Reviews | CW Hawes

The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma Review

Esther Williams is missing. Has been for months. Now her dog is stolen right in front of Caroline McCluskey, Esther’s friend and neighbor.

Caroline decides she has to do something. The police aren’t getting anywhere, and somebody needs to find Esther.

So begins The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma by Linda Pirtle. The 10th book in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

This year 10 authors continue to tell us about the mayhem, the shenanigans, the murders, and the excitement of small-town living.

Join us for the ride! The Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles at Amazon.

So what does Caroline, our friendly librarian, do to find her friend? She calls together the Friends of the Round Table: her buddies Magnolia Nadine and Daphne.

The trio start gathering clues and paying attention to gossip. And then things start happening. Heads get whacked. Bullets are flying. And bodies are falling.

Will the Friends of the Round Table be able to solve the problem of their missing friend? Or will they end up as numbers in the body count?

The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma is an uncozy, cozy mystery. It’s not all tea and crumpets, or coffee and doughnuts in this installment of the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

While keeping the feel of a cozy mystery, Linda Pirtle has infused plenty of thriller elements into her book. The result is an intriguing and exciting hybrid of thrills and spills, along with warmth and love, and plenty of sleuthing.

The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma, Book 10 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series, brought to you by The Underground Authors. Available at Amazon.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

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Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

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Born and Bred Texan Review

2022 closes with the publication of the 9th book in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series: Born and Bred Texan by Jinx Schwartz.

Ms Schwartz poses the question: can we ever truly return home? And she answers the question by giving us the delightful story of Blue Bonet.

Blue returns home to Magnolia Bluff, after an absence of many years, to take possession of the home and land left to her by her grandmother.

A widow, who’s not sure what she wants to do with her life now that she’s single and back home, Blue sets out to first modernize the old house and rejuvenate the surrounding land.

One day, while out exploring the back forty, she discovers a body in an old shack. Then it’s determined the man was murdered. And after that, bones begin popping out of the ground due to a freeze.

All of the above is going on while Blue is attempting to make a new life for herself in Magnolia Bluff, and getting re-acquainted with old friends.

Ms Schwartz’s style is as easygoing as small town life and is laced with plenty of humor and a bit of suspense.

If you’re a fan of happy endings, then Born and Bred Texan is definitely for you.

The book is available from Amazon. As is the entire Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series.

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles at Amazon.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles Update, Part 2

In my previous post, I talked about the first 3 books in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series.

In this post, I want to continue from where I left off and present to you Books 4 through 6 in this amazing series. And here they are!

You Won’t Know How… Or When

I love the clerical sleuth genre. There’s something about a man or woman of faith matching wits with a murderer. That combination elevates the moral nature of the detective story.

James Callan’s Father Frank has never been to the Texas Hill Country and hasn’t had a vacation in 4 years. When he decides to visit his friend, Father Lee, in Magnolia Bluff, that’s when the fun begins.

Here’s what one reader thought:

…an exciting, well plotted mystery. Father Frank takes a vacation to Magnolia Bluff and finds himself hearing confessions for his friend.

Bound not to reveal anything he has learned in the confessional, Father Frank has to find a way to stop the potential killer and save his friend’s life – some vacation!

I was fascinated, as well as intrigued and engaged, watching Father Frank stay true to his vows while being determined to save both his friend and the potential killer.

The Flower Enigma

A techno-thriller in Magnolia Bluff? Well, why not? Our favorite town is connected to the internet. And is not immune to other upsets to rural tranquility. Breakfield and Burkey take those two facts and spin us a suspense-filled yarn.

A review from Amazon that captures what this installment in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles is all about:

JJ and Jo are finally taking a much-needed vacation and choose a small Texas town to decompress and enjoy stepping back from their fast-paced lives.

Jo is a celebrated fashion model, and JJ spends his days bringing down cybercriminals. No chance of having to deal with publicity or technology hacks at the quaint bed and breakfast in Magnolia Bluff.

And yet, when they arrive, JJ is immediately sucked into helping a group of ladies who are under a cyber attack meant to prevent their daily podcasts from being streamed.

From that starting point, the plot thickens and gets more and more complex. The young lovers willingly sacrifice their vacation not only to save the ladies’ podcasts but also to help break up a human trafficking ring.

The mystery surrounding the newest resident of Magnolia Bluff, who erected an eight-foot wall around his ranch, deepens with each page of the book.

The characters in this story are believable. Lily, the owner of the B&B, became one of my favorites. She caters to her customers but stands her ground when threatened.

I love the small-town setting where everyone knows everyone. Having lived in a small town for many years, I related to the setting. I enjoyed how the authors added a unique Texas flair to the story through the cuisine and descriptive settings.

The Shine From A Girl In The Lake

Richard Schwindt is one of my favorite authors. In fact, I think he is one of the finest storytellers spinning yarns today.

His books are highly imaginative. Poignant. Often hilariously funny. His prose is imbued with a sense of place. He makes you feel you are there.

And all those elements come together to make The Shine from a Girl in the Lake one heck of a mystery-thriller.

Dr. Michael Kurelek teaches psychology at Burnet College in Magnolia Bluff. He also has his own private practice. He’s a man with a past looking for a new start in the small Texas town. Then one of his patients is found dead. In Burnet Reservoir.

When another patient ends up in the lake, Kurelek is driven to find the real killer before the police decide they are convinced he did it. The game is afoot. And it is a suspense-filled game of hunter and hunted. The ending had me biting my nails. Seriously.

The Shine from a Girl in the Lake is the perfect blending of classic whodunit and serial killer thriller. A fabulous book from the pen of one of the most imaginative writers working today.

There you have it: three more fabulous books set in beautiful Magnolia Bluff. You can get them and the rest of the series on Amazon.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Father Frank to the Rescue

I love the clerical sleuth genre, which is actually a sub-genre of the amateur detective genre.

There’s something about a man or woman of faith matching wits with a murderer. That combination elevates the moral nature of the story.

Philip Grosset of the Clerical Detective website has identified 376 clerical detectives. That’s an awful lot of men and women of the cloth bringing criminals to justice. A clear case of faith in action.

Father Frank first appeared in the book Cleansed by Fire, published in 2012.

You Won’t Know How… Or When, Book 4 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles, is also the latest Father Frank mystery. And it’s a good one.

Father Frank has never been to the Texas Hill Country and hasn’t had a vacation in 4 years. His friend from seminary, Father Lee, is the priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Magnolia Bluff, that idyllic little town on the shore of Burnet Reservoir. So Father Frank decides to pay his friend a visit and do a little sight seeing.

When Father Frank arrives, Father Lee has to attend to an emergency and Father Frank volunteers to do confession for him. And that’s when the fun begins.

Confessions are sacred. Their content cannot be divulged. So what do you do when someone tells you they’re going to kill you? You won’t know how, or when. But they are going to get you.

Then it hits you — the “confession” wasn’t meant for you, but for your friend. And you can’t tell him he’s a marked man. You can’t break the seal of the confessional.

That is Father Frank’s dilemma. And it’s a very difficult one. It turns his holiday into a hunt for a man determined to kill his friend.

In the course of his investigation, he befriends Rev. Ember Cole, the pastor of the Methodist Church, and Harry Thurgood, owner of the Really Good Wood-Fired Coffee Shop, and takes a special interest in their relationship, offering Ember some “fatherly” advice. That gave the story a tender and personal touch.

The book’s storyline is fairly straight-forward. What I enjoyed most was seeing Father Frank working out his faith to achieve tangible and rewarding good works.

Callan doesn’t wield a heavy club when it comes to his faith. His approach is rather matter of fact. An approach that works well for me. An approach that makes the Christian faith accessible and desirable.

You Won’t Know How… Or When is another fabulous entry in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series, as well as a worthy addition to the Father Frank series. Two birds with one stone.

Do you like puzzles? Or Wordle? Or just figuring out the instructions on how to put together the table you just bought?

If you do, pick up a copy of this suspense-filled whodunit and see if you can figure out how it will all end. It’s on pre-order at Amazon.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Not Alone

This past Friday morning, I was checking Author Central for new reviews and was surprised to see the most complementary review by Mark Scott Piper:

Great Characters, a Complex Plot, and Plenty of Surprises

But Jesus Never Wept is the third book in CW Hawes’s Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries series. You don’t need to have read the first two to understand the characters and their steady and unsteady relationships. This one is a good read all on its own.

The title implies the focus of the novel may be about exploring the basic tenants of Christianity, but it’s not. Yes, there is an ongoing dialogue between the characters about whether Jesus ever existed in physical form, but this issue doesn’t carry the novel. In fact, the question of faith works more as a metaphor for examining and trying to understand what’s real and what’s not with the gory crimes and relentless criminals the characters must face. Like life, there are always questions here. And not all of them are answered by the end of the book.

The plot is at once intriguing and complex, and Hawes seamlessly mixes the basic murder investigation with an unexpected profusion of other themes and references including, the basics of the Christian religion, family dynamics, love relationships, high-end online prostitution, and the wrath and violence of the Yakuza crime syndicate. Not an easy task, but Hawes pulls it off with aplomb. And by telling the tale from Harry Wright’s point of view, Hawes provides some humor, even occasional sarcasm to the narrative. A nice touch, especially given the gruesome murders and constant threats from powerful enemies.

Hawes’s characters are memorable but never “average.” Justinia, Harry, Bea, and Cal all have their quirks and unique abilities. The relationships between all four have been established before in the series, and we can assume they develop further in this one. Even the minor characters and victims prove to be much more complex than they seem. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the bone-chilling weather in Minnesota. Dealing with the ice, snow, and painfully low temperatures colors the action and the attitude of the characters in the book.

The descriptions of the weather also help pull the reader into the novel, even those of us who’ve never been to Minnesota. That’s also true of the detailed descriptions of the many meals Justinia, Harry, and Bea share. Harry is a gourmet cook, and you’ll often feel the compelling desire to sit down with them and get a taste or two of his latest culinary delight.

Jesus Never Wept is a good read, and the skill and insights of Hawes turn the standard murder mystery plot into something more—and something better. Highly recommended.

Mr. Piper is a fellow author. I don’t know him, even though we do follow each other on Twitter.

I will say this: I was completely blown away by his review.

But Jesus Never Wept is one of my favorites in the Justinia Wright series. So to discover someone who appreciates the metaphors I put in the book was a delight. I’m not sure that my feet touched the floor all day.

Over the course of the 8 years I’ve been an independent author-publisher, I’ve seen a significant number of writers come and go.

I suspect most leave writing because they don’t strike it rich or get many, if any, accolades. A significant number of writers complain about the lack of support from family and friends in particular.

All I can say is — I hear you.

The arts are tough rows to hoe. As the song says, “One is the loneliest number”.

Being any type of artist is usually a lonely affair.

If the only reason you, my fellow writers, are writing is to get money or accolades, then you are probably going to meet with disappointment.

The median income for all published authors, according to a 2018 survey by Authors Guild, was $6,080.

The median income for all published authors based solely on book-related activities was $3100.

I’ll tell you right now, I’d give my eye teeth to earn $3100 in royalties for one year. Nevertheless, to put that into perspective, that is 2 months rent and change.

As for support and accolades, I’d probably die from a heart attack if one of my family members or one of my friends told me they’d read a book of mine and liked it. They’d be much more likely to tell me what was wrong with it.

Yes, one is the loneliest number.

But we aren’t truly alone. Every one of us who puts pen to paper and then sends those books and stories out into the world — has an audience.

Our audience may be small.

It may be large.

Doesn’t matter.

What matters is that we do have an audience.

Sometimes we simply need to be patient and diligent so we can find each other.

I don’t know Mr. Piper. But I do hope to get to know him in the coming days, months, and years.

One may be the loneliest number. But the loneliness ends with two.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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Eulogy in Black and White

I met Caleb Pirtle III on social media. And I’m glad I did. He is a wonderfully encouraging and supportive person. A valuable mentor.

He’s also an incredibly talented writer, who has been writing almost his entire life. His fiction has provided me with hours of wonderful entertainment.

He also happens to be the prime mover behind The Underground Authors. That intrepid band of writers who love writing, write fabulous fiction, and want to share their stories with a wider audience.

Storytellers are entertainers. No different from a singer, or a comedian, or the busker playing his guitar on the street corner to make a buck.

Last year, to share their stories, The Underground Authors put together an anthology of their short fiction: Beyond the Sea: Stories from The Underground.

This year, The Underground Authors took on a more ambitious project: a multi-author crime series set in the fictional town of Magnolia Bluff, Texas.

Nine authors. Nine novels. Nine pictures of life and death in a picturesque small town nestled in the Texas Hill Country.

The first book, Death Wears a Crimson Hat, by yours truly, was released last month.

This month Caleb Pirtle releases Eulogy in Black and White, Book 2 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series. And what a wonderful book it is!

Caleb is a marvelous storyteller. Even though you know you’re reading a book, you’d swear it was real life.

He has a way of painting scenes and people that come off the page and surround you, wherever you are.

Eulogy in Black and White is a fine example of Caleb Pirtle’s artistry. A book you will not want to end, because he won’t want to leave the world he’s created for you.

Here’s a bit about the book:

Eulogy in Black and White is about murder and revenge. It’s also about life and death. It’s about what the dead know, that we, the living, don’t: how precious life is. It’s also about what’s just and unjust.

Graham Huston should have died in Afghanistan. He didn’t. His friend, Harley, did. Harley was from Magnolia Bluff, the town where someone dies every May 23rd.

And Huston, as if by Fate, has the chance to unravel the mystery of the murders plaguing Magnolia Bluff. His chance to earn redemption for the bullet that killed Harley instead of himself.

Caleb Pirtle knows how to write a powerful novel, and this is one heck of a powerful novel. It’s one heck of a whodunit, with things twisting and turning right up to the end.

You will love it. I know you will. It’s on preorder at Amazon. Reserve yourself a copy today!

I rarely read a book more than once. But I’ve read Eulogy in Black and White twice already. And will without a doubt read it again, and most likely yet again.

And you can read it, too. Starting Friday, May 20.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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Dirty Air — Book Review

The Razzman is back! And I’m one happy camper.

The older I get the more I find myself reaching for a private detective mystery or a horror story for my reading entertainment.

In the broad crime fiction category, cozy mysteries, thrillers, and serial killers are all the rage. The lone gumshoe, relying on observation and ratiocination, has been more or less put out to pasture.

Which is a crying shame. The murder-solving shamus has been a staple of crime fiction ever since Sherlock Holmes walked on stage and popularized the genre.

Now, Holmes never called himself a private detective. He was a consulting detective. But not too many years passed before the moniker “private” was attached to detective in order to distinguish him from the “public” variety found in the police force.

From the late 1800s through the 1950s the private sleuth was king of the mystery and crime fiction roost. But that began to change in the 1960s as thrills and spills began to be more important then good old-fashioned deductive reasoning.

Today, the thriller is hot and the amateur sleuth of the cozy has replaced the private eye.

However, if you are like me and you prefer your sleuths to be of the private gumshoe variety, then I have good news for you: Joe Congel has published a new Tony Razzolito mystery.

Razzolito, aka the Razzman, is a modern-day gumshoe. He uses information sources, observation, and deductive reasoning to get the job done. There is an air of the hardboiled detective about him, but without the nihilism or pessimism usually associated with the hardboiled detective.

Joe Congel has, in effect, contemporized the hardboiled detective — and Tony Razzolito is the result.

Dirty Air is the third novel in the series. There is also a collection of short stories that fits between books one and two and provides a transition between the events of the first and second books.

Dirty Air is set against a backdrop of NASCAR and illegal street racing. Congel deftly gives you enough of a feel for the racing world without giving you information overload.

A NASCAR driver is murdered (or is he?) And his wife hires Tony and his partner Scott to investigate his death. From that point on, there are twists and turns, thrills and spills, evidence gathering, and deductive reasoning. In other words, a rollicking good mystery.

The central crime busting trio is comprised of Tony and his partner, Scott, and their buddy, Vinnie. The characters are colorful and easy to relate to. The minor characters are also living, breathing people. All of which makes for a very fun series.

Another aspect of Congel’s writing that I appreciate is the realistic pacing. The action continues to ratchet up as the book progresses, as the plot thickens.

Dirty Air, and all of the series, are highly recommended. Check out Joe Congel’s Amazon page — you don’t want to miss this action.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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The Joy Wagner Mysteries

The paranormal is hot. Even a cursory search will show that the paranormal can be found in just about every book category.

One of my favorite paranormal genres is the occult detective: a blending of the paranormal and detective fiction. And one can find plenty of detectives, new and old, who unravel mysteries that aren’t “normal”, or use methods that aren’t in your standard detective took kit.

One of the newest paranormal amateur detectives, who uses unusual means to solve murders, is Cindy Davis’s Joy Wagner.

Joy is a plucky young woman who left her wealthy home to find herself. In doing so she found a side of herself she didn’t know existed, and she also happens to find murder. Or maybe it finds her. In any case, Joy’s new found psychic abilities help her to solve murders.

As of this writing, there are two Joy Wagner mysteries, with the promise of a third. The Eighth Deadly Sin is Pizza is the first book, and the second is You’re Not the Boss of My Brain.

The books are filled with snarky humor, ghosts, auras, prophetic song lyrics, people who know things it’s not possible for them to know, and a toucan who thinks he’s a person. Oh, there are also the fabulous folk of Uncertain, Florida, which is on the shore of Lake Ambiguous.

One of the things that sets these books apart from most paranormal mysteries is that the paranormal elements aren’t bad or evil. Instead, they’re presented as normal. The paranormal is just part of our world. Anybody can tune in — if they are open to doing so.

In fact, one is more likely to encounter “monsters” in the “real” world, than in the paranormal one. Which gives these mysteries a refreshing twist.

Told from Joy’s perspective, in the first person, the storytelling puts you right there in the story with Joy. And that’s something I very much like. I love the immediacy that first person narration gives a story.

If you enjoy mysteries, if you’re a fan of good storytelling, if you are into the paranormal, then give these fabulous books a try. I think you’ll like them.

Get The Eighth Deadly Sin is Pizza on Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, and Amazon Australia.

Get You’re Not the Boss of My Brain on Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, and Amazon Australia.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Good Storytelling in 2021

2021 — it was a good year for reading. I got reacquainted with old friends and met a number of new ones.

All told, I read 110 works of fiction and non-fiction. The breakdown is:

44 novels/novellas
54 novelettes/short stories
6 screenplays
6 non-fiction

Of those 110 works, 43 were by indie authors. Which makes for 39%.

Eleven storytellers stood out above the rest. Below is a brief explanation of their outstanding merits.

Matthew Cormack

The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns is Cormack’s third book chronicling the events of the Piranha Pandemic. The first two are Don’t Dream It’s Over and Ganbaru.

Cormack’s strengths as a storyteller are his realistic post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, and his vividly realistic characters.

James Patterson once said about himself that he was a lousy writer, but a good storyteller.

Mr Cormack is both a good writer and a good storyteller. Quite honestly, there are few writers who can touch him. He’s that good.

James Vincett

Vincett is one of the very few writers who can give Matthew Cormack a run for his money.

Vincett’s storytelling transports us to highly imaginative worlds. He puts us into exciting space operas that we don’t want to leave.

As of now, he has 3 series going: the Hominim Union, the Independencies, and the Far Frontiers. The books in all three are fabulous. Take a look at his Amazon page.

Suffice it to say, I’ve bought and read all his books and will buy anything he publishes in the future because he knows how to tell a great story. And I love a great story, with memorable characters.

Neil Mosspark

Mr Mosspark burst on the scene a couple years ago and then vanished. Which is a shame. He’s an engaging writer. An imaginative writer. He has, though, left a number of works on Amazon — which is good for us. I recommend you get them.

His Sand Fall Trilogy is survival science fiction. Crash landed on a desert planet, can a ragtag group of humans survive when everything is against them? Very much worth your money and time to read. Pick it up on Amazon.

John F Leonard

John F Leonard tells horror stories which are subtle in nature. The spookiness and the terror hit you after the fact.

Call Drops involves a phone that works, but shouldn’t. The story is about choices and consequences. The ending will get you.

A Plague of Pages explores ownership and vengeance. Hold onto your socks.

Mr Leonard tells good stories. I look forward to reading more of his work in 2022. Pick up his books on Amazon and let them give you goosebumps.

Andy Graham

Andy Graham writes atmospheric horror. His prose is literary. And his stuff is so scary I have to be in the right frame of mind to read it.

His book A Demon Risen is terrifying. Plain and simple. It’s also the third or fourth book of his that I’ve read. And every one is terrifying. Get them at Amazon.

Just remember: his books are best read while the sun is shining.

Terry Newman

A number of years ago I read Detective Strongoak and the Case of the Dead Elf. It was a magical blend of humor, hardboiled detective fiction, and fantasy. And I loved it.

Nicely Strongoak is a dwarf. He’s also a detective and a shield for hire. And he’s one of the most fascinating characters I’ve come across in a long time. Sam Spade meet Terry Pratchett.

Last year I read The King of Elfland’s Little Sister and Dwarf Girls Don’t Dance, the latest books in the Nicely Strongoak series, and was not disappointed.

The books are hilarious, suspenseful, and engaging murder mysteries. All set in a highly imaginative fantasy world. Get over to Amazon for some super great fun.

Lisette Brodey

I’ve read 3 books by Ms Brodey, the latest being The Waiting House; which is a fine example of literary fiction blended with magical realism, humor, and a bit of fantasy.

Ms Brodey’s storytelling is characterized by the vivid and memorable characters that she tells us about. And it’s what keeps me coming back to her fiction. After all, characters are the thing. Pick up a copy of The Waiting House on Amazon.

Garrett Dennis

Port Starbird is my kind of murder mystery. The book is laid-back, cerebral, touched with humor, transports you to the world of the detective, and introduces you to a whole lot of new friends.

I was only partway through Port Starbird, the first of the Storm Ketchum mysteries, when I fell in love with the world Mr Dennis had created and bought all the books. I’m looking forward to reading more of Storm Ketchum’s world this year. And you can get in on his adventure’s via Amazon.

KD McNiven

Ms McNiven writes fast-paced action adventures. One of her most fascinating characters is Detective Brock Scanlin. He’s a hard as nails police detective, yet he’s human. All too human. And that’s what makes Blood Alley and Blood Pool so good. Climb aboard the Brock Scanlin roller coaster today.

Richard Schwindt

Richard Schwindt is no stranger to this blog. I’d buy his grocery list, his writing is that good.

In The Death of Brenda Martin he has tied together all of his various fictional worlds. Quite a feat.

Schwindt is an artist who gives us a world we can see, touch, smell, taste, and feel. He blends mystery, monsters, and real life problems with panache. Enter his world. You won’t regret it.

Caleb Pirtle III

Caleb Pirtle has been writing and telling stories his entire life — and it shows. His fingers dance across the keyboard with the grace and power of a Baryshnikov.

What is undoubtedly the most powerful novel I read in 2021 came from his genius: Last Deadly Lie. The book is a tale of lies, lust, deceit, power, and destruction.

The setting is a church community. But this is not a religious novel. It’s the story of people. People who crave power and control and what they will do to get it and exercise it — no matter the setting, no matter the cost. It’s a tale of lust and secrets and the lies that are told to mask a person’s true intentions.

Last Deadly Lie. A powerhouse of a novel. One you will not forget. Get it from Amazon if you dare.

That’s my cream of the crop for 2021. I’m eager to see what delights 2022 with reveal.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Only 75¢ Each

NOTE: The sale is now over. Hope you got your copy!

When was the last time you remember buying a new book for only 75¢? If you’re young enough, maybe never.

I remember when mass market paperbacks were 35¢. Yeah, those were the days.

Starting August 10th at 3am PDT you can buy 4 books for only 75¢ each. There is a catch: you have to buy 4 of them to get the price. But, hey, that’s only $2.99. Which is less than a Starbuck’s.

So what’s the deal? The Justinia Wright Omnibus is on sale for $2.99. But only for 139 hours, and then the price goes back up to $6.99. So

Buy it now on Amazon!

You get the first 4 books in the Justinia Wright series:

Festival of Death
Trio in Death-Sharp Minor
But Jesus Never Wept
The Conspiracy Game

I love Tina and Harry Wright. They were my first children, so to speak. They came into being in the early 1980s, and have been with me ever since.

What’s more, I really, truly love writing up their crime-busting adventures. Perhaps more than anything else I write.

These books aren’t thrillers in the modern use of that term. The style harkens back to the Golden Age of detective fiction. The era of Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Miss Silver, Mr and Mrs North, Roderick Alleyn, and many others too numerous to name.

The pace is somewhat leisurely at the beginning, and gradually increases as the plot thickens, and can become very intense at the climax. Which, quite honestly, I feel is a very natural progression.

Here are snippets of what others think of the series:

“…well written and entertaining, with just enough light humor…”

“Hawes knows how to weave a believable and exciting thriller.”

“Some fictional universes are just places you want to be…”

“A great murder mystery will make a great book, but a deeply developed cast of reoccurring characters is what makes a great series…, and this is a great series.” —Joe Congel, author of the Tony Razzolito, P.I. mysteries

“…well written and plotted. What keeps me coming back to this series is Hawes’ skilled and incremental character development; it allows readers to engage and grow with the stories. … This series starts well and keeps getting better. It is surely one of the best contemporary American mystery series.” —Richard Schwindt, author of the Death in Sioux Lookout trilogy, Tony Price: Confidential trilogy, A Killing in Samana, The Death of Brenda Martin, among others.

For only $2.99, you get 4 super mysteries. That’s only 75¢ each.

But hurry! The sale is only for 139 hours and time flies quickly!

At 10pm PDT on August 15th, the price goes back to $6.99.

Get the Justinia Wright Omnibus now!

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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