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Small Caliber Reviews by Kevin R. Tipple

"Red Cat" is the third novel of the John March series and he finds himself with an unlikely client. This time it is his brother David who comes to him out of sheer desperation. David has been involved in what he thought was a no strings affair but things have turned out not the way he wanted at all. The woman he knows as Wren seems to know everything about him and seems to be stalking him. He wants John to do what he does best—start turning over rocks and find where she crawled out from. John agrees and once again Author Peter Spiegelman crafts another tale that is part crime and part study of the human mind. Another good read that works best if you have read the series in order. Begin with "Black Maps" and follow with the second book known as "Death's Little Helpers." You won't be sorry.

"A Field Of Darkness" by Cornelia Read came out last year and is well worth the read if you haven't already done so. Its 1988 and Madeline Dare hates Syracuse, can barely tolerate her job writing fluff pieces for a local paper and is madly in love with her husband, Dean. Dean is gone a lot which makes Syracuse even worse. Things go darker still when she is shown a set of dog tags owned by her cousin which were found at a murder scene nearly twenty years ago. Two young ladies were killed and arranged in a field and the police still have not been able to solve the case. A case that hangs over her once she knows of it and she wants to believe with every fiber of her being that her well off cousin who she has always secretly and not so secretly loved could have done such a horrible thing. The resulting investigation as she literally and figuratively stumbles along the trail will turn over a lot of rocks, quite a few snakes, and a host of dead bodies. The result is one heck of a read and one that shouldn't be missed.

Craig Johnson writes a fantastic novel and does it again in "Kindness Goes Unpunished: A Walt Longmire Mystery." Sheriff Walt Longmire of Wyoming began in "The Cold Dish" and continued on in "Death without Company." In this third installment of a series that absolutely without question has to be read in order, Sheriff Longmire and his good friend Henry Standing Bear are far from their beloved home of Absaroka County, Wyoming. They are in Philadelphia for fun which quickly turns into heartbreak and horror when Longmire's daughter is attacked and left for dead. While she fights for her life in a hospital bed, Longmire fights for a reason to go on besides revenge in the wake of this tragedy. Working on many levels this latest installment of the series is another powerful testament to quality writing and masterful storytelling.

"Wreckers' Key: A Novel of Suspense" by Christine Kling is the forth in the series revolving around Seychelle Sullivan. Sullivan is the owner/operator of the 46 foot aluminum tug "Gorda." She has taken the tug down to Key West to help her old friend Nestor Frias get the yacht "Power Play" back to its home. Nestor was making the maiden voyage with the yacht when something went wrong with the GPS and he grounded it. The circumstances of the grounding were strange and then when days later Nestor is killed in suspicious circumstances, Sullivan begins to snoop. That is when she isn't lamenting her past, navel gazing for paragraph after paragraph, worrying about what her boyfriend is doing with her best friend, or trying to decide her future. The slowest and by far weakest read in a series that has always been very enjoyable in the past ends in a contrived manner. It isn't clear if this is the end of the series or an abrupt charge in it. With so many changes one gets the feeling that this could be the end and after this read, that might be just as well.

Stone Barrington returns in "Fresh Disasters." Once again author Stuart Woods weaves a tale that manages to make sure Barrington eats a lot of very good food, makes quick friends with a lot of beautiful women, and deals with a psycho or two. Herbie Fisher is back and now he is a lawyer. He hasn't learned much and after being roughed up by a couple of wise guys for a bookie he owes 24 K to, decides it would be a wonderful idea to sue the crime boss that wants the money. Stone becomes his lawyer not by choice and things go from bad to worse. That is also the situation in a secondary storyline that becomes the major theme of the second half of the book. This is typical Woods of late and the read is a pleasant diversion of fluff from weightier books.