Insightful Books Reviews
Our reviews section examines the latest mystery offerings, covering books, anthologies, audio books, and videos.
Updated Review Pages from 2005
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More Reviews: 2005/2006
ALL SHOOK UP
by Mike Harrison
Toronto: ECW Press, 2005. $19.95 CND / $15.95 US
Eddie Dancer is all shook up. While he's trying to finish a crossword puzzle, a tough character named Joe Baker arrives at his P.I. office to hire him to find a guy named Richard Wyman who double-crossed Baker during a bank hold-up and took all the money. Two days later a guy named Richard Wyman wants to hire him to locate Joe Baker, who he says double-crossed him and took all the robbery money. Being an ex-cop, Eddie knows he should stay out of the case, but curiosity gets the better of him. His investigation takes him to the sleaziest of tattoo parlors and biker hangouts, the inner sanctum of a prison, and an emergency room where a hooker friend ends up after suffering possible brain damage from an apparent drug overdose.
All Shook Up, English-born author Harrison's first P.I. Eddie Dancer novel, is set in Calgary, Alberta where Harrison teams his hero up with a motley group of friends to help him with the case including Nosher and Splosher-a ruthless pair of Cockney auto mechanics who are also identical twins-and the unstoppable and aptly-named Danny Many Guns.
All Shook Up is as funny as it is brutal, with peppery dialogue and enough sadistic practical jokes to keep you rolling on the floor. In one scene, for instance, Nosher and Splosher replace the motor in a nasty pimp's Cadillac with a Volkswagen engine, and when the pimp looks under the hood to see what's making all the noise, the Cockney twins shove him into the engine compartment and slam down the hood. All Shook Up is not a comical crime novel, but Harrison's feel for humorous situations and funny dialogue adds to the pleasure of this wild adventure.
There are moments when characters' dialects don't ring true. Black ex-con Phillip P. Wilson's speaking style could be replaced with that of almost any other character and he would still sound the same. But fans of fast-moving private eye stories and humorous crime tales will delight in Harrison's writing, and will look forward to Eddie Dancer twisting and shaking his way through the next installment.
-Steven Steinbock
BAD GUYS
by Linwood Barclay
New York: Bantam Books, 2005. $22.00
Toronto Star columnist Linwood Barclay's second novel, Bad Guys, is an entertaining story starring Canadian newspaper features writer Zack Walker. Barclay's first novel, Bad Move, also featured Walker, and the return of this character is anything but bad news.
The tone of Barclay's Walker novels is light and humorous. Much of the humor stems from the way Walker interacts with the world around him. A family man, Walker tends to overreact to situations at home, especially those that involve his teenage children.
In Bad Guys, Barclay follows Walker along two storylines. The first involves his daughter and a suspected stalker. In the process of trying to determine whether or not his daughter is actually being stalked, Walker ends up stalking her himself and discovers that she has a boyfriend he didn't know about. Meanwhile, on the professional front, Walker is writing a feature article on private detective Lawrence Jones. As part of his research, Walker has been accompanying Jones on stakeouts as Jones attempts to catch a ring of burglars who have been robbing high-end clothing stores.
As a result of his involvement with Jones, Walker gets involved in a high-speed car chase which ends in a shoot-out. When Jones is later attacked and left for dead, Walker decides to find those responsible and begins tracking the robbers on his own.
Complicating matters, a photographer at Walker's paper is murdered, a mobster takes an interest in the new car Walker has just bought at a police auction, and there is a kidnapping.
Barclay successfully balances the comical and serious aspects of the story, keeping readers interested in both Walker's investigation and his home life. Though written with a light touch, the novel is gripping when it counts, and includes a very nicely handled twist ending.
All in all, Bad Guys makes for a good time. More Zack Walker would be welcomed.
-Neal Alhadeff
BEHIND THE MYSTERY
by Stuart Kaminsky
photographs by Laurie Roberts
Cohasset, MA: Hot House Books, 2005. $29.95
Who better to get inside the lives of great mystery writers than a man who is a great mystery writer in his own right? Stuart Kaminsky is the author of fifty mystery novels. A past president of the Mystery Writers of America, Kaminsky is a six-time nominee for the Edgar, which he won in 1989 for his novel A Cold Red Sunrise featuring his Moscow-based detective, Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov.
There have been a number of excellent anthologies of mystery author interviews. (Ed Gorman's Speaking of Murder and Jon Jordan's Interrogations come immediately to mind.) Two elements make Kaminsky's Behind the Mystery stand out-Laurie Roberts' beautiful photography and Kaminsky's unique lines of questioning. To put the book together, Kaminsky traveled to the four corners of the U.S. and everywhere in between in order to speak with the authors, in most cases in their homes. He visited the Louisiana bayou to talk with James Lee Burke, the Rio Grande to talk with Tony Hillerman, Boston to talk with Robert B. Parker, and Beverly Hills to interview Faye and Jonathan Kellerman. Other authors interviewed for the book include Mickey Spillane, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Lisa Scottoline, Lawrence Block, Ann Rule, Joseph Wambaugh, John James, and the recently deceased Evan Hunter, also known as Ed McBain, to whom the book is dedicated.
Photographer Laurie Roberts photographed the authors in their homes, unposed in their natural environments. We see Sue Grafton at her computer and in her dining room, Elmore Leonard sneaking a smoke during a phone call, Donald Westlake with his collection of old typewriters, Martin Cruz Smith playing at the piano with his granddaughter, and Michael Connelly reeling in a fishing line. Instead of asking the authors about their writing methods and muses, Kaminsky exchanges jokes with them and talks with them about such things as their families and religious views, often succeeding in getting past the veneer that public figures are often reluctant to drop.
For lovers of American crime fiction, Behind the Mystery makes for a worthy top-shelf reference book as well as a prized coffee-table volume.
-Steven Steinbock
BLACKTHORN WINTER
by Kathryn Reiss
San Diego: Harcourt Children's, 2006. $17.00
Lost memories, good luck charms, and art are among the themes of this California-girl-in-rural-England suspense novel. Juliana Martin-Drake's mother needs to separate from her husband and return to her native England in order to get a fresh start on her artistic career, so fifteen-year-old Juliana and her nine-year-old siblings end up being dragged to Blackthorn, a seaside village without the internet, shopping malls, or fast food.
The good news is that they end up moving into a cottage on the same property where Duncan Carrington, a cute red-headed boy, lives with his stepfather. But then Juliana, who had been adopted by her parents after being found wandering the beaches near Santa Cruz ten years earlier (her only memory being that her name was "Jewel Moonbeam"), begins suffering strange blackouts which are accompanied by smells and memories of her early childhood, which had until then been locked away.
Before Juliana's past can be more fully revealed, her mother's friend Liza Pethering, a rather obnoxious portrait artist, is found dead. Foul play is suspected and Simon Jukes, a local troublemaker, is arrested. But Juliana isn't so sure Simon is the killer.
All in all, Blackthorn Winter has a very well-conceived plot and an engaging premise.
-Steven Steinbock
THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE
by Rennie Airth
New York: Viking, 2005. $24.95
Rennie Airth's 1999 novel River of Darkness, a superlative evocation of post-World War I England, won the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and was shortlisted for five other major crime fiction awards. It introduced Scotland Yard Inspector John Madden, who, grief-stricken at the deaths of both his wife and infant daughter from influenza within the same week, seeks oblivion in the horrifying trenches of wartime France. He returns to England and his detective work so shattered by his experiences that he feels he will never live fully again, but the gruesome 1921 slaughter of a family in a small Surrey village acquaints him with Dr. Helen Blackwell who becomes his wife and exorcises his inner demons.
In The Blood-Dimmed Tide, the equally stunning second installment of Airth's closed trilogy featuring John Madden, ten years have elapsed. The year is 1932 and Madden has resigned from Scotland Yard to take up a farmer's life in Surrey. Although devoted to Helen and his children Rob and Lucy, Madden still feels obligated by experience and temperament to unofficially "take charge" when a young girl's body, her face unrecognizably disfigured, is discovered not far from his home. Madden continues working on the case even in the face of Helen's opposition to his renewed involvement in police work and his realization that, with Hitler rising to power and England and Germany again on the verge of hostilities, the case has dangerous national and international ramifications.
Familiar and welcome faces from River of Darkness, like psychiatry pioneer Dr. Franz Weiss, Madden's old Yard superior Angus Sinclair, and brash young detective Billy Sykes, reappear in The Blood-Dimmed Tide. As in River of Darkness, the killer in this novel is monstrously psychologically abnormal, and it takes all of Madden's clarity of reason and quiet courage to unmask him, which he does in a brilliant denouement reaffirming the powers of decency and morality-which are soon to be tested in another crucible of war.
In one of the most brilliant novelistic treatments of the troubled years between the World Wars, Rennie Airth explores a civilization disintegrating under economic and political pressures too monumental to be alleviated by traditional methods. It was an era when, as in William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" (Airth's source for the chilling title of this book), some "rough beast" was "slouching toward Bethlehem" to be born. In The Blood-Dimmed Tide, that beast is headed toward John Madden's sweet green fields of England as well.
-Mitzi M. Brunsdale
THE EXCURSION TRAIN
by Edward Marston
London: Allison & Busby Limited, 2005. $25.95
England. 1853. A special excursion train is taking Londoners to see an illegal prizefight between the London favorite, The Bargeman, and Mad Issac from Bradford. After the passengers leave the train, a railway guard discovers one passenger still on board-a man who has been strangled to death with a wire. Scotland Yard is contacted and Inspector Robert Colbeck, nicknamed "The Railway Detective" by the press, is called in, along with Sgt. Victor Leeming. In speaking to the man's widow, Colbeck discovers that the man had been living under an assumed name, and was really Jacob Guttridge, a public hangman. Universally detested for his trade, he had been subjected to many threats and several earlier attempts on his life. Using the most recent threatening letter as a starting point, Colbeck deduces that Guttridge's murder is tied in with his execution of Nathan Hawkshaw for the murder of Joe Dykes. Many believed Hawkshaw was innocent. Colbeck determines to find out not only who killed Guttridge, but also if Nathan Hawkshaw was indeed innocent of the crime for which he was executed. When a second murder takes place, and an attempt is made on Colbeck's life, he knows he is on the right track.
The Excursion Train is an excellent sequel to Edward Marston's first Inspector Colbeck book, The Railway Detective, and one which readers can enjoy without having read the first adventure, as the story stands on its own and doesn't give away the ending of the first book. There are many pleasures here, not least of which is an excellent mystery that will keep readers guessing until the end. Marston does a good job of recreating the England of the 1850s and portraying the prejudicial attitudes of that time towards hangmen, criminals, and the innocent families of those on the wrong side of the law. There are also many interesting and well-drawn subsidiary characters, as well as a budding romance between Inspector Colbeck and Madeline Andrews-a railway engineer's daughter whom he met in The Railway Detective. Edward Marston is the author of several other historical mystery series, and this one is on the way to becoming one of his best. Hopefully we will see much more of Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sgt. Victor Leeming in the future.
-Martin Friedenthal
4TH OF JULY
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005. $24.00
James Patterson's fourth Women's Murder Club mystery, 4th of July, is a change of pace from earlier installments. For starters, co-author Maxine Paetro joins Patterson this time, taking over from Andrew Gross, co-writer of the previous two episodes. In a further change from the earlier books, in 4th of July, Patterson's main character, San Francisco police lieutenant Lindsey Boxer, goes it alone. The other members of the Women's Murder Club appear in only a handful of pages.
4th of July contains two nearly separate storylines featuring Boxer. The first starts out with the members of the Women's Murder Club meeting over drinks to discuss one of their fallen comrades and Boxer's latest case. Their meeting is interrupted when Boxer's former partner, Jacobi, calls regarding a break in the case. Jacobi picks Boxer up and they agree that, despite the drinks, Boxer is fit for duty. Their decision turns out to be a fateful one, leading to Boxer finding herself on trial for her career.
While on leave to prepare for her trial, Boxer housesits for her vacationing sister who lives in Half Moon Bay, a small town about 40 miles outside of San Francisco. While there, Boxer becomes involved in the investigation of a string of serial killings.
Patterson and Paetro keep both storylines moving at the brisk pace which is one of the hallmarks of Patterson's work. His fans have also come to expect interesting and charismatic characters, of which there are plenty in 4th of July.
One thing readers don't expect in a Patterson novel, however, is a disappointing ending, of which this one has two. As the trial storyline nears its conclusion, Patterson and Paetro provide Boxer and her lawyers with new information which seems to set readers up for a nice Pattersonian twist. Instead the story makes an about-face which has nothing to do with the misleading information-which is never further explained, much less mentioned again.
The Half Moon Bay portion of the novel falters for a different reason. Two key pieces of the puzzle are revealed not through Boxer's investigative skills, but by third parties. After watching Boxer endure the frustrations of her trial and the investigation, it is disappointing to see her relegated to more of an observer than a driving force in the final stages of the case. On the other hand, the twists brought about by the unveiling of those final clues were surprising and very satisfying.
Despite its weaknesses, 4th of July will please most fans of James Patterson and the Women's Murder Club.
-Neal Alhadeff
FREEZOUT
by Rick Gadziola
Toronto: ECW Press, 2005. $19.95 CND / $15.95 US
Ex-cop Jake Morgan leaves the Boston PD after his gambling habit indirectly leads to the death of his partner. Leaving his shield behind, Morgan moves to Las Vegas where he finds employment as a dealer at Julius Contini's Oasis Hotel and Casino. When Mr. C. asks Jake to take on a special assignment, the ex-cop is skeptical. Contini wants Jake to be an escort for his niece, who is visiting from New York. Jake isn't pleased at the prospect of babysitting, even when it turns out that the niece, Angelica, turns out to be a ravishing Britney Spears look-alike who throws herself at Jake every chance she gets. He is even less pleased when the assignment takes a decidedly wicked turn which leads to Jack and his attractive charge being regularly followed, threatened, and assaulted by a pair of mob goons.
Fifty years earlier, Angelica's grandfather, Carmine Bonello, had disappeared mysteriously along with a large amount of money skimmed from the mob's ill-gotten profits. Is Angelica's harassment somehow connected to her grandfather's disappearance? Before any dust manages to settle on Jake, he comes across several fresh corpses, his apartment is trashed, he gets beaten and shot in the leg, and he gets hit on by both a cross-dresser and a heavy metal rod. To make matters worse, Angelica's presence is seriously hampering his social life.
Rick Gadziola's second outing with Jake Morgan (after the 2004 novel Raw Deal) is a fun romp, a delightful throwback to an earlier age in crime fiction, when it wasn't unusual for "hard-boiled" adventures to have a playful innocence. One can easily imagine Rock Hudson, Frank Sinatra, or even Burt Reynolds in the role of Morgan.
The details of Las Vegas street life, night-life, and gaming are given a ring of authenticity by the author's research and his personal knowledge of the subjects. (Toronto-based Gadziola is a semi-professional gambler, a World Series of Poker regular, and is frequently "comped" at the best casinos.) The book design also deserves comment. All of the page numbers are printed in little boxes shaped like playing cards. For example, Chapter 1 is marked with the Ace of Spades, Chapter 10 bears the Jack of Clubs, and Chapter 25 is indicated by a pair of Queens and a Five. This design scheme could have easily gone overboard, but as a minor touch, it adds to the book's charm.
The plot of Freezout, featuring a puzzle that nearly reaches the level of Queen and Christie, is a fun blend of action, and mystery. Yes, in the 21st century there are still authors able (and willing) to imbue adult fiction with hidden clues, secret codes, and buried treasure without making it come off as forced or absurd. Freezout is not Hemingway, but as entertaining crime fiction with a Las Vegas theme, it's a Royal Flush in Spades.
-Steven Steinbock
FRIENDS, LOVERS, CHOCOLATE
by Alexander McCall Smith
New York: Pantheon Books, 2005. $21.95
Readers who have enjoyed McCall Smith's Mma Ramotswe mysteries set in Botswana, Africa will find themselves, in his latest novel, in the cooler but more bracing clime of Edinburgh, Scotland. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, featuring Isabel Dalhousie, is not a mystery in the traditional sense. There are no bodies, no trails of clues, no climactic confrontations with the perpetrator of the crime. In fact, there are no premeditated acts of violence anywhere in this story. The mysteries are those of the heart and the damage that is done is emotional rather than corporeal.
More sympathetic and vulnerable here than she was in McCall Smith's previous Dalhousie novel, The Sunday Philosophy Club, Isabel Dalhousie is not a traditional detective of either the amateur or professional variety who uses her wits to solve baffling puzzles. She becomes involved in peoples' affairs simply because she is good-hearted and perhaps even a bit of a busybody. As the general editor of a journal entitled Review of Applied Ethics, one would expect her to have the discretion to stay out of other people's business, but she doesn't let her professional position stop her from using her personal experience and her status as a respectable mature woman to help people who she believes, rightly or wrongly, need her assistance.
Early in the novel Isabel meets a man who has received a heart transplant. He is troubled by unexplained melancholy and visions of the face of someone he believes killed the donor of his heart. This raises ethical and philosophical questions about cellular memory. Can the heart "remember" things? And if it can, does it retain those memories after death? Isabel sets out to uncover the identity of the heart transplant donor.
While in the process of closing the door on the heart transplant mystery, she opens the door to another enigma when she sees something which leads her to believe that a young male friend of a young female friend of hers has allowed his affections to drift. In attempting to get to the bottom of the matter, she begins to question her own feelings about the young man and to ponder her own choices regarding matters of the heart. Kindhearted readers cannot but forgive Isabel for her meddling, because it stems from the kind of loneliness that can only be experienced by a proud and independent character. Like other isolated protagonists of detective fiction, Isabel is not an easy character to like, but neither is she easy to forget. Once again, McCall Smith demonstrates that there are whole new directions for mysteries to take and fascinating characters to lead the way.
-Carol S. Chadwick
GROUCHO MARX, KING OF THE JUNGLE
by Ron Goulart
New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005. $22.95
Good news everyone! Groucho has returned! Groucho Marx and screenwriter Frank Denby are back in their fifth adventure as amateur detectives in 1940s Hollywood, and a fast-moving, funny, intriguing time is in store for all.
Groucho and Frank are on the set of Ty-Gor and the Lost City (for which Frank has written the script and Groucho is making a cameo appearance as African explorer J. Darwin Underbrush) when Randy Spellman, who plays Ty-gor (a Tarzan-type character), is found shot to death in front of his trailer. The police find a threatening note in the trailer from stuntwoman Dorothy Woodrow, who then becomes the prime suspect.
Though Frank has promised his pregnant wife Jane not to have anything to do with amateur detection until after she gives birth to their soon-to-be-born first child, it is actually Jane who asks him to investigate the case because a friend of theirs has been seeing Dorothy. Frank and Groucho soon discover that Spellman, aside from being a not very nice man, was also a blackmailer. And the list of suspects starts to grow.
There are many joys in this book. The mystery keeps readers interested, the background of 1940s Hollywood rings true, and you never know which famous person is going to show up next. But the most enjoyable element of the novel is Groucho just being Groucho (the screen Groucho we all know and love). Was Groucho Marx like this in "real" life? Who knows? Who cares? His constant quips make for a great romp. If you haven't read the earlier books in the series, you can jump in with Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle without feeling lost. If you've read the earlier books then you know what a good time is in store for you. In either case, get a copy and enjoy.
-Martin Friedenthal
KILLER SMILE
by Lisa Scottoline
New York: HarperCollins, 2004. $25.95
Lisa Scottoline's Killer Smile is part of a series of interconnected books, the main character of each associated in some way with the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Biscardi. In Killer Smile, Mary Dinunzio is a young widowed attorney hoping to make partner at the firm. When she takes on a pro bono case to settle the estate of a long-deceased man-a commercial fisherman named Amadeo Brandolini who died during World War II in a detention camp in Montana, having apparently committed suicide-she becomes frustrated at being unable to find the man's file after searching through stacks of government records. Mary's suspicions are raised when, at a family dinner in the close-knit Italian community of South Philadelphia, she learns that Amadeo Brandolini had been well-known to members of her parents' generation and that unanswered questions about the man's demise still lingered amongst them. Before long Mary begins to feel obsessed with the desire to know more about him, even though all she has to go on is a puzzling government memo, some old photos, a lock of hair, and a few pages of unlabeled, unrecognizable drawings. Her friend Judy tells her, "It's like you have a crush on him or something."
A large part of the charm of this book stems from the development of the main character. Mary Dinunzio is no intrepid Nancy Drew or tough V.I. Warshawski. She is an experienced professional, but she has some all too human insecurities as well. She neglects her work on her regular cases because of her fixation on Brandolini and ineptly resists her friends' attempts to arrange dates for her. She balks at going to Montana since she has never been on an airplane before and later becomes putty in the hands of a slick, handsome reporter who interferes with her case by charming important information out of her. Despite these shortcomings, she ends up surprising everyone, including herself, as she grows more and more fearless throughout the course of the investigation. The story moves along swiftly as Mary works to uncover the person with the "killer smile" in order to put Brandolini's case to rest.
-Carol S. Chadwick
TO KINGDOM COME
by Will Thomas
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. $22.95
To Kingdom Come is Will Thomas' sequel to Some Danger Involved (2004) which introduced private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker and his assistant/narrator Thomas Llewelyn. Set in England in 1884, To Kingdom Come begins, literally, with a bang when part of New Scotland Yard is blown up by Irish radicals on May 13th. Barker and Llewelyn discover that their offices, which are nearby, have also been damaged, and that the bombers have threatened another bombing in thirty days if the prime minister does not introduce a bill for Irish Home Rule by that time. Barker informs the Home Office that he would be willing to infiltrate and destroy the radicals for a fee. He knows he won't be paid much, but he mainly offers to do it because he's angry at what the radicals have done to "his" city.
Barker and Llewelyn disguise themselves as noted bomb-maker Johannes van Rhyn and his assistant. Barker knows where the radicals tend to hang out and he makes it easy for them to "pick up" van Rhyn to hire him to make the bombs they need. Once having infiltrated the bombers, Barker and Llewelyn are in constant danger of being uncovered as spies, being arrested as Irish radicals by Scotland Yard, or blowing themselves up while making bombs for the group.
To Kingdom Come moves along at a nice pace, has a consistently interesting narrator in young Thomas Llewelyn, and is filled with interesting subsidiary characters, especially all the assistants and contacts who Barker knows and uses. Cyrus Barker is also an interesting character, filled with believable eccentricities and totally convincing as a detective who is capable of infiltrating and stopping a band of terrorists. Thomas handles the setting extremely well. His details of life in England in 1884 seem to ring true and he even includes cameos by historical figures such as Charles Parnell and William Butler Yeats. This is an excellent sequel to Will Thomas' debut novel, and hopefully there will be many more adventures of Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewellyn to come.
-Martin Friedenthal
LONG SPOON LANE
by Anne Perry
New York: Ballantine Books, 2005. $25.95
Long Spoon Lane is the 24th Anne Perry novel to feature Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. These books, set in Victorian London, have followed Thomas Pitt's career from the days when he was a young police inspector to his current role as a member of the newly formed Special Branch.
As Long Spoon Lane opens, London is reeling from another terrorist attack by anarchists. A bomb has just destroyed several houses and the police have cornered the anarchists responsible on the third floor of a building on Long Spoon Lane. A shot rings out as the police, accompanied by Pitt and Special Branch head Victor Narraway, race up the stairs to capture the bombers. The authorities arrive to find three men in the room, one of them dead.
The dead man turns out to be Magnus Landsborough, son of Lord Landsborough, a member of Parliament. The police assume the anarchists killed young Landsborough for some reason, while the anarchists insist that Magnus was their leader and was killed by a policeman. Evidence shows that at least one man, most likely the killer, escaped from the room through a back exit. But was the man an anarchist, a policeman, or a third party? Furthermore, why was Landsborough killed while the other two people in the room were allowed to live?
The story becomes more complicated when one of the anarchists makes accusations of widespread police corruption while Pitt is interviewing him. Pitt's investigation confirms this charge and launches him on a quest to uncover the source of the corruption. Much to his dismay, Pitt finds the source is highly placed and possibly tied to the Inner Circle-a secret society featured in earlier novels in the Pitt series.
Political intrigue is added to the mix when, in apparent response to the anarchist attacks, a bill is introduced in Parliament which would provide more guns to the police and grant them expanded abilities to interrogate people they deem suspicious and search their homes. As the story progresses, Pitt wonders if the bill and the corruption might be part of a bigger Inner Circle plot.
Perry's excellent writing style draws readers into the Victorian era, while the matters addressed, such as terrorism and expanded police powers, are issues we're still grappling with today, making this more than just a quaint read. Long-time Pitt readers will be very satisfied with this installment. First-timers will feel the urge to seek out the earlier volumes to see how the characters got to where they are in Long Spoon Lane.
-Neal Alhadeff
PARDONABLE LIES: A Maisie Dobbs Novel
by Jacqueline Winspear
New York: Henry Holt, 2005. $23.00.
In Pardonable Lies (set a few months after Birds of a Feather), redoubtable psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, in her most memorable adventure yet, must traverse an intricate labyrinth of coincidences to uncover startling truths of mind and soul. Maisie has committed herself to defending a forlorn child prostitute when noted barrister Sir Cecil Lawton, a friend of Maisie's patron Lord Julian Compton, engages her services for a highly unusual mission. Lawton wants Maisie to ascertain whether his aviator son Ralph, whose DeHavilland "flaming coffin" crashed in France in August 1917, is really dead-as the British government maintains. Lawton's grief-stricken wife Agnes never accepted the death of her only child and Lawton is honoring the deathbed promise he made to her that he would mount a search for their son.
Not long after this, Maisie's old friend Priscilla, now married and living in Biarritz, begs Maisie to look into the death of Peter Evernden, the oldest of three brothers Priscilla lost in the Great War. Peter's body has never been located. Though Maisie has begun to experience tormenting nightmares caused by memories of her two harrowing years as a nurse near the Western front lines, she goes to France with her mentor Maurice Blanche (whose own shadowy wartime activities are rising up to haunt them both) to look into the circumstances of Peter and Ralph's deaths.
While all three cases swirl around her, Maisie is also struggling with personal quandaries. Should she leave her luxurious apartment in the Comptons' London mansion and buy a residence of her own-a considerable difficulty for a "spinster" in 1930? Should she continue "walking out" with Dr. Andrew Dene, whose affections for her are becoming more serious than she wishes at this point? And what is she to do about the repeated attempts on her life? So far a darting figure has caused damage to her cherished red MG, a hand has nearly shoved her in front of a subway engine, she's received rat-poisoned chocolates, and her brakes have been sabotaged, leading to a near-fatal collision?
One of the brightest new authors in historical detective fiction, Winspear has an uncanny and meticulous ability for shaping fascinating minor characters, recreating the storm-gathering gloom of the 1930s, and building breathtaking suspense as her utterly convincing heroine courageously employs her talents and expertise to rescue the innocent and bring evildoers to justice while simultaneously slaying her inner dragons without a shred of soggy sentimentalism. Long may Maisie Dobbs, her associates, her friends, and her oh-so-convincing antagonists keep readers enthralled.
-Mitzi M. Brunsdale
PHILIP MARLOWE'S GUIDE TO LIFE
by Raymond Chandler
edited by Martin Asher
New York: Knopf, 2005. $14.95
This little black paperback book, Philip Marlowe's Guide to Life, could be considered the equivalent to Chairman Mao's little red book for those who want to make the hard-boiled detective's way of life their own. It is a compendium of short pithy quotes excerpted from Philip Marlowe's oeuvre, covering all of the important aspects of noir life, including dames, fast living, crime, Los Angeles, night, private dicks, scotch, sore knuckles, etc.
Asher has arranged Marlowe and Chandler's thoughts on these subjects in alphabetical order from "advertising" to "writers," each quote attributed to its original source material. The list contains everything an aspiring city slicker sleuth ought to know, and ought to be able to say with a more or less straight face. For example, on the subject of "architecture" Marlowe says, "About the only part of a California house you can't put your foot through is the door." Regarding "blondes," he says, "She adores music and when the New York Philharmonic is playing Hindemith she can tell you which one of the six bass viols came in a quarter of a beat too late. I hear Toscanini can also. That makes two of them."
This small book oozes rueful self-deprecation and drips with cynicism towards everyone and everything, including cops, criminals, victims, writers, rivals, and even Philip Marlowe himself who is described as "a cold-blooded beast." Anyone who wants to become a tough private eye or even just do a good impersonation of one needs to keep this book in his or her breast pocket right over a hard, hard heart. It is a fun read for armchair detectives, recalling a time when a man was a man and a dame was "a pretty, spoiled and not very bright little girl who had gone very, very wrong, and nobody was doing anything about it."
-Carol S. Chadwick
REMAINS SILENT
by Michael Baden and Linda Kenney
New York: Knopf, 2005. $22.95
The two protagonists of Remains Silent first meet as adversaries in the courtroom. Philomena "Manny" Manfreda is a criminal defense attorney and Jake Rosen is a chief medical examiner for the state of New York. Rosen's testimony turns Manfreda's carefully prepared defense upside down. Nevertheless, Rosen recognizes Manfreda's heart and tenacity and Manfreda is equally impressed with Rosen's skill and perspicacity. On the surface, the two are complete opposites. She's a beautiful "fashionista" and he's a gruff, divorced slob, indifferent to much of the world outside of his job. Naturally it doesn't take long before they team up like Hepburn and Tracy and become involved in a mystery.
When Rosen's ailing friend and mentor, Dr. Pete Harrigan, is asked to identify some mysterious bones that have turned up in a shopping mall excavation, he asks Rosen to assist him. After Harrigan is found dead, Rosen takes over. Some of the bones turn out to be the remains of a person who disappeared under strange circumstances several years earlier. Rosen calls on Manfreda to help investigate the case and to represent the person's descendent. In this way they begin working as a team to solve a mystery that becomes more and more complex as the story progresses. Who do the other bones belong to? How and why did the victims die?
As they investigate, Rosen and Manfreda become embroiled in a complex situation that contains a lot of surprises for them, as well as for the reader. Harrigan's death comes under scrutiny. Rosen's assistant, Wally, emerges as a key figure in the case. Even Manfreda's chic little dog Mycroft plays a part. As the novel progresses, Rosen and Manfreda become romantically involved. The two make an interesting team, a mixture of sweet and savory, and readers will no doubt look forward to their future combined efforts.
-Carol S. Chadwick
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE KING'S GOVERNESS
by Barrie Roberts
New York: Severn House, 2005. $28.95
For those of us who love Sherlock Holmes, the sad part is that there are a limited number of stories and novels by his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For "new" adventures we must turn to pastiches. Unfortunately, most pastiche writers are not up to the task. Barrie Roberts is. Roberts excels at imitating not only Doyle's style, but also his plotting and characterizations, and he is back in excellent form with a new book entitled Sherlock Holmes and the King's Governess.
It is 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Holmes' client is Mrs. Diana Fordeland. Years earlier she had been governess to the King of Mongkuria and had since written several books about her time there. (As Roberts points out in his copious and entertaining "footnotes" to the story, Mrs. Fordeland is actually Anna Leonowens of Anna and the King of Siam and The King and I.) Mrs. Fordeland has come to London with her granddaughter for the Diamond Jubilee and to see King Chula of Mongkuria, her former pupil. She has come to Holmes because she is being followed by two men, who are in turn being followed by a man and a woman. Being an artist, she has made sketches of them for Holmes. He recognizes one of her followers as Major Kyriloff of the Russian Embassy, an enforcer for the Tzar. Holmes tracks the man and woman (the second set of followers) to the estate of Agatha Wortley-Swan, a wealthy woman who says that the two of them, Professor Gregori Gregorieff and his sister, are helping her to learn Russian. As Holmes investigates, he learns that the case has its roots in the tragic pasts of Miss Wortley-Swan, Mrs. Fordeland, and Professor Gregorieff, and also has connections to the Tzar-whose business Mycroft has been instructed to keep him out of.
The story is well told, and has a very satisfying ending. This book comes highly recommended, and I eagerly await Mr. Roberts' next foray into the world of Sherlock Holmes. Even if you do not like pastiches, you should try this one. I know you'll be pleasantly surprised.
-Martin Friedenthal
TRANSGRESSIONS
edited by Ed McBain
New York: Forge, 2005. $27.95
One of the late Ed McBain's final projects was Transgressions, a magnificent mammoth collection of brand-new original novellas. McBain filled its nearly 800 pages with giants-Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, John Farris, Stephen King, Sharyn McCrumb, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Perry, Donald E. Westlake, and McBain himself.
The stories all feature various kinds of transgressions, and, in a way, their format itself is a transgression. Novellas are too long to be short stories and too short to be novels. Where do you print stories that don't fit the norm? Because the answer to that question is usually "Nowhere," novella collections like this one are infrequent treats.
While no one story is less than captivating, some of the stories are especially gripping. Possibly the strongest and most haunting of them is Joyce Carol Oates' The Corn Maiden: A Love Story. Told from multiple perspectives, this story of the kidnapping of an eleven-year-old girl as part of a reenactment of an old sacrificial ritual will draw readers in and keep its hold over them long after they have moved on to other stories in the volume. Oates transgresses all the rules of grammar, creating sentence structures to match her characters' personalities and mental states. The very first sentence, "Whywhy you're asking here's why her hair," is a perfect example of what Oates has in store for her readers. There are entire passages in this style which will leave readers breathless and totally mesmerized by the characters.
Walter Mosley, the creator of Easy Rawlins, Fearless Jones, and Socrates Fortlow, introduces a new pair of winning characters in Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line. A modernized Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, Lawless and his newly hired assistant "scribe" Felix Orlean, "walk the line between chaos and the man." In their initial outing, Lawless and Felix find themselves involved with international intrigue, murder, and corrupt big businesses. Lawless keeps Felix in the dark for much of the story, encouraging him to develop his own curiosity and investigating skills. And Felix exhibits a questioning reluctance to accept Lawless at face value, which serves to energize Lawless. Archibald Lawless is one of those larger than life characters who is sure to bring readers back again and again. Here's hoping this is just the first of many excursions for this pair.
Transgressing the historical fiction she usually writes, Anne Perry contributes Hostages, a story of rigidity and intolerance in Northern Ireland. Perry's title refers not only to the family in the story who are taken by captors, but also to both groups being strongly bound to their respective ideals and traditions. Protestant leader Connor O'Malley is preparing to take his wife and son for a week's vacation at an isolated area near a lake. O'Malley, known for his unwavering views, sees any deviation from those views-whether it be a religious compromise or his wife's desire to wear pants rather than dresses-as a betrayal. Moderates, including his own daughter, have been pressuring him to compromise with the opposing Catholics in order for both sides to be able to start along the path of peace. O'Malley will have none of it.
At the beginning of the story, Bridget O'Malley is compliant to Connor's will, doing everything he asks in order to keep peace in the household. Things begin to change when the family awakens to find three strangers in their cottage. The trio are Catholics who have come to persuade O'Malley to step aside and allow a more moderate leader to step forward. The situation becomes volatile as O'Malley and his captors grow more antagonistic towards one another. The story focuses mainly on Bridget, however, as she begins, during the process of dealing with her family's physical imprisonment, to break away from the emotional imprisonment her husband has subjected her to.
The ten novellas featured in Transgressions have found a welcome home. With examples of such high quality to go by, here's hoping that other editors will follow Ed McBain's lead so that more collections of these literary transgressors will be available in the future.
-Neal Alhadeff
TWO TRAINS RUNNING
by Andrew Vachss
New York: Pantheon Books, 2005. $25.00
Two Trains Running is a historical crime novel which unfolds over a two week period in 1959 in the fictitious mill town of Locke City, somewhere in the Midwest. Locke City is the private "Sodom and Gomorrah" of a wheelchair-bound criminal by the name of Royal Beaumont, but the security, profitability, and longevity of his fiefdom have begun to be threatened by infidels. A local IRA unit wants all of the action, but so does the Mafia! What is an "honest" criminal to do in order to hold onto what is rightfully his?
Enter the anti-hero, an Übermensch called Walker Dent. Like the enormously successful Burke-a benevolent street vigilante in Vachss' main hard-boiled noir series-Dent is a cold-blooded killer for hire with a noble conscience. Death and destruction follow closely in Dent's wake as he attempts to help Beaumont keep an iron grip on his empire while at the same time pursuing his own mysterious agenda. He is deadly to a fault, but he is also as chivalrous as Don Quixote was towards his Dulcinea del Toboso.
The plot is rounded out by a racially motivated lynching, a riotous group of gun-packing black revolutionaries, a goose stepping neo-Nazi organization, and two juvenile gangs hell-bent on settling a turf war, and is set against the backdrop of the impending 1960 presidential campaign pitting John F. Kennedy against Richard M. Nixon.
Reading Vachss is by no means a passive activity. His writing forces readers into the boxing ring. You cannot stop and rest until you are through. Each word, each page, and each chapter is a jab, cross, and left hook combination aimed at the head, the heart, and the groin. Vachss' staccato style of storytelling relentlessly pummels you to the point of exhaustion and in the process forces you to look into the abyss where the evilness that is within and around us all resides. Emerging from this pugilist purgatory, the reader is left beaten, bloody, and battered but also more acutely aware of his or her path in this world and the dark undercurrents swirling around it.
The recurring question that Vachss asks in Two Trains Running is, "Can you be noble while also practicing violence, extortion, blackmail, and even mass murder?" The answer will probably surprise you. Be prepared to enjoy this wonderfully complex book while at the same time getting angry and frustrated with its myriad of unsavory characters, and possibly even pathologically attracted to them. One way or another, you will definitely find you have been affected by Two Trains Running by the time the bell for the final bout rings!
-Louis Boxer
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