Jim Hanvey, Detective by Octavus Roy Cohen

August 15, 2021

Readers sometimes ask for mysteries without murder. Octavus Roy Cohen’s Jim Hanvey, Detective, fits the bill. The seven stories in the collection, first published in 1923, feature Jim Hanvey, who investigates con men and thieves. The stories originally appeared...

A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi

December 20, 2019

I love Christmas books. I enjoy mysteries set during the holiday season, and romances set at Christmastime. But, every year I look for an unusual Christmas book, one that isn’t sweet or one that is humorous. It’s one reason I’ve always loved Connie...

Crime Travel, edited by Barb Goffman

December 15, 2019

When Barb Goffman asked me if I was interested in an anthology called Crime Travel, she captured two of my interests, mysteries and time travel. However, she wouldn’t have been able to tell me ahead of time how enjoyable the stories would be. A couple of them,...

From Sea to Stormy Sea edited by Lawrence Block

November 17, 2019

I’d love to see all of the paintings that inspired From Sea to Stormy Sea: 17 Stories Inspired by Great American Paintings”. Because I read an ARC, an Advanced Reader’s Copy, the paintings were in black and white. I did look up some of them, but the...

Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy

May 11, 2019

Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy, is the latest collection of dark stories from Akashic Books, who specialize in noir anthologies. There’s nothing positive nor uplifting about Milwaukee, if these stories are any indication. However, that’s the point...