Review: THE NIGHT FIRE by Michael Connelly

5 Stars

No such thing as a "case too cold" for former LAPD Detective Harry Bosch nor his recent collaborator,  night shift Detective Renee Ballard of Hollywood Division. Fresh from concluding a nine-year-old case, Bosch by serendipity acquires the Murder Book for a homicide occurring twenty-nine-years previously.  As he and Ballard delve into it diligently,  they discover overtones of LGBTQ involvement and the long-standing institutional racism and bigotry in the Department. Bosch and Ballard are like badgers, and no passage of time nor lack of evidence will deter when they are locked onto the pursuit of justice.

Review: WHAT MUST BE DONE [Jake Houser Series Prequel] by Bo Thunboe

I've long enjoyed the Jake Houser Series by Bo Thunboe.  Jake is an exceptional individual,  and as such is a special kind of detective,  one unafraid to break rules to solve cases. In this short story prequel,  he is confronted with the choice of cleaving to protocol,  or saving an abducted young girl.

Tour: NO ONE SAW by Beverly Long

4 Stars

In the second mystery starring small-town Wisconsin homicide detectives A. L. McKittridge and Rena Morgan,  a five-year-old inexplicably disappears from her day-care. Oddly,  the case bears a close resemblance to a case one hundred miles North, a decade earlier. Of course, the first forty-eight hours are crucial,  and while going sleepless to solve the case, A. L. and Rena still have to cope with domestic upheavals and elusive "persons of interest" and individuals who either outright lie or speak truth only selectively.

Review: THE REFLECTING POOL by Otto Eskin

5 Stars

Nowadays it's difficult to avoid connecting current events in Society and politics to what I read in fiction. Certainly this is the case with THE REFLECTING POOL,   which is the first in the new Marko Zorn series by Otto Eskin. What seems a simple homicide at Washington D.C.'s Reflecting Pool incites jurisdictional turf wars, which soon escalate to highest-level political interference. Additionally Zorn is caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of rival criminal organizations,  and must eventually face the metaphorical brick wall of the end of an investigation.

Tour: THE DARWIN AFFAIR by Tim Mason

5 Stars+!!

Historical Thriller 

Review:

How I devoured this special novel! Historical thriller,  factually grounded, with exciting characters and an unstoppable villain! Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin,  Prince Albert and the long-lived Queen Victoria,  as well as other historical personages and delightfully delineated fictional characters populate a plot with high-level Conspiracy,  theology vs. Science,  and implacable horror. I highly recommend THE DARWIN AFFAIR!!

Review: DEATH NIGHT by Todd Ritter

5 Stars

Back in Perry Hollow, Pennsylvania, danger ratchets high as someone seems determined to destroy the community's most historic buildings.  Arson after arson claims lives and destroys historic property.  Police Chief Kat Campbell and returned friend Henry Goss find themselves on the precipice of constant danger and fatality.

Review: DEATH FALLS by Todd Ritter

5 Stars

Welcome to Perry Hollow, Pennsylvania,  a quiet community some distance from Philadelphia, a town where not much happens--if you don't count a serial killer. Thankfully that's over with.  Now a former native son has returned.  Bestselling author Eric Olmstead is back to bury his mother, and honor her deathbed plea to "find Charlie," his older brother,  missing since age ten. Police Chief Kat Campbell and a former State Police detective get involved,  uncovering a series of homicides of young boys and a terrifying Denouement. 

Review: A MEASURE OF DARKNESS by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman [Clay Edison #2]

5 Stars

Clay Edison #2

I enjoyed this second in the Series by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman  more than the first installment, CRIME SCENE.  I think that protagonist Clay Edison seemed more endearing and well-rounded here, and I'm anticipating Book 3, HALF MOON BAY.  

Clay Edison is a Coroner's investigator in Alameda County,  California, returned to work after a temporary suspension in CRIME SCENE.  Clay is notable for his massive integrity and pursuit of justice tempered with mercy. It seems a villain has not a chance when Clay Edison sets his sights on uncovering truth and justice.

Review: THE MUSEUM OF DESIRE by Jonathan Kellerman

5 Stars

Alex Delaware Series #32

For the last couple of weeks I have been on a marathon read of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware Series (with side trips into two series co-authored with his son Jesse Kellerman). I've experienced a compulsion to ponder this quite extensive series,  and am reading all I can obtain.  So far, nary a disappointment.  Mr. Kellerman has a writing style which invites in the reader, then compels continuing.  Protagonist Alex Delaware--child psychological, part-time professor,  best friend of Gay top crime solver LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis, frequent police consultant on the "weird" cases--is a very likable hero. Laid-back, quiet, thoughtful,  high intellect,  eidetic recall [that latter not a positive considering the types of cases on which he consults]: a fitting foil to the often bull-in-a-China-shop Milo; divergent in appearances and personalities, but fast friends, both men of unassailable integrity. 

THE MUSEUM OF DESIRE is particularly intriguing,  laced with multiple unarguably psychopathic villains, international crime, and an especially ugly historical era, rejuvenated anew in L. A.'s illusory 21st Century.

Review: SINGAPORE KILLER by Murray Bailey

5 Stars

Commencing with an excellent and absorbing, reader's hook, SINGAPORE KILLER unravels an unusually executed mystery starring a laid-back private investigator,  formerly a member of a secretive military arm, tasked to investigate a helicopter crash, a missing pilot, and a murdered military policeman. 

What I particularly enjoyed about this Mystery was first, the almost Feckless protagonist,  who isn't arrogant,  vain, or egotistical,  but is quite intelligent and excellent at puzzling situations; and the perception of reading a classic Golden Age era Mystery.  The Singapore and environs setting and the historical era also made the story exotic and appealing.