RED TIDE (Amateur Sleuth/Police Procedural) - G+

G.M. Ford – 4th in series

William Morrow, 2004 - Hardcover

When the police evacuate an area in Seattle, including a gallery with Meg Donovan’s first showing and Corso in attendance, Frank decides to find out why. Terrorists have released a

controlled form of the Ebola virus into a subway stations, and over a hundred

people die. In the meantime, Meg sees,

follows, and loses…

THE MAN WITH A LOAD OF MISCHIEF (English Police Procedural) – VG

Martha Grimes – 1st of series

An Onyx Book, 2003 (Reprint from 1981) - Paperback

It’s Christmas time in Long Pittleton. When the second of two murders occurs with the bodies found in two separate pubs, one with his head stuck in a beer keg and the other draped over the pub sign beam, Det. Chief Inspector Richard Jury

is sent to investigate.…

THE MADMAN’S TALE (Psychological Thriller) - Ex

John Katzenbach – 10th non-fiction

Ballantine Books, 2004 – Hardcover

Francis Xavier Petrel, named C-Bird by his former fellow inmates at Western State Hospital, is now living on this own. But an

invitation to the hospital, closed for 20 years, being made a museum, draws

Francis back, both to the place and the memories of the events, people and

murders there.…

THE HUNDREDTH MAN (Police Procedural) – G

Jack Kerley – 1st book

Dutton, 2004 – Hardcover

Det. Carson Ryder is one-half of new team supposed to investigate crimes which indicate having been committed by someone with psychological disorder; i.e., crazy. For

their first case, they have a serial killer leaving headless bodies lying about

with very small writing on the body.

The character of Ryder…

KILLER’S CHOICE (Police Procedural) – VG

Ed McBain – 6th in series

The Armchair Detective Library, 1991 (Reprint from 1958) – Hardcover

The detectives of the 87th precinct are looking for the killer of one of their own, have gained a new member of the squad, Cotton Hawes, and looking for the person who murdered a young woman.

This edition is particularly enjoyable as it includes an introduction by the…

CHICKAHOMINY FEVER – Ok

Ann McMillan – 4th in series

Penguin Books, 2003 - Paperback

It is 1862, and Richmond is surrounded by the Union Army. Nurse Narcissa Powers is attempting to locate the body of a missing Confederate soldier, while Judah Daniel, a free black herbalist, searches for

the mother of an abandoned infant. A crucial letter, which could change

the course of the war, brings these two together.…

MASQUES – G

Bill Pronzini – Standalone

Leisure Books, 1999 (Reprint from 1981) - Paperback

Photographer Steve Giroux, vacationing in New Orleans, but the vacation turns into a nightmare when a voice on the phone demands a photograph Steve never had and he finds himself being stalked..

Pronzini has truly captured the feel of New Orleans in this dark, creepy, scary book with a really poor ending. However,…

MASQUES – G

Bill Pronzini – Standalone

Leisure Books, 1999 (Reprint from 1981) - Paperback

Photographer Steve Giroux, vacationing in New Orleans, but the vacation turns into a nightmare when a voice on the phone demands a photograph Steve never had and he finds himself being stalked..

Pronzini has truly captured the feel of New Orleans in this dark, creepy, scary book with a really poor ending. However,…

VISIONS OF DEATH – VG

J.D. Robb – 19th in series

Putnam, 2004 – Hardcover

A serial killer is murdering young women and leaving them posed naked with a red ribbon around their neck, their hands posed in prayer, and their eyes removed.

This series has always been something of a guilty pleasure for me. Yes, there’s still Roark, but he is less involved with the case than he once was. I love the cast of…

HOME BODY (Amateur Sleuth/Reporter) – VG

Gerry Boyle – 8th in series

Berkeley Prime Crimes, 2004 – Hardcover

When reporter Jack McMorrow rescues Rocky, a young runaway boy, from been beaten by a gang of street kids, he has no idea it will lead to rescuing the boy many times, being suspected of being a pedophile, becoming

involved in the secret’s of the boy’s family and both Jack and his wife Roxanne

having their lives at…

SNOBBERY WITH VIOLENCE (Edwardian Cozy) – G

Marion Chesney (aka M.C. Beaton) – 2nd in series

St. Martin’s Minotaur Mysteries, 2004 - Paperback

Captain Harry Catheart is hired by the father of Lady Rose Summer to investigate the man courting his daughter. After it’s discovered the man is a complete bounder and Rose ends her first season in disgrace, she is sent off to attend a

party at Telby Castle along with other young women…

GRAVE UNDERTAKING (Amateur Sleuth/Former Policeman) – VG

Mark de Castrique – 2nd in series

Poisoned Pen Press, 2004 – Hardcover

Former policeman Barry Clayton now manages the family funeral parlor, in a small North Carolina town, for his father with Alzheimer’s. But when he oversees the moving of a grave

and finds an extra body with a bullet hole in it’s head, a gun by it’s feet and

the photograph of Barry’s girlfriend in…

TEN BIG ONES (Amateur Sleuth/Humor) –G+

Janet Evanovich – 10th in series

St. Martin’s Press, 2004 – Hardcover

When Stephanie witnesses a store robbery, having yet another car blown up, and can identify the perpetrator, she finds herself the target for a local gang who place a contract on her life.

The plot is pretty thin and it’s not the best of the series, but the delightful characters and…

DEAD MEN RISE UP NEVER (Unlicensed Investigator) – Okay

Ron Faust – 1st in series

Dell, 2004 – Paperback

Former CID investigator and current law student Dan Shaw agrees to find the currently missing heir to a very large fortune. Instead, he finds a cabin cruiser containing a dead goat, and underwater, seven anatomically correct inflatable mannequins

and a female corpse.

The plot was suspenseful—man…

A REGIMENTAL MURDER (Regency-Period Mystery) – VG

Ashley Gardner – 2nd in series

Berkeley Prime Crime, 2004 – Paperback

Retired cavalry officer Captain Gabriel Lacey, rescues a beautiful woman from the seeming intention of suicide. In turn, Lydia Weston, widow of Colonel Weston of the 43rd Light Dragoons who had confessed to killing a fellow officer

and had “accidentally” died before his trial, asks Lacey to find the…

MASK OF NIGHT (A Shakespearean Murder Mystery) – VG

Philip Gooden – 5th in series

Constable – London, 2004 – Hardcover

With the coming of Lent, the impending death of Queen Elizabeth and increasing deaths from the Plague, the acting company, The Chamberlain’s Men, has traveled to Oxford

where it has been commissioned by Dr. Hugh Fern to stage a private

performance of Romeo and Juliet. However, when the body of Dr. Fern…

CAUGHT STEALING (Amateur Sleuth) – G+

Charlie Huston – 1st book

Ballantine Books, 2004 – Hardcover

Bartender Hank Thompson agrees to look after his neighbor’s cat, Bud, for a few days and, as a result, is beaten so badly he loses a kidney. He is chased, beaten, tortured,

and friends murdered by a pair of Russians, a red-headed Asian, two brothers,

and a dirty cop all because of a key found in the bottom of Bud’s…

FALSE LIGHT (Suspense) – G-

Caroline Llewellyn – Standalone

Scribner, 1996 – Hardcover

Victorian spiritualist Marianna Hobhouse is the subject of research by Dana Morrow. While at an auction where Dana meets Daniel Finn, son of Quentin Finn, both photographers

who now live in the house, Kerreck Du, once owned by Marianna and her husband,

famous photographer Henry. Dana receives

an invitation to the house to further her…

FACELESS KILLERS (Swedish Police Procedural)- G+

Henning Mankell – 7th in series

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. English Translation, 2003 – Trade Paperback

Police Inspector Kurt Wallander is called to the scene of a particularly violent attack of an elderly couple on a small farm. The husband is dead but the wife, found with a noose around her neck, utters the work “foreign” before dying. Wallander becomes obsessed with solving…

BAD BUSINESS (Private investigator) – G+

Robert B. Parker – 31st Spenser

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004 – Hardcover

Spenser is hired by Marlene Crowley to find out whether her husband, an executive with Kinergy, is cheating on her. But when he finds Marlene is being watched by a fellow PI hired by her husband, and the woman with whom Marlene’s husband is

having an affair, is being watched by a third investigator, Spenser decides…