Tag Archives: crime fiction

Cash Blackbear mysteries (by Marcie Rendon)

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Murder on the Red River (book 1)

Like thousands of Native Americans, Cash was taken from her mother and entered the system as a young child. Now an adult she is a chain-smoking farm worker who hustles a pool table for drinks every night.
She lives the small life, the life of getting by, that is lived by everyone who has no money. When the body of a Native American man is found in a field she investigates his murder.

 

 

Girl Gone Missing (book 2)

Cash has enrolled in college and is struggling to balance life on campus with driving a farm truck and hustling a pool table.  When girls start to go missing, all blonde haired and blue eyed she finds herself pulled into the investigation.

 

 

 

 

There isn’t much I can say that will do justice to the Cash Blackbear series.  It’s gritty and real, like a punch in the gut. Marcie R. Rendon uses her craft to not only tell a story that drags you through the pages, she also manages to weave in lessons that every single person needs to hear.

5 Stars.

The Legacy (by Gary Gusick)

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Crime / Suspense

After a young African American woman is found lynched on the grounds of Ole Miss, the governor of Mississippi asks for Darla Cavannah by name.  Together with her partner Rita she flies into Oxford and takes over the investigation.

But it quickly becomes apparent that there is more to this than just a hate crime. Darla and Rita find themselves dealing with sororities, white supremacists and secrets that have remained buried for twenty years.

Gary Gusick books are never easy.  He takes issues that people don’t really want to talk about and crashes into them head first.  He will offend some….and for that I want to thank him.

Honestly I want to gate-crash the Crime Fiction Writers of America Thursday night poker game, wave around a copy of this book, and bellow, “This is what you should be writing!!!”

OK, maybe Jo Nesbo and James Patterson would crash tackle me before dragging me from the premises but it would be worth it.

screen-shot-2016-12-13-at-8-01-24-pmPosition in Series: Book 3

Book 1 –– The Last Clinic
Book 2 –– Officer Elvis
Book 3 –– The Legacy

 

Screen Shot 2015-11-28 at 6.44.49 PMOrange, Red, Yellow. What it means: YOR-Guide

Many thanks to Alibi and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC. 

 

 

 

Officer Elvis (by Gary Gusick)

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Crime Fiction

When she accepted a job with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Darla thought that would be the last she ever saw of Tommy Reylander.  But when a car bomb takes out Reylander’s pink cadillac with him inside, she finds herself back in Jackson, looking for his killer and hopefully bringing him to justice.

As she investigates she discovers other Elvis impersonators have met untimely ends and she is forced to consider that they may have a serial killer on their hands.

These aren’t chiseled in stone but I have a few rules I tend to follow when I pick up a book.

  1. I don’t often read male authors.
  2. I don’t like it when authors write about cultures other than their own.
  3. I avoid true crime, thrillers and other books with strong violence.

Well, Gary Gusick has well and truly sent that list down in flames.  I love this book. Darla Cavannah joins my favorite heroines and Gary Gusick joins my favorite authors.  He writes books that are occasionally gutsy.  His first book was about a woman’s health clinic in Mississippi that provided abortions.  His third book which I will review next week is about the lynching of a young African American woman. So he’s an author who bravely goes places that are guaranteed to get half of any audience he has storming out in anger.

But setting all that aside his books are in the end well crafted and entertaining crime fiction and I’m completely addicted.

Screen Shot 2015-11-28 at 6.44.49 PMOrange, Red, Yellow. What it means: YOR-Guide