Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for SONG GIRL: A Mystery in Two Verses by Keith Hirshland on this Virtual Authors Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!

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Book Description

Detective Marc Allen is ready to leave the Raleigh, North Carolina, Police Department. Two murders that happened on his watch have apparently been solved thanks to a suicide note confession written by a distraught father. But Allen isn’t buying it. He’s convinced that the man’s adopted daughter, Teri Hickox, is the one responsible for the heinous crimes. With his personal life a muddle and his professional career unsettled he decides the best thing for him is a change of scenery.

The detective, now in Colorado Springs, is working new cases and making new friends. One of those friends is Hannah Hunt who, after suffering a freak accident, finds herself only able to speak in song titles. Another is a mysterious drifter who lives out of an old Dodge van and goes by “the champ”. But as Allen builds a new future, events unfold showing him that he can’t escape his past.

Song Girl is…

Part sequel to The Flower Girl Murder

Part stand-alone mystery

All entertaining

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59976334-song-girl?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=NBxQhHgXgt&rank=3

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

SONG GIRL: A Mystery in Two Verses by Keith Hirshland is an engaging character driven mystery/police procedural. The main protagonist as well as a few other characters are carried over from the previous book, The Flower Girl Murder, but because this story is in a new location with a new crime mystery, it is easily read as a standalone novel.

Detective Marc Allen is ready for a change in his life. He decides to move from Raleigh, NC to Colorado Springs. CO. He is working with new colleagues on new cases in the police department and he is also making new friends in his personal life.

At the same time, an old case from Raleigh which was supposedly solved with a suicide note becomes active again. Marc was never happy with the case resolution, and he seems to be right. The man left notes for his adopted daughter, and they suggest she is the real killer and when the Raleigh police look for her, they find she has disappeared.

Marc finds building his new future may only be possible if he can resolve his past.

This story is written with wonderful characters that are fully developed and woven together throughout the story. The reader is continually surprised by how each character’s past and revelations fit into the story and effect the present. Marc is trying to build a new life with his new puppy and friends. He is an intelligent and diligent detective that I really like. The secondary characters are all unique and bring not only intrigue, but humor to the story. The plot moves slowly at first as all the players’ histories and pieces of the puzzle are intertwined, but as the plot moves forward the pace picks up. The book was impossible to put down and delivers a big twist at the end.

I highly recommend this fascinating mystery.

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Excerpt

Hannah decided the best place to have that drink was the bar at the Rabbit Hole so that’s where she went. Dirk wasn’t working and a bartender she didn’t know was.

“Bartender,” she said sitting down.

“Customer,” the bartender said with a smile. “Day drinking?” she asked.

“Does anybody really know what time it is?” Hannah said. This is kinda fun she thought.

“Does anybody really care?” the bartender added.

“It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

“What can I get you?”

“One bourbon, one scotch, one beer.”

“You having a record year?”

“You have no idea.”

“I’ll get your drinks, George Thorogood. By the way you’re a riot.” Hannah’s phone rang; she saw it was Ramp.

“Hi there.” Rampart heard the background noise. “You in a bar?”

“You may be right. Everybody’s drinkin’.”

“Are you at the Rabbit Hole or in a Billy Joel song?” he asked.

“Both.”

“Go slow, we’ll meet you there soon.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” She said and hung up.

“What the heck was that?” Rampart said to his phone. Then he called Tracey back.

“We need to rally the troops,” he said after she had answered.

“Why? What’s up?”

“Hannah’s already at the Rabbit Hole,” he answered and hung up.

In short order Rampart and Tracey made it to the bar, greeted Hannah and ordered drinks. Allen arrived a few minutes after that.

“What’s your pleasure?” the bartender asked him as he sidled up next to Rampart.

“What’s everybody else having?”

“Beer,” she pointed at Ramp. “Ketel One Cosmo,” Tracey was next. “And song girl there is all over the map.” Allen looked at Hannah.

“Song girl?” he said. She just shrugged her shoulders so he turned back to the bartender. “I’ll have a Mad Hatter,” he indicated, asking for the establishment’s signature Manhattan.

“My fav,” she said, walking away. A minute later she was back and setting a glass in front of him. Allen picked it up.

“To Hannah,” he said, “glad you’re back among the living.”

“Salute,” Rampart said, lifting his beer.

“Kampai,” Tracey added.

“Let’s have a party!” called Hannah. They all clinked glasses. They shared some laughs and then some appetizers and about an hour in Hannah had had enough.

“I’m outta here,” she said, standing up.

“So soon?” Tracey asked.

“No time like the present.”

“I’ll give you a lift,” Rampart offered.

“Don’t be silly,” she declined, “I’m walkin’.”

“You sure?”

“I’m positive.”

“See ya Hannah,” Tracey said.

“Take it easy, young lady,” Allen added.

“I’ll call you later,” her brother told her as she started to walk away.

“I’ll be around,” Hannah sang as she headed up the stairs.

“Okay does anybody else think that was incredibly weird?” Rampart asked after Hannah had gone.

“What?” Tracey wondered.

“Hannah, that’s what. The way she talked, the way she acted, what she said. All of it. It was weird.”

“Well Ramp she did just come out of a coma,” Allen argued.

“I realize that and I said that to myself but something is going on.”

“Like what?” Tracey asked.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy butshe’s talking in song titles! Didn’t you notice?”

“I did,” it was the bartender.

“You two are imagining things,” Allen countered.

“Am I? Are we?” He pointed at the bartender. “She called her song girl. And when I spoke with Hannah on the phone earlier, she was here. She said, and I quote, ‘You may be right.’ And then she said—”

“End quote,” the bartender said.

“Excuse me?” Ramp asked.

“You didn’t say end quote after ‘right.’ You said ‘and I quote’ but you didn’t ever say end quote.”

“Seriously?”

“And you were right, she was here.” Tracey chimed in.

“Just stop!” Rampart raised his voice. “When she left she sang ‘I’ll be around.’ That’s an old Spinners song!”

“Ooh, I love that song,” Tracey smiled. “Joan Osborne sang it too.”

“So did Hall and Oates, I think,” the bartender added.

“You people are impossible!” Rampart threw up his hands.

“I’ll have one more Mad Hatter,” Allen told the woman behind the bar.

♪♫♪

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About the Author

Keith Hirshland is an Emmy Award–winning sports television producer with more than three decades of experience producing live and pre-recorded programs that aired on ESPN and ESPN2. Among the first forty people to be hired by the Golf Channel in 1994, Hirshland was in the middle of the action when that network debuted in 1995. He provided his talents for Golf Channel, as its live tournament producer, for two decades.

Cover Me Boys, I’m Going In: Tales of the Tube from a Broadcast Brat is a memoir about his experiences in the television industry. Published by Beacon Publishing Group, Cover Me Boys was recognized as the Book Talk Radio Club Memoir of the Year. Hirshland’s second book, and first work of fiction, Big Flies, was published in 2016 and is the recipient of the New Apple Awards “Solo Medalist” in the True Crime Category. Hirshland followed that success with his third book, The Flower Girl Murder. In 2020 Beacon Publishing Group released Murphy Murphy and the Case of Serious Crisis, Hirshland’s third mystery novel. It was a Top Shelf Magazine First Place award winner and was named the Book Talk Radio Club Book of the Year for 2020.

Song Girl Hirshland’s fifth book is the sequel to The Flower Girl Murder and was released in January of 2022.  All five books are available at www.keithhirshland.com,  Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores.

Keith Hirshland lives in Colorado with his wife and their Pyredoodle Mac.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.keithhirshland.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/khhauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeithHirshlandAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khhauthor/?hl=en

Purchase Links

Amazon
Barnes&Noble
IndieBound