Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White

Welcome to the third stop on Sue Grafton’s Blog Tour. In order to celebrate the forthcoming November 14th release of V is for Vengeance, ten bloggers are reviewing the five most recent entries in the Kinsey Millhone series to refresh your memory and help you hit the ground running. There’s also information about a great contest from Penguin as well as an excerpt from V is for Vengeance below today’s review.

In the passing drama of life, I’m usually the heroine, but occasionally I’m simply a minor character in someone else’s play. – Kinsey Millhone

The 18th entry in Sue Grafton’s alphabet series, R is for Ricochet, finds Santa Teresa, California-based private investigator Kinsey Millhone summoned to the mansion of multi-millionaire Nord Lafferty to discuss a job offer. Lafferty’s daughter, Reba, is set to be paroled from prison after serving nearly two years for embezzlement and Lafferty wants Kinsey to pick Reba up and keep an eye on her “until she’s reestablished herself.”

Sounds easy enough, a glorified babysitting job really, right? Wrong.

Things get complicated quickly when Reba meets up with real estate developer Alan “Beck” Beckwith, her former lover and employer – the same one she embezzled from. Turns out Beck is being investigated for money-laundering by numerous law enforcement agencies, a fact that is brought to Kinsey’s attention by Lieutenant Cheney Phillips, Santa Teresa’s local liaison to the federal investigation.

The Feds want Reba to help them nail Beck, and as incentive to get her to do so they provide Kinsey with photos to show Reba of Beck two-timing her with her best friend…who also happens to hold Reba’s old job. Sufficiently incensed, Reba agrees to help take Beck down. Unfortunately, Reba has her own ideas about the best way to do that, leaving Kinsey scrambling to keep up as things spiral out of control. (more…)

A man wakes up naked and cold, half-drowned on an abandoned beach. The only sign of life for miles is an empty BMW. Inside the expensive car he finds clothes that fit perfectly, shoes for his tattered feet, a Rolex, and a bank envelope stuffed with cash and an auto registration in the name of Daniel Hayes, resident of Malibu, California.

But that raises the most chilling question of all: What will he find when he gets there?

That’s the setup for The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey, which will be released on June 9th. Intrigued? You should be. I’m about halfway through the book and I promise you it is every bit as exciting as it sounds. You know what else is exciting? Marcus Sakey is offering you a chance to win an iPod and the audiobook version of his novel The Amateurs if you pre-order The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes. (more…)

Originally released in April of 2010, The Third Rail is the third book in author Michael Harvey’s series featuring Chicago Private Investigator Michael Kelly, and there is all kinds of trouble afoot in Chi-town.

Starting with an execution-style murder on an L (elevated train) platform that Kelly witnesses, followed by a second L related shooting across town barely an hour later, The Third Rail quickly pulls the reader into the sense of panic that sweeps through the city of Chicago as it realizes there is a spree killer on the loose.

You can read my full review of The Third Rail here, and check out the great trailer for the book below.

To celebrate yesterday’s release of The Third Rail in both trade and mass market paperback, Kaye Publicity has provided me with 3 copies of the mass market paperback to give away. To be entered to win, just leave a comment below with the name of your all time favorite private investigator/detective from either literature or television. Three winners will be picked using Random.org. Contest open to US/Canada and runs through March 31st.

The paperback release of The Third Rail is available now from Vintage Crime (ISBN: 978-0307473639).

Today I am pleased to welcome guest blogger Graham Parke, author of No Hope for Gomez!, who is hosting a unique, online birthday party for his one-year-old novel. You can read my No Hope For Gomez! review here. There is also an interview with Graham and excerpt from No Hope For Gomez! available for you to check out. And now, let’s hear from Graham.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a year since I handed in the final proofs for my weird little book No Hope for Gomez! To celebrate this, and the fact that it just became a finalist in 2010’s Best Book Awards, I decided to throw an international party.

As I’ve had a debilitating fear of throwing parties and no-one showing up since early childhood, I’d be more than delighted if you’d come!

Of course, with every cool, international party comes a gift bag. Here’s just some of the stuff attendants will get, all exclusive items and will not be available again:

• “Unspent Time” exclusive short story collection

• No Hope for Gomez: The Lost Chapters
• Making of Gomez: behind the scenes eBook
• Signed hi-res poster + bookplate

Additionally, several lucky attendants will win a Kindle or an iPod!

Oh yeah, you can bring as many friends as you like, just don’t bring your crazy uncle who drinks too much and then tries to get me to go to the attic with him to see something wonderful. I’ve fallen for that before and I don’t mind telling you, I came away very disappointed!

Find out how to attend HERE.

When the paranormal raises its otherworldy head in New York City, the Department of Extraordinary Affairs executes a flawless, stick-the-landing smackdown. That’s the idea anyway, and Agent Simon Canderous can usually count on help from his mentor, Connor Christos.

But Connor’s left Simon to handle a double case load as he cashes in on five years worth of saved vacation time. Simon suspects that Connor isn’t Club Medding so much as Club Deading it up—investigating the disappearance of his long lost brother.

Simon especially needs Connor when the spirit populace of Manhattan is shaken and stirred by someone intruding on their well-deserved R.I.P. But Connor’s relentless ghost whispering has sent him off the deep end; he’s haunted every night by visions of his brother’s ghost at his window.

Simon’s partner may be going crazy—or worse, maybe he’s not…

Dead Matter is book three in the continuing adventures of Simon Canderous, following Dead to Me and Deader Still. I have an autographed copy of Dead Matter to give away to one of my readers.

To be entered, just leave a comment below. Please include your email address or url so I can contact the winner. Contest open to US/Canada and runs through September 10, 2010.