Books Read in June 2024

 

I read eleven books in June and that was many more books than I expected to read, considering that I had cataract surgery in the middle of the month. I ended up having more time to read and not much energy or motivation for anything else, including blogging. Nine of the books read in June were from my 20 Books of Summer list. Unfortunately I am very late in posting about my reading for June but I hope to catch up more in the next few weeks.

Graphic memoir

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) by Marjane Satrapi; Mattias Ripa (Translator)

This graphic memoir tells the story of the author's life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, from the point when the Shah is overthrown through the war with Iraq. Reading about those times from the viewpoint of a child is interesting and entertaining. The story is continued in a second volume, and I will be reading that too.

Fiction

The Lonely Hearts Book Club (2023) by Lucy Gilmore

This story has a book club theme, and it also has romance, dysfunctional families, and lonely people making friends. See my thoughts here.

Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) by Anne Tyler

Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit; he wants everyday to be the same. He has been with his girlfriend for three years. Two new events happen in his life that shake up his normal life. I liked the story a lot, the length was perfect at under 200 pages, and I want to read more of Anne Tyler's books.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014) by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is centered around a bookstore and of course books are discussed throughout. This was a lovely story with a little bit of romance and a lot about relationships, friends, and community. See my review.

Fantasy, Time Travel

Tales from the Café (2017) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This is the second in a series of five books about time travel that takes place in a café in Tokyo which has been serving a special coffee for more than one hundred years.  There are four connected stories in this book. The stories of the people who run the café are just as interesting as the time travel stories. The first book in the series is Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Crime Fiction

Skeleton-in-Waiting (1989) by Peter Dickinson

Peter Dickinson is one of my favorite authors. I prefer his mysteries, but he also wrote children's books and fantasies. This is the second book in a duology, set in an alternate Britain with a very alternate royal family. The first book is King and Joker, and in that book the two main characters (Prince Albert and Princess Louise) are teenagers. This book takes place over ten years later and both Albert and Louise have married and have children. This was a reread, and this time around I was more impressed with the story and enjoyed it very much. 

Nearly Nero (2017) by Loren D. Estleman

Between 2008 and 2016, Estleman wrote nine humorous short stories about Claudius Lyon, a man who is obsessed with emulating Nero Wolfe in all ways, and his assistant, Arnie Woodbine. Most of these stories were published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This book includes all of the stories. I reviewed the stories here and here.

Family Business (2021) by S.J. Rozan

S.J. Rozan won the 2022 Shamus Award for this novel, her 14th book starring New York City private eyes Lydia Chin and Bill Smith. When the powerful Chinatown crime boss Big Brother Choi dies, he leaves the Tong headquarters building to his niece, Mel, who hires Lydia and Bill to accompany her to inspect it. They discover the body of another Tong member in Choi's living quarters. I will be reading the latest book in the series, The Mayors of New York, very soon.

In the Midst of Death (1976) by Lawrence Block

This is an early book in the Matthew Scudder series.  Scudder is an ex-cop who works as an unlicensed private detective. In this case he is helping out an old friend on the police force who is accused of murdering a prostitute.  I liked the book but it was very dark, especially the ending. 

The Cipher Garden (2005) by Martin Edwards

The books in this series are set in Cumbria, England's Lake District, and feature Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. DCI Scarlett heads the cold case division. Here, an old cold case involving the death of a gardener is reopened because of poison pen letters sent to the police and to people involved in the crime. I like the mystery plot but could do without the romantic subplot.

A Caribbean Mystery (1964) by Agatha Christie

This is the 9th book in Christie's Jane Marple series. It is not set in Miss Marple's village of St. Mary Mead and I missed that setting. On the other hand it has a nice depiction of a Caribbean island vacation spot and any Miss Marple story is going to be entertaining. Another elderly visitor to St. Honoré, Major Palgrave, has been monopolizing Miss Marple's time, telling stories of his adventures during his travels. At one point he tells her about a murderer he met, starts to show her a picture, then gets interrupted. Shortly after that Major Palgrave dies, seemingly of natural causes. We just watched the film adaptation starring Helen Hayes tonight, and saw another adaptation with Joan Hickson a couple of weeks ago. Both were good.

Currently reading

I have just started reading A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny, the 12th book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. The story begins with Gamache taking on a new job and the discovery of an old intricate map. 

The subject of the photos at the top and bottom of this post is our cat, Rosie. At the top, Rosie is helping me read. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday – Valentino: Film Detective

This week I read three stories from Valentino: Film Detective by Loren D. Estleman, published by Crippen & Landru in 2011. The collection contains 14 short stories, all starring Valentino. He is no relation to the actor, Rudolph Valentino, but he does look like him and is constantly getting comments noting that resemblance. All of the stories in this book were originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine between 1998 and 2010.

On Estleman's website, Valentino is described as "a film detective for UCLA who inadvertently becomes an amateur sleuth." 

The first story I read, "Dark Lady Down," was a bit of a disappointment. It was one of the shorter stories, and it is solved too quickly. But the next two stories in the book were very good so I have high expectations for the rest of the stories.

In "The Frankenstein Footage" Valentino gets a call from an old friend, Craig Hunter, who is in San Diego. He assumes he is asking for money as usual and hangs up on him. The next morning two homicide detectives from San Diego come to see him. Craig Hunter was murdered the previous night, beaten to death. He answers their questions. After they leave he does some investigating on his own. 

In "Director's Cut" Valentino is trying to complete the Film Preservation Department's collection of Justin Ring's films. He is seeking a copy of the director's student film. The director insists that he burned every print and the negative years before. Months later Justin Ring's motor craft is lost at sea. Eight years later Ring's nephew shows up with a copy. This one got a bit confusing for me but it was interesting and entertaining.

The stories are told with humor, and Estleman reveals his love of movies and deep knowledge of film history. 

Loren D. Estleman is a very prolific and well-known author who has been publishing novels since 1976. He has published seven mystery novels starring Valentino since 2008. He is also the author of the Amos Walker series, the Peter Macklin series, and many standalone novels, including many Western novels. He lives in Michigan. 

Short Story Wednesday: Nearly Nero, Part 2

 

In April, I read the first four stories in Nearly Nero by Loren D. Estleman. See my comments on those stories here. This week I finished reading the remaining six stories in the book. 

The subtitle for this book is "The Adventures of Claudius Lyon, the Man Who Would Be Wolfe." Between 2008 and 2016, Estleman wrote nine short stories about Claudius Lyon, a man who is obsessed with emulating Nero Wolfe in all ways, and his assistant, Arnie Woodbine. Six of these stories were published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. One was published by the Mysterious Press, one by the Mysterious Bookshop, and one was published by Crippen & Landru.  The last story in the book ("Wolfe Whistle") was written for publication in this book. 

The last six stories are: 

“Wolfe Trap” 

“Wolfe in Chic Clothing” 

“Wolfe in the Manger” 

“Wolfe and Warp” 

“Peter and the Wolfe” 

“Wolfe Whistle” 

Two of those stories were set at Christmas, "Wolfe Trap" and "Wolfe in the Manger." Those were my favorite stories in the book.

In "Wolfe Trap," Captain Stoddard of the Brooklyn Bunco Squad asks for Lyon's help because his niece has been accused of theft. She works at a successful bookstore and was the only person around when $200 went missing at a Christmas party. Otto Penzler is a character and the crime took place at his book store.

I found that the later stories in the collection were more imaginative, developed some of the characters to a greater extent, and had more interesting puzzles. It is also much clearer in those stories that Claudius Lyon is intelligent and a good solver of puzzles. He may be a nut case who wants to  model his whole existence around another person's life, but he is clever at the right time and place. 

The book also includes:

• An excellent introduction by the author, discussing Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries and Estleman's decision to write a humorous version of Wolfe and Goodwin in these stories.
• The introduction that Estleman wrote for the 1992 Bantam paperback edition of Fer-de-Lance.
• A Recommended Reading section.

Also see this review at George Kelley's blog. 

Reading in August

In August I read nine books, eight mysteries and one non-fiction book. This was one of the best reading months I have had, with so many books that I loved that I cannot pick a favorite.

I read one non-fiction book this month, Erik Larson's 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, although Dodd worked hard to stay within the Ambassador's salary. The full title is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin; it is a very interesting account.

Please check out Bill's review at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan.

I am having a hard time realizing that it is already September and we are two-thirds through this year. There are so many books I planned to read this year that I haven't gotten to yet. That does mean that I have lots to look forward to in the last four months of the year.

These are the crime fiction novels I read in August:

Motor City Blue by Loren D. Estleman
Shotgun Saturday Night by Bill Crider
Charity by Len Deighton
Hopscotch by Brian Garfield
Dead in the Morning by Margaret Yorke
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
Diamond Solitaire by Peter Lovesey
Funeral in Berlin by Len Deighton

One interesting thing to me was that all of the crime fiction books I read in August were published in 1996 or earlier. I have always preferred reading older books, and often let books sit for years before I read them, but lately I have included more newly published novels or more contemporary reads. The oldest book in this group was The Moving Finger by Christie, published in 1942. The most recent was Charity by Deighton. So I will tell you just a little about each in order of publication.


The Moving Finger is set in a small village, and I liked all the characters and village stereotypes. The novel is considered to be a Miss Marple story, but she shows up very late as a visitor to this village. I did not miss Miss Marple at all in this story and her participation is minimal. I have not reviewed the book yet, but I liked it a lot. One of my favorite Christie's so far.


Funeral in Berlin (1964) is the third novel in the Nameless Spy series by Len Deighton. It was made into a film starring Michael Caine and I will be watching that soon. I will confess to being confused about plot points when reading books in this series. In this particular book, there were only a few chapters where he lost me temporarily and later it all began to make sense. This is my favorite so far of that series.

Dead in the Morning (1970) is the first book in the Patrick Grant series by Margaret Yorke. Grant is a likable, highly intelligent, but also extremely nosy amateur detective. In this first book, Grant visits his sister at the same time a death occurs in the small village she lives in and he insinuates himself into the investigation. The Patrick Grant series is not considered to be Yorke's best books; there were only five books in the series. I enjoyed it though; it inspires me to read more of her books.

Hopscotch (1975) was another spy thriller, a genre I am very fond of. I was motivated to read this one because I loved the film Hopscotch so much. The book and the film are both wonderful. I think just about anyone would enjoy the film because it has something for everyone: adventure, lovely locations, romance, and beautiful music. And Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson. I liked the book equally well, but the tone is more serious and there is no romance.

Motor City Blue was my book of 1980 for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences. It was my introduction to Loren D. Estleman, and as a result both my husband and I got interested in his Valentino series, and my husband has already read the first book in that series.

Shotgun Saturday Night (1987) was the second book I had read by Bill Crider, and I liked this entry in the Dan Rhodes series even more than the first one. Dan Rhodes is the Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. I am hooked on the series, which has now extended to twenty two books.

Peter Lovesey's Diamond Solitaire (1992) is the 2nd book in a police procedural series that is now 15 books long. Its protagonist, Peter Diamond, is ex-CID, due to difficulties in his last assignment. At the beginning of this book, Diamond is sacked from his job as a security guard at Harrods in London. He pursues a personal investigation into the identity of a young Japanese girl, traveling to New York City and Japan along the way.

Len Deighton's Charity (1996) is the last in a nine book spy fiction series, set during the Cold War, mainly in London and Berlin. As the series starts, Bernard Samson is an agent, married to a beautiful and intelligent woman in the same office, with two children. In the nine books, we follow Samson and his trials and tribulations over five years, 1983 to 1988. A wonderful series of books which I will certainly reread.

Motor City Blue: Loren D. Estleman

The protagonist of this book is a private eye in Detroit, The book was first published in 1980 and is set around that time. Sometimes I don't care for PI novels and I have tried to figure out why. The ones I have difficulties with seem too much a copy of the plots and style of the early authors of PI novels, specifically Raymond Chandler. Too much emphasis on metaphor and flip remarks, and all the characters seem to be seedy and / or sleazy. There is nothing wrong with that, what I object to when the stories don't feel original.

I think I have read that the PI novel, the hard-boiled novels of Chandler and Hammett were a turning away from the artificiality and unrealistic novels of the Golden Age authors. I won't argue that the hard-boiled novels of the 30s and 40s are realistic portrayals of someone's life somewhere, but I have had no experience with criminals and most of the people I know haven't had any connection with this sort of life.

Anyway, to get to this novel. Amos Walker currently works for an insurance agency, following up on claims to verify if they are legitimate. His assignment is to check out a man who was injured and now cannot walk without canes and braces on his legs. And to get evidence if he is trying to cheat the insurance company.

As often happens in this type of novel, the everyday work Amos does is interrupted by other more exciting cases. Two events happen on the same day. He sees an old acquaintance and is witness to him being taken away forcefully by some sleazy looking characters. And then, an old gangster who is semi-retired calls him in to find his missing ward, the daughter of his deceased partner. Ben Morningstar is someone you don't say no to, so he ends up working for him.

The plot gets very complicated. There are a couple of policemen who are decent, but beyond that almost the only likable character is our hero, Amos. He is a decent guy, but he lives and works in a sleazy world filled with crooked and sometimes very evil people.

You could say this is a little bit beyond my comfort level in a mystery novel, but I enjoyed  it regardless. The writing was beautiful and the author kept me engaged in the story. This was a book I couldn't put down once I got to the last 100 pages (out of about 250). There were the standard metaphors but not enough to take me out of the story. I did not find the story any more (or less) believable than the police procedurals or thrillers I read.  There were some very interesting characters portrayed without resorting to stereotypes.

One thing that makes this book special is that the author is obvious a lover of movies, especially old movies. Humphrey Bogart movies are mentioned a lot, and Amos has a conversation about movies with the gangster's black driver.

How did this book reflect life in 1980? Well, the setting is Detroit after the riots. The character never says, but I assume he is referring to the 1967 riots. He talks in passing about the effect of the riots and the changes in the city since then. There are connections to the music industry. Relationships between blacks and whites are portrayed. I don't know much about the history of this area, before or after 1980, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of the book. However, the author lives in Michigan near to Detroit, and has written another crime fiction series known as the Detroit Novels. So I am guessing he gets it right.

There are a lot of good quotes from the book, which is another way I can tell a good book.

The first lines...

Faces from the past are best left there. If, two hundred odd pages from now, you agree with me, this will all be worthwhile. 

Walker describes himself this way:

I'm thirty-two years old. I was raised in a little town you never heard of about forty miles west of here. I've a bachelor's degree in sociology; don't ask me why. I tried being a cop, but that wasn't for me, so I let myself get drafted. The army taught me how to kill things and sent me out to do it. I liked almost everything about it except for the uniform, so when I got out, I looked for a way to do the same thing without wearing one.

A reference to one of my favorite movie and TV stars, Roy Rogers:

I hurled myself sideways toward the mutilated mattress at my left, the idea being to land on my shoulder, twist and fire, maybe hitting something worthwhile, maybe not. I hadn't a hell of a lot to lose by trying.

It did not work, of course. Tricks like that never do, unless you wear spangled buckskins and own a horse named Trigger. 

Will I be reading more of the series? For sure. There are several other series to try, also. See this list of all of Estleman's works, which includes crime fiction, westerns, and non-fiction.

This book is my choice for 1980 for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Ballantine Books, 1986. Orig. pub. 1980.
Length:     248 pages
Format:     Paperback
Series:      Amos Walker, #1
Setting:     Detroit, Michigan
Genre:      Mystery
Source:    My husband found this for me in San Jose, CA, Nov. 2005.