The Last Equation of Isaac Severy
Jean Gazis

Subtitled A Novel in Clues, The Last Equation of Isaac Severy asks the question “What if mathematics not only described the universe, but could actually predict the future?” When Isaac, the patriarch of the eccentric and exceptionally mathematically gifted Severy family, dies under suspicious circumstances, his far-flung clan gathers for the first time in many years.

Hazel, a Severy by adoption, and perhaps the most down-to-earth and ordinary family member, receives a cryptic letter from her grandfather, instructing her to destroy his recent work “before others find it,” and not to contact police, “even those related to you.” A recently homeless proprietor of a failing bookstore, Hazel struggles to figure out how to carry out her late grandfather’s instructions, while reconnecting with her quirky relatives and trying to avoid dealing with her personal crises. Meanwhile, several others—both family members and mysterious outsiders—are desperately seeking the dead genius’ final work. Can Hazel trust her charming long-lost cousin Alex? Why is her brother Greg acting so strangely? And who was following Isaac just before he died?

Alternating between Hazel’s point of view and those of her brother Gregory (a police officer) and her uncle Philip (a once-brilliant CalTech physicist who fears his best work is behind him), The Last Equation of Isaac Severy moves briskly through a series of puzzling clues and unexpected plot twists, keeping the reader intrigued all the way to its satisfying final resolution.


The numerous members of the Severy family, from precocious five-year-old Drew to senile grandmother Lily, are delightfully diverse and memorable characters. This entertaining debut novel has a cinematic feel that suits its Southern California setting. No special affinity for math is needed to follow Hazel, Philip, and Gregory as they navigate family drama and the streets of Los Angeles in search of answers.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-25 19:05:35
Then She Was Gone
Vanessa Orr

When Laurel Mack’s 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, disappears, Laurel’s life begins to crumble. Divorced and still mourning the girl’s loss ten years later, she hasn’t really moved forward until she meets Floyd. A chance meeting in a café becomes a romance, and slowly, Laurel starts to deal with the fact that her daughter is never coming home.

Moving on is made more difficult, though, when she meets Floyd’s daughter, Poppy, a child who looks just like Ellie. Not only that, but Laurel begins to wonder about her new beau, especially when she discovers that Poppy’s mother, Noelle, who has also disappeared, was once Ellie’s tutor. Though Laurel doesn’t know it, all three of their lives are deeply intertwined in a way that she, and the reader, could never have expected.

Through chapters labeled “then” and “now,” author Lisa Jewell allows the reader to see events as they actually happen to Ellie “then” and watch the mystery unfold through Laurel’s eyes “now.” She later inserts Noelle into the narrative, letting her tell the story from her own chilling perspective. For the reader, knowing what happens to Ellie, while simultaneously watching Laurel uncover the truth, creates an effective cringe-worthy tension, as we wait for Laurel to uncover the devastating facts behind her daughter’s disappearance.

The story is interesting in that a number of “chance” meetings drive the narrative, including the ones between Noelle and Ellie and Floyd and Laurel. It raises the bigger question of how each person’s life would have turned out if they had not made that one wrong move, or as Ellie describes it, experienced a “kink” in the timeline. Long after I finished the book, I was still wondering about how each move we make in life can affect not only ourselves, but the generations that come after.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-25 19:08:33
Holmes Entangled
Kevin Burton Smith

Once more Gordon McAlpine takes us down the crime fiction rabbit hole, with another dizzying metaphysical, postmodern acid trip of a book. Such literary sleight-of-hand tricks shouldn’t work on an old meat-and-potatoes reader like myself, but McAlpine’s clever, subversive deconstructions (and reconstructions) of the genre’s most beloved tropes pass the smell test because he never forgets what made us mystery fans in the first place.

By now, McAlpine has selected, inspected, dissected, and reconnected the legacies of Dashiell Hammett, Edgar Allan Poe, and even Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon, so it’s about time he tossed the Great Detective into his literary blender. And let me tell you, the results are delicious.

Sherlock Holmes, now in his seventies and still intellectually ravenous, is not raising bees in Sussex as widely reported. That’s a fiction concocted by his “biographer,” Watson, a fiction that Holmes himself scoffed at, but left unchallenged because it suited his purposes.

Rather, Holmes spends his days lecturing at various universities around the world under a myriad of bogus identities, on a variety of topics that interest him. Watson, his noble companion, dear friend, and chronicler, is long gone and sorely missed. Detective work holds little interest—if it ever truly did—for Holmes; it’s just another abandoned intellectual hobby.

Then, while passing himself off as a German scientist at Cambridge, Holmes is approached by a “middling” writer of historical works, Arthur Conan Doyle, who somehow knows who Holmes is. But even more disconcerting for Holmes is that the author claims to have discovered his real identity and whereabouts during—get this!—a séance. And now Doyle fears someone is trying to kill him. He wants Holmes’ help.

Finally! A challenge Holmes finds worthy. He jumps at it.

Nice, right? A humdinger of a case, full of mediums, assorted skullduggery, and possibly some secret conspiracy, with plenty of Sherlockiana for the faithful (Mrs. Hudson? Check. The Baker Street Irregulars? Check.), all narrated in the first person in a characteristically blunt style by Holmes himself, who admits, in a charming digression, to having gained a new appreciation for Watson’s literary efforts.

Those expecting another pastiche pot of regurgitated leftovers will be disappointed. Because baked right into the mix are wild theories of quantum physics and alternate realities, spiced up with nods to Poe and Harry Houdini, all wrapped up in a unpublished, reality-shaking memoir entitled Uncertainty, purportedly written by Holmes, and only discovered a few decades later by a young Buenos Aires librarian called Jorge Luis Borges.

Purists may blanch, but the game, most assuredly, is afoot.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-25 19:13:03
Murder at Half Moon Gate
Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

When the Earl of Wrexford and his friend Christopher Sheffield come upon a man brutally stabbed to death on a dark street in Regency-era London one night, the initial reaction of the authorities is to believe it’s a simple robbery gone bad. However, as more information comes out about the murdered man—a brilliant inventor who was close to designing a major improvement in steam engine design—the plot, like the London fog, thickens.

Although loath to become
 involved in solving another
 murder not long after he
 himself had been a prime 
suspect in a previous case (Murder on Black Swan Lake, 2017), Lord Wrexford is asked by the dead man’s wife to help find the killer. He is aided in his investigation by Sheffield and Charlotte Sloane, a widow who successfully took over her late husband’s role as a political cartoonist, and whose contacts were very helpful in Wrexford’s previous case.

Among the suspects are a fanatical group of Luddites who are against the modernization of machinery, believing that these improvements will put more and more working people out on the streets. Also coming under suspicion are the dead inventor’s primary rivals in the steam engine business, as well as his two assistants, who are now free to complete the patent process without him, not to mention his wife, who, despite asking Wrexford to take the case, is a strong-willed woman who inherits her husband’s lucrative business and seems perfectly capable of running it.

What makes this complex mystery more interesting is the potentially romantic relationship between Wrexford and Charlotte, despite the fact that they both fear the attraction and are constantly at loggerheads about how to proceed with the investigation. Fortunately, they resolve their differences and, together with two young homeless boys whom Charlotte has adopted and a motley group of their street-smart fellow urchins, finally uncover the vital clues that solve the case.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-25 19:18:41
Bottom Feeders
Matthew Fowler

Satirical in nature, Bottom Feeders is a fast-paced, fun read that explores a part of the movie business that often gets overlooked. In John Shepphird’s debut novel, the reader follows the cast and crew of a low-budget, made-for-television movie, who find themselves (literally) in the crosshairs of a deadly killer.

The whodunit nature of the book feels a bit beside the point in this dark comedy. Shoehorned into the story is a murderer who shoots deadly arrows at the cast and crew. It is a perfectly serviceable plot point, however, the true joy of Bottom Feeders is everything that surrounds the underlying mystery: Sheppird’s light touches and the super-specific send-up of the people who make movies that don’t ever end up in theaters.

Happy to make fun of aging actors who demand hats to cover their receding hairlines and directors who are more interested in hard liquor than the actual movie they’re working on, Shepphird never loses his playfulness as he delves into the intricacies of the business. But for all his lampoons, the author’s affection for these so-called bottom feeders is generously apparent.

The pages move quickly, the story adheres to a classic whodunit formula, and from “Action!” to “Cut!” it’s a pleasure to read.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-25 19:31:53
The Misadventures of 
Ellery Queen

Brian Skupin

The Misadventures of Ellery Queen is a fascinating collection of 16 stories related to the famous Golden Age detective, whose adventures were chronicled by Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. Dannay and Lee used “Ellery Queen” as their pseudonym as well. They also founded Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, which Dannay edited for many years.

The six stories in the Pastiches section are intended as homages, featuring Ellery, his father Inspector Queen, Sergeant Velie, and Nikki Porter. Standouts here include “The Book Case” by Dale C. Andrews and Kurt Sercu, which has Ellery solving a mystery with a dying clue involving his own books; “Dying Message” by Norma Schier (the anagrammed “Leyne Requel); and “Open Letter to Survivors” by Francis M. Nevins. “The Mystery of the Red Balloon,” by Thomas Narcejac, co-author with Pierre Boileau of Vertigo and Les Diaboliques fame, appears in English for the first time. Jon L. Breen and Edward D. Hoch also have top-notch stories in the style of the master.

One of three parodies is written by the prolific Arthur Porges: “The English Village Mystery” is amusing and a Queen-style puzzle. Arthur Vidro has a clever tale based on an Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine cover, and Josh Pachter writes about a young detective named after Ellery Queen trying to solve a case to earn his name.

Joseph Goodrich ends the collection with a terrific new story: “The Ten-Cent Murder.” The knockout one-line solution to a dying message would have made Dannay—the detective in Goodrich’s story—proud.

The editors provide an informative introduction full of Ellery Queen lore, and Dannay and Lee’s sons offer their comments.

This is a must-have collection for anyone who wants to experience the hallmarks of Queen-style storytelling: relentlessly analytical reasoning, inventive plotting, dying messages, and the comfortable banter of old friends.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 01:57:06
True Fiction
Oline H. Cogdill

Despite a truly heart-wrenching opening, in which an assassin remotely orchestrates the crash of a passenger jet into a Waikiki hotel, True Fiction quickly jumps into Elmore Leonard territory as a witty send-up of spy novels and the book industry.

In Lee Goldberg’s new series about bestselling writer Ian Ludlow (the pseudonym Goldberg used when he wrote his first novel, .357 Vigilante, in 1985), Goldberg delivers a character who seems, well, very much like the author himself.

On book tour, Ian is at a Seattle bookstore talking about his latest Clint Straker novel before a crowd of eight people. Despite the low turnout, he’s actually relieved to be on tour and living out of a suitcase, because he accidently blew up his house and, in the process, broke his arm. And Ian is also happy to be penning novels, even if not so successful, rather than the Hollywood & The Vine TV series he used to write about a “half man, half plant, all cop.”

But that doesn’t mean readers don’t arrive singing the show’s earworm of a song at his book signings:

Ooooh you heard about the cop Vine

A plant who can’t stand crime

You get caught, you’re gonna do time ...
Honey, honey yeah. . .

Oh, and it is sung to the chorus of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

Back at his hotel’s bar after the reading, Ian watches the news report about the commercial jet and is petrified. Years ago, Ian came up with the exact same scenario for the CIA, which had recruited him and a few other writers to imagine terrorist attack situations as part of a preparedness exercise. Someone has taken his fiction and made it a reality, and Ian believes he knows all too well who did the horrible deed.

Soon Ian, aided by his author escort Margo French (who is also a dog walker and a wannabe singer), is zigzagging through California and Las Vegas, followed by danger.


Goldberg, who like Ian has also written for television (Monk, Diagnosis: Murder, Baywatch, among others), keeps the spy thriller parody spritely, moving it along with bits of wry humor sprinkled throughout. Naturally, the assassin has the sexual prowess of James Bond. Alas, Ian lacks that skill. Goldberg has also written more than 30 books, many of them based on various TV series. This one, based on the author’s pseudonym, promises to be the first in what should be a most amusing series to follow.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:04:15
Rip Crew
Oline H. Cogdill

Sebastian Rotella’s talent for gritty, uncompromising thrillers is raised another notch with Rip Crew, his third novel. In it, journalist Leo Méndez and private investigator Valentine Pescatore team up to investigate the murder of ten African women in a Mexican motel. In their work, the two old friends have seen the worst of human nature. Leo was a former cop in Tijuana, Mexico, and Valentine works for Homeland Security in addition to his PI job. They believe that the women were killed by what is known as a rip crew, a ruthless gang that specializes in ripping off drug smugglers.

When the investigation connects to a news story Leo is researching about a US firm that may be laundering money for corrupt Mexican politicians, the danger for Leo and Valentine increases, and the trail leads them to Mexico, Southern California, Madrid, Chicago, Guatemala, and Italy.

Rotella excels in complex plots that deftly weave global issues with nonstop action. Despite the complicated story involving the international drug trade and politics, Rotella keeps the plot tightly focused with an eye toward realism. Perhaps the opposite of an escapist thriller, Rotella specializes in stories that are, at times, uncomfortable, as they force readers to examine some of the very worst of the real world.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:07:52
My Name Is Nathan Lucius
Matthew Fowler

The titular character in Mark Winkler’s novel My Name Is Nathan Lucius often doesn’t remember everything. In between drinking too much and working to sell ad space in a newspaper, he loses moments of his day to blackouts. It is in this space where the mystery of the novel lies.

What is really happening in those spaces that he can’t remember?

Nathan’s only friend, Madge, is dying of cancer. It’s slow and it hurts and Nathan hates seeing her suffer. It’s Madge’s request of Nathan to put her out of her misery that sends the protagonist into an emotional whirlwind.

Left to his own devices, Nathan is introspective, but Winkler’s novel is best when his unreliable narrator interacts with its tertiary characters. His boss tolerates him, his neighbor starts a steamy affair with him, and his only friend sees the good in him. It is from these connections outside of Nathan, more so than anything inside the character’s own head, that reveal who Nathan Lucius is, a fumbling man trying to live as normal a life as he possibly can.

My Name Is Nathan Lucius never moves at the breakneck pace of some other mystery novels, but it isn’t slow either. It is with steady confidence that Winkler builds out his protagonist’s psyche in this exploration of memory, death, friendship, euthanasia, and psychological trauma.

Nathan Lucius might not remember what has happened to him, but the reader certainly will.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:12:41
Exhibit Alexandra
Sharon Magee

Life imitating art imitating life is perhaps the best way to describe this debut psychological thriller by Natasha Bell, set as it is in the world of performance art, a world with which the protagonist, Alexandra Southwood, is enthralled.

When Alexandra disappears one night on her way home from work, her devoted husband, Marc, is beside himself, but doesn’t give up hope of finding her. Even when her bloody clothing is found by the town’s river, he refuses to believe she might be dead. The reader knows what Marc doesn’t—early on it’s revealed that she is being held captive in a room and that her captor is feeding her information about her family, friends, and the search for her.

Locked away, Alexandra, the lone narrator in this book, imagines Marc and their two young daughters searching for her. As she shares her thoughts and what she imagines is going on in the minds of her family, readers get an increasing sense of her unreliability as a narrator. Turns out she’s not very likable, as Marc, too, begins to discover after he finds a hidden box of letters in the attic from Alexandra’s college roommate, Amelia. He’s shocked upon reading them to learn the inner thoughts and feelings his wife has been hiding, but still sets out to do whatever he can to find her.

The message the reader takes away from this book, is: don’t be so sure you intimately know the hopes and dreams of the person you sleep next to every night. You probably don’t. To all outward appearances, Alexandra is a happy wife and mother with a career in academia, but as the reader learns, there is more to the story.

Exhibit Alexandra spends a lot of time delving into the psychological portraits of its characters; as a result, for a thriller it lacks real tension. However, diligent readers will be rewarded by the delicious ending that Bell has in store for them.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:19:28
The Intrusions
Craig Sisterson

Londoner Stav Sherez isn’t your standard police procedural series author. He writes literary crime thrillers with a joyfully dark heart, which just happen to involve police investigators. Sherez beautifully entwines style and substance, delivering some heft without disrupting a smooth, page-turning narrative.

The third in his Carrigan and Miller series taps into the hidden and potentially horrific results of our technology-focused modern lives. We don’t have to worry about George Orwell’s idea of an autocracy watching every move of its citizenship, we’ve pretty much done it to ourselves, by choice: a criminal uses available technology to stalk and terrorize his victims, remotely taking over their lives. Meanwhile, DI Carrigan is facing stark consequences for his past actions and his job and freedom are in jeopardy, and DS Miller interviews a drugged-up backpacker making wild claims about her friend being abducted and a man saying he’ll come back to “claim her next.”

In terms of creepiness, The Intrusions is “freezing fingers down your spine on a pitch-black night when you think you’re alone in an abandoned house, miles from help” level creepy. Sherez has a real talent for subtly building a fear-drenched atmosphere. The Intrusions hurtles along on a twisting journey, but it’s a richly layered story that has plenty to say too. There’s a crackle to his prose, a viewpoint and voice that’s distinct, and overall it’s just a pleasure to read (despite the creepy subject matter). Very, very good.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:25:40
The Punishment She Deserves
Robert Allen Papinchak

The Punishment She Deserves is Elizabeth George’s 20th Inspector Lynley novel. The superb police procedural series began in 1988 with the Anthony Award-winning A Great Deliverance, one of the finest mystery novels of the last 30 years. It introduced the “urbane, [Oxford] educated blue-blooded” Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his working-class partner Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers of New Scotland Yard. This latest entry is as bold, invigorating, and entertaining as the first.

In The Punishment She Deserves, Havers and Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery have been sent to verify the apparent suicide of a deacon, Ian Druitt, in the medieval town of Ludlow. Druitt, accused of child molestation, appears to have used a part of his vestments to hang himself. Druitt’s father, a wealthy brewery owner, is not convinced, and has threatened a lawsuit, sparking the Birmingham MP to conduct its own investigation. As Havers and Ardery begin their by-the-numbers inquiry, Havers, too, begins to suspect foul play.

The investigators find themselves
 in the company of two compelling secondary characters, the local police community support officer Gary “Gaz” Ruddock, and his superior, Deputy Chief Constable Clover Freeman. In addition to the suicide, the police are dealing with a town-and-gown feud over binge-drinking college students. Havers and Ardery quickly learn there are cultural clashes among families, and uncover more evidence that the suicide might be murder. Despite Havers’ insistence that they pursue the possibility, Ardery, battling her own demons (an ex-husband and alcoholism), demands they concur with the original findings.

It’s then, in part two of the lengthy but briskly paced novel, that Lynley comes on the scene. Havers shares her suspicions with him and they cover old ground to discover new clues that lead them to believe that “everyone’s connected to everyone else” in the labyrinthine plot of suicide, murder, rape, assault, and attempted murder.

It is a joy to read again about George’s engaging investigators, the incomparable sparring partners Lynley and Havers. Longtime readers will note that other characters from the series—Detective Chief Superintendent Isabelle Ardery, Assistant Commissioner Sir David Hillier, and Winston Nkata—make appearances. Simon St. James and his wife, Deborah, also make late cameos. Readers coming to George for the first time will be just as enthralled and satisfied as longtime fans of the immensely rewarding series.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:31:18
Bone Music
Hank Wagner

Billed as “A Burning Girl Thriller,” Christopher Rice’s latest tells the story of Charlotte “Charley” Rowe, aka Tina Pierce, who, unfortunately, has had to live a good part of her life in the public eye, for all the wrong reasons. As an infant, she was kidnapped by a pair of serial killers, who did their best to indoctrinate her into their unique belief system, until she was rescued at the age of seven. She then was raised by her biological father, who sought to monetize her bizarre experience through a series of self-help books, and by licensing her story to Hollywood, resulting in a series of horror films which make her cringe.

Seeking escape, the adult Charley adopts a new identity, and attempts to live life on her own terms. The Fates, however, are not through messing with her, as outside forces again interfere with her existence, sending her down a new, strange, and frightening path.

This being the first in a series, Rice engages in considerable stage setting and world building, which adds to the page count without adding much to the reading experience. But he is a pro (the realization that he has been a published author for nearly two decades now made me feel ancient), and so overcomes that minor issue, ultimately delivering a compelling science-fiction-tinged thriller that should please most readers, who will look forward eagerly to future installments in the series.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:34:16
The Way I Die
Oline H. Cogdill

Columbus is a killer for hire who wants to be left alone with his endless grief over the loss of his family. His wife was murdered during his last job (A Different Lie, 2015), after which he wisely sent his son away to be raised in a more “traditional” home. He has changed his name to Copeland and has relocated to a remote area of Michigan’s Mackinac Island. Most of his days are spent wondering how he will die. “The way I die is two taps to the head, stuffed in the trunk of a rental sedan.” “The way I die is exposure.” But perhaps saddest of all, “The way I die is forgotten and alone.”

Copeland is brought out of his funk by Archibald “Archie” Grant, who finds him despite his attempt to live off the grid. Archie is Copeland’s former fence and perhaps the only person left in the world whom he might be able to trust.

Archie has a different kind of job for Copeland—not as a contract killer, but as a protector. Uber-wealthy facial-recognition software designer Matthew Boone has been targeted by a killer, and Matthew’s two motherless boys also seem to be part of the “kill package.” Archie asks Copeland to keep them safe.

Against his better judgment, and despite the fact that he believes, “caring died for me under a covered bridge in Massachusetts. Caring died for me at a roadside diner outside Chicago,” Copeland begins to care about Matthew and his family. To a successful killer, that can be deadly.

Screenwriter Derek Haas (Chicago Fire) delivers a tense, tightly coiled plot that erupts with action on almost every page of The Way I Die. Although Copeland’s last outing was three years ago, Haas seamlessly picks up the mantle of his character, quickly reestablishing the world of his assassin. Amid the solid action, Haas also explores Copeland’s identity crisis. Is he the cold-blooded killer Columbus, or the reinvented Copeland? Is he “the sword” or “the armor”? he wonders.

Though at this point creating empathetic contract killers as an antihero is nothing new in the mystery genre, Haas delves into Copeland’s psyche in a way that seems fresh in The Way I Die.

Teri Duerr
2018-04-26 02:38:11
My Book: The Gangster’s Daughter

Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.

I grew up in an unusual, and sometimes outrageous, environment. It wouldn’t take a genius, a psychiatrist, or a palm reader to figure out the geneses of my fascination with crime and criminals. In my series The Senior Sleuths, Zero the Bookie is a version of my dad and several other characters are based on his associates.

I actually met Doc, The Gimp, Johnny the Jig, Fat Lawyer, and others in Buffalo, New York, where we lived. What a wealth of material there was for me to claim! Believe me, I saw and heard a lot.

I visited my dad’s gambling hall, where a card room was hidden behind closed doors. In our kitchen at home, I saw my dad count “the take” from football and baseball bets. He was a fancy dresser and some of my friends described him as a Damon Runyon character. I wrote a story about him and my mother, in which I called her his “gun moll.”

There were advantages. If I was out on a dinner date and one of my dad’s cronies was there, he picked up the bill. The waiter would tell us, “The man over there took care of it. Said you’re Vic Barr’s daughter!” I was equally safe from the pawing hands of any young man. All I had to do was ask, “Do you know who my father is?” All of them knew who my father was. My dad taught me incredible life lessons about generosity, trust, taking risks, and to never be a quitter.

I was always fascinated by how film noir characters acted and interacted. My all-time favorite is The Thin Man, where Nora Charles was certainly equal to Nick Charles, her charming husband. Nick adored her.

Now what woman doesn’t want that?

In my series The Senior Sleuths, Dick and Dora Zimmerman, Zero and others take on similar roles. Still in their early sixties, they not only have the time, but the money, the smarts, and the chutzpah to get involved even when they are warned by police and criminals to stay away. It seems murders fall in their laps, sometimes on them. Even when facing danger in the course of solving a murder, they mix wit and humor and are accompanied by a colorful cast of cohorts. They strive for justice—not an easy thing to accomplish when the bad guys are determined to do evil.

None of us are innocent. We all keep secrets about who we are and things we know. In my case, I have been able to put these past family peccadilloes and experiences to use. No doubt, thanks to my father, writing mysteries is in my DNA! 

Dead in Bed, M. Glenda Rosen (aka Marcia Rosen), Level Best Books, February 2018, $15.95 tpb, $3.99 Kindle

Teri Duerr
2018-04-30 16:23:30

Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.

Ace Atkins in Key West
Oline H. Cogdill

Key West, Florida, isn’t just for winter visitors. It also has a thriving mystery conference each June.

Ace Atkins, the author of 21 novels, will be the guest of honor with other mystery writers and true-crime experts at the 5th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 22-24 in Key West.

The award-winning Atkins writes the Quinn Colson series as well as continuing the late Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels.

Atkins will be joined by authors Heather Graham, Lisa Black, Nancy J. Cohen, Diane A.S. Stuckart, Alyssa Maxwell, and Charles Todd, among others.

In addition to panels and presentations, the 2018 Fest will include professional publishing and marketing discussions, a mini Conch Train tour, and the annual presentation of the 2018 Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition and Award.
 
All panels and presentations will take place at the DoubleTree Resort in Key West. Event registration is $195 and includes all panels and presentations, a luncheon, and a brunch at Key West’s historic seaport. For a full Fest schedule, online registration, and links to accommodations visit MysteryFestKeyWest.com.

Oline Cogdill
2018-05-08 12:24:28
John Sandford on Growing Up Grimm
John Sandford
John Sandford
John Sandford, image credit Beowulf Sheehan

I was fortunate enough to become a reader back in the late 1940s, before television was common. My father had a substantial bookcase, filled mostly with adventure booksboth novels and non-fictionalong with short story collections, and he and my mother would read to me from his books.

My favorite book and one I looked at constantly, even before I could read, was an elaborately illustrated copy of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. There was nothing cute or sweet about these talespeople were getting their heads cut off, butted into rivers to drown, being abused by wicked stepmothers and poisoned with apples, being forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until they died, kids were popped into ovens by witches…all that good stuff.

The color illustrations, then rare in books, were as bloody as the tales themselves.

There was a lot of subliminal and not-so subliminal stuff going on, too. A prince with a foot fetish? Rapunzel getting knocked up? The princess and the Frog King getting it on? And what happened with the fair maiden in her pointy hat after St. George slew the dragon in front of that yawning cave, which symbolized exactly…what?

Grimm's Fairytales, Arthur Rackham illustration
Arthur Rackham's Little Red Riding Hood, Grimm's Fairy Tales (1917)

My mother started teaching me the A-B-C’s when I was three or four, and my earliest attempts at writing are printed in the back of Grimms’. My father was a World War II veteran, and I had a couple of pretty rough war-veteran uncles as well, and they never really bothered to censor their conversations when I was around. My mother began to pick up on that when I wrote “shit” in the back of that copy of Grimms’.

“What does this spell?” I asked.

“You know damn well what that spells,” she said. “Stop doing that.”

I never did stop, and the word remains active in my novel-writing vocabulary; I didn’t learn to spell ‘damn’ until I was probably in second grade, that terminal ‘n’ being kinda tricky.

Books, then, were an important part of my life years before the TV dealership delivered a new 21-inch black-and-white to our house. I was as gob-smacked as anyone by the new technology, but never as engaged as I was when reading and writing. Television does something weird to your brain: it makes it passive. Reading and writing, on the other hand, activates it.

A good reader looks at a good book and sees a scene, rather than paper and words, and those scenes are different for each reader. The reader is actually creating the other half of the work that the writer began by creating the first half. A good reader is as engaged as the writer ever was.

And I was a very good reader.

John Sandford is the pseudonym of John Roswell Camp, an American author and journalist. Camp is the author of 40 published novels, all of which have appeared, in one format or another, on the New York Times bestseller lists.

This “Writers on Reading” essay was originally published in “At the Scene” enews May 2018 as a first-look exclusive to our enewsletter subscribers. For more special content available first to our enewsletter subscribers, sign up here.

Teri Duerr
2018-05-16 15:15:09
A Vote for Everyone
Oline H. Cogdill

Politics makes strange bedfellows—a saying that has never been more true than in the current arena.
 
But politics mainly stays out of the mystery genre.

While political thrillers abound, most of the time the authors are very careful about not taking sides.

Often a political thriller will not say which political party a character represents. And if the author does use that character to take a stand, sometimes it is done in a way that both sides think that they are being represented.

I think that is because crime fiction rises above so many things. Crime fiction—mysteries, whatever label you want to use—has always been more about the social issues of the day, about making us think about who we are as a society. These novels challenge us to look beyond the plot and see what lies beneath.

So I am very interested in an upcoming short story collection Low Down Dirty Vote and how these authors handle politics. The dozen authors have penned short stories related to voter suppression, including Anthony, Macavity, and Edgar winners such as Catriona McPherson, James Ziskin, David Hagerty (pictured), and Camille Minichino.

I think they will do an excellent job.

I haven’t read the collection yet, but knowing these authors’ works, I think they will challenge the reader without giving away their own views. Low Down Dirty Vote comes out July 4—how appropriate. Even more appropriate, 100 percent of the sales of this book is being donated to the ACLU to help fight voter suppression.

Low Down Dirty Vote also fits in well with the new direction short story collections are taking. I am loving that so many short story collections take a unique theme that the authors embrace with aplomb.

Some of my favorite collections though the years are:

Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns edited by Eric Beetner (Down & Out Books);  

Crime + Music: Twenty Stories of Music-Themed Noir (Three Rooms Press);

In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper edited by Lawrence Block (Pegasus Books);

The publisher Akashic’s noir collection features short stories set in different cities or regions such as Chicago, Miami, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, the list goes one.

Mystery Writers of America does a terrific collection each year with a different theme.

The annual Bouchercon mystery conference also publishes a short story collection with proceeds going to a nonprofit.

As for a vintage collection, I recommend The Archer Files, The Complete Short Stories of Lew Archer, Private Investigator by Ross Macdonald.




Oline Cogdill
2018-05-20 15:54:38
Good bye Agatha, hello Agnew!
Jamie and Robin Agnew of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop.

In April, Robin and Jamie Agnew, owners of the much-beloved Ann Arbor, Michigan bookstore, Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop, announced it was time to bring their 26-year run to an end. In a letter to their Dear Beloved Customers and Readers the couple wrote, "We are regretful but ready," and continued, "We have enjoyed getting to know many of you, discussing books with you, sharing author events with you and sharing the love of mysteries with you for 26 years. Many of you we are happy to think of as friends. It’s been a wonderful journey."

We here at Mystery Scene were sad to hear the news, especially since we have been lucky to work with Robin as a longtime book reviewer and friend. But Ann Arbor's great loss is Mystery Scene's great gain, as Ms. Agnew has agreed to join us as our traditional and cozy paperback review columnist beginning this fall! We can think of no one more qualified to share her vast knowledge, unique reviewer's voice, and great, great love of reading and the genre than Ms. Agnew. 

Both Agnews plan to continue their mysterious activities. In addition to contributing to Mystery Scene, Robin is penning a blog dedicated to covering women in mystery, and Jamie will be managing the remainder of Aunt Agatha's vast inventory through the online bookstore AbeBooks.com. And if you are an Ann Arbor local, you can continue to catch author and reading events organized by the two at Ann Arbor Library. The final in-store event will be held August 26, 2018, with special guest William Kent Krueger.

Below, Robin shares some of her favorite memories from the store.

Many of my best memories involve authors, even more involve readers and customers and the discussion of the writers and genre we love. I can't count the number of evenings or afternoons spent at book club meetings, author events, open houses, and just plain talking books with a fellow reader or two. Many of my memories involve my husband and partner, Jamie, as the two of us pushed and pulled this business through its 26-year run. My children were a toddler and an infant when we first opened, and they grew along with the store. It's been a part of their lives as much as ours. Their fondest memories do NOT include New Year's Day inventory...and while I didn't mention them below, our other favorite people are William Kent Krueger, Steve Hamilton, and Rhys Bowen, all of whom we met with their first book and nurtured them through sparsely attended events (I think two for each author at their first one, and in the case of Steve, one of those was his Mom) to much, much larger ones today. It's been a reading journey too and that's the part I'm happy will never end!

Musician and mystery writer Gerald Elias

GERALD ELIAS
We hosted an event for Gerald Elias' first novel, Devil's Trill (2009), the first in a delightful series about a blind violinst. Elias, a violinst himself, drew an array of music afficianados from the nearby University of Michigan. He'd brought along what he called his "fiddle," also known as a 17th-century violin, and during the event he picked it up and started to play. All the cliches appliedyou could hear a pin drop; I got goosebumps, etc. It was a truly magical moment.

Courtesy of The Telegraph

ELMORE LEONARD
For our entire bookstore life we wanted to host an event with Elmore Leonard. However, we never envisioned it happening by striking up an acquaintance with his son, Peter, also a writer. My husband was selling books for Peter at a library event in 2009 and Peter mentioned he had a new book coming out, and my husband told him of course we'd love to have him in for an event. Peter's question: "Can I bring Elmore?"  The resulting overflow library event where Peter and Elmore were interviewed by Loren Estleman, was everything we'd hoped for. What a gentleman!

Louise Penny

LOUISE PENNY
One of the very nicest things about the store is reaching out to writers at the beginning of their careers and then watching them grow in popularity. However, no one has exploded in popularity like Louise. We had her at the store for book two (she brought her husband), moved her to the library for book three (decent crowd), but for book ten (The Long Way Home, 2014), we had to move to the auditorium of the Community College and the event became a kind of tailgate party for ladies of a certain age. 

Foxtrot steps

FOXTROT LADY
I have so many memories of quiet weekday afternoons at the store, reading or shelving, and listening to my favorite Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw CDs. Through the years, some of my very favorite customers have been older, as we shared a love for vintage mysteries by Tey, Allingham, Marsh, Sayers, and Christie. (The debate about which is better, Marsh's Death in a White Tie or Death of a Peer is usually a lively one). One afternoon, a favorite older couple were in browsing, Artie was playing, and the wife stopped dead and said, "Well, I'm waiting for someone to ask me to foxtrot." That encapsulates just about everything I love about this "greatest generation" of customers and people. Sadly, we've said goodbye to many of these wonderful folks, but they are always hovering at the edges of my memory.

Medieval mother and child

MEDIEVAL MOTHER'S DAY
Starting in 1993, with a solo appearance by Candace Robb with her first book, The Apothocary Rose, we hosted for many years a medieval Mother's Day event. Many of the writers would attend a medieval conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and come by Sunday afternoon for a lively and relaxed event. One year, a customer even brought a map of Candace's book locations with overlays! Through the years it included an revolving array of Candace, Sharan Newman, Margaret (Gail) Frazer, and Alan Gordon (whom all the ladies were smitten by). I always thought Mother's Day involved medieval authors at the store and the kids cleaning the basement at home. Not a bad deal, and I'm happy to say friendships remain with these wonderful writers. I also became a huge fan of all of their work.

Julia Spencer-Fleming photo credit Lisa Bowe

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING
I loved Julia's books from the beginning, and, like me, many of my customers were smitten with the trials of Clare and Russ. By 2004's Out of the Deep I Cry when Julia visited the store, there was no containing the audience, as one of the ladies in the back shouted, "When are they going to get it on?" Mystery readers take their characters very, very seriously.

Teri Duerr
2018-05-23 16:51:35
Ngaio Marsh Award Long List Announced

The Ngaio Marsh Awards have celebrated the best New Zealand crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing since 2010, and are judged by a panel of crime-, thriller-, and suspense-writing experts from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

The finalists will be announced in July, along with the finalists for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. The finalists will be celebrated, and the winners announced as part of a special event at the WORD Christchurch Festival, held from August 29 to September 2, 2018.

“We shattered our record for entries in the Ngaio Marsh Awards this year, with 69 different books entered across our two fiction categories,” says founder and Mystery Scene contributor Craig Sisterson. “Along with a surge in first-time Kiwi authors choosing to write tales of crime, mystery, and suspense—more than 50 new voices in the past three years—it’s been great to see more experienced local authors veering to the darker side as well as past crime writers returning to the fold.”

2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel Long List

Marlborough Man, by Alan Carter (Fremantle Press)
Baby, by Annaleese Jochems (VUP)
See You in September, by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin)
The Lost Taonga, by Edmund Bohan (Lucano)
The Easter Make Believers, by Finn Bell
The Only Secret Left to Keep, by Katherine Hayton
Tess, by Kirsten McDougall (VUP)
The Sound of Her Voice, by Nathan Blackwell (Mary Egan Publishing)
A Killer Harvest, by Paul Cleave (Upstart Press)
The Hidden Room, by Stella Duffy (Virago)

Congratulations to all the worthy contenders! And stay tuned for the finalists announcement in July.

Teri Duerr
2018-05-23 19:13:02
Police lineup: Authors who do write by cops
"A policeman's lot is not a happy one..."

Having spent most of my adult life as a cop, I can attest that Gilbert and Sullivan got it right when they said, "A policeman's lot is not a happy one." Getting it right, as it pertains to writing about cops, has always been important to me, since a vast majority of books, TV, and movies tend to get it very wrong.

My own police procedurals are set in Chicago, which is fertile ground for stories involving crime, coppers, and bad guys. My Leal and Hart series features detectives Frank Leal and Olivia Hart, members of the Cook County Sheriff’s Police. Leal is half Mexican and half Irish, and Hart is a champion female bodybuilder. My latest standalone police procedural, Blood Trails, also takes place in Chicago and takes the genre into uncharted territory by introducing a theme of human cloning. (How else could the killer’s DNA show up at a new crime scene?)

Ed McBain is usually credited with popularizing and perfecting the police procedural subgenre of mystery with his long-running series of 87th Precinct novels. I met McBain, who also wrote under the name Evan Hunter, a number of years ago when he appeared in Chicago for a book signing. A long-time fan, I finished the midnight shift, slipped on a jacket, and made the hour-long trip up to the north side where McBain was speaking. After reading a portion of his newest novel, Kiss, and answering some questions from the audience, he began signing copies. When my turn came he glanced up and saw my uniform shirt under my windbreaker.

“Well, Officer,” he asked, looking up and smiling. “Do I get it right?”

I assured him that he did, which was certainly the truth.

Here's my lineup of writers who get it right.

Ed McBain photo credit Getty Images

ED MCBAIN/ EVAN HUNTER 
Although it could be argued that a few writers (Chester Himes, George Simenon, and perhaps even Agatha Christie) using police officer protagonists preceded McBain, he certainly refined it. The men and women of the 87th dealt with the seamy underside of society in the big, bad city. His detectives got assigned to hot cases, and still had to juggle their present load of ongoing assignments. One of the main fallacies of a lot of so-called police procedurals is that they depict a detective who can devote all of his time to one investigation. While those first 48 hours are crucial and the book never closes on an open homicide case, the merry-go-round doesn’t stop and new crimes continue. McBain was perhaps to the first author to use an ensemble cast of several detectives of various races, genders, and religious persuasions. Steve Carella was the primary one featured in the early books, but as the years went by McBain introduced others (Myer Myer, Bert Kling, Cotton Hawes) and a female detective, Eileen Burke, as well. He also introduced a reoccurring villain called the Deaf Man. McBain’s cops made the jump to radio, television, and movies. Of his many excellent novels, my personal favorites are Heat, Ice, Lightning, The Big, Bad City, and, of course, Kiss.

Dorothy Uhnak

DOROTHY UHNAK
 Dorothy Uhnak, author of several fine novels including Law and Order and The Investigation, spent 14 years with the New York City Transit Police. Her first book, Policewoman, was an autobiographical account of her experiences. She followed this up with Bait in 1968, and was awarded the Best First Novel Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Many of her novels were made into television features, including The Investigation, which was the basis for the Kojak television series starring Telly Savalas and later Ving Rhames. Her final novel was Codes of Betrayal in 1997. My personal favorite of her novels is The Investigation, which was also made into a television miniseries.

Joseph Wambaugh with police officers at the Hollenbeck Police Station, courtesy of josephwambaugh.net.

JOSEPH WAMBAUGH
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the man who inspired me not only to become a writer, but to enter law enforcement as well. Former LAPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh is legendary in the field of crime writing. Wambaugh joined the LAPD after serving in the Marine Corps, and rose through the ranks. In 1971 his first novel, The New Centurions, was released and he immediately shot to fame. A movie version of the novel, starring George C. Scott and Stacey Keach, was released the following year, and Wambaugh continued to turn out excellent books about police work, both fiction and nonfiction. The Onion Field details the abduction and murder of LAPD detective Ian Campbell and the disastrous effect it had on his partner. The Blue Knight, The Glitterdome, The Delta Star all followed his groundbreaking first novel. Wambaugh’s later novels tended to drift away from the grittier storylines of police work in Los Angeles and tiptoed along the edge of satire and hyperbole. Characters became almost archetypal and were often referred to not by names, but by titles (the Bad Czech, the Oracle, Flotsam and Jetsam) and the settings shifted from the City of Angels to such places as San Diego and Palm Springs. In 2006 Wambaugh returned to his roots, so to speak, with Hollywood Station, which again featured characters in the LAPD. I consider this man the best of the best. The Blue Knight is comparable to Don Quixote, The Black Marble contains one of the most unique foot pursuits I’ve ever read, and The Choirboys was selected as one of the top 100 crime novels of all time by the Mystery Writers of America. While I love all of Wambaugh’s books, my personal favorite remains The New Centurions, which I still pick up from time to time to reread and enjoy. It never fails to amaze me how many of the situations he featured in the novel were the same ones I experienced during my years on the job.

Michael Connelly

MICHAEL CONNELLY
Whether an author has actually walked the walk, or not, he or she should do enough research to talk the talk with accuracy. The current dean of the police procedural, Michael Connelly, has a background as a reporter and has put his time covering the police beat to good use. He introduced us to the brooding LAPD detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch in The Black Echo in 1992, and received a tremendous boost in sales when President Bill Clinton was photographed exiting a bookstore with a copy of the third Bosch book, The Concrete Blonde, in 1994. Connelly has created a universe populated by all sorts of cops, both good and bad. Bosch is a tenacious and highly capable investigator who specializes in cold cases in the later books. Driven by personal demons, his life takes more twists and turns than an undulating python, but through it all he’s governed by a strong sense to set things right. Unlike McBain, who froze the ages of his 87th Precinct tribe, Connelly has allowed Bosch to age gracefully. A Vietnam vet, Bosch works heater cases in the earlier books and gradually moves to the cold case section until he retires. In the lastest two Bosch books, he’s now works as a part-time investigator for the smaller San Fernando PD. Earlier this year Connelly introduced a new, younger, female detective, Renée Ballard, who works the LAPD night shift, sardonically dubbed “The Late Show” by her contemporaries on the department. It’s also the title of the book. Like most of Connelly’s characters, Ballard exists within the established Bosch universe, and even mentions the new television series, Bosch, featuring the intrepid detective. Connelly’s latest Bosch novel is Two Kinds of Truth, which is one of the most compelling and best written books of the series.

Jean Rabe, courtesy of jeanrabe.com

JEAN RABE
 Prolific sci-fi and fantasy writer Jean Rabe has a new police procedural series featuring Piper Blackwell, a twentysomething Iraq War vet who has been elected sheriff of Spencer County, Indiana. Blackwell struggles to gain the respect of both the community and her own officers, many of whom are resentful of her sudden rise to the sheriff’s position. For Rabe, it’s essential to “get it right.” She has her writing checked by a retired sheriff and a county prosecutor for accuracy. A military police sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, also contributed with Piper’s Army MP background, and Rabe’s own experience as a reporter in Southern Indiana helps her nail the setting. So far the two novels in the series, Dead of Winter and Dead of Night, balance interesting characters and well-woven mysteries. Rabe’s currently working on a third one, Dead of Summer.

Marilyn Meredith

MARILYN MEREDITH
Marilyn Meredith's Native-American deputy Tempe Crabtree Sheriff has been in 15 novels so far, and all of them are excellent. She’s the resident deputy of the small mountain community of Bear Creek, California, and the surrounding area. Because she’s part of the Yokut Indian tribe, she’s often called to help investigate crimes on the nearby reservation. Crabtree’s husband is a Christian pastor who worries about her soul when she uses Native-American mysticism to assist in solving crimes. One of her most interesting cases in Dispel the Mist introduced her to the mysterious Hairy Man, a Big Foot-like character, as well as the many spirits that linger in the painted rock shelter where pictographs of him and his family can be seen. The Hairy Man makes appearances in other books in the series, the most recent of which are Seldom Traveled and A Cold Death.

As you can see, the police procedural is far more than simply cops chasing robbers. All of the aforementioned writers balance complex plotting with engaging writing. Make sure to check out these fine authors for a walk in the shoes of their intrepid investigators, tasked with trying to make the best out of the worst that society has to offer.

Michael A. Black spent more than 30 years in law enforcement and retired in 2011 to pursue writing full time. He is the author of 30 books and over 100 short stories and articles. He writes the police procedural series Leal and Hart, as well as Executioner series under the name Don Pendleton (Missile Intercept and Fatal Prescription). His most recent book under his own name is Blood Trails

Teri Duerr
2018-05-23 20:39:04
Murder in Greenwich Village
Robin Agnew

This is an entertaining and pleasant historical mystery set in 1913 New York City. Louise Faulk works as a publisher’s secretary and lives with her dancer friend Callie. Lately, they’ve been joined by Callie’s visiting cousin, Ethel, who doesn’t seem to have any plans to leave. Heading home from a party at Louise’s aunt’s house, the girls unfortunately find Ethel stabbed to death in the guest bedroom wearing Callie’s nightgown.

Liz Freeland populates her story quickly, introducing almost every character in the first chapter. There’s Louise’s aunt, a writer, there’s an aspiring writer Louise encounters at her aunt’s party, and there’s a suitor of Callie’s who she has turned away since discovering he is married. And there are many neighbors in the crowded apartment building: a band of saxophonists, a noisy Italian family who live upstairs, not to mention the landlady’s creepy son who likes to look up the girls’ skirts when he gets a chance. There’s also Otto, Louise’s hometown honey (in his own mind at least, though she thinks of him only as a friend), who turns up the day after the murder looking to re-connect with Louise.

The police begin questioning and arresting everyone. First up is Otto, then it’s the upstairs neighbor. Louise is angered by what she sees as police incompetence and vows to solve the crime herself, starting with finding out everything she can about Ethel.

It turns out that Louise, Callie, and Otto make a good investigative team. Throw in Louise’s aunt and her clever butler, and the real murderer doesn’t have a chance. Freeland is obviously setting this up to be a series as she illustrates Louise’s desire for a change in her employment, hinting at things to come in the next story. There’s also a good bit of Louise’s backstory that’s slowly revealed as the book progresses, giving the reader more and more of a reason to invest in her.

Teri Duerr
2018-05-23 22:47:19

An entertaining and pleasant historical mystery set in the 1913 New York City literary scene.

Don't Believe It
Matthew Fowler

The wave of true crime content making its imprint on the world of popular culture today is hard to ignore. Whether it’s television docuseries or podcasts such as Serial, it’s difficult to fathom a world that doesn’t include the lure of factual mysteries taking up space in the zeitgeist. That’s exactly what Charlie Donlea hopes to explore with the novel Don’t Believe It.

Don’t Believe It is a story about a documentarian, Sidney Ryan, that delves into a case involving a woman who allegedly killed her boyfriend while on vacation. The details of the mystery unfold alongside the protagonist’s pursuit of putting the docuseries on television. The mystery itself is pretty straightforward, imitating the countless other true crime stories we have been privy to over the course of the last few years.

Sidney looks into an old case and risks her life in the process when everything may not be as it seems. Fine. What differentiates Don’t Believe It, is the time Donlea spends with the actual production of the series. The meetings with producers and talks of ratings skew the view of the reader and give us a different perspective of the events playing out in the novel as well the ones we’ve consumed separate from the book. It’s an elegant flourish even when the dialogue and the personalities of Donlea’s characters seem a little on the nose. The author has done a fine job of creating a worthy mystery and an even better job taking a look at the form of true crime itself.

Teri Duerr
2018-05-24 00:00:36

A worthy mystery that brings readers for a ride to the intersection where crime fiction meets true crime

2018 Dove Award Winner
By Oline H. Cogdill

We enjoy learning about other mystery fiction enthusiasts. The genre brings us closer to each other and further establishes our community.

So we are glad to hear about the newest Dove Award winner.

Each year, the Mystery Area of the Popular Culture Association recognizes a person who has made major contributions to the study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction.  

This year, Dr.  Stephen Knight, an Honorary Research Professor in literature at the University of Melbourne, Australia, has been selected to receive the 2018 Dove Award.  

The Dove Award is named in honor of George N. Dove, one of the Australia’s early members, a past president of the Popular Culture Association, and author of outstanding presentations, articles, and books on detective fiction, especially the police procedural.

The 2018 award recognizes Knight’s many contributions through the years to the study of crime fiction.

In addition to being a world-renowned scholar on Robin Hood and medieval English literature, he is the author of several books on crime and mystery fiction, among them Australian Crime Fiction: A 200-Year History (2018); Towards Sherlock Holmes: A Thematic History of Crime Fiction in the 19th Century World (2017); Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics: Detecting the Delights of 21 Enduring Stories (2015); The Mysteries of the Cities: Urban Crime Fiction in the Nineteenth Century (2012); Crime Fiction, 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity (2005).

Knight’s Continent of Mystery: A Thematic History of Australian Crime Fiction (1997), was recognized with the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award. He also wrote Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction (1980), and was editor of Dead Witness: Best Australian Mystery Stories (1991) and other anthologies.

 He was a member of the Clues editorial board from 2004 to 2017 and has published many articles and book reviews, in Clues and elsewhere, focusing on the work of Australian writers.      

The 2018 Dove Award was announced at the Mystery and Detective Fiction Area meeting during the Popular Culture Association annual conference in Indianapolis.

Congratulations, Dr. Knight.


Oline Cogdill
2018-05-29 00:10:39
Listen Up to Audiobooks
Oline H. Cogdill

I love audiobooks and always have one going in my car—which is the only place I listen to a book on tape.

(OK, I still call them books on tape even though they are not on tape anymore.)

Listening to a book is a different experience, and a good reader enhances the experience. A bad one, well, that will have you looking for a different book.

And audiobooks are growing in popularity.

The Audio Publishers Association has announced the winners of the 2018 Audie Awards.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz, read by Simon Vance (Random House Audio), has won top honors in the Mystery category.

The Fourth Monkey, by J.D. Barker, read by Edoardo Ballerini and Graham Winton (Recorded Books), has won for the best Thriller/Suspense audiobook.

The 23rd Annual Audies Gala was held on May 31 at the New-York Historical Society in New York City.

Often referred to as the “Oscars of spoken word entertainment,” the evening marks a gathering of authors, narrators, and publishers excited to hear who will win the most prestigious awards in the United States honoring audiobooks.

Linda Lee, president of the Audio Publishers Association, said during the evening: “The Audie Awards Gala gives us a time to recognize all the hard work that so many talented people put into thousands of productions each year. Each of the nominees and winners are to be commended for the tremendous contributions they have made to our flourishing industry and this special event is the perfect venue for us to show appreciation to each and every one of them.”

For more information on the Audie winners as well as audio clips, visit www.theaudies.com.


Oline Cogdill
2018-06-05 12:09:28