SUE GRAFTON – Q Is for Quarry. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 2002. Reprint paperback: Berkley, 2003.

ROBERT B. PARKER – Potshot. Putnam, 2001. Reprint paperback: Berkley, 2002.

   In recent novels, Kinsey Millhone has been rediscovering her family and she’s not at all happy about it. The main plot line in Q Is for Quarry concerns an eighteen-year-old cold case that two aging cops (Lt. Con Dolan and retired detective Stacey Oliphant) are attempting to solve.

   Oliphant’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphona has reappeared after ten years in remission, and Dolan is an incessant smoker who’s had a series of heart attacks that have put him on medical disability. As a young cop Dolan was called to the scene of the discovery of the body of a young woman, while Oliphant was one of the original investigating officers.

   The woman was never identified. Dolan asks Kinsey to help out and, with both men intermittently sidelined because of their health problems, it’s her usual careful, methodical legwork that eventually closes the case.

   In Potshot, Spenser is hired by a woman to find out who murdered her husband, and he heads off to to Potshot, Arizona, where she and her husband run a “little tourist service.”

   He finds the town is largely controlled by a community of outcasts and misfits who have been molded by their leader, the messianic Preacher, into a formidable and deadly force. Spenser, hired by the town’s leaders to clean out the “Dell” where the Preacher and his cohorts hole up, brings in his own force for assistance.

   However, he begins to suspect that nothing is exactly as it appears to be, a realization that doesn’t detour the clean-up but makes it something less than the top priority for Spenser, which is to find out the truth.

   The two writers, apart from their common ability to tell a good story, approach that task quite differently. Parker is the terse, concise stylist, who gives the impression of not having an unnecessary ounce of padding in his narratives.

   This sometimes leads to a concision that sets my teeth on edge, but only momentarily. (There’s a very awkward moment with Susan when Spenser fractures the French language in a bit of inelegant linguistic playfulness, and I rather liked it that his uptight lady friend was, as ever, correct, and Spenser was rather bluntly incorrect.)

   Grafton is digressive and expansive, probably more so than in her earliest work, but the solid, hard-nosed investigations she undertakes still draw me in, even as I wish that she would let Kinsey deal more directly with her ambivalent feelings about her family and either move on past them or find some measure of reconciliation with them.

   The two novels, by writers of long-running series and still apparently professionally comfortable with what they’re doing, should satisfy their many fans among whom I still count myself.

[COMMENT]  This and the next batch of reviews from me, some of them going back quite a way, are of books by writers I’ve been following over the years. I’m increasingly tired of writing about series in which the quality doesn’t vary significantly from one title to the next. I’ll use this as a way of signing off on some of them.

   Four years after I wrote the reviews of these two books, I read Parker’s Hundred-Dollar Baby (Putnam, 2006; Berkley, 2007). Spenser takes on a case for April Kyle, whom he once helped off the streets and into a “safer” line of employment.

   Good works don’t always turn out well in the end. Another smart, smooth performance by Parker. And unless Parker falls from his pedestal, pulled down by a dumb, clumsy performance, that’s my final word on the Spenser series.

   More authors from the D-H section of the annotated online Addenda for the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

   PLEASE NOTE: This will be the last of the Addenda updates to appear on the M*F blog, I’m sorry to say. To post them here as well as there takes time and effort I’ve decided I could use more effectively elsewhere. What I’ll be doing instead is putting together a list of interested parties to whom I’ll send updates like this one by email on a regular basis. If you’d like to be on the list, leave a comment or contact me directly, and I’ll make sure you are.

DAVIES, FREDA. 1937- . Add year of birth. Born in London; read zoology at Bristol University and taught for a while before moving to Pembrokeshire. Add SC: science reporter Sue Bennett, in the title below and at least one later novel, post-2000. Pseudonym: Amy Pirnie, q.v.
   Let Heaven Fall. Allison, UK, pb, 1995; Carroll & Graf, US, hc, 2006, as by Amy Pirnie (shown). “Accidental death, judges the coroner, but was it simply a case of solicitor Colin Bennett falling under a rush-hour train?”

DAVIS, ELIZABETH.
   There Was an Old Woman. TV movie: Mark Carliner, 1971, as Revenge (scw: Joseph Stefano; dir: Jud Taylor)

DAVIS, GIL. Add as a new author. SC: Dan Walker, who does undercover assignments for the CIA, in all titles.
   Assignment: Tokyo. Publishers Export, pb, 1967. Setting: Tokyo.
   Missile Island. Publishers Export, pb, 1967. Setting: Caribbean.
   Valley of the Doles. Publishers Export, pb, 1967. Setting: Texas (El Paso).

DEAL, BABS.
   The Walls Came Tumbling Down. TV movie: Whittman, 1979, as Friendships, Secrets, and Lies (scw: Joanna Crawford; dir: Ann Zane Shanks, Marlena Laird). [Note: Filmed and produced with an all female cast, with only one male in the crew, a cinematographer.]

DEFOE, DANIEL.
   The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. Film: MGM, 1996, as Moll Flanders (scw & dir: Pen Densham). TV movie: BBC, 1975, as Moll Flanders (scw: Hugh Whitemore; dir: Donald McWhinnie). Also: ITV/PBS, 1996, as The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders (scw: Andrew Davies; dir: David Attwood). [Shown is the DVD case for the 1996 MGM film.]

DELMAN, DAVID. TV movie, based on an unidentified novel: Lorimar, 1975, as Conspiracy of Terror (scw: Howard Rodman; dir: John Llewellyn Moxey). SC: Lt. Jacob Horowitz (Michael Constantine) [and Barbara Rhoades as Helen Horowitz].

K. j. a. WISHNIA – Red House.

St. Martin’s; paperback reprint, December 2002. Hardcover edition: St. Martin’s, November 2001.

   This is the fourth in the series of mysteries solved by Ecuadorian ex-revolutionary and now fledgling private eye Filomena Buscarsela, single mom and philosopher slash social critic. Quoting from page 67: “And thus we see the dangers of post-Heideggerian rejection of history.”

   Since I haven’t read the previous three books, I don’t know exactly what career paths she may have been following up to now. She seems to have spent some time on the New York City police force — a police detective for only one day, as she puts it — but in this book, she’s a first year trainee at the PI firm of Davis and Brown, trying to work her way up to getting her own license.

   And rather than focusing on only one case, we get bits and pieces of a number of them — more of a private eye procedural, a la Joe Gores, street style, as Filomena tries to build up the Latino clientele for the firm.

   The mugging (murder?) of a local housing advocate is the main item on her agenda, however, with the plight of the illegal squatters in an abandoned tenement they refurbished themselves a close second.

   The pace is fast-moving, told in first person, present tense, and Filomena certainly knows her way around. The problem with the book is a subtle one, as I found it. According to the back cover, Wishnia (male) has a Ph.D. in comparative literature, and book reads as though it was written by someone having a Ph.D. in comparative literature.

   It does not read as though it was being told by a real-life Filomena Buscarsela, whose depth of knowledge seemingly knows no bounds, running the gamut from Heidegger (see above) to Marx (Groucho, waggle-waggle) to pulp novel covers (page 131) to nineteenth-century German chemist Friedrich Kekulé (page 226).

   I’m not saying that Filomena Buscarsela is not the person she says she is. What I’m saying is that K. j. a. Wishnia did not succeed in convincing me that she is. It’s his job, and so far (I’ve read only the one book) he hasn’t done it, at least not for me.

   The street scenes are fine, perhaps even more than fine. Otherwise? I’m skeptical, but I’ll leave myself open to opposing argument. (Even better, I’ll read the first three books.)

[UPDATE] 12-29-08.   That’s another promise I haven’t kept, I’m sorry to say. Not yet, I haven’t, but I will. For the record, expanded upon from her entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all of Filomena’s appearances in book form:

   BUSCARSELA, FILOMENA

      23 Shades of Black. The Imaginary Press, trade pb, 1997. Signet, pb, Nov 1998; Point Blank, trade pb, 2004.    [Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel.]

      Soft Money. Dutton, hc, 1999; Signet, pb, May 2000.
      The Glass Factory. Dutton, hc, 2000; Signet, pb, Mar 2001.
      Red House. St. Martin’s, hc, Nov 2001; St. Martin’s, pb, Dec 2002.
      Blood Lake. St. Martin’s, hc, Dec 2002.

   Here are the first entries in the newly created D-H section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

DALE, WILLIAM. One of many pseudonyms of writer Norman A. Daniels, q.v. Under this pen name, the author of three works listed in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   _Corpse, Hands Off! See The Terror of the Handless Corpse.
   John Doe–Murderer. Gateway, hc, 1942. United Authors, UK, 1946. Australian title: Murder Has No Name. Phantom, pb, 1955.

   _Murder Has No Name. See John Doe–Murderer.
   Outside the Law. Dodge, hc, 1938. Add setting: Denver, Wyoming. Leading characters: Jeff Tracy, thief, and Douglas Greer, detective.

   The Terror of the Handless Corpse. Gateway, hc, 1939. Australian title: Corpse, Hands Off! Phantom, pb, 1955. Setting: New York. Leading character: PI Loopy Jones.

DALEY, ROBERT.
   To Kill a Cop. TV movie: David Gerber, 1978 (scw: Ernest Tidyman; dir: Gary Nelson)

DANIELS, HAROLD R.
   House on Greenapple Road. TV movie: Quinn Martin, 1970 (scw: George Eckstein; dir: Robert Day)

DANIELS, NORMAN A. Pseudonyms: William Dale, q.v., Daniella Dorsett, Harrison Judd, Mark Reed, Norman T. Vane & David Wade; house pseudonyms James Clayford, G. Wayman Jones & Robert Wallace; ghostwriter for Dorothy Daniels; hence also Angela Gray, Cynthia Kavanaugh, Suzanne Somers, Geraldine Thayer & Helen Gray Weston. Prolific writer for the pulps as well as the author of many titles cited in the Revised Crime Fiction IV.
   Chase. Novelization of TV movie [pilot for series]: Mark VII/Universal, 1973 (scw: Stephen J. Cannell, dir: Jack Webb)

DAVIDSON, MURIEL (FRIEDLAND). 1923-1983. Correction of year of birth; add maiden name. A television executive and the author of three mystery novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. She was found murdered at her California home on September 27, 1983, her killer a man whom she had met at a hospital where she counseled alcoholics once a week.
   The Thursday Woman. TV movie: CBS, 2000, as The Wednesday Woman (scw: N. D. Schreiner; dir: Christopher Leitch). Note: In this semi-biographical suspense thriller, a woman, Muriel Davidson, writes a novel about a reckless affair with a dangerous criminal, then lives out the story she has created. Davidson is played by Meredith Baxter on the screen. No onscreen credit is given to the book as the source of the screenplay. [For more on the story, see this earlier post on the M*F blog.]

BRIAN FREEMANTLE – Here Comes Charlie M. Doubleday, US, hardcover, 1978; ppbk reprint: Ballantine, 1980. Published in the U.K. as Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie; Jonathan Cape, 1978; ppbk reprint: Arrow, 1987.

   Spies can easily outlive their usefulness. The new brooms of equally new administrations have moved in on both sides of the Atlantic, and Charlie Muffin, who proved to be so embarrassing a non-willing pawn in the preceding book in this series (a book called Charlie Muffin, or simply Charlie M. in the US) is the dirt that has to be swept out. Guilt-ridden and on the defensive as he is, however, it is his nature to fight back.

   And the nature of sequels being what it is, the keen edge of cutting commentary concerning the spy business is lost, or at least it takes a while for it to be sharpened up again. This time it seems almost too easy — the top minds of two huge intelligence organizations pose very little challenge to the intrepid Charlie M.

[UPDATE] 12-27-08. I had no idea at the time, but Charlie Muffin has turned out to be one of the most durable spy characters in hardcover spy fiction. He’s appeared in 14 books, listed below. Guys like Matt Helm, Joe Gall and Nick Carter have lasted longer in paperback, to be sure, and maybe you can think of others who might rival him in hardcover, but it’s quite a record.

   And one that’s passed below my own personal radar. Until coming across this review, I hadn’t thought of Charlie M. in ages, perhaps because so few of his adventures have come out in paperback. Expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s the list:

   MUFFIN, CHARLIE

o Charlie Muffin. Cape 1977. [US: Charlie M.]

o Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie. Cape 1978. [US: Here Comes Charlie M.]
o The Inscrutable Charlie Muffin. Cape 1979. [US: same]
o Charlie Muffin’s Uncle Sam. Cape 1980. [US: Charlie Muffin, U.S.A.]
o Madrigal for Charlie Muffin. Hutchinson 1981. [No US edition]

o Charlie Muffin and Russian Rose. Century 1985. [US? The Blind Run]
o Charlie Muffin San. Century 1987. [US: See Charlie Run]
o The Bearpit. Century 1988. [No US edition]
o The Runaround. Century 1988. [US: same]
o Comrade Charlie. Century 1989. [US: same]
o Charlie’s Apprentice. Century 1993. [US: same]

o Charlie’s Chance. Orion 1996. [US: Bomb Grade]
o Dead Men Living. Severn 2000. [US: same]
o Kings of Many Castles. Severn 2001. [US: same]

   As for author Brian Freemantle, he doesn’t seem to have stopped writing, unless it’s been very recently. He’s been averaging a book or two a year over the past 30 years, either under his own name or as by one of his four pseudonyms: Harry Asher, Jonathan Evans, John Maxwell or Jack Winchester. For a long list of all the books he’s written, along with a large assortment of covers, see the UK Fantastic Fiction website.

   I’ve been too busy to do more than to finish up the C-authors today. You can also find these entries online in the A-C section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.

CREEKMORE, DONNA (R.) 1926?-1995? Pseudonym: Diana Campbell. Under her own name, the author of two romantic suspense novels included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV (and under her pen name, the author of one more).
   The Coachman’s Daughter. Dell, pb, 1979, pb; Linford, UK, 1992. “Her sister’s mysterious disappearance and rumors of the gruesome ‘Shoreditch Slasher’ filled violet-eyed Linnet Hamilton with terror…”
   The Silver Shroud. Manor, pb, 1978. Add UK edition: Linford, pb, 1992.

CROSS, NEIL.
   Mr. In-Between. Film: Verve, 2001 (scw: Peter Waddington; dir: Paul Sarossy); also released as The Killing Kind.

CUNNINGHAM, E. V. Pseudonym of Howard Fast.
   Sally. TV movie: CBS, 1971, as The Face of Fear (scw: Edward Hume; dir: George McCowan)
   Shirley. TV movie: ABC, 1971, as What’s a Nice Girl Like You…? (scw: Howard Fast; dir: Jerry Paris)

CURTISS, URSULA.
   Out of the Dark. TV movie: CBS, 1988, as I Saw What You Did … and I Know Who You Are! (scw: Cynthia Cidre; dir: Fred Walton)

CUSSLER, CLIVE.
   Sahara. Film: Paramount, 2005 (scw: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John C. Richards, James V. Hart; dir: BreckEisner) SC: Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey)

   I’ll soon be finished with the A-C section of the online Addenda to the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin. Through Parts I through III, that is.

CORBY, JANE (IRENITA). 1899- ? Pseudonyms: Laura Brighton, Jean Carew & Joanne Holden. Of some 24 novels published under her own name, many of them nurse romances, nine are included the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Of these, most are apparently gothic romances. (Those written under her various pen names fall in very much the same categories.)
   Peril at Stone Hall. Arcadia, hc, 1969. Also published as: Fall, Darkness, Fall! Leisure, pb, 1975, as by Laura Brighton. Add UK edition: Linford, pb, 1993. “Mystery lured her to the old castle. Death would show her the way out.” Shown is the US Macfadden paperback edition.

CORNWELL, BERNARD. 1944- . Clarification: This was his name at birth; as an infant he became Bernard Wiggins when adopted by the Wiggins family, but legally changed his name back to Bernard Cornwell when Joseph Wiggins died. Prolific British author of historical fiction; he has also written five contemporary thriller novels, many of them involving sailing, which are included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. Shown is the cover of the US edition of one of these; the UK title is Sea Lord (Michael Joseph, 1989).

COUGHLIN, WILLIAM J(EREMIAH).
   Shadow of a Doubt. TV movie: Scripps-Howard, 1995 (scw & dir: Brian Dennehy). SC: Charlie Sloan (Brian Dennehy).

COURTENAY, BRYCE
   -Jessica. Australia: Viking, hc, 1998. Joseph, UK, hc, 1999. Setting: Australia; ca.1914. (Add time frame to the setting.) TV movie: Umbrella, 2004 (scw: Peter Yeldham; dir: Peter Andrikidis)

COXE, KATHLEEN BUDDINGTON. Joint pseudonym of Amelia Reynolds Long & Edna McHugh. Under this pen name, the author of one mystery novel included in the Revised Crime Fiction IV. See below:
   Murder Most Foul. Phoenix, 1946, hc. Setting: Pennsylvania; Academia. (Add precise location.) Leading characters: Buddie Cox, female undergraduate student, and Francis Thrush, psychology professor.

CRAIG, JOHN (ERNEST).
   If You Want to See Your Wife Again. TV movie: Brentwood, 1972, as Your Money or Your Wife (scw: J. P. Miller; dir: Allen Reisner)

CRANE, CAROLINE.
   Summer Girl. TV movie: Bruce Lansbury, 1983 (scw: A. J. Carothers; dir: Robert Michael Lewis)

CHARLES MERRILL SMITH – Reverend Randollph and the Fall from Grace, Inc.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1978. Paperback reprint: Avon, 1982.

   This third mystery adventure of C. P. Randollph, a one-time pro quarterback now turned minister, continues to learn the ins and outs of his new profession, and in this case more specifically, how he finds that a clergyman’s responsibilities entail more than just his presence at Sunday morning services.

   In addition, there are often affairs of a political nature to contend with, both within the church and out. In this case, as an extreme example, being murdered are the close associates of a television evangelist who hopes to join Randollph’s denomination before announcing his bid for the U. S. Senate.

   Without a doubt, organized religion can always use such engagingly down-to-earth men of the cloth as Reverend Randollph. Reporting fairly on the mystery, however, I reluctantly have to admit that the motive for murder is an unlikely one.

[UPDATE] 12-24-08.  The Reverend Randollph books, concerned with everyday church life as they were, remain among my favorite mysteries in which clergymen do double-up duty as sleuths and detectives.

   Charles Merrill Smith wrote five of them before a relatively early death, with a sixth almost finished at the time of his passing. The book was completed by his son Terrance Lore Smith, also a mystery novelist. Phil Grosset, on his webpage for the character, says that Terrance intended to continue the Reverend Randollph stories on his own, but two years later he was killed himself in an automobile accident.

   From the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all six Reverend Randollph mysteries:

SMITH, CHARLES MERRILL. 1918-1985.
      Reverend Randollph and the Wages of Sin. Putnam, 1974.

      Reverend Randollph and the Avenging Angel. Putnam 1977.
      Reverend Randollph and the Fall from Grace, Inc. Putnam, 1978.
      Reverend Randollph and the Holy Terror. Putnam, 1980.
      Reverend Randollph and the Unholy Bible. Putnam, 1983.

      Reverend Randollph and the Splendid Samaritan (completed by the author’s son, Terrance Lore Smith). Putnam, 1986.

KATHRYN LASKY KNIGHT – Mortal Words.

Pocket, reprint paperback; 1st printing, July 1991. Hardcover edition: Summit Books, 1990.

   It’s a comfort then [after reading and reviewing Ben Sloane’s Hot Zone] to return to the real world, where deaths still occur, but when they do, they’re seriously mourned. The real world, unfortunately, is filled with violence, there’s no denying that, but it’s nice to be able to feel that you’re not the only one who feels that violence is the problem, and very seldom is it the solution.

   On the top of the front cover, even before the title, is the heading: “Calista Jacobs is back!” Unfortunately, this is the first I knew about Trace Elements, which was Callista’s first mystery-adventure, along with her precocious son Charley, who is now 13, so I never knew she was away.

   Luckily (in a matter of speaking) enough references to the earlier book are made that I may not even have to go out looking for it. In terms of updating her life, in Mortal Words Calista is now a widow. She is also a world-famous illustrator of children’s books, and she and Charley live in that hotbed of liberalism, Cambridge, Mass.

   This is definitely not a book for readers of a more conservative persuasion. The book opens with Calista and her friends being harassed by a fervent right-wing fundamentalist at a librarian’s literary conference, and the plot grows to include born-again evangelists, evolutionary racists, and Nazi-inspired sperm banks. Moral cripples all, according to Ms. Knight, but nonetheless they embody a powerful anti-science movement, and quite the nasty combination indeed.

   Naturally Calista is opposed to all this with every fiber of her being, and equally naturally it makes her an obvious target. Murder also occurs, but with Charley’s computer-hacking abilities and general intellectual curiosity, along with Calista’s growing friendship with Archie Baldwin, noted archaeologist, the villains stand very little chance.

   As you may have gathered, here is a mystery that is bursting the seams of plain old (and old-fashioned) detective fiction, and in my opinion, it certainly wouldn’t hurt anybody to read it. As a detective story, though, I think it’s seriously flawed by the total lack of attention the Boston police force pay to the murder and to the invaders of Calista’s home.

   They are so severely excluded from the story, as a matter of fact, that you begin to wonder if they could possibly be in on the plot. I hope I’m not saying too much without a [WARNING: Plot Alert] that they are not, but it certainly makes the rest of the story a little harder to swallow.

   This same lack of concern on the part of Calista and Archie as to their safety, and that of Charley, is just as hard to accept. If murder and the invasion of one’s home isn’t warning enough that their opponents are serious, what is?

[UPDATE] 12-23-08.   The author wrote only four books in the series. As Kathryn Lasky, she’s been much prolific as a writer of children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction, for which she’s been given a list of awards as long as your arm. Expanded from her entry the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here are her four mysteries, all with Calista Jacobs:

KNIGHT, KATHRYN LASKY. 1944- .
      Trace Elements. Norton, hc, 1986. Pocket, pb, 1987.

      Mortal Words. Summit, 1990. Pocket, pb, 1991.
      Mumbo Jumbo. Summit 1991. Pocket, pb, 1992.
      Dark Swan. St. Martin’s, 1994. Worldwide, pb, 1996.

GLORIA WHITE – Murder on the Run.

Dell, paperback original. First printing, July 1991.

   According to page one, Ronnie Ventana is the half-Mexican daughter of a pair of jewel thieves. Somehow she is now a PI. According the short bio at the end of the book, this is Gloria White’s first novel.

   Of these two statements, the first one is more than a little unusual, but it’s actually the second one that’s harder to believe. This is a very good book, and if I had any say in the matter (which I don’t, since I’m not involved in voting for any book for any award) I think it could easily be nominated for Best First Novel in anybody’s league.

   It begins like this. Ronnie is out running near Golden Gate Bridge one morning, when she spots two men struggling. One pushes the other into the water, and then she is pursued by the one who did the pushing. Luckily she gets away.

   Two problems follow right away: (1) the body is not discovered immediately, and (2) she recognizes the person who did the dumping as Pete August, a PI who once worked for the D.A.’s office, and who was also once on the police department — and in brief, a fair-headed, high profile boy with all his former connections still intact.

   Snubbed by the police, Ronnie keeps on the case. More deaths follow, and she manages to get a homicide detective named Philly Post interested. Ronnie is a lady who doesn’t give up, and the story has both ginger and snap.

   There is even an unexpected twist ahead. The only problem is the ending. It’s too predictable. A little too obvious. I saw it caning. One good twist deserves another, as the saying goes, and I didn’t get it.

   Don’t get me wrong, though. This book is as good as any of the other female PI novels I’ve read in recent months, and some of them were as good as some of the males of the species. (A number of them were even better.)

[UPDATE] 12-20-08. This is the first review I’ve reprinted since I announced the new focus for this blog posted last weekend but revised earlier today. I was doing movie reviews back in 1991 as well as now, and the ones in this old issue of M*F will soon be showing up here also.

   As for Gloria White, her PI character Ronnie Ventana didn’t have as long a career as I was hoping when I wrote this review. In spite of a slew of award nominations, which I’m pleased to have anticipated, Dell dropped her books after only four outings. Luckily, and this doesn’t always happen, two more books in the series have come out in recent years, and in hardcover to boot.

   Expanded from her entry in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin, here’s a list of all of Gloria White’s mystery fiction:

WHITE, GLORIA.    Series character: PI Ronnie Ventana in all.
      * Murder on the Run. Dell, pbo, 1991. [Anthony Award finalist]
      * Money to Burn. Dell, pbo, 1993.
      * Charged with Guilt. Dell, pbo, 1995. [Edgar Award Finalist, Shamus Award Nominee, Anthony Award Finalist]

      * Sunset and Santiago. Dell, pbo. 1997. [Edgar Award Finalist, Shamus Award Finalist]
      * Death Notes. Severn House, hc, April 2005.
      * Cry Baby. Severn House, hc, June 2006; trade paperback, June 2007.