A Grand Murder

Long time readers of this blog know that won't review self published books. After reading A Grand Murder by Stacy Verdick Case I may have to add independent publishers to that list.

Let me say straight off that it's not a bad book. It's a mediocre mystery. The author is pretty good at dialogue and knows it. Most of the book is dialogue. I think that the author can only get better. I thought the characters were interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more about them. One quibble I have is with the tittle of the book. The murder takes place on a street called Grand Avenue Hill. Two scenes take place at the crime scene and it it not mentioned otherwise. The cover pictures a large cup of coffee (the main character drinks a lot of it) which makes me think of a "grande" from Starbucks. If it is supposed to be a play on words it doesn't work for me.

My other nitpick is the geeky tech guy in love with the beautiful and unobtainable detective. Can we do away with that cliche already?

The real problems with this book I lay at the publisher's doorstep. They should have better proof readers and editors. Here are a few of the admittedly nit picky things that bugged me:

Words are missing here and there. For example the word "of" from the phrase "image of success" on page 158.

Plurals for words ending in an "s" are written with an apostrophe and an "s" instead of the now more common apostrophe. Page 114 has "Ridges's" instead of Ridges'.  

The "Ridges" spoken of on pages 114 doesn't show up anywhere else. I suspect the author changed the last name of the victim and used the "find & replace" on her word processor forgetting about the one plural. 

Words the author wanted to stress are underlined like the "I" on page 150. 

Use of a "dash" instead of a hyphen. They're sprinkled all over the place. Page 16 has nine of them. Some words I haven't seen hyphenated in years are hyphenated in this book. Using the dash takes up more than twice the space of a hyphen. It breaks up the writing and is really annoying.

The book is 207 pages long but the type is larger than normal. 207 pages of normal sized print is still a short novel. The price listed on the back of the book is $14.95 USD which would mean it would be about $17.95 CAN. If' I'd paid that much for this book I would have wanted my money back.


I received a review copy of this book.

The Hunger Games

I'll admit that I never heard of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games until they started to make a movie of it. From the beginning the fans had definite ideas about who should play what parts and how the movie should look. I purposely did not watch any of the trailers or look at any of the images leaked to the media before I read the book. Now that I have, I can say I think the movie will be very interesting.

North America is now the country of Panem which is ruled by the Capital. There are twelve Districts. There used to be thirteen but one rebelled and was nuked or something. Every year each of the Districts must send a young male and a young female as "tributes" to compete in the Hunger Games. Think of it as Survivor to the death. Or as they say in the Highlander world: There can be only one!

When her little sister is picked as a tribute Katniss volunteers to go in her place. She is sent to the Capital with Peeta, the baker's son who has a crush on her. I figured that Katniss would win the games. I also thought someone else would kill Peeta and then Katniss would kill them. I was wrong.

I enjoyed the book. I felt sorry for Peeta, especially at the end. I kind of hate that it's the first of a trilogy. I hope the other two books are really good. Maybe they'll make movies out of them too. I've read that the plot is very similar to Battle Royale by Koushun  Takami which was published in 1999 (THG was published in 2008) but since I haven't read it I can't comment.

Silent in the Grave

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn isn't a book I would normally pick up. I was influenced by the ladies at Vaginal Fantasy who picked it as their February read.

I've mentioned before that I am not a "romance" fan. Lucky for me romance is only a small element of Raybourn's book. There's a fairly good mystery to be had so I'll give the book a thumbs up. Way up. I'm now on the third book in the series.  Just what I didn't need - another series to keep up with.

I'm also not a fan Victorian novels. For some reason I find the Victorian period annoying. Raybourn gets points for creating an interesting story that could, with a few minor alterations, take place today. The book is filled with colorful characters who don't always do what's expected of them.

The story starts with Lady Julia and Sir Edward Grey throwing a party. Suddenly Edward falls to the ground in some kind of a fit. When he dies a few hours later no one is surprised. The men of Edward's family are cursed with bad hearts.  No one wonders about the sudden death until a private inquiry agent named Nicholas Brisbane shows up and tells Julia that Edward had been threatened and was in fear for his life.

Lady Julia ends up working with Brisbane to find the truth about her husband's death. Along the way there are many twists and turns and odd characters with secrets. While I did guess who the murderer was I was surprised by the reason. There was no groundwork for the final revelations. It was as if Raybourn was looking for the most shocking solution.

My one character quibble with this book is that Brisbane is too much. He could come with the subtitle of Sherlock Holmes' broodier cousin. He's tall, dark and mysterious with a less than stellar pedigree. He's even got a drug habit like Holmes. I guess that Cumberbatch guy could play him in the movie.

Submissions: Omnific Publishing

Attention All Writers:


Omnific Publishing is now accepting Romance submissions including contemporary, historical, paranormal, suspense, and erotic romance, but will also consider fantasy/urban fantasy, science fiction, and chick lit with strong romantic elements.

Curved Space Trailer

Book description from Amazon:

CURVED SPACE - THE ADVENTURES OF STELLA STAR heralds the return of famed cult space heroine, Stella Star, with nine all-new adventures from an international field of the brightest new writing talent in the universe today! With amazing cover and interior art by acclaimed fantasy artist Robin Grenville-Evans and forewords from both STARCRASH writer/director Luigi Cozzi and Caroline ("Stella Star") Munro, CURVED SPACE - THE ADVENTURES OF STELLA STAR is the cult sci-fi literary event of this, or any other, millennium! Featuring Stories By: Luigi Cozzi (Italy - Writer/director - STARCRASH, CONTAMINATION and HERCULES) Tom Berdinski (USA - Writer/director - ITALIAN ZOMBIE MOVIE, Parts 1 and 2) Scott Brents (USA - Author/artist - 365 SCARY STORIES, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DEMONS AND DEMONOLOGY and PHANTASM: FURTHER EXCURSIONS INTO OBLIVION) Richard Dean (USA - Author - COLONY, INHABITED, FINAL DEATH and LEECH) Robin Grenville-Evans (UK - Artist, cartoonist - "Young Doctors in Space" for Starburst magazine and "Lavinia Laserblast" for the Evening Times) Mark Gascoigne (UK - STARCRASH archivist, webmaster of "The Haunted Stars") Glen Alan Hamilton (USA - Author - Featured in PEEP SHOW, TRIP THE LIGHT HORRIFIC, CHIMERAWORLD, SBD, NEVERWORLDS and BRUTARIAN) Forewords By: Luigi Cozzi Caroline Munro (UK - Actor - STARCRASH, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD and CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER) Edited By: Richard Dean

Buy Curved Space - The Adventures of Stella Star

Bonus: The original trailer from Starcrash.

Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy

Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow is a wonderful collection of fantasy stories that take place in different cities. There's something for everyone here. Like vampires? Gotcha covered. Like Fae Folk? Check. Are you a bit of a ghoul? There's a story for you too.

All the usual suspects are here. Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Pat Cadigan, and even Elizabeth Bear. I'll admit I picked up the book because the cover told me there was a Harry Dresden story inside. This time Butcher has our lovable wizard looking into a curse on the Chicago Cubs.

I'll also have to admit there is one story I didn't read because it dealt with a certain phobia of mine. I also wish I hadn't read the ghoul story. It made me sick and put me off meat for a couple of days.  Exactly what you'd expect from a ghoul story. In my defense, you don't know it's a ghoul story until you're in way too deep to back out.

I'm beginning to think I like urban fantasy better than straight fantasy. If you like your fantasy a little on the noir side, you'll enjoy this book.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters Trailer

Book description from Amazon:

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Buy Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters