What I'm Reading: #Crime #mystery

Besides reading horror and zombie books, I also like to read in various genres, from mystery and historical, to fantasy and others.

Currently, I was thrilled to discover books by Victoria Thompson, a multi-published author I hadn't read before. 

    While she also  has a long-running, 26-book gaslight mystery series featuring a midwife,  (Book 1 is Murder on Astor Place.) I was intrigued by her Counterfeit Lady series I came across featuring a unique con artist family, also set in the early 1900s. I'm always thrilled when I can find a series that is really fun to read, and I'm enjoying this one. I hope to try her gaslight series also as it does look intriguing. 

Given the restrictions of the time period, it's interesting to read about a female con artist who works with her father and others to use their "skills" as grifters to right certain wrongs.  Even more interesting is how the Counterfeit Lady series makes the time period come alive through the big events of the day.

I happened first on book 5 of the six-book Counterfeit Lady series, City of Shadows, at the library so I've been reading the series backwards. In City of Shadows, Elizabeth Miles helps a friend to save her mother from an unscrupulous medium.  Set after World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic.

 

 In Book 1, City of Lies, Elizabeth tries to escape a man whom she'd help con out of a large sum of money, and joins a group of Suffragist women protesting by the White House. Excellent portrayals of the hardships women endured fighting for the right to vote. 

Book 2, City of Secrets, has Elizabeth trying to help a widow who was cheated out of her fortune by her late husband, and uncover who was behind a scheme to blackmail him and keep scandalous secrets hidden. Interesting details on a hidden underworld of brothels.

In book 3, City of Scoundrels, while Elizabeth 's lawyer-fiancé, Gideon Bates is waiting to be called up for the draft in World War I, he is drawing up wills for other soldiers before they're shipped out, among them a soldier who wants to protect his new wife and unborn child. But when that soldier is killed in the war and the bride reveals herself to his entrepreneurial family, Elizabeth, Gideon and others work to locate the missing will and protect the wife after a vicious attack. 

 

 

 I am now reading book 4, City of Schemes, where Elizabeth is planning her wedding and Gideon's old friend Logan comes home from the war. Now Elizabeth helps to uncover a scheme of who is trying to con Logan out of money by pretending to be a woman he knew who wants to leave the devastations in France after the Great War ends. Worse is that the man she conned now knows she isn't dead and is hunting her. 

Since I've read out of order, next up is book 6, City of Fortune, set in the world of thoroughbred racing and the Belmont Stakes.  After that, I sure hope this series continues!

 

New Year, New Review O is for Outbreak #horror

 It's always fun to get feedback on something you wrote, especially when it's positive.

 

Reviewer Sherry Fundin recently reviewed my story, "The Rumor That Refused to Die" and the anthology it's in, O is for Outbreak, book 15 of the A to Z of Horror series from Red Cape Publishing. He're's the B&N.com link also.

Here's part of the review. See the full review at Goodreads:

MY REVIEW for "The Rumor That Refused To Die" by Chris Verstraete

“Do you mean that story wasn’t true?…It says the policeman died in 1950 after his car fell into a giant sinkhole. I thought newspapers had to print the truth?”

“You be the judge,” her teacher said.

"The Rumor That Refused To Die" by Chris Verstraete shows how quickly a story changes, from person to person and time to time.. Amanda takes her school assignment and runs with it, digging deep, and I love where Chris went with the story. It had me smiling, because I have seen a movie with a creature like this, so it was easy to visualize....

MY REVIEW for the anthology as a whole

I was caught up in the creepy and didn’t stop until I read the last story. The wonderful thing about an anthology, you can pick it up for a quickie no matter where you are.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of O Is For Outbreak. 4 of 5 stars.