Showing posts with label James Becker Mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Becker Mystery. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

SPYDER - David Fingerman

Spyder

by David Fingerman

Meet Spyder—a street-wise antihero of inner city society. Experience his strange wisdom, and his twisted sense of humor.

Thirty-year-old Spyder doesn't waste time thinking how much lower he can sink. When he finds his girlfriend dead as the result of drugs he supplied, Spyder contemplates his life and decides it’s time to do what he's avoided most of his days—join mainstream society. All he needs to do is kick the drug habit, find a job, a place to live, and earn some money. Easy. He’s done it hundreds of times, but never all at once. As always, Fate steps in and knees him in the groin. All the dregs he's ever known want their say. George won't stop his pestering, Sal needs a huge favor, Coon is hunting for a certain arachnid, and Spyder's dealer doesn't want to lose one of his best customers. As things spiral out of control, Spyder tangles himself in a web so tight that even he might never be able to escape.

BIOGRAPHY

I was born in St. Paul, but once out of the hospital I've lived my entire life in Minneapolis. During the summer months when the sun is shining and birds singing, I'm perfectly content to sit in my office, with blinds drawn, typing away at my computer. My favorite day of the year is the first day I pull a flannel shirt out of the closet. After 24 years of working in the court system, I walked away to write full time. Edging past Reality is my first book of short stories. Spyder is my second novel and quite a switch from the first. While Silent Kill is a suspense/thriller, Spyder is more of an urban adventure.

WEBSITE

www.davidfingerman.com


BLOG

http://davidfingerman.blogspot.com

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Scones and Bones - Laura Childs


Scones & Bones
by Laura Childs
Scones & Bones, the newest Tea Shop Mystery, offers a heady brew of pirates and plunder.

Scones & Bones is the 12th in the New York Times bestselling Tea Shop Mystery series that readers continue to crave. In this tasty offering, Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is lured into attending the Heritage Society’s Pirates and Plunder show. Amidst jolly roger flags and sparkling doubloons, an antique skull cup set with a huge diamond steals the show and then gets plundered by someone who murders a history intern in the process. As Theodosia unlocks secrets about the dastardly pirate Blackbeard, she unravels mysterious ciphers, rambles through an ancient cemetery, and contends with a bizarre gallery owner. As if she isn’t busy enough, Theodosia and her tea shop gang kick off Charleston’s Food and Wine Festival and introduce the hottest new culinary trend, tea and cheese. But with a raft of suspects and a bungled investigation, something smells funny. And it’s not just the Gorgonzola!

Combining the genteel art of tea with a breakneck-paced mystery, Scones & Bones delivers big time! There are lovingly crafted characters, soothing descriptions of tea parties and settings in historic Charleston. And when the action concludes with murderers brought to justice, there are always plenty of tea tips and recipes.

Literary pick of the week: Laura Childs
St. Paul Pioneer Press

High body count . . . uniquely warm characters.
Booklist

Magnificent . . . Laura Childs is a master chef at writing culinary mysteries.Night Owl Romance

A roller coaster ride of adventure.
Chattooga Press (TN)

Thrilling excitement . . . characters who are familiar and endearing as beloved family members.Wichita Falls Times Record News (TX)

BIOGRAPHY
Laura Childs is the author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. Her books have been named to the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller Lists, and have been featured selections in the Literary Guild’s Mystery Book Club. She is a former Cleo Award-winning advertising writer and CEO of Mission Critical Marketing. She is currently co-executive producer of two reality television shows.

OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED
Tea Shop Mysteries
Death by Darjeeling
Gunpowder Green
Shades of Earl Grey
English Breakfast Club Murder
Jasmine Moon Murder
Chamomile Mourning
Blood Orange Brewing
Dragonwell Dead
The Silver Needle Murder
Oolong Dead
The Teaberry Strangler
Scones & Bones
Agony of the Leaves


Scrapbook Mysteries
Keepsake Crimes
Photo Finished
Bound for Murder
Motif for Murder
Frill Kill
Death Swatch
Tragic Magic
Fiber & Brimstone
Skeleton Letters
Postcards from the Dead

Cackleberry Club Mysteries
Eggs in Purgatory
Eggs Benedict Arnold
Bedeviled Eggs
Stake & Eggs
(December 2012)

WEBSITEwww.laurachilds.com

BOOK SIGNINGS
Once Upon a Crime - Saturday, March 5, 2011
Laura Childs publication party featuring tea, scones, and tea sandwiches from noon to 2:00.
The bookstore is located at 604 West 26th St., Mpls., MN 55405

Avalon Tea Room - Saturday, March 12, 2011
Scones & Bones mystery tea and book signing at the Avalon Tea Room.
Three-course teas beginning at 11:00 and 1:30, reservations required.
Located at 2179 4th St., White Bear Lake, MN 55110

Once Upon a Crime
Write of Spring
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Laura Childs will participate in this annual Minnesota mystery author’s festival of books from noon to 4:00 at Once Upon a Crime Mystery Bookstore.
The store is located at 604 West 26th St., Mpls., MN 55405

Lady Elegant’s Tea Room - Saturday, April 9, 2011
Scones & Bones mystery tea and book signing at Lady Elegant’s. Formal teas at 11:00 and 2:30, reservations required. Tea room located at 2230 Carter Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Bedeviled Eggs - Laura Childs

Bedeviled Eggs

by New York Times
Bestselling Author Laura Childs
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN 970-0-425-23155-5
$7.99 Paperback

Cozy up with the latest “thillzy”
in this Minnesota-based
Cackleberry Club Mystery series.

Laura Childs has filled Bedeviled Eggs, the third book in her bestselling Cackleberry Club Mystery series, with a raft of small-town Minnesota characters that make you yearn for simpler times. At the top of the list are Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, the wise-cracking (and egg cracking) entrepreneurial ladies of the Cackleberry Club cafĂ©. Mornings they whip up Egg Strata and Slumbering Volcanoes, then work a double shift as amateur sleuths. Because in this go round, a “read dating” event ends badly when a mayoral candidate is lobotomized with a crossbow!

Two days later, a sheriff’s deputy is found murdered on the historical society’s Quilt Trail. Now Suzanne, the Cackleberry Club’s founder, along with Sheriff Doogie, must struggle to unravel clues even as they contend with rescued fighting dogs, a prison break, and some very dirty politics.

Spirituality abounds, too, along with pulse-pounding action and tasty recipes for breakfast egg pizza, crabby omelets, pumpkin pancakes, and hazelnut scones. And for readers on the lookout for stocking stuffers this holiday, there’s a $7.99 mass market price.

“A delicious platter of thrilling whodunit, with a side of friendship and humor for dessert.”Las Vegas Review-Journal

"Childs excels at creating comforting settings in which to place her characters and the Cackleberry Club is a place you’d like to visit."St. Paul Pioneer Press

“Rich details . . . another great series by the author of the Tea Shop Mysteries and Scrapbook Mysteries.”Romantic Times Book Reviews

“Another Grade A, fresh and yummy installment to this fantastic series.”Richmond Times-Dispatch

BIOGRAPHYLaura Childs is the author of the Scrapbook Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. Her books have been named to the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller Lists, and have been featured selections in the Literary Guild’s Mystery Book Club. She is a former Cleo Award-winning advertising writer and CEO of Mission Critical Marketing. She is currently co-executive producer of two reality television shows.

OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED
Tea Shop Mysteries
Death by Darjeeling
Gunpowder Green
Shades of Earl Grey
English Breakfast Club Murder
Jasmine Moon Murder
Chamomile Mourning
Blood Orange Brewing
Dragonwell Dead
The Silver Needle Murder
Oolong Dead
The Teaberry Strangler
Scones & Bones
Agony of the Leaves


Scrapbook Mysteries
Keepsake Crimes
Photo Finished
Bound for Murder
Motif for Murder
Frill Kill
Death Swatch
Tragic Magic
Fiber & Brimstone
Skeleton Letters
Postcards from the Dead

Cackleberry Club Mysteries
Eggs in Purgatory
Eggs Benedict Arnold
Bedeviled Eggs
Stake & Eggs
(December 2012)

WEBSITEwww.laurachilds.com

BOOK SIGNINGOnce Upon a Crime – Saturday, December 11, 2010

A Bedeviled Eggs publication party and holiday cookie party will be held on Saturday, December 11, from Noon to 2:00 at Once Upon a Crime Mystery Bookstore. The store is located at 604 West 26th St., Mpls., MN 55405, phone is 612-870-3785.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Marilyn Jax - Road to Omalos

Road to Omalos

by Marilyn Jax

After his family business goes up in flames, his son is murdered and his wife dies of a broken heart, Miami businessman Chadwick Otto knows who is to blame for his torment, but the legal system seems unable to redress the wrongs. So, he turns to one of the most highly respected private investigation firms in South Florida to bring the guilty party to justice.

What investigators Claire Caswell and Gaston Guy Lombard don’t know when they take the case is that they aren’t the only ones searching for the notorious criminal believed to have fled to the Greek island of Crete. A team of vigilantes with their own form of justice in mind is pursuing him too.

BIOGRAPHY
Marilyn Jax spent close to 20 years as a senior government enforcement investigator for the State of Minnesota. During that time she investigated multitudes of cases, including acting as a lead investigator on one of the largest real estate fraud cases in Minnesota history. She is also a retired Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Jax enjoys sharing her experience with people interested in investigative work and hopes to inspire young people to pursue a career in fraud investigation. She is the highly acclaimed author of six-time national award winning novel, The Find. Her second book, Road to Omalos, was published in June 2010.

Marilyn Jax lives in Minnesota and the Caribbean and spends time in Montana and Miami.

PUBLISHER
www.beaverspondbooks.com

WEBSITE
www.marilynjax.com

PURCHASE
Amazon.com
www.marilynjax.com



OTHER BOOKS
The Find

Saturday, July 31, 2010

John Betcher - THE 19TH ELEMENT

THE 19TH ELEMENT

by John L. Betcher

Al Qaeda plans to attack Minnesota's Prairie River Nuclear Power Plant as a means to return the down-trodden terrorist organization to international prominence.

In addition to their own devoted forces, the terrorists enlist some homegrown anarchists, and a Three Mile Island survivor with a pathological vendetta against the nuclear establishment, to assist in the assault.

James "Beck" Becker is a former elite U.S. government intelligence operative who has retired to his childhood hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota – just six miles down the Mississippi from the Prairie River nuclear facility.

Possessing wisdom born of experience, Beck suspects the terrorists' intentions as soon as the
body of a university professor turns up on the Mississippi shore – the clear victim of foul play.
He recognizes connections between seemingly unrelated incidents – the murdered agronomy
professor, a missing lab assistant, an international cell call, a stolen fertilizer truck – but can't
piece it together in enough detail to convince government authorities that a larger threat exists.
Only his American Indian friend, "Bull," will help Beck defuse the threat.

So it's Beck and Bull versus international terror.

May the better men win.

BIOGRAPHY
The author holds a Bachelor’s Degree, cum laude, in English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis. He has practiced law for more than twenty-five years in the Mississippi River community of Red Wing, Minnesota. He has also been a long-time supporter and coach of youth volleyball there

REVIEWS
Reviewed by Charles Ashbacher
Amazon.com TOP 50 REVIEWER
This review is of: The 19th Element (Paperback).
Rating: FIVE STARS
"James "Beck" Becker and his creator are rising stars in the terrorist thriller genre; Beck is a deep thinker capable of connecting disparate and nebulous dots. He is also a man of action when the situation requires it."

READER’S CHOICE REVIEWS
The Missing Element by John L. Betcher
Reader’s Choice Rating: FIVE STARS
"The Missing Element is an Intriquing, Exciting Mystery-thriller!"
WEBSITE
PURCHASE

Thursday, May 6, 2010

PhDs, Pornography, and Premeditated Murder

PhDs, Pornography, and Premeditated Murder

By J L Wilson

Professor Jane Renard's estranged husband was murdered in front of a thousand Z.Z. Top fans at the Minnesota State Fair -- while Jane sat in the crowd. Marcus Sloan, a security guard, is her alibi and is soon her ally when she’s briefly suspected of murder.

That's not her only problem. Jane has a ‘secret’ life as an erotic author and she’s up for a job promotion at college. If they find out about her novels, she's sunk. Plus her best friend is being threatened by a vengeful ex, Jane’s getting disturbing fan mail to her alter ego and a guy keeps calling and talking dirty on the phone.

Jane’s biggest problem, though, is her inexperience with men. Marcus might be the man to help her add some interesting firsthand facts to her novels. Maybe she can also discover if happily ever after only happens in books.
BIOGRAPHY
J L Wilson is a Minnesota author of 15 books who writes ‘mysteries with a touch of romance … and romance with a touch of gray.’ She also writes time travel books and has a paranormal-political thriller series that’s set on another planet. She came up with the idea for "PhDs" while sitting in the grandstand at the Minnesota State Fair during a concert and realizing that yes, you could probably murder someone there and not be seen ...

She can be found on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace

WEBSITE

Monday, April 5, 2010

John L. Betcher - Mystery Author



A James Becker Mystery

By John L. Betcher

ISBN-10: 1451512716


After decades of clandestine government operations, James “Beck” Becker and his wife, Elizabeth, return to “Beck’s” childhood home to enjoy a settled retirement in the small Mississippi river town of Red Wing, Minnesota. But “settled” is a relative term and no matter where Beck goes, intrigue follows.

When Minneapolis computer genius, Katherine Whitson, disappears under peculiar circumstances, her husband exploits a sympathetic Red Wing acquaintance to encourage Beck’s aid in finding her. As it turns out, Katherine’s kidnapping is more complicated than the typical abduction, and the case taxes the Beckers’ considerable skills to their limits.
Katherine's trail leads from her luxury warehouse apartment, through her husband’s in-the-closet escapades, past the entrenched hierarchy of elite computer professionals, and to the mind-bending world inside microprocessors.

The Beckers eventually save Katherine from her abductors . . . only to learn that the husband and wife team must now use Beck's military intelligence background and Elizabeth’s code-cracking expertise to neutralize an international cyber-espionage threat . . . and to bring Katherine's captors to justice.

BIOGRAPGHY
The author holds a Bachelor’s Degree, cum laude, in English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis. He has practiced law for more than twenty-five years in the Mississippi River community of Red Wing, Minnesota. He has also been a long-time supporter and coach of youth volleyball there.

Mr. Betcher has published three feature articles in COACHING VOLLEYBALL, the Journal of the American Volleyball Coaches Association. His most recent article was the cover story for the April/May, 2009 Issue.

His book on volleyball coaching philosophies entitled THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF VOLLEYBALL COACHING has been selling nationwide and is currently available at Amazon.com.

He is also an active member and writing peer coach at the Agent Query Connect writer's forum.

WEBSITE
www.johnbetcher.com

WEBMAIL
betcherjl@q.com