Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White

Murder, professional wrestling, an underground punk rock scene, a nasty biker gang, a psychopathic mime, and a dominatrix with an affinity for 50’s style. If you read that and thought, “Hell, yeah!” just go ahead and buy Death Match. (And it’s clear why you’re my kind of people.)

If you read that and thought, “That’s… interesting.” please allow me to explain how those pieces fit together to form the entertaining puzzle that is author Jason S. Ridler’s debut novel.

Having barely survived his wild, drug and alcohol fueled youth as frontman for a punk band, Spar Battersea was finally able to get his life on track with the help of his friend, Ray. Now working at a book store and as a stringer for the local paper, the excitement in Spar’s life is confined to cheering for Ray’s alter-ego “Clown Royale” at his professional wrestling matches.

When Ray dies in the ring on the eve of the biggest match of his young career, Spar doesn’t buy the official conclusion: heart attack/natural causes. For one thing Ray was only 25 and healthy as a horse, and that also wouldn’t explain the disturbing and extensive scarring found on Ray’s back, some of it quite recent. Determined to do right by his friend, Spar wades into the underground world of shady wrestling promoters and discovers there was a lot about his friend he didn’t know. Now Spar has to decide just how far he’s willing to go to discover the truth, and if he really wants to know. (more…)

If you had a chance to save someone’s life, to be a hero, would you do it even if you knew your actions would have disastrous consequences for your own family? Or could you knowingly allow a horrific fate to befall a young woman without doing anything to intervene?

Bill Ferguson didn’t have time to consider the answer to that question before his hand was forced and he made a decision that drastically altered the lives of two young women, one of them his own daughter.

While sitting in a rest stop along I-90 on one of his runs between the hardware shops he owns, Ferguson notices an abduction in process. Unfortunately, he’s the only one who appears to realize what’s happening. Acting on adrenaline and instinct, Ferguson pulls the gun he’s licensed to carry on the would-be kidnapper, forcing him to abandon the abduction.

The young woman is saved, Ferguson’s a hero, and all’s right with the world. Right? Wrong. (more…)

What could be more tragic than having your twin sister kidnapped out of your shared bedroom when you were six years old? Having your own five-year old daughter kidnapped thirty-two years later. That’s the situation facing Judge Hope Willis, who goes to pick up her daughter from school one day only to be informed by those at the school that “she” already picked her up.

Given her high profile position as a judge, and her husband Edward’s as a controversial defense attorney with a prestigious firm, the local police and FBI descend on the case in record time. Not content with that, however, Hope calls in Forensic Instincts, a privately run organization that specializes in high profile and hard to handle cases.

Headed up by Casey Woods, a behavioral analysis specialist, the team also includes former Navy SEAL and FBI agent Marc Deveraux, and tech wizard Ryan McKay. Add to that mix intuitive – please don’t call her psychic – Claire Hedgleigh and retired FBI agents Patrick Lynch, who headed the investigation into Hope’s sister’s kidnapping thirty-two years ago, and Hero, an FBI certified human scent evidence bloodhound, and there is quite a full compliment of law enforcement on the case… but will it be enough to locate the missing girl before it’s too late? (more…)

It’s only a few pages into author Bill Loehfelm’s newest book, The Devil She Knows, that Maureen Coughlin’s girl-on-a-dark-street alarm goes off, and it keeps ringing for 300+ pulse-pounding pages.

Twenty-nine year old Maureen is slogging her way through life working never-ending shifts as a waitress at The Narrows, a wannabe upscale bar located in a rough part of Staten Island. She knows if she doesn’t do something to make a major change in her life soon she’s gonna end up a “lifer” on the bar scene, a fate she’s desperate to avoid.

She soon has more to worry about than long hours and bad tips, however, when leaving the bar in the wee hours of the morning she inadvertently stumbles upon the bar manager, Dennis, giving oral sex to local hot-shot and candidate for Senate Frank Sebastian. Quickly understanding that what she’s seen puts her in an awkward position – and one Sebastian may find to be a threat – Maureen assures both men she has no intention of breathing a word of it to anyone.

And she wouldn’t have, until she learns the next day that Dennis has been found dead on the railroad tracks not too far from The Narrows. Though the police are inclined to chalk it up as either an accident or suicide, Maureen can’t help but wonder if something more sinister happened. When she returns home to find her apartment has been broken into Maureen becomes convinced Sebastian killed Dennis to keep him quiet, and that she’s next. (more…)

At its bare-bones, The Last Red Death has a deceptively straightforward premise: a woman who witnessed the murder of her diplomat father when she was a child returns to the county where it happened and hires a local private investigator to help her track down the man responsible for the murder. As with any great thriller worth its salt, however, things aren’t that straightforward.

The woman, American Grace Helmer, didn’t witness a random act of violence or mugging gone wrong. No, her father was murdered by Iraklis, a rogue offshoot of the Communist Party in Greece which was responsible for a string of terrorist activity in the 70s. And the investigator she hires, Alex Mavros, is himself searching for someone, his brother, who was last seen at an underground resistance meeting thirty years prior.

Further, the recent murders of two high-profile businessmen, both marked with Iraklis’ signature calling card, seems to herald the return of the group after over a decade of dormancy. Tracking down the answers Alex and Grace want may get messy, but like those movie gunslingers, there are some things you just have to do. (more…)

Ed Dolan is a man on a mission, and that’s bad news for Chris Massi. Friends for a time when they were teenagers, the two boys’ lives were forever altered when Chris’ father killed Ed’s. The fact Chris’ father, Joe Black Massi, was a mafia hitman and Ed’s was acting as hired muscle trying to protect the target of Joe Black’s mission would seem to complicate the matter a bit. Not for fifteen-year-old Ed, who swore revenge against the Massi family, no matter how long it took.

Fast-forward 25 years and both Chris and Ed have become successful attorneys, Chris working at a prestigious defense firm, Ed as a United States Attorney. Despite having married the daughter of a powerful mob kingpin, Chris has managed to steer clear of “the life” otherwise. Even that association was short lived, when Chris and his wife divorced after only 5 years.

Things start seriously falling apart for Chris when he’s falsely indicted for securities fraud. The prosecuting attorney? Ed Dolan, of course. When that trial ends in acquittal Dolan pursues an ethics complaint with the New York State Bar, succeeding in having Chris disbarred for his alleged “mob ties.” His life already on the ropes, the knock-out punch comes in the form of the murder of his father, not so surprisingly as a result of a mob hit. When his former father-in-law tells Chris he knows who killed his father, Chris has a soul-searching choice to make: try to rebuild his normal life, or embrace the one he’s spent his whole life trying to avoid? (more…)