My dad was a Cleveland Police detective. Yeah, I know that doesn’t tell you anything about “American Demon,” but hear me out…
Dad grew up in Cleveland when the Torso Murders were taking place, a string of grisly killings. He was too young to be involved in the investigation, but he talked about it and like everyone else in town, wondered who the deranged killer was who dismembered so many bodies.
In this incredible book, Daniel Stashower wonders, too. He examines the case from a new angle, the involvement of Eliot Ness, the city’s Safety Director at the time.
Stashower might not give us all the answers when it comes to the Torso Murders, but he provides new insights and takes readers along as he tells a macabre and absorbing tale.
Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.
On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland's Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed "The Lady of the Lake," was only the first of a butcher's dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while…
Writers read with different eyes than non-writers. We pay more attention to the “how” of a book. How does the author structure the plot? Handle dialogue? Describe a scene so beautifully that I see every detail?
Each time I read Shelley Costa, I am left in awe by the way she handles all these elements. Her words are little jewels, each and every one of them used precisely and for full impact. Her plots are taut and interesting. Her dialogue sparkles. No Mistaking Death is no exception, a mystery that examines good and evil, right and wrong, the choices people make and the consequences of their actions.
Reading Costa makes me want to be a better writer. To me, there’s no higher praise from an author to an author.
This book wasn’t released until December 2023, but lucky me, I read it early because I hosted a library event with the author, so it counts as a September 2023 read for me.
The Last Caretaker vibrates with suspense and emotion. It takes the reader along on a woman’s journey as she not only establishes her place in the world but discovers that she can handle whatever is thrown at her, even when it’s a stranger arriving at her door in the middle of the night with a terrifying story.
Hold onto your seat, you won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough. I gulped down this book in a couple of sittings, rooting for the heroine the entire time. Gripping and emotional, The Last Caretaker pulls you in and doesn’t let go.
A woman in search of a new beginning is put to the test in ways she never imagined in an empowering and provocative page-turner by the author of Not That I Could Tell.
Katie's divorce was, in a word, humiliating. So when her friend Bess offers a fresh start-a resident caretaking job at a nature preserve-Katie accepts. No matter that she's not exactly a "nature person." How hard can it be?
But from day one, something feels off. Katie's new farmhouse looks as if the last caretaker barely moved out at all. When a frantic,…
Violet Manville is bored. After solving a murder, she’s back to the dull routine of life in Victorian England. Yes, there’s her work as Miss Hermione, the most popular agony aunt (advice columnist) in the Empire, but how many letters can she answer about which gloves are right for the opera? Which tea is best at luncheon?
She needs stimulation and excitement, and she gets it in the form of a letter to Miss Hermione from a woman whose daughter has joined a cult. Violet knows she must investigate, especially when she discovers she knows the wayward daughter in question.
A ruined abbey, a mysterious cult, murder—and the reappearance of deliciously annoying Eli Marsh. Suddenly, boredom is the least of Violet’s worries.
