Curses! - Aaron Elkins

    1989; 198 pages.  Book 5 (out of 18) in the “Gideon Oliver Mysteries” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : International Crime-Mystery; Mesoamerica; Forensic Anthropology.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    The excavation was started in 1980 at an ancient Mayan ceremonial center in Yucatan, called Tlaloc.  It was both the high and the low of Gideon Oliver’s archaeological career.

 

    The highlight was finding an ancient Mayan codex in almost pristine condition.  It was only the fourth Mayan codex ever found.  It made all that digging worthwhile.

 

    The lowlight was the excavation’s director stealing the codex and fleeing with it while the others slept.  The Mexican government was furious.  They shut the project down immediately.  That was in 1982.

 

    Almost a decade has passed since, and only now has the government of Mexico allowed the excavation to start back up.  Dig deeper.  Into an earlier time.  Maybe find another codex!  And now Gideon has been invited to rejoin the effort.  You know he’ll jump at the opportunity.

 

    Who cares about some sort of Mayan curse protecting their sacred site.

 

What’s To Like...

    Curses! is the fourth book I’ve read in this series, and I’ve loved the settings chosen for each one: Egypt, France, England, and now the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

 

    Since I’m a history buff, I enjoyed the story being set in an ancient Mayan ceremonial center called Tlaloc.  ANAICT, the site is fictional, but the name is that of the Nahuatl god of rain, and M. Todd Gallowglas’ worldbuilding for such a place was convincing.  Lots of real Mesoamerican places and gods are injected into the story, including Quetzalcoatl, Popol Vuh, Teotihuacan, Palenque, and my favorite: Chichen Itza.

 

    The book’s title refers to an ancient curse allegedly imposed on anyone who disturbs the site.  It was dismissed as primitive superstition by all but one in the excavation team.  Attitudes changed somewhat when each of the five steps in the curse starts to come to pass.  Was the superstition true, or is some mortal deliberately setting up incidents to fulfill the prophecies?  Hmm.

 

    The mystery aspect was well done.  A set of bones is unearthed, and Gideon, aka “the Skeleton Detective of America”, is called upon to determine the Who, When, and hopefully Why the corpse came to be buried in the temple.  A murder occurs, and the reader gets to tag alongside Gideon and try to determine the perpetrator before he does.  I failed miserably.

 

    The ending logical, twisty, and did not go down as I expected.  Gideon comes within an eyelash of dying, due mostly to his not examining the details of the final prophecy seriously enough.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,281 ratings and 61 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.05*/5, based on 1,990 ratings and 101 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word…

Cenote (n.) : a natural deep sinkhole or pit.

Others: Pelves (n.) : the plural of pelvis.

 

Excerpts...

    “Just what is a codex?  A manuscript?  A book?”

    “That’s right.  From the Latin caudex, meaning a split block of wood, kind of like a shingle, which the Romans coated with wax and then inscribed.”

    She looked at him quizzically.  “You know the damnedest things.”

    “I,” he said with dignity, “am a full professor.  My mind is replete with scholarly arcana, some of which, I can safely say, are even more useless than that.”

    “I know.  It’s ruining our social life.  Nobody wants to play Trivial Pursuit with us.”  (pg. 35)

 

    Many years before, when he had nervously turned in the first draft of his dissertation to his doctoral committee members, Abe had penciled in some comments across the title page: “Very inventive.  Considering the lack of data, the inconclusive results, and the ambiguous statistical analysis, you did a wonderful job.  Not everyone can make two hundred pages from nothing.  I predict you’ll go far.”  (pg. 94)

 

Kindle Details…

    Curses! sells for $8.99 right now at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series cost anywhere from $5.49 to $9.99, with the prices generally higher for the books in the latter half of the series.  Aaron Elkins has several other Mystery series for your sleuthing pleasure, with the e-books generally in the $3.99-$7.99 price range. 

 

“You have to live your own life.  You can’t let the creeps and cruds of the world run it for you.”  (pg. 120)

    The profanity level is light.  I counted ten instances in the first 25% of the e-book, all of which were of the milder, four-lettered variety.  Later on, several Spanish cuss of a more powerful ilk are used.  We’ll let you google them for their translations.

 

    I don’t really have any nits to pick about Curses!  The pacing is good, there are no slow spots, and in this historical mystery, M. Todd Gallowglas gives just as much attention to creating a spellbinding whodunit and he does to the worldbuilding and character development.  The wannabee-archaeologist part of me loved it just as much as the wannabee-detective part of me did.

 

    9 Stars.  One last tidbit.  In addition to the “Kewlest New Words” listed above, I also learned the proper word for the inhabitants of the Yucatan peninsula.  They’re called “Yucatecans”.  Who'd've thunk it?

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.

Monday the Rabbi Took Off - Harry Kemelman

   1972; 329 pages.  Book 4 (out of 12) in the “Rabbi Small Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Hebrew Culture; Crime Mystery; Jewish Literature; Amateur Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    No matter what the job, everybody needs a break sometimes.  Even Rabbi David Small of the Barnard’s Crossing temple.

 

    He’s served as their rabbi for more than five years, despite not having a contract with them that grants him time off for a vacation, or a yearlong sabbatical leave-of-absence after six years of service.  He’s never once complained about the unpaid overtime hours expected of a rabbi.

 

    But it’s taken its toll.  Now he’s asking for three months off for an extended trip to the Jewish holy land of Israel.  His wife and young son will be accompanying him.  He’s not even asking the Bernard’s Crossing temple to subsidize him.

 

    Hmm.  I wonder if his ultimate aim is to find a new job over there.  Something that gives him time off each year, and will guarantee it in a contract.  If I were on the Barnard’s Crossing temple board, I’d start looking for a replacement to fill in for Rabbi Small while he’s gone, and to take his place if he decides not to come back.

 

What’s To Like...

    I liked the change-of-setting Harry utilizes in Monday the Rabbi Took Off; Israel is a much more interesting place to read about than Barnard’s Crossing.  The timing is important as well.  It’s 1972, just five years after the Six-Day War between Israel and most of its neighbors, and the entire Jewish nation remains in a “siege mentality” for valid reasons.

 

    The descriptions of everyday life in Israel felt very convincing without being boringly stereotypical.  There are rules governing what activities you can and cannot on the Sabbath, and most citizens obey them.  It reminded me of the “Blue Laws” we had in Pennsylvania when I was growing up there: stores, restaurants, and liquor stores were all closed on Sunday mornings, and people lined up as the hour drew close to noon.  Nobody complained about the restrictions, which is also true here in Monday the Rabbi Took Off.

 

    Harry Kemelman blends a fair amount of Hebrew vocabulary into the story, and I liked that.  One is detailed below; others include kiddush, Chassidim, minyan, chaver, gefilte fish, shlemiehl, sherut, and ozzereth.  Fortunately, between the author and my Kindle Fire, almost all of these came with translations.

 

    The main storylines are Rabbi Small and his family enjoying their three-month stay in Jerusalem and the Barnard’s Crossing Temple bigwigs worrying that he won’t come back.  There is a bombing death for Rabbi Small to solve, but that doesn’t arise until more than halfway through the book, and frankly doesn’t have a large impact on the events in the story.  More on that in a bit.

 

    The ending addresses resolves all three of those plot threads, including several neat plot twists, although not a lot of excitement.  Monday the Rabbi Took Off is both a standalone tale and part of a series that I'm reading in order.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 878 ratings and 87 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.87/5 based on 1,992 ratings and 165 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Rebbitzin (n.) : the wife of a rabbi.

Others: Pillion (n.)

 

Excerpts...

    “First we ought to decide if we need a rabbi at all, then—”

    “What do you mean, do we need a rabbi at all?  How are we going to get along without a rabbi?”

    “Lots of places don’t have them,” Goodman replied.  “I mean not regularly.  They get a young punk down from the seminary every Friday evening and pay him maybe fifty or a hundred bucks and expenses.”

    “Sure, and you know what you get?  You get a young punk.”

    “Not just a young punk,” Goodman reproved, "a young rabbi punk.”  (loc. 11313)

 

    “Mahmoud is very good with automobiles, and he keeps this one tuned like a watch.  Well, maybe not like a watch, but like a good serviceable alarm clock.  It is perhaps not so quiet as the car you are used to, nor is the ride so smoothly, but it always starts, and it always goes.”

    “Yeah, well . . . It’s pretty good on gas.  I’ll say that for it.  We’ve been driving for over an hour and the needle on the tank gauge hasn’t moved.”

    Abdul chuckled.  “The gauge doesn’t work.  The needle never moves.”  (loc. 14870)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now the e-book version of Monday the Rabbi Took Off will cost you $6.99 at Amazon.  The other e-books in the series are all in the $1.99-$7.99 range.  I read this as part of a 4-book bundle containing the first four entries is the series, and which costs $17.99.

 

“I make the decisions in my house, but my wife tells me what to decide.”  (loc. 15237)

    Profanity is almost nonexistent in Monday the Rabbi Took Off, which was expected since rabbis abstain from swearing.  I noted just three cusswords in the first 50% of the book, and zero adult situations.  The editing was well done; I only spotted two typos: gravel/gavel and hamburg/hamburger.

 

    As already mentioned, the big problem is the murder-mystery plotline.  It starts incredibly late in the text and is solved with more by armchair reasoning than onsite sleuthing.

 

    So if you can read a Rabbi Small story strictly for its insight into Jewish culture—both in America and in Israel—you are in for a treat; Harry Kemelman does a fantastic job in this respect.  But if you’re expecting a fascinating cozy mystery seamlessly merged into the tale as well, as I did, Monday the Rabbi Took Off probably won't live up to your expectations.

 

    7 Stars.  One minor plot tangent in the book deals with a fertilizer being field-tested by Israeli experts.  I've worked for a company that manufactures liquid fertilizers, and remember reading about some field research being done over there.  Specifically, it involved something called “drip irrigation”, and IIRC the Israelis came up with a remarkable way to minimize the amount of water needed for this.  When your entire country’s a desert and your population is constantly increasing due to immigration, such improvements are miracles.

Sunday The Rabbi Stayed Home - Harry Kemelman

    1966; 270 pages.  Book 3 (out of 12) in the “Rabbi Small Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Jewish Literature;  Amateur Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

 

    The members of the Barnard’s Crossing Temple are bickering again.

 

    The conservative faction, headed by Ben Gorfinkle, wants Rabbi David Small to publicly take a stand supporting book censorship and prayer in the schools; plus attacking the coddling of criminals and denouncing the Civil Rights protests.  And Gorfinkle is confident they have enough votes to make this temple policy.

 

    The progressive faction, headed by Meyer Paff, wants Rabbi Small to publicly take the opposite stand on all these issues.  They’re aware they don’t have enough votes for this, and therefore are prepared to break away and start their own temple, taking a lot of the present congregation, and hopefully Rabbi Small, with them.

 

    Although the Rabbi is sympathetic with the Meyer Paff’s group, he doesn’t want have the congregation split in two.  He’d prefer to do anything except be forced to choose one temple faction or the other.

 

    Like investigate a murder or two, perhaps?

 

What’s To Like...

    Sunday The Rabbi Stayed Home is a blend of three storylines.  One is an enlightening discussion of Jewish-vs.-Christian dogma; one is an insightful look at inter-congregational squabbling; one is Rabbi Small’s investigation into two local deaths that have suspicious circumstances.

 

    The temple squabbles receive the majority of the attention and I suspect it will be a recurring theme of this series, since Book 11 is titled The Day the Rabbi Resigned.  A new twist of it crops up here: Rabbi Small is becoming popular among the Jewish youths, and he’s now considering joining Hillel, the largest Jewish student organization worldwide, as a counselor.

 

    Harry Kemelman works a lot of Yiddish religious terms and phrases into the text, and I always like that.  Rabbi Small engages in a couple of discussions with a Roman Catholic priest at the local Newman Center (the Catholic equivalent of Hillel), which both Father Bennett and myself found thought-provoking.  Two of the topics were a.) the role of Faith and/or the lack of it, and b.) the importance of what we believe versus that which we do.

 

    The Rabbi’s investigations into the two deaths are suitably thorough despite the lack of clues.  Sunday The Rabbi Stayed Home was published in 1969, and I was not surprised to see marijuana (or “marihuana” as the author spells it) being a factor in the probes.  I winced at the repeated use of the word “Negro” here, then remembered it was the preferred term for blacks during that era.

 

    Things build to a so-so ending.  Rabbi Small figures out the “whodunit” by clever deductive reasoning.  Unfortunately, all the evidence is circumstantial, but help comes from an unexpected source.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 1,008 ratings and 83 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.84/5 based on 2,108 ratings and 163 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I made my money too late to change my habits.  My Laura is after me I should have my suits made to order.  ‘You’ve got it now; spend it.’  But I can’t.  I can’t get interested enough in clothes to bother.  When I play poker, I play penny ante, and I notice that I get as much fun out of winning ninety cents as I would if it were ninety dollars.  And Irving is just as sore at losing thirty-two cents.”

    “Thirty-seven cents.”  (loc. 8505)

 

    “I told him that I’d had a meeting with a majority of the board prior to our little talk and that we had decided that if he refused to go along, at the next a motion would be offered—and passed—calling for his resignation.”

    “You fired him?”

    He pursed his lips and canted his head to one side.  “Just about.”

    “Nothing personal, of course.”

    “I flatter myself that I handled it pretty well,” said Gorfinkle with a smirk.  (loc. 9562)

 

Kindle Details…

    Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home is priced at $8.99 at Amazon at present.  The other books in the series are in the $0.99-$7.99 range, with most of them costing $6.99.  I read this as part of an e-book bundle containing the first four volumes of the series, and which costs $17.99 right now.

 

“By God, you nice respectable people can blunder into a situation and foul it up to make the angels weep.”  (loc. 9572)

    There’s only a smattering of profanity in Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home.  I counted just nine instances in the first half of the book, and those were all of the “milder” ilk.  The pejorative version of “Negro” (the "N-word") was used once, but with a negative connotation.  Typos were scarce and mostly involved missing commas and periods.

 

    The portrayal of pot dealers back in 1969 was a bit skewed.  Trust me, I was a teenager back then, and although drug dealing could be hazardous in those days, that was only true if the drug quantities were large.  A couple of joints does not constitute a large quantity.  Methinks Harry Kemelman took the movie Reefer Madness too seriously.

 

    The biggest issue I have with Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home is the diminished role of the crime investigation.  The first murder doesn’t come until 58% Kindle, and Rabbi Small doesn’t start his investigation until 65% Kindle.  It’s almost like the crimes were just a slapdash add-on to the book's storyline.

 

    Overall, this was a so-so read for me, probably because I’m reading this series mostly for the crime mystery aspect, not the religious angles.  If you happen to be reading these Rabbi Small books for their spiritual messages, add a couple stars to my rating.

 

    6 Stars.  One last thing.  Kudos for the brief mention of (Moses) Maimonides.  That was one kewl dude, centuries before his time.  If you don’t know anything about him, look him up in Wikipedia.

Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry - Harry Kemelman

   1966; 270 pages.  Book 2 (out of 12) in the “Rabbi Small Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime Mystery; Jewish Literature;  Amateur Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    Poor Isaac Hirsh.  He had a good job and a beautiful wife.  But he was a recovering alcoholic, and one night he fell off the wagon.

 

    While almost everyone else in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Barnard’s Crossing was observing Yom Kippur, Isaac went drinking and driving.  Then he came home, parked his car in the garage, closed the garage door, and passed out in the driver’s seat with the engine still running.  That's where the police found his body.

 

    Was it an accidental death or was it suicide?  That may seem like a trivial issue to most people, but it makes a big difference to the life insurance company that covers Isaac’s policy.  It also impacts where Isaac, a non-practicing Jew, can be buried.  Suicide’s a sin, and no sinners are allowed in a Jewish cemetery.  It’s up to Rabbi Small to figure this all out and render a judgment.

 

    Hmm, suicide or accident.  Which was it?  What if it’s neither?

 

What’s To Like...

    Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry is the second book in Harry Kemelman’s Rabbi  Small cozy-mystery series.  I read the first book in the series, Friday The Rabbi Slept Late; it is reviewed here.

 

    Once again, the story blends a noteworthy amount of Jewish theology with the investigations by various parties, including the police, Rabbi Small, the life insurance claims agent.  Temple politics play a significant part in the Rabbi getting involved.  God moves in mysterious ways.  Harry Kemelman makes use of a lot of Hebrew vocabulary in the text, but that’s not a problem in the Kindle version since highlighting the word or phrase brings up the English definition. 

 

    There are lots of characters to meet and be suspicious of, and lots of red herrings to throw both the reader and the Rabbi off-track in the investigation.  The insights into Jewish theology and how it differs from Christian thinking was also enlightening.  The story opens with the Rabbi leading a Yom Kippur service, which I gather is the most important Holy day of the year in Judaism.

 

    The book was published in 1966, during the height of the American Civil Rights movement.  Rabbi Small gets invited to take part in that movement, and I was surprised when he gave his reasons for declining to do so.  I winced the half dozen or so times the word “negro” was used, having to remind myself that in the 60s it was the politically correct word to use.

 

    The ending is okay by 1960s crime-mystery standards, but pretty blah by today’s.  The key clue is noticed by the Rabbi, but not revealed to the reader.  Rabbi Small only divulges it when he makes his accusation.  Bottom line: don’t try to solve this before the Rabbi does.  Just tag along and enjoy his interactions with the many possible suspects.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 1,549 ratings and 153 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.91/5 based on 2,775 ratings and 256 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Jocose (adj.) : playful or humorous.

Others: Escheat (v.).

 

Excerpts...

    “I was good to him; I took care of him like a mother."

    “And yet he drank.”

    “That started before I met him.  And I’m not sorry,” she added defiantly, “because that’s how I met him.”

    “So?”

    “He had holed up at this little hotel where I was working on the cigar counter in the lobby.  If he hadn’t been on a bender, how could the likes of me have met a man like him?”

    “And you feel you got the best of the bargain?”

    “It was the best kind of bargain there is, Rabbi, where both parties feel they’ve got the best of it.”  (loc. 4804)

 

    “Well, when a man drives into his garage, turns off the headlights, closes the garage door behind him, and then is found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning there’s always a question.”

    “Suicide?”

    “Isaac Hirsh took out an insurance policy of twenty-five thousand dollars less than a year ago.  There’s a two-year suicide clause on all our policies and double indemnity for accidental death.  If his death was an accident, the company forks out fifty thousand dollars.  If it was suicide, we don’t pay a red cent.  The company feels that fifty thousand dollars is worth a little investigation.”  (loc. 5088)

 

Kindle Details…

    Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry is priced at $6.99 at Amazon right now.  The other books in the series are in the $1.99-$8.99 range, in no apparent pattern.  Alternatively, there is a bundle containing the first four books of the series, for $17.99, which is the format I’m using.

 

In a small town there are no secrets; a secret is not something unknown, only something not talked about openly.  (loc. 6515)

    There’s no blood, gore, or “adult situations” in Saturday The Rabbi Went Hungry, and I noted only five cusswords in the first 50% of the book.   The raciest thing I could come up with was a single use of a slang term to describe parts of the female anatomy.

 

    All the other quibbles have been covered.  If differences in religious practices and beliefs don’t interest you, then you’ll find the pacing slow.  If the word "negro” makes you wince, just be thankful the other “n-word” wasn’t used.  If you like trying to solve the mystery alongside the protagonist, concentrate instead on using logic to eliminate various characters from the sizable list of suspects.

 

    I’m still getting used to the tone and structure of this series.  The theological exegesis are interesting to me.  I felt the storyline is more character-driven than whodunit-driven is a bit disappointing, but I still enjoyed watching the amateur sleuth Rabbi Small go about his investigation.  We’ll see if I keep that attitude through the remaining two books in the bundle.

 

    7 Stars.  There is a father-son duo that pop up frequently in the storyline.  Their last name is Goralsky, and the son’s name in Ben.  For some reason, the name of the father is withheld for about 95% of the tale.  A key clue?  A freaky background story?  Who knows.  Just before the end of the book, his name is finally disclosed: he's Moses.  Now I’m more mystified than ever.

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.

Bone Box - Faye Kellerman

   2017; 481 pages.  New Author? : Yes. Book 24 (out of 26) in the Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series. Genres : Police Procedural; Serial Killers; Crime Thriller.  Overall Rating : 5½*/10.

 

    It’s a perfect day to be out hiking in upstate New York.  Rina Decker is thoroughly enjoying it, even if there’s no one along to chitchat with, and apparently the newly-opened Bogat Trail was not well-known to other local hikers yet.

 

    It’s autumn, the best time of year to take some nature photos, and Rina’s brought her camera.  Everything is lush and green, the trees are colorful, and there’s one particularly stately oak tree off-trail in the distance, just begging to be photographed.

 

   Wandering off the trail is a little risky:  you could get lost, but Rina’s done it before, and she's carrying a compass for just such a venture.  So it’s off across the woodland, enjoying Mother Nature, and at one point accidentally stepping on a twig sticking out of the ground and snapping it off.  Well now, isn’t that cute, the twig looks like skeletal hand trying to free itself.

 

    Uh-oh.  Upon closer observation, that twig is a skeletal hand.  Don’t touch anything, Rina, you don’t want to disturb the crime scene.  And call your husband immediately, since he's a member of the local police department.

 

What’s To Like...

    Bone Box was my introduction to a long-running police procedural series by Faye Kellerman featuring the husband/wife team of (police detective) Peter Decker and his (private investigator) wife Rina.  This is the book 24 in the 26-book series, so I’ve missed most of the backstory, although I gather they used to live in Los Angeles, and at some point moved to upstate New York to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.

 

    Despite Rina literally stumbling across the first body, most of the focus is on Peter and his intern detective partner, Tyler McAdams as they try to identify the remains that are years-old, and discover who did the dirty deed(s).  This is a police procedural, my favorite crime-mystery sub-genre, and so not surprisingly Peter, Tyler, and the reader spend a large amount of time interviewing any and all those who may have known the victims.

 

    I liked the writing style: it’s witty and fast-moving, full of interesting and well-developed characters.  One of those happens to be transgender, with a spouse who’s also transgender, both of whom are beginning the process of getting a sex-change.  Sound improbable?  Well maybe, but I remember a 1970s article in our local newspaper, The New Times, which chronicled just such a circumstance.

 

    There are a bunch of recurring characters in the storyline: old friends, kids and step-kids, former police coworkers, et al.  I struggled to keep track of them, yet that didn’t negatively impact my grasping of the storyline.

    I liked the literary nod to Stephen King, and the musical nod to Jane Monheit (who?).  I was astounded to learn that Akron, Ohio is reputed to be “The Methamphetamine Capital of the Country”, and if there was a tie-in to the titular “Bone Box”, I missed it.  There’s a small amount of cussing, not a lot, and that impressed me.  I like it when an author can keep you turning the pages without having to resort to excessive use of profanity.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Hinky (adj.) : (of a person) dishonest or suspect.

Others: Orthogonal (adj.).

 

Ratings…
Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,111 ratings.

Goodreads: 3.98*/5, based on 6,964 ratings and 636 reviews.

 

Things that Sound Dirty but Aren’t…

    “I know you’re not the problem.  But, at present, you’re the only scapegoat I have.  Put some clothes on and let’s get out of here.” (loc. 1161)

 

Kindle Details…

    Bone Box sells for $4.99 at Amazon,  The other 25 books in this series cost anywhere from $4.99 to $9.99.  Faye Kellerman has also written some standalone novels, all in the crime-mystery genre, and which range in price from $2.99 to $11.49.

Excerpts...

    “I’m just trying to get a feel for Delilah.  Were the two of you close?”

    Natalie took a tissue and blew her nose.  “She could be secretive.”

    “About what?” McAdams said.

    “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have said she was secretive.”

    Decker smiled.  “What do you think she was secretive about?”

    “Anything she didn’t want to talk about, which upon reflection, was probably a long list.”  (loc. 1567)

 

    “Thanks for coming down.”

    “Like I had a choice?  Why am I here?”

    “I’m asking for your help.”

    “What help?  I can’t help you.”

    “You don’t even know what I’m asking for.”

    “It can’t be good.  You don’t drag a person down to the police station just to get help.  So either arrest me for something or I’m going home.”

    “You want me to arrest you?”

    “Well, no.  I don’t want you to arrest me.  I didn’t do anything arrestable.  I don’t even know if that’s a word.”  (loc. 5637)

 

“I’m old.  I don’t have time to be patient.”  (loc. 4812 )

    Sadly, there’s a lot to quibble about in Bone Box.  We’ll try not to get long-winded about these.

 

    There are way too many WTF’s.  Some examples: Decker leaves Rina alone at their house, despite knowing there's a psychopath stalking her.  Predictable things ensue, but the day is saved by a well-armed good guy showing up at just the right and most improbable moment.  At another point, a key witness who just happens to be hiding out in Decker’s former stomping ground of Los Angeles is quickly located, despite her having changed her name and assumed a new identity.  Such coincidences might be okay in an action-thriller, but not in a police procedural.

 

    The bad guys seem incredibly chatty during interviews, and easily talked out of wanting a lawyer to be present during the questioning.  They're easily persuaded to rat out each other, even when Decker lacks enough evidence to arrest them for something.

    The storyline meanders too much.  The original victim is a transgender male, and I thought the plotline might extensively explore this angle.  But he/she quickly fades into the background as other bodies and near-misses turn up, all female, all young, all straight, and all assumed to be of more interest to the readers than someone looking to get a sex-change.

 

    The biggest problem is the ending.  There isn’t any.  Decker finally figures out who did what to who, and why, but both he and the perps know that he lacks enough proof to convict the them.  This is normally addressed with a few more chapters where the baddies succumb to some clever ploys the protagonists, but here, the story just ends with everything still unresolved.  Talk about a major letdown.

 

    5½ Stars.  In reading the Amazon reviews, I’m not the only one to find the ending to be disappointing.  So maybe Bone Box is just one of the weaker books in this series.  Maybe Faye Kellerman was burnt out when she wrote it.  Maybe that’s why it was discounted at Amazon.  Maybe the earlier books are much better.  We’ll see.  I not ready to give up on such an acclaimed author after just one book.