Deborah Crombie: Garden of Lamentations Sunday, Feb 12 2017 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:06 am

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Deborah Crosbie returns with the seventeenth novel in her English mysteries featuring detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James in this popular and complex series that remains fresh and compelling. This is far more than a garden-variety police procedural, as the cases the two investigate affect their marriage and threaten lives.

The married duo have a blended family that includes adopted Charlotte, and live in Notting Hill but work out of different stations. Gemma finds herself seconded to the Notting Hill team for her local knowledge when the body of a young nanny is found in one of the private gardens in the area. It’s a death that has her puzzled, especially when she finds out another youth from the same block has previously died. ARe the two connected?

Duncan’s case couldn’t be more different. Loose threads from the last case have left him feeling he doesn’t know whom he can trust in Scotland Yard. His old chief had disappeared and he’d been transferred. Now Denis Childs is back with an obtuse explanation that sounds more like a warning–and then suddenly attacked. As he lies in critical condition, Duncan distances himself from everyone close to him to protect them, even his wife.

Both cases have emotional components and danger, and both detectives will find they need their friends more than ever. A satisfying read in a series that is always anticipated. Highly recommended.

 

Stephen Leather: Takedown Friday, Feb 3 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:59 am

takedown
Stephen Leather’s Spider Shepherd series has made him one of the UK’s top selling thriller writers.

His newest, Takedown, veers to a standalone, but retains the high action he’s known for, this time with a female protagonist.

Charlotte Button, ex-MI-5, has been seen before in Leather’s series, and is now tasked with taking out a rogue Special Forces soldier. He’s already hatched one deadly plot. What she needs to do if figure out his next plan and stop him before he can act.

She has help in the form of Lex Harper, who assembles a team who are capable of stopping the rogue soldier before the massive attack they fear he’s planned. Readers of the Shepherd series will know Lex, and here they’ll see another side to him.

Having these two previously seen characters in their own book brings a fresh look to this kind of adventure-filled thriller.

While this is whirling, Charlotte finds that two of three flash drives, hidden in secret places, have been stolen. Containing information on dirty government operations from the past, their loss means her life is on the line if they can get to the third. Who is after her and why?

The storylines are expertly woven in a satisfying read. If you are a fan of Leather’s work, don’t miss this one.

 

Susan Alice Bickford: A Short Time to Die Wednesday, Feb 1 2017 

complex mystery and debut and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:41 am

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Susan Alice Pickford’s debut crime thriller, A Short Time to Die, tells the story of two women who become linked in a most unlikely way.

Marly Shaw has the misfortune to be born into an extended family whose relations rule her rural area of Central New York with an iron and physical grip, dispensing their own brand of revenge or twisted justice in often lethal ways.

After years of abuse and a narrowly missed brush with her own death, Marly vows to find a way out of the town and that life. She becomes the protector of her young niece and nephew, and soon finds what she thinks may be a way to leave Charon Springs behind her.

Over a decade later, human remains found in California are traced to this same family, both with criminal records. Detective Vanessa Alba needs to know how these two felons died, and who is responsible. She and her partner head to the Finger Lakes region to conduct interviews with the remaining members of the Harris clan, determined to figure out why these two would have traveled all the way to California, out of their element, to be killed–and soon come to see that they were perhaps not so undeserving of their fate.

The brisk cold and rugged terrain are vividly described, as are the tough characters that are cut from a mold some could mistakenly take for extinct. Marly is an intelligent young woman with a honed set of instincts borne out of her desire to survive this pathological family she’s attached to by way of her mother.

The action alternates between the year 2000 when the Harris clan sets in motion the deeds that will culminate in the two deaths of 2013. This allows the reader to see how the situation developed, and how desperately Marly wanted to escape and save her sister’s children.

A fascinating look at a diabolical family with an unlikely ending that develops. A strong debut with a unique cast of characters. Readers will be rooting for Marly from the first chapter.

 

Peter Swanson: Her Every Fear Wednesday, Jan 25 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:07 am

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Reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Grace Kelly/Jimmy Stewart classic, Rear Window, Peter Swanon’s thriller Her Every Fear has the same kind of see-through-a-window aspect to parts of his book. But this is even more suspenseful, as we see the action through the eyes of several of the key players at the same time.

After a traumatic experience with a boyfriend, British Kate agrees to a six-month swap with a Boston cousin she’s never met. Corbin will stay in her flat and she will live in his much more spacious and lovely place that Corbin inherited from his father in one of Boston’s nicest neighborhoods. Forget any similarities to the romantic movie “Holiday,” for there the similarities end.

A young woman in the apartment next to Kate’s new home is found murdered. Audrey was killed in such in a bizarre fashion that is kept out of the media. A young man in the apartment directly across from Audrey’s can see into her place, and has developed a a habit of looking at her. He’s also seen Corbin in the Audrey’s apartment.

Yet Corbin disavows a relationship with the dead woman, and soon Kate starts to look for evidence incriminating her cousin with the murder.

Swanson is currently writing a sonnet cycle on all of Hitchcock’s films, and his influence is strongly here. It’s written in a cinematic style that is just aching to be translated to the big screen, too.

This is a fascinating look at how easily people can learn not to trust their own instincts; and the devastation that comes from the fervor of others who live in their own moral universe. It’s also a tense, gripping thriller with a twisted plot. Leave the lights on for this one.

 

Sandra de Helen: Till Darkness Comes Tuesday, Jan 24 2017 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:31 am

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Please welcome Sandra de Helen, to talk about her new thriller, Till Darkness Comes, and give us an exciting and suitably creepy excerpt. Don’t miss the buy links for all of her work at the end of the excerpt~

If you’re a thriller lover, I may have just the book for you. Chelsea Cain (she of the famous Gretchen and Archie thrillers) says “I wish I had half the plotting talent that Sandra de Helen has. This is such a terrific and totally satisfying book.”

Till Darkness Comes is set in Kansas City, Missouri, where I used to live. A serial killer first kills a pedophile, then moves on to killing insurance executives. Two young women who were best friends in high school get caught up in the murders. One because her uncle is killed; the other because she’s a young rookie cop with big ambitions.

I had been merrily writing along, working on my Shirley Combs and Dr. Mary Watson mystery series, set in modern day Portland, basing their stories on tales of Sherlock Holmes, when I was seized with a desire to go darker. Much darker.

The first two books in the Shirley Combs/Dr. Mary Watson series are The Hounding and The Illustrious Client. I’m currently at work on the third Shirley Combs book A Valley of Fear, but the next one will be a follow-up to the thriller.

An Excerpt from Till Darkness Comes:

A sliver of crescent moon rises through the clouds as an unseen watcher leans near the closed window of the shed. The ramshackle building is covered with English ivy, honeysuckle, and a wild rambling rose that makes it difficult to see into the one-story woodworking shop. A Coleman lantern is the only light in the building. Even though the sun has set, the Missouri heat is oppressive, the humidity so high the watcher is sweating. Cicadas, tree frogs, and nearby traffic provide the soundtrack. The honeysuckle scent disappeared a month before. The odors of this night are sweat, dust, and cigarette smoke.

Jerry Vogelsang puffs his cigarette while sitting on a stack of burlap bags in his underwear, a can of Budweiser at his side. A small boy is in a heap on the floor, wearing only a tee shirt, his back heaving with sobs.

“Get it together you little shit. You got to go inside and you got to act like everything’s okay.”

The boy jerks away from Jerry, but raises his head and faces him.

“Wipe your face and stuff. Straighten up.”

The boy wipes his nose with the back of his hand, stands up, covering his private parts with his other hand.

Jerry slaps the boy’s hand away.

“Now get dressed and go in the house. Just act like you always do. Everything’s okay as long as you don’t tell. All right?”

The boy scurries to put his clothes and shoes on, and runs out the door, letting it slam behind him. As soon as he is gone, the watcher goes to the door, opens it, steps inside, and locks it.

Before Jerry can express more than surprise, the watcher crosses the room and hits him in the head with a crowbar, knocking him out. The watcher prepares the room. First the window is covered with a black cloth. The door is barred to make it more secure. Next the workbench is cleared to make room for Jerry. The watcher uses the firefighter’s carry to hoist the man onto the bench. He is of average height and weight, but he is unconscious, and of no help. Using a nail gun, the watcher secures him to the table with three-quarter-inch galvanized metal strapping. Jerry is strapped at neck, biceps, wrists, waist, thighs, knees, shins, and ankles. And one across the forehead for good measure. The watcher opens Jerry’s mouth and stuffs it with a sock, wraps a bandana around the back of his head, and ties it over his gagged mouth.

Jerry groans and begins to squirm. The watcher holds up a pair of scissors where Jerry can see them. Jerry tries to yell and when he can’t, he begins to thrash, his eyes wild. The scissors, held in hands encased in black rubber gloves, come at his face, stopping just short of his right eye. Jerry presses the back of his head into the workbench. Beads of sweat pop up on his forehead and a deep growl issues from his throat. The warm building reeks of bodily fluids.

“That’s better. Stay still. I’m going to give you some injections so the things I do won’t hurt so bad. Shh. Be quiet now. You know we like to be quiet. We don’t want anyone to know what you do out here in the shed, do we? I’m going to cut your underpants off, here we go. Don’t wiggle, you’ll make me cut you. Oops, you see? I did cut you, these scissors are really sharp. Let’s cut these all the way off, see what you’ve got down here. Well, that’s not so much, is it? What’s the matter, you cold? All the time I was thinking I’ll bet you hurt that little boy you had in here, but maybe you didn’t hurt him so bad with this little old thing. Oh, but I’m forgetting. It gets hard when you’re around little kids, right? Both little boys and girls, right? You’re equal like that, huh? A real man. Maybe you need to be a bit less of a man. Maybe you need to be castrated. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll give you a shot. Hold still. Here we go. Are you numbing up yet? How about now? Look, it’s not going to hurt that much anyway, right? I’m not going to cut them off with the scissors. No. I’m going to use dental floss. I’ll tie them real tight and they’ll fall off in a couple of weeks. Hold still. Hold still!”

As Jerry twists and turns, the metal banding loosens. At the first sound of the nails pulling from the workbench, the watcher grabs the scissors and stabs Jerry in the stomach, then again higher in the chest, and finally in the throat. Blood is gushing from Jerry’s body, but he is still. The watcher gathers up all the tools, including the black cloth from the window, the bar from the door, the crowbar, the nail gun, and the leftover metal strapping. These items go into the duffel bag they bought at the Army surplus store. With a last look around, the watcher leaves the shed, shuts the door, pulls off the rubber gloves and stows them in a pocket.

BIO:
Sandra de Helen, author of the thriller Till Darkness Comes, also pens the Shirley Combs/Dr. Mary Watson series. She is a poet, journalist, and a playwright. Her plays have been produced in the Philippines, Ireland and Canada, Chicago, New York City, and in thirteen states. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the Dramatists Guild. Her books are available online, at Another Read Through Bookstore in Portland, Oregon, and Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego. Samples of her work are available on her website.

BUY LINKS:

Till Darkness Comes:
Amazon.com http://bit.ly/TillDarknessComesPaperback
Amazon.com/kindle http://bit.ly/TillDarknessComesKindle
Barnes & Noble Nook: http://bit.ly/TDCNook
The Illustrious Client:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrious-Client-Sandra-Helen/
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/audiobook/illustrious-client-unabridged/id898136443
Audible: http://adbl.co/1TVy2RN
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1Usz8Em
Bookmate: https://bookmate.com/books/JkXPYQbV
Powell’s: http://www.powells.com/book/the-illustrious-client-9780991079209/61-0
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dehelen
Tanum (Norway): http://bit.ly/1XNueEt
The Hounding:
Amazon: http://bit.ly/TheHoundingbysdh
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/audiobook/hounding-shirley-combs-dr./id797820901
Audible: http://adbl.co/1XdmfSN
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1spt32C
Bookmate: https://bookmate.com/books/xwAeiJ69
Powell’s: http://www.powells.com/book/the-hounding-9780991079216/61-0
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dehelen
Tanum (Norway): http://bit.ly/1RKyOMP

 

4 UK Treats: Russell, Tope, Mitchell, Ireland Sunday, Jan 15 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:10 am

Auntie M had a ball over the holidays reading on her Kindle between wrapping gifts, having family over and celebrating with friends and family. Here’s four for readers to check out, all set in the UK~

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Blood Axe is Leigh Russell’s newest DI Ian Peterson mystery. As the young detective struggles to adjust to his posting in York, and to the issues in his marriage, he’s confronted with a grisly murder scene.

A Viking axe goes missing after a festival and becomes the tool the murderer uses to carry out what soon becomes a series of murders. Peterson and his team, still adjusting to each other, must go full out to find who could possibly be the perpetrator. This is a canny killer, and it isn’t an easy task.

York springs to life, with plot points carefully worked out, and the gritty tasks, long hours and often frustrating work detectives face nicely illustrated. Russell’s police procedural’s hum with realism and this one is a fine addition to the series.

troutbecktestimony

Rebecca Tope brings back florist Simmy Brown in The Troutbeck Testimony, the young woman’s fourth outing. This time Simmy is walking with her father when an overheard conversation leads to a mix-up that ties in with a local murder. It doesn’t help that they find a dead dog.

Simmy is a most reluctant sleuth. She becomes embroiled in cases, to the delight of her young assistants. There will be changes in those closest to Simmy, too, and a surprise twist that has some of her preconceived notions shaken to her core. There are plenty of red herrings and mixed messages to keep readers on their toes.

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The writing duo known as DE Ireland return with Eliza Doolittle, Professor Henry Higgins, and the whole cast of My Fair Lady in Get Me to the Grave on Time.

It’s wedding season, which Higgins abhors, yet when the groom dies at the first one they attend, Eliza and Higgins find themselves sleuthing again. There are plenty of suspects as the plot thickens, and more deaths to come. Several in their close circle will be hurt as things start to get out of control.

The period details, especially the mores and customs, plus the emphasis that was placed on clothing, are detailed and specific, lending an air of plunging the reader back into Edwardian times. A looted Indian temple becomes the basis for the investigation and raises the question of British supremacy and the taking of antiquities for British museums. There are more layers here than first meet the eye.

loveyoutodeath

Caroline Mitchell debuts a new series with a most interesting protagonist in the first DS Ruby Preston, Love You to Death.

Ruby’s unlike most other police detectives. She’s pulled herself up to rise in the police after being raised in a neighborhood known more for its criminals. Her ties to her old life can’t seem to be cut, with good reason. She finds herself involved in complicated relationships at every turn, unable to lose the baggage of her past.

It makes for a very interesting and different approach, as Ruby must decide where her allegiance lies: to her old neighborhood and those she’s loved for years; or to the letter of the law she’s sworn to uphold.

A serial murderer is abducting and killing women after gaining entrance to their homes. It’s soon apparent that the thread connecting them is that each woman gave up a child for adoption.

The killer is looking for the mother who gave her up, and for a fairytale ending to their relationship. A wonderful twist occurs when Ruby receives emails allegedly from the daughter she gave up at birth as a teenager, implying that she is the killer. The child’s father is Nathan, a gangster who is not a part of Ruby’s life any longer–or is he?

An very different kind of character to lead a new series. It will be interesting to see where Mitchell takes Ruby next.

 

Jonathan Moore: The Dark Room Tuesday, Jan 10 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:31 am

darkroom

On the heels of last year’s thrilling Poison Artist, Moore returns with The Dark Room, a police procedural thriller that will leave readers flipping pages long past bedtime.

San Francisco and its communities spring to life in their dreary, rainy season when Gavin Cain, experienced homicide investigator, is pulled from an exhumation surrounding and old case to spearhead one that has the FBI involved: someone has sent the city’s mayor photographs of a beautiful blonde woman being systematically brutalized, forced to swallow a handful of pills, then raped. The accompanying letter hints there are worse photos to follow unless the Mayor, hard-hitting Castelli, commits suicide first.

As he and his team investigate the photos and the cold case that surfaces, it becomes obvious there’s a connection to the exhumation case he was on.
The mayor’s family and staff become entwined, and with the FBI’s help, Cain is on a roller-coaster ride he can’t get off until he finds the evil behind the actions.

Cain’s entire team and his personal life will be affected as one unthinkable action after another occurs. The dialogue-heavy action bring Moore’s realistic individuals to life in this intricately-plotted novel that Stephen King calls “heart-pounding” with good reason. Highly recommended.

 

My Favorite Reads 2016 Sunday, Jan 8 2017 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:14 am

As we welcome 2017, out of 177 reviewed books (!) in 2016, a listing of those that received Auntie M’s coveted HIGHLY RECOMMENDED status:

Colette McBeth: The Life I Left Behind (Minotaur)

Ausma Zehant Khan: The Language of Secrets (Minotaur)

Nicholas Searle: The Good Liar (HarperCollins)

Nele Neuhaus: I Am Your Judge (Macmillan)

Alison Gaylin: What Remains of Me (Minotaur)

Jeannette De Beauvoir: Deadly Jewels (Macmillan)

Elly Griffiths: Woman in Blue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Noah Hawley: Before the Fall (Hodder & Stoughton)

Kate Rhodes: Blood Symmetry (Macmillan)

Laura McHugh: Arrowood (Spiegel & Grau)

Louise Penny: A Great Reckoning (Minotaur)

Sarah Ward: A Deadly Thaw (Minotaur)

Sharon Bolton: Daisy in Chains (Minotaur)

Tana French: The Trespasser (Viking)

Tony Parsons: The Hanging Club (Macmillan)

 

Mindy Mejia: Everything You Want Me to Be Wednesday, Jan 4 2017 

complex mystery and great read Auntie M Writes Crime 12:52 am

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Mindy Mejia’s knockout novel, Everything You Want Me to Be, operates in three main voices and is a strong read to start the New Year.

Hattie Hoffman is a high school senior in a small Minnesota farming town. Brimming with talent in acting, a chameleon who takes on the role of the moment, she’s poised to begin a new life in New York after graduation. Her manipulation of those around her is born out of her natural ability to be what she needs to be in any given situation. We see her story unfold in events that lead up to the current time.

Peter Lund is an English teacher from the city, thrust into the rural farm town of Pine Valley when his wife moves back home to care for her ill mother. He manages to find a teaching job and Hattie is one of his prize students. But vegetarian Peter can’t adjust to the many sides of farm life, and his marriage starts to fall apart.

Del Goodman is the town’s sheriff, a man who’s best friend is Hattie’s father, and who takes his job seriously. A divorced Viet Nam vet who has made a life of loneliness, he will soon face his most important and heartbreaking investigation: finding Hattie’s murderer after her body is found stabbed and mutilated.

In a small town, everyone knows everyone’s secrets, and if they don’t, they’ll make one up. Distorted truths soon get in Del’s way, and the investigation suffers for it. Then DNA results seem to point to Hattie’s killer, but Del isn’t convinced. Just when the reader thinks they’ve figured out the obvious suspect, another character will appear to have a better motive and the story twists back on itself.

Small town life and the rural setting are evocatively drawn, but the stars here are the way Mejia gets inside the minds of these three characters and builds suspense as the story shifts between the current investigation and the events of the previous year that led up to the tragedy.

A first-rate mystery from a writer whose name will be on many lists this year and earns Auntie M’s first Highly Recommended rating of the year~

 

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