Lady in the Lake

“Alive, I was Cleo Sherwood. Dead, I became the Lady in the Lake, a nasty broken thing.” Maddie is feeling unfulfilled in her life as a full-time wife and mother of one. It’s 1965, when women can dream of careers—and Maddie is a good dreamer. She leaves her husband ofContinue Reading

After She's Gone

After She’s Gone was named Best Swedish Crime Novel for good reason—realistic characterizations, a compelling mystery, and a haunting setting. Swedish Police Detective Malin is called back to her rural hometown to investigate the murder of a five-year-old girl. Ironically, Malin found the girl’s skeleton eight years earlier when onlyContinue Reading

Blood Standard

Blood Standard is a beautifully written slow-moving hardboiled noir. Isaiah Coleridge is an enforcer with the Chicago mob. Since he is Maori, he can never be truly part of the Family. When he falls out of favor, he is sent to Nome Alaska, the “Mafia penal colony”. After letting hisContinue Reading

Archie Coe Vol 1

Archie Coe, hypnotist, cat whisperer and sucker to every dame he meets. The art and dialogue both up the 1940s noir feel in Archie Coe Vol 1. Jack Midland hires Coe to find the reason his wife, Hope, is frigid to him since their marriage. Hope insists that she andContinue Reading

Baby Monkey, Private Eye

Cute, funny, easy reader with awesome illustrations. Baby Monkey, Private Eye contains five cases for Baby Monkey, who is of course a baby monkey, to solve. This is a brilliant mash-up of picture and chapter book. The illustrations are more frequent than words and were my favorite part.  Marketed toContinue Reading

Jazz Maynard

Gangs, dirty cops, missing children, sex trafficking and murder explode across this noir crime thriller.  Childhood friends Jazz, Teo and Judas go down separate life paths that all involve crime. There is a significant flashback in chapter two explaining how the boys’ paths diverged. While rescuing his sister from poorContinue Reading