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James Grady: This Train
C.C.C.C.: Confirm Contain Control Contingencies. The four Cs of foresee. Nora, Constance and her dog Mugzy, the messenger bag man, and a Marine with his wife and two children, were the first to arrive in the Premium seating area for Amtrak #779 – the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago. Others arrived, a racist banker…
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Charles Salzberg: Canary in the Coal Mine
..Yogi Berra said it best: It ain’t over till it’s over. This is what I think over looks like. No one’s happy. No one’s out of the woods. No one is getting what they want. No one is getting what they need. No one is getting what they deserve. This is often what over looks…
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C.S. Porter: Beneath Her Skin
“All any of us have is now…That’s the job. That’s what detectives do. We look backwards. We serve the dead.” It’s a shooting competition with targets placed on bales of hay. The father of a competitor notices red on a paper target and calls a halt to the contest. This is the opening salvo from…
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Mark Rowley & David Derbyshire: The Sleep of Reason
It begins at the Chilton Theme park, a man with a knife, and a family strapped into a ride, helpless to stop their massacre. Detective Superintendent Sophie Gabriel is from Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism unit (SO15) and glad to be out from behind her desk. She’s focused and capable, putting aside a previous incident that…
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Joe Ide: The Goodbye Coast
Philip Marlow didn’t last long as a police officer, just like his father Emmett a decorated detective predicted. Ten years in as a private investigator in Los Angeles, Marlow has a reputation for getting things done, and for being difficult to deal with. The introductory case in the book is the missing step-daughter of a…
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Paul Cleave: The Quiet People
It was a day that went bad and got worse. A day when Cameron Murdoch took his ‘on the Autistic spectrum’ son Zach out for a some fun. At the bouncy castle Murdoch realizes he can’t see Zach with the other children. He jumps inside inadvertently bumping and jostling the children creating a furor. Zach…
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David Bradbury: Harbor City Homicide
“Detective,” he said, meeting her gaze. “You want the word on the street, honest to God, unvarnished. You’re a door missing hinges.” LA Detective Helen Freitag is on the job for the long haul. A survivor of an IED during a tour of duty, she is a capable but reclusive investigator, who often gets lost…
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Liam McIvanney: The Heretic & Col’s Criminal Library
I’m a bit under the weather so have lifted this excellent review from Col’s Criminal Library Col is a stellar reviewer and gives this book 5/5. The Heretic
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J.B. Stevens: A Therapeutic Death
Violent Short Stories I had to sit on the review for this book to be released. Here it is at last – COVID-19 has created problems for both writers and publishers. So here we have tales of desperation, fear, and longing and desire. All of them wrapped up in stories that seem to have impossible…
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Curtis Ippolito: Burying the Newspaper Man
The place is San Diego, California, and the cop on the beach beat is Marcus Kemp. He’s got quite the record for finding stolen cars and he’s just located another one. Upon opening the trunk, Kemp finds more than he could have imagined. It’s not the man’s body that alarms him so much. It’s the…
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A Dark and Broken Heart: R.J. Ellroy
The other day found me rereading A Dark and Broken Heart (2012). That’s actually surprising as I have little time for such indulgence. This overview is from Ellroy’s website: It should have all been so easy for Vincent Madigan. Take four hundred grand from the thieves who stole it in the first place and who…
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David Whitton: Seven Down
Seven of them: Reservations, Engineering, Catering, Courtesy, Security, Management, and Systems. Seven sleeper agents at a chic hotel. They know nothing about each other. They know only about the phone call that will set them on their assigned task. Written as an interrogation of each agent in turn, we see that what starts off as…
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Joshua Melville: American Time Bomb
Attica, Sam Melville, and a Son’s Search for Answers You know I like to shake things around, so here is another non-fiction crime book/memoir for your consideration. Written by Joshua Melville, American Time Bomb relates the history of his father Sam Melville, and the people and groups (like the Weathermen) he associated with. It also…
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Terrence McCauley: The Wandering Man
Charlie Doherty is an NYPD sergeant. To be more accurate, he has the shield, but he’s still the bagman for Chief Carmichael. No, even that’s not quite right. He’s the be all, do all for Carmichael. By trying to define who Doherty is, begins to show you how complex he is. And why this book,…
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Will Carver: Psychopaths Anonymous
Maeve is a raging alcoholic. Mind you she doesn’t see herself that way. She goes to AA meetings to manipulate and exploit the members there. Inside she ridicules their fears, struggles and triumphs, while presenting a sympathetic demeanor. In Maeve’s mind they are all losers and the whole 12-Step process is one big load of…