Burt Collins is just one of those difficult folks that Sheriff Dan Rhodes has to deal with on a daily basis. Burt Collins has a very narrow view of the world and Rhodes has to listen to him complain and demand action. His latest issue is that he doesn’t like the artists that have shown [...]

After a short introduction to the book by, publisher J. Alan Hartman, it is on to the twelve short stories. Some are written by names you may recognize. Others by names that are unfamiliar to you. All authors involved have weaved a complex tale very worthy of their inclusion in The Untreed Detectives anthology released [...]

Editor Jochem Vandersteen crafted a very good read with The Shamus Sampler and does it again with The Shamus Sampler II. The 13 stories in the book are all good ones though they go about things in very different ways. By doing so the authors show in very practical terms the argument put forth by [...]

Does the profession of real estate sales turn someone into a burglar, or, does a burglar one day realize, “Hey, I can make off like a bandit if I sell homes!”? Ray Glen Greene, 49, was a real estate agent in Cobb County, Georgia, who’d use his agent keycode to get into houses and steal [...]

I am pretty sure that Casey Anthony told a judge at her bankruptcy hearing that there had been no dealings for a book telling her story. Now a man named Rick Namey is claiming that he was working with Anthony and her attorney, Cheney (Mr. Finger) Mason up until the day before the day before [...]

Warning – This article contains spoilers and is a story more than a review! I have been a fan of John Ford since the very early 70’s, The Strawbs were one of my favorite bands. I have lost count of how many articles I have written about this band and the effect they had on [...]

Whom better than a burglar knows what a great way to find a victim is? Edith Cowan University in Australia interviewed 69 burglars. One of their favorite methods of finding a target is to search social media for vacation updates. You can extrapolate that it wouldn’t be a bright idea to reveal travel plans on [...]

The more technological advanced we become, the higher the degree the potential exists for an invasion of our privacy. Imagine how difficult it must have been for people’s personal information to get stolen—10,000 years ago. We now live in a world where someone half-way around it from you can nab your most personal information in [...]

Linda Frank has just published her third book, Secrets In The Fairy Chimneys. This is another installment in the Annie Tillery Mystery series aimed at the YA (Young Adult) audience. You can read my review here. I had the opportunity to sit down with Linda Frank and discuss not only Secrets In The Fairy Chimneys, [...]

Summertime is here…and that means sunshine and vacations. Most people love summertime, including scammers! Hackers can use this time to take advantage while we are planning vacations or on vacation or just enjoying fun in the sun. Here are some key scams to watch out for this summer: Family or Friend Requests Money You receive [...]

CHAPTER 14 And yet another experiment I will once again flag this as NSFW (Not Suitable For Work). Sam is a very creative writer – Simon Charles entered into the foyer of Anne’s apartment and she bear hugged him and then stuck her tongue down his throat and just as quickly recoiled in anger. “You [...]

It’s as easy for hackers to phish out your personal data as it is to sit in a canoe on a still pond, cast the bait and wait for the fish to bite. So many people fail to learn about phishing scams, a favorite and extremely prevalent scam among cybercriminals. A type of phishing scam [...]

An Annie Tillery Mystery This is third book that Linda Maria Frank has published in her Annie Tillery series. People love to put books in genres and the publisher has deemed that Secrets In The Fairy Chimneys is Juvenile Fiction. I personally would have labeled it YA (Young Adult), but that is of no matter. [...]

The latest collection of eight stories edited by Todd Robinson features the noir tales one expects from the Thuglit series. Whether it be fate that puts these characters in bad situations, bad decisions as that simplistic Facebook meme that some folks must unthinkingly share week in and week out, or just being in the wrong [...]

A credit freeze locks down your credit report so lenders can’t see your scores, making your credit/SSN useless to them because they don’t know their risk level. If thieves get ahold of your ID, they can’t get credit in your name as long as your credit is frozen. Freezing your credit will seal your credit [...]

What a sad story. Apparently the Calgary, Alberta Police are now treating this missing persons case involving 5 year old Nathan O’Brien and his grandparents, Kathryn and Alvin Liknes, as a homicide case. After two weeks the case has been a mystery to everyone not knowing where the three are. Today a break in the [...]

Not many books on religion are both inspiring AND humorous.  “The First Book of Mimi” by Daniel Aldouby is such a book, and the result is a delightful read for readers of most every age. The premise of the book requires imagination on the part of the reader to grasp its meaning.  An eighteen year [...]

I was smitten by this story from the first time author Damien Lewis mentioned it to me. A true tale of derring do and the bond between a man and his dog during World War II. One of the things I love about Damien Lewis is the level of research that he puts into his [...]

Imagine waking up at 3:35 in the morning to a knock at your door only to find two small children ages 5 and 8 telling you that something was wrong with their mother. Well that was what happened to a neighbor this morning according to Jefferson Parish’s Sheriff Newell Normand. When the police arrived to [...]

When I was a kid growing up in Northeast Dallas my parents always took us camping on the winter breaks as well as during the summers. Not only did we do a bunch of parks and sites here in Texas we spent weeks at a time up in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. My dad was [...]

How can anyone disappear out of thin air? It seems that it happens a lot when you look at the missing persons list. I receive notices every day about a young child disappearing and they can’t be found. Cases I have covered like for little HaLeigh Cummings and Adji Desir both from Florida to name [...]

What is data synchronization? This technology synchronizes data between two or more computers and/or the cloud and automatically copies changes that are transacted between devices. File synchronization is used for home or small business backups when the user copies files to a flash drive or external hard drive. The synching prevents creating duplicate files. For [...]

When a person vanishes and the body never turns up the usual assumption by law enforcement is that the person took off for a better life somewhere else. This is especially true if the missing person is female, young, and living in a place with limited opportunity. If it wasn’t for a young couple by [...]

For Matt Hodges this Tuesday morning finds him in what has become a common place event as What Happens In Reno by Mike Monson opens. Waking up in the car in the parking lot of the old Denny’s just north of downtown Modesto, California after yet another hard night of drinking and bar hopping. Going [...]

A 93-year-old woman survived Hurricane Sandy, but not before her family went through hell wondering if she was alive, being that her landline was down and she had no cellphone. Lesson learned: Elderly people who live alone should have a cellphone. This technology is available; use it. Texting With today’s technology, it’s easier than ever [...]

If a stranger stopped you on the street and requested your e-mail address and birthdate, would you give it to that person? A rational person would never give up this information. This is the same guard you should have when giving out your personal information to set up an online account, setting up a social [...]

Wolf Dillard had been having a great carnal dream involving himself and a local waitress until he was woken up by a very loud screech. A screech in the night that continued long  after he awoke and seemed to sort of contain words in some sort of unintelligible language. Wolf made his way through his [...]

In Putnam County, Georgia, a crazed killer may be on the loose (if he’s not already in another state by now). He (and maybe he had an accomplice) beheaded Russell Dermond, 88. Nobody knows why. At the time his decapitated body was found, his wife, Shirley, 87, was missing. But two weeks later her body [...]

If you’ve ever seen a movie where the bad guys are using ongoing, invasive hacking to spy on their “enemy,” you have some familiarity with an advanced persistent threat (APT). This term usually refers to an attack carried out by a group that targets a specific entity using malware and other sophisticated techniques to exploit [...]

CHAPTER 13 When you’re hot, you’re very hot (Note from the editor, this is NSFW Not Suitable For Work – Simon) Lucy said she didn’t want to go to the wine bar, that she had something else in mind. She asked him to follow her and within a few seconds they were right back in [...]