I adored Imaginary Corpse! It is an inventive take on a noir private investigator plot using a fantasy setting. The Stillreal is where ideas that are too real go when their creator abruptly sends them away. Tippy is a stuffed dinosaur who solves crime in the Stillreal. However, even heContinue Reading
Minneapolis during a freezing snowstorm is the setting for the serial killer police procedural Ice Cold Heart. Kelly Ramage is stuck in a marriage with boring Todd, an accountant. Todd won’t satisfy her need for bondage play. So Kelly looks elsewhere for satisfaction. Unfortunately, she met James, who took itContinue Reading
Jesse is fighting the opioid epidemic, his desire for a drink, and to connect to his newly found son in Robert B. Parker’s The Bitterest Pill. I read each of Robert B. Parker’s novels as they were released. I’ve only read one of the books by Michael Brandman, which IContinue Reading
An outer space fungus wakes up due to global warming and attempts world takeover. It reads like a cheesy b-movie script and that’s a compliment. Even the characters in Cold Storage seem to be in on the joke. “What are you, all science-y and shit?” It takes some time toContinue Reading
A Girl Named Anna begins to question her whole world after visiting the Astroland amusement park. “Today is my eighteenth birthday and, for the first time, I am lying to my mother.” So says Anna before sneaking off from her religious mamma to visit the park with her boyfriend. Meanwhile,Continue Reading
Talk about multi-tasking! Read a 500-page book in the time it takes to “use the facilities”, wait to be called in by your doctor, or get through the checkout line. John’s bathroom books are always a joy to read and Uncle John’s Truth, Trivia, and the Pursuit of Factiness BathroomContinue Reading
If you ever wondered How To send a letter home from the space station or land a space shuttle in downtown LA, I have the perfect instruction book for you. What if I use real science to solve hypothetical problems? For example, how can I get rid of this bookContinue Reading
Extinction Agenda opens with a bang when an explosion kills the majority of FBI Agent James Mason’s multi-jurisdictional team. They were hunting a more lethal mutation of the bird flu virus at the Arizona-Mexico border. The flames deactivated the virus. However, Mason begins a one-man vendetta to avenge his friendContinue Reading
What could have happened? Six college students go into England’s longest tunnel canal. Only one comes out in the new puzzler, Now You See Me. The five bodies are never found. Despite the lack of evidence, Matthew is accused of murder and sent to jail to await his trial. MatthewContinue Reading
Twenty-six short tales make up the Best Horror of the Year Volume Eleven. Ghosts and vampires are if course present in a compendium of horror tales. Surprisingly, there are also stories about thumb-suckers and a town where it really is raining men. Of course, with any short story anthology, thereContinue Reading
YouTuber Eddie Woo tries, and succeeds, to make math interesting in It’s a Numberful World. “If you go down deep enough into anything, you will find mathematics.” Eddie proves his point by explaining why rainbows are round, blood vessels and lightning bolts look alike, and the zeros are in theContinue Reading
Rowan finds her dream nanny job on a remote Scottish estate updated with all the modern smart home fixtures in the Turn of the Key. The book is a series of letters to Rowan’s prospective attorney while she is in jail awaiting her murder charge to be adjudicated. It explainsContinue Reading
Small town life in Fettering will never be boring as long as there may be a Killer in the Choir. Leonard, a retired and rich industrialist, is dead. Did he fall down the stairs or was he pushed? His daughter, Alice, thinks her stepmother, Heather, did it for money. AfterContinue Reading
A current Danish murder is entwined with an earlier closed case by a child’s Chestnut Man. Almost a year ago, a girl named Kristine disappeared. Her mother, Rosa, is high up in Danish politics. Police find a mentally ill man who confesses to the crime and is quickly convicted. However,Continue Reading
Eight Passengers are stuck in separate driverless cars when a hacker takes control. Only one will survive in this cat-and-mouse thriller. The eight people trapped include a pregnant woman, an aging actress, a married couple, an abused Indian housewife, an illegal immigrant, a disabled war hero, and a man withContinue Reading
Who doesn’t enjoy getting Texts from Mittens? Mittens is a typical cat. He has a healthy obsession with boxes and shampoo caps. His girlfriend, Fiona, thinks he is romantic when he suggests her coming up to his cat condo to rub their faces on an old sock together. He suspectsContinue Reading