Six Degrees of Separation: from The Arsonist to The Indigo Necklace

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six other books, forming a chain. Every month she provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting point this month is The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper, a non-fiction book about the man who started two fires that let to a bushfire catastrophe in Australia. The book sounds very disturbing, but it is of interest to me because of the devastating wildfires we have had in California in the last year or two.



My first link is to a fiction story about arson on a smaller level, in The Dark Snow and Other Mysteries by Brendan DuBois. One short story in this book is "Fire Burning Bright", about a small town plagued by an arsonist, this time burning down houses, which causes the people in the area to become suspicious and distrustful of their neighbors.

 This leads me to another anthology of short stories, Alfred Hitchcock's Happiness is a Warm Corpse. I collect books with skulls or skeletons on the cover, and this is a great example.

Thinking about Hitchcock leads me one of my favorite films directed and produced by Hitchcock, Vertigo. That film was based on a book written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, titled D’entre les morts (1954). The film was set in San Francisco, but the book was set in France and originally written in French.

Another novel I read that was translated from French was Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas. This book in the Commissaire Adamsberg series is set in the French Alps. Adamsberg is based in Paris, but in the first two-thirds of this book, the story centers on a group of people residing in the French Alps who are on a quest to stop a murderer.

For the next link, I move on to the Swiss Alps... to Season of Snows and Sins (1971) by Patricia Moyes, one of my favorite authors of mysteries. The story has several narrators, starting with Jane Weston, a sculptor who has moved to a small chalet in the Swiss Alps. She invites Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Tibbett and his wife Emmy to visit at Christmas, since she knows how they love to ski. And then, of course, there is a murder.

My final book in the chain, The Indigo Necklace (1945) by Frances Crane, also features a husband and wife detecting duo. The books in the series  were set in a variety of locations. In this one, Pat and Jean Abbott are living in a rented apartment in an old house in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where Pat is stationed toward the end of World War II.

Next month (April 6, 2019), Six Degrees of Separation will begin with Ali Smith’s award-winning novel, How to be Both.

Planned Parenthood Book Sale 2013 (Part 2)

A final post to highlight some of our purchases at the book sale.My husband and son are much more restrained than I. Here are lists of some of their purchases.

My son is into fantasy novels, and his choices reflect that.

Dread Brass Shadows by Glen Cook
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
The Callahan Chronicles by Spider Robinson
The Road to Mars: A Post-Modem Novel by Eric Idle
Deathstalker by Simon R. Green

The first two of those are of particular interest to me. The Glen Cook novel is part of a series about a human P.I. in a world of fantasy. In the Garden of Iden is a time travel novel and the first in the Company series.

My husband's tastes fall in many genres:

Fiction:

truecrime by Jake Arnott
Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow
Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey
A Weekend at Blenheim by J.P. Morrissey
The Informer by Akimitsu Takagi
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Eddy Deco's Last Caper: An Illustrated Mystery by Gahan Wilson

Nonfiction:

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben McIntyre
Operation Mincemeat by Ben McIntyre
L.A. Noir: The City as Character by Alain Silver & James Ursini

Of these books, most hold some interest, with the possible exception of The Little Stranger, which may be too creepy and tense for me. L.A. Noir, about film noir set in Los Angeles, is on my list to read soon.

And the following books, with cover images, are some of my favorites that I found at the sale:

 
Sugar Skull (2003) by Denise Hamilton

Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond usually works out of the paper's San Gabriel Valley bureau, but she's taking a weekend shift downtown when a distraught Vincent Chevalier breaks through security and demands her help. His fifteen-year-old daughter, Isabel, is missing, and the cops won't go looking for her until forty-eight hours have passed.

This book fits into my collection of books with skulls or skeletons on the cover. I have the first book in the series (unread) so I didn't buy it only for the cover.

Sugar skulls are decorations used for Day of the Dead celebrations. Usually they are edible, but the skulls are generally used for decorative purposes.

Dia de los Muertos or the “Day of the Dead” is a Mexican religious holiday. The celebrations start on November 1st, the day after Halloween. See more information on Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertas at this site.

Photo by Nathaniel C. Sheetz at Wikipedia Commons.

Capital Crimes (2011) by Laura Wilson

From the author's web site:

It is winter in London in the early 1950s: John Davies confesses to strangling his wife and baby daughter. It promises to be a depressingly straightforward case for DI Ted Stratton of West End Central. When Davies recants, blaming respectable neighbour Norman Backhouse for the crimes, nobody, including Stratton, sees any reason to believe him. Davies is convicted and hanged. But after a series of gruesome discoveries, Stratton begins to suspect that there has been a terrible miscarriage of justice. 

A Capital Crime is based on two of the most notorious cases of the 1950s.

Reaper Man (1991) by Terry Pratchett

I know very little about the Discworld series, but I collect books with skeletons or skulls on the cover. And I will give this one a try, just to see what it is all about. What I am not sure about is whether I should read any other book in the series first. This was the eleventh published, but I understand that they are grouped into sub-series.

An Uncertain Place (2008) by Fred Vargas

Another book in the Commissaire Adamsberg mystery series. The link points to a list of the books in order at EuroCrime, which also has links to reviews.

This is the 6th in the series. I have read the first two and have the 5th one. So still looking for the 3rd and 4th ones (Have Mercy on Us All and Wash this Blood Clean from My Hand).
.

Death in a Cold Climate (2012) by Barry Forshaw

From the back cover of my edition:
'Death in a Cold Climate is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the fictional underbelly of the Nordic psyche, whose popularity has become the publishing sensation of the century. Perceptive, witty and awesomely well-researched.' - Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy

I have this book in e-book format and have read about two-thirds of it but I wanted a paper copy for easier access when I want to look up an author.
See Sarah's Review at Crimepieces
And an interview at the Rap Sheet blog

Slip of the Knife (2007) by Denise Mina
Also published as The Last Breath in the UK

Paddy Meehan has it all: flash car, flat, job as Scotland's leading columnist, and giant packet of biscuits all to herself, but the groggy bliss of a Saturday night in front of the TV is shattered when the police knock politely on her door, smiling sadly when she answers it. Someone close to her has died, but she's staggered when they tell her who it is.

This is the third novel in the Paddy Meehan series. Denise Mina has three series: the Garnethill series, the Paddy Meehan series, and the Alex Morrow series. I have read none of her books yet but I have read a lot of praise regarding her writing.

Poor Tom is Cold by Maureen Jennings

The third book in the Detective Murdoch series. My husband found this lovely hardback edition for me.  I have read the 1st one and have a copy of the second one on order.

Per a review at Publisher's Weekly:
The plethora of historical mysteries makes it difficult for a writer to carve out a time and place uniquely her own. However, Jennings has laid strong claim to the Toronto of the late 19th-century with the Anthony award-winning Except the Dying and Under the Dragon's Tail, and she cements her hold with this deft combination of mystery and social issues.

The Midnight Choir by Gene Kerrigan

I have one other book by this author (unread). The book is The Rage, and it had been highly recommended at several blogs. So when I saw this Europa edition in good condition at the book sale, I could not pass it up.

Description at Europa Editions:
A sophisticated crime story of contemporary Ireland, The Midnight Choir teems with moral dilemmas and Dublin emerges as a city of ambiguity: a newly-scrubbed face hiding a criminal culture of terrible variety.

First Wife, Twice Removed by Clare Curzon

I actually had another copy of this book, a mass market paperback. But this one with the skeleton hand I just had to have. I have been searching for years for earlier books in this series to start with, but now have decided I will read this one -- the eighth book in a series of twenty four books -- and see what I think.

Description from Fantastic Fiction:
Two disturbing deaths have Superintendent Mike Yeading's team spread out from the Thames Valley to Amsterdam looking for answers. As the investigations of the separate incidents develop in sinister parallel, the people of the Thames Police Force will confront more untimely death before tangled skeins come together to create a diabolical tapestry of murder.

Seeking Whom He May Devour: Fred Vargas

I have read two books in the Commissaire Adamsberg series by Fred Vargas, and I had two vastly different reactions.  When I read The Chalk Circle Man (the first book in the series), I was disappointed. The book did not seem to be about much, and Adamsberg seemed to spend all of his time ignoring his coworkers findings and waiting to have his intuition proved correct. [Keep in mind that I read this two years ago and my memory of events in the book may be prejudiced by time.] Adamsberg did prove that his intuition was right and he did solve the crime, but I did not enjoy the book.

Now I have read the second book in the series, Seeking Whom He May Devour, and I have a very different reaction to that one. There are differences. The first book was set in Paris; this book is set in the French Alps. In the first two thirds of the book, the story centers on a group of people residing in the French Alps who are on a quest to stop a murderer, and we only get glimpses of Adamsberg now and then. Adamsberg is functioning as a policeman in this book, but his involvement is also personal.

Excerpts from the plot summary at Goodreads:

A small mountain community in the French Alps is roused to terror when they awaken each morning to find yet another of their sheep with its throat torn out. One of the villagers thinks it might be a werewolf, and when she's found killed in the same manner, people begin to wonder if she might have been right. Suspicion falls on Massart, a loner living on the edge of town.

The murdered woman's adopted son, one of her shepherds, and her new friend Camille decide to pursue Massart, who has conveniently disappeared.

The local authorities have ignored suggestions that Massart is either a werewolf or a man with a wolf who is killing sheep and humans. As Camille and her motley crew pursue Massart through the Alps, the killings continue. Eventually Camille decides she must call on Commissaire Adamsberg of Paris. They have a history and she does not want to see him, but she feels she must ask for his help.

For most of this book, the story seems more fantasy than real. But in the end, there is a real solution that makes sense. Reading the book and accepting the story takes some suspension of disbelief. However, for me, the writing style and the story were compelling, and I read this less for the mystery, more for the story of the unusual band traveling together with a common goal.

Other positive aspects of this book are the two maps at the beginning. I love books with maps. And I learned a little more about France and the French Alps.

There were hints of Camille's past relationship with Adamsberg in The Chalk Circle, but in neither book do we get much of their history. It is clear that they both feel strongly for each other, and it is left at that.

I will continue this series, if only to determine if this was a fluke for me, and the rest of the books will be more like the first book. On the other hand, I suspect that if I had read other books in the series first, I would have approached The Chalk Circle with a different mindset. The books were translated into English out of order, so many readers probably read The Chalk Circle after reading other books in the series.

These are words that are often used to describe this series and Commissaire Adamsberg: quirky, eccentric, unorthodox, bizarre, grotesque. Whether or not that type of mystery normally appeals to you, I would recommend trying this series just to give it a taste and see if it is for you. The problem is, I am not sure which book is a good place to start. And it may depend on the reader. I saw many comments on Goodreads indicating that readers loved the first book and hated Seeking Whom He May Devour. And vice versa.

Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of Frédérique Audouin-Rouzeau. In addition to writing, she is a historian and archaeologist. The books in this series have been translated by Sian Reynolds. Author and translator have won four International Daggers awarded by the CWA.

Other reviews:
A very positive review of Seeking Whom He May Devour at Mysteries in Paradise.

A review of The Ghost Riders of Ordebec (the most recent book) with a list of the books in order of publication at Crime Scraps Review.

More reviews of The Ghost Riders of Ordebec at Crimepieces and Ms. Wordopolis Reads.

Submitted for the Alphabet in Crime Fiction for the letter V. This community meme is hosted by Mysteries In Paradise.

Also for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VIII event, hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. Reviews for that event are here.