Author Sally Smith is an English barrister and Kings Counsel who spent her working life in the Inner Temple and knows it intimately. It's a locked-away world that few glimpse, and she's set a reluctant detective -- barrister Gabriel Ward -- on his introverted, bookish hunt for a murderer. He's also charged with defending the publisher of a runaway bestselling children's book about the Temple mouse from a charge of stealing the book from a reclusive author. The richness of her words, the quirkiness of her characters, and the twistiness of her plotting absolutely delighted me.
A modern-day epistolary novel, told in emails, texts, newspaper articles and such, the book starts with a family's reluctant move back to the wife's dying hometown. Both the family and the town are struggling to survive and find their place. Not what you expect in the opening of a hilarious, delightful, uplifting journey into remembering that passion carries us far, is it? I laughed out loud at times. I couldn't read it fast enough. Perhaps an unusual choice of "best book" for a crime writer? There are crimes and justice. And hilarity and redemption. A really good read.
For readers of J. Ryan Stradal and The Music of Bees (with a dash of FX's The Bear) comes a quirky and refreshing epistolary novel about a family of culture-shocked Brooklynites transplanted to Goodnight, Kansas and their fight for their unexpected lifeline: the legendary May Day Diner.
Welcome to Goodnight, Kansas.
Population: Many Kansans, three New Yorkers, and one chance to save the place they love most
With more wind chimes than residents, folks don't move to Goodnight when their lives are going well. That's why all eyes are on chef Sid Solvang and his…
Matt Murphy spent 26 years in the Orange County, California District Attorney's office, mostly prosecuting homicides. He also loves to surf and calls colleagues "dude." Anyone who watches 20/20 or ABC crime segments has seen him -- a tall, lean, intense and good-humored man. His stories of famous California cases range from con man/killer Dirty John Meehan to serial killer Rodney Alcala. But he also talks about himself and the toll his intense focus on a difficult job took. He authentically reveals his emotional reaction to cases and second-guesses some of the personal choices he made that allowed him to successfully prosecute wily, deadly killers. He's a good storyteller -- and does he have some stories to tell! One of the best accounts I've read of the life of a true crime-fighter and those he worked with.
South Carolina’s Lowcountry is a picturesque location for vacations and fun, but it comes with a sinister side. Bootleggers in Hell Hole Swamp supplied illegal liquor to Al Capone, while a local man became one of the FBI’s most famous crimefighters. A murder mystery was solved on a gravestone. Tales feature a spree killer, serial killers, poisoners (and a man who could cure poisoning), love triangles gone wrong and a swamp creature called Lizard Man. Crime writer Cathy Pickens brings a novelist’s eye to the crime stories that define the sinister―and quirky―side of the Lowcountry.
