Review: Cry Wolf by Annette Dashofy

Police Chief Pete Adams is working extra shifts while one of his officers is recovering from the trauma of shooting a suspect.  There is a murder of his old Training Officer in the Nursing home where his father is a resident.

Meanwhile, Paramedic and Deputy Coroner Zoe Chambers is pulled into the same investigation after the Coroner is hospitalized.

Meanwhile a man claiming to be Zoe's long lost brother appears, stretching everything even further.  Another body is found - is it related or not?

I do have to say though that it is hard to take that Zoe has time to be a paramedic, a coroner, take care of her horses while renovating the farm and still have time for friends and family.  She is a superwoman. LOL

This is a nice, complex mystery which is very satisfying.

Review: Invisible Victims: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women by Katherine McCarthy

Though I think I was vaguely aware of the higher murder rate of indigenous women in Canada (mostly from the Robert Pickton case), the true extent is incredibly saddening.  What is worse, is the national policies and reporting strategies that hide the problem as well as the lack of the media's attention.  So many policies mirror the US's policies re. the treatment of Native Americans.

The book deals with the systemic failures as well as reporting on specific victims and serial killers who target Indigenous women and explores many of the reasons why. 

It also introduced me to the concept of epigenetics (genetically inherited memories of extreme trauma that can affect cultures such as holocaust survivors and indigenous peoples).  It is something I found fascinating and something I will explore more in the future.

The tone of the book is frustrated and angry and after reading, you can certainly see why.  Definitely recommend

Guest Blogger: Alice Duncan

March 2019

Okay, so three excellent things happened to me January. It was an exceptionally amazing (and unusual) run of good luck for me, and I knew it couldn’t last. Of course, it didn’t. So February began by kicking my butt (actually, my head) with a sinus infection, my refrigerator died, and an outdoor faucet broke. Oh, and now I have some sort of gut problem probably brought about by the antibiotics I had to take for my sinus infection

Life seems much more normal now. The best thing, though, is that even though February hated me, the three good things that happened in January are still happening! The publisher of my Daisy Gumm Majesty books (ePublishing Works) will continue to publish same and will also re-publish Mercy Allcutt’s books and any new ones I write in the Angels series. And Wolfpack (recommended to me by Peter Brandvold, who gave me Lou Prophet) still aims to publish my entire backlist. My backlist includes the Pecos Valley Diamond historical cozy mystery series, featuring Annabelle Blue. The Pecos Valley books take place right smack here in Roswell, New Mexico, only I named it Rosedale in the books because I didn’t want anyone to take exception and sue me. Not that I write anything negative about Roswell. Honest.

So, yay! I’m not accustomed too good things happening in what I laughingly call my writing career, but it looks as if they’re going to happen anyway, so I’d just better get used to it, huh?

Let me see. Is there anything else to talk about? Um . . . I can’t seem to think of anything, probably because my head’s all fuzzy and my innards are in a turmoil; therefore, I’ll just post the winners of February’s give-away books:

Sue Farrell wins a copy of PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL,

Trish Rucker wins a copy of FALLEN ANGELS, and

Carol Goerz wins a copy of SIERRA RANSOM!

Congratulations, ladies! I’ll get your books to you as soon as I can.

In the meantime, if you’d like to get the latest Daisy Gumm Majesty book (SHAKEN SPIRITS, in which Daisy begins the new year, 1925, by being hit by a car and shoved into a pepper tree after watching the Tournament of Roses Parade) feel free to do so! Here’s the cover Amazon Kindle link:

Buy SHAKEN SPIRITS for your Amazon Kindle

It would also be lovely of you if you’d leave a review of the book. Doesn’t have to gush or anything. Just a brief “I loved this book” or “I hated this book” will suffice, although I do hope nobody actively hates it. Reviews help an author big-time, even if the author herself isn’t big-time, and I’m definitely not. Heck, even if I got rich and famous, I wouldn’t be big. I resent shrinking those four inches, for all the good that does me.

And, what the heck, after you read SHAKEN SPIRITS, feel free to pre-order SCARLET SPIRITS. Don’t have the cover art yet, but I am looking forward to seeing it. I must say that, since Mean Pete gave me Lou Prophet, I’ve had a lot of fun with the gnarly old guy. Poor Lou. He used to be such a daredevil and a womanizer and a truly dangerous bounty hunter. When he hits Pasadena in 1925, he’s old (probably even older than I am right now!), crabby, cantankerous, resentful and one-legged. Daisy and Sam both like him in spite of themselves, although Daisy objects to his unseemly language quite often. Anyway, here’s the link to SCARLET SPIRITS, if you’d like to pre-order it. I consider it a fun book. Yet another refugee from the Old West moves to Pasadena in this book and, of course, havoc ensues.

Buy SCARLET SPIRITS for your Amazon Kindle

I’m looking forward to seeing what ePublishing Works will do when they re-publish my Mercy Allcutt books. They’ve done such a smashing job with Daisy; I’m sure they’ll work wonders for Mercy.

And Wolfpack! I’m so excited that my old, out-of-print books will be available in paperback format again. Wolfpack is doing wonders for Peter Brandvold’s formerly out-of-print books. I can hardly wait to see what they’ll do with mine. I really love some of the books I wrote years ago, and I’m so happy they’re going to get a new life. I want to see TEXAS LONESOME in print again. And PHOEBE’S VALENTINE! And . . . oh, heck, there are zillions of ‘em. Sigh. Every now and then, things go well. Not often, but every now and then.

Okey-dokey, so what books should Bam-Bam choose wieners for at the end of March? Let me think for a moment. Huh. According to Bam-Bam, I don’t think well, so he’s chosen March’s books for me. They are UNSETTLED SPIRITS, SPIRITS UNITED and SPIRITS UNEARTHED. If you’d like your name to be entered into Bam-Bam’s special contest doggie dish, just send your name and home address to alice@aliceduncan.net . By the way, if you’ve ever wondered what Bam-Bam looks like, here he is in all his glory (and sitting on the silver crunchy thing that's supposed to keep the dogs off the bed. It doesn't work). He’s an extremely handsome boy, but he came from a puppy mill in Big Spring, Texas. At the time, he was so skinny, you could count his ribs and vertebrae, and he’s never quite learned how to be a dog even after having lived a secure life for many years. He also started out in life as a black-and-tan wiener dog with just a little white dappling on his head. As he ages, the white seems to be creeping down around his muzzle. He’s maybe nine years old (puppy mills don’t keep great records) and I adore him. He adores me, too, but he’s not so sure about most other humans in the universe.

Iris Evans and Leon Fundenberger founded a Facebook page called DAISY DAZE just for posting stuff from the 1920s that Daisy Gumm Majesty and her family might have used or seen or gone to or shopped at. It’s fun, and if you’d like to be a member, check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/905100189878318/ .

If you’d like to visit my web page, here’s the link: http://aliceduncan.net/ . And if you’d like to be Facebook friends, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925

And I think that’s it. Thank you!

Review: South of Hell by PJ Parrish

Retired cop and now PI, Louis Kincaid is asked to go back to Michigan by a local cop to check into the missing person's case of Jean Brandt.  He teams up with his lover, Joe who is also a cop.  When looking into the case, they discover a young girl, Amy.  Amy is the daughter of Jean and believes she saw her father kill her mother.  Only under hypnosis, the details she describes do not match the evidence and when bones are found on the family property, they are determined to be quite old. 

While trying to sort out the truth, they have to fight to avoid her abusive father from getting access or custody of Amy.  Only her father is a violent man, and he certainly does not want the truth uncovered.

A very suspenseful story with flashes to the past they made be reincarnation of epigenetics, it is a lot of tragedy and very dark happenings.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but truthfully, my favorite character was Amy.  I would love to see a spin off of just her story - she is fascinating!

Review: Mushing is Murder by Patti Benning

Angie heads back to her childhood home in Alaska after troubles in her life as well as to help with her mother who has Parkinson's.  Her father raises, trains and runs dogs in sled races as well as running the family diner.  Soon after her arrival, a neighbor shows up in the Diner looking for her father because a sled team has shown up on his property without a driver.  She and the neighbor head out to find out where he is only to find his body.  After thinking it was an accident, the Sheriff comes around to question her dad as a possible killer since the victim was his best friend.  She starts asking questions to find the real killer.

I enjoyed the book a lot because of the setting, characters and yes - the dogs. LOL  the thing is the mystery part was really weak, but that's okay because I did enjoy it.  Maybe book two in the series will make up for it with a better mystery.  I think part of the problem was the length - a bit longer, more clues or suspects and motives could have been provided. 

Review: Teggie: Lucy's Story by Roger David Francis

I was really intrigued by this book.  I had never heard of the legend of Teggie in Lake Bala.  I have to say that this version of Teggie is truly horrifying and evil.  That part of the book was excellent, as was Ben's descent under Teggie's control.  Where the author lost me was Lucy.  It is her story - as she watches the man she loves obsessing over a monster and behaving in worse and worse manners.  A great story.  BUT.... She turned out to be a protagonist I truly despised.  She repeatedly made excuses for Ben, thinking he will "get over it", even as things progressed to more and more hideous violence.  Making excuses.  HOPING he would be able to fight Teggie's influence.  Passive and pathetic.  Even as Ben was nastier and nastier to her and others.  After crimes were being committed.  It was a visceral feeling. Grrr...  I was glad when it was over so I wouldn't have to deal with her any more. 

That said,  Ben's descent and Teggie were great.  Additionally, the book has many other Teggie/Lake Bala tales which were quite interesting as well.

Review: The Red Death by Brigitte Märgen

Cases start emerging in NYC where the victims are dying of a bacteria similar to the Black Death of the Middle Ages.  Only this pathogen is 100% fatal.  The CDC investigates and find an ancient bacteria that one professor's career had been destroyed over when no one believed his findings.  A search for a natural cure takes the Professor and a CDC researcher to the Amazon while the plague starts spreading quickly throughout the world. 

The story is told by multiple POVs including some of the first patients, showing the method of the spread.  It is a story that is chilling because of how easily we could see this happening today. 

Excellent read