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Reviewed by Julie Moderson

Guilt by Association starts out with a bang and keeps you on your toes until the very last page. I love the characters in this book; they are so defined as to who they are and how they act. They have quick tempers, wit and intelligence and somehow solve the case that they aren’t supposed to be anywhere near without getting into too much trouble.

Rachael Knight, a prosecutor, realizes how little she knows about the people she works with because she doesn’t see most of them outside of work. When a co-worker Jake is found dead and seems to have committed a horrible crime, Rachel won’t believe it. When Rachel and her best friend Bailey, who is one of the best detectives on the LAPD force, team up there is no stopping them. They talk sassy and tend to bend the rules just a bit too far. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Jade de Jong, a private investigator from Jo’burg, South Africa had booked a scuba get away in St.Lucia with hopes that her boyfriend, police superintendent David Patel would soon join her. The whole idea of it was a bit of a stretch for Jade given that she was terrified of deep water, but David loved to dive and so Jade had decided to come early, take the scuba course offered at the resort and be ready to dive with him when he arrived. Which should have happened already, but David had been delayed by a last minute case and since Jade was going into panic attacks when she dove and had not yet passed the course, was probably a good thing. But things got worse. When David did arrive, he came wanting to have “the talk” that never bodes well for a relationship, and before Jade can adjust to that, her scuba instructor, Amanda is found stabbed to death.

David offers to assist the local authorities in their investigation and although things are not good between the two of them, Jade joins forces to investigate as well since she feels a personal connection to Amanda. The thing is, initially there is very little to investigate. Amanda seems to be the best liked, intelligent but quiet person who ever existed, so who would want her dead? But quiet people often run deep and Amanda was no exception. There was the fact that she was but a few months removed from her job as an air traffic controller and the post card found in her room with the mysterious message. Was Amanda not who she seemed to be? Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

When Anna Schroder and Nouri Samedi met while students at the University of Chicago, it was really love at first sight. Even as they grew closer and moved in together, thoughts of what would happen when they graduated lingered in the back of their minds. Nouri was destined to return to his native Iran and work to continue his country’s modernization. When Nouri asked Anna to marry him and move to Iran with him, she had a few reservations, but she wasn’t really close to her family, Nouri assured her his family would welcome her and there was no doubt in her mind that Nouri was her one true love. And so she agreed.

When the young couple first arrived in Iran, Anna thought her life was perfect. Nouri’s parents were well off and provided a beautiful house for the couple. Nouri soon found a job he was excited about and Anna was hired to teach English and American customs at a school. Nouir’s family had been quite welcoming and his sister had become a close friend. Yes, life was perfect. Perfect that is, until the Shah’s government was overthrown and he was forced to leave the country and the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to power. From that point on, everything in Anna’s life went sour. Both Nouri and she lost their jobs, his family lost their wealth and power, and the government intruded into every part of their lives. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

For those who live in Iowa, it is not unusual to observe trains with coal and grain cars marked with graffiti that seem to be endless. Whether the railroad cars are full or empty, their constant presence is part of the landscape. Who would expect there to be eleven dead bodies in a grain car of one train headed to be loaded with grain in a remote Iowa town?

In the small town of Denison, Iowa, during 2002, a worker was inspecting the grain cars before loading them at the local elevator. As he unlocked one car, he looked a little longer, believing that he was seeing a shadow. When the shadow resembled human skeletons, he immediately informed the local law enforcement agency.

After further investigation, eleven skeletons were discovered. These were people who apparently willingly entered this grain car with the idea that they would only be temporarily locked inside. However, the short time turned out to be months of being baked inside a metal car during the hot, humid summer months. Who were these people? Why would anyone willingly enter a locked train car during a hot Texas summer? Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Vickie Dailey

Jefferson Bass is the writing duo of Dr. Bill Blass and Jon Jefferson. This is their sixth bone farm novel.

Dr. Bill Brockton is a forensic anthropologist at the Bone Farm. Here they take bodies and teach students forensics. One such student, Angie, is called away home. Dr. Brockton then gets a call from Angie requiring his help. Her sister is dead apparently from a self-inflicted gun shot would that Angie believes her brother-in-law committed. This is not the story of The Bone Yard. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

Life is seldom simple for Harry Hole. As a recovering alcoholic, Harry knows that he is an excellent police detective but realizes that he will not rise any higher in the law enforcement hierarchy. He believes in doing the right thing, solving the crime, even if he does step on toes of those who are in power positions. Harry just doesn’t play the political game well. His expertise is doing what is just, in his mind.

Harry Hole is investigating a bank robbery. A man walked into a bank in Oslo, Norway and immediately placed a gun to an employee’s head. He quietly tells this employee to count to twenty-five while the manager is opening the safe. If the safe is not opened within the time limit, the employee is murdered. She is shot in the head. What are her last words to her killer? On the tapes, Harry wonders if she recognized the murderer. She seemed to have a smile on her face and he seemed to definitely be in her personal comfort zone of space.
Being that Hole’s significant girlfriend has returned to Russia for a custody battle with her former husband, he quickly falls into a former relationship with Anna, an artist. Somehow, Harry awakens with no memory of this night and Anna is found murdered. Did Harry kill her while he was in an alcoholic blackout?

Harry has difficulty with many of his superiors in the police force, especially Tom Waaler, who is everything that Harry is not, his nemesis. Tom is handsome, political, accustomed to getting his own way by using people, and with his own sense of morality or ethics. Perhaps in the morality or ethics, the two in some way resemble each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

This newest addition to the Matt Royal series manages to keep the reader on pins and needles until the very end of the book. Matt is an attorney living in Longboat Key, Florida. Matt has pretty much given up the practice of law and is just enjoying a leisurely life.

Jim Desmond, a young groom, is killed on the beach in Longboat Key the day following his wedding. On the same day three other murders occur on a local dinner cruise. Longboat Key detective and close friend of Matt, Jennifer Diane Duncan (J. D.) isn’t coming up with any answers. The groom was from Atlanta. One of the victims killed on the dinner cruise was a lawyer from Jacksonville, Peter Garrison. Another victim was a twenty-five year old woman from Charlotte, North Carolina. The third victim was the Captain of the dinner cruise.

Matt is puzzled by the deaths but has no reason to become involved until an old buddy from Matt’s years in VietNam stops by for a visit. Charles T. Desmond (“Doc”) reveals that the young man killed was his son. Doc pressures Matt to file a civil case in order to gather evidence that the police can’t access and hopefully find out who killed Jim. Doc agrees that any evidence that is turned up from the civil action can be turned over to the prosecutors. Matt finds it difficult to say no to a man that saved his life so he agrees to take on the case. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

The Thief is a bit different than most of the titles put out under the SOHO Crime label. Generally, the books feature strong protagonists and are set in exotic locales that are so well described it leaves the readers feeling like they have traveled to the book’s setting. While this book is set in Tokyo, there is not that vivid sense of place that is found in many of the SOHO titles. And while Nishimura, a pickpocket in Tokyo, is one of the most unusual protagonists I’ve come across lately, I wouldn’t describe him as a strong character.

The basic setup for the book is Nishimura has perfected the art of pick pocketing in the busy streets and trains of Tokyo. He has become so skilled at his job that he carries on without giving the actual act even a thought. He rather goes into a sort of auto pilot when he begins assessing the marks and making his moves. Readers meet Nishimura through a sequence of pickpocket maneuvers-some while he is in a near trancelike state. In one early case, he finds a wallet in his coat pocket that he does not even remember taking. From the early pages of the book, one is struck by how disconnected to his life and isolated from the world around him the character is. The one and only real connection Nishimura makes is with a small boy who is shoplifting in a grocery store for his prostitute mother. The other character that is a force in Nishimura’s life, is his former mentor who Nishimura believes may be dead after a botched job.

The bleakness of Nishimura’s life sets the tone of the book. There are no real emotions in play here and it’s hard for the reader to really get involved with the protagonist since we are never really allowed to know him. What the disconnect of Nishimura’s life does deliver is the force that drives the book. From the opening pages when Nishimura starts his thievery, he functions at a near frantic pace leaving readers eager to find out what makes Nishimura tick-what drives him. As the plot develops and readers learn of the former mentor and the botched job that still torture Nishimura today. And then the mentor returns with another job for Nishimura and a chance to redeem himself-or is it? Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

When I reviewed “Kind of Blue” I commented that Miles Corwin had written a book full of danger, excitement and secrets and “Midnight Alley” is more of the same. The reader learns more about Ash Levine, top detective in the LAPD’s Felony Special squad. Ash is not an ordinary detective. He served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces and this experience gives him a little different outlook.

This second in the Ash Levine series puts Ash in charge of solving the murder of two young black men found shot to death in a Venice Alley. The timing could not be worse. Ash has just left for a weekend with his ex-wife Robin. When he received the call ordering him back to work, Robin understood, but Ash was very disappointed.

Raymond Pinkney, one of the victims, was the son of City Councilman Isaac Pinkney. Isaac has been a frequent critic of the LAPD. Ash is under heavy pressure to find the killer but the case is puzzling. Teshay Winfield, the other victim, had just returned from serving in the armed forces. The two victims had known each other when they were younger but had gone separate ways. What brought them together to be found dead in an alley? And what was the strange marking on Pinkney’s bicep? And what does it mean? These are just a few of the many questions that leave Ash searching for answers. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Bailey Weggins returns in So Pretty it Hurts in a “country house party” themed mystery. While there are some variations for the standard formula-like the fact that people go home before the mystery is solved, most of the elements are there in this well executed book. A group of relative strangers are guests for the weekend at a remotely situated house, a mysterious death occurs and there is a snow storm that delays the guests’ departures. Therefore, the list of suspects is limited to the people at the house, even though the guests do eventually leave and the crime is not solved until much later. In fact, when the guests leave, it’s not clear if the death was a crime or just from natural causes.

Bailey Weggins, a true crime writer who freelances for the celebrity magazine Buzz, covers celebrity deaths, so when her friend Jessie invites Bailey to join her a house party for the weekend that was going to be loaded with big named people, work wasn’t really on Bailey’s mind. It wasn’t that is, until a famous model turned singer dies in her sleep. Bailey promptly starts nosing around and discovers some things that just don’t quite add up. The more Bailey investigates, the more sure she is that the Devon, the dead model, had help in her death.

Unlike some of the earlier books in the series, there really isn’t very much romance in the book. Bailey is uneasy in her new relationship and while there were couples at the house party, there was more fighting than romance. Another interesting omission is blood or violence. The victim died in her sleep and while Bailey gets herself into some scrapes, there really isn’t any blood, guns, knives or whatnot usually associated with murder. Those two elements lead to the one real negative with the book and that is there is painfully little action of any sort to drive the book. The mystery was interesting and well done, but the pace was quite slow in places.

This is the sixth book in the Bailey Weggins series, and fans of the series will surely be pleased with it, but readers who have not read any of the previous books will also enjoy this book. There isn’t really a need to know Bailey’s back story when reading So Pretty it Hurts.