If you were one of the several thousand people who entered a Goodreads giveaway last month to win ten signed copies of The Cry of Cicadas and came up short, you have better odds this time, but only until the end of April. We’re giving away 100 ebook editions of this “immersive journey into the tumultuous era of WWII, filled with rich historical detail and compelling characters to delight fans of well-penned mystery,” as a Readers’ Favorite reviewer described it. The giveaway, available to Goodreads members in the U.S., began on April 4 and runs through the end of this month. Joining the cont ..read more

Camilla Trinchieri is the author of the Tuscan Mysteries series, launched in 2020 with Murder in Chianti. This series features the former NYPD detective Nico Doyle, who has left detective work behind, moving to the Italian hometown, Gravigna, of his deceased wife, Rita, and hoping to find some peace. The village is in the Chianti region, and Nico, half-Italian and half-Irish, slowly builds a new life working with Rita’s relatives. But soon he is also pulled back into the world of policing, recruited by the local Maresciallo, or marshal, Salvatore Perillo, to aid in a murder investigation in qu ..read more

My guest today is Kate Brody, author of one of my favorite novels of the year, Rabbit Hole, a glimpse of the dark side of online fixation and true crime cases. Theodore “Teddy” Angstrom’s older sister, Angie, disappeared ten years ago. The case remains unsolved and has also undone her family. Teddy’s father, Mark, kills himself on the anniversary of Angie’s disappearance. Teddy soon discovers that her father had been investigating the case through a Reddit community that has become obsessed with Angie. All too soon, Teddy finds herself falling down that same rabbit hole with unforseen consequ ..read more

I am pleased to present a guest post by my great good friend and fine poet, George Vance: Following publication of a series of incisive essays critiquing our brave new algorithmic world, Giuliano da Empoli’s first novel, The Wizard of the Kremlin, is a galvanizing read full of incisive analysis and acute bons mots. This politico-propaganda thriller, whose outcome we already know, elucidates the machinations behind Putin the Tsar’s rise. The Wizard is Vadim Baranov, a phantomesque figure modeled on the real Vladislov Surkov – politician, avant-garde theater director, writer, and shadowy a ..read more

2833— That is the number of people who entered a Goodreads giveaway last month to win ten signed copies of The Cry of Cicadas. Those ten copies are already on their way to the winners. You’ve got better odds this time. We’re giving away 100 ebook editions of this first novel in the Byrns on the Homefront Series, an “immersive journey into the tumultuous era of WWII, filled with rich historical detail and compelling characters to delight fans of well-penned mystery,” as a Readers’ Favorite reviewer described it. The giveaway, available to Goodreads members in the U.S., starts on April 4 and r ..read more

Popular mystery and thriller writer S.J. Rozen and novelist and former publisher at Marvel Comics, John Shen Yen Nee, team up for a meaty and fast-moving historical mystery set in London in the 1920s. The authors engagingly repurpose two actual historical personages for this “bewitching series kickoff,” as a Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed The Murder of Mr. Ma in a starred review. Lao She, here a shy academic lecturer, is the pen name for an actual Chinese novelist in mid-twentith century, known best for his novel, Rickshaw Boy. The other major character in The Murder of Mr. Ma, Judge Dee R ..read more

Edinburgh-based author Philip Miller took the long route to novel writing, working as a journalist for a couple of decades and twice named Arts Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. In 2015, he published his first novel, The Blue Horse, following it up two years later with All the Galaxies. His breakthrough novel, The Goldenacre, appeared in 2022, winning the Shamus Award for Best Private Investigator Novel, and scoring rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. That novel deals with the authentication of a famous painting, ‘The Goldenacre,’ by legenday Scottish painter and archit ..read more

You can get the ebook of The Cry of Cicadas today at Amazon for $.99. Price goes up soon to $1.99 and ultimately back to the regular cost of $3.99. Unlimited members can get it for free. So take advantage of the savings–hope you enjoy it ..read more

I come from a farming family, though I am very far removed from the land now. I make my living with my imagination, not my hands. But there is still a strong connection to those roots: like a farmer, I consume what I produce. Not many jobs like that. I write books, and I read books written by others. Continuously. That’s what writers do. Farmers produce food and consume food, mostly produced by others. But like many other readers, my consumption pattern has changed over the years. Our home library has a couple thousand books double-rowed in floor-to ceiling shelves. On many of those shelves ..read more

I have a confession to make. I have never read any of the thirteen novels in Tess Gerritsen’s ‘Rizzoli &Isles’ mystery series. Nor any of the other thirty-plus books this amazingly prolific medical doctor-turned author has penned. Shame on me. But the latest, The Spy Coast, about a collection of retired spooks all living in a small town in Maine, caught my attention. And so happy it did. This novel is not just a nostalgic look at the glory days of superannuated CIA operatives. Nope. Maggie Bird, one of the members of this crew, the Martini Club as they style themselves, discovers that her ..read more