RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN, Marshall Browne

Random House 2006, 287 pages. ISBN 978-1-74166-527-7

Tokyo detective Aoki and his team are expecting that the case they have been working on for the last seventeen months will soon be over. Along the way they have lost 3 of their team who fell under the pace of the investigation, but it will all be worth it. This case is about to break and they will all have promotions.

But that's not the way it works out. They are called abruptly to a meeting with the superintendent and the director general and told that the investigation is over, no action will be taken, the case will not be proceeding. The ex-governor with connections to the yakuza will get away with it yet again.

In the following months, the ex-governor's star rises and people begin to talk of him as the next prime minister, and Aoki's star goes into decline. A member of his team commits suicide, a journalist, and both his father and his wife die and Aoki himself is suspended from duty. And just when things really can't get any worse, Aoki is sent by his superintendent to the Kamakura Inn, a ryokan in Hokkaido, to recuperate.

The detective in Aoki is revived as he realises that the other guests at the ryokan have secrets to hide, and he wonders if he has been sent there intentionally. He remembers an unsolved mystery of the disappearance of a woman 7 years earlier, and reaslises that at least two of the other guests have connections to that case. When the ryokan is cut off from the world in a snow storm, this tale becomes a classic locked room mystery. The ryokan is a house of many secrets, built to hide as well as accommodate, and the tension grows as first of all the telephone, and then the lights fail.

All the other Marshall Browne books I've read, the Inspector Anders ones, have rated highly. This one is no exception. My rating 4.3

I bought RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN at Adelaide Writers' Week after I had heard Marshall Browne talk, and he duly signed it for me.

Meanwhile in Abu Dhabi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An inviting pile of books beckons outside the public library at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi.

Today was 44 degrees C, windy, and a bit dusty, so we spent a couple of hours viewing an exhibition about Sudan (in airconditioned comfort).

The pile of books is a "sculpture".

TRICK OR TREAT, Kerry Greenwood

2007, Allen & Unwin, 288 pages

Corinna Chapman is making ends meet very well with her bakery Earthly Delights just off Flinders Lane in metropolitan Melbourne. She has built up a regular clientele of colourful locals, as well as becoming the supplier to a number of restaurants.
That is, until a franchised hot bread shop opens up at the other end of the lane, and sales begin to flag.

And that's not the only problem. The love of her life Daniel seems to be making excuses and to have other things on his mind. And then morning after morning Calico Alley, at the back entrance to her bakery, has more than its fair share of drug overdose cases, until finally someone leaps from the roof of a building into the alley. The investigation that follows threatens Corinna's very livelihood.

To make it worse, although Corinna has a secret admirer sending her flowers and cards, at least one other person wants her out of the bakery - to the point even of nailing a grisly trophy to the front door of the apartment building that houses the bakery.

Kerry Greenwood has a delightful turn of phrase that constantly brings a touch of humour to the pages. TRICK OR TREAT is full of interesting characters - from elderly Greek Jews who remember their war-time flight from the Germans as if it were yesterday; to Meroe the local witch who wants special soul cakes for Halloween; to those who conduct the nightly Soup Run through the streets of Melbourne and collect the bakery's surpluses. Even the animals come over as real characters: Heckle and Jekyll, the bakery's Mouse Police; Horatio the lordly feline whose fiefdom is Corinna's apartment; Nox the black kitten who rules a neighbour, the Professor, with an iron paw; to the death-defying Lucifer whose clawed ginger paws love koi fish.

This #4 in Kerry Greenwood's Earthly series and each one is more like a comfort read, like the comfort food Corinna cooks in her bakery. But make no mistake, there is underlying social comment here too: on the exploitation of the elderly and the gullible, bakery chains who would rather sell their surplus to a piggery than donate to charity, and the importance of resolution for those who were the victims of war crimes even when the war is 70 years in the past. And for those who like cooking, there are real recipes for some of Corinna's treats in the final pages.

Kerry Greenwood is an accomplished and popular Australian author, probably better known for her Phryne Fisher series. To be honest though, I find Corinna Chapman less grating that the Hon. Phryne.

Websites to check
http://www.earthlydelights.net.au/books.html
http://www.phrynefisher.com/

The Cairns Post, among other reviewers, labelled this "chick-lit", but unlike much of this crime fiction sub-genre, this is chick-lit the oldies will enjoy too.

My rating: 4.3

Sunday Salon #10 - 25 May 2008

Can't believe this is my 10th Sunday Salon. I think I am almost addicted to blogging. In 144 days I made 176 postings!

I've set this to auto publish on Sunday so I hope that it works. The first post in the retrospective list below will explain why I had to do that.

I've learnt a few things this week- how to add a Feedburner RSS icon, and set up an email subscription through Feedburner - and met a few new people through comments they've left.
I also "hotlinked" all my reviews for 2008, currently listed in a side panel, to the actual reviews so visitors can locate them more easily.

• DEAD LOVELY, Helen Fitzgerald
  A quick read aimed at, I think, readers younger than me, who like crime fiction.
  
• Off Travelling
  Read about where I am and the books I've taken to keep me company.
  Information here too about Feedburner and Jim who pointed me to it.
• A QUIET BELIEF fights back
  More on the fascinating story of Amazon UK's Bestsellers in Crime, Thrillers & Mystery list
• A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES, Reginald Hill
  Took me over a week to read this, but it really is one of the best reads of the year, not just because of the story, but because of what Reginald Hill is actually doing. Many thanks to TableTalk whose comments on last week's Sunday Salon sent me off to do some very productive research.
  
• EVIL INTENT, progress report
  I'm listening to this in the car (well I was - it is on hold for 2 weeks now), and it wasn't panning out quite as I'd expected. The jury is still out.
  
• Discovery: BookMooch.com
  I'm indebted to Bernadette who commented about Book Mooch for pointing me towards it. I joined put some books up, and instantly had 2 moochers contact me. The books are on their way. My first moocher kindly taught me the ropes, explaining everything that I had to do.
• My review of HARUM SCARUM up on Euro Crime
  I've become a Euro Crime reviewer and my first review was posted last weekend.
• Carnival of Criminal Minds moves to location #16
  The Carnival of Criminal Minds moved from Germany to Canada. Well worth browsing if you've never been there. On July 1 it comes to Paradise!

Miscellanea

• A new site to explore: Crime and Mystery Fiction
  Lists over 1400 authors and their books. Some pages are not quite current but it is a remarkable piece of work. Check out some of the pseudonyms too
• Over on Book Group Buzz there's a nice list of things you can do in your Book Group if you're looking for something to rev it up a bit.
  There have also been a couple of posts about how to locate online reading guides. An earlier posting here.
• Over on Crime Scraps you can compete for a copy of Peter Temple's THE BROKEN SHORE, winner of CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for 2007.
  
  Interesting cover too for the USA Picador publishing of this Australian novel by an Australian author.
  The Australian cover is on the left.
  Seriously, if you haven't read it yet, get a copy.
  

The Book Depository sends all over the world with free postage. Copies of THE BROKEN SHORE begin at £6.03 or treat yourself to a Peter Temple Omnibus that also includes IN THE EVIL DAY and AN IRON ROSE for £6.03

DEAD LOVELY, Helen Fitzgerald

Allen & Unwin, 2007, 298 pages

We know from the beginning that Krissie Donald has killed her best friend Sarah Morgan. They are on a hiking holiday in Scotland with Sarah's husband Kyle, and you know the old saying, three's a crowd.

Krissie Donald has always been a bit unstable, a rolling stone, and promiscuous with it. One of the results of her promiscuity after a holiday in Tenerife was pregnancy. But Krissie is not yet ready to be a mother to her son Robbie. Sarah on the other hand is childless despite almost 8 years of trying to fall pregnant.

Krissie's near nervous collapse is the reason for the hiking holiday, but it ends in a way that none of them could have predicted.

This is a book where the writing and structure break all the rules. It has a deceptively simple style- very short sentences for the most part, and often very blunt expression. I would be tempted to characterise it as chick-lit, and I think the market it is probably aimed at is young women. This is reinforced not only by its vocabulary, but also through the topics of interest to the main characters: sex, pregnancy, getting drunk.

One of the rules that it breaks happens through abrupt changes in P.O.V. For example the first four chapters are in the first person, Krissie's voice. Then chapter 5 is third person, almost a narrator, and in chapter 6 back to Krissie's voice. When this first happens it is a bit disconcerting.
Chapter 5 prompted me to look back and check whose head I had been in in the previous chapters. At times we see the action through the eyes of other narrators too. It's part of what makes this novel quite remarkable.

What surprised me about this novel was how well very disparate strands converged towards the final resolution. I wouldn't say it was all believable. The murder is particularly grisly and there was an un-hinged side to the murderer that I hadn't been prepared for.

Not my best read for the year, but a good solid one.
My rating 4.0

Sally reviewed it here

From Helen Fitzgerald's web site:
Helen FitzGerald writes thrillers and teen fiction. Her first novel - Dead Lovely - was published by Allen and Unwin in Australia and New Zealand in Sept 2007 and will be published in the UK by Faber and Faber in June 2008. She has four thrillers being published in the UK in 2008 and 2009. The books have been sold to numerous other countries and will be translated into several languages. Helen's writing is pacy, sharp, funny and disturbing.

Someone needs to write better text for her though - the description of the plot of DEAD LOVELY on the website gives the game away a bit.

Off Travelling

What the heck is that you say?
A cactus on my bathroom window ledge! Must be about 10 years old I think, and it began life as a demure little ball in the centre of the pot.
Reminds me a bit of my reading.

You'll notice a couple more changes to my blog layout.
Thanks to Jim at Nearly Nothing but Novels who suggested I visit Feedburner and set up a RSS widget and a link to an email subscription to my blog. You'll see them in the right hand column.

At the moment I'm trying to work out how many books to take with me on a 2 week trip overseas. 6? 8? decisions..decisions

And this is where we are off to.. Abu Dhabi ==>>
to visit the daughter and son-in-law.

Books I am taking:
That's the important stuff done: Now to pack!

Seriously though you might find my blog a bit re-purposed for a couple of weeks, but I'll try to report on my reading. :-)

A QUIET BELIEF fights back

Last week in ANGELS toppled by OUT, I commented on how OUT by Natsuo Kirino had taken top position from R. J. Ellory's A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS on Amazon UK's Bestsellers in Crime, Thrillers & Mystery list.
Since then the price of a new copy of OUT has spiralled downwards to an unbelievable £7.99 £1.00 while ANGELS has been £7.99 £3.47

This morning on my RSS feed ANGELS is back at the top. Why am I so interested in this? Well, I gave both of them my highest rating of 5, so both are well worth your attention.

The rest of the list?
#3 DEVIL MAY CARE (James Bond) by Sebastian Faulks
#4 THE FRONT by Patricia Cornwell
#5 DISSOLUTION (Matthew Shardlake 1) by C. J. Sansom
#6 FLESH HOUSE by Stuart MacBride
#7 THE WOODS by Harlan Coben
#8 BONES TO ASHES by Kathy Reichs
#9 BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz
#10 DARK FIRE (Matthew Shardlake 2) by C.J. Sansom

A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES, Reginald Hill

Harper Collins, 2008, 535 pages.

Incapacitated by what he refers to as "the big bang in Mill Street", Andy Dalziel finds that none of those who are near and dear to him want to take him on in his convalescence, and so he takes Ellie Pascoe's advice and books in at the Avalon in Sandytown. As we know the sea air is good for the health, and there is nothing like a seaside holiday for restoring health.

Sandytown is dominated by three families: the Parkers, Denhams and Hollises, very much intertwined and wanting between them to turn the sleepy little seaside resort into something much grander with a 5 star hotel, clinics, and health resort. Just the thing for the convalescent. But under the apparently united front of the Sandytown Development Consortium simmer tensions that go back decades. And then they result in the death of Lady Denham herself. That's when Peter Pascoe and his team move in to investigate.

But what of Andy Dalziel? He's supposedly on sick leave, but he desperately wants to be included, noticed, and consulted. Peter Pascoe on the other hand relishes the idea of running his own investigation yet again, but is he ready? How will he deal with Fat Andy sticking his nose in?

This is a fascinating read, and for me, doing some thinking about it, and some research afterwards, paid off, and I felt like I'd struck gold. For one thing I think Reginald Hill must have really enjoyed writing it.

There really are some things about this novel that I can't discuss, because, for the reader, working out what Hill has done here is part of the pleasure. This is another of those books that is not just crime fiction, but is also a literary work. It reveals a side of Reginald Hill that I hadn't known was there.

Getting used to the multiple points of view that reveal the story takes some effort. First of all there are the emails that Charley Heywood is sending to her sister; then the voice of Dalziel himself talking into a recorder given to him by his doctor for therapy. These two voices dominate the first volume, the first third of the novel. Then later in the novel we see the story not only from these points of view, but also from those of the individuals in the investigating team.

The structure of the novel is interesting too: A NOVEL in six volumes, it says on the title page. And throughout, even on the title pages of each volume, Reginald Hill has left little clues like little Easter eggs. Get too complacent about them and you'll miss what he's up to.

Reginald Hill dedicated this novel "To Janeites everywhere". He says this novel has been ten years in the making, from seeds sown when he visited the Jane Austen Society's of North America's AGM. Reginald Hill wrote this novel not only for crime fiction readers, for those eagerly awaiting the next Dalziel & Pascoe, but also for those who know their Jane Austen. My advice to you, dear reader, read everything.

My rating: 5.0

EVIL INTENT, progress report

I am listening to EVIL INTENT by Kate Charles on CDs (10 of them actually, about 12 hours) as I drive to and from work.

Kate Charles is a new-to-me author, so I decided to find out about her. What I've found on her own website helps me understand what I have listened to so far.

Kate Charles, who was described by the Oxford Times as "a most English writer", is in fact an expatriate American, though an unashamedly Anglophilic one. She has a special interest and expertise in clerical mysteries, and lectures frequently on crime novels with church backgrounds. After more than twenty years in Bedford, Kate and her husband now live in Ludlow with their Border Terrier, Rosie.

Kate is a former Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and the Barbara Pym Society. Her favourite hobby is visiting churches, and this interest is reflected in her various church society memberships, particularly WATCH (Women and the Church) and her enthusiastic support of Music in Country Churches.

If I summed up what I have listened to so far (nearly 2 hours in), this novel is about

• the hostility to ordination of women in the Anglican church
• the suppression of homosexuality.

Now I picked this up because I thought it was crime fiction. A murder is promised in the blurb, but none has eventuated so far, although there are many I would like to murder. There's been a lot of detailed description, the role of the vicar's wife, almost banality.

Here's the blurb:

Life in the clergy is quiet, respectful, peaceful or so Callie Anson believes when she begins her new job as curate to the Reverend Brian Stanford at All Saints Church in Paddington. Little does she realise how wrong she could be.

After the traumatic end of her relationship with fiancé Adam, the last thing Callie needs is any more emotional turmoil. But it seems she is not destined for a quiet life just yet. Knowing that women in the clergy are still disapproved of in certain quarters, Callie is prepared to face some criticism. But the deep-seated hatred shown by some of her respected male colleagues takes her by surprise, particularly the spiteful attack made by Father Jonah Adimola, a hard-line conservative Nigerian priest. Luckily, however, her good friend and mentor Frances Cherry is on hand to jump to her defence. But when Father Adimola is found strangled to death the next day and Frances is suspected of the crime, Callie must call upon her faith to steer her through the troubling and violent times ahead and help prove her friend's innocence. With DI Neville Stewart heading the investigation, it is not long before the ecclesiastical façade is chipped away to reveal the ugly truth of the hidden secrets of the clergy.

Things had better look up soon. I can feel things moving towards the first climax but there is a limit to how much of the day to day routine of church life that I can stand. I haven't even met DI Neville Stewart yet!

Discovery: BookMooch.com

I don't keep all the books that I read, and sometimes I take part in car boot sales or garage sales to get rid of some of them. But I'm never very successful. I end up giving a lot away to friends or to members of my face-2-face discussion group (and they give me books back too). The end result though is piles of books around the house.

So I am indebted to someone who left a comment on my blog a couple of posts ago (Bernadette) and pointed me towards Book Mooch.

Here are the details from the About page.

BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books.

BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.

Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every three you receive.

World wide: You can request books from other countries, in other languages. You receive 3 points when you send a book out of your country, to help compensate you for the greater mailing cost, but it only costs the moocher 2 points to get the book.

Quite often these schemes don't work for us in the bottom half of the world, but it looks as if it might work for me. Already I have been contacted regarding books I listed last night. Admittedly both requests involve me sending a book to the US, but the person who originally pointed me towards the scheme says there are around 600 members in Australia, so I should be able to find a crime-fiction person or two, shouldn't I?

My review of HARUM SCARUM up on Euro Crime

Some weeks back I posted my review of Felicity Young's HARUM SCARUM here, and now it has made it up onto Euro Crime, along with

• Laura Root reviews David Downing's 'Silesian Station' writing that it is "a thoughtful, sensitive thriller";
• Norman Price reviews the second in the Yashim, Ottoman Detective series by Jason Goodwin: 'The Snake Stone' which it seems is a rather impressive follow-up to the Edgar winning 'The Janissary Tree';
• Fiona Walker calls Mo Hayder's 'Ritual' "a complete triumph" and that it is "certainly the best British crime novel I've read so far this year";
• Maxine Clarke thinks that 'Trial by Blood' by John Macken is one for action fans rather "than for those who like a lean plot with strong characters";
• Karen Meek takes a look at recent Euro Crime interviewee, Mehmet Murat Somer's 'The Prophet Murders'

Check them all out through http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/review_list.html

Carnival of Criminal Minds moves to location #16

The Carnival of Criminal Minds has moved to yet another splendid location.
No. 15 was in Germany at Internationale Krimis.
Now the Carnival has leapt entire continents in a single bound to location No. 16 to Canada to be hosted by author and critic Sandra Ruttan at life & other inconveniences.
It's new manifestation is an absolute smorgasbord of trapeze artists, a haunted house, a ferris wheel, roller coasters, cotton candy, a food court, and enough new blogs to set your head spinning.

Never seen any of the Carnivals? Then hie thee to the Ringmaster's site and check them all out. If you want to start with the first and move forward, start here. The purpose of The Carnival of Criminal Minds: to showcase highlights in crime fiction, books, blogs, and websites.

Sunday Salon #9 - 18 May 2008

Why a rain gauge?
Well, it's been raining overnight here in this driest state in the driest continent, and we've been promised more. So this is what we caught in our backyard overnight, which was quite a lot.

This week I've been reading Reginald Hill's A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES all week. It is unusual for me to spend a whole week on a book. Admittedly it is pretty long - 532 pages - but I'm not reading many pages in a sitting. Some people find a slow down in reading a bit depressing, but it doesn't really worry me - except that it will result in me getting through less books this month.

So what slows your reading down? Here are some thoughts.

• plot complexity - that certainly is true for A CURE: lots of strands, lots of detail, you struggle to decide what is important and what is not.
  
• changing P.O.V. - this also certainly true - I have identified at least 7 different voices: an email correspondence between a character and her sister; Dalziel's recordings of his thoughts into a portable device; other people's voices on Dalziel's recorder; Peter Pascoe's thoughts; Shirley Novello; Hat Bowler; Wieldy. And there are probably more. Each change of P.O.V. requires the reader to assess the importance of this input and the authority of this voice.
• book structure - the title A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES is subtitled A NOVEL in six volumes. And then each "volume" comes with its own quotation and the reader has to ingest this, and decide whether it is significant. Is the structure important or is it just the author organising himself?
  And what is the dedication to "Janeites everywhere" on the opening page of the book all about? And what does the title mean? (I think I know that one, so that's really just a rhetorical question)
  
• characters and the power play between them. The balance of the Dalziel & Pascoe team has been upset by the fact that Dalziel is supposed to be convalescing from being blown up in THE DEATH OF DALZIEL, and Pascoe is meant to be running the new investigation. But Fat Andy is finding ways to breathe down his neck. And there there is the by-play between the underlings in their team each jockeying for position in a possible new team structure.
• red herrings and the difficulties of identifying them.

Phew! No wonder it is taking me a while read. My brain is running hot just thinking about all that.

The rest of the week: the postings

• Where is your favourite book store?
  Mystery Writers of America gave a Raven award to Kate's Mystery Books. I invited people to tell me about their favourite crime fiction book store.
• Female 'tecs - of the British kind
  An introduction to Marjorie Fleming, Janine Lewis, Vera Stanhope, Carole and Jude of Fethering, Dorothy Martin, Hen Mallen, Karen Meadows, and Maisie Dobbs, all female protagonists I've met in British crime fiction in the last 40 months.
• ANGELS toppled by OUT
  After about 5 months at the top of Amazon UK's Bestsellers in Crime, Thrillers & Mystery, R.J. Ellory's QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS has given way it seems to OUT by Natsuo Kirino.
• FLOWERS FOR HIS FUNERAL, Ann Granger
  A review of this novel I listened to in the car over a period of about 4 weeks while driving to and from work.
• Mission Impossible: more TBR
  My "review" pile. I took a photo of part of it. Confirms I am a crime fiction junkie.
• The Power of Blogging: Bloggers Unite for Human Rights
  Blogging has become a significant part of my daily life both at work and at home.
• Favourite Author, Peter Robinson
  Peter Robinson's 16th novel in the Inspector Banks series, PIECE OF MY HEART, is one of the nominations for the 2008 Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award
• The Growth of Mt. TBR
  My "library" pile has crept up into the 20s. A list of the titles I have waiting in the wings.
• Forgotten Books (Crime fiction that is)
  Inspired by Petrona and Pattinase on a theme called Friday:Forgotten Books I came up with 8 authors who published before 1970 who are worth your attention.
  

Miscellanea

• I really didn't do anything with The Weekly Geeks this week. It was about books I read in my childhood. Too much I thought! Childhood was over 4, and depending on your definition of childhood, even 5, decades ago. Besides I grew up on a diet of Enid Blyton, 19th century classics, every book in the school library, every book in the town library, School Friend, Girl's Crystal, Arthur Mee's Encyclopaedia, Phantom Comics etc etc.. All books were hard covers and quite expensive, on coarse paper, and with grottily small printing.
  For all that my evolution into almost solely reading crime fiction has been easily traceable for the last 30 years. Since 1975 I have been keeping a written record of authors and titles that I have read, so I can see the journey I've travelled. For the last 40 months I have been keeping mini-reviews in a database on my computer.
  
• I decided to remove the list of labels that I used to have running at the foot of my blog because I realised that every time Google "scraped" my page it was also scraping those labels. That meant people were coming to my pages as a result of the Google search because it had picked up a label. If you want to find something now, and can't find it in my permanent list at the side, you'll just have to use the Search box at the top.