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Book Signings Currently Scheduled Book SigningsBy Steven F. Havill You can take a vacation right now, and relax in a small town in New Mexico, without leaving Colorado Springs! Better yet, you don't even need to wait for summer! The series written by Steven Havill set in Posadas County, New Mexico is so realistic, and the people and the region are so well described that you seem to be there. The characters are so well developed that they are friends. In all, Posadas County seems like a place that I go to vacation every year or so. The next book in this wonderful series is Statute of Limitations, and although Steven won't be here to sign them until April 8th, they are here now. They are here waiting to take you a few hundred miles south down the road to visit your friends in Posadas County. These are police procedurals that seem to move along at the speed of a real life investigation, yet somehow still fit into a normal length book. Considering that the characters are so well developed that they seem like good friends, with real lives and real families, you wonder how Steven manages to find room for the wonderful descriptions of the land. For example, in Scavengers, the first book in this series, he writes, "The rest of the prairie was bare limestone gravel, a rough table of rocks running the gamut from irregular pinhead grains to great sharp-edged slabs the size of Volkswagens. Wedged in here and there were scrawny creosote bushes with February-bare limbs, cholla cacti spotted with the peculiar mange that reduced them to gray skeletons, and little gray stick-sprays that in a few months would bloom tiny flowers the color of the blistering summer sun." Statute of Limitations starts out with a Christmas Eve emergency phone call to the doctor-husband of under- sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, quickly followed by a call to Estelle reporting a 911 call that the patient is now lying dead in the snow outside a local motel with two men fleeing the scene. The anonymous 911 caller was wrong however because the man isn't dead yet, just close to it. On top of that, the sheriff is threatened with an embolism and must be flown to Albuquerque for treatment. Then, when the fiancée of one Estelle's deputies is missing, and her body is found on Christmas Day, the holiday fun really starts. Estelle and the former sheriff of Posadas County, Bill Gastner, spend their Christmas 'holiday' chasing through the countryside to find a killer and remove the suspicion that hovers over the young deputy. When the killer and his crimes are finally revealed, we find that the clues are fairly presented to us there in the beginning of the story. Just as in the prior books in this series, we can become involved in lives of the characters and their families. We can learn about and get a feeling for the land of southeastern New Mexico. At the same time, we can enjoy the involved mystery story. I hope that Steven Havill adds several more stories to this interesting series. A Necessary Evil By Alex Kava Someone is killing Catholic priests across America, ritualized murders that speak of vengeance and hatred. As the killing spree continues unabated, it quickly becomes very clear to Maggie O”Dell, the FBI profiler assigned to the case, that more than one perpetrator is responsible. As she begins to drill down into the facts, Maggie discovers a disturbing Internet role-pleying game for youths who have been victims of male authority figures, including Catholic priests. With the first real lead in the investigation, Maggie wonders if this group has turned cyberspace justice into reality by dispensing their own brand of vengeance. As the ritualistic killings leave America's heartland reeling, Maggie gets a second lead, one that leaves her stunned. For the past four years, she has been driven by blind determination to find Father Michael Keller, the human monster whose acts of brutality continue to haunt her to this day.Sick and twisted, the priest seems to have vanished without a trace. But with an irony that only life can offer, now he has become a target. When Keller offers to help Maggie solve the crimes in exchange for protection, she has no choice but to ally herself with the elusive child killer, the person she despises with a strength that's almost religious in it's fervor. Maggie must cross a dangerous line into a world of malevolence and evil from which she may not return unscathed. Before writing novels full time, Alex Kava spent fifteen years in advertising, marketing, and public relations. Alex's four novels featuring FBI profiler Maggie O”Dell have been published in eighteen countries and have appeared on numerous bestseller lists. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. Alex divides her time between Omaha, Nebraska, and Pensacola, Florida. A Perfect Evil Split Second The Soul Catcher At the Stroke of Madness A Necessary Evil Other novels One False Move By Nancy Atherton Lori Shepherd is no stranger to trouble and intrigue. But when Bill, her high-profile attorney husband, receives a number of chilling death threats aimed at his family, danger hits close to home. With Scotland Yard on the case, Bill decides to send Lori and their five-year-old twins to the safety of a remote island off the coast of Scotland. There, another mystery begins to unfold-Lori suspects that the locals on the island are making a fortune running an illegal smuggling operation. What else could explain their luxurious lifestyles? But after finding a human skull washed up on the beach, Lori fears something even more sinister is going on. With Aunt Dimity's help, Lori begins to piece together the clues, unaware of the growing danger on the island. Will the murderous threats against her family finally catch up with her? This is the eleventh book in the great cozy mystery series featuring Aunt Dimity, supernatural phantom detective. The first in the series, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted “one of the century's 100 Favorite Mysteries” by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. The series is very well written, and is unusual both in that the sleuth is supernatural, and that the mysteries are not about murders. Nancy Atherton lives in Colorado Springs. Aunt Dimity Mystery Series (in order) Aunt Dimity and the Duke Aunt Dimity's Good Deed Aunt Dimity Digs In Aunt Dimity's Christmas Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil Aunt Dimity: Detective Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday Aunt Dimity: Snowbound Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea By Steve Hockensmith 1893 is a tough year in Montana, and any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar-VR cattle spread, they're not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, anda comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favorite pastime: scouring Harper's Weekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes. When another ranch hand turns up in an outhouse with a bullet in his brain, Old Red sees the perfect opportunity to put his Holmes-inspired detective talents to work and solve the case. Big Red, like it or not (and mostly he does not), is along for the ride in this clever, compelling, and completely one-of-a-kind mystery. Steve Hockensmith writes a monthly column for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and stories featuring Big Red and Old Red appear regularly in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This is his first novel. |