Z: Zouroudi

The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure I would classify it as a mystery (the publisher and the reviews of it do). The book begins with a dead body and by the end we know who it was and how she died. There isn't a detective, per se. There is 'the fat man' who seems to know things for no reason that the reader is told and takes actions as if he is one of the Gods to whom he occasionally refers to set things right (as he sees 'right' anyway).
The stories told about the various people on this little Greek island are interesting and the writing is good. I am interested to see where Zouroudi takes this character in subsequent books.

"To know the place of his grave from early childhood has an effect on a man." (p. 56)

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

I had to do some searching to find a Z book for this project and while hunting through the past alphabets for a book to read I found some really clever Z postings: Z is for Ziti and Other Delicious Food, and Z is for Zeitgeist  were particular favorites.



 

Q:Spencer Quinn

Dog on It is the first book in  Spenser Quinn's Chet and Bernie series. Chet is the narrator of the books, and what makes this a bit unusual is that Chet is a dog. Bernie is the detective he pals around with. Here is my review of this book:

This tale of kidnapping (or is it a runaway?, opinions differ) from the point of view of Chet, a dog, was well done and often funny. Some of the tics that go along with having a dog for a narrator, like getting distracted from the action by food on the floor, got a bit tedious after a while. Overall though Quinn does a good job with the premise and keeps most of Chet's observations to things he saw, or interpretations based on stuff Bernie says or his knowledge of Bernie's habits.

The mystery they are working on was in interesting one, with a logical conclusion. Some of the action seemed far-fetched. There is a scene on a cliff after a car wreck that was beyond ridiculous. Ultimately I am glad I read this, but probably won't continue with the series.

I did go on to listen to book 2 however, on a car trip with my husband. I liked the second book more than I did the first one, so I may keep reading. My husband was quite taken with the series and has read several of them. If you like both dogs and mysteries, then this is an author to check out.  

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed. This is my final catch-up post, so i am back on track to finish the project with Z this week.

O: Mark Okrant

Mark Okrant is a New Hampshire writer whose work I have featured on the NH Center for the Book Blog. I have also featured his daughter's work, which I think is cool to have been able to do. 

Mark Okrant has written several mystery novels, all set in New Hampshire's grand resort hotels. The books feature Kary Turnell, a mystery writer with a penchant for crime solving.

A Last Resort by Mark Okrant

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The main character, Kary, wasn't very likable, but he was interesting enough to keep me reading. The structure of the book, which jumped around in time quite a bit later in the book (with date and time stamps at the start of each section) was not something I had seen before. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Ultimately the mystery is unravelled and it all fits together in a reasonable way. The background info about The Balsams, a NH grand resort hotel, was the major thing that held this book together. I am interested to see what later novels by Okrant are like. There is definitely promise here.

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

P: Louise Penny

 "People wandered in for books and conversation. They brought their stories to her, some bound, and some known by heart. She recognized some of the stories as real, and some as fiction. But she honored them all, though she didn't buy every one." (p.8, The Brutal Telling)

  Louise Penny is a Canadian author and her Inspector Armand Gamache series is set in the province of Quebec. There are 8 books so far, and they have won numerous awards. I discovered Louise Penny when she did a reading at a local bookstore in 2011 and have been working my way through the books since. 

 Here is the order of the series (using the U.S. titles), and my notes on the ones I have read so far.

Still Life
I gave this 4 out of 5 stars (i almost never give anything 5 stars) and moved immediately to the next book in the series. 

A Fatal Grace
Mystery series often suffer from sophomore slump with the 2nd installment, but this one holds up. The mysteries are solidly structured and the characters continue to develop. I particularly liked the curling aspect of this story: the image of the old women curling on the frozen lake is wonderful. The skepticism about the sport from the 2nd detective was a nice counterpoint.
 
The Cruelest Month
There was a very strong sense of dread throughout this novel--you felt something bad coming. The ultimate solution to the crime was pretty predictable though. I liked the focus on Armand's story, it added a lot to this fairly thin crime story.
 
A Rule Against Murder
This book was set not in 3 Pines, but nearby and fetured the family of one of the regular cast from 3P. We saw a new side of Beauvoir, which I liked.  

The Brutal Telling
Penny's writing is wonderful, and her characters are becoming richer, more interesting people with each book.


Bury Your Dead
The structure of this novel was more complex than previous novels in the series with 3 separate storylines intertwined. It worked really well. A new relationship develops between an unlikely pair of characters and I'm interested to see where that goes.
  
The Hangman (a novella)
A Trick of the Light
The Beautiful Mystery       

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

Y: Yiddish Policemen's Union

The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon.

 "For sixty years, Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of revelations of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Proud, grateful, and longing to be American, the Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant, gritty, soulful, and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. For sixty years they have been left alone, neglected and half-forgotten in a backwater of history. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end: once again the tides of history threaten to sweep them up and carry them off into the unknown.

But homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life--and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder--right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage--and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written." (publisher's blurb)

This was a page turner (once I got into it) and very well written. The world that Chabon creates is totally original, but just close enough that it seems possible. The relationships between the characters and the thread of chess history add to the heft of this noir mystery. This is the only one of Chabon's novels that I have finished. I started Kavalier & Clay a couple of times and just couldn't work up enough enthusiasm for the characters to keep reading.

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

X: Qui Xiaolong

Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in Shanghai in the 1990s (after Tienanmen Square) this is the story of a policeman, Chief Inspector Chen Cao, who is also a poet, a translator of mystery novels, and a "loyal party member." He is trying to figure out who murdered a young woman found dumped in a canal. There is a lot of information in this book about life in China, including quite a bit of modern political history woven into the story. There is also quite a bit of Chinese poetry, mostly classical, quoted in the book. Both of these things add to the book rather than distracting from the mystery. The detection part of the story focuses a lot more on the "why" of the crime than the "who" and is resolved (as far as concluding the novel) in a satisfactory way. I think the greatest strengths of this book were the complexity and Chen as a character and the writing. The style of the book is a bit noir-like, but with a poetic aspect to it rather than a really gritty one.

"Yu sat beside the window, smoking a cigarette. The streets of Shanghai were spread out beneath his gaze, gray and black roofs with curls of peaceful white smoke undulating into the distance. Yet he seemed to smell crime smoldering in the heart of the city." (p. 108)

This book won the Anthony Award and was nominated for an Edgar Award.The author, Qui Xialong was born in Shanghai and has lived in the U.S. since 1989. He has written several more novels featuring Inspector Chen.

This is an excellent novel, and a fascinating view into life in China.

 This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

N: Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose was the first novel of Umberto Eco. It was first published in Italy in 1980 and in the US in 1985. It was made into a movie in 1986 with Sean Connery and a very young Christian Slater. I read it many years ago, and my recollection is that it was brilliant. One of these days I am going to have to re-read it as the details are sketchy in my mind. It is set in a 14th century Franciscan monastery and the mystery revolves around an amazing library.

"The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon--all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where "the most interesting things happen at night."

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

M: Ngaio Marsh

There is a wonderful overview of the life and work of Ngaio Marsh at Crime Watch. I have only read three of her books so far, but have loved them and plan to read the rest of the Roderick Alleyn series. Here are my reviews in the order I read the books.

 
Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read about Ngaio Marsh in a piece about the golden age of mystery writers and as I have read all of Sayers and a lot of Christie I was very excited to discover Marsh who was put in the same category of writer. It appears, based on this book that she deserves to be in the list. I was surprised by the solution to this mystery and I really liked the characters. Marsh's detective reminds me of Louise Penny's detective. The family at the center of this story had a very Great Gatsby feel about them, I'm not sure if it was the things they said and did or the writing style that left that impression, but it was definitely there.

Final Curtain by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am very excited to have discovered this author--she is wonderful and has written a lot of books. This novel was different from other mysteries I have read in that the whole first half of the book takes place in the family where the crime happens, and we are there for the crime itself. Our narrator is the wife of the Chief Inspector who will be called in later to solve the crime who happens to have gotten mixed up with the family but isn't really connected. I thought the plot device was very effective as it gave the reader two very distinct views of the suspects but didn't give too much away early on. I did not figure out the murderer, right up to the arrest I thought it was someone else, but it made sense once it was revealed. The book had quite a few bits I found funny, mostly observations of human behavior, and the plot was excellently done.

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had read some other Alleyn mysteries by Marsh and enjoyed them. This is the first of the series and was excellent. Alleyn is a bit of an odd-duck--reminds me of Adam Dalgleish from the P. D. James books--but is a very appealing detective as he has a self-awareness that I think makes him more interesting as a character. The mystery in this book was a traditional closed-room scenario, but had a few twists as it went along that kept it from being predictable.


This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

L: Donna Leon

Donna Leon is an American-born writer whose series of mystery novels is set in Venice, Italy. The city is very much a part, almost a character, in the books. Her detective is Commissario Guido Brunetti who lives in Venice with his wife Paola (a literature professor and fabulous cook) and their 2 children.
I have read the first three books in the series and so far each one has had some flaw that kept me from loving it. I keep reading them, however, because Brunetti is such a great character and the descriptions of the city of Venice are wonderful.
I cannot recommend these books without reservation, but I plan to keep reading the series and see where it goes. 


Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The detective was an appealing character, and the style of the writing was good. However, the mystery was totally lame -- there was one clear explanation for what had happened as soon as the body was found and after lots of wandering around in the victim's past and the lives of various people who were involved with him our hero figured out what was obvious from the beginning. In fairness, the why took a little longer to figure out.

Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like the character of Brunetti, and I love the parts where he is talking to his boss and we hear what Brunetti wants to say. The city of Venice is a strong character in the book, which I also liked. I thought the mystery here was overly convoluted and not really thoroughly explained by the end. There is a grand conspiracy going on, and the unfolding of it for Brunetti is certainly dramatically presented, but by the end I didn't feel like everything had been untangled.

Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like the character of Inspector Brunetti, but the beginning of this book was WAY too preachy about respecting the transvestites. Brunetti didn't strike me as a neanderthal idiot in previous books so why does he have to be one here? Because otherwise the lectures on accepting gay men wouldn't be there. Show, don't tell would improve this aspect of the novel a lot. Once the soap box is put away and they start tracing money and uncovering corruption the novel improves a lot. I do love Brunetti's wife Paola. She spends most of this book in the mountains reading Henry James. At one point B. wonders if his lack of promotion is related to his wife being insane. I think it is, and he should thank her every day.

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

W: Well Schooled in Murder

Well Schooled in Murder by Elizabeth George is #3 in the Inspector Lynley series.

"When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad's housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child—and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers's cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew's death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds—and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making...."

I started reading this series, which I really like, with book #15. This was a huge mistake as that book contains a lot of major life events for Lynley which makes the drama in his life earlier a bit anti-climactic. If you haven't read these books yet start at the beginning, or at least near the beginning as the developments in the lives of the characters are a huge part of the stories. I have read about half the series so far.

This particular book, wasn't one of my favorites, but having read some of the later books it was interesting to see where Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers begins the series. The main reason that this isn't one of my favorite George novels is that there are lots of red herrings in this book, some of them rather sordid, and I didn't think they added much to the book overall. Later books seem more tightly structured which I think is an improvement. 

I recently saw my first episode of the Masterpiece Mystery Inspector Lynley series, which happened to be this story (from series 2). The program was excellent, I don't think I've ever seen a MM episode I didn't like, but I was bothered by Nathaniel Parker as Lynley because that isn't what I thought Tommy Lynley, Eighth Earl of Asherton, looked like.



 This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

V: Death at Victoria Dock

Death at Victoria Dock is the 4th book in Kerry Greenwood's Phryne (rhymes with briny) Fisher series.

The series is set in Melbourne, Australia in the late 1920s and Ms. Fisher gets into all sorts of trouble, drives her fabulous car too fast, flies herself places in her plane, and takes up with all sorts of lovely young men. The books also feature a regular cast of characters including her right-hand-woman, Dot (who is very proper and often scandalized by Phryne's behavior, but stands by her none-the-less); a couple of wharfies, Bert and Cec, who investigate things for her; and her adopted daughters. This book also introduces policeman Hugh Collins, who becomes very important in the series later on.

 If you like your detectives serious and proper, this series is not for you. However, if you are not put off by a bit (OK, a lot) of carousing while wearing (or not wearing) amazing outfits then Phryne is your kind of detective. As with any series it is best to begin at the beginning, but I actually started this one well into it and have not found it difficult to follow reading randomly as I come across the books. Think of it as meeting a new person, you come into their life where they are and you learn about things that happened to them in the past as you get better acquainted.

 This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

K: Duncan Kincaid

Superintendent Duncan Kincaid is the lead detective in a series of books by Deborah Crombie. I have read 5 of the 14 books so far and have thoroughly enjoyed them. 

Deborah Crombie lives in Texas, but her books are all British and the place is very much a part of the novels. I think one of the things that makes a detective novel stand out is the complexity of the characters and Kincaid is a very well developed, and somewhat conflicted character, as is his Sergent, Jemma James. The interplay between the two, and following their personal lives as they unravel the mysteries in each book, gives these books depth.
 
This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

U: Nicola Upson

Nicola Upson is a British writer whose series of mysteries features Josephine Tey as a major character. The series is set between the World Wars and is a fascinating blending of fiction and biography. I have read and highly recommend the first 3 of the novels and the 4th is on my TBR list now that I know it came out. 

•  An Expert in Murder
• Angel With Two Faces
• Two for Sorrow
• Fear in the Sunlight

 This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.

J: Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey is one of the pen names of Elizabeth Mackintosh who was born at Inverness, Scotland in 1896 and died in 1952. She also published under the name "Gordon Daviot." Tey is considered one of the 'Queens of Crime' from the Golden Age of mystery fiction.
 
Several years ago the Washington Post ran an interesting, but factually dubious, article about her. For example, the article says no pictures of her exist, but a tribute on the anniversary of her death includes several. 

Her mystery novels, some of which were published as Daviot, but have generally been reissued as Tey novels, are:

• The Man in the Queue  
• Shilling for Candles
• To Love and Be Wise
• The Daughter of Time
• The Singing Sands
• Miss Pym Disposes 
• The Franchise Affair
• Brat Farrar
  

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. I got behind on this and am working on catching up the letters I missed.

T: Traditional

Make Mine a Mystery: Reader's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction by Gary Warren Niebuhr (2003) defines a traditional novel this way: 

"In a traditional novel, the action uses violence to establish the seriousness of the crime without trivializing its importance or glorifying its horrifying effects. Most violent action takes place on stage but is not graphically described. The emphasis can be equally on the perpetration and solution of the crime. The protagonist's goal is to find a solution to the crime, but not necessarily through the administration of justice by an official court of law. However, the intent of a traditional novel is to restore the balance of right and wrong in a society gone wrong."

Laurie King's Mary Russell novels (which I love!) are an example of the historical/traditional. Dog On It is an example of a traditional with a humorous twist to it. Sue Grafton's alphabet series is an example of traditional mystery as are the Adam Dalgleish novels of P. D. James. The traditional novel is essentially a book that combines elements of the cozy and the hard-boiled without tipping all the way either direction.

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.   

S: Dorthy Sayers

Dorthy L. Sayers was one of the Queens of Crime whose work reflects the golden age of mystery novels. Her first novel, Whose Body, was published in 1923 and introduced Lord Peter Wimsey. Lord Peter is the hero of fourteen books.

I read all the Sayers novels when I was in college (not for college, just at that time) and recently decided that a re-reading was called for. Lord Peter, and the novels that feature him, are clever and dry and just when you know where you are headed they shift a bit and take you somewhere else.

So far I have re-read Whose Body, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death. I didn't review the last one because all I really had to say about it was Wow! Dorthy Sayers!

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. 

Reading Roundup (online edition)

I spent some time this weekend reading some of the posts on various book blogs that I try to keep up with. Here are the things that jumped out at me as especially fabulous:

• The Washington Post reviewed Eat the City, which looks like an addition to my TBR list.
• Desktop Retreat pointed out a cool website that features people reading on the NYC subway. I looked for my sister who is a subway reader, but no sign of her (so far).
• Among the Friday Finds at Should Be Reading was How to Blog a Book, which looks interesting.
• Devouring Texts has a wonderful post about why Nora Ephron is amazing--and how much the world has lost now that she is gone.
• There was a review of Keep it Real at Pages of Julia. She recommends it. I have added it to my reading list.
• Bitter Tea and Mystery has kept up with the Crime Fiction Alphabet (which got away from me) and in her R post talks about mapbacks which I hadn't come across before. The reviews on Bitter Tea and Mystery are very well done. If you like mysteries, I recommend following this blog.
• War Through the Generations has a list of WWI books as part of the WWI reading challenge for 2012. I am not taking on this challenge, but am psyched about the list as a WWI reading project is definitely in my future.
• "I could just listen to the man all day,"too. Thanks to the Introverted Reader for the vicarious experience of the Unchained Tour.
• Four months of Moby Dick seems like a violation of the 8th Amendment to me, but maybe it's better if Stephen Fry reads it to you.

R: Raskin

Ellen Raskin was an illustrator of children's books and wrote the 1979 Newbery Medal winner, The Westing Game which I reviewed recently. Her manuscripts for this closed-room mystery are at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.  My last posting in this project was several letters ago, but I am trying to get back on track so have jumped in with the current week's letter.

I: Interred with Their Bones

Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell


This novel is thriller-meets-literary-history and a very good story. It is book #1 in the Kate Stanley series (which as far as I know only has 2 books in it so far). There was a lot of interesting Shakespeare scholarship stuff and a thrilling chase through a library to keep you turning pages.



This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.  

H: Hard-boiled

Make Mine a Mystery: Reader's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction by Gary Warren Niebuhr (2003) defines a hard-boiled novel this way:

"In a hard-boiled novel the action is high on the description of violence, with sexual content and language of the streets. A hard-boiled world is a society where everything is suspect, including established institutions and the people who work for them--even the legal forces. The inclusion of a mystery in a hard-boiled world is inevitable. Most violent action takes place on-stage. The emphasis is on the perpetration of the crime, and characters are often driven to do what they do by circumstances that are often out of their control. Hard-boiled novels can feature protagonists who are not clearly defined as being on either the right of wrong side of the law. The administration of justice is not certain in a hard-boiled novel, and morality may have many definitions in a hard-boiled world"

Hard-boiled isn't a genre I have read a lot in, and separating it from "noir" was the topic of a recent discussion in the Crime Read-Along which I found quite interesting. I just finished The Maltese Falcon which is a classic hard-boiled crime story.


This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise.