Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Rap Sheet: Little’s Big Move

 The Rap Sheet:  Little’s Big Move

SleuthSayers: Forget "Time to Write" – What About Headspace?

SleuthSayers: Forget "Time to Write" – What About Headspace?:  Hello fellow Sleuthsayer Faithful! Feels like forever since I jumped into the swirling maelstrom of thought and discussion which is our bel...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: New in April: Non-Fiction

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: New in April: Non-Fiction:   April is turning out to be a big month for books!   While there is a lot of good fiction on the publishers’ calendars, there are some very...

Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Silver Swan: Benjamin Black

Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Silver Swan: Benjamin Black: In early March, I read The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black (pseudonym of John Banville). Set in Ireland in the 1950s, it is the 2nd book abou...

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

PSA Reminder


 

Lesa's Book Critiques: THE INNOCENTS BY BRIDGET WALSH

 Lesa's Book Critiques: THE INNOCENTS BY BRIDGET WALSH

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 83 Calls for Submissions in April 2024 - Paying markets

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 83 Calls for Submissions in April 2024 - Paying ma...: This April there are more than six dozen calls for submissions. All of these are paying markets, and none charge submission fees. As always,...

Beneath the Stains of Time: The Summer of the Ubume (1994) by Natsuhiko Kyogoku

Beneath the Stains of Time: The Summer of the Ubume (1994) by Natsuhiko Kyogoku: Natsuhiko Kyogoku is a graphic designer, yokai researcher and mystery writer whose debut, Ubume no natsu ( The Summer of the Ubume , 1994...

George Kelly: WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #167: THREE BLIND MICE AND OTHER STORIES By Agatha Christie

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Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: WOLF OF THE STEPPES

Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: WOLF OF THE STEPPES:   Wolf of the Steppes by Greye La Spina Letter from Doctor Thomas Connors to Amdi Rubdah, the adept, Teheran, Persia. To my dear Master, gre...

Patricia Abbott: Short Story Wednesday: "The Time Being" by Joseph O'Neill

 Patricia Abbott: Short Story Wednesday: "The Time Being" by Joseph O'Neill

Short Story Wednesday Review: All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

 

From the massive archive and one of Scott’s reviews. You can read more of his reviews each Saturday.

 

All Systems Red by Martha Wells is the first novella in a series of novellas and at least one book that is part of The Murderbot Diaries. It stars as a security unit that is part robot and part human that calls itself Murderbot. It is an antisocial mix of robot and human that is not fully either. In the far future where everything is run by corporations, Murderbot has a simply defined job. That task is to protect the human exploratory teams that are doing research on unsettled planets. Like most things, contracts are awarded to companies based to the lowest bid so they don’t have the resources Murderbot needs to do her job. When a team of scientists on a planet stop responding to any calls and goes missing, it is up to Murderbot and her team to figure out what happened. The planet is not supposed to have any threat, so where is the team and why are they silent?


This novella is an interesting first work in a long running series. Murderbot is an introvert trying to deal with doing her job and the fact she is not like anyone else. She was built to do a job of a security guard to be embedded with exploration teams. That mix of organic and robot parts has created an introvert that would much prefer to be away from everyone and just watch their version of television. But, she has a job to do and does so in this read that has a nice mix of action, drama, and humor.  


I recommend All Systems Red by Martha Wells if someone is looking for something different with a unique protagonist and likes space exploration stories. I am currently on hold at the library for the sequel, Artificial Condition. This read is also a novella.



 Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TR2keV 

 

My reading copy came from the Skyline Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 Scott A. Tipple ©2021, 2024

Monday, March 25, 2024

Lesa's Book Critiques: A DEADLY WALK IN DEVON BY NICHOLAS GEORGE

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A DEADLY WALK IN DEVON BY NICHOLAS GEORGE

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Columbo Collection by William Link

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Columbo Collection by William Link:   Reviewed by Jeanne There are a few television characters who become such icons that they are recognized practically the world over.*  ...

In Reference To Murder: Media Murder for Monday 3/25/2024

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Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 54 Writing Contests in April 2024 - No entry fees

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 54 Writing Contests in April 2024 - No entry fees: This April there are more than four dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes this m...

Markets and Jobs for Writers 3/25/2024

 Markets and Jobs for Writers 3/25/2024

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Bones Under the Ice by Mary Ann Miller


Bones Under the Ice (Oceanview, 2023) is Mary Ann Miller’s debut and the first in a series about small-town sheriff Jhonni Laurent, Field’s Crossing, Indiana’s first female sheriff. Snow removal in northern Indiana is a constant winter headache but Field’s Crossing has been piling the excess in a park for years, creating a sledding opportunity for the town children. Two boys thus occupied after the most recent blizzard find an arm in an enormous pile of snow, launching Sheriff Laurent’s first murder case.

The arm proved to be attached to the body of a popular student at the local high school. At first everyone thought the teenager had tried to walk home during the blizzard after her truck ran out of gasoline but the autopsy revealed a more direct cause of death. Her boyfriend was the most obvious suspect but he had an alibi of sorts.

Laurent’s investigation is hampered by a subordinate who ran in the election for sheriff against her and lost but stayed on as a deputy, undermining her at all turns. The local newspaper, such as it is, attacks her routinely and the board of supervisors does not want to pay overtime for her staff.

My first impression is how very well Miller knows rural small town life. The retired farmers who camp in the local diner for breakfast know more than anyone about what is happening and to whom. When Laurent wants to tap into the grapevine, that’s where she goes. The generational feuds between families she describes are realistic and damaging. And she pulls in the family farming crisis. Many farmers are retiring with no one to leave their land to because their children are unwilling to live a life of uncertainty and backbreaking labor. While the global demand for food grows, there are fewer farmers to meet it. She adds the controversy of wind farms to the mix with an informed discussion of the pros and cons.

A tight structure, even pacing, and understanding of small town operations, including the way an investigation like this would be carried out in a resource-limited department. A little more than midway through the book, the killer is revealed to the reader and from there on there are two story lines, one the investigation and the other the killer’s attempts to avoid identification. I found the change from a straight police investigation disconcerting and unnecessary.

The second book in the series is scheduled for October 2024. Especially for readers of police procedurals and small town crime fiction.



·         Publisher: Oceanview Publishing (March 21, 2023)

  • Language: English
  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • ISBN-10: 1608095371
  • ISBN-13: 978-1608095377

 

 

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3vphTRw

 

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024


Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Kathleeen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU

 Kathleeen Marple Kalb's Blog: So You Wrote the Book, Now What?: THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU

Lesa's Book Critiques: THE BLACKLIN COUNTY FILES BY BILL CRIDER & JUDY CRIDER

 Lesa's Book Critiques: THE BLACKLIN COUNTY FILES BY BILL CRIDER & JUDY CRIDER

Dru's Book Musings: New Releases Coming Soon ~ April 2024

 Dru's Book Musings: New Releases Coming Soon ~ April 2024 

Little Big Crimes: No One Will Believe You, by Paul Ryan O'Connor

Little Big Crimes: No One Will Believe You, by Paul Ryan O'Connor:   "No One Will Believe You," by Paul Ryan O'Connor, in Mystery Magazine, 2024. Ayden is not a very lucky guy.  He's  a di...

Guest Post: Barracuda Backfire Inspirations by Tom Milani


Please welcome Tom Milani back to the blog today with a guest post on his novella, Barracuda Backfire. This is the fourth novella in the Chop Shop series created and edited by Michael Bracken. This installment of the Dallas, Texas, based series comes out on April 1st exclusively on Amazon for the Kindle. You can read more from Tom in his guest posts about a story for Black Cat Weekly (Issue 78) here as well as his story in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties anthology here.


 

Barracuda Backfire Inspirations

 

My friend John once owned a Plymouth Barracuda, an early model with a wraparound rear window and a fold-down rear seat. He told me that a few weeks after he sold it, he drove to the new owner’s house and got behind the wheel. The owner came out. “You miss your car,” he said.

 

That story has stuck with me because it’s a reminder of the attachments we have to our firsts—cars, loves—and how they can achieve an outsize importance in our memories. Their faults fade from from our recollections until all that remains is an idealized version that never existed.

 

When Michael Bracken invited me to pitch an idea for Chop Shop, a series of novellas set in Dallas and featuring Huey’s Auto Repair, I knew what car my story would involve—a Plymouth Barracuda like my friend’s—and what the theme would be—first loves and their holds over us.

 

Early on, I decided to structure the story with two timelines, one set in 1976, the other in 2021. I thought I had a good setup. The only problem—I knew nothing about Dallas. Enter my friend Chris, who grew up in Texas. I offered to buy him coffee in exchange for some of his memories. I got the better end of the deal.

 

He showed up with three maps of the Dallas area and proceeded to tell me what each neighborhood was like in the 1970s and now. He knew which auto parts stores were prominent then and which beers kids drank. I took notes as fast as I could. As an afterthought, I asked him if people drag raced then.

 

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Forest Lane.”

 

That led me to an online article on the history of Forest Lane as a site for cruising teenagers. The details in the article, and those from my other research, informed the drag race scene in the story.

 

About that race … I knew that Billy Wright, my protagonist, would be racing his car against Skip Parker. The question became what would Parker be driving? Among the cars featured in the January 1965 issue of Motor Trend, which I found for sale on Amazon, were a Ford Mustang 2+2 and a Plymouth Barracuda. The article had quarter-mile times and speeds for each vehicle, along with a host of driving impressions. Now I had Skip’s car.

 

I’ve talked about the car, but there was also a girl involved: Veronica Valdez. This inspiration for her isn’t as clear cut, but my memories do play a role.

 

I am grateful to Michael Bracken for including me in this fantastic series. At one point during the writing, I saw how all the pieces of the story would fall together, and I began to get excited about putting it out into the world.


I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.


 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3TOmDtq 

 

 

Tom Milani ©2024

 

Tom Milani’s short fiction has appeared in Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties, Illicit Motions, Black Cat Weekly, and Urban Pigs Press. Barracuda Backfire will be out on April 1, 2024. His website is https://www.tommilani.com/

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Dru's Book Musings New Releases ~ Week of March 24, 2024

 Dru's Book Musings New Releases ~ Week of March 24, 2024 

Lesa's Book Critiques: DEATH OF AN AUTHOR BY E.C.R. LORAC

 Lesa's Book Critiques: DEATH OF AN AUTHOR BY E.C.R. LORAC

Mystery Fanfare: MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL: Southern California Myste...

Mystery Fanfare: MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL: Southern California Myste...: Mystery Readers Journal  is a quarterly thematic mystery Journal. Each issue contains articles, reviews, and author essays on a specific th...

Beneath the Stains of Time: Gospel of V (2023) by H.M. Faust (a.k.a. "DWaM")

Beneath the Stains of Time: Gospel of V (2023) by H.M. Faust (a.k.a. "DWaM"): H.M. Faust is a Croatia-born mystery writer who " primarily specializes in writing impossible crime stories " and " his main ...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Je...:   Reviewed by Jeanne Vera Wong is the proprietor of the somewhat misleadingly named Vera Wang’s World Famous Teahouse. (Yes, it’s Wang ,...

Scott's Take: Fantastic Four: The Ultimate Collection Book One by Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo


Fantastic Four: The Ultimate Collection Book One by Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo is a book about what makes the Fantastic Four different than other superhero teams.  A PR expert is brought in to help figure why the Fantastic Four are losing popularity. Another storyline features Sue Storm and her plan to make Johnny grow up. Additionally, the Fantastic Four must face off with giant bugs, a living mathematical equation, and deal with other strange events.

 

This is a fun collection with a cartoony art style. This is a good starting place for new readers of the Fantastic Four. This is an old book reissued and recollected here multiple older issues of the Fantastic Four.

 

Additionally, a very old Avengers tale that was the first time Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo worked together. The Avengers tale is completely irrelevant and not connected at all.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this Fantastic Four collection. There are three more in my reading pile from the same creative team.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3SM06vE

 


My reading copy came by way of the Hoopla App and the Dallas Public Library System.

 




Scott A. Tipple ©2024

Friday, March 22, 2024

Lesa's Book Critiques: WINNERS AND A MYSTERY GIVEAWAY

 Lesa's Book Critiques: WINNERS AND A MYSTERY GIVEAWAY

Writer Beware: To CCB or Not to CCB: The Question is Still Out

 Writer Beware: To CCB or Not to CCB: The Question is Still Out

SleuthSayers: Getting Ideas From Characters by O'Neil De Noux

SleuthSayers: Getting Ideas From Characters: Elmore Leonard has been the subject of many fine posts here at SleuthSayers. Just search through the blog for posts by David Edgerley Gates,...

Happiness Is A Book: FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOK: MURDER A LA MODE BY ELEANORE KELLY SELLARS

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In Reference To Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Speaking of Murder

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Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: BRAND OF THE BLACK BAT

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FFB Review: The Perfect Defective: A Novella by Clark Casey


From the massive archive here at Casa Tipple and Home Eatery Library…

 

P. I. Jake Hannigan has a “…square jaw and skepticism that can’t be bought on Sundays in Blue Law States.”  (Page 5) That means he has a fondness for alcohol and will indulge that fondness whenever the mood strikes including his own office. That is where Professor Durgen found him on a certain Monday morning.

 

Professor Durgen teaches writing at a community college when he isn’t working on his novel.  Unfortunately, his novel has been stalled for over two months. He has a huge problem. He’s lost his talent, his creative juice. He’s tried drinking heavily and all that has done is made him write bad poetry. He needs his talent back as soon as possible and wants P. I. Jack Hannigan to find it for him. For twenty bucks a day and all the Johnnie Walker Blue Label he can drink, Hannigan will take the case.

 

Of course, when you are paid by all the booze you can drink, you don’t want to solve the case too fast.  It helps if you get another case you can also stall a bit. The case here that fits the bill is his next client. A sexy cheerleader wants a dead man killed.

 

The result is a fast and often laugh out loud satirical novella that has the potential to offend just about anyone. Often crude in terms of language between characters, descriptions of characters (attributes of cheerleaders being a major discussion point), and scene setting, the result is an often bluntly coarse read. It is also often funny, especially when Hannigan contacts the agent and discovers that there is a lot of truth to what disgruntled writers have claimed for years.

 

 

A twisted and perverted read that will appeal to those with a wide dark streak of humor in them, this fun book is not for everyone. It will especially appeal to writers in general and mystery fans in particular as it takes shots at all the expected conventions of the genre. It most definitely is a change of pace from the serious noir mysteries that seem to be increasingly common these days. Twisted funny and flat out warped, this 56-page read is just fun as it punches out all the detective novel stereotypes one by one while managing to slap the reader upside the head with twist after twist after twist.


 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4a0x0Qp

 

Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2011, 2014, 2024