Crime Fiction Archives - John Dwaine McKenna

Three-Fifths

By John|2019-12-17T20:47:00+00:00December 9th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

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,

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Ambush

By admin|2019-11-21T21:51:36+00:00December 6th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

Ambush Mysterious Book Report No. 371 by John Dwaine McKenna Ambush, (Thomas & Mercer, PB, $15.95, 350 pages, ISBN 978-1503901513) the third—and latest—in the Sydney Rose Parnell thriller series by Barbara Nickless, takes off on page one like a Marine FA-18 Super Hornet under full military power from the flight deck of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, and never lets the reader down. The novel opens in Denver, where

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Barbara Nickless

By admin|2019-11-21T21:47:35+00:00December 4th, 2019|Author Interviews, Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

Interview With The Author: Barbara Nickless by John Dwaine McKenna Barbara Nickless is the talented writer who has conceived two of the best characters to ever grace the pages of detective fiction. I was fortunate enough to make her acquaintance and share a table at The Mountain of Authors event last March. With many thanks for being so generous with her time, and for sharing her thoughts with us

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Skunk Train

By John|2019-12-12T21:51:00+00:00December 2nd, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

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,

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Dead Stop

By admin|2019-11-21T21:39:51+00:00November 27th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

Dead Stop Mysterious Book Report 340 by John Dwaine McKenna When the prestigious 2018 Colorado Book Awards were announced earlier this month, Dead Stop, by Barbara Nickless was the Mystery Fiction winner. These awards are sponsored by the Colorado Humanities Organization, and is the equivalent, in the MBRs opinion, of winning an Olympic Medal. It’s so far up on our personal list of unobtaniums, that we’ll be cashing the

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Wrecked

By admin|2019-11-05T20:50:05+00:00November 8th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

Wrecked Mysterious Book Report No. 361 by John Dwaine McKenna One of the most original, interesting and compelling characters in contemporary crime fiction is an unlicensed private eye named Isaiah Quintabe . . . “IQ” to his friends, clients and legions of readers. He’s the creation of award-winning California novelist Joe Ide, who’s just come out with his third—and best, in our opinion—installment of IQ’s adventures in his East

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Light It Up

By admin|2019-12-10T21:18:15+00:00October 18th, 2019|2018 Best Books of the Year, Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

Light It Up Mysterious Book Report No. 327 by John Dwaine McKenna As a fifty-plus year resident here in Colorado, the question I’m most often asked by out-of-state friends is: How has the legalization of marijuana affected things there? The short answer . . . stoners love it and are flocking here in large numbers, as are criminals; government is ecstatic over the windfall from tax revenues; cops, school

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The Golden Havana Night

By John|2019-10-10T19:38:56+00:00October 14th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

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.

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The Hard Stuff

By John|2019-10-01T19:49:20+00:00September 30th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

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

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The Bouncer

By John|2019-08-18T19:01:34+00:00June 24th, 2019|Crime Fiction, Mysterious Book Report|

The Bouncer Mysterious Book Report No. 378 by John Dwaine McKenna We’re kicking the summer reading season into high gear with an entertaining, bright and fast-paced crime caper in which nothing is as it appears to be. The novel came out in late summer-early fall of 2018 when the MBR calendar was full, and wasn’t reviewed, but has just been reissued in trade paperback and should be easy to

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