Category: Reviews

A HAUNTING DREAM by Joyce & Jim Levene.

Paperback, published Berkley Prime Crime,December 2012. 4th in series. This has been an interesting series to date. I bought the first one, A Timely Vision, when it came out several years ago and after reading it twice, added it to the permanent section of my library. The premise was simple, Dae O’Donnell is a ‘finder’, …

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STRANGE LUCKY MYSTERIES 5 Edited by Arthur Sanchez.

Published by Whortleberry Press USA. Fifth in a series, 16 stories, 1 poem. Guest Reviewer Steve Johnson I was really pleased when Lyn emailed to say this was in. She’d promised I could read and review it and as my experiences with this publisher’s anthologies have always been pretty possitive I was keen to get …

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THE BUZZARD TABLE by Margaret Marron

hardcover published Grand Central (Hatchette) November 2012. I discovered Margaret Marron’s Judge Deborah Knott books by being sent an anthology of legal women fiction back around 2001. An American friend was a book reviewer and thought I’d like his copy once he’d reviewed it. I did. I read the Deborah Knott story (amongst the some …

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The Speed of Dark: Strangely Different and Disturbing (Anthology)

Edited by PDR Lindsay & CC Bye. Available in print or download. Reviewed by Glenda Johnson. And yes, they’re right about this. It’s not that different from some horror anthologies that I’ve read, nor did it disturb me to a huge degree. But yes, some of it was still a bit different and slightly disturbing. …

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GHOST OF A DREAM by Simon Green.

Paperback published ACE, September 2012. Third in a series. Due to various circumstances this only arrived in my mailbox a few days before Christmas. I opened the padded envelope, and pounced on the book, reading it immediately and doing this review to file and run once I had time. Dream is the third in the …

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The Cat Who Had Sixty Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun.

Reviewed by an infuriated Glenda Johnson. I very rarely if ever write a bad review, I’m all too aware of how devastating a bad review can be to a writer, (particularly if it’s grossly unfair as was one that Lyn received a couple of years ago, in which the reviewer seemed to have a personal …

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LOOKING FOR YESTERDAY by Marcia Muller.

Hardcover, published Central park Publishing, (Hatchette) November 2012. Another great murder mystery from Marcia Muller. Three years back a woman was acquitted of killing her best friend. But since then her family and friends don’t want to know her and that’s unlikely to change until or unless she can show that it really wasn’t her. …

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STRANGE LUCKY VALENTINES ed. James Hartley

Whortleberry Press anthology Jan.2013. 20 stories. Softcover Reviewed by Steve Johnson. Another competent anthology from Whortleberry Press. Of the 20 stories I didn’t find any that I considered not worth reading and I liked many of them a good deal. Luck of the Draw was one of my favorites. It was neatly self-contained, good beginning/middle/ending, …

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GARMENT OF SHADOWS by Laurie R. King.

Guest review by Jan Bishop. Hardcover, published Allison & Busby 2012. (Also contains a novella after main book.) Like Lyn, I’ve collected this series since it began with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, unhappily I’ve noticed that it has started sliding. The previous book, The Pirate King was still good but a bit weaker. This book is …

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THE GREAT DETECTIVE:His Further Adventures – edited by Gary Lovisi

softcover from the Borgo imprint of Wildside Press USA. 245 pages, 12 stories plus Introduction by the editor, with acknowledgments and About the authors at the end. Gvery good 50’s pulp-type cover.   Reviewed by Steve Johnson. Not a bad anthology. I like Sherlock, read more of the SH pastiches than I keep, but still …

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