The Case of the Dotty Dowager, by Cathy Ace, Severn House, July 2015
Bestselling author Cathy Ace joins us in this episode of CrimeFiction.FM to discuss her new book, the first in her new WISE Enquiries Agency Mystery series, THE CASE OF THE DOTTY DOWAGER
Show Notes
Cathy describes the WISE Enquiries Agency as “Quintessentially British.”
Cathy describes some of the differences between this series and her Cait Morgan series.
The setting for the stately mansion used on the cover for the Cathy’s novel is in Hay-on-Wye in Wales, the home of the Hay literary festival. As she puts it during the interview, “Book lovers love books about book lovers.”
Gabby and Poppy, Cathy’s two chocolate labs, have their own Twitter account.
Cathy shares her thoughts on the large number of great Canadian crime writers.
From the Publisher:
Meet the Women of the WISE Enquiries Agency. The first in a new series.
Henry Twyst, eighteenth Duke of Chellingworth, is convinced his mother is losing her marbles. She claims to have seen a corpse on the dining-room floor, but all she has to prove it is a bloodied bobble hat.
Worried enough to retain the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency – one is Welsh, one Irish, one Scottish and one English – Henry wants the strange matter explained away. But the truth of what happened at the Chellingworth Estate, set in the rolling Welsh countryside near the quaint village of Anwen by Wye, is more complex, dangerous, and deadly, than anyone could have foreseen . . .
Tim Hall joins us in this episode of CrimeFiction.FM to discuss the second book in his Bert Shambles Mystery series, TIE DIED.
Show Notes
Tim Describes his series protagonist, Bert Shambles.
A brief car guy discussion of the classic car that Burt drives in the series.
DEAD STOCK, the first book in Tim’s series, was taught in a crime fiction book at a college by a professor who admired Tim’s work.
Tim explains why he chose such a non-traditional lead for his new adult cozy series.
From the Publisher
Bert Shambles is still recovering from the injuries he sustained in his first adventure when he is recognized at the local library by a lovely hippie named Scarlet. She hires Bert to help dispose of her deceased father’s memorabilia and takes him to a music festival at a local park, where they witness the tragic electrocution of the lead singer, who is an old friend of Scarlet’s. Bert soon finds himself entangled in a plot to steal a rare guitar, accidentally drugged with a powerful psychedelic, and dumped by his girlfriend and soul mate, Aria–until a second rock musician is found dead, and the clues all point to him as the prime suspect.
Storme Warning by W.L. Ripley Brash Books, Feb 2015
W.L. Ripley joins us in this episode to discuss STORME WARNING, the fourth book in his acclaimed Wyatt Storme series.
Show Notes
Wyatt Storme is a reclusive ex-NFL football player with a deadly best friend, Chick Easton.
STORME WARNING is the 4th Wyatt Storme book and the first three, all originally released in hardcover, will be re-released in digital formats in 3-month increments beginning in May. This will lead up to the 5th in the series, scheduled for release early next year.
Rip describes Wyatt’s buddy Chick Easton as a “punctuation mark with legs.”
Rip worked in education for 37 years and now has significantly more time for writing.
A brief discussion of some of Rip’s favorite crime fiction authors.
From the Publisher
Vietnam vet and former Dallas Cowboys player Wyatt Storme just wants to be left alone in his remote Ozarks cabin – but violence and trouble have a knack for finding him. And when it does, he doesn’t back down. This time, Chick Easton, a hard-drinking, shockingly lethal ex-CIA agent, asks his buddy Storme for back-up when he’s hired by the director of a big budget western to protect a bad-boy movie star who is getting well-deserved death threats. There’s also an annoying catch: the director wants to shoot the star’s new western on Storme’s land. Storme reluctantly agrees to it all, unaware that a sociopathic mob enforcer that he once put in traction, and in prison, is on his way and gunning for revenge.
Sneak Thief by C.A. Newsome, Two Pup Press, April 2015
C.A. Newsome joins us in this episode of CrimeFiction.FM to discuss the third book in her Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries, SNEAK THIEF.
Show Notes
Carol’s mornings at a dog park in Cincinnati, Ohio for the past dozen years are the inspiration for her mystery series.
Lia Anderson, the series heroine, is a painter and a dog lover, as is Carol.
Carol’s first three books in the series have over 900 reviews on Amazon with an average star rating of 4.6 out of 5.
Carol gives her “authors overview” of SNEAK THIEF
From the Publisher:
When a Dog Park newbie is murdered, starving artist Lia Anderson not only winds up with the woman’s kleptomaniac beagle, she also inherits her stalker. On the outs with her beau, Detective Peter Dourson, and with the police on the wrong track, Lia will have to rely on herself and her friends to keep her alive.
Right the Wrong by Diana Deverell Sorrel Press, March 2015
Author Diana Deverell joins us in this episode of CrimeFiction.FM to discuss her new book, the second in her fascinating Nora Dockson Mystery series, RIGHT THE WRONG.
Show Notes
Diana shares the story behind her heroine, Nora Dockson, who became an attorney following her release from prison.
Nora’s work involved handling the appeals process for prisoners who may have been wrongfully convicted.
Nora’s time in RIGHT THE WRONG is spent on two cases that are based on actual events.
My attempt to pronounce the city in Denmark where Diana lives falls woefully short.
From the Publisher:
Released from an Oregon prison at age twenty-two, Nora Dockson put her bad-girl past behind her and got a law degree. Now, a lawyer with Spokane’s Legal Resource Center, she works only for clients who are already behind bars.
Nora’s fighting to free two men, each sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. She backtracks through their cases, searching for clues to the real killers.
But a key eyewitness, jailed as an accessory to one murder, claims she’s “blocking” critical crime scene memories. A prosecutor “doesn’t remember” to give Nora crucial information that might lead to her client’s exoneration. An interrogator “forgets” what he said to suspects after he turned the recorder off. Incompetent lab techs in two states misread, contaminate, and destroy forensic evidence.
A broken criminal justice system lets them tell their lies. To save an innocent man, Nora has to break the rules. She can’t let either wrongful conviction stand. Her mission is the exoneration of both clients.
Nora goes back to the women’s prison to question eyewitness Lisa Fiedler again. Lisa confessed that she held the older woman down while her male accomplice raped and then smothered the victim. Lisa’s testimony convicted a Legal Resource Center client.
Nora’s shaken by Lisa’s eerie inability to describe the crime in detail. Is it possible that Lisa has totally repressed memories and cannot recover them fifteen years after the murder? Nora combs through transcripts of suspect interviews. She pores over court decisions. She’s searching for the connection between criminal interrogation and repressed memories. Will she find the link in time to use it?
On a different track, Nora enlists a Portland journalist to put pressure on obstinate prosecutors and by-the-book judges. The journalist showcases Nora in stories that highlight the unfairness of her battle. He passes on a tip about slipshod crime lab practices that may relate to one of her cases.
She’s heading in a promising direction. Maybe there’s a way to untangle the web of deception trapping her clients.
Then, Nora’s past roars into her present. Suddenly, she’s facing a tougher challenge: Can she dodge the Devil this time?
Shocked, her friends step up—familiar faces to readers of Help Me Nora, the first book in this series. Nora’s cool and elegant colleague Channing Palmer shatters her ice queen image with blistering rage.
Channing’s angriest at Winnie Yates, Nora’s former cellmate. Winnie’s been out of prison only ninety days when she descends on Spokane and moves in with Nora. The ex-cellie is eager to make up for sixteen years in prison but her street smarts are rusty. Winnie doesn’t see disaster coming.
Winnie and Channing send an SOS to Nora’s lover, Washington State Trooper Lieutenant Kent Harper. The lawman is fighting for professional survival. Doing favors for a defense attorney is forbidden. To protect Nora, will Kent be forced to risk his future as a cop?
In this captivating legal thriller, a fiery young woman battles the inherent inhumanity of a criminal justice system where an innocent man fighting a wrongful conviction faces impossible odds in his struggle for exoneration.
Acclaimed for her novels of international suspense, Diana Deverell brings her skill at spinning a page-turning thriller to this complex and many-layered legal drama that stylishly blends the traditions of John Grisham and Lisa Scottoline.
Right the Wrong vividly depicts a woman with a street-fighter’s heart, full of hope and compassion, and yearning to find mercy.
The Debtor Class by Ivan G. Goldman The Permanent Press, May 2015
New York Times bestselling author Ivan G. Goldman joins us in this episode of CrimeFiction.FM to discuss his brilliant new book, THE DEBTOR CLASS.
Show Notes
Ivan shares his overview of THE DEBTOR CLASS
The book is centered around a collection agency, which sounds dreary but isn’t. Ivan calls the collection agency business a “front row seat to the American opera.”
Ivan explains the reason for the blue skin color of the police officer on the cover. Amazingly enough, this is a real thing and there are blue people out there.
Ivan enjoys writing about people under pressure, which he believes makes them more interesting.
Ivan is a great admirer of Joseph Heller, of Catch 22 fame.
From the Publisher:
Fresh from prison, young Bento stumbles into a job at a quirky collection agency, joining an unconventional crew that works out of a former warehouse where bats and pigeons roost in the rafters. Collectors scavenge among hammered victims of an economy that never seems to work for them. Debtors include patsies, cheats, liars, bewildered shopaholics, and furiously dedicated deadbeats. All bought the American dream but couldn’t pay the price.
“Bill collectors are like priests,” says a crew member. “You can tell me anything.”
Battered “schmoes” do just that, sharing secrets with collector-confessors who in some cases only recently exited the list of shame themselves.
A blue-skinned survivalist cop dreams of acceptance as he schemes to steal drug money; a young woman with a masters in library science waves to drivers from inside a chicken costume; a world-renowned author is picked clean by an ex-girlfriend; an Air Force navigator loses control as he transports corpses of the fallen back to the States; and lovers find each other at the other end of a collection call.
Meanwhile Bento struggles to elude a cell that’s awaited him all along. As their paths intersects, characters’ lives throb with humor, suspense, and the intensity that flows from human beings under relentless pressure.
Meet the Women of the WISE Enquiries Agency. The first in a new series.
