CourtTV’s series Murder By The Book is back! 

In case you missed it last year, the hour-long show is narrated by popular mystery authors who tell true stories of crimes they’ve witnessed or been involved with and that subsequently inspired them to write.  For example, James Ellroy kicked off last season’s series with his chilling tale of the still-unsolved murder of his mother in a suburb of Los Angeles when he was a child, and how it has haunted him throughout his life. 

Other episodes from last season featured a different author each week and included stories from both Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, Lisa Scottoline, and Michael Connelly.  This season, best-selling authors such as Sandra Brown, Harlan Coben, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Elizabeth George, and many others, get to tell their stories.

The show is full of drama and reenactments, documentary footage, and the author’s insights; it will hook you if you’ve ever wanted to get inside the mind of a successful mystery/crime author.  The season kicked off November 5 and will air on CourtTV every Monday evening.  Don’t miss it!

The Straw Men

by Michael Marshall

Genre:  Horror

Attention, Stephen King fans…  Have you discovered Michael Marshall? 

His recently published thriller The Intruders is getting great reviews.  But it’s his first novel, The Straw Men, that’s been keeping me up into the wee hours biting my fingernails to bits.

Stephen King himself proclaims this novel to be a masterpiece: “Brilliantly written and scary as hell.”  I agree.

The story opens with a gruesome scene of a massacre at a McDonald’s.  The next chapter introduces the narrator, Ward Hopkins, whose parents have just been killed in a car accident.  He’s dealing with his grief when he finds a note from his father proclaiming that “we’re not dead,” along with a creepy video from his parent’s past.  A third plot is introduced with the abduction of a 14-year-old girl by a serial killer known as “The Upright Man.”  Eventually, all three events are tied together in a series of chilling twists and turns and involving a cult known as The Straw Men. 

Tons of description and inner dialogue slow down the pacing a bit, but it’s riveting enough that you won’t notice.  Full of adventure, mystery, horror, and suspense, The Straw Men is another gut-clencher I’d highly recommend.

Sequel: The Upright Man