Three Fifths Mysterious Book Report No. 398 by John Dwaine McKenna Dynamite comes in small packages, is an old saw that usually refers to persons of small stature. But when taken literally, it means that explosive things are humble in size . . . and it’s a spot-on metaphor for this week’s MBR. Three Fifths, (Agora Books, $24.99, 212 pages, ISBN 978-1-947993-67-9) by John Vercher, is a pulsating, daring,
Skunk Train Mysterious Book Report No. 397 by John Dwaine McKenna The Skunk Train Inn is a sleazy, side-of-the-road motel up in northern California’s sparsely populated Humboldt County. That’s where the giant redwood trees grow, and it’s the epicenter of the state’s illicit pot-growing operations. So, it’s not unusual for the inn to be used for pot transactions in author Joe Clifford’s new novel, Skunk Train,(Down & Out Books,
Forgiveness Dies Mysterious Book Report No. 396 by John Dwaine McKenna Serial character Trevor Galloway is a former Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania narcotics detective, an unlicensed private investigator and an ex-mental patient who’s just been released from three years in a psychiatric hospital for being a serial killer in author J.J. Hensley’s newly released crime thriller entitled Forgiveness Dies, (Down & Out Books, PB, $16.95, 234 pages, ISBN 978-1-64396-038-8). Zonked out
The Dead Beat Scroll Mysterious Book Report No. 395 by John Dwaine McKenna August Riordan is “an old meat-eating dinosaur” type of Private Investigator who’s returned to San Francisco to track down the person that killed his friend and one-time partner, Chris Duckworth, in the soon-to-be-issued, (Nov. 19, 2019), murder mystery entitled The Dead Beat Scroll, (Down & Out Books, PB, $17.95, 265 pages, ISBN 978-1-64396-031-9) by award-winning author
Beijing Payback Mysterious Book Report No. 393 by John Dwaine McKenna Victor Li, the protagonist in a hot new crime thriller entitled Beijing Payback, (ECCO/Harper Collins, $26.99, 308 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-288664-4) by Daniel Nieh, is a twenty year-old California college student living the American dream as the novel begins. His only interests revolve around himself. There’s basketball, booze, his classes at San Dimas State University, keeping his scholarship, losing
The Golden Havana Night Mysterious Book Report No. 356 by John Dwaine McKenna One of the most interesting new private investigators to come to the MBR’s attention is a Denver-based ex-convict named Gus Corral. He’s the creation of Manuel Ramos, a life-long resident of the Mile High City, as well as an acclaimed, award-winning author and astute observer of the changing nature of Colorado and its capitol city, Denver.
The Hard Stuff Mysterious Book Report No. 390 by John Dwaine McKenna Joe the bouncer is back. Joe Brody is his real name . . . he’s the guy with a special skill set that he crafted and honed to perfection during a ten year career in the U.S. Special Forces, where all his missions were classified ultra top secret and sealed, before he was kicked out for
Death Notice Mysterious Book Report No. 388 by John Dwaine McKenna Death Notice, (Anchor Books, PB, $16.00, 301 pages, ISBN 978-0-525-43594-5) by Zhou Haohui, is the most fiendishly clever, diabolically complex and wickedly inventive novel to ever cross our desk here at the Mysterious Book Report! The mystery begins and ends in the city of Chengdu, the dynamic capitol of central China’s Sichuan Province, where, after an interlude of
One Small Sacrifice Mysterious Book Report No. 387 by John Dwaine McKenna Don’t let the innocent sounding title fool ya . . . . One Small Sacrifice, (Thomas & Mercer, $24.95, 351 pages, ISBN 9781542042116) by Hilary Davidson . . . is an utterly engrossing. finely wrought and thoroughly entertaining murder mystery and thriller that will keep the reader guessing from the very first page to the very last.
Below The Radar Mysterious Book Report No. 385 by John Dwaine McKenna A deep undercover mission infiltrating a violent extremist organization in a foreign country, by a female FBI agent with psychological issues rooted in a too-recent-to-be-recovered-from operation, with zero planning time beforehand, an inexperienced, unsophisticated partner and poorly-constructed legend—spies cover story—made up on the fly. What could possibly go wrong? That’s the exciting premise underlying retired FBI agent