Mysteries Galore.com

Archive for May, 2012

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

The Cop with the Pink Pistol opens with Jose and Vasily, two small time crooks, picking an apartment to burgle that has nothing worth taking. Worse yet, Vasily, working the inside while Jose stands watch, is warned off when the little old woman starts up the building stairs to her home leading to a Vasily making a hasty exit. Not wanting to return to his partner empty handed, Vasily slips into another apartment a floor below and grabs the electronics and coins that are readily available.

What starts as a bumbled burglary turns into so much more and gives readers their first look at Donna Prima, the Italian American cop with an attitude. She’s smart, she’s funny and she’s tired of working the desk. And although she’s not a clothes horse or a fashionista, is does s pack a pink pistol strapped to her ankle. When she gets the opportunity to investigate the burglary of Connor Anderson’s apartment, she jumps at the chance. While there Connor mentions some strange activity at a store across the street, Donna is set to investigate. The only hitch is, Connor, who has always dreamed of being a cop, wants in. The tension between Connor the TV star from Mississippi and Donna steadily grows fluctuating between attraction and aggravation. But whether the chemistry between the two is running hot or cold, it is real. The relationship smacks quite a bit of Becket and Castle. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

23 Shades of Black, being reissued this spring, introduces readers to one of the most interesting police officers found in American fiction today. Filomena Buscarsela is a complex character with so many different facets to her personality, readers never know quite how she will react in a given situation. Even though she was born in Ecuador, and obviously fluent in Spanish, she doesn’t quite fit in with any of the Latinos on the force or in the field. She shares a language but not the culture. While she is an immigrant and was raised in poverty, she is now a member of the New York police force, not a profession that makes her welcome in most immigrant neighborhoods. She is a sworn officer of the force yet struggles with her own personal drug and alcohol vices on a regular basis. She is a Latino woman trying to make it in a white man’s profession in the East Village of New York during the Reagan Era in America.

In one shift alone, Filomena breaks up a drug sale gone bad, is called out to a chemical leak near a food stamp distribution center where she rescues a woman from the building, and lands in the middle of a rape case. The rescue at the chemical leak should have given her enough “points” to bump her up the ladder so that she could leave her dirtbag, wiseass partner behind. But no witness can be found to verify her deed and so unless she can, she is stuck. Could her partner help? Of course, but not one of the men in her unit want to do anything but ridicule and make her life miserable at every turn. She’s of color, she’s a woman and she doesn’t belong. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Vickie Dailey

Dead By Midnight is the 21st Death on Demand Mystery. Annie Darling, who owns the bookstore Death on Demand, and her husband Max are the main characters of the mysteries.

Annie’s new employee of 4 days, Pat Merridew, dies suddenly. Annie is sure it’s murder and tries to convince the town cop that it is indeed murder and not suicide. She is unable to convince him until Pat’s ex-boss is indeed murdered – shot twice in the neck. So to prove to everyone that she is right and Pat was murdered for some unknown reason – Annie and Max start sleuthing. Who done it – was it the teenage son, one of the 2 daughters, the dead man’s cousin or perhaps the widow. Several theories are postualted and discarded. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

Pastors’ wives do not have an easy life. hey are expected to be perfect in the eyes of the congregation served by their husband. They are always expected to be impeccably dressed, while not extravagantly, and be the perfect housekeeper, cook, mother of perfectly behaved children while still being a partner with their husband. Sounds easy?

Faith Fairchild is all the above and also the proprietor of her own catering business. However, her husband has just informed her of a problem after the church finances were audited. Ten thousand dollars is missing from the minister’s discretionary fund. Both Tom and Faith are in shock! Who is the person responsible for the accounting of this fund? Her husband, Tom Fairchild.

Pix, Faith’s best friend, is leaving for preparations for her son’s wedding in the South, asking Faith to look in on her ailing mother, Ursula. When she meets with Ursula who also has a nurse, she wants to confess something about an incident that happened years ago. Being that Ursula’s tale is long; it takes many visits with each one feeling like a cliffhanger and becoming more intriguing. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

Carrie McCrite and Henry King have their own little patch of paradise in scenic Arkansas. The couple are enjoying their early years of marriage although both are senior citizens. They have a comfortable home, a close circle of friends and it would seem the couple is living a life that many would envy.

It comes as a shock to Carrie when she receives a phone call from a woman who identifies herself as Edie, Carrie’s cousin. Edie asks for Carrie Culpepper, which is Carrie’s maiden name. Carrie has no recollection of this woman but Edie plows ahead telling Carrie her name was Edith Embler and started explaining her connection to Carrie and how she had managed to trace Carrie. Edie’s statements could be true but then again it might be a well-rehearsed story. Carrie discusses the phone call with Henry and they decide to invite the woman to lunch and learn more about who she is and why she is contacting Carrie now. The first thing Carrie begins to worry about is what to have for lunch. Henry solved that little problem by contacting his friend Chief John Bohnert who offered several suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

An interesting historical novel written by a gentleman who has done several of these and all have been well received. This particular one is the story of Phenix City, Alabama and its trials and tribulations in the late 1940′s and early 50′s. Phenix City had been taken over by a group of corrupt individuals who catered to those interested in gambling, drinking, sex, and other segments of that lifestyle. The proximity of Phenix City to the huge army base at Fort Benning Georgia provided those corrupters with many young military personnel with money to spend and time on their hands.

In the spring of 1954 a Phenix City attorney who felt it was time to put an end to this style of living began making inroads on cleaning up this wicked city. However Albert Patterson, the attorney, was gunned down one night and those responsible for the killing believed this would be the end of anyone attempting to clean up their city. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

An older Coben mystery but still great reading. Pretty much as usual he has tied the characters into basketball but along with that approach he has integrated a love story and also a really intriguing murder mystery.

Play Dead opens with a prologue telling of a meeting between several people who appear to be arguing. That prologue ends with a gunshot and then the story begins to unfold. Not with the gunshot and possible murder. At least not yet. Oh no, Coben then weaves in the love story and explains how Celtics basketball star David Baskin and Laura Ayars are enjoying their honeymoon in Australia.

Sadly however that honeymoon turns out very badly as David supposedly is drowned while out swimming. Laura is devastated. After a period of mourning and self-pity she returns to her business where she is the CEO of a large fashion house which she had founded some years ago. One of her top models, Serita, as a major player in the company and Laura’s closest friend, begins to do everything possible to get Laura away from the sadness and on with her life.
Several strange things happen which all seem connected to David’s death. Shortly after his drowning someone took a large sum of money from his bank account and moved it offshore. And about the same time David’s older brother, Stan, shows up supposedly to mourn the death. The truth of the matter is that Stan and David never got along. Stan has lived a completely different life with lots of gambling, women, and little money. He is however very persuasive with the ladies and he begins his own systematic endeavor to work his way into Laura’s life through Laura’s sister. The sister, Gloria, has recently been saved from a terrible life of drugs, sex, and attempted suicide. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Jim Kalla

A Time For Patriots is book number seventeen in Dale Brown’s series of action thriller books featuring Lt. General Patrick McLanahan. In this book, readers of the Patrick McLanahan series find the McLanahans (father and son) resolutely living in Nevada on a nearly closed-down Air Force base. General McLanahan, recently forced to retire from the Air Force because of his involvement in the American Holocaust affair, has taken on a role as a Colonel in the local Civil Air Patrol along with his son, Brad. Brad, a senior in high school, is working to get his pilot’s license and trying to fit into the social life of the small town near the base.

The action in this book is multi-leveled. The main story line focuses on a series of threats by homegrown terrorists group called the Knights of the True Republic who deploy dirty bombs in their battle against the United States government whom they see as a threat to their rights of self-government. The McLanahans and members of the Civil Air Patrol become increasingly involved in collecting intelligence info on the terrorist group and eventually are attacked themselves. A second story line is the pursuit of General McLanahan by operatives of the Russian Federal Security Bureau who seek revenge on General McLanahan for his part in the bombing and devastation of military sites in Russia in retaliation for the American Holocaust. A third story line is the growing up of Bradley (Brad) McLanahan and his increased involvement in the actions of his father. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Julie Moderson

I feel so honored to review Matthew Quirk’s first novel. It is an amazing book that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time you are reading this book. I stayed up way too late several nights because I just couldn’t stop reading. Matthew Quirk is a writer to watch because I think he has a lot of books to write and I for one will read all of them. The novel The 500 has been purchased by 20th Century Fox to be made into a movie and I am sure it will be excellent.

Mike Ford is a bright young man and he gets a dream job before he graduates from Harvard Law. His job is with the Davies Group, the most powerful consulting firm in Washington DC. Mike is the Davies Groups rising star. He has it all; an amazing salary, beautiful home, and a gorgeous girl. The group helped his dad get out of prison. What more could a guy want? Mike loves being on his way to the top but quickly discovers that all is not as it seems to be. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

While reading The Body in the Boudoir, the twentieth book in Ms. Page’s Faith Fairchild series, I wondered more than once if this was going to be the last readers saw of Faith. In the end, I decided that was not the case, but it well could be. The book starts with Faith and Tom flying to Italy for a second honeymoon. While on the flight, Faith reminisces about how she met Tom, their courtship and wedding and it ends with Faith remembering all of those who have pasted on.

It is quite a departure from previous books, and not particularly in a good way. The tone of the book is a bit melancholy and the plot lines-and there are several, never quite fit together. The main plot is built around the courtship and wedding planning of Faith and Tom, but there are several side plots involved. Faith becomes violently ill at her wedding shower, and that is but the first in a string of unusual things that happen to her. Is someone trying to kill her and if so why? Is it to prevent the wedding? It is apparent from the shower that Tom’s sister and the long time family friend Sydney don’t approve of Faith and that causes some ongoing issues for Faith. Read the rest of this entry »