March Violets, by Philip Kerr

One pleasure derived from characters and settings in the universe of noir mysteries is the sense that the protagonist sinks farther into his darkness than most people are ever forced to descend. Even if not of his own volition, being pressed reluctantly into his id makes returning to the proximity of the light possible, and hints that some will never resort to their darkness, and can live comfortably in their happy places.

Meet Bernie Gunther; an old-school private eye in 1936′s Berlin, he’s surrounded by people wholeheartedly, even joyously, wallowing in the darkest places of their souls. How’s a fedora-wearing gumshoe supposed to knock off bad guys, bed and discard dames, and squint through cigarette smoke at “good guys” who are worse than himself?

Kerr’s first Bernie Gunther mystery, March Violets, contains the ugliness of anti-Semitism, Nazi Party infighting, and concentration camps (KZ’s in the parlance). Much of his business is searching for ‘U-boats’–people who have disappeared, possibly into a KZ, or into canals as unidentifiable corpses. The so-called ‘German desire for order’ is in full flower, and the black Mercedes are waiting for any who question, challenge, or stand up to it. As a former policeman with a high-profile career and a veteran of World War I, Gunther can get away with it to some degree, but even he feels constrained to salute Hitler when parades pass.

Gunther has a reputation for discretion, so when the daughter and son-in-law of a millionaire industrialist are murdered, their safe burgled, and house destroyed by arson, he’s a natural choice to take on the investigation. Since it’s a PI mystery, he’s blocked at every turn, his motives are questioned, and he’s threatened by mugs and thugs of every stripe. He’s brought before the highest Nazi officials (including Goering, who envies Gunther’s supposed cinema noir lifestyle) as his search gets close to sensitive areas with implications for the Party. The end stage of the investigation puts him in the worst circumstance I’ve ever read in a mystery novel, one so unexpected that both Bernie’s body and soul are put into peril.

Kerr captures the look and feel of Berlin–the shops and restaurants on the streets, the trams and cars, the vibrant clubs where decadent jazz hasn’t been completely eliminated. Add the background of ubiquitous swastikas and street-corner boxes selling newspapers with vile caricatures of Jews and you’ve got a fair glimpse at the “garden of beasts,” keying in on “March Violets” who joined the Nazi Party after it came to power in 1933 and used it both to promote themselves and to wield the power of the State against their enemies.

Kerr’s writing has been favorably compared to Raymond Chandler’s, and I mostly agree. The way I read it, Sam Spade could probably look around and see some decent people trying to live ordinary lives. Bernie Gunther has no such consolation.

Check the WRL catalog for March Violets

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Belshazzar’s Daughter, by Barbara Nadel

I am a great fan of crime fiction set in other countries. In addition to a good mystery, these stories also provide a window into new parts of the world. You learn about customs, traditions, food and arts, and more in the context of a crime investigation. Barbara Nadel is my latest find in this genre (thanks, Penelope), and she ranks up there with Donna Leon, Magdalene Nabb, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö,  and George Simenon in my pantheon of international crime fiction authors.

Nadel’s stories are set in contemporary Istanbul, and feature Turkish Police Inspector Çetin Ikmen and his assistant Mehmet Suleyman. Ikmen is a wonderful creation, with his wife and eight children (and one on the way), his ever-present bottle of brandy, and his thoughtful approach to crime solving. Nadel has also created a host of other appealing characters, including Ikmen’s long-suffering wife Fatma, the other members of the police squad, and of course those people caught up in the criminal investigation.

The story begins with the discovery, by an unknown character, of the body of an old Jewish man in the seedy Balat section of Istanbul. Far from the tourist attractions Balat houses what remains of Istanbul’s Jewish population, as well as those down on their luck. Ikmen’s investigation into the crime takes him deep into the past, as long-buried violence resurfaces, and Ikmen and his team try to unravel a complicated and tangled set of threads.

Nadel has an obvious affection for and a clear understanding of Istanbul and its people, and she captures the city’s bright light and its dark shadows in this complex and twisting story. Belshazzar’s Daughter is a fine start to an excellent series that should appeal to fans of international crime novels.

Check the WRL catalog for Belshazzar’s Daughter

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The Railway Detective, by Edward Marston

Edward Marston is a prolific writer of excellent historical mysteries. He is equally at home in the Elizabethan theater or  in Restoration London. I was delighted to recently discover a more recent series by Marston set in the rapidly expanding world of the railways in 1850s England. Marston excels at capturing the feel of a place and time as well as at crafting an intriguing mystery. This series shows him at his best.

Marston’s protagonist is Inspector Robert Colbeck of Scotland Yard, soon to be dubbed “The Railway Detective” for his work solving the theft of a large gold shipment as well as letters from the London to Birmingham mail train. While the mystery is interesting, and Marston puts in enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing, it is the interplay between the characters that is most appealing. Colbeck faces resentment from the local police and the railroad security staff who fear a loss of power when Scotland Yard takes over. He also is continually at odds with his rather officious superior officer, who resents Colbeck’s fame. In this first novel in the series, the attack on the mail train brings the daughter of the engineer to Colbeck’s attention, offering an interesting twist to the story, and insights into the role of women in mid-Victorian London.

One of Marston’s great strengths is his ability to bring a past time to life. The early days of the railways were exciting times for many, especially the engineers seeking to control nature as they laid track and created bridges and tunnels. Marston conveys this excitement to the reader just as he conveys the harsh conditions of the navvies who built the railways. Moving easily from high society to the hovels of the railway gangs, Marston’s ear for colloquial speech and eye for detail add to the realism of the story.

As the series goes on, the characters evolve in intriguing, and not always expected, ways, and new characters are introduced to keep things fresh. This is one of the best historical series I have come across recently.

Check the WRL catalog for The Railway Detective

Also available in ebook form

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The Coffin Trail, by Martin Edwards

This is the first in a satisfying cozy/police procedural mystery series set in England’s Lake District. It’s my favorite kind of case—a cold case!

Daniel Kind, an Oxford history professor, returns to his childhood vacation spot of Brackdale after many years’ absence. Enchanted by the peace and quiet of country living, he decides to relocate there with his girlfriend, Miranda. He becomes intrigued by an unsolved mystery from years before, in large part because his now-deceased father had been the investigating office on that case. Also, the prime suspect had been a friend of Daniel’s in his childhood— an autistic boy who had conveniently died soon after the crime, the ritualistic murder of a young woman.

Meanwhile, DCI Hannah Scarlett of the Cold Case Squad, who had worked under Daniel’s father years before, gets an anonymous tip about the very same case and begins digging. Things get complicated when her longtime boyfriend emerges as a suspect and Hannah’s official investigation collides with the amateur sleuthing of Daniel, with whom she feels an instant connection.

Daniel’s amateur sleuthing also complicates his relationship with his girlfriend Miranda, and he too senses the chemistry between himself and DCI Scarlett. These issues are left unresolved, with the promise of further romantic complications to come in future installments.

The mystery at least is resolved, with a nice twist at the end. I appreciated the juxtaposition of Hannah’s official “police procedural” investigation with Daniel’s personal interactions with suspects.

This series will appeal to readers of Elizabeth George’s Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers series and Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks series.

If you like this series, try also Peter Lovesey’s Peter Diamond series, Susan Hill’s Simon Serallier series, and Stephen Booth’s Ben Cooper series.

WRL owns the book and the ebook of this title.

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The Injustice System, by Clive Stafford Smith

So a businessman and his son go into a downtown Miami hotel suite to meet with a potential client who might help boost their meager income. Instead, a man with whom they have a dispute steps out, shoots the father in the knee, drags the son up some stairs, then shoots him execution-style. The father escapes, gets out the door, and bangs on the door across the hall, leaving blood in the hall, but the import-export businessman in that room doesn’t hear a thing, including the shots that then kill the father. Neville Butler, who has been held hostage in the room since before the father and son arrived, is then released.

Following Butler’s call to the police, British businessman Krishna Maharaj is detained. After waiving his Miranda rights, he makes inconsistent statements to the investigators, who hold him long enough to discover that his fingerprints are in the hotel room, and Maharaj is arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the executions of Dwight and Duane Moo Young, former associates and now rivals for Maharaj’s Caribbean newspaper. The case goes to trial. Maharaj, a flamboyant millionaire, hires the lowest bidder, Mark Hendon, as his attorney. The trial proceeds in a swift and orderly manner, except that the presiding judge is replaced after three days of testimony. Based on fingerprint evidence, a ballistics expert’s identification of Maharaj’s gun, and Neville Butler’s testimony, Maharaj is given life in prison for Dwight’s murder, and the death sentence for Duane’s.

After several years, the case comes to the attention of Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney specializing in capital cases. On his own, taking time away from his fledgling non-profit practice focusing on Louisiana death penalty cases, Smith begins reviewing the case, and this open-and-shut case turns out to have been far more complex than the trial transcript would indicate. His early investigation turns up boxes of evidence and interview materials that hadn’t been made available to the defense, prosecutors’ notes indicating that they instructed the detectives and their chief witness how to perjure themselves, and witnesses that prove that Maharaj wasn’t even in Miami at the time of the killings. Some of his basic rights—over and above their violation of his Miranda rights—were not explained to him or put into practice. Forensic evidence was questionable, but Maharaj’s trial attorney didn’t cross-examine, and even rested without calling a single witness. Confident that the reams of documentary evidence show that Maharaj did not receive a fair trial and that his counsel was (to put it mildly) incompetent, Smith heads into the appeals process.

But door after legal door is slammed in Maharaj’s face. The appeals courts won’t consider new evidence—it wasn’t presented in a timely manner and appellate courts don’t try the facts of the case. Each attempt to reopen the case takes months, if not years, to litigate, partially because a prosecutor won’t accept plentiful evidence that her colleagues convicted an innocent man. When he’s finally granted a new trial, Smith can’t introduce all the new evidence and Maharaj is again found guilty. But because the jury doesn’t prescribe the death penalty, Maharaj’s future opportunities for appeal are severely limited—capital cases usually get at least a cursory glance. Based on all the trials and appeals that go before, Maharaj’s last chance—a reprieve from Florida Governor Charlie Crist—is denied.

Unfortunately, as Smith details, Maharaj’s case is only one example of the miscarriage of justice that capital crimes nearly always involve. From personal experience and well-documented cases, Smith demonstrates that each individual misstep in the justice system that Maharaj experienced is echoed across the country, even in non-capital cases. Part of it is the culture, and he shows that from the patrol officer to the US Supreme Court, the fundamental conservatism of the law is geared towards convictions, not justice or even truth. The real poverty of this view is that convicting the innocent allows the guilty to go unpunished.

Smith’s writing is urgent, and his construction of the story maximizes both the drama and the documentation of his fundamental thesis. As he breaks the case down, the depth of the law enforcement and judicial errors becomes appallingly clear. The parallels he establishes between Maharaj’s case and convictions across the country point to the idea that the American justice system has reversed its supposed ideal. At the same time, his admiration for Maharaj (which is echoed by everyone from business associates to prison guards) as a man shines through. Even after being in prison since 1987—including 10 years on Death Row—Maharaj remains kind, gentle, and positive.

This is a timely book. States have begun to revisit their commitments to the death penalty after subsequent investigations and trials have freed other innocent people from Death Row. It is increasingly likely that people known to be innocent were executed anyway. If someone heeds Clive Stafford Smith’s plea to come forward and exonerate Krishna Maharaj, it would be a miracle; if others use his case to strengthen their calls for an end to the death penalty, it would be a huge step to ending the gaping flaws in our (in)justice system.

Check the WRL catalog for The Injustice System

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Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

I was surprised to find that no one here at Blogging for a Good Book had written about Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn’s runaway bestseller. After all, a tight suspenseful mystery surrounding a ripped-from-the-headlines event should have caught our attention.

Well, I finally got my copy, and in trying to write about it without giving the whole thing away I’ve learned why no one else touched it. After all, it’s a runaway bestseller about a ripped-from-the-headlines event reconstructed as a tight suspenseful mystery, which means plot twists and surprises, and if you read any further you might just find out why, and then Gillian Flynn and Crown Publishers will be mad at me for spoiling the book, but I’m on the hook because I’ve already written this much. So, there’s this guy and this girl, and she’s gone.  Stop here if you don’t want me to give anything away.

Actually, the guy is Nick, and the girl is his wife, Amy. Nick is storybook handsome, with enough boyish charm to attract plenty of women. Amy is “Amazing Amy,” the inspiration for a long-running and successful series of children’s books that made her parents a fortune, gave her a huge trust fund, and got her lots of attention everywhere she went. Their meet-cute storybook romance and wedding have given way to the realities and compromises of marriage, but Amy is determined to press forward and recapture the excitement and intimacy of their early days together. At least, that’s according to her diary. Seriously, don’t read any further.

Nick, on the other hand, is a passive, self-centered guy whose failures in New York gave him an excuse to drag the cosmopolitan Amy to his Missouri hometown. His saintly mom is dying of cancer, his nasty father has Alzheimer’s, and his beloved twin sister has retreated home from her own losses. Their hometown is quickly dying in the turbulence of the Great Recession and the signs of collapse are all around.  Then comes the fateful day, which is detailed through Nick’s eyes.  I’m warning you—don’t go on!

On their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears, leaving behind signs of a struggle. The initial investigation and all-out search proceeds as if she’s been kidnapped, but the deeper the investigation gets, the more Nick tells us that he’s lying to the police. He has no alibi for the time surrounding her loss, he misleads them about the nature of his and Amy’s relationship, and he can’t explain why the evidence of a struggle appears to have been manufactured. And the culture of infamy begins. Unfortunate photographs,  inconsistencies in his story, and the natural inclination to look to the remaining spouse as the likely guilty party trigger the interest of a scandal-mongering true-crime TV show. Shocking revelations trickle out at the worst possible times, and Nick’s efforts to steer his public image are doomed in the face of the unrelenting spotlight. OK, you’ve made your choice—let the consequences be on your head.

By this time, the reader is lost in a maze of mirrors. Do we believe the writings of the best wife a man can want, or the admissions of the worst kind of husband a woman can have? Do we trust his self-confessed failings, or his efforts to find out if someone from Amy’s past has surfaced to harm her? Does he deserve the belief that his family (and Amy’s) have in him, or are the police right to focus on him? Flynn constructs these uncertainties in a way that continually pulls the readers’ feet off what little firm ground they have to stand on.  Spoiler alert!

Keep in mind that this all happens in the first third of the book. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

By deconstructing Amy and Nick’s marriage (with Amy’s disappearance looming in the background), Flynn also asks readers to examine the fool’s paradise that most of us construct when we try to deceive others. (And it was Sir Walter Scott, not Shakespeare, who famously reminds us of that.) There are some, though, who can construct elaborate structures to hang their lies on, and who can manipulate others by observing and anticipating normal behavior. When the lie is big enough, its sheer improbability gives it credence—who could go to such lengths to create a falsehood? Flynn finds a way to show us, even as she gradually introduces the idea that their victims sometimes can’t find a way to escape the destruction.

Neil’s comprehensive list of 2012′s Best Books shows that Gone Girl was the best reviewed mystery of the year. Based on all the stuff I can’t or won’t tell you, I have to agree with the reviewers.

Check the WRL catalog for Gone Girl

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An Academic Death, by J. M. Gregson

This title comes about halfway through Gregson’s series featuring Superintendent Lambert and Detective Sergeant Hook of the Gloucestershire CID. I liked it so much I’ve started from the beginning, and I’m enjoying the series. An Academic Death is a straightforward cozy-type British police procedural with a minimum of personal drama. The strength of the series is the team-up of the perceptive, introspective Lambert with the reliable, comfortably stolid Hook. Where this series really shines is when Lambert and Hook interview a suspect. The action here is almost purely mental and the tension almost palpable. Lambert scrutinizes the faces and body language of the suspects closely, allowing them to guide his questioning. Hook, blank-faced, turns a page in his notebook. Suspects squirm. It’s actually high drama disguised as a plodding police interview!

In this installment, a brassy wife reports her wayward husband missing to the Gloucestershire police. She makes it clear that if they find him she doesn’t want the ol’ no-goodnik back. No one is terribly concerned until the university professor turns up dead; then Lambert and Hook focus on the campus where he worked, turning up several suspects—including, of course, the disgruntled missus.

I’ve noticed that there are rarely any surprise twists or complications in this series—Gregson epitomizes the concept of fair play in mystery fiction. The murderer generally turns out to be one of the “usual suspects;” the reader just has to figure out which one of them is lying. Where the sheer amount of jiggery-pokery in many mysteries often makes me feel disinclined to actually try solving the puzzle, the Lambert and Hook series has been stripped down to a straight, strong “whodunit” whose challenge is a bit more accessible, with just enough humor to make it entertaining along the way.

The Lambert and Hook mysteries often have a golfing theme. Although golf is not the main venue in this particular title, longtime golf enthusiast Lambert and newly initiated golfer Hook do have a few very funny scenes on the links.

I am glad I discovered these solid British police procedurals. They’re just my cup of tea!

Check the WRL catalog for An Academic Death

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ABBC: Crime Fiction

This week we’re taking a break from the usual BFGB fare to post about the results in some of the categories from WRL’s All-the-Best-Books Compilation (ABBC) for 2012. The ABBC adds up mentions in dozens of best-of-the-year lists and awards in a spreadsheet you can download. We’re about 75 sources into the compilation, and although it’s not complete, here are the leaders so far in the category of crime fiction.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn is not only the runaway top Crime Fiction selection this year, but the most mentioned  book overall so far (38 mentions), holding a slight lead over Katherine Boo’s nonfiction title Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Gone Girl is a literate suspenseful thriller about Amy, a young wife who goes missing on her 5th wedding anniversary. Flynn leads readers through a twisty maze as they discover the secrets lying behind the facade of the couple’s marriage and try to decide if unlikable husband Nick is the killer or not. Employing devices like Amy’s diary and the novels in which her psychologist parents made her a famous case study, Flynn slowly unwraps the folds of the shroud and saves one of the best twists for last.

In second place, with 14 mentions is Tana French’s fourth Dublin Murder Squad novel, Broken Harbor. This time a father and his two children are found dead in a half-finished estate outside the city, and his wife is on the way to intensive care. It seems at first like a clear case of a financially destitute man snapping and trying to kill family and self, but further investigation yields a more complicated case. As usual, French explores the lives of her detectives a carefully as she builds the plot of the central crime, this time focusing on Scorcher Kennedy, a star detective with a lonely personal life. While these novels can stand alone, you might want to start at the beginning with In the Woods.

Ben H. Winters debuts in the third spot with nine mentions to date for The Last Policeman. It’s a blend of mystery and science fiction, a trilogy starter in which an asteroid is heading towards Earth and will end civilization in six months. Amid a spate of suicides, Detective Hank Palace latches onto a hanging that seems suspicious. While the rest of civilization focuses on the bleak future, Palace decides to keep doing his job and stays focused on the investigation. Strong characterizations and interesting philosophical questions make this mystery a cut above the usual.

The fourth spot is a three-way tie (eight mentions) between William Landay’s Defending Jacob, a psychological legal thriller; Dennis Lehane’s Live by Night, a loose sequel to his Boston historical The Given Day; and Jo Nesbo’s latest Harry Hole mystery, Phantom. Another mention back are Joe R. Lansdale with Edge of Dark Water and Lyndsay Faye’s Gods of Gotham. I’ll round out a top twelve by mentioning the crime novels with six mentions: Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery, James Lee Burke’s Creole Belle; Megan Abbott’s Dare Me, and Wiley Cash’s A Land More Kind than Home. As you can see, after Gone Girl and Broken Harbor, the race in this category is tight.

We’ll post more editions of the ABBC compilation as sources are added, finishing the work later this month. Look for analysis of other categories here at BFGB and also at my other blogging home, Booklist‘s Book Group Buzz.

Click on the individual book title links to go to the WRL catalog.

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The Ice Princess, by Camilla Läckberg

I first came across Camilla Läckberg when she was mentioned in an article on Scandinavian mystery writers in Romantic Times. I became even more intrigued when I read the review on the front of The Ice Princess from Val McDermid –“Heart-stopping and heart-warming.” “Heart-warming?”  That certainly made me pause. After all, “heartwarming” is not an adjective I expect to read describing a murder mystery, and a Scandinavian mystery at that, which tend to be characterized by their wintry settings and bleak atmosphere. But after finishing this book, I couldn’t help but agree with Ms. McDermid’s review.

The two protagonists and primary investigators –Erica Falck, a biography writer, and Patrik Hedström, a local policeman – both grew up in the sleepy fishing village of Fjällbacka, Sweden. This village, overrun by visitors from Stockholm in the summer, desolate and empty during the bleak winter months, has definitely seen better days. The Ice Princess is definitely not a “cozy” mystery, but the blossoming relationship between Erica and Patrik, as well as the various familial bonds that lace the narrative, help to temper the sadness and gloom surrounding the murder.

Following the sudden death of her parents, Erica returns to her hometown and soon discovers the body of a beloved childhood friend, Alexandra Wijkner, frozen in her bathtub. As a biography writer, Erica is seized with the impulse to write about her one-time, enigmatic friend and the reasons that could drive a woman who seemed to have everything to commit suicide. But, as any seasoned mystery reader will guess, Alexandra’s apparent suicide is only the beginning. As Erica begins to delve into Alexandra’s past, Patrik begins to investigate his own suspicions surrounding her death.

A picture of the victim begins to build. Alex was beautiful, blonde, icy, and remote – everything this reader wants in a Swedish noir mystery. And, like any good victim, she was hiding a deep, dark secret that somehow seems to involve the tragic figure of the town drunk, Anders Nilsson. No one in the village can understand how these two disparate figures were connected, least of all Erica and Patrik.

The Ice Princess features tragic childhood secrets, mysterious disappearances, and bribery, all set against the backdrop of the bleak Scandinavian winter. Fans of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will enjoy this mystery, although it focuses less on social issues and politics, and is more in the vein of a traditional mystery.

The novel has a wide cast of characters, and the author continually introduces new characters to keep her readers guessing.  We meet Erica’s family, her ex-boyfriend, the victim’s family, and the motley crew of police officers at the local police station, including Mellberg, the pompous, slimy, self-obsessed monster of a police chief, who is both hilarious and horrendous at the same time.

This is a great winter read, perfect for a cold night, curled up with a blanket. Camilla Läckberg is one of Sweden’s bestselling crime novelists and The Ice Princess was her first novel. If you gobble this one up as quickly as I did, never fear! WRL has two more in the series, which have been translated into English.

Check the WRL catalog for The Ice Princess.

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The Hour (2011)

The Hour, a recent BBC period drama, has flown somewhat under the radar (at least when compared with the roaring success of a series like Downton Abbey), and it wasn’t until a colleague recommended it that I even became aware of the series. Set in 1956 at the BBC Lime Grove Studios in London, it follows the launch of an hour-long weekly current affairs television show, simply titled, The Hour. 

The six-part miniseries stars Romola Garai as Bel Rowley, the independent (female!) producer of the show; Ben Whishaw (the new “Q” in Skyfall and star of Cloud Atlas) as her best friend, Freddie Lyon, a brilliant and passionate reporter; and Dominic West as the charming and well-connected anchorman, Hector Madden. This is the opportunity Bel and Freddie have been waiting years for – to be a part of a new breed of investigative news program that could change the face of news at the BBC.

But a chance meeting with a childhood friend and a hushed-up murder on the Underground thrusts Freddie right into the middle of a deadly Cold War conspiracy and the silent war being waged between MI6 and the KGB. As Freddie begins to investigate, the trio becomes embroiled in a tangled web of politics, ambition, and romance. But a controversial breaking story could spell the end for the program, just as it is beginning.

And in amongst all the secrets and spy-games, I even learned a fair amount about the Suez crisis in 1956 between Britain, France, Egypt, and Israel (something I wasn’t even particularly aware of prior to the show), as well as the rules regulating broadcasters at the time. To my surprise, there used to be a fourteen-day gag rule that prohibited news programs from debating or analyzing anything discussed in the Houses of Parliament until two weeks after the event. But our intrepid team manages to find a neat way around this limit to free speech.

The Hour is lushly produced with period sets and costumes and is a wonderful piece of escapist drama. It is full of quick-witted repartee and fast-paced dialogue. The love triangle at the heart of the story is nicely balanced by the Ian Fleming-esque intrigue that seems to follow Freddie wherever he goes. Best description? It’s like HBO’s The Newsroom crossed with John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 

Check the WRL catalog for The Hour.

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Hoare and the Headless Captains, by Wilder Perkins.

Although I have been lax this past year in keeping a reading list, I have more or less kept track of all the things I have read since 1984 or so.  It is nothing complex, just a title and author list to help jog the memory when I need it.  This week’s posts are mostly ones from that list — older titles that I think warrant a second look, or, if you are not familiar with these authors or books, a first look.  These are, in many cases, the titles that I go back to when I am looking for something familiar to read.  I think that these titles are ones that have retained their currency.

I am always interested in well-researched historical mysteries, as readers of this blog know.  One that I have particularly enjoyed is Wilder Perkins’ Bartholomew Hoare series.  Set in early 19th century England, Perkins’ books follow the career of former naval captain Bartholomew Hoare.  Hoare’s promising naval career is cut short by a throat wound that renders him unable to speak above a whisper, preventing him from assuming command of a ship.  Instead,  Hoare is assigned to investigate a variety of crimes that involve both civilians and the navy.  Here, we find Hoare in command of a motley crew of spies serving King George III.  When two prominent navy officers are found decapitated in Dorchester, Hoare and his crew have to figure out if this is a ritual murder of some sort, or part of a more sinister plot by Bonapartists to overthrow the royal family.

With lots of detail of both civilian and naval life and its mix of espionage and mystery, this story should appeal to fans of Bruce Alexander’s Sir John Fielding series as well as to those who enjoy Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin series, but really, any fan of historical crime fiction should give Perkins a read.

Check the WRL catalog for Hoare and the Headless Captains

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The Fat Man: A Tale of North Pole Noir, by Ken Harmon

In my opinion, any book that includes the tag line “Someone’s Playing Reindeer Games for Keeps” is worth reading.  Written in the style of a noir detective novel (think Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler), this is advertising copywriter Ken Harmon’s first novel.  It pokes fun at the genre, while creating a delightful yarn set in and around Kringle Town.  Mostly, the book is silly, funny and entertaining.  Harmon clearly has spent many hours immersed in classic Christmas imagery and stories.

The author fills his text with not-so-subtle puns and references to classic Christmas characters and fairy tales that most readers will recognize with a smile.  He includes well-known names like Comet, Tiny Tim, the Whos of Whoville, Frosty the Snowman, and Kris Kringle.  To these he introduces an enjoyable assortment of new, appropriately-named characters such as Charles “Candy” Cane, Dingleberry Fizz, Jubilee Rosebud, and the protagonist Gumdrop Coal.

Gumdrop is a 1,300 year-old elf who has been working by Santa’s side since the beginning.  He’s a tough little fellow.  For most of his career he was in charge of the Coal Patrol – a group of elves who deliver coal to kids on the naughty list.  As the story begins Santa fires him for being too mean and Gumdrop Coal is left to his own devices.  That’s when the intrigue starts and Coal finds himself up the North Pole, without a paddle.  He’s becomes a pariah, accused of mischief and murder.

The majority of the book is Gumdrop’s adventure trying to clear his name, get the girl and survive the twelve days of Christmas.  I found that a couple of times, Harmon is heavy-handed with his moral.  It seems out of place with the rest of the book, for me.  The book is wacky so often, when his message of good will toward all is so blatant it doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the story.  But, this is a Christmas story, so it’s not unexpected.

Harmon leaves himself room to write more stories with these characters.  Who knows, maybe the next title will be The Woman Behind The Fat Man.  In any case, The Fat Man isn’t a standard Christmas story and it isn’t a children’s tale either.  An easy read, it is a romp into silliness and a satirical tribute to noir detective novels.  Go ahead and read it.  I dare you.  I double dog dare you.

Check the WRL catalog for The Fat Man

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The Last Good Kiss, by James Crumley

What is it about California that makes it so attractive to writers of hardboiled fiction?  Is it the tension between the gorgeous weather and the darkness of the human soul?  Is it the quintessential Land of Opportunity trashed by intimidation and competition?  Just as the fertile coast is divided from the desert interior, California divides the survivors from the victims and it takes a brutally clear voice to describe that social Darwinism.  James Crumley was such a voice.

That’s not to say that The Last Good Kiss is strictly a California book, because it covers a good bit of the West, carrying the reader on a booze- and speed-filled journey with stops in Sonoma, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver, Elko, Montana, Washington, and Oregon.  In fact, so much time takes place in cars that the two main characters— investigator C. W. Sughrue and his quarry-cum-road partner Abraham Trahearne—come to that place of friendship and hatred that can only be created on road trips through desolate country.

After finding Trahearne on behalf of Trahearne’s wealthy ex-wife, Sughrue accepts a quixotic assignment to find the daughter of the owner of the bar where they meet.  For $87, Sughrue agrees to look for Betty Sue Flowers, who disappeared in San Francisco ten years before. Betty Sue is a legend to all who knew her, exuding a premature sexuality that haunted the men and alienated her from the women around her.  The trail has all but disappeared, but Sughrue, accompanied by Trahearne, still gives it his best shot and turns up some inconsistencies.

But his first client demands the return of her ex-husband to the compound where she lives with Trahearne, his second wife, and his domineering mother.  Back to Montana they go, and Sughrue steps into a snakepit of relationships and barely stifled violence.  The ex-wife is sexy, the second wife is interesting, and the booze is free, so Sughrue sticks around until his conscience puts him back on Betty Sue’s trail.  And that trail leads to death and destruction for many—some who deserve it and some who don’t.

Like all good hardboiled heroes, C. W. Sughrue is a philosopher (with a Master’s in English Lit) hidden behind a scarred body and bashed-in face, with an incredible tolerance for booze and a certain (though ill-defined) quality that draws beautiful women.  He retreats to his Montana home from the ugliness he has seen in his life, but doesn’t hesitate to go out and confront more ugliness.  And while he isn’t a romantic, he is just idealistic enough to believe that he can make a difference, even when we, the readers, know he’s heading for another fall.

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The Return of Captain John Emmett, by Elizabeth Speller

This is the first in a series of historical mysteries featuring World War I veteran Laurence Bartram as amateur sleuth. Haunted by war wounds and memories, Bartram is finding it difficult to focus on the book he is writing, which is why he finds himself investigating the apparent suicide of a fellow veteran he knew from his school days. This series will appeal to fans of Charles Todd’s Ian Rutledge series, having in common a protagonist haunted by the Great War and its depiction of post-war England. Bartram is not quite as tortured a soul as Rutledge, and the outlook and atmosphere of Speller’s writing is brighter and more hopeful.

Bartram is approached by Captain John Emmett’s sister after his suicide. Her brother was an enigma to her in life, and she is desperate for some clues to his life as well as his death. Out of attraction to Mary Emmett, and a desire for a distraction from the disturbing thoughts of his past and future, Bartram agrees to look into Emmett’s last weeks. All clues lead to events in Emmett’s past, but Bartram finds Emmett’s fellow soldiers suspiciously close-mouthed about his wartime service and begins to wonder if Emmett really committed suicide after all.

This is  a strong start to a new series, and I’m already absorbed in Speller’s next entry, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton.

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The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks, by James Anderson

This is the third in Anderson’s series featuring Inspector Wilkins and the residents of Alderley, an English country estate. This is also the third baffling murder to take place at Alderley amidst a large gathering of suspects. It may seem a little far-fetched that Anderson has not moved his scene of crime in three books, but I can assure you that it works, largely in part because the Wilkins books are delightful send-ups of the country house murder. The rest of the appeal lies in the characters: Alderley’s residents, aristrocratic yet down-to-earth Earl and Countess of Burford and their feisty daughter Geraldine; and, of course, the lugubrious Inspector Wilkins himself.

An elderly aunt passes away, and family members are gathering at Alderley for the wake and will-reading. Among them are an MP, a barrister, a distant cousin just arrived from the States, and an evil stepmother. The stepmother, Clara Saunders, is a most loathsome character who supports herself by selling peoples’ shameful secrets to the press. Snubbed at the will-reading, Clara makes a scene, claims to know dirty secrets about the family members present, and threatens to expose them in revenge. She then storms out, leaving the reader in no doubt who the murder victim is going to be.

What happens next is quite predictable: Clara is murdered, Inspector Wilkins arrives, the suspect interviews begin, and so do the lies. As usual, Wilkins seems rather absent-minded and incompetent, uttering his mournful catchphrase, “I’m not sanguine, not sanguine at all.” He gradually exposes the lies, however, and produces explanations for all of the red herrings (why 39 cufflinks were left scattered around the body, for example). And of course Lady Geraldine launches enthusiastically into amateur detecting.

Anderson is obviously enjoying himself, and the reader reaps the benefits. As familiar and comfortable as a Christie novel, The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks is nevertheless full of fun twists and red herrings, and is quite a jolly smashing mystery to boot.

It’s not necessary to have read the first two titles in this series to enjoy this one, but knowing about the two previous murders at Alderley helps to put things in context. Try The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy, then The Affair of the Mutilated Mink.

Check the WRL Catalog for The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks in book or ebook format.

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Saint’s Gate, by Carla Neggers

FBI agent Emma Sharpe has a strong background in fine art recovery.  Her family is renown for investigating and recovering stolen pieces of art.  But she ends up involved in a murder and missing art investigation because she had also once been close to taking vows to become a nun.

One of her mentors at the Sisters of the Joyful Heart convent asked Emma for a favor.  Could she look at a piece of art and give her opinion?  Without any further information, Emma returns to Maine to meet with Sister Joan.  But instead of a simple art evaluation,  she finds that Sister Joan is dead and a painting assumed to be from a local artist has disappeared.

To complicate matters, a local priest has asked his friend, Colin Donovan, to keep an eye on Emma.  Father Finian is new to the parish.  His motives for asking Colin for help are not entirely clear, but Colin agrees.  He’s in the middle of some needed rest & recuperation time (trying to keep the Russian mafia off his tail), but willing to take a side trip to help the attractive FBI agent with her case, whether she wants his help or not.

Colin also works for the FBI, but not at a desk job as his family assumes.  He goes deep undercover and investigates the worst of the FBI’s most wanted.  He wonders if the murder could be related to his latest case.

Emma thinks it is mostly annoying to have this other agent follow her footsteps.   She can’t even continue her investigation in Ireland without Colin and Father Finian showing up.  Is anyone who they seem to be on the surface?

Carla Neggers writes well-paced, plot-based stories.  There are plenty of details building characters and their backgrounds.   And there’s a little romance, always a plus for me.  It may not be convenient and it certainly doesn’t get in the way of the job, but Colin and Emma are definitely attracted to one another.

The story comes to a satisfying conclusion to both the romance and the mystery of the missing painting.

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If you enjoy Saint’s Gate, check out Heron’s Cove, which continues Emma and Colin’s crime-solving partnership.

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Chop Shop, by Tim Downs

I broke one of my rules for reading series. I read book number two before reading book number one in Tim Downs’ Bug Man novels.  But I survived!  It wasn’t difficult to follow the story and understand the characters, though I do have book number one, Shoofly Pie first on my TBR list!

Nick Polchak is a professor at North Carolina State University. He’s a forensic entomologist.  Students flock to his classes to watch him, more than to learn about the bugs he studies.  And his private research in decomposition has “spawned campus legends about missing undergraduates and shallow graves deep in the Carolina woods.”

His fascination with all things buggy leads Dr. Riley McKay to his door.  Dr. McKay is a pathology fellow in the Allegheny County coroner’s office.  She has a feeling that something is off with a few of the autopsies her boss has recently signed off.  The fact that her concerns are brushed aside by the coroner make her cautious of involving any of her colleagues.  She’s looking for someone to corroborate  her suspicions that something is amiss.

Nick’s initial findings with which bugs laid eggs in what orifice (yep, sort of gross) seem to lead credence that the victims died under different circumstances than their death certificate indicates.  But why?  Their investigation leads them to an up-and-coming pharmaceutical company with a cash flow problem.

The pacing of the mystery is good.  There were some plot twists I wasn’t expecting, and a few that I was.  But I enjoyed the ride. Nick’s sense of humor as well as the sweet romance developing between Riley and Nick were additional treats.  After catching up with book one, I intend to read the whole series, which now has six titles.

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Still Midnight, by Denise Mina

Tartan Noir.  That’s probably the greatest name for a body of crime fiction set in one location.  In this case it’s Scotland, where it seems the rain and clouds obscure more than the sky.  With the exception of Alexander McCall Smith, I can’t think of a single Scottish crime writer who couldn’t raise goosebumps on a tropical beach.

Denise Mina is a principal member of the clan, with her Garnethill Trilogy, the first three of her books featuring young journalist Paddy Meehan, and now her Alex Morrow stories, of which Still Midnight is the first.  All feature damaged but strong women struggling in a world where men have an explicit hold on the power to control their lives.

Alex Morrow is immersed in perhaps the single most male-dominated profession—the police department.  Worse still, she’s from the lower classes.  Worst of all, she’s hiding her family background: Alex’s dad was a major player in Glasgow’s underworld, and now her half-brother Danny has inherited his position.  Alex is able to conceal her connections, but her accent and attitude can’t be hidden.

Alex is called to the scene of a home invasion that ended with the wounding of a teenaged girl and the kidnapping of her father.  Although the father keeps a hole-in-the-wall shop, the kidnappers demand ₤2 million—an impossible and suspicious ransom.  Plus, there’s a ticklish angle:  the family is Muslim, and the first thought of the investigators is that the money may be connected to extremists.  Politics rears its ugly head when Alex’s co-worker and competitor is catapulted past her to lead the high-profile case.  Despite that, Alex works the overlooked angles, and her basic police procedure starts turning up loose threads.

Morrow’s investigation is punctuated by two other stories.  The first, which opens the book, is told from the viewpoint of Pat, the hapless gunman.  Although he and his partner Eddy have been hard guys in the past, the home invasion is a far cry from their other crimes.  Pat even fancies himself in love with the girl and has visions of meeting and courting her.  At the same time, he fears that Eddy’s pent-up rage over the loss of his family will make him commit further violence.  The second story is that of Aamir, the kidnapped shopkeeper.  A survivor who escaped Idi Amin’s Uganda, Aamir has plenty of time to remember those brutal days, the effort of integrating himself into Scottish society, of raising two boys and a willful girl.  He too fears the potential of Eddy’s violence and the reader senses that he is close to resigning himself to die.

Family dominates Still Midnight.  Besides Alex’s birth family, a strained relationship with her husband keeps her away from their home.  Aamir has withheld the story of his life from his wife and children, but they are keeping secrets from the old man.  One is even keeping a secret with Aamir’s help.  Pat’s family is deeply involved with the kidnapping, and of course Eddy’s family looms in the background.  Alex’s co-worker is well-connected through his father’s own police career, making him a golden boy in the department.  The way Mina weaves these family stories together creates the foundation of the mystery, but also deepens the connections between the characters.

Glasgow is also a major character in this story, much as Edinburgh is in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus stories.  The dirty little convenience store, the shooting galleries for heroin addicts, the abandoned industrial buildings, and the natural elements where all of these are haphazardly scattered make an appropriate setting for the story.  Mina also indulges herself in creating an almost ludicrous hideaway where Eddy and Pat stash Aamir.  The place offers a level of comic relief from the rest of the story, while still ringing true.  (Trust me, I’ve been in places like the one she describes.)  Alex Morrow is like a hardy plant in this atmosphere— deeply rooted but surviving and even thriving.  She makes me look forward to reading The End of Wasp Season, the second Alex Morrow mystery.

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