58. Empty Houses - Betsy Thornton

(looks like the first in a new series)
read the actual hard cover book that I got from the library!
2015 Severn House Publishers
224 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 10-21-16 (read in two days)
Goodreads rating:  3.47 - 19 ratings
My rating: 5/ for reasons, see "my comments"
Setting: Contemporary Bisbee, Arizona (called Dudley, but all other places names are correct)

First Line/s:  "The place was a beach town near LA; the event was lunch at La Casita, a Mexican restaurant Harry and Kate went to from time to time."

My comments:  I spent a day just last week in Bisbee, Arizona after reading one of Margaret Falk/J. Carson Black's mysteries that is set there. I've been down there quite a few times.  I wandered the streets and some of the staircases on foot, and drove in and around and all over the place.  So when I started reading this mystery (I've read all the Chloe Newcomb ones), I was RIGHT THERE.  Bisbee (which for some reason Ms. Thornton calls Dudley) is one of the protagonists  in this novel.  There are lots of characters and they were really easy to keep track of.  I like Kate.  She's flawed in lots of little ways, and seems so real.  I really like Malcolm, and I hope that he doesn't get dropped from the next in the series.  He's not so flawed, he's pretty darned cool.....  The mystery was well plotted and kept me guessing. The only thing I didn't like quite so much was the hopping back and forth from coast to coast as easily as they did.  It's not that easy, believe me!  The trips to Tucson and Phoenix were great, I was able to be right there with them.  First book in a bit that I couldn't (or didn't want to) put down.  I'm giving it a five (probably should be a 4 or 4.5) because I want its average to go up higher!  Looking forward to #2!

Goodreads synopsis:  The first in the brand-new Kate Waters series"
          Dudley, Arizona is an isolated desert town attracting people who need to escape. Kate Waters flees there following an abusive relationship. Phoenix cop Malcolm MacGregor comes to recover from the death of his wife. No one knows why Carrie and Wes Cooper arrived. But when they are shot dead, the town authorities first instinct is to protect the lucrative tourist trade and make a quick arrest without asking too many questions. 
          Having once spoken to Carrie briefly, Kate becomes increasingly convinced that the wrong man has been arrested for the crime. Was the shooting random, or is there something in the victims history back east that would explain it? Teaming up with Malcolm MacGregor, Kate is about to uncover disturbing links between her own and Carrie s past. Is Kate herself at risk?

54. Darkscope - J. Carson Black (Writing as Margaret Falk)

read on my Kindle
it says 2010 as a publishing date, but I think it's older than that...
349 pgs.
Adult murder mystery/ghost story
Finished Friday, 10/7/16 - spent the day reading
Goodreads rating:  3.57 - 107 ratings
My rating: 4/ quite an enjoyable read, especially because of the setting, which was a major character in itself!
Setting: Bisbee, Arizona and it surroundings....1930's to 1980's

First line/s: PROLOGUE:  "Lucas McCord knew his death was imminent.  It didn't matter how he knew.  Like an animal searching for a quiet place to die, he had already retreated into that part of his sould reserved for waiting."
PART ONE:  "The volunteer caretaker at the Bisbee Historical Society whisked a feather duster over the display case near the window.  And halted, mid-whisk."

My comments:  The only "ghost" stories I've ever read have been for kids.  This adult ghost story was great fun for me on a number of levels.  I LOVED the setting - Bisbee, Arizona (with forays to Tucson and the area/s between) including lots of explanation and history.  And the story was multi-layered and a really interesting mystery.  I actually could have done without the ghost parts (I think it could have been written as an un-ghostly mystery and been even better), but I enjoy the occasional fantasy, and so much the better if it's about an interesting mystery.

Goodreads synopsis:  After photographer Chelsea McCord’s marriage falls apart, her great uncle Bob talks her into starting a new life in 1980s Bisbee, Arizona, the historic mining town with a notorious past. Bob's father, mining magnate Lucas McCord, helped build Bisbee in the early 20th century.
     Chelsea discovers an old box camera in a dusty trunk, the film still inside. Sfjhe uses it to photograph the town. Is it her imagination, or does the stench of death emanate from the camera’s inner workings?
     And when Chelsea looks through a viewfinder wavy with age, she sees children in gunny sack clothes, their eyes dark and grainy. Children from the 1920’s. She sees a young man and woman at a train station that no longer exists. The same young woman appears in each of the camera's photographs.
     As the past superimposes itself on the present, Chelsea learns the secret of her powerful family’s dark legacy. With one click of the shutter, she has unleashed a pure and hungry evil that will consume everyone she loves.
     Pitted against a supernatural force and stalked by a psychopathic killer, Chelsea rediscovers her capacity to love as she fights to save her beloved uncle–and herself.
     “Skillfully blending elements of mystery, horror and a nice touch of irony, DARKSCOPE weaves a fascinating spell. 4 ½ stars."
---Frank A. Loporto, Rave Reviews
     “Buy the book and send it to people you want to visit here. If they aren’t scared away by the plot, they’ll soon come in.”
---Bisbee Gazette

7. A Song for You - Betsy Thornton

Chloe Newcombe #5 (Dudley/Bisbee, Arizona)
Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 2008
291 pages
Murder Mystery for Adults
Rating: 5

Wow. I love the way that Betsy Thornton weaves a story, using one major protagonist, then inserting a couple other voices to spice things up a bit. This mystery had me going until almost the end. And the setting – SO much in Tucson, road by road, through Sierra Vista many times, I could see it, I was there. And Bisbee. I need another trip there. She includes the setting as another character. Love it
.
And, as usual, she left a few things unsaid, open, ready to add your own slant. Because Chloe has quit her job for the Cochise Country Victim’s Assistance program and become a full-time investigator with a previous fling and cop who has started his own PI company in Sierra Vista. Brian Flynn. Throw in a 17-year old murder, then add another, mix it up with the 10-year old daughter who found her mother 17 years previously…with her head blown off. Raised a hippy, taken by her developer father to the Tucson foothills, where she is now a married preppie. Now throw in the hippie life of Dudley, Arizona (Bisbee, Bisbee!) both now and two decades ago, shake it up with many interesting walks up and down the hills and stairways of an old west town and voila! A recipe for a great murder mystery.

I’ve begun and discarded almost a dozen books in the last couple of weeks, nothing interested me at all, until I found and started this one last night. A winner.

67. Dead for the Winter - Betsy Thornton

#4 Chloe Newcombe/Bisbee, Arizona
For: Adults
Worldwide Mystery & St. Martin's Press, 2004
285 pages
Rating: 4.5 (I was able to figure out a tiny bit too much a little too early)

Good story. Great setting. Well defined characters. This would made a great movie.

When Craig, Chloe's "love interest" from the previous book, leaves for South America, she is once again unattached. She hires Terry Barnett, a local custom furniture maker, to make a bookshelf for her. From the instant he enters her home to take measurements they are attracted to each other, and she accompanies him to Mexico for dinner one evening. Well, lo and behold, the guy's married, so she cuts it off immediately. But they are spotted together. And she still likes him a lot.

But then, Terry is murdered and his workshop is set aflame. Chole is sent as the victim advocate to help and console Terry's wife, Heather. And of course, she is pulled into the sleuthing of the murder. She is even hired by Terry's brother-from-Ohio to continue investigating the case, which she does, because she's been put on a leave of absence - because she was known to have been seeing the dead man, she is a suspect!

Back and forth to Tucson, to Sierra Vista, to the tiny hamlet of Prophecy. I love all the traveling around Cochise County. My trip to Bisbee two weeks ago made the area really come alive for me. I really enjoy this series. Number five takes place in Bisbee, then the newest, just out, is a prequel that takes Chloe back to her pre-Arizona life, to the two brothers; one dead, one in a Buddhist colony in Vermont, that are always on her mind, woven into all the books.

64. Ghost Towns - Betsy Thornton

No. 3 in the Chloe Newcomb series/Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
for: Adults
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's/Minotaur, 2002
260 pgs.
Rating: 5

I found quite a few places where editing was needed - words were added or out of order. Not off-putting, but surprising....

Chloe is called to deliver the news to his family that local Judge Cal Thomas has been murdered. Found dead in the ghost town of Windy City, near Tombstone, with no clues and no leads, the Judge's dysfunctional family aren't coping well. She discovers clues that perhaps two of her own friends may be involved....her good friend Nate, a local reporter, and her boyfriend Craig, both disappear. She travels all over Cochise County and up to Tucson, to discover clues and follow trails and dead ends. Thornton fleshes out the setting as well as she might a good character. I couldn't put this down. It was a quick read, and I headed off for Bisbee when I finished it, to get a feel for the setting myself. (Tombstone, Windy City (perhaps Gleeson?) Bisbee, St. David, Naco)

There's a sixth, brand new title just out....so I hope to plunge into four and five asap. Great read.

AUTHOR Betsy Thornton

Betsy Thornton writes the Chloe Newcombe series, set in Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona. Chloe is a Victim Advocate, which means that she works for Cochise County to help notify next-of-kin, to be a liaison between crime victims and the courts, to help victims in any way she can. The Cochise County setting (primarily the Bisbee area, with jaunts to Sierra Vista, Tombstone, St. David, and Tucson) is almost like a character in the stories. I love local settings…especially in mysteries….and as soon as I begin one of these I just gobble it up. And it seems that Thornton writes with first-hand knowledge...since the jacket flaps of her books say that she, too, is a Victim Advocate for the Cochise Country Attorney Victim's Witness program.

1. The Cowboy Rides Away (1996)
2. High Lonesome Road (2001)
3. Ghost Towns (2002)
4. Dead for the Winter (2004)
5. A Song for You
6. Dream Queen (just published in August, 2010, a prequel to the first five!)

It also appears that she’s written one stand-alone mystery: A Whole New Life.

She's done some local author signings, but they seem few and far between....once or twice at Clues Unlimited, here in Tucson, once in Scottsdale's Poisoned Pen Bookstore, and a couple at Atalanta, an interesting, incense-filled, used bookstore/art supply store on the main street in Bisbee.

Her website is http://betsythornton.com/

43. - High Lonesome Road - Betsy Thornton

Chloe Newcombe #2 Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
2001
paper $5.99
250 pgs
Rating: 4
Adult murder mystery

These Bisbee, AZ based mysteries are easy to gobble up. This one wasn't quite as intriguing as the first, The Cowboy Rides Away, but it had very interesting characters, and the description of the parched, lonely desert and stretches of road in southeastern Arizona are well-written but not overdone.

It was a bit disappointing that almost all of the characters in this novel are new. There was some nice wrapping-up of some loose ends from the first novel, and if you hadn't read it you'd probably wonder what was going on. There are some loose ends left here, too, and I'll bet they get referred to in the third in the series, Ghost Towns, which was published just a year later. Can't wait to find out!

Twenty years previously, Chloe had spent the summer with her brother James (now dead) in Venice, California. His close friend, Erica Hill, had lived upstairs, and they had gotten to know each other a bit as the summer progressed. Now Chloe discovers that Erica has been living right here in Dudley for the past eighteen years, and she has a 16 year-old son, Troy. But then Erica gets murdered while driving the county bookmobile, and the mystery begins. We meet some interesing characters: Stuart, the defense lawyer, who asks Chloe out and they begin an arms-length friendship; Dot Stone, retired, no-nonsense third grade teacher; Larry and Nelson, the handsome gay couple who live up the street from Erica; Sally Smith, Erica's library coworker, who is a little nuts;, Troy, the innocent son.......and on and on.

Kyle Bartlett, the sheriff's investigator from the first book and who Chloe still pines for, has disappeared up north somewhere and is replaced by Ed Masters, who Chloe considers....well, not quite competent. Chloe asks her own questions, puts two and two together (coming up with four and a half), and we figure out what happened as she does.

42. The Cowboy Rides Away - Betsy Thornton

#1 Chloe Newcomb/ Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona
Published: July, 1996
Adult Murder Mystery
232 pgs.
St. Martin's Press
Rating: 5 Loved it, couldn't put it down - luscious writing, here's a totally random passage:

"I drove back to Dudley through the red dirt desert slowly, my headache still there but better. The heat would soon be turning the silver-green grasses to gold and the little frogs on the edges of the rain ponds at Randall's would be dead, little dried-up husks, after all the lying watery promise. The air still smelled burnt, but I couldn't see flames, smoke, anywhere, more like the air itself was not air at all but colorless fire."

Chloe Newcomb has moved to small town (TINY town) Dudley in the very southeastern corner of Arizona, in the middle of the desert, but surrounded by the mountains. It's late summer, monsoon season, and Betsy Thornton's descriptions of the landscape, the weather, the town/s, are equisite, rich. Chloe is a volunteer "Victim Witness", helping the Cochise County Sheriff's department notify and help victims of violent crimes and their next-of-kin. This also entails giving the "bad news" to families. And this story is about one such notification, one that becomes very personal and keeps you guessing and wondering....and sometimes smiling....until almost the very end.

Leroy Harris/Randall Hartmann has shot himself in the head, but of course, since I've already crowed about this being a great murder mystery, it does turn out to be murder. But there's so much more, since the dead guy ends up being Chloe's first love, from college, and she keeps this a secret, telling no one. We're introduced to a great cast of characters, an interesting community, and the start of a series that I'm excited to dive into!