Sunday Salon-Are You A SandHog?-Fact or Fiction

Could you be a sandhog? You could if you worked in the tunnels of New York.

This is my first Linda Fairstein novel although she has many to her storied career. Here is a list for you:

Killer Heat (2008), Bad Blood (2007), The Best American Crime Reporting 2007 (2007),
Death Dance (2006), Entombed (2005), Cold Hit / The Deadhouse (2005), The Kills (2004),
I'd Kill for That (2004), Final Jeopardy / Likely to Die (2004), The Bone Vault (2003),
The Deadhouse (2001), Cold Hit (1999), Likely to Die (1997), Final Jeopardy (1994),
Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape (1993)

Her novel centers around Alexandra "Alex" Cooper an assistant DA in New York. Alex is supported by NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace.

Amanda Quillian is found murdered and the "team" believes her husband has hired a hitman to pull off the crime. Brendan Quillian is coming into the court room when he grabs an officer's gun, leaves one dead, and several injured.

Now the investigation really gets complicated when Alex discovers two feuding families, the Quillians and the Hassetts have hated each other for years.

Both families menfolks have been "sandhogs" for several generations and are very tough, no-nonsense kind of guys. Well as usual I will leave you hanging, so maybe you would like to purchase the book from here and finish this riveting story yourself!

PS: Still reading Hotel Stories...

March is Really Some Month!

Hello Everyone,

Yes, I know where have you been joeB? Well here we go! My dear ol' Dad has been ill for about a month now and his only son has been taking him back and forth to the hospital and doctor's offices for many, many, and many more tests. So far "we do not know", isn't that a great answer? Please remember him in your thoughts and prayers.

I have been able to read some, so Sunday Salonists never fear joeB is here! And , WOW, is our little group growing!

Talk to you Sunday!

Sunday Salon - Hotel Stories- And News

As I read this group of stories by Mike Tyler entitled Hotel Stories, I am just not sure...

Next Sunday maybe I can relate to you what this book is about, have not read enough to give a fair judgement.

I do believe now I know why I love mysteries and thrillers!
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This news about some of Charles Dickens' works are worth repeating.

Rare works by Charles Dickens, including a page from the original manuscript of "Pickwick Papers" and an illustration of the "Oliver Twist" character Bill Sikes, are going on the auction block.

The Kenyon Starling Library of Charles Dickens is expected to fetch more than $2 million when it is sold at Christie's on April 2.

Among the highlights is "The Uncommercial Traveller" (1861), inscribed by Dickens to novelist George Eliot. Its pre-sale estimate is $100,000 to $150,000.

A page from the original manuscript of Dickens' first novel, "Pickwick Papers," containing a comedic scene between Pickwick's valet, Sam Weller, and a gentleman, John Smauker, could sell for $150,000 to $250,000.

The collection also includes a number of original drawings by Dickens illustrators Hablot K. Browne and George Cruikshank. An early Browne illustration is the only drawing from "Pickwick" to appear at auction in at least 30 years, Christie's said. It could bring $15,000 to $20,000. An original Cruikshank sketch of Sikes, the menacing criminal in "Oliver Twist," and his dog could sell for $12,000 to $18,000.

The collection also includes The Daily News No. 1, the liberal newspaper Dickens edited in 1846.

Kenyon Starling, who died in 1983, left his Dickens collection to the family of William E. Self, a collector of English and American literature and film industry executive. NEW YORK (AP)