LOST IN YELLOWSTONE, Nicole Maggi's second National Park Mystery with ISB agent Emme Helliwell

LOST IN YELLOWSTONE: National Park Mystery #2
NICOLE MAGGI
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$23.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: A foot in a geyser. A school in the wild. A truth no one saw coming.

When a human foot is ejected from a geyser in Yellowstone National Park, Special Agent Emme Helliwell of the National Park Service is assigned the chilling case.

Tasked with identifying the victim and uncovering what led to such a grisly end, Emme is drawn into the park's vast, unforgiving wilderness—and into the orbit of a private school for at-risk teens where extreme backcountry excursions are part of the curriculum. As disturbing truths begin to surface, Emme must also confront personal fault lines, including the unresolved tension with an ex-boyfriend who's suddenly back in her life and assigned to the same case.

In a place where danger hides behind natural beauty and good intentions can mask darker motives, Emme must navigate both treacherous terrain and emotional landmines to solve a mystery that could cost her everything.

Perfect for readers of C. J. Box, Paul Doiron, and Lisa Gardner

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: In the course of doing my due diligence, I looked for published book reviews of this second Emme Helliwell mystery (after A Murder in Zion) and ran across a depressing reality of our time: They were mostly book reports. I think that's a shame because opinions are helpful in deciding on the suitability of a read for one's own TBR shelf. If you read my reviews, I'll give you an opinion about a book's merits. Of course you might end up disagreeing, or might not like my way of expressing my opinion; but you will know more than a restatement of the blurb can tell you.

So, here I go:

Another really weird case death under unusual circumstances brings Emme to Yellowstone in order to poke her nose into the situation. Her still-smarting ex, whom I called "Thrush" throughout because it's the best name for him...smarting because Emme just ghosted him with not so much as fuck-you in explanation...and the dude she met last book who's really perfect for her, Finn, are involved in this weird case. Thrush and Emme *have* to be, they work for the National Parks Service's Investigative Services Bureau, but Finn chooses to be. The unattached foot and its mysterious companion object, a red pocket knife spotted by the informant of the probable crime's commission, cost both Emme and Thrush actual skin in the form of burns suffered while retrieving them as the "game" takes shape.

Emme is, as in the last book which ended mere days before this one starts, still processing her mother's death, her uneasy relationship with her younger sister, and now her awfulness to Thrush needs mending too. It's not only about the restoration of Ma'at in this story. It's about Emme becoming aware of how true the truism "hurt people hurt people" really is. It's all internal in this story, as her trail of devastation through genuinely good guy Thrush's heart is never shown to lead to her making any sort of adult apology to him, never acknowledging the hurt and harm she's caused, seeking forgiveness, promising to change her ways towards him. It's like Author Maggi decided her inner awareness of her unkindness was enough.

It ain't.

The case brings these two together, and if I'm honest, I sorta hoped Thrush would brush off Emme's halfassed request to be friends. With great unkindness. I'm all about FMCs being as complicated in their emotional lives as males have always been allowed to be. Look at Harry Hole: Popular novels, popular TV show, miserable nasty guy, so bring it Author Maggi!

The investigation leads to an outdoor program developed to rehabilitate teen offenders. To no one's surprise it's not run in such a way as to make the families sending their kids there feel good about it. Emme is a representative of law enforcement, so automatically suspect to the young offenders; winning their trust to get information she needs taxes Emme to the utmost. Her character is developed as the story delves into some dark and violent territory (in retrospect, not immediate and present until the ending). The manner she comes into possession of information to resolve this case harkens back to her Zion National Park case, unsolved in the legal sense....

I like the storytelling as well as the story told here. It's a series with developing promise. I'm glad Oceanview brings these stories from debut and early-career authors out. Conglomerates only want hits, not to make careers for authors who might, or might not, throw a hit out one day. I predict Author Maggi will be one who does.

D. P. LYLE'S PAGE: The Jake Longly series 2

CULTURED (Jake Longly #6)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Money, sex, power. Jonathon Lindemann offers it all—just don’t mind the missing girls.

Jake Longly, ex-pro baseball player turned restauranteur, is back where he belongs: relaxing on the beach in front of his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His peace is interrupted, however, when he receives a call from his private investigator father—April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the rustic, yet posh, resort built by self-help and financial guru Jonathon Lindemann.

Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM), recruits wealthy people to join his program, charging a hefty entry fee but in return promising huge financial gains and self-enlightenment. Jake’s celebrity status makes him the best person for the case.

When Jake and his girlfriend, Nicole, go on an undercover visit to Lindemann Farms, some suspicious activity makes them wonder about the legitimacy of TLM. Soon, a private conversation with one of the girls hired to work at the resort reveals their unorthodox, and immoral, recruitment methods.

As the layers peel away, darker edges appear. Does Jonathon truly make money for his investors, or is he a scam artist? Is April merely the latest in a series of missing young women? Jake and Nicole need to find her, and soon, before TLM catches wind of their true reasons for visiting the farm.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: My, how Epsteinesque, how very similar to Madoff's financial scams, how end-stage capitalism and awful pedophile-adjacent this entry in the series is.

It's book six; I say start with any of the first three. I started with #3, Sunshine State; it was an easy lift to get the basic idea of the series at that point. By #5, The OC, things are a great deal darker and the humor won't read as well for a newbie.

This entry in the series is darker still, it's much more threatening and anxiety-inducing to be around people disappearing; the smooth, unctuous face of the organization is so offensively slick it's just horrible to read. As always, Jake has snark to spare, unleashing it on these dreadful lying sacks of shit.

As the deeply weird cultists try to smarm Jake and Nicole into believing they're the good guys, the hairpins keep falling. The dynamic duo are pretty experienced by now. They can smell rats from a closed car ten miles from the nest; what that talent gets then in this case is unhappy certainty of unpleasant things. The actual resolution is a gut punch. I does not come from a simple direct relationship to the set-up, though. It takes you through the weeds. It makes you think about people's deepest motivations, more often than not greed prominent among them.

I'd love to tell you I didn't think this actually happens. I can't.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UNBALANCED (Jake Longly #7)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Jake Longly is never saying yes to his father again

It was a simple task. Five minutes tops.

Ex-pro baseball player Jake Longly and his girlfriend, Nicole, are asked by Jake's father, Ray, a private investigator, to pick up some papers from a realtor for his business. Jake would rather be lying on the beach outside of his Gulf Shores restaurant, but he begrudgingly agrees. It'll only take a few minutes.

But somehow, things are never simple in Ray's world. When Jake and Nicole reach the office, they find it empty—except for the dead body of the realtor lying on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. Who could've wanted him dead? The long suspect list and the numerous possible motives make untying the knot difficult.

Working with the police department, Jake, Nicole, Ray, and their friend Pancake dive into the deceivingly simple investigation, which grows more complex by the minute. With millions of dollars at stake, weeding through the realtor's entanglements requires all hands on deck, and yet again, Jake is dragged into the PI business he can't seem to escape.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Anyone who's ever bought property knows the feeling of rage and frustration that accompanies this complex process. Multiply that many times over for large investment properties, and you can relate to someone putting a bullet into this guy's head.

Only he wasn't a bad guy, he was actually a helpful soul...and Jake's dad Ray (the ex-military black ops dude) trusted him enough to work with him...only to have the dude accuse him of embezzlement! So what gives?

Naturally Jake and the ever-perfect Nicole need to find out. Clues build up, there seems to be some kind of offshoring of sizable sums of cash. There also surfaces an entire separate life the guy was leading that he definitely could not afford to have his family know about.

Jake is his usual snarktastic self. It was nice to be back in more salubrious surroundings after the last story! It's not quite by-the-numbers yet, but it's treading familiar paths.

It agrees with me, so I'll keep going until it doesn't anymore.

D. P. LYLE'S PAGE: The Jake Longly series

SUNSHINE STATE (Jake Longly #3)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Serial killer’s message to PI Jake Longly: Two of those seven murders I confessed to are not mine—but I won’t tell you which two.

Jake Longly and Nicole Jamison are confronted with the most bizarre case yet. Serial killer Billy Wayne Baker now denies that two of his seven murders were actually his work. An anonymous benefactor, who believes Billy Wayne’s denials, has hired Longly Investigations to prove Billy Wayne right. Billy Wayne had confessed to all seven. Not only did the confessed serial killer have the motive, means, and opportunity for murder, but his DNA was found at each crime scene. Bizarre doesn’t quite cover it.

Jake and Nicole travel to the small Gulf Coast town of Pine Key, Florida, where three of the murders occurred. The local police, FBI, state prosecutor, and crime lab each did their jobs, uncovered overwhelming evidence of Billy Wayne’s guilt—and even extracted a full confession. Is Billy Wayne simply trying to tweak the system to garner another fifteen minutes of fame? It’s likely all a game to him, but, if he’s being truthful—someone out there is getting away with multiple murders. How? Why? And most importantly, who?

Dark clouds loom in the Sunshine State.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Third book in a series now seven books in...first one I read...have now read them all.

Is that enough to cause that one-click to go into buy mode? No? Well, retired baseball player and private investigator Jake, his gal-pal Nicole, and dad/employer/owner of investigations agency Ray, land up in a tatty little Florida burg to solve a series of murders...again...as the serial killer who confessed now says there were two he confessed to that were not his crimes. Then he went all coy and refused to say which ones weren't his, or who really committed them. Though he says he knows that, too. And why's he saying it to Ray? Because someone rich wants the truth told about these two crimes. We do not get to know who.

Reluctantly leaving his retirement career as a bar owner—again—while he helps his dad and old friend Pancake (so nicknamed for his astonishing capacity for 'em) look into the likeliest place for a copycat to be found: the one town where three victims were killed not just one.

Nicole is absolutely not a reluctant sidekick, she is an eager participant in this investigation. Her uncle is a rich producer who helps out the scoobygroup by "filming a documentary" about victim's families in the aftermath of a serial killing. Perfect cover, holds up on all checkable points.

What will sell you on the read or repel you from it is the narrative: almost all in Jake's voice, reflecting his moods, reporting his impressions of friend and foe alike. He doesn't stop himself from saying when he thinks one of the friends makes a bonehead mistake to them or to us if he can't to them right away. It's not to everyone's taste. I like it because I like Jake, as when he observes,"The air held a salty must, and a gentle breeze came off the water. The sky was blue and pock-marked with wads of fluffy clouds." It's not poetic, it's a regular guy looking at the world his regular way. It's also exactly like the Gulf Coast.

The main feature that caps my rating at four stars is the fantasy-fulfillment of Nicole being the hot, funny babe who wants sex with Jake All. The. Time. I got adept at recognizing the signs of an impending...romp...and skipped ahead. I'm just not interested in that.


I was interested in the resolution, which surprised me with how well it was misdirected. It's logical; it's not obvious. What more can you ask for?

Fun in the sun for wintertime escape sound good? Here's a series to follow.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RIGGED (Jake Longly #4)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Love triangle—motive for double murder?

First loves are never forgotten. Ever. Certainly not for Tommy "Pancake" Jeffers. His first-kiss, sixth-grade love, Emily, who he has not seen since grammar school, is sliding toward divorce in the artsy Gulf Coast town of Fairhope, Alabama. Longly Investigations has been charged with looking into the finances involved. When Emily doesn't appear for their nervously anticipated meeting, Pancake's radar goes on high alert. Her body, along with that of Jason—one of two guys she has been dating—is found murdered, execution-style, Pancake calls in Jake, Nicole, and Ray.

Who would have done this? Could it be the soon-to-be ex, who has an ironclad alibi; the other guy Emily was seeing—jealousy being a motive for harm; or do the drugs found in Jason's pocket indicate a drug-related hit? That world yields a host of suspects. As they peel back the layers of this idyllic community, dark secrets come to light and convoluted motives and methods of murder are revealed.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: We start with Jake in trouble. An incident at Captain Rocky's, his bar, requires Jake to call in his lawyer (who happens to be the same one who cleaned him out when his ex-wife divorced him) so he needs money. Luckily Ray, his dad, and Pancake, his dad's deputy muscle and Jake's kidhood pal, have a case. Nicole, Jake, and the scoobygroup head to Alabama to find out why Pancake's grade-school crush did not show up for their meeting. The discussion wasn't going to be about their long-ago first kiss but her need to know what her soon-to-be ex-husband is hiding from her financially.

That's a meeting she'd keep if she was on her deathbed. Not if she was dead, though. The way she and her paramour are murdered makes the entire group sit up and take notice. Was she a victim of wrong-place-wrong-time bad luck or do the drugs found on her paramour (one of two...maybe more) show a slightly more sordid side to her death?

Banter, fun asides, a murder to solve that's got more layers than you think it will have...this is what I was hoping and looking for from this series. It's here in abundance, along with icky straight-people sex. I was really amused by the invisible Tammy (Jake's ex) whose presence as a thorn in his side is all telephonic. It is a good way to add very quick hits of comedy that require little set-up but can change a mood immediately.

There is the preponderant first-person PoV from Jake, the expected moments of interpolation from different others in third person, and a satisfying resolution that comes from information the reader has already been given.

A winning entry in a good (oversexed, though) series.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE OC (Jake Longly #5)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Thrill-a-minute crime fiction—infused with wry humor

Restaurant owner and former professional baseball player Jake Longly is hoping for a few weeks of fun with Nicole Jamison in the warm Orange County, CA sun—The OC, baby. After that, they’ll be on their way to LA for the filming of Nicole’s sure-to-be-a-hit screenplay.

On arrival, they discover that Nicole’s friend Megan Weatherly, a local TV reporter, has picked up an anonymous stalker. Megan downplays any real danger, but her new intern Abby, as well as Jake and Nicole, don’t agree. Bit by bit, as the harassment escalates and the shadowy man invades Megan’s world, Jake calls in the big guns from back home in Ray and Pancake. But will Ray’s military black ops experience and Pancake’s technical skills be enough to expose the predator in time?

The stalker is no fool and likely has a predatory history. He makes no mistakes and manages to cover his trail completely. So, how do you identify and locate the untraceable? How do you protect Megan from a potentially lethal phantom?

Suddenly the sunshine and safety of The OC seem more facade than reality. Jake and crew must punch through that facade and dig into the dark world of celebrity stalking. The clock is ticking.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: More daffy fun with the scoobygroup in the sunny surfside locales they favor. Only this time the water's frigid: The Pacific is so huge and so deep it's colder than their usual Gulf of Mexico bathwater warmth even in Southern California.

Pancake shines in more ways than size and muscle this outing. Stalking is a very real problem in the modern world. As Jake and Nicole hit the vacation spots in the OC, they're worried about Nicole's old friend having a stalker in escalation mode. Pancake's cyberskills show that her stalker is very cybersavvy. No usable traces in the threatening emails. Jake's dad Ray dusts off the black-ops military training that got him into the private investigation world in the first place, because everyone except old-friend Megan, who (understandably) tries to cope with the anxiety of being stalked by downplaying it. It's her good luck that everyone around her says "uh-huh" and moves right along investigating the stalking.

It all comes about for the scoobygroup because Nicole's screenplay, sold at last, is now being filmed! Murderwood is coming to life! In this way we're really prepared for Jake to be a plus-one on the entire action. He still narrates a lot of it but is more or less our eyes and ears instead of a mover and shaker. It is not as light-hearted as the earlier entries because the subject isn't really one where too much humor is available. After violence is done it's not retractable, so laughing doesn't feel as...inappropriate, awkward...as when one's trying to prevent violence.

Never fear, series fans, Jake's his irreverent self, only at two-thirds strength. The stalker is identified at last and all is well—it's a series, ma'at must be upheld at both ends—so we don't feel unsatisfied. It's fun; it's darker; it's got Nicole experiencing the moviemaking life at last.

It felt like a good time was had by all, in spite of the crazy person doing crappy things to a woman.

BONES UNDER THE ICE, Sheriff Jhonni Laurent series #1

BONES UNDER THE ICE (Jhonni Laurent #1)
MARY ANN MILLER
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Jhonni Laurent is the first female sheriff of Field’s Crossing, Indiana—and now she has her first murder case

Two days after a blizzard hits Field’s Crossing, Indiana, Sheriff Jhonni Laurent discovers the frozen body of a high school senior under a fifteen-foot pile of snow and ice. Murder is rare in farm country, and this death marks the beginning of Jhonni’s first homicide case.

Just as the investigation gets underway, Jhonni’s opponent for sheriff from four years ago wages a bitter reelection battle to oust her. Then, Jhonni finds another body, and further complications arise when a century-old feud between two families reaches its breaking point.

Soon, a slew of newspaper articles causes the Indiana State Election Board to doubt her credibility. Jhonni must fight to maintain her reputation, keep the small farming community together, and find the murderer at large—all while demons from her own past threaten to crush her. Can she find the killer and mend her battered spirit before it’s too late?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: There's a lot of nastiness in any murder. No one should take to themselves the responsibility for ending another person's life without facing consequences. In the meantime there's a lot of truly tedious legwork to do to make those consequences come about. Jhonni Laurent does that slogging work.

Of course it starts with the victim: who the heck would hate a high-school senior enough to kill her? Is she a victim of her own behavior...a popular way to discredit women of all ages...or is she simply a victim? It's a puzzle Jhonni is not getting any help making headway on. Her (male) deputy is harboring a grudge at the election defeat she handed him when they both ran for sheriff. He's well-connected in town and willing to call in his favors to get Jhonni either recalled or simply scupper her re-election bid.

Fate steps in, so to speak, when a local pooh-bah is found dead in his ice-fishing hut. So is this a murder as well? Is this the same killer if it is a murder? These are all vexing questions for any law enforcement agency, let alone one run by a complete tyro to anything like this level of crime. Jhonni's asking questions, getting lied to, figuring out how to go about this, while she's under constant pressure from the local reporter (a good buddy of her resentful deputy's) and coping with her past coming back to meet her...literally.

Small-town wintertime setting, woman fighting for her literal life and livelihood, and passels of nasty secrets suppurating for generations, all get their moment in the story spotlight. It does rather feel like a spotlight, though; I'm clear who's doing what, but without a lot of why until we reach the resolution. It is all drawn together, and there's a resolution had; there's clearly got to be another book because there are *major* threads left unresolved.

I'll be here next time, though. Jhonni won me over with her ability to learn on the job, deal with more ugliness than any one person should have directed against them, while reckoning with her past better than most ever could. A terrific way to get away for a few hours without feeling you've wasted your time.

FACE OF GREED is Detective Emily Hunter's first outing

FACE OF GREED (Detective Emily Hunter #1)
JAMES L'ETOILE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Greed, corruption, and betrayal—no murder is as simple as it seems

When a prominent Sacramento businessman is killed and his wife injured in a brutal home invasion, Detective Emily Hunter and her partner, Javier Medina, are called to investigate. At first glance, it seems like a crime of opportunity gone horribly wrong, but Emily soon finds there might be more to both the crime and the dead man.

The high-stakes investigation also comes at a time when Emily is caring for her mother, who has early-onset Alzheimer’s, and Emily struggles to balance her job with her personal life. The city’s political elite seem to want the case solved quickly, but darker forces want it buried.

Could there have been a motive behind the attack, making it more than a random home invasion? Emily uncovers clues that cause her to reconsider her understanding of the crime. A deadly game of greed and deception pulls Emily deeper into the shadowy world of gang violence and retribution. She has to walk the razor’s edge to identify the killer—without becoming the next victim.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I was inspired to pick this book for a review by Luigi Mangione's case developments...most state charges dismissed, the fate of the evidence prosecutors wish to present uncertain. This novel predates that alleged crime by several years but still has resonances with it...powerful people want a conviction, other forces don't want any such thing for intense, irreconcilable forces each competing for their purpose to prevail.

As a procedural, Emily and Javier lead us through the maze of conflicting evidence. Their detecting seems to be run on vibes, the leads they follow up assessed and occasionally dismissed based on things I found unconvincing. In the end, Author L'Etoile crochets it all into one big design that was, once you've seen it, inevitable; it just takes a shift of your idea of the violent thing that happened to see.

Emily, as our lead detective and primary PoV, gets the majority of the development in the story. Her personal life is complicated by a mother with early-onset dementia and the urgently needed carer for mom living in her house. It adds stress to her already stressful life. In a lot of ways I felt Emily was responding to some...irregularities...in a key witness's account of what seems on the surface to be a terrible but random act with her own pent-up frustrations. Equally it can be argued that her pushback against what's clearly an attempt to shut her and Javier's fact-finding down before embarrassing truths are revealed is sharpened by that frustration.

Author L'Etoile moves the story along at a solidly even clip. I was no more done with emotionally processing a domestic event of Emily's than a key piece of evidence is suddenly...shifted...like playing Uno when the reverse card smacks you. It's deft, it's handled well, and it exemplifies his chops as a writer and plotter of mysteries. I was always ready to dismiss the case because it's clearly not one the PTB think needs a real resolution just a speedy end. It turns out Emily has a lot of stiffness of spine. She needs it as a woman in a misogynistic world and as a support for an increasingly dependent mother.

Quite a lot of cussin' and discussin' of women in sexualized terms happens. It's not presented in a way meant to titillate but in a matter-of-fact evocation of the milieu the characters inhabit. It will bother some, so be prepared for it or make your decision to read accordingly. I think the grittier edge it gives is both appropriate and within ordinary peoples' boundaries.

As is often the case with procedural stories, the whodunit bit of the story is almost less important than the whydunit bit. The motives for this crime are in the title; the blowback from Emily and Javier following leads is in the title; it was very clear, when I got to the proper perspective point in the story, why this particular man was killed.

Can't say I'm sorry to know he's dead. I suspect you won't be either.

REMI BONE, funny...serious...fun the way the best of crime novels can be

REMI BONE
WILLIAM L. MYERS Jr.
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Single father Remi Bone knows that his daughter’s Ivy League education will cost an arm and a leg . . . or a few bodies

Remi Bone is a good guy. He’s a hardworking mechanic, a single father raising his late wife’s daughter, and now, he’s dying of heart failure. But his daughter Kayla was just admitted to the college of her dreams. How will she afford college with two dead parents?

Before he dies, Remi decides to stockpile as much money as possible for Kayla’s future. When a chance to participate in a lucrative gun-for-hire scheme arises, Remi, out of desperation, agrees to execute a hit on a shady Philadelphia drug dealer.

This becomes only the first of several murders Remi is hired for, and soon, Remi’s the most sought-after hitman in town—both by his clients and by the police. He leaves investigators little to work with, but ear witnesses identify him by the phrase he recites before each “Tick tock says the clock, time’s up . . . ”With the police catching on to the “Tick Tock Killer,” Remi has to work quickly to earn enough money for Kayla’s school—all while ensuring he dies with a clean record. Tick tock.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The "good-guy-does-'bad'-for-good" trope is fun to read. I like Breaking Bad despite Walter White's odiousness, so no matter Remi's traits I was ready to give him a fair shake. Turns out I like him fine, he's a stand-up guy who faces an ugly death by thinking of the child he loves not his own little self.

The uncharitable might also say he's in denial, running away from the end of a life he thinks is not worth living anymore. I think maybe both are true, and neither are as complete explanations as Remi's character supports. Author Myers, a lawyer by trade, knows how to put on layers of implication and unstated emotional truths. Remi turning to being a hit-man, one who kills only the ones who need killin' as I often say, is factually stockpiling money for his stepdaughter's future. But why turn to it now? Because, with a deadline (!) fast approaching he isn't going to face consequences. He can do the right, but illegal, thing. He has courage at last.

Why not before? And how is this pile of suddenly-acquired money he's leaving Kayla going to be explained to the IRS without causing her huge problems? Are the Authorities and the bosses ignorant of who he is? It's the reason I give this read over four stars that the answer is no to all these questions. Remi's, umm, sordid past isn't foregrounded to the point one thinks he's expiating sins, but is added to explain things that enable him to turn forty-five degrees from a law-abiding life.

What kept the fifth star from manifesting was an ending so rushed, so chaotic, that I felt I was watching a montage of Pulp Fiction, Bullitt, and The French Connection. I'm always about the dismount as much as the story-dressage. I think this book, at under 300pp, might've benefited from ~50pp more to wind things up more comprehensibly. Still a ride I'm glad I took. I think anyone who enjoys a leavening of humor in their crime fiction, a load of pathos, and a really easy-to-root-for protagonist will enjoy this trip on Philly's dark side.

A MURDER IN ZION: A National Park Mystery, one of mystery-publishing monadnock Oceanview's better discoveries

A MURDER IN ZION: A National Park Mystery #1
NICOLE MAGGI
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Beautiful views, deadly encounters

Grief-stricken over her mother's death and bruised by her failure on her most recent case, Special Agent Emmeline Helliwell with the National Park Service returns to her Utah hometown to heal and regroup. She's determined to turn in her badge and take over her mother's bakery for a much quieter life . . . until the body of a childhood friend turns up in The Narrows of Zion National Park.

The case is too personal for Emme to turn down, but the seemingly simple investigation turns treacherous as clues that connect to her previous case grow too glaring to ignore. When bodies start to pile up, Emme must track down the killer before they take more lives, venturing deep into Zion National Park to uncover the sordid secrets hiding beneath its stunning beauty.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: If you've ever been to Zion National Park, this story will transport you there. Evoking its austere beauty in the kind of prose that feels the way the air of the park feels...clean, spare, slightly sage-scented...it will seep through your defenses to bring you right back: "The hard-packed rust-colored dirt crunched a bit beneath their feet, tall scrub brush and ponderosa pines reaching up toward the blue sky on either side of the trail. The red-rock cliffs rose alongside them, towering over the land below like a queen on a throne high above her subjects."

Now we move to the mystery bit: There's a lot of dark goins-on in Zion and environs featuring "...the Warriors for Armageddon, religious fanatics with multiple wives and too many guns," and if you're not now all set to dive in, I dunno what else to tell ya.

How about journalist Finn, working with FBI agent Claire to get the goods on the Armageddon cult looneys who everyone thinks murdered Emme's buddy Max? How about the archaeologist sister working in Tasmania, whose physical presence is required to settle their late mother's estate? Is Emme going to get to retire from being a Park Service cop and become a baker like her late mom? I haven't read her other series, "Twin Willows," but if she's on form there like she is here, I'll go get all the Nicole Maggi I can find.

The wonderful quality of a mystery series is its ability to help you feel Ma'at is restored, the guilty will answer for their crimes, and there's a community built around the crime-solver(s). I am glad to say this read did not drop even one of these balls in its execution.

I would offer more stars were it not for a somewhat thin veneer of villainy over the looney cultists...their looniness is their sole affect. I was also surprised that Emme was so unpleasant to her younger sister. It felt jarring for a woman who delayed/rescinded her law-enforcement retirement to solve her high-school friend's murder to be so angry...though doodness knows families breed anger at the best of times. It was not, clearly, a deal-breaker! I recommend the read.

EDELWEISS+ MYSTERIES/THRILLERS/CRIME STORIES: Burgoines to read for #Deathtober 2024

CALICO by LEE GOLDBERG

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, comes an explosive, page-turning investigative thriller - with a mind-blowing twist.

There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .

The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away.

But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption.

Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.

His fate, all those years ago, and hers today are linked when Beth investigates an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave . . . and also tries to identity a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm.

Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront her own troubled past—and a past that's not her own—until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Entertaining fluff to pass an afternoon. The kind of read that scratches the same "tell me a story but don't make me think too hard" that television has historically specialized in. In fact, this'd make a *great* Movie of the Week, whatever we're calling those now. Netflix Originals? Prime Videos?

Any road, there's a lot less here than meets the eye in substantive themes, but who cares? Read it for the sci-fi-lite elements, the interesting Western US setting (problems and all), and the relatable characters. But seriously, Author Goldberg..."Ben Cartwright"? SMH

Severn House wants $6.99 for the Kindle edition (non-affiliate Amazon link), a reasonable price for the fun I had.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


The Labyrinth House Murders (House Murders #3) by Yukito Ayatsuji (tr. Ho-Ling Wong)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: THE TWISTY AND INGENIOUS FOURTH INSTALLEMENT IN THE BIZARRE HOUSE MYSTERIES.

The famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro lives a life of seclusion in the remote Labyrinth House. When Yotaro invites four young crime authors to his home for a birthday party, they are honoured to accept. But no sooner have they arrived than they are confronted with a shocking death, then lured into a bizarre, deadly competition…

As the twisted contest gathers pace, murder follows murder. The ingenious sleuth Shimada Kiyoshi investigates, but can he solve the mystery of the house before all those trapped in its labyrinth are dead? And can you guess the solution before he does?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: This entry in the ongoing series is billed as the third and the fourth in it (see above synopsis), and as I don't speak Japanese I can't be certain which it actually is. Since the original publication date was in 1988, it ought to be easier than this.

Truly doesn't matter to the reading pleasure of the book, so I suppose the now-normal lie that "this series can be read in any order" is, for once, true. Do take note that this is NOT a fair-play mystery, as there's at least two details crucial to resolving the plot that are not given to you, or even hinted at.

What the read does, however, is to take you through a very well-constructed labyrinth. Playing Theseus is entertaining when the stakes are 1) completing your in-progress novel and b) inheriting cash and copyrights from a very well-known mystery writer. Adjusting expectations this way presents a good day's entertainment.

Pushkin Vertigo brings this out either on 10 October 2024 or 13 May 2025. Either way it's a preorder, so check prices with your chosen retailer.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



The Devil of the Provinces by Juan Cárdenas (tr. Lizzie Davis)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: After a series of failures, a biologist returns to his hometown to live with his grieving mother. But in this gripping crime novel that upends the genre’s conventions, strange events unravel what he thought he knew of his past, his present, and himself.

When a biologist returns home to Colombia after fifteen years abroad, he quickly becomes entangled in the trappings of his past and his increasingly bizarre present: the unsolved murder of his brother, a drug dealer seeking transcendence, a boarding school where students disappear and girls give birth to strange creatures. An encounter with a well-connected acquaintance leads to a job offer in big agriculture, and he’s gradually drawn into a web of conspiracy. Ultimately, he may be destined to remain in the city he’d hoped never to see again. In The Devil of the Provinces, nothing is as it seems.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: It feels a bit like cheating to call this a crime novel on first glance. It took the publisher an afterword essay to make a (flimsy) case for it. But on sober reflection lasting months, I came to agree that this IS a crime novel of a specific sort:

The biologist observed that, as with most extravagant paintings, the fabrication of custodiae had flourished during the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church set in motion its major propaganda operation: the colonization of the senses through artwork. Persuasion wasn't enough anymore, subjugation was the aim. The passage from education to spectacle, evangelization to fanaticism. These images were made to trap the eye and flood it with vibration, illusions of movement, space-time dislocation.

The crimes committed, a murdered brother and a drug-dealing bestie (nothing solves the murder, no punishment accrues to the dealer) aside, are the truly vile crimes of misusing language and power to manipulate and control others for fun and profit. The criminals are both persons and institutions, as always in the annals of crime.

That's all told in the voice you read above; you'll like it or not, I very much do, but it takes time and a strong willingness to engage with the vocabulary to glean the story's full affect.

Coffee House Press asks $17.95 (non-affiliate Amazon link) for one. The library's free. Unless you fell in love with the sample go check it out...but read it. This is a tendentious meditation on what a true true crime is.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Alcatraz Ghost Story: Roy Gardner's Amazing Train Robberies, Escapes, and Lifelong Love by Brian Stannard

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: The Incredible True Story of the Most Hunted Man in Pacific Coast History—and the Woman He Loved

Before the 1920s found their roar, a charismatic gambling addict named Roy Gardner dominated news headlines with daring train robberies and escapes from incarceration. Nicknamed "the Smiling Bandit," Gardner spilled no blood—except his own—as he cut a felonious path across the western United States, as the country hobbled through a recession in the aftermath of the First World War.

Once imprisoned for the long term in federal prisons, including Alcatraz, the most notorious prison's second-most-notorious inmate won over some unlikely champions. Both Gardner's wife, Dollie, and a police officer who once arrested him launched extensive campaigns for Gardner's release on the vaudeville circuit, claiming a brain operation would cure his lawless ways. Was Gardner a good man who made bad decisions as the victim of injury and circumstance? Or was his charming personality merely the poker face of a scoundrel?

Richly researched, drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts, Alcatraz Ghost Story explores the life of Roy Gardner in the context of his great love story and the larger backdrop of drug addiction, incarceration, and the racial and labor violence of the 1920s and 1930s.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: An uneven true-crime story, one that reminded me of the old film Falling Down. How hard can you push a fundamentally decent man with charm and charisma until he gives violently up on The System?

Add the fillip of never being quite sure which Gardner was the fundamental one, the sales whiz charmer or the criminal manipulator, and you have a catchy book. My rating reflects mostly a dissatisfaction with the choppy pacing...we slow down to discuss historical events that end up being peripheral to the story, eg World War I bond drives, and gloss over things I'd like to hear more about, eg life in/on Alcatraz...rather than the research, or the story being told.

(Also I deeply dislike his One True Love, Dollie...shallow Babbitty broad.)

Skyhorse Publishing is asking $19.99 for a Kindle edition. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Saving Myles by Carl Vonderau

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: When the FBI can’t help, an unassuming banker takes matters into his own hands to bring his son home

Wade, a respected banker in La Jolla, CA, and his estranged wife, Fiona, make the unbearable decision to send their teenage son, Myles, away to an expensive treatment center after a streak of harmful behavior. After a year of treatment, Myles comes home, seemingly rehabilitated. But soon, he sneaks off to Tijuana to buy drugs—and is kidnapped.

When the ransom call comes, Fiona is frantic and accepts help from Andre, the Quebecois whose charity Fiona runs. Wade is wary of Andre’s reputation and the bank he owns, but seeing no other way to secure a kidnap negotiator or the ransom, he swallows his doubts to get his son home.

In order to get the ransom money, Wade makes a deal with Andre—he’ll work for Andre’s bank in exchange for the cash. But as Wade races to rescue Myles before his kidnappers lose their patience, he realizes he’s wrapped up in more crime than just a kidnapping—he’s now indebted to a cartel.

Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Scottoline.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Kid-in-jeopardy thriller, with Dad chasing after his kidnapped teen son for a change. Usual useless woman trope found too often in male-oriented thrillers: his ex-wife involves a villain so obvious he should twirl his mustachios, which—shock twist!—makes everything harder for Dad to fix.

I want to belt the idiot kid upside his head for being such a shit. The writing's good, the pacing's propulsive, the publisher's comps are spot-on.

Oceanview Publishing asks $9.49 (non-affiliate Amazon link) for a Kindle edition. Go to the library, says I.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


The Belgrade Conspiracy: A David Rivers Thriller (Shadow Strike #6) by Jason Kasper

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: **FROM FORMER GREEN BERET AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR JASON KASPER**

A lethal shipment of military hardware. An international terrorist group on a mission of mass destruction. One man stands to forever change the course of history…unless David Rivers can stop him.

David Rivers is an expert in the art of violence. Together with his team of CIA operatives, he's executed dozens of covert assassinations―but this mission might turn out to be his deadliest yet. One man stands behind the transfer of high-level military hardware to an international terrorist syndicate.

The CIA has uncovered his identity: Yuri Sidorov, a Russian arms dealer with state protection. With the arms deal only days away, David and the team are faced with an impossible to get close enough to take out their target, they must first win his trust. David and the team infiltrate a black market arms network in Serbia, negotiating a web of secret police and mafia hitmen. Each wrong turn may prove fatal, but they're determined to succeed at any cost. But Sidorov is still alive for a reason, and when the team uncovers dark forces at work in the Balkans and America, they realize that killing him is the least of their worries. By the time they learn the truth, it's too late…and now they're the ones being hunted.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I knew when I asked for this read it was #6 in a series, but let's be honest. It's a military thriller. The characters are fairly interchangeable in the genre, they're archetypes: Tech genius, spycraft maven, violent guy...nobody really needs to know much except the outlines to follow along. It's stakes and pacing that matter in this genre.

Still true. If your idea of fun is taking a fast-paced ride through some unfamiliar world locations, here's you a violent, nationalistic read. Guilty pleasure, for me at least, and not a series I'll be pursuing.

Severn River Publishing wants $6.99 for a Kindlebook. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

THE CLARE CARLSON SERIES: BEYOND THE HEADLINES & BROADCAST BLUES

BEYOND THE HEADLINES
R.G. BELSKY
Oceanview Publishing
$26.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Dashed dreams: she wanted to run for president one day, now she's dead at 20

When Riley Hunt—a beautiful, smart, popular student at Easton College in Manhattan—is brutally murdered, it becomes a big story for TV newswoman Clare Carlson.

After days of intense media coverage, a suspect is caught: a troubled Afghanistan war veteran with a history of violent and unstable behavior. The suspect's mother, however, comes to Clare with new evidence that might prove her son's innocence.

As Clare digs deeper into the puzzling case, she learns new information: Riley had complained about being stalked in the days before her murder, she was romantically involved with two different men—the son of a top police official and the son of a prominent underworld boss—and she had posted her picture on an escort service's website offering paid dates with wealthy men.

Soon, Clare becomes convinced that Riley Hunt's death is more than just a simple murder case—and that more lives, including her own, are now in danger until she uncovers the true story.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: The inappropriate use of sexuality slacks off in this entry. That was a relief. The main thing I got from the murder victim's life story, as it unfolded, was the fact that she was deeply shallow. Appearances and attention were her gods. She pursued her dream of being famous all her life; it all bit her in the butt...hard. I think the kind of uses the young woman made of her body were overplayed, but far from unrealistic. This is not uncommon in the 2020s for men or for women, to earn money from offering sexual services. We seem to be returning to the Victorian era, just being more open about it.

I'm pretty sure Clare's got oppositional defiant disorder. I agreed with her stance of refusing to obey her interfering boss's orders to make the facts of the young woman's case fit the narrative of danger and violence running rampant. The sacrificial victim chosen to take the blame is, Clare is sure, innocent; she gets busy using her investigative skills to ferret out the truth. It is, as expected, not related to the narrative she's been told to push.

There was a new guy in the mix for Clare, and for once, he wasn't a conflict of interest and super inappropriate for Clare to hook up with. I don't much like the emphasis the male author puts on his female character's sexuality, though the lack of the conflict of interest made me more willing to just...let it go.

Author Belsky is a very able, witty writer of sentences. I am less willing to engage with his sexual subject matter. Making it into a marker of crime, or into a professional quid pro quo, isn't a trope I enjoy reading too terribly much. I've got one more to read to be current on the series. Let's see how that one hits me.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BROADCAST BLUES
R.G. BELSKY
Oceanview Publishing
$27.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Wendy Kyle took secrets to her grave— now, Clare Carlson is digging them up

New York City has no shortage of crime, making for a busy schedule for TV newswoman Clare Carlson. But not all crimes are created equal, and when an explosive planted in a car detonates and kills a woman, Clare knows it' ll be a huge story for her.

But it' s not only about the story— Clare also wants justice for the victim, Wendy Kyle. Wendy had sparked controversy as an NYPD officer, ultimately getting kicked off the force after making sexual harassment allegations and getting into a physical altercation with her boss. Then, she started a private investigations business, catering to women who suspected their husbands of cheating. Undoubtedly, Wendy had angered many people with her work, so the list of her suspected murderers is seemingly endless.

Despite the daunting investigation, Clare dives in headfirst. As she digs deeper, she attracts the attention of many rich and powerful people who will stop at nothing to keep her from breaking the truth about the death of Wendy Kyle— and exposing their personal secrets that Wendy took to her grave.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: No more; I'm tapping out. The way the victim was, yet again, involved in the negative side of a sex-linked industry...sleuthing for wives who want to catch their husbands cheating on them for an advantage during divorce proceedings...is not going to work for me.

Clare's a wildly opportunistic, abrasive person. That is fine with me, takes one to know one. What I find really hard to credit is that any corporate structure in today's world would harbor such a person in their senior ranks. Not because it's a bad way to be, but because routinely defying one's boss is not well tolerated in the C Suite.

At the end of the day I want to read about fictional sleuths who follow their own compasses believably enough that I don't have to remind myself that it's a novel too often. I really feel sad that I don't have that sensation in this series because the author is genuinely amusing, often enough laugh-out-loud funny. But the overemphasis on the negative uses of sex and the main character's apparent inability to use the sandpaper on her tongue to round off some of her spikier corners make this series just over the edge of my suspension of disbelief line.

Well, it was a darn good attempt for me. I wish it had worked better.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE CLARE CARLSON SERIES: THE LAST SCOOP & BEYOND THE HEADLINES

THE LAST SCOOP
R.G. BELSKY
Oceanview Publishing
$16.00 trade paper, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Martin Barlow was Clare Carlson’s first newspaper editor, a beloved mentor who inspired her career as a journalist. But, since retiring from his newspaper job, he had become a kind of pathetic figure—railing on about conspiracies, cover-ups, and other imaginary stories he was still working on. Clare had been too busy with her own career to pay much attention to him.

When Martin Barlow is killed on the street one night during an apparent mugging attempt gone bad, it seems like he was just an old man whose time had come. But Clare—initially out of a sense of guilt for ignoring her old friend and then because of her own journalistic instincts—begins looking into his last story idea. As she digs deeper and deeper into his secret files, she uncovers shocking evidence of a serial killer worse than Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, or any of the other infamous names in history. This really is the biggest story of Martin Barlow’s career—and Clare’s, too—as she uncovers the path leading to the decades-long killer of at least twenty young women.

All is not as it seems during Clare’s relentless search for this serial killer. Is she setting herself up to be his next victim?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Terrific first read in a series. It's book three in order, but it is my introduction to Clare and her media-centered world. Since I lived in Manhattan during the 1980s and all the 1990s, I love reading about that uniquely different world.

There are two strands to this story. Clare's early-days mentor, when she was cutting her jounalistic teeth in the newspaper business (making this kind of an historical novel, since that was rendered impossible early this century), has declined in mental health of late. She thinks, in common with others, that he's lost part of his mind because he's going on about conspiracies and cover-ups at great length...so Clare's done what she can to avoid him. It's not as cruel as it sounds, her job in the TV-news world of New York City really is consuming. She just...stops making time to see Marty.

This definitely rings true...happens all the time when someone has a high-powered position.

Thus we get that high-quality evergreen inciting event: Guilt and remorse over past behavior after someone dies. The senselessness of an older man of apparently diminishing capacities dying in a violent mugging is so utterly believable that I was pretty sure it would end up being a red herring.

Not at all. Author Belsky does a darn fine job of using it to motivate Clare to look into the wild and woolly world of Marty's carryings-on about the web of evildoing he's discovered. As she gets deeper and deeper into the material Marty's been trying to interest her in, she realizes...believably slowly and frustratingly incompletely...that he wasn't ranting about nothing but fantasies loosely based on coincidences. I admit I wanted to shout at her as she continued in her doubts. That, to me, means Author Belsky's doing a fine job of making me care about and invest in the story. For this reader, the fact that we're in first-person narration by Clare helps this investment.

The deeper Clare gets into this topsy-turvy world of power and corruption making devil's bargains, though, the more I came to think that I was missing something big about her character. When she uses a quid pro quo that, while I'm sure it's been tried before, would get a news director AND an FBI agent fired right quick by their respective employers, I realized that I wasn't buying in to Clare as a professional as fully as I would need to for this to be the next-level read it started out to be. Clare's deep personal issues aren't overly emphasized, but they're rather too neatly dovetailed into the dark, evil doings of some truly horrifying people.

The stakes ratchet up steadily as Marty's research unfolds in Clare's hands. Her skills as an investigative reporter are pretty well delineated. There are, I think inevitably given the problem I have outlined above, some credulity-straining convenient hurdle-collapsing events and coincidences. It's not the main thing I took away from the story, but I was aware that this was happening.

In the end, the *astoundingly* (but believably) heightened stakes of this investigation would have resulted in dire and condign consequences that don't happen here. I was glad to forget about that lapse, as I saw it, in authorial credibility because I really, really liked the way the story ended.

So on to the next one!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BEYOND THE HEADLINES
R.G. BELSKY
Oceanview Publishing
$26.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: She was a mega-celebrity—he was a billionaire businessman—now he’s dead—she’s in jail

Laurie Bateman was living the American dream. Since her arrival as an infant in the U.S. after the fall of Saigon, the pretty Vietnamese girl had gone on to become a supermodel, a successful actress, and, finally, the wife of one of the country’s top corporate dealmakers. That dream has now turned into a nightmare when she is arrested for the murder of her wealthy husband.

New York City TV journalist Clare Carlson does an emotional jailhouse interview in which Bateman proclaims her innocence—and becomes a cause celebre for women’s rights groups around the country. At first sympathetic, then increasingly suspicious of Laurie Bateman and her story, Clare delves into a baffling mystery which has roots extending back nearly fifty years to the height of the Vietnam War.

Soon, there are more murders, more victims, and more questions as Clare struggles against dire evil forces to break the biggest story of her life. Beyond the Headlines is perfect for fans of Robert Crais and Harlan Coben.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The witty, sarcastic, self-destructive Clare Carlson is back. This time she's looking into a dead rich guy who, frankly, just needed killin' and no matter who did it they should get a severe chastisement and a ride home from the police. That would, however, make a boring story.

As with The Last Scoop (above) Clare is in no way reluctant to spread her...charms...far and wide to get dirt and details and help that she wouldn't otherwise come across. This was more of a problem for me on this second outing because it felt reductive to me. A woman in a powerful position, coming to the aid of a woman who seems to be wrongly accused of her dirtbag husband's murder, and using sex to accomplish lots of things she shouldn't be able to do, is problematic for me. Why make her out to be good at her job, show her being possessed of professional skills, then set her out as a serial sex-hound?

So there went that quarter star.

What *did* work for me was the investigation into accused husband-killer's past that resulted from a seeming slip of the tongue on her part. The way this book took on dark and ugly stuff from the US's past was very well-handled and integrated into the crime story. I was so involved in the whys and hows of the story that I could put aside my unhappy response to the overuse of Clare's sexuality.

I'm not so sure that will last, I must say...I hope Author Belsky will dial this back before the next book. Which I will definitely read.

DEATH WRITES, sixth Ben O'Keeffe/Inishowen Mysteries book

DEATH WRITES
ANDREA CARTER (Inishowen Mysteries #6)
Oceanview Publishing
$27.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A local author dies on stage at a literary festival. Ben O'Keeffe has to sort through his complicated estate—and find his murderer while she's at it.

Solicitor Benedicta “ Ben” O' Keeffe and her boyfriend Police Sergeant Tom Molloy race to Dublin after hearing that some strangers had moved in with Ben's parents. When they arrive, only Ben's parents and their strange lodger remain, but come morning the lodger has left. Not wanting to leave them alone, Ben persuades her parents to come and stay with her in Inishowen.

In Glendara, preparations are underway for Glenfest, Glendara's literary festival. Phyllis Kettle, the local bookshop owner, is especially pleased to have persuaded Gavin Featherstone, the local best-selling recluse writer, to take part.

The festival begins, and an eager crowd awaits Featherstone's appearance on stage. He is unexpectedly engaging, but when he stands to read from his new book, he stumbles and keels over on the platform.

Ben discovers that she holds Featherstone's will at the office, drafted by her predecessor. Soon, she's drawn into a complicated legal wrangle over the man's estate involving his family and the assistant who lived with him.

But nothing can yet be resolved, as a killer cannot inherit from their victim—and Gavin Featherstone's death was a murder.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Workaholics Ben and Tom, two of Glendara's few residents, are on the trail of murder and gaslighting and elder abuse this time. I know the publisher insists these can be read as stand-alones, but they shouldn't be; there's too much texture in this weave to be fully experiencedin one small patch. That said, starting here won't leave you befuddled and confused. Just feeling like you're missing something, because you are.

The family dramas in this entry in the series are parallel: Reclusive writer in the clutches of manipulative "assistant" (about whom there is A Mystery) makes a bookend for Ben's parents' mysterious, controlling-in-a-quiet-way "lodger" (about whom there is No Mystery); the fact is, I see things like these plots delineate a lot here in my assisted living facility on a much lower-stakes scale. I was completely wrapped up in this story, these stories really, from giddy-up to whoa. The issues couldn't be more timely: using the loneliness and vulnerability of the older people who steadily make up more and more of the population for material gain. I really fail to see the problem, as I suspect I'm supposed to, in the case of a caretaker benefiting from the cared-for person's generosity. The less unclear issue is the dreadful misuse of the grief felt by parents whose children have died. This is truly beyond the pale to my mind, to manipulate these miserable, bereft souls for profit.

The stories are very much up to Author Carter's standards of immersiveness and detail-oriented storytelling. There are clues everywhere, and they aren't there by accident despite appearances (well done you, Author Carter!). What you got before, you'll get again, along with Ben and Tom doing their awkward best to screw up their relationship. The Garda are doing their bit, with Tom being promoted away from Glendara again, maybe. These two are very well-suited but they're also rubbish at relationships. In Ben's case, it's old traumas that lots and lots of therapy (which she isn't seeking) would be pressed hard to reduce the symptoms of; in Tom's, he's an Irish man (see previous parenthetical).

This being the sort of real-life drama that makes the factually very unusual occurrence of murder slide down easier. Very few of us ever come into contact with murder, but all of us relate experientially to relationship angst. The side characters, like this book's featured person Phyllis the bookshop owner, are more than props. The reason to read the series in order is exactly so that Phyllis will be building on her previous life, not just doing her bit for the plot of this story by arranging the book festival that we've never heard of before. That kind of grace note, that Phyllis is very much the kind of organizing, managing, busybusybusy person who absolutely *would* arrange a book festival, get national attention for it, and somehow also land up with a murder case during it, and your credulity would not feel even the slightest strain. The good people of Glendara, on the Inishowen peninsula, in the far north of the Republic of Ireland, are presented to us over the course of six books and counting, ready to enfold our attention and reward it with just the right level of domestic drama.

INCENTIVE FOR DEATH: A Novel, new procedural novel from debut author Spoohour

INCENTIVE FOR DEATH: A Novel
JAMES SPOONHOUR
Oceanview Publishing
$28.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: They all sold their life insurance policies to the same company—and now they’ re all dead. Mac and Oliver are on the case.

On a beautiful spring morning in Washington, D.C., a high-profile attorney is found dead in his office. McDermott “Mac” Burke and Oliver Shaw, homicide investigators for the Metropolitan Police Department, are called to investigate. There appear to be no signs of foul play, but there is also no obvious sign of a natural cause of death.

The detectives are perplexed until the medical examiner notices a tiny pin prick on the lawyer’s neck and theorizes that the man was injected with succinylcholine—aka “sux”—which is a common horse tranquilizer that dissipates quickly in the body.

As Mac and Oliver begin to look further, they discover that the lawyer had sold his life insurance policy to a large viatical company. Then, they realize that more deaths under mysterious circumstances have occurred among those who’ve sold their policies to the same company.

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My Review: Lots of coincidences, lots of conveniently available people able and willing on no notice at all to answer the detectives' questions, and the men investigating the crimes (that might not be crimes) never follow a blind alley or take a wrong turn for long. No one in their chain of command ever questions how they got the information they have, taking their word for whatever they're saying without pushback or demands for sources.

Mac is divorced from Maggie. She lives with him still. She also breaks rules (sort of, that is if as she's hinted at being employed by A Gummint Intelligence Agency she sure as heck does) to help him out. Everyone loves these guys! They're so lovable, hell, I'd marry 'em both!

That's really the sum total of my grumbling. Oh, and the fact that they rehash basically the entire case to date whenever they talk to someone new. What works for me is their inability to set aside the essential unfairness of the viatical "services" industry, which I learned about in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic. Lots of gay men had the kind of jobs that come with life insurance, and were definitely not going to live very long; a large number of them sold their life insurance collection rights to investors for 50% of face value so as to be able to live with some shreds of dignity until they died.

Capitalism rots.

So anyway, the detectives don't think hurrying the inevitable in order to maximize your profits is acceptable investment management, and set about proving that's what some unkind souls have done. That they succeed is inherent in the genre. The way they go about achieving that success is the fun part. I enjoyed their antics, for the most part, and will definitely read the next one in the series. Oceanview, a relatively new player on the series-mystery publishing scene, is doing a lot of books like this one...not Big Names, unconventional plots and detectives, settings one doesn't necessarily expect for the kind of mystery being told. This one, set in Washington, DC, for example...it's not race-based "urban" or rankly political, it's an interesting business crime. I am all for this publishing house keeping up the good work they're doing with worthwhile new authors like (retired? lawyer) James Spoonhour.

THE WILLIAM MAZ PAGE: THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER, optioned for film & THE BUCHAREST LEGACY: Rise of the Oligarchs

THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER
WILLIAM MAZ (Bill Hefflin #1)
Oceanview Publishing
$27.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Bill Hefflin is a man apart—apart from life, apart from his homeland, apart from love

At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin—a disillusioned Romanian expat—arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, code-named Boris. As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems, including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions.

With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris—the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings of Hefflin’s life.

The Bourne Identity meets John le Carre’s The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

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My Review: A time and place explored as the events I saw unfold with my own eyes were shocking and appalling me and my compatriots will always make a story I want to read.

I've had decent luck with Oceanview's choices of stories they publish so far. This one is a first novel, as almost all the others of theirs I've read so far have been. As a first novel, I felt this was very promising in terms of the choice of story to be told but less so in its structure. Is ir a sentimental education? Is it a spy thriller? Is it a long-term migrant returns tale? A love story? Pick any two. The issue for me was that the author and editor tried to fit way more plot in than the story could support.

"Bill"/Fili (his childhood nickname) in his college years and his recruitment dragged me down the hardest. It's true that I don't care if straight people get hooked/hooked back up very much. I still can read about the characters, if I'm invested in them; but I saw Catherine, the college girlfriend, as a creepy, nasty person, deeply self-centered, and I felt she didn't ever care for Bill except as and when he could be useful. The lost childhood girl-friend was so generic as to be pointless as a character, almost so much so that she was a poor Maguffin. It damned near gets him killed several times, this obsession with women who don't exist except in his imagination. No subsequent revelations or events changed my opinion, either.

What worked for me was the evocation of the time and the place...a world on the cusp of a violent ending, a culture about to prove (yet again) the absolute inescapable truth of the aphorism "To every birth its blood." There is, in each increasingly menacing occurrence, a mounting sense of Bill's being in a place that is dangerous, that could claim him as its next victim. A creeping sense of dread is always useful in a spy thriller. It was present in every part of the Romanian settings of the story. Bill's discoveries about his place in the CIA, and nature of the US interest in the country's future path, all lead him to reassess a lifetime of hurts and hopes as a last-minute rooftop decision point changes him, his essential self, irrevocably.

When we reach the end of this story, the chickens of wars long past and of debts long since exchanged for the gift of a life out of reach to thank the giver for a life unearned come home to roost. The resolution was...pat...but the consequences meted out were condign, so I landed more on the forgiving snd accepting side of the story's ending. It was not a foregone conclusion that I would forgive the w-verb-bombings and the ethnic-slur pepperings and the heterosexism...but I did. That speaks volumes in the story's favor.

I considered it a qualified success, though I warn readers about the convenient-reveal ending.

There's a really interesting development on the way: THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER is now optioned for film adaptation by Cody Gifford, Kathie Lee Gifford's son.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE BUCHAREST LEGACY: Rise of the Oligarchs
WILLIAM MAZ (Bill Hefflin #2)
Oceanview Publishing
$28.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. They learn that the mole' s handler is a KGB agent known as Boris. CIA analyst Bill Hefflin recognizes that name—Boris is the code name of Hefflin' s longtime KGB asset. If the defector is correct, Hefflin realizes Boris must be a triple agent, and his supposed mole has been passing false intel to Hefflin and the CIA. What' s more, this makes Hefflin the prime suspect as the KGB mole inside the Agency.

Hefflin is given a chance to prove his innocence by returning to his city of birth, Bucharest, Romania, to find Boris and track down the identity of the mole. It' s been three years since the bloody revolution, and what he finds is a cauldron of spies, crooked politicians, and a country controlled by the underground and the new oligarchs, all of whom want to find Boris. But Hefflin has a secret that no one else knows—Boris has been dead for over a year.

While the novels in the Bill Hefflin Spy Thriller Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is {actually very important, ignore this sentence}.

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My Review: I did not see this set-up coming. I like that in a spy story, especially a series. What I *did* see coming was that the author would keep using the ethnic slur "gypsy" which as a Romanian he should know is the semantic equivalent of the "n" word...but wait! there's more, as the infomercials used to say....

Considering how the previous book ended, I was expecting to feel pretty indifferent to the life Bill's received from his immigrant parets and their sacrifices, from Boris and his scale-balancing, being placed under threat. I was, in fact, uninterested in his fatherhood, his marriage to the still-icky-to-me Catherine, all that pop-music-scored montage material. Once Bill's in the vice-grip of his old job's new bosses and he's back in Bucharest, I stopped speed-flipping and resumed reading.

What we have is a spy story that really bites into the apple of all (especially the best) spy stories: who're the "good" guys when absolutely everyone is lying through their (false) teeth and giving you Bambi-eyes through colored contacts as they try to distract you with a hand job while picking your pocket and measuring you up for a swift stab?

The good news is that the story is up to its convolutions now. The sub-optimal news is that the ending goes places I found repugnant and disturbing. The sheer velocity of the spy bits would get an honest four-plus stars. The ending's shenanigans lopped that half-star right back off. The chasing around and the inclusion of Catherine in the spying got my happy grins. The way the author treats his ethnic slur use won me back to his side. The resolution of Bill's quest for roots was also quite deftly sewn into the material of the plot. There's a degree of...I suppose wistfulness is the word I'll choose...in that resolution, and it was laced with a very true-to-life salting of disillusionment. Like most all of us, Bill does not leave his twenties with his idealism intact; like almost any of us who become parents, he discovers the oceanic depths of the connection between parent and child. He becomes a different, more dangerously grounded man.

As the body count that results from this mounts, I felt that most agreeable glow of the thriller reader, "they deserved it", suffusing me regularly. I don't think a single murder was committed before my bifocals that I'd've flinched away from in real life. That is a good trait in a spy story. As the action in this story moves around the globe more than the first one, I was satisfied that the author chose to focus most of his descriptive and evocative prose on Bucharest as it transitions from failed Communist state to failing oligarchy. I am very unfamiliar with Bucharest so I was most interested in the parts of the story in that setting.

But the psychosexual peek into the author afforded by the ending was greatly not to my taste. I'm sure I'll read another one of these, should one eventuate; I'm forewarned that there will be disagreeable ladlings of heterosexual activity; I can only hope the author will feed me more Romanian atmosphere to help mask the bitter taste of it. I'd really like to smack the copyeditor, too, for failing to catch things like "peak" for "pique" and other such homophones. The w-verb bombing is present, too, and honestly should be a fine-able offense.

On the whole, a guarded and qualified endorsement of the story.