CAST THE FIRST STONE
Fiction Like a vulture on carrion CAST THE FIRST STONE An Ellie Stone Mystery By James W. Ziskin 290 pp. Seventh Street Books Reviewed by Eric Petersen Mystery writer James W. Ziskin is back with the fifth entry (the third book, Stone Cold Dead , is also reviewed on this site) in his popular mystery series set in an unusual time and place for a mystery – upstate New York in the early 1960s – and featuring an unusual heroine. Unusual for her time, that is. At a time when career opportunities for most young women were limited by society to housewife, teacher, or secretary, Eleonora “Ellie” Stone works as an investigative reporter for the New Holland Republic , her hometown newspaper. But then, Ellie Stone isn’t like most young women. In her mid-twenties, she’s a tough-talking, hard-drinking dame with brains, guts, and wit, all of which she uses to get her story – and solve bizarre and brutal murders while she’s at it. She takes no crap from men. Artie Short, the owner and senior editor o...