Hello everyone! The break for the holidays was the perfect time to push out some changes to Mysteries to Die For. Just in time for our 8th Season: Anything but Murder, Mysteries to Die For is breaking off of TG Wolff’s writer website to a stand alone site:
Better organized and dedicated to the mysteries you love to solve, m2d4podcast.com is the site for:
Season 8 podcasts available days before it drops
NEW Author page with links to your favorite author’s episodes and website
Past seasons more readily accessible
UPDATED Toe Tags book reviews organized by date and by mystery type
Better companion anthology page
Follow the link and subscribe to m2d4podcast.com to keep receiving the (almost) weekly emails with episode and Toe Tag announcements.
Friday, January 10 it begins….
Join us for Episode 1: Who Shot Liberty’s Valence by Ed Teja where a startup pharma lab has gone up in flames. Suspected arson is the crime in this murderless whodunnit.
What’s next for TGWolff.com?
Over the coming weeks, the Mysteries to Die For content will transition out allowing tgwolff.com to focus on TG’s adventures in writing, both for podcast episode and full length mysteries.
Thanks for being a subscriber and we hope to see you on the new site and for the new season!
I am fortunate in that the Toe Tags I do as part of Mysteries To Die For exposes me to many authors and titles I wouldn’t ordinarily find on my own. Add to that list the books that are recommended by other readers and the ones my husband gives me and, well, I read a lot of mystery, crime fiction, and thrillers. This post contains those that I gave 5 start ratings to. To earn 5 stars from me, a story has to have flawless logic, no loose ends, great characters, and, of course, be entertaining. Happy Reading Detectives!
Elephant Safariis a political thriller. Documentary film maker Pero Baltazar and elite guide Mbuno are on a walking safari when they come across a herd of elephants being terrorized by poachers. After intervening, they take on the responsibility of protecting the herd and ending the poaching, which draws them into an international conspiracy they could not imagine
Bottom line: Elephant Safari is for you if you like dramatically intense political thrillers and the exotic environs of East Africa.
Listen to an excerpt here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For
Peter Riva has traveled extensively throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe, spending many months spanning thirty years with legendary guides for East African adventurers. He created the Wild Things television series in 1995 and has worked for more than forty years as a literary agent. Riva writes science fiction and African adventure books, including the Mbuno & Pero thrillers. He lives in Gila, New Mexico.
Detective Connolly is back. This time he’s dying to meet Staniel Purquees. The problem is the fungus king is dead. The four suspects have been sequestered in a hangar in dire straits. To survive, Connolly has to deduce the role each has played – rock, paper, or scissors – to find the killer known as shoot.
Listen here or wherever you find Mysteries to Die For podcast.
The Light Beside the Seais a cozy mystery. Julia Bonatti is an astrologer who gives guidance to others to allay fears of change and the future. Yet, she is stuck in her own past, one that won’t lie quiet. A few, short years ago, her fiancé Michael was killed in a hit-and-run as he returned from an archeological expedition. Now it comes to light that he wasn’t the only grad student related to the project or the professor who has died. The latest was just days ago. Now Julia is asking questions. By solving one death, she just may be able to provide closure on them all.
Bottom line: The Light Beside the Sea is for you if you like cozy mysteries and a touch of the unexpected.
Listen to the prologue and first chapter here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For podcast
TG Wolff Review
Julia is our narrator and the detective in this story. One of the first challenges of the amateur sleuth mystery is how to inject the detective. In this case, Julia was invited in through multiple doors including other grieving wives/girlfriends and the bad guy. Julia isn’t a pushy / nosey as many cozy sleuths. She more finds doors that are open and goes through them rather than forcing her way through. She is easy to respect and like. With this is Julia’s fifth story, so she is a well developed character.
The main story is a mix of a mystery and a conspiracy. The older deaths were officially closed as accidents, not homicides. The newest death is undeniably murder. Through stories told by loved ones of the deceased, her fiancé Michael’s notebook, and a few experts in their fields, Julia pieces together the events and motivations until she unearths some shady characters.
Julia is consistent and true to herself in her actions. The logic of a story is more often tied to the actions of the Bad Guy. Looking from the end back to the beginning, I am left with a few questions.
The subplots have the zany element readers look forward to in a cozy. Julia’s grandmother’s next door neighbor had disappeared just as her daughter was forcing her from her home into a faraway elder care facility. Then there is the drama with the staff of The Mystic Eye book store with Rupert and the woman he cares for.
The pacing in the book is fairly fast with Julia hopping between the main and side story lines. Individually, the stories unfold at a stepwise pace. The astrology cozy element is fresh and, at times, highly technical. I won’t claim to have understood all of the explanations Julia gave to her clients, but they were interesting. There is an element of mysticism above and beyond Julia’s chosen path that adds a sense of wonder and suspense.
Overall, this was an entertaining read. Fans of the cozy genre who are looking for a fresh take should check on the Julia Bonatti and the Zodiac Mystery series.
Meet Connie Di Marco
Connie di Marco is the author of the Zodiac Mysteries featuring San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti, a woman who never thought murder would be part of her practice. The Light Beside the Sea is the fifth novel in the series. Writing as Connie Archer, she is also the author of the national bestselling Soup Lover’s Mysteries from Penguin Random House. You can find her excerpts and recipes in The Cozy Cookbook and The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. Connie is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers Association (UK) and Sisters in Crime.
Partners In Crime Tours represents a network of 300+ bloggers offering tailor-made virtual book tours and marketing options for crime, mystery and thriller writers from around the world. Founded in 2011, PICT offers virtual book tour services for well-established and best-selling authors, as well as those just starting out with their careers. PICT prides itself on its tailored packages for authors, with a personal touch from the tour coordinators. For more information, check out their website partnersincrimetours.com
Anti-gun activatist Riley Keane has done the unthinkable. In a crisis situation, she shot at two men wrestling. But did she shoot the assailant or her close friend and Chicago police officer Reece Taylor? Either way, she’s too hot to stay in her hometown. Now Alderman Finn O’Farrell, Riley’s lover, is left to deal with the fallout of threats, accusations, and blackmail.
Listen here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For podcast
Meet Cheryl L. Reed
A former staff editor and reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times and other publications, Cheryl L. Reed’s stories have won multiple awards, including Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. She has twice been awarded a U.S. Fulbright Scholar fellowship by the State Department, first in Ukraine and then in Central Asia. Reed is the author of the nonfiction book Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns and the novel Poison Girls, which won the Chicago Writers’ Association Book of the Year. She splits her time between Washington, DC and her home near the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.
It’s 1895 and Payne McPherson has arrived at her professor’s home for a study session to find her hanging from her French doors. She turns to Cleveland police detective Cian Kelly for help and appoints herself his assistant. Their investigation takes a sinister twist when they find the remnants of a hangman game her professor lost. And she wasn’t the only one.
Listen here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For podcast.
Lethal Standoffis an amateur sleuth mystery. A hostage standoff by a desperate man has innocent lives in the crossfire. After a hostage crisis ends with loss of life, Hostage negotiator Carrington Reed and reporter Levy Ehrlich follow through on promises to seek answers and protect a suspect’s family. But if solving problems were that easy, they would have been solved already.
Bottom line: Lethal Standoff is for you if you like your mysteries and thrillers woven into the life and faith of your detectives.
DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels with threads of romance. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone’s story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?
DiAnn is passionate about helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.
No Room to Hideis a cozy mystery. Crystal Ward is a professional organizer. Her latest client, Eva Rolfe, hired Crys for her de-cluttering skills but really wants her expertise-amateur sleuthing. The Victorian home Eva and her partner are flipping has a history and Crys is asked to suss out the truth that could make or break their bottomline.
Bottom line: No Room to Hide is for you if cozy mysteries and cold cases are the perfect ways to warm your Autumn nights.
The star of this show is Crys Ward. She is a charming mix of curious and practical that first gets her into trouble and then gets her out. I both liked and respected her as our detective because she didn’t let a good lead die, but she also wasn’t foolishly rushing into proverbial dark alleys. Her husband, Rick, a Chicago PD financial crimes detective, is a nice balance to her. His position gives Crys the connection to the police every good cozy detective needs while being different enough that they aren’t trampling over each other. His often grumpy disposition was a fun comic relief.
There are several storylines here nicely woven together. We have the original job Crys is hired for – going through boxes salvaged from an attic. Then there is the potential that a famed suffragist lived in the house which could make it a historic landmark. And we can’t forget the young mother who put her son to bed and disappeared from the house some 30 years ago. There’s the drama around the restoration of the house itself including interesting characters from the local board. Finally, there’s a little antagonist action with a reporter who is splashing Crys’s life on the front page. One reason I think these worked together so well is because they are all related. Where in other books, you might feel like you are jumping around from one storyline to another, you don’t get that feel here. The transitions are smooth and reasonable.
Standing at the end of the story and looking to the beginning, I did have a few questions, primarily related to the bad guy. The logic of Crys’s actions were solid as she followed the trail paved by her client Eva and her own intuition. Eva is a little more difficult to figure out but that’s intentional and part of the fun. Crys made significant contributions to the story continuing forward. Often her role was more of advisor as Eva was deciding to continue to end the project. In the end, the bad guy asserted control, creating a nice little thriller moment.
The entertainment value on No Room to Hide is high. It is a fun read at just the right pace to hold your attention. This is the fourth book in the series and I have not read the others. With the majority of this story focused on the mystery, I did not feel like I was missing information or backstory needed to enjoy the book. In my opinion, new readers are good to start here.
Mic Garcia loves Halloween. In his most elaborate party theme ever, he transformed his back yard into the beloved game world of Candy Land. But all is not well inside Gumdrop Mountain and Sheriff Cantalone has to figure out who gummed up this Halloween party.
Listen here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For Podcast
Meet Kyra Jacobs
Kyra Jacobs is an extroverted introvert who writes of love, humor, and mystery in the Midwest and beyond. When this Hoosier native isn’t pounding out scenes for her next book, she’s likely outside, elbow-deep in snapdragons or spending quality time with her sports-loving family. Kyra also loves to read, tries to golf, and is an avid college football fan. Connect with her on social media, links can be found on her website at http://kyrajacobsbooks.com
TG Wolff 