Fatal Liaison (Vicki Tyley)

In Fatal Liaison, Vicki Tyley's latest novel, we meet financial planner Greg Jenkins and personnel recruitment consultant Megan Brighton, who are on separate life paths until they connect via the Dinner for Twelve dating agency.

Well, "connect" isn't the right word; that implies they were both looking for dates. Perhaps the more generic word "meet" is more appropriate.

Greg's younger sister Samantha ("Sam") has disappeared and Greg is desperate to find her, leaving no stone unturned, eventually following the only lead he has left – Sam's involvement with the dating service. And it just so happens that Megan is there at one of the functions, accompanying her good friend, real estate agent Brenda De Luca.

The characters (mostly the agency's clients) all seem quite the curious lot, with several appearing to have something going on between them, especially after one of them is murdered.

Brenda has a revolting molesting encounter with a client Megan has dubbed "Mr. Ginger Moustache," an unemployed landscaper with a sexual harassment past, in a warehouse. Soon after, she goes missing, awakening shackled to a bed in a dark room. Then, the police can't find their chief suspect whom they want to arrest for Linda's murder.

Greg's and Megan's searches shift into high gear; eventually they agree to work together when it appears the two disappearances night be interconnected somehow. Sam's decomposed body with a plastic cable tie around her neck is found in a forest by a wildlife photographer. Soon, other skeletons are found there, with cable ties around their necks, apparently the work of a serial killer.

If while you're reading you get a feeling that you know who the murderer is, forget it. It's not him. Or him. Or him either. And it's definitely NOT him. So, maybe it's a her? Tyley does a good job keeping the reader guessing until just the right moment.

As an Australian, Tyley's writing is sprinkled with quite a few Australian/British idioms: fossicked, skolling, the footy, suss, loud hailer, fob him off, dobbed in, jemmy, etc. That's not a bad thing as it adds atmospheric flavor. Thank God for the in-book dictionary app that can be downloaded for the iPad2's Kindle reader app.

This is Vicki Tyley's fourth book. It was a two-day read for me. It's easy, enjoyable, captivating reading, and I am eagerly awaiting the release of her fifth – Bitter Nothings, due for release soon.

Fatal Liaison (2011)

Vicki Tyley

Patmay Press, Kindle edition ($3.99 list)

ASIN: B005FR8OTM

The Murder at the Vicarage (Agatha Christie)

The Murder at the Vicarage is Agatha Christie’s first “Miss Marple” mystery; eventually, Miss Marple, an inquisitive old lady with a sharp eye who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead, would appear in 12 crime novels and 20 short stories.

Col. Lucius Protheroe, the fussbudget town magistrate who’s in his second marriage, is found murdered in the Vicarage – the home of Parson Leonard Clement (the village vicar) and his young wife by 20 years, Griselda. Nobody, not their nephew Dennis, or their housekeeper, Mary, heard anything.

Evidence at the crime scene just doesn’t add up, leading the vicar to suspect things aren’t what they seem to be. However, one of his neighbors, Miss Jane Marple, seems to have everything figured out. In fact, she’s already narrowed the list of suspects down to seven.

Here are some of the facts: Col. Protheroe was shot in the head by a Mauser .25, owned by artist Lawrence Redding, who was seen fleeing the scene by the parson. Redding confesses and arrested. But as I mentioned, things don't quite add up. The colonel’s wife, Anne, confesses, saying she used the colonel's pistol, but he never owned one. There was a note with different handwriting. And then there was that clock that was set 15 minutes ahead, and a shot in the woods heard by Miss Marple and others.

What about that defaced oil portrait in the Protheroes' attic? And does the fact that Anne Protheroe and Lawrence Redding were planning to flee town together have anything to do with it?

There are suspects galore, and in fact, nearly every one of the multitude of characters mentioned and described in the book is suspected, analyzed, and taken off the list.

Miss Marple is convinced she knows who did it, but lacks proof. She only makes her move in the third quarter of the book. She'd been thinking, cogitating, analyzing, connecting the facts and deducing the truth up to now, all in the background (off-screen, so to speak). Miss Marple's amazing weaving of the known facts and actions enlighten us with a most credible and deadly accurate description of how the nefarious deed was executed.

Sketches of layouts of vicarage, and the study where Col. Protheroe was found help the reader visualize the murder scene and movements of the investigation.

Now that was a good reading!

The Murder at the Vicarage (1930, 2011)
Agatha Christie
William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition ($12.99)
ISBN-13: 978-0062073600

Blind Pursuit (Michael Prescott)

Michael Prescott originally published Blind Pursuit in 1997 under the pen name Brian Harper, recently releasing it as an ebook.

Tucson psychologist Erin Reilly is awakened one night by her sister's voice, saying she's in trouble and needs to see her.

The problem is, it isn't her sister. It's someone else, someone who's come to take her away. It's Harold Gund, a serial kidnapper with a stun gun, a compulsive killer of women – three already, Erin might be the fourth.

What Harold wants is for Erin to cure him of this compulsion to set women on fire. Does Erin have a choice? It appears not, because Harold knows where her sister lives. There is a complication, though. Erin is an epileptic on medication, so soon, Harold is forced to change some of his carefully laid-out plans and relinquish a certain measure of control.

Erin's immediate concern is dealing with the sparsely furnished cramped quarters that have become her prison. She has no idea where she's at, and has nothing save for some things her kidnapper has so "kindly" brought along from her apartment. There's that much, at least ... he has not exhibited any violence thus far.

Escape, escape. That's all she can think of, even when the healing therapy sessions begin. What's it to be? Death by fire? Flames, or the blazing Southern Arizona desert sun? Flames? Sun? Each as tortuous and deadly as the other.

Meanwhile, her twin sister, Annie, a florist, experiences blurry premonitions of impending danger, apprehensions that are heightened when Erin fails to show up for their lunch date. Annie does what she has to do – she sets out to find her with every resource available to her.

Leaving no stone unturned, she takes her case to the Tucson Police. At first highly skeptical of Annie's concerns, countering her every explanation with logic and experience, Det. Michael Walker begins to come around, the better he comes to know her.

Hey, guess what? You know Annie's flower shop assistant? Um ... never mind, you'll find out soon enough. There are secrets galore, and you'll learn what they are soon enough. Not right away, but definitely soon enough.

My only real criticism is that the early chapters are too verbose and could have been tightened up with better economy of words to step up the pace. It took a pretty long time to get to the meat of what was really going on. The pace doesn't pick up until a quarter-way through the story.

Blind Pursuit (2011)

Michael Prescott, writing as Brian Harper

Amazon Digital Services ($0.99)

ASIN: B005C50KA8

Journal (Craig Buckhout)

The year is 2054, and first words we read in Journal are written by Chester, who closes off a journal written by his wife of 33 years, Claire Huston.

The next entry is by Alan Trent, a 39-year-old former blackjack dealer from Reno, who finds the journal three years later in the Hustons' abandoned Mayfair, Washington, house.

It's through his writing that we learn why the world is what it has become – a wasted geography devoid of population, resources and livable ecology, ravaged by shortages, war, pandemic, EMP bursts, breakdowns and inhumanity.

Claire's writings are a catalyst for change in Alan, prompting him to help when he can, to be a better human, and to do what he can to at least make sure his little portion of the world is right. The benefactors of his newfound conscience are Anna Sanchez and her son, Gabriel, rescued from the clutches of bad people.

The entries in the days that follow chronicle an odyssey of survival in a beautiful, yet cruel land. Alan is forced to examine his own hidden fears, philosophies and morality – an introspection that enlightens him about what it means to be a citizen of this new, lawless world.

Throughout Journal, Claire's words are a guiding light, maxims to live by, and proof that if we believe them and maintain our humanity, then no matter the consequences, no matter the hardships we encounter ... all is not lost.

There are some editing and grammatical errors in Journal, but they can be excused and rationalized as Alan's journal-writing imperfections. In a way, it makes the story all the more endearing and believable. In fact, the fine phrasing of author Buckhout's writing seems rather out of character with entries in a journal written by someone in such dire straits.

It’s a good technique, using the journal-entry manner of narration, but slightly overdone in this case, I thought. Perhaps alternating with non-journal narrative would have added to the realism.

Journal (2011)

Craig Buckhout

Craig M. Bucksout (ebook $0.99)

ASIN: B0054LOW6S

The Old Man and the Wasteland (Nick Cole)

You know how sometimes you stand on a beach and just stare out at the water, allowing your thoughts to emerge freely in no particular order? Some of The Old Man and the Wasteland is like that. It's part Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, part Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe, and part Richard Matheson's The Omega Man.

Forty years ago, the bombs from the Middle East fell on Yuma, Arizona. He used to have a name, but now he's known only as "The Old Man." And today, he started a walk-about into the wasteland – what used to be called the Sonoran Desert.

It's a good time to reflect about the past (and time was one thing they had plenty of these days) – how everything deteriorated, how they got to where they're at. Scavenging and salvaging. That's what this is all about, these days. An abandoned refrigerator good for ice-making, a rusty contemplation-worthy sedan, a dead bee that hopefully can lead him to water, an old motel that survived on solar power all these years.

What adventure THAT was, the old motel, run by another old, albeit blind guy he dubs Mirrored Sunglasses, who tends an dried-out swimming pool devoid of anything but snakes – lots of hissing, deadly rattlers. It all goes to show you gotta heed the warning over the dusty bed. The one created out of phosphorescent moons and stars.

The walk goes on, thoughts so inconsequential crowding his mind, continuing even as he encounters a famished wolf pack and its powerful alpha leader, who himself is fighting back the advances of two youthful challengers. and then, treasure in a sewer – a cache, a life-saving cache, compliments of the U.S. Army.

The Old Man survives a flash flood and an extended encounter with Himbradda, he of the withered arm, leader of The People. Good. Because survival allowed The Old Man to reach Tucson, where he found some answers.

The Old Man and the Wasteland (2011)

Nick Cole

Nick Cole Kindle Edition ($0.99)

ASN: B004BGW6VA