A NYTimes rave for our own Julia Spencer-Fleming

HALLIE EPHRON: There's much excitement here at Jungle Red! 

Fireworks! 

Drum roll! 

We're delighted to report that MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, Julia's brand new, hot off the presse book, has earned an absolutely glowing review from The New York Times's mystery maven, Sarah Weinman.

We're madly toasting Julia, and happily sharing the news. 

Here's what Ms. Weinman has to say: 

Over 10 books, Spencer-Fleming has examined the joys and ills of small-town life, the limits and tests of faith, and the many ways love can prevail. In AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY (Minotaur, 308 pp., $29), her first book in five years, the longtime Millers Kill, N.Y., police chief Russ Van Alstyne has just resigned. He and his wife, the Rev. Clare Fergusson, have settled in for a quiet holiday season with their 8-month-old son. That is, until a white supremacist group descends upon the town, inciting violence at the annual lighted tractor parade, and Russ gets word from Officer Hadley Knox, the newest member of the Millers Kill police department, that her former partner has vanished after a stint infiltrating local militia groups.

It doesn’t take long for Russ and Hadley to realize that the people they care about are in the cross hairs of malevolence, and that following the procedural playbook won’t keep them alive. Fleming, in her most masterly turn yet, mixes heart-stopping action with deep empathy for her characters.

Goodness! It doesn't get much better than that!

Brava Julia! Russ and Clare can bask. 

It said... vs I read

HALLIE EPHRON: Seems like daily I go down the rabbit hole with a very personal MISreading of a news item. And the mistakes, I am sorry to say, illustrate how much being an aging crime fiction writer has taken over my brain.

A few days ago it said:
"The Volunteer Buglers Giving 24-Note Salutes" 
I read:
The Volunteer Burglers Giving 24-Note Salutes   

A few weeks ago, the news article said: autopay.
I read autopsy.

Then there was the headline that said:
"Even Mediocre Home Baristas Can Make Good Espresso With This Unintimidating Machine"  
I read:
Even Medicare Home Baristas Can Make Good Espresso With This Unintimidating Machine 

An finally, a news bulletin said:
"Japan was violating an agreement to stop dumping semiconductors on the US market at below cost”
I read:
Japan was violating an agreement to stop dumpling semiconductors on the US market at below cost. 

This last misreading, clearly driven by my passion for Chinese soup dumplings.

Do you have a penchant for misreading the news, one that reflects what you really care about or, as in my case, how much your brain is in a state of gradual decay but your sense of humor remains intact?

A trip down phoney-baloney road

HALLIE EPHRON: I live just south of Boston, and whenever we needed to drive through the city and into New Hampshire or Maine, we liked to take Route 1 -- which we referred to as the "phoney-baloney road." With kids in the back seat shouting out every they spotted another wacky beloved landmark.

In addition to shopping malls and fast food restaurants and sketchy looking bars, Route 1 was dotted with literal-minded storefront that earned its name, "phoney-baloney."

At the start, there was the hulking orange T-Rex perched on an overpass beside a miniature golf course. The golf course is now long gone, but the dino remains, watching over his domain.

There was the truly Leaning Tower of Pizza.

The restaurant that looked like an enormous pirate ship that had washed up on suburban Boston.

The Hilltop, a steak restaurant that marked its place with an enormous neon cactus and was surrounded by life-sized cattle "grazing" alongside the always-long line of hungry diners waiting to get in.

And the illustrious Chinese restaurant, The Kowloon, which I am sorry to report is about to undergo demolition to make way for something or another much less interesting. Their all-you-can eat was spectacular and it was surrounded by gardens.

All of these were dear to my heart, probably because I grew up in Southern California just over the canyon from the TailofthePup.

Do you have fond memories of establishments that would have been right at home on our Phoney Baloney Road?