Where Monsters Dwell – (Odd Singsaker Book #1) – Jorgen Brekke – Hop on the Brekke Bandwagon!!

When I first picked up Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke, I knew nothing about the book, but when I read what Steve Berry wrote about the book…. “History pulses with life and excitement in this chilling and foreboding read. Jorgen Brekke delivers what thriller readers crave, or at least what this reader craves – action, history, secrets, conspiracies, and international settings. Couldn’t ask for anything more.”   and Library Journal wrote’…. “Engrossing… grissly murders investigated by likable detectives. This mystery is perfectly grim without being bleak.”   I thought that this would be a book, right up my alley,…

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From the Archives: Book 33 of 2011 Lassiter by Paul Levine ….

Through the years two of my favorite mystery series are the Jake Lassiter and the Solomon and Lord series both from Paul Levine. I haven’t read a book of his since 2011, when I read Lassiter. Here’s the review I wrote about it back when I finished the book. Tonight as I was re-posting this review I went to Levine’s page at Amazon and I see that books 9 and 10 in the Jake Lassiter series are both available at Amazon for only $3.99 each!! What a steal! Now I only have to find time to read them!!!! Anyway here is…

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After a Great Read – Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan – I can’t wait to begin Very Bad Man!

A couple of Saturday’s ago, I was browsing through the books at Barnes & Noble and I came across The Last Dead Girl, Book # 3 in the David Loogan series written by Harry Dolan. On the dust jacket of the book I read that Stephen King called Dolan’s book Bad Things Happen   “a “great fing book“! When I came home, I went to my local libraries website and requested the book. I was captivated by the book from the opening sentence, the pages flew by and it quickly became Book 29 of 2014, and I agree with Mr King…

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Exploring the Blues of Toronto Born – Anthony Gomes – Rebel Blue!!

One of the blues albums that his been in my music rotation for the last few weeks is Rebel Blue from Anthony Gomes, a seventeen track Best of album! I discovered the Toronto-born Gomes in 2012 via his album Up2Zero, at that point Gomes was 14 years and 8 albums into his career that began back in 1998. In that year Gomes formed his own band after a brief stint as a sideman with Magic Slim and the Teardrops. The band then went out and won the first annual Buddy Guy’s Legends “Best Unsigned Blues Band” competition and later that…

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Today in Music – Oct 28, 1937 – A Founder of the British Blues Movement – Graham Bond was born!!

So on this date in 1937 another one of those musicians whose name sounded familiar, but I was unsure why, Graham Bond was born. After reading the following at Wikipedia, I was even more unsure of why I didn’t recognize the name!! He certainly influenced the career paths of several musicians who I listened to and admired over the years, not the least of which, are Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. From Wikipedia: Graham John Clifton Bond (28 October 1937 – 8 May 1974) was an English musician, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s. Bond was…

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Today in Music – Oct 21st – Happy Birthday – Steve Cropper and Elvin Bishop!

Originally, posted October 21, 2012 Today we celebrate the birthday of  guitarist and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Steve Cropper (1941). From Wikipedia:  Steve Cropper (born Steven Lee Cropper, October 21, 1941, Dora, Missouri),[1] also known as Steve “The Colonel” Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and has backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, also acting as producer on many of these records. He…

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Saturday Morning Music from John Mayall – “Good Time Boogie” – Jazz Blues Fusion!!

So the other day I decided to visit an album that I haven’t listened to in a long while, Jazz Blues Fusion from John Mayall.The abum is a live album. The first side is from a concert in Boston on 18 November 1971, and the second side was selected from two concerts at Hunter College, New York, on 3 and 4 December 1971. John released two albums with this jazz fusion bent. On the albums he brought jazz musicians into his band. On this album the musicians were Freddy Robinson on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Ron Selico on drums…

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Treasures From a Library Used Book Sale! Does It Get Much Better?

The other day I got to do one of my favorite things, go to a used book sale at the library. The visit was made even better because I got to do it on the first day of the sale, when there were still a lot of books there! Typically, I’m there on the last day and sometimes during the last hour or so of the sale. When I went into the sale I decided that I was going to look, not for the typical mysteries that I usually go for, but for a few books that may be a…

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Michael Koryta’s Those Who Wish Me Dead – A Grade A Thriller – Read it before the Movie!!

Those Who Wish Me Dead are the sadistic and evil Blackwell brothers, who Jace Wilson saw murder a man in a quarry in Indiana. Their quest to hunt down and kill Jace leads the Blackwell brothers to the mountains of  Montana , where Ethan and Allison Serbin run a summer survival training program for troubled youths. Jace was placed in the program by Jamie Bennett ,who was a former student of Serbin’s, Arriving in a snowstorm, Bennett asks Ethan’s help in getting Jace “off the grid” to protect him, something Bennett does not think she can do by herself. Although…

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Kathleen Mallory #11- It Happens in the Dark – Carol O’Connell

In Kathleen Mallory, author Carol O’Connell has created one of the most distinctive characters in the mystery and thriller genre. Mallory is …. described by her creator as a sociopath. Emotionally scarred as a 6-year-old after she witnessed the murder of her mother in a small Louisiana town, Mallory flees to New York City, where she lives as a street child. She is caught trying to steal by police officer Louis Markowitz, who takes her home and becomes her foster father. From age 10, Kathy, a “baby sociopath,” grows up surrounded by Markowitz and his colorful circle of friends, including…

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