Review: DEKOK AND THE GEESE OF DEATH, A. C. Baantjer

• (Dutch title: De Cock en de ganzen van de dood, 20th in series, originally published 1983)
• translated from Dutch by H. G. Smittenaar 2004 and published by Speck Press
• ISBN 0-9725776-6-1
• 185 pages
• volume includes short story DeKok and the Grinning Strangler
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

In The Geese of Death, DeKok takes on Igor Stablinsky, a man accused of bludgeoning a wealthy old man and his wife.

To DeKok’s unfailing eye the killing urge is visibly present in the suspect during questioning, but did he commit this particular crime?

All signs point to one of the few remaining estates in Holland. The answer lies within a strange family, suspicions of incest, deadly geese and a horrifying mansion. Baantjer’s perceptive style brings to light the essences of his characters, touching his audience with subtle wit and irony.

My Take

Another enjoyable title from this series, which is now definitely on my list of reliable quick reads.

DeKok and his colleague Vledder are working all the hours they can to find out who has been brutally murdering elderly people. The accused man, Igor Stablinsky, has what appears to be an agenda, a list of names and addresses in his pocket, and the names of the two dead people are on it. In a careless moment in his office, with the crowbar used for the last murder on his desk, DeKok turns his back on Stablinsky, who seizes the opportunity to attack the Inspector.

At the same time a Mrs Bildjik rings the police station about her geese. Her name is also on Stablinsky's list. The Bildjik family proves to be a strange one, with all its members having names beginning with the letter I. The matriarch Isolde Bildjik is wealthy, and invalid, confined to a wheelchair, and convinced that someone is determined to kill her. DeKok's curiosity is roused particularly after her geese, bought to raise the alarm of intruders, are all poisoned. The plot is a bit convoluted with three more murders and then one foiled.

There are some quirky bits to these stories: the way DeKok's eyebrows ripple like black caterpillars, the dilapidated old VW he and Vledder travel in, Lowee the barkeeper whom they visit from time to time for underworld information, the way DeKok's feet hurt and his legs itch when he is making no progress in a case, and then the way the final explanations take place at a supper party hosted at home by Mrs DeKok. Just enough to bring a smile to the reader's face. At the same time clues stimulate the grey cells.

My rating: 4.3

I have already reviewed
DEKOK AND THE DEAD HARLEQUIN
DEKOK AND MURDER BY INSTALLMENT 

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 - X is for EXPERT WITNESS

I've decided that for the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme this year I will try to feature books I've read in 2012.

So this week the letter X was a real challenge and I've decided to feature DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS by P.D. James, which I recently re-read  as an audio book.

Synopsis

When a young girl is found strangled in a field, it looks like a routine job for the staff of the East Anglian Forensic Laboratory. But then the senior biologist is found dead in his lab and murder comes closer to home. And Commander Adam Dalgliesh faces the most baffling inquiry of his career.

My take

DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS is the perfect illustration of what took P.D. James to the top of British crime fiction. Characters are clearly defined, plotting is convoluted but tight, motives are hidden, and red herrings abound.  More

Check what others have chosen in Crime Fiction Alphabet this week for the letter X.

Review: AFTER THE FUNERAL, Agatha Christie

• first published 1953
• aka FUNERALS ARE FATAL
• this version: Hamlyn Publishing AGATHA CHRISTIE CRIME COLLECTION 1970
• length: 173 pages
• source: my personal library

Synopsis (Agatha Christie.com)

When Cora is savagely murdered, the extraordinary remark she made the previous day at her brother's funeral takes on a chilling significance.

At the reading of Richard's will, Cora was clearly heard to say, "It's been hushed up very nicely, hasn't it...But he was murdered, wasn't he?"  In desperation, the family solicitor turns to Hercule Poirot to unravel what happened next ...

Published in 1953, and appearing in the United States under the title Funerals are Fatal, Christie dedicated the novel to her nephew, James Watt III "in memory of happy days at Abney", her sister’s family home.
The novel  formed the basis for MGM‘s Murder at the Gallop, although they chose to swap Poirot for Margaret Rutherford’s Miss Marple and took ‘artistic licence’ with the book’s plot!  It was broadcast in 2006 with David Suchet as Poirot

My take

"Nobody had felt any deep grief for Richard Abernethie's death since none of them had had any close ties with him".

But when his sister Cora makes the suggestion that Richard was actually murdered, and is then viciously murdered herself on the day after his funeral, the long-time family solicitor Mr Entwhistle is upset at the possibility.

At the beginning of the novel the reader is provided with a copy of the Abernethie family tree, indicating who was at Richard's funeral. Once Hercules Poirot is engaged by Mr Entwhistle to investigate any possible connections between Cora Lansquenet's murder and her claim that her brother was murdered, then we are taken fairly systematically through how members of the family will benefit from either death. In the long run it is a very tidy plot.

It is not the first time I have read this novel, but I found that I had only a vague idea of the final resolution. Red herrings abound and as usual and Poirot does not share all his suspicions. The novel ends with his usual collective revealing of the culprit.

As I have been doing with most of the Christie novel I have read so far, I was also looking for the author's commentary on British social life. The novel is set after World War II and and Enderby, the Abernethie family home, once the scene of a privileged life, will have to be sold so that the proceeds of the estate can be divided up amongst Richard Abernethie's heirs. Yet another sign that the old social order is collapsing.

My rating: 4.2

My reviews of Agatha Christie novels can be found here.
This brings my count in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge to 45 novels and 12 short story collections.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: the letter X

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme was run first on this blog in 2009-2010 and was re-run in 2011.

Many thanks to those who have participated so far this year. 

We have had an average of about 14 participants a week.

Our 2012 journey so far
A   B    C    D    E    F   G  H  I   J   K  L  M  N O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W    

This week's letter is the letter X, which could prove a problem for some.

Here are the rules

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

Review: LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE, Colin Cotterill - audio book

• book published in 2010, audio version published by Blackstone Audio in 2011
• #7 in the Dr Siri Paiboun series set in Cambodia/Laos
• narrator: Clive Chafer
• Length: approx 8 hrs 30 mins on 7 CDs
• source: borrowed from my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Three young Laotian women have died of fencing sword wounds. Each of them had studied abroad in an Eastern bloc country.

Before he can complete his investigation, Dr. Siri is lured to Cambodia by an all-expenses-paid trip. Accused of spying for the Vietnamese, he is imprisoned, beaten, and threatened with death.

The Khmer Rouge is relentless, and it is touch and go for the dauntless, seventy-four-year-old national - and only - coroner of Laos.

Read a synopsis from the author's site.

My Take

Dr Siri Paiboun, 74 years old and the official and only coroner of Laos, narrates most of this story from a cell in a Cambodian gaol, where he is chained up, awaiting death. Set against South East Asian politics 1978.

If you haven't read any in this series before, this is not the one to start with. It helps if you have at least read a few of the earlier books which will introduce you to Dr Siri, his assistants, his friends and his wife.
You'll also learn something about the way Dr Siri communes with ghosts, and be introduced to his (or the author's) rather quirky sense of humour. On the other hand there is some quite serious political comment.
Start at the beginning with THE CORONER'S LUNCH.

I didn't particularly like Clive Chafer's narration. He did an excellent job of the voices of the various characters but his delivery of the main connecting narration was monotone and flat. I also had a bit of a problem with his pronunciation of names - he seemed to be saying "Silly" for Siri, and I kept muddling other names up.

But the story is interesting.

My rating: 4.2

Other reviews to check:

• Michelle Peckham on EuroCrime
• AARP magazine

Other books in the series that I have reviewed
DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED (#2)
THIRTY THREE TEETH (#3)
ANARCHY and OLD DOGS (#4)

Review: A KILLING COAST, Pauline Rowson

• Published 2012 by Severn House
• ISBN 978-0-7278-8144-1
• 215 pages
• #7 in the Andy Horton series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (from author site)

When a body is found floating in the sea off Portsmouth harbour, Detective Inspector Horton initially judges it to be an accidental death.

Soon though, to his dismay, he discovers he’s got it very wrong. Accused of being incompetent by his boss, and with the head of the Major Crime Team coming down heavily on him, Horton wonders if he’s allowed his ongoing investigation into the disappearance of his mother over thirty years ago to cloud his judgement.

With no clear motive for the murder, Horton is sucked into a baffling investigation that he is determined to resolve despite the odds. Not only does he need to find a brutal killer, but Horton now has to prove to himself, and others, that he is still up to the job.

My Take

Several things are happening at once at the beginning of this novel: Andy Horton is interviewing a retiree who was the young PC investigating Jennifer Horton's disappearance thirty years before, a local reports seeing lights out at sea at night, and the body of a woman is washed up on the coastline. DCI Bliss's pet Project Neptune, aimed at detecting terrorism attempts, means any unusual lights have to be investigated, and while drownings are not uncommon, each needs careful scrutiny.

The plot rapidly becomes more complex as Andy Horton is put under pressure by senior officers and colleagues and more events compete for his time. The complexity is intensified by the number of red herrings floating about. These are largely generated by Horton and his offsider Cantelli who constantly come up with possible explanations for the cases they are involved in, only to discard those that don't accommodate all the facts.

By the end of the novel I felt that there had been far too many of these possible solutions and the effect was almost like wading through pea soup. Finally it is with some relief to see Horton charging his way to the final answer.

Nevertheless a satisfying read. Andy Horton's own story, which runs like a thread through all the novels is just a little furthered, and most of the loose ends are tidied away.

My rating: 4.3

Other reviews to check

• Kirkus Reviews
• Publishers Weekly

I feel Pauline Rowson's books don't come up often enough on people's reading lists. If you like police procedurals with a twist, plenty of red herrings, and a strong sense of location, you'll like these.

See the list of books in this series (author site) 

I've also reviewed
DEADLY WATERS  (#2)
THE SUFFOCATING SEA  (#3)
DEAD MAN'S WHARF  (#4)

Forgotten Book: A QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS, Jeffrey Archer

I've based my contributions to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books this year on books I read twenty years ago in 1992.
The little green book (depicted right) where these records are kept is beginning to look a bit battered these days, and needs to be handled with care.

By 1992 I was already addicted to crime fiction and read very little else. But I also didn't read as many books as I do now. In 1992 I read just 87 books whereas this year I am heading for about 50 more than that.
During 1992 I discovered a number of authors such as Ruth Rendell, Colin Dexter, and P.D. James and read multiple titles by them. What all that amounts to is that my options for the rest of this year are rapidly dwindling.

However early in the year I read Jeffrey Archer's A QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS, a collection of short stories published in 1980.

Synopsis (from Fantastic Fiction)

Two friends fall under the spell of a New York beauty - with quite unexpected results. An offhand remark is taken seriously by a Chinese sculptor, and a British diplomat becomes the owner of a priceless work of art. An insurance claims advisor has a most surprising encounter on the train home to Sevenoaks. 
The openings to three of this marvellous collection of stories that ends with a hauntingly-written, atmospheric account of two undergraduates at Oxford in the thirties, a tale of bitter rivalry that ends in a memorable love story. 

The Kindle version has given this collection a new lease of life.

List of stories (Wikipedia)

• 1 The Chinese Statue
• 2 The Coup
• 3 The First Miracle
• 4 The Perfect Gentleman
• 5 One Night Stand
• 6 The Century
• 7 Broken Routine
• 8 Henry's Hiccup
• 9 A Matter of Principle
• 10 The Hungarian Professor
• 11 Old Love
• 12 The Luncheon" was later made into an episode of the TV series Tales of the Unexpected

Review: MIDWINTER SACRIFICE, Mons Kallentoft

• published Hodder & Stoughton 2011
• Translated from Swedish by Neil Smith
• aka MIDWINTER BLOOD
• ISBN 978-1-444-72150-8
• 440 pages
• Source: my local library
• #1 in the Malin Fors series

Synopsis (Amazon)

'An investigation consists of a mass of voices, the sort you can hear, and the sort you can't. You have to listen to the soundless voices, Malin. That's where the truth is hidden.'

Early one morning in the coldest winter in Swedish memory, police detective Malin Fors is called away from the warm flat she shares with her teenage daughter. The naked body of a man has been found hanging from a tree on the deserted, frozen plain outside the town of Linköping.

From the outset Malin is confronted with a host of unanswered questions: Who is the dead man? How did he end up in a tree? And where did the strange wounds on his body come from?

Malin and her team must search for the truth in a community that seems determined to keep its secrets, and follow in the frigid wake of a killer to the darkest corners of the human heart.

My Take

MIDWINTER SACRIFICE is essentially a Swedish police procedural set in area of Linköping where the author grew up. The discovery of a frozen body hanging in a tree is the start of an investigation which grinds to a baffling halt about mid-book, despite the early identification of the victim.

The investigation does reveal that the victim was a suspect in a rape case from about three years earlier when a social worker was viciously assaulted. What it cannot tell Malin Fors and her partner Zeke Martinsson is what is behind this particular killing. Is it "just" murder or are there some links to mid-winter rituals?

There are a number of background stories as one would expect in the first novel in a series where the author is establishing the main characters but I have to agree with other reviewers who have said this book is far too long.

There is also a paranormal element that I really didn't think achieved much except as a sort of overview of what happened to the murder victim and a predictor of events to come. It does give us clues about who is responsible for the crime.

The author chooses to leave one crime unsolved although both the reader and Malin Fors would think they have enough evidence to know who the perpetrator is.

The series continues in a "seasonal" fashion, rather along the lines of Ann Cleeves' Shetland Quartet, which also began with a winter murder.

My rating: 4.3

Other reviews

• EuroCrime: Michelle Peckham
• EuroCrime: Maxine Clarke

From the author's site
In 2007, Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice/Midwinter Blood) - his fourth novel and first venture into crime fiction - was published to great acclaim and quickly became one of the bestselling books in Sweden. His second book about police inspector Malin Fors, Sommardöden (Summertime Death) was published in May 2008 and was followed by Höstoffer (Autumn Killing) in May 2009, Vårlik (Savage Spring) in May 2010 and Den femte årstiden (The fifth season) in June 2011. The latest book about Malin Fors is called Vattenänglar (Water Angels) and was published in August 2012.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 - W is for Martin Walker - THE CROWDED GRAVE

I've decided that for the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme this year I will try to feature books I've read in 2012.

My choice this week is Martin Walker, a British writer whom I discovered last year. His novels featuring Chief of Police Bruno Courreges are set in France.

I had already read
BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE  and THE DARK VINEYARD and recently I read THE CROWDED GRAVE.

In the latter, which is #4 in the series, Bruno's quiet locale of St. Denis faces mayhem when archaeologists discover a twenty year old skeleton in the excavation pit of a Neanderthal grave. And then animal rights protesters attack farms involved in the production of foie gras. On top of it all, government ministers from both France and Spain have decided to have a summit locally and Bruno is in charge of making the area secure.

So the pleasant domesticity of Bruno's usually peaceful life is disrupted. Former lover Isabelle comes back to deal with security arrangements and Bruno's English lady friend Pamela is conveniently needed in Scotland to take care of her mother who has had a stroke.

In many ways this is a very complex plot - there are so many things going on. The various plot lines intertwine again and again and unexpected connexions surface. All is skilfully done. Bruno's character is developed a little more and we learn a few new things about him.

If it wasn't for some of the violence towards the end of the book, you'd probably call THE CROWDED GRAVE a cozy.  There's much of the English village mystery about it and then it just occasionally flips into thriller mode, action set against a background of Basque Separationism.

I've really enjoyed all of them.
See what others have chosen for the letter W
 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: the letter W

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme was run first on this blog in 2009-2010 and was re-run in 2011.

Many thanks to those who have participated so far this year. 

We have had an average of about 14 participants a week.

Our 2012 journey so far
A   B    C    D    E    F   G  H  I   J   K  L  M  N O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V     

With the difficult letters U and V out of the way, the rest should be plain sailing, or is it?
This week's letter is the letter W, and after that we have just X, Y, and Z.

Here are the rules

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

Forgotten Book: WELL SCHOOLED IN MURDER, Elizabeth George

Last week my post in Forgotten Books about Agatha Christie provoked a couple of responses about whether someone as well known as Agatha Christie could ever be forgotten, although perhaps individual titles might well be.

I guess the same could be said of all authors who are still living, still writing, and still selling well.

Elizabeth George is a case in point. Her Inspector Lynley series is still popular and new titles are being published.

WELL SCHOOLED IN MURDER though was published in 1990, the third in the series, and I caught up with it in 1992.

Book Description (from Amazon where it is now available for Kindle)

When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad's housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. 

Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child—and then, tragically, for a child killer. 

Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers's cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew's death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds—and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making....

The cover above, for the edition released in 2007, contrasts nicely with the one to the right which I think actually gives the reader more idea of the setting of the novel.

Reviews of more recently published Lynley titles can be located here.

George has recently embarked on a new venture -a young adult fantasy series - which has had a mixed reception.  The first is titled THE EDGE OF NOWHERE.

Check contributions by others this week to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books.

The list (from Fantastic Fiction)
Inspector Lynley
1. A Great Deliverance (1988)
2. Payment In Blood (1989)
3. Well-Schooled In Murder (1990)
4. A Suitable Vengeance (1990)
5. For The Sake of Elena (1992)
6. Missing Joseph (1993)
7. Playing For The Ashes (1994)
8. In The Presence Of The Enemy (1996)
9. Deception On His Mind (1997)
10. In Pursuit Of The Proper Sinner (1999)
11. A Traitor To Memory (2001)
12. A Place of Hiding (2003)
13. With No One as Witness (2005)
14. What Came Before He Shot Her (2006)
15. Careless in Red (2008)
16. This Body of Death (2010)
17. Believing the Lie (2012)

Elizabeth George lives on Whidbey Island in the state of Washington, and of course there has been a lot of discussion over the years about the fact that she is an American author writing a very British feeling series. Her popularity as an author has been greatly enhanced by the Lynley television series, although there are marked differences between the books and the tv characters. The fact that she decided to kill off Lynley's wife in #13 caused controversy and distress among her readers.

Review: THE SECRET RIVER, Kate Grenville - audio book

• Unabridged recording available from Audible.com
• printed book published 2006
• Audio book published by AudioGO Ltd.
• narrated by Bill Wallis
• length 11 hrs 48 mins

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

A nominee for the Man Booker prize.

After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence.
But among the convicts there is a whisper that freedom can be bought, an opportunity to start afresh. Away from the infant township of Sydney, up the Hawkesbury River, Thornhill encounters men who have tried to do just that: Blackwood, who is attempting to reconcile himself with the place and its people, and Smasher Williams, whose fear of this alien world turns into brutal depravity towards it. As Thornhill and his family stake their claim on a patch of ground by the river, the battle lines between old and new inhabitants are drawn.
The Secret River joins a tradition of grand historical fiction that stretches from Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith and Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang.

My Take

I should note first of all that this is not strictly crime fiction although it is based on Australia's convict (criminal) past and the main characters are felons, and murder does occur.

What it does do for the reader is give a pretty authentic portrayal of early 19th century New South Wales, a harsh penal colony. It gives a snapshot, in a "no holds barred" sort of way, of a convict, ticket of leave, family who pioneer life on the Hawkesbury River and eventually begin to call New South Wales home.
I say it is authentic because it has all the features of research well done and resonates with what I know of colonial history, but also tells me a little more.
It highlights 19th century beliefs about the aboriginal population whom the authorities did not regard as owning the land because they didn't farm the soil. It illustrates the resultant conflict between the aborigines and the convict/emancipist settlers on what was then the frontier of the colony.

The reading experience is made all the more enjoyable by the excellent narration skills of Bill Wallis.

So why did I read it?
I read almost exclusively crime fiction and decided that this year I would challenge myself to read outside the genre occasionally.
This is the first one I'm managed.
THE SECRET RIVER is the first of a trilogy set in early Australia.

It won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature; the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (the NSW Premier's Prize); the Community Relations Commission Prize; the Booksellers' Choice Award; the Fellowship of Australian Writers Prize and the Publishing Industry Book of the Year Award.
It was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin prize.

Kate Grenville's website.

My rating: 4.8

Review: THE SAINT ZITA SOCIETY, Ruth Rendell

• Format : Kindle (Amazon) - click on this link to read a sample.
• File Size: 450 KB
• Print Length: 290 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385671652
• Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (July 5, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007NG91J0
• source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)


'Someone had told Dex that the Queen lived in Victoria. So did he, but she had a palace and he had one room in a street off Warwick Way. Still he liked the idea that she was his neighbour.'

Dex works as a gardener for Dr Jefferson at his home on Hexam Place in Pimlico: an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses inhabited by the rich, and serviced by the not so rich.
The hired help, a motley assortment of au pairs, drivers and cleaners, decide to form the St Zita Society (Zita was the patron saint of domestic servants) as an excuse to meet at the local pub and air their grievances.

When Dex is invited to attend one of these meetings, the others find that he is a strange man, seemingly ill at ease with human beings. These first impressions are compounded when they discover he has recently been released from a hospital for the criminally insane, where he was incarcerated for attempting to kill his own mother.
Dex's most meaningful relationship seems to be with his mobile phone service provider, Peach, and he interprets the text notifications and messages he receives from the company as a reassuring sign that there is some kind of god who will protect him.
And give him instructions about ridding the world of evil spirits . . .

Accidental death and pathological madness cohabit above and below stairs in Hexam Place.

My Take

I have to confess that I spent the first few chapters of THE SAINT ZITA SOCIETY wishing that my Kindle version had a map that would help me sort out who lived where in Hexam Place. There's quite a rich parade of characters, most of whom live in the houses in Hexam Place.

In this stand-alone novel, much of the story is taken up with the relationships and events that connect the residents of Hexam Place and the reader may be forgiven for wondering about what direction the book is taking.  By the end however you will wonder why you didn't see it all coming.

The first death does not occur until a third of a way through the novel, an accident resulting from "a kicking downstairs, the classic way of expelling a man from a house." But this death involves two of the characters in disposing of the body in the country, and a bond between that eventually must be broken, violently.


I'm finding it incredibly difficult to tell you much about the novel without revealing too much of the plot. You'll have to take my word for it that I did enjoy the read, but that it was only as I looked back that I realised how intricately and cleverly drawn were the various threads that connected the story.

Underlying the story is an exploration of the layering of modern society, its lack of moral fibre, its selfishness, its inequalities, and the consequences of its inability to deal adequately with those susceptible to exploitation. There's a sort of justice and retribution in the final death.

My rating: 4.5

See also
Review on Reviewing the Evidence by Yvonne Klein
Kirkus Reviews

I have also reviewed
FROM DOON WITH DEATH
PORTOBELLO
4.7, THE MONSTER IN THE BOX
4.5, A NEW LEASE OF DEATH
4.6, THE VAULT
4.6, THE BEST MAN TO DIE
4.5, A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 - V is for Virginia Duigan, THE PRECIPICE

I've decided that for the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme this year I will try to feature books I've read in 2012.

My choice this week is THE PRECIPICE by Australian author Virginia Duigan,  reviewed here in May.

You could possibly argue this isn't really crime fiction at all although by the end you realise that more than one crime has been committed, and there are certainly plenty of puzzles to solve.

Longlisted for Australia's 2012 Miles Franklin Award which is a literary award.

See what others have chosen this week for the letter V.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: the letter V

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme was run first on this blog in 2009-2010 and was re-run in 2011.

Many thanks to those who have participated so far this year. 

We have an average of about 14 participants a week.

Our journey so far
A   B    C    D    E    F   G  H  I   J   K  L  M  N O  P  Q  R  S  T  U 

Today we have the letter V, with just 4 letters remaining, and sure to provide some challenges.

Here are the rules

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

Forgotten Books: Agatha Christie?

Over at Friday's Forgotten Books this week we are celebrating Agatha Christie Week.

So I'm going to take the opportunity to beat my own drum so to speak and to advertise the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and the Agatha Christie Blog Carnival.

The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge began just 4 years ago in 2008 when I set myself the task of reading Agatha Christie novels in order of publication. I recently wrote about it here. I've been reading at the rate of about a book a month and now estimate I am now about two-thirds through my journey.

I invited my blog readers to join me on my reading journey, with the options that they could either read the books in order of publication as I am doing or as they came to hand, whichever they liked and since early 2009 we have been contributing reviews and discoveries to a monthly edition of the Agatha Christie Blog Carnival.

I'd like to invite any contributors to the celebrations on Friday's Forgotten Books to also add their contributions to the Mr Linky for October on the Agatha Christie Blog Carnival.

My latest title read was THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS and the next will be AFTER THE FUNERAL.

I haven't found that the Agatha Christie titles have lost their appeal. I'm sure I read most of them over 40 years ago, but my forgettery is pretty good and they still have the capacity to surprise.

I have been also looking at aspects other than just the central mystery, like what problems Christie posed for herself to solve, how her sleuths' characters were developed, why she created new ones, and what the novels tell today's readers about social and economic conditions of the times in which they are set.

So perhaps by today's standards these are not the best books in crime fiction, but they still have the ability to hold attention, to provide satisfying puzzles, and they are generally pretty quick reads.

If you are interested in exploring further, you will find a whole page in this blog summarising the novels Agatha Christie Novels, and one summarising the short story collections Agatha Christie Short Stories I have read so far.

And finally, if you'd like to join the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, there is a sign up page here, and we'd love to see your contributions of your reviews to the Blog Carnival . Feel free to add to the current carnival any reviews already written on your blog. Perhaps you could write a summary page and direct us to that.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 - U is for UNGER

I've decided that for the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme this year I will choose books I've read in 2012. Imagine my horror when I discovered that my 2012 list does not contain any author with a U for first name or surname, nor a book with a U in the title!

I did contemplate counting the number of Us in a combination of title and author, but then I decided to see what authors I listed in my blog with a surname beginning with U. Only one!

There are a number of books with titles starting with U like UNDERTOW by Sydney Bauer, and THE UNCOMMON READER by Alan Bennett, THE UNQUIET NIGHT by Patricia Carlon, AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE by Kate Ellis, and 3 by Jungstedt, Mari: UNSEEN,  UNSPOKEN, and UNKNOWN.

But my choice this week is  Lisa Unger with books I read in 2009, BLACKOUT and BEAUTIFUL LIES.  I did enjoy the latter more than the first outing.  I've always meant to read more by Lisa Unger but somehow just never have.

See what or who others have chosen for the letter U.

  

Review: CHALK VALLEY, Dan Johnstone

• Format: Kindle, e-book
• File Size: 858 KB
• Print Length: 363 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: D.L.Johnstone (July 13, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008LDYW2K
• Source: review copy supplied by author

Synopsis (supplied by author)

In a remote mountain valley in British Columbia, a human monster preys on innocent lives.  After teenagers come across the savaged remains of a missing girl in Chalk Valley, searchers uncover the bodies of two more victims secreted deep in the woods.  A serial killer is at work.

Chalk Valley police detective John McCarty is picked to lead a task force to find the murderer. But inexperience, politics and McCarty’s own inner demons quickly overwhelm him and the investigation falters.

Meanwhile, on a dark, lonely highway many miles from Chalk Valley, RCMP Sergeant Dave Kreaver comes across a van crashed at the side of the road. The driver is anxious to leave the scene. But Kreaver discovers an unconscious teenaged girl in the van. Kreaver feels in his gut that the driver could be the killer but his inquiries are ignored by a task force that’s in well over its head. And his supervisors tell him to back off.

Kreaver is in a deadly cat and mouse game with a murderous psychopath, a race against time with innocent victims in play. Operating alone and without official sanction, can he stop the Chalk Valley Killer before he claims more lives?

My Take

CHALK VALLEY is quite long for a first novel but Dan holds it all together quite well. It really is a police procedural commentating on the way cases are often bigger than the resources devoted to them. There are frequently disparate repositories of knowledge and slavishly following strict procedures and protocols often doesn't bring them together in a meaningful way.

The novel highlights the way Canadian jurisdictions often compete with each other, but also that local policemen are often not equipped either through knowledge or experience to run a more complex case.

Lead investigator John McCarty really doesn't have the capacity for the bigger picture. He is convinced the way to go is to sift all the evidence from phone ins etc, categorise the data, and then proceed. The problem is that this is time consuming, and doesn't really ask the investigators to think too much.

This was indeed turning out to be a very different kind of murder case than the domestics and drug murders Chalk Valley was used to.

He thought through how he would run the meeting. Just keep it under control; it’s my case, and no Vancouver Metro shit for brains is going to take it over or tell me how to run it. Cases are built up of a delicate web of leads, evidence, information known only to the cop and the suspect, fragile strands to be protected at all costs. The last thing any cop wanted would be for some numbnuts to fuck things up and taint their witness by asking the wrong question, backing them into an error or even a lie, making it inadmissible in court, which in turn could basically shoot a case all to hell. When you share, you lose control. 

Ironically, there was a time, early in the novel, when, if McCarty had been carrying out his duties as he should have been, he would have nipped a crime in the bud and been able to take the serial killer before he killed another woman.

Add to that the fact that McCarty has personal problems.

In fact it takes a persistent RCMP Sergeant following his gut feeling and an experienced observer from Metro to set the ball rolling. Meanwhile the reader has always known who the murderer is.

A novel with this structure, where the characters don't make all the connections, but the reader is omniscient, is not easy carry off and the author does it pretty well. 

I particularly liked the characterisation, the occasional touches of irony, and real human interest that surfaced.

My  rating: 4.3

About the author

Dan Johnstone is Canadian author, based in Toronto. CHALK VALLEY is his first novel. He's co-author of several medical research publications and is a quasi-dedicated fitness freak with a second degree black belt in Taekwondo.

Dan says "CHALK VALLEY is based on extensive research in modern serial murder investigations in consultation with world class experts in major case management and the criminal justice system."

CHALK VALLEY is self-published. Last weekend Dan told me that "CHALK VALLEY hit #1 on Amazon UK's Movers & Shakers list on the weekend and Top 40 Thriller/Police Procedurals."

Author website

Crime Fiction Alphabet: the letter U

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme was run first on this blog in 2009-2010 and was re-run in 2011.

Many thanks to those who have participated so far this year. 

We have an average of about 14 participants a week.

Our journey so far
A   B    C    D    E    F   G  H  I   J   K  L  M  N O  P  Q  R  S  T   

Today we have the letter U, with just 5 letters remaining.

Here are the rules

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

Happy 2nd Birthday LBG, now really LMG

Although we celebrated Little Miss Georgia's 2nd birthday with a party earlier in the week, I can't let the actual day go by without observing it.

Spring is Sprung

Spring is sprung here in Paradise with the wattles in bloom, the magpies nesting, the pollen levels high, and everyone sneezing around here.

But the gold on the green delights as always.

New to me authors July - September 2012

There were several contenders for the best new-to-me author for this quarter of the year as you can see from my list below.

But TRUE MURDER by Yaba Badoe narrowly came out as my best discovery.

• 4.3, ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, Simon Wood 
• 4.5, THE THIEF, Fuminori Nakamura 
• 4.5, THE HOUSE OF SILK, Anthony Horowitz
• 4.2, ASIA HAND, Christopher G. Moore 
• 4.5, THE STONE-CUTTER, Camilla Lackberg
• 4.5, THE CORONER, M.R. Hall
• 4.4, DEKOK AND THE DEAD HARLEQUIN, A.C. Baantjer 
• 4.6, TRUE MURDER, Yaba Badoe
• 4.2, DRY BONES, Margaret Mayhew
• 3.7, CLASSIC DETECTIVE STORIES, read by Edward Hardwicke
• 4.1, THE OTHER CHILD, Charlotte Link  

I've now read books by 40 new-to-me-authors this year, that is, one in 3.  Some have been on my mental list for some time as authors I must find or books that I've had for a while.

See what others have chosen for this meme.

Review: MURDER BY INSTALLMENT, A.C. Baantjer

• originally published in Dutch 1985, De Cock en moord op termijn
• translated from Dutch into English in 2007 by H.G. Smittenauer and published by Speck Press
• ISBN 978-1-933108-07-0
• 189 pages
• #24 in the De Cock series
• source: my public library

Synopsis (publisher)

Although at first it seemed to be a case for the narcotics division, this latest crime soon evolves into a series of sinister and almost impossible murders.

Never before have inspectors DeKok and his partner Vledder been so involved in a case whereby murder, drug smuggling, and child prostitution are almost daily occurrences.

Blackmail enters the picture and bodies continue to be found. DeKok even finds himself allowing one of the suspects in the serial crimes to go free.

To darken the days a bit more, in the past a single murder used to dominate the front pages of the newspapers for weeks, but now they get maybe four or six lines on page fourteen, third column, near the bottom. Death has become commonplace in the news, but never for DeKok.

My Take

Earlier last month I thoroughly enjoyed DEKOK AND THE DEAD HARLEQUIN and was delighted to find my library could offer some more.

These stories feel like a cross between Maigret and Agatha Christie, although the publisher tells us that Baantjer is known as the "Dutch Conan Doyle".

The first murder in this story is a puzzle. The weapon is eventually identified and then a second, almost identical murder occurs. When the third happens DeKok knows enough to predict who the fourth will be.  But who is the murderer?

In a way these are old fashioned police procedurals, with a few red herrings, and just enough clues to keep the reader guessing.  As with DEKOK AND THE DEAD HARLEQUIN the final explanations occur around the tea table at DeKok's apartment with Mrs DeKok present too.

My rating: 4.5

List of the titles published by Speck Press - see also here for their Amazon listing

This week this is also my contribution to  Friday's Forgotten Books being hosted by Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom.

Agatha Christie Blog Carnival for September 2012 completed

The September Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival has something for everyone: reviews, news items, birthday tributes, and even a gift guide.

The October Blog Carnival is now open for contributions.

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Participants

1. Margaret @ BooksPlease - Postern of Fate 2. Caviglia's Cabinet of Curiosities - THE SECRET ADVERSARY 3. Nan (Problem at Pollensa Bay) 4. A 21st Century Day in the Life of Agatha Christie - Margot Kinberg 5. Agatha Christie Gift Guide 6. Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie: John Curran Guest Post on Mystery Fanfare 7. My Grandmother, Agatha Christie 8. Long lost essay by Agatha Christie published 9. MiP- Review: THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS

10. Sweet Marie - Murder on the Orient Express 11. The Secret Adversary @ Classic Mystery Hunt 12. Official Agatha Christie Newsletter 13. Friday Favorites - Agatha Christie's The Five Little Pigs 14. Appointment With Death (Margot @ Joyfully Retired 15. Guardian Books podcast: Crime fiction with Agatha Christie and Attica Locke 16. Essay in Guardian: Agatha Christie: why I got fed up with Poirot 17. MiP - A Journey 2/3 Over 18. Fleur Fisher - The Moving Finger

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