Michael Lister (1) (1968–)

This is a murder mystery featuring a pastor/detective who tries to solve a 12-year-old cold case of a missing young woman. The dialog and the characters’ complex lives ring true. In fact the women’s dialog felt so on point I’m not entirely convinced the author isn’t a woman. Very twisted ending that makes you want to reread the book.

Remington James is a successful but unhappy advertising executive when his father dies. He returns to his hometown to run his father's store and care for his mother who is dying of MS. While he is home, he decides to pick up the hobby, the passion, he gave up years ago, wildlife photography. He has set trap cameras in the woods of the Apalachicola River Basin in hopes of maybe catching the elusive Florida panther. As he is out taking pictures and checking his traps one evening, he discovers show more that he has caught not the panther on his camera, but a murder. And now the murderers are hunting Remington through the pitch black of the Florida woods.

If readers want to read DOUBLE EXPOSURE surfacely and minimally, they are in for a heart-pounding thriller. Lister's written a tight plot that doesn't allow one to slow down for even a second, just like his protagonist.

Lister created a powerful effect by being a minimalist in this novel. His protagonist is a photographer out taking pictures in the woods. Lister's prose mimics that process so you can hear the camera shutter click as you read:

Evening. Glow.
Dark figures.
Shot.
Explosion.
Bloom of blood.
Body dropping to the cold ground.
Death. Digging.
Fire.

And Lister's setting development carries you smack into the middle of Remington's Eden that is horrifically transformed into his Hell all in the course of one night. Remington reminds himself to "Use your senses. All of them." And Lister helps the readers to use their senses, all of them. Whether they are seeing the beauty of the landscape or the nightmare of a murder. Whether they are hearing life, or feeling fear. Readers will definitely be in the woods with Remington James on the most terrifying night of his life. But they'll have to listen carefully to hear nature's sounds over the thumping of their own hearts.

If you want to delve deeper, you will find a complex interweaving of theme, plot, character and setting that results in a magical reading experience. Remington is almost a unique character in crime fiction in that he comes from a functional family. His parents loved him and he loved his parents; while Remington doesn't seem conscious of it, the reader quickly learns that both parents taught him skills that made him a great man.

And of course, nature is a prominent theme as well as a symbol in DOUBLE EXPOSURE. The dark of night is essential to build up the suspense, but it plays a role also in the idea that man is destroying nature. So Remington's manic race is not just a race for his life, but a race for nature. Can they both make it out alive?

Brilliant.
Beautiful.
Must-read! show less

A solid collection of Florida crime mystery stories that includes an assortment of murders, scams, ripoffs and betrayals. There’s a JFK assassination plot thwarted in Tampa – several days before he’s due in Dallas. A couple truly in love celebrating their 10th anniversary stop at the wrong convenience store at the wrong time. An accountant with knowledge of explosives who really dislikes the constant mindless chatter of his wife and their new neighbors.

Standouts include James W. show more Hall’s “Exposure,” and John Dufresne’s “Iffy,” in which a hard-luck laborer tries to fill a void by shooting strangers on a beach and taking “what wasn’t mine to take.” Tom Corcoran’s “Burn Off By Noon” tells the story of a man intent on avenging his soldier brother’s death at the hand of three Serbian soldiers. There’s not a dud in this collection. show less

I started out liking The Big Goodbye because it has that 1940s noir-ish feeling to it. However, I got bored about half way through.

It takes place in 1943 and Jimmy Riley has lost his right arm in some freak way....untold in the story. He's obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, Lauren, who's married to Harry Lewis, who is running for mayor of Panama City, FL. Jimmy is a partner in a private detective agency, with Ray, a former Pinkerton.

Lauren comes to Jimmy, ostensibly for help but then show more withdraws the request. Jimmy, of course, can't abide by that and starts shadowing Lauren to find out what's going on. Ray gets involved as do several other characters (their secretary, July and a friend, Clip). There are dead bodies cropping up but the main thrust is Jimmy's obsession with Lauren.

I'm in the midst of reading mystery stories actually written in the 1920s through 1940s and if you're looking for noir mysteries, I'd go that route. show less