It's A Crime

Welcome Guest Blogger, Jim Stevens

I’m thrilled to introduce our guest blogger today, Jim Stevens, a fellow author who writes humorous mysteries. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can write “funny stuff” and his are truly funny. It is difficult to read an excerpt from any page in one of his books and not smile, and in many places I laughed out loud.

In addition to his Richard Sherlock Whodunit Series, he wrote a book called Whupped (no mystery here), which is my personal favorite. The language is a little rough in that one, so if you have tender ears, stick to his mysteries.

Jim Stevens was born in the East, grew up in the West, schooled in the Northwest, and spent twenty-three winters in the Midwest. He has been an advertising copywriter, playwright, filmmaker, stand-up comedian, and television producer.

Teresa Burrell

Author, Attorney, Advocate

It’s A Crime

It’s downright criminal; there are so many crimes for readers to choose from.

Yesterday, I was trying to come up with excuses to avoid working on my latest Richard Sherlock Whodunit. I do this quite often when I’m stuck, can’t find the right word, or it’s really nice outside and I’m sitting at this computer without an original thought in my head. I Googled away, and guess what I find: TOO MANY DARN DETECTIVE BOOKS OUT THERE. Do you realize there are kid, adult, teenage, tweener, and senior citizen detectives? There are housewives, divorced wives, divorced husbands, shrinks, psychologists, marriage counselors, medical examiners, nosy neighbors, dog sitters, and even writers (who write about other writers solving crimes) figuring out whodidit, howtheydidit, and whytheydidit. There are blind detectives, detectives missing limbs, detectives with diseases, deaf detectives, there’s even a series about an overweight female detective who tries new diets while solving murder cases. What’s next, a detective who figures it all out even though he’s in a coma?

I think someone should impose a moratorium on the writing and creation of all new detective characters. Why? Because we don’t need any more, there’s plenty out there already. Any more will just muck up the muck even further and make it harder and harder to find the good ones, like the ones I’ve written.

Jim Stevens

Author of The Richard Sherlock Whodunit series

The Case of the Not-So-Fair Trader

The Case of Moomah’s Moolah

The Case of Tiffany’s Epiphany 

We know Jim is joking, but he he is certainly correct about all the different sleuths we encounter in mysteries. What is the most unusual mystery series character that you have ever read? Or have written? Or have thought about writing?

Adieu, Izzy

The Last Word (A Spellman Novel) by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster hardcover, 9 July 2013).

This was the perfect vacation read:  light, funny and with a plot that's fairly straightforward.

Isabel is a bit over her head trying to run the Spellman Agency after taking it over*.  She's just not cut out for administration.  It doesn't help that half her employees (her parents) insist on showing up to work in their pajamas, and refuse to attend staff meetings.

She's having trouble keeping up with the accounts, mostly because she's not sure how, and then she's accused of embezzling from one of her major clients.

She's living in her brother's basement, and trying to avoid babysitting his toddler daughter Sydney (aka, Princess Banana) who exhibits a curious disdain for her Aunt Izzy, trying to convince herself she doesn't miss her ex-boyfriend Henry, and wondering if her parents' marriage is falling apart.

Salvation comes from where she least expects it (no, I'm not going to tell you), and Izzy and the Agency survive.

Sadly, as the title implies, this is the last of the Spellman Documents.  Izzy and her family will be missed.



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to  the Publisher for the e-galley of the book.


*See Trail of the Spellmans

Summer Must-Reads

I usually read several books a week in order to have enough reviews for the blogs and print publications I write for.  Here are a few of the books I will read this summer, whether I have to review them or not.


Some Like it Hawk (Meg Lanslow #13) by Donna Andrews  (Minotaur/Thomas Dunn hardcover,
17 July 2012).

I adore this series that often has me laughing out loud.  We've known Meg and her crazy family and friends for a long time now, and familiarity does not breed contempt.  Here's the publisher's blurb:

Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at “Caerphilly Days,” a festival inspired by her town’s sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated --except one.  Phineas Throckmorton, the town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year. Mr. Throckmorton's long siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space beneath the bandstand.
The real reason for Caerphilly Days is to conceal the existence of the tunnel:  the tourist crowds camouflage supply deliveries, and the ghastly screeching of the tunnel's rusty trap door is drowned out by as many noisy activities as the locals can arrange. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr. Throckmorton—and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement.  Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to reveal the secret of the tunnel—and the fact that they've been aiding and abetting the basement’s inhabitant. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings--if the townspeople can find it before the lender destroys it.

Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault  (HarperCollins trade paperback, 31 July 2012).

I loved Arsenault's first two novels The Broken Teaglass  and In Search of the Rose Notes, this one promises to be just as gripping.

Author Gretchen Waters made a name for herself with her bestseller Tammyland—a memoir about her divorce and her admiration for country music icons Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton that was praised as a "honky-tonk Eat, Pray, Love." But her writing career is cut abruptly short when she dies from a fall down a set of stone library steps. It is a tragic accident and no one suspects foul play, certainly not Gretchen's best friend from college, Jamie, who's been named the late author's literary executor.
But there's an unfinished manuscript Gretchen left behind that is much darker than Tammyland: a book ostensibly about male country musicians yet centered on a murder in Gretchen's family that haunted her childhood. In its pages, Gretchen seems to be speaking to Jamie from beyond the grave—suggesting her death was no accident . . . and that Jamie must piece together the story someone would kill to keep untold. 

 A City of Broken Glass (Hannah Vogel #4)  by Rebecca Cantrell (Forge hardcover, 17 July 2012).

Hannah Vogel is a fascinating protagonist; definitely a flawed character, but the underlying reasons for her actions are honorable.

Journalist Hannah Vogel is in Poland with her son Anton to cover the 1938 St. Martin festival when she hears that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, and walks directly into danger.
Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn’t know if she can trust Lars again, with her heart or with her life, but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can’t turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.