Murder Most Foul

April is the cruellest month or so they say.  Therefore, this month's spotlight features an appropriate genre -- the murder mystery.  Of course, there is quite a variety within that genre, and you will see that reflected here.  Hard-boiled or cozy, romantic or humorous ...  Many of the novels listed below are part

Murder in March Commons by Arlington Nuetzel

A professor’s beautiful wife is dying a slow and miserable death. A brazen cat burglar is terrorizing a small university town. An auto executive’s sailboat disappears mysteriously on Lake Huron. A chemistry student will stop at absolutely nothing to secure her passing grade. When supermodel Lila Docker becomes an unwitting victim, the affable Steven Burr rallies his unlikely cadre of acquaintances to connect the dots and to bring the criminals to justice with potentially disastrous results.

Arlington Nuetzel is an instructor of writing and divides his time between the Missouri Ozarks and the Arkansas Delta. He is a longtime breeder and trainer of dogs and horses, a private pilot and a former professional ski instructor. Nuetzel is the author of The Low January Sun, 2027, New Madrid, Missouri and also a collection of short stories, The Bower Bird and Other Stories.

Reviews:

"Arlington Nuetzel's characters jump out of the page and become your friends. His books are simply a joy to read." ~ Georgia Henry, Novelist

"No matter what subject matter Nuetzel explores, his style is easy to read, highly visual and entertaining. You won't be disappointed." ~ Mac Macoy, Ghostwriter

View a trailer for this book or learn more about Arlington Nuetzel's other books at the author's website.

The Surest Poison by Chester D. Campbell

Three seemingly unrelated murders crop up during the investigation of a decade-old chemical dump that plagues a rural community west of Nashville. Sid Chance, a former National Parks ranger whose career as a small town police chief was cut short by malicious accusations of bribery, pursues the case after being coaxed out of self-imposed exile by Jaz LeMieux, a wealthy ex-cop. Is the man responsible for the pollution dead or alive? Who is having Sid tailed and threatened? When Jaz helps with the investigation, she is awakened by an explosion behind her mansion. Is it related to the abduction of her retainers' grandson, or Sid's case? As the tension mounts, Sid finds himself confronting the unsavory people responsible for his past troubles.

Chester D. Campbell, a native of Nashville, TN, is a journalism graduate of the University of Tennessee. He has been involved in all types of writing during a career that has spanned more than 60 years. His resume includes newspaper reporter, freelance writer, magazine editor, political speech-writer, advertising copywriter, public relations professional, and association executive. He also served as an Air Force intelligence officer in the Korean War and retired from the Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel. A full-time fiction writer, he is active in Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Authors Guild, and Tennessee Writers Alliance. He lives in Madison, TN with his wife, Sarah.

Reviews:

"The Surest Poison is a terrifically timely mystery about one of the most pressing problems of our era. Campbell's characters throw off sparks throughout, making it clear that the flint is really there. This may be fiction, but Campbell sets his tale squarely in the real world we all share." ~ Timothy Hallinan, author

Read more about this book and other mysteries by this octogenarian mystery writer from Nashville at the author's website.

Murder of an American Nazi by Tim Fleming

Ex-homicide detective Don Hayes is haunted by his one unsolved case, the murder of ex-Nazi/CIA operative Walter Dornberger. Dornberger’s corpse disappears before Hayes can begin the investigation, but the tough cop won’t let go, even after he leaves the police force. As he uncovers the truth of who Dornberger really was, the trail leads on a heart-pounding journey through Nazi-occupied France in World War II, the German death camps, foreign coup d’etats, lethal Cold War espionage, the JFK assassination, and revolution in central America. One of Hayes’ suspects turns out to be a concentration camp refugee, Hannah Kanermann, whose mother and brother were brutalized by Dornberger during the war. When Hannah discovers that the CIA helped Dornberger escape prosecution for war crimes and arranged for his safe passage to the U.S., she turns the tables on Dornberger, his Nazi cronies, and their CIA protectors.

Timothy Fleming’s life experience was written into Murder of an American Nazi. Born in the early 1950s, raised during the tumultuous 1960s, and drafted into the U.S. Army in 1972, he has lived through many of the events surrounding the subject matter contained in this book. Jesuit-educated in his hometown of St. Louis, he is quite familiar with the happenstances and plights of the St. Louis based characters in his story. He has also spent a lifetime researching the CIA’s impact on post-World War II America. Fleming and his wife, Gail, live in the small town of O’Fallon, in southwestern Illinois.

Learn more about this author and his book at his blog site.
 

An Old Fashioned Murder by Laurie Pooler-Pelayo 

When Lydia Proctor, working mother, volunteer librarian and for hire genealogist gets an unexpected phone call, her life changes. For her, genealogy is a fact finding mission, with an occasional skeleton in the close. But she learns that some families contain a few more skeletons than others, when she is hired to solve a one-hundred year old crime. Did Julia's grandfather really kill his wives, or was it someone else? With the help of Lydia's good friends Faye and Muriel, clues keep pouring in until the real murderer is discovered. It's a challenge trying to solve An Old Fashioned Murder.

Laurie Pooler Pelayo started writing kid mysteries as a child, and tracing her family tree (genealogy) in high school, both of which she continued with into adulthood, eventually combining the two loves into one writing genealogical mysteries. She is employed as a Cataloging Library Technician in Southern California, where she recently earned her degree in history. In her spare time, she is co-librarian for South Bay Cities Genealogical Society in Torrance, California. Laurie has spoken about, written articles on and taught classes on genealogical practices. She is married and the mother of three children, all of whom help inspire her writing.

Reviews:

"What kind of clues can be teased out of old letters and depositions, the placement of burials in a graveyard, old store inventories, and the memories of those few very elderly who were children listening to the gossip of their elders? Quite a fair number, as it turns out ..." ~ Blogger News Network

"A very fun read that weaves that past with the present through 100+ years of this multi-generational mystery." ~ Amazon Customer Review

Learn more about the science of genealogy and future books in this series at the author's website.

The Turtle Mound Murder by Mary Clay

Rebecca Leigh Stratton is divorced, depressed, and thoroughly disgusted. Thanks to her two-timing, asset-hiding, lawyer husband, Leigh faces the prospect of starting over at forty-six. Fortunately, her sassy, Southern sorority sisters, Penny Sue Parker and Ruthie Nichols, are old hands at divorce. The three single-again ladies take off for New Smyrna Beach, their college-days haunt. What they don't bargain for are old flames, fist fights, and gunfire. And, that's just the first day!

Mary Clay describes her work as "Upbeat Fiction with a Metaphysical Twist."  In addition to the DAFFODILS mystery series, she has authored  the science fiction novel The Sirian Redemption under the name of Linda Tuck-Jenkins.

Reviews:

"Move over, Steel Magnolias; move over, First Wives Club. "The Daffodils" have arrived. ...Witty and hilarious ..." ~ Midwest Book Review

"Much charm and promise ... a crisp pace with plenty of humor ..." ~ Romantic Times Book Club

"The Ya Ya Sisterhood meets The First Wives Club.  A cleverly done light mystery that's a rare find." ~ The Examiner, Beaumont, TX

Read an excerpt from The Turtle Mound Murder and learn about this author's other publications at her website.

Wayne's Dead by Christy Tillery French

Jackson Daniels, investigative detective with the Knoxville Police Department, is called to the scene of a murder at a ritzy hotel in Knoxville. A dead man lies on the bed, above his mutilated body the words, Wayne's Dead, have been written. Jackson and his team of detectives ascertain fairly quickly that they are faced with a brutal serial killer who has been on the loose in the Southeast for the past twelve years. Choosing married, middle-aged attorneys as prey, the killer seduces them, murders them, and then mutilates the body afterwards, leaving the same message on the wall above the victims. Frustrated over the lack of evidence found at each scene, Jackson and his team frantically search for their perpetrator, never suspecting that the person they are trying to find has been with them from the start.

Christy Tillery French resides in Powell, TN, a small community outside of Knoxville, with her husband and two children. She has been nominated for "Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, and Poets."

Reviews:

I totally enjoyed "Wayne's Dead" and I felt I was reading a "Law and Order" script. I recommend it highly! -- Louise Riveiro-Mitchell,Reviewer, Book Review Cafe

This is a well-crafted story with true-to-life characters with the relationships between the characters developed fully. -- Barbara Buhrer, Reviewer, Myshelf.com

Investigate this  book as well as the Christy Tillery French's "Bodyguard" mystery-comedy series by visiting the author's website.

Too Near the Edge by Lynn Osterkamp

When park rangers find Adam's crumpled body 300 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon, they think he was one more careless tourist. But back home in Boulder, Colorado, his grief-stricken wife Sharon is sure he was murdered. She won't rest until she knows why he was so troubled in the month before he died. Over the objections of her prominent father, she turns to grief therapist Cleo Sims, who runs a project that re-unites people with dead loved ones. Despite threats and warnings, Cleo takes on the challenge to help Sharon contact Adam and solve the mystery of his death. She gets extra encouragement from Tyler, a surfer-dude spirit who visits her from beyond, offers cryptic advice, and pushes her to "ride the wave" with Sharon. In this hip mountain community where high tech meets new age, their investigation involves suspects whose activities range from traditional to cutting-edge to over-the-rainbow. Tension mounts as Cleo's digging uncovers a sinister underbelly of scams, fraud and deceit. Her professional reputation and her life are on the line as she struggles to sort reality from illusion, good from evil, and truth from deception. Too Near the Edge is a character-driven mystery with a paranormal twist, a humorous tone, and a whimsical heroine who grapples with tough questions about love, reality, ethics and trust.

Lynn Osterkamp was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where some of the intellectual ambiance must have seeped into her soul. She has worked as a university research associate and grant writer in gerontology and served on boards and committees evaluating programs and policies on aging. She has also worked for various social service agencies including Headstart, Hospice, non-profit hospitals, and most recently, Boulder County Aging Services.
 

Review:

"Gets hold of you from the first page and you can't seem to put it down. Recommended to anyone who loves mysteries. ~ BookPleasures.com

Awards:

Winner of 2007 IPPY Silver Medal, Best Regional Fiction, West-Mountain Fiction

Learn more about Lynn Osterkamp and her books at the author's website.

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