tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-296610872024-03-08T19:48:50.883-05:00Kingdom Books, Mysteries - ReviewsMysteries and crime fiction reviewed here with knowledge and delight. Classic to cutting edge.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1950125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-38998800743240291822023-06-26T11:33:00.000-04:002023-06-26T11:33:03.602-04:00Book Reviews Continue -- Over at the Writing Blog<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJKYp8TELom9ZhzkoNiRWyAna9MVM95ebDyGYhM2Adl0-gsOd_uvBZx7uvU2glQ5U3FJ_dWBIEUzmKUoyaQjEb6jlCfxKDE0hLcFDmtuI4yTRSfz_Qf2BZ6m4VdUSQxLRGbOtYQJmysGsAPNy2YRCru35aZLWSiJecMle7KV37OsYJpGtINtUHw/s1111/EVENTIDE-WATER-CITY---flat-3D-cover.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1111" data-original-width="752" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPJKYp8TELom9ZhzkoNiRWyAna9MVM95ebDyGYhM2Adl0-gsOd_uvBZx7uvU2glQ5U3FJ_dWBIEUzmKUoyaQjEb6jlCfxKDE0hLcFDmtuI4yTRSfz_Qf2BZ6m4VdUSQxLRGbOtYQJmysGsAPNy2YRCru35aZLWSiJecMle7KV37OsYJpGtINtUHw/w354-h522/EVENTIDE-WATER-CITY---flat-3D-cover.webp" width="354" /></a></div><br />The reviews are shorter now, and less formal, but with fresh energy. Don't miss the recommendations for new books, especially Chris McKinney's <i>Eventide, Water City</i>. Here you go: <a href="https://bethkanell.blogspot.com">https://bethkanell.blogspot.com</a><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-38202740804030798532023-06-09T16:14:00.000-04:002023-06-09T16:14:04.932-04:00Look Over Here ...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJnI89Cd40e069joD_UY7CsymVJkbmJ0yZ0Lh4aslVO4BWi-V9yjXWtQFOFbXXPG9aghWh0jqxt5JvoFLqoQ8t_Rl4XfaZg6XXwRA2DBEAkyAH5vyOM4Lh3hvetYdNBqS0HROHUEdfzLsPhO2k1wSujQW4TWol68rVr0TNQOE7DqN5gbnpU4/s640/Monroe%20NH%20wooden%20sign%20March%202012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJnI89Cd40e069joD_UY7CsymVJkbmJ0yZ0Lh4aslVO4BWi-V9yjXWtQFOFbXXPG9aghWh0jqxt5JvoFLqoQ8t_Rl4XfaZg6XXwRA2DBEAkyAH5vyOM4Lh3hvetYdNBqS0HROHUEdfzLsPhO2k1wSujQW4TWol68rVr0TNQOE7DqN5gbnpU4/w463-h347/Monroe%20NH%20wooden%20sign%20March%202012.jpg" width="463" /></a></div><br />Book recommendations ARE continuing ... over on my author blog, <a href="https://bethkanell.blogspot.com">https://bethkanell.blogspot.com</a>. Come read today's material.<br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-33129559753550213372023-05-31T17:38:00.002-04:002023-05-31T17:38:31.048-04:00Au Revoir but Not Goodbye, May 31, 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSagg0CMgv9kErQMYsDjN_e5Jm4KTC_PeDaau9m8hmRBUVKyR5lf7yw2MMYjr4zmtUFHTua6bRXkdz8HkaDW_XOgz6U-Gu_NC_Lv-Ws2xZ1FY3tP8Isp0eJGRpIBCg6ybXZsn0snKA48XBXCToQPwvyHhmHg0hli7CeddaLPvDrRdl0MtuWsY/s640/KB-shelves-Apr1-2017.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSagg0CMgv9kErQMYsDjN_e5Jm4KTC_PeDaau9m8hmRBUVKyR5lf7yw2MMYjr4zmtUFHTua6bRXkdz8HkaDW_XOgz6U-Gu_NC_Lv-Ws2xZ1FY3tP8Isp0eJGRpIBCg6ybXZsn0snKA48XBXCToQPwvyHhmHg0hli7CeddaLPvDrRdl0MtuWsY/s320/KB-shelves-Apr1-2017.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Dave and I took huge joy in creating Kingdom Books, first as a specialty bookshop (mysteries, poetry, Vermontiana) and then as a review blog. Dave's been gone four years, and I miss him all the time, but ... things must move forward, not back.<p></p><p>Effective today, since I'm reviewing at the <i><a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/search-site/Kanell">New York Journal of Books</a></i> and <i><a href="https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/">Historical Novels Review</a></i>, I won't be posting more on this blog. But I'll leave it in place so you can search past reviews. </p><p>As of 5:30 pm (Eastern), this blog racked up incredible numbers of page views (see below), and that's because of YOU. Thank you.</p><p>Beth</p><p><b>KINGDOM BOOKS Blog Stats, Page Views, as of May 31, 2023:</b><br /></p><div class="LgQiCc vOSR6b fsgHtc TbKbi" data-disabled=""><span><div class="BVR8xc"><div class="bOAdxf"><div class="soqrFd dE9m5c"><span class="g0RVJ ik5mBe">All Time</span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"> 646759</span></div><div class="soqrFd dE9m5c SDzDz"><span class="g0RVJ ik5mBe ">Today</span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"> 416</span></div><div class="soqrFd dE9m5c SDzDz"><span class="g0RVJ ik5mBe">Yesterday </span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">208</span></div><div class="soqrFd dE9m5c SDzDz"><span class="g0RVJ ik5mBe">This Month</span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc"> 8640</span></div><div class="soqrFd dE9m5c SDzDz"><span class="g0RVJ ik5mBe">Last Month </span><span class="WHK6mc dE9m5c ptE5Wc">8485</span></div></div></div></span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-41961551746223508662023-05-31T17:24:00.003-04:002023-05-31T17:24:24.496-04:00Adventure, Murder, and Twists of Bookstore Merriment from Tamara Berry, in MURDER OFF THE BOOKS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWhMYK9PsHRQ5it-ip5br7cb9N6roTLFGTwYkS5QSburu8yuKltqOmhRoSbY0LiPKKut5Y66oj0IeVFCufwkX3i0zwJmgrKLgtVx0yoNg8y4R_wFhjVxUuua7u-tO3dcZisjkcUf1S5oMxl40ehNGLbujGnv3MNRu0DSl8-vDwd-HwwrgZEY/s1360/Screen%20Shot%202023-05-31%20at%205.21.16%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="926" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWhMYK9PsHRQ5it-ip5br7cb9N6roTLFGTwYkS5QSburu8yuKltqOmhRoSbY0LiPKKut5Y66oj0IeVFCufwkX3i0zwJmgrKLgtVx0yoNg8y4R_wFhjVxUuua7u-tO3dcZisjkcUf1S5oMxl40ehNGLbujGnv3MNRu0DSl8-vDwd-HwwrgZEY/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-05-31%20at%205.21.16%20PM.png" width="218" /></a></div><br />Tamara Berry's wicked sense of humor is a great match for her neatly twisted plots in her "By the Book Mysteries," set in the Big Woods country of the Northwest. Crime novelist Tess Harrow's family legacy in this timber-centric town isn't as wild as her best-selling status, but it does include a former hardware stores (see the earlier books of the series) that she's turning into a bookshop of her own, with of course a stack of her newest release on the counter.<p></p><p>But Grand Opening plans run awry when (of course!) murder sweeps into town once again. This time, a top-selling podcaster arrives at the same time, and starts to paint Tess's recurring corpse discoveries as possible indications that she herself is a criminal!</p><p>Perish the thought, or even better, perish the podcaster. Except that's not going to happen. Tess's daughter is thrilled by the visitor. Her definitely difficult mother sweeps into town at the same time -- and the corpse turns out to be Tess's mother's boyfriend of the moment, the notorious Levi Parker, who might have tried something deadly if he hadn't been killed first. And oh yes, Tess and the sheriff may or may not be an item. Complications.<br /></p><p>Is your head spinning yet? Jump into this lively bibliomystery laden with smart sassy women and to-die-for dialogue, as well as a plot that gets more crazy and more likely at the same time, page by page. MURDER OFF THE BOOKS is the fun mystery your summer reading stack has been waiting for. </p><p>[The earlier books in the series are <i><a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/2022/05/outrageously-fun-summer-reading-buried.html">Buried in a Good Book</a></i> and <i><a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/2022/12/north-woods-crime-cold-case-frame-ups.html">On Spine of Death</a></i> -- treat yourself!]<br /></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-71711652492495444212023-05-30T19:04:00.003-04:002023-05-30T19:04:52.647-04:00Nordic Noir in 13th Harry Hole Crime Novel from Jo Nesbø, KILLING MOON<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaoH2t_9Bpqh0OiiKyHcg99BfFQ4zYsM-GVtDBjY5ys3cnPkXCzXz68-sDeIWJF7XtyAY9i-Dr3XFosN_lyXt_GymQsQaDEmPQ9dNxawt_pIczw4_xdUk5SPXqZ3970qYN9kOEaM6eHBtQhQ_s_sqaeEOdk2jcHYrK8RMyGWpEum2nlbgwVuY/s500/410TBy-SqaL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaoH2t_9Bpqh0OiiKyHcg99BfFQ4zYsM-GVtDBjY5ys3cnPkXCzXz68-sDeIWJF7XtyAY9i-Dr3XFosN_lyXt_GymQsQaDEmPQ9dNxawt_pIczw4_xdUk5SPXqZ3970qYN9kOEaM6eHBtQhQ_s_sqaeEOdk2jcHYrK8RMyGWpEum2nlbgwVuY/s320/410TBy-SqaL._SL500_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /> [<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/killing-moon-harry-hole">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Nesbø never releases the heartstrings through an otherwise
classic dark police procedural.” </span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Harry Hole, depressed Norwegian detective, has fled
to California as the 13th book in this “Nordic noir” detective series opens. It
takes one to know one, they say, and an aging actress and gambling addict named
Lucille, hanging out in the bar with him, nails Harry as running as running
away from something—his wife? No, she’s dead. “Ah. You’re running from grief,”
Lucille readily assesses.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For Harry, that could be both the sum and his
ending, since he’s ready to give up on everything. But (with plenty of Leonard
Cohen lyrics along the way) it turns out that seeing Lucille assaulted because
of her gambling debts wakes up the protective side of this aging police detective.
And that, in turn, readies him to accept a return to Norway to solve a crime,
provided he can get a big enough fee to pay off Lucille’s life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It's a poignant and emotional way to pull Harry
Hole back into action, and </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nesbø never releases the heartstrings through an otherwise classic
dark police procedural. DNA analysis, cocaine trafficking, violent crime—it all
piles up across nearly 500 pages of detection. Alternating points of view bring
in forensic sleuth Alexandra Sturdza, as well as a highly unpleasant set of
manipulative criminals. Sturdza, despite her first gray hairs, is glad to
recall once being told “her body was a cross between a tiger and a Lamborghini”
and her wry comments and quirky expertise add fun to the narrative.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
detective novels go, this one is on the edge of being a thriller, since there’s
a “ticking clock” for Harry Hole to discover and arrest a serial killer.
Technically, he’s only got to prove his client didn’t do the crime, in order to
have the needed funds wired to his bar buddy Lucille’s account and get her
released. But of course, proving innocence is much more direct if someone else
is clearly guilty. Because he’s on a short time leash, Hole takes bigger risks
and cuts more legal corners than might be wise. It makes sense, in the context,
and it ramps up the suspense.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Fans
of the series will find this sleuth’s grief and loss powerful, and will
appreciate how life forces Harry back into the work he does so well. Newcomers
to Nesbø’s well-established investigations won’t struggle for context, though;
Harry Hole’s sense of blame for his wife’s death and his overwhelming need to
accept responsibility for another life are quickly established and push the
plot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
the core of <i>Killing Moon</i> is the painful reawakening of attachment in
Harry’s life, through reconnecting with an old flame and her child. It’s a
terrific contrast to the self-centered menace of criminals, and lets Nesbø dip
into more classic tunes, beyond Leonard Cohen. The most satisfying lullaby
Harry can offer to a child turns out to be “a low, slow chanting in a rough
voice that now and then hit the notes of an old blues song about the perils of
cocaine.” Truth seems to be the best currency with this child. For Harry, that
in itself offers more risk and pain.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
the same time, it provides another hostage to keep Harry Hole investigating, as
a new kidnapper invites Harry to check out the night’s moon: “You can see the
eclipse is under way. When the moon is completely covered,” the villain offers,
he’s going to slit the throat of someone Harry loves. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Running
away from grief? Rephrase that: Once again, Harry Hole is running for the sake
of love.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-66685641844819375242023-05-23T16:18:00.002-04:002023-05-23T16:18:20.683-04:00Fresh Updated LA Noir from Daniel Weizmann, THE LAST SONGBIRD<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNF08Rvi8BezvTsZJjcbRFzHPU8CHlIm44jgt2gCR605poq6wh6jWllJsS6c2Hh26WkOJyRAzALyLFmKQtUi-0OmWs19qcSTFzu7WutiuUl8AvBP06NkA0yJkSivGmZxFBchmVcnVM5e45gE3WVhhFsjrLFwIkj4PTDTV3iK6eY6G1p6N9Jo/s500/41qVeIdSIgL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNF08Rvi8BezvTsZJjcbRFzHPU8CHlIm44jgt2gCR605poq6wh6jWllJsS6c2Hh26WkOJyRAzALyLFmKQtUi-0OmWs19qcSTFzu7WutiuUl8AvBP06NkA0yJkSivGmZxFBchmVcnVM5e45gE3WVhhFsjrLFwIkj4PTDTV3iK6eY6G1p6N9Jo/s320/41qVeIdSIgL._SL500_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/last-songbird-pacific-coast">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Weizmann’s updated LA noir storytelling is pitch perfect, so this
quirky investigator stands in for each of us, committing in a fumbling fashion
to doing what’s right even though we’re not equipped for the journey.” </span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Pull
up that poignant song about driving a beautiful woman in your taxi cab and
never forgetting her. Hold onto the emotion—now, pin the story to Los Angeles,
to the brutal competitiveness of performance and production, and to the
significance of small and persistent acts of kindness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Too
saccharine? Fear not. Daniel Weizmann roughs up the story of a Lyft-driving
songwriter on the night streets as he hard-boils affection, friendship,
loyalty. That means grit, lots of it, from drug-fueled disasters to twisted
personal secrets.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yet
<i>The Last Songbird</i>, personified here by aging yet still famous folksinger
Annie Linden, never quite loses the heartache and beauty of the old songs. By
the time driver Adam Zantz trusts Annie Linden enough to share his own songs
with her (he writes both the lyrics and the melodies) in the strange privacy of
his hired car, she’s also won his faithfulness. When she and her bodyguard are
brutally murdered (with Adam a suspect, of course), there’s only one mission
possible: find the killer and bring them to justice. Even though that won’t
bring Annie back, it will let Adam keep hearing and feeling the support of her
voice. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“She
was a songwriter’s songwriter, a taker of lyrical chances,” Adam clarifies.
Annie’s become his antidote to despair, too: “Annie Linden, <i>my</i> Annie
Linden, never had any place to hide. Because she <i>believed</i> in love, like
a religious devotee. She said as much to me on the road when I asked her where
her songs came from.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Extra
horseradish on the side for this dish of neo-noir, please, since Adam (Addy to
his friends) presents a Jewish flavor to all his choices. His friends twist
toking and Torah, like Ephraim Freiberger, aka Double Fry, who explains that
his paparazzi work is bounded by not selling any photos that could embarrass
someone. Addy checks this: “Embarrassing someone is strictly forbidden?” Double
Fry responds, “By the Torah, it’s like murder.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tough boundary for a photo career in LA,
though!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Adam’s
songwriting future may be dead in the water with Annie’s murder—she was the
first and only significant person who’d believed in his work—and the darkness
of his nights, with its long ugly driving shifts through LA’s special brand of
despair and denial, threatens his inner life as well. But under Double Fry’s
pressure, he nails his urge to solve the crime: “I owe her—for giving me hope
when I had zero. And I’m pissed. ‘Cause if I don’t find out who—If I don’t find
out who [killed her], maybe nobody will.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
clumsy but persistent efforts of this spur-of-the-heartache amateur sleuth pull
him into danger, of course, as well as waves of anguish over his past and over
his desperation to “make good” to Annie’s memory. Weizmann’s updated LA noir
storytelling is pitch perfect, so this quirky investigator stands in for each
of us, committing in a fumbling fashion to doing what’s right even though we’re
not equipped for the journey. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Of
course, classic noir would spit Adam back out in misery at the end. Case
solved, or not? Annie still an inspiration to him, or lost in the clutter of
her own revealed mistakes? Things change: An author who creates a Torah-hugging
buddy for his protagonist can’t be consigning the case, or Adam’s songs, or
hope itself to the dumpster. Best of all, in a new twist on noir (but a
definite plug for those taxi-now-Lyft drivers), a playlist of the book’s songs
wraps up this irresistible tale, putting all the half-spoken secrets back into
active memory. Van Morrison, anyone? Mick Jagger? Dylan? Who is the “last
songbird” that you’ll hear bringing you home?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-60529984439079247162023-05-23T16:12:00.004-04:002023-05-23T16:12:26.703-04:00Fresh and Lively Summer Reading, THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER, by Bill Clinton and James Patterson<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRxBhA_wSh7Y_ju7bpPNdteDwLgI6Wkfb2LLSFTic9ib8DzGBg93HPsBhaEyuy0YtnzAX-QqVjiAqPzTF7mbsG2Hgs4iEfvB0nxA3UMeYoPsRtTruTIGe3nbShJT_2QtisD0VAWuGfGfys4N-7f9rvXhYRkePoQ5ZvcbdcOkm-oizB8iOVzjs/s500/417ccXLUOoL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="321" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRxBhA_wSh7Y_ju7bpPNdteDwLgI6Wkfb2LLSFTic9ib8DzGBg93HPsBhaEyuy0YtnzAX-QqVjiAqPzTF7mbsG2Hgs4iEfvB0nxA3UMeYoPsRtTruTIGe3nbShJT_2QtisD0VAWuGfGfys4N-7f9rvXhYRkePoQ5ZvcbdcOkm-oizB8iOVzjs/s320/417ccXLUOoL._SL500_.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/presidents-daughter-thriller-0">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“How could a
former US President finally be able to take over an action-hero team? And what
might the costs of that effort become? Or even, dare we imagine, the rewards?”</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A
fresh release of this lively thriller from master author James Patterson and
presidential expert Bill Clinton comes just in time to add gusto to the summer
reading stack. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The President’s Daughter</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> offers a quick and believable trip into the
lives of a former President and his family, tucked into a secure compound in
the White Mountains of New Hampshire—but no longer protected the way a serving President’s
home would be, in any sense.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Bill Clinton’s humor and persistence peek through
the narrative every couple of pages, making double-takes common all the way.
For example, Matthew Keating is far from resigned to a quiet post-importance
life, despite losing his slot to the maneuvering of the woman he’d brought in
as vice president: “Unfortunately, I went into a tough presidential campaign
with more experience as a Navy SEAL in battles overseas than in political wars
at home. And I was still angry about it, so angry I was tempted a couple of
times to resign and let her have the d*** office before she rode to victory in
the November election. But I couldn’t do it. No current or former SEAL would
ever give up before the job is one. And no president should, either.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Between the pithy statements of a former President commenting
on his own role, and the page-turning plot with James Patterson’s
quintessential crime threats and villains, there’s barely room for the
“President’s daughter” of the title to exert her own leadership. Off for a
romantic hike with Tim, a possible long-term partner, Melanie Keating no longer
has any Secret Service coverage—and a Muslim terrorist with a personal vendetta
against Mel’s father can access other resentful global allies as he aims to
torment the Keating family.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Still, Patterson knows the drill, and when Mel can
finally take the lead in this action thriller, she does so from her own form of
strength, having practiced and prepared in advance in case she was ever taken
hostage: “Me feels the SUV stay on a dirt road for a good length of time, and
she resumes counting one more time, going </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">one
thousand one, one thousand two</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and keeping focused. The tears have
stopped. No time for tears. Her legs and arms are cramped, her mouth is dry-raw
with the cloth stuck inside, and she’s wondering how long it will be before
Tim’s body is found.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One of the delights of this partnership of authors
is their expertise—there’s no moment of doubt about a proposed weapon or
strategy, because Patterson is an established pro. And the insights into POTUS
emotions and actions are surely as authentic. In </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
President’s Daughter</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> the former President takes
opportunities to spring into action himself (“former SEAL” = “always SEAL,”
right?), which is worth a few chuckles, imagining that Clinton couldn’t resist
putting himself into a landing party. In fact, much of the plotting for this
exhilarating novel must have put that aspect front-and-center: How could a
former US President finally be able to take over an action-hero team? And what
might the costs of that effort become? Or even, dare we imagine, the rewards?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One small flaw to all this imagining is the way the
book’s villains are painted as vulnerable in terms of emotion, intelligence,
and insufficient planning. That’s the part that shouldn’t be taken as a
portrait of the real world of global threat. War isn’t a game when real lives
are engaged.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But that’s a minor complaint, compared the skillful
and well-paced plot of this entertaining thriller. An easy and enjoyable summer
read, this book from a pair of clever and often humorous authors makes a great
addition to the summer reading menu, and leaves a bright lemony aftertaste. May
every President’s daughter get to be the hero of a global interchange and
family survival, despite the often soiled politics of American life.</span></p>
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{page:WordSection</style><br /></p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-18424689470752185602023-05-23T16:06:00.002-04:002023-05-23T16:06:22.660-04:00Genre-Busting Irish Crime Fiction from John Banville, THE LOCK-UP<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43qoDSVkRw_CyRlK5WRW2ThG1X1qI5oJegtnZBSZp-COs-7goWWrY7gpw5bPSPCqXWujNN1Pg9yzNM0IEQJ-saDC4OUrnl8f6upLWika31deKGXfSRUgb8SKp-9J6kmP1FuaMN-fkEKNoEB3MtES2_S7vzSDEXaHABQQYPCg2fyFv16RVdQs/s500/51bbKlUezLL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43qoDSVkRw_CyRlK5WRW2ThG1X1qI5oJegtnZBSZp-COs-7goWWrY7gpw5bPSPCqXWujNN1Pg9yzNM0IEQJ-saDC4OUrnl8f6upLWika31deKGXfSRUgb8SKp-9J6kmP1FuaMN-fkEKNoEB3MtES2_S7vzSDEXaHABQQYPCg2fyFv16RVdQs/s320/51bbKlUezLL._SL500_.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/lock-novel">Originally posted at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“What neither
can say aloud is, Strafford failed to save Quirke’s wife in a shooting the year
before, and there’s no forgiveness on the table.”</span></i></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Crime may be impulsive, launched by a forgotten set
of car keys dangling from a sports car’s ignition or an easily hacked online
account. On the other hand, it can root deep in the history of grievance,
violence, prejudice, and war—which makes a far more complex narrative and is,
of course, how John Banville situates </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Lock-Up.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> War and its profits, going back to an escape from
Germany during the Second World War, mean an excuse for a twisted soul to take
revenge via markets and manipulation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The death of youthful historian Rosa Jacobs, found
murdered in her car in Dublin, provides the entryway for investigating both the
“not yet past” past and today’s market rewards. It will take dedicated research
(and a bit of provocation) to untangle the threads of motive for this crime,
and in the process, two of Banville’s noted characters of previous novels,
Detective Inspector St John Strafford and police pathologist Quirke, collude.
This isn’t new to Banville’s work—the pair, originally introduced in separate
books to probe different Irish issues, appeared together in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">April in Spain </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(2021)—but because each is enduring a
personal crisis, their conversations cut deeper this time around.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For instance, Quirke (gulping whiskey, of course)
abruptly offers an awful description of an autopsy on a child, to which
Strafford struggles to make a sympathetic response. Quirke next asks Strafford,
“What was your first death?” Strafford takes the question as meant, and briefly
tells of shooting an IRA man who’d pointed a tommy gun at him. And what neither
can say aloud is, Strafford failed to save Quirke’s wife in a shooting the year
before, and there’s no forgiveness on the table.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Do you dream about him, the IRA man?” Quirke
asked.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“No. Do you? Dream about the child?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“I remember him, that’s all … All that, and the
plume of steam coming off the child’s brain.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The novel won’t get much more graphic than that,
although the clumsy dance of intimacy between these two aging men continues
painfully throughout. As is the case for the Troubles that background the book,
and the Second World War yet further back, there seems to be no calm resolution
for the long-term effects of trauma when nurtured today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Still, with Banville’s Irish home terrain in mind,
it’s startling as the action begins to tilt toward distant Israel. Perhaps the
ongoing presence of war and violence there provides an apt counter to the
fumbled efforts to make peace in Ireland. Or between Quirke and Strafford, a
matter that becomes increasingly urgent as the walls separating their private
lives are pierced. Loneliness followed by attraction may force the stones of
resentment to move, like water that’s been frozen, then thaws, leaving gaps
where it’s been.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For some years, Banville separated his literary
fiction from his genre work in crime by using the pen name Benjamin Black for
the genre books. But </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Lock-Up</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> comes out under his own name, and stitches together the two forms of
narrative, the way Quirke and Strafford also become painfully connected. The
death of Rosa Jacobs? Yes, of course, the investigation brings a solution, even
resolution.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But what about the pain of Ireland and its
besetting illnesses, alcohol abuse and divisive religion? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“We know a great deal,” Strafford lied. “We have
all the pieces, we just need to put them together. You can help us.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
“Why should I?” one likely murderer replies to him. Which is, when you think
about it, a very sensible response, one that pierces the walls of genre and
makes reading this crime novel a haunting and memorable experience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-82503334424039085602023-05-21T13:19:00.002-04:002023-05-21T13:19:51.729-04:00Next from Mick Herron, THE SECRET HOURS, in September<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEPvF3VWNsacrOpjrAlYWKR_Xb02XiWevD5Xo4TJKrESQ40Dfmp5x5CyfM5zrX2l9tYTy0IdWREPe-XwNLP-RDG6PrbBYUruzEhVvj0NssvjBGCKob2dfGlST02sIws8Xt21BrlFa9sgCdwzMUOCBo9EkKPpUUUF6t24TtumJ44MHj-P3tEbY/s600/secret-hours-397x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="397" height="516" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEPvF3VWNsacrOpjrAlYWKR_Xb02XiWevD5Xo4TJKrESQ40Dfmp5x5CyfM5zrX2l9tYTy0IdWREPe-XwNLP-RDG6PrbBYUruzEhVvj0NssvjBGCKob2dfGlST02sIws8Xt21BrlFa9sgCdwzMUOCBo9EkKPpUUUF6t24TtumJ44MHj-P3tEbY/w342-h516/secret-hours-397x600.jpg" width="342" /></a></div><br />I generally review books pretty close to the publication date -- so if the review intrigues you, you'll be able to get the book soon afterward. As a result, I won't post a full review of THE SECRET HOURS until later this summer.<br /><p></p><p>But not only are there exceptions to waiting for the right moment. There are <u><b>reasons</b></u> for exceptions to self-imposed rules like this one. </p><p>Mick Herron's new book, THE SECRET HOURS, will be released in September. Layered, rich, flavored with political insight, wry humor, espionage of course, and above all, love and loyalty, it's being promoted as a stand-alone spy thriller.</p><p>However, this book unfolds many of the secrets that have been lurking in Herron's Slough House series. And it's going to resonate more deeply for you if you've already devoured and at least partly remember what happens to which characters in the series. <br /></p><p>So this is your book alert: Buy Mick Herron's series now, or borrow it, or dust off your own copies and spend the summer refreshing your attention to the quirkiest, bravest, most ordinary, most-difficult-to-share-an-office-with spies of Herron's disastrous failure side of MI5. </p><p>You will thus guarantee yourself an astonishingly good time in September.</p><p>Which in turn causes me to suggest: Get your spouse and/or best friend reading these, too. Then you'll have the ultimate pleasure of sharing a fantastic book with the person you most like. Couldn't get much better than that.</p><p>Oh yes, the books you are about to buy, borrow, or dust off (lucky you!) are:</p><p><span id="t261046"></span>1. Slow Horses (2010) <br /><span id="t324611"></span>2. Deal Lions (2013) <br /><span id="t575054"></span>3. Real Tigers (2016) <br /><span id="t621659"></span>4. Spook Street (2017) <br /><span id="t662360"></span>5. London Rules (2018) <br /><span id="t728651"></span>6. Joe Country (2019)<br /><span id="t876621"></span>7. Slough House (2021) <br /><span id="t957379"></span>8. Bad Actors (2022) </p><p>And you can see a lot of them reviewed on this site by <a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/search?q=mick+herron">clicking here</a>. <u></u></p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>.
</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-1339709246934571282023-05-10T11:55:00.001-04:002023-05-10T11:55:20.182-04:00Victorian Mystery/Thriller from Tim Mason, THE NIGHTINGALE AFFAIR<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuQG70l55CIiaPH_OC3SS8GqAKrNukIPSs35krHxTs104Ku33d1J9vGF3O74k_zsDJblC0PcWa5sDbCDHG7tuHXq1s_GN7WVxTg1wnmnUwPAwpFBCF9PGSyA5bbJf4wVJ0o6Gar-qZ0T91o-EosnwcCLTct4k1p4oJQd8lpeqjKg6cOGOWzg/s500/51u+BhbFgVL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJuQG70l55CIiaPH_OC3SS8GqAKrNukIPSs35krHxTs104Ku33d1J9vGF3O74k_zsDJblC0PcWa5sDbCDHG7tuHXq1s_GN7WVxTg1wnmnUwPAwpFBCF9PGSyA5bbJf4wVJ0o6Gar-qZ0T91o-EosnwcCLTct4k1p4oJQd8lpeqjKg6cOGOWzg/s320/51u+BhbFgVL._SL500_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/nightingale-affair">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Because Mason places the killer and his excuses openly among his
protagonists, and the threats to Field and his family are menacing and
time-linked, The Nightingale Affair is at least as much of a thriller as it is
a historical novel.”</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tim
Mason’s earlier historical mystery, <i>The Darwin Affair</i>, brought Chief
Detective Inspector Charles Field into investigating the attempted London
murder of Queen Victoria. In a clever twist of expectations, <i>The Nightingale
Affair</i> offers a sequel in which Charles Field no longer holds a position
with the police, and has sunk to investigating cheating spouses to earn a
living. Other aspects of his life seem well in order, though, with his foster
son a newly approved mounted policeman, his foster daughter no longer a thief
but a clean and cheerful young woman eager to study nursing, and his wife Jane
managing the household happily.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then,
in a matter of hours, it’s all upside down, as Field discovers a murder with
the unmistakable “calling card” of a killer he thought he’d finished off during
his career, in a stint with Florence Nightingale’s British nurses during the
Crimean War in the 1850s. At the same time, his son Tom loses his new job
through making a morally right choice that counters his superior officer, his
daughter Belinda comes under threat, and his wife is summoned once again to the
support of now ailing and aging Miss Nightingale.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
book dances back and forth in time, with the heroic Miss Nightingale at the
focus of each scenario, and Field himself endlessly struggling to catch up with
the nobility and self-denial that the nursing leader models. Mason shifts
points of view often, including indulging the killer himself with a podium that
allows vicious revenge to justify all sorts of violence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mason’s
background includes the stage, and there are abundant Shakespearean moments
scattered through almost 400 pages of this lively Victorian thriller. Cameo
appearances by Benjamin Disraeli and Wilkie Collins and the involvement of the
most noted novelist of the time, Charles Dickens, add twists of interest and
humor. But death itself is treated solemnly, a fitting counterpart to the woman
Mason presents as a guardian of the lives of young men at war and postwar
hospitals: a woman of “breathless speed” and irresistible commitment, Florence
Nightingale herself:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“There
were fully a dozen people, almost all female, rushing in and out of
Nightingale’s tower headquarters when Charles Field first saw her. He knew it
had to be Nightingale; she was the calm eye of a whirling storm, standing at
her desk, answering questions and asking them, issuing orders, and occasionally
making entries in a ledger as she stood. Her voice was quiet but had a reedy
strength that cut through the seeming chaos around her.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Because
Mason places the killer and his excuses openly among his protagonists, and the
threats to Field and his family are menacing and time-linked, <i>The
Nightingale Affair</i> is at least as much of a thriller (think: ticking clock)
as it is a historical novel. Yet the portrait of Nightingale both in her prime
and as an aging yet still effective advocate is strong and memorable, giving
the book its lively flavor that hints at all the shifts in women’s rights and
health care about to unfold. Don’t expect an extraordinary police investigation
here; read the book instead for the colorful storytelling around this classic “change
agent” and her insistence on respect, honor, and care.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-41854953960661422822023-04-29T13:20:00.004-04:002023-04-29T13:20:53.159-04:00Cold War Espionage, MOSCOW EXILE from John Lawton (Both Joe Wilderness and Lord Troy)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqozZk1kGSKkOJn7xqUWUa1LncWr5Q3GOB8fM0vQ-u8wI2HY7Nql_J8kqSkWE4OqgugMzs4T5uh_EAxohc-67FjTyOIjyq4gamBqtBNf_pfAD067ij9L7kuwRKp6AYJApKpXtzOa1WfqOsROXeZ8Pkqia_KjHMp0lD7TRgPmwhNSz1O-rNl1I/s500/41i9OuZ9mrL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqozZk1kGSKkOJn7xqUWUa1LncWr5Q3GOB8fM0vQ-u8wI2HY7Nql_J8kqSkWE4OqgugMzs4T5uh_EAxohc-67FjTyOIjyq4gamBqtBNf_pfAD067ij9L7kuwRKp6AYJApKpXtzOa1WfqOsROXeZ8Pkqia_KjHMp0lD7TRgPmwhNSz1O-rNl1I/s320/41i9OuZ9mrL._SL500_.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><br /> [<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/moscow-exile-joe-wilderness-novels-5">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Lawton’s approach to espionage lacks the multiplying deaths and
poignant self-blame of a Le Carré novel. But the resilience and determination
of his Charlie, Coky, and eventually Joe Wilderness provide a strong portrait
of Lawton’s real-life sense of espionage.”</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Moscow
Exile</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
is offered as a “Joe Wilderness Novel,” the fourth in John Lawton’s
international espionage series. Aside from a cryptic prologue set in 1969,
though, Joe Wilderness is conspicuously absent from this lush historic novel
until nearly 300 pages in.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That
still gives Joe plenty of work space, though, since Lawton’s model for this
work might as well have been a classic Russian novel, lengthy and rich with
generations of conflict, wealth, and fractured loyalties. And there’s no need
to rush: <i>Moscow Exile</i> offers a bitter promenade through the Red Scare
years of American politics and the malicious maneuvering of the Senator who in
real life was Joseph McCarthy —here, Robert Redmaine, sleazy and powerful,
tearing apart Hollywood’s professionals with accusations of anti-American
affiliations. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Making
the novel even more delicious for fans of Lawton’s British Inspector Troy
investigation thrillers, Troy and his politically potent brother slide directly
into the story, as the British leadership—especially via MI5 and MI6—attempts
to shape its Iron Curtain diplomacy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
heart of <i>Moscow Exile</i> is an alliance between a British spy who’s
actually working for Moscow—the elegant Charlie Leigh-Hunt—and a far cleverer
and beautiful woman, Charlotte (aka Cokey) Shumacher, also working for “the
Reds,” for different reasons. Lawton provides many sexual liaisons for the pair
(such a relief to read untwisted sexuality, despite the international betrayal
going on) and demonstrates how direct international espionage can be. It would be
nice to think that the America of the 1950s and 1960s wasn’t really infiltrated
this way. But for Charlie and Charlotte, with specific reasons to prefer
“anyone but Britain” handling world leadership, spying comes easily and with
lower risks than expected.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">An
”ordinary” espionage novel would make sure that those betraying America and
Britain to Russia/the Soviet Union would pay a deadly price. Lawton offers a
mirror inversion instead: Secrets, seduction, and certainty fuel a path to
safety behind the Iron Curtain. Only Joe Wilderness, with the Troy brothers
oddly interconnected to him, sees clearly what Soviet ideology means for
Moscow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Oddly,
<i>Moscow Exile</i> lays out reasons that people chose on behalf of global
Communism and active socialism, and those characters who sustain their loyalty
to related ideals somehow manage to escape deadly failure. This “Russian novel”
hosts an unusual morality that places loyalty—to whatever cause—and generous
friendship together as allies, so that even a politically crooked philanderer
can become heroic in his or her way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That
allows Joe Wilderness, with his plain British loyalty and willingness to be
used as a pawn in a spy swap, to sit on the outskirts of this hefty book.
Instead, Coky Schumacher demonstrates how an unsuspected wife of a half-mad
politician can protect the Soviet side. She spells it out for Charlie: “Why,
you think it happenstance that Bob chooses the innocent and harmless to grill?
I steer him away from the real Communists.” She also details the moral quagmire
of creepy politicos like her Senator husband: “The amazing thing about
Red-baiting is that he’s stuck with it. I think he was on a quest to find out
what would win, and if it turned out to be right-wing, racist, paranoid
bigotry, so be it. That is the mask he has adopted,” she explains. And when
Charlie gets her point and suggests, “We might become what we pretend to be,”
Coky provides a blunt summary: “We <i>are</i> what we pretend to be … and in
that is a lesson for us both, Charlie-boy.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lawton’s
approach to espionage lacks the multiplying deaths and poignant self-blame of a
Le Carré novel. But the resilience and determination of his Charlie, Coky, and
eventually Joe Wilderness provide a strong portrait of Lawton’s real-life sense
of espionage: calculating, well-armed, self-defined. The irony of <i>Moscow
Exile</i> is that those with undivided loyalty in the novel—the Troy brothers,
Lord Troy’s wife Anna, and Joe himself—occupy only “bit parts” that require
swift decisions and able allies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On
the other hand, the true villain of the book, Senator Redmaine, bears a strong
resemblance to some of today’s political rising stars. “And that is a lesson
for us both,” as Coky would point out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-13478660874023775402023-04-29T13:14:00.004-04:002023-04-29T13:14:47.737-04:00Dr Ruth Galloway (Archaeologist) Mystery 15, THE LAST REMAINS by Elly Griffiths—Oh Yes!!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaVe7MNzs9A2uD3EhtsWehCk1sXrYDrQJscIot9r2-xOhgXXz8DYIqAtUme6XBdjQ1Q-olclRLu6fPhaGdqrscJnrpzRwGRKtSBrBhcH8IuHYoG5XQJeTgsXs49-zpX79k-FcwvKUlhpdXSNFVxkF_AgcYrYzQmi7HMNA12R7IfjZPwkvlLk/s500/51f3zVWNZ5L._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaVe7MNzs9A2uD3EhtsWehCk1sXrYDrQJscIot9r2-xOhgXXz8DYIqAtUme6XBdjQ1Q-olclRLu6fPhaGdqrscJnrpzRwGRKtSBrBhcH8IuHYoG5XQJeTgsXs49-zpX79k-FcwvKUlhpdXSNFVxkF_AgcYrYzQmi7HMNA12R7IfjZPwkvlLk/s320/51f3zVWNZ5L._SL500_.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/last-remains-mystery-ruth">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“By positioning a vital threat to Cathbad, the most mysterious and
loyal and honorable person in the series, Griffiths creates heart-wrenching
power within what might otherwise be a relatively routine investigation for
Ruth Galloway.”</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Golden Age of British crime fiction is marked with authors Agatha Christie,
Dorothy L. Sayers, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Dickson Carr,
and Josephine Tey, among others. Today, American readers benefit from quick
cross-Atlantic publication of British work, as well as masterful translation of
Nordic, French, German, and Spanish work, and from authors in African and Asian
nations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
“special relationship” of America and Britain reinforces the power of top-notch
British mysteries and espionage today. With the fifteenth title in the Dr. Ruth
Galloway series from Elly Griffiths, the continued growth and deepening of both
Griffiths and her characters enhance a thoroughly satisfying mystery: <i>The
Last Remains</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ruth
Galloway is an archaeologist who’s developed a forensic side-specialty, thanks
in part to being the primary researcher in the field for her area of Britain,
one rich with artifacts from the ever-fascinating Druids. Her efforts for the
police have also grown in significance because of her personal relationship
with the local investigator, DCI Nelson.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So
when builders renovating a café find a skeleton hidden behind a wall of bricks,
Dr. Ruth Galloway gets an immediate summons to the scene—and it only takes her
a few minutes to declare it a crime scene and don her forensics hat, along with
involving Nelson and his team.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
the core of this series, beyond Ruth’s complicated relationship with DCI
Nelson, has been her friend and ally Cathbad, a modern Druid opening up ancient
ways and bringing both tenderness and wisdom into the circle of friendship that
includes Ruth and Nelson. Cathbad’s allegiance to both the pagan past and the
children he and Ruth nurture parallels his dual nature of ferocity and
caregiving.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Last Remains</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> amps up the tension when Cathbad becomes a person of interest in
the teen’s death, then vanishes without warning. However, he has written a
farewell and a will, a terrifying aspect that suggests the time to find and
save him could be very short, or even nonexistent. His life partner Judy is a
police officer but can’t investigate because she’s too close. Desperately she
suggests, “Maybe he decided to go on a pilgrimage? The only things is …” her
face crumbles, “why wouldn’t he tell me?” DCI Nelson hopes Cathbad, suffering
the blurring effects of “Long Covid,” may have amnesia and will turn up. Ruth,
however, has increasing reason to doubt such a happy result.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By
positioning a vital threat to Cathbad, the most mysterious and loyal and
honorable person in the series, Griffiths creates heart-wrenching power within
what might otherwise be a relatively routine investigation for Ruth Galloway.
There will be no putting down this compelling mystery until Cathbad’s
disappearance can be solved. And in classic heroic manner, to get to that point
will require Ruth to risk her own life, even as she struggles to define her
future nd her daughter’s.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It's
remarkable to realize that <i>The Last Remains</i> is the fifteenth book in
this series, which began with <i>The Crossing Places</i>. Where Griffiths’
early books offered quirky and lightly twisted plots, this latest one suggests
that, a century after the original Golden Age, British crime fiction exhibits a
second surge of development underway.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-64706008589810573092023-04-17T13:02:00.000-04:002023-04-17T13:02:15.195-04:00Missing Westlake's Richard Stark Crime Novels? Try Charles Salzberg, MAN ON THE RUN<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOoa_6eGro5hMRAFvWiYpdGfZfTH_0WtjJ46xOmG1z40NMGQP95Z1ltHG64qNIvpTtf3gth6z4BrSbtjoQ1uamjNW1ast9F0nZqSNUi2x_GkldsCvyBQZ4mvh-vsCIEOVLiMKs0F7OCzyJCJ86_qM6UZxQpsxPmonEDiVsORljx90XBlPvpo/s500/41maezI8hAL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOoa_6eGro5hMRAFvWiYpdGfZfTH_0WtjJ46xOmG1z40NMGQP95Z1ltHG64qNIvpTtf3gth6z4BrSbtjoQ1uamjNW1ast9F0nZqSNUi2x_GkldsCvyBQZ4mvh-vsCIEOVLiMKs0F7OCzyJCJ86_qM6UZxQpsxPmonEDiVsORljx90XBlPvpo/s320/41maezI8hAL._SL500_.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/man-run">Originally posted at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Crime fiction readers may think they know what’s ahead, based on
other noir work. But Salzberg is way funnier and more unpredictable himself,
and the ride with the podcaster and the master thief—and the obsessed cop—takes
great twists.”</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">How
do you like your noir crime fiction served? If you mark the checkboxes for
unpredictable, twisty, fast-paced, wry, mocking, and “with a side of dark
humor,” by all means order up Charles Salzberg’s mystery <i>Man on the Run</i>.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
fact, the humor is much more than a “side” for this seasoned author. Even the
premise, revealed in alternating points of view, comes with a feeling of “how
come nobody thought of this sooner?” And there you have it—even the review
begins to sound like Francis Hoyt, an expert in burglary and pressing the
“scary psycho” buttons when he wants to spook someone and get them to leave
him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But
that’s not really his motive in ambushing a true-crime podcaster as she’s
coming out of a California coffee shop. Francis is turned on by the off-beat
confidence he sees in Dakota Richards (and her lack of a bra, her pixie
features, that hint of a previously broken nose). Francis Hoyt is a predator at
heart, but his decision to tease this would-be journalist means he gets a new
kind of attention, and frankly, he wants it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
What about Dakota? Sure, she recognizes the mythically capable criminal and
fugitive. It’s her business! But she knows enough to play it cool. Besides,
she’s already fascinated by what he’s like in person. Small, neat, compact. And
she should be careful:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“He’s
also got this palpable sense of danger thing about him. And it’s not because I
know who he is and what he’d done. He’s just, like, like dangerous looking. And
there’s something else. It’s in his eyes. Intelligence. … There’s something going
on behind those eyes, something that only adds to this sense of danger that
surrounds him.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
that sounds like a classic tough-girl-lusts-after-bad-boy plot opening, you’re
underestimating Salzberg: He’s in here for the darkness, the quirkiness. And
how do you ramp that up? First, add a job, a bank to rob where even thinking
about the task could get you into the crosshairs of the mob bosses who own it.
Next, in the tradition of pushing your protagonists to their limits, Salzberg
drops a retired state investigator, Charlie Floyd, into the middle of it all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Actually,
credit Dakota with both appearances, since she deliberately involved the two
antagonists in her plans for a compelling podcast: She trailed hints about
doing a piece on Francis, to the point where she knew he’d want to get into the
reality show. Plus, she tracked down Charlie Floyd with every intention of
aiming him at Hoyt. And as her own fascination with Francis Hoyt balloons, she
clear-sightedly scolds herself for becoming “that sad, pathetic, desperate
woman who falls for the guy in prison.” Except she’s actually fallen for risk
and danger, the ultimate comeback to her mother’s snarky criticisms. She knows
she’s got a hot podcast already: “<i>I was stalked by Francis Hoyt and lived to
tell the tale</i>. How’s that for a show-stopping teaser?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Crime
fiction readers may think they know what’s ahead, based on other noir work. But
Salzberg is way funnier and more unpredictable himself, and the ride with the
podcaster and the master thief—and the obsessed cop—takes great twists, all the
way to the very delightful finale. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-49454576896502059572023-04-15T16:49:00.000-04:002023-04-15T16:49:20.591-04:00Brief Mention: Dark Revenge Crime Fiction from Eli Cranor, OZARK DOGS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilWe6SZ5Kq2778qJaxBWf7_oNBt1rf00-MovQhYPiNcJMRcT-2K6-K-3LNoHaVlfTn6SYE8-Aw6tRuojIzqurL-fn3wWSVIgd4qhLnBgGPpcBrRrnqY2fDtxVk0U9IYakFCBVaA0u05cghoca77Kb2DJ32o9gpMCFoPct1EvJEHIhN8h09rBY/s600/ozark-dogs-low-res-397x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilWe6SZ5Kq2778qJaxBWf7_oNBt1rf00-MovQhYPiNcJMRcT-2K6-K-3LNoHaVlfTn6SYE8-Aw6tRuojIzqurL-fn3wWSVIgd4qhLnBgGPpcBrRrnqY2fDtxVk0U9IYakFCBVaA0u05cghoca77Kb2DJ32o9gpMCFoPct1EvJEHIhN8h09rBY/s320/ozark-dogs-low-res-397x600.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />My home-grown measure of a good crime novel is the number of people I'd like to give a copy to. On that scale, alas, OZARK DOGS by Eli Cranor scored really low. <p></p><p>And it's not because of the violence. Anyone reading dark stuff, "noir," knows how to handle that. Plus I really appreciated Cranor's earlier crime novel, <i><a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/2022/04/compelling-revealing-fierce-and.html">Don't Know Tough</a></i>.<br /></p><p>Partly it's because nothing turns out right for anyone in this Southern thriller with a missing teen and her secretive granddaughter.</p><p>But the bigger part is because it paints a compelling image of "country folk" as violent, menacing, and ready to hold deadly grudges across generations (the pre-publication publicity even mentioned Hatfield–McCoy blood feud). Cranor is such a convincing writer that readers run a risk of thinking this Southern Gothic shows the real world.<br /></p><p>Sure, you can put menace and despair into fiction, and maybe some readers won't take it personally. But give me a choice and I'll take the way <a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/search?q=randall+silvis">Randall Silvis</a> handles the theme instead, where courage and loyalty have as much of a presence as the junkyard dogs and the weapons.</p><p>Get a copy if you want to go really, really bleak. Just don't blame me if you drop into a week of depression or waste the grocery money on chocolate, to recover.</p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-81688364704256735182023-04-15T16:30:00.001-04:002023-04-15T16:30:07.810-04:00Brief Mention: Light-Hearted French-Countryside Cozy, DEATH AND CROISSANTS by Ian Moore<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_G-W4yFFVql--CVcCdEM-cFsjqDvXjeyXpqdvrCMTlmFpc0T2GLQNVzyKaKvT3iM3R_DFO6shfU6y9WMFjPm2PyYsrgSbc1xBFjwUgUUqSZrxGjDDJ2RfebtdUMi4mFbHNHZiFOYgRyIUHKrN04Lr-G5icMEBqEAAxvgGT3_OwL3lyBWGQI/s595/9781728270555_p0_v3_s600x595.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_G-W4yFFVql--CVcCdEM-cFsjqDvXjeyXpqdvrCMTlmFpc0T2GLQNVzyKaKvT3iM3R_DFO6shfU6y9WMFjPm2PyYsrgSbc1xBFjwUgUUqSZrxGjDDJ2RfebtdUMi4mFbHNHZiFOYgRyIUHKrN04Lr-G5icMEBqEAAxvgGT3_OwL3lyBWGQI/s320/9781728270555_p0_v3_s600x595.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br />Did you seriously consider turning part of your home into an Air-type bed-and-breakfast right before the pandemic? Are you still longing to jump into the short-term rental market to make some cash on the side? Or (confess now) have you always pictured yourself baking marvelous muffins and serving them to international guests who leave glowing comments on your Yelp listing?<p></p><p>DEATH AND CROISSANTS by <a href="https://ianmoore.info/category/author/">Ian Moore</a> will save you a lot of trouble (and apron laundry). Set in France and written with a clever and light touch by British stand-up comedian Ian Moore, it offers all the complications of running a bed & breakfast, complete with complaints, crabby clients, fraud and failed payments, and most of all, apparent murder.</p><p>Richard Aisworth is still not sure what's going on with his marriage, since both his wife and his daughter have left him to manage the B&B, and both seem to cordially despise him and his passion for old films. At least his chickens (their fresh eggs are a feature of his inn) don't disappoint ... until they begin to vanish, and one is clearly killed as a message.</p><p>His personal complications with his guest Valérie, well-intentioned though they may be, tangle quickly with the bloody handprints, mysterious messages, and multi-village chase scenes. So if you're ready for a fun and deliciously French addition to your summer TBR stack, fix yourself a pitcher of something fresh and cold, open up the hammock or lawn chair, and settle in with your copy. </p><p>[This is Moore's American debut, but there are more titles in his series; cross your fingers that they will soon come "across the pond."]</p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-6279199347390037072023-04-14T19:40:00.006-04:002023-04-14T20:13:43.390-04:00New Tight, Dark Canadian Hard-Boiled from Vern Smith, SCRATCHING THE FLINT<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRgIXzXgtqYwng0z8fSYsy1S46JQ_X1XXTfUZgYqSGhuBapUKAs0YiSO1cXk5XiKjVlGRgVReqC3VZ1RS-ah2HihkICgoeIYr9OvodnGiUDn_bUeSF1dynHM8CpcE2T9t-FWUC5tRRjNiZbncRMKH5SgwqiIvbqJyf7R9QG0RF_dMcJ_XWVTY/s1038/Scratching.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="880" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRgIXzXgtqYwng0z8fSYsy1S46JQ_X1XXTfUZgYqSGhuBapUKAs0YiSO1cXk5XiKjVlGRgVReqC3VZ1RS-ah2HihkICgoeIYr9OvodnGiUDn_bUeSF1dynHM8CpcE2T9t-FWUC5tRRjNiZbncRMKH5SgwqiIvbqJyf7R9QG0RF_dMcJ_XWVTY/s320/Scratching.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><br />Run Amok Crime Fiction releases today/tomorrow a new hard-boiled detective novel from Vern Smith. SCRATCHING THE FLINT continues to wind his dark twists tighter, until explosion is inevitable. Set in pre 9/11 Toronto, the book opens with a grim killing of a squealing witness that implicates a sleazy lawyer in the messy patterns of mob execution.<p></p><p>Hard-boiled as a genre is saturated with rage and impulse; Smith takes it a layer deeper by leaking the real precursor to rage, the inner morass of doubt and shame invading lives spent avoiding human connection. Here's Gordon, for instance:</p><p></p><blockquote>First came Gordon's return to drink, falling down after last call in front of the Bovine Sex Club, breaking his wrist, claiming he did it rollerblading. The emergency doctor prescribed enough painkillers to kill all kinds of hurt. Then Gordon was hooked on those, too. Luckily, the cops didn't bother with a blood test three weeks ago, relying only on his breathalyzer reading, 0.81, which was bad enough. That made him not just a bona fide boozer, but a bona fide boozer inside the small world of Toronto journalism. ... Did that make Gordon lowlife? ... And did he even want to know?</blockquote><p></p><p>Meanwhile, anti-fraud team Alex Johnson and Cecil Bolan (from Smith's earlier short story collection <i>The Gimmick</i>) try to break into the mobbed-up crime ring that Gordon wishes he were good enough to expose — and Gordon sneaks up on their investigation. Not surprisingly, he digs himself into deeper messes, while the detectives circle around the same swamp. At times it's hard to tell the good guys and their guilt from Gordon and his shame ... except Gordon's making worse mistakes because he's so darn scared. </p><p>If you cut your reading teeth on Los Angeles noir, or Donald Westlake's series under his Richard Stark pen name, here's a great chance to step deeper (or, considering Gordon, higher) and grab the bitter disillusionment of modern police challenges and the messy choices that power provides. Oh, and that title? Think a Zippo lighter ... and all the steamy and screwed up moments likely to follow that scratched flint. <br /></p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-26239101516096583152023-04-14T10:25:00.002-04:002023-04-14T19:41:03.012-04:00The Living, Lasting Legacy of Author Anne Perry (1938-2023)<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgCRjSFl2JxqNOKZ6dAa9Lzt5asuZyLWeKIZm1jjzv8kIbpt8O-cT3TPsAhmyPuyf5m6hQsKwbQmMG_ElfGNsHpGM9v9Ir5LlqqGobMdDy5g79WJl16hKu5Cr4-efAeE7x-nxEtdcfqY5e2xOllbfb8Dtw5BDKqkOrzgAEcpyJ09-_is-vsQ/s1536/77b39705-b4d3-e0e7-858c-130b386d60bc.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgCRjSFl2JxqNOKZ6dAa9Lzt5asuZyLWeKIZm1jjzv8kIbpt8O-cT3TPsAhmyPuyf5m6hQsKwbQmMG_ElfGNsHpGM9v9Ir5LlqqGobMdDy5g79WJl16hKu5Cr4-efAeE7x-nxEtdcfqY5e2xOllbfb8Dtw5BDKqkOrzgAEcpyJ09-_is-vsQ/s320/77b39705-b4d3-e0e7-858c-130b386d60bc.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>(Author Anne Perry in 2012. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Dave and I met one of the great mystery authors of our lifetime at a reader/writer conference, Bouchercon, when it was held in Albany, New York. We'd prepared for months —even years—for this, collecting the books written by Anne Perry. Others in line around us clutched to their chests one or two books to be signed; some, like us, had more. We toted ours in big canvas book bags.<p></p><p>I recall how awestruck I felt when I reached the front of the line and stood in front of this British author. There wasn't time for conversation: Maybe another hundred people waited behind us. Briskly, in our practiced rhythm, Dave and I opened each lovely hardcover book to the title page for this author's bold signature, then the next, and the next, as one of us put away signed copies and the other lifted more books to the table.</p><p>In minutes, it was over; I felt breathless, truly amazed that life could include such a moment.</p><p>Historical mystery author author Charles Fergus, however, made much different use of his time with Anne Perry. I love his story of that moment and its lasting legacy in his writing. Here you are (the original is published on his blog, <a href="https://charlesfergus.com/blog-posts">https://charlesfergus.com/blog-posts</a>):</p><h1 class="entry-title" data-content-field="title" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1681481830609_255"><a href="https://charlesfergus.com/blog-posts/2023/4/14/anne-perrys-advice-to-me-make-true-a-major-character" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1681481830609_254">Anne Perry's Advice to Me: Make True a Major Character</a></h1>
<div class="body entry-content" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1681481830609_73"><div class="sqs-layout sqs-grid-12 columns-12" data-layout-label="Post Body" data-type="item" data-updated-on="1681470776198" id="item-643934e2418cab052f94b831"><div class="row sqs-row" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1681481830609_72"><div class="col sqs-col-12 span-12" id="yui_3_17_2_1_1681481830609_71"><div class="sqs-block html-block sqs-block-html" data-block-type="2" id="block-a9410f1582dbd52b0092"><div class="sqs-block-content">
<h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Anne Perry, who died recently at age 84, wrote dozens of popular mysteries set in Victorian-era England. According to her website, more than 26 million copies of her novels have been sold since the first one was published in 1979.</span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Perry wrote 32 William and Charlotte Pitt mysteries; they feature a police officer in late 19th-century London and his wife, an unconventional aristocrat. Perry also wrote a 24-book series about a detective named William Monk, who loses his memory after a carriage crash, and Hester Latterly, a former Crimean War nurse who ultimately becomes William’s wife and helps him adjust to his brain injury and solve crimes. </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I met Anne Perry in 2013 at a conference of the Historical Novel Society, which was held in an old hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. I had completed a manuscript for the first Gideon Stoltz mystery, <a href="https://charlesfergus.com/stranger"><i>A Stranger Here Below</i></a>, and was looking for a literary agent. I’d also signed up for a course on how to craft effective pitches – both a longish description of a novel, and a shorter one, sometimes called an “elevator pitch” from the notion that you can deliver this near-breathless summary during a brief elevator ride. </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Perry gave the keynote speech on the conference’s first evening. The next morning when I came down to breakfast, I saw her sitting there by herself. I asked if she wanted company, expecting her to say no, but she was delighted to share the meal and some conversation. </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She asked where I was from and what I was writing about. I said with a laugh that I’d just give her my brand-new elevator pitch: “In 1835 in the Pennsylvania backcountry, a young sheriff unearths disturbing links among a judge’s suicide, a trial and hanging 30 years ago, and a recent murder. To conduct his investigation, he must relive his own mother’s murder, a crime that remains unsolved.” </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I also mentioned that one reason I’d written a murder mystery was because I had lost my own mother to a murder, and I wanted to write a story that did not trivialize the horrific, life-swerving effects that a murder leaves in its wake. </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Years later, I would find out that Anne Perry had committed murder herself. In 1954, in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the age of 15, she and a pathologically close 16-year-old female friend killed the friend’s mother by bludgeoning her using a sock with half a brick in it. They somehow thought that killing the woman would prevent the friend’s parents from leaving New Zealand, which would have forced the two adolescent girls to separate.</span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ms. Perry’s criminal past had been revealed in 1994 when Peter Jackson told her story in his film <i>Heavenly Creatures</i>, starring Kate Winslet as the confident, conniving teenager Juliet Hulme – who, after serving five years in prison, would be given a new name and ultimately would become the bestselling mystery author Anne Perry.</span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That morning in St. Petersburg, after hearing about my planned mystery series, Perry urged me to develop Gideon’s wife, True Burns Stoltz, into a major character. Perry said that in writing her novels, she felt that having both male and female main characters helped her examine situations, relationships, and crimes from two very different perspectives. She felt that readers liked that approach. And she said that writing from those differing viewpoints was fun. </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">By then I’d begun working on my second mystery, <a href="https://charlesfergus.com/nighthawk"><i>Nighthawk’s Wing</i></a>. In it, True hauls herself out of a deep and nearly suicidal depression brought on by the death of her and Gideon’s infant son. And in the third mystery, <a href="https://charlesfergus.com/lay-this-body-down"><i>Lay This Body Down</i></a>, True blossoms into a quirky, tough, determined heroine whose way of looking at the world differs from – and complements in an important way – that of her rational, thoughtful, sometimes almost plodding sheriff husband. </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Perry’s obituary in the <i>New York Times</i> noted that she never married; friends felt she ended romantic relationships because she didn’t know what to say about her past. It also<i> </i>quoted some things she’d said in a 2017 documentary film about her life: “In a sense it’s not a matter – at the end – of judging,” she said. “I did this much good and that much bad. Which is the greater?” </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She continued: “In the end, Who am I? Am I somebody that can be trusted? Am I someone that is compassionate, gentle, patient, strong?” She mentioned other traits, including bravery, honesty, and caring. “If you’re that kind of person,” she said, “if you’ve done something bad in the past, you’ve obviously changed.”</span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Anne Perry offered me encouragement and spot-on writing advice. I’m glad to think of my character True as one of the things she gave to the world.</span></h3><h3 style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgww61d5xVT7HLpxNTZvWkrCg1yr926jkllEOAyWskdMSvYIaMKTZ51PgQ2_3qQ_xTXmhSjsYuxvgpnWVFEPT7Ox-RHSJx6xxJkDRrgVV5tNksC0URuSVOCznt8XeyndYkJbwel8vUM0SpWa2cR6M-uxDR-Ntv38swCpPWVdDUelv6-O1VULzE/s1210/Lay+This+Body+Down.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="810" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgww61d5xVT7HLpxNTZvWkrCg1yr926jkllEOAyWskdMSvYIaMKTZ51PgQ2_3qQ_xTXmhSjsYuxvgpnWVFEPT7Ox-RHSJx6xxJkDRrgVV5tNksC0URuSVOCznt8XeyndYkJbwel8vUM0SpWa2cR6M-uxDR-Ntv38swCpPWVdDUelv6-O1VULzE/s320/Lay+This+Body+Down.png" width="214" /></a></div><br /> PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></h3>
</div></div></div></div></div></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-33104919523086001772023-04-11T11:59:00.006-04:002023-04-11T11:59:56.960-04:00Cuban-American Romantic Suspense from Chanel Cleeton, THE CUBAN HEIRESS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXpiCuWbZQCz996XTaZ-PRl9Y-kgVS-UO0EsZWMHfSRdI9oZJ49xmtmlIIo7T1HlFH8M8VlTWU2efMpWWNyieoh6gHyTX8brajzO40nZo762dzfHv-WPee6AxzAmLUm38dWZX_GHlHqnDel2pWD5VDp3yrVouvCFJtSwpY850RhecV1DGiRM/s500/512ZbMFwC-L._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXpiCuWbZQCz996XTaZ-PRl9Y-kgVS-UO0EsZWMHfSRdI9oZJ49xmtmlIIo7T1HlFH8M8VlTWU2efMpWWNyieoh6gHyTX8brajzO40nZo762dzfHv-WPee6AxzAmLUm38dWZX_GHlHqnDel2pWD5VDp3yrVouvCFJtSwpY850RhecV1DGiRM/s320/512ZbMFwC-L._SL500_.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br />[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/cuban-heiress">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>] <p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“A tenderness for Cuban life and the way the island draws people
back to their roots colors the determined women of this novel and the men who
assist them. Cleeton’s characters offer a beautiful pairing of tenderness and
passion, anger and revenge, courage and resolution.”</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
lively and twisty suspense novel from Chanel Cleeton pairs the glamour and
desperation of women’s survival in the Great Depression, highlighted with a
delicious Cuban American flair. Occupying different parts of the magnificent
luxury liner <i>S.S. Morro Castle</i> are two women whose secrets intertwine,
and two determined thieves, one charming, and the other a clear menace.
Cruise-ship entertainment may hide the dangers during daylight, but on the
night decks, murder knows few bounds.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Elena
Reyes, say one woman’s false documents. Her first mission on the boat is to
retrieve a pistol that’s been smuggled aboard for her, thanks to other Cuban
American allies. Her justofied rage is more than sufficient for the pistol’s
use—but are her other skills enough to protect her?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">New
York heiress Catherine Dohan can flash emerald earrings and a massive diamond
engagement ring while traveling with her wealthy fiancé and his small child
from an earlier marriage, with whom she’s not supposed to interact. But when
the earrings turn out to be as false as her persona, that’s another revelation
about the supposedly wealthy man she’s engaged to.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When
the charming and insightful Harry pays too much attention to Catherine, her
hunger for romance and real affection flares into an uncontrollable response.
And even though she can see the hard-scrabble career of seduction and theft
that Harry juggles, the complications of the deception she is working mean she
needs an alliance with this mysterious rogue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She’s
done her best to size him up: “Perhaps he’s hunting for a wealthy spouse as
well … While I shouldn’t fault him, given my own ambitions, I won’t countenance
anyone jeopardizing mine.” Prodded, though, she spits out her reality: “I like
seeing people get what’s coming to them.” With Harry’s widened eyes, she
instantly knows she’s made a mistake and revealed that she’s not the spoiled
and pampered heiress she’s working so hard to portray.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Cleeton
deftly alternates points of view between these two crafty, scheming women, and
only gradually is the connection between them revealed: a fire, an abusive man,
an escape. A false death certificate. And something about Raymond, the man
Catherine’s engaged to.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
Harry becomes a more trusted ally, he shares his criminal insight with her:
“There’s something about Raymond—a disregard for others, disdain for anyone he
views as beneath him. … Whatever your game is, don’t think he doesn’t have one
of his own.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Cleeton,
a Florida native with Cuban roots of her own, shows the skills she’s honed in
four earlier romantic historical novels as she whips between the two women’s
deceptions and risks. A tenderness for Cuban life and the way the island draws
people back to their roots colors the determined women of this novel and the
men who assist them. Cleeton’s characters offer a beautiful pairing of
tenderness and passion, anger and revenge, courage and resolution. Not until
the poignant final chapters will all the twists be satisfyingly revealed, with
Catherine’s wish fulfilled: that people “get what’s coming to them.” And that
includes the possibility of love, after all.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-81626382722921610032023-04-10T10:34:00.003-04:002023-04-10T10:34:49.770-04:00Extraordinary Graphic-Novel Version of Sherlock Holmes, "The Final Problem" <p>[<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/sherlock-holmes%E2%80%94-final-problem">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]</p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn8tlXE-caRPoCKMZl0vAH9N8yaa078WEv-u9iOC3PWsOryWvIiys2LKzpIYC99lRZyZvgn5dtNJW-SCdCVYtNFgeBrYjn3rxB8H-l029qmr7zDS-whRLXBteJj5TmCc_YrpeUBi2PCHFA77j7iu-CW-m4KcdbzGnaPSmRFjd0N1qoZaSVgZU/s500/511gVEy9+tL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="357" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn8tlXE-caRPoCKMZl0vAH9N8yaa078WEv-u9iOC3PWsOryWvIiys2LKzpIYC99lRZyZvgn5dtNJW-SCdCVYtNFgeBrYjn3rxB8H-l029qmr7zDS-whRLXBteJj5TmCc_YrpeUBi2PCHFA77j7iu-CW-m4KcdbzGnaPSmRFjd0N1qoZaSVgZU/s320/511gVEy9+tL._SL500_.jpg" width="228" /></a></i></b></div><b><i><br />“</i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem<i> in the hands of Hannes
Binder is a must for any collection of Baker Street investigations, opening new
awareness of the impact of this classic in its time.”</i></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ignore
the any “young readers” alert where this book is promoted or displayed for
sale: Hannes Binder’s graphic novel version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock
Holmes tale, <i>The Final Problem</i>, is a masterpiece of dark significance
and foreboding. To a Holmes fan or collector, each page offers an art-embedded
insight into a story that once shook thousands of readers, as Doyle attempted
to escape the burden of writing more about the noted detective.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
1893 story called “The Adventure of the Final Problem” began with an abrupt
appearance by Holmes at the private consulting room of his ally, Dr. Watson.
Binder’s graphic version begins at the same point. Then, however, an adventure
opens in compressing the retelling of this tale into a slender “picturebook”
format. This will be most appreciated by readers already familiar with Doyle’s
original and with the impact of the story in 1893 (and through the next
century). The intense and detailed illustrations—which vary from full-page, to
two-page spreads, to boxed sequences like an old comic—convey at times even
more than the original text.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
example, a haunting triptych offers the smoke curling from (probably) Holmes’s
cigarette, rounded contours of a brain’s “white matter,” and an ominous
arachnid gripping a globe that echoes the mind of the arch criminal—or does it
belong to Holmes himself? A glaring embedded eye later views Watson’s tortuous
maneuvers to escape Moriarty. Mountainous landscapes, fierce skies, and
storm-torn waters deepen the degree of threat and terror.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Binder,
a seasoned creator in this form, is noted for his scratchboard illustrations.
Here, in haunting detail, they are printed in a deep blue that exerts more
impact than a black-and-white might have. Glaring faces and ominous oncoming
weather nestle among views of rocks and rivers. The smallness of Holmes and
Watson, compared to the enormity of Moriarty’s evil and related network, emerge
in ways beyond the wording of the original text, yet without distorting it in
any way. So when the pair of sleuths approaches the Reichenbach Falls, you can
see both their attempt to be casual, and their vulnerability. The inevitable
closing of the story, conveyed with a bold series of waterfalls and desperation,
is suddenly tremendously moving—as the story must have affected its first-time
readers more than a century ago.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sherlock
Holmes: The Final Problem</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in the hands of Hannes Binder is a must for any collection of
Baker Street investigations, opening new awareness of the impact of this
classic in its time, and even today, as new forces of evil confront humanity.
If we could illustrate the chaos and threat of our times as Binder has done
here, and present it to each available reader, perhaps it could act as a
deterrent to the end of the world as we know it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
last, it is Watson’s words that echo with the well-paced return of the drawings
to urbane England: “Two years have passed, but I still feel the gap that
Holmes’s death has left in my soul.” Most readers will know that, under
pressure from readers, Arthur Conan Doyle found himself forced to pick up the
narrative of Sherlock Holmes once again. But this graphic version conveys the
agony of the years “in between,” and offers a new impact to what could never be
reduced to a mere series of detective fiction.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-22617635311903460012023-03-07T17:11:00.004-05:002023-03-07T17:11:43.237-05:00Terrific Sniper Thriller from Cara Black, NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXxSuB4V5S6DLzdgO0EufeOOo7DYnP7UAN6xIgmmOjbiwadL2AkZ8Hi0HZlv3GVRN_TNJttSHGlnDBU5JGH00LqEufd-ms6DWCXKHL8Omnuakwf5XqcVmkjkNroe_KCb3pKBWiNrICgp-tiwHQX2NMzNHbt0aTy4CvqCAAEHfm1oTQXdty1GA/s500/51V5UfN9O8L._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXxSuB4V5S6DLzdgO0EufeOOo7DYnP7UAN6xIgmmOjbiwadL2AkZ8Hi0HZlv3GVRN_TNJttSHGlnDBU5JGH00LqEufd-ms6DWCXKHL8Omnuakwf5XqcVmkjkNroe_KCb3pKBWiNrICgp-tiwHQX2NMzNHbt0aTy4CvqCAAEHfm1oTQXdty1GA/s320/51V5UfN9O8L._SL500_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br />[Originally posted at <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/night-flight-paris">New York Journal of Books</a>] <p></p><p>
</p><p><b><i>“Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and </i>Night
Flight to Paris<i> is one of the notable thrillers of the season.”</i></b></p>
<p><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><br />
</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Cara Black</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">, well known for her long Parisian
series featuring PI Aimée Leduc, has come into her own. Her new series features
a woman sniper who, in last year’s first book of the series, <i>Three Hours in
Paris,</i> </span>faced nightmares of capture and death as she works undercover
for the British, on multiple assassination targets.</p>
<p>In the second book in this dramatic and fast-paced new approach, <i>Night
Flight to Paris</i>, American Kate Rees thinks her failed mission (as she sees
it) from 1940 will keep her in Britain as a sharpshooting instructor for the
rest of the war. But in 1942 her former handler, Colonel Stepney, has pressing
reasons to send her back to the occupied City of Light on a triple mission: a
delivery, an assassination, and the exfiltration of one of her close friends,
Margo, who's specifically demanded Kate's assistance.</p>
<p>But nothing's very clear in the rushed briefing to the mission, as Colonel
Stepney seems to be more than a bit obscure, telling Kate: "‘A good
undercover legend is like a diamond. Crafted to meet the four Cs—the carat,
cut, clarity, and color. They sparkle so brightly you can't look past them.’
Diamonds were hard. Was Stepney saying something else here? ‘Much of your
mission depends on what happens on the ground after you land, and how Margo
plays it. We can't know anything for sure.’ Plan. Pivot. And re-plan. Hadn't
Wilkes drilled that into the trainees? Or as her pa would say, <i>ya gotta be
ready to turn on a dime, Katie</i>.”</p>
<p>When Stepney issues Kate a cyanide suicide pill, that confirms how risky
this mission will be. And it's complicated by the mess Kate left behind two
years earlier since there is a warrant out for her arrest in Paris, and she'll
have to be in heavy disguise as a result.</p>
<p>Black ramps up the tension in every plot twist, and offers an unforgettable
experience of both wartime Paris and the sheer guts and creativity needed for
undercover work. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“She'd walked into a setup. Her own damn fault. ... Under
her Red Cross Cape, she slid her 9mm Welrod's 12-inch cylinder, containing its
bolt, barrel and baffle, down her sleeve. It took seconds, during which she
never broke eye contact with the Nazi.”</p>
<p>In contrast to Black’s Leduc books, this new series avoids swaddling the
action in romantic questions, which in turn leaves Kate Rees clearer about her
own capacity, able to plan swiftly, and incisive in questioning what’s coming
at her and responding from strength, despite some obvious flaws in her
preparation:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“In the garage, Kate opened her bag in the creaking cabinet,
ready to change into the <i>Wehrmachthelferinnen </i>uniform. Sickening Nazi
symbols decorated the sleeves. Would it fit her big-boned frame? With this
uniform and the stolen ID, she’d have credentials and blend in unnoticed. But
the few phrases of German she’d picked up left a lot to be desired. Face it:
the moment she opened her mouth she’d be dead.”</p>
<p>Overall, Black shows that her transition from the Leduc detective series to
this thriller format is an excellent choice. Although there are a few
inconsistencies at chapter jumps—maybe from all the adrenaline in crafting this
high-suspense, high-threat adventure—Black's work is leaping ahead in power and
energy, and <i>Night Flight to Paris</i> is one of the notable thrillers of the
season.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-72373019672532885402023-02-24T17:20:00.002-05:002023-02-24T17:20:44.358-05:00Short Story Collection from James R. Benn, THE REFUSAL CAMP<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVIxH4wWan08ynFnjXxmD8nYOpDj6X3e73KR129U2M-tAsIra0IF227U6qmYqymNNnU8dhEaW712BUAoHqUJ6ssjfgYx5q8tbAx2pvdVCGa2AOLI7RCIr_J2uzb5SDxLAwx9bdciEHi1Uk0SmMHSr7OKUWxc5OUdJLm_14ZXldWxyqPMTTg_s/s600/Refusal-Camp-cover-web-397x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVIxH4wWan08ynFnjXxmD8nYOpDj6X3e73KR129U2M-tAsIra0IF227U6qmYqymNNnU8dhEaW712BUAoHqUJ6ssjfgYx5q8tbAx2pvdVCGa2AOLI7RCIr_J2uzb5SDxLAwx9bdciEHi1Uk0SmMHSr7OKUWxc5OUdJLm_14ZXldWxyqPMTTg_s/s320/Refusal-Camp-cover-web-397x600.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />Crime and war. Unfortunately, they go well together. Especially in the hands of James R. Benn, whose 17 <a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/search?q=+billy+boyle">Billy Boyle mysteries</a> place an Irish-American cop at various sites and trenches of World War II, investigating the dark side of moneyed warfare on behalf of his distant cousin General Dwight Eisenhower.<p></p><p>THE REFUSAL CAMP gives Benn the space to air tales of other wars, other time periods, and of course other motivated protagonists (although there is a gem of a Billy Boyle story tucked among these). The collection opens during the years when Connecticut settlers still enslaved Africans, and unfolds from the point of view of an enslaved teen. It swiftly becomes a crime story, one where the most disadvantaged person on the scene must summon both courage and insight, as well as a clever riposte, if he's to escape hanging.</p><p>There are eight more stories—one published in an earlier Soho Crime Collection, <i>The Usual Santas</i>. Billy Boyle fans will especially enjoy the Boston investigation "Irish Tommy," featuring police lieutenant Daniel Boyle, as well as "Billy Boyle: The Lost Prologue," a tale removed from the first Billy Boyle mystery before publication. The cleverest may well be "The Secret of Hemlock Hill," a haunted Civil War tale brought into the present. "The Refusal Camp" offers a concentration-camp possibility that reminds us that "victims" often found effective ways to hold their own.<br /></p><p>Seasoned Benn/Boyle fans need this collection for their shelves featuring the youthful, loyal, and often rash wartime detective; those new to Benn's work may find the character-focused and neatly plotted and twisted stories so satisfying that they'll wish to dip into the full Boyle series.</p><p>Best of all, this nicely balanced collection can temper the rest of the Northern Hemisphere winter season, providing good reading for the last of the fireside evenings and lazy weekends before the yard, gardens, and outdoor sports reassert their siren calls. </p><p>Soho Crime/Soho Press will release the collection on March 14; this is a good time to place a pre-order to be sure to get a copy "hot off the press," as Billy Boyle would have said.</p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-75465585190188948822023-02-24T15:12:00.002-05:002023-02-24T15:12:36.603-05:00TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER, Striking New Sicilian Crime Fiction from Maria Rosa Cutrufelli<p>The opening chapters of TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER go very slowly, as the narrator—would-be author of a biography of Cettina, now Tina, a Mafia youth—renews her acquaintance with Gela, a city in Sicily. This harsh frontier-like city, once a coveted location in ancient history, is now a battered orphan of the petrochemical industry. Its historic face has vanished; instead, the narrator sees it as "Young and cruel. It's a cruel landscape that I find hard to recognize and doesn't correspond to the map of my memory anymore."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyixoicCXjWnp0FWqts3lIoTFQCFeX4UrSgmk6m1v01dYBBkwVmiCR1BB4WJs8kHXPKs8jxklSts8QWDmnszaqLmtPxI7eHd3BfnfjMIU4iNwRicclFMulT47ctLLuz8m-bUG8JCUrynPXeE3mF9E7--nxydBpwh64WEp7PJEQ79Nhm2di7lA/s600/tina-mafia-soldier-low-res-397x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyixoicCXjWnp0FWqts3lIoTFQCFeX4UrSgmk6m1v01dYBBkwVmiCR1BB4WJs8kHXPKs8jxklSts8QWDmnszaqLmtPxI7eHd3BfnfjMIU4iNwRicclFMulT47ctLLuz8m-bUG8JCUrynPXeE3mF9E7--nxydBpwh64WEp7PJEQ79Nhm2di7lA/s320/tina-mafia-soldier-low-res-397x600.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>The city itself reeks of masculine violence and brutality. But embedded in it today is Tina, <i>a' masculidda</i>, Tina the little tomboy, documented in a folder the narrator carries with her. Recently imprisoned, Tina isn't yet 20 years old, but her leadership of her small teen gang within the Mafia culture has brought her strength and notoriety.<p></p><p>The quest for Tina herself begins with interview upon interview of relatives and friends of this "Mafia soldier" in hopes of gaining a visit with the prisoner, who can choose whether or not to admit someone, almost a bizarre form of royalty. And in fact, Tina is a figure worth admiring, even worshiping, with her motorbike, her weapons, the loyalty she's demanded and inspired.</p><p>Bear with this narrator and the translation (by Robin Pickering-Jazzi), because the discomfort of the chapters builds toward an awkward yet compelling understanding of Tina herself and the "cruel" city that has brought her into being. A sexual intermediate, neither muscled male nor seductive female, Tina is a quintessential "other," trans in every aspect of her being. </p><p>Here is a taste of Tina, struggling to outwait the customers at the beauty salon operated by her cousin Giovanna:</p><p></p><blockquote>The roots of her bad mood sank down into embedded realities that were different and deeper than dissatisfaction or unfulfilled needs. She would have liked to make a spectacular entrance that day. She dreamed of the splendor of an entrance worthy of her. The Alfa 164 and black leather jacket. ... "Did you all see her? Rambo." Constraining her to give tough answers, always poised on a razor's edge.</blockquote><p></p><p>Then there's Tina's friend Graziella, who works for a production company and represents another side of the muddled sexuality and violence of the place:</p><p></p><blockquote>Graziella is a nervous brunette who's going back and forth between a printer and a video, extricating herself from snarls of wires that are hanging down and getting entangled between stools and tables, obviously hindering her movements. But more than her exuberant nature, I think it's her still very young age that makes her easily confront a job whose dangers she doesn't see, even though she knows perfectly well what they are, and complain about the job just being temporary.</blockquote><p></p><p>Though men are interviewed too, it's the women who love Tina for herself and would do anything for her. Giovanna, for instance, "raises the cigarette to her mouth, a darting little snake with a pointed tip, and says as she exhales the smoke, 'She's a warrior.' A reverential fear that gradually dissolves in veiled disapproval."</p><p>By the time our narrator finally forms a connection with Tina herself, the grim, assaultive, and sexually confusing journey into the teenager's life, into the Cosa Nostra, into Sicily and its asphyxiative presence, has changed her irretrievably. What she will facilitate at last for Tina will tear apart the fabric she has spent so much time and effort crafting, as she calls Tina out of the cell and into compelling pages.</p><p>TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER is complex, with seductive metaphors and a grimly poisonous atmosphere that daunts the emergence of any necessary self-love. Once it picks up speed, it's compelling and potent. There can be no return to any mythic Sicily after this fictive immersion in reality provided by Sicilian-born <a href="https://sohopress.com/authors/maria-rosa-cutrufelli/">Maria Rosa Cutrufelli</a>.<br /></p><p>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-85546901024446786932023-02-24T10:58:00.002-05:002023-02-24T10:58:22.891-05:00Brief Mention: LAST SEEN IN LAPAZ, by Kwei Quartey<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjKjX_ypbLHFumkdmV7Ydb0I5WZFtX9hbv9iUnjr__1wDgkyqHHkACVGm6FjCGsSzIFIipdnJ4Mcv3vdNZD9rU4Qu5TeUj9PFdwBs-Tc-LHHwsCYCgp94OkepwHBTAXkIhr65idhATMjMqsyp55jDixW607ZhmgOheFS5VCz90ahouKmkpiQ/s600/last-seen-in-lapaz-397x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjKjX_ypbLHFumkdmV7Ydb0I5WZFtX9hbv9iUnjr__1wDgkyqHHkACVGm6FjCGsSzIFIipdnJ4Mcv3vdNZD9rU4Qu5TeUj9PFdwBs-Tc-LHHwsCYCgp94OkepwHBTAXkIhr65idhATMjMqsyp55jDixW607ZhmgOheFS5VCz90ahouKmkpiQ/s320/last-seen-in-lapaz-397x600.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />Collecting international crime fiction? Ghana-born physician and author <a href="https://kingdombks.blogspot.com/search?q=Kwei+Quartey">Kwei Quartey</a>'s Darko Dawson series, set mostly in Ghana, has been a pleasure; Quartey's current series is a spinoff that features Emma Djan, a private detective always alert to gender discrimination as she works her way up in a local agency (the police force dumped her, early in the series).<p></p><p>LAST SEE IN LAPAZ opens with the disappearance of a young Nigerian woman, daughter of a friend of the agency owner. (Lapaz is a town in the Accra Metropolitan District -- not related at all to La Paz, New Mexico.) The attractive and hard-working Ngozi seems to have run away from home, across the national border, and might be in Accra. If, that is, she's alive.</p><p>Emma Djan isn't yet authorized to do a lot of investigation on her own, but she has an advantage here, because she can perform a flirtatious role with the greedy (in every sense) hotel owners who seem linked to the disappearance. When one hotel turns out to be supplying female companions, perhaps forced into this upscale prostitution, Emma's both horrified and fascinated. Anything to avoid the boredom of routine PI work!</p><p>Her insight into women's lives also gives her an advantage as she investigates with Boateng, the local DI (inspector on the police force):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Boateng grunted. "You seem to be studying this room closely, Djan. What do you see?"</p><p>"No disorder, no chaos. It has a controlled feeling. Someone who has been in this room was trying to gain control over the other, but couldn't quite do it. ... This entire house is a clue."</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Despite his California location, Quartey's writing continues to have the choppy feel of translated material, possibly an intentional effect to suggest the movement among local languages and dialects. The book suffers somewhat from quick changes in point of view, among investigators and criminals. But it's still a revelatory experience of urban life in Ghana, and neatly plotted, with caste and related attitudes deftly portrayed. </p><p>Collect it for your African mystery shelf, as well as for the diverse spread of Soho Crime's continued global outreach.</p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-49680591985582295762023-02-14T19:51:00.003-05:002023-02-14T19:52:22.286-05:00Third Crime Novel for Sheriff Gideon Stoltz, LAY THIS BODY DOWN, by Charles Fergus<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0XtIxUFt5weY-gBHNlFV6iSW7T5Asl5JzrXOhUScreGZhO8aJ0fIWeegLY1Mi7c0Kp9L3OxPJwfyYknrlydwU6_blGQT-sNian2xOi17ph_4x2ZxbeDxcA6Xa34TkMUZbhgMhNI-fAB3261FQ01Ag8doT70V7CUxWiI_myBrVu2WwODjBgk/s500/41C4DYaxgIL._SL500_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK0XtIxUFt5weY-gBHNlFV6iSW7T5Asl5JzrXOhUScreGZhO8aJ0fIWeegLY1Mi7c0Kp9L3OxPJwfyYknrlydwU6_blGQT-sNian2xOi17ph_4x2ZxbeDxcA6Xa34TkMUZbhgMhNI-fAB3261FQ01Ag8doT70V7CUxWiI_myBrVu2WwODjBgk/s320/41C4DYaxgIL._SL500_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /> [<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/lay-body-down-gideon">Originally published at New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Fergus’s writing lays out both the struggles of a new nation, and
the pains of growing into determined manhood with its allegiances, regrets, and
consolations. If murder and kidnapping can be halted, why not enslavement,
also?” </span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
lines of good and evil are firm in this third antebellum mystery from Charles
Fergus: Enslavement is brutal, and deprives the 1837 American nation of honor.
Immediate emancipation could restore that honor—but in Sheriff Gideon Stoltz’s
industrial Pennsylvanian town of Adamant, a rough crowd jeers at a visiting
speaker advancing such an argument, and Gideon’s role as lawman is keeping the
peace. Not advancing abolition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">However,
Fergus positions Gideon as an outsider himself, with a strong “Pennyslvania
Dutch” German accent that marks his difference in the hardscrabble Scotch-Irish
town. Young and inexperienced for his job and without training, supported by
his wife and a few friends, Gideon identifies with runaways and victims. It’s a
dangerous position when there’s a national law requiring that he enforce
“property ownership” toward Black fugitives. Although his state backs away from
that position, the town is just 80 miles from Maryland, and his neighbors, a
mostly rough crew, could inform on a runaway and expect Gideon to jail that
person.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“What
if the right thing—whatever it is—and what the law requires turn out to be two
different things?” Gideon asks his wife True. Her answer: “I hope you would do
the right thing.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Chapters
of <i>Lay This Body Down</i> open with excerpts from historically real reward
notices seeking fugitives. When slave hunters turn up in Adamant, seeking a
Black youth who’s helped Gideon in the past, what he’ll choose is never in
doubt: He owes a debt, and servicing it fits with his growing belief that
enslavement is cruel and wrong. Instead, the rapidly ramped-up tension in the
book comes from the prevalence of malice among those hunting fugitives and
those who already despise Gideon as not one of them, neither by heritage nor by
attitude. As he struggles to find and protect this and other runaways, he
plunges into personal danger.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
that sense, this is an intimate novel of connection among working men with opposing
worldviews. Gideon will only succeed and survive if he can find enough allies
to defend his choices and actions. It’s soon clear he’s even being betrayed
within his own office. His own superior in law enforcement doesn’t even have
his back. But his wife does.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Readers
of the earlier two titles in this series (<i>A Stranger Here Below; Nighthawk’s
Wing</i>) will not find much of the mystical and supernatural that appeared in
those books, although True Burn Stoltz, finding her way out of her long
depression over the loss of the couple’s child to illness, clearly relies on a
related set of beliefs. Instead, the conflict in this novel foreshadows what
was already erupting across the nation’s frontier at the time: ardent beliefs
in independence and the sanctity of property, playing against philosophical and
humanist efforts to impose a better form of civilization. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gideon’s
weaknesses, part psychological from his own mother’s murder, part physical as a
residue of concussion (alas for the results of horse accidents and human
beatings!), hold potential to transform into powerful incentives to action. As
he prunes away the rot around him, he finds himself able to say to a stranger,
“Maybe you can help me.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Fergus’s
writing lays out both the struggles of a new nation, and the pains of growing
into determined manhood with its allegiances, regrets, and consolations. If murder
and kidnapping can be halted, why not enslavement, also? The author’s
meticulous historical portrayal offers a potent integrity, to ground the growth
of Gideon Stoltz into a man who’s certain of the right thing to do, after all.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span>PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29661087.post-17954159891146682082023-02-07T07:58:00.006-05:002023-02-07T07:58:33.811-05:00Engaging Mystery from J. D. Robb, ENCORE IN DEATH<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlGoyxx_8NFeSlrk1f22WWCvv8B73cldyYxcEVTDesArr_zeyqN6zFX84iByYekLLseaPXLTAyt_saQRvfwCVtz1sSLejQU1jJV-u9-4s1yq64zQWaZu8hAVxscvRrY6qz3LSx0M1sLI_NTx7ZPpQWyyHhxW3vZzou5Y6ClbbhLFyQ82L5vE/s500/51faZGtIvDL._SL500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlGoyxx_8NFeSlrk1f22WWCvv8B73cldyYxcEVTDesArr_zeyqN6zFX84iByYekLLseaPXLTAyt_saQRvfwCVtz1sSLejQU1jJV-u9-4s1yq64zQWaZu8hAVxscvRrY6qz3LSx0M1sLI_NTx7ZPpQWyyHhxW3vZzou5Y6ClbbhLFyQ82L5vE/s320/51faZGtIvDL._SL500_.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><br />[Originally published at <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/encore-death-eve-dallas">New York Journal of Books</a>]<p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“It’s unusual to find a crime page-turner that’s this compelling
while also probing affection and loyalty, without gore or grotesque maneuvers.
Motive, means, opportunity—</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Encore in Death<i> is classic crime fiction at its best.”</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Setting
the Eve Dallas crime thrillers ahead in time, with a few more technological
advances, doesn’t really give this homicide detective any more of an edge than
today’s savvy sleuths. After all, even if test results come more quickly and
communication is fine-tuned, solving a crime still comes down to getting inside
the minds and emotions of potential suspects.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So
when theatrical stars Eliza Lane and her husband Brant Fitzhugh throw an
A-lister gala for patrons of their work, just as Eliza’s new Broadway show is
about to open in the year 2036, it turns out that Brant’s sudden death is from
cyanide, that well-known almond-scented poison. And the roster of suspects is
no different than today’s would be: friends true or false, family, lovers, and
competitors for the spotlight and awards.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But
really, who could want to hurt Brant? His wife, a much edgier and sharp-tongued
person, can’t imagine any reason. “Brant didn’t like conflict, and found ways
to avoid it,” Eliza sums him up. Generous as an actor, a friend, a spouse, and
even philanthropist, his death comes from toasting his wife with a sip from her
specially prepared champagne cocktail. So who was the intended victim—husband
or wife?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">J.
D. Robb’s polished and well-paced writing, honed in more than 200 novels so
far, keeps the narrative on the move. Its second line of action takes place
between Eve and her own husband, the wealthy Irish entrepreneur Roarke—who,
whether by contagion or interest, is starting to “think like a cop” and lending
a hand to Eve and her investigation. Eve spots this even before Roarke’s
willing to admit he’s caught up in puzzle and how to solve it, as she outlines
the need to follow the money here, and says she’ll take a look. Roarke steps
right into her trap:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“I
could do that for you while you dig down on the cast and crew. You may find
it’s not the person who didn’t get the part, but a friend—as you were looking
at Sylvie—a relative, a lover. Someone who’d do the deed for someone else.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Roarke’s
ability to quickly deep-dive into financials adds power to the investigation;
his deft and determined efforts to support Eve’s work and the couple’s gentle
jockeying in support of each other add charm and passion (and some lovely
teasing) to the story, too. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
Robb lays out the plot with her quick professional skills, she paints solid
marriages just as effectively. It’s unusual to find a crime page-turner that’s
this compelling while also probing affection and loyalty, without gore or
grotesque maneuvers. Motive, means, opportunity—<i>Encore in Death</i> is
classic crime fiction at its best.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? <a href="http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/">Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here</a>. <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
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