{"id":1326,"date":"2017-12-09T16:36:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T23:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/?p=1326"},"modified":"2017-12-09T16:45:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T23:45:19","slug":"reviews-are-coming-in-forty-dead-men-an-alafair-tucker-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/?p=1326","title":{"rendered":"Reviews Are Coming In : Forty Dead Men, An Alafair Tucker Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, December. The reviews for my February Alafair Tucker Mystery release, Forty Dead Men<\/strong>, are beginning to come in, and they have been delightfully good, thus far. In fact, Publishers’ Weekl<\/em>y, THE review magazine, gave the book a starred review, which means I am very happy.<\/p>\n

\"40_Dead_Men_4-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In their Nov. 18 issue, PW<\/em> says: “In Casey\u2019s excellent 10th Alafair Tucker mystery (after 2017\u2019s\u00a0The Return of the Raven Mocker<\/strong>), 22-year-old George W. \u201cGee Dub\u201d Tucker, a WWI vet scarred by his war experiences, returns to the family farm in Boynton, Okla., run by his parents, Alafair and Shaw, with the aid of their large brood of children. One day, Gee Dub meets Holly Johnson, a wary traveler who\u2019s making her way from Maine to the nearby town of Okmulgee, where she thinks her husband Dan\u2019s family lives. Dan, who served in France, disappeared after the war ended, and she wants to discover what happened to him. Gee Dub tries to help Holly find Dan, but becomes the prime suspect when Dan turns up shot to death, and Alafair determines to clear him\u2014or, if he\u2019s guilty, destroy the evidence. Casey expertly nails the\u00a0extended Tucker family\u2014some 20 people\u2014and combines these convincing characters, a superb sense of time and place, and a solid plot in this marvelously atmospheric historical. ”<\/p>\n

Booklist<\/em>, another prestigious review periodical, on Dec. 1 said of the book: “Oklahoma farm wife Alafair Tucker is delighted that her son Gee Dub (short for George Washington) is home from WWI, despite his distracted demeanor. The only spark of life Alafair sees in Gee Dub occurs after a young woman traveling from Maine asks for directions to her husband\u2019s family a town away, and Alafair insists the girl rest at the Tucker\u2019s farm before continuing her journey. When Holly does find her husband\u2019s family, she learns he died of influenza before he ever made it home\u2014except the picture Holly carries of her groom isn\u2019t of the dead man who had her husband\u2019s discharge papers in his pocket. The real husband is soon found shot to death, and a disoriented Gee Dub is the only suspect. A compassionate look at PTSD, this tenth series entry again showcases the savvy mother hen Alafair, who has a lot in common with Mette Ivie Harrison’s Linda Wallheim, another loving western mother whose curiosity and common sense always come in handy.”\u00a0\u2014 Karen Keefe<\/p>\n

Forty Dead Men<\/strong> is available for pre-order right now at \u00a0Poisoned Pen Bookstore<\/a>, or at the Poisoned Pen Press<\/a> website. I hope you’ll add it too your TBR pile.<\/p>\n

Dec 7 was the last session of the writing workshop I have been conducting for the Arizona State University Emeritus College. I told a friend of mine that the old saw may be that “those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach,” but when it comes to keeping up with your writing, I begin to feel that “those who teach, can’t.” I have fallen way behind on my work in progress, and since I must have an excuse, I blame it partially on that class. It takes me a long time to think about and prepare to teach a class. More than it ought to, I expect. Especially since I am continually teaching somebody, somewhere. something about writing and have been for a decade. But the ten week workshop is done and I’m running out of good excuses. So back to work, and \u00a0holidays to look forward to and lots of treats to nosh on.<\/p>\n

Aside from classes and health issues, I only had one author event last month, and that was the Poisoned Pen Bookstore Thanksgiving Holiday party in Scottsdale, AZ, on November 19. My friend Carolyn Hart flew in from Oklahoma for the event to tout her latest Bailey Ruth Raeburn novel, Ghost on the Case<\/a>. \u00a0I am between new releases, but since we are both native to the same part of the country, Carolyn asked the event organizers if I could participate anyway. I was more than happy to be able to interview her and sign books along with all \u00a0the \u00a0fabulous participants, Carolyn, Tim Hallinan, Rhys Bowen, Jenn McKinlay, Kate Carlisle, and Daryl Wood Gerber.<\/p>\n

\"Yours<\/a>

Yours Truly (L) and Carolyn Hart at Poisoned Pen<\/p><\/div>\n

I gave Carolyn an advance reading copy of Forty Dead Men as a thank you for inviting me to appear with her, and a week later she so kindly sent the following note to my editor:<\/p>\n

“If it isn\u2019t too late I would love to give a cover quote to Donis\u2019s marvelous book:”<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A poignant novel of heartache, pain, love, and grace. Brilliant and memorable. Carolyn Hart<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 “It is a triumph .<\/em>”<\/p>\n

I really couldn’t be more touched and thrilled.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, December. The reviews for my February Alafair Tucker Mystery release, Forty Dead Men, are beginning to come in, and they have been delightfully good, thus far. In fact, Publishers’ Weekly, THE review magazine, gave the book a starred review, which means I am very happy. In their Nov. 18 issue, PW says: “In Casey\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2H58s-lo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1330,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions\/1330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}