"Blood Trade" by Faith Hunter / Tuesday, May 7, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Blood Trade” is the sixth in the Skinwalker series from USA bestselling author Faith Hunter (also known as writer Gwen Hunter).

Jane Yellowrock is a vampire killer who finds herself working for the undead in a vampire story with elements of a police procedural.

The Skinwalker series is a popular series and if you’ve read the previous installments, you’ll know why:  great story (always and, in this case, a missing child always tugs at the heart), excellent plotting covering a lot of territory in a short time, and characters that become more interwoven and developed with every book, all mixed with the through-layering and exploration of Yellowrock’s Cherokee spirituality.  This particular installment has less sex and love life than previous books in the series (which works for me).  But it is always Faith’s urban fantasy writing style that makes for the great series.

I love the plague vampires of Natchez, Mississippi.  Faith pulls her characters from the location rather than building her characters around a location, which creates a wonderful, logical, and unified world. Readers will identify with the conflict of Jane coming to grips with her past.  For those following the series, this one offers a little more hope than the last installment.

If you ever want to know what it would be like to share your body with the spirit of a mountain lion, this is definitely the book to read.  You’ll be transported into this world as though you live there yourself.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

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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!

"Shadows On a Cape Cod Wedding" by Lea Wait / Monday, May 6, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

A dead body on the beach, a second murder, and the looming hurricane amidst wedding preparations and a number of romantic and social issues set against an old antique shop are the stuff of this cozy Maggie Summer murder mystery (sixth in the series).  One can smell the salt of Cape Cod in this believable cozy set in a quaint small town.  “Murder She Wrote” fans take note.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Final Settlement" by Vicki Doudera / Tuesday, April 30, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

If cozies are your thing, you’ll be sold with “Final Settlement” by Vicki Doudera.  This is the fourth installment in her Darby Farr real estate mystery series.

I love the characters and the way Vicki Doudera develops them against the winter setting of the small town, Hurricane Harbor, Maine.  Each chapter builds upon the next and the characters’ interrelationships become more entwined as the story progresses.

In this episode, before Darby returns to her hometown to attend the wedding of Tina Ames, a co-realtor in her real estate firm and a friend, the police chief’s assistant dies mysteriously from a fall into the ocean near a lighthouse.  The chief suspects foul play, but doesn’t want to make a commotion in the small town and enlists Darby’s help.  It is up to Darby to find the answers, but there are over 300 pages of twists-and-turns before she gets there.

Sometimes it’s nice to take your crime slow and this small town has enough busy-bodies and suspects to keep you tied up all the way to the very end.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Submergence" by J.M. Ledgard / Monday, April 29, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

J. M. Ledgard’s “Submergence” has figuratively grabbed me by the…neck.  Every few months I read a book like this and it just blows me away.  This novel hit me in the gut.

The story is from the points-of-view of two characters: James More, a spy, and Danielle Flinders, a biomathematician.  These are two lovers – still in a long-distance relationship – who look back on their liaison while in the throws of their present lives with no knowledge of the turns the life of the other has taken.  She is diving into the depths of the ocean never seen by man.  He is in the depths of captivity as a hostage of al-Qaeda in Somalia.  Both are of different worlds: she entitled, him divided, both obsessed.

This is a beautiful and heart-rending story, full of images, feelings, facts, and history highlighting circumstances and religious politics at odds with the human spirit (and even common sense).  It is how nations with their masters of politics and religions easily flip away the lives and freedoms of their citizens for their own gain, these same citizens who give their love and service freely only to find their life to their country is worth nothing, not even sometimes acknowledgement.

At first you think this is written in a stream-of-consciousness reflection of the characters’ nonlinear thoughts, but what you find by the end is a beautifully assembled plot that has taken you down your own stream without your knowledge of how you ravishingly got there.  J. M. Ledgard’s choices are perfect for conflict – both subtle and grand.

Some are calling this a love story.  It is not.  It is a tragic, dramatic, on-the-edge of your seat story of two people who look back on their relationship in order to sustain their mentality in the incongruity of their present.  There are no stereotypes or formulas here, no pure evil, no pure good.  It is educational.  The intrinsic history of Somalia is interwoven dramatically into the story.  You leave the book learning much about Somalia, other worlds, terrorists, and what the future holds, how sometimes maybe we should look down instead of always looking up.

Muslim Islamic terrorists play a large role here as the captors, and why not?  This is a book about the underworld and things that feed on death.  I’ve read other reviewers and they dance around the al-Qaeda obvious.  Ledgard plays them fairly, striving to help us understand their mentality, but as for this American reader, I found myself not feeling sympathy for these violent individuals dreaming of taking over the world while sitting in their own dung under the Mangrove trees hiding from the U.S.  It made me want to get up from reading and go pee on Osama bin Laden’s watery and justified grave.  It is a British book that will make you proud to be an American, remember why you are an American, and make you wish for the same American vehemence worldwide as in Somalia in 2006.  You will bristle at the vile and ill-conceived mentality of the jihad Muslims (it is not stupidity, but desperation).  You’ll learn about Somalia – what was a beautiful country – now nasty with nasty desperate men, subjected women, and a warped nasty view of religion, an outdated and unchanged Middle East pre-Christ replica where the value of women, children, and – in this case – non-Muslims means nothing.  You are also left – shame on us – with insight into why jihad fighters are so successful when they should not by logic be.

But there is an upside.  For every negative J. M. Ledgard observes, for every diatribe he inspires, he also enchantingly balances it with a positive so you are left, not depressed, not seeing only the bad, but seeing the unsatisfactory as a stepping stone to the good.  It is a book not about what is wrong with this world, but what is right.  It is our thinking that is wrong.  This is a wonderful book for remembering how something as simple as water can unite people, how precious the peaceful moments of our lives are and how we don’t value them usually until they are gone, and how – sometimes – when things are at their worst, maybe it is because we are looking at the wrong things.

This is a wonderful thriller with a message.  It is not preachy.  It is acted out by the characters flawlessly.  You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but you will be changed after reading this book.  You will not be able to forget it after you read it, even if you want to.  It’s that haunting.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"The Bone Man" by Wolf Haas / Friday, April 26, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

In “The Bone Man” by Wolf Haas, former detective Simon Brenner no sooner gets on the job than his client goes missing.  Foul play (or fowl play – pardon me) is suspected, of course, because the reason for hire was the discovery of unidentified human bones in the grinder room of a chicken restaurant.  There is more going on in this restaurant than one thinks.  The premise is about finding the daughter-in-law of the chicken shack empire owner (the woman who hired him), but the story is anything but.

Brief, sparse.  That’s the best way to describe the novel.  Storytelling style reminds me of Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea,” but that’s where the similarity stops.  This is a distinctively German novel taking place in the actual location of Klöch, a municipality in Styria, Austria.  I was never sure who was telling the story or the person’s relationship to Brenner, but it comes across in the tone of an old man in a bar recounting a tale to a fellow stool-holder.  It’s easy, it flows, it’s natural, and it’s packed with asides as though the narrator were inserting his own observations into the tale.  Being European (I know I’m stereotyping so my apologies), the story starts slowly by American standards, but quickly grows addictive the further you go (which is also one of the elements that interested me for today’s Book of the Day over some of our more formulaic American counterparts).  For those who are writers, this is an excellent book on how to plot, a great one to tear apart after you’ve read it a time or two.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Skin in the Game" by R.P. Finch / Monday, April 22, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

The University of West Alabama came upon a prize with R. P. Finch’s first novel “Skin in the Game.” This is a delightfully original and quirky book. Backstabbing deals. Characters’ high hopes with nameless powers and other characters posing as friends ready to dash them. The government. The mob. Bribes left and right in the form of false hope and cash. Lawyers, playing rainmakers, who don’t understand the first thing about documents they negotiate and sign. Revenge. Ambition. A thug wanting to create a theme park of strip joints. An attorney going nuts and seeing ghosts. The mob using the Internet to steal identities or break cyber codes. The government wanting to suppress information to break codes. This novel goes everywhere and, as a legal comedy, it’s one of the best-plotted dramas I’ve ever read. It’s so funny, you don’t realize how serious it really is.

The humor and portrayal of the law firm are the things that really set this novel apart. Author R. P. Finch is an attorney in real life. He must have seen some things on the inside because you can’t make this ridiculous stuff up. It’s a huge firm with huge attorney egos. While we in the general population practice common sense, this law practice – “practicing” because they haven’t got it down yet – makes and defends laws that lack any. I laughed at the absurdity throughout the book. It makes you never want to see a lawyer again. Literally. Not even look at one. Finch is perceptive, blow-your-mind funny, and his words – like the good attorney I’m sure he is – are all well-chosen. If you’re a fellow writer and the least bit insecure, within two pages you’re going to be hating this guy because of what he can do with words. It is wonderful to discover literary brilliance: that’s “Skin in the Game.” My only negative comment would be the ending could have been a little stronger, but that doesn’t diminish the gem that is prior to the end.

It took Finch years to write this book, and it shows. It’s a story someone has nurtured and changed for some time making sure he finally got it right. Finch succeeded. Let’s just hope he doesn’t take as long on the next one.
– Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"The Mystery of Mercy Close" by Marian Keyes / Monday, April 15, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Page-turning laughs await in the new mystery from Irish author Marian Keyes’ “The Mystery of Mercy Close.”

This is the fifth Walsh Sister novel. Helen, the protagonist, is the youngest of the Walsh sisters. She is a private detective, or was, or maybe will be if she can just get a case. She first loses her electricity, then her apartment. She has to move back in with her mother. She’s dealing with a new boyfriend, his kids, and boyfriend’s ex-wife. She isn’t feeling exactly at the top of the world, but her sense of humor is kicking.

In the midst of this, along comes an ex-boyfriend who wants to hire her to find the last missing person from an old Irish 1990s teen band. Mercy Close is (or was before he disappeared) the lead singer for the band Laddz. The remaining members want to have a reunion performance, but first they have to find Mercy. This is where Helen comes in.

This is a funny book, but it is heavy at times. Realistically portrayed along with depression, guilt, psychiatric stays, and attempted suicide, the main character’s romp with depression reveals a dark side uncommon in many protagonists. Of course, her environment is a lighter matter.  The people she meets in the music biz are all recognizable nuts and her investigation of the missing person’s case reveals the delightful vices of booze, drugs, and…well, you know the third, it being rock ‘n roll.

The main plot of this book is Helen and her journey.  Secondly, comes the mystery of the missing person.  If you like character pieces with a little mystery – and ones that will leave you laughing as well as feeling something in your gut – Marian Keyes’ “The Mystery of Mercy Close” might need to be the next novel you read.
– Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Farewell To Freedom" by Sara Blædel / Thursday, April 11, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Sara Blædel was voted as Denmark’s most popular novelist three times in a row. That’s no surprise. When it comes to police procedural, she’s always been one of my favorites.

“Farewell to Freedom” is from #1 international bestselling author Sara Blædel. Unlike a good number of writers I read in the crime genre who try to sex-up the victimization of women, Blædel’s portrayals are straight-on ugly. The story opens with a violently murdered woman and, across town, a found newborn. Though set in Copenhagen, the crimes could happen anywhere; there is a Kodboderne Street in every city of the world. As usual, Blædel handles multiple storylines well and eventually blends them together. Blædel’s portrayal of the slimy underworld side of humanity reads so realistically – syndicated crime, child abandonment, human trafficking – I found myself pondering at moments how active (or safe) she was in her research. She writes with the authority of first-person observation.

This novel is part of the series featuring Detective Louise Rick and reporter Camilla Lind. These two make a great partnership in crime fighting. “Farewell to Freedom” is the fourth Rick / Lind novel, but only the third to be published in the United States. Though part of a series, I think reading it as a standalone works as well as reading it in chronological order.

Kudos to Erik J. Macki and Tara F. Chace for an excellent translation from Danish.
– Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"Ordinary Grace" by William Kent Krueger / Friday, April 5, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

William Ken Krueger’s new deeply human grief-ridden novel “Ordinary Grace” is as much a literary novel as it is a mystery.

Told from the point-of-view of a 13-year-old boy, Frank, an about-to-be juvenile delinquent preacher’s son (according to the town), and featuring a brother who stutters, a sister with a harelip who sneaks out at night, a preacher father, a mother who hates his father’s calling as a minister, a drunk friend, less-than-stellar police, a renegade Indian, a town full of characters that would make any Southern writer happy (though this takes place in New Bremen, Minnesota), and numerous dead bodies.  The mystery, delightfully, is solved by Frank, the 13-year-old boy.

With his father being a preacher and his father’s friend being an undertaker, death is an occupational natural to Frank’s household, though in this story one unnatural death seems to follow another.

This is a coming of age story primarily with the backdrop of murders, which become increasingly more personal as the story progresses.  Nothing makes one grow up more than death.

“There’s something, it seems to me, that depends more on God and circumstances than our own efforts.”

Krueger does an enviable and plausible job of letting Frank be the one who solves the crimes without making law enforcement in the story appear incompetent.  Kids love to spy and they can fit into small places.  Krueger plays it well.

The novel reads like an autobiography, not a novel, which is a compliment to Krueger.  The voice is pure; the characters are real.

Thematically, it is a story of weakness, timidity, and how not taking a stand not only destroys sunny afternoons and Sunday mornings, but also – and eventually – lives.  It is about prejudice, judgment, dark secrets, and how history leaves us, not with facts, but with the biased interpretations and sneers of survivors.  History, like faith, both in time, become personal and jaded.  It is a sad lesson for children: The dead are only one breath away from us.  Though the children make a vow with each other that they will never die, as Frank realizes, when we breathe that last breath, we cross the near veil, which was always closer than we thought.

This is not a formulaic police procedural.  This is a story to remind us that we are human and that the important thing is not the big stuff.  The story will stick with you long after you put it down.
– Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"The Seventh Victim" by Mary Burton / Wednesday, April 3, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

This is a sick, edge-of-your-seat ride with no good end in sight. From the first page you know it is going to be a rollicking ride. Mary Burton’s “The Seventh Victim” blew me away. Zebra is marketing this as a romantic suspense because of one intimate scene at the end, but in truth, this is thriller all the way. The story follows Lara Church, a victim of the Seattle Strangler who got away, a victim who remembers nothing and is afraid of everything. Years of hiding prove fruitless when she is pushed into the spotlight by a photo exhibit. It is an interesting character arc as she deals with recovering from the ever-present knowledge of her previous rape and murder. Seven years doesn’t give her enough distance. The characterization of her OCD via her obsession with photographing places where people died is eerie. The story is lush and deep, full of mysterious and engrossing characters. It was a comfort to read an author who doesn’t mind handling a large cast and has the skill to manage it, as well, both a rarity in today’s publishing world. Kudos to Zebra for publishing it. Overall it is a story of fixation and compulsion. It is a stunning portrayal of a serial killer, but the serial killer and Lara aren’t the only ones obsessed. Cops bring their own baggage and insensitivities. The law enforcement personnel were believable, though not always likeable; I didn’t expect them to be. They’re doing their job and the scum of daily life leaves them with their own personal scars. What we see as the story develops, however, is the heart under all. Mary Burton’s use of backstory is some of the best I’ve read. She flawlessly weaves the backstory into action; it’s a textbook study for how to keep the plot moving forward even when taking time to layer the plot by looking back. Lots of suspects. Lots of victims. Lots of unexpected twists and turns. I couldn’t read fast enough to see how it would end. As Mary writes, “Crazy’s got its own answers.” “The Seventh Victim” will leave you with nightmares.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"Hunting Daylight" by Piper Maitland / Thursday, March 21, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

I’ve discovered a new series!  Today’s Book of the Day is two-for-one.  Fellow Tennessee writer Michael Lee West has duplicated herself into writing alter ego Piper Maitland.  Berkley sent “Hunting Daylight” by Piper Maitland for review.  Along with it, they sent the first book in the series, “Acquainted with the Night.”  I started reading the series and fell in love with both of them.  If you read the cover of “Hunting Daylight,” the books come across as a paranormal romance.  That shortchanges both and is far from truth.  These are books about vampires for smart readers.  Romance is the least of it.  There’s action, strong characters, fast, easy writing, science, humor, suspense, murder, thrills, romance, smart concept, delightful plotting, and even the author commitment to not always write outcomes in the way that readers might want.  It’s a ballsy ride.  In a literary genre full of vampires jumping page-to-page confusing action with plot, this is a novel for the thinking reader.  To enjoy the story to the fullest, start with the first one and read forward.  I started with the second, stopped, went to the first, and was glad I did.  Both books are over 500 pages and you’ll read them with the ease of 200.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction" by Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd / Wednesday, March 20, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction” by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd provide a rare treat for nonfiction writers.  Here is the chronicle of two men who have spent the last forty years of their lives trying to get the words right.  As they say, these are stories and advice from a lifetime of writing and editing.  It is not enough to write the facts, but to write them in an interesting, fair, and honest way in which someone might want to read them.  From their own experiences, Todd and Kidder address three major forms: narratives, essays, and memoirs, all applicable to our Killer Nashville family.  Their discussion for narratives includes notes on story, points of view, characters, and structure – things most authors reserve only for the fiction craft.  They explore ways to present engaging facts without exaggeration, to write with a style that grips readers, to know when to break the rules.  They discuss making a living as a nonfiction writer from their own experiences and those of their colleagues.  They tour the all-important relationship between the writer and the mentoring editor.  They write of successes and failures through their own experiences, sharing their veteran advice with a new generation of writers seeking guidance. The resumes of both men are impeccable.  Richard Todd has been an editor, author, graduate writing professor, and mentor to young writers most of his life.  Tracy Kidder is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and more.  Both have walked the walk and are more than qualified to talk the talk.  If there is a biography in you, an article, or a true crime story you wish to tell, I encourage you to explore this book before you write the first word.  It will open your eyes to the possibilities of your own exploration and temper you as you tell your own honest and captivating story.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

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"Heart of Ice" by P.J. Parrish / Tuesday, March 19, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

I save books from P.J. Parrish for when I know I won’t be interrupted. For “Heart of Ice” even sleep had to wait. I can’t say enough superlatives about this writing dynamic duo. P.J. Parrish is the brainchild of two sisters, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. In all their books, plot and character reign supreme, but where they excel is their wonderful use of location. In every book, including “Heart of Ice,” which takes place on Mackinac Island, location itself becomes a character. I loved this book. Excellent incorporation of past and present on many fronts, all organic to the story. Every story they write … simply … flows. They write stories to get lost in: Realistic. On the edge. Dramatic. Thrilling. Powerful. Unfolding. I’ve seen it written by other reviewers that P.J. Parrish gets better with every book. Not true. P.J. Parrish has been at the top of their game since their very first novel. I salivate when I hear a new Louis Kincaid novel is about to go to press and “Heart of Ice” just tripped me over the top. I’ve read it once; I’m reading it again. Readers: This is a book (and a series) you don’t want to miss. Writers: Studying P.J. Parrish is equivalent to an M.F.A. in creative writing. They are two of the best writers on the planet today.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"Dead Letter Day" by Eileen Rendahl / Tuesday, March 12, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

A smorgasbord of supernatural characters await in Eileen Rendahl’s well-written “Dead Letter Day.”  Third in the series and a combination of mystery, fantasy, and romance, this novel is an excellent blend of story elements set in our “human” world with a nice, steady, progressive plot.  Series character Melina Markowitz can sense supernatural beings.  Her friend Paul – a werewolf – has gone missing.  From there and while circumventing a cast of otherworld characters, Melina must first determine if Paul’s disappearance is sinister and, if so, then rescue him.  Rendahl has a nice arc going with Melina who continues to grow here in Book Three with newly discovered and growing powers, and a personal issue quite unexpected for a messenger of the spiritual world.  I eagerly look forward to how Rendahl plays out the personal developments in Book Four and how that element changes the perspective of the main character Melina.  “Dead Letter Day,” by the way, is enjoyable as a standalone title without having read the previous books in the series.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

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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!

"Three Graves Full" by Jamie Mason / Friday, March 8, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Bodies buried in the backyard. Well, the front yard, too. And he only killed one of them. Excellently plotted and filled with surprises, it is an unlikely romp of Good Samaritans, curious wives, a couple of helpful detectives, twins, a few low-lives that need to die, a dog who will stop at nothing, and a monkey. A delightful frolic in a mysterious and unpredictable tour de force of horrific efforts by a debut author. When it gets really weird, it is like quicksand, sucking you deeper. Peppered with delightful asides that made me chuckle, no good deed goes unpunished. Great twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. I loved the ending. I’m not going to give it away, but it was exactly what was needed, true justice be done. Watch for more from this talented writer.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Baksheesh" by Esmahan Aykol, translated by Ruth Whitehouse / Tuesday, March 5, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Bribery can get you many things. Including an apartment where a dead body turns up and you become the main suspect.  Such is the case with Esmahan Aykol’s second book in her Kati Hirschel series, translated beautifully by Ruth Whitehouse.  I love the charm of the main character.  She’s of German descent, though born in Turkey.  She owns a small mystery bookstore, reminding me of one of our Killer Nashville sponsoring bookstores, Mysteries & More. I am drawn to the subtlety of the storytelling.  It doesn’t hurry as an American genre novel would.  It’s like a slow flowing brook.  It eventually gets there in its own good and purposeful time, to be enjoyed along the way, not rushed, maybe like a fine Turkish tea in the afternoon. It’s a mystery, but you have to get rather far into it (by American standards) before the body shows up.  You know, sometimes we need something different, maybe a journey abroad.  If you’re not thinking of reading it now, go ahead and buy it while it is still available in the States.  These foreign titles, my experience, don’t stay around as long as we would like.  And then on that day in the future when you are feeling a need to get away, it will be there, to the right, on the third shelf waiting, and in no time you’ll be strolling the streets of Istanbul, finding yourself maybe in a quaint little mystery bookshop.  No finer place could one be on a rainy afternoon.
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I" by Stephen Alford / Monday, March 4, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Assassinations, espionage, torture, spies, double agents, cryptography, indignities. Page turning. Well-researched. This could be a spy novel, but it’s not; it happened. The Elizabethan world has never been more real to me. For those interested in history or writers of the Elizabethan world, this is a must read.”
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia" by Siddharth Kara / Friday, March 1, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Brings new meaning to owing your soul to the company store. A study of debt bondage and violent enslavement of men, women, and children in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Eighteen million bonded laborers owe their souls to the “man” generating over $17.6 billion in profits every year. Their life is not their own, but the products they make are ones that we purchase everyday: hand-woven carpets, tea, rice, frozen shrimp, more. For individuals, this is a study of the commerce chain and a questioning of who really made this product? What was the true human cost for my convenience? For writers setting anything in South Asia, this is a great resource for the human plotline. It will make you feel angry, sad, and helpless from page 1. Read it to be enlightened.”
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"Black Fridays" by Michael Sears / Thursday, February 28, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Debut novel. Murder, corruption, finances, conspiracy, dead bodies, hedge funds, secret codes, the headiness of power, temptation. A man in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to redeem his life. Reads real, thanks to investment industry veteran Sears. Makes me wonder what I would do in his shoes. The story made my head spin. And, of course, love the main character’s last name.”
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!

"The Incense Game" by Laura Joh Rowland / Tuesday, February 26, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Here’s my numerical review: 16-15-1. It’s a lottery number you’ll win by. Sixteenth Century mystery. Treacherous politics. History. Culture. An earthquake bringing the city down upon them. Number 15 in Rowland’s Sano Ichiro mystery franchise. One of the best and most realistic historical mystery novels I’ve ever read, educating me in a world I knew nothing about. If you’ve never read a historical mystery, this is the one you should read.”
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook 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!