Sometimes an especially compelling story can be told in a novel or movie when pretty much all of the characters are morally irredeemable. We all love a literary or cinematic hero for whom we can root, even if it can be said that they are anti-heroes. But can we stay engrossed in such tales if…

Charles Salzberg is a man of words. As an acclaimed novelist, journalist, and writing instructor, he has been selling, and shaping, stories for decades. His five-book series featuring Henry Swann was nominated for a Shamus Award (for Best First PI Novel for Swann’s Last Song), while his standalone novel, Second Story Man, won the Beverly…

1 There’s a certain lazy delight to be had from a sunset in Enigma, Georgia. Thin clouds drifted in the pale winter sky. A bird, only one, was singing in a bare sycamore tree near the gazebo where I was sitting. The tree had turned blue, and I couldn’t quite understand that. All the sky…

Ali Azeem comes from money, but not the kind of family money you can really compare to the immense wealth of global real estate tycoon Abbas Khan. When Abbas and his wife approach Ali’s parents about potentially arranging Ali’s marriage to their younger daughter Maryam, Ali decides to just grin and bear it, as he’s…

I’m not even that much of a fan of late-night comedy shows, but this mystery novel, about a variety program modeled on Saturday Night Live, had me in a total chokehold from start to finish. Presented as a collection of documents – interview transcripts, journal entries and magazine articles among them – this highly absorbing…

Former Hollywood script writer Dee Stern is now part owner, with her ex-husband and still best friend Jeff Cornetta, of the family-friendly Golden Motel located in the tiny hamlet of Foundgold, California. Like most of the other locals, they’re looking forward to the festivities celebrating the birthday of Angus Sprockles, and not just because it…

Annie Gore, the Appalachian-born and Louisville-based Private investigator at the heart of The Witch’s Orchard and Brimstone Hollow, is described by readers with one word more than any other: gritty. And it’s true. She’s resolute and plucky. She eats like a horse, throws a mean punch, habitually gets dressed out of the laundry basket, and…

Prologue July 26, 1953 Short Creek, Arizona Before dawn, the earth was still quiet, except for the soft breathing of a few sleepers, the creaking of wooden porches, and somewhere the low hum of hymns. Outside the schoolhouse, children played, bare feet on dirt, a dog barking, a rooster crowing somewhere beyond the fences. Inside,…

1: Night in the Park The SUV was traveling so fast it bounced when the driver stood on the brakes. Black, big, eight-seater with a grille between the front and rear seats. The grille signaled law enforcement. No logos on the door panels meant federal. The people living in the park who saw it arrive…

From the start, we know who was murdered and by whom.  Ted and his wife Jill, along with Ted’s brother Greg, sail out to sea on a “brisk” September day, leaving New York City “far behind.” Ted and Greg grew up “messing about on boats”; they’re so confident in their skills that neither wears a…