Drawing Dead (Jake Morgan Mystery series)

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Dead-Morgan-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0038BZORW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1320614535&sr=1-1
The third time is not really the charm for Jake Morgan, the Vegas poker dealer-private dick with a shady history on the Boston PD. Jake's habit of playing catch-up on obvious case facts ("You mean . . .") wears a bit thin, as does his unbelievable propensity for stumbling headlong into murder plots. But he is an otherwise-entertaining character, and this fast-moving tale delivers its share of nickel-ante charms. These include an opening set piece in which Jake ear-witnesses a killing while getting to know the victim way beneath the sheets (proving that nice guys don't always finish last). Also fun: Vegas vice cop Laura Bulloch, a martial-arts expert and part-time dominatrix who becomes Jake's next targeted lover and sparring partner. But the plot plays out in such pat-handed fashion that the stakes never feel truly high--even when Jake's forced to dig his own desert grave. In future outings, it would be satisfying to see Jake struggle more with his gambling addiction and otherwise plumb the emotional depths. But even here, he deals readers their share of winning hands.

On travel til Wednesday

I'm visiting elderly relatives in Box Elder, SD who do not have internet.

Will try to sneak out now and again to an internet cafe to post, but more than likely will not be posting until Wedneday.

Christmas Tree Wars, by Annis Ward Jackson

Christmas Tree Wars, by Annis Ward Jackson
SunnyBrick Publishers
$2.99 on the Kindle

In CHRISTMAS TREE WARS, the third novel in the Rachel Myers Murder Mystery Series, the reader finds Myers finally and completely settled in the small Appalachian Mountain community of Laurel Hill, North Carolina. The new retirement center where she is administrator is up and running and so is her relationship with Detective Robert Barnett.

News that former lover David iis married finally frees her from that relationship so she buys a new horse, goes on an exciting trail ride, and comes home to find that one of her favorite people, garden designer Danny DeBord, has gone missing.

As usual, Rachel observes from afar with no intention of becoming involved in the investigation until she is approached by a local woman whose son disappeared four years earlier in suspiciously similar circumstances.

That's all the impetus needed for Myers to delve into the search for Danny DeBord, and in the process, embroil herself to her most dangerous predicament to date.

Christmas trees figure prominently in this mystery, both from the perspective of their effects on the local environment, and their connection with the murder.

Scam, by Parnell Hall

http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Hastings-Mystery-Novels-ebook/dp/B00457XIXA/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316707996&sr=1-2

From Amazon:

Parnell Hall's Scam proves once and for all that murder can be funny--as well as mind-boggling. The charming hero of Hall's series of mysteries is Stanley Hastings, a nonviolent, slightly neurotic investigator who pays the rent by working for a New York negligence lawyer. When one of Stanley's clients claim he's being set up by one of the partners in an investment firm, the erstwhile PI doesn't take him seriously--until the bodies pile up and Stanley falls under suspicion of murder.
Hall performs miraculous feats in the course of this rollicking tale: he constructs a remarkably labyrinthine plot and manages to tie off all the loose ends while maintaining a madcap pace marked by hilarious crosstalk and knockabout interactions between Stanley and his cop foil that would do P. G. Wodehouse proud. For crime and comedy under one cover, Scam is a perfect choice.

A Movie About Sex and Death

Available on the Kindle:

A Movie About Sex and Death (The Lucy Ripken Mysteries)
Justin Henderson

In this, the last Lucy Ripken adventure that takes place in New York City, Lucy is hired by old friend Paul Wittgenstein to help him rewrite the script for an independent film he's shooting in the East Village and on the Lower East side of New York City. Lucy quickly gets into the scriptwriting mode, while at the same time getting involved with the director Wittgenstein's friends, family, cast, and crew, some of whom, including Paul Wittgenstein himself, are involved in some very kinky and ultimately dangerous sex games that take place in a couple of after-hours SMBD (sado masochism bondage domination) clubs in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Lucy explores and is unamused and more or less bored by this scene but willing to let it go--everybody's got to get their freak on, she figures--while she does her scriptwriting work. How this work moves forward is a big part of the book, as Lucy struggles with the story she's writing, and keeps pushing ahead.

However, when the producer of the movie, a rich kid from Greenwich, CT called Christopher Wadsworth, turns up dead, the plot thickens. As does, at the same time, the plot of the movie, and as the story in the movie and the story taking place in the book around the shooting of the movie progress in tandem, the characters, the plot, and the stories intermingle, creating a compelling mix of cinema and verite. I struggled with the back and forth of this, but I think in the end that it works, as the story within the story and the story itself lend each other enerrgy and intrigue.

In the end, Lucy persists in sorting out the mess, and does so, contending with some serious moral quandaries as well as truly creepy characters along the way.

The book and the movie are indivisible, and the movie inside the book could easily be made from what is here, in the book. At the same time, the book itself could easily be made into a movie as well, with the shooting of the movie within the movie as another part of the book. They are inseparable.

And, it must be mentioned, book and movie within create a wonderful tableau of old downtown New York. It's another classic Ripken, with a soulful and irresistible Manhattan twist.

Getting on the stick...Wednesday

Haven't been posting here in a regular fashion - will start doing so WEDNESDAY. Will be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Fri.

Scared Stiff, by Annelise Ryan

Available on Kindle

In this second in the series, Mattie Winston, deputy coroner of Sorenson City, Wisconsin, is called away from a Halloween party when waitress and model Shannon Tolliver is found murdered at her home. Detective Hurley is convinced that Shannon’s estranged husband, Erik, is the culprit, but Mattie doesn’t believe he is capable of the crime. She is so convinced of Erik’s innocence, in fact, that she launches her own investigation (with Hurley’s blessing). In addition, as part of an inheritance squabble, Mattie and her boss, Izzy, must determine the times of death of a couple who died in a car accident that went undiscovered for weeks. In her personal life, Mattie is broke and and planning to divorce her philandering husband. This has the makings of an appealing series on multiple fronts: the forensic details will interest Patricia Cornwell readers, though the tone here is lighter, while the often slapstick humor and the blossoming romance between Mattie and Hurley will draw Evanovich fans who don’t object to the cozier mood.

--Sue OBrien, Booklist - from the Amazon page for the book

Die Laughing: A Novel

Amazon.com Kindle: Die Laughing: A Novel
RM Krakoff
$3.99


Die Laughing!, 80,000 words, by R.M. Krakoff, is a black comedy tale revolving around stand-up comedian Alex Zachery and his uncanny knack for being in the wrong place at the worst of times. We follow Alex’s life as he begins his career of one-night stands as an amateur comic in Los Angeles clubs.

As he searches for love and a meaning to his life he constantly places himself in harm’s way, commits a murder or more, and runs from L.A. to the glitz of the 1960’s Las Vegas lounge acts where he winds up blundering his way into the New York mob.

This epic novel follows Alex’s life over sixty years as he changes identities (more than once), escapes police, the Mafia, the FBI before he finally (well, almost finally) winds up in a small town in Mississippi.

Throughout, Alex hones his craft of making people laugh while his life crumbles around him and family, friends and loves are lost forever. While Alex seeks a little fleeting normality in his life, unfathomable circumstances, not always within his control, generate havoc at every turn.

Alex struggles with his gift of comedy as a youth until his later life. He has never known anything else and is untrained for alternative careers. Alex longs for a more socially acceptable career and financial security that would vindicate him in his own eyes and redeem him from his father’s harsh predictions of failure. Despite his many setbacks and recurrent criminal activities he rises from his personal hell and creates an exemplary life of dubious fame and fortune.

How Alex gets his piece of nirvana is a rollicking toad’s ride of bizarre circumstances, twists and turns. Alex’s life is like watching a head-on collision of two passenger trains, where you know there will be devastating disaster but you can’t avert your eyes.

Darkest Hours, by D. K. Gaston

On sale for Amazon kindle at 99 cents.

Description:
To get his mind off his recent divorce, Detroit private investigator Joe Hooks takes what he thinks will be an easy job. He is to pick up a package from billionaire Montgomery Webb, an eccentric businessman. But Joe finds more than he bargains for when he discovers the billionaire tied to a chair, moments away from taking his last breath. Webb’s bizarre final words are, “Little doll lost.”

Joe enlists Kool-Aid, his ex-partner and best friend to aid him in finding out why the package is so important. The two friends are soon thrust into a situation that is quickly spiraling out of control. Pursuing the PI’s are cold-blooded killers, a government agency, and a mysterious Washington attorney known only as Shaw.

Joe becomes aware that the package could literally change the world, but has this discovery come too late?

Taking Out The Trailer Trash, by Janice Ivy

This is a Kindle book, and here's the link to go purchase it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054E7EMO
Description of book:
Charlene’s first novel has just been published and she couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately, being a published author isn’t quite as lucrative as she had hoped. She needs a day job that will give her time to finish her second novel before the money from the first one runs out. Managing a small RV park on the Mississippi Gulf Coast seems like the perfect gig. It’s close to the beach, the rent is paid, and the job demands are minimal.

Things seem to be working out just great until the murders start.

Who is killing people at the Happy Times RV Park? Charlene intends to find out, with the help of a senior citizen ex-madam, a fugitive from the 60s, and a good looking cop with a shady past.

Author bio:
I was born in a small town in Mississippi and grew up in the deserts of Arizona. I have since lived in nine different states and more cities than I can remember. My love of reading and an insatiable curiosity about what makes people tick made writing novels a natural choice.
I love a good story-line but characters I can relate to, and will remember, are what really makes me love a book. My characters take over sometimes and dictate where the story will go.

Sample Chapter
Chapter One
Charlene sat at her desk, immersed in the words on the screen. Her fingers were doing their usual dance, sporadically flying and then crawling across the keyboard. A ray of sunshine struck her uncombed auburn curls. She paused, and a look of intense concentration crossed her face. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the words she had just typed. One hand reached for her coffee cup and the other for the cigarette burning in the ashtray beside it.

The doorbell rang. Boo, the black lab mix sleeping at her feet, jumped up and caused her to spill coffee down the front of her shirt. Loretta, the blue budgie in the cage on her desk, started squawking loudly, trying to be heard over the maniacal barking of the startled dog. Jinx, the small gray cat sleeping on the file cabinet beside the desk, meowed, then hissed, and flew past Charlene’s shoulder. He hit the ground running like the hounds of hell were chasing him.

“Shut up, Boo,” she yelled, as she held the coffee soaked T-shirt away from her skin. “Loretta, cut it out!”

Charlene walked around the barking dog and answered the front door.

“Hi, Miz Charlene. I’m sorry to bother you. How’re you today?”

Charlene was silent for a minute. She pointedly looked at the watch on her wrist, and then said, “I’m okay, Darcy. What can I do for you?”

What Charlene wanted to say was get away from my door, you low life, stupid cow. But as manager of the Happy Times RV Park, she had to hold her tongue.

“I hate to bother you.” Darcy paused, as if waiting for Charlene to say she wasn’t a bother. When Charlene simply stood and stared at her, she continued. “I was wondering if you had a toaster I could borrow. I wanted to make some breakfast for me and Teddy.” She gestured to her boyfriend who was standing behind her and nodding like a deranged puppet.

Charlene hesitated, trying to curb her annoyance before she spoke. To do so, she bit her tongue, hard. ”I do have a toaster. I don’t, however, have a hair dryer or a blender since I loaned them to you. This is not the small appliances department of Walmart -- I suggest you go there. They’re open at 7:30 in the morning. I’m not.”

Charlene was proud of herself that she did not slam the door. She simply closed it and walked away. Before she could walk from the front door to the kitchen sink, which was a very short distance in her rent-free travel trailer, the doorbell rang.

The sound of the bell set the dog and the bird off again, and Charlene was back at the door in two steps. She jerked it open, ready to tell Darcy exactly what she thought of her and her stupid boyfriend.

“What the hell do you …” she started with extreme irritation before she realized it was not her annoying tenants standing on her doorstep. It was a very nice looking police officer standing with his hat in his hands.

He took a step back and looked at her warily. “Excuse me, ma’am. I’m Officer Duran from the Ocean Springs Police Department. Can I have a word with you?”

Charlene, who was tall at almost five feet ten inches, had to look up at Officer Duran.

Instead of asking him in, where she couldn’t hear anything with the dog barking and the bird squawking, she stepped out on the porch, closing the door behind her.

“What can I do for you, officer?” She asked in a much more cordial tone of voice than she had greeted him with.

“We got a call this morning from one of the residents here. She thinks her neighbor may have come to harm. We knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I was wondering if you might have a key.”

“Well, that depends on which unit you’re talking about. Only about ten of the RVs here belong to the trailer park. The rest belong to the people, and they just rent a space here.”
Duran referred to his notes. “Unit 23. The neighbor, Mrs. Moore, in 22, called it in.”

Charlene immediately felt her head begin to ache. The little spot right in the middle of her forehead started throbbing in a slow and steady rhythm.

“Mrs. Moore …” she paused, uncertain how to be tactful but honest. Sometimes being tactful and honest was almost impossible, especially in this new job of hers. “Mrs. Moore has a very vivid imagination, and the gentleman in Number 23 has a serious drinking problem. If he’s not answering his door, it’s more likely because he’s passed out drunk than that he’s come to any harm.”

“Well, be that as it may, we have to check it out. Do you have a key?”

“Sure. Hold on and I’ll get it. Let me warn you, though, Harold is a mean drunk, and there’s no telling how he’ll react to you coming into his place.”

“It would be best if you came and let us in.”

“All righty, then.” Charlene stepped inside and slipped some shoes on and grabbed the key to Number 23 from a pegboard behind the file cabinet. “This day just keeps getting better and better,” she mumbled to herself as she went out the door. Although she had to admit, she was drawn to Officer Duran’s earnestness and obviously kind nature... and his ass wasn’t bad, either, she noticed as she followed him down the trailer steps.

Darcy and Teddy had been hanging around within hearing distance, and they followed along behind Charlene and the police officer. Charlene noticed that they were following and wasn’t surprised. They seemed to be everywhere, all the time.

When the foursome arrived at the RV, Charlene greeted Mrs. Moore, who was standing by her little white picket fence. Lined up in front of it like sentries were two garden gnomes, a sombrero-decked serape-wrapped figure, and three bright pink flamingos. “Good morning, Ms. Moore. Is there some reason you think Harold might have come to harm?”

Mrs. Moore turned to Charlene. She was twisting a white cotton handkerchief in her tiny hands. She was barely five feet tall, and her white hair was twisted into a bun on the back of her head with little wisps flying about in the breeze.

“Well, I heard a horrible ruckus last night at about 10 o’clock. I was afraid to go out of my trailer. You know how Harold can get when he’s been drinking. When I came out this morning, I noticed the blinds are open. Harold never opens his blinds until around 5 in the evening.”

“So, I’m invading the privacy of my most difficult tenant because he forgot to close his blinds?” Charlene asked.

Officer Duran added, “When you called the department, ma’am, you said you heard a gunshot last night.”

“Yes. I’m almost certain there was a gunshot. I told myself it was just a backfire or something. But then when I got up this morning and saw the blinds open, well … I just got really worried.”

Charlene sighed heavily as she stepped up to the door of Harold’s RV. She knocked several times and then called out, “Harold, you in there? The police are here, and they need to see that you’re okay.”

When there was no response, Charlene looked questioningly at the officer who nodded back. She used the key to open the door.

She gasped, then turned to run, bumping straight into the great bulk of Officer Duran who had come up behind her.

She heard a loud high-pitched scream and saw Darcy and Teddy had also come to look in the door of Number 23. Teddy’s hand was clasped firmly over his mouth to keep any further screams in, and Darcy was staring wide-eyed at the scene inside the RV with a look of morbid fascination.