CERRI ELLIS - MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS

What's New?

FAME (Previews)

Back Issues

FMAM Merchandise

Contests

Reviews

Columns

Guidelines

Advertise

Links

DIME

FMAM Staff

FMAM Home

	Curiosity may have killed the cat, but Cerri Ellis never let a little thing like fear stop her from playing sleuth. When she's not snapping photos of ghosts, solving riddles or sifting through dusty tomes in library catacombs, she writes articles and book reviews for magazines and web sites. Her hobbies include reading mysteries, herbal gardening, and searching online and estate auctions for arcane curios. She is currently at work on a paranormal thriller set in Southern Appalachia.

CRIMEWAVE 8: COLD HARBOURS
Edited by Ian Rankin
TTA Press, December 2005, UK 6.99??, 161 pp.
Order direct: www.ttapress.com/onlinestore1.html

CRIMEWAVE 8: COLD HARBOURS is the latest installment in an incredibly fresh and entertaining anthology series.

Stories by cutting-edge crime authors such as: Simon Avery, Tom Brennan, Jay Caselberg, Ian Faulkner, Susan Fry, Joe Hill, Andrew Humphrey, Joel Lane, Steve Mohn, Scott Nicholson, Steve Rasnic Tem, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ron Savage, Michelle Scalise, Luke Sholer, Darren Speegle, Stephen Volk and Ryan G. Van Cleave pack the pages.

Of particular stand out are Ron Savages’ Dating, a modern twist on Looking For Mister Goodbar. Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Jury Duty, about one woman’s attempt to be overlooked and dismissed. Stephen Volk’s Time Capsule, the chilling tale of a schoolteacher’s pet project, and Joe Hill’s In The Rundown, a twisted little tale of motherhood and a man done wrong.

COLD HARBOURS is a clever package. The stories combine to fulfill a subtle thematic plan--morality is fluid. The tone is edgy and the writing tightly crafted, with thought-provoking characters you’ll remember.

Cerri Ellis

SHADOW OF DEATH
By Patricia Gussin
Oceanview Publishing, March 2006, $22.95, 360 pp.
ISBN: 1-933515-00-7

Part medical thriller, part women’s fiction and suspense novel, SHADOW OF DEATH is an honest, unflattering look at one of America’s worst urban rebellions, as told through the eyes of the main character, a woman directly impacted by the tragic events.

Detroit 1967 was a frightening place and time, filled with fury-driven chaos and the charred remains of a city shaken to the core. Laura Nelson was a first year medical student, ready to do her very first history and physical on a hospital patient. She is nervous and far from detached as she tries to hide her lack of confidence. The patient’s mother answers questions about her son’s history, even as she begs Laura for reassurance. The young man has a bullet wound to the head and his prognosis is bleak.

She finishes her assignment, feeling inadequate to the task. As she leaves the ward, she hears a man’s angry voice behind her lash out. Disturbed far more that she cares to admit, she leaves the hospital, confused and shaken. Laura walks the seemingly deserted streets of the riot-torn neighborhood to reach her car. Without warning, she is pulled into violence and must fight for her life. The result changes her forever.

Deeply disturbing, realistically harsh, SHADOW OF DEATH is a taut suspense thriller that will leave readers angry, sad and shaken at the casual brutality that can inflict and alter the patterns of everyday life.

Cerri Ellis

top of page

Cerri's Archived Reviews