Silent Night

Silent Night by Robert B. Parker and Helen Braun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

P.I. Spenser, handsome young detective and home chef of holiday meals, is pulled into a new case when a street-wise eleven year old, named Slide, pops into his office with a question. Can Spenser help the threatened Street Business, a grassroots effort to shelter homeless young men and Jackie, the man who runs it? Hawk, Spenser's sidekick, returns to aid his buddy and the young Slide.

There is nothing like reading Robert B. Parker by starting off with the very last book he wrote before he passed away. In fact Parker didn't finish the Christmas Spenser novel - his literary agent, Helen Brann, completed it with the approval of Parker's wife. Usually not a reader of crime fiction, I will continue to read more of Parker's Spenser novels - it's the twist of humor that pulls me in.

View all my reviews

Bitter River

Bitter River by Julia Keller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I usually do not read crime fiction, but this one caught my eye. Not only is the cover and title appealing, it takes place in a fictional town in the Appalachian mountains of nearby West Virginia. Several pages into Bitter River I realized that, darn, this is Julia Keller's second book set in Acker's Gap about prosecuting attorney, Bell Elkins. By that point, I was already involved with the story and couldn't put it down. Bell is deeply invested in the area and many of the townspeople are her personal friends or related. When a murder involving a popular and well-liked teen happens, the town is turned upside down with sadness, but yet there is more sorrow to come. Is the perp a local or an outsider? Bell has her hands full trying to track down the murderer.

I will be tracking down the first book - A Killing in the Hills.

View all my reviews