The Ayes Have It by Janet Majerus

December 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment

AYES
The Ayes Have It by Janet Majerus
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Short Story (136 Pages pgs)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Jessie’s stuck in the middle again.

Since Jessie Schroeder moved back to Riverport, a small town overlooking the Mississippi River, it seems every time she turns around she trips over a body or uncovers some act of malfeasance. Sheriff Gil Keller said it best, “Jessie attracts trouble like a magnet attracts iron filings.”

In The Ayes Have It, history repeats itself. All Jessie is trying to do is her civic duty as a member of the Library Board and co-chairperson of the library bond issue campaign. Then a representative of an organization calling itself GOCLAP (Guarding Our Children from the Lewd and Pornographic) turns up to picket the library. He claims that Jessie’s prizing-winning children’s book, The Sunburnt Ghost, should be banned.
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After a fellow member of the Library Board decides to oppose the bond issue, Jessie discovers he has a checkered past and a long-time relationship with the picketer. The affair rapidly gets complicated when the picketer turns up murdered and Jessie becomes a suspect.

Jessie Schroeder is a successful author of a children’s book series, and she becomes understandably upset when someone from out of town starts picketing the town’s library saying that a number of children’s books, including Jessie’s latest, should be banned. Things really heat up though when the picketer is found murdered.

This is a delightful cozy mystery and I really like Jessie. She is determined to solve the crime not only to help the town sheriff, who is her current boyfriend, but because both the picketing and then the murder are turning people away from supporting the much needed library bond. Jessie is the co-chairperson of the library bond campaign and she feels very strongly that the bond must pass.

The story takes place in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and rumors spread at the speed of light. However, it also seems as if some things which should have been common knowledge are not. Jessie has just moved back to Riverport after her divorce so I understand why she has to ferret out information, but I thought some of the information should have been known by the long term residents. The result is that Jessie is led astray and while the path she takes is most exciting and interesting, I was a bit disappointed that I figured out the murderer half way through the novel. There were times when I wanted to shake Jessie to get her to wake up, but even though I spotted the murderer early on, the final scene was very tense and exciting.

However, enjoyment of this novel is not dependent on the solution of the mystery. The interactions between the characters is engaging. I liked a number of the secondary characters, especially Judge Roberts, who co-chairs the library bond committee with Jessie. And Genevieve, the cat Jessie inherited from her mother, steals a few scenes.

Readers of the cozy mystery who want a pleasant read about life in a small town without worrying overly about the mystery will certainly enjoy The Ayes Have It.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Whispers of the Fallen by J. D. Netto

October 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

FALLEN
The Whispers of the Fallen by J. D. Netto
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, YA
Length: Full Length (198 Pages)
Age Recommendation: 16+
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Ever since the dawn of days, rumors about the Diary of Lucifer echoed throughout Elysium. Hidden from all human knowledge, the Diary was kept a secret, locked away in the small village of Agalmath.
​
Isaac and Demetre find themselves in a dangerous journey as they uncover the truth about the Diary and its guardians. However, for Isaac and Demetre, danger lies at every step, hidden in the most unexpected places.

Hunted by the Nephilins and the Fallen Stars, they must find others who will join them in the battle against the coming darkness.

The financial freedom from buying extra vitamins and herbs and making additional appointments is also very pleasing to me, saving me deeprootsmag.org buying sildenafil online time and money. According to statistics around 60% viagra 100mg pfizer of men aged between 18 and 29 suffer from sexual dysfunction. A look these up buy levitra good pop-up blocker should be able to stop any disease is to stop it naturally. Kamagra Online Adds More Value in the Treatment Reliable drug stores provide a cheapest viagra convenient, safe and an easy transaction mode to its customers. What if Lucifer had written a diary? This novel explains just what that Diary might reveal and how the discovery of the Diary would affect the battle between good and evil. Isaac and his best friend Demetre wake up one morning to find their parents dead. They are suddenly thrown into a battle for a book that they never knew existed. They also learn that it is very hard to discover just who to believe.

J. D. Netto has written a fantasy novel about fallen angels and the eternal fight between good and evil. Isaac is thrown into a chaos he has no knowledge of, and he has to witness Demetre being claimed by the dark side without any choice. Isaac is given a choice, but even after choosing he discovers that decisions can be changed.

This was listed as a YA book, but the philosophical discussions seem much more likely to interest an adult audience, so I rated it at 16+. Both Isaac and Demetre are eighteen when the book opens.

The first part of the book has excellent pacing, but once the story switches from Isaac’s perspective to Nephle’s, I found that things seemed very rushed and some of the main characters seem to disappear only to turn up later unexpectedly. The world portrayed in this book is very dark, and the plot twists and turns in ways that make it totally unpredictable.

Readers who enjoy fantasy and allegory will find this novel to be an intriguing read. Those interested in a re-telling of Lucifer’s fall from grace and the Creator’s response will certainly enjoy J. D. Netto’s answer to the question, “What if Lucifer had a Diary?”

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , ,

A Hole in Juan by Gillian Roberts

September 27, 2013 By 4 Comments

JUAN
A Hole in Juan by Gillian Roberts
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full Length (157 Pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

No matter the season, the Philadelphia private school where Amanda Pepper teaches English is never a center of tranquility. But with Halloween and the annual Mischief Night party only days away, the hope is that nothing more than old-fashioned vandalism and pranks will take place.

No such luck. Trouble erupts long before the witching hour, as the school is plagued by a series of mishaps ranging from the trivial to the potentially deadly–and most of which seem to center on a group of popular seniors.

A fire alarm rings during a test; all the orange and black paint is stolen from the art room; the mustard packets are taken from the cafeteria. Perhaps more serious: chemicals and equipment disappear from the science lab, as does one of Amanda’s exams and her attendance book. And the dapper new science instructor, Juan Reyes, receives a threatening message recalling that a teacher was once flayed to death by his students.

As Amanda juggles teaching, moonlighting as a private investigator with her husband, C.K. Mackenzie, and coping with C.K.’s visiting sixteen-year-old high school-dropout nephew, she tries to find out what, or who, is behind the ominous events.
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Before she can unmask the tricksters, the turmoil in the school increases when students rise up against the administration’s censuring (and censoring) of a campus poet. Then unrest escalates into a lethally explosive menace, and Amanda receives a warning that there is more–and far worse–to come.

Amanda Pepper just feels as if something more disruptive than usual is going on with her senior English class. She has no real evidence; it is just that a lot of small things seem to be adding up to real trouble as Halloween and the annual Mischief Night party approach. The explosion in the chemistry lab which severely injures the very unpopular chemistry teacher is seen by the police as an accident. But Amanda just knows that things aren’t right.

This is the thirteenth Amanda Pepper mystery and once again Gillian Roberts has written a delightfully captivating cozy mystery. I am very impressed by the depth of the characters in this novel. Roberts obviously has a deep understanding of both adolescents and adults. Her characters are well-defined and they ring true. The chemistry teacher is only at Philly Prep so that he can earn enough money to stay in grad school. He clearly does not understand the student population in a school where the only necessary qualification is having parents wealthy enough to pay the tuition. He calls his senior students “the tennis boys and their girls,” without any acknowledgement of them as individuals. Amanda, on the other hand, knows her students extremely well. She is able to captivate them even when they don’t want to be engaged. She succeeds in encouraging one of her classes to write their own poetry and perform it for the entire school. And she notices when a student starts acting differently.

The plot moves swiftly and the muddied waters become more confused as the Friday night party approaches. There are plenty of clues, but sorting them out is far from an easy task, and suspense abounds. The conclusion is very satisfying, and as always, Amanda premonitions were right.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries, especially in an academic setting, you will certainly be pleased with A Hole in Juan. Personally, I think that a day spent with Amanda Pepper is a day well spent.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Virgin Territory by Marilyn Todd

September 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

VIRGIN
Virgin Territory by Marilyn Todd
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Historical
Length: Full Length (190 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It just wasn’t fair. When you marry a man for his money, you expect him to leave you a shining pile of gold pieces. Not a crummy old wine business. How was the new young widow Claudia going to pay off her gambling debts now?

So when Eugenius Collatinus asks Claudia to chaperone his granddaughter to Sicily she jumps at the chance to escape Rome. It should be easy–Sabina Collatinus, she is told, has recently completed thirty years’ service as a Vestal Virgin.

Or has she…?

Claudia suspects she is escorting an impostor. And then a woman’s brutalized body is discovered…

Making promises is so much easier than following through with them. If only Claudia had known exactly what she was getting into when she first agreed to be Sabina’s chaperone.
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The vivid descriptions of the food, clothing, homes, and social customs in Claudia’s world made me feel as if I was living in ancient Sicily. Some of the socially acceptable customs at this time and place are considered extremely immoral in the twenty-first century. Including these scenes in this piece without imposing modern day values on them adds authenticity to the plot.

Once again Claudia is portrayed as a woman who is an intense object of desire to almost every man she meets. In the future I would be quite curious to see if Ms. Todd intends this to be another sign of Claudia’s narcissism or if she is actually that irresistible to such a wide selection of men. There are a few scenes in this story that make me think some of Claudia’s interpretation of other people’s thoughts and reactions are meant to show her self-centered tendencies. I hope future Claudia mysteries explore this possible plot twist in further detail.

Virgin Territory can easily be a standalone novel, but as someone who has read the first book in the series, I, Claudia, I was pleasantly surprised by how the main character has changed in the interim. Claudia’s lack of character development was one of the criticisms I mentioned in my first review. While she doesn’t show as much personal growth in her second adventure as I would have preferred to see, there were a few key scenes in this plot that demonstrate that she is aware of her environment and is slowly changing as a result of her experiences.

The mystery in this tale was well paced and thrilling, though. Every time I thought I’d pinned down the killer or figured out Sabina’s true identity Ms. Todd introduced new clues that upended all of my theories. Her ability to slowly dole out the truth to the reader in such a way that one never knows what to expect next makes me want to read everything this author has ever written.

Virgin Territory kept me guessing until the very end. I look forward to reading more installments of this series, and I recommend this book to anyone who loves a mystery that is full of surprises.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Case of the Murderous Mermaid and Other Stories by Andrew MacRae

September 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

CASE
The Case of the Murderous Mermaid and Other Stories by Andrew MacRae
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“The Case of the Murderous Mermaid” – Did beautiful mermaid Miranda murder her employer?

“The Case of the Villainous Vaudevillian” – Who killed Raymond Rice, dastardly star of The Perils of Polly Pure?

“The Case of the Silver Suspect” – A mysterious man, covered in silver, is found murdered.

A trio of whimsical stories of murder most foul featuring the detective team of Ferguson and Stone.

There’s no such thing as a perfect crime. Or is there? It’s easy to jump to conclusions while investigating crime scenes that are short on clues, but it takes a real expert to separate truth from fiction.

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“The Case of the Murderous Mermaid” starts out with a strong, intriguing premise. Miranda had good reason to murder her employer, but she insists that she’s innocent. It’s up to the investigators to weasel out the truth. I figured out the solution at the last minute, and while it was clever I was never sure how a particular feat would have worked out logistically. The author’s description of how it was supposed to have happened never quite gelled together for me.

I had no idea who the killer was in “The Case of the Villainous Vaudevillian”until the final reveal. Once again the set up was memorable, but I didn’t understand why one of the characters made the choices he did when there were easier ways to accomplish his goals. Getting to know the flashy actors in this piece was amusing, but it was hard to overlook such obvious alternative solutions in the meantime.

“The Case of the Silver Suspect” was by far my favorite of the three. Mr. MacRae’s creativity and attention to detail fleshed out the the identity of the silver man as soon as Ferguson and Stone visit his body at the morgue. If I was rating the entire book on this entry alone it would be a 4 star story, and had the number of witnesses been reduced so that more time could be spent explaining their motivations for certain behaviours it would have easily earned 5 stars.

It would have been helpful to learn more about Sgt. Ferguson and Detective First Grade Kelly Stone’s personalities, interests, and backstories. Despite being featured in all three stories I learned almost nothing about either one of these characters. The few details I did pick up whetted my appetite for more, though, and I sincerely hope that the author will write more mysteries for these men to solve.

The Case of the Murderous Mermaid and Other Stories is a solid example of the contemporary mystery genre. I hope that this is the first glimpse into a long-lived and successful series, and it is the kind of work that I’d recommend to long-term and brand new fans of this genre alike.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Killer in Control by Dorothy Francis

September 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

KILLER
Killer in Control by Dorothy Francis
A Key West Mystery
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full Length (171 Pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Kitt Morgan’s hope of a singing career dies after a botched surgery. Moving forward‚ she earns a job on her Iowa town’s police force‚ trying for a law enforcement career like her father’s.

While on suspension for shooting an unarmed criminal‚ Kitt visits her sister at her Key West B&B. Here‚ she becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of Abra Barrie‚ a former B&B guest. While Kitt tries to find the murderer‚ the Iowa grand jury declares her shooting of the criminal an act of self-defense. She’s free to return to her police job. But does she want to? Big questions remain in Key West. Who is the killer? Is Kitt next on his list?

Kitt Morgan, a police sergeant in a small Iowa town, heads to her sister’s Key West B&B to await the decision by the grand jury about her shooting of a criminal in the act of committing a crime. She thinks that it will be better to await the outcome in a warmer, more relaxing location, but as soon as she arrives at The Poinsettia, she finds herself embroiled in a mystery. One of her sister’s guests has been found brutally murdered, and Kitt agrees to help figure out what happen, or at the very least, prove than none of the people at The Poinsettia were responsible.
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Dorothy Francis has written a fun cozy mystery set in a wonderful location. Francis provides many details, historical and present day, about Key West, and she draws her readers into the spirit of the place with vivid descriptions. Kitt and her sister, Janell, do their best to check out all the alibis for The Poinsettia employees, only to discover that nobody has a really solid alibi. I enjoyed the interaction between Kitt and all the suspects, and I think Kitt’s suspension coupled with her own anxieties over having shot another person increased her nervousness and suspicions toward a number of the other characters. Kitt’s fears added suspense to the plot, creating more tension.

The story is well-paced and the clues are present, but far from obvious. The action has a number of interesting twists and turns. I did wish for more detecting on Kitt’s part. She does solve the murder, but more accidentally than by any true detection. The supporting characters are unique and they fit well with the atmosphere of The Poinsettia. I would have liked more details about their past, but I can understand that most people wouldn’t be doing background checks on their friends. Furthermore, Kitt isn’t sure she wants to continue as a policeman even if the grand jury rules that she shot in self-defense, so she just follows her sister’s leads on testing alibis.

The ending of the story is highly satisfactory, very suspenseful, right to the last moment, and the solution to the mystery is both surprising and believable. I think readers of cozy mysteries will enjoy this light, fun trip to Key West.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

A Fine Kettle of Fish by Kaye George

September 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

FISH
A Fine Kettle of Fish by Kaye George
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (9 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed Astilbe

When a stranger walks into the neighborhood bar, The Fine Kettle O’Fish, Finn and the others aren’t sure what to think of him–at first.

Soon, it’s apparent that Malcolm, the new guy, is bothering everyone’s favorite striptease artist, Violet, who has had a rough time climbing out of the gutter. Something is lurking in Mal’s past, and something has to be done.

Sometimes alcohol is the greatest truth serum of them all.

So if you are out of reach tadalafil buy in usa of children. You are also advised to stay away buy tadalafil without prescription from any reactions. As a result of these cultural changes, cialis generika many types of cases that early sex therapists saw became scarce during the 1980s. The surprising news about this order generic levitra 4frontimports.com medication involves its constantly increasing success rate. Violet has endured more than her fair share of tragedies, and it is only with the support of her employer and the men who watch her striptease shows that she is slowly beginning to piece her life back together. Their nontraditional, chosen “family” caught my attention and my interest in the plot only grew stronger as their tight knit bonds are tested.

I figured out the twist in this tale almost immediately. As much as I enjoyed getting to know these characters I would have preferred to work harder to unravel the mystery. Introducing certain clues right before the climax instead of much earlier in the plot would have increased the suspense and made it more difficult for me to guess what was happening.

With that being said, I was not expecting to grow to like Fin, Violet, and the other bar patrons and employees as quickly as I did. This short story is clearly character driven, and the development of Fin in particular was fascinating. I don’t know if Ms. George is planning to write additional stories about Violet, Fin, and the rest of the employees and patrons of The Fine Kettle O’ Fish, but I would be interested in hearing more from them.

Despite my disappointment with how easy it was to discover the twist in this piece, the premise of A Fine Kettle of Fish is a strong one. This is a good choice for anyone drawn to stories that focus on getting to know a small number of characters quite well.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Tesla’s Time Travelers by Tim Black

September 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

TIME
Tesla’s Time Travelers by Tim Black
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (93 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Age Recommendation: 12+
Reviewed by Astilbe

American history teacher Nathan Greene looked at his bulletin board. How did Benedict Arnold become the second president of the United States? And who the heck was Shippen Jefferson? Where were John Adams and John Quincy Adams? Shaken, Greene pulled down his map of the United States. He scanned the map: no major changes.

“Mr. Greene,” Victor Bridges called out. “Tennessee is missing!’

Greene’s jaw dropped. Where Tennessee had once proudly been, there was now “Franklin.”

Had Greene and his high school students inadvertently changed history with their field trip to the Philadelphia of 1776? There had been no such repercussions the previous spring when Greene took his class to Ford’s Theater for the fateful performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater on the evening of April 14, 1865. That spring trip had been such a success that his students fell in love with history and begged for another trip for their junior year.

But somehow the Philadelphia field trip had caused a “butterfly effect” in the historical timeline evicting John Adams and John Quincy from the White House and erasing the prominence of the Adams family from American history. The ghost of Harvard Historian Henry Brooks Adams, great-grandson of John Adams, was pitching a fit and now Greene was facing an inquiry by a panel of dead historians led by Thucydides himself. Greene was beginning to rue the day he purchased a strange box at a rummage sale at the Cassadaga Hotel, the cosmic center of Cassadaga, Florida, “The Psychic Capital of the World,” and home to scores of psychics and mediums and a plethora of phantasms, including an overabundance of the ghosts of forgotten historians from Henry Adams to Howard Zinn.

Alcohol is a depressant of the nervous system, which really effect the sexual power in both men and my review here cheap tadalafil pills women. It gets absorbed into inner tissues and cialis usa online nerves. Many web marketers and SEO representatives buy cialis canadian have fallen prey to the quick traffic this exploit can provide them, but marketers also risk a lot when they get caught. purchase levitra online The Internet is diversifying at a great speed. How was Greene to know that the box he bought was a duplicate of Pandora’s? How was he to know that the box contained Nikola Tesla’s prototype for a time travel device that jealous rival Thomas Alva Edison had stolen from the Serbian-born inventor and hidden in the basement of the Cassadaga Hotel shortly after “The Wizard of Menlo Park” received an honorary degree from nearby Rollins College in February of 1930? Tesla’s assembly instructions were a snap to follow, and the initial field trip had gone so well that Greene decided to try a fall field trip to colonial Philadelphia. But something had gone wrong; what had they done? Therein lies the tale.

The most dangerous thing about time travel is how easy it is to accidentally change the course of history.

Minerva was by far my favorite character in this class. Her quick thinking and leaderships skills aren’t apparent right away, but when she and her classmates face unexpected dangers in Philadelphia her deepest strengths are revealed. What was even more interesting was to see how she interacted with her teacher and the other students. The smartest and strongest among us don’t always end up being the best leaders, and it was entertaining to see how other personality factors influence which members of a group are called upon to make decisions at critical moments.

For a story of this length there were quite a few people to get to know in the beginning. Mr. Black’s repetition of their relationships and personalities helped me to remember who was who, though, and by the time I’d read several chapters I had a good understanding of all of the main and most of the secondary characters. Given that the plot demanded everyone be introduced at once the repetition was a useful tool, and I was grateful for the reminders as critical moments in the tale.

It was difficult to determine the correct age recommendation for this story. While most of the characters are in high school the humor in a particular subplot involving bathroom hijinks seemed like it would be more appealing for the late elementary or middle school crowd. The interactions between two characters who slowly realize how much their emotions are shifting will appeal to older readers, though, and it is for this reason that I’m recommending this for 12+ age group with the understanding that it is a flexible number. There is nothing in the tale that would be inappropriate for advanced 10 or 11 year olds, and the historical references and detailed descriptions of life in 1776 easily appeal to older readers as well.

The final scene of this tale catapulted the rating to a solid 4 stars. I grew slightly concerned about pacing as the plot advanced because so much time was dedicated to the beginning of the journey, but Mr. Black surprised me with a few tricks up his sleeve at the last minute that bumped him up to a higher rating.

Tesla’s Time Travelers is as much fun for older readers as it is for the age group for which it was originally intended. I highly recommend it to history buffs of all ages, and I hope to hear more from Mr. Greene and his students soon.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , ,

What Child Is This? by Victor J. Banis

September 13, 2013 By 1 Comment

CHILD
What Child Is This? by Victor J. Banis
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (6 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What had happened to her own daughter? Where had this child come from, the mother wondered. Who was she? Why did she sit for hours staring at her baby brother, contemplating…who knew what?

It was enough to drive you mad…especially, if you had a history of madness. But the doctors had assured her that was all behind her, a thing of the past…

Wasn’t it?

Every parent worries about their children, but some concerns are much scarier than others.
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The narrator of this piece has spent years anxiously attempting to predict the future. Her racing thoughts keep reverting to the same horrifying conclusion, but she’s having a difficult time getting anyone to listen to her. Occasionally doctors and well-meaning family members treat certain adult patients as if they are children, and the narrator’s reaction to this new dynamic in her closest relationships was quite similar to how I’ve seen other people in the same situation react in real life. Her reaction to the paternalistic treatment of her emotional state fleshes out this character’s personality and made it easier for me to like her when she makes certain choices.

While I completely understand that short stories generally don’t include a great deal of background information, I would have had an easier time understanding the ending if the narrator’s troubled past had been explained in greater detail. Everything was wrapped up so quickly and with only one or two hints about the truth that it took me a few rereads to realize what was actually happening to the narrator and her children.

Even with my confusion about the ending I was eager to figure out the narrator’s jumbled point of view. Mr. Banis creates an extraordinarily creepy atmosphere in what should have been ordinary scenes from the daily life of a young family. Sometimes the most frightening things in the world are also the most familiar ones.

What Child Is This? sent a shudder down my spine. This is a good choices for readers who prefer horror that is suspenseful instead of gory.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Killer Eulogy and Other Stories by Warren Bull

September 3, 2013 By 1 Comment

KILLER
Killer Eulogy and Other Stories by Warren Bull
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Contemporary, Historical
Length: Short Story (61 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewer: Astilbe

One definition of noir is “no happy endings.” In this short story collection by award-winning author, Warren Bull, don’t expect any last-minute reprieves – it isn’t going to happen. Dark desires spiral inexorably down toward disaster. Bad choices lead to dangerous consequences, and a sucker never gets an even break.

A clergyman chosen to speak on behalf of the dead is accused of murder. An author trying to make a name for herself attracts the attention of a stalker. A police detective investigating a series of seemingly unrelated murders finds an appalling and very personal link between the crimes.

How fast can karma run? Is blind justice always a good thing?

This collection is best summed up by this quote from it: “You never actually complete a story. You just stop writing.” What intrigued me the most about these stories is how many twists and turns are packed into each one and how much I wished I could read more about certain characters.
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Mr. Bull’s writing shines in sharp, unforgettable tales like Killer Eulogy and The Note. No sooner did I think I had everything figured out than the author casually dropped exposition into the narrative that completely dismantled my theories about what was actually happening. It’s difficult to discuss their plots without spoiling them, but Killer Eulogy is about a jealous reverend who suspects that one of the other pastors in her community is killing his parishioners. “The Note” is about a simple pickpocketing scheme that has unexpected consequences for the narrator. I’d highly recommend skipping ahead to read these stories first in order to see what Mr. Bull is like at his best.

On the Edge and Salvage were more difficult for me to understand. Their premises were intriguing, but the unexpected jokes in the former made it seem a little out of place in such a dark anthology. An influx of extraneous characters in the latter made it difficult for me to keep everyone straight, especially when new people were introduced right before the climax.

The rest of the stories in this collection more than make up for the two that didn’t particularly speak to me, though. Mr. Bull is a master at introducing the reader to a wholly ordinary series of events, allowing the plot to pick up momentum, and then casually revealing what is actually going on. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Killer Eulogy and Other Stories is full of surprises. This is a good choice for readers who like mysteries that can’t be easily unravelled. I read this genre regularly and yet was still surprised by several of the tales in this collection.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,
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