Murder in Hollywood; Postmortem

 

All right, first up is "A Murder in Hollywood" about the murder of Johnny Stompanato. There really was no "untold" in this book, it just rehashed what we already knew, but Sherman did go into detail regarding Turner's early life (her father was murdered during a burglary when she was a little girl, which I didn't know). 

Lana Turner was a major star and a serial bride. She had already been married four times by the time she met Johnny, a shady guy with mob connections. Johnny was abusive and hit her, stalked her, refused to go away, showed up unannounced (and unwanted) on her sets. Just a garbage human being all the way around (although not quite as bad as hubby number four, Lex Barker, who sexually abused Lana's preteen daughter, Cheryl). 

Johnny was stabbed to death in Lana's bedroom one night, and Cheryl took the blame. I think by now most people realize Lana probably killed him and Cheryl copped to it because she was only 14, but who knows for sure? It was a quick read but yeah, sorely lacking on anything new. 

I wanted to like "Postmortem", I truly did. But unfortunately there were too many factual errors that kept me from enjoying it (and I hate using the word "enjoy" for these type of grisly true crime books, but I don't know what other word to use). 

Right off the bat, O'Neil claimed that the McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, was the first one. No, not actually. The first McDonald's was in San Bernadino, California. The one in Des Plaines was the first that Ray Kroc opened, after he bought the business from the McDonald brothers (there's a whole story behind that). So that was misleading. Later on in the book she referred to Lizzie Borden as an ax murderer. Now, Lizzie is one of my OG true crime obsessions, so there are very few books I haven't read about the crimes in Fall River, and I don't believe she was guilty. That's not only just my opinion, it was also the official verdict of the jury when she was tried for the crimes: Not Guilty. So while O'Neil might *believe* Lizzie is guilty (an opinion many people hold), I don't think it's right or fair to say that without qualifying that Lizzie was tried by a jury who determined she was not guilty. 

Things like that really bother me, especially when the author is supposed to be a well-respected researcher. And where the heck was the editor? Why didn't they do anything? 

Oh well. Her story was actually interesting: O'Neil's mother is Kim Byers, the young lady working at Nisson Pharmacy the night that Gacy took his last victim, Rob Piest. Kim and Rob were friends, and Kim ended up being an extremely important witness for the prosecution for a few reasons. One was that Gacy tried to claim he never talked to Rob, but Kim testified that Rob told her he was going to talk to Gacy about a potential summer job that paid twice what he was making at the pharmacy. Secondly, Kim put a photo receipt in the pocket of Rob's parka (which he let her borrow, since she was working at the front counter and got cold every time the doors opened. It was December after all). That receipt and Rob's parka were later found in Gacy's house, but the receipt let the police get their initial search warrant. 

O'Neil's book wasn't trying to rehash the original crimes but rather discuss generational trauma and the trauma we as a nation have for events that enter the national psyche. That was interesting enough, if only she'd stuck to the facts in every part of the book instead of choosing what to be accurate about. 

Elizabeth II; Lady Clementine; Where the Crawdads Sing

 

First up, an interesting biography of the last Queen Elizabeth II. I thought Hardman did a nice job of hitting the high (and low) points in her very long life and reign, and while most of it was already known to me, he had some interesting revelations about Prince Harry and his marriage. 

Elizabeth took the throne at the young age of 25 when her father, King George VI, died from complications from cancer. King George was never meant to be king, and Elizabeth was never meant to be queen. King Edward VIII, George's older brother, abdicated his throne to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. George (or Bertie, as he was known) wept when he heard he would have to take the throne he never wanted, but he did an amazing job holding the country together during WWII. 

Elizabeth was brought up to "get on with it", as it were, and she did, for over 70 years, becoming Britain's longest reigning monarch. 

I am currently reading a giant brick of a biography on Winston Churchill, so this was a nice companion piece, as it were. 

Winston Churchill married Clementine (pronounced "Clem-in-teen" in England, not "Clem-in-tine" like we do in the U.S.), a really smart move on his part. Clementine was instrumental in his career, giving him sound advice, taking care of him, ensuring that he remained safe when he wanted to do dangerous things. They went through the Great War together, through Winston's fall from grace to his triumphant return to public life and resident of 10 Downing Street as the Prime Minister. I'm not sure how much of Benedict's book is fiction (I guess I'll find out if I ever finish the bio of her husband) but it sounds like Clementine did a lot to improve conditions in war torn London during WWII. It was an inspiring tale of the woman behind the powerful man. 

I put off reading "Where the Crawdads Sing" for a few years now, because 9 times out of 10 when a book is that popular, I've been disappointed by the hype and it doesn't live up to it. 

This book was the exception. To everyone over the last few years who recommended it and I dismissed it with a bit of a sneer (I admit it, I was being a book snob), I deeply apologize. It was everything promised and then some. 

Kaya is just six years old when her mom leaves their rundown shack in the marshes of North Carolina and doesn't look back. Her older siblings scatter, fleeing from their abusive and alcoholic father, including her brother Jody, who was the next closest to her in age. Kaya quickly has to become the woman of the house, learning how to cook and clean and buy groceries in town from the money Pa leaves her. 

There is a brief interlude of hope where Pa takes her out fishing on his boat and into town for lunch one day, but that hope is dashed when Pa returns to drinking and finally abandons Kaya for good, just like everyone else has. 

Kaya has to learn to fend for herself in the swamplands, digging up oysters and mussels and selling smoked fish to Jumpin', a kind Black man who runs a small shop and sells gas. Jumpin' and his wife, Mabel, realize Kaya is on her own and do what they can to help her out with donations from their church of clothes and supplies. Kaya attends school for exactly one day, then leaves, determined never to go back after being subjected to the ridicule of the other children, who call her "Marsh Girl". She becomes something of an urban legend, half-human half-wolf, the missing link, a feral, dangerous child. When in reality she was just a very lonely, sad little girl trying to survive. Her loneliness oozed through every heartbreaking word. 

One of Jody's friends, Tate, tentatively befriends her, careful not to scare her away, by leaving her offerings of feathers and other things he finds in the marsh. Kaya reciprocates and eventually feels comfortable enough to talk to Tate. He teaches her to read and promises her he'll come back when he leaves for college. 

He doesn't, though, and once again Kaya is burned by another human and vows not to let anyone get that close to her again. 

I don't want to say too much more and give anything else away for the five or six people on the planet who haven't read it yet, but suffice it to say it was incredible and made me laugh and cry, sometimes at once. So moving and so powerful. What a story. 

Heads in Beds

 

I wanted to read this when it first came out but it was really popular and had long waiting lists, so I waited and forgot all about it until recently. 

Jacob Tomsky (not his real name) worked in hospitality, first in New Orleans and then in New York. He dishes all the dirt on how to get upgrades and comps (money, basically. Slip the front desk person a twenty and ask what they can do for you). He talked about how the bellmen (bell people?) compete since a lot of people decline help getting to their room. I've never stayed anywhere fancy enough to offer a bell person, the hotels I visit just offer a luggage cart that you can use and bring back, so there's that. I guess if I ever get financially flush enough to stay somewhere fancy, I'll make sure to tip the bell person!

I have cousins who work in hospitality, and some of their stories are wild, so this was fun to read and hear about similar experiences. 

The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives

This one was really fun!

Beverly, Eloise, and Margot are an unlikely group of friends. But they have one thing in common: their husbands are serial killers. The women have bonded over their misfortune. The year is 1966, and most people don't believe that they really didn't know what their husbands were up to until they were caught. But looking back, they realized there were signs. And now another killer is on the loose. 

The police of course don't believe three housewives, so they decide to investigate on their own and prevent any more young women from being brutally murdered. 

There were a lot of red herrings that I didn't fall for AND I figured out who the killer was well before the ladies in the book did, so I felt pretty proud of myself. 
 

This Son of York

I enjoyed this fictionalized account of good King Richard III. Smith did a lovely job of bringing Richard and his world to life.

Richard is the fourth and youngest son of Richard, Duke of York. The War of the Roses (or the Cousins' War) started when Richard, who had a much better claim to the throne than King Henry VI, was named Henry's heir, despite Henry having a son of his own. Henry was a very weak and ineffectual king who suffered periods of confusion. England needed a strong ruler, and Richard really was the better choice. Naturally war ensued between the Yorks and the Lancasters. The Duke was killed, along with his second son, Edmund, but his oldest son, Edward, claimed the throne and became king. There was some back and forth, but Edward ruled until his untimely death, and that's when things got really sticky. 

George, Duke of Clarence, the third son, had been put to death for treason and his son was barred from the line of succession. Edward had two sons: Edward and Richard, and he named his youngest brother, Richard, protector of the realm. When Richard gets to London, he's met with a bishop who has a shocking tale: Edward was precontracted in marriage before he married Elizabeth Woodville, therefore his two sons are bastards and cannot inherit the throne. The only one left to be king? Richard himself. 

I truly believe Richard did not want the throne. Contemporary reports at the time (at least the ones that the Tudors didn't destroy in their attempt to rewrite history) talked about his agony over it. He did, reluctantly, agree that he was the right person and was crowned king. 

He was a good king. He was beset by tragedy (his son and wife both died while he was king). He was always being challenged and stabbed in the back by people he trusted. And then he met his terrible, unjust fate at Bosworth Field and England's last warrior king was brutally slain by the forces working with the usurper, Henry Tudor. 

Was Richard perfect? No, of course not. Was he as evil as history remembers? Absolutely not. I'm so grateful for the hard work the Ricardian Society has done over the years to right the wrongs of the last 500 years and restore his reputation.  
 

The Museum of Unusual Occurrence

Ever since her father's death, Aly has run his museum full of spiritual oddities. Her mother moved to Tampa and left Aly with her younger sister, Merope (or Merry, as she's called). 

Aly finds a dead women in the museum who's arranged in a strange way. The tableau earns the nickname of the "Snow White Murder" because the victim was poisoned (she was found holding a vial), had long black hair, and her fingertips were all poked and bleeding. 

The tragedy does bring out the macabre sight seekers, and while Aly is glad for the business she's also worried about Merry and how the tragedy is affecting the high school senior. She feels obligated to help the police solve the crime and get justice for Rose. 

The solution to the murder wasn't entirely satisfying (and not something readers would have been able to figure out--all the clues were red herrings) but I liked the characters and the story was engaging.  
 

One Summer: America, 1927; Red Sheet

Bill Bryson is always great. His nonfiction is so engaging and funny. I really enjoyed "One Summer: America, 1927". 

Quite a lot happened in 1927 in a short period of time. Charles Lindbergh made the first successful solo airplane journey from New York to Paris alone in a plane that no one thought would make it. "Lucky Lindy" became an overnight mega-celebrity. Like the Beatles were thirty some years later. 

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig both had record breaking seasons with the Yankees. Ruth became the first batter to hit 60 homeruns in a season, a record that stood for decades. 

Ford stopped making the Model T and didn't have the Model A ready to go yet, so production shut down for months while they worked on that. Ford fell behind the other car manufacturers. This era also ushered in the idea of new models every year, which car manufacturers still do to this day. 

Talking motion pictures took off with "The Jazz Singer". Calvin Coolidge announced he wasn't running for reelection, paving the way for Herbert Hoover. Work began on Mount Rushmore (which was named after one of its major financial backers). Jack Dempsey was on top of the boxing world, which was becoming a popular sport. More people attended the Jack Willard vs. Jack Dempsey match than attended any Yankees' game. Capone was making money hand over first due to Prohibition. The Stock Market was riding high but a group of four international bankers who met in secret that summer made a fatal decision on interest rates that led to the Great Depression. 

All in all there was a lot going on, a lot that changed America forever, and Bryson did a great job summing it all up. 

And the latest from the incomparable James Ellroy. I adore this man. He is such a talented author and this book was fantastic. 

Freddy Otash is still on special assignment, working with the LAPD, mostly the notorious Hat Squad (four detectives from Robbery and Homicide who are rather poorly regarded now that we know the illegal tactics they used to get confessions out of people). Freddy and the Hats are working with Deputy Chief Daryl Gates, who is in charge while Chief Bill Parker is taking "the cure" in the basement of a local Chinese food restaurant. 

Freddy finds himself tangled up with some pretty violent Communists. He also falls in love with a lounge act singer, Judy. It was loads of fun and I wish I could replicate his slang. He's so good at it. 

The only complaint I had is the cover. What the heck is this? So weird.   

 

I See You've Called In Dead

 

This book was surprising. I was expecting a black comedy and instead it was really quite moving and very deep. 

Bud is an obituary writer living in New York. His life kind of sucks. He's been divorced for a few years and he doesn't really have any friends other than his landlord, Tim. One night Bud gets home from a disastrous blind date (the woman brought her ex-boyfriend along to explain they were getting back together. Yikes. I thought the blind dates I've been on were bad). Bud goes home and starts drinking and gets an email from his ex-wife letting him know her mother passed away. The email sends him into a bit of a tailspin, imagining what his own obituary will look like one day. 

So he writes it. He makes up a lot of fun, exciting things he did. And then he accidentally publishes it through his newspaper, sending it out to all the major publications throughout the country, who run it the next day. 

His boss isn't very happy. Apparently they can't fire someone who's technically, if not factually, dead, so they put him on suspension until they can get it straightened out. 

So Bud starts going to random strangers' wakes and funerals. Tim tries to help him realize how much he has to live for. One of his colleagues, Tuan, is even being friendly. Bud meets a woman, Clara, at a wake and she's spontaneous and whimsical and breathes fresh air into Bud's life.

Things are looking up when an unexpected, tragic death occurs. The book ended on a hopeful note, which was unexpected but welcomed. I enjoyed it, Kenney is a very good writer. 

A Murder in the Making

 

The second Dovey the mystic book was fun, I enjoyed it. 

Dovey has been avoiding gorgeous FBI agent Grant Barlow (or Gib, as she calls him) for the last few weeks. Her friend, Ursula, encourages her to tell Elric (her binder) how she feels. Ursula is sure Elric will understand and agree not to kill Gib. 

So Dovey comes clean and tells him she's developed feelings for Agent Barlow and would like to explore a relationship with him. Elric agrees not to harm him, but makes Dovey promise that she won't bind him. And then he very publicly breaks up with her so no one can accuse him of being a cuckold. 

Dovey is actually very devastated to lose Elric. She still loves him, despite her budding attraction to Gib. But she hardly has time to mourn the lost of her 180 year relationship. There's a mystic on the loose with a powerful trinket who is murdering FBI agents and seems to be coming after her next. 

Things get intense fast, as Dovey does her best to protect Gib from the rogue mystic as well as keep herself safe. Bits (her hedgehog) had a starring role in this book. He was a hero! Go, Bits! 🙌 Book three is set to be published this fall, so something to look forward to. 

Mayhem at the Halloween Wedding; A Letter to the Luminous Deep

 

The second book in the Lazy Bones Bookshop series was disappointing. 

One year after her disastrous first literary festival, Bailey is back. Her second festival went much better, but now she's gearing up for her friend Raven's Halloween wedding (oh, and the potential love interest from the last book? Got a throwaway sentence about how they went on a few dates but it didn't work out). 

Raven and her fiancé, Emmett, are excited to have a Halloween themed wedding. Raven's parents are fully on board, but Emmett's parents aren't happy and would have preferred a more traditional wedding. So would Raven's sister, Harmony, who's a social media influence (ugh). Harmony is bitter that Raven picked her friend Ivy to be her maid of honor instead of her and is picking fights with everyone in the wedding party, including Bailey and Colby. But then again, so is Ivy. Honestly, none of these people were likable, even Raven sounded awful. And why is Colby antagonizing people? It felt like everyone was at a level 11 on the stress meter. Even the poor Boortio cart lady got dragged into it somehow. It was wild how everyone in a ten mile radius hated Ivy and Harmony. 

Suffice to say, when Ivy turns up dead there's a whole bunch of potential suspects. Bailey eventually figures it out and Raven has a nice Halloween themed wedding. 

Meanwhile, I fear these books are going to start to suffer from Miss Marple syndrome, where all these random murders keep happening in a quiet little town. In the first book, a police officer made a statement about how there hadn't been a murder in decades (or something like that) and now between these two books there have been at least five in a little over a year. I can't imagine those crime stats look great for their tourism agencies. 

It took me months to get through this one. I should have given up, honestly. It wasn't worth it. But I wanted to like it so badly. On paper, it sounded perfect. A fantasy set in a world where everything is underwater. 

It's told in epistolary format, a series of letters from one person to another. It starts out with E. (her full name is Erudite, she goes by E. No one blames her for this) hopefully writing to a scholar named Henerey Clel about the sights outside of her home, the famous Deep House her mother built. Henerey starts responding back, and before long a sweet sort of blossoming romance begins to form between the two very shy people. 

A seaquake destroys the Deep House while Henerey is visiting E., and both are presumed lost. While going through their siblings' belongings, Sophy (E.'s sister) and Vyerin, Henerey's brother, discover their correspondence and start trading letters, hoping to understand their siblings better and potentially figure out what might have happened to them. And that's where the book ends. 

So why didn't I like it? Well, the letters were extremely formal in tone and she used a lot of made up names and words, too many for me to keep track of. I have a hard time with names I can't pronounce (I had a lot of the same issues while reading "The Song of Ice and Fire" series). The pacing was absolutely glacial. Nothing happened. At all. For hundreds of pages. 

It's unfortunate, because I liked the premise but the execution was just not what I needed it to be in order to keep reading the rest of the series.   

A Trinket for the Taking

I 100% checked this book out because there's a hedgehog on the cover. I love hedgehogs, and I'm still sad that my state doesn't allow them as pets. I have a friend at work who is Finnish, and she told me hedgehogs run wild in the forest there. Between that and the fact that Finland loves black licorice and saunas, I think I should have been born Finnish. 

At any rate, on to the actual book! It was fun, I liked it. Dovey is a two hundred year old mystic. Mystics are a type of magical being. They can cast spells and have trinkets that they infuse with their essence. 

Dovey is bound to Elric, a very old and powerful mystic, meaning she can't ever break free from him. Dovey loves Elric very much, so she's okay with this...until Elric asks her to track down a powerful trinket that's been stolen. Dovey goes to work and in the process of her investigation meets a handsome and charming FBI agent named Grant Bartholomew. Sparks fly between them and Dovey realizes she's toeing a dangerous line. The bound can't have relationships with the  unbound (the common people) without causing major problems. Not to mention Elric would have him killed if he so much as suspected Dovey had feelings for him. 

Dovey puts that aside to concentrate on finding the trinket as more members of a powerful Greek pharmaceutical family keep dying in horrific ways. 

And Dovey has a magical pet hedgehog named Bits who helps her choose her daily wardrobe 😀

It was the first book in a series and I'm excited to read the second one. 
 

Lombardi and Landry

 

I'm not well-versed enough on the logistics of football games to have really appreciated this book. It got pretty technical with formations and plays. I understood some of it, but a lot of it went right over my head.

The parts I did understand I enjoyed, so there's that 😊

Before he coached the Packers, Vince Lombardi was an offensive coach for the New York Giants under head coach Jim Howell. Tom Landry was the defensive coach for the Giants at the same time, before he went on to coach the Dallas Cowboys. Both coaches helped propel the Giants to winning seasons and championships (before the Super Bowl). Lombardi left to go to Green Bay, and a few years later Landry went to Dallas. Both coaches became legends in their respective towns (and of course, as we know, the Super Bowl trophy is named after Lombardi, since the Packers won the first two matchups). Landry led Dallas through the raucous '80s when the moniker "America's Team" was hung on the Cowboys (unjustly so, in my opinion). The Giants faltered and it took them a long time to return to their former glory. Most people blamed the Mara family for letting Lombardi and Landry get away. 

History is full of hindsight, so it's hard to know what might have happened "if". 

Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop

 

This was a fun, quick read. Cozy mysteries are a nice change of pace from some of the heavier, more graphic things I tend to gravitate to. Plus, a dog was a main character. 

Bailey runs her granddad's bookshop in a sleepy little town in Oregon. After a popular horror movie was filmed there a few decades earlier, the town leaned into the "spooky" vibe and created a Halloween all year around theme, with shops naming themselves things like "Ghostly Gouda" (a local artisan cheese shop). Honestly, this town sounds right up my alley and I wish it was real because I would visit in a heartbeat. 

Bailey is holding the town's first annual Literary Festival. While there are a few hiccups, for the most part the festival goes well. Until Bailey discovers a dead boy in the hay maze. The police peg her as a suspect because she'd had an argument with the deceased and kicked him out of her shop for causing damage. Bailey is determined to solve the mystery and clear her name. 

I do have a few small qualms with this one. I didn't love the ending, it felt rushed. And she has all of the older folks in town ("older" meaning "my age") using very current slang, like "dipped out". I'm sorry, I don't talk like that, and I find it hard to believe other people my age would either. I use slang that I learned as a teenager/twenty-something (which really wasn't that long ago, honestly). But other than those two minor nitpicks, it was a decent read. It's the first in a series, so I might check out the second one just to see what happens with Bailey and the hinted at love interest. 

And So It Is...

Jamie Lynn Sigler has been living with MS for over half her life, she was diagnosed at 20, while she was still working on "The Sopranos". It's amazing to me that she was able to keep it together to film all of the shows she's worked on, and on stage, too. 

Jamie landed the role of a lifetime as Meadow Soprano and she realized how lucky she was to work with such great actors. She spoke highly of everyone involved, but her memories of Jim Gandolfini were especially nice to hear. She married young and got divorced not long after, but eventually found her soulmate, Cutter. They've been together for a long time and have two sons. She's had a lot of hardships in her life: her own illness, her older brother passing away unexpectedly, and her son's life threatening illness. Her story is very inspiring and I enjoyed reading it. 
 

Western Star

 

I can't really believe Larry's been gone for five years. I remember when I heard the news and I was devastated. Even though he'd quit writing for several years before he passed, it was still sad news. 

Larry was born into a family of cowboys at the end of the cowboy era. His uncles and dad all worked with horses and cattle. He grew up in a small, dusty town, devoid of books, desperate to escape, and did, often for years at a time, only to keep coming back. He got married and had a son, James, but cheated on his wife and they ended up divorced. He also ended up raising James, since his ex-wife wasn't really interested in being a mother. I imagine that was a rather interesting and commented upon arrangement in the 1960s. He knew a lot of writers from that era that you wouldn't necessarily connect with him, like Ken Kesey. 

He wrote, but he also was a book scout and would go on long road trips and just buy books. He ended up opening Booked Up in Archer City, a giant four building bookstore (sadly, when he died, the bookstore went under, which I didn't know, I thought he'd sold it a few years earlier. But Chip and Joanna Gaines bought it and used some of the books to "furnish" their hotel in Waco. That probably hurt more than anything else I read in this book). He continued working for as long as he was able. 

It's hard to sum up a complicated, mesmerizing, incredible life like the one McMurtry led, but Streitfeld did a great job and I think Larry would have liked it. 

 

Here Comes the Judge; The Girl and the Gravedigger

 

"Here Comes the Judge" was a fun read. It was a teensy bit overstuffed with characters that I had a hard time keeping track of, but that's sort of how real life is too, isn't it?

Nancy Gardner lives in Newport Beach and is a local character (in the best possible way). Her father, Judge Robert Gardner, was also a colorful character in the early years of Newport. He wrote a few books about the history of the area as well as a passion of his, body surfing. 

Nancy and her dad wrote a book about a father/daughter private investigation team back in the '60s and had a publisher interested, but it didn't pan out. Nancy updated and revised the book and published it on Amazon, so it's only available as a Kindle book, but it was worth the nominal cost. 

On to the actual book! Samantha (Sam) Harris is in between jobs, so she's keeping herself busy by following her retired judge father, Jake, around town, dragging him out of bars. Jake loves his martinis and holding courtside at the local taverns, regaling the regulars with his stories. Then Jake presents Sam with an idea: they can start a private investigation firm. In fact, Jake already has a client. 

Sam protests, but ends up being dragged along for the ride. It starts off as some shady investment scheme, but people keep ending up dead. Sam and Jake travel all over: down to Mexico, over to San Bernadino (with Jake knowing every bar on the route, apparently. I would like to be Jake's best friend), in search of the truth. They have several close calls themselves, which don't seem to faze Jake, but Sam isn't as cavalier. 

Supposedly Nancy and her dad were going to make it a series if the first book did well, and I'm hoping for more. I like the characters and it's fun to read about places I know. 

Potzsch wrote a sequel to "Hangman's Almanac", which I enjoyed. I hoped there would be more. I liked this one, too. 

Rothmayer and Herzfedlt are back with another baffling case. A professor who is supposed to be in Egypt is found in the local history museum, mummified. At the same time, local young men are being murdered in the streets and brutally disfigured. And if that wasn't enough, the new zoo just opened and already one of the keepers has been killed. 

There was a lot going on, and Potzsch somehow managed to tie it all together and have it make sense. There wasn't a lot of Rothmayer in this one, but he came in just in the nick of time to help solve the various cases. It was an exciting ride. 

A Deadly Episode

 

I enjoyed the sixth Hawthorne and Horowitz book. Horowitz has really done a clever job with these stories. 

Their first book together, "The Word is Murder", is being filmed. Anthony isn't really excited about the project: the scriptwriter is making a lot of changes to reflect her passion for the environment, the actor who is playing him is washed up, and no one seems to want or care about his opinion. When the actor playing Hawthorne is stabbed on the set, the two of them find themselves embroiled in a new case (and, for Anthony, a new book). 

Turns out David Caine (the actor playing Hawthorne) had made a lot of enemies, so there are no shortage of suspects. Not just the people on the set, but someone who lives in the village where the movie is being filmed who has a grudge against the real Hawthorne: a woman whose husband Hawthorne helped get convicted of murder a decade ago. She claims he was innocent. Hawthorne stands by his belief that he was guilty, although he does admit there are some lingering questions in his mind. 

The second half of the book went back to that crime, before Hawthorne and Anthony met. Horowitz was able to tie it all together in a very interesting way. 

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales

 

Book three of the Emily Wilde series was very good, I enjoyed it. Emily and Wendell have traveled to his fairy kingdom so he can reclaim his throne from his stepmother. The former queen fled, but cursed the kingdom, so it's rotting and Wendell and Emily can't figure out how to stop it. 

Emily turns to her trusty research, and discovers a tale that seems to mirror their situation. The problem is that the solution is for Wendell to sacrifice himself. 

Well, no one wants *that*. Emily finds an alternate solution: for Wendell to kill his stepmother. That's more palatable, if they can find her. 

All in all it ended on a happy note and I went online to see when book four is due out, only to discover that it's a trilogy and book three is the last one. Aw (sad face). I really liked Emily and Wendell and their world, but I suppose it's enough to know that they live "happily ever after" 😉

Sisters in Death

 

Another new book that claims to have "solved" the Dahlia case. Frankel has a different suspect than William Mann does, and he also connects Beth Short's murder to one that took place six years earlier in Kansas City: the brutal murder of Leila Welsh. There are definite similarities in the two: Leila's head was nearly severed from her body while Beth was bisected at the waist. Both victims bled out. Leila had a horseshoe shaped piece of flesh cut out of her thigh, the tattoo on Beth's thigh was removed. Leila was killed in her bedroom, a really bold move on the part of the killer, considering her mother and brother were both home. We don't know where Beth was killed, we just know her body ended up in the vacant lot on Norton Ave. Beth's last few days on Earth are a mystery, we don't know where she was or who she was with. 

Frankel makes the case that the killer in both cases was a man named Carl Balsiger. Carl grew up in Kansas City, not far from Leila. They vacationed in the same lakefront area as children and went to the same college. Six years later, Carl shows up in L.A. and becomes a suspect in Beth's murder. He knew her, admitted to having spent time with her very close to her death. He owned a property in a remote area of Benedict Canyon, where Frankel theorizes he could have held Beth and tortured her and took his time killing her. 

It's all plausible, all of the theories I've read over the years have their merits and I'm starting to understand why some cases never get solved. All in all it was an interesting read. 

NFL Moments

 

There are few things I enjoy more than watching a good football game (good meaning Green Bay is winning 😊) but reading about football is also very fun. 

These types of books are always subjective. How do you narrow down over 100 years of history and terrific players to just 125? It's tough. While I agreed with many of his choices, there were a few things he left out that I thought should have been included. For instance, talking about amazing Hail Marys, he didn't even mention Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre. Rodgers was literally known for winning games for GB on a last ditch, three seconds left on the clock Hail Mary. And in talking about terrible officiating, he neglected to mention the time that the referees robbed Green Bay of a win against Seattle by calling an touchdown instead of an interception (it was a huge travesty--it literally has its own Wikipedia page). 

But all in all, it was fun to remember some of the great players and games from the past.