Professor Carl Burns knows that a call from the dean is never good news. It usually signals trouble of some sort. Dean Partridge has proven to be no exception to the rule though in this case it was not her who called. Instead, it was her secretary who informed Professor Burns that the dean wanted to see him immediately. Either way, a summons from the dean is ominous.

Burns can’t figure out what he did this time to get himself summoned, but it wouldn’t have had to be his doing at Hartley Gorman College in South Texas. It could have been somebody in his English department who ran afoul of one rule or another. It could be because a student filed a complaint over something. Burns knows full well that he isn’t Dean Partridge’s favorite person by a long shot, but what has gone on in recent years wasn’t really Burn’s fault. He just got dragged into a murder investigation or two and a few other things. Professor Burns has a bit of a reputation at the college and beyond as many of the residents of the small town of Pecan City know he has helped local law enforcement. Most of the stuff happened long before Dean Partridge got there though there was that incident with her goat.

Once he gets to her office, Burns quickly realizes that it his crime solving reputation that she had in mind when Dean Gwendolyn Partridge sent for him. She collects toy soldiers. Her collection of miniature military figures is worth a lot of money. Somebody took six figures during a recent party she had at her house. While Burns does not like or trust her goat, he probably is not the responsible party. The culprit is a two footed human that was at a party that Burns had not been asked to attend.

The party was to celebrate the honor students at the college. In addition to the honor students, also in attendance were important people such as local civic leaders and/or donors.  News of the theft, if it was made known to the public by local media, would bring unfavorable publicity to the college. Nobody wants that to happen again as there has been more than enough of unfavorable publicity.

Dean Partridge wants Burns, because of his track record of solving previous mysteries, to very discreetly poke around and find out who took her soldiers. Beyond the problem of the suspect list being about 100 names is the problem that even the local police chief, Boss Napier, is on the list. A suspect that is a rival for a certain librarian’s affection. Chief Napier isn’t pleased that the dean dragged him into the situation regarding her toy soldiers. Especially since of them has just been found by the body of Mathew Hart who used to work at HGC. Hart used to be a professor years ago and was pretty much universally despised by students and staff.

Napier wants Burns to stay out of the way which suits Burns fine. But, the murder of Mathew Hart stirs up the campus. Even though Burns tries to stay out of things, gradually one thing leads to another and before long he is being shot at and worse. He even has to play in a softball game against the students. After all, the game must go on because if it does not the terrorists have won.

Fourth in the Carl Burns Mystery Series, Dead Soldiers is another very satisfying read. Originally published by Five Star Books in 2004 and now again available via the e-book format from Crossroads Press, the tale does not follow the current fad of dropping a body in the first three paragraphs.  Instead, author Bill Crider sets the table with some background before Burns learns of the first body. Like the other books this series, the world of academia takes center stage as the author follows the classic dictum of “write what you know” while putting a very enjoyable spin on things.

Dead Soldiers is the final installment of the very good Carl Burns mystery series. While it would be best to read in order starting with One Dead Dean, then moving on to Dying Voices, and then to … A Dangerous Thing, one could safely read this mystery first as events in earlier books are only briefly alluded to in the read. Along with the core mystery, humor and other touches by author Bill Crider make this mystery as well as the entire series well worth your time.

Dead Soldiers: The Carl Burns Mystery Series
Bill Crider
http://www.billcrider.com
Five Star Books
http://www.gale.cengage.com
June 2004
ISBN# 1-59414-186-X
Hardback
250 Pages
$25.95

Material was picked up to read and review by way of the good folks of the Plano Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

This short story collection by Miles Archer opens with the signature story “Never Kill A Cat.” Dolores Sorrento is elderly, very lonely, and spends much of her time reading mystery books. When she isn’t reading, she is talking to her many feline companions. That is when she is not dealing with Tommy Cooper and his parents who live across the street. Tommy Cooper is the terror of the neighborhood. Now, he has gone too far and has to pay for this crime.

Renn is supposed to be focused on the live fire exercise at the training grounds. That is a bit difficult since he and Becky had a major fight in the hours preceding. In “Murder In Uniform” Renn does what he needs to do to get through the day.

It is October of 1973 in San Francisco in “Nobody Gets Outa Here Alive.” Freddy Jones has a job he despises, but at least he has one. A routine trip for smokes on his way home turns into the most intense experience of his life. It changes the whole way he considers the world. Fortunately, his job has the tools needs to take the first steps along his new path.

Brian Donovan has lost yet another job as “Eternal Love” begins. He is a good worker, but annoys his coworkers with his attitude. His day is going to get way worse when he gets home.

The next several stories feature Doug Mc Cool over the years. As time passes, Doug McCool gets more and more into the private investigator line of work.  That process starts with “For What It’s Worth” where it is 1972 and McCool has returned from Vietnam. He is in San Francisco spending a lot of time in the VA rehab. While there he spends a lot of time with a guy Johnny White. The same Johnny White who, after discharge from rehab, became heavily involved with the Black Panthers and changed his name to Karim Africanus.

After about a year or so, McCool got a call from an attorney representing Johnny/Karim. There had been an FBI raid and Jonny/Karim was under arrest for the murder of an informer named Perkins. The attorney thinks that maybe McCool could help as some of those involved in the case might be more willing to talk to a white guy instead of the African American lawyer.

Move forward in time a few years and McCool’s latest client is Mrs. Washington in “Hell Hath No Fury.” Her daughter, Noorleen, has been arrested for murder. A criminal defense attorney McCool knows by the name of Peter Tallent told Mrs. Washington to hire McCool to do some leg work, create a report, and he might take the case pro bono. Mr. Tallent is one of the good guys and the case in interesting enough that McCool agrees to do a little digging. It quickly is clear that Norleen is in a bind because of circumstantial evidence. Once they had their suspect in the local jail they quit working the case.

His next client is also in a bind, but not with the cops.  In fact, it is because of the San Francisco cops, specifically one by the name of inspector Harry Stanton, that Mr. Mori is in McCool’s office looking for help. Mr. Mori owns a waste hauling company known as “South Metro Waste.” It operates in the south side of San Francisco in the area formerly known as “Butchertown.”  The meat packers the area is known for are no longer around, but South Metro Waste that was started in 1901 is going strong.

So strong that the mob is trying to take over his business unless he sells out to an outfit known as “United Haulers” based out of Cleveland, bad things will start happening to his family. McCool likes the guy and agrees to poke a little and see if he can figure out a way to get Mori and his family clear of the problem in “The Art of War.”

The beautiful Monica Grant appears in his office doorway in “Il Beso Di Morta.” Married to an investment banker of some type, her husband is apparently in some sort of business deal with a guy known as Dominic Abbruzio. Good old Dominic is deep in the mob and is known by his nickname “Razor.” Mrs. Grant wants McCool to get her husband out of the mess he has gotten himself in to and to do it with our husband having a clue about it.  Good thing she can pay as that hat will be easier said than done.

Author Miles Archer shifts narrator gender with his next story titled “The Miller’s Wife’s Tale.”  Told from the perspective of Barbara Brown, McCool’s everything; she has been left behind to hold the fort while McCool cavorts in Mexico with a certain lady.  She is not happy as her hair needs a touch up, she has a headache and feels bloated, and is about to have her time of the month as well as deal with clients.

One of those clients is Tammy Wingate who wants them to investigate the string of prostitute murders in the city thanks to a serial killer. She is the executive director of COYOTE, a prostitute support organization. She also has connections to the important people in the city of San Francisco. The cops aren’t getting anywhere in their case so Inspector  Dave Toshi sent her their way.

The good Inspector had no idea McCool was in Mexico, but considering Barbara is the real brains of the outfit it should not be a problem. It is one of two cases that she will handle in this story.

The final McCool tale is one of pain titled “The Black Hole.” McCool now lives in a trailer contemplating suicide by bottle or gun. It has been months since he had a client and is not in the shape for one. But, a woman by the name of Susan Sharpe is nothing if not persistent.

She is divorced and very glad to be rid of her ex-husband. While packing up some stuff across she came across a computer disk. Her ex works for a petroleum company and apparently didn’t take it with him. Somebody is making threats over the disk, Susan is scared, and needs McCool’s help. The first thing to do, after he learns what is on it, is return the damn disk. How to do that is a problem not easily solved.

The nine tales that make up Never Kill A Cat And Other Stories are all highly atmospheric and very complicated tales featuring fully developed characters. The McCool tales make up two thirds of the book while providing some very good reading. Those stories frequently play with the classic private detective stereotypes while going off in unconventional tangents. The result is a read recently published by Untreed Reads that is highly entertaining and well worth your time.

Never Kill A Cat And Other Stories
Miles Archer
Untreed Reads
http://www.untreedreads.com/
November 2015
ASIN: B017QGLDGU
E-book
181 Pages
$2.99

Material supplied by the publisher in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

The latest in the long running series finds Vermont Bureau of Investigations agent Joe Gunther and his team working a case that hits close to home. Susan Raffner had been a close ally of the governor Gail Zigman. Now Susan has been brutally murdered and the governor is devastated. Someone killed her, cut the word “Dyke” into her chest and then hung her body above the interstate on a rocky cliff face along the Connecticut river. The same steel mesh that protected all below from falling rocks from the cliff face was used to hang her body to advertise the murder.

The murder of Susan Raffner rocks the political establishment. Was the murder a political statement, a personal vendetta, or something else? Not only was she a state senator she was a close ally of Vermont Governor Gail Zigman. A close ally that had secrets of her own that gradually come to life as they always do in a murder investigation. A firebrand that often was very public in her causes of which there were many, her history, and Susan’s relationship with the governor are just one of many twists in a complex case at work in The Company She Kept.

While billed as Joe Gunther Novel this read, like many in recent years, is less about Joe and much more about the team. Sammie, Willy, and Lester are a family and as they investigate the case and suspects, much is made of their individual daily lives as well as their past history. The result is a read where, for significant portions of the book, it seems like the case is on a backburner as the focus shifts to events with individual team members. This results in a slow moving read for portions of the book before things suddenly ratchet up to the abrupt conclusion. An ending that, despite some commentary in some reviews, does tie up all the loose ends as the book abruptly concludes.

For those who prefer their reads to focus mainly on the case or main premise of the story, they may be disappointed. Police procedures take a backseat to a lot of personal inner ruminations by way of various characters as the case gradually develops. For those of us who appreciate the complexity of characters that feel like family, The Company She Kept is another in solidly good read in the long running series.

The Company She Kept: A Joe Gunther Novel
Archer Mayor
http://www.archermayor.com
Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)
http://www.minotaurbooks.com
September 2015
ISBN# 978-1-250-06467-7
Hardback (e-book and audio formats available)
305 Pages
$25.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

Professor Carl Burns knew the new dean at Hartley Gorman College wasn’t going to work out when she got a goat. There may have been good reasons to get a goat, but that is just not something that is a big winner in the minds of many people. While some of the staff are fixated on the goat and consider the new dean a “unreconstructed hippie”  Professor Burns, who is also chairman of the English Department, is much more worried about her other issues. Of course, if Burns had just applied for the job, he most likely would have gotten it. Burns had absolutely no desire to be the academic dean and that means everyone is going to have to deal with Dr. Gwendolyn Partridge.

While she was highly recommended nobody warned those at HGC that she was highly liberal. A conservative private school located near the small south Texas town of Pecan City, Texas was not ready for her kind of leadership. She has ideas that others would consider radical. She has also brought in Professor Eric Holt who, as other employees see it, is getting special treatment he does not warrant. Both Partridge and Holt want to significantly shake up the curriculum and that is not helping matters.

If that wasn’t enough, the death of Thomas Henderson rattles the entire college. It is clear that he died after impacting the ground due to a fall out of his third floor office window. Landing on your head tends to kill you dead. It is also pretty clear he did not voluntarily crash through the window to his death. Considering Burns’ reputation for solving such cases it is not surprising when Burns starts investigating the situation in … A Dangerous Thing.

Rich with complex characters, humor, as well as scenic details and atmosphere, this third read in the Carl Burns mystery series is another excellent cozy style mystery. Originally published in 1994 and recently made available again thanks to the e-book format, the mystery does not follow the current fad of dropping a murder victim in the first paragraph. Instead, it builds the situation as Texas author Bill Crider weaves a number of threads together before getting to the heart of the matter. A mighty good read, … A Dangerous Thing can be read as a standalone if so desired as it just briefly references earlier events in one One Dead Dean and Dying Voices.

…A Dangerous Thing: A Carl Burns Mystery
Bill Crider
http://www.billcrider.com
Crossroad Press
http://store.crossroadpress.com/
January 2013
ASIN: B00AZ0YU6A
E-Book (estimated print length 176 pages)
$3.99

I got the hardback version of this to read and review by way of the Plano Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015