Crime Fiction | Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

THE PROFESSOR by Robert Bailey

August 21, 2015

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In an afterword of the book, Bailey writes a tribute to Paul “Bear” Bryant, world class football coach at the University of Alabama. While he did not play for Bryant, known as the “man,” Bailey echoes the adoration many have for him. The novel begins when Tom McMurtrie who played for Bryant and a brilliant law graduate in his own right accepts a position with a major law firm. Prepared to begin work for that firm he is approached by “The Man” who strongly suggests that Tom take a position at the law school of U of Alabama as a teacher.

With the faith Tom has for Bryant he does accept the teaching position and spends the next 40 years as a Professor of Law. A change in personnel at the executive level of the school causes Tom to be pushed out of his position and at the same time find out that he is suffering from cancer.

Bitter and angry at the fate that pushed him to the sidelines he passes on a case offered to him. The young family of a friend of his has been killed in a truck-car accident and Tom feels impelled to offer the case to a former student of his, Rick Drake. There is some bad blood between the two since Tom had prevented Rick from receiving a job offer that would have been the making of his legal career.

Rick does accept the case and while working it finds that the facts are muddled by the trucking company owning the vehicle involved in the accident. They resort to arson, murder, bribery and greed to disguise the truth of the matter. A pertinent factor for the trucking company is an impending extremely advantageous merger that would be cancelled if a lawsuit was successfully filed against them.

In a fast and engrossing read, the main portion of the book involving the trial of the trucking company is described and the reader treated to an excellent plot and a look at the characters, good and bad, involved in the process of the legal proceedings. The book is the first of a series of legal novels about the prospective law firm of McMurtrie and Drake. These should be well worth the wait.

8/15 Paul Lane

THE PROFESSOR by Robert Bailey. Exhibit A (January 28, 2014). ISBN: 978-1909223585. 416p.

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THE RECKONING by Carsten Stroud

August 20, 2015

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Book Three of the Niceville Trilogy

Hearing voices in your head takes on a deadly new meaning in this disturbing conclusion to the macabre Niceville trilogy. The evil “Nothing” in this Florida town has moved inside, so to speak, and the towns people are on a murderous rampage.

Detective Nick Kavanaugh, and his wife, attorney Kate, figure out what is going on; all they have to do is figure out how to stop it. Rainey Teague, the orphan they’ve taken in, has always had issues but things are really spiraling out of control.

The Kavanaughs enlist the help of local historian Lemon Featherlight, and ex-cop Charlie Danziger is also on the hunt for answers. There are lots of characters that each have their own story, but Stroud manages to pull it together and make sense of it all, as much as possible in the mystical world he has created.

While this is the last book of the trilogy, each book does stand on its own. Niceville is a real town on the west coast of Florida, and this thrilling supernatural trilogy has surely put it on the map.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE RECKONING by Carsten Stroud. Vintage (August 18, 2015). ISBN 978-1101873021. 432p.

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EILEEN by Ottessa Moshfegh

August 18, 2015

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Eileen is the narrator of this dark look back at her life during a 1960’s Christmas week. Eileen has to be one of the most damaged characters in fiction. She lost her mother when she was in high school, her sister is the pride of the family but they have no relationship, and her father is an alcoholic, a cop forced into retirement and now heading towards dementia, who has mentally abused Eileen her whole life.

Her life is a horror; living in squalor, taking care of her abusive father, driving an old car with an exhaust problem that forces her to drive with the windows open, even during those frigid New England winters. She works as a secretary at a boy’s prison, a discouraging job at best. She obsesses about her bodily functions, has strange sexual fantasies, (although at 24, she is still a virgin,) and she is stalking one of the prison guards.

There is no respite from the darkness here until Rebecca shows up at the prison, ostensibly to create an education program for the boys. Eileen is enamored of the beautiful Harvard graduate and desperate for a friend. That friendship turns into something truly ugly that leads to a shocking ending. This is literary psychological suspense at its best.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

EILEEN by Ottessa Moshfegh. Penguin Press (August 18, 2015). ISBN 978-1594206627. 272p.

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LOVE IS RED by Sophie Jaff

August 14, 2015

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The Nightsong Trilogy (Book 1)

It’s summertime in New York and the city is plagued by more than just hot weather. The Sickle Man stalks the streets, killing women in their own homes. Though this does mean a certain extra level of caution, it doesn’t mean that Katherine Emerson has given up on the dating scene and finding Mr. Right. In fact, she’s recently met two men who could fit the bill.

What Katherine doesn’t know is that the Sickle Man already has her in his sights. In fact, he’s been looking for her for quite some time and now that he’s found her, her death is his ultimate goal.

Love is Red is a book that almost defies every attempt to sum it up in a nutshell. First, there’s the fear of giving too much away. Second, it’s truly standout and somewhat unconventional. It’s a cross-genre thriller, one that includes supernatural elements, romance elements, and mystery elements. As such, unless you really shy away from dark reads (because it is quite dark) there is something for just about every kind of reader here.

The story alternates between Katherine and The Sickle Man himself. Jaff plays with the style of the narrative quite a bit with The Sickle Man’s chapters told from a second person perspective and by adding in therapy Q&As, internal monologues, and other different aspects in Katherine’s narrative as well. This ratchets up the suspense quite a bit while also giving the reader a more unique experience.

Honestly, this is one of my absolute favorite reads of the year. It’s also the first in a trilogy and there is a pretty massive cliffhanger of an ending. Of course that means that I’m waiting, along with everyone else who’s so far enjoyed the book, with baited breath to see what will happen next.

8/15 Becky LeJeune

LOVE IS RED by Sophie Jaff. Harper (May 12, 2015). ISBN 978-0062346261. 384p.

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RUBBERNECKER by Belinda Bauer

August 12, 2015

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Patrick has Asperger’s Syndrome, and his mother handles it by drinking. While still very young, his father is killed by a hit and run driver, and Patrick becomes obsessed by death, bringing home dead animals for dissection, bound and determined to learn what happens after death.

He never does, but that doesn’t stop his trying; his disability gets him admission into a college anatomy class. There he works with a team of medical students dissecting Corpse 19; their task is to determine a cause of death, but Patrick soon realizes that this corpse was, in fact, murdered, but no one will listen to him.

In a concurrent story, life in the coma ward at a hospital takes a deadly turn when a doctor is witnessed murdering a patient by another coma patient who cannot talk.

Readers who loved “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon may find satisfaction here on a more gristly and adult level. I did.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

RUBBERNECKER by Belinda Bauer. Atlantic Monthly Press (August 4, 2015). ISBN 978-0802123961. 320p.

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HOSTAGE TAKER by Stefanie Pintoff

August 8, 2015

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Eve Rossi is an FBI hostage negotiator with a troubled past. Her last negotiation didn’t end well and then her stepfather, a retired CIA operative, passed away. She is on leave when she received orders to return to work; someone has taken several people hostage at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, a New York City landmark.

The hostage taker has wired explosives to his hostages and to every known entry of the building. The Church is panicking about losing even a pane of stained glass, but Eve is worried about the hostages, especially as they start to die.

She calls in her old team, Vidocq, a group of career criminals with unique skills. Each member of the team is introduced through FBI reports interspersed throughout the novel. News updates also break up the chapters and the tension as the story propels forward. The chief suspect is a cop on suspension, Eve establishes contact with him but his demands are puzzling – all he wants is for the FBI to round up five specific people to bear witness.

Eve’s team is working against a tight timetable to try and find these people and to determine what, if anything, they have in common with the hostage taker. Pintoff skillfully ratchets up the tension and throws more than one curveball into this twisty, exciting read.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

HOSTAGE TAKER by Stefanie Pintoff. Bantam (August 18, 2015). ISBN 978-0345531407. 432p.

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TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave

August 7, 2015

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Cleave presents us with the most unusual and commanding book to come along in many years. His principal character is an author who has written extremely successful crime novels involving murder and dark retribution by characters in the books. Jerry Grey, writing under the pen name of Henry Cutter, has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at the height of his career and Paul Cleave picks him up while confined to a nursing home.

Jerry’s memories flow in and out of reality and he believes that he has committed the crimes depicted in his books. He also believes that he has murdered his own wife with whom he is madly in love. Written in the first person, Cleave takes Jerry and his persona Henry Cutter in and out of his conceptions of which crimes he has committed. Very ably done, the novel has every ingredient of a first class description of a serial killer who seems to remember certain details of his crimes. He also loses his grip on these memories from time to time, and we do not know if he is indeed a mass murderer or innocent.

Medical staff at the nursing home he is confined to keep insisting that the crimes he recalls are memories of the situations and characters in his books and are not real. But Jerry finds more and more evidence in articles found, copies of his diary, and physical discoveries that lead him into thinking that he is a serial killer. The twists and turns in the plot make doubly sure that anyone reading the book will not be able to put it down until completed, and afterward enjoy a sigh of pleasure at finding such a novel to read.

8/15 Paul Lane

TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave. Atria Books (August 4, 2015). ISBN: 978-1476779171. 352p.

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TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES by Denise Grover Swank

August 6, 2015

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Rose Gardner has been the dutiful daughter for twenty-four years despite her abusive momma. Rose is a charming character, incredibly naïve and sweet, but she finally snaps; she tells off her momma and creates a list of 28 wishes on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt that includes things like wear high heels, kiss a man, and get cable TV.

While working at the DMV, she has a vision about herself being murdered; turns out her momma is the one who gets murdered and Rose is the prime suspect. Her mysterious new neighbor, Joe, is incredibly helpful and adds a bit of romance.

There is a lot of humor in this book that borders on but never quite crosses over to silly, and the mystery here almost takes a backseat to Rose and her declaration of independence.

This is the first book in a new series, with the next two following in September and October, respectively. It is light, fluffy Southern fun and should appeal to Mary Kay Andrews and Charlaine Harris fans.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES by Denise Grover Swank. Crooked Lane Books (August 11, 2015). ISBN 978-1629532196. 288p.

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THE ETERNAL WORLD by Christopher Farnsworth

August 5, 2015

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The proverbial Fountain of Youth is a legend that has filled the minds of mankind for centuries. The Spanish conquistador Ponce de Leon is reputed to have looked for it on his trips to the new World five hundred years ago with no success. Suppose a group of Conquistador’s had actually found it. Would it have brought them great happiness as well as financial rewards, or would it prove to be a curse making living forever a horror because of its unnatural state.

Christopher Farnsworth brings us a novel based on the supposition that it was discovered by a group of Spanish soldiers 500 years ago in what is present day Florida. The soldiers kill the Utiza, i.e., the Indians living around the fountain in order to keep the prize for themselves. The only survivor is the Chieftain’ daughter, a girl named Shako who commences to hunt her people’s killers down through the ages to our times.

The source of the fountain is destroyed in our day and Simon de Olivares, the leader of the conquistadors is forced to try and get the water fabricated in order to continue life. The Spaniards have evolved the means to set up a very successful company and hire David Robinton, a scientific genius, who has been on the verge of a great discovery to come work for them in order to replicate the water needed to continue eternal life.

While David goes to work for the group the battle between the former Spanish soldiers and Shako nears a climax. Shako sets up a meeting with David and the two initiate a love affair while events move forward towards a climax between her and the Spaniards.

The reader must postulate the possibility of an actual fountain of youth in the hands of a group of people, but doing that will allow for a fast and rewarding read An engrossing novel, that while not an all-nighter is entertaining and keeps the reader entertained. Certainly a book that will cause further investigations of Farnsworth present and future novels.

8/15 Paul Lane

THE ETERNAL WORLD by Christopher Farnsworth. William Morrow (August 4, 2015). ISBN: 978-0062282927. 352p.

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THE INSECT FARM by Stuart Prebble

August 4, 2015

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Roger Maguire is mentally challenged, probably somewhere on the Autism spectrum, and as an adult, his childhood obsession with an ant farm grows into a full-blown insect farm housed in buckets, crates and aquariums filling the backyard garden shed. His younger brother Jonathan also has an obsession, his girlfriend Harriet, a musician.

Jonathan knows he will eventually have to take care of Roger, but when his parents die in a house fire, that responsibility comes much sooner than expected. Jonathan and Harriet marry quickly but she remains at college, and they maintain a difficult, long distance relationship, which grows more complicated when Jonathan realizes that another musician is after his wife.

Things come to a head with Harriet, who ends up dead with Jonathan covered in her blood. He has no memory of the murder, but goes into panic mode, hiding the body and plotting ways to throw blame elsewhere. Roger remains in his own world, and Jonathan continues to care for him as events unfurl around them.

This book starts out super creepy, but quickly morphs into an extremely compelling story about brothers. A compelling read.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE INSECT FARM by Stuart Prebble. Mulholland Books (July 7, 2015). ISBN 978-0316337366. 320p.

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