Mary Daniels Brown

My mother always insisted that, as soon as I was old enough to sit up, she’d find me in my crib after my nap babbling away, with a Little Golden Book on my lap. I’ve had my nose in a book ever since. I grew up in a small town, with the tiny town library literally in my backyard. As an only child in an unhappy home, I found comfort and companionship in books. As an adult I wanted to be Harry Potter, although I admit I’m more Hermione. My life has been a series of research projects. Reading has taught me that human lives are deliciously messy and that “it’s complicated” isn’t a punchline.

“Winter Prey” by John Sandford

Sandford, John. Winter Prey (1993)   Berkley, 343 pages, $5.99 paperback   ISBN 0 425 14123 3 Lucas Davenport is spending the coldest winter anyone can remember in his cabin in northern Wisconsin. When a multiple murder occurs in a nearby small town, the local sheriff realizes he’s in over his head and calls in […]

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“Silent Prey” by John Sandford

Sandford, John. Silent Prey (1992)Berkley Books,  $6.99 paperback   ISBN 0 425 13756 2  This book opens with the escape of Michael Bekker on the day the jury begins deliberation at his trial.  Soon bodies with no eyelids start turning up in New York City and scientific journals begin receiving long, scholarly papers from Bekker

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“Eyes of Prey” by John Sandford

Sandford, John. Eyes of Prey (1991). In John Sandford: Three Complete Novels G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 725 pages, hardcover  ISBN 0-399-14007-7 At the end of Shadow Prey Jennifer, Davenport’s former girlfriend, and Sarah, their baby, are wounded in a shootout. After this experience Jennifer has withdrawn from Lucas and now allows him to see Sarah only

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“Shadow Prey” by John Sandford

Sandford, John. Shadow Prey (1990). In John Sandford: Three Complete Novels G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 725 pages, hardcover   ISBN 0-399-14007-7 A slumlord in Minneapolis, a politician in New York City, and a judge in Oklahoma City are all murdered in the same way.  All are connected back to Minnesota’s Native American community, where Lucas Davenport

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“Rules of Prey” by John Sandford

Sandford, John. Rules of Prey  (1989).  In John Sandford: Three Complete Novels G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 725 pages, hardcover ISBN 0-399-14007-7 In this introductory novel Minneapolis homicide detective Lucas Davenport, creator of computer games in his spare time, faces an intelligent serial killer who leaves behind messages stating his rules for avoiding detection. As the chase

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John Sandford: Introductory Notes

John Sandford is the pseudonym of author and journalist John Camp, who won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1986 and the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for 1985. Camp was born in 1944 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa, where he received a bachelor’s degree

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“Crack Down” by Val McDermid

McDermid, Val. Crack Down (1994)Harper, 246 pages, $4.99 paperback   ISBN 0 06 104394 X British private investigator Kate Brannigan is one half of the firm Mortensen and Brannigan, which specializes in white collar crime, particularly financial and computer fraud.  The book opens with Kate and her boyfriend, freelance rock journalist Richard Barclay, posing as

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“M” is for Malice by Sue Grafton

Grafton, Sue. “M” is for Malice (1996)Henry Holt and Company, 300 pages, $25.00 hardcover   ISBN 0 8050 3637 7 “M” is for melancholy, the mood in which we find Kinsey Millhone at the beginning of this book: Ah, January. The holidays had left me feeling restless and the advent of the new year generated

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book review

Review: “In Contempt” by Christopher Darden

Darden, Christopher, with Jess Walter. In Contempt HarperCollins, 1996Hardcover, 387 pages ISBN 0-06-039183-9 Other than the victims’ families, few people were as visibly shaken by the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial as prosecutor Christopher Darden. For him, that trial was a true trial by fire, not merely his job but an undertaking that forced him to

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“L” is for Lawless by Sue Grafton

Grafton, Sue. “L” is for Lawless  (1995)  Holt, 290 pages, $24.00 hardcoverISBN  0-8050-1937-5 Many critics called “K” is for Killer Grafton’s darkest, most disturbing novel.  Grafton herself may have felt the same way, because  “L” is for Lawless seems to be a concerted attempt at humor. The novel opens in comical circumstances:  Henry Pitts, Kinsey’s

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