Coming in February 2015, a mystery for a winter day.
Good reading and Happy New Year.
Book Review-Running With Wild Blood-Gerrie Ferris Finger | Miki's Hope
For those with an interest in crime
Monday, January 26, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
OSCAR NOMINATIONS -- 2014
I am not familiar with most of the actors, and the only movie I want to see is The Imitation Game, although I think Benedict Cumberbatch is strange-looking. JMHO
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Coming January 21, RUNNING WITH WILD BLOOD
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Coming January 21, RUNNING WITH WILD BLOOD
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
THE LAST TEMPTATION - a Review
The Last Temptation
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Five Star, August 2012.
978-1-4328-2589-8
Hardcover
Moriah Dru, the heroine of the second book of a series featuring
Moriah and Atlanta Police Detective Richard Lake, has her own P.I.
agency and often works for the court. Her specialty is finding people,
especially missing children. In this instance, that of a nasty
divorce/child custody case, a woman and her teenage daughter go
missing in Palm Springs, California. Dru is sent to find them and to
bring young Linley Whitney home to her custodial father.
It isn’t long before Dru discovers this is not a routine case. Is
Linley’s mother, Eileen, alive or dead? If she’s dead, did Bradley
Whitney have his wife killed? Why? And then, more importantly, just
who is Bradley?
When Eileen’s blood is discovered at her present husband’s house, Dru
has almost too many suspects to chose from. Cross-dressers, perverts
of all sorts, an Indian princess, a fake Frenchman, a policeman named
Dartagnan.
The book is full of action and suspense; the mystery will keep you
guessing. The settings are good, the characters better. I’ll be
reading more by Gerrie Ferris Finger.
Reviewed by Carol Crigger, April 2013.
Author of Three Seconds to Thunder.
Reprinted from Buried Under Books.
Regards,
Lelia
Lelia Taylor
Creatures 'n Crooks / Buried Under Books
http://cncbooksblog.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
BLOOD, ASH & BONE - a Carl Brookins Review
Blood, Ash
& Bone
by Tina
Whittle
A 2013 HC release
from Poisoned Pen Press.
285 pages
Tai Randolph is an unusual character. She’s a southern
gun-shop owner with her own set of tattoos and a questionable background. She
also sports intimate contacts in her past with some seriously evil people,
people like KKK members, like gun and booze runners. She’s also one of the go-to
merchandisers of authentic costuming and equipment for Civil War re-enactors.
This novel is Randolph’s third adventure.
There are big re-enactment doings coming up and Randolph has
to pack up merchandise to set up at the Southeast Civil War Expo in Savannah.
The first problem is her history. Savannah is her home town, seat of her family
and scene of some of Tai’s most notorious escapades.
Complications arise almost immediately when her ex-lover a
scallywag biker-cum-independent entrepreneur enlists her aid in retrieving a
long-sought Bible, once thought to have been in the possession of both President
Lincoln and General Sherman. Is it real or just a Maguffin? If it’s real, it’s
worth a ton of money. According to John, Tai’s ex-boyfriend, the bible has been
purloined by Tai’s ex-roommate, Hope. Hope and John were a heavy item some time
ago but that relationship seems to have cooled.
Enter Tai’s current main squeeze, a seriously hot but damaged
ex-cop, now a security expert for an upscale security firm in Atlanta. He
obviously is highly suspicious of anything Tai’s ex boyfriend touches,
especially Tai. Now add some layers of interesting active honest and criminally
inclined citizens, some with too much money at hand and you have as rich a gumbo
as any reader could ask for.
The story is fast-paced, clean and highly evocative of the
place. Whether you’ve been to Savannah or not readers will revel in the city
scenes and waterfront activity. Whittle knows her characters, her setting and
how to tell a fine story. This one is an excellent novel.
A copy of the novel was supplied free of charge by the
publisher.
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com,
Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
ORDINARY GRACE - a Carl Brookins Review
Ordinary Grace
By William Kent KruegerISBN: 1-978-4516-4582-8
A March 2013 Atria release in
HC and as an e-book.
To maintain complete transparency, Mr. Krueger and I are
long-time friends, we frequently travel together as the Minnesota Crime Wave,
and I received a pre-release copy of this book at no cost to
me.
“Ordinary Grace” is a standalone novel, a project the
author has long desired to write. The book is considerably different from his
multiple-award-winning Cork O’Connor series. It benefits from everything the
author has learned over the years writing that series. It is directly and
powerfully written, wasting no words, yet always moving the characters and the
story ahead at appropriate pace, depending on the actions of the characters and
the plot.
Set in a small community in southern Minnesota in 1961,
this is how the story begins: “All the dying that summer began with the death of
a child, a boy with golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks
outside New Bremen, Minnesota.” The narrator is an adult white male, son of the
Methodist minister in town. Frank is recalling the momentous events of that
bygone summer when he was but thirteen years old, a teen-ager on the cusp of
young maturity. The death of that child sets in motion events and revelations of
suppressed attitudes that alter the lives and futures of many people in the
town. Some of the people affected are important and wealthy, others, as plain
and ordinary as one could imagine. Yet everyone in the novel is required to come
to terms to greater or lesser degree, with who they are and how they must relate
to family, friends, members of their faith, and how they function in the wider
yet limited community. What Frank learns that summer, and equally importantly,
how he sees and interprets the evil and the grace of that time, will affect him
for his entire life. It’s an important lesson.
Krueger’s writing, as always, is smooth and strong and
the logic of the plot is easy to follow. While the story has many layers, there
are no convoluted or tricky passages readers will have to struggle to interpret.
That’s part of the book’s charm and its strength.
The novel explores faith, mysticism, and rationality in
thoughtful, even-handed and open ways that lend itself to recollection and
continuing reflection, regardless of readers’ experiences in those areas of
life. The characters, and there are many, are carefully and consistently
well-drawn. This is a novel of discovery and exploration, for the author and for
readers. Well done.
Carl Brookins Reunion, Red Sky, Case of the Great Train Robbery www.carlbrookins.com carlbrookins@comcast.net
Sunday, April 21, 2013
E. T. Phone Istanbul
Here is the second in the oddball museums from around the world. From the Associated Press and Rense.com. Also an announcement about the United States Area 51 in Roswell, N.M..
THE INTERNATIONAL UFO MUSEUM
Istanbul, Turkey
MUSEUM AND EXHIBITION SECTION
In this section, hundreds of UFO incidents and a wide range of information about the UFO's and E.T's are exhibited in separate divisions, by means of photographs, pictures, illustrations and written documents-texts both in Turkish and English. These include:
The UFO Chronicle of the world and worldwide sighting map, information and animations on the archaeological ruins and traces and epigraphs/inscriptions/ tablets, ancient cultures and their connections to E.T's, Crop Circles, Area 51 and other secret bases, Abductions, Animal Mutulations, top secret official documents, NASA cover-ups, MARS, research and analysis reports of important institutions and universities, types of aliens and UFO's, Roswell, Aztec,Varginha ..etc incidents, national and international newspaper-magazine articles and periodical archieves, worldwide UFO reports and related issues.....etc.
Moreover, there are six separate divisions in the Museum, in which various UFO incidents are represented by models and statues and explained both in Turkish and in English. These representations include:
* The models of archaelogical ruins / traces / marks which reveal the UFO phenomenon
* Representation of Roswell incident by models, replicas and statues.
* Representation of autopsy done on Roswell aliens
* Representation of an experiment done by aliens on an abductee
* Statues of various types of Aliens, based on the information of observation reports
* Models of various types of UFOs based on the information of observation reports.
LIBRARY
People willing to get information and do research about UFOs, Extraterrestrial Life and the Universe, have the opportunity to benefit from our library, in which there are over 1,000 books and magazines, both in English and Turkish. Reading tables are also available.
VIDEO-VCD-DVD VIEWING ROOM AND MEETING ROOM
Visitors have the opportunity to watch various related documentaries and films both in English and Turkish ...
Moreover, there will be periodical conferences and seminars about UFO's and related issues, given by our national and international guest speakers..
ALSO, WE ARE ASKING YOUR KIND SUPPORT!
Our International UFO Museum is seeking evidence, literature, proof of alien visitations of Earth, photos, videos, DVD's, books, texts, any kind of related materials that are written, audio and visual formats for our permanent public exhibits..
So, we kindly ask your cooperation and support and are expecting to receive your donations to this highly important International Project. If you have anything related to UFOs, ETs, Area 51, Abductions, Crop Circles, Animal Mutulations,....etc and wish to donate them, please send them to our address below.. Any contributions of information or research materials and artifacts that can be made available to our Museum are greatly appreciated by all especially the public we serve.
People who are going to make donations will be honoured by an "Appreciation Certificate" and their names will be announced on the "Appreciation Board " in the entrance of the Museum.
Through this important Project ,which will be the first of its kind in Eastern- Europe, Balkans and Midle-East, the UFO & E.T phenomenon will become widely known by not only the Turkish citizens and the citizens of this broad region, as well as by millions of people coming to Istanbul from all over the world.
By taking your stance as a citizen of this Planet and by standing together, the whole Truth will be known!
THE INTERNATIONAL UFO MUSEUM
Istanbul, Turkey
Located
in the historical city of Istanbul , the International UFO Museum Roswell ,
N.M.
Meanwhile in the United States the famous Roswell site will be unveiled, according to The Smithsonian-affiliated National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. It will be the first-ever Area 51 exhibit, and it will be loaded with UFO and possible extraterrestrial-related items.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
A Museum that Sucks
Mustard? Cockroaches? Lunchboxes? German sausages? These aren't your typical museums. And yet these wacky attractions not only capture the imagination but make for a very unique day out. ABC News has compiled a list of the top 18 that are worth a visit.
The Vacuum Museum
Nottinghamshire, England
This former coal mining town will no longer be known for its dust and grime. Britain Hoovers
Nottinghamshire is the birthplace of David Herbert Lawrence. Wonder what he would have to say about a museum founded -- as claimed by Mister Brown -- on Britain's failure to acknowledge that the vacuum cleaner promoted hygiene.
Better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions. - D. H. Lawrence
or
I like to write when I feel spiteful.. It is like having a good sneeze. - D. H. Lawrence.
Gerrie Ferris Finger
THE END GAME
THE LAST TEMPTATION
THE DEVIL LAUGHED - August 2013
THE END GAME
THE LAST TEMPTATION
THE DEVIL LAUGHED - August 2013
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
A FAIR TO DIE FOR - a Carl Brookins Review
A Fair To Die For ISBN: 9781610091220
A 2012 release from Oak Tree Press
238 pages (without recipes)
In spite of continual bumps in their road of life, Carrie McCrite and her second husband, Henry, forge onward. They both have healthy, positive attitudes. That’s mildly surprising for Henry. He’s retired from a career as a cop in Kansas City. They expected to live a quiet, typical retiree life in the Ozarks. Fate intervenes, in the form of a long-forgotten cousin named Edith Embler. Edith blows into town looking for family history and bringing behind her a variety of really bad dudes who seem to hang around craft fairs with evil intent.
The story rests in a really clever idea, and the author handles the plot necessities carefully and responsibly. Her skill as a writer puts this novel very much in a positive cozy sort of grouping. Like a lot of traditional American mysteries, this story has a harder edge than is typically found in the classical, traditional, stories from the UK.
Carrie’s experience and generosity of spirit in wanting to help Edith in every possible way play out nicely against her husband’s more suspicious and cautious nature. The novel is interestingly peopled with several unusual characters who add to the richness of the scene. I’ve been reading this author over a number of years and am pleased to recommend this novel. It is in the end a satisfying mystery involving nice people who are truly competent. In the end, one might view with a certain hesitation, if not suspicion, the abrupt arrival of long-lost relatives.
--
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Thursday, May 10, 2012
MURDER UNSCRIPTED - a Carl Brookins Review
Murder Unscriptedby Clive Rosengren
ISBN: 9781935797197
a 2012 release from
Perfect Crime Books
111 pages, Trade Paper
Eddie Collins is a sometime Hollywood actor and a part-time investigator. He’s cast in the old style; a loner, divorced, he views the world through plain, cracked lenses. Nothing rose-colored here. He’s an authentic character, one you’d be likely to encounter on Sunset Boulevard. If you made the connection and bought him a drink, Eddie might tell you a story. Like this one.
When the scene opens, Eddie Collins is costumed as a cowboy, perched on a fake rock, chewing on yet another piece of chicken. He’s doing a TV commercial for an enterprise called Chubby’s Chicken. A telephone call to his office sends him, on behalf of his client, a bonding company, to the set of a murder. It turns out the deceased actress is Eddie’s former wife.
The novel benefits hugely from the author’s background. He’s a former theater, film and television actor who has appeared in numerous theatrical films and television dramas. Rosengren uses his considerable experience to infuse the novel with authenticity, but he never slides into the bitterness or the whining of too many journey-actors who made a living but never reached starring level. Eddie Collins has come to terms with his career and that’s why he’s become more of an investigator than an actor.
“Murder Unscripted,” is a short, fast, read, well-plotted and intrinsically solid. The characters are enjoyable to follow and the final emotional twists are logical and just right for the character and the tone of the story. I hope to see much more of Eddie Collins in the near future.
--
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
BAD MOON RISING - a Gerrie Ferris Finger Review
Bad Moon RisingFrances di Plino, Author
Crooked Cat Publishing
Released March 2012
Gerrie Ferris Finger, Reviewer
Detective Inspector Paolo Storey and his irritating partner Dave Johnson investigate the attempted rape of a prostitute by his boyhood classmate who has an alibi. Lisa Boxer, the prostitute goes missing at the same time Paolo and Dave get a call.
The second murder victim of a sexual deviate has been found by boys chasing a ball into an alley. This prostitute is the second victim in a string perpetrated by a cassock wearing killer who films himself murdering whores. He leaves a part of himself on the bodies. Does he honestly believe he won't be caught because he doesn't exist? Why did this madman come to be addicted to the pain of the lash?
Di Plino's characters are well-developed with complications readers will identify with. Paola has an ex-wife who calls him toxic and a daughter who attends convent school but doesn't believe in the religion. She asserts before classmates that priests are pedophiles. Father Gregory warns Paolo that she must change her philosophy or be expelled from the school. Further complicating his life is his infatuation with Barbara Boyston, a forensic pathologist. Does the prickly doctor she share his infatuation?
It's not a spoiler to say that the second body found was that of Lisa Boxer, thus stepping up the investigation into his old school mate. The deeper the investigation takes him, the more exposed Paolo becomes, endangering everyone he loves. This tight thriller takes many twists and turns before tragically Paolo unmasks the sick killer.
DiPlino’s writing is as solid as her credentials. She is a deputy editor of Words with JAM, writes fiction for the women’s magazine market, features and photo-features for monthly glossy magazines, and is a writing competition judge for Writers’ Forum. Winner of a Petra Kenney International Poetry Award, she has been placed in numerous creative writing and poetry competitions.
Highly Recommended.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
SOME LIKE IT RED HOT - a Carl Brookins Review
Some Like It Red Hot By Robin Merrill
ISBN: 978-0-9774-306-4-2
2008, Trade Paper, 276 pages
Lotsimina Hannon (Lotsi to her intimates) is forced by an evil corporate empire to retire before her time. Lotsi, for want of something else to do, decides to start a whole new life. What better way to do so than buy an old RV and a new motorcycle and hit the road? The fact that she’s never in her life driven either a large recreational vehicle or a high-powered motorcycle is no deterrent.
Since she’s looking for a little excitement in her new life, she heads to Las Vegas
Then of course, murder and associated chicanery intrudes and Lotsi is forced into a game of clues, a game that soon turns deadly. What’s worse, Lotsi becomes a target of the killers even while desperately learning to ride the motorcycle and speed out of trouble.
Smartly written, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, author Merrill presents a romp through the RV culture with pokes at aging baby boomers that is just askew enough to keep you reading and chuckling all the way along. While the story is realistically presented with enough straight and freaky characters to keep readers guessing, this frank romantic mystery is not aimed at fans of the realistic or the noir. A fun read. I hope the author is able to bring us further adventures of the mature.
--
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
SWIFT EDGE - a Carl Brookins Review
Swift Edgeby Laura DiSilverio
ISBN: 978-0-312-62444-6
2011 release from St. Martins/
Minotaur, 291 pages.
Judicious blending of two quite different characters as private investigators carries this story of murder and identity theft on a roller coaster of humor and tension. Gigi Goldman, one half of the investigator team of Swift Investigations is inept at best. I mean how about trying a surveillance gig from a yellow Hummer? Charlie Swift is the more competent partner with background and experience and she carries the bulk of the serious investigation that is at the core of this slickly written, well-laid out story.
A world class figure skater disappears on the eve of national trials. Charlie Swift is up for the challenge of finding the guy but she keeps stumbling over her partner Gigi and Gigi’s petulant teen-aged daughter. Then the client, another figure skater, disappears, a world-renowned coach is attacked and almost everywhere she goes, somebody is shooting at Charlie. If that isn’t enough trouble, almost every male she encounters seems to be after Charlie’s body in a less destructive way. But maybe that’s just Charlie Swift’s take on the situations.
The action is constant, often funny and requires the occasional suspension of disbelief. The characters are well-drawn and consistent. This is a sometimes zany, very enjoyable addition to what appears to be a swiftly growing series of light to medium crime novels.
--
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Monday, January 30, 2012
UNDER THE DOG STAR - a Carl Brookins Review
Under The Dog StarISBN: 978-1-59058-878-9
a 2011 Poisoned Pen release,
303 pages
The story is already in full-bore action when you open the book. “In the silver moonlight, the dogs appear as a dark mass moving down the hill and across the pasture.” Contrast of light and dark. Questions immediately arise. Are these dangerous dogs? Feral dogs? Where are we and who is observing this? Why should we care?
--
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Carl Brookins www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com, Case of the Great Train Robbery, Reunion, Red Sky
Under the Dog Star: 4.5/5 stars on Amazon
Gerrie Ferris Finger
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