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Don't Fear This Reaper ... A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer (mystery book review)

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You can find a Grim Reaper costume in any costume shop, because everyone agrees on what it is—long cape, hood, no face, and a big ole scythe, right?   But... what if everyone is wrong?   What if sometime between the reaper’s first appearance—in the Middle Ages, when the Black Death was the COVID of its day—and now, the whole concept of the grim reaper was... updated?   The black-hood-of-death-and-harvesting-tool getup would have to go.   Maybe the Grim Reaper 2.0 would look like a regular Joe (or Jane!). Like your neighbor. Your aunt. The muscle-y dude pumping iron at the gym.   Debuting author Maxie Dara makes hay* with this idea in her delightfully-creative new mystery,  A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer .      You probably wouldn’t look twice at Kathy Valence, if you passed her on the street. Just another frumpy, middle-aged, nearly-divorced—and very pregnant—woman... nothing to see here, just move along.   But the badge she carefully pins to the collar of her practical bla
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A Tale of Suspense Worthy of the Master -- The Hitchcock Hotel (book review)

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Imagine, just for a second, what your life would be like, without your friends? They’re such a huge part of those “formative years”... but not so much, I think, a throughway.   For instance, there are friends you have when you’re a little kid—the ones you play with at recess, or hang out with after school. Everything is easy and fun, and any arguments tend to be trivial (and sorted quickly).   Then the tweens and teens happen, and suddenly you’re a mass of raging hormones, explosive bursts of anger, and buckets of drama-llama angst.  Those earlier friends, from simpler times, may— or may not —still be in the mix, because the stakes have gotten much higher, with massive secrets and heartfelt desires to be shared... and kept close. You have your besties... but if just one confidence is broken, any bestie can be relegated to no-man’s land, in a millisecond.   High school is the last stop on the whole friend-making journey for a lot of people. Sure, other very casual friendships can develo
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Dark Secrets in the City of Angels -- P. J. Tracy's City of Secrets book review

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Every big city in America has its share of serious crime... but in a sprawling megalopolis like Los Angeles,  there’s your run-of-the-mill crime, and then there’s your okay-that-went-crazy-really-effing-fast crime.   In the latest entry in P. J. Tracy’s Detective Margaret Nolan series,  City of Secrets , Maggie—along with her stalwart partner, Al Crawford—are definitely ankle-boots-and-loafers-deep in the latter.     After arriving on the scene of what—at first glance—almost certainly appears to be  “just” another fatal car-jacking, Maggie and Al soon realize that the dead guy in the fancy car was actually the owner of a premium pet-food company worth millions... which he just so happened to be in the process of selling, for a huge profit. And  that  immediately puts a whole different spin on things.    Sure, in the part of town where things went down—one of those areas someone super-wealthy only goes with the idea of scoring something illegal, in mind—being rich and stupid go hand-in-
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Mrs. Sidhu Investigates (Review) -- The Menopausal Indian Caterer who Sniffs out Murderers

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Cozy mysteries have never really been my thing, in either book or TV show. They’re usually too cutesy, too predictable, too convenient, and too... well, basically cheerful (for me).   But plenty of other people clearly love them, and that’s cool. ( Hey, there’s more than enough room in the pond for everyone’s tastes, which is as it should be .)   Every now and then, though, something “cozy” grabs my attention, and I give it a try... like I did last week, with  Mrs. Sidhu Investigates  (streaming on Acorn TV, which is easy to get through Amazon).   And, just like those blue moons, once in a great while I’m pleasantly surprised and delighted... as I was with  Mrs. Sidhu .     A middle-aged catering chef—who, for much of the season, seems to be capably running a one-woman operation ( from prepping and cooking, to delivering and serving the food! )—in the smallish city of Slough, England, doesn’t seem like the obvious choice of heroine for, well,  most  things... let alone, a light-hearted
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Broadcast Blues -- Don't Mess with a Midlife Reporter (Thriller Book Review)

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  There are milestones, and then there are...well,   milestones .   Most of us likely share the same ones—no matter what order they actually occur.   First kiss. Losing our virginity. Getting a driver’s license. Graduating. Getting our own place. Getting married (or entering  some  type of long-term relationship).    And then, there are birthdays. Perhaps the biggest milestones, of all... despite the meaninglessness one day actually makes, of course. From 29 to 30... 39 to 40... 49 to 50 (etc.).   For whatever reason(s), we’ve somehow arbitrarily agreed that the beginning of a new decade signals a new Big Scary Awful.    And it’s with  that  looming in her mind— the impossible idea of turning 50(!!) —that TV newswoman Clare Carlson happens upon an equally-explosive story, in R.G. Belsky’s latest entry in the series,  Broadcast Blues .     When Clare hears that some sort of explosive detonated in a car in Manhattan—killing Wendy Kyle, a female private detective (and formerly an NYPD off
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Dangerous Deeds in the Desert -- Shades of Mercy (thriller book review)

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There are undoubtedly a handful of good reasons why so many of us leave our school friends behind, without a backward glance.     But I’m betting the top reason is simply that the past is where such friendships  should , most often, remain.   For everyone’s sake.       When author Bruce Borgos begins his latest tale,  Shades of Mercy , we find one Porter Beck—the sheriff of a sparsely-populated (but geographically-vast) high-desert Nevada county—the first officer on the scene of the latest in a troubling string of opioid drug-related deaths in his jurisdiction .   Only this time, it  really  hits home... because the victim? Was none other than one of Beck’s closest friends back in school—the second Musketeer of three.   Gutted, Beck returns to the station... but there’s little in the way of solace, there. Instead, he finds more chaos, because in the constantly water-deprived state of Nevada, it’s always fire season, and a good half-dozen major burns were currently raging.   And then, i
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Witty Rom-Com Gives Heart Eyes and... Feathers! (Birding with Benefits book review)

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You know the saying “there’s nothing new under the sun”?   Nobody really want to believe it’s true... even though, deep down, most of us know that it   is .   We’ve all rolled our eyes about books, shows, and movies, for the “ been there, read/seen/heard that before ” scenario.   A movie about cop partners? Cue every cop-buddy-trope comparison out there.   A show about a charismatic serial killer? Someone’s gonna make references to lotion, baskets, and fava.   The toughest of them all, though? Rom-coms... where tropes positively  thrive .   Enemies-to-lovers. Opposites attracting. Someone needs rescuing. Pretend relationships. Friends-to-lovers. Forced spending time together. False or mistaken identity. Rich person falls for poor person. (Et cetera, etc.)   But here’s the thing...   Just because you’ve seen a thing done before... doesn’t mean someone  else  can’t come along and put a whole new spin on it.    Sometimes— thank goodness! —magic still happens... as in newbie-author Sarah T
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