“Dark Land, Dark Mirror,” Jonah Raskin’s new, suspenseful murder mystery takes place in Sonoma County in the present day. The detective is a feisty woman named Tioga Vignetta. The criminals are all pretending to be respectable citizens. The fall guy who’s framed for a murder in town is a Mexican from Chiapas named Kiko Martinez who grows flowers and has hit songs south of the border.
Together Tioga, Kiko and the editor of the daily newspaper stir things up and create a commotion. A page-turner, “Dark Land, Dark Mirror” has plenty of humor, along with suspense. Local murder mystery writer Waights Taylor has compared Raskin to Raymond Chandler, the author of the classic California mystery, “The Big Sleep.”
“Dark Land, Dark Mirror” is a dark book, but there’s plenty of light and plenty of action. The book, which is in paperback, is available on Amazon. Raskin is at SHED in Healdsburg on Thursday, April 19 as part of the Luminaries Series. He will read from and talk about his novel. He will also be at Copperfield’s in Montgomery Village on March 25 at 7 p.m.
In addition, Raskin is giving a class titled, “How to Write a Murder Mystery” at the Sitting Room in Penngrove on March 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. The Sitting Room is located at 2025 Curtis Drive. The workshop is free and open to the public.
