A Great Reckoning: Louise Penny

Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series is now up to 19 books, with the latest book due to be published October 29, 2024. When I began reading the series, it was primarily a police procedural series, with Gamache as a Chief Inspector of the Surêté du Québec. 

This book is the 12th in the series, and in a previous book in the series, Gamache left his position as head of homicide. At least two of the books after that focus on mysteries not related to Gamache's role as a policeman. But both he and his wife knew that he would someday look for a new career and return to active work. At the beginning of this story, Gamache has made that decision and accepted an offer to become the head of the Sûreté Academy. In the past, the Sûreté had become filled with corrupt officials and the Academy still shows the results of that influence. Gamache hopes to correct that, but he knows it will take time.

Thus this book is primarily set at the Sûreté Academy, and that is an interesting setting. But Armand and his wife Reine-Marie now live in Three Pines, so a good amount of time is also spent there. I like the books no matter where they are set, but when they are in Three Pines, it means that some of the interesting characters who live there will be featured: Ruth, Clara, Olivier and Gabriel, and Myrna at the bookstore.

Not long after Gamache comes to the Academy in his new position, an instructor at the Academy is killed. And Gamache is one of the suspects, although no one believes that it could be him. Clearly Gamache cannot run the investigation of the crime, but he is involved in the investigation as much as possible. 

There are several smaller mysteries in this story. One is why Gamache decided to approve Amelia Choquet for admission to the academy. She is a misfit, has been in trouble with the law and has obvious tattoos and piercings. He obviously feels some connection to her. 

There is another mystery around an old map found in the walls of Olivier and Gabriel's bistro in Three Pines. It turns out to be an orienteering map; some cadets from the Academy and the residents of Three Pines work together to figure out its origins.

At this point in the series, I have a hard time reviewing the books because going into much detail can spoil plot points of earlier books in the series. I also think that reading the books in order is important because some of characters just seem needlessly quirky and irritating without know some of their background.

The mysteries in this series are always rewarding. Usually very complex and sometimes circuitous and perplexing, they keep me guessing. I never even came close to suspecting the perpetrator in this book.

Louise Penny is very good at creating characters we want to read about. She also continues to develop the characters, both the main characters and the continuing secondary characters in Three Pines. It is hard to look back and compare all the books, but I think this is my favorite book so far. 

See other reviews at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan and Mysteries in Paradise.

 -----------------------------
Publisher:   Minotaur Books, 2016 
Length:      386 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Armand Gamache, #12
Setting:      Quebec, Canada
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:      I purchased this book.

Short Story Wednesday: Three Captain Leopold Stories by Edward D. Hoch

 

Recently I read another three stories in Leopold's Way by Edward D. Hoch. I read the first five stories in the book in November 2023. See this post for my thoughts on those stories and notes about the book and the author.

These are the three stories I read:

"The Oblong Room"

A college student has been killed in his dorm room, and his roommate stayed in the room with him after his death for at least 20 hours before the student next door discovered the situation. The assumption is that the roommate killed him, but question is why. This one was more spooky than most. It was a puzzle, of course, but it had a psychological element too.

This story won an Edgar award. My only complaint is that Captain Leopold keeps saying that this case is Sergeant Fletcher's case, but then he seems to take the lead. Still a great story. From what I have read, it has been reprinted many times.

"The Vanishing of Velma"

In this story, a teen-age girl has been reported as missing under very unusual circumstances. The young man who she was out with reports her missing; he says she took a ride on the Ferris wheel but never got off. It is a very good puzzle but Leopold figures it out.

The story mentions events in a previous story in this book, "The House by the Ferris," and Stella Gaze, a character in that story.

The solution was outstanding.

"The Athanasia League"

Of the three, this was my least favorite, but very interesting nevertheless. A woman is dead at the Athanasia League, a sort of home for older people run by Dr. Raymond Libby. He is not a medical doctor, but he leads a group of older people who pay to live in the home, "striving for deathlessness and immortality." A very strange case, since there seems to be no one with a motive to kill the woman, who was a member of the group.

Two interesting aspects are that Sergeant Fletcher has taken the test to become a Lieutenant and the only other policeman competing with him is one with a questionable reputation, not above taking graft or using force with a suspect. Also both Leopold and Fletcher have conflicts with the Mayor and a staff member. Unfortunately the story leaves it up in the air whether Fletcher gets his promotion or not.

Why do I like the Captain Leopold stories?

• Captain Leopold is a very likable character. Dedicated to his job, smart and intuitive. I also like Sergeant Fletcher, who works with Leopold most of the time.
• There were over 100 Captain Leopold stories and I have only read nine of them, so I am no expert. But so far in each story we learn just a bit more about Leopold and his background. (In "The Vanishing of Velma" the missing girl is 15 years old and he wonders if he might have a daughter that age if he and his wife had not divorced.)
• The stories are always interesting and never too far-fetched. 

Tokyo Express: Seicho Matsumoto

 

I am participating in the Japanese Literature Challenge 17 hosted by Dolce Bellezza. It runs from January through February, 2024. The goal is to read and review one or more books which were originally written in Japanese. There is a post at Dolce Bellezza for links to reviews.

Tokyo Express is my first book read for the challenge. It was Seichō Matsumoto's first novel, published in 1958.

In this novel, two detectives in different cities in Japan investigate the same crime and collaborate, sharing their thoughts and discoveries. A man and a woman are found dead on a beach in Kashii, and the police assume that it is a double suicide. Inspector Torigai in Kashii is first assigned to the case, and he has no reason to disagree with that determination, but he does notice some puzzling aspects and continues to have nagging questions. Later Inspector Mihara from Tokyo comes to discuss the case with Torigai. Torigai realizes that the aspect of the case that Mihara is looking into is connected to government corruption and fraud.  He thinks the deaths are related to a bribery scandal in the government.

The two detectives share their concerns and thoughts about the deaths. They form a bond because they are both sure that there is another answer to this case, that it is not suicide. It is pretty obvious close to the beginning who the guilty party is, but there is always a question, are they right or wrong, and can they prove it one way or the other? The alibis of their suspects depend on train schedules, so a good amount of time is spent on that aspect of the alleged crime. 

It is a short novel, 150 pages, and the first half seemed too slow and repetitive to me. The book was initially published as a serial in a magazine, and that could be the explanation for the repetition. However, the second half picked up and I was pleased with the ending. Plus, it is a good picture of Japan after World War II. 

This novel was first published in English translation as Points and Lines (translated by two different translators). I have a copy of that book (purchased back in 2016) but did not realize it until I had finished reading this edition of the book.

I have read one other mystery by Matsumoto, A Quiet Place, published in 1975. 

-----------------------------

Publisher: Penguin, 2023 (orig. pub. 1958)
Length: 150 pages
Format: Trade paperback
Setting:  Japan
Genre:   Mystery, Police Procedural
Source:  Purchased in 2023
Translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Chilled to the Bone: Quentin Bates

 

Blurb on the inside flap of the dust jacket:

When Sergeant Gunnhildur Gísladóttir of the local police force is called in to investigate the death of a man found tied to a bed in one of Reykjavík's nicest hotels, she finds no sign of criminal activity but suspects there may be more to the case than meets the eye. Could the death of the shipowner be related to a local gangster's recent return to Iceland after many years abroad?

What begins as a straightforward case for Gunnhildur soon explodes into a dangerous investigation, involving a discreet bondage society that ruthless men will go to violent extremes to keep secret.

This is the third book in a police procedural series set in Iceland. The main character is a single mother, a policewoman working in the Serious Crime Unit in Reykjavík. I have found this to be a very enjoyable series, with a great main character, who has a realistic life outside of work.

Sergeant Gunnhildur, usually referred to as Gunna, has a teenage daughter living at home, but currently she has concerns about her older son, who works on a fishing boat. He has managed to get two girlfriends pregnant at the same time. Gunna's homelife is challenging at times but she doesn't let it prevent her from doing her job.

This story was fast paced and kept me interested. The story follows various secondary characters who are dealing with conflicts in their lives, and the reader knows that all of this is connected to the case Gunna is working on, but not how and why. It was hard to figure out what the crime is and which characters were good or bad. This sounds like a negative but I enjoyed the suspense.

An added bonus is the setting in Iceland; these books cover the years following the economic collapse of the banking system there. 

After I finished this book, I discovered I had no more books in the series. I have now purchased ebook editions of the 4th and 5th books in the series at a good price, so I will keep reading the series, soon I hope.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Soho Crime, 2013
Length:       315 pages
Format:       Hardcover
Series:        Officer Gunnhildur, #3
Setting:       Iceland
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:       I purchased my copy in 2016.

Short Story Wednesday: Leopold's Way

 

Leopold's Way is a collection of short stories by Edward D. Hoch (1930-2008). Hoch wrote over 900 short stories. Starting in 1962, he had a short story published in every issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery magazine for 34 years. Over the years, he had many series characters in his short stories. I am a newbie to the Hoch's stories. I have purchased several collections of Hoch's stories, but have only sampled stories from a few of them.

This short story collection, originally published in 1985, contains stories featuring Captain Leopold, the head of the Violent Crimes Squad of a police department in a fictional city in Connecticut. The book has an excellent introduction by Francis M. Nevins, which gives an overview of many of the series characters that Hoch created, and goes into more detail about Captain Leopold and the stories featuring that character. By the end of 1984, when the introduction was written, Hoch had published 72 stories about Captain Leopold. Now I believe that the total is over 100 stories.

Recently I read the first five stories in the collection. They were all good but I did have my favorites. A few of the stories had ambiguous endings, leaving the reader to decide how the situation was resolved. I usually like that kind of ending fine and they worked for me here.

The stories:

A ten-year-old boy is found dead in "Circus." He was walking to the circus from his home, which was nearby. The solution to this one was unexpected and sad.

"Death in the Harbor" starts with the death of a man who was alone on his yacht. At first the police assume it was suicide, but later there are more deaths in the harbor. Captain Leopold starts an investigation into skindivers in the area. This one also had an unexpected ending, at least for me. 

"A Place for Bleeding" is a murder / kidnapping story. I thought the resolution for that one was pretty obvious, but still a good story.

In "Reunion," Captain Leopold is visited by Harry Tolliver, a man who went to high school with Leopold and graduated the same year. Twenty five years later, Harry wants to plan a reunion, and asks Leopold for assistance. All he has to do is locate thirteen people from the yearbook and contact them. Leopold is reluctant but agrees to help. Later Harry will regret getting Leopold involved, when the death of one of the students from their graduation class comes up again.

In "The House by the Ferris," a woman is accused of killing a man who owns an amusement park. The wife of the dead man says that Stella Gaze is a witch who foretold the death of her husband and his three other business partners. Stella Gaze is an old woman who lived in a house on the property to be developed for the amusement park, and the park was built up around her house when she refused to sell the house. This is probably the most creepy of the five stories.

The last two stories are my favorites in this group. I hope to be reading more of these stories soon, because there is a Christmas story later in the book.

Other resources: 

George Kelly's review, including a list of the stories.

A list of Hoch's series detectives and short stories in collections, as of July 2018, at Mysteries, Short and Sweet.

Mike Grost's page on Edward D. Hoch.

Dead in the Water: Ted Wood

Reid Bennett is not just the Chief of Police in Murphy's Harbour, a small resort town in Muskoka, Ontario. He is the ONLY policeman in town. There is a man in the office who answers the phones, but he is not a qualified to do police work. 

Bennett ended up in Murphy's Harbour because he was hounded out of his previous job in the Toronto police due to his handling of an attempted rape. As he puts it: "Nothing violent happens here." But when a corpse is found floating in the lake, Bennett's job gets very complicated and it turns out that the small town is not the haven that he thought it would be.

This is a very different police procedural. The case becomes very complicated, and the minuscule police presence in Murphy's Harbour is not meant to handle cases like this. It requires ingenuity for Reid to deal with the workload and the pursuit of the criminals basically alone. He does have his faithful dog Sam, a smart, always loyal German shepherd, by his side.

What did I like?

• The story is told in first person narration by Bennett, and I liked the character and the narration.
• Sam the dog is a fantastic character.
• The Canadian setting, in a small town on the water, and a mix of characters, locals and tourists.
• The story is not predictable, and moves at a fast pace, with plenty of surprises, especially at the end.

Dead in the Water, published in 1983, is the first book in a ten book crime fiction series starring Reid Bennett. It is a very short novel at 142 pages. The story may have a bit too much violence for me, but I will see how future books pan out.

Check out other more detailed reviews at Kevin's Corner and Paul Bishop's blog. 

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Open Road Media, 2014 (orig. publ. 1983)
Length:       142 pages
Format:      Trade Paperback

Series:        Reid Bennett, #1
Setting:      Canada
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:      On my TBR pile since 2020.

Last Seen Wearing: Hillary Waugh

Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh, published in 1952, is an early example of a true police procedural. I have wanted to read this book for years, because I am a fan of police procedural mysteries, whether vintage or current. 

I often label all mysteries involving police detectives and the police department as police procedurals, but true police procedurals follow the tedious day-to-day work that policemen do to identify the criminal, plus gathering enough evidence to convict. An example of this type of series is Ed McBain's 87th Precinct mysteries, which started in 1956 and continued up to 2005.

Summary 

The story starts with the disappearance of a young female college freshman, Lowell Mitchell. The college she attends is in Bristol, Massachusetts, a fictional small town near Boston, Massachusetts. She goes missing on a Friday in early March 1950 after attending a morning class. Once the college dean ascertains that she is missing, the police are called in to investigate. The small police department in Bristol has less resources and less men to assign to the case than a big city police force. The press and the public are soon pressuring them for a solution, and Lowell's distraught parents also come to town. 

The police chief starts working on the assumption that Lowell had found out she was pregnant and might have been looking for an abortionist. Her family strongly objects to this supposition. The police discover her diary, and read it for clues, but Lowell seemed to have no ongoing relationship or boyfriend. They develop a large list of men that she could have been in contact with and investigate them one by one for any possible connection to the crime.

My Thoughts:

When I was a child I watched Dragnet, probably the first police procedural on TV. It was one of my father's favorite TV shows (along with Gunsmoke). When I started reading this book, some of it reminded me of watching an episode of Dragnet. Later I read the introduction, and it mentioned that the earlier radio program version of Dragnet was an influence on Hillary Waugh when he wrote this novel.

I am very glad I read this book finally, and it was a good read, but some portions of the first half of the book are very slow going and fairly boring just as a real investigation would be boring to outsider observers. Regardless, there is plenty of tension in the story. At first the police don't know if the young woman is merely missing or is dead.  Once the body is discovered, the investigation is more focused. 

I guessed who did it very early on but it was far from a certainty in my mind. A good bit before the book ends, the police know who did it but cannot prove it, so they have to come up with something that will prove it. 

I liked the two main police officers, the police chief and his sergeant. They have a friendly rivalry because the sergeant is college trained and his boss came up through the ranks. The relationship felt realistic and interesting. Other than that there is not a lot of character development, and the personal lives of the policemen are not explored in any depth. 

The introduction by Leslie Klinger is very good, with an excellent overview of the first police procedurals. There is also an "About the Author" section that is very useful and a list of recommended further reading related to this book. If you are interested in reading this book I recommend buying the Library of Congress Crime Classics edition of the book.

One additional note about this edition: I did not like the footnotes added by Leslie S. Klinger. Some of them provided useless information not related to the text; some seemed really elementary (but then maybe that is because I am older); some were interesting information, but took me out the story. Some other reviewers liked the footnotes, though.

Also see reviews at:

Pretty Sinister Books

Past Offences

Dead Yesterday

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Poisoned Pen Press, 2021. (orig. publ. 1952)
Length:  240 pages
Format:  Trade Paperback
Setting:  USA, Massachusetts
Genre:   Mystery, Police Procedural

#1976Club: A Little Local Murder

Robert Barnard (1936 – 2013) was a British author who published mysteries from 1974 through 2012. He wrote over 40 novels and I have read about half of them. A Little Local Murder was his second novel. I selected it for the 1976 Club because I want to compare it to books he wrote after 2000. 

From the Pan Macmillan website, here is a description for a 2016 reprint of A Little Local Murder:

The news that Radio Broadwich is to make a documentary on Twytching for broadcast in America spreads through the small village like wildfire. Mrs Deborah Withens, Twytching's resident doyenne and arbiter of good taste, takes it upon herself to control the presentation of her 'county town' and assumes responsibility for picking those that will take part, provoking fierce rivalry amongst the villagers.

One resident who is reticent to participate in the fuss is Inspector George Parrish . . . until the murder of the first villager chosen, and a rash of poison pen letters uncovering secrets Twytching's leading citizens had fervently hoped were buried, force him to get involved. 

Mrs. Withins, the snobby wife of the Council Chairman, is determined that Twytching should be considered a town, not a village, but this is the quintessential village mystery. The village is filled with characters from a Midsomer Murders episode – gossips, a dotty vicar, and my favorite, a snarky supercilious school teacher. And this book was written well before Caroline Graham's books or the TV show. (Note: I do love Midsomer Murders; we are rewatching the entire series for the third time.) 

My favorite characters in this story are the policemen in the village – Inspector Parrish, Sergeant Stephen Feathers, and Sergeant Betty Underwood. That may be because the reader gets more insight into those characters, especially Inspector Parrish. None of them have a lot of experience with murder cases and they make a few mistakes along the way, but Inspector Parrish has a good handle on the case and the people he is dealing with. The process of tracking down those who received the poison pen letters and their connection to the murder was quite entertaining.

Barnard has written many different kinds of standalone mysteries. Some are satires and more humorous and light; some are serious and dark. Often the characters are quirky and somewhat unsympathetic, as in this book. But almost always the ending is a complete surprise. And this one has a fantastic ending, very unexpected and chilling.

Barnard also wrote two mystery series, both police procedurals. I have enjoyed books from both of those series.

Thanks to Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings for hosting the 1976 Club this week.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983 (orig. publ. 1976)
Length:      190 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Setting:      UK, a small village
Genre:        Mystery
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Lockdown: Peter May

 From the cover of my edition of Lockdown:

London, the epicenter of a global pandemic, is a city in lockdown. Violence and civil disorder simmer. Martial law has been imposed. A deadly virus has already claimed thousands of victims. Health and emergency services are overwhelmed.

...

At a building site for a temporary hospital, construction workers find a bag containing the rendered bones of a murdered child. ... D.I. Jack MacNeil, counting down the hours on his final day with the Met, is sent to investigate. His career is in ruins, his marriage over and his own family touched by the virus. 

Peter May wrote this book about 15 years before it was published. At that time, he could not find a publisher; the story was deemed to be an unrealistic portrayal of London in lockdown. After the Covid-19 outbreak began, it seemed to be the time for this book, and it was released in April 2020. The pandemic in Lockdown is caused by the H5N1 flu, or bird flu, which is much more serious than Covid-19, with a higher mortality rate. 

D.I. MacNeil is pretty much investigating the crime by himself, given the shortage of police officers due to the pandemic, but he does have the help of the forensics staff. Dr. Amy Wu is working on a facial reconstruction, to help in identification of the victim. Both elements of the story are very well done, but I found Amy's work on the reconstruction more interesting and her backstory is good. MacNeil is a dedicated cop, working to finish the case before he is no longer employed as a policeman, and he is portrayed as tough as nails and with the typical problems with alcohol and family relationships. 

In other books by Peter May that I have read, I liked the use of setting more than I liked the mystery / crime investigation. This time I thought the mystery was very good, suspenseful and compelling, but the setting of a pandemic in London did not work so well for me. I cannot put into words exactly why but I just wasn't impressed with that element of the story. The pandemic does affect the investigation in many ways, and that is interesting.

There are some serious, scary bad guys in this story. They don't want the dead child to be identified, and anyone who has information harmful to them is a threat. The buildup of suspense is very good. The ending is a bit of a downer, although I was  expecting something like that to happen.

One of the things I especially like about Peter May is that he writes very good articles that give background on the setting of his novels and why he wrote them. Check out this article at Shots Crime and Thriller Ezine for his thoughts on writing Lockdown.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Quercus, 2020
Length:       399 pages
Format:       Trade paperback
Setting:       London, UK

Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:       I purchased my copy in 2020.

Malice: Keigo Higashino

Description from the book cover:

Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he's planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems.

At the crime scene, Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga recognizes Hidaka's best friend, Osamu Nonoguchi. Years ago when they were both teachers, they were colleagues at the same public school. Kaga went on to join the police force while Nonoguchi eventually left to become a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka.

This story is told in first person by two different characters. One is the policeman investigating the murder and the other is a suspect, Osamu Nonoguchi, a friend of the victim. 

I liked the way the story was written; the structure is unusual. The first six chapters alternate between the suspect's written account of his activities (and thoughts) and Detective Kaga's accounts of the investigation. There is a chapter of interviews from people who knew Hidaka and Nonoguchi when they were middle school students. Then the last two chapters are Detective Kaga's accounts as he wraps up the investigation. 

Malice is not a thriller, but more of a character study. The investigation takes Detective Kaga back to the school days of the victim and his friend. The novel explores the how and why of the murder less than who did it. I like this kind of story and it was a very satisfying read. 

My husband read this book shortly after it was published in the US in 2014. Here is his review at Goodreads:

Malice is another meticulously plotted mystery/procedural from Keigo Higashino, author of incredibly clever The Devotion of Suspect X. This relatively brief book doesn’t waste time in getting the plot going (the murder on which everything hinges happens almost immediately) and also efficiently introduces the characters (of which there are really only five: police detective Kaga, writer friends Hidaka and Nonoguchi, and Hidaka’s two wives (one is deceased). Each first person section is an interview or account or interrogation or confession and at times it can be a bit confusing. The book has virtually no action with clever detective Kaga assembling and reassembling motives and alibis in an effort to ascertain the why of the crime. Well done.

 

In Japan, ten novels featuring Detective Kyoichiro Kaga have been published. This is the 4th book in the series but only the first book translated to English. The eighth book in the series, Newcomer, has also been translated into English. 

This was the second book I read for the Japanese Literature Challenge.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Minotaur Books, 2014 (orig. pub. 1996)
Translator:  Alexander O. Smith with Elye Alexander
Length:       276 pages
Format:       Hardcover
Series:        Kyoichiro Kaga, #4
Setting:       Japan
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:       Borrowed from my husband.

Snow Angels: James Thompson

This is the first novel in the Inspector Vaara series by James Thompson. With so much violence, it probably wasn't the book I should have chosen to read this month, but I was interested in the setting.

Description from the back of my book:

It is called kaamos: two weeks of unrelenting darkness and soul-numbing cold that falls upon Finnish Lapland, a hundred miles into the Arctic Circle, just before Christmas. Some get through it with the help of cheap Russian alcohol; some sink into depression.

This year, it may have driven someone mad enough to commit murder. The brutalized body of a beautiful Somali woman has been found in the snow, and Inspector Kari Vaara must find her killer. It will be a challenge in a place where ugly things lurk under frozen surfaces, and silence is a way of life.

This book was first published in 2009 and was reissued in trade paperback format in the US in 2011. My copy says this on the cover: "If you liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you'll love this."  I don't see the comparison myself, except for the setting in a Scandinavian country and a lot of violence.

I cannot say I enjoyed this book overall, even though it has some good points. The crime was very brutal and there was extensive detailed graphic discussion of the brutality of the crime throughout the book.

Sometimes I can handle books dealing with brutal and violent crime, if the characters are well developed and/or the plot is very interesting. However, in this novel, there were very few sympathetic characters. The only interesting characters with any depth were the inspector and his wife. Inspector Kari Vaara has always lived in Lapland, but his wife is an American woman who is the general manager of a large ski resort. They have not been married long, and they face the challenges that two people from different cultures would have, plus both have demanding jobs.

The story is written in first person, present tense, which sometimes added to my confusion. Except for the present tense, I found Thompson's writing very readable and he pulled me into the story, but the plot seemed overly complex, unrealistic, and confusing.

I learned a lot about Finland from this book, although not much of it positive. The story discusses social problems in Finland—violence, mental illness, alcoholism, and racism. This book was published in Finland first, in the Finnish language, even though the author was an American. At the time the book was published, James Thompson had lived in Finland for 12 years. He died in 2014 at the age of 50.

There are a total of five books in the Inspector Vaara series, published between 2009 and 2015. I believe that the rest of the novels are set in Helsinki. I have not given up on this author, although I am not in a rush to try anymore of his books right now.

Many reviews of this book are much more positive. Thus I am including links to reviews at Material Witness, Petrona, Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan, and Kittling Books.

This is a good interview with the author at Scene of the Crime, with more about the setting and a short excerpt from this book.


 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Berkley Books, 2011. Orig. pub. 2009.
Length:     292 pages
Format:     Trade Paperback
Series:      Inspector Vaara, #1
Setting:     Kattila, Lapland, Finland
Genre:      Police Procedural
Source:    On my TBR pile since 2012.

Death in Blue Folders: Margaret Maron

I usually write a post mid-week for the Friday's Forgotten Books meme originated by Patricia Abbott at her blog pattinase and now hosted by Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom. The book I am featuring today is Death in Blue Folders by Margaret Maron. Obviously Maron is far from a forgotten author, but this book is part of her first series about Sigrid Harold, New York City detective. Maron's other series, featuring Judge Deborah Knott, is much better known.

Shortly after a successful lawyer, Clayton Gladwell, decides to retire, he is murdered in his office, in the evening after the rest of his staff has left for the day. Before the killer left the office, he attempted to burn Gladwell's special blue folders, which the police determine contained information that Gladwell was using to blackmail some of his clients. The police are able to salvage some charred remains from the folders and the search begins for all the clients who had blue folders...

Part of the mystery is tracking down who was being blackmailed and why. Of course, the suspects don't want to reveal damaging facts about themselves. The story behind each folder is interesting, but in some cases it is not clear why the secrets would lead to murder.

This is the third book in the Sigrid Harald series. The story focuses on the murder and the search for the culprit, but Sigrid's background and her life away from work are also part of the story. She is not the typical gorgeous, assured policewoman. She is quiet, shy, serious, and has a cool, reserved demeanor. But the series does show growth and change in the characters. In this story, Sigrid searches for a new apartment that she can afford in New York, with the help of her current roommate, Roman Tramegra. She has a tentative relationship with a well-known artist, Oscar Nauman, who is a good bit older than her. The author achieves a good balance between the mystery plot and the personal aspects of Sigrid's life.

I thought the ending was fairly obvious, or at least the only solution that would make sense, but that in no way spoiled my enjoyment... partly because I always suspect the author is leading me in the wrong direction anyway. It is sort of a sad ending, with some threads left hanging.

It has been nearly six years since I read the 2nd book in this series, and I won't wait that long to read another one. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Margaret Maron's writing. The dialog is very realistic and convincing. The characters are fleshed out and believable. I will continue this series, because I want to see where it takes Sigrid Harald. I may also return to the Deborah Knott series.

The Sigrid Harald series was written (mostly) in the 1980s and the Deborah Knott series started in 1992. A character from Death in Blue Folders, Kate Honeycutt, turns up as a continuing character in the Deborah Knott series. Later in the Deborah Knott series, Sigrid and Deborah meet (in Three Day Town) and they work together in the next novel in the series.

I have also read and reviewed:
One Coffee With (1981)
Death of a Butterfly (1984)


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Publisher:  Ocanee Spirit Press, 2013. (orig. publ. 1985)
Length:  203 pages
Format:  Trade Paperback
Series:   Lt. Sigrid Harald, homicide detective
Setting:  New York City
Genre:   Mystery, Police Procedural
Source:  I purchased this book (in 2013).

Blood and Rubles: Stuart M. Kaminsky

The Inspector Rostnikov series began in 1981 when Russia was still part of the USSR; the 16th and  last book in the series was published in 2009. I am now at book 10 in the series. The protagonist is a metropolitan police detective in Moscow. Per the description on the dust jacket:

Crime in post-communist Russia has only gotten worse: rubles are scarce; blood, plentiful. In the eyes of Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov and his metropolitan police team, newfound democracy has unleashed the desperation that pushes people over the edge, and has emboldened those already on the path to hell. ...A trio of nasty cases confirms their worst fears.

The major case involves a Mafia shoot-out at a cafe; several innocent bystanders are killed or injured, and one of the dead is someone important to Inspector Emil Karpo. An American FBI agent, a Black man who can speak Russian, is assigned to the team to observe and help with this case. The second assignment involves three young boys who are robbing and beating people in their neighborhood, and another member of the team works on the disappearance of valuable artifacts.

Inspector Rostnikov is the center of each novel. He has a leg injury suffered during military service, which causes him pain and inconvenience in his job. He reads Ed McBain novels. His wife is Jewish, which has also caused problems with his job. His grown son is fighting in Afghanistan when the series begins.

There are several police colleagues on Rostnikov's team who have recurring roles. Their relationships play a part in each novel.


Inspector Emil Karpo, known as "the Vampire," is cold and forbidding, almost robotic in his behavior. He has always supported Communism and still does, even after the change in government in Russia after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. As the series progresses, he  becomes more human and thus a more interesting character.

This series is intriguing because of the picture of life in Russia during this interesting period. Rostnikov's strongest characteristic is his support of his staff in the face of the continuing changes in Russia and his ability to get the best out of them. He recognizes their differences and their gifts.

For me, the criminal plots are less important than the interactions of all the characters, yet each subplot is interesting, if sometimes depressing.

This series is best read in order; the characters grow and their lives change from book to book.

Stuart M. Kaminsky (September 29, 1934 – October 9, 2009) was an American mystery writer and film professor. He was a very prolific writer, and he is known for four long-running series of mystery novels. Two of the series feature police detectives, the Inspector Rostnikov series and the Abe Lieberman series. The other two series are about private detectives; the Toby Peters series is set in 1940's Hollywood and the Lew Fonescu series is set in Florida. The Toby Peters series is the longest and those mysteries are humorous; the other series are more serious in tone, sometimes dark. Kaminsky received the 1989 Edgar Award for Best Novel for A Cold Red Sunrise, the fifth novel in the Inspector Rostnikov series.

Many of Stuart Kaminsky's books are available through MysteriousPress.com/Open Road in e-book format or in trade paperback.

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Publisher:  Fawcett Columbine, 1996
Length:      257 pages
Format:     Hardcover
Series:      Inspector Rostnikov, #10
Setting:     Moscow
Genre:      Police Procedural
Source:     I purchased my copy

The Big Over Easy: Jasper Fforde

This is the first book in the Nursery Crime series by Jasper Fforde, who also wrote the Thursday Next series. DCI Jack Spratt and Sergeant Mary Mary investigate crimes within the world of nursery rhymes. In The Big Over Easy, they investigate the apparent suicide of Humpty Dumpty. The book is a fantasy / mystery crossover with lots of humor, puns, and satire.

To give you a taste of Jasper Fforde's prose and the wackiness of the story, here is an excerpt. Mary Mary has just been transferred to the city of Reading in Berkshire, England.

Reading wouldn't have been everyone's choice for a transfer, but for Mary, Reading had one thing that no other city possessed: DCI Friedland Chymes. He was a veritable powerhouse of a sleuth whose career was a catalog of inspired police work, and his unparalleled detection skills had filled the newspaper columns for over two decades. Chymes was the reason Mary had joined the police force in the first place. Ever since her father had bought her a subscription to Amazing Crime Stories when she was nine, she'd been hooked. She had thrilled at "The Mystery of the Wrong Nose," been galvanized by "The Poisoned Shoe" and inspired by "The Sign of Three and a Half." Twenty-one years further on, Friedland was still a serious international player in the world of competitive detecting, and Mary had never missed an issue.

However, Mary does not get assigned to work with DCI Chymes. She is assigned to the much less attractive Nursery Crime Division, headed by Jack Spratt.

My thoughts:

My son read this first and recommended the book, and I enjoyed it very much. This book requires that you step into another world peopled by Nursery Rhyme characters, aliens, and mythical creatures... and suspend disbelief. I am not so good at doing that so it took me a third of the book before I was comfortable with the premise.

In this world, it is at least as important to be able to write up the results of the crime to be published (and made into prime time documentaries), as it is to actually solve the crime. In fact policemen are willing to stretch the truth to fit those requirements, and will compete to take over a case that may be "good copy." They then become stars of publications like the Amazing Crime Stories journal. That seems ridiculous on the face of it, but in today's world maybe not so much so. If you can just sit back and accept that it all makes sense in an alternate world, then it is a lot of fun.

I am not a fan of funny names in mysteries, but it works here so I accepted it. Sometimes the humor in mysteries escapes me, as I noted when I read reviews after finishing the book, but even my failure to get many of the jokes did not hamper my enthusiasm or enjoyment.

I will admit I had a problem with too many characters to track and getting confused by the characters and their relationships to Humpty Dumpty. But that happens in a LOT of mysteries I read. On the other hand, I liked the characters, I enjoyed following the story, and I thought the plot and writing were well done.

If you are a fan of humor and satire in your mysteries, and can handle fantasy elements, then this book is definitely worth a try.

TV Tropes has a nice page about the Nursery Crime series, and they describe it as "Shrek meets the Police Procedural."


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Publisher:  Penguin Books, 2006 (orig. publ. 2005).
Length:      383 pages 
Format:      Trade Paperback
Series:       Nursery Crime series, #1
Setting:      Reading, UK
Genre:       Fantasy / Police Procedural
Source:      My son bought this at the Planned Parenthood book sale and loaned it to me.

Cold Mourning: Brenda Chapman

I always aim to have a few Christmas mysteries to review at this time. This is my second book for 2016 set around Christmas.

Kala Stonechild, a First Nations police officer with a troubled background, arrives in Ottawa, Ontario for a new job just a few days before Christmas. She has been hired by Detective Jacques Rouleau, who heads a specialized unit in the Major Crimes division. Very shortly after Kala reports in for her new job, wealthy businessman Tom Underwood goes missing. Kala is assigned to the case before she even has time to find a place to live. As she and other members of the team interview his family and business associates, they uncover dysfunctional family relationships and disagreements within Underwood's business, pointing to many people who might want him dead.

There are a couple of secondary plots. Kala has moved to the area to look for a cousin who she has lost contact with. She spends any extra time she has looking for this woman. A secondary case the team is working on is related to a man assaulting women in apartment building lobbies and fondling them.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints. Kala's. Rouleau's. Geraldine, the missing man's daughter. Susan, a friend of Tom and his first wife. The story moves along quickly. The characters are well developed, especially Kala and her boss. Enough background about the characters' lives is provided so that they are believable, although Tom Underwood's family is an exceptionally mixed-up, conflicted group. The gradual reveal of various relationships and issues they have is very effective.

I enjoyed reading this book; for those who like police procedurals, I recommend it. I would like to continue the series, and see what happens next in the lives of Kala and Rouleau. They are both likable characters, dealing with issues in their lives, but in a healthy way. Kala is a strong female, secure in her abilities as a policewoman, and dealing well with the racism and sexism she encounters. Detective Rouleau is older, recently divorced, and dealing with that loss in his life.

As noted above, I picked this book to read and review at this time because of the Christmas setting. It does not have a Christmas theme as such, but Kala does arrive in Ottawa shortly before Christmas, and Tom Underwood disappears after leaving a company Christmas party. And because this is Canada, there is snow and cold weather and it really feels like Christmas time... unlike Southern California at Christmas. There are more parties and the buildup to Christmas is going on during the investigation, and the characters are having to deal with trauma in their lives in one way or another during the Christmas season, which should be bright and merry (in theory). Of course, Christmas is often not so merry for those who work in law enforcement.

See other reviews at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan and Peggy Ann's Post.

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Publisher:   Dundurn, 2014.
Length:       389 pages
Format:      Trade Paperback
Series:       A Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery, #1
Setting:      Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Genre:        Police Procedural
Source:      I purchased this book.

The Diamond Feather: Helen Reilly

Roger Cram was visited by Godfrey Thorne right before he died, and Roger was left with a piece of jewelry called the diamond feather. It is a family heirloom, designed in the shape of a peacock feather, which Godfrey had taken to pawn only to discover that it was a fake. Later Roger visits Thorne's family to return the diamond feather to Godfrey's mother. While Roger is at Greystone, the family estate in New York, a family member is murdered.

The story is told mainly from  Roger's viewpoint; he stays on at the Thorne mansion after the death not because he is an old  friend of the family, but because Inspector McKee, the policeman in charge of the investigation, asks him to. McKee wants a source of information on the family and their actions. Roger's only connection to the family was Godfrey, and thus he is an outsider, not necessarily resented, but not welcomed either. He does get very involved with the investigation in a amateur role, so he and Inspector McKee share center stage in the activities. There is a small circle of suspects, but the plot is exceedingly complex, and lots of red herrings.

Of the four mysteries by Helen Reilly that I have read, this is my favorite. The story had me under a spell and I would gladly have stayed up all night to finish the book. That might be because this was closer to a police procedural and had much less of the "damsel in distress" element than I noticed in previous books. And less romance.

From what I have read, the first books in the Inspector McKee series were more straightforward police procedurals, as this one is. Police procedurals vary quite a bit as to how much detail of police work is included, and this seems to be true in this series. Later on the books entered the "had I but known" territory, and all the others I have read were much more centered on romantic involvements. This is discussed in some detail in an extensive article at Mystery*File written by Mike Grost and at a post on The Doll's Trunk Murder at Killer Covers of the Week.

This book is not easy to find at an affordable price. When I reviewed Mourned on Sunday, a commenter noted that The Diamond Feather was the first book in the series. I had never heard of that one. I found a hardback with no dust jacket for $25 at AbeBooks.com, and decided that was acceptable under the circumstances. Right now at that site there are two copies available, both with dust jackets, one for $100, the other for $300. I am now very glad I purchased the book because I enjoyed it so much. It doesn't always work out so well with first books in a series.

This book is my selection for a book published in 1930 for the Crimes of the Century meme, hosted by Rich at Past Offences. It is also my second book read for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XI event. That event celebrates reading of books of mystery, suspense, dark fantasy, and horror, and continues through the end of October.


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Publisher:  Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1930.
Length:      309 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Inspector McKee, #11
Setting:      New York
Genre:       Police Procedural
Source:      I purchased my copy.