A Cast of Falcons: Steve Burrows

A Cast of Falcons is the third book in the Birder Murder Mystery series by Steve Burrows. The author is Canadian and this is the first book I have read for the Canadian Reading Challenge. In this case, the books are set in the UK but the main character is from Canada.

From the description at the Simon & Schuster website:

A man falls to his death from a cliff face in western Scotland. From a distance, another man watches. He approaches the body, tucks a book into the dead man’s pocket, and leaves. 

When the Scottish police show visiting Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune the book, he recognizes it as a call for help. But he also knows that answering that call could destroy the life he and his girlfriend Lindy have built for themselves in the village of Saltmarsh, in north Norfolk. 

Back in Saltmarsh, the brutal murder of a researcher involved in a local climate change project has everyone looking at the man’s controversial studies as a motive.

My thoughts:

Domenic Jejeune does not even like being a DCI, he would rather be focusing on birdwatching. But he is very good at his job and he had made a name for himself in his previous job in London. In the first book in this series, he was newly appointed to the police department in the small Norfolk town of Saltmarsh, located in the heart of Britain’s premier birding country. In this book, Jejeune is more comfortably settled into his job and his team of detectives, but the return of someone from his past threatens to upset the equilibrium in his work and home life.

I have always enjoyed this series for the bird watching tidbits and the setting. The mystery plots have been secondary for me. However, here the plot is related to climate change and environmental issues and is very well done.

Dominic is introspective or oblivious at times, off in his own world, and this characteristic causes problems in both his work and at home. Sometimes I find that behavior irritating, but it makes him more human too. I also like the secondary characters in this series and how they develop over time. 

This is one of two mystery series that I am reading primarily because of the inclusion of birdwatching and the depictions of the coastal areas where the birds thrive. I would caution however that some reviewers felt that birding was too much of a presence in the plot of this series. The other series that features birdwatching is William Shaw's DS Alexandra Cupidi Series.

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Publisher:   Point Blank, 2018 (orig. pub. 2016)
Length:       384 pages
Format:       Trade paperback
Series:        Birder Murder Mysteries, #3
Setting:       England & Scotland
Genre:        Police procedural
Source:       I purchased this book.

My Result for the Classics Club Spin #38

 

The  result of the Classics Club Spin was announced today, and the number was 17, so I will be reading My Ántonia by Willa Cather sometime in August.

This is the summary from my edition:

Ántonia Shimerda is the daughter of Bohemian immigrants struggling with the oceanic loneliness of life on the Nebraska prairie. Through the eyes of Jim Burden, her tutor and disappointed admirer, we follow Ántonia from farm to town as she survives hardships both natural and human, from hardscrabble poverty to a failed romance–and not only survives, but triumphs.

I am looking forward to reading this book. It will be the first one I have read by Willa Cather, and I have heard many good things about her writing.

Classics Club Spin #38, July 2024

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I have chosen twenty books from my classics list. On Sunday, 21st July, 2024, the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The goal is to read whatever book falls under that number on this Spin List by Sunday, 22nd September, 2024.

So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin...

1. Edna Ferber – Show Boat (1926)
2. Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr.Ripley (1955)
3. Shirley Jackson – We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)
4. Madeleine L'Engle – A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
5. William Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing (1598)
6. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein (1818)
7. John Steinbeck – Cannery Row (1945)
8. William Thackeray – Vanity Fair (1848)
9. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
10. Virginia Woolf – Flush (1933)
11. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958)
12. Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
13. Charlotte Brontë – Jane Eyre (1847) 
14. Anne Brontë – Agnes Grey (1847)
15. Albert Camus – The Stranger (1942)
16. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
17. Willa Cather – My Ántonia (1918)
18. Kenneth Grahame – The Wind in the Willows (1908)
19. Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)
20. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

This is almost exactly the same list as I used last time, so no surprises here. Are there any of these you especially liked... or disliked?

Short Story Wednesday – Valentino: Film Detective

This week I read three stories from Valentino: Film Detective by Loren D. Estleman, published by Crippen & Landru in 2011. The collection contains 14 short stories, all starring Valentino. He is no relation to the actor, Rudolph Valentino, but he does look like him and is constantly getting comments noting that resemblance. All of the stories in this book were originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine between 1998 and 2010.

On Estleman's website, Valentino is described as "a film detective for UCLA who inadvertently becomes an amateur sleuth." 

The first story I read, "Dark Lady Down," was a bit of a disappointment. It was one of the shorter stories, and it is solved too quickly. But the next two stories in the book were very good so I have high expectations for the rest of the stories.

In "The Frankenstein Footage" Valentino gets a call from an old friend, Craig Hunter, who is in San Diego. He assumes he is asking for money as usual and hangs up on him. The next morning two homicide detectives from San Diego come to see him. Craig Hunter was murdered the previous night, beaten to death. He answers their questions. After they leave he does some investigating on his own. 

In "Director's Cut" Valentino is trying to complete the Film Preservation Department's collection of Justin Ring's films. He is seeking a copy of the director's student film. The director insists that he burned every print and the negative years before. Months later Justin Ring's motor craft is lost at sea. Eight years later Ring's nephew shows up with a copy. This one got a bit confusing for me but it was interesting and entertaining.

The stories are told with humor, and Estleman reveals his love of movies and deep knowledge of film history. 

Loren D. Estleman is a very prolific and well-known author who has been publishing novels since 1976. He has published seven mystery novels starring Valentino since 2008. He is also the author of the Amos Walker series, the Peter Macklin series, and many standalone novels, including many Western novels. He lives in Michigan. 

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry: Gabrielle Zevin

 

As the story opens, A.J. Fikry is a widower. His wife died 21 months earlier and left him to run their book store on Alice Island, Massachusetts. The book store is not doing well. And then his prized possession, a very valuable copy of Tamerlane, is stolen. Shortly after that, a small child, two-year-old Maya, is left in A.J.'s store, and that event changes his life forever.

Now this sounds like it could be a very smaltzy novel (and maybe for some readers it is) but because it is set in a book store and because the author is Gabrielle Zevin, I decided to give it a chance. I had not even read a book by Zevin at that time, so I don't know why that influenced my decision.

I loved this book. It is a book about books; the protagonist is the owner and manager of a book shop. There are many mentions of books of all types. The characters also talk about the types of books they like and why. 

A.J. is very prejudiced in his likes and dislikes at the beginning of the book, and in some cases will not purchase books for his book store unless he likes them. 

He is exceptionally rude to the new sales representative from Knightley Press, Amelia Loman. He gives her a long list of types of books he does not like. She tells him...

"Do you want my opinion?"

"Not particularly," he says. "What are you, twenty-five?"

"Mr. Fikry, this is a lovely store, but if you continue in this this this"—as a child, she stuttered and it occasionally returns when she is upset; she clears her throat—"this backward way of thinking, there won't be an Island Books before too long."

Each chapter begins with a review or description of a short story, sort of like diary entries, with notes. I loved that element of the book. The first chapter begins with a mini-review of "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl. There were 13 chapters, thus 13 stories. I have only read three of the stories, and most of the others I would like to read someday.

It turns out that I enjoyed the book just as much for the development of the relationships in the book and the look at a community on a small island. A.J. Fikry is the focal point of the story, but other characters and their relationships are also important, and more and more about these characters is revealed as the story continues.

There is a lovely scene when A.J. meets Officer Lambiase after the death of A.J.'s wife. A.J. tells Lambiase that they are characters in a novel:

My wife and I,” A.J. replied without thinking.  “Oh, Christ, I just did that stupid thing where the character forgets that the spouse has died and he accidentally uses ‘we’.  That’s such a cliché.  Officer” – he paused to read the cop’s badge – “Lambiase, you and I are characters in a bad novel.  Do you know that?  How the heck did we end up here?  You’re probably thinking to yourself, Poor bastard, and tonight you’ll hug your kids extra tight because that’s what characters in these kinds of novels do. ”

They begin to discuss books they have read and Lambiase reads mostly crime fiction and especially likes Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series. Over time, Lambiase and A.J. get to know each other better, discuss books they like, and Lambiase begins to enjoy different types of books and other genres. 

This book has humor and some mystery and a bit of romance, and I am very glad I read it.

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Publisher:  Abacus Books, 2015 (orig. publ. 2014)
Length:      306 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:      USA, Massachusetts
Genre:        Fiction, Books about Books
Source:      I purchased my copy in December 2023.

18th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 

The Canadian Book Challenge was started in 2007 by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set blog (no longer available?). Now the challenge is hosted by Shonna at Canadian Bookworm. Between 2012, when I started blogging, and 2022, I participated in five Canadian Reading Challenges; now I am back for my sixth attempt.

The goal is to read and review 13 or more Canadian books in a one year span: from Canada Day, July 1st, 2024, to Canada Day eve, June 30th, 2025. Reviews posted online are required. (That is the hard part for me.)

What constitutes a Canadian book?

For this challenge, Canadian books are books written by Canadian authors (by birth or immigration) or about Canadians. The books can include any genre or form (picture books, poetry, novels, non-fiction, plays, anthologies, graphic novels, cookbooks, etc).

See the signup post for more information. 

What will I read?

I am currently reading a book for this challenge, A Cast of Falcons by Steve Burrows. Steve Burrows is a Canadian author but the books are set in the UK. 

Other books I plan to read are:

• Kelley Armstrong – The Poisoner's Ring: A Rip Through Time Novel
• Anthony Bidulka – Flight of Aquavit
• Gail Bowen – Verdict in Blood
• Louise Penny  –  A Great Reckoning
• Alexandra Pratt – Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories
• Robin Spano – Dead Politician Society
• Michael van Rooy – An Ordinary Decent Criminal
• L. R. Wright – Fall From Grace 
• Iona Whishaw – Death In A Darkening Mist

Other Canadian authors I have on my shelves (or on the Kindle) are:

• Vicky Delany
• J. Robert Janes
• Maureen Jennings
• Dietrich Kalteis
• Thomas King
• Emily St. John Mandel
• Margaret Millar
• Anna Porter
• Sam Wiebe
• Eric Wright