Review: "Domino Island" by Desmond Bagley

Domino Island by Desmond Bagley HarperCollins, 2019   Domino Island is Desmond Bagley’s “lost” novel. The manuscript (ms) was discovered by the researcher Philip Eastwood at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center where Bagley’s papers are housed. Along with the ms—titled Because Salton Died—were letters between Bagley and his editor at Collins, Bob Knittel, and handwritten notes on the ms, identifying planned changes for publication, but Bagley pulled Because Salton Died from Collins and the changes were never made. There are a couple hypotheses about why Bagley stopped work on the book. The first and most obvious is Bagley decided it was a hopeless project and there is some evidence supporting this. In the letter to his editor accompanying the ms, Bagley wrote, “I had a bad case of ‘writer’s block’[.]” He had started and abandoned four “standard Bagleys”—adventure thrillers—and he decided to try something entirely new to get his creative energy going. So, in the early days of 1972 he began working on an Agatha Christie-style traditional mystery, or whodunnit, but Bagley wanted to rework the novel into his usual fare because: “My method of writing is singularly ill-adapted for the writing of a whodunnit. I begin with a situation and let it develop, and the plot follows where the development leads; whereas a whodunnit should be meticulously worked out in a synopsis before a key on the typewriter is touched.” The second hypothesis—and my favorite of the two—involves the film, The Mackintosh Man, which was based on Bagley’s 1972 novel, The Freedom Trap. Doubleday, Bagley’s American publisher, wanted a novel like The Freedom Trap that could be marketed in tandem with the film’s release in 1973. Bagley’s next novel, The Tightrope Men (1973), seemed to oblige this request since it is similar in theme to The Freedom Trap. But both thoughts are purely conjecture since, as far as I know, no one has uncovered any direct evidence to support one theory over the other for Bagley’s motive for ditching Because Salton Died in favor of writing The Tightrope Men. Now on to the review: Bill Kemp, a former Royal Army officer, is a highly competent and well-paid insurance consultant working for Western and Continental Insurance Co. Kemp is sent to the Caribbean Island nation, and former British colony, Campanilla, to investigate the death of the well-heeled David Salton. Salton’s decomposing corpse was discovered in a small boat off Campanilla’s coast, and the local coroner ruled the cause of death as a heart attack. Kemp’s investigation is supposed to be nothing more than a simple “check-the-box” operation, but things start unwinding when he arrives on the island. According to a police captain, Kemp’s body was too far gone for a cause of death to be determined. And Salton had enemies everywhere. He was involved in island politics, and he’d been railing against the island casinos—rumored to be owned by an organized crime syndicate—the banking industry, which specialized in moving money discreetly for wealthy clients without paying much local tax, and the current and very corrupt government. Domino Island’s origins as a whodunnit are visible in the finished book. The mysterious death of David Salton. The wide spectrum of suspects. Kemp’s observations of the police’s inadequate original investigation and his developing and then discarding of suspects and murder theories. But the climactic resolution of the mystery is far from traditional—although a portion is set in something like a drawing room—with a bunch of action and a conclusion that would be difficult for any reader to guess because there simply aren’t adequate clues in the narrative. Which is okay, because Domino Island works well as an adventure thriller through its exotic location, bullet-flying action, and Kemp’s tough guy persona. Domino Island isn’t Bagley’s best, but it’s a welcome addition for any of Bagley’s regular readers. *                   *                   * This is a slightly updated version of a review published on Feb. 17, 2022.

a little more about Domino Island…   After Because Salton Died was found, Bagley’s literary estate allowed the screenwriter Michael Davies to make the changes identified in the manuscript notes and from the correspondence between Bagley and Knittel and Domino Island was born. According to Philip Eastwood’s Afterword, Bagley’s “typescript, of approximately 89,000 words, bore on its title page: NEW NOVEL BECAUSE SALTON DIED (if you think of a better, please do) And more than 47 years after it was written, the publisher did find a better title with Domino Island. *                   *                   * Check out Amazon’s page for Domino Island  For more information about Desmond Bagley and his work, check out The Complete Desmond Bagley at Amazon

 

Review: "BAE-I" and "Room E-36" by Douglas Corleone

 

Ghost Signal: Dark Frequencies BAE-I and Room E-36 by Douglas Corleone Ghost Signal Press, 2025     One of my recent reading discoveries and new favorites, Douglas Corleone, has written a pair of novelettes—BAE-I and Room E-36—in a new series of dark technology sci-fi tales that read like a television anthology series. Both are standalone stories, but they are thematically linked and have disturbingly believable near-future settings. Their shared theme: artificial intelligence is coming for us. The first, BAE-I, which was released in May, is about a concerned mother, LynAnn Duft, and her adult son, Howie. The place: LynAnn’s home in “a small Missouri town forgotten by time.” Howie resides in the basement with his computer, no friends, and no hope of ever meeting that right girl. But everything changes when LynAnn responds to a television ad for a company called Bae-i. A company that will— I’ll let you discover exactly what Bae-i does because it’ll be more fun that way. The other, Room E-36, which was released in June, finds Jack Alden, a travel writer carrying a lifetime of disappointment and demons, wrapping up an assignment in Waikiki. His article is due in two days and Jack knows the best place to write it is on-island. So when an invitation for a free room at a new resort called Echo at Ko Olina—on Oahu’s leeward side—reaches Jack, he grabs it. The hotel is unique because it is fully autonomous; which means it is operated by artificial intelligence without the aid of human employees. A set-up that makes Jack cringe, but… he goes anyway. Because what could possibly go wrong?

These novelettes are scary, thought-provoking, and entertaining as hell. A trifecta of sorts for any reader with a hankering for a good and satisfying tale. Their lengths—somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 words—along with Corleone’s cinematic prose, make them as much fun to read as a television series like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror are to watch. As usual for Corleone, the settings are vivid and compelling; adding both atmosphere and tension to the narrative. Howie’s basement lair is confining and dark, while the Echo at Ko Olina is obscenely antiseptic. But the real punch is the almost noir-like downfall of the primary characters as they make one bad decision after another. Do yourself a favor and read BAE-I and Room E-36 because we all need a good reality-based scare from time to time.

You can read BAE-I and Room E-36 on Kindle—each is a mere 99-cents or included with you Kindle Unlimited subscription. Click here to go to the Ghost Signal: Dark Frequencies page at Amazon.

Review: "The Wolf in the Clouds" by Ron Faust

 

The Wolf in the Clouds by Ron Faust Popular Library, 1978   The Wolf in the Clouds is Ron Faust’s second novel. Originally published in 1977 as a hardcover by Bobbs-Merrill’s Black Bat Mystery imprint, it has been reprinted by Popular Library (1978)—which is the edition I read—and more recently as a trade paperback and ebook by Turner Publishing. Like much of Faust’s early work, The Wolf in the Clouds is a relatively simple adventure yarn with a poetic lilt that makes it a little more.    A small town in rural Colorado is under siege by a slow-moving blizzard and a rampage killer. A killer who shot several people at a nearby ski resort and is now hiding in the rugged Wolf Mountain Wilderness Area. The storm trapped three college students skiing in the shadow of the Wolf—a high, unforgiving mountain peak—and two forest rangers brave the freezing temperatures to mount a rescue. The rangers, Jack and Frank, find the skiers safely holed up in a small cabin, but they also find the killer; a man named Ralph Brace whom Jack once considered a friend, but quickly realizes he never knew Ralph at all. The Wolf in the Clouds is an entertaining and smoothly written adventure novel. It is written in first person from Jack’s perspective and the narrative includes ideas larger than the story. The complexity of public land use is only one and it is as relevant today, perhaps even more so, than it was fifty years ago. The prose is both complex and simple; easy to read, but with a texture of beauty about it: “Roof timbers creaked, the last light faded from the windows, the stone walls exhaled a new, acid cold. The long winter night was here; we had fourteen or fifteen hours until dawn.” The story lacks the complexity of Faust’s later novels and the protagonist, Jack, is shaded by a cold veneer. He is aloof, even in an early scene with his wife, and something of an outsider with both the Forest Service and the townsfolk, which is forgivable since everything works so well—setting, plotting, character. The Wolf in the Clouds isn’t in the top-tier of Ron Faust’s body of work, which is reserved for his final six or seven novels, but it is still damn good. *                 *                 * This is a slightly updated version of a review published on May 19, 2016.

Check out The Wolf in the Clouds on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition and here for the paperback.

EQMM Cover Art: Nov. 1954, Frederic Kirberger

The marvelous cover illustration for the November 1954 issue of the digest, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine [Vol. 24, No. 5], was created by Frederic H. Kirberger. And wow do I like its stark realism.    The issue is packed with big names and good stories, too, including: “How Does Your Garden Grow?” by Agatha Christie “The Candy Kid,” by Erle Stanley Gardner “I Always Get the Cuties,” by John D. MacDonald “The Suicide of Kiaros,” by L. Frank Baum “Taste,” by Roald Dahl “Only in Chinago,” by Jack London And the first published story, “Whistle While You Work,” by the guys that created the television series, Columbo, William Link & Richard Levinson. Link & Levinson were 20-year-old students of University of Pennsylvania at the time. The back cover—below right—is from EQMM’s longtime advertiser, the now-defunct The Detective Book Club. A club that printed three books in one and spared no expense for its cover design. But I have to admit I have a few in my personal stacks.

 

Booked (and Printed): July 2025

 

Booked (and Printed) July 2025     July is fireworks, apple pie, heat, humidity, fireflies, swimming, long but shortening days, and quite honestly both the best and worst of summer. The worst (of course) is the heat and humidity. The best is…well, for me, the swimming. I won’t bore you with the heat since I’m sure you have your own awful version, but the best of our summer? I’ll share some of that. We’ve been swimming in the lakes around our home: Lake Bomoseen, Lake St. Catherine, and Emerald Lake. We saw snapping turtles in Bomoseen, sat in a frigid spring at St. Catherine (every time we go), and got caught in an epic rainstorm at Emerald. A rainstorm that almost drowned us; or at least made us really, really wet. As for reading? July’s numbers were better than the prior month’s but it was far from my best with five novels and two short stories. The lackluster numbers are due to my aching eyes, but I kept the course, followed my doctor’s advice and pushed forward anyway. So—with that, I’ll stop complaining. Of the five novels I completed, three were released in 2025: DEATH OF AN EX, by Delia Pitts, LENGTH OF DAYS, by Lynn Kostoff, and Falls to Pieces, by Douglas Corleone. All three were enjoyable and I wrote detailed reviews of the first two here and here. Okay, so my review of Length of Days hasn’t hit yet. But it will soon. As for FALLS TO PIECES—it is something different from the talented and reliable Corleone’s usual fare since it fits nicely into the psychological thriller category. His other work tends toward straight thrillers, crime, and mystery. Kati Dawes and her seventeen-year-old daughter, Zoe, are hiding from Kati’s estranged husband, Jeremy, in the tropical paradise of Maui. Their protected world is shattered when Kati’s fiancé, Eddie, disappears while the couple are hiking. Kati tells law enforcement she last saw Eddie talking on his cell phone, waving for her to go on ahead of him. Of course, Kati is the prime suspect in Eddie’s disappearance and she doesn’t do much to help her cause. Her story is scattered and inconsistent and it doesn’t always line up with the evidence at the scene. And this inconsistency spreads to the reader since Kati is the primary narrator and she is oh so wonderfully unreliable. Things get worse when Eddie’s disappearance hits the national news—and images of Kati are broadcast that bring her ex, Jeremy, scrambling to the island. Falls to Pieces is good fun. The Maui setting is marvelous enough that one can almost smell the trees and earth, and taste the ocean air. The action is swift as it moves around Maui with an almost breathless fervor. The final twist is surprising, as are those preceding it, but I found myself wishing there had been a few more clues to prepare me for that last reveal. With that said, I liked Falls to Pieces and hope to see more fiction like this from Douglas Corleone.

The two “vintage” books I read in July are: What the Dead Leave Behind, by David Housewright (2017), and FRONT SIGHT, by Stephen Hunter (2024). Front Sight is a collection of three Swagger novellas—one each starring Bob Lee, Earl, and Charles (Bob Lee’s grandad). A collection I liked, and one I reviewed here. WHAT THE DEAD LEAVE BEHIND is David Housewright’s fourteenth Rushmore McKenzie and I really dug it. McKenzie is a former St. Paul, Minnesota cop, turned millionaire that does “favors” for friends. Erica, the daughter of McKenzie’s longtime girlfriend Nina Truhler, asks McKenzie to help her college friend, Malcolm Harris, find out who murdered his father, Frank Harris, a year earlier. The police case has gone cold and it seems no one, even Malcolm’s mother and Frank’s widow, cares if the crime is ever solved. McKenzie is hesitant to get involved, but he can’t say no to Erica, and what he finds are another murder that seems to be connected to Frank’s and an array of suspects and motives. What the Dead Leave Behind is a solid mystery—the plotting is tight, the clues are rampant, and the suspense builds with every page. There is Housewright’s usual brilliant Twin Cities (and beyond) setting, too. But it is McKenzie’s witty tongue and his tough guy style that give What the Dead Leave Behind that all too rare shimmer. As for my paltry list of short stories: Both came from the October 1983 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. I won’t say anything about the first, “HOW’S YOUR MOTHER?,” by the always reliable Simon Brett, since you can read my full review here. The other, “LOCKED DOORS,” by Lilly Carlson, appeared in EQMM’s Department of “First Stories.” I had never read anything by its author and my internet searches failed to uncover anything else by (or about) her—do any of you know anything about Ms. Carlson?—but I liked “Locked Doors” a bunch. A psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator, a writer of course, with a couple kids, a dog, and what may or may not be an overactive imagination. This one is worth looking up if you’re of a mind. The only book I started and failed to finish was Elise Hart Kipness’s latest release, CLOSE CALL (2025)—which is slated for release on August 19. This third in the Kate Green mystery series is set at the U.S. Open tennis grand slam championship tournament in Flushing Meadows, New York. But it could have been set anywhere since little of the tournament filters into the story until late in the day. At its center, a world class and mostly despised female tennis champion is kidnapped, and Kate (a television sports newscaster) and her father, an NYPD detective, are the only hope of getting her back alive. I made it more than 70-percent of the way through but it failed to pique my interest from the first sentence to the last one I read. There is repetition, not much character development, and the U.S. Open setting could have been so much better. But that’s just me… Okay, as my mom always taught me, exit on something positive. My favorite book of the month? What the Dead Leave Behind. Just thinking about it makes me want to dip into  McKenzie’s next adventure, which if memory serves is Like to Die (2018). Fin— Now on to next month…

Review: "Chain of Evidence" by Garry Disher

 

Chain of Evidence by Garry Disher Soho Crime, 2007   Chain of Evidence is Australian crime writer Garry Disher’s fourth novel to feature Inspector Hal Challis and Sergeant Ellen Destry. A police procedural set in the rural, but booming Mornington Peninsula area south of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. A place where poverty and wealth live side-by-side and crime is as deadly and ugly as it is in any large city. While visiting his dying father in his childhood home in the dusty, hardscrabble South Australia town of Mawson’s Bluff, Challis unofficially investigates the mysterious disappearance of his sister’s husband, Gavin Hurst, from eight years earlier. Hurst is a man not readily missed by many of Mawson’s Bluff’s residents and his disappearance is truly a mystery. His truck was abandoned at the desert’s edge and his body was never found. Back home at the Waterloo Station, Ellen Destry is filling in for Challis during his absence when a girl is kidnapped on her way home from school. She is found imprisoned in an uninhabited house. Abused by what Destry believes is a pedophile ring operating in the Peninsula. Her investigation hits roadblocks from within the police service and the only person she can trust is Hal Challis, more than 1,000 kilometers away. Chain of Evidence is a powerful and disturbing procedural. The two major mysteries are intriguing and executed with the sure hand of an absolute professional. It is Ellen Destry’s coming out as an equal partner with Challis. The setting, both the Peninsula and Mawson’s Bluff, is rendered with a muted artistry and adds immeasurably to the novel’s power. There is nothing gory or exploitative about either storyline and Disher has a way of mixing character stereotypes to develop tension between the characters, the plot, and the reader. It may be the best book in the series. If you are new to Garry Disher, Chain of Evidence is a very good place to get acquainted. *                        *                        * This is a slightly updated version of a review published on August 12, 2017.

Check out Chain of Evidence on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition and here for the paperback.

Review: "Branded" by Ed Gorman

Branded by Ed Gorman Berkley, 2004   “He wanted to build himself a cigarette, but his hands were covered with the woman’s blood. There was something vile about cigarette paper soaked with blood.”   Branded—which is currently available as an ebook from Speaking Volumes—was originally published as a paperback original in 2004 by Berkley and (needless to say) it didn’t get the play it deserved. Andy Malloy is nineteen and preoccupied by the daydreams of youth. Andy, Sir Andrew as he is known in the realm, imagines himself a knight of King Arthur’s Court where he is brave, just, and admired. But his reality is much different. He works as a store clerk, his father is a drunk, and his stepmother, Eileen, is petty and unfaithful. Arriving home from work Andy discovers Eileen lying dead on the couch, a gunshot wound to her forehead. His father, Tom, is the obvious suspect and Andy hides the body until Tom convinces Andy he isn’t the killer. The only problem is the Sheriff, a hard man with a reputation for beating and killing suspects, doesn’t believe any of it. Branded is a superior western novel. It is a heady mixture of character, plot, and action. Populated by real people who act and behave, at different times, both rationally and irrationally. A town gossip whose only joy is causing trouble, a violent lawman with a suspicious background, a town drunk whose personal frailty and desire for respect is painful, an isolated woman with a burned face. And townspeople who do their best to ignore it. The plot is closer to crime, shadows of serial killings no less, than a traditional western and there is a satisfying, and surprising climactic twist. But it is also appealing as a traditional western and readers of both genres will find much to like here. *                      *                      * This is a slightly revised version of a review published on June 8, 2016.

Check out Branded on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition.