Six Degrees of Separation: From Theory & Practice to The Paris Diversion

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 books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Theory & Practice  by Michelle de Kretser. This book won the Stella Prize, a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing, and championing diversity and cultural change. Theory & Practice is described as autofiction; thus it is a blend between autobiography and fiction. When I was looking into this subgenre of fiction, I was both confused and interested in all the descriptions and various interpretations. 

1st degree:

My first link will be to Outline by Rachel Cusk, which is also described as autofiction. I have that book on my shelves, unread. So I hope to give it a try soon.

The main character in Outline is a novelist who goes to Athens, Greece to teach a writing course during the summer. She has ten conversations with people she meets on the way to Athens and during her stay there.

2nd degree:

The second link is to The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi. This book takes place mainly on the fictional Greek island, Thiminos. A woman is found dead at the bottom of a cliff; the local police call it an accident. Then a stranger comes to Thiminos from Athens, with the intention of solving her murder.

This is another book I have on my bookshelves. The Greek Detective series gets good reviews and I should read it soon.

3rd degree:

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler starts in Athens and ends up in Turkey.  Arthur Simpson, thief and con man, is hired to drive a car to Turkey. He does not know that he is smuggling illegal weapons in the car, and he is caught by border guards. The authorities force him to deliver the weapons to the people who hired him, in order to uncover their nefarious plans. 

The book was adapted to screen as Topkapi. Peter Ustinov won an Oscar for Supporting Actor for the role of Arthur. Maximilian Schell and Robert Morley also starred.

4th degree:

The James Bond spy thriller From Russia with Love (1957, Ian Fleming) is set in Instanbul, Turkey. The Russians plot to rid themselves of James Bond by faking the defection of a female cipher clerk. Bond is sent to Istanbul to help the defector escape. They take the Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris, where the story ends. Also made into a very successful film, starring Sean Connery.

5th degree:

A good portion of the last book took place on a train and it ended in Paris. That takes me to The Sleeping-Car Murders by Sébastien Japrisot, a French author, screenwriter and film director. This novel was first published in French in 1962. The night train from Marseilles arrives in Paris. In the sleeping car, the body of a young woman is found dead. This is a police procedural and the investigation takes place in Paris.

6th degree:

My last link is to a book that also takes place in Paris. The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone is an espionage thriller which begins with a terror attack on Paris. It is the second book featuring Kate Moore and her husband Dexter. The first book was The Expats. This is a very fast-paced thriller (at times) but the story is told very well.

This is another Six Degrees where I rediscovered some books on my own shelves that I have not read yet. 

My Six Degrees took me from Athens, Greece to Turkey and then ended up in Paris, France. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on August 2, 2025, and the starting book will be the 2025 Women’s Prize winner, The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden.

  

Reading in July 2021

No wonder this felt like a weird reading month. I only read three mystery novels, although two other books I read were nonfiction related to mysteries. Five of the fiction books read were from my 20 Books of Summer list, the sixth was from my Classics Club list.

Nonfiction / Mystery reference

Southern Cross Crime (2020) by Craig Sisterson

This book is subtitled "The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film & TV of Australia and New Zealand," and that describes the contents pretty well. I have been hoping someone would publish this type of mystery reference for those areas, and Craig Sisterson is definitely the one to do it. 

Nonfiction / Memoir

Poirot and Me (2013) by David Suchet and Geoffrey Wansell

Having read almost all of the Poirot novels, and watched ALL of the Poirot TV episodes, I was ready to read this book by Suchet which functions as a memoir of the years that the Poirot series aired. I enjoyed all of it. He includes interesting facts about the various episodes and the parts he played in the years when Poirot was not being filmed. Also discussed is how decisions were made on the portrayal of Poirot and the time setting for all the TV episodes. I found this to be very entertaining and fun to read.

General Fiction / Classic

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston

This was my book chosen for the Classics Club Spin. It was a wonderful read, although I had misgivings before I started reading because much of it is written in dialect.

Historical Fiction

H.M.S. Surprise (1973) by Patrick O'Brian

This the third book in O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin series. The novel was not that long but took me a while to read. I enjoyed it immensely and I am sure I will be reading all 20 of the books.

Science Fiction

Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov

Foundation is a science fiction classic, the first part of a trilogy. My review here.

Crime Fiction

A Killing Spring (1996) by Gail Bowen

This is the 5th book in a mystery series about Joanne Kilbourn, a political analyst and university professor who gets involved in criminal investigations. The setting is Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I keep coming back because I like the setting, and they are certainly not boring. My review here.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963) by Ian Fleming

This is the 11th book in the James Bond series, and in my opinion, one of the best in the series. There are three books in the James Bond series that feature the villain Blofeld of Spectre, and this novel was the second one, following Thunderball. I enjoyed the book. I loved it when I first read it because the heroine's name was Tracy and at the time I did not know many girls named Tracy. So it was a nostalgic read for me. The film version stars George Lazenby as Bond and Diana Rigg as Tracy; we watched it back in 2018, and now we will watch it again.

Women with a Blue Pencil (2015) by Gordon McAlpine

This novel is set in 1941, at the time when the attack on Pearl Harbor takes place. A Japanese-American man has written a novel with a Japanese-American protagonist, but after the attack, his editor can't publish it and asks him to change the story. The story is told via two parallel narratives (a version of the original story and the version suggested by his editor), interlaced with the letters from Maxine, the editor, cajoling Tamiko into continuing the new version of the novels. I loved the story, especially when it all came together. My review here.

Reading Next?

I have five books left on my 20 Books of Summer list, and I am having a hard time deciding what to read next. Possibly The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer or Way Station by Clifford D. Simak or The Turquoise Shop by Frances Crane. Those books were all published between 1941 and 1963.

The photo at the head of this post is a Rudbeckia plant in a bed in the front. The photo immediately above shows flowers from two Mandevilla plants in the back patio area, one pink and one dark red. Both photos were taken by my husband. They were planted in the last month and we will have to see how they do over the next few months.

Six Degrees of Separation from Atonement to The Coffin Dancer

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 Atonement by Ian McEwan.  It sounds like it would be my kind of book, based on the time periods it covers, but it never appealed. I do have a copy and it is on my "maybe someday" list to read.

The link to my first book is by author name... first name. In the last few years, I have read a lot of the James Bond books by Ian Fleming, and my favorite so far is From Russia With Love. James Bond is a serious spy, and Fleming modeled him after people he knew in the Secret Service, but the novels are sometimes more adventure stories than spy fiction and sometimes verge into fantasy. In every book James Bond romances one or more women.

From James Bond I move on to Funeral in Berlin, a novel about the nameless spy created by Len Deighton. The nameless spy, known as Harry Palmer in the movies based on the books, is more of a common, everyday person than the James Bond type of spy; sure, he visits exotic locales, and he deals with dangerous situations and dangerous people, but he is just a working-class guy, doing a job, and has a girlfriend from the office.


I discovered Len Deighton's books in 2012, and since then have read many of his books. Another favorite is Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. This story of one family in Germany shows the rise of the Nazi party, how it affected Germans and how they dealt with the changes in their society. The focus is on two brothers, both born around the beginning of the twentieth century. Their mother is from a wealthy American family, the father is a well-to-do German industrialist. Both grow up in Germany, and they fight on the German side in World War I.  Between World War I and World War II they take different paths.

Another book related to Germany  between the two world wars is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. This is Erik Larson's non-fiction account of the years from 1933 to 1937 when William Dodd was the American Ambassador to Germany. He and his family lived in Berlin and took part in society functions there. An extremely interesting book.

The "garden of beasts" referred to in the title is Berlin's central park, the Tiergarten; the Dodd family lived in a home on the edge of the park. Another book with a similar title is also set in Berlin, Garden of Beasts by Jeffery Deaver. This book is a standalone historical thriller, set at the time prior to World War II that Germany was building toward rearmament. The protagonist is a German-American mobster hit man who is forced to take on the assignment of killing Reinhard Ernst, the man behind the  rearmament effort.


Moving away from Berlin and earlier times, my final stop is another book by Jeffery Deaver, The Coffin Dancer, the second book in the Lincoln Rhyme series. Rhyme is a quadriplegic who is skilled at forensic investigations, usually working as a consultant to the police department. Here he is looking for an assassin who is targeting witnesses to a killing. I read this book nearly two years ago and never reviewed it. It was very suspenseful, kept me entertained throughout, but had too many twists and turns at the end... and too long. On the other hand, a lot of the subject matter relates to flying airplanes and aviation, and if Deaver isn't an expert on the topic he did tons of research because it is very realistic in that area.

My chain covered mostly earlier periods in history but ended up with a thriller. It was a lot of fun. Check out the other chains, the links are always interesting.

Thunderball: Ian Fleming

I started reading the James Bond books in 2016, in order, skipping Casino Royale because I knew that I had read that one. In 2016 I read 4 of them, in 2017 only one of them. This year I read Goldfinger and Thunderball. I skipped the eighth James Bond book, For Your Eyes Only, because it is four short stories and I was eager to move onto the three books involving SPECTRE. I have a lovely reprint edition titled The Blofeld Trilogy which includes Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice.

Thunderball is the ninth James Bond book.  Ernst Stavro Blofeld, head of the criminal organization SPECTRE, makes his first appearance. Two other interesting characters are Emilio Largo, Blofeld's main henchman, and Domino, Largo's mistress. Felix Leiter of the CIA works closely with Bond on this one, and I always like his presence in the Bond novels (and films).

The story starts at an expensive health clinic near Brighton where M has sent 007 to detoxify. He stumbles onto a sinister plot engineered by SPECTRE, although he doesn't realize its importance immediately. When a bomber carrying two nuclear bombs disappears over the Atlantic, a demand is sent to the British and US governments, demanding a large amount of money, Bond and M make the connection. This is where Felix Leiter comes in, and he and Bond are sent to the Bahamas to investigate.

As in most of the other Bond novels I have read, this one includes a good bit of sexism; if you can get past that, it is an enjoyable book. On the plus side, this was more of an adventurous spy novel, with less of the fantastical elements that are in some of the earlier novels in the series. More believable, but with lots of underwater scenes, which I did not care for.

We recently watched the film adaptation. Thunderball was the fourth of the James Bond films, starring Sean Connery as James Bond, Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo, and Claudine Auger as Dominique "Domino" Derval. Blofeld stays in the background in the book, and also in the fim. He is a presence, but we don't see his face.

This not one of my favorite Bond films starring Sean Connery. A lot of the same thoughts on the book hold for the movie. Too many long underwater scenes. The lengthy section in the book about the health club is pared down, which is good, but then some of the action doesn't make as much sense in that section. Overall the story in the book and the movie is about the same, unlike some of the adaptations which pretty much ditched the plot in the novel.

I enjoyed having Felix Leiter in the movie, even though it is a different actor playing him each time. Domino's role in the film was not as good as in the book, where she is stronger and purposeful.

See these excellent reviews of the novel. Some of them comment on the conflicts related to the publication of this novel. They also feature some lovely covers.

• Vintage Pop Fictions
• Supposedly Fun
• At the Scene of the Crime
• Michael May's Adventure Blog
• At Clothes in Books, Part 1 and Part 2

-----------------------------

Publisher:  Penguin Books, 2010 (orig. publ. 1961).
Length:      226 pages 
Format:      Trade Paperback
Series:       James Bond, #9
Setting:      UK, Bahamas
Genre:       Espionage fiction
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Reading Summary for June 2018

In 2018, I have been reading more each month (than in previous years) and it still amazes me. This month I read 10 books and they were all good reads. And some of them were spectacular. As usual, most of the books were crime fiction, but I did read two books that were not mystery or crime related. Eight of these books were books on my 20 Books of Summer list.

My two non-mystery reads in June were ...

Auntie Mame (1955) by Patrick Dennis

A story about a young boy raised by his aunt after his father dies. The book reads like connected short stories, each highlighting a different stage in the boy's growing-up years.  It is wacky and entertaining, definitely not my usual fare, and I enjoyed almost every story. The story has been adapted for film and as a play.

Tales of the City (1978) by Armistead Maupin

I really have no idea how I missed this series over the years. Set in San Francisco, California, and very close to the year I visited the city the first time. Not mystery related, so that probably has something to do with it. I did learn about the books in 2014 at Clothes in Books, yet still wasn't tempted to try one. This month the time was right. It took me a while to get into the story, but I ending up loving the book and planning to read more in the series.

And now on to the eight crime fiction reads:

The Bone Garden (2003) by Kate Ellis

This is the fifth book in a series that has an archaeological theme and has two mysteries in each novel, one past, one in the present. This one had interesting characters and a decent story, but I did have some problems with it. Many readers are very happy with the series though, so if you haven't tried it, I do recommend it.

An Expert in Murder (2008) by Nicola Upson

Mystery novelist Josephine Tey is the sleuth in this one. I am not sure how much the sleuth in this book resembles the real Josephine Tey (whose real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh), but I did find the story compelling and enjoyed the setting, so I will read more of this series.

Death in the Garden (1995)
by Elizabeth Ironside

A historical novel, with story lines in two different time periods. In 1925, Diana Pollexfen was accused of killing her husband, but found innocent. Sixty years later, her grandniece decides to find out what really happened. Both stories and the way they tie together are excellent, and the writing is very, very good.

Murder is Academic (2002) by Christine Poulson

This is the first book in Poulson's Cambridge Mystery series, starring Cassandra James. After reading Poulson's most recent mysteries (Deep Water and Cold, Cold Heart) I wanted to go back and read her first series. That was a good decision; this was a lovely book, with interesting, believable characters and a great ending. The UK title is Dead Letters.

The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996) by Andrea Camilleri

The second Inspector Montalbano mystery, set in Italy, part of a long-running series. Montalbano finds a cave filled with artifacts and the bodies of two young lovers who have been dead for 50 years. I had read the previous book in the series but had forgotten how much of an independent loner the inspector is. The story is very complex.

White Sky, Black Ice (1999) by Stan Jones

This series stars Nathan Active, an Alaska state trooper, half Inupiat and half white, assigned to the remote village of Chukchi. The story has an interesting and unusual setting and the plotting is fine, but it is the character that I want to know more about. And it is that element that will bring me back to read more books in the series. 

Thunderball (1961) by Ian Fleming

This is the second James Bond book I read this year. It is the first of three novels featuring Ernst Stavro Blofeld, head of the criminal organization SPECTRE. As always, a good read.

Faithful Place (2010) by Tana French

I read this for the European Challenge for Ireland. Set in Dublin, featuring Frank Mackey, a Dublin detective working in the Undercover department. Frank returns to his old neighborhood and the family he left 22 years earlier to investigate a possible crime. Another great story by this author, my favorite of her books ... so far.

20 Books of Summer 2018

A few days ago I was wondering if the 20 Books of Summer challenge would return in 2018. Then I saw Jean's list at Howling Frog Books, and I immediately started thinking about my list for this summer. The originator of the challenge is Cathy at 746 Books. Check out Cathy's list for more information.

This is a challenge of sorts but it is very flexible and I have enjoyed it for the last two years. For this event, summer starts June 1st and ends September 3rd. You can go for 15 Books of Summer or 10 Books of Summer if 20 is too much to commit to. Both years I participated I did not finish my list in the Summer, omitting 2 or 3 books, and I read others that appealed to me at the time. And that is fine.

And the absolute best part is making the list, even if it means narrowing down a list of 40 books to 20. So here is what I chose.

A Study in Scarlet (1887) by Arthur Conan Doyle

This brief book, barely over 100 pages, introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and it will be the first novel in this series that I have read.

Death in the Clouds (1935) by Agatha Christie

A woman is murdered with the venom-dipped dart of a South African blow-gun on a routine flight over the English Channel. A Hercule Poirot mystery.

The Bigger They Come (1939) by A.A. Fair (Erle Stanley Gardner)

The first book in the Donald Lam and Bertha Cool series.

Murder with Mirrors (1952) by Agatha Christie

Jane Marple visits Carrie Louise at her Victorian mansion, Stoneygates, at the request of an old friend. UK title is They Do It with Mirrors.

Auntie Mame (1955) by Patrick Dennis

A story about a young boy raised by his aunt. It has been adapted for film and as a Broadway play.

Thunderball (1961) by Ian Fleming

The 9th James Bond book, set in the Bahamas. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, head of the criminal organization SPECTRE, makes his first appearance.

The Limbo Line (1963) by Victor Canning

Starring British Secret Service agent Richard Manston, who shows up later in Canning's Rex Carver books.

Death in the Garden (1995) by Elizabeth Ironside

A historical novel, with story lines in two different time periods. In 1925, Diana Pollexfen was accused of killing her husband, but found innocent. Sixty years later, her grandniece decides to find out what really happened.

The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996) by Andrea Camilleri

The 2nd Inspector Montalbano mystery, set in Italy, part of a long-running series. Montalbano finds a cave filled with artifacts and the bodies of two young lovers who have been dead for 50 years.

Starting Out in the Evening (1998) by Brian Morton

A novel about an aging author whose books are now generally forgotten, and a young female grad student who wants to a write her thesis about him. There is a movie based on the book starring Frank Langella.

Night Rounds (1999) by Helene Tursten

The second book in Helene Tursten's series featuring Inspector Irene Huss, set in Sweden. Her husband is a chef, and they have twin daughters and a dog. 

White Sky, Black Ice (1999) by Stan Jones

Starring Nathan Active, an Alaska state trooper assigned to the remote village of Chukchi. This will be my first experience reading this author.

Murder is Academic (2002) by Christine Poulson

This is the first book in Poulson's Cambridge Mystery series, starring Cassandra James. The UK title is Dead Letters. 

The Bone Garden (2003) by Kate Ellis

This is the 5th book in a series that has an archaeological theme and has two mysteries in each novel, one past, one in the present. I read the first one years ago but wasn't encouraged to continue with the series. Yet I have heard good things about the series and it now has a total of 22 books.

Gasa-Gasa Girl (2005) by Naomi Hirahara

The sleuth in this book is Mas Arai, a Japanese-American gardener in Los Angeles. This story takes him to New York, where his daughter lives. The 2nd book in the series.

The Night Watch (2006) by Sarah Waters

I was attracted to this book by the subject matter (World War II, London, 1941-1947)  but put off by the length. Now I am going to give it a try.

An Expert in Murder (2008) by Nicola Upson

Mystery novelist Josephine Tey is the sleuth in this one. I was dubious of the premise but I have heard good things about the books so why not see if I like it?

The Diggers Rest Hotel (2010) by Geoffrey McGeachin

Set in post-World War II Australia, the hero is Charlie Berlin, who rejoins the Melbourne police force after the war. This book won the 2011 Ned Kelly Award.

The Cold Cold Ground (2012) by Adrian McKinty

Set in Northern Ireland in 1981, at the height of the Troubles. Starring Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic policeman.

Follow Her Home (2013) by Steph Cha

Juniper Song is a young female Korean American amateur detective in LA, who is an admirer of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. The series sounds like it could be fun.

Moskva (2016) by Jack Grimwood

I have read two of this author's books published as John Courtenay Grimwood and I was very impressed with them, so when I heard he had written a cold war spy thriller set in Russia, I had to read it.

 

Since this list is so long I won't even comment on its makeup, but since I have added dates you can see what decades I am reading from.

Goldfinger: Ian Fleming

This was a fun read because I have watched the movie many times, but I had some  major quibbles with this novel.

The book starts with James Bond in the Miami airport, waiting for a delayed flight. Coincidentally, another passenger recognizes him from a previous encounter, and enlists his help in figuring out how Auric Goldfinger is cheating him at cards, canasta in this case. Only later does Bond find out that Goldfinger is causing consternation in the UK, because the Bank of England suspects him of smuggling large amounts of gold out of the country. His boss, M, assigns Bond the case of finding out exactly what Goldfinger is up to.

There are a lot of things to like about the James Bond thrillers by Ian Fleming. They combine adventure and spy fiction, with interesting characters, and each one is a bit different. There does not seem to be a formula. Sometimes the stories are a bit fantastic, but still a lot of fun.

In this case, Fleming did seem to borrow from an earlier book, with the initial encounter with a villain being connected to card playing, and Bond meeting the villain before there is an official case to investigate (similar to Moonraker). On the other hand, Bond's character is more developed in this book. He is introspective -- about his job where he kills people for a living, about his inability to be all things to all people.

Usually I find the James Bond books to be well written and entertaining, but this time the book had flaws that took me out of the story. There was a section of the story devoted to a round of golf, which went on entirely too long. It was important to the depiction of characteristics of both Goldfinger and Bond, and their future relationship, but could have been cut back by half, at least.

The story was also marred by offensive racial and homophobic comments.  Sometimes such remarks can be attributed to the time of publication or as a character trait, but there was so much time spent on these remarks in this story, it was impossible to just ignore them.

Moving on to the movie. This was the third of the James Bond films, starring Sean Connery as James Bond, Gert Fröbe as Goldfinger, and Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore.

We watched the movie again after I read the book. The plot of the movie is fairly close to that of the book, but there were some changes, enough to make it entertaining.

Sometimes I cannot believe that the outrageous names that are used in the movies are actually from the books, but they are. Pussy Galore is the best example, I just could not believe that name would be used in a novel. But it was. In the movie she leads a band of female pilots that perform for airshows; in the book she is a female crime boss.

One big difference I noted was that Felix Leiter, a CIA agent and long-time friend of Bond, has a much larger role in the movie than in the book. In the movie he is in Miami to meet Bond and pass on M's instructions to keep tabs on Goldfinger. In the book he shows up much later, although he plays a crucial role.

In this case I would recommend the movie over the book, although certainly it is always nice to read the source material.

This is the 6th James Bond book I have read since I started blogging. I started with Live and Let Die, Book 2 in the series, because I had read Casino Royale in 2007 after the Daniel Craig movie came out. Now that I have read Goldfinger, I really want to go back and reread Casino Royale, but I am also in a hurry to get to On His Majesty's Secret Service. Decisions, decisions.

Also see these reviews: Clothes in Books, At the Scene of the Crime, Simon McDonald, and Vintage Pop Fictions.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   MJF Books, 1997 (orig. pub. 1959) 
Length:       318 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       James Bond, #7
Setting:      US, UK, France, Switzerland
Genre:       Spy thriller
Source:      I purchased this book.

Reading Summary for April 2018

Once again I have read more books this month than I expected. One book was very very long and took most of a week to finish (All Clear), and several were vintage mysteries which usually don't have lots of pages, so I guess it all balances out. Mostly crime fiction, as usual. I also read a good mix of older and newer fiction, which I am happy about.

I read two books outside of the crime fiction genre. One was Connie Willis's time travel book All Clear. The other was a book of short stories, I Bring Sorrow by Patricia Abbott, which had 25 stories, all dark, some crime fiction, some from other genres.


All Clear (2010) by Connie Willis

When I started reading Blackout and All Clear, all I knew about the books was that they took place in 1940, during the London Blitz, and they were about a group of time travelers who were from Oxford in 2060. And I did not want to know more than that so I hesitate to go into more depth here. A more detailed summary that doesn't give away much is available at Goodreads. The two books are really one book in two parts so I did end up reading both of them together, between March 24th and April 6th. It was a wonderful read, very emotional at the end, and I loved it.

I Bring Sorrow: and Other Stories of Transgression by Patricia Abbott

This book contains 25 short stories; some are very short (3-6 pages), most fall between 10-15 pages in length. There  are definitely some that fit the crime fiction label, with violence and murders, but there are others that are more atmospheric and thought-provoking. Actually all of them made me stop and think and that is what I loved about them. See my full review.

The remainder of my reads were crime fiction novels. Four were written before 1960, one in the 1970's, one in the 1990's, and two were after 2000.  I got in two more vintage mysteries than last month so I am happy about that.

The Silent Speaker (1946) by Rex Stout

This was a reread; I have read all of the books in the Nero Wolfe series multiple times. The Silent Speaker is one of my favorites in the series. Nero Wolfe is investigating the murder of the Director of the Bureau of Price Regulation (BPR) and the group footing his bill is the National Industrial Association (NIA). The two organizations are rivals. This was the first novel that Rex Stout published after World War II and it depicts an interesting time. See this post for more on the book.

Hidden Depths (2007) by Ann Cleeves

This is the third book in Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope series, which is also now a TV series. This one takes place in the summer on the Northumberland coast. A woman returns home after a night out to find her son dead in the bathtub; she assumes it is suicide. But it was murder and Vera and her team are investigating. I liked this one for the same reason I liked the first two in the series: wonderful characterizations and a great sense of place.

The Case of the One-Penny Orange (1977) by E.V. Cunningham

This is the second of seven mystery novels starring Masao Masuto, a detective on the Beverly Hills police force. The mysteries were  written by Howard Fast, using the pseudonym E. V. Cunningham. Matsuo is Nisei, a native-born American who parents were Japanese immigrants. Matsuo is a Zen Buddhist and his religion shapes his way of looking at things and his behavior in his work. I enjoy these books, at least the ones I have read so far. See this post for more on the book.

Goldfinger (1959) by Ian Fleming

Back in April 2016 I started a project to read all the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming. I was inspired by Moira at Clothes in Books, who has read and posted on all the books now. I am far behind. Goldfinger is only book #7 of 14 books (although two of them are short story books, not novels). This was a fun read because I have watched the movie so many times, but it is not one of my favorite Bond books so  far.

Malice Aforethought (1931) by Francis Iles

This is a classic mystery novel, mentioned frequently as one of the first examples of the inverted mystery novel. I have read and enjoyed many inverted mysteries but I did not like this one as much, although it is usually very well reviewed. I will be posting on this book soon.

Eva's Eye (1995) by Karin Fossum

The story begins with a woman discovering a body while walking on a river bank with her young daughter. The woman is Eva Magnus, and soon we learn that she is also linked to another unsolved case, the murder of a prostitute.  The police get to work on figuring out how the two cases are related. I enjoyed this first book in the Inspector Konrad Sejer series very much, although I found the ending quite sad. The setting is Norway; I read this book for the European Reading Challenge.

The Private Practice of Michael Shayne (1940) by Brett Halliday

This is the 2nd in a long-running series featuring Michael Shayne, private detective. I read the book at this time primarily because I have a few Mike Shayne movies starring Lloyd Nolan and the first of those is based on this book. This is only the second book by this author that I have read, and I enjoyed this one even more than the first one. And a bonus is the cover illustration by Robert McGinnis.

Death of a Nationalist (2003) by Rebecca Pawel

Carlos Tejada Alonso y León is a Sergeant in the Guardia Civil, and stationed in Madrid in 1939. The bitter civil war between the Nationalists and the Republicans has ended and Tejada is part of the Guaria Civil that is attempting to impose order in Madrid. Reading about the Spanish Civil War was new for me, and the book was  extremely well-written, I read this book for the European Reading Challenge.

Dr. No: Ian Fleming

At the end of From Russia with Love, James Bond had been poisoned. At the point that Dr. No begins, Bond has just returned from months of recuperation and M is eager to send him off on an assignment.

M and Bond are having relationship problems. M thinks that Bond may have lost his nerve or made poor decisions in the last case. The doctor does not want Bond put out in the field so soon after his recovery, but Bond is ready and willing to get back to work. However, he does resent it deeply when M forces him to use a new type of gun, a Walther PPK instead of his Beretta.

M asks Bond to go to Jamaica to follow up on the disappearance of two agents, one of them being the Head of Station in Jamaica, John Strangways. This is considered a "soft" assignment, almost a test of Bond's abilities, and thus Bond feels even more resentment. When Bond decides to investigate some suspicious circumstances on Crab Key island, he sets out with a guide and doesn't bother letting M or anyone else in Jamaica know his plans. Thus when the situation on Crab Key gets rough and dangerous, there is no hope of rescue.

This was a very entertaining novel. Now that I am used to the fantastical aspects in the James Bond novels, I can just go along with that and enjoy the fun. There are some standard elements in each James Bond book: a powerful supervillain, a beautiful and sexy love interest, and lots of action and violence.  Here we have the sinister Dr. No on Crab Key island and Honeychile Rider, the young and naive woman collecting shells on the beach at Crab Key. Quarrel, a Cayman Island fisherman, first met in Live and Let Die, takes Bond to the island. Bond, Honey, and Quarrel discover Dr. No's nefarious plans but don't realize how much of a maniac he is.

Other elements that routinely show up in the Bond stories are racism and sexist attitudes, and this book is full of those. If you can get past those, it is a fun adventure novel, with a fairly accurate view of the place and the time.

I was also biased towards this novel because Dr. No is one of the films that I am most familiar with. As the first adaptation of a Bond novel, it is extremely memorable and I am very fond of it. I was glad to see that the novel and the film are very much alike.

One difference is the presence of Felix Leiter, CIA agent, in the film, and my favorite actor in that role, Jack Lord. The action starts to diverge some after Bond and Quarrel get on Crab Key island, and Dr. No's motivation is somewhat different in the film. Ursula Andress as Honey is very fitting in the role. Since this was the first film adapted from the books, it also benefits from the absence of an overload of gadgets or unbelievable physical prowess on Bond's side.

Other resources: See this post at Killer Covers which features many different cover illustrations for Dr. No.  Also Moira's post on this book at Clothes in Books.

Next I will be moving on to Goldfinger, maybe before the end of the year.



 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Bantam Books, 1971 (orig. pub. 1958) 
Length:       216 pages
Format:      Paperback
Series:       James Bond, #6
Setting:      Jamaica
Genre:        Spy thriller
Source:      I purchased this book.

Vintage Scavenger Hunt Wrap Up

Every year since 2012 I have participated in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, a challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. The challenge for 2016 was a Vintage Mystery Cover Scavenger Hunt. There were two categories, Golden Age mysteries and Silver Age mysteries. I was happy with my results for the Golden Age books but I did not read many Silver Age mysteries with covers that fit the requirements.

Here is my list of Golden Age reads for the challenge:





Black Orchids by Rex Stout (Item: Spiderweb)


3 Doors to Death by Rex Stout (Item: Two people)


13 at Dinner by Agatha Christie (Item: Timepiece)


Minute for Murder by Nicholas Blake (Item: A Blonde)

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
(Item: Hand Holding Gun)


Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming (Item: Playing Cards)


Fire Will Freeze by Margaret Millar (Item: Country Scene)


Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (Item: Map)









The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
(Item: Building which is not a house)


The Case of the Restless Redhead by Erle Stanley Gardner (Item: Jewelry)


Background to Danger by Eric Ambler (Item: Hat)







She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames
(Item: Damsel in Distress)


Fast Company by Marco Page (Item: Book)


From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
(Item: Photograph)


Thou Shell of Death by Nicholas Blake (Item: Bloodstains)

Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Kyle (Item: Revolver)

Favorite Reads of 2016

Goodreads says that I have read 83 books in 2016, which means I will probably end with a total of 85 books read. I tried to cut my list of favorite books for 2016 down to less than ten, but that did not work, and for the third year I ended up with 11 books on the list.

Four of the books fall in the spy fiction sub-genre. Five of the books were published between 1939 and 1986. Six of the books were published between 2001 and 2016 and three of those were published in 2016.

The links go to my reviews / overviews.

Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (1939)
As usual, the Nero Wolfe mysteries I read this year were among my top reads (and all were rereads). I chose just one book to represent this author.

Nero Wolfe is well known for his extreme distaste for leaving his home. Some Buried Caesar is one of two novels that I can remember where Wolfe and Archie are away from the brownstone from the beginning to the end of the book. Archie drives Wolfe to an exposition where he will display some of his prize orchids, so the story places Archie and Nero into an environment that they know little about. But my favorite thing about this book is that it introduces Lily Rowan.



She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames (1948)
A Golden Age mystery, set in post-war London, with rationing, feeding the gasmeters, etc. At the beginning of this book, Jane Hamish is writing a mystery story and Dagobert, her lover, is giving her ideas for the plot. Dagobert is unemployed; Jane works in a lawyer's office. Although at first I found Dagobert very annoying, he grew on me as the book moved along and Jane Hamish and Dagobert Brown quickly became my favorite detecting couple in Golden Age fiction.

From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming (1957)

This is the fifth novel in the James Bond series, the fourth that I read this year, and it is by far my favorite so far. I have always loved the movie, and luckily in this case the movie and the book are very close.

The three previous Bond books I read were more like adventure stories. From Russia with Love sticks closer to the conventional type of spy story I prefer. Early chapters focus on SMERSH agents setting up a plot to assassinate James Bond and our hero doesn't show up until later in the story. The plot is complicated, there is a train trip on the Orient Express with a beautiful enemy agent, and plenty of exotic settings.

The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price (1970)
David Audley works for England's Ministry of Defence, but as a researcher, doing behind the scenes work. For his latest assignment he goes out in the field and he is not thrilled with this change. A WWII-era British cargo plane has been discovered at the bottom of a drained lake, complete with the dead pilot and not much else. His job is to figure out why the Soviets are so interested in the empty plane. The beginning of a spy series with eighteen more books, this is just the type of spy fiction I like: a quiet book, a lot of talking and thinking and not a lot of action.

A Perfect Spy by John le Carré (1986)
This is one of seven books I read this year by John le Carré and they were all excellent books. I picked just one of them to represent this author.

Magnus Pym, a British spy assigned to an important post in Vienna, has disappeared. After he gets a call that his father has died, he leaves for the funeral in London, but he doesn't return when expected. British intelligence agents mount a search for him. Being the gifted spy that he is, Pym easily eludes them for the majority of the book. A Perfect Spy revolves around Magnus Pym's relationship with his father, Rick, a con man who uses everyone in his life to achieve his own goals. The story is mostly autobiographical.

Pashazade by John Courtenay Grimwood (2001)
The first book in the Arabesk Trilogy. The story starts with the investigation of a murder, but the chapters skip back and forth in time, sometimes a few days, sometimes going back years in flashbacks. The setting in the present time is El Iskandryia, a North African metropolis in a world where "the United States brokered a deal that ended World War I and the Ottoman Empire never collapsed," as described on the back of the book. So this is an alternate history, sci-fi, coming of age thriller, and just my cup of tea. Pashazade has elements of a police procedural; the crime is investigated by Chief of Detectives Felix Abrinsky, formerly a policeman in Los Angeles, California, and high tech forensics are used .

Sleeping Dogs by Ed Gorman (2008)
The first in a series of five novels about Dev Conrad, a political consultant. In this novel he is working for an Illinois Senator who is running for reelection. The attitude towards politics in this novel is very cynical. Conrad truly wants his candidate to win because he believes he is the better choice of those available, but he does not see one side as bad and the other as good. No political party or ideology is demonized.

Dev Conrad is a great character. Human, not perfect, he cares about people and about his work. The people working on the campaign appear to be a close-knit group but not everyone is what they seem. The story's ending worked very well. It was logical and made sense but was a surprise to me.

An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer (2012)
Steinhauer is close to the top of my list of favorite spy fiction authors. An American Spy was the third book in his Tourist trilogy,  featuring Milo Weaver, CIA agent in the Department of Tourism. "Tourists" are undercover agents with no identity and no home. Milo is not the James Bond type, although there are plenty of thrilling escapades and violence. But we see the other side of this spy's life, the family he wishes he could spend more time with. I enjoyed picking up on Milo Weaver's adventures again. I like the depth of the characters and the exploration of the conflicts in their lives within this framework. The first book in the trilogy is The Tourist, the second is The Nearest Exit.

A Deadly Thaw by Sarah Ward (2016)
This is Sarah Ward's second novel featuring Detective Inspector Francis Sadler and his team. It is a good police procedural, focusing as much on some of the people related to the crime as on the investigative team.

The dead body of a man is found in an abandoned mortuary, located in an overgrown area outside of Bampton, Derbyshire. The deceased was supposedly murdered twelve years before. His wife, Lena, confessed to the crime and served a ten year prison sentence. Thus begins an unusual case which combines an investigation into who was killed years ago with an inquiry into whether the proper procedures were followed at that time. The plot is very complex but not at the expense of the reader's enjoyment.

See Also Deception by Larry D. Sweazy (2016)
This is the second book in a series featuring Marjorie Trumaine, set on a farm in rural North Dakota in 1964. Marjorie is an indexer, creating indexes for non-fiction books. She does this work freelance to make money that she and her husband, Hank, badly need. The area is affected by a drought, with a severe impact on the crops and livestock on the farm. Hank is an invalid due to an accident on the farm and Marjorie shoulders the responsibility for running the farm.

In this book, Marjorie's best friend in the area, a librarian, commits suicide. She begins to suspect that the suicide was faked but the police will not discuss the case with her. In addition to providing an intriguing mystery, the story gives us a vivid picture of what it was like to be a woman at this time, and how difficult it was to be heard in a man's world.

Shot in Detroit by Patricia Abbott (2016)
A novel of psychological suspense, set in 2007 Detroit. It does not paint a pretty picture of that area or the struggle to survive financially in that environment. The story centers on a female photographer who is working on a project to photograph black men who have died much too young. The subject matter is sometimes unsettling and the story is dark.

Violet Hart is the center of this story. She has family issues; her father deserted her family and her sister died when she was young. She has trouble making ends meet and wants very much to succeed in artistic photography. She is not a very likable person, willing to use people to get what she wants, always pushing her agenda first.