Saturday, July 29, 2017

Review: The Girl Who Was Taken

The Girl Who Was Taken The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE GIRL WHO WAS TAKEN by Charlie Donlea

I recognized Charlie Donlea as an exceptional new author when I read his debut novel, SUMMIT LAKE. His new stand-alone, THE GIRL WHO WAS TAKEN, is equally superb. In the small and peaceful, quiet community of Emerson Bay, North Carolina, young women have disappeared. In bordering states, other girls have also gone missing, and some are discovered months, even years, later. Concomitantly, a young man trolls true crime groups and Internet chat rooms, seeking skewed individuals with a similar dark mind-set to his own. Dr. Livia Cutty is a pathology fellow at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh. Her autopsy of a corpse suspected to be a bridge jumper begins the unraveling of a complex and deadly mystery as Livia perseveres to reveal truth, no matter how unpalatable.

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Friday, July 28, 2017

Review: Welcome to the Apocalypse

Welcome to the Apocalypse Welcome to the Apocalypse by D.L. Richardson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE by D. L. Richardson

A subtle sense of humor, a speedy thriller with tons of unexpected moments, a frisson of anxiety over control by a computer, and really intense characterizations of individuals who can't help eliciting readers' empathy and understanding, weave together into a roller coaster of suspense leavened with romance, friendship, family bonds, as well as grief and unrequited longing. From page one on, you'll be thinking "what next, what happens now," and living vicariously through the characters, cheering them on. Thankfully, this is first of a series; I can't wait for more.

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Thursday, July 27, 2017

Review: Foxlowe

Foxlowe Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: FOXLOWE by Eleanor Wasserberg


FOXLOWE is a complex work of literary fiction which delves deep into its characters, peeling back their layers to reveal their natures. It is also an English stately house, set on the moors a short distance from standing stones. Foxlowe House is also the setting of a commune, semi-hippieish in its drive to sustainability, and semi-pagan in its emphasis on meditation and healing, and the essential importance of the Summer and Winter Solstices. The story is narrated by Green, a young girl who cannot remember "life outside," as Foxlowe' s inhabitants term all the world not Foxlowe and the Standing Stones. As Green grows, she narrates the microcosm that comprises life at Foxlowe.

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Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Review: Final Girls

Final Girls Final Girls by Riley Sager
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: FINAL GIRLS by Riley Sager

Oh my! A somewhat tiptoeish start soon tossed me onto a runaway rollercoaster of thrills, terror, and mystery. In this environment, I couldn't be certain who was who, who was culpable of what, and who could be trusted, if anyone--including our protagonist, the woman who insists she is "normal" despite the past everybody remembers except her.

Quincy Carpenter, like two other young women earlier, survived a massacre of sorts: one at a sorority house (Lisa of Indiana), one at a motel (Samantha of Florida). Quincy was the sole survivor of a group of friends at a weekend retreat in a forest cottage in Pennsylvania. The press terms them "Final Girls," like the sole remaining heroine in B-grade horror movies. (I prefer the concept of "Last Man Standing," as in Westerns; surviving ought to imply some skill and strength of will, rather than simply be left alive because the killer died or was captured.)

FINAL GIRLS "blew me out of the water". After six decades of voracious reading of mysteries, thrillers, and horror, the author still managed to blindside me, and I truly "didn't see it coming." I can't wait to read this novel again.


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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Review: Cavern Of The Damned

Cavern Of The Damned Cavern Of The Damned by Russell James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: CAVERN OF THE DAMNED by Russell James

Exciting creature horror with a huge dose of implacability leavened with hope and a strong helping of the endurance of the human spirit, CAVERN OF THE DAMNED introduces readers to an unopened, unmapped, cave system in Montana. Folks, this cave was blocked to good purpose. Unfortunately, greed is near unstoppable, and the combination of a Hollywood producer and a caver banned from Yellowstone for illegalities will get it open to exploration, with disastrous results. Sometimes it's best not to breach a barrier.

Author Russell James delivers heart-in-mouth unstoppable action and terror. If you love creature horror, paleontology, megafauna, and scares-a-minute, love this!

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Friday, July 21, 2017

Review: The Late Show

The Late Show The Late Show by Michael Connelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE LATE SHOW by Michael Connelly (Renee Ballard #1)

Michael Connelly delivers a certain presence in every novel, a presence which pulls the reader straight into the story and makes us live it vicariously. THE LATE SHOW is the first mystery-police procedural in a new series, focused on Detective Renee Ballard of the Los Angeles Police Department. Ballard is a tough and gritty character, akin to a bulldog when she gets an intuitive scent on a case. She is also vulnerable, as a female in a career that still has a male-dominant mind set.

THE LATE SHOW deals with very up-to-date issues: transgenderness, club shootings, the presence of evil. It's a nonstop thrilling read.

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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Review: The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case

The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case by James Neff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE WRONG MAN by James Neff

I was a toddler in a neighboring state when housewife Mrs. Marilyn Sheppard was brutally murdered in July 1954, leaving a seven-year-old son and a husband. Of course I knew nothing about it at the time, but in 1967 when the TV series "The Fugitive" debuted, I immediately became hooked on the story of a doctor wrongly accused of his wife's brutal murder, seeking justice and striving to clear his besmirched name. Associating this plot line with Dr. Sam Sheppard, I decided he too must be innocent but beleaguered by the disbelief of law enforcement and courts. Then when I began THE WRONG MAN and discovered Dr. Sam's personality faults (temper, philandering, an addictive personality), I changed my opinion and considered him guilty (for a time).

The lack of clarity and sheer failure to properly investigate may be equaled only by the investigation of the murder of Jon-Benet Ramsay in Boulder, Colorado in 1996. Too much belief in Dr. Sam's guilt and refusal to entertain other possibilities meant a near-railroading of Dr. Sam. Certainly no justice for Marilyn nor closure for her family was ever achieved.



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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Review: Cavern Of The Damned

Cavern Of The Damned Cavern Of The Damned by Russell James
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Review: CAVERN OF THE DAMNED by Russell James

Exciting creature horror with a huge dose of implacability leavened with hope and a strong helping of the endurance of the human spirit, CAVERN OF THE DAMNED introduces readers to an unopened, unmapped, cave system in Montana. Folks, this cave was blocked to good purpose. Unfortunately, greed is near unstoppable, and the combination of a Hollywood producer and a caver banned from Yellowstone for illegalities will get it open to exploration, with disastrous results. Sometimes it's best not to breach a barrier.

Author Russell James delivers heart-in-mouth unstoppable action and terror. If you love creature horror, paleontology, megafauna, and scares-a-minute, love this!

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Saturday, July 15, 2017

PENGUINS AND MORTAL PERIL by Ruby Loren_ Review

Penguins and Mortal Peril: Cozy Mystery (Madigan Amos Zoo Mysteries Book 1)Penguins and Mortal Peril: Cozy Mystery by Ruby Loren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: PENGUINS AND MORTAL PERIL by Ruby Loren (Madigan Amos Zoo Mysteries Book 1)

Zookeeper Madigan Amos loves her position at the Avery Zoo, no matter long hours, heat, dirt, and parents who don't supervise their children. Madi frequently comes up with creative ideas to benefit the animals, but other zookeepers sometimes don't see the point. She also draws a zoo comic she publishes online.

Zoo life isn't always smooth. Animal rights protesters march and complain. A zookeeper working late was assaulted. Now the aquatic animals keeper is found dead, likely murdered. The elderly zoo owner may be in cahoots with a mysterious new construction worker. And Madi' s curiosity and determination to protect the zoo's population may be leading this devoted zookeeper straight into danger all her own. First in a series from prolific author Ruby Loren.

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Review: You Only Get One Shot: A Horror Novella

You Only Get One Shot: A Horror Novella You Only Get One Shot: A Horror Novella by Kevin J. Kennedy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

REVIEW: YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT by Kevin J. Kennedy and J. C. Michael

YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT is a delightfully creative, engagingly constructed horror novel. It's also a mystery, almost of locked-room stature, as if Agatha Christie had partnered with Edward Lee. The engrossed reader gets more than one shot: counting the Epilogue, there are actually five discrete stories! Someone has lost a loved one to apparent suicide--but that someone blames four popular authors for the death. Allegedly each of the writers rejected the loved one, a budding but uncertain and unconfident writer, who just sought a modicum of encouragement. Instead, spirit was crushed by sheer hatefulness. Now someone orders each author to compose and post a short story, by deadline--or else.

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Friday, July 14, 2017

Review: What the Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror

What the Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror What the Hell Did I Just Read: A Novel of Cosmic Horror by David Wong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ?: A NOVEL OF COSMIC HORROR by David Wong

I laughed throughout this book, especially gleeful because I usually take everything seriously, even solemnly. I couldn't help but chortle at the antics and consequences of this feckless trio of semi-nitwits, well-meaning but imperfect. This was the first of the "David Wong" novels I had read (JOHN DIES AT THE END; THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS) but now I intend to rectify that. John and Dave remind me of boys on the cusp of adolescence, in attitude, perception, and yes, immaturity. In large part, their monster-hunting is adventure as much or more than "saving the world," and for John, it's also a money venue. David's love Amy is a "do-gooder" with a soft heart. She is also the breadwinner. Although she doesn't perceive monsters, she believes, and brings a much-needed logic to their efforts.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Review: A God in the Shed

A God in the Shed A God in the Shed by J-F Dubeau
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: A GOD IN THE SHED by J. F. Debeau

A GOD IN THE SHED is an incredibly complex novel, literary in format, stunning in execution. Simultaneously the story of individuals and families, a torn and battered community, legacies gone grievously wrong; of murders and suffering, of deaths and grief, this is also the story of a band of young boys, tautly connected, the day they discover the impossible really exists, and the horrendous, permanent (even eternal) consequences of that day and that discovery. This is a novel which captures readers, pinning their imaginations to observe the intrusion of other realities into our own.

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Thursday, July 6, 2017

Andy Graham Guest Post (AN ANGEL FALLEN)

My Own Private Guilt.

Andy Graham

An Angel Fallen Tour 2017

You know the situation. You’re talking to an author and all of a sudden they get ‘the look’: slack-jawed, glassy-eyed and generally vacant. There may be a scrabble for a phone, computer, or even pen and paper (remember those?) to write something down.

“You’re not listening to me, are you?”

“What?”

“I said-”

“Listening? To you? Me? Of course I was. Just give me a sec while I jot this down.”

Anyone who’s been in the same room with an author (or, in my wife’s case, in the same bed) will know what I am talking about. I have visions (not when I’m in bed with my wife) of a room full of authors attempting to have conversations but missing every third sentence as they phase out for a moment.

What does this have to do with my own private guilt?

Allow me a moment of self-indulgence to quote myself. It’s a line from Rose - A Mother’s Unreason (The Lords of Misrule - Book Three), where the vice-president says:

“Guilt. It’s a useless emotion but a valuable currency.”

He’s right. Guilt in all its various guises and forms accomplishes nothing. We’re all aware of the big hitters when it comes to guilt - murder, infidelity, finishing the ice-cream while your kids’ backs are turned. What you may not know is that there are distinct forms of writers’ guilt, and I suffer from two of those.

One is easy to both see and understand - a lack of productivity. When my daily word count drops too low for too long, I feel guilty. That particular guilt is rampant at the moment, there’s so much going on outside of ‘regular’ writing, my word count is way, way down in the hole.

The other is a more specific type of writers’ guilt, one I haven’t spoken to anyone about. Before I do, let me explain a little about how an author’s brain works.

It’s common knowledge that whatever an author sees or hears may crop up in their work. That means that anything seen on the Internet, a TV clip, an image from a video, a song lyric, a cloud formation, a funny-shaped tree, a temper tantrum on the street, even a throw away comment, can all squirm their way onto the page. Here are a few examples:

- The first book I wrote (Franklin - a brother in search of himself) was created from a short story. That short story had been inspired by a sentence I’d called out to my young son: “Where’s your ray-gun gone, Ray?”

- A view of a London rooftop from a room I was teaching sports massage in became my short story A View.

- Sighthill in Edinburgh became Blind Mount and features together with Edinburgh Castle itself in my short story A Decision at Dusk.

- A vile post of two teenagers torturing a dog to death and then posting a selfie of it (Seriously? WTF!) on social media became the inspiration for my latest work - An Angel Fallen.

All well and good, but where is my guilt in that?

OK, here it is.

Basically, I am watching you. I am listening to you. I may even be smelling you. (That’s extreme, granted, but, in large cities, you can smell summer coming on public transport).

Whatever you say or do is fair game for my muse, and he is a hungry fellow.

It may only be a comment: “Guilt fixes nothing.” (Adapted from something my wife said.)

It may be the way you dress: “In a pink menagerie of petals and pearls.” (An osteopathic client I treated.)

It may be a characteristic you have: a friend of mine’s jaw opens diagonally (down and right) when in ‘raconteur mode’.

It may be the way you run: “Like your knees are allergic to your feet.” (A kid in a playground.)

It may be the way your neck “blends seamlessly with your mouth with no chin in the middle.” (That was someone I smelt on a tram in Prague. He also had a mullet, bald-patch and a comb-over. The guy deserves a medal.)

Bits and pieces of ‘life’ get stuck in my mind as images. They sit there, crammed in besides each other. I have tonnes of them jostling for space. I don’t ‘see’ these images all the time, but they pop up in certain situations.

I was trying to explain this to someone (My wife. In bed. We have all the best fun.) and the most logical explanation I could come up with was that it’s a little like a sprained ankle. When it’s acute, you feel it all the time. As it starts healing, you only feel it when you put it in certain positions or situations. The same thing happens with those images in my head. Under certain conditions, they re-appear. That is until I write them down. That tends to get rid of them. Then the guilt kicks in - the guilt for pilfering and picking bits of my friends’ conversations, clients’ dress sense and strangers’ mannerisms and turning it all into fodder for my books.

I have never blatantly copied anyone, and I don’t do this consciously, but I can usually place where, what, or who inspired certain sections of the text I’m writing.

There are better things to feel guilty about (or maybe not, if it is a useless emotion), but this is my particular brand of writers’ guilt.

There is good news. There is still hope for me. It is not terminal.

My most recent work (An Angel Fallen) was a much more guilt-free writing process. It is much less ‘derivative’ than earlier works. Besides the initial inspiration of the social media post (see above), the only other thing I know where the inspiration came from is gin.

The story features a useless, emotionally-vacant mother with an extensive gin collection. I have a friend in Prague who has an extensive gin collection. Fortunately, his similarity with the character starts and stops with their mutual friend ‘Mr Juniper’. But otherwise, An Angel Fallen has the least references to real life of all my work. It’s also the best thing I have written so far.

Maybe there’s a lesson there. Maybe I’m reading too much into it (correlation and causation are not the same thing!). But, suffice to say, be warned that whenever you are talking to an author, they are watching and listening, and, maybe, just maybe, smelling you.

Andy Graham Author Bio (June 2017)

Andy Graham is a British author currently living in the Czech Republic who will now stop talking about himself in the third person because it's odd. I have two main collections of books: The Lords of Misrule is a series of dystopian political thrillers set in an alternate world based on life in 21st century EU/ US. I also have an expanding collection of creepy reads that explore the darker side of life, death, and the undead. There are a few unfinished stories rattling around in my hard-drive and some unstarted ones knocking around in my head. They range from disposable airport fiction and YA sci fi to grimdark epics, but they will have to wait their turn. (Unfortunately for my wife, who is waiting for me to write something 'nice', preferably with sparkly vampires.) Outside of reading and writing, I'm a musician, qualified osteopath, seasoned insomniac, and father to two young kids who have too much energy to let me grow old gracefully. You can find me online at www.andygrahamauthor.com (where you can claim a free book), twitter - @andygraham2001 and FB - andy graham author.
An Angel Fallen Andy Graham May 2017 22K words book blurb You’re eighteen. Bored. Dad’s away a lot. Says its business, but you’ve seen the lipstick stains. Mum’s home. Too much. Keeping the world gin market afloat on her own. There’s Ariel, the family maid. She’s cool. The one piece of this messed up world that makes sense. And then there’s Raph. Raph’s the leader of your gang of two. He gets off on doing those things to the animals you both catch: the slicing, crushing, and maiming. Buried a few alive, too. His relationship with that hammer of his is sick. You run with Raph because, well, nothing else to do out here, right? Except if your folks found out what you’ve been up to, there’d be hell. Then you find it. Whatever it is. It can’t be what you think it is. Those things don’t exist. But it’s staring at you. Asking for help. Is it dying? Can these things die? You need to do something for it. Raph wants to do something to it. Time to choose. Do you run with the human devil you know, or take a chance on this thing that fell from the heavens? An Angel Fallen is a tale of divine retribution from British author Andy Graham. On a day when the world is struggling to stay sane, and is being ravaged by biblical plagues, what price will two teenagers pay for their past?

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Review: An Angel Fallen

An Angel Fallen An Angel Fallen by Andy Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review: AN ANGEL FALLEN by Andy Graham

Eighteen-year-old Mike is the son of a philandering local politician and a permanently soused mother. His only companion is the notorious homicidal psychopath Raph, terror of the animal populace. Raph is not just a killer, but a torturer. Mike mostly hangs around. When the sky tears open and an inexplicable entity falls to earth, Raph thinks he's found a new plaything. But fallen angels don't do forgiveness or mercy or peace.


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An Angel Fallen Andy Graham May 2017 22K words You’re eighteen. Bored. Dad’s away a lot. Says its business. You’ve seen the lipstick stains. Mum’s home. Too much. Keeping the world gin market afloat on her own. There’s Ariel, the family maid. She’s cool. The one piece of this messed up world that makes sense. And then there’s Raph. Raph’s the leader of your gang of two. He gets off on doing those things to the animals you both catch: the slicing, crushing, and maiming. Buried a few alive, too. His relationship with that hammer of his is sick. You run with Raph because, well, nothing else to do out here, right? Except if your folks found out what you’ve been up to, there’d be hell. Then you find it. Whatever it is. It can’t be what you think it is. Those things don’t exist. But it’s staring at you. Asking for help. Is it dying? Can these things die? You need to do something for it. Raph wants to do something to it. Time to choose. Do you run with the human devil you know, or take a chance on this thing that fell from the heavens? An Angel Fallen is a tale of divine retribution from British author Andy Graham. On a day when the world is struggling to stay sane, and is being ravaged by biblical plagues, what price will two teenagers pay for their past?
Andy Graham Author Bio (May 2017) Andy Graham is a British author currently living in the Czech Republic who will now stop talking about himself in the third person because it's odd. I have two main collections of books: The Lords of Misrule is a series of dystopian political thrillers set in an alternate world based on life in 21st century EU/ US. I also have an expanding collection of creepy reads that explore the darker side of life, death, and the undead. There are a few unfinished stories rattling around in my hard-drive and some unstarted ones knocking around in my head. They range from disposable airport fiction and YA sci fi to grimdark epics, but they will have to wait their turn. (Unfortunately for my wife, who is waiting for me to write something 'nice', preferably with sparkly vampires.) Outside of reading and writing, I'm a musician, qualified osteopath, seasoned insomniac, and father to two young kids who have too much energy to let me grow old gracefully. You can find me online at www.andygrahamauthor.com (where you can claim a free book), twitter - @andygraham2001 and FB - andy graham author.

Review: An Angel Fallen

An Angel Fallen An Angel Fallen by Andy Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review: AN ANGEL FALLEN by Andy Graham

Eighteen-year-old Mike is the son of a philandering local politician and a permanently soused mother. His only companion is the notorious homicidal psychopath Raph, terror of the animal populace. Raph is not just a killer, but a torturer. Mike mostly hangs around. When the sky tears open and an inexplicable entity falls to earth, Raph thinks he's found a new plaything. But fallen angels don't do forgiveness or mercy or peace.


View all my reviews

Review: An Angel Fallen

An Angel Fallen An Angel Fallen by Andy Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review: AN ANGEL FALLEN by Andy Graham

Eighteen-year-old Mike is the son of a philandering local politician and a permanently soused mother. His only companion is the notorious homicidal psychopath Raph, terror of the animal populace. Raph is not just a killer, but a torturer. Mike mostly hangs around. When the sky tears open and an inexplicable entity falls to earth, Raph thinks he's found a new plaything. But fallen angels don't do forgiveness or mercy or peace.


View all my reviews

Review: The Pot Thief Mysteries Volume One: The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, and The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein

The Pot Thief Mysteries Volume One: The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, and The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein The Pot Thief Mysteries Volume One: The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, and The Pot Thief Who Studied Einstein by J. Michael Orenduff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: THE POT THIEF MYSTERIES Volume 1
By J. Michael Orenduff

I really enjoy this series. There's humor, spirit, mystery, and great ongoing characters. I also learn a lot about New Mexico history, ancient potters and tribes, archaeology and anthropology, academe, and an entertained throughout.

Review: THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED PYTHAGORAS

Forty-something Hubert Schuze is a finder and purveyor of pots. Some consider him a "pot thief" for his ability to locate and excavate ancient pots on public lands (usually National Parks, in his home state, New Mexico). Hubert own an adobe building in Albuquerque' s historic Old Town, which includes his shop, workshop, and living quarters. In this first of the series, he becomes inextricably entangled with murder and conspiracy to museum theft. Together with best friend Susannah, a twenty-eight year old permanent university student and waitress, he cleverly moves events to an unexpected and enlightening denouement. Along the way are intrigue, suspense, excitement, and a strong exposure to classical Greek philosopher.

Review: THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED PTOLEMY

THE POT THIEF Series by J. Michael Orenduff is delightful: warm-hearted, full-characterized, humorous mystery--mystery with heart. Protagonist Hubert Schuze (pronounced "shoes") is The Feckless Hero indeed--but he's a sweet guy with a heart of integrity, and a spiritual nature exemplified in his connection to ancient potters, and to the mysteries of the Universe. I call him feckless because he frequently is victimized by others more cold-hearted. As a graduate student at the University of New Mexico in Anthropology and Archaeology, he bested three professors by uncovering pots outside the prescribed dig, and for his intuition, was expelled. He is considered a "pot thief" because of a Federal law (with which he disagrees) barring digging on public land. Also, he tends to fall into situations where he is framed for murder. Through it all, Hubie remains the proverbial good guy and dedicated friend.

Review: THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED EINSTEIN

Perennial favorite artisan, shopkeeper, and pottery digger Hubert Schuze of Albuquerque returns. He's expanded his shop space, is hoping to sell his replicas of ancient pots, and is stuck reading a book on Einstein (the science, not the biography). When asked to appraise the pottery collection amassed by a reclusive collector, Hubie is eager, even if it includes being chauffeured blindfolded. What he couldn't have planned for, nor imagined, is finding the collection contains some of his replicas, the fee disappears, and he is framed for not one, but two murders, then targeted for his own death.



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Saturday, July 1, 2017

Review: Give Up the Dead

Give Up the Dead Give Up the Dead by Joe Clifford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: GIVE UP THE DEAD by Joe Clifford

May this series never end! I've read these three novels in immediate sequence, so I'm quite aware of character evolution in this series, particularly that of admirable protagonist Jay Porter, but also of several other ongoing secondaries. Each novel in the series brings Jay face to face with death and near-death, in trouble with the law and out-of-town bad guys, steadfast but stumbling. But I think it is in GIVE UP THE DEAD that Jay really sees into the mirror of self. Certainly enough individuals call him out on his perspectives and foibles. Jay, who is actually quite an intelligent guy, always thinks, but now he is thinking more effectively--at last.

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Review: December Boys

December Boys December Boys by Joe Clifford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: DECEMBER BOYS by Joe Clifford

This exciting series continues, and I wish it would go on forever! New Hampshire Noir, in the hands of Joe Clifford, seriously rocks. Despite the fact that he is living a seemingly permanently noirish life, admirable Jay Porter, despite his adversities, despite his failings, rocks on--or at least, perseveres. You can't keep this guy down: no matter what life throws at him (and the tribulations are nearly constant) he gonna keep on keeping on. Even near-death doesn't end him. I love this guy. I love this series.

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