Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with A.C. Fuller

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Kendall and Cooper Talk Mysteries with Media Thriller author A.C. Fuller. We talk media thrillers, journalists in mysteries, and our book recommendations

Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Boyd Morrison

Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Boyd Morrison,  the Thriller Author, about his books, about his collaborations with Clive Cussler, we talk about Thrillers made into movies, and our reading recommendations.

Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Erin Byrne

Erin Byrne, International author, talks exotic, mysterious settings, and sensations of travels with ghosts of history. Erin's sensational writing, her work in films and other media, and our reading recommendations on Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries

A Halloween mystery treat - Click this link to hear Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries, the Haunted kind, with author Deb Cuyle.  We also talk K&C ghost mystery stories, and offer some reading recommendations especially for this time of year

Suspenseful Downfall

J. A. Jance giving an engaging talk for a crowd at the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation event

Downfall

By J. A. Jance

Did you say you’re looking to solve a murder mystery?  Here’s one that will heat you up with the ferocity of the chase and with the heat of Arizona.  Gather clues about a double murder with no-nonsense Sheriff Joanna Brady, to discover what leads to someone’s final downfall.  Whether or not you’re already a series fan, you’ll be thrilled to hear that the latest installment in the Joanna Brady saga delivers a suspenseful mystery.  If you haven’t dipped into this series before, you can dive right into this novel and fully enjoy it.

The bodies of two women are found at the base of a local, distinctive peak in the foothills that are just outside town.  Led by Joanna Brady, the police investigate to determine if this tragedy is an accident, a murder suicide, or a double homicide.  The investigation uncovers desperate circumstances behind seemingly quiet lives.  One of the enjoyable aspects of this book is that many clues uncovered lead in different, interesting directions.  How some of these converge into a relevant suspect is up to the reader, and the Sheriff to puzzle out.

Author J. A. Jance knows a lot about the setting. She spent much of her childhood in Bisbee, Arizona.  She still splits her time between Arizona and her home in the Seattle area.  At a recent event with the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation, she spoke touchingly about her life, the strong women she’s known, and the obstacles she overcame becoming an author.  The stories of her life influence the characters of the mystery, creating a suspense that’s akin to reality.

Enjoy the researched information about the small town police department, and it’s partnerships with other enforcement agencies on particular cases.  Also an interesting K-9 patrol officer team contributes to the investigation.  Besides her job and the murder, Joanna is dealing with other cases, a re-election race for Sheriff, and some big family changes.

When you make tracks to your own investigation of Downfall you’ll see how Joanna Brady handles it all.

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Gene Wilder, A Love Story

My French Whore

A Love Story

                                                                                                                                  

By Gene Wilder

The treasured legacy of Gene Wilder includes his books.  He wrote a touching autobiography, and also an intriguing group of novels about love.  This is one of those novels.  It’s set partly in France and then later in Germany in 1918, during World War I.

The characters in this novel are skillfully molded by the author, revealing for each the motivations, personalities, emotional wounds, and uniqueness.  The beautiful writing reflects the insights gained from an author who made a lifetime of paying attention to people and interpreting their lives as both an actor and as a writer.

It’s almost the end of the War, and American Paul Peachy makes the life altering decision to enlist in the Army as a way to escape his dissatisfying life.  Out of the frying pan and into the fire.  Life circumstances quickly deteriorate, and new risks faced quickly escalate.  How Paul tries to save his life is most unexpected, and humorous, and also brings him into ever greater danger.  One of the people he meets in his new circumstances is a woman he falls deeply in love with.  As he faces imminent death, he’s never felt so alive.

Through all of his characters, Gene Wilder shows dramatically what people will do, and what they will believe in order to survive fast changing life circumstances.  And he shows the amazing ways that humor and that love will appear and sustain.  Surrounding these memorable characters, his research into the environment of the First World War era is well done.

As a writer and as an actor Gene Wilder was a genius in any comedic situation.  This novel shows that his genius extends to other highlights of human nature.  As he said about his writing in a New York Times interview in 1999, “the more I've written, the more I've found that there is a deep well in me somewhere that wants to express things that I'm not going to find unless I write them myself."

I wasn’t aware of Gene Wilder’s novels, and now I’m so glad to have discovered them and what they reveal about this talented man.