Howdy, Michael here,

Wow! December’s already here. And whatever you’re celebrating this season, I’m wishing you and yours all the best now and in the new year.

I’m still drafting the new KD Thorne book, which is coming along nicely, I think. In the meantime, here’re two crime books I read last month. 

First off, March Violets by Philip Kerr. This is the first of the Bernie Gunther series. I wrote about Prague Fatale (book 8) previously and wanted to see how the series starts out. It did not disappoint. Set in Berlin after the Nazis take over and before WWII starts, this is an extreme noir world of cruelty and corruption. And Bernie Gunther, private investigator, is both somehow distinctly cynical and highly moral.

So when an industrialist hires him to locate missing diamonds, he soon finds himself dealing with the Gestapo and hire-ups in the government who all seem to have their own corrupt advancement at the front of their minds. Fast paced and sarcastically funny. I’ll be reading more of these.

Second, Pay Dirt Road (Annie McIntyre Mysteries Book 1) by Samantha Jayne Allen. This book won the Tony Hillerman Prize, which is awarded to a first-time author of a mystery set in the southwest, so I decided to give it a try.

Annie McIntyre is a young woman fresh out of college who finds herself back in her hometown at loose ends, trying to figure out what to do with her life. In the meantime, she’s working as a waitress. Her grandfather is a semi-retired, ex-sheriff, private eye. When a work friend goes missing, Annie tries to discover what happened, and in the process finds her calling as a private detective and uncovers the answer to a disturbing personal experience that has been dogging her since high school.

Careful plotting creates lots of tension here, leading to a fast-paced finale that puts the pieces of the puzzle together. If you’re okay with a twenty-something protagonist, you’ll enjoy this book.

Happy reading!