Five years ago, beautiful, glamorous Lucy Chase was accused of murdering her best friend, Savvy Harper. There was never really any proof beyond circumstantial evidence – and definitely not enough to make a case strong enough to stand up in court – but the entire town of Plumpton, Texas, believed that she did it. With…
Jia Shah feels like the biggest failure in the world. After a messy divorce from her ex-husband Dev, she moves from Chicago to Houston with her twelve-year-old son Ishaan in order to live closer to her older sister Seema. Jia’s dead-end office job barely pays the bills, but her bigger concern is the behavioral issues…
This page-turner of a Weird Western had me completely enthralled from beginning to end, not only because of the monsters lurking on the fringes of war, but because of the romance that was as star-crossed as it was surprisingly rooted in self-reflection. Néstor and Nena have been sweethearts from even before they knew what the…
Chapter One “If I don’t get some coffee ASAP, I’m gonna murder someone,” Mayor Bob declared. Bob Bobbert, aka Mayor Bob, was currently serving his sixth-straight two-year term as mayor of my hometown of Cedar River, Texas. He’d run the last four times unopposed. Everyone voted for him, mostly because he did his absolute best…
Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. —Ralph Waldo Emerson No matter the type of crime fiction, familial relationships are often the key factor in understanding why a bad deed is committed.…
This bit of dialogue started everything: Deputy Wendell: This is turnin’ into a hell of a mess, ain’t it, Sheriff? Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: If it isn’t, it’ll do until the mess gets here. It’s from the film version of No Country For Old Men by the Cohen brothers. One of my all-time favorite…
I’d like to start this review of Joe R. Lansdale’s The Bottoms by admitting that my only exposure to his work prior to this 2001 Edgar Award winner was a love of the film adaptation of Bubba Ho-Tep (which I only recently learned was based on a Lansdale short story) and a general understanding of…
But my confidence was cosmetic. Neither I nor anyone I knew in Deaf Smith had any influence over Vernon Smothers. He believed intransigence was a virtue, a laconic and mean-spirited demeanor was strength, reason was a tool the rich used to keep the poor satisfied with their lot, and education amounted to reading books full…
Strong as Steel is the 10th book in Jon Land’s award-winning Caitlin Strong series. USA Today bestselling author Jon Land is one of the most consistent, and consistently innovative, writers working in the thriller genre today. He’s amassed a backlist of more than forty titles and written across both fiction and non-fiction, his propulsive prose…
S.C. Perkins’ Murder Once Removed is the first mystery in the Ancestry Detective series, in which Texas genealogist Lucy Lancaster uses her skills to solve murders in both the past and present. Murder Once Removed, S.C. Perkins’ debut cozy mystery, is the perfect first in a new series and I’m eager to continue. Good-hearted, inquisitive and intelligent,…
