It was a cold and stormy day. We met at Elly’s. Little coffee joint down by the river. My associate and I walked in, took a look around. Waitress smiled her way over. “Hi. What can I get you?” “Nothing right now, doll, thanks,” I said. “I got business.” He was waiting at a corner table. Back to the hard brick wall, mafia style, eyes on the door, like a guy who doesn’t want to get hit without a chance to go down with some cold steel in his mitts. He wore dark shades. Dark shirt. Drank coffee black as the devil’s heart. Gave us a nod. Yeah. He was the guy we were there to meet. The... Read More

It’s a good thing Matthew Clemens has horrible handwriting. The Muscatine-based mystery writer is closing in on almost 50 books in stores worldwide, solo and with writing partner Max Collins, but his history as a scribe began with his inability to inscribe by hand. “My handwriting was so bad in third grade that my teacher gave me assignments where I had to write a page from a book over, and over, and over again, to get me to practice my penmanship, because I guess she thought that was the best way to do it,” the sly, dry-witted Clemens said over lunch at Salvatore’s recently. “And, understandably,... Read More