Wanting Sheila Dead: Jane Haddam

 

This book is the 25th in Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian series. Gregor Demarkian is a retired FBI profiler who spent many years tracking down serial killers. When he settles down in his old Armenian-American neighborhood in Philadelphia, he ends up doing consulting jobs for various police departments. The crimes he investigates are interesting but less gruesome than serial killers. The books were initially described as a cozy mystery series but over time I think it has developed more of an edge. 

In Wanting Sheila Dead, Gregor reluctantly gets involved with two cases (one set in his neighborhood, the other related to the filming of a reality show), but he is not officially working on either one. Sheila Dunham is the famous but loud and offensive host of the reality show. The first crime that occurs is an attempt on Sheila's life, during the judging of the contestants on the show.

Usually Gregor works as a consultant to the police, and they are very pleased to have his help. In both of these cases he has no standing with the police, and some of the detectives resent his interference. Plus he has just (finally) gotten married and he is adjusting to the changes. His new wife Bennis has been a part of the series from the beginning, but she is more in the background this time. I find it interesting that the author shares so much of Gregor's thoughts about what is happening in his life: not just about his marriage, but about getting older, his confusion about not being an official part of the investigations, even about his dreams.

I like this series because the books have engaging, sometimes quirky, characters and the stories are often centered around interesting issues. I usually find that the author presents the issues from both sides, although it may be clear which side she favors. Each book begins with a few chapters at the beginning setting up some of the characters that will be involved in the events, providing some idea of where they fit in. I have always liked this approach and it is one of my favorite aspects of Haddam's books. This time, the vignettes of the characters were less successful because there were so many of them.

From the beginning of the series, Gregor is often described as the Armenian-American Hercule Poirot in newspapers and on TV news shows. This irritates him to no end, even though he has never read any books about Poirot. In this book, for the first time Gregor has read some mysteries by Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie and he contrasts the two authors and philosophizes on Christie's approach to detecting. I found that part especially interesting and amusing. 

Although I am a big fan of this series, I am not really recommending this book or the series; it would not be everyone's cup of tea. Having said that, the first book in the series (Not a Creature was Stirring) would be on my top favorites list of books read, across all genres. I have read all the previous books in the series and plan to read the remaining five books. The earlier books in the series are my favorites and I have reread several of them. 

Jane Haddam is a pseudonym for Orania Papazoglou. She was the wife of William L. Deandrea, author of mysteries and Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, a mystery reference book.

Short Story Wednesday: Three Captain Leopold Stories by Edward D. Hoch

 

Recently I read another three stories in Leopold's Way by Edward D. Hoch. I read the first five stories in the book in November 2023. See this post for my thoughts on those stories and notes about the book and the author.

These are the three stories I read:

"The Oblong Room"

A college student has been killed in his dorm room, and his roommate stayed in the room with him after his death for at least 20 hours before the student next door discovered the situation. The assumption is that the roommate killed him, but question is why. This one was more spooky than most. It was a puzzle, of course, but it had a psychological element too.

This story won an Edgar award. My only complaint is that Captain Leopold keeps saying that this case is Sergeant Fletcher's case, but then he seems to take the lead. Still a great story. From what I have read, it has been reprinted many times.

"The Vanishing of Velma"

In this story, a teen-age girl has been reported as missing under very unusual circumstances. The young man who she was out with reports her missing; he says she took a ride on the Ferris wheel but never got off. It is a very good puzzle but Leopold figures it out.

The story mentions events in a previous story in this book, "The House by the Ferris," and Stella Gaze, a character in that story.

The solution was outstanding.

"The Athanasia League"

Of the three, this was my least favorite, but very interesting nevertheless. A woman is dead at the Athanasia League, a sort of home for older people run by Dr. Raymond Libby. He is not a medical doctor, but he leads a group of older people who pay to live in the home, "striving for deathlessness and immortality." A very strange case, since there seems to be no one with a motive to kill the woman, who was a member of the group.

Two interesting aspects are that Sergeant Fletcher has taken the test to become a Lieutenant and the only other policeman competing with him is one with a questionable reputation, not above taking graft or using force with a suspect. Also both Leopold and Fletcher have conflicts with the Mayor and a staff member. Unfortunately the story leaves it up in the air whether Fletcher gets his promotion or not.

Why do I like the Captain Leopold stories?

• Captain Leopold is a very likable character. Dedicated to his job, smart and intuitive. I also like Sergeant Fletcher, who works with Leopold most of the time.
• There were over 100 Captain Leopold stories and I have only read nine of them, so I am no expert. But so far in each story we learn just a bit more about Leopold and his background. (In "The Vanishing of Velma" the missing girl is 15 years old and he wonders if he might have a daughter that age if he and his wife had not divorced.)
• The stories are always interesting and never too far-fetched. 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: Satoshi Yagisawa

First two paragraphs of the book:

From late summer to early spring the next year, I lived at the Morisaki Bookshop. I spent that period of my life in the spare room on the second floor of the store, trying to bury myself in books. The cramped room barely got any light, and everything felt damp. It smelled constantly of musty old books. 

But I will always remember the days I spent there. Because that's where my real life began. And I know, without a doubt, that if not for those days, the rest of my life would have been bland, monotonous, and lonely.

Takaka and her boyfriend work at the same business. One night they go out for dinner and he announces that he is going to marry another woman, who also works at the same workplace. This is weird for two reasons. First, Takaka has no clue that Hideaki has been dating this other woman, and thought she had a serious relationship with him. Second, she doesn't object or even question him about this; she just says "Oh, that's good," and calmly leaves. She expresses none of her feelings of surprise or rejection.

Takaka is miserable; she still has to work with Hideaki, she can't eat, and she loses lots of weight. She eventually quits her job and spends all day sleeping in her apartment. After a few weeks of this her uncle Satoru calls her and asks her to come work part time for him in his bookshop; he will provide a place for her to live, over the bookshop. She can save on rent until she decides to go back to work. She reluctantly agrees, because he really needs her help.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section covers the time that Takaka lives at the bookshop; the second takes place months later, after her mental state has improved and she has found another job. Uncle Satoru again calls on Takaka, but this time it is because his wife Momoko who left him 5 years earlier has returned with no explanation. The story is as much about family and relationships with people as it is about books and reading.

I enjoyed this book for many reasons:

• I liked the picture of life in Japan, the bookshop setting, and Takaka's growing love of books. The neighborhood she moves to has many bookshops all in the same area. According to the translator's note, there is an actual neighborhood of book stores in Jimbochu. The translator's notes are very good. 
• Takaka not only does not express her own needs in her romantic relationship, she also has trouble opening up to anyone and accepting the quirks of others. Her interactions with people at the bookshop and in her new relationships help her to improve in this area.
• The story is mostly upbeat, and it has a good and realistic ending.

The cover of this book is wonderful, but I was frustrated by it because it shows two very cute cats, but there are no cats in the story.

I read this book for the Japanese Literary Challenge and for the Bookish Books Challenge.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Harper Perennial, 2023 (orig. pub. 2010)
Translator:  Eric Ozawa
Length:       150 pages
Format:       Trade Paper
Setting:       Japan
Genre:        Fiction
Source:       Purchased September 2023.

The Quiet American: Graham Greene

 

This book was my read for the latest Classic Club Spin. I have been wanting to read more by Graham Greene and this was a great choice. This book was published in 1955 and the events in this book took place in the early 1950s.

The story is set in Saigon, Vietnam and surrounding areas. The French Army and the Viet Minh guerrillas are fighting each other. Thomas Fowler is a war correspondent who has been stationed in the area for two years. During that time he had a relationship with Phuong, a very young Vietnamese woman; it was not clear to me whether he loves her or he just needs what she provides, sex and companionship. Alden Pyle, the quiet American, is a newcomer, working in the Economic Attaché's office. He is a young, more idealistic man. He becomes a rival for Phuong's affections. Fowler is more jaded and realistic, and much older than Phuong or Pyle.

As the story opens, Fowler and Phuong are in his rooms, waiting for news of Pyle, who is missing. Soon the French Sûreté officer Vigot tells Fowler that Pyle is dead and the circumstances. Fowler tells Phuong, who was living with Pyle at the time.

The rest of the story is relayed through flashbacks. Fowler and Pyle are also involved in some of the fighting between the French and the Vietnamese. Those scenes seemed very realistic and were quite gruesome. 

My Thoughts:

This book was very very good. It has elements of spy fiction and political intrigue, but the picture of Vietnam and the fighting that was going on there in the early 1950s was more interesting for me. It is not an uplifting read, very much the opposite, but very well written, and I learned a lot about the Vietnam conflict in those years. 

The relationship of these men who both want the same Vietnamese woman, for different reasons, is sad. Thomas Fowler narrates the story and it is hard to determine if he is a reliable narrator or not. Since he is telling Pyle's story, we only know his version of the events and Pyle's motivations, except for the conversations between them. In any case I had little sympathy for either one of them. 

Having lived through the years of the Vietnam conflict you would think I would know more about its history, but I don't. I would like to learn more about that topic.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Open Road Media, 2018 (orig. pub. 1955)
Length:       190 pages
Format:       e-book
Setting:       Vietnam
Genre:        Fiction, Espionage
Source:      I purchased this book. 

Six Degrees of Separation from Tom Lake to Lady in the Lake

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 books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I have only read one book by Ann Patchett, Bel Canto. I loved it and I have several more on my shelves to read. But this one is fairly new and I won't be reading it for a while. I know little about the book but I decided to use the word "lake" in the title as the basis for the links in my chain. 

1st degree:

My first book is The Lady in the Lake (1943) by Raymond Chandler. I have read four books in the Philip Marlowe series. This is the 4th book and it will be the next book I read in the series. The story begins with the search for the wife of a very rich business man. The story is set in California. 

2nd degree:

China Lake (2002) by Meg Gardiner is the first book in the Evan Delaney series. It is another one set in California and I was interested because a large portion of it takes place in Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara setting was very well done, which makes sense because the author lived here in the past. China Lake in the title refers to the  Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave desert, where a good bit of the action takes place. The book was a page turner but it was too much of a thriller for me and I had problems with the characters. I still have Mission Canyon, the 2nd book in the series, and Mission Canyon is the part of the Santa Barbara area that we lived in during our first six years in California. So I will eventually read that one too.

3rd degree:

The Draining Lake (2004) by Arnaldur Indridason is the 4th book in a police procedural series set in Iceland. I have read the first book in this series and plan to continue reading it. The lake in this book is draining due to an earthquake. A skeleton is revealed by the draining. Inspector Erlendur and his team are called out to investigate.

4th degree:

In The Lake Ching Murders (2001) by David Rotenberg, the former Shanghai Head of Special Investigations Zhong Fong has been exiled to the north country in China as a convicted political felon. With much reluctance, officials bring him out of exile to investigate the deaths of 17 influential foreigners which took place on a pleasure boat on Lake Ching. I haven't read anything else by this Canadian author and the book has been on my bookshelves for 10 years. This is the 2nd in a series of 5 books

5th degree:

Iron Lake (1998) by William Kent Krueger is the first novel in the long running Cork O'Connor series, set in the small town of Aurora, Minnesota near Iron Lake and the Iron Lake Reservation. Cork, the former sheriff, is half Irish and half Anishinaabe. An influential local judge is found dead, an apparent suicide; Cork is the one who discovers the body. A young Indian boy is missing and his mother seeks Cork's help to find him. I loved this book and the second book in the series and plan to read more by this author.

6th degree:

The last book in my chain is Lady in the Lake (2019) by Laura Lippman. The setting is Baltimore in the 1960s. The story was inspired by two cases of women who disappeared in Baltimore, one black and one white, that occurred around the same time as the story in the book. The protagonist is a female crime reporter. I read Lippman's first mystery in the Tess Monaghan series (1997) but I have not read any of her standalone mysteries.

My Six Degrees took me to several locations in the US plus Iceland and China. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on April 6, 2024. The instructions for the starting book: "look to your bookshelf – do you see a Lonely Planet title there? Or an Eyewitness Travel title? Or any other travel guide? That’s your starting book."

Joining the Bookish Books Reading Challenge 2024

 

Susan at Bloggin' Bout Books is hosting the Bookish Books Reading challenge for the second year. The focus is on books about books...

Any book counts as long as one of its main themes is books (reading them, writing them, hoarding them, stealing them, eating them, burning them, decorating with them, organizing them, sniffing them, selling them, etc.). Any book that is essentially bookish in nature counts. All formats are acceptable. Since this challenge isn't about pages read, length doesn't matter either. Picture books are totally fine.

Reviews aren't required, but they're always welcome. There will be a monthly linky so participants can share books that they have read for the challenge. 

The challenge runs from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. You can sign up any time during the year. See the sign-up post for full details and suggestions for books.

The levels are: 

• Toe in the Door: 1-10 books read
• Picking and Perusing: 11-20 books read
• Lost in the Stacks: 21-30 books read
• Living in the Library: 30+ books read

And I will be aiming at Toe in the Door. I read a decent number of bookish books for the challenge last year but did not post about them all.

Susan has created a Goodreads list of Bookish Books if you need inspiration. 

These are books I may read:

• Ex Libris by Michiko Kakutani 
• The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
• Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland
• The Pleasure of Reading edited by Antonia Fraser
• Baking With Kafka by Tom Gauld
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa
• The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk 
• Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
• I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider
• Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

Bookish books I am currently reading:

• The Book of Books (An Eclectic Collection of Reading Recommendations, Quirky Lists, and Fun Facts about Books) by Les Krantz and Tim Knight
• More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl

Bookish book I have read recently:

• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa