March 2008

Welcome to the Mystery Morgue! Here you'll find murder, mayhem, mania, melancholy, mystery and mirth—and the NCAA thinks IT has "March madness"?

The collection of mystery book reviews this month includes titles from Donna Andrews, Sara Paretsky, Joyce and Jim Lavene, Harry Hunsicker, Shane Gericke, Elaine Viets, Cornelia Read and the late Margaret Truman. But there's plenty more than that...

You'll find a "How I Write" essay by John Cunyus, in which he suggests seven steps that can make your writing—or his, anyway—better. And there is an interview with Barbara Colley, author of the Charlotte LaRue series, about a housekeeper who cleans up murders. It's as delightful as you'd expect.

This is the month for Left Coast Crime, and two Lefty nominated authors are reviewed. So have a warm drink, a good laugh, and maybe a chill or two—it's still winter, after all.

In this month's issue:

How I Write, by John Cunyus
The Mystery Morgue Interview: Barbara Colley

Reviews:
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews
Aunt Dimity Goes West by Nancy Atherton
Fitness Kills by Helen Barer
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
The Accident Man by Tom Cain
Whispers of the Bayou by Mindy Starns Clark
The Graving Dock by Gabriel Cohen
Wash and Die by Barbara Colley
Gas City by Loren Estleman
Cut to the Bone by Shane Gericke
Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris
The Killing Moon by Chuck Hogan
Crosshairs by Harry Hunsicker
The Skeleton Man by Jim Kelly
The Crafty Teddy by John J. Lamb
Graveyard Shift by Kelly Lange
Hooked Up by Joyce and Jim Lavene
Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon
Dying To Be Thin by Kathryn Lilley
Brush With Death by Hailey Lind
Head Games by Craig McDonald
Cat Pay the Devil by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
The Iron Tongue of Midnight by Beverle Graves Myers
Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky
The Crazy School by Cornelia Read
Tapped Out by Natalie M. Roberts
Vienna Blood by Frank Tallis
Murder at the Washington Tribune by Margaret Truman
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure
Murder With Reservations by Elaine Viets
The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters
An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

Link to Archives

 

How I Write: Seven Steps to Better Writing
by John Cunyus

John Cunyus is a freelance philosopher. He spent twenty years in the ordained ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He served Christian churches in Pilot Point, Weatherford, Houston (twice), Lake Jackson, and Dallas, all in Texas. Since leaving ministry in 2005, John has been on an odd spiritual journey, earning his daily bread. Through it all, he continues to write and publishing, his twin passions. He is the author of ten books (so far). Cunyus publishes a website, www.JohnCunyus.com, as well as a blog, "Rolling the Wheel."

Cunyus is a sixth-generation Texan and a graduate of Rice, TCU, and Pacific Western Universities. In September 2006, he published Flames in the Jungle, first in a series of Action/Adventure novels set in Colombia, South America. In November 2006, he reissued Flames of Faith: A Thumbnail Guide to World Religions, originally written in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

In 2007, Cunyus penned a sequel to Flames in the Jungle, entitled Toromillo the Hunted.  He anticipates publication of the third novel, Angel of Death, in 2008. Additional books are awaiting publication.  

Cunyus, married to the former Rocio Lizarazo of Colombia, South America, is the father of four children.

Bach's best music, a music student once told me, was the stuff he played off the top of his hand, improvising behind the organ.  Writing couldn't quantify the breadth of his genius.  It couldn't convey the rapt joy of discovery, the sheer freshness, the unfiltered brilliance of the music that flowed from his mind.

Yet the music he did write enriches all of us.  Even though he couldn't say everything he wanted to say, we are better off for him having said what he could.  At some point even genius sits down to the hard work of writing, if it doesn't want to disappear along with its moment.

Why does writing matter?  It matters because writing comes as close to disclosing the inner struggles, hopes, and dreams of one mind to another as we get in this world.  Writing makes the word a less-lonely place.

That being said, what are some tips to effective writing?

Here are seven.

1.  Write what's real for you.  Write your passion.  Write what moves you.  The world has enough hacks in it, enough phonies.  If you write what moves you, what compels you, your words vibrate with meaning.

2.  Tell lots of stories.  Stories draw others in.  They allow others to see themselves as characters, learn life's lessons as participants, not just bystanders.  Pay attention to the stories around you.  Tell stories to illustrate the point you want to make. 

3.  Be active, not passive.  Consider the difference between the following sentences: "The article was written by the woman down the street."  "The woman down the street wrote this article."  Active voice moves the narrative.  People who take responsibility for their actions use the active voice.  "I did that," we might say.  Politicians use passive voice to avoid responsibility.  How many times have we heard, "Mistakes were made," rather than "I made some mistakes."  Take responsibility in your writing.  Use active voice, not passive.

4.  Learn how to write.  Learn the rules.  Alex Burton, Dallas-area broadcasting legend, told me to read Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, when I interned with him for two days back in high school.  I learned more about writing in those two days than I had in the seventeen years preceding them.  Find a good grammar book and use it.  Say what you have to say using good English.  Your audience will appreciate it.

5.  Edit, edit, edit.   I've published ten books so far and none of them was ever finished!  There were always more changes, more twists, more tweaking to be done at the point when they had to go to the publisher.  At some point, a writer has to say, "It's done," and move on.  Nevertheless, before you get to that point, edit thoroughly.  Read and reread.  Polish phrases.  Touch up spelling.  Clarify thoughts.  Be diligent.  Something always sneaks through, but don't let that stop you from making your work as clear and concise as possible.

6.  Don't fear critiques.  The first hundred or so times someone criticized my writing, I took it personally and got discouraged.  At some point, though, I realized what a gift constructive criticism often was.  If I can lay aside my ego and listen, my critics will tell me how to improve my writing.  The goal is expressing our inner passion as meaningfully as possible.  Critics help accomplish the goal.  So, listen.  No doubt you'll wince at times.  Criticism isn't easy, no matter how long you've been writing.  But if you allow it to, it will make you a better writer.

7.  Write!  Thinking about writing is not the same thing as writing.  Don't get so wrapped up in the trappings of writing that you never actually get around to it.  When I was writing Flames in the Jungle, Toromillo the Hunted, and Angel of Death, I made myself write at least one page a day.  Sometimes, writing that page was like pulling teeth.  Often, though, once I sat down and began to write one page, many pages came pouring out.  Carry a writer's notebook, if that helps.  Take time to write every day.  Practice may not make perfect, but it surely makes us better.

 

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Barbara Colley

Barbara Colley says she started writing in an effort to be a good mother. "I was trying to be a good, conscientious mother. When my oldest daughter was a young teenager, Harlequin Presents began arriving through the mail. Without my knowledge, my daughter had subscribed, and I decided I should read a few to make sure they were suitable for someone her age. I deemed that they were suitable, but a funny thing happened. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. Then I came to a point when I began to believe that I could write 'one of those.'"

She did indeed, with the Charlotte Larue series, now seven books strong, and a number of romances from Harlequin. Her latest is Wash and Die.

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

My present outlook?  If you mean my everyday outlook on life in general, then probably yes, but if you mean my writing specifically, not really.  I grew up in Minden, a small town located in north Louisiana.  My Charlotte LaRue mystery series, and most of my other books as well, are set in or around New Orleans.  The two cities and their cultures are vastly different.

As for my interests, not really.  Way back then, I was interested in music and attended college as a music education major. Then, I wanted to be a band director.

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

No formal writing courses, but I've attended and participated in many, many writers' conferences and workshops over the past twenty years.

How/when did you become interested in mysteries?

I've always loved a good mystery, and most of my romance novels that were written under my pseudonym Anne Logan included a mystery of sorts.  About eight years ago, during a dry spell in my career, my wonderful agent gently nudged me into the direction of the mystery genre.  In a phone conversation, he asked me if I'd ever thought about writing a cozy mystery series.  My answer was no, but the more we talked, the more the idea appealed to me.  After a bit of research and a lot of anxiety, I sent him a proposal, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What did you try writing before your first novel?

In high school I worked on the high school newspaper, then later, I was the classified ad editor for a small town newspaper.  Though I loved to read fiction, then, it never crossed my mind to try and write fiction.

What did you learn writing your first novel?

I call my first two novels (which remain unpublished) my practice books—my college of writing.  As I look back now, I know why those two books never got published.  I made all of the mistakes a new writer usually makes.  But an unpublished writer has to start somewhere, and by writing those two books, I learned that good writing is hard work and takes lots of discipline and patience.  I also learned that to become published, a writer "must endeavor to persevere."  Publishing is a hard business and not for the weak of heart. I often tell people that I was either too stubborn or too stupid to know when to quit (grin).  Still am, I guess.

How long did the first published novel take to write?  How long, on average, your subsequent books?

Not counting the first two unpublished books, Gulf Breezes (a romantic suspense), the third one, which was my first published book, probably took about a year to write, then another six months or so rewriting as per the critique group I belonged to at the time.

Now, on the average, it takes me about six to eight months to write a book, just depending on what's going on in my life.

Does your having lived in Louisiana play any part in your writing?

Living in Louisiana, especially living just outside of New Orleans, has played a huge part in my writing.  As I mentioned earlier, most of my books have been set in or around New Orleans. 

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

I have traveled some over the years, but in all honesty, I can't say that any of my travels have contributed that much to my books.  Having said that though, traveling has given me a greater perspective of the world around me and has also given me ideas for future books.  But then as a writer, no matter where I go or what I do, something will spark my interest, and I almost always come away with the gem of an idea for a book.  But just because it seems like a good idea at the time doesn't mean the idea can be sustained into a full-length novel.

How do you do your research?

I have a library of research books that I've collected over the years, and many are useful, but a good part of my research is done over the Internet.  Even so, nothing quite beats face-to-face interviews or phone conversations with someone who's an expert on whatever I'm researching.  For example, in my next Charlotte LaRue mystery that I'm writing now, Charlotte gets involved with a movie company that's shooting scenes in one of her clients' homes.  Through a friend of mine, I was able to actually interview a woman whose home was used by a movie company. In Wash and Die, my present book out, Charlotte goes to a pawnshop.  It just so happens that my husband finds pawnshops interesting, so I've seen a few of those firsthand. Charlotte also visits a detox ward of a hospital, and though I've never been in one myself, I've visited someone who was in a detox ward.

Where did you get the idea for your novels?

My ideas come from anywhere and everywhere.  It could be a newspaper article I've read, an event that happened to someone I know, or as simple as a haunting song I've heard.  For my Charlotte LaRue mysteries I try to keep up with current events happening in and around New Orleans.  Doing this lends a more authentic flavor to the books.

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?

A little bit of all of the above.  The main character of any novel, whether a single novel or a series, is one of the most important elements of the book.  In a mystery series, the main character can make or break the series.  If readers relate to the main character, they will want to keep reading subsequent books in the series.  If readers can't relate or don't like the main character, the series can die before it gets started.  People ask me all of the time if I'm Charlotte, and my answer is always yes and no.  Since Charlotte and I are about the same age, I can't help but interject some of my own philosophies or feelings about certain things, but I always tell them that Charlotte is a lot braver and more gutsy than I ever thought about being.  Besides, I don't just love to clean.  Just ask my husband (grin).

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

I admire all writers because I know the skills and discipline it takes to complete a saleable manuscript.  Some of the writers I like to read are Tami Hoag, Catherine Coulter, Iris Johanson, Charlaine Harris, and Lee Child.  But if I had to pick a writer who has influenced my own writing the most, I think it would have to be Sidney Sheldon.  I've always admired his clean-cut approach to writing.  Sometimes less is more, and Mr. Sheldon always gives just enough to set the mood or setting but not so much that it's boring, then he gets on with the story.  I don't like boring.

 

Reviews

The Penguin Who Knew too Much
by Donna Andrews
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 262 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 0312329426
Reviewed by Shirley Wetzel

Ms. Moore's Meg Langslow series is for the birds, and I mean that in the best possible way.  This is the eighth in the series, which includes such punny titles as We'll Always Have Parrots and Owl's Well That Ends Well. Gotta love it!  And I do.

Meg and her fiancé Michael are finally moving into their partially renovated Victorian money pit in Caerphilly, Virginia, assisted by her parents and countless aunts, uncles, cousins, and other assorted people.  Some of the help they could do without, but everybody means well.  Meg is watching her mom rearranging the furniture for the nth time when her dad tells her to come to the basement.  He's been digging a pond for the penguins—I'll get to that in a minute—and he's found a body.  Not an ancient Indian burial, alas, but a fairly fresh corpse.  It's bound to put a crimp in Meg and Michael's plans, which are to have a major blowout housewarming party over this holiday weekend, then slip off to get married and go on their honeymoon, no fuss, no muss.

What about the penguins, you might ask?  The local zoo has gone bankrupt, and the owner, Patrick Lanahan, has pawned off the animals on unsuspecting and unprepared citizens, "just until he got things sorted out."  The foster families are starting to panic, and Lanahan is nowhere to be found.  Meg's dad volunteered to take the penguins to Meg's house, assuring Lanahan that she would be happy to do so.  That's okay with her, but what about the llamas that show up unannounced... and then the camels... hyenas... wolves with big sharp teeth?  Dear old dad had let it be known that he could help out with other animals if it became too much for the foster families, and they were taking him up on it.

If that's not enough, she goes outside and falls into a pit that hadn't been there when she last stepped outside.  The previous owners of the home were sure that the body in the basement was that of their great uncle.... Who'd disappeared many years ago. When she convinced them it wasn't, they decided he must be there somewhere, and by golly they'd keep on digging until they found him.

Mayhem and madness prevail as the Weekend from Hell progresses.  A dead body, animal rights protestors, a bang up Labor Day party for hundreds of relatives, friends and others, and secret elopement plans – just a typical weekend for the Langslow family.  This is a fine addition to the series, and I hope there will be many more to come.  Just how many puns can you come up with using bird names?  It will be fun to find out.

Editor's Note: Ms. Andrews' next novel, Cockatiels at Seven, is due in July. The novel reviewed here was nominated for a Lefty Award at this month's Left Coast Crime conference in Denver.

Aunt Dimity Goes West  
by Nancy Atherton
Penguin
Paperback, 304 pages, $7.99
ISBN: 0143112910
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

This is the twelfth installment of Aunt Dimity.  In the prior book, Lori Sheppard survived a vicious attack.  She is going to Colorado and the readers of this series will not be surprised that this too will be an adventure.  Lori's husband, Bill, is very worried about his wife and her recovery from the last devastating event and threat to her life.  He has decided to give her and the twins a change of pace from the ordinary. 

In case you don't know the background of this series, Lori inherited a large sum of money from her Aunt Dimity.  Dimity was a dear friend of Lori's mother and she knew Aunt Dimity from the marvelous bedtime stories Lori would hear.  Dimity and Lori communicate with each other but Dimity is deceased. 

Arrival in Colorado involves some adjustment to altitude.  It also involves some strange occurrences.  One of the characters has a reputation of being a bully as a child and apparently, he still likes to intimidate, even carrying this trait into adulthood.  He announces that there is a curse.  This certainly peaks Lori's attention and she is eager to find all the information she can.  She meets a group of familiar strangers and talks to Dimity about her explorations. 

If you enjoy this series, you will like the revisit with these characters. 

Fitness Kills
by Helen Barer
Five Star
Hardcover, 199 pages, $25.95
IBSN: 1594145858
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

When restaurant reviewer and food writer for MetroScene Nora Franke decides to take a break from her romantic partner, Max Weber, the job at Rancho de las Flores in Baja California seems like the perfect solution.  She is to be their food consultant while the regular nutritionist is on maternity leave.  In exchange for consulting on menus for the guests and teaching some nutrition classes, the three-month job comes with great perks—room and board and use of the facilities of the ranch/spa.  Nora comes, planning to use the time to get her head and emotions in order and to lose as much of the excess weight she was carrying as she can.

After a couple of uneventful weeks, the current crop of spa guests seems to come up short one person when everyone gathers the first evening.  Alan definitely arrived, but no one can find him.  The next morning, Alan's body is found where he apparently fell while hiking on the mountain behind the ranch.  A strange accident, since Alan did not like going up the mountain alone, but still an accident.

The same could not be said of the death of CeCe, another patron of Rancho de las Flores.  After drinking her special liquid diet health drink, she collapses and dies in front of Nora and the other guests. Propelled by her horror over the death of her new friend and by the chance to write something for her publication with more substance that the lightweight articles she has been doing, Nora decides to try to solve the mystery. Her search for answers ranges not only among the other guests and the management of the Rancho, but into the world of drug trafficking as well.

Ms. Barer fills her novel with a variety of interesting characters to cheer for or despise.  Allison, the tall and sophisticated blond becomes Nora's friend and confidant along with Tom, who would like to take over as Nora's love interest.  Then there is Simon, the sexy guy with an eye for the ladies, and his plain but rich wife, Jody.  The international element is represented by Miguel, the touchy head chef and Inspector Enrique Nunez, the local police official who does not at all fit the stereotype of the Mexican police.

The strongest points of Fitness Kills are an engaging new amateur sleuth with many of the insecurities and problems the readers will identify with and an exotic and interesting location. The plot is not as strong but the reader will definitely enjoy getting to know Nora Franke, who is expected to appear in later books of the series. 

Blue Heaven
by C.J. Box
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover, 344 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312365705
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Blue Heaven is a departure from Box's Joe Pickett series, but still holds all of the qualities that readers expect. Rather than game warden Joe Pickett, Blue Heaven's protagonist is a tough old rancher named Jess Rawlins. Box moves the setting slightly west into Idaho for this book.

The northern part of Idaho, known to natives as "North Idaho," is also nicknamed "Blue Heaven," because of all of the retired cops from California who retire to the area.  One would think having retired police officers move in would be a good thing for a community, but the influx of newcomers has its drawbacks. They tend to stay to themselves and not mingle with the locals. Also they have bought up failing ranches and divided them into mini "gentleman's ranches."  They flash a lot of money around in an area that has lost most of the lumber and mining jobs, so there is economic resentment as well. But the biggest problem is that not all of the retired policemen are good cops. In fact, some of them are down right evil.

Two young children trying to find a spot to fish accidentally see what they believe is a murder being committed by a group of men. What's worse, one of the men sees the kids.  The children, Annie and William Taylor, struggle to outwit their pursuers while trying to decide who, if anyone, they can trust.  When Jess Rawlins finds the kids hiding in his barn, he has to decide whether to believe their far-fetched story or not. What follows is a thrilling game of cat and mouse as Rawlins tries to hide and protect the children who are being pursued by four desperate men. Four very bad retired cops.

The book is told from multiple points of view, so the reader knows what is happening alternately with the children, another former cop still trying to close an old case, the banker who has some issues of his own to resolve and of coarse, the four bad men. Rawlins does a great job of making the reader a part of the story. The characters are so strong and setting so clearly defined, its like the reader has lived with these people in Kootenai Bay forever.

 

The Accident Man
by Tom Cain
Viking
Hardcover, 322 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0670018499
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Samuel Carver is a paid assassin and his job is to make the deaths he causes look like accidents.  Although he doesn't know who his bosses are, he knows that he is a covert extension of powerful government agencies who will pay a great deal of money to make bad people disappear.  When he gets the call that he is needed in Paris to take care of an Islamic terrorist, he boards a private jet where he receives a dossier on the terrorist.  He outlines what he will need to complete his mission, and all is waiting for him when he lands in France.  Everything goes as planned and Carver is able to complete his assignment, making the event look like a tragic car crash, not the work of a hired killer.

Unlike previous jobs, this is where it all goes wrong.  Suddenly, his own life is in danger and the hunter becomes the hunted.  In the days that follow, Carver finds out that the mission he has accomplished was not to kill an Islamic terrorist, but instead has ended the life of one of the world's most beloved women, the Princess of Wales.  As he tries to understand what happened and why he was set up, the reader learns more about Carver and how he came to be what he is.  We get a glimpse of a real person and see a conscience that we wouldn't expect to exist. 

When I first started to read this book I had reservations, given the subject matter.  I wasn't sure what kind of story could be told and how a writer would go about even trying.  But once I started reading I couldn't put the book down.  Cain takes a tragic event and is able to weave a thrilling story of what could have happened, no matter how remote a possibility.  The characters are vivid and there is plenty of action and suspense.  He takes us through Paris, not as the city of lights, but as a dark and foreboding place where people are plotting to end lives and change alliances.  

We'll probably never know if Cain has touched on the truth, but his hypothesis has produced a first rate thriller.  Carver is such a great character that you'll wish he could come back in a sequel.  Very highly recommended.

Whispers of the Bayou
by Mindy Starns Clark
Harvest House
Paperback, 337 pages, $13.99
ISBN: 0736918794
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

This author has published two previous series—the Million Dollar and the Smart Chick Mysteries—both cast in sort of a lighter tone.  With this novel, she has turned to a more serious and substantive theme, perhaps indicating a turn toward a more serious bent.

Set in the Louisiana Bayou area, the story brings us Miranda Miller, an art restorer at a Manhattan museum, the 32-year-old mother of a five-year-old daughter and wife of a promising architect.  One day, she is beseeched to travel to the scene of her childhood home (which she left when she was five) by a dying Cajun caretaker who wishes to impart secret information to her before he passes away.  Miranda has no memory of her first five years.  The "aunt" who raised her tries to discourage Miranda, fearing the consequences of opening old wounds.

Thus lies a strange tale involving truths about the past, her family, her inheritance of the estate on which she grew up and most of all, Cajun history.  It is a tale well told, with a heart-warming look at the foibles of human nature and the quest for understanding and the love of the Lord.  Recommended.

The Graving Dock
by Gabriel Cohen
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 294 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 0312362669
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The Graving Dock is set in the New York City of December of 2001, and is the second in the Jack Leightner series.  Leightner is a NYC detective and a member of the Brooklyn South Homicide Task Force.  The book begins a few months after Jack had barely survived a shooting incident in a basement in Red Hook, a section of Brooklyn near the docks where Jack lives.  Divorced for 15 years, and the father of a boy in his early twenties, Jack has been working up the nerve to propose to his girlfriend, Michelle, with whom he is deeply in love.

When a handmade coffin washes up on the shore in the harbor, Jack gets the call, and it is found to contain the body of a young boy with the letters "GI" written on his forehead.  At a loss to identify the boy, things only get more complicated when another body turns up, with the same letters emblazoned on it.  The ensuing investigation requires dogged police work, but Jack is determined to find the killer.  At the same time, he has to find out the reason for the preoccupation—almost to the point of indifference—of the detective from the local precinct with whom he is partnered, while at the same time dealing with the not-as-easy-as-he-thought matter of his engagement.  The hunt takes him, and the reader, to Governors Island, a relatively unknown parcel of land a quarter-mile from the Brooklyn shore now in disuse, formerly an old Army and then Coast Guard base until the mid-nineties.

To this reader, most of whose life has been lived in Brooklyn, the author gets the descriptions and the feel of that borough, of New York, and New Yorkers, exactly right—especially nailing the "shell-shocked, dazed" world in which they lived in those traumatic days, mostly by oblique references that capture the atmosphere, not with a heavy hand, but with an expert touch.   Some authors are good storytellers, some are good writers – Mr. Cohen is both.  If you haven't read any of his books yet, now is the time to do so.  The book is recommended.

Wash and Die  
by Barbara Colley
Kensington
Hardcover, 234 pages, $22
ISBN: 0758222510
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

This is the seventh installment for the Charlotte LaRue mystery series.  Yahoo!  I'm glad Charlotte is back.  Joyce, the ex-wife of Charlotte's tenant, has been released from the hospital with her alcohol addiction and has nowhere to go.  Although Charlotte knows that she shouldn't, she lets Joyce bunk in for a short time.  Yes, Joyce still irritates Charlotte to distraction.  Joyce can be crude, vindictive and condescending so Charlotte does question why she took her in.

There are many exciting things happening with Charlotte.  She decides to cut back a little with her cleaning business, she becomes a grandmother and she has an experience with a pawnbroker.  Charlotte discovers a body; unfortunately the body is in her house. 

I'm reminded again how much I value Charlotte's niece, Judith. She is with the New Orleans Police Department and could be a whole story by herself.  She traverses the thin line between being a professional and yet a family member of Charlotte, who always seems to be on the scene of a murder. The returning characters in this series are some of my favorites.  I await number eight.

Editor's Note: An interview with Barbara Colley is included above.

Gas City
By Loren Estleman
Forge
Hardcover, 304 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0765319562
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

With no need of haste, Loren Estleman, in this standalone novel, limns a tale of an "ordinary" Midwestern blue-collar city with its usual equal parts of good guys and bad, corruption and greed, which with one precipitating event begins to boil to a point where it may just combust.  Pivotal characters include Police Chief Francis Russell, married for 55 years to his beloved Martha ("Marty"), and devastated by her death as the book opens; Anthony Zeno ("Tony Z"), boss of The Circle, an area of ten square blocks ("the only thing the area required to be considered an independent city was its telephone exchange") to which all the sex-for-sale, drugs, gambling, etc. of the city are confined; Nicholas Bianco ("Mr. White"), Tony's boss; Moe Shiel, the unofficial and unsworn Chief of Police of the Circle, as well as its unelected Mayor; and Hugh Dungannon, Russell's boyhood friend now a Bishop in the church; and assorted others.  The town was built around an oil company which is and always has been its most important component and employer.

Russell's life is now immeasurably saddened.  He hasn't seen his daughter in 12 years; his son was killed while serving in the Armed Forces in Southeast Asia.  He has served as Chief for five terms, during all of which time he has had an "understanding" the local Mafia boss With his wife's death, the latter is unsure whether Russell will "continue to hold up his end."  Indeed, he ponders whether redemption is possible, and considers actually doing the job he was hired to do all those years ago.

In addition to those described above, the book is full of colorful characters:  The hotel detective who says of himself:  "Being a busted copy was as bad as being a defrocked priest. It took practice to keep your lies straight"; Zeno's wife, Deanne, whose husband describes her as "healthy as a horse.  And just as expensive to keep"; a local judge who "had developed the bad habit, after seventy, of slipping in and out of gear when he was running for reelection.  In his dotage he thought his seat on the bench had something to do with ballots." In the midst of a mayoral campaign, the town is hit with a serial killer, variously referred to as the Black Bag killer (for his choice of container for body parts) or Beaver Cleaver (for his choice of weapon).

I found I had to pay close attention when reading for fear of missing subtly wonderful passages, which abound.  One of my favorites was this description of Russell's reactions upon his wife's passing:  "And then the rage and heat were gone, and there was a hole through him and he had to turn so the wind wouldn't whistle through it.  He'd been preparing for this moment for weeks—years, he corrected, from the time the results of the first tests had come back and he'd stopped arguing with them—and he'd hoped the dread of the waiting would give way to a sense of release.  He'd felt it for a moment, with the last exhalation, when she took her leave of her body, a lacy apparition in a cheap religious print. But this was a new level of emptiness.  What he'd thought was the bottom collapsed beneath his weight, the thinnest of crusts, and he went plummeting yet again.  It was like falling in a dream.  They said if you woke up before you hit, you were okay, but if you didn't, well, that was when people died in their sleep.  It seemed better than this eternal falling."

Gas City is a very pleasurable and satisfying read, and is recommended.

Cut to the Bone
by Shane Gericke
Pinnacle/Kensington
Paperback, 399 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0786018147
Reviewed by Shirley Wetzel

On August 10, 1966, a hot summer day in Naperville, Illinois, two sets of brothers met in a violent clash that would change the course of all their lives.  Assistant State's Attorney Wayne Covington came to oversee the transfer of state witness?  His younger brother Andy was a cop assigned to protect Earl during the transfer.  Across the street, mobster Earl Monroe, watching the transfer, was stunned to see the seedy "janitor" lurking near the prisoner was his younger brother Daniel.  He realized Daniel was going to make some misguided action, thinking it would help Earl.  He rushed over, hoping to stop his brother, but it was too late.  The resulting carnage took the life of young Andy Covington and several other cops.  Earl, who was hurt, was arrested, but Daniel got away. He came to Earl's hospital room to tell him he was going to turn himself in, but Earl told him in no uncertain terms not to do so. Earl, who'd spent most of his life in the family "business," would take the blame and do the time.  Daniel, who was always a straight arrow, was to go to college and make something of himself, carry on the family name and care for their mother.

Earl went to prison and was on Death Row. Wayne Covington put himself on the fast track in government, moving up the ladder step by step.  Now, in the present day, he is the Governor of Illinois. All his energy has been focused on getting revenge for Andy's death.  He is staunchly pro Death Penalty, so much so that if necessary he's willing to pull the lever himself.  Needless to say, his wife and family have taken a back seat in his life.  He promises her he just wants to watch vicious murderer Corey Trent fry in the electric chair, and then he'll be able to give them more time.

Daniel Monroe did go on to college and made good.  Earl was the unfortunate last man to die in the electric chair before the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty.  Now it's been reinstated, and Governor Covington couldn't be happier.  Not so the busloads of ant- death penalty citizens who are on their way to Naperville to protest Trent's execution.  Someone else, whose identity we don't learn until near the end, has appointed himself a free-lance Executioner, and in the days leading up to Trent's big day he travels around the country taking lives, seemingly at random.  Naperville police detective Emily Thompson and her significant other Marty Benedetti, a member of the Sheriff's Department, are relaxing in a spa when the first victim is stabbed to death—the spa's receptionist. Emily re-injures a serious leg injury trying to apprehend the killer.  She doesn't know him, but he knows her, and she is on the top of his Murder Wish List.

A large number of law enforcement agencies from several states and jurisdictions cooperate to put a stop to the Executioner's crime spree—a refreshing change from the standard attitude of "every agency for itself" that's so often depicted.  The plot is complex, the cast of characters abundant, but it all works out, and it all comes together in the nail-biting, edge of the seat ending.

Pushing Up Daisies
by Rosemary Harris
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 288 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 0312369670
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

In her debut mystery featuring gardener/landscaper Paula Holliday, Harris gives readers a quirky protagonist, a fresh set of characters and a different perspective of the gardening business in America to savor.

The Springfield Connecticut Historical Society has recently been given the house and gardens of the now deceased Peabody sisters. Paula Holliday wins the contract to restore the gardens, but almost as soon as she starts work, she uncovers a baby's skeleton.  The original mystery, the identity of a baby skeleton, quickly becomes intertwined with a thirty-year-old disappearance of a young woman. Center to the investigation are a group of Mexican laborers. Some of these workers are not quite who they appear to be, and some of them, with a history in the community that goes back thirty or more years, may hold the key to what happened to a young woman all those years ago. And as is often the case, many people in this small town are not particularly thrilled to have thirty-year-old history revisited.

Harris has created a very believable small town with the expected spectrum of citizens. There are the mysterious Peabody sisters that as the story unfold may have shared more than a few of the community's secrets. There's the lecherous old landscaper who also may have known some of the darker elements of the community's history. The director of the Historical Society seems to run hot then cold with Rosemary though he is the one who hired her. And one can't help but wonder why the director's wife is such a nervous lady.  These are in addition to the regular sorts of people found in a town like Springfield—the diner owner, the police officers, the friend who visits from New York and of course a newspaperman. But Harris has also included several Mexican day laborers. This brings a different perspective to the "gardening mystery" subgenre. Rather than the usual dose of plant or landscaping information often found in "garden mysteries," Harris uses the Mexican workers as an opening to the class structure in America. Through their characterization, the reader sees how offhandedly these nearly "invisible" the maids and gardeners are treated in our society. This was well done and gave the book more substance.

At the end of the book there is an epilogue that brings the reader up to date on what was become of all of the characters. That was a nice way to tie up several minor plot lines left open at the end of the book.

The Killing Moon
By Chuck Hogan
Scribner
Paperback, 347 pages, $15
ISBN: 0743289658
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Donald Maddox is a rookie, a part-time, auxiliary policeman in a town he describes as "full of nothing-to-do, this tiny rural map-smudge in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, a fading and forsaken hamlet named Black Falls."  He had left Black Falls, where his father had been a cop, fifteen years before, after receiving a college scholarship and, now 33 years old, has returned after his mother's death and lingered, to the amazement of most of the citizenry, who can't believe anyone who'd actually been able to get out had returned voluntarily.  With 1,758 inhabitants, the town had virtually died after its paper mills closed down 20 years before—it is "a well of desperation hidden deep in the valley; pain-filled voices that go unheard," with "pockets of beauty amid acres of neglect."

Maddox was a legacy, put on the job by "Pinty," a town selectman—a cop there for much of his life and Maddox' father's partner when he was on the force, before he "had been stupid enough to get himself killed in the line of duty in such a sleepy town as this."  The soul-deadening atmosphere is brought to vivid life by the author in a distinctively offbeat and wonderful style.

The residents are, understandably, mostly damaged souls.  The worst symptom of the general malaise is the police department, with a budget so small the "uniforms" consisted of a t-shirt and cap, and corruption the extent of which this reader was totally unprepared for.  When a local resident is brutally murdered, state homicide detectives take jurisdiction, and the ugly secrets of Black Falls begin to come to light, including Maddox' own.

This is the fourth book by Chuck Hogan, and I wish it hadn't taken me so long to discover this author. The Killing Moon is a wonderful read, and it is recommended.

Crosshairs 
by Harry Hunsicker
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 277 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 0312348519
Reviewed by Carl Brookins

The chemistry of this novel is clever and worth deciphering.  Lee Henry Oswald is a man on the downside of life.  Having left the detective business, he's discovered that there's little else in life that interests him.  Add to that his lack of qualifications for his major interest, kicking back with adequate cash, drink and female companionship, and he feels himself going sour and getting grumpy.  Then a buddy from Oswald's Dallas and other wars shows up at the bar where Oswald works, provoking a confrontation with the boss and ergo, Oswald is out and soon confronting his own mortality in the ravaged person of an ex-army buddy named Mike Baxter.

Baxter is dying from his service-connected illness and he wants Oswald to locate his estranged daughter before he kicks off.  Meanwhile a research doctor of Middle Eastern parentage, Dr. Anita Nazari, is being harassed by mysterious forces for mysterious reasons.  Oswald intersects with her in the hall outside Baxter's room.  Ultimately she hires him to run down the people who have targeted her.  Oswald learns that she seems to be on the run from somebody, maybe from several somebodies, ever since she was informed of her husband's death while he was on a super-secret mission in Afghanistan.

Readers will find themselves sometimes behind and sometimes ahead of Lee Henry, which is an interesting and refreshing approach to the international thriller.  Readers may also find themselves confused at times.  Oswald's approach is methodical and logical in spite of the twists and turns of his client, Dr. Nazari.  At times she gives a pretty good imitation of a paranoid schizophrenic.

Oswald's occasional ineptitude and need to rely on others because  he's been out of the business for long enough that his usual contacts and external resources are less readily available, add texture to the tale—borrowing a vehicle from his client because he no longer owns one—for example.  Over the arc of the novel we see him regain his skill set and his attitudes and we are sure Oswald will move more securely into his future as a Dallas back-alley fixer, if he gets through his current assignment.

This is a violent, gritty novel that's exactly the right length.  You are ready for the end when you get there.  No wasted words, no wandering through reeking angst; the author is an above average storyteller.  Be careful: The jacket copy reveals far more than necessary, far more than is good, for full enjoyment of a well-constructed carefully written mystery novel.

The Skeleton Man
by Jim Kelly
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 343 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312377819
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Once again, Kelly delivers a riveting psychological tale of human nature. In The Skeleton Man, Philip Dryden is sent to cover the war games the army is conducting at Jude's Ferry, a long abandoned village.  The assignment tugs at Dryden because seventeen years before, while a reporter of some note on Fleet Street, he covered the evacuation of  Jude's Ferry. So taken with the story at the time, he purchased the recorded interviews Cambridge University had taped of the last citizens in town. This prior connection proves to be important as he works the story.

When artillery shells hit the old tavern, a cellar, not on the army's village map, is exposed-as well as a hanging skeleton. It is assumed that the skeleton is that of a suicide victim. But the question remains, who is the victim? Why did no one report him missing? Meanwhile, just a couple of days later, a man is washed up on the bank of the river near the village. The man, afraid and suffering from amnesia, can only remember that Jude's Ferry is important to him. Dryden assumes there is a link between the two cases and begins digging into the village's history. One of the first things he does is to listen again to the taped interviews of the villagers as they were evacuating. Those people have scattered now and as Dryden travels to ask further questions, he obviously hits a nerve or two, putting himself and the amnesia victim at risk.

Through four previous books readers have followed the ups and downs of Philip Dryden's life. Now in the fifth book in the series, Dryden's life again takes some unexpected turns. His wife Laura, critically injured seven years ago in a car accident, has come out of her coma. Instead of being part of the sad back-story that her character has been before, she is an active character in this book's mystery.

The strength of Kelly's books is the characters. It is also the one weakness. While Kelly's characters are richly complex and the reoccurring ones are ever developing, the shear number of characters can be a bit daunting when trying to sort out the clues. That aside, for fans of Dryden, this is another excellent outing. For readers unfamiliar with the series, I would recommend reading at least the first book, The Water Clock to get the history of the characters.

 

The Crafty Teddy
by John J. Lamb
Berkley Prime Crime
Paperback, 288 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425218853
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Brad Lyon is a retired San Francisco cop who was wounded in the line of duty and is now living with his wife Ashleigh in the small Virginia town of Remmelkemp Mill.  He also happens to be a collector and maker of teddy bears.  If you think this makes him soft or in any way delicate, you couldn't be more wrong.  He's a tough guy who happens to know how to sew and who adores his wife.  He just can't figure out how he got a woman like her to marry him.  Even though he walks with a cane, he has a knack for finding trouble—or maybe trouble finds him.  It all starts when the Lyon home is broken into in the middle of the night and a prize teddy bear is stolen.  The thief shoots at Brad and gets away with the bear, which has a sentimental value beyond any monetary one.

When the director of a rarely visited local museum is found dead, Brad and Ash end up helping the new local sheriff with her investigations.  Matters are further confused by the fact that the last people reported to have seen the director alive were a group of Japanese gangsters, or Yakuza.  Brad first came across the Yakuza while investigating a homicide in California and knows their reputation, which isn't pleasant.  What he needs to figure out is how they fit into this murder, and does the murder have anything to do with the break-in at his house.

This cozy is definitely not just for teddy bear lovers.  Brad and Ash have a wonderful and fun relationship and they play off and support each other continuously.  Ash even seems to be able to keep up with his cop-speak, as Brad has a habit of reporting all events using California Penal Code sections.  Lamb's style of writing is very enjoyable, with just the right blend of humor and suspense.  It is the third installment in the Bear Collector's Mystery series and a highly recommended read.

Graveyard Shift  
by Kelly Lange
Time Warner
Hardcover, 362 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0892967579
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

Television anchor Maxi Poole has the graveyard shift—in other words, 9 pm–6 am.  The graveyard shift has a lot of names and none of them are good.  There has been a kidnapping nearby and Maxi has been asked to help.  A child was snatched in daylight and then there was a murder. 

Mysterious questions are posed.  Why was Maxi Poole put on the graveyard shift?  It doesn't make sense.  Why was this child kidnapped?  Was it for money or for passion?  Was there a connection to the murder? 

Other characters are Maxi's boss, managing editor Pete Capra.  He was the one who decided to give Maxi this crazy shift.  Tom McCartney, a newspaper stringer with his own set of issues, was asked to watch out for Maxi.  As the tension builds, Maxi needs to protect herself.  Someone is going after blonds and yes, Maxi Poole is blond.  Desperation is also well felt through the mother of the kidnapped child. 

A surprise ending that completely baffled this reader may leave you with your mouth agape.  I did not see it coming. 

Hooked Up  
By Joyce and Jim Lavene
Midnight Ink
Paperback, 271 pages, $13.95
ISBN: 9780738711102
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

Hooked Up is the 2nd in the Stock Car Racing Mystery series. 

Glad and Ruby are NASCAR enthusiasts.  A Polish ex-cop formerly from Chicago, Glad thinks his sleuthing days are behind him. He really just wants to watch the race and gel with the excitement this sport affords.  Silly man; he's married to Ruby who has a huge heart and a passion for justice.  She always seems to be in the thick of trouble and is so very likeable.  When Ruby sees justice turned upside down, there is no stopping her until she rectifies the situation.

It seems that the murdered man has connection with the casino world, but there are many surprises and you may just question who is who in this story.  Three brothers are in the middle of this puzzle.  When a huge sum of money is a central point, the stakes raise for everyone.

Ruby's contagious enthusiasm is thrilling.  She is as excited when she is watching her brother race his car as she is helping to chase the bad guys.  Count on fun and humor in this mystery.  At the end of the story is a glossary that will assist the novice NASCAR fans.

 

Fatal Remedies
by Donna Leon
Penguin Books
Paperback, 303 pages, $7.99
ISBN: 0143112426
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

A phone call in the middle of the night takes Commissario Guido Brunetti from the quiet of his Venetian home down to the police station where he works.  His wife, Paola, has been brought in on charges of vandalism for throwing a rock through the window of a travel agency, a charge which she readily admits and has done intentionally.  The act is a product of her moral outrage, one that Brunetti struggles to accept and which begins to affect his professional career, putting an increased departmental pressure on him.  Later, when the owner of the travel agency is found murdered, Brunetti is further drawn into the events that surround this death.

At the same time, the Commissario is investigating a robbery in Treviso where there is an eyewitness who is willing to testify.  The police have cautioned the witness to the potential involvement of the mafia, but he insists on performing his civic duty.  Brunetti must deal with the consequences of each of these investigations and their impact on his professional and personal life.

The Venetian backdrop of this book provides both a setting as well as an atmosphere.  Brunetti spends time wandering through the streets which are intersected by bridges, mulling over the cases he is working on as well as his wife's choices.  Leon is able to draw you into Brunetti's pace of life and take you through the events as if they were your own.  He is a multi-layered character and neither his slow and deliberate actions nor his calculated speech reflect the intensity of his thoughts and deductions.  The twists and turns that unfold bring the reader and the policeman to the necessary conclusions and, in the end, justice. 

Dying To Be Thin  
By Kathryn Lilley
Penguin
Paperback, 286 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451222404
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

A whoopee pie is devoured by Kate Gallagher.  Soon she would be enrolled in the War on Fat at the Hoffman Clinic in Durham, North Carolina.  Spending three years behind the camera at her last painful job, Kate decided her next job would be in front of the camera.  Fifty pounds was her goal to lose.  At the clinic, all participants were to eat lots of fruit and some of it wasn't pretty.  The characters are interesting, alert and humorous. 

Had someone tired of the diet?  There was a murder and numerous speculations.  Not only did Kate find the body, she was asked to report on it by the television station.  There is more here than meets the eye and be aware that not all the activity is for the faint of heart. 

At the beginning of each chapter, Kate's friend, Mimi Morgan, gives critical tidbits to dieters.  They are excellent and can be considered extra icing on the diet cake. 

I wish that I could tell you that there is only one murder but that is not the case.  There are turns in this book that will surprise you.  A major difficulty is that there are so many suspects.  The murdered person seems to either have been loved or hated.  Good news though, Kate does manage to find some love interests along the way. 

Brush With Death
by Hailey Lind
Signet Books
Paperback, 318 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0451221797
Reviewed by Janet Koch

Hanging out in a cemetery at midnight wouldn't be on artist Annie Kincaid's list of Fun Things To Do, but her work of restoring paintings is best done after hours. On a break, she encounters a graduate student doing research who perks up when Annie hands over her business card.

When the student tells Annie that a painting in one of the cemetery buildings might be an Old Master, she scoffs at the idea. On the other hand, since Annie is a reformed art forger, she'd know at a glance if the painting had a snowball's chance of being worth millions.

Days later, while Annie is still trying to figure out what's going on with the painting, her newfound cemetery acquaintance is found dead. Suicide, the police say, but Annie finds it hard to believe. A couple of questions, a little bit of poking around, and before she knows it, Annie is once again involved in events that are zooming out of her control.

And as if she didn't have enough troubles, her art forger grandfather is again lurking in the background, giving her headaches even from Europe. Her unrepentant art forger grandfather, who says, "If art is but illusion, why is art forgery a crime?"

Annie's life is turning out to be a juggling act, but juggling isn't Annie's forte, art is. Unfortunately, it'll take more than a knowledge of overglazes and underpaints to keep all her balls in the air—and to keep herself alive.

Brush With Death is another happy addition to the Annie Kincaid novels. Author Hailey Lind writes in a breezy style that entertains and amuses yet informs the reader about art and art history without pedantry. Lind also pulls off the feat of imparting information without stopping the action, which twists and turns in the streets of San Francisco and doesn't let up until the last page.

Annie's recurring cast of cohorts are well-developed characters who seem almost to breathe on their own. Annie herself, who after a difficult time thinks, "Today had been the kind of day that made my third-floor location seem like a ridiculous assumption of health and well-being," has a genius for getting into trouble. One can only hope that her troubles will fill many more books.

Brush with Death is the third mystery in the Annie Kincaid series.

Head Games
by Craig McDonald
Bleak House
Paperback, 300 pages,  $14.95
ISBN: 1932557435
Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Head Games author McDonald  has used a number of real people and events in this zany work of fiction.  The line between what is real and what isn't is constantly blurred, possibly causing readers to scramble to Google or Wikipedia to check facts. While the protagonist, Hector Lassiter and his sidekick Bud Fiske are fictional, readers also meet Orson Welles and Marlene Dietrich on a movie set, Jack Webb via phone and  the current President Bush appears as  a prominent character in Book Three. Ernest Hemingway, through numerous mentions, plays an interesting role as a sort of shadow character to Lassiter's life.

Fact: Pancho Villa was a real person who achieved a sort of cult folk hero status before being killed in New Mexico. Fact: The head of Pancho is no longer buried with Pancho's body. Commonly believed, but may not be fact: The head of Pancho Villa is in the Skull and Bones Society House at Yale University.

McDonald, playing  into Americans' fascination with secret societies and the legends surrounding Pancho Villa's head, has created a first rate novel that's part historical fiction, part thriller and totally entertaining. Hector Lassiter is a crime writer for Black Mask Magazine. Lassiter, and his sidekick Bud Fiske, set out to find Pancho's head and deliver it to Senator Prescott Bush. Bush is offering $25,000 so that the head can be used by Yale's Skull and Bones Society in ceremonies. Lassiter faces two major problems with this quest. First he has to actually get the head, and second he has to keep Villa's head while literally keeping his. What follows is a road trip that's sort of what would happen if Thelma and Louise dropped  into a Dirty Harry movie. There's plenty of shootouts and car chases for the action junkies, but the book is also laugh out loud funny in an Elmore Leonard sort of way.

The one thing I didn't like about Head Games has nothing to do with the story, but rather the cover of the book. The  front cover just does not do the book justice. It gives book browsers very little hint as to the good things that await them inside. Fortunately, the backside blurb does.

Head Games has been nominated for the Best First Novel Edgar Award. It's a nomination clearly deserved.

Cat Pay the Devil
by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Avon
Paperback, 313 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0060578138
Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Murphy's Joe Grey books are considered cozies—after all, some of the main characters are talking cats! But as I was reading Cat Pay the Devil, it struck me, and not for the first time with this series, that if the cat characters were human, the books really wouldn't be all that cozy. 

In this installment of the series, Wilma, a U.S. Probation Officer, and Mandell Bennett, her former partner, were called to San Francisco to testify in a parole hearing for Cage Jones, the last criminal case they oversaw before Wilma retired.  The day after seeing that Jones put away for a longer time, she left for home. Because of the stress of the hearing, she  kept her cell phone turned off and did not listen to the car radio and therefore missed the news that her former partner had been shot and that Jones had escaped from prison.  She stopped at an outlet mall to shop as planned, but as she was ready to leave the mall was grabbed from behind and taken away.

Throughout the series, and continued in this book, there is a thread of about battered women. In this book that thread is eventually tied  to the Cage Jones case. This doesn't sound very cozy so far, does it?

But then the cats enter the story. It was Dulcie, Wilma's cat who sounded the alarm when Wilma failed to turn up at home.  When Dulcie realized her house had been broken into, she placed a call  alerting the police to the break in. From there on the cats take over. Dulcie, with her friends, Joe Grey and Kit, track the suspects around town and regularly call in clues. With the help of a colony of feral cats, they eventually solve the case. 

This series started with one cat Joe Grey, who could talk and read.  Regular readers were there when Joe Grey found Dulcie and they discovered each other's similar abilities. Readers were also there when they let their owners in on the secret.  As the series progressed, many more cats are talking (as well as a few dogs in one book specifically) and many more humans who are in on the secret.   I would think the line will have to be drawn on this expansion soon or keeping track of who can talk and who knows will just get to be too difficult taking away from the charm of the series.

The Iron Tongue of Midnight
by Beverle Graves Myers
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 314 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 1590582329
Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

The Iron Tongue of Midnight, the fourth novel in the Baroque Mystery series, finds Tito Amato visiting a Venetian Villa, in what is essentially a country house murder. Tito, along with his artist brother in law, Gussie, has been hired to work on the new operatic production of the German composer, Karl Weber. Oddly, the part Tito has been contracted to sing is really not within his vocal range. As it turns out, the up and coming French soprano, Gabrielle Fouquet, has insisted that Tito be the one contracted to sing or she would not come. That's even more of a puzzle, as initially Tito doesn't think he knows the famous Gabrielle, nor her husband/manager Jean Louis. In fact, many things about the couple and their past are a bit mysterious.

Before production rehearsals even begin, a body is discovered in the hallway in the middle of the night. No one will admit to recognizing the man and the only item found on the body is an expensive Russian pistol.  Could the body be connected to villa owners, Vincenzo or his wife Octavia? Did someone invited to the house for the opera know the man? Finally, Tito finds out what has become of his sister, the long missing Grisella. Unfortunately, this potentially links Tito to the dead man. And then another person is murdered, again in the middle of the night....this time someone everyone in the house knows. 

Myers books are enjoyable on so many different levels. Certainly the mystery in each is well done, the clues are there for the reader to follow, yet the puzzle is not easily solved. But beyond the mysteries these are outstanding books on the history of opera theater. As a fairly new devotee to opera, I find the background on opera almost as interesting as the mysteries themselves. Including fascinating historical details of life in 1700s Italy adds even more to the reader's enjoyment.

While it would not be impossible to pick up this book  and read it first, readers would enjoy the book much more if they at least read the first book in the series, Interrupted Aria, to sort out the cast of characters, and learn Tito's life story.  Because there is now a fairly large number of characters who reoccur in the series, I think it would be helpful if  the characters and their various relationships were listed somewhere in the book.

Bleeding Kansas
by Sara Paretsky
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Hardcover, 431 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 0399154058
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Setting aside V.I. Warshawski to allow her to recuperate from her travails in the last episode, Sara Paretsky has written a novel of monumental proportions.  It is set in the Kaw (Kansas) River Valley, where the author grew up, and traces the lives of several founding families who settled there in the pre-Civil War days when the pro- and anti-slavery forces vied against each other.

The novel takes place in current times, with references to the past, and looks at the social politics and farm life of the area, including religion, pro- and anti-Iraq War, persecution, the hard lives of farmers and other themes.  It is a far cry from Dorothy's Kansas which, at least, had a rainbow.

The characters are well drawn, the story engrossing.  The novel raises a variety of questions on a broad array of themes, including fundamentalism and scientific evolution, but more importantly, hope.  The book should be read and is highly recommended.

The Crazy School
by Cornelia Read
Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover, 326 pages, $23.99
ISBN: 0446582599
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

After being introduced to Madeline Dare in Cornelia Read's first novel, A Field of Darkness, readers are again treated to an encounter with this original protagonist.  Now 26 years old, she has left upstate New York for the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts and, when her husband's job offer falls through, begins teaching at the Santangelo Academy, a boarding school for disturbed teenagers.  The school motto is "Free to Be," and it has a rather unusual way of doing things:  "Everyone at the school had to do Santangelo-approved therapy—not just the kids but the teachers, the administrators, and the parents of every student.  We did ours on campus.  Santangelo had a traveling crew of shrinks who met with parents around the country.  If they missed a session, they weren't allowed contact with their kid by phone or mail for a month.  I couldn't believe that was legal, but they were desperate enough to suck it up without complaint."

Touted as a "healing community," it begins to look more like "The Snake Pit," and Madeline suspects that the Academy's director is "just the latest charlatan to wrap himself in their snake-oily mantle of overpriced navel-gazing hooey."  When two students die in what appears to be a double suicide, Madeline, who had sincerely cared about these kids, both especially vulnerable, is determined to find out the truth.  At this point the novel, which had been proceeding at an unhurried pace, rapidly kicks into high gear.

This is another compelling novel by this author, the plot alternately funny and suspenseful, and the world she has created is a bit like passing the scene of an accident but finding oneself unable to look away. (I might add that I loved her use of a line from an old and classic Danny Kaye movie.) The book is a very enjoyable read, and is recommended.

 

Tapped Out
by Natalie M. Roberts
Berkley Prime Crime
Paperback, 261 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425218013
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Tapped Out is the second in the Jenny T. Partridge Dance Mystery Series.  Jenny owns her own dance studio in Ogden, Utah where she teaches her Tots, Minis, Petites and senior girls.  In her spare time she puts up with psycho dance moms who call repeatedly, filling her voicemail and answering machine.  The story opens in February and Ogden is in the middle of a month long inversion, which not only brings in a blanket of fog that prevents visibility, but also temperatures cold enough to rattle your teeth. 

The Hollywood StarMakers Convention is in town and two dance instructors have mysteriously gone missing.  Out of the kindness of her heart, and the need for a little extra cash to pay bills, Jenny agrees to help her old friend, and ex-boyfriend, by filling in to teach a few dance classes at the convention.  What starts off as a good thing quickly turns sour when she starts getting threats telling her to back out of participating in StarMakers.  Jenny doesn't take the threats as seriously as her sort-of boyfriend, Tate, who happens to be a police Detective.  When a dance instructor turns up dead, things start to really get complicated.  As if she didn't have enough to worry about, Jenny is also faced with a Mormon missionary who has decided to defect and has picked her to help him and hide him out.

This is a light and funny read.  Jenny is a great character and her mismatched idioms will keep you smiling.  She's insecure enough to keep you laughing and confident enough to get herself into trouble.  Recommended.

Vienna Blood
by Frank Tallis
Random House/Mortalis
Paperback, 485 pages, $15
ISBN: 0812977769
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Following the monumental debut novel, A Death in Vienna, the author has followed up with a second book of equal proportions.  He brings back psychiatrist Dr. Max Liebermann and Inspector Oscar Rheinhardt as they face a formidable serial killer who leaves strange symbolic signs in what appears to be random murders.

The novel takes place at the turn of the century in Vienna and is filled with hints of the onset of Nazism and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its culinary tastes.  Sigmund Freud plays a minor—but crucial—role in providing Max with psychiatric insights into the meaning of the killer's psyche.  The combined talents of the police inspector and the psychiatrist again fortify each other's efforts to discover the identity of the savage murderer. 

The depth of the descriptions of Viennese society and the city are magnificent.   The plot is overwhelming and supplies a penetrating look into Max's personality and ethics.  It is a great novel.

Murder at the Washington Tribune
by Margaret Truman
Ballantine
Paperback, 384 pages, $7.99
ISBN: 0345478207
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

Beautiful Jean Kaporis was the young murdered woman.  She had been with the Washington Tribune for less than a year.  Joe Wilcox moved to Washington, D.C. more than twenty years ago.  He was a good reporter at The Trib and was securely settled in when this murder happened.  Speculation points to the fact that the murderer might have worked at the Tribune or that the perpetrator might have been a serial killer.  Wilcox received a lot of pressure to present headlines that people wanted to read.  Healthy competition existed between him and his daughter; she was a television reporter.  Often they were after the same story.  The author did a good job of flushing out the character of Joe as well as the sub-characters, giving us pieces of information all through the story. 

I like the references to several Washingtonian spots, restaurants, bookstores, etc.  Two other points especially interested me in this story.  One is the relationship that Joe has with a police officer, Edith, and the other is Joe's background.  If you want to have a satisfying consistent read, this may be just the book for you.

Editor's Note: Margaret Truman Daniel died January 29.

The Fault Tree
by Louise Ure
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 336 pages, $23.95
ISBN:0312375859
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Cadence Moran is blind. As many blind people do, she has developed extremely good senses of both smell and hearing. These two "gifts" have helped her in her profession as an auto mechanic, and in The Fault Tree, they help her solve a series of murders. Murders that would have been solved sooner if the police department would have taken her seriously sooner.

Cadence's involvement in the criminal investigation was not voluntary by any means. She was walking home after working late one evening and had just started to cross the street when she first heard someone cry out and a car engine idling, then running feet, followed by laughter and squealing tires as the car sped away. She threw herself to the curb and fortunately was missed by the car. The body of her neighbor is found murdered and it soon becomes clear that Cadence may have been a "witness" of sorts to the crime. A  few days later a car intentionally tries to runs her down. Obviously the murderers think she saw them and are afraid. For the rest of the book, the race is on. Will the murderers find her before Cadence convince the police to take her seriously when she reports the things she heard and smelled that night as well as later?

Ure uses extremely short chapters and alternating points of view to help the reader feel the sense of urgency as Cadence tries to solve the case.  While we are rooting for Cadence, we are regularly switched over to the murderers' voice so that we know where they are and what they are planning. Both the chapter length and the alternating voice helps to build the suspense. While the ending is really a bit over the top, that point can easily be forgiven because the book as a whole is so very entertaining.

It is also worth noting that with Cadence, Ure has done a wonderful job of portraying  a blind person. Cadence is someone who has a disability but has found ways to compensate and continues living a productive and normal life.

 

Murder With Reservations  
by Elaine Viets 
New American Library
Hardcover, 263 pages, $21.95
ISBN: 0451221117
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

From the Dead End Mysteries series, Helen Hawthorne works as a maid.  She is trying to stay more than one step ahead of her deadbeat ex-husband and also put food on the table.  Cleaning hotel rooms is hard work.  With 18 minutes to finish a room, Helen needs to keep working at a fast pace.  At the end of chapter one, Rhonda and Helen find a man in Room 323.  He isn't going anywhere; he is either dead or dead drunk.  This is eye opener reading and gives new meaning to some of the things that people do in a hotel room.

Helen is trying to keep away from her ex-husband but he always seems to locate where she is and follows her.  What a creep he is!  It is a constant worry to keep ahead of him and Helen is fortunate to have some good people in her network to help. No doubt about it, as the reader you will be pulling for Helen. 

One of Helen's co-workers is missing.  She hopes that this doesn't give Rob more information to find her.  As the police investigate, Helen is extremely careful that she does not stand in front of a camera nor do anything that will let Rob have an advantage.  Murders happen and unfortunately, Helen is often right there when the police come. 

I so enjoy this series and look forward to the next installment.  Enjoy!

Editor's Note: Murder With Reservations has been nominated for a Lefty Award at this month's Left Coast Crime conference in Denver.

The Chameleon's Shadow
by Minette Walters
Knopf
Hardcover, 369 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0307264633
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Minette Walters' newest psychological suspense novel focuses on the effects of war, not on those who inhabit the country of warfare, but rather on those who fight the wars, and the horrendous injuries they sustain that affect every aspect of their lives, both physically and psychologically.  The protagonist is British lieutenant Charles Acland, 26 years old, home from Iraq with devastating head injuries, including loss of sight in one eye and total disfigurement of that side of his face, tinnitus, and migraine headaches.  Even worse are the resultant personality changes: suspicion of those around him almost to the point of paranoia; outbursts of uncontrolled anger ("red mist" is a recurring phrase); distrust of nearly everyone, especially women; inability to tolerate being touched—whether all this is the result of post-traumatic guilt over the death of two of the men under him in the same attack or what is termed "the prolonged destruction of a personality," or something else entirely, is unclear.  The effects of traumatic brain injury and subsequent antisocial behavior are explored.

When several men in the London area are attacked and beaten to death over a period of several months, and it appears that it is the work of one man, Acland falls under suspicion.  It is unclear to the police, and the reader, whether or not he is in fact the attacker.  He unwillingly turns for aid to a woman whose lesbian partner runs a bar in which he has started a fight, a doctor called merely "Jackson."  A fascinating creation, she is variously described as being "the size of a whale" and "over six feet... this wide and looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger," but she earns Acland's grudging respect and becomes his savior, his psychiatrist (though that is not her area of medical specialization) and, ultimately, his friend.

The title derives from (1) Acland being described as, chameleon-like, projecting "different images of himself to different people," and (2) the Jungian definition of a "shadow" as "the dark aspect of personality formed by those fears and unpleasant emotions which, being rejected by the self or persona of which an individual is conscious, exist in the personal unconscious." The view is a disturbing one.  I must admit that I couldn't help but feel that the resolution was somehow less compelling than that which had preceded it.  Nonetheless, Ms. Walters has again written a gripping and suspenseful novel, one which is recommended.

An Incomplete Revenge
by Jacqueline Winspear
Henry Holt & Co.
Hardcover, 336 pages, $24.00
ISBN: 0805082159
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Accepting an assignment to vet a business deal in which the Compton Corp. is to acquire most of an estate and a brick factory in rural Kent, Maisie Dobbs, in this the fifth in the series, encounters a strange series of crimes while conducting the investigation.  Over the preceding decade, there appear to have been many minor thefts and burglaries, as well as a fire at about the same time and date each year.

The story takes place during the early 1930s, about a decade after the end of World War I, which always plays a part in the series, since Maisie served as a nurse in France and her fiancé was mortally wounded there.  Also, the Depression weighs heavily on her mind, as she worries about her investigations business.  Maisie runs into a wall of silence, as the villagers exhibit prejudice against outsiders, Londoners who come there once a year to harvest hops, Gypsies, as well.  They also seem to be possessed by the legacy of a wartime bombing by a German Zeppelin.

As in the previous entries, the protagonist remains human and charming, as well as capable, while exhibiting self-doubt.  But she continues to grow in her efforts as well as a person.  The historical setting provides a different milieu for a mystery, while not intruding on the plot. The writing is cogent and the story revealing.  Certainly another good read, and recommended.