Book Review: Best Served Cold

First there was a high profile up and coming NASCAR driver. Shot and killed at close range.

Now the victim is an up and coming high profile pro basketball star. 

Private detective Tony Razzolito (a.k.a. The Razzman) isn’t concerned about the latest death until his friend, Captain Rita O’Connor of homicide, asks him to help on the case. 

The only problem for Tony is he has to work with his nemesis Detective John Cahill.

Once again, Joe Congel delivers a well wrought whodunit that kept me guessing all the way to the surprise ending. 

I’ve read all of the Tony Razzolito mysteries. And they just keep getting better and better. A good thing getting better is a very good thing.

What I like best about Congel’s stories are his characters. They have personality. They are three dimensional. They pop off the page because they are real people.

Characters make fiction sing. We remember memorable characters. Rarely do we remember a plot. 

As Ray Bradbury advised writers: create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story.

And Joe Congel lets his characters do their thing. In doing so, a story is created that carries us along from beginning to end. We are right there living the story along with the characters. That’s the work of a master storyteller. And Congel is a master.

While Best Served Cold is laced with loads of humor, the story itself is dark. It is a vengeance tale reminiscent of Jacobean theater. Bloody and unrelenting. It’s a good thing the humor is there – it relieves the darkness of the mystery. 

Best Served Cold is the fourth book in The Razzman Mystery Crime files. I’m already waiting for number five.

Pick up your copy of Best Served Cold on Amazon. 

And if you haven’t read the other Razzman mysteries, you can find them on Amazon, too.

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!

10 Favorite Private Detective Novels

 

People often ask me for book recommendations; especially PI mysteries, as they can be difficult to find.

A recent look at the Amazon Top 25 in the Private Investigator category had me dumping most of them because there wasn’t a shamus in sight.

When the category is Private Investigator I don’t know why Amazon allows FBI agents, amateur sleuths, DCIs, vampire hunters, and who knows what else to take over the category. ‘Tain’t right. ‘Tain’t fair.

So without further ado, I give you 10 bona fide Private Detective novels for your reading pleasure.

1. This Doesn’t Happen in the Movies by Renee Pawlish. This the first book in the Reed Ferguson series, and it is a goody. A bit hardboiled, a bit noir, and a bit cozy.
2. The Italian Affair by John Tallon Jones. The Penny Detective is fast becoming one of my favorite PI series. Moggs and Shoddy are super characters. You will love these guys. And this book is especially fun.
3. Deadly Passion by Joe Congel. Tony Razzolito, aka The Razzman, is a great character. This is a fab series. I keep praying Joe will write faster.
4. Turn on the Heat by Erle Stanley Gardner (as AA Fair) is one of the novels in the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam series. Not as well known as Perry Mason, the series, though, is quite good. Although, I think Gardner missed a bet by not giving Bertha a bigger role. She is a stupendous character.
5. China Trade by SJ Rozan. I love Rozan’s Lydia Chin. A very refreshing character. Bill Smith, on the other hand, I’m not so taken with. Lydia and Bill aren’t partners. But they help each other out. Friends without benefits, one might say. Although Bill would love for their relationship to get to the benefits stage. The odd numbered books are in Lydia’s POV; the even, in Bill’s. Super series.
6. The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout. I love the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Put me on a desert island with the Tom Barnaby Midsomer Murders and the Nero Wolfe mysteries and plenty of tea and I’m in heaven. Nero Wolfe is the yardstick by which I judge a mystery’s quality.
7. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. I just finished reading the Marlowe mysteries. They are fab. Especially the later ones. This novel is probably my fav. I’ll be re-reading these in the near future. No one can beat Chandler for uniquely engaging descriptions. Do read the Marlowe books. They are amongst the best books you’ll ever read.
8. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Poirot is, IMO, rather one dimensional. He’s peculiar, and noticeable, but not in a way that makes him a fan favorite like, say, Sherlock Holmes. Christie’s strong suit, IMO, is her complex storylines. Not her characters.
9. The Case is Closed by Patricia Wentworth. The Miss Silver mysteries are good reading. Wentworth is on par with Christie, and deserves to be more widely known.
10. The Shoulders of Giants by Jim Cliff. Excellent mystery. My great sadness is that Mr. Cliff didn’t write more than 2.

The above are 10 gumshoe novels I very much enjoyed and I think you will too.

I’m even going to throw in an eleventh:

But Jesus Never Wept

Tina and Harry quickly find themselves immersed in a bloody murder, an online sex empire, church politics, art forgeries, and the Yakuza.

And when the bullets start flying, will they survive long enough to pin the murder on the culprit?

Head on over to Amazon and find out!

That’s all for now.

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!

To Right A Wrong — Is Live!

 

The latest Justinia Wright mystery, To Right A Wrong, is live!

Get it on Amazon!

And here’s a snippet to whet your appetite.

Gavin, maintaining his innocence, said the only conclusion was that someone had shot his uncle.

The jury agreed. They also agreed with the prosecutor that the someone was Gavin Gamble.

I set the papers on my desk. It all seemed to be there: motive, means, and opportunity. I picked up the copy of the anonymous letter Molly Gamble received. The penmanship was elegant, but the hand that had written the note was not a steady one. The message was simple:

Your husband is innocent. One of the witnesses is lying.

The message was signed, A Friend.

A friend. Ha! If the person was truly a friend, why didn’t he or she say something at the trial? Why wait until now? Indeed, why now? Why send Molly Gamble this note at this particular point in time?

It seemed to me we had more people, a lot more people we needed to talk to before Tina could decide if the note sender was a liar or not.

And how did the note sender know Gavin Gamble was innocent in the first place? Now that was a question I’d like an answer to.

Tina walked into the office and sat at her desk.

“So did Chopin confess? He did it, with the revolver, in the study.”

My sister poured herself a glass of Sercial madeira, the cheap fifty dollar a bottle stuff. “What are you talking about?”

“Apparently he didn’t confess, because you’re still a crabby puss.”

“I am not.” She took a sip of wine. “Did you read the transcripts?”

“I did.”

“Thoughts?”

“In spite of his claim to innocence, the evidence is pretty damning.”

“As I recall from the news coverage, the case was more or less open and shut.”

“So how are you going to spring our jail bird out of the slammer?”

“I don’t know. Who else had a motive for killing James Bowen?”

“Beats me. Gavin Gamble admitted he felt hurt and betrayed because his uncle decided to give him the boot. It could be he also felt angry and decided to get even. That was the prosecution’s line of reasoning, and the jury bought it.”

“Yes, they did. The question is whether or not they bought a snow job. The question we must answer is simple: who else had motive to kill James Bowen, because if Mr Gamble is innocent then someone else not only had motive but acted on it — and then framed Mr Gamble.”

Six Years

The Cover for Justinia Wright #8

Six years ago this month, November 2014, I self-published 4 books: The Morning Star, Festival of Death, The Moscow Affair, and Do One Thing for Me.

I set sail on the sea of the independent author-publisher, and I have not looked back.

Being an indie is tough — because I, the author, am also the publisher and have to do all the business and marketing end of things, as well as write the stories.

Nevertheless, I would rather sell my soul than become a slave to a publishing house — large or small. I love the freedom of being my own man. And IMO, freedom is what it’s all about.

During these past six years, I’ve seen indie authors come and go. I’ve seen indie authors start with nothing and become bestsellers. And those folks give me hope: if they can do it, so can I.

Over the past 6 years, I’ve published 3 series totaling  22 books; and 7 miscellaneous novels, novellas, and short stories. I’ve had 2 short stories and an article appear in anthologies, and a short story published in an zine.

In addition to the above, I publish a weekly blog and occasionally write exclusive stories for my mailing lists.

For me, writing and publishing is a full-time job, and it’s the best job I’ve had in my nearly 7 decades on this planet. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life from this point forward.

And if all goes well, I’ll get to celebrate year 6 with the publication of To Right a Wrong; the eighth book in the Justinia Wright Private Investigator series. 

And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate, because Tina and Harry are my favorite children. I love writing the wise-cracking humor, the sibling rivalry, the thrilling chase scenes and shootouts, the commentary on life in the Minneapple, and the hunger-producing meal descriptions.

So raise a glass of your favorite libation with me in celebration of living life your way and living your dream.

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

(You can find all of my books at Amazon!)