Tag: Fiction
Death Before Bedtime
Next time you invite guests over for a dinner party, check them for explosives. It’s not like we’re talking Fourth of July firecrackers here. No, one of Senator Leander Rhodes’ guests has brought 5-X, a new type of explosive, in the hopes that the senator will help secure a government contract. Need it be said? Senator… Read More ›
Skull Duggery
As a forensic anthropologist, Gideon Oliver knows his skeletons. “He felt himself a little at loose ends if he wasn’t involved in some forensic case or another…it was never very long before one came and found him.” Where forensic science is mainly about identifying the cause of death, forensic anthropology is about identity of the remains. In this… Read More ›
Grifter’s Game
“For a few minutes I just stood there and felt foolish. I’d picked up more than a wardrobe at the railway station. I’d picked up a fortune.” So says con man Joe Marlin upon discovering the suitcase he nabbed contained “sixty cubic inches of raw heroin” inside a sealed box. Not long after, he encounters… Read More ›
Opening Shots
Take a “glimpse beyond the page and into the mind of the writer”, and discover the first published stories of mystery and crime writers. Collected in Opening Shots are the stories of twenty authors spanning the years from 1952 to 2000. These are the first published works of such mystery icons as Simon Brett, Max… Read More ›
A Little French Murder
Read along with The Poisoned Martini … C’est un bon temps pour un petit mord français, n’est pas? You don’t have to know French to enjoy these mysteries. One of the pleasures of reading is being able to visit places we’ve been or long to travel to. So spend an evening, sit back and relax—perhaps… Read More ›
The Celtic Riddle
This is one riddle that may just confound you. Eamon Bryne has died. At the beginning of The Celtic Riddle, the heirs have gathered to listen to the will. None are to happy too learn that part of their possible inheritance is a treasure hunt. Eamon has instructed his lawyers to give each of his… Read More ›
A Darker God
Does Dionysus, god of wine and the theatre, demand sacrifice? In this third Laetitia Talbot mystery, the theme is revenge, and someone will stop at nothing to achieve it. The Prologue opens in ancient Mycaenae, circa 1200 B.C. A man—too old to go off and fight in the Trojan war—serves as lookout for the bonfires that… Read More ›
Origin
“Victims exist in another dimension, as far as I’m concerned–they’re theoretical. The police meet the victims; we work in an office. I wouldn’t have become a print examiner if I wanted to meet victims.” Lena Dawson, a fingerprint examiner at a crime lab in Syracuse, New York, arrives at work and encoutners Erin Cogan. Erin’s… Read More ›
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!
“You may leave the village along one of two paths. One leads up into the hills…The other takes a downhill route…turn to page # to follow your path.” In the 1980s, Choose Your Own Adventures with their second-person point of view engaged thousands of young kids—and me—with a wide variety of mystery, fantasy, and scifi adventures. … Read More ›
Three Bags Full
“He was healthy yesterday,” said Maude. Her ears twitched nervously. “That doesn’t mean anything,” pointed out Sir Ritchfield, the oldest ram in the flock. “He didn’t die of illness. Spades are not an illness.” Indeed! This clever start to Leonie Swann’s Three Bags Full immediately draws readers into the story, and it is an unusual… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini 