Louise Penny: Glass Houses Tuesday, Aug 29 2017 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:02 am


Louise Penny’s 13th Inspector Gamache novel takes readers back to Three Pines in a most creative way.

Readers are introduced to a trial in process with Gamache as a prime witness. But who the defendant and the victim are is parsed out in a way that heightens the suspense in the first part of the book.

But that’s not the only challenge that Penny has up her sleeve. By going back to the beginning of this crime, Gamache and the other Three Pines residents tell the story of a dark figure who suddenly appears on the village’s green. Cloaked in black and with its face hidden behind a mask, the figure causes a disruption in the town, but since it has done nothing illegal, Gamache is powerless to do anything.

Readers learn the unusual history behind this kind of figure, and not long after it disappears is when the victim’s body is found.

Gamache almost appears on trial, as the animosity between him and the prosecutor on the case is quite evident. His every move and action is questioned. It’s a tense standoff, and there’s more at the bottom of this than meets the eye.

It’s difficult to explain more without giving away the plot, but it involves old friends in a reunion, the bounding drug culture, drugs being transferred, and the feel that Quebec is losing its footing against the drug barons. How these disparate things tie in to Three Pines is once again the genuis that is Penny’s, and the difficult decisions she visits on Gamache.

There will be real threat and pain to those he loves before it’s over, and even then the outcome will be devastating on several levels. Absorbing and complex, the richly layered plot is highlighted by Penny’s trademark details and the wry humor that creeps in, despite the enormity of the situation.

It’s a fine balance that tackles a real life issue with an insprired and controversial solution. Highly recommended.

 

Bruce Coffin: Beneath the Depths Sunday, Aug 27 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:52 am

Beneath the Depths is Bruce Coffin’s sequel to Among the Shadows, his debut featuring Portland detective John Byron, and it’s a solid sophmore offering.

Juggling his sobriety along with his romance with Detective Diane Joyner that must be kept hidden, Byron doesn’t hide his feelings when a lawyer he dislikes is found dead by a lobsterman in a stretch called Floater Alley. A possible suicide or accidental drowning is ruled out once a slug is removed from the victim’s head.

Paul Ramsey’s recent loss of a huge case is one point that interests Bryon, but there soon seem to be no shortage of suspects in the growing list of people who would want the obnoxious lawyer dead. This is a man whose vanity plate reads: I WIN.

There are past clients, a drug connections, mistresses and a grieving widow, and that’s just the start. Complicating their investigation is a reporter who seems to have inside information on the case. And it doesn’t help when Diane is offered a position that might solve their problem with keeping their relationshop under the table but keeps the offer to herself.

With the Portland PD having its own issues, Byron is often caught between a rock and a hard place, which intensifies when the Chief makes it clear that Ramsey’s law office makes huge donations to his pet projects.

Coffin draws on his own experience and knowledge as a former homicide detective to make this a solid police procedural. The Portland setting is well drawn and provides a strong backdrop to the action. This is a great read with a tight plot and believeable characters.

 

Mandy Morton: The Michaelmas Murders Friday, Aug 25 2017 

Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:07 am

Mandy Morton’s highly original No. 2 Feline Detective Agency is back with The Michaelmas Murders, with the detecting team of Hettie Bagshot and her assistant Tilly Jenkins being handed their strangest case yet.

Back from their late summer holiday, the cats are in need of funds, so when Fluff Wither-Fork of Wither-Fork Hall asks them to come around immediately, they are hopeful of adding to their coffers.

The new case is that of a bludgeoned cat found on the allotments that Fluff owns, across the road from Wither-Fork Hall. A stranger to the area, the male cat’s coat and fine clothing are drenched from the overnight rain and his body found right on Bonny Grubb’s onion patch.

None of the other cats on the allotments can identify the body, and are soon busy as preparations gear up for the Michaelmas Festival, and the Flower and Vegetable Show on the following day, as Hettie and Tilly try to interview the various cats.

This is where the real fun comes in. Morton’s world of cats is divine and the felines who people the allotments stand out as distinct personalities, with different families, appearances, backgrounds, and eccentricites. Many have heartaches in their pasts, too–could any of those incidents have triggered this murder?

Then a second cat is found dead in her bed, savagely stabbed, and Hettie and Tilly ramp up their efforts and their investigation to find the culprit.

This charming series, set in a world without humans, nevertheless examines foibles that affect us all. There are sly references to human deeds and fun names for the cats residing alongside this irresistible world where happiness can often be a warm bed and full, purring belly.

Not just for cat fanciers, Morton delivers a fine cozy mystery readers everywhere will enjoy.

 

Jorn Lier Horst: Ordeal Thursday, Aug 24 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:11 am


Chief Inspector William Wisting heads this solid Norwegian police procedural, one of a series being translated into English. Ordeal begins with a thoughtful two-page summary of Wisting’s life up to this stage, as this book is fifth in a series of ten.

Once a senior investigating officer himself, Horst gets those details just right, but it’s the interplay of the man’s detective nose with his sensibilities and his own emotions that make this a great read.

Wisting’s daughter, Line, has moved near him to await the birth of the child that will make him a grandfather and his daughter a single mother. She becomes friends with a young mother nearby, living in an inherited house with her little girl.

It’s a good fit for the two women, one pregnant and the other alone and new to the area. The house Sofie Lund has inherited belonged to her grandfather, a man who thwarted police efforts to tie him to several criminal activities.

There is also a missing mand, a taxi driver, whose case appears to have grown cold with leads. Then a locked safe in the basement of her grandfather’s house reveals secrets that put everyone connected in danger.

It’s a dance Wisting must make with his bosses as he fights the bureaucracy and the media while trying to protect his daughter.

Horst writes fully realized characters and well-plotted book that doesn’t race along but rather meanders in a totally realistic way as most police investigations do. Readers will be looking for the next translation to appear, even as the series is developed for Danish television.

 

J. D. Tafford: Little Boy Lost Wednesday, Aug 23 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for and Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 12:29 am

J. D. Tafford departs from his Michael Collins series to introduce Justin Glass, a mixed-race lawyer trying to get out from the depression that has plagues him since his young wife’s death. Raising his daughter alone, he’s also under the shadow of his political family. His black senator father, a civil rights proponet, and state congressman brother are pressuring him to run for office. His law practice suffered greatly after his wife’s death, and Justin is squeaking by as a public defender, while he and his daughter live in the carriage house of his white mother’s family home with her judge father.

Into his sweltering St. Louise office on a hot summer day comes an 8 yr-old girl with a jar full of change. Tanisha Walker wants to hire him to find her missing brother. With racial tensions high in the area between the African-American and the mostly white police department, Glass reluctantly takes her case and soon finds himself on the receiving end of police mistreatment. It’s a rude awakening, but doesn’t prepare him for when the brother’s body is found buried in the woods, along with over a dozen other teens.

Soon Justin finds many missing teens’ families lined up outside his offic asking for help for locating the “Lost Boys,” the media’s name for the missing boys. The common thread at first is that all had been troubled youths. As he juggles issues with his daughter at school and tries to make decisions about his future, he hires an assistant who smartens his office and gets him organized. And then his searching turns up another commonality that will leave Justin in jeopardy, and all bets are off.

Tafford covers topical issues without over-preaching. His own legal background makes the court system echo with reality. St. Louis simmers in the hot summer and readers will feel they are immersed in the city and in a great mystery.

 

Linda Castillo: Down a Dark Road Monday, Aug 21 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:22 am


The character of former Amish Ohio Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is one who consistently garners attention. Linda Castillo brings Kate back in Down a Dark Road, where Kate’s point of view allows readers an inside glimpse to her mind and the heavy burdens she carries.

Kate is trying to catch a convicted murderer, a fallen Amish man with a drug problem who killed his wife and was to serve a life sentence. But Joseph King has escaped and is headed to Painters Mill.

King reaches his children and takes them hostage, but at least one person believes he is not violent and never killed his wife. And Kate’s feelings are torn, because growing up, she and Joseph were the best of friends.

There is a tense standoff and Joseph agrees to let Kate go to prove his innocence. A sudden turn of events dramatically change the situation, but not Kate’s determination to find the truth.

A tense and tight mystery that belies its idyllic setting

 

John Burley: The Quiet Child Sunday, Aug 20 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:22 am

Readers will think they know what’s happening in John Burley’s thriller, The Quiet Child–but they are most likely to be wrong.

It’s a distubing story of the McCray family in small-town California of 1954. Already hanging on by a thread, teacher Michael McCray is struggling to handle his wife’s illness. The vibrant woman he loves has been struck by ALS, a ‘new’ disease with not a lot known about it at this time.

Danny, who doens’t speak, and his older brother, Sean, are both affected by the changes in their lives.Their situation is worsened by town gossip that Danny’s inability to speak is somehow responsible for illnesses in the town, even his own mother’s.

The two accompany their dad to pick up ice cream at the local grocery. Michael leaves Danny in the back seat of the car when the unthinkable happens: a man comes out of nowhere and tries to enter the car. Sean sees what’s happening and tries to stop the man and ends up being kidnapped, too, as the car roars off.

Sheriff Jim Kent has seen the situation before the kidnapping and worried someone in town would take drastic measures against Danny. Now he’s invovled with the two lead detectives in tryiing to find the boys.

It’s a horrendous situation all around with both boys missing. Everyone is suspicious of the parents, who are devastated. It will be difficult to discuss more of the plot without giving too much away. Suffice it to say that the ending is not what anyone is expecting on many levels.

With attention to little details that bring the setting into sharp relief, Burley’s latest is a haunting tale.

 

Hollie Overton: The Walls Thursday, Aug 17 2017 

great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:34 am


The Walls is Hollie Overton’s second thriller, and introduces us to single mom Kristy Tucker, juggling her teenaged son and her ill father who lives with them. Her work as a public information officer for the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice makes her the mediator between the inmates, the prison system and the media. Part of her job is to conduct interviews and develop relationships with inmates awaiting execution on Death Row, and to be present as a witness when that execution takes place.

It’s an interesting setup that makes her vulnerable to the emotions of so many others, and to their violent sides. We see her develop a relationship with an inmate, Clifton Harris, accused of murdering his two children, who stoically maintains his insistence on his innocence.

This is a smart woman helping others, including her teenaged son, managing her father’s illness and holding down the fort alone. She craves adult companionship and someone she can lean on.

When her son’s mentor Lance Dobson enters her life, she marries him believing his stosries of his love and dedication to her and her family. But things change radically in just a few short months when Lance’s dedication becomes stifling and his insistence on how she dresses and acts soon becomes physically abusive.

Just as she gathers the strength to admit she’s made a mistake and tells him she wants a divorce, Lance threatens to murder her son and father if she leaves him. It is Clifton Harris who gives her the idea that haunts Kristy.

You may think you know this story, but you would be wrong on many counts. This is a woman at the end of her rope with not only her future but that of her son and her father hanging in the balance. How she decides to handle the situation, and how that affects her, form the second half of this absorbing look at how far someone may have to go to protect their family.

 

Summer Humor: Rosenfelt, Murphy and Ingelman-Sundberg Wednesday, Aug 16 2017 

Continued series winner and great read and humorous crime and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:32 am

Being a dog lover, David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpernter Mysteries are some of her favorites.
This summer he’s back with Collared, his newest entry starring lawyer Andy who also runs the Tara Foundation for dog rescue.

Married with an adopted son, Andy is contemplating not renewing his law license, which sends wife Laurie into a tailspin. Then he gets a call from the Tara Foundation and suddenly he’s working again.

Andy’s newest stray at his rescue has a chip the lawyer recognizes. He’s the “DNA” dog, and he’s related to a single mom, Jill Hickman, whose dog and her adopted baby were kidnapped and never seen again.

With Jill’s former boyfriend convicted of the kidnapping, it would seem case closed after evidence was found at his apartment, including dog hair which DNA testing showed as belonging to the missing dog.

Only now that same dog has surfaced, reopening the case and the hunt for the missig baby. Is the real kidnapper in jail or still on the loose? Can the missing boy still be alive?

With his wife, Laurie, urging him on, Andy and his wonderful team investigate. There are chuckles along the way in this satifying read that will please dog lovers and mystery afficionados who like a good puzzle. There’s plenty of suspense to keep you flipping pages through this satisfying read.


Shirley Rousseau Murphy returns with the twentieth installment in her popular Joe Grey Mystery. Welcome to the world of cats this time, and Cat Shining Bright opens with Joe becoming a dad to three adorable kittens in coastal California.

Being a dad means no more helping solve village crimes, until the local beautician, along with a customer, are found dead in her salon. Surely he must take on this investigation, although he’s unaware at first the kittens trail behind him.

There will be gang of thieves, a new cat shelter, and an intriguing neighbor, along with Wilma Getz, the human for Dulcie, mother of the kittens. That the cats speak to a few humans adds to the charm of the series.

The sequel to The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules is just as funny when readers crack open The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again!. Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg must enjoy writing about the crew of elder Swedish criminals she’s created, the League of Pensioners, a modern-day Robin Hood band.

Wanted for an art heist, the League travel to Las Vegas to lie low. Despite things like electric wheelchairs complicating their movements, they become luckier than they’d thought possible. Then Brains, their talented gizmo person, finds new ways to take on the casino, until a gang of jewel thieves cross their path and somehow they find themselves with diamonds to take back to Sweden along with their hefty winnings.

There will be losses, a motorcycle gang, and a decent bank job before it’s all over, until Martha has one more great idea for the gang. Enough antics to keep you smiling just from picturing this crew of seniors at work.

 

Patricia Hale: The Church of the Holy Child Tuesday, Aug 15 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:29 am

Please welcome author Patricia Hale, to introduce her newest release, The Church of the Holy Child:

Vicarious Vacations

Get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to sleep, repeat. Our days become mundane, repetitive, Groundhog Day. We all feel this sense of stagnancy at one time or another. So what do we do? We take a vacation. Nothing a sandy beach can’t fix. But if a trip isn’t in the budget, we might pick up a book because another person’s life is always more interesting than our own.

So . . .the job of a writer, besides a great plot, is to create a character that one can go on vacation with or follow anywhere. When a reader relates to a character’s fears, morals (or lack of), flaws or secrets, a connection is established. The pages turn because the reader is invested in the character and has to stay with them as they step into the darkened basement, the foreboding forest or the doomed space mission, because they can’t not go. It is our duty as writers to give the reader a vacation, to provide change, challenge and bitten finger nails, all within the comfort of a recliner. If we don’t, there’s no turquoise water, no sandy beach.

And so, when each day runs into the next and life feels stagnant, pick up a book and find a character you relate to. Take a vacation and get the bad guy, pull off a heist or fall in love. Be a detective, a PI, or even the villain–wherever your connection lies.

In my new release, The Church of the Holy Child, rookie, PI Britt Callahan chases down a serial killer who is targeting women’s shelters. Despite her fear, insecurity and guilt, Britt’s determined to protect these women and prove her self.

Sound like a vacation you want to take?

Patricia Hale received her MFA degree from Goddard College. Her essays have appeared in literary magazines and the anthology, My Heart’s First Steps. Her debut novel, In the Shadow of Revenge, was published in 2013. The Church of the Holy Child is the first book in her PI series featuring the team of Griff Cole and Britt Callahan. Patricia is a member of Sister’s in Crime, Mystery Writer’s of America, NH Writer’s Project and Maine Writer’s and Publisher’s Alliance. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two dogs.
Website: http://www.patriciahale.org/

 

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