“Dead Stars” by Bruce Wagner / Wednesday, September 12, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is Dead Stars by Bruce Wagner.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

This novel is all over the place, but it all comes down to this: Fame. More of it. Lack of it. Slipping of it. More superficial inner-character diatribes I have never read, yet sadly, the writing is truth. The characters started out as funny absurd to me because they were so real and ridiculous – laugh out loud funny – but by the end of the book, I was ready to strangle them all. The world of tweets and that people actually care about tweets has near ruined several generations. Unequivocally, these characters are screwed up. There is no redeeming social value. There are some touching paragraphs especially towards the end, but the pot roast is still the pot roast. This novel is a horror story, but as real as a 20/20 interview. Both the interior and relational conversations are as superficial and vacuous as the din of the mall food court, but brilliantly written. As I went deeper into this book I wondered what I had done wrong in my life: I felt I had lived poorly, died, and found myself in purgatory inside the mind of a “Teen Beat” reader. It made my head implode and as I read, I felt myself consciously blinking trying to process. When Kancer is cool because you spell it with a K (instead of a C) and can tweet it for ratings, you know there is something amiss in the shallow world of starlets and their followers. It was like reading a year’s supply of “Star,” “Us,” and “People” magazine all in one sitting. When I reached the last page, I wanted to get up and take a shower.

What’s in here? Let’s see… Superficial, jealous, lying parental relationships. Hollywood namedropping. Teens who don’t know how to write complete sentences become parents and are so excited that the news calls for a celebration of 4 or 5 Percs and “let’s f—” and see if we can poke the baby in the eyeball. A wannabe screenwriter living with his mother waiting for her to die. A 12-year-old Hollywood kid with more money that Chase trying to track his deserting mother down online. A famous actor dreaming of a comeback. The wife of a famous actor who is a famous prima donna because of the famous actor. The daughter of a well-respected famous actor who sees her career in porn as a future to the legitimate world. A pregnant teen famous for scandalous nude photos when she was a baby who leaves her has-been-famous-and-wants-to-be-famous-again-Sears-portraiture mother and runs off with her loser porn-addicted boyfriend where they both live with an “American Idol” contestant disqualified for making up a fake sob-story-past. These are joined by the pregnant teen’s brother who is famous for taking pictures of famous women getting out of cars without panties and selling them to websites. An obsession with “Glee.” Internet access to the absurd. Porn websites. The public’s obsession with celebrity skin and other inanities of fame. It sounds absurd, but it is a pop culture, tabloid, no-attention-span-immediate-gratification, angry harangue crash course. It’s the GIGO demographic: garbage in garbage out. Bruce Wagner has put a lot of work into this. And fun. There’s no way he could write some of the lines and not be sitting there laughing out loud. But I can feel the sweat.

It is satire at its finest, but the kind of satire that simply holds up the mirror to this population and let’s them hang themselves. There is nothing moralistic, preachy, high handed, or manipulative about how Wagner does this. The guy is just writing it as he sees it. Wagner hits the characters dead center. The stream-of-consciousness inside these characters’ minds is straight out of any supermarket tabloid. It is rapid-fire. The voices are right-on and distinct, which is a major accomplishment considering they are from the same morphic sub-culture. Wagner’s strength is in writing the stream-of-consciousness, MTV-five-second attention span associated so much with this crowd, and turning that prose into independent voices and full dysfunctional families. This is a long book, possibly too long. However, as I read it, the character interactions move along quickly. It is when we are inside a particular character’s head that things tend to circle around on itself. Therein is the conflict between economy and realism. The road taken produces a more pointed effect. Circle, circle, but never arrive. It reminds me when Homer Simpson had a thought. Wait. Wait. “Peanuts.”

I can’t see this novel playing well in middle-America, but it is important because of its characterizations and I will speak from experience, once you get this story and these characters in your mind, there is absolutely no way to get them out. No amount of Lysol will do it. It is reflective of our country’s obsession with fame to the point of absurdity. It will make you laugh. It will make you angry. It will make you want to pistol whip somebody.

Language and subject matter probably won’t appeal to many of the readers on this list. For those whose sensitivities are easily blasted, this is porn taking a look at porn. “Fifty Shades of Grey” might want to pass itself off as a pig in a suit, but this is what it is. There is no preamble. Right from the get-go we are f—ing.

What is wrong with this book is that everything is right. There are too many people in the world like this. He’s not making fun of Hollywood. He’s not making fun of the tabloid newsstand. No, he’s making fun of what America has become. Facebook, text, and tweet that, twit. It’s partly the vanity and vacuousness of Beverly Hills, but even more so, it is a mirror image of the culture that worships them.

How close to reality is it? My son was selling magazines this week for his school. There was a 1 page offering for science and history. They’ve discontinued the literature section except for certain literary magazines which are nothing more than hi-brow navel-gazing. There were several pages for sports (essentially J-Lo in the body of PacMan Jones). And the rest of the 40-50 page catalog was basically glamour and star-chasing with cleavage and “secret tips” galore. This is for an elementary magazine sale fundraiser. But we all know that if my son went door-to-door with a one-sheet of intellectual fare, he would sell nothing. The point of Wagner’s novel is well-made and, unfortunately for those who seek a more erudite world, you’re not helping. No matter what we like to think of as traditional values, the question comes down to this: Will doing a sex tape or posing nude make us famous when we have no other talent or redeeming value to offer? And if we are not doing the tape or posing, will we be enablers by looking or talking about it to our friends? Do we talk about the personal lives of stars as though we know them? Therein is the rub of this book because in this culture, there really is only one answer.

From Amazon:

“Dead Stars is Bruce Wagner’s (I’m Losing You) most lavish and remarkable translation yet of the national zeitgeist: post-privacy porn culture, a Kardashianworld of rapid-cycling, disposable narrative where reality-show triumph is the new American narcotic.

At age thirteen, Telma is famous as the world’s youngest breast cancer survivor until threatened with obscurity by a four-year-old Canadian who’s just undergone a mastectomy … Reeyonna believes that auditioning for pregnant-teen porn online will help fulfill her dream of befriending Jennifer Lawrence and Kanye West … Biggie, the neurologically impaired adolescent son of a billionaire, spends his days Google Map-searching his mother-who abandoned home and family for a new love … Jacquie, a photographer once celebrated for taking arty nudes of her young daughter, is broke and working at Sears Family Portrait Boutique … Tom-Tom, a singer/drug dealer thrown off the third season of “American Idol” for concocting a hard-luck story, is hell-bent on creating her own TV series in the Hollywood Hills, peopled by other reality-show losers … Jerzy, her sometime lover, is a speed-freak paparazzo who “specializes” in capturing images of dying movie and television stars … And Oscar-winning Michael Douglas searches for meaning in his time of remission. While his wife, Catherine, guest-stars on “Glee”, the actor plans a bold, artistic, go-for-broke move: to star in and direct a remake of Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz”…

There is nothing quite like a Bruce Wagner novel. His prose is captivating and exuberant, and surprises with profound truths on spirituality, human nature, and redemption. Dead Stars moves forward with the inexorable force of a tsunami, sweeping everyone in its fateful path. With its mix of imaginary and real-life characters, it is certain to be the most challenging, knowing, and controversial book of the year.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers / Tuesday, September 11, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

This is a book that will change the way you look at war and what an appropriate book to release on 9/11. It is the fictional story of Private John Bartle who enlisted in the U.S. Army with the patriotic goal of fighting the war in Iraq. It is a novel written from experience by Iraq veteran Kevin Powers. When I opened the book, I did not know exactly what to expect. A traditional U.S. Army marching song immediately set the tone for “The Yellow Birds.” I can’t repeat the words here, but for those who have never served in the military suffice it to say it would shock your mother and, in the case of this novel, the words are prophetic as the novel unfolds in two concurrent storylines telling us what happened to one character and what another character did that was so bad. It is a beautifully written book and the comparison between home (as the main character knew it before the war), the war itself, and the main character’s view of home after the war is pure poetry. It encompasses a surreality of war that those of us who have never been can never know. Powerful. Emotional. Real. Disturbing. Phrases such as “Murph’s always going to be eighteen, and he’s always going to be dead” and “We were grooms before a marriage” stick in your head once you see the context. I felt the fear and confusion in the prose as 18-year-old idealistic kids dressed as U.S. soldiers were expected to handle atrocities with no preparation led by other kids while the commanders stayed behind in their control centers talking to the press about patriotism. There is a parental toll and the concerned requests of a parent (“Promise that you’ll bring him home to me”) becomes a death sentence. Having lived through the Vietnam War before this current incarnation, I would have to agree that “the world makes liars of us all,” that “there is a sharp distinction between what we remembered, what was told, and what was true.” Each line is poetry, the passion of life, the inevitability of death. As the kid soldiers are losing their minds, I could not help but grow angry at the posturing and attitude of those safely behind the lines of fire, the brass shows for the press, and the duplicitousness hidden behind the ruse of nationalism. Having had family members and close friends who have fought and served, I recognized those returning home, coming back to civilian life, constantly grabbing for the rifle between their legs that was no longer there, the isolation of coming home, the guilt of being alive. At times, the novel became unpleasant and I wanted to stop reading and spare myself, yet I could not, as my mind filled with the mental picture of the barbaric animals we were sent to fight and the impulsive, lost animals we created in our own jingoistic zeal. “I could not tell what was true and what I had invented but I wanted it to stop,” the main character says. I could not agree more. It is not about doing what is honorable or right, for even the best intentions in this novel do not go unpunished. I’ve heard it claimed that the wars in my lifetime have been about freedom and I know there are past wars that have, but I challenge anyone to read this book and tell me where freedom fits into this narrative. For those writers who wish to write honestly about war, this is the first book in some time that gives an honest portrayal. For those political loyalists, warhawks, and La-Z-Boy commanders ardent on sending other people’s kids off to war, this should be required reading. Like “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “The Red Badge of Courage” before it, I predict a long-life for this book for it is one that is not easily forgotten.

From Amazon:

“A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.

“The war tried to kill us in the spring.” So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.

In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.

With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, The Yellow Birds is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“What You Wish For” by Janet Dawson / Monday, September 10, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is “What You Wish For” by Janet Dawson.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Lindsey Page’s world is about to change: her estranged daughter comes home, her friends are not what she thought they were, and a Salvadorian woman she meets is about to wreck her world.

I usually speed-read novels, but this is one that I had to take slowly. Not because it was hard to read, but because this is a novel that required me to think. This is a novel you want to savor as much for the context of the story, as for the story itself.

It’s plot driven. Things happen. But underneath it all is an undercurrent of themes and motifs. The story provides a powerful contrast between the affluence of San Francisco and the jungles of El Salvador, from which the conflict emerges.

The spine of the story is based on the atrocious 1981 massacre that took place in El Mozote, El Salvador (one of the defining black eyes of the Reagan administration and the failing credibility of American journalism). El Mozote is masked in “What You Wish For” as a fictional town, but the parallel is clearly there. Men are murdered. Women and children are raped and murdered. The most adorable children are kidnapped and sold. Happy Americans thinking they are doing good adopt the children. The U.S. political system covers up the atrocity. Conservative newspapers protect their treasured politicians. Certain American businesses thrive. More families are murdered. The cycle repeats. All, it seems, because we like to drink coffee. And then one day, a Salvadorian refugee in the U.S. sees a boy who looks like her kidnapped son…

The entire book is about conflict: them and us, differing politics, San Francisco then and now, the haves and the have-nots, justice and injustice, giving as a parent versus holding back, on and on. Told through multiple flashbacks, the story spans from 1970s to present and covers many a hotbed subject.

If you like your stories delicate with a touch of cream and sugar, this one is not for you. “What You Wish For” is as black and sometimes bitter as it can get.

From the publisher:

“History professor Lindsey Page has a quiet, well-ordered life, but it’s about to get complicated. Her daughter, with whom she has a troubled relationship, shows up on her doorstep. The immigrant woman Lindsey is interviewing for a book asks her for help in reclaiming the son taken from her during a massacre in her Salvadoran village. And her closest friends, the three women Lindsey has known since their college days in Berkeley where they witnessed the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, are hiding secrets that will forever change those friendships. Lindsey must grapple with questions of family identity, nature vs. nurture, truth in wartime, the ethics of power for latter-day robber barons in the US and Central America, and the law of unforeseen consequences. Moving back and forth from the 1970s to the present, from the San Francisco Bay Area to El Salvador this sprawling saga follows Lindsey, her friends, and family through tumultuous political, social, and cultural changes and choices.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose” by Susan Wittig Albert / Friday, September 7, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

"The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose" by Susan Wittig Albert

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Susan Wittig Albert is a long-time writer of historicals from various time periods. Her latest series,“The Darling Dahlias” is set in the South (Alabama) in the 1930s during the Great Depression with“Confederate Rose” being third in the series. There are two puzzles to be solved (along with deciphering the odd behavior of several residents of the town). The first puzzle is the accusation of theft against one of the members of the Dahlia Garden Club. The second is the unraveling of a secret code found sewn inside an heirloom pillow. The antics of the townsfolk are never-ending and provide constant activity, action, and amusement. I love the wistful references to products and companies long gone (or still standing) that I personally remember from conversations of people around my childhood or experienced myself (having eaten many bowls of Post Toasties with my own grandmother listening to whatever was on her old Philco radio, for example). Albert’s attention to historical detail bring the mystery to life with a believable plot along and more-than-plausible Southern gentle-ladies (being from the South, I recognize them as some of my aunts and cousins). It is fast-paced and a delightful, nostalgic novel that aptly reproduces life in 1930s Depression-era Alabama. If “cozy” is your genre, then this one should be at the top of your list to read.

From the publisher:

“National bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert returns to the small town of Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s – and the Darling Dahlias, the ladies of a garden club who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty solving mysteries…

Just in time for the Confederate Day celebration, the Darling Dahlias are ready to plant Confederate roses along the fence of the town cemetery. Of course, Miss Dorothy Rogers, club member and town librarian, would be quick to point out the plant is in fact a hibiscus.

The Confederate rose is not the only thing that is not what it first appears to be in this small Southern town. Earle Scroggins, the county treasurer, has got the sheriff thinking that Scroggins’ employee Verna Tidwell (also the Darling Dahlias’ trusted treasurer) is behind a missing $15,000. But Darling Dahlias president Liz Lacy is determined to prove Verna is not a thief.

Meanwhile Miss Rogers has discovered her own mystery – what appears to be a secret code embroidered under the cover of a pillow, the only possession she has from her grandmother. She enlists the help of a local newspaperman, who begins to suspect the family heirloom may have larger significance.

With missing money, secret codes, and the very strange behavior of one resident, Darling, Alabama, on the eve of Confederate Day, is anything but a sleepy little town…

Includes Southern-Style Depression-Era Recipes”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Death in Breslau” by Marek Krajewski / Thursday, September 6, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book: 

Author Marek Krajewski’s set of four crime novels featuring Counsellor Eberhard Mock have been translated into 14 languages. To my knowledge, this first book in the series is the first release of any in the U.S. proper.

In the novel, the city of Breslau (which later became Wroc’law after WWII) is swarming with Gestapo in 1933 and the Nazis are sliding their fingers into all things law enforcement, political, and Jewish. The story plays forth and back between this time and around 1945. The novel first caught my attention because it opens in Dresden, Germany. Having just produced and directed a documentary inclusive of WWII and the Jewish victimization that evolved in Dresden specifically (www.oneofthemiracles.com), I know the book represents the time period more than accurately, though at times emblematically, which of course good literature always does. The story is as dark as it can get. If it were a movie, it would be in black-and-white or, at the very least, muted. Color would do it injustice.

Silesia is an area seeped in antiquity going back to historical developments as early as the fourth century BC when the Celts settled into the area and then Germanic tribes arrived in the first century. Throughout history, It has been an ethnic boiler pot, constantly evolving. Here the reader can watch the continued evolution of the region that took place in the mid twentieth century with the infiltration of the German Nazis as well as follow a murderer’s motive going back even farther into history.

The writing style is direct and clipped, reminding me a bit of Hemingway writing in a different genre.

There is a rape and murder, scorpions and spies, lots of scorpions and spies. There are surprises such as the solving of the case and then the realization that the case is not solved and a trail of clues leading back through time as only a European narrative has the ability to do.

The novel has a hedonistic feel throughout reflecting the time period. The characters are making do with occupational / wartime self-preservation and pleasures amidst a world they cannot control. From beginning to end, the book feels sinister and, because the characters do not know what is ahead, self-indulgent (not from the author, but from the characters). It is an excellent study of symbolism and allegory as author Krajewski suffuses characters and locations with traits symptomatic as well as literal.

In the midst of the darkness, there were some moments that made me laugh aloud, sometimes inappropriately with the same off-beat sense of humor embedded in the main character Counsellor Eberhard Mock.

Danusia Stok did a great job translating the work. Kudos to her.

On a side note, but adding to the ambiance (book and wine collectors will follow me here), the book jacket and the physical pages have a different texture to them, which you won’t get in a Kindle version. Each touch of my finger turning pages emphasized the layers of the novel. The cover of the book is black and feels like velvet, the pages course. I don’t know enough about the printing process to know what Melville International Crime did to achieve this end, but I loved it.

If you like your mysteries challenging and possibly high-brow, I recommend the book. It’s not typical American fare and certainly something to stretch the literary boxes we sometimes place ourselves within in both literature and genre fiction.

From the publisher:

“Introducing one of the most stylish and moody historic detective series ever: The Inspector Eberhard Mock Quartet

Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby …Police Inspector Eberhard Mock’s weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate.

But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence.

And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city’s squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades …”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Garment of Shadows” by Laurie R. King / Wednesday, September 5, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

This is not your traditional Sherlock Holmes. In the latest novel featuring Mary Russell and her husband, the famous Mr. Holmes, we find ourselves in the midst of an impending war in historical Morocco between Spain, France, and several interior tribal clans and warlords. I started reading and had to go downstairs for a moment and get a cup of coffee (sorry, not Arabic, all I had was South American, but bitter of course with no sugar) and then settled in for an all night reading fest. This was my first time reading Laurie R. King’s work and I was intrigued to see Holmes as a settled man. The relationship between his wife and him is subtle, yet longing and solid. I loved the nuances of their relationship. It’s an erudite book, as one would expect featuring Holmes, and very well-researched. The details are tremendous. The story centers around a kidnapping, which Russell and her husband must solve and, of course, their sleuthing puts them in danger. There is much parallel in this book to what is going on in the world today and, if you are a follower of history, you’ll see it immediately: Tribal factions tearing at the Middle East’s seams, outside influence confusing priorities with their own self-interest, religious leaders vying against political foes, a subterfuge smokescreen of God (or Allah) and country when the real focus is behind-the-scenes exploitation of natural resources. It’s history repeating itself. “How often the fate of nations comes down to personalities,” the book states. “A nugget of truth often sleeps, deep in a tangled web of lies.” I love a book that makes me think while at the same time having fun and caring about the characters. This book does just that and for those who love historical fiction, it doesn’t get any better.

From the publisher:

“Laurie R. King’s New York Times bestselling novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, comprise one of today’s most acclaimed mystery series. Now, in their newest and most thrilling adventure, the couple is separated by a shocking circumstance in a perilous part of the world, each racing against time to prevent an explosive catastrophe that could clothe them both in shrouds.

In a strange room in Morocco, Mary Russell is trying to solve a pressing mystery: Who am I? She has awakened with shadows in her mind, blood on her hands, and soldiers pounding on the door. Out in the hivelike streets, she discovers herself strangely adept in the skills of the underworld, escaping through alleys and rooftops, picking pockets and locks. She is clothed like a man, and armed only with her wits and a scrap of paper containing a mysterious Arabic phrase. Overhead, warplanes pass ominously north.

Meanwhile, Holmes is pulled by two old friends and a distant relation into the growing war between France, Spain, and the Rif Revolt led by Emir Abd el-Krim – who may be a Robin Hood or a power mad tribesman. The shadows of war are drawing over the ancient city of Fez, and Holmes badly wants the wisdom and courage of his wife, whom he’s learned, to his horror, has gone missing. As Holmes searches for her, and Russell searches for herself, each tries to crack deadly parallel puzzles before it’s too late for them, for Africa, and for the peace of Europe.

With the dazzling mix of period detail and contemporary pace that is her hallmark, Laurie R. King continues the stunningly suspenseful series that Lee Child called the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today.“

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“The Three-Day Affair” by Michael Kardos / Tuesday, September 4, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“The Three-Day Affair” by Michael Kardos

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Debut author Michael Kardos should be having a grand day today. Not only does he have a new book release today, but the book is riveting and I have no doubt he and his publisher both know it. No question, they have a good idea where this book is going. From the very first page, Kardos had me. The writing is so natural that I read the first page of the preface three times trying to determine if this was an author forward or part of the book. Rarely do you read such naturalistic prose. As the book continues, it doesn’t let up. Suspenseful from the start and told through the point-of-view of a sympathetic everyday guy who finds himself in a situation he could not have foreseen, this thriller will kidnap you all the way to the bitter end. I’m not disclosing here what the book is about, you can read that in the blurbs. What I would like to recommend is that you buy this book and read it. Set aside a time where you won’t be disturbed. You will not be able to put it down.

From Amazon:

“The first debut novel from the newly relaunched Mysterious Press introduces a phenomenal new voice in the realm of crime fiction.

Will, Jeffrey, and Nolan are lifelong friends. Each have gone their separate ways as adults, living their own lives while forging their own careers. They have no reason to believe anything extraordinary will befall them. Until one shocking moment changes everything…

Will is a part-time drummer who spends the rest of his time in recording studios. He has lived a sheltered existence. Then one night Jeffrey attempts to rob a convenience store, drags a young woman into Will’s car, and shouts a single word: “Drive!” Shaken and confused, Will obeys.

Suddenly three ordinary men find themselves completely out of their element, holding a young girl hostage without the slightest idea of what to do next. They are already guilty of kidnapping and robbery; it is only a matter of time before they find out just what else they’re capable of. For these four people, three days will decide their fate – between freedom and prison, innocence and guilt…and life and death. In the tradition of Scott Smith’s classic A Simple Plan, THE THREE-DAY AFFAIR marks the emergence of a truly talented new crime writer.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Hocus” by Jan Burke / Friday, August 31, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Hocus” by Jan Burke

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Here’s a little dip into the past: In Jan Burke’s 2003 “Hocus,” reporter Irene Kelly’s husband (Det. Frank Harriman) has been kidnapped and she has only 3 days to get him back. What does she have to do? Save her husband by solving another crime. It’s fast-paced, believable, good manipulation of past and present, and a nice introduction to an author I think you’ll like if you are not already familiar. To my knowledge, available only in paperback.

From Amazon:

“For reporter Irene Kelly it’s a terrifying investigation — because it’s so personal. Her husband, Detective Frank Harriman, has been kidnapped by terrorists who call themselves Hocus — deadly manipulators who give Irene three days to meet their demands before killing their hostage. But Irene’s biggest shock is yet to come — as she uncovers her husband’s history, and learns of a horrific crime committed a decade earlier. As seconds slip away, Irene willingly steps into a trap set by two madmen with a score to settle. And when she does, someone is going to pay for the sins of the past.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“A Cup Full of Midnight” by Jaden Terrell / Friday, August 24, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is A Cup Full of Midnight by Jaden Terrell.

Buy From Amazon and Support Killer Nashville

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Beth Terrell, executive director for Killer Nashville, knows first-hand I’m blatantly anti-nepotistic. In fact, I’m harder on family and friends than I am on anybody. So when I choose a book of the day by Jaden Terrell (Beth’s pseudonym), she knows it means something. You should, as well. Beth turns a story like no other. Her latest book, “A Cup Full of Midnight” is no exception. In this second installment of PI Jared McKean, the tough detective takes on the world of the goth. It’s a fascinating, well-researched journey and one I know you’re not going to want to miss.

From Amazon:

“At thirty-six, private detective Jared McKean is coming to terms with his unjust dismissal from the Nashville Murder Squad and an unwanted divorce from a woman he still loves. Jared is a natural horseman and horse rescuer whose son has Down Syndrome, whose best friend is dying of AIDS, and whose teenage nephew, Josh, has fallen under the influence of a dangerous fringe of the Goth subculture. When the fringe group’s leader – a mind-manipulating sociopath who consideres himself a vampire – is found butchered and posed across a pentagram, Josh is the number one suspect. Jared will need all his skills as a private investigator and former homicide detective to match wits with the most terrifying killer he has ever seen. When he learns that Josh is next on the killer’s list, Jared will risk his reputation, his family, and his life in a desperate attempt to save the boy he loves like a son.

“If there’s anything Terrell can’t do, you wouldn’t know it from reading A Cup Full of Midnight. This is a riveting, deeply felt novel with a terrific mystery at its core.” – Timothy Hallinan, author of the critically acclaimed Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“The Headmaster’s Wager” by Vincent Lam / Wednesday, August 22, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Headmaster’s Wager” by Vincent Lam

Why I chose this book:

People aren’t who they appear to be. That’s the consensus of this debut novel by Canadian author (and full-time physician) Vincent Lam whose interwoven short-story collection “Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures” first got my attention back in 2007 [hint: read it, too]). But, back to this book: The main character in “The Headmaster’s Wager,” Percival Chen, is chocked-full of foibles. You’ll not like him, then you will. But what you will find is a man trying to make do with what he has to work with in his war-torn Saigon of the 1960s. In a world such as ours, with countries lost in war, it’s beneficial to me to be reminded of the individuals locked in lands of turmoil. Sometimes, like the character in this novel, one just has to do what it takes. I chose this book, not because it is a mystery or thriller, but because it’s just good. It’s one of those books you read and walk away from, carrying it with you and thinking about it. Chen’s story of love, ultimate betrayal, and personal sacrifice is unforgettable. I love Chen’s pursuit of something that matters, when what he is really trying to do is fill the hollowness that his choices in life (and life itself, to be fair) have dealt him. 2007 to 2012 is a long time between books. I’m looking forward to when Lam gives up his day job in the ER to chase his novel career full time. :) Vincent Lam is definitely an author to watch.

From Amazon:

“A superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting debut novel about one man’s loyalty to his country, his family and his heritage. Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English academy in 1960s Saigon, and he is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of his school. Fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, he is quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country, though he also harbors a weakness for gambling haunts and the women who frequent them. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, but when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage whom he is able to confide in. But Percival’s new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Graced with intriguingly flawed but wonderfully human characters moving through a richly drawn historical landscape, The Headmaster’s Wager is an unforgettable story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Stealing from the Dead” by A.J. Zerries / Tuesday, August 21, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

An old woman dies in her New York apartment. The apartment reveals little – in fact – too little. Detective Greta Strasser can’t leave it alone until she discovers a conspiracy that spans New York to Los Angeles on to Germany, Switzerland, and the Middle East. What started with the apparent natural death of an old woman in a New York apartment becomes a terrorist conspiracy and an attempt to steal millions of dollars from German Holocaust survivors. In a twist, to catch the killer, the detective is forced to impersonate the assassin she is attempting to apprehend. For the person who wakes up in the morning wondering about the meaning of his/her life, Zerries’ Strasser becomes an identifiable character. The story is a fast-moving police procedural with plenty of surprises, based upon a real-life believable scenario. A little trivia: Al and Jean Zerries (husband and wife) tag team together to form A. J. Zerries.

From Amazon:

“In Stealing from the Dead, detective Greta Strasser uncovers a brutal plot to steal millions from Holocaust survivors and fuel a vast terrorist conspiracy. Between 1933 and 1945, thousands of Jewish people deposited their money in Swiss bank accounts, hoping that they or their family might survive the Holocaust. However, when the survivors returned to reclaim their money, the banks claimed that the accounts never existed. Now, decades later, NYPD detective Greta Strasser, investigating the death of an elderly Jewish woman, stumbles onto a conspiracy that stretches from New York and Los Angeles to Germany, from Switzerland to the Middle East. Greta, recruited by a special task force, follows a trail of ruthless murders. The conspirators have hired an assassin to kill the people on the Claims Resolution Tribunal list. Greta, hell-bent on stopping the senseless deaths and enormous theft of funds, goes undercover to prevent the next murder, even though it means impersonating the assassin she hunts. With all the tension and excitement that fueled The Lost Van Gogh, A. J. Zerries has written another novel of enormous excitement and constantly building suspense.”

“A first-rate story about a NYPD cop who won’t quit no matter what obstacles are put in her way, or who puts them there. First-rate.” – David Hagberg, New York Times bestselling author of Abyss

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

"Pork Pie Hat" by Peter Straub / Monday, August 20, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

From our 2012 Killer Nashville Guest of Honor Peter Straub, but that is not why I chose it. It’s one of my favorite books, which just happens to be written by Straub. This is literature and mystery at its finest. Something happened, we don’t know what it was, then over the course of the narrator’s lifetime, he uncovers the truth. I love the way Straub handles multiple plot requirements on the way to the end, leading us down one false path and then another. The ending – even the storytelling itself – is far from cliche and I’m fairly confident that whatever you guess as you go along will be incorrect when the final page arrives. That’s rare. The dialogue and prose are unmatched. If you want a well-written story with surprises, this is a great book to check out. (And if you’re going to be at Killer Nashville this Saturday, this is one I’ll be discussing with Straub in relation to plotting.) Enjoy!

From Amazon:

“Passionate about jazz, the narrator discovers that one of his greatest heroes, a saxophonist by the name of Pork Pie Hat, is still alive and playing at a club he frequents. Granted an interview by the Hat, the narrator gets a night of extraordinary stories from a man dying of alcoholism. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

"Oregon Hill" by Howard Owen / Friday, August 17, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

A colorful reporter who is a sardonic spectator. The wrong perpetrator charged. The reporter saves the day. You probably think you’ve read this story before. But you would be wrong. This is so much better than those other books you might have read. Author Howard Owen is a brilliant observer of people. Set in Richmond in the dying world of print newspapers, this first person narrative is Southern investigative noir at its finest. I love the dialogue. It has that rare combination of being both plot and character driven, an infrequent amalgamation in most books. I first came across Owen’s reporter Willie Black in “Richmond Noir,” an anthology of short stories from Akashic Books. I thought he would make a great series character. I’m glad Owen introduced him here. I hope Willie Black makes another appearance. I predict a very successful series. On a side note: What’s the magic at Permanent Press? The house is fast becoming one of my favorite publishers. Consistently, publisher Martin Shepard and staff keep turning out winners. I don’t know how they do it, but the team has a golden touch. I’m looking forward to more stories from their organization in the future. You can check out all of their mysteries here:http://www.thepermanentpress.com/c-19-Mysteries.aspx.

From Amazon:

“Willie Black has squandered a lot of things in his life – his liver, his lungs, a couple of former wives and a floundering daughter can all attest to his abuse. He’s lucky to be employed, having managed to drink and smart-talk his way out of a nice, cushy job covering (and partying with) the politicians down at the capitol.

Now, he’s back on the night corps beat, right where he started when he came to work for the Richmond paper almost 30 years ago. The thing Willie’s always had going for him, though, all the way back to his hardscrabble days as a mixed-race kid on Oregon Hill, where white was the primary color and fighting was everyone’s favorite leisure pastime, was grit. His mother, the drug-addled Peggy, gave him that if nothing else. He never backed down then, and he shows no signs of changing.

When a co-ed at the local university where Willie’s daughter is a perpetual student is murdered, her headless body found along the South Anna River, the hapless alleged killer is arrested within days. Everyone but Willie seems to think: Case Closed. But Willie, against the orders and advice of his bosses at the paper, the police and just about everyone else, doesn’t think the case is solved at all. He embarks on a one-man crusade to do what he’s always done: get the story.

On the way, Willie runs afoul of David Junior Shiflett, a nightmare from his youth who’s now a city cop, and awakens another dark force, one everyone thought disappeared a long time ago. And a score born in the parking lot of an Oregon Hill beer joint 40 years ago will finally be settled.

The truth is out there. Willie Black’s going to dig it out or die trying.”

Owen knows his setting, his dialogue is spot-on and his grasp of the down-and-dirty work of the police and news reporters lends authenticity to the narrative. This is Southern literature as expected, with a touch of noir, and with a touch of Dennis Lehane s Mystic River. Willie Black deserves a sequel. – Kirkus

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

"Miss Me When I'm Gone" by Emily Arsenault / Thursday, August 16, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

The accidental death of a bestselling author whose mother had been murdered 20 years before. An unfinished manuscript. A stack of notebooks. Tape recordings. And doubt. Buried within the outlines of fiction are the clues to the author’s killer. What story would someone kill (and continue to kill) to keep it from being told. The writing itself is superb and makes it even more a pleasure to read. New York Times notable author Emily Arsenault delivers an exceptional book and brings new meaning to “reading between the lines.”

From Amazon:

“Author Gretchen Waters made a name for herself with her bestseller Tammyland – a memoir about her divorce and her admiration for country music icons Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton that was praised as a “honky-tonk Eat, Pray, Love.” But her writing career is cut abruptly short when she dies from a fall down a set of stone library steps. It is a tragic accident and no one suspects foul play, certainly not Gretchen’s best friend from college, Jamie, who’s been named the late author’s literary executor.

But there’s an unfinished manuscript Gretchen left behind that is much darker than Tammyland: a book ostensibly about male country musicians yet centered on a murder in Gretchen’s family that haunted her childhood. In its pages, Gretchen seems to be speaking to Jamie from beyond the grave – suggesting her death was no accident . . . and that Jamie must piece together the story someone would kill to keep untold.”

Outstanding … Arsenault’s lyrical, moving prose serves to make this more than just a compelling whodunit.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

"Tigers in Red Weather" by Liza Klaussmann / Wednesday, August 15, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Tigers in Red Weather” by Liza Klaussmann

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Five people don’t always see things the same, especially when some are concealing secrets. That’s the case in the Liza Klaussmann’s soap opera-like (meant as a compliment) debut novel “Tigers in Red Weather” in which a murder on 1950s Martha’s vineyard disrupts the family’s life. Klaussmann does a good job managing the five different points-of-view until the truth finally does come out in the end. The story is well-plotted and suspenseful with particularly strong dialogue. Incidentally, for those who like a little backstory with his/her reading, author Liza Klaussmann is the great-great-great-granddaughter of one of my favorite authors Herman Melville.

From Amazon:

“Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up sharing sultry summer heat, sunbleached boat docks, and midnight gin parties on Martha’s Vineyard in a glorious old family estate known as Tiger House. In the days following the end of the Second World War, the world seems to offer itself up, and the two women are on the cusp of their ‘real lives’: Helena is off to Hollywood and a new marriage, while Nick is heading for a reunion with her own young husband, Hughes, about to return from the war.

Soon the gilt begins to crack. Helena’s husband is not the man he seemed to be, and Hughes has returned from the war distant, his inner light curtained over. On the brink of the 1960s, back at Tiger House, Nick and Helena–with their children, Daisy and Ed–try to recapture that sense of possibility. But when Daisy and Ed discover the victim of a brutal murder, the intrusion of violence causes everything to unravel. The members of the family spin out of their prescribed orbits, secrets come to light, and nothing about their lives will ever be the same.

Brilliantly told from five points of view, with a magical elegance and suspenseful dark longing, Tigers in Red Weather is an unforgettable debut novel from a writer of extraordinary insight and accomplishment.”

(A) smart, unsettling debut… Klaussmann’s pitch-perfect portrait of the Derringer marriage gives the novel a strong emotional charge. Their complicated, painfully loving relationship and their mutual tenderness for fresh-faced Daisy ring true….stinging dialogue and sharp insights offer strong foundations on which this novice author can build. – Kirkus Reviews

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

"Flat Spin" by David Freed / Tuesday, August 14, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Pulitzer Prize winning author David Freed’s first book about an ex-military assassin turned flight instructor is enough to make your head buzz. “Flat Spin” is a fast moving chase-em-down thriller with plot twists galore. I love the humor in the tense moments; reminds me of some of the best in the hard-boiled world. Wonderful writing, as one would expect from a journalist who has been shortlisted for numerous journalistic awards. I love the premise: find the killer of the man who stole your wife. The only thing I didn’t like was that the book came to an end, but that’s the way of all good things. Good thing about a book, though, I can always read it again. In this case, I will. This is definitely a book to add to your shelf.

From Amazon:

“David Freed’s first mystery is a stay-up-late-to-finish thriller. It’s also got some of the funniest lines – and characters – one is likely to encounter in any mystery, along with a tense and compelling plot and a most original protagonist.

Based in sunny Rancho Bonita – “California’s Monaco” as the city’s moneyed minions like to call it – Cordell Logan is a literate, sardonic flight instructor and aspiring Buddhist with dwindling savings and a shadowy past. When his beautiful ex-wife, Savannah, shows up out of the blue to tell him that her husband has been murdered in Los Angeles, Logan is quietly pleased. Savannah’s late husband, after all, is Arlo Echevarria, the man she left Logan for.

Logan and Echevarria were once comrades-in-arms assigned to a top-secret military assassination team known as “Alpha.” The only problem is, the LAPD can find no record of Echevarrias ever having toiled for Uncle Sam. Savannah wants Logan to tell the police what he knows. At first he refuses, but then, relying on his small, aging airplane, the “Ruptured Duck,” and the skills he honed working for Alpha, Logan doggedly hunts Echevarria’s killer.

His trail takes him from the glitzy Las Vegas Strip to the most dangerous ghettos of inner-city Oakland, from darkened, Russian Mafia haunts in West Los Angeles to the deserts of Arizona. But that’s the least of his problems. It is his love-hate relationship with Savannah, a woman Logan continues to pine for in spite of himself, that threatens to consume him.”

Readers will find Cordell, intrigued by Buddhism and still emotionally vulnerable from his divorce, an engaging protagonist… Freed, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for the L.A. Times coverage of the Rodney King riots, capably balances humor and serious themes. – Publishers Weekly

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville