Allison Montclair: The Right Sort of Man Sunday, Jun 16 2019 

amateur sleuth and debut and great read and historical saga and humorous crime and mystery to die for and new series Auntie M Writes Crime 12:59 am

Allison Montclair’s new series starts off with a delightful bang with the charming The Right Sort of Man.

The second World War has just ended in 1946 London, and two young women who couldn’t be more opposite are thrown together. Iris Sparks is the unmarried, savvy woman with an Oxford education and a shady past; Gwen Bainbridge is the war widow with a young son, still grieving the loss of her handsome husband, and subjected to living with her staid in-laws.

The two meet at a wedding and agree to start a new business to cement their independence, and do it in one of the Mayfair buildings that escaped bombing with The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. They approach it in an organized manner, trying to match suitables, and even have had a few marriages from their pairings.

New client Tillie La Salle sets off Iris’ warning bells as someone who might have her own checkered past, but the women set her up with her first date. Then Tillie is found murdered, and the man arrested for the crime is Dickie Trower, the man they matched to Tillie, who claims he never met with her at all.

Now the duo have a two-fold problem: try to rescue Dickie from the hangman’s noose, and try to reclaim the reputation of their new business. The two will ennlist their friend, Sally, a budding playwright who reminded Auntie M of Stephen Fry, to cover the office as they take turns sleuthing Tillie’s life.

The thing that struck Auntie M about these two well-developed characters (make it three if you include Sally) was their snappy dialogue, which hums and zings off the page. The period details are spot on, and the the light-hearted feel is contrasted with moments of the realities of a post-war nation.

An assured start to what promises to be a wonderful and interesting series for fans of historicals, this one will be snapped up and not put down until it’s done.

 

E. J. Copperman: Dog Dish of Doom Friday, Sep 8 2017 

Award winning novelist and great read and humorous crime and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:35 am

Please welcome E. J. Copperman, who will describe the genesis of his new release, Dog Dish of Doom, and yes, it’s just as charming and hilarious a mystery as you think~

By E.J. Copperman
So there was this dog, see.

A friend of mine who lives in New York City has a dog, and it came about in conversation one day that the dog (his name was Fred) was a stage actor before my friend Chris Grabenstein (accomplished author of mysteries and middle grade supernatural stories) adopted him. In fact, Fred was featured in the cast of the Broadway production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. On Broadway.

Fred in Chitty:

Once the show closed and Fred was between gigs, he ended up being brought by his agent (oh yes, Fred had an agent) to Chris and his wife, who fell in love with Fred and adopted him.

That story stuck with me. Fred had been a stray, found by the agent/trainer in an ASPCA shelter and brought in to audition for his role. He turned out—with a good deal of training—to be a natural and got the job. A star was trained.

Somewhere in the recesses of my diseased author mind Fred’s story became a murder mystery because that’s what I do. And the main character of the book became the dog’s agent because . . . well, a theatrical agent working with animals is rife with possibilities.

The book is called DOG DISH OF DOOM and it begins the Agent to the Paws mystery series from Minotaur Books.

It’s not like I knew Fred well, or actually at all. But I’d heard about him and seen pictures of him on Chris’s web site. And the truth is, the more facts I knew, the worse it would be for my story. With only the basic information of Fred’s journey in my head I could make up pretty much anything I wanted without feeling obligated to be accurate.

So in the book Fred, who was a rather small terrier mix, became Bruno, a very large, very shaggy dog of indeterminate breed who had already been adopted when my agent character Kay Powell took him on as a client. Bruno is up for the role of Sandy in a Broadway revival of Annie because find me a role for a dog people know better. Okay, besides Lassie.

I don’t know if that counts as “inspiration” of if I just let my mind wander until it came across an idea lying in the road, but either way the book started with Fred. He has, sadly, since passed on after a very good life, but Bruno, having the advantage of being fictional, can hang in there for as long as people decide to read my book.

So it’s up to you, readers: Keep Bruno going! And say a quick thanks to Fred along the way.

E.J. Copperman is the author of DOG DISH OF DOOM, the first book in the Agent to the Paws mystery series, as well as the Haunted Guesthouse series, the Asperger’s mystery series (with Jeff Cohen) and the Mysterious Detective mystery series, making E.J. a very busy writer who owns a beagle named Gizmo, who has no theatrical ambitions.

 

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.