A Dead Red Alibi

A DEAD RED ALIBI by RP Dahlke begins a new adventure for Lalla Baines and her zany family of characters. Left standing at the altar by true love Sheriff Caleb Stone Lalla just wants to get away. Rich Aunt Mae to the rescue. She gives Lalla the deed to a piece of property in Arizona where her great Uncle Ed found a gold mine. Since her dad, Noah, has sold his business, bought a new, bright red Jeep, he offers to accompany Lalla to see the gift property. It’s only a matter of hours until Noah is at the bottom of a mining pit with a near dead police officer, Caleb is wondering around the desert wearing nothing except his underwear, and Lalla is plunked down in the middle of yet another murder scene. The only one missing is crack pilot and wannabe P.I., Cousin Pearlie who soon shows up at the local airport. There is a suspicious deputy dubbed ‘Deputy Dumb-ass’ by Noah and a community of local artists who all have something to hide. Mix in a drug cartel, a member of the mob and you’ve got a rollicking escapade that features a downhill roll over in the new Jeep, a million dollar Italian race car, another shooting, a bomb and nonstop action. Oh, did I mention the Emu? RP Dahlke has a unique talent for blending humor, excitement and bigger-than-life characters in her Dead Red series. There are sad moments, moments when we are reminded of real life problems of real life people. But all together A DEAD RED ALIBI kicks off a promising following of Dahlke’s stimulating series. .

Dead Man Falling by Desmond Cory is book for the true adventurer. This action packed ‘walloping’ read is filled page by page with spellbinding questions of who’s who and where are the diamonds. Set in the ruggedly beautiful mountains of Austria the book gleams with vivid descriptions of stunning scenery. Former British agent, Johnny Fedora, alongside his attractive companion, Marie-Andree, board a train under the guise of a couple on their honeymoon. A man is murdered, another man jumps from the train and there is a muscular mountaineer supposed named Johann Beil who is sharing their compartment. Is this in any way connected to Fedora’s search for valuable diamonds? Reaching the Hunting Horn Inn in Oberneusl, Fedora gets his first look at Old Man Mountain. He realizes that somehow his fate is linked to that majestic peak. Will he be the ‘dead man falling’? No one is who they say they are and when dead bodies start stacking up Fedora begins his treacherous climb up the icy Hunting Horn in search of the ‘third hut’ and hopefully the diamonds. His guide is an ‘odd’ boy who just might be the son of the most famous German in history. Dead Man Falling is both exhilarating and gripping. An unexpected ending makes it well worth the read.

A WEDDING AND A KILLING – the latest book in the Mac Faraday series by Lauran Carr is a pleasurable read. Mac is a super rich retired police detective who learned that his biological mother was a famous mystery writer when she left him her multi-million dollar estate. The book is set along the beautiful shores of Deep Lake Creek and begins on a happy note. Mac and his true love, Archie Monday, have planned a ‘pre-wedding’ ceremony, wanting to tie the knot before the major event expected by Archie’s mother. It seemed simple enough – but Gnarly, Mac’s German shepherd spoils the occasion by finding an almost dead body at the chapel. Who would want to shoot a nice church elder that’s just doing his job by counting the Sunday offerings? There is actually a mystery within a mystery in Carr’s new book. It’s a tangled, twisting adventure that adds more dead bodies along the way. Carr devised a very unusual method for dealing with a rich man’s son who thinks that women were born to be abused. You’ll also be surprised at the choice of weapon used in the climax as well as the deciding factor on who committed one murder by a uniquely distinct residue left on the pistol grip. And then there’s Gnarly who, much to his humiliation, has a forced run-in with a Chihuahua. Carr’s characters are lively, her plots complex, there is always just enough humor to set a lighter tone.