A Work in Progress

Short Story Sunday: More Mysteries

Last day of June, can you believe the year is now officially half over?  Or maybe I should be more optimistic, we still have half a year more to think about all those books we want to read, or plans we made in the hopes of accomplishing them before December rolls around again.  I've been enjoying my mystery/crime spree so much I think I will continue on through July.  Actually I have so many good books started that I think I need another month with them to finish a fair few and whittle down that ongoing reads pile.  But as there is lots going on online I will also be reading other things as well.  More about a few new plans tomorrow. 

I always like the sound of reading all the books from an awards list, but I've never tried since the thought is also a little overwhelming, so in the end I always cherry-pick a few titles to try.  Since I have been equally as enthusiastic lately about my short story reading as my mystery reading, I am going to combine the two and try and read all the stories that have been shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Dagger Award.  I might not be able to manage any of their other shortlists of books, but if I can find the anthologies that this years nominees have been published in I'm going to try and read them all.  Six short stories is definitely a much more manageable goal for me than six or more novels from an awards list.

This year's shortlist is comprised of six stories found in three different anthologies.  I have two out from the library at the moment, and I am waiting (with fingers crossed that a library will loan it out) for the third to come from ILL.  Aside from the longlisted stories, the two anthologies I have on hand at the moment have quite a few interesting-sounding stories (I wrote about a couple last week--former longlisted stories by the way), so I might dip into those more as well. 

I've already read three of the six stories this weekend.  The whole longlist includes:

"Method Murder" by Simon Brett

"Stairway C" by Piero Colaprico

"Come Away wirh Me" by Stella Duffy

"The Case of Death and Honey" by Neil Gaiman

"Ferengi" by Carlo Lucarelli

"Lost and Found" by Zoë Sharp

The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, included both Neil Gaiman and Simon Brett's stories, and both are very different from each other (Stella Duffy's is included in it as well).

I've only read a few of Neil Gaiman's books and two of them were young adult novels, so I am not entirely sure what is typical for him and what isn't, but I'm guessing that "The Case of Death and Honey" is likely a departure from his regular writing.  It's also a little different than the other stories I've read this weekend as it's not really a story of suspense or a straightforward detective story.  He does, however, give a nod in the direction of Arthur Conan Doyle with his own version of Sherlock Holmes. 

For Sherlock Holmes, a life without a challenge of some sort is one filled with ennui.  He's only alive when he as a riddle to solve. Far away, in the East, on an ancient moutain resides an elderly man who is caretaker of a group of beehives.  His bees are angry black bees, which don't produce much honey and are furiously territorial allowing no other bees on their mountain. The man barely scrapes a living with his bees, so unusual are they.  After the death of his brother Mycroft, Sherlock travels in search of these bees in order to make a study of them.  Perhaps the mystery at the heart of this story, the crime that Mycroft alludes to on his deathbed is that of Death.  A riddle for which to take away Sherlock's ennui permanently.  Read this story and maybe you'll find an answer to why Sherlock Holmes was so very interested in studying bees. 

Simon Brett's "Method Murder" has some very nice ironical twists in it, a nice tongue in cheek story.  Kenny Mountford is an actor who is tiring of celebrity and wishes instead for respectability.  He's got television work, a certain amount of fame, a house on Notting Hill, and a seductively beautiful starlet on his arm.  But few people consider him a very serious actor.  Charlie Fenton, a highly original director, the latest enfant terrible of the theater is the man to work for, but he takes few actors on and they must (shall we say) suffer for their art.  He prefers his stars to be method actors--they don't just "act" a role, they must live and breathe it.  When Kenny offers his talent to Fenton, Fenton doesn't think he has what it takes.  The role he offers is one of a gangster, and the only way to play a gangster on stage is to be one in real life.  So Kenny must go through what you might call a trial by fire.  His ambition is unswerving and his life becomes steeped in activities common only in the dark underbelly of London.  Of course, he must not only show his dedication to Charlie Fenton, but also, too, to the Ukrainian drug lord who has taken a liking to Kenny.  The ultimate test of loyalty?  Murder.  This is a story that is quite cleverly plotted.

The third story, Zoë Sharp's "Lost and Found" is collected in Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance, edited by Lee Child.  This is a themed collection so all the stories turn on the idea of revenge or vengeance.  The beauty of this story is how it is revealed to the reader, again a story of irony.  It's told in both third and second person, so the narrators both tell the story and then talk directly to "you"--the "you" actually being the victim of the crime.  Well, the victim and perhaps, too, the perpetrator.  Clear as mud?  It makes sense as the story unfolds, and the way it's written gives it all a heightened sense of suspense, since the reader is sort of in the shoes of the victim with the murderer talking directly to you.  A nice touch, that. 

All three stories are well done, well written and clever each in its own way in terms of presentation.  I am curious now to read the other three stories that are being considered for the CWA dagger.  I'll read Stella Duffy's story this week and hopefully will be able to get my hands on Outsiders: Italian Stories edited by Roberto Saviano that contains the remaining two stories by Colaprico and Lucarelli.  If all else fails I can always order it from the UK, right?  If you like short stories and/or mysteries these are well worth tracking down. 

By the way I also finally began reading Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op.  I wasn't really expecting to read the first story (as I had so many other short stories I wanted to get to this weekend), but you know how it goes, sometimes once you start it's hard putting a book down, and that was the cast with Hammett (I was happy to find).  There are seven stories collected in this book and now I am wondering if I can read one a day and would finish by next weekend?  The first, "The Tenth Clew" was that good.  Maybe part of the attraction, too, is the San Francisco setting.  It's not overwhelming, but it hovers in the background and every time there was some mention of place I could picture it in my mind.  Plus the writing is excellent, and this is Hammett we're talking about--classic fiction.  So, all in all, this has been a very satisfying reading weekend for me.  Now I think I might finally go and pick up that New Yorker issue I mentioned earlier.  All mysteries all weekend it seems! 

Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw

Jan Terlouw's Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter) looks at the moral ambiguities of war through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy who finds himself involved in the Dutch Resistance by mere happenstance.  But it is a role he embraces after more than four increasingly difficult years of fighting and Occupation by the German army.  Like so many young men who see war as something heroic and imagine growing up (and hoping the war lasts?) to fight, he will have his eyes opened to the bitter realities of what war really means, and come to learn that few things in life or war are ever entirely black and white. 

This is a story geared towards a young adult audience with its straightforward and unadorned prose and a strong moral message, but it can certainly be enjoyed by any reader of any age.  It can even be read as an adventure story or coming-of-age tale as Michiel must learn to navigate the harsh adult terrain of independence with little guidance.  Michiel lives in a small village with his parents, older sister and younger brother.  His father is the town mayor so he is well-known and respected.  Since the Germans are a permanent presence and his school is at a distance he can no longer travel to easily, Michiel spends his time at home occasionally reading boys' adventure stories like those written by Jules Verne, but mostly the days are too busy with chores and the nights are too dark to do more than what is necessary to survive day to day.

The year is 1944 and war has taken its toll on everyone, but particularly those big city dwellers who find they have less and less to eat and must travel (usually on foot), often hundreds of miles, to find food for their families.  Worse it is winter and cold and there is little fuel to be had.  It's not unusual for his family to take in distant relatives or friends of friends who are journeying from one place to another, so Michiel often comes home to a house full of strangers.

His good friend Dirk confides in him that he is going to break into a German distribution office in order to steal ration cards to help those who are in hiding.  He gives Michiel a letter for safekeeping that he is to pass on in case something goes wrong.  The worst comes to pass and Dirk is caught, but before Michiel is able to deliver the letter to Dirk's contact, the contact is also picked up by the Germans as well.  It's up to Michiel to decide what to do with the letter.  Destroy it for fear of it falling into the wrong hands and endangering more people, or shall he read it himself?

In the end he reads the letter and discovers that Dirk had been hiding an injured British pilot, a man who has now gone for days without food or water and surely must be frantic with fear and worry.  So Michiel takes his first steps towards adulthood and real responsibility when he goes off to help the soldier.  It's a dangerous undertaking and one that might cost him his life if he is caught.  

As in any good story for children and young adults, the burden is set squarely on the shoulders of the young protagonist.  I am not giving anything away by mentioning that Michiel's father is taken away by the Germans in retribution for the murder of a German soldier when the real culprit does not come forward.  The point is to let Michiel make the decisions, the valiant efforts and in this case, too, the mistakes.  In Michiel's case it is many times perceived mistakes as every step he takes seems to end badly.  It's worse luck each time something goes wrong and he feels he is to blame.

Although working independently from the Resistance, Michiel is set a number of tasks, always more dangerous than the last--to help people find food or safe transit, to care for an enemy soldier or tr and arrange false identity papers.  Even though he is still so young, his mother knows that both her elder children must do their part no matter the risk.  In times of war innocence is lost quickly.  They both, brother and sister, must learn some hard lessons.  What seemed so straightforward before the war--people, once ordinary situations--is no longer so easy to read.  Appearances are misleading and few people can be truly trusted, particularly when there is an informer amidst the villagers.  There are bad and good people in Terlouw's story, but they are not always who you expect them to be, and for Michiel it is a challenge trying to sort out right from wrong, truth from lies.

Terlouw's Winter in Wartime is a well done story.  It presents a difficult subject to a young audience in an easy and accessible manner and is a story that can be read on a couple of different levels.  And he doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of war.  The good is presented alongside the bad, and sad things happen to good characters.

I read Winter in Wartime for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong.  You can read her thoughts on the book here.  Next up is Assia Djebar's Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War.

Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

Hang on to your hats folks, Pierre Lemaitre's Alex (translated from the French by Frank Wynne) is one rollercoaster of a ride.  I was going to say--is going to be a bumpy ride and maybe that's true, too, actually.  Whatever preconceptions you might have about crime fiction, or more importantly about just what it is to be a victim or a perpetrator, please leave them at the door.  This is a story that is not going to be what you expect it to be, and you have to admire it for that.  The blurbs read: "exhilarating", "literary", "Hitchcockian".  They're pretty much spot on.  Let me add quirky (the detective), thrilling (the story), not for the faint of heart (the crime). 

If dark, edgy, psychological crime's your thing, you can't pick a better book at the moment.  I can see why it's been shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, and why it's the first book by Lemaitre that has been translated into English.  It's the second book featuring the irascible Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven, who makes up in personality what he lacks in stature.  This is a police procedural with a twist.  It's much less a whodunit (since you know early on the 'who' part of the equation) than a whydunit.  But there is still a sense of urgency to catch the perpetrator.

Alex is a stunning woman.  She likes to transform herself, her image, her looks.  Shy at heart, it's taken her a while to get the courage to change her appearance and then step out into public, but once there she hits her stride.  As a girl she was painfully insecure and filled with self-doubt.  She's never quite outgrown the stutter that marked her speech when young as it comes out still in moments of nervousness.  Maybe that's part of the attraction for reimagining her life and her appearance.  Alex likes to move from place to place, taking bits of her past with her while discarding others. 

One fateful evening she chooses to walk rather than take the bus home, and on a nearly empty street she's grabbed from behind, viciously struck and thrown into a waiting van.  As it roars away she thinks with horror how she does not want to die.  The man is remorseless and it's obvious he wants no more than to kill her, but it's worse even than that.  He wants to see her suffer in the process. 

There's only one witness to the crime and little evidence of what occurred.  The case lands in the lap of Commandant Camille Verhoeven who is loathe to take it on.  He agrees only to begin work until it can be passed off to another detective.  Verhoeven has been on leave after the death of his pregnant wife, who was also kidnapped and never again seen alive.  Too many memories are being dredged up and too many self recriminations that he was not able to save her.  Now he's faced with another young woman who has literally disappeared without a trace.  How do you save someone whose name you don't know, who no one seems to have seen, and whose abductor has covered his tracks too well?

Camille Verhoeven has a short fuse, particularly with his superiors.  Perhaps it's in part due to the death of his wife, who always brought out the best in him.  Or maybe it's due to circumstances that have shaped his personality.  Always something of an oddball, he's an angry man, unhappy with himself, he's a study in contrasts.  He stands only four feet eleven inches, but has a towering presence.  He's often taciturn yet also stoic, thuggish but a tactician, too.  He's a complex and interesting character and driven to find this nameless woman.

Meanwhile Alex is being kept in the most dire and brutal conditions.  Sure that no one will come save her she must try and save herself, but is pushed to the edge psychologically.  There are some disturbing moments in this story, but if you press on and keep reading, the twists and sharp turns of the story raise it out of the realm of cheap thrills into something more questioning.  There are parts of this story that are quite unexpected, and it's those unexpecteds that impressed me most. 

I hope Commandant Verhoeven makes another appearance in English, though how you follow a story like this one is beyond me. 

My copy came compliments of Random House.  Mark this one down on your calendars.  It's scheduled to be published in September!

Good (Web) Resources for Mystery Readers

Last week I shared a couple of good reference books for mystery lovers.  Now, are you curious where I find all my great reads (aside from books mentioned in that last post)?  Of course I get many suggestions from readers here, and they are always much appreciated.  I do have a number of online places, too, that I like to visit and always with a pen and paper in hand.

First a few publishers specializing mainly in mysteries and crime fiction:

Bitter Lemon Press - International and translated crime novels.

Soho Crime - More international crime (love their cover designs by the way) -- South of Houston Blog.

Felony and Mayhem Press - They publish a variety of subgenres, lots of vintage mysteries, plus each book notes who is likely to enjoy the book (for example-- Janet Neel's Death's Dark Angel is suggested to fans of Marcia Muller and Frances Fyfield).  The Felonious Categories: British, Espionage, Foreign, Hardboiled, Historical, Traditional, Vintage, Wild Card.  

Rue Morgue Press - Mystery books from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Poisoned Pen Press - Their categories range from Hardboiled to Women Sleuths.

Midnight Ink Books - Another general publisher of a variety of mysteries including lots of cozies.

Europa Editions: World Noir- World Noir is a recently created imprint of Europa Editions.  They also specialize in international crime fiction.

Melville House International Crime - "Award-winning international crime series features works of edgy literature from around the world."

Hersilia Press - They specialize in Italian crime fiction.

Minotaur Books - An imprint of Macmillan/ St. Martin's Press

Severn House - Mostly British mysteries and crime novels.

Serpents Tail - Publisher of literary fiction with an excellent back/frontlist of crime novels.

Gallic Books - The best of French in English.

Stockholm Text - New publishing house specializing in Scandinavian crime fiction.

*****

And a few blogs specializing in mysteries or crime fiction:

Euro Crime - My top go-to crime blog for reading ideas.  There are links to reviews with an excellent index. 

Petrona - Sadly the woman behind Petrona passed away earlier this year--she was one of the best read mystery readers I have ever had the fortune to meet (if only virtually).  You can still access the archives to her blog, which is filled with many excellent reviews and resources.

It's a Crime! (Or a Mystery...) - An all-around excellent resource for mysteries, thrillers as well as mystery/publishing news and awards.

International Noir Fiction - Loads of reviews on mostly international crime novels.

Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Kittling Books - Mostly mysteries including American as well as International crime novels.

BooksPlease - Margaret reads quite a few mysteries and crime novels interspersed with other interesting books.

Classic Mysteries - Vintage and classic mystery and crime novels.

The Murder Room

Italian-Mysteries.com - An excellent resource for crime novels translated from Italian or set in Italy.

*****

And award lists are always good for reading ideas, too:

Anthony Award

Barry Awards

Crime Writers Association

Crime Writers of Canada (Arthur Ellis Award)

Glass Key Award

Macavity Awards

Malice Domestic (Agatha Awards)

Mystery Writers of America (Edgar Award)

Petrona Award

I'm sure I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg!  What have I missed that I shouldn't have?

This Week's (Mystery) Reading

These are the mysteries I'll (mostly) be spending my time with this week.  As a matter of fact I am reading one right now instead of writing a proper post!  I should really choose one (or two) books to spend most of my time with, but so many are so good I can't resist dipping into all of them.

And then there is the pile I am "thinking of reading next".  Don't be surprised if one or two of these gets incorporated into the reading pile (above).  My piles change almost daily, so last week's "thinking of reading" pile likely doesn't much resemble this one.  It's that whole spoiled for choice thing.

On a side note, I was reading Laurie King's A Grave Talent and this quote caught my eye.  In Louise Penny's book the murdered woman was an artist.  In Laurie King's book one of the suspects is an artist.  The detective in the story, Kate Martinelli, is talking to her significant other about women artists and he "launches into a monologue" . . .

"There've been any number of brilliant women artists.  Look at Artemisia Gentileschi--an infinitely superior painter then her more famous father.  Or Mary Cassatt: some of her stuff is every bit as good as some of the male artists who were--and still are--better known than she was.  Maybe is she'd had less of an emphasis on mothers and babies  . . .I don't know.  I'm afraid that women have to be ten times as good as men to overcome their early training.  Little girls are raised to be cautious and sensible.  Even tomboys like you are too busy fighting their upbringing to leave it behind, and it's the complete, passionate absorption in one single thing, like painting, that allows genius to produce.  If you have to worry about folding clothes and constipated babies--if you have to worry about babies at all--you can't concentrate on one important thing.  Geniuses of any kind are always impossibly bloody, single-minded bastards, and women have never had that option, not as a class, not until very recently."

Have I mentioned already how much I'm liking the books I'm reading?  I am.  I can't wait for the long Fourth of July holiday (I'm taking an extra day off from work in order to have an extended weekend).  You know what I'll be doing and it won't involve a picnic outside in the heat and humidity.  But it will involve one or more of these books (or some very similar).

And a postscript, I also found a graphic novel on my shelves that is a mystery, so I plan on cracking that open this week, too.  How fun does that sound?

Still Life by Louise Penny

It's pretty impressive that Louise Penny's Still Life (2005), the first in a series of eight Armand Gamache mysteries, garnered five awards (CWA's New Blood Dagger, The Arthur Ellis Award, The Barry Award, The Anthony Award, and The Dilys Award).  Impressive, but after finishing it, not surprising.  It's an interesting cross between a cozy mystery and a slightly darker crime novel.  I've noticed with Canadian fiction that it often feels vaguely familiar yet still foreign enough to make me feel that I am well outside my normal surroundings, which is what I love so much about reading.  Crime novels are especially good for this as settings often seem to be particularly vivid. 

In Still Life Louise Penny has created a quirky cast of characters in an idyllic setting with an engaging detective.  Three Pines is a small rural village south of Montreal where it's hard to imagine anything really bad happening, let alone murder.  When Jane Neal is found dead it's assumed she's the victim of a hunting accident.  The Sunday before Thanksgiving "Jane Neal met her maker in the early morning mist."  Only days previously a painting by Jane had been accepted into a prestigious local art show.  A happy surprise for Jane since the judges were divided as to whether it was a work of true genius or embarrassingly bad.  

Every year hunters manage to shoot some hapless victim--a beloved pet, a horse or a cow, or worse--occasionally each other.  And surely that is what happened to Jane Neal.  She was simply walking in the wrong place at the wrong time, since it's unthinkable an act of violence would be perpetrated against her.  For Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Quebec, even after so many years with the department, violent death still surprised him.  Despite signs that this was simply an accident, there's enough evidence to investigate further and determine just what happened to Jane in the woods that fateful Sunday morning.

The residents of Three Pines are shocked and stunned.  A small, close-knit community, Jane had a wide circle of friends.  A former school teacher and much loved, she had to corral all her nerve to submit a piece of her artwork to the show.  Emboldened by the judges' acceptance she had just invited her friends to a gathering at her home, one that would take place beyond simply the kitchen.  It was to be a rare occasion, as Jane had never invited anyone inside her home further than the warmth of her kitchen.  For Jane's friends little was thought of this oddity, but for Gamache and his detectives it's more than curiosity that makes them wonder why Jane kept everyone out. 

Every village has its secrets.  And Jane had hers.  Enough to see her dead.  When it comes to murder there is always a bit of darkness lurking below the surface.  Three Pines, however, is an inviting place.  Imagine rural Quebec in autumn.  The leaves on the trees turning bright red and yellow, the air cool and crisp, the smells of Thanksgiving dinner wafting in the air.  Croissants, brioche, steaming cups of soup and crusty bread.  Don't read this book on an empty stomach--you'll find yourself wishing you could sit with Jane's friends at the local bistro with a hot cup of coffee or a glass of wine.  Of course never far from mind is the fact that Jane was killed with a bow and arrow, deadly enough to slice straight through her heart.  And any number of the village's residents had the ability to handle just such a weapon.

As detectives go Inspector Gamache is a breath of fresh air.  Not at all clichéd.  He's quite unique really as he's a sensitive yet sensible soul.  Happily married he discusses his cases with Reine-Marie--it wouldn't occur to him not to share such an important aspect of his life and work with his wife.  He's in his mid-fifties, maybe a little bit paunchy but always simply and elegantly attired.  He has the look about him of country squire.  You'd think so many years as a policeman would make him cynical, but he more often tends towards empathy both towards the residents of Three Pines and the two detectives he works with.  Inspector Beauvoir is a longtime associate and almost a son to Gamache.  Agent Nichol, newly promoted, has a chip on her shoulder, however.  The three make for interesting dynamics, since Beauvoir is knowledgeable and experienced, and Nichol appears cocky and abrasive.  Gamache is nothing but fair and tries to mentor those below him, but even his patience is tried by Agent Nichol.

There's a bit of humor thrown in the story as well, but it's tempered by the complexity of the mystery.  And there are a fair few red herrings, too.  Just when things seem to be coming together, Penny throws a few unexpecteds at the reader.  She obviously has just the right balance going between characters, setting, and the unraveling of the crime.  It's an inviting formula, though perhaps formula isn't the right word as that makes the story sound manufactured.  And Still Life is both welcoming and engaging and not always what you expect. 

Can she manage it again for the next book, A Fatal Grace?  I will be finding out soon, I hope.  Still Life is doing double duty since it is part of my mystery reading extravaganza as well as the last book for this year's Canadian Reading Challenge, which is rapidly coming to an end.  I'll be joining the next round of the challenge July 1, and my first book is going to be L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.  And of course I've got a pile of mysteries I'm (still) working on.  But Louise Penny is definitely on my list of authors to keep reading--I've already got A Fatal Grace sitting by my bedside.

Short Story Sunday: Best British Mysteries

For me, short stories are like potato chips--it's hard sometimes to just stop at one.  Short stories are really underrated in my opinion.  There was a time when I gave wide berth to the genre, but now I have endless collections on my shelves and I look forward to discovering new stories and new authors.  You never quite know what you'll get with a story.  Sometimes titles aren't enough to give an idea of where an author will take you.  It's like an unknown adventure--you just have to be willing to open the door and cross the threshold.

Let's see--it's taken me ten years(?) to discover The Mammoth book of Best British Mysteries.  This is volume ten, edited by author and mystery bookshop owner Maxim Jakubowski (he also edited Following the Detectives).  Although I've picked up and own a few other of the "Mammoth Book of" collections, I'm afraid I've only now discovered the Best of British Mysteries.  It's disappointing then to find out that it may well be the last of the series.  Jakubowski hints that it may be the last volume: "as the market for short stories and anthologies changes, its retail profile changes, too . . . ".  Some other similar collection in a new (and digital) incarnation may take its place.  Such a pity to hear that.  At least I will have ten volumes of mystery/crime writing to go back to.

With more than forty stories collected here it was hard choosing which to read.  Should I stick with a name I'm familiar with (Neil Gaiman, Ann Cleeves, Edward Marston, Sarah Rayne, Adrian McKinty) or try someone unknown to me (Amy Myers, Steve Mosby, Nina Allan, Tony Black)?  In the end the tie breaker was to read the three stories that had been awarded prizes.  Peter Turnbull won the Edgar and Margaret Murphy and Cath Staincliffe co-won the CWA Short Story Dagger.  And I see that several of this year's shortlisted titles are also included in this collection.

First up the two CWA winners.  Although quite different stories, they shared similar themes.  In both cases it was a matter of be careful what you wish for--or rather be careful what you nick as you might find yourself in for much more than you bargained for.  Both ironic in their endings and both had a certain poetic justice--though one was more warranted than the other.  cautionary tales, I guess you'd call them.

In Margaret Murphy's "The Message" a young boy living in Liverpool in the early 1970s is a practiced "grafter".  He's been eyeing a bright orange Raleigh Chopper in a neighborhood shop.  If you want something bad enough you have to go where the action is, so he does odd bits of work in order to earn a little money towards his prize, a new bicycle.  He'll mind cars for a fee (there being the threat that if the driver doesn't pay up he may return to find his car up on bricks).

He finds a suitable target but this one seems to have something to hide.  Literally, the man--shifty-eyed--has a small carry-all that he takes great care to take from the car and then lean back in and hide it after a look around the street.  Surely the bag must contain something valuable?  Vincent imagines it to contain wads of cash, so once the man goes into his hotel he casually opens the door, finds the carry-all and lifts it.  The contents are unexpected in more ways than one.  They are less valuable than deadly, though Vincent doesn't quite realize just how much so, and the man who has lost them . . . well, let's just say his superiors are none too pleased with him.

In Cath Staincliffe's "The Laptop", it's another case of someone stealing something that they will later come to bitterly regret.  There's enough money to be had in the theft of laptops for the narrator of the story to make a profession of it.  She's unapologetic about her work; it's almost like being a freelancer.  It's easy money and the hours are right--eight maybe ten hours a week and the rest for her own pleasure.  She dresses nicely, professionally so who would suspect her?  Passwords aren't always so difficult to break, and for those she couldn't she would pass on to someone who could.  All in all easy money.

The Manchester Airport is one of her reliable trawling grounds.  Four or five times a year she'd work the business flights.  So many possible targets she could pick and choose.  Her method of operating is slick and she always has a back up plan on case someone catches her.  But what happens if the laptop you steal has something on it you shouldn't be privy to?  Something you don't want to be privy to.  And being a thief how can you turn it into the police and explain how you came by it.

The last story is a bit more perplexing and a quick reread I think is in order.  In Peter Turnbull's "The Man Who Took Off His Hate to the Driver of the Train".  I guess it is a story of human behavior as noted by a policeman who had been called to the scene of what seems to be a suicide.  But what drives a man to throw himself in front of a moving train.  Or who drives him there.  A man of integrity until he does something so shameful there is no other way out.

I think now I am going to need to read this year's CWA shortlist (to that end I've requested two more books from the library so I can get to all six stories).  The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries has "Method Murder" by Simon Brett, "Come Away with Me" by Stella Duffy and "The Case of Death and Honey" by Neil Gaiman.  Perhaps I'll tell you about these next Sunday (or maybe I'll get back to Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op).  Which to read--such a good dilemma to have.

A Mishmash of Mysterious Micellanea

That would be a mishmash of mystery-related bookishness, not so mysterious really, but it sounded good.  I had a little audio binge yesterday and spent all my tokens at Audible that I had been hoarding.  Actually I hadn't been hoarding so much as I hadn't come across anything I was dying to have.  I am a really picky audio book listener so I tend to agonize over my choices.  At the moment I am, or had been until I started to feel like it was the wrong audio book for me at the moment, listening to Amanda Knox's Waiting to Be Heard.  Whatever you think about Amanda Knox, the book (read by her) was actually pretty interesting.  It's exactly the sort of book I would listen to on audio--I will only listen to books I am unlikely to want to read or will listen to books I already have read.  Only the Knox book was starting to depress me, so I had switched over to music for my morning and afternoon walks to the bus stop. 

Audible always sends out emails with new titles that I usually mean to look at later in more detail but usually don't get around to.  Yesterday, however, I started to browse as they have a buy one get one free deal at the moment and I can't resist a good deal.  The catch is you have to choose from their list of books, but I managed to find a couple of promising sounding audio books.  I had five tokens to burn through with another coming in just a little over a week, so I thought I should really spend some of them.  Since it's been all about mysteries lately I thought I would likely find something good in that area and noticed the link to their radio dramatizations and all of a sudden my cart was filled and I had to add titles to my wishlist for later. 

I didn't really plan on spending my tokens all on mysteries, but you know how it goes.  Like a child in a candy store.  Now I have a whole lineup of books to choose from and I hope they turn out to be 'good listens'.  Now normally I want to get the most for my money and buy the longest books I can find--lots of listening pleasure then, right?  Only it rarely seems to work that way.  I get bogged down and then end up looking for something new.  The radio dramatizations tend to be less than two hours long.  For now, anyway, I think they will be a better fit.  Since I only listen to my MP3 player when I am walking to get somewhere (as opposed to walking on my treadmill when I can hold a real book in hand) and I rarely walk for longer than half an hour at a time, really long books were hard to get through.  Curious about what I found?

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie -- Now normally I would say this is one I want to read, and I might well pick it up sometime, but it sounded so good as a dramatization.  Besides radio dramas tend to be abridged or even slightly rewritten, which in this case is fine with me (I would never read an abridged book if I could halp it).  It is a Hercule Poirot mystery and it set on the Cornish Riviera!

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie --I read this one two years ago, so like Evil Under the Sun the twist won't be a surprise, but I liked the reader.  Another story set on an island where the characters are knocked off one by one!

The Saint Overboard and The Saint Plays with Fire by Charteris Leslie -- This is a full cast BBC Radio dramatization.  "In Saint Overboard, Simon Templar is in search of a sunken treasure. In The Saint Plays with Fire, Templar is convinced a country house fire is no accident."

Perry Mason and the Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner -- I recently bought a couple of Perry Mason books and have long meant to try his work, but he was so prolific I don't imagine I'll get all his books read in any case.  "In The Case Of The Curious Bride, a woman claims to want to consult Mason about her 'friend' whose husband, long thought to have died in a place crash, turns up alive."

The last two books are my buy one get one selections so they are actually unabridged books on audio and not radio dramas.

The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart -- She's one of my 'mean to try something by her' authors, so now I will finally get around to it.  "Driven by a sense of duty and a fear of monotony, Sara Lee leaves her comfortable life and fiance in Philadelphia to serve the Red Cross in Belgium during World War I. The spirited heroine finds a niche for herself helping wounded soldiers. Then she meets a mysterious gentleman and falls into a haunting romance.The Amazing Interlude is a bittersweet journey that draws from author Mary Rinehart's own experience as a World War I correspondent. Fusing fiction with fact, she deftly portrays an exhilarating tale of an honorable woman's determination to make a difference in a time of tumultuous war."  So this is my one non-mystery choice, but she was known as the American Agatha Christie--many of her books are romantic suspense, so maybe that counts?

Swing: A Novel by Rupert Holmes -- This came recommended to me for its San Francisco setting.  "This second mystery novel by a noted songwriter and playwright is set in 1940, at the height of the big-band era, and its protagonist is a talented but troubled saxophonist beginning an engagement at a swank hotel."  The book actually comes accompanied by a music CD, so I am hoping those tracks will be included as part of the audio experience.  It sounds like fun plus nicely atmospheric and will help (as if I need help) to get me into the mood for San Francisco.

*****

My last couple of visits to the public library netted a few more mysteries--just in case I was in need of more choices. 

The Wyndham Case by Jill Paton Walsh -- "A leisurely, literate style, an intriguing clutch of academic eccentrics, a clever puzzle, and a sharply intelligent sleuth whose gentleness sets her apart from the hard-edged aggressions of her fictional contemporaries--all in a refreshing debut in the Sayers tradition."  (Kirkus Reviews)

The Missing File by D.A. Mishani -- "Told through dual perspectives, The Missing File is a crisp, suspenseful tale that introduces an indelible new detective and offers an evocative portrait of suburban life and tension with a universal reach. As it draws to its startling conclusion, D. A. Mishani's twisting mystery will have readers questioning notions of innocence and guilt, and the nebulous nature of truth."  This is another title from the CWA International Dagger shortlist.

The Summer of Dead Toys by Antonio Hill -- "Gripping, sophisticated, and wickedly entertaining, The Summer of Dead Toys introduces a charismatic new detective and announces Antonio Hill as a new master of the crime thriller."

*****

One one last thing.  I will leave you with a link.  I plan on exploring some of these shows this weekend.  Check out NPR's Crime in the City series (link thanks to Iliana!).  They make a great audio companion for the Jakubowski book I mentioned yesterday!

Have a great weekend everyone.  Hope you have some good, uninterrupted reading time.  Oh, and I'm listening to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None first--so far, so good.  Dramatizations are great fun it seems!

Good References for Mystery Readers

Maybe it comes from working in a library for so long, and an academic one to boot, but I love reference books.  They are such founts of information and I can spend hours with them.  I have two really good reference resources when it comes to mysteries and crime novels, and I thought it was about time to pull them out for another perusal.   

You are probably already familiar with the Lonely Planet series of travel guides, but did you know they also put out other books as well?  I keep my copy of The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction, edited by Barry Forshaw on my pile of mystery books that sits next to my bed (it's a very tall pile by the way).  The Rough Guide is a small book but packed with a wealth of information.  There are fifteen chapters covering a variety of different types of crime novels--from Golden Age books, to police procedurals to historical crime stories to international crime (novels in translation).  Within each chapter are the best books of the genre with a little explanation and description.  As well there are lots of other interesting bits--along the lines of trivia, but certainly nothing trivial. 

If you're not sure what to read next, want to know which are the classic books to choose from, or which books by an author are the best or not to be missed, this would be a handy little guide to have on hand.  For example, in the chapter on "Amateurs" Ruth Rendell's book, Adam and Eve Pinch Me is described.  Ruth Rendell is probably by all-time-most-favorite mystery/crime writer (though I have not yet read her Wexford books--maybe I should add one to my reading pile?).  She also makes an appearance in seven other places in the Rough Guide, which is a good thing as I have not read Adam and Eve Pinch Me (maybe I had best rectify that, too).  

"One of Ruth Rendell's most quirkily titled books, this is also one of her most individual, utilizing a real-life event - the Paddington train disaster - in a fashion that is audacious, but not meretricious."

Then again it might be dangerous to peruse this too much in fear of adding yet more books to my already towering pile of mystery possibilities.

Another great resource and one I have not (to be honest) explored in much depth is Maxim Jakubowski's Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction.  I coveted this book when it first came out, but it has never been published in paper form here in the US.  Finally the price has come down on used copies, so I had to have it for my collection, but of course after a cursory browse it went to my bookshelves.  Now I think I will spend more time with it. 

As there are just over twenty detectives that Jakubowski (though twenty is still a lot, really) writes about, I think I won't be in too much danger of going on a binge of ordering and starting to read (too many of) the books that are unknown to me.

This is a really cool book.  He takes famous fictional sleuths and writes about the cities they made famous.  There's Sherlock Holmes's London, Inspector Rebus's Edinburgh, Montalbano's Sicily, Sam Spade's San Francisco, Brother Cadfael's Shropshire and a number of others as well.  There are maps, loads of color and B&W illustrations, information about films made and links to useful websites.  These aren't essays per se, but there's just enough written to give the reader a sense of each character and the city he/or she inhabits. 

I'll share more of the San Francisco section this weekend when I tackle the Continental Op, but here is a little teaser.

"After seeing some of his work published in 1922 in The Smart Set, a literary magazine, he started peddling fiction to another periodical more interested in adventure and mystery stories: The Black Mask.  It was there, in a series of stories beginning with 1923's 'Arson Plus' (which he published under the pseudonym 'Peter Collinson'), that Hammett introduced the Continental Op, a short, 'fat, middle-age, hard-boiled, pig-headed guy' of about 40."

I think the Op is a no-nonsense sort of guy, but I still need to read more of Hammett's stories about him.  Anyway, the book is oversize and chock full of interesting information.  It's the sort of book you can spend lots of time browsing through and dipping into to either study up on a favorite sleuth or maybe find someone new!  My only small quibble is that only one femle sleuth is represented and only two women authors.

This is part one, by the way, as I have more mystery resources to share with you soon.

June 18: Reading Notes (Mystery Ed.)

Okay, so don't be alarmed by these two photos.  If you drop by here regularly you'll know that when it comes to books I rarely do things by halves.  Are you curious about the mysteries I've been dipping into?  I admit that my reading pile of mysteries is pretty indulgent even for me.  But it's summer, I am in need of lots of distraction, and there are no rules when it comes to books and reading in my house.

I'm at varying stages of reading in these books.  I've already finished one and am making stately progress in most of the others.  In some cases I'm not in any rush to finish, in others I don't want to put the book down.  The photo below is the pile I have (mostly) been drawing from and adding to as suggestions come in or books catch my eye (and I'm afraid the pile is not complete as I forgot to grab a couple of library books I want to read, too). 

First, though, a little rundown of the books that have been holding my attention.  The pile is in no particular order.  I tend to reach for whichever I am in the mood for most at that particular moment, unless of course I am nearing the end or have reached a "point of no return"--you know when you get to that place in the story where you have to find out what's going to happen and can't put the book down!

Laurie King's A Grave Talent, the first in the Kate Martinelli series, has turned out to be surprisingly good.  Not sure why I should say surprisingly as I love her Mary Russell books and am slowly making my way through them, but maybe because it is one of her earlier novels.  The initial draw here was the San Francisco setting, though this first book is actually set just outside the city.  A good straightforward police procedural with a strong female protagonist.  She's hooked me.

In my opinion Thomas Cook is always good (at least I've liked all the books by him I've read).  I don't know why I don't read more of his books, which is what I was thinking when I picked Instruments of the Night up (which when I thought that, I then thought--well, why not go and pick one up then . . . so I did).  It was sort of a random choice, but I think it will turn out to be a good one.  The  main character is sort of curious, but interesting.  His books tend to follow a similar style, which is in its way comforting.

I'm totally digging Jean-Claude Izzo's Total Chaos.  It's one of the 'don't want to put this one down' books I tend to reach for more often than not, and I have only just started reading it.  He creates a great atmosphere when it comes to setting.  Until just now I can't say I had ever had a great desire to visit Marseilles, but now I do.  Maybe it's partially thanks to the essays he wrote in which he talks about his city so lovingly.  Also the writing (translation) is superb and he immediately has drawn me into the story.

I'm reading Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op, which is a collection of stories.  Since I already have gone on about the book in some detail, I'll save the stories for next Sunday.  I've already mentioned, too, Peter Lovesey's The Last Detective and Louise Penny's Still Life.  Both good, contemporary detective stories and both series I plan on continuing on with.  I tend to switch back and forth between these two (I need to devote a day of reading to each and finish them) waiting for that moment of 'no return'.

Cold Flat Junction is the second Emma Graham mystery by Martha Grimes and also a reread.  I loved Hotel Paradise (the third time around) and couldn't wait to start the second book.  Since I've read it once there is no need to rush it, but I've not read the third or fourth books, so I won't want to tarry too long either.  It's funny as I was thinking how I would like to read a good coming of age story, but don't dare pick up any other new books.  Conveniently this could easily pass for just such a story really, since Emma is only twelve and the events of this and the last book are sort of life forming.  I'm still at the beginning which is a rehash really of what happened in the previous book and am looking forward to when the story really kicks in again. 

The book I've just finished is Pierre Lemaitre's Alex.  Let's just say this was one rollercoaster of a ride sort of book.  I am going to write about it soon, so I am afraid I'm going to leave you hanging a bit on this one!  I can see why it's been shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger Award, though, which will be a little bit of a teaser for you.

I'll just share the links to the books in this pile as most of them are suggestions so you might already be familiar with them.  Maybe looking at all these great books will help explain how I end up with such a massive pile of in progress books.  There is always a new (and exciting) mystery read just around the corner!

Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter -- The first Inspector Morse story, and this would also be a reread (I read it a very long time ago, though, so it will be almost like reading it for the first time).  I'm leaning very heavily towards starting this one next.

Quieter Than Sleep by Joanne Dobson --A literary/academic mystery featuring Emily Dickinson's poetry.

Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers -- This it the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery.  I know this is a series where you can skip around (and maybe should?), but I do have this thing about reading mysteries in order.

I'm always up for Italian crime, and I think I will definitely need to read a few books at some point.  I've got Christobel Kent's The Drowning River, Magdalen Nabb's Death of a Dutchman (really liked her first Marshal Guarnaccia novel) and Maurizio de Giovanni's I Will Have Vengeance.

Quiet as a Nun by Antonia Fraser is set in a convent.  I read this years and years ago but have been thinking I'd like to read all the Jemima Shore mysteries so had better go back and start at the beginning.

I'm also in the market for a good vintage cozy (though I've already got Joan Coggin lined up) and Edmund Crispin's The Moving Toyshop would fit the bill nicely, though I have the first Gervase Fen mystery coming soon in the mail, so that will be something to look forward to. 

I happened to get Swedish author, Anna Jansson's Strange Bird as a ARC.  Jansson has been called a modern Agatha Christie, though her plots are all hardboiled detective--sounds like an interesting combination.  This is the first Maria Wern mystery, which I am looking forward to reading. 

Last but not least is a library find--The Mammoth Book of British Mysteries edited by Maxim Jakubowski.  It's the tenth book, which makes me think I should look for the previous nine--well eventually anyway.  I'm looking forward to exploring a few of these short stories. 

As you can see I have quite a line up of good mysteries both in progress and in the reading queue (and then there are the ones I left out but are in other piles calling out for a little attention.  I think I am going to need a few afternoons off from work to dedicate to (mystery) reading.