Tag Archives: mystery

Hunting a Detroit Tiger

Posted on March 28, 2024 by smellincoffee

Utility infielder Mickey Rawlings is in a fix. A man trying to organize baseball players into a union has been shot dead, and everyone is saying Mickey did it. In self defense, sure, so the police don’t care: indeed, the … Continue reading →

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Cemetery Road

Posted on December 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

Marshall McEwan (who is not Marshall McLuhan, disappointingly) ran away from small-town Mississippi to become a journalist in D.C. He found great success there as  a talking head on what passes for TV news, talking down with great condescension about the place … Continue reading →

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The Dispatcher

Posted on October 2, 2023 by smellincoffee

Imagine Zachary Quinto, known as nuSpock or “that quiet guy in Margin Call who tells Jeremy Irons the bad news”, doing an impression of Heath Ledger’s Joker. Got it? Okay, good, because that was my favorite part of this novella. … Continue reading →

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Friday the Rabbi Slept Late

Posted on September 1, 2023 by smellincoffee

The small Massachusetts village of Barnard’s Crossing is shaken when the body of a young woman is found lying behind a garden wall, and no one more than Rabbi David Small — because the woman’s purse was in his car, … Continue reading →

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Killing, fictional and otherwise

Posted on August 29, 2023 by smellincoffee

Lately I’ve gotten into the bad habit of getting almost to the end of the book, and then saying — “Okay, not enough of that to take to work, I’ll start a new one and then finish the other one … Continue reading →

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Hope Never Dies

Posted on August 7, 2023 by smellincoffee

Joe Biden is roused by his faithful pooch, Champ, who hears something Nefarious going on outside. Sallying forth to investigate, Scranton Joe finds a lone (well, lone-ish — there are guards) figure standing in the woods waiting for him. It’s … Continue reading →

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Goosebumps and Boxcar Children

Posted on July 26, 2023 by smellincoffee

I’m lumping these two together because as much as I liked them as a kid, I wasn’t able to get access to many copies while I was prepping for this project, so I’m limited to one or two books . … Continue reading →

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Blockade Billy

Posted on April 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

Blockade Billy© 2010 Stephen King112 pages Okay, this has nothing to do with Read of England, unless I can claim that it’s a baseball story, and baseball grew from rounders which was invented in England and is slightly older than … Continue reading →

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The Other Side of the Bay

Posted on March 8, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Other Side of the Bay© 2014 Sean Dietrich177 pages There’s a broken down  truck in the woods holding three men,  two drunk brothers and a passed-out football has-been.   By morning, the truck will be discovered in perfect working … Continue reading →

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Of shotgun riders and serial killers

Posted on June 22, 2022 by smellincoffee

Medical update: I saw the doctor today and he was extremely pleased with my progress. According to him, my blood chemistry could not look better! I managed a 4-block walk today from the hospital back to my hotel room, after … Continue reading →

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