Butch Dixon's story, a nice short read
348702
A review copy was provided for an honest review. The Old Blue Line is a novella prequel to Jance's Joanna Brady series. It takes readers full circle to Butch Dixon's life previously to meeting the familiar Sheriff of Conchise County, Joanna Brady. This is, however, not about her character, but about Dixon--her husband. If you enjoy Jance's writing as much as I do and are looking for a short, light, mystery read set from Butch's perspective than you won't be disappointed. Even new readers will be able to grab this and follow along because it works well as a standalone.

Losing everything to a deceptive and cheating ex-wife should have destroyed Butch, and it almost nearly did. If it weren't for his grandmother he'd still be wallowing in misery. She took him in, gave him a home, and later, left him her restaurant called the Roundhouse to run. All of this is threatened one afternoon when--years later--he's approached and interrogated for the murder of his former wife. It seems that even after her death she has managed to damn him again by making Dixon a prime suspect in her case. It's now left up to Butch to figure out whose setting him up before he ends up losing his future to the same woman who ruined his past.

Butch has an interesting history that's comprised of a lot of hurt. When we meet him he's already moved on from his past, but now he's dropped in the middle of a homicide where he's the #1 suspect. It brings up a lot of long buried feelings and allows a deeper side of his character to be revealed. The road to proving his innocence is winding, and takes a few turns you wouldn't expect. I enjoyed the detours and eccentric side characters he encounters that aid him on his quest of discovering why he's the accused, and whose really responsible for the mess. I found Butch's backstory not overwhelmingly exciting but nevertheless compelling. It's fun to view things from his perspective and dig around in his past, and see more dimension from him than you'd not otherwise get from Joanna's POV.

Overall The Old Blue Line treats readers to a short Dixon-centric story that is a nice addition to Jance's long-running series. There is something really special about how Jance writes, and it keeps you coming back for more. So long as you go into this one for Dixon and not Joanna--she only makes a brief cameo towards the end--than you won't be let down.
285019
This short story is nice background story to a support character. Fills in some story line and gives alittle more insight into Della's character
2882121
A great short read. It took me all of about 45 min to read. Even though it was short it was not rushed and you got a lot of information from it.

Jason is a football player who was forced to retire.

Sam the girl next door. Sams husband died in Iraq , her mom died and she moved home to take care of her brother. Her and Jason are best friends.

They decide to take the relationship to next level. Will it work or wont?
876622
The Last Raid by Edd Voss was another enjoyable read, this time expanding on his short story Apache Tears. I enjoyed it very much. It held my interest from page one and was well written. Mr. Voss has a gift that is rarely found in the short story genre; he is a story teller.

Mr. Voss tells the story of Pablito, Sgt. O'Connell, and Lt. Sheridan. They are all strong characters, yet they show their vulnerability which makes them real to the reader. Lt. Sheridan led his first patrol to victory with the helpful and knowledgeable insight of Sgt. O'Connell. The Sgt. led the Lt. by experience and help to mold his character and gain the respect that was paramount for a young soldier leading a platoon for the first time.

The Last Raid is a good read and I recommend it for ages 13 and up.
2981283
I enjoyed reading this little story. It was nice and quick reading which is what I was in the mood for at the time.
199692
"Best Left in the Shadows" is a short story--a fantasy that contains a mystery. A well-born girl is found dead in the slum area, so a well-born magistrate comes looking for answers. He's guided around by a low-born gal with whom he has a romantic past. They're an interesting contrast to each other--one is idealistic, the other very practical. Both can fight well, and they get the chance to do it. They ask questions, follow clues, and unravel the truth.

The characters were interesting, varied, and played well off each other. The fantasy world was reasonably well developed for a short story, and I could always follow what was going on even though I was unfamiliar with this world. I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading future stories in the Alys series.

There was a fair amount of bad language (half of it relating to excrement and the other half cursing words). There was no sex. I was surprised and pleased by their depiction of a brothel, which focused on the people, not their sexual appeal. Overall, I'd recommend this fun, short story.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
1768036
This was a very quick read for me - I appreciate the intertwining of the characters from JR Wards other books in this genre. There was also a mention of Butch O'Neals family, a character from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I wonder if Ward will flesh out this aspect between the O'Banyon family and  the O'Neals. Fascinating since Butch is now a vamp living in Caldwell, NY married to a member of aristocratic vamp society.
4035120
I really loved this short story, although I wish it was ten times longer. The reader meets Cindy when she has to save a man by being mugged using a taser. The man, Andrew ends up to be very important when Cindy finds trouble in her life and needs Andrew's help in fixing the issues. This is really a fun, short story and I think Regina Puckett did an amazing job in a limited space. the most important thing this book does is introduce the reader to an amazing author.
3705132
The Last Tail-Horse was my entry point to The Last of the Ageless. This is a very short story, maybe even too short, about two shapeshifting brothers. The writing was nice, though I must admit I'm not too fond on this take of shapeshifting.

I think a longer story could have been more satisfying and would have let the readers know the brothers better. In this case it's even more important because it seems like one of the brothers is an important character in The Last of the Ageless.

3.5/5
3210216
Third in the series of DI Nick Dixon & DC Jane Winter, the book is an enjoyable and rather quick read.
I like Mr. Boyd's writing style. He wastes no time on unnecessary fluff. The well written story moves along at a steady pace; all the while peeling back parts of the mystery piece by piece.
There are some twists as the plot moves along with a bit of a larger one awaiting the reader at the end.
I've read all 3 books in the series and liked each one.
4284845
A quick moving short story.  Husband steps up and takes charge in the bedroom.  I liked this sexy m/f short story (toys and anal included) but would've liked it to be longer.

At 110 locations, I read this short story in ten (10) minutes.  I am glad that I got this while it was being offered as a freebie on Amazon because (IMO) $2.99 is a bit steep for this ten minute read.
2657641
This book is a throwback in format to penny dreadful sort of bizarre stories and horror. It was essentially a short story in a single bound volume. The story drew from an interesting character in Nikola Tesla which I'd never seen in fiction, and although the story was short, the character development was deeper than I'd expected. The story didn't break new ground on vampire stories, only in the foe who opposes them. I think what I liked most about the book however, was the short format. It was perfect for a flight or a few hours over a car ride. It looks like their are more to come from the author and the publisher in this short format. I'll be watching for them eagerly.
2176816
I enjoyed this short story. It was interesting and it has me wanting to read The Fairest of Them since this was the recommended reading before that book. There's not a huge cliffhanger or anything like that. It's just a complete short story that you don't want to see end. I simply more of these characters and more story. I think the only thing I didn't care for was the way the switching point of view was done. It was confusing at first, but I got used to it and it did add to the suspense. Overall, it's great short story.
502282
This was shorter than I expected (and it didn't surprise me to find in the epilogue that it had at one point ended a number of years later than the final version).

I liked the mix of technical, social, and political storylines here. There weren't a ton of technical details, but I thought there were enough for a reader to tell what was going on while keeping the book quite accessible.

While this starts off as mostly Dorothy Vaughn's story, it ends as mostly Katherine Johnson's story.
47855
A good biography of Butch but if you are looking for information related to his fatherED - it is limited to about a chapter
2618166
A great short read. An actual event, identities are well protected. I liked the way the story flowed, writing was direct and the reader wasn't lost or side tracked.
I'll read more of his books.
3923843
Mix together part House of Wax with part The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, and you get The Mountain City Bronzes, a novel that feels a lot like one of those classic short stories written in the early-to-mid-20th century. This short was well written, the characters written in the almost distant feel of short stories of the past century, where a great deal is left to the reader's imagination in regards to character connection.  Which isn't a bad thing.

A solid 4 out of 5 Stars.

Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin, for an interesting hour.