2008 - The Year in Books

Rounding up 2008

2009-01-17T08:47:00.003-05:00

I've just counted the number of books read for 2008: 156. This is exactly the same number of books read for 2007. If we divide 156 by 12, that's about 13 books per month. Not too bad, but probably a bit inaccurate, since longer books obviously take longer to read than the shorter ones. Anything I made note of here or in my book journal I finished; I don't count books I tried to get into and just couldn't.

More of the roundup: my favorite books of 2008 were (in order of reading them):

1. The Book of the Heathen, by Robert Edric
2. Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
3. The Somnambulist, by Jonathan Barnes
4. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur
5. Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
6. Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black
7. The Guards, by Ken Bruen
8. The Silver Swan, by Benjamin Black
9. The Killing of The Tinkers, by Ken Bruen
10. Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill
11. Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
12. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
13. Atonement, by Ian McEwan
14. The Magdalen Martyrs, by Ken Bruen
15. The Dramatist, by Ken Bruen
16. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of the Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan
17. God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant
18. Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith
19. The Yellow Room Conspiracy, by Peter Dickinson
20. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, by Kate Summerscale
21. The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry
22. Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill
23. The Lost Dog, by Michelle de Kretser
24. A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz
25. Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh
26. A Case of Exploding Mangoes
27. Forty Words for Sorrow, by Giles Blunt
28. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsesson in the Amazon, by David Grann
29. The Miernik Dossier, by Charles McCarry
30. The Tears of Autumn, by Charles McCarry
31. A Perfect Spy, by John LeCarre

32. The Human Factor, by Graham Greene

It's hard to pare the list down to pull out a single favorite for the year, because I enjoyed these books for different reasons.

Overall, a great reading year. I read mostly fiction; of those, mostly mystery; of those, mostly mysteries from the UK. This year I got really into Scandinavian mystery novels, and had to ask myself why more American mystery writers do not produce stuff like Scandinavian authors. Probably because there isn't enough audience for more edgy reading here. Oh well.

Time to move on...I still have a lot to read from my tbr pile.

The Water Room: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery

2008-12-30T14:33:00.002-05:00

....from the tbr pile .....
Installment #2 in this series featuring the Peculiar Crimes Unit finds our heroes, Bryant and May (and the other people in the PCU) trying to solve the death of a woman drowned in her basement. Sounds straightforward, right? However, the dead woman was completely dry, sitting in a chair, in a dry basement. If that was the only problem for them to deal with, the book would have definitely been a lot shorter -- but add in a death by saran wrap, arson, and a fellow buried alive by his own truck. And then you still don't have the complete story.

Once again we have a detective story with a rather X-filish feel to it, where the detectives may be old but still have a lot to offer. The characters are very well drawn, and there is a wealth of history that is part of the story between the two covers. At 356 pages, this is not your typical detective story, and Bryant and May are not your typical detectives. And the PCU is not your typical police unit. So...if you like something quirky and offbeat, then you might want to give this series a try, but don't start with this one: start with Full Dark House. The book offers a bit of fun along with a good mystery and really kept me entertained for quite a while. I've just bought the next book in the series and will probably read them all.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has read Full Dark House and wants to follow the series, as well as someone looking for something a bit different in the mystery world. However, it's NOT for you if you want a standard police procedural-type book that's more down to earth. I thought the book was quite good and a cut above what's normally on my local bookstore's mystery shelves.

Overall...a fun read with a fine mystery.

*The Human Factor, by Graham Greene

2008-12-28T12:24:00.003-05:00

This is an awesome book...one of my favorites for the year. I read this review on Amazon by someone some time ago who got upset because he thought Greene was a communist sympathizer and then told everyone he was going to throw the book away so no one else made the same mistake he did by reading it -- a) ANATHEMA-- throwing away a book (recycle if you don't want it) ; b) I respect people's opinions, but obviously he really didn't read the whole book and actually get it. This is why I don't trust Amazon reviews a lot of the time.

The Human Factor highlights a man, Maurice Castle, who is driven at times to make choices based on love and an often-misplaced sense of moral duty that have some pretty serious consequences for himself and others.

Castle is an agent in MI6, and as the book opens, a leak has been discovered in his division. Suspicion falls on his partner, Davis, who seems to have a lot more money than an agent in his position should -- he bets,he drives a Jag -- and he's also a pretty heavy drinker. Castle is older, near retirement, and leads a pretty quiet life, seemingly beyond reproach. But mild-mannered Castle is the one with the secret life. It started during his time in South Africa -- his black, African wife Sarah, was smuggled out of the apartheid-ruled country by a communist agent; and Castle long ago decided that he owed a debt of gratitude to the communists and started providing them with information from British intelligence, thinking that in some way he is helping Sarah's people. However, when his bosses decided that Castle will be the one who will provide their South African counterparts with information about an American operation in Africa, and he is forced to work with the very man who had held him on breaking race relations laws in South Africa vis-a-vis his relationship with Sarah there, a chain of events occurs which unravels his quiet and ordered life in England with his family.

However, this book really is NOT a story about espionage or the cold-war intelligence game. Castle marches to his own inner sense of personal morality, as noted by his mother at one point, where she says:

"You always had an exaggerated sense of gratitude for the least kindness. It was a sort of insecurity ....You once gave away a good fountain pen to someone at school who had offered you a bun with a piece of chocolate inside."

It hit me while reading that this "sense of gratitude" is the key to understanding Maurice Castle -- and it offers an insight into the reasons behind Castle's actions. Loyalty, for Castle, begets loyalty, but the reader may make judgments based on his or her own understanding of patriotism or morality that misconstrue Castle's actions completely, so understanding Castle as a human being rather than as a spy or as a British citizen is key to understanding this story.

The Human Factor is truly an awesome novel, one of the best I've read this year. It starts out very slow, but the tension builds as the book progresses until you're so caught up in it that you can't look away. I'd definitely recommend it to people who enjoy British literature, and to those who enjoy reading about the grayness of human morality. It's also pretty decent as a novel of espionage if you don't want to get into the deeper aspects of the novel. Very highly recommended.

lost in Lost -- season 4

2008-12-27T14:39:00.003-05:00

--book intermission--

I'm not a huge TV watcher, but some time ago I got hooked on this series and finished season 3 some time ago on dvd. So when season 4 came out, I snagged it to watch while flying to Seattle for Christmas. Now on the return trip, I finished season 4 (watched the rest during my vacation) and ooh-wee! What a finale! I know this has nothing to do with books, but I just felt like writing something about it. Back to books here shortly.

Priest, by Ken Bruen

2008-12-23T11:27:00.004-05:00

from the TBR pile (only 99 volumes of books on the wall now -- well, not really but sounded catchy)

Here we are, at installment number five of the Jack Taylor series. First, let me say that I've read a number of reviews of this book in which it was the first Taylor book the reviewer had read -- this is probably not the best one to start with. There's so much of Jack's character that begins with book one (The Guards) that starting at book five leaves you with big holes to be filled in only by sketchy references to events from the others.

brief look (no spoilers, I promise)

Like its predecessors in this series, Priest finds us once again watching the train wreck that you just know is going to happen, from which you are unable to avert your eyes. After the tragic events in The Dramatist (the book just prior to this one), Jack completely loses it and eventually finds his way into a mental hospital. After some time, an encounter with another patient puts him back on the road to recovery (as if one can ever recover from what put Jack there in the first place), and he is released, back to the streets of Galway. His old nemesis, Father Malachy, has a job for him: he wants him to find out who decapitated a priest who has a penchant for molesting young children. But (and faithful readers know there's always a but) he has a lot more on his plate: a young man who wants to team up with him in the role of a Watson to his Sherlock; his relationship with Ridge his Garda friend; his realization that his actions in the previous book also had tragic consequences for those closest to him, and last but not least, the fact that the Galway he's known since a child is changing right in front of him, and not for the better.

As I've said previously about these books, don't look to them for your daily dose of warm and fuzzy. I think that one reason I enjoy these books so much is because Bruen (through the voice of Taylor) just sort of tells it like it is -- no holds barred. I tend to get very involved while I read these; I find myself wincing at stuff Jack said, or I sit and despair over whether the poor guy's going to ever have a decent life again. In fact, I think at the end of each and every book I wonder what could possibly happen next.

Definitely a no-miss if you like Irish crime fiction, but you should know that the mystery here sits in second place to the characters. These novels are definitely the most character driven of any that I've read. I'd definitely recommend these to anyone who has a taste for noir, and a taste for Irish authors. But for pete's sake, don't start with this one as your introduction to Jack Taylor. Go back to the beginning, start with The Guards, and work your way through.

As for me...onward to #6, Cross.

Full Dark House, by Christopher Fowler

2008-12-21T11:53:00.002-05:00

from the tbr pile:
If I had to classify this novel in terms of genre, it would be somewhere along the lines of British police procedural meets the X-files. I was thinking while I was reading this that it would make a fun movie, but I countered that thought with the knowledge that some screenwriter would just screw it up, so better to leave it in book format.

What a cool book! I originally bought this book in mass market paperback format eons ago, but never got around to reading it until I saw the same book in trade paper size (which I really prefer), and I pounced on it. I picked it up last night and didn't look back until I finished it this morning. If that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is.

brief summary; no spoilers here:
Arthur Bryant, a most eccentric partner in detection of John May, was revisiting the pair's first case together some 60 years later, and the lab he was working was blown to kingdom come, taking Bryant with it. John May, of course, whose friendship with Bryant has lasted throughout their career as detectives in the Peculiar Crimes Unit (started during the Blitz in London), is devastated, and realizes that to solve the case of Bryant's death, he has to go back in time to re-examine their first case, since that was what Bryant was working on. It turns out that this case involved a very bizarre production of Orpheus in the Underworld, complete with can-can and high French knickers by the dancers at the end. They were assigned to the case when a pair of feet were discovered on the charcoal brazier of a Turkish street vendor - leading them to the death of a dancer in the theater staging the production. After that, the show was plagued with problems that required special assistance from the Peculiar Crimes Unit -- for example, a medium whose cat channeled the spirit of a dead pilot, along with other, shall we say, more unorthodox methodologies of crime solving. But back to the future: May will not rest until he solves Bryant's death, so he tries to put the missing pieces together to do so.

The book weaves both past and present together to get to the root of the modern-day tragedy, and does it well by examining the original case back at the time of the Blitz. The characters, however, make this novel what it is. Bryant and May are very well suited to each other, and the rest of the characters are not droll toadies relegated to the background, but have lives of their own here. I'm very big on the use of place & setting as a character of its own within a novel, and here Fowler has done that -- the darkness of blacked-out London during the bombings has its own personality. Fowler's descriptions of how people coped and how society worked during the Blitz was also very well done.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes British mysteries, and to people who like mystery spiced with a bit of the fantastic & paranormal, but done so in a way that doesn't turn silly and take you off on ridiculous tangents. I already know I'm going to really enjoy this series and can't wait to get to the others.

*The Cambridge Theorem, by Tony Cape

2008-12-18T17:36:00.002-05:00

Before you read this one, it might be best if you have some kind of idea of the Cambridge Four, so you might want to look here . I spent a LOT of time on the Internet looking this up, because my own knowledge was sorely lacking. Now, as it turns out, I want to read even more about this group, and about the true stories of Cold War spying.

As for The Cambridge Theorem, here goes:
DS Derek Smailes is assigned the task of looking into the suicide of Cambridge University student Simon Bowles. Bowles was a graduate student in mathematics, and in his spare time, he liked to apply mathematical logic to unsolved crimes, for example, the Kennedy assassination. While Smailes is willing to admit that Bowles' death was a suicide, as the investigation progresses, he finds himself being given vague answers and outright lies, and then discovers that Bowles was working on a new project involving the Cambridge spy ring (Philby, Blunt, Maclean and Burgess). But unlike his other projects, the files on this project have gone missing. Smailes begins to wonder if quite possibly this newest of Bowles' projects was tied into his death. The investigation heats up for Smailes, leading him into places that some people do not wish him to go and placing his very life in danger.

I think that the reader may want to have even a vague understanding of the Cambridge spy ring -- I spent a lot of time on the internet refreshing my memory about this piece of history. The story never lags, and the suspense builds throughout. I figured out most of the "whodunit" before the end, but it was still a very good read. The characters are drawn well and the story was quite good and mostly plausible.

I'd recommend this to people interested in British mysteries, and people who enjoy stories about espionage. Although this really isn't a hard-core spy novel, it does deal with spies and betrayals and does it well. I believe this is the first of a series featuring DS Smailes, and I would definitely be interested in reading more.

*A Perfect Spy, by John Le Carre

2008-12-18T17:28:00.003-05:00

I saw this book dramatized on PBS (I want to say it was a Masterpiece Theater production) some years ago and remember being glued to it while it was on. So although this really isn't like the other spy novels I've read this month, I decided to include it because
a) I'd never actually read this one (I went the George Smiley route instead with his books)
and
b) I had a hankering to see the old series again but wanted to read this book before I bought the dvds.

I loved it. Absolutely. It goes on the favorites list for 2008 (which I will post at the end of the year). The title reflects a parallel between the characteristics of the life of Magnus Pym (the main character) and the characteristics of espionage: dissimulation, betrayal, keeping of secrets etc. It was so well done that I finished it yesterday and I'm still thinking about it, even with a stack of books sitting here waiting to be read before the end of the year.

I recently found a review of this book (http://time.com/time/magazine/article...) that notes that A Perfect Spy is a kind of what-if autobiographical account of John LeCarre himself (fictionalized, obviously). Whether this is or is not the case, this is one of the best novels I've read this year.

Magnus Pym, intelligence agent for the British, has gone to London after the news of his father Rick's death. He is supposed to return to Vienna, where he and his wife Mary are currently stationed, but instead he sends his luggage on home without him. When the suitcase arrives, without Magnus, British intelligence is left to wonder whether or not Magnus has defected, taking with him information which is beyond valuable, and jeopardizing the lives of his "joes," or the agents and intelligence network in place in Czechoslovakia. But Magnus is not behind the iron curtain; rather, he's in Devon, along the coast, in a home where he's known as Mr. Canterbury, and where he's being going for some time. This time, he's there to tell his story, racing against time, waiting for his people to come get him and bring him in. He wants to leave a record of the truth, especially for his son, Tom. What he ends up with is the life of Magnus Pym from his childhood on, reflecting especially on his relationship with his father Rick, the ultimate con man, for whom the con never stops, not even with his only son. It is this life that put into motion the makings of "a perfect spy." But you really have to read it to understand it.

While different from other novels by LeCarre, it is still a book that will totally absorb you from start to finish. The characters are very real, the story is not just one story, but several that interweave throughout the novel, and it is just one of those books that you will find difficult to put down.

I'd recommend this to people who like LeCarre's work, as well as those who like stories that focus on the relationships between fathers and sons. It's a long book, but it will go by so quickly that you'll be sorry it's over. Very very good novel; LeCarre is a brilliant writer.

*Reilly: Ace Of Spies, by Robin Bruce Lockhart

2008-12-11T11:49:00.002-05:00

Robin Bruce Lockhart is the son of Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, who was acting General Consul in Moscow in 1917 (and also served as a secret agent) when the Bolsheviks overthrew the government in Russia; then later arrested by the secret police there for purportedly being involved with a plot to assassinate Lenin. He knew Sidney Reilly, the subject of this book, and passed along several stories to his son, who compiled them in this book. There are stories from others about Reilly here as well, and Robin Bruce Lockhart, the author, had actually met the enigmatic Reilly as a child. The book covers Reilly's life & career, then moves along to examine different conclusions as to whether Reilly actually died in 1925 (when he'd gone back to Russia) or whether he remained a prisoner, escaped, or whatever.

I first became aware of Sidney Reilly when, in the 1980s, PBS first broadcast that phenomenal series "Reilly: Ace of Spies." I watched every episode without fail. Lockhart's book was the basis of that series. The book was really interesting, and it was an intriguing look at some of the inner workings of spycraft & espionage from the British, as well as that of the Germans & then the Russians and Bolsheviks. I have 2 issues with this book. First: it does tend to read like a group of stories passed down and then transcribed onto paper. Second: there is absolutely no documentation of sources anywhere. The historian in me (my college majors) always views undocumented work etc. with a bit of skepticism, especially in a work that is definitely historical in nature.

Overall, though, it was very interesting and whetted my appetite enough to compile a list of other publications that deal with the same subject matter in Lockhart's book. I'd recommend it to people who are interested in real-life British spies, or in the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, in the machinations by the CHEKA in order to maintain Bolshevik rule, or to anyone who might wish to read an interesting biography.

*Greenmantle, by John Buchan

2008-12-09T16:33:00.003-05:00

Greenmantle follows Buchan's "Thirty-nine Steps" not as a sequel so much (imho), but rather as something along the line of the further adventures of Richard Hannay, the main protagonist and overall hero of the Thirty-nine Steps. Hannay has since been a soldier in WWI, in which he was injured at Loos. Now he is called into action once again, this time by the Foreign Office. Sir Walter Bullivant, the senior man at the FO, explains to Hannay that there is a German plot to drag Turkey into the war. The problem is not so much Turkey, per se, but all of the provinces where Islam is very strong; and the rumor is that Germany has something to bring all of the provincial Muslims together to fan the flames against the allies under German auspices. Just what Germany has is the unknown factor, and it's up to Hannay to figure it out. He is given only one clue: a half-piece of paper with the words "Kasredin", "cancer," and "v.I." It is from here that an incredible adventure begins which will keep the reader pretty much glued to the book.

Phenomenal read, and I recommend it highly. Yes, there are some improbable spots in the novel, but hey...it's an adventure and it's fun. The characters are great, and as noted at the beginning, you'll be wondering after a while how the good guys are ever going to get out of each predicament in which they find themselves. Also...consider the subject matter. This book was written in 1916, but in some ways is quite relevant to the world's situation today.

I can't recommend this one highly enough; those who like older stories of espionage and spycraft will really enjoy it. Others who may enjoy it are those who like good old-fashioned stories of adventure; and those who read The Thirty-Nine Steps by the same author may wish to read it to find out what happens next to Richard Hannay. Very well done.

*A Coffin for Dimitrios, by Eric Ambler

2008-12-07T12:13:00.003-05:00

Charles Latimer, former lecture of political economy, quits the academic world and becomes a writer of crime fiction, with such titles to his credit as "A Bloody Shovel," "I, Said the Fly," and "Murder's Arms." He does all right as a novelist, and decides one day that he needs a change of scene. Off he goes on vacation to Istanbul, where he meets a Turkish secret policeman, a Col. Haki. Haki contrives some reason to speak to Latimer, then invites him to view a corpse which has recently washed up onto shore from the Bosphorus. As it turns out, the body belongs to one Dimitrios Makropoulous, whose dossier is full of political machinations and other crimes. Latimer is convinced that if he could retrace the steps of Dimitrios, and find out how his body washed up on shore, that he could write his best book yet. Armed with the info provided by Col. Haki, he does his best to find out just who was Dimitrios Makropolous...and enters into a world of intrigue and into the life of a very dangerous individual.

An amazing story, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of British crime fiction, or anyone who likes novels set just before WWII. A really good look at how power is brokered, on the backs and lives of others, between the two world wars.

*Six Days of the Condor, by James Grady

2008-12-04T10:39:00.006-05:00

The national headquarters of the American Literary Historical Society is in Washington, DC, its purpose ostensibly for literary analysis, advance and achievement. No one goes there and takes tours -- they can't get past the main desk without proper clearance. In reality, it's a CIA office where people read and analyze mystery and spy novels (what a dream job!) to seek out correlations between fiction and fact.

One of the employees there, Ronald Malcolm, advises another employee (Heidegger) to ignore it when he finds a record for two crates of books that the society never received, but for which they had paid. Malcolm's advice was not followed. Shortly after this, it's Malcolm's turn to go out and get lunch for the group, which he does, taking his time. Upon his return, he finds everyone at the society dead. Sizing up the situation, he realizes that now he's in danger, and he does what he's been trained to do: calls the panic line at CIA headquarters, where he identifies himself as Condor. From this point, things go horribly wrong for Malcolm, and he finds himself on the run, with his life on the line.

An awesome book -- you seriously don't know who you can trust in this story which heightens the experience and the aura of suspense which builds throughout. Even 34 years later this book still has the ability to keep you turning pages. Recommended for people who enjoy espionage fiction, suspense or people who like stories about the CIA.

I know I saw this movie (dating myself, I think probably when it came out and Robert Redford was still young), but I just bought it anyway. I have this thing...when movies are made from books that I've read, I have to watch them to see how they measure up to the book. So I'll make an addendum and let you know.

*The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, by Robert Littell

2008-12-02T09:53:00.003-05:00

I haven't read Cold War espionage fiction in so long...and this is really fun!

A.J. Lewinter is a scientist with a specialty in ceramics, working at MIT on a project involving ceramic nosecones for ballistic missiles, and as the book opens, he is in Japan for a conference. After spending some time at a Noh theater performance, he goes to the Russian Embassy, where he makes it known that he wants to defect. At first, they do not take him seriously, but when questioned further, he offers up a formula and the next thing you know, he's on a plane for the USSR with nothing but a dozen bottles of Head and Shoulders shampoo and 500 Chlor-Trimetron allergy pills. And here begins a story that is a bit of a mind boggler. The book is structured like a chess game, and within that structure the actions of international agents also play out like a chess game, each side trying to make the other side guess as to whether or not a) Lewinter's defection is genuine, or b) whether or not the information he has to offer the USSR is worthless or priceless. I won't say more about the plot, because any info would totally wreck someone else's reading experience.

The world of espionage is fascinating, and I'm sure that a lot of the tactics used in this book have some basis in fact, because it's really difficult to believe someone could just make up the convoluted machinations of our intelligence operatives. The writing is absolutely superb and I was not prepared for the ending. I spent way too much time trying to figure out "what would happen if..." after I finished the book. To me, that speaks highly of the author, and now I can't wait to get my hands on more by Littell. As if the tbr pile wasn't huge enough already -- sigh--.

Definitely recommended; I'd say that people who enjoy novels of espionage, the Cold War, and the inner workings of our intelligence agencies would enjoy it the most.

*The Tears of Autumn, by Charles McCarry

2008-12-01T13:14:00.003-05:00

I listened to, rather than read this book and it was so good that I rushed out and bought The Miernik Dossier (the first of the Paul Christopher series) and have plans to read each and every book in the series. What intrigued me was yet another JFK assassination theory. I'm not a conspiracy theory nut, but I am interested, and never did believe in either the single-bullet theory nor that of the lone gunman. And as much as I loved Oliver Stone's JFK, well, let's just say that it was a lot of theories rolled into one. Here, McCarry gives us one more theory to contemplate.

When Paul Christopher hears that JFK has been assassinated in Dallas, he immediately knows who did it and why. At a time when Lee Harvey Oswald was considered both the mastermind and crazed lone gunman of Kennedy's assassination, nobody higher up wants to even consider the alternatives. But Christopher knows, and embarks on a journey filled with danger and intrigue to prove it, even if only to himself.

Tears of Autumn is an intelligent read, and doesn't insult anyone's intelligence. The assassination plot is quite plausible, without being in your face about it, and the author's fine writing makes you believe that these events could have happened in the way he posits.

The characters are very believable; the action is nonstop, and the writing is incredible. If you are at all interested in the JFK assassination, or in Vietnam, or if you just want a quality read, then I can definitely and most highly recommend this book.

*The Miernik Dossier, by Charles McCarry

2008-12-01T12:31:00.002-05:00

I must confess that after the Berlin Wall came down, I had this feeling that that was it for the Cold War spy novel. So I was truly happy to find this book, which was written in 1971, so I could once again relive the Cold War spy experience.

The Miernik Dossier (the first of the Paul Christopher series), is written in a style that one would find if they could infiltrate the files of an espionage agency and open up an actual dossier. The story is told through reports of various agents, intercepted communications, a diary, letters, etc. It tells the story of a mixed group of intelligence agents who normally met for lunch once a week in Geneva among other interactions, who find themselves brought together on a trip to the Sudan. The point of the trip, for Paul Christopher (an American agent under deep cover at the time), is to determine whether or not one of the group, Tadeusz Miernik, is indeed a spy from behind the Iron Curtain and mixed up with a small band of terrorists in the Sudan called the Anointed Liberation Front (ALF). It all starts when Miernik requests to remain working for the World Research Organization in Geneva, after he is contacted from Poland and called back home. His story is that he will be put into prison if he returns, but others think he is Soviet spy who is possibly going to defect to the West as a cover. The trip to the Sudan, ostensibly to take a Cadillac to the father of one of the group provides the vehicle through which Paul can watch Miernik and make reports on his status.

I won't add any more about the plot line, but McCarry is a talented writer who lets the suspense build page after page, and who allows the reader to make up his or her own mind. The characters are very well drawn, and the whole atmosphere of intrigue, deception and spycraft quickly engaged me so that I did not want to put this book down.

Definitely recommended for those who enjoy Cold War-era spy fiction, and anyone who has maybe read McCarry's later works in the Paul Christopher series and missed this one.

Highly recommended.

December: The Great Spy Game

2008-12-01T08:58:00.003-05:00

It's December, the end of the year, and I'm not in the mood for the usual Christmas fare that's hitting the bookstores this time of year. I have just finished "The Tears of Autumn" by Charles McCarry, and decided I wanted to read as many of his books as possible. It just so happens they're in the "spy novel" genre, so I figured I'll just do that genre for the month. So...I'll be back with my review of what I'm reading now (The Miernik Dossier) and Tears of Autumn very shortly.

*Site Unseen: An Emma Fielding Mystery, by Dana Cameron

2008-11-30T14:19:00.002-05:00

...another November has come and gone...sigh...

Finishing out the topic for November's reading, we have Site Unseen, by Dana Cameron. It's the first in a series featuring Emma Fielding, an archaeologist, and probably the last one I'll read, at least for a while. I have bigger fish to fry, as they say.

Emma Fielding is an archaeologist, as was her grandfather before her. She teaches at a small university, where she still has three years to go before she makes tenure. She is currently heading up work at a site where she believes she will find an old, pre-Jamestown fort, and the results will hopefully make getting her tenure that much easier and act as her ticket to fame in the archaeology world. But with not too much time left for the season, Emma finds a body near the beach, then is hassled and threatened by a pothunter. Just when you think that nothing else can go wrong, the murder of someone close to her just about sends Emma off the deep end. Teaming up with the local sheriff, Emma decides to do some investigating on her own.

I have to admit that I was totally off the mark in trying to guess the "whodunit," so in that sense, the mystery was a decent one. The author writes well and manages to keep your interest up throughout the story. It's still a bit cutesy for my taste, but I'm a tough audience. People who like a smattering of romance and love in their mysteries probably will enjoy it much more than I. It's a cute series, and I may go back to it someday, but not now.

totally OT, but what the hell

2008-11-29T08:22:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading my morning newspaper and was beyond disgusted upon reading about the poor man who opened the door to a New York Wal-Mart and was trampled to death. To add to that, the people coming in continued to enter, stepping over the guy so they could save a few $. To be callous and indifferent are not qualities I personally associate with the holidays. I'm really mad about this, and actually, this does very little to restore my faith in human nature. There is absolutely, ABSOLUTELY no excuse for this behavior. What a shitty way to wake up.

Cruise of a Deathtime, by Marion Babson

2008-11-28T08:46:00.003-05:00

from the tbr pile: This is (until further notice) the last book by this author in my library, and I don't think I'll be adding any more. I've decided that they're not that mysterious, not that intriguing, and that although they're incredibly short, it takes me a long time to get through them because I'm just not interested. So why read them? Because I have to make a serious effort to read books I've been carrying with me for years because I feel guilty that they're just sitting there on my shelves untouched.

The Empress Josephine, flying under the flag of Nhumbala (its registered home port), sets sail on a 10-day journey with various passengers for what's supposed to be the cruise of a lifetime. However, from the start, odd things start happening, culminating in the deaths of several crew and passengers. An anonymous note is left promising more deaths if the captain does not comply with demands. The captain and staff desperately try to keep the news from the passengers, but as the cruise continues, events escalate that soon put the entire ship in peril.

The book is just okay -- nothing spectacular here. There is a bit of suspense as the story goes on, because you really want to know who is the mastermind, and the ending I didn't see coming...to a point. I had guessed half of it before the middle of the book. However, to be fair, I was fairly surprised and I did stay with it until the end.

Not her usual fare; Babson normally writes novels which more or less are of the "cozy" genre. I think readers of this author would likely enjoy it, or people who like mysteries set on cruise ships.

As I said, it was okay; not great.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, by David Grann

2008-11-25T17:53:00.002-05:00

from the tbr pile: Sometimes a book comes along where you absolutely have to stop what you're doing and just read it. In my case, never mind that the Thanksgiving 3-day cook-a-thon was a wee bit interrupted, or never mind that I have an incredible amount of stuff to do right now, this book simply required my full attention. It was that good.

I picked up this book and was immediately lost between the covers and could not stop reading until I had finished the entire thing.

The author sets forth the story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British explorer who in 1925 set out on an expedition to the Amazon to find what he had named the "lost city of Z." He was convinced that an ancient and "highly cultured" people lived in the Amazon of Brazil, untouched by modern civilization, and that they lived in a great city in a valley somewhere. He spent years doing research and gathering evidence for the existence of this place in order to get funding for expeditions into Brazil's interior. On the 1925 expedition, he took his son, Jack, and Jack's best friend, both eager to be part of a mission that would make history. But shortly after they had arrived into the Amazon area, all communications ceased, and while their movements were traced to a point, nothing concrete was ever heard regarding the three explorers. Their disappearance, and the publicity following the mission from which they never returned, prompted years worth of explorers trying to locate any trace of Fawcett, his son, and his son's friend, even as late as 1996. Too bad for those left behind, Fawcett, who was facing a lot of competition from others exploring the Amazon at the time, and worried that these other explorers might find the lost city of Z before he would, kept his route a very closely guarded secret, so it was pretty much impossible for anyone to go in to either locate bodies, effect a rescue or even trace with any accuracy the steps taken by Fawcett and his group. Although Fawcett's wife refused to believe that her husband and son were gone, they had pretty much just vanished off the face of the earth. Grann, who writes for the New Yorker, decided to try to find Fawcett's route and discover what had happened to him once and for all. This book not only traces Grann's efforts, but takes the reader back into the Victorian period, at the peak of the British Empire, to look at exactly who Percy Fawcett was. It also examines old and modern views of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon as well as offers a glimpse of the fate of the rain forest in modern times.

Simply stunning and superb, I loved this book so much that I pre-ordered a copy for when it is released for the general reading public. The writing is excellent, the mystery surrounding Fawcett's disappearance is well portrayed, and the amount of effort that Grann went to in his research is very much apparent here. If you are looking for something entirely different that will mesmerize you instantly, you cannot miss this book. I had never heard about any of this up until now, & my curiosity has been sparked enough that I made notes and took down book titles to fill in some holes in my knowledge.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I would like to thank Doubleday for sending me this book and also those on Shelf Awareness for offering it as an ARC. It is an excellent piece of writing.

*Where Old Bones Lie, by Ann Granger

2008-11-24T06:41:00.003-05:00

I did something here I don't normally do, and that is to start a British mystery series out of order. Not only is it out of order, it's #5 and I haven't even read #1. But I figure that's okay since I really don't care about the whole love/romance aspect between the two main characters, so if you think of it that way, you really haven't missed anything. You can read this as a stand alone if you take that tack. I'm not anti-romantic in real life; far from it. I just don't like it in mystery novels. Call me weird if you must -- I just like getting down to the mystery.

Anyway, having said this, Where Old Bones Lie is set at an archaeological dig sponsored by a local trust that supports a small museum in Bamford. The dig leader is positive he's close to finding a Saxon warrior chief named Wulfric. One of the members of the excavation is one Ursula Gretton, a friend of Meredith Mitchell, who is one of the two key crime solvers in this novel. Ursula, it seems, calls Meredith because she has been trying to end an affair with a married man (Dan) who will not take no for an answer. On going to visit with him, Ursula notices Dan's wife purse on his sofa, although Dan has told her that his wife Natalie has disappeared. Ursula calls Meredith with fears that Dan may have offed his wife. This sets into motion a series of events that lead Meredith and Inspector Alan Markby down a path of lies, danger and murder, in a story that has a nice twist at the end.

I liked it; the characters are a bit plastic but the basic story was okay. There are enough suspects to keep you guessing until the end. A fine little British murder mystery; I'd recommend to those who like that genre, and those who are interested in mysteries in an archaeological setting.

Overall, not bad; I will definitely get back to the other novels in the series.

just a thought

2008-11-23T07:02:00.002-05:00

Has this ever happened to anyone? Yesterday I picked up Beverly Connor's book "A Rumor of Bones" that fits in with this month's choice of reading selections (an archaeological whodunit). I started reading it, and realized I just was simply not interested. Everything seemed so tame that I just couldn't do it. Normally I get to the end of the book before deciding something like this, but it came to me that I just didn't want to devote the time to something I knew I wasn't really going to enjoy. I wasn't sure why, but then I started thinking about all of those Scandinavian mysteries I've been reading (and to be fair, Forty Words of Sorrow by Giles Blunt) and realized how incredibly good they are -- very well written, gritty, realistic, and flawed characters (even the good guys) -- and I decided I've been ruined for mystery reading now. I think it's that I want more out of a book. So now I'm going to weed through that mountain of tbr pile of mysteries and pull out a bunch I seriously don't think I'm going to read. I know it sounds a bit snobby (and not meant that way at all), but I've hit some kind of plateau here and I can only go up from there. Book snobbery? I don't personally think so but who knows?

*Dragon Bones, by Lisa See

2008-11-19T06:45:00.003-05:00

This is third in a series featuring Liu Hulan, of which I read the first one (Flower Net) and skipped the second (The Interior). You really don't need to have read either of the first two to be able to follow this one.

As the story opens, Hulan is quasi-estranged from her husband after the death of their little daughter from bacterial meningitis. As a police detective, Hulan has been working on a case involving a group called the All-Patriotic Society, and at the beginning of this book, she attends a rally being held by this illegal group. One of the members is a bit overzealous and decides to kill her daughter, but Hulan shoots her. She finds herself the target of threats, so her superiors send her off to investigate the death of an archaeologist working an excavation near where the Three Gorges Dam is built. David, her American husband, is also sent there to investigate the removal of cultural relics from the country. But a bizarre murder later, both David and Hulan find themselves in a great deal of danger.

The core story is very good, a fine mystery and a good look at the pros and cons of the building of the Three Gorges Dam. I understand that this is a part of a series and that it focuses on the character of Liu Hulan, but it was a bit too romantic for my tastes. The end was a bit over the top as well, a bit too melodramatic for me. However, I'd definitely recommend the book to others, including those who are following the series, to readers interested in China, and to readers who like mysteries in an archaeological setting.

*Silence of the Grave, by Arnaldur Indridason

2008-11-18T13:28:00.003-05:00

Don't pick this one up if you want something warm and fuzzy -- it's definitely the opposite. But then again, it's gloominess somehow seems a propos, considering not only the main story here, but the ongoing story of Erlandur Sveinsson, the main character here. He's not a happy man, nor does he have any reason to be -- his children hate him, his ex-wife lies about him and he's got ghosts from his past that continually haunt him. But as a detective, he's got to let all of that go so that he can do his job.

As the story opens, a baby is discovered playing with a piece of a human rib bone. The baby's mother makes her other child take her to where he found the bone, and an entire skeleton is discovered. It seems that the bones are laying in an area that will soon become a housing development, and archaeologists are excavating in the area prior to this happening. The police are called in, and they have no choice but to wait until the archaeologists slowly and carefully work through the excavation to be able to even determine the sex of the bones. All that's known is that the skeleton is probably quite old, rather than recent, anywhere from 50 to 70 years old. While they wait for the archaeologists, Erelendur and his team begin trying to figure out just who may have lived around the area in the past, and to see if anyone may have gone missing around the time whoever it is laying in the ground was put in there. As the police begin their investigations, they become aware that a young woman went missing, presumed a suicide, and that the man to whom she was engaged was the owner of the property years ago, when the area was shared with a military base during WWII. Interwoven with this story is another
about a family of former residents of the area, a woman and her children who find themselves victims of the husband/father, a wife beater who not only uses physical violence, but "kills the soul" as he metes out his abuse. Between the two storylines, you'll find yourself literally unable to put the book down. That, along with Erlendur's personal problems and the ghosts of his past coming back to haunt him, make for one incredible read.

If you've read Jar City, you've got to read this one. The author's characterization is realistic, the story is moving and the writing is excellent. Highly recommended to those who enjoy good mysteries in general, or to those who are looking for at good Scandinavian mystery writer.

Echoes From the Dead, by Johan Theorin

2008-11-18T08:49:00.003-05:00

from the tbr pile:

A very haunting story, Echoes From the Dead begins in 1972, when Jens, a 6-year old boy, decides that he'll scale the garden wall while his grandmother's taking a nap and everyone else is away from the home. We are told right away that in the fog,Jens encounters someone identifying himself as Nils Kant, and after that, he's just gone. Flash forward 20 years, and his mother, Julia, has still not gotten over his disappearance. Most everyone has assumed he'd drowned; she's not willing to believe he's gone. She's a psychological wreck, unable to work, drinking, sitting all day watching a home shopping network type show on tv. But all of that changes one day when her father, Gerlof, phones her to say that he's just received a child's sandal in the mail, and that it is likely one belonging to Jens. Off goes Julia back to where it all happened and where Gerlof now lives in a residential nursing home. It seems that Gerlof has never stopped trying to figure out what happened to Jens, and has come up with a few theories of his own, along with a few of his friends. Gerlof, his friends, and Julia all try to figure out what happened to little Jens 20 years earlier. It all points to Nils Kant, but the problem is, Nils was dead and buried prior to Jens' disappearance.

What's really great about this novel is that the author sets up such an incredible atmosphere of suspense and gloom that you can't put the book down. Carefully interweaving the story of Nils Kant from his childhood onward, Theorin captures his reader's attention from the outset. All of the characters are very well defined and very believable and the writing is very good. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially readers who enjoy Scandinavian mysteries.

Hard to believe, but this is the author's first novel. I'll be on the lookout for the next one. Very good book.

thanks to Librarything and Random House for allowing me to read this book prior to its US release!

*Patterns in the Dust, by Lesley Grant-Adamson

2008-11-17T07:51:00.004-05:00

It's time for reporter Rain Morgan's holiday, and she has been offered the use of her friend & co-worker's cousin's cottage in Somerset. Right off the bat, she is present when an archaeologist uncovers the body of a woman. This gets her curiosity up, but when there's a murder in the little village of Nether Hampton, Rain senses there's more than just a newspaper story here. It seems that Nether Hampton has its secrets, and some people will do anything to keep them quiet.

Good intro to this series; but having read a later Rain Morgan novel, I know they get better. I would recommend it to people who like British mysteries and people who like stories set in small British villages.

Faber and Faber (1986), Paperback, 191 pages, 1986 0571145221

*The Mask of Atreus, by AJ Hartley

2008-11-16T09:42:00.003-05:00

I'll just say it straight out. I didn't like this book very much. I did finish it, which is more than I can say for some others I've read that I didn't like. I didn't set out to not like it, but there it is. Now, I happen to have read many reviews in which readers say it's a great book, and if they say so, then that's okay. However, I'm often at odds with many regular book readers as far as liking/not liking a book, and it doesn't bother me at all. I'll tell you why this one didn't particularly strike my fancy after my brief summary of this book.

Deborah Miller is a curator of the Druid Hill Museum in Atlanta, started by her mentor, Richard Dixon. One night, after a fundraiser, Deborah goes home but receives a strange, anonymous phone call that sends her back to the museum, only to find Richard dead. Deborah, of course, calls the police, but does some sleuthing of her own, and finds only a brief clue: Richard has written down the word "Atreus," probably his last act. From there, we have the following: a cop that may not actually be a cop, Richard's visit to a website that reveals he was interested in a golden death mask (possibly of a king of Mycenaea, maybe even Agamemnon), an attack on a dark highway, all of which send Deborah running to Greece to try to find answers. But it gets sort of murky and muddled from there, as the plot takes an abrupt turn, and Deborah finds herself in even more danger than before.

My whole problem is that there's so little substance to this book that it was hard to find any of it the least bit believable and thus the least bit engaging. Then there's the villain, whose dialogue was so campy that I could only laugh rather than be terrified at the "horrific" plot at the root of it all. Don't get me wrong...I do a lot of escape reading where there's way too many coincidences, too many timely deus ex machinas and pretty bad dialogue, but in this one, the evil and nefarious deed was just was a wee bit silly. I don't think I'd recommend this one to a friend; let's put it that way.

*The Dancing Man, by P.M. Hubbard

2008-11-15T09:03:00.002-05:00

....and now, a bit o' the creepy Welsh woods....

Mark Hawkins' brother Dick, an archaeogist with a specialty in neolithic/prehistoric sites, had set out for a climbing vacation in Wales and never returned. After some time, Mark goes to the home in which Dick was staying to retrieve his belongings. It turns out to be the home of another archaeologist, Dr. Merrion, who is a specialist in medieval archaeology, and who has been working on the site of an old, nearby Cistercian abbey. As Mark pokes around the woods surrounding Merrion's home, he begins to feel that something sinister has happened to his brother here, and is determined to get to the truth.

The sense of foreboding, the sense of place and the creepy atmosphere that the author manages to convey here are important to the central story. You won't find a lot of dialogue here, nor a huge cast of characters. It is a good read, and it is worth the amount of time you'll put into it. It's just very slow at times, and not very exciting (relative to most mysteries in which it's action, action, action), so you have to stay with it.

I'd recommend this to people who are interested in earlier writers of British suspense, to people who are interested in archaeological mysteries, and to those who like the old country house in the deep woods type settings in their mysteries.

*Murder in Mesopotamia, by Agatha Christie

2008-11-12T08:22:00.002-05:00

Back in the good old days of mystery, there was the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, but this book is not really one of my personal favorites among his cases. Having said that, I will say that it Murder in Mesopotamia is still quite an engaging little book from more of a psychological slant.

The story is actually told from the perspective of Amy Leatheran, a nurse hired by a Dr. Eric Leidner to take care of his wife Louise at an archaeolgical excavation out in the deserts of Iraq. The nurse arrives to find that there is a somewhat strained attitude among the members of the expedition, and most of that has to do with Mrs. Leidner. However, Mrs. Leidner is murdered, and it is established that the murderer could only have come from among the group. Enter Mr. Poirot, whose work is cut out for him when it seems that each and every member of the expedition has a motive for Mrs. Leidner's death.

As I said, not one of my particular favorites, but it was still fun to see Poirot unraveling a rather twisted plot. The ending is a bit of a surprise, so it's well worth the ride.

Recommended for those who are fans of Hercule Poirot, or of Agatha Christie, or for readers of British mysteries in general.

I just bought the dvd starring David Suchet so we'll see how it translates to film. I don't know how I missed it when the Poirot series was on Mystery or later on A&E, but I did.

....and now, for November, Archaeological Whodunits

2008-11-09T09:15:00.002-05:00

This month's reading (still in an effort to read through all the books I've been collecting over the years) features mysteries that take place in an archaeological setting. I really have to weed through these books and recycle some of them (I don't mean in the bin, but to other readers). So off I go, into the desert of Mesopotamia, with Agatha Christie, into the jungles of Latin America, the old abbeys of England, etc. This may not be the most highbrow of reading, but at least it will hopefully a lot of fun.

Rosa, by Jonathan Rabb

2008-11-09T09:12:00.002-05:00

actually, I read this one on my Amazon Kindle -- if you don't have one of these, you may wish to invest in one. It's awesome and great for airplanes.

The title here refers to the socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg; indeed, the action in this book takes place just after her death in 1919.Obviously, she is not the main character, but her death is a central element in this most ingenious novel.

Nikolai Hoffner is an inspector in post-war Germany's Kriminalpolizei(Kripo), and he leads the investigation of a series of bizarrre murders in which the killer engraves patterns in his victims' backs with a knife after he kills them. One of the bodies that he is called out to see turns out to be that of Luxemburg, and it too has the strange markings. Because it is Rosa's body, however, Hoffner finds himself and his investigation being thwarted, as the case now finds its way into more political channels. But Hoffner can't give up the case no matter what.

Hoffner is a very flawed individual, making his character just that much more believable. In fact, all of the characters are portrayed rather well. The author takes on a noirish tone in this book, which was engrossing from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend it to people interested in historical fiction, or who want something decidedly different on their to be read stack of mystery novels. Be warned...this is not a touchy-feely, feel good kind of novel -- it's gritty and realistic. Simply excellent reading -- and there's another Nikolai Hoffner novel coming out in 2009. I'll be there.

The Princess of Burundi, by Kjell Eriksson

2008-11-09T09:10:00.002-05:00

Set in Uppsala, Sweden, as the story opens, the winter weather is terrible, and a son awaits the return of his father, John Harald Jonsson. However, John Jonsson isn't coming home that night, or any other night because he's been murdered. Not only that, but there is evidence that John has been tortured. His wife, Berit, can't think of anyone that would want to hurt him let alone want him dead. Enter the police department, with the investigation being led by Ola Haver, who has some personal issues of his own, and investigated on the sidelines by Ann Liddell, who's still on maternity leave and really wants to get back to her work on the force.

The book is not only a story of the investigation of John's murder, but focuses on the effects of this crime on not only those left behind, but on the police as individuals. Eriksson's skill here is in her ability to create characters who come off as being real, as well as her ability to create and sustain an incredibly somber atmosphere throughout the novel. The mystery is okay, but there's just something about this woman's writing and her ability to create that transcends the plot. Eriksson's skill here is in her ability to create characters who come off as being real, as well as her ability to create and sustain an incredibly somber atmosphere throughout the novel. The mystery is okay, but there's just something about this woman's writing and her ability to create that transcends the plot.

I would definitely recommend this novel to readers who want something different than what's currently out there. Readers of more mainstream-type mystery novels may be less likely to enjoy this one, but I find European mystery novels, for the most part, to be more to the point, less cutesy and more intense than what's available on most bookstore shelves.

The Excursion Train, by Edward Marston

2008-11-09T09:08:00.002-05:00

Second in the "Railway Detective" series, Robert Colbeck and his partner Sergeant Leeming are back at it again, this time to investigate a strange murder which occurred on an excursion train. It seems that hundreds of people took a special train to reach a prize fight (illegal in the Victorian era) between two favorites; all reached their destination except the murdered man. It takes Colbeck and Leeming some time, but they eventually trace the identity of the dead man as being that of a former hangman, so there could be any number of people willing to do him in. It's up to Colbeck and Leeming to sort through a number of suspects to find out whodunit.

This series is very light in tone, but is still an interesting and fast read. I especially enjoy the period details. I'd recommend it to people who enjoy historical mysteries, light British series mysteries and an easy read.

The Railway Detective, by Edward Marston

2008-11-09T09:07:00.001-05:00

The Railway Detective is the first in a series of light mystery novels featuring Inspector Robert Colbeck of Scotland Yard of mid-19th century England. In this first installment, a train carrying gold from the mint and mail is highjacked and the fireman of the train is forced to derail the engine after the driver refuses and is forcibly kicked off the train. After looking around for clues, Colbeck realizes that the robbery is probably an inside job, but just as he and his partner, Sgt. Leeming, start getting a break, there are a series of murders that occur that starts them on their search yet again. Add to this Marston's stuffy boss, who thinks Marston's techniques are unsporting and ungentlemanly and a damsel in distress, and you've got the story.

It's fun, a bit of a fluff piece but still very interesting due to the period details. I'd recommend it to people who like British series mysteries, anyone interested in that time period, and people maybe looking for something new in their mystery reading.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

2008-11-09T09:05:00.002-05:00

I'm just getting into Scandinavian mystery novels, so I picked this up prior to my 3-week vacation. Couldn't put it down once I started it. I highly recommend this one; my understanding is that the author wrote two more prior to his untimely death. Hopefully they'll be available in the US soon; if not, well, I'll have to buy one from the UK.

very brief plot summary:
Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist in Sweden, and also publishes a magazine called Millenium, a very independent and pull-no-punches magazine that delves into the seamy side of high finance and corporate Sweden. As the story opens, Mikael has just been found guilty in a libel suit brought against him by shady financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Mikael must pay a fine and spend time in jail, but that's not the worst of his problems. He has to try to save the reputation of the magazine. So when an opportunity arises for him to distance himself he takes it. It comes in the form of a strange offer from an attorney, Mr. Frode, on behalf of another wealthy man, Henrik Vanger. It seems that some 30 years ago, Vanger's niece Harriet (16 at the time) disappeared from sight on the family's island. No one saw her leave, no body was ever found, the way out was blocked due to an accident which virtually cut the island off from the rest of the world. Investigations into the disappearance met with no success, but the kicker is that Vanger has continued to receive a flower each year for his birthday, a tradition started by Harriet when she was a child. So Vanger wants Mikael to investigate the disappearance while ostensibly writing the family history. Yet, that is not the whole story; enter the girl with the dragon tattoo, an investigator with a private investigations firm owned by one Dragan Armansky. This is Lisbeth Salander, whose life is not in her own hands, but in the hands of the state until she decides to take some control. Her life seems to be about taking control of her own situation, and she has her own (and very different) way of doing so. She has a unique talent for investigating, and she and Mikael inevitably cross paths in his investigation. She is totally unique; I don't believe I've ever come across another character like her anywhere. As they come ever closer to solving the mystery of Harriet's disappearance, there are some who are not prepared to have answers revealed.

The book is not limited to just the mystery of Harriet's disappearance; there is a definite moral lesson here along with a look at the many imbalances inherent in society. Family dynamics are explored along with the theme of abuses of power. It may, as someone noted, seem somewhat anti-climatic at the end (I thought so too -- but it is an appropriate ending), but it is worth every minute of time you put into reading. I absolutely cannot wait for the next two in this trilogy.

Roseanna, by Per Wahloo

2008-11-09T09:03:00.002-05:00

very briefly:
First in a series featuring Martin beck, set in Sweden. As the story opens, the body of a young girl is found in a canal. Martin Beck is in charge of the investigation into her death, but to get anywhere they first have to figure out who she was. It takes awhile, but once they've identified her, the real fun begins: finding out who might have wanted her dead and why.

What a great series opener! The characters are very human and realistic, the prose is not overdone. There were a couple of places of laugh-out-loud humor, and this was another one I couldn't stop once I'd picked it up. Very highly recommended; now I'm off to pick up more in the series. People who enjoy Scandinavian mysteries cannot miss this one.

Dead Sea, by Tim Curran

2008-11-09T09:02:00.001-05:00

Whatever you do, do not read this book while you're on a cruise, especially when you're caught out in the fog. I did, and at the sound of the first foghorn, I jumped a mile. I was so into this story that when I peeked out my balcony and saw thick fog, I think my heart sped up a bit!

The story opens with a group of men who have signed on as a construction crew to work in the jungles of French Guiana. They are sailing on the cargo ship Mara Corday, and the journey is going fine until they enter a part of the ocean known as "the graveyard of the Atlantic," and encounter a strange fog that plays havoc with their instruments and communications. In the midst of this incredible fog, bizarre creatures find their way onto the ship. The ship is disabled, and collides with something, sending everyone who survived the crash into the water, either in lifeboats, rafts or whatever they can find to keep afloat. It's at this point that bizarre things start to happen, none the least of which are strange creatures that none of the men have ever encountered. At first, the survivors are split up, one group headed by George Ryan, who's never been at sea and took the job for badly-needed money; the second group headed by a small but powerful (and somewhat psychotic) crew boss named Saks. Their journey as they navigate the constant darkness and fog, trying to make some sense of where they are and basically trying to survive constitutes the rest of the story, which is very Lovecraftian in tone and darkness. I was scared out of my wits, and when that happens, I say the author's done a great job. I was still shaking after I finished it!

Very well written, the atmosphere evoked by this author is one of the eeriest I've ever encountered. I loved this book, and most highly recommend it. But do yourself a favor...read it on land.

The Shadow Coast, by Philip Haldeman

2008-11-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

This kind of horror is what I hope for when I buy horror novels. Shadow Coast gave me the willies, and when I get a reaction like that, then I've found a good author. It starts off innocuously enough, but in short order the hackles started raising on the back of my neck. Also, I've been to Neah Bay WA where the book is set, so I really had a great vision of where all of this action was taking place. If you want to try something different, then do what you can to find this book and read it. I do believe it's out of print; I know I had to buy mine used (and at a like-new price).

a little plot summary:

Mark Sayres, an architect in California, is alone at home with his daughter, while his wife Maggie is spending time in the Pacific Northwest on an archaeological dig. Maggie calls him, but the call sounded like Maggie was in some sort of distress, so he takes a job as part of the crew on a sailboat (for which in return he gets a free ride to the Northwest). However, the captain of the boat is a drunk and the inevitable shipwreck occurs just in sight of their destination. He is able to make it to shore and wakes up to find that his wife has gone missing, totally without a trace. The woman in whose home Mark is recovering also has a missing husband, along with others who vanished without a trace. Many of the natives believe that the disappearances are linked to what the archaeologists encountered in their dig. This isn't just another cheap and cheesy horror novel (I realize that many have similar premises), but rather, a book of quality.

The Various Haunts of Men, by Susan Hill

2008-11-09T08:58:00.002-05:00

In this series opener set in England, Simon Serrailler is a DCI in Lafferton, a small cathedral town which is now home to a series of strange disappearances, which may or may not have been criminal, but in any case, disappearances which leave behind no clues. However, as the number of people who go missing quickly increases, an enterprising new detective sergeant, Freya Graffham, just knows in her bones that they are all related somehow. Her boss, Simon, gives her the go-ahead to investigate.

The mystery is decent, with the author giving you insights into the killer's mind via a recorded tape interspersed throughout the story. Her characters are okay; some of them (especially Simon) could have been a lot more fleshed out. Freya, imho, was kind of overdone, kind of school-girlish and silly in the scope of her personal life, considering her past experiences and her level of responsibility at the police department. Also, I felt that a lot of the dialogue going on between Simon's sister the doctor and her friend that had very little bearing on the core mystery could have been eliminated to make the book much more streamlined. In other words, sometimes Hill is a bit wordy. These kinds of things are generally what I expect in a series opener, but most of the time, problems tend to get ironed out by the second book.

Overall, not a bad read, and I will definitely be buying more of the series. Recommended for fans of British mystery series and British crime fiction in general. However, I do think I like Susan Hill much better as a ghost-story writer.

Forty Words for Sorrow, by Giles Blunt

2008-11-09T08:55:00.002-05:00

One of the better books I've read this year. I've had this sitting around and just hadn't got to it...now I've got a lot of time to make up for with this author. If you're a mystery aficionado, such as myself, you absolutely cannot miss this one.

As the story opens, Detective John Cardinal, who was earlier taken off Homicide largely because he disagreed with the way the cops were handling a couple of missing persons cases, is called back to lead an investigation into a murder. One of the earlier-mentioned missing persons cases was that of 13 year old Katie Pine, who at the outset of the novel is discovered down an abandoned mine shaft, encased in a block of ice.As the investigation proceeds, Cardinal cannot help but feel that this death is somehow related to other unsolved missing persons cases, and eventually he is able to make the case for a serial killer. While all of this is going on, however, Cardinal has to face some serious issues in his own life.
raid.

By far, one of THE best police mystery novels I've ever read. Actually, I'm not sure how I should label this book (suspense, police procedural, mystery) but whatever it is, it is most excellent. I literally did not put it down the entire time it took me to read it. This one I can definitely very highly recommend as being a very well written, engrossing novel.

The novel is set in Algonquin Bay, a very cold town in Canada close to Toronto. I've never been there before, but I felt like I was in the freezing temperatures as the author described it so well. In fact, the author's depiction of place and setting was impeccable...I mean, physically I was in the middle of the Caribbean sun and humidity while reading this, but in my mind, I felt like I wanted to go grab a parka. Not only does the author have the ability to deliver place & setting, but the characters are all quite realistic, which always makes for a great reading experience.

Jar City, by Arnaldur Indridason

2008-11-09T07:42:00.002-05:00

Set in Reykjavik, Iceland, an elderly man is discovered to have been murdered in his apartment. Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson of the police and his crew find only a picture of a grave hidden behind a drawer in a desk and a note that says "I am him" on the victim as evidence, and as they continue to dig, they discover that their victim had been accused years earlier of sexual assault, although never convicted. Erlendur must now reopen the original case, which leads to the uncovering of secrets that some felt were better left buried forever.

I love Scandinavian mystery novels, and this one is no exception. I can definitely recommend this one. Indridason is a fine author who sets a serious tone immediately which never lets up. The characters are lifelike and believable, and the mystery continues to build until the very end. I'll definitely be reading more of this author's work.

Death in the Garden, by Elizabeth Ironside

2008-11-09T07:38:00.001-05:00

At the onset of the novel, it is 1925 and Diana Pollefexen is awaiting the verdict at her trial for the murder of her husband George. The story of George's death is divulged little by little both contemporarily (to 1925) and later, after her grand-niece Helena receives word that her great aunt has died. Helena is going through her great-aunt's property and finds a journal entry telling about that day in court in 1925. Helena, through the help of other family members, friends, and further journal articles, begins to piece together her great-aunt's life, and realizes that her great aunt had a life of which Helena knew nothing. Helena is a major beneficiary in her great-aunt's will, but In order to accept Diana's legacy, she feels that she must decide for herself whether or not her aunt was a murderess.

Very well written, it will keep your attention through the end.

The characters are well drawn, the story is a good one, and I can definitely recommend this book.

Love in the time of Norovirus (or, how I spent my Panama Canal cruise vacation)

2008-11-09T07:05:00.003-05:00

If you have to be diagnosed with Norovirus while you're on a cruise ship, then for god's sake make sure you have the following:

a) a VERY supportive spouse (because while he didn't have it, he still had to be quarantined 24 hours -- as opposed to my 48)
b) a very large suite with a big bed and a very nice balcony -- I swear, if I was down in an inside room with no air from the outside coming in or unable to see the sun and had to be confined in my cabin, Larry would have probably been dead or our relationship destroyed by my utter bitchiness
-and-
c) lots and lots of decent books to read while you're out laying in the sunshine on your lounger chair on aforementioned balcony.

Now, personally, I don't think I had norovirus; I think I was suffering from my own stupidity. Ice in Acapulco. As I lifted my glass to drink my diet coke, I'm thinking about the last time I was in Mexico and had a drink with ice and got really sick, but I also figured I was at a hotel restaurant so it had to be safe, right? But 13 hours later, after spending an entire night with Montezuma's revenge and cramping, I figured I should probably go to the ship's doctor and get this done with. Oops. So off we go, my dh and I, down to deck 1. A few minutes later I'm getting back on the elevator with immodium in hand and tears on my face -- I've been confined to my room for 48 hours, Larry for 24. I didn't have any other symptoms -- I should have had a fever, been vomiting, and had aches and pains -- but rules are rules. I wouldn't have minded or cried if we were going to be at sea for the next 2 days, but oh no. I have to go to the doctor the day before we're stopping in Costa Rica, where we were going to do an eco tour in the rain forest. It was the only port (out of 6) that I really wanted to go do something, and I'm stuck in my room. The day we got there, I was so pitiable that our room steward came in the evening with a t-shirt for me because he felt so sorry that I couldn't leave the ship. I mean, I totally understand, because if it was norovirus, then the doctors couldn't take the risk of me passing it along to someone since it's extremely contagious. So I made a lot of jokes about being confined to quarters, ate a lot of room service soup (at least it was quite tasty), played a lot of extreme sudoku, laid out in the lounger chair in the hot sun and read a LOT of books. My husband deserves a medal, I must say. So what follows are the books I read (not all of them under the norovirus containment, but all on my 3-week vacation).

...and the Booker results are in.... drum roll, please

2008-10-14T18:18:00.002-04:00

It's The White Tiger!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I was VERY happy to see this one, even though the quirky side of me was rooting for Steve Toltz's Fraction of the Whole.

I think after you read it (and it is a definite no-miss), you will look at things very differently.

My congrats to both the judges (who had an incredibly tough choice to make here) and the author. Not that I'm anyone special, but after pouring my soul into 2 months of reading these books, I'm glad to see that one of them that I really liked won. Unlike last year. I'm still sore about that!

That's all...in 10 minutes, off to vacation land to California and then through the Panama Canal. I'll try to write before Nov. 2 when I get back.

The Book of Lies, by Brad Meltzer

2008-10-12T14:57:00.003-04:00

I had really looked forward to this one because I really need some escape reading, but well, this one just fell sort of flat.

If you like books that feature chases, then you'll really enjoy this one. From the moment Cal Harper, former federal agent now working with homeless people, picks up his long-estranged father who he thinks is another homeless guy who's been a victim of crime, the book is pretty much nonstop action. It seems that Cal's dad Lloyd is desperate to get his hands on something that others are also looking for, but from the very beginning with an encounter on a freeway that causes the death of another federal agent, Cal and Lloyd are in trouble. Cal does everything he can to remain ahead of the law, while helping Lloyd and trying to save his own skin from both bad guys and good.

I really enjoyed Meltzer's Book of Fate but I wasn't so thrilled with this one. I guessed one of the main elements of the mystery (a mysterious figure known only as "the prophet") pretty much early on. The whole mystery of the Book of Lies didn't really do it for me...it was the central focus of the story but seemed to lack substance, and didn't really seem worth all of the trouble the characters went to to find it. But as I said, it is a page turner and you'll want to keep reading just to find out what happens.

I'd still recommend it to readers of mainstream suspense fiction.

The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

2008-10-12T14:51:00.004-04:00

I bought this book when it first came out and finally read it yesterday.

Douglas Preston (who normally writes mystery and suspense type books) and his family travel to Florence because he's ready to write a mystery based on a missing Renaissance painting (and by the way, the outline of that book sounds pretty good). So, being the good researcher that he is, hooks up with someone who knows all about the local crime scene, and ends up becoming interested in an unsolved string of serial murders. His friend, Mario Spezi, is an award-winning crime reporter, and one of his passions is the so-called "Monster of Florence," who for over 20 years has gotten away with murdering young couples out for a romantic evening under the stars. Preston tries to work on his novel, but finds himself getting more interested in this serial killer, and soon he and Spezi are trying to solve the murders. This would have been good enough to keep me reading, but the most frightening thing about this book to me was the whole misguided system of justice in Italy, as portrayed (and lived) by Preston and Spezi. Politics and well, a bit of stupidity lead the investigation into some bizarre areas that have no merit, and soon Spezi finds himself on the wrong end of the law, as does Preston.

Very interesting, although actually it probably could have been a bit more taut and concise. I really liked it, though, and I'd definitely recommend it to readers interested in unsolved murder cases, or the workings of investigation and justice in foreign countries, or the power of the press. Or, if you're a reader of Preston's fiction, you may wish to give this one a go. Overall, very good.

The Anger of Fear, by Jeffrey Ashford

2008-10-08T05:45:00.002-04:00

An oil sheik decides to send his young son to England to be educated at a posh private school. The police are called upon to help implement a tight security system at the school, but even with all of their precautions, the boy is kidnapped. When the investigation begins, it looks like one of the cops has given the plans to a group of kidnappers. Suspicion falls on one policeman, who tries to convince everyone he's being framed.

Anger of fear also examines the tied hands of the legal system of England, and what happens when "the anger of fear" leads people to do extraordinary things.

Ashford is a fine writer, and manages to build the suspense slowly and keep you there for a while. Recommended for people who like British mysteries, or something just a little different in their mystery reading.

Aunt Dimity and the Duke, by Nancy Atherton

2008-10-07T14:47:00.002-04:00

I am so giving away all of my other books by this author because the me that read the first one of these years and years ago is no longer the same person. I'm sitting here looking at my tbr stack, headed by stuff like Giles Blunt's Forty Words for Sorrow, Dennis Lehane's The Given Day, ummm, let's see...2 books by Natsuo Kirino, and I'm thinking that there's much more to life than Aunt Dimity. I'm not at all dissing anyone who reads cozy mysteries; au contraire -- I used to have stacks and stacks of them, and I'm sure if I was fully cognizant of what lies hidden in my bookshelves, I'd probably find some more. I'm just saying that this is no longer my cup of tea.

I'd forgotten why I quit reading cozy mysteries until I finished this one. Actually, I made myself finish it. I used to love this stuff a long time ago, but I think my tastes have changed.

In this second book of the Aunt Dimity series, Emma, a computer professional, has been left high and dry by her boyfriend who dumped her for someone younger. She decides to go on a series of garden tours, and she meets two elderly ladies who encourage her to visit Penford Hall in Cornwall. It seems that the owner of said hall is an acquaintance of theirs. So off she goes, and is promptly drafted into service to fix up the old and long-neglected garden. While there, she becomes embroiled in a mystery or two, and some very strange things happen.

Frankly, I didn't like it. The dialogue was just not realistic, nor were the characters. I'm all for a bit of the supernatural in a mystery novel, but this one was just way too cutesy for me. I know, I know, it rates high for lots of readers, but what can I say? So I'd recommend it to people who are into cozies, which I realize now that I'm definitely not.

The Garden of Evil, by David Hewson

2008-10-06T09:11:00.001-04:00

Although it's not my personal favorite of Hewson's Nic Costa series, The Garden of Evil is a good read all the same, and this was one I did not stop reading until I had finished it completely. As the story opens, a man who picks pockets for a living develops a bit of conscience after he realizes he has picked up among his takings someone's medicine. He traces her to the place he remembers her saying she was going, and finds her in a most bizarre situation; sadly for him. Fast forward a bit to the scene of a homicide, where Nic Costa and his team are working the scene. It seems the murderer hasn't quite gotten away, and as he tries to take him, Nic finds himself at the losing end of some tragic consequences. Thus develops a quest to get to the root of the mystery of a strange group known as The Ekstasists, a ruthless group of men whose leader is technically above the law, a rich and powerful man with roots going back centuries. But this is one man that the police really want and the chase is on.

This is another one that is probably not geared to the mainstream reading public. There is a lot of art history here which is woven into the case so if this isn't your cup of tea, move along. However, if you're patient enough and if you enjoy something above average, then you might want to give this book a try. I would suggest that you begin with the 1st in the series, because by this one, #6, the characters have become more developed and you won't really have a handle on them unless you start from the beginning. I have really enjoyed this entire series and I'm not waiting for the US release of #7, Dante's Numbers, but rather I'm purchasing one from the UK.

The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson: Horripilating Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, by William Jones

2008-10-06T09:07:00.002-04:00

pulp! gotta love it. And a bonus -- it's in the Call of Cthulhu fiction series from Chaosium.

Joshua Pearson, professor at Columbia University, upon the death of his father, receives a manuscript from his great-grandfather Rudolph Pearson. Rudolph was also a scholar at Columbia, specializing in medieval studies. The manuscript consists of the journals of Rudolph Pearson, starting in 1922 when he accompanies Detective Matthew Leahy to a murder scene where a Russian immigrant has been brutally murdered. It seems that someone has written something in blood at the scene, and Leahy needs Rudolph's help to translate. This is only the beginning of a series of interconnected events that are the mainstay of Rudolph's journal. But this is no murder mystery: since it deals with Lovecraftian themes, you can expect to read about "a horror that mankind may never be able to accept," as well as the fears for the fate of humanity.

The writing is chilling, the characters are well drawn and you'll find yourself continuing to turn pages so that you won't even notice time going by. Do read the stories in order; each one builds on the previous.

Highly recommended.

ps/ you may want to have some Lovecraft under your belt before you read this one.

Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus

2008-10-01T14:11:00.002-04:00

Let's just set the record straight here. Some reviewers of this book say that they were disappointed because they were expecting something along the lines of the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Well, nowhere in the blurb on the inside cover does it say that this book is an action-packed thriller. I looked, trust me. There is no promise of anything at all along the lines of the Da Vinci Code. Somewhere, some how and at some time (I don't know when or how this happened), it seems that Dan Brown's book became the standard by which to judge other books that may be even remotely similar. It seems to me that holding the Da Vinci Code as the standard is somewhat unfair: if people expect the Da Vinci Code, and they don't get what they want, then the book is often trashed because it doesn't live up to expectations. And that's unfair. Okay. Done with rant.

In Codex 632, Lisbon history professor Thomas Noronha is hired by a kind of shady foundation based in the US to find out what his predecessor, a Professor Toscano, had found during his foundation-sponsored research. Toscano had been hired to do some research on the discovery of Brazil, but it seems that his research had taken on a life of its own somewhat tangential to his original project, having to do with Christopher Columbus. Toscano died, so Noronha is hired as his replacement. The salary is quite lucrative, and he needs the money to help take care of his daughter who was born with Downs Syndrome. When Noronha discovers what it was that Toscano was up to, he realizes that he has some very important research that could possibly change our notions of what is perceived to be historical fact. His continuing search leads him from Portugal to the US to Brazil, then on to Jerusalem in his quest for more information,also leading to the Knights Templar and Kabbalah for help.

Personally, I found all of the research quite interesting, and the author says that all of the documents that are presented in this book exist today. Obviously, the author's done quite a bit of research here. What I didn't like about this book were the two subplots here: that of his linkup with one of his students, and that of his wife and child, which really went nowhere and never really developed more fully. Both were just kind of limp, and drew me away from the meat of the book.

I won't say I loved this book, because I didn't, and I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. I liked it, and think that anyone really interested in Christopher Columbus might get something out of this, or you might like the book if you're interested in theories that may lead you away from historical established status quo. You will also like it if you're interested in European history. But don't pick this up with the expectation that you're getting the Da Vinci Code, because you're not. And nowhere does the blurb say you're going to.

October 2008 -- Giving my fried brain a rest

2008-10-01T06:24:00.002-04:00

It's been a hell of a last month. So as a reward to myself for sticking to the Booker longlist for the last 2 months, I'm reading nothing that demands brain power. Just mysteries, horror novels, maybe some sci-fi, just anything that doesn't make claims on my brain.

For 2 weeks this month I'll be reading as I sail the high seas -- we're cruising through the Panama Canal (from LA to Miami) on the Monarch of the Seas. I've loaded up my Kindle, and have a stack of books ready to go in my suitcases. Larry's bringing along some Spenser books (he never reads anything demanding brain power), so I can envision us on our balcony over the open ocean, laying around in the warm sun and reading reading reading. I hope I don't forget my glasses.

*Girl in a Blue Dress, by Gaynor Arnold

2008-09-30T22:54:00.002-04:00

and voila, the last book in the Booker longlist. See, I knew I could do it! I realize it's the last minute on the last day of September when I had pledged to be done with the list, but I've finally finished the entire longlist. And what a list of books it was! I think I actually liked every single book on the list; some more than others, but each one had its own merits. Were there any surprises for me? Yes. 1) Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence did not make it to the shortlist, and I thought given the man's past history it would be a shoe-in. 2) Hanif's Case of Exploding Mangoes didn't make it to the shortlist. Sad, a true pity. But then again, I can only go again once more to last year when a book that most readers rated very low sailed past Tan Twan Eng's book (which also didn't make the shortlist, what a ripoff), Mister Pip and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (both simply incredible, if you want my opinion) to take the prize. Sometimes you just have to wonder any more what the judges think constitutes good literature, and I've given up since last year. Anyway, the 3rd thing I didn't expect this year was the appearance of Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith; that was a total out-of-nowhere surprise. If you've read this book journal's older posts, you'll note that I actually liked that book, and so did a LOT of readers, but many of those literary snobs-cum-reviewers that I call in my head the "sanctimonious twits" thought it was crap. Well, I suppose you could argue that it's not really literature, but a mystery novel (which doesn't often fall into the literary category), but my thing about books is that either the author's done his or her job or he or she hasn't. And if I'm paying $30 for a book (more from those directly from the UK), I want to be really entertained and given something to think about and I definitely got my money's worth from Child 44. And finally, 4) Where the hell is Netherland?

I think that this year even winnowing these books to create a shortlist must have been really tough. I think I would have left out Clothes on Their Backs and Northern Clemency, and put in Case of Exploding Mangoes and Netherland instead.

But that's just me. So now, moving right along, let me throw in my two cents about Girl in a Blue Dress, and then I'll be done.

As the story (set squarely in the Victorian era) opens, a woman is sitting at home, unable to go to her husband's funeral. Thousands of other people went, but she is at home in a small apartment. She can only hear the details from her daughter. The woman in question is Dorothea, nicknamed Dodo; the dead man is Alfred Gibson, known also as the One and Only, a famous British writer whose works were read even by the queen. Dorothea did not go to the funeral because no one wanted her there; it turns out after Dodo had borne several children, and suffered from being overtired, nervous, etc., and was basically no longer her younger self, her husband had publicly turned her out of her home, and had separated her from her children. Oh yes, I forgot...it seems that he had also taken on a mistress.

Now, if all of this sounds familiar, it's because Girl in a Blue Dress is based on the life of Catherine Dickens, the wife of Charles Dickens. Here, Dorothea Gibson (the Catherine substitute) is the narrator, and through weaving the past into her present, we manage to get a feel for a much younger Alfred Gibson, a much younger Dodo, and the growing heaviness that weighed not only upon her as the wife of Alfred, and mother of several children, but as a woman constantly made insecure by the adoration of her husband by his Public. Alfred is a rather complex individual, having to control everything and everyone, having to put on both public and private faces, and the whole book is Dorothea's look back at their life together in an effort to try to understand her situation. But although Alfred is painted sometimes rather negatively, there are indeed passages where the author shows that Dodo isn't exactly the perfect example of the Victorian wife. After all, the danger of reading a novel from the narrator's point of view is that you're not really going to get both sides, but the author does manage to overcome this problem.

The title "Girl in a Blue Dress," refers to an episode in Dodo's life when she was actively seeking the attention of Alfred as a suitor, but as you continue to read, there's another aspect to this title altogether. And at that point, everything you need to know about Alfred and Dodo sort of clicks into place.

It is a fine book, one I am most happy to have read. The characters are convincing with the exception of Dorothea at the end of the novel. I thought this was problematic because it comes on quite suddenly, and I was scratching my head going "huh?" at that point. The author sort of throws some new stuff in that I thought was singularly out of character for Dodo at that time.

If you are into the Victorian period, then you're really going to enjoy this one. Arnold's writing is beyond good and she manages to capture the feel of a Victorian writer so at times you're so caught up in the story that you don't realize you're reading a modern author. Highly recommended.

so there you have it, and now, I plan to spend the next month reading stuff I don't have to think about. The stack of mysteries, horror and other stuff is sitting here staring at me, calling out "read me....read me...read m -- e---" so I'd better get cracking.

Walking Across Egypt, by Clyde Edgerton

2008-09-30T09:14:00.002-04:00

(I'm still working on Girl in a Blue Dress, don't worry! I had to read this one for my book group or I'd have the other done by now).

from the tbr pile:

Walking Across Egypt was this month's selection for our little neighborhood book group. We've tackled Mister Pip, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, The Story of Lucy Gault among others. So it was time for a break -- hence this book. And what a book it is.

Mattie is the main character here, and she lives in rural North Carolina by herself, although her two children come every so often to visit. At 78, she does fine for herself, although in her words, she's "slowing down" a bit. And she's getting a little senile...cleaning the toilet with Listerine by mistake, putting chili powder on the potato salad in place of paprika; well, these may not be critical errors, but it's enough to make Mattie think she's slowing down. And then there's the forgetting that her chair seat is out for repair and getting stuck in the chair frame while trying to watch All My Children. But that's where the story really begins...because the local dogcatcher happens by and helps her out, and she learns that he has a teenaged nephew in a juvenile facility. Being an upstanding Christian, Mattie takes it upon herself to visit said nephew, and things go kind of haywire from there. I won't reveal the rest, so as not to wreck it for others.

What I will say is that I felt for a while that I was a kid again, sitting at my grandmother's table, eating chicken, mashed potatoes, butter beans and pie. I don't know if you have to have been connected to a Southern household to really appreciate this book, but if you were, you'll appreciate this book even more. The writing is really good, and the humor in the story will make you laugh out loud at times.

Some people have criticized the ending for its ambiguity, but life is like that.

Overall, a fine read, one I'm glad I spent some time with. Highly recommended, especially for people who want a feel-good kind of read and those who want to read something set in the American South.

Three Layers of Guilt, by Jeffrey Ashford

2008-09-27T12:42:00.003-04:00

...from the tbr pile:

I have sooo many books to read that once again I'm going on a buying moratorium. This time, my goal is to read 20 books already in my library (okay, so I bought a few this past week but I swear that's all I'm buying until I meet that goal) before buying a new one. Last time I made it 15, but then went absolutely bonkers on a book-buying spree when that was over. Luckily I have a very understanding spouse who doesn't mind feeding my book monkey. Of course, he has his own toys: 2 pinball machines, a real refurbished Vegas slot machine, original jukebox, and did I mention his airplane? So financing a few books here and there isn't a major outlay.

On to the book:
The story begins during WWII, with main character Harry Miles serving in the Merchant Navy. The ship is torpedoed; he escapes and is able to save one of the crew, a Geoffrey Pattison, from drowning. Years later, Harry needs a job, so he goes to Pattison, for a job on his farm. But a chain of events previously set into motion leads to terrible tragedy, and Harry finds himself a chief suspect.

The book is really quite good, and Ashford sets up a fine tale of suspense that will keep you reading until the story's done. I would recommend it to people who like British mysteries, or people looking for an author off the beaten path. The end may let you down if you're looking for things sewn up neatly, but it's still a very worthwhile read.

Untimely Guest, by Marion Babson

2008-09-23T12:43:00.002-04:00

from the TBR pile:
England's convents are suffering from economic cutbacks like everyone else, and nuns are either being moved or sent home. It is this fact that brings Bridget (known as Bridie) home to her rather large Irish-Catholic family. However, no one's told her mother (known only as "Mam") yet that she's back; it seems that Mam has her hands full with daughter Dee-Dee, who's also returned to the fold. Dee-Dee has brought home her fiance, but living at Mam's house as a lodger is Dee-Dee's ex-husband, Terence. According to the Catholic Church, Dee-Dee and Terence are still married, so the other family members decide to keep the news of Bridie's return a secret for now, and she goes to stay with her brother Kevin and his family until such time as Kevin's sister Veronica (who is taking care of Mam) feels that Mam is strong enough to take the news. However, Bridie's presence is unsettling at best, and when she finally does go home to Mam, the result is murder.

On the surface, the mystery is okay, the characters are fun and are described well. However, there's way too much theologizing and pontificating on the Catholic Church which tends to divert the reader's attention. This I found really dull, even though the author tried to lighten things up.

It's a cozy-type mystery and it will definitely keep you reading until the end. I'd recommend it to people who've read some of Babson's books, and to people who like cozy mysteries. I'm not a huge cat-in-the-story kind of person, but I know those sell well so those readers may enjoy the book as well.

*The Clothes on Their Backs, by Linda Grant

2008-09-23T11:46:00.004-04:00

Number 12 of 13 of the Booker Longlist which has comprised the bulk of my last two months of reading. Once I finish these, I have a stack of mystery novels that are my reward for sticking with the longlist. So here's the part where I say that yeah, this book was good, but considering both The Northern Clemency and this one, I have to also say that A Case of Exploding Mangoes was SO much better than both of these. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed reading both Grant and Hensher; they are incredible authors, but Hanif's book definitely should have been on that shortlist. He was definitely robbed. This is like last year, when Tan Twan Eng's book didn't even make the shortlist and The Gathering, which imho was like really awful actually blew past Mister Pip (which was so good I'm still thinking about it a year later). They (whoever "they" are) might consider letting members of the reading public pick the winners. Oh, but wait. Then the sanctimonious twits who consider themselves literary snobs will be running the show so maybe that's not a good idea either. Okay. I'll shut myself up now and move it along.

Here's the deal: I liked it, but I didn't love it. I thought it was good, but not great.

The narrator of this story is Vivien Kovaks, the only child of two refugees who left Hungary when the tide of anti-Semitism began to rise and make itself obvious. Ervin and Berta (her parents) as described by Vivien, were "mice-people", who laid low in an apartment, never caused any trouble, didn't get involved in anything outside the apartment which other than Ervin's work, seemed to be their entire world. Vivien knows nothing about her parents' past: has no clue about grandparents, or much about her parents' life before coming to London. What she does know is that her father has a brother, one Sandor Kovacs, who Vivien sees first at a young age. That meeting did not last long, since Ervin throws him out of the house. It turns out that Sandor is the proverbial black sheep of the family, and for Vivien's sake, Ervin and Berta never discussed him. However, television news reports painted him as a heinous criminal, and so Vivien knows something's up. It is only years later that she learns about the unspoken past, but the price of learning comes at a cost. I absolutely will not say more about the plot, because it will spoil it for anyone who decides to read this book, and because it needs to be unfolded in bits and pieces to really understand the story. There are several themes explored in this book, especially the notion that morality is relative, depending on perspective. Also, there is the question of what our clothes tell others, but also what our clothes say about us to ourselves. The idea of the importance of the past in our present is also explored.

As I said, I liked it and would definitely recommend it. The author's writing is very good, the characters are well drawn, and the story is good enough to keep you turning pages (in my case, pretty much through the night).

Murder on the Eiffel Tower, by Claude Izner

2008-09-21T08:10:00.002-04:00

my thanks to LibraryThing for the advance copy. The Early Reviewer program there is phenomenal!

from the tbr pile, more head-clearing material before I get to the last 2 books on the Booker Prize longlist. I needed a break after Northern Clemency.

It's really tough sometimes to read the opening novel of a proposed mystery series. What I've found is that in general, the first novels are not as well-honed or finely developed as the rest of the series. I think it's because the author is really just getting to know his or her characters, and I would also guess that after he/she receives feedback on the first endeavor, things start to tighten up. So having made this statement, I have to say that I think the series that begins with this book has some good potential. I liked the main character Victor; he's not really a professional sleuth but finds himself a bit over his head. He seemed like somewhat of a bumbler to me, and I think that this trait made him stick out as an unlikely hero.

Set during the 1889 Universal Exposition, the Eiffel Tower is a new marvel that fascinates nearly everyone. The can venture up in an elevator, see a great view, and as a bonus, they get to be the first to sign their names in the visitors' book. On the day that Victor Legris, bookseller, decides to visit the new structure, he's there as a woman collapses and dies right in front of him. The death is attributed to "killer bees." The thing is, though, that these "killer bees" seem to be randomly picking targets as there are other deaths that follow the same pattern. Several clues lead Legris to believe that his long-time associate, Kenji Mori may be the culprit, or is it the object of his affection, Tasha? Legris begins his own investigation.

Yes, there are problems with character depth and at places the book sort of just rambles, but I liked it, and I can envision reading the entire series. It's just fun, and I like period pieces, especially mysteries. I liked Victor and his sort of bumbling manner, and the Kenji character offsets him well. I especially liked Joseph, the bookshop assistant, who is a murder genius and always has his nose stuck in a murder mystery. He may have been my favorite character.

So overall...I think the series will be a good one, and probably much tighter in plot and more developed character wise. I'd recommend it to people interested in historical mysteries and who want something new in a series.

*The Northern Clemency, by Philip Hensher

2008-09-17T10:17:00.003-04:00

When you're ready to start this one, make sure you've got everything done that you need to do, because it's hard to stop reading. At 700+ pages, you need to know what you're getting into. I didn't and have stayed up way too late the last few nights to finish it.

The story centers on two families in Sheffield: The Glovers, who are from the area, and the Sellers, who have at the beginning of the story (1970s) just moved from London. We follow the story through the 1990s. The Sellers don't realize it, but they are moving into the neighborhood at a time when the Glovers are going through a crisis: Mr. Glover has left the home without saying anything, and Katherine's so frustrated that she performs a most senseless act of cruelty right out in front of everyone, none the least of whom are her children, especially her son Tim. This sort of sets the tone and gets the story up and running very quickly. But the Sellers have their own problems; for example, the kids aren't fitting in well at all at school because they're not native to the area. The 1970s leave indelible marks on both families, and their stories weave in and out throughout the years. You can't stop reading, because you really want to know what happens with everyone.

Beyond that, Hensher's writing is very descriptive and quite good. His characterizations are excellent, and should be; this is not really so much plot driven but more character driven. It is a bit long, and I found myself thinking that maybe there could have been less conversation in some parts to move things along. But that's just me.

Would I vote for it to win the Booker? Probably not, but it was still a fine read and one I can recommend.

The Charlemagne Pursuit, by Steve Berry

2008-09-17T10:14:00.003-04:00

more dessert for my overtaxed brain.

Cotton Malone was a secret agent for the US, but has now retired. Now that he's retired, he's decided that his next act will be to see if he could find out what happened to his father over some 35 years ago, when his dad was commander of a submarine mission for the US Navy. Malone gets his hands on a report and realizes that everything he and his mother were told by the government was not true, especially the part where the sub was supposed to have had its final mission in European waters. He gets his ex-boss, Stephanie, to help him out by sending him the file on his father's death, and this starts sending alarms all over Washington DC. Of course, with any story featuring Cotton Malone, he's not limited geographically, so he starts a quest for the truth which takes him to Europe and then, of all places, to Antarctica.

I've read a lot of books by this author not featuring Cotton Malone (The Amber Room, The Romanov Prophecy and The Third Secret) and The Templar Legacy, which is the first of the Cotton Malone Books. The Alexandria Link and The Venetian Betrayal are sitting on my shelves ready to be read. I don't feel that not reading the previous two Cotton Malone books caused any problems, so this book can definitely work as a stand-alone entry even though this is a series.

There is definitely a lot of nonstop action both abroad and simultaneously on the home front. If you've read anything by Steve Berry before, you know that this is one of the hallmarks of his stories, along with a very twisted plot involving several players. I happen to like this kind of never-a-dull-moment action and I really enjoy books where the hero has to solve some kind of puzzle or decode some sort of cypher. I also enjoy books where actions in the past have a great deal to do with what's going on now. That's why I keep buying Steve Berry's books when they are first released. When I want some good escape reading, he's generally at the top of my list. In the Charlemagne Pursuit, his characters are not deep, but they're generally good, bad, or you're not sure. Just when you have someone figured out, things change, and the plot twists are many to keep the reader guessing. Berry's plot in this one is a bit over the top, but it's all good -- it's a great bit of escape reading fun and I really enjoyed it.

I would definitely recommend it to those who are following Cotton Malone's exploits, and to those who are fans of Steve Berry in general. I would also recommend it to others who are maybe looking for something in the escape-reading genre. It's not literature, but it's fun and will provide you with several hours of reading entertainment. Don't let the size fool you...the action goes so fast you'll be amazed at how soon you're getting toward the end.

ps/thank you, LibraryThing!

The Orpheus Deception, by David Stone

2008-09-17T10:11:00.003-04:00

With only two more to go on the Booker Longlist for 2008, I just had to take a mind break. It's tough to read literature all of the time (although it's been a marvelous experience, believe me), and sometimes my brain just needs stuff it doesn't need to think about. The Orpheus Deception was an audiobook that I listened to in my car, and once again I found myself on bogus outings just to finish a chapter or something. Considering the price of gas, that says a lot about this book.

David Stone is an incredible author. He is good at characterizations, he's good at plot, he's good at plot twist, he's good at setting the atmosphere and he's good at keeping the reader in suspense. His first book featuring Micah Dalton, The Echelon Vendetta, was superb, and so is this one.

Orpheus Deception picks up where Echelon Vendetta leaves off. I won't go into detail in case someone reads this and hasn't read the first book (but you do really really want to read it). It begins with another attempt on Dalton's life, again in Italy, which is thwarted in the nick of time. From there, an agent from London comes to him with an assignment: he is to somehow release an ex-agent, a Brendan Fitch, who is rotting away in a prison in Singapore. Fitch had signed on as a member of the crew for a tanker called the Mingo Dubai, which was boarded and taken by pirates. However, the Singapore government insists that it sunk, and that Brendan was drunk at the time it happened, thereby causing it. But what's worse for poor Fitch is that his jailers have discovered that he's an agent -- and he has to be retrieved before they can torture any info from him. If this was the entire story, it would still be good, but it's not, by a long shot! This is just the very beginning of an incredible adventure.

Never a dull moment, lots of cliffhanging, and action, action action. I loved this book, I love this author, and I absolutely cannot wait until he comes out with another one. Recommended for those who enjoy a bit of intrigue and some incredible action

Falling Angel, by WIlliam Hjortsberg

2008-09-11T14:08:00.003-04:00

....from the tbr pile
(I'm desperately in need of escape fiction right now)

I'm a huge fan of noir crime fiction, and someone recommended this book as one I'd like in that genre. And sure enough, it held up as a fine noir novel. There's the private detective, Harold Angel, working out of a crappy little office, dressed sloppily, with stains on his tie; places that people wouldn't go to after dark; a private hospital in the country, characters involved in the dark world of voodoo and black magic etc. etc. And Angel's been hired by someone to find a missing singer who's been in said hospital but has disappeared. With only a few leads, he's off. But the closer I came towards the end, the more I realized that there's something just a wee bit off kilter here and then I got the surprise of my life. Talk about plot twist!

So I won't spoil the book for others by going into any further detail here, but I will say that if you like a touch of the supernatural in your fiction, then you've got to add this to your reading stack.

Very well done.

*the shortlist is in and well, okay.

2008-09-09T11:08:00.004-04:00

Out of all of these, I'm happiest that Fraction of the Whole made it. I loved that book...it's so quirky that it totally appeals to me.

Here it is (and the ones I've read are marked with a *):

A Fraction of the Whole* -- probably the one I would choose out of all of them as the best (but I'm weird and like quirky stuff)
White Tiger* -- Very, very good; I liked this one
Sea of Poppies* -- Yes! I loved this one, and can't wait for the rest of the trilogy to be published
Secret Scripture* -- I love Sebastian Barry's work, so yes.
The Northern Clemency -- Currently reading this one as we speak
The Clothes on Their Backs -- next in line after Northern Clemency

I have to say that I really enjoyed A Case of Exploding Mangoes as well. I'll decide if the author was robbed after I finish the last two books.

*The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga

2008-09-06T16:26:00.003-04:00

This was book 10 of 13 on the Booker Prize longlist.

Another fine entry on the Booker Prize longlist for 2008, and I must say, this is the first year that I've been reading the longlist where I've really enjoyed every book I've read. With only three more of these books to go I'm simply amazed at how well the judges chose this year. What's even more amazing is that White Tiger is Adiga's first novel. He will definitely be on my list of authors to watch in the future.

At some point the main character Balram Halwai recounts a story about the Buddha in which a Brahmin tries to trick the Buddha by asking him if he considers himself man or god. The Buddha answered saying "Neither. I am just one who has woken up while the rest of you are still sleeping." (270) Balram Halwai has certainly woken up in this story, in which he moves from a boy who broke coal in a tea shop to a driver and servant to a wealthy family, and then to self-made "entrepreneur." How he did it and why is the stuff of this book, which describes his awakening into the realities of the various levels of Indian society, and his understanding of the system that keeps servants in their place. His conclusion is that within the span of a couple of decades, the white men will no longer have a place in India, but at the same time, the system will continue to remain the same, due to the corruption and injustice that is so embedded within.

An easy read, I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in India and its politics, social system and beliefs. It's interesting to watch Balram and his metamorphosis, although I can't say I could entirely sympathize with him throughout the story. Funny that, because I tend to like books where the underdog has his day, but this time I just didn't think that the costs were worth it. Although I suppose in some sense that to him, or to others in his predicament, they were.

Overall, a very good novel.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes, by Mohammed Hanif

2008-09-05T12:19:00.005-04:00

Another awesome entry in the 2008 Booker Prize longlist. The judges are really going to have a tough time this year, because the books have been really good.

Before I read this book, I'd never even heard of Zia ul-Haq, the president of Pakistan who was killed in the crash of a C-130 airplane, along with the American ambassador Arnold Raphel and others. Hanif's wonderful book presents some theories (albeit some needed to be taken tongue-in-cheek) as to what may have actually caused the death of the president. They range from tapeworms to a crow; deadly gas, snake venom given to the main character by a laundry worker named Starchy, a blind woman in prison for being sexually assaulted or even a case of mangoes put on the plane for all to enjoy. Here's the thing: after I finished this novel, I looked up Zia ul-Haq on various sources on the internet and found the following in an article in the Times online (http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wor...), which noted that

"Phosphorus-covered mango seeds amid the wreckage sparked the theory that the CIA had spiked the fruit with VX gas to eliminate Zia because of his unstable commitment to a more democratic government and his loyalty to Afghan extremists."

And now, it seems, according to this article of August, 2008, that lots of interest has been sparked in exactly what did cause the president's death.

Hanif, a former air force officer for Pakistan, has got a winner of a book here. Some of it is actually funny, and you may find yourself laughing out loud in some parts. At the very beginning of the book we find out that the president dies in an airplane crash; the rest of the book looks back at part of his tenure in office and the people surrounding him, as well as people who see him as an enemy who not only needs ousting, but needs to be dead. Set during the time of the Soviet-Afghan conflict, there's even a visit from a shady character who goes by the initials of OBL, the head of Laden Construction Company during the course of a somewhat garish barbeque party given by the Americans for a fourth of July.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes is a wonderful book and it will definitely keep you reading. The characters are true to life (even the shadier ones), the prose is amazing and the story itself is fantastic. The fact that it has a basis in fact adds another element to the reader's enjoyment.

Definitely recommended, and recommended highly.

The Dreaming God, by Ken Asamatsu (Vol IV: Lairs of the Hidden Gods)

2008-09-02T11:35:00.003-04:00

Pulp-o-rama! This book is the last entry of the 4-volume set of the mythos gone Japanese. The entire set is called Lairs of the Hidden Gods, all edited by Ken Asamatsu and also by Robert M. Price, a well-known name in Cthulhu-land. All four were incredible and well worth the price of ownership as well as the reading time.

I can't really say what there is about this stuff that makes me love it so much -- it's pulpy, shlocky at times, sometimes a bit overmelodramatic, but god help me, I can't get enough of it. It's so creepy sometimes that I start thinking about the incredible imagination of HP Lovecraft and how if even one iota of this stuff was real, the world as we know it would be in deep doo-doo. Then I laugh at myself.

Anyway, here's Volume Four, The Dreaming God:

Sadly, this is the 4th book of the four-volume series entitled "Lairs of the Hidden Gods," meaning that I've come to the end. But it was a great ride. If you are interested in gaining another perspective on Lovecraft's work and legacy, then you must indeed make these four volumes part of your reading experience. I can definitely recommend all four very highly.

As to volume four, overall a very fine collection...some were a bit weird even for my taste (which can be way out there)...a bit more graphic than in the other three at times. However, it's a mixed bag, and all are well written and will get your blood racing.

Contents of Volume Four (The Dreaming God) are:

"Quest of the Nameless City," by Tachihara Toya: done in three parts -- you may want to be familiar with "Journey to the West" prior to reading this (at least go read something about that work) because the characters in this story come right out of that work. But here we find our characters in a redo of "Trail of Cthulhu" by August Derleth, with a twist. Very well written and one of the highlights of this volume.

"A Night in Exham Lodge," by Kurasaka Kiichiro: set in the indomitable English countryside, an American politician goes to spend time with an actress in her home, and gets a lesson on the true meaning of life. I left this story with a big "uh-oh" resounding in my head -- a kind of "be warned" alarm going off. I know it's just fiction, but sheesh...scary stuff.

"...Which Art in Heaven", by Azuchi Moe: This one was a wee bit bizarre, and hackle raising. A young woman who spent her childhood in an orphanage often wonders about a strange scar. The nuns in the orphanage aren't talking. Later, when the truth emerges, it's enough to make you gasp.

"Inside Out," by Tomonari Jun'ichi: A Japanese writer named Daisuke spends his days trying to be creative, only to be disrupted by "one of his closest friends" named Chau-chan. Whenever she's around, his writing time is disrupted. But he can't get rid of her. "Inside Out" is the story of how she came to live in his apartment, going back to the time he took a trip to Fiji. I won't say more, but you may want to go easy on your cups of kava.

"Quagmire," by Iino Fumikiko: A man who ultimately ends up going mad, set off by a newspaper item that tells of a man's death, leaves behind a record of how he got on the road to madness. It seems it all started when he went to visit his aunt in a hotel, then meets a beautiful woman. Very well written, and it was enough to send a shiver or two up my spine.

"Rshanabi Street," by Fushimi Kenji: A young man works for a company where a fellow worker has just been fired after thirty years of service. He wants to track him down, and remembers that his friend spoke a lot about Rshanabi Street, so he goes to find him. But it's one of those places that is off the map, so to speak, and it took some doing to find it. Once there, it is equally difficult for the narrator to find his way out. This one was very good -- another back of the neck hair raiser.

"City of the Dreaming God," by Yufuko Senowo: a man lives with his wife and daughter in a strange village by the ocean. His father-in-law is dying, but he still manages to open his home to a young writer who is doing research in the area. As he and his houseguest begin talking, his houseguest comes to some startling conclusions that lay bare the man's choices in life. Think of Innsmouth as being along the Japanese coast and you'll get the drift. Very very good, a fitting end to a brilliant series of books.

There are also two essays at the end of the book, one dealing with Lovecraft and Modern Occultism, and another is a look at Cthulhu and his friends on the silver screen.

Very highly recommended for any reader of Lovecraft's work, or that of his imitators or his devotees. It is an honor to have the collection in my library.

Consider the Evidence, by Jeffrey Ashford

2008-08-31T10:55:00.001-04:00

from the tbr pile and page 6 of my librarything library:

A very different kind of mystery novel, in which a somewhat hardened criminal leads a group of his compatriots into pulling off an armored car robbery. The cops eventually figure out who the culprit is, but proving it is a different matter. One cop makes a mistake which may set the head thief free, but which may put himself behind bars.

I must say this books was very refreshing in its solution. It's not so much of a mystery, actually, but rather a suspense story, because the author tells you everything along the line and you are left to wonder how the good guy is going to get out of his predicament. The solution was a fine one, one I haven't seen duplicated since. And I read a lot of mystery novels!

I'd definitely recommend it for people who enjoy British crime fiction. Don't write it off because it's older...it's still very good!

*From A to X: A Story in Letters, by John Berger

2008-08-31T10:53:00.001-04:00

I think I started this book twice before deciding to finish it -- I was a bit disoriented at the beginning because I had no idea where the action was taking place and it was a little off-putting. Then after I delved more deeply into the book, I realized that it could really be set in any one of many troubled places in the world where the locals face some type of military oppression, or where, as the cover blurb notes, "a faceless power inexorably encroaches from outside." Once I cleared that hurdle, the beauty of this book came shining through. It's very small, only 197 pages, but there's a lot of depth here.

The premise is that the last occupant of cell #73 in the old prison of Suse (prior to the opening of a new one) left behind some letters, arranged in three bundles. The prisoner, Xavier, was serving two life sentences because he was found guilty of being a "founder member of a terrorist network." The letters came from his lover, A'ida, who herself is still an activist, and are gathered in three separate bundles. Over a period of time (and we don't know what this time period is, because the letters are not in any chronological order), A'ida tries to communicate life and love onto paper and through the bars of Xavier's cell.

I have to admit to trying to figure out if she was passing along info in some kind of cryptographic way through these letters, but even that got a little old and eventually I got so caught up with A'ida and what she was saying to Xavier that I forgot all about the possibility of hidden messages and just let that all go.

This is another one of those books that really gets to you some time after you've read it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys good literature and likes a challenge in their reading. It's not really story-ish or narrative in nature, but it is quite worth the time you put into it. It's also appropriate for the political climate of today's world.

I'm not a professional book reviewer by any means; I'm just a reader. I'm not even an English or Literature major. I don't write flowery prose in describing a book. But I do know what I like and I don't like. And I like this one. The more I think about it, the more it grows on me. I can't really do justice to this book in a review, so I'll direct you to a professional who says what I would say if I were a professional reviewer: http://living.scotsman.com/bookr...

Straight to Darkness, by Ken Asamatsu (ed.)

2008-08-31T10:48:00.003-04:00

from the tbr pile (how does this keep growing????)

Here we are at Volume III of this four-volume series. I've already read half of Volume IV and I must say, I'll be quite sad to see this series end. Once again, it's an anthology, and once again, when you pick up one of these books, you have to kind of take what you get -- the great, the good, the not so hot. Luckily, most of the stories in here are really really good, so it is an enjoyable and often hackle-raising reading experience. Definitely one not to miss, and even better during a storm!

Here's the contents list, with a brief blurb about each story (don't worry, definitely no spoilers):

1. The Secret Memoir of the Missionary, by Tanaka Hirofumi -- an awesome story about the first missionaries to Japan, with a twist that will definitely give you the willies.

2. Keepsake of the Grandfather, by Kida Jun'ichiro -- A man's fiancee inherits a souvenir of her grandfather's time in the south seas, and things begin to go bump in the night. Very well done and definitely a creepfest.

3. Horror Special, by Sano Shiro -- Always trying to up the ratings, an actor insists on a tv show based on the work of HP Lovecraft and gets more than he bargained for. Another one that was well written and that sucks you deep into the mythos.

4.The Road, by Aramata Hiroshi -- One of my favorite stories in this book. A Japanese businessman is traveling in the US with his companions, and decides to step out of the train at Providence to soak up some of the HP Lovecraft atmosphere for the very few minutes the train is stopping there en route to Boston. But he misses the train, and spends a wild night on a tour of HPL's old haunts. Very well done, and definitely a no-miss.

5. She Flows, by Takeuchi Yoshikazu -- Not one of my favorites, but still well written. Actually, there seemed to be very little to do with the mythos in this story of a girl whose parents were beastly to her as a child, and the horrors that followed her ever since.

6. C-City, by Kobayashi Yasumi -- A winner of a story; set in the future, the world knows that it must protect itself against the awakening of Cthulhu, and leaves its fate in the hands of two competing camps of scientists. A fantastic story, one you won't forget for a while. One of my favorites.

7. Straight to Darkness, by Tomono Sho --the world alters in a minute as two people are stranded on the subway. Emerging from their underground prison, they find that life as they knew it no longer exists. Not one of my favorites, but very well written.

there's also a section of "Cthulhu metal" at the end, featuring lists of musical artists whose music was inspired by Lovecraftian themes (sorry, no Erich Zann).

Definitely a must-have if you're a collector; recommended for anyone who wants more of the mythos, or for those who enjoy Japanese horror writing. Overall, very good.

*Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh

2008-08-25T10:29:00.002-04:00

From what I've read so far from this year's Booker Prize longlist, the judges are going to have their work cut out for them. What a tough choice these people are going to have to make!

Very broad in scope, Sea of Poppies is nonetheless an enchanting read, one that had me stopping normal routine so as to get back to it every time I had to put it down. Before you read this, however, you should know that it is designed as the first entry of what will eventually be a trilogy based on the ship Ibis and a group of people who, for whatever reason, found themselves aboard her. I say this because without understanding this point, you may feel a bit cheated by the ending of the novel.

This was the first book I've read by Amitav Ghosh, and while he's writing his second book in the trilogy, I'm going to backtrack and read some of his other work. In Sea of Poppies, the story is divided into three sections: Land, River, Sea, moving the story along from the introduction to all of these very colorful characters to their assembly and journey on the Ibis (which used to carry slaves and now transports workers and convicts to Mauritius). The characters range from a young widow whose fate would have been to join her husband in death in sati, or throwing herself into his funeral pyre, which would elevate the status of her husband's family, to a group of lascars who will crew the Ibis, headed by a chief who seems to have his own agenda as regards the second mate, one Zachary Reid, a freedman from Baltimore. There are also a group of people being transported to work in Mauritius, many of whom were caught up in the cycle of being forced to grow poppies for the British opium trade with China. There is also a raja who has been brought down via a cocked-up set of false charges, and a half-Chinese opium addict who is the raja's cell mate in the brig. Others rounding out the list are the daughter of a French botanist who came late to colonial propriety, and one Baboo Nob Kissin, who feels that he has another's soul inside of him. Each one of these people has his or her own story, and these are woven into the fabric of the novel as the tale progresses. Underlying most of their stories is the hard and fast fact of British colonialism in India -- and all of its accompanying hypocrisy and self-imposed superiority.

Sea of Poppies is a wonderful tale on a grand scale and I can recommend it very highly. Don't get frustrated with the ending, though; look at it as the start of an epic adventure.

*A Fraction of the Whole, by Steve Toltz

2008-08-19T09:49:00.002-04:00

Oh dear God. Sometimes a book comes along that you don't want to see end, and this is one of them. Especially today. I'm sitting smack in the middle of tropical storm Fay's backlash, hoping that the coconuts on my palm trees don't fly off and become ballistic missiles that may smash into my any of my neighbors' homes. It's dark and stormy and the wind is making this incredible noise -- in short... a perfect reading day. I finished this book at breakfast this morning and was actually bummed when I read the last words, wishing that it could go on just like this storm.

Don't take offense if you read this and find yourself here, but a lot of people have complained about the length of this book and to them I say, well, you either bought it or got it at the library, so why didn't you leave it on the shelf after you noticed it had more than 500 pages? And truthfully, you don't know what you missed. It is truly a book you're not going to forget because it is that good.

my humble review in brief:
I am simply blown away by the fact that this is Steve Toltz's first novel. This is one book where size doesn't matter: the 500 + pages literally flew in no time. I just started this the day before yesterday, and if silly things like sleep and family (not to mention preparing for a tropical storm) didn't get in the way, I'm sure I would have finished it yesterday.

I cannot, absolutely cannot do this book justice so I won't go into plot details, etc, but suffice it to say that this is undeniably one of the best books I have read this year. It is a nonstop ride that makes forays (in a most politically incorrect way (yay!) ) into pretty much all areas of life in one of the most creative sessions of writing I've ever experienced. It begins as a tale of good intentions gone very very badly, and then you're hooked because you absolutely must stay with it to find out how it's all going to end.

I predict only great things for this author. He looks at life from a fresh perspective and his writing is simply exquisite. I loved this book, and can very highly recommend it. I know I'm going to want to reread it at some point -- it's that good.

As an aside, the Booker judges are going to have their work cut out for them this year...kudos to them for putting it on the longlist.

Inverted Kingdom, by Asamatsu Ken (ed)

2008-08-17T09:26:00.003-04:00

from the tbr pile:

This stuff is totally pulpy and silly but I can't help myself.

Definitely a freaky collection of mythos-type stories from Japanese "disciples" of HP Lovecraft. Very well written and a must if you're a collector such as myself. My rule of thumb is generally that when you pick up an anthology, you have to take the good with the bad, but there weren't any bad stories in this group.

Here's the contents list:

1. Ashibe Taku - The Horror in the Kabuki Theater: a novella-length story set in historical Japan in which writers of Kabuki horror have a lot more power than they realize and must use that power for good when the visitors from the angles of time and space begin to appear. Maybe a bit long, but still good.

2. Matsudono Rio - Taste of Snake's Honey: another somewhat lengthy offering, featuring a young man with some bizarre tastes in life and how his penchant for things strange came to be. This one will definitely hold your interest, keeping you turning pages until the very last word.

3. Matsuo Mirai - Inverted Kingdom: This one was a bit confusing, but still terrifying, in which a young woman fears she is losing her sanity when different events trigger her memories.

4. Konaka Chiaki - Terror Rate: IMHO, the scariest story in this book. A young woman, needing an extra job answers an ad -- and finds out exactly what the meaning of terror can be. Very creepy; this one raised the hackles on my neck.

5. Takana Fumio - Secrets of the Abyss - In which a man will do anything to save his dying wife, and pays the price.

6. Nanjo Takenori - A Night at Yuan-su - Stepping out of his home, a man meets up with modernity, while the modern world meets up with him. Very well written.

7. Hirayama Yumeaki - Summoned by the Shadows - Another quality story complete with creepy atmosphere and page-turning terror. Extremely well written; I hope to find more in translation by this author. Another one of my favorite stories in this volume.

There's also a section on Mythos gaming at the end of the story collection.

Overall...a fine read, recommended for anyone even remotely interested in mythos-based fiction.

*The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry

2008-08-12T09:40:00.003-04:00

Well, just duh. Here I am talking about this book and realized I forgot to put it in my book journal. I'm not surprised...my brain is a bit of a mish-mash these days. Here goes:

Sebastian Barry has done it again. I love his work and this one is no exception. I couldn't even talk after I finished this book (which is rare...I always have something to say, just ask my husband!), and I was a wee bit choked up. So...you may want to have a tissue at the ready. I read this in just about 3 hours and couldn't stop reading it except to fetch cookies I was baking out of the oven every 12 minutes. A beautiful book and one that really made me a bit angry when I think about it...the treatment of this young woman by a Catholic priest was just sad.

Basic plot: Roseanne Clear McNulty is probably a hundred years old, and lives in a mental institution which is about to be torn down. She is being assessed by the head of the place, a Dr. Grene, who has to decide if she's able to make it on her own on the outside. She in turn, has been writing a record of her life and keeps the thing hidden in her room under the floorboard. In this diary she tells of not only her life, but indirectly of the politics and troubles of Ireland. She loses her father at a young age, has a troubled mother, and has to take on life completely unprepared. Her life is ultimately ruined (I won't say how) by an Irish priest named Father Gaunt -- who obviously hates & mistrusts women and takes it upon himself to turn her life completely upside down at a time when she was happy. At that time, the priests of the church wielded a lot of power, so much so that they held the lives of people in their hands. But ... no matter how badly things were for Roseanne, and although her memory may fail her at times, she tries so hard above all else to be fair in her memories ...even to those who were less than kind to her. But Roseanne's story is one of two in this book -- Dr. Grene has his own demons with which he must grapple.

An amazing story; it's easy to see why Sebastian Barry's work keeps getting nominated for literary awards. He's an incredible writer, and his glimpses into Ireland's upheavals and the human costs of the troubled times are staples in his books. I can most highly recommend this book to anyone familiar with Barry's writing, or to anyone interested in Irish fiction, or to those who want to put a human face on Ireland's suffering, or to anyone interested in the (as the book cover blurb puts it) "stranglehold" of the Catholic Church on the Irish people. Although maybe a tad melodramatic toward the end (hence the hanky) I loved this book and I won't soon forget it.

*Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill

2008-08-12T09:22:00.002-04:00

Well, I've read three books on the Booker longlist so far (The Secret Scripture, the Lost Dog and now this one), and I can honestly say that it seems that the judges have done a fine job in their choices. I love when the longlist comes out, because I know I'm going to have one or two months of fine reading. Once Larry and I were going on a cruise out of Tampa and we ate at this restaurant called Mangroves, and I ordered this appetizer of shrimp infused with Grand Marnier. It was so good that I remember closing my eyes and savoring every second that the taste lasted. The feeling I've had after finishing these three books is along that same line.

Netherland was truly one of the finest books I've read this year. O'Neill's writing is incredible, offering the reader a look at how one man tries to find his way and carve out a new life for himself after he is basically left alone in exile in New York City just after the events of 9/11. Without going into plot details (others have done it so well in many places), the book is simply beautiful. It's sad but at the same time funny, depicting at times what a nightmare it must be to be an immigrant (the scenes at the DMV had me laughing out loud) in this country, and the disconnection people often endure until they can find their own place or discover how to find meaning or recreate themselves by whatever means possible.

I would highly recommend this book; it's definitely something you won't forget after you've read it. I read this about a week ago and still find myself thinking about it off and on. I don't think you need to live in New York City to appreciate it, either -- we're all kind of adrift in some aspect.

* The Lost Dog, by Michelle de Kretser

2008-08-11T11:20:00.002-04:00

I noticed once again on Amazon (why I keep going there to look at reviews I'm not sure ... I rarely match what everyone else is thinking) that a lot of people were less than thrilled with this book. The thing about this book (and many others) is that it's really one of those that you have to think about for a while after you've read it to really appreciate it. I think that there are lots of people who read a book but afterward, it's out of sight, out of mind. That's a pity, especially in this case.

Without going into plot, etc, The Lost Dog appealed to me on many levels, especially de Kretser's exploration of aging and modernity. On page 116, Nelly notes ..."doesn't setting out to reject the past guarantee you'll never be free of it? It's like being modern means walking with a built-in limp." I found this statement to be very perceptive. The author's use of imagery, especially that of the neon "Skipping Girl Pure Malt Vinegar" sitting there, alone, blacked out, unappreciated really hit me, and summed up something I've been feeling for a long time. The author states (on page 226)re the vinegar girl: "In acquiring mythic status she had become more and less than the product she embodied: a servant of the market who exceeded the commodity that bore her name. Once an emblem of modernity, she had fallen out of fashion and into a life of her own." For some reason, the truth built around this image resonated with me. Modernity is truly an ambivalent state (and state of mind as well) , and it seemed to me that this is one of the points de Kretser was trying to make. I also found her understanding of Iris's aging and the effects it had on Iris and Tom very engaging and thought provoking.

There is a lot more to this book that I won't go into here, certainly, and it is very much worth reading and pondering. The writing is incredibly good and this was definitely a character-driven novel which holds the reader through the end. I couldn't put it down once started, and I'd definitely recommend it.

it's my birthday!

2008-08-05T08:23:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's that time of year again when I get to be the queena-queena for the day. This year my big gift was a first-edition Arkham House copy of Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long. To most people, getting a book on your birthday isn't such a big deal, but I've had my eye on this one for a couple of years now -- it's very rare, and it's a big deal to me. I couldn't believe it. Along with that came a stuffed Hound of Tindalos from the Toy Vault...I love that company and have several types of stuffed Cthulhus from there in my office upstairs where I keep all of the Cthulhu-type books. And along with that...an ipod...once again you're thinking, bfd, everyone has an ipod. Well, Larry is a sworn enemy to all Apple products, so this was a huge deal. The one he got is the best of them all...it does everything but mop the floor. Along with all of this ... a book-buying trip this afternoon, grilled shrimp scampi tonight and who knows what else. And I woke up to balloons on my front door this morning from my friends.

I like my birthdays, even though they keep increasing my age.

August: The Booker Prize Longlist

2008-08-03T08:12:00.003-04:00

Every year for I don't know how long now I've chosen August and September to read as many of the books as possible on the longlist for the Booker Prize. I mean, I will send to the UK and pay through the nose if I have to just to read these books. I've already got 6 stacked up, ready to read. This is sort of my self-imposed task for the next two months so that I can yay or nay the judges' choice for a) the shortlist and b) the final prize. I haven't matched yet -- last year I was pissed because The Gift of Rain didn't make it even on to the shortlist and The Gathering won. I didn't see that one coming...and what about Mister Pip? Jeez! At that time I decided I'd never read the longlist again but well, here I am again, I guess. So for August, I'll be posting my thoughts about these books here.

Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston

2008-07-29T14:47:00.003-04:00

from the tbr pile (well, actually, this one was an audio cd):

Soooooooooo many people at Amazon really hated this book that I was a bit concerned before I started listening to it. But you know, what most of them disliked was the idea that Preston puts across that fundamentalist Christians are so sure of themselves that when they're told to do something, and that their very souls depend on their actions (in this case, no matter what), that they rise up and follow the herd. Now, I can see their side a little bit, because there are a couple of scenes where I was reminded of a scene in the original Frankenstein movie where the townspeople came to burn the castle Frankenstein with their torches blazing, etc. etc. But in that case (the movie), it seems to me that the townspeople had seen with their own eyes what damage the monster had caused (you know, like death), whereas in Preston's novel, the fundamentalists were doing their thing based on the word of an overzealous pastor who sent out an email. Sheep behavior -- it's a truth of life.

anyway...on with the book

Remember -- it's just a book and it's fiction!

I picked up this book because I liked the character of Wyman Ford (former CIA operative and former monk) from Tyrannosaur Canyon, although I certainly wasn't prepared for what came next. Ford is called upon to look into what's going on with the Isabella Project, a particle accelerator worth $40 billion from the government and hidden underground in the Arizona desert at Red Mesa. There have been delays and problems with the Navajos. The ostensible point of Isabella is to prove the Big Bang theory. But when Ford arrives, he realizes that something's being kept hidden among the scientists -- it seems that someone's hacked into the computer and causing it to seemingly speak to the scientists on its own. But those are not the worst of the problems facing the scientists -- it seems that an overzealous fundamentalist evangelical preacher whose ratings are dipping on TV needs something to perk up his broadcasts, and decides to take on the Isabella project. After all, as he notes, the government gave the project $40 billion to prove the truth of the Big Bang Theory, but you'd never see the government giving Christians $40 billion to prove the truth of God. Thus begins a story that will hold you until the end.

I do have to say the biggest criticism of this book (at least on Amazon) was Preston's handling of the whole fundamentalist-Christian-rabble-rousing, following-the-herd-blindly thing, and to people who say that he's got it all wrong, just turn on your television set or read the newspaper, or look at society today. While Preston's portrayal may be a bit over the top, there's no denying that with access to the internet or television, information, even false information, may be disseminated to those who receive it as gospel. All I have to do is to look through my email and find stuff my friends send me that I know isn't true, and yet they believe it wholeheartedly.

I had a good time listening to Blasphemy, and while it may be a bit larger than life, it kept me entertained for hours.

*Counsel for the Defense, by Jeffrey Ashford

2008-07-22T11:28:00.001-04:00

The Counsel for the Defense in question is one David Adams, an attorney not doing so well in his field. He is called upon to defend three men who are unquestionably the criminals in a robbery of 15,000 pounds; he knows it and one of the defendants admits it freely. Under the law, he cannot take their case once he has heard it from the defendant that he is, in fact, guilty, but there's a snag. His wife receives a telephone call from someone who says that they have Adams' daughter, and unless he not only takes the case, and gets all three acquitted, she will be horribly violated. So Adams has no choice, and only has an uphill battle ahead of him in a case which should be a slam-dunk.

The book was just okay; it is the first novel written by Ashford so perhaps he hadn't quite hit his stride here. I would recommend it if you've read other books by this author, or if you're really into British crime fiction and are looking for a new author.

*The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality

2008-07-22T10:06:00.003-04:00

And now, for something completely different....

In Rabelais' work Gargantua (which sadly, I have not yet read, but just ordered after reading this) , there is a section in which the author imagines a Utopian "abbey" named Theleme; the only rule of living there is "Do what you will." Ashe looks at this rule, and asks the question of what happened when people have tried living by this motto, both in reality and in fiction. Furthermore, he examines the question of libertinism being the same as liberty -- and the result is a look through a slice of history. I will tell you at the outset that this is not a book for the average reader, and it's not a titillating tell-all about the much misconstrued and notorious Hellfire Clubs.

Ashe takes the theme of Theleme through the book, looking into various individuals & organizations who have practiced the "do what you will" theme. Taking a road that leads from Rabelais, he examines John Dee and his assistant Edward Kelley, then moves to different erotic literature characters (and authors) of the 18th century, then the various Hell-fire Clubs, spending quite a bit of time with the one organized by Sir Francis Dashwood. His examination takes him into the world of politics, since most the highest-ranking members of this group were also members of government. Then it's on to Gothic literature, the Marquis de Sade, Lord Byron, Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan) and a wee bit about the "family" of Charles Manson.

Very well done, but it is important to realize that this is a book of history and as such, not something that a reader wants to choose lightly. It takes a while to get through it, but it is well worth it. I'd recommend it to anyone seriously interested in the topic, and anyone who is looking for a resource on the subject.

books bought yesterday

2008-07-20T10:20:00.002-04:00

From Bookwise, in Boca:

Togawa, Masako - The Master Key
Ambler, Eric -- A Coffin for Dimitrios
Lovesey, Peter -- The Last Detective
Natsuki, Shizuko -- The Obituary Arrives at 2:00
Bannister, Jo -- Changelings
Upfield, Arthur -- A Man of Two Tribes
Kerr, Philip -- German Requiem
Kerr, Philip -- The Pale Criminal
Thomas, Graham -- Malice in Cornwall
Hurley, Graham -- Turnstone
Maitland Barry -- The Marx Sisters
Taylor, Allison -- Simeon's Bride

The Black Hand, by Will Thomas

2008-07-18T11:10:00.001-04:00

from the TBR pile:

Thomas' new novel, "The Black Hand” is number 5 in the Cyrus Barker/Thomas Llewelyn series. In this installment, the two enquiry agents are hired by the government to try to thwart the establishment of a group of Sicilians known collectively as the Mafia from infiltrating the British underworld. There are also fears that these troublemakers will begin a reign of extortion, murder and other nefarious deeds. Several people have been found dead and the manner of their deaths is known to be those used by the Sicilians. Somehow these people have to be stopped, and soon, especially since the criminals hit very close to home for our heroes. The author also gives his readers a very brief history of the Mafia (up to that time, of course), which was very interesting.

I've really enjoyed all of the Barker/Llewelyn series, and while I enjoyed this one, it wasn't my favorite of the five. I figured out the plot twist pretty early on, which kind of disappointed me, and it just seemed a bit flat storywise, not as exciting as some of the previous novels in the series. . Overall it was still a pretty good read; the reader learns more about the enigmatic character of Cyrus Barker, which is a plus.

I'd recommend it, but I strongly urge readers who may be considering the series to start with the first one, Some Danger Involved, and to read through the books in order. Now, I wonder how long I'll have to wait for the next one?

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, by Kate Summerscale

2008-07-18T10:52:00.003-04:00

from the TBR pile:

I did not realize when I put this on my book wish list that this was a work of nonfiction. The Mr Whicher of the title is one Detective Jonathan Whicher, who in 1860, was asked by local Wiltshire police to investigate the very heinous murder of a little boy, aged 4. It seems that when his nursemaid woke up in the morning little Francis Savile Kent was not in his bed; mistakenly thinking he was collected during the night by his mother, she inquired about him once the household was awake. The mother was surprised to learn he was not in the bed, and a search was made. They found the little boy dumped in the privy, throat cut. Whicher appeared somewhat late on the scene, and by then, the accusations were rampant. and directed at different people in the household. Whicher, as a detective, had to intrude upon this upper middle-class Victorian household as part of his investigation, because in his opinion, the murder was done by someone who lived at the house, namely young Savile's stepsister, Constance Emily Kent. In those days, detection was not a lofty profession, and to even consider trying to get at the secrets of a household was to invite public scorn, and due to his inability to produce promised evidence, Whicher found himself the object of public ridicule. Now if the story had stopped there, it still would have been quite good, but it does not. Summerscale has done a tremendous amount of research into not only this case, but its aftermath in terms of Victorian society, detective fiction, policing at the time, and the sensitivities of the Victorian psyche in matters public. Take a note: this (imho) is how cultural history should be written.

Summerscale has done her homework -- after finishing the book, I went through the notes and discovered that she had used a wealth of primary and secondary sources to put together this work. I can appreciate all of the research that went into the book, having done a post-graduate degree in history myself. Yet it is not just a history or a social commentary; the book flows very well, making it very readable and accessible. Personally, I love this period of time, and I have this thing about true crime of the Victorian era, especially when it comes to stories about murderesses.

I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who is interested in the Victorian period, in the beginnings of the detective in real life and in fiction, in true crime through time, or to anyone who just wants to read an incredibly interesting and absorbing story. I took a lot of titles down from her sources for further reading.

Absolutely splendid -- and as it turns out, it wasn't just another detective story, but a story about a detective and the crime that did him in. Highly recommended.

Tethered, by Amy Mackinnon

2008-07-18T10:49:00.002-04:00

(thanks to Bookbrowse first impressions program)...from the TBR pile:

Clara Marsh, the central character of this novel, works as a mortician, in the company of the dead for most of her time. She's also the one who goes out to crime scenes when the Medical Examiner calls. While on a call to pick up a dead body at a crime scene, it turns out that evidence is found that links a strange little girl, Trecie, who's been hanging out at the funeral home lately, with a little girl who had earlier died unclaimed, without a name. Clara, who had handled the "precious Doe" case, realizes the suffering that Trecie has undergone and feels a common bond with her because of her suffering. But when Trecie goes missing, Clara has to deal with her own past before she can move on and really begin to help the detectives. And therein lies the title: the author is trying to show that we are all tethered to our pasts, whether we like it or not.

While Mackinnon's book is definitely a mystery story, the real story here is Clara. She's so pointedly flawed as a human being, making her that much more human, so that the reader takes to her right away. Mackinnon does such a beautiful job of making Clara real that the reader can identify with her at every juncture. The other characters are also very well drawn and the prose style reflects the gloominess of the book's tone. The suspense keeps the reader turning pages. I have only one problem with this book -- the ending was a bit melodramatic for my taste but that's just me.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries, and to people who just want to read something different. Overall -- good.

In the Woods, by Tana French

2008-07-18T10:44:00.003-04:00

from the TBR pile:

Without going into the plot, Ms. French's book was really quite good, considering this is her debut novel. I don't often say that about many people's first work; most of the time I feel like the writer's second novel will be more fully fleshed out and more satisfying to me as a reader. I picked this book up this morning and did not move until I had finished it. I just could not put it down, it was that good. I liked the characters, the twists and turns that the story took, the police procedural aspect of it, and I especially liked the fact (unlike some authors) that Ms. French stuck to the point and didn't wander off with more subplots or add more murders in her story -- I get so annoyed when that happens. So imagine my surprise when I went to another website to look at reviews by other readers when I'd finished and found that they all felt cheated by the author at the end! At first I thought I must have looked up the wrong book, because I was perfectly okay with how this book ended. I mean (and I've said this before in many other reviews), there are some things in life that simply have no resolution -- and in real life, we don't have the luxury of a deus ex machina to help us through our trials and tribulations, and in real life police work, the answers or breaks needed to solve a case just simply do not exist.

Personally, I really enjoyed this novel and I'm a tough mystery novel reader. If I don't like it, the author doesn't make his or her reappearance on any of my shelves. I won't be saying that about Tana French. Her next novel (and probably any other one she writes based on these characters) is guaranteed a spot.

This book would appeal to people who enjoy reading crime fiction set in Ireland, as well as to those people who like a very good mystery story. However, if you're going to get irate that the author does not package things in neat little bows to your satisfaction (thereby imitating real life) you may want to move on to something where everything's spelled out. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it.

*Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul, by Karen Abbott

2008-07-18T10:39:00.002-04:00

Once again I seem to be swimming against the tide of opinion on this book. Plainly and simply speaking, I didn't think it was all that great. The subject matter was interesting, and it's fun to be a voyeur sometimes, looking into people's shady lives, but I just didn't think it was that well written -- kind of dry in the execution. I love history (it was my undergrad, grad and postgrad field) and I love history when it's written so that the general reader can read, relate to and understand it, but for some reason, her writing style just left me flat. Also -- my bone of contention is that she didn't have credible sources for the real story of Everleigh sisters, but went on to tell the tale anyway. Granted, she warns her reader of this fact, but still.

Long and short of it -- I liked the subject matter, though it could have been fleshed out quite a bit more. The writing (imho) was just flat. I've seen comparisons by readers of this author to the work of Erik Larson and (again imho) it doesn't begin to come close. I had to make myself finish this book and that's never good.

*Sherlock Holmes and the Eminent Thespian, by Val Andrews

2008-07-18T10:34:00.003-04:00

It's 1901 and London is in mourning. Queen Victoria has just died, and the new king, Edward VII, is ready to ascend to the throne. However, as Holmes and Watson find out, the coronation may have to be postponed a bit. It seems that someone has stolen the Crown Jewels from the Tower, and Lestrade is desperate for Holmes' help to find them. The theft of the Crown Jewels brings Holmes into contact with the "eminent thespian," one William Gillette, who is currently in town to play Holmes on the screen.

The plot was good, but I was a bit mystified at the solution -- it seemed somewhat contrived and it sort of came out of left field. Somewhat better than many of the works of Val Andrews, this was an okay pastiche and didn't take more than an hour or so to read. If you're considering a pastiche by Andrews, this one at least won't shy you away from others.

sigh. Back from Seattle & behind in my book journal

2008-07-18T10:18:00.005-04:00

As much as I loved being in Seattle the last 2 weeks or so, I'm happy to be back home and back into power-read mode. Nothing's stopping me now; season 4 of Lost doesn't come out on DVD until December (although my son also got me started on "24" so we'll see) so I have lots of time for plowing through my tbr pile once more. And plow I must...it's only a couple of weeks until the Booker longlist is announced and there goes August and September.

back to my reading journal...

July: The A-List

2008-06-30T08:32:00.002-04:00

Figuring that I've got to put some serious dents in my tbr pile, this month I'm starting with the basics and focusing on books whose authors' last names start with the letter A. This month will find me in Seattle for 10 days, with all of those lovely little bookstores from which I can't keep away. When I was there in April, I had to buy a second suitcase to bring home my purchases. Yes, I know that book buying only increases the size of the dent I have to make in my huge tbr pile (and I'm not joking here....every room in my house has books to be read in it), but it's my thing. Some people collect frog ceramics, I buy books. And next month it's my birthday, so I'm hoping for another sizeable Amazon gift certificate!

So that's what's up in July. I'm looking forward to it.

Sherlock Holmes and the Longacre Vampire, by Val Andrews

2008-06-30T08:25:00.002-04:00

from the tbr pile:

A bit better than the last few books by this author that I've read (see my other entries for Val Andrews in my library if you're interested), the story begins with a visit from Sir Henry Irving (http://www.theirvingsociety.org....), a very accomplished actor of the British stage. He is starring in a production of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which had just been recently been published. It seems that a murder has taken place, and the body when found had two puncture marks on the neck and was seemingly drained of all blood, leaving behind a definite pallor. The death (and some more soon to follow) cause a problem for Sir Henry as some people are unable to separate in the minds the distinction between the killer and the role Sir Henry is currently playing. Holmes and Watson have to come to the rescue and find out what's really going on here.

As I noted, this one was a bit better than the last few of these books, so it was actually a pretty nice read. If you are considering any of Andrews' pastiches, this one wouldn't be a bad place to start.

Singers of Strange Songs: A Celebration of Brian Lumley, ed. Scott David Aniolowski

2008-06-29T16:22:00.005-04:00

another from the never-ending tbr pile:

As I am ever so fond of saying, when you read an anthology, you're reading a mixed bag. What one person may think is a great story may not be so true for another. With that in mind, I thought overall, it was okay; not on the whole as good as some of the CofC collections I've read. I love Brian Lumley's work, and so I was quite eager to read this one.

Here's the contents list; a * marks a story I really enjoyed:

1."City out of time," by Brian Lumley: a well-known poem about the whole Cthulhu thing

2. "Cement Surroundings," * by Brian Lumley: very well done story about the coming of some of the worse bad things as told by seismic activity

3. "Bad Soil," * by Don D'Ammassa: dead & rotting soil brings down parts of a town and some of its inhabitants, but the cause is scarier than its effects.

4. " The Temple of Yig," * by Donald R. Burleson: This one reminded me of Bradbury's "Something Wicked this Way Comes," a wee bit. The action takes place at a bizarre carnival -- and the exhibits go way beyond the worst freak show you can imagine. Very nice story.

5. "Not to Force the Rhymes,"* by Benjamin Adams: This one was pretty good -- A nurse at Oakdeene Sanitorium is told not to deal with a certain patient, and finds out in good time why. I liked this one.

6. "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb," by Tina L. Jens: This one I didn't care for much -- it seems that some scientists are studying a bizzare "octopoid," with some pretty serious (and kind of silly) consequences. Not up there as far as I'm concerned.

7. "The Reliable Vacuum Company," by James Robert Smith: A man decides to buy his wife a vacuum for Christmas (this should have been my first clue that something was wrong with this story) -- and ends up having dealings with the thing often called Ithaqua. I could pass on this one as well.

8. "The Nullity of Choice," * by John Tynes: Another one set in the area of Oakdeene -- and featuring the Lord Yib-Tstll.

9. "Where I go, Mi-go," * by Lois H. Gresh: I've read this one before (sorry, I can't recall where) -- featuring the last of a family line who hasn't been told the secrets of her family's past much to her detriment. Very well done.

10. "Subway Accident," by Gregory Nicoll: Very short story about what happens when a man ignores the "danger, do not enter" signs at an excavation. Okay.

11. "The High Rollers,"* by Benjamin Adams and James Robert Smith -- A hotel/casino in Innsmouth is plagued with curses because its owner will not sell to an Innsmouth-based company. Very very well done; one of my favorites in the book.

12. "A Forty Share in Innsmouth," by CJ Henderson -- another one I've read somewhere, and not my favorite by Henderson. What some people won't do for higher ratings, featuring an appearance by Bugg-Shash.

13. "Shudder Wyrm,"* by Stephen Mark Rainey -- Rainey is one of my favorite authors and he's written a very cool story here about the unleashing of horrific beasts. Very good.

14. "Spaghetti," * by Brian Lumley -- Excellent story about the forces unleashed because of the greed of a man's grandson.

Overall, an okay collection; I am pleased to have it in my collection.

Sherlock Holmes and the Tomb of Terror, by Val Andrews

2008-06-29T15:27:00.003-04:00

from the tbr pile:

It's New Year's Eve and Watson in watching the city-wide fireworks festivities out the Baker Street window when he and Holmes get a visit from a strange man named Abdul, who turns out to be the heir to throne in the somewhat mythical kingdom of Marrafaze. It seems that things aren't going too well back in the old homestead and he's come seeking protection from agents of his brother Mustapha, who is scheming to take the throne with the help of his father's counselor, the Wazir. As it turns out, Marrafaze is a place of some interest to both the British and the German governments; Mycroft guilts Holmes into accepting a mission to Marrafaze. So off go Holmes & Watson into a desert adventure.

As far as I'm concerned, this is way off the map in the Holmes & Watson territory and the whole Sarahan trek was just not believable. It's just out of character for Sherlock Holmes so it was a tough read. My advice: if you're reading this group of books (the Breese books collection), you can actually skip this one.

Sherlock Holmes and the Sandringham House Mystery, by Val Andrews

2008-06-26T08:32:00.002-04:00

from the tbr pile:

aargh. If the author would stick to one plot instead of trying to do so much in the short amount of space he has, I'd be grateful. The main plot of this novel was good -- Sherlock Holmes is called upon by a stage magician who had the honor of performing for his majesty King Edward VII at Sandringham House. While there, a theft of a valuable Rembrandt painting occurred, and even though the magician has been cleared of the theft, he worries that his reputation will suffer if word gets out. So he asks Holmes & Watson to help him. The magician has been invited to return to Sandringham House to once again perform, and wants Holmes & Watson to accompany him & investigate the theft. Now that is a good plot, but instead of trying to flesh that out somewhat, we have two other plot lines that muddy what could have been a good story. -sigh-

If you're planning on trying this as your first Holmes pastiche, don't. Try some others, then come back around to this one -- it's not as enjoyable as others I've read.

The Spiritualist, by Megan Chance

2008-06-25T13:01:00.003-04:00

from the tbr pile:

This was my first book purchase after a self-imposed moratorium on book purchases until I'd read 15 books that I already owned. Most people have a TBR pile; I have a tbr house. Books in every room to the point where I don't even know what I have. So off to B&N for my book reward. But, unlike most of the people who wrote the reviews I checked out prior to my book-buying date, I didn't love it. It was quite good, and normally anything even remotely connected to spiritualism, seances and the world of the occult gets my mental juices flowing, but alas...I did not realize that this was also a romance-ish thing. I have to say that this factor was what prevented me from an all out enjoy of the novel -- but I'm hard to please.

Evelyn Atherton is one of the lucky ones -- she comes from a lower-class home and marries a client of her investigator father, one Peter Atherton, a criminal attorney and member of a very wealthy family in 1850s New York. She is very well provided for, and has everything she wants, except for the pleasure of her husband's company -- not even time for a honeymoon. So when the opportunity arises for her to accompany her husband on an evening out, she takes it. As it turns out, he takes her to the home of another society maven where there is a "spirit circle," -- basically a seance. Spiritualism was made popular in the US by the Fox sisters, and seances have become quite a favorite pastime among some of the wealthy. But it is at this seance where the trouble starts -- a gun is fired, and the attendees say it was some kind of misfire, but Peter Atherton thinks otherwise. Evelyn returns home, and her husband tells her he is going back to investigate the matter. Then Peter does not return home for days. That in itself is not unusual, but Evelyn receives a visit from the police who tell them her husband has been murdered. At first they write it off as a robbery gone bad, but eventually, Evelyn becomes the chief suspect. Pushed into a corner by her in-laws, Evelyn finds herself first in jail, but then under the protection of Dorothy Bennett, at whose home the seance originally occurred. She is convinced that the murder had something to do with that seance, and also that the medium, Michel, is involved. It is very important for her to clear herself, because she has no support from anyone and her in-laws are chomping at the bit to take everything away from her. But during her investigation, she gets a lot more than she bargained for.
I won't say any more about the story, but it will definitely keep you turning pages.

I figured out who really did it early on, so it was a matter of just getting through the rest of the book to find out why. Admittedly, I didn't see the end coming (the motive), so it still worked out for my reading pleasure. Plus, I'm not big on romance in a novel, so I could have cared less about that aspect. However, I did enjoy the way the author provided a glimpse at the status of women at the time, in and out of high society, and I thought her writing was very good.

I'd definitely recommend it to people who enjoy a bit of the supernatural (such as myself), and to those who are more into romance than I. The story overall is quite good.

*Smoking Poppy, by Graham Joyce

2008-06-24T09:13:00.003-04:00

I've read a LOT of books about family relationships, but for some reason, this one tends to stick out. A bit mystical in tone at times, a father comes to recognize the fact that he's got one chance to redeem himself with his two adult children, both of whom have done some pretty weird stuff as a result of their alienation from their father. I can easily recommend this one -- it's tough, it's gritty at times, and yet you may find yourself blubbering like a baby by the end.

Smoking Poppy tells the story of Danny Innes, who one day gets a phone call saying that his daughter Charlie has been arrested in Thailand. It seems that she's now imprisoned and may be facing the death penalty. Even though Charlie and Danny have been somewhat estranged for a while now (since Charlie went off to Oxford, it seems), Danny is off to see what he can do. He is accompanied by a friend, Mick, and his son Phil, who has channeled his alienation from his father into religious zealotry. Their arrival at the prison only brings disappointment...it seems that the woman being held there isn't his daughter after all; she's stolen Charlie's passport. Rumors say that Charlie trekked into the opium fields...and that's really where the story takes off.

I won't say more, because it would spoil the read for anyone who may be interested, but Smoking Poppy was very well done. All of the characters were realistically written, the setting was exotic and real enough that you could picture yourself there. I couldn't put it down once I started.

I wouldn't advise this for people who are happy when writers spell everything out neatly and cleanly; this is a book that requires reader participation and lots of thought.

Overall, a fantastic story and one I won't soon forget.

Sherlock Holmes and the Yule-Tide Mystery, by Val Andrews

2008-06-21T18:03:00.001-04:00

from the tbr pile: It's Christmas time, and a man comes to see Holmes at 221 B with a strange story. It seems that a man he has never met before has invited him to his home in Sussex for a party to celebrate the holidays. He wants to know whether or not he should go -- and Holmes tells him to do whatever he'd like to do. The man then invites Holmes and Watson (whose wife is away with relatives for the holidays) to join him, and off they go, meeting several other people who have never met their host before. It's not long until the purpose behind this rather odd gathering is revealed, and Holmes & Watson are off again trying to solve the crime.
While I admit that the premise is quite good (and new to me), it's so obvious what's going on that Billy, the boy who helps Holmes in many of his adventures, could have solved it. Aargh! Not one of Val Andrews' best, by far. I think this one is actually skippable.

*The Yellow Room Conspiracy, by Peter Dickinson

2008-06-21T15:35:00.003-04:00

My formal living room has become what I call the British Reading Room, and it is where I shelve anything written by British authors, from Dickens to Christie to Conan-Doyle. Every time I pick up a new work of British fiction, it goes on one the shelves which line three walls of that room. I have all of the books catalogued but in general, I really have no clue what's actually in there until I go grab something to read. I had totally forgotten, for instance, that I had this book, but since I'm reading books with colorful titles, it caught my eye. Once I started reading it I was hooked and could not stop -- and I tend to amaze myself when I find little gems like this one. This book was written in 1994, which proves my theory that if people stick only to current bestsellers, they're missing a LOT of good books.

"The Yellow Room Conspiracy" begins in 1992, after a radio program has a quiz show that features what was known as "The Seddon Affair" in 1956. Paul Ackerley hears the show while working in his garden and promptly breaks the radio. Lucy (Vereker) Seddon, his companion is suffering from a terminal disease, and asks Paul to marry her. She also asks him to tell her how he managed to kill Gerry Grantworth years ago, considering that the door to the room he was in was locked, at which point he tells her that he'd always thought she had done it. He decides that independently they should write down their individual stories leading up to that fateful night, and thus begins a tale which spans two world wars, brings the reader into politics, and into the lives of a group of sisters of the English country-home set. The story presented is done from two viewpoints, Lucy's and Paul's, told via flashbacks, and isn't a very pretty one.

This book was phenomenal. This is my first book by this author, but it most definitely will not be my last. It is well written, the characters are incredibly alive, and the story will hold you in its grip until the very end. This author definitely has a talent for story telling.

I'd definitely recommend it to people who want something way above average in their reading, or to people who enjoy books that span a lifetime. Readers of British crime fiction should absolutely not miss this one. At times the story may seem a bit convoluted, but eventually all is explained and clarified, keeping the reader turning pages. I started this book at 8 pm last night and finished it around midnight because I absolutely could not put it down -- and that, for me, is a sign of a fantastic book. Highly recommended.

*The Death of Cousin Rose, by Jonathan Harrington

2008-06-20T18:34:00.002-04:00

Danny O'Flaherty has decided that it's time to go seek out his roots, so off he flies to Ireland to the small village of Ballycara. Prior to leaving the US, he had received a letter from his cousin Rose, who intimated that she had something interesting to tell him about his grandfather. After a brief stint in the local pub, he goes out to see Rose, only to find her dead. He is not alone at the murder site, though, and the local garda (portrayed here as a bumbler) pounces on Danny as the prime suspect. He isn't put under arrest, which affords him the opportunity to find out who really killed Rose.
The Death of Cousin Rose is the first in a series of books featuring Danny O'Flaherty. The story is good, the writing's okay but not great. It's an easy read, with a solution that I didn't see coming. I think there's probably more room for this character to grow and develop -- I hope so, since I have the other books sitting in my British reading room downstairs.
I'd recommend it to people who are more into cozy mysteries rather than those who like more hard-boiled fare. It's light and shouldn't take too long to complete. Overall...not too bad.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Seven, by Val Andrews

2008-06-20T13:57:00.002-04:00

from the tbr pile. I bought a bunch of these about 6 years ago and still haven't read most of them, which shows how many books there are on my tbr pile. But I'm slowly plowing through them, even self imposing a book-buying ban until I get through 15. This is #12 of the 15 (thank God...I'm having an attack of bookstore withdrawal). Anyway, I like pastiches (well, okay, not all of them) & read them only for entertainment rather than in order to belittle them. Obviously, nothing can take the place of the originals.

The story in a nutshell, without spoilers: The Secret Seven is the name of a group of non-religious monastics who live together in an old priory as a means of having some peace and quiet and getting away from the troubles of the world. It seems, however, that all is not blissful -- the founder of the group comes to 221 B with a puzzle: two of the seven died mysteriously after receiving strange letters. The leader fears for a third man's safety, as he has just received his letter. Before the seven completely disappear, the leader (Culthorpe) asks for Holmes and Watson's help -- and they oblige by becoming members of the group, seemingly replacing the two who have already died. Once tehy arrive, some very strange events happen that require Holmes & Watson to solve the case quickly...before someone else is murdered.
Not too bad...I wouldn't compare it to the originals by Conan Doyle, but it's a pretty good read on its own. It won't take long (it comes in at just over 120 pages) to read, and is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Fans of SH pastiches will enjoy this one; if you're thinking about trying a pastiche, this wouldn't be a bad one with which to do so.

*Death in a Mood Indigo, by Francine Mathews

2008-06-17T08:47:00.003-04:00

Francine Mathews also writes as Stephanie Barron, the author of the Jane Austen mystery series. I've never read one of those books, but they seem to be well liked. Well, I wish I could have liked Death in a Mood Indigo as much as others liked it, but I didn't. I have a stash of these really easy mystery novels on my tbr shelves, and maybe it's time to let them go. I've discovered I like my mysteries a wee bit more challenging.

Normally I don't start reading a series with book #3, but in an effort to get through my mountain of TBR books, this is what I had.

The novel begins on a Nantucket beach when Nan and Cecil Markham, ages 8 and 11 respectively, are off playing. Along comes their dog, Sachmo, with something in his mouth, which turns out to be a bone. The kids find this very cool until they dig up a skull, and realize that the bones the dog has are human. The local police are alerted, and the case is assigned to detective Meredith Folger. Checking against missing persons records, she finds out that the bones belong to a Dr. Elizabeth Osborne, who disappeared without a trace some eight years back. While she's investigating how Dr. Osborne's bones ended up on the beach, a local woman is killed and changes the complexion of the entire case.

The mystery was intriguing and the characters were okay. However, one little clue given by the author tipped me to the murderer and I have to say I was quite disappointed to be found right. When I read a mystery, I want to be pleasantly surprised as to the "who" in the "whodunit" and this was way too easy. I don't know if I'd go out of my way to find another book in this series, but if one drops into my lap I'll probably read it.

This book is really geared for people who want more of a mainstream-type mystery, one that goes quickly and one in which you don't have to think very much. I'd give it a spot in both cozies and police procedurals, so if you like either one then this one should please you.

Overall, I found the central mystery intriguing, but I don't know if I'll be revisiting this series any time soon.