Interview With The Author: Nick Petrie by John Dwaine McKenna Our author this week is Nick Petrie, the award-winning writer of the outstanding Peter Ash thrillers and a master of the art of bad-assiveness. So, thanks, Nick, for sharing your insights with our readers, and welcome, to the Mysterious Book Report. Let’s get started . . . Why do you write? I write because I love to read.
Some Die Nameless by Wallace Stroby Mulholland Books/ Little Brown/ Hachette, $26.00, 337 pages, ISBN 978-0-316-44020-2 Every single human being on the planet has a past; the deeds, events and situations that have shaped us and made us into the persons we are today. Some of those experiences were happy and good . . . others, not so great . . . and a few of them we do
Blood on the Tracks by Barbara Nickless Thomas & Mercer, PB, $15.95, 372 pages, ISBN 978-1503936867 It was a lucky day for all of us when my wife June’s book club decided to read this outstanding first novel, written by a Colorado author and published in 2016. Smart group those dozen-plus ladies, all college or public librarians, administrators and professional women, the core group of which—including June–has been meeting
Interview With The Author: Paul D. Marks by John Dwaine McKenna We’re pleased and proud, to talk with Macavity Award-Winning author Paul D. Marks, whose just published novel, Broken Windows, is detailed above in Mysterious Book Report No. 349, and a writer who brings some serious chops to the craft, as well as a keen eye for the foibles, follies and quirks of human nature. He’s well on his
Bluff by Michael Kardos Mysterious Press/Grove Atlantic, $26.00, 272 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2804-1 Bluff is a novel about the practice of sleight of hand, or magic, and magic is done by practicing the art of misdirection. The conjurer talks the audience into looking over there while at the exact same time doing something over here and presto . . . a deck of fifty-two cards thrown against the wall falls
False Flag by John Altman Blackstone Publishing, $26.99, 320 pages, ISBN 978-1-5047-9772-6 In the world of espionage, The business of spies is lies, which makes it impossible at times, to distinguish between friend and foe . . . because all covert operations are designed to advance the interests and objectives of the spying country. Put it another way and the axiom becomes: TRUST NO ONE. They all lie all
Flight of the Fox by Gray Basnight Down & Out Books, PB, $18.95, 381 pages, ISBN 978-1-946502-61-2 An electrifying, propulsive and timely thriller was just released that, by all rights, should shoot to the top of every bestseller list in the country. If ever an author stepped up to the plate, took a swing, hit it right on the sweet spot and out of the park . . .
Dangerous Boys by Greg F. Gifune Down & Out Books, PB, $17.95, 308 pages, ISBN 978-1-946502-52-0 In the summer of 1984, a series of heat waves blasted the northeast United States in rapid succession, one after another. It’s particularly hot in the old whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where the usual cooling ocean breezes have disappeared, leaving the city in a steaming humid mess of baking sidewalks, human
The Detonator by Vincent Zandri Polis Books, $25.99, 287 pages, ISBN 978-1-943818-88-4 Psychological thrillers are among the most popular of modern crime fiction works, because they give readers a long and hard look into the hearts and minds and motives of people who are far outside of the usual norms of society. The Irish and Brits call them nutters . . . while we Americans simply call them what
The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason Thomas Dunne/Minotaur Books, $25.99, 344 pages ISBN 978-1-250-12402-9) Iceland, positioned at the top of the world between Europe and North America, is a land of active volcanoes, long winter nights and some of the best noir writers in the world. Case in point . . . the newest crime fiction thriller by international best-selling author Arnaldur Indridason is a meticulously plotted murder mystery