STARTLING TOMES

     WHAT HAPPENED TO ELLEN? Nancy Grace with Benee Knauer. 2025; Regalo Press.  In this tome news commentator Nancy Grace expresses understandable outrage over the murder of Ellen Rae Greenburg, who died in 2011. At first her death was labeled a suicide, even though the great many wounds could hardly have been self-inflicted, and indeed one was inflicted after she was dead. There was also the fact that Greenburg was in the middle of making a salad when she was attacked and was looking forward to her wedding (although there were signs that she may have been having misgivings about that). Greenburg's parents spent years trying to get the authorities to reverse the suicide ruling and begin a real investigation into the crime. To this day, no arrest has been made, and although Grace is careful in her statements, a careful reading of the book points inevitable to the rather obvious main suspect, who may have gotten away with murder -- so far. As for the book itself, it i...

SOUTH OF NOWHERE . Jeffery Deaver. Putnam's; 2025.  The fifth Colter Shaw novel by Deaver has our hero coming to Hinowah California where a levee has collapsed and the entire town is in danger. Colter's sister, Dorian, a professional who deals with disasters for a living, is on the scene as well. When Colter is attacked by a violent suspect he nicknames Bear, it becomes clear that what happened to the levee may be sabotage, and there could be more bad stuff to come. If that weren't enough, Colter has to use all of his considerable skill to rescue a family of four who were caught in the river when the levee collapsed, as well as a man's fiancee who is now lost in the woods. As the suspenseful story proceeds, it develops that some of the characters are not quite who they claim to be, and Colter must learn who's behind the scheme to flood the town along with his or her motive. An added ingredient is that Colter and Dorion learn they may have a half-sister who could rep...

HIDDEN WORLD . William Schoell. Raven Tale; 2025. I first became aware of William Schoell through his books on comics -- and one he did on 20th century opera -- but I also knew he wrote several horror novels back in the days of the horror boom. He also wrote a more recent novel entitled  Monster World  in which scientists use a time machine to bring dinosaurs to the 21st century, and it was excellent.  Hidden World  is a short, fast-paced novel in which a group of people, led by a determined and desperate woman, descend into a huge cavern under a Greek island to find an ancient city and in particular a certain mystical artifact. Schoell peoples the book with a host of interesting characters, some of whom meet dire fates, not unexpected when you consider the creatures -- huge lizards, rapacious rats, and even giant cannibals -- that he throws at them at regular intervals. You might be surprised at who survives and who doesn't. Written with Schoell's customary verve an...