The deputy mayor of New York City is bleeding in the upstairs bedroom. His wife and the kitchen staff are missing, the dinner is not prepared, and the guests for their tenth-anniversary party are sharing gossip and trying to cover over the facts in Rumors, a madcap farce by the late great Neil Simon, now playing in a Good Company Players’ production at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater through May 7.
Before I begin a new mystery, I decide on the mechanism of death. In Murder Is Revealing, I chose a gun. Guns are straightforward, but like anything, require research. Size of weapon and caliber of bullet affect the narrative because they determine how you will commit the homicide. How would the murderer bring the weapon to the crime scene without being discovered?
If you lead a busy lifestyle, you might find it hard to relax when you're home. Even if you have a room set aside as your own personal sanctuary, the colors and items around you can influence the atmosphere of the space. To help keep your home filled with a calmer and more peaceful vibe, there are several simple ways to transform the look and feel of any room. Here are a few ways to help make your home into a sanctuary.
When attorney Andy Carpenter doesn’t have a case in court, his investigative team gets restless. The team consists of Andy’s wife, Lorie, an ex-cop, Sam who is a computer genius, Marcus who is their muscle, Corey, also an ex-cop, and Simon Garfunkle who is Corey’s retired K-9 partner. They call themselves the K Team.
Golden years. Those years when one is supposed to be living a life of leisure without a care in the world, secure in their life situation, and secure in their home. This month, we will profile three cats who thought they were in such circumstances but were sadly surrendered to the CCSPCA by the humans they trusted. Two of them are ten-year-old siblings who were put into separate kennels while at the shelter. The third one felt so betrayed he was starting to shut down. Feral Paws Rescue saved them all.
A friend of mine messaged me the other day almost in tears because an author they love and adore replied to their email in a contemptuous way. My friend is a fan of male/male romances which are very commonly written by straight women for straight women, and the author in question has a very feminine name and looks very feminine, and therefore, my friend made the assumption that the author in question is female. Hell, I made the assumption the author was female.
Through the years, I have followed and reported on many food entrepreneurs, people with vision, skill, talent, flair, and a great idea. Some have succeeded and some have failed. All have faced similar challenges: location, or buying equipment without having to invest more money than they have for acquisition and maintenance. But what if a common location existed for creating culinary masterpieces with adequate equipment, storage space, support, and 24-hour access?
Last summer, Deputy Mattie Cobb found her mother living in Mexico. Mattie wanted to let her know, the Cobb brothers, the ones who killed Mattie’s father, were both dead. Her mother still doesn’t feel safe. When Mattie and her sister, Julia, go to visit, they find their mother and stepfather have disappeared. Something or someone spooked them. Now it’s up to Mattie to find them again.
Lori Robbins premiered the On Pointe Mystery series with Murder in First Position in 2020, following up with Murder in Second Position (2021) and Murder in Third Position (2022). With the world of ballet as the backdrop, she introduced Leah Siderova who only ever cared about ballet. Her parents supported her dreams sending her to the best schools, but after they divorced early in her life, her mother, believing her Russian ancestry would fare better than Feldbaum on the marquee, changed their name to Siderova.
Heavy footsteps shook the hot, dusty air, jolting us out of our downstairs vigil; all eyes shot up to the Bastille’s second-floor VIP section — what had once been the women and children’s ward of the former Kings County Jail.
