TG Wolff – Page 12

Hippy Saves the World: Intro

December 23, 2022December 14, 2022TG Wolff

This blog story was created for the entertainment of one man: Sergeant Joshua Irvin, currently deployed somewhere in this great world of ours with the Ohio Army National Guard, C Company 1, 148th Infantry. This is a story he and I talked about before he deployed and one I plan to keep writing until he’s back home.

If you aren’t Josh and you’re entertained else is entertained by it, well that’s just great. Do me a favor of writing something in the comments to Josh.

If you aren’t Josh and you aren’t entertained by this story, that’s just fine, too. I’m sure we both wish you were somewhere else.

In case you were wondering, Hippy is a real person, a brave one to let me write fiction around him. Yes, this is fiction. Noir in fact. Noir stories contain elements of crime, cynicism, moral ambiguity and strangeness. And so it begins.

A Word Before Dying: e-book FREE

December 15, 2022TG Wolff

I need to have a word with you…A Word Before Dying. Reward yourself for your starting the holiday shopping, finishing the holiday shopping, or thinking about starting the holiday shopping by taking a few minutes for yourself and solve a murder. Through the end of the year, Mysteries to Die For: A Word Before Dying, the e-book, is FREE through Smashwords.

In the last moments of life, a single word can be the difference between justice and obscurity. It can also set the stage for an amazing story. For your puzzle solving pleasure, Mysteries to Die For presents: A Word Before Dying.

Nuts. Hiawatha. In Vino Veritas. El Melena. Bad Luck. Sue Her. Best Friend. Ghost. Shadow.

Nine enigmatic phases. Nine stories arranged for you to deduce the truth before the detective takes center stage.

The Beetle’s Last Fifty Grand: A Review

December 11, 2022TG Wolff

Kevin R. Tipple’s contribution to Colin Conway’s Back Road Boddy and His Friends is “The Beetle’s Last Fifty Grand”. Rick Wilson woke up battered, beaten, and in a barn. He says, “Well…shit”, then thinks about how it summed up his life and the situation. Wilson isn’t a bad guy, not at all. But he is a man whose life proves that no good deed goes unpunished.

Through Wilson, Tipple tells the story of Wilson’s brother-in-law, Wyatt, aka The Beetle, a name given to him during his tenure as a getaway driver. Wyatt drove with the legendary Handbrake Hardy and is still owed money. With Handbrake on his deathbed and Wyatt in a similar situation, he sends Wilson to collect this money. It’s to be his inheritence.

Really, Wilson should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy.

I finished reading the story a few days ago, at first not have strong feelings one way or another. But Rick Wilson keeps floating to the top of my mind, a sure sign of a good character and strong story. Without asking for empathy, Tipple creates, in a few short pages, a character you care about. One you can’t help shaking your head and thinking, “Well…shit. He got a raw deal.”

Gro is for Grotesque: A Review

November 8, 2022November 7, 2022TG Wolff

Call me butter, I’m on a roll! That is right, a review of the next story in Colin Conway’s 509 Crime Anthology BACK ROAD BOBBY AND HIS FRIENDS. This time it’s Rob Pierce’s turn with GRO IS FOR GROTESQUE. Gro and a woman named Bobby are traveling from Tacoma to Spokane to tie off loose ends with the infamous and dying Handbrake Hardy Fry. For Bobby, it’s about the answer to an unanswerable question. For Gro, well, it’s personal.

Gro and Bobby have secrets…and trust issues. As they grind their way east, the story starts unpacking. They are interesting characters and the story leaves you wanting to know more about how they got where they are.

Fletch Goes for a Ride: A Review

November 7, 2022TG Wolff

Finally found time in between this and that for Eric Beetner’s installment in Colin Conway’s 509 Crime Anthology BACK ROAD BOBBY AND HIS FRIENDS. Fletcher Moore is worn out. A life time of driving and living hard has ruined his hips, made him slower than he should be, even at 72. But aching bones aren’t Fletch’s problem. The problem is a twenty-something who has come looking for the ten grand Fletch owes his boss.

This short story (and it is short) is worth reading twice. Beetner packs a big story in the careful crafted pages, sucking you in and then leading to a very unexpected ending. FLETCH GOES FOR A RIDE is absolutely worth a read…twice.

M2D4 Featured on Writers Who Kill

September 14, 2022TG Wolff

Mysteries to Die For was featured on that fantastic mystery and thriller blog Writers Who Kill. One of the writers who routinely kills is KM Rockwood, who contributed Best Friend to Season 4: A WORD BEFORE DYING. The featured post talks about how our podcast grew from an idea to a media forum tailor made for those who can’t resist a good mystery.

https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2022/09/welcome-to-mysteries-to-die-for-by-km.html

Ghostly Deeds

September 9, 2022September 8, 2022TG Wolff

When crossing the Atlantic, few things are worse than have a ghost among the crew. The one above the Paul Henry is looking for men to join its ranks. So far, he’s acquired two souls. Dock in New York, Captain Saverfeld seeks out a pair who solved a deadly mystery on another ship, years before. Mr. Edmund Jessop and Mr. Linus Gordon have turned their time and skills to booking cargo. But they can’t resist a good mystery anymore than we can.

Listen to Mysteries to Die For and solve the mystery of The Ghost of the Paul Henry by Michael Penncavage.

The Ghost of the Paul Henry

A Word Before Dying: The Book

August 21, 2022TG Wolff

Mystery lovers, have I got a treat for you.

The nine stories of this season’s Mysteries To Die For podcast are coming to a book distributor near you. What makes this anthology so much fun for us mystery lovers is that, like the podcast, there is a pause before the big reveal to give you a chance to solve the murder. I’ve included the list of suspects and summarized the clues in a page called “Deliberation.” Whet your detective skills on these made to order mysteries.

Nuts! by Judi Lynn. Laurel and Nick’s first anniversary Airbnb getaway is hi-jacked by a woman dying on the kitchen floor. “Nuts!” she tells Laurel before losing consciousness.

Finding Hiawatha by Frank Zafiro. Jameson Burrish’s health had been failing but death came for him sooner than expected. With his daughter and nephew at his bedside, he gasps out his final word “Hiawatha.” Is it the rambling of a sick man or a decree to rewrite his will? The answer falls to private investigator Stefan Kopriva.

In Vino Veritas by Jack Wolff. The rag tag team of treasure hunters is within a day of finding the mythical Domas Dei temple when their guide, Den Deadson, meets a messy end. With his last breath he tells Detective-turned-bodyguard James Delviro “in vino veritas.” Now what the heck could that mean?

The Legend of El Melena by Mark Edward Langley. People are turning up dead around a small, burned down church outside Las Palmas, NM. Paranormal journalist Eddie Manning investigates to determine if the hand behind “El Melena” are human or something other.

No Luck like Bad Luck by TG Wolff. Richard Wedgeworth died in the middle of a party, his final words to his wife were “bad luck.” He ate the same food and drank the same drinks as everyone, yet he was poisoned. Solving the mystery is Diamond’s problem. Too bad she’s not for hire.

Sue Her by Kyra Jacobs. Marissa Steele is implicated in murder when the soon-to-be dead man points to her and says “Jimmy will sue her.” A former cop, Charlie Mullins pulls out all the stops to protect his best friend’s sister and the one woman he can never have.

Best Friend by KM Rockwood. A developmentally delayed young woman is hit by a truck and killed, the case closed as a tragic accident. But her last words “best friend” mean Darlene’s older brother and a volunteer social worker aren’t so quick to close the book.

The Ghost of the Paul Henry by Michael Penncavage. Men are dying aboard the Paul Henry. The only clue to their demise is the last word uttered by one of the damned. “Ghost.” Captain Saverfeld turns to Mr. Edmund Jessop and Mr. Linus Gordon to answer the question of if there is a ghostly hand behind it all.

Fading Shadow by TG Wolff. A day of the zoo becomes work for Detective Jesus De La Cruz when the maintenance manager Warren Taylor is shot. His dying word “shadow” leaves Cruz looking hard at those closest to the man.

Available from the e-retailers below. Available August 31 with pre-order available now. Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble |

The Transformation of Buzzcut Billy: A Review

August 16, 2022TG Wolff

Continuing our dive into Colin Conway’s Backroads Bobby and his Friends, Susan Wingate brings us the story of an ass kicking lady and a tough guy wannabe in The Transformation of Buzzcut Billy. Zaine Walker knows exactly who her daddy is, and her greatest wish is to be the reason for his exodus from this world. On her way to see Handbrake Hardy Frye, she stops for a burger and that’s where things go awry.

This short story is an entertaining diversion from your day. It doesn’t have the tension of some of the other stories but that doesn’t detract from the power of Zaine Walker’s character. She is a determined woman with a ton of self-confidence that we learn is well earned.

MOOving and Grooving

August 11, 2022August 11, 2022TG Wolff

I drive a lot. And when I drive, my mind often does a deep dive into the oddities of our world that catch my attention. Most recently, my wandering mind wondered about…

COWS

Cows are beautiful and produce the milk that gives us so much and, yes, they taste good. But why do they exist? They are lumbering creatures that don’t seem to have the speed or dexterity other herbivores are gifted with to outwit or out maneuver predators. So how have they won out in the survival of the fittest?

A 2012 article from University College London concluded that modern cattle are descendants from a small herd of wild oxen, captured and domesticated. The wild ancestors, called aurochs, truly were wild. They were common across Europe and Asia but did not have the calm demeanors we now associate with cows. They were much larger, too. Apparently, cattle farming was never for the feint of heart.

Interesting as that is (and the article is more interesting. Take the time to read it.) My question was more about how the cow evolved structurally and managed to survive. Maybe the answer to the second part is buried in the 2012 article. Once we bred the wild out of the cows, we humans protected them from all predators but ourselves.

Structurally, the back end bothers me. All of that weight being pulled down by gravity, pushing those knees forward. It doesn’t seem like a good design. Yet, the numbers in a 2011 article from The Beef Site pointed in a different direction. Data analysis of over 1.8 million animals that found only about 13% of the animals were treated for health issues and only 16% of those were for lameness. (For math haters, that is 0.16 x 0.13 = 0.02 or 2% of the original group) Of that 2% that were lame, 70% had foot issues. Issues in joint were most commonly associated with the front legs. Huh.

Well, I’m sure that’s farther than you ever wanted to go into cow family and frames. But now, you don’t have to wonder and neither do I.