4-STAR REVIEW: HARD HEADED WOMAN by Howard Gimple

About The Book

Publication Date: June 22, 2024

No one but Hannah Johansson believes her father was murdered. Not even her mother. The doctors say he had a stroke, but Hannah knows he was poisoned. She just doesn’t know who did it or why. One thing she does know is that the answers can be found at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a pristine 9,000 acre nature preserve where her father was superintendent.

When she goes back to the Refuge, instead of answers, all she finds are more questions. Ominous questions. Where are all the birds? Why is there a heavily armed guard at the gate? What’s in the mysterious bundles being dropped off there in the middle of the night? When the police won’t investigate, Hannah is determined to find the answers herself, and she won’t quit until she learns the truth. Not even after she is shot at, thrown in jail, and beaten up by a 300-pound lesbian biker.

Excerpt

The Review

A woman mourning the sudden death of her father stumbles upon clues indicating he was murdered.

Hard Headed Woman details Hannah Johansson’s efforts to find answers. Author Howard Gimple delivers a mystery centered around a nature preserve created by Hannah’s father.

While the author offers a number of clues that seemingly reinforce Hannah’s suspicions, there are some distracting elements, such as family drama and episodes she describes as the Weakness.

As an amateur sleuth, Hannah does a good job making observations and chasing down theories. While the title doesn’t do the story justice, I can see what the author is trying to convey.

Hard Headed Woman serves up a caper-style mystery with poison, intrigue and a few laughs. Buy Links

About The Author

Howard Gimple was a writer at Newsday, the editor of a newsletter for the New York Giants football team, and a copywriter and creative director for several New York ad agencies. He has written English dialogue for the American releases of Japanese anime cartoons, reviewed books for the Long Island History Journal, and written movie scripts for a pay-per-view television network.

Howard was Chief Creative Officer at TajMania Entertainment, a film and TV production company dedicated to creating socially conscious programming. He wrote the award-winning documentary, ‘The Garbageman,’ about a waste management executive who helped save the lives of more than 50,000 children with congenital heart disease. He was a writer and sports editor for the Stony Brook University alumni magazine. He also taught two seminars at the university, ‘Rock & Relevance,’ about the political influence of 60’s rock & roll and ‘Filthy Shakespeare, ‘ exploring the dramatic use of sexual puns and innuendos in the Bard’s plays and poems.

He grew up in Brooklyn, lived in Manhattan and Long Island, and now lives in Glendora, California, with his wife and goldendoodle.