Mystery | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Winner Maker by Jeff Bond

English teacher and football Coach Bob Fiske disappears from Evanston Township High School, and a small group of former students who were “Winners” – a secret group of high-achieving students cultivated by Fiske over his career – attempts to solve the mystery in The Winner Maker by Jeff Bond.

Ten years on, jealousies, rivalries, and old feelings still rise up among Steph Reese, her husband and former quarterback Doug, computer nerd Eric Pinkersby, shy Lydia Brockert and now school counselor Becky Brindle. They all cherish their ties to Fiske, and set out to find him. As before, they don’t want […]

Greg Rideout2019-05-21T09:49:32+02:00October 2nd, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Jeff Bond, Mystery, Thriller|

The Moving Blade by Michael Pronko

Couching a noir detective storyline in an Eastern setting, The Moving Blade by Michael Pronko is the second installment of the Detective Hiroshi series, and delivers another thrilling ride for this clever curmudgeon.

When a top diplomat is murdered, his daughter, Jamie, takes it upon herself to dig into the dangerous underworld of Tokyo. After partnering up with Detective Hiroshi Shimizu, they both put themselves between the crosshairs of a sinister killer who will stop at nothing to achieve his dastardly aims. The plot is fast-paced and thrilling, but the author also takes time to paint a visceral portrait of […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-09-06T04:45:30+02:00September 5th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Michael Pronko, Mystery, Thriller|

Shopping Cart Annie by Cordy Fitzgerald

Conspiracies and intrigue abound in Cordy Fitzgerald’s entertaining debut mystery, Shopping Cart Annie.

Retired schoolteacher, Dr. Inez Buchanan is approached by Dolly David, a former neighbor’s godmother, who begs her to help find her granddaughter, now in her mid-thirties. She disappeared years earlier and Dolly believes that her granddaughter is alive, living in Afghanistan with a Taliban husband. She tells Inez that her granddaughter had recently contacted her, asking for money.

Days later, Inez learns that Dolly has committed suicide, naming her as the primary executor of Dolly’s billion dollar estate. A shocked Inez becomes determined to carry out […]

Marta Cheng2018-08-24T09:58:34+02:00August 23rd, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Mystery, Thriller|

Isabella’s Painting (A Karina Cardinal Mystery Book 1) by Ellen Butler

The first book in the Karina Cardinal Mystery series, Isabella’s Painting introduces a highly entertaining protagonist who navigates this mystery thriller with wit and gritty determination.

Karina Cardinal is smart, hardworking and, to her dismay, a good girlfriend, who instead of spending quality time with her boyfriend, is putting on airs at her in-laws annual holiday party. It is her attendance at this party that sets the story into motion when she catches a glimpse of a Vermeer painting in her father-in-law’s possession. Caught between contacting the police, which would inevitably lead to her boyfriend’s family’s demise, Cardinal makes the […]

SPR2018-06-11T10:20:07+02:00June 10th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Mystery|

Review: I’m Going to Kill That Cat by F. Della Notte

F. Della Notte’s cozy mystery, I’m Going to Kill That Cat, is a highly entertaining whodunit with a feline twist.

Father Melvyn Kronkey is devoted to his clerical duties at Saint Frances de Sales Church, and to his widowed housekeeper Mrs. B.’s marvelous cooking. Life is good until the longstanding antagonism between two of his older parishioners, Martha and Velma, culminates in a heated confrontation, thanks to an unexpected fall Martha blames on Velma’s cat. Martha angrily threatens to kill Velma’s cat but it’s Velma who turns up dead a short time later. Not surprisingly, Martha becomes the police’s prime […]

Marta Cheng2019-12-11T08:11:09+02:00April 16th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: F. Della Notte, Mystery|

What Happened to Flynn by Pat Muir

Writer Pat Muir shows us that missing person cases are rarely what they seem in the compelling police procedural, What Happened to Flynn.

A divorced real estate agent and avid fisherman, Art had been reported missing by his broker ten days earlier. His missing person case lands on Detective Shanisa (Shane) Notfarg’s desk in October, 2008. A seasoned ten-year veteran with San Diego’s homicide division, Shane’s investigation is ordinary – until Art’s vehicle turns up trashed and she subsequently discovers that he was a whistleblower in a money laundering scheme. Shane becomes determined to get to the bottom of […]

Marta Cheng2018-03-05T09:12:23+02:00March 5th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Mystery|

Review: Deadly Trespass by Sandra Neily

When Cassandra Patton Conover, a lone nature writer and conservationist, takes to the Maine wilds with her dog Pock into private grounds for good fishing, she discovers the body of her friend crushed under a tree. Confused by the circumstances of her friend’s death, she must now risk everything she cares about to uncover the mystery behind her untimely death in Deadly Trespass by Sandra Neily.

Cassandra’s task isn’t so easy – she kind of dislikes people, and the politically motivated swarm descending on the issues of deforestation, resources, and the matter of extinct wolves finding their way back to […]

Naka Jackson2022-12-23T13:33:46+02:00June 12th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Mystery|

Moriarty Meets His Match (A Professor & Mrs. Moriarty Mystery #1) by Anna Castle

Moriarty Meets His Match by Anna Castle is a mystery novel woven and detangled by Sherlock Holmes’ famous nemesis, James Moriarty, and his complicated love, Angelina Gould.

In this who-done-it, Professor James Moriarty wraps himself up in an investigation that revolves around burglary and murder, initially to save his own skin, but as he comes to know the beautiful and mysteriously complicated Angelina Gould, he may have bitten off more than he can chew.

Fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock may be surprised to find a kindhearted and heroic Moriarty at the heart of this first novel of Castle’s […]

Ashton Temby2017-05-30T08:04:32+02:00May 30th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Mystery|