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The Other Murder, by Kevin G. Chapman

I was offered a copy of this book with a request for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers.

I previously read Kevin G. Chapman’s Dead Winner, and I was excited to jump back in to another of his works. The Other Murder is a detailed look at a double homicide in the middle of New York and the inherent prejudice in both policing and reporting. The murders are truly at the heart of this novel, as we follow not only the police investigation, but the investigation of both TV news and small online reporters. As a result, the novel becomes more about whether the reporters will get their scoop rather than the police investigation, which is an interesting and effective angle to tell the story from.

Taking this multiple-angle approach to the crime itself really allows the personal conflicts of the characters to shine through. We have essentially three pairs of characters, each with their own developing kind of tension. My favourite pair to follow was Hannah and Pablo, the reporters, and their friendship as it blossomed into something more. Out of all of them, my absolute favourite character was Pablo; his dedication to his area and the people living in it was so wholesome, and he would do anything to do right by them, even if it meant putting himself in danger.

As a whole, the novel was so easy to read and flowed really well. The Other Murder was an incredibly satisfying and exciting book that I wholeheartedly recommend.

Check out The Other Murder on Amazon and Goodreads.

About the book

Sometimes, the most dangerous thing . . . is the truth.

For disgraced cable news producer Hannah Hawthorne, covering the shooting of a pretty NYU sophomore is a chance for redemption. When the story snowballs into a media circus, Hannah’s reporting fans the sensationalistic flames and earns her acclaim. The tragic murder prompts protests and vigils that further magnify the story.

Meanwhile, Paulo, a neighborhood newspaper reporter, is following the other murder in Washington Square Park that same night – a young Hispanic boy. He discovers an unexpected connection that is political dynamite. When Hannah and Paulo team up, they uncover disturbing facts, leading them to question everything they thought they knew. It also leads them to the man who might be the killer.

When the story is ready to explode, the truth may be hotter than anyone can handle. Breaking the next scoop could ruin Paulo’s paper and wreck Hannah’s career – and it could get them both killed.

If you like David Baldacci’s page-turners, Michael Connelly’s cops, and Sara Paretsky’s quirky characters, you will love The Other Murder.

About the author

Kevin G. Chapman is an attorney specializing in labor and employment law and an independent author. In 2021, Kevin finished the first five books in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series. Righteous Assassin (Mike Stoneman Thriller #1), was named one of the top 20 Mystery/Thrillers of 2019 by the Kindle Book Review and was a finalist for the Chanticleer Book Review CLUE award. Deadly Enterprise (Mike Stoneman Thriller #2) was also named a top-20 Mystery/Thriller of 2020 by the Kindle Book Review and made the Short-List for the 2020 CLUE Award. Book #3, Lethal Voyage, was the winner of the 2021 Kindle Book Award and a Finalist for the CLUE and for the InD’Tale Magazine RONE Award. Book #4 in the series, Fatal Infraction, was named Best Police Procedural of the year by the Chanticleer Book Review, and book #5 (Perilous Gambit) was published November 24, 2021. Kevin has also written a serious political drama, A Legacy of One, originally published in 2016, which was short-listed for the Chanticleer Somerset Award for literary fiction. A Legacy of One was re-published in a newly re-edited and revised second edition in 2021. Kevin recently completed a stand-alone mystery/thriller titled Dead Winner, published in late 2022, winner of the 2023 CLUE Award (best suspense/thriller), and he is working on a stand-alone mystery titled The Other Murder. Kevin is a resident of Central New Jersey and is a graduate of Columbia College and Boston University School of Law. Readers can contact Kevin via his website.

The Great Gimmelmans, by Lee Matthew Goldberg

I was offered a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers.

It’s always a joy to see that Lee Matthew Goldberg is releasing a new book, and I always jump at the chance to review them (see here and here and here and here and… you get the picture). The Great Gimmelmans fits nicely into his back catalogue, with all the hallmarks of a great Goldberg book: darker thrillers with an interesting concept and excellent character voice.

To me, The Great Gimmelmans felt more ambitious than any of Goldberg’s previous works. I’m not sure if it was longer or just more complex, with a wider, close-knit cast of characters, but the individual storylines were handled beautifully. It was a brilliant book story to sink my teeth into, especially considering it has a framing device, which is one of my favourite literary techniques (my favourite example of a framing device, just in case anyone’s interested, is Chuck Palahniuk’s ‘Hot Potting’, but this is a close second). Opening in the present day, we’re introduced to our main character, Aaron, at what could be considered a personal rock bottom, as far as his family is concerned. Aaron has a really strong voice, which is fantastic for our narrator, and we’re thrown back in time to the 1980s, when our narrator was a twelve-year-old bank robber.

The conflicts in this book are really well done, with a good mix of normal twelve-year-old-boy problems and bank robber problems. The development of Aaron’s character is satisfying to follow, and is especially evident in his relationship with his sisters. We follow him as his family begin to fall apart in the chaos of a series of bank robberies, and there’s some really nice discussions of morality, blame, forgiveness, religion, and loyalty, particularly in the second half of the book.

As always, Goldberg’s writing is humorous, startlingly easy to read, and yet completely unpredictable. Just when I thought I knew where the plot was going, I was taken totally by surprise. This is a fun romp in which you’re given just a teaspoonful of the ending right at the start, and you chase that high all the way to the final chapter.

Check out The Great Gimmelmans on Amazon and Goodreads.

About the book

Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks. But it wasn’t always like that. His father Barry made a killing as a stockbroker, his mother Judith loved her collection of expensive hats, his older sister Steph was obsessed with pop stars, and little sister Jenny loved her stuffed possum, Seymour.

After losing all their money in the Crash of 1987, the family starts stealing from convenience stores, but when they hit a bank, they realize the talent they possess. The money starts rolling in and brings the family closer together, whereas back at home, no one had any time for bonding due to their busy schedules. But Barry’s desire for more, more, more will take its toll on the Gimmelmans, and Aaron is forced into an impossible choice: turn against his father, or let his family fall apart.

From Jersey, down to an Orthodox Jewish community in Florida where they hide out, and up to California, The Great Gimmelmans goes on a madcap ride through the 1980s. Filled with greed and love and the meaning of religion and tradition until the walls of the RV and the feds start closing in on the family, this thrilling literary tale mixes Michael Chabon and the Coen Brothers with equal parts humor and pathos.

BUCKLE UP!

About the author

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of thirteen novels including THE ANCESTOR and THE MENTOR along with his five-book DESIRE CARD series. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the Prix du Polar. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared as a contributor in CrimeReads, Pipeline Artists, LitHub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Mystery Tribune, The Big Idea, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, Necessary Fiction, Hypertext, If My Book, Past Ten, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Maudlin House and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.

Book Review: When the Night Bells Ring, by Jo Kaplan

I was offered a copy of this book with a request for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers.

There are several things I’m scared of: heights, clowns, wax figures, and caves, to name a few. I’m lucky in that most of these make for a good horror novel, and I love to be scared. The most effective? Caves. There’s something about the darkness and the claustrophobia, the isolation and the silence, the ease with which you can get lost beneath the ground, that makes for excellent horror, and When the Night Bells Ring was no exception.

The story itself is pretty simple: two women fleeing climate change find themselves in a ghost town and venture into the abandoned silver mines to find water, only to lose their way in the darkness. They find a diary written 150 years before and read it in the hope of finding a way out within its pages. What they discover instead, while battling dehydration and infection, is that they might not be alone within the mines after all.

Kaplan has created a really effective and engaging horror, and despite the simple premise, the story packs a hell of a punch. It made me not want to sleep at night, both because I wanted to know what happened and because I didn’t want to be alone in the dark. Though Waynoka and Mads’ storyline was told in brief interludes between diary entries, it was by far the scariest part of the novel. The descriptions of the mine and what lies inside are evocative and powerful enough to make the hair on the back of my neck rise just thinking about them.

That’s not to say the diary is boring. Not only is it written incredibly well, feeling like real diary entries, but considering it’s the bulk of the novel, it never feels like the two stories are disjointed. The fabric of one story intertwines brilliantly with the other until you cannot separate the two; while I imagine reading the diary alone would be a fantastic mystery, it would feel incomplete without the conclusion provided by the Dust Devils. The characters in the diary are rich and jump off the page. You cannot help but feel sorry for Lavinia even as the town turns against her. Virgil as a setting is so well done and engaging. It really felt like the inclusive, insular small community turning against outsiders even over their own survival.

And let’s not forget the creatures! I’m not sure what they could be called; for once even I, collector of odd folklore, am unsure if they are based off real stories or just a fascinating twist on an old classic. If they are a product of Kaplan’s imagination, then they are a brilliant example of evolution and worldbuilding, well-suited to the desert environment and utterly terrifying. If they end up being based on real folklore, then I would be delighted to learn more about them.

All in all, When the Night Bells Ring is the perfect read for those dark October nights, for anyone who loves villains or hates caves, or any horror aficionado.

Check out When the Night Bells Ring on Amazon and Goodreads.

About the book

Don’t awaken what sleeps in the dark.

In a future ravaged by fire and drought, two climate refugees ride their motorcycles across the wasteland of the western US, and stumble upon an old silver mine. Descending into the cool darkness of the caved-in tunnels in desperate search of water, the two women find Lavinia Cain’s diary, a settler in search of prosperity who brought her family to Nevada in the late 1860s.

But Lavinia and the settlers of the Western town discovered something monstrous that dwells in the depths of the mine, something that does not want greedy prospectors disturbing the earth. Whispers of curses and phantom figures haunt the diary, and now, over 150 years later, trapped and injured in the abandoned mine, the women discover they’re not alone . . . with no easy way out.

The monsters are still here―and they’re thirsty.

About the author

Jo Kaplan is a Los Angeles based writer and professor. She is the author of the haunted house tale It Will Just Be Us and also writes under the name Joanna Parypinski. Her work has appeared in Fireside Quarterly, Black Static, Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton, and Bram Stoker Award nominated anthology Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors. She teaches English and creative writing at Glendale Community College.