Nicola Upson: Fear in the Sunlight Sunday, May 19 2013 

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Nicola Upson’s fourth mystery featuring real-life Golden Age mystery writer Josephine Tey proves once again that Upson is a master at plotting, and at figuring out the complexities of personality and psychology.

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An intriguing setting is provided by Portmeirion, Wales, the imaginative architectural transformation of Clough Williams-Ellis, who created an Italianate village out of a section of northwest Wales’ coastal wilderness.

Noel Coward wrote Blithe Spirit at the resort, and it was frequented by actors and writers, including Tey and her circle, as a place of undeniable beauty and peace, a refuge from the hectic reality of their celebrity lives. It is to Upson’s credit that Portmeirion springs to life in the reader’s mind.

Into this tranquil setting of medieval buildings and fragrant gardens, Josephine has arrived to celebrate her fortieth birthday with the circle of friends readers will recognize, including detective Archie Penrose. Also present are celebrated director Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville and a few of their company.

Hitchcock wants to convince Tey she should allow him to adapt her mystery, A Shilling for Candles, for the screen. (The film was made as Young and Innocent, released in 1937 and was Hitchcock’s favorite British film.) But Tey needs to meet the Hitchcock’s first before granting her approval.

It is the eve of World War II, and the Hitchcock’s are being wooed to come to America, a move that will certainly change their lives. This decision weighs heavily on the director’s mind, as he listens to the wise counsel of his wife, the woman who served as his editor, writer and confidante.

But Hitchcock was known for elaborate and sometimes perverse pranks, a master manipulator of people and their reactions, fodder for his superb psychological thrillers. As Josephine and Archie each struggle with their own private demons, the group at Portmeirion will fall prey to one of the filmmaker’s most unusual and absurd tricks.

Then a grande dame of cinema is found horrifically murdered in a nearby cemetery, and each person at Portmeirion will have their past explored.

The bodies continue to pile up until a resolution is reached that leaves more questions than answers.

For Archie, the case had a very unsatisfying conclusion. It is only in the opening and closing chapters, set in 1954, that readers will learn the truth behind the string of killings that had deep-seated roots.

For readers not familiar with the series, Upson does exhaustive research into the 1930′s in the entire series, so readers are transported to the spell of that era. She has immersed herself in the life of Elizabeth Mackintosh, the Scottish author who wrote her mysteries as Tey and historical plays under the name of Gordon Daviot.

In Fear in the Sunlight, the resort village will spring to life. Portmeirion in all its glory becomes a character in itself, in this compelling mystery that hints at the future of several of its major characters. Each character is finely drawn, visually imagined, with distinct voices and sometimes surprising viewpoints.

Don’t miss this newest blend of fact and fiction from an author whose stories leap off the page. Highly recommended.

 

Judy Alter: Murder at the Blue Plate Cafe Sunday, May 12 2013 

Uncategorized , , , auntiemwrites 12:45 am

Award-winning author Judy Alter also writes the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries. Her newest, Murder at the Blue Plate Cafe, is the first of a planned series set in Wheeler, Texas.MurderBPlate_JAlter_MD (2)-1

 

News of the sudden death of Kate Chambers’ beloved grandmother has her fleeing Dallas for the rural town of Wheeler.

She’s adjusting to the  woman’s death, staying in her house, when her twin, Donna, announces the cafe next door that their grandmother ran for years must be sold immediately.

Donna wants invest her half of the estate into a planned B&B with a seemingly shady business partner.

No one is more surprised than Kate to hear Gram’s voice subtly influencing her choices.

Kate suddenly decides to quit her paralegal job and run the cafe while she delves into the real reason behind her grandmother’s death.

Donna’s story about the death doesn’t tally with that of the cafe staff who know and loved Kate’s grandmother. It doesn’t help that the twins have a love-hate relationship that affects the Kate’s feelings: could her sister have killed Gram to inherit sooner and finance her dream?

As Kate delves into the background of Gram’s death and adjusts to the life of a cafe owner, she starts to realize the huge chunk she’s bitten off. Running a cafe is hard work and it comes with challenges she hadn’t foreseen, which include food poisoning of none other than the tough, power-hungry mayor who wishes to run Kate out of business.

Donna’s dysfunctional family adds to the stress, along with a police chief who seems out of his depth in a small town.

Throw in a few neighbors with their own problems and more than a hint of romance, and you’re off and running with Kate in her new life. Thank goodness Kate has Gram’s voice to guide her, a fact she isn’t quick to mention to anyone else.

Just as she’s figuring out a new menu and new recipes, food poisoning and finally murder get thrown into the mix, and things heat up quickly for Kate.

There’s plenty of action here, along with humor, and the real small-town feel of people knowing everyone else’s business.

There are the patrons and staff at the Blue Plate who round out the cast.

Alter’s own twin passions–for Texas and cooking–shine through.

Readers will be lined up at the door of the cafe, waiting for the next Blue Plate Cafe mystery.

 

Hodder & Stoughton Duo: Elizabeth George and Lisa Jackson Wednesday, May 8 2013 

Uncategorized , auntiemwrites 5:05 pm

Elizabeth George, best-selling author of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries, changes tactics with her new entry to the Young Adult world with The Edge of Nowhere.images_015

Becca King and her mother are on the run from her abusive and criminal stepfather, heading north to the state of Washington, far away from her California home and his reach.

But fourteen year-old Becca brings with her something she is only learning how to use: her talent for hearing the whispers of other people’s thoughts.

The safe haven her mother has set up with a friend on Whidbey Island, just north of Seattle’s coast, tragically falls through. With her mother heading to find them a new home in British Columbia and out of touch, Becca must rely on her wits and wiles to survive.

Her hair has been cut and darkened, and she’s wearing glasses she doesn’t need to change her appearance even more. Feeling more and more out of herself, Becca must make her own way. But which one of her new acquaintances can she trust?

Seth, the drop-out who finds her lodging and seems like a friend? Debbie, the motel owner Becca finds work with, who struggles with grief over the loss of her daughter? Then there’s Derrick, the Ugandan orphan hiding his own past secrets, and Diana, the woman who seems the most comfortable with Becca’s special talent.

This unusual grouping becomes the framework for Becca’s survival as she waits to hear from her mother. Then a tragic accident changes everything and suddenly Becca has nowhere to turn.

This is the first of a planned series which will cover roughly one semester of Becca’s time on Whidbey Island. George gets the tone for YA audiences just right, and weaves her usual tight plot. The prose is clever and precise, and the book is peopled with characters who emerge as real people, not cardboard cutouts. The issues teens struggle with: identity, drugs, bullying–are all addressed. A fine start to an exciting new line.

For fans of the Lynley series: Just One Evil Act will be published by Hodder this September.

You-dont-want-to-know-by-Lisa-Jackson-9781444757170Romantic suspense writer Lisa Jackson returns with the terrifying thriller You Don’t Want to Know.

Ava Garrison’s beloved son Noah disappeared two years ago at the tender age of two.

Without a ransom demand, most people believe Noah is dead, but Ava stubbornly refuses to believe that and holds on to the thought that he is alive.

After a breakdown, surrounded by a host of family she doesn’t trust, the formerly strong businesswoman Ava used to be has disappeared. In its place is a woman haunted by visions of Noah. Her family say they are concerned for her mental state and hover annoyingly over her.

Living on her isolated family estate, Ava slowly realizes she can’t trust anyone. Not her estranged husband nor the multiple cousins and friends who people her world. She feels she is being pushed to the brink of suicide when she decides she’s being driven there by a very twisted murderer.

Into the mix comes Austin Dern, hired by Ava’s husband to tend to the large estate and its livestock. Ava feels drawn to the tough stranger but can she trust him? Or is he the instrument of her destruction?

Jackson’s suspense novels are the complete package: twisted plots, more than enough romance to keep readers happy, and a mystery to solve that has high stakes and a surprising twist at the end.

 

Minotaur Trifecta: Michael Robertson, Brad Parks, Joseph Olshan Sunday, Apr 28 2013 

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This week Auntie M has three goodies courtesy of Minotaur Books for your reading pleasure.

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First up is the third installment in the delightful Heath Brothers series written by Michael Robertson, Baker Street Translation.

Reggie and Nigel didn’t realize the lease of their Baker Street law offices included the famous number 221B, but quickly learned that one of their responsibilities as tenants is to answer mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes.  This delights Nigel as much as it frustrates Reggie.

Previous escapades have taken the brothers to California, but this one takes place on London home turf, with ties to Sherlock Holmes the pivotal point.

When a wealthy American heiress decides to leave her impressive fortune to Sherlock Holmes, she unwittingly sets in motion a series of events that have Reggie summoning Nigel back from his Los Angeles stay.

It also connects in some way to the kidnapping of Robert Buxton, Reggie’s rival for the lovely actress Laura Rankin. Deciding to pop the question, ring in his pocket, Reggie’s attempts to become engaged fall by the wayside as the kidnappers insist Laura is the only one who can provide the ransom to save Buxton.

Reggie can’t allow Laura to put herself in jeopardy, but then Laura isn’t your average actress. Thwarting Buxton’s security team and Reggie’s attempts to protect her, Laura feels responsible for Buxton’s return and follows the kidnapper’s demands, wit unexpected results.

Along with his sleuthing, Reggie will lock horns with a feisty Texan, decipher the riddle presented by nursery rhymes gone wild in a talking duck, and learn more than he ever wanted to know about London’s sewer system, and all before a royal event goes haywire.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight in references to the canon but you don’t have to be a Holmes fan to enjoy Robertson’s deadpan delivery or his improbable and whimsical plotting. A delight for mystery readers who enjoy a puzzle.

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The puzzle in Brad Parks’ The Good Cop seems more clear cut but has the same comic elements as the Baker Street series. Parks uses the first-person narration of reporter Carter Ross to inform us of the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey, that he covers.

Rushing to be the first to interview a dead policeman’s widow, Ross succeeds and gathers great material for a killer article. Darius Kipps loved his job, had a lovely wife, and two young children he doted on who he was planning to take to Disney World.

But as Ross wonders why no other reporters have shown up, his boss informs him the article is off. The cop has committed suicide.

Yet something else seems off to Carter, and the widow agrees, making a public statement to that effect. Her husband had everything to live for and would never have taken his own life.

Added to the mix is a charismatic preacher who has the widow’s ear. Then calls Ross makes to the medical examiner are blocked, and his instincts kick in.

Using his contacts, and sufficiently sustained by his diet of two slice of pizza and a cold Coke Zero, Ross sets out to unearth the truth about what really happened to Good Cop Kipps.

 

Changing tones a bit but still with a sense of wry humor in his protagonist, Joseph Olshan gives us his debut thriller, Cloudland.

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The rural Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire is an area with tough weather and even tougher people.

The wealthy, the artistic, and the working class have more than their love of the area in common. They have a sense of safety where residents rarely bother to lock their doors.

Things change radically when a serial killer targets young women in their region. Whether jogging on a back road or stopped at a rest stop, the victims share more than their youth: being alone at the times of their murder made them easy targets.

Into the mix comes Catherine Winslow, a former reporter who lives simply and earns a living writing a household hints column. Her reporter’s instincts, coupled with her own sense of survival, all contribute to the urge she feels to uncover the murderer when she finds the body of one of his victims. Suddenly the killer has invaded her turf and made his threat real.

Teaming up with her  forensic psychologist neighbor and the detective on the case, she investigates the murders and finds close friends and neighbors on the suspect list. Adding to her stress is her strained relationship with her only child, a daughter living in New Jersey, and her past relationship with a much-younger lover that still haunts her.

Olshan does a fine job describing the impact to this rural landscape that these killings leave. With echoes of the gothic literature Catherine loves, as well as a clue in an obscure Wilkie Collins novel, the reader will absorb Olshan’s elegant prose and evocative language as this compelling story explores not only the mystery but the psychology of its characters.

 

Becky Masterman: Rage Against the Dying Sunday, Apr 21 2013 

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images_009Brigid Quinn, the protagonist and wonderful heroine of Becky Masterman’s new thriller Rage Against the Dying, reminds Auntie M of a female Jethro Gibbs from NCIS–one with a more visceral bent but with a past that haunts her dreams.

This is one strong lady who doesn’t hesitate to get her hands dirty, whether it’s searching river beds for unusual rocks in a dry Tucson river bed, or dealing with maniacal murderers who threaten her and those she loves.

After a life in the FBI, the retiree in her late 50′s–and how nice to have a protagonist of a certain age–finds love with new husband, Carlo,  a retired professor she met auditing his class. They have Pugs and wine and easy days together, building a life where she may even try to learn to cook. Maybe.

But Brigid lives in fear of the mask she’s created slipping, and of Carlo seeing her through her violent past and what she has seen and the person she was, instead of who she’s become. This is one strong gal who can kill with her bare hands, and shivers at the thought of Carlo having that knowledge.

Then an incident occurs that threatens her new-found peace and with that hanging over her shoulder, Brigid is thrust back into the cold case when a man confesses to the string of murders and offers to lead police to the murdered woman’s body in exchange for a plea bargain. This is the one case her team had to leave unsolved. It  left a member of her team dead and the young agent’s murder remains unsolved. It’s an incident that haunts Brigid in her quiet moments, one for which she feels a sense of culpability. She must be involved.

Yet Brigid knows something is wrong, and with her own horrendous secret to keep, she fears everything she works so hard to build will come tumbling down as she matches wits with a terrifying killer. Adding to the confusion is that the new FBI agent on the case believes the confession is faked, and Brigid finds herself at the center of violence once again.

This is a chilling, smart debut. Readers will not only be rooting for Brigid, they will be eager to read the next adventure of this vibrant character who has seen far too much of the heinous side of humanity yet craves normality for herself.

 

NEWS from HarperCollins: DELUXE E-BOOKS Wednesday, Apr 17 2013 

Uncategorized , , auntiemwrites 1:13 pm

The wave of the future is here:

HarperCollins has launched a brand new website that features the Enhanced e-books library– e-books with extra content like video, photos, and more.  images_013

Here is the link: http://www.harpercollins.com/enhanced.

Some books featured on the page right now are American Sniper, I Suck At Girls, Telegraph Avenue, Prague Winter and more!

Visit the page to watch a great video that features authors such as Michael Chabon and Colin Powell discussing their enhanced e-Books (top of the page).

The books can be downloaded to iPads, iPhones, Nooks, Kindles and more, all at the appropriate sites. Visit the link above for more information and to see this new feature in action!

This page provides exciting information on what to expect in the enhanced e-books, as well as where they are available to purchase.

 

 

Dorothy H. Hayes: Murder at the P&Z Tuesday, Apr 16 2013 

Uncategorized , , , , auntiemwrites 12:41 am

MurderAtPZcover533x800When I first began to write Murder at the P&Z, I started with a vision: the body of a dead woman under a giant black spruce. Anything can happen to explain that vision. My characters and the plot are organic and I am as surprised as the reader of its twists and turns. I lead the emotional life of my characters, which makes story telling very exciting. I put them in situations and they handle them according to their character traits.

Murder at the P&Z is a character driven story. Carol Rossi, a local reporter, 47, and in her second career, is involved romantically with a police officer much younger than her. At first, when a woman’s body is found on School Road, Rossi is thrilled to be covering the murder scene thinking that this is the big story, her big break. When she realizes, however, that the murder victim is the secretary to the town planner, a woman on her beat, she’s horrified and swears to find the killer.

Rossi believes the murder may be connected to a multi-million dollar condominium real estate deal that was approved by the town planner, and the planning and zoning commissioners. The police, however, suspect that it’s a random crime, a homicide that occurred during a mugging. It is the Christmas season and the mugger was looking for fast cash, they conclude.

Rossi is forced to become an amateur sleuth to keep her promise to find the killer. As her investigation progresses, she’s soon being stalked and she has no idea by whom or why. Then the recently retired, former town planner is found dead in his swimming pool in Bimini.

Rossi’s life is threatened, and she realizes that she’s in over her head professionally and romantically.

Like most mysteries, clues are peeled away slowly throughout the book but suspense holds the reader to the end. And in this case, readers also fear for the clever, but flawed, Rossi.

I was a reporter for a Wilton newspaper and covered planning and zoning. It was almost too easy to develop a crime given the power of that body, which approves all building projects in town, although to my surprise it became much more complicated. The story is believable although no such crime occurred in Wilton. But the story draws from the colonial town’s historic past, my own experiences, and the reactions of my characters, which remain true to form.

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Dorothy Hayes, a graduate of Western Connecticut State University, taught Language Arts in Connecticut and New York schools.

She was a staff writer for the Wilton Bulletin, and The Hour and received an honorary award for her in-depth series on Vietnam Veterans from the Society of Professional Journalists.

She also worked as a staff writer for a national animal protection corporation, and wrote Animal Instinct published by iUniverse in 2006. She writes for womenofmystery.net, and criminalelement.com, and is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, Tri-State Chapter.

You can buy Murder at the P&Z at:

 

Jo Bannister: Deadly Virtues Sunday, Apr 14 2013 

Uncategorized , , , , auntiemwrites 12:35 am

images_049Northern Ireland is the home to Jo Bannister, author of the Brodie Farrell and four other series, but in her newest she takes us to the small British town of Norbold, in the highly satisfying read, Deadly Virtues.

Protagonist Hazel Best the newest recruit in Norbold’s force, a woman who chose to enter the force for her own reasons. She is determined to do a good job and gain the attention of her popular and effective Chief Superintendent,  John Fountain.

Gabriel Ash is a man haunted by an unexplained tragedy in his life. Known as Ash, his rescued dog, Patience, is the only reason he has to get out of bed in the morning most days.

These two unlikely people will join forces after law student Jerome Cardy is killed by a crazed maniac while on remand in police custody.

Sleeping off an assault and concussion with his dog in the safe haven of a Norbold cell, Ash crosses Cardy’s path when the two are temporarily housed together. Before leaving Ash’s cell, Cardy tells him: “I had a dog once. Othello. That was its name. Othello.”

After Cardy’s death, Ash enlists Hazel to uncover the truth behind the young man’s death. At first suspicious and later determined, Hazel knows her young career lies in the balance if she pursues the thread of a case Ash has handed her.

By showing Cardy’s knowledge of his impending death, even before he winds up a cell, Bannister dangles a provocative hook that will have readers turning pages as Hazel and Ash figure out why Cardy had to die.

The growing strength of friendship between Hazel and Ash leads to the novel’s unexpected ending, when it seems no one can be trusted, and their lives hang in the balance.

Bannister’s dry wit is on show here. Nicely nuanced characters and a fair amount of tension and tension will have readers hoping this is not the last appearance of this unlikely duo.

 

Sophie Hannah: The Carrier Sunday, Apr 7 2013 

Uncategorized , , , , auntiemwrites 12:25 am

images_031Prolific author Sophie Hannah’s newest thriller, The Carrier, won’t answer every question it raises but will provide a rollicking ride as she examines lie and obsession.

Featuring her detective team of Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse, in of themselves an unusual mix of characters, the book revolves around their investigation but features the first person narrative of the strong character of Gaby Struthers, genius and entrepreneur.

Delayed overnight on a flight from Germany back to England, Gaby finds herself sharing a tacky room with the terrified, outspoken Lauren Cookson.

Despite their initial antagonism, when Lauren’s blurts out that Gaby would never let a man go to jail for a murder he didn’t commit, Gaby does research and realizes Lauren’s presence on her flight was not a coincidence.

What follows is a duel of the minds of several highly intelligent people, one of them the confessed murderer, Tim Breary, the love of Gaby’s love. Tim insists he has  murdered his incapacitated wife, giving police the evidence they need to convict him in addition to his confession.

Supporting his version of events are the friends Tim and his wife, Francine, have lived with since her stroke, Kerry and Dan Jose.  Gaby soon becomes convinced they are lying, and Charlie agrees. But why would Tim’s best friends, who are vocal in their dislike of Francine, aid him in going to prison if he really didn’t murder his wife?

Several subplots surrounding Charlie’s sister and the duo’s colleague, as well as a work politics on Simon’s end, will satisfy readers of the series. But readers won’t have to have read the others for this psychological thriller to grip them and carry them along to the end.

 

 

 

Laura Lee Smith: Heart of Palm Sunday, Mar 31 2013 

Uncategorized , , auntiemwrites 12:00 am

This week Auntie M will be in Florida, so it’s only fitting that our guest resides there. Please welcome Laura Smith telling readers about her novel Heart of Palm:

Freaky Florida—A Fiction Writer’s DreamHOP Cover Art

I once heard fiction writer and creative writing professor Lynne Barrett say that Florida is a great place for fiction because “Florida is complicated. It’s not a simple place. Problems arise.” And I have to agree. I’ve lived in Florida for more than thirty years, and I chose to set my novel HEART OF PALM here because I knew that Florida could deliver the eccentric characters and environmental tensions that would make for solid storytelling. It’s just a funky place.

Don’t believe me? Let’s not forget last year’s face-eating attack, or the shrimper who found the prosthetic leg of an ex-football player floating in the Gulf of Mexico.

The football player was tracked down. “Ain’t nobody dead,” he said. “Just give me back my leg.”

There’s no end of story ideas. Click the link for inspiration from The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Ah, Florida. Crime, conflict and crisis. You can’t make this stuff up.

But wacky stuff aside, one of the most serious conflicts I’ve witnessed here has been the clash of cultures between old ways of living and new development.

I live in the nation’s Oldest City, but at the same time, my home county is one of the fastest-growing in the state. Total population in St. Johns County grew 54.3% in the last 10 years.

People want to live here, and who can blame them? It’s warm and sunny. It’s comparatively inexpensive. It’s picturesque. But what happens when the newcomers want to change things, and the old guard does not? That’s the conflict I handed my fictional family, the Bravos, in HEART OF PALM.

The novel is told in the voices of six members of the hapless Bravo family—stalwart natives of the neglected and hard-worn town of Utina, a relic of palm harvesters and moonshiners in fast-developing Northeast Florida.

The primary voice belongs to Frank, the middle-aged son who is juggling management of the family restaurant, support of his eccentric mother and sister, and resentment toward his aloof older brother and his absent father. To complicate matters, Frank harbors a decades-old love for his brother’s wife.

We hear, too, from Frank’s mother Arla, a former ingénue who has been physically and emotionally scarred by the life and the marriage she impetuously chose. Also here are the narratives of Sofia, the fragile cynic; Carson, the volatile autocrat; Elizabeth, the voice of reason; and Dean, the heartbreaking but maddeningly affable alcoholic.

Behind each family member’s agenda lurks the memory of shared tragedy and shared blame. When a real estate offer presents a chance for change, Frank faces a hard choice: he can continue his self-imposed penance, or he can pursue his long-postponed desires.

The book is first and foremost about a family. But it’s greatly influenced by the environment in which it takes place. And when it comes to ratcheting up narrative tension, Florida can’t be beat. Take guilt, loneliness, lost love, financial ruin and grief, and then add 98-degree temperatures and suffocating humidity. And see what happens.

 

Laura Lee Smith’s first novel, HEART OF PALM will be released April 2 by Grove Press.      LauraLeeSmith Head Shot

Her short fiction was selected by guest editor Amy Hempel for inclusion in New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 2010. Her work has also appeared in The Florida Review, Natural Bridge, Bayou and other journals. She works as an advertising copywriter and has taught creative writing at Flagler College.

www.lauraleesmith.com

 

 

 

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