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Jonathan Brown: The Big Crescendo
The L.A. Practice Joint isn’t much, but it’s got cheap rates and works for the up and comers, and those who never will be. Lou Crasher collects the money and books the rooms, meantime picking up gigs around the city as a drummer. Hi main gal is a 1965 Mustang, but lately it’s Angela that’s…
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Andrew Diamond: To Hell With Johnny Manic
Tom Gantry is a man trembling on the edge of collapse. He has assumed the persona of John Manis AKA Johnny Manic, a wealthy IT coding guru. The resemblance is so striking that Manis would play tricks on people, and laugh like hell at the deceit. Gantry gambles his way through Manis’ fortune before settling…
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Catharine Riggs: What She Gave Away
Admittedly, Crystal Love had a pretty tough life. Adopted by a dysfunctional couple, she was abandoned by both of them when the marriage ended. Revenge against society became Love’s lifestyle. A plus size woman in a skinny world, she imagined the worse thing that could happen to someone, and then made it come true. Kathi…
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Rob Hart: The Warehouse
It’s your future! Zinnia is at The Cloud to engage in corporate espionage. Money drives her for the freedom it will bring. Paxton has come to The Cloud for two reasons. He desperately needs a job and maybe there will be a chance to tell Gibson, the creator of The Cloud, how his company destroyed…
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The Whisper Man: Alex North
If you’re lonely, sad, and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you Tom and his son Jake have moved to a new house in a new town after the unexpected death of Tom’s wife. It is there that he learns about The Whisper Man, Frank Carter, a murderer of children who has been in…
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Philip Elliott: Nobody Move
Nobody Move is an apt title for this book, as any sudden action among the characters can bring everything to a brutal, bloody stop. But momentum is whirling all around. Eddie Vegas pulling the trigger at the wrong time, Dakota searching for her missing sister, Rufus needing retribution for a dead brother. Then there’s Floyd…
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Heather Harper Ellett: Ain’t Nobody Nobody
East Texas in the 90s is a hardscrabble time. People make do, and some do what they shouldn’t. You’ve got some decent people round about but all the scuttlebutt is at the feed store where the three Jimmies pass judgement on the goings on. Randy Mayhill once had a best friend. Van was his name…
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John Vercher: Three-Fifths
Bobby and Aaron have been friends since their school years. But when Aaron comes out of prison years after his sentencing, Bobby barely recognizes him. Gone is the wanna-be, pseudo black persona. In its place, a hardened, white supremacist full of tattoos and hatred. Bobby who’s always hidden that he’s bi-racial, is terror struck the…
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Alan Parks: Bloody January
Glasgow’s underbelly in the 1970s is well given life in this debut book by Alan Parks. A young man commits murder at a Buchanan St. bus station. Shooting a waitress before killing himself. For DI Harry McCoy the question is why. There isn’t a connection between the two people. When the murder/suicide leaves a dotted…
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TH1RT3EN: Steve Cavanagh
The wife of a Hollywood ‘It’ couple is found dead with her security guard in bed beside her. The husband, Robert Solomon is charged with their murders, and it’s the sensational trial of the year. The defense team hires Eddie Flynn to take on the police evidence. He’s got a bad history with the police…
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Autumn Begins
A New Season of Crime Fiction It’s been in the air the past few weeks. That change in the light, cooler days and the expected rebound into a hot sunny afternoon. It all signals the commencement of fall, my favourite time of the year. I did a lot of reading this summer. As you likely…
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Late Summer Hiatus
Gros Morne Newfoundland Photo credit: Steve Jermanok Time for my usual summer hiatus beginning with a vacation touring the province of Newfoundland. I hope you are all enjoying a happy and safe summer, and get to do a little reading. See you in Autumn. ~ June Lorraine
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Benedict J Jones: The Gingerbread Houses
With bonus Q&A below Not much is pretty about the Gingerbread Houses, an image that normally conjures beauty and charm. These Gingerbread Houses are vile places where degenerate behaviours are forced upon the young. PI Charlie ‘Bars’ Constantinople is hired to find a pedophile using the name Teddy Bear. A man who has left the…
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Florence Wetzel: The Grand Man
A Scandinavian Thriller Time for a bit of refresh and this may hit the spot for you. The Grand Man has lots going on as there are three crimes to be solved. Two past, one present. The murder of Sweden’s Prime Minister Olaf Palme in 1986, Stieg Larrson’s missing 4th book, and the murder of…
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Matt Phillips – Countdown Q&A
San Diego > Toronto Communiqué A large part of my interest in noir crime fiction is the background story. Why these characters, why this place. So Matt and I did a little Q&A for you regarding Countdown. Here’s what went on in his head for this book. And can you equate that smile in his…