Author Spotlight - Anna Collins interviews some of today's most interesting and talented mystery writers.

Crime By Collins - Anna Collins reviews the latest book releases onto the mystery scene.

• Jessica Speart

• Baron Birtcher

Author Spotlight - Jessica Speart 
Interview by A.A. Collins

Jessica Speart has written seven very entertaining environmental mysteries featuring U.S. Fish & Wildlife Agent, Rachel Porter, who goes to extreme measures to protect endangered species. 

This seventh book, Coastal Disturbances (from Avon Mystery) is set in the Golden Isles of Georgia. When I asked why she picked this area, Jessica said, "I heard stories about manatees swimming down there and I heard about an actual case of mercury dumping in the marshes in the Brunswick area that subsequently became a SuperFund Clean Up site."

"Plus, I love the South with its amazing beauty and incredible sense of mystery - the live oaks dripping with Spanish Moss and the marshes. How can you go wrong being in and setting a book in the Deep South?" 

"When I cane to the Golden Isles to do research, I discovered what was happening to the land on St. Simons Island, continued Jessica. "All those new developments added another dimension to the plot. Two of the men who ran the company that dumped the mercury in the marsh are in prison, now." Jessica added, "I like a 'Law and Order' type of twist. I take actual occurrences and heighten them to make people more aware of what is going on in our environment, but at the same time, I want to entertain the readers with a humorous, action-packed mystery." 

When asked where the character, Rachel, came from, Jessica replied, "Out of my experiences as an investigative reporter doing stories with Fish & Wildlife Agents where I saw the overwhelming odds they were up against: lack of money, manpower, and the support of their own agency." She added, "I truly believe that mystery writers chose this genre because they became frustrated or angry with what they see as a lack of justice in this world. For me, it was wildlife crimes. Most poachers or wildlife smugglers receive a 'slap on the wrist' id they're caught, so they return to commit the same crimes again and again. Creating Rachel was my way of seeing justice done because Rachel takes no prisoners, and for me, this was a catharsis."

When asked what she foresees for the Fish & Wildlife Service under the current administration, Jessica laughed bitterly. "As bad as things were ten years ago, they're becoming worse. More and more agents are willing to toe the official line and not to leave their desks and computers, which is exactly what the this Administration wants. I haven't seen any "Rachels" out there, but there's always hope. I certainly hope to meet and work with one because the only chance wildlife has is to be protected by people who aren't afraid to buck the system and do what's right at any cost."

Jessica is currently researching her eighth book, which will be set in Northern California where she says, "There's and endangered butterfly  that hasn't been seen for twenty years and Fish & Wildlife must decide if it is extinct. The story involves a tattoo artist and a lepidopterist, as well as bringing back Terry and Charlie Hickok." She laughed, "To find out the rest of the story, you'll have to wait for the book!"

Jessica is known for her research adventures that include encounters with large pythons and dangerous drug lords. When asked which books were the scariest to research, she replied, "Border Prey and Tortoise Soup."

Author Spotlight - Baron R. Birtcher     
Interview by A.A. Collins

What could be better than sitting at the Martini Yacht Club overlooking the bay at Kona, Hawaii with a charming, witty, thoughtful writer? Not much, I thought as I talked to Baron R. Birtcher, author of the Mike Travis series.

Birtcher's action-packed books mix the dark underbelly of the music business with the angst of being a retired Los Angeles homicide detective. Throw in the soft, tropical ambiance with its own violent secrets, and you have a winner

When I asked how he'd ended up in Hawaii, Baron said, "About seven years ago, I sold my business in California and moved to Hawaii where I decided to write mysteries."

He explained that he had a music background, including stints as a country-rock musician, as well as running a small record label where he saw the dark side of the music business and what sudden fame and excess did to some performers.

"I also had a detective friend in Southern California who let me sit in on some of the interviews and ride along with him on cases. I had a lot of odd cop experiences which I could see through his eyes. I've watched him change as a person as he's advanced up the ladder from patrol to burglary to narcotics and finally to homicide."

Baron gazed at the setting sun for a moment before he continued, "Every time he moved up to the darker side of police work, he changed. I think I'm his only non-cop friend. When he visits me, it takes him a day or so to remember where we are as friends. That's a big part of my character, showing how police work extracts the humanity of even good guys. He can be real calloused, but if he didn't have this hard facade, he'd be weeping all the time."

When asked about his character's name, he laughed. "Had nothing to do with the famous Travis McGee. I'd always wanted to name my son Travis, but I named him Raider after an uncle. And I put him on a sailboat because I've always been fascinated by the ocean and boats - and besides, a boat can go anyplace."

Why song titles for books, I wondered.

"I choose song titles because the songs have a certain ambiance that I'd like the books to have. The next one, Run Like Hell, a song by Pink Floyd, has a certain manic energy."

When asked why he moved to Hawaii, he said, "It was the sense of mystery coupled with romance and I've always been a romantic. The romance doesn't go away, but there's also a dark side, here. I was concerned about how the local people would feel about Ruby Tuesday, (his latest book, set in Hawaii) but they loved it. They say it's real!"

Incidentally, he's truly a romantic; he's taking his wife, Christina, to Tahiti for their anniversary. He also looks like a good-natured, bearded Viking. He laughed as he said, "I'm of Mexican-Norwegian heritage and I really stand out at some of the family reunions with my Norwegian looks and coloring." 

To learn more about this interesting new writer, visit his website at www.baronbirtcher.com 

Crime By Collins

Coastal Disturbances, Jessica Speart, Avon Mystery.   U.S. Fish and Wildlife's loose cannon, Agent Rachel Porter, finds herself happily ensconced on Tybee Island, outside of Savannah, Georgia, with her lover, FBI Agent, Jake Santou, who has passed up a promotion to be with her. 

Not only is her love life complicated by Jake's nesting instincts, but she hands out a ticket for shooting Clapper Rails to a former Interior big-wig who advises her that her career could get very important if she'd just learn to go along eith the big boys. Compromise, compromise, compromise - not a word in Rachel's vocabulary.

When Rachel gazes into the big eyes of the dying manatee in a water park on St. Simons Island, she suppresses her desires for a real home with Santou and a real career to find out who is behind the Manatee Mania Park and why are Georgia's critters dying.

A courageous contaminants expert shows her what's killing the birds and animals around Brunswick, GA, home of some large Superfund Clean-Ups and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. 

Alone in her quixotic quest and grieving over the disappearance and probably death of Jake. Rachel searches for evidence with the aid of a handy man in one of the infamous factories. What she discovers scares the devil out of her, but will she survive or be sucked into Georgia muck? 

Speart knows how to kick over rocks and ask probing questions about serious situations while still telling a fast-paced, entertaining story. She shows that the South is not all magnolias and glittering resorts. A top-notch series. Check out the other books about Rachel's adventures.

Black Valley, Jim Brown, Ballantine Books.  Freaky things happen in Black Valley, Oregon. In the 1700s, a wildfire burned out a Native American Community and years later white settlers abandoned the area after them were bombarded by stones falling from the sky and now a vicious storm has cut the valley off from the outside world and a maniac, real or supernatural is killing people.

Dr. Dean Truman, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, could have a position anywhere in the world, but he stays here, watching and waiting for the return of Whitey Dobbs.

 As a teen-ager, he and his group were involved in burying Whitey alive and when they opened the grave, he was gone.  But where did he go? Now, all grown up, the young men, now prominent in the community, must solve the mystery of Whitey Dobbs before the community is destroyed once and for all.

Brown mixes science, fantasy and mystery into a compelling story of the dangers inherent in taking revenge on someone because the act can create a vicious circle that stretches over generations. A page-turner, but not for the squeamish.

DEAD OF WINTER, P.J. Parrish, Pinnicle Fiction. Louis Kincaid, a young black man, a cop who needs a job, figures Loon Lake, Michigan is a long way from Mississippi, not only in distance but in attitudes. Loon Lake's Chief of Police Brian Gibralter hires Kincaid to replace a black officer, Thomas Pryce who had been shot to death in his own home a couple weeks earlier and tells Kincaid that along with his regular duties, he should find the killer.

Kincaid is plunged into a nightmare when he and his partner, Jesse Harrison find the body of a retired cop. Is somebody killing Loon Lake cops? Why? Suspects range from members of a militant group to a man who has a real grudge against the department and is now out of jail.

Personal problems hound Kincaid and he wonders if the north is any better for black people. He meets a mysterious woman and falls in love with her. When he learns her identify, his world turns upside down.

He’s wary of the chief who has a mercurial temperament and runs the department with a despotic hand, treating his men like chess pieces in some kind of crime game.

Kincaid discovers the department's secrets and wishes he hadn't, but feels compelled to right a wrong, but will he live long enough to do that since nobody seems to believe him. Parrish conjures up the desolation of northern winters and the coldness that surrounds strangers in small towns, north or south, while dragging the reader into Kincaid's nightmare. This one will keep you up all night!

WRIT OF EXECUTION, Perri 0'Shaughnessy,Dell Fiction.  A man asks Kenny Leung not to let anyone sit down at his slot machine because it's nearly due, and while the man is in the bathroom, Jessie Potter, sits down, pulls and lever and wins seven million dollars.  Only problem is Jessie is running from a revengeful father-in-law and doesn't want to reveal her identity.

She and Kenny consult Lake Tahoe lawyer, Nina Reilly and Paul van Wagoner, her investigator, to see how they can get the money with as little publicity as possible.  Solution:   Kenny marries Jessie which is quite a switch since he came to Tahoe to commit suicide.

As the slot machine company looks for a way to renege on the pay-off, someone starts to kill everybody involved.  Will Nina be able to solve the case, save the young woman from death or jail, obtain the money, and save herself too?

O’Shaughnessy has written a fast-paced mystery that ranges from the back rooms of the casinos to the balmy shores of Hawaii and proves once again gambling can be bad for your health.

A BURIED LIE, Roberta Isleib, Berkley Prime Crime Mystery.  Cassie Burdette, a last minute substitute, makes it into the LPGA's ShopRite Classic in New Jersey and even makes the cut, but she's distracted by the death of one of her pro-am partners and instead of concentrating on golf pokes her nose into police business.

Erica LeBoutillier, one of Meditron's team working on a new Alzheimer treatment, is found dead in an Atlantic City hotel room.  Suicide is the verdict, but Cassie suspects murder.

Isleib explores the worlds of professional golf and gigantic drug companies whose futures often depend on finding new and better treatment. Both are dog eat dog worlds.  Isleib combines golf for the golfer, but doesn't neglect the mystery buff.

DEADLY ASSOCIATIONS, Laura Belgrave, Silver Dagger Mysteries.  Steven Hemmer just wants to paint his house and replace a cement patio in the exclusive gated community of Feather Ridge, near Indian Run, Florida, but the property alterations committee, stops him.  At the end of his patience he takes the committee hostage and calls the police.

Detective, Lieutenant Claudia Hershey, walks into the explosive situation and becomes a hostage along with Bill Bonolo, president of the Homeowner's Association, Gloria Addison, Kurt Kitner and Jennifer Parrish, all members of the committee.

The situation explodes into violence, leaving Hemmer dead and Claudia's reputation in shreds, as Bonolo brags about what a hero he is for killing Hemmer.

Claudia, with the aid of her department, is determined to get to the bottom of what is really going on in this fancy community and she dredges up all kinds of things from drugs to pornography.  Will she unravel the web of evil before somebody kills her?

Belgrade explores the depth of human greed as she shows how far people will go in their quest for more and more money.  How safe are gated communities when sometimes the enemy lives within their boundaries?

A BLOODHOUND TO DIE FOR, Virginia Lanier, HarperCollins Publishers. Jo Beth Bidden, Georgia's bloodhound trainer and tracker, is still trying to recover from shooting and killing her abusive ex husband, when she is inadvertently thrust into the midst of a deadly triangle and hostage situation at the local school.  Three people are dead because of the interference of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, and Jo Beth wants to know what precipitated the situation.

Still trying to sort out her feelings for local sheriff, Hank Gibbs, Jo Beth becomes the love object of an obsessive Okeefenokee Swamp folk hero, Jimmy Joe Lane, who keeps escaping from jail.  Now, he's stalking her and her beloved bloodhound, Bobby Lee.

Unable to trust people, Jo Beth puts her faith in her dogs. But, as trouble mounts, she finds that sometimes dogs just aren't enough and a human touch is needed.

Lanier, who lives on the edge of the Okeefenokee, has created an unique woman; one with grit and guts with a touch of frailty to leaven the package.  And the swamp and the dogs are always intriguing.

THE BODY IN THE LIGHTHOUSE, Katherine Hall Page, William Morrow. Faith Fairchild and her husband, Tom, are looking forward to spending the summer in their newly renovated cottage on Maine's Sanpere Island, but the contractor isn't finished so they move in with old friend, Ursula who tells Faith, "Some thing is very wrong on Sanpere this summer."

When Faith gets involved with the local theater group who are presenting ROMEO AND JULIET, she discovers some of the discord that might be causing Ursula's unease.  A lobster war between two leading families threatens to get more violent even as the son and daughter of each family are playing out their own Romeo and Juliet scenarios.

A local environmental group, "Keep Sanpere Sanpere," is carrying on a harassment campaign against the developers and outside people with money who are turning quaint cottages into "McMansions."

When Faith finds the body of Harold Hapswell, a local developer, at the base of the lighthouse near Ursula's property, she believes the environmental elements have finally taken their protest to the ultimate, but she's assured he drowned by accident.

The place that had seemed a summer paradise now appears to be a place of strong feelings and hatreds and Faith is not sure she wants to stay there anymore. The lighthouse will be the scene of more violence before the summer is over and Faith's pursuit of the truth will put her life in danger.

Page draws a bead on the problems besetting beautiful areas all over America, even here in the Golden Isles, when she investigates the tireless battles fought between "develop at all costs" people versus those who would like to maintain their piece of paradise in a nearly pristine state. A literate and suspenseful mystery.

COLD COMPANY, Sue Henry, William Morrow.  It's June in Alas Jessie Arnold, a famous dog sled racer, is eagerly watching the building of her new log cabin to replace her home destroyed by an arsonist, when the construction crew discovers a body of an old man in the excavation pit.

Not only will it delay construction, but the whole situation threatens to open old wounds in Jessie's past, because a woman's pendant is nearby, leading to speculation that a missing woman could be buried in her area.  Or, is it a body never recovered from the crime spree of se Robert Hansen in the 1980s who kidnapped and killed several prostitutes from Anchorage.

Now, exotic dancers are disappearing after receiving a single rose and somebody has left a single rose on her doorstep.  Is she the target of a new serial killer?  Or a bashful suitor?  Stubbornly, she refuses to leave the trailer on her home site, even after someone breaks into it.

Bonnie Russell, sister of one of Hansen's victims who was never found, recognizes the pendant and she walks the area frequently, searching her sister's body.  Her quest reminds Jessie of her own sorrow and guilt feelings because her youngest sister, Lily, disappeared when she was seven and Jessie was supposed to be watching her.  No one ever found what happened to her.

The men in Jessie's life, from the state trooper in charge of the case, to the Minnesota musher who has a crush on her, all want to protect her but she resists for two reasons:  one, her firm belief she can take care of herself; and two, she trusts only her dogs.

Henry ratchets up the tension as the killer's path draws closer to intersecting with Jessie's.  In spite of all the cold air coming glaciers, this book will make you sweat on a hot day.  A winning series.

THE TRUTH HURTS, Nancy Pickard, Atria Books.  When best-selling true crime writer, Marie Lightfoot of Bahia Beach, Fl, picks up a tabloid and sees her own name in the headlines, she knows how some of her subjects must feel, but the worst is yet to come.

Not only does the mysterious Paulie Barnes reveal that her parents, Michael and Lyda Folletino, were well-known Alabama segregationists who had betrayed a civil rights group in the sixties and disappeared, but he also tells her he is going to kill her after they write a book together.

Who is Paulie Barnes and what does he really want?  He communicates by email and threatens her friends, her associates and steers her wherever he wants her to go until she finally returns to her hometown of Sebastion, Alabama to determine what really happened the night of June 12, 1963 when President Kennedy gave a speech fully committing the Government to the cause of civil rights because it was the moral thing to do.

That very night, a group known as Hostel that helped blacks escape to the North, was having a picnic and awaiting the arrival of the Folletinos, who had started the group.  Instead they were raided by FBI and local law people who humiliated them, but worse, destroyed the homes and lives of the black members.  They were told that the Folletinos had really been agents who had betrayed them and disappeared.  But why did the Folletinos leave their baby daughter at a motel with a note to take her to relatives?

Everywhere Marie turns, she is stymied and bullied by the mysterious Paulie Bames.  Her only salvation will be to uncover his identity before he kills her.

Pickard deftly moves the action from today's era to the Civil Rights era while forcing the reader to keep turning those pages to see what happens next.  A thought-provoking book.

FLASH POINT, Nancy Baker Jacobs, Perseverance Press.  Susan Kirn Delancey has been named a Governor's Special Assistant in Arson Investigation, but she's taking a beating from the media who calls her the California's female governor's token minority since she's part Korean.

A serial arsonist is killing single mothers all around the San Francisco area and Delancey's job of coordinating the efforts of the various police and fire departments has hit several snags ranging from uncooperative male detectives to hateful press coverage.

In each case the victim's baby girl is missing.  The fire departments have received taunting notes about "liberating" the babies from their "whore" mothers.

Could the arsonist be a fireman or a fireman wannabe like her own assistant, Ricky who had lost his firefighting job because he was gay and when he moved to the Bay area, he couldn't get a job with a fire company so he became Delancey's assistant.

And what do the missing babies have to do with the desire of gay couples to have children but find themselves blocked by bureaucrats when they try to adopt?

Ricky and his partner have befriended Delancey's teen-aged son by offering him a place to practice with his band.  What Delancey discovers in the practice barn nearly costs her her life.

Jacobs paints  an all too vivid picture of an arsonist and his victims while she keeps the reader guessing.

HAUNTING REFRAIN, Ellis Vidler, Silver Dagger Mysteries.  Kate McGuire, a struggling portrait photographer in South Carolina, gets involved with Venice Ashburton, a clairvoyant, and discovers her own psychic gift or curse as it seems to be turning into when she sees a vision of a missing college student, Kelly Landrum.  Kate sees the woman strangled from within herself.

The police are skeptical about any unsolicited advice from the two psychics and newspaper reporter, John Gerrard who will do almost anything in pursuit of a good story, suspends his disbelief long enough to believe Kate and to fall in love with her.

The killer also believes in Kate's psychic vision when the body is discovered where he thought it would remain hidden forever.  Kate is bedeviled by incidents and wonders if it's the killer or the mad prophet who is hounding her.  When Venice is attacked, Kate and John realize that psychic visions are not going to unmask vicious predator so they resort to old-fashioned detecting.  But the killer is closing in on Kate and her stubborn distrust of John could cost her her life.

Vidler explores the psychic world without resorting to the all will be revealed solution and bypasses the old difficulty of psychic mysteries: if you're psychic, why can't you see the killer?  A page-turner.

OPEN SEASON ON LAWYERS, Taffy Cannon, Perseverance Press.  When sleazy civil attorneys start turning up dead in various ways in the Los Angeles area. Detective Joanna Davis and her partner, Al Jacobs, are assigned to head up a task force to solve the serial killings. They discover that some deaths attributed to suicide or accident were really very clever murders.

An ironic twist is added to each murder by using a weapon or means that figured in a famous case that the lawyer won.  For instance a lawyer who won a food poisoning case was killed by botulism poisoning.  The two detectives now must separate the copy cats from the real killer when a young divorce lawyer who doesn't fit the profile is shot to death and a note is left behind saying:  "OPEN SEASON ON LAWYERS."

What is the Legal Resolution Program and who is Ace?  Suddenly, lawyers and cops who have a natural dislike of each other are forced into an uneasy alliance.  The cops make bitter jokes about lawyers and even secretly root for him when he kills a famous attorney who got a cop-killer acquitted.

Davis who prides herself on her professionalism is drawn deeper into the case when she attracts the killer's attention and he breaks into her home to leave her a provocative message on her antique jukebox. She finds out what it means to lose your privacy when her home is declared a crime scene and she must warn all her family members that their lives might be in danger.

Will they catch the killer before he kills again or will he just fade away?

Cannon has written a compelling, humorous page-turner that accurately portrays our litigious society.

THE CHRISTMAS GARDEN AFFAIR, Ann Ripley, Kensington Books.  When Maud Anderson, the in-coming First Lady, decides to get an early start on her agenda of promoting native plants, she invites most of the nation's prominent gardening and plant experts to a dinner at conference in Old Town Alexandria just before Christmas.

Louise Eldridge, hostess of the Public Broadcasting  television show, GARDENING WITH NATURE, is flattered to be included, but chagrined to discover she's sitting with her arch rival. Bunny Bainfield, sometimes known as Bimbo in the Garden.  Bunny with a blatant use of sex and high-powered selling tactics has taken over many lucrative areas of the plant business.

When Bunny takes a gulp of wine and falls dead, foaming at the mouth, nearly at Louise's feet, Louise decides to take matters into her own hands and find the killer before the police arrest her or one of her gardening heroes.

Louise who has been involved with other murder cases has found that most killings involve sex or money and as it turns out< just about all the invited guests had a motive for poisoning the devious Bunny.

Bill, Louise's husband, uses his CIA clout to check out the backgrounds of the suspects and finds a couple that could be extremely dangerous to his wife's health, but Louise stubbornly persists in her investigation.

When Louise discovers that Bunny and her assistant-lover. Peg, were genetically altering native plants, she adds a few more suspects, including a highly-ranked government official.

Will Louise find the killer before the killer finds her?

Ripley once again finds murder and mayhem in the mild-mannered gardening world by proving that gardeners are passionate people with strong feelings and all that access to various poisons!

SURFACE TENSION, Christine Kling, Ballantine Books.  Seychelle Sullivan, captain of the salvage boat, Gorda, is plunged into a nightmare when she goes to the aid of Top Ten, an expensive yacht operated by her former lover, Neal Garrett, and finds a dead woman on board and no trace of Garrett.

What's worse is the boat is owned by a sleazy Fort Lauderdale businessman who owns a string of topless bars and he thinks Seychelle has something of his and he wants it back.

Crystal turns his goons loose on Seychelle's gambling brother, Maddy, who is part owner of her boat, and has her blackballed from doing much salvage and towing business.  When pressure doesn't work, the goons turn to physical intimidation and even murder.

Seychelle, already harboring guilt feelings from her childhood, because her mother committed suicide, feels that she is the cause of everybody's problems.  Besieged by the crooks and hounded by Police Detective Collazo who is sure Seychelle knows where Garrett is and that she might even be a murderer, she doesn't know where to turn or whom to trust.  Her handsome, sexy assistant, Samoan handman, B .J. Moana or the attractive, sophisticated head of Harbor House, a haven for runaway teens, which one is telling the truth?

In a suspenseful, bloody climax, she learns the truth.

Kling has created an exciting, interesting new character in Seychelle Sullivan and introduced the reader to the steamy, sleazy underbelly of the Florida boat world.  Don't miss this one!

THE DEATH ARTIST, Jonathan Santlofer, William Morrow.  Kate McKinnon Rothstein, a former homicide detective in Queens, has come a long way, but something in her past will return to haunt her now golden existence.  Using her Ph.D in art history, Kate has written a definitive art book and she and her husband, Richard, a wealthy attorney, are social leaders and people who help young artists.

When Elena, a young performance artist and protégée of Kate's, is found murdered with her body displayed like a Picasso painting owned by the Rothsteins, Kate is plunged into the nightmare world of a clever serial killer who with each killing comes closer and closer to her.

Kate convinces the police chief that she should be included on the Task Force because there is something familiar about the case and the killer seems to be communicating with her using famous paintings as models for his death scenes.  To complicate matters the victims are all important in the New York  art scene.  Is the killer a member of that same world or worse yet, someone Kate knows well and loves?

As the killer taunts her, Kate becomes more and more tense until she sees guilt everywhere, including on the face of her own husband.  Will the killer destroy Kate's perfect life before he ultimately kills her?

Her husband warns her that she is going to destroy their lives together if she doesn't quit and her society friends admonish her for neglecting her social obligations and most of the Task Force just wish she'd disappear.  Her popularity sinks to a new low when a popular police detective is killed in Kate's place.

Santlofer, a well-known artist, skewers the art world while writing a tantalizing mystery that reveals how thin the line between genius and insanity can be.  Not for the faint-hearted.

ANOTHER FINE MESS, Lora Roberts, Perseverance Press.  Every writer secretly dreams of being selected to attend a writers' retreat at a luxurious ranch with nothing to do except write, eat and drink and have literate conversations with her fellow authors.

Bridget Montrose, writer of-one best seller and mother of four small children, fears she is destined to be a one-book wonder when she is invited to Ars Ranch owned by Norbert Ranee, a wealthy oil tycoon and womanizer who fancies himself as a patron of the arts.

Bridget finds her fellow writers are more gifted at poisonous repartee and backstabbing their fellow authors than having literate conversations.

The object of everybody's dislike seems to be Johanna Ashbrook, the most successful one who is famous for picking up and dropping men including local surfers and her host and her male writer associates.

When she turns up dead on the beach, there is no lack of suspects including Bridget who had an argument with her and was maybe the last one to see her.

As the secrets come out, Bridget realizes the other writers' lives are no more meaningful or glamorous than her own and that some of them may be harboring dangerous secrets.

Roberts has fun skewering the various types in the writing world from the pretentious biographer to the best selling femme fatale.

MURDER DOWN THE SHORE, Beth Sherman, Avon Mystery.  When Anne Hardaway, a ghostwriter who lives in Oceanside Heights, New Jersey, decides to hold a family reunion, she doesn't realize that the gathering will be the catalyst for a pair of ugly murders and that Anne, herself, will be the chief suspect.

Anne's Aunt Hannah, a very wealthy, nasty woman, elects to stay at her summer home at the shore, while the cousins will be put up at Patricia Mooney's Laughing Gull Bed and Breakfast.  Her cousins, Nora, Alex, Cece, and Kirn seem relatively prosperous and happy.  Hannah's son. Henry, is a very unhappy man and threatens his mother because of the way she treats him.

When Hannah is murdered, the detective who  dislikes Anne because she is dating his black partner. Detective Mark Trasker,  makes Anne his special target and soon has her arrested for murder.  Out on bail, Anne thinks things can't get much worse, but they go when one of her cousins turns up dead.

Who is framing Anne for murder?  When she and Mark start to investigate her cousins, they discover that their lives aren't going as well as they would like everybody to believe.  Everybody has a motive for wanting Hannah dead.  Her estate of $250,000,000 divided five ways provides a major motive for murder.

In spite of everything Anne doesn't want to suspect any of her cousins and she wonders why Hannah was in touch with an adoption agency.  Is there a missing relative?  Someone the cousins don't know about?

Sherman explores family foibles and makes it clear that there are some families who should avoid reunions.  Who knows what anger and hatred lurks in the heart of a relative?  Entertaining series.

SCORPION RAIN, David Cole, Avon Books.  Laura Winslow and her partner, Don Ralph, computer experts without peer, specialize in financial crimes, following the money and getting it back.  Using sophisticated means, they keep their identities and locations pretty much secret, but someone has broken through their defense and is harassing Laura as he seeks revenge.

But why  does he want revenge?  Who is Victorio?  Laura, who has Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, is gulping Ritalin tablets and just wants to be left alone.

Inadvertently, she becomes involved with a case where several rich people have been kidnapped by Mexican drug gangs and paid the ransom. But some don't return and Laura and her partner discover a connection to the human body parts trade.

When Laura's friend, Meg, is kidnapped in a shoot-out at the Mexican border, Laura promises to find her. Thus begins a chase by computer at first and finally on foot and by vehicles in the Mexican badlands.  Can Laura trust the government agents and a CNN television reporter who insist they can help her?  She and her partner decide to go along with the deal when they're promised access to some top secret Government computer programs.

Laura's foray from her computer hide-out takes her into the bloody world of drugs and revenge. Only old-fashioned violence can help her now.

Cole uses computers and guns equally as deftly as he propels the reader through a violent world where everything has a price. All it takes is a willing buyer and a seller, willing or unwilling. Not for the squeamish. Keep the lights on!

THE ALPINE OBITUARY, Mary Daheim, Fawcett Mystery.  When the obituary for Jack Froland is published in the Alpine Advocate, it ends "Come See Jack In The Box!" and Emma Lord, the paper's publisher wonders what that means.

Then Jack Froland's wife causes a scene at the wake when she announces that Jack was murdered.  Emma's curiosity is piqued even more when she discovers a connection between the Frolands and Judge Marsha Foster-Klein.

The judge who is up for an appointment to the Court of Appeals has received a threatening letter and a photograph and she wants Emma to secretly find out who sent them.

Meanwhile, Emma is mired in a depression over the death  of her longtime lover and involved in a business competition with the new radio station owner. Spencer Fleetwood.  Then, Fleetwood tosses her a bone of sorts, suggesting that they do some joint promotions.

Then, an illegal meth lab blows up in the woods and a body is found. Emma wonders just what is going on in her small town.

Emma is convinced the solutions to the modern mysteries lie in the past history of the logging town as she and her assistants study past issues.  A story set during the labor troubles in 1916 and 1917 weaves throughout the book.

Daheim proves once again that small-town troubles and hatreds are often rooted in the distant past and just need a catalyst to turn deadly.

DEATH OF A SONGBIRD, Christine Goff, Berkley Prime Crime mystery. When birdwatcher Lark Drummond turns her spotting scope in the wrong direction she sees her partner being murdered by someone dressed in black. Esther, Lark's business partner in an organic coffee importing company, and owner of the local cafe, is active in the birding world.  In fact the Migration Alliance is meeting in Lark's luxury hotel in Elk Park, Co.

Birders let nothing stand in the way of their pursuit of our little feathered friends.  While Lark pursues the murderer, someone is after her. What does she know that makes the killer hunt her down.  Who is the mysterious young Mexican man?  Is the government agent really a birder? Why did Esther leave her estate to Paul Owens of Migration Alliance instead of to her live-in boyfriend, Victor Garcia, the local sheriff?

Goff captures the foibles of the birding world while mixing in some environmental tidbits and lots of crime and intrigue.  And you thought birding was boring!

THE DEVIL RIDING, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Avon Mystery.  When Newark's premier black family, hire Tamara Hayle, former cop, now private eye, to locate their runaway daughter, Gabriella, they get more than they bargained for since Tamara learns more about their family than Foster Desmond believes proper.  But once Tamara is in motion, she's tough to stop.

She goes undercover in an Atlantic City casino where she meets the quintessential evil man, Delmundo Real and renews her acquaintance with a mysterious former lover, Basil Dupre.  Dupre and Real appear to be contending over a young woman.

The intensity of Tamara's search picks up with two friends of Gabriella's turn up dead, apparently the victims of a serial killer. When Real discovers Tamara's real identity, he threatens her and her family.

Tamara's probe of the affluent black community finds that rich black people have as many secrets as rich white people.  When Gabriella's stepbrother. Carver Desmond, asks her to tell him immediately if she finds Gabriella, Tamara wonders what his interest really means.  She also discovers the young man has serious problems of his own.

The Desmonds attempt to call Tamara off, but she must follow the case to its conclusion for her own protection.

Wesley has written a fast-moving story that shows how family secrets can inevitably lead to disaster.  A page-turner.

MALICE DOWNSTREAM, Graham Thomas, Fawcett Mystery.  Chief Superintendent Erskine Powell of Scotland Yard is looking forward to a vacation and some high quality fly fishing when he visits an old college roommate at Houghton Bridge, home of the famous Mayfly Club, the most exclusive fishing club in the world.

In small towns the world over old grudges are held forever and when a man returns who supposedly abandoned a pregnant local girl years ago and she committed suicide, there's a lot of grumbling in the local pubs. Then, Richard Garrett turns up brutally murdered and Powell can't resist getting involved in the case even though he's not supposed to poach on another officer's turf.

When Powell discovers the real murderer, he finds that the person is untouchable and justice will have to be obtained some other way, but how?

Thomas proves that top quality fly fishermen and women can be highly emotional and that a poached fish can lead to death.

MURDER AT FORD'S THEATRE, Margaret Truman, Ballantine Books. Clarise Emerson, head and production director of Ford's Theatre Society, has been nominated to head the National Endowment For The Arts and is facing a tough Congressional hearing when her life starts to disintegrate.

Nadia Zarinski, a sexy young intern in Senator Learner's office, is found bludgeoned to death in the alley behind Ford's Theatre. The Senator is Clarise's former husband.

Detective Rich Klayman, a Lincoln buff, and his partner. Detective Mo Jackson, are assigned to the case.  Klayman is also obsessed with a cold case, that of Connie Marshall, a Congressional intern who disappeared a year earlier.  She also was rumored to be having an affair with her Congressman.  Are the two cases connected?

Somebody who works for Clarise tells Klayman that her son, Jeremiah, was also dating the intern.  The police jump to arrest Jeremiah who is his own worst enemy, resentful and arrogant and now very frightened.  Clarise urges Mackensie Smith, a university law professor and former big time defense attorney to help her son.  Mac finds his job very frustrating in that he can't get either parent to take Jeremiah's problem very seriously. Both are more worried about their careers and images.

Klayman befriends the old English Shakespearean actor, Sydney Bancroft, a fan of John Wilkes Booth, and wonders why the actor is behaving so strangely.

Truman brings an insider's perspective to life in Washington, D.C. and entertains the reader with a good mystery.

RUBY TUESDAY, Baron R. Birtcher, Durban House.  In 1977, Harley Angell, lead member and chief songwriter for the hot group Stone Blossoms, tells a Rolling Stone reporter that his group has just finished the master tape for their best album ever.  Shortly after, Angell takes a flyer out of his hotel window and the master tapes are missing.

Fast-forward to the present day and Kona, Hawaii where Mike Travis, retired Los Angeles Police department homicide detective,