Only the Truth

Just who was the blue-eyed girl with the red suitcase that forever changed Billy Ray Hutchins life?  She called herself Charlene.  She told him she didn’t remember anything about her past.  Slow-witted, illiterate, Billy Ray took her into his home, an Arkansas mountaintop cabin, and into his heart. She liked Big Dog and she made great biscuits.  Charlene and Billy Ray settled into a nice way of life; until the old man moved in across the road.

Arson, murder and mystery wend their way through the pages of this book. Unspeakable acts on innocents; a heart-wrenching crime scene that brings tears to the eyes of a seasoned police chief, false accusations that tear at the very thread of Billy Ray’s existence.  When the attorney, Mr. Green, gave up his defense of Charlene, Billy Ray remained doggedly determined to find Only the Truth.  Simple in mind and spirit he could see what professional investigators were missing.

It takes great skill, as a writer, to build an unforgettable character like Billy Ray Hutchins. Pat Brown has accomplished a remarkable feat allowing the reader into those special thoughts and emotions.  Companion characters like Charlene, Mrs. Covey, the kindly over-the-road trucker, the sheriff and chief of police lend depth and interest to a story well told. The ending seems abrupt, leading the reader to believe we haven’t heard the last of Billy Ray’s story.

I recommend reading Only the Truth not just for its content but for Pat Brown’s unique style of writing.  It’s refreshing, straight-forward, and doesn’t rely on contrived circumstances or ill-timed humor.  You might want to start reading this book when you have a favorable block of time – it’s hard to put down.

Mama Does Time

Is Southern humor, dysfunctional but loving families, and light romance on your reading list for 2013? Then give Mama Does Time, by Deborah Sharp, a try.

When middle daughter, Mace Bauer, gets the call that Mama, adorned in her sherbert-colored pants suit with matching scarf and shoes, has been locked up in jail suspected of murdering the man found in trunk of her turquoise blue convertible, she rushes to the rescue.  Joined by sisters, Marty and Maddie, a mixed bag of personalities at best, Mace is faced with a less then congenial big city, turned rural, cop who is convinced of Mama's guilt.

Soon in the lineup of suspects and complications are Mama's dubious boyfriend with a mysterious past, an hysterical police dispatcher who just happened to be engaged to the deceased, and a shady cowboy who's also Mace's ex-lover. Throw in a little illegal lending, blackmail, mob connections, and a preacher with a roving eye and you've got the makings of fun read. 

The plot is complicated enough to keep you guessing.  The characters sharp and delightful. This book is one of a series of Mace Bauer Mysteries written by  Sharp, a former USA Today reporter, who sets her books in the 'sweet tea and barbeque' part of her native state of Florida.

Oh, did I mention the alligator?

The Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son, by Colleen McCullough, is the fourth installment of her Carmine Delmonico mystery series. The novel is a rich, tightly-woven tapestry of colorful characters and intriguing plot. It's a story of blind obsession, and ruthless dominance. Combine this with a 1960's biracial marriage, an exotic Yugoslavian model in a May-December marriage to a wealthy publisher, her diminutive, cretin-like maid who forecasts the future from a bowl of water, blackmail, deceit, unbridled ambition and you have a whopping tale filled with misdeeds and dead bodies.



A ampoule of lethal poison, extracted from the innocent looking blow fish, has gone missing from Dr. Millie Hunter's laboratory.  Hunter, a biochemist at Chubb University is the daughter of Patrick O'Donnell, Holloman's Chief Medical Examiner.  Millie informs her father that the missing vial is a deadly neurotoxin that shuts down the nervous system, which results in a horrific and nearly untraceable death.

Millie, and her husband, biochemist, Jim Hunter, attend a celebration dinner for the reunion of a father and his long-lost son, who is an old friend of the Hunter's.  The son, John Hall, dies before he finishes his last drink. Did the missing poison play a part? It would appear so due to the rapid onset of death. It was also certain that the poison was injected, rather than put in food or drink. How did the murderer accomplish that?

The Hunters are once again among the dinner guests at a Chubb University gala when another victim falls prey to the missing neurotoxin; through injection. Suspicions are flung far and wide but Captain Carmine Delmonico keeps coming back to Dr. Jim Hunter as the chief suspect. The only person, in his opinion, that would have had access, motive and knowledge. But - can he prove it?  Another death by the poison, this time administered in water, and a KGB style shooting of a presumably innocent victim confuses the issue. They are all connected - how?

Word of warning, the ending of The Prodigal Son is emotionally complex, something you may not have seen coming.  Stunning, surprising, culturally shocking, The Prodigal Son is traditional McCullough at her best.

A review copy of this book was received from Simon & Schuster Publishing. Colleen McCullough is the author of The Thorn Birds, Morgan's Run, Antony and Cleopatra, and others.

Highball Exit - A Sherri Travis Mystery

Reading a Sherri Travis novel, by Phyllis Smallman, is like sitting down at a bar for a drink with an old friend and knowing the beer is going to be cold, the peanuts fresh, and the stories spicy!

Sherri can stir up trouble with the skill of any good bartender and Highball Exit is no exception. Only this time, trouble almost gets the best of her. Sherri's pizzazz for fun and adventure fizzles when faced with insurmountable personal danger, financial ruin, and a tottering romance.

Holly Mitchell, a past employee at Sherri's Sunset Bar, is dead. Suicide, according to the police. But, Sherri has other things to worry about, like how she's going to settle three months of past due payments on her bar.  She's hit an all time low and when elderly, ill, Auntie Kay shows up asking for help to find Holly's baby girl, Angel, and waves the green flag of 'money', Sherri can't resist. Aunt Kay convinces her that all she has to do is drive her around so she can ask questions. Things take a nasty turn when Aunt Kay and Sherri encounter the creepy duo of brothers, Cal and Ryan Vachess.  Cal is the perverted owner of Angel Escort Service, his brother, Ryan, a perma-fried speed freak  It gets worse when Ryan develops an appetite for sexy bartenders.

So, why is Cal Vachess stalking Sherri?  And, what does the cop, Danny, know about Holly that he isn't telling? Is a famous singer involved in Holly's death? More importantly, where is the missing baby that only Aunt Kay declares is real?

This book is a little darker, and more intense than others in this series. Scenes of Sherri, alone in the dark in a remote beach house, are not for late night reading unless you like looking over your shoulder.  Highball Exit has a twisting, satisfying plot with an ending that finds Sherri naked on the beach. . . her tormenter closing ground. . . I'm not going to tell you the shocking finale but I think you'll find justice clearly served.

Through a Yellow Wood

Through a Yellow Wood, by Carolyn J. Rose, is a re-visit to the alluring Catskill Mountains and the haunted shore of Hemlock Lake. Dan Stone returns to the charred remains of his family home to rebuild; and to face the ghost of  the boyhood friend who tried to murder him seven months ago. The book carries the reader through an ebb and tide of excruciating memories as it moves among the characters that populated Hemlock Lake. Yet, it has it's own agenda.

Who savagely killed the old man that lived on the mountain ridge? Who shot, execution-style, his kennel of Search & Rescue dogs?  What macabre secret was the murderer hiding in the beautiful, craggy, hills and dales of the Catskill range near the old, deserted campground. 

Dan Stone and his girlfriend, Camille, while trying to get past the tragic history of a year ago, are resurrecting a life together but soon find themselves caught up in the mystery of the ridge.  In the process they become reluctant parents to teenaged, Julie, the daughter of the man who almost killed Dan.

Through A Yellow Wood is a tangled web of raw emotion and strangling fear. There is a madman, a serial killer, afoot in the region of Hemlock Lake.  His targets are young, teenage girls with long, brown hair - just like Julie's.

Carolyn Rose is a writer of rare talent.  Her words take the reader into her world through sight, sound and smell. You walk with her on the mountaintop; you feel the fear, the painful grip of death.

I would recommend that you read the first book, Hemlock Lake, although Through A Yellow Wood is a stand alone tale. By reading the previous book you have a better understanding of the characters and reality of life in the Catskills. 

A Dead Red Oleander

A Dead Red Oleander, by R. P. Dahlke; is both funny, and serious, an altogether good read. In this book, Lalla Bains, an aero-ag pilot (crop duster) seems to find her way into more than a field of pesky bugs. At the opening of A Dead Red Oleander we find Lalla in a sizzling, hot, cotton field, laying underneath her Dad's old pickup, handcuffed to the frame. So, what's up with that? That's what a California State Trooper wants to know.


Backtracking reveals events happening fast and furious, starting with a newly hired pilot, with the unlikely name of Dewey Treat, dying without preamble at Lalla's prenuptial hot dog roast.  Did the wife kill him with a poisonous oleander stick? Why did Mad Dog, the other aero-ag pilot, bring a stranger to that party? And, what did the stranger know about the dead man?

Lalla takes it on herself to find out the secrets that surround the dead Dewey Treat; and the wife who isn't what she seems.  It leads her into a frantic fracas of car wrecks, attempted kidnapping, dead bodies, and explosions. Sharing her harrowing adventures is wedding guest, Cousin Pearlie, a crack pilot with a penchant for romance. Did I mention she carries a gun?  Add an eccentric Texas Granny, a grumpy Dad, his goat, Billy, and his girlfriend Shirley. Mix it up with a Federal agent, and don't forget the bridegroom, Caleb, who just happens to be the county sheriff.  He's not only interested in solving the tangle of who's killing whom, and why, he's struggling to keep Lalla alive long enough to be his bride.

It's safe to say, if you like Janet Evanovich, you'll love R.P. Dahlke.  It's the same breezy, quick action style, with unforgettable characters and a strong, female lead. Only I personally think Lalla Bains has a little more going for her than Stephanie Plum. Just my opinion.

For more about this author and a list of her other books visit - http://rpdahlke.com/

London Calling: A Susanna and the Spy Novel

London Calling by Anna Elliott is the second installment of the Susanna and the Spy Novels. If you are into light Regency Romance, with a little mystery mixed in, then this is the book for you. 

Susanna Ward, in 1809, is engaged to marry Lord James Ravenwood. It's an ideal match and Susanna waits, impatiently, for James to return to her uncle's estate, Rutherford Hall, to complete the wedding plans. She receives, instead, 'two' letters. One from James, postmarked from his estate in Derbyshire, declaring his undying love. The other, from Aunt Sophia, who informs her niece that she has just seen her finance, James, flirting openly with a very beautiful, notorious woman at Almack's in London.

Susanna is not a woman to sit around and stew over what is, or isn't true, and makes a deal with another aunt, Ruth Maryvale, to accompany her to London so she can discover what's amiss.  From the moment they alight in the City perplexing events begin to take place.  Susanna's first glimpse of her betrothed is one of him aiding in a robbery with a band of French rogues. As the plot deepens Susanna and Aunt Ruth find themselves entangled in a nefarious network of spies and scoundrels.

This book is a fun read if you don't mind stretching the imagination.  A single woman, gadding about London unescorted, and in the finery of the day sets about aiding her beloved in his plot to foil foes of the King. Climbing trees, creeping down dirty alleyways, flirting with dangerous men - can it get any better?