From the Dust is a compelling, insightful whodunnit

Posted on April 1, 2026 by James McCrone

I was fortunate enough to read an early copy of David Swinson’s From the Dust on NetGalley. Here’s my review.

Retired DC homicide detective, Graham Sanderson has returned to his father’s home in Upstate New York. “It was my father’s death that brought me here, but my brother’s condition and need for company that made me stay,” he says. Death used to be Graham’s business, but he’s happy to be retired. Or so he says.

But something isn’t right. The small, rural town where he finds himself had only two murders in the past three years, and they were crimes of passion easily solved. Now, a body is found near the canal, probably killed elsewhere and brought to the site so that it would be found.

The local sheriff, himself a retired big city detective, worries that his new detective may not be up to the challenge. When a second murder occurs, with all the hallmarks of the first, he enlists Sanderson to help the rookie.

Swinson has crafted an intriguing and compelling whodunnit that is insightful and poignant. The weight of the past drags at Sanderson, and indeed on many of the characters here. Sanderson’s investigation will take him into places, and pit him against forces he never dealt with in DC.

And it will force him to confront not only his preconceptions about the investigation, but what lies behind them. The story moves along well. The pacing is good as suspects are introduced and the motive behind the crime comes into focus.

There is a noble doggedness about Sanderson’s approach, exhausting the leads, that reminded me of Georges Simenon’s Maigret.

I enjoyed this story, and I particularly liked that it didn’t fall into the trap of portraying rural citizens as quaint or cute, but as fully realized characters, each contributing something to the story.

Highly recommended.

From the Dust, by David Swinson ISBN: 978-0-316-52865-8

James McCrone’s stories raise questions about the nature of power, the choices we make and the lessons we don’t learn.

He’s the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. Bastard Verdict, his fourth novel, is about a conspiracy surrounding a second Scottish Independence referendum. His current novel, Witness Tree, is out on submission.

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon.

eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

James is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, and he’s the current president of the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime. He has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle, and he now lives and writes in Philadelphia, PA.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And you can also follow him onSubstack!

Some of his short stories are available FREE online. Links are HEREtoward the bottom of the page.

The Whisper Legacy, by Tj O’Connor – Review

Posted on May 6, 2025 by James McCrone

“Curran’s enemies thought he was dead. They were wrong.
He thought his past was left on the Voula Beach Road. He was wrong. Now, that nightmare is drawing his enemies out”

Whisper Legacy is a brilliant, powerful and well written cyber warfare “take” on the familiar noir tale of criminals needing to keep their stolen records hidden. But with some intriguing twists. Beset by PTSD, lingering injuries and creeping old age, (Mar)Lowe Curran makes a living “on both sides of the ethics line” as what’s left of the former black ops spy he once was. Now a security expert, an unregistered PI and a fixer for the powerful, enigmatic TAE–“Tommy” to his friends–Curran inadvertently stumbles into a much more sinister plot involving the highest levels of government.

When Curran steals back the records and files that the hacker “Piper” stole from TAE’s company, he inadvertently downloads the records of a shadowy influence-peddling group’s blackmail operations, known as Whisper. Worse, for Curran, the Whisper group has already tried to kill him. Twice.

Whisper Legacy takes us through slimy operators, to the rich and powerful, right up to the highest levels of politics, where everything is personal. Not least, for Curran. He lives not only with the aches, pains and nightmares of his past work, but also with deep regret. This is about to get ugly. And dangerous. Powerful people with shady friends need the duffel bag to remain hidden. To stay alive and expose Whisper will take all of Curran’s experience, guile and grit. The police are the least of our hero’s problems.

Lowe Curran is an engaging narrator and guide. The story moves along confidently and quickly, spinning its seemingly disparate strands in a way that feels fresh, all while leading us, and Curran, inexorably on. I liked that our hero was human, hobbled by old wounds in very real ways. He’s forced to use his wiles more than his fists or a gun (though he certainly knows how to use them both when called upon). The scene that opens the book is a wonderfully chaotic masterclass in improvised spy craft. Levels of madness misdirect from the darker purpose and set an assured tone for the story to come.

Highly recommended!

Whisper Legacy is available on Bookshop.org, Amz, Barnes & Noble and through Bookbub

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James McCrone is the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network , and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. Bastard Verdict, his fourth novel, is about a conspiracy surrounding a second Scottish Independence referendum. His novel-in-progress is called Witness Tree, a (pinot) noir tale of murder and corruption set in Oregon’s wine country.

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

James is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, and he’s the current president of the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime. He lives in Philadelphia. James has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And follow this blog!

You can also keep up with James and his work on social media:
Mastodon: @JMcCrone
Bluesky: @jmccrone.bsky.social
AND MORE, on the links page

Swipe by R.G. Belsky and Connie Traymore

Posted on May 4, 2025 by James McCrone

SWIPE, is a tense, smart and page-turning psychological thriller where life and love on a dating app goes from strange, and sometimes desperate, to menacing. And deadly.

SWIPE, by R.G. Belsky and Bonnie Traymore is a tense, smart psychological thriller. Life and love on the fictional dating app MetMee goes from strange, and sometimes desperate, to deadly when two strong, sympathetic and believable characters looking for connection in life get more than they asked for or expected. The same may be said for lucky readers.

I’m a huge fan of Belsky’s previous work, while Traymore is new to me. On the strength of this book, I’ll definitely want to check out more of her work, too. So, though I should have known better, I expected this novel, given its subject matter, would have the whimsical elements of a cozy. While it has some (dark) humor, the authors do a remarkable job of introducing tension and menace from the very start. And ratcheting it up.

SWIPE, “The perfect match, the perfect murder”, by R.G. Belsky and Connie Traymore
EAN/UPC 9798230469544 – Pages 278 – Paperback
Pub. date – April 27, 2025 – BISAC Categories: Mystery, Thrillers & Crime

Jake Parker is a former high-flying reporter now writing puff pieces for an online magazine obsessed with clicks, reposts and viral reports, called The American Scene. Sonya Romano, by her own admission, is something of a vigilante. She bears the scars of a troubled childhood–a philandering father who drove his fragile wife to suicide, along with a dark grudge against the two-faced, and often philandering cheaters she encounters on the dating app site “MetMee.”

The story unfolds chapter by chapter from the alternating points-of-view of Jake and Sonya, who quickly track together. Jake has been assigned to write a click bait expose about dating apps, while Sonya worries that an accident resulting from the payback she’s been dealing out to the genuinely horrible men she has encountered will put her in the frame for murder. Jake, with his nose for news, scents a bigger, more important story than the piece his online editor commissioned. Quickly, the two are searching for information about each other that is far outside the normal likes and dislikes. There is an appealing and suspenseful feeling of cat-and-mouse in the early chapters as Jake closes in on what he thinks the story is, and Sonya works to cover her tracks.

There is also a satisfying cat-and-mouse being played with identity here: each character has aliases and multiple personas on the app. This could have been very confusing to read, but Belsky and Traymore carry it off very well.

The alternating viewpoints between Jake and Sonya does an extraordinary job of creating pressure and anxiety about what will happen next. Early on, their courtship is conducted over MetMee’s texting app. This could have been cooly distancing but it actually increases tension as it creates a sense of an inevitable collision. As a reader, I was breathlessly turning the pages to find out just how bad this pile-up would be, only to find…well, I won’t spoil it.

Five *s – Highly recommended!
Available on Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

I received a review copy for a free and fair review.

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James McCrone is the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network , and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. Bastard Verdict, his fourth novel, is about a conspiracy surrounding a second Scottish Independence referendum. His novel-in-progress is called Witness Tree, a (pinot) noir tale of murder and corruption set in Oregon’s wine country.

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

James is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, and he’s the current president of the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime. He lives in Philadelphia. James has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And follow this blog!

You can also keep up with James and his work on social media:
Mastodon: @JMcCrone
Bluesky: @jmccrone.bsky.social
AND MORE, on the links page

Guest posting

Posted on July 2, 2023 by James McCrone

During the launch for Bastard Verdict, I was able to “guest” on some great blogs – Murder is Everywhere, The Book Diva’ Reads and The Mystery of Writing. I was excited to contribute, and I looked forward to adding to the discussion. In this case, about collaboration, seeking help with a book and about verisimilitude. I’m grateful for the opportunity. Because most of them deal with the theme of taking help where it’s needed and/or given, I thought I might link to them again.

You might check out these and other posts, and follow these blogs.

In “The Voices in My Head”, for Murder is Everywhere, I talked about how I’d lived in Scotland as a boy, and had longed to write a story set in Scotland. Doing so created a set of unique writing problems… MORE

For Elena Hartwell’s Mystery of Writing, I explored collaborative writing: “I think that if I’m honest with myself, I wouldn’t be a very good collaborator. I worry that sharing the vision would diminish the work…” Or would it? MORE

In “It Takes a Village,” on the Book Diva’s Reads blog, I began, “The writer needs a combination of arrogance and humility—arrogance to carry you over the bad spells of imposter syndrome and worse, and humility about the work itself, and your own limitations….” MORE

The crime writing community is very engaged and supportive.

# # #

James McCrone is the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network , and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

His current book, Bastard Verdict, debuted on May 18th. A noir political thriller set in Scotland, it’s available through the link above, or wherever you buy your books. His current, work-in-progress is a mystery-thriller set in Oregon’s wine country…A (pinot) Noir, called Witness Tree.

A Seattle native (mostly), James now lives in South Philadelphia with his wife and three children. He’s a member of the The Mystery Writers of America, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, Int’l Thriller Writers, Philadelphia Dramatists Center and is the president of the Delaware Valley chapter of the Sisters in Crime network. James has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And follow this blog!

His most recent short fiction is below. The first is available for online reading.

“Eight O’Clock Sharp” in Retreats from Oblivion: the Journal of NoirCon. (free online)
Set in Philadelphia’s 9th Street Market, Thomas is a man outside of time, forgotten, but trying to do the right thing while contending with avaricious forces.

“Ultimatum Games” in Rock and Hard Place magazine issue #7
A rare book heist, bad decisions. The narrator and his partner-in-crime clash over evolving bourgeois norms.