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Book Review – Midnight Torment, by L. Ann

Midnight Torment (Midnight Pack, #3)Midnight Torment by L. Ann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Each of the books in the Midnight Pack series is the story of one of the brother who rule the pack. First came Shaun, then Deacon, and finally, the Alpha, Cormac, gets his own tale. Midnight Torment ties up all of the threads that the author has strewn in the first two books in a most satisfactory manner. And the best part of all is just watching the Alpha be alpha! The author also leaves enough loose ends that you just know that this excellent series will continue. Maybe she can feature the distaff side of the pack next…

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My Latest Sherlock Holmes Story is Coming Soon!

My latest Sherlock Holmes short story, The Witch of Ellenby, will appear in Volume XVIII of the MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, which is being published as a set of three volumes, XVI to XVIII.  The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories is the world’s largest collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, and the theme of the stories in the latest three volumes is Whatever Remains… Must Be The Truth. This means that the stories must have a supernatural element, but the mystery must have a mundane explanation. The collection contains forewords from Sherlockian author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Roger Johnson of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

All of the stories in this collection are cannonical pastiches, which means that they are written in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories. The Witch of Ellenby is set in 1899. The majority of the action takes place in the village of Ellenby, in England’s beautiful Lakes District, where Holmes and Watson have been summoned to investigate a case of witchcraft. Steve Emecz of MX Publishing recently interviewed me about my contributions to the series and about my Natalie McMasters Mysteries (available on this website on The Books tab).

The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories is the brainchild of its editor, David Marcum, one of the world’s leading Sherlockians. In 2015, he wanted to create a new collection traditional Holmes stories in Conan Doyle’s original format, and partnered with MX Publishing to do so. The decision was taken to donate all of the royalties from the project to the Stepping Stones School for special needs children, housed at Conan Doyle’s former residence, Undershaw. As with previous volumes, all the royalties from the collection are being donated to Stepping Stones .  

The new books are currently available for pre-order at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mxpublishing/mx-book-of-new-sherlock-holmes-stories-vols-xvi-to-xviii) in hardback, paperback or electronic format until 5 September 2019. You are encouraged to pre-order, because this will help the publisher to defray publication and shipping costs. The three volumes will be published in October.

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Steam Geared – Victorian Steampunk Erotica, by Robinette Waterson

Steam Geared: Victorian Steampunk EroticaSteam Geared: Victorian Steampunk Erotica by Robinette Waterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I saw the words Victorian Steampunk Erotica, I wondered if they should ever belong together. Unfortunately, my answer is maybe not. I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s mastery of Victorian language and locutions (for me, that was the best feature of the book), and I thought that the weaving of the steampunk technology into the Victorian setting was artistic and imaginative. I didn’t enjoy the erotic scenes quite so much, because they seemed to focus on sensation more than emotion and some of the metaphors chosen seemed a bit contrived. But the actual reason that I downgraded the book a star is that I don’t think that the erotic scenes meshed with the plots of the stories very well-many of the stories would have been fine without them. I think I would have liked Steam Geared better if was solely Victorian Steampunk stories or solely erotica. However, I still recommend Steam Geared to those who like this sort of thing, primarily because of the quality of the writing.

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Book Review – The Bone Wall, by D. Wallace Peach

The Bone WallThe Bone Wall by D. Wallace Peach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

D. Wallace Peach bills The Bone Wall as a post-apocalyptic fantasy – “a work of fantasy in a world without vision or concern for consequence”. It’s a coming of age story and deals with innocence lost in a particularly abrupt and violent fashion when their protective enclave, protected by shield known as the Bone Wall, falls. It’s told from the POV of twin sisters, one dark, one righteous, bound to each other by powerful magic, who relate their adventures in the broken world and with its denizens. Predictably, the sisters seek to endow their world with a vision for the future and the ending does reflect some hope that things might change for the better.
Peach’s writing is often beautiful and even lyrical in places, but given the complexity of the world she’s created, sometimes the prose is not straightforward enough, leading to some confusion. She attempts to describe the philosophy, or lack thereof, that lead to the breaking of the world, sometimes to the story’s detriment. This leads to problems with the pacing, when I, the reader, want the story to move quickly but the author refuses to cooperate. But all in all, it’s a good read, and I will probably seek out some of the author’s other works in the future.


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Book Review – Indelible, by Karin Slaughter

Indelible (Grant County, #4)Indelible by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the fourth book in the Grant County series that I have read, and I’m obviously ambivalent. There’s something in the books that keeps me reading and I want to like them, but I just haven’t gotten the rush that I get from a book that I really like. This one starts with a bang, literally–two thugs break into police headquarters, shoot a cop in the face with a shotgun and wound other people, including protagonist Chief Jeffery Tolliver, and hold the rest of the occupants hostage, including protagonist Dr. Sara Linton and a bunch of grade school kids on an early morning visit. So this is going to be a suspenseful drama about a hostage situation, right? Well, not really, because the story flashes back to a trip that Jeffery and Sara made at the beginning of their relationship to his hometown in Alabama, where they become embroiled in small town drama and relationship issues. Of course, the mystery is how all of this relates to the taking of police headquarters in the present. We also have the tale of the third protagonist, Detective Lena Adams, who has rejoined the sheriff’s office on her first day back, and now must deal with the hostage situation on the outside. If it sounds confusing, that’s because it is. The mystery is eventually solved after many twists and turns, but by the time it was I almost didn’t care. The author seems to introduce plot twists by changing the direction of the story on a whim, getting the reader interested in one plot line then abruptly charging off in a different direction without providing a satisfactory resolution to the current one. The characters follow a similar path–they’re highly reactive, not very proactive. All of this engendered much confusion and frustration in me, the reader.
I do want to finish the series, mainly because Karin Slaughter is one of the most successful mystery authors in history, so she’s gotta be doing something right. But so far, it’s been a rough go. I hope she hits her stride soon.

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Book Review – A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

A Faint Cold Fear (Grant County, #3)A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was a disappointment, for several reasons. First, the story felt forced and fragmented. Some of the plot twists strained credulity and had a bit of a Deus ex machina air. Second, the author made a major gaffe, sustained over many pages, by confusing a shotgun with a rifle. I couldn’t believe this wasn’t caught by an editor in a traditionally published novel by a bestselling author from a major publishing house. The Remington Wingmaster was repeatedly referred to as a rifle and the terms caliber and gauge used interchangeably. The error was sufficiently serious and sustained to significantly detract from my enjoyment of the story. The author even thanked a source at the end of the book for educating her about shotgun terminology! Lastly, the characters’ angst actually became tiresome, mainly because they seemed to do little to overcome it. Reading about self- pity is never pleasurable. Character development was almost nil in this novel. I will read the rest of the books in the Grant County series, but I hope they’re significantly better than this one.

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Book Review – American Predator, by Maureen Callahan

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st CenturyAmerican Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

American Predator is an enlightening and horrifying look at the relatively unknown serial killer, Israel Keyes. His depraved history rivals that of people like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and BTK, but his name has been kept out of the limelight, largely because of agreements made between Keyes and the law enforcement community while the latter were interrogating him to discover just how many people he had killed. Keyes was especially terrifying because he had absolutely no victim preference – he chose his victims indiscriminately because of the god-like feeling such choices gave him. The author succeeds in horrifying the reader with her impartial and objective reporting derived from actual FBI interviews of the debacle that was Keyes’ capture and subsequent interrogation. She makes it clear that it’s very likely that Keyes never would have been identified if he had not made the mistake of hunting in his own backyard.

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Book Review – A Place of Execution by Val McDermid

A Place of ExecutionA Place of Execution by Val McDermid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Place of Execution is the best book I have read in quite a while. After reading the first few pages, I had to check to make sure it was indeed a novel and not a true crime story. It’s journalistic style heightens the suspense. While not a cozy, the author pays similar attention to details of setting and character as you would find in the best cozies. The plot is convoluted but believable, and truly horrifying because it is believable. I will surely have to read the rest of Val McDermid’s books.

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Book Review – Stormy Kind of Love by Tia Lee

Stormy Kind of LoveStormy Kind of Love by Tia Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Stormy Kind of Love is a book with potential. Unfortunately, it did not reach its potential, because it’s really unfinished. It’s a story about a young woman who has affairs with two men–one, a handsome bad boy and the other, your all-around good guy. These characters are well-thought out and have some depth, as do the important secondary characters. The plot is somewhat predictable, but this is a romance, so that is to be expected. The book falls down in two areas. It was obviously not professionally edited, as there are numerous typos, grammatical errors and formatting glitches. Also, it has two endings, one of them labeled the alternate ending. The alternate ending actually led to a Hitchcockian plot that could have really rocked, but I got the feeling that at that point, the author wanted to be done with book. I wish she had chosen one ending (the alternate had the best potential) and then spent the time to really polish the story. She could have had a five star book. As it is, I have to give it 2.5 stars, rounded up.

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Book Review – Kisscut, by Karin Slaughter

Kisscut (Grant County, #2)Kisscut by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kisscut is the second entry in Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series, and it is a gem. New depth is added to familiar characters, the action is taut, and the villains are villainous indeed, their actions disgusting and horrifying. The worst pat is the knowledge that people like that actually exist. My only complaint is that sometimes all of the subplots overwhelm the main plot, making the book a tad longer that it ought to be. I also found an egregious error involving someone trying to slip a magazine into a revolver, which should not have gotten past an editor in a traditionally-published book. But all-in-all, I enjoy the author’s work and intend to read the rest of the series.

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