Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen-Bill Crider

Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen


Bill Crider

Minotaur, Aug 21 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312640170



At the Beauty Shack in Clearview, Texas someone mashes in the head of hair stylist Lynn Ashton using a hair blower. Blacklin County Sheriff Dan Rhodes leads the homicide investigation.



Owner Sandra Wiley, who found the corpse, tells Rhodes that Lynn was waiting for a late client after her and her other two employees (Abby and Lonnie) left for the day. He quickly learns Lynn apparently had trysts with married men and blackmailed them though Rhodes cannot confirm either of these allegations. While he and his team investigate the Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen, the murder of Jeff Tyler occurs. At the same time someone steals copper and car batteries, a pregnant Terrorist Terror of a goat frightens the townsfolk and amateur sleuth Seepy Benton insists he is not fictional sheriff Sage Barton.



The latest Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries (see The Wild Hog Murders) is a strong police procedural. The key Rhodes’ investigation is the enigmatic Lynn proves to be a mystery with every potential clue to whom she really was only obfuscating the inquiry. Benton provides comic relief to an engaging Texas whodunit as immigration and high school football collide.



Harriet Klausner

Last Lawyer Standing-Douglas Corleone

Last Lawyer Standing


Douglas Corleone

Minotaur, Aug 21 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312552282



In Honolulu, Assistant U.S. Attorneys William F. Boyd and Audra Levy offer criminal Turi Ahina a deal if he wants to avoid a long sentence for his meth lab. They expect Turi to go undercover inside the gang led by drug lord Orlando Masonet whom no one seems to have met. However, the cops arrest Turi for shooting Police Detective Kanoa Bristol. For the zillionth time, criminal defense attorney Kevin Corvelli defends Turi using the cop is corrupt as their arrack.



Running for reelection, Hawaii Governor Wade Omphrey, though not charged as he has an alibi, retains Corvelli when his mistress Oksana Sutin is found dead due to strychnine poisoning. The case remains unsolved but the damage to the Governor’s bid for a second term seems insurmountable while Corvelli assignment is persuading the cops his client did not hire hit man Lok Sun or any other pro.



The lasts Corvelli legal thriller (see Night on Fire and One Man's Paradise) is an exciting though by the book Hawaiian tale in which the protagonist paints the cops on the take while convincing the same cops whose reputation he nukes that his other client is clean. Fast-paced and filled with twists though some seem obvious; fans will enjoy this entertaining complicated mystery as cynical Corvelli works his two cases in his wisenheimer manner.



Harriet Klausner

A Killing in the Hills-Julia Keller

A Killing in the Hills


Julia Keller

Minotaur, Aug 21 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9781250003485



At the Salty Dawg restaurant in Acker's Gap, West Virginia, seventeen year old Carla Elkins waits for her divorced mom, Raythune County's prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins, to arrive. Instead the teen watches in horror as a gun man shoots in the heads three elderly men (sexagenarian Daniel Dean Streeter, septuagenarian Paul Arnold “Shorty” McClurg, and octogenarian Ralph Leroy Rader) drinking coffee together. The trio dies instantly.



Sheriff Fogelsong leads the investigation in which many saw the horror unfold, none can describe the executioner. Bell, who has worked closely with Fogelsong on illegal prescription drug trafficking, joins the inquiry. Meanwhile Carla, displaying teen resilience by recovering emotionally rather quickly, decides she is best suited to helping her estranged mom find the killer and get closer to her mother too. At the same tome the local drug chief puts a bounty on Bell.



A Killing In The Hills is a terrific Appalachia murder mystery with a strong cast who brings to life dying in the hopeless whirlpool of poverty. The mother and daughter duet keep the vivid tale focused, but it is the residence of Acker's Gap who turns Julia Keller’s thriller into one of the best regional whodunits of the year.



Harriet Klausner

Hunt the Wolf: A SEAL Team Six Novel-Don Mann and Ralph Pezzullo

Hunt the Wolf: A SEAL Team Six Novel


Don Mann and Ralph Pezzullo

Mulholland, Jun 26 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780316209595



Sheik Abu “AZ” Rasul Zaman runs a lucrative international trafficking ring that obtains its product by kidnapping young women and girls to sell to customers at exorbitant prices. With the demand high and the supply steady, the al-Qaeda top level official uses his profits to fund international terrorist activities like the car bombing of the U.S. embassy in Morocco.



SEAL Team Six led by U.S. Navy Chief Warrant Officer Tom Crocker attack a warehouse in Karachi where AZ is hiding. He escapes, but the team finds plenty of evidence on the sex kidnapping trafficking in France and the Syrena apparently invovled with this illegal money making commodity.



The co-authors of Don Mann’s memoir Inside SEAL Team Six: My Life and Missions with America's Elite Warriors provide an exciting action-packed thriller though over the top of K2 (not sure why the team took a timeout to climb it). Fast-paced from the opening destruction of the embassy in Morocco and never slowing down, fans will enjoy the exploits of Team Six as they kick terrorist butt.



Harriet Klausner

And When She Was Good-Laura Lippman

And When She Was Good


Laura Lippman

Morrow, Aug 14 2012, $26.99

ISBN: 9780061706875



In 1989 her abusive father informs young Heloise Lewis “You have a nothing face.” At the time she was hurt by his callowness though that was her cruel dad being his usual nastiness. Now she thrives on that non visage as a suburban Maryland single soccer mom who always attends her middle school son Scott’s games. A widow, Heather runs the Women’s Full Employment Network that is registered with the IRS as a not for profit lobbying for equal pay. However, in fact the firm is a front for a six stable call girl operation.



For a decade Heloise has been a doting mom, a successful madam and a failure lobbyist. However, her construct collapses when she learns that Scott’s biological dad Val Deluca, who was her pimp, may get out of prison; a place she sent him to on a homicide life sentence conviction. Though Val knows nothing about an offspring or who betrayed him, Heloise is frightened as a recently caught suburban madam died mysteriously. She assumes Val would expect to return as her pimp or to kill her as he would suspect she betrayed him. Heloise knows it is time to reinvent herself.



Heloise is a fascinating character who co-starred with her sister in “Scratch a Woman” (see Hardly Knew Her anthology). A former call girl turned madam she has reinvented herself in the past, but has the complication of her tweener son. Fast-paced, readers will appreciate Heloise’s plight as she leans towards flight over fight.



Harriet Klausner

The Pleasures of Men-Kate Williams

The Pleasures of Men


Kate Williams

Voice/Hyperion, Aug 7 2012, $15.99

ISBN: 9781401324230



In 1840 the Man of Crows serial killer has recession-rocked Londoners living in fear. He stabs his victims to death. However, his deadly signature is to stuff their plaited hair into their mouths; carve open their chest cavity; and place a penny on the heart.



Nineteen year old orphan Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her uncle Mr. Crenaban in a home marked by death masks and locked rooms forbidden to her. While she just wants to live with her Grace; her uncle wants to marry her off so he introduces her to Constantine Janisser whose extolled accomplishments have her sarcastically praising him to his amusement. She becomes interested when he mentions recent robberies near his office in which the thief leaves behind drawings of flora and fauna on the walls. Soon afterward Catherine, feeling an affinity to the Man of Crows’ deceased, writes about the victims and eventually the killer unaware of what she has wrought on herself and those close to her.



The Pleasures of Men is a superb early Victorian psychological suspense that grips the reader from the moment we meet Catherine whose essays note the sham of Victorian society when it comes to the plight of single women without protection even from a killer. Fast-paced this is a taut historical mystery.



Harriet Klausner

Sour Apples-Sheila Connolly

Sour Apples


Sheila Connolly

Berkley Prime Crime, Aug 7 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 978-0425251508



One year ago her Boston bank downsized her so Meg Corey bought an apple orchard in Granford, Massachusetts. Though she is learning on the job especially from her manager Briona Stewart, Meg feels good with the change in employment and likes selectman Seth Chapin.



Her only friend at the bank, Lauren Converse arrives in town as the campaign manager for former local football hero Rick Sainsbury who is running for Congress. Seth overly shows he loathes Rick but will not tell anyone why. Meanwhile a cow kicks and kills experienced dairy farmer Joyce Truesdell while her husband Ethan was away on business. However, the autopsy proves a homicide occurred and the police suspect Ethan killed his wife. Meg wonders if the motive had to do with government-owned land that the deceased was leasing and complaining was toxic. Unable to stay out of the inquiry, Meg investigates.



The latest Orchard Mystery (Bitter Harvest and A Killer Crop) is a fun amateur sleuth in which the whodunit comes towards the middle of the engaging storyline as life in a small western Massachusetts town takes center stage. Although meg has no reason to investigate as she only just met the victim once and never the husband until after the murder, fans will enjoy the heroine taking a bite out of crime in this fun regional cozy.



Harriet Klausner