Review: Miller and Kelby: Major case squad files by Maxine Flam

Genre: Short Story Collection/Crime Thriller

Description:

“Two Detectives, One City

The time: the late 1970s

The place: Los Angeles, California

Joseph (Joe) Miller and William (Bill) Kelby are detectives with the Major Case Squad. They get the hard-to-solve cases. And they solve them the old fashioned way with grit and determination, forensics, and help from the department psychologist.

Miller and Kelby are a dedicated detective team that Los Angeles turns to when there are unsolved murders in the city. And solving murders is their specialty. They put their lives on the line every day for the citizens of Los Angeles, a city that rarely sleeps.”

Author:

“Maxine lives with her aquatic friends. She doesn't let her disabilities get in the way of taking classes at the local junior college. Maxine has two Associate Arts degrees, one in Natural Science and one in Liberal Arts. She has had multiple short stories published since 2019.”

Appraisal:

I’ll admit to feeling torn about this collection. I think it might depend on how you generally approach reading short story collections. If you read one or two stories, then do something else, that works. But if you tend to read several stories at a time without many breaks then I think these stories might feel too much the same. There’s nothing wrong with stories having a pattern. (Every novel in the romance genre has the same basic pattern at a high level.) With one exception these fit a basic pattern. I liked the two main characters, Joe Miller and Bill Kelby. A third character who shows up in most stories is Dr Delmonico, the police department psychologist. He sometimes stretches belief in the theories he comes up with, not that he comes up with them, but no matter how out there his theories seem to be, he apparently never gets anything wrong. In spite of these concerns, I still enjoyed reading these stories and meeting Miller and Kelby.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of typos.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 35-40,000 Words