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A Knife for Harry Dodd and Dark Angel

A Knife for Harry Dodd and Dark Angel

It’s the dog days of summer, and I’ve started writing a new Travelers crime thriller. Hoping for it to be the best one yet. But more on that later. Here’re two mystery I read in the last month. One from the time capsule and one contemporary.

A Knife for Harry Dodd by George Bellairs (Inspector Littlejohn, book 20, 1953). In a small town in England, Harry Dodd, a happy-go-lucky ne’er do well, is stabbed outside a pub on his way home and dies before he can get help. As Inspector Littlejohn of Scotland Yard digs into the case, he discovers that Dodd isn’t at all the man he appears to be and that his girlfriend and his estranged family all have motives to want him dead.

This is a classic, old-fashioned police procedural loaded up with convincing red herrings and false trails. An easy, fun read.

Also read Dark Angel (Letty Davenport Book 2) by John Sandford. Sandford is probably best known for the Lucas Davenport Prey series. I’ve read a number of those books, so I thought I’d give this one a try. This is a “ripped from the headlines” kind of book.

Letty Davenport is Lucas Davenport’s adopted daughter, and she does investigations with the Department of Homeland Security. On this outing, she’s on the trail of a hacker collective that’s disrupted railroad trains in Russia. In the usual John Sanford fashion, circumstance quickly go out of control at Davenport tries to home in on the hackers and discover the real reason that the NSA has sent her after them. A quick read with lots of exciting twists and turns and a great introduction to a cast of fresh characters that I imagine will be appearing in later books.

Happy reading!

Cold in Hand and Peerless Detective

Cold in Hand and Peerless Detective

First off, I want to thank you all for helping to make the launch of The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce a big success. And I hope you’re enjoying the discounted KD Thorne books.

Just got back from vacation, and I’m starting to plot a new Travelers book. Every Travelers book needs to be complex and original, so the plotting can take longer than I would like. In the meantime, here’re two mysteries I read last month.

Cold in Hand (Charlie Resnick Mysteries Book 11, 2008) by John Harvey. An intense, extremely realistic British police procedural. Detective Inspector Resnick is brought out from behind a desk to deal with a teen gang dustup that resulted in the death of a young woman.

To add to the problems of lying witnesses and community distrust, the father of the slain girl blames Resnick’s partner, DI Lynn Kellogg, who was first on the scene, for her death.

The pages fly by in this complex, beautifully crafted thriller. If you like British crime books, you won’t be disappointed.

Second, Peerless Detective (2015) by Michael Raleigh. It’s the late 1970s or early 1980s. Billy Fox, fresh out of the army, comes to Chicago to look for his missing high school sweetheart, where a chance meeting with detective Harry Strummer leads to a job learning to be a private detective. Lots of detailed tradecraft and descriptions of the city.

This is really a coming-of-age story, as Billy learns some hard lessons about life and love, but it also contains two mysteries that are unraveled very realistically, one involving Billy and the other involving Harry. Lots of fun.

Happy reading!

The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce 

The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce 

As promised, there’s special eBook pricing from June 17 through June 21 to celebrate the launch of the new KD Thorne thriller, The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce, which is only available on Amazon. 

The Hunt for the Hijacked Nerve Agent is free  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B817QDH

Murder at Mercy Creek is $0.99  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RX3K4F5

The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers is $0.99  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BL1J3T6B

The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce is $2.99  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5JDSLKQ

Here’s the blurb for The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce:

The US government wants to keep it secret…

An undercover CIA agent traveling with an archeological team stumbles upon a deposit of the strategic metal hafnium in the ruins of an Inca temple in the Andes mountains. Essential to manufacturing nuclear reactor control rods—it’s every rogue state’s dream come true.

While the US State Department rushes to negotiate for control of the mine, word leaks out, and jihadis and black marketeers develop competing plans to seize the mine and sell the hafnium to bad players around the globe.

National Defense Agency operatives KD Thorne and Jeffery Blunt track these criminal groups from the US to Europe to South America, where they uncover the details of the conspiracy. Will they find a way to turn the tables on these groups and keep them from taking over the mine? Or will KD, Blunt, and their allies die in the Andes at Agua Dulce?

The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce is a careening rollercoaster ride that will keep you turning pages. If you like hard-to-figure-out plot twists and non-stop action, you’ll love the fourth novel in the KD Thorne series.

So there you have it. Don’t miss your chance to catch up on KD’s adventures! Pick up your copies before Friday when prices go back up.

Happy reading!

A Trouble of Fools and Rafferty’s Rules

A Trouble of Fools and Rafferty’s Rules

Got the manuscript for the new KD Thorne book, The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce, back from the copyeditor. He made some valuable suggestions, so I’ve got a little more work to do.

In the meantime, from May 6-10 Travelers books 1-5 will be discounted. So if you need to catch up with the Travelers, now is your chance. I’ll send out an email with the details next week.

And here’re two thrillers from the 1980s that I read last month, where the men are still macho and women are beginning to assert themselves.

A Trouble of Fools (Carlotta Carlyle Book 1, 1987) by Linda Barnes. Carlyle is an ex-cop newbie private investigator in Boston, circa late 1980s, so the background is drugs, guns, the Italian mob, and the last vestige of support for the IRA. 

Carlyle is hired by an Irish spinster to find her missing brother, who drives for the cab company that Carlyle used to drive for after she left the police force. The case turns from missing person to something much more dangerous after the spinster is attacked and her home ransacked. Finding out the who and the why takes Carlyle down the back alleys of Boston where she has to use all of her connections and street knowledge to figure out what’s really going on and put a stop to it.

Interesting characters and a complex point of view make for fun reading, particularly after Barnes gets the various plot threads moving. 

Second, Rafferty’s Rules (Rafferty P.I. Book 1, 1987) by Bill Duncan. Rafferty is a wise-cracking ex-cop PI working the mean streets of Dallas, Texas, so there’s a slight comic element playing against the hard-boiled style.

Rafferty is hired by a wealthy couple to find and bring in dead-or-alive the outlaw bikers who kidnapped, raped, and brainwashed their daughter. Rafferty wastes no time kicking the hornet’s nest of local outlaw bikers to get on the trail of the thugs he’s after, and pretty soon things turn from ugly to brutal as he tracks his prey across rural Texas. A fast-paced, tightly plotted thriller.

Happy reading!

Spy Game and The Maid

Spy Game and The Maid

KD Thorne book 4, The Hidden Mine at Agua Dulce, is off at the copyeditor. In the meantime, here’re two thrillers I read last month. 

First off, Spy Game (Brodick Cold War Thriller book 1) by John Fullerton. This book is set in Pakistan and Afghanistan during the 1980s when the Soviet Union is mired in Afghanistan. Richard Brodick, a British spy in his first assignment, is undercover as a journalist gathering intel on the Afghans’ progress in their war against the Soviets.

He’s at odds with his superiors, can’t trust any of the locals he’s dealing with, and is conflicted about what he’s been assigned to do.

Lots of suspense and detailed tradecraft, a hero who does not do what you expect him to do, and historical accuracy make for a fun read.

Second, The Maid (Molly the Maid book 1) by Nita Prose. I picked up this book because the reviews were outstanding. This is a traditional cozy-style mystery told in the first person by Molly, a hotel maid who has what seems to be a learning disability of some sort. She’s constantly misinterpreting other people’s actions and intentions, which lands her into the middle of a murder investigation at the hotel where she works.

Deft plotting and the unique point of view make for real page-turning pleasure here. If you like old school cozy mysteries, this book is for you.

Happy reading!

The Snatch and One-Shot Harry

The Snatch and One-Shot Harry

Finishing up the new KD Thorne book, where NDA agents KD Thorne and Jeffery Blunt are on the trail of jihadis and black marketeers who are trying to gain control of a newly discovered strategic metal before the US government cuts off their access. Hope to have it off to the editor shortly. In the meantime, here’re two crime books I read last month. 

First off, The Snatch (Nameless Detective book 1, 1971) by Bill Pronzini. I’d heard of this series, but I’ve never read one. The nameless detective is hired to handle a kidnap payoff, but everything immediately goes sideways. Money taken, nine-year-old boy not returned, everyone connected to the family a suspect.

This is a classic noir detective procedural, with twists, turns, and surprises that all add up in the end. Lots of fun. If you like the old Chandler and Hammett books, this is your cup of tea.

Second, One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips (2022). It’s 1963 in Los Angeles. Racial tension is high before Martin Luther King’s visit to the city. Harry Ingram, a Black man who is a freelance photojournalist and parttime process server, quickly finds himself on the bad side of white gangsters and the city’s power brokers as he digs into the puzzling death of his Korean War buddy, a white jazz trumpeter who hangs out in Black nightclubs.

Lots of local color about 1963 LA, plus the intricate dance of race relations during the civil rights movement, make for an explosive backdrop to this fast-moving, complex who-done-it. I’ll be checking out more of Phillips’ novels.

Happy reading!

The Passengers and The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep

The Passengers and The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep

Finishing up the new KD Thorne book, where NDA agents KD Thorne and Jeffery Blunt are on the trail of jihadis and black marketeers who are trying to gain control of a newly discovered strategic metal before the US government cuts off their access. In the meantime, here’re two crime books I read last month. 

First off, The Passengers by John Marrs. The premise here is the that unhackable driverless cars have been hacked, putting the lives of eight innocent passengers at risk as people across the web are provided information about each passenger and asked to vote on who will live and who will die.

Started a little slow for me, as we learn about the complicated background stories of each passenger from their own point of view, but it quickly picked up speed as the hacker makes his demands and the tension and plot twists piled up. A very clever, well-reviewed thriller.

Second, The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep (Evan Tanner Book 1) by Lawrence Block. I’ve read most of Block’s Matthew Scudder books (disgraced detective) and the Keller books (contract killer), but I’d never read one of his Evan Tanner books.

The Scudder books are top-notch gritty crime thrillers, but this Tanner book is more lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek.

Evan Tanner is a polymath who does not sleep due to a brain injury suffered during the Korean War, which gives him plenty of time to work on his many sort-of-maybe legal interests. In this first outing, he’s on the trail of a fortune in Armenian gold hidden in Turkey during WWI. In short order, he’s stumbling into trouble all across Europe, which makes for a lot of screwball plot twists and suspense. A quick, fun read.

Happy reading!

The Man Who Died Twice and The Forgers

The Man Who Died Twice and The Forgers

Happy New Year! Hope you have another great year of fun reading. I’ve been out and about visiting family over the holidays, but now it’s back to work.

Doing rewrites of the new KD Thorne book. Going to have to think up a title. In the meantime, here’re two crime books I read last month. 

First off, The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery (book 2) by Richard Osman. I wrote about the first book in this series earlier this year. These are light-hearted British romps that will keep you guessing down to the last few pages.

Our four septuagenarians—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim—who live in an upscale retirement community are back, this time trying to find stolen diamonds and the killer who’s murdering to get to them first.

Fast-paced, fresh writing and loads of human interest keep this book moving. You won’t be disappointed

Second, The Forgers by Bradford Morrow. (There are several books with the same title. This is the Broadford Morrow book.) This is a first person, unreliable narrator novel that follows the blackmail scheme that arises from a murder, all of which takes place in the word of rare book dealing and manuscript forgery.

Complex, descriptive language and lots of twists and turns in a suspenseful plot make this an interesting read. Plus all the trivia having to do with rare book world. A little different from my usual thriller read, but a fun change.

Happy reading!

March Violets and Paydirt Road

March Violets and Paydirt Road

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!

Fall Discounts

Fall Discounts

Just a short note. Enjoying the northern hemisphere fall colors and making good progress on the new KD Thorne book. I’ll have more to say about it as I get closer to being finished.

In the meantime, Fall discounts on Traveler books 1-5.

From today November 7 to Sunday November 12, the Travelers eBooks 1-5 will be $.99 (US). After that, they go back to their usual prices. So if you need to catch up on the earlier books in the series, or you know someone who’d like to give them a try, now is your chance.

Here are the universal links to your favorite bookstore:

Traveling Man: Book 1: $.99 US https://books2read.com/u/bzoz6n

Computer Heist: Book 2: free https://books2read.com/u/bP9Vzz

Blackmail Photos: Book 3: $.99 US https://books2read.com/u/3LDZd5

Freeport Robbery: Book 4: $.99 US https://books2read.com/u/m2Vz67

Kidnap Victim: Book 5: $.99 US https://books2read.com/u/38Z2YL

(I’m having some trouble with the link to the Apple bookstore, which may claim the books aren’t there, but they are.)

Happy reading!