Mystery Book Reviews

Sherlock Holmes is smoking pot with Watson, as they discuss his friend Arthur Conan Doyle. And then Holmes retells the story of The Count Of Monte Cristo.

If this isn’t confusing enough, this classic tale is then ” retold” for a good 30% of the book, with small changes here and there. It isn’t written in any particular Dumas or Doyle style, although it tries to do both at certain points. It seems to be an intentional dumbing-down of a public domain novel many modern-day readers would have lazily skipped over as it’s so “long and boring”, to garner kudos […]

Glancing at the cover of this book we know right off the bat something is up with that well. There are too many historical writings about fountains of youth to count, not to mention the legendary island of Avalon and utopian villages such as Shangri-La. In The Puddingstone Well, the second novel from William Westhoven, variations of these myths are indeed relied upon, but with a contemporary spin. In the Prologue to Part One, the phrase “what history does not recall” lets us know this is Westhoven’s tale for the telling.

Our first protagonist is a freelance writer for […]

In the novel Spitting Image, by M. K. Mattias, the main character can’t stay out of trouble. Simone Darling is terrified of flying. After her father plunged to his death when he fell out of a helicopter, Simone never wants to step foot onto a plane. Also, she’s afraid of America, especially Miami. Her fear of Miami is extreme. Simone, who lives in Sydney, Australia, never wants to visit her mom in Florida. Never.

That is until Simone’s stepfather offers to pay her $80,000 to restore some of his paintings. She’s an art restorer. At the time, she isn’t making […]