2021 Overview and Reading in December

 

2021 statistics ...

In 2021 I read 105 books. I usually aim at 84 books in a year, which would be seven books a month. In 2020 I read 113 books.

My reading continues to be focused on mystery novels. This year I read 69 mystery novels, which is less than last year. That group includes any historical mysteries and spy fiction I read. Of that total, 27 were published in 1960 or before, 26 were published between 1960 and 1999, 12 were published between 2000 and 2018, and only 4 were published in 2019-2021. The mysteries were divided almost equally between male and female authors. 

Other fiction reading was divided thus:

• Science fiction: 7
• Fantasy: 2
• General fiction: 8
• Historical fiction: 11

All of those numbers are up from last year, and I am pleased with that. I would like to read more science fiction in 2022.

I continued reading short stories every month, but I only completed one book of short stories. I have sampled stories from a lot of short story collections and anthologies, and I need to finish more of them this year. 

My nonfiction reading was much lower than last year. I only read 6 books in that genre. Of all the books I read, only 6 books were from my Classics List. That is another area I need to improve on. 

And now, on to books read in December 2021...

General Fiction

The Last Noel (2002) by Michael Malone

This book was set at Christmas and has a definite Christmas theme. It takes place in the small town of Moors, North Carolina. Noni (real name Noelle) is the daughter of the Tilden family, a rich and privileged family that has lived in the area for many years.  Kaye is the grandson of the Tilden's black maid, who has worked for the Tilden family for years. Kaye and Noni's relationship is viewed through twelve Christmases, starting in 1963 and ending in 2003. See review here.

High Rising (1933) by Angela Thirkell

This was one of the books set at Christmas, at least partially. I have been hearing about the Barsetshire series by Thirkell for years. At first I thought that they were not for me, but recently I became curious and decided I had to read one and I wanted to start at the beginning. I am glad I tried it, it was an entertaining read. I hope to continue the series, but there are 29 books in the series, so maybe that is a bit much. I will try to get through the books written during the war years, which is about half of them. 

Historical Fiction

Rules of Civility (2011) by Amor Towles

This is not a Christmas book, really, but the main story starts on New Year's Eve in 1937 and ends with a surprise Christmas gift two days before Christmas in 1938, so it felt like holiday reading to me. I loved this book. See review here.

Crime Fiction

Spence And The Holiday Murders (1977) by Michael Allen

This is the first book in the Detective Chief Superintendent Ben Spence series. It was an enjoyable read, the type of book I enjoy now and then, but it was a pretty standard 1970s police procedural. But is was set in the UK and around Christmas time, so a timely read.

Murder in the Snow: A Cotswold Christmas Mystery  (1950) by Gladys Mitchell

This book was originally published as Groaning Spinney, and it was the 23rd book in the Mrs. Bradley series. I read it as a part of a group read hosted at Jason Half's blog; there is commentary there from the group in four parts. It begins here and the final post is here.

As the subtitle above indicates, some of the action takes place at Christmas, when Mrs. Bradley is visiting her nephew and his wife, but the Christmas festivities are over very quickly. The investigation continues for months afterwards. I love the setting in the Cotswold and there are treks through the rural areas there. My only complaint is that the investigation drags on and on.

Pictures of Perfection (1994) by Reginald Hill

The 14th book in the Dalziel & Pascoe series. Pascoe is sent to a small village in Yorkshire to investigate the disappearance of one of their uniformed officers. Coincidentally, Sergeant Wield had just a few days previously stopped in the village on the way back from vacation and had a mild altercation with the missing village policeman. When he gets back from vacation, he is also sent to investigate, but neither of them finds any evidence of what has happened to the missing man. This entry in the series is Reginald Hill's version of a village cozy, and has much more humor than usual. 

Fortune Favors the Dead (2020) by Stephen Spotswood

This was Spotswood's debut novel and the first in the Pentecost and Parker series. The author is a fan of the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout and used it as inspiration in coming up with this detective duo. Since Rex Stout is my favorite mystery writer, I had to try the series. Lillian Pentecost is a successful private detective in her forties but she has multiple schlerosis and her health is failing. She hires Willowjean Parker, a young woman who ran off to work in the circus when she was 15, to be her assistant and offers to provide training in many areas. They are the perfect pair, and I loved the story. 

My husband took this photo at Mackenzie Park in Santa Barbara. The photo at the top of the post was taken at Lake Los Carneros located near Stow House in Santa Barbara County. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday: "There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union" by Reginald Hill

My story for today is "There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union". It is actually a novella, 67 pages long in the paperback edition I am reading, which was published in 1987. 

Inspector Lev Chislenko answers an emergency call about a man who had been pushed down an elevator shaft. Yet when he arrives at the site, there is no body to be found. All the witnesses swear that a man stepped in the elevator and was pushed through the floor to his death. It seems to be a paranormal event, but his superiors insist that such an event doesn't happen in the Soviet Union. He does his best to find other explanations, but his innate honesty causes him to keep forcing the issue, finding new information which leads him to believe in the paranormal occurrence. This is both a ghost story and a love story, and I like the way the problem is handled.

This story was published in There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union: A Novella and Five Stories. All the stories are by Reginald Hill. The other stories include one that features Dalziel and Pascoe and one about Joe Sixsmith. I look forward to reading those stories also.

British author Reginald Hill (1936 - 2012) worked as a schoolmaster and a college lecturer until he began writing full time in 1980. He received the Gold Dagger for Bones and Silence (1990) and in 1995 he won the CWA’s Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement. Hill was a prolific writer; in addition to the Dalziel and Pascoe series and the Joe Sixsmith series, he wrote many standalone novels, some under the name Patrick Ruell.

Reading Summary for March 2018

My reading summary for March follows. It was a very good reading month.


Non-crime fiction books read:


Blackout (2010) by Connie Willis

The longest book I read in March was Blackout by Connie Willis, and it was nearly 500 pages and only half of a book. I had read that Blackout and All Clear formed one book together, but I did not realize that Blackout would end with such a cliffhanger. Given that, I won't say much more about this book but will wait until I have completed All Clear in April. The basic and brief summary for this book is that time travelers are visiting various sites during World War II, and a good portion of this book is set in London during the Blitz. I enjoyed the book immensely, had a hard time putting it down every night, but I did have some quibbles with it.

And the list of crime fiction read in March:

A Murder Is Announced (1950) by Agatha Christie

This is the fourth Jane Marple mystery novel and my fourth read in that series in the last few years. I loved it and now it is tied with The Moving Finger for my favorite Miss Marple story. The story is set in the small English village of Chipping Cleghorn. A murder announcement is placed into the Personals section of local newspaper and everyone assumes it is a clever invitation to a murder party. However, the group that gathers witnesses a real murder. Miss Marple is called in to help with the investigation. 

The Black Seraphim (1983) by Michael Gilbert

This is the fourth novel by Michael Gilbert that I have read, and it is my favorite so far. The Black Seraphim and Close Quarters, Gilbert's first novel, have the same setting, the Melchester Cathedral close. Otherwise, there is no connection between the two, and this one was published 36 years after Close Quarters. My review here.

A Small Death in Lisbon (1999) by Robert Wilson

This book has two story lines, one set in the 1940's in Germany and Portugal, the other set in the late 1990's in Lisbon. The later time line features a police detective whose investigation of a teenage girl's murder links back to the experiences of a Berlin factory owner forced into Hitler's SS in 1941. The story is suspenseful and compelling, the characters have depth, but there was too much violence and sex for me. This book won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1999. 

Murder Must Advertise (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers

The eighth novel in the Peter Wimsey series. I have always considered this my favorite mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers, so I was glad to find that the story lived up to my memories of it. My review here.

The Lisbon Crossing (2006) by Tom Gabbay

I deliberately chose to read this book shortly after reading A Small Death in Lisbon because I wanted to see how the two books compared. This story is much lighter and very picturesque. Jack Teller is a US citizen visiting Lisbon with international film star Lili Sterne in 1940, to help her locate a childhood friend, Eva Lange. This is the 2nd in the Jack Teller series and each book is set in a different city and time period. 

Recalled to Life (1992) by Reginald Hill

This is the 13th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural series. The story takes us back to a crime committed in 1963 at a local manor during a house party including government officials and diplomats. A nanny implicated in the murder is released from prison 30 years later and Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel, who was a junior officer at the time, investigates the crime further, against the orders of his superiors. As usual, this is a compelling novel by a master storyteller.

Free Agent (2009) by Jeremy Duns

During World War II, Paul Dark was a young British agent, recruited by his father. At the end of the war, he took part in a mission to hunt down and execute Nazi war criminals. Twenty five years later a Russian defector turns up in Nigeria and reveals some information that makes him doubt everything he has been working for since the war. Paul goes to Nigeria to track down the truth. A very enjoyable spy story, the first of a trilogy, and along the way I learned a lot about Nigerian politics and history.

"True Thomas" by Reginald Hill

This week I drew the Queen of Spades, which led me to another story from 2nd Culprit: A Crime Writers' Annual, an anthology edited by Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin. This week's story was written by Reginald Hill (1936 - 2012), the author of the Dalziel and Pascoe mystery series, the Joe Sixsmith series, and many standalone novels, some written under the pseudonym Patrick Ruell. This story was first published in 1993 in this anthology.

"True Thomas" is not really a mystery story. There are characters who are policemen or lawyers or criminals, there is a crime, and there is a body. But there is no crime solving. The story really poses the questions: How honest can we be in our daily life? When is honesty more hurtful than helpful?

The story is told in an interesting way, using the ballad of True Thomas as the basis of a wager between the defence counsel and DI Tom Tyler. In literature, True Thomas, also known as Thomas the Rhymer, was carried off by the "Queen of Elfland" and returns unable to tell a lie. Tyler is upbraiding Sylvie Morphet (who he calls "Miss bloody Muffet", although not to her face) for telling lies and twisting the truth to defend her client, who has been set free. She challenges him to spend a 24 hour period telling only the truth.

Tyler thinks this will be a fairly easy bet that he can win, but in the next 24 hours he gets himself in trouble with his wife, his in-laws, and at work. Although not really a humorous story, this is a story that entertains and provides the reader with much to ponder.

Every other week I draw a random card to determine what short story I will read for the Deal Me In Short Story challenge. My list of short stories is here. Jay at Bibliophilopolis hosts the challenge.

Bones and Silence: Reginald Hill

Bones and Silence (1990) by Reginald Hill is the eleventh book in the Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural series. The series has a total of twenty four books, so I have many more to read, and I am glad of it.

Bones and Silence has two mysteries. The first is a death witnessed by Andy Dalziel while he is still more than a bit soused after a night of drinking. He sees the event through the back window of an adjoining house in his neighborhood. To him, it looks like murder. The witnesses, one of whom he insists is the murderer, say it was suicide.  The second thread is Pascoe's quest to find a woman who is threatening suicide. This woman has chosen Dalziel as her confidant, via letters, but Dalziel is not interested and Pascoe feels that he must follow up.

 

As usual in this series, the reader follows some events in the detectives lives. Pascoe's wife is involved in an arts production, an outdoor presentation of the Medieval Mysteries. Her gorgeous, statuesque friend, Eileen Chung, wants to dragoon Dalziel into playing an important role. Pascoe has just been made a Chief Inspector, and is getting used to the new rank and responsibilities.

In this series, the partners are neither buddies nor antagonists. There is mutual respect, and they lean on each other to benefit from their individual strengths. Dalziel is intelligent but coarse; Pascoe is educated and a family man.

Detective Sergeant Wield has a large role in this investigation and I like him as a supporting character. He is everything you want in a policeman; hard working, honest, loyal. He is also gay and trying to fit in with his co-workers and do a good job.

I have never read a book by Reginald Hill that I did not like. And he can do no wrong in the Dalziel and Pascoe series in my estimation. Although Reginald Hill was awarded the Gold Dagger for this book, the eleventh in the series, it is not my favorite so far. My favorites are the second, An Advancement of Learning, in which Pascoe meets his wife, and the seventh, Deadheads. 

Also reviewed at Crime Scraps, Mystery*File, and Celebrating Reginald Hill. 

U is for Under World

For this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, I am featuring Under World by Reginald Hill.  Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter U.

This book is the 10th in a series of 24 books. I read the first nine several years ago, and have the whole series in my TBR stacks and bookshelves.  Must move faster on that. Reginald Hill is a wonderful author. Based on my reading so far, he cannot write a bad book. Maybe some of his books not in the Dalziel and Pascoe series are a bit more humorous than I would like, but still very entertaining.


My take on Under World:

The book focuses in large part on Ellie Pascoe and her relationship with a young miner, Colin, who takes a class from her at the local university. She cannot resist getting involved with the troubles he and his family experience as a result of a crime that occurred a few years earlier. I get irritated with Ellie's willingness to get involved in activities that could be detrimental to her husband's job, and I find her to be an abrasive personality. But I do understand that this is part of her character and provides a way to explore themes beyond straight detection of crimes.

I like the partnership of the rough and crude Dalziel with the more refined and sensitive Pascoe, and I appreciate the respect they find for each over time. In most cases, I don't care for out and out humor in a mystery novel. However, Hill writes with subtle humor, especially in the interactions of Ellie and Pascoe and Pascoe's reactions to both Ellie and Dalziel. This is not my favorite of the series so far, but it is nevertheless an excellent novel, and whetted my appetite for more.

I read this book in late August. See my full review, which also includes a bit more information on Reginald Hill's career and writings.

Other links:

•  For the letter D in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, Margot Kinberg profiled one of the two main stars in this series, Andy Dalziel. See that post here.
• In June of this year, there was a blog to celebrate Reginald Hill's life and  writing. One post at that site included a great overview of Under World by Michael Walters.
• This page at Ex Libris Reviews has a nice overview of the whole police team in this series.

This is the full list of  the Dalziel and Pascoe series (with links to Fantastic Fiction):
1. A Clubbable Woman (1970)
2. An Advancement of Learning (1971)
3. Ruling Passion (1973)
4. An April Shroud (1975)
5. A Pinch of Snuff (1978)
6. A Killing Kindness (1980)
7. Deadheads (1983)
8. Exit Lines (1984)
9. Child's Play (1986)
10. Under World (1988)
11. Bones and Silence (1990)
12. One Small Step (1990)
13. Recalled to Life (1992)
14. Pictures of Perfection (1994)
15. The Wood Beyond (1995)
16. Asking For The Moon (1996) [four novellas]
17. On Beulah Height (1998)
18. Arms and the Women (1999)
19. Dialogues Of The Dead (2001)
20. Death's Jest Book (2002)
21. Good Morning, Midnight (2004)
22. Death Comes for the Fat Man (2007)
     aka The Death of Dalziel
23. A Cure for All Diseases (2008)
     aka The Price of Butcher's Meat
24. Midnight Fugue (2009)

Under World: Reginald Hill

I recently read Under World, the 10th novel in the Dalziel and Pascoe series written by Reginald Hill. I had not read any of the books in this series for a few years, although I was familiar with the main cast (Superintendant Dalziel, Detective Inspector Pascoe, and Pascoe's wife Ellie).

I have struggled to come up with a brief description that conveys the flavor of the book. I think this one at Felony & Mayhem does it best:

The small mining town of Burrthorpe is economically depressed and mistrustful of strangers—and cops. The return of handsome and volatile Colin Farr, whose dead father was once implicated in a child murder case, seems to dig up all the old troubles and bring on some new ones. Farr flirts dangerously with Ellie Pascoe and quickly becomes a suspect himself, in the murder of his nemesis. It is this latest event that brings out Andy Dalziel, just the man to help Pascoe out of the dark tunnels of the case.

The novel, published in 1989, is set in Yorkshire, and deals with turmoil in a mining community in the years after the 1984 miners’ strike. The strike caused changes in the lives of everyone who lived there. I know very little about mining here in the US or in the UK, and this was an eye opener for me.

Ellie Pascoe gets involved with the young Colin, who takes a class from her at the local university. Not involved romantically but in the troubles he and his family experience as a result of a crime that occurred a few years earlier. I will admit that I found Ellie's willingness, almost enthusiasm, to get involved in something that could be detrimental to her husband's job curious and irritating, and she is an abrasive personality. But I do understand that this is part of her character and provides a way to explore themes beyond straight detection of crimes. And it is very small criticism.

Hill's writing is superb, and every book I have read by him has entertained and educated me. I like the partnership of the rough and crude Dalziel with the more refined and sensitive Pascoe, and I appreciate the respect they find for each over time. In most cases, I don't care for out and out humor in a mystery novel. However, Hill writes with subtle humor, especially in the interactions of Ellie and Pascoe and Pascoe's reactions to both Ellie and Dalziel.

I would not say this is my favorite of the series so far, but it is still an excellent novel. The novels I like the best were An Advancement of Learning, set in academia, and the novel in which Pascoe meets Ellie; and Deadheads, which is not a traditional police procedural. In Deadheads, each chapter is the name of a rose. One of the main characters, Patrick Alderman, is a rose enthusiast. Deadheading is the process of clipping off dead flowers from a plant to encourage more flowering.

A Clubbable Woman was his first novel, and the first in the Dalziel and Pascoe series. The series has a total of 24 titles, so I have 14 more to read. And I have copies of them all.

Reginald Hill was born in 1936 at West Hartlepool, and died this year. He worked as a schoolmaster and a college lecturer until he began writing full time in 1980. He received the Gold Dagger for Bones and Silence (1990) and in 1995 he won the CWA’s Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.

Hill was a prolific writer, and wrote standalone novels, one other series, and some books under other names. From his obituary at the Guardian:

Hill was best known for his crime novels about Dalziel and Pascoe, which were adapted for BBC television from 1996 to 2007. It was not until 1980, when he became a full-time writer, that he realised that his books about the detective duo were his "banker", just as Ruth Rendell regarded her Inspector Wexford books as her "bread and butter". Even so, he refused to turn out one a year – the norm for crime writers with a series – preferring instead to alternate them with thrillers, historical novels, science fiction and, later, a smaller humorous series set in Luton, featuring the black private detective Joe Sixsmith.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge