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Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

When readers want to take a virtual trip to some other part of the world, an easy choice is to pick up one of the various series published by SOHO Crime. They have series literally set all over the world. One of this reviewer’s favorites is the Chief Inspector Silva series set in Brazil.

In A Vine in the Blood, World Cup Soccer serves as the back drop for the plot. Brazil is due to host the World Cup and fans anticipate a finals match between Brazil and arch rival Argentina. Brazil MUST win no matter what. What lengths will fans in this soccer rabid country go to in order to secure a victory? When the mother of the star for the home team is kidnapped, everyone assumes it was a plot to hamper Brazil’s chances in the upcoming match. But was it? There are certainly other people in the soccer star’s life as well as his mother’s life who might have a motive.

While the plots of the other books in the series were fairly unique to Brazil, this book could possibly take place in any locale with over-the-top avid fans of any sports team. In fact, a situation in Olympic figure skating came to mind more than once while reading this book. This took a bit off the book for me since much of the focus was on the sports community rather than uniquely Brazilian cultural issues. Still, author Gage takes readers in the Brazilian mob and offers us a look at the running of crime investigation in Brazil. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Julie Moderson

Just the title of this book intrigued me and it is as exciting of a book as the title.

Nina is asked to do a favor for her friend Karin, a simple favor really just get a suitcase from a locker in Central Station. Nina is a wonderful, kindhearted person who hates to see anyone hurt so she goes and gets the suitcase. The suitcase is heavy but not so heavy that she can’t handle it. When she gets to her car she opens it and inside is a small boy not wearing a thing. He is unconscious. Nina is a nurse and determines he has been drugged. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

When Nina Borg, a nurse, agrees to do her friend Karin a favor and pick up a suitcase from a locker in the Copenhagen train station, she thought it would be a simple errand. The errand turned out to be far from simple and extremely dangerous. When Nina opened the suitcase, she found a small boy, naked and drugged. Should she call the police and turn the child over to the authorities? This is the question she kept asking herself but finally determined that the authorities might not do what was in the boy’s best interest.

Meanwhile, the boy’s mother, Sigita was frantic. Sigita woke up in a hospital with no idea how she got there but is told that she was found in a drunken state after falling down the steps from her apartment. All Sigita knew was that she did not drink to excess, she has no memory of drinking or falling and her child, Mikas, is gone. A neighbor tells Sigita that the boy’s father had picked him up but when Sigita is finally able to reach Mikas’ father she finds that he knows nothing about where his son might be.

Nina finally finds out where Karin is and goes to meet her. When Nina gets to the cabin where Karin is staying, she finds that Karin has been murdered. There is no clue as to the boy’s identity or why Karin asked Nina to pick up the suitcase. Nina is quick to realize that agreeing to do a favor for a friend has placed both her and the boy in danger. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Julie Moderson

“Oh my God” is something I said out loud over and over again as I read The Parrot’s Perch. Karen Keilt is from Brazil and writes with vivid details as she tells this true story which is based on someone’s terrifying experiences.

Catlin just made the Olympic team for her horseback riding skills and is engaged to marry the man of her dreams who is a very wealthy man from the United States. Her life seems perfect so what can go wrong? Her life is turned upside down and inside out and you will be shocked at what happens to Catlin and her young husband.

I finished The Parrot’s Perch while lying in bed and I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. It is a gripping tale of Brazil’s beaches, beautiful people and the story of drugs and corruption in a very screwed up justice system. Police have all the power and they openly take bribes and frame people. The jailers are so dirty and have power over prisoners who may or may not be guilty of the charges and they torture for entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

Death…grief….cleaning up the mess!

Most sixth-grade boys know about bullying. It is hard being bullied and socially being at the bottom of the totem pole with your classmates, Also having had your mother die a year ago does not help.

During the fall of 1999 many people were anticipating end of the world with Y2K, Whitley Earl Darcy is one of them. He has few friends, one being Matthew, a small black boy and the other being Michelle Moustache, a name the students made up, a large female classmate with a dark mustache.

Whitley, known in his family as The Kid, has difficulty with accepting his mother’s death. Being he did not actually see her dead body, he believes that she ran away and will return to him eventually. He decides to make a covenant with God. If he does not speak at all, God will allow his mother to return. So now, Whitley is a sixth-grade boy who still is a social outcast with body odor, bad breath, bullies, and no athletic ability who has taken a vow of silence.

His father, David, has a job of cleaning up crime scene messes, usually deaths. Yes, somebody needs to do this, but it is difficult to balance the daily needs for a single parent father and the detachment needed to clean up gruesome and messy deaths. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Julie Moderson

Author Austin Williams has written another fantastic book. His first book, Crimson Orgy, was great. In Platinum Loop, William’s weaves a story line with such finesse that you never guess where it is going and it shocks you when you get there.

In Las Vegas in 1973 a small film producer, Gene Hoffman, is flat broke and trying to forget his past. He meets up with a schemer, Floyd Manning, who says he has a plan with little risk and Gene looks at it as his ticket out of the poor house but it turns into the worst plan ever. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

Doing the right thing is not always easy. For Nina Borg, her daily struggles with balancing her family and work are not always smooth or easy. Working as a Red Cross nurse often conflicts with being available for her family and a husband who does not understand when the family takes second place in her priority list.

Nina receives an unusual request from a friend asking her to pick up a suitcase in a locker at a public train station. The suitcase is heavy and she does wonder what is inside. After struggling to get it into her vehicle, for some strange reason Nina feels the need to return to the locker. There she sees a large man opening the locker and hitting it when he realizes that it is empty. Unfortunately, he also sees her.

After frantically running to car and racing away, she finally finds a place where she can open the suitcase. Inside is a small child, naked. She is surprised to find him breathing. What do you do? She is fearful that the police will place the child in a refugee or foster care situation. Is this better for the child? Who is chasing her? What do they want with the boy?

The Boy in the Suit Case is a page-turning intense action-adventure story. The characters are realistically flawed and their personal problems obviously continue after the story ends. The plot is well-developed and organized. The system of governmental influences on a child really exist and Nina’s choices and situations are easy to understand. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

The Rich and the Dead is a collection of twenty short stories by some of the best-known authors in the crime fiction genre as well as some lesser-known authors who should benefit by being included in this anthology. In each case, the rich are in play either as the criminal or as the victim-or maybe even both. And what is one of the best the motive for the crime? Why money of course! As the various characters struggle to keep their wealth or snatch someone else’s, their thoughts sometimes turn to crime. That’s when the fun begins for the readers.

Sometimes it’s all about the money. The collection starts off with a story from the editor, Nelson DeMille titled Death Benefits. The once top tier author Jack Henry finds that his readers have noticed that recent his work is but a shell of his bestsellers and have stopped buying his books. His income is down but his taste for the good life has, if anything increased. What’s a bankrupt author to do? Following is another well-known name, Ted Bell who writes of a different kind of pirate in The Pirate of Palm Beach. The island’s notorious gossip columnist known to all as “Pooh Bear” takes on a natural born con man Blackie Blaine. In the end, who cons whom? Roberta Isleib’s entry, The Itinerary follows a similar theme when Connecticut police detective Jack Meigs is forced to take an unwanted vacation to Key West. George Vesper’s traveling companion goes missing from a cruise ship and Meigs, investigates.

Sometimes it’s about the manipulation of people. Harley Jane Kozak’s story “Lamborghini Mommy” is among these. For most people, there are three kinds of people-rich, poor and everyone else. But for Sarah, the protagonist in Kozak’s story, there is yet a different category-the “used to be rich.” Sarah married well, but when her marriage ended, all she got was full custody and the school tuition to the snootiest school in town. What she did not get in her settlement was the means to support the lifestyle that came with the school. Twist Phelan also takes a shot at this with the very successful Happine$$. A “Bernie Madoff “ type family giving the readers a look at the family dynamics of those shoring up their positions before ‘papa dearest’ reports to prison. These stories feature characters who behave very badly indeed! Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

It is rare to read a series of three novellas within one cover, but that best describes The Bayou Trilogy. Each short novella features Rene Shade, a policeman from the swamp area of Louisiana known as St. Bruno. Rene’s family has an eclectic background as he has one brother who owns and runs a bar and the other brother is a successful attorney. The relationship between the three is as varied as their chosen occupations.

Rene Shade grew up becoming a boxer and finally becoming a policeman. Unfortunately, Rene dishes out his justice through using knowing of the people and families from his life in St. Bruno. Through
understanding the people, who or what is important to them, he solves the criminal investigations through his own version of justice frequently not having the approval of his superiors.

In Bright Lights which was first published in 1986, the investigation is about a black city councilman’s murder. Muscle for the Wing from 1988 is about a group of paroled convicts who are on a spree of robbing and killing anyone who gets in their way. In The One You Do from 1992, Rene’s father who has been absent for years, appears back in St. Bruno with his ten-year-old daughter from another woman. Being that his father was a former pool hall hustler, no one is surprised that someone wants the father dead. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Douglas R. Cobb

Royal Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is one of crime literature’s most exotic, strangest, and coolest protagonist, and he’s back in John Burdett’s latest suspenseful, page-turning, soul- searching, and humorous novel yet, The Godfather of Kathmandu. When he is confronted with the most shocking crime of his career, will his spiritual side win out, or his cop one? The murder case he works on, investigating the death of a rich American film director, could mean a promotion for him–but, how important is that, when compared to the state of one’s karma? Sonchai accepts his boss’s (Colonel Vikorn’s) offer to be his consigliere in a heroin smuggling operation, but how can he reconcile this with his striving to be a good Buddhist? The Godfather of Kathmandu is the fourth novel by John Burdett to feature the Royal Thai detective Jitpleecheep, and one of the best so far.

How gruesome is the murder of the obese American director, Frank Charles? The murderer is influenced by Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and Thomas Harris’ novels The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, all of which are found at the murder scene on a bookshelf in a flophouse where Charles has taken a hooker. He’s been disemboweled “with a single careful incision from solar plexus to lower abdomen.” Also, the top of his head has been removed by a rotary saw and then replaced, but not until after a portion of his brain has been removed and eaten by the murderer. Not exactly the kinky evening of sex he’d been anticipating….. Read the rest of this entry »