'The Dead Stay Dead' is the sophomore mystery novel by British author Anthony Perham. It falls mainly within the British police procedural sub-category of mystery although there are some refreshing, lone detective and mild pulp adventure mystery novel elements in the story too.

A body has been found inside a reputedly haunted English mansion, and Detective Inspector Sean Crow is sent to investigate. What should have been a routine investigation turns sinister when a uniformed policeman dies while the investigation is underway and more policemen start disappearing.

I found 'The Dead Stay Dead' to be an enjoyable read, with good characterization and dialog. I did find I had some trouble suspending disbelief on the reasoning as to why so many coppers were killed but I managed to carry on anyway and I enjoyed the book enough to give it a Good rating. The reasonableness of the price helped at US $3.99. I liked this mystery enough that I will buy more novels by author Anthony Perham in the future.

You can buy 'The Dead Stay Dead' by Anthony Perham as an ebook direct from the publisher BooksforaBuck or from Fictionwise.

I just got done reading The Grey Mist Murders by Constance Little and her sister Gwenyth Little.

The book approaches murder with the same sort of smart humor one would find in a Hepburn romantic comedy movie - not slapstick but clever and urbane. The action takes place on board a passenger ship sailing from Tahiti to San Francisco and one by one passengers are murdered. The crew and our heroine must try to find the killer because the heroine might be next on the killers list.

When I first looked at this book I thought I was in for a disappointment, but as I read I found myself more entertained than I expected. I had a few problems suspending my disbelief at the revelation of the mystery behind some of the clues but not enough to spoil the book for me. I do expect to buy more books from the Little sister's.

Bottom Line: If you like some humor in your mysteries this is a good book for you.

September is Mystery Month at one of my favorite ebook publishers: Booksforabuck.com. Rob, the publisher, intends to publish a couple of new mysteries this month. Kicking it off is the new title: A Full English Death by Anthony Perham. I just bought this one at the $1 introductory price, so I have not read it yet, but at $1I cannot loose trying it. It sounds good and it will be next on my reading list.

Booksforabuck has some other mysteries too. Here are the titles I really enjoyed:

Best:
Tornado Bait by Amy Eastlake
Chicken Rescue League by Amy Eastlake
Dead On by Michael Paulson

Good:
Out of Town for a Few Days - Ed Lynskey

All the above older titles are available at the Booksforabuck website or from Fictionwise.com

Booksforabuck intends on publishing more mysteries this month so keep checking in on them for updates it's worth saving some money and getting them at the introductory price.

I have been reading a lot of 1890's - 1910's mysteries lately and found myself getting a little bored, so when BooksforaBuck published a new hard-boiled detective novel I decided to check it out since the publisher has a small but well written catalog of mystery and detective ebooks.

I like hard-boiled detective novels like those of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. I am not a sophisticated reader of detective novels but I know what I like and many of the newer hard-boiled characters often leave me cold. So I was a bit leery of trying "Dead On" a new hard-boiled detective ebook by Michael Paulson. I need not have worried, Dead On is a good read - sure there were some loose ends with some characters but the book kept me turning the pages right to the end and I never felt cheated. To me that signifies a good book. But I liked the book was better than that: so I hope author Michael Paulson writes some more novels staring his hard boiled character "Deacon Bishop" - I'll buy them.

Dead On by Michael Paulson is also available from Fictionwise.

Frankly Murder by the Book by Bob Liter is one of the best modern detective stories I have read in a long time. It manages to capture the hard boiled detective flavor without being either a parody or contrived. Murder by the Book is part of the Nick Bancroft series.

Nick Bancroft is a former reporter who inherited a rundown detective agency from an uncle. Nick isn't really a detective by training and does not even have a PI license. He gets hired to look into the murder of a young woman who was found injected full of a date-rape drug. The investigation soon turns dangerous.

Author Bob Liter has managed to combine many of the best aspects of both the hard boiled detective with the amateur sleuth into a believable whole which is no easy task. I liked the first person, wise cracking narration by by the Bancroft character - it was a real hark back to Chandler.

Five out of five stars. Author Bob Liter gets on the short list for my buying more of his books in this series sooner rather than later.

You can find Murder by the Book as an ebook at Fictionwise.

Have a question about this book? Ask here.

This is another modern mystery book reminiscent of Golden Age Detective stories as recommended by a member of the GAdetection list.

Borrower of the Night is about Vicky Bliss an art historian and her quest to find a missing work of art which disappeared in the 14th Century. It has her investigating at an old castle turned hotel in Germany, with plenty of clues and adventure.

This book turns out to be quite a romp for the amateur detective while avoiding the gratuitous violence, sex and dependancy on forensic science that plagues many modern detective novels. This is about sleuthing and is very will written.

Four and one-half stars out of 5. I will also be buying more books by this author.

You can get Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters at Fictionwise in ebook format.

Questions about this? Feel free to ask them here.

I have gotten behind in posting reviews so I hope to make that up today.

The name of author K. K. Beck came up on the excellent GAdetection group for being a modern author who wrote and plotted like the authors of the golden age of detective fiction. I bought the first book in the "Jane da Silva" mystery series - "A Hopeless Case".

Jane da Silva is a torch singer that inherits the job of helping lost causes from an eccentric uncle. The job comes with a sizable stipend if Jane can prove herself to the trustees of her late uncle's estate and soon Jane finds herself investigating a mysterious death, a strange cult and money that was thought lost 16 years ago.

This book started out a little rocky for me. The first part was setting up Jane's inheritance and getting her involved in investigating. I found the whole idea of the rich uncle running an agency to help weird lost causes for free to be a bit of a stretch for my suspension of disbelief. I did manage to get past that and the book turned out to be pretty entertaining although not very tightly plotted you still get to ride along with the private eye as she investigates and the characters are well drawn. I did like the fact that the plot, setting and characters were more like the golden age mystery books without the cloying sweetness of some of the modern "cozies".

I also liked the fact that the books are available in ebook format which I prefer.

Bottom line: 4 out of 5 stars. I will be buying more books by K. K. Beck.

You can find A Hopeless Case at Fictionwise in ebook format.

Questions about this book? Feel free to ask here.

The Riddle of the Frozen Flame is a sort of early 20th Century Great Detective novel starring a detective named "Cleek". I saw no great evidence that he was great at detecting other than the author kept saying he was great. There is an attempt to create an interesting setting and a compelling back story and those were enough to make me at least finish this book and not put it down in disgust but that is about all I have to say about it. The mystery itself is not compelling. Mediocre, at best, and not worth writing a full blown review about.

The Riddle of the Frozen Flame is available for free from Blackmask.

Questions about this book? Feel free to ask them here.

A man disappears at Scarhaven Keep. The squire of Scarhaven is acting funny. And somebody does not want outsiders investigating around the Keep or the Squire.

Scarhaven Keep (1922) is the second mystery novel I have read by J. S. Fletcher and both share a familiar pattern: young amateur detective as primary protagonist, assisted by 3 or four other characters acting as amateur detectives as needed, especially to make up for any shortcomings in abilities or knowledge the primary hero might have or because the hero cannot be in too places at once. Also throw in a dose of alarm and adventure in the story and have a young lady in distress for good measure.

Maybe this is a pattern.

That sounds critical of J. S. Fletcher, but the reality is, I still enjoyed this book as much as I did the other Fletcher book I reviewed here "The Middle of Things". Although I didn't think the plot twists were quite as well done in Scarhaven as they were in The Middle of Things. However the ending seemed a little abrupt and I was not quite satisfied with it. I got the feeling that the author did not know how to end the novel so he came up with a fait accompli and everybody just sort of went along with it. Still the characters, the setting, the adventure and the procedure of unraveling the mystery was entertaining enough for me. I'll read more Fletcher.

Scarhaven Keep is available free in ebook form.

Scarhaven Keep is also available in print a trade size book.

"Murder Crops Up" by Lora Roberts is the fifth book in a six book mystery series. Roberts has created a very sympathetic amateur detective in her Liz Sullivan character, who used to be a homeless person living out of her Volkswagen micro-bus.

Liz still has a large plot in the community gardens, where she raises vegetables to put food on the table. But things start getting bad, when the director of the community gardens turns up dead in a nearby plot. And then another person is found dead and the peacefulness of the gardens is disrupted as Liz tries to figure out who the killer is.

This is a good cozy, detective story, with excellent characterization. The author has done a great job of making the setting feel real too. I won't say the mystery is the most complex in the world, but it's the characters that drive this mystery. None of the books in the series has disappointed me yet.

Murder Crops Up by Lora Roberts is available as an ebook or as a print book.

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"The Middle of Things" (1922), by J. S. Fletcher, is an excellent public domain mystery ebook which is available for free from Manybooks.net.

The book features several amateur detectives acting together as they get caught up in this murder mystery. They include: a young man named "Viner", his matronly aunt and an elderly lawyer in a London setting. Viner discovers the body of his new neighbor while out for an evening walk and witnesses a man fleeing the scene. The police soon capture the suspect, but Viner becomes convinced that he did not commit the murder. Moreover, Viner and the murdered man's solicitor find out that a mystery surrounds the deceased, and the identity of the young lady who is his ward.

The character development is not particularly deep, but enough that you like the main protagonists. The plot has enough twists that it keeps you guessing about several plot threads. I did like the way the author established the setting and I enjoyed following along as these amateur sleuths attempted to unravel the mystery of the mans murder and the identity of his ward.