June 2007

Well, the heat is on, and we don't just mean the weather: check out the latest in mystery books here at the Morgue!

This month, you'll see 15 reviews of books from authors like Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Robert Fate and two of Sheila Lowe's latest.  Plus, there's an interview with Shane Gericke, author of the current Cut to the Bone.

It's a perfect excuse to crank up the air conditioning and curl up with a nice, shivery murder.  Enjoy!

In this month's issue:

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Shane Gericke

Reviews:
A Fall From Grace by Robert Barnard
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
The Overlook by Michael Connelly
The Unquiet by John Connolly
Baby Shark by Robert Fate
The Color of Blood by Declan Hughes
Obsession: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman
The Coldest Blood by Jim Kelly
Poison Pen by Sheila Lowe (1)
Poison Pen by Sheila Lowe (2)
Died in the Wool by Rett MacPherson
Covet by Tara Moss
I, Tutus: Citizen of Rome by Don Phillips
Circle of Assassins by Steven Rigolosi
Play Dead by David Rosenfelt

Link to Archives

 

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Shane Gericke

Interview by Gloria Feit

Shane Gericke launched his three-decade writing career in high school, as a $7.50-a-week sportswriter and photographer for the local Frankfort Herald. He liked it so much he never looked back.

He spent 25 years as a journalist, most prominently as a senior financial editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, then switched to writing crime thrillers. His debut, the national bestseller Blown Away, was named Best Debut Mystery of 2006 by Romantic Times Book Reviews, and appears in five languages. His sequel, Cut to the Bone, also from Kensington Publishing, launched worldwide in June. Shane writes for national magazines, is a founding member and charity auction director of International Thriller Writers Inc., a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and Society of Midland Writers, and is a popular speaker at national conferences and book clubs.

Did the area where you grew up influence your present outlook or interests?

Not so much the area, but the circumstances. I grew up forty miles south of Chicago in Frankfort, Illinois. These days it's a hot, upscale suburb, but in 1956, when I was born, it was a farm-service town of several hundred working-class people. My parents, Lee and Mary Gericke, were a traditional 1950s couple—dad a Korean War vet turned suburban policeman, mom a homemaker who sewed, ironed and gardened, both active in Scouts and raising their three children. But they didn't think or act small-town traditional. They were very well read, and instilled that in me and my two sisters, Marianne and Diana. My folks loved knowing about the world. Finding out about people different from themselves. Traveling. Their eyes-open approach to life made me intensely curious about... well, everything. I became a newspaperman because of it, which segued to the thriller writing I do today. I developed a love of learning through observing things and talking with folks, which continues today. Now, my wife Jerrle and I love to read, write, travel, reach beyond our grasp, and down coffee and Scotch with as many interesting people as we can find. Well, I down the Scotch, anyway. She thinks it tastes like medicine.

As to your educational background, have you taken any formal writing courses, participated in any writers' conferences or workshops?

I cut my writing teeth as a journalist. I've been fascinated with newspapers since the second grade, when my teacher Mrs. Feely passed out the purple-ink-mimeographed "newspaper" written by the eighth-graders. I asked why their names were at the top of the stories. She said the names are "bylines," and if I learned to write well enough, perhaps someday I could have one too. I was hooked. I started writing professionally in high school, and became a journalism major in college. To learn the craft and to get a job, and not in that order—those small-town work ethics run deep. Eventually I left newspapers to write thrillers. In that role, I've attended ThrillerFest, Bouchercon, BookExpo America, Love Is Murder, and a number of smaller conventions and writer conferences. (In fact, I'm chairing the author charity auctions at ThrillerFest in New York City in July.) Professional conferences are a terrific place to meet readers and fellow writers, trade industry gossip, and drink the aforementioned Scotch and coffee. In moderation, of course—at 51, too much of either puts me in traction for three days!

When did you become interested in mysteries?

About 100 pounds ago :-) As a kid I loved hiking in the woods, turning over rocks, sneaking into abandoned farmhouses just to see what was there, taking apart the family freezer to find out how it worked. (Sorry, dad—I know you had to put it back together!) Life was a glorious, untamed mystery. The interest in book mysteries developed thanks to my grandmother, who sold cookware for a living but whose soul was reading, painting and singing. She took the train from Chicago to my little hometown of Frankfort every month to spend the weekend. She brought a gift for each of us kids: a Hardy Boys book for me, Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew for my sisters. I couldn't wait to read those thrilling adventures of Frank, Joe and "their father, world-famous detective Fenton Hardy." The language was stilted even by 1950s standards—"And then came Chet, the boys' stout-hearted friend, with the lanky-legged fellow Biff Hooper"—but the stories buzzed my mind more than a math book could ever hope to accomplish. I graduated to Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, then Robert B. Parker's Spenser, then the entire universe of mystery writing.   

What did you try writing before your first novel?

News and sports. My senior year, the editor of the local Frankfort Herald called my principal, looking for someone to write up the sports teams every week. I was editor of the school paper, so the principal recommended me. I met with the Herald editor, who took a liking and offered the princely sum of $30 a month to cover football, basketball and baseball, plus whatever "minor" sports I could squeeze in. I was so thrilled I offered to do it for free. His counter-counsel was extremely wise—"Never do work for free. Establish a proper business relationship." I've remembered that to this day. I worked through college at the school paper, then spent several years at increasingly bigger daily newspapers. Finally, in 1982, at age 26, I got the call to join the Chicago Sun-Times, one of the nation's biggest dailies. Throughout my career I was primarily an editor—a financial editor at the Sun-Times—but on the side wrote all sorts of things: travel, sports, news, features, radio ads, obituaries, photo captions, you name it. Took pictures, too. I live the newspaper life through the Nineties, then put it aside to become a thriller writer. Life's too short to do the same things till you die, so it was time. 

What did you learn writing your debut novel, Blown Away? And the sequel, Cut to the Bone?

I learned the craft of fiction, which is very different from the craft of journalism. Writing books is infinitely harder than doing even the longest newspaper or magazine story. It's a storytelling and story-management world unto itself, and can't really be learned until you plunge in and make your mistakes. So I did. Fortunately, my editor at Kensington, Michaela Hamilton, is both patient and a gifted teacher of us wayward newshawks, so she pointed out what I did right and wrong, and I adjusted. The results pleased me no end. Pleased my readers, too—Blown Away, my first novel, became a national bestseller right after its May, 2006, launch, and was named the year's best debut mystery by Romantic Times Book Reviews. Cut to the Bone, the sequel, comes out worldwide June 5. It plunges deep into one of the most passion-generating issues of our time, the death penalty, and the early reviews are very encouraging. I can't wait to see reader reaction. 

How long did each take to write?

Blown Away took three years, including rewrites. Cut to the Bone, about a year. My publisher wants a book every June, so fans have something to read on their summer vacations. So I want to cut the writing to six-seven months. That allows time to promote the book, attend conventions, meet fans—all the stuff I love to do. Without readers, I'd have to get my day job back and I've grown to like my home office and no boss except me and my editor.

Does your having lived in Illinois and primarily in the Chicago area play any part in your writing?

Yes. I set the books in Naperville, the suburb in which I've lived the past twenty-odd years with my lovely and talented wife, Jerrle. I know the town intimately, and infuse the book with those telling physical details that help drag the reader into the whirlwind life my characters inhabit. Plus I can plug my favorite breakfast hangout, Grandma Sally's … how cool is that?

Have you traveled?  If so, has it contributed to the content of your book?

Widely, and yes. When I was a kid, family vacations meant stuffing ourselves into the station wagon and hitting the road. We saw most of the United States that way, particularly over the course of several month-long drives to California and back. Jerrle and I have visited Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada, Israel, France and the Caribbean, and many parts of America. Traveling contributes indirectly to all my books, by exposing me to new people, customs, attitudes and lives. That primes the idea pump tremendously.

How do you do your research?

I keep my eyes open. If I want to know how the pumps work at a gasoline station, I go down to the local Amoco and watch awhile. Then make friends with the manager and get the expert take. I watch people in restaurants, on the street, in theaters and supermarkets, observing behavior. How people dress. How they yell at their kids. Everything. I use the Internet for "hard" information like city maps, spelling of names, all that. It's quick and easy, and I don't have to find a parking slot at the city library.

Where did you get the idea for each of your books?

It bubbles up from the ether. I read three daily newspapers along with most anything else I can get my hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes—all that riboflavin and B-12!—and talk to people in the course of my day. I watch TV and movies. Listen to music. It all goes in the mixmaster of my size-eight head, and eventually the ideas just spark out of my ears. My job is to translate the sparks into a form people can enjoy. Sparks hurt their eyes too much.

When you create a character, how much of that character comes from your personal experience?  Are your characters just an extension of your own life and are their experiences from your own life, or are they completely fictional?

All my characters are infused with fragments of me and people I know. That said, the characters are not cleverly disguised clones of real people—Emily, Marty, Cross, Branch, Annie and all the rest are total figments of my imagination. They have teir own personalities, morals and reasons to exist. Mighty active personalities, too, as they keep me awake sometimes with their adventures. But that's cool—who wants dull friends?

Who are the writers whose work you most admire, and who perhaps have influenced your writing?

John Sandford and his Prey series is my No. 1 favorite. His work is so seamless, and characters so memorable—I want to meet him someday and tell him so. Lee Child and Robert B. Parker are ravin' faves, as is Gayle Lynds, the espionage writer. John J. Nance, the aviation thriller specialist. Douglas Preston. Michael Connelly. Brad Meltzer. John Lutz. Alex Kava and her FBI series. Stephen Hunter. Robert Fate. Mickey Spillane. For thrillers less hard-boiled (but no less satisfying), Laura Lippman, Julie Hyzy and Paul Levine. Erik Larson and William Langewiesche in nonfiction, as reporters who write like thriller writers are a gift from above. And finally, I can't fail to mention Franklin W. Dixon, who "wrote" the Hardy Boys series. They were my first mysteries, and you simply can't forget your first love, can you?

 

Reviews

A Fall From Grace
by Robert Barnard
Scribner
ISBN: 074327220X
Hardcover, 272 pages, $24
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Inspector Charlie Peace and his wife Felicity receive word that her father wishes to speedily move with or near them and will assist them financially toward purchasing a new home. The reason for this generosity is discovered after they move into their new residences: It seems the father had to beat a hasty departure from his old place when gossip exposed him as possibly having been too close to a young girl.

An egotistical but mediocre novelist, the father is surrounded by females eager to provide him with all kinds of services, like cleaning, and adulation in the new town. Soon he is observed as having a relationship with a precocious 15-year-old girl, and the Peaces wonder if it is déjà vu all over again. Neither thinks there is anything sexual about the relationship, but rumors abound.

Shortly, the old man is found at the bottom of a quarry. Accident or murder? Charlie, of course, can't be involved in the investigation, but in his own way unofficially looks into the matter, resulting in a conclusion completely unexpected.

The story is constructed with subtlety, with a couple of sub-plots that contribute to the solution of the mystery.  Fall From Grace is a delight to read.

Bad Luck and Trouble
By Lee Child
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0385340559
Hardcover, 384 pages, $26
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The startling opening pages of Bad Luck and Trouble, the new Jack Reacher book by Lee Child, has a man with two broken legs being loaded onto a helicopter and very shortly thereafter being dropped to his death from a height of 3,000 feet to the California desert floor.

Jack Reacher, 6'5", 250 lbs., thirteen years in the military and ex-MP, the enigmatic protagonist of this series, is contacted by a former colleague, Frances Neagley, now working for a private security provider.  It appears that the dead man was someone they both knew and had worked with, also a former M.P. and a part of Reacher's Special Investigations Unit.  Reacher's reaction to the news of his death: "You don't throw my friends out of helicopters and live to tell the tale." The unit's old catchphrase is revitalized:  "You do not mess with the special investigators," and it becomes a mantra.

Opening a new Jack Reacher book is like seeing an old and treasured albeit somewhat scary friend; I started reading Bad Luck and Trouble with a smile on my face in happy anticipation, and the author did not disappoint.  This is Reacher as we know and love him, and at his best.  The book is wonderfully well-written and –plotted, and though I saw one plot twist coming from a long way off it was no less enjoyable for that.  I could not put this book down—well, I could, but I really didn't want to.

Highly recommended.

The Overlook
by Michael Connelly
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316018953
Hardcover, 240 pages, $21.99
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

In this latest installment in the life of Harry Bosch he is no longer handling cold cases.  He is now assigned to the LAPD's Homicide Special Squad, and gets his first murder case.  The victim is found in the hills above Los Angeles with two bullet holes in the back of his head, an apparent gangland execution.

However, all is not as it seems.  The victim had access to highly dangerous radioactive material, and the FBI steps in on the premise that it is terrorist-related.  As a result, Harry is shunted aside from his own homicide case.  Complicating matters is the presence of his onetime lover, FBI agent Rachel Walling.  But Harry Bosch, being Harry Bosch, goes his own way to solve the case while breaking in a new partner.

Originally written as a 16-part weekly series for The New York Times Magazine, this hardcover version was fleshed out with new material and a character that wasn't present in the original version.  Even if you read it in installments, it would be rewarding to read this newly-published version.

Highly recommended.

The Unquiet
by John Connolly
Atria Books
ISBN: 0743298934
Hardcover, 432 pages, $25.95
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Unreal elements as the story describes are essential to the author's continuing saga of his protagonist, PI Charlie Parker, and his encounters with the world of pure evil.  This eerie and chilling tale of child pornography and molestation combines mystery, violence and murder into a gripping story.

Initially, a woman asks Parker to protect her from a stalker.  From this simple task, his assignment expands.  The stalker is a professional killer whose daughter has disappeared.  She was the patient of a renowned child psychiatrist, the client's father, who also disappeared.  Was there a connection?

From that point, Parker is drawn into a more complex situation, still haunted by his own ghosts—the loss of his first wife and child and the apparent breakup of his second marriage.  From this web we find him drawn into a history of atrocities against children by a group of men at a place known as Gilead in northern Maine.

As in previous installments in the adventures of Charlie Parker, the writing is crisp, the plot tight and the conclusion totally unexpected.

Baby Shark
by Robert Fate
Capital Crime Press
ISBN: 0977627691
Paperback, 270 pages, $14.95
Reviewed by Kevin R. Tipple

From time to time for months now, I have been reading on various lists how great this book was and that it was a must read. Well, that was fine and all that, but my local library wasn't carrying it. Then, I was offered an opportunity to receive a review copy of this one as well as the planned sequel. I jumped at the chance and am very glad I did. For once, the hype matches the book.

It is October, 1952 as this often violent crime novel opens in Henry Chin's Poolroom situated in West Texas.  Seventeen year old Kristin "Baby" Van Dijk is there with her father, a pool hustler.  With her mom dead and her aunt living up in Oklahoma, it's pretty much her, her dad, and her dad's Coupe de Ville as they travel Texas with her dad playing pool for money and reading books for fun.  That is until members of the "Lost Demons" motorcycle gang walk in.

When it's over, her dad is dead, Henry Chin's son is dead, a couple gang members are dead, and Kristin has been raped repeatedly and brutally beaten.  Her jaw is broken, teeth are missing, ribs are cracked, her nose is broken and the list keeps going on and on.  She was lucky she lived through it and waking up in the hospital in Abilene makes her almost wish she hadn't.  Then she meets Detective Hansard and it is pretty much clear that the case is going to go nowhere.  As Henry puts it, "No police justice.  Henry knows more ways one skin cat."

Author Robert Fate launches the reader into a revenge tale that is so much more than simple revenge.  Kristin who rehabs and follows her dad's career path as a pool hustler quickly earning the name "Baby Shark" is not a stereotypical vigilante.  Yes, there are elements of that sort of thing in her character, but as he does with all the characters in this fast moving novel, author Robert Fate shows the other side of her.  Revenge, retaliation, payback, call it what you will, it has consequences often in unexpected ways and he grippingly details that side of it for the reader.

In a torturous and violence filled path that goes back and forth across West Texas and reaches into Forth Worth and Dallas, author Robert Fate weaves a complex trail of not only revenge, but duplicity and mystery.  While the opening may be cut and dried between the black hats and the white hats, it isn't long before nothing is that simple.  The result is a powerful, often violent novel that does actually live up to the media hype.

The Color of Blood
by Declan Hughes
William Morrow
ISBN: 0060825499
Hardcover, 341 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

There have been a plethora of mysteries featuring a tough-guy PI.  And just as many involving a dysfunctional family.  This novel, the author's second in the series and well worth reading, combines the two themes.

Ed Loy, after 25 years living in Los Angeles, is now in Dublin.  He is retained by a rich dentist who has received a blackmail note along with a set of compromising pornographic pictures of his missing daughter.  In the wake of his investigation, Loy encounters several murders, in one of which the victim is the dentist's wife.  The latter's sister also retains Loy when his original client becomes the chief suspect.

The author weaves a complicated tale of the family's history, including concealed murders and secrets beginning 20 years earlier, links to gangsters and unsavory characters and twisted minds.  Threaded throughout this noir story is an Irish background combined with suspense and some unusual writing.

Recommended.

Obsession: An Alex Delaware Novel
by Jonathan Kellerman
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345452634
Hardcover, 368 pages, $26.95
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Avid fans of Kellerman's Alex Delaware books will be thrilled with Obsession, the seventeenth entry in the series. Readers who have heard about the series but have never tried one of the books will also be pleased as this book is an excellent book introduction to the world of Dr. Alex Delaware. While all of the regular characters are back, Alex's love interest Robin is barely seen so knowing long history of their relationship isn't necessary, something that makes it much easier for readers new to the series.  Alex's close friend Detective Milo Sturgis plays a major role in this book and Milo's life partner, Rick Silverman, is seen more than usual in Obsession.

Patti Bigelow stepped in and raised her niece, Tanya, when it became necessary, was a well respected, hard worker in a busy ER, and by all accounts was a wonderful person. However, as she lay dying, she confessed to Tanya that she had done a terrible thing in the past. Since both Tanya and Patti had seen Dr. Alex Delaware professionally after Tanya came to live with her aunt, it was only natural that Patti would urge Tanya to call Alex and ask him to help her. Alex then goes to his friend homicide Detective Milo Sturgis and his life partner Rick Silverman for help. Rick, a doctor in the hospital where Patti worked, was instrumental in getting her the best treatment available during her illness. He had worked with her for years and has a difficult time imaging Patti doing anything terribly wrong. Milo though, as a cop, realizes things are not always as they seem. So with very little to go on except the addresses of where Patti and Tanya have lived over the years, Alex and Milo set out to discover what Patti's deathbed confession was about.

As Alex and Milo try to uncover what the mystery crime, questions are raised about Patti's life. They wonder why she moved so often and why she chose, with a young child, to live in some of the seedy neighborhoods they found. There are several unsavory characters with links to Patti as well as the large amount of money she had saved-too much money for a nurse.

I believe this is the best Jonathan Kellerman book in several years. The seemingly model citizen dying after having confessed to an unknown crime pulls the reader into the story quickly. The pace of the writing while Alex and Milo are searching for answers is remarkable. The reader is pulled along through an increasingly twisted path of clues right with Alex and Milo. The suspense continues to rise making it a very difficult book to put down. Obsession should be high on many reading lists this summer.

The Coldest Blood
by Jim Kelly
St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN: 0312364784
Hardcover, 342 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Philip Dryden is a former reporter for a Fleet Street paper who is now spending his days reporting for a small town tabloid style paper. His fall in status came as a result of a car accident that left his wife in a coma and himself unwilling to drive himself about anymore. Although these details of Dryden's life are alluded to in this book, unless the reader has read some of the previous entries in the series, the reader is bound to be somewhat confused by some aspects of Dryden's personal life.

As I started reading The Coldest Blood, the fourth book featuring Philip Dryden, I was pulled instantly into the dark and cold setting of the book. Kelly uses language so well, that the reader is transported immediately into Dryden's investigations. The book opens with a flashback to a horrific death in a boys' summer camp in August of 1971. The book then skips forward 31 years and finds Dryden battling the worst cold spell the area has experienced for years. Dryden is working on a feature story about the abuse cases being filed against a now shuttered Catholic orphanage. Dryden is also asked to cover the death of Declan McIlroy, an eccentric man who apparently died of exposure after having passed out drunk with all of his windows and doors open. There are things about the man's house that makes Dryden wonder if perhaps Declan was murdered and so he starts investigating. In the meantime, Declan's friend, Joe Smith apparently drowns after falling and breaking his leg. Before long, Dryden has found a connection between not only the two men, but also to the story on the orphanage he was researching. As the reader follows Philip Dryden through the case, the reader can't help but think of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield or Oliver Twist because of the language used to describe the orphanage and to set the bleak atmosphere of the book. 

Kelly has created memorable characters that leave the reader wanting more. Dryden's personality comes through to the reader a little bit at a time throughout the series. Humph, the cabbie with the greyhound living in the backseat is unequaled as a sort of side kick to Dryden. The very complex relationship of Philip to his wife Laura, her accident and recovery leave the reader feeling the pain along with Dryden and his wife. In fact, so real was the situation with Laura's medical situation, that I had a tough time not abandoning the book briefly to look up more information on comatose patients.

While fans of Kelly's series will be pleased with this book, new readers would be advised that reading at least one of the previous books in the series first will make this book more enjoyable.

 

Poison Pen
by Sheila Lowe
Capital Crime Press
ISBN: 0977627608
Paperback, 288 pages, $14.95
Reviewed by Suzanne Epstein

Claudia Rose is a recognized expert in graphology, the scientific analysis of handwriting. She is often hired to authenticate suspected forgeries or to analyze the personalities of people based on their handwriting. Her former close friend Lindsey, a high-profile Hollywood publicist, has died and the police have ruled it a suicide. But Lindsey's business partner, Ivan, asks Claudia to look at the note left with the body to determine if Lindsey actually wrote it.

Lindsey had a reputation for ruthlessness and even cruelty, which is why Claudia had not seen her for many years. But the block printed note looked suspicious, and Claudia was up for the challenge. When she goes to Lindsey's apartment to meet Ivan and look for handwriting samples for comparison, she arrives to find Ivan brutally beaten. This development plunges Claudia into an investigation that leads to some very dark and devious corners of Lindsey's life.

The attack on Ivan brings police involvement, in the form of LAPD Detective Joel Jovanic. While Claudia continues to focus on Lindsey's death, sparks fly between the two of them, and he allows her to assist in discovering what motive might have led to the assault. Lindsey had some very powerful, high profile clients with secrets they wouldn't want revealed.

Lowe is a real-life handwriting expert, with over thirty years of experience. She has been consulted in criminal cases, and has written books and software related to the field. She uses this expertise to give Claudia a very credible status and a particular approach to the investigation. Surprisingly, the book took some very unexpected turns into the darker realms of the human psyche. But Lowe handled it skillfully and produced a very commendable first novel.

 

Poison Pen
by Sheila Lowe
Capital Crime Press
ISBN: 0977627608
Paperback, 288 pages, $14.95
Reviewed by Sue Trowbridge

Mystery readers have encountered so many amateur sleuths in unlikely professions lately, from feng shui experts to blacksmiths to sudoku puzzle creators, that you'd be forgiven for thinking no one could possibly come up with a fresh twist on the genre. But here's Sheila Lowe, a real-life handwriting expert and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis, giving us an exciting new heroine—Claudia Rose, who, like her creator, makes her living by detecting the hidden personality traits in people's scribblings. "Full lower loops in the cursive writing: healthy sex drive," she notes about the handsome detective investigating a murder case.

An old nemesis of Claudia's, Hollywood publicist extraordinaire Lindsey Alexander, has been found dead in her hot tub, and while the police initially think it's a suicide, her business partner begs to differ, and asks Claudia to help investigate. There's no shortage of suspects; everyone seemed to hate the ruthless Lindsey. Refreshingly, Lowe makes the dead woman more than just a straight-up villain—we learn about her complicated and troubled past, which shaped the person she became.

Like many amateur gumshoes, Claudia takes some foolish chances, but on the whole, she's a likable and tenacious investigator whose profession gives her unique insights into suspects' motivations. Sensitive readers should be advised, however, that the book is R-rated; Lindsey was into some rather kinky stuff, and we get a lot of the sordid details. It's not gratuitous—everything's relevant to the case—but Claudia's L.A. is a long, long way from St. Mary Mead.

 

Died in the Wool
by Rett MacPherson
St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN: 0312362218
Hardcover, 226 pages, $23.95
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Torie O'Shea lives in the small town of New Kassel, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.  Small town life is rarely boring for Torie and she finds herself mixed up in yet another set of mysterious events in MacPherson's tenth book of the series.  The story revolves around the Kendall house, an historic home that belonged to a prominent family in the 1920's and is now rumored to be haunted.  Everyone in town knows that the three Kendall children; Glory, Whalen and Rupert, committed suicide while living in the house, but no one really knows the story behind the tragic events. 

Torie decides to buy the Kendall home when it goes on the market in order to turn it into a textile museum to display many of Glory Kendall's beautifully handmade quilts.  But before this can happen, Torie feels compelled to solve the mystery of the three suicides.  She is troubled by the thought of what could drive these children to end their own lives and starts digging into the past.  What she finds are dark family secrets that have been buried for years and lives torn apart by events she cannot understand.

The book is a quick and easy read.  At times the writing seems a bit simple, but the story keeps your attention and the conclusion was satisfying.  MacPherson's characters are not pretentious and her plot is straightforward.  A good choice if you're looking for something cozy to pass the time.

Covet
by Tara Moss
Dorchester Publishing
ISBN: 0843958480
Paperback, 384 pages, $7.99
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

In her third thriller, after Fetish and Split, Tara Moss has brought back Makedde ("Mak") Vanderwall, a model and psychology student from Vancouver, B.C., and has brought that protagonist back to Sydney, Australia (where the author makes her home).  When she was on assignment in that city in Fetish, she became the target of a man dubbed the Stiletto killer, who was responsible for the death of her best friend, in the course of which she met and fell in love with Andy Flynn, the detective assigned to investigate the serial murders and who was her rescuer.  In Covet, she has returned to Sydney to testify at the trial for murder of the sadist who had kidnapped and tortured Mak, and is reunited with Andy. 

The book opens with a chilling prologue describing a completely unrelated murder, committed in a frighteningly detached manner, introducing the reader to the macabre world of Tara Moss' creation.  And the reader soon becomes horrifyingly aware of how this new killer is connected with the main story line and the serial killer at its center.  I hesitate to give any more of the plot for fear of giving away any spoilers, but suffice it to say that the book is page-turning and suspenseful, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Mak's plans after obtaining her Ph.D. include practicing as a clinical forensic psychologist, and one can look forward to future books depicting her in that profession.  Having missed this author's earlier books featuring this complex and sympathetic protagonist, I look forward to following her in novels yet to come.  The word "spinetingling" has been used often before, but it perfectly describes Covet.  Yet the book is much more than that—Tara Moss tells a helluva good story.

Recommended.

I, Tutus: Citizen of Rome  
by Don Phillips
PublishAmerica  
ISBN: 1413759335
Paperback, 305 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

Tutus Indomitus Minimus is the last of a series of names belonging to an engaging pug that began life in ancient China in the first book by Don Phillips that details the life and times of ancient peoples through the eyes of a dog.  At the beginning of I, Tutus, the pug has no name among the Scythians she finds herself living with.  She belongs to the warrior, Scottis, and is tended by a blinded Greek slave named Polybius. The pug is capable of making a loud howl, which gets her the name of Screaming Goat. 

Screaming Goat reacts to the first rumblings of an earthquake and sets up a howl which is taken as a warning sign by the Scythians and results in many of their number moving out of the way of an avalanche, thus saving their lives. Screaming Goat is thereafter prized by the Scythians and looked to as a good omen until they engage in a battle with the Romans. The Scythians are routed and Screaming Goat and Polybius are taken by the Romans. The pug is unlike any dog the Romans are familiar with and she becomes the toast of Rome, eventually being invested with Roman citizenship and acquiring the name, Tutus.

Throughout the novel, the reader experiences first the Scythians and later the Romans through the senses of the pug.  The story is engagingly told without making the dog into a pseudo human. People talk to her and interpret her sounds and actions as having human relevance, but her thoughts are strictly those of a dog. 

The story unfolds during the reign of Augustus among the nobles who indulge in many of the excesses of that period and yet long for the Republic that has been lost. There is action as well including treason and Roman trails and games.  Mr. Phillips has done extensive research (some of which is included in his endnotes) and  the world of Tutus comes vividly to life. It is interesting, however, that though Tutus is consistently referred to as female, whenever the gender has not been mentioned for a while, one slips into feeling that the pug is male.  This is not a serious problem. Tutus' gender is not a factor in the plot and does not cause any real problems for the reader.

I, Tutus is a fun read that tosses quite a lot of history painlessly into the bargain.

 

Circle of Assassins
by Steven Rigolosi
Ransom Note Press
ISBN: 0977378748
Paperback, 256 pages, $13.95
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Circle of Assassins is the second in a series entitled Tales from the Back Page, which has as its starting off point the stories behind ads placed on what is called The Bulletin Board on the back page of The Clarion, a fictional community paper published on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  The first in the series was entitled Who Gets the Apartment? and revolves around four strangers, each conned into renting a luxury penthouse apartment.  Of course, the person offering to rent did not own the apartment in question, and the story dealt with how each one resolved the situation. This time around, there are five strangers involved, and in a tale reminiscent of Strangers on a Train, they each agree to kill someone chosen by another member of the "Circle," and in return have a stranger murder a victim of his/her choice, no one member knowing the identity of any other.  It would seem a perfect way to avoid having any physical evidence coming back to point at the one who has selected the victim, and to have a valid alibi as well, since that person would in fact have had nothing to do with the actual deed.  Intriguing premise indeed.

It's a fascinating postulate: which of us, reading that ad and that proposition, might not at least hesitate, just for a second, and consider it? The author provides an interesting take on the supposition that "murder is something that happens to someone else." We are told, and shown, that "someone may be plotting your murder as you read the book." Then everything takes a startling turn.

I have to admit I had to jump back and forth with some regularity as the book explores the minds of those on both ends of this equation to figure out who is the intended victim of which Circle member, the p.o.v., and so forth, which was a bit disconcerting.  This was perhaps the author's intent and designed to keep the reader off balance.  Be that as it may, ultimately it was the unexpected twists and turns that kept me hooked.

There are two more planned Tales From the Back Page, and I look forward to reading them.

 

Play Dead
by David Rosenfelt
Warner Books
ISBN: 0446582417
Hardcover, 320 pages, $24.99
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

It's a dog's life—literally.  In the latest Andy Carpenter case, the discovery of a dog supposedly drowned by a man who allegedly murdered his fiancée in a boat four miles off the Jersey shore during a major storm begins to turn the tide.  Attorney Andy finds the dog in a shelter days before it was to be put down and it turns out to be the missing canine, five years after the event.  Its master was convicted of the murder, and the supposedly missing dog was said in the trial to be demonstrative of the "perpetrator's" callousness.

Proving the dog's existence and ownership gets the man a new trial, and, typically, Andy and his team go about investigating the case in an effort to prove his client's innocence.  Along the way, of course, Andy continues his long-distance romance with Laurie, his former investigator/lover, who now is a police chief in Wisconsin.

As usual in the series, Andy pushes the limits of the law—in this case initially having the dog "testify" in open court—as well as resorting to various tricks to forward the cause.  The customary humor abounds in this entertaining novel.