Blog Archives
Killer Looks
Steven Fisher’s Killer Looks is a psychological crime novel centered on Kevin Mathers, a gifted civilian investigator who has already survived encounters with two serial killers. Physically injured, grieving, and struggling with guilt, Kevin is drawn back into homicide work when a murderer calling himself the Note Writer issues a personal challenge. The killer, later identified as Frank Martino, has spent years using his appearance and charm to gain his victims’ trust. Bored by murders that have become routine, Frank turns killing into a contest in which each new victim supplies another clue. His chilling declaration that “The victims are the clues” captures the novel’s central conflict, as human lives become pieces in a game designed to test Kevin’s abilities.
The novel’s multiple first-person perspectives give the investigation emotional and psychological range. Fisher moves among Kevin, Frank, homicide chief Leonard, FBI profiler Lucinda, therapist Dr. Lou, and Frank’s devoted mother, Julie. These shifting viewpoints reveal facts that the investigators don’t yet possess while also showing how differently each character interprets responsibility, loyalty, justice, and violence. Frank’s narration is disturbingly casual, while Kevin’s chapters carry the weight of survivor’s guilt and renewed purpose. Julie’s voice adds another dimension by showing how parental devotion can distort judgment, particularly when her pride in her son’s beauty prevents her from fully recognizing the person he has become.
Although the pursuit of the Note Writer supplies the novel’s momentum, Killer Looks is equally concerned with trauma and its consequences. Kevin’s return to investigative work gives him direction, but it also exposes the danger of allowing personal worth to depend on confronting violent people. Dr. Lou’s counsel, “Kevin, you can’t save everyone. But you can save yourself,” becomes especially meaningful as the case spreads suffering through Kevin’s circle. Fisher presents violence as something that continues beyond the immediate victim, altering families, friendships, professional loyalties, and the moral decisions of those seeking justice. The later actions of Dr. Lou deepen this theme by showing how grief can transform a compassionate person’s desire for justice into an act of revenge.
Fisher sustains tension through short sections, frequent changes in perspective, direct dialogue, and a steady accumulation of investigative details. The Philadelphia setting and the collaborative work of detectives, forensic specialists, reporters, and profilers give the story a convincing procedural structure, while the personal connections among the characters keep the investigation intimate. The resolution is both decisive and unsettling: Frank’s death ends the immediate threat, but the losses surrounding the case continue to shape those who survive. Killer Looks succeeds as a character-driven thriller because its investigation is inseparable from its examination of grief, responsibility, and the emotional cost of pursuing people who treat murder as a form of recognition.
Pages: 216 | ASIN : B0H3M51W5G
Mystery at the Edge of the World
Mystery at the Edge of the World, by J. Clifford Barnes, is a cozy, small-town mystery centered on Jace Carter, a recently retired civil engineer living in the foggy coastal community of Inglesee, California. Jace expects retirement to consist of gardening, fishing, good coffee, and quiet afternoons, but the disappearance of his former coworker, Al Meyers, pulls him into a murder investigation. The book combines an amateur detective story with the comfortable rhythms of everyday life, giving readers a mystery that feels relaxed and approachable even when the stakes become serious.
Jace is an appealing narrator because he’s observant, practical, and refreshingly ordinary. He doesn’t have special training as an investigator, but his engineering background helps him organize facts and notice connections. His dry humor also makes his voice enjoyable. When describing his retirement strategy, he says, “The key is to not go anywhere.” That line captures his personality well. He enjoys his peaceful routine, but he’s curious enough to leave it behind when something doesn’t add up. His gardening, meals, naps, and coffee-shop visits make him feel like a person with a full life rather than simply a character moving from clue to clue.
The mystery begins with Al’s strange interest in geopolymers and the large amount of money he wants to invest. Barnes uses Jace’s professional knowledge to explain the material and its possible uses without separating the information from the story. As Jace learns more about Al’s money, his abrupt retirement, and his frightened behavior, the investigation expands naturally. The discovery of Al’s body raises the tension, while the missing funds provide a clear trail for Jace and Detective Sam Roblee to follow. The technical and financial details give the case an unusual identity and fit well with Jace’s experience.
The coastal setting adds plenty of atmosphere. Inglesee is filled with mist, Victorian houses, cliffs, local businesses, and familiar residents who make the town feel lived in. The plot also maintains a conversational pace, moving between interviews, domestic routines, and moments of danger. A shooting at Jace’s home gives the later chapters a sharper edge, and the final confrontation delivers an energetic payoff. Jace’s conclusion that “There is no peace for the wicked” neatly expresses the book’s view of guilt, greed, and the consequences of believing stolen money can create a better future.
Mystery at the Edge of the World is an inviting amateur detective novel with a distinctive older protagonist and an interesting construction-industry angle. Its strongest quality is the way it blends murder, engineering, retirement, and community life into one consistent story. Jace solves the case by paying attention to people, timing, money, and small inconsistencies, which makes the resolution feel connected to everything that came before it. The ending also leaves him open to future investigations, and his combination of patience, technical knowledge, and quiet curiosity could carry him through many more mysteries.
Pages: 101 | ASIN : B0H3GVPW3G
Missing Context
Lagniappe revolves around a former Marine and covert operative in search of a quieter life who discovers that the child he thought died years prior may, indeed, still be alive. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wanted my protagonist, Brock Beckett, to confront a fundamental conflict; his anger after his sister’s death on 9/11 and his love for the family he had in Jolene and Cissy. That required a confrontation that allowed both things to continue to develop throughout the book, and frankly, through the series. The confrontation was realized in Cissy, so I introduced it as what seems to be a chance meeting in the opening of the book.
Which scene was the most emotionally difficult for you to write, and which was the most rewarding?
The exchange of gifts between Beckett and Cissy at the Christmas party was difficult to write because it required the gifts to represent a number of things: Acceptance between Beckett and Cissy, discovery of the unknown between them, commitment, and the expression of their love as father and daughter. The most rewarding scene of the book is the ending; the irony and the impression of closure.
Several characters are forced to confront long-buried secrets. Why are hidden histories such a compelling storytelling tool for you?
Mysteries are based upon missing context, which does not need to be confined to the overarching mystery that drives the plot narrative. The mystery in Lagniappe and The Destiny, Arkansas Series involves more than Brock Beckett.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
The second book in The Destiny, Arkansas Series is Gravitas, which I hope to publish by the end of August. Brock Beckett returns, and former prosecutor Winston Cordell, reporter Candy Pilgrim, troubleshooter Rusty Knight, and Destiny Police Chief Harley Randle are introduced to unravel the threads of a decade-old murder that will test the “gravitas” of Destiny, Arkansas.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
The discovery of a “sniper’s nest” on the Nelson property leads Beckett and Destiny Mayor Lloyd Nelson to believe Mendez was “collateral damage” to an assassination plot as retired Chinese army General Huang Do-Lin announces plans for a new industrial project in Destiny. Soon, Beckett realizes Huang was never a target and he and Nelson have been deceived.
Beckett begins to look over his shoulder believing that he is the target of another sniper. When Beckett realizes how Mendez’s murder was orchestrated, he confronts his former commander, retired General Pierpont Maxwell, to learn the truth. As Beckett speeds back into Destiny, dodging bullets in his Jeep Cherokee, he has one chance… one shot. But, Beckett must risk a “lagniappe,” something extra, to save an innocent life.
Lagniappe
Lagniappe follows Brock Beckett, a former Marine and covert operative who arrives in Destiny, Arkansas, hoping to return to the quieter life of a literature teacher, only to discover that Cissy Nelson, the teenage daughter of the town’s mayor, may be the child he was told had died years ago. What begins as a reunion story soon widens into a mystery-thriller shaped by military secrets, small-town loyalties, buried grief, and the dangerous remnants of Beckett’s past. Destiny may look like a modest Arkansas town of cafés, churches, ranchland, and school-board politics, but the book steadily reveals that even a peaceful place can become a firing line.
I enjoyed the way the novel balances domestic tenderness with tactical menace. Beckett could easily have been written as a simple hard-edged veteran archetype, but McLemore gives him bruised restraint, moral exhaustion, and a surprisingly literary mind. His conversations about Gone with the Wind and Giant are not ornamental; they show how he measures history, power, loyalty, and change. Cissy, meanwhile, brings warmth and velocity to the story. She is not just a lost daughter or a plot device; she is sharp, capable, and emotionally alive, the kind of character who can make a reunion scene feel dangerous because so much love is at stake.
The Blue Bird Café, the Nelson ranch, Miss Esther’s apartment, the Black church, the river country, and the town’s old family names give the book a lived-in texture. The prose leans into exposition and martial detail, but I found that density part of the book’s temperament. It wants to be both a family drama and a sniper-scope thriller, both Sunday dinner and classified after-action report. That combination gives the story its peculiar charge: a man trying to become ordinary again while everyone around him slowly learns how extraordinary, and how dangerous, he has been.
This book will appeal to readers who enjoy military thrillers, crime fiction, mysteries, small-town suspense, political intrigue, and family drama, especially when those genres overlap rather than stay in their lanes. Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels may recognize the appeal of a dangerous, hyper-competent outsider entering a small community, though Lagniappe is more rooted in fatherhood, faith, and local belonging than Reacher’s lone-wolf drift. It is a story about second chances bought at a high price. Lagniappe is a hard-edged thriller with a homesick heart.
Pages: 347 | ASIN : B0FP47CSV8
Imperfect Reflections of Reality
In Quant, a grieving son trying to face the realities of his mother’s dementia returns to her home and finds himself pulled into the case of a suspicious death and small-town secrets. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
In many ways, this is a very personal story for me. I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, near a small town very much like the one portrayed in the book. For several decades, a notable change has been occurring in Saskatchewan, particularly in farming communities. The province’s rural population has decreased significantly. Many young people migrate to larger cities seeking adventure and opportunities, and those who wish to stay find it increasingly challenging. Rising input costs and the corporatization of farming threaten to obliterate small family farm operations and their communities. I understand and accept changing times, modernization, and progress. Still, there is a cost, and a loss of a way of life. Nostalgia and blurry, sweet memories create a yearning and mourning within me and a desire to reflect that disappearing world in my work, and perhaps suggest a hopeful future.
The novel treats dementia with both realism and tenderness. How important was it to portray Kay as more than simply a tragic figure?
Like Russell’s mother, Kay, my own mother suffered from dementia in her final years. As anyone who has gone through it knows, it is a cruel disease, not only for the sufferer, but for the caretakers who share in what can be a long, drawn-out period of mounting loss. That being said, as with most things in life, dementia isn’t simply black or white, good or evil, ease or disease. There are spaces in between where resilience, strength, and familiarity exist. If you remain open to them, those moments can bring joy, hope, and comfort. With this book, I hope I’ve communicated some of that.
The novel explores how family secrets evolve over time rather than disappear. What fascinates you about buried histories?
I find history of any kind – whether it’s in a book or home movies – fascinating. They are honest, blemished, imperfect reflections of reality, and very important. I don’t know if history is so much buried as simply obscured by time. Often, all it takes is someone with keen interest and motivation to reveal it. Without that someone, history can become altered or fade away and remain unknown forever. Family secrets are different. You are correct. They don’t disappear, they evolve. Especially the kind that are truly and intentionally buried for one reason or another. These kinds of secrets rarely vanish forever. Sometimes they germinate like a seed, awaiting the right mixture of soil, water, and sun to reveal themselves. Other times (and considerably more interesting for mystery writers like me), they’re like a disease or bit of rot that festers and grows until they can’t remain hidden any longer. It just takes someone like Russell Quant to show everyone what was there all along.
Where will the next Russell Quant Mystery take readers?
I’ve been asked whether QUANT is a return to the series or a one-time reunion. My answer is that it is neither. I’m someone who never says never, but for now there is no immediate plan to have a follow-up 10th book. When I write a series, my goal is that every book in the series adds something to the collection, progresses the story, presents something new and interesting, and moves our characters along on their personal journeys. When I feel that is no longer the case, I end the series. It wasn’t until I came to realize it had been almost 15 years since we’d last visited the world of Russell Quant that I became excited about returning to the series. When we started the series, Russell was a young man in his thirties, struggling to open a PI agency in a small prairie city. Today, he’s a man in his fifties. I loved the idea of finding out who he is today. Where is he in his career, marriage, and relationships? Whereas QUANT is a reunion of Russell and his friends and family, is it a one-time reunion? Who knows? Wouldn’t it be interesting to revisit them in another 15 years, when Russell is a 70-year-old man? That’s the kind of thing I find fascinating. Throw in a good mystery, and hopefully it all makes for a rip-roaring good read.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Double on the Murder
Double on the Murder, by D.A. Helmer, is a hardboiled Los Angeles noir built around Joe Stone, a private investigator who gets pulled into a case that starts with a missing woman and keeps widening until nearly everyone connected to it seems marked by violence, secrets, or grief. The first hook is simple and effective: a shaken club owner walks into Stone’s office and says, “I need help.” From there, the book moves through whisky clubs, rain-slick streets, police rooms, hotel bars, alleys, and expensive homes where money can’t keep rot from spreading.
Joe Stone is the center of the novel, and the book works best when it stays close to his battered, suspicious, whisky-soaked point of view. He’s tough, funny, reckless, and sentimental in ways he’d probably deny. His friendships with Detectives Jewels and Woodhouse give the story some warmth, while his partnership and attraction to Max Lee add another charge to the plot. Stone isn’t just solving murders. He’s absorbing them, and that makes the investigation feel personal long before the final answers come together.
The novel has a big cast and a busy plot, but its real identity is mood. Helmer writes Los Angeles as a place of neon, wet pavement, stale smoke, perfume, cheap rooms, good liquor, and bad motives. The prose leans into old-school noir rhythms, with tough dialogue, punchy descriptions, and a steady appetite for danger. It’s violent and lurid, but it’s also tender in its attention to loss, especially when the deaths start hitting people Stone cares about.
What gives the book its pull is the way desire, jealousy, family secrets, and power keep feeding the violence. The mystery doesn’t sit still. It mutates, dragging Stone from the first apparent murder into a much larger web involving The Open Blouse, the Regis family, corrupt authority, old crimes, and people who are never as simple as they first appear. By the time Stone says, “It was a grim ending to what lust and jealousy can do to people,” the line feels like the book’s bruised moral center.
Double on the Murder is a smoky, bloody, energetic noir about a detective trying to hold onto his instincts while the case keeps taking pieces out of him. It’s the kind of crime novel that wants you to feel the weight of every corpse. Helmer gives the story a strong private-eye voice, a messy emotional core, and a world where glamour and cruelty keep sharing the same room.
Pages: 335 | ASIN : B0GY55BD18
Curse of the Caribbean
Curse of the Caribbean is a fast-moving Lou Gault thriller that throws readers straight into cartel violence, stolen yachts, and modern-day piracy in the Caribbean. Author Dave McKeon opens with a brutal introduction to Antonio Sanchez, a cartel assassin known as “The Butcher,” and from there the story quickly expands into a dangerous scheme involving hijacked luxury boats, corrupt networks, MI6 attention, and a vacation that goes very, very wrong.
I really enjoyed the book’s mix of tropical adventure and gritty crime thriller energy. Lou Gault is the kind of rugged, capable hero readers expect in an action series, but the story also gives plenty of room to Kate, Jake, Koby, and the villains, making the plot feel bigger than one man against the bad guys. The Caribbean setting adds a fun contrast too: bright beaches, boats, and island ports sit right beside murder, cartel power, and lurking danger. This would be a fantastic read for fans of thrillers, crime fiction, maritime suspense, adventure fiction, and modern pirate thrillers.
The villains are nasty in a way that keeps the stakes high. Sanchez is especially chilling because he’s not just dangerous; he genuinely enjoys the violence. Carlos and the Chameleon add more layers of calculation and corruption, so the threat feels organized rather than random. The story leans into exposition and detailed backstory, but fans of plot-heavy thrillers will probably enjoy how much ground the book covers and how many moving parts come together.
Readers who enjoy Clive Cussler-style adventure, especially books like Sahara, will find a similar appeal here: exotic locations, dangerous waters, hidden agendas, and capable heroes pulled into a larger conspiracy. Curse of the Caribbean is darker and more violent than a breezy treasure-hunt adventure, but it has that same “one more chapter” momentum. It’s a good pick for readers who like their thrillers packed with boats, bad guys, survival instincts, and a sun-soaked setting with danger just beneath the surface.
Pages: 326 | ASIN : B0DXQ1NDP3
Deliberate Parallelism
Death in the Manor centers around a detective investigating a suspicious death, but soon finds the case is more about money, family legacy, and civic rot. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The setup for Death in the Manor grew from a desire to explore how a person trying to flee their past can be inexorably drawn back into the very world they left behind. My protagonist, Dante Villehart, arrives in Edenvale seeking asylum from his failures as an investigative journalist. However, the murder of someone from his past, Lila Summers, forces his hand. This catalyst triggers a perfect storm of events: a sudden inheritance roots him to the town, while his sharp methods catch the attention of Marissa Cole, founder of Enigma Solutions Services. Dante’s transition into corporate and criminal investigations sets the stage for the novel’s broader themes of wealth and systemic corruption. His first major case—the highly suspicious death of Roland Astor—serves as the magnifying glass for the story. I wanted to show how a single high-society death could unravel an entire community. As Dante digs beneath the surface of the Astor family legacy, the narrative spirals from a traditional whodunit into a dark exploration of institutional rot. He uncovers a toxic web of embezzlement, a predatory pyramid scheme, and complicit government officials. The inspiration was to build a high-stakes ecosystem where the pursuit of truth becomes a lethal endeavor, forcing Dante to confront the reality that powerful entities will readily kill to protect their empires.
Were there classic mystery or noir influences that shaped the atmosphere of the book?
Absolutely. The atmosphere of Death in the Manor is deeply indebted to both the Gothic suspense of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and the cynical, hard-boiled world of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. What fascinated me most about both masterpieces is how they utilize wealth and architecture; the grand mansions in those stories cease to be mere backdrops and instead become living, breathing characters dripping with secrets.
From du Maurier, I drew inspiration for the haunting weight of legacy and the oppressive, psychological atmosphere that a grand estate can inflict on its inhabitants. From Chandler, I adopted the gritty noir sensibility where a detective must navigate a labyrinth of upper-class decadence and institutional corruption. By blending Rebecca’s atmospheric dread with The Big Sleep’s sharp-edged cynicism, I aimed to create a setting where the grandeur of the manor serves as a beautiful facade hiding a deeply decayed moral core.
Astor Manor feels almost alive — full of secrets, old wounds, and performances. How did you approach building the setting?
I approached Astor Manor not as a static backdrop, but as an active antagonist in the narrative. For a mystery driven by a death this suspicious, it was vital that the architecture itself echo the deception of its inhabitants. I wanted the manor to possess its own agency, slowly revealing its secrets to Dante in a calculated, piecemeal fashion. To achieve this, the physical space shifts conceptually throughout the investigation; even when Dante revisits a room, the atmosphere feels entirely different based on what he has just uncovered.
There is a deliberate parallelism between the mansion and the family. The wealthy family members wear masks and perform for society, hiding their rot behind closed doors. Similarly, the manor hides its history behind physical illusions—secret rooms, forgotten corridors, and hidden spaces. By designing the setting this way, uncovering the architectural secrets of the manor becomes just as vital to solving the mystery as unraveling the family’s lies. The building and the bloodline are bound together, both refusing to give up their ghosts without a fight.
Can you give us a glimpse inside the next installment of The Dante Villehart Redemption Series? Where will it take readers?
The final installment of the trilogy, titled Knight in Gale: Vengeance, plunges Dante into his most personal and psychologically grueling case yet. The plot centers on a ruthless serial killer whose calling card is leaving a dead nightingale at every crime scene, accompanied by a twisted variation of a quote from John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. This case forces Dante to confront his past failures: years ago, he botched an investigation with this exact signature, resulting in the wrongful accusation of an innocent person. Though his core intuition wasn’t entirely wrong, the real killer—or killers—are now back. They are actively taunting Dante, deliberately targeting the people closest to him to exploit his vulnerabilities.
This book serves as the emotional crucible of the trilogy. To survive, Dante must undergo a massive internal shift, allowing himself to be vulnerable and finally letting others in—a stark contrast to his past habit of isolating himself under the guise of “protecting” those he loves.
While Knight in Gale: Vengeance beautifully concludes the Dante Villehart Redemption arc, it is definitely not the end of his journey. Dante’s investigative career continues in a new spin-off series, The Dante Villehart Files. I am thrilled to share that the first three books of this new series are already fully written: Ties That Bind, The Last Session of Dr. Jillian Bruce, and Vanished in the Labyrinth. Readers can look forward to much more noir suspense on the horizon.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Amazon
The truth is buried inside the manor.
When private investigator Dante Villehart is hired to uncover the truth behind Roland Astor’s mysterious death, the case seems straightforward—until he steps inside the Astor estate.
Because nothing about the manor is simple.
Behind its grand walls lies a legacy of lies, betrayal, and buried trauma. The Astor siblings share a past they’d rather forget—and a truth someone is determined to keep hidden.
But the deeper Dante digs…
the more the case begins to shift.
Clues don’t add up.
Stories don’t align.
And someone inside the manor is quietly manipulating every move he makes.
This isn’t just an investigation.
It’s a game.
As cryptic messages surface and the line between truth and deception blurs, Dante finds himself pulled into a psychological trap where every answer leads to more questions—and every step forward brings him closer to something far more dangerous than he expected.
With the help of Detective Ingrid Carlisle, Dante must uncover the truth before the manor’s secrets consume him.
Because in a house built on lies…
The truth comes at a price.
A psychological mystery thriller of secrets, lies, and deadly manipulation—perfect for fans of dark, twist-filled suspense.
