Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mr. Finn Returns in Scar Tissue

51-nAutN4ML._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_Scar Tissue
Trace Conger
paper $12.95 ebook $4.99

A few months ago I reviewed the first volume in a new PI series, The Shadow Broker by Trace Conger. At the time it was a finalist for the Shamus Award for best independently published novel. Since then, it has won the award. So congratulations to Mr. Conger for the win. It was well deserved. I’d also like to say thank you to him for the review copy of Scar Tissue.

The story picks up about three months after the end of The Shadow Broker.  Finn has moved from his house boat into an apartment in Cincinatti that he shares with his father.  He still spends weekends with his daughter.  He also spends a considerable amount of time with his new girlfriend, who just happens to be the nurse at his daughter’s school.  His ex-wife is still living with the doctor she left him for, but that’s about to change.  It seems the doctor has a little secret. Continue reading

Congratulations to the 2015 Shamus Award Winners

We here at Gumshoes, Gats, and Gams would like to congratulate all the nominees for the 2015 Shamus Awards and especially the winners, which were announced October 9 at Bouchercon:

Best Hardcover P.I. Novel
Hounded by David Rosenfelt

Best First P.I. Novel
Invisible City by Julia Dahl

Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel
Moonlight Weeps by Vincent Zandri

Best P.I. Short Story
“Clear Recent History” by Gon Ben Ari in Tel Aviv Noir

Best Indie P.I. Novel
The Shadow Broker by Trace Conger
(reviewed here)

John D. MacDonald’s You Live Once

939495You Live Once
John D. MacDonald
Fawcett

This was originally published as a Fawcett Gold Medal book, but the edition I have is a later one without that designation on the cover. But it’s still a great book. It’s one of the bundle I wrote about in my last post.

Clint Sewell is a rising middle manager in a midwest firm. He’s fairly new to town. Lately he’s been seen in the company of a local heiress, one Mary Olen. Even though Clint would like things to happen with her, their relationship is something of a ruse. Clint’s boss, Dodd Raymond, who happens to be married, is a hometown boy.  He and Mary knew each other years ago.  Now that he’s back in town, they’re having an affair.  He’s got Clint acting as Mary’s date so he can spend time with her.

The book opens with Clint being awakened from a deep sleep by a couple of police officers.  Mary didn’t come home last night, and Clint was the last person seen with her.  He tells them the truth.  Mary dropped him off after a double date with the Raymonds.  She was supposed to pick him up and take him up to a party at her family’s lake house.

The police believe him and leave.  Clint goes into his bedroom to get dressed and finds Mary in his closet.  She’s been strangled by one of Clint’s belts.  In a panic, Clint disposes of her body.  He soon realizes that this was a mistake.  But it’s too late to turn back now.  Clint can only hope he can find the real killer before suspicion is focused on him. Continue reading

Acquisition: John D. MacDonald Bundle

MacDonald bundleIf you’re ever in Ruidoso, New Mexico, check out Dog Eared Paperbacks.  I was there a few weeks ago, and I came across a bundle of eleven vintage John D. MacDonald paperbacks.  That’s ten of them on the right.  (I couldn’t get One More Sunday to fit in the picture in a way I liked.)

I’d like to thank Patsy, the proprietor.  The bundle was cash only, and I didn’t have enough left to cover the cost.  She graciously let me send her a check when I got home and mailed them to me.  They showed up in the mail last weekend.

I’m going to be diving into them over the next few months, so watch this space for reviews.  You just don’t find MacDonald titles anymore.  I’m looking forward reading these.

Being Dead Broke Can be Lethal in Jarrett Creek

Dead Broke_coverDead Broke in Jarett Creek
Terry Shames
Seventh Street Books
Trade Paper, 250 pages, $15.95
ebook $11.99 Kindle Nook

Hard times have come to the small town of Jarrett Creek.  The city coffers are empty, and there’s a dead body behind the American Legion building.

The body belongs the son of a prominent banker who works at his father’s bank.  He was last seen alive in the parking lot after a meeting to discuss what to do about the town being broke.

Now there isn’t any money to pay the police.  The now former chief hasn’t finished drying out, so he’s in no shape to continue with the job, even if there were money to pay him.  The acting chief quits when he learns he won’t be getting paid.

Thus it falls to former police chief Samuel Craddock to fill in.  He agrees to work for a dollar a year.  His first order of business: find who killed Gary Dellmore.  Was it a jealous wife?  A jealous girlfriend?  A business partner?  Someone associated with a failed water park development, the same development that caused the city to go broke?  Or someone else? Continue reading

Passing Time Inside The Black Hour

Black HourThe Black Hour
Lori Rader-Day
Seventh Street Books
Trade Paper, 331 pp., $15.95
Ebook $11.99 Kindle Nook

The Black Hour is Lori Rader-Day’s debut novel. It takes place in the halls of academia, and it shows a good look at the maneuverings that occur in the ivory tower.

The story concerns Amelia Emmet, professor of sociology at a small and rather prestigious private university and victim of a shooting. A student named Leonard Lehane shot Amelia outside her office one evening then turned the gun on himself. Now a year later Amelia has physically recovered enough to return to work. Psychologically she still has some healing to do.

I found the backstory, and figuring out the real backstory is the heart of the mystery, to be quite engaging on a personal level. I work in academia, and for my sins, I was asked earlier this year to serve on a disciplinary committee. The thought of a student coming after me has crossed my mind more than once. It doesn’t help that my office is in a building in which three murders have occurred, one of them a beheading. (My wife is not aware of that, and we’ll just keep it that way, shall we?) Continue reading

The Return of Ellie Stone

No Stone_coverNo Stone Unturned
James W. Ziskin
Seventh Street Books
trade paper, 285 pp., $15.95
ebook $11.99 Kindle Nook

The first Ellie Stone mystery (Styx and Stone, reviewed here) introduced us to the young journalist as she investigated an assault on her father. I found Ellie to be a delightfully flawed protagonist, one who drank and slept around as much as her male counterparts, and with little to no thought of the consequences.

In that inaugural volume of what I hope will be a long running series, all the action took place in New York City and revolved around academic intrigues as Ellie’s father was a respected Dante scholar. For No Stone Unturned, Ellie is back in the small town in upstate New York where she’s been working as a reporter for a few years.

It’s been less than a year since the events in Styx and Stone, and Ellie is still dealing with the emotional wounds she suffered as a result of the events in the first book. When a hunter discovers the nude body of a prominent judge buried in a shallow grave in the woods over Thanksgiving weekend, it could be Ellie’s big break.

If she can survive the investigation, that is. Continue reading