'Lunch Reads Volume 3': Quick Bytes of Crime Fiction

Review: LUNCH READS, VOLUME 3 (Istoria Books 2011)
Authors: Edmund X. DeJesus and Ellen B. Holzman

LUNCH READS VOLUME 3 is pretty much as the title describes it. A book with two stories you might be able to read over the course of a lunch hour (or two, depending).

The ebook is part of a series (that's why it says "Volume 3") of ebooks with two short stories -- one shorter than the other -- or so it seems based upon my review of LUNCH READS VOLUME 1.

In any case, here's my review.

First, there's the short story called "Shoplifting" by Edmund X. DeJesus. In this story, the world's most crotchety shopper has some interesting interactions with a young shoplifter. There's a manager, too, but the less said about him, the better. Anyway, the story is short, really funny and ends with a twist. So ... nicely done!

The second story is "Call of the Riled" by Ellen B. Holzman. This story is most creatively told in a series of letters to the editor of a community newspaper. It seems the editor of the Mountain Telegraph has been killed in a most awful and untimely manner. This nasty death provokes a lot of letters to the editor of said paper. (Who's dead, so who's reading them? Some other editor, I guess. An assistant. Whatever ...) Many of the letters offer condolences as to the untimeliness and tragic nature of the editor's demise. Some of them are a bit less sympathetic. Even so, eventually it comes out that, in fact, the editor was murdered. This leads to fresh speculation and a flurry of correspondence from the various crazies who read the paper.

Clearly, Ellen Holzman drew on her background as a community journalist in writing this one. Each letter is basically a character in the story. And this community is chock full of interesting characters, ranging from an intrepid young stringer to an ex-Marine who never fails to sign off with the words "Semper Fi!" The letters convey a narrative that keeps the reader guessing, builds suspense and has as many twists, turns and red herrings as any story with a straight narrative I've ever read. Now that's saying something.

Based on what I've read so far, I'd say Istoria Books has carved out a nice niche with its series of Kindle mystery shorts.

The 30 Harshest Author-on-Author Insults Ever

As you may know, if you read this blog with any degree of regularity, I like to post links to articles with lists. This particular article seemed most interesting for reasons that'll become obvious once you start reading it.

Any article that starts with the words,"Sigh. Authors just don’t insult each other like they used to," surely must be worth reading, wouldn't you think? :)

'Cleansing Eden': A Great Novel of Suspense and Metaphors

 Review: CLEANSING EDEN (Trestle Press 2011)
Author: Benjamin Sobieck

Okay, the first mystery for me about this book was its title. CLEANSING EDEN. What did it mean? What kind of crime story has a title like that?

The story begins with two anonymous people -- a younger man and an older man -- burying a body. Turns out to be a dead celebrity. Right up front, you learn that the older man has an agenda. He wants to kill all the celebrities that are warping young people and, in his opinion, stealing their identities. He calls them pedophiles. I don't think that word means what he thinks it means to paraphrase a character from another story, but I digress.

Here's the thing. The older man enlists the younger man's complicity and assistance in his plan to kill celebrities and, in return, keeps him high and easily manipulated on a drug product he created called Bluegrasse (with an "e" at the end to give it more class).

So ... they do their thing. Kill one celebrity. Two celebrities. Then, the media gets interested. That's when we meet ...

June Routledge. The intrepid reporter for Ce!eb News. Possibly the most annoyingly named celebrity news program in the history of fiction.

And, though June aspires to do real journalism, she has to pay the bills, so she's working at Ce!eb for her most irritating boss, Jim. So when the news breaks about the celebrity killings, June jumps on the chance to get the scoop and be the proverbial Lois Lane of celebrity journalists, as it were.

Now ... things get a bit interesting when an attempt is made on the life of Celebrity #3. Because, let's just say it gets into matters of fault and things like contributory negligence, assumption of risk and how to fix the blame when someone who sets events into motion has no intent to harm. That's it. :)

Naturally, the suspense ratchets up when the cops get involved and Captain Benjamin Escalate is not only questioning the younger man, but eyeing June with suspicion. Imagine!

Meanwhile, the younger man senses things aren't quite right. Both with the Bluegrasse and his situation.

And June also finds her life becoming something she hadn't wanted it to be.

Okay, so basically, the story is about two people -- the younger man and June Routledge -- who are trying -- dare I say it? -- to find their identities.

CLEANSING EDEN is also a highly suspenseful read. Benjamin Sobieck has an inventive way with words. He writes with a voice that's strong and uniquely his.

So ... questions arise. Will June extricate herself from her situation? Will the younger man escape free and clear? Will the real guilty parties be held accountable? And who is to blame, anyhow? The killers? The media? Who?

So many questions. So many metaphors. And, if you read the book, you'll find out that CLEANSING EDEN refers to more than one thing. :)

The 'Least Wanted' Book Launch -- Tomorrow!

We interrupt our usual blogging content for an important announcement. On June 15, if you purchase a print copy of my novel LEAST WANTED on Amazon.com, you can get a FREE autographed copy of my first novel, the New York Times (ebook) bestseller IDENTITY CRISIS.

All you have to do to get your free copy is enter the confirming information as instructed on the launch Web site (click there and bookmark it, for future reference -- thank you! :)).

BTW, I'm also making a charitable donation to Advocates for Children & Youth, in an amount to be determined based upon how high the book ranks by the end of the launch date.


So ... if by the end of the launch date, LEAST WANTED:

Hits the Top 1,000 on Amazon.com, I’ll donate $100; or

Hits the Top 500 in Amazon.com, I’ll donate $250; or

Hits the Top 100 in Amazon.com, I’ll donate $500; or

If we should get so lucky …

Hits #1 in Amazon.com, I’ll donate $1,000.

That's it. Wish me luck! :)

PS: Just one more thing. I'll put in another plug for SHAKEN: Stories for Japan. It's only $3.99 and it's for a really good cause. All the sales proceeds go toward relief efforts in Japan. Here's a sample from the book, okay? :)

PPS: Our normal scheduled blogging content will resume in our next post.

Get 'Shaken' for a Great Cause

I'd like to take a moment to tell you about the anthology SHAKEN: Stories for Japan, being offered on Amazon for the more than reasonable price of $3.99 with all proceeds of sales to go toward Japanese tsunami relief efforts.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Actually, it was all the author Timothy Hallinan's idea, as he describes it here.

Further, I'd be remiss if I didn't note how proud Tim was of everyone who contributed to this project and how they stepped to the occasion.

I would also like to note that I feel incredibly privileged and lucky to have been included among those people.

Something's Coming Soon!

It's made of pixels, has a nice cover graphic and it's amazing. Period.

That's all I'm going to say.

If you'd like to read more, click here for the interview with the Edgar-nominated author Tim Hallinan on The Lipstick Chronicles.

After all, Tim's the one who came up with the idea and organized the whole thing. And considering it involved 20 authors (including me) that's nothing to sneeze at.

Have I mentioned how deeply privileged and lucky I feel to be included in all this? Well, I do feel that way. Completely.

The 20 Most Important Russian Reads

Hi there. Time to post something, but I don't have a review. However, I do have this interesting list of Russian reads. They number 20 in all. And according to this article, they are the 20 most important reads in Russian literature.

Now, I realize that image is probably completely wrong, because there's nothing even remotely resembling Ian Fleming's work on here. So ... how about this?

There ... that's a bit more like it.

Of course, these days, isn't Russia trying to modernize its image?




Yeah. Whatever. :)