A Dead Red Gamble - R.P. Dahlke

    2018; 163 pages.  Book 6 (out of 7) in the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Women Sleuths; Crime Mystery; Arizona.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    Order in the court now, somebody shot young Judge Gavin Borrega!  In the courthouse!  In broad daylight!

 

    Where’s the security video?  Where were the court guards?  Heck, rumor has it the judge had even hired some private guards for added security.  Where were they?

 

    Maybe it was politically motivated.  It’s been said that Judge Borrega was being groomed for a run for the governor’s office.  Maybe it was some jilted lover.  Gavin was indeed a handsome fellow.  Maybe it was our hero, Private Investigator Lalla Bains.  She had a meeting scheduled with the judge at the same time as the murder took place.

 

    Hmmm.  Or maybe it had to do with those dozens of fluttering, squawking chickens which somebody dumped into the courthouse just before the shooting took place!  That couldn’t have been just a coincidence!

 

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Gamble is the sixth, and penultimate book in R.P. Dahlke’s Dead Red Mystery series.  It is set in Cochise County in southern Arizona, in the fictional town of Wishbone.

 

    The story's structure is the usual for this series.  Lalla and her PI partner (and cousin) Pearlie get drawn into investigating Borrega’s murder, albeit in an unofficial capacity.  Lalla’s husband, Caleb, is the police chief, and would rather his wife sit this case out.  That’s reasonable.  Her father, Noah Bains, is critically ill, which leads to the problem of who’s going watch Noah’s two foster children, Rocky and Jimmy.

 

    Naturally, the initial murder case rapidly gets more complex, with other killings, both past and present, coming into play.  There are other personal and professional issues as well.  Pearlie and her beau, Harley, are no longer on speaking terms, and neither will say why.  Lalla and Pearlie’s move into a new office, only to find it’s …erm… broomed.  And the cash-strapped Bains-&-Bains Detective Agency can receive a healthy bonus check if they can provide proof that an insurance client is faking an injury.  Hmm.  How do you go about proving that?

 

    That’s a lot of plot threads to deal with in ja novella-length book, but R.P. Dahlke manages to get them all tied up.  The story is told in the first-person POV (Lalla’s), and the chapters are relatively short (8½ pages average), with 19 of them covering the 163 pages.  A Dead Red Gamble is both a standalone tale and part of a series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 326 ratings and 60 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.38*/5, based on 208 ratings and 30 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    I felt sorry for Allison.  I heard her smarts had landed her a co-anchor job on Channel Five.  Unfortunately, the station was following the growing Fox News practice of requiring female anchors to wear tight dresses and enough makeup to look like they were nightclubbing instead of reciting yesterday’s city council fights and today’s traffic jams.  Today, someone had decided that she could do without her glasses and things weren’t going too well for the poor girl.  (loc. 727)

 

    Since I promised to do Pearlie’s process serves while she went to Phoenix to get information on Judge Borrega’s stepfather, the senator, I got out her list and checked off the ones for which I’d need special props.

    What sounds really simple, hand a person a summons to court, write up a report and turn it into the court or the law firm, doesn’t always go well.  At least not for me.  Pearlie, with her big blue eyes, dimples and full-figured curves is a natural.  Women appreciate her gutsy attitude for the job, and men, well they usually drool, so process serving is easy for Pearlie.  (loc. 1423)

 

Kindle Details…

    At the moment, A Dead Red Gamble sells for $4.99 at Amazon.  The other six books in the series are all in the $3.99-$4.99 price range.  The author has three other e-books available, each priced at $4.99.

 

“You can’t hire a guy with Prosopagnosia.”  (loc. 1543)

    There’s only a small amount of profanity.  I noted just 6 instances in the first 25% of the book, five “hells” and one “damn”.  I don’t recall any “adult situations” in the story.

 

    The editing is good, and is mostly confined to punctuation issues: a missing comma here, a misplaced apostrophe there, etc.  There were a couple instances of hyphens inserted into compound words (example: news-people/newspeople), but I have a feeling those crept in during the conversion-to-digital stage.

 

    My biggest issue was with the ending,.  It felt rushed to me.  For most of the book Lalla noses around, coming up with a variety of possible suspects and motives.  That was good.  But instead of things building to an exciting climax, or Lalla using Sherlockian reasoning to peg the suspect, one of the characters simply reveals to her (and the reader) who killed who and why.  I found it disappointing.  I don’t recall the earlier books in the series having endings like this.

 

    Bottom line: if you primarily read cozy mysteries for the “cozy” human activities and not the “mystery” elements, you’ll enjoy A Dead Red Gamble, despite its brevity  However, the Mystery angle always takes precedence for me.

 

    6½ Stars.  Acronym Alert!!  The term “BOLO” popped up in the story, and without a translation.  My geezer brain tried various combinations, most of them involving “Buy One, L-Something, One”, none of which worked.  It turns out to be police-speak for “Be On the Lookout”.  Now you know.

A Dead Red Miracle - R.P. Dahlke

   2015; 250 pages.  Book 5 (out of 7) in the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Women Sleuths; Crime Mystery; Arizona.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Bosses can be scumbags sometimes.  Just ask the cousins Lalla and Pearlie Bains, who are working for PI Ron Barbour as interns so they can get their Private Investigator licenses.

 

    Barbour’s business has slacked off recently, which means Lalla and Pearlie’s slice of the income has shrunk to a meager sum.  Now they’ve just discovered their boss has been hiding cases, and dollars, from them.  What a scumbag!  They're so angry they could just kill him.

 

    Except that someone has beat them to the punch… er… slaying.  They drive out the Barbour's house to confront him, and catch a glimpse the body of their boss dead on the floor of his house just before the whole place goes up in smoke.  The police soon arrive on the scene, and try to find out who did what to Barbour.

 

    Say, how come they’re looking at Lalla and Pearlie so suspiciously?  It’s almost as if they think Lalla and Pearlie might have done it.

 

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Miracle is the fifth book the R.P. Dahlke’s entertaining Dead Red Mystery series.  Pearlie, Lalla, her husband Caleb, and Lalla’s dad Noah have recently relocated from the fertile fields of Fresno, California to the desert dryness of Sierra Vista in southern Arizona.

 

    As mentioned, Lalla and Pearlie are in the process of applying for their Private Investigator licenses, which requires some on-the-job training.  Their mentor/boss’s demise puts those plans in jeopardy.  But it also gives them an opportunity to do some serious sleuthing.

 

    The case rapidly become more complicated.  There are several more deaths to look into, various suspects and material witnesses to track down, and two youthful delinquents (the Garza brothers) to find suitable foster parents to take care of.  Things become so hectic that Lalla and Pearlie have to hire additional help.

 

The story is told from the first-person point-of-view, Lalla’s.  Snarky wit, mixed with friendly banter, abounds between our two protagonists as they try to determine the perpetrators.  There is a nice bit of Native American culture blended into the tale, although the genre listed in the Amazon blurb, Native American Literature, seems a bit of a stretch.

 

    Things build to a suitably exciting ending, with all of the various plot threads (I noted ten of them) getting tied up.  The killings are solved mostly by Lalla’s logical thinking along wiht some fortuitous circumstances.  The story closes with a short but catchy Epilogue involving two pairs of siblings.  The sisters Velma and Zelma give our heroes a neat little plot twist, and the resolution of the Garza brothers’ future will warm your heart.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,429 ratings and 303 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.14*/5, based on 709 ratings and 72 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I thought you enjoyed the company of your landlady.”

    “She wants me to become a vegetarian.”

    “Sounds like a good idea.  You are a heart patient, you know.”

    “I’m a secondhand vegetarian.  Cows eat grass, I eat the cows, and I’m going to continue to enjoy eating that way till I die, thank you very much.”  (loc. 1014)

 

    “If you can’t pay your rent, we have a spare couch.”

    “Ew-w-w.  I’m not that poor.”

    “Since we’re talking about men, how was your date with the trainer from the gym?”

    Pearlie’s mouth twitched.  “Just because a man has Genius printed on his T-shirt, doesn’t mean he is one.”

    I grinned.  “Not hunky enough to ignore his IQ, huh?”

    “Not if he was wrapped in bacon and came with his own trust fund.”  (loc. 1814)

 

Kindle Details…

    A Dead Red Miracle sells for $4.99 right now at Amazon.  The other six books in the series cost either $3.99 (first and last books) or $4.99 (the rest of them).  R.P. Dahlke has three other e-books available, ranging in price from $3.54 to $3.99.  Two are part of a romantic sailing mystery trilogy, the third, and most recent, is a paranormal mystery.

 

“Damian broke into your office again and you reward him with a job?”  “We’re short-handed.”  (loc. 1967)

    The cussing is pleasingly sparse, just five instances in the first 20%, plus one racial epithet later on.  I love it when an author doesn’t have to resort to excessive foul language to set a scene.

 

    My main gripe is my usual one for this series.  The editing is atrocious, and seemed to get worse as the book progressed.  The typos included: Ifinally/I finally; waived/waved, sixty’s/sixties, gapped/gasped, and the embarrassing Barber/Barbour; and Damion’s/Damian’s, just to name a few.  There were also occasional missing words and/or misplaced plurals, plus one continuity issue – referencing a person who wasn’t present.

 

    But if you don't let the errata bother you, you’ll find A Dead Red Miracle to be an engaging tale where character development is just as important as the whodunit aspect.  The book kept my interest throughout, which was also true of the first four books in this series.

 

    8 Stars.  At 250 pages, A Dead Red Miracle was still a novel of acceptable length, but Book 6, A Dead Red Gamble, drops off to 179 pages, and Book 7, A Dead Red Horse Thief, is a mere novella-length 119 pages.  That last book was published in 2019, so I’m assuming that means R.P. Dahlke is finished chronicling Lalla’s adventures.  If so, then I for one, am bummed.

A Dead Red Alibi - R.P. Dahlke

   2014; 268 pages.  Book 4 (out of 6, plus a novella) of the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Women Sleuths; Cozy.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    It hasn’t been the best day of Lalla Bain’s life.  Her fiancé Caleb Stone has just left her standing at the altar on their wedding day.  She didn’t even get a phone call from him, nor is he answering her calls to him.  She’d call the cops, but Caleb is the local sheriff.

    Still, all is not lost.  Despite the cancellation, Aunt Mae still gave her a wedding present, one of a unique nature.  It’s the title to a plot of land down in some hole-in-the-wall town called Wishbone, Arizona.  Supposedly it has an adobe house on it, plus a barn and a shed.  So kind of a mini-ranch.

    Lalla currently resides in the Modesto, California area, but maybe a field trip to wherever-it-is Wishbone is just what she needs to forget about that scalawag Caleb.  Her dad says he’d be happy to go along with her to check the place out, because there’s one other part of the property that’s piqued his interest.  It’s said to have a mine on it.  And who knows, it might be a gold mine!

    Or maybe it's just a small mine pit.  That’s a fancy name for a hole in the ground.

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Alibi is the fourth book in R.P. Dahlke’s Dead Red Mystery series.  The first three books were all set in the Modesto area, so it was neat to see the author take us to a new location - the desert in the extreme southeastern area of Arizona.  To boot, it appears this will be a permanent relocation, and since I live in Arizona, this means Lalla’s moving to my stomping grounds!

     The plotline is straightforward.  Lalla and Pops arrive just as two bodies are discovered, one on her newly-acquired property, the other at an art compound next door.  Lalla’s cousin Pearlie flies in and the two of them pretend to be private investigators while Dad, much more of a skilled carpenter than either of them, begins to fix up the ranch.  While doing this, he discovers a vintage racing car in the barn, an old Italian Bugatti.  You can see its silhouette on the book’s cover.

    AFAIK, the town of Wishbone is fictional, but the nearby city, Sierra Vista, is quite real.  My company used to sell various chemicals to a copper mine located there.   The two murder-mysteries are well-constructed, and I repeatedly changed my mind about who the most likely suspect(s) might be.  The dialogue felt a bit less snarky compared to the earlier books in the series, but that’s okay; there’s still wit aplenty.

    As usual, everything builds to a suitably exciting ending, with a few twists added in to keep you on your toes.  This is one of those books where you can walk alongside Lalla and Pearlie and try to figure out whodunit before they do.

    A Dead Red Alibi is a fast and easy read, told from a first-person point-of-view (Lalla’s).  There’s a bit of blood, but not much; and a cussword here and there, but those too are few and far between.  I’d call this an “almost cozy”, and an excellent choice for a “airport/beach read”.

Excerpts...

    “Let’s drive into Wishbone,” I said, grabbing my purse.  “We’ll get a couple of rooms and come back when the electricity is on.”

    “If the load is getting easy, you’re going downhill,” he quipped.

    “Not from where I’m standing.  There are wild animals out there.  If you’ll give me the Jeep keys, I’ll drive.”

    He had his hands on his hips.  “Now Lalla, just remember, People don’t fail, they give up.  You knew we were going to have to rough it for a day or two.  Where’s your pioneering spirit?”

    I snapped my fingers, signaling for the keys.  “Pioneers yearned for hot baths and clean sheets, too.  Now gimme those keys!”  (loc. 316)

   “What’s this about Pearlie being here in Arizona?” Caleb asked.

    “She flew Aunt Mae home, turned around, and flew back to Sierra Vista.  She’s got some whacked idea we’re going to start our own P.I. business.”

    “You have to have a license for that,” said Caleb.

    “She has a way of ignoring those pesky little issues.”  (loc. 1376)

Kindle Details...

    A Dead Red Alibi currently sells for $3.99 at Amazon, as do the rest of the books in the series, with the exception of Book 1, A Dead Red Cadillac, which sells for $2.99.  The novella, A Dead Red Horse Thief, goes for $0.99.  The first three books in the series are also available in a bundle for $5.99.

Karma had once again spun around and kicked me in the head.  (loc. 948)

    There were a couple drawbacks, but they're the technical variety, not literary.

    First and foremost, A Dead Red Alibi is in dire need of good editing.  One Amazon reviewer complained that almost every page had a typo; I don't think he's exaggerating.  I can overlook the ones of the lose/loose and waved/waived ilk, but when a character’s name changes from Mac Coker to Mac Cocker, that’s just plain sloppy.  Ditto for the lack of commas when addressing someone (“Come on Caleb”). And we desert rats refer to ourselves as Arizonans, not Arizonians, although I have to say, Google seems to be okay with both.

    The formatting is also weak, most noticeably when Kindle splits a word at the end of a line in the middle of a sentence.  Properly, the division should be between two syllables, but here at times just the final (and non-syllabic) letter was split off.  Admittedly, this sort of thing is hard to spot during the proofreading; it all depends on what font size you’ve selected.

    Finally, and least important yet most bizarre, one of the victims, a dead-&-dumped police chief, is never cited by name despite being spoken of numerous times along the way.  I’ve never encountered this before.  R.P. Dahlke uses the real names of a pair of her acquaintances for two of the characters, and points out that she received their permission to do so.  Perhaps there was a third person who, at some late point, refused her permission to use his name.  I can’t think of any other explanation.

    7½ Stars.  If you can ignore the editing/formatting weaknesses, and you like sleuths such as Stephanie Plum and Sookie Stackhouse, then you’ll enjoy A Dead Red Alibi, and this series as a whole.

A Dead Red Oleander by R.P. Dahlke

   2011; 310 pages.  Book 3 (out of 5) of the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Women Sleuths; Cozy.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

    It certainly wasn’t the best party Lalla Bains had ever attended.

    The first downer was the theme of it: a going-out-of-business get-together.  The family crop-dusting company that Lalla and her father have managed for years was to be sold at the end of the spraying season, and that wraps up next week sometime.

    The second downer was that Aunt Mae and Cousin Pearlie flew in from Texas for Lalla’s upcoming wedding, and were at the party as well.  Lalla’s dad refers to Aunt Mae as “that old bat”, and Cousin Pearlie is not above hitting on any eligible and hunky man for the possibility of matrimony, even if he's already spoken for.  Such as Lalla’s beau, Caleb.

    No, what made it the worst party ever was the presence of the newly-hired pilot, Dewey Treat, and his nice wife, Nancy.  Dewey will be out of a job as soon as the sale goes through.  He's a nice enough fellow, but he ruined the whole party atmosphere.  By falling over dead.

    The police think it might be foul play, although that won’t be confirmed until the autopsy is completed.  But the number one suspect has already been identified.

    His wife, Nancy.

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Oleander is the third installment in R.P. Dahlke’s 5-book Dead Red series.  I’m not sure if it is a completed series or not.  The setting is the Modesto Valley in California, where Lalla juggles being a crop-dusting pilot, keeping the business afloat, humoring her curmudgeon of a dad, trying not to get into too many prenuptial squabbles with her soon-to-be husband, and occasionally solving murder mysteries by not minding her own business.  Life’s been busy lately for Lalla.

    The story is told from a first-person POV (Lalla’s), with 25 chapters covering 248 pages.  There’s an abundance of wit, and I enjoyed tagging along with Lalla as she tries to cope with all the havoc in her life.

    I'm pretty sure Aunt Mae and Cousin Pearlie are both new and noteworthy characters.  Pearlie in particular plays a significant role in the investigation of Dewey’s death.  My favorite literary car, the Dead Red Cadillac from Book One is back.  And the titular Dead Red Oleander shows up at 27%.  It doesn’t impact the storyline much, which is not a spoiler, and I couldn’t help but think of it as a – (wait for it) – Dead Red Herring.

    R.P. Dahlke tips her hat to several of her contemporary authors, including two that have series in this same literary niche genre: amateur women sleuths.  One is well-known: Janet Evanovich, she of the hugely-popular Stephanie Plum series.   The other is perhaps lesser-known: Jinx Schwartz who pens a series starring Hetta Coffey, and I’ve had the pleasure of reading one of her books from this series (reviewed here.  R.P. Dahlke mentions a third author, one who I’m unfamiliar with: Beryl Markham, and her signature book West With The Night.  By coincidence, that book surfaced as an Amazon daily discount the day after I finished this book; it now resides on my Kindle.

    A Dead Red Oleander is an incredibly fast and easy read, as are all the books in this series.  It is a standalone novel, and you don’t need to read these books in order, although I am doing so.  There’s only a smidgen of cussing, and I don't hesitate to label this a Cozy Mystery.  I enjoyed meeting Pearlie, and here’s hoping that she gets promoted to “recurring character” status, and becomes – (wait for it again, as I also pay tribute to Janet Evanovich) – Lalla’s Lula.

Excerpts...

    “Will you please explain to your pig-headed father that goats are farm animals?”

    When Spike, my dad’s arthritic Chihuahua, passed away this last winter, my dad simply wasn’t ready to get another dog.  The goat was a gift from a neighbor.

    My dad held up his hand to stop the argument.  “Bruce is a pet, Aunt Mae.”

    “Bruce!”  Aunt Mae threw up her hands.  “Your father has Disneyfied a farm animal, and calling him Bruce isn’t going to change the fact that he’s part of the food chain and best served with chipotle sauce.”  (loc. 400)

   Bud’s Bar squatted on a dusty corner of a nearly abandoned strip mall in Turlock.  A neon biplane mounted on top of the building identified the bar as a place for pilots and wanna-be pilots.  I expected to be the only woman in the place at this time of day, since most women, the ones that loved to hang out with pilots for fun and profit, were more likely to show up at night.  By closing time, anyone still here would have divided their paychecks between drinks and something that passed for an hour’s worth of affection.  (loc. 1947)

Kindle Details...

    A Dead Red Oleander sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  The first book in the series, A Dead Red Cadillac, sells for $2.99, all the others go for $3.99 apiece.  The first three books in the series are also available in a bundle for only $4.99, which is quite a good deal.  R.P. Dahlke has two additional books to offer from another trilogy, titled “Pilgrim’s Progress”.  Those books go for $2.99 each, or you can get them bundled with the first three books in the Dead Red series for $7.99.

 “Aunt Mae does tend to find the worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle.”  (loc. 1617)

    I had a couple quibbles, mostly with the “mystery” aspect of A Dead Red Oleander.  Note: the following comments are spoiler-free.

    First of all, t was never clear to me just how the Ultimate Evil (“UE”) carried out the dastardly deed of Dewey’s demise.  I kept waiting for a clever twist in this regard, but it never came.  I was also amazed that, however the crime was pulled off, Dewey’s wife was never aware of it until her hubby collapsed.

    Secondly, I’m not sure the local authorities, including Lalla’s boyfriend, Caleb, who happens to be the local sheriff, would approve of the way Lalla and Pearlie deal with the bad guys they encounter.  Their method of dealing with the UE particularly strained at my believability threshold, and the fact that the police were okay with it was even harder to swallow.

    Thirdly, the UE several times passes on the opportunity to eliminate pesky little Lalla from dogging his trail.  Yes, an explanation is given for this, but I didn’t buy it.  Watching the Austin Powers movies has made me jaded about bad guys delaying in killing heroes due to hubris.

     Lastly, I had a problem with how long it took Lalla to figure out who the UE was.  I found the key piece of evidence for solving this to be blatantly obvious.  Yet it takes Lalla the whole second half of the book to catch up to me. 

    7 Stars.  Don’t let my quibbles discourage you from reading A Dead Red Oleander.  It’s a fun, fast-paced, and entertaining book, and you’ll enjoy every minute of it.  It’s an ideal beach or airplane read.  Just remember to put your brain to sleep before opening up the book.  Add 1½ stars if you get a thrill solving a book's mystery before the title character does.

A Dead Red Heart - R.P. Dahlke

   2011;3101 pages.  Book 2 (out of 5) of the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Women Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Billy Wayne Dobson is getting to be quite a pest in Lalla Bains' life.  He’s been writing love notes on little white heart-shaped cut-outs, and leaving them all over her car.  It’s annoying as heck, and it’s time to do something.  And since Lalla’s a crop duster by trade, getting rid of pests is what she does.. 

   But when she confronts him, in an alleyway behind Mr. Kim’s  Vietnamese restaurant, he falls into her arms and whispers a sweet nothing.  That may sound romantic, but what he says is “The more there is, the less you see.”  And then he dies of a broken heart.  Weird, huh?

    You know, a pair of scissors poking out of your chest generally does that sort of thing.  And while Lalla is a suspect, at least for a little while, the reader knows she didn’t do it.  She’s the star of this series.

    But it begs the question.  Who would kill s homeless, ex-veteran street person without a dime to his name?  And why?

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Heart is a worthy sequel to the recently-read A Dead Red Cadillac, featuring the crop-dusting, ex-model, unlucky-at-love Lalla Bains and the trouble she seems to always get into in the otherwise unexciting city of Modesto, California.  The storyline moves at a crisp pace, and the structure is similar to the first book, and I mean that as a plus.  Lalla sleuths a bit in her spare time, mostly because nobody else seems to care who killed Billy Wayne, and the murderer of course takes steps to convey to Lalla that it’s not in her best interests of health to persevere in such meddling.

    The story is told in the first-person POV (Lalla’s), and the action starts right away, literally on the first page of the book.  There’s a heapload of characters for you to suspect of the dastardly deed, and a nice blend of new and recurring ones.  Lalla’s no longer torn between two boyfriends; one good, one bad.  Instead she’s ponders whether putting up with the pressure that her beau’s career (a sheriff) puts on their relationship is worth it.

   The Dead Red series seems to be in what I’d call the “quasi-cozy” genre.   Yes, there is some cussing, but it’s not done to excess.  And yes, Billy Wayne bleeds from the scissors insertion and dies onscreen, but I wouldn’t label it as “blood and gore”.  What is present in abundance is wit, sassiness, and humor.

    I was amused to see one of Lalla’s father’s medications, “Lasix”, mentioned by name.  I had to take this stuff during my stay in the hospital last year, and it is a brutal way to flush liquids out of one’s body.  And I was happy to see that Lalla’s cherry-red Cadillac, the centerpiece in the first book, is back in Book Two.

    A Dead Red Heart is a standalone story as well as part of a now 5-book series.  I happen to be reading these in order, mostly because I picked up the first three books in a “bundle” deal, but I think they can be read in any order and still be enjoyed.

Kewlest New Word…

Soporific (adj.) : tending to induce drowsiness or sleep.

Excerpts...

    From the sycamores overhead, birds sang, hopped from branch to branch, fussed at each other, and generally went about the business of making more birds.  In a nearby bush, a bird trilled, coughed, tried again, coughed, and finally gave up.  Del Potts knocked aside a couple of dusty branches and waved me over.

    I strolled to the bush and gave him a hand out.  “Everybody has been looking for you, Del.”

    “I know, I know, but I’ve got to stay incognito.”  (loc. 5826)

   With mixed feelings, I dressed and went downstairs and into the kitchen.  Juanita was whisking batter for pancakes and my dad was sipping a cup of coffee and mashing eggs into his toast.

    “Is that tofu on your toast, or are you off your low cholesterol diet?”

    “What’re you, the food police?  I get two eggs a week, miss nosy-butt.”

    I shrugged off the surly comment.  Another cup of coffee, and he’d go from surly to just crabby.  (loc. 6799)

Kindle Details...

    A Dead Red Heart sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  The first book in the series, A Dead Red Cadillac, sells for $0.99, the rest of the books all go for $3.99 each.  The first three books in the series are also available in a bundle, which is how I’m reading the series thus far.  R.P. Dahlke also has two books to offer in another trilogy, titled “Pilgrim’s Progress”.  Those books go for $2.99 each, or you can get them bundled with the first three books in the Dead Red series, all for only $7.99.

 “You have a cell phone with you?”  “Do bunnies live in trees?”  (loc. 6703)

    I had a couple quibbles, but nothing major.

    There are some French phrases scattered throughout, and that’s a language I love.  But here it's all butchered (“n’ce pas”, “s’il vou plat”, for two examples), and I couldn’t figure out if this was bad French on R.P. Dahlke’s part, a deliberate mangling by Modesto natives, or spellchecker running amok in the editing process. 

    Also, one of the main clues, which for spoiler reasons, I’ll relegate to the comments section, left me confused.  Was it a red herring, a MacGuffin, or did the author write herself into a corner and just leave it dangling, hoping that no one would notice the lack of resolution?

     But I pick at nits.  I found A Dead Red Heart to be a quick read, devoid of any slow spots, with wittiness aplenty, and just as entertaining as the first book.  Here’s hoping that the rest of the series is as much fun.

    8 Stars.  For the record, I did guess who the perpetrator was.  But that’s only because at various points along the storyline, I guessed it was any one of about a dozen suspects, and one of those 12 guesses turned out to be correct.

A Dead Red Cadillac - R.P. Dahlke

   2011; 291 pages.  Book 1 (out of 5) of the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Women Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Someone has trashed Lalla Bains’s spiffy, cherry-red Cadillac.  Stole it right out of her garage, and plowed it headfirst into Turlock Lake, with the shiny fins left sticking up into the sky.  Who could’ve done such a dastardly deed?

   Hey, I bet it was that mean old Patience McBride.  She just won a blue ribbon for her homemade jam, beating out Lalla’s entry, after the latter had publicly challenged her to a jam-making duel in front of everybody at Roxanne’s Diner.  What a sore winner!

    Alas, Patience has been removed as a suspect for the vandalism.  The police say her body was found seat-belted in the driver seat of the Caddy, dead as a drowned doornail.  Now who would do such a thing?

    It looks like Lalla has some sleuthing to do.

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Cadillac is a cozy murder-mystery set in the greater Modesto, California area.  I presume this is the author’s stomping grounds and she’s adhering to the Creative Writing maxim of “write about what you know best”, and I like the choice.  My company sells quite a lot of Ag chemicals in that area, including some that are foliarly applied, so Lalla’s job as a crop-duster hit home, and is quite accurately portrayed here.

   There is a definite “Stephanie Plum” influence on the Lalla Bains character, and I view that as a plus.  Both are sassy females and amateurs in the sleuthing field.  They both have two romantic interests, one being a cop, the other being kind of a rogue, and both series are told from the first-person POV.  This is certainly is a popular niche genre, and  I read another book of its kind recently, which is reviewed here.

    There are lots of characters to meet and be suspicious of.  I really liked Eddie McBride; I hope he is a recurring character in this series.  R.P. Dahlke throws in a couple of plot twists to keep you on your toes, and everything builds to an exciting and satisfying ending.  The writing is straightforward, and in a “storytelling” style, which keeps the plotline moving at a brisk pace.

    A Dead Red Cadillac is a standalone novel, as well as part of a 5-book series.  I gather this is the author’s debut book, and if so, it is a fine first effort.

Kewlest New Word…

Kludge (v.) : to use poorly-matched parts to make something.

Excerpts...

    I opened the front door and was greeted by sharp high-pitched barking.  Tiny nails skittered across the wood floor of the foyer, and with a toothy snarl, a small brown dog launched itself at my leg.  I kicked out, trying to dislodge its hold on my pant leg, then realized that this slathering miniature Cujo was really a tiny Chihuahua and I knew him – not that we were ever on speaking terms.

    “Spike?  Spike.  Let go now, that’s a nice doggy.”  He growled, working his teeth deeper into the material.  (loc. 859)

   I had time for that early lunch after all and, remembering to put on my turn signal, looked over my shoulder before changing lanes and took the exit to Roxanne’s.  My exit was uneventful: no horns honked, no tires squealed as irate drivers were forced to brake at my passing.  Not one middle finger salute accompanied my exiting the freeway.  Gee, maybe I should drive like this more often.  (loc. 2991)

Kindle Details...

    A Dead Red Cadillac sells for $0.99 at Amazon.  The other four books in the series all sell for $3.99 apiece.  The first three books in the series are also available in a bundle, which is actually how I acquired this one.  The bundle sells for $5.99, which’ll save you four Washingtons.  R.P. Dahlke also has two books to offer from another trilogy, titled “Pilgrim’s Progress”.  They go for $2.99 each, or you can get them bundled with the first three books in the Dead Red series for only $7.99.

 “Sometimes I just open my mouth to change feet.”  (loc. 1041)

    The quibbles are negligible.  There is some mild cussing in the book (“hurt like hell”, “jackass”, “shit”), which cozy purists might object to.  But I am not a cozy purist, so for me, it just helped make the setting seem real.  There was at least one deus ex machina (the newspaper),  and some obvious clues that the police, but not Lalla, seemed a bit slow to pick up on.

    My main challenge was getting used to the Kindle percentage-read, location, and “time left in book” when reading a story in a book bundle.  Everything was based on the sum total of all three books, so it was difficult to gauge just how much further I had to go in Book One.  I know this will bug me even more when reading the middle book in the bundle.

    But this issue is solely the product of my OCD, and I’m sure I’ll get used to it as I start reading stories from more bundles.  Talk about a “First World Problem”.

    8 Stars.  This trilogy has been sitting on my Kindle for quite some time, as I’ve been avoiding it and several other bundles.  All in all, A Dead Red Cadillac was an unexpected treat, and I doubt it will be too long before I read its sequel, A Dead Red Heart.