The Reckoning on Cane Hill is a terrifying and heartbreaking new novel of guilt and innocence, from CWA Dagger-­winner Steve Mosby.

In a world where guilt and innocence are in the eye of the beholder, what if you could see someone's sins? What would their sin look like?

Charlie Matheson wore her sins like a badge of repentance. An elaborate spider's web of scars covered her face. Each line carefully crafted. A message intended for the world to see. She claims these marks were put there by the Devil in Hell.

But that wasn't the message Charlie was there to deliver. 

Two years prior, Charlotte (Charlie) Matheson died in a car crash. Now, she's back from the dead to deliver a message for retired Detective John Mercer's ears only. A detective haunted by his own demons.

[Read Cindy Kerschner's review of The Reckoning on Cane Hill...]

Season 5 opens in an outpouring of emotion with Cady Longmire (Cassidy Freeman) imploring, “Please don’t leave me, Dad!” Her father, Sheriff Walter Longmire (Robert Taylor), is writhing in his own blood, shot at home by an unknown assailant. 

He’s not laid up for long though. Not since the old Gunsmoke days, when Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) could take a slug and keep on tracking, has a hero thrown health to the wind like when the strong-willed, determined Walt leaves the hospital. He’s looking for Dr. Donna Monaghan (Ally Walker), who had been sharing his bed when the assailant struck. Only Walt’s blood is initially found at the scene, so a kidnapping is assumed.  

Walt believes there is a connection to the shady oil company that he’s been investigating and that the still-at-large Walker Browning (Callum Keith Rennie) is involved. The Ferg (Adam Bartley) is leaning toward Zachary (Barry Sloane), who Walt had fired, while Victoria “Vic” Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) thinks the wisest choice is to investigate patients of Dr. Monaghan who have been known to do a crazy thing or two like set a van on fire. 

[Read David Cranmer's review of “A Fog That Won't Lift”...]

Our season is at an end, and it couldn’t have been a more exciting finale. The entire season seemed to be leading up to this event. Agatha Raisin (Ashley Jensen) is getting ready for her upcoming nuptials—to James Lacey (Jamie Glover). 

Drunk at her hen party, Agatha tells Gemma (Katy Wix) that her only wish is for Gemma to get together with Bill Wong (Matt McCooey). Meanwhile, a homeless man is looking at a newspaper announcement of PR guru Agatha Raisin’s upcoming marriage, and he seems quite disturbed by it. We know this will not bode well for Agatha.

Church bells ring and James and Charles Fraith (Jason Merrells) are in the church waiting for the bride. Roy Silver (Mathew Horne) walks Aggie down the aisle. However, the blissful event is interrupted when Bill Wong runs in yelling “Stop!” Is Bill trying to stop the wedding because he has a crush on Agatha? Nope. He’s putting an end to the wedding because Agatha’s husband—and the homeless man we see at the beginning—Jimmy Raisin (Jason Thorpe), is still alive. So she’s kinda still married; great timing on Bill’s part.

[Read Kerry Hammond's review of “The Murderous Marriage”...]

October—literally the best month of the year. Unfortunately, Netflix seems to have missed the mark because I'm seeing a disappointingly small amount of decent horror films coming this month. Good thing I have my own collection—Halloween horror nights at my house!

Thankfully, if you're like me, you might have an episode or two left of Marvel's Luke Cage come October 1st. If not, here is a convenient list of all of the new thrillers/mysteries/crime films coming to Netflix in October 2016.

*Honorable mention: Black Mirror returns on October 21st

[Check out the list here...]

These are some of the more interesting, weird, and crazy true crime related stories from the past week (09/17/16 - 09/24/16):

• Woman charged with stabbing man who refused sex with her


• Man cuffed behind back took off with squad car


• South Florida woman hid pot in girl's lunchbox during traffic stop


• Police seek pet store theft suspect who shoved snake down his pants


• Woman allegedly offered meth for sale in wrong-number text to police officer


• Man proves awful at buying Dark Web explosives


• Man Crashes into Kmart While Running from Police


• Canadian Mint employee accused of hiding $135k worth of gold…up his ass

It must be stressful to live in a town like Carsely in the Cotswolds, where there seems to be murder around every corner. I wouldn't judge Agatha Raisin one bit for needing to unwind every now and then with a nice cocktail or two.

So, relax with a variety of delicious cocktails for this week's Pick Your Poison—where we create a cocktail inspired by a recently published mystery, thriller, or crime novel—“Drinking Up Daisies,” an ice-cold sour made with your spirit of choice, inspired by M.C. Beaton's 27th Agatha Raisin Mystery, Pushing Up Daisies!

[Check out the recipe below!]

THE SUBGENRE: Cartoon noir.
THE HERO(ES): Private eye Eddie Valiant and the eponymous Toon.
THE VILLAIN: The mad Judge Doom.
THE LOVE INTEREST(S): Loyal “Girl Friday” Dolores and femme fatale Jessica.
THE SETTING: An alternate 1940's Hollywood.

1947, Hollywood. It's a familiar setting to any fan of noir.

This Hollywood, however, is different in one very significant way: there's a strange neighborhood on its fringe called Toontown. It's a Technicolor dream world with inhabitants that are downright animated...

Private eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) has a chip on his shoulder the size of Gibraltar when it comes to Toons: those brightly-colored, two-dimensional characters that routinely smash through walls, break plates over their heads, and burst into frequent song and dance numbers—anything to make people laugh. 

[Don't hit me! I'll hit me! Cause I'm craaaazzzyyyy...]

A man was caught on security camera cleaning out a cash register of all its money at a YMCA. But here’s the thing: it turns out the cash register was actually a children’s toy filled with fake “play-money” instead of the real thing. Yup, this guy was a master thief...if he lived in the world of Monopoly. 

The suspect was filmed breaking into the YMCA Child Development Center in California by busting through the ceiling tiles and dropping to the floor. Once on the ground, he made his way to a [toy] cash register, smashed it open, and pocketed the [phony] cash inside before exiting through the front door.

Local police believe the suspect is no stranger to this type of crime. 

“Thieves tend to have specific MOs that they follow, stuff they get comfortable with,” Sergeant Dan Marshall told reporters. “They don’t get caught doing it once and they figure, 'Hey, it’s a tried and true method,' and then they stick to it.”

According to ABC, local police are now using the footage to try and track down the suspect. I suggest they look for him in Candy Land.

Here is the video for your viewing pleasure:

When literary laureates list their picks for great American novels, rarely are crime novels brought up in the same breath. Sure, there were plenty of bestsellers in the genre that led to more acclaimed film adaptations (Mario Puzo’s The Godfather being perhaps the most obvious), and certain authors like Jim Thompson were even lauded for how transgressive they were able to be with the genre, but, as a whole, the genre was collectively seen by reviewers as pulp, shallow, and ultimately disposable. A shame, too, as at its strongest, crime fiction can eclipse preposterous ideas and represent something undeniably human. Perhaps the most indispensable example of this is Don Carpenter’s first novel: Hard Rain Falling.

A generation-spanning story set in America’s West Coast (primarily in Oregon and Northern California) in the mid-20th century, the book recounts the lives of two street-raised kids and their tribulations into adulthood. We’re first introduced to Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager in Portland who spends his rebellious days seeking sex and booze and partaking in crimes with his local gang. His life takes a real turn-around, however, when he meets Billy Lancing, a light-skinned Negro from Seattle who has run away from home to try and make it as a billiard champ. Levitt forms a strong bond with Lancing that takes them from the dingy pool halls of Portland to a tumultuous prison sentence—and an unexpected happiness that follows.

[Read Peter Foy's review of the lost American classic, Hard Rain Falling...]

Kevin Smith’s Dogma is a biting and insightful look at many mythologies and modern religions. And while some of it is a little sharp, there is insight in its critique as well. Smith attempts to present a unified system of mythological entities borrowed from different cultures. This idea, though, is not his own, as nearly every culture in the world attempts the same in order to justify its own cultural supremacy.

Smith borrows Loki from Norse mythology. As anyone who is familiar with Marvel’s Thor (the comic or the film adaptation), Loki is not really a nice guy. He wants to destroy things, play tricks, and generally just cause mischief. The angel in Dogma, then, is a perfect incarnation of Loki, but Matt Damon's version has been reassigned to be an angel instead of a pagan deity.

[Maaaatt Daaamonnnnn....]

Reckless Creed by Alex Kava is the 3rd book in the Ryder Creed series (Available September 27, 2016).

Dogs have a nose for just about everything. If it is there, they will sniff it out. Their sense of smell is forty times more powerful than ours and, for me, what’s even more impressive is the fact that they can wiggle their nostrils independently. So it’s no surprise to find that Ryder Creed uses dogs for search and rescue in Reckless Creed.

In this finely crafted tale by Alex Kava, Ryder employs the skills of just one of his dogs, Grace, who, like Creed’s other dogs, is an animal Creed actually rescued himself. One dog is enough; anymore and they compete for scents, which can lead to confusion in the search. Creed’s decision pays off, as Grace finds the body of a young woman who has met a strange and untimely end thanks to a pocket full of rocks in a river in Southern Alabama. Turns out she's not the only one—a young man in Chicago has exited his hotel room via the 19th floor window.

[Read Dirk Robertson's review of Reckless Creed...]

Unsolved murders can be frustrating—not only to those directly involved, but to the world at large. We like to think the world works under some form of justice and retributive control. Even if we don’t ascribe to it in a spiritual or religious way, humans assume a sort of karmic “reap what you sow” mentality, and unsolved murders work directly against this understanding. How could someone commit an act so vile, so heinous as to take another person’s life, without suffering the consequences of their actions?

Unsolved murders can also be fascinating. The fear of the unknown and the need to solve the mystery and bring upon that justice often thrills even the outsider that holds no real connection to the case. It’s why so many true crime stories dominate the airwaves. People like JonBenét Ramsey, the Black Dahlia, and Jack the Ripper are household names, but thousands of murders go unsolved each year.

Here are 5 lesser known, unsolved murder cases that still haunt us:

[Gone but not forgotten...]

Easter has come to Three Pines! In this time of resurrection and renewal, one of the owners of the local B&B has decided to advertise the services of an unwitting guest as a spiritualist. Jeanne Chauvet thought she was there for a holiday, so she is rather bemused to find herself leading a Friday night séance for our beloved Three Pines residents.

When it’s decided that the affair lacks the proper level of spookiness, the abandoned Hadley house—which regular readers will know as a place of grief and danger—is proposed as a more suitable venue. It all seems like creepy, innocent fun…until one of the guests at the séance drops dead from terror.

Miles away, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec is enjoying a visit from his son, Daniel, and Daniel’s family, recently relocated to Paris for work. When he reads of the death in the papers, he isn’t surprised to receive the summons from his superior and best friend, Michel Brebeuf, to investigate whether a murder has been committed.

[Recipes and pictures below!]

GIFnotes: Giving you the basic plot summary of an upcoming book with the help of the Graphics Interchange Format.

This week, I once was blind but now can see! Which is good timing because we're about to embark on a visual tour of Iris and Roy Johansen's 4th Kendra Michaels thriller, Night Watch!

[Like CliffsNotes, but more fun...]

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...”

It's a haunting opening to a gothic romance often mentioned in the same breath as Jane Eyre; natural, given both stories follow young, inexperienced women falling in love with remote, brooding, dangerous men. 

But while Jane had an inner core of adamantium to guide her, the heroine of Rebecca is far more vulnerable and adrift. 

Our narrator, barely twenty-one, finds herself in the orbit of the wealthy and mysterious widower, Maxim de Winter—a much older English aristocrat. Following a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo, the two marry. 

This second Mrs. de Winter is deeply in love with her distant husband and assumes her situation will only improve—she no longer has to work as a companion for a tiresome old woman now that she's the mistress of Manderley, Maxim's sprawling English estate. They will go back to England and settle into a comfortable life together.

[But wait, there's more!]