Mystery

Title: Murder is for the Birds
Author: Pat McGrath Avery
Genre: Fiction,Mystery
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0983493049

Stir birding, books and murder into a pot and tension boils as Hap Lynch and his trusty sidekick, Luke, help Detective Rachel Vasquez solve the mystery. Set in the Rio Grande Valley, nature's beauty turns ugly when a dead body is discovered. This is the second Hap Lynch mystery. The first book, Murder Takes a Ride, is set in Branson, Missouri.

Title: The Shadow File
Author: Green Chandler
Genre: Fiction Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Terry Shoptaugh

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store):

Title: Mining Sacred Ground
Author: David E. Knop
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Reviewer, Marcia J Sargent

ISBN: B004YZB9JI

Ancestral spirits demand that Marine veteran Peter Romero protect the secrecy of a sacred burial ground, and the world becomes a stranger place than he’d ever understood. He is pitted against a psychotic anthropology professor in a life-and-death struggle through the hills, arroyos, and caves of central Arizona, and into another world.

When Romero’s cousin is murdered, the former military policeman is astonished that the local sheriff shows no enthusiasm for solving the crime. He is forced to recognize that, after a military career, greater danger lies ahead in his civilian life.

Romero takes up arms to mete out his own justice, but he must decide if he belongs to the world he sees, or to a spirit world in which he discovers the strength of his ancestors. He makes their power a part of his being. As a spirit warrior, Romero battles self-doubt, his wife’s threats of divorce, and local law enforcement who plan his murder. He confronts an armed gang bent on revenge, skirts federal agents intent on stopping him, and evades the deadly fire of a deranged sniper.

Aided by a wise tribal elder, Romero uncovers a tangle of clues that link his cousin’s death to trafficking in ancient treasures and a deadly conspiracy that centers him in their crosshairs. Romero combines his combat experience and the fighting skills of his ancestors to dispatch his enemies and protect an ancient secret.

Title: Another Colorado Kill
Author: Bob Doerr
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1590957857

Another Colorado Kill is the fourth book in the Jim West mystery/thriller series. In this fast paced story, Jim and friend Edward “Perry” Mason are in route to Colorado Springs to play some golf when they discover a dead body, an apparent murder victim, at a rest stop along the interstate highway. Perry’s stress levels hit the max during the subsequent police interview. He has a heart attack and the golf outing falls apart.

When the police find two more murder victims the next day, both killed with the same weapon that killed the victim whom West had discovered the day before, and the female victim has his name written on a notepad in her purse, their focus on West intensifies. West explains that by chance both the female victim and he had eaten at the same restaurant, but at separate tables, the night before. She had been with two men at the restaurant and had left before he had a chance to talk to her. They had met a few times in the past, but weren’t close. A Sheriff’s deputy, Lieutenant Michelle Prado befriends West, and the two work together in an effort to find the real murderer. As their relationship develops, West finds himself physically attracted to her, but does she feel the same way?

Soon an attempt is made on Jim’s life and he realizes that for some reason the killer, like the police, believes that West knows more about the killings than he has admitted. Jim finds himself playing “cat and mouse” with the killer while trying to convince the police that their focus on him is a waste of time and resources.

When the FBI moves in to help out, the pressure to solve the case mounts. West and Lieutenant Prado discover the local murders may be connected to a larger, nationwide FBI investigation into organized crime and political corruption. West finally has permission to go home to Clovis and is about to leave when the killer shoots Ollie, a young female Deputy whom had become friends with West. The killer leaves her to die on a dirt road. The killer had gone too far. As Michelle leaves with Ollie’s crumpled body in her back seat, West picks up Ollie’s issued 9mm and heads off into the woods to track the killer. The time had come to stop the killings. If he can catch up with the killer, only one of them will return alive.

Title: Jugs & Bottles
Author: Nelson O. Ottenhausen
Genre: Thriller Mystery
Reviewer: Jim Greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0979164257

Jami Unice Gamble, a woman deaf since birth, is targeted for murder after witnessing a Mafia style killing and identifying the two killers to the police. She, along with her hearing aid dog Bottles, becomes involved in a story of romance, chaos and murder by organized crime as the Morgan brothers, a contracted two-man hit team, tries to kill her.

The brothers, Vinnie and Bennie Morgan, are petty crooks and amateurs at trying to commit murder, having never killed anyone before. They make several bungled attempts on Jami’s life and get themselves into a series of comedic situations. Jami’s dog Bottles tries to befriend the criminal duo each time he meets them, but fear of the dog and the brothers’ reactions in trying to avoid him only causes them no end of embarrassing moments. The ongoing encounters between the dog and the brothers are oblivious to Jami because of her deafness.

Lt. Randall Casey, a handsome police officer, is the only one in the police department who can communicate with their key witness to the mob style execution. He takes on the responsibility to protect Jami and soon begins a romance with her. His twelve-year-old son Joey is also deaf, and he too likes the woman and her dog, forming an immediate bond with both of them.

During a failed attempt to kill Jami, the Morgan brothers end up in the hospital and another Mafia mobster tries to fulfill the murder contract in order to meet a deadline ordered by mob bosses. He too fails because Bottles goes through an instant metamorphic personality transformation from a docile and gentle pet into a primeval attack animal, killing the assailant in a necessary act to save the members of his adopted pack.

After the death of the assailant, Lt. Casey and members of the police department wonder how to keep Jami safe from the Mafia in the long term, but an unknown ally solves the problem and for a reason that will never be known by the police.