Six Degrees of Separation: From All Fours to The Spellman Files

 

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 All Fours by Miranda July. Although the book has been very successful, I know very little about it, so I am linking to my first book using the author's first name.

1st degree:

Linking from the author's name, Miranda July, my first book in the chain is City of Secrets (2011) by Kelli Stanley; the main character in this book is Miranda Corbie. I think Miranda is a lovely name. I haven't read this book but my husband has, and here is his brief review from Goodreads:

This excellent private eye thriller - the second of the Miranda Corbie series - weaves a genuinely sinister plot line into an evocative 1940 San Francisco setting. A strong protagonist (who drinks and smokes lots!), well drawn supporting characters, and style to burn.

2nd degree:

Using Kelli Stanley's last name, I link to a book from the Stanley Hastings series, Favor (1988) by Parnell Hall. My husband and I both read this book, but his review (at Goodreads) is much better than mine:

Stanley Hastings is a lowly-paid leg man for an ambulance chasing lawyer, a wannabe sort of private eye and writer, a self-deprecating and loving family man. In this, the third of Parnell Hall's series, we find Stanley off to Atlantic City to do a quick favor for someone who's not really even a friend. Before too long, he finds himself charged with grand larceny (the way he tries to get out of that is elegant) and in the frame for two murders. The characters are all sharply drawn, the pace is swift, the plot is complex in a good way, and there is a light tone throughout. There are nearly 20 in the series and I can't wait to get to the next one.

3rd degree:

Parnell Hall was a prolific author with multiple series. For my next link I choose a book by another author with the last name of Hall. Adam Hall was a pseudonym used by Ellestor Trevor, and under that name he wrote a long-running series of spy novels featuring Quiller, a British secret agent for a covert organization of spies, unacknowledged by the government. Quiller is a very unusual spy fiction protagonist in that he doesn't smoke, drink, or carry a gun. The Quiller Memorandum (1965) is set in the 1960s in Berlin, and Quiller has finished a long string of assignments to find Nazi war criminals and bring them to trial. He is planning to return to England the next day, but is enticed into a new assignment when another agent is killed.

4th degree:

Moving from a spy series written in the 1960s to another series written at about the same time, my next link is to Funeral in Berlin (1964) by one of my favorite authors, Len Deighton. In this story, the nameless spy (called Harry Palmer in the movie adaptations) is sent to East Berlin to facilitate the defection of an East German scientist. He must work with the Russian security-chief Colonel Stok and Hallam of the British Home Office. An elaborate plan is set up to get the scientist out of East Berlin. This book was published only three years after the Berlin Wall was constructed; in the introduction, Deighton speaks of the time he spent in East Berlin shortly after the wall went up. The setting feels very authentic.

5th degree:

Funeral in Berlin is about a defector in East Berlin. My next book, Defectors (2017) by Joseph Kanon, is about a group of American and British spies living in and around Moscow during the Cold War, after defecting to the USSR. The focus is on the relationship of the two brothers in the story, Frank, the US spy who defected to Russia in 1949, and Simon, his younger brother, who had to leave his job in intelligence to work in publishing after Frank's defection. In 1961, Simon has been allowed to come to Moscow to work with Frank on publishing his memoirs. I loved the exploration of family relationships, but the story has plenty of action also.

6th degree:

My next book, The Spellman Files (2007) by Lisa Lutz, is also about family relationships. The Spellmans are a strange and dysfunctional family who run a detective agency. Before reading the book, I had the mistaken notion that this book was primarily a humorous and cozy mystery. It is humorous but not so cozy, and sometimes does not even seem like crime fiction. I loved the writing, and I found the book hard to put down.

My Six Degrees starts in the US, moves to Berlin, Germany, then Russia, and back to the US. If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you? 

Have you read any of these books? 

The next Six Degrees will be on July 5, 2025 and the starting book will be the 2025 Stella Prize winner, Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow to The Optimist's Daughter

 

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 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I wasn't in any hurry to read this book, but when it came up as a starting book for Six Degrees, it motivated me to get a copy. I have been reading it (at a slow pace) for three days now and am only halfway in. It is about two young people who create video games, and so far it focuses on relationships and family. I like the way it is structured, and I am enjoying reading it, immensely. 

1st degree:

Staying with the theme of video gaming, my first link is to Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto. This is a young adult novel; the main character is an avid video-gamer. When she plays online she uses a male name to avoid harassment. The storyline is similar to The Shop Around the Corner (or You've Got Mail).  

2nd degree:

I enjoyed reading another book by Jesse Q. Sutanto, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Vera Wong is sixty years old, widowed, and lives alone above her tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. One morning she finds the dead body of a man on the floor of her tea shop, a man she does not recognize. She reinvents herself as an amateur detective.

3rd degree:

Staying in Chinatown in San Francisco, my next book is City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who investigates the death of Eddie Takahashi, against the wishes of the Chamber of Commerce and the police. Kelli Stanley makes San Francisco of the 1940's come alive; she describes the tensions within Chinatown due to the war in Asia and Europe very well. I learned much about Chinatown and the US attitude toward the war at that time. My husband introduced me to this series and he has read all four books in the series.

4th degree:

China Trade is another book set in Chinatown, but this time in New York City's Chinatown, in the 1990's. It is the first book in S. J. Rozan's series about two private investigators who frequently work cases together. Bill Smith is a white private investigator in his forties who lives in Manhattan; Lydia Chin is an American-born Chinese private investigator in her late twenties who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother. I am linking to Constance's review at Staircase Wit, because I read this book before I was blogging.

5th degree:

My fifth book is another book by  S. J. Rozan, Paper Son. This is the 12th book in the Bill Smith and Lydia Chin series, published in 2019. In this book Lydia discovers that she has relatives in Mississippi. Lydia's mom, Chin Yong-Yun, requests that Lydia go help out a cousin in Mississippi who is in jail, and she insists that Bill Smith go along to help. This is one of the best books in the series, and I enjoyed it especially because of the setting. I grew up in Alabama and I had relatives in a small town in Mississippi. This is a pretty good look at the South, without being over the top, not that I have spent a lot of time there in the last few years.

6th degree:

Another novel set in Mississippi is The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. The book was published in 1972 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1973. Laurel McKelva Hand is a widow, living and working in Chicago. She goes to New Orleans with her father, Judge McKelva, and his second wife, Fay, to visit the Judge's eye doctor. The judge dies while in the hospital for eye surgery. Laurel returns to her hometown in Mississippi for the funeral. Many readers love this book, but I did  not. It was funny at times, sad at times, but I could not connect with the characters or feel any involvement in the story.

The links in my chain of books centered on Chinatowns in different cities in the US, contemporary and historical, and then hopped over to Mississippi. 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your links go?

The next Six Degrees will be on February 3, 2024, and the starting book will be the book you finished on this month (or the last book read).

Reading Summary for July 2017

July has been another good reading month. I read nine books, which is a lot for me.  I am making progress on my Twenty Books of Summer. Of the nine books I read this month, seven were from that list. The other two were read this month because I wanted to read the book before I watched the movie.

One of the books was not crime fiction: Their Finest by Lissa Evans, set in the the UK in 1940 and 1941. The story is about a young female copywriter who gets an assignment to the Ministry of Information, writing parts of scripts for a WWII propaganda film. That alone would be an interesting subject, but the story follows several other people associated with the filming. Each one provides a different view of the UK during the war. It is a lovely story, very humorous, and one of my favorite reads of the month. I much prefer the UK title: Their Finest Hour and a Half.

Now for my list of crime fiction books...

City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley (2010)

A story about a female private eye set in 1940 in San Francisco's Chinatown. I have posted my thoughts on this book HERE.

Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (2009)

Red Bones is the third book in the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves; the books are all set on the Shetland Islands, which are part of Scotland. They feature Inspector Jimmy Perez. I read the first two books a few years ago; although I liked them a lot, I don't remember much beyond the basic plot. I read this book (at this time) because we wanted to start the Shetland TV series and Red Bones is the first book which was adapted. I liked the book just as well as the first two. (I just finished Blue Lightning on Thursday, and it is my favorite of the four.)

New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith (1991)

During the Mardi Gras parade, the King of the Carnival is shot and killed by someone dressed as Dolly Parton. Skip Langdon is one of the cops working on crowd control for the event. She is a friend of the family,  and thus gets involved with the investigation. This book won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. The setting was done well and it was interesting to see this view of New Orleans.

The Distant Echo by Val McDermid (2003)

This is the first book in the Karen Pirie series, but she only shows up after 200 pages into the story and even after that only plays a small role in the story. Regardless, this was a very good tale of the investigation of a cold case, with close to half of the book taking place at the time that the crime is committed. I have posted my thoughts on this book HERE.

Bodies are Where you Find Them by Brett Halliday (1941)

I have a good number of the Mike Shayne novels by Brett Halliday, but I started with this one because the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was loosely based on this novel. I did not really expect there to be much similarity between the two, but the basic premise is the same in both. In the book,  a woman’s body shows up in Mike's bed but disappears; Mike and his friend, reporter Timothy Rourke, are searching for it. I enjoyed this book, but I am pretty sure I am going to enjoy my next Mike Shayne story even more now that I have a taste of the series.

Brothers Keepers by Donald Westlake (1975)

This is about a small, obscure Catholic order of monks who are in danger of being tossed out of their home. This summary from Goodreads is just perfect so I am going to use it.  

"When the order's lease on the Park Avenue monastery expires, sixteen monks face a greedy real-estate mogul, and Brother Benedict falls in love with the mogul's daughter."

I loved this book. Another of my favorite books of the month.

A Shock to the System by Simon Brett (1984)

This is a very different book by Simon Brett. Most of his books that I have read are humorous mysteries about Charles Paris, the actor. A Shock to the System is part dark comedy, and part thriller. Graham Marshall is an HR professional, a seemingly ordinary man, who kills a man in a fit of pique. Initially he is remorseful and fears retribution; when it does not come, he begins to see murder as a solution to his problems. (This was the 2nd book I read because we want to watch the movie again. It just came out in a new Blu-ray edition.)

The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham (1938)

The simplest description of this book is that Albert Campion’s sister, a fashion designer, is implicated in a murder, and Albert wants very much to find the culprit. The story is, of course, much more complicated than that. Amanda Fitton, from the earlier book Sweet Danger, shows up again and she and Albert stage a fake engagement. My thoughts on the book are HERE.

City of Dragons: Kelli Stanley

Summary from the publisher:

February, 1940. In San Francisco's Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up. The cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs. From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailor's shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city–her city–seeking the truth.

Miranda Corbie chooses to investigate Eddie Takahashi's death. She does pick up a second, paying case investigating the suspicious death of Lester Winters, and the disappearance of his daughter, Phyllis.

The handling of the setting in time and place is fantastic. Kelli Stanley makes San Francisco of the 1940's come alive, and she describes the tensions within Chinatown due to the war in Asia and Europe very well. I learned much about Chinatown and the US attitude toward the war at that time. I always enjoy a story set in Chinatown (of any city) but I don't think I have ever read one that was set before World War II.

Due to the writing style we are privy to Miranda's thoughts at times, and get glimpses of her background as a nurse in the Spanish Civil War, and the loss of her boyfriend in that war. She is clearly still suffering from these experiences, and seems to take out her pain on friends and foes alike.

Although the story is told from Miranda's point of view it is not in first person. Sometimes her thinking and reactions read like a stream of consciousness, with short sentences and choppy delivery. At other times, the writing is very beautiful, lovely descriptions and straightforward prose.

I will not pretend that this was the perfect reading experience for me. We are reminded too often about the unhappiness and confusion that Miranda is experiencing. Many readers complained about the many, many references to smoking, which did not bother me. And I should warn readers that there is a lot of profanity, although I felt it fit the context.

Nevertheless, I was involved with the story and admired the heroine. I want to follow her in her story and I plan to read the next book in the series. My husband has read all three books in the series and will be purchasing book 4 when it comes out.

  ----------------------------------
Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2010
Length:    335 pages
Format:    Hardback
Series:     Miranda Corbie #1
Setting:    Chinatown, San Francisco, 1940's
Genre:     Historical Mystery
Source:    I borrowed this book from my husband.