Short Story Wednesday: Deadly Anniversaries

 

Three years ago I purchased Deadly Anniversaries, edited by Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller, so that I could read "Chin Yong-Yun Sets the Date" by S.J. Rozan. Chin Yong-Yun is Lydia Chin's mother in the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith series. My thoughts on that story are in this post. So, now I am finally getting around to reading more stories in that book.

Description from the cover of the book:

Deadly Anniversaries celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Mystery Writers of America with a collection of stories from some of the top names in crime fiction. An anniversary can honor many things: a birth, a wedding and sometimes even a death. 

Each author puts their own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event each year. These nineteen stories travel across a wide range of historical and contemporary settings and remind readers of how broad the mystery writing tradition can be, encompassing detective tales, domestic intrigue, psychological suspense, black humor and thrilling action. 

Here is a list of the stories in the book:

• "If You Want Something Done Right. . ." by Sue Grafton
• "Ten Years On" by Laurie R. King
• "Normal in Every Way" by Lee Child
• "The Replacement" by Margaret Maron
• "Chin Yong-Yun Sets the Date" by S. J. Rozan
• "Amazing Grace" by Max Allan Collins
• "Ten Years, Two Days, Six Hours" by Wendy Hornsby
• "The Anniversary Gift" by Jeffery Deaver
• "The Last Dive Bar" by Bill Pronzini
• "Case Open" by Carolyn Hart
• "The Bitter Truth" by Peter Lovesey
• "Unknown Caller" by Meg Gardiner
• "April 13" by Marcia Muller
• "Whodat Heist" by Julie Smith
• "Blue Moon" by William Kent Krueger
• "Aqua Vita" by Peter Robinson
• "The Last Hibakusha" by Naomi Hirahara
• "30 and Out" by Doug Allyn
• "The Fixer" by Alison Gaylin and Laura Lippman

In the last couple of days, I read stories by Lee Child, Margaret Maron, Max Allan Collins, and William Kent Krueger. 

Max Allan Collin's story, "Amazing Grace", was my favorite of those four.  

In 1960, Grace Rushmore is eighty years old and has been married to her husband Lem for fifty years. He has never been a very good husband; he married her for her money and never contributed to the business of the farm that had supported them. They had ended up selling the farm and opened up a bakery in town, and Grace baked wedding cakes as her specialty. Now Grace has four children, twelve grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. All of the children and their families are coming home for a big 50th anniversary celebration. Grace bakes a huge Lemon Layer Cake for the party. 

I really liked the ending of this story. A recipe for Lemon Layer Cake is included following the story.

Reading Summary, January 2019

Another lovely month of reading in January. I read ten books: one fantasy, eight mysteries, AND I finally finished Les Misérables. I was feeling pretty bad about taking 13 months to read that book, but when I realized I read 400 out of 1200 pages in December and January, I decided that wasn't so bad.

Of the eight crime fiction books, two were set in the UK (England and Scotland), one was set in France, one set in Canada, and the others were set in the US. So, a good bit of variety.

Classic Fiction in January

Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo

Very glad to have finished this book. It started out as part of a chapter a day challenge, but that did not work well for me and I was reading it in e-book format. About a third of the way through I switched to my hardback copy, but that still did not keep me from reading in fits and starts. January was more a month of reading comfort books for me so it wasn't until the end of the month that I got back to the book and finished the last 140 pages. A very emotional section of the book. I am glad I read the book.

Fantasy Fiction in January

Good Omens (1990) by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

This is a comic version of an Armageddon novel. It was written when both Gaiman and Pratchett were at the beginning of their careers. I enjoyed it very much, although I did have problems with an overload of humor. I prefer more subtle humor. The book is often compared to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and it does have the same style of writing and tone. A very entertaining  and fun book.

Crime Fiction in January

True Detective (1983) by Max Allan Collins

A historical mystery, with a private detective as the likable protagonist, not damaged, but not perfect either. And set in a very interesting time and place: Chicago during Prohibition, early 1930s. I loved the book and the character. My review is here.

Field of Blood (2005) by Denise Mina

I liked the first Denise Mina book I read (Garnethill), and this one was also very good. The subject matter was not my favorite; a young child has been killed. However the setting was great: Glasgow in the early 1980's. And the characters are well developed, interesting, not gorgeous with fantastic lives but real people with problems.

A Room Full of Bones (2011) by Elly Griffiths

The 4th book in a series of 11 books about Ruth Galloway, forensic anthropologist. She works with the police in her area whenever bones need to be examined. This series shines because the main characters are unique and the cast of recurring supporting characters get more and more interesting.

Murder with Pictures (1935) by George Harmon Coxe

My first vintage mystery fiction of the year. I was interested in this series, starring Kent Murdock, because he is a newspaper photographer, with a gift for sleuthing. I look forward to reading more by Coxe.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1950) by C.W. Grafton

C. W. Grafton was the father of Sue Grafton; he wrote four novels, and three of those were mysteries. This was his last novel, and I believe it is the best known.  This book was very different, it is an inverted mystery, and I enjoyed it very much. My review is here.

Die Trying (1998) by Lee Child

This is the 2nd Jack Reacher novel and there are now 23 books in the series. In the past year and a half I read two other Jack Reacher novels, the 9th (One Shot) and the 18th (Never Go Back). I am amazed at how much I enjoy these books. The writing is nothing special but the author draws me in and keeps me reading and I like the Jack Reacher character a lot.

A Rule Against Murder (2007) by Louise Penny

My first Canadian book of the year. Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are celebrating their 35th anniversary at the Manoir Bellechaise, a former hunting lodge turned luxury resort on the shore of Lac Massawippi in Quebec. For those who are not familiar with Louise Penny's series, Armand Gamache is the head of Homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, and the protagonist of the series. This is the fourth book in the series. It took me a while to warm up to the series, but this book was very, very good.

Summertime All the Cats Are Bored (2009) by Philippe Georget

Gilles Sebag is a police inspector in the  French seaside town of Perpignan. He has been passed over for promotion  throughout his career due to choosing to take a reduction of hours when his children were young. His children are now teenagers and he suspects that his lovely wife may be having an affair. Then a young woman goes missing and the case becomes high profile, demanding most of his time. This was not a perfect book but very interesting and one that provides a good picture of the south of France. 

True Detective: Max Allan Collins

True Detective is a historical mystery, with a private detective as the protagonist. Likable, not damaged, but not perfect either. And set in a very interesting time and place: Chicago during Prohibition, early 1930s.

Nate Heller has always wanted to be a detective, and started out in the Chicago police. After having to go along with some illegal activities within the department, he decides that isn't the type of detective he wants to be, and sets himself up as a private investigator. He doesn't have much money but he is very resourceful and has some useful friends.

The author, Max Allan Collins, sets the stories for this series alongside real historical events. In this book, some of the real characters are obvious... Eliot Ness and George Raft for example. There are a lot of other real people involved, but I did not know enough history to recognize many of them, so it did not spoil my enjoyment at all. The story begins in 1932, at the end of Prohibition, and includes the election of Franklin Roosevelt, and the World's Fair of 1933.

I loved how this was written and I found Nate Heller to be a fantastic character. The story is told from his point of view in first person, which I always enjoy. It is on the hard-boiled side, with no coziness at all, and a good bit of sex and violence.


Several sections of the book begin with period photos from the time: Maxwell Street in Chicago, Hooverville, the Chicago Water Tower, the Chicago World's Fair.

Max Allan Collins is a very prolific and versatile author. He has written several other popular series: the Frank Nolan series, the Quarry series, the Mallory series, and a Disaster series. Between 1977 and 1993, he scripted Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strip. And much more.


 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Tor Books, 1986 (orig. publ. 1983)
Length:      370 pages
Format:      Paperback
Series:       Nathan Heller, #1
Setting:      Chicago, 1932-33 
Genre:       Historical Mystery
Source:      I purchased this book... a long time ago.

Six Degrees of Separation from The Tipping Point to Ask for Me Tomorrow

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 Malcolm Gladwell’s debut, The Tipping Point. Per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the tipping point is defined as "the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place." Malcolm Gladwell explores that idea in this non-fiction bestseller, published in 2000. I have not read the book but it does sound very interesting.


That book leads me to another non-fiction book that I recently read: A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre. I read this book because I wanted to know more about the Cambridge Five before I read any more fictional works based on one or more members of that group.

At this time, the particular fictional book I want to read about the Cambridge Five is Young Philby by Robert Littell, one of my long list of favorite authors of spy fiction. Another book by Littell is The Defection of A. J. Lewinter, in which an American scientist defects to the Soviet Union.

This reminds me of one of my favorite series set in Russia, the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series by Stuart M. Kaminsky. My most recent read in that series is Hard Currency, published in 1995, which features a trip to Cuba. One of the things I like about the series is that there were books written before and after the break up of the Soviet Union, and the series reflects the changes in Russia over those years.

I will stay with the same author but a different book for my next link: Bullet for a Star, the first book in the Toby Peters series, published in 1977. The Toby Peters mysteries feature a private eye who often works for the movie studios. Each book centers around a real person, usually a movie star. This one features Errol Flynn and is set in 1940 in Hollywood, California.

Another mystery novel that features a real life movie star is Bye Bye, Baby by Max Allan Collins. In the 15th book in the Nate Heller series, the private detective is hired by Marilyn Monroe shortly before her death. Other books in the series deal with real crime and real people from the 1930's into the 1960's. Max Allan Collins is a very prolific author (see his books listed at Fantastic Fiction) and was honored with the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America in 2017. This is another author whose books I have not read yet, although I have several on my shelves.

My last link is to a book by another Grand Master of the MWA ... Ask For Me Tomorrow by Margaret Millar, Originally from Canada, she later moved to Santa Barbara, California with her husband, Kenneth Millar (who wrote as Ross Macdonald). This book was published in 1941 and partially set in a town very much like Santa Barbara, although the town is called Santa Felicia in the book.

I find it interesting that the books in my chain all have links to the past, whether the books are historical fiction or non-fiction or actually written at an earlier time.

Next month (July 7, 2018), we’ll begin with Tales of the City, the first in the much-loved series by Armistead Maupin. I haven't read that one either, but I have it on my Kindle, and I will read several chapters from it in the next month, at a minimum.