With Winter bearing down on us, it’s time to restock your TBR piles and hunker down with some good stories while the cold and snow make the outdoors miserable
Author Donald J. Bingle based his Dick Thornby Thriller series on the idea that “spies can be regular people who deal with financial problems, family issues, and office politics while fighting bad guys and saving the world.” His latest is Flash Drive, book three in the series. https://www.donaldjbingle.com/flashdrivelinks.
About the Book:
It’s complicated when you’re an international spy with a wife, a kid, and a mortgage, but everyone thinks you’re really a wastewater treatment consultant. It’s bad when your family finds out about your clandestine life, your wife wants to keep tabs on where you are, and your kid tries to emulate your espionage activities. But, it’s downright dangerous for your career, your family, your colleagues, and your prospects of living until retirement when the powers-that-be at the Subsidiary discover you haven’t been keeping the secrets you should.
What Bingle really liked about writing the series is it got him to use some of those off-the-wall things he’s come across in what writers dub as “research.”
“There’s a lot of weird things on the internet, from virtual realities to conspiracy theories and all sorts of speculation about looming disasters, UFOs, and past events,” he says. “Dick Thornby’s missions take him from learning how to operate an avatar to thwarting money exchanges in virtual worlds, stopping predicted disasters from occurring, and figuring out what happened in the past that is being hidden from the mundane citizens of the world.”
Favorite Lines:
The fume-laden air lit, the bright flash expanding outward in every direction in explosive destruction just like he learned it would from casting fireballs in Dungeons & Dragons. He only hoped he would save for half-damage.
What’s Next?
Bingle switches from espionage to mysteries with a touch of the supernatural in the upcoming sequel to the San Francisco-based supernatural detective series, The Love-Haight Case Files, co-authored with Jean Rabe. (See her profile below.) Case Files 2 is schedule to be released in early summer, with a re-release also of book one.
Mystery novelist Donis Casey returns to the Roaring ‘20s with the question, “Who is trying to kill Hollywood’s greatest lover?” in her latest, Valentino Will Die, book 2 in the Bianca Dangereuse Hollywood Mysteries series. http://www.doniscasey.com/.
About the Book:
Though Bianca LaBelle, star of the wildly popular silent movie serial “The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse”, and Rudolph Valentino, the greatest screen idol of all time, have been friends for years, in the summer of 1926 they are finally making their first picture together. Despite their success, one evening at Bianca’s fabulous Beverly Hills estate, a troubled Rudy confesses that he has received anonymous death threats. In a matter of days, filming comes to an abrupt halt when Rudy falls deathly ill. It could be poison, but it’s definitely not a coincidence.
As Rudy lies dying, Bianca promises him that she will find out who is responsible. Was it one of his many lovers? A delusional fan? Or perhaps Rudy had run afoul of a mobster whose name Bianca knows all too well? With the help of P.I. Ted Oliver she dives into investigating the end of what had seemed to be the charmed life of Valentino.
What Inspired the Book?
Interesting is that Bianca (born Blanche Tucker) was actually first introduced to readers as a six-year-old girl living on an Oklahoma farm in the 1910s at the beginning of Casey’s 10 book Alafair Tucker Mystery series. But, she thought, why not let Bianca go out on her own as an adult?
“I watched through 10 novels as she grew up to be a smart, beautiful, but headstrong teen, bored with life on the farm,” says Casey. “The tenth Alafair novel, Forty Dead Men, took place just after WWI in 1919, and I was about to enter a whole new world – the Roaring Twenties. I decided it would be fun to fling Blanche into that world and see what happened. I didn’t know myself she was going to end up a silent movie star – until she did.”
And while she could’ve chosen anyone as a side character, what’s the Twenties without Valentino? Casey couldn’t resist starting the series with the biggest star of the era as one of Bianca’s friends in the first book, The Wrong Girl.
“I knew Rudy was the first great screen lover and an international heartthrob whose early death caused a frenzy of grief, but when I dug into the research on Rudy’s life, I ended up down the rabbit hole,” she says. “He was a fascinating guy. An Italian immigrant with a French mother, he loved art and music and spoke five languages. He was hot tempered but quick to forgive, loved women but by his own admission didn’t understand them, extremely athletic but equally sweet, boyish, and naive. He was also flummoxed by his unbelievable fame. But what really intrigued me was that as soon as he died, rumors began to fly that he had been murdered. A perfect set-up for a mystery novel.”
Favorite Lines:
Bianca: “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said no, I’d be rich. Oh, wait! I am rich.”
Casey’s other favorite line comes from historical notes at the end, a quote about Rudolph Valentino by essayist H.L. Mencken: “He was precisely as happy as a small boy being kissed by two hundred fat aunts.”
Excerpt: (Bianca and Rudy are being interviewed by the James Quirk, editor of Photoplay.)
“You two have been friends for a long time, but this is the first time you’ve been in a picture together. You’re both single now, and I hear that Rudy is spending more and more time at Orange Garden with you, Bianca. I think all your readers would love to know if there is a romance brewing between the two most desirable people in Hollywood.”
She knew it was coming. They had been warned. Bianca may have liked James Quirk better than many of the other Hollywood journalists, but by this time she had had enough and found herself struggling to remain gracious. She was asked something similar about every male co-star. She supposed that by now she should be used to the same questions over and over, ad infinitum.
“Why, Jim, I’m still just a slip of a girl, far too young to be thinking of marriage. Besides, Rudy is like a brother. If and when I finally decide to settle down, there are plenty of fish in the sea. I’ve already had hundreds of proposals, some of the kind that would make your hat pop right off. I’ve said no to them all. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said no, I’d be rich. Oh, wait! I am rich.”
Quirk was scribbling furiously, happily setting down her remarks word for word. He looked up, pleased to have unleashed the unfiltered Bianca. “Bianca, you are considered one of the great beauties of the time. Any beauty tips you’d like to pass on to your legions of female followers?”
Beauty questions never failed to annoy her, and she suspected that Quirk knew it. She was twenty-one years old, had good bones and good health and a lot of money. She couldn’t bring herself to take credit for the way she looked. “I’d say be sure you’re born to the best-looking parents you can afford.”
What’s next?
The third Bianca Dangereuse, set in early 1927, is in the hands of her agent. In it, Bianca invites Dashiell Hammett, who is just beginning to gain attention for his short stories, to come down to Southern California to discuss film rights to his Continental Op character. While he’s there, he’s recruited by Bianca to use his detective skills and help investigate the death of her movie star friend at the hands of a mob boss.
(As an aside, Casey shared an interesting take on ‘20s crime, Capone and Old Hollywood at CrimeReads: https://crimereads.com/glamorous-immorality-a-brief-history-of-old-hollywoods-organized-criminals.)
Writing the series had some benefits, like having to watch a lot of silent films to get the “flavor” of the era, but that was only part of the required research, she says.
“I love depicting the life that Bianca lives and how she has learned to navigate it, but I work very hard to depict a real person living a real life,” she explains. “I’m very concerned about creating characters that readers can relate to, even the rich and famous.
“Also, I have to be careful about the setting. I’m writing about a well-known place, Hollywood and Southern California. I know how these places look and feel and smell now, but they didn’t look or feel like that in the 1920s, so I do a lot of research on the setting at the time. A good, if surprising, source for the look of SoCal in the ’20s is the collection of photographs by the Los Angeles Water and Power Associates. One great resource for learning about the world of 1920s America is silent movies themselves. Besides reading old newspapers and doing historical research, I must have watched dozens of silent movies. Until… eureka! The magic happened, and I realized that the Bianca books should be fashioned like a silent movie, with inter-title cards rather than chapter headings, full of peril and ending on a cliffhanger.”
Author Kaye George has been giving readers some treats with her yummy Vintage Sweets series. In the third book, Into the Sweet Hereafter, Spring has sprung in the charming tourist town of Fredericksburg, Texas, and one of the tastiest attractions is a trip to Tally’s Old Tyme Sweets—until a bizarre burglary leaves a bitter aftertaste… https://kayegeorge.wixsite.com/kaye-george.
Writing the series has been especially fun, George says, since, in a switch, she had the titles first.
“My publisher for this series, Lyrical Press, gave me the three titles in the three-book contract,” she says. “That’s never happened for me before, but I liked it. It gave me something to write toward. I wanted a character with a definite sweet tooth, a craving that caused her downfall. Fran didn’t eat herself to death, but she was poisoned through her eating. On the surface, this seems to be because of her nastiness, but the plot runs much deeper than that. I had to delve into the pasts of many of the characters, which was a lot of fun.”
The inspiration for book three may have been inspired by “my deadline,” she half-jokes, but George says she also wanted to learn more about jade mining, which plays into the plot.
“I have a few pieces that I love,” she says. “My husband bought them when he was stationed in Southeast Asia in the early ‘70s. One of the story lines was influenced by my discovery of what is involved in the mining of jade. It’s not a pretty picture and I wanted to expose part of it.”
On a lighter side, George enjoyed adding a more personal connection in the story via the character of Lily Vale, an employee of Tally’s who orders the candy replicas which figure largely in the story.
“My granddaughter has been begging me for years to include her in a mystery,” George says. “This character, Lily, is my version of her, largely true to life. So, the replicas are a big part of jade smuggling, which is the root of all the problems in the book.”
Favorite Line:
They had a website, very plain, but easy to find since there wasn’t anything else named Crime Fritzers.
It’s her favorite, she says, because “I love the name Crime Fritzers and am glad I came up with it. Fredericksburg, the setting for all three Vintage Sweets novels, is nicknamed Fritztown. It was founded by German immigrants, mostly farmers, and retains a very German flavor, especially in the restaurants.”
If she had to pick another favorite, however, it would be featuring Mrs. Gerg in a big part of the plot.
“She’s one of those characters who came to me fully formed and I’ve adored her since book one,” she says. “I can’t give away her part since it’s close to the climax and ending, but I can tell you that she finds a man. Yes, Mrs. Gerg!”
Excerpt:
Heading down the sidewalk to open her store, Tally Holt saw a commotion ahead.
“Tally, look!” Yolanda shouted and waved her forward. She sounded distraught.
When Tally approached, she could see why. The sidewalk before Bella’s Baskets sparkled with broken glass. The window had been smashed.
“What happened?” Tally asked. There hadn’t been a storm. Someone must have broken it, but why?
“Somebody threw a rock through my window,” Yolanda wailed.
Tally took a good look, as good as she could, through the police personnel photographing and measuring.
“They’re gone!” Yolanda pointed at the window.
Tally looked more closely. The new plastic replicas were gone. They hadn’t melted. They were missing completely.
Who would steal cheap plastic pieces of candy?
Camille Minichino (writing as Elizabeth Logan) takes readers back to Alaska in Murphy’s Slaw, the third book in the Alaska Diner Series, due out June 1. http://www.minichino.com/
About the Book:
When a local prize-winning farmer is murdered at the Alaska State Fair, Charlie Cooke, owner of the Bear Claw Diner, gets called in to help investigate. She’s forced to overcome her shock on learning that the victim is a friend.
Favorite Line:
No one said a murder should be solved in a day at the fair.
Excerpt:
My BFF Annie Jensen and I seized the moment, relaxing on the patio of her inn with fruity summer drinks. One of those long, hot August days in Elkview, Alaska was before us. We reveled in the six a.m. sunlight that would persist for nearly twenty hours. Even better, sharing stories about our cats.
Benny, an orange tabby, was the hero of my stories. I imagined him curled up on the top level of his plush cat condo in my home, a short drive away. Yulie was Annie’s main character, a flame-point Siamese, now perched in front of a window, eyeing us from inside the air-conditioned comfort of the inn’s lobby. More likely, he was eyeing the red squirrel just out of reach on a tree branch close to the grand main building Annie’s family had left her.
What’s Next?
She’s working on a new series set in WW2 — a historical featuring an air raid warden and his college-age daughter. The first book will be called “Blackout.”
Minichino also is re-releasing her fun mysteries set in the world of dollhouse miniatures. In Murder in Miniatures (The Miniature Mysteries Book 1), Geraldine Porter finds being retired leaves more room for her favorite craft. You’d think the world of shoe-box-sized Victorian shadowboxes and little ceramic bathtubs would be trouble free. But Gerry’s problems are anything but tiny… Book 2, Mayhem in Miniature, also has been re-released and will be followed by the other books in the series.
Agatha and Derringer-award winning author Terrie Farley Moran has a new series of four books coming out with a famous co-author – none other than Jessica Fletcher! https://terriefarleymoran.com/
The first, Murder She Wrote: Killing in a Koi Pond, – actually book #53 in the long-running MURDER SHE WROTE series – releases June 8.
About the Book:
Jessica Fletcher is visiting an old college friend in South Carolina and the friend’s husband is murdered.
For this her first book, Moran says that since “a number of the more recent Murder She Wrote books were set in Cabot Cove, I wanted Jessica to travel in my first contribution to the series. I had been to a fabulous conference in Columbia, South Carolina so I decided to set the story there and show off both the town and the kindness of the people.”
While it can be hard writing about a character everyone knows, Moran says her favorite part of every Murder She Wrote story, be it a book or an episode of the television show, is Jessica’s relationships with other people.
“In Murder She Wrote Killing in a Koi Pond, I really enjoy Jessica’s connection to Dolores,” she says. “Since they have been friends for decades, they are casual yet close, given to reminiscing and enjoying each other’s company. Once Dolores’s husband is found dead, the roles change. As a longtime widow, Jessica provides comfort to Dolores. And when the Sheriff’s attention begins to focus on Dolores as a possible murderer, Jessica uses her inquisitive nature to discover who actually killed Willis.”
Favorite Lines:
(Jessica on the phone with her friend Seth Hazlit.)
“Oh Seth, surely you can afford a subscription to the paper and the magazine so you can read them in the comfort of your home.” I raised my eyebrows so high they nearly met my hairline.
“I already pay for them every year in my homeowner’s taxes. You know the tax that’s marked ‘library’. I’m certainly not going to pay twice.”
No, you’re not, I thought.
“Seth Hazlitt is one of my favorites of Jessica’s friends because over the course of their longstanding relationship they are so free and easy because they know each other so well,” Moran explains. “They talk and tease respectfully and you can see how important they are to each other.
“Harry McGraw is another favorite. He is a tough guy who gets himself in and out of jams consistently but he is so good hearted that he can never turn down a friend’s call for help. Everyone should have a Harry McGraw in their life, if only for the fun of it.”
Excerpt:
The balding, gray haired man, who I assumed was Willis, bolted up from the chair behind his oak desk, and bellowed, “What is going on out there?”
He strode right past Dolores and me and rushed into the foyer. Marla Mae ran down the stairs trying to grab the suitcase before it landed at the bottom, which it ultimately did with a loud thud.
“Stupid, stupid girl. You can’t even do a simple chore like carrying luggage up the stairs. You’re done. Fired. Get out now.” Red-faced, Willis’s yelling got louder with each word.
I’d stepped around him and got to the bottom of the stairs at the same time Marla Mae did. We both reached for the suitcase. When I saw the pleading in her eyes I stepped back and let her rescue it. I think we both hoped that would calm Willis down. It didn’t.
He turned to Dolores, “I want her gone. Now.”
What’s Next?
Moran is now working on the next book, Murder She Wrote: Debonair in Death. Jessica is home in Cabot Cove having breakfast with Seth Hazlitt in Mara’s Luncheonette, volunteering for local charities and working feverishly on the synopsis for her next book when a local murder interrupts her carefully planned schedule. Many familiar Cabot Cove residents, including the women in Loretta’s beauty parlor, will make an appearance in the book.
USA Today Bestselling Author Jean Rabe recently released her fourth book in the Piper Maxwell mystery series, The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge. http://jeanrabe.com
About the Book:
The fourth novel in the Piper Blackwell mystery series divides the attention and resources of a small county sheriff between deaths in Indiana and Kentucky. It splits the department’s deputies, as tensions escalate and tempers ignite along a stretch of rural road. It’s personal for Piper, who is torn between the troubles in Spencer County and the tragedy of a weekend spent with her old Army buddies. Her life will be forever changed in the shadow of Jerusalem Ridge
Favorite Lines:
3 p.m. Saturday, September 5th
The rain felt good but complicated things by erasing the tracks she’d been following. Coming down in a syncopated pat-a-pat-a-pat, soaking through to her skin, pleasantly cooling her. It was in the low nineties, and before this deluge blossomed, she’d been sweating under all her gear.
Piper did a low crawl through the spurge, coming to a swath of mud that stretched toward a row of beech trees with silver-gray bark that matched the color of the sky.
Pat-a-pat-a-pat-a-pat.
What’s Next?
Besides working on a follow-up to The Love-Haight Case Files, a unique pairing of the supernatural, mysteries and detective investigations co-authored with Donald J. Bingle, Rabe has started plotting her fifth Piper Blackwell mystery. She also enjoyed returning to her fantasy roots with Black Heart of the Dragon God, an action-filled sword-and sorcery mystery tale, co-authored with Craig Martelle. Case Files 2 is expected to be released in early summer, along with a re-release of book 1, The Love-Haight Case Files.
Mystery Anthologies:
Another fun entry in the “trip down memory lane” anthologies is Peace Love and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the 60s. Various authors take on the ‘60s with stories inspired by their favorite hits. Terrie Farley Moran (see profile above) says she went “right for the heart of the decade and chose a song by Bob Dylan as inspiration” for her story, “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” https://www.untreedreads.com/store/
A must for mystery fans is this year’s annual mystery anthology, The Best American Mysteries 2020. This year’s selections from American and Canadian magazines were chosen by C.J. Box including stories by short story writer John M. Floyd and others. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53859098-the-best-american-mystery-stories-2020
Music fans will get a kick out of the latest anthology, The Great Filling Station Hold-Up: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Jimmy Buffet. The collection of 16 short crime stories by authors including John M. Floyd, Michael Bracken, Elaine Viets, Robert J. Randisi and others, is based on songs from Buffet’s 29 studio albums. https://downandoutbooks.com/
Various authors including Max Allan Collins, Jonathan Maberry, Nancy Holder, Jean Rabe, Raymond Benson, Stephen D. Sullivan, and others, offer a different take on classic characters from Sherlock Holmes to Hopalong Cassidy and even Cyrano de Bergerac in the new anthology, Turning the Tied, from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. https://iamtw.org/tied-in-2/. Proceeds benefit The World Literacy Foundation.
So… that’s a lot of great reading, right? Enjoy, and see you next time!
