Review: For Boys Who Struggle With Darkness

 

Richard Schwindt has a knack for creating unique characters.

I’ve read all of his fiction. His works are the epitome of Bradbury’s Dictum: Create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story.

Story flows from the characters. And Richard’s characters are full of story.

In his most recent book, For Boys Who Struggle With Darkness, the 28th book in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series, he gives us a powerful psychologically driven murder mystery. One in which Dr. Mike Kurelek, professor and psychotherapist at Burnet College, struggles with his anger and desire for justice. Anger that wants to see justice accomplished, but is thwarted by the police and the legal system’s bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy’s operate on correct procedure. And sometimes, and perhaps more than sometimes, that mandate to follow correct procedure gets in the way of achieving justice.

Mike struggles with doing what is “right” and doing what is right. In the end, he makes a choice that is consistent with who he is in order to see that justice is done.

Richard Schwindt follows the standard murder mystery format: a world the is functioning normally, which is then turned on its head by murder, and then restored to order by the sleuth solving the crime.

As Raymond Chandler observed, what differentiates one murder mystery from another is style.

And this is where Richard shines. His characters are cut from the fabric of life. In many ways they are much like us. But their world gets turned upside down by murder.

Richard, who is a social worker and psychotherapist himself, shows us the inner workings of what goes through people’s minds when their world is suddenly shattered through no fault of their own. And what they are willing to do to restore order to their lives.

I am an ardent admirer of Richard Schwindt’s fiction. It has everything to create the most satisfying movies of the mind.

In Dr. Mike Kurelek, he has created a most memorable character. One of the best in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series.

Pick up your copy of For Boys Who Struggle With Darkness today on Amazon.

Comments are always welcome and until next time happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with three bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

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Review: Catch a Tiger by the Toe

 

I make no bones about it: I’m a Joe Congel fan.

I like reading stories and he writes good stories I want to read.

Catch a Tiger by the Toe is his latest offering.

It’s a suspense-filled murder mystery that satisfies on all levels.

Retired  NYC cop Brandon Turner wants a quiet life. A life filled with the joy of his dog, his lady-love, mentoring her son, and maybe a little fishing.

However, he once again finds himself entangled in a murder investigation where it seems he’s the only one with the skill set necessary to catch the killer. A nasty person bent on killing children in a catch-me-if-you-can game with the police.

For me, characters are the story. After all, life is about people. People and what they do or don’t do. And fiction is nothing more or less than a stylized look at people and their lives.

Congel gives us real people. Its as though a giant scooped up a great big handful of the world and put it under a dome for us to observe. That’s what it’s like reading one of his books.

One indicator I go by to tell me if the writer is sensitive to his surroundings and conveys them realistically is dialogue.

Does the writer get dialogue right? Does he have an ear for how people actually speak?

If the answer is yes, then the book will be enjoyable. If the answer is no, well, I don’t go on reading. The writer isn’t listening to the world. And if he isn’t listening does he have anything for me? Probably not.

Congel listens. He hears the world around him. His characters’s dialogue tells me so. They interact with real life and so what he has to tell me by means of his story will be real too.

If you already know Joe Congel, you know what I’m talking about.

If you don’t know his voice, then you are in for a wonderful treat. And Catch a Tiger by the Toe (Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles, Book 26) is an excellent place to begin.

Only on Amazon, and only 99¢ for a very short time. Get your copy today!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with three bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Courtin’ Disaster: A Review

 

With the publication of Courtin’ Disaster by Cindy Davis, the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles numbers an even 2 dozen novels.

As I posted previously, the Chronicles are actually a collection of mini-series. Each author focuses the spotlight on their special protagonists, and brings in the other characters as needed to round out the story.

Courtin’ Disaster continues the ongoing adventures of Bliss Jager, who has now settled in Magnolia Bluff.

Her top priority, aside from refurbishing and landscaping her new home, is to move her friend, Merrick Doyle, who is a ghost, to her new home, getting him out of the General Store so he can be with “family”.

Of course nothing goes according to plan, does it? And when you add murder to the mix and vengeful ex-boyfriends, it all just gets that much more exciting. Well, exciting for the reader, that is.

You can read the book’s blurb over on the Amazon page. And while you’re there, pick up a copy.

What I especially like about the Bliss Jager mini-series within the world of Magnolia Bluff is the excellent storytelling by Cindy Davis. I think this is her best work. And what makes it so is the cast of characters she’s pulled together who tell us their collective and individual stories.

Bliss, Whitney, Hannah, Merrick, Chief Tommy Jager (no relation to Bliss), and let’s not forget Diablo, reveal to us bits of who they were and who they currently are.

Which makes them real people. People no different from those I meet in the neighborhood and gradually learn who they are, learn what makes them tick.

To let the characters tell their stories is the hallmark of a great writer. As I often say, we’re just the amanuensis recording what these people tell us about themselves. And in the Bliss Jager stories, Cindy Davis is a great writer.

Courtin’ Disaster contains humor, a lot of humor; it contains a well-crafted puzzle; entertaining sub-plots; just the right amount of description to make you feel like you are right there in Magnolia Bluff; and food, let’s not forget the food. There’s lots of it. And it is delish.

I thoroughly enjoyed Courtin’ Disaster and I think you will, too. Be sure to get your copy on Amazon. Before the price goes up.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Death in the Absence of Rain

 

Readers of this blog know I think very highly of Caleb Pirtle’s ability to tell a thought–provoking and heart–moving story.

It doesn’t matter if the story is a historical narrative, a biography, a gripping thriller, or a puzzling mystery. Caleb delivers the goods as few writers can.

He is one of the most successful writers who is not a household name. (You can read about him in my previous post.)

This month he released his latest book: Death in the Absence of Rain. It is the 15th book in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series, and it is a winner.

There’s a dead man walking the streets of Magnolia Bluff. 

A blazing hot sun is drinking up all the water for miles around. The drought is causing Burnet Reservoir to dry up. 

And out of the receding waters rises a town drowned 50 years ago. A dead town with living secrets.

Then there’s a murder. Followed by a second murder.

Law enforcement is baffled. And so is Graham Huston, editor of the town newspaper. But Graham has an advantage law enforcement doesn’t. The dead man talks to him.

And Graham listens. But what is the dead man trying to tell him?

A trip out to the ghost town that’s rising back out of the lake reveals yet another murder. One that’s 50 years old.

Graham’s dogged pursuit of the truth brings an old, old secret to light. It also puts him on the receiving end of a shotgun blast late at night.

Caleb Pirtle tells us a suspense-filled tale and while doing so weaves in observations about life and death and living that only a person with a lot of years under his belt can give us. 

Death in the Absence of Rain is a mystery only Caleb Pirtle could write, and one you won’t easily forget.

It is still only 99¢ on Amazon. If you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you’ve already paid to read it. So go ahead!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!