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Murder in Triplicate
Dead Fall Aliki Pateas goes home after many years to make peace with her family but finds that her bedroom is now occupied by another woman, Dawn Freeman. Resentment turns to love when Aliki and Dawn find themself caught up in the investigation of a mysterious plane crash and a murder investigation. Dead Funny There is nothing funny about the serial killer the press was calling the Fire Clown. Aliki tries to balance family and a murder investigation but the Fire Clown tips the scales when he goes after the ones that Aliki loves the most. Dead Aim When Robbie finds human bones at the site of her new office she recruits her half sister, Aliki, to help her hide the evidence. A comedy of errors follows that leads the family into grave danger but help comes from a very unexpected source.
209 pages, Paperback
First published November 26, 2007
4 people want to read
About the author
Anne Azel
20 books7 followersAnne Azel has been writing and publishing for over a dozen years. Her work has been recognized with a CLFA Readers' Choice Award and LFRCA Readers Choice Awards. She won a Golden Crown Literary Society Award for dramatic fiction for her novel Gold Mountain and a GCLS Literary Award for short story collection for A Little Book of Big Christmas Tales. She was also a GCLS finalist for her novels Iron Rose Bleeding and America. Anne's work has been recognized for its informed and understanding portrayal of cultures and cultural diversity. Her work covers a wide range of genres including murder mysteries, contemporary issues, romance and futuristic writing.
The cover illustrations of Anne's books are original art work by the award winning artist B.L. Magill. As one reader wrote, "This is writing for readers who demand more."
Anne has travelled all over the world and she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her writing. She is retired but still pursues her interests in art history, archaeology and forensic anthropology. Anne is currently living in northern Ontario. She enjoys an active life kayaking, canoeing, curling and skiing. Her hobbies include writing and model trains. (from the publisher's website)
The cover illustrations of Anne's books are original art work by the award winning artist B.L. Magill. As one reader wrote, "This is writing for readers who demand more."
Anne has travelled all over the world and she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her writing. She is retired but still pursues her interests in art history, archaeology and forensic anthropology. Anne is currently living in northern Ontario. She enjoys an active life kayaking, canoeing, curling and skiing. Her hobbies include writing and model trains. (from the publisher's website)
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June 18, 2020I was initially reluctant to start this one. The combination of an unprepossessing cover, a questionable publisher, and the author’s choice of novellas rather than more full-length works gave me the idea that it was an amateurish production. But then I started thinking. Although the novella is probably the least-written and least-read fictional form, it has a storied history—especially in genre fiction. Many famous science fiction novels began as long stories. And in the mystery genre we don’t have to look any farther than Rex Stout’s Trouble in Triplicate to suspect where Anne Azel got the title for her first collection. And when I actually began reading the first novella, “Dead Fall,” I found myself immersed in the setting, the characters, and the action.
It wasn’t long before I realized that these novellas are uber fiction, stories based very lightly on the characters of Xena and Gabrielle. Aliki Pateas is the strong, tall, dark, silent type while her love interest Dawn Freeman is slight, blonde, and, of course, a writer. This version takes place in Canada—the first novella is set in Alberta while the other two take place in Toronto, where Aliki works as a forensic scientist—and a Mountie. I suspect that the author wrote a story that precedes these—she refers to it constantly—and I wonder why she didn’t publish it, especially as it introduces almost everyone in the second and third novellas.
All three novellas deal with bones. The first set belong to Dawn’s uncle, whose plane crashed in the mountains under mysterious circumstances. The second belong to victims of a serial killer who places a clown’s nose on the skull. In the third novel, Aliki’s half sister discovers a set of bones in the foundation of her new building.
Yes, there’s some stiff writing—especially in “Dead Aim,” and yes, there is some unforgivably clumsy point-of-view juxtapositions as well as some silliness (again, in “Dead Aim”) that hints more at slapstick than hard-boiled crime—things that a better editor could and should have taken care of. Aliki’s forensic investigations of human bones are perfunctory at best, but still interesting, as is her mind set. When she is stabbed by a criminal in “Dead Funny,” she responds to Dawn’s are-you-okay query by explaining that the blade “glanced off the rostral side of the left clavicle, embedding distal to the acromial facet.” Something, I confess, that Temperance “Bones” Brennan, might have said.
As for the action and the characters and the mysteries, well, they’re okay. Pretty entertaining, really, but the impossible-to-believe coincidences and fairly amateurish artistry don’t give me much choice but to give this one less than 3 stars. But not much less.
As far as I have been able to determine, this is only the second collection of mystery stories featuring the same lesbian protagonist. It was preceded only by Barbara Wilson’s 8 stories about Cassandra Reilly in The Death of a Much-Traveled woman. Iza Moreau’s recent collection, Mysteries in Small Towns, gives me the hope that this will become more prevalent in the future.
Note: I read the first printing of the P.D. Publishing edition.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
It wasn’t long before I realized that these novellas are uber fiction, stories based very lightly on the characters of Xena and Gabrielle. Aliki Pateas is the strong, tall, dark, silent type while her love interest Dawn Freeman is slight, blonde, and, of course, a writer. This version takes place in Canada—the first novella is set in Alberta while the other two take place in Toronto, where Aliki works as a forensic scientist—and a Mountie. I suspect that the author wrote a story that precedes these—she refers to it constantly—and I wonder why she didn’t publish it, especially as it introduces almost everyone in the second and third novellas.
All three novellas deal with bones. The first set belong to Dawn’s uncle, whose plane crashed in the mountains under mysterious circumstances. The second belong to victims of a serial killer who places a clown’s nose on the skull. In the third novel, Aliki’s half sister discovers a set of bones in the foundation of her new building.
Yes, there’s some stiff writing—especially in “Dead Aim,” and yes, there is some unforgivably clumsy point-of-view juxtapositions as well as some silliness (again, in “Dead Aim”) that hints more at slapstick than hard-boiled crime—things that a better editor could and should have taken care of. Aliki’s forensic investigations of human bones are perfunctory at best, but still interesting, as is her mind set. When she is stabbed by a criminal in “Dead Funny,” she responds to Dawn’s are-you-okay query by explaining that the blade “glanced off the rostral side of the left clavicle, embedding distal to the acromial facet.” Something, I confess, that Temperance “Bones” Brennan, might have said.
As for the action and the characters and the mysteries, well, they’re okay. Pretty entertaining, really, but the impossible-to-believe coincidences and fairly amateurish artistry don’t give me much choice but to give this one less than 3 stars. But not much less.
As far as I have been able to determine, this is only the second collection of mystery stories featuring the same lesbian protagonist. It was preceded only by Barbara Wilson’s 8 stories about Cassandra Reilly in The Death of a Much-Traveled woman. Iza Moreau’s recent collection, Mysteries in Small Towns, gives me the hope that this will become more prevalent in the future.
Note: I read the first printing of the P.D. Publishing edition.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
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