private detective fiction

10 Favorite Private Detective Novels

People often ask me for book recommendations; especially PI mysteries, as they can be difficult to find.

A recent look at the Amazon Top 25 in the Private Investigator category had me dumping most of them because there wasn’t a shamus in sight.

When the category is Private Investigator I don’t know why Amazon allows FBI agents, amateur sleuths, DCIs, vampire hunters, and who knows what else to take over the category. ‘Tain’t right. ‘Tain’t fair.

So without further ado, I give you 10 bona fide Private Detective novels for your reading pleasure.

1. 1. This Doesn’t Happen in the Movies by Renee Pawlish. This the first book in the Reed Ferguson series, and it is a goody. A bit hardboiled, a bit noir, and a bit cozy.
  2. The Italian Affair by John Tallon Jones. The Penny Detective is fast becoming one of my favorite PI series. Moggs and Shoddy are super characters. You will love these guys. And this book is especially fun.
  3. Deadly Passion by Joe Congel. Tony Razzolito, aka The Razzman, is a great character. This is a fab series. I keep praying Joe will write faster.
  4. Turn on the Heat by Erle Stanley Gardner (as AA Fair) is one of the novels in the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam series. Not as well known as Perry Mason, the series, though, is quite good. Although, I think Gardner missed a bet by not giving Bertha a bigger role. She is a stupendous character.
  5. China Trade by SJ Rozan. I love Rozan’s Lydia Chin. A very refreshing character. Bill Smith, on the other hand, I’m not so taken with. Lydia and Bill aren’t partners. But they help each other out. Friends without benefits, one might say. Although Bill would love for their relationship to get to the benefits stage. The odd numbered books are in Lydia’s POV; the even, in Bill’s. Super series.
  6. The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout. I love the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Put me on a desert island with the Tom Barnaby Midsomer Murders and the Nero Wolfe mysteries and plenty of tea and I’m in heaven. Nero Wolfe is the yardstick by which I judge a mystery’s quality.
  7. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. I just finished reading the Marlowe mysteries. They are fab. Especially the later ones. This novel is probably my fav. I’ll be re-reading these in the near future. No one can beat Chandler for uniquely engaging descriptions. Do read the Marlowe books. They are amongst the best books you’ll ever read.
  8. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Poirot is, IMO, rather one dimensional. He’s peculiar, and noticeable, but not in a way that makes him a fan favorite like, say, Sherlock Holmes. Christie’s strong suit, IMO, is her complex storylines. Not her characters.
  9. The Case is Closed by Patricia Wentworth. The Miss Silver mysteries are good reading. Wentworth is on par with Christie, and deserves to be more widely known.
  10. The Shoulders of Giants by Jim Cliff. Excellent mystery. My great sadness is that Mr. Cliff didn’t write more than 2.

The above are 10 gumshoe novels I very much enjoyed and I think you will too.

I’m even going to throw in an eleventh:

But Jesus Never Wept

Tina and Harry quickly find themselves immersed in a bloody murder, an online sex empire, church politics, art forgeries, and the Yakuza.

And when the bullets start flying, will they survive long enough to pin the murder on the culprit?

Head on over to Amazon and find out!

That’s all for now.

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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The Morris Shannon Mysteries

Amongst the slush I am frequently finding on Kindle Unlimited these days, I occasionally run across a real gem.

The Masked Man of Cairo series is one such gem. Another is John Tallon Jones’s Morris Shannon Mystery series, aka The Penny Detective.

I am loving this PI series by Jones. He tells you up front that the sole purpose of the books are to provide a couple hours of entertainment. That’s it. And in my opinion, they do that in spades.

In fact, I’d say that Mr Jones is being too modest. There is plenty of hardboiled grit delivered with plenty of humor, in a style that goes down quite easily. Maybe as easily as fish and chips, or a yummy bacon sandwich.

Morris Shannon is the son of a self-made multi-millionaire, who got his money selling used cars.

However, Morris (or Moggsy as most call him) doesn’t want to take over the family business. So Moggs becomes a private detective instead of the owner of a used car emporium.

Moggsy willingly admits he’s not a good detective. The only reason he’s still in business is because his partner, Shoddy, has the brains to connect the dots. But Shoddy, a former cop, is an alcoholic and is often too inebriated to be overly helpful.

From that background, Mr Jones spins delightfully entertaining stories set in the 1980s.

It’s great fun to return to life before cell phones and the internet. A life that in some ways was better than what those silicon chips have given us.

Mr Jones is British and some reviewers were put off by the British slang. I didn’t find it at all insurmountable, although I suspect he may have “Americanized” some of the Britishisms in response to the complaints.

One of the reasons I read British mysteries is because I love to see how our cousins use the common language that divides us. I find British English is often far more colorful than American.

Jones’s writing is straightforward. Nothing fancy. And he tells his stories well.

They are written in the first person, with Morris as the storyteller.

Imagine, if you will, Watson as the detective and Holmes as the sidekick. And Watson still tells the story. That will give you a good idea as to how this series is set up — and it is often hilarious.

The stories are not cozies. They run too dark for that. They are more in the hardboiled category. Except that Moggsy is rather naive and too trusting. Which adds to the humor. And the suspense.

The Morris Shannon mysteries are edgy whodunits. And did I say they are quite funny?

I’ve read the first 4 and loved each one. They are:

The Penny Detective

The Italian Affair

An Evening With Max Climax

The Shoestring Effect

I’ve given the above books 5-star reviews on Amazon. The links above will take you to Amazon US.

Give this series a try. The books can be read in any order, although I’m reading them chronologically.

They are 5-star entertainment. Perfect before bed. Or for reading on a lazy afternoon. Or on the beach. Or to take along on vacation.

I highly recommend them.

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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One Of My Favorites

With my own contribution to the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles, Death Wears A Crimson Hat, leading the way as the top sales getter of any book in my oeuvre since its publication in April, I thought I’d give a shoutout to my own Justinia Wright mystery series.

It is obvious readers enjoy mysteries, if sales of the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles is any indicator.

So, if you have read Death Wears A Crimson Hat and/or any of the other books in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles, then I encourage you to take a trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota and spend some time with Tina and Harry Wright.

The Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries are classic whodunits just like many of the Magnolia Bluff stories.

If you enjoyed the sleuthing of Harry and Ember, or Graham Huston, or Caroline McCluskey, then you will enjoy the escapades of Tina and Harry Wright.

Each Justinia Wright mystery is a standalone. But since there are overarching character arcs, you may want to start at the beginning with Festival Of Death.

Or you might start with one of my favorites: But Jesus Never Wept.

Before I tell you why I like the book, let me share with you two reviews.

From 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 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.

And from Joseph A Congel:

Another GREAT, 5 STAR read! This series just keeps getting better!

This is the third book in the Justinia Wright Private Investigator series, and it is a top-notch addition to a top-notch series, written by a top-notch author. If you’ve been following the brother/sister PI team, you already know this series is rich in storyline and character development. If you are discovering the Wrights for the first time in this book, you will not be disappointed. However, treat yourself, and go back and read the first two books in this wonderful series.

In this installment, the author mixes religion, the Japanese mob, and high-end prostitution, and wraps it all up in a very engaging murder mystery. But what truly drives this story is the relationship between the main characters – Justinia, Harry, Bea, and Cal. The subplot of their lives is intertwined masterfully with the main plotline of the book, which is the mystery that needs to be solved. And although the idea of an intriguing mystery may have brought you here, the well thought-out, fun, realistic, characters is what will bring you back for more. 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.

I loved the first two books, and this one is no different. It’s why I bought the whole series. I look forward to seeing what the Wrights get themselves into between the pages of the next book. But don’t take my word for it, try them for yourself – just don’t be surprised if you become addicted.

Reviews like those two, really lift a writer. They are a light to illuminate the dark days that touch every storyteller.

So why do I like But Jesus Never Wept? I love the characters.

If I do not like the characters, then the book, movie, TV series, short story, or stage play are dead to me. It is as simple as that. I am there for the characters. And I love Tina and Harry. They are my children.

Characters aside, I also like the storyline in this novel. It touches on religion, something important in my life. The story also asks us what is of importance in our short lives. What’s life all about? Is love the answer? Or is it something else? Or maybe there is no answer.

As both Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner noted, the murder mystery is the simplest of stories.

A kills B. The police think the killer is C, until the sleuth shows them the perpetrator is A.

The task of the writer is to use style to turn a very simple story into one that is not only complex, but beautifully satisfying; perhaps even elegant.

I think But Jesus Never Wept is a cut above. And I ask you to give it a try. Pick it up 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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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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A Nest of Spies

The sale is now over — hope you got your copy!

Murder and mayhem. Plus Tina’s being framed for murder!

A Nest of Spies is the 5th book in the Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries series.

Starting 5 am PDT on Wednesday, August 18th, the book will be on a 137 hour sale. For only 99¢! That’s a 76% deep discount.

Get A Nest of Spies on Amazon!

Joe Congel, author of the wonderful Tony Razzolito mysteries, had this to say about A Nest of Spies:

If you’re not reading this wonderful Private Investigator Mystery series, you should be.

CW Hawes has created a cast of characters that I believe stand tall next to any traditional detective, whodunnit mystery you want to put them up against. In this, the 5th installment of the series, the reader gets a peek into private eye, Justinia Wright’s secretive government past. A past that she never talks about, not even with her brother, Harry.

But when government (the U.S as well as other countries) spies and contract killers start appearing on her doorstep, it becomes obvious to Harry that his baby sister may still have at least one toe dipped in a pool filled with espionage and treason.

Spies can be a funny bunch; they will put their mutual trust in one another when it’s beneficial to them, but will not hesitate to pull the trigger to save themselves. And all the while, you cannot believe a word any of them say.

When a former agency partner tries to unsuccessfully hire Tina to help secure a flash drive with plans for a top-secret weapon by posing as the buyer, it is just the beginning of a fun, interesting mystery filled with lots of twists and turns.

As more and more people from Tina’s past show up wanting to talk with and hire the great detective’s services, the lies… and the body count begin to grow. And when Tina is accused of murder, she and her team of sleuths devise a scheme to recover the missing flash drive, catch a murderer, clear their names, and in the process make a little profit for their troubles.

With all that is going on in this story, you would think that the Wrights would have time for nothing else. And as interesting as the main plot of this novel is, the subplot that fleshes out the on again, off again relationship saga between Tina and police Lieutenant Cal Swenson, all the fabulous meals cooked up by Harry and his wife Bea, and the side characters like Tina’s tenant, the quirky artist wannabe, Solstice, is perhaps what really makes this series special.

Hawes has developed characters that you can’t help but care about. It’s what makes me continue to buy and read every book in this series. I really want to know what’s going on in Tina and Harry’s personal life as well as how they will solve the mystery at hand.

I highly recommend A Nest of Spies. It is my favorite Justinia Wright Mystery so far, and I can’t wait to dive into the next one to see where the mystery and mayhem takes this talented brother and sister detective duo.

KD McNiven, author of the very fine Detective Brock Scanlin mystery series, had this to say:

…I have read several of CW Hawes’s books and have thoroughly enjoyed each one. I especially like his Justina Wright books because they are the traditional whodunit mysteries that keep you flipping the pages. And CW just writes darned outstanding books. Justinia (Tina) is a colorful six-foot-tall redhead character who is a private investigator, a connoisseur of painting, and an accomplished pianist. Her brother Harry works alongside her, and they make a great team.

There are plenty of twists and turns in A Nest of Spies to keep you reading through the night. You can’t help but join in on the fun and mayhem. I highly recommend A Nest of Spies! A fantastic mystery series.

High praise, which I feel very honored to receive as it comes from such fine writers.

Below is a snippet, from Chapters 7 and 8, for your reading pleasure.

All was quiet for a few moments and then Cal spoke. “Gaddison was shot with a thirty-two. There aren’t many of those around. Mind if I take a look at yours, Tina?”

The look on Tina’s face would’ve iced over the Amazon.

“Yes, I mind. I didn’t shoot Gaddison, Swenson. And if I had, all I needed to do was make one phone call and the crime scene would have been cleaned to the point where even God would’ve thought He’d just made the place.”

“Look, Wright, I’m just doing my job. Don’t make this any tougher for me than it already is.”

She paused long enough for the temperature in her demeanor to thaw out and actually exude some warmth.

“Okay, Swenson, I’ll humor you. Harry, get my revolvers.”

We keep most of our guns locked up, although we each have one or two in a drawer in our respective desks and I know I have one in my room upstairs. I unlocked the safe and got out her two revolvers. A nod of her head in Cal’s direction indicated I should take them to him. He looked them over, smelled them, popped out the cylinders, put them back, and handed the guns back to me.

“Satisfied?” Tina asked.

“On the revolvers? Yes, they don’t appear to have been fired recently.”

“They haven’t, Swenson.”

“Still might want to run a ballistics check on them. What ammo do you use?”

“Federal eighty-five grain jacketed hollow points.”

“Do you own a thirty-two caliber semi-auto?”

“What the hell, Swenson? No, I don’t.”

“You mind telling me what you did last night?”

“Am I a suspect?”

“Well, we found what we think is the murder weapon. A little Yugoslav CZ Model 70 in thirty-two.”

“I don’t own one and, as I already told you, I don’t own any semi-autos in thirty-two.”

“Care to tell me why your fingerprints are on the gun?”

I know Tina pretty well. She’s as cool as that proverbial cucumber under pressure. But when Cal asked her that question, I could swear she blanched.

“I have no idea, Swenson.”

“I had them hold off doing a ballistics test until I talked to you. So you don’t own any thirty-two caliber semi-autos. Just the two revolvers.”

“Correct.”

“I won’t get any surprises doing a registration check.”

“No.”

“So where were you last night?”

Tina took in a deep breath and exhaled. “I went out with a friend. We had supper and took in a movie. Then I went to his place for a bit, we got into an argument, and I left. I was pissed and drove around for awhile before coming home.”

“When did you leave his place?”

“Around eleven.”

“When did you get home?”

“About one.”

“You were out driving around for two hours?”

“Yes, Swenson. I was driving around by myself for two hours and therefore no one can corroborate where I was. Hell, I’m not sure I know where I went. I was pissed and just drove around. When was Gaddison shot?”

“Around midnight. Give or take a half-hour. Which means you don’t have an alibi.”

“My prints just on the gun or are they on the ammo too?”

“As far as I know, just the gun.”

“Cal, I didn’t shoot him. I would have loved to have been the one to pull the trigger, but I didn’t. As for my prints, I have no explanation.”

“We’ll run a ballistics test. If it is the murder weapon… Well, you know what that means. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something.”

“Thanks, Cal.”

“Any idea who might want to frame you?”

“No one in Minneapolis.”

He nodded and stood. “That should do it for now.”

Cal left and Bea followed him out, returning in a couple of minutes. She sat on the chesterfield and asked, “Is this spy stuff, Tina?”

“Don’t know for sure. Probably.”

“What I want to know,” I began, “is how did your prints get on a gun you don’t even own?”

Tina shook her head. “I have no idea.” She turned to Bea. “What did the guy look like who delivered the special delivery letter?”

“It wasn’t a guy. It was a woman. Kind of masculine looking, but she looked like a woman to me.”

Tina shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“If this is spy stuff, governments sure do a lot of bad things, don’t they.”

Tina had a far away look on her face. “Yes, they do, Bea. Yes, they do.”

I hope you enjoyed that little morsel.

Get A Nest of Spies for only 99¢ starting tomorrow, August 18th. Sale ends 10 pm PDT on August 23rd. So don’t wait!

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The Hardboiled Detective

I just finished reading Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. I’ve previously read his The Big Sleep, and several of his novelettes.

Way in the past, I read Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and a few of his Continental Op stories.

My opinion of hardboiled fiction is that I like it and want to read more. In fact, I like it so much I may decide to write some of my own.

There’s a lot of confusion between hardboiled and noir. Some people think the two are the same thing, but they are not. I actually see them as being something of opposites.

Noir is about victims and everyone loses in the end. It’s pretty nihilistic.

Hardboiled is about the detective hero, and in the end he wins. The victory may be small, but he still wins.

In a sense, Noir and Hardboiled are the two sides of existentialist philosophy. The one which says life has no meaning, no purpose, and it’s probably best if we just die. And the other, which says life is meaningless in and of itself, and we have to give it meaning. In other words, we find our own meaning and value in life and that’s what makes it meaningful to us.

Let’s look a little deeper at the characteristics of the hardboiled detective.

The hardboiled detective sub-genre was created by Carrol John Daly in the 1920s, and was refined by Dashiell Hammett. It was raised to the level of fine literature by Raymond Chandler, and given an unparalleled psychological depth by Ross Macdonald.

In the hardboiled world

- - the private investigator is the hero
  - he acts tough, talks tough, and often is tough
  - the PI is a loner
  - he has a code of honor and justice that is moral, if not strictly legal
  - no matter what, the PI won’t give up the case, or betray a client
  - individuals battle a corrupt political organization, or a criminal one — it’s the one agains the many
  - the PI prevails because he’s true to himself and his code
  - he’s a smart-aleck, and talks that way
  - he’s cynical about the world at large
  - even though the PI solved the case, the solution does little to alter the larger picture of political, societal, and human corruption
  - the PI wins a small victory, and that’s all he can hope for, but he was true to himself

I think the hardboiled worldview is very apropos for today. There is so much crap going on in the world that one can easily despair, or become insanely angry.

What the hardboiled detective teaches us is that the world ain’t gonna change — but we can rise a little bit above the dirt, the corruption, the wickedness by being true to ourselves, and by sticking to a standard of right and wrong no matter what.

The personal integrity of the individual honoring his word and sticking to his moral principles — no matter what’s going on around him — is, for me, a source of inspiration. Because, it means, no matter how hopeless things are or seem to be, in a small way I can make a difference.

What I do may not change the world, but it may help someone, it may bring peace of mind, or a bit of fairness to someone else’s life. And, realistically speaking, that is probably all we can ever hope for.

The hardboiled world is dark and grim, and slightly dystopian. It’s a world where the big forces crush the little people. And it’s a world where the PI keeps the hope of fairness, equity, and justice alive.

Every day we read of political corruption, corporate corruption, of society’s indifference, of people making money from destroying the environment, and from using other people.

The hardboiled PI shows us that we, as individuals, can keep the goodness that is in humanity alive.

And I like that.

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

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A Free Justinia Wright Mystery

Yes, Virginia, a free Justinia Wright mystery is coming to readers everywhere — but only if they’re signed up for my mailing list. It’s something like Henry Ford’s “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black.”

I don’t do free very often. So this is a great opportunity to get a Justinia Wright novelette simply by joining my mailing list. Which you can do here.

The Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery series has been getting positive attention of late. I was named among the Top 25 Mystery Writers You Need to be Reading by international bestselling mystery and thriller writers Caleb and Linda Pirtle.

Of the latest Tina and Harry adventure, Death Makes a House Call, readers are saying:

First rate entry in a great series.

…if you like well-drawn, fascinating, and believable characters…not to mention clever writing (with lots of laugh-out-loud moments), give this author a try!

This book is highly entertaining…

…well-written and worthy of all five stars.

If you haven’t read any of the Justinia Wright mysteries, you can find them on Amazon.

I will start serializing the novelette to my mailing list on Friday, March 13th — so don’t wait to sign up! The game is afoot!

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

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