Review: Cat Pay the Devil by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Talking tiger cat, Dulcie, can't wait for her human friend, Wilma, to get home. She's sure something awful has happened to her -- and she's right.

Cat Pay the Devil, one of the Joe Grey series, finds tomcat Joe and his friends, Dulcie and Kit, involved in chasing an escaped convict that they fear has abducted Dulcie's human, Wilma. Shortly after Wilma, a former federal agent, travels from their Molena Point, California home up to San Francisco to testify against Cage Jones, he man escapes.

Cage Jones

Jones has just one thing on his mind: retrieving his stolen fortune and finding his way to Mexico. Unfortunately, Jones is convinced that Wilma has found and taken his treasure. Since she is unaware of his escape (and has nothing to do with his stash of gold), she is an easy mark for him to kidnap while she is out shopping on her way back to Molena Point. When she doesn't return on time, Dulcie sounds the alarm.

Dulcie, Joe, and Kit to the Rescue

Very few humans in Molena Point know of the cats' ability to speak English and converse with humans -- and that's how they like it. However, when they find Wilma gone and her cottage ransacked, they are forced to call the police, even if it means discovery. The cats then organize a search that even includes the feral cats that live about the village. The ferals, who also speak English, are reluctant to interact with humans, but for Wilma and Dulcie they will make an exception. (The human/cat team saved many of the ferals from the pound in a recent mystery.) Eventually the cats know more than is safe to know and must find a way to alert the authorities, but fast.

Cat Pay the Devil is a fun, fast-paced cozy mystery. For new readers to the series, the concept of talking cats might seem a little too cute, but Ms. Murphy makes the cat characters likeable and enjoyable without being cloying. The plot contains enough twists to be intriguing and long-term fans of the series will enjoy catching up with their favorite characters. For fans of cat fiction, this novel is a winner.

About Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Shirley Rousseau Murphy is the author of more than a dozen mystery novels featuring Joe Grey and his friends. She has earned seven national Cat Writers' Association Awards for best novel of the year as well as several other honors. She and her husband live in Carmel, California with their two feline companions.

Shop for your own copy of Cat Pay the Devil on Amazon.com.

Review: Capital Crimes by Kaye and Jonathan Kellerman

This husband and wife mystery writing team collaborates on two original novellas, one by him and one by her. It's a great way to compare their styles, side-by-side.

Capital Crimes, released in November of 2006, features two short mysteries, one by each member of the popular husband and wife mystery team of Faye and Jonathan Kellerman. The two stories have a different style and point of view, an intriguing look at two best-selling authors writing styles, one next to the other.

My Sister's Keeper

The first novella, "My Sister's Keeper," introduces the reader to Davida Grayson, a Berkeley progressive state representative, and a lesbian, who comes from a well-respected and well-heeled Northern California family. Just as we get to know her, she's found dead in her office, shot in the back of the head. The suspects are many. Could it be her jealous -- and often drunken -- girlfriend, her boyfriend from high school whose never accepted her leaving him for a woman, or one of her many political rivals? As Berkeley detectives, Amanda Isis and Will Barnes investigate, with a little help from perennial Kellerman hero, LAPD detective Peter Decker, it becomes obvious that more than a few of the people close to Ms. Grayson have a few secrets to hide. And, Davida, we find, has kept a few secrets of her own.

Music City Breakdown

"Music City Breakdown," set in Nashville, tells the story of an over-the-hill rock singer, Jack Jefferies, who fights his phobia about flying to come from LA to the "Music City" to sing at a benefit concert. Helping him with his fears, and accompanying him, is favorite Kellerman sleuth psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. It seems that Jeffries enjoyed the fruits of his success -- often to excess -- and is starting to pay the price. When he is found murdered in the street, just a few hours after arriving in Nashville, it seems that perhaps his past has finally caught up with him.

The two Nashville detectives investigating the case both have musical backgrounds, ones that at least one of them would rather remain hidden. They find that they are not the only ones involved in the case whose lives have been touched adversely by the Nashville music scene. But, how does this tie into Jeffries' murder?

About Faye and Jonathan Kellerman

Faye and Jonathan Kellerman are both best-selling mystery writers. Mr. Kellerman has won the Edgar, the Goldwyn, and the Anthony awards. He most recent work, Gone, was published in 2006. Mrs. Kellerman has won the Macavity award and been nominated for a Shamus. Her most recent work is the 2006 short story collection, The Garden of Eden. The couple has four children and lives in Los Angeles.

Shop for your own copy of Capital Crimes on Amazon.com.

Book Review: An Innocent Man by John Grisham

Prolific courtroom crime novelist, John Grisham, makes his first foray into non-fiction with, "The Innocent Man."

The well-researched book is an account of Ron Williamson, who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1988 and spent 11 years on Oklahoma's death row before advances in DNA technology proved him innocent. It's a startling and disturbing story about America's justice system gone wrong, the deplorable living conditions on Oklahoma's death rows, and the often sadistic guards employed to watch these inmates.

A Small Town Baseball Hero

"The Innocent Man" tells of promising small town high school athlete, Ron Williamson, who signs a contract with the Oakland A's just out of school in 1971 -- a hometown baseball hero. It chronicles his festive send-off, his failure to meet the discipline and skill levels needed for the "big league," and his bouts with depression and schizophrenia after his release from first the A's and later the Yankees organization.

The Usual Suspects

By 1982, Williamson, is unemployed, living back with his parents in Oklahoma, and spending most of his days sleeping on the couch. When he's not at home, he's wandering the neighborhood, acting "strangely," and drinking loudly in the local bars.

When neighbor, Debbie Carter is brutally murdered, Ron becomes one of the "usual suspects" -- at the exclusion of some basic routine police work. The local police and prosecutor dog him until they finally arrest him for the murder, five years later.

Trial and Conviction

The state's case against Williamson is riddled with errors. There are coercion, false witnesses, and overlooked and suppressed evidence, not to mention Williamson's deteriorating mental state. Still, he is convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death.

Released

The reader lives the frightening, unhealthy, and hopeless living conditions of death row along with Williamson and we watch the prisoner descend more deeply into madness. Only after eight years in prison and just five days away from the death chamber does he receive a new trial. Eighteen months later, after thousands of hours of labor by his pro-bono law team, he is released after DNA testing excludes him from the evidence found at the murder scene. The event touched off a frenzy of media attention. Unfortunately, Williamson was not to enjoy his freedom for long. He died of cirrhosis of the liver just five years after his release.

Grisham Gets Involved

Grisham, in his afterward, relates that he was unaware of the Williamson case until he read Ron's obituary in the New York Times. The author became intrigued with the story and spent five years talking to Williamson's sisters, lawyers, fellow inmates, jailors, and neighbors.

"The Innocent Man" is a compelling book. Much like Sister Helen Prejean's 1994 novel, "Dead Man Walking," it makes the reader question the justice in America's death penalty statutes. Because it is a non-fiction work, the book tends to drag a little in the middle -- no fictionalized suspense to hold the reader's interest -- but the reversal of Williamson's conviction and the drama surrounding it more than make up for this lull. I, for one, hope that this will not be Mr. Grisham's only non-fiction work.

Shop for you own copy of "The Innocent Man" on Amazon.com.

Banned Mystery Books

You may think that banning books was something that happened in Victorian times, but banning books still happens -- and mystery novels are not exempt.

Mystery novels banned? By whom and why? The US Constitution's first amendment states

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

However, schools and libraries around the United States act to ban numerous books each year, stating reasons such as profanity, violence, and even "bad role models." Recently effected works include those by some of America's most illustrious writers, such as Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.

Mystery novels have been touched also. John Grisham's "A Time to Kill" was banned from many schools for its graphic rape scene. The classic Joseph Heller novel, "Catch-22," has been banned for its earthy language, and the widely popular Harry Potter novels have been banned from several school libraries, citing that Harry Potter makes a poor role model for young readers.

What do you think? Do you think schools and libraries are justified in prohibiting certain books from gracing their shelves? What do you think the standards should be?

Beach Road by James Patterson

Beach Road by James Patterson manages to pack thrills, interest, and suspense into an easy-to-read summer novel. It's the perfect novel to take to the beach.

Beach Road, published in May, 2006, features Tom Dunleavy, a former basketball star and local East Hampton hometown hero, who has settled in as a rarely-working small-town lawyer.

Set amidst the have-and-have-not tensions amidst the mansions of Long Island, Beach Road follows the story of Dante Halleyville, a local African-American high school basketball phenom (modeled about LeBron James, perhaps), who is charged with two brutal murders. Dunleavy, much to the chagrin of his neighbors, decides to defend him. He persuades his high school sweetheart, Kate Costello, now a high-priced New York City attorney, to assist him.

The novel is told from several points of view, including Tom's, Kate's, and Dante's. The reader is warned in the preface to assume that not everyone is telling the truth. But which one/ones, if anyone, is lying?

Beach Road is an easy read, with lots of chapter breaks and white spaces, but still manages to excite. For fun, Patterson has thrown in cameo appearances from Steven Speilberg, Billy Joel, and other Long Island celebrity residents.

In short, Beach Road is worth reading, if only for the last 100 pages.

Shop for your own copy of Beach Road on Amazon.com.

"Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter" by Nancy Atherton

When her twin boys come home with a tale of a vampire in the woods, Lori is skeptical. She shouldn't be; the sighting holds the clue to strange happenings in the area.

Lori Shepherd and her twin five-year-olds, Will and Rob, are back at home in England after their less-than-relaxing vacation in Colorado (as described in Aunt Dimity Goes West). The boys are starting school and that brings a whole new set of problems and anxieties. Not only is Lori worried that something will happen to them while they are away from her, but the school officials are upset with the stories the boys are telling the other students. What the teachers don't realize is that the stories are true (a fact to which readers of the Aunt Dimity series can attest).

A Vampire in their Midst

When the school calls telling Lori and her husband that the boys have been frightening the other children with tales of a vampire in the woods, she thinks that they have crossed the line from truth to fantasy. She shouldn't have been so skeptical, however. When she decides to check out their story, with the assistance of her friend, Kit Smith and her late (but not departed) Aunt Dimity, she finds evidence that their tale might just be true. Soon her quest leads them to find Leo, a vagabond that has returned to the area after a 40-year self-imposed exile and to Lizzie Black and her stories about the DuCarals of Aldercot Hall, a family that Lori has never met. Could there really be vampires in the neighborhood?

The DuCarals of Aldercot Hall

When Lori and Kit visit Aldercot Hall, they find a dark, dreary mansion that has evidently seen better days. The mistress of the hall is dressed in black and reticent about her family. Plus, there's a locked door to the attic and strange sounds coming from above.

Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter continues the series of cozy mystery novels featuring the likeable American living in Britain, Lori Shepherd and her family. That Dimity consults with Lori via a "magic" book is just whimsical enough to be fun without being ridiculous. Like the previous novels, Vampire Hunter is an enjoyable read, ideal for the Halloween season.

About Nancy Atherton

Nancy Atherton is the author of 14 Aunt Dimity mysteries, the first of which, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted one of the century's top 100 favorite mysteries by the Independent Mystery Bookseller's association. Unlike her fictional counterpart, Ms. Atherton is American and lives in Colorado Springs.

Shop for your own copy of "Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter" on Amazon.

And Then There Were None: A Review of the Dreamcatcher Computer Game

Become part of the action on secluded Shipwreck Island as Mr. U N Owen's ten guests start dying off one by one.

The interactive computer game is based on one of Agatha Christie's most popular mystery novels, And Then There Were None. The novel follows the increasingly desperate attempts of ten guests, stranded on a remote island, to save themselves from whatever is killing their fellow housemates one by one.

The game closely follows the book until the ending, which the game changes to put a more pleasant spin on it. The game package even includes a paperback of Christie's work. The player takes the role of Patrick Narracott, the boatman who brought the group to the island. Narracott's boat is scuttled in the first scene and he is left to help solve the mystery. The other guests include a former judge, a private investigator, a retired military man, a wealthy young gad-about, and a former governess.

As Narracott, the player picks up objects, talks to the other guests, and finds clues. There are tasks to perform using the found objects, some of which affect the outcome of the game and others that do not. Talking to the right people and finding the right things triggers the game to go to the next chapter (there are ten of them).

The graphics are a little basic -- more like the graphics I remember from 1980s computer games, but the fun of being able to talk to the book's characters and explore the scene of the book more than makes up for the poor graphics. I found the game to be a little repetitive (you follow the same paths over and over again) and a couple of the tasks made little sense to me. The game, however, is enjoyable, especially for Agatha Christie fans.

Shop for your own copy of the Dreamcatcher game, And Then There Were None from Amazon.com.