Murder Books

I loved this book! I couldn't usely sit and read a book, then a few weeks later read it again and not get bored. But I did with this book. It has a lot of twists you wouldn't expect. It was great.

I really liked this book because it opened my eyes to good reading. It was a great book with action packed and a good chase too. It had very good qualities such as good dialoge and a very good plot. This was a very excellent book and I am glad I got to read it.

Running Scared is a non stop scary,twisted thriller and more that you'll love to read! In fact It took me only three days to read this book which included 232 pages. Running Scared is one of those books you can't stop reading because right when you think its time for a little rest another wild thing happens. Donna saw something she wasn't supposed to see and something she wishes she hadn't seen. But Donna told the police and they promised to protect Donna and her mom. Now Donna and her mom live in a new home, have a new name, and a whole new identity so the killer won't go after them. But someone else knows what Donna saw and I'am not going to tell you because I want to see your jaws drop like mine did! Overall I'd rate this a five because Kate Daniels, author of Running Scared, does a really good job in capturing the readers attention. She also had a unique plot structure that fools every one.

Many years ago as a fledging new lawyer, I read portions of the trial transcript from Sacco & Vanzetti trial. I was able to glean some of the injustice rendered in this case, but Professor Bortman's book clearly and concisely laid out the elements of a tainted legal system in Massachusetts in the 1920s. It was not until I read Professor Bortman's book that I fully understood the political elements involved at the time of the Sacco & Vanzetti trial. This book is a must read for every student of American history, especially legal history.

For a short book, the story is very well paced and still manages to give it a level of 'Hollywood Court Room' drama, although in this case, the story is real. The writing is clear and unpretentious and very accessible.

The final chapter detailing the modern day reaction to the
case serves as a warning that even one of the most advanced Western democracies has a way to go in ensuring Justice For All is more than just a slogan and that, with one or two minor exceptions, the case could occur again in modern times.

Mr. Bortman has hit the nail on the head with this informative and well-written account of the famous trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. The background, trial and aftermath are treated with evenhandedness and an admirable attention to detail. Moreover, this book is easy to read yet chock full of facts, eyewitness accounts and analyses.

This quick-read will turn even one with little prior knowledge of this episode into a well-versed expert. If more historical passages were covered as well, the historical awareness of our citizenry would skyrocket.

Philip Ginsburg has done it again! Like Poisoned Blood, I could hardly put this book down. Shadow of Death is an in-depth look at a series of murders and the investigations in New Hampshire and Vermont in the 1980s. As I read, I experienced the frustration and the urgency of the detectives and the profiler to catch the killer (or killers). Although the murders remain unsolved, it wasn't for lack of trying. Philip Ginsburg has done a remarkable job in relating the murders, and detailing the victims, the psychologist, and the detectives, to the point where you know them well. Truly one of the best books on a serial murder investigation.

I've reread this countless times. I have ties to the area and was amazed at how little public play this got while it was happening. I still need to know the answer of "who" but it is without a doubt one of the best true crime books ever written

When you first read this book you will probably think this is the best book ever written, I did! I live in New Hampshire and when I read it I was so entriged by the wording that it just pulled me into the book and I thought I was one of the FBI officers working on the case with them. If you like to read Supense Thriller and Murder books you will diffently want to add this book to your collect like I did. I hope you read this book, and enjoyed it as must as I did. Well, I actually know you will love it so much that you will log on to Amazon.com and order the book as fast you can! ....

my husband knew rabbit. the book covered as much as william loizeaux could tell. there was a great part missing from the book. we are hoping that the author contact several other friends of rabbit's and do a sequil. There is just so much more to tell of this young lad whose life was ended so young and yet so drastically.

I just finished reading The Shooting of Rabbit Wells by William Loizeaux. I finished it in a few hours !! It was of particular interest to me because I grew up in Bernardsville and I knew just about everyone mentioned in the book, especially , the victim, Rabbit..... the book traces his pitiful life from the day he was born and I learned alot about him I never knew from our fleeting friendship. I met Rabbit when he was a Bonnie Brae boy through my boyfriend at the time, who was also on Bonnie Brae. Thirty years later that old boyfriend and I are still friends.....Bernardsville was truly a small quaint town at that time. This incident brought us all to the realization that things were not all flower power and love like we thought. The book really drives that point home in telling about the youth refuge "The Oaken Bucket" in Basking Ridge and how everyone used to cruise and hang out at Woolworth's and the Shop-Rite area. We were a bunch of suburbian hippies just hanging out !! Then the town started to change with outsiders coming in and causing trouble. The incident described in the book changed our innocent lives forever. Many people moved away shortly after that and tried to forget what happened but William Loizeaux didn't and I thank him for that. I would like to be able to talk to William myself and see if he'd like to work on a sequel about the Bernardsville "kids". Many of us are still in touch with each other and have alot to say !!!! Thanks William for a fabulous look into Rabbit's private life and a transport back to the Three Lights Tavern where I spent many a weekend !!!

In his ravishing new book, "The Shooting of RabbitWells", author William Loizeaux stuns the reader with hismasterful, risky, and innovative blend of forms that create a stirring recount of a very real tragedy. Any reader who has lived in the last thirty years, will recognize the turning points of our lives, that contributed to the 1973 killing in Bernardsville, New Jersey, of a mixed-race man named Rabbit Wells.

"The Shooting of Rabbit Wells" is a lovingly dedicated, nakedly honest and wondrous, inventive landmark in the art of writing. The author's probing instinct, which includes a notable talent in exploring our innermost, infuses the book with a magic that holds us captive. We reconsider our pasts, futures, wonder at our fortitude, and more, at our determined, unreleasing grip on that which we will not, or cannot, forget.

A reading of this book has the radiance and light of a magnificent, beloved dream. Sometimes one awakens from a vivid dream, astonished, confused, relieved or perhaps disappointed-- that it "was all just a dream". But when real tragedy befalls, we humans share an obverse experience, where oddly, reality seems plainly dream-like. Every moment, detail, association, memory and truth are so unanticipated, so brutally changing, that we never forget, forever reliving and resorting a mull of slow-motion fragments. We stumble and wander as troubled, nomadic philosophers. We sporadically blurt out to anyone who might listen; or perhaps delude ourselves that we've forgotten, that the pain has passed. We wander ever doomed, attempting to piece together what we know is unpieceable, these dear and treasured fragments that we, in one moment, both accept as truth and fail to comprehend.

"The Shooting of Rabbit Wells" deftly leads us backward and forward through time, space, water, earth, and society, driving us down the roads that, to this day, lead us to Rabbit Wells. Loizeaux makes the drive a stimulating, compass-twisting journey.

We come to recognize the deep pride and dedication we feel in the haunting, and daunting, task of simply remembering. It was a joy, honor and privilege to have read this book. And to the author, I am most assuredly, deeply grateful. Bravo.

I won't summarize the plot of "Soldier on the Porch," because two other reviewers have covered that ground better than I could (I'd either write too much or too little); I'm just going to say why I enjoyed the book.
For one thing, I saw a side of Elizabeth Pepperhawk's personality I'd not seen before. (Either it wasn't evident in "First Murder in Advent," or I missed it, and I haven't read "Some Welcome Home.") In many ways, even though she's in a career-threatening situation in "Soldier," Pepper strikes me as more relaxed, less intense in this book. (Not languid, day-at-the-beach, no-cares-in-the-world relaxed, by any means, just more three-dimensional, I guess.) Her irreverent sense of humor comes through, as well as a large dose of chutzpah (strength with style, as opposed to just gritty toughness).
For that matter, development and growth for all the main characters--Avivah, Benny, Darby and Loraine--is what I liked best about this book. That, and the seamless way Wildwind has woven together the individual, yet interdependent, stories of Pepper's trouble at work (and what that means to her surprisingly fragile sense of security), Avivah's not-so-distant past coming back to haunt her, and Benny's relationship with Loraine and her sons, and given us a mystery to solve, to boot.
Reflecting on this book--and this series--I've decided that the Viet Nam War was a little like alcoholism. I've had the sad experience of loving or simply knowing a number of alcoholics whose years of drinking so damaged their bodies that even years of sobriety couldn't repair them. It strikes me that serving in the Viet Nam War had a similar effect on the psyche, to varying degrees. Wildwind's gift to readers is illustrating that point without cloaking it in bitterness and antagonism, rather, hiding it in plain view throughout her engaging mysteries.
Readers also don't want to miss "Dreams That Blister Sleep," Wildwind's non-fiction account of her experience as an Army nurse in Viet Nam. In addition to having one of the most creatively "right on" titles in publishing history (my opinion, but don't you agree?), "Dreams That Blister Sleep," available via the author, grabs hold of you from the start and doesn't let go. Even considering the subject, the hardest part about reading the book was putting it down to attend to everyday life.

In 1973 at the Pisgah Mountain VA Hospital in Ashville, North Carolina, an explosion rips into an abandoned wing. Security guard Avivah Rosen investigates the ruins. Two corpses are found; one is nonagenarian patient Zeb Blackenship who went out for a smoke and the other is Major Henry Campos, Avivah's nasty former superior in Viet Nam. Meanwhile Avivah's friend nurse Elizabeth Pepperhawk knows the rules, but showed up for work somewhat intoxicated; she is forced to join a counseling program. Thier other friend Benny Kirkpatrick is too busy with school and babysitting to assist either female.

The FBI Agent Harrington and Military Intelligence Officer Darby Baxter take Avivah into custody to protect her from a serial killer. Besides Campos, three other officers from that cell of five are dead; she is the last one standing. However, not one to sit around, Avivah sneaks out with the help of newspaper reporter Saul Eisenberg as she begins an inquiry into who wants them dead; she already knows why.

The latest 1970s military veterans Pepperhawk/Rosen mystery (see SOME WELCOME HOME and FIRST MURDER IN ADVENT) is an exhilarating thriller that focuses mostly on what happened in Viet Nam that Avivah has hidden. This time Ben is a minor player unable to come to the rescue of his two female friends and Elizabeth is tied up with an alcohol issue. This leaves Avivah going alone (she enlists Saul) to fix the mess as her choices seem to be going to jail or learning of more murders until she becomes a corpse. Historical mystery fans will enjoy this strong investigative tale that remains relevant as the then hot Cold War Against Communism is now the hot cold War Against Terrorism.

Harriet Klausner

Sharon Wildwind's first mystery (Some Welcome Home) captured my imagination and made me want to know more about the protagonists, Elizabeth Pepperhawk and Avivah Rosen. The series is unique in that it features women who have served in Viet Nam, as Wildwind herself did. Her books portrays both the disturbing aspects of war and the camaraderie that can develop between those who serve.

In Wildwind's second mystery, First Murder in Advent (set in 1972), Army nurse Pepperhawk is between assignments when she receives a call from Benny Kirkpatrick, ex-Special Forces first sergeant. Their friend Avivah is in trouble, and with Benny and Avivah's friend, has sought refuge in a convent in the mountains of North Carolina. When Pepper goes to help, she finds military intelligence officer Darby Baxter, her on-again, off-again love interest, with three other men.

What follows are days without electricity in a mostly empty convent, in a snowstorm. Avivah, Pepper, Darby and Benny, along with a few nuns and some members of a paramilitary think tank, struggle to survive the cold amidst murder, secret passageways and lost wills--delicious reading with tangling sub-plots. Pepper confronts her childhood experience of Catholicism, while Avivah must contend with the nuns' suspicions of her Judaism. Our heroes all survive. although some of the other characters do not.

In the third book, Soldier on the Porch (set in 1973), Pepper is now a civilian nurse and Avivah works with a security team for a Veterans Administration hospital in North Carolina. They live on a rural, mountain homestead with two houses. They are living in one while Benny, his friend Loraine, and her two sons live in the other.

The story opens with a bang (actually an explosion) and Pepper throwing herself on top of a patient to protect him from falling beams. Because she had been called in to work at the last moment and had had a drink of wine with dinner, she finds herself facing disciplinary action and counseling. One of the two men killed in the explosion had been Avivah's senior officer in Viet Nam, a man who was also under investigation by the FBI and military intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Darby Baxterin. Someone is trying to kill Avivah or Pepper. But which one? And why?

For a third time, these three ex-soldiers find themselves with a murder or two on their hands. Once again, the sub-plots twist and turn, jolting the reader with surprise after unexpected surprise. Wildwind draws very real, psychologically complex characters. In the end, she tucks most of the loose threads into the narrative fabric, although there seems to be a hint of more story to come. If you enjoy being held in believable suspense by a fine writer, try Sharon Wildwind's mystery series.

_____________________________

Sharon Wildwind served in Vietnam as a U.S. Army nurse. A Canadian, she is married to a military historian.

by Judith Helburn
for StorycircleBookReviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Congratulations to Julie Kramer on her first novel. Julie provided me with the opportunity to read her original manuscript before publication to provide her with technical advice on Practical Homcide Investigation®. The revisions and finished product is a fantastic read and captivating thriller involving a serial killer who is stalking women named Susan, who are killed on the same day each year. Is there a pattern here?

The heroine's position as a news reporter provided a unique approach to this genre of writing.What begins with a personal tip from a source, soon develops into a full-fledged murder investigation just in time for the television sweeps month and all the behind the scene dynamics and the types of personalities who dictate television news.

The strong point of the author's writing in this novel is her ability to weave together an exciting story and at the same time reveal through her characters the duplicitous nature of major network news and how stunning careers can obliterated overnight on a vindictive news director's whim.

Her characters are authentic and professionally developed throughout the book. The mystery reader, who likes surprises will not disappointed with Julie's nerve-racking and clever ending. Stalking Susan is a non-stop sequence of exciting of twists and curves that will keep the reader glued to the book.

Julie Kramer's debut novel, Stalking Susan, is a ripping good tale. Her "ear" for what goes on behind the scenes of a TV newsroom is spot on. And while the tension mounts, she employs the comic interlude to let the reader relax before she marches to the really scarey parts. I want to see more of Riley Spartz, her cynical heroine, and look forward to the next book.

Stalking Susan combines wit, charm and pure suspense in one fun read. To steal from the protagonist, this story is "like a box of chocolates" Forrest Gump, 1994. In this case, they are Godivas! Anyone that enjoys a thriller will love this book.

After my theories of crime class, I have kept my eyes open for true crime books. I saw this one on sale and picked it up, intrigued by the back cover.

Plot:
Bill Hubbard is a police sergeant in the ID department of the Lubbock County Police Department. His predecessor gives him a file of the county forensic pathologist, Ralph Erdmann. Bill then takes this file and continuously adds to it despite the District Attorney's Office's objections. When he is subpoenaed to court about Erdmann's testimony, he tells the complete truth and is later indicted for telling the truth. The final parts of the book detail his legal battle to win back his job, his pride, and his reputation.

Good:
Intriguing! It is scary to think that there are counties that exist in the United States who are not above falsifying government reports and lying under oath. Bill Hubbard's integrity and perseverance is invigorating and refreshing in this fake, deceptive society. Even when it would have been easy to say "I don't remember" or to lie, he refuses to do so.
I was also moved by the great amount of donated support from other law offices. I wish in this world there were more people like Dennette Vaughn, Gerald Goldstein, and Dan Hurley who worked, not for a big, fat paycheck but because the person was wrongly convicted.
Further, Bill is gifted with, not only being a good, honest cop, but being a great writer. I feel Bill did a good job incorporating dialogue (which probably came from court transcripts and memories) to liven up the book. He kept me interested every step of the way, dropping hints and providing great detail. He should be very proud of the work he has done here.

Bad:
The first 100 or so pages are quite gory as they detail autopsies and the like. If a person is faint of heart, this is not a good book to read.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Two instances of the f- word that someone besides the author says. No sexual situations. Violence is mostly referencing prior police jobs--the shooting of a cop, a rape, and the like.

Overall:
After reading another true crime book about Laci and not learning more than I could have found on Wikipedia, I was a little worried about this book. However, my concerns were not founded. This is an excellent book about how the truth won out. Definitely worth reading.

As a west Texan I felt a little embarassed or slammed by the book but facts are facts and courage like this is extremely rare. This has national relevance. This REALLY happened and new crimes and cover-ups of the pathologist are still surfacing. Hubbard (and his wife) basically took on the world. They are BOTH heroes. You will wonder what makes a person even continue to believe in the human race. Truth always divides but it eventually prevails. This is not just a mystery....it is a warning and an uplifting testimony to faith and truth. Actually it is a love story. You'll recommend it to others. He tells a story well. I would buy his next book based on this one.

Well written, quick paced and quite a ride. It's easy to get lost in this book, until it sends a shiver down your spine when you remember this is a true story and that it happen just four or five years ago. Bravo to the Criminal Defense Attorneys that championed Bill Hubbards cause. As much as everyone wants to bad mouth defense attorneys, one must remember - they are the only people in this country trying to preserve the Constitution.

I love this book, but then again, I'm a bit biased. I've known the Sammons family my entire life and, with help from my mother, found many parallels to real life. I have read both books from Mr. Sammons and am anxiously awaiting his next.

Mr. Sammons has done it again! This is a stay-up-all-nighter, indeed! The charming ways of his writing will stay with the reader forever. One feels himself becoming so attached to the lively, realistic characters in this book that he becomes defensive when necessary and rejoices in their triumphs right alongside them. Until Mr. Sammons chooses to write again, I'll be counting the minutes.

This book allows the reader to see southern rural life. It helps the reader to understand the social order in the south and the social morays that governed the rural south of the 1940's. It is excellent book as it is full of amusing stories that will leave the reader laughing and at times sad.

It's not just that the subject of hit men is very interesting - this anthology contains 31 stories, and more than 20 of them are excellent. I will certainly return to this book again and again, to reread one of these gems. It is extremely rare of a short story anthology of any genre to contain such a high rate of gems. Jeremiah Healy's and Sean Doolitle's stories are the cream of this excellent crop.

Horror comes in many flavors: supernatural, psychological, science fictional, etc. The edges of genres often blur and bleed into one another, and genre authors can be found in genres for which they are not generally known. Case in point: THESE GUNS FOR HIRE, containing stories about hitmen, which is ostensibly a mystery genre anthology, but wait! You'll find authors included herein whose works I've reviewed previously down here in the Tomb, those works having been firmly rooted in the horror genre. So what gives? Fiction is fluid, my friends, and if you're looking for the dark stuff in the horror aisles exclusively, you're missing some spine-curdling scares. Take the short story "Everybody Wins" by Lisa Mannetti--it's a sardonically horrifying, suspenseful and terrifically funny tale about a suicidal middle-aged woman who is bamboozled into performing a major contract hit when she seeks help from a suicide hot line. Horror writer Ed Gorman turns in a very frightening story about a down-and-out jailbird who is approached by a former beauty queen to insure that her daughter wins a major pageant--requesting not murder, but the permanent disfigurement of her daughter's competition. I was delighted to find one of my favorite writers of totally twisted horror, Jeff Strand, included as well. His bizarre story about one of the most ineffective hitmen ever to pick up a gun is just what I would have expected from this crazy guy. Horror dynamo Jay Bonansinga tells of a seasoned pro who truly enjoys the wetwork, and it's a supernatural tale, as is "Pet Project" by Robert Walker! Horror/mystery writer David Morrell makes a fine showing with his tale of the ultimate "Attitude Adjuster". You'll also find the best mystery writers working today included in this spectacular pulse-pounding volume. This is a high-octane, heart-pumping, knock-yer-socks-off volume of 31 great stories all about hitmen that will satisfy fans of horror, mystery and suspense equally. You'll encounter stories that can be considered pulp, noir, supernatural, humorous or just plain unclassifiable. And there's not a clinker in the bunch! Killer!

...this is an amazing story collection.

The problem with anthologies is that there are usually only two or three awesome stories, and the rest suck.

With THESE GUNS, every story is awesome. I know, because I edited the damn thing, and demanded nothing less than perfection from the many contributing authors.

No clunkers here. No stinkers. No stories that were phoned in by the writer. Just one kickass hitman story after another.

Some are funny (Brian Wiprud, Jeff Strand, PJ Parrish), some are lyrical (Marcus Sakey, John Galligan, William Kent Krueger, Ken Bruen), some are supernatural (Robert W. Walker, Jay Bonansinga), and some feature hit women instead of men (MJ Rose, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Julie Hyzy.) But each one is great.

If you like mafia hits, there's David Ellis, Rob Kantner, and Victor Gischler. If you like hardboiled noir there's Ed Gorman, Jeff Abbott, and Ben Leroy. If you like series characters, there are appearances by the series heroes of Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, David Morrell, and JA Konrath (I'm the editor---as if I'm not going to stick one of my stories in.)

There are foreign locales, twist endings, martial arts, hot sex, graphic violence, and even some laughs. If you read mysteries or thrillers, you'll love this collection.

I've heard some folks say they don't like short stories. That they prefer novels, because short stories aren't satifsfying.

Trust me--this is the genre version of an all you can eat buffet. You can try 31 different things, and each one is satisfying.

Buy this book. You won't regret it.

Very convenient to have three books in one! Easy print to read and as always..fun loving books!

how convient to get three mrs. murphy books all in one,also great way to get the story from the beginning in hardback at a great price

In the 4th book in the Mrs. Murphy and Tucker mystery series, Pay Dirt, a mysterious stranger has ridden into the sleepy town of Crozet, Virginia. Rumbling in on a motorcycle, the appearance of the man yelling for "Malibu" startles the small town, and they try to insist to the man that no woman by that name resides in the area. Even though the residents of Crozet are curious, they have other things on their minds. The town is worried about a computer virus, Threadneedle that is supposed to hit businesses on August 1st. When a huge sum of money goes missing from the local bank, everyone assumes that the bank has fallen victim to the computer virus. Everyone scrambles at the bank to locate the missing funds, and when the biker is found murdered, pieces of the puzzle start to fall together. And when Harry and her two famous animal sleuths get involved in the case, you can be sure that she will find and apprehend the culprit.

The 5th installment, Murder She Meowed, Mrs. Murphy and Tucker Mystery are going to the races. Mary Minor Haristeen (aka Harry) has been asked to be a fence judge for the Montpelier steeplechase race, and being a huge fan of the sport, she readily agrees. She is a witness to a violent confrontation between two jockeys, and when one of the jockeys is found dead later in the day, she quickly begins to suspect that this was not a simple misunderstanding. The murderer leaves a calling card, and when another jockey turns up dead with a similar card attached to the body, Harry fears that there may be at least two more victims. Along with help from Mrs. Murphy (a tiger cat), Tee Tucker (a Welsh corgi), Pewter (a fat grey cat), and some new animal characters (including mice, several cats, and horses), Harry is able to stop this murderous spree in the competitive world of steeplechase.

In the 6th book in the Mrs. Murphy and Tucker Mystery series, Murder on the Prowl, the little town of Crozet, Virginia is shaken by the appearance of an obituary in the local paper. On its own, it wouldn't be shocking, as people unfortunately pass on each day. However, this obituary is of the headmaster at St. Elizabeth's prep school, and everyone is shocked by his sudden "death". Thankfully, the obit turns out to be false and is found to be a school age prank, and the town quickly returns to normal. That is...until one more false obituary of another prominent citizen appears, and the boy who placed the first bogus obituary swears he had nothing to do with this one. Then, one of the men is murdered, shaking the small town and its citizens. Mary Minor Haristeen (aka Harry) is the postmistress of the town, and has solved a few cases in the past with the help of her irrepressible feline companion, Mrs. Murphy, a tiger cat, and her canine companion, Tee Tucker, a Welsh corgi. Adding to that mix is Pewter, a large grey cat who is spending more time away from her former home at the market, to enjoy time with Murphy and Tucker. The four friends jump in to solve a murder, and find themselves fighting for their lives against a killer out for blood.

This is a great series! The animals talk to one another, and feel that they are superior to humans because we do not speak "cat" or "dog". For some readers, it does take a little bit of time to get used to the communication between the animals, but it is well worth it. I love the way that the residents of the town interact with one another, and this is as much of a draw to the books as is the mystery. I am often guessing until the end as to how the mystery will be resolved, and I am also curious to see how the animals will help in solving the case. This series makes me wish I could pack up and visit Crozet on my next vacation.

If you enjoy "The Cat Who" mysteries by Lilian Jackson Braun, you might want to give this series a try.

The first book in the series is called "Wish You Were Here". Enjoy!