Deal Me In Short Story Challenge 2015

I am a sucker for challenges, but I am really trying to rein myself in on challenges in 2015. However, I have also had a goal in mind to experiment with reading short stories. I began researching how many books of short stories I have and I was amazed to find that I have over twenty books (some of them quite large) and that does not count any that are on the Kindle. In the last two or three years I have read maybe two stories from those books, and around ten short stories online.

Recently I ran into the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge, hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis, and I hope that challenge will help me ease into short story reading. The goal of the project is to read 52 short stories in 2015 (that’s only one per week). The challenge is set up so that the participants choose the short stories they plan to read for the year, and assign each to a card in the standard 52 card deck. Each week you choose a card and read that story. I think most participants post comments on the short stories they read, but that is not a requirement.

Luckily, there are variations which allow the participants to sign up for lower amounts of short stories over the year, anywhere from 12 to 26. I am enthusiastic about this challenge but I know it unrealistic for me ... a novice short story reader... to start out at one a week. So I will go for 26 short stories during the year. I will draw a card every other Friday, and I will start on January 9, 2015.

For a more complete explanation of the challenge and some examples of how other bloggers approach it... see this post.

Here is my list of stories:

HEARTS (short stories by women)
Ace – "Recipe for a Happy Marriage" by Nedra Tyre
2 – "The Case of the Shaggy Caps" by Ruth Rendell
3 – "McGowney's Miracle" by Margaret Millar
4 – "The Couple Next Door" by Margaret Millar
5 – "The People Across the Canyon" by Margaret Millar
6 – "Notions" by Margaret Millar
7 – "Even the Queen" by Connie Willis
8 – "Winter's Tale" by Connie Willis
9 – "At the Rialto" by Connie Willis
10 – "The Mouse in the Corner" by Ruth Rendell
Jack – "Freud at Thirty Paces" by Sara Paretsky
Queen – "A Little Missionary Work" by Sue Grafton
King – "Turning Point" by Anthea Fraser

SPADES (short stories by men)
Ace – "Red Clay" by Michael Malone
2 – "Blue Cadillac" by Michael Malone
3 – "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J.D. Salinger
4 – "For Esme – With Love and Squalor" by J.D. Salinger
5 – "The Specialty of the House" by Stanley Ellin
6 – "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl
7 – "When No Man Pursueth" by Isaac Asimov
8 – "The Theft of the Used Teabag" by Edward D. Hoch
9 – "The Refugees" by T. S. Stribling
10 – "Trip Trap" by Ian Rankin
Jack – "Positive Vetting" by Stephen Murray
Queen – "True Thomas" by Reginald Hill
King – "The Duke" by Eric Wright

Because I read mostly from the mystery genre, the majority of the stories chosen are mysteries. But not all of them. The short story anthologies that these stories come from are:

• Murder on the Menu edited by Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, and Isaac Asimov
• 1st CULPRIT: A Crime Writer's Annual edited by Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin 
• 2nd CULPRIT: A Crime Writer's Annual edited by Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin 
• Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger
• Impossible Things by Connie Willis
• The Couple Next Door by Margaret Millar; edited by Tom Nolan
• Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women  by Michael Malone

Holiday Homicide: Rufus King

From the first paragraphs of Holiday Homicide:

A nut, if you care to believe it, was the first reason for Cotton Moon getting mixed up on a New Year's morning with the homicide in which Myron Jettwick, that prize real estate operator and heel, starred as the corpse.

The second reason was money; the pay-off being old Miss Emma Jettwick's check for thirty thousand dollars...

Cotton Moon's fees have always come high. They've got to, if he's to stay in that state in which he has decided to keep himself. Also if he wants to go plowing about the seven seas on his boat Coquilla in search of rare nuts to add to his collection, and sometimes eat.

Cotton Moon has an apartment in a building development called Wharf House, and is allowed to hitch his boat there. Moon and his assistant, Bert Stanley, come upon a young man on the boat landing; he is in pajamas and a dressing gown, standing in the snow. He is distraught because he has found the dead body of his stepfather, Myron Jettwick, and knows that he will be suspected of murder. And thus Cotton Moon gets involved in looking for the solution to the crime.

This is another crime novel that is difficult for me to review. I did not know this was a Nero Wolfe / Archie Goodwin pastiche going in, so I was initially taken aback by the the strong similarities between this novel and the Nero Wolfe novels.  Cotton Moon only works on cases when he can demand a high fee to bankroll his hobbies and other upkeep; the narrator is his smart-aleck assistant, who is often kept in the dark. Moon's unusual hobby is collecting rare tropical nuts; Wolfe's hobby is raising orchids. They both have loyal cooks, and they both deal mostly with the well to do.

Even once I realized that the resemblance was too strong not to be intentional, it still seemed strange to me. This novel was published in 1940, and at that time only seven or eight novels had been published in the Nero Wolfe series.

Ignoring the similarities between this novel and Stout's series, this is an entertaining, though often far-fetched story. The story does differ from most Nero Wolfe novels in that the adventure continues with a trip (via yacht) to Tortuagas. There is a storm and more deaths. The story is never really serious, although not laugh out loud funny either.

I planned to read this book earlier in December because I expected it to be a Christmas mystery (which is what I get for not really paying attention to the picture on the cover, which is clearly New Year's Eve attire). However, the story is only peripherally connected to the holidays. It begins on New Year's Day but that was about it. However, the cover does fit the holiday... so still a good choice.

I don't know how I could have missed this author before; I only purchased this book because of the skull on the cover ... and because it was a Dell mapback edition. Rufus King wrote many other mysteries, some starring Lieutenant Valcour, a French-Canadian detective attached to the NYPD. Murder by the Clock was the first in that series, reviewed here by John of Pretty Sinister Books. John has reviewed two other books by King here and here. There are several reviews of books by King at The Passing Tramp blog. Also see Bev's review of Holiday Homicide at My Reader's Block.

And this is why book blogging is a wonderful thing. Had I read this book in isolation, I would have passed on trying other books by the writer. This book is fine, but not the type I would pursue for future reading. But I do think I will try some of Rufus King's other mysteries when I get the chance.

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Publisher:    Dell, 1940
Length:        238 pages
Format:       Paperback
Setting:       New York
Genre:         Mystery
Source:       I purchased this book.

The Ghosts of Belfast: Stuart Neville

Gerry Fegan is a former killer for the IRA living in Belfast after being released from the Maze Prison. Many of those he worked with while in the IRA have transformed from gunmen (or their bosses) to politicians. After returning from years in prison, Fegan has not made the adjustment to civilian life so smoothly. He is haunted by twelve ghosts of innocent victims that he was ordered to kill or was responsible for their deaths by his actions. The ghosts include: a mother and infant, a schoolboy, a butcher, an RUC constable.

The Ghosts of Belfast (published in the UK as The Twelve) is a revenge novel, with Gerry Fegan seeking some sort of redemption for the deaths and pain he has caused. It is strange to say that a book this dark, filled with violence and death, can be considered an enjoyable read. Yet I found it a compelling read. Even though it is somewhat out of my comfort zone, I didn't want to put it down. One of the downers of the novel is that there are few if any characters that the reader can like. I could have some sympathy with the protagonist, and that is pretty much necessary to any enjoyment of the novel.

There is a very good overview and review of this book at SHOTS Crime and Thriller Ezine by Ruth Dudley Edwards, a historian and author of non-fiction books and crime novels.

Would I recommend this book? If the violence and dark tone doesn't bother you, and if you are interested in a view of life in post-Troubles Northern Ireland, then yes.


I am including quotes from this review at The Guardian because I think it best describes the negatives and positives of the book, for prospective readers:

The Twelve is a brilliant thriller: unbearably tense, stomach-churningly frightening. Fegan and his nemesis, the government double agent Davy Campbell, are magnificent creations: not sympathetic, but never wholly repugnant. And just as haunting as Fegan's apparitions are Neville's stunning reimaginings of the darkest atrocities: the bombs, the beatings, the torture, the point-blank murders. Then there's the farm in south Armagh, setting for the novel's grisly climax, presided over by the almost mythically violent Bull O'Kane, the last bastion of the old guard, unchanged, impenetrable, rooted in the past.

It is impressive indeed to create an entertainment out of such material, but more than that, Neville has boldly exposed post-ceasefire Northern Ireland as a confused, contradictory place, a country trying to carve out a future amid a peace recognised by the populace as hypocritical, but accepted as better than the alternative. This is the best fictional representation of the Troubles I have come across, a future classic of its time. Stuart Neville has finally given Northern Ireland the novel its singular history deserves.

You will note below that this is the first book in a series called the Jack Lennon Investigations. This book seems more like a prequel, since in this book Jack Lennon is a minor character. 

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Publisher:   Soho Press, 2009
Length:       326 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Jack Lennon Investigations #1
Setting:      Belfast, Northern Ireland
Genre:       Thriller
Source:      I purchased this book.

Favorite Reads of 2014

I read lots of books this year, mainly mystery novels as usual. I wish I could read twice as many books in a year. I neglected Agatha Christie and Ed McBain totally this year, and I had wanted to start reading Elmore Leonard and read much more of Len Deighton's books than I did.

I did read many great books by wonderful authors this year. I enjoyed almost all of them and it is hard to narrow it down to the ones that really resonated with me. But here is my stab at a list. I did go over 10 books but not by much.

The Danger Within by Michael Gilbert. 
Published in 1952, it is an exceptional story of men incarcerated in a prison camp in Italy toward the end of World War II. The book also includes a mystery, featuring an amateur detective, a prisoner in the camp who is asked to look into the circumstances of the death of a fellow prisoner.

The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott 
This is a historical novel set in the years preceding and during World War I (and the only non-mystery fiction on this list). It is the story of three sisters, teenagers as the story begins, who travel with their mother to support the family as a vaudeville act. I am very interested in vaudeville, and I don't know as much as I would like about the history of vaudeville. I found this book very readable, entertaining, with interesting characters.

Touchstone by Laurie R. King
This historical novel is set in the UK in 1926 and the story centers around the weeks leading up to the general strike. Harris Stuyvesant is an agent of the United States Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation, and he has arrived in England to track down the man responsible for terrorist bombings in the US.

The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer
A spy thriller, which takes place during the activities of the Arab Spring, in February 2011. Sophie Kohl's husband Emmett is currently working at the American embassy in Hungary, but his previous assignment was in Cairo. Both of them have friends still in Cairo, and when Emmett is killed, Sophie seeks the reasons for his death there. 

Time's Witness by Michael Malone
This is the second book in a police procedural series. Cuddy Mangum is the narrator and the Chief of Police in Hillston, North Carolina. Cuddy is educated, but he is not refined, and to the powerful and rich inner circle of Hillston residents, he is a redneck. The book was published in 1989 and set around the same time period. The story in this book centers on George Hall, a black man arrested seven years earlier for killing a white cop. He is now on death row and supporters are seeking a reprieve or pardon. 

Eleven Days by Donald Harstad
Carl Houseman is a deputy sheriff working the night shift in the small town of Maitland, Iowa. He is sent to the scene of a crime after a 911 call comes in. At the scene, he finds a dead man but the woman who made the call is not found. By the next morning, a second crime scene has been found with three more bodies, and the two crimes seem to be related. The small department, with the help of state investigative agencies, works for the next eleven days to solve the crime.

9tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood 
This novel is fantasy blended with mystery, and the mystery elements were stronger in this novel than in many cross-genre novels. In addition to the noir thriller elements, this is the story of a journey of a man to understanding himself and his isolation from others. I enjoyed the book as much for the personal story of Bobby Zha as for the mystery.

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
I am very fond of espionage fiction, so it is no surprise that I liked this. The central character, the spy who has run an elite espionage unit in the past, has had many identities and many code names. Of those who even know of him, he is a legend. But he has reached a point in his life when he has left spying behind and is in a new untraceable identity.  Then several events come together to force him back into the spy game.

World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters 
Book III in the The Last Policeman trilogy, following the activities of policeman Hank Palace in a pre-apocalyptic world. An asteroid is headed for earth, and from the beginning of the series we know that it will be devastating. I also read Countdown City, Book II in the series, this year, and I rated it as highly as this one. In this final book, Hank goes on an odyssey to try to locate his sister before the asteroid hits.

Enigma by Robert Harris
Set in 1943, this book uses Bletchley Park and the code breaking efforts there as a background for a mystery. Tom Jericho had left Bletchley to recuperate in Cambridge after a nervous breakdown resulting from the stress of his work. Now he is asked to return to help in a new effort to break Enigma codes.

Garnethill by Denise Mina
Set in the city of Glasgow, this novel deals with tough topics: incest, patient abuse, drugs, unemployment, dysfunctional families. It is a very dark story. There is an optimistic resolution, but many of the characters in the book are not very pleasant people. Nor is there the possibility for a truly happy ending.

Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise is collecting lists of  top crime fiction reads for 2014. Check them out HERE.

2014 Global Reading Challenge Wrap Up

The goal of the 2014 Global Reading Challenge is to read one or more fiction books set in each of the seven continents. To make it easier, the Seventh Continent can be Antarctica or a "place" of your choice. It is hosted by Kerrie of MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

This year I opted for the Easy Level, just one book for each continent. In most cases I read more than one book for a continent, but it took me awhile to decide on a book from South America.

These are the books I read for each continent:

Africa: The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer (Egypt)
Asia: Slicky Boys by Martin Limón (South Korea)
Australasia: A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentil
Europe:  The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach (Germany)
North America:  Sleep While I Sing by L. R. Wright (Canada)
South America:  December Heat by Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza (Brazil)
The Seventh Continent (outer space): The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

Slicky Boys: Martin Limón

Corporal George Sueño and Sergeant Ernie Bascom of the US Army return in Martin Limon's second book set in 1970's Seoul in South Korea. Sueño and Bascomb deliver a message from a Korean woman to a British soldier in the UN forces. Later, he turns up dead and they could be in trouble, to the extent of being dishonorably discharged. They have to investigate the murder without revealing their involvement with the victim. The "slicky boys" are ruthless black marketeers operating in Seoul who may be involved in the killing.

This book was a joy to read. I say that despite the fact that it features plenty of violence. I like Martin Limon's writing style and I like the story he has to tell of the military in South Korea in the 1970's. The plot is very complex and our heroes don't always operate within the law. The story is told in first person by Sueño, who is the more controlled and logical member of the pair. Bascomb often lets his emotions take over and wreaks havoc.

The two main characters are very interesting. The narrator relates his story in a compelling way.

My name is George Sueño. My partner Ernie Bascom and I are agents for the Criminal Investigation Division of the 8th United States Army in Seoul. We work hard—sometimes— but what we're really good at is running the ville. Parading. Crashing through every bar in the red-light district, tracking down excitement and drunkenness and girls.
...
Ernie and I were both grateful to the army.
...
What was I grateful for? For having a real life, for having money coming in—not much, but enough—and for having a job to do. I was an investigator and I wore suits and did important work. A status I never thought I’d reach when I was a kid in East L.A.

My mother died when I was two years old, and my father had taken off for Mexico shortly thereafter. ...
I was brought up by the County of Los Angeles-in foster homes. It was a rough existence but I learned a lot about people, how to read them, how to hide when it was time to hide, and how to wait them out. The mothers were all right. It was the fathers you had to watch out for. Especially when they were drunk.

I enjoyed Ernie's comments on growing up in L.A. and the contrast with being in the military and working in South Korea.

I could go on and on about what I love about this writer and this series, but I can't say whether others will enjoy it or not. At nearly 400 pages, it is an investment of time. For me it was worth it.

Per the publisher, Soho Press, "Martin Limón retired from military service after twenty years in the US Army, including ten years in Korea." J. Sydney Jones interviews the author at Scene of the Crime. Jones describes the series: "Part police procedurals, part thrillers, Limón’s novels, as Michael Connelly noted, 'take you away to a brand new world.' " There are nine books in the series.

This post at Detectives Beyond Borders has more great quotes from Slicky Boys.

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Publisher:   Soho Press, 2004 (orig. pub. 1997)
Length:       387 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Series:       George Sueño and Ernie Bascom #2
Setting:      South Korea, 1970's
Genre:        Police procedural, thriller
Source:      I purchased this book.