inspector christmas cadillacs musclebound

books:

8 reviews
Donald E. Westlake

Mysterious Press, 1989

Westlake's Best
One of Westlake's very best. A priceless pre-Columbian dancing Aztec is stolen and shipped to New York with a dozen copies. Naturally it gets mixed up with the copies and several groups try to recover it. A scene on a boat, when Mel puts his foot in the sand-washing bucket is priceless. The scenes with Pedro puking his gulpe all over the pilot, and many others are wonderful. And only a master ...

Slow Dollar (Deborah Knott Mysteries)

17 reviews
Margaret Maron

Mysterious Press, 2002

An enjoyable modern cozy
Cozy mysteries are really of two types: Novels in the traditional cozy style whose main emphasis is a mystery and its resolution (e.g., Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers) and novels in the more modern cozy format, whose main emphasis is on social interactions (primarily between family, friends, and coworkers) with the mystery being a smaller component of the exposition. This is definitely a cozy ...

Modesty Blaise

9 reviews
Peter O'Donnell

Mysterious Press, 1984

Modesty Blaise is one of the most delightful characters in adventure fiction.
It is hard to say whether the Modesty Blaise novels or the Modesty Blaise comic strips are better, but the lucky reader doesn't have to choose. Read both. The comic strips have been reprinted by Titan Books, Ken Pierce Books, Manuscript Press, and in Comics Revue magazine, and now the novels are being reissued. Also highly recommended are the books Peter O'Donnell wrote under the pseudonym ...

32 Cadillacs

8 reviews
Joe Gores

Mysterious Press, 1992

Dare I Say, A Must Read
Why Joe Gores isn't a better known author is a complete mystery to me. Ok, Ok, he's won 3 Edgar Awards and all, but still you don't hear his name mentioned too often when asking for recommendations. His DKA Files series are full of action, humour, cons and scams and in short are pure entertainment. Well, no matter, I've discovered him now and I'm here to tell you that the series, and 32 Cadillacs ...

Death of a Poison Pen (Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, No. 20)

17 reviews
M.C. Beaton

Mysterious Press, 2004

ANOTHER RELAXING READ IN A GREAT SERIES
I must admit to being rather addicted to the "cozy mystery" genre. They are a source of relaxation for me. These, the Hamish Macbeth series by M.C. Beaton, are some of my favorites. As other reviewers have pointed out, each of the twenty or more books are much the same. Same plot, same characters, same locations, etc. etc. That is okay though. I find this rather comforting. The various ...

The Two-Bear Mambo

14 reviews
Joe R. Lansdale

Mysterious Press, 1995

Humor with a heavy dose of racism
Hap and Leonard just can't seem to keep themselves out of trouble. At the beginning of The Two-Bear Mambo, Leonard is yet again setting fire to the drug dealers' house next door. Their friend Lt. Hanson has to take them in just because, but when Hap's ex-girlfriend -- and Hanson's current squeeze -- Florida Grange goes missing, Hanson agrees to drop the charges if Hap and Leonard will go look for ...

The Hours of the Virgin (The Amos Walker Series #14)

6 reviews
Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press, 1999

Another EXCELLENT mystery by the master
As usual, Mr. Estelman does not disapoint. I turned to this book after a real stinker and I was well rewarded. Mr. Estlemen is a great mystery writer for a number of reasons. He's a master with the hardboiled writing. He's prolific (at least one mystery per year). He's good. The last mystery I had read, by another author, I figured out in chapter three. This one held me to the end and it ...

Kahawa

6 reviews
Donald E. Westlake

Mysterious Press, 1996

Read long ago, but not forgotten
As I remembered the novel, it was the best I ever read. My rating may have been coloured by my living in Liberia 15 years ago when reading the book. Samuel K. Doe was at the time turning our life upside down (I later lived for some years in Tanzania, bordering lake Victoria). The book is totally different from anything else that I have read from Westlake. Did I find it good if I'm searching for ...

Good Behavior

7 reviews
Donald E. Westlake

Mysterious Press, 1986

This Could Only Happen to Dortmunder
John Dortmunder becomes St John when his latest caper drops him into a convent. The sisters see it as divine intervention so they ask him to rescue a kidnapped nun from her tyrannical father who is having the Catholicism deprogrammed out of her. Only Dortmunder could gather a group of thieves to rescue a nun and end up facing a mercenary army set for a Central American Revolution. Full of ...

Borderlines (Joe Gunther Mysteries)

6 reviews
Archer Mayor

Mysterious Press, 1994

Maybe the Best in his Genre
As a frequent visitor of Brattleboro Vermont, I can tell you that Mr. Mayor knows the town and it's surrounding area like no one else. However, the real reason this novel and all his subsequent works are so gripping is because of his excellent characterization and ability to build suspense. All his characters are well drawn, but his protagonist, Joe Gunther is so real, that I have trouble ...

The Fools in Town Are on Our Side

5 reviews

Mysterious Press, 1994

One of the books that made Ross Thomas' reputation
It's been said that what Elmore Leonard ("Freaky Deaky," "Get Shorty," etc.) did for crime novels in urban environments, Ross Thomas did for crime novels in suburban environments. Thomas' novels aren't so much gritty as they are witty, and less about openly violent crimes as about deep corruption beneath the veneer of civilization. "The Fools in Town Are On Our Side" is one of the best Thomas ...

The Reporter (Maxi Poole Mysteries)

5 reviews
Kelly Lange

Mysterious Press, 2002

Great Fun!
Kelly Lange's new novel, featuring newswoman Maxie Poole, is great fun to read. Even if one does not enjoy the guessing game of "Who's the REAL Hollywood Figure" in the story, the mystery and the witty dialogue are engaging enough to make one eager for the next "Maxie Poole." (There is additional pleasure, of course, in putting REAL NAMES to the fictional characters, but this aspect of the ...

Musclebound

6 reviews
Liza Cody

Mysterious Press, 1997

a wild and crazy ride... can't wait to read the next...
Just finished "Musclebound", having previously read "Monkey Wrench" (reviewed separately). I am even more confirmed liking this character and series. Eva Wylie is an unusual character, to say the least, and I won't go into the plots as these are available in the other reviews. It's the character that appeals. The novels are told in first-person narrative. You feel like an older, wiser ...

Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Worship in America

5 reviews
Arthur Lyons

Mysterious Press, 1989

An excellent look at contemporary American Satanism.
As a High Priest of the Wiccan religion, I read the cover with some trepidation - was this going to be another re-hash, trashing my religion?' Thankfully, the answer was a resounding "NO!" Mr. Lyons, in the first few pages of the book, immediately put my fears to rest, as he describes the differences between the Goddess-worshipping, Earth-centered spirituality of the Wiccan religion and the ...

Murder for Christmas

5 reviews
Thomas Godfrey

Mysterious Press, 1987

Christie at her best
I can't believe this book is out of print! It's definitely one of the best mysteries Christie ever wrote. A feuding family gathers for a reunion during the Christmas holidays, summoned by their obnoxious old father, and when Dad turns up dead as the proverbial doornail, it has to be a family member that committed the crime. Well, it was a family member, all right... I'm not giving away the ...

The Dog Who Bit a Policeman

5 reviews

Mysterious Press, 2001

Rostinikov, the philosophical detective. Thumb's up!
Stuart Kaminsky's characters are so real that I welcome their return as I wowuld an old and dear friend. Life never seems to get easier in post-communist Russia, and crime still runs rampant, but our team of detectives (the only ones in the police department seemingly incorruptible) plod slowly along until the crimes are solved. Each character has his or her style, but my favorite, is ...

The Dollmaker's Daughters

5 reviews
Abigail Padgett

NY Mysterious Press 1997., 1997

Wonderful--unpredictable, and I love Bo Bradley!
This book was wonderful. It was unpredictable with no clear-cut villain. It's very inspiring to have a competent heroine with manic-depression, or any mental illness for that matter. It adds a whole new dimension to the story and an unusual one at that for a detective story. The characters are all complex and well-written. This book, like Padgett's other Bo Bradley novels, are wonderfully ...

Fallen Into the Pit (An Inspector George Felse Mystery)

5 reviews
Ellis Peters

The Mysterious Press, 1996

A great modern English mystery, best she's written.
This was one of the best mysteries I have ever read. I came upon it by accident, not even knowing if it were a mystery or not. It is a wonderful successor to the great writers of the original English mystery. George Felse ranks up there with Poirot and Holmes, but shows a bit more humanity. The other characters, also, show qualities that make you forget that you're reading. The plot, I'm sure, ...

Speak No Evil

5 reviews
Rochelle Majer Krich

Mysterious Press, 1996

A true page-turner
This is a legal thriller that you don't want to put down. I read the last 230 pages in a morning, and will now read her other books. In the genre of Faye Kellerman, Rochelle Krich's writing easily matches or exceeds Kellerman, which is quite an accomplishment.

Monkey Wrench

5 reviews
Liza Cody

Mysterious Press, 1994

Mysteries look different to a professional wrestler!
The usually simple formula of a detective story has been hopelessly convoluted by dirty reality, and Eva Wylie's slightly twisted perception of it. I've never met a protagonist so ugly, tough, and stubborn, and she's female! Eva's arms look a lot better than her face; the wrestling fans don't call her Bucket Nut (Bucket Head) for nothing. But underneath her hard-as-nails exterior, she's way ...

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