The Man in the Brown Suit: Agatha Christie

The  Man in the Brown Suit is one of Agatha Christie's early thrillers. It is also a stand alone book, not starring one of her regular protagonists, Poirot or Miss Marple or Tommy and Tuppence. First published in serialized form in 1923 and 1924 under the title Anne the Adventurous, it was then published as a hardback in 1924.

So far, most of the Agatha Christie novels I have read are told in first person narrative. This one is a bit different because it has two narrators. Most of the story is told by Anne Beddingfield, a young adventuress. The journals of Sir Eustace Pedler cover some areas of the tale which Anne cannot tell. The use of two narrators allows for different tones and varied looks at secondary characters.

Anne is the daughter of an archaeologist who has died and left her with very little money. She has always dreamed of being an adventuress. The opportunity arises when she witnesses the accidental death of a man who falls under a train. She is convinced that there is a story behind his death and follows up on a clue on a piece of paper that she has stumbled upon. She uses all her funds to buy a ticket on a ship bound for South Africa, and the excitement begins. After she gets over being very, very seasick.

Some readers and reviewers rate Christie's books in the adventure or spy thriller vein lower than her puzzle mysteries, but I have found them very entertaining. This one is told in a light-hearted manner and not to be taken seriously, but I enjoyed that element of the story too.

Margaret's review at BooksPlease goes into more detail about the background of the novel.

Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings reviews an audio version of this book.


I  read this book for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, hosted by  Mysteries In Paradise. If you are interested in joining in, here are instructions on how to do that. Links to other reviews for this month will be found here.

Q is for A Question of Identity

Today, for the Crime Fiction Alphabet, I feature A Question of Identity (2012), a book by Susan Hill. The author, born in 1942, published her first novel at the age of eighteen. She is the author of The Woman in Black, a ghost story, but, according to this interview at The Guardian, she does not like to be pigeon-holed. In 2004, she published the first novel in the Simon Serrailler Crime Series.

This book begins with a trial. A man has been accused of killing several elderly women in their homes. Although everyone, even the jury, is convinced that he is the killer, he is freed because of the questionable evidence of the only eye witness. Because public opinion is so heavily against him, and he will be in danger when released, he is given a new identity. And then, ten years later, the same type of crimes begin happening in a different area, the British town of Lafferton, and the crimes are assigned to Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler and his team.

This is a police procedural where the extended family of the policeman plays a large part in the story. It is a part of a seven book series by Susan Hill. Even though the series is named for Simon Serrailler, in many of the books, Serrailler is not the most prominent character.  And, though the crimes and crime solving feature in this book from the beginning, at times they take a back seat to the family issues.

This is a difficult review to write because I was disappointed in this book and I don't want to turn readers away from this series. Looking back, I truly loved the first few books in the series and was just as happy for Simon to be in the background. His love life is always complicated, he is an artist, and he is very self-centered. Not unpleasant, just not your most lovable protagonist. I rated the first five books very highly, so what has changed now?

This book is not comfortable reading. It is not filled with graphic violence, but it does concern a serial killer. Although the descriptions were handled well, they were the types of crimes that bother me from a personal standpoint, so left me feeling tense, anxious. I mainly point this out to show that these are not cozies by any stretch of the imagination, even if there is a lot of family interaction going on. The family issues aren't that pleasant either.

On the positive side, Susan Hill writes beautifully. The book has been a pleasure to read and engrossing. The characters are well developed. I just was not into the story and spent too much time thinking about what I did not like.

I am growing weary of the complicated lives of the Serrailler family and the melodramatic stories with resolutions left dangling at the end of each book. If I am going to read about family issues, I want some form of resolution by the end of the book. I like Susan Hill's ability to build characters, but I would like to see more focus on the secondary characters related to the crimes and less on family members.

I guessed the culprit early on. I don't mind when that happens, but in this case there were no other suspects. Either Hill was going to throw a culprit in at the last minute (not fair at all) or this one was the only option. So the mystery is lacking in mysterious elements, and the "how they find him" wasn't very convincing either.

The name of the book, A Question of Identity, points to one theme in this book. What is our identity, and can we ever change who we are? That may be the most interesting part of the book, when we get the serial killer's perspective on what has happened to him and who he is now. And other characters are faced with issues of identity and change in their lives.

In regard to this series, I recommend that you try earlier books. Because of the development of the family issues over time, the reader can benefit from reading them in order, but I do think each book gives enough clues so that this is not necessary. I will read the next book in this series, although I doubt if I will rush out to pay for the US hardcover edition (as I did for this one).

Lest I have driven some readers away from this series unfairly, here are comments from Allan Massie at The Scotsman, who has a very high opinion of her novels. The first one is from his review of the sixth in the series, The Betrayal of Trust:

While she never forgets that people read novels for pleasure, and is adept at providing that pleasure, she uses fiction to examine difficult ethical questions about the choices people make and the constraints within which such choices are made. That is why reading these novels, which combine good plots with well-drawn characters and intelligent probing of the way we live now, is so enriching.

And, from his review of A Question of Identity, at Susan Hill's website:

This is Susan Hill's most thrillingly imagined crime novel to date. ... The crime part of the novel is very good. But as in all these books, we are also engaged in the continuing story of the Serrailler family. All this gives the novel a much richer texture than is usual in crime fiction.

I am also including other reviews. Some reviewers have similar complaints to mine... but other reviewers loved this book.

• Chasing Bawa reviews the 6th book in the series.
• At Reviewing the Evidence.
• At Fleur in her World.
• At I Pefer Reading.
• At Valli's Book Den.

The Crime Fiction Alphabet is sponsored by Mysteries in Paradise.  Please visit this post to check out other entries for this letter.

Planetary (comic book series)

In the last couple of weeks, I read four trade paperbacks that collected a series of 27 comics. The comic book series is Planetary.

Some people refer to these collected works as graphic novels, others disagree with that definition. But for the purposes of this review, I consider them graphic novels. Each of the collected books covers a set of stories that work together. They are titled:

Planetary Book 1: All Over the World and Other Stories

Planetary Book 2: The Fourth Man

Planetary Book 3: Leaving the Twentieth Century

Planetary Book 4: Spacetime Archeology

I have always enjoyed comic books, but reading comic books has not been a constant in my life. I read comic books as a child... I was always a reader. Little Lulu, Richie Rich, Mighty Mouse, and Katy Keene. When my son was younger we read all kinds of comics: Disney comics like Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge; the Archie Comics with Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Moose and Midge. I loved the Archie universe. Also Superman, Spiderman, and Batman. In later years we graduated to alternative comics like The Tick, Usagi Yojimbo, Flaming Carrot, and Xenozoic Tales.

My son has continued to read various comics, especially Manga. He recently purchased the 4 volume set of graphic novels that collect all of the Planetary comics. There are only 27 comics in the series and he previously had read less than half of those. After reading them all, he encouraged me to give them a try.

You would think 27 comics would be a snap to get through but the overarching story is complex and I am out of the habit of reading comics. So I ended up doing a bit of rereading of the first couple of volumes.

The protagonists we follow in this series of comics describe themselves as “Archaeologists of the Impossible." They are trying to discover the world's secret history. Funded by a mysterious Fourth Man, they include three superhuman beings: Jakita (super strong and nearly invulnerable); The Drummer (the techie of the group); and Elijah Snow, who is picked up to join the team, somewhat unwillingly, in the first story. Elijah can create intense cold and extract heat.

As the stories move along, we realize the overall story is about a universe that pulls together new (and very different) versions of comic book heroes from many universes (DC, Marvel, etc.), pulp fiction heroes, and even heroes from detective fiction (Sherlock Holmes). This is not a spoof, but a retelling and a different vision. I am sure those more familiar with the comics universe would get even more of a kick out of this. To be honest, I did not recognize the origin of a lot of these alternate heroes or villains, but the story was still meaningful to me. In my opinion, it can be enjoyed on various levels.

Each comic is a stand-alone story, but as the books progress, the reader can see that each mission leads the heroes toward a goal which they are initially not aware of. I liked the slow development of the story, the extracting of the origins of the heroes and what they know and what they have “forgotten.”

Quote from a review at Examiner.com:

I find that the true mark of a long-lasting, high-quality book is its ability to strike a chord long after the dust has settled upon its pages, and the creative team has scattered, moving on to new and different projects. Planetary was a sporadically running series that ran from 1999 to 2009, which consisted of 27-issues residing well within the trenches of the Wildstorm Universe.

Over the years, Planetary has developed enough of a following to justify the release of several editions collecting the issues over the years. There is the four book set I read, another two volume set published later, and a final set that collects them all in one volume. The story by Warren Ellis is excellent, as is the artwork. The penciler was John Cassaday; the comics were colored by Laura Depuy (also credited as Laura Martin); with David Baron and Wildstorm FX.

Another graphic novel that my son has recommended is Watchmen. I will be reading that sometime in the next year.

P is for Plots and Errors by Jill McGown

Today, for the Crime Fiction Alphabet, I feature Plots and Errors (1999), a book by Jill McGown.  This book is the tenth in a series of thirteen books set primarily in a fictional town in the UK called Stansfield.

Jill McGown (1947 - 2007) is one of my favorite authors. She was born in Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland, but by the age of 10 had moved to a town in Britain, Corby, where she lived the rest of her life. She is best known for the British police procedurals starring Chief Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill, but she also wrote five stand-alone mysteries.

I discovered the Lloyd and Hill mysteries in 2007, after McGown had died. I read the first book in the series, The Perfect Match, and was very impressed. It was different, and I always like mysteries that take a different approach. Yet, I was not sure whether to continue the series, because it was not the kind of book that could be repeated. I tried the second book in the series and liked it too. Within four months, I had read all thirteen books in the series. I won't say I loved every book in the series, but all are good mysteries, and at least 10 of the 13 are personal favorites of mine. One of the characteristics of the series is that the books do not follow a formula; Jill McGown does not write the same book over and over. Lloyd and Hill, and their ongoing relationship, are the mainstays of the series, but each book can take a different approach to telling the story.

The unique aspect to Plots and Errors is that the structure is like a play and it is interspersed with quotes from Hamlet. There is a prologue, five acts, and an epilogue. There is even a list of the Dramatis Personae.

The Prologue sets the stage, when the murders are discovered. Act I goes back in time a few weeks, and is from the point of view of the Esterbrooks, the family most affected by these murders. Act II is from the point of view of the private investigators who are involved. Act III is The Plot; Act IV is The Murders. Act V is The Investigation, taking us back to Lloyd and Hill and their team. The Epilogue wraps it up.

You can see that the plot gets complex and hops around in time. Although I could not find many reviews of this book online, the author's website notes that some readers were not happy with the complexity and the approach, and I noted this in some comments at Goodreads also. At this page on the author's site, McGown discussed why she wrote the story.

The character development is very good. Lloyd and Hill are more in the background in this story than in most of the series (as I remember it), but I think that the way their backstory is introduced lets you know what kind of people and detectives they are. The other policemen involved are fleshed out. The members of the Esterbrook clan are very well developed as characters in this story. They are mostly not likable people, but interesting nevertheless. And there are plenty of surprises as the story unfolds.

Comments on Plots and Errors in this tribute to Jill McGown at Aunt Agatha's:

To me this is her best novel because it combines her genius with characters and a tightly wound plot that is one of the best I've ever read. And of course, the detective portion of the novel, Lloyd and Hill's investigation, is the thread of decency tying it all together. The modern detective novel makes us think, but it also ties up the loose ends and implies that bad deeds are righted, or at least avenged, in the civilized manner of the legal system.

I reread this book in preparation for writing this post, and I did not remember who had perpetrated the crimes. At times I thought the ending was obvious, but I was wrong. The ending was not what I expected, but it did not disappoint me. I enjoyed reading it just as much the second time around, and maybe even more this time.

The series is best read in order, because the Lloyd / Hill relationship changes over time, but the author has stated (in this post at Mystery*File which includes some excerpts from an interview) that each book is written to stand alone and contains enough backstory to explain the relationships where needed.


The Crime Fiction Alphabet is sponsored by Mysteries in Paradise.  Please visit this post to check out other entries for this letter.

Dark and Stormy Night (film)

In this marvelously fun film, writer, director, and actor Larry Blamire spoofs the horror films from the 1930's known as the "Old Dark House" genre. The plot is filled with silly characters and bizarre events and filmed in black and white. Many hallmarks of that genre are included: the reading of the will, multiple murders, a sinister butler, secret panels, stormy nights, stranded in a remote house, hands reaching from behind curtains, and an overheated musical score. There is even a guy in a gorilla suit (Bob Burns came out of retirement to play the gorilla).

Blamire's other films were The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera (2001) and The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (2009). Both of these films spoof the sci fi films of the 1950's. On initial watchings, I found that The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera was laugh out loud funny and Dark and Stormy Night had more style (and was less funny). On repeated viewings, I find them both very funny and charming. At least one other review mentioned that the Skeleton film had to grow on him. Once I got use to his approach, I enjoy all of Blamire's films.

In making the movie, Blamire used no digital special effects, but instead used miniatures and matte paintings for effects. Blamire uses a stock company of actors, which makes his films even more entertaining to me. In the commentary on Dark and Stormy Night, it seems obvious that Blamire and his crew all are knowledgeable of vintage movies and respectful of those films.

Examples of the vintage films spoofed here are:
The Cat and the Canary (1927), a silent horror film directed by Paul Leni.
The Old Dark House (1932), directed by James Whale.
One Frightened Night (1935), directed by Christy Cabanne. Story by Stuart Palmer, author of the Hildegarde Withers series; screenplay by Wellyn Totman. From Mascot Pictures, one of the "Poverty Row" studios.

Quote from this review at Dread Central:

Blamire is a mad genius. He creates films that perfectly mimic the old sci-fi, horror, and murder films of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties by writing his scripts as they would have been written back then complete with vintage lingo and then films them in delicious black and white. The results are both as incredibly funny and even unintentionally funny as the original films of that era seem now. They're just absolutely charming.

Some other articles online about this movie.

• TV Tropes calls it an "affectionate parody."
• As I was writing this post, I discovered a detailed post at The Passing Tramp website featuring several "Old Dark House" movies and Blamire's Dark and Stormy Night. Please check it out here.

O is for Open Season by Archer Mayor

Today I feature Open Season by Archer Mayor as my submission for the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013. This books is the first in a series, and the main protagonist is Joe Gunther, a police lieutenant in Brattleboro, Vermont. This book was published in 1988, twenty two more books followed, and Two Can Keep a Secret is due out in October 2013.

Open Season is a serviceable police procedural. The forensics are attended to and play a big part in identifying and locating the culprit. I like forensics to feature strongly in police procedurals. The members of the police force are believable, not heroes, but most are trying to do there best. With in-fighting and rivalries and disputes between the upper and lower echelons.

The complex plot took a while to get moving, which is fine. There is a horrendous crime at the beginning and eventually the crime and related events lead to the re-investigation of a very high profile case. Since the case may have been mishandled, the issue of looking into it again is very sensitive and threatening to a lot of people, on both sides of the law.

The premise was good, but this book did not grab me and keep me interested. Yet the writing and story telling was fine. This series has continued with loyal fans for twenty three books, so I felt I had to allow the author some slack, even in the areas that did not appeal to me. And there were several.

The plot was too dense for me. It was not that it was hard to follow, but it strained my ability to suspend disbelief. One or two weird and extremely damaged people among the victims, relatives and suspects  may be believable, three or four is stretching it. Yet the plot is no less credible than a lot of TV or movie thrillers.

Within the scope of this book, there were no characters that I grew to care about. The story is told from Joe Gunther's point of view and thus we only get his knowledge (or what he thinks he knows) about any motivation for the crimes. His co-workers and friends and relatives are better developed but still not enough to get me involved.

Here are the qualities of this book that I did like:

• The picture of small town politics and the relationship between the town officials and the police.
• The narrative voice. I may think the plot too convoluted, but Joe tells his story well and with appeal.
• The themes of connections and relationships. Connections to his girlfriend and his boss, Frank Murphy, a friend and father figure for decades. Relationships with co-workers. I think the author can do a lot more with the relationships in later books.

I also liked the setting, even though it contributes to the problems of credibility.  Brattleboro, Vermont is a small town and there cannot be a lot of crime, and especially complex murder plots, going on there. But, I know nothing about Vermont and I want to know more. At this post at www.npr.org, we get a nice picture of Brattleboro and Mayor's use of it in his books.

Thus, I do not want any of my comments to discourage readers from trying this series. You might even want to start at a later book. Reviews I have read indicate that the author does a good job of telling each story in a way that it can stand alone. And a lot of reviews differ with the opinions I have expressed.

And if you have had good experiences reading Archer Mayor books about Joe Gunther, please let me know and give me some suggestions for other books of his to read. I will find more books in this series to try and see if it has become a series I want to follow.

Here are some other reviews of various books in the series:
At Mystery*File, a review of Skeleton's Knee
At Jandy's Reading Room, a review of Open Season
At In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, a review of Open Season
At Ted Lehmann's Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms, a review of Tucker Peak

The Crime Fiction Alphabet is sponsored by Mysteries in Paradise.  Please visit this post to check out other entries for this letter.