A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
Read crime fiction and step into the shoes of characters ensnared in increasingly desperate circumstances. Crime novels invite readers to experience the world of people who — out of necessity, greed, boredom, or frustration — are drawn across the line of legality.
{ 0 comments }
Baby, it’s cold outside! Time to stay warm and catch up on your favorite series. Check out these delicious and savory mysteries.
Tweet Revenge in Ellen Riggs’ eleventh Bought-the-Farm mystery. Hobby farmer Ivy Galloway and sheepdog, Keats, welcome a songbird to the animal rescue Runaway Farm and Inn. An antique birdcage attracted the bird who has a sad song to sing.
{ 6 comments }
Books make good presents, easy to find, easy to wrap. Listed at the end of this column are eighteen holiday books which came out months ahead of time. Yule enjoy them!
{ 10 comments }
Amazing that another year is almost at an end. This year certainly has had its ups and downs professionally and personally. ReQueered Tales lay low for most of the year with very few releases compared to previous years. However, we had some amazing titles come out: Skydiving on Christopher Street by Stan Leventhal, Drylands End and its sequel Betrothal at Usk by Felice Picano, Dead as a Doornail by Grant Michaels, Long Goodbyes by Nikki Baker, and Little Miss Evil by Lev Raphael. In 2022, we expect to see a lot more releases by authors like John Morgan Wilson, Edward O. Phillips, Lauren Wright Douglas, Richard Hall, Robert Ferro, Michael Grumley, Nikki Baker, and, new to ReQueered Tales, Richard Stevenson!
{ 0 comments }
After turkey and pumpkin pie, settle down with Alka Selzer and a good book. Here’s some suggestions (most of these books are already out but they fit with the season):
First, I must confess that I did a gender change in Kate Thornton’s Medium Dead. The visitor who becomes a corpse is a man.
{ 9 comments }
As a bibliographer, a librarian, a collector, and reader, I spend a lot of time in mystery groups on Facebook, and the one major refrain from authors is the lack of publishers willing to take on new talent. Same with literary agents. Only the hottest and biggest names are picked up for publication by the major five, and even the smaller independents are getting ever more picky about who they will publish. I understand slightly their hesitancy; they’re a business. Why take a risk publishing a nobody author who may cost the business money when they can keep churning out the same huge authors.
{ 0 comments }
Those People.
An ad hawking Christmas present ideas just popped up in my email. It’s barely October, and yet marketeers are already ratcheting up holiday gift-buying stress.
It’d be different if I were one of Those People. You know the ones—they’ve purchased and wrapped their holiday presents before the Fourth of July.
{ 6 comments }
Sample a slice of four new series and fill your candy bag with Halloween mysteries. Vampires, ghosts, and murders abound. Be careful out there and wear a mask—even when it’s not Halloween! Some of these are October releases, and some just fit the Halloween season!
{ 2 comments }
Hard to believe fall is almost upon us. Here in Michigan, the sun is going down earlier, the temperature is manageable again, and kids are back in school. I work for an academic library, and this time of year is so exciting for me. I love to see all of the fresh and eager faces making their way around campus and in the library. I am glad to know that the school has taken a hard line regarding vaccinations and testing and hoping that the worst of the Delta variant is soon to be behind us so that we can finally look forward to visiting with family and friends for all of the fall and winter holidays.
{ 0 comments }
The heat has got us all down and fall can’t come soon enough. It seems publishers are impatient too as these witch mysteries can’t wait for Halloween. Plus, Kings River Life’s own Lorie Lewis Ham has started a new series as well!
{ 12 comments }
Recently I have taken to republishing the works of Fergus Hume, a gay nineteenth-century writer of mysteries, goth romances, and fantasy novels. Some are easy for me to republish and some take me a lot of work, but those that are the hardest for me are sometimes the most fun as they require a lot more research and double checking the first editions to the scanned copies.
{ 0 comments }
It’s been a scorching, waterless, and fiery summer here on the West Coast. The rest of the country is dealing with heat, floods, hurricanes, and tornados. Covid is making a deadly comeback. This is when a good book is necessary for sanity. Stay well and hydrated!
{ 12 comments }
I can’t believe that summer is already half over. It only seems like it just began. At the academic library where I work, we are getting ready for fall classes to begin. This year is especially busy as all of the furniture that has been in storage over the span of the pandemic have to be put back out as social distancing guidelines have expired. It is a thrilling time as we are seeing the library come back to be seen as a place for the students to collaborate and congregate. It’s starting to feel like home again.
{ 0 comments }
Summer is a time for unapologetic, indulgent reading. From frothy beach reads to page-turning thrillers. But it’s also a time when schools hand students that dreaded list: summer required reading.
Mandatory books I was forced to read sank to the bottom of my TBR pile. The assigned titles, a collection of dusty publications I wouldn’t have picked for myself, never called to me. Not until the waning days of summer vacation when I realized I had to plow through hundreds of pages of un-fun reading before the school year began.
{ 0 comments }
Bunny-soft and burly cat Brad is ready to be a great family’s great boy! He’s a very curious and companionable guy who has a dignified manor and appreciates a little extra time to cozy up. He warms up quickly and enjoys being in your lap or nearby for ear scratches and comfy naps. He has been around other cats and a little bit around kids. Handsome Brad hopes to bring his gentlemanly manner to a great home where he will be just the affectionate fellow to fill welcoming hearts! Brad is available for adoption from Cat House on the Kings.
