Mystery 
Hosting a Murder Mystery II
Shortly after moving to our new location in 2008, I hosted my first ever murder mystery party at the library where I work. The event was held on Friday evening after the library was closed, and I designed an original murder mystery plot that participants could solve. For this first event, I had sixteen library patrons… Read More ›
Hosting a Murder Mystery
In less than 30 days, I’ll be hosting my 12th murder mystery evening at the library where I work. These fun events allow mystery lovers to play suspects or innocent bystanders as they attempt to solve an unique mystery designed by yours truly. Generally, I host about four of these mystery events a year. In… Read More ›
Hypothermia
This month’s mystery book club pick was Arnaldur Indriðason’s Hypothermia, published in 2007 (translated into English in 2010). This is actually Inspector Erlendur’s eighth case, but only six of his books have been translated into English. Several reviews on Amazon incorrectly refer to this as his sixth case. The story begins with a funeral; Maria’s mother… Read More ›
Requiem in Vienna
Last September, my mystery book group read Requiem in Vienna by J. Sydney Jones. This historical mystery set in 1899 Vienna delves into the colorful history of classical music giants. This is actually the second book in a series featuring lawyer Karl Werthen and criminologist Hans Gross. Their first cast, The Empty Mirror, involved artist Gustav… Read More ›
Murder at the Gardens – Prologue
I’m skipping ahead here just a bit. I’m still fine tuning the prologue for my second novel, A Weekend for Murder. In the meantime, since I mentioned my third novel precedes The Poisoned Martini eStory, I thought I’d present a look at the prologue for Murder at the Gardens. *** A lone person paced back and… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini – Part I
It’s here! Part I of the serialized original eStory written by yours truly exclusively for this website. Rick Gray (introduced here) and others will encounter the poisoned martini in this murder mystery set in Syracuse, New York, in 1987. The police have recently solved the murders at the Syracuse Botanical Gardens. Rick was a suspect in that… Read More ›
Meet Rick Gray
Jonah Richard Gray II is the eldest of Thaddeus Alcott’s grandsons. Better known as Rick, this handsome twenty-two year old is passionate about photography, classic cinema, and martinis. He has thick brown hair and blue-green eyes and has a lean, athletic build. Rick first appears in Murder at the Gardens, the third novel in my Mysteries… Read More ›
Death at the Alma Mater
G. M. Malliet’s Death at the Alma Mater was the book my mystery book group chose to read in October, a month before I started up The Poisoned Martini. My parents had picked up a signed copy of this book for me at one of last year’s American Library Association conferences. The author spoke at… Read More ›
Meet Thaddeus Alcott
He is a lion of a man with a shock of white hair and piercing blue eyes. Thaddeus Alcott, 64, is a lawyer and businessman originally from Rutland, Vermont. A partner in the law firm of Alcott, Simms & Wilcox, Thaddeus is thinking of retirement, but he frets about his legacy. A year ago, his… Read More ›
The Water’s Edge
Scandinavian crime novels are in vogue right now. Perhaps this is in large part due to the popularity of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which has drawn attention to Scandinavian authors…at least to American audiences. “Stark” and “bleak” have been used, in general, to describe the landscape of these authors’ works. Of course,… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini 