Originally Posted July 2012 Reposted and Updated Nov 2025

The other band that I’ve been listening to over the last few days is Molasses Creek and their new album An Island Out of Time.  The island in question is Ocracoke Island, NC. which according to their website is:

Only accessible by ferry, Ocracoke is an enchanting step out of modern times into a world of captivating natural beauty, rich maritime history, ghostly shipwrecks, heroic lifesavers, crafty pirates, and a community of 900 independently minded residents.

 An Island Out of Time is  the twelfth albums they’ve recorded over the past 19 years. In April of 2012, An Island Out of Time  reached the #4 spot on the National Folk Radio DJ Charts! (It is now at number 61, which is where  I spotted it)

About Molasses Creek

Molasses Creek’s is a collaboration of some great musicians including:  Gary Mitchell (guitar/vocals), Fiddler Dave Tweedie (fiddle/vocals), Lou Castro (dobro/bass/vocals), Marcy Brenner (mandolin/banjolin/bass/vocals), and Gerald Hampton (mandolin/upright bass). Their musicianship is for me the highlight of the album and their vocals and harmonies are not far behind!  

What others say about the band:

 The band’s combination of harmony, humor, and love for the island they call home gives their work a distinct sound and vision.
~ Sing Out Magazine

Molasses Creek seamlessly blends traditional sounds with a contemporary vibe. They are extraordinary musicians with an uncanny blend.
~ Sandy Oxx, Executive Director of the Carroll Country Arts Council

My Thoughts

So if you haven’t heard them check them out, as for me as always I have their back catalog to check out!!

Well, you know I love the fiddle player in most bands and Dave Tweedie joins my ever growing list of favorites, so here is a video that features Dave and some great fiddling! (oh, and I always enjoy the instrumentals on most albums)

Post Update

Usually this point in a post there is a video or playlist. But tonight I want to add some extra thoughts. Since I’ve written this post I have listen to less and less folk and bluegrass music. Actually, when I first started this post I didn’t really remember Molasses Creek. But once I saw the album cover memories of the band came floating back. Finally, when I listened to the album I said “Yes” I remember the band now! Great vocals and songs and even better instrumentals. You yes I still thinks Dave’s fiddle playing is outstanding!

So here instead of a short playlist of the tracks on An Island Out of Time here’s the whole album!

An Island Out of Time

My Last Words

Molasses Creek’s music is like a fine wine — it can be savored long after it was first poured. And as for me, I fully intend to keep enjoying every drop.

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Would you return to a family-owned island 30 years after an event that ripped your family apart? In Jessica Hamilton’s new psychological thriller What You Never Knew, Jane Bennett did just that….

When she was a child, June Bennett‘s family spent their summers on Avril Island in Lake Champlain. The Island had been gift to Avril Bennett from her new husband.

This family tradition ended tragically one night when June‘s father abruptly left his family. Now 30 years after that night, June discovers what she was told about her father‘s abrupt exit from their family may not have been the truth.

After the tragic death of her older sister May and her mother, June discovers that contrary to what she and May were told by their mother Avril Island was never sold after the family split apart!

So to help overcome her depression regarding the deaths and get her life back on track, June returns to Avril Island.

When she returns she discovers that the son of the  family’s handyman West Keen, has in fact, been taking care of their cottage. It seems that West also left the Island just ten days after Jane‘s father left his family.

Are the two disappearances connected?? The more June digs into the past the more she discovers there are “things she never knew“

About What You Never Knew

What You Never Knew is Jessica  Hamilton‘s debut as a novelist. She was born in Australia but grew up and resides in Canada. The book was published by Crooked Lane Books in April of 2021.

Thoughts About What You Never Knew

Overall, I thought What You Never Knew was a really good novel. The characters were well developed and there was a lot to like with each one.

Hamilton uses two narrators to tell the story. And while I’m not a fan of alternating narrators it works in this book. The narrators are June and her sister May (or May‘s spirit). It works because while May doesn’t know all that happened that night behause she has repressed those memories. she does know more than June.

Another aspect of the book, that bothered me. was the fact that June went to the Island ALONE! Then when she first visits the cottage it’s like they left it yesterday! It was 30 years…..no way these days the electrical and or pipes etc would still be in that house!

Then when Ezra Keen son of the handyman West shows up and it explains he has been taking care of and watching the place, I guess I felt better.

Overall, I found What You Never Knew a  well pace novel with a strong storyline and well-developed characters.

Sister Dear’s author Hannah Mary McKinnon‘s comment on the back cover of the box sums it up pretty well for me

Eerie and compulsive..this debut had me riveted right from the start. Well plotted and with  beautifully drawn characters, this is an excellent read.

Recommended to…..

Through the years What You Never Knew was not The type of book I normally read. My reads were manually either action thrillers from authors like Robert Ludlum , Brad Thor and Vince Flynn, or detective/private eye mysteries from folks like Janes Le Burke, William G Tapply or Lawrence Block.

However, lately I have read several psychological thrillers with involving families. So if I were recommending this book to othersI,  guess I would recommend it to fans of; Mary Kubica, Liv Constantine, Joshilyn Jackson and another new author Taylor Adams., and many more authors of this ilk unknown to me!!

My Rating

The Goodreads rating for this book was 3.77 out of 5. My Rating on Goodreads was 4.00 but if I could break it down farther it would probably be 3.85 or so. Really good but those little things still bother me somewhat. But I will still be on the lookout for Jessica Hamilton’s next book!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Jessica Hamilton

Author’s Website
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Amazon
Goodreads

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 Ok so I guess it’s time to put to rest the idea that abbook like The Wife Stalker is not the type of book I typically read. I guess it’s more appropriate to say it’s one of the various types of books I read. In fact I’ve read more of these types of books than science fiction so far the year.

The Wife Stalker is a fine Psychological Thriller. There are no serial killers lurking in its pages just two women fighting over one family. One a young woman Piper Reynard  has experienced tragedies in her life. And she is trying to create a new life with a husband who comes with two children. The other Joanna is trying to save her marriage and protect her husband and those same two children.

The Wife Stalker is composed of alternating chapters written from the point of view both Piper and Joanna. Throughout the book Piper struggles trying to get her new step-children  to accept her. While Joanna tries to dig into Piper‘s past to prove she is not who she says she is and is actually a threat to the children.

Throughout  the book I found myself rooting for both women. I felt sorry for Piper as she struggle with her new stepchildren. While her actions left me wondering if she was a threat to them. And what Joana was discovering lex. To to wonder if Piper really wasn’t who she said she was.

The results of  both Joanna‘s search and Piper‘s actions led me to believe the book was not going to end  well for anyone. Boy was I wrong. Wait for it! You won’t  be disappointed.

The Bottom Line 

The bottom line is The Wife Stalker is a very good psychological thriller. I am starting to learn there is a difference between action thrillers, which I am a big fan of, and psychological thrillers, a genre of which  I am learning to become a fan.

The Wife Stalker a 2020 release is the third book by Liv Constantine. Liv Constantine, I learned from reading the cover of this book, is the pen name sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine. Anyway I will be checking out their other two books The Last Mrs. Parrish and The Last Time I Saw You.

Book 41 of 2021

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Liv Constantine

Author‘s Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Amazon

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Ok so I had started this post as a welcome back post, but Ill’ll save that doesn’t the next post let’s just get back to the mysteries. And here’s a good one…….

A Good Kill (Detective P.T. Marsh #3)

Today I finished A Good Kill by John McMahon.  It is book 40 for 2021 and book 3 in McMahon’s Detective P.T.Marsh series. I read The Good Detective, the first book in the series in December of 2020 and book two The Evil Men Do in February of this year.

The Story

P.T. Is a detective with the Mason Falls police department in northern Georgia. In this instalment P.T.and his partner Remy Martin are called to a Magnet school in Mason Falls where a potentially active shooter is holding three students and a teacher hostage in the Art Room.

The shooter has already killed one teacher. Soon P.T. has the shooter in his crosshairs….should he take the shot?   A call from the Georgia governor to whom Marsh owes a favor and a threatening move by the shooter results in an answer of yes. It was a “good Kill right? It’s question that haunts P.T.for the rest of the book.

After  the shooting case is turned over to the Feds, P.T. and Remy are assigned to a double homicide investigation. In addition P.T is still haunted by the murder (made to look like an accident) off his wife and son. Marsh is still trying to find who hired his wife’s killer and why?

My Thoughts on John McMahon and the P.T.Marsh Series

I have really  really enjoyed all three of the books in this series! I guess that’s why I’ve read all three in around seven months! Everything about these books is terrific. Both the characters and the storylines are interesting, suspenseful and believable.

So Check Them Out IN ORDER!! As for me, I’ll have to wait until 2022 when John MCMahon will be introducing a new character!

Series Links

AAuthor’s Website
Facebook
Instagram
Amazon

About John McMahon

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If you’ve read some of my past blog posts you probably know that I am a fan of mystery and thriller series. Some of those series I have been reading religiously for 20 or more years. Others I have read several books, stopped a lost track of the series. The Agent Pendergast series from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is one of the later.

I read the first two books in the series Relic and Reliquary, which were terrific. Then I read several more books in the series. I also enjoyed those books. However, through the years other books always were read instead of Pendergast novels.

Over the last few years, I have picked up several overstock copies of books in the series and I have not read them! Shame on me! A week or so ago, I saw Crooked River book #19 in the series, at the library. Instead of saying, I’ll just wait until I’ve read the books that come before it, I checked it out,  I’m glad I did.

About Pendergast and Crooked River

Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is a special agent for the FBI from Wikipedia…

He once worked out of the New Orleans Field Office of the FBI, but resides in New York City and works out of the New York Field Office; he frequently travels out of state to investigate cases which interest him, often those appearing to be the work of serial killers. More at Wikipedia

In Crooked River Pendergast is presented an intriguing case on Captiva and Sanibel islands off the coast of southern Florida. Hundreds of shoes have been found in the Gulf of Mexico and washed up on the island beaches. The aspect of the case that makes it super intriguing is that a severed foot is still in each shoe!

Soon Pendergast recruits his former partner Agent Coldmoon to provide assistance. While the Coast Guard and the local police search for the simple answer. Pendergast knows the case is far more complex. Can they find the answers before the trail goes cold!!

Agent Pendergast is one of the most interesting characters in the mystery fiction genre and shame on me for not reading more of these books!

Crooked River is fast-paced and well developed you never even have a chance to lose interest in the  story. And ultimately the solution contains aspects of current events!!

About Preston & Child

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are a dynamic writing duo, but they also have solo careers. I have read several of Preston’s solo novels like The Codex and enjoyed them. Lincoln Child has a 5 book series featuring Jeremy Logan. Logan is an “enigmologist” an investigator who studies phenomena that have no plausible explanation. I have read one of the Jeremy Logan books no 5 The Forgotten Room.

Douglas Preston is also the author of a really great nonfiction book The Monster of Florence. His personal murder mystery where he ends up as a suspect!  Highly recommended!!

Reading On….

After reading Crooked River I am going to try and read more books from the series. I probably should start with The Book of the Dead which is book 7 of the Pendergast series and the end of the trilogy featuring his brother Diogenes. The easy thing it’s already on my bookshelf. The hard thing will be to fit it in amongst the eleven books I have checked out of the library! I think a few of those books which were just impulse checkouts will go back unread! Lol

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Thoughts of The November Man and Three Missed Series 

So the other day while I was straightening up, I came across one of my old book journals. The journal covers the years from 1992 to 2000 (roughly my 40s).

Anyway, when I was looking at the journal, I also for some reason checked my Goodreads’ bookshelves. I discovered  none of the books from 1993 were listed. So I  started out to shelve the books.

Book No. 8 for the year was Burning the Apostle  by Bill Granger. It is the 13th and final book in Granger’s November Man series. The first November Man book I read was The Infant of  Prague, which I read in 1988. Between 1988 and 1993 I read the last five books in the series, as well as, the second book in the series Schism.

In the late 1990s Granger had a series of strokes. Finally, in 2000 he had a major stroke which ended his writing career. He passed away in 2012. In 2014 the November Man came to the big screen with Pierce Brosnan playing Devereaux.

Thinking about The November Man started me thinking about other series that I used to read. I thought of three more series. The authors of the following series have all passed away but their books should live on!

Brady Coyne – William G Tapply

William G Tapply’s first Brady Coyne novel Death at Charity’s Point was published in 1985. The 28th and final Brady Coyne novel Outwitting Trolls was published in 2010.

Brady is a Boston lawyer with a small but very rich clientele, that somehow always found a way to get in trouble. Most of the action on the books takes place outside of the court room.

Anyway,  Brady’s character is great and so are the supporting characters. So check out a Brady Coyne book.

There are 28 books in the Brady Coyne series. I have read 18 of them. Hmm, even though William G Tapply has passed, I still have 10 Brady Coune books to enjoy. So I should read at least one soon!

Porfiry Rostnikov – Stuart Kaminsky

Porfiry Rostnikow is an inspector with the Moscow police department. He is a….

…. A bruising bear of a man, whose love of weightlifting and American pizza has left him as squat and powerful as a . 38 bullet, Rostnikov may be the toughest cop in Moscow.

The first Rostnikov book I read was A Cold Red Sunrise the fifth book in the series. I read it because I saw it had won the Edgar award as best mystery novel. It wasn’t long after that I went back and read the earlier books in the series.

This series is one of my all time favorites I love Porfiry and his family along with all of his fellow officers. One of my favorite characters in the series is Emil Karpo who is referred to as the “Tartar” or most often as the “Vampire” based on his appearance.  Emil is a true believer in the Communist system and Will support it to the very end.

The stories are always well-written , fast-moving and interesting. So check it out!

There are 16 books in the series. I have read 13 of them. It seems I missed three books (9-11) published in the mid-90s. Note to self finish the series!!

Stuart M. Kaminsky was a profiling writer. In addition to the Porfiry Rostnikov series Kaminsky wrote series featuring Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Hollywood (1977-2004), veteran Chicago police officer Abe Lieberman (1990-2007) and finally a  Sarasota, Florida, process server named Lew Fonesca (1999-2009).

Kaminsky passed away in  October of 2009.

Robert (Mongo the Magnificent) Fredrickson – George C. Chesbro

Another series that I miss features a different kind of Private Eye Dr. Robert “Mongo” Fredrickson, a.k.a. Mongo the Magnificent. Mongo is …..

…..a fictional private eye and criminologist who has dwarfism……his rather unusual nickname is actually his stage name, from his days as an acrobat in a circus (a career that is over by the time the book series begins).

Mongo and his brother Garth always seemed to get involved in some kind of case with some strangeness in it.

 ….Playboy magazine as “Raymond Chandler meets Stephen King by way of Alice’s looking glass.”

Mr. Chesbro’s best-known character “is definitely an acquired taste that requires certain suspensions of perception and expectation,” wrote Dick Adler in a 1993 Chicago Tribune review.

“Imagine a dwarf who honed his physical skills as a circus acrobat called Mongo the Magnificent and then, using his real name, Dr. Robert Frederickson, became a world-famous criminologist,” Adler wrote. “Add to that the fact that Mongo’s world is filled with good and bad witches, satanists, warlocks and magicians of every shade as well as the normal run of murderers, swindlers and thieves.”

The writing, nonstop and violent, can also be very funny. Mongo played on a local  softball team in his spare time and noted that he led the league in walks.  Complete obituary

There are 14 books in the Mongo series. I have read all of them except Dream of the Falling Eagle the final book in the series.

So thinking about these four series has stirred up a lot of memories. I think I should create a mini-reading challenge”. I’ll challenge myself to read at least one book by each of these authors over the next four months! Anyone want to join me!!

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Table of Contents

I have been reading c.J. Box‘s  Joe Pickett books for a long time and Dark Sky the 21st book in the series is in my opinion one of his best!

The Story

In Dark Sky  Joe must lead an elk hunting trip for a famous tech mogul. Steve Price, better known as Steve-2, the founder of Aloft and the social media platform  ConFab. Steve-2 wants to track, kill and dress an elk. Needless to say things don’t go well almost from the beginning. As the hunting party begins the hunting party are being watched by the Thomas  family. Seems the father Earl has a score to settle with Steve-2 and he’s brought along his to sons Kirby and Brad to help him settle it!

Meanwhile Nate Romanowski and Sheridan Pickett Joe’s daughter who is also Nate’s falconry apprentice have their own problems. Seems someone is stealing from their falconry nests. And Nate is none to happy with that situation!

Thoughts about the Joe Pickett Series

I have enjoyed this series since I read my first Joe Pickett book back in 2004. I started with Savage Run the second book in the series and I quickly went back and read book one Open Season! And I’ve read every book with the exception of Cold Wind (Book # 11). I started reading Cold Wind when it came out. However, I ended up returning Cold Wind to the library unread. The most likely reason was being distracted by another book.

The one aspect of the series that has made it most enjoyable is that Joe and his family along with Nate Romanowski have aged! Joe is now 51 and he’s not moving real well. And while age may be a part of his problem the main reason he has a limp is he was shot a while back. And now Joe is going to use all his wiles to keep both himself and his clients safe.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is Dark Sky is a fast-paced exciting novel with well developed characters. And while it may be more enjoyable if you know the characters, I think Box provides enough info for the reader to recognize and like Joe Pickett’s character. Box does a good job of developing the other characters i.e. Steve-2 and Earl Thomas and his sons are well.

So go find it read it and then you only have 20 more books featuring Joe and his family to enjoy! As for me, I need to go back and read Cold Wind!

Links

iAuthor’s Website
Facebook
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Goodreads
Goodreads:Joe Pickett Series

About C J Box

Charles James Box Jr. is an American author of more than thirty novels. Box is the author of the Joe Pickett series, as well as several standalone novels, and a collection of short stories.

If you like the family and character connections in this series…

You might also enjoy:

• William Kent Krueger — the Cork O’Connor series blends crime with family, history, and a strong sense of place
• Michael Robotham — especially the Joe O’Loughlin books, where personal lives are always part of the story
• Peter May — the Lewis Trilogy, where past, family, and landscape are tightly woven together

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So this morning I didn’t do my typical workout first thing. Instead I finished reading The Residence by Andrew Pyper. It’s the first book I’ve read by Pyper and the 27th book I’ve read in 2021.

About Andrew Pyper

Andrew Pyper is a Canadian author hailing from Stratford, Ontario. He has a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from McGill University, He also has a law degree from the University of Toronto. However , he has never practiced law.

His novel, The Demonologist, won the 2014 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel, and was a #1 bestseller in Canada.

The Residence is his 11th novel and the 5th published  by Simon & Shuster.

About The Residence

The Residence is a ghost story set in the White House during the administration of Franklin Pierce. While I never really found the book overly scary, I did find the overall story intriguing.

Franklin Pierce is one of the Presidents that you don’t really learn a lot about in school. I had read previously about the Pierce’s losing their son Benjamin (Bennie) in a train accident  It’s Bennie’s death and Jean Pierce’s attempts to contact him in  the afterlife that is central to the story.

While I didn’t love the book I did find it an interesting read. When I was in the middle of the book I decided I wanted to know more about Franklin and his wife and family. So I googled “best books about Franklin Pierce”. There are only a couple of biographies the most recent was written by Michael Holt and is part of The American President Series. So I checked at my library for the book and it’s on its way to me!

Summarizing, The Residence was for me an ok read (3/5 stars). It kept me interested to the end but didn’t provide a lot of scary moments. However, there were a few thought provoking moments about slavery and the creation of our nation. So check it out! As for me, I’ll be checking out some of Pyper’s other books.

Finally,  I was going to write about the rest of my morning in this post. However,  since I went on and on about The Residence I think I’ll post this and tell you about my morning in my next post!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Books of Andrew Pyper.

Author’s Website
Facebook
Instagram
Goodreads
Twitter

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My first introduction to the works of Ragnar Jonasson was Nightblind. I read Nightblind in 2018 and while i was reading book 2 in the series, the series was already up to book #5. Additionally, Ragnar started a second series in 2018 the Hidden Island series. That series was up to book #3 in 2021 when I read The Darkness.. Anyway, as I discovered the books I got really confused about what book number I read in what series! Here is book ! in the Hidden Iceland Series The Darkness

The Darkness

The Darkness features Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police. A 64 year-old widow she is waiting out her time until she can retire at 65. However, her employers have other ideas and soon Hulda is forced into an early retirement. She is given two weeks to go home and wait until her official retirement begins.

Rather than being allowed to  continue to work  on her caseload, she is told she can work on a cold case of her choice.

Hulda chooses the case of a young Russian woman whose body had washed up on an Icelandic shore a year earlier. A cursory investigation was completed. The death was declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed.

As Hulda starts to dig into the case, she quickly realizes it may not have been a suicide but rather a murder.

As the novel progresses the reader is provided two parallel story lines told in flashbacks

One story line involves a mother who had to place her illegitimate baby daughter in a care facility because she couldn’t afford to take care of her. And their struggles throughout the child’s life.

The other story is about a young women who is taken on a trip to an isolated and dangerous valley in the Icelandic mountains.

All three converge to provide a very dramatic ending to The Darkness.

Gregg Hurwitz’s writes on the cover of The Darkness ..” I dare you not to be shocked” and I do too !!

Final Thoughts 

The bottom line – I really liked the book. I thought Hulda’s character the was both interesting and well developed. Additionally, I also know that I had some of the same feelings as I approached and moved into retirement. Now, I can’t wait to move onto The Island and The Mist

Links

Author’s Website
Goodreads
Amazon

About Ragnar Jonasson

Ragnar Jonasson is author of the award winning and international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

His debut Snowblind, first in the Dark Iceland series, went to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts shortly after publication. The book was also a no. 1 Amazon Kindle bestseller in Australia. Snowblind has been a paperback bestseller in France.

Nightblind won the Dead Good Reader Award 2016 for Most Captivating Crime in Translation.

Snowblind was called a “classically crafted whodunit” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, and it was selected by The Independent as one of the best crime novels of 2015 in the UK.

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