Book Review: THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT by Jim Nesbitt
THE DEAD CERTAIN DOUBT is a noir gem, peppered with American muscle cars, a hard-drinking hero, and universal life lessons. Ed Earl Burch is a Dallas private eye of a certain age. With an angel on one shoulder and the devil everywhere else, he’s too young to retire,...
New Release! BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
New release! Today is release day for BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB, the second book in the Prohibition-era historical thriller series. Grab a seat at the bar. Big things are happening. Beer and Blackmail Lido, New York. The year is 1926, Prohibition is in full...
Book Review: Family Secrets Come with the House in SQUATTER’S RIGHTS
In SQUATTER’S RIGHTS by Cheril Thomas, compelling family secrets come with the house. The first book in the Eastern Shores Mysteries introduces us to attorney Grace Reagan, who just bought the huge money pit on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore where her mother grew up....
The 3 Golden Rules of Lying and Deception
You’ve been granted a tour of the original Central Intelligence Agency headquarters building outside Washington, DC. Pass the statue of Nathan Hale as you walk through the big glass doors of the front entrance. Try not to gawk. Once inside, the Great Seal stretches...
Book review: THE MONOGRAM MURDERS by Sophie Hannah
I love reading a good mystery as much as I love writing them! Here's what I read this week. A new Hercule Poirot mystery Mystery fans can’t get enough of Agatha Christie’s fussy Belgian detective (cue Sir Kenneth Branagh, please!) and THE MONOGRAM MURDERS shows why....
Release Update and Excerpt: Blackmail at the Galliano Club
Blackmail BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB is slated for release on 16 February 2023! The Galliano Club historical fiction thrillers take place in 1926, in a fictional upstate New York city modeled on my hometown of Rome, New York. BLACKMAIL is the second book in the...
Book Review: SWEETLAND by Dareth Pray
Debut thriller SWEETLAND takes off like a rocket and never loses speed. Author Dareth Pray is one to watch! Erin Stark is a new kind of female thriller heroine, giving fictional male colleagues like James Reece (THE TERMINAL LIST) and Jack Reacher (BETTER OFF DEAD) a...
Best Prohibition-era Reading
A tall frosty glass of Prohibition, ballplayers and mobsters? I drank up a dozen books while researching 1926 for the Galliano Club thriller series. Now that MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB has hit your favorite bookstore, I highly recommend the following: SCARFACE AND...
New Release! MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB
New release MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB is now available in Kindle and paperback editions. The first novel in the Galliano Club thriller series debuted in the Number 2 spot on Amazon’s Italian Literature category. Thank you to so many early readers! Join bootlegger...
Release Dates for the Galliano Club series
Release dates! All three full-length novels in the Prohibition-era Galliano Club series are scheduled for release: 20 October 2022: MURDER AT THE GALLIANO CLUB 16 February 2023: BLACKMAIL AT THE GALLIANO CLUB 30 March 2023: REVENGE AT THE GALLIANO CLUB...
Arrests made in the next chapter of 43 MISSING
Mexico’s Truth Commission investigating the mass disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College may finally solve the 8 year old crime that inspired the Detective Emilia Cruz novel 43 MISSING. As more details are uncovered, it appears that...
Killer Nashville’s success story
There is a success story behind the Killer Nashville International Mystery Writer’s Conference. The weekend among my fellow writers always inspires and recharges. This was my 4th time attending. The schedule is geared to help attendees connect with other authors as...
Book Review: THE GUILTY DIE TWICE by Don Hartshorn
THE GUILTY DIE TWICE offers a memorable cast of characters, two pivotal crimes, lots of deliciously grubby political machinations, and both sides of the death penalty argument. The writing is both fluid and precise, without (thankfully) lots of legal jargon. The...
Collaboration Opportunity for Food Bloggers
Are you a food blogger? Love to cook Italian? Are you looking for a fresh, fun collaboration opportunity? The Galliano Club series of historical thriller books will be released this coming Fall 2022. The hunt is on for Italian-loving food bloggers and Instagram...
Researching Prohibition at the West End Brewery #bestjobever
Researching the 1920’s for the Galliano Club books naturally means I have to research beer. Yes, beer. Notably beer in upstate New York, the setting for the Galliano Club series. Beer is a hot commodity in 1926. Prohibition forbids it. The Galliano Club wants it....
Book Review: A NEAPOLITAN INTRIGUE by Kate McVaugh
Past and present collide in this clever thriller that moves between present-day Naples, Italy, and Berkeley, California in 1969. A NEAPOLITAN INTRIGUE deals with serious topics with a smooth prose and a dab of humor at the right moments. I read it in one day, and...
Could Gas Prices Make You a Victim of Fuel Thieves?
A month ago, the catalytic converter was hacked out of my daughter’s car as it was parked on a street in Chicago. Apparently, thieves troll at night for older cars with catalytic converters because the precious metals inside--palladium, rhodium, and platinum—now fetch...
Spying on Elon Musk?
Elon Musk hardly needs an introduction these days, but here goes. He’s the richest man in the world, has a droll sense of humor, is a naturalized US citizen (born in South Africa) and has 7 children. Founder of blazing-into-the-future companies Tesla and SpaceX, on 30...
President Trump vs Mexican drug cartel labs
Mark Esper has written about his stint as secretary of defense during the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration in A SACRED OATH. Before the book came out this month, excerpts published in the New York Times revealed that President Trump, frustrated by...
How a Real Cliff Diver Tames Her Fears
Ellie Smart is a professional cliff diver, but not an adrenaline junkie. Riiiight. A native of Missouri and former collegiate diver at UC Berkeley, with a Masters degree in sports and exercise science, Smart is the only American woman with a permanent billet on the...
Book Review: A PALE HORSE by Charles Todd
I’ve been gobbling up the Inspector Ian Rutledge historical mystery series by Charles Todd and A PALE HORSE is a prime example of what makes this post-WWI series so irresistible. You get a travelogue of Great Britain, layers of plot complexity, and a flawed hero who...
At least you didn’t fall into a narco sinkhole
Imagine taking a nap on your sofa one afternoon, only to be awakened when the floor collapses, pitching you into a sinkhole. But it’s not a true sinkhole, it’s a tunnel built by drug cartel smugglers that runs under your house. This happened last week to a man in...
The Best Thrillers set in Exotic Locations
I was recently invited to curate a page on Shepherd, a new book discovery website. Warning, this site can easily become your new favorite rabbit hole. Authors are invited to introduce their book at the beginning of a showcase of books similar in genre or theme. I...
Book Review: Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg
I love Goldberg’s Ian Ludlow series, starting with the ridiculously wonderful KILLER THRILLER, in which a nerdy writer repeatedly saves the world, but I was willing to go along for a more serious ride in BONE CANYON. A traditional police procedural, BONE CANYON...
Book Review: BACK SIDE OF A BLUE MOON by Caleb Pirtle III
I’ve been roaming Amazon, looking for historical fiction set in the blue collar world of the 1920’s and 30’s and won the prize when I discovered BACK SIDE OF A BLUE MOON, the first book in Caleb Pirtle’s Boomtown Saga trilogy. Part Music Man, part Grapes of Wrath,...
New Release! Road to the Galliano Club
ROAD TO THE GALLIANO CLUB, prequel to the Galliano Club historical thriller series, is available now in Kindle and paperback formats. The Galliano Club historical thriller series has been in the works for over a year, with excerpts doled out in the Mystery Ahead...
Book Review: COMMAND AND CONTROL by David Bruns and J.R. Olson
I was already a fan of this author duo’s espionage thrillers but COMMAND and CONTROL by David Bruns and J.R. Olson ratchets up the intensity to truly epic levels. Buckle up, because this a fast-paced thrill ride through an ocean churning with conflict, tech wizardry,...
Are you ready for the Mystery Ahead?
Sign up for the Mystery Ahead newsletter and get the ultimate Detective Emilia Cruz Starter Library.
