C.S. Poe's Blog

Best intentions, blah, blah, blah....

In my defense, I had a rough start to the year with all the back-and-forth illnesses with my cats. But here I finally am, with not one, but two reviews actually written. It's been legitimately exciting to get back into the groove of reading and reviewing!

Queen of all Mayhem: The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West by Dane Huckelbridge

Across the Living Infinite by Logan Sage Adams 

And as always, I cross-p...

I started a new monthly tracker last year—museums and limited exhibits—and then promptly a lot of life events happened and I failed to do new visits, let alone writing up reviews of the experience. But I'm back and catching up, because while nonprofit museums rely heavily on donors, historic homes depend on every single visitor who walks through the door, and word-of-mouth is promotion I 100% believe makes a difference.

Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum
Exhibit: Journey of Hope: Irish American Immig...

Oh boy.

Here we go again....

Welcome to 2026!

December ended on a hell of a bad note—my beloved little shadow cat, Kasper, had to be unexpectedly put to sleep on Christmas Eve—and I've not been in the most pleasant or productive of moods since then.

There was no end-of-year wrap, (but don't worry, I only released one book) nor have I been very good at promotion these last few months (there have been a lot of great foreign translations! and an audiobook! did I even tell you?) but the one plus to it b...

I've started a new monthly tracker—museums—both general visits as well as specific, limited exhibits. Nonprofit museums already rely heavily on donors, but when it comes to historic homes, every single visitor is critical to their livelihood, and word-of-mouth is some of the best promotion there is. So I've decided to start leaving reviews as a small contribution to their continued success and encourage you to visit these locations if you're ever in the neighborhood!

Lyndhurst Mansion
Exhibit: Ale...

The Italian translation of Southernmost Murder , Omicidio del profondo sud is now available through Triskell Edizioni!

Blurb: Mistero e romance a Key West: un tesoro di pirati, uno scheletro e una coppia in pericolo tra amore e segreti.

Aubrey Grant vive nel paradiso tropicale di Key West: un grazioso cottage, una Vespa rosa e un lavoro perfetto come curatore di una dimora storica appartenuta a un vecchio capitano navale. Con l’arrivo in città di Jun Tanaka, l’affascinante agente dell’FBI con cui f...

The French translation of the third Memento Mori book, Broadway Butchery , is now available as Le massacre de Broadway , with Juno Publishing!

Blurb: La brigade des affaires non résolues de la police de New York est surchargée de travail et en sous-effectif, mais elle bénéficie d’une bonne presse grâce à son inspecteur vedette, Everett Larkin. Sa mémoire étonnante et ses capacités de déduction dignes d’Holmes ont déjà permis de capturer un tueur en série. Maintenant, il a identifié un deuxième préd...

Every year I start out with the best of intentions... one day I won't miss out on posting for months at a time. Anyway, here's the handful of books I read and reviewed over the summer!

Relief Valve (The Plumber's Mate: Book Two) by J.L. Merrow

Heat Trap (The Plumber's Mate: Book Three) by J.L. Merrow

Blow Down (The Plumber's Mate: Book Four) by J.L. Merrow

Lock Nut (The Plumber's Mate: Book Five) by J.L. Merrow

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid

As always, these reviews are cross-posted at Good...

All About Romance gives Hudson River Homicides an A rating, saying: Tightly plotted, totally gripping, and deeply romantic, Hudson River Homicides was one of my most eagerly anticipated books of 2025, and it absolutely did not disappoint, and the author finds the space to drop one of the most beautiful – and so perfectly them – declarations of love I’ve read:

"Thank you for following me."
"To the ends of the Earth."
"Earth is spherical."
"Yeah, it is."

The fourth installment of the Memento Mori serie...

Hudson River Homicides is finally available, which means I'm here to share the soundtrack of the book! Some of these songs matched the vibe a scene had when I was writing, but most of them were just really good at injecting dopamine into my veins and so were left on repeat for days or weeks at a time.

Any guesses as to which song was listened to the most? 

I Like It - Alesso, Nate Smith  
More Than You Know - Axwell /\ Ingrosso  
me & ur ghost - blackbear  
Bekhauf - Bloodywood, feat. BABYMETAL  
Hypa...

It's been two years and something like five re-writes, but Hudson River Homicides (Memento Mori 4) is not only finished, it's finally live for your reading pleasure. To say this book was a labor of love would be an understatement. I gave it 200% of myself—skills, imagination, sweat, blood, tears, and then some. I wanted the mystery to be above and beyond the previous three, and for the romance to touch those deepest and most intimate parts of our heart. But more than anything, I wanted the reade...