What You Don’t See by Tracy Clark

June 28, 2020

Tracy Clark’s debut PI novel, Broken Places, was an award nominee. I spotted it at the time, and said fans of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone will welcome Cass Raines. The second book in the series,  Borrowed Time, went on to win the 2020 Sue...

Rigged by D.P. Lyle

May 17, 2020

From what I’ve read, the first books in D.P. Lyle’s series might have been thrillers. But, the latest “Jake Longly Thriller”, Rigged, is not. It was fun, and I really enjoyed the characters. Jake reminds me a little of Archie Goodwin with...

Rolling Thunder by A.J. Devlin

May 12, 2020

Several years ago, I reviewed a debut mystery, Cobra Clutch by A.J. Devlin. It went on to win the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Although I said at the time I normally wouldn’t appreciate a book set in the world of pro wrestling, I...

The Knife Slipped by Erle Stanley Gardner, writing as A.A. Fair

March 25, 2020

What do you read when you can’t concentrate? How about a forgotten classic? I’ll admit my definition of a classic may be different, but I find that an unpublished Cool and Lam mystery qualifies. The background for Erle Stanley Gardner’s The...

Trouble in Mind by Michael Wiley

January 04, 2020

It’s been a few years since Michael Wiley set a mystery in Chicago. Now, he introduces an unusual character, an ex-cop turned PI, and puts him in Chicago in Trouble in Mind. Sam Kelson’s latest case is violent and gets him in all kinds of trouble with...