Sisters in Crime – CO member, Margaret Mizushima has announced the upcoming release of STANDING DEAD, her eighth Timber Creek K-9 Mystery. The Timber Creek K-9 books are police procedurals. Each adventure contains a combination of K-9 cops, veterinary work, and family relationships as well as a murder case to investigate and solve.
In this episode, the case for Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo becomes personal when Mattie’s mother vanishes without a trace. After a dead man is found tied to a standing dead pine in the beetle-killed forest near Timber Creek, Mattie is forced to play cat and mouse with a killer.
In a last-ditch gambit, she goes undercover into the killer’s lair to try to save her mother—or die trying. STANDING DEAD can be found wherever books are sold and is available for preorder now. The book releases March 7th.
Margaret Mizushima is the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Active within the writing community, Margaret serves as past president for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, was elected the 2019 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and is also a member of Northern Colorado Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Women Writing the West.
A favorite of my mine – now an Amazon Original. How could you not love an inspector whose name is just a consonant away from ganache! Author, bestseller and multiple award-winner, Louise Penny, brings her village of Three Pines and the insightful Armande Gamache to the streaming screen. And what a gift!
Gamache has observed his fellow villagers and probed what doesn’t reveal itself in the everyday business of life. But give Gamache time and connection to the player. He will, like the soul explorer he is, recognize the odd turn of phrase, the oh-so-slight incongruity. His openness to every possibility and his vision into the human psyche are his remarkable gifts.
In Episode One of Amazon’s series, a woman named CC de Poitiers is having an affair with her photographer. Just published, CC is a bitter woman who never says anything positive to anyone. At a curling match with the entire town watching, she is electrocuted. Inspector Gamache (Alfred Molina) is sent to investigate the case, along with Inspector Beauvoir and Sergeant Lacoste. It’s clear to Gamache and team the theme of this murder is not just to take someone’s life but to punish them as much as possible and to make a spectacle of it.
You won’t be able to turn away.
When Do Episodes Air: Three Pines was available on Friday, December 2, with 2 new episodes airing each week.
How Many Episodes: There will be 8 episodes in Season One of Three Pines.
Where to Watch Three Pines: Three Pines is available to stream on Prime Video (free trial)
Denver homicide detective Nick Ryan and homicide suspect Elizabeth Harper have a history. Theirs was a passionate attraction that bound them, but a break in faith extinguished the flame. Years later In a chance assignment, Nick encounters his past lover. Her husband is dead and Elizabeth is the chief suspect. The Woman He Used To Know is a page turning experience you won’t put down.
There are 90 reviews on Amazon and more than 70 on Goodreads. A strong mix of five- and four-star ratings. Here are the samples that say it best.
This was a non-stop thriller. Loved the characters and the twists which kept you guessing until the end as to who was the murderer! Definitely plan to read more from this author.
Helen charms us into thinking we’ll know the plot by giving us frequent glimpses not only into the mind of Nick Ryan, but also into the primary suspect’s mind as well. It is infrequent that I read a mystery book that puts us into the minds of both characters, this was a treat for the book.
You think you have sussed out who did it but to find that you were wrong as the plot thickens. A constant page turner that has you hooked right from the start to finish.
A good murder mystery with an added side of romance that had me hooked from the very first chapter. I liked the underlying spark of chemistry between Nick and Elizabeth and found myself rooting for their second-chance HEA. I found this hard to put down because I just couldn’t guess who the murderer was until it was finally revealed in the last chapters. The author does a good job keeping the reader on the edge right to the very end.
Colorado native and former OR nurse, Helen Starbuck is an award-winning author of The Annie Collins Mystery Series and standalone contemporary romantic suspense. When she’s not writing, you can find her dressing up like a princess and ballroom dancing with her friends or reading books about strong women and interesting men who find themselves in suspense-filled situations.
“Driven,” by Valerie Webster is a page-turning story. The story revolves around Rita Mars, an ex-investigative journalist. Bobby Ellis, one of her longtime friends had a piece of important information to give to Rita but when she arrived he was dead.
Later learns that her friend didn’t commit suicide rather he was murdered. She gets driven and makes it her mission to find out the man that killed her friend.
The storyline moves at a fast pace and has the potential to keep the readers hooked on the story till the very end. The book comes with many characters- Rita, Bobby, Charles, Karin… Each character is vividly portrayed.
The suspense kept me glued to the story till the very end. I will recommend this book to all thriller lovers. I can’t wait to read more Rita Mars thriller stories…
Jersey Girl Book Reviews: In her debut thriller novel, Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller, author Valerie Webster transports the reader to the locales of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., for an intriguing thriller that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.
The story centers around Rita Mars, ex-investigative journalist turned private investigator, who is determined to find the killer of her friend and ex-journalist co-worker, Bobby Ellis. Rita was supposed to meet up with Bobby at a Harpers Ferry hotel, but when she got to the hotel, Bobby was found hanging by the shower rod by a hotel maid, and the coroner concludes the cause of death as a suicide. Rita knows that Bobby didn’t kill himself, so she embarks on an investigation that will lead to the halls of Congress, determined to piece together what Bobby had been working on, and who would shut him up permanently before he could reveal what he knew in a newspaper article. Rita also has a new client, Karin Van Dreem, a PR Consultant, who hires her to provide security because of her psychotic ex-husband, Dr. Douglas Servier, who has been stalking her, and she’s afraid that he’s going to kill her. And if that isn’t enough, Rita is dealing with her own personal issues that continue to haunt her. Can Rita find who killed Bobby while keeping Karin safe from the psychotic ex-husband, or will this driven private investigator put herself in danger as well?
In her debut thriller novel, author Valerie Webster weaves a slow-building and suspenseful tale written in the third person narrative that follows Rita’s investigations into Bobby’s killer and Karin’s psychotic stalker of an ex-husband. As the reader follows Rita’s investigations, incidents occur and flashbacks to her traumatic past reveals an interconnection that has a lot of drama, tension, and a threat of danger around every corner, and where everyone is considered a suspect.
The reader is easily drawn into this well written story with its richly descriptive plot and setting. It is filled with enough family drama and secrets, motives, possible suspects, action, and intriguing twists and turns that definitely keeps the reader guessing until the surprising conclusion.
This was a really interesting story to read! The author does a wonderful job of providing enough clues to engage the reader, and I found myself so caught up on trying to figure out who is behind Bobby’s murder, and the craziness behind Karin’s stalker. I loved how Rita used her expertise as an ex-investigative reporter to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. I was absolutely stunned by the conclusion, I never saw it coming! I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I was also intrigued by Rita’s backstory, she is a broken person who is still trying to overcome her traumatic childhood and ex-relationship issues. I look forward to reading Rita’s next investigative adventure.
Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller will definitely take the readers on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.
Ava Barry, A 1948 Unsolved Murder and A First Novel
Ava Barry has been a script reader for Bold Films and Intrigue Entertainment. She was also an editorial assistant for Zoetrope: All-Story, Francis Ford Coppola’s literary magazine.
Windfall is her first novel. Ava lives in Australia.
Valerie Webster and Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller in the spotlight via Author of the Day interview.
Make your next book club event an author event with a writer who’s lived the cases, developed the crime fighting technologies. Contact Valerie Webster today.
