Signal by Patrick Lee is the 2nd fast-paced thriller in the Sam Dryden series that features high-concept technology able to peek ten hours into the future (available July 7, 2015). If Energizer is ever considering a rebrand, they should set their sights on Sam Dryden. An ex-Special Forces agent, Dryden never slows down, and repeatedly…
Raise your hand if you thought Detective Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) was dead? With the David Lynch opener to the third episode, I had hopes of a surreal twist to the story, but instead we get “rubber bullets,” which I think is a bit of a cheat. Chekhov may not have said “if you shoot…
“We get the world we deserve.” – Ray Velcoro After so much dense setup in the first episode, if you were hoping for more room to breathe and enjoy time with the characters—morose as some of them are—you only get a little here, as the tightly interconnected story weaves outward, crammed close like the Los…
Devil's Harbor by Alex Gilly follows Nick Finn, a California Customs and Border agent wrongly accused of murdering his partner forced to evade capture while attempting to prove his innocence (available June 23, 2015). Brutal, real, sweaty, and scary, with the power of the sea roiling just below the surface, Devil’s Harbor is a frightening…
The second season of True Detective moves to California with an all new cast, keeping the grim sense of despair but losing the mysticism and existential dread that piqued the interest of so many viewers in its first season. Without Rust Cohle’s Thomas Liggotti-inspired philosophical ramblings, the primordial swamp of the Louisiana scenery, and the…
While we won't be welcoming the pointed ramblings of Rust Cohle back into our homes on Sunday night, we will be saying hello again to True Detective. As we've previously mentioned, Season 2 will be leaving the bayou behind and is jetting to the West Coast and will star Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, and…
The Darkness Rolling by Win and Meredith Blevins follows Seaman Yazzie Goldman, returning to Monument Valley after WWII to bodyguard a star in a John Ford western (available June 2, 2015). World War II has just ended, and Seaman Yazzie Goldman is raring to leave San Diego, where he was enlisted in the Coast Guard…
One Murder More by Kris Calvin is the debut mystery in the Maren Kane series about a good-hearted lobbyist from Sacremento caught up in a murder investigation (available June 1, 2015). When you hear the word “lobbyist”, the image that often first comes to mind is of some slick wheeler-dealer in the halls of power,…
Skies of Ash by Rachel Howzell Hall is the 2nd police procedural in the Detective Elouise Norton series set in Los Angeles where a deadly house fire looks a lot like murder (available May 19, 2015). The luscious and wise cracking Detective Elouise Norton is in a personal quandary when this LAPD police procedural Skies…
The opening of Robert Benton’s private eye film The Late Show is chock-full of deception. We first see the Warner Brothers logo, but it’s not the Warner logo of 1977, the year the film was released. It’s a sepia colored 1940’s era Warner logo, and right away we hear soft 40’s style piano music playing…
