Book and Puzzle Review: Cain’s Jawbone: A Novel Problem   Cain’s Jawbone is a unique book and puzzle.  The title comes from the first recorded murder weapon.  The premise is irresistible.  A one hundred page-long novella, with all of the pages out of order.  The goal is to rearrange the pages into the correct order– […]

Book Review: The Last Thing She Remembers   When a woman claiming to suffer from amnesia wanders into an English village, the aftershocks of her arrival will change the town forever.  Who is she?  Does she really have amnesia, or is she lying?  This is the opening premise of J.S. Monroe’s The Last Thing She […]

Book Review: The Inspector Dover Novels   DCI Wilfred Dover is lazy, unhygienic, rude, gluttonous, ill-tempered, sticky-fingered, and one of the most entertaining detectives of twentieth-century crime fiction.  His creator, Joyce Porter, wrote ten novels and several short stories featuring Scotland Yard’s most boorish and crude sleuth, along with two other series featuring an amateur […]

Book Review: A Woman Condemned: The Tragic Case of Anna Antonio   After reading the title of this book, it may seem as if this historical overview of a 1930’s crime intends to exonerate the titular defendant.  As the story progresses, however, James M. Greiner makes it clear that he is not declaring Anna Antonio […]

Book Review: One Day You’ll Burn   One Day You’ll Burn manages to achieve something few novels manage to succeed at doing: create a palpable sense of atmosphere and place.  Not only that, but it manages to do so without being heavy-handed or overblown.  Focusing on a grisly crime in Los Angeles, Joseph Schneider paints […]

  Book Review: Jane Goes North   By Chris Chan   Jane Goes North, by Joe R. Lansdale, is a comic, picaresque novel where the title character goes on a road trip to her estranged sister’s wedding.  As is often the case, the story is more about the journey than the destination, but it’s not […]

Book Review: One More Lie   The murder of a child is a horrible tragedy.  When a child is murdered by other children, that’s horrific.  These visceral socio-cultural reactions form the backbone of One More Lie, the story of a convicted killer who just wants a normal life after being released from prison.   As […]

Book Review: Agatha Christie’s Golden Age: An Analysis of Poirot’s Golden Age Puzzles   There are many books that summarize the novels of Agatha Christie, but while many companion works address the plots, John Goddard’s book purports to be the first to analyze the placement of clues and how the novels work as fair play […]

Book Review: Paper Son: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Novel   Paper Son is the latest in S.J. Rozan’s Lydia Chin series, about a Chinese-American private detective based in New York who works with her investigative partner Bill Smith.  In this book, Lydia is drawn out of her familiar metropolis when her mother pressures her to […]

THE PARIS DIVERSION By Chris Pavone New York: Crown, 2019. $27.00 Chris Pavone burst onto the thriller scene with his 2012 debut The Expats. Drawing rave reviews for its compelling setting, devious plot twists, and unique take on the spy genre, The Expats became a New York Times bestseller. Pavone’s next two books, stand-alone novels […]

3 Women 4 Towns 5 Bodies & Other Stories By Townsend Walker Deeds Publishing 2019 $18.95     Townsend Walker’s collection of short fiction, 3 Women 4 Towns 5 Bodies & Other Stories, is a compilation of tales reflecting numerous different women, their lives, their loves, their hates, their crimes, and their plotting. The title […]