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L. Dean Murphy

Biography

L. Dean Murphy


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Dean Murphy was a medical research paralegal for a Miami insurance defense firm. Now retired, he relocated to the Orlando area. His first book reviews were published by the Charlotte Observer, and he correctly predicted that Judith Krantz’s SCRUPLES would be the 1977 #1 bestseller. He began reviewing for Bookreporter.com in 2009. An avid reader (he devoured ATLAS SHRUGGED in five days, at age 12), Dean is a member of International Thriller Writers and a Lifetime Member of Florida Writers Association. He volunteered for 10 years at annual Florida Writers conferences and recruited bestselling authors to be speakers. His short stories have been published in anthologies, and he writes for various publications and blogs. His novel, THE ART OF MURDER, is in its fourth trimester. Write on!

L. Dean Murphy

Reviews by L. Dean Murphy

by Melanie McCabe - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

After a failed relationship and an unsettled teaching career, Sara Barlow returns to her childhood home in Arlington, Virginia, hoping for a fresh start. But when she applies for a job at her old high school, she spots in the gymnasium the man she suspects was involved in a classmate’s violent death a decade earlier. Haunted by the past, Sara confronts the memories she’s spent years trying to suppress: her sister Suzanne’s fatal car crash, her secret summer with the reckless Devlin Barrie, and the anonymous 911 call she made after witnessing what she believes was a murder. As the construction of Interstate 66 physically fractures her community, Sara grapples with emotional fault lines of her own --- guilt, silence and buried truth.

by Nicole Maggi - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

When a human foot is ejected from a geyser in Yellowstone National Park, Special Agent Emme Helliwell of the National Park Service is assigned the chilling case. She is drawn into the park’s vast, unforgiving wilderness --- and into the orbit of a private school for at-risk teens where extreme backcountry excursions are part of the curriculum. As disturbing truths begin to surface, Emme also must confront personal fault lines, including the unresolved tension with an ex-boyfriend who’s suddenly back in her life and assigned to the same case. In a place where danger hides behind natural beauty and good intentions can mask darker motives, Emme must navigate both treacherous terrain and emotional landmines to solve a mystery that could cost her everything.

by Shelley Noble - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

1915: Manhattan’s Book Row, an eclectic jumble of 40 bookshops along Fourth Avenue, is the mecca for rare book buyers from around the world, and the haunt of locals looking for a bargain. It is also the target of the most vicious censor in American history --- Anthony Comstock --- and home to three sisters who vow to stop him. For the three Applebaum sisters, the Arcadia Rare Bookshop is the only home they’ve ever known. Unbeknownst to her older sisters, Celia has joined a group of young people who secretly print and distribute articles on women’s health by hiding them within the pages of ordinary cookbooks, household hints and sewing patterns. Meanwhile, the Comstock Laws threaten anybody who owns or circulates “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” publications. Secrets and a mysterious stranger mean that the fate of the famed Book Row is anything but secure.

by Louise Fein - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

1552, Paris: The printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas. 1952, New York: Milly Bennett is a lonely housewife struggling to find her way in her new neighborhood amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. She finds her life taking an unexpected turn when a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, pulling her into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world. Milly, Lysbette and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.

by Brad Parks - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Curt Hinton and Angel Reddish are former college roommates turned lifelong best friends who always have each other’s backs. So when Angel offers Curt the chance to leave his job at a failing newspaper and take a lucrative position as head of corporate communications at Balco, the Bay Area Logistics Company, Curt takes the leap. But on Curt’s first day at Balco, he learns that Angel was killed the night before during a carjacking. Tasked with writing a press release about the crime, Curt quickly discovers that the carjacking wasn’t random --- it was a targeted attack by professional killers. As Curt is drawn into the mystery of his best friend’s death, he discovers that there are many possible suspects --- and there’s a lot more danger swirling around his new employer than he ever could have imagined.

by James L'Etoile - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Sacramento Detective Emily Hunter is exposed to inhumanity on a daily basis. It’s the unfortunate baggage that comes with police work, and she’s mostly learned how to shoulder the load. But it all turns personal when her fellow cop and boyfriend, Brian Conner, is caught in the blast of a targeted church bombing. Brian is gravely injured, suffering a traumatic brain injury. But the attacks don’t stop there. Soon, more officers come under fire, and Emily searches for a connection. She and her partner, Javier Medina, discover that Brian and the other injured officers share a common past --- a past that now has them targeted for payback. Battling with heartbreak, Emily has to identify who’s responsible for the string of attacks and stop them before there are more casualties.

by Brad Ricca - History, Nonfiction

During a séance in 1924, Harry Houdini --- the greatest entertainer in the world --- was cursed by a vengeful spirit, who said his days were numbered. Houdini laughed. He believed talking to the dead was impossible. By 1926, Houdini was dead. This is the untold story of the last performance of Harry Houdini, who --- inspired by his hero, Abraham Lincoln --- devotes himself full-time to a personal crusade against Spiritualism, the practice of speaking to the dead. In a spellbinding journey across Jazz Age America, haunted by the aftermath of the Great War and a deadly pandemic, Houdini encounters modern-day haunted houses, warlocks and monsters, and uncovers a shocking conspiracy that stretches all the way to the American presidency --- and to the House of Houdini itself.

by Mariah Fredericks - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

New York, 1920. Although she’s newly married to the hottest writer in America, Zelda Fitzgerald is at loose ends while Scott works on his next novel, THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED. Meanwhile, Atlanta journalist Morris Markey has arrived in New York and is lost in every way possible. Recently returned from the war and without connections, he hovers at the edge of the city’s revels, unable to hear the secrets that might give him his first big story. When notorious man-about-town Joseph Elwell is found shot through the head, the fortunes of the two southerners collide when they realize they were both among the last to see him alive. Zelda encountered Elwell at the scandalous Midnight Frolic revue on the night of his death, and Markey saw him just hours before with a ravishing mystery woman dressed in green. Markey has his story. Zelda has her next adventure. 

by Paul Levine - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

In 1937, clouds of war gather over Europe, and American fascists march at home. While the FBI chases suspected communists, Nazi agents plot an armed insurrection. When the world's two most famous men --- Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin --- uncover the scheme, which includes the assassinations of Hollywood's biggest stars, they fight back with nothing but their ingenuity, raw courage, and the fierce resolve of Georgia Ann Robinson, the LAPD's first Black female officer. A dangerous chase takes our heroes into the heart of darkness, a fascist encampment in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles where a militia armed with machine guns plans its attack. It's brains versus brawn in an explosive, unforgettable finale.

by Madeline Martin - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club --- a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood and the courage to rewrite their stories. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands’ untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder. As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent. But when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything.