Deception

When a body is discovered on a path near Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, Detective Patrick is called to investigate. His sister forensic pathologist Claire O'Shaunessy is asked to perform the autopsy. Deception by Sue Myers is the first in O'Shaunessy series featuring the pathologist.

If you are squeamish like me, you are best to skim the first few chapters with the autopsy details and jump ahead to the plot. While performing the autopsy, Claire discovers the victim was strangled, but shows no defensive injuries, as if he wasn't feeling any danger before he was killed. There was a second blood type on the male jogger's sock. She thinks this indicates either another victim or the blood of the murderer.

While searching through missing reports for his murder victim, Patrick sees a face he recognizes. It's Sarah Morgan, an friend of Claire's from their old neighborhood. Her body was found partially buried in a cemetery in the western suburbs.

Autopsy results show she died of hemorrhage resulting from a puncture to the iliac artery during a
procedure to harvest her eggs. When her blood is tested against the spot on the other victim's sock, there is a match. Also linking her to the first victim are sisal fibers found on both of them. What led Sarah to sell her eggs and why did she die from a fairly routine procedure?

When Claire discovers that Sarah's gambling habit led her to sell her eggs, she decides she needs to do something to prevent another woman from dying like this. She goes undercover and arranges an appointment with the doctor she thinks might be involved. This leads to a dramatic, tense climax to Deception.

This is the first book in the Claire O'Shaunessy series.

Death Crashes the Party

It's hard to think of party planning as a hazardous business, but Liv McKay might debate you on that. While planning a 40th wedding anniversary for the colossally annoying Mr. & Mrs Erdman she discovers a body in the freezer and another one in a trash bag in their garage.

Death Crashes the Party by Vickie Fee is off and running from there. The men - Darrell and Duane Farrell - worked for Liv's husband's trucking company and were avid Civil War re-enactors and collectors. Both were shot and one of them was wearing a Confederate soldier uniform.

The sleepy little town of Dixie, Tennessee, doesn't see many murders, but this one coupled with a possible drug smuggling ring has everyone worried. With her friend Di Souther, Liv tries to discover who is behind the murders and see how she can clear the McKay Trucking company from the smuggling charge.

Sheriff Dave tries to warn Liv and Di off, but they disregard his warning and decide to investigate for
themselves. A little breaking and entering, some "borrowed" security tapes, a break-in at Liv's house while she hides in the bathtub and a cache of Confederate memorabilia propel them towards the complex, bewildering solution.

Liv and Di solve the case and things in Dixie go back to normal or at least until the next case! A fun read with two clever characters who work well together. 

The Painted Queen

With tears in my eyes I bought the last Amelia Peabody Emerson adventure. Started by Elizabeth Peters and finished after her death by Joan Hess, The Painted Queen will be the end of the Pedbody/Emerson clan's adventures. I have always been a fan of the dynamic, no-nonsense Amelia and her blustery, but brilliant husband Radcliffe.

The spectacular descriptions place the reader right in the middle of such exotic locations as Tell el-Amarna, Giza, Luxor and the Valley of Kings. And there's always a mystery. Amelia or a member of her family has been kidnapped, threatened, targets of assassins and much more, but through it all they prevail.

And for people who say they do not like to read history, Elizabeth Peters doses them in such a way the readers don't even know they are learning about history.


I met Elizabeth Peters AKA Barbara Mertz while I was volunteering at the American Library Association Chicago event many, many years ago. I was manning the booth and a small unassuming woman was walking down the aisles, but there was a buzz about the room.

"Who is that," I asked.

"That's Barbara Mertz," my friend responded

"Who is she?" I asked

"Elizabeth Peters"

I had all I could do to hold myself back from rushing to hug her and gush over how much I loved her books. When she came to the booth and spent time chatting with us, I was so thrilled.

I have loving caressed The Painted Queen, but I am reluctant to begin reading it because I know it will be finished very quickly and there will be no more. I want to cherish this last book. 

Interview with Triss Stein

How many books have you published?

Brooklyn Wars is the fourth in this series, which began in 2013 with Brooklyn Bones. In the mid-90’s, I published two books mysteries with a publisher

which dropped their mystery line just after I turned in a third. I’ve had two separate writing careers.

How did you become interested in writing?

I was an intense bookworm from an early age; I didn’t see the point in playing if I could read! I think I've wanted to become someone who made books from the time I realized actual people were involved. It is no accident that three of my favorite characters were Jo March, Betsy Ray and Laura Ingalls, little girls who grew up to be writers. It took me a long time to figure out how to do that, though.

What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening, etc?

I am retired from day jobs. A perfect working day now begins early. I go straight to my tiny upstairs office. I write at least two and up to four or five pages before I break for breakfast. For the first draft, they don’t have to be good pages. They just have to be written, to revise and polish later. After breakfast, I write more or edit. After lunch, I do house chores, errands and writing-related chores that are not really writing. How often does this actually happen? The days I don’t start by getting involved with urgent e-mails, I resist malingering on Facebook, have no morning exercise class or medical appointment, there are no grandkids activities? Ah, not as often as I would like! But I do try hard to write, edit, spellcheck and so on - do something!- every day, to keep the wheels turning.

Do you plot the entire book first, then write or plot as you go?

When I was a student and teachers asked for an outline before the final paper was due, I had to write the whole darn paper and then outline it. So that tells that I am a person who finds out what I think by writing it. I start a book with a setting (very important in my series) and some characters (a few ongoing and a few new ones I need for the story) and a general idea of what will happen. Very general. That’s it. With every new book I vowed the next one would be outlined. This winging it was too inefficient, had too many wasted hours staring at the screen with no idea of what comes next, too much rewriting. In life I am a rather organized  person. What I have learned is that the wasted hours aren’t really wasted, and the ideas grow out of the (not so pointless) musing. The truth is, I lose interest as soon as I start outlining. I want to be surprised by the story too.

Do you use real people and places as models for your books?

I would never use real people, though there is often a bit of someone in some characters, and Erica, my heroine, was inspired partly by a few people I have known. However, I always use real places. Each book is set in a different neighborhood of Brooklyn, and I have had a lot of fun researching their histories and including some real locations. I always add a note at the end to tell what was real, what was guessed at, and what was completely invented. 

Who is your favorite author?

I could never answer that for mysteries. I know too many writers and I read too much. How can I pick a favorite? I’ve already mentioned three favorite childhood characters, though, and the authors are (of course!) Louisa May Alcott, Maud Hart Lovelace and Laure Ingalls Wilder. And I will add that one of my most loved adult writers has been Penelope Lively. Reading some of her books I have thought, not “I wish I could write a book that good,” but “I wish I could write exactly that book.” That’s how deeply she speaks to me.

How do you promote your books?

I try to create a voice for myself on Facebook. I was a member of two group blogs, now ended and wrote three times a month.  I blog as a guest on some terrific blogs when I have a new book out, and I have found that offering a giveaway is a great way to get readers/responses (in other words, attention) And I have spiffy new website where I will start regular blogging again. There is also a signup for an (eventual) newsletter. I go to some of the conventions - Malice Domestic and Bouchercon, - when I can and I have wonderful time meeting people, appearing on panels and - I hope!- making friends for my books. Does any of this have results? Hard to be sure. 

Triss Stein's newest book is Brooklyn Wars. 

For reviews of Triss Stein's Brooklyn Bones and Brooklyn Graves, click here.

Moonshadows

The search has been long and arduous, but I have finally found a mystery set in Idaho. Julie Weston's Moonshadows features Nellie Burns, a young photographer who heads west to find adventure and establish her career. She stops in Ketchum, Idaho, to photograph moonshadows on the snow.

She convinces a local to drive her out into the countryside so she can scout locations. They pass an abandoned cabin called the Last Chance Ranch. Rosy, her driver, says a family lived there - wife, husband and two boys. Wife died, boys went East and husband drank himself to death. Nellie feels a chill as she listens to the story.

The next night Rosy brings her back near the cabin after a heavy snowfall and says he will wait in the car until she is finished. Equipped with snowshoes and a sled to tow her equipment, Nellie sets out to capture the full moon on the snow. As she completes her photos, she hears tapping at the cabin. Trying to reach the cabin, one of her snowshoe straps breaks and she decides to stay in the cabin overnight. As she opens the door, a dog leaps up to greet her and she spots a dead man on the floor, his face a mask of ice with an axe in his hand. She hears Rosy say he will be back for her in the morning, so there is nothing she can do but try to warm up the cabin.

As a photographer in Chicago, Nellie was used to taking photographs of dead people, so she decides,

she will arrange the body to take some pictures of him. (I know a little bizarre, but it works for her.)

When she awakens the next morning, the body is gone. She knows she didn't dream it because the dog, Moonshine, is still there. When Rosy and the sheriff arrive the next morning, they aren't quite sure she is telling the truth about a body.

As Rosie processes her photos in the bathroom of the boarding house, she discovers they do capture the body on the floor. Hiding the negatives in her room until she is able to show them to the sheriff, she investigate on her own, and heads back to the Last Chance. When she discovers another body buried in hard packed snow, she gets caught in the middle of danger. Plus her negatives proving she had seen a body have been stolen from her room.

A missing Chinese doctor, a Basque sheriff, another missing body and the irate family of the doctor lead Nellie on a suspenseful adventure towards finding the solution.

I enjoyed this book (more for the story than for the capture of Idaho for my map) because of the challenges Nellie overcomes. Life for women in the 1920s was difficult, especially for single women. Author Julie Weston understands their plight and captures it beautifully.

No Living Soul

In No Living Soul by Julie Moffett, Lexi Carmichael finds herself in the middle of a global crisis with catastrophic possibilities. Good thing Lexi can crack a code because she will need her wits about her in this book.

It's a week before Lexi's best friend Basia's wedding. Basia is marrying one half of the Zimmerman twins and everyone is excited about the event. Unfortunately a strange vial appears in a package sent to Elvis and Xavier, and before long there is a bad guy trying to get his hands on the vial. But more surprising is who sent the package - Elvis and Xavier's long-estranged father Arthur.

The vial came with a coded letter from Arthur, and Elvis knew better than to open the vial without decoding the letter. Elvis asks microbiologist Gwen Sinclair to help him analyze the substance found in the vial which turns out to be ancient bacterial spores whose DNA is not on record anywhere in the world. It seems Arthur unearthed them on his quest for the biblical artifact he is searching for in Egypt.

And off they go - Lexi, Slash, Elvia an Gwen - without Xavier and willing to incur the wrath of Basia a few short days before the wedding. Arthur turns out to be secretive about his search and isn't really that enthused about seeking the assistance of Lexi and friends.

This leads to kidnapping, double agents and a frantic trip to the Pyramids to crack the code to save the world. Once again Lexi and friends are in a high stakes battle that proves computer nerds will rule the world.

For a review of No One Lives Twice, click here.

The Raphael Affair

Everyone dreams of discovering a lost work of art, but Jonathan Argyll is pretty sure he found one in Iain Pears' The Raphael Affair. While on his search in a small Roman church, Jonathan is arrested  for vagrancy. Jonathan believes the missing Raphael is hidden under the painting by Mantini, a lesser know painter above the altar at Santa Barbara church.

When General Bottando of the Italian National Art Theft Squad reads the police report detailing Jonathan's seemingly wild claim about a missing Raphael, he doesn't think much of it. His assistant Flavia di Stefano becomes interested and they visit the church only to discover that the Mantini has been sold to a well-known art dealer named Edward Byrnes. Jonathan predicts the Raphael will be "discovered" under the Mantini and there will be a huge bidding war for the painting.

Sure enough over the next months the rumors turn out to be true and

the Mantini painting is skillfully removed from the Raphael, much to the surprise and delight of the Museo Nazionale in Rome. As the winning bidder, the Italian Museum proudly displays the work. Despite all the authentication testing, Jonathan and Flavia are not convinced the Raphael is the real thing. This leads them on a quest to find the truth.

When a fire destroys the painting in the Museum, Jonathan and Flavia know they are on the right track, a track that takes them into some dangerous territory.

The subject of art fraud has always held a fascination for me and The Raphael Affair feeds that obsession. I look forward to the others in the series.

Interview with Jenny Kales

How many books have you published?

I've written two Callie's Kitchen Mysteries -- ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK and SPICED AND ICED, with the third, SECRETS AND PIES, to be published in October of this year. I've got another mystery with series potential that I'm working on as well.

How did you become interested in writing?
I don't think I can remember a time I wasn't interested in writing, lol. As soon as I could read and write I started writing my own stories. I worked as a writer in the corporate and magazine/website world for years before writing my first cozy mystery.

What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening.
I don't really set out with a word count, but if I'm writing a book I will have chapter goals, for example, write two chapters today. I prefer writing in the afternoons -- I'm not really a morning person, but occasionally I will get inspired in the a.m and feel great about myself the rest of the day, lol. However, writing is about a lot more than just the actual writing. I do a lot of marketing, book promotion, collaborating with bloggers for their sites, working with my cover designer. There's always something going on!

Do you plot the entire book first, then write or plot as you go?
I always plot first and write an outline and synopsis before I get started. Once I had the killer change on me and other things will change as I write, but I always start out with the structure of the chapters and the final scenes in mind.

Do you use real people and places as models for your books?
Absolutely! Crystal Bay, the setting of my Callie's Kitchen Mysteries, is inspired by the Geneva Lakes area of Wisconsin, a place I visit frequently. As far as the characters, they are generally completely made up, which is part of the fun. Sometimes a real person will inspire a character or several people will inspire a character, but what's so much fun about this is that usually they just come to me -- and I get to know them the more that I write. My personal experiences have greatly inspired me, though. I came up with my Greek-American heroine because I married into a Greek-American family -- lots of inspiration at the ready!

Who is your favorite author?
I don't mean for this to be a cop out but I can't choose. It's like choosing a favorite child! In the cozy mystery genre, I have been inspired by Dianne Mott Davidson and Leslie Meier. I also love Ruth Rendell, Caroline Graham, Agatha Christie, Donna Tartt, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald -- and too many others to count.

How do you promote your books?
I have a newsletter and website that I use, along with a Facebook page, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest and Instagram. Reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are helpful (they raise my books' ranking) as well as being featured on blogs such as yours. From day one, book reviewers and bloggers like you have been so helpful! And least I forget -- word of mouth! Nothing beats that. Tell your friends and they will tell their friends! Authors appreciate that so much.

Check out my review of On Chopping Block http://mapyourmystery.blogspot.com/2017/01/cooking-up-murder.html

Social media links for Jenny Kales
My books are available in ebook and paperback format on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N51S5CR/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Website: www.jennykales.wordpress.com
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Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection

The Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection by Barbara Venkataraman features family lawyer Jamie Quinn. The three books in the set are Death by Didgeridoo, The Case of the Killer Divorce and Peril in the Park are set in Hollywood, Florida. 


Through the three-book series we meet a host of quirky characters including Marmaduke "Duke" Broussard, a private detective who looks more like a pirate; Nick Dimitropoulos, a slick State Attorney with political aspirations, and Grace, in-house counsel for a large securities firm.

In Death by Didgeridoo, Jamie's cousin Adam, who has Asperger's Syndrome, is accused of killing his music teacher, the legendary Spike from The Screaming Zombies. With circumstantial evidence and incriminating comments made by Adam, he is arrested. Jamie and Duke try to solve the murder and clear Adam.

In The Case of the Killer Divorce, Jamie represents Becca Solomon in a divorce case. When the

judge in the case rules that Joe, the ex-husband, can see his two daughters, there's a very public scene between Joe and Becca. In front of the judge's bailiff, Becca threatens to kill Joe. When Joe winds up dead shortly thereafter, Becca is accused. Along with Duke, Jamie searches for the real killer. 

My favorite of the three was Peril in the Park. By a chance encounter Jamie meets her high school boyfriend at a local park. He is now the Director of Broward County Parks and someone is vandalizing the parks. In addition he is in the middle of a dispute with a developer and the parks commissioners. When the dispute escalates into a murder, Jamie calls on her pal Duke to do some detecting to help them find the murderer and the vandal.

The Jamie Quinn collection of three books is a quick read and I enjoyed meeting these characters.

Wanna Get Lucky?

In Wanna Get Lucky? Deborah Coonts has created a character named Lucky O'Toole who is the chief problem solver at the Babylon Casino. This Lucky is not anything like Connie Archer's Lucky Jamieson from the Soup Lover's Mysteries.

Lucky O'Toole has led an unusual life and her job in the casino is filled with drama. When a woman falls from a Babylon helicopter into the middle of the Pirate Lagoon during a show, Lucky recognizes her and rushes to the scene. She alerts her security team to find the pilot and anyone else on the helicopter, trying to mitigate damage to the casino's reputation.

Although based on the other activities being held, the casino seems unconcerned about reputation. It is the site of the adult film industry's annual awards banquet, a swingers convention with a sex toy trade show, plus ElectroniCon.

As Lucky investigates, she believes Lyda Sue did not jump to her death, but was pushed. Now how to

prove it. With Paxton Dane, a new security employee, she tries to find the helicopter and the pilot. Although Lucky doesn't quite trust Dane, she needs him to help her track down the helicopter and take some of the negative publicity away from the casino.

When Lucky learns some of the other people on the helicopter include the Big Boss of the Babylon Casino and two others who are not above a little blackmail, she hops into high gear. Fearing there is danger for her casino, she digs deeper to find the rat.

In her personal life - what little there is of it - Lucky visits her mother, the owner of one of the best known brothels in Las Vegas, and discovers her best friend Teddy,  a handsome hetereosexual guy working as a female impersonator, is falling in love with her. All in a day's work.

Lucky is feisty, smart and has a sarcastic streak a mile long - a woman after my own heart. Looking forward to the next book in the series.