Thursday, April 25, 2024
Jerry's House of Everything: THE INSPECTOR CHEN MYSTERIES: A CASE OF THE TWO CITIES
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 72 Writing Contests in May 2024 - No entry fees
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Golden Doves, Anxious People, Dreamland
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Hit List: Top 5 Intriguing Pieces of Impossible Crime Fiction That Vanished into Thin Air
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: The Habit of Widowhood and Other Murderous Proclivities
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Little Big Crimes: The Lover of Eastlake, by Sam Wiebe
SleuthSayers: The Magic of Malice
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian
Review: Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller
Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery
by Marcia Muller finds Sharon working a complicated case involving private
street ownership. In San Franciso, there are more than 200 streets that are
owned by private individuals or entities. As these streets are not city
property, they are lucrative targets for land speculators and others.
As the book opens, it is almost midnight Halloween,
and Sharon McCone is on a stake out. Being a co-owner of the agency with her
husband, Hy Ripinsky, who is currently overseas, she is out in the rain so that
she does not have to fool with trick-or-treaters and somebody else does not
miss a party or spending time with their kids this dark night. The rain fits
her mood. One that she has been in for months now. A mood that she can’t really
explain to herself or others that have noticed.
She is on Rowan Court trying to prevent another
vandalism attack. McCone & Ripinsky International has been hired by the
wealthy homeowners on the street to stop a rash of vandalism that has been
happening to their homes and vehicles. Not just stop it, but identify the
culprits and why they are doing it. One of their members has been reaching out
to other folks and have discovered that this sort of thing is happening on
other private streets, rich and poor, across the city.
Soon McCone finds things are linked across various
neighborhoods. Events start to move forward and become deadly.
Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery
is a complicated and often slow-moving read. At least a third of the book, if
not more, consists of reminisces of previous cases and things that happened to
McCone, Hy, and many others in the past, and an acknowledgment and recognition
of how far all those involved have come in the here and now. Even if one had
not seen the guest post by the author at SleuthSayers
announcing this book is the end of the series, it is clear with the way the
book unfolds for the reader.
It is also a good read. The case is complicated and chugs along at a semi steady pace between the many memories of the past. Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery ends the series well.
My ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Grand
Central Publishing, via NetGalley with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2024
Monday, April 22, 2024
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in March 2024
Aubrey's Nye Hamilton Reviews: Robbed Blind by Roy Hart
Between 1987
and 1994 Roy Hart, a British avionics engineer, wrote nine police procedurals fronted
by Detective Superintendent Douglas Roper of the Dorset County Criminal
Investigation Department on the southern coast of England. In line with the procedural
that was popular in the 1980s, they are all set in villages and the plots all
focus on the investigation rather than the psychology of the crime. While there
are quirky characters, they take a back seat to the detailed and systematic
description of police activities in collecting and sifting clues to find the
culprit. The fifth in the series Robbed Blind (Macmillan London, 1990)
is a good example.
The night of
Good Friday in the village of Little Crow Stella Pumfrey was found dead at the
foot of the stairs in her home. Her shoe caught in the carpet on the landing
bore mute testimony to an accidental fall that caused Stella’s head to collide
with ferocity against the newel post. The post-mortem, though, showed the
damage to Stella’s skull could not have been caused by the fall.
By the time the
police received the autopsy report recommending further investigation, the
crime scene had been thoroughly contaminated, much to Roper’s frustration.
Initial inquiries reveal that Stella had money and her husband and her sister
were in line to inherit it. Neither of them was on good terms with the victim.
Then there was the lover rumored to be in the background. But perhaps it was
not personal at all: an exquisite and valuable pair of earrings is missing.
Could she have been surprised by the burglar that was known to be in the
neighborhood? As Roper talks to Stella’s family and friends, he finds no
shortage of possible scenarios and people with adverse interests to Stella’s.
This series
seems to have flown under the radar in the U.S. The first two titles were not
published here, and none of them seem to have been reprinted after the initial
hardback and paperback issue. Roper isn’t given much of a back story, although
there is some information about him, and perhaps he wasn’t vivid enough to
capture lasting interest. A review from Publishers Weekly said he lacked
the edge of a Sherlock Holmes, although both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus
spoke highly of the series. While nine books is a respectable run, timing
probably also affected its popularity, as reading tastes were moving towards
gritty, violent crime fiction with lots of action.
I found this
series entry a solid, capable detective story with complex plotting, plenty of
red herrings, and plausible suspects. Recommended for fans of police
procedurals and admirers of traditional mysteries.
·
Publisher: St Martins Press; First Edition
(January 1, 1990)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 206 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0312044143
·
ISBN-13: 978-0312044145
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link:
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is
a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries
at night.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
OUT NOW!! Notorious in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries Volume III
Though it was not supposed to be out yet, Notorious
in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries Volume III, is now out at Amazon and should be available within days
at Barnes and Noble. Published by the Sisters in Crime North Dallas
chapter, the read is edited by Michael Bracken, and includes a forward from
author Kathleen Kent. It also includes my short story, Whatever Happened To…?,
set in my little part of NE Dallas.
I am very grateful to Michael Bracken, Karen
Harrington, and to everyone involved in the process. It is my understanding
that there will be book signings in early June and other events. My hope is
that, health permitting, I will be at those events.
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Conjure-Man Dies (1932) by Rudolph Fisher
Saturday, April 20, 2024
SleuthSayers: Dryer Is a Noun
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Shimmer of Red by Valerie Wilson Wesley
Scott's Take: X-Men: Hellfire Gala: Fall of X by Gerry Duggan
X-Men: Hellfire
Gala: Fall of X
by Gerry Duggan collects the issues that compose the third Hellfire Gala
book. This book kicks off the Fall of X books. The Fall of
X is the banner name for a series of titles for the X-Men. Since this is the beginning, there are a lot
of plot points setup that are not finished here. In this story, the X-Men are
hosting their third annual party trying to build relations between humans and
mutants. Of course, things go horribly wrong for the X-Men.
There is plenty
of gore, violence, and death as the party is ruined. Some big-name characters
are killed along with several lower-level names. The big names of course will
return quicker since they already have books set after the events depicted here.
The art for the most part is spectacular in the main Hellfire Gala
issue, the free comic book day issue, and the Iron Man issue.
However, the art
is just adequate in the X-Men unlimited issues which are set before the gala.
Marvel has a series of comics that are exclusive to their app Unlimited. In
this case, the X-Men Unlimited issues are short stories that
expand on minor plot points using lower tier art and lower tier, name
recognition wise, writers. They don’t get the budget the main titles get.
Additionally,
the prequels are presented in this collection after the main issue. By doing it that way, the momentum of the
collection is derailed. It also kills the idea of giving some character
development to certain characters who are later killed.
Jean Grey is the
highlight in this read, in my opinion, as she has some impressive moments.
However, there are plenty of cool scenes for other characters such as
Wolverine, Talon, Emma Frost, and Iron Man. The Kingpin (who has now joined the
X-Men) also has a cool moment himself. Professor X is put through the ringer in
this Gala. The villains are impressive and well prepared. They remain
formidable foes as the X-Men are forced to go on the run.
Overall, I
enjoyed this volume despite some hiccups in how Marvel chose to handle this
story.
Amazon Associate
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/43rPhUo
My reading copy
came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
We Have A Cover!
As shared by Sisters in Crime North Dallas earlier today, the anthology comes out next month. It includes my short story, "Whatever Happened To...?" In my tale, I make extensive use of aspects of my life and my NE Dallas neighborhood.
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 37 Marvelous Writing Conferences and Workshops in May 2024
Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE LAST CHRISTMAS
Barry Ergang's FFB Review: Fast One by Paul Cain
From the massive archive…
I can enthusiastically recommend Fast One
to any reader who loves the hardboiled school—especially from the pulp era—but
don’t ask me for a detailed plot summary. That’s next to impossible. Suffice it
to say that a tough character named Gerry Kells, who is visiting L.A. from New
York and who seems to know every major racket boss in southern California, is
in the first chapter framed for a murder he didn’t commit, and who spends the
remainder of the book either dodging or deliberately confronting cops and hoods
with words, fists, and firearms. Along the way he considers trying to take over
L.A.‘s rackets himself.
It’s an aptly titled book because the story roars
along at a hectic pace. The pace is aided in no small measure by Cain's
staccato prose style, which almost redefines “lean and mean.” But the pace and
the story’s complexity are the book’s undoing because there is no
characterization for readers to relate to. Most of the players—including the
principal female—are referred to only by their last names. The absence of
character definition reduces them to mere names on the page. It’s frequently an
effort trying to recall from one chapter to another who's who and who's done
what to whom.
Fast One has long been hailed as the ne plus ultra
of hardboiled gangster tales by the likes of Bill Pronzini, E.R. Hagemann, and
Raymond Chandler. David A. Bowman, in his introductory essay to the 1987 Black
Lizard edition I have, writes: “Cain took the hardboiled style as far as anyone
would want to. Fast One is the Antarctica of hardboiled writing. There is
nowhere else to go.”
Forget about any insights into the human condition
or any other sorts of profound meanings. Just buckle up and go along on the
wild ride.
For more on this novel or the Golden Age of
Detection follow the link to the GA Detection wiki. http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/Fast-One
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4aX3gnK
Barry Ergang © 2007, 2014, 2024
Some of Derringer
Award winner Barry Ergang’s work can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.
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