Confessions on the 7:45 would make a great movie! While ostensibly a remake of Strangers on a Train, it is so much more. Selena has had a bad few months. Her husband, Charlie, lost his job—and doesn’t seem to be searching too hard for another one. In fact, at thisContinue Reading
My Review It’s 1939 in England. You are a journalist, an amateur detective, and a part-time spy for the British government. You are chosen to join the Quaker Kindertransports of mostly Jewish children from Germany to England. Your goals? Find out who murdered the person you are replacing. Discover whoContinue Reading
“I do not climb into cars with a group of strangers or jaunt off into a snowstorm. This isn’t something I’d normally do, but to get home to Mom? I’ll do whatever it takes.” These are Mira’s last thoughts before she indeed becomes one of Five Total Strangers stuck inContinue Reading
It is nice to be able to cook dinner in 30 minutes or less. But it’s even better to make dinner when I feel like eating it instead of right before the fresh ingredients are about to spoil. Enter the 30-Minute Cooking from Frozen Cookbook to solve both problems. WithContinue Reading
In Come to Light, Emit’s wife, Julia, and two of her friends went missing six years ago while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. When the skull of one of the friends is found after a storm on the PCT, Emit suspects his wife’s stalker ex-boyfriend, Guillaume. Unfortunately, Julia’s sister, Sara,Continue Reading
Part parody, part homage, and fully camp, the Snifter of Terror Vol 2 is great for Poe fans that can take a bit of friendly ribbing. It’s the Mad Magazine of Poe. There are graphic short stories, prose short stories, and poems within these pages. Some are mashups of moreContinue Reading
Retsuko is an mild mannered accountant working in a mind-numbing corporate job. But when karaokeing, she turns into Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max. When her entire office comes down with the “C-virus”, it’s Retsuko to the rescue. How you say? A vaccine? Social distancing? Bleach injections? No, of course not!Continue Reading
Lon Chaney Speaks more than ninety years after his death in this excellent graphic novel biography. Lon Chaney was famous for his ability to turn himself into completely different looking, and scary, monsters. Everyone knows his iconic Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame. But some of hisContinue Reading
A Mexican drug cartel accidentally sees their former employee, an infamous killer named Ramirez, in an Arizona vacuum store. Could an assassin be in hiding as a mild-mannered vacuum repairman? The cartel is convinced and their assassins come Gunning for Ramirez! The art was my favorite part of this novel.Continue Reading
There is a gossip website called Dirty Laundry that focuses on Portland High School in Maine. While Sandra was giving a speech to the school’s PTA in her new role as PTA President, a story explodes from Dirty Laundry into the room. Sandra’s Senator husband is rumored to be usingContinue Reading
The Haunting of H.G. Wells follows Wells into WWI trenches where he is looking for morale building stories for the folks back in England. What he finds are ghosts of the war dead that follow him back into his life. And what a life that is. Good ol’ HG hadContinue Reading
The publisher’s blurb for Consensual Hex sounds intriguing. “A coven of queer witches at an elite women’s college employ their powers to exact revenge on the frat boy warlocks who are using magic to cover up sexual assault on campus.” It sounds like campy fantasy fun like The Craft movie.Continue Reading
Teenage Lucy is still struggling with PTSD from her childhood experiences in Peru when she witnesses a demonic attack in her high school classroom. A fellow student blinds another. And then he kills the teacher who tries to break up the fight. Mysterious men then kill the attacker. But thatContinue Reading
After spending some money, and precious kitchen counter real estate, on an instant pot, I’m always looking for new ideas for what to do with it. Sure, I’ve made soups, stews and chickens within its stainless steel interior. I’ve even made some kind of rice porridge from an online recipeContinue Reading
John Banville is much more famous for literary fiction than mysteries. It shows in Snow. The plot reads like a too-easy-to-solve Agatha Christie. A priest is murdered in a down-at-its-heels country manor house during a snowstorm with no signs of forced entry. However, the setting in 1950s Ireland with theContinue Reading
My Review In Cake Popped Off!, Emory has a cupcake catering company that specializes in cupcakes flavored like cocktails. She is also a companion to octogenarian Tillie. When Tillie has a costumed Halloween party, Emory provides Fireball cupcakes and “poisoned apple” cake pops. Emory’s twin sister Carrie provides the cateredContinue Reading