Tourist Trap by Julie Smith (1986) Mysterious Press
Rebecca Schwartz, native San Franciscan and lawyer, must prove the innocence of a former cable car driver accused of multiple murders.
I am a writer of poetry and fiction and an avid reader. Here, I think 'out-loud' about books, movies, stories, writing and other fictions.
I lost the whole site at one point and am rebuilding old posts from my backups.
Night Broken by Patricia Briggs (2014) Ace Books
Mercy Thompson, the walker who shifts into a coyote finds herself in a bind. Her husband, the Alpha Wolf in a werewolf pack, gets an urgent call from his ex - she's being hunted by a man she dated and he is killing people trying to get to her. Of course, he's not human.
Brief Cases by Jim Butcher (2018) Ace
The Dresden files - previously uncollected short stories - Bigfoot's son, and other character points of view. Like reading a Dresden story on speed dating.
- A Fistful of Warlocks
- B is for Bigfoot
- AAAA Wizardry
- I was a Teenage Bigfoot
- Curses
- Even Hand
- Bigfoot on Campus
- Bombshells
- Cold Case
- Jury Duty
- Day One
- Zoo Day
Pagan Babies by Elmore Leonard (2000) Delacorte Press
Father Terry Dunn isn't really a priest. But no one seems to know that. He left for missionary work in Africa shortly after the other two guys in an illegal cigarette trafficking scheme blamed him for everything when all he did was drive the truck. Now, five years later, with his uncle, an actual priest he was visiting has died and he was saying mass in place of the old man, when the Hutu's raided the church and slaughtered the Tutsi congregation, he comes back to America, showing pictures of the starving pagan babies to raise money.
The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz (2017) Bantam
Jane Hawk was an FBI agent married to a Full Colonel with a happy life and a son they adored. Inexplicably one day her husband goes to get something in their bedroom and kills himself. When she begins to investigate a suspicious rise in unexplained suicides, she gets a threatening phone call. So she goes underground, first placing her child in the home of a couple who are already off the grid, then she starts hunting these people who are finding a way to control people and convince them to kill themselves.
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (2013) Scribner
A ballerina is intentionally injured by a competitor and wreaks her revenge. Then she is offered a way to keep her mother in their apartment by becoming a spy. She is sent to Sparrow school, where she is trained to seduce foreign diplomats so they can be blackmailed to give up state secrets.
Black Wing by Connie Suttle (2018) SubtleDemon Publishing
Quin becomes embroiled in intrigue and love. The Avii commander, the Elf King, her protectors, and those she heals and saves - all want to be her lover. But foremost in her mind is to find and kill the being who blew-up the world where she was raised.
Finder by Connie Suttle (2018) SubtleDemon Publishing
A little unexplained orphan girl lives in the pantry of a King's kitchen where she helps but does not speak. This is the adventure of a girl with unexplained abilities to find anything and that's just one of the things she can do in a vicious world of political intrigue.
Locked Rooms by Laurie R King (2005) Bantam
Mary Russel and Sherlock Holmes, her husband, visit her family's home in San Francisco so she can settle some of the estate. She has nightmares that include a locked room that she knows is there. She has to confront her past, the earthquake, the accident that killed her parents and brother and the lodge her father and his friend built.
The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz (2016) Dutton
Told in tales like Chaucer, a greyhound saves the life of a little baby, but her owners think she slew the baby and kill her. When they find the snake and the live baby, they bury the dog in the forest and mark the grave. Soon the dog is treated like a local saint. But the church is suspicious of such behavior and send out an inquisitor to stamp out such belief. When the girl is about ten, she visits the grave and the dog is sitting on top waiting for her. In the meantime, in a Jewish village, some teenage boys set the village on fire and one mother kicks a hole in the back of her mud hut and tells her boy to run and meet up with her in Saint Denis. At the same time a very large boy, one whose father was a lord and mother was an African Muslim, is told the monastery can no longer afford to feed him and sends him to Saint Denis. A group of knights come to the little girls village to take her and the dog away for trial in Saint Denis. And the adventure begins - all stories told in an inn.
Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard (1988) Arbor House
An officer in Detroit, assigned to the bomb squad, asks for a transfer to satisfy his girlfriend. He ends-up in sex crimes, she kicks him out, which gets him suspended since he doesn't have an address in Detroit. In the meantime, a man and a woman who used to know each other in the old, protest movement days, conspire to con someone they knew who in inherited millions by scaring him with bombs. Bombs kill people and our ex-cop hopes to catch the killers and get his job back.