Ab Fab: Best of Recent UK Crime Thursday, Mar 27 2014 

Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 2:51 pm


Absolutely Fabulous was the name of wildly offbeat British sitcom that premiered in the 1990’s and starred Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha. Its nickname “Ab Fab” has become part of the lexicon of Brit slang that Auntie M is using here to describe the collection of UK crime novels you’ll want to explore.


Sophie Hannah’s Kind of Cruel continues in the vein she’s established for examining the investigations of married detectives Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse. She uses the protagonist of each case to describe the majority of the action, including Zailer and Waterhouse, in an unusual device that is simply brilliant.

Readers will be caught up in the puzzle that is Amber’s Hwerdine’s life.Amber suffers from insomnia since the death of her best friend, a death that also gave Amber and her husband custody of the friend’s two young girls. Determined to make a safe home for Dinah and Nonie, Amber visits a hypnotist to help her with her insomnia and utters the words “kind of cruel,” which in turn alerts Waterhouse to a different murder case. These were the very words inscribed on a pad in the victim’s flat; but Amber doesn’t know this woman? So how did she know that unusual phrase?

Waterhouse is convinced Amber is innocent of the murder, yet somehow has knowledge that will help him solve the case. This complex novel is filled with clues that only become apparent at the end. This is literary writing at its finest with intelligent and thoroughly researched psychology that includes a stunning insight into Waterhouse’s psyche. If you weren’t a fan of Sophie Hannah before, you will be after absorbing this compulsively readable book. Hannah was chosen to write a new Hercule Poirot novel that will premiere this fall.

DtMe
CWA Dagger Winner Cath Staincliffe brings the two protagonists of the popular series Scott and Bailey to life in Dead to Me,a police procedural whose characters fairly jump off the page.

While both members of the Murder Investigation Team based in Manchester, these two women are polar opposites. Janet Scott is a consummate interviewer, able to obtain trust and confidences from her suspects, a reliable mum and worker with her own dry sense of humor. Rachel Bailey is impulsive, energetic and outrageously ambitious, but she also has great instincts that could make her a fine detective. Partnered with Janet, the two rub against each other at first but quickly join forces to find the killer of a teenaged girl, brutally murdered in a housing project.

Both women have their own demons to wrestle with in their pasts but when the case becomes complicated, they will face dangers neither could expect. The inner workings of a murder squad with its attendant relationships and vagaries are all on display in this fast-paced winner from the novelist and creator of hit UK TV series Blue Murder.

safehouse
Chris Ewan’s deftly plotted thriller Safe House is set on the Isle of Man, a closed, often desolate community that is the perfect setting for this stand alone that offers up the first person perspective of Rob Hale, a heating engineer who races motorcycles.

When Rob wakes up in hospital after an horrific bike accident, he wonders immediately of the fate of his lovely blonde passenger. But his doctors and the police claim there was no woman found at at the scene. Rob’s memories of the lovely Lena are put down to his concussion by everyone but Rob. But how could a woman vanish into thin air?

With his sister’s recent suicide hanging over his family, Rob is determined to find Lena and why her very existence seems to be covered up. He’ll be aided by a private investigator from London, and together he and Rebecca Lewis must follow the clues that will lead to Lena and to the troubling truth behind his sister’s death. Filled with action and corruption, the story never loses sight of family love.

backlash
Backlash is Lynda La Plante’s newest entry in her Anna Travis series. The creator of the Prime Suspect series, La Plante’s eighth novel finds Travis a Detective Chief Inspector who will knock heads once again with her former lover, now boss, Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton.

Langton is supposed to be on sick leave after knee surgery, but somehow he manages to insinuate himself into Anna’s case, to her chagrin. While her case seems to be open and shut at first, with a suspect, an arrest, and a confession by the driver of a white van found with a dead woman in the back, it does appear connected to an earlier case of Langton’s. Five years before, a 13 yr-old girl disappeared and the unsolved case has haunted him since. Now he’s put himself into the midst of Anna’s case and there are sure to be complications when her suspect suddenly changes his story. And it doesn’t help when Langton trades on his complicated relationship with Anna to keep him updated on what should be her case.

deadpeople
Following the success of his strong debut Good People, Ewart Hutton returns with DS Glyn Capaldi in Dead People.

Capaldi’s transfer to rural Wales after a professional fall from grace finds him dealing with the gruesome discovery of a long-dead skeleton found at a remote site during excavation work for a new wind farm in the hills. Missing its head and hands makes the corpse unidentifiable. Then more skeletons are found in the same area and it appears the site is the dumping ground of a serial killer. Capaldi’s not convinced this is accurate, but he fights his superiors’ when he insists this smacks of local knowledge. Complicating matters is a nearby archeological dig with a comely head archeologist who perks Capaldi’s interest. There will be trips to a claustrophobic series of caves, more bodies unearthed, and an apparent suicide before the real culprit is unmasked. Told in first person from Capaldi’s point of view, his self-deprecating humor adds a nice touch in this strong series.


Saints of the Shadow Bible is Ian Rankin’s latest entry into his dark, Edinburgh police procedurals that will find John Rebus and Malcom Fox knocking heads in a complicated cold case. When a 30 yr-old murder case is investigated, the one that Rebus would rather be investigating should take a back seat. But then, this IS Rebus we’re talking about.

A young woman has been found unconscious at the wheel of her car, with signs of another occupant and possible theft. Her boyfriend is the son of a high-ranking politician; neither the boyfriend nor the victim will talk to the police. While he aggravates people he’s investigating with his usual aplomb, Rebus must confront ghosts of his own past as Fox is assigned to look into a group from early in Rebus’ career known the the “Saints.”

Fox and Rebus together seem an unlikely duo and there’s no love lost between the two of them, yet at the bottom of it all the truth will come to the forefront. Will Rebus be exonerated or a victim of his past decisions? Highly readable.


Bad Blood is the newest DI Marjory Fleming novel in her absorbing series set in Scotland. A medical situation with Fleming’s husband, Bill, shadows their son’s triumph playing rugby, and forces Fleming to confront whether she puts her job over her family. Her sergeant, Tam McNee, will be forced to take on a greater role than he likes when a young woman returns to town to find out why the disappearance of her mother was never solved.

Marnie Bruce didn’t exactly have the best upbringing. After being knocked about the head as a child, she woke up to find her mother gone and herself taken into care, a situation she leaves at age 16. She’s been on her own ever since, working in London and saving to return to Scotland to discover what happened to the mother she has terribly mixed feelings about. MArnie’s appearance will set off a chain reaction of events that lead back to the murder of a young boy forty years ago. And then a woman is killed and Marnie becomes a prime suspect.

Deftly plotted, this investigation combines the difficult relationships of Fleming’s team as they struggle to put their personal feelings aside to solve a the murder that has fingers reaching back several decades. Another winner in a series Auntie M enjoys that she hopes you will discover.

 

Triss Stein: Brooklyn Graves Saturday, Mar 15 2014 

Uncategorized , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:02 am

Please welcome guest author Triss Stein with her new release, Brooklyn Graves. One lucky person who leaves a comment will win a copy of one of her books, so lurkers, don’t be shy!

Brooklyn Graves 2
With every new book a writer has the challenge of writing something as good or better than the last one. In a series, as most mysteries are published these day, the special challenge is how to explain enough to interest the new reader, and not bore to death the reader who already knows the back story.

With Brooklyn Graves, my second book in the series, and with the work in progress, I have an extra challenge. The underlying idea for this series is to write books set in Brooklyn neighborhoods, with the stories woven around the unique character, history and issues of each. The first, Brooklyn Bones, was set in my own neighborhood. An area with beautiful architecture and parks, and all the issues that come with gentrification, it had plenty of old and new tensions to use in a story. And it was all right outside my door! No research required.

Can you see where I am going? I never thought of setting all the later books there too, turning it into a kind of urban version of Cranberry Cove or St. Mary Mead. So for Brooklyn Graves I had to look further.

Years ago, I had read some news items about a series of crimes taking place in some of New York’s most elaborate cemeteries. They were not creepy; this is not body snatching. In fact, they were almost comical and the idea was irresistible. With Brooklyn home to Green-Wood, one of the grand cemeteries of the 19th century, a place so lovely people used to take carriage rides there and have picnics, I had my special setting and it was a famous place, easy to research.

The challenge came with my need to have a manual worker who was a friend of my protagonist. That kind of work is most often done in New York by immigrants. Who could he be, this character? How could I write him and sound truthful? With English that has the correct foreign ring to it? Would I know the difference between a Puerto Rican and a Mexican accent? Between Jamaican and Trinidadian? Let alone the typical family interactions, standards, and fears of another culture? While some human emotions seem universal, they are always expressed in a local fashion.

The answer was to make him Russian. I have known a lot of Russian immigrants. I am familiar with Brighton Beach, the large Russian neighborhood now nicknamed Little Odessa. And I had people to ask if I was not sure about a detail. And though Russian immigrants are often better educated than some others, lack of English or lack of US certifications might keep them in manual jobs. My story took a whole new turn that I had not even planned.

Did I succeed? I will learn that from my readers.

The work in progress is the same challenge magnified. I wanted to write about the history of a very rough, poor neighborhood where I worked for a time, long ago. It wasn’t till I started writing that I realized that – duh!- I don’t know anything about it as it is now. Is it still tough, gang-ridden, depressed? Is my knowledge of street slang hopelessly outdated? (Of course it is) Does it still produce boxers and drug dealers? Finding out is the first challenge. Making it come alive on the page is the second. Look for the results next winter.

About Brooklyn Graves:
A brutally murdered friend who was a family man with not an enemy in the world. A box full of charming letters home, written a century ago by an unknown young woman working at the famed Tiffany studios. Historic Green-Wood cemetery, where a decrepit mausoleum with stunning stained glass windows is now off limits, even to a famed art historian.

Suddenly, all of this, from the tragic to the merely eccentric, becomes part of Erica Donato’s life. As if her life is not full enough. She is a youngish single mother of a teen, an oldish history grad student, lowest person on the museum’s totem pole. She doesn’t need more responsibility, but she gets it anyway as secrets start emerging in the most unexpected places.

In Brooklyn Graves, a story of old families, old loves and hidden ties merges with new crimes and the true value of art, against the background of the splendid old cemetery and the life of modern Brooklyn.

About Triss Stein:
Triss Stein is a small–town girl from New York state’s dairy country who has spent most of her adult life living and working in New York city. This gives her the useful double vision of a stranger and a resident for writing mysteries about Brooklyn, her ever-fascinating, ever-changing, ever-challenging adopted home. She is inspired by its varied neighborhoods and their rich histories. The first book in the series, Brooklyn Bones, is about the discovery of body as a brownstone is being renovated in gentrifying Park Slope. The next is Brooklyn Graves in 2014. It is about historic Green-Wood Cemetery, Tiffany glass, a turn-of-the -last century mystery and some up-to-date crimes. It is due out in February 2014.

Writing mysteries is Triss’s third career. She started out as a children’s librarian with the Brooklyn Public Library system, which is when she started learning about all those neighborhoods. Later she transitioned into business research at places as diverse as McKinsey, the global consultancy, and DC Comics. She is the chair of the Mystery Writers of America/New York chapter library committee.

 

Michael Robotham: Watching You Wednesday, Mar 12 2014 

Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 4:18 pm

watching you

The incomparable Michael Robotham brings back psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, one of Auntie M’s favorite creations, along with his friend, ex-cop Vincent Ruiz, in another stunner. Watching You introduces Marnie Logan, a woman in desperate shape after the disappearance of her husband thirteen months before.

With Daniel’s assets frozen, and unable to obtain have him declared dead to collect his life insurance, Marnie’s financially strapped, behind in her rent, and has just pawned the family’s television to pay for groceries. Her teenage daughter, Zoe, doesn’t understand why Daniel abandoned them. Her younger son, Elijah, a sickly boy with an imaginary friend, just knows that he misses his dad.

Then there’s the other issue: Marnie feeling she’s constantly being watched, something she can’t shake, like a shadow that disappears when she turns. To complicate matters, Daniel owes a huge gambling debt, which a signed contract shows Marnie to be liable for; she finds herself briefly working as an escort under duress. At least she’ll have a few pounds to pay the electric bill, but she’s still two months behind in their rent.

Reasonably depressed, her desperation increases, and she turns to clinical psychologist O’Loughlin for help. In his search to help Marnie, O’Loughlin uncovers Daniels’ Big Red Book; a collection of photos, interviews and anecdotes from Marnie’s past that Daniel was collating as a birthday surprise. It becomes the springboard O’Loughlin and Ruiz will use to investigate Daniel’s last days.

Things turn on their head when it soon becomes obvious that any one who crossed Marnie Logan in her life has been harmed in some terrible way. And O’Loughlin has just put himself in the sights of this personal crusader.

Robotham builds suspense and keeps readers connected with his masterful storytelling. In this case, nothing is quite as it seems on the surface, and the twists and twist-backs at the end will leave O’Loughin startled and the reader surprised. This is one you won’t want to put down. Highly recommended.

 

Winter Clearance: The Best of the Rest Sunday, Mar 9 2014 

Uncategorized , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:05 am

Auntie M receives many more books during the year than she could possible review Reading 2-3 a week, she usually picks out her favorites to give a full review, and throws in guests here and there, so you can imagine the piles of books at her house. With the spring/summer catalogues starting to arrive, it seemed prudent to do a bit of book cleaning and sorting. Here are the fall/winter releases that didn’t make it to a full review, mostly because of timing issues, not because they weren’t good reads. Lurkers new to this blog should be aware that Auntie M does not waste space on a book she didn’t like, whatever the reason. The thrust of this blog is to bring great new authors or continued series winners books to your attention.
The-Golem-and-the-Jinni-by-Helene-Wecker

The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker is not the usual kind of crime book Auntie M reviews, but there is a mystery at the heart of this involved immigrant tale that focuses on elements of Arab and Jewish mythology. It’s an interesting mix of these two world and revolves around two supernatural creatures who arrive in New York in 1899 and adjust to a human city. There is adventure as they face adversity, and their once-hostile relationship changes through the strong bond they form. Surrounded by a colorful cast of secondary characters, this is a mix of fable and historical fiction in this tale of folklore and fantasy.

seance societyStaying with books written in another time, we head to 1956 and Michael Nehtercott’s The Seance Society. PI Lee Plunkett and Mr. O’Nelligan, his partner, pair up to solve a murder involved the “Spectricator,” a machine designed to communicate with the afterlife. The fresh cast of characters they meet, combined with witty dialogue, make for a great mystery.
deathdyer

It’s back to the post-Revolutionary War era when veteran Will Rees, a traveling weaver, finds his fragile happiness shattered by news of the murder of his old friend, Nate Bowditch, in Eleanor Kuhn’s Death of a Dyer.Kuhns’ won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award for A Simple Murder, which intruded Rees. She brings this tale of hidden motives and evil secrets alive with capturing the Shaker lifestyle of the period.
midwifes tale
Sam Thomas’ The Midwife’s Tale takes readers to 1644, when Parliament’s armies laid siege to York in a rebellion against the King. A different sort of rebellion faces midwife Bridget Hodgson, who resolutely sets out of clear her friend of murdering her husband. But will she find the real culprit before Estehr Cooper is burned alive? Enlisting savvy servant Martha Hawkins, the two will travel to unknown neighborhoods and delve into Puritan ethics run amok. Filled with historical details and breathing with realism of the era.

killinghills
Julia Keller’s A Killing in the Hills brings her skills as a Pulitzer Prize-wining journalist to her first crime novel with powerful results. Bell Elkins returns to the depressed area of West Virginia that carries enough terrible childhood memories to keep her away. But returning to Acker’s Gap as the county’s prosecuting attorney will bring Bell’s daughter Carly into the fray after the girl is a witness to a fatal shooting. A wonderful sense of place with quick pacing finely-darwn characters.

Once Upon A Lie.JPG
Maggie Barbieri’s Once Upon a Lie is a departure from her Murder 101 series. This time a suburban mystery takes a dark turn in this debut featuring baker Maeve Conlon, a most unlikely protagonist. Trying to juggle her kids, an ex with a new family and a father with Alzheimer’s while running a successful business isn’t easy for Maeve but she manages–just. Then her cousin Sean Donovan is found dead and suddenly things get a lot more complicated. Unusual and surprising.

smith
Helen Smith’s Emily Castle series are pure fun, what Auntie M calls brain candy. This time poor Emily, temp job queen, is convinced to travel for the weekend to beachside of Torquay for a weekend convention of paranormal research. Her neighbor, Perspicacious Peg, has had a premonition someone will drown at the convention, and Emily is hired as a “future-crimes” investigator, which translates to an all-expense paid vacation whilst keeping her eyes open. Magician Edmund Zenon’s bounty of 50,000 British Sterling pounds, offered to anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal, dangles like a carrot on a stick in front of the resort and its inhabitants. Filled with quirky characters and tongue-in-cheek asides.

october list
Jeffrey Deaver’s October List flips his usual crime novels on hits head by starting with the ending and working his way backwards to show how and why Gabriela is sitting in an apartment, watching the clock tick down after the kidnapping of her daughter. The story builds and rebuilds with device as reader’s work back, trying to spot clues. Deaver says he was inspired by Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.

the good boy
Edgar Award-winning author Theresa Schwegel brings a noir look to Chicago with The Good Boy, her look into 11 yr-old Joel Murphy’s journey with his father’s police dog, Butchie, who set out to protect Joel’s sister and end up running for their lives. With his father, Pete, facing a wrongful arrest suit, justice seems to be out of reach for this family. Schwegel’s authentic dialogue adds to the tension.

The Widows of Braxton County is Jess McConkey’s haunting family story with a mystery at its heart. When Kate Krauss marries into an Iowa farming family and only finds out after her wedding that her new mother-in-law will be living with the newlyweds, that’s not the only secret this family holds.

Cut to the Bone is the newest entry in the Jefferson Bass series set at the Body Farm in 1992. This one delves into Dr. Bill Brockton’s past and the Body Farm’s early beginnings. The launch of this macabre research facility are threatened to derail when he’s called to investigate a crime scene with chilling similarities to Brockton’s past.

Memphis is the setting for Jeff Crook’s The Sleeping and the Dead. featuring Jackie Lyons, a former vice detective on the edge of too many life changes to take hold of at once. There’s a mystical element here, as Jackie’s camera starts to capture images of ghosts and she must decipher the real world from the spirit world.

Carol Miller’s debut Murder and Moonshine features waitress Daisy McGovern, working at a Virginia diner, and overhearing far too many secrets to keep her safe. First in a new series.

Hoomy Menino debuts a gripping mystery surrounding horsewoman Tink Elledge in Murder, She Rode. Set outside Philadelphia in the Brandywine region, Tink becomes involved in unraveling the truth behind several supposedly freak accidents affecting the riders she knows.

It’s easy to figure out the setting for DE Johnson’s Detroit Shuffle. Will Anderson seems to have a knack for getting involved in sleuthing. This is the third entry in the times of suffrage rallies, conspiracies and murder against the backdrop of the infancy of the auto industry.

Steve Hamilton prolific Alex McKnight series had two entries last year: Let It Burn took the ex-cop back to his Detroit roots to revisit a case he thought he’d solved decided ago. Blood is the Sky came out in paperback and follows McKnight’s journey deep into Canada on a search for the missing brother of his good friend and was previously reviewed. Hamilton gets the balance of tension, action and atmosphere just right in this series from the two-time Edgar Award winner.

Shoot the Women First is Wallace Stroby’s third Crissa Stone caper, featuring the professional thief, an unlikely but engaging protagonist Kirkus calls “crime fiction’s best bad girl.” This time she’s in Detroit and finds herself on the run with a stolen cache of drug money, being pursued by the drug kingpin’s lethal lieutenant and a former cop with his own agenda. Action-packed and hard-boiled as you can get.

Dana Hayes fast-paced action thriller Ice Cold Kill will have readers leaving the light on long after bedtime. Working as an interpreter and living in exile in the US and under FBI protection is a very different way of life for former Shin-Bet agent Daria Gibron, who can’t resist taking on the occasional job as an operative. Alerted to an ambush but not knowing who’s at its heart, she finds herself on the run from a setup and pursued by the very people who are supposed to protect her.

Thriller writer James Rollins takes an apocalyptic turn with the comet set on a collision course with Earth in The Eye of God . Throw in behind-the-scenes government plots, add in a huge dose of action and startling secrets and you have a view of the future where Sigma Force, an elite and covert arm of the Department of Defense’s DARPA Unit exists. Combining high concept scientific theories with true historical and religious facts gives this thriller the ring of plausibility.

Stephen Leather has garnered an audience with his Spider Shepherd series and True Colors is out in paperback. His newest release is Lastnight, a Jack Nightingale thriller which finds Jack asked to track down a killer murdering Goths in a most horrific manner: skinning and butchering them. When Jack finds the common link to the victims, he sets himself and his family squarely in the firing line of a secretive Satanic cult.

Archer Mayor’s Paradise City came out in paperback and was quickly followed by Joe Gunther’s newest tale in Three Can Keep a Secret. Recovering after the devastation of Hurricane Irene is a full time job for Gunther and the Vermont Bureau of Investigation until they are handed three seemingly unrelated cases. How they are related provides the key as Gunther plows through the disaster trying to learn what is really at the base of these cases.

Tim O’Mara’s Crooked Numbers second novel brings back Sacrifice Fly‘s protagonist, NYC teacher Raymond Donne. This time Donne takes a break from middle-school teaching to solve the apparently gang-related killing of a former student on scholarship to a private Manhattan school–only the boy’s mother insists her son was never part of gang. Then another victim from the same school dies and a third is hospitalized.

The Other Woman is Hank Phillippi Ryan’s riveting entry featuring reporter Jane Ryland that won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. A Boston investigative reporter, Ryan brings her extensive history and knowledge to crime, wining the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards in the process. Jane will encounter Detective Jake Brogan in this mystery with tones of election connections and a serial killer at large. The Wrong Girl follows the duo into the investigation of a respected adoption agency. Are they reuniting birth parents with the wrong children? A strong series with compelling characters and nonstop action.

 

Sandra deHelen: The Illustrious Client Sunday, Mar 2 2014 

Uncategorized , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:06 am

Marni, thank you so much for inviting me to be your guest on your fabulous crime review weekly, Auntie M Writes.

I’d like to start by introducing your readers to my protagonist and her sidekick. Shirley Combs is the world’s greatest detective (in her opinion, anyway), and Dr. Mary Watson, a naturopath, is her sidekick and narrator. They live and work in present day Portland, Oregon, just as I do.

They first met at a self-help weekend workshop in Seattle several years ago. That was when Shirley decided to pursue her passion for private investigation, and Mary started chronicling their exploits. One of the things that drew them together was they were both asexual. Shirley most likely always will be, but in the second book, Mary discovers her sexuality and falls in love.

In the first book,THE HOUNDING, Shirley is hired to find the true killer of Priscilla Vandeleur, a timber heiress, who had a phobia of dogs. Someone took advantage of that fear and set hounds on her to literally scare her to death. Sherlock Holmes fans will recognize this story as similar to The Hound of the Baskervilles. All the stories will be descended from Sherlock Holmes stories as written by A. Conan Doyle. Shirley often uses Sherlock’s methods to solve her crimes. She grew up reading the stories and because her name said fast sounds like his, she was teased all her life. She decided maybe having a name that sounded like his wasn’t a coincidence, but a pointer for her life.

The second book finds Shirley and Mary hired by an emissary for an illustrious client, to try their best to get a young French pop star out of the clutches of a billionaire Afghan player. They travel to France to meet with the young woman’s parents, only to be return immediately to Portland when a crime occurs. This novel is called THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT, as might be expected.

The third book, which is in its infancy, will be called THE VALLEY OF FEAR, and will introduce Shirley’s Moriarty.

It is not necessary to read the books in order. The relationship between Shirley and Mary will grow over time, but if you want to read a mystery, you don’t have to know anything about Sherlock Holmes or read them in a particular order.

THE HOUNDING is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. The audiobook is set up with Whisper Sync, which allows the reader to listen for awhile, then pick up the Kindle and find it set at the place she left off — and vice versa. THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENT is available in paperback and ebook. Both books can be found (or ordered) wherever books are sold. They are also available online through the usual sources.

Sandra de Helen’s books as well as short stories are available at bookstores, libraries, and online. Her poetry and plays are published in several journals. Samples of her works are on her website SandradeHelen.com.

Even though she says she isn’t a “joiner,” de Helen is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Oregon Writers Colony, the Golden Crown Literary Society, and International Centre for Women Playwrights.

Like her at FaceBook.com/drmarywatson, follow her on Twitter @dehelen, and read her blog at RedCrested.com. She lives with her cat Stanton in Portland, Oregon where they both type.

My website: http://SandradeHelen.com
My blog: http://Redcrested.com
Buy links:
The Hounding: http://amzn.to/1jFW42X
The Illustrious Client: http://amzn.to/1hKb6AH

If you have questions or comments, I’d love to have them. Also, I love book clubs, so if your book club would like me to Skype at your meeting, I’m available for that. If you happen to be within my driving distance, I’ll come in person.