FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS
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THE FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEW is the place to come
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write with the world! (Or, right in the world of write!) New reviews this month from: . Dr. Cynthia Clark .. Harriet Klausner . C.E. Japhe . |
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March 2010
Frame Up
John F. Dobbyn
Oceanview Publishing, March 8, 2010, 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1-933515-63-2
FRAME UP starts with a bang – literally, a car bomb and doesn’t stop. It is an exciting roller coaster ride. Michael Knight, a young, energetic attorney watches as his friend is killed in the car bomb. John McKedrick was an attorney for the mob. He had wanted to leave the mob but not that way. The senior partner of Michael’s law firm, Lex Devlin is summoned by his old friends, one who has become a priest and the other, Dominic Santangelo who has become a Mafia don to defend Dominic’s son who will be arrested for the murder of McKendrick. Lex brings Michael with him and asks if he is okay with this. Michael agrees on the premise that if he discovers that Dominic’s son is guilty he will turn him in. Dominic agrees. What follows is a wild ride as Michael defends his client.
When the beautiful Terry O’Brien comes to Michael’s office and hands him an envelope that John had left with her two stories emerge - romance and the wild ride. When Terry leaves, Michael opens the envelope and finds a string of numbers. A code? A bank account number? Michael makes up a new envelope with different numbers and puts the envelope back in the locker along with another made up code in the locker next to it just in case he needs insurance. He tells himself he needs to talk to Terry and get lobster to further find out about John’s last week, but the date goes from eating lobster to their being shot at. Michael finds some driftwood to fight against bullets when a shot rings out and the assailant goes down. Someone is watching over him and Terry but who? Then the case takes another turn as Michael heads to Amsterdam.
I thoroughly enjoyed FRAME UP. It’s a fast paced legal thriller complete with excitement at every turn. Well written, well executed! If I were in trouble I would want Michael for my attorney! He goes past that extra mile!
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5!
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., MHt
Hail to the Chef
Julie Hyzy
Berkley Prime Crime, 2008, $7.99, 328 pages
ISBN: 978-0-425-22499-1
Olivia Paras is the White House chef who seems to find trouble. In HAIL TO THE CHEF, she is right in the middle of terrorist’s plots, family feuds, and the gingerbread competition. When one of electricians is electrocuted Ollie is not convinced that he was negligent. He was an excellent electrician as well as a friend. Then there is the First Lady’s nephew. He’s not only sweet on Ollie but he is concerned about his aunt’s business dealings and that her partners do not have her best interest at heart. And if the White House isn’t busy enough with everything they’re doing a special Secret Service team is in to teach the staff how to spot IEDs and be more careful. Of course, Ollie finds an IED throwing the White House into a tizzy. Ollie doesn’t believe that the First Lady’s nephew didn’t commit suicide right after peeling shrimp in her kitchen. What is going on? Who is trying to harm the President? Why won’t any of the other electricians talk to Ollie about the idea of a floating neutron? And to top it all off there is an annoying Senator’s staffer who is begging Ollie to prominently display the Senator’s kid’s gingerbread men. Can Ollie figure why the electrician died? Why she keeps finding IEDs? Why the Secret Service bomb man gets equally irritating and attractive? And who wants to bring down the White House.
HAIL TO THE CHIEF is the second in the Ollie Paras series. As with the first, and the third (which I reviewed last month) this is a charming, delightful, fun, easy read. Julie Hyzy has created an inquisitive detective in Ollie as well as darling, fun secondary characters. For an afternoon or any time escape read HAIL TO THE CHEF or any of the Ollie Paras books.
And excellent read.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., MHt
Grave Secret
Charlaine Harris
Berkley Prime Crime Books, 2009, 306 pages
ISBN: 978-0-425-23015-2
Harper was struck by lightning when she was younger and ever since she was able to find dead people. Sounds easy right? Just go to any cemetery. Not exactly, she can find those not found yet. Those who wondered off, those murdered those recently dead. She has the gift of seeing how they died from their eyes. Not who killed them, just how it happened. Her step brother and now lover, Tolliver travels with her as she goes from place to place to find missing loved ones.
In GRAVE SECRET, fourth in the Harper series, Harper and Tolliver travel to a ranch to indulge one of the sisters to see if Harper can tell what the death of their grandfather was like. But like so many non believers, they did not bring Harper right to his grave but rather made her do her thing through the cemetery. She did. She reached one woman and said, oh poor thing, she died in childbirth. This was the former caretaker of the grandfather and was a shock to the girls. But they continued on and when they reached the grandfather, Harper said, he was driving in the truck, stopped, then someone through a rattlesnake at him, which caused his heart to stop. This shocked them. Who the demanded, but alas, Harper does not see who just what.
Later the ladies come to her regarding the care takers baby. They are convinced that as she was the caretaker, it must be their grandfather’s baby which makes her an heir. Tolliver turns them on to the PI that they use in searching for their missing sister.
In the meantime, Harper and Tolliver visit their half sisters and learn that Tolliver’s dad is out of prison and looking for him. He then learns that his dad is staying with his brother Mark. Harper is distrustful of his dad. Both Mark and his dad are disgusted by Harper and Tolliver being together. Then the PI is found murdered. Who killed her and why? What does Tolliver’s dad really want? And the mystery of what happened to Harper’s sister Cameron is revealed.
This is another exciting addition to the Harper series. Like the others, it is a fast paced and fun, considering she sees the last minutes of death. Great premise which delivers..
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.9.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., MHt
Murder by the Glass
Michele Scott
Berkley Prime Crime, 2006, $7.99, 246 pages
ISBN: 978-0-425-21021-5
MURDER BY THE GLASS is the second in Wine Lover’s Mystery series with Nikki Sands. Nikki was a frustrated actress who left Hollywood to work in the wine world of NAPA where she has found love sorta with her boss Derek and with another wine maker Andres as well as murder. Nikki has a way of walking into finding dead bodies. In this book, her good friend Isabel, Andres’s sister is asked to cater the wedding of the man she had been seeing. She had no idea he was engaged. But she was starting a new restaurant and catering such a large, fancy affair would be good her restaurant so she says yes. The bride to be makes Isabel’s life hell. Shortly after the wedding, which Nikki attends with Derek, Isabel asks Nikki to bring the witch a glass of wine. But instead of a blushing bride Nikki finds a dead one. And Isabel is arrested for her murder. Convinced that the police won’t look for anyone else, Nikki sets out to prove the innocence of her friend. The bride had angered many people. Nikki has many suspects. MURDER BY THE GLASS takes on a fun romp through the wine country and San Francisco as Nikki sets on to discover more about Susan Jennings and the people around her. There is the cheating yet grieving husband Kristof, the roommate Pamela, Kristof’s elderly aunt, Susan’s sister, an assortment of Susan’s lovers including Susan’s sister’s current boyfriend Paolo. When a car tried to run her down while Nikki is in San Francisco she knows she is on the right track but not which one…..
Michele Scott has crafted a charming, delightful fun series. MURDER BY THE GLASS was fast paced and easy to read. I read it in on sitting savoring every moment of it like a fine wine. For an inexpensive Napa escape try MURDER BY THE GLASS or any of the Wine Lover’s Mysteries you won’t be disappointed.
On a scale of 1 to 5. I give it a 5.
Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., MHt
Death Will Help You Leave Him
Elizabeth Zelvin
Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur
$23.95, 272 pp.,
ISBN: 978-0-312-58266-
Amateur sleuth, temporary office worker, and recovering alcoholic/drug addict Bruce Kohler teams up with his best pal Jimmy and Jimmy’s girlfriend Barbara to find a killer. Barbara is a drug and alcohol counselor and when her Al-Anon sponsee, Luz, comes home to find her married, drug dealer boyfriend dead, and finds herself the police’s prime suspect, Bruce and the gang step in to find the real killer. The murder mystery almost takes a back seat to Bruce’s tumultuous relationship with his abusive, abused, drug-addicted, bipolar, suicidal ex-wife, and his own struggles to maintain his sobriety and stay on the straight and narrow.
The author is an addiction counselor herself, and perhaps the author’s depiction of addictive personalities is accurate, I really don’t know. But it felt as though the author was trying too hard to cram as many addictions and personality disorders she could think of in too few characters. I found it difficult to empathize with any of the characters. In the end, I found Bruce’s masochistic addiction to his emotionally abusive ex-wife frustrating and annoying, and the ultimate solution to the murder mystery unsatisfying.
DEATH WILL HELP YOU LEAVE HIM is the second novel by Zelvin. Based on this one, I don’t feel compelled to read the first one.
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