, Feb 11 2011, $14.95
ISBN: 9781846687327
In New England software engineers Dan and Shrini are fired when their positions are outsourced to India. Middle aged Dan worries for his family as he only brings small change as a freelance contractor and his wife Carol works as a legal assistant though her hours have been cut. He also knows he needs health insurance as he is going blind unless he has surgery. Shrini finds it ironic that he cannot score work in the States, but once home in India will receive outsourcing offers from the same companies who rejected him.
After working on a bank security program in which the safety protocols were developed extremely poorly overseas, Dan sees the major flaw. He and Shrini work on a plan to rob the bank. Dan asks his former mentor out of work Joel to join the team, which he reluctantly does, but insists on Eric be on their heist unit so the latter can supply untraceable weapons. The final player is strange Gordon. The scheme is perfect on paper but the execution not so as people die. As the Feds, local cops led by Detective Resnick, and former KGB turned mobster Petrenko search for the money, the thieves struggle with each other and their fears that their families will learn of their crime caper.
Dan is the center of this crime caper as an upper middle class good citizen whose life has imploded due to Outsourcing of his job. Ironically the quality of work is irrelevant to the software companies as that takes away from the bottom line leading to the middle aged men (and the younger Shrini) being fired and able to draw up the perfect plan. Readers will feel for Dan. Although Petrenko and several of Dan’s cronies are more caricatures seemingly employed to enable the protagonist’s woes to stand out further, fans will enjoy this exciting amateur criminal Noir with a powerful poignant coda while the body count will remind readers of the line “War, friend only to the undertaker” from Edwin Starr’s War.
Harriet Klausner
Dave Zeltserman
Serpent Tail, Feb 11 2011, $14.95
ISBN: 9781846687327
In New England software engineers Dan and Shrini are fired when their positions are outsourced to India. Middle aged Dan worries for his family as he only brings small change as a freelance contractor and his wife Carol works as a legal assistant though her hours have been cut. He also knows he needs health insurance as he is going blind unless he has surgery. Shrini finds it ironic that he cannot score work in the States, but once home in India will receive outsourcing offers from the same companies who rejected him.
After working on a bank security program in which the safety protocols were developed extremely poorly overseas, Dan sees the major flaw. He and Shrini work on a plan to rob the bank. Dan asks his former mentor out of work Joel to join the team, which he reluctantly does, but insists on Eric be on their heist unit so the latter can supply untraceable weapons. The final player is strange Gordon. The scheme is perfect on paper but the execution not so as people die. As the Feds, local cops led by Detective Resnick, and former KGB turned mobster Petrenko search for the money, the thieves struggle with each other and their fears that their families will learn of their crime caper.
Dan is the center of this crime caper as an upper middle class good citizen whose life has imploded due to Outsourcing of his job. Ironically the quality of work is irrelevant to the software companies as that takes away from the bottom line leading to the middle aged men (and the younger Shrini) being fired and able to draw up the perfect plan. Readers will feel for Dan. Although Petrenko and several of Dan’s cronies are more caricatures seemingly employed to enable the protagonist’s woes to stand out further, fans will enjoy this exciting amateur criminal Noir with a powerful poignant coda while the body count will remind readers of the line “War, friend only to the undertaker” from Edwin Starr’s War.
Harriet Klausner
The Left-Handed Dollar -Loren D. Estleman
The Left-Handed Dollar
Loren D. Estleman
Forge, Dec 7 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765319548
The car bombing left Detroit investigative journalist Barry Stackpole disfigured and still healing from his injuries. The police arrests mobster Joseph "Joey Ballistic” Ballista on charge of attempted murder as the bombing has his “DNA” trademark and a “witness” has stepped forward. A jury convicts Ballistic known for his rage and his pleasure in blowing up things.
Ballista's lawyer, Lucille "Lefty Lucy” Lettermore hires private investigative Amos Walker to find evidence that her client did not bomb Stackpole’s car. Although he knows his only friend Stackpole will be livid, Walker takes the case as the attorney persuades him her client is innocent. Instead of tracking Ballista’s steps right before the car bombing Walker interviews lying former wives and probes into what the informant who accused Ballistics of the crime was doing at the time of the explosion and what his or her motive is. His efforts do not prevent more murders from occurring; it probably is the catalyst.
The latest Walker hardboiled Motor City private investigative thriller (see American Detective) is a great entry that plays out on two interrelated levels. First there is the usual kick-butt Walker inquiry; and second is Stackpole’s feeling betrayed. Fast-paced with several terrific twists, The Left-Handed Dollar is a great Michigan mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Loren D. Estleman
Forge, Dec 7 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780765319548
The car bombing left Detroit investigative journalist Barry Stackpole disfigured and still healing from his injuries. The police arrests mobster Joseph "Joey Ballistic” Ballista on charge of attempted murder as the bombing has his “DNA” trademark and a “witness” has stepped forward. A jury convicts Ballistic known for his rage and his pleasure in blowing up things.
Ballista's lawyer, Lucille "Lefty Lucy” Lettermore hires private investigative Amos Walker to find evidence that her client did not bomb Stackpole’s car. Although he knows his only friend Stackpole will be livid, Walker takes the case as the attorney persuades him her client is innocent. Instead of tracking Ballista’s steps right before the car bombing Walker interviews lying former wives and probes into what the informant who accused Ballistics of the crime was doing at the time of the explosion and what his or her motive is. His efforts do not prevent more murders from occurring; it probably is the catalyst.
The latest Walker hardboiled Motor City private investigative thriller (see American Detective) is a great entry that plays out on two interrelated levels. First there is the usual kick-butt Walker inquiry; and second is Stackpole’s feeling betrayed. Fast-paced with several terrific twists, The Left-Handed Dollar is a great Michigan mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Shot Through Velvet-Ellen Byerrum
Shot Through Velvet
Ellen Byerrum
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451232502
LaceySmithsonian writes her column Crimes and Fashion for the Washington DC based Eye Street Observer. The columnist is a murder magnet (see Grave Apparel, and Armed and Glamorous) so sometimes she writes about a homicide investigation. However murder is the last thing on Lacey’s mind when she attends the Dominion Velvet Plant’s closure due to the imports arriving from China and India.
Everyone is horrified to see a corpse tied to a roll of blue velvet in a vat of dye. The section worker recognizes the victim as part owner Rid Gibbs. Listening to chatter, Lacey learns Gibbs made enemies in his personal life including his wife and at the firm when he cheated people and fired them without cause. To complicate the case, Lacey’s boss is a part owner too. A strip of blue velvet is sent to her boss and at Gibb’s funeral there is a strip in his hand. Lacey visits board member Walt only to find him dead and holding that same blue velvet strip in his hand. The killer targets the publisher while Lacey, knowing the danger she places herself in, targets ending the killer’s reign of terror.
Ellen Byerrum writes a clever, complex and obviously colorful journalist investigative tale that will have readings singing Bobby Vinton’s tune Blue Velvet every time the protagonist trips over a murdered body. With a humorous romantic subplot to enhance the whodunit and filled with action, but character driven by Lacey, fans will enjoy her latest murder investigation.
Harriet Klausner
Ellen Byerrum
Obsidian, Feb 1 2011, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451232502
LaceySmithsonian writes her column Crimes and Fashion for the Washington DC based Eye Street Observer. The columnist is a murder magnet (see Grave Apparel, and Armed and Glamorous) so sometimes she writes about a homicide investigation. However murder is the last thing on Lacey’s mind when she attends the Dominion Velvet Plant’s closure due to the imports arriving from China and India.
Everyone is horrified to see a corpse tied to a roll of blue velvet in a vat of dye. The section worker recognizes the victim as part owner Rid Gibbs. Listening to chatter, Lacey learns Gibbs made enemies in his personal life including his wife and at the firm when he cheated people and fired them without cause. To complicate the case, Lacey’s boss is a part owner too. A strip of blue velvet is sent to her boss and at Gibb’s funeral there is a strip in his hand. Lacey visits board member Walt only to find him dead and holding that same blue velvet strip in his hand. The killer targets the publisher while Lacey, knowing the danger she places herself in, targets ending the killer’s reign of terror.
Ellen Byerrum writes a clever, complex and obviously colorful journalist investigative tale that will have readings singing Bobby Vinton’s tune Blue Velvet every time the protagonist trips over a murdered body. With a humorous romantic subplot to enhance the whodunit and filled with action, but character driven by Lacey, fans will enjoy her latest murder investigation.
Harriet Klausner
Friday, December 3, 2010
Pecos Valley Revival-Alice Duncan
Pecos Valley Revival
Alice Duncan
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149269
In 1923 in Rosedale, New Mexico, nineteen years old Annabelle Blue works in her family's dry-goods store. However she has dreams of seeing the world that she has read about. Her boyfriend Phil Gunderson is a highly regarded rodeo performer, but Annabelle doubts she will see the world with him as to Phil the southwest is the world.
She looks forward to the annual rodeo because she meets interesting people from different places. This year also includes a tent revivalist gala, which means more people from elsewhere. However, Annabelle never expected the revivalist preacher Reverend Strickland’s beautiful vivacious sister Esther Strickland would have Phil salivating after her as well as his rodeo rival champion Kenny Sawyer; his fiancée Sarah Molina is as distraught as Anabelle is; each is upset with Esther treating their boyfriends like candy and their boyfriends reciprocating the sweetness. When Kenny is poisoned on the rodeo’s second night, the police suspect his jealous fiancée. That changes when a second homicide occurs, in which Sarah has no motive.
This is an enjoyable historical mystery with the emphasis on time and place as the audience will feel Alice Duncan enchantingly transported readers to 1920s New Mexico. The cast is solid especially Annabelle, who tells the tale, although she is not as enticing as Daisy Gumm Majesty is. The whodunit is cleverly devised, but remains in the background to observing life in Rosedale circa 1923.
Harriet Klausner
Alice Duncan
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149269
In 1923 in Rosedale, New Mexico, nineteen years old Annabelle Blue works in her family's dry-goods store. However she has dreams of seeing the world that she has read about. Her boyfriend Phil Gunderson is a highly regarded rodeo performer, but Annabelle doubts she will see the world with him as to Phil the southwest is the world.
She looks forward to the annual rodeo because she meets interesting people from different places. This year also includes a tent revivalist gala, which means more people from elsewhere. However, Annabelle never expected the revivalist preacher Reverend Strickland’s beautiful vivacious sister Esther Strickland would have Phil salivating after her as well as his rodeo rival champion Kenny Sawyer; his fiancée Sarah Molina is as distraught as Anabelle is; each is upset with Esther treating their boyfriends like candy and their boyfriends reciprocating the sweetness. When Kenny is poisoned on the rodeo’s second night, the police suspect his jealous fiancée. That changes when a second homicide occurs, in which Sarah has no motive.
This is an enjoyable historical mystery with the emphasis on time and place as the audience will feel Alice Duncan enchantingly transported readers to 1920s New Mexico. The cast is solid especially Annabelle, who tells the tale, although she is not as enticing as Daisy Gumm Majesty is. The whodunit is cleverly devised, but remains in the background to observing life in Rosedale circa 1923.
Harriet Klausner
Got No Friends Anyhow-Peggy Ehrhart
Got No Friends Anyhow
Peggy Ehrhart
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149320
Maxx Maxwell is the lead singer of the Maxximum Blues band. She has big hopes that a CD her boyfriend Rick Schneider is producing for the band will help them with getting gigs in Manhattan. However, when she goes out to his home in Nyack, New York, he is missing. Initial evidence implies he returned to his former girlfriend Brenda Honeycutt, which would break Maxx’s heart for the second time; guitar player Sandy being the first.
However, .she becomes concerned when she notices dried blood on the wall in his home. Maxx also wonders what happened to the CD master that should have been in Rick’s studio, but is not. Soon after her visit, Rick is found dead executed by a bullet to his head. The cops assume Rick was killed by the mob for selling pirated CDs. However, Maxx has doubts that he would betray her. Wanting her band’s master, she starts investigating looking into when Rick played with Meal back in the 1980s; she is stunned to learn two other band members are also dead with two still surviving for now.
The second blues amateur sleuth (see Sweet Man Is Gone) is an enjoyable look at the Manhattan (and Hackensack) music scene in which Peggy Ehrhart describes literally a cutthroat competition with piracy adding to the criminal activity. The story line is fun to follow as the magic of the blues is in murder not music leading to an entertaining gig.
Harriet Klausner
Peggy Ehrhart
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149320
Maxx Maxwell is the lead singer of the Maxximum Blues band. She has big hopes that a CD her boyfriend Rick Schneider is producing for the band will help them with getting gigs in Manhattan. However, when she goes out to his home in Nyack, New York, he is missing. Initial evidence implies he returned to his former girlfriend Brenda Honeycutt, which would break Maxx’s heart for the second time; guitar player Sandy being the first.
However, .she becomes concerned when she notices dried blood on the wall in his home. Maxx also wonders what happened to the CD master that should have been in Rick’s studio, but is not. Soon after her visit, Rick is found dead executed by a bullet to his head. The cops assume Rick was killed by the mob for selling pirated CDs. However, Maxx has doubts that he would betray her. Wanting her band’s master, she starts investigating looking into when Rick played with Meal back in the 1980s; she is stunned to learn two other band members are also dead with two still surviving for now.
The second blues amateur sleuth (see Sweet Man Is Gone) is an enjoyable look at the Manhattan (and Hackensack) music scene in which Peggy Ehrhart describes literally a cutthroat competition with piracy adding to the criminal activity. The story line is fun to follow as the magic of the blues is in murder not music leading to an entertaining gig.
Harriet Klausner
Fashion Victim-Sue Swift
Fashion Victim
Sue Swift
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149306
Corporate raider Fletcher Wolf sues couturier Cara Fletcher for fifty million dollars claiming her Fletcher’s Gear line of menswear infringes on his Fletcher Tool and Gear transmissions. Her lawyer and BFF Annemarie Slye says they can win in court but the cost will prove crippling. Fletcher meets Fletcher with both accompanied by their lawyers to discuss the suit. Both are stunned by their attraction to one another, but he handles his desire smoother than she does.
Meanwhile Cara struggles to connect with her tween daughter Natalie recently dumped on her by the child’s no longer wealthy dad who won custody years ago. At the same the designer has been the victim of a harassment campaign that started with nasty phone calls but escalates to vandalism of her workshop and home that costs her money she does not have. Like the wolf he is Fletcher takes control of her firm. As she looks at the books, he realizes someone has been stealing from the firm. He leans towards Cara’s assistant Maggie Anderson until she is murdered. In love with Cara, Fletcher vows to keep her safe and to uncover the identity of the culprit although he knows his beloved wonders if he is the perpetrator.
This is an engaging amateur sleuth romance starring two likable lead characters. The story line starts a bit slow as readers meet the key cast members, but once the assault escalates the plot takes off at a fast pace. Readers will enjoy this entertaining tale with a clever late twist as the audience wonders who is behind the attacks and why.
Harriet Klausner
Sue Swift
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149306
Corporate raider Fletcher Wolf sues couturier Cara Fletcher for fifty million dollars claiming her Fletcher’s Gear line of menswear infringes on his Fletcher Tool and Gear transmissions. Her lawyer and BFF Annemarie Slye says they can win in court but the cost will prove crippling. Fletcher meets Fletcher with both accompanied by their lawyers to discuss the suit. Both are stunned by their attraction to one another, but he handles his desire smoother than she does.
Meanwhile Cara struggles to connect with her tween daughter Natalie recently dumped on her by the child’s no longer wealthy dad who won custody years ago. At the same the designer has been the victim of a harassment campaign that started with nasty phone calls but escalates to vandalism of her workshop and home that costs her money she does not have. Like the wolf he is Fletcher takes control of her firm. As she looks at the books, he realizes someone has been stealing from the firm. He leans towards Cara’s assistant Maggie Anderson until she is murdered. In love with Cara, Fletcher vows to keep her safe and to uncover the identity of the culprit although he knows his beloved wonders if he is the perpetrator.
This is an engaging amateur sleuth romance starring two likable lead characters. The story line starts a bit slow as readers meet the key cast members, but once the assault escalates the plot takes off at a fast pace. Readers will enjoy this entertaining tale with a clever late twist as the audience wonders who is behind the attacks and why.
Harriet Klausner
Town in a Lobster Stew-B.B. Haywood
Town in a Lobster Stew
B.B. Haywood
Berkley, Feb 1 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425240014
Candy Holliday moved with her father to the small seaside Maine town of Cape Willington where they work their blueberry farm. It is a town that attracts tourists in the summer starting on Memorial Day when the lobster stew cook-out takes place.
Elderly Wilma Mae calls Candy to ask her to find her missing recipe that won the event thirteen years in a row. Mr. Sedley gave that recipe to Wilma with the stipulation she conceal it in a secret drawer. Candy, who writes the Community Corner for the Cape Crier and is also an unofficial detective agrees to look for it. Before she get very far, the body of Mr. Sedley is found wrapped in a tarp in Wilma’s basinet. Candy changes her inquiry into learning who killed Mr. Sedley and why When she figures out who the culprit, the case spins as that person is murdered. Like the Energizer bunny, Candy continues her probe only the killer watches very move she makes
This is a charming cozy (in spite of the homicides) as B.B. Haywood captures the essence of coastal New England as she did with Town in a Blueberry Jam. Candy is sweet except when she stumbles on to a murder mystery; she admits she gets a precarious thrill investigating homicides. Although a carpetbagger of sorts, she nicely fits in with the eccentric townsfolk as she matches everyone quirk for quirk. With seafood and recipes adding to the flavor of a Town in a Lobster Stew, sub-genre fans will enjoy spending early summer in Maine.
Harriet Klausner
B.B. Haywood
Berkley, Feb 1 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780425240014
Candy Holliday moved with her father to the small seaside Maine town of Cape Willington where they work their blueberry farm. It is a town that attracts tourists in the summer starting on Memorial Day when the lobster stew cook-out takes place.
Elderly Wilma Mae calls Candy to ask her to find her missing recipe that won the event thirteen years in a row. Mr. Sedley gave that recipe to Wilma with the stipulation she conceal it in a secret drawer. Candy, who writes the Community Corner for the Cape Crier and is also an unofficial detective agrees to look for it. Before she get very far, the body of Mr. Sedley is found wrapped in a tarp in Wilma’s basinet. Candy changes her inquiry into learning who killed Mr. Sedley and why When she figures out who the culprit, the case spins as that person is murdered. Like the Energizer bunny, Candy continues her probe only the killer watches very move she makes
This is a charming cozy (in spite of the homicides) as B.B. Haywood captures the essence of coastal New England as she did with Town in a Blueberry Jam. Candy is sweet except when she stumbles on to a murder mystery; she admits she gets a precarious thrill investigating homicides. Although a carpetbagger of sorts, she nicely fits in with the eccentric townsfolk as she matches everyone quirk for quirk. With seafood and recipes adding to the flavor of a Town in a Lobster Stew, sub-genre fans will enjoy spending early summer in Maine.
Harriet Klausner
Alex Cross’s Trial-James Patterson and Richard DiLallo
Alex Cross’s Trial
James Patterson and Richard DiLallo
Vision (Grand Central), Nov 30 2011, $9.99
ISBN: 9780446557788
His grandmother used to tell Alex Cross when he was a child the heroic tale of his great uncle Abraham who battled against the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan in the first decade of the twentieth century in Mississippi. Now Alex as a father tells the same story to his children, but not as an oral saga, but as a novel Trial.
In Washington D.C., Ben Corbett is a crusading attorney fighting in court against the suppression of freedom. President Teddy Roosevelt asks Ben to return to his hometown of Eudora, Mississippi to investigate rumors that the Ku Klux Klan has returned with a fiery vengeance. When Ben meets Abraham Cross and his granddaughter Moody, he asks for their help on achieving his presidential assignment. They introduce him to the terror side of Southern living for people of color with the myriad of burnings and lynching Blacks suffer with. Already considered a traitor by the people he grew up with including his father for his passionate defense of Blacks and other suppressed people, Ben vows to end the terror.
This is a well written timely historical thriller that will remind readers America still has a cross to bear as violent intolerance towards others still remains. The title is misleading on two fronts as Alex has a cameo appearance and Ben is much more the hero than Abraham. Still though no classic Cross or Women’s Murder Club detecting, fans of early twentieth century thrillers will enjoy this early twentieth century Mississippi Burning.
Harriet Klausner
James Patterson and Richard DiLallo
Vision (Grand Central), Nov 30 2011, $9.99
ISBN: 9780446557788
His grandmother used to tell Alex Cross when he was a child the heroic tale of his great uncle Abraham who battled against the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan in the first decade of the twentieth century in Mississippi. Now Alex as a father tells the same story to his children, but not as an oral saga, but as a novel Trial.
In Washington D.C., Ben Corbett is a crusading attorney fighting in court against the suppression of freedom. President Teddy Roosevelt asks Ben to return to his hometown of Eudora, Mississippi to investigate rumors that the Ku Klux Klan has returned with a fiery vengeance. When Ben meets Abraham Cross and his granddaughter Moody, he asks for their help on achieving his presidential assignment. They introduce him to the terror side of Southern living for people of color with the myriad of burnings and lynching Blacks suffer with. Already considered a traitor by the people he grew up with including his father for his passionate defense of Blacks and other suppressed people, Ben vows to end the terror.
This is a well written timely historical thriller that will remind readers America still has a cross to bear as violent intolerance towards others still remains. The title is misleading on two fronts as Alex has a cameo appearance and Ben is much more the hero than Abraham. Still though no classic Cross or Women’s Murder Club detecting, fans of early twentieth century thrillers will enjoy this early twentieth century Mississippi Burning.
Harriet Klausner
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Scared to Death-Wendy Corsi Staub
Scared to Death
Wendy Corsi Staub
Avon, Dec 28 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780061895074
Elsa Cavalon and Marin Quinn share in common the loss of the same child (see Live to Tell). Fifteen years ago, Elsa’s adopted son seven year old Jeremy was kidnapped. Over two decades ago Marin gave up her newborn son Jeremy for adoption. Neither has moved pass their losses, as each believe Jeremy is dead. Both are trying to do so with varying success. In Groton, Connecticut Elsa has adopted another child seven years old Renny while Manhattanize Marin struggles with the betrayal and lies of her husband a disgraced arrested Congressman and being there for their daughters.
However, nothing goes smoothly for either disturbed woman. They will soon be back teetering on the precipice again when a new horror hits both of them. A raging watcher angry at both women and jealous of their offspring makes plans for each mother. Elsa and Marin soon struggle to prevent any harm to their love ones, but to do so probably will cost either one or both their lives as the watcher demands they choose.
This is a powerful chiller as sometimes the paranoia proves right. The cast is solid especially the full blooded women and the troubled watcher. Fans need to set aside time as Wendy Corsi Staub provides a strong exhilarating suspenseful thriller that grips readers from start to finish as the return of two moms from Live To Tell may end up dead unable to tell,
Harriet Klausner
Wendy Corsi Staub
Avon, Dec 28 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780061895074
Elsa Cavalon and Marin Quinn share in common the loss of the same child (see Live to Tell). Fifteen years ago, Elsa’s adopted son seven year old Jeremy was kidnapped. Over two decades ago Marin gave up her newborn son Jeremy for adoption. Neither has moved pass their losses, as each believe Jeremy is dead. Both are trying to do so with varying success. In Groton, Connecticut Elsa has adopted another child seven years old Renny while Manhattanize Marin struggles with the betrayal and lies of her husband a disgraced arrested Congressman and being there for their daughters.
However, nothing goes smoothly for either disturbed woman. They will soon be back teetering on the precipice again when a new horror hits both of them. A raging watcher angry at both women and jealous of their offspring makes plans for each mother. Elsa and Marin soon struggle to prevent any harm to their love ones, but to do so probably will cost either one or both their lives as the watcher demands they choose.
This is a powerful chiller as sometimes the paranoia proves right. The cast is solid especially the full blooded women and the troubled watcher. Fans need to set aside time as Wendy Corsi Staub provides a strong exhilarating suspenseful thriller that grips readers from start to finish as the return of two moms from Live To Tell may end up dead unable to tell,
Harriet Klausner
Other Eyes-Barbara D’Amato
Other Eyes
Barbara D’Amato
Forge, Jan 18 2011, $25.99
ISBN: 9780765326065
Northwestern University forensic anthropologist Blue Eriksen is known for causing controversy amongst her peers. Her latest assertion comes from her project on the use of hallucinogens in ancient religions. Her study of mummies has led her to conclude that the ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms psilocybin will cure drug addiction; which causes controversy beyond just her peers.
The international Leeuwarden Associates illegal drug consortium wants no interference with their multi trillion dollar industry so they hire assassin Felix Hacker to kill her. Although a top killer, he has trouble completing his mission even as he is part of her team at a field dig. His failure is because Federal agent Marcus Holton and art recovery expert Joseph Stryker have reasons to bring Hacker to justice.
Blue is a fabulous protagonist though some in the anthropology world would label her antagonist. Her family life as a mom and a romance enhances the thriller while the excavations will have armchair readers feel they on site in digs in Turkey and Peru. Although the final confrontation seems wrong as a professional killer acts out of character with death by a thousand words, fans will enjoy the escapades of Blue Eriksen.
Harriet Klausner
Barbara D’Amato
Forge, Jan 18 2011, $25.99
ISBN: 9780765326065
Northwestern University forensic anthropologist Blue Eriksen is known for causing controversy amongst her peers. Her latest assertion comes from her project on the use of hallucinogens in ancient religions. Her study of mummies has led her to conclude that the ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms psilocybin will cure drug addiction; which causes controversy beyond just her peers.
The international Leeuwarden Associates illegal drug consortium wants no interference with their multi trillion dollar industry so they hire assassin Felix Hacker to kill her. Although a top killer, he has trouble completing his mission even as he is part of her team at a field dig. His failure is because Federal agent Marcus Holton and art recovery expert Joseph Stryker have reasons to bring Hacker to justice.
Blue is a fabulous protagonist though some in the anthropology world would label her antagonist. Her family life as a mom and a romance enhances the thriller while the excavations will have armchair readers feel they on site in digs in Turkey and Peru. Although the final confrontation seems wrong as a professional killer acts out of character with death by a thousand words, fans will enjoy the escapades of Blue Eriksen.
Harriet Klausner
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