Deal Me In 2015: Story #4 ("Marie: Blue Cadillac" by Michael Malone)

Every other week I draw a random card to determine what short story I will read for the Deal Me In Short Story challenge. My list of short stories is here. Jay at Bibliophilopolis hosts the challenge.

This week I drew the 2 of Spades, which corresponded to the story titled "Maria: Blue Cadillac" from a book of twelve stories about Southern women, Red Clay, Blue Cadillac. The stories are all written by Michael Malone. It shows how much I admire his writing when I purchase a book of his short stories, all very Southern in flavor, or so the reviews say. I usually avoid Southern literature.

"Marie: Blue Cadillac" by Michael Malone

I am discovering that a person's reactions to a short story is a very personal thing. (Sounds obvious but I am new to this.) In reviews I have read on this book of short stories, some reviewers pick this as the best story, others don't like it at all. 

On my first read of this story, I did not care for it at all. It felt like it had no structure. It seemed more like a vignette, like a small snapshot. I had a hard time getting into it and it ended somewhat ambiguously. 

I don't know if I read it too fast or I was too tired, but on a second read, I found it does have more depth.  The characterizations are good; some of the descriptions are wonderful. This story seemed like two stories intertwined. Marie is a beautiful young blonde, driving to Graceland in a blue Cadillac convertible to fulfill her mother's last wish. Braxton is "a high-tech sales rep going home to Memphis for his mama's sake to eat Thanksgiving dinner." His stewardess wife has just left him for a Brazilian oilman. They end up spending a few hours together.

January Magazine featured a very long article by J. Kingston Pierce on Michael Malone's books, including an interview, in December 2002. Here is a extract from the interview related to Red Clay, Blue Cadillac.

Can you tell me what, in your mind, distinguishes Southern women from those reared in other parts of the United States?

They're like women in other parts of America, just more so. As Gloria Steinem said about Ginger Rogers: She was doing everything Fred Astaire was doing, just doing it backwards in high heels. Well, Southern women are doing and enduring what other women have to do and endure, but (at least until recently) they had to do it in heels and hats and white gloves and makeup and a sweet smile, with maybe a glass of bourbon and a cigarette to get them through the magnolia part of being a steel magnolia. The women in Red Clay, Blue Cadillac are all very strong people. Sometimes they have to pretend otherwise.

By the way, I hear that Sourcebooks had another title in mind for this collection of stories.

They wanted to call it All the Wrong Women, but I told them that you obviously don't know Southern women. Just because they murder their husbands doesn't make them bad people.

That statement -- "white gloves and makeup and a sweet smile" -- is so true and very disturbing. My feelings about that subject probably mean I would benefit from reading more books about and set in the South, not less.

Three Years of Blogging

Today is the third anniversary of my first blog post. I went back and read that post. This was the paragraph that described my reading interests at the time.

I read mainly mysteries. And have been since my late teens and twenties. I enjoy vintage mysteries and newer mystery series. I prefer more traditional mysteries, but there are thrillers I have enjoyed, and the line between mystery and thriller is often blurred. My favorite vintage mystery author is Rex Stout. Currently my favorite contemporary writer of mysteries is Elizabeth George. And I am often inspired by reading mystery blogs to try new authors and sub-genres. 

I was surprised. Rex Stout is still my favorite vintage mystery author, but Elizabeth George is entirely off my radar. Her latest mysteries have been very, very long and the stories don't maintain interest for that length.

So which authors have become my favorites in the last three years?

My second entry on the blog was a review of Berlin Game by Len Deighton, and in March 2012  I reviewed (very briefly) Mexico Set, London Match, and Winter by the same author.  Since then I have read five more books by that author.

Other authors I really enjoy are John Lawton and Olen Steinhauer.  In the last year I discovered Mick Herron, reading one from each of his two series. I am sure there are others I am forgetting at the moment.

I have discovered Canadian authors that I really enjoy. My favorites are L. R. Wright, Maureen Jennings, and John Brady. But again, too many good ones to list them all.

I have added more science fiction and fantasy books to my reading in the last couple of years, as I discovered challenges featuring those genres. I especially enjoy books that combine mystery plots and science fiction or fantasy, such as the Last Policeman series by Ben H. Winters or the  PC Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch.

The best thing about blogging continues to be the community of book bloggers who share discoveries and ideas. As someone who always has a book going and devours mystery novels, it is wonderful to be able to communicate with and learn from others who share my passions.  I thought I knew a lot about older mystery novels (pre-1960's) before I started blogging, but blogging opened my eyes to how much I do not know about mysteries written during that time period.

For this post, I have featured two old editions of books I purchased at the Planned Parenthood book sale 7 or 8 years ago. Both are in very bad condition but appeal to me. The Rex Stout is a book club edition. I plan to read them sometime this year. Of course, the Rex Stout book will be a re-read.

The Calling: Inger Ash Wolfe

Excerpt from the dust jacket description:

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, sixty-one-year-old Hazel has only the constructive criticism of her old goat of a mother and her own sharp tongue to buoy her. But when a terminally ill Port Dundas woman is gruesomely murdered in her own home, Hazel and her understaffed department must spring to life. 

This book is set in northern Canada, in Ontario. Usually, there is not a lot going on in Port Dundas, crimewise. It is a small town, and the small town relationships and expectations are an element in the story. Hazel and her staff are not adequately supported by her superiors in Toronto when violent crime comes to Port Dundas.

The author describes Hazel, the main character:

Hazel Micallef was a 62-year-old interim police chief on a small-town force, an investigator by training, who lived with her mother, the larger-than-life ex-mayor of the town. Hazel was divorced and not particularly likeable, with an imposing body that was racked by pain. She was intelligent, tenacious and, because convinced of her own moral rectitude, in constant conflict with others.

If all this novel had was Hazel's character, it would still be great. But the novel has much more; the supporting cast of characters that she works with (or against) also push the novel up a notch. There are established members of the police department of Port Dundas who have worked with Hazel for years and new arrivals sent to help out with the overload. Even the glimpses we get of some of the victims or other persons who have dealt with the killer are convincing, realistic portrayals.

The novel is a serial killer story and thus not my favorite type of read. I usually find that serial killers are too obsessed or crazy to provide the kind of tension I like in a novel. The actual identity is often not the issue but how to stop them. The deaths are often grotesque, disgusting, and dwelled upon more than I am comfortable with. Whether the subject matter and the manner of the deaths in this book would be offensive to some readers, I am not sure. I did not find this one very offensive in that area.

This novel had me entranced from the beginning. The story was compelling and the twists and turns made the 371 pages seem like half of that. Highly recommended, unless you really cannot take serial killer books.

Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym for Canadian author Michael Redhill. He announced he was the author of the Hazel Micallef series in July 2012, the same month that the third book, A Door in the River, was published.

Resources:

• The announcement of the real author in The Globe and Mail.
• Bill Selnes of Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan shares his Q&A with the author after the announcement.
• Review of this book at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan
• Review at Reactions to Reading
• Article at January Magazine

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Publisher:   Harcourt, Inc., 2008
Length:       371 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Hazel Micallef #1
Setting:      Ontario, Canada
Genre:        Mystery
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Books of 1955: Murder in the Raw by William Campbell Gault

William Campbell Gault started out writing stories for pulp magazines. According to the entry for this author in Paperback Confidential by Brian Ritt, he was writing for the "spicy" pulps and sports pulps in the 1930's and wrote for the detective pulps in the 1940's and 1950's.

Gault's first novel was Don't Cry for Me, published in 1952. It won the Best First Novel Edgar for that year. In 1955, he published Ring Around Rosa, the first in a series of novels featuring Brock Callahan, an ex-LA Ram football player, who becomes a private detective in Beverly Hills, California. That novel was later published under the name Murder in the Raw. The paperback edition I read had that title.

In this first book in the series, Callahan has just started his PI business and still wonders if he has it in him to go back to a year or two more of football. Although he has some contacts with the police in the area, in general they give him a hard time. Brock is doing his best to be an honest detective and stay within the law.

The basic story is that Callahan sets up his business and the first client who walks into his office is Juan Mira, a retired Filipino boxer. Juan wants to hire Callahan to find his missing girlfriend, Rosa Carmona, a dancer in a nightclub. Callahan does not want to take his money; he thinks Juan just wants him to make his girlfriend return to him. Juan talks Callahan into trying to find Rosa and things rapidly get more complicated.

Juan stood about five-four and would now weigh about a hundred and thirty. He wore a neat and creamy tropical weave suit and white buck shoes and a big-brimmed leghorn hat with an extremely colorful band. There are not many Miras in Beverly Hills; Juan was out of his league.

The cover of my edition describes the book as a hard-boiled classic. This book seemed to have less sex and violence than many books in that genre.

Brock often referred to his car as his "flivver." I am familiar with the word but haven't seen it used a lot, in books of any vintage.

My flivver is what is known as the Victoria model and it has really deluxe upholstery in white and green plastic. Tufted and buttoned and with beaded edges, I was so proud of it. 

I opened the door and turned sick.

Somebody had really worked the upholstery over with a knife. It was slashed viciously, both the front and rear seats. It was ruined.

The definition of "flivver" from the Urban Dictionary:

A 1930s (Great Depression era) slang term for a old, dilapidated, and/or otherwise ragged-out automobiles; appears commonly in 1930s literature like Jack Conroy's "The Disinherited."

Many of the books written by Gault feature sports. In addition to football, there is boxing, racing, and golf. In the mid-1960's and the 1970's he turned to juvenile fiction, often featuring sports, which was more lucrative. In the 1980's he returned to the Brock Callahan series and other crime fiction novels.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and I am glad I finally sampled this author's work. I will be looking for more in the Brock Callahan series and also plan to try some of his other mysteries.

Resources:

• Bill Pronzini wrote an overview of Gault's work, which is featured in this post at Mystery*File.
• A post at Davy Crockett's Almanack reviews this book and showcases other covers.

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Publisher:   Charter Books, 1988 (orig. pub. 1955 as Ring Around Rosa)
Length:       191 pages
Format:       Paperback
Series:        Brock Callahan, #1
Setting:       Beverly Hills, California
Genre:        Hard-boiled mystery
Source:       Purchased at Planned Parenthood book sale, 2013.

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2015 (4th Year)

This is the fourth year I will be participating in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. I have been working on the challenge in spirit since January 1st  but today I join in officially.

My goal this year will be  Mt. Ararat: 48 books. As I look back at the last three years, my total of books read from my TBR piles, boxes, shelves is always around 50, so 48 is fairly safe. I usually read around 100 books a year, so I don't know why my count of TBR books is only about half of that. This year I plan to pay closer attention to that.

I am always complaining about my TBR piles but really the problem is that I keep buying books. How can I resist, when I see other bloggers' recommendations for books and authors that I had missed before of maybe just forgotten about?

You can check out the rules at this post. The goals start at 12 books and go up to 150+ books. Bev is allowing re-reads to count this year, but only under certain conditions.

I have already made a good start on the TBR piles, because I am reading only from my TBR piles in January - March 2015 for the TBR Double Dog Dare Challenge at James Reads Books. The only exceptions have been two ARCs from NetGalley and there will be one or two more of those.

Cookie's Case: Andy Siegel

Summary from Open Road Media:

Tug Wyler is embroiled in the mysterious medical malady of a sexy stripper who slipped on a banana peel during her signature act

Cookie, an angel in stiletto heels, is by far the most popular performer at Jingles Dance Bonanza. To her devoted audience, she’s a friend, therapist, and shoulder to cry on, all rolled into one. While meeting an old pal at the club, Tug doesn’t expect to pick up a new client but quickly realizes the gallant Cookie—dancing in a neck brace, each leg kick potentially her last—is in need of a committed champion.

Righting wrongs is never a simple task for Tug, a sharp-witted and unorthodox trial lawyer who repeatedly finds himself in the middle of unusual cases and causes. But that doesn’t stop him from trying. Believing that Cookie is the victim of a spine surgeon with a sloppy touch, Tug takes her case. But as he seeks both medical remedy and a fair shake for Cookie, he realizes—a tad too late—that sinister sights are now trained on him. In Cookie’s Case, this offbeat attorney will go farther for justice than he ever has before.

When I start reading a book full of quirky characters, I usually decide immediately that I am not going to like the book. I like my fiction relatively realistic, or at least with characters I can identify with. I know there are many quirky people in real life, but they are scattered around, mixed in with us normal folks. In some novels, including this one, just about everyone we run into is quirky.

The farther I got into this book, the more I had to revise my prejudices. Tug Wyler may be dealing with a weird family, and more than one bizarre set of clients, but he is a nice guy and some of his clients are lovable and fun to be around.

It is the character of Tug Wyler that makes this book so enjoyable. He is the type of lawyer that is generally called an ambulance chaser, but he has a good heart. My favorite case in this book is the pro bono case he takes on while working on Cookie's case. Robert is a mentally disabled man living with his grandmother, who is concerned that he learn a trade and be able to support himself when she is gone. Tug is interested in representing Robert on a case related to a car accident which injured his ankle.

This book is humorous and that kind of mystery doesn't appeal to me and most of the humor just passes me by. Nevertheless, I am glad I got the opportunity to read and review Cookie's Case. There is more depth to the story than I expected, and a couple of twists at the end. I am not saying I am going to go for a steady diet of comic novels with unbelievable, bizarre circumstances, but I will look for a copy of Suzy's Case, the first book in the series. And I hope that Andy Siegel continues to publish books.

Per the Open Road Media website: "Andy Siegel is a personal injury and medical malpractice attorney in New York City. A graduate of Tulane University and Brooklyn Law, he grew up on Long Island and now lives in Westchester County. In 2008 he was elected to the board of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association."

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Publisher:   MysteriousPress.com/Open Road, 2015
Length:       281 pages
Format:      ebook

Series:       Tug Wyler Mysteries, #2
Setting:      New York City
Genre:        Legal mystery
Source:      Provided by the publisher via NetGalley.