High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news.
Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 4, Spring 2022 is billed as The Detective Issue and opens with “Poor Little Rich Man: A Sam Harrigan Story” by Editor Brandon Barrows. P.I. Sam Harrigan is awakened in his office by somebody at his door. That man was Mark Cole who as an actor. Now he is dead […]
Shadows Reel: A Joe Picket Novel by C. J. Box begins the day before Thanksgiving. It has been a few weeks since recent events (Dark Sky: A Joe Pickett Novel) and Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is still recovering though he is back to work. He is feeling the aches and pains as his body […]
To Serve, Protect, and Write: Cops Writing Crime Fiction Volume 1 features 15 tales written by current or former members of law enforcement. While the preponderance of the tales included here feature stories on the bob, many do not. This anthology features an international assemblage of authors reflecting experience in law enforcement around the globe […]
It is early December as Nothing to Lose: A J. P. Beaumont Novel by J.A. Jance begins and Mel wants J.P. to put out the Christmas decorations as he will be home for the day. Mel is the chief of police and has her duties along with meetings with the mayor and the city council […]
It has been said the play is the thing. For Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD, murder is the thing. On a rare night out with her husband, Roarke, she is treating the play on the stage as a murder case. While the original Witness for the Prosecution came out around 1952, the cast has […]
There have always been those who would seek to overthrow a government, a political system, by any violent means necessary. In the year of 2059 that holds true just as it does today. The mission is their own greed and power and such forces never consider the blood of the innocents. Such is the situation […]
The new book by author Richard Helms, A Kind And Savage Place is a prequel to Six Mile Creek and others that are part of the Judd Wheeler series. While Judd plays a role in this book that runs from 1942 to 1989, he is not the central character. Instead, this is a book […]
After a short introduction to the anthology, Crimeucopia: Tales From The Back Porch opens with “Accidents Will Happen” by Penny Hurrell. Rob has a plan for his Saturday and it involves food, his television, and a sporting event. It did not involve Martin and his failed marriage. That plan for his Saturday begins to fall […]
Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue Three, Winter 2022 opens with “Oksana” by Robb T. White. Miko has a plan for he and Frank to make some money thanks to a spy camera and the wealthy women who come to the hotel. It could have worked. Stacy also has a plan to get rich in “Soft […]
Place of Wrath and Tears: River City Book 6 by Frank Zafiro deals primarily with the trauma of a school shooting. The event is depicted through the point of view of several of the characters involved, including the shooters, and the officers who respond. As such this is not a book for everyone as for […]
City Problems: An Ed Runyon Mystery by Steve Goble takes several classic tropes and generates a compelling read. Ed Runyon left the NYPD after the search for a missing teenager ended in her brutal and savage murder. Haunted by his failure to save that girl from her torture and death, Runyon ended up in Ohio […]
Conspiracy in Death opens in January 2059 and technology drives nearly everything. As always in every society, there are the haves and have nots. The haves have the access to needed medical care and can avoid cancer, catch diseases early, and live lives far beyond the current normal life span length. The poor do not […]
It is May 2020 as Monument: Willie Black Mystery Series by Howard Owen begins and just a few days after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody occurred in Minneapolis. There have been Black Lives Matter protests all across the county and that includes Richmond, Virginia, where reporter Willie Black has been […]
Faye Rapoport DesPres earned her MFA from the Solstice Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College and has published creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in a variety of literary journals. Faye’s first book, Message From a Blue Jay, is a personal essay collection published by Buddhapuss Ink in 2014. A lifelong wildlife advocate and animal lover, Faye […]
Frazier, the Very Special Cat is a sweet, heart-warming story for young children! It teaches love for animals, counting, the senses, and encourages discussion and problem-solving. Frazier is a stray blond tabby not doing very well on his own, but things get worse when he gets hurt. Fortunately, the author is able to trap him and […]
UTube: Inspector Mislan and the Emancipatist Conspiracy by Rozlan Mohd Noor is the third read in the police procedural series based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Inspector Mislan and Detective Sergeant Johan are brought into an ongoing case when a friend of a sexual assault victim dies. That is the second attack in a case that […]
Much like this reviewer, NYSPD Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas is not a fan of Christmas or the season itself. Too many people, too many massive crowds, too much chaos. It is the final weeks of 2058 and now she is very annoyed to discover she is supposed to select gifts for other people, including her […]
Guilty Crime Story Magazine: Issue 2, Fall 2021, opens with “At Fury Crossing” by Brent Spencer. Hella, a homeless vet, put her military skills to work to help Cliff. It was a job and nothing more. Now as she watches him get increasingly agitated outside the hotel known as “The Smiling Orchid,” she realizes she […]
Robert B. Parker’s Stone’s Throw: A Jesse Stone Novel by Mike Lupica finds Jesse Stone missing drinking as well as Sunny Randall. They are in a relationship time out and she is out in Los Angeles working a case. That means she is far from home and working for an old boyfriend, Tony Gault. He […]
Mystery Weekly Magazine: September 2020 opens with “Cult of Personality” by Nick Legrand. John Fielding has a job interview with Mr. Roger Martin Mathis of the billboards and the giant smiling face with tag line, “WE’LL GET HIM FOR YOU!” A lot is riding on this interview and Mr. Fielding is feeling the stress from […]
A Good Day For Chardonnay: A Novel by Darynda Jones is the second read in the series that began in A Bad Day For Sunshine. It was in that book that readers were introduced to the quirky town of Del Sol, the newly elected sheriff Sunshine Vicram, and her family. While some things were resolved […]
It has been fifteen years since Ike Randolph walked out of Coldwater State Penitentiary. He changed his life and built a business. He has a good life now, but he is still a black man in America with all that entails. Cops on the doorstep does not bode well. Their arrival means that his world […]
It is the middle of September 2019 as The Night Hawks: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths begins and locals are on a spit of land jutting out into the North Sea. It is dangerous to be out on the spit of land as the tide is coming in, but the group is out […]
A murder has happened again in the same areas as others as The Silenced Woman: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery by Frederick Weisel begins. For Violent Crime Investigations (VCI) leader Eddie Mahler, the body on the bench in Spring Lake Park, Santa Rosa, California, is clearly yet another kill by a man he has […]
It is early September 2019 as Jordan’s Branch: A Willie Black Novel by Howard Owen begins. Reporter Willie Black knew that Stick Davis has been dead for quite a while when he sees the body. More than half a dozen times somebody shot the man. Once someone had thoroughly through ventilated Stick David, he or […]
DUKE: Inspector Mislan and The Expressway Murders by Rozlan Mohd Noor is the second in the series that began with 21 Immortals: Inspector Mislan and the Yee Sang Murders. This book is also set during a holiday. In this case, it is about to be the Eid or the Hari Raya holiday at the end […]
Mick Hardin, an agent in the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), is back home in the Kentucky hills as The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt begins. Home on leave with a family problem that is not going to get fixed by drinking himself to sleep each night, he is at his grandfather’s place. That makes […]
Painters Mill, Ohio, Police Chief Kate Burkholder has responded to a lot of crime scenes. The one at room 9 of the Willlowdell Motel as Fallen: A Kate Burkholder Novel by Linda Castillo begins is one of the worst she has ever seen in her career. From the carnage, it is clear that the woman […]
Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch had a plan for the day as Dead By Dawn: A Novel by Paul Doiron begins. The plan is a vet visit for Shadow. The hybrid wolf/dog needs a vet visit as he continues to recover from recent events. Bowditch may also have to relocate Shadow from the acre […]
Dead of Winter: A Novel by Stephen Mack Jones reflects the way things are changing in local neighborhoods all across the United States. Places that were ignored for years and residents were left to fend for themselves are now the cool place to be and rehabbers and others are snapping up properties. Some homes are […]
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