Leslie Keller Books

Every month I try to post information on newly released books in the mystery genre. I find it exciting to check out new authors and, of course, read new releases from my favorite authors.  Here's a few recent releases. Pieces of Her: A Novel by Karin Slaughter Karin Slaughter is a bestselling author who has written 18 novels and sold more than 35 million copies worldwide.   To say I’m jealous would be an understatement. I haven’t read any of her work in a long time but I think I’ll have to check out this new release. At $13.99 for the Kindle version I will be waiting until the price comes down. Here’s the description: What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . Andrea Cooper knows everything about her mother Laura. She’s knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Gullaway Island; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she ...

“I gave up on happily ever after. Maybe I'm not cut out for a relationship. Maybe, I just don't like being committed to one person for longer than two weeks.” Part Two Clare rolled her small suitcase down the narrow hallway to the bedroom that had once been her mother’s. Not much had changed over the years. The twin-sized iron bed was covered in a faded quilt handmade by her grandmother. The blue ribbons, Clare’s mother, Sunny won in the county fair for her prized hogs, hung from yellowed clothesline strung between the windows. She tugged open the closet door, warped from years of humidity without air conditioning and stashed her suitcase inside.  Already she knew this trip would be more difficult than she wanted. It was only months since her grandfather had passed and she could tell Granny was not ready for what she had in mind. Her hopes of convincing Granny to sell the farm and move to the city faded as quickly as sunlight over the meadow. Mae stood in the do...

Every month I enjoy digging up some crazy criminal antics to share with you. Real crime can be funnier than our imagination - at least for some of us. Here's a 'nutty' story from Alabama By Kim Chandler of the Associated Press, July 31, 2017 MONTGOMERY, Ala. –  A dozen inmates escaped from an Alabama jail by using peanut butter to change the numbers above a door and trick a new employee into opening another door that led outside, a sheriff said Monday. The inmates changed the number above a cell to the number that identified the door leading outside the jail. So when an inmate asked a young, inexperienced jailer to let him into his cell, the jailer was fooled into opening the outside door instead. The group then fled, throwing off their orange uniforms and using blankets to climb over a fence topped with razor wire on Sunday evening. "It may sound crazy, but these people are crazy like a fox," Walker County Sheriff James Underwood said at a news...

I've lived in Arizona since 1994 and I never tire of the spectacular show nature puts on during monsoon season. Storms come on quickly and depart just as fast. Lightening crackles in the air and the explosion of thunder can be heard for miles. Winds, sometimes in excess of sixty miles per hour,  gust and make even walking outside difficult. Despite its beauty a monsoon can be extremely dangerous.  Flash flooding, dust storms and high winds make driving hazardous, rip roofs off houses and uproot trees.  Arizona has a 'stupid motorist law' due to the many drivers who venture into a flooded wash only to require emergency services to rescue them. When a high volume of water is dumped from the sky onto the desert it cannot be absorbed and rapidly fills formerly dry washes and streets, consuming everything in its path. It's not uncommon in the summer months to see warnings about a massive wall of dust overtaking the area.  The first image below was taken by Casa Grande...

I grew up dreaming of cowboys and the lore of the Wild West. As a young girl, John Wayne, Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers all rode off into the sunset with my heart.  I still love them and the old shows but I've grown up and I'm an animal lover. I don't throw paint on people wearing fur but I would never wear it and I don't condone it or anything that exposes an animal to harm. I've owned and ridden horses, raised cattle and chickens and tried to treat them all humanely. Our chickens lived in a large pen and had a clean place to roost before 'free-range' was in vogue. My horse was loved and cared for and, I like to think, happy. Our cattle had names, we bottle fed some and, even though they did eventually become someone's dinner, they were treated with kindness while in my family's care. I've been to the rodeo several times but I don't find enjoyment in it. Yes, it takes a brave, or crazy, person to climb on a bull weighing almost a ton. Many w...

Over the last several years, I've dined at Ocean Prime, on High Street in the City North shopping center in Phoenix, probably five times and each time I'm never disappointed. The most recent time was for a birthday celebration. My friend booked through Open Table for a party of seven at 6:45 on a Saturday night.  When we arrived we were seated in the bar with the band playing very loudly. When we complained that the reservation was for the dining room, there was some confusion at the host stand about what party wanted the bar and what party wanted the dining room.  Apparently we were confused with someone named Rob who had a reservation for the same time. After only a few minutes, we were shown to a private room, decorated festively with confetti on the white linen tablecloth and a server dedicated to our party alone. Considering the volume of our party, this may have been a wise decision on the part of management and it certainly made us happy. A few of us enjoyed a ful...

This book caught my eye because I was looking for a good mystery thriller and the title on Amazon displays as "The Guilty Wife: A thrilling psychological suspense with twists and turns that grip you to the very last page." Very clever marketing and the book itself was good.  It did have some twists but the end was predictable. I didn't like that it started with a prologue. It's a cheater's way of grabbing your attention by throwing out some juicy details. In this case, the few paragraphs of prologue put the reader in media res also known as the middle of the story. Facts that the protagonist would not have known at the beginning. Bethany is a photographer having an affair with a very wealthy client. Calum. She claims to love her husband, Jason but she also loves Calum.  She states, "I was in love with my husband. Always had been, really." I'm not a believer that you can be in love with two people - maybe in lust with one and in love with the othe...

I doubt there are many people who haven't heard the 'Tequila song', which only has one word shouted out at intervals, "Tequila".  I first heard it in the Pee Wee Herman movie but the song was performed by The Champs in 1993 on their album, South of the Border.  When I searched for a version of the song with lyrics, I found the one below, which isn't the same song but I thought the lyrics were fun and appropriate to include in a Tequila cocktail recipe post. I was at the bar with my drinkin team It was me Jack Daniels and my homey Jim Bean We were kinda blitzed and we were trying to behave Y'all When in walked a soldier he was from the fuzzy naval We were fallin, stumblin, crawlin Her come da police, Captain Tom Collins And the rapper said freeze He said "hands in the air and hand over your keys" Now we did, and that was kinda simple Now here came Marguarita and her friend Shirley Temple I asked my friend 'bout Marguarita, He said Shirley...