March 2006

Don't look now, but... Spring is almost here!

Of course, here in the Morgue, we don't notice things like weather, or a fresh scent in the air, or the first flowers of the season about to bloom.  Nah.  We have more pressing matters to consider.  This month, for example, we have 23 mystery book reviews, from authors like Robert Crais, David Skibbins, Debbi Mack and many more.

But there's also a fascinating interview with actress/director/author Gammy Singer, who tells us about her influences, her love of character and her new novel, Down and Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale, continuing the story of Amos Brown begun in A Landlord's Tale.

And there's our ongoing tag team murder mystery, Murder By Committee, which this month adds its 22nd chapter, this time written by Denise Hamilton, author of the Eve Diamond series.  Don't expect much to be explained, but there's plenty of action!

There's something for everyone at the Morgue this month!

In this month's issue:

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Gammy Singer

Reviews:
False Impression, by Jeffrey Archer
Out of Order, by Charles Benoit
Dangerous Depths: An Underwater Investigation, by Kathy Brandt
The Two Minute Rule, by Robert Crais
Dead Roots, by Nancy J. Cohen
Foolish Undertaking, by Mark de Castrique
Slow Burn, by Julie Garwood
Cocaine Blues: A Phryne Fisher Mystery, by Kerry Greenwood
Speak of the Devil, by Richard Hawke
Witch Cradle, by Kathleen Hills
Scent To Her Grave, by India Ink
The Ghost and the Dead Deb, by Alice Kimberly
Better Read Than Dead, by Victoria Laurie
Fruit of the Poisoned Tree, by Joyce and Jim Lavene
The Deep Blue Alibi, by Paul Levine
Identity Crisis, by Debbi Mack
Riders Down, by John McEvoy
Jamaica Me Dead, by Bob Morris
High Priestess, by David Skibbins
A Killer Collection, by J. B. Stanley
Two Trains Running, by Andrew Vachss
Desert Run, by Betty Webb
Kill Me, by Stephen White

Ongoing Story:
"Murder By Committee," Chapter 22, by Denise Hamilton

Link to Archives

 

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Gammy Singer

Authors are storytellers, of course, but so are actors and directors.  Gammy Singer, with a distinguished career in the theatre and film as an actress and director, first told a story in prose form in last year's A Landlord's Tale, which introduced Amos Brown, who inherited two Harlem apartment buildings from the father he never knew.  The book got Gammy immediate attention as a crafty and talented writer, and was optioned by actor Laurence Fishburne to become a motion picture.  Now, Gammy and Amos are back, in Down and Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale, which continues the story and gives Amos more problems to solve.  In this interview, Singer discusses the writers she finds most appealing, how her writing is like Charles Dickens' and what comes next for Amos and his growing cast of supporting characters.

How has your career as an actress and director helped you in preparing to write mystery fiction?

After working many years as a professional actor and director, may I say that some things about stories I know to the core of my bones.  I've spent years analyzing characters and stories, and I guess I'm like many others who have changed to a new profession—we have "transferable skills."  Of course, that knowledge didn't automatically render me the greatest writer, but I would say it put me at least on par with other writers experience-wise.   I began to realize this when I returned to school to get my masters degree in writing.  At the beginning, I felt quite out of place, like a total neophyte, compared to the other writers in the program who had been writing all their lives, or at least, writers who had been doing it for very much longer time than myself.  But I began to recognize that I knew some things as evidenced by what I put down on paper.  Let's just say I took to writing like a duck to water.  It was a smooth transition, and I'm grateful for my own particular past experiences.   Nothing is a mistake; we're led to where we're meant to go.

With A Landlord's Tale, did you immediately conceive of the story as the first in a series?  Did you have story ideas ready for subsequent installments?

Yes, to the first question.  No, to the second.  Only vague possibilities drifted through my mind.  I knew that the setup lent itself to a multiplicity of stories.  There could always be more stories as more characters flowed in and out of the landlord's life.  I also knew A Landlord's Tale was very adaptable to film, and whether subconsciously or not, some things I sequenced like a film.

Your protagonist, Amos Brown, seems to have some bad luck following him around.  Do you see this as a form of penance?  Does Amos need to work through his difficulties to achieve peace?

Hey, I plan to never let Amos Brown have any peace.  What's the fun of that?  Turmoil and conflict—ain't that what it's all about?    In the back of Amos' mind, however, lurks the "sins of the fathers" theme—with Amos wanting to break the cycle.

How have the characters developed for your new book, Down and Dirty: Another Landlord's Tale?

I sit down to write and the characters visit me.  I don't know what they are—they just show up and start dictation.  I understand how the book will end, and shortly after the characters arrive, I give them problems, and then we just try to resolve all these things by the end of the book!  (I was asked to outline in school, but unfortunately, was never able to do it—it's this organic issue that actors are plagued with.

How do you think the surroundings in Harlem add to the stories you tell?

My stories are as much about Harlem as anything else.  Harlem is not just a place.  It's an attitude, a history, a sociology which very much impacts the lives of the characters in my book—most especially, Amos Brown.

Why mystery novels?  Are you a fan of the genre, and who are your favorite authors?

I'm a total fan of the genre—in elementary school I devoured Nero Wolfe novels and Charlie Chan mysteries.  As an adult, my tastes ran to legal thrillers and courtroom stuff, and now, as a writer meeting other mystery writers I'm exposed to many people's work and generally enjoy most of what I read—or I don't read it.  But I love Amy Tan, Charles Dickens, Elmore Leonard, Steinbeck.  And frankly, I think my writing is closest to Dickens, believe it or not. 

I enrolled in school—they told me to name my genre.  I read mysteries, so I picked the mystery genre.  My first desire, however, was to write screenplays, but I couldn't find a program that would allow me to travel as an actor and still enroll in school.  Well, I found a part distance-learning, part-residency program that suited me.  It was a genre-based program, and I thought, well, I'll learn to write first and then I'll just adapt that knowledge to writing screenplays.  Of course I fell in love with novel writing and now, I am less than lukewarm about writing screenplays.  Everybody and their mother is walking around Hollywood toting a screenplay under their arm.  I think what I did is better.  I wrote a book, got it optioned by Laurence Fishburne's Gypsy Cinema productions—way easier.

What's the status of the film version of A Landlord's Tale?  

The sequence is option/ Fishburne gets the money and packages it/ principal photography starts and I get paid.   Or not.  That's what the option is all about.  Many books are optioned, few make it to film.  Of course, I'm certain that my novel will be made into a film.  <smile> But it's a waiting game and right now, I'm waiting.

Your sense of humor is evident in the books.  Do you see this as a natural element of a mystery story, or do you think it needs to be "grafted on" to the plot?

My humorous voice seems to come out of me naturally.  I'm writing what I hope will be a suspenser, if not a thriller, and that voice keeps cropping  up—I'm not sure how that will change what kind of novel it turns out to be.   I don't add humor in, it comes out of who the characters are.  For me, all my action, humor and plot stems from character.

What's your writing routine like?

Bad.  Bad.  I have no routine.  I wish I could do that. I do set goals though, so many pages a week, month, etc.

Do you plan further installments in Amos' story?  How about books outside the series?

Yes.  Until I dry up.  After my suspenser??—another Amos story.

Are you working as an actor or director now, or does writing take all your time now?

I'm working some as an actor, but I have to say, promoting a book takes lots of time and energy, and I'm at the place where a woman can't serve two masters.  It's been very hard for me to do both.  I still haven't retired the crown—I go out on auditions still, I try to keep up on the industry, I still hang out with my actor friends, I'm still paying dues to the three actors' unions but I see myself referred to more and more as a "writer."  If it isn't yourself limiting yourself,  other people seem to want to do it for you—by clopping you down in one single category—good for labeling and pigeonhole-ing and such. (People have never understood I'm Superwoman.)

 

Reviews

False Impression

by Jeffrey Archer
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover, 384 pages, $27.95
ISBN: 0312353723
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

It is 8:00 a.m., September 11, 2001, and Dr. Anna Petrescu is being fired in the office of the chairman of the bank for which she has worked for a year.  The office is on a high floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  She is about to enter the elevator to leave the building when it is struck by the airplane.  Although she walks down the stairs and escapes alive, she is presumed missing and dead.  And the next two weeks are even more fraught with danger.

Anna is fired for advising the bank's client, a titled Englishwoman, how to sell a valuable Van Gogh and pay off the bank.  Unfortunately this suggestion doesn't fit in with the chairman's plan to acquire the painting personally and liquidate the estate.  Unbeknownst to Anna, Lady Wentworth was murdered on 9/10, a plot similar to one successfully accomplished by the chairman several times previously to acquire a Monet, among other valuables.

For the next weeks, Anna travels to London, where she steals the Van Gogh, to Bucharest, Tokyo, back to Bucharest and on to London, while a hired assassin and an FBI agent doggedly tail her—the G-man not sure whether she's in on the plot, the murderer's assignment to retrieve the painting and finish Anna off.

The relentless march of events, with twists and turns that boggle the mind, finally unfold, but not before a really exciting finish.  Once you start, you'll race along with Anna right to the end.

 

Out of Order
by Charles Benoit
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 234 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 1590582527
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Jason Talley, a simple kind of fellow, processes mortgages in Corning, NY, and leads a humdrum life, dining once a week with his Indian neighbors—until they are found dead.  The night before, Sriram Sundaram asks Jason to hold a sari for him until the next day, when he plans to take it back to India as a gift to his mother.  The deaths are listed as murder-suicide.

With a two-week vacation coming up, Jason uncharacteristically books a package tour to India with the purpose of delivering the sari to Sriram's mother.  The first day, he meets a lovely Canadian girl with a passion for trains also on the package tour.  Disillusioned with the tour, she bargains for a refund for herself and Jason and whisks him away on a train.  And the adventures begin.

Jason is stabbed, shot at and otherwise harassed traveling throughout India, while uncovering snippets of Sriram's past.  It is a tale well-told and the local color excellent.  Jason finds himself in a series of unexpected circumstances far from his former well-ordered life.  Little by little we learn of duplicity and treachery among Sriram's former business partners in India.  And thereby hangs the tale, which is fascinating, well-written and exciting.

Dangerous Depths: An Underwater Investigation
by Kathy Brandt
Signet
Paperback, 262 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0451214935
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

The story begins with an explosion.  The boat on which Hannah's friend, Elyse, lives had just blown up.  Hannah dives into to water, desperately trying to find her friend.  Elyse is brought out of the water unconscious and taken to the hospital.  Everyone starts, including Hannah's boss write the explosion off as an accident, the result of leaking propane gas on the boat.  Hannah doesn't believe it and sets out to find out who tried to kill her friend.  Hannah is well suited to the task as a diver with the Tortola Police Department in the British Virgin Islands. 

As in any good mystery, the problem is to find out who could have wanted to harm Elyse and why.  Suspects abound.  Elyse is an outspoken environmentalist, currently working to preserve sea turtles and sea turtle habitat on the islands.  But if another problem crops up, such as charter boats destroying coral reefs with their anchors, she speaks out about that as well.  Among the people who might have wanted her dead are Amos Porter, who gravel pit's run-off water is polluting the pristine tropical waters, and Jergens, the loud and foul mouthed owner of a charter boat company whose boats are tearing up the coral.  Meanwhile, just to make things more interesting, someone is robbing the boats of wealthy tourists at anchorages all around the islands.

Ms. Brandt has a thorough-going knowledge of scuba diving and is shows in the wonderful detail with which she enriches her story.  Anyone who is a diver will be well pleased to go down to the depths with Hannah, and readers who have never dived will enjoy the vicarious experience.  The book is peopled with a wonderful array of characters from all the diverse walks of life that inhabit the islands. 

In addition to the human drama of Dangerous Depths, Kathy Brandt brings us the story of the sea turtles—some of their natural history and both the dangers they face and the attempts of those who care to save them and their habitat from destruction.  This part of the story is done with a gentle hand, portraying both the concerns of the environmentalists and the islanders who have for centuries depended on harvesting sea turtles as an important part of their economy.

All the rich detail is presented without interfering with the main justification for the book, a well-crafted mystery that will satisfy the requirements of any knowledgeable mystery reader.  I highly recommend it. 

The Two Minute Rule
by Robert Crais
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, 325 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0743281616
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Lest you think that the title refers to sports (as I did), let me correct that: it refers to the time before the cops show up at a robbery, within which time the bank robber can safely complete his task and get away.  The tension in this novel is present from the first paragraph, as 2 men are about to attempt a bank robbery, something they've done successfully many times before, but they ignore the 2-minute rule, to their peril, and both are killed in the ensuing shootout.

Max Holman, a career criminal, is 46 years old and has just been released from prison after serving just over ten years for bank robbery. He is anxious to be reunited with his estranged son, an LA cop. Shockingly, he discovers that his son has been shot and killed, with three other cops, in an apparent ambush the night before his release. Holman has not seen his son since he was 12 years old and now, when his chance to correct that has been so tragically frustrated, he is determined to find who is responsible for his son's death, which appears to be a revenge killing with hints of police corruption.

Despite Holman's history of violence, crime, drug use and alcoholism, the author has managed to make him not only a sympathetic character, but (as mentioned in the acknowledgements as his aim) brought out his innate integrity.

Katherine Pollard is a former FBI Special Agent and the person who arrested Holman at the scene of his last bank robbery.  Holman finds an unlikely ally in Katherine in his search for the killer(s), which at some point intersects with the story of the bank robbers mentioned earlier.

The suspense in the book is relentless and the story compelling.  As we have come to expect from this author, the book is a real page-turner and had me up much too late to finish it in nearly one sitting.  Crais just keeps getting better.

Recommended.

Dead Roots
by Nancy J. Cohen
Kensington Books
Hardcover, 256 pages, $22
ISBN: 0758206585
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Marla Shore and her fiancé Detective Dalton Vale head off on a much-needed vacation.  Marla is excited as she will be introducing Dalton to many of her extended family.  They are going to a family reunion at the Sugar Crest Resort.  Her Aunt Polly arranged the reunion.

Turns out Marla's relatives once owned the place and it is now supposedly haunted by some of her past relatives.  Apparently Polly wanted to right some wrongs and uncover family secrets by having the reunion there.  Unfortunately, Aunt Polly is found dead before she can do much more than ask Marla to look for some old letters and gems.  Marla is not sure they really exist, but her curiosity gets the best of her.

When a workman falls to his death, Dalton believes the death to be murder.  The house doctor lists it as an accident.  Unfortunately, the local police believe the house doctor and not Dalton.  This just spurs Marla on further in her investigation.  Dalton is doing some investigating as well.  When they discover that Aunt Polly's death wasn't a natural death, things really heat up.

I really enjoy this series.  Marla is such a likeable character.  Most of the books are set in and around her Florida salon.  While I enjoy that, this was a nice change.  The relationship between Marla and Dalton has really matured and it is fun watching it grow and change through the various books.  Marla is a believable sleuth.  She does get herself into some scary situations, but she has a level head most of the time.

I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

Foolish Undertaking
by Mark de Castrique
Hardcover, 264 pages, $24.95
Poisoned Pen Press
ISBN: 1590582276
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

What is an undertaker to do when a body is snatched from his funeral home the night before a funeral with attendees to include a U.S. Senator, a three-star general, a famous Hollywood star  and  a slew of Vietnamese  veterans and Montagnards paying their respects to one of their own?  If he is Barry Clayton, hero of two previous novels by Mark deCastrique, he teams up with his good friend, Sheriff Tommy Lee Watkins, to find the body.  Unfortunately, the victim's son is also murdered while they are attempting to unravel the mystery.

The only clues they have are self-inflicted tattoos on the missing body and a letter to a visiting Boston detective which lead to a Vietnamese-era operation designed to rescue U.S. servicemen behind the lines.  Eventually, the clues lead Barry to the bones of the operative responsible for the operation and $10,000.  An examination of the bones indicates he was shot by "friendly fire."

The key is who was the murderer among the leading cast of characters and who snatched—and then returned-- the body in time for a double burial of father and son.  The conclusion is exciting and unexpected.  In the course of the story, Barry is subjected to all sorts of harm and injuries.  But despite the pain, the read is well worth the effort.  Especially the descriptive material about Appalachian Gainesboro, NC.

Slow Burn
by Julie Garwood
Ballantine Books
Hardcover, 353 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 0345453840
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

This novel reminds me of the old movie serial, Perils of Pauline (without the railroad tracks).   At every step of the way, Kate MacKenna is faced with a new danger.  The difference is there's no hero to save her each time and the villain is unknown and without a mustache.

While in high school, she develops a scented candle which becomes fairly widely accepted, and she forms a company which begins to thrive.  She goes away to college, and then to Boston for her Master's in business administration, making her mother a partner in the business.  When she returns, she finds that her mother succumbed to a fatal illness with all the accompanying medical and hospital expenses, and had taken out a loan pledging all her assets, including the house and the business.  The loan is due within a month of Kate's return from Boston.

And almost immediately, Kate is confronted with further calamities.  First, her younger sister's volatile ex-boyfriend shows up and threatens her.  While attending a reception for a controversial artist, she is nearly killed when a bomb explodes.  Then her best friend  and college roommate, Jordan, calls to tell Kate she's having surgery for a lump in her breast.  She rushes off to Boston and while staying in her friend's apartment uncharacteristically has a one-night stand with Jordan's brother.

Kate returns home, seeking to get everything in order and save her business, but she is nearly run over in the airport parking lot.  Then she's lured to a warehouse to which she was planning to mover her business and again is nearly killed when another bomb explodes.  At Jordan's urging, her brother, who is a Boston detective, goes to check on Kate.  He is convinced what is happening is no fluke—that Kate is someone's target.

Meanwhile an estranged grand uncle dies and virtually disinherits all but Kate, leaving her $80 million.  Good news?  Read and find out what happens.  But of course the disinherited become suspects in the murder plot, along with previous mysterious people. 

And now for the next episode—except it would give away the plot.   To find out, you'll just have read the book and its surprises.  It's fast and entertaining, and I suggest you do.

Cocaine Blues: A Phryne Fisher Mystery
by Kerry Greenwood
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 160 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 1590582365
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

This, the first Phryne Fisher mystery, has been followed by 14 successors.  It introduces the unusual heroine, Phryne, and a cast of interesting characters we see in the future mysteries.  She is a titled, wealthy woman, originally born in poor circumstances in Melbourne, but elevated in status and wealth when her father succeeds to his title upon the deaths of interceding relatives.

The story begins in post-World War I London and quickly shifts to Melbourne when Phryne decides to accept an assignment to investigate the recurring sickness of a British Colonel's daughter.  Upon arriving in Australia she finds herself embroiled with cocaine smugglers, communist taxi drivers, uncovering an abortionist, corrupt policemen—and a love affair with an exotic Russian dancer.

The charm of the book is its simplicity—despite the complications of the plot and the personality of the protagonist.  The language and descriptions are excellent.  But most important is the unconventional, independent Phryne, who embarks on a new PI career.  You won't be disappointed in reading this short but delightful novel.

Speak of the Devil
by Richard Hawke
Random House
Hardcover, 336 pages, $21.95
ISBN: 1400064252
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Fritz Malone, young Manhattan PI, finds himself in the middle of a waking nightmare when a gunman opens fire at the crowd watching and participating in the annual Thanksgiving Day parade on New York's Central Park West.  After that, things only escalate, with a bombing and an abduction of a mayoral official following in short order.

By way of background: Nearly 15 years prior, Fritz' father (the man never married Fritz' mother, instead married and had children with another woman, all of whom are characters in the book), who was the NYC Police Commissioner, disappeared shortly after resigning from that position.  Fritz' search for him led to his becoming a PI and going into partnership with the man he'd hired to investigate that disappearance.  Fritz' significant other, Margo, is the daughter of that partner, now wheelchair bound. (One gets the feeling that future books in this series may get into the father's disappearance.)

Tim Cockey's trademark sense of humor, whether writing under that name or that of the pseudonymous Richard Hawke, author of the present book, is at work here, and what a saving grace that is, in view of the mayhem wrought by the bad guy here.  The book is alternately funny and suspenseful, with a slam-bang ending, and when you think it's over, it's not.  One or two of the ingredients of the denouement didn't quite ring true to this reader, but despite that it was a most enjoyable read.

Witch Cradle
by Kathleen Hills
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 344 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 1590582543
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The year is 1951—the Korean conflict, Joe McCarthy, the House Un-American Committee, the Communist scare.  The setting is Michigan's Upper Peninsula, settled by many Finnish immigrants, some of whom left for a Utopian settlement in Karelia, Russia during the early 1930's.

Two of those who supposedly left were Rose and Teddy Falk, but evidence pointed out to Constable John McIntyre seems to indicate otherwise.  He starts nosing around and two skeletons are discovered in an abandoned cistern on the former Falk farm.  One is identified as the remains of Rose, but the other is definitely not Teddy.

An FBI agent who tries to force John into spying on his neighbors to uncover Reds (he is extremely reluctant to do so) tells John that Teddy returned from Russia and was driving a cab in Detroit.  Step by step, McIntyre unravels the events of the fateful day in 1934.  And each is as unexpected as the next, until the reader's senses are overwhelmed by the shocking conclusion.

The plotting, characterizations and dialogue are so well done that I really couldn't put the book down, finishing it in just a couple of sessions. And the atmosphere—tons of snow and frigid temperatures—were as chilling as the story itself.

 

Scent To Her Grave
by India Ink
Berkley
Paperback, 260 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425205339
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Persia Vanderbilt is helping her aunt in her local bath and body store, Venus Envy, in Gull Harbor, Washington.  Persia blends custom oils for the customers. 

Lydia Wang won a local beauty pageant, but she is not very nice.  She wants the Mirror of Aphrodite that Persia's friend brought back for her.  It reflects only the most beautiful aspects of the person looking into it.  It's not for sale.  

The next morning Persia arrives at the shop to find not only Lydia dead, but the mirror missing.  The police suspect Trevor, one of the shop's treasured employees.  Persia sets out to prove that Trevor didn't do it.

This is the first book I've read in this series, but it definitely won't be the last.  I really enjoyed Persia.  She is a fun and likeable character, and she didn't do stupid things in her investigating. 

The plot was well written and the story moved along at a good pace.  It is a great cozy mystery.  I highly recommend it.

 

The Ghost And The Dead Deb
by Alice Kimberly
Berkley
Paperback, 260 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425199444
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Penelope Thornton-McClure is back solving another mystery.  She has young author Angel Stark speak about her latest true crime book in her bookstore Buy The Book that she owns with her Aunt Sadie.  Angel's book is about the unsolved mystery surrounding a debutante found strangled to death.  There are juicy details pointing fingers at a lot of people in the dead deb's circle of friends.  Many of them are at this event and speak out about Angel's new book.

Then when Angel ends up strangled to death, too, Penelope begins to investigate things.  She is assisted by her bookstore's resident ghost, hard-boiled PI Jack Shephard.  Fifty years ago, he was shot in the bookstore without knowing who shot him.  He has been stuck there ever since. 

I normally don't like mysteries with ghosts, but I love this series.  It is a great cozy and the ghost is so well written that I often forget he is a ghost.  He always shows up at just the right time with just the right words.  He often helps Penelope, but sometimes he flusters her with his words.

This is the second book in the Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, and I hope there will be many, many more.  I always enjoy reading them.  I highly recommend this book and the series.

Better Read Than Dead
by Victoria Laurie
Signet
Paperback, 296 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0451215583
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Abby Cooper is a psychic intuitive.  Her friend Kendal gets her to help him read Tarot cards at a wedding reception.  This isn't her forte, but she owes Kendal.  Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for them to realize they're doing some readings for very shady characters.  They leave immediately.

A Mob boss hears about it and wants her to help him with some business.  She tries to say no, but he doesn't take no for an answer.  Before long, Abby finds herself deep in trouble.

At the same time, her FBI boyfriend Dutch is off on a special assignment with a beautiful new partner.  And Dutch's old partner Milo has Abby helping him find a masked man who is attacking and raping women.

I am not a believer in psychics, but I really enjoy this series.  Abby is a fun and likable character.  Dutch and Milo as well as Abby's friends and family really enhance the story.  I like the way the author has made Abby so that she doesn't always understand the messages she gets.  This lets her bumble her way through life, which can get her into trouble without her always knowing.  I do like the way she works with the police, but they are still quite skeptical.

I highly recommend this book.

Fruit of the Poisoned Tree
by Joyce and Jim Lavene
Berkley Prime Crime
Paperback, 272 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425209679
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

This is another good story in the series starring Dr. Peggy Lee, botanist, teacher and amateur detective.  The story commences with Dr. Peggy speaking to a group about the potential benefits of tobacco.  Quite a rarity to hear!

When she returns to her hotel, protesters are in force.  Even though it was not in her plan, Peggy becomes involved.  Her longtime friend, Park, is there also.  She notices he doesn't look well.  Both Park and his wife Beth had been supportive of Peggy during a very difficult time when Peggy's husband, John, was killed in the line of police duty.  Park was not always an easy man and one phrase in the book affected me, regarding him:  Peggy Lee realized "she loved him for what he had been, not for what he'd become." 

Very early in the story, a car accident ends Park's life.  Even though, the investigation points to a suicide possibility, one wonders if it is really murder from the onset.  Park leaves behind Beth, his wife, two small children and a cantankerous mother.  Just when everything is moving along, there is another death.  When the wrong person is accused of the death, Peggy Lee has to become involved.  The authors have a genuine skill for bringing the reader into the story.  You will witness and be caught up as a participant. 

Peggy Lee's love for the environment manifests itself as she rides her bicycle instead of using a car.  She is actively occupied in her beliefs.  A good mixture of time is spent in her shop, The Potting Shed, and with her unruly Great Dane dog, Shakespeare.  For dog lovers, Shakespeare will make you grin as he demolishes most of the items he contacts.  You will grin, because he is not in your home. 

A wide array of characters surface in this book, many of them continue from the previous book in the series.  Two of my favorites are Steve and Paul.  Steve is romantically interested in Peggy Lee.  He tends to his veterinarian work and also gives Peggy a little help with her sleuthing.  Paul, a policeman, is Peggy's son.  Since his father was in the same line of work, there is tension and fear with Peggy. 

A well crafted mystery, this will satisfy the reader who enjoys cozy mysteries set in Charlotte, North Carolina.  For all the plant lovers, at the beginning of each chapter and at the end of the book, there is the care and feeding guide for each plant listed.  This is an attractive feature for any plant enthusiast.

Enjoy!!

The Deep Blue Alibi
by Paul Levine
Bantam Books
Paperback, 465 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0440242746
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are back in this, the second in the Solomon v. Lord series, and it is a welcome return.  The duo has progressed from the adversarial relationship they had in the first book to a personal and professional partnership as the book opens, although that status seems threatened as Victoria wants to spread her wings and be able to act, and try cases, independently.  And perhaps do the same in her personal life. 

Steve and Victoria come from completely different backgrounds; she was an inexperienced trial lawyer; he a very experienced one with many things to teach her in preparing and trying a case, described by the author as "a shark in the courtroom, a wise guy everywhere else…she was country club, Chardonnay, and pate.  He was tavern, burgers, and beer.  She had book smarts, winning awards, making law review.  He had street smarts, passing the Bar after three tries."  But they have been a winning combination in the year and half that has passed since the end of Solomon vs. Lord.  The case now before them is the murder trial of Harold Griffin, Victoria's "Uncle Grif,"  best friend and partner of Victoria's father, who committed suicide years ago under circumstances still unclear [since the subject has never been discussed by her mother].  At the same time, Steve has brought a proceeding whereby he hopes to restore his own father's reputation and license to practice law, which he gave up years ago when he resigned as a judge and an attorney.

Paul Levine, as in the first book in the series, gives us a whole new set of Solomon's Rules - ya gotta love ‘em.  One in particular tells the tale spun here:  "the people we've known the longest are often the people we know the least."  The protagonists must discover who their parents really are.  For Victoria, it's trying to discover the truth behind her father's suicide.  For Steve: the truth behind his father's resignation from the bench.  Throughout, the author paints a picture of "the powerful gravitational pull of family."           

The Deep Blue Alibi is a wonderfully entertaining book, like its predecessor witty and well-written, complete with courtroom theatrics to tidy things up at the end.  Victoria and Steve and their respective families are terrific creations, and I look forward to the next book in the series.

Recommended.

Identity Crisis
by Debbi Mack
Quiet Storm
Paperback, 209 pages, $14.95
ISBN: 0977007022
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Sam McRae takes on a simple domestic abuse case.  But it turns out to be anything but simple.

A friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes.  This pulls Sam into a case with identity theft and murder.  She even finds herself running from the mob.  She makes an alliance with an offbeat PI in her attempt at getting the truth about Melanie and her boyfriend.

When she finds Melanie, Sam has to convince her to trust Sam.  Then Sam has to find a way to keep Melanie safe until everything can be cleared up.  This isn't always easy.

The story is set in and around Baltimore.  There are many twists and turns in the plot that will keep you guessing right up to the end.  I really enjoyed this book and found it hard to put it down.

I highly recommend you read this book.  I can't wait for the next Sam McRae mystery.

Riders Down
by John McEvoy
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 264 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 1590582586
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

In reviewing Blind Switch, John McEvoy's debut novel, I (along with others) welcomed him as a worthy successor to the genre created by the master, Dick Francis.  This, his second effort, proves worthy of the praise.

Matt O'Connor remains a formidable and interesting protagonist, and the other characters are equally enjoyable.  The plot, characterizations and writing are superb, and the plot is well-told and well-constructed.  The villain is known throughout the book in a twist that requires Matt to unravel the mystery which involves the murder of two jockeys and apparent unusual horse races which might be fixed.

The author's command of the subject matter—thoroughbred racing--is that of an expert, giving the novel an authenticity above and beyond the call of duty.  No doubt if you read Blind Switch, you will appreciate Riders Down.  If you didn't, get both books and settle down for enjoyable reads.

Jamaica Me Dead
by Bob Morris
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 291 pages, $22.95
ISBN: 0312328915
Reviewed by Shirley Wetzel

Zack Chasteen, a former Miami Dolphin who's retired to the quiet life of running his family's plant nursery, runs into old friend and college roommate Monk DeVane during a Gators game at Florida Field.  He invites Zack and his lady love Barbara Pickering to a halftime party in the university president's skybox.  When they step out of the elevator they discover the party threatens to be a blowout—literally.  There is a bomb taped under the chair of Monk's employer, Darcy Whitehall, the Richard Branson-ish owner of a chain of exclusive resorts in the Caribbean.  The crisis is averted, but Monk tells Zack that there have been other threats to Whitehall. He asks his old friend to come to Jamaica to help him protect Whitehall and figure out who's behind the attacks.  Zack has some misgivings, but hey, the money's good, and how can he turn down a teammate?

Monk, like Zack, went on to play pro ball and was invalided out. He'd had a number of unsuccessful jobs and marriages in the years since the two friends last met, but he seems to be doing fine now.  He's head of security and bodyguard for Darcy Whitehall, a "white Jamaican" whose family roots go back to colonial days. Even though he's brought jobs and  improvements to the island, there are some who dislike him, seeing him as a rich oppressor of the people.  There are a few who are doing more than protest, and that's where Monk and Zack come in.

Monk meets Zack's plane in Jamaica, and stumbles across another bomb. All that's left of Monk is his Super Bowl ring.  Zack is unscathed, but the local law enforcement agencies as well as a few from U.S. government agencies are very interested in what he knows about the murderous attacks connected to Whitehall.  The mogul offers to let Zack out of his contract, but he feels honor bound to carry on his buddy's mission and find out who the bad guys are.

Monk left a few leads, and Zack doggedly follows them, uncovering evidence of shady land deals and dirty money while dodging kidnapping attempts, violent robbers, and lecherous middle-aged ladies who keep trying to entice him into joining them in fun and frolic at the resort.  He is assisted by his scruffy, eccentric roomie, Boggy, who claims to the last full-blood Taino, despite the fact that that tribe was wiped out 400 years ago. 

This is the second book in the series, following the Edgar Award-nominated Bahamarama. Morris, a former newspaper columnist, is a fine writer – there is not a misplaced or unnecessary word or awkward phrase in the entire book.  He is also talented, creating a likable protagonist, interesting characters, lush, exotic locales, and plots that are slyly funny, hard-boiled, twisted, and thoroughly entertaining.

High Priestess
by David Skibbins
Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 0312352336
Hardcover, 288 pages, $23.95
Reviewed by Jeffrey Cohen

Warren Ritter—fugitive, Tarot card reader, ex-revolutionary, millionaire—is in hot water up to his neck again in Skibbins' follow-up to the excellent Eight of Swords, which won the Malice Domestic/St. Martin's award in 2004. A Satanist is asking him to look into a series of serial killings, which seem somehow to be tied to Warren's Weather Underground activities of the 1960s. And if that weren't bad enough, the Satanist's sister is a woman from Warren's past, determined to make trouble in Warren's present.

Having committed to seeing his problems through in the first book (Warren has a history of running for the hills), he can't abandon his love Sally and the teenager she "adopted" earlier in the series. So even when Warren sees a pattern to the killings, even when Sally is mad enough at him to cut him off entirely, and even when he's considered a suspect in the crimes, Warren doggedly battles his manic depression and his past to see the investigation to its conclusion.

As in the first book in the series, Skibbins juggles the wild contradictions of Warren's personality well, creating a three-dimensional character whom readers will want to know better and better as the series continues.  And Warren continues to grow as a person in this book, as the author is not content to put his characters through the same paces again and again.

The dialogue is quick and intelligent, the plot turns come just when you want them and the characters are real, living people you can care about.  Warren Ritter is a unique creation in mystery fiction, and hopefully, this book will introduce him to a wider audience. He and his creator deserve it.

A Killer Collection
by J. B. Stanley
Berkley
Paperback, 205 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425207455
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Molly Appleby is a writer for Collector's Weekly magazine.  She is currently covering the kiln opening of a rising star in Southern pottery-making.  Everyone related to pottery is there, even George-Bradley Staunton, a very obnoxious collector from North Carolina. 

Soon George-Bradley Staunton drops dead.  It is ruled an accident, and the police close the case.  Molly suspects it is murder.  Then his rival disappears along with some of George-Bradley's valuable pieces from his collection. 

Molly and her mother, along with some friends, set out to find the who and why.  Can they uncover the truth without putting themselves in harm's way?

I really enjoyed this book.  Molly and her mother are very likable characters.  Molly's co-workers really add to the flavor of the story. 

Antiques/Collectibles are becoming a type of mystery that I really enjoy.  I look forward to reading many more books in this series in the future. I highly recommend this wonderful cozy mystery.

Two Trains Running
by Andrew Vachss
Pantheon Books
Hardcover, 448 pages, $25
ISBN: 1400043816
Reviewed by Janet Koch

When the mills disappeared from Locke City, the void they left open oozed shut with gambling and prostitution. Now, in 1959, drugs are also becoming a part of the underworld and gang warfare is commonplace, not only between teenagers, but also between three bosses.

To keep his rule firm, the strongest boss hires Walker Dett. A man from nowhere, Dett knows how to do things. Violent things. And he's very good at what he does. But forces from beyond Locke City's limits are converging, and an unusual variety of people want a stake in controlling the town. Dett's arrival initiates a game of shadows and misinformation and betrayal and pride, and the winner might pay a price too heavy to bear.

Two Trains Running bursts with sub-plots as simple as boy meets girl and as complex as the manipulation of a national election. It pays to read carefully, for author Andrew Vachss weaves a complex story with a multitude of viewpoints and an extraordinary amount of dialogue.

Using no chapters, but only scenes titled by a dateline that includes military minutes, Vachss builds tension slowly and steadily. Something is going to happen, blood is going to be spilled, people are going to die. The haunting question is: who? And, we increasingly want to know, why?

Desert Run
by Betty Webb
Hardcover, 358 pages, $24.95
Poisoned Pen Press
ISBN: 1590582349
Reviewed by Shirley Wetzel

In this 4th outing for the Arizona P.I., things aren't going too well.  Lena's finally called it quits with her on-again, off-again lover, her partner in the detective agency is taking off for a higher-paying job and a life in the suburbs, and her old boss and friend at the Scottsdale PD is retiring and returning to Brooklyn.  All this leaving has Lena on shaky emotional ground, and to compensate and keep her mind busy she decides to solve a 60-year old crime.

A file crew is shooting a documentary on a World War II German prison camp near Scottsdale, and the director, Oscar-winning Warren Quinn, has hired Lena to solve some thefts and oversee security on the set.   One morning she goes to pick up one of the stars of the film, ex-U-boat Kapitan Erik Ernst, and discovers that he'll never be ready for his close-up.  Someone tied the old man to his wheelchair and bashed his head in.  The police focus their attention on Ernst's Ethiopian caretaker, Rada Tesema, who seems to have disappeared.  Lena has other ideas, which lead her to believe there is a connection between the prison break from the POW camp and the murder of a local family.

This is a fine mystery, and there's lots of vivid description of the desert scenery.  I especially enjoyed the historical information about the POW camp.  There were many such camps in the U.S. during the war, but little has been written about them.  Webb does an excellent job of depicting the camp, the lives of the prisoners, and the impact they had on the communities where they were located. 

Kill Me
by Stephen White
Dutton
Hardcover, 305 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 0525949305
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Who among us hasn't thought, when encountering a stranger, much less a friend or loved one, in such a state of ill health, whether by disease, accident or whatever: "if that ever happens to me please shoot me." Stephen White has taken this one step further.  His protagonist, after a close friend sustains not-quite-mortal injuries and expresses horror at the thought of something of that sort happening to him, is put in touch with an organization whose sole purpose is to do just that:  They agree, for a very high price, that when certain client-established parameters are reached, they will terminate his/her life, quickly and with no chance of suspicion of foul play or suicide.  "End-of-life" services, they call it.  

What follows is a novel which is so compelling, so suspenseful, that I couldn't put it down till I raced through to the end.  Mr. White raises questions about love, family, death, life, what "quality of life" really means, the relationships between parents and children, fraught as they are with all kinds of "baggage," and the fact that what we think we will feel about living under certain circumstances may be a far cry from what we will really feel when we find ourselves there.

Alan Gregory, the protagonist of many of Mr. White's previous thirteen novels, plays an important but relatively tangential role in this book, with the prologue and Part II of the book told from his point of view, and Part I, by far the larger part of the book, from the point of view of the aforementioned present protagonist.

tephen White has written a book unlike anything he's written before; for that matter, unlike anything in recent memory.  The writing is terrific, thoughtful, provocative, and the book is highly recommended. 

 

Murder By Committee

Read past installments and find out more about Murder By Committee

Chapter 22
by Denise Hamilton

Denise Hamilton writes the critically acclaimed and best-selling Eve Diamond crime novels. The Los Angeles Times named Last Lullaby a "Best Book of 2004" and it was also a USA Today Summer Pick and a finalist for a Southern California Booksellers Association 2004 award." Her fourth Eve Diamond novel, Savage Garden, is an L.A. Times Bestseller. Her latest, Prisoner of Memory, will be published by Scribner in early April.

I put my palm to the door and held it in place. Hard.

"Hold on," I said sweetly. "I'm not decent."

"I like you that way, Priscilla," said the whinnying horse's behind.

Who did he think he was kidding with that Elvis and Priscilla routine? I felt like sticking my hand through the door and giving him a couple of happy slaps, just to learn him.

"Well, doll, since I'm suffering from a whopping case of amnesia, you're going to just have to give me some time to friendly back up to you. We'll take it real slow, and get reacquainted. Now why don't you be a good boy and wait outside while I slip into something more, uh, comfortable."

There was a pause. I heard him breathing heavily on the other side of the pathetic, particle-board excuse for a door.

"I guess a minute or two won't hurt."

"No looksies," I said, closing the door firmly and locking it.

I didn't have much time.

I ran to the pile of clothes at the foot of the bed and picked up the shirt and dungarees. Slipped on the shoes. Then I went to the window and looked down. Two stories, with only parking lot asphalt to catch my fall. Dang!

"How's it going, honey?" came the voice in the hallway. "You ready for me?"

"Almost, big boy," I said over my shoulder. "Ooooh, I think you're going to like this perfume. Just one more spritz, right between my…"

"Lay it on, baby," he said.

I ran back to the bed, grabbed the pillows and all the bedding, wadded them together, tied the whole mess into a knot and threw it out the window. It hit the ground and rolled, but stayed bundled.

"Are you partial to lace, or satin, dollface?" I cooed. "My that blonde has some wardrobe!"

Naw, I thought, staring at the bedding under the window. I could still break a leg.

"Satin," came the excited voice.

I glanced around the room for inspiration, settling on the couch. I ran over, pulled off one of the large cushions and hauled it over to the window. I could stick it under my feet as I jumped, aim for the bedcovers already below and hope that between them it broke my fall.

"Great!. Now this teddy's a little tricky, hon. All those darn hooks and eyes. It's gonna take me another few minutes to do everything up. Ah, crotchless, well, that's one less thing to worry about."

From out in the hallway came a long moan.

"Just bear with me doll, I promise it's going to all be worth it."

Then I clambered up onto the window ledge. Holding the couch cushion under me, I jumped.

*          *          *

I've done smoother landings in the Harpy, I thought, as I picked myself up off the ground, two big holes in the knees of my dungarees. But no broken bones, I concluded, after mentally frisking myself. Shakily, I got to my feet.

Up in the room, I could hear the wheedling getting louder.

"C'mon honey, a man can only wait so long."

I ran for the woods a few hundred feet away. I needed cover. I prayed he wouldn't bust down the door for another minute or so and see my receding back from the window. Damn this daylight. Why was it so bright?

Once in the shelter of the trees, I realized something. My memory must be coming back. The Harpy! So I was some kind of a pilot? Could that be? If I slid into a plane right now, would I remember how to fly it? I fingered the egg-sized bruise on my forehead. It throbbed to the beat of my heart. I wasn't sure I wanted to remember how I had gotten that.

Safe for the moment, I tried to get my bearings. Where was I? I smelled salt air. The distant crashing of waves. I was near water. For some reason, that made me feel better. It also shot home a brief memory of coming in low over the ocean, aiming for a skinny runway. Someone was at my side. A man. His name came to me, nothing more. Guthrie.

Faraway voices knocked me out of my reverie. I heard shouting, orders being given. They'd discovered I'd bolted. Almost without thinking, I started climbing up the nearest tree. I had to get off the ground in case they came looking for me. Getting above the tree line would also show me the lay of the land, where the hell I was. A plan was hatching in my head. If I had flown in here, then I could fly out. I just needed to find out where I had left the Harpy.

Shimmying up the branches, I saw to my shock that I was on an island. There was water all around. At the same instant, I heard a voice at the bottom of the tree ordering me down in Spanish. How could they have found me so fast? Glancing about one last time, I saw the landing strip far away, near the horizon. Quickly, I memorized the coordinates. Thirty degrees to the southeast of the woods, in the lee of the purple mountains.

"Hurry!" the voice below me said again. "We don't have much time."

I looked down and saw a squat fellow with a Mayan face staring up at me and waving a rifle. I looked back up, and all around me, but there was nowhere to go, he had treed me like a coon.

"How'd you know I was up here?" I whispered.

"Your tracks, estupida. They led me right to the tree. Now get down from there pronto, or we're never going to escape."

"You're on my side?" I was dubious. "Why should I believe that?"

"Do you have a choice? Listen."

Off in the distance, we heard the baying of hounds.

"Oh no," I said. "Bloodhounds. They'll get us no matter what."

"Not with this they won't," the guy said, holding up a bottle.

"What's that?"

"Skunk urine. We'll cover our tracks. Now get down before I shoot you down. The boss said to bring you back alive. He didn't say nothing about a little bullet hole here and there."

Slowly, I climbed down. Better to take my chances with one guy, a short weedy fellow I might be able to overpower if things got bad, than a passel of men with dogs. I'd lead him toward the runway, then knee him and make a run for it, hoping my flying skills would kick in.