Keenan Powell's Deadly Solution Is A Hit

Deadly Solution
A Maeve Malloy Mystery

By Keenan Powell

               

                                The reading jury has spoken resoundingly in favor of Legal Thriller Deadly Solution and its Alaskan Attorney Maeve Malloy. Author Keenan Powell has created a stunning force in her Maeve Malloy character. Danger is ever present as Malloy uncovers powerful players’ secrets and the sinister someone who’s executing a Deadly Solution.

                It’s bigger than life when you head to Alaska, especially the mystery around the Deadly Solution by Keenan Powell. This is no small snowball scuffle, these characters are fighting for survival in an avalanche of troubles, and at the bottom of it all is murder. As in so many cities across America, Anchorage tries to help homeless people and to stop homelessness. Now it seems that someone has found a deadly solution.

                From the very beginning, this legal thriller finds both the accused and his lawyer, struggling through fierce personal storms. Perhaps that’s a reflection of the Alaskan backdrop, where the environment is extreme and inhabitants are wild.

                Lawyer and client will need to find a way to pull together. While fighting her demons, skilled attorney Maeve Malloy is analyzing and uncovering surprising motives and hidden agendas. Danger is ever present as she approaches the secrets of powerful players.

                Working as Private Investigator on Maeve’s cases is tall, intense Tom Sinclair who follows through on clues and uncovers witnesses from surprising and also unsavory places. He’s been behind her every step, both before and after her controversial decision to leave the public defender’s office, and as she set up her own practice. During the course of this investigation, even his loyalty is tested. Will it break?

                And after the mystery investigation, look forward to compelling courtroom scenes. Author Keenan Powell has created a stunning, powerful force in her Maeve Malloy character. Maeve scouts a trail through the justice system for clients and readers who yearn for truth. “The truth is what people believe it to be. The justice system doesn’t deal in truths, it deals in evidence. The truth doesn’t always leave evidence behind.” Maeve knows she has to “prove it,” and that will be the challenge of her lifetime.

                The author writes persuasively and from different perspectives about timely social topics, giving the reader a thought-provoking thriller that lingers long after the last page is turned. Keenan Powell is a practicing attorney in Anchorage, Alaska. She also has stories published in these anthologies:  Mystery Most Historical; Busted! Arresting Stories from the Beat; and Snowbound. The reading jury has spoken resoundingly in favor of Deadly Solution and Maeve Malloy – we can’t wait to read her next case.

Stuart Gibbs Writes Great Mysteries For Kids

Book Recommendations by Wendy Kendall, Anna Foy, Sofia Solano, Michael Klug

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Swindle by Gordon Korman

               

                At the prompting of a book recommendation shared at the Friends of the Edmonds Library Kindle Raffle last fall, I discovered a wonderful kids’ mystery author – Stuart Gibbs. He is the New York Times bestselling author of four fast-paced, fun, and entertaining mystery series – Spy School, Fun Jungle, Moon Base Alpha, and Last Musketeer. As if that’s not enough, he’s also written the screenplays for movies like See Spot Run and Repli-Kate. He’s developed TV shows for Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC, and Fox, and he’s researched capybaras (the world’s largest rodents).

                I recommend his well written mysteries, which truly spark the imagination and inspire a sense of adventure. His writing also fuels a respect and love for the beauty of nature and our world. But don’t listen just to me.

                Here are recommendations from local, Edmonds 6^th grade readers who recommend Stuart Gibbs’ books and also a couple of others’ mystery books . . . .

Anna Foy Recommends – Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

                Benjamin Ripley goes to a “science school,” but it is secretly a training school for smart and clever children who have potential to be spies.  Although Benjamin is very smart, he may not be as skilled as the other kids in the school.  He will have to prove to everyone else that he can be a spy.

               

                I recommend this book because it is funny, and enjoyable to read about Benjamin Ripley, and his surprising adventure.

               

                About the author, Stuart Gibbs has a wife and children.  He lives in Los Angeles.

Sofia Solano Recommends – The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

                The Westing Game is about 16 heirs that gather to hear the reading of Sam Westing’s Will.  The heirs are surprised to hear that one of them killed Sam Westing.  Westing wants the heirs to play a game that will reveal who the murderer is.  Who is the murderer?

                I recommend this book because it was a great story, characters and it’s so realistic.  I think people that like murder and mystery books will enjoy The Westing Game.

                About the author, Ellen Raskin wrote and illustrated over a dozen award-winning books for children and young adults in her lifetime.  Raskin was awarded the Newberry Medal for her book The Westing Game.

Michael Klug Recommends – Swindle by Gordon Korman

                A kid named Griffin Bing plans a sleepover in an abandoned house about to be demolished by morning, finds a rare Babe Ruth baseball card, hidden from the world until a mean collector named S. Wendell Palomino, tricks him out of the card. Griffin puts together a team of “friends” to get the card back. And Griffin Bing, “the man with the plan” won’t let it go without a fight.

                I recommend this book if you like a mysterious, funny, exciting, and almost impossible to stop reading book. Try the book Swindle and it might just be the right book for you.

                Gordon Korman is an excellent author with details and lots of excitement in his writing!

Thank you for the guest recommendations!

And for more information from author Stuart Gibbs, including his answers to questions from Anna, Sofia, and Michael, tune into YouTube Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Stuart Gibbs and friends

Reflecting on Light In The Trees

Light In The Trees

By Gail Folkins

               

                What a lovingly rendered memoir. This book is a thoughtful recollection of family and home, set in the Puget Sound area. Enjoy lots of familiar sights, sounds, and events included. The author captures a time growing up in her family home at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, near Seattle. As the author grows and changes, we also watch as her wilderness does the same. Just as we read of how their environment shapes people, and so often in surprising ways described in the book, so we also read of how this wilderness grows into suburb from the affect of people.

                The author almost poetically presents life in the Pacific Northwest with hiking, gardens, wildlife, family, and the beauty of it all from forests to beaches and so much in between. There’s also the amusing affect of Sasquatch myths on a young girls imagination. The darker side of nature is poignantly described - the storms, fire, volcano, and also the darker side of human nature with serial killer realities. The author has captured a most intriguing time in Seattle history.

                The intrinsic affect people absorb from the environment they live in is shown in a most fascinating way. Over time, as a person matures, grows in knowledge, it’s enchanting to read how a person’s views and memories evolve. The author captures that evolution beautifully. Just as a person changes, so too does the environment around them. It’s a relationship that can be noticed in great leaps of time, but what’s so special about this book is that the author describes so well the small steps of change so that you are truly experiencing moments. These are insightful descriptions you’ll want to linger over. Later in the memoir the author moves to the Southwest, and shares such interesting contrasts and surprising comparisons between the two regions. She makes frequent trips back to her Seattle home, seeing and sharing family and home town changes discovered with each trip.

                Gail Folkins is an author and a teacher. Light In The Trees is not just a lyrical memoir, but also includes a seamlessly intertwined history lesson. Her other book is Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step Circuit which is a nonfiction book about eighteen dance halls, meeting their musicians, owners, and patrons who keep these historic sites humming.

                Now you too can follow that Light In The Trees, to home in the Pacific Northwest.

J. A. Jance Incredible Author of Mystery

Cold Betrayal

By J. A. Jance

                Any novel by J. A. Jance that you choose to read is one of the best mystery books. Her several, successful series are each filled with thought provoking characters, entertaining mystery, and fast-paced plotting. A New York Times bestseller over and over again, this is one of those authors who really know how to tell you a story.

                Previously I’ve written about one of the books in her Joanna Brady, Arizona sheriff series - Downfall. There is also the J. P. Beaumont series about a Seattle homicide detective and, by the way, the most recent released in this series is Proof of Life is a stunning read that takes you deep into the mind and heart of this detective. The Walker Family novels are a beautiful weave of current day with legends and lore of the Tohono O’odham People in the Southwest. Today I’m writing about Cold Betrayal which is a book in the Ali Reynolds series. Revenge isn’t the only dish served cold.

                Ali Reynolds is a forty-something newscaster. Now her longtime friend Sister Anselm entangles Ali in a desperate struggle investigating The Family. This is a polygamous cult, and the leader has no patience for those who try to leave. And there are other secrets about The Family that they intend will stay hidden. Ali’s investigation is propelled with urgency as she tries to protect a young runaway.

                During all this, Ali is also asked by her new daughter-in-law for help with the girl’s grandmother. What’s reported as a break-in and attempted murder of the grandmother has been investigated and dismissed by the local police as an elderly woman being absent minded. But, is that a terrifying mistake?

                J. A. Jance is an incredible author of mystery, with a dedicated following of readers. Most recently her thriller Clawback won at the Killer Nashville Conference: Best Fiction Thriller, Reader’s Choice Award for Best Thriller, and Reader’s Choice Best Book of the Year.  Born in South Dakota and raised in Bisbee, Arizona, J. A. Jance lives with her husband in Seattle and also Tucson, Arizona. She is most generous with her time, often speaking at Libraries, Conferences, and other venues.

                Most recently she recorded an episode with Kendall& Cooper Talk Mysteries with J A Jance. Listen in as we learned a lot about courage in writing, motivation, persistence, and insights into her characters and stories.