Editing by Elizabeth

May 09, 2012

Earthquakes and Fast Friends by Dianne Emley

I’m pleased to welcome back LA Times bestselling author Dianne Emley for a continuing look at her Iris Thorne series. I’ll be reviewing the series’s third entry, Fast Friends, tomorrow. Originally published in the early 90s, it’s been an interesting experience for Dianne to revisit books she hadn’t looked at in nearly a decade.

Dianne Emley Thank you Elizabeth for again letting me contribute to your blog. This is my third posting about my experiences revisiting the five books in my Iris Thorne Mysteries series that was originally published by Simon and Schuster during the 1990s and have been out-of-print. I’ve gently edited all the Iris Thornes and am releasing them for the first time as e-books and trade paperbacks.

Today I’m discussing Fast Friends, the third Iris Thorne mystery, which is again on-sale. In the fall, Foolproof, Iris #4, will be rereleased. The fifth and final Iris Thorne, Pushover, never before published in the U.S., will be out in 2013. The primped and polished first two Irises, Cold Call and Slow Squeeze, are available now.

Fast Friends is my most personal book so far. It was originally published in 1997 and I wrote it from 1994 to 1995. It was inspired by pivotal events in my life at that time, events that shook me (sometimes literally) to the core and that inspired me to take a look back at who I was once upon a time, where I came from, and how far I’ve come since. →

May 04, 2012

Tea with Death by Joel M. Andre

“No one invites me out for tea. I felt it would be rude of me to decline.” – Death

Joel M. Andre, author of the wickedly funny A Death at the North Pole, has the type of twisted, sarcastic sense of humor I love. Given that, I went into his short story Tea With Death with high expectations and Andre did not disappoint.

Tea With Death finds the unnamed host/narrator welcoming Death for what he hopes will be an enlightening conversation. Getting on in years himself and having lost his youngest son to suicide born of depression, the host has many questions about how death actually occurs and what happens after. He also has a secret agenda he plans to spring on Death if the opportunity presents itself.

The concept of man sitting down for a conversation with the Grim Reaper is certainly not new in book or film, but it usually comes with either a boatload of pretentiousness or too much slapstick irreverence. Andre, however, strikes just the right balance.

Death and his host indeed reflect upon the process of dying, and along the way Death shares many of the secrets of his profession. He does so, however, with a wicked sense of humor and more than a dash of sarcasm, as evidenced from very the moment he shows up for his tea date: →

May 02, 2012

Spinetingler Magazine 2012 David Thompson Community Leader Award Winner

Spinetingler Magazine has announced the 2012 Spinetingler Magazine Awards winners, and I’m honored that from amongst such a wonderful group of nominees Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White was chosen as the 2012 David Thompson Community Leader Award winner.

David Thompson was a bookseller and publisher whose passion for crime fiction knew no bounds, nor did his tireless advocating of crime fiction books and authors. You can learn more about David by visiting Sarah Weinman’s blog, where she compiled a deservedly lengthy list of the tributes that poured in from every corner of the crime fiction community in David’s honor upon his untimely death in 2010.

It is truly an honor to win an award that bears David’s name.

Thank you to the Spinetingler crew for nominating me, and to everyone who took the time to vote. Every person who was nominated does such wonderful things to support crime fiction books and authors, and all were more than deserving. For a group that thrives on murder and mayhem – in print, of course – the crime fiction community is actually quite tight-knit and supportive, and I am proud to be a part of it.

May 01, 2012

The Truth About Scarlet Rose by Julia Madeleine

“You want to call being born without a soul an illness?”

It’s one thing to be hated by strangers or coworkers, but when one of your own daughters describes you as a narcissistic bitch who was born without a soul, well, that makes a statement.

Truth is, it’s a fair statement about Sylvia, née Scarlet Rose; she’s a first class bitch who makes Joan “Mommie Dearest” Crawford look like June Cleaver.

During her heyday in the 60s Sylvia was a stunningly beautiful young woman who enchanted men as the stripper known as Scarlet Rose.

Time was not kind, however, and The Truth About Scarlet Rose finds Sylvia a washed-up, bitter woman living on alcohol, welfare, and “donations” from her daughter, Fiona… the same daughter Slyvia forced into stripping at age sixteen to help support the family.

When Sylvia’s ex-husband, Charlie, is found brutally murdered Fiona vows to do everything in her power to help catch whomever was responsible for killing the closest thing she ever had to a father. The more she digs into the family’s past, however, the more strange and sordid things get. And for every answer Fiona uncovers she unearths two more questions, the biggest of which is whether she will be able to discover the truth without being destroyed by it. →

April 30, 2012

When The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction by Julia Madeleine

Pleased to welcome Julia Madeleine on her tour in support of The Truth About Scarlet Rose (which I’ll be reviewing tomorrow) for a post in which she shares the tragic inspiration behind one of the book’s characters.

Julia Madeleine True stories can often trigger an idea for a novel or a story. This is always a fantastic moment when the spark that ignites the imagination occurs. Sometimes, those ideas are based on a tragedy, as is the case with my novel The Truth About Scarlet Rose.

When I was in college I worked nights in a Toronto strip club. Every bar of course has its regulars. One of our regulars was a businessman named Chris. He was nick named “Megabucks” because he was rich and he was a big spender. He was in his late fifties, divorced, lonely and he loved to party.

Chris would party all night; drinking, laughing and joking, often with complete strangers and usually he was footing the bill. At least a dozen people—dancers as well as customers constantly surrounded Chris, who would be the centre of attention at the table. He would buy shooters by the tray, and his table would go through several trays in a night. Some nights he’d even buy the entire bar a round. →

April 27, 2012

Living Proof by Kira Peikoff

“You’re an agent of the DEP, Trent, but really, you’re an agent of God.” – Gideon Dopp

Welcome to the year 2027, the new Dark Ages of scientific research where not only has stem cell research been completely outlawed, but the termination of any embryo, even those “left over” from in vitro fertilization treatments, is considered first degree murder.

The Federal Department of Embryo Preservation (DEP) practices strict oversight on fertility clinics, making sure that every embryo generated is accounted for. Those not actually used must be stored in a viable state in perpetuity, and clinics are subject to both yearly and random inspections to ensure they are performing up to Federal guidelines.

Dr. Arianna Drake runs one of the most successful fertility clinics in New York. A little too successful in the eyes of Gideon Dopp, a former priest and current Director of the DEP. Given that Drake’s father was an outspoken scientist and she herself supported a radical professor during her time in school, Dopp is leery about exactly why Drake’s clinic is producing so many embryos.

Determined to figure out what she’s up to, Dopp sends one of his agents, Trent Rowe, undercover to get close to Drake and dig up the dirt the DEP needs to shut the clinic down. After all, not only does Dopp suspect Drake of criminal activity, the DEP really needs the PR boost that shutting a clinic down would bring. The more the devoutly religious Rowe learns about Drake and what she’s up to at the clinic, however, the more he begins to question not only his mission, but his faith as well. Now both Drake and Rowe must decide where to put their trust: in science, God, or each other? Their choices will have ramifications not just for the two of them, but potentially the future of all scientific research. →

April 26, 2012

Books Instead of God? by Kira Peikoff

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Living Proof (Tor Books) by Kira Peikoff, but today I’m pleased to welcome Kira for a guest post in which she talks about the importance of books in her life as a child.

Kira Peikoff A child of two atheists, I was four years old the first time I set foot in any house of worship. It was at the urging of my then-best friend Caitlin, also aged four, who had dunked her head an extra time for my sake during her Mormon baptism to ensure I wouldn’t end up in Hell. (This gesture cemented our status as true best friends, even though I didn’t know what any of it meant.)

But Caitlin also had a mischievous side; when I joined her at church on that unprecedented Sunday morning, she took advantage of a pause in the Jesus hymns to announce to the congregation: “Kira doesn’t believe in God!” That was also the first time I learned that my upbringing was, apparently, unacceptable.

My parents were raised Jewish, but both rejected religion altogether as adults, so my childhood was utterly devoid of God and all the traditions that go along with a religious faith: weekend prayer, Bible reading, fasting, etc. Some people might then believe that I was raised without a moral code. After all, isn’t religion’s purpose, at least partially, to teach you how to be a good person? →

April 25, 2012

The Suspect by Tonya Plank

Nineteen-year-old Jamar Jansen is no stranger to guns and violence. And because he’s a little slow mentally, he’s also no stranger to being teased and bullied. It’s not something he ever really focused on though, not until his older brother, Darnell, ended up shooting one of Jamar’s worst tormentors.

Now, without his brother to protect him and a mother who blames him for Darnell being in jail (“He was protecting you.”), Jamar is adrift in a neighborhood full of predators, some of whom wear the sheep’s clothing of friends. Walking home from McDonald’s one evening Jamar runs into some of those so-called friends, who promise to take him to a popular club if he’ll just do them a quick favor first.

Jamar’s smart enough to know something’s not right when they ask him to wait outside while they go into a check-cashing store – and to signal them by pulling up his hoodie if he sees someone coming – but unfortunately he’s not smart enough to avoid either getting caught up in the outburst of violence that ensues or subsequently being picked up by the police as their chief suspect. →

April 24, 2012

Wild Thing by Josh Bazell

Great. Because shit around here wasn’t crazy enough as it was. – Pietro Brnwa

I could almost stop with that quote and nothing more and you’d have a pretty good feel for author Josh Bazell’s latest book, Wild Thing: crazy shit. Of course, I mean that in the best way possible.

Though technically a sequel in that it features the same lead character as Bazell’s debut, Beat the Reaper, Wild Thing is so amazingly different in tone and style that it’s a sequel in name only. For starters, the lead character doesn’t even go by the same name he did in the previous book.

When we last saw Pietro Brnwa, a former mob hit man now in Federal witness protection, he was going by the name Peter Brown and working as a physician at a low-rent hospital in Manhattan. His cover was blown during the course of Beat the Reaper with spectacularly disastrous results, and Wild Thing finds Pietro/Peter now working on a cruise ship under the name Dr. Lionel Azimuth.

Not for long, however, as he’s approached by a reclusive billionaire (referred to throughout the book as “Rec Bill”) who’s obsessed with an urban legend which has a Loch Ness type creature living in White Lake deep in the woods of Minnesota. Rec Bill wants Pietro to accompany paleontologist Dr. Violet Hurst on an expedition to prove/disprove the creature’s existence, with Peitro serving as bodyguard and observer.

Pietro and Hurst aren’t the only ones on the expedition, however, as they are joined by a small group of people hand-picked – and steeply charged – by the expedition’s guide to join in the hunt. From true believers to international drug dealers to an “Oh no he didn’t!” cameo by a very well-known politician, the group Pietro and Hurst find themselves in the company of is as colorful as a box of crayons that’s been thrown in a blender. There’s no guarantee they’ll find the White Lake Monster, but as Pietro said, shit most definitely gets crazy. →

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