(Jill Paterson, Rose Scented Murder, J. Henderson, 2019)

I read novels from all over the world, and almost any book involving a DCI or DS attracts my attention. And Ms. Paterson, an Australian author, has a whole series of them!

In this novel, DCI Alistair Fitzjohn and DS Martin Betts set out to solve another crime, this time the murder of a famous Australian actor. The crime occurs just after the last play in a famous old theater that will be torn down. The memoir of the victim plays a big role. (As an aside that’s a wee bit curious,  at the time I purchased this book, I was already well into a piece of short fiction involving my detectives Chen and Castilblanco with a famous actor as victim. I’m far enough along that it might turn into a novella, not a novel, though. My detectives work in NYC; there are many more theaters there.)

A bit more taut and better written than number seven in the series, this did a nice job of satisfying my minimum quarterly dose of a British-style mystery (the “local color” here is Australian, of course). I put most books containing a DCI in this category (Louise Penny’s and Ian Rankin’s provide other examples that don’t occur in Britain), and Fitzjohn is one of the most interesting DCIs. There are nice twists throughout the book, and there’s a wee bit of surprising news regarding Inspector Fitzjohn.

I have been following this series. It’s a good example of how books in a series can stand alone relative to others in the series (the reader can jump in anywhere), avoiding cliffhangers and soap-operatic episodes that drive readers away (including me). At the same time, readers who follow the series can watch the characters change as the novels proceed along a timeline that follows their careers. Ms. Paterson has done well in both regards.

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Comments are always welcome!

Rembrandt’s Angel. Esther Brookstone, of London’s Scotland Yard, is also a DCI, but she’s not modeled after any of the ones mentioned above. She’s more like a younger version of Dame Agatha’s Miss Marple. How far would you go to find a painting stolen by Nazis in World War Two? Esther, of the Art and Antiques Division, becomes obsessed with the idea, and paramour and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden (he even looks like Hercule Poirot, rather David Suchet, the actor who portrayed him so often) attempts to focus the investigation and keep her out of trouble. Together they discover the painting plays a role in an insidious conspiracy that threatens Great Britain and the world. Available on Amazon in ebook and print format, on Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, Walton, etc) in ebook format, and in print at your favorite bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it). A sequel, Son of Thunder, will be published by Penmore Press—coming soon!

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

(M. J. Markovski, Whatever It Takes, White Bird Publications, 2019, ISBN 978-1633633773)

Hunter Grainger acts strangely when he returns to Parker, Texas. So does Regan Argent. The two almost committed in high school; the attraction still remains. And they don’t realize how their pasts during the years away from Parker are connected.

How should I classify this novel? Much of it is steamy romance as Regan and Hunter draw closer. But all the romantic heat gives way slowly to a tidy mystery, suspense, and thriller story.

The romantic part is a bit soap-operatic, reminding me of the few peeks I’ve taken at Nicholas Sparks’s oeuvre. The rest is more disorganized and rushes a bit toward the end where the finale of Hamlet nearly occurs, with Regan in the role of Ophelia (in this case, it’s her mother who’s nuts) and Hunter in the role of Hamlet (his father is almost but not quite the villain). To make another analogy, Regan’s time in NYC reminded me of John Grisham’s character in The Firm who found out the legal establishment he worked for wasn’t quite so legal.

I’ll confess that this novel didn’t hook me at first. It improved. I gauge that by my reading speed. By the end, I was in a mad dash and when the race ended, I wanted more. I often say writing a novel is like running a marathon, so I now wish the author had paced herself a bit more. The book nearly divides into two parts: part one, the steamy romance; and part two, mystery, suspense, and thrills.

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I write reviews all the time for other authors’ books, but I’m not very lucky in receiving them for my own books. Here’s a few for some recent books.

A reviewer of Goin’ the Extra Mile says…

“WOW! What an exciting story from Steven Moore.  A total page turner from the start.  There are no doubts who you cheer for and who you want to lose in this exciting espionage story.
BACKGROUND: While in the CIA [actually she’s an ex-USN Master-at-Arms], Mary Jo was sent to reclaim two MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”) that were stolen from the CIA [a secret US government project] by Russian operatives. Instead, she freed them, then the three of them destroyed the laboratory and escaped to freedom. That was years ago and they have had no contact with each other since then.  But nobody believes Mary Jo. The Russians and CIA keep trying to find the MECHs and they still believe Mary Jo knows where they are.
CURRENT: Mary Jo is former Navy and now a former discredited/framed CIA agent [actually a security guard at the place with the MECHs project].  Her husband is a former FBI agent, [and] now all they want is to live the American dream of raising a family in peace.  But it appears the Chinese have different ideas for their future.
When Mary Jo’s husband and two children are kidnapped we start a rescue operation that jumps between France and America and ends up in Beijing. All kinds of alphabet agencies are involved, FBI, CIA, DSGI, DSGE, MSS, etc. [US, US, French, French, and Chinese agencies.]
Woven throughout the story are references of the Wall a previous President built, the disrespect of our leaders by the leaders of other countries, the decay of American values and freedoms, becoming more of a third-world country than a powerful leader of the world.  Unfortunately, this part of the story is partially true and just may be our actual future.
This story of political power desolving democracy and the free world deserves 5 stars.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.”

—Diana Raven, in an Amazon review

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The Red and the Blue. Steve Kornacki, author (ECCO-Harper Collins, 2018). This book’s subtitle is a useful addition: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism. For those not yet born during that time (millennials, for example), it’s a must read if only to see that the current craziness isn’t just some kind of spontaneously generated creature spawned in the rotting vegetation of DC’s political swamps. The thesis here is that Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich created America’s bitter political divide.

There were no team colors for that divide until the 2000 election when NBC chose blue for Democrats and red for Republicans. and other networks followed their lead, in that Bush v. Gore debacle that ended with SCOTUS choosing to saddle the US with a nice fellow but incompetent dynasty member for president (our current political chaos seems tame and Dubya seems harmless in comparison to who we now have as POTUS, especially if you ignore Cheney and Rumsfeld who were really running the George Bush show). This book ends with that election. How the Clinton v. Gingrich confrontations led to that is clearly laid out in this history of an important decade in America.

While reading this book, one might be tempted to compare Bill Clinton and Donald Trump in the harsh spotlight of today’s nasty politics. Neither Clinton nor Gingrich were angels in any sense of the word. Yet, if their struggles gave rise to our current situation, Trump and Pelosi play similar roles. If we focus on the presidents in the first story and its sequel, though—perhaps the more important comparison—Clinton comes off better than Trump.

They both looked inward more than outward. For example, Clinton failed miserably in going after al Qaeda after the first attack on the World Trade Center (the book doesn’t even mention this); and Trump’s ineptitude in foreign policy knows no bounds. (What does Putin have on him that makes him say he believes that Russian monster more than his own intelligence community? Is it all just about business, i.e. the Trump Tower in Moscow?).

But I prefer to focus on morality. Here’s something the author quotes from Tom Delay: “…it is much more damaging that this president [Clinton] looked the American people in the eye and knowingly lied to us.” He was lying about Monica Lewinsky. Fast forward to the Trump administration. The Washington Post keeps a running list of all Trump’s lies—thousands of them and counting. And how do the porn star and Playboy bunny compare to Monica Lewinsky? The latter was an affair between two consenting adults; the former—well, maybe we should let Melania say what they represent? So far she’s followed Hillary’s lead in avoiding the issue, hopefully not as far as running for president one day (step-daughter Ivanka seems to have that aspiration). Isn’t politics wonderful?

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The Deadliest Fever. June Trop, author (Black Opal Books, 2018). Miriam bat Isaac is an alchemist and amateur sleuth. This novel, the last one of a series recently published, focuses more on the second role. This is a mystery with historical fiction overtones that includes the clash of two cultures, one Jewish and the other Roman, and they somewhat coexist in Alexandria during the time of Nero.

Someone desecrates the synagogue leaving it a mess with blood and oil on the floor. But then one of the relics gets damaged several times. Miriam the sleuth wonders what’s afoot.

I have to apologize here. While I sat in on a course that compared the great religions of the world, in this short review I can’t pretend to do justice to all the new details I learned about Jewish religious traditions. It suffices to say that this background material makes the novel come alive, though, as do the historical settings. The details given, both religious and otherwise, indicate that the author did a lot of research for this book, as the endnotes show. There’s also a glossary there, but the meaning of terms I didn’t know were easily guessed from context. (Some readers might want to refer to that glossary before starting the novel, or during their reading.)

It’s a bit odd that there’s no homicide case to solve here in what is an unusual story. The violence of the era is found in the Roman Empire for the most part. A past pogrom against Alexandrian Jews is mentioned, but the Romans were equal opportunity tyrants in those days, as the Christians of the era also knew.

The plot picks up speed as you turn the pages, almost becoming a thriller by book’s end. The characters are finely drawn, with Miriam, the main character, able to shed her relatively privileged lifestyle and go undercover. Suspense and intrigue are aspects of human existence through the centuries, so why not in Nero’s time?

There is romance here too, with Miriam’s beau Judah a man who has pulled himself up by his bootstraps (or sandal ties), no mean feat in this era of class distinctions and even slavery. A practical man, Judah nicely complements Miriam. They make a good team, so maybe they’ll be solving more cases in the future.

If readers want to experience a new, original take on crime stories (at least new for me), don’t miss this book. Recommended.

[Note: If you want to learn more about this author, see the “Interviews” category of this blog for my interview of June Trop. This book is available in ebook and print format.]

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Comments are always welcome.

Aristocrats and Assassins. #4 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” is my favorite C&C book. In one very positive review with many kudos, the reviewer also commented that it could also serve as a model in a master class for authors who want to create a series: like all my books, it’s a completely independent story involving the detectives. Casilblanco is finally on vacation in Europe with his wife, and the action stays there. The assassins are terrorists, and the aristocrats are some European royals. Available at Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Grave Expectations. Sandra Gardner, author. (Black Opal Books, 2019) This novel continues in the Carl Hiaasen tradition of the first book in the series, Dead Shrinks Don’t Talk, which I also reviewed. In other words, it’s a serious mystery that’s hilarious at the same time. You will recall that the Dr. Watson for Marabella Vinegar’s Holmes is her ghost-mom. (Or is it the reverse? Ghost-mom has ambitions to be Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher. Dame Angela, who played Ms. Fletcher, is still alive, though.)

The case afoot for our Sherlock incarnation this time is finding out who murdered Marabella’s old neighbor, a crime designed to look like a heart attack. Enter all the old man’s relatives who compete for our disgust and the inheritance involving millions. (Yes, a ubiquitous plot in the mystery literature, but it’s all about how authors put their own twists on that story.) As is often the case in Dame Agatha’s oeuvre (lots of Dames in this review), that dysfunctional, greedy family provides many suspects. Marabella and ghost-mom must figure out which of them did the dirty deed.

The main plot is often hilarious. There are some hilarious side stories too—Marabella’s boyfriend, with his three St. Bernard dogs meeting Zilla the cat, as well as his meeting ghost-mom; girlfriend Toniann’s wedding (Marabella is maid of honor); and coworker Carmen’s legal battle with Li Li, the boyfriend’s assistant. All good fun, and nicely fleshing out the main characters and their foibles.

Detective Rivera also returns. NYPD cops are often gruff and cranky because they’re overworked, but I’d like to see more of him. (Maybe in the next book?) I bet there’s more to his character that readers would like to discover.

My only complaint echoes one in my review of the first book: The ending seemed rushed again. Readers will be having so much fun with the story that they won’t want it to end. Just my perception maybe, because I felt that way.

All in all, this book is a lot of fun amidst its honest portrayal of quirky NYC culture. I sailed through this book with a smile on my face, and that wasn’t there only because of the Jameson. Recommended.

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Comments are always welcome!

The Last Humans. Penny Castro uses her USN search-and-rescue diving skills to become a forensics diver for the LA County Sheriff’s Department. Surfacing from a dive, she finds that she’s one of the few survivors of a biological attack left in the world. Her adventures from that point on illustrate her strong will to survive and protect her adopted family. Coming soon from Black Opal Books!

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas.

Cherubs 2. Marc Liebman, author (Penmore Press, 2017). Numerous historical fiction stories about the Vietnam War portray how this conflict ripped at the fabric of U.S. society ad created mental and physical wounds for those who fought in an unpopular war. This is such a story, and it is a good one.

I confess that I approached it with some trepidation. Most readers won’t be able to approach this novel lightly either. Yes, it’s about SAR (search and rescue for downed aviators, not synthetic aperture radar). Josh Haman, the main character, is a helicopter pilot who works with the U.S. Navy but is slapped around a bit in a rigid organization dominated by old warriors and Naval academy graduates.

But this novel, like all good thrillers, has twists and turns often associated with machinations from China and Russia, two U.S. adversaries who were “backing” the North Vietnamese government (the word is in quotes because the North Vietnamese were being played like puppets just like the U.S. and the French before them did with South Vietnam in the decades-long civil war).

The story is about mettle and heroism pitted against rigidity and political manipulation, from within the armed forces to political machinations on a global scale. It’s historical fiction writ large that goes beyond personal stories, making a thriller that’s an exciting read.

That said, there are some stretches where the narrative dominates and the omniscient POV is overused. For example, I skipped over the description of a long hazing ritual that could have been much shorter.  The plot is a bit jumpy at times too as the reader travels from the local to the global and back, often within the same chapter. Some characters aren’t well-developed either, although the reason is obvious: there are many of them.

Josh Haman’s adventures as a SAR helicopter pilot cover his time as a newbie to his two secret surveillance missions ferrying SEALs into China. If that sounds suicidal, readers can blame the Air Force general who wouldn’t risk his own people to perform the missions and called on the USN to do it for them. Powerful moments are portrayed here. Josh’s confrontation and trial with the coward Higgins is an indictment of a rigidity in the military that non-academy personnel often have to face. Higgins’s father provides the clearest indictment of his son, though: “I don’t like what we’re doing in Vietnam. It is the wrong war with the wrong mission, but anyone who puts up his right hand and takes the oath to serve make a commitment to his country to do his duty.” Amen. (I lost all respect for my fellow citizens who didn’t realize that sacrifice of our service people, treating returning vets terribly during and after that long war. Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson and treat Afghanistan and Iraq veterans better. Politicians are the problem, not soldiers.)

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Reciprocal Evil. Scott Dyson, author (2018). Horror? Romance? Thriller? Fantasy? The reader will also find lots of very interesting philosophical questions in this novel. The premise of this story might make even a priest shudder, although Dante might have had it right: Hell is real. It exists in another dimension, and you can get there via portals that are usually found in churches. That’s never explained in this book, but it’s an interesting concept.

With the title as clue, the reader can guess that heaven is also real, although it’s not as clear how to get there. The novel’s protagonist Chris Jones has become obsessed with the reciprocals good and evil, heaven and hell, and thinks by studying evil and hell that he can understand good and heaven. But he starts hearing a voice in his head from someone who seems to be reading his thoughts, and the voice is not heavenly.

That’s an introduction to the horror. Romance enters when Chris starts getting serious about Rachel. The thrills start when the voice takes on human form. And the adventures that follow, while pure fantasy, are fantastic with a lot of hidden meaning found between the lines.

There are a few nits to pick: Both Rachel and the cop Chavez seem too accepting of Chris’s story; their internal struggle isn’t realistic enough here. The main characters were well done, although I would have liked to see them more developed because they’re so interesting. There’s certainly room for all this; in other words, the author could do a lot more with this interesting tale.

The author with this short novel channels early Stephen King. The plot is direct, elegant, and horrific. It’s also very original—no killer clowns or slighted wannabe prom goers involved here. While I always say that human beings make their own hells on Earth, this novel describes an interesting alternative. Is it a serious one? Readers will have to make that decision on their own as they enjoy this book.

I can’t write horror stories, so take what few negatives I’ve included in this review with a grain of salt. I enjoyed the story; that’s what counts. And, if I could write horror stories, I’d emulate Scott Dyson who seems to have a knack for spinning a good yarn that will challenge readers and make their skin crawl. I’ll be looking for more novels from this writer.

The author provided a free copy of his book for this review.

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Comments are welcome!

Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape. I’ve made some attempts at writing horror and fantasy, all short fiction; modesty aside, they’re not bad. You’ll find a few of them in this collection of speculative fiction. Also a sci-fi novella and several Dr. Carlos stories. (A second volume in this series is available as a free PDF download. See the entire list on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.)

Around the World and to the Stars! In libris libertas!

Most mystery and thriller readers have their own list of novels they remember with fondness. While yours might be different, I want to offer you mine. For younger readers, there are probably some oldies in my list you might have missed and could enjoy. Maybe you’ve heard old geezers like me mention them fondly. In any case, many are classics now. Without further ado, here’s my list in alphabetical order according to author:

Isaac Asimov, The Naked Sun

David Baldacci, Absolute Power

John le Carré, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye (1955)

Lee Child, The Affair

Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Michael Connelly, The Narrows

Jeffery Deaver, Garden of Beasts

Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle (1979)

Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal (1972)

Dashell Hammet, The Maltese Falcon

P. D. James, Death in Holy Orders

Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty

Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity

Robert Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Relic

Ian Rankin, Resurrection Men (2004)

H. Rider Haggard, She

John Sandford, Bad Blood (2011)

Georges Simenon, A Battle of Nerves

With the exception of Sandford’s book, the years indicate when an Edgar Award was rewarded to the novel (Sandford’s is a best thriller award). I haven’t always chosen every author’s Edgar or thriller award novel if there is one because sometimes I don’t consider it the best! And many of the books in my list were unfortunately overlooked by the award committees.

I also should emphasize that most of the writers have authored many more books than the one that appears here for them. Baldacci produces bestseller after bestseller, but the one listed, his first, is his best. Deaver is more famous for his Lincoln Rhyme series, but I also think the one listed is his best. Follett has broadened his horizons, especially to more lengthy historical fiction, but none can beat the one listed here (also historical fiction in a sense and akin to Deaver’s in a way).

Many authors listed here were trailblazers in the genres. Those who followed them have a very big hurdle to leap over. All of these books should be considered classics (assuming snooty critics can ever consider genre fiction novels as classics—they tend to limit themselves only to those books in that catch-all genre “literary fiction”). I’ll admit I might have missed some classic mysteries and thrillers. I can state without reservation that I read every one of these novels and enjoyed them all (and a lot more than these, of course).

Some books here have influenced my own work in the mystery and thriller genres. Hard-boiled mystery writers like Chandler, Hammett, and Parker influenced my “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” but its spin-off, Rembrandt’s Angel, was influenced by Christie (the main characters are a modern version of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, together at last!), and by P. D. James and Ian Rankin. Jame’s Death in Holy Orders influenced my sequel Son of Thunder much more than Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (the latter’s influence was more limited to doing such a story the correct way, without controversy and sloppy historical research).

Any list like this is subjective. You can make your own, but I’d expect at least some overlap.

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Comments are welcome!

Goin’ the Extra Mile. Hot off the press and available on Amazon and Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc). The U.S. made the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”), the Russians stole them, and now the Chinese are after the MECH tech and are willing to kidnap Mary Jo and her family to get it. #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” puts Mary Jo and her MECH friends through the paces as the action and suspense takes the reader from the U.S. to Europe and China, returning to the globe-trotting thrills of the first novel, Muddlin’ Through, which is also now on sale for $0.99 at Smashwords for a short time.

In libris libertas!

Fear. Bob Woodward, author (Simon and Schuster, 2018). I’ve been a Bob Woodward fan since Nixon. Journalists keep politicians honest and the public informed. (Two at the NY Times made a mistake with their Rosenstein/25th Amendment report, but these are few and far between.) Freedom of the press is one of our most important freedoms, and it distinguishes democracies from the ubiquitous authoritarian regimes around the globe.

That said, this book only stands out because other books of the same flavor are not as trustworthy and prone to sensationalize the Trump administration’s scandals (that’s the worst kind of journalism–do we still call it “yellow journalism”?). We have to face the fact that the American people elected Trump. We’re probably stuck with him for four years, and his supporters are certainly hoping for another four. That too is democracy in action. Democracy isn’t the prettiest way to govern the multitudes and run a government, but it’s better than the alternatives.

This isn’t one of Woodward’s best books. First, I didn’t find many surprises here, at least for me. Maybe there’ll be some for people who only watch Fox News (not a fortress for good journalistic practices, by the way–even Trump watches CNN and MSNBC); these people either have their head in the sand, or they’re ardent Trump supporters who think he walks on water (he’s on a mission to ruin the environment, so that water will soon be polluted, I suspect). Oh, my bad! Those people, if they read books, don’t read books like this. (Hey, I’m open-minded; I even watch Fox News—Hannity’s always good for a few laughs—and I read McCain’s book, because he’s a true conservative and American hero, not a “populist” AKA fascist.) But think what you will. It’s still a free country, and I’ll respect your opinion even if it clashes with mine. (I couldn’t be a reader or writer if I didn’t.)

Second, the book has its flaws and ups and downs. There are some nice details, though. Trump running between two White House rooms ranting and raving about Rosenstein’s naming Mueller, Trump acting like a complete psychotic paranoid while yelling, “They’re out to get me!”  (You have to admit that’s funny at least.) Trump not worried about creating more national debt because Mnunchin could just print more money. (He doesn’t understand economics; I’m not sure he even understands real estate. He went bankrupt many times. Maybe he wants to solve our problems by making the country do the same?) Ivanka exploding to the Chief of Staff Kelly that she doesn’t have to report to him because she’s the first daughter. (And she wants to be president? Of course, she was a friend of Chelsea Clinton’s, who seems to have the same aspirations. Infectious mental disease of first daughters?) Tillerson exploding to those who remained in the Pentagon SCIF that Trump is a “f%$&ing moron” (the actual quote doesn’t soften the f-bomb) after Cohn and Mattis and others tried to control him and Trump stomps out.

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