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Editorial Content for Grave Consequences: A Charlie Henry Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

In the short space of two novels, I have come to be a fan of the Charlie Henry mysteries. Do they stand as great literature? No, but they don’t have to be, nor does everything in print have to be. They are simply wonderful stories that are very well told. I might describe them as old-school Hardy Boys novels --- my highest compliment --- grown up and dressed up in modern clothes but with a fine coating of grit and groan. Read More

Teaser

A young Navajo man comes into Charlie Henry's pawn shop, claiming that his girlfriend mistakenly pawned a beautiful family heirloom, a turquoise necklace that she desperately needs back. When he's unable to produce any proof of this tale, Charlie is immediately suspicious. Then the young man returns with reinforcements --- and guns --- making it abundantly clear that there's more to this story than a family treasure. This necklace quickly becomes the focus of a case where everyone lies, and every question seems to answer with gunfire.

Promo

A young Navajo man comes into Charlie Henry's pawn shop, claiming that his girlfriend mistakenly pawned a beautiful family heirloom, a turquoise necklace that she desperately needs back. When he's unable to produce any proof of this tale, Charlie is immediately suspicious. Then the young man returns with reinforcements --- and guns --- making it abundantly clear that there's more to this story than a family treasure. This necklace quickly becomes the focus of a case where everyone lies, and every question seems to answer with gunfire.

About the Book

Charlie Henry, former Special Forces operative and newly minted pawnbroker, thinks that he's finally turned a corner and the calm, quiet life he's always wanted is just ahead. But life never really works out that way.

A young Navajo man comes into Charlie's shop, FOB Pawn, claiming that his girlfriend mistakenly pawned a beautiful family heirloom, a turquoise necklace that she desperately needs back. When he's unable to produce any proof of this tale, Charlie is immediately suspicious and sticks by the golden pawnbroker rule: No claim ticket, no exchange. Then the young man returns with reinforcements --- and guns --- making it abundantly clear that there's more to this story than a family treasure.

This necklace quickly becomes the focus of a case where everyone lies, and every question seems to answer with gunfire. With the help of his semi-estranged brother, Alfred, a tribal cop working undercover, Charlie quickly finds out that the pendant was the work of a Navajo silversmith who was recently murdered. And, in an act so taboo in Navajo culture as to be unthinkable, his grave dug up and this piece of jewelry removed. With multiple parties vying to get their hands on the necklace --- for what ill-gotten gains, no one knows --- it's up to Charlie and his comrades-in-arms to help find out who's really telling the truth, and uncover the mysteries that this heirloom holds.

May 8, 2015 - May 22, 2015

Here are reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for the contest period of May 8 - May 22.

We lost an important writer with the passing of Ruth Rendell on May 2, 2015. Her following around the world was enormous, and her Chief Inspector Wexford novels were a staple of mystery readers. Rendell also was known for her psychological thrillers written under the pseudonym Barbara Vine.
Former newspaper reporter Katie Schickel's debut novel, HOUSEWITCH, is Practical Magic-meets-"Desperate Housewives"-meets-"Witches of East End," about a stay-at-home mom who is caught between her desperate desire to fit in with the local moms and her new magical talents. Katie admits that she couldn’t have written it without the help of her book-loving kids, whose enthusiasm and insight proved to be invaluable to her writing process. It’s clear that her children are pretty talented themselves --- and that their mother could not be prouder.

Benjamin Franklin

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.

Attribution

Benjamin Franklin

Week of May 25, 2015

Releases for the week of May 25th include TOP SECRET TWENTY-ONE, book #21 in Janet Evanovich's bestselling Stephanie Plum series, featuring death threats, highly trained assassins, highly untrained assassins, and Stark Street being overrun by a pack of feral Chihuahuas; THE SMOKE AT DAWN, the third novel in Jeff Shaara's Civil War in the West series that started with A BLAZE OF GLORY and A CHAIN OF THUNDER; and THE LION'S GATE by Steven Pressfield, which tells the story of the Six Day War in the voices of the young men and women who battled not only for their lives, but also for the survival of a Jewish state and for the dreams of their ancestors.

Week of May 18, 2015

Releases for the week of May 18th include WINDIGO ISLAND, William Kent Krueger's 14th mystery featuring private investigator Cork O'Connor, who battles vicious villains, both mythical and modern, to rescue a young girl; THE STORIES WE TELL, a powerful novel from Patti Callahan Henry about the stories we tell and the people we trust; NEVERHOME by Laird Hunt, which tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson, who left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War; and SUPREME CITY, Donald L. Miller’s account of Manhattan’s growth and transformation in the 1920s and the brilliant people behind it.

Jamie Brickhouse is the author of DANGEROUS WHEN WET, a darkly comic memoir about his alcoholism and his mother, Mama Jean. It’s no coincidence that Jamie’s book is about his mother: It was Mama Jean who first inspired him, in that larger-than-life way of hers, to truly love books. With his signature wit, Jamie shares his memories of reading with Mama Jean --- including books that made them laugh, books that made them cry, and books that scared the feces out of them.  

Do you typically choose books based on their length?

May 7, 2015, 641 voters

Erma Bombeck

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.

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Erma Bombeck