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My Favorite Books of 2023
One of the things I did in 2023 that really helped me remember what I read was my notecard habit. For everything I watched or read, I wrote down my thoughts on a 4×6 lined index card along with the date. I particularly appreciated the finite space of an index card. Granted, sometimes I’d write a review for a blog and the notecard would be “See blog” but those times were rare. Lots of Comics I ended up reading quite a bit in 2023. Now, one of the things that really helped bump up the total was my decision in the summer to read a comic book per day from…
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It’s a Good Thing the Crooks Are Not Very Smart in The Christmas Thief
Gather ‘round kids and let me tell about something we had back in the day. Here in Houston, there was a store that let you rent audiobooks just like Blockbuster. T’was a great store, especially in the days before digital audiobooks are everywhere. One of the books I listened to decades ago was The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark. What I didn’t know then was that this was the second Christmas novel that Mary and Carol wrote together. What made these books special—other than the mother/daughter relationship—was the crossover aspect of the stories. One of Mary’s series featured lottery winner, Alvirah Meehan, and…
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Want a New Short Story Everyday for the Christmas Season?
We are in December now and the 2023 holiday season has begun. I’ve already been listening to my Christmas albums—always start with Chicago’s three Christmas albums—but made a fun discovery this year: Richard Marx’s “Christmas Spirit.” Boy, is that a fun song, and you really must watch the cameo-filled video. I’ve also started my season’s readings and, for the past past five years, my annual Christmas reading is anchored by an Advent calendar of short stories. The WMG Holiday Spectacular is the brainchild of veteran author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. She wondered what it would be like to have a new short story each day from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.…
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Not All Turkeys Are On The Table in Turkey Trot Murder by Leslie Meier
If it seem like I just reviewed a Leslie Meier book last month, then you are absolutely correct. But the number of Thanksgiving-themed mysteries are rather small, so I read one of Meier’s two helpings. Time Jumps and an Aging Protagonist A more logical reader might read each book in a long-running series in order, but Turkey Trot Murder (2017) was the only audiobook available at the library. It is Meier’s 24th (out of 30 by next year). As a result, I had a bit of whiplash when I landed back in Tinker’s Cove, Maine, and our heroine, Lucy Stone. She’s now a full-time report for the local weekly, but…
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What’s Scary Is If You Don’t Read Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier
As I wrote last October, if there’s a holiday and you want to read a mystery featuring that holiday, Leslie Meier has you covered. Starting in 1991, Meier has written 36 mysteries starring Lucy Stone, a mom, wife, and citizen of Tinker’s Cove, Maine. The first book I read, Back to School Murder (the 4th overall), Lucy fills in at the local newspaper and that’s what gets the crime on her radar. Trick or Treat Murder (1996) is the third book, but first of her Halloween stories and I reckoned I might as well start there. It’s Almost All a Domestic Story… A series is nothing if you don’t like…
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When Tragedy Struck, Chicago Bounced Back and Delivered a Key Album: Hot Streets at 45
Now what?That must have been the thoughts of the members of the band Chicago after fellow founding member Terry Kath’s untimely death in January 1978. The previous year, they had released their eleventh album and conducted yet another successful tour. Their last show—the last time Kath performed in public—was 1 December 1977 and they had already decided to move in a different direction by parting ways with James William Guercio, their producer and manager since 1969. The year 1978 was going to be a time of change and transition anyway. Soon after Kath’s death and funeral, the band had to wonder if they should move on as a band or…
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New Nightwing Creators Remember Comics Can Be Fun Yet Deep
That image. A single splash page is all it took for me to put the current Nightwing run over at DC Comics on my radar. And oh boy am I glad I did. A fellow writer posted it on Facebook about a month ago and I was captivated by the art, the simultaneous classic and modern style. The artist is Bruno Redondo and he has teamed up with writer Tom Taylor to have a run at Nightwing. And what a run (so far). Comics Are Not Supposed To Make You Cry…Right? Luckily, my local library has the first three volumes of the Taylor/Redondo Nightwing books and I eagerly checked them…
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The Dog Isn’t Who He Really Is In Play Dead by David Rosenfelt
Who doesn’t love comfort food? There’s a reason why we call pumpkin spice lattes, chocolate chip cookies, queso, ice cream, or McDonald’s French fries comfort food. When we eat these foods, we are comforted, usually by a past memory that soothes some current problem. Everyone loves and needs comfort food from time to time. So when I call the Andy Carpenter novels by David Rosenfelt comfort reading, I am not dogging them (yes, pun intended). I love them, but my ADHD reading style usually prevents me from reading a lot by the same author back to back to back. When the clock turned to “fall” post Labor Day, I had…
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The 1970s Come Alive in the Highly Entertaining Lowdown Road
Look at that cover. Hard Case Crime might be the only publisher in this century who remembers how great painted covers used to be. This cover looks like a long-lost book you’d have found on the paperback spinner rack at the 7-Eleven in 1975 as you clutched a Slurpee in your hand, your favorite hero painted on the white, plastic cup. Or it’s the novelization to a 1970s movie you’d see at the drive-in. The cover was pretty much all I needed to see to know this was a book I wanted to read. The plot was just icing on the cake. Let me see if I can boil it…
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The Saturday Night Ghost Club and the Nature of Memory
Sometimes the perfect arrives at the best possible time. I love summer. I love the heat (yeah, really). I love rolling down the windows of my car and blasting loud music (well, I do that all year round…). I love the movies that are associated with summer.But most of all, I love the looser vibe. By the end of summer, however, while I may not be ready to shift into an autumnal mindset, it approaches nonetheless. I always take stock of seasons as they end, and I was in that mood during the last week of summer 2023 as I started to listen to Craig Davidson’s Saturday Night Ghost Club.…