The Spellman Files: Lisa Lutz

This book has been on my shelves for 13 years. Initially I avoided it because I thought it might be too humorous, but my tastes must have changed over time, because I was very happy with it.

It did not really feel like crime fiction though. It seemed like the first 2/3 of the book was about the background of the family. Isabel (also known as Izzy) Spellman tells the story, and she starts at the point when she was 12 years old. Her parents run a private investigation company out of their home, and the two kids began helping out with surveillance when David was 14 and Isabel was 12. Then when Isabel was 14, her mother has another child, a daughter named Rae, who also ends up working for the family business. Eventually the story catches up to the cases that they are working on currently, although there is a good bit of jumping back and forth in the timeline. It was a very strange mystery novel, but I enjoyed it very much.

Comparisons have been made to other series: the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and the Claire DeWitt series by Sarah Gran. I read 9 or 10 of the Stephanie Plum series before I gave up on it. My husband has read 3 books in the Claire DeWitt series and I want to read those books too.

My thoughts:

• I like books about families, and the Spellman family is the ultimate dysfunctional family. As far as the crime goes, this book is lighter than most mysteries, but there is plenty of depth in the family relationships and issues.
• The characters were the best part of this book. But they also were infuriating, particularly Isobel.
• I liked the writing style and I found the book hard to put down. Later in the book, things get very suspenseful. Throughout, a lot of information is held back from the reader.
• I am committed to reading more in this series.

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Publisher:   Simon & Schuster, 2007
Length:       353 pages
Format:       Hardcover
Series:        Spellman Files, #1
Setting:       San Francisco, California
Genre:        Mystery
Source:       I purchased this book in 2012.

My Name is Michael Sibley by John Bingham – #1952CLUB

I read My Name is Michael Sibley for the 1952 Book Club hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. The book had been on my shelves for 12 years and I am glad I finally read it.

This summary is from the back of the book:

Michael Sibley and John Prosset shared a history that dated back to their first years at boarding school, and so the news of Prosset's murder came as a great shock to his old friend – especially because Sibley had been staying only the day before at Prosset's country house, where the body was found.

When the police arrive to question him in connection with the murder, Sibley finds himself lying about his recent visit, and thus begins to reveal the true nature of a longstanding but volatile friendship, fraught with mutual deception and distrust. As he tells his version of the truth to the police – and to the reader – Sibley makes the first of many fateful mistakes and finds himself not only under suspicion, but a primary suspect in the investigation.

My Thoughts:

I was surprised to learn that this was John Bingham's first novel. It is a very compelling and well written story. His writing is quiet and restrained.

As the narrator, Michael Sibley, tells his story, we learn about his school days with Prosset and how he grew to hate him. He also reveals that he planned to kill him at one time, but stresses over and over that he did not follow through on that. The reader does not know what to believe.

The way the story is revealed gradually throughout the novel, interspersed with flashbacks to earlier times, is very effective. Towards the end, about the last 20 per cent, the story got very tense and I was speeding through to find out how it ends. 

The edition of My Name is Michael Sibley that I read has an Introduction by John le Carré. It was interesting and it confirmed that George Smiley, the central character in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and other related books, was based on John Bingham, who was a British intelligence officer who served in MI5 in various positions. Bingham and le Carré had a falling out due to Bingham's opinion of how le Carré portrayed the intelligence services. 

Rachel's Holiday: Marian Keyes

I was initially drawn to Marian Keyes' Walsh family series when Moira at Clothes in Books reviewed The Mystery of Mercy Close. That book is a mystery; the protagonist, Helen Walsh, is a private investigator. When I saw it was part of a series, I wanted to read the previous books, in order, even though I knew that they were not mysteries. I first read Watermelon (about Claire, the oldest daughter). Now I have read Rachel's Holiday, the second book in the series.

The story is set mostly in Dublin. Rachel is the third daughter in a family with five daughters. She has supportive parents, although there are communication issues in both directions. In her late twenties, she has been living in New York but she overdoses on drugs, almost dies, and her family brings her home to Dublin to go into a rehab facility called The Cloisters. Rachel mistakenly thinks it is a luxurious spa and is eager to go. The majority of the book takes place at the rehab facility, which treats people with various addictions. It was an emotional, immersive book, but it could have been shorter.

My thoughts:

• I liked the depiction of the rehab facility.  I don't know how accurate it was, for the time it was written, or for now. But the approach to the actual rehabilitation process seemed valid. The story continued after she left the facility and covered how she adjusted to recovery from her addictions. This sounds like it would be a sad story, and there were plenty of low points. But there is also humor throughout.
• I empathized strongly with Rachel, even though her experiences and what she was looking for in life seemed very different from mine. I liked the emphasis on how the events in one's childhood can mold you, and how different personalities react to the same childhood experiences. 
• This book had more emphasis on romance than I care for. It also had a little more sex and too much detail in that area than I wanted. However, I don't want to give the wrong impression, for most readers it would be fine. 
• There are a lot of interesting characters, both those going through rehab and the counselors. None of them got the attention and character development that Rachel did, especially since she is the narrator of the story, but they offered looks at different types of addictions and different reasons behind it.
• Most of the books I read set in Ireland are crime fiction; it was interesting to read about family settings, daily life, and relationships in a non-crime fiction setting. 
• Overall I enjoyed the book. I intend to keep reading the books in this series as long as I like them. And I will read The Mystery of Mercy Close for sure.

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Publisher:   William Morrow, 2002. Orig. pub. 1998.
Length:       565 pages
Format:      Trade Paperback
Series:       Walsh Family, #2
Setting:      Dublin, Ireland
Genre:       Fiction
Source:      I purchased this book.

Short Story Wednesday: Three Witnesses by Rex Stout

 

In January I read "Die Like a Dog," a novella featuring Nero Wolfe. It was published in Three Witnesses in 1956. This month I read the other two novellas in that book.

It has been awhile since I read these two stories. I was pleased to find that they were both entertaining, with interesting premises. 

For a brief introduction to the series of books and novellas:

Nero Wolfe is an armchair detective, preferring to do all his detecting from home. He is a genius, a lover of orchids and fine food, who supports himself (and his household) as a private detective. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. They live in a New York brownstone, where Nero Wolfe has his office.

"The Next Witness"

Nero Wolfe has been called by the prosecution as a witness in a murder trial. A man has been accused of murdering a switchboard operator who worked at a telephone answering service. While sitting in the courtroom waiting to be called and listening to the questioning of other witnesses, Wolfe decides that it is possible that the man is not guilty. He abruptly leaves the courtroom with Archie Goodwin, his secretary/assistant/investigator. This puts them both in contempt of court, so they have to avoid the police while pursuing an independent investigation. The steps they take in order to prove Wolfe's hypothesis are engaging and fruitful.

Nero Wolfe is well known for his extreme distaste for leaving his home. He is also afraid of riding in cars (or any other mode of transportation, actually). In this case, he spends all of his time away from home hiding from the police, either in the courtroom, interviewing witnesses, or staying in the apartment of one of his freelance operatives.

"When a Man Murders"

Carolyn Karnow's first husband, Sidney, was declared MIA a few months after the Army sent him to Korea.  After a few years she married Paul Aubry. Six months later, Sidney Karnow shows up in New York, which means that Carolyn and Paul are no longer legally married. They go to Nero Wolfe to ask him to intercede with Karnow to give Carolyn a divorce. Carolyn inherited a substantial amount of money from Sidney when he was declared dead; she plans to return as much of the money as she can if he will agree to a divorce.

Archie goes to Sidney Karnow's hotel to talk to him, but when Archie arrives at his room, he finds Karnow's dead body instead. Shortly after that, the police arrest Paul Aubry for the crime, and Wolfe and Archie are looking  around for the real culprit.

Diving into the Wreck: Kristine Kathryn Rusch

This book is in the science fiction genre, and the diving referred to in the title is diving into wrecked space ships, not ships at the bottom of an ocean. Which might be obvious if you can get a close enough look at the cover. My son loaned me this book and encouraged me to read it, and I am so glad that he did.

The protagonist in this story is a woman who makes her living diving into derelict ships out in space. She is always referred to as Boss. No other name is ever given. She is a loner; she knows a lots of people who work in the same business as she does, and she works with crew members who have skills in diving or technology. But she seems to have no real friends. Boss has had a hard life and has developed a hard shell over her emotions because of it.

Sometimes she goes on salvage operations to bring in some money, but her real love is history and she likes to study the ships. She also takes out groups of tourists to give them the experience of wreck diving in space. One day, when Boss is returning from a salvage mission, she sees a blip on her ship's sensors that leads to a strange ship – a ship that is obviously ancient and possibly very, very dangerous. 

The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Boss hires a crew to dive into the ancient ship and find out what is there. She has suspicions that this is a ship that came from earth and could be dangerous, but she does not tell her crew this. She wanted to get verification from them without prejudicing them beforehand. However, once they arrive at the abandoned ship, some of the crew are angry that they were not warned, and one woman, Squishy, is scared so badly that she wants them to abandon the dive and return home. During one of the dives, a crew member has to be abandoned in the ship. That incident is the beginning of more adventures related to the ancient ship. 

My thoughts:

I liked the writing style. It was spare, and there was a lot of dialog at times. But the pace was good and it kept me interested. The first two parts of the book were first published as novellas previously but changes were made for this publication. Each of the three parts is about a separate expedition (although they all tie in to the discovery of the ancient ship); for me the transitions between the three parts worked well. And I liked that I could stop easily between each one. 

The characterization is good, but since the story is first person narration from Boss's point of view, we only know what she thinks and feels. Several of the secondary characters that work on Boss's crews are portrayed in depth; there is a good depiction of an old cynical military man later in the story. 

The world building is done well. The story is set far into the future, in the Enterran Empire. The planet Boss lives on is Hector Prime, which is on the edge of the empire, near the Nine Planets Alliance. Boss is a citizen of the Enterran Empire, but her sympathies lie with the Nine Planets Alliance. Beyond that there is not a lot of dwelling on the science involved. Other reviewers who are more in the know than I am about science fiction say that this is a novel that people who are new to science fiction can enjoy. 

There are 18 books in this series at this point and I plan to look for more of them to read.

Please see another review at Carl's blog, Stainless Steel Droppings. Carl was the original host for the Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge (and also the Science Fiction Experience Challenge and the Once Upon a Time Challenge).

Scene of the Crime: Margot Kinberg

 

Scene of the Crime is the fifth novel in Margot Kinberg's Joel Williams series. The setting is academia; the protagonist is a college professor in Tilton University’s Department of Criminal Justice. Joel is not a policeman but he was in the past, and he has ties to the police department. Thus, the books are part academic mystery and part police procedural. I have read the four previous books in the series and this was another good one.

As this book opens, a waitress finds a body behind Maggie's Diner, a popular eatery near the campus. Coincidentally, Joel and his wife are going into the diner for brunch at the same time, and a group of students have been holding a protest in front of the diner.

In addition to Joel Williams, there are three distinct sets of characters: students at the university, people connected with the campaign to reelect State Representative Doug Kauffman, and the investigating team from the Tilton police.

Joel Williams is working on a study regarding alternative schools, specifically high schools for students who have had problems in standard high schools. Part of the study involves interviewing students who attended alternative high schools and then went on to college; several of the students involved in the death at the diner were part of his study.

Since Joel is a former policeman, he cannot help but be interested in a crime that occurs in the town of Tilton. The victim was in the study, and other students involved in the study are involved. Joel becomes more directly involved when one student approaches him because he fears that he is a suspect.

The solution was a surprise for me, but it made sense.

 

My thoughts:

The pacing is good and there are no dull spots. The plot is well thought out with plenty of possible suspects, but not so many characters that things get confusing.

The characters are fleshed out well. The two main detectives investigating the crime are professional and each has their own view of the situation; they work well together. I liked the mix of students that were described. Some of them were students from Joel’s study and had come to college from alternative high schools. Some were protesters who were unhappy about State Representative Kauffman and his stance on giving less funding to education and more to law and order. Most were working or dependent on scholarships or both.

The story does have a focus on politics and funding for education vs funding for police departments. Of course, Joel Williams has sympathy with both sides because he has worked in both areas. The issues are explored as they affect the various groups, but the book does not get preachy at any time. 

This story was a pleasure to read. It was never boring, and I was glad to hear more about Joel Williams. The books are not formulaic; each of the books has a different focus within an educational setting.

 

Also see the excellent review at FictionFan's Book Reviews.

Margot Kinberg has an interesting and informative blog where she shares information about mysteries, both vintage and contemporary. Please check out Margot’s blog.

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Publisher:  Grey Cells Press, 2024.
Length:      266 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Series:       Joel Williams #5
Setting:      Pennsylvania, USA
Genre:       Mystery
Source:      I purchased this book.

Fall from Grace: L.R. Wright

 

The Prologue opens in Spring 1980. Several friends are attending the high school graduation of Bobby Ransome, a young man who was graduating several years late due to problems in his earlier years. The second part of the prologue takes place ten years later, in the summer of 1990, when Bobby has returned from several years in prison for dealing drugs. Bobby joins his ex-wife, Wanda, and her family for dinner, much to the dismay of her current husband, Warren. Bobby's return has caused some excitement and some dismay around the small town of Sechelt. 

A few weeks later, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Karl Alberg is out sailing with his lover Cassandra when they see the body of a man on the beach. It turns out that he had fallen from a cliff above. The dead man was Steven Grayson, who grew up in Sechelt but has been living in Vancouver for the last ten years. 

The story is told from multiple perspectives (Karl Alberg's, Cassandra's, the various members of the community that are affected by the death and by Bobby's return). At the same time that Cassandra and Karl are continuing to figure out their relationship, one of Karl's daughters is visiting for the summer and working part-time for the local newspaper. And Karl is dealing with the fact that his ex-wife is getting married again.

My thoughts:

As usual, the characters in this story are very well-drawn. This is the fourth book in the Karl Alberg series and I have found most of the books to be more of a character study than a mystery. And I like them that way.

The setting and the atmosphere are lovely. Sechelt is a real-life seaside community on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, northwest of Vancouver. As described below...

   On the Sunshine Coast that year, summertime was long and hot and dusty, and the world smelled of raspberries and roses.

   For weeks the sky remained utterly clear, and the air was hot and still.

   The waters that lapped at the western shoreline were such a deep blue they looked as if they might stain the skin. The nearer islands near the Strait of Georgia were etched fine and clear, every tree and every rock sharp-edged; the islands somewhat farther away were soft dark shapes against the sky; the most distant islands were purple shadows in the far-reaching sea.

I continue to enjoy this series and I am surprised each time at the themes the author covers and the different approaches she takes to each novel.

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Publisher: Felony & Mayhem, 2010. Orig. pub. 1991.
Length:  275 pages
Format:  Trade paperback
Series:   Karl Alberg #4 
Setting:  Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada
Genre:   Mystery, Police Procedural

Silent Parade: Keigo Higashino

 

This is my third book read for the Japanese Literature Challenge 18, hosted at Dolce Bellezza. Silent Parade is about two crimes, separated by about 20 years, which have connections. In both cases, young girls have been killed. The suspect is the same for both. This summary is from the Macmillan site:

A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned out house. There’s a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn’t indicted, he returns to mock the girl’s family. And this isn’t the first time he’s been suspected of the murder of a young girl, nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.

The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. DCI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders.

My Thoughts:

• My copy of the book was only 344 pages long but it seemed longer. I think that is because the plot is so complex; the story has several twists and turns, but the plot dragged at times. It was worth it in the end; the final solution was satisfying. 
• The book is full of very interesting characters, and many of them get fleshed out throughout the book. I felt like we got to know several of the police detectives, plus Manabu Yukawa (also playfully referred to as Detective Galileo, which he dislikes), better than in any of the previous books in the series. Plus many of the secondary characters related to the crimes (family members of the victim, friends of the family, etc.) are well defined also.
• I don't see these books as traditional mysteries like those written by Agatha Christie, but the author sprinkles references to Christie's books throughout the story. Also another vintage mystery author, John Dickson Carr.
• For once I saw how Manabu Yukawa puts his physics background to work. That also may have happened in the previous book in the series, A Midsummer's Equation, which is my favorite in the series so far. He did a few experiments in that book too.
• This book gives the reader a good look at the police procedures and legal limitations in Japan, versus in the US. 

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Publisher:   Minotaur Books, 2021 (orig. pub. 2018)
Translator:  Giles Murray 
Length:       344 pages
Format:       Hardcover
Series:        Detective Galileo
Setting:       Tokyo, Japan
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:       Borrowed from my husband.

Two Reviews: Japanese Literature Challenge

 

In this post I am reviewing two books for the Japanese Literature Challenge 18, hosted at Dolce Bellezza. It started in January and continues through February. This is a challenge I look forward to every year, to kickstart my reading of books by Japanese authors.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles (2012) by Hiro Arikawa
Translated by Philip Gabriel

This was the first book I read for the challenge because I have a second book by this author that I also want to read: The Goodbye Cat. It consists of short stories about cats and there is a connection between the two books.

A cat is adopted by a man, Satoru, after he takes the cat in when it is hit by a car. He names the cat Nana after a cat he had in his childhood, and they live together for five years. At that point, Satoru has to find a home for Nana, although no reason is given. They travel to various parts of Japan to visit with several of the man's old friends to see it they can take the cat in. 

For the most part, the story is narrated by the cat. I liked the cat's voice. I kept trying to figure out what my cat would sound like if she was telling a story. There are parts of the story that are not narrated by the cat. These are flashbacks to earlier events that help to fill out the story. Satoru's relationship with his aunt, who raised him after his parents died, is also explored. 

I enjoyed the book, I liked the cover and the title. The depiction of the cat is not cutesy. The cat can be snarky and sarcastic. It is a lovely story with an emotional and moving end. 

Three Assassins (2004) by Kōtarō Isaka
Translated by Sam Malissa

The second book I read for the Japanese Literature Challenge is very different. It is a fast paced thriller, the first in a series of four books set in Tokyo’s criminal underworld. The second book is Bullet Train, which I read first, because it was translated to English first, and I had seen the film adaptation of the same name. We enjoyed the film and have watched it several times. 

The first part of Three Assassins is very serious. Suzuki, formerly a schoolteacher, is working for a crime gang. The head man for this crime gang is Terahara, whose son killed Suzuki's wife by running her down in his car. It was deliberate, not an accident. The police will not follow up on the crime because of Terahara's connections, so Suzuki is seeking revenge on his own by working undercover in the gang. 

The other two main characters are assassins, The Whale and The Cicada. They each kill their victims in specific ways; the Whale convinces his victims to commit suicide and the Cicada kills with a knife and specializes in killing entire families. The third assassin enters the story later; he is the Pusher, and he pushes his victims in front of vehicles.

This sounds like a very grim book but it turns more into a more humorous story midway, with quirky and introspective characters; the behavior is often wacky and surprising. There are also elements of spirituality and the supernatural, especially in the Whale's experiences. So, all in all, it was a fascinating and unexpected story.

Parting Breath: Catherine Aird

Parting Breath is an academic mystery set in Catherine Aird's fictional county of Calleshire, England; it features Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Berebury CID, and his assistant, Detective Constable Crosby.

The first sentence of the book is:

“The trouble with universities,” pronounced Professor Tomlin, “is the undergraduates.”

A protest by students is threatened because a student has been sent down (suspended or expelled?). The protesters plan to take over the Almstone Administration building for their sit-in.  After the sit-in begins, a dead body on the Quad of Tarsus College is reported. Inspector Sloan is assigned the case and DC Crosby accompanies him to the scene. The dead man is a student and his last words before dying were cryptic: "twenty six minutes". 

Soon after that, the porter locks down the administration building, so that the college and the police know where the students taking part in the sit-in are. This limits the suspects to students who ignored the strike or faculty or staff who were not locked into the building. But there are still a lot of suspects to sift through, and the investigation is very complex.

My thoughts:

• I enjoy the subtle humor in Catherine Aird's writing. There are jokes and sly comments about education and teaching undergraduates and getting along with the professors. 
• There is not a lot abut the personal lives of the policemen in the Sloan and Crosby series. But in this case, Inspector Sloan's wife is pregnant with their first child. Sloan assumes the child will be a boy, and mulls about which rugby position the child will play while he investigates. He also worries how it will be for a child to grow up as the child of a policeman. This shows the reader another side of Sloan. 
• The only negative element of this one is the complexity with so many characters it is hard to keep track. Other reviewers pointed out that the reader does not have enough information to solve the mystery; too many important clues show up too late. That did not matter to me. I enjoyed the academic setting and the characters very much.
• I have now read eight of the Sloan and Crosby series by Catherine Aird, and I can say that she is one of my favorite mystery writers. The first book of the series was published in 1966 and the 28th book in 2023. Some of the books in this series are more serious, although they all have elements of humor. I would put Henrietta Who? and A Late Phoenix in that category. The Stately Home Murder, on the other hand, is lighter and has some very funny moments.

I finished reading this book on January 1st. After I finished the book, I was doing some research and saw at Martin Edward's blog, Do You Write Under Your Own Name?, that Catherine Aird died on December 21, 2024 at age 94. See his remembrance post about her and his review of Parting Breath.

Curtis Evans of The Passing Tramp blog has also written a RIP post for Catherine Aird, with much information about her life and her writing.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1978 (orig. pub. 1977)
Length:      186 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Inspector Sloan #7
Setting:      UK
Genre:       Police procedural
Source:      On my TBR shelves since 2010.

Mom Meets Her Maker: James Yaffe

 

I read My Mother, the Detective, a collection of the Dave and Mom stories by James Yaffe in 2019. The stories were first published in the 1950s and 60s in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In each story, Dave, a detective in the New York Homicide Squad, and his wife Shirley visit his mother and they discuss one of his cases over dinner. Mom asks some pertinent questions and solves the case; Dave is afraid that his coworkers are going to find out that his success rate with cases is due to his mother's help. 

Between 1988 and 1992, Yaffe wrote four mystery novels about Dave and his Mom. Mom Meets Her Maker is the 2nd of the four novels. The book is set at Christmas, and it was the perfect read for me at this time of year. 

Dave is now a widower, and he has moved to the small town of Mesa Grande, Colorado. Dave is no longer a police office; he is now an investigator for the Public Defender's office. The current case that he is working on relates to a serious dispute between neighbors. An older Jewish couple, the Meyers, have retired to Mesa Grande. Their son, Roger, has a dispute with the next door neighbor, Reverend Chuck Candy, who has put up a massive display of Christmas decorations, including lights and music which stay on until 2:00 a.m. in the morning. When he and the Reverend are tussling over a gun that the Reverend pulls out, the gun is fired, and Roger ends up charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Of course, as the case is investigated, the situation escalates and there is a death, which is also blamed on Roger.

In this novel, Dave does a lot of the legwork, following up on clues and interviewing witnesses. His mother functions more as an armchair detective, as she asks him to find out the answers to questions she has, and helps solve the crime. 

My thoughts:

• So, how did I like Dave and Mom in a full length novel? I found the novel very entertaining, and the characters a lot of fun. Some of the characters (good and bad and in-between) are over the top, but they worked for me.
• Like the short stories, Dave narrates most of the novel. I enjoy the way he tells the story, with subtle humor.
• Many mystery novels that are set at Christmas are only tangentially involved with Christmas. This one is immersed in Christmas. 
• The mystery puzzle is good and there are surprises at the end. I also enjoyed a chapter at the end, "After Christmas," where Dave tells us what happened after the crime is solved and where various characters ended up.

A post at the blog, Beneath the Stains of Time, reminded me of this book. The post is also worth a read because it recommends other good Christmas mysteries. Also see TomCat's review of the book. He says: "A better Ellery Queen-style Christmas mystery than Ellery Queen's The Finishing Stroke (1958)."  (I haven't read that one yet, but I do have a copy.) And I just ordered copies of the other three Dave and Mom mysteries. 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Shirley Jackson

 

This is the first paragraph of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It establishes the narrator and tells us a good bit about her. 

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.”

I think this type of book is best experienced when you know little about it, and I enjoyed going into it that way. Although I might have read it sooner if I had read more reviews. Thus my description and comments will be brief. 

As this short novel starts, Mary Katherine (also known as Merricat) lives with her older sister, Constance, and her Uncle Julian in a very large but run down house. The reader learns shortly that everyone else in the family died from poisoning when eating a meal. For several years after the poisoning, Merricat was the only one who left the house. She would walk to the nearby village twice a week to do the shopping and get books from the library. Constance never left the house, and Uncle Julian was confined to a wheel chair.

 

My goal in reading this book was to read a Gothic novel, since I don't go for that genre much, and to read more by Shirley Jackson. Up to now I have only read a few of her short stories.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. This story was not nearly as scary or tense as I expected it to be. There was a sense of foreboding and waiting for something horrible to happen. 

I liked Merricat's narration, and the depiction of their lives before and after the rest of the family died. I liked the way the ending was handled. The beauty of the story was in the way Jackson very slowly reveals small bits of the plot.

 -----------------------------

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2006 (orig. pub. 1962).
Length:    146 pages
Format:    Trade Paperback
Setting:    Vermont, US
Genre:     Gothic, Classic
Source:    I purchased this book in 2017.

Alias Emma: Ava Glass

Alias Emma is the first book in a relatively new spy fiction series. Emma Makepeace has always wanted to be a spy. Her father who died before she was born was a spy, and she idolizes him. She gets her wish when she enters the military and catches the attention of the leader of a department in the Secret Service. After some training exercises, Emma is given an important assignment to bring Michael Primalova, the son of Russian dissidents, across London to a safehouse, so that he and his parents can be put in protective custody. 

Michael is a doctor, a pediatric oncologist, and initially he is reluctant to go with her and leave his patients behind. But he soon sees how much danger he is in from assassins who want to kill him. The biggest problem they face is that the Russians have hacked the CCTV cameras in London and any actions that Emma and Michael take will be known to them. 

My thoughts...

The story alternates between the action (getting Michael to the safehouse) and flashbacks to Emma's life before spying, her training, and how she became a spy. This isn't good or bad, but it does mean that — in a book of 269 pages — the actual spying part is thin. The background information is not padding, it is useful and necessary to give us more information about the characters. It will be interesting to see if the next book in the series is structured in a similar way.

Emma is a strong female protagonist, very serious about her job and learning her way as she goes. Some reviews or blurbs compare Emma to James Bond; I don't consider this a compliment. It isn't that I don't like the James Bond books by Ian Fleming; I have read most of the books, some in my youth and several since I started blogging. The original Bond series is really a mixed bag; some of the books are serious, others seem like comedies. 

This is a fine beginning to an espionage series, and two more books have already been published. I was entertained the whole time, and the pacing is very good. My only real quibble was that there was too much of a romantic vibe. The story doesn't go overboard in that direction, but even the hint of it did not add anything to the story in my opinion.

This book was recommended to me by Constance at Staircase Wit. See her review for more details, especially about the author.

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Publisher:   Bantam Books, New York, 2023 (orig. publ. 2022)
Length:      269 pages 
Format:      Trade Paper
Series:       Alias Emma #1
Setting:      UK
Genre:       Espionage Thriller
Source:      Purchased in November 2023.

A Darker Domain: Val McDermid

This book is the second book in the Karen Pirie series. Detective Inspector Karen Pirie is in charge of the Cold Case department in Fife, Scotland; she works primarily with Detective Sergeant Phil Parhatka. A woman reports that her father has been missing for over 20 years, from the time of the Miner’s Strike of 1984.  At the time they thought he had deserted the family and gone to Nottingham to work the mines there; as a result the family was shunned by the community. But now the daughter needs to find her father because her son is dying and in need of a bone marrow transplant. This investigation doesn't really fit into the Cold Case criteria for Karen's department, but she takes it on anyway. Shortly after that, new information shows up in Italy related to a kidnapping that also took place in 1984 in Fife, and that case is added to Karen's workload.

My Thoughts...

• I liked that the story went back and forth between 1984 and 2007. For some readers, this would be a negative and it can be confusing. There are no chapter breaks, but it is clear when the story transitions to a new location or time, so I was OK with that.
• I was especially interested in the strike and what it did to the mining community. I have read a Reginald Hill novel, Under World, from 1988, that is about the aftermath of the strike. Another book about the strike is GB84 by David Peace, which I have not read.
• There are many interesting secondary characters. The kidnapped woman was the daughter of a very important man in Scotland, Sir Broderick Maclennan Grant. His daughter was killed and her infant son was never seen again after a botched ransom exchange. He wants to find his grandson, but he also is very controlling and manipulative and expects the police to bow to his will. Investigative journalist Bel Richmond is the one who finds the clue in modern-day Tuscany, and she is the one who does the sleuthing in Italy.  And then there is Sergeant Phil Parhatka, a very likable character and the perfect working partner for Karen.
• After all the investigative work comes together, the ending is kind of abrupt. Some reviewers complained about this, but it worked perfectly for me. The book was already long enough, I did not need any further results spelled out for me.
• I was very impressed with this book. The subject is serious, and Karen takes her responsibilities seriously, but there is plenty of humor in the story. At this point I think A Darker Domain will be one of my top books of 2024.

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Publisher:   Harper Perennial, 2010 (Orig. pub. 2008)
Length:       368 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Series:        Karen Pirie, #2
Setting:      Scotland and Italy
Genre:       Police Procedural
Source:      On my TBR pile since 2017.

The Mayors of New York: S.J. Rozan

I am a big fan of S. J. Rozan's Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series. I started reading the books in the series in 2008 and by the middle of 2009 I had read all the books available at that time. Since then I have read all the books in the series. This is the latest book in the series, which now consists of 15 books.

The two main characters in the series are Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. Bill is a white private investigator in his forties who lives in Manhattan; Lydia is an American-born Chinese private investigator in her late twenties who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother. They are not partners but they often work together on cases. The element that I have always liked about this series is that the narrator of the books alternates between Lydia and Bill. The first book was narrated by Lydia; the second book was narrated by Bill; and so on.

Most of the books narrated by Lydia are set in Chinatown. Bill's stories are usually set in other part of New York City.

Summary of The Mayors of New York from Simon and Schuster:

In January, New York City inaugurates its first female mayor. In April, her son disappears.

Called in by the mayor's chief aide—a former girlfriend of private investigator Bill Smith’s—to find the missing fifteen-year-old, Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, are told the boy has run away. Neither the press nor the NYPD know that he’s missing, and the mayor wants him back before a headstrong child turns into a political catastrophe. But as Bill and Lydia investigate, they turn up more questions than answers.

Why did the boy leave? Who else is searching for him, and why? What is his twin sister hiding?

My thoughts:

The series is still going strong after 15 books. If anything, the stories are getting better and better. The pacing and tension in this story is very well-done.

The characterization is very strong. Lydia and Bill each have their own opinions and strengths; neither fits the stereotype of a private eye. I like the relationship that has grown between the two over the series. 

Also, the secondary characters come alive in this book. There is Aubrey Hamilton, also known as "Bree," the mayor's assistant. At one time she had a relationship with Bill, which ended badly, and she is the one that recommended him to the mayor. They are constantly sparring in this story. The mayor’s son is an appealing character, even though he isn't on the page a lot, since the point is to find him. The twin sister of the missing boy is a real pain, very snarky and dismissive, but concerned about her brother.

The New York setting is very well done. In this story, the focus is not on Chinatown. This book features many other neighborhoods in NYC, as Lydia and Bill search the city for information about the missing teenager.

The series does not have to be read in order. I did, and I loved the early books in the series, but many readers stress that this book is a perfect jumping in point, and there are few (if any) references to earlier cases in the books. 

Another review to check out:

Please see the review of The Mayors of New York by Aubrey Hamilton at Kevin Tipple's blog, Kevin's Corner.

Aubrey Hamilton is a blogger (at Happiness is a Book) who specializes in reviewing older mysteries, many written before World War II. Her reviews often include interesting information on the author's background. You should check out her blog. She won a character name in this book by S.J. Rozan. As she notes in the comments below, she was pleased that the character had such a prominent role.

The White Lioness: Henning Mankell

 

The White Lioness is the third book in the acclaimed Kurt Wallander series. Henning Mankell is a Swedish author. The book is set mostly in Sweden but there are also sections of the book set in South Africa. It was originally published in Swedish in January 1993; it was translated into English by Laurie Thompson in 1998. This book was written in the years prior to the official end of Apartheid in 1994.

The story begins with the execution-style murder of a Swedish housewife. The police investigation reveals that the victim was being stalked by an admirer, but he has an airtight alibi. As the investigation continues, the police eventually discover the first stage of an assassination plot to kill a high official in South Africa. The man who is running the operation to train an assassin in Sweden is a ruthless ex-KGB agent, who will stop at nothing to have a successful end to his assignment.

My Thoughts:

The focus on Apartheid leads to a very complex story that sometimes loses its focus. But the inclusion of that subject was one of the reasons I liked the book. I was interested to learn about Apartheid at the time this book was written. I had read historical mysteries set in South Africa in the 1950s and in the 1970s, but this story shows the attitudes and efforts to move forward in abolishing Apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s.

Kurt Wallander is a police inspector in Ystad following up on just one part of the investigation. As the case continues, he gets pulled into it deeper and deeper. At one point he goes off the rails, taking things into his own hands without letting others on the team know what he is doing.

I like that elements of Wallander's home life and family relationships are included. He is divorced. His father is elderly and lives alone; Wallander and he have always had a difficult relationship. Now his father is planning on getting married and Wallander disapproves. His daughter, who is working in Stockholm, gets drawn into the action, and although I don't care for mysteries where family members are put in danger, this subplot does provide some of the best scenes.

This is not an easy story to read, not only because of the complex plot but also because there is so much ruthless violence. Nevertheless I gave it 5 stars and I understand more and more why the novels in the Wallander books have been so well received.

The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars: Maurice Dekobra

Summary from the back of the Melville House edition:

One of the biggest bestsellers of all time, and one of the first and most influential spy novels of the twentieth century, this delightful romp is now back in print after fifty years.

Taking place after the Russian Revolution shook Europe to its core, it tells the story of Lady Diana Wynham, who relishes trampling on the sensibilities of British Society, and her secretary, Prince Gerard Séliman, the perfect gentleman, equally at home in an Istanbul bazaar or a London charity matinée.

Faced with the prospect of financial ruin, Lady Diana launches a plan to regain control of her inheritance, a field of oil wells seized by the Soviets. She dispatches Gerard on the Orient Express to take care of the matter.

This was one of the books from my 20 Books of Summer list; it was the second book I read in August, just over two months ago.

I want to start out by saying that this is not a bad book; it is fun and entertaining at times, and at only 250 pages it was a fast read. However, it did not live up to my expectations at all.

My thoughts:

• The novel is billed as a spy novel but seems much more like an adventure story to me. There is a good bit of political intrigue, and the part that was set in Russia was interesting, but I have no idea how accurate it was. 
• It was less realistic than the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming (which have a lot of variation within the series so that a few are realistic and several are more on the fluffy side). The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars was published in 1925, was very successful at that time, and was exploring issues such as women's roles in society. I would have been more impressed with that if everyone in the book had not been rich or had a title. 
• Just the fact that a woman is in charge and directing her male secretary to make the dangerous trip into Soviet Russia makes this an unusual novel for the time it was written. And the main villain among the Soviets is a beautiful female spy, Irina Mouravieff.
• A minor point: the title was misleading. The implication is that there is much traveling on trains; if so, I missed it, and Lady Diana stays behind in any case.
• I did not have any problem finishing the book, it is very readable, but I did not care for any of the characters. Most were rich and entitled.

I have two copies of this book: the Dell Mapback edition, a reprint from 1948, and the Melville House edition, published in 2012. The latter has an interesting afterword by René Steinke.

I will point you to a more favorable review at A Work in Progress.

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Publisher:   Melville House, 2012 (orig. pub. 1925)
Translator:  Neal Wainwright
Length:       320 pages
Format:       Trade Paper
Setting:       London, Soviet Russia
Genre:        Thriller
Source:       Purchased in 2013.