Recently in Crime fiction Category
Another jolly good read as Yashim encounters Greek history, Scottish doctors, Albanian watermen and a French femme fatale.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Snake Stone - Jason Goodwin
Borrowed from Hazel during our Three High Passes to Everest trek, a good read - a crime story with a modern magical London twist.
Amazon.co.uk link: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
I gave up before starting the third story, having forced myself to read through both "City of Glass" and "Ghosts". They didn't really read as detective stories - more like elaborate meditations on the theme of identity.
I can't put it better than P.D. Smith does in their Amazon review:
"The description of the book is that it's a 'detective' book - well, if you like detective books, this probably isn't one for you. Yes, there are detectives in the book, and they do detecting, but they aren't investigating crimes, and they are all ultimately unsuccessful in their work."
And I had no idea that the stories interconnect, until I read that in the Product Description on Amazon...
Amazon.co.uk link: The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster
A young man remembers meeting two "pirates" in the woods behind his childhood home, and begins to wonder whether they really were looking for buried treasure.... Detective Cheney Phillips points him in Kinsey's direction.
The scenario and setting seemed so familiar I thought I might have already read U is for Undertow. But no - it must have been a Bosch.
Along with the main murder mystery, we also learn more about Kinsey's recently reappeared family and events surrounding her early years as an orphan.
Amazon.co.uk link: U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton
Mafia and murder in the Marghera - another very good outing with Commissario Brunetti.
Amazon.co.uk link: About Face - Donna Leon
Part of a previous haul from Frinton, I realised that I'd read A Question of Blood before, soon after settling down to read it. Still Rankin's Inspector Rebus is always a good read and A Question of Blood is no exception, with an ex-SAS loner shooting 3 school boys in an Edinburgh private school and Rebus falling under suspicion of the death of Siobhan's stalker....
Amazon.co.uk link: A Question of Blood - Ian Rankin
Inspector Montalbano grew on me as I read more.... but the tone is a bit too knowing compared to the voices of Zen and Brunetti.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Voice of the Violin - Andrea Camilleri
There are lots of dead souls in Inspector Rebus's 10th outing: psychotic serial killer Cary Oakes, Rebus's old Fife flame Janice, Janice's disappeared son Damon, recently released paedophile Darren Gough, retired policeman Alan Archibald obsessed by his search for his niece's murderer, the unexplained suicide of fellow cop Jim Margolies ... and more. Not much of Siobhan though - maybe because she's not a lost soul!
Excellent.
Amazon.co.uk link: Dead Souls - Ian Rankin
Another great modern crime novel from Kate Atkinson. Jackson Brodie finds himself enmeshed in three cold cases.... possibly four if you include his own.....
Excellent.
Amazon.co.uk link: Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
I've not read any of the Scarpetta series for a while, and picked this up for £1 in the staff booksale.
Scarpetta continues on from where Book of the Dead left off and there is just as much focus on friends and family as there is on the criminal foe. But the Kay/Marino relationship storyline isn't that convincing, and you can guess who did it quite early on.
Amazon.co.uk link: Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell
Finished off whilst 'baby sitting' B&R, Mortal Causes shows a sectarian side of Edinburgh that's little seen. A young man is found, murdered in a paramilitary style, his body hanging in one of Edinburgh's now-buried closes. As Rebus and Siobhan investigate, we're introduced to the sectarian underclass and undercurrents that exist in Edinburgh. To make things even more murky, Big Ger escapes from Barlinnie prison, and Abernethy from Special Branch turns up....
Amazon.co.uk link:
Mortal Causes - Ian Rankin
Siobhan appears, as does Big Ger, and we learn a little more about Rebus, this time in real Edinburgh locations - and with his fifth outing, Ian Rankin and John Rebus really hit their stride. A great read, with more than one black book and plenty of dirty deeds....
Amazon.co.uk: The Black Book - Ian Rankin
Early Rebus - still sans Siobhan; Brian isn't as nearly as satisfying a side kick.
A successful Scottish politician is discovered in flagrante in a brothel, and soon after his wife disappears... Meanwhile, there's a murderer on the loose who's modus operandi sees his victims consigned to a watery grave. Rebus' investigations take him from party houses in the Highlands to psychiatric prison wards.
Resurrection Men opens with Rebus acting somewhat out of character, albeit at the same time entirely believably given his curmudgeonly outlook on life... but throwing a mug of coffee at Gil Templer is a rather more active outburst than usual. Sent to reflect on the error of his way, Rebus hooks up with some fellow reprobate police as they are tasked with investigating a long closed cold case.... which, it turns out, they have rather more insight into than the records suggest....
Amazon.co.uk link: Resurrection Men - Ian Rankin
Gifted by Fran during our room/tent sharing time on Wild Frontiers' Himalayan Journey... an occult-tinged plot with connections into the gory story from Edinburgh's Enlightenment past - the cadaver collecting murdering spree of Burke and Hare and Burke's resultant fate: hanging, dissection and skin tanning.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Falls - Ian Rankin
Kinsey Millhone encounters evil in the shape of Solana Rojas, a nurse hired to care for crochety elderly neighbour Gus. It's 1987/1988, and Kinsey also meets her first computer enthusiast....
U is for Undertow was published in December 2009.... and although there are only a few more letters of the alphabet left to go, with Sue Grafton's one novel a year production rate and 1940 birth day, I'm really really hoping she makes it to Z, 2014 ... and age 74! Well, Henry Pitts is 80 odd now, so that should be a cinch.
Amazon.co.uk link: T is for Trespass - Sue Grafton
Amazon tells me that this is the third Inspector Rebus novel, and it's certainly not the familiar John Rebus of later books.... With the London setting, both reader and Rebus are in unfamiliar territory, tracking a serial killer nicknamed the Wolfman.
I've not read the immediate precursor to Tooth And Nail, and I suspect that it covers some of the key background events mentioned in this third novel. Not that my ignorance of the detail spoilt this book for me. In fact, meeting a younger, less bolshy, more vulnerable Rebus was quite a surprise, and a pleasant and intriguing one at that.
Amazon.co.uk link: Tooth And Nail - Ian Rankin
Recommended and lent by Peter, The Winter Queen introduces young Erast Fandorin at the start of his career as a detective in the Moscow police force. Fandorin's initially amateur investigations into a series of apparently nihilistic suicides take him into wealthy social circles, a society from which his family fell from grace after his father lost his fortune.
We find plenty of drama and characters in 19th century Imperial Russia, and there's even a brief encounter with the ne'er do wells of the East London docks.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin
The third Yashim the Eunuch mystery, in which the action takes place in Venice. As enjoyable as expected (ie it was).
Amazon.co.uk link: The Bellini Card - Jason Goodwin
I've realised that there are not enough hours in the day for me to write not terribly insightful summaries of each of the books that I read, so from now on they will be super succinct or zip.... and in this case: murder mystery set in 19th century Istanbul; very good historical crime in an exotic setting. I will be reading more of these Yashim the Eunuch mysteries.
Amazon.co.uk link:
The Janissary Tree - Jason Goodwin
Misled by the reference in the blurb to Detective Bosch, I've instead ended up encountering The Lincoln Lawyer, who I'd been studiously avoiding on John Grisham (and work) grounds. Mitch Haller and his team are more interesting than I'd allowed for, but The Brass Verdict remains a legal story rather than a police procedural; and Bosch a more interesting character than Haller. I've started so I'll finish, but I'll not be going back for more.
Now finished, by way of another (cf The Secret Scripture) incredible (not in a good way) coincidence-heavy subplot ending.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
Disappointing.
The blurb and the Barbican Library Book Club Selection and Richard and Judy's Summer Read stickers suggested a more demanding read. The main character was shallow, the narrative cliched. By far and away the best bits concerned to gradual unravelling of the story behind Villa Docci's Renassiance garden itself, but even they seemed to rely on Adam Strickland having moments of inspired interpretation that materialised from nowhere.
If you like novels that reach back in time to solve historical who dunnits, then Peter Rippon's The River Crossing, Kate Morton's The House at Riverton and Michael Frayn's Headlong are all much better. And if you like more modern day mysteries/crimes set in Italy, try Michael Dibdin.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Savage Garden - Mark Mills
This second novel in the Marshall Guarnaccia series is much better than the first. A good mystery involving the untimely death of a half Dutch, half Italian jeweller in a vacant top floor apartment, lots of detail on daily life in Florence, and the slow reveal of more of the Marshall's Sicilian home- and heartland.
Amazon.co.uk link: Death of a Dutchman - Magdalen Nabb
A speedy read, on a lazy New Year's Day, and so an appropriately festive time to read the first novel in the Marshal Guarnaccia series .... not that you'd be able to tell that from the list of other novels by Magdalen Nabb printed that the front of the book (unless they're in reverse chronological order).
Strangely enough, the Marshall is laid low with flu for most of the novel, only coming to the fore to apply his common sense to solve the crime eluding his colleagues and two detectives from Scotland Yard: the murder of retired Englishman, Andrew Langley-Smythe - shot in the back in his ground floor (horrors!) apartment in Florence's antique district.
The English detectives add to the plot's a mix of English ex-pats - the vicar and his wife, endlessly offering (and yearning for) tastes of home, the eccentric Miss White and inhabitants of the English library in Florence. On the Italian side, the focus is on new Carabinieri Bacci, resplendent in his uniform but woefully inexperienced, and the other residents of Langley-Smythe's building ....
Not the best in the series.
Amazon.co.uk link: Death of an Englishman - Magdalen Nabb
The perfect Christmas present from Sue - and all 600 pages demolished in a couple of days. The third and final installment of the Millennium series wraps up the loose ends left trailing at the end of The Girl who Played with Fire, and some, but not all of the mystery surrounding Lisbeth Salander.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson
A speedy read after All the Pretty Horses, but then Commissario Brunetti's Venice offers a more familiar cast and (crime) scenes than two cowboys on the plains of Texas and Mexico.
In The Girl of His Dreams starts with the funeral of Brunetti's mother, and family ties and loyalties continue to play a key role after Brunetti and Vianello are called upon to investigate the discovery of a young gypsy girl's body in one of Venice's many canals.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Girl of His Dreams - Donna Leon
I'd no idea Kate Atkinson wrote crime novels.... and very good this one is too. I shall search the library for the earlier works featuring Jackson Brodie, although I'd also like to know more about Joanna Mason, the main character in When Will There be Good News?. As a 6 year old Joanna survived the unprovoked and brutal murder of her mother, sister and brother and in the novel we meet her 30 years later, a quietly respectable Edinburgh doctor, albeit with a rogue of a boyfriend. I really liked Reggie too....
Amazon.co.uk link: When Will There be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
There's an entry for Revelation almost a year ago, but having just read the book (principally on the prom at Walton) it's clear that I haven't read it before - goodness only knows which book I did read
I definitely would have remembered more about Revelation. Set in the 1540s, as Henry VIII's reign nears its end, the plot focuses on religious belief, radical protestantism and the aftermath of the Reformation and the Dissolution; and Henry VIII's wooing of his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr.
A series of grotesque murders brings lawyer-detective Matthew Shardlake back into contact with the Archbishop Cranmer, and the dangerous political factions of the Tudor period. Matthew Shardlake also finds himself back in love with an old flame, and dealing with the case of a young man confined to Bedlam. Meanwhile his side kick Barak and wife Tamsin struggle after the death of their baby and Guy Malton's affection for his young apprentice brings concern.
Through the novel we learn a lot about the spread of ideas and the power of books: the bible in English, protestant beliefs from Europe and within England, medicine and theories of how the body works. We also see how the thin line can be between strong belief, obsession and madness.
Amazon.co.uk links:
The second in the "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series picks up a year or so after the end of the Wennerstrom affair with Lisbeth Salander's return to Stockholm. Mikael Blomqvist is about to publish Millenium's next expose, on the sex trade and trafficking.
Three murders later, and the Swedish police have Lisbeth firmly in their sights. As the plot twists and turns, we encounter motor cycle gangs, corrupt civil servants and the Scandinavian mafia before all is revealed, including "All the evil" that set the direction of young Lisbeth Salander's life.
The English translation of the third and final installment - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - is due for publication in October this year, so either wait a while before reading volumes 1 and 2, or be prepared to be patient....
Amazon.co.uk link: The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
My first encounter with Swedish detective Kurt Wallander and I have to keep blocking out the image of Kenneth Brannagh who plays him in the TV series, which I've avoided. Definitely keen to read some of his other outings - although the repeated references to this being the most difficult case of his (already extensive) career do make me wonder if I risk disappointment when it comes to plot.....
Still the combination of computer hackery, ingeniously interconnecting characters and plotlines and gruesome murders, albeit a touch close to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, together with the police force's own internal politicking, kept me turning the pages well after dusk has fallen by the pool of the Al Manzil hotel.
Amazon.co.uk link: Firewall - Henning Mankell
Historical whodunnit, but hard going.
Set in Victorian England, the main character Edward Glyver carries out a random murder in one of the back alleyways of London and the rest of the novel explains why. En route we discover that he believes he's entitled to inherit one of England's great estates, that he's an amoral, shallow, self-centred opium addict and that his mother worked herself into an early grave for his sake.
Even the denouement didn't make me feel it was worth the preceding 600 pages, although the story does pick up towards the end.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Meaning of Night - Michael Cox
Recommended by many, and definitely worth reading if you like crime/thrillers with depth, and don't mind unpleasant plotlines and imagery.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces two great characters - investigative reporter/journalist Mikael Blomqvist and unpigeonhole-able Lisbeth Salander - whose paths cross in an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger, almost 40 years previously.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Having just read Exit Music, I jumped right back to the start of the Rebus saga, to a now-distant 1987 and pre-PC (computer, not constable or correctness) police investigations.
A relatively quick read, as this first novel is shorter than the later ones, but I liked the snappier pace and Ian Rankin has/had not yet developed the seven day story arc format.
In Knots and crosses the focus is very much on DS John Rebus and his failed family life. You learn about his childhood, his time in the regular army and the SAS, and his return to civvy street and the scars he still carries. Fifteen years into his career as a copper, several strands of his past combine and return to haunt him.
It's always interesting to meet younger versions of characters you've got to know in their later years... The public and private faces of Edinburgh are more explicitly drawn than in later novels too.
Amazon.co.uk link: Knots and crosses - Ian Rankin
A rare encounter with Marshal Guarnaccia, largely due to there not being many of Magdalen Nabb's novels on the shelves of the Barbican library. That's a sorry state of affairs, as when I do find one of her books they are always thoroughly enjoyable. Set in Florence and similar in other ways to Donna Leon's Brunetti series, as a member of the carabinieri Guarnaccia works for the other branch of Italian law and order and he is decidedly less sure of his powers of detection - but charmingly so.
In Some Bitter Taste, Marshal Guarnaccia's natural copper's instinct leads him to work out the connectin between the murder of a lonely spinster, a robbery at the palazzo of a wealthy English gent and dodgy dealings in Jewish-owned art during the Second World War.
Time to delve into the Barbican stack to find some more books by Magdalen Nabb....
Amazon.co.uk link: Some Bitter Taste - Magdalen Nabb
The latest instalment in Alexander McCall Smith's No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive is a gentle cautionary tale about the grass being greener on the other side, and the power of forgiveness. But slowly told... Perhaps I've read too many tales featuring Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and the apprentices of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Or maybe I've just grown more jaded!
Amazon.co.uk link: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith
Exit Music is Ian Rankin's last track for DI Rebus's LP of working life. Set in the week running up to retirement Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke (or most often than not simply 'Clarke' suggesting that she'll soon be stepping into Rebus's solitary shoes) start off investigating the murder of a dissident Russian poet and end up untangling the investment strategies of the pre credit crunch Russian oligarchs, and the attempted murder of Big Ger Cafferty.
A sad swansong.
Au revoir Rebus.
Amazon.co.uk links: Exit Music - Ian Rankin
Set in Adirondacks at the start of the 20th century, A Gathering Light is based on the real life murder of Grace Brown by her fickle lover Chester Gillette.
Telling the tale from the perspective of local schoolgirl, Mattie Gokey / Mathilde Gauthier, Jennifer Donnelly shows us the lives of the farming communities around the lakes, the families who prosper and those that don't, contrasting with the wealth of the New York tourists who while away their summer at leisure in the local lakefront hotel.
There are other stories too - Mattie's and Weaver's yearning to continue their education and the personal and financial costs that brings, the influence of their teacher Miss Wilcox and the occasional unexpected glimpse of the struggles in what appear to be a safely privileged existence, the lure of the logger's life - bringing money at the risk of injury or death, and the porous nature of the US-Canadian border.
A very enjoyable read.
Amazon.co.uk link: A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly
A environmental theme runs through all of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series, and comes out particularly powerfully in this tale of family businesses facing financial troubles partly due to increased regulation and awareness of the industrial waste that runs (pours?) into Venice's famous lagoon.
But the green theme does not overpower the principal plotline, where Brunetti and Inspector Vianello investigate a murder in a glass factory on the island of Murano, and family strife between the generations, the sexes and the in-laws.
Amazon.co.uk links:
When a father and son are found murdered in their fishing boat on the island of Pellestrina, Comissario Brunetti and Detective Vianello leave their familiar turf of La Serenissima to investigate... which turns out to be a tricky task when faced with such a closed and close knit community.
When the ever resourceful Singorina Elletra volunteers to go undercover on the basis that she has relatives on Pellestrina and has regularly holidayed there in the past, Brunetti finds himself up against an equally impenetrably barrier; his attempts to dissuade her fail and the team find themselves truly in a sea of troubles.
In this novel, the crime and 'police procedural' part of the plot play second fiddle to the key characters - Guido and Paola Brunetti, Vianello and Elletra, and the island communities that inhabit the Venetian Laguna.
Links
With all eyes on the G8 summit at Gleneagles mass protests in support of the Make Poverty History campaign hit Edinburgh.... and bring Siobhan's somewhat hippie parents north of the border for the first time. Siobhan is torn between spending time with her folks and pursuing her big breakthrough opportunity after she finds the remains of a murder victim's clothing at a Clootie Well close to Gleneagles, which suggests there's a serial killer on the loose targeting released rapists.
Rebus meanwhile, inching ever closer to retirement, is warned off hijacking Siobhan's investigation, and from delving too deeply into the unexpected early demise of a minor politican who falls to his death from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
There's politics and current affairs galore in The Naming of the Dead plus the equally tricky, emotional and powerful territory of family relationships too.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin
Commissario Guido Brunetti is called upon to investigate a night time botched house arrest-cum-attack by three Carabinieri, which has left a local revered doctor in hospital, his 18 month old son is taken into care and his wife, daughter of a Venetian oligarch strangely unconcerned.
As events unfold we discover the despairing and desperate world of infertility clinics and illegal adoption, the lengths to which the rich and powerful will go to satisfy their own desires, and pharmacists playing god.
Links
John Rebus and sidekick Siobhan encounter all things 'body' and bloody - stolen medical skeletons, a murdered refugee journalist, a murdered rapist, lapdancing foreign students - with the themes of immigrants, incomers and outsiders, and villans, old and new.
Amazon.co.uk link: Fleshmarket Close - Ian Rankin
More Tudor-set murder and mystery.... and sadly I have no recollection at all of the plot only a month after reading it! Still, all the others on the Shardlake series have been good...
Amazon.co.uk links:
It's back-to-back Bosch, still set in his (relatively) early years. There's a noticeably sombre note to The Last Coyote, with Harry's beloved house condemned and due to be demolished after an LA earthquake, and the relationship that emerged during The Conceret Blonde having bitten the dust. What's more, Harry has been suspended from duty for attacking a senior officer, and in therapy on pain of the ultimate sanction: dismissal.
Prompted by an early session with his therapist (we're not a million miles away from The Sopranos here) Bosch decides to look into the still unsolved murder of his mother. Orphaned at 12, Harry spent his teenage years in juvenile hall, before 'escaping' to military service in Vietnam.... and so this 30 year old murder utlimately underpins his solitary streak and maverick approach to solving crime.
In classic Bosch style, despite having had to hand in his badge and his gun, Harry calls in favours and bends the rules until he finally finds out the killer's identity. Excellent.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Last Coyote - Michael Connelly
I'm clearly into to a crime patch at present, what with Donna Leon, my first Val McDermid and even the so-so The Island of Lost Maps: A Story of Cartographic Crime.
Still, it's nice to come back to old friends like Connelly's Harry Bosch, particularly when you find them in an early part of their life. In The Concrete Blonde, Harry is on trial for the murder of Norman Church, the man LAPD had identified as a serial killer years back, and whom Harry had shot dead, he says in self defence. Fast forward a few years to the present, and LAPD are called in to investigate when the body of a blonde woman is found, buried under concrete poured after Norman Church's demise, but bearing all the signs of the original serial killer .... And then there's Harry's love life to consider...
Amazon.co.uk link: The Concrete Blonde - Michael Connelly
My first Donna Leon for a long time; Hello again Commissario Brunetti!
The murder of a transvestite on the outskirts of Venice arouses surprisingly little concern amongst the police, until Guido Brunetti arrives on the scene and listens to the niggling doubts that convince him that all is not as straightforward as it seems. As the investigation unfolds, bank managers and local worthies come into focus in an inevitably Italian way, and Vice-Questore Patta is left by one woman (his wife, for a pornographer) and joined by another (welcome Signora Elletra).
Amazon.co.uk links:
My first taste of Val McDermid, one of the many reading recommendations to come out of my Central Asia Overland trip this autumn. A chance find in the Barbican Library, and doubly serendipitous as the first half of the book takes place in St Andrews. It was a bit strange reading a murder mystery set in the sleepy streets of my alma mater, with four Fife Park students as the main suspects in the murder of their local pub's Strathkinness barmaid. The plot kept me guessing until almost the end and the nostalgia factor was high. I did guess whodunnit though.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Distant Echo - Val McDermid
Borrowed from Steph in Samarkand at the end of our Central Asia Overland trip, Bones to Ashes was my first taste of Kathy Reichs, and a bit of American medical-based criminal investigation was just what the doctor ordered. Well, apart from the child abuse and pornography that turns out to be behind the deaths of a number of young girls/women.... not a pleasant part of the plot, but I'd read more about Dr Temperance Brennan.
If you like Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series, you'll probably like this too.
Amazon.co.uk link: Bones to Ashes - Kathy Reichs
Another great find from our Herefordshire holiday, this is the first in the Shardlake series, and even knowing some of the twists and turns from later books, this novel is still a fine read. The historical setting is strong and the criminal plot excellent.
London lawyer Shardlake is summoned by King Henry VIII's right hand man, Thomas Cromwell, and ordered to investigate (hush up) the murder of one of his men at Scarnsea monastery, a religious house in Cromwell's reforming sights as part of his/Henry's dissolution of the monasteries....
Amazon.co.uk links:
The last novel of the holiday, and another 'healthy' dose of Inspector Rebus. The Hanging Garden features drugs, prostitution and people trafficking from Eastern Europe, Nazi war crimes, an escalating gangland war between the criminal kingpins of Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh - and then it turns out that the Japanese Yakusa are somehow involved too. John Rebus on the other hand is trying to keep himself off the booze and saturated fats, but then a hit-and-run and botched police sting bring him face to face with the deaths of two people who mean the most to him....
Amazon.co.uk: The Hanging Garden - Ian Rankin
More Rebus in an attempt to crack the chronology, Let It Bleed precedes Black & Blue and starts with an epic car chase through snowy Edinburgh and onto the Forth Road Bridge.
When the two young crims choose commit suicide rather than answer questions as to their kidnapping of the Lord Provost's daughter, and a recently released con chooses to blow his head off at a local councillor's constituency meeting, Rebus finds himself drawn into the murky worlds of politics - both high establishment clay pigeon shoots and gangland council estates.
Amazon.co.uk: Let It Bleed - Ian Rankin
Another encounter with Harry Bosch, this time with a new partner and investigating the roadside shooting of a hospital doctor high up in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the mansions of the rich and famous. Although his maverick investigative style seems to be semi-sanctioned by the LAPD, the discovery that the murder related to the victim's access to radioactive cesium soon brings the involvement of the FBI and some elaborate twists and turns of the plot. A cracking crime read.
Amazon.co.uk: The Overlook - Michael Connelly
Hurrah! A new crime author whose works keep me turning the pages into the wee small hours. John Rebus replaces the somewhat lost Kay Scarpetta and moves alongside the much missed Aurelio Zen to keep company with Commisario Brunetti on my bookshelves.
Ian Rankin/Inspector Rebus have both been on my radar for yonks, but for some reason I'd thought they might not be to my taste. In fact, Rebus is as melancholic and much of a loner as Aurelio Zen, as tenacious as Guido Brunetti and as happy to work around the rules as both Venetians.
A Scottish setting can only carry bonus marks in my book, and it's just struck me that Scotland's position at the top of the British Isles, and it's past independence and glory, has many parallel with the Most Serene Republic of Venice - birthplace of Zen and Brunetti.
Amazon.co.uk link: Black & Blue - Ian Rankin
... in which Commisario Guido Brunetti investigates the murder of a surprisingly wealthy and unwordly young student and an elderly Austrian woman, whose apartment turns out to house an astounding art collection. Not that unusual in Venice but the origins of this collection turn out to have close connections with jews fleeing Italy during World War II.
Amazon.co.uk links:
The third Elizabethan novel featuring London lawyer Matthew Shardlake, now joined by sidekick Barak, a familiar face from Dark Fire, this book's predecessor.
Sovereign is set in Tudor England in 1541, with Shardlake and Barak destined to cross the path of The Royal Progress, which sees King Henry VIII and No 4 Queen, Catherine Howard, the Court and and their vast entourage making a slow journey through the unruly Midlands and The North. The purpose of the progress is to demonstrate royal power and to quench once and for all the flames of rebellion ignited in the Pilgrimage of Grace five years earlier. Shardlake meets the King at York, which is the setting for the murders and mystery that form the focus of this excellent plot.
Amazon.co.uk links:
An American from the military base at Vincenza is found floating in the Venice lagoon, and Commissario Guido Brunetti's instincts tell him that it's no accidental death or mugging gone wrong. Calling upon informants ranging from his aristocratic father-in-law to a local petty criminal and his Sicilian mother, Guido finds himself delving into the murky waters of international corporate crime....
Death in a Strange Country has rewhetted my appetite for Donna Leon, if only the Barbican Library can oblige...
Oh - I've just read on the dust jacket that this is the second in the Brunetti series, which explains why some of the more familiar faces are missing, including the excellent Signorina Elettra.
Amazon.co.uk: Death in a Strange Country - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
The latest Scarpetta novel, and written in a much briefer sentence style which took me a bit of getting used to. The other odd feature which takes some getting used to is Marino's character change - whilst I don't think it's a sudden shift (but I'd need to have read Blow Fly/Trace/Predator more recently to be sure of the gradual build), but this is the first book where he is clearly so unpleasant and bent on destroying his relationship with Kay (and Benton and Lucy).
As one Amazon reviewer put it "Everything is so dark and bleak" - and that applies to the main characters just as much as the criminal storyline, so much so that having only finished the book a few days ago I can't even remember the plot - just the sadness I felt for the characters I've followed for years.
amazon.co.uk link: Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell
amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
I read a lot of Ellis Peters as a teenager, but this is the first historical crime fiction I've picked up for a while. There were a bunch of good reviews of the latest Matthew Shardlake novel, Revelation and when I spotted this in the most recent book sale in St Giles church, it was a obvious purchase.
Set in Tudor London in the latter years of Henry VIII's reign our hero, hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake, is called upon once more by Thomas Cromwell, this time to track down a recently unearthed barrel of Greek Fire. In return, Cromwell gives a fortnight's reprieve to Elizabeth Wentworth, the neice of a former client of Shardlake who stands accused of murdering her cousin. Accompanied by one of Cromwell's thugs for hire, the plot takes us through the murky streets and waterways of London in a race against time - if Shardlake cannot establish Elizabeth's innocence she will be pressed to death, and if Cromwell cannot demonstrate Greek Fire to the King his period as the second most powerful man in the land will end - and the balance of power will swing back to the Catholic Howard clan.
A very enjoyable read, with plenty of period detail particularly in the religious upheaval wrought by Reformation and the uncertainty that prevailed as a result.
Amazon.co.uk links:
One of Michael Connolly's best crime novels featuring Harry Bosch.
In City of Bones Harry seems a much younger version of the grizzled, cynical, persistent and effective LAPD homicide detective than he must be in terms of when the book is written/set. He's still the jazz loving cop, with sidekicks Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider, but there's no mention of his ex wife and child and instead the love interest focus is on rookie cop Julia Brasher who he meets investigating the murder of a child whose bones are unearthed in the Hollywood Hills.
Amazon.co.uk: City of Bones - Michael Connelly
Michael Dibdin's last book, and the end of Aurelio Zen's adventures. He (Zen) isn't the same character as he was in earlier novels, but then we all change as we grow older.
Set in a provincial capital in Calabria, a location even more remote than Naples from Zen's Venetian roots, we find Zen in the apparently unlooked for position of interim Chief of Police, covering for the native incumbent who is temporarily hors de combat due to an unfortunately self inflicted foot wound. Zen's final investigation combines the old, unchanging world of the native Calabrese with the modern hi tech world of the West Coast of the USA. The clash of cultures between northerner Zen and his southerner colleagues and the community for which he finds himself responsible is less marked, but always there. And as Dibdin's final novel brings to life a suitably wide range of characters, it is noticable that his handling of the modern (American) world is better than in Back to Bologna with references to the worlds of online gaming and Google Earth far more natural than the celebrity reality TV setting of Back to Bologna.
But the focus of End Games is Calabria, and its ancient ways of life which continue apparently impervious to incomers, whether Greek, Roman, Norman, Spanish, Albanian.... However, in this novel the incomers of interest are Alaric the Goth at the time of the Roman Empire and 21st century Americans, returning sons of Italian emigrants, entrepreneurial second generation Vietnamese and Microsoft millionaires.
Whilst End Games brings to a close - for the reader at least - the career of Aurelio Zen, I do at least have a trio of earlier investigations to enjoy - Vendetta (1990), Dead Lagoon (1994) and Cosi Fan Tutti (1996) - and I hope that in these earlier novels I'll get to see a bit more of the man himself.
Amazon.co.uk link: End Games - Michael Dibdin
From the Yemen to Los Angeles, for a rendezvous with Harry Bosch, himself returned to the LAPD and working alongside former cop partner Kiz Rider. This time round they are part of the Open-Unsolved Unit, doing what Harry and Kiz do best: solving old, cold cases - in this case, the murder of Becky Verloren, a high school student, 17 years previously.
Connelly's novel brings in the racial tensions of the late 1980s, in particular the institutional racism characterised by the police beating of Rodney King and the resultant race riots of 1992. Did the initial investigators deliberately overlook the fact that Becky was the daughter of a white mother and a black father, or were they persuaded to look elsewhere by Harry's nemesis, Irvin Irving?
There's also Becky's secret abortion to explain and the exact role petty criminal Roland Mackey played in 1988 - scientific advances have allowed the police to identify his DNA from a skin sample caught in the trigger of the gun that killed Becky.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Closers - Michael Connelly
Having loved Mma Ramotswe, I thought I'd see how I got on with Alexander McCall Smith's Scottish variation on the lady detective theme. The answer is, Very Well. So if like me you're looking for some light reading in between Botswana-based books, I'd recommend you get acquainted with Isabel Dalhousie, an erudite Edinburgh lady of independent means whose outlook on life is reflects the intellectual and philosophical inheritance of the Scottish setting.
I'd previously been somewhat put off by the The Sunday Philosophy Club title, but the club only features in a supporting role, serving to underline the importance of philosophy in Isabel's world and to demonstrate that she and her friends and acquaintances have the same foibles and weaknesses as we ordinary mortals; the club hasn't managed to meet for months.
Indeed, the main plot is more concerned with love and money and Machiavellian motivations as Isabel tries to find the answer to that age old conundrum "Did he fall or was he pushed?" - after witnessing a young man's fall to his death during an opera concert at the Usher Hall.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
On a roll with Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, Property of Blood offered a much easier plot than The Monster of Florence - Olivia Brunamonti, American model-turned-Florentine-aristo-cum-designer, is kidnapped by dastardly Sardinians.
The novel provides gripping account of the "kidnappee's" experience, blindfolded and temporarily rendered deaf so as to be unable to identify her captors, Olivia finds herself striking up a friendship with one of the kinder members of the gang - à la Stockholm syndrome.
Guarnaccia brings his usual common sense approach to tracking down the kidnappers and the victim. He also manages to persuade the family to cooperate with the police - no mean feat given Italy's range of anti-kidnapping laws which kick in as soon as the kidnapping is reported, freezing the victim's assets and forcing the families to negotiate through police channels. Fascinating.
However, when, eventually, a ransom is demanded of Olivia's family we see two very different reactions from her son and her daughter....
Amazon.co.uk link: Property of Blood - Magdalen Nabb
My first foray into the Florentine world of Marshal Guarnaccia. A less self assured investigator than Aurelio Zen or Commissario Guido Brunetti, but Magdalen Nabb makes you fully aware that this self effacing family man is highly valued by his colleagues and others.
That said, The Monster of Florence wasn't that easy a read - the complicated plot featured lots of dastardly Sicilians with similar names and complex connections, as suspects into a series of ritual killings of courting couples that had spanned several decades. Even with the added advantage of Guarnaccia being Sicilian by birth himself, having reached the end of the book I still wasn't sure "whodunnit", but that's probably due to having read the book piecemeal as bedtime chapters rather than in one long stint.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Monster of Florence - Magdalen Nabb
One of Michael Connelly's better Harry Bosch novels, with the action, as well as drugs, moving between LA the US/Mexico border towns, and between good and bad cops inside and outside the local police forces.
As to where it fits in the overall timeline, I'm not entirely sure - but Harry's certainly having far more sex than in other novels, so I'd guess it's an earlier rather than later story! I'm also sure that there should be some significance to the "The" in the title, I just can't work it out.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Black Ice - Michael Connelly
Another excellent encounter with detective Harry Bosch in his first big case following his return to LAPD after an early retirements and stint as a PI. Again the story revolves around one of Hollywood's many open-unsolved cases - the disappearance and presumed murder of a young woman - which Harry first investigated 13 years previously; only now it looks like she was one of many victims of a serial killer.
A few familiar faces turn up to help out Harry in his quest to track down the murderer, and the truth - and given that politicians and elections come into the mix too Harry faces even more dirty double dealings (and plot twists and turns) than usual.
Amazon.co.uk link: Echo Park - Michael Connelly
Sod's law in operation as far as the timing of reading this Harry Bosch novel goes.... I'd already picked up that The Poet tells a key event in Harry's life and career but I'd not been able to find it at the library, and it turns out that The Narrows is, in effect, a sequel to The Poet. Anyway, The Poet will make interesting reading when I do lay my hands on a copy.
The key players are the serial killer known as The Poet, ex cop private eye Bosch and FBI agent Rachel Walling. As the FBI investigate a mass grave in the Nevada desert, Bosch and Walling are lured, by separate means and with differing motivations, towards the same spot - but the climax takes place back in Harry's LA heartland.
A jump forward in time (and sequence) from Death in La Fenice, Uniform Justice deals with the apparent suicide of a young soldier at Venice's prestigious military school. The story reveals the lives and morals of the privileged families who control the army, politics and Venetian society, and the disdain most - but, importantly, not all - have for law and the police, good government and the proletariat.
Amazon.co.uk link: Uniform Justice - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
I'd chanced upon this, the first Brunetti novel, on my most recent trip to the library, which meant I was able to read it as we travelled through France and northern Italy to Jess and Mike's wedding in Milan.
The plot concerns the murder of Helmut Wellauer, a world famous, albeit rather unpleasant, conductor, in the middle of a performance in Venice's La Fenice opera theatre. Commissario Brunetti's investigations reveal a multitude of motives and suspects, but the truth turns out to be both simpler (in fact) and more complex (in motivation) than first appears.
Amazon.co.uk link: Death in La Fenice - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
Jed Rubenfeld brings together psychology, sociology and sleuthing in this highly readable murder-mystery.
The plot is set in New York in the early part of the 20th century, when money, power and social standing were all still controlled of the upper classes dynasties. However tradition is under threat as the cityscape and more egalitarian society we know today start to emerge.
The main cast comprise Sigmund Freud and acolytes, on their first visit to the United States and at a key time in the acceptance of Freud's theories on psychoanalysis. Their arrival coincides with the sexually-motivated murder of a beautiful young socialite and within days there is a second attack in a similar vein.
Despite the erudition, it's not a literary masterpiece - more CSI meets Cracker in an Edith Wharton setting - but a good read nevertheless.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld
Having thoroughly enjoyed Fatal Remedies, I rushed headlong into Friends in High Places. Well worth paying the penalty of starting Donna Leon's Brunetti novels with zero knowledge of the order in which they were written.
In Friends in High Places the Brunettis are informed by a planning officer that their flat doesn't exist, despite solid physical evidence to the contrary. We are introduced to all the weird and wonderful "logic" of Italian bureaucracy, and the Brunettis immediate instinct as to how to deal with the risk of losing their family home? To turn to friends and family in high places.....
The book's title takes on a more sinister meaning with the planning officer is found dead, apparently having fallen from one of Venice's many old building's being restored. And that charming old couple Brunetti sees in Piazza San Marco? Evil money lenders who call in such valuable properties in lieu of unpaid/unpayable debts.
Amazon.co.uk link: Friends in High Places - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
Another Italian sleuth recommendation from John Gyford, and handily he'd left two Donna Leons at the caravan for our August visit. For some reason I'd always assumed that as Donna Leon is American, she would be writing novels set in America. How wrong I was!
Commissario Guido Brunetti is Aurelio Zen with a settled family life and less violent crimes to solve. Set in modern day Venice, I get the feeling the two should know one another, at the very least. From the picture drawn by the two authors, there can't be that many honest senior cops in that part of Italy!
In Fatal Remedies, Brunetti is faced with the dilemma of how to "investigate" his wife's principles-led act of vandalism - throwing a brick through the window of a travel agency she believes caters for child sex tourism to South East Asia. Not having read the preceding novels, it's hard to assess the full extent of the pressure this puts on the Brunetti's marriage. They seem a strong committed couple, but this commitment comes into conflict with their commitments to their principles - Guido to upholding the law, Paola's to protesting against social evils that appear to be beyond the long arm of the law.
The plot isn't entirely focused on the Brunettis - when the owner of the travel agency dies, more sinister crimes than Paola's come in to play. And I love Signorina Eletra, the mild mannered secretary with a vast network of contacts in Italy's organs of state, and l33t hacker skillz. She brings a bit of the world of James Bond to the tale.
Amazon.co.uk link: Fatal Remedies - Donna Leon
Leon's Brunetti books in Order
Set in 19th century London (in the main), this novel mixes historical fiction with biography to suggest a backstory for Edgar Allen Poe (the boy of the book's title), his childhood in England and parentage.
Told by his schoolmaster and one-time soldier Thomas Shield, the story covers mystery and murder, love, lust and lechery, financial scandal and social ruin. There's the high society balls and dinner parties of the country elite, the honest poor making ends meet in London's labyrinthine tenements and the ne'er-do-wells of both worlds.
It's not an easy read, but ultimately it is a worthwhile one.
Amazon.co.uk: The American Boy - Andrew Taylor
Our hero, Harry Bosch, has now retired from the LAPD; his years as a detective having made him well versed in the underbelly of Californian life. With time on his hands, and no one to share it with, he carries on sleuthing, looking into cold cases which his (former) fellow officers have no time to pursue. Harry's unofficial investigation into the murder of a young woman who'd worked in the film industry brings him into contact with a former colleague paralysed in the course of duty, the FBI, weathly film financiers... and although Harry ties up everything at the end, there's an unexpected twist which left me wondering where things would go next!
Amazon.co.uk tells me that Lost Light is book 9 in the Harry Bosch series, and that book number 2 (next on the library list) is The Black Ice, so that leaves at least seven more installments to track down, starting with The Black Echo. Plus I'd never realised Amazon had these "Series" pages.... very handy!
Amazon.co.uk link: Lost Light - Michael Connelly
Another heartwarming tale from Botswana, even if Mma Ramotswe rather surprised me by starting to worry about her traditionally built figure! The crimes and misdemeanours range from staff pilfering to fears of witchcraft to cheeky apprentices, and the philosophical asides cover feminism and offender rehbilitation.
Amazon.co.uk link: Blue Shoes and Happiness - Alexander McCall Smith
Having read all of (now sadly departed) Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen novels, and being up to date with both Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Alphabet and (to the best of my knowledge - my reading has been a bit hotchpotch here) Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, I am in need of some fresh crime fiction and a new detective hero/heroine.
I tried The Closers a few months ago but gave up after a few pages as the book needed to go back to the library, but I'd picked this one up for a pound at a S&S charity book sale, and found it much easier to get into. Set in LA, not a million miles from Kinsey Millhone's Santa Theresa turf, The Black Echo deals with a much darker world - the crimes investigated by the homicide team in the not so whiter than white LAPD.
In this novel, less than perfect Harry Bosch is digging into the drug-related death of a fellow Vietnam veteran and getting caught up in the more complex world of the FBI and sophisticated high value bank vault robberies.
If you like The Wire, then I think you'll like Harry Bosch.
And having just looked up the Amazon.co.uk link, I see that this is the first Harry Bosch novel. Excellent - no need to try to work out how best to backtrack to the start of the story... I just need to know which one comes next....
Amazon.co.uk link: The Black Echo - Michael Connelly
Another episode from early in Dr Kay Scarpetta's career, where she still smokes and hasn't yet settled into her relationships with Marino and Benton Wesley. What makes this novel all the wierder, for someone reading the books out of order, is the part Mark plays in the plot. In fact, not just the part, but his very existence is all rather strange, upsetting the balance between all the other, more familiar, characters.
Amazon.co.uk link: Body of Evidence - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
I couldn't quite believe I'd missed out reading The Body Farm - it's one of the most well known of Patricia Cornwell's Dr Kay Scarpetta novels, and covers the two key events in the lives of Dr Kay Scarpetta, her genius neice Lucy and FBI profiler Benton Wesley. I shall say no more, other than if you like the series and haven't yet read The Body Farm, put it at the top of your Books To Read list!
Amazon.co.uk link: The Body Farm - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Unlike recent reads, I really enjoyed this Aurelio Zen mystery, although the man himself didn't make an appearance until well past page 40. Set in the independent minded mountain borderlands between Italy and Switzerland, this Zen outing provides a darker by more credible plot stetching back 30 years, and Zen's sleuthing reveals relationships and careers based on lies and deceit. Zen seems at his best when he's an outsider, and when Michale Dibdin keeps Zen's personal life playing a remote second fiddle to his detective work and police force politicking.
Amazon.co.uk link: Medusa - Michael Dibdin
At last - I spotted the latest instalment in Sue Grafton's alphabetised crime series featuring Californian Private Eye, Kinsey Millhone.
S is for Silence sees Kinsey sleuthing away from her Santa Theresa base, travelling to the small inland town of Serena Station to investigate the whys and wherefors of the disappearance of good time girl, Violet Sulivan, on 4th July 1953..... Did Violet run off to escape her abusive husband or to be with an unknown lover, or was she killed - and if so, why?
Flashbacks to 1953 provide the background on the community's characters, motives and events, and the focus is much more on the lives and loves of people other than Kinsey. It's not that I don't enjoy following Kinsey's personal story, but it must be difficult for Sue Grafton to come up with fresh plotlines for our feisty heroine.
Now I only need wait another year or so for T is for .....
Amazon.co.uk link: S is for Silence
A change of genre after so much historical fiction, biography and travel writing .... I picked up this 2004 novel by Ruth Rendell not long after the Ipswitch serial murders. Set in modern day London, this is a strikingly similar tale of one man's murdering spree, set against a backdrop of a West London antiques shop, peopled by its owner/occupier , the tenants living in the flats above and the people they know and love. Patricia Cornwell is more gruesome, but The Rottweiler takes place closer to home.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Rottweiler - Ruth Rendell
This most recent Aurelio Zen mystery proved a bit of a disappointment. I've missed out on Medusa, the novel that covers events between And then you die and Back to Bologna, which turn out to have been pretty key in relation to Zen's romantic life. I dislike reading things in the wrong order - it spoils my enjoyment of the discovery of what happens in the book I've missed out.
Another aspect of Back to Bologna which irked me was the cast of 21st century stereotypes: celebrity chef, rich kid football hooligan, illegal economic migrant, oligarchical football club owner. It felt like I was reading reportage in Grazia or Hello, "with the names changed to protect the innocent". And Zen didn't seem to contribute much to the final outcome; in fact he did't appear to do much apart from mope about his failing love life.
Buy it: Amazon link
Rather annoyingly, realised that I'd picked up the 6th in Alexander McCall Smith's gentle and enjoyable series featuring the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and whilst waiting in LHR for my departure to Islamabad I opened In the Company of Cheerful Ladies to discover that Mma Precious Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni are now married and I have to wait until I get back from my holidays to find out the detail!!
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies introduces a new character to Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, after Mma Ramostwe knocks Mr Polopetsi off his bicycle, and Mma Grace Makutsi finds true love at last, after taking up dancing lessons. In the meantime, one of the apprentices find religion, the other gets entangled with an older, married woman and Mma Ramotse first husband, no good Note Mokoti, returns from South Africa, bringing nothing but trouble....
Buy it: Amazon link
The Kalahari Typing School for Men continues to feature the personal and professional life of Mma Grace Makutsi - who sets up a typing school for men, and a boyfriend, but alas, whilst the school is a success, the nascent love life is less so.
The cases handled by Precious Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi include a man who wishes to atone for misdeeds of his youth and a female physiotherapist who turns to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency having become a dissatsfied client of the recently opened Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency, run by the rather unpleasant Cephas Buthelezi.
Buy it: Amazon link
With work calling in crazy hours, I was definitely in need of some lightweight fiction in September for the rare moments when I felt the desire and had the energy to read. So I was very happy to find the next four books in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series in the library.
In Morality for Beautiful Girls we find Mr J L B Matekoni suffering from depression, and Mma Precious Ramotswe called upon to do some detective work into the morals of the four finalists in the Miss Glamorous Botswana competition, and the relationships at play in the family of the nameless Government Man. In the meantime, Mma Ramotswe and fiance Mr J L B Matekoni bring their respective businesses under one roof, and Mma Makutsi displays unexpected skills at managing Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors' two workshy apprentices.
Buy it: Amazon link
Still manic at work, so a bank holiday weekend at Forty Acres offered the perfect opportunity for restocking from the second hand bookshop and the Paperback Exchange, sadly shutting down (but that allowed for plenty of purchases at rock bottom prices).
I raced through this over the bank holiday weekend at Forty Acres. The first in the Kay Scarpetta series, and a very different read from the later ones I've been reading more recently. Worth reading with care to see how the key characaters are introduced.
Amazon.co.uk link: Amazon link
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Another unsettling whodunnit featuring Dr Kay Scarpetta, this time with heavy emphasis on the psychological aspects - particularly Benton's criminal profiling and the long term affects of child abuse. As the plot unfolds, you soon realise that you're not at all sure who exactly is watching who.
Amazon.co.uk link: Predator - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Another purchase from Hereford's second hand/charity shop - as was All That Remains - and another random dip into the world of Dr Kay Scarpetta. This time I found myself somewhere in between All That Remains and Black Notice - the last two Patricia Cornwell novels that I've read. Come the end of the book, I realised that Black Notice picks up where Point of Origin finishes.
In fact, Point of Origin provides the detail on Benton's death at the hands of escaped psychopath Carrie Gethin, Lucy's manipulative former lover who Kay, Marino and Benton had (almost) put behind bars. It comes in the context of Lucy's having left the FBI and having joined a speciliast team of fire investigators (she's also learned how to fly helicopters), which comes in handy when Kay et al find themsleves investigating a series of gruesome murders that are not *quite* covered up by arson. Deliberately so, as it turns out.
Despite the many references to Carrie and Lucy's affair in the Kay Scarpetta novels I've read, I've not so far managed to find the one in which it takes place, and similiarly having seen Benton's role leap from professional rival to murdered live in lover in recent reads I seem to have managed to miss out on the part where he and Kay get it together, at his wife's expense. All of which means that I'm going to make the effort to read the series from the start.
Amazon.co.uk link: Point of Origin - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
A quick one-day read over the weekend at Walton, which came as a bit of a surprise as I'd expected this Kay Scarpetta novel to last me rather longer. Then again, it's one of the earlier instalments in the series and I'm realising that the more recent novels are much longer - Blowfly and Trace in particular.
A satisfying read though, with Kay and Marino uncovering the connection and killer behind a series of double murders that turn out to stetch back decades, and unlike many other novels featuring Kay Scarpetta, this one stretches over many months. In addtion to the murder mysteries themselves, the plot also features politics a-plenty, and bitter rivalry and deliberate obfustication between the various law enforcement agencies that get involved. In fact, everyone seems to have their own agenda; from the drugs czar who is not only one of america's most powerful women, a potential presidential candidate in fact, but also the mother of the girl whose murder opens the novel, to Benton Wesley who Kay encounters heading up the FBI team.....
Two additional points of interest in this novel, particularly if - like me - you've read some of Patricia Cornwell's later novels first: (1) it features Mark as Kay's love interest; and (2) Kay's interest in Benton Wesley is purely professional, and she dislikes and distrusts him.
Having just been to explore www.patricia-cornwell.com and finding the publication timelines, I realise that this must be the earliest Kay Scarpetta novel I've read. Clearly I need to read its two predecessors: Post Mortem and Body of Evidence - if only to learn more about Kay's relationships.
Amazon.co.uk link: All That Remains - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Luckily Katie had brought in Tears of the Giraffe as well as No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency for me to borrow, so I was able to carry on reading about the sleuthing and romancing of Mma. Ramotswe, Bostwana's only lady private eye. In this, the second novel in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith again creates a cast and a plot that balance the good and the bad of Botswana - ranging from fostering orphans to solving the long-ago murder of an idealistic young american to out-witting lazy and dishonest house-keepers.
Precious Ramotswe is a good woman, and in Alexander McCall Smith's novels (so far at least) decency, kindness, optimism and common sense win out.
Buy it: Amazon link
Lent to me by Katie Carter, I raced through No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in one cool, wet Bank Holiday Saturday spent in the caravan at Walton-on-the-Naze.
Like many others (I'm sure), I'd picked up the first of Alexander McCall Smith's tales featuring ("starring", surely?) Precious Ramotswe many a time, in the library, at the airport, in bookshops... but I'd never actually bought it - the blurb just didn't sound enticing enough.
My mistake! Yes, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency reads like a gentle, calm tale, but it's one that carries many a sting: death and abandonment, murder and witchcraft; but Mma. Ramotswe and her merry men and women steer a safe, thoughtful and overwhelmingly positive path through it all to the happiness and contentment you can't but help feel they deserve.
A modern day Aesop's fable - I'm amazed this book hasn't got more Amazon reviews.
Buy it: Amazon link
I still can't believe that I managed to get through all of the Kinsey Millhone novels (the ones published so far at least), in order, without having actually read the first in the series!!!
Well, I've remedied that glaring omission. Before I started A is for Alibi, I wasn't sure whether to expect the familiar scene setting and key character sketching that opens most of Sue Grafton's series or some deeper background detail backing up developments that have emerged over the 19 novels to date.
In fact it was the former, but with some interesting quirks for those readers who are able to look into Kinsey's future. There is an early and for me unexpected appearance by a strangely unfamiliar Robert Dietz, and the development of other, more fully formed, characters who are destined never to appear again - Arlette the lady motel owner in particular. The same goes for events - unless I've forgotten references to Kinsey shooting someone, or of her narrowly escaping being murdered by a recent lover..... and none of these are elements that feature frequently in the series as a whole!
It's not the best of Sue Grafton's novels, but it is by no means the worst (or to be more accurate, the one I liked the least). More importantly, it is the first of the alphabet series which makes it the best place to start if you've not read any others so far, and one that you'll need to read if you have.
Buy it: Amazon link
It was a bit disorienting reading this novel starring chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, police captain Pete Marino and genius niece Lucy. All my own fault of course, given my random approach to reading Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta novels. In Unnatural Exposure which was the last one I read, Kay was still resisting Benton's charms, and the one before that, The Last Precinct, is the one that immediately follows this!
That said, I rather enjoyed the fact that everything in this novel takes on a greater significance knowing what happens next, and it would be interesting to know how far in advance Patricia Cornwell plots her novels. It would also be of interest to know whether or not the critical Amazon.co.uk reviewers read this novel in sequence, given that most of them slated it.
Set in the year following Benton's death, Black Notice covers some of the key events and characters that feature in the overarching plotline developed during the course of later novels: rival alpha-female Diane Bray, love interest (that came as a surprise!) Jay Talley and Le Loup-Garou Jean-Baptiste Chandonne.
It also shows Dr Scarpetta at her most vulnerable, barely in control of her professional life and totally at a loss how to come to terms with the grief in her personal life, let alone in a position to deal with Lucy's trigger-happy reaction to Benton's murder.
Amazon.co.uk link: Black Notice - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
At last, Kinsey rediscovers her love life and her libido!! I get the feeling that Sue Grafton had second thoughts about writing off Cheney Philips as a potential lover in her last novel, and managed to finagle him back into batchelorhood, and as prime candidate for Kinsey's attentions. At the same time, Robert Dietz is written off as an absent object of Kinsey's affections and the door closed firmly on her affair from the early alphabet novels.
Added to this upturn in Kinsey's affairs of the heart is the tension between her neighbour Henry and his brothers, clashing over the romantic attentions of a youthful seventy-something they'd met on a recent cruise.
And added to that we have Reba, the ex-con Kinsey agrees to chaperone for the first few days on parole, and who shows up Kinsey as a goody two shoes. A contrast that's no mean feat given Kinsey's track record of lock picking and law bending. A cracking story, although the baddies could have been drawn more darkly, and where of where has the long-lost-family subplot gone to?
Buy it: Amazon link
After two relatively erudite novels, I felt the need to induldge in a spot of American crime - the CSI of literature, to my mind. This was the "oldest" Kay Scarpetta novel I could find on the library shelves, and it deals with a time when Scarpetta is still working out her feelings for Benton, and getting over the death of her previous lover, Mark. Lucy is in the early years of her career and still honing her skills as an FBI agent. In other parts of the plot, Patricia Cornwell offers dismembered bodies both sides of the Atlantic, and a mutant smallpox epidemic spread by postal deliveries. See, very CSI.
Amazon.co.uk link: Unnatural Exposure - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
I knew it had to happen sometime; I'd find myself reading a Kinsey Millhone mystery that I'd read before.... after all, I didn't discover Sue Grafton's heroine with A is for Alibi (which it looks like I've managed to overlook!) - I suspect that I thought Q is for Quarry was just an interesting title. So here we are, re-reading a crime story but this time with 16 books-worth of character development and background information, all of which makes certain parts more enjoyable (Henry's love interest) and other parts more significant (the appearance of Aunt Susanna). I'm not racing through it however....
Buy it: Amazon link
The Kinsey Millhone series continues apace in P Is for Peril, where Sue Grafton's Californian PI finds herself in novel territory on several fronts whilst investigating the disappearance of a doctor/manager of a local nursing home, which is also under investigation for financial irregularities. The the novelty of finding new office space which in turn leads to the novelty of a charming young love interest (albeit one that turns out to be the Peril of the title). And the final, subtly delivered plot twist both surprised and pleased me - rather more "modern" than I'd expect from Sue Grafton in Kinsey Millhone mode.
Buy it: Amazon link
A bit disappointing this one, especially as I walked straight into the spoiler resulting from the previous instalment in Aurelio Zen's career and life.
I won't do the same to you, dear reader!
Suffice it to say, that this novel lacked the strong characters that have populated Aurelio Zen's world to date, and Michael Dibdin seems to have taken the decision to remove a lot of the familiar background characters from the scene, leaving Zen befreft of context, whilst at the same time - most bizarrely - providing him with a love interest and an interest in love that seem to have appeared out of thin air.
Buy it: Amazon link
Back to form in this next "letter of the alphabet" tale from Sue Grafton concerning Californian private investigator, Kinsey Millhone. Grafton manages subtly to introduce us to Kinsey's first husband, and by so doing allows her heroine to tells us more about her earlier life, and its police force context. Very subtly done, in contrast to earlier attempts to provide such insights via the long lost relatives route.
The only bit of the book I didn't like was Sue Grafton's note at the start, telling us when the various episodes detailed in the alphabet books take place - essentially placing all of the books to date in the 1980s - and thereby justifying the absence of mobile phones and the internet. Surely Sue Grafton could have provided us with plot-based pointers on this front, rather than this school-ma'am-ish elucidation.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another of my London Heathrow haul, The Shadow of the Wind was a punt, based on the blurb and deciding not to let myself be snobby about a Richard and Judy book club recommendation.
It proved to be a good choice; one that lasted me all the way home.
A strong story, with characters I felt for and a plot that taught me much about the difficulties of living in Barcelona in the years following the Spanish Civil War. Even though I guessed the solution to the mystery early on, my certainty wavered as I read on and the gaps in my understanding opened and closed, and opened again.
But it is not just a novel in modern historical setting. There is comedy, there is horror, there is love - unrequited and fulfilled. And it is most definitely not a 'Spanish Da Vinci Code'.
Buy it: Amazon link
Oh dear - over a fortnight to read a 368 page crime novel. Proof indeed that I need to take a break from Sue Grafton and her leading lady Kinsey Millhone.
The twist in this installment is that Kinsey is working in the cold, closed, inland environment of Nota Lake, a million miles away from her home turf of Santa Theresa. She's hired to find out about the final days of the local smalltown cop, by his widow who wants to understand what was obviously on his mind in the run up to his apparently natural death. Kinsey soon realises that her employer, Selma, is as unpopular and disliked in the town as her husband, Tom, was popular and beloved. It's a novel about insiders and outsiders, communities closing ranks and 'the enemy' prizing a way through.
Buy it: Amazon link
It has taken me a while to finish this one, partly because about three chapters in I knew that I'd read it before. Still at least I was equally sure I couldn't remember the outcome of this instalment of the Kinsey Millhone series - where Kinsey is hired by her long-lost cousin Tasha to find black sheep of a Santa Theresa family whose recently deceased patriarch had made fortune from his quarrying and building materials business. With those key features, it felt rather reminsicent of the one where Kinsey investigates a family crime in a family run business - E is for Evidence, I think.
Anyway - whilst I'm still enjoying Sue Grafton's progress through the alphabet in her telling of Kinsey Millhone's career and personal life, I do get the feeling that these middle ones are a bit filler-like. I wish she'd work out what to do about the family back story, seeing as I know no more about them and their view of Kinsey than I did when they were revealed four books ago.
Buy it: Amazon link
I'm steaming ahead into the middle of the Kinsey Millhone alphabet crime series, and L is for Lawless is a good 'un. Kinsey becomes embroiled in the long overdue aftermath of a 50 year old bank heist, and heads out of California for the first time, and onto the wrong side of the law - not for the first, nor last time I'm sure! I have to say that I guessed the 'solution' about half way through, but then again I like things to tie up neatly, and Sue Grafton always delivers on that.
M and N are sitting on the bedside table, and look certain to usurp White Mughals, which I started on the way back from Yalta, for a little while longer.
Buy it: Amazon link
I abandoned my Herefordshire haul in favour of the next letter of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series ... borrowed from the Barbican Library in lieu of the Lonely Planet Guide to the Ukraine (still out on loan, despite my having put in a request for it over three weeks ago - bah!). Actually, I'd had to call this one back from the mysterious 'stack'. Quite why some of the series get to stay out on the shelves and others don't is another mystery.
But Barbican mysteries aside; K is for Killer is another quick and easy read, this time putting Kinsey on the trail of the murderer of a high class call girl come proto-porn star whose decomposing body had drawn a blank for the Santa Theresa police. With no reference to Kinsey's long-lost family, Killer felt a bit of a filler, but then again you can understand wariness in a character who's spent most of her childhood an orphan, and most of her adult life living alone suddenly finding out she's got aunts, uncles and cousins, and a weathy grandmother who disowned Kinsey's mother.
A suitable read for the Astraeus flight from Gatwick to Simferolpol, and H and my first day in Yalta.
Buy it: Amazon link
Prime holiday reading - I always associate Aurelio Zen with Walton on the Naze, a suitably watery landscape even if it's not quite the same as his home town of Venice, where I first met him in Ratking. Hmm, I'm sure I've read more than just three of this series by Michael Dibdin...
A Long Finish was swiftly polished off on holiday at Forty Acres. Set in northern Italy, wine making, truffle hunting and villagers with long memories come together to produce another good crime and an equally good resolution by Aurelio Zen, with his usual scant regard for police protocol (such as there is in Italy).
Buy it: Amazon link
Part of the Frinton haul, this hardback copy travelled to Herefordshire to be the first of my holiday reads.
It covers some of the events in Dr Kay Scarpetta's life story prior to those I've read before. It was good to get some of the key background, in particular the emergence of The Last Precinct, and Dr Scarpetta's departure from her beloved role as Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner.
Lots of murders to explain, and emotional angst on the part of Kay and those close to her as she has to extricate herself from position as prime suspect. I wasn't so keen on Jaime Berger, the high powered NY District Attorney, but on the other hand we do get a lot more detail on la famille Chandonne, and Rocky, Pete Marino's black sheep son.
I do think that it would have been better to have read its immediate predecessor, Black Notice, first however. That said, I've yet to read the episode in which Benton dies...
Amazon.co.uk link: The Last Precinct - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Back to Sue Grafton and Kinsey Millhone before my library copy of J is for Judgment was due back... to encounter an interesting and major twist in the gradually unfolding of Kinsey's own history and character.
The main plot involves the Robert Maxwell-like disappearance and presumed death of a con man, and the effect on those around him - friends and family, co-cons and victims. But the most interesting parts are about Kinsey herself; her past and her family.
Buy it: Amazon link
Hot on the heels of H is for Homicide, I induldged in a bank holiday excess of amercian crime fiction with the follow up case for Californian PI, Kinsey Millhone.
I is for Innocent deals with the priveledged and wealthy of St Theresa county, in contrast to the gangland culture in the previous book. The characters are equally rich, with Kinsey picking up the the investigative trail followed by another PI, whose fatal heart attack proves not to be quite as innocent as it first seemed.
Buy it: Amazon link
Investigating the murder of a former colleague, Kinsey gets embroiled with an on-the-run modern day gangster's moll, and ends up going undercover with the insurance scam gang, where more of her dark side is revealed when she joins in with the fake accident and whiplash episodes.
A fun read.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another good read from Sue Grafton, doing exactly what it says on the cover. There are a few more backward-looking references and a bit more action for Kinsey, on a variety of fronts: she travels to a Mojave desert community to locate a missing old lady, and winds up with a hitman on her tail, a body guard and a mystery that turns into multiple murder.....
Now all I need to do is find H is for .... in the Barbican library when I take this one back!
Buy it: Amazon link
Another Kinsey Millhone whodunnit, hot on the heels of E is for Evidence (both picked up from the Barbican library), and the continuity holds up nicely. This time, Kinsey is out of town, staying in a seaside motel, working for its owners, a dysfunctional family whose son stands accused of a long ago murder, and who has been on the run ever since. Just the ticket for chilling out in chilly - nay wintry! - Avignon.
Buy it: Amazon link
Kinsey gets set up as the crim in this the fifth Kinsey Millhone mystery..... being set up with an unexpected deposit of $5000 into her usually threadbare account. And winds up having a couple of close shaves with homemade bombs and a psychotic killer.
Actually, this is more of a Thirties whodunnit than a Patricia Cornwell thriller-type mystery. I enjoy both, but Sue Grafton's style is nice and easy, and quick, to read. Especially when waiting for the Eurostar to Avignon!
Next stop, F is for Fugitive....
Buy it: Amazon link
Another Aurelio Zen mystery that has appeared at the Gyford's Walton library, and a more attractive read than the more autobiographical books I'd bought with me.
A good detective/crime read, as usual, but with more focus on Aurelio's private life, giving more of an insight into the man to go with the mysteries he investigates. There were overtones of The Da Vinci Code, with a secret society within one of the ancient orders that emerged at the time of the Crusades..... but this novel is nothing like as complex. With the action taking place solely in Rome/the Vatican City, the focus is more on the workings of Italian/Vatican police and security forces, and those who control them, than the Cabal itself.
Buy it: Amazon link
Borrowed from Abby for holiday reading, this proved a suitable Kay Scarpetta blockbuster to occupy some of the quieter moments - such as there were - during the trip from Delhi to Kathmandu.
The focus of the plot is more concerned with Kay's niece, Lucy, and her life and relationships than the usual, older characters, but interestingly, the novel lets you see what each of those think of Lucy and her adult-relationship with Kay. Not having read the earlier novels, I didn't really get as much out of Kay's return to Virginia and her emotional response to the changes since her departure as others might do.
Amazon.co.uk link: Trace - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Set in London the early 18th century, in the era when financial institutions and paper-based monetary systems were emerging in concept and in fact, this book is part murder-mystery, part-historical novel, with lots of detail on the jewish and financial communities in London, as well as its underworld of fist-fighters, gin joints, pick pockets and prostitutes.
It took me a while to get into it - in addition to the breadth of information provided by way of general backgrounds and settings, the main character is a bit of a mish-mash, and I found it hard to get a feel for him. At times it felt like David Liss was just desparate to fit in everything he'd discovered in doing his research.
That said, in the end, I wanted to know what happened enough to take the novel with me on my trip to India and Nepal! I still couldn't articulate a snappy description of the book when asked by the Gulf Air stewardess though....
Buy it: Amazon link
More satisfying than C for me, largely because of the action in Kinsey's personal life, and the fact that for the first time she has a client who is a crim/ex-crim, who is subsequently murdered. The main gripe I had with this plot is that the Whodunnit factor rests on there being 5 suspects and the fact that all are slim blondes, and I failed to pick up on these significant features in the initial descriptions of most of them, with the end result that it was hard to follow the twists and turns in the later chapters.
Buy it: Amazon link
Steaming through the early Kinsey Millhone books, all fairly similar, but none the worse for that. This one deals with the murder of a young rich kid Kinsey meets at the gym..... with a parallel story involving Henry, her elderly neighbour and landlord. D is for Deadbeat is next (and last of the current set of library loans).
Buy it: Amazon link
Another of my pre-Christmas haul of reading from Barbican Library, and still in the crime genre - not my usual fayre, but I like to dip into it every now and again.
I've read a few Kinsey Millhones before, and thought I'd best start from the beginning, and B was as close as I could get. I do have C and D on the bookshelves to speed on through though.
A Californian ex cop and feisty female private eye, Kinsey Millhone makes a good heroine, and Sue Grafton's plots are convoluted enough to keep you turning the pages, while not having too many nightmare inducing moments.
Buy it: Amazon link
Quite the scariest crime novel I've read in a while, so no surprises that I had nightmares last night, even if all the twists and turns take place in the USA. Unlike the other books covering other parts of Kay Scarpetta's life, she isn't a central character in this one, which focuses more on the people close to her and her chillingly evil arch enemies.
I've missed out on a lot of background developments by skipping straight from Cruel and Unusual to Blow Fly, but that's because the Barbican library didn't have any of the ones in between, and I'm not enough of a crime fan to actually buy the books. As and when I see any, either in the library or second hand, I'd definitely pick them up - Patricia Cornwell writes good crime!
Amazon.co.uk link: Blow Fly - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
I've not read any crime for ages, and picked this up second hand in Hereford over the summer. A good choice for a return to the genre, with a macabre story played out by a range of interesting characters. It reminds me of CSI: american-set, coroner/pathologist-investigated crime. If you enjoy that, you'll enjoy this.
Amazon.co.uk link: Cruel and Unusual - Patricia Cornwell
Amazon.co.uk list: Kay Scarpetta Collection (in order)
Set in the Deep South of the U S of A, this reads like a modern day take on To Kill A Mockingbird, with a cast of likeable and unlikeable characters meeting out justice, southern style.
I was interested enough in the two main protagonists, 11 year old Harriet (good) and 20-something Danny (bad), and their related kith and kin, to read on to the end - but I certainly didn't race there.
Buy it: Amazon link
20th century sleuthing, Italian style, and an enjoyable pot luck read from the Gyford family caravan to tide an ill-me through the Easter Bank holiday weekend.
It feels as though the novel is written with a solid grounding in Italy's unusual crime-fighting scene, but I was very conscious that many of the asides left me high and dry, due to my limited knowledge of Italian history and politics, ancient and modern. Still, this is an easy way to improve that!!
Buy it: Amazon link