Why MYSTERIES? Because that is the genre I read. Why PARADISE? Because that is where I live.
Among other things, this blog, the result of a 2008 New Year's resolution, will act as a record of books that I've read, and random thoughts.
Cambodia, 1996, the long-running Khmer Rouge insurgency is fragmenting, competing factions of an unstable coalition government scrambling to gain the upper hand.
Missing in the chaos is businessman Charles Avery. Hired to find him is Vietnamese Australian ex-cop Max Quinlan.
But Avery has made dangerous enemies and Quinlan is not the only one looking. Teaming up with Heng Sarin, a local journalist, Quinlan’s search takes him from the freewheeling capital Phnom Penh to the battle scarred western borderlands.
As the political temperature soars, he is slowly drawn into a mystery that plunges him into the heart of Cambodia’s bloody past.
Ghost Money is a crime novel, but it’s also about Cambodia in the mid-nineties, a broken country, and what happens to people who are trapped in the cracks between two periods of history, locals and foreigners, the choices they make, what they do to survive.
Up here, far away from everybody, the night is peaceful;
there’s no sound except the hum of the Earth. At school, when I sang the
note to Mr Hughes he said it was B flat.
Gwenni Morgan can fly in her sleep—that’s how she sees what’s going
on in the village, and how she tries to make some sense of her family
and her world. But Gwenni’s mother isn’t too keen on her daughter’s
imaginative ways; she doesn’t want anyone thinking her odd.
When Ifan Evans goes missing, Gwenni tries to help find him, much to
her mother’s distress. And as she begins to put the pieces together, a
terrible truth is revealed.
Set in a small Welsh village in the 1950s, The Earth Hums in B Flat is a story of dark family secrets. It’s filled with wonderful characters and written with insight and sparkling tenderness.
My Take
This is a delightful read, a story told from the point of view of 12 year old Gwenni Morgan. There were so many parts evocative of my own childhood (here in post war South Australia), little references and sayings, like little pitchers have big ears, as adults try to have private gossips and conversations.
Gwenni reads detective stories handed on by her Auntie Lol and Gwenni sees herself as a budding detective in the vein of her hero Albert Campion. Gwenni takes notes which makes her a useful witness at times. She doesn't always understand the events, or their aftermath, that she has witnessed and sometimes adults misinterpret what she thinks she has seen. Gwenni is keen to solve mysteries and is a constant source of aggravation to her mother who worries that people will think Gwenni is "odd". Nor does Gwenni always understand what others have said. That's where the reader comes in with our superior experience and interpretive skills. And that's what makes this book fun to read.
The disappearance of Ifan Evans has far reaching consequences for the little village, and in the end the reader may well ask if justice has been done.
The other aspect of this book is village life, close knit families with secrets, deep running prejudices, and mental instability caused by past traumas.
Ruth and her cousin Naomi live in rural Wisconsin, part of an
isolated religious community. The girls’ lives are ruled by the rhythms
of nature — the harsh winters, the hunting seasons, the harvesting of
crops — and by their families’ beliefs. Beneath the surface of this
closed, frozen world, hidden dangers lurk.
Then Ruth learns that Naomi harbours a terrible secret. She searches
for solace in the mysteries of the natural world: broken fawns,
migrating birds, and the strange fish deep beneath the ice. Can the
girls’ prayers for deliverance be answered?
Sufficient Grace is a story of lost innocence and the
unfailing bond between two young women. It is at once devastating and
beautiful, and ultimately transcendent.
My Take
At first glance, SUFFICIENT GRACE is really on the outer edge of the crime fiction genre, although at least one crime does take place. Most reviews have emphasised the literary nature of the book. And so it clings to the crime fiction claim by the slenderest of threads.
I'm finding this a difficult book to review in my usual way because I really don't want to reveal too much of the plot. Told from the point of view of twelve year old Ruth, the story is set in a remote and isolated Pentecostal community in rural Wisconsin.The setting is not that old, perhaps at the end of the twentieth century. The time frame covers a small period, about 5 months over Christmas and New Year, and through the harshest season. The small community is family-based, although there are members who are not immediate family, and attempting to live a close-to-nature lifestyle while the technology they have at their disposal reveals modernity. Life is dominated by attendance at church, and a strict sense of sin.
Ruth often interprets what she sees around her in a religious fashion but then frequently sees things more clearly than the adults of the community, who made me angry with what they were prepared to ignore, and their lack of awareness of the dangers they subjected their children to.
This is a book that will provoke considerable discussion in book clubs so I encourage you to consider the Book Club notes provided by the publisher.
In a final word the author writes: Finally I appreciate that although this is a work of fiction, people close to me - now or in the past - may read this novel as a betrayal of both the family and church in which I was raised. I have not intended to cause any hurt. I wrote what I was given to write.
Born in rural Wisconsin, Amy Espeseth immigrated to Australia in the
late 1990s and lives in Melbourne. A writer, publisher and academic, she
is the recipient of the 2007 Felix Meyer Scholarship in Literature, the
2010 QUT Postgraduate Creative Writing Prize, and the 2012 CAL Scribe
Fiction Prize. Sufficient Grace won the 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. It was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2013.
The page telling bloggers which letter to focus on will appear on each Monday together with a Mr Linky.
By Friday of each week participants try to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.
Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction.
So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)
You probably won't have to do a lot of extra reading in order to participate, but I warn you that your TBR may grow as a result of the suggestions other participants make.
Feel free to use either of the images provided in your blog.
Your assistance in advertising this community meme, and pointing people to this page, would be very much appreciated.
By the end of this week post your blog post title and URL in the Mr Linky below.
Please place a link in your blog post back to this page.
Visit other blogs and leave comments.
Check the Crime Fiction Alphabet page for summaries of previous years, and for links to this year's entries.
Currently I have many more books in the "waiting to be read" pile than I really have any hope of reading in the near future. Several of them seem to arrive each week at present, and sit on the shelves making me feel guilty.
So I have decided to feature some of them, (mainly review copies forwarded to me by publishers), in a more or less weekly feature, so you get to consider whether you want to read them.
My postings won't be reviews, just titles with publisher's blurbs.
Some I may actually read in the near future and then do a proper review.
I'd like to also stress that there is no rhyme or reason to my selections.
Please note that this listing is in no way a recommendation for you to read a title, simply a chance for you to assess for yourself whether you would like to read it. I will also try to discover whether the book is available on Kindle, particularly for Australian authors which are not necessarily available overseas.
My focus this week is on some library books I have on the shelves.
A DECENT INTERVAL, Simon Brett, published 2013
Charles Paris returns after 15 years!
After a long period of 'resting',
life is looking up for Charles Paris, who has been cast as the Ghost of
Hamlet's Father and First Gravedigger in a new production of Hamlet.
But rehearsals are fraught.
Ophelia is played by Katrina Selsey, who won
the role through a television talent show. Hamlet himself is also
played by a reality TV contestant, Jared Root - and the two young stars
have rather different views of celebrity and the theatre than the more
experienced members of the cast. But when the company reach the first
staging post of their tour, the Grand Theatre
Marlborough, matters get
more serious, with one member of the company seriously injured in what
appears to be an accident, and another dead.
Once again, Charles Paris
is forced to don the mantle of amateur detective to get to the bottom of
the mystery.
THE DEVIL'S SANCTUARY, Marie Hermanson, published 2011
This has been chosen by my face to face reading group for our next read.
A breathless, heart-stopping psychological
thriller from one of Sweden's best selling authors. Fear lies around
every corner. . .
Estranged identical twins Daniel and Max have a complex
relationship, so when Daniel goes to visit his bi-polar brother in a
remote and expensive Swiss 'recovery' clinic, he has no idea what really
lies in wait for him. Lulled by the routine and peacefulness of the
clinic, Daniel finds himself unquestioningly accepting Max's plea for
help in taking care of some business, and the brothers swap places for a
few days.
But soon Daniel realises Max isn't coming back, and that the clinic
is far from a place of recovery. Struggling to get anyone to believe who
he really is, Daniel finds himself trapped in a cruel and highly
secretive prison: this is no sanctuary, it's a living nightmare.
THE EARTH HUMS IN B FLAT, Mari Strachan, published 2009
The Earth Hums in B Flat is set in Wales in the late 1950s and
narrated by twelve and a half year old Gwenni Morgan. Gwenni is not like
the other children in her small town. A bookish yet spirited young
girl, she is suddenly forced into an unusual situation when a neighbour
disappears and no one seems to be asking the right questions. As Gwenni
makes her own investigations, she begins to find out more about life
than she could ever have imagined.
My plan this year for my contributions to Friday's Forgotten Books hosted by Pattinase
is to feature books I read 20 years ago - in 1993- from the records I
have in my "little green book", which I started in 1975. In 1993 I read
111 books and was pretty well addicted to crime fiction by then.
I was already a fan of Dick Francis by then. My choice this week is COMEBACK which was published in 1991.
A globe-hopping diplomat comes face to face with a case of fatal
corruption, in Dick Francis's suspenseful new mystery-his thirtieth
thoroughbred thriller.
Fresh from a posting in Tokyo, young
British First Secretary Peter Darwin decides to holiday in England
before taking up his next assignment for the Foreign Office. During a
brief stopover in Miami, Peter is accidentally caught in a scuffle that
leaves two acquaintances beaten and robbed. Peter stands by his new
friends until they are safely delivered to their next destination:
Gloucestershire, England, his childhood home and scene of long-buried
memories. There he walks unexpectedly into a veterinary surgeon's
racehorse-related nightmare. As his involvement with the doctor's plight
grows, as as more racehorses meet an untimely end, Peter realizes that
events from his own past are the keys to saving some decent people- and
the things they love-from destruction.
Tact, intuition,
wiliness: such are the weapons of diplomacy. Now Peter Darwin must wield
them not for political reasons, but rather to unravel the enigma of the
cruel fate befalling the local bloodstock. The trick is to stay alive
himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dick Francis (1920-2010) was widely acclaimed as one of the world's finest thriller
writers. His awards include the Crime Writers' Association's Cartier
Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the crime genre, and
an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts University of Boston.
In 1996 Dick Francis was made a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master
for a lifetime's achievement and in 2000 he received a CBE in the
Queen's Birthday Honours list.
From 2007 he published several titles with his younger son Felix who now continues the tradition of writing novels connected with the horse racing industry.
A sticky scandal. A political jam. THE MARMALADE FILES will be the most-talked about political satirical thriller of 2012!
An imaginative romp through the dark underbelly of politics by two
veteran Canberra insiders. When seasoned newshound Harry Dunkley is
slipped a compromising photograph one frosty Canberra dawn he knows he′s
onto something big. In pursuit of the scoop, Dunkley must negotiate the
deadly corridors of power where the minority Toohey Government hangs by
a thread - its stricken Foreign Minister on life support, her heart
maintained by a single thought. Revenge.
Rabid Rottweilers prowl in the guise of Opposition senators, union
thugs wage class warfare, TV anchors simper and fawn ... and loyalty and
decency have long since given way to compromise and treachery.
From the teahouses of Beijing to the beaches of Bali, from the
marbled halls of Washington to the basements of the bureaucracy,
Dunkley′s quest takes him ever closer to the truth - and ever deeper
into a lethal political game.
Award-winning journalists Steve Lewis of News Ltd and Chris Uhlmann
from the ABC combine forces in this arresting novel that proves fiction
is stranger than fact.
My Take
Each of the shortish chapters in this novel is headed with a date, starting with June 16 2011, but the reader soon discovers these chapters are not sequential although there is a logic to them. Eventually this sent me to pen and paper to try to make sure I understood the time line.
We begin with Harry Dunkley, press gallery veteran in the National Parliament in Canberra being given a photo that is about 30 years old. He quickly identifies the Cabinet minister who is centre stage but who are the others? Later on the same day Catriona Bailey, once Labour Prime Minister, but now the Foreign Minister, has a very public stroke on national television.
So Labour's Toohey government, already an unpopular minority government hanging on by a thread, and predicted to lose the next election, begins a downward spiral. Can things get any worse?
THE MARMALADE FILES is political satire rather than strictly crime fiction, although crimes, including a murder, are committed. There's a quirky humour from beginning to end, and certainly connections to current Australian politics, even if events have been warped and names changed.
For me, a fascinating read from beginning to end, although the ending strained my sense of credibility.
I'm not sure that THE MARMALADE FILES will have much appeal outside Australia but in case you do want to look for it, try Amazon (Kindle) or the publisher.
My rating: 4.8
And what do Australia's politicians say? (Do they recognise themselves?)
My contribution this week is Gillian Flynn's GONE GIRL, a book that has stunned readers world wide.
Synopsis
Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed
suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn
takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece
about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune
proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force
of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit
and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds
you at every turn.
Baghdad 1917. Captain Jim Stringer, invalided from the Western Front,
has been dispatched to investigate what looks like a nasty case of
treason.
He arrives to find a city on the point of insurrection, his
cover apparently blown - and his only contact lying dead with flies in
his eyes.
As Baghdad swelters in a particularly torrid summer, the heat
alone threatens the lives of the British soldiers who occupy the city.
The recently ejected Turks are still a danger - and many of the local
Arabs are none too friendly either.
For Jim, who is not particularly
good in warm weather, the situation grows pricklier by the day. Aside
from his investigation, he is working on the railways around the city.
His boss is the charming, enigmatic Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd, who
presides over the gracious dining society called The Baghdad Railway
Club - and who may or may not be a Turkish agent. Jim's search for the
truth brings him up against murderous violence in a heat-dazed,
labyrinthine city where an enemy awaits around every corner.
My Take
Most historical crime fiction related to World War One focusses on the Western Front so it is refreshing to find one that has a different setting. Captain Jim Stringer's introduction to Mesopotamia is a talk at the Victoria Street London Railway Club on the Berlin-Bagdad Railway. The railway had been a German scheme to connect with Asia Minor. Control of the railway becomes important to the British after they take Baghdad because it has the potential to give access to the oil reserves of the Persian Gulf. Turkey and Germany have collaborated in building the Berlin-Bagdad railway, a narrow two foot gauge, since 1888. Control of the railway would give Germany the ability to bypass the Suez Canal. Currently the railway is incomplete by about two hundred and fifty miles.
So control of the railway, and particularly over its completion, is particularly important to the British war effort and seems to be within their grasp. But there appears to be a traitor in the ranks who is collaborating with the Turks.
So Jim Stringer receives an assignment to Baghdad to see if he can discover whether the rumours are true. But when he gets there it turns into a murder investigation, which is right up his alley, because in civilian life he has been a detective associated with British railways in York and London. He can also drive steam trains.
I must confess that I read this book by mistake - thinking in fact that it was part of an entirely different series by an entirely different author.
There is an impressive amount of historical detail in this novel, and indeed the author says that his "description of the British occupation of Baghdad is roughly accurate". I think however that I would have benefited by getting to know Jim Stringer better through reading earlier titles (see the list below).
My rating: 4.1
Andrew Martin won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award for the previous title in the Jim Stringer series THE SOMME STATIONS.
The page telling bloggers which letter to focus on will appear on each Monday together with a Mr Linky.
By Friday of each week participants try to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.
Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction.
So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)
You probably won't have to do a lot of extra reading in order to participate, but I warn you that your TBR may grow as a result of the suggestions other participants make.
Feel free to use either of the images provided in your blog.
Your assistance in advertising this community meme, and pointing people to this page, would be very much appreciated.
By the end of this week post your blog post title and URL in the Mr Linky below.
Please place a link in your blog post back to this page.
Visit other blogs and leave comments.
Check the Crime Fiction Alphabet page for summaries of previous years, and for links to this year's entries.
Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will feature authors or books that I have read recently.
My contribution this week is Australian author Andrew Nette's GHOST MONEY.
