SMFS Members Published in Crimeucopia - Great Googly Moo!

 

Today is publication day for the anthology, Crimeucopia – Great Googly Moo! Published by Murderous Ink Press, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors. SMFS list members that reported being in the read are:

 

Michael Bracken with “Twink.”

 

Jay Andrew Connor with “Memindip and the Persian Poet.”

 

Wil A. Emerson with “Cracker Jacks and The Granny Case.”

 

 S. B. Watson with “The Five Cent Detective.”

 

Martin Zeigler with “Barely Is Good Enough.”

 

Publisher Description:

I Remember the Dame Well…

…Mainly as she had a laugh that reminded me of two cheese graters energetically fornicating in an iron bathtub. I looked out the open window at the Johnson Memorial, standing upright and resolute in the persistent rain. The clock on it said it was 3:15 in the a.m. and I figured, what-the-Hell, it was time to review the 14 case files scattered across my desk.

They were from:

Daryl Wood Gerber, Don Magin, James Donzella, J. T. Seate, S. B. Watson,

Wil A. Emerson, Michael Bracken, Glenn Francis Faelnar, Michael Thomét,

Jay Andrew Connor, Martin Zeigler, Michael J. Ciaraldi, Jeff Burt,

and L.N. Hunter

I glanced back out across the skyline and wondered: Why is it always raining in Noir City? I got up and moved over to the chess board. I hadn’t see the cat in several hours, so I rearranged the pieces a little to give myself a bit of an advantage…

Just when you thought Private Eye investigations are a deadly serious business, these 14 skilful and talented writers start shaking the Funny Tree, and you’ll be amazed at what falls out.

Because, in the spirit of the Murderous Ink Detective Agency motto:

You never know what you like until you investigate it.

 

Paperback Edition ISBN: 9781909498624

eBook Edition ISBN: 9781909498631

SMFS Member Publishing News: The Gardener's Plot: A Mystery by Deborah J. Benoit

 

SMFS list member Deborah J. Benoit reported that her new book, The Gardener's Plot: A Mystery, was released yesterday. The debut mystery was a winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. Published by Minotaur Books, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plots on opening day.

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.

When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

The Gardener’s Plot takes readers to the heart of the Berkshires and introduces amateur sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Misconception by Denise Johnson

 

SMFS list member Denise Johnson reported that her new book, Misconception, was released today. Published by Latchkey Publishing, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

Cassie Nichols wants a baby. Badly.

She’s certain a baby will anchor the crumbling relationship with her husband, Jake, who she suspects is having an affair.

But after a miscarriage and continued trouble getting pregnant leads the couple down the frustrating and expensive road of in vitro fertilization, Cassie finds herself running out of time.

Pumped on hormones, fueled by anxiety, and believing it is the only way to save her marriage, she does the unthinkable to ensure a viable pregnancy.

Now, the happy family she envisioned remains out of reach and is instead wrought with lies, deception, and murder.

SMFS Member Publishing News: A Fatal Honeymoon: An Ella Shane Mystery Novella by by Kathleen Marple Kalb

 

SMFS list member Kathleen Marple Kalb reported that her latest book, A Fatal Honeymoon: An Ella Shane Mystery Novella, is now available for free at a variety of vendors.

 

Author Description:

Diva Ella Shane and her Duke find themselves in the midst of murder, mystery, and mayhem on their Niagara Falls honeymoon, a special adventure in the highly-praised series featuring an Irish-Jewish orphan made good as an opera star.

 

A blissful Niagara Falls honeymoon for Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane and her new husband the Duke turns deadly with a murder during a theatre outing -- with a dear friend's beloved the prime suspect. Now, the couple will have to clear his name, unravel a nefarious plot dating back to the Civil War, and protect an ingenue in desperate straits...all while staying incognito. With the surprisingly diverse and open-minded (but period-appropriate) cast this acclaimed series is known for, it's a delicious adventure...and if Ella doesn't win a duel on the Maid of the Mist -- it may be her last!

SMFS Member Publishing News: Superstition: The Secrets of Van Buren University Book 1 by James Blakey

SMFS list member James Blakey reports that this is publication day for his new book, Superstition: The Secrets of Van Buren University Book 1. Published by City Owl Press, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

An umbrella is opened indoors. A black cat crosses your path. Three cigarettes are lit from one match. These are omens of bad luck that no one takes seriously. But at Van Buren University when these, and other superstitions, are broken… students die.

Sophomore Jerry Williams’ hard-hitting reporting has won awards for Van Buren’s school newspaper. But when he connects a series of campus deaths to bad luck, his editor questions Jerry’s judgment, kills the story, and suspends him from the paper. But the superstition-related havoc continues, and Darla, Jerry’s new girlfriend, barely escapes with her life.

When Jerry digs deeper into the mystery and publishes his findings in the school’s alternative newspaper, the university administration threatens him with suspension for causing a panic. But Jerry’s reporting instincts won’t let him stop. With his friends and everyone else on campus at risk, it’s not like Jerry has much of a choice.

As Friday the 13th approaches, Jerry fears a catastrophe. He must uncover who—or what—is behind these bad luck deaths and determine how to stop it.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Floor 24 by Martin Hill Ortiz

Today is publication day for SMFS list member Martin Hill Ortiz’s new book, Floor 24. Published by Oliver-Heber Books, the book is available at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Amazon Description:

Manhattan, 1926.

A pen falls from a high rise and shatters at the feet of New York World reporter and World War vet Alan Priest. Its broken barrel bears the name and office of Fritch Designs on the 24th floor. On a whim, he investigates. After he reaches Floor 24, he finds a window open and a corpse on the sidewalk below. A gawker from a nearby office window recognizes the corpse by her dress, sees Alan looking out the victim's window and screams.

Someone bolts from the office, and a hasty pursuit ends in a policeman being hurled to his death and Alan being accused of both murders.

He seeks shelter with the help of gentlemen's club hostess Lorraine Marquette, which lands both of them in police custody. But the mob king of New York has the police in his clutches and soon Alan and Lorraine find themselves released solely to uncover the secret behind Fritch Designs, a secret that could cost them their lives as they evade assassins and brave the lethal heights of a city growing at a mad pace.

Floor 24 is a heart-stopping, old-fashioned adventure with a reckless pace and breakneck twists.

SMFS Members Published in Crimeucopia - Let Me Tell You About...

 

SMFS list members are published in the recently released anthology, Crimeucopia – Let Me Tell You About… . Published by Murderous Ink Press, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors. SMFS list members that reported being in the read are:

 

Michael Bracken with “Black Mack.”

 

Jim Guigli with “Supply and Demand.”

 

Vinnie Hansen with “A Perfect Place to Die.”

 

V.S. Kemanis with “A Father's Duty.”

 

Beverle Graves Myers with “Jewboy in Dallas.”

 

Kevin R. Tipple with “Package of Pain.”

 

Martin Zeigler with “Your Ticket To Freedom.”

 

Publisher Description:

If Looks Could Kill, She Would Have Been An Uzi….

…Or more likely a shotgun. I mean, Lawd knows what those two ever saw in each other in the first place, and that’s a fact. Don’t believe me? Well, let me tell you about the time when….

But that’s how it usually starts, doesn’t it? Someone says something, which reminds someone else about…. And so the anecdotal avalanche begins.

This time there’s 19 storytellers:

Vinnie Hansen, V.S. Kemanis, David Krugler, Robert Jeschonek, Beverle Graves Myers, Kirk Landers, James Lee Proctor, Victor Kreuiter, K. Arlington Andrews, Michael Bracken, Kevin R. Tipple, William Flores, Robert Sumner, Jim Guigli, James Roth, Michael Zimecki, Sebastian Corbascio, Martin Zeigler, and John Bertram Fawet III

They're all gathered around the front counter of the Crimeucopia Shots to Hell  Bar & Grill — and more than willing to tell you about how it is, or was, or even will be….

So, over the background sounds from an old jukebox loaded with worn out 45s (vinyl rather than the likes of a Px4 Storm), settle back and take in their individual stories. We guarantee there’ll be Crimesapleanty indeed…

Enough to keep going until the Editorial bar staff call for glasses and ask the age old question:

“Don’t any of you writers have homes to go to?!”

As with all of these anthologies, we hope you’ll find something that you immediately like, as well as something that takes you out of your late night Cocktail comfort zone — and puts you into a completely new one.

Because, in the Happy Hour spirit of our Murderous Ink Press motto:

You never know what you like until you read it.

Paperback Edition ISBN: 9781909498600  eBook Edition ISBN: 9781909498617

 

 

SMFS Member Publishing News: Love You Till Tuesday: A Declan Shaw Mystery by M. E. Proctor

 

Today is publication day for SMFS list member M. E. Proctor’s new book, Love You Till Tuesday: A Declan Shaw Mystery. Published by Shotgun Honey Books, the book is out today in multiple formats at Amazon and other vendors.

 

Publisher Description:

The death of April Easton makes no sense. She was a jazz singer working the clubs. Maybe the recording contract she just signed would have been her breakthrough. It certainly wasn’t a motive for murder. Steve Robledo, Houston PD, is on the scene. He’s known for working fast and closing cases. This one has all the markings of a head scratcher. And when witnesses and security cameras confirm Declan Shaw, a local P.I. with police connections, spent the night with the woman, it just makes everything more complicated.

Not that Declan has anything to do with the murder. He likes music and he liked April. He certainly didn’t kill her.

A collaboration, uneasy at first, is in the works. Declan can’t get April out of his head. Her memory is fading and he wants to hang on to it. What better way than to find more about her? Steve is running out of time, a few more days and he’ll have to turn his attention to other cases. They strike a mutually beneficial alliance.

For the powerful men behind April’s death, that alliance means trouble. Declan is stubborn and resourceful. He worries them a lot more than the police. There’s no telling what he could dig up. The stakes are high: a trial with the death penalty in play, cartel ties, money. Ultimately, it’s always about money.

Declan has to be stopped, incapacitated. He’s put under surveillance, a trap is set to ensnare him, a campaign is launched to discredit him—The P.I. and the Dead Jazz Singer. It’s a mistake. Declan will bite back.

Many will get hurt.

SMFS Members Published in Crimeucopia - Through The Past Darkly

 

Today is publication day for Crimeucopia - Through The Past Darkly. Published by Murderous Ink Press, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors. SMFS list members that reported being in the read are:

 

J. Aquino with “Shake Hands with the Devil.”

 

J. F. Benedetto with “The Canadian -- Death in the Chinese Darkness.”

 

Maddi Davidson with “Cop and Robber.”

 

Hope Hodgkins with “Darkness Becomes You.”

 

Joan Leotta with “The Confession.”

 

 Merrilee Robson with “On the Sid of the Angels.”

 

S. B. Watson with “The Problem of the Disappearing Heart.”

 

Amazon Description:

It Was In The Year Of….

When you get a good piece of fiction, it’s hard to pass it up, and we always try and see if we can make it fit in somewhere.

The trouble comes when it’s a period piece. Yes, sometimes you can sneak it in, under the guise of it being ‘sort of’ Cosy/Noir/Narrative/Whodidit/Whydidit (etc) orientated. However, sometimes you know you’re left with two choices: Either reject the piece because it doesn’t fit — or see if a new anthology project can stand on its own two feet, take on the world, and win.

And no, not every piece in this is a Cosy — some might be considered as such, but some are Cosy Noir (and yes, such does exist), Historical/Period Drama, Historical Private Eyes, Narrative Crimes, and a whole spectrum of Crime fiction sub-genres in-between.

21 authors — Gary Thomson, Edward St. Boniface, Terry Wijesuriya, Frances Stratford, Dennis E. Delaney, Joan Leotta, Hope Hodgkins, Karen Odden, J. F. Benedetto, S. B. Watson, Hal Dygert, Merrilee Robson, John G. Bluck, David Hagerty, Avi Sirlin, Karl El-Koura, Penny Hurrell, Kai Lovelace, Maddi Davidson, J. Aquino and Kirk Landers — take you from 420 BC through to AD 1969, and give you a criminal history, laid out in a case by case Crimeucopia Crimeline.

As with all of these anthologies, we hope you’ll find something that you immediately like, as well as something that takes you out of your regular era comfort zone — and puts you into a completely new one.

Because, in the spirit of the Murderous Ink Press motto:

You never know what you like until you dust it off and read it. 

SMFS Member Publishing News: A Fatal Reception: An Ella Shane Mystery by Kathleen Marple Kalb

Today is publication day for A Fatal Reception: An Ella Shane Mystery by Kathleen Marple Kalb. Published by Level Best Books, LLC., this fourth book in the series is available at Amazon.

 

Amazon Description:

Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane and her Duke are at long last headed for the altar…but they’ll confront a murder, a shipwreck, a questionable Polish prince, and any number of other complications on the way. Continuing the highly-praised series featuring a Lower East Side orphan who found fame and fortune as a singer of male soprano roles, this new installment follows Ella and her surprisingly diverse cast of family and friends through mystery and misadventure…and into the greatest challenge of all for an independent-minded woman and her Victorian swain: matrimony!

SMFS Member Publishing News: The First Murder by Carol Goodman Kaufman

Today is publication day for The First Murder by SMFS list member Carol Goodman Kaufman. Published by TouchPoint Press, the read is available from Amazon.

 

Amazon Description:

 

The ME ruled her death an accident. He was dead wrong.

When Mary Jane Bennett is found dead in her bed— alone, strangled by her own scarf, and with every door in the house locked — the medical examiner rules her death accidental, the result of a sex game gone horribly awry. State police decline to investigate further, but Queensbridge Police Chief Caleb Crane doesn't buy for a minute that his good friend died this way, so he undertakes his own investigation. Facing town councilors afraid of bad publicity, an angry medical examiner, and his own personal demons, he labors to solve what he believes is the first-ever murder in his pastoral Berkshire Hills village. Complicating things: the list of suspects includes some of the people to whom he is closest — including his own wife.

SMFS Member Publishing News: A Scarlet Death: An Angela Richman, Death Investigator Mystery by Elaine Viets

Today is publication day for A Scarlet Death: An Angela Richman, Death Investigator Mystery by SMFS list member Elaine Viets. This is the eighth novel in the series that began with Brain Storm. Published by Severn House, the read is available from the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors.

 

Publisher Description:

Angela’s new case is full of dark secrets and scandal, but shocking events closer to home prove to be her biggest challenge yet . . .

Nobody in Choutaeu Forest expected one of their most prominent citizens, socialite Selwyn Skipton, to be found dead in such salacious circumstances: strangled on satin bedsheets, a red letter A brutally stapled to his chest, in his private apartment above the Chouteau Forest Chocolate Shoppe.

Selwyn was a good man. He gave to charity, supported local causes, and was married to his wife for more than twenty years. What did he do to deserve such a terrible end?

As Death Investigator Angela Richman investigates, she uncovers Selwyn’s dark secret, but also faces an unexpected, chilling conundrum closer to home . . .

Genre: Police Procedural

SMFS Members Published in Crimeucopia - Totally Psycho Logical

 

Today is publication day for Crimeucopia - Totally Psycho Logical. Published by Murderous Ink Press, the read is available at Amazon and other vendors. SMFS list members that reported being in the read are:

 

Daniel C. Bartlett with "How Easily Things Can Explode."

 

Wendy Harrison with "It's Nothing Personal."

 

Carol Goodman Kaufman with "Skin Deep."

 

Amazon Description:

Totally - adverb: completely; absolutely. Used to emphasize a clause or statement. "He/She is totally bat-shit crazy!"

Psycho - noun: an unstable and aggressive person. "Don't you know? My ex is a total psycho!"

adjective: exhibiting unstable and aggressive behaviour. "There's some kind of psycho nut job on the loose out there!"

Logical - adjective: characterized by or capable of clear, sound reasoning. "His/Her logical mind? Are you nuts or something?"

But are all psychos 'nut jobs'? Or, given the chance, could they show that their actions really are totally logical? At least, from their perspective that is.

Laurie Stevens, Jesse Aaron, Patrick Ambrose, Stephen D. Rogers, Wendy Harrison, Jan Glaz, Brandon Doughty, Elena Schacherl, Joyce Bingham, Jeff Somers, Glenn Francis Faelnar, Douglas Soesbe, C.G. Merchant, Daniel C. Bartlett, Richard J. O'Brien, David Bradley, and Kamal M

All take you on journeys that might often put a skewer through any rational thought processes you think you might have.

And as always, with all of these anthologies, we hope you'll find something that you immediately like, as well as something that takes you out of your regular padded cell comfort zone - and puts you into a completely new one because, in the spirit of the Murderous Ink Press motto:

You never know what you like until you read it.

SMFS Member Publishing News: Half Crime by Rusty Barnes

 

Today is publication day for SMFS list member Gary Phillips’ new book, Half Crime. Published by Redneck Press, the short story collection is available at Amazon and other vendors.