Espionage Surprise: Charles Cumming, THE TRINITY SIX

American cover design

The publisher description of THE TRINITY SIX, fourth book from British Secret Service recruit-turned-novelist Charles Cumming, gave me the impression of something along the lines of John LeCarré or Charles McCarry -- a sixth member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring that included Kim Philby is discovered, long after the fact, and Sam Gaddis is out to reveal the truth.

But I was mistaken: Sam Gaddis is an academic, a struggling professor of history whose books on Russian politics haven't earned him enough to meet the mortgage payments and child support. And THE TRINITY SIX is the all-too-believable tale of how his need for "funds" pushes him into research based on the leftover files of two women: his long-time journalist friend Charlotte Berg, abruptly dead of a heart attack after attempting to enlist Sam in her project, and wacky eccentric Katye Levette, whose daughter Holly, a lovely actress, for some odd reason adopts Sam romantically while endowing him with boxes of her deceased mother's apparently insignificant papers.

Soon Sam finds himself struggling to pry some truth out of an aging man in a nursing home who claims to have know the sixth double agent. But while he's stumbling along the academic trail, other people connected to the old man's story are being killed, and by the time Sam realizes he's digging up dangerous material, the threat level for his own life -- and that of his distant little daughter -- has risen way above orange, blazing into red.

Rather than an classic espionage novel, Cumming provides a highly believable example of what could happen to any one of us if we pushed just a bit too hard to find out the truth about a political past maneuver. And if Sam's a hair too easily accepting of women who admire and assist him (a James Bond who lives in the next apartment building, without the special car?), he's entirely real in terms of his terror, grief, shock, and rabbit-like running, while insisting that people tell him what really happened -- and is happening now.

I found the book's start to be slow, but more believable because of it; Sam Gaddis faces the frustrations of any researcher, and anyone trying to get a cunning and attention-seeking elder to quit playing around and 'fess up. THE TRINITY SIX is a delicious read, confirming a growing reputation for Cumming, whose third book, Typhoon, also won acclaim.

British cover

I'm posting both the US and British cover designs here; this is one of the rare occasions when I think the American version came through at least as well. Thanks also to St. Martin's Press, you can read an excerpt from the book at the publisher's website. The author's site is also worth a visit.

Julia Spencer-Fleming: ONE WAS A SOLDIER -- A Must-Read

Get used to feeling uncomfortable, threatened, and scared. Julia Spencer-Fleming's new and long-awaited book, ONE WAS A SOLDIER, is scheduled for April 12 release. Those who've read her complex series featuring Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and upstate New York police chief Russ Van Alstyne already know how deftly Spencer-Fleming braids together small-town life and serious crime, as well as the sacrifices people make in order to stay loyal to what they value. Through the earlier six books of this series -- which began with In the Bleak Midwinter -- Clare and Russ have also struggled with their love for each other, and in this volume, the two are headed toward a scheduled wedding at last.

But with Clare's fierce-toothed case of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as she arrives home from a tour as a helicopter pilot in Iraq -- she's a major in the National Guard -- and the buried landmines in Russ's police team, there's reason to doubt that the wedding will ever take place. Even the crimes taking place in Millers Kill, from gruesome deaths to malicious fraud, pit the two lovers against each other.

Spencer-Fleming develops a compelling picture of the ways war and death cast their shadows into the lives that continue -- but are never the same -- afterward. And even the simplest deceptions, like that of the doctor who assumes he can keep his own issues hidden ("Nobody can know about this."), have desperate and costly ramifications. Honoring her commitments to community, faith, fellow soldiers, and her heart is going to cost Clare dearly.

Yes, you'll enjoy this book more if you've at least read the volume before it, I Shall Not Want. But if you don't have time now for the earlier work, grab this book when it arrives in April, and make a commitment to yourself to catch up on the others later. It's a series worth reading and re-reading, from an author who knows how to raise the stakes and pay the price. You'll shelve ONE WAS A SOLDIER next to mysteries by Charles Todd and Jacqueline Winspear, for the insight, the psychological complexity, and the deft use of suspense and crime to drive a plot that never lets go.

Kristin Hannah, NIGHT ROAD: Death and Heartache

Is NIGHT ROAD a mystery? Perhaps. There's a death, and a trial. Aspects of how Lexi Baill's actions put her through being tried for the death of a very close friend stay shadowed until nearly the end of the book.

And this is a compelling read in terms of emotions. Lexi, struggling under the disadvantages of being in state systems after the death of her addicted mother, would give almost anything to the beautiful siblings Mia and Zach, whose beautiful and attentive mom comes cautiously to accept Lexi's gifts to her children. But these three teens, at last caught up in powerful tides of love and loyalty, have no idea how hard life can become.

Smoothly written, evocative of both the Northwest and the tensions of American life, NIGHT ROAD explores most of all the paths of what can and cannot be forgiven. If you're looking for a "beach read" that challenges the emotions, this could be your book. It's been released earlier than planned (it came out this week). Author Kristin Hannah, who writes vividly of her terrain of both the heart and the landscape, tours widely and interacts with readers; see her website. This is her 19th book.

Don't get it for your mystery shelves; get this one for the heartache and the possibility of healing.

Layers of Love and Law: Jodi Picoult's SING YOU HOME

Jodi Picoult is now touring for her new book SING YOU HOME -- with a friend. Long-time collaborator Ellen Wilber, with whom Picoult worked on local musical productions, is traveling with her this time. We attended the first event for the book, on March 1 in Hanover, just "down the hill" from Picoult's home.

SING YOU HOME tackles a rapidly changing area of social structure, law, and medicine, as Zoe Baxter recovers from a broken heart -- a ten-year marriage without a live baby, followed by a divorce -- and discovers she can still love again. Her new beloved is another woman, and the two of them long to have children. Zoe and her ex-husband were enmeshed in in vitro fertilization, and three of the unused embryos are frozen, waiting for a chance to grow. Why not with Zoe and Vanessa?

For Zoe's husband Max, whose own recovery has led through alcohol abuse and into an evangelical Christian church, there are compelling reasons to refuse permission to Zoe for this. Wrestling with forms of love and loyalty, as well as with social standards, law, and even the definition of life, Picoult takes the three adults through powerful crises and changes.

Ellen Wilber

Readers of Picoult's earlier work -- like My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, The Tenth Circle, Keeping Faith -- will find this familiar turf. What's new this time is the voice of Zoe Baxter: Picoult wrote lyrics for songs that evoke Baxter's situation, from wanting a baby to grief and more -- and her friend Ellen Wilber put them to music. A CD of the songs is bound into each copy of the hardcover book, Wilber is bringing her guitar on tour with Picoult, sharing the songs as they travel. "I really wanted this book to come with a CD of original music, because I really wanted the readers to hear the voice of someone who is going through this," Picoult explained.

Here's wishing you a Picoult event near you; check the list on her website. And if you can't get there in person, we've got a couple of books signed by both Picoult and Wilber available.

Answers to the most common questions that Picoult fields: (a) She writes five days per week, from 7:30 or 8 a.m. to 3:20; (b) her husband Tim ("chief of staff") makes it possible to weave this career with their family; (c) she doesn't write sequels but does miss her characters, so some of them reappear occasionally.

A poignant sidetrack to this book: While Picoult was writing its heartfelt exploration of what it means to be gay and loving in today's America, her son Kyle "came out" to her and Tim; she wasn't surprised, but is touched by the timing. "Your job as a mom is to love them best," she pronounces; the only part NOT okay is to say to your child, "You are not who I wanted you to be." That's not a problem for her and Tim -- they are clearly proud of all three of their children, and happy with who they are.

Next from Picoult: an exploration of dying with dignity, bundled with the lives of wolves, in her 2012 book Lone Wolf.

Young Adult Reading: VIRALS by Kathy Reichs; THIS THING CALLED THE FUTURE by J.L. Powers

Here's a contrast of approaches: a noted crime novelist slips away from her much-appreciated series to write a story for teens -- VIRALS, by Kathy Reichs -- and a story seeker pauses in her research to spin her second novel for young adults: THIS THING CALLED THE FUTURE, by J.L. Powers. Both rely on twists of language and on the contrast between believing the world will turn out okay, and finding out that the responsibility for that good stuff is on your own shoulders after all (ouch).

I grabbed VIRALS right away because I'm a huge fan of Reichs's Temperance Brennan series that features a forensic anthropologist based in Canada and sometimes in North Carolina. The series is also now a TV show, Bones. And I was hoping Brennan would appear in this South Carolina island adventure.

Scratch that one. Brennan gets mentioned a couple of times, and Tory Brennan, her niece, is glad to be compared with her risk-taking, brilliant aunt. But there isn't even a cameo for the seasoned investigator. Tory and her friends accidentally trip over an illicit science experiment when she and her three friends -- all boys -- decide to rescue a wolfdog pup that's been captured and turned into a lab project on the nearby island where their parents mostly work. And the pup is really, really sick:

I looked down at Coop, sleeping in his improvised burrow. "I'll take care of you," I whispered. "Just get well.'

Outside, thunder rolled.

For Tory, whose mother died in a car accident and who is now living with the father she didn't even know existed until this year, there's way too much to adjust to in her life. Rescuing a puppy evens the odds. What she and her friends don't know, though, is that the pup is infected with a virus that can leap to them, too. And its effects are transforming -- if I mention the Fantastic Four, only the oldtimers and the history-of-comics folks will get this, so ... let's say that the virus has the potential to change the DNA of people who host it. Uh-oh. Rescuing the puppy and dodging the violent criminals might be the easy parts.

Jumping into South African urban life with fourteen-year-old Khosi, whose father can't afford the bride-price to marry her mom, provides a shattering contrast -- so don't read these two books back to back! They're for entirely different parts of the psyche, anyway. Where Reichs proposes that military- or crime-fueled science could invade the lives of a group of bright teens, J.L. Powers instead follows a real virus: HIV, which is so dangerous that it's spoken of sideways as "the disease of these days." Not only can it kill you if you catch it, but Khosi has to deal with the threat of a "dirty old man" willing to rape her, in hopes that forced sex with a virgin might cure him (or at least entertain him; he's awful). Her mother comes home from work terribly ill; her far-away father may have a newer, younger girlfriend; and the person who keeps rescuing her, as well as befriending her little sister Zi, is a breathtakingly good-looking boy practically her own age, Little Man, whose dark eyes, strong muscles, and unexpected kindness are pushing Khosi off balance.

Plus she has choices to make between the powerful traditions of her people, complete with herbal healers and ancestral voices that speak to Khosi and nudge her along, and the modern science and medicine that her mother says make up the right route for South Africa's future.

Inkosikazi Dudu has gone inside. But if she were standing in front of me, would I say the words that are flooding my mind? I'll be watching you. And if you dare do anything to my family, if you dare try to curse us, I'll come after you. I don't know how but I have friends and they'll help me.

Looking at the quiet neighborhood, the warning seems really crazy.

Where Reichs experiments in her book with "teen language," Powers fills her conversations with Zulu words that cling to the fabric of community and heritage. Where Tory Brennan is running from what's left of her family, Khosi is desperate to find ways to save what's left of hers.

Get both books. Reichs's book came out in November; the one from Powers is due out in May but you can pre-order it, so you won't forget it for your summer reading stack. So take advantage of that time gap to enjoy these a couple of weeks or months apart. I think Khosi is a true hero; I think Tory is a starting place for a sci-fi (even graphic novel) sequence. Might as well enjoy each!

Not a Mystery -- But Adventure, Oh Yes -- Joe Sacco

Photo by Josh Kramer -- see end of post.

Dave and I booked it down to Dartmouth College yesterday to meet the author and cartoonist Joe Sacco and hear him talk. The event, sponsored by the Center for Cartoon Studies (http://www.cartoonstudies.org), brought Sacco from Portland, Oregon, to give a half-hour lecture on "Comics as Journalism," with a nifty set of visuals from his books and illustrated journal, followed by half an hour of questions from students. Also salted into the crowd were long-time fans like us, and people whose interests clicked with the regions Sacco has visited and portrayed in his mix of black-and-white drawings and carefully authentic voices from the people he wants to promote: "people who are dispossessed, swept under the rug of history," he said.

Born on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean, Sacco grew up in Australia and on the American West Coast (Los Angeles, Portland). He provides a solid explanation for the power of his work. "Over time I realized this accidental bringing together of first-person narrative and journalism has real impact." Most important to him in his choices on the page is a determination to admit his own subjectiveness as an observer. But from the start of his journalistic portrayals, Sacco has given the page character who represent him "blanked out" eyes behind glasses, denying readers a look directly into Sacco and pushing them instead to examine the world he visits, whether in Palestine or Bosnia or, now in a work in progress, "post-industrial America."

Sacco's desire to "take the reader viscerally to a time and place" results in his use of comics to build up, through sequential images, an accumulating set of evidence that makes a point about what he witnesses. "Drawing is interpretive and I am a filter," he repeated. The inherent tension between his literal quotes (collected with the help of local interpreters) and his drawings is meant to dig up truth -- "It's more an interpretive truth than a literal truth," he adds. He dances between the effect of "being there" in person, and being a motivated observer who wants to take the words and situation to the bigger screens of the rest of the world. "You've got to keep some emotional distance," he admits, "otherwise there's no point in you being there. You'd just collapse."

Sacco's work takes two or three years from idea to pages, so he constantly tests his ideas, struggling for what will still be worthwhile by the time it comes to fruition. He won an American Book Award for his Palestine and shook readers with Safe Area Gorazde, introduced by political commentator Christopher Hitchens. See more of his titles at Fantagraphics Books. His current work on post-industrial America has already taken him and collaborator Chris Hedges to Camden, New Jersey, and to West Virginia mountaintop removal sites. Yes!
***

My thanks to Josh Kramer, a 2011 student at the Center for Cartoon Studies, for the photo of Joe Sacco here. Kramer's blog (http://joshkramer.wordpress.com) is well worth visiting; I like his use of color, and his B&W drawings are already provocative. Here's to seeing more of his work, like Joe Sacco's, in the years ahead.

Books to Look Forward To: Peter Lovesey, Cara Black, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Eliot Pattison ... and Jan Merete Weiss!

Thanks to the process of advance review copies, I've been "reading ahead" by several months. Great news: There are some really, really good mysteries and thrillers coming out this spring.

First on the list -- because it's being released next week -- is MURDER IN PASSY by Cara Black. This is book 11 in Black's series set in the various quarters of Paris, and it's packed with action and exotic moments to savor. Aimée Leduc's godfather, Morbier, pleads with her to intercede in his personal life. But that turns political almost immediately, and between murder, police corruption, and Basque terrorists, the intrepid investigator in black coat, high-heeled boots, and wispy hair, with her Gallic shoulder shrug, is on the run once again. This will be a huge treat for Leduc fans; and if you haven't yet dug into the series, it's a good moment to start, as there's little that depends on the other volumes.

Black's tour to meet with readers and promote the book begins on Monday February 28 at M Is for Mystery, one of our favorite shops (San Mateo, CA); although a lot of her tour is on the West Coast, I'm excited to see she'll be in Boston on May 4.

Women writing mysteries are clearly influencing each other to dig deeper, write more powerfully, and tackle the toughest topics. Canadian author Louise Penny has blurbed the phenomenal new book from Julia Spencer-Fleming, ONE WAS A SOLDIER. Yes, it's Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne -- but it's also major issues on PTSD and how we all handle (or don't handle) it. I'll give a full-length review in a few weeks, when we're closer to the April release. (Meanwhile, I keep humming the song each time I type or say the name of the book -- anyone else having that experience??)

Also coming in April, a new series from Edgar Award-winning author Eliot Pattison, opening with ASHES OF THE EARTH. A provocative look at "post-apocalyptic" America through the eyes of a grieving and lonely middle-aged man, it's a classic Pattison work in seeking both spiritual centering and human friendships across generations, while solving an intense sequence of brutal crimes. A must.

[I'm also eager for Clea Simon's DOGS DON'T LIE to his its April release; the author will be at Kingdom Books in June. And there's a new Michael Connelly in early April, THE FIFTH WITNESS, but even before that, Connelly's Lincoln Lawyer comes to the screen on March 18 -- good discussions with Connelly on the film here, and see the movie trailer here.]

I'm elated that Soho Crime is bringing another debut author to print whose work is fresh, edgy, and irresistible -- that's Jan Merete Weiss, who grew up in Puerto Rico and brings the (literal) underworld of Naples, Italy, to the pages of THESE DARK THINGS. Pub date is May; you'll hear more from me before then. Fingers crossed, we'd love to have this author come to Vermont to talk about her work.

And Peter Lovesey's STAGESTRUCK won't be available until June, but for this highly satisfying classic mystery -- British, and rich with stagecraft -- it's worth the wait.

Mystery Authors on the Blogs: Two Intriguing Entries

There's a thought-provoking piece by Eric Stone on Murder by 4 this week: http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2011/02/electric-shocks.html

And this interview with the son-and-mother team "Charles Todd" caught my eye:
http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2011/02/interview-with-charles-todd-charles.html 

Great images in this interview with Anne Hillerman, daughter of the great Tony Hillerman, interviewed by Jean Henry Mead on "Writers of the West"
http://writersofthewest.blogspot.com/2011/02/visit-with-anne-hillerman.html

Agatha Award ("Traditional Mysteries") Nominees, "2010"

Here's the full list chosen from books published in 2010; voting happens at the Malice Domestic convention, and winners will be announced at the conference, on April 30, 2011:

Best Novel:
Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard (Ballantine)
Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Mira)
Truly, Madly by Heather Webber (St. Martin's Paperbacks)

Best First Novel:
The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames (Berkley)
Murder at the PTA by Laura Alden (Signet)
Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower (Five Star/Gale)
Full Mortality by Sasscer Hill (Wildside Press)
Diamonds for the Dead by Alan Orloff (Midnight Ink)

Best Non-fiction:
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (Penguin)
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran (Harper)
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Stephen Doyle & David A. Crowder (For Dummies)
Have Faith in Your Kitchen by Katherine Hall Page (Orchises Press)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Best Short Story:
"Swing Shift" by Dana Cameron, Crimes by Moonlight (Berkley)
"Size Matters" by Sheila Connolly, Thin Ice (Level Best Books)
"Volunteer of the Year" by Barb Goffman, Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin' (Wildside Press)
"So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Sept./Oct. 2010
"The Green Cross" by Liz Zelvin, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - August 2010

Best Children's/Young Adult:
Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer by John Grisham (Dutton Children's)
Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R. L. LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin)
The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee (Candlewick)
Virals by Kathy Reichs (Razorbill)
The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith (Atheneum)

Donald E. Westlake/Richard Stark, 1933-2008

News from Dave:

At Kingdom Books we fondly remember the visit a few years ago by the Grand Master of mystery Donald E. Westlake and his wife Abby.  The Westlakes spent the evening with our customers at a dinner that was hosted by Beth in our dining room. Then the Westlakes and our customers attended a book signing and question-and-answer session in our shop. Westlake answered every question with grace and precision and signed many books for the Kingdom Books shop that we had gathered over a period of months. Abby was a delight and was also the co-author with Donald of two books that we had available to customers, and the author, under the name of Abby Adams, of one of her own.

I have read many of Donald E. Westlake's books over the years and I am an enthusiastic reader and collector of his Richard Stark novels.  I especially enjoy his earliest works because they were more hard-boiled and "noir." Both Beth and I are huge fans of Westlake’s Tucker Coe series of five books written in the 1970s about a disgraced former New York City police officer. We devoured the five Tucker Coe novels in about five days and were longing for more titles in that series.

At the end of the evening Donald E. Westlake kindly signed all the books in my collection of his works, and at that time I believe I had over 100 titles. The only books in the collection that he wouldn’t sign were three “sleazy” novels that Westlake had written in the early years of his career in order to provide funds for his growing family. The “sleazy” novels were written under several pseudonyms, and that brings up another interesting facet of Donald E. Westlake’s career. Because he loved writing, he often produced several stories or books within a very short time, and the pen names allowed him to get most of them readily into print.

Some of the pseudonyms he used were the following:

Richard Stark

Tucker Coe

Alan Marshall

Alan Marsh

James Blue      

Ben Christopher

John Dexter     

Andrew Shaw

Edwin West     

John B. Allan   

Don Holliday   

Curt Clark

P. N. Castor

Timothy Culver

J. Morgan Cunningham

Samuel Holt

Judson Jack Carmichael

Over the years at Kingdom Books we have had the good fortune of providing our customers with many Richard Stark titles.  On one of our visits to the Bay Area a few years ago we purchased about 20 Stark titles for a collector in Vermont.

Just last week we purchased a large collection of Richard Stark paperbacks of 12 of the first titles in the series, and we will soon have them listed on ABE Books or for purchase directly from Kingdom Books. Many of these copies are not creased and are unread, which is very unusual for these titles.  (This is the Avon series.)

The Hunter

The Mourner

The Outfit

The Man With the Getaway Face

The Score       

The Jugger

The Handle

The Seventh

The Green Eagle Score

Plunder Squad (scarce title)

Butcher’s Moon (scarce title)

The Sour Lemon Score & Deadly Edge (omnibus) (uncommon title)

As a bookseller, we are proud to have these Richard Stark titles available for purchase.

William G. Tapply: The Brady Coyne Series

In November 2010, the 25th -- and final -- Brady Coyne novel from William G. Tapply was published, a little more than a year after the author's unexpected death. Sixty-nine is too young to go, when you're on a roll like this one. And what a roll it was: From the first Brady Coyne mystery in 1984. DEATH AT CHARITY'S POINT, to the polished gem of OUTWITTING TROLLS (at a guess, a working title, one that gives the spice of a very different point of view to the arc of the tale).

I haven't been a Tapply reader until recently. OUTWITTING TROLLS is a smooth, irresistible work of detective fiction, not quite dark enough to be noir, not quite sweet enough for cozy, but neatly plotted and full of heart. I can see why Kate Mattes, the noted bookseller of Kate's Mystery Books, compared Tapply and Robert Parker in Tapply's obituary; that sense of heart, of being willing to be fully human and determined and risk-taking but also honestly apologetic and willing to start over -- that's what Parker's protagonists and Boston-based lawyer Brady Coyne share, and I suspect the authors shared something similar.

As OUTWITTING TROLLS opens, Coyne is enjoying reconnecting with an old friend, from the days when he and his veterinarian neighbor Ken Nichols were both still married, with children around the same ages, and able to assist each other: Nichols for the Coyne pets, Coyne for the Nichols business legalities. And although their divorces shattered the pretty images, the two men still converse as the old, good friends they were -- and may be again.

When Nichols's ex-wife finds him murdered the next day, though, it's Brady Coyne she calls for help.

I didn't expect to be so caught up in the gentle pursuit that Coyne begins, but ... I was, and I didn't put the book down until it was done. It's a satisfying ending, with just the right number of clues to feel fair, and enough work to feel that Coyne earned the finale.

Then I pulled out Dave's copy of the first of Tapply's novels, also a Brady Coyne one: DEATH AT CHARITY'S POINT. You can feel the edginess in this one, the choppy sentences, the phrasings that derive from the pulps, the classic noir, the old-time detective stories. And it's good to see what a quarter century of attentive writing and joyful living did for the author, enriching his storytelling and making him able to say nice things without sounding saccharine. I like the online page where Tapply describes the choices he made for that first book, and for the series.

I'll be reading more of these. There's a good list of them on Tapply's website, of course, along with the handful of other detective novels and nonfiction books that he crafted. It's a good heritage; I have to guess, it's the work of a good person, working hard, long, and with hope.

Noir or Post-Modern? More on THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X

From the film "Suspect X"

Translator Alexander O. Smith and adaptation pro Elye J. Alexander visited Kingdom Books today, as part of the long follow-up conversation on the review we shared for the book they brought into English together, THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X by award-winning Japanese novelist Keigo Higashino. Process for this pair of seasoned collaborators involves multiple transitions among languages and "language." Smith, who is fluent in Japanese (lived in Japan, studied there, married there), does a rough translation with plenty of side notes adding dimension; then Elye Alexander, whose background is in English and American literature (as well as custom house building), transforms the material into a more finished text. Obviously there's a lot of back-and-forth, sometimes including a Japanese author's input, in this process -- the team, with more members (www.kajiyaproductions.com), has a number of novels, video games, and card-based role-playing games to its credit in transferring meaning from one culture and tongue to another.

Although I felt frustrated with Higashino's book, I'm seeing it from new angles as I learn more about this author's track record as well as the translation process. There's no question that THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X belongs in the "noir" category of crime fiction -- gritty, blunt, at times grim, suspenseful. But it's also probably best seen as part of the post-modern movement in fiction. Moreover, Smith pointed out that he retained many of the Japanese habits of exposition in this translation, habits that reaffirm the "we" aspect of being Japanese: confirming that people understand each other and are on the same page, so to speak.

Here's a Boston Globe review of the book that tackles it from yet another direction: http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2011/02/07/math_and_mystery_set_in_modern_japan

If you're in or near Vermont, you can meet Alex Smith and Elye Alexander on March 24 in St. Johnsbury, at what promises to be an exciting presentation -- here's the press release:

Secrets of translation and adaptation for a murder thriller, fantasy fiction, video games, and fantasy-based card-playing games come to St. Johnsbury Academy on Thursday March 24 at 3:30 p.m., as Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander present their work for students and the public, in the Grace Stuart Orcutt Library.

Often translation is a hidden art, but Smith and Alexander, both Vermont residents, found their work getting international attention this year as Macmillan/St. Martin's Press published their version of Keigo Higashino's award-winning detective mystery "The Devotion of Suspect X." How do they transform Japanese literature into "good reading" for English-speaking readers? What choices do they make around the author's original phrasing and pacing?

Through Kajiya Productions, Smith and Alexander also translate video and online games, as well as speculative fiction, poems, and even songs. Smith is an alum of Dartmouth with graduate work at Harvard, and Alexander is a Harvard alum, but the two men first met in grade school in Craftsbury, Vermont.

This event is co-sponsored by St. Johnsbury Academy faculty members in Creative Writing, English, Japanese, and Visual Arts, and hosted by the school's library, with support from Kingdom Books, who will make books available after the event.

The Grace Stuart Orcutt Library is handicap accessible. For more information, contact librarian Linda Wooster at 802-751-2100.

Stop Shoveling Snow, Take Time to Chuckle: Barbara Allan, ANTIQUES KNOCK-OFF

Dave and I were in New York City about ten days ago and marveled at how tough it's been for city dwellers to deal with snow. The main problem is, there's no place to push it there ... and who keeps snow shovels in their high-rise condo apartments, anyway? We saw heaps of bagged trash lingering on mounds of soiled snow, too. And it was more than a little shivery to read an AP news story yesterday about what's showing up now that the snow is melting: yes, at least three bodies were under it.

With that in mind, the new mystery from "Barbara Allan" -- the husband-and-wife team of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins -- is a fitting antidote to any seasonal blues, putting life into perspective as more than a little crazy, and worth laughing about. ANTIQUES KNOCK-OFF, the fifth in the madcap series featuring Brandy Borne, self-described as "thirty-one, bottle blonde, divorced, who came running home last year to live with her bipolar mother," poses one quandary after another. Brandy reveals all, with layers of parenthetical remarks (should we call this meta-fiction?), and plenty of understandable resentments of her unexpected family situation. Not only is she carrying a baby for a friend (yep, surrogate mom), but she has a newly discovered "birth mother" of her own, swimming in money and uninterested in having Brandy damage her social standing.

Add an antiques business to the mother-daughter antics, a bit of hanky-panky over some clocks, and reputations on the line, and the Barbara Allan team has a bubbling stew of mishaps, murders, and motherhood. Plan to shelve this one next to your string of Donald Westlake caper novels or just before Lawrence Block. Here's a short sample:

Mother and I exchanged sickened looks. This type of scam was one of the vilest, preying upon the sentiments of the bereaved at a vulnerable time. Usually, however, the merchandise -- often diamonds or other valuable jewelry -- was authentic, to keep the seller out of trouble. But the scam perpetrated on Mrs. Vancamp had taken another, nasty twist: the merchandise was fake. ...

Mother's manner softened. ... "Luckily, since her eyesight is so bad, I doubt she'll ever be the wiser."

"Unless she tries to sell it," I pointed out.

Uh-oh.

By the way, the book was scheduled for March release, but the big online retailer has it due out on February 22, and the authors say it's already available somehow. Visiting their website/blog is also a good way to lighten up in midwinter, whether you're watching the city snow melt, preparing to shovel more white wonder in the snowbelts, or thanking your lucky stars you only have a few weeks until it's time to plant your peas (that one's for you, Marsha). And what's the point of life without a generous splash of fun?

Get Thee to a Library: Catching up with Suzanne Arruda and Kerry Greenwood

Thank goodness, winter slows things down enough so I can duck into the library and survey the shelves. And here in northeastern Vermont, the library has a good assortment of mysteries. It's one of the great ways to check out an author's work when you don't yet know it -- and that's how I finally burrowed into books by Suzanne Arruda and Kerry Greenwood during the recent snowstorms.

Suzanne Arruda's series is in its sixth volume, THE CROCODILE'S LAST EMBRACE (2010). Set in 1920s Africa, it features adventurous Jade Del Cameron, whose family and close friends -- among them a cheeetah -- can't keep her out of trouble. After all, she's had nose for crime, and that, in turn, means she's on the revenge list for criminals from her past. In this smoothly written "good read," Jade worries she's going mad, literally: Apparitions, dreams, visions even when awake, haunt her and proclaim she'll never escape the claims of a dead lover. From basic aviation to the nasty habits of crocodiles, Jade has a lot to learn before she'll be able to turn her hunter into the hunted.

I picked up the 2010 Kerry Greenwood, DEAD MAN'S CHEST, when I noticed the cover blurb calling is "the best Australian import since Nicole Kidman." I've had so much pleasure in Australian mysteries by Garry Disher and the classics by Arthur Upfield that I couldn't resist trying another. Greenwood's "Phryne Fisher Mystery" series is in volume 16, polished, funny, poignant, and immaculately plotted. Although it's not especially scary, it gives another delicious take on the Roaring Twenties, with intriguing insight into class and social standing as well. Call it a sunnier version of the Dorothy Sayers series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane -- Phryne (pronounced to rhyme with "briny") has insight, tolerance, and an urge to see the silly side of neighbors, as well as their prejudices. I enjoyed it all, and will look for earlier volumes; the author's character website is also good fun.

Now, get thee to a library or bookshop. Why not?

Coming tomorrow: A look at the latest partner effort of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins under their joint writing name Barbara Collins: Antiques Knock-Off, a Trash 'n' Treasures mystery.

Yes, book lovers really do visit Kingdom Books in this season ... that's why we treasure the work of our "plow jockey" on that long driveway!

The Dilys Award: When Booksellers Vote Their Joy

IMBA, the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, has a great annual award that lets booksellers speak up for the titles they've most enjoyed selling, recognizing the personal touch that mystery booksellers hold dear. This year's finalists have just been named; visit the IMBA site to see finalists and winners from recent years:

The DILYS AWARD

The Dilys Award has been given annually since 1992 by IMBA to the mystery titles of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. The Dilys Award is named in honor of Dilys Winn, the founder of the first specialty bookseller of mystery books in the United States.

The nominees for the book we most enjoyed handselling in 2010, to be awarded at the 2011 Left Coast Crime Convention are:

Love Songs from a Shallow Grave, Colin Cotterill (Soho)

The Lock Artist, Steve Hamilton (Minotaur)

Moonlight Mile, Dennis Lehane (William Morrow)

Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny (Minotaur)

Once a Spy, Keith Thomson (Doubleday)

Savages, Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster)

Getting Competitive: Edgar Award Finalists and More ...

It was 27 degrees below zero when I crawled out from under two down-filled comforters this morning. Among the plusses of weather like this are clear blue sky and crisp air (very crisp).  Vision seems endless; light and energy crackle. Mittens get properly tested.

I caught up on a few books last week that I'll review over the next few days. While I was in "reading mode," some new lists of award finalists emerged. Dave's been scrambling to restore our holdings of some of them; we were both very pleased to see some of our favorites on the Edgar finalists list.

So, here are the finalists for the Edgar Awards, announced last week by the Mytery Writers of America. Winners are announced April 28.

BEST NOVEL
Caught by Harlan Coben (Penguin Group USA – Dutton)
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
Faithful Place by Tana French (Penguin Group USA – Viking)
The Queen of Patpong by Timothy Hallinan (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books)
I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins – William Morrow)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)
The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books)
The Serialist: A Novel by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)
Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
Snow Angels by James Thompson (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House – Bantam)
The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)
BEST FACT CRIME
Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity
by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press – Bison Original)
The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in Jim Crow South by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)
Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr and the International Hunt for his Assassin by Hampton Sides (Random House – Doubleday)
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf)
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Atlantic – Grove Press)
Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran (HarperCollins)
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendevouz with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)
BEST SHORT STORY
“The Scent of Lilacs” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)
“The Plot” – First Thrills by Jeffery Deaver (Tom Doherty – Forge Books)
“A Good Safe Place” – Thin Ice by Judith Green (Level Best Books)
“Monsieur Alice is Absent” – Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
by Stephen Ross (Dell Magazines)
“The Creative Writing Murders” – Dark End of the Street by Edmund White (Bloomsbury)

***

Saturday night the National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2010 awards. Note that there aren't any (intentional) mysteries here:

Fiction:
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Knopf)
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (FSG)
To the End of the Land by David Grossman (Knopf)
Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson (FSG)
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Faber Faber)
Nonfiction:
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick (Random House)
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (Simon Schuster)
Apollo’s Angels by Jennifer Homans (Random House)
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukharjee (Simon Schuster)
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House)
Autobiography:
Half A Life by Darin Strauss (McSweeneys)
Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco)
Crossing Mandelbaum Gate by Kai Bird (Simon Schuster)
Autobiography of An Execution by David Dow (Hachette)
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve)
Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (Feminist Press)
Biography:
How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Questions and Twenty Attempts at An Answer by Sarah Bakewell (Other Press)
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography by Selina Hastings
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yuente Huang
The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers
Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends by Tom Segev
Criticism:
The Posessed by Elif Batuman (FSG)
The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle (HarperCollins)
Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia, Poland, and the West by Clare Cavanagh (Yale)
The Cruel Radience by Susan Linfield (Univ. of Chicago)
Vanishing Point by Ander Monson (Graywolf)
Poetry:
One With Others by C.D. Wright (Copper Canyon)
Nox by Anne Carson (New Directions)
The Eternal City by Kathleen Graber (Princeton)
Lighthead by Terrance Hayes (Penguin)
The Best of It by Kay Ryan (Grove)

David Downing, POTSDAM STATION: April 2011 (But UK Edition Now!)

UK edition

US edition

There's still a long season to wait until Soho Crime releases David Downing's fourth John Russell thriller, a piercing and multidimensional adventure through the final days of the Third Reich. So there are two actions available right this moment: (1) Reserve a copy of the US first edition hardcover through your indie bookseller or online. (2) Cruise the online sources and pick up the British version, which came out earlier -- but only in paperback -- in the UK. All things considered, and looking also at the very different cover designs for the two sides of the Atlantic, my best advice would be: Do both.

Because there's no question that POTSDAM STATION is a must if you're reading and/or collecting World War II thrillers. And Downing writes of both love and violence within this three-voiced narrative. John Russell, of British and American citizenship, has been forced to leave Germany at the peak of the war in order to survive. His son Paul (with mother and stepfather) has remained behind and enlisted in the German forces. His lover, the film star Effi Koenen, helped make Russell's escape possible and has hidden from the Nazi officers who would have forced her into propaganda (and a form of political prostitution). Effi is still in Berlin, which is now, in this fourth and final volume of the war adventure, caught in the pincer grip of the Allies: the Americans and British approaching from the west, and the Russian forces from the east. With General Eisenhower's decision that the Russians can "have" Berlin, John Russell takes a desperate chance to reach Berlin before the notoriously rapacious forces of the Russians arrive -- he flies to Russia and attempts to become an embedded journalist.

However, Russell lands directly into the mess of Russia's lust for the atomic bomb technology that the Germans presumably have discovered. And he's tangled up with men who've been labeled traitors by the Communists. He may spend the rest of the war -- maybe the rest of his life -- in jail. When an alternative arises, it's one that demands immense courage and physical risk.

And Effi's assistance to Jewish refugees desperate to leave Germany costs her both home and safety, so that she flees with a young Jewish orphan, Rosa, who rapidly becomes her adopted daughter of the heart.

Perhaps most poignant, young Paul, barely of adult age at all, has already lost fellow soldiers and friends to the brutal bombardment of the Eastern Front and is expected to donate his life to the final defense of Berlin against the Russians; should he run from this, he'd be shot as a deserter -- and besides, he has only his honor left.

In rapid rotations of narrative, these three people move toward each other as the Russians invade. But whether they can finally connect -- and how much they'll lose in the process -- is by no means certain. In Effi's words:

Well, if she had another birthday in May, it would be her thirty-ninth. Which might well be too late, though miracles happened. And then there was Rosa, or whatever her real name was. Effi had only known the girl for ten days, but already found life without her hard to imagine. And there was no one to send her back to. She wondered how John would feel about adopting a daughter. She wasn't sure why, but she felt fairly confident that he'd like the idea. And Paul, if he lived, could be the grown-up brother.

The thought brought tears to her eyes. She lay there in the dark, the sleeping girl enfolded in her arms, trying not to sob.

Downing keeps the suspense at fever pitch for more than three hundred pages of wartime anguish. He braids the plot movement skillfully and intensely. But most of all, he paints with delicate certainty the kinds of love that blossom under threat of war: love for comrades, for vulnerable onlookers, for distant loyalties that may never be rewarded in fact but that thrive in the heart and sustain hope.

Again, let me place Downing among some of the others who write this period: He catches the mixed feelings of Germany with more variation than LeCarré's narrative of British Empire's collapse; he weaves tenderness and sacrifice with more gentleness and quite a bit more (ironic) sunshine than Alan Furst; and he summons the forlorn hopes of the Russian Revolution and the early Communist era, embedding it deftly in the magnificence of Russia's mythic and literary past.


This period of history is very hard to write with suspense, because we know so much about "what's going to happen," from the end of the war and the death of Adolf Hitler, to the grief of all of Europe in the postwar years, to American renewal out of the ashes of war. Hats off to Downing for making it work. When you've read this one, let me know what you think of the finale, would you please?

Arnaldur Indridason: List of Titles

In December we put up a review of HYPOTHERMIA, the newest US edition from Arnaldur Indridason. Here's a list of the titles to catch up with in the Detective Erlendur series:

Synir duftsins (Sons of Dust, 1997)
Daudarósir (Silent Kill, 1998)
Myrin (Tainted Blood UK title, Jar City US title, 2000)
Grafarpögn (Silence of the Grave, 2001)
Röddin (Voices, 2003)
Kleifarvatin (The Draining Lake, 2004)
Vetrarborgin (Arctic Chill, 2005)
Hardskafi (Hypothermia, 2007; US, 2010)
Myrka (2008, not yet translated)
Svörtuloft (2009, not yet translated)
Furdustrandir (2010, not yet translated)

New Hannah Swenson Mystery, DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE MURDER, by Joanne Fluke

When the investigator owns a bakery, recipes have a major role in her life -- so it makes perfect sense that Joanne Fluke's newest Hannah Swenson mystery (due out in March), DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE MURDER, is packed with sweet treats. In fact, my count from the review copy is 25 recipes, with their own index! And each one includes suggestions from the character who provides the recipe during the course of Hannah's investigation labors, and from Hannah, and often from her partners and friends who've experimented with it. Now, if that doesn't encourage you to take risks and do it your own way, what else could? Some of the recipes extend to four or five or even six pages, with tips on how to combine ingredients, how to substitute when you're out of something, and how to come up with new variations. It's a wonder!

That said, I'm glad to say that the murder mystery presenting all these goodies is also yummy. Readers of the series -- and you don't have to have read any of the others before this one, although it will add some color and some explanations to the quandaries -- already know that Hannah is an independent woman, a good businessperson, an adept creator and changer of recipes, and ... torn between two wonderful men in her life. DEVIL'S FOOD MURDER puts that problem front and center, when Hannah begins to realize that both of her swains are also dating the far too adorable "Dr. Bev," a former fiancée of one of the men (Norman). They're blunt about it: When Hannah isn't out with Norman, he's with Bev, and the same thing holds for her police-force date, Mike. It's an odd way for Hannah to finally have to make up her own mind about commitment.

And that would be my only criticism of this volume: that Hannah's predicament is more complex and challenging than the murder she's determined to solve, that of a substitute minister who's returned to the area as a favor for an old friend. Also challenging is the behavior of Hannah's cat, Moishe, who may be finding a way to get Hannah's rolled-up socks out of her drawer and up onto the refrigerator each morning! Or could it be that Hannah is so overstressed that she's sleepwalking?

All strands come together in the book's finale ... but not everything gets resolved, and it's clear there will be another Hannah Swenson investigation in the near future. It's a quirky way to add to your recipe collection ... but with gems like Death by Caffeine Mocha Trifle, Sally's Apricot Bread, and Chocolate-Covered Raisin Cookies, this book definitely belongs in the kitchen, among all the other tools and weapons available there. Last but not least, this is probably the only mystery author who dares to include a recipe for the cat to enjoy!

One caution: Pick up this book, and you'll want to check out the earlier ones, too. It's not just Hannah's complicated life, or her deft digging into criminal activities that affect her friends. It's those recipes! And just to make your stomach growl a little more, Fluke's website now includes an index to the recipes, indicating which ones are in which books. Special added announcement: A cookbook collection is coming out next October, which will sit next to the Nero Wolfe version on my shelf.

Ready for a Snow Day ...

Second Gunn Zoo Mystery from Betty Webb: THE KOALA OF DEATH

This morning's time spent browsing through picturebooks for my animal-loving grandson reminded me that I wanted to mention an animal-oriented mystery author: Betty Webb, and her second Gunn Zoo mystery, THE KOALA OF DEATH. If you avoid "animal mysteries" for fear of running into a talking cat, you can still keep this tight, enjoyable murder mystery on your list of books-to-catch-up-with. It was released in summer 2010, and it features Theodora "Teddy" Bentley, a zookeeper with a knack for confronting danger. Most of the time, that's not from the creatures in the zoo exhibits -- but from individuals whose greed and fear (those noted twin motivations) lead them to assume they have the right to kill people who are in their way. The first Teddy Bentley book was The Anteater of Death; Webb is a seasoned author with a wide body of work, and her skill shows right away in this fresh series.

Don't count on cute koalas, though, if cute means "like a cuddly person-baby"; the animals in this zoo act just the way real animals do, from occasional mooning for the camera (if there's a bona fide edible reward visible) to, umm, "making a mess" when upset or threatened. And Bentley, a realist, deals with such crises just fine; it's the human ones that she mistakenly assumes may somehow go away. A good read, with just the right amount of grim threat mingled with satisfying out-maneuvering and a hearty dash of self-awareness blending into a smile. Here's a very typical passage from early in the book:

Grayness swirled around me in a fog so thick that only the
outline of the boat next to mine was visible. A blue and white
CrisCraft twice the size of my Merilee, the Gutterball bobbed
gently in the harbor’s calm water. The night before, its owners,
Doris and Sam Grimaldi, had thrown a noisy party that lasted
far too late. I’d stayed until ten, then came back home to the
Merilee to get some sleep, but found myself still awake at one,
listening to a boat full of drunks guffaw at jokes so ancient they
should have died with the dinosaurs.

Quick perspective: Webb's zoo mysteries are less aimed for laughter than the ones that Donna Andrews writes (nice interview of Andrews here on the Sisters in Crime blog!), and they won't give you nightmares. On the other hand, if your experience of them is like mine, you'll have trouble holding onto these, because you'll keep thinking of good friends who'd enjoy them.

Marcia Muller, COMING BACK: A Sharon McCone Mystery

I like especially the dedication to this latest by Marcia Muller, which was released in October: "For all those who came back, And those who waited for them." Surely it's a metaphor for a lot of areas of life beyond the suspense thriller  COMING BACK.

But for investigator Sharon McCone -- at a quick count on Muller's website, this is her 29th appearance -- coming back is about more than just showing up for work again. In the preceding volume, Locked In, a gunshot wound to the brain imprisoned McCone, without speech, in her own body, unable to control even the simplest movement. It's called Locked In Syndrome, a terrifying consequence of an unbearable attack to the brain and nervous system. And McCone's husband and partner Hy Ripinsky had to round up the team's colleagues to solve the case, without knowing whether his wife would, indeed, return to him in any meaningful way.

At the opening of COMING BACK, the couple is still in trouble. McCone's ability to speak and move is almost back to normal, although her stamina and confidence are far from healed. The same applied to the marriage, as well as to the investigating firm. Not only does McCone have reason to doubt her capacity -- her employees, in turn overprotective and despairing, aren't treating her like a teammate. Without the links that make this team function, it's vulnerable. More specifically, Sharon is vulnerable -- and through her, so is Hy.

The suspense level is intense, almost unbearable, by the time the first few chapters have sped by. Muller's decision to break the book into multiple character viewpoints, switching every few pages, adds to the rough experience -- this is a book that demands reading rapidly, because the risks and damages pile up, not just to Sharon and Hy, but all around them.

Muller's expertise is well-honed, and for pure suspense, this mystery will have readers -- dare I say it? -- coming back, and pounding on the door.

Charles Todd, A LONELY DEATH: Post World War I British

Inspector Ian Rutledge, as a member of Scotland Yard and, equally importantly, a man who can mingle with the wealthy while empathizing with those trapped on the bottom rungs, is one of the few series detectives who moves from volume to volume without a close partner -- unless you count the voice of Hamish in his mind, as startling and sometimes deafening to him as sounds in the rooms around him, but acknowledged as part of his post-traumatic stress, known at the time as "shell shock."

In the newest volume of Rutledge's investigations, son-and-mother author team "Charles Todd" confronts the lonely investigator with a series of inescapable pressures: First there's the complex and brutal set of murders in a seaside town, where Rutledge is expected to handle crossed jurisdictions, social strains, and the usual keeping of secrets that delays identifying a serial murderer. Then there's the always present pain of England's Great War -- the one that crushed its people into poverty and destroyed the hopes and health of so many young men. Third is the imminent death of an old friend of his, a veteran whose lungs are failing from the poisonous gas exposures sustained in battle -- and whose death seems likely to follow, very quickly, the death of another former soldier who has clearly killed himself. Rutledge's pity for these men mingles with his own psychic anguish. And let's add nastiness among his colleagues, and a costly awakening of his own heart.

The Todd authors are expert at braiding these together into a smooth and often intense narrative. This time, Rutledge's anguish isn't as focused on the bitter voice of Hamish in his head. So perhaps it's easier for him to notice and "hear" the insights of the people around him this time -- like the doctor who examines the murder victims and posits that the killer may be seeking (and getting) intense personal satisfaction from the deaths:

A fascinating point. Rutledge looked at Thompson, reassessing this portly, backwater doctor who had such insight into a killer's mind.

Thompson, who must have guessed what Rutledge was thinking, smiled grimly. "I was in the war myself. I know what men are capable of doing to each other. I have no illusions on that score. I also discovered that some of them enjoyed it. That may be what you're facing here, someone who misses the thrill of stalking and killing. Someone who has discovered he can't live without it. Blood lust, Inspector, isn't something only the lower animals experience."

When the uneasy balance of stresses goes out of kilter on this case, the inspector must pay with a particularly painful dose of torture himself -- yet even here, Rutledge finds more information to help evaluate the possible roots of the deaths in wartime violence and loss.

Charles Todd presents an expertly polished crime novel here, showing that a series really can continue strongly. And if I missed a bit of the intensity of Rutledge's former internal battling with Hamish in A LONELY DEATH, perhaps it's because, in 1920, the war-maimed inspector is coming to grips with his inner demons. Or perhaps they will destroy him completely, as his defenses finally are lowered.

Mystery Tidbits ... More to Come

Remind me to tell you about Vermont's "Snowflake Bentley" some afternoon ...

Recovering from both the Dec. 27 blizzard and the days set aside to enjoy family visits means I've done way too much "day job" labor this week already. So I'm settling into the new Charles Todd mystery tonight and hope to have something sensible to say about it by tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, a couple of tidbits of news:

First, from Dave Zeltserman, who's been redefining modern noir with his (mostly) Boston-area crime fiction: "Last year my novella, Julius Katz won several awards including the Shamus Award. I'm happy to be able to report that my second Julius Katz story, 'Archie's Been Framed', has won first place in Ellery Queen's 2010 Readers Choice Awards." Way to go, DZ!

Second, I mentioned Margaret Maron's book Christmas Mourning as an intriguing blend of domestic and threatening within one well-crafted mystery. Maron fans will enjoy this interview, provided by Sisters in Crime: http://sisters-in-crime-sinc.blogspot.com/2011/01/things-you-dont-know-about-margaret.html

If you're not tired of "best" lists yet, check this one, only five books long: Maureen Corrigan's list of best mysteries for 2010:

Faithful Place, by Tana French
The Rembrandt Affair, by Daniel Silva
The Sleepwalkers, by Paul Grossman
A Fierce Radiance, by Lauren Belfer
The Confession, by John Grisham

More details here.

And here's a good way to honor the new year: Stop by Louise Penny's website and sign up for her newsletter, so you'll know about her next book and other great news.

DEVIL-DEVIL: Engrossing New Mystery from Graeme Kent. And a New Translation: THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X by Keigo Higashino

Sergeant Ben Kella, a black man firmly rooted in the traditions of his native Solomon Islands (the archipelago northeast of Australia), is the area's senior "indigenous" police officer at a time when the British are considering letting go of their protectorate. That places DEVIL-DEVIL in 1960. Both the expatriates on hand and the Melanesians, the "natives" of the region, reckon time from World War II and the Japanese invasion -- along with the critical battle of Guadalcanal, one of the largest of their islands. And just as Kella is struggling to live down his own reputation for getting into trouble, he stumbles into a morass of "custom" crises around a corpse: the corpse of a white man who disappeared in 1942. It's the second dead body he's dealt with in his first day back on his home island, and sure to mean trouble.

Complicating the discovery of the white man's corpse is how Kella finds it: being re-buried by a newly arrived Catholic nun, Sister Conchita, who pays enough attention to native ways and traditions to realize that the chaos erupting locally might be partly calmed if the old bones were quickly re-buried. Unfortunately, the bullet hole in its skull means that Kella can't allow this to happen. And as soon as he intervenes, he and young Sister Conchita become targets of a murderous sharpshooter (with blessedly poor aim).

That's the start of a rattling good mystery that teams up these two likeable characters -- Kella with his divided loyalties (in addition to being a police officer, he's a native peacemaker with larger obligations), and Sister Conchita with her instant willingness to take a stand against any apparent injustice, no matter what the cost. And here's even better news: In bringing this book out for February 2011, Soho Crime has announced that it's the start of "the Sister Conchita and Sergeant Kella Series" -- yes!!! I love the way this publisher gathers up international crime fiction and brings it home to us!

I haven't found out a lot about Graeme Kent beyond the basics that the book blurb offers -- he's been a soldier, editor, headmaster, BBC producer, and was head of BBC Schools broadcasting in the Solomon Islands for eight years. A full-time writer since the mid 1990s, Kent is the author of more than sixty books. In fact, one online resource says he's written and edited more than 120! Whatever the final number, he's seasoned and deft with words and plot, providing polished writing with humor, interest, intrigue, and a dash of suspense. It's swiftly clear in this novel that Ben Kella's opposite number, the disturbing bush master of magic Pazabosi, is directing many of the complications, and Kella's hunt for the powerful leader of the island's highland people -- who has already publicly cursed Kella -- will require all his wisdom, knowledge, and luck. Even a sultry schoolteacher who greets him up on the mountain warns him right away about Pazabosi: "He is an evil man who sups with the devil-devils," she says bluntly.

Good thing she didn't say it that way to Sister Conchita. It would have been exactly the words the young and rebellious nun required to convince her to seek for Pazabosi herself.

This book gave me a lot of fun, as well as a hunger to know more about the Solomon Islands. And although Kent isn't a native of the region, he gives a convincing portrait of what local tradition entails, as well as of the compromises that the wisest leaders can craft. Mark this one as a keeper.

* * *

I'm not as convinced about THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, a translation of a novel by Keigo Higashino that won the Naoki Prize for Best Novel -- Japan's equivalent of the National Book Award, says publisher Minotaur Books. The English-language version is scheduled for February 1 release (the original was copyrighted in 2005), and will have plenty of publicity behind it. The thing is, I can't tell whether the original writing is deliberately stiff, among multiple points of view, or whether that's an artifact of the translation. There are some appealing characters here -- a divorced mom named Yasuko who'll do nearly anything to protect her young daughter, and a persistent detective, Manibu Yukawa, who knows when he's being deceived, even if he can't immediately figure out what the real story is behind the death of Yasuko's abusive former husband.

But the stiff control exerted by Yasuko's neighbor Ishigami, who's besotted with her, makes it hard to find a comfortable position as reader. With whom should we identify? Detective Yukawa is the most likeable, but his role is so much smaller that Yasuko's and Ishigami's that there's no easy position here. Nor do the voices of the characters differ among each other significantly -- and here again, I suspect the translation of failing us.

There are some great plot twists in store, and a surprise ending that performs the twist of a final line of a good haiku. But is it great fiction? I'm not convinced.

Nonetheless, it's worth taking a look at this new arrival. As we all access more translations of crime fiction from multiple cultures and languages, each book adds to our experience, and our ability to form considered opinions about how our global interactions can best proceed.

Louise Penny Interview in Vancouver Sun

A nice piece, from an area of Canada where Louise Penny once worked: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Louise+Penny+town+captures+world+notice/4047435/story.html