“Bloody Creek Murder” by Susan Clayton-Goldner #Mystery #BookReview #NewRelease

Bloody Creek Murder I’ve been following along the Winston Radhauser series since the beginning, and have been enjoying it more and more. In this, its sixth installment, the author does a particularly excellent job of combining mystery with family drama. The mixture both brings out the pathos of the interpersonal situation the characters find themselves […]

“River of Shame” by Susan Clayton-Goldner

River of Shame: A Winston Radhauser Mystery: #4 Susan Clayton-Goldner “River of Shame” is the fourth book in the Winston Radhauser series, and it continues the themes of the first three: family life and human relations, thrown into high relief by violent crime. The story starts a few months after the end of book #3, […]

“Innocent in Las Vegas” by A.R. Winters

Innocent in Las Vegas A.R. Winters Tiffany Black, Las Vegas croupier and aspiring PI, isn’t much good with guns or hand-to-hand combat. She’d much rather tuck into a nice chocolate muffin. But when an old-friend-turned-stripper-turned-trophy-wife asks her to solve the murder of the friend’s husband, she takes on the case when no one else will. […]

“Eleven on Top” by Janet Evanovich

Eleven on Top Janet Evanovich Poor Stephanie Plum! Bounty hunting, never her dream career, just isn’t doing it for her anymore. After rolling in garbage one time too many, she quits her job at her cousin Vinnie’s office, and tries to find something better. Which turns out to be easier said than done. Although the […]

“Brand New Friend” by Kate Vane

Brand New Friend Kate Vane Paolo (real name: Paul), a BBC journalist, discovers that an old college friend from his activist days is really an undercover police officer, who may or may not have “gone native.” Paolo ends up getting drawn back into their circle, and investigating old and new murders as he questions who […]

“Career of Evil” by Robert Galbraith

Career of Evil Robert Galbraith In “Career of Evil,” the third Cormoran Strike book, Galbraith/Rowling takes a decidedly macabre turn. While “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and “The Silkworm” were not without their gruesome aspects, they were as much satires of the entertainment industry in its various facets–modeling, tabloid reporting, fashion, publishing–as they were crime novels. “Career […]

“Tormented” by Susan Clayton-Goldner

Tormented Susan Clayton-Goldner With the plot of a priest in love with a woman who dies right after he confesses his love to her, you might be forgiven for thinking that “Tormented” is some kind of lurid story about priestly misdeeds. But, while priestly misdeeds do take place, the book is not titillating trash but […]

“The Silkworm” by Robert Galbraith

The Silkworm Robert Galbraith In “The Silkworm,” Robert Galbraith/J.K.Rowling’s second book in the Cormoran Strike series, Rowling deploys her considerable satirical powers against a target she must know intimately: the publishing industry. After solving the Lula Landry case in “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” Cormoran and his secretary-cum-partner Robin are now rolling in business, so Cormoran has […]

“The Cuckoo’s Calling” by Robert Galbraith

The Cuckoo’s Calling Robert Galbraith Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, everyone. Stop the presses, y’all, because J.K. Rowling is back. Okay, under a different name, but the sharp pen is very definitely the same. I always wondered what she would do once the “Harry Potter” franchise was done. She–very wisely, in my opinion–stopped the series after […]

“Longshot” by Dick Francis

Longshot Dick Francis John Kendall takes a job everyone else has turned down. But it seemed better than freezing. Only it sucks him straight into a murder mystery. “Longshot” is one of my very favorite Francis books, and it was just as good on the last reread. Written in 1990, right when Francis was at […]

E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman

Murder mystery