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 […]
Many of us longtime fans of the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford have expected a spin off series featuring his adopted daughter, Letty. That series is now here with the first book, The Investigators: A Letty Davenport Novel which releases in April. In the aftermath of a black bag style operation for Senator […]
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 […]
Imagine writing a book about a place you completely made up in your mind and it is becoming a popular best seller. Everything is as going well. You imagine your star role as being the handsome cover model as the character called “Dash”. This is how author Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) is known as an […]
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 […]
As Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins begins, it is summer and Spenser’s latest client is a politician. Carolina Garcia-Ramirez is seeking reelection. Her campaign manager, Kyle Rosen, wants Spenser involved to deal with threats. Some folks have made it very clear that they are not going to tolerate […]
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 […]
I have always been a huge fan of a good horror film. I loved sitting in a dark room with some popcorn and turning on a huge thriller. The scarier, the better it was for me. I would sometimes jump at the parts that make people love them the best and spill popcorn all over […]
I remember watching the 1984 version of this movie starring Drew Barrymore and George C Scott and David Keith about a little girl with extraordinary abilities to start a fire when she gets upset or mad. Well in this version of “Firestarter” a new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic thriller about a little girl, Charlie, […]
.0When two complete strangers meet each of them, Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) had just found out their respective partners Anne (Gina Rodriguez) and Noah (Scott Eastwood) over the same weekend. As if being miserable wasn’t enough, they both see their exes have both moved on with others on social media. Anne with […]
This movie, Marry Me, is a movie about celebrity, marriage and social media. I am a fan of Jennifer Lopez and this movie, Marry Me, stars Jennifer as musical superstar Kat Valdez and Own Wilson as Charlie Gilbert who is a Math teacher. Now, who would ever expect a school teacher and a superstar to […]
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 […]
After a brief introduction by editor Michael Bracken, Black Cat Mystery Magazine #10 opens with “The Last Gasp” by H.K. Slade. With the department short staffed and three gang related shootings that morning, Senior Detective Ambrose Broyhill is out in the heat at a murder scene that hardly has any police presence. Once officer, who […]
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 […]
Sometimes a line in a story or book resonates deep inside the reader. This one did. “’Davis, I’ll tell you something. They ain’t nothin’ worse than missing a woman.’” (Page 146) Former Charleston Police Officer Davis Reed is missing a woman and much of his life due to pills, alcohol, anger and anxiety […]
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 […]
Detectives Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch return in The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly. It is New Year’s Eve and as 2020 ends LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Detective Lisa Moore of the Hollywood Division Sexual Assault Unit are unhappily partnered together and parked under the concrete lanes of the Cahuenga overpass. Moore is grumbling, […]
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 […]
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 […]
It is 2058 as Vengeance in Death begins and Homicide Lieutenant Eve Dallas is wrapping up her latest case in New York. She thinks she is done for the day and is looking forward to going home to Roarke and a weekend off. That is until the strange phone call comes in on her tele-link. […]
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 […]
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