Going Global from 2019: In Laos with Colin Cotterill, in South Africa with Tim Willocks

International mysteries abound now, and make up the second best way to get to know another location and culture -- the first best, of course, being a visit there in person. For those of us staying home this season, thank goodness for Colin Cotterill!

Cotterill's Siri Paiboun series keeps getting more off-beat and more fun, as his Laotian national coroner (circa 1980) ages. Dr. Siri in this 14th book is now 76, and his physical challenges are small compared to his spiritual ones, since he is possessed by a thousand-year-old shaman and finds the other world often intruding into his practical life of would-be retirement and comfortable meals with his noodle-making wife and their friends.

THE SECOND BIGGEST NOTHING refers to a quip of John Kerry's in the past, calling the Vietnam war "the Biggest Nothing in history." Then what was the overlapping war in Laos and Cambodia? To Dr. Siri, obviously it must have been the second biggest nothing! But a hangover from those days is the unresolved anger in some of the survivors, and now there's a major death threat in Dr. Siri's life as a revenge move. Spurring him to frantic action and passionate unraveling of his war-era actions is the size of the threat, which is directed at his family and friends as well.

Siri's police inspector buddy Phosy reminds him to start with the repetitive nature of the threat itself:

"I'm guessing that when he made that threat initially you would have sensed that it was more than just words. You would have seen him as capable of following through with it. It would have frightened you. For some time you would have been looking over your shoulder. On how many occasions have you experienced that kind of fear in your life?"

All eyes turned to Siri. He looked up at the lamp and seemed to be rewinding through his seventy-six years. He sniffed when he reached the end.

"Twice," he said. ... "Better make it three times," said Siri. "Just to be sure. .. I'm not given to panic, but I confess to missing a few heartbeats on those occasions."

As Dr. Siri spins out his personal history for his friends, he reveals the history of his country's war experience at the same time.

Brace for some shudders, as well as the sweet entertainment that Cotterill always provides, full of love of family and friends and efforts to set things right ... that sometimes go awry. A fun read, and one of the most enjoyable mysteries of 2019. From Soho Press, and easily available through orders at local bookstores, as well as online.

* * *

The development of noir within the mysteries genre has often reflected on the term's roots in "film noir" and brought Los Angeles, New York, and many another city with vast socioeconomic inequality into dark fiction. It's also become a home for crime fiction that's rooted in historic injustice and bitterness, as in the Irish noir of Stuart Neville, or even landscapes that produce darkness for large parts of the year, such as the Arctic and Scandinavia.

But for crime fiction where violence is a steel-strong cultural strand, South Africa repeatedly hosts a driven darkness. The names of the authors may not be common in full-page ads in review magazines, but their power is fierce and their writing can shatter the everyday: I'm thinking of Jassy Mackenzie, Malla Nunn, Paul Hardisty, James McClure.

And, new to me this year: Tim Willocks. Willocks, who's also a screenwriter and hence lays out his fiction in action-packed scenes, wrote at least four published novels before MEMO FROM TURNER swept out from Blackstone Publishing. Count on that background for the strength and ferocity of this thriller, in which Turner, a black "warrant officer" with Cape Town's homicide unit, struggles to nail a killer across lines both racial and socioeconomic.

Readers will know early in the book the identity of the likely killer, who's casually injured a black street girl with his high-end Range Rover, while very much inebriated. It's the mandated cover-up by the young man's powerful mining-magnate family that becomes a threat to Turner himself, as he struggles to find a way to force a confession and some kind of justice.

[Jason] looked at. Turner as if giving him his full attention for the first time.

"Turner, right?"

"Right."

"Where's Rudy?"

"I thought we'd handle this without him ... Rudy said you'd make a witness statement."

Jason waved the jug. "I didn't hurt a f***ing fly in Cpae Town."

"I didn't think you did."

"Now Rudy tells me they want me in a cell, sh**ting in the same bucket as five blacks."

"Tell me what happened early Sunday morning, outside the shebeen."

"You know what happened."

"I wasn't there," said Turner. "I need to hear it from you."

... If Jason would have let him, Turner would have gone. The dash-cam video would be enough to push a warrant through. He felt no pity for the hulking young farmer; but he had no desire to kill him.

Unflinching in his portrayal of a landscape without pity and a stacked deck of injustice, Willocks slams Turner against all of it, and the body count rises swiftly. But there is always an aura of enormous regret in this thriller, something that also seems to ooze from the battered landscape and its terrible history.

It's a book that's hard to put down, and impossible to forget. So consider yourself warned -- but I hope you pursue a copy, and dare to read it all. It's worth all the unease and disturbance. And the deadly risks that Turner's willing to undergo.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Brief Recaps: Eliot Pattison's BONES OF THE EARTH, Ang Pompano's WHEN IT'S TIME FOR LEAVING, Michael Stanley with SHOOT THE BASTARDS

"Life on life's terms" meant missing out on some reviewing earlier this year. So here are some brief recaps of books you may want to stock in for the cold weather!

BONES OF THE EARTH (Minotaur) is the tenth and final Inpector Shan Tao Yun mystery from Eliot Pattison. Pattison's first in this series, Skull Mantra, won an Edgar. Both of those, plus the locale in what was once the Hidden Kingdom and remains a controversial region taken over politically by China, are great reasons to read this finale.

Shan's position as a former Chinese official who's become a determined Buddhist places him at a spiritual sweet spot for the investigation of ancient shrines underlying the criminal efforts that soon threaten him and his son. It's fascinating to watch the threads drawn together, and there's hardly a moment without suspense, as Shan navigates a series of traps and investigates on both the mundance and the spiritual level. Pattison's deft twisting of the plot strands to reach a fitting resolution of the series makes for an excellent read.

Ang Pompano is a long-time active member of Sisters in Crime, nationally and in the New England chapter. Yes, there are "brothers" in the organization! His stories have been anthologized, and he's developed academic themes, too, including on detective fiction. WHEN IT'S TIME FOR LEAVING (Encircle Publications) is his debut mystery novel. And what an exhilarating, well-paced adventure it provides! Disgruntled police detective Al DeSantis, leaving behind multiple discouragements in New Haven, CT, plans to relocate to sunny Los Angeles. But a phone call from Mrs. Greenleaf at the Blue Palmetto Detectie Agency in Georgia topples his assumptions of life by letting him know his long-gone father is still alive, and entering a nursing home. "You own a detective agency and a home on Ava Island," Mrs. Greenleaf says. Oddly, though, even though he now owns it ... it seems like she's in charge.

While Al tries to work out what's going on, murder moves into his life, along with Max, an attractive and very sharp female detective who seems to be his official boss. Meanwhile his father, with rapidly increasing dementia, repeatedly goes AWOL from the nursing home. In a series of side-splitting scenes reminiscent of Donald Westlake at his best, Al and his dad become partners in trying to stay alive. Grab a copy of this (hopefully) first of many more to come, and enjoy the sense of being ahead of the crowd in spotting a strong new talent.

Michael Stanley (pen name for a writing duo) already has an award-winning series featuring Detective Kubu. With SHOOT THE BASTARDS (Poisoned Pen/Sourcebooks), Stanley launches a new protagonist: investigative journalist Crystal ("Crys") Nguyen, of Vietnamese heritage but raised and based in Minnesota. In a classic "Livingston searches for Stanley" move, she persuades National Geographic to assign her to complete the rhino poaching story of her missing colleague, Michael Davidson -- and, if possible, to locate Davidson (dead or alive) as a sidebar to the main investigation.

Crys is soon hopelessly muddled about who's a good guy and who's not, and in a chase for information that takes her into the South African bush, north to Geneva, Switzerland, off to Vietnam, and finally back to African landscape that's already become part of her. She's strong and skilled with a light bolt-action rifle, from training at home in winter biathlons -- but how will that stack up against organized criminals with automatic weapons and a huge cash incentive?

Great to see this lively new series, and to know in advance that Michael Stanley's seasoned mystery writing will carry Crys into high risk and tension, challenging all her thinking and action.

Watch for a few more of these, before reviews of the November releases ahead!

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Fourth Claymore Straker Thriller from Paul Hardisty, ABSOLUTION, Questions Everything

Ever read the ads in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine? I did for a year or so. Maybe that's part of why I like the Clay Straker books so much -- Paul Hardisty's compelling thriller series set in South Africa and other nations on that continent, Arabic or otherwise. Straker's not initially a soldier for hire; he's enlisted with his closest friends in defense of South Africa, and the group is largely Boer in approach and language (he calls his allies his brothers, and his office his father, in a real sense).

But in the past three books -- The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear, and Reconciliation for the Dead -- we've traveled a journey of many killings and much thought with Claymore Straker. Forced to depend on black-skinned allies against everything he's been taught, learning to treasure human life regardless of national origin, and finding himself desperately in love over the long term with a woman who's left his continent have all contributed to Clay's growth and a deeper dignity.

Now, in the fourth book of the series, ABSOLUTION, Clay Straker makes mature, if highly risky, choices in order to merit a partnership of the heart with Raina LaTour. Raina, a journalist in hiding, is framed for killing her own husband and child. If Clay can save her and rediscover her family, he may lose her yet another time, for the sake of her child and possibly radicalized Muslim husband

But if he wants to truly live with himself -- or anyone else -- he's got to man up to the task. Terrorists? Multinational plots? Watch him struggle ... and take up effective arms. Yet some of the assistance he needs will have to come from the fellow South African military men he no longer identifies with:

'That's how you found me in Maputo in eighty-two,' said Clay.

Crowbar grunted.

'And again last year, before I went back to testify to the TRC. And on Zanzibar.'

Crowbar coughed. 'We've been tracking you, Straker.'

We. Clay shivered. He felt naked, stripped, lashed by the wind. ... 'But why, Koevoet? Why?' Clay had known since 1982 that Crowbar was somehow linked to the Broderbond. But never in his wildest imaginings could he have conceived of this.

Hardisty's series pulls action into harsh terrain and harsher cultural shifts. Claymore Straker's painful growth and potential losses raise the stakes of this international thriller, touching the emotional keys that Lee Child and Jeffery Deaver finger so well. There's no going back, as Clay begins to understand the truths of his world.

You'll get more out of this, and feel more of the shock, if you've read the other three books first. But it will work just fine to grab ABSOLUTION now, spin through it, then collect the others and read the entire sequence. Hardisty is a narrative force coming into his own, book by dense and thrilling book.

Thanks to Orenda Books for making sure Americans can easily access this series.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

South African Noir, MY NAME IS NATHAN LUCIUS, by Mark Winkler

Nothing is simple in Mark Winkler's crime fiction -- least of all the motivation of the protagonist. In MY NAME IS NATHAN LUCIUS (his "fourth" title but actually his second novel, originally titled Wasted), Winkler provides a setup that should be transparent: Nathan Lucius is telling his own story, in detail, including his emotions and his, umm, peculiar forms of unclean mind. We should know whether he committed any crimes, and why -- right?

Well, no. Not the way Winkler spins this very usual and gritty work of noir. Nathan Lucius, age 31, an ad salesman for a newspaper, has unusual filters for what's important to comment on, and what's not. Running, drinking, jerking off ("wanking" in British slang) -- those are his primary concerns. Almost accidentally, in his preferred life of days-all-the-same, he's made a friend, the owner of a secondhand shop. This owner, Madge, is dying of cancer, and soon we realize Madge and Nathan are considering how he might help her to end her life.

But just how twisted is Nathan's version of his possibly crime-leavened life going to get? It's tempting to say, "not twisted," because Nathan appears to narrate everything just as it happens. But check out this interlude, when he first is questioned about Madge's death, by Inspector Morris:

I'm expecting a tough Cockney from a BBC cop show. I suppose it's the name. Morris has a heavy Afrikans accent. It would be a mistake to associate the accent with stupidity. People have done that before. I'm not going to. The room is so small that he has to squeeze himself against the wall to get around the table. He sits opposite me. He thanks me for coming. I put my sad face one. I tell him the facts as I'd told them to Mrs du Toit.

"So you've known the deceased for ...?"

"Four or five years," I tell him. [...]

"Forgive me, I have to ask. Was there anything, ah, inappropriate about your relationship?"

"Goodness, no." I sound just like Madge.

Blurbs for the book in advance talked about its exploration of violence, trauma, social responsibility, memory, morality ... I would rather say it's a daring adventure with an unreliable and unlikable narrator who nevertheless turns us into his witnesses, for court and elsewhere, with a related crazy mix of horror, appalled laughter, and insistence on knowing what comes next. Don't read this unless you're ready for very, very dark (think Dave Zeltserman even more than Thomas Harris). But if you do pick it up, clear the schedule, because you'll need to finish it before you'll be able to do anything else.

And then, you'll want to wash your hands. Twice.

From Soho Crime (Soho Press) comes this unforgettable transplant from a distant continent, straight into our most unsettling postmodern unease.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

New Thriller from Paul E. Hardisty, RECONCILIATION FOR THE DEAD

The third in Paul E. Hardisty's Claymore ("Clay") Straker series, RECONCILIATION FOR THE DEAD, is now available, and it's a double whammy of a book: a South African soldier thriller set in the gory battles of 1971, coupled with Clay's 1996 effort to clean up his past by testifying to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Both carry their own freight of terror -- and appalling risk.

Deepening the plot are Clay's deep and desperate love affairs -- one that builds during his efforts to untangle the corruption and possible biowarfare experiments during 1971 (at what point should loyalty to brother officers be tested against moral and ethical horror?), and another that continues in 1996 in his effort to merit the love of a woman we've met with him in the two preceding books in the series, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, which was short-listed for the 2015 John Creasey "New Blood" dagger from the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and The Evolution of Fear.

RECONCILIATION FOR THE DEAD -- and how can one read the title without also hearing an echo of "Requiem for the Dead"? -- can be read without the preceding books. In fact, its attachments to them barely affect this newest book, except for reinforcing Clay's motivation to give his testimony. The new title is a compulsive page-turner. Clay's earliest experiences of doubt toward the men he fights with -- his brothers in war, and the officer who in most ways is his father -- build ferociously through firefights and danger. The occasional glimpses of his future, layered into the story, give the reader confidence that in some form, Clay will survive. But the degree to which he'll compromise his integrity is in doubt at all moments, as he finds himself caught up in brutal experiments that reflect especially the racism of his country and his time.

I mostly raced through the book, eager to discover how Clay would confront his present and past, and to explore the dangerous terrain (human and geographic) of this thriller. Somehow, though, the whole time, I thought the biowarfare aspect would turn out to be fictional. So there was added shock and horror to learn in the author note that Hardisty based Clay's quandary on a real episode in the machinations of the South African apartheid government in 1981. Guess it just goes to show that truth can indeed be as dreadful and terrifying as fiction ...

Lee Child readers, espionage fans, and those savoring the new opportunities of this decade to enjoy global crime fiction will appreciate RECONCILIATION FOR THE DEAD. I expect to read it again, for the pleasure of this skilled author's layered plotting that tests the human heart and soul along with the capacity to navigate a battlefield and a crime. Highly recommended -- but leave time for this one, because it's worth savoring. And the powerfully drawn scenes and conflicts linger in my mind. Perhaps they will in yours, too.

All three titles are from Orenda Books.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

All About the Plot -- New Thriller from Jassy Mackenzie, BAD SEEDS

South Africa's recent past, like Ireland's, sets it up as an ideal setting for intense conflict and heightened suspense. Jassy Mackenzie grabs it all and packs an impressively twisted plot with massive danger in her BAD SEEDS, her fifth thriller set in her homeland. I'm hooked on her Jade de Jong series, I confess. Jade is a private investigator with connections to the underworld of crime that she tries to ignore -- but when risks keep mounting, it's tempting to call on those old friends for help, right?

As Jade steps into what ought to be an ordinary investigation of a killing at a cheap motel, she finds herself drawn to a man she's supposed to be following and reporting on -- she's been hired by Ryan Gillespie, who works at a nuclear research station where there's been a sabotage attempt, with more to follow. In classic South African layering, Jade soon realizes there are at least two views of the research station: those of the powerful men who manipulate it, and those of the workers, some of whom are poisoned by their labors. Sbusiso and his cousin Shadrack are among the victims of the business, and Shadrack is dying -- but clinging to life through the virtue of a traditional remedy, a plant whose seeds he values highly.

So it is that we have both bad seeds -- those of crime and power -- and good ones. As Jade struggles to sort out which of the people in the case belong with which side, she's also grieving for a personal loss, that of her married boyfriend who had seemed about to bind himself to Jade instead:

One mistake on David's part was all it had taken.

He'd been planning to leave his wife, Naisha, but hadn't stopped sleeping with her. Now she was pregnant, and Jade was one of the few people who knew that the baby probably wasn't David's. ... Worst of all, despite the promises she'd made herself, she couldn't tell him.

Because -- and this hurt her the most -- he would be happier if he never knew.

Jade's interior struggles can't distract her from pursuing the tangled case in front of her, though. Who really benefits from sabotage when nuclear materials are involved? Who faces the worst risks?

I enjoyed every page of this tangled and twisting plot. No need to read the earlier books, although you may want to catch up -- this one stands well on its own. (This is Mackenzie's fifth, via Soho Crime; I especially liked The Fallen.) Good to explore South African life through Mackenzie's stories and insight, one of the big pluses of international crime fiction.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

South African Mystery Series from Malla Nunn -- And Some Notes

Debut novel

UK cover, 2nd book

Thanks to the Atria bus tour earlier this year, during which the publisher distributed a "sampler" of first chapters from about a dozen authors, I ordered the first two books by South African-born author Malla Nunn. And they were hard to find in first printing -- apparently they weren't printed in large quantity then. But whatever printing you can get hold of, these are worth grabbing. In this case, the series is definitely better read from the first book onward. Nunn's third book, Blessed Are the Dead, was released this June.

A quick summary: Book 1 is A Beautiful Place to Die. Meet "English" police officer Detective Emmanual Cooper. He's good at the dance of politics and bias involved in his job -- which lets his partner in investigation, black Constable Shabalala, conduct much of the field work needed to assess the murder of an Afrikaner police chief. The murdered man's son explains Shabalala by saying he's "half Zulu, half Shangaan. Pa said the Shangaan part could track any animal, and the Zulu part was sure to kill it."

That mingling of respect and racism gives an instant view of 1952 South Africa, with apartheid a way of life and social structure a force of determination for life and action. Nunn draws in the added awkwardness of the local Jew as well, a refugee and discard from Europe.

But what makes her books sing is the dynamic and layered relationship of Cooper and Shabala, one that deepens and resonates through the difficult investigation. Flawlessly written, without a hint of "first book" to it, A Beautiful Place to Die goes to the top of my summer list of good reads.

US cover, 2nd book

And Nunn's second book, Let the Dead Lie, goes even deeper. This time Cooper has lost his status as a white police officer and is in personal danger, with his career deep-sixed and the possibility of career redemption elusive and probably costing more than his integrity can afford. Although the publisher blurbs on the book feature only Cooper, it's his connections with Shabalala and other South African outsiders -- who are on the inside of their own groups -- that sing. And that, in the long run, offer him a chance, if he can be both courageous and clever, to again work for the police force officially.

Nunn allows delicately timed insights into Shabalala's life too, pairing them expertly with Cooper's and portraying the charged and complex inner and outer landscape of South Africa with such intensity that I could almost catch the scent of the city -- and of the veldt.

Now I'm going to start the 2011 Malla Nunn book, Blessed Are the Dead. Probably I should warn my husband: This mystery is going to take priority. Malla Nunn's crime fiction is a terrific discovery, and I'm going to be a bit distracted from ordinary life while I'm reading the next book. (But isn't that what a good mystery is for?)

A few notes:
*Nunn now lives in Australia and is also a filmmaker. For her publisher's "interview" with her, click here. For a video on her filmmaking, click here and look for the VIDEO section.
*In the US, Let the Dead Lie was issued as a paperback original. For a copy of the hardcover (the true first), you need to look at UK markets.
*For another South African apartheid detection series, set in the 1970s but written earlier than Nunn's, see James McClure (review here).

Yours truly, and the Atria author bus.

*And for crime fiction set in "modern" South Africa, try Jassy Mackenzie (review here).