Half-Price Homicide
Elaine Viets
Obsidian, May 2010, $22.95
ISBN: 9780451229892
When the judge awarded Rob half his wife’s earnings for life, Helen Hawthorne refuses to pay this outrageous alimony. She leaves her affluent home in St. Louis and goes on the run until she reaches Fort Lauderdale where she works at a series of dead end jobs. Helen also meets her fiancé private investigator Phil at the apartment complex they both live in. Phil wants to marry her, but before they can Helen must return to St. Louis to fix her legal and financial liabilities.
Meanwhile she works at Snapdragon, a high class consignment shop. One of the repeat customers Chrissy comes in with a purse to sell, but her husband follows her to the shop. They end up in a shouting match; broken up by the store owner. Chrissy enters a dressing room to try on a dress. When the proprietor enters to see how it looks on her, Chrissy is dead. Helen knows the woman was murdered as there is blood on a décor pineapple. When she returns from St. Louis, she is shocked that her employer has lost so many customers and considers closing the shop. With Phil’s help, Helen investigates the homicide hoping to find the killer and keep the store open.
The Dead-End Job mysteries (see Killer Cuts) are always fun to read due to the heroine but Half-Price Homicide is especially a delight as long story arcs are completed and new ones begin; making this a must for series fans. Meanwhile Rob tries to blackmail his ex wife, but she refuses knowing she will return to St. Louis to end the legal travesty. Her time in Missouri is interesting while her sleuthing in Florida is clever as both subplots blend together smoothly in a fascinating major move forward for Helen.
Harriet Klausner
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The Secret of Excalibur-Andy McDermott
The Secret of Excalibur
Andy McDermott
Bantam, Mar 23 2010, $7.99
ISBN 9780553592955
Eddie Chase and Nina Wilde have been successful with finding ancient myths (see The Hunt for Atlantis and The Tomb of Hercules). Not the type to sit on their laurels, neither knows what next until family friend historian Bernd Rust sends Nina a cryptic message about the sword of Excalibur. He explains to her his belief shared by a Russian that Arthur's legendary sword exists and is a source of earth energy no longer used in modern times.
Before they can further talk, Rust is murdered. Nina sells Eddie on the worthiness of a search while fearing a Russian Kruglov perhaps backed by his government and the American governments are also seeking the sword that allegedly makes a bearer invincible in battle. Lost for over a millennium, the daring duet begins their search in the deserts of the Middle East, but as they elude deadly encounters, they follow clues to Siberia.
The third Wilde and Chase adventure thriller is a fast-paced, action-packed and over the top of Camelot saga that is fun to read. From the opening scene with Kruglov, the giant Russian and the blue-haired lady visiting a church but not for confession until the final anticipated confrontation, fans will enjoy the escapades of the lead heroes as they distrust the Americans as much as the Russians. This work is very entertaining, a superb thriller that hooks the audience from the very first page.
Harriet Klausner
Andy McDermott
Bantam, Mar 23 2010, $7.99
ISBN 9780553592955
Eddie Chase and Nina Wilde have been successful with finding ancient myths (see The Hunt for Atlantis and The Tomb of Hercules). Not the type to sit on their laurels, neither knows what next until family friend historian Bernd Rust sends Nina a cryptic message about the sword of Excalibur. He explains to her his belief shared by a Russian that Arthur's legendary sword exists and is a source of earth energy no longer used in modern times.
Before they can further talk, Rust is murdered. Nina sells Eddie on the worthiness of a search while fearing a Russian Kruglov perhaps backed by his government and the American governments are also seeking the sword that allegedly makes a bearer invincible in battle. Lost for over a millennium, the daring duet begins their search in the deserts of the Middle East, but as they elude deadly encounters, they follow clues to Siberia.
The third Wilde and Chase adventure thriller is a fast-paced, action-packed and over the top of Camelot saga that is fun to read. From the opening scene with Kruglov, the giant Russian and the blue-haired lady visiting a church but not for confession until the final anticipated confrontation, fans will enjoy the escapades of the lead heroes as they distrust the Americans as much as the Russians. This work is very entertaining, a superb thriller that hooks the audience from the very first page.
Harriet Klausner
Monday, March 8, 2010
Dark Alley-Evan Marshall
Dark Alley
Evan Marshall
Severn House, Mar 2010, $27.95
ISBN: 9780727868350
NYC Department of Sanitation Manhattan Central District 13 Section Chief Anna Winthrop breaks up a fight between two crew members, Ernesto Balcazer and Garry Thompson over a third crew person Kelly Moore. Soon afterward, Garry’s partner Terrence King calls Anna to say his teammate vanished after going behind the New Amsterdam Mews to collect garage. The next day Anna’s boyfriend police officer Santos Reyes learns of Garry’s body found in the Mews. NYPD Detectives Rinaldi and Roche lead the investigation.
Anna thinks the link is to a rape incident in Iraq where Garry served two tours and a brother in arms was accused, jailed and killed in prison waiting a local trial. However, the pattern does not hold up when a second corpse of a murdered woman is found inside the Amster Mews. Dubbed by the media as the Mews Killer Anna continues her inquiries trying to find the elusive link that ties the corpses together when a cold blooded killer kills two more times and targets her too.
This is a superb Hidden Manhattan amateur sleuth (See Death Is Disposable and Evil Justice) as Anna with the cooperation of her boyfriend conducts her own investigation as she believes that NYPD will not probe deep enough to seek the patterns to the murders. Readers will find it difficult to accept that Santos escorts his civilian girlfriend to crime scenes and keeps her informed on the official investigation that he has no need to know; and likewise the two detectives allow him and Anna to stay at the crime scenes. Still this is an entreating whodunit as Evan Marshall provides tremendous red herrings and several wonderful twists as he introduces readers to fake Manhattan Mews as ideal murder locales.
Harriet Klausner
Evan Marshall
Severn House, Mar 2010, $27.95
ISBN: 9780727868350
NYC Department of Sanitation Manhattan Central District 13 Section Chief Anna Winthrop breaks up a fight between two crew members, Ernesto Balcazer and Garry Thompson over a third crew person Kelly Moore. Soon afterward, Garry’s partner Terrence King calls Anna to say his teammate vanished after going behind the New Amsterdam Mews to collect garage. The next day Anna’s boyfriend police officer Santos Reyes learns of Garry’s body found in the Mews. NYPD Detectives Rinaldi and Roche lead the investigation.
Anna thinks the link is to a rape incident in Iraq where Garry served two tours and a brother in arms was accused, jailed and killed in prison waiting a local trial. However, the pattern does not hold up when a second corpse of a murdered woman is found inside the Amster Mews. Dubbed by the media as the Mews Killer Anna continues her inquiries trying to find the elusive link that ties the corpses together when a cold blooded killer kills two more times and targets her too.
This is a superb Hidden Manhattan amateur sleuth (See Death Is Disposable and Evil Justice) as Anna with the cooperation of her boyfriend conducts her own investigation as she believes that NYPD will not probe deep enough to seek the patterns to the murders. Readers will find it difficult to accept that Santos escorts his civilian girlfriend to crime scenes and keeps her informed on the official investigation that he has no need to know; and likewise the two detectives allow him and Anna to stay at the crime scenes. Still this is an entreating whodunit as Evan Marshall provides tremendous red herrings and several wonderful twists as he introduces readers to fake Manhattan Mews as ideal murder locales.
Harriet Klausner
The Lie-Petra Hammesfahr
The Lie
Petra Hammesfahr
Bitter Lemon, May 2010, $14.95
ISBN: 9781904738428
Suzanne Lasko struggles to survive living in a dump in which she cannot pay the rent on time ever since her marriage ended and her teller job terminated for her inability to perform simple tasks. Apparently her mind never fully healed from a car accident several years ago. Her ailing mom lives in a home, so Suzanne who loves her makes up a life with a good paying job and a kind boyfriend. Desperately she does the unthinkable and uses her mom’s money to pay her bills.
Suzanne arrives at Behringer and partners for an interview. There she runs into her almost identical twin Nadia Trenkler though they are not related as far as either woman knows. Wealthy Nadia hires Suzanne to pose as her with her husband Michael for the weekend while she runs off for a tryst. Their first switch is successful so they do it again and again although Michael suspects something is not quite right with his wife.
The concept of twins switching identities is common in movies and books and this latest tale is an adult modernization of the Prince and The Pauper. Suzanne makes the tale with her bewildered mind and abject poverty impeding her fitting in the luxurious lifestyle of Nadia. Although plausibility is somewhat lost due to Michael’s actions and reactions and the too frequent switches, readers will enjoy this intriguing psychological suspense thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Petra Hammesfahr
Bitter Lemon, May 2010, $14.95
ISBN: 9781904738428
Suzanne Lasko struggles to survive living in a dump in which she cannot pay the rent on time ever since her marriage ended and her teller job terminated for her inability to perform simple tasks. Apparently her mind never fully healed from a car accident several years ago. Her ailing mom lives in a home, so Suzanne who loves her makes up a life with a good paying job and a kind boyfriend. Desperately she does the unthinkable and uses her mom’s money to pay her bills.
Suzanne arrives at Behringer and partners for an interview. There she runs into her almost identical twin Nadia Trenkler though they are not related as far as either woman knows. Wealthy Nadia hires Suzanne to pose as her with her husband Michael for the weekend while she runs off for a tryst. Their first switch is successful so they do it again and again although Michael suspects something is not quite right with his wife.
The concept of twins switching identities is common in movies and books and this latest tale is an adult modernization of the Prince and The Pauper. Suzanne makes the tale with her bewildered mind and abject poverty impeding her fitting in the luxurious lifestyle of Nadia. Although plausibility is somewhat lost due to Michael’s actions and reactions and the too frequent switches, readers will enjoy this intriguing psychological suspense thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Moon Spinners-Sally Goldenbaum
Moon Spinners
Sally Goldenbaum
Obsidian, Apr 27 2010,
ISBN: 9780451229885
The Seaside Knitters (Nell, Izzy, Cass and Birdie) are taking time off from helping Gracie Santos open her new restaurant the Lazy Lobster and Soup Café on Pelican Pier in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts. They are attending a charity event at the Country Club where Gracie’s Uncle Alphonso and his wife Sophia are joining with the Delaney’s Construction Company to donate at cost materials to build an addition to the community center at Pelican Bay.
Gracie’s mother Julianne shows up at the gala and makes a scene because her brother, in charge of her trust, refuses to give her any more spending money at the urgency of Sophia.. When Sophia leaves her party she loses control of her car and dies in the crash. The police find evidence that the brake line was cut so they arrest Julianne when they find material in her vehicle on how to fix a car’s brake line. The Seaside Knitters refuse to accept Julianne murdered her sister-in-law so they start their own investigation.
Readers will thoroughly enjoy the third Seaside Knitters amateur sleuth (see Death by Cashmere and Patterns in the Sand) because of the diverse yet likable lead protagonists whose interests vary, but remain close friends. They come across as detectives as they make inquiries the same way they knit, one stitch at a time. The key that brings plausibility to the fine story line is they do their investigation without facing life threatening danger. This is a delightful entry in a fun regional mystery series.
Harriet Klausner
Sally Goldenbaum
Obsidian, Apr 27 2010,
ISBN: 9780451229885
The Seaside Knitters (Nell, Izzy, Cass and Birdie) are taking time off from helping Gracie Santos open her new restaurant the Lazy Lobster and Soup Café on Pelican Pier in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts. They are attending a charity event at the Country Club where Gracie’s Uncle Alphonso and his wife Sophia are joining with the Delaney’s Construction Company to donate at cost materials to build an addition to the community center at Pelican Bay.
Gracie’s mother Julianne shows up at the gala and makes a scene because her brother, in charge of her trust, refuses to give her any more spending money at the urgency of Sophia.. When Sophia leaves her party she loses control of her car and dies in the crash. The police find evidence that the brake line was cut so they arrest Julianne when they find material in her vehicle on how to fix a car’s brake line. The Seaside Knitters refuse to accept Julianne murdered her sister-in-law so they start their own investigation.
Readers will thoroughly enjoy the third Seaside Knitters amateur sleuth (see Death by Cashmere and Patterns in the Sand) because of the diverse yet likable lead protagonists whose interests vary, but remain close friends. They come across as detectives as they make inquiries the same way they knit, one stitch at a time. The key that brings plausibility to the fine story line is they do their investigation without facing life threatening danger. This is a delightful entry in a fun regional mystery series.
Harriet Klausner
Tressed to Kill-Lila Dare
Tressed to Kill
Lila Dare
Berkley, May 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425234747
Quaint St. Elizabeth, Georgia is a typical southern small-town in which the locals know one another and the crime rate is extremely low. Grace Terhune and her mother Violetta own a beauty shop that they operate out of the latter’s home. They are swamped with customers who are going to attend the town meeting to discuss funds for the “Preserve the Rothmere Museum” and computers into the schools. The other item on the agenda is whether to allow Morestuf Mart to build a store in town.
Society doyenne Constance DuBois demands Violetta put highlights in her hair just prior to the big meeting. The hairdresser warns the haughty client that she already has too many chemicals and fears adding additional ones to Constance’s hair. Violetta proves right when Constance’s hair turns orange. Blaming Violetta, Constance vows to shut down the beauty salon. Following the meeting, they find Constance’s corpse in the parking lot. All evidence points strongly towards her mother, so Grace, knowing the cops will need all the help they can get, begins her own inquiry.
The first Southern Beauty Shop amateur sleuth nicely captures the ambience of life in a small Georgia town; for instance sayings like the War of Northern Aggression are accepted as much as the alphabet is. Grace is a classic steel magnolia who refuses to accept her mom’s guilt and the consequently closing of their beauty parlor. She determinedly investigates because she knows the townsfolk, especially the ladies, quite well and cannot afford to hire a professional detective. Rather quickly she finds others with motives to kill Constance though she struggles with who did the act. Lila Dare provides a fun regional amateur sleuth starring likable mother-daughter beauticians.
Harriet Klausner
Lila Dare
Berkley, May 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 9780425234747
Quaint St. Elizabeth, Georgia is a typical southern small-town in which the locals know one another and the crime rate is extremely low. Grace Terhune and her mother Violetta own a beauty shop that they operate out of the latter’s home. They are swamped with customers who are going to attend the town meeting to discuss funds for the “Preserve the Rothmere Museum” and computers into the schools. The other item on the agenda is whether to allow Morestuf Mart to build a store in town.
Society doyenne Constance DuBois demands Violetta put highlights in her hair just prior to the big meeting. The hairdresser warns the haughty client that she already has too many chemicals and fears adding additional ones to Constance’s hair. Violetta proves right when Constance’s hair turns orange. Blaming Violetta, Constance vows to shut down the beauty salon. Following the meeting, they find Constance’s corpse in the parking lot. All evidence points strongly towards her mother, so Grace, knowing the cops will need all the help they can get, begins her own inquiry.
The first Southern Beauty Shop amateur sleuth nicely captures the ambience of life in a small Georgia town; for instance sayings like the War of Northern Aggression are accepted as much as the alphabet is. Grace is a classic steel magnolia who refuses to accept her mom’s guilt and the consequently closing of their beauty parlor. She determinedly investigates because she knows the townsfolk, especially the ladies, quite well and cannot afford to hire a professional detective. Rather quickly she finds others with motives to kill Constance though she struggles with who did the act. Lila Dare provides a fun regional amateur sleuth starring likable mother-daughter beauticians.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Heirs of Cain-Tom Wallace
Heirs of Cain
Tom Wallace
Medallion, May 1 2010, $7.95
ISBN 9781605421025
In 1971 on both sides of the DMZ that supposedly divided Viet Nam, everyone in the North and South feared Cain the assassin who killed with his hands while looking at his victim’s eyes though some Communists are skeptical about the monster’s legend. However, most know he and his six guerilla warfare comrades (Snake, Cardinal, Deke, Seneca, Rafe and Moon) are the best just ask their superior officer General White who assigns the kills. However, after their deadly nightcrawler missions into the north end, the magnificent seven return to the States to accept their most difficult mission: becoming non-lethal civilians.
Four decades later, one of them Taylor is murdered in the exclusive Pinewood Estates on Pawley’s Island; his dying words to night watchman Moss is “Fallen Angels”. One of the seven Seneca has killed one of his former compatriots and is targeting the others as well while honing terrorist skills for a big attack on America. Professor Michael Collins learns of Seneca’s recent activity and decides that Cain must return knowing that he marks either himself or Seneca for death.
This is a dark thriller that asks intriguing questions about whether those deployed by the government as legal assassins having killed many of the enemy using any tactic necessary can truly return to civilian life. Although moral issues re government ethics of training and deploying assassins in combat are implied but sadly ignored for the High Noon suspense, readers who enjoy a fast-paced showdown thriller will want to peruse Tom Wallace’s exciting tale as Seneca and Cain complete the personal battle started in North Viet Nam forty years ago knowing only one will be left standing.
Harriet Klausner
Tom Wallace
Medallion, May 1 2010, $7.95
ISBN 9781605421025
In 1971 on both sides of the DMZ that supposedly divided Viet Nam, everyone in the North and South feared Cain the assassin who killed with his hands while looking at his victim’s eyes though some Communists are skeptical about the monster’s legend. However, most know he and his six guerilla warfare comrades (Snake, Cardinal, Deke, Seneca, Rafe and Moon) are the best just ask their superior officer General White who assigns the kills. However, after their deadly nightcrawler missions into the north end, the magnificent seven return to the States to accept their most difficult mission: becoming non-lethal civilians.
Four decades later, one of them Taylor is murdered in the exclusive Pinewood Estates on Pawley’s Island; his dying words to night watchman Moss is “Fallen Angels”. One of the seven Seneca has killed one of his former compatriots and is targeting the others as well while honing terrorist skills for a big attack on America. Professor Michael Collins learns of Seneca’s recent activity and decides that Cain must return knowing that he marks either himself or Seneca for death.
This is a dark thriller that asks intriguing questions about whether those deployed by the government as legal assassins having killed many of the enemy using any tactic necessary can truly return to civilian life. Although moral issues re government ethics of training and deploying assassins in combat are implied but sadly ignored for the High Noon suspense, readers who enjoy a fast-paced showdown thriller will want to peruse Tom Wallace’s exciting tale as Seneca and Cain complete the personal battle started in North Viet Nam forty years ago knowing only one will be left standing.
Harriet Klausner
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