Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012

2012 was the first year I participated in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, sponsored by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.

Looking over my posts for the meme at this time, I don't see a theme. I concentrated on authors I really like, but a few listed here are not my favorites. I think all the books I featured are interesting books, but not all of the books lived up to my expectations.

I don't rate books in my blog but I do when I put them on Goodreads. The books in this list that I rated as 5 stars are:

Spy Hook by Len Deighton
An Empty Death by Laura Wilson
Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
A Lily of the Field by John Lawton


Here are my posts ...

A is for Eric Ambler

B is for Robert Barnard

C is for The Cambridge Theorem by Tony Cape (a spy novel)

D is for Len Deighton (with a review of Spy Hook)

E is for An Empty Death by Laura Wilson
(the second novel in a mystery series set in World War II London)

F is for Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
(my favorite book by my favorite mystery author)

G is for Elizabeth George

H is for Cyril Hare
(with reviews of With a Bare Bodkin and An English Murder)

I is for The Information Officer by Mark Mills

J is for Sébastien Japrisot
(with a review of The Sleeping Car Murders, a very unusual mystery)

K is for Stuart M. Kaminsky
(with reviews of Death of a Russian Priest and Bullet for a Star)

L is for John Lawton
(with reviews of Flesh Wounds and A Lily of the Field)

M is for Charles McCarry

N is for Night at the Vulcan by Ngaio Marsh

O is for Anthony Oliver
(with a review of The Property of a Lady)

P is for Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

Q is for A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr

R is for Helen Reilly

S is for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

T is for The Tattoo Murder Case, a vintage mystery by Japanese author, Akimitsu Takagi

U is for Under World by Reginald Hill

V is for Philo Vance and S. S. Van Dine
(with a review of The Greene Murder Case)

W is for R. D. Wingfield
(with a review of A Touch of Frost)

X is for XPD by Len Deighton

Y is for The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Z is for Zombies of the Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb

Len Deighton is the only author I covered twice, and that is because it is hard to find a title or author for X, and because I just discovered him this year. I read nine books by Len Deighton this year. And hope to read three more this year, to finish off the Bernard Samson series.

Z is for Zombies of the Gene Pool

In 1987, Sharyn McCrumb, best known for her series of Ballad novels, published a parody of a sci fi and fantasy convention, Bimbos of the Death Sun. Which I reviewed here. As I discussed in my review of the earlier book, this novel was a departure for McCrumb, although I do believe her earlier novels had more humor than her more recent works. I may be revealing my ignorance here. I have not read many books by McCrumb.

Five years later, McCrumb published a sequel to Bimbos of the Death Sun. This book is Zombies of the Gene Pool. Although the stories are definitely linked with the same two protagonists, Dr. James O. Mega and Marion, his girlfriend, and the other characters are a part of the sci fi community, the books are very different. There is still a lot of humor in the second novel, but the topics are handled in a more serious way.

This time the action is set mainly in Tennessee, near a fictional town called Wall Hollow. the original town of Wall Hollow was covered by a lake created by the Watauga Dam, built by the TVA to prevent flooding. (That part really happened; the real town was Butler, Tennessee.)

In 1954, a group of sci fi fans (self-named the Lanthanides) lived together on a farm near Wall Hollow. Per the book, the "lanthanides are the rare-earth series of elements." Most of them were aspiring authors, and they buried a time capsule which contained a short story by each person in the group, plus other artifacts. When the town is covered by a lake, the time capsule is also covered. Thirty five years later, the time this story is set, the lake is going to be drained to allow repairs to the dam, and the group have a chance to recover their time capsule. By this time, some of the group are very famous and wealthy; others are still fans, still writing fanzines; and others have moved on to other pursuits.

The group plans a reunion to dig up the time capsule, and that is what this story is about. James and Marion end up being a part of this group. James (Jay Omega is his pen name) and Marion are both professors at a college in their respective disciplines, Engineering and English. A colleague in the English department is one of the Lanthanides group, and invites them to come along. There is an explanation for this, but it is pretty tenuous.

In my opinion, the mystery plot in the first book, Bimbos, was not much of a mystery. This did not detract from my enjoyment of the book overall, except possibly the extended scene where the murderer is exposed.  

Zombies is also weak in that area. The death does not happen until halfway into the book, and even then it is not clear whether it is murder or not. Then our amateur detective rushes about to find clues, some of them via computers and bulletin boards. And the identity of the murderer was not particularly surprising, although I cannot say I guessed it ahead of time. But, again, this did not detract from the enjoyment of the book.

There is a lot of fun in this book. The characterization in this novel is much improved over the first in the series. There is an old writer, very successful, who is losing his memory and his abilities, and is accompanied by a young companion (and fan) who cares for him. There is another successful member, at least in terms of money and fame, Ruben Mystral, nicknamed "Bunzie." The descriptions of his inner dialogs between the part of him that wants to be the same as he was 35 years ago and the successful, pragmatic business man are priceless. And many others.

I liked this book and I liked it better than Bimbos of the Death Sun. Neither is great fiction, but they both have a lot to offer. My son, who reads more sci fi and fantasy books than he reads mysteries, read both books, once years ago and then again, recently. I was interested to find that he liked Bimbos better, of the two.

This author has a very interesting website, but she does not mention the two Jay Omega mysteries other than in a bibliography of her full works. Her site focuses mostly on the Ballad novels; see her bio page for a lot of background. It appears that all of her books are set in the South and many feature the Appalachian region. I have read the first book in the Ballad series. However, I did not find it compelling enough to rush to read the rest of them. I have a few of the Ballad series and I will give that series another try. The Elizabeth MacPherson series appeals to me. She is a forensic anthropologist later on in the series. I have a few of those also, which I will try. I would love to hear any comments or opinions of her other series.

This book is my pick for the 2012 Crime Fiction Alphabet for the letter Z. Our last letter. Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise for other entries for this letter. 

Y is for The Yiddish Policemen's Union

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel written by Michael Chabon. It crosses genres, being both an alternate history and a mystery, with elements of a conspiracy thriller. This book came to my attention via my husband, who read it first. And liked it well enough to keep it and recommend it to me.

The premise of this book, as described on the flyleaf of the book:

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.

The story centers around a police detective, Meyer Landsman, and his partner, Berko. Meyer is Jewish, Berko is half Tlingit (and they are cousins). They are trying to resolve their open cases before they turn over their jobs to whatever agency takes over after the "Reversion." Complicating this scenario is their boss, Bina, who is Meyer's ex-wife. Bina is a "by the book" detective, Meyer is the opposite. And Meyer and Berko are told to drop their work on the case that this book revolves around. Of course, they do not.

I am featuring this novel as my selection for the letter Y in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, sponsored by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for this letter. 

Critiquing a book by a renowned writer like Michael Chabon is hard. The novel won a number of science fiction awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel. In looking at reviews, I noticed that opinions were all over the place and the things I liked bothered other readers, and vice versa. As I read this book I had some nits to pick, but overall this was a good reading experience for me.


The book resembles a noir novel with a flawed detective and a crime that seems to be one thing but turns out to be much more. I got involved in the mystery and Meyer Landsman's story immediately. Some readers found the story slow; my husband commented on this when reading the first half, then found it improved from that point on. The plot was convoluted and it took a long time to uncover the immensity of the crime, but I imagine that is what real police work is like. I did find the mystery to be resolved to my satisfaction.

Chabon builds an alternate world in this book, with its own vocabulary, that I found at times distracting. There were invented words that were similar to Yiddish terms (I think). However, I adapted early on. I would find fault with the writing, then gradually adjust to things that were bothering me. My only complaint about the way he presents this world is that he ekes out the knowledge to the reader. Up until about halfway through the novel, I was very irritated at this.

Chabon writes beautiful descriptions, and at times these pop up just out of the blue, seemingly. But it was possible to the enjoy his descriptions and not get pulled out of the story. This example combines his skill at description and an invented word, the "shtekeleh":

The Filipino-style Chinese donut, or shtekeleh, is the great contribution of the District of Sitka to the food lovers of the world. In its present form, it cannot be found in the Philippines. No Chinese trencherman would recognize it as the fruit of his native fry kettles. Like the storm god Yahweh of Sumeria, the shtekeleh was not invented by the Jews, but the world would sport neither God nor the shtekeleh without Jews and their desires. A panatela of fried dough not quite sweet, not quite salty, rolled in sugar, crisp-skinned, tender inside, and honeycombed with air pockets. You sink it in your paper cup of milky tea and close your eyes, and for ten fat seconds, you seem to glimpse the possibility of finer things.

One thing I had a hard time adapting to was the use of present tense narrative. However, like all of the other complaints I had as I began reading... I eventually got used to it.

I found the overall story of the Reversion and the unknown fate of the Jews in Sitka depressing, and Meyer's view on life was depressing. There was no possibility for a real happy ending, but the book did not end on a negative note. Thus, the book was dark, but not ultimately a downer.

This book is not an easy read. I did not find it to be so, and I don't think that I am alone. The story is heavily built around Jewish culture, which makes sense given the plot. But as I don't have in-depth knowledge of Jewish culture, I don't know how much I missed. Chess was also central to the plot, and I have no background in chess. Nevertheless, I think I got the points he was making in the use of chess in the story. And I found it interesting. This book was definitely worth the effort.

Michael Chabon is not known as a mystery writer. This excerpt from his Wikipedia page describes his works and the themes he uses, most of which do show up in this novel:

His work is characterized by complex language, the frequent use of metaphor along with recurring themes, including nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and most notably issues of Jewish identity. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, Chabon has written in an increasingly diverse series of styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, he has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.

X is for XPD

XPD is an espionage novel published in 1981 and set in 1979. The premise is that Hitler and Churchill had a secret meeting in 1940, and there are several groups competing to either expose documents about this meeting or suppress them.

The author of this book, Len Deighton, is a man of many talents and varied interests. In his youth, he completed his National Service as a photographer for the RAF, in the Special Investigations Branch. After his discharge, he studied art. He was an illustrator and an Art Director. After he had published his first novels, he became The Observer's cookery writer. In addition to novels, he also wrote several non-fiction books about military history and cooking.

For some reason, even though I have long been a fan of espionage fiction, Deighton was not an author I had read before this year.  The first book I read this year was the first book he wrote, The Ipcress File. From there I moved on to the Bernard Samson novels; I have read six of nine in that series, plus Winter, which is not an espionage novel, but provides background for some characters in that series. And now I have read XPD.

In XPD, the British Secret Intelligence Service is working against Soviet agents to find the long hidden documents, although both groups want to suppress them. There is a group of former SS officers in Germany who are also trying to manipulate the outcome. Also involved is a group of ex-U.S. military staff who looted a large amount of gold at the end of World War II.

When there are so many characters interacting, there will inevitably be many plot threads that the reader must follow, and Deighton balances them very well. I was a bit worried when some reviews mentioned a convoluted plot. It is that... but not a problem to follow. And I often have problems following complex plots. I did not find the plot implausible. Like a good thriller film, the action moves so quickly that the reader doesn't stop to question the events.

Per this post at the Deighton Dossier blog, re the reissue of XPD in 2009: "XPD is a term coined by Deighton for the novel. It stands for 'expedient demise', sanctioned acts of murder or 'wet jobs' necessary to protect state secrets and security."

One interesting aspect of this book for me was that a large part of the action was set in California, in the Los Angeles area. Living in Southern California, I was familiar with a lot of the areas. And it involved the making of a film about the looting of the gold from a salt mine where it had been stored, which alerts the SIS to the problem of possible exposure; the comments on the building of sets for the World War II time period were intriguing.

XPD was written prior to the Bernard Samson series, and I can see similarities and differences. One of the main protagonists in XPD is a member of the British SIS, just as Bernard Samson is. Most of the Bernard Samson novels are told in first person, whereas XPD is told in third person. Thus, the Bernard Samson series seems more personal to me. While reading XPD, I was very interested in the outcome and entertained throughout, but never really involved in any of the characters.

Links to my reviews of the Bernard Samson series, so far:

Berlin Game (1983)
Mexico Set (1984) and London Match (1985)
Winter (1987) [related but not a part of the series]
Spy Hook (1988)
Spy Line (1989) and Spy Sinker (1990)

The Deighton Dossier is an extensive resource on Len Deighton and his books, with more about his life and book covers he designed.

I am featuring this novel as my selection for the letter X in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, sponsored by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter X.

W is for R. D. Wingfield

For this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, I am featuring R. D. Wingfield.  Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter W.

R. D. Wingfield (1928-2007) wrote only six mysteries, all starring Inspector Frost of the Denton Division. He wrote most of them later in his life. They eventually garnered a lot of attention and praise.

The story of how the novels came to be is very interesting. More detail can be found at this Wikipedia article.

Wingfield originally wrote radio dramas which were very successful. Per this obituary in the Guardian, written by Mike Ripley, it was Wingfield's "reputation as a craftsman of mystery stories featuring small-time criminals and multiple plot lines that brought him to the attention of publishers Macmillan." In 1972, Macmillan requested that Wingfield write a book for them, and he submitted Frost at Christmas. They rejected it, but eventually it was published in the 1980's in Canada and the UK. In between, there was a radio play featuring Frost.

These are the dates of publication of the six Frost novels, per Fantastic Fiction:
1. Frost at Christmas (1984)
2. A Touch of Frost (1987)
3. Night Frost (1992)
4. Hard Frost (1995)
5. Winter Frost (1999)
6. A Killing Frost (2008)

The Frost series was adapted in a television series beginning in 1992 and had a long run. I have seen the first three of the TV series and I have read two of the novels, and my take on it is that they really softened up the Frost character for TV. He has most of the characteristics that he has in the books, but a much milder version. According to Wikipedia, Wingfield's view was that the TV Frost was not his Frost. Nothing wrong with that, just something to know when reading the books after watching the TV shows, or vice versa.

The Frost books are police procedurals set in England that show the Denton Division handling multiple crimes over the course of several days. Detective Inspector Jack Frost is not typical in any way. He circumvents routine police work whenever possible. He is unkempt to the point of slovenliness and he is forgetful and a procrastinator. He has no respect for his superiors and doesn't hide it very well.  Nevertheless, regardless of all his "weak" areas, at least in the view of his superiors and some co-workers, he usually succeeds in solving crimes.

A Touch of Frost

This the second Frost novel that I have read. From the back of the paperback copy that I read:

Though he's officially on duty, Frost is looking for the nearest opportunity to sneak off to the departmental booze-up celebrating a colleague's retirement. But the normally sleepy town of Denton is not cooperating this cold autumn night, leaving Frost wading in his best suit through a flooded public rest room to investigate a junkie's death. And from there, things start to go seriously downhill...

Even with all of Frost's failings as a policeman, he does care about people and can show sensitivity when needed. There is a very moving section where he is informing a policeman's wife that her husband has been killed. From his interactions with members of the community, you can tell that they know his value and respect him, regardless of what his superiors think.

The story is entertaining and Wingfield's writing draws you in. Even with multiple crimes being investigated, and the assignment of the crimes to officers switching back and forth, I had no trouble following the story and I never lost interest. The back and forth between all levels of the department, from the supervisors to the constables, is interesting. The writing is gritty and police work is not romanticized. I found Frost's behavior irritating and he is at times not likable, but that did not detract from the engrossing story.

I was commenting on a blog recently and I compared Inspector Frost to Commissaire Adamsberg of the series by Fred Vargas. Both work in unconventional ways and see possibilities of solutions that others don't see. Then I recently saw this review at Mysteries in Paradise where she also compared the way the two detectives work. I will have to go back and give the Commissaire Adamsberg series another try.

Obviously I plan to finish up this series.

V is for Philo Vance and S. S. Van Dine

Today I am featuring a vintage mystery author, S. S. Van Dine, and his famous character, Philo Vance, for the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2012 hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. 
There is much available on the web about S. S. Van Dine and his place in the history of mystery. I hesitate to cover that ground again. I will note that S. S. Van Dine is a pseudonym for Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939), who had worked as a critic and journalist in the U.S. before his career as a mystery novelist.

In Mystery Scene, Summer Issue #95, there is a profile of Philo Vance which includes this summary of how the books came to be:

Philo Vance was born during a two-year period of bed rest for Wright, brought on by the author’s drug abuse. To occupy him, Wright’s doctor suggested light reading, such as detective fiction. For someone who had once written, “There are few punishments too severe for a popular novel writer,” it sounded like a dubious proposition, but to Wright’s surprise, he found mystery novels challenging and entertaining. After reading the genre dry, he decided to get into the act himself. Wright devised the plotlines for three novels—with the intent of writing six in total—and created the nom de plume S.S. Van Dine so his acquaintances wouldn’t know. “Van Dine,” he claimed, was an old family name, but John Loughery, author of Alias S.S. Van Dine, found no evidence supporting that. Wright likewise claimed that S.S. stood for “steam ship.”

One innovation of Wright’s was to also give the name S.S. Van Dine to the first-person narrator of the books, a trick that would later be be used in a similar way by Ellery Queen.

When I first looked into reading a Van Dine mystery, I was intrigued to find such extreme opinions about his books... in mystery reference books that I have and in book reviews on blogs. He is either revered or held in disdain by many mystery fans. And there are those who find his works of historical interest, but still do not enjoy the stories or the character.

The Greene Murder Case: My Take

So I picked The Greene Murder Case as my first entry into the works of Van Dine, based on several blogs I read (at Mystery*File and Tipping My Fedora) and the recommendation of 1001 Midnights by Pronzini and Muller. This story is about a wealthy family that is being killed off, one by one. The police first blame the murders on a burglar but eventually have to admit that it must be an inside job. The entire family lives in one mansion, forced to do this by the will left by the patriarch of the family.

Initially I did not find the plot or the characters entertaining, and the writing style was not to my liking. (Perhaps I should have started with the first Philo Vance novel, The Benson Murder Case, which explains Van Dine's relationship to Vance.) I was at least two thirds of the way into the book before I began to truly enjoy it.

I liked the list in chapter 23. It is a summary of the crimes and associated facts from beginning to end and lists nearly 100 items. Very unusual but I liked it. I have no problem with Philo Vance's supercilious and arrogant attitude. He has this in common with other fictional detectives; one of my favorites of this type is Nero Wolfe.

I agree with this assessment at Vintage Pop Fictions:

Most of the criticisms that have been made of these books are entirely accurate. It’s just that if, like me, you’re a fan then you’ll see those things as virtues rather than faults. Vance’s aristocratic mannerisms, his affected mode of speech, his prodigious knowledge of any subject you care to mention, the scholarly footnotes, these are all these things you will either find irritating or endearing.

I have yet to decide what side I am on. I will read at least one more of the Philo Vance series, and I would like to find one where the crime is a bit more of a puzzle, and less dependent on intuition (and time) to be solved.

My husband and I have seen the Philo Vance films starring William Powell; the one I remember the best is The Kennel Murder Case. Having read more about films of the books starring other actors, I would love to see those also.

A disclaimer here: I was reading The Greene Murder Case as my first e-book. I have minor reading problems with just about any format (print too small, print too light) and reading an e-book for me has the same problems as reading a computer screen. Eventually it becomes stressful to my eyes. So I might have enjoyed this more as a real paper book. Who knows how that affected my experience? The footnotes were separate and there was no diagram of the floor plan included in the version I read.

Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise for other entries for the letter V.

U is for Under World

For this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, I am featuring Under World by Reginald Hill.  Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter U.

This book is the 10th in a series of 24 books. I read the first nine several years ago, and have the whole series in my TBR stacks and bookshelves.  Must move faster on that. Reginald Hill is a wonderful author. Based on my reading so far, he cannot write a bad book. Maybe some of his books not in the Dalziel and Pascoe series are a bit more humorous than I would like, but still very entertaining.


My take on Under World:

The book focuses in large part on Ellie Pascoe and her relationship with a young miner, Colin, who takes a class from her at the local university. She cannot resist getting involved with the troubles he and his family experience as a result of a crime that occurred a few years earlier. I get irritated with Ellie's willingness to get involved in activities that could be detrimental to her husband's job, and I find her to be an abrasive personality. But I do understand that this is part of her character and provides a way to explore themes beyond straight detection of crimes.

I like the partnership of the rough and crude Dalziel with the more refined and sensitive Pascoe, and I appreciate the respect they find for each over time. In most cases, I don't care for out and out humor in a mystery novel. However, Hill writes with subtle humor, especially in the interactions of Ellie and Pascoe and Pascoe's reactions to both Ellie and Dalziel. This is not my favorite of the series so far, but it is nevertheless an excellent novel, and whetted my appetite for more.

I read this book in late August. See my full review, which also includes a bit more information on Reginald Hill's career and writings.

Other links:

•  For the letter D in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, Margot Kinberg profiled one of the two main stars in this series, Andy Dalziel. See that post here.
• In June of this year, there was a blog to celebrate Reginald Hill's life and  writing. One post at that site included a great overview of Under World by Michael Walters.
• This page at Ex Libris Reviews has a nice overview of the whole police team in this series.

This is the full list of  the Dalziel and Pascoe series (with links to Fantastic Fiction):
1. A Clubbable Woman (1970)
2. An Advancement of Learning (1971)
3. Ruling Passion (1973)
4. An April Shroud (1975)
5. A Pinch of Snuff (1978)
6. A Killing Kindness (1980)
7. Deadheads (1983)
8. Exit Lines (1984)
9. Child's Play (1986)
10. Under World (1988)
11. Bones and Silence (1990)
12. One Small Step (1990)
13. Recalled to Life (1992)
14. Pictures of Perfection (1994)
15. The Wood Beyond (1995)
16. Asking For The Moon (1996) [four novellas]
17. On Beulah Height (1998)
18. Arms and the Women (1999)
19. Dialogues Of The Dead (2001)
20. Death's Jest Book (2002)
21. Good Morning, Midnight (2004)
22. Death Comes for the Fat Man (2007)
     aka The Death of Dalziel
23. A Cure for All Diseases (2008)
     aka The Price of Butcher's Meat
24. Midnight Fugue (2009)

T is for The Tattoo Murder Case (RIP #4)

The Tattoo Murder Case is a vintage mystery by a Japanese author, Akimitsu Takagi.  It was published in 1948 and translated into English in 1998 by Deborah Boehm. The story is set in Tokyo and it involves the tattoo culture in Japan. At the time, tattoos were illegal in Japan.
In the Soho edition that I read, these paragraphs precede the story:

In the shadowy depths of Mount Togakusbi in Nagano Prefecture, there lived three powerful, wicked sorcerers who were masters of the black arts of magic and enchantment. These mysterious magicians were known as Tsuneciabime, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru, and their legendary exploits have been the subjects of folk tales, Kabuki plays, woodblock prints, and some of the most spectacular Japanese art tattoos ever created.

This is the tragic story of three of those tattoos.

Another edifying element of the story was the portrayal of Japan after World War II. The book starts with these sentences:

It was the summer of 1947, and the citizens of Tokyo, already crushed with grief and shock over the loss of the war, were further debilitated by the languid heat. The city was ravaged. Seedy-looking shacks had sprung up on the messy sites of bombed-out buildings. Makeshift shops overflowed with colorful black-market merchandise, but most people were still living from hand to mouth.  

Since I am introducing these elements of the book first, you can probably tell that I enjoyed the book for the picture of Japan at the time, and opening my eyes to tattoo culture in that country. I found this to be a good and enjoyable mystery, at times, but I did have quibbles with some elements.

This book is my pick for the 2012 Crime Fiction Alphabet for the letter T. Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise for other entries for this letter. 

This post is also my fourth submission for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII event. That event celebrates reading of books of mystery and suspense. This book has some very creepy elements, and it is an example of the locked room mystery.

Also counts towards a few other challenges: the Vintage Mystery Challenge and the Japanese Literature Challenge, and the New Authors Challenge.

The main protagonist in this novel is Kenzo Matsushita, a medical school graduate who was a medic in the military. Suffering from the effects of the war, he is now living rent-free with his elder brother and hoping to join the medical staff of the police. His brother is a Detective Chief Inspector in the Tokyo police department. Thus Kenzo gets involved in this very bizarre case involving the tattoo culture and gangsters.

This novel turns out to be of the Sherlock Holmes / Watson type, with a Genius Detective, in this case Kyosuke Kamizu. Kyosuke is an old friend of Kenzo's, also a doctor, and also recently back from military duty and a detention camp in Java. And our genius does not show up until page 209 of this 324 page novel. This was a (very) minor quibble I had with this book. Between the murder and the arrival of Kyosuke, much time was spent on the police and Kenzo spinning their wheels, waiting for some break. That may be realistic, but then a genius showing up to figure it all out is not realistic.

I also had problems with the translation. The Library of Congress describes the book as "translated and adapted by Deborah Boehm." There were additions to supplement the text (apparently). This paragraph seemed to contain such comments:

The three men shared a light meal of rice, miso soup with tofu and straw mushrooms, grilled butterfish, and various savory side dishes. (Daiyu's wife Mariko, as was customary, served them in silence, then ate by herself later in the kitchen.) Between bites, Daiyu and Kyosuke poked good-natured fun at ...

The book was an enjoyable read. Yet, such asides seemed out of place and took me out of the story.This review at Scene of the Crime also comments on these aspects of the translation, and covers aspects of the book that I have not discussed.

Even with the aspects that I personally found negative, I would highly recommend this book. Definitely worth the read. I will seek out the other two books by Takagi that have English translations:
Informer
Honeymoon to Nowhere 

My husband rated this book very highly at Goodreads. Here is his elegantly brief review:

A complex and exceedingly clever murder mystery set in post-WWII Tokyo. And in classic tradition, the solution (no, I'm not saying what it is) is all laid out for us in the last few chapters. Quite a pleasure to read.

S is for Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (RIP #3)

“Apart from the soul, the brewing of tea is the only thing that sets us apart from the great apes.” 
― Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

From the review at Amazon...

It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities.

This was a fun mystery to read. After reading two very bleak books about the horror of life in Germany during and after World War II, I was ready for something lighter and less serious. This book was actually set at about the same time period, and does reflect some of the hardships of post-War Britain, but it is not nearly so grim.

The book did not interest me when it first came out. With a precocious 11-year-old as the detective, I thought it would be too cutesy. Plus, mysteries featuring amateur detectives are not my favorite type. But there are always exceptions.  I ran into a review at Stainless Steel Droppings which convinced me I had to try the book. I found an inexpensive copy at the book sale a year ago, but only read it just recently.

This book is my pick for the 2012 Crime Fiction Alphabet for the letter S. Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise for other entries for this letter. 


This post is also my third for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII event. That event celebrates reading of books of mystery and suspense.

The setting was appealing. The story takes place in post World War II Britain, with the attendant scarcity of goods and families trying to make do with what is available. Set in an English village, this is the typical cozy with quirky characters and a kindly policeman. The only atypical element is Flavia de Luce, our charming protagonist. She lives in a decrepit old mansion with her father, her two sisters, and an old friend of her father’s, Dogger, who is now the gardener. Dogger and her father were both soldiers during the war, and Dogger came back with severe psychological problems.

Although the main character is very young, this is very definitely not a children’s or young adult book. It does have the cozy elements of little violence, no graphic killings, no explicit sex, and (mostly) clean language. It even reminds me a bit of the Harry Potter books. No magic or sorcery, but the same feel. Those books were written as young adult novels, although read by many adults. But in this novel, Flavia is the only child that has much of a role at all, and she interacts mainly with adults. And although there is some introspection on her lot in life, that is not a primary focus at all.

It is a bit unrealistic to have a murder solved by an 11-year-old child, but the author pulled it off to my satisfaction. The person who is inevitably suspected of the crime is her father, and naturally she wants to prove that he did not do it. And, being very intelligent, resourceful, and apparently fearless, she endeavors to do just that. Her relationship with the police inspector is charming. He plays a supportive role without seeming to be shown up by Flavia. Inspector Hewitt and Dogger are my favorite characters, after Flavia, of course.

It remains to be seen if the series can maintain my interest. The reason for Flavia’s involvement in this crime investigation is clear. In future books, will it be realistic for her to play a part in crime solving? I am quite willing to suspend disbelief, if the author can keep me interested in the story. I have a copy of the next book in the series, but that is partly because it has a skeleton on the cover.

Some quotes from this book:

I remembered a piece of sisterly advice, which Feely once gave Daffy and me:
"If ever you're accosted by a man," she'd said, "kick him in the Casanovas and run like blue blazes!"
Although it had sounded at the time like a useful bit of intelligence, the only problem was that I didn't know where the Casanovas were located.
I'd have to think of something else.

If there is a thing I truly despise, it is being addressed as "dearie." When I write my magnum opus, A Treatise Upon All Poison, and come to "Cyanide," I am going to put under "Uses" the phrase "Particularly efficacious in the cure of those who call one "Dearie."

 There was no way out; not, at least, in this direction. I was like a hamster that had climbed to the top of the ladder in its cage and found there was nowhere to go but down. But surely hamsters knew in their hamster hearts that escape was futile; it was only we humans who were incapable of accepting our own helplessness.

R is for Helen Reilly

Today I am featuring a vintage mystery author, Helen Reilly, for the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2012 hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.

The following biographical overview was included in the Ace Double edition that includes two books: Not Me, Inspector and The Canvas Dagger (abridged). That edition was published "ca. 1965".

Mrs. Reilly grew up in New York City, where her father, Dr. James Michael Kieran, was president of Hunter College. She herself received her education there until she married the late Paul Reilly, artist-cartoonist. Her brother, John Kieran, is the distinguished sports writer and naturalist. Ursula Curtiss, the well-known mystery writer, is her daughter. Mrs. Reilly was an active member, and past president, of the Mystery Writers of America. In recent years she made her home in New Mexico.

Per Goodreads, she had another daughter who also wrote mystery and suspense novels: Mary Reilly Wilson wrote under the pseudonym Mary McMullen. 

There is an extensive article at Mystery*File written by Mike Grost which analyzes Reilly's writing style and the genres she fit into. What I gleaned from that article is that her novels were among the first to feature police procedures, and that later novels lean toward the Had I But Known sub-genre. Most of the novels featured New York City police Inspector Christopher McKee.

Earlier this month I read my first book by Helen Reilly. It was Lament for the Bride, and my review is here. See the lovely front and back cover art for this book at that post.

This book was one of her Inspector McKee novels. However, he is offstage in much of this book and the action does center around the bride of the title. I would call this more a "damsel in distress" story. Even though that type of book would not be high on my list of favorites, I found this book enjoyable and definitely want to sample more of her mysteries. This one was set in Florida. Most of the McKee books are set in New York and some of the later ones are set in New Mexico.

 



















Many of Reilly's mysteries were published in beautiful paperback editions. This may have been how I first discovered her. I collect (on a very small scale) vintage paperbacks, usually mysteries. My favorites are Dell mapback editions, Pyramid Green Door mysteries, and any with a cover featuring a skull or skeleton. 

Per Wikipedia, here is a description of mapback editions from Dell:

Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location of the action. Dell books were numbered in series. Mapbacks extend from #5 to at least #550; then maps became less of a fixed feature of the books and disappeared entirely in 1951.  

The first Helen Reilly mapback pictured above is the The Opening Door. The Mike Grost article mentioned earlier notes that this book is of the Had I But Known type, and discusses some of the characters in that novel. He rates that novel as one of Reilly's poorest works. But the cover is beautiful.

Another mapback edition I have is for Mourned on Sunday. See this review at Beneath the Stains of Time. 

Bev at My Reader's Block has reviewed several books by Helen Reilly. Check out this review of The Silver Leopard. There is a mapback edition for that one too and I hope to get that someday.

Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise for other entries for the letter R.

Q is for A Quiet Flame

The Bernie Gunther series, written by Philip Kerr, consists of eight historical mysteries set primarily in Germany in the years preceding and following World War II. The fifth book in this series is A Quiet Flame.  To this point in the series none of the action is set during the actual years of World War II, although there are references and flashbacks to that time.

Philip Kerr published his first novel, March Violets, in 1989. It is set in 1936 Berlin, just prior to the Winter Olympics. Two other books in the series followed in quick success, published in 1990, and 1991. The second, The Pale Criminal, is still set before the war. The third, A German Requiem, was set in Vienna in 1947.

Together they were republished as a trilogy: Berlin Noir. This description on the back of my copy of that volume is a good brief description of the three books:

Ex-policeman Bernie Gunther thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930's Berlin. But then he went freelance, and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture. And even after the war, amidst the decayed, imperial splendour of Vienna, Bernie uncovered a legacy that made the wartime atrocities look lily-white in comparison...

It was not until 15 years later that Kerr returned to this series with The One from the Other. As much as I enjoyed the first three novels, that fourth book is my favorite (so far). That book takes Bernie to 1949, continuing to try to survive in post-War Germany, but this time in Munich. My review for that book is here.

A Quiet Flame, published in 2008, is split between 1932 Germany and 1950 Argentina. I hate to tell much about the plot because it could reveal some of the important points of the previous book. And this series is really best read in order.

Bernie has arrived in Argentina with an assumed identity, along with a lot of other Germans seeking asylum there. He ends up investigating a young girl's death, which is possibly linked to murders he investigated in 1932. Bernie's past as a policemen is more fleshed out, but I did not enjoy the blending of the two story lines as much as I expected to. It may have been the complexities of both plots that seemed a bit much to me, and I sometimes got confused about where Bernie was.

I did like the portion of the story set in 1932, going back to the years he was a homicide cop in Berlin, the time right before Hitler became Chancellor. As a background to the investigation, we see the tensions between co-workers who were on opposite sides and Bernie's despair over the the direction the country is taking.

The sections set in Argentina were also good (but gruesome). I am interested in why that country welcomed Germans who were hoping to avoid punishment for war crimes, and what life was like there at that time. I knew very little about that. Having survived all the years leading up to the war and getting through the war, Bernie accepts his life as it is at this point, but is willing to look under the rocks to solve some mysteries relating to missing Jewish immigrants in Argentina.

I wish I could describe Bernie's character well enough to convey why I love these books. He has done things he is ashamed of, in order to survive. But even after all he has gone through, he has a conscience. He has standards, and he won't let others control his actions. I love this passage, toward the end of A Quiet Flame. Bernie is listing all the things that he blames for the horrible things the Nazis did.

I blame Himmler and Goering and Hitler and the SS and Weimar and the whores and the pimps. But most of all I blame myself. I blame myself for doing nothing. Which was less than I ought to have done. Which was all that was required for Nazism to succeed. I put my survival ahead of all other considerations.

As I said in my review of The One from the Other, I find these books difficult to read. They are not uplifting. But for all of that, they are among my favorite books and I would not have missed them. And I will be reading the next three in the series in the next few months.

This post is my submission for the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2012 for the letter Q.   Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for this letter.

P is for Pardonable Lies

The Maisie Dobbs series, written by Jacqueline Winspear, is set in England in the years following World War I. The focus is primarily on how much the Great War affected the lives of everyone in Europe. I enjoy reading about World War II in fiction. Recently, I have found that reading about the events of World War I and the intervening years between the two wars is also beneficial to gaining more understanding of the reasons for World War II.

I recently read one of the books in the series, Pardonable Lies. From the description of the book at the author's website:

In the third novel of this unique and masterly crime series, a deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton, KC, to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but also to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world. Determined to prove Ralph Lawton either dead or alive, Maisie is plunged into a case that tests her spiritual strength, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche.

I am in a quandary as I write this review. I did enjoy reading the book. I definitely plan to continue reading the series. But I have enough issues with the mystery plot and the way the book is written to find it hard to recommend this series.

Pros:
I liked Maisie as a character and she is growing on me with each book I read. Her development from the lower classes (a maid) to a more elevated position in society is an example of how the class system was changed after World War I, although I would think it was unusual.

I find the portrayal of London, rural England, and other parts of Europe during the years following World War I to be interesting and well done. Maisie was a nurse during the war and suffered losses and experienced traumas that continue to haunt her. Almost everyone that Maisie encounters has been affected by the war. I learn new facts about World War I and Europe during that period with every book in the series. I believe that the author has done exhaustive research into the times.

In those areas, I want to keep coming back for more.

Cons:
In my recent review of Birds of a Feather, I listed my reasons for finding the mystery plot unsatisfying.

• Maisie has psychic gifts. Although she strives (at least in the books I have read) not to use them, she does use feelings and prickles on the back of her neck to guide her to the solution. 
• The author withholds clues that Maisie has discovered. Some of my favorite mystery authors do that, but I found it very annoying in these books. 

And in Pardonable Lies, there are a lot of coincidences, way more than I am comfortable with. There are too many plot threads, some related to Maisie's cases, some related to her personal relationships.

My recommendation:
If you ignore the mystery aspects, and view this strictly as a historical novel, it is a good book.

If you are reading this for the mystery, maybe not. Depends on your tastes. Many mystery readers are not bothered by the issues I found to be negatives in a mystery, and it is a very popular series. I think it is definitely a series worth trying. I am usually in favor of reading a series in order, but I have found that to be less important in this series.

This post is my submission for the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2012 for the letter P.   Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for this letter.

I also read this as part of my commitment for the World War I Reading Challenge at War Through the Generations.

O is for Anthony Oliver

Today I am featuring the author, Anthony Oliver, for the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2012 hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. Oliver wrote four mysteries published in the 1980's: The Pew Group (1980), The Property of a Lady (1983), The Ehlberg Collection (1985), and Cover-Up (1987).

Janet A. Rudolph, editor of Mystery Readers Journal, described The Pew Group as a forgotten or under appreciated book in this post at the Rap Sheet:

This is a true British comedy/farce featuring the outrageous Lizzie Thomas and her companion in crime, John Webber. This is the first of four comedic mysteries by world-renown Staffordshire antiques dealer and critic Anthony Oliver.

Rudolph also listed The Pew Group as one of her top ten favorite mysteries (as of 2008) in this post at Jungle Red Writers. (I ran into interesting resources while researching this. They were not new to me, but I enjoyed visiting them again.)

I could not find much other information about the author. He is also the author of a collectors guide, The Victorian Staffordshire Figure.

A few years ago I visited a used book sale and happily found all four of the books in Anthony Oliver's series that features Lizzie Thomas and Inspector Webber in nice paperback editions. I had not been familiar with this author but they looked interesting and for the price I could not pass them up. I have now read two of the series and I found them to be very entertaining.

Inspector Webber is a retired policeman. In the first book in the series, he has recently moved back to the town of Flaxfield following a divorce and his retirement. Lizzie Thomas is also a new arrival in the town, and they get involved in solving some mysterious happenings.The second book is set a few years later and Lizzie and Webber are good friends. All of the books have plots related to antiques or art objects.

I read the first book in the series, The Pew Group, several years ago, and I don't remember much about the story. I do remember that I enjoyed the book and I liked the characters, especially the lead characters. My impression is that it was a comic romp of various characters from the village and visitors looking for a valuable antique object -- called the Pew Group. Lizzie and Webber are introduced in this book, and their relationship is developing, so there is a different dynamic.

This week I read The Property of a Lady. This is essentially the story of a woman who picks up a hitchhiker, and the consequences of that action. It does not go in the direction you expect.

I would describe it as a cozy with dark elements. The story is dominated by the psychological issues of several of the characters. The mystery seems to be more related to who will be killed, or maybe "who has been killed?".

In this book Lizzie and Webber are the stars and most of the other characters are not fleshed out as well. The character of Margaret (who picks up the hitchhiker) is an exception. She is a lonely young woman and her character is nicely developed. Some of her internal dialogues are shared and we share her hopes and fears.


My impression from reading reviews of all four books is that this series is enjoyed as much for the characters and the humor as for the mystery element. I found The Pew Group to be a traditional mystery, but certainly The Property of a Lady has no great surprises or twists. It has dark elements, and is more serious than the first book, but you can see where it is going most of the way.

The review of Cover-Up at Kirkus Reviews indicates a similar view of that novel:

The windup this time--involving the unmasking of a homicidal maniac--is less than satisfying. But inspector Webber and Mrs. T. make a fetchingly offbeat, lowkey pair of lover-sleuths; the supporting locals--including Mrs. T.'s effeminate son-in-law, antique dealer "Betsey" Trottwood--are scruffily charming in their faintly kinky way. And this is witty crime-comedy, never too farcical, for those who like their English villages wry, quirky, and occasionally earthy.

Bev at My Reader's Block has a review of The Ehlberg Collection.

Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter O.