The White Sea: Paul Johnston

From the summary at Goodreads:

    Wealthy ship-owner Kostas Gatsos has been missing for several weeks, having been snatched from his luxury villa on the idyllic island of Lesvos. Curiously, there has been no ransom demand. When the police investigation stalls, the desperate Gatsos family turn to private investigator Alex Mavros for help.
    Inherently suspicious of the super-rich and initially reluctant to take on the case, Mavros finds himself dealing with a highly dysfunctional family with more than a few skeletons in its closet, a family whose tentacles have a surprisingly wide reach.

This book is the seventh in a series of novels about Alex Mavros, who is a finder of missing people.   Taking an unusual step for me, I decided to read this book in the series when I had read none of the previous novels.  I was influenced by having read Sarah's positive review of The Black Life at her crimepieces blog. She mentioned that there were big changes at the end of book 6 and thought that the series and the protagonist could be taking a different direction in the next book. I thought I might be able to pick this book up and read it as a standalone book, without the other books for background. I did find that to be true for the most part.

I did not see much depth in the characterizations in this novel, and I am wondering whether this is because the author is relying on the reader's familiarity with some of the characters and not repeating back stories with each book. This is a good thing, but in some cases I felt like I was missing something. However, the basic story, which I would classify as an adventure, was interesting and moved very fast. I like good pacing in a book.

Mavros is an appealing character because he is loyal to his family and friends.  And they care about him. Few characters in this book are perfect, but each is unique and interesting, including the bad guys. This book takes up Alex's story five years after the end of the previous book, and he has been working for the family publishing business in the meantime. In order to pick up his previous occupation of looking for missing persons, he seeks out his old friend Yiorgos Pandazopoulos, who has aided in previous investigations.

There are several subplots that will all come together in some way in the end. The author keeps us guessing. I liked the way the ending was handled. It may have been too pat, too easy, but it also did not have an extended period where the protagonist and significant others are in danger. I have never liked that approach to ending thrillers.

The author has lived in Greece and put his experience there to good use when writing this book. He also "worked in shipping in London, Antwerp and Piraeus". See this page at his web site for an overview of the book. Having read a bit more about the earlier six books in the series, I think I would like to go back to them. I consider this a compliment to the author. At the author's website you will also find information about his two other series, both of which sound interesting to me.

Paul Johnston was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thus this book counts for the Read Scotland challenge at Peggy Ann's Post. He has lived in Greece and is married to Roula, a Greek civil servant. He still divides his time between Scotland and Greece.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Severn House, 2014
Length:       289 pages
Format:       ebook
Series:        Alex Mavros, #7
Setting:       Greece
Genre:        Mystery
Source:       Provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Planned Parenthood Book Sale, 2014

Every year I go to the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, and always make multiple visits. This year I found lots of books that I wanted, and even some I had not heard of before. I am ashamed to say how many books I bought. No more than usual, but still ... I have too many books to read. My husband and son both found some very nice books (more on some of those in a later post), but they are much more restrained than I am.

One of my favorite purchases was the first book in the Peter Corris series featuring Cliff Hardy. It was a pretty beat up paperback, but I have been wanting to read this series, which totals over 35 books, for a long time. I may not read them all or in order, but I did want to start at the beginning..

I found most of the books by John Grisham that I was looking for: The Client, Rainmaker, and A Time to Kill. I had been motivated to follow up on more of his books by reading posts at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan and comments there by Kathy D.

I found several books by Canadian authors: Eric Wright, Gail Bowen, and Ian Hamilton.

As far as authors that are unknown to me, two were from Africa:

Wessel Ebersohn is South African. The book I found is The October Killings, published in 2010. He wrote a few novels in the 70's and 80's that featured Yudel Gordon, a prison psychologist. This book is the start of a new series starring Abigail Bukula, a young lawyer, but it also brings back Yudel Gordon.

Adimchinma Ibe is a Nigerian author, and the book I found was Treachery in the Yard, the first novel in the Detective Peterside police procedural series.

There were some disappointments. I always go to the booksale knowing it will be a crapshoot. One year there was a whole box of Agatha Christie mysteries, then for several years there were only a few copies of her books. This year there was a box, and I did find several that I needed and some with covers I wanted.

I had hoped to find some books by Phil Rickman (the Merrily Watkins series) and also some by Catriona McPherson (the Dandy Gilver series) because these are ones that are not easy for me to locate. There were none, so I came home and started looking for the second Dandy Gilver book. I will be getting a copy of that soon.

A postscript:

My son took me back for the last day of the book sale today. It lasts ten days and on the last day, everything is 50% off. I bought more books, mostly paperbacks, and many I was very happy to find. The second book in the Inspector Felse series by Ellis Peters that I have been looking for forever. Several books by William L. DeAndrea, three of them from the Matt Cobb series. Several copies of novels by Helen MacInnes.

Books of 1958: Coffin Scarcely Used by Colin Watson

My initial reaction to Coffin Scarcely Used was that it was very slow, with flashes of wonderful humor, and an interesting resolution. I think this is another series that will grow on me once I read a couple more of them.

Colin Watson wrote 12 novels in a series set in the fictional town of Flaxborough. Coffin Scarcely Used is the first of these. The main players in this series (at this point) are Inspector Purbright and Sergeant Love. Chief Constable Chubb is their boss. There is a series of deaths among the businessmen in the town, and Purbright is suspicious of foul play. The author slowly reveals why Purbright has these suspicions.

A brief sample of an exchange between Purbright and Chubb:

     "Well, you know best what lines to work along, Purbright," said Mr Chubb, "but do try and keep a charitable view of these people. Until you know the worst, of course. I don't believe in sentiment where criminals are concerned. But background counts for a lot with me. Chaps don't usually go off the rails overnight after years and years of being useful and respectable citizens."
      Purbright looked up from his papers and smiled. "No, sir," he said. "Some of them are off the rails all the time but manage to keep the fact to themselves."

Watson is also the author of a mystery reference book. At the Rue Morgue Press site, his book and Watson's fictional town are described.

In his entertaining and idiosyncratic study of English crime fiction, Snobbery with Violence, Colin Watson wrote that the English village and small town so popular during the Golden Age of detective fiction was really a mythical creation. He christened this idyllic village, where amateur lady sleuths competed with seasoned Scotland Yarders to nab the least likely suspect, “Mayhem Parva.” Describing it as a cross between a village and a commuters’ dormitory in the South of England, Watson wrote that Mayhem Parva was rural enough to be the picturesque locale so many English saw as the perfect place to retire, yet connected to the outside world by a reliable bus system. There would be a well-attended church, a chemist’s shop where one could purchase weed killer when the occasion required it, and “an inn with reasonable accommodation for itinerant detective inspectors.”
....
Such is not the case with Flaxborough, the fictional East Anglian city of 15,000 where Watson set eleven of his twelve highly original and extremely funny mysteries. If its citizenry was tight it was because they drank too much and about the only thing you could rely on them for was the persistent pursuit of sin. “It’s a high-spirited town,” commented one of its inhabitants, “like Gomorrah.” Assigned the unenviable task of policing its profligate populace is Inspector Purbright, a capable copper whose many virtues include politeness and a kind heart, and Sergeant Love, his able but innocent (in the ways of the world) assistant.

Even though this is the first book in the series, I don't know whether to recommend it or not. This one was too slow for my tastes, yet it gets a lot of praise. Maybe start with a later one and come back to this one. From my research into the author and his writings, I gather that other books in the series are more interesting. There is a character introduced in later books, Miss Lucilla Teatime, who is purported to be very entertaining.

Rich at Past Offences, who is sponsoring the books of 1958 challenge, reviewed this book in more detail here.

Some of the later books have intriguing titles, such as:

Broomsticks Over Flaxborough (1972), aka Kissing Covens
The Naked Nuns (1974), aka Six Nuns and a Shotgun

The only other book I have in the series is Hopjoy Was Here, and I have read good things about that novel, so that will probably be the next book in this series that I try.

This books counts as part of my skeleton cover collection because the missing puzzle piece on the back cover has a skull.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Dell, 1981 (orig. pub. 1958)
Length:      221 pages
Format:      paperback
Series:       Flaxborough Chronicles, #1
Setting:      UK
Genre:       Police Procedural
Source:      I purchased this book.

Death of a Hollow Man: Caroline Graham

I seldom re-read mysteries, not because I don't want to but because I have too many unread books to read.  But recently I decided I wanted to do a book to movie post on one of the episodes in the Midsomer Murders television series. Only five of the seven books in the Inspector Barnaby series by Caroline Graham were adapted for television. I picked the second book in the series, Death of a Hollow Man, because I knew how the first book ended. For this one, even though I had read the book, and watched the episode, I had forgotten the ending.

It takes over one hundred pages in this book of 268 pages before the murder takes place. The first 105 pages cover the preparation for the play and setting up the background on some of the participants. The actual crime takes place during the first performance of the play, which Inspector Barnaby of Causton CID is attending. Barnaby's wife is the wardrobe mistress and has a small part in the play. His daughter, Cully, attends the play with him and is an aspiring actor. Barnaby even painted some of the props for the play. So he is well acquainted with everyone associated with the play, which is, of course, a challenge.

It surprised me how much I liked this book the second time around. I know I liked the series a lot when I read the books years ago, because once I had read the first two I purchased all of them and read them very shortly thereafter. I had forgotten the biting humor and the wonderful characterizations in the book. The stories seem like cozies (although by the some strict definitions a police procedural is not a cozy), but they are not even close in my opinion. Very fun, not thrillerish, but not cozy either.

It helped that the story is centered on the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society, since I have participated in such a group and know that the actors, directors, and even techies take the whole thing very seriously. It also helped that the play is Amadeus, which I know enough about so that the many players and their roles were not confusing. I also enjoyed reading about the main characters after having watched so many Midsomer Murders episodes.

Inspector Barnaby is such a wonderful character; I never grow tired of him, in a book or on the screen. He leads a normal home life (when he is there); his only demon is that he doesn't like his wife's cooking. He is a smart, insightful investigator, and knows how to handle Sergeant Troy, who is homophobic and boorish.

I will report on a comparison between the book and the TV episode in a future post. I am currently rereading Death in Disguise, the third book in the series. I picked up a copy at the book sale yesterday... a paperback edition with a lovely picture of the grim reaper on the cover. And I wanted to read it immediately, before I re-watch the episode. So I will be reviewing that book in the future too.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  William Morrow, 1990. Orig. pub. 1989.
Length:     268 pages
Format:     Hardback, book club edition
Series:      Chief Inspector Barnaby, #2
Setting:     UK
Genre:      Police Procedural
Source:     I purchased my copy.

Books of 1958: The Count of Nine by A. A. Fair

I have fond memories of reading books by Erle Stanley Gardner. I read many Perry Mason mysteries starting in my teens. I suspect I discovered the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam series later. Those books were written under the pseudonym of A. A. Fair. I have not read either of these series for years, so I am no expert on his books.

This month I read The Count of Nine for the 1958 Book challenge at Past Offences. I was somewhat disappointed with this book, and I am hoping this is just an example of a lesser Cool / Lam story. However, my copy is a Pocket Book paperback with a lovely cover, and that may be why I bought it in the first place.

This summary is from the section on Erle Stanley Gardner at the.Golden Age of Detection Wiki.

The Count of Nine (1958), a Bertha Cool and Donald Lam novel, opens with an impossible theft (Chapters 1-8). The theft recalls the criminal schemes found in Gardner's early pulp stories about Lester Leith and Paul Pry. The subsequent murder mystery in the novel is much less interesting. The tale includes the complex architecture sometimes found in Golden Age books.

It is true that the plot is almost divided into two parts. The first eight chapters described above is only 50 pages and covers the set up and solution of the "impossible" crime. The next 130 pages follow up on a second related section with more action and excitement. I found that section of the book more interesting.

Bertha and Donald have an unusual relationship. Bertha is the boss, but Donald goes his own way. They argue a lot but have an affectionate relationship underneath it all.  Donald gets beat up a lot and is not big on carrying a gun. Bertha, on the other hand, doesn't do much detecting. In this book she is hired to watch the entrance of a party and insure that some valuable art objects are not stolen. I am going to have to read more of these because I think I just need to get to know these characters.

I have copies of Fools Die on Friday (1947) and Top of the Heap (1952) and neither of these are very early in the series. I would like to read the first in the series, The Bigger They Come (1939), where Bertha and Donald start working together. Also, the 6th through the 9th books in the series, around World War II: Owls Don't Blink (1942) - Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans; Bats Fly at Dusk (1942) - Donald has joined the Navy; Cats Prowl at Night (1943) - Bertha works alone; and Give 'em the Ax (1944) - Donald returns.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Pocket Books, 1962, orig. pub. 1958.
Length:   182 pages
Format:   paperback
Series:    Bertha Cool and Donald Lam #18
Setting:   US
Genre:    Mystery, private detectives
Source:   I bought my copy.

The Wine of Angels: Phil Rickman

I have been wanting to read this book for years. Don't ask me why, it really wasn't my kind of book. Descriptions of the series indicated that the main character is a female vicar who exorcises spirits. I have enjoyed series with either protagonists or secondary characters who are religious, but mixing the supernatural in was questionable. Still I was intrigued, and I kept it on my wishlist. Finally, the series was released in reprint editions in the US, and it was easier to find an affordable copy online. What I did not realize when I purchased it was the length. My copy is 589 pages. Still I was not  daunted. And then I realized it was the perfect book to read for the R.I.P. challenge this year.

The main character, Merrily Watkins, is a recently widowed single mother of a teenage daughter. Her first job as a vicar in the Church of England is in a small town in Herefordshire. At the beginning, there is a death (by shotgun) which could be the result of an accident or suicide.  Later a teenager (a friend of her daughter) goes missing. There are suggestions of supernatural elements involved, both in these incidents and in other strange happenings in the village, but they are subtle. Publisher's Weekly described it as "a first-rate thriller with supernatural overtones".

I loved this book, every page of it, and I only hope I can explain why. For a nearly 600 page book I got through it quickly, and I was eager to come back to it any opportunity I had. It met all my expectations.

The story centers around three characters: Merrily; Jane, her daughter; and Lol Robinson. The narrative moves back and forth between those three character's point of view. I like this kind of story, but it can be confusing or irritating to some readers. The setting seemed well done to me. I cannot speak to how accurate it is, but the book is definitely atmospheric. The series has gotten a lot of praise from readers for the effectiveness of the setting.

The characterization is wonderful. All of the main characters are well fleshed out but especially Merrily and Jane. Jane rejects her mother's religious beliefs, and like many teenagers, is embarrassed by her mother. Lol Robinson, a newcomer to the community, is another significant characterer . The author takes a while explain Lol's backstory and connections with other characters, and I liked the slow revelation of where he fits in. Also, the characters are all realistic; all have flaws. They are mostly likable but far from perfect.  The various townspeople are interesting and convincing, at least to someone who doesn't know a lot about various parts of the UK.

This book is also interesting because it highlights the difficulties of being a woman priest.

As if having a woman priest in the family wasn’t enough, her mother, from the safety of suburban Cheltenham, had been out of her mind when Merrily had gone as a curate to inner-city Liverpool, all concrete and drugs and domestic violence. Running youth clubs and refuges for prozzies and rent boys. Terrific, Jane had thought. Cathartic, Merrily had found.

While her mother was putting out feelers.

Good old Ted had come up with the goods inside a year. The vicar of Ledwardine was retiring. Beautiful Ledwardine, only an hour or so’s drive from Cheltenham. And Ted was not only senior church warden but used to be the bishop’s solicitor. No string-pulling, of course; she’d only get the job if she was considered up to it and the other candidates were weak… which, at less than fifteen grand a year, they almost certainly would be.

‘You’ve had a stressful time,’ Ted said. He’d never asked her why she’d abandoned the law for the Church. 

In those few paragraphs, we learn a lot about Merrily, why she is where she is, and the pressures she experiences.

If I was looking for a book with exorcisms I would have been disappointed. This book is really the set-up to future books with more of that element. The author says that the first book was not supposed to be the beginning of a series, and is different from the rest of the series.

It all started with The Wine of Angels, which is not really representative of the rest of the series.  It began as a standalone, and Merrily Watkins wasn't even going to be the main character. It was just that I had a story in need of a woman vicar.

I will be reading more of this series. The length and the supernatural elements will deter some readers. I hope to hear from others who have read this book or this series with their opinions. Although I found this book to be a fast read with good pacing, my experience differed from that of some reviewers, who complained that it dragged in spots.

See reviews at: read_warbler and Kittling Books.

 -----------------------------

Publisher: Corvus, 2011 (orig. pub, 1999)
Length:   589 pages
Format:   trade paperback
Series:    Merrily Watkins, #1
Setting:   small town in Herefordshire, UK
Genre:    Mystery
Source:   purchased my copy

The Moving Target: Ross Macdonald

The Moving Target is the first book in the Lew Archer series. Archer is called to the home of  millionaire Ralph Sampson, in Santa Teresa. Sampson is missing. Although he has been gone for less than a day, the circumstances of his disappearance are suspicious.

Sampson is described as a very eccentric millionaire, who has given away a mountain retreat to a "holy man" and dabbles in astrology. The main characters in this book, other than Archer, are Sampson's wife, his daughter, and his pilot. Sampson's lawyer, Bert Graves, is an old friend of Archer's. Once Archer starts his investigation, a lot of seamy characters that were associated with Sampson are unearthed. There are very few appealing characters in this book, but they were interesting.

I enjoyed this book more than the Ross Macdonald book I read last month, The Ivory Grin. I think that is because the plot was less convoluted and I could understand Archer's motivation throughout. It might also help a bit that Santa Teresa is a fictionalized version of Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara in 1949, but still recognizably Santa Barbara.

Archer started out as a policeman and became disenchanted.

When I went into police work in 1935, I believed that evil was a quality some people were born with, like a harelip. A cop's job was to find those people and put them away. But evil isn't so simple. Everybody has it in him, and whether it comes out in his actions depends on a number of things. Environment, opportunity, economic pressure, a piece of bad luck, a wrong friend.

Ross Macdonald is well known for his imagery. Sometimes he goes overboard in my opinion, but most readers love it.

A cab driver offers to drop him at The Wild Piano in West Hollywood:

“Why not?” I said. “The night is young.” I was lying. The night was old and chilly, with a slow heartbeat. The tires whined like starved cats on the fog-sprinkled black-top. The neon along the strip glared with insomnia.

And Archer aims a lot of criticism at women in this book. An example:

It seemed to me then that evil was a female quality, a poison that women secreted and transmitted to men like disease.

It will be interesting as I read later books in the series to see if his opinion of women softens.

Other resources:

• A review at The Game's Afoot
• This article at detnovel.com describes both Macdonald’s life and the books he wrote.

 -----------------------------

Publisher: Vintage Books, 1998 (orig. pub. 1949)
Length:  245 pages
Format: trade paperback
Series:  Lew Archer novels, #1
Setting: Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, California and surrounding areas
Genre:  Mystery
Source: purchased my copy

Season of Darkness: Maureen Jennings

I enjoy reading crime fiction books about World War II. I like vintage mysteries written anytime from the 1930's up through 1955, covering the lead-up to the war and the years following the war. I also read a lot of historical fiction set in those years. This book is in the latter group.

Summary from the back the paperback edition:

Tom Tyler is the sole detective inspector in Whitchurch, Shropshire. The quiet village is also home to an internment camp where many German nationals are being held in this hot summer of 1940, mere months after the disaster of Dunkirk and with the threat of a German invasion looming. Young women from all walks of life -- known as Land Girls -- have come to help farmers during this dark time, and one, Elsie Bates, has just been found dead on a deserted country road, with a German Luger and a spray of white poppies by her side.

Here we have a story of a small village in turmoil, with the war increasing everyone's anxiety. There is a murder and many people want to blame the internees. Tyler's investigation is hampered by the possible involvement of his family and friends and the existence of an intelligence group investigating possible spies in the area.

Tom Tyler's home life is a shambles. His son has returned from Dunkirk, damaged and uncommunicative. His teenage daughter is at a difficult age in a difficult time. And his relationship with his wife has never been very good. In the midst of all this, his ex-lover comes back into town, adding more difficult choices to his life.

I enjoyed this book, with its story of a small village in the UK in World War II. The depiction the internment camp and the home where the Land Girls were living both seemed realistic and fit well within the overall story and the investigation. The presence of a murder investigation highlights the confusion and uncertainty in the village resulting from the tensions of the war.

Tom Tyler is not a lovable character; he is selfish and self-absorbed, but he does care about his family and especially his kids. On the other hand, he is not damaged, just going through a difficult time in his life. The important characters were very well drawn. None of them were perfect, which is pretty close to reality, at any time period.

What I did not care for was the love interest sub-plot between Tyler and his old lover. The sub-plot was realistic enough and it did fit within the mystery plot but still, it just did not appeal to me.

As far as a recommendation, I am torn. If this type of story appeals to you and you like the historical setting, it is definitely worth a try. There are three in the series and a fourth is in the works. I plan to read the next one for sure.

Jennings has written another police procedural series, the Detective Murdoch series, set in Toronto, Canada in the 1890's. That series has been turned into a television series, Murdoch Mysteries.

About this author at Goodreads:

Maureen Jennings, now a Canadian Citizen, was born on Eastfield Road in Birmingham, England and spent her formative years there until she emigrated to Canada at the age of seventeen with her mother.

And in this interview, in The Birmingham Post:

Her father Bert, a carpenter, died in the war when she was four. He was a sapper killed during the Italian Campaign at Anzio Beachhead in 1944. Maureen’s mother Betty worked as a cook to support the family while Maureen was a pupil at Saltley Grammar School.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  McClelland & Stewart, 2011
Length:     396 pages
Format:    Trade Paperback
Series:      Detective Inspector Tom Tyler Mystery
Setting:     Small village, England, World War II
Genre:      Police procedural, historical mystery
Source:     Purchased

Epitaph for a Spy: Eric Ambler

Eric Ambler's spy novels often feature hapless individuals who are trapped in a situation they have no control over.  Normal men who get involved in situation through no fault of their own. I have only read a small sampling of Ambler's books so this information is gleaned from overviews of his works in reference books and on the web
.
Josef Vadassy, the protagonist of Epitaph for a Spy, is a Hungarian refugee living in Paris. While on a vacation in St. Gatiens, he stumbles upon adventure.

I possess only two objects of value in this world. One of them is a camera, the other a letter dated February 10, 1867, from Deak to von Beust. If someone were to offer me money for the letter I should accept it thankfully; but I am very fond of the camera, and nothing but starvation would induce me to part with it. I am not a particularly good photographer; but I get a lot of pleasure pretending that I am.

I had been taking photographs at the Reserve and had, the previous day, taken an exposed spool into the village chemist’s shop to be developed. Now, in the ordinary way, I should not dream of letting anyone else develop my films. Half the pleasure of amateur photography lies in doing your own darkroom work. But I had been experimenting, and if I did not see the results of the experiments before I left St. Gatien, I should have no opportunity of making use of them. So I had left the film with the chemist. The negative was to be developed and dry by eleven o’clock.

And this is his downfall. He is arrested for possessing a suspicious roll of film.  Having no papers, he is at the mercy of the authorities, and is forced to help them in their inquiries. He must return to his hotel, mingle among the other guests, and determine who really took the pictures which got him in trouble.

Vadassy is a shy man, and even the idea of  attempting to pump strangers for information puts him in agony. Plus, even if he convinces the police he is innocent and can return to Paris, he has to get there on time or he will lose his job. So he is under double pressure to meet the deadline that the Secret Police have imposed upon him. There is a motley group of people staying at his hotel: an older British couple, two young Americans (brother and sister), a German, a Frenchman with his mistress, a Swiss couple.

This was only the third book by Ambler that I have read. The first one, A Coffin for Dimitrios (also published as The Mask of Dimitrios), is similar to Epitaph for a Spy. The Light of Day (later made into a film, Topkapi) is a lighter novel, about a petty thief and con-man, who gets mixed up in a complicated heist.

I liked this book and I am glad I read it. It did have long stretches of conversation where other guests tell their stories to Vadassy. That was also a characteristic of A Coffin for Dimitrios, and not my favorite storytelling style. I preferred this book, possibly because I empathized with the protagonist, with his shyness and his reluctance to get involved. He was really thrown into this situation whereas the hero of A Coffin for Dimitrios actively seeks to learn more of Dimitrios and his life.

Ambler provided a footnote to a 1952 edition of this book:

I wrote Epitaph for a Spy in 1937, and it was a mild attempt at realism. The central character is a stateless person, there are no professional devils, and the only Britisher in the story is anything but stalwart. I still like bits of it.

In a review of another novel by Ambler (at The Rap Sheet), Journey into Fear, Charles Cumming says:

He uses lengthy passages of dialogue, for example, to explore political ideas. ...
In exploring those ideas, Ambler elevates the spy novel to a different level, paving the way for the likes of Le Carré, Deighton, Alan Furst, and Dan Fesperman.

There was a film adaptation of this novel, Hotel Reserve, released in 1944. It starred James Mason, Lucie Mannheim, and Herbert Lom.

I will continue reading more espionage novels by Eric Ambler. I have a few more that he published in the 1930's and two published in the 1950's.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Bantam, 1952 (orig. pub. 1938)
Length:   164 pages
Format:   paperback
Setting:   small fishing village in France
Genre:    espionage fiction
Source:   Purchased my copy

Reading in August and Pick of the Month

In August I read ten books. Eight of the books are crime fiction books. The other two books are non-fiction books that I read over several months and finished in August: Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings and 100 Must-read Historical Novels by Nick Rennison. I am still way, way behind on reviews. 


My crime fiction reading for August...

Season of Darkness by Maureen Jennings
The Ivory Grin by Ross Macdonald
The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters
The Davidian Report by Dorothy B. Hughes
The White Sea by Paul Johnston
The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. You can go HERE to see other posts and choices for favorite crime fiction reads.

My choice this month is World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters. I loved this trilogy and my review for this book was posted recently. Below is a paragraph from that post with a description and links to reviews for all three books.

World of Trouble is Book III in the The Last Policeman trilogy, following the activities of policeman Hank Palace in a pre-apocalyptic world. An asteroid is headed for earth, and from the beginning of the series we know that it will be devastating. In the first book, The Last Policeman, Hank was still a detective with the police force, new to the job, and motivated to continue investigating cases. Three months later, in Countdown City, like almost everyone else on earth, he had no job and no prospects, but he took a case for an old friend.  In the final book, Hank goes on an odyssey to try to locate his sister before the asteroid hits. If you haven't read any of the series, you should start at the beginning to get the full enjoyment of this book.

World of Trouble: Ben H. Winters

World of Trouble is Book III in the The Last Policeman trilogy, following the activities of policeman Hank Palace in a pre-apocalyptic world. An asteroid is headed for earth, and from the beginning of the series we know that it will be devastating. In the first book, The Last Policeman, Hank was still a detective with the police force, new to the job, and motivated to continue investigating cases. Three months later, in Countdown City, like almost everyone else on earth, he had no job and no prospects, but he took a case for an old friend.  In the final book, Hank goes on an odyssey to try to locate his sister before the asteroid hits. If you haven't read any of the series, you should start at the beginning to get the full enjoyment of this book.

My husband does a good job of covering the essentials in his review at Goodreads:

This bleak volume concludes “The Last Policeman” trilogy and it finds protagonist Henry Palace - in the face of impending planetary doom - still methodical, still by the book, and still never giving up. By now he is a physical and emotional wreck and is using what little of himself and of time that remains to search (still) for his beloved sister. Except for compatriot Cortez, a thuggish man who seems mostly in it all for himself, the world appears to be mostly empty, devoid of people. Most memorably, Palace does encounter an enclave of Amish farmers carrying on as before and a couple seeing out the last days with generator-powered lights and music, home brew, and chickens. This strong trilogy is a mystery, a procedural, and an apocalyptic thriller and should be read in its entirety and in order.

I know that this book will be in my top ten for the year. The trilogy is wonderful, and this is a fitting end to it. It is not a feel good book, but I did not find it depressing.

Some quotes from the book follow. Hank is describing the system that he and Cortez use to describe the state of towns they go through:

We called the towns with color names because of the package of multicolored Post-it Notes that Cortez had; he had them left over from his Office Depot warehouse. When we left a town behind us we would assign it a color, just keeping track, just to keep ourselves amused. All the degrees of dissolution, the differing extents to which each town or city had collapsed under the weight of all this unbearable imminence. Red towns were those seething with active violence: towns on fire, towns beset by marauding bands, daylight shootings, food foragers and food defenders, homes under siege. Only occasionally did we encounter active organized law enforcement... 

Green towns were just the opposite, communities where it seemed like some sort of agreement had been made, spoken or implied, to plug along. Folks raking leaves, pushing strollers, waving good morning. Dogs on leashes or bounding after Frisbees. In Media, Ohio, we were astonished to hear the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song being sung lustily by three hundred or more people in a public park at dusk...

Black towns are empty. Blue towns feel empty, but they're not, they're just so quiet they might as well be. They're empty except for occasional scurrying, nervous souls darting from one place to another, some feeling safer in the day, some at night. Peeking out of windows, clutching guns, measuring out what they've got left.

Some thoughts on the series:

Hank Palace is a character that the reader can grow to love. I did not understand Hank (because my choices would be different), but I liked him and I enjoyed getting to know him. I think the author is gifted at making the character believable and fleshed out.

Every book in the series made me ponder what I would do in a similar situation. I can empathize with wanting to continue to work and do what one is good at. My husband and I are both close to retirement age yet have little desire to retire. Working may be tiring mentally and physically, but it is also fulfilling and we like being out in the world participating. However, in situations like the characters in this trilogy are subjected to, work does lose its meaning, and especially if everyone around you is bailing on jobs and relationships. And the jobs disappear and the infrastructure of society crumbles. What do you do then?

This trilogy has motivated me to seek out other pre- and post-apocalyptic books. I did enjoy World War Z for the same reasons. It is much more about how and why people survived and how the changes affected them than about zombies. (This is true of the book, not the movie.)

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Publisher:  Quirk Books, 2014
Length:      316 pages
Format:     Trade paperback
Series:       Last Policeman Book III
Setting:      USA
Genre:       Mystery, Science Fiction
Source:      Borrowed from my husband