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Sam Wiebe: Hell and Gone
PI Dave Wakeland is minding his own business when chaos breaks outside his office window. Masked, gun wielding raiders are coming out of a building across the street. It’s a heist of some type and they don’t hesitate to shoot the pedestrians on the sidewalk as they move to their van. Wakeland takes the fire…
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Kevin G. Chapman: Perilous Gambit
Senator Harlan Bushfield III is assassinated on his way home after a fundraising event. South Dakota FBI agents Derek Dumm and Chelsea Anne Shields are assigned to the case. A risqué photo on the Senator’s phone has them contacting the NYPD for assistance to locate the people in the photo. One of those individuals has…
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Michael J Clark: The Truth You’re Told
Freshly fired from her job Sam Hutchins heads to the family cabin in Manitoba, Canada. Sam is joined by her daughter Meg, and begins to reconnect with lake friends from prior years. She’s supposed to be writing a book, but time and reacquaintances are moving her along with little on the page. It’s digging into…
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Jason Beech: Keep the Motor Running
Not a Love Triangle – Something Else Jason Beech presents us with three people: Karl Lankester, married with two children, a wife who’s just hanging on, and her badgering mother. Tempest Stanley, Karl’s neighbour. Sultry, sharp and embarrassed that she’s sunk so low to put up living with an abusive boyfriend. Czech Downes, Tempest’s boyfriend,…
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Melissa Yi: White Lightning
There’s unusual things happening at the Rum Runner Inn. And no surprise, Dr. Hope Sze and her boyfriend Tucker are in the middle of it, there for a rare weekend away with friends. From the outset things are strange, her friend is spooked about a ghost, and Tucker – he has his own reasons for…
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Nick Kolakowski: Love & Bullets
The Rockaway Mob is pissed. Bill has made off with their money. He’s tired of the con artist life and sees the money as a score to relieve the tedium of his existence. It could even be a mid-life crisis he’s going thru. The head of the Rockaway mob is The Dean, a fussy, pompous,…
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Nigel Bird: Ain’t That a Kick in the Head
Totally stealing the review from my UK blogging buddy Colman over at Criminal Col’s Library: Ain’t That a Kick in the Head
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Dietrich Kalteis: Under an Outlaw Moon
Stella Mae and Bennie met at a roller rink. She was fifteen, he was in his 20s and fresh out of the Missouri State Penitentiary for bank robbery. Stella dreams of a house with a nice yard. Bennie ponders and plots how to get that for her. I’s not the straight life. He teaches Stella…
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Rhett C. Bruno: The Roach
A Dark Vigilante Thriller Let’s make that former vigilante, as Reese Roberts has been in a wheelchair for 5-years. His life and spirit are on a downward drop. For years he was know as The Roach, a bane to the criminal underworld and significant or petty criminals at large in Iron City. A bullet from…
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John Greco: Dark Secrets
Let’s start off the Autumn season of short stories with this selection by John Greco. Inside, what is now his fourth book, are stories of murder, enticement and betrayal. The Bombay Hook Incident was a bit of fun and I loved when the character Dee said: “Call me girl one more time, and I’ll shoot…
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Trace Conger: Five Will Die
In a departure from some of his earlier books, Trace Conger offers up the tale of Sheriff Tim Burke whose town is at the mercy of a serial killer. Burke moved to Lincoln, Ohio, when an anxiety disorder forced him to leave the Cleveland Police Department. Now confronted with the certainty that a previously trashed,…
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Summer Hiatus
Time once again for my summer break. Take care, be well, and thanks as always for your support. ~ June Lorraine
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Joe R. Lansdale: Moon Lake
In 1968, Daniel Russel was only 13-years old when his father drove them off a bridge in a murder-suicide attempt. Luckily, Ronnie Candles and her father were nearby and he was rescued and taken into their home. At night though Russel is haunted by visits from his father in his dreams. Ten years later when…
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LaVonne Griffin-Valade: Dead Point
Maggie Blackthorne is a Sergeant in the Oregon State Police. She’s back in her home town in the eastern Oregon high desert after 20-years. The same faces, and the drunks and pushers, poverty and feuds are all in place. Finding the twin Nodine brothers shot dead along with their dog is a shocking site. Blackthorne…