Welcome to another edition of the Mystery Ahead newsletter, delivered fresh to you every other Sunday, with #topsecrets, an exclusive #excerpt, and a must-read mystery #review. 1. Housekeeping It is hard to believe that 2024 is the 7th anniversary of this newsletter! To celebrate, Mystery Ahead is now also available on the Substack platform as The Mystery Stack. Same content with
updated design, just expanding the audience. 2. The street where you live This week, the Rome Arts Hall of Fame from my hometown sent the annual call for nominations to previous inductees,
including me (Hall of Fame Class of 2019.) The letter came from Maria Rich, who scribbled a note in the margin: “I think of you every time I drive down East Dominick.” What a gift! East Dominick Street in Rome, NY, was the inspiration for Hamilton Street in the Galliano Club thrillers. I was thrilled to think that the imaginary world of the Galliano Club books is alive on the real street for readers. Beyond Maria’s message, the InWoodOut blog has done an
ACTUAL TOUR through upstate New York inspired by the Galliano Club books! #amazing https://frominwoodout.com/travel-guide-galliano-club-thrillers-rome-new-york/ Here’s another shocking moment from my
work-in-progress, VIVA ACAPULCO: Detective Emilia Cruz Book 9. ~ He moved stiffly as he poured water into the coffeemaker. An angry bruise darkened the base of his neck by the collar of his shirt. “It must have been a hell of a fight,”
Emilia observed. “I don’t remember much of it.” Campos switched on the machine. A light glowed and a hiss signaled the start of the brew cycle. The house, or what she’d seen of it so far, wasn’t very large. The front door led into a bland beige living room anchored by a bland beige sofa, a coffee table,
and two armchairs upholstered in a tone-on-tone beige plaid. A fake red Persian rug kept the room from floating away into the land of utter colorlessness. Two Picasso prints hung on the wall above the chairs, reflecting muted light seeping from around the vertical blinds covering the front window. A galley kitchen opened off the hall leading to a larger room at the back, clearly the more well used
portion of the house. Here the carpet was bottle green and worn to the nap. The furniture in the room was minimal, consisting of a large wooden desk with a swivel chair parked next to it, a television on a wooden stand and a bulky leather recliner. “And you have no idea who he was or why he was trying to kill you?” she asked. “That’s the big question, isn’t it?” Campos took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose as the coffeemaker gurgled. “The obvious bet is that he was one of Diego Barrielos Luna’s hired goons who wanted to have fun with his prey before he pulled the trigger. It was sheer luck that he didn’t have any tattoos so I could pass him off as me.” It was a
surreal experience, standing in the tiny kitchen, listening to a dead man tell her how he’d fought off his attacker then used the man’s body to fake his own death. ~ Find Detective Emilia Cruz books on Amazon & all other online bookstores. Forgotten Masters of WWII Thrillers In the aftermath of World War II and horror of the Holocaust, authors like Herman Wouk, Ken Follett, and Leon Uris wrote sweeping sagas of lives torn apart by war for an audience that had lived through the violence
and uncertainty of it. I discovered these authors when I was in high school. Their fiction taught me more about the war than any teacher. As AI churns out recycled fiction and attention spans shrink, it’s worth re-reading these Big Novels. Elegant sweeping sagas, they were written before authors
discovered the 3-act formula popularized by television and movie pacing. Not only will you re-learn the lessons of past conflict, but these forgotten masters deliver an experience that lingers long after the last page is turned. Links go to the author's page on Amazon. KEN FOLLETT Now best known for his hefty cathedral series, this British author first gained international acclaim for his riveting WWII spy novels. Key to Rebecca A British intelligence officer in Cairo hunts for a wily German spy who is able to blend in with the locals as Rommel pushes inexorably across Northern Africa. The books has everything—urgency of battle, lives hanging in the balance,
cat-and-mouse action, love among the ruins, a critical code to transmit instructions to Rommel and a breathlessly gripping climax. Possibly my favorite thriller of all time and the role model for my first thriller, The Hidden Light of Mexico City. Eye of the Needle A German spy ends up on a tiny British island with a mission to signal German ships, but first he has to neutralize the dysfunctional family that lives there and maintains the lighthouse. The daughter becomes his unwitting foe as she
slowly realizes who he is and what is at stake. There’s a scene in which she shoves a screwdriver into a light socket to cut his signaling capability that is so shocking (pun intended) that I’ve remembered it for decades. LEON URIS Books by
the prolific Leon Uris became iconic movies (Battle Cry starring gravel-voiced heartthrob Aldo Ray, Exodus starring Paul Newman and Sal Mineo.) His WWII novels exposed Nazi atrocities with unflinching courage. Mila 18 An American woman and a Polish cavalry officer are star-crossed lovers in Warsaw as the German juggernaut rolls into Poland. A Jew, he is banished to the Warsaw ghetto where he’ll eventually lead the uprising, a last desperate stand. Seen
through the eyes of a reporter who is determined to get the story out, the book is a tour de force. I’ll always remember the vivid scene in which a drunk explains what is going to happen to Poland, trapped between Germany and Russia, by sawing a ham steak in two. Exactly what happened IRL. QB VII The title stands for Queens Bench VII, a courtroom in which a British character modeled on Nazi doctor Josef Mengele is on trial for crimes against humanity. After his political beliefs land him in a Nazi concentration camp, the doctor earned
privileges by performing inhumane operations on Jewish prisoners. Years later, back in Britain with a new name, he’s exposed and ends up on trial. Mengele’s real experiments become his in the book, so this is not for the faint of heart. But so much is taken from what came out after the war that the book fairly vibrates with the truth. It became an award-winning mini-series, too. HERMAN WOUK Truly a writer of enduring classics, Wouk created unforgettable characters who are embedded in the collective memory of a certain generation. The Caine Mutiny The iconic saga of the USS Caine, a rusty minesweeper, is seen through the eyes of Willie Keith, a rich boy idling his life away playing piano in a dive bar. Willie joins the Navy, heads to the Pacific aboard the Caine where the
captain is becoming unhinged. When the dam breaks and one of the other officers relieves Captain Queeg of command, he’s charged with mutiny. More comes out at the court martial than expected. I saw Charleton Heston give an amazing performance as Queeg on stage at the Kennedy Center years ago, but Humphrey Bogart triumphed in the movie. The Winds of War & War and Remembrance This 2-volume saga follows an American family caught up in the war, starting in 1939 when the father is the US naval attaché in Berlin. He is close to President Roosevelt and in the thick of diplomatic
maneuverings as the world comes apart. Both books became an award-winning mini-series. Over 140 million watched The Winds of War in 1983, a record audience at that time. Who can forget Jane Seymour getting an apple as the cattle car in which she is imprisoned snakes through a village? The first food she’s had in days, Jane eats the apple in a near trance of hunger, core and all. Thank you for spending your time with me. Keep healthy, stay in touch, and happy reading! All the best, PS: Has this been forwarded to you by a friend? Get your own. PPS: To keep this newsletter free, consider buying a book. Leave a review or invite me on your podcast or book blog. Thank you! PPPS: If you no longer wish to receive Mystery Ahead, please use the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of this email. I hate to see you go, but I understand how full inboxes can get. |
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