Blog Posts by David

"Jelly's Gold" by David Housewright
Minotaur, 295 pp., $24.95
Reviewed by David Marshall James

Rushmore McKenzie-- one of P.I. lit's smoothest talkers-- literally goes for the gold in Edgar Award-winning author David Housewright's sixth novel featuring St. Paul, Minnesota's wealthiest ex-cop.
The beauty of McKenzie's life is that he can pretty well do as he pleases, but mostly he's in the business of helping out pals, usually with some assistance from his waning friends at the city P.D., where he worked 11 years before retiring, in order to accept a multimillion-dollar reward from an insurance company, grateful that he had uncovered an embezzler.
As the story opens, McKenzie is intrigued by a "friend-girl"-- his girlfriend, Nina Truhler, owns a jazz and supper club-- and her boyfriend's plot to uncover gangster Frank "Jelly" Nash's cache of 32 gold-bullion bars, stolen from a Huron, South Dakota, bank 75 years ago and quickly passed to a "fence" before Nash had to skip town in a

"The Cat, the Quilt, and the Corpse" by Leann Sweeney
Obsidian, 278 pp., $6.99 (paperback only)
Reviewed by David Marshall James

The title practically screams, "Cozy mystery," as does the protagonist, Jillian Hart, a cat fancier and owner of a "kitty quilt" business.
Nevertheless, before you drop your ginger snaps on the Oriental carpet, or swallow the lemon slice in your cup of hot tea, let it be known that this is a highly likable mystery-- the first in a new series that holds plenty of potential.
Jillian-- a young widow residing in a lakeside neighborhood in fictitious Mercy, South Carolina-- returns home from a quilt-selling jaunt in nearby Greenville to discover that her house has been burgled.
Oddly, the thief has made off with one of her much-adored cats, all three of which were rescued after Hurricane Katrina. Jillian has been living in a self-inflicted cocoon during the past year, since her (also fairly young) husband died unexpectedly, so she has not made many friends

"The Last Child" by John Hart
Minotaur, 373 pp., $24.95
Reviewed by David Marshall James

Few books take the reader on such a hard-edged journey as "The Last Child" does.
It isn't so much a thriller in the conventional sense as a harrowing series of events spun into a protracted unraveling of concealed actions, resulting in a rash of dire consequences.
In his third novel, North Carolina author John Hart sets the stage on terra familiar, with the proceedings confined to a county in the northeastern part of the state, on the edge of the sandhills, about 60 miles inland.
There's a small city that's large enough for a hospital, a shopping mall, a college, and a seemingly endless supply of skullduggery. At the outset, Hart introduces a 13-year-old boy, John (Johnny) Pendleton Merrimon, whose family has been ripped asunder by tragic occurrences one year in the past.
His twin sister, Alyssa, has disappeared, reportedly abducted on an evening when her father was supposed to pick her up

Thus far intensely gritty and harrowing--and involving.

"Huck Finn" on crack instead of rabbit tobacco.

"Can't Never Tell" by Cathy Pickens
St. Martin's Minotaur, 244 pp., $24.95
Reviewed by David Marshall James

The long Fourth of July weekend has swung Dacus, S.C., into high celebratory gear, with a carnival, parade, and picnics out the wazoo-- er, kazoo.
Hometown gal Avery Andrews-- burned out by the highjinks of high-stakes corporate defense law in the state capital-- is reveling in the easygoing pleasures of her one-woman practice.
Just look for the mauve Victorian manse on Main Street (last incarnation: funeral parlor): She has offices on the left-hand side, an apartment upstairs, and a stone angel taller than any NBA player out front (that's a story from a previous book).
One of Avery's back-home perks is free time to spend with her niece, Emma, as well as her own parents and three matriarchal great-aunts. Avery and Emma are checking out a cheesy spookhouse at the carnival when they discover a petrified man who would make Eudora Welty proud.
Adrienne Campbell-- the officious

Review forthcoming: "Can't Never Tell" by Cathy Pickens: four days.

"Covenant Hall" by Kathryn Wall
St. Martin's Minotaur, 307 pp., $24.95
Reviewed by David Marshall James

The skeletons are really popping out of the closets-- figuratively speaking-- at Presqu'ile in the latest Bay Tanner mystery, which is simply not to be missed, even if it's your initial foray into Kathryn Wall's series set at Hilton Head, S.C., and its nearby Lowcountry locales.
Bay (nee Lydia Baynard Simpson) grew up in the antebellum mansion on St. Helena's Sound, the daughter of a judge and his now-deceased, alcoholic, socialite wife, Emmaline. During the past few "literary years," over the course of nine volumes (including this one), Bay has segued from a career in accounting to one in private investigations, following the death of her husband, Rob Tanner, at the hands of drug dealers whom he was bearing down on through his job in law enforcement.
The action in this novel commences with a health scare for Bay's father, who has been confined to a wheelchair at Presqu'ile,

It will be posted either tomorrow or Saturday.
Here's a hint: It's the best "Bay Tanner" mystery yet!