With a personal viewpoint, writing about the arts stops sounding like Newspeak. Here is the best gift I can give an artist—a flash of my impressions of the work as open as I can divine them, uncluttered by social and historical baggage, and free of plot-spoilers.
Photographs were taken of or from Point Richmond, California and Champaign, Illinois.
Who's Murdering Crime Fiction?
Members of Crime Fiction group on LinkedIn are writing a progressive crime story.
PERFECT HATRED by Leighton Gage
PERFECT HATRED by Leighton Gage is a fascinating story with deep insights into modern multicultural tensions of immigrant populations and the age-old fodder of political intrigue and corruption.
It’s been a year and I’ve forgotten these characters. As the story unfolds I’m reminded why I felt so moved by them. The true joy of PERFECT HATRED is the rich interaction which occurs when interesting people interact with warmth, innuendo, barbs, humour and love.
A very satisfying book.
Best of 2012 books have been published!
DorothyL is a 20+ year old mailing list which goes to ~3K addresses of people in ~25 countries who are interested in mystery, suspense, & crime fiction. Click DorothyL to start at the top of the DorothyL section on this site (i.e. the underlined and highlighted word). This link will give you some extra information about the group of DorothyLers.
Every year members of DorothyL post lists of their favourite books read in the prior year and we have a team of kindly volunteers to help get the job done. Click Best of 2012 DorothyL booklists or select the menu item "DorothyL" at the top of the screen to see 2011 and prior years.
Or, bookmark this link: http://tinyurl.com/DLMemorable2012
Hope you find some good books!
Crime Fiction group announces 2013 Book Special for readers!
In celebration that many readers' received new eReaders and book vouchers for the holiday season, Crime Fiction group on LinkedIn has collected some (e)book specials and, hopefully, some new-to-you authors. We hope you'll find a few new favourites in the 2013 New eBook Reader Promotion from Crime Fiction group.
Click on the hyperlink above these words, or click the "Crime Fiction" button at the top of the page.
Issues For Posting DorothyL Memorable Books of the Year Lists
Here is a series of posts related to preparing and processing data for the Best of Year Booklists from DorothyL.
If you're on the front page of the website and thus seeing the "summary" view of this page, click on the title of the post which will open up the complete view of the post, with related posts attached.
ARTIFACT by Gigi Pandian
When the story opens, Jaya Jones resides in San Francisco. Now an archeologist, she was born in India of Tamil descent and has lived around the world. Jaya soon begins a treasure hunt drawing resources from her many connections. Although I read the story many months ago, the story is still with me. Jaya’s voice is strong and witty—that girl has spunk!
ARTIFACT mixes mystery with adventure and a touch of romance, a delightful combination.
HEART OF THE DEMON by Michael Fowler
Michael Fowler, possibly a pseudonym of a former UK policeman, writes about Detective Sergeant Hunter Kerr. I'm supposing that as the series progresses the author will lose the voice which makes him sound more like a policeman than a crime author, but the endearing realism makes up for any immature talent.
The plot of HEART OF THE DEMON is darkish—plenty of gore—swift and interesting.
HEART OF THE DEMON
By Michael Fowler
© 2010
Caffeine Nights Publishing
http://www.mjfowler.co.uk/books/
KILLING SILENCE by Peg Herring
Knowing that any novel’s premise is contrived doesn’t stop my feeling that many stories lately involve rickety staircases of logic just to read them.
Peg Herring’s KILLING SILENCE was a delightful departure; in the first few pages, I felt that pleasurable anticipation when you’ve just become enmeshed in a story you know you’re going to love. Yet from the subtitle, you might not think so; these books are called The Loser Mysteries. My aged mother-in-law looked at the cover and said she wouldn’t like to read that book; I’m going to have to tell her that she’ll enjoy it very much.
DON'T EVER GET OLD by Daniel Friedman
DON'T EVER GET OLD is a remarkable story. Buck Schatz is a wise-cracking, foulmouthed, cigarette smoking, eighty-seven-year-old, Jewish curmudgeon. The story is captivating, but I’m not sure if one reads because one needs to follow the story or because one needs to see what Buck says next.
God, do I want to be like him when I grow up!
A CARRION DEATH by Michael Stanley
Some weeks ago I lamented the loss of Cast of Characters, maps and glossaries. Michael Stanley (both of them) wrote to tell me their series featuring Detective Kubu had all these readers’ tools. This gave me the momentum to get a copy of A CARRION DEATH, the first in a series which has been on my radar for quite some time.
