Adam Dalgleish - P.D. James

P.D. James (public domain)

Phyllis Dorothy James White (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014) was a British novelist and has written some of the most clever and complex mysteries of all time. Her prose is dense and rich. There are always so many personal plots going on that there are any number of suspects to consider.

Although many of the books are in rather modern settings, most of the motives and lifestyles are rooted in the past that people seem powerless to escape.

There are 14 books in the Adam Dalgleish series, but she wrote many standalone mysteries as well.

#1 Cover Her Face (1962)

#2 A Mind to Murder (1963)

#3 Unnatural Causes (1967)

#4 Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)

#5 The Black Tower (1975)

#6 Death of an Expert Witness (1977)

#7 A Taste for Death (1986)

#8 Devises and Desires (1989)
Dalgleish must travel to the Norfolk Coast to take possession of a mill which his aunt, his last remaining relative, left to him in her will. While there, as a courtesy, he consults with the local police on a serial killer.

Apart from the killings, the most controversial topic in the area is the nuclear power plant. Detractors are organizing against nuclear power. A local artist is renting a cottage from an officer of the plant, but she wants him and his family out of the house. The director of the plant has been offered a better job in London, but his personal assistant does not want to stay with him.

Dalgleish is invited to a dinner party with a great many of these people, but one of the guests is late. When he does arrive, it is with the news that he has just discovered the most recent victim of the killer.

#9 Original Sin (1994)

#10 A Certain Justice (1997)

#11 Death in Holy Orders(2001)

#12 The Murder Room (2003)

#13 The Lighthouse (2005)

#14 The Private Patient (2008)

Help Your Formatter

I few days ago, I published an article about using paragraph formatting rather than tabs and said it was the number one wish of mine as an editor. However, it's hard for me to say this isn't #1. This one is strictly formatting, but doing this would save SO MUCH TIME. You may be paying by the job rather than by the hour, but it would get the finished product back in your hands sooner.

The desire to see your work look like a "real book" is strong. Especially for new authors. In fact, I used to to this myself, and then would berate myself over and over, later on, when I had to undo everything to actually format the book.

If you want to play around and see what your chapters will look like, or choose small art work to accompany breaks, or whatever... just do it with a few chapters for your own enjoyment or education. This is a good way to test things and see what look you like.

It would be best for the formatter if you just sent the text, with the paragraph indents created as described in Help Your Editor -1. Leave out any other formatting "stuff" except maybe a new page for chapter breaks.

Why? All the formatting you have added will probably need to be stripped out so it can be done correctly.

Things that are a nightmare for a formatter: Using the tab key. Adding a space before every paragraph (this makes no sense to me but I know two authors that must have a nervous habit of doing this). Using the space bar to center or arrange elements. Adding extra carriage returns.

DO NOT add your own page numbers. DO NOT add your own headers and footers. DO NOT set up the page size. DO NOT use two spaces between sentences.

If you want to show the formatter an example of your desired finished product, just send those sample chapters you've been playing with.

Even better... you could copy the manuscript into a program like Notepad that takes out all the extra stuff. It has to be something that truly reduces the MS to text. Even Wordpad will keep a lot of the formatting. Save it as a *.txt file and send that to your editor.

Note various of the no-nos I mentioned in the graphic below. You can click to make it larger. I have turned on the pilcrow (formatting marks) to show them. You can do the same thing, and then you can see if your MS is a mess.

Note the following in this sample: Author has created a page break by hitting the return several times. Author has tried to center text with the space bar. Author has added page numbers. Author has added a header. Author has hit the space bar at the beginning of the paragraph.

Here is what the final copy will look like for that same section.

Your formatter should be able to clean it up no matter what, but the time spent can affect your price and your working relationship.

Samples are from the forthcoming book, The Kommandant's Last Battle, by A. Katie Wood. It will be released in December 2024, assuming I can get the formatting done fast enough. The story is a WWII romance.

Fletch - Gregory McDonald

Gregory McDonald

Gregory McDonald won back-to-back Edgar Awards for best first novel, and best original paperback, in 1975 and 1977. These books are quite raw for the 1970s. The language and themes are definitely not "cozy," and there is plenty of casual sex. However, the plots are complex and clever. The style is almost entirely dialog, and quite clipped. The humor is tongue-in-cheek, which I find pretty funny.

Fletch is variously a reporter and an art writer, having been educated in both. He's a complete free spirit. You never know from one book to the next where he will pop up.

Recurring characters:
Irwin Maurice Fletcher, I.M. Fletcher, commonly known as Fletch.
Marilyn Moxie Moonie, Fletch's friend since childhood.
Alston Chambers, he begins as a rookie attorney in a big law firm, but moves to the DAs office.
Crystal Faoni, an overweight reporter
Jack Faoni, Crystal's son

#1- Fletch 1974
Winner of an Edgar Award. A rough-and-tumble tale of a reporter, Fletch, who is hired to commit a murder. Who is to be murdered? The man who hires him! Fletch is undercover to get the scoop on the local drug dealer in his beach town. His newspaper is giving him a hard time because it's taking so long to get answers. Meanwhile, he's busy also trying to find out why he's been hired to kill someone who seems to have a nearly perfect life, and he's also busy avoiding paying alimony to two previous wives.

An example of the humor: "At eleven-thirty, the phone began ringing persitently. He knew it was... any one of several News-Tribune executives who routinely became excited, one way or the other, in pleasure if they were real professionals, in anger if they were not, when a staff member had snuck a genuine, unadulterated piece of journalism over on them." ,

#2- Confess, Fletch 1976
Winner of an Edgar Award. Fletch has been living in Europe, but comes to Boston to track down some paintings that were stolen from his fiance's father. The father, Count deGrassi, was kidnapped and held for ransom, but without the paintings, the money demanded can't be raised.

Fletch arranges for an apartment swap through an agency so he will have a place to stay in Boston. He arrives, cleans up and goes out to dinner. When he returns, the naked body of a murdered young woman is on the living room floor. Naturally, the police would like him to confess.

There are more twists to this story than you can imagine.

#3- Fletch's Fortune 1978
Fletch is blackmailed by the CIA to bug the rooms of his fellow journalists at a national convention. They say they'll make his ever-mounting tax debt and crimes go away if he complies.

On the very first morning of the convention, the President pf the Journalism Association is murdered. He made lots of enemies over the years, but which one of them hates him enough to do the deed.

The recordings Fletch collects turn out to be useful in other ways, as well.

#4- Fletch and the Widow Bradley 1981
Fletch is back to being a reporter, but he gets fired from his newspaper because he quotes the CEO, Tom Bradley, of a company as being alive when it turns out the man has been dead for a year. Fletch is understandably put out because his boss is giving his incompetent girlfriend good stories and not firing her for little errors.

Meanwhile, he finds a wallet with $25,000 dollars in it, but is having a lot of trouble returning it to the owner. The man doesn't seem to want the wallet back.

Fletch sinks his teeth into finding out what happened to Tom Bradley. The answer is surprising for 1981.

#5- Fletch's Moxie 1982
Moxie has a job acting in a movie that is being filmed. It's not a good script and it's not going well. Moxie has become concerned about her finances- her financial manager has told her some things that are concerning. However, money is not her strong suit, and she has just signed whatever he told her to for years.

Fletch shows up at the filming of a talk show interview with Moxie and Steve Peterman. Steve is the director of the show and her financial manager. During the interview Peterman is stabbed and dies. Yet nothing unusual shows up on the tapes.

Moxie wants Fletch to find out what's wrong with her finances.

Secondary story is of Moxie's father, an aging, well-known classical actor who has been drunk for decades. Keeping him in line is almost a full-time job in its own right.

#6- Fletch and the Man Who 1983

#7- Carioca Fletch 1984
This book is almost a travelogue of Carnival in Rio de Janiero with a bit of story woven in. One of the characters from Fletch, Joan Collins Stanwyk, reappears in this book.

Fletch is enjoying a vacation in Brazil when an old woman approaches and insists that he is her husband, Janio, who was murdered 47 years previously. She wants him to tell her and her children who murdered him.

Fletch ends up being cursed with Brazilian voodoo, chased by a pack of kickboxers, and hounded by Janio's young grandson who has only one leg.

Joan, who reappears in this book, then disappears!

#8- Fletch Won 1985
Although written in 1985, this is really a prequel which tells the story of how Fletch got started in journalism.

As a rookie, he is assigned to write headlines, but he is too clever, and gets reassigned to cover the announcement of a gift to the art museum. The giftgiver is murdered in the News-Tribune parking lot, and he is reassigned again to cover a thinly disguised brothel. Then he gets fired! But that doesn't stop him from pursuing both stories.

#9- Fletch Too 1986

#10- Son of Fletch 1993
Events of Confess, Fletch are recalled in this story.

Fletch is confronted by an adult man who certainly appears to be his biological son. This encounter gives us the most sympathetic and human portrait of Fletch in any of the books.

The primary plot is a set in a neo-Nazi organization bent on creating anarchy and taking over the United States for white supremacy. There are a lot of stereotypes, but it's eerie for a 1993 book. This is my least favorite of the Fletch books.

#11- Fletch Reflected 1994
This is a fairly odd story. Fletch's son is called by an old girlfriend, Shana, to come investigate the estate of an eccentric genius. The genius, Chester, has built a huge closed community. He rigidly controls his wife and four adult children who live there.

Shana is convinced that someone is trying to kill Chester. There have been multiple accidents from which the man has barely escaped. Fletch's son calls Fletch, and while they are at the estate they learn the depths of the children's hatred for their father.

I would say the story is an allegory of some kind, but I'm not sure the Fletch books are that deep. It is an interesting plot, for sure.

Help Your Editor, Help Yourself - 1

There are many things you can do to help your editor/formatter return a clean manuscript to you. Here is one of them. This has a bit more to do with formatting, but, trust me, the better job you do, the better job they can do for you.

Maybe you are saying, "I don't need to do any of that. It's what I'm paying them for."

I respond, "Yes, but unless you are prepared to pay by the hour, giving an editor/formatter a sloppy manuscript is inviting disaster."

No human being can catch all the mistakes on one pass if the errors are numerous. I charge depending on how many times I have to go through a work to make it clean. My rates are reasonable (I want Indie Authors to succeed), but if I have to go through twice, it's going to cost more. And if the formatting is a mess, the formatting will cost correspondingly more.

Here is my number one tip. DON'T USE THE TAB KEY to start a new paragraph.

Using the computer is not the same as a typewriter. Sure, the tab key was what we did "back then," but I'll bet you were drilled to use the tab key rather than to hit the space bar 5 times. This is the same kind of thing. What I'm going to show you is way better, and more powerful for those people who will come after you to work on the manuscript.

Probably the most popular word processing program is Word. Instead of indenting paragraphs with the tab, do this. (different versions may have a slightly different interface)

Begin by setting the first line indent of every paragraph this way. Under Layout, click on expanded Paragraph options (arrow points to the icon). The window you see in this graphic will open. In the upper circle, choose Special/First Line, and then whatever indent you want. The default is 0.5 inch, which I usually think is too much. I like 0.3. In the lower circle, choose Set as Default. Then you will have an option for all documents or just this one. Whichever you like is fine.

In the above graphic you can see that all the text is aligned to the left. But after you choose OK in the window, Every first line of a paragraph in the text will indent by that magic amount. The result, below, is the half inch indent. You may agree that it's too much. So cut it back to something a little less. You can change the entire document in ONE flash!

Other word processors will have some similar option. I'll show you how in Google Docs another day.

I will stop for now with just this one tiny lesson.

Write Smart! Basic Dialog

Dialog is created when characters are quoted word for word. Bill said, "I don't like squash." This is dialog. Bill told us that he doesn't like squash. That is not dialog.

#1- Dialog is always set off with quotation marks.

#2- Words that describe the speaking are called Dialog Tags. Examples are: said, exclaimed, replied, yelled, etc.

#3- Action tags are not dialog tags. This is ambiguous, and there is some overlap. In this lesson, I'll use clear examples. This is an action tag.
     Bill stood. "I don't like squash." He whirled and left the room.
     "Billy, I try so hard to make you happy." His mother turned her head and began to cry.
     Bill's father threw down his napkin. "Give me a break!"

#4- The quotation marks are always outside the punctuation. All the above examples are correct. This one is incorrect. "Sally lamented, "I just can't stand this family"!

#5- If someone who is speaking quotes someone else, use single quotes for the interior one. Examples: Bill returned to the dining room. "The problem is, Sally, we are not really a 'family.'" [Interesting note, books published in Great Britain use single quotes for standard dialog and double ones for interior.]

#6- Use a capital letter to begin a sentence, even after a dialog tag. Example: Mother said, "Oh, not now, Sally."

#7- Every time someone new begins speaking, make a new paragraph. See item 3 above.

#8- However, if one person continues a speech long enough that it needs to be broken up, leave the closing quotation marks off the first paragraph. Example:
     Sally said, "Don't you think I know that? After all, you were adopted, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I didn't even love you when you were a baby.
     "And furthermore, you didn't like squash then, either. Mother made me try to feed it to you, and you always spit it back in my face."

There are other nuances to this issue, but this covers the basics.

Write Smart! Seen vs. Saw

There are a number of regions in the U.S. where most of the population does not use seen and saw in the same format as standard English. It's very difficult for people who grew up this way to switch to correct usages. But let's make it clear what standard English says.

Probably the fast and dirty answer is that you must use "have," "has," or "had" in front of the word "seen." However, "See" and "saw" stand on their own. Never use a form of "have" with either of those.

Here are three official categories. Columns two and three are the only tenses of the verb "to see" that use "seen."

Present tense	Present Perfect tense	Past Perfect tense
I see	I have seen	I had seen
you see	you have seen	you had seen
he/she/it sees	he/she/it has seen	he/she/it had seen
we see	we have seen	we had seen
you see	you have seen	you had seen
they see	they have seen	they had seen

So just remember to always use a form of "have" with "seen."

P.S. "Seeing" is a whole different ball game. Maybe another time.

Write Smart! I or me?

Should you use I or me in that sentence? Let's get the names of those things out of the way. "I" is a subject. It can do action. "Me" is an object. Actions can be done to it.

Most of us are good with simple sentences like "I went to the store," or "He gave the book to me."

Where we get in trouble is when we add extra people. "He gave the book to Meg and I," or "He gave the book to Meg and me." It's easy to decide which is correct if you take out Meg. Most of us know that "He gave the book to I" is wrong.

Lots of people say things like "Jack and me went fishing." Again, take out Jack, and you'll know in an instant it should be "Jack and I went fishing."

There are other permutations of this same problem of mixing subjects and objects. I'll cover some of those in other hints.

Write Smart! Introductory Word Group

If a sentence begins with an introductory phrase/clause, place a comma after it. See what I did there?

Other examples:
A. Buried under the apple tree for years, the box decomposed.
A. During February, Michiganders rarely see the sun.
B. In fact, none of what Mr. Smith said was true.
C. Unlike December in Australia, Ontario's Christmas month was snowy.
D. The rain slowing to a drizzle at last, we were able to go for a walk."

A. The phrase may be an adverb clause telling when, how, or why.

B. The phrase may be transitional such as "in fact," or "for example."

C. The phrase may express contrast such as "Not surprisingly," or "Unlike..."

D. The phrase may be an absolute phrase such as "The clouds hovering all week"

Write Smart! No Comma Here

If the second part of the sentence isn’t a sentence, don’t use a comma. Example: John ate the chili and burped loudly. (“and burped loudly” is not a sentence- it has no subject, so there is no comma before the “and.”)

Example: The dog and cat fought but made up. However, if you change that last example to The dog and cat fought, but they made up, it now needs a comma because you’ve added a subject (they) to the second part and made it into an independent clause, then joined them with "but" (a conjunction).

The second part is called a subordinate clause (it will not stand alone). Some examples are:
...and gave the dog a bone.
...for two days and an hour.
...but wasn't able to keep up.
...and found the restaurant on a side street.

Write Smart! #1- Connecting Sentences

A sentence is made up of a noun and a verb. The parts of the sentence are called the subject which contains the noun and the predicate which contains the verb.

These can be simple: People is a noun; think is a verb. Subject=People, predicate=think. The entire sentence is, "People think."

The parts of the sentence can also be much more complicated.

If you have two sentences and combine them with any of the following words (which are call conjunctions): and, but, or, nor, for, yet, or so, add a comma before the conjunction. Example: Sue bought skates, but Tom stole them. OR, you could use a semicolon instead of one of those connecting words. Example: Sue bought skates; Tom stole them.

Each part that could stand alone is called an independent clause. They are independent because each could be a sentence all by itself. Sue bought skates is an independent clause. So is Tom stole them.

You can connect them with a conjunction. These are: and, but, or, nor, for, yet, and so. Put a comma before the conjunction.

Example: Sue bought skates, but Tom stole them.

You can connect them without a conjunction by using a semicolon.

Example: Sue bought skates; Tom stole them.

Both techniques make two sentences into one longer one.

(Yes, sometimes really short sentences like this don’t need a comma according to some sources, but your editor will thank you if you use them anyway. He or she can decide if the comma adds clarity.)

Navajo Tribal Police - Tony and Anne Hillerman

Tony Hillerman (fair use)

Tony Hillerman, May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008, was the author of a series of mysteries featuring Navajo tribal police. The first three books feature Joe Leaphorn. The next three feature Jim Chee. After that, both men are included in the books. The crimes are always more mysterious due to the lack of understanding between Navajo, Hopi and white people's ways of thinking. They are set in the American Southwest.

Recurring Characters of note:
Joe Leaphorn, Navajo Tribal Police
Jim Chee, Navajo Tribal Police
Bernadette Manuelito, eventual wife of Jim Chee

#1 The Blessing Way (1970)

#2 Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

#3 Listening Woman (1978)

#4 People of Darkness (1980)

#5 The Dark Wind (1982)
The book opens with three Hopi men walking back from collecting spruce branches for a sacred ceremony. The find the body of a man, but since he is Navajo, and they do not want to disrupt their own ceremony, they do not report it. The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet have been cut off the dead man. By the time the body is found it is badly decomposed.

A small plane with pilot and passenger is night flying in to an arroyo bringing a cargo of cocaine. The experienced pilot crashes. When the plane is found, both men are dead, a third man has a bullet in his back, and the drugs are missing.

This incident occurs on land that has recently been transferred to the Hopi tribe by the government. It used to be Navajo. A well was dug for the Hopi, but the windmill has been severely vandalized three times.

How are these incidents related? Jim Chee is new to this jurisdiction, and he is sent to look into only the windmill damage. But he can't help but find evidence relating to the other issues.

#6 The Ghostway (1984)

#7 Skinwalkers (1986)

#8 A Thief of Time (1988)

#9 Talking God (1989)

#10 Coyote Waits (1990)
Jim Chee is patroling late one night when he receives a radio transmission from a fellow officer. They are planning to meet for coffee. While they are in contact, the officer claims he sees a person he has been chasing, someone who is vandalizing rock outcroppings with paint. He tells Chee he's going to check it out, then laughs at something.

Chee makes the decision that it does not require backup, but after the other officer does not arrive at their rendevouz, he goes to investigate, and finds the officer has been shot dead. He finds an old Navajo man, drunk, walking down the road with the murder weapon in his possession.

The case seems straightforward, but tribal family obligations force Joe Leaphorn to investigate.

#11 Sacred Clowns (1993)

#12 The Fallen Man (1996)

#13 The First Eagle (1998)

#14 Hunting Badger (1999)

#15 The Wailing Wind (2002)
Young and new, Officer Bernadette Manuelito finds a dead man in a pickup truck in one of the many dry arroyos of the area. Seeing no wounds, she assumes he drank himself to death like so many others have done. Her hobby is botany, and while waiting for other authorities to arrive, she collects some seeds for certain Navajo ceremonies and carries them in a cast-off tobacco tin she finds.

But the tin has ties not only to the dead man, but to an old murder, and a long lost gold mine. Chee and Leaphorn manage to get the tobacco tin re-placed at the site without getting Bernadette in trouble.

Denton Wiley had confessed to the old murder, served his time, and is still hunting for his wife who disappeared at about the same time. He engages Joe Leaphorn to try to find her. How are all these events related?

#16 The Sinister Pig (2003)

#17 Skeleton Man (2004)

#18 The Shape Shifter (2006)

After Tony's death, Anne Hillerman wrote the following books:

#19 2013 Spider Woman's Daughter (2103)

#20 2015 Rock With Wings (2015)

#21 2017 Song of the Lion (2017)

#22 2018 Cave of Bones (2018)

#23 2019 The Tale Teller (2019)

#24 2021 Stargazer (2021)

#25 2022 The Sacred Bridge (2022)

#26 2023 The Way of the Bear (2023)

#27 2024 Lost Birds (2024)

Mystery/Thriller Series - Ali Reynolds

J.A. Jance (Creative Commons)

Judith Ann Jance, born 1944, is an author of three different mystery series, all written under her own name. Alison Reynolds is the protagonist in this series. She begins the series as a news reporter for a TV station in the Los Angeles area.

Recurring characters of note:
Alison Reynolds, Ali
Edie, her mother
Bob, her father- her parents run a restaurant in Sedona
Christopher, her adult son.

#1 Edge of Evil (2006)

#2 Web of Evil (2007)
A man is left on railroad tracks in the trunk of a car where he is subsequently killed by the train. Ali passes the emergency vehicles in the middle of the night, having no idea what the commotion is. She is on her way to a meeting of all parties to finalize her divorce proceedings from Paul Grayson. Paul needs the divorce to go through because he's scheduled to marry the next Mrs. Grayson the very next day. That woman, April, is 8 1/2 months pregnant with Paul's child. But Paul does not show up for the meeting.

#3 Hand of Evil (2007)

#4 Cruel Intent (2008)

#5 Trial By Fire (2009)

#6 Fatal Error (2011)

#7 Left for Dead (2012)

#8 Deadly Stakes (2013)

#9 Moving Target (2014)

#10 A Last Goodbye (novella) (2014)

#11 Cold Betrayal (2015)

#12 No Honor Among Thieves (novella) (2015)

#13 Clawback (2016)

#14 Random Acts (novella) (2016)

#15 Man Overboard (2017)

#16 Duel to the Death (2018)

#17 The A List (2019)

#18 Credible Threat (2020)

#19 Unfinished Business (2021)

#20 Collateral Damage (2023)

Mystery Series - Donut Shop Mysteries

Jessica Beck is the author of several cozy mystery series and has been awarded many honors in the mystery field. The Donut Shop Mysteries are cozies in the most modern of terms. They have a female protagonist who owns a small shop- a donut shop, they are set in a small town, the violence and sex are played way down. This series is considered a culinary cozy set. Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes for several kinds of donuts. There is a heavy emphasis on who is dating whom. Most of the plot is dialog.

Recurring characters of note:
Suzanne Hart, owner of the donut shop
Grace, her best friend
Dorothy, Suzanne's mother

Glazed Murder (2010)
Fatally Frosted (2010)
Sinister Sprinkles (2010)
Evil Eclairs (2011)
Tragic Toppings (2011)
Killer Crullers (2012)

Drop Dead Chocolate (2012)
This book opens with everyone in town being angry with the mayor, Cam Hamilton. He has bid on a construction job, and it's clearly a conflict of interest. Dorothy storms into his office to tell him what for and comes out with the determination to collect enough signatures to file and run against the mayor in the upcoming election. But the next day the mayor is dead.

Dorothy is dating the police chief, Suzanne is dating Jake (a police officer), Grace is dating a man named Peter. The book is strongly aimed at readers who want to enjoy the relationships.

Powdered Peril (2012)
Illegally Iced (2012)
Deadly Donuts (2013)
Assault and Batter (2013)
Sweet Suspects (2013)
Deep Fried Homicide (2014)
Custard Crime (2014)
Lemon Larceny (2014)
Bad Bites (2014)
Old Fashioned Crooks (2014)
Dangerous Dough (2015)
Troubled Treats (2015)
Sugar Coated Sins (2015)
Criminal Crumbs (2015)
A Holiday Donut Steal (2015)
Vanilla Vices (2015)
Raspberry Revenge (2016)
Fugitive Filling (2016)
Devil's Food Defense (2016)
Pumpkin Pleas (2016)
Floured Felonies (2016)
Mixed Malice (2016)
Tasty Trials (2017)
Baked Books (2017)
Cranberry Crimes (2017)
Boston Cream Bribery (2017)
Cherry Filled Charges (2017)
Scary Sweets (2017)
Cocoa Crush (2017)
Pastry Penalties (2018)
Apple Stuffed Alibis (2018)
Perjury Proof (2018)
Caramel Canvas (2019)
Dark Drizzles (2019)
Counterfeit Confections (2019)
Measured Mayhem (2019)
Blended Bribes (2019)
Sifted Sentences (2019)
Dusted Discoveries (2020)
Nasty Knead (2020)
Rigged Rising (2020)
Donut Despair (2020)
Whisked Warnings (2020)
Baker's Burden (2020)
Battered Bluff (2020)
The Hole Truth (2021)
Donut Disturb (2021)
Wicked Wedding Donuts (2021)
Donut Hearts Homicide (2022)
Jelly-Filled Justice (2022)
The Last Donut (2023)

Mystery Series - The Secrets of Heathersleigh Hall

Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips has written over 100 books, including Christian fiction and various scholarly works on the Scottish author George MacDonald. The Heathersleigh Hall series is categorized as mystery, but the mystery is rather thin, although the books are well written. They are set in England in the late 1800s and early 1900s, following the Rutherford family for several generations. The mystery is laid out right in the beginning when a set of twins is born in 1829.

However, most of the action in the books cover the lives of the children and grandchildren of those twins. A lot of emphasis is placed on Christian living, although the books are well-written enough that they don't become sermonizing. But the books are more about the interactions of the family members than they are about solving a mystery. The books so accurately reflect attitudes of the era, so much so that Phillips received criticism from some women for various passages in the book. As he points out in introductions, prefaces, etc... his goal was to make the characters true to the time period, a I think he has done so.

Recurring Characters of note
Charles Rutherford, Lord of Heathersleigh Hall
Jocelyn, his wife
George, their sone
Amanda, their daughter
Catharine, their daughter
Gifford Rutherford, Charles' cousin, son of the other twin
Gregory Rutherford, Gifford's son
Bobby McFee, gardner
Maggie McFee, his wife
Timothy Diggersfeld, a pastor

#1 Wild Grows the Heather in Devon (1998)
The book begins with the birth of twins in 1829 and a secret which remains hidden for three generations.

Jumping to the 1890s and early years of Charles and Jocelyn's marriage, he is a member of the House of Commons. Jocie has never come to terms with a large red birthmark on her face. Charles becomes a Christian, and soon Jocie joins the faith. Their son George readily accepts their new lifestyle, but Amanda does not like the changes in her family which she considers to be too restrictive for the life she wants to live.

Cousin Gifford visits, demanding that they find an old Bible, but no one alive has ever seen it

This is all set in the backdrop of the political conditions of Britain and Europe prior to World War I. Amanda rebels from her family and goes to London to join the suffragette movement.

#2 Wayward Winds (1999)
Amanda is taken in by the Pankhurts and becomes embroiled in the suffragette movement. Charles, although he has resigned from Parliament, is still a well-known figure in England, especially as he and George work together to electrify rural England. Charles is recruited by a nebulous movement called the "Fountain of Light." But he resists, sensing that their motives are more subversive than noble.

Meanwhile, Amanda realizes that she is being used because of her name. She leaves the Pankhursts, only to be sucked into one of the secret groups who are also using her, although she is still too rebellious and angry to see it.

She leaves London to travel to Europe and is actually in Austria when WWI breaks out.

#3 Heathersleigh Homecoming (1999)
This is my favorite of the four books, mostly because I prefer intrigue and action to long passages about what the characters are thinking. It's mostly about Amanda

Amanda has become seriously entangled with a group that is plotting against the Allies. She finally realizes this and plans an escape. She makes it as far as Switzerland where she is protected by a group of women who are not attached to a church as a convent would be, but they challenge her to spiritually examine her life in ways she was never before ready to hear.

Charles is called back into service of the Navy, and George is stationed on the same ship.

#4 A New Dawn Over Devon (2001)
Although WWI continues, it is very far away from Heathersleigh Hall. Many changes come to the manor and the village. Telling very much about this book and period of their lives would definitely be a spoiler for the rest of the series.

The secret surrounding the twins' birth, three generations in the past, is brought to light and it has ramifications for them all.

Cousin Gifford, his wife Martha, and son Geoffrey are important characters.

Mystery Series - Fethering (Carole Seddon)

Simon Brett (photo by Nigel Cull)

Simon Brett is a British writer with five series to his credit. The Fethering series is set in the fictional town of Fethering in the south of Sussex, England. They are written in the style of the "Golden Age" mysteries. Anyone who enjoys classic Brit mysteries will enjoy this series. Brett has a strong grasp of the convoluted emotions of his characters. The primary sleuth in this series is Carole Seddon, a somewhat insecure middle-aged woman who is very good at seeing the weaknesses in others, but not so much in herself.

Recurring Characters
Carole Seddon, a middle-aged retired public servant
Jude (presumably Judith), her friend and fellow sleuth, a "healer."

#1 The Body on the Beach (2000)
#1 Death on the Downs (2001)
#3 The Torso in the Town (2002)
#4 Murder in the Museum (2003)
#5 The Hanging in the Hotel (2004)

#6 The Witness at the Wedding (2005)
Carole Seddon's son Stephen is getting married. His fiance is a young woman called Gaby, although her given name is Pascale. Carole immediately likes Gaby, but the girl's family is something else again.

The mother is practically unable to cope with life and faints at anything stressful. Her father is much older, a giant of a man, and deaf besides. Adding extra strain to the usual meetings and planning associated with weddings, Stephen wants to include his father David. Carole is not interested in resuming any sort of relationship with her ex-husband, but she is too formal to admit it.

Adding to this difficult situation is the hint of a thirty-year old murder. Then the current murders begin.

#7 The Stabbing in the Stables (2006)
#8 Death Under the Dryer (2007)
#9 Blood at the Bookies (2008)
#10 The Poisoning at the Pub (2009)
#10 The Shooting in the Shop (2010)
#12 Bones Under the Beach Hut (2011)
#13 Guns in the Gallery (2011)
#14 Corpse on the Court (2012)
#15 The Strangling on the Stage (2013)
#16 The Tomb in Turkey (2014)
#17 The Killing in the Cafe (2015)
#18 The Liar in the Library (2017)
#19 The Killer in the Choir (2019)
#20 Guilt at the Garage (2020)
#21 Death and the Decorator (2022)

Mystery Series - J.P. Beaumont

J.A. Jance (Creative Commons)

Judith Ann Jance, born 1944, is an author of three different mystery series, all written under her own name. The Beaumont series features Jonas Pierpont Beaumont, a police detective from Seattle.

Technically, these are police procedurals, although Beaumont evolves through the series through various crime-fighting roles.

The Beaumont and Joanna Brady series converge in Partner in Crime, Fire and Ice, and briefly in Proof of Life.

Recurring Characters of Note:
Jonas Pierpont (J.P.) Beaumont, variously a policman, retiree, and private eye
Jonas Pierpont, J.P.'s grandfather
Mel Soames, his third wife
Ron Peters, a fellow detective
Ron's family, wife Amy, Heather and Tracie his daughters
Detective Kramer
Lars Jennsen, his AA sponsor

#1 Until Proven Guilty (1985)
#2 Injustice for All (1986)
#3 Trial by Fury (1986)
#4 Taking the Fifth (1987)
#5 Improbable Cause (1987)
#6 A More Perfect Union (1988)
#7 Dismissed with Prejudice (1989)
#8 Minor in Possession (1990)
#9 Payment in Kind (1991)
J.P. is teamed with detective Kramer because his own partner is ill. Kramer is obnoxious and self-serving. They are called to the scene of a double murder at a school administration building. A security guard and one of the staff are found dead in a janitor's closet, partially nude.

The woman's husband Pete is grief-stricken, but Kramer thinks he's a good suspect because the marriage seems to have been strained. J.P. doesn't quite agree, but he does think the man is lying about something.

Kramer continues to take all the credit for their successes in the case and blames J.P. for anything that goes wrong.

When Kramer manages to get Pete's fingerprints they learn that his name is not Pete Kelsey, and he deserted from the Army twenty years prior. But how does this give him a reason to kill his wife.

J.P. is reuninted with his grandparents after being estranged from them all his life.

This is an exceptionally clever and believable plot.

#10 Without Due Process (1993)
#11 Failure to Appear (1994)

#12 Lying in Wait (1995)

J.P.'s grandfather, from whom he gets the Pierpont name, has recently died. He is attempting to pay more attention to his grandmother.

A horrific death in a fishing boat fire turns out to be a torture murder, and the widow is a woman J.P. attended school with. Else was a cheerleader when he was a basketball player. Also living at the fishing marina is a man named Alan Torvaldsen, who was also a classmate. The dead man is Guntar Gebhardt, whose father was an S.S. officer in World War II. Guntar quietly honored his father's memory with a secret collection of toy German soldiers.

But when a woman on a nearby island dies in a similar manner, all previous conclusions seem to be wrong.

This is a fast-paced book with twists and turns at every juncture.

#13 Name Withheld (1997)
#14 Breach of Duty (1999)
#15 Birds of Prey (2002)
#16 Partner in Crime (2003)
#17 Long Time Gone (2005)
#18 Justice Denied (2007)
A young man who has been released from prison as a result of DNA testing that proved he was not guilty of the crime for which he was convicted seems to be a model citizen. He is taking care of his grandmother who raised him when he is shot point blank and killed at her front door.

J.P. is living with Mel Soames, and they both work for a special task force created by the state Attorny General. Mel is looking at former sex offenders. A disproportionate number of them have died under various scenarios after being released. She's also on the board of SESAC, a group of women who are dedicated to tracking down rapists using DNA from old rape kits that have never been tested.

J.P. has been assigned to examine old missing persons files. One is particularly puzzling. A man went missing the same day Mount St. Helens exploded, but the claim that he was fishing in the area and was vaporized doesn't seem to hold up.

Mel is briefly on the hot seat as it is discovered that she was in Cancun at the same time as the man who abused her best friend as a child. That friend was the reason she had joined SESAC.

Suddenly, a mysterious connection between several of these cases materializes.

J.P.'s children are now grown and Kelly has two children of her own. They all come home for J.P.'s grandmother's funeral.

#29 Fire and Ice (2009)
#20 Betrayal of Trust (2011)
#21 Ring in the Dead (novella, 2013)
#22 Second Watch (2013)
#23 Stand Down (novella, 2015)
#24 Dance of the Bones (2015) (Brandon Walker crossover)

#25 Proof of Life (2017)
Beau has retired, had knee replacement surgery, and is living happily with his third wife, Mel Soames. She is Chief of Police in Bellingham, WA. While they are having dinner out, an acquaintance of theirs, Max, a journalist stops by the table and makes several cryptic statements. Since he and Beau were never on good terms, Beau doesn't pay much attention.

However, just hours later, Max is dead. A young woman, not a blood relative of Max's, but nevertheless one of his only friends and his heir asks Beau to look into the death. She suspects it is not an accident.

If you are a dog lover, this is a great book. Beau and Mel end up "temporarily" babysitting a black Irish Wolfhound. Not only is Lucy Rambo a loveable addition to the story, she plays a large role in the denouement.

#26 Still Dead (novella, 2017)

#27 Sins Of The Fathers (2019)
#28 Nothing to Lose (2022)
#29 Den of Iniquity (2024)

Mystery Series - Anna Pigeon

Nevada Barr (Creative Commons license)

Nevada Barr, born 1952, is best known for her Nevada Barr series of mysteries set in various US National Parks and Historic Sites. The book series grew out of personal knowledge, as Barr worked as a ranger early in her life. With a background in theater, she pulled together the critical elements to write a best-selling series.

Anna Pigeon's character evolves throughout the series, but is always involved in rough-and-tumble, serious situations. The settings make the series. These are definitely not cozies, and in fact, beginning with Burn they really morph into thrillers.

#1 Track of the Cat (1993) set in Guadalupe Mountains National Park
#2 A Superior Death (1994) set in Isle Royale National Park

#3 Ill Wind (1995) set in Mesa Verde National Park
Anna is assigned to law enforcement in the area of the Anasazi Cliff Dwellers' caves. It's a busy tourist season, and due to a housing shortage, she is sharing dorm space with some of the youngest of the staff. Between beer parties and the annoyance of southern belle Jennifer who seems so unfit to be a ranger, and Jamie the interpreter who insists she is Native, but Anna suspects otherwise, Anna is having a difficult summer. There have been an unusual number of medical emergancies, attributed to the high altitude. After one young girl dies from a severe asthma attack, Anna decides to check current records with previous years to compare the frequecy of medical evacuations.

Not only does she confirm a much higher rate in the current season, but she discovers a pattern to the emergencies. Jamie attributes it to the displeased spirits of the Anasazi who have been appearing during the nights.

Then one of Anna's favorite rangers goes missing.

#4 Firestorm (1996) set in Lassen Volcanic National Park
#5 Endangered Species (1997) set in Cumberland Island National Seashore
#6 Blind Descent (1998) set in Carlsbad Caverns National Park
#7 Liberty Falling (1999) set in Statue of Liberty National Monument
#8 Deep South (2000) set in Natchez Trace Parkway
#9 Blood Lure (2001) set in Glacier National Park
#10 Hunting Season (2002) set in Natchez Trace Parkway
#11 Flashback (2003) set in Dry Tortugas National Park
#12 High Country (2004) set in Yosemite National Park
#13 Hard Truth (2005) set in Rocky Mountain National Park
#14 Winter Study (2008) set in Isle Royale National Park
#15 Borderline (2009) set in Big Bend National Park

#16 Burn (2010) set in New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
A house fire is watched by a young mother, and she believes her two daughters have died in the blaze. Then she learns that they are not dead, but she is under suspicion for setting the fire. She goes on a mission to find the girls while remaining on the run.

Anna is on leave after the traumatic events of Borderline which was supposed to be a respite in itself. She's in New Orleans and living in the cottage of a friend. A young punk named Jordan turns out to be one of her neighbors. The boy seems to be involved in voodoo and other strange practices.

#17 The Rope (2012) set in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
#18 Destroyer Angel (2014) set in Superior National Forest
#19 Boar Island (2016) set in Acadia National Park

Mystery Series - Alex Cross

James Patterson

James Patterson, born 1947, is one of the most prolific and richest authors of all time. He has written or co-authored well over 100 books. There are currently 32 books in the Alex Cross series.

Alex Cross is a psychologist and police detective, an FBI agent, and one of the most popular fictional black heroes. He's a large man with plenty of brains to go with his imposing presence. His family is highly important to him. Since his first wife was killed, he is continually searching for another woman.

These are police and/or psychological thrillers with plenty of gory and disturbing details.

Series location: primarily Washington, DC and surrounding area.

Recurring characters of note
Maria- Cross' first wife, the mother of Damon and Jannie
Nana Mama- Cross' grandmother who has always been in charge
Damon- his oldest child
Jannie (Janelle)- his daughter
Ali (Alex Junior)- son by his second wife
John Sampson- Cross' partner, they've been friends since childhood, a 6'9" giant
Kyle Craig- an enigma who fills several roles throughout the series
Adele Finaly- Alex's own therapist
Gary Soneji- a recurring nemesis

#1 Along Came a Spider (1993)
In this series opener, Alex and his friend John Sampson seem closer to their black-culture background with a lot of jive talk and comments about being given no respect by whites. They are investigating the murder of three black people from one family when they are pulled off the case to investigate the kidnapping of two rich white children from a prestigious day school. The are naturally resentful.

The math teacher, Gary Soneji, has abducted Maggie Rose and "Shrimpie" Goldberg.

We are let into the twisted mind of Gary Soneji for the first time, with his manic desire to be "The Son of Lindburgh" and to perpetrate the "Crime of the Century." But "Shrimpie" dies by accident as his frail constitution can't handle the dose of sedatives Soneji gives him.

We meet Alex's family- Nana Mama who has raised him since he was ten after his mother died. Nana is a retired schoolteacher and then principal. She doesn't pull any punches. His first wife, Maria, has been dead two years, and Damon and Jannie are still young enough to cuddle.

A fluke mistake results in Soneji's capture. Alex interviews him multiple times in prison, wondering if the man is a consummate actor or truly has multiple personalities.

Meanwhile, the Secret Service men who were assigned to the children are let go. Their supervisor, Jezzie Flannagan, hasn't been fired, but she's depressed. She turns to Alex for comfort and they begin a torrid affair, each sharing hurts from their pasts.

But Soneji masterminds a brilliant escape from the prison.

Note: this was made into a movie starring Morgan Freeman, but don't even bother with the movie. About all it has in common with the book is the very basics of the plot and the characters. It's shallow and doesn't hold together well at all.
#2 Kiss the Girls (1995)

#3 Jack & Jill (1996)
The book begins with an immediate introduction into two high-profile cases. There are a man and woman who are killing people in Washington, DC, apparently chosen at random as part of a bizarre game. Also, someone is murdering small children who attend the same school as Cross' son.

There is more than one twist to the plot before the cases are resolved.

The spectre of Gary Soneji is never far from Alex's mind.

We learn how Alex's parents died and why Nana Mama raised him since he was nine years old. It is mentioned how Alex's first wife died, but this contradicts the details given in Cross. He meets Christine.

#4 Cat and Mouse (1997)
There are two intertwined plots in this book. Alex's nemesis Gary Soneji is still around and intent on mass murders with more apparent abandon then previously. Cross figures out why the man has changed and tries to get ahead of his thinking. Another murderer, dubbed Mr. Smith, has been methodically killing and dismembering one person at a time across the globe. Thomas Pierce is brought in by the FBI, as his amateur study of the killer is most thorough.

Soneji meets his own supposed death, but vows to reach out and kill Cross from beyond the grave. The very next day, the detective is brutally attacked.

Cross is healing from the death of his first wife, the mother of his children. He begins to fall in love with the prinicpal of his children's school, Christine.

#5 Pop Goes the Weasel (1999)
Alex and Christine decide to get married, and the entire family is thrilled. She seems to be perfect for them all.

At work, they are dealing with a number of murders of prostitues in the Southeast (black) section of DC. Of course, the department mostly ignores this situation. Alex and his police friends are working on their own time to find the killer, but the Chief finds out and suspends the other three.

Meanwhile, we learn that there are four ex-MI6 agents playing a game of their own design called The Four Horsemen. Death, on a pale horse, was formerly a government assassin who developed a taste for killing. When Alex gets a little to close to discovering his identity, Christine is kidnapped.

Time drags on. Christine is not found, but Alex does not give up hope because he receives several phone calls which cryptically inform him that "we have her." The Chief of Detectives assigns Patsy to the find the murderer nicknamed "The Weasel." But Patsy begins to realize that Alex was doing a good job and the Chief was trying to make Cross look bad.
#6 Roses are Red (2000)

#7 Violets Are Blue (2001)
In a series this long by a good writer, you can expect to find a lot of interesting sub-genres. The theme of this book is vampires. It builds on the premise that there is a large cult of people who actually believe they are vampires.

It's no secret from the beginning that two attractive young brothers see themselves as vampires. They were raised lawlessly, by hippies, and believe none of the rules of society apply to them. They don't even really think there are rules.

But how does the story play out as Cross chases down "vampire murders" over the course of more than a decade of cases.

#8 Four Blind Mice (2002)
This book has only one story, and the reader is told right up front what is going on. An Army officer is found guilty of murdering three women. He swears he is innocent, and he is a friend of John Sampson. So Cross, who is trying to resign from being a detective, agrees to look into it. We immediately learn that the murders were done by a group of three other ex-military men, code name Three Blind Mice.

How are they finally brought to justice, why did it all happen, and who is the Fourth Mouse?

We learn about John Sampson's childhood. Nana Mama is 82 and may finally be showing her age. Alex's current flame is a Detective from SanFrancisco named Jamilla.

#9 The Big Bad Wolf (2003)
#10 London Bridges (2004)
#11 Mary, Mary (2005)
Someone in Los Angeles is killing mothers who have multiple children. The perpetrator is sending emails to a journalist about the crimes, claiming to be "Mary Smith." Cross is called in to consult (he's now with the FBT) and suspects the killer is a man using a woman's name. But no one can be sure.

We meet a woman named Mary who has three children. She apparently also suffers from lapses of time where she blacks out and can't remember what she did.

Alex is trying to gain custody of his youngest child, Ali, but Ali's mother seems to switch between being rational and vindictive.

The plot is complex and intriguing. We are let inside the killer's head a fair amount, but that doesn't really help identify the person until almost at the end of the book.

#12 Cross (2006)
This book begins with a flashback to when and how his first wife Maria died, killed by a hit man's bullet.

Then it jumps ahead to 2005 when Alex sees a hit man take a bow before he disappears. The hit man turns out the be "The Butcher," who works for the mob, freelances, and is a serial rapist for kicks. He leaves no one alive who threatens him. Is there a connection to Maria's death? Cross and Sanders embark on a long quest to hunt down "The Butcher."

#13 Double Cross (2007)
Bizarre murders begin happening that appear to be staged, literally, as in the murderer is committing them as if he is an actor on a large stage. There seems to be some clue left by the killer at each one, but Cross is having a hard time figuring out what it means.

Also, Alex is in jeopardy from Kyle Craig, despite the man being in prison.

His current girlfriend is named Bree, who is also a Detective.

#14 Cross Country (2008)
This is one of the more horrific and brutal books in the series. Alex investigates two incidents in Washington, DC, where the entire family was killed. He knows one of the victims. His search for justice takes him to Africa where he witnesses the insanity and injustice of anarchy in Siera Leone, Niger, and the Sudan. In fact, he becomes the victim of a fair amount of brutality himself.

He finally returns home, beaten both literally and in his quest for justice. There, he learns that his family has disappeared and he is kidnapped yet again.

Warning- this is a seriously violent story.

#15 Alex Cross's Trial (2009)

#16 I, Alex Cross (2009)
Alex's neice, whom he has not seen for quite a few years is murdered, and her body is disposed of in a most brutal manner. Cross gets involved in trying to solve this crime which leads him to an exclusive sex club. It involves all the alphabet soup agencies, and even the White House.

Meanwhile, Nana Mama, who is in her 90s although she won't admit to an exact age, has a heart attack.

#17 Cross Fire (2010)

#18 Kill Alex Cross (2011)
The children of the US President manage to evade their Secret Servce protectors and while out of their sight, Ethan and Zoe are kidnapped. A van is seen speeding from the school, a chase and crash ensue, but when the van is cut open, the children are not there.

Meanwhile, terrorism on US soil rachets up a notch with a potential attack on the water supply.

Alex is still with Bree.

#19 Merry Christmas, Alex Cross (2012)
#20 Alex Cross, Run (2013)
#21 Cross My Heart (2013)
#22 Hope to Die (2014)
#23 Cross Justice (2015)
#24 Cross the Line (2016)
#25 The People vs. Alex Cross (2017)
#26 Target: Alex Cross (2018)

#27 Criss Cross (2019)
Following the execution of a serial killer, Alex and John Sampson return to D.C. only to find that a copycat killer is toying with them. Or did they work to convict and execute an innocent man? This new murder and many subsequent crimes are tagged with a note from "M." Is this their old nemesis the "Mastermind?"

"M" seems to know way too much about everything, and Alex even begins to question whether someone he saw did is actually dead.

Ali, Alex's son (now 10 years old), becomes interested in mountain biking and strikes up a friendship with an Army Captain. With so many threats to his own life and his family, does Cross dare trust this near stranger to be friends with his son?

#28 Deadly Cross (2020)
#29 Fear No Evil (2021)
#30 Triple Cross (2022)
#31 Cross Down (2023) (co-written with Brenden DuBois; also a John Sampson solo book)[2]
#32 Alex Cross Must Die (2023)

Mystery Series - Travis McGee

John D. MacDonald

John D. MacDonald (1916-1986) wrote thrillers and various standalone crime stories from 1936 on. In 1964, the first Travis McGee book appeared. McGee is not a detective, but a "salvage consultant" living on a boat in Florida. McGee is 6'4" tall, ex-military, and has a commanding presence. He consistently gets pulled into high-stakes adventures, usually to solve problems that are beyond the reach of the law. These are rather hard-boiled stories with lots of action and sex (not explicit), but there is a cerebral element to all the problems he is called upon to solve. Every book includes his musings about his relationship with the current woman, although this eases up as the series progresses. His sidekick is Meyer, an economist, with whom he shares everything. He has few emotional ties, but two women do appear more than once in the series, both of whom have an impact on his life before they are abruptly removed (for different reasons). All the books in this series have a color in the title.

The books, especially the early ones, are in the noir genre of Sam Spade, etc. The women have personalities, but they are primarily sexual objects who behave in stereotyped ways. Although, interestingly, in Nightmare in Pink McGee specifically states that he does not feel this way about women. There is a lot of pessimistic psychological description. This is well-written and mostly not tedious, but there is more of it than modern readers expect.

More than most mysteries, these include a lot of McGee's personal philosophy of life- thus perhaps McDonald's. He seeks to be independent, to eschew the modern plastic, mass-produced, comfortable world and lifestyles. In a few of the books he goes on and on for pages about the benefits of sex.

As the series progresses, more strong women appear, and the style evolves to include less dark psychological narrative. However, there is plenty of nudity although no explicit sex, and there is plenty of violence.

Series location:
McGee lives on his houseboat, the Busted Flush in a marina located at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The series is based there, but McGee and Meyer travel extensively.

Recurring Characters of Note
Travis McGee, salvage operator
G. Ludweg Meyer, economist and his best friend
Puss Killian, one of the few women Travis really loved
Gretel, another of the few women Travis loved
Chookie McCall, a dancer who appears in several books

#1 The Deep Blue Good-by (1964)
As the introductory volune of this series, McGee and his boat, the Busted Flush are introduced and we learn a fair amount about who he is. His "salvage operation" business is generated by recovering things for someone that have been stolen or disappeared, but perhaps the original acquisition wasn't quite kosher either, so no one wants the authorities involved.

A young dancer, Cathy, tells McGee the story of how her father, a WWII veteran went to prison after the war, but he had always told his family there would be plenty of money for them. Somehow his tales rang true, and they always believed him. But he died in prison.

A man who knew him while he was incarcerated shows up at the family farm. He lives with Cathy as if they were married and is severely abusive. They can tell he is looking for something but have no idea what. One day, he disappears again, but the gateposts are torn down and he's obviously taken something. He shows up in the area a week later with plenty of money.

McGee tries to track him down and recover whatever was taken that should belong to Cathy and her family.

#2 Nightmare in Pink (1964)
The story begins with McGee trying to do a favor for Nina, the kid sister of his best friend, a disabled Korean vet. Her fiancee was killed in an apparent mugging, and she finds $10,000 in his closet. This lends weight to things he had told her about financial irregularities at the place where he worked.

But the kid sister has grown up, and is no longer the 12-year-old of the snapshot in Travis' friend's wallet. They begin a long affair while he tries to track down how the fiancee was killed. Their suspicions of fowl play seem validated when her apartment is burglarized but nothing except cash is taken.

The pursuit leads to a terrifying confinement for McGee.

This volume includes a lot of narrative about the mysteries of sexual intimacy. You can skip those chapters if you just want the story.

#3 A Purple Place for Dying (1964)
Through recommendation by a mutual friend, Mona Yeoman requests that McGee try to find out how her husband has stolen a lot of money from her inheritance. McGee travels to Texas and hears her story, but he doesn't like the setup. But things happen that pull him into the story and he is forced to stay involved.

This is one of my least favorite books in the series. There is a lot of stereotyping of women, pages and pages of philosophising about the psychology of sex. And the denouement of the action is just plain silly.

#4 The Quick Red Fox (1964)
McGee is summoned to the aid of an actress whom he quickly characterizes as a "quick red fox." The actress, Lysa, was being blackmailed with photos from a wild beach party. She paid off because she felt the requested amount was reasonable. But now, another blackmailer is back with copies of the same pictures.

The trail to the truth is convoluted and tricky.

This book has language and attitudes that are going to be offensive to some people in the 21st Century.

#5 A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)
An old friend, Sam, comes to ask McGee to help him. He has a small solid gold statue from South America, but he says he had 28 of them. But they were stolen. Before McGee can decide if he's going to get mixed up in whatever this is, Sam is killed.

That gets McGee's attention. The trail leads through Mexico and involves a lot of Cuban politics. It seems those statues have been stolen many times over.

#6 Bright Orange for the Shroud (1965)
Arthur, an old friend of McGee's shows up emaciated and totally discouraged. He had been fairly well off, got married and had moved away. But it turned out the wife was in on a con game and a group of ruthless "players" had taken every cent he'd ever had. When he found out his wife was in on it, that was the final blow.

Chookie sets about to rehabilitate Arthur and convince McGee to try to recover some of the money. McGee is reluctant to get involved, especially when he learns that, although disastrous for the mark, the scheme had been set up so that it was legal.

They come up with a plan to run a scam back on the original group, but things go from bad to worse.

#7 Darker than Amber (1966)
McGee and Meyer are fishing on a small boat under a bridge one night when a girl is flung from the bridge. They hear the screech of tires as a car leaves. McGee rescues the girl who eventually tells them she has been mixed up in a confidence racket that not only steals from the marks, but kills them as well. She had warned one of the targets, and as a result her own life was forfeit.

The girl has barely escaped this attempt, but she knows that if the rest of the crime ring finds out she is alive they will try again.

The friends decide to try to put a stop to the confidence game without getting caught themselves.

#8 One Fearful Yellow Eye (1966)
Glory Doyle Geis is an old friend of McGee's. A few years prior, she had met a widowed surgeon who knew he had a fatal disease, but they fell in love and married. They moved back to Chicago where the doctor's practice was. Glory has now reached out to McGee for help.

Dr. Geis has died, and mysteriously almost $600,000 has disappeared from his estate. Only a little is left for a monthly payment to Glory. However, the doctor's two grown children, Roger and Heidi, are outraged. Neither of them needs money, but they don't like Glory at all.

The housekeeper's daughter Gretchen also seems to have a hold on the doctor, as he has been making monthly payments to her for years.

Of course, McGee tries to straighten this all out.

#9 Pale Gray for Guilt (1968)


#10 The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (1968)
This book concentrates more on the story than philosophy.

Helen, a friend of McGee's, has died. She was a widow, and has left a fair amount of money to her two daughters, but she is really concerned about the older one who has been having lapses of memory and doing odd things. Her husband and the other daughter have been working hard to find a diagnosis, and to protect Maureen from herself.

Helen's final request of McGee is that he try to figure out what is going on. He's not sure what he can do, but takes a trip to at least observe the situation.

He uncovers a whole lot of unanswered questions, people trying to break into his motel room, and way more than he bargained for.

#11 Dress Her in Indigo (1969)
Several young adults buy a camper and travel to Mexico. One of them is a girl McGee has met. Months later, she is killed in an automobile accident and her father wants to know more about what her final weeks were like. Even though the group was apparently heavily into the drug culture, the father can't believe this of his Beatrice, known as Bix.

McGee isn't too interested, but Meyer convinces him, and they travel together to Mexico. They find several of the other people who had been in that group, and the father of the other girl, Minda, is also there trying to find her.

There is way more sex in this book than in most. Also, I figured out what happened to Bix quite early, but it's still a good story.

#12 The Long Lavender Look (1970)

#13 A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971)

#14 The Scarlet Ruse (1973)

#15 The Turquoise Lament (1973)

#16 The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975)

#17 The Empty Copper Sea (1978)

#18 The Green Ripper (1979)
The Green Ripper is a child's mispronunciation of The Grim Reaper. McGee has been living aboard his boat with Gretel, one of his true loves. She has temporarily moved to a location closer to her new job as an all-purpose-person at a health spa. She is telling Travis and Meyer about an odd occurance where she recognized a man from her past with one of the owners. A few day later, the man is dead from a fall off his bicycle and Gretel is in the hospital with an unexplained flu-like disease. Her condition worsens, and the pathogen can not be identified.

When Gretel does not survive, Travis insists on an autopsy, and a clever murder is revealed.

McGee embarks on a quest to find the man Gretel recognized, find out what's going on and exact revenge. His quest takes him to a militant terrorist "church" in California with a chilling agenda.

#19 Free Fall in Crimson (1981)

#20 Cinnamon Skin (1982)
Meyer's geologist neice Norma and her new husband Evan are visiting as part of an extended honeymoon. Meyer leaves for Toronto for a speaking engagement. Norma, Evan, and a pilot take Meyer's boat out for a cruise, and just after it enters deep water the boat disintegrates in a violet explosion.

McGee and Meyer embark on a mission to find out who is responsible and why. The story is very linear as they learn more and more facts, but it is not boring.

They end up in Mexico where a Mayan womon with "cinnamon skin" has as much reason to want revenge on the perpetrator as they do.
The Travis McGee Quiz Book (compiled by John Brogan, introduction by MacDonald) (1984)

#21 The Lonely Silver Rain (1985)
This is the final book in the series. It's not exactly clear if MacDonald intended to end the series, but it does make a nice conclusion. The final chapter takes place in a rain so heavy it bounces off the pavement. Travis calls it a "lonely silver rain."

A friend of McGee asks him to try to recover his custom yacht that was stolen. It's a real long shot, because stolen boats are usually quickly transformed so as to be unrecognizable. However, the custom build of this one does suggest a method to find it. When McGee finds the boat, there are three dead bodies aboard, and someone in the drug smuggling world seems to want to blame McGee and the boat owner for the murders.

McGee travels to Mexico to try to keep from being killed by finding out who is really to blame.

Meanwhile, someone is leaving whimsical pipe-cleaner cats in various colors on his own boat.

Mystery Series - Kinsey Millhone

photo by Mark Coggins

Sue Grafton (1940-2017) began writing the "Alphabet Series," after a fairly successful career as a screenwriter. The books are usually categorized as hard-boiled PI thrillers. However, Kinsey Millhone brings a softer touch between the adventurous parts. They are set in the fictional Santa Teresa, which is a thinly disguised verson of Santa Barbara, California.

Recurring Characters of Note:
Kinsey Millhone, policewoman and then private investigator
Henry, her neighbor
Rosie, Henry's Hungarian sister-in-law who runs a small restaurant
Con Dolan, a cop
Cheney Phillips, a cop

"A" Is for Alibi (1982)
"B" Is for Burglar (1985)
"C" Is for Corpse (1986)

"D" Is for Deadbeat (1987)
Kinsey is approached professionally by a man who has recently been released from prison. He wants to pay her to deliver a cashier's check for $25,000 to someone. She reluctantly accepts the job, but quickly learns that his payment to her has bounced, he's not who he said he was, and the person who is supposed to accept the cashier's check doesn't want it.

However, she still feels obligated to do something because the check is as good as cash. The deeper she digs, the messier things get.

"E" Is for Evidence (1988)
"F" Is for Fugitive (1989)

"G" Is for Gumshoe (1990)
Kinsey returns to her renovated home (after it was destroyed by a bomb), and takes on a job to locate an elderly woman who has lived most of her life as a recluse in a desert "community" populated by people considered homeless. But the woman is missing, and someone seems to be trying to kill Kinsey!

She becomes so alarmed that she hires a bodyguard, but working with him presents issues of a different kind. The woman is located. She is suffering from dementia and her daughter brings her to a nursing home nearby. Then the mother escapes. Relationships get complicated.

"H" Is for Homicide (1991)
I think this is one of the best books in the series. Kinsey begins with being only peripherally involved in the investigation of a network of insurance fraud where the perpetrators file small claims that can't be disproven. The number of claims adds up to significant losses for the insurance companies.

While trying to track down Bibianna, who may be involved in these scams she ends up being picked up and sent to jail with the woman. She doesn't dare blow her cover, so she plays along. Bibianna's boyfriend, Raymond, has Tourette's Syndrome. Most of the time, he's just odd, but when he has a full-blown attack he's unpredictable and scary. Kinsey ends up having to participate in the racket until she can make contact with anyone in the lawful world.

"I" Is for Innocent (1992)
"J" Is for Judgment (1993)
"K" Is for Killer (1994)
"L" Is for Lawless (1995)
"M" Is for Malice (1996)
"N" Is for Noose (1998)
"O" Is for Outlaw (1999)

"P" Is for Peril (2001)
Kinsey is asked to investigate what happened to Dr. Purcell who disappeared nine weeks earlier. The doctor's ex-wife is her client. The doctor's current young wife is very much a part of the investigation. It turns out that Purcell was about to be investigated for Medicare fraud as he is the administrator for a nursing facilty. That, coupled with a couple of disappearances in the past have made the authorities less interested in suspecting that something happened to the doctor. There have been no bodies matching his that turned up and no hospitals treating anyone matching his description.

Meanwhile, Kinsey is trying to find new office space. She finds a nice remodeled duplex half that is perfect for her needs. The brothers who are renting it seem fine at first, but before long, there seems to be something off about them.

"Q" Is for Quarry (2002)
Year is 1987. Millhone has just moved to new offices after years of sharing space in the Kingman building. Her friend, Con Dolan, is on medical leave after suffering a heart attack. He wants to privately look into a cold case with an old cop friend Stacey, who is being treated for cancer. Kinsey agrees to work with them.

This book is based on an actual case of an, even yet, unidentified body of a young girl who was murdered in 1969. Other than the basic facts of the body, the rest of the story is complete fiction.

Kinsey, Con, and Stacey travel to Lompoc to see where the body was found, and Kinsey is stunned to find it has connections to her estranged biological family. We learn how Kinsey's parents died when she was five.

"R" Is for Ricochet (2004)
"S" Is for Silence (2005)

"T" Is for Trespass (2007)
This is one of the very best of this series.

The elderly,, cranky neighbor of Kinsey and Henry, Gus, takes a fall and is badly injured. When he is able to return home, he needs the care of a home nurse since his only relative, a neice, lives in New York. Kinsey does a background check and hires Rosie to care for Gus. However, Gus fails to improve and Rosie moves in to help full-time.

Kinsey becomes suspicious, but Rosie continues to get good recommendations wherever Kinsey checks.

"U" Is for Undertow (2009)
"V" Is for Vengeance (2011)
"W" Is for Wasted (2013)
"X" (2015)
"Y" Is for Yesterday (2017)