Chief Inspector Ian Rutledge, along with the PTSD manifested ghost, Hamish, returns to Post WWI Britain in this latest Charles Todd mystery. Set on the isolated coast of Northumblerland, Rutledge is sent by Scotland Yard to investigate the murder of a local fishman that may put a bad light on the Church of England and affect the tourist/pilgrim travels to the local site of the home of Saint Cuthbert.

Charles Todd carries on the wonderfully atmospheric world of the British classes after the end of the Great War, dealing with immense loss and recovery of a nation and its people that he and his mother portrayed so well during their decades of collaboration.

Although the setup is a bit of a slow burn, the story picks up momentum as we follow Rutledge as he bounces back and forth between the two villages, trying to sort out old grudges, post-war trauma, national prejudices, and politics. The conclusion is satisfying and sets up hope for new Rutledge cases in the new future

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NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD

BY LUKE DUMAS

Cinema’s Golden Age of Universal Studios monster films taught us to feel empathy for the creature. Larry Talbot as the wolf man was a tortured unfortunate, while Frankenstein’s monster was a lonely and confused man-child. Emmett Truesdale, the monster of Nothing Tastes as Good, elicits the same emotions.

In a body horror tale that’s a searing look at the weight loss industry and Big Pharma, as well as the soul-destroying world of social media, Luke Dumas puts the reader in the agonized mind of a person whose desperate need for love can only be temporarily satisfied by food, online approval, and unfulfilling relationships—an all too familiar scenario.

Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Emmett turns to science for a cure that, instead, turns him into a monster. We ache for him as we watch his descent into madness. Until the very last page, despite the terrible things he does, we truly hope for him to find redemption and love in the end. However, that’s not how horror ends, does it?

Dumas gives us the monster of our times. Except, this time, the evil doctor is all of us. We, as a society have created the monster. And man is he hungry for revenge.

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Maberry isn't afraid to put any and all of his characters on the chopping block in service to the greater story. Told with glimpses back to the days of the Crusades, readers learn of the fate of the Red Order and the monsters created in their service. Tied into it all, we learn the origin story of the mysterious Mr. Church. Many readers have guessed over the several books in the series and will be floored by the truth.

Throughout this insane ride, readers will wonder if this is Ledger's last battle. Either way, it will go down as one of Maberry's best Rogue Team books.

This review is based on the audio book, read by the incomparable Ray Porter. He not only manages to embody the soul of Joe Ledger.  Somehow, I can actually hear Jonathan Maberry's particular intonations in this reading. If you crave action and international intrigue, Red Empire is your book.

Hiaasen brings back the eco-warrior with anger management issues, Twilly Spree, in this skewering of Southern Politicians and the Right-Wing MAGA crowd.

Perpetual loser, Dale Figgo wants to make a patriotic statement that will cement his name among other MAGA heroes. His effort is hampered by the fact that the Proud Boys and similar groups think he’s too much of a whacko.

Undeterred, Figgo teams up with a crooked politician who’s backed by even more crooked investors to help cement a win in an upcoming election.

In typical Hiaasen fashion, all hell breaks loose and the best laid plans of the bad guys goes hilariously wrong.

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Rarely do thrillers actually surprise me enough to make me stop and pause in my reading. However, Alice Feeney does it with “Beautiful Ugly“.

Following writer, Grady Green, as he navigates the claustrophobic weirdness of the remote Scottish island of Amberley, the book takes the reader down a rabbit hole where everything seems somehow off and not what it seems.

What starts off as a sad tale of a struggling writer who’s trying recapture his place on the bestseller list while dealing with the disappearance of his loving wife, twists into a tale of survival, betrayal, and consequences.

It’s a great read, meant to be accompanied by a pot of tea, a comfy chair, and a stoutly locked door.

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Fans of Tananarive Due's, The Reformatory, will love Grady Hendrix's eerie exploration of a home for unwed mothers in 1970s Florida. Neva, renamed Fern by the headmistress, is 15-years-old and very pregnant. Her indignant father drops her off at the Wellwood house where she will serve out her nine months of exile. Following that, the girls/women are expected to complacently hand over their newborns to the "better life" of adoptive parents.

Fern, like many of the other girls, has other plans for her unborn child. Despite having no form of income or parents willing to take on her burden, she secretly plans to keep her baby. When she's befriended by a visiting bookmobile librarian that gives Fern and her friends a worn copy of a book called, HOW TO BE A GROOVY WITCH, she has her first hopeful inkling of a way to take control of her fate.

First, using the book for simple spells like relieving pain, the girls soon delve into the deeper recesses of the book and under the librarian's tutelage, their journey into magic becomes fraught with dangerous consequences. And they soon learn that every spell comes with a price.

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A follow up to her wonderful 2015, "A is for Arsenic", "V is for Venom is a treasure trove of nasty poisons and how Dame Agatha Christie put them to use in her novels and short stories. Being an author of detective stories myself, I thoroughly enjoyed and was engrossed in all of the interesting minutia of the poisons used so cleverly in so many delightfully devilish deaths. Harkup makes the scientific interesting by tying the properties of each poison with corresponding stories. It's wonderful to have another source for my novel plots without adding to my questionable Google search history.

Shawn Cosby is the master of Southern Crime Fiction. Additionally, his grasp of the perils of family dynamics played out over generations and tangled up amongst loyalty and betrayal like kudzu vines, could be taught as case studies in a psychology course.

In KING OF ASHES, Roman Curruthers, an Atlanta financial wizard, thinks he's escaped his dying hometown of Jefferson Run. But like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, just when he thinks he is out, he gets pulled back in. When his father ends up in a coma after a suspicious auto accident, Roman comes home to help his younger sister at the family's crematorium. Things deteriorate when he learns his addict younger brother, Dante, is in debt to local gangsters after losing a load of drugs he was trying to sell. Roman hopes his talent at making quick big bucks for his clients will be enough to placate the thugs as he tries to get his brother out of debt while also dealing with the surfacing of secrets of how and why his mother disappeared.

As with many of Cosby's stories, there are no true innocents. Instead of good and evil, like the ashes of the crematorium, everything is gray and gritty. There will be a sort of justice. However, it will be bitter and costly. King of Ashes cements S.A. Cosby as one of the best crime writers of his generation.

J A Jensen

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Going to a book signing tonight with S A Cosby here in San Diego. I had the pleasure to meet him at BourcherCon in San Diego back in 2023. Aside from speaking with the teddy bear of a man during the convention, I got to drink bourbon with him at a whiskey bar. We Southern boys enjoy our libations.

Below is the review I posted on the Warwick’s bookstore website. I’ll place a link below where you can purchase a copy. Also, I’ll place a link for bookshop.org where you can bypass Amazon and directly help your local indie bookstore.

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Shawn Cosby is the master of Southern Crime Fiction. Additionally, his grasp of the perils of family dynamics played out over generations and tangled up amongst loyalty and betrayal like kudzu vines, could be taught as case studies in a psychology course.

In KING OF ASHES, Roman Curruthers, an Atlanta financial wizard, thinks he's escaped his dying hometown of Jefferson Run. But like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, just when he thinks he is out, he gets pulled back in. When his father ends up in a coma after a suspicious auto accident, Roman comes home to help his younger sister at the family's crematorium. Things deteriorate when he learns his addict younger brother, Dante, is in debt to local gangsters after losing a load of drugs he was trying to sell. Roman hopes his talent at making quick big bucks for his clients will be enough to placate the thugs as he tries to get his brother out of debt while also dealing with the surfacing of secrets of how and why his mother disappeared.

As with many of Cosby's stories, there are no true innocents. Instead of good and evil, like the ashes of the crematorium, everything is gray and gritty. There will be a sort of justice. However, it will be bitter and costly. King of Ashes cements S.A. Cosby as one of the best crime writers of his generation.

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