“The Ophelia Cut” (Atria Books), by John Lescroart A young woman makes a bad decision and her father ends up a murder suspect in “The Ophelia Cut,” John Lescroart’s latest courtroom drama featuring defense attorney Dismas Hardy. Brittany McGuire meets a man in a coffee shop and realizes he’s a loser after one date. Rick Jessup starts harassing her, demanding another chance. [...]
Archive | Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Ten Best of 2012
If you’re already missing 2012, here are my ten favorite reads from last year, in no particular order. Don’t let another minute of the new year go by without taking a look! JACK 1939, Francine Mathews It’s the spring of 1939, and the prospect of war in Europe looms large. The United States has no [...]
SO WEST; DESERT JUSTICE VOLUME 4
IN VOLUME 4 OF THE NEW DESERT SLEUTHS ANTHOLOGY THE STORY TELLING IS STRONG, DIVERSE AND TRULY ENJOYABLE. BY BEING NEITHER COZY OR NOIR THESE STORIES STILL WEAVE A THRILLING AND CHARMING QUILT OF DEATH AND VENGEANCE. OUR HEAT-BLASTED LANDSCAPE IS EXPLOITED FULLY IN THESE 20 TALES. FROM RATTLERS TO MOUNTAINS TO MONSOONS, THERE IS [...]
“This is the best piece of writing I’ve ever done. I love this novel. ” – William Kent Krueger on ORDINARY GRACE
From Kent: Sometimes a story comes to you. It just comes. And even though your energies are all at work on another project and you try to close the door against the intrusion, the story simply won’t go away. For me, that story was Ordinary Grace. Set in summer of 1961 in a small town [...]
THE NINTH STEP BY GRANT JERKINS
Grant Jerkins first novel, “A Very Simple Crime” was one of the best books of 2011. It is soon to become a major motion picture. His newest book, due out this month, is a clever and witty story about an alcoholic woman with a secret. During a drunken episode she causes the death of a [...]
HEART-BREAK NOIR AND THE EXTREME EDGE OF HUMAN LONGING (early notes) BY STEVE SHADOW
“Heart-break” is a self-coined term for what is commonly lumped under the general rubric of “Noir”. In my interpretation it refers to a literary sub-genre that sways between ill defined tropes and teems with people in various stages of terminal suffering. These characters wander in ignorance of their needs and desires; victims of their own [...]
SUMMER READS FOR THE CHILD (OR YOUNG ADULT) IN ALL OF US
If you’re headed to the beach wishing you could re-read The Hunger Games, Harry Potter or Percy Jackson and the Olympians again for the first time, you’re not alone. For some reason, the start of summer always puts me in the mood for young adult books. Some of these recommendations are written with even younger [...]
THE NOVELS OF WAYNE ARTHURSON: A SHADOW REVIEW
Like the Alberta Clipper that blows out of Canada and changes our weather, Wayne Arthurson has swept down from the frozen plains of Edmonton and altered the crime fiction scene. In “Fall From Grace”, the first of two novels featuring newspaper man Leo Desroches, Arthurson has given us a wholly original character. Leo is a half [...]
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins – A SHADOW Review
Ace Atkins novel, the Edgar-nominated “The Ranger”, was the first in a new series. This slam-bang modern “western” told the story of Quinn Colson, ex-army ranger, and his return to his home in Tibbehah County, Mississippi. Now comes the sequel; a page-turning edge-of-your seat thriller that deepens and broadens the first book. ”The Lost Ones” finds Quinn [...]
POWERS OF ARREST BY JON TALTON A Shadow Review
In Jon Talton’s first “Cincinnati Casebook” novel “The Pain Nurse” he showed us the city of Cincinnati, warts and all, and introduced two compelling characters; Will Borders, a homicide detective, and Cheryl Beth Wilson, a gifted pain management nurse. Borders, in the hospital following surgical removal of a spinal tumor, is left incapacitated and in [...]