Book Review: New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by MX Publishing   MX Publishing specializes in Sherlock Holmes-themed fiction and scholarship, and here are some of their recent releases.   A Baskerville Curse– Another Sherlock Holmes Alphabet, by P. James Macaluso, Jr.   This little book is a delightful adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, told […]

Book Review: The Irregular Adventures of Sherlock Holmes!; The New Adventures of Solar Pons: Tales of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street; Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Tales of a Retro Future; & Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Mechanical Men and Other Otherworldly Endeavors.   Belanger Books is a […]

Book Review: Sherlock Holmes is Everywhere!   This anthology takes a look at the various ways that Sherlock Holmes has influenced the real world. The essays in Sherlock Holmes is Everywhere! illustrate the different paths that brought the authors into the Sherlock Holmes fandom.  Some of them read the original stories as children, others later […]

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 […]