Tag: Mystery

Flash: Worth the Risk

Erin Penn

Cup Of Coffee Stock Photo

Image Courtesy of Carlos Porto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The bell attached to the doorsill rang as yet another stranger entered the busy coffee shop. Shirley eyes were drawn irresistibly to evaluate the new entrant. She really hoped this was worth the risk she had taken. The most recent arrival was a teenager who had no business being in a coffee shop except as an employee.

Frank had come across her on Facebook a year ago today. On the anniversary of the contact, they were going to meet again for the first time. His wife had died of cancer a while ago, so his long-distance electronic support when her husband died a few months back was exactly perfect.

The bell chimed again and this time it was Frank. Less hair than before, but the trim frame built for track and soccer matched the pictures on his Timeline. People can lie so easily on the web, she sighed into her coffee to see he was as handsome as she remembered.

His brown eyes scanned the room. They settled on each single occupant table for a moment before coming to rest on her. He mouthed “Hello” like they used to do in high school when they dated. After placing his order, Frank came over to join her.

An hour of laughter and earnest talk followed. Then he walked her to her car and kissed her hand, saying goodbye for now. Starting her Cadillac, Shirley made her way back to the Interstate. Definitely worth, the risk, she thought to herself.

Her husband had been a fat, lazy coach potato so no autopsy was done after his apparent heart attack. With his body cremated and ashes scatted, no one would ever know better. Frank might end up being a disappointment, but it was worth the risk to try to find love again.

(299 words – first published 11/21/2012; republished new blog format 8/7/2016)

Book Review: The Tentacle Affaire

Erin Penn

Book Cover for The Tentacle Affaire

Book Cover from Amazon

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

The Tentacle Affaire by Jeanne Adams

She doesn’t believe in magic.

When human Slip Traveler Cait Brennan’s routine mission to retrieve a lost interstellar pet goes FUBAR, she ends up hip-deep in a plot to kill five US Senators that puts Earth’s entire population at risk. If she can’t uncover who’s behind the conspiracy and keep her alien employers a secret, she’ll be terminated—permanently.

He doesn’t believe in aliens.

Haunted by a devastating failure in another city, magical Enforcer Aiden Bayliss is relentless in protecting the DC area from dark entities. He’ll destroy the powerful force that’s taking out key politicians, whoever—or whatever—it is. And, in spite of the white-hot attraction sizzling between them, his main suspect is one curvy mystery named Cait.

With everything Aiden believes in question, and Cait squared off against a deadly assassin, both must choose. Uphold their oaths and lose each other forever, or stand together and die.

 

MY REVIEW

A sci-fi urban-fantasy romance police procedural. Yep, a mashup of genres. She works for aliens, he works for wizards, separately they keep the peace and secrets, together they need to solve a string of murders and fight their attraction.

While not really sold as a romance, the book has more the feel of that genre than the billed “Urban Fantasy.” But it is, unquestionably, both in strong measure. Initially the magic and aliens don’t mix, the characters had already accepted one huge change in their reality, accepting a second is not easy. But far too soon (I personally would have loved to have more friction before romantic fire), assassins, political intrigue, nosy neighbors, and abandoned pets (capable of destroying the entire Chesapeake water system) prove that it doesn’t matter what you believe, reality is real whether you are dodging a magic death bolt or alien ray run.

Clearly the start of a series, I look forward to the next one.

Book Review: Legion: Skin Deep (Legion #2)

Erin Penn

Book Cover for Legion: Skin Deep

Book Cover from Amazon

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Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Stephen Leeds is back in a new, double-length novella that Library Journal says has “the pulse of a thriller and the hook of a fascinating hero balancing on the edge of psychosis.”

It’s not his own genius that Stephen Leeds gets hired for. Clients want to tap into the imaginary experts that populate his mind—and it’s getting a bit crowded in there.

Now Stephen and his internal team of “aspects” have been hired to track down a stolen corpse—but it’s not the corpse that’s important, it’s what the corpse knows. The biotechnology company he worked for believes he encoded top-secret information in his DNA before he died, and if it falls into the wrong hands, that will mean disaster.

Meanwhile, Stephen’s uneasy peace with his own hallucinations is beginning to fray at the edges, as he strives to understand how one of them could possibly have used Stephen’s hand to shoot a real gun during the previous case. And some of those hallucinations think they know better than Stephen just how many aspects his mind should make room for. How long will he be able to hold himself together?

 

MY REVIEW

As good as Legion (#1), this sequel continues to follow Stephen Leeds through another mystery. Not certain if this can be called a fantasy, sci-fi, or mystery genre – most likely mystery. Has the feel of a fantasy from the main character talking to ghosts – or is it sci-fi with additional programming in his brain. I guess last one felt more fantasy because of the religious pictures and this one is more sci-fi because of the cellular storage.

Anyway, who cares about compartmentalizing genres – that is just crazy talk. Like trying to compartmentalizing learning into 47 different personalities.

Great story, again the mystery unfolds in such a way you feel you got all the information you needed to solve the mystery before the reveal happens. No cheating on secret evidence the character finds but doesn’t share with the reader.

I would love more on this series, since I want a conclusion and a prequel and … well everything more. Unfortunately this is one of the stories Mr. Sanderson fits in between his contracted (and paid for) books. Here’s hoping he gets lots more plane rides where he can’t use his laptop with his official work in progress.

Author Spotlight: Sarah David

Erin Penn

Book Cover for Decaf & Drones

Cover from Amazon

Author Sarah David’s debut novel “Decaf & Drones” was released by Three World Press in November 2015. A teacher, graduate student, and mother of an active toddler, Ms. David still found time to start a new cozy mystery series “Northwood Barista” themed around coffee, something of an obsession for Ms. David and her main character.

The protagonist, Jordan Nimsby returns home after failing the big city life because of personality conflict with the owner of private investigation firm where she worked, but her love of excitement remains. When a bomb goes off in a stripmall in her small Wisconsin town, she starts investigating even before the police show up.

The inspiration for the “Northwood Barista” series came from an article about Millennials returning home. The first story percolated from the constant news coverage of drones. Eventually the brew boiled, and Ms. Davis put fingers to keyboard between cups of java and chasing a toddler around the house. She continued all three tasks until “Decaf & Drones” poured forth.

Ms. Davis’ blog can be found at http://wordsandcoffeewriting.blogspot.com/ and has lots of cool gifs, something I haven’t even attempted. Interested readers can also connect through her twitter feed wordsandcoffee1. (9/20/2023 – Twitter is now X, and locking itself behind a paywall. Look for the author under other social media.) For her blog, she created an interview with her MC. The interview can be found at: http://wordsandcoffeewriting.blogspot.com/2015/12/interview-with-jordan-nimsby-of-decaf.html. (I need to steal that idea for the future.)

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Full disclosure: One of the small presses I edited for was Three World Productions, of which Three World Press is an imprint. I do not review books I have edited, but I may spotlight authors I have worked with.