Contemporary mysteries and thrillers ranging from the mid 1900s (plus or minus) to the present time
A promising debut novel that kept me up late… Liquid Shades of Blue is a promising first book from author James Polkinghorn. It’s a bit rough in places, but kept me reading much later into the night than I should have – not so much trying to figure out what happened (the outlines of which …
Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn is coming soon – a review Read More »
A slightly odd but enjoyable mix of police procedural and thriller… Retribution is the fifth book in Robert McCaw’s Koa Kane series, set in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s a slightly odd mix of police procedural and thriller, and although readers may have to suspend disbelief occasionally as a result, Retribution is …
A review of Retribution by Robert McCaw – coming soon Read More »
A cozy mystery with a bit of grit… Jane Adams has written a thoroughly engaging English countryside mystery featuring actress Rina Martin, who is now semi-retired and the “proprietress” of a Victorian era boarding house, Peverill Lodge. At first, the case appears pretty simple – so simple that there’s not really a case at all: …
A fun, not-quite-cozy, mystery… David Rosenfelt’s Good Dog, Bad Cop is the fourth in his K-Team mystery series, which is itself a spin-off from his Andy Carpenter series, And somehow I’ve never read any of them. But I was recently offered an advance review copy of Good Dog, and, even without having any background from …
Another solid police procedural set in Kuala Lumpur… It had been a while since I’d read one of Rozlan Mohd Noor’s Inspector Mislan books, so I was pleased to receive a review copy of the latest in the series from the publishers. Philanthropists: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners is, like the earlier books, a tightly …
A classic psychological mystery… I’m not usually a big fan of psychological thrillers, but even I can recognize that A Gentle Murderer is a classic of the genre. Although it’s actually not clear whether it’s a psychological thriller as much as it’s a psychological mystery, with two different “detectives” on the trail of the man …
Back to the awesome Kate Shugak mysteries of old… As Not the Ones Dead opens, a nasty incident involving Kate’s friend, Bobby Clark, one of the few Black men in the Park, makes it obvious that the outside world is tentacle-ing into the Park again in unpleasant ways. And the unpleasantness seems to be spreading. …
Not the Ones Dead by Dana Stabenow is coming in April – a review Read More »
A hard-to-put-down mix of thriller and police procedural… Alligator Alley starts with a wrenching scene, as we watch a young DOJ agent, Andie Moore, first tailing, and then being caught and killed by two men, in the Everglades. And, as we learn shortly afterwards, the two are DOJ employees themselves – they are FBI agents, …
A review of Alligator Alley by Mike Lawson – coming soon Read More »
Kind of like cotton candy: lots of fun with no deeper meaning… Aside from the rather macabre origins of the title (we’re told in the author’s note up front that executions in California are on Fridays), Fools Die on Friday is another light, quick read in Erle Stanley Gardner’s Bertha Cool/Donald Lam series. To be …
Review of Fools Die on Friday by Erle Stanley Gardner – e-book version coming soon Read More »
Who’s really the victim, and who’s just “collateral damage”? I had somehow missed out on the last few Ali Reynolds books, so I was happy to receive a review copy of the newest book in the series, Collateral Damage. And I found that all of the elements that I like in JA Jance’s books are …
A review of Collateral Damage by JA Jance – coming soon Read More »
