Blood, Threat & Fears

Rating:
Summary: Excellent novellas -- Very highly recommended
Review: Avid Press recently released a collection of mysteries featuring four investigators certain to send readers in quest of longer works.

"The Ten-Spot Murders" by Robert L. Iles: The desperate secrets of a salesman come to light when his body's found outside his motel room. Set in Cass County, Ohio, the Sheriff's Department is crippled by a lack of budget and an overabundance of testosterone. Gritty and tense, the triangle formed by traveler, the motel handyman, a part-time prostitute, and the family of a prominent judge will hold the reader's attention riveted.

"Pangs of Prophesy" by Christine Spindler: When April comes to see Inspector Terry, she impresses him: "She was all muted gestures and self-effacing smiles, but she had a mind on the brink of another dimension." All to true, since she has visions of violent and tragic deaths. Inspector Terry is a wonderful creation, always cheering the underdog and even befriending attack cats. Indeed, this novella is startling and skillfully rendered.

"Buyer's Remorse" by Elizabeth Dearl: When the new owner realizes the dilapidated of her bargain, she soon comes to regret her new purchase. While the old house has marvelous carpentry and incredible light for a studio, it also comes complete with its own mystery. Part ghost story and part thriller, this novella will keep readers up past their bedtimes. Believable characterizations, a haunted house, and a precocious and charming ferret create a fascinating and gripping narrative.

"The Santa Switch" by Dan Sontup: Two days before Christmas a Santa is found stabbed to death with scissors in the ladies' room of a shopping mall. The unlikely hero is a security chief with an associate's degree and a background as a New York City police officer. With an unusual cast of characters and a fast paced plot, the merry red of the holiday season carries whole new meaning.

A remarkable collection, BLOOD, THREAT & FEARS is a must read. Each exhibits the powerful writing that makes these authors favorites of mystery fans. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: You'll love them all
Review: I bought the anthology because of the Inspector Terry Novella, "The Pangs of Prophecy" by Christine Spindler (one of my favorite authors), and ended up becoming a fan of the other three authors as well. Iles' Sheriff Okie Bliss and his hilarious sidekick Walker Whitlow have a chilling case to solve. Dearl's wonderful Taylor Madison outwits a ghost. Dan Sontup has created a brilliant new serial character with his unique Matt Ridley, chief of mall security. Spindler shows a lighter side of her gay gentleman Inspector. All in all, an excellent collection with intelligent plots, surprising twists and charming characters.

Rating:
Summary: Best Mystery Book I've Read In Years
Review: I'm giving this book to friends and relatives for Christmas. In one 337-page book are four superb novelettes that should please all mystery-lovers. "Pangs Of Prophecy" was certainly an enjoyable read, an intriguing combination of precognition, rape and murder. "The Ten-Spot Murders" is about a killing in the Ten-Spot Motel. A good, solid mystery. I liked it very much. "The Santa Switch" concerns the death of a shopping mall Santa - death by scissors - and has a very satisfying and unexpected ending. "Buyer's Remorse" (my favorite) introduced two characters I want to get to know better - Taylor Madison and her ferret, Hazel. (Taylor and Hazel are in two other full-length mystery novels, and I'll order them, too.)

Rating:
Summary: Best Mystery Book I've Read In Years
Review: I'm giving this book to friends and relatives for Christmas. In one 337-page book are four superb novelettes that should please all mystery-lovers. "Pangs Of Prophecy" was certainly an enjoyable read, an intriguing combination of precognition, rape and murder. "The Ten-Spot Murders" is about a killing in the Ten-Spot Motel. A good, solid mystery. I liked it very much. "The Santa Switch" concerns the death of a shopping mall Santa - death by scissors - and has a very satisfying and unexpected ending. "Buyer's Remorse" (my favorite) introduced two characters I want to get to know better - Taylor Madison and her ferret, Hazel. (Taylor and Hazel are in two other full-length mystery novels, and I'll order them, too.)

Rating:
Summary: 4 Ways To Kill and Kill Again
Review: It is easy to think of a novella as being a longer short story (with the usual short story limitations) and in this case, that thinking would be appropriate. When reading a novella anthology, one has to understand that character development will be more limited than in the traditional novel or mystery. There simply isn't the time to set up detailed and complex characters due to the restrictions in length a novella places on the work. Therefore, the author has to pack as much character development in his or her work as possible, while setting up the scene, the mystery problem (in this case) and plenty of action to move the story along. It is a difficult task and all four of these authors, with very different themes and writing styles, pull it off wonderfully.

At the same time, it makes reviewing the work rather difficult. One does not want to give away too many of the details and with each novella coming in around 100 pages on average (a couple are a little shorter and conversely a couple are a bit longer) it would be easy to reveal too much. The reviewer also has to take into account his or her particular interests and a couple of these were not exactly what I look for in a novel to read. Having said that, though some of the works were not my thing (as it were) it has to be admitted that those were as well written as the others in the collection, which I did really like.

The collection is opened by the offering from Mr. Robert L. Iles, titled 'The Ten-Spot Murders.' Set in a small town deep in West Texas, the work revolves around a dead man found murdered at the local motel. Instead of being found in his room, he is found behind the building. How he got there and why becomes an intriguing case for Sheriff Okie Bliss and his small department.

'Pangs of Prophecy' by Christine Spindler follows next in the reading order. In this work, April is tormented by the fact that she can see death for those she knows. She knows in excruciating graphic detail how they will die'she just doesn't know when. Trying to prevent a murder she knows is going to happen, she becomes deeply involved in the resulting case when the murder does occur.

The third work is titled 'Buyer's Remorse' by Elizabeth Dearl. Taylor is a writer living out in West Texas and is asked by her friend, Paula, to help her move. Paula has bought an old house and needs help, not only in moving, but restoring the house to livable condition. The problem, beyond the fact that the house is old and in disrepair, is the fact that it might also be haunted.

Rounding off the book is Dan Sontup's work, titled 'the Santa Switch.' While you may have secretly wished death on the mall Santa when he went ahead and promised a toy you know your child could not have in his wildest dreams, in this story, a mall Santa is killed at the mall in a back way hall. Now, Mall Security Chief Matt Ridley has to clean up the problem as well as find out who did it when the Police can't solve the case. At the same time, he has his own internal political problems and a dead Santa does not help things one bit.

In each work, the case is interesting and the approach each writer takes in developing his or her story is tremendously different. With such differences in writing styles, themes, etc., it makes this anthology an interesting and enjoyable read. There is something each reader will like and this is the perfect bag to fling in the tote for a day at the beach.