What would you do if you came to visit your mother one day and found her huddled in the closet, rocking back and forth, clutching a baby blanket tightly in her hand? And how does the confused and fearful woman connect to a mafia like-gang, drugs, a baby ring, sleazy cops, and an unknown assassin? These are questions which send Ian McCormick on a quest to find out, and he’s scared to death he won’t figure out the answers in time.

After he found his mother, Corrine, that fateful day, Ian moves in with his mother to care for her. While she does have times of lucidity, she frequently reverts into her own world, losing track of time and rationale, to the point where Ian feels like he will go crazy trying to deal with her. He has been faithfully taking her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Endicott, whom Corrine refers to in her own mind as Dr. Hartley from The Bob Newhart show. Dr. Endicott counsels Ian to find a happy place in his mind and go there when the stress becomes too much.

Ian stopped trying to make sense of the words. Now and then she fell into this pattern of incessant chanting. Repeating words and phrases until he wanted to rip out his eardrums to keep from hearing another sound. Eventually she would stop as quickly as she’d begun.

At times they even had normal conversations. Oddly enough, those were the times that hurt the most. Because that’s when he remembered what his mother had been like before their world had been tipped upside down.

Corrine is convinced that someone is watching her and tells Ian about the men who watch her from across the street. At first Ian believes these men to be a figment of his mother’s imagination and part of her psychosis, but then wonders if she may be telling the simple truth. After several months of dealing with the problem of his mother’s insanity he wonders what could have caused such a drastic and seemingly overnight change. Since therapy has produced no appreciable results in over the months, Ian decides to take matters into his own hands and hires a private investigator to piece together the past to see if they can determine the catalyst for the change in Corrine. Enter Lucianna Martel, the private investigator, and her uncle Vinnie. As the investigation proceeds, Ian and Lucianna discover there is more going on than meets the eye, and thugs and cops alike may be part of a hit list which includes Corrine.

Hit List is a good suspenseful read, and Darcia Helle does a masterful job at painting the character of Corrine in the depths of her insanity. The story primarily alternates between Ian’s point of view and Corrine’s point of view, with some sections written from Lucianna’s point of view. The sections you spend with Corrine are well done, and as the reader you experience Corrine’s confusion, and her knowledge which surfaces periodically that she is blocking out a life-changing event. Unfortunately, once the reason for Corrine’s behavior is known, it is a little bit of a let down, as Helle has done such a good job in penning Corrine’s fear of remembering and apparent paranoid delusions, the cause simply does not support the results. Despite this, the read up to the reveal is compelling and will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Preview Hit List on Amazon.com

Reviewed for the LL Book Review

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A phone rings in the middle of the night, and former police detective Tony Marcella knows who will be on the other end. His friend and partner for thirty years on the force, Carlos Rodriguez, is calling Tony because of a case, which isn’t really a case and he needs his former partner’s help. The women of New Castle are commiting suicide at an alarming rate. Three women in three weeks, and detective Rodriguez doesn’t believe the women, who seemingly have everything to live for, killed themselves, but in the case of the most recent suicide, eyewitnesses attest to the fact and the locked door provides the only exit. Tony is inclined to tell Carlos that things may just be as they seem until he finds out the identity of the third victim; someone he knows, one of their own, a cop.

Donovan sets up Eye of the Witch as a locked room murder mystery, where the question of how the murders were committed, especially when it appears they were self inflicted, becomes of equal importance with trying to figure out who committed them. In addition, there is the question of how the victims are linked together. At first glance it doesn’t seem likely. Bridget Dean, a lawyer on the rise who just accepted a lucrative partnership with a prestigious law firm. Anna Davalos, a Cuban born waitress who worked in a coffee shop. And Karen Webber, a bright, vivacious cop who had recently transferred to New Castle.

At first the victims seem unrelated, but a little detective work brought to light that Anna Davalos worked in the same building as Bridget Dean and Karen Webber was secretly investigating their deaths. More digging unearthed the fact that all of the women were linked because they attended a parnormal workshop several years prior. And the workshop was through the same paranormal research facility which figured prominently in Tony Marcella’s last case before retiring. Bridget and Anna also shared the attentions of lawyer Ricardo Rivera, and the women who at first sight had little in common become entwined with one another by the end of the book, with motives, suspects, and red herrings abounding.

The character I enjoyed the most in the book, was Lilith, the witch of the piece. Lilith is irreverent, sarcastic, and has a single purposed focus. Detective Marcella attempted to nail her for murder during his last case, and in the process became the possessor of the witch’s ladder, an object he denied having. Lilith needs the witch’s ladder back so she can perform a ceremony and her aim throughout the book it to get Tony to admit that he has it and to coerce him into returning it. Here’s a sample of her snarkiness while she goes after what she wants:

“Yes. Nobody in your stinking precinct would tell me where you went or what happened to you.”
“Really? Lilith, I’m touched. I didn’t know you cared so much.”
She made a face as if a sour nut had just come up her throat. “Hardly. You have something I want.”
I straightened up in my seat and pulled the kink from my tie. “Do I? Frankly, I didn’t think I was your type.”
“P—leeease, Detective. I’d sooner sleep with Fidel, over here.” She jabbed her thumb into Carlos’ side, hitting his holstered gun. They turned and looked at each other, equally surprised. “Yeah, you,” she said. “You can just forget about it, my little Copacabana boy. You are already about as close to me as you are ever going to get. So, take a deep breath and savor it.”

As detective Marcella gets further into the heart of the mystery, more ties keep cropping up with his last case, including a tie to Leona Diaz. Leona had been kidnapped the previous year by the Surgeon Stalker and during this time, Tony Marcella learned of her gift of bilocation or out of body experience. The more things tie to his last case, the more Marcella questions his ability to help his ex-partner solve the mystery surrounding the deaths.

Eye of the Witch is a fast paced read, with lots of twists to keep you guessing right up until the end. While there was much about the book I liked, there were also parts I felt could have been done better or cleaned up a bit. Donovan has some structural issues with the text due to changing tenses and some loose ends at the conclusion, meant as red herrings, but I wanted them integrated a little more instead of left hanging. Another issue I had was with the depiction of Marcella’s former partner, Carlos Rodriguez. Tony tells us how respected Carlos is, but there are portions of the book where Carlos is characterized as a buffoon who can not think beyond what to next fill his stomach with. Suspension of disbelief was also difficult in some areas of the book, but not in the arena of the supernatural, as one might expect. At the beginning of the book there is a reference to Marcella not having talked to his ex-partner Rodriguez for six or seven months, since he retired after the last big case, but then later the time reference from the last case is referred to as being a year ago. In light of the time frame, whether 6-7 months or just at one year, the changes Donovan depicts as occurring to make Tony feel uncomfortable with a return to police work seem not quite believable.

I saw one of the biggest, brightest, shiniest glass covered buildings New Castle had ever constructed. It wasn’t just a police station; it was an ultra-modern criminal justice center, complete with jails, courtrooms, administration offices and state-of-the-art crime lab. It had everything a small town cop could want. Hell, it had everything a big town cop could want, too. I told Carlos if he threw in a couple of suites, a swimming pool and valet parking, he’d have a five-star resort for law enforcement and could charge for it on weekends. To this, he laughed, and when he took me past the workout center, complete with pool and sauna, I understood why.
“It’s really different here, Tony,” he said. “This facility serves the entire county. We all share resources now.”

I felt that it stretched the bounds to believe that such a state-of-the-art building could be constructed from the ground up within that time frame as well as integrating all of the different law enforcement agencies under one roof. But aside from those issues, Eye of the Witch takes you on a wild ride to a thrilling conclusion.

Preview Eye of the Witch here

Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review

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This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held at UCLA. This particular event is awesome as an author to see the number of people all excited about books. It helps give me faith in the path I am pursuing in continuing to write and produce stories for readers. I love having the chance to talk with my target readers and find out some of their interests. One of the additional joys of participating in book festivals is the opportunity to meet other authors face to face and talk with them. I was delighted to meet Natalie Tinti in person at the festival. Ms. Tinti is a poised, professional, 10-year old, who has written and illustrated a book about friendship. She not only had books, but also had colorful illustrated posters from her book to help promote her product.

Sewing a Friendship starts with a picture of each of the characters in the book and character profile of each, answering the questions of birth date, age, family, eye color, hair color, favorite food, favorite color, and specialty. For the target age group Natalie is writing for, I found this to be a nice way to start the story. The reader then knows who the characters are that they will meet and have a visual they can refer to if they need to during the course of reading the book. As a young reader, I always loved character profiles, just a little snippet about the character outside of the actual text. Then I would compare throughout my reading experience to see if the author kept true to the profile, or whether I could spot any discrepancies.

The story starts with the wind blowing through town and checking on each of the main characters at each house along the way. Ms. Tinti has very unique character names. Along with the wind, you meet the four friends, Sokron Blossom, Nina Key, Meeka Venya, Jonsy Jipsy, and the outcast Kiki Shaver. In addition to the friends and Kiki, there is Sokron’s grandma, Babushka and her dog, Dogon.

The four friends get together to have a beginning of summer sleep over. Then they find out about a fashion show and are excited to participate. However, Kiki Shaver threatens to stop their participation. The girls find because of the rules, they need Kiki and Kiki needs them and through working together they are able to become friends by seeing the value in each other. My favorite character is Dogon, as he snoops on the girls and helps to ensure the friendship is knit together.

The illustrations are delightful and highly colorful, and each chapter has a different border, which makes it a happy read. I look for a bright future for this young author and illustrator.

Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review

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For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading mysteries. The idea of discerning clues as I read the story and trying to come up with the answer before the detective does has always given mysteries a little extra spice for me. I’ll admit I read more cozies, having cut my teeth on Agatha Christie, than police procedurals, but I enjoy a good story with a lot of plot twists. 

As The Twig is Bent opens with George Spiros, an aging manufacturer of wrought-iron furniture, on the way home after a successful business trip, anxious to see his wife, Melina. Scenes of George on his way home to his beloved wife, while on a flight threatened by a storm, are interspersed with scenes of Melina being brutally raped and killed. Melina Spiros is not the first in the string of deaths, but her death and the commonalities of another determine the murderer is a serial killer, who must be stopped. A heart carved on the breast of the victims with four initials, the initials of the victim and JC, and a bible at the scene with a specific passage underlined are the only clues Detective Lieutenant Matt Davis and his team have to unravel the mystery surrounding these brutal murders.

When the case lands in the lap of Matt Davis, he is not pleased. In the twilight of his career, trying to keep his current marriage from going south due to the pressures of the job, a serial killer with religious overtones is the last thing he wants to face. The primary team consists of Davis, his partner of seven years, Chris Freitag, and the recent transfer to the station, Rita Valdez. Rita has a history of inappropriate relations with colleagues, and is trying to live down her past as a homewrecker as well as prove she is a good cop. Rita’s biggest problem is that she is lonely. The investigation takes the team into the realm of the local church because of the bible connection and their attempt to determine whether the JC stands for Jesus Christ, giving the murders a religious twist or whether they are the initials of the perpetrator.

Joe Perrone, Jr. takes the reader on a ride through the cyber world where the killer is active in online chat rooms, searching for his next victim; something Melina Spiros found out to her detriment.

The man she had arranged to meet this evening was someone she had met several weeks ago in an Internet chat room, called “Manhattan Singles.” He had intrigued her from the start, and when he had invited her to meet him for a drink, she had been pleasantly surprised, accepting immediately. Privacy was important, so they had agreed upon a small tavern, just out of the neighborhood, where no one would know either of them, especially her. Inviting him back to her apartment had been a risk, but she never intended to do anything more than talk, so she had taken it.

Perrone switches back and forth throughout the book from Davis’s point of view to that of the killer, bringing out the murderer’s background and what shaped him to be the twisted wretch he has become. While appreciating the background information and the glimpses into the psyche of the murderer, I feel these sections were, at times, a little heavy-handed, telling me the how’s and why’s instead of showing me. The best of Perrone’s writing shines through in his depiction of the relationship between Davis and his wife, Valerie. In particular, their trip on a rare day off to go fly fishing. Perrone’s own love of fly fishing imbues his descriptions and I felt like I was standing next to Matt and Valerie as they cast their lines.

As The Twig is Bent is not for the squeamish. There are sections containing brutal details of grisly murders, and glimpses into the mind of the insane. Although I would like to see Perrone go back and polish this novel a little more, removing the passivity, the base story is a good one and is satisfying for murder mystery fans.

Preview As the Twig is Bent

Review of other book(s) by Joe Perrone, Jr. – Review 10 – Escaping Innocence

Originially reviewed for the LL Book Review

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