31 August 2013, On the doorstep, waiting to be read

What I end up reading is a mixture of review books kindly sent to me by publishers and authors, books to meet the various reading challenges I have undertaken for this year, and library books related to reading groups and personal whims. See the history of this occasional post. 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.

I've recently been reading e-books on a combination of my Kindle and my iPad and I'm convinced they actually help me read faster. In the last month I have managed to read about 3 books a week but that is still not making much of a dent in my TBR.

Here are a couple of the review paperback copies that arrived this week. Both were published in Australia in August 2013.

HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN, Louise Penny
Louise Penny is one of my favourite authors and I am actually up to date with this series.
This review copy was sent to me by Hachette Australia

Synopsis

A DETECTIVE.
As a fierce, unrelenting winter grips Quebec, shadows are closing in on Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Most of his best agents have left the Homicide Department and hostile forces are lining up against him.

A DISAPPEARANCE.
When Gamache receives a message about a mysterious case in Three Pines, he is compelled to investigate - a woman who was once one of the most famous people in the world has vanished.

A DEADLY CONCLUSION.
As he begins to shed light on the investigation, he is drawn into a web of murder, lies and unimaginable corruption at the heart of the city. Facing his most challenging, and personal, case to date, can Gamache save the reputation of the Seret , those he holds dear and himself.

Evocative, gripping and atmospheric, this magnificent work of crime fiction from international bestselling author Louise Penny will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

THE STOLEN ONES, Richard Montanari

This review copy was sent to me by Hachette Australia
I read and enjoyed PLAY DEAD by this author back in 2009 (gave it 5.0)

Synopsis (from the publisher)

The chilling new Byrne and Balzano case from the author of THE KILLING ROOM.
Destroyed by fire years ago, the infamous Philadelphia State Hospital was known as a warehouse for the criminally insane.
But one man never left.

By night Luther walks Philadelphia's backstreets, drawing to him the mad, the corrupt, the fallen. By day he roams the catacombs beneath the city, killing his prey.

Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are called to a bizarre murder scene: a man has been killed by a railroad spike driven into his head and left sitting on a bench in a local park. But it is just the beginning of a trail of evil that leads back to the hospital and the nightmares it still contains. . .

Review: THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE, Agatha Christie

• published in 1962
• #8 in the Miss Marple series
• this edition published by Fontana 1990
• 224 pages
• ISBN 0-00-616930-9

Synopsis (Agatha Christie site)

Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side:
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Marina Gregg, the famous film star, has brought some much needed glamour to St. Mary Mead.  But when a local fan is poisoned, the actress finds herself centre stage in a real-life mystery. Which other characters from the Mary Mead cast will perish before the credits roll? And will Miss Marple produce yet another stellar performance to steal the show?

In 1980 Hollywood adapted the novel into a film starring Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple alongside Elizabeth Taylor as the beautiful Marina Gregg. They shortened the title to The Mirror Crack’d. It was later adapted by the BBC starring Joan Hickson in 1992, under the full title and again in 2009 with Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple.

In the March of the year this book came out, 1962, UNESCO issued a report stating that Agatha Christie was the most widely read British author, with Shakespeare coming a poor second! This was also the year The Mousetrap celebrated its tenth anniversary.

My Take

THE MIRROR CRACK'D is an interesting novel from a number of points of view. It is of course probably one of Agatha Christie's better known stories, not the least because it has been filmed at least twice.

First of all, a couple of decades have passed since THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY which occurred in palatial home, Gossington Hall, of Colonel and Dolly Bantry, friends of a much younger Jane Marple. Miss Marple is now quite elderly, a bit down in the dumps, and a bit house bound.
Colonel Bantry has been long dead, Dolly has been tripping around the world visiting her grown up children and grandchildren, and her former home has been sold several times. Now it has become the home of stage and TV star Marina Gregg.

St. Mary Mead has changed too. The original village has expanded, and pressure for cheaper housing for the post war generation has led to new housing estates like the Development. The first few pages of the novel show Agatha Christie as a keen observer of social and economic trends as she describes how life has changed in the village. At the beginning of the novel Miss Marple escapes her minder (she now has to have a live-in carer) and takes herself for a walk at the Development. She trips and falls on the footpath and is kindly taken in for a cup of tea by Heather Badcock.

And then Marina Gregg throws a meeting at Gossington Hall for locals who will be involved in the arrangements for the fete in aid of the St. John Ambulance in the grounds. Dolly Bantry is not part of the committee but has been asked to afternoon tea before the meeting, which gives her a good chance to see what changes have been made since she was the owner. Miss Marple is not one of the guests and so Dolly is our eyes and ears. The attendees are rather like a who's who of St Mary Mead.

In the following chapter the fete gives all the locals including those who live in " the Development" the chance to view the opulence at Gossington Hall  and so it is well attended. Marina Gregg comes face to face with Heather Badcock, whom she doesn't remember at all, until Heather supplies some details that bring the past flooding back to Marina. Once again, in Miss Marple's absence, we see things from Dolly Bantry's POV. Heather Badcock is taken ill and dies.

Enter Miss Marple. Dolly goes to visit her friend the very next day but Miss Marple already has the news from her daily help Cherry.

This is really a beautifully plotted novel, with threads and characters that not only link it to other Miss Marple stories, but extend right through the novel. Miss Marple does her sleuthing through the eyes of others and sits at home doing what her doctor calls "unravelling." In fact there are a further four novels in the series to come so Miss Marple is far from finished, despite her lack of mobility in this novel.

My rating: 4.7

I've now read 54 novels and 12 collections of short stories for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
My calculation is that there are 87 titles, 67 of them are novels.

Interesting internet links

• Review at BooksPlease
• Wakefield's Vaccine Follies
• Penguin Readers Teachers Notes (pdf)
• Fun Trivia Quiz questions
• Christie in a Year

Films & TV

Forgotten Book: A MIND TO MURDER, P.D. James

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.

My choice today was published just 50 years ago in 1963, #2 in the Inspector Dalgliesh series. I read it just 20 years ago yesterday.

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction).

When the administrative head of the Steen Psychiatric Clinic is found dead with a chisel in her heart, Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. Dalgliesh must analyze the deep-seated anxieties and thwarted desires of patients and staff alike to determine which of their unresolved conflicts resulted in murder.

With "discernment, depth, and craftsmanship," wrote the Chicago Daily News, A Mind to Murder "is a superbly satisfying mystery."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I find it remarkable that this series is now over 50 years old. They seem so modern in style when you pick one up and read it these days.

Inspector Adam Dalgliesh
1. Cover Her Face (1962)
2. A Mind to Murder (1963)
3. Unnatural Causes (1967)
4. Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
5. The Black Tower (1975)
6. Death of an Expert Witness (1977)
7. A Taste for Death (1986)
8. Devices and Desires (1989)
9. Original Sin (1994)
10. A Certain Justice (1997)
11. Death in Holy Orders (2001)
12. The Murder Room (2003)
13. The Lighthouse (2005)
14. The Private Patient (2008)

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: U is for Chris Uhlmann

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will mainly feature authors or books that I have read recently.

This week's choice is THE MARMALADE FILES by Steve Lewis & Chris Uhlmann.

These are Australian authors and THE MARMALADE FILES is currently short listed for the 2013 Ned Kelly award for First Fiction. The book is very topical as here in Australia we are currently in the final days of the run up to an election for our National Parliament.

Chris Uhlmann is a political journalist working for the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Synopsis (Publisher)

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.

See my review.

See what others chose for the letter U.

Review: BLACKOUT, Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza

• Published Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (April 1, 2010)
  
• 256 pages
• ISBN 978-0-8050-7960-9
• ASIN: B003GWX8L2 (Amazon Kindle)
• #6 in the Inspector Espinosa series set in Brazil
• Translated by Benjamin Moser from Portuguese

Synopsis (Amazon)

With no witnesses and no weapon, it seems like the case of the one-legged homeless man found lying in a cul-de-sac on São João Hill, shot through the heart, will remain unsolved. But Chief Inspector Espinosa can’t shake thoughts of the hapless victim—who would target a penniless man who posed no physical threat? Focusing his incisive mind and characteristically unhurried inquiry on a group of affluent guests who dined at a nearby mansion on the stormy night of the murder, Espinosa carefully interrogates his way into the lives of his suspects, exposing lies, cover-ups—and further mysteries.

When the body of a prominent young urbanite is discovered in a scandalous state of undress, Espinosa must find the unlikely connections between two murders with no apparent witnesses or motive. Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza turns up the heat in this novel, supplementing his seductive prose with psychological twists and steamy secrets that lead to the unexpected climax.

My Take

Thanks to those who recommended I read BLACKOUT for South America in the 2013 Global Reading Challenge.

The first murder, that of a one-legged apparently homeless man, intrigues Detective Espinosa because it takes place in a district he knows well, close to where he grew up. The main suspects are two men who are collecting their parked cars in heavy rain after a dinner party. Espinosa prefers one over the other as a suspect but for a long time the case goes nowhere. Much of the investigation relates to how the victim got to the site of the murder, which is at the top of a very steep hill, and why he was there.

During part 2 of the story Espinosa and his team carry out a constant investigation of his preferred suspect, turning up at his place of work to check minor details of his story, or talking to his wife. We see most of the story through the eyes of this suspect, raising the question of how reliable a witness he really is. He claims to his wife that there are large parts of the evening that he doesn't remember. Espinosa ramps up the psychological pressure.

In places the author's style reminds me of Simenon and that is probably why I liked it so much.

Some readers will find the story's climax a bit too open-ended and inconclusive.

My rating: 4.6

Also reviewed
4.5, THE SILENCE OF THE RAIN

Series

Inspector Espinosa
1. The Silence of the Rain (2002)
2. December Heat (2003)
3. Southwesterly Wind (2004)
4. A Window in Copacabana (2005)
5. Pursuit (2006)
6. Blackout (2008)
7. Alone in the Crowd (2009)

See an article about the author 

Author's website

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: the Letter U

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme is an annual event on this blog. This is its 4th outing.
We already have a strong core of weekly contributors but you can join at any time.

Last week we featured the letter T



This week's letter is the letter U - one of those seemingly hard letters.
 - we have just 6 weeks of our journey left.
Thanks for hanging in there.

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

Review: CAPTURED, Neil Cross

• published by Simon & Schuster UK in 2010
  
• this edition available on Kindle
• 260 pages
• ISBN 978-1847373977
• ASIN: B003JDCT4K

Synopsis (Amazon)

Even though he is still young, Kenny has just weeks to live. Before he dies, he wants to find his childhood best friend Callie Barton and thank her for the kindness she showed him when they were at school together.
But when Kenny begins his search, he discovers that Callie Barton has gone missing. Although cleared of any involvement, her husband Jonathan seems to be hiding something.
Kenny has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. And knowing that time is running out on him, he's prepared to do whatever it takes . . .

My Take

CAPTURED begins with an arresting hook:

Kenny wrote the list because he was dying.
Earlier that morning, an MRI scan had revealed a malignant brain cancer had germinated in the moist secrecy of his skull like a mushroom in compost.
He had six weeks, maybe less.

Kenny has just 4 people on his list. One is his ex-wife and one is the girl he sat next to at the end of primary school.

The other two are easy to deal with. One is dead and so there is nothing he can do there. He locates the other and finds that he has grown up to have a fulfilling life. He remembers Kenny and thanks him for actions he took over twenty years before.

But the third, apart from his wife, Callie has disappeared, missing for ten years, and Kenny finds it easy to suspect her husband of murder.

A book I reviewed recently THE LAST POLICEMAN by Ben H. Winters uses a different scenario to pose the question of what you, dear reader, would do if you knew your remaining time on earth was very limited.

For many people settling old scores would be high on the list, but I was surprised at the level of violence it unleashed in Kenny.

Neil Cross is a skilled story teller and knows how to follow ideas through to their most logical conclusion, at the same time as ratcheting the tension ever upwards.

My rating: 4.9

I have also reviewed (and enjoyed) BURIAL

About the author

New Zealand author Neil Cross is the author of several novels including ALWAYS THE SUN and BURIAL, as well as the bestselling memoir HEARTLAND. He has been lead scriptwriter for the two most recent seasons of the acclaimed BBC spy drama series Spooks and continues to write widely for the screen.

Read more about Neil Cross on CrimeWatch.

Series

Luther
1. The Calling (2011)
2. The Burning (2013)

 

Novels

Mr. In-between (1998)
Christendom (1999)
Nowhere, Forever (2002)
Holloway Falls (2003)
Always the Sun (2004)
Natural History (2007)
Burial (2009)
Captured (2010)

Review: PAGO PAGO TANGO, John Enright

• published by Thomas & Mercer 2012
• ISBN 9781612185002
• 255 pages
• source: library book

Jungle Beat (Fantastic Fiction)
1. Pago Pago Tango (2012)
2. Fire Knife Dancing (2013)
3. To'Aga (2014)

Synopsis (Amazon) 

Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua spent seven years in the San Francisco Police Department, where the job was just a job and solving crimes required cool detachment. But back home on American Samoa, life is personal—especially for a cop. Because on a small island where no one is a stranger and secrets are widely known but never discussed, solving crimes requires a certain…finesse.

Here, Apelu must walk the line between two cultures: Samoan versus American, native versus new. And that gulf never yawns wider than when a white family’s home in Pago Pago is burglarized. And what appears to be a simple, open-and-shut case turns out to anything but. As the evidence piles up, Apelu follows a tangled trail between cultures, dead bodies, hidden codes, and a string of lies on his hunt for the ugly truth buried at the heart of paradise.

My Take

I read this title as part of the 2013 Global Reading Challenge and through a suggestion made by Debra who follows my blog. I needed a book set on an island to complete my "7th continent" reading.

This book is set in American Samoa, on the island of Tutuila, at Pago Pago. PAGO PAGO TANGO is a police procedural, the first of a series centred on Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua. The island is small, where every one knows everyone else. Samoan culture and values struggle to survive in the face of onslaughts by palangi (North American culture). Many of the traditional ways have already died, although Apelu can remember them being active when he was a boy, before his father took the family to San Francisco.

Now the Samoan economy is also struggling to survive and traditional goods have been replaced by a thriving drug trade. In reality the palangi are the controllers of the trade and the profits. Natural resources have been plundered and the fishing is almost gone. Serious crime like homicides are rare, but in PAGO PAGO TANGO a relatively unimportant burglary has connections with much more serious money making.

What is interesting about this novel is the way the author describes Samoan culture at every opportunity. The reader gets a look at Samoan traditions and past, contrasted with what it has become.

An interesting and instructive read, as well as being a tightly plotted novel.

My rating: 4.3

Other reviews to check

• Samoa News
• Mysterious Reviews
• Kittling Books

About the author

John Enright was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1945. After serving stints in semi-pro baseball and the Lackawanna steel mills, he earned his degree from City College while working full-time at Fortune, Time, and Newsweek magazines. He later completed a master’s degree in folklore at UC-Berkeley, before devoting the 1970s to the publishing industry in New York, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. In 1981, he left the United States to teach at the American Samoa Community College and spent the next twenty-six years living on the islands of the South Pacific. Over the past four decades, his essays, articles, short stories, and poems have appeared in more than seventy books, anthologies, journals, periodicals, and online magazines. His collection of poems from Samoa, 14 Degrees South, won the University of the South Pacific Press’s inaugural International Literature Competition. Today, he and his wife, ceramicist Connie Payne, live in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Forgotten Book: MURDER BY THE BOOK, Jennifer Rowe

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 read MURDER BY THE BOOK in August 1993.
It was published in 1991, #2 in the Verity Birdwood series.

Synopsis (Amazon)

Publishing company, Berry & Michaels, is celebrating its recent takeover by a UK-based conglomerate, and the arrival of its new English managing director. But, strangely, some of the staff don't seem to be in a party mood.

From FictionDB
IT WAS THE PUBLISHING EVENT OF THE SEASON...UNTIL SOMEONE ADDED MURDER TO THE MENU.

When Quentin Hale, the ruthless new takeover boss of one of Australia's oldest publishing houses, launched a glittering round of parties, interviews, and book signings to promote his top four authors, he unwittingly whipped up a recipe for disaster.

His jolly author of popular gardening books was actually a notorious lush. His successful authoress of muckraking biographies was a malicious troublemaker. And his queen of children's books had once shared a disastrous love affair with his number-one novelist, a man teetering on the brink of yet another nervous breakdown.

The disgruntled staff could have warned Hale that the promotion was a deadly mistake, if he'd asked. But even they couldn't have known just how deadly...until one famed author downed a fatal drink and a second soon went missing. Now it looks as if someone in this literary crew has been plotting murder all along. Can editor Kate Delaney and her friend Birdie catch the killer before he writes off his next victim?

Verity Birdwood
Grim Pickings (1988)
Murder by the Book (1989)
Death in Store (1991)
The Makeover Murders (1992)
Stranglehold (1993)
Lamb to the Slaughter (1995)

About the author
Jennifer June Rowe is an Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonyms Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson. She is well known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin, Fairy Realm and Teen Power Inc., and recently the Rondo trilogy.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: T is for TRUST YOUR EYES, Linwood Barclay

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will mainly feature authors or books that I have read recently.

This week's choice is TRUST YOUR EYES by Linwood Barclay.

Synopsis (author's website)


A schizophrenic man spends his days and nights on a website called Whirl360, believing he’s employed by the CIA to store the details of every town and city in the world in his head. Then one day, he sees something that shouldn’t be there: a woman being murdered behind a window on a New York street. Suddenly Thomas has more to deal with than just his delusions, as he gets drawn into a deadly conspiracy.

See my post

See what others have chosen for the letter T.

Review: THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD, Debra Dean

• published by the Fourth Estate, London 2006
  
• ISBN 0-00-721505-3
• 228 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild—yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind's eye.

Vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidden, carrying her back to the terrible fall of 1941, when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum and the German army's approach signaled the beginning of what would be a long, torturous siege on the city. As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, Marina joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, leaving the frames hanging empty on the walls to symbolize the artworks' eventual return. As the Luftwaffe's bombs pounded the proud, stricken city, Marina built a personal Hermitage in her mind—a refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more. . . .

My Take

Note: this is not crime fiction: it is one of my ventures this year outside my preferred genre.

There are many things to like about this book: the insights it gives into the siege of Leningrad in 1941 and how it affected the population as their food stores were bombed by the Luftwaffe; its gentle treatment of Marina's oncoming Alzheimer's as her mind constantly interchanges the present with the past; the irony that a woman who had such a good memory decades before, who could mentally recreate the long galleries of the Hermitage museum where she worked, can now not identify her own daughter; the way Marina and her husband have never told their children of their war time experiences; and much more.

Even though it covers so much territory, this is not a long book. There is a startling clarity as Marina remembers the various Madonnas that hung on the walls of the museum, describing them in detail.

Most enjoyable. My rating: 4.6

Review: Agatha Christie Short Stories: MASTERPIECES IN MINIATURE Part One.

What I am doing here is reviewing some short stories that I have read on my Kindle. This set of 6 are all Miss Marple stories.
They were purchased individually (in most cases I actually got them free as part of a promotion).
I have read all of them before.
Mostly they are 40 pages or so in length.
Although the connection between them is "MASTERPIECES IN MINIATURE", a sub-title given to them by Harper Collins who has published them in e-book format, they have undoubtedly been published in earlier collections.
This post won't be a review so much as a reading record, which hopefully will be helpful to those looking for some cheapish reads..

THE CASE OF THE MISSING CARETAKER: A Miss Marple short story.
Kindle version
First published in the UK in January 1942 and then in the USA in June 1942.
Miss Marple: complete short stories publ. 1997 
 

Synopsis (Amazon)

Doctor Haydock, the resident, joyfully brusque, GP of St Mary Mead is apt to drag Miss Marple out of her little depression as she recovers from the flu. He has for a little story, penned himself, but can she figure it out?

The tale revolves around the return of the prodigal son of Major Laxton, the devilishly handsome Harry Laxton. Harry, after falling head over heels for the village tobacconist’s daughter and leading a life of childish indiscretions has ‘made good’ and has returned to lay claim to his tumbling childhood home and introduce the village to his beautiful new wife.

But, the villagers are prone to gossip about young Harry’s past and one person in particular cannot forgive him for tearing down the old house. Will Miss Marple’s acumen be up to the task of solving the story even in its sickly state?

THE CASE OF THE PERFECT MAID: A Miss Marple short story.
Kindle version
This was first published in the UK in April 1942 and then as The Maid Who Disappeared in the US in September 1942.
Miss Marple: complete short stories publ. 1997 

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Miss Marple’s maid asks her to intervene in the delicate problem of her rather opinionated cousin Gladys, she is a little hesitant to see that much can be done. Poor Gladys believes herself to be accused of stealing and hiding a precious brooch belonging to her employers, the rather reserved Misses Skinner. Whilst one sister malingers with mysterious ailments, the other sees to her every need, and they’ve both decided that Gladys must go. But, one day there appears a perfect maid, a paragon to replace her, or so they think…

SANCTUARY: A Miss Marple short story

Kindle Version
First published in the USA in 1954 as Murder at the Vicarage
Miss Marple: complete short stories publ. 1997 

Synopsis (Amazon)
Bunch, engrossed in her flower arrangements for the church is rather dully placing the chrysanthemums when she sees a man crumpled over on the chancel steps, dying. The man can only utter one word, ‘Sanctuary’. Nothing can be done, and his final words ‘please, please’ can’t help anyone at the vicarage to understand what has happened.

But, when his relatives arrive very promptly to pick up his possessions Bunch can’t get the word Sanctuary out of her head and she knows just who to turn to, her godmother, Miss Marple. What Bunch and Miss Marple discover is rather more exotic and exciting than can ever be expected to happen in a sleepy village like Chipping Cleghorn, who is this man and what does Sanctuary mean?

TAPE MEASURE MURDER: A Miss Marple short story
Kindle version
First published in the USA in November 1941 and then in the UK in February 1942.

Miss Marple: complete short stories publ. 1997

Synopsis (Amazon)

Miss Politt has been waiting and waiting outside Laburnum Cottage for Mrs. Spenlow, to no avail. She nervously acquires the help of the next door neighbour whose gumption and persistence reveal that Mrs. Spenlow is dead on the hearthrug.

The whole of St. Mary Mead are convinced it’s Mr. Spenlow, who has shown no emotion upon his wife’s sudden death, but, with Miss Marple’s characteristic assiduity she shows that it is perhaps not that simple. And when people’s pasts catch up with them, it can make them act rashly.

STRANGE JEST:  A Miss Marple short story
Kindle version
First published in the USA in November 1941, and in the UK in July 1944.
Miss Marple: complete short stories publ. 1997

Synopsis (Amazon)

Miss Marple is accosted at a party by a pair of lovebirds who think that their lately deceased uncle has buried their inheritance. The naïve pair expects to impart the details of the tale to Miss Marple and for her to summon forth where the buried treasure must be instantaneously. But, the careful observer of human nature, the consequence of living in a small English village, knows that a little examination is needed.

Invited to Ansteys, the ransacked family seat, Miss Marple ensconces herself amongst house that has perhaps been too thoroughly investigated. Uncle Mathew reminds Miss Marple of her old Uncle Henry and she regales the two with what appear to be meaningless, infuriating anecdotes, little do they know their importance and worth.

THE THUMB MARK OF ST. PETER : A Miss Marple short story
Kindle version
First published in 1928
The Thirteen Problems publ. 1932 
Miss Marple: complete short stories publ. 1997

Synopsis (Amazon)

Fifteen years ago, Miss Marple’s niece, Mabel Denman was accused of murdering her husband. Mabel’s marriage had been an unhappy one, as Geoffrey had been abusive and violent. Can Miss Marple clear her niece’s name and reveal the true perpetrator?

Rating: 4.4

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: the Letter T

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme is an annual event on this blog. This is its 4th outing.
We already have a strong core of weekly contributors but you can join at any time.

Last week we featured the letter S



This week's letter is the letter T - we have just 7 weeks of our journey left.
Thanks for hanging in there.

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

Review: SHORT SENTENCE: 10 stories of dastardly deeds, Parker Bilal et al

• Kindle edition, published April 2013
• ISBN 978-1-4088-4571-4 

Synopsis (Amazon)

From Obsession and Payback to Secrets and Lies, Deception and Bad Judgement, these thrilling tales will shock and surprise you with their cunning. Short Sentence was launched in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing, in association with the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.

Following a short story written by one of Bloomsbury’s brilliant crime authors, competitors were challenged to take up the same theme and write of a dastardly deed using 1000 words or less.

This is Bloomsbury’s collection of the winning entries in parallel with the five brilliant authors, Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie.

My Take

This is one of those books that most people could read in an hour or so. 10 engaging short stories, most with a very unexpected twist at the end, just the thing for a coffee in front of the fire.

Apart from Bloomsbury's "five brilliant authors" Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie, the contributors were Alex Cooper, Mary Waters, Calum Macleod, Ian Snook, and Sarah Evans. Each of the contributors is thematically paired with a Bloomsbury "name".

I think the difference between the Bloomsbury authors and the "amateur" contributors is pretty clear, but nevertheless they are all very entertaining.

The idea is obviously to introduce readers to Bloomsbury authors (it has certainly given me some people to look for) and, even better,  the Kindle book is FREE.

My rating: 4.4

Review: ICE COLD, Tess Gerritsen - audio book

• available from Audible
• Narrated by Tanya Eby
• #8 in the Rizzoli and Isles series
• Length 9 hours 51 minutes

Synopsis (author site)

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they’re stranded with no help in sight.

As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come: Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages. The town’s previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness—someone who is watching Maura and her friends.

Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate.

My Take

I really haven't read enough Gerritsen titles in recent years. ICE COLD is a good reminder of what satisfying reads they are, often a mixture of murder mystery and thriller. The plot of ICE COLD moves seamlessly from setting to setting and the assured writing enthralls.

The point of view swaps from that of Maura Isles to that of Jane Rizzoli. The two stories effectively advance in tandem towards a stunning conclusion.

The narration is excellent but not intrusive.

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed THE SURGEON

Mini-reviews

THE MEPHISTO CLUB (4.6) and THE BONE GARDEN (4.6)

THE SINNER (4.8)
This is the novel immediately before 'Body Double'.  Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the cloistered convent lie two nuns–one dead, one critically injured–victims of an unspeakably savage attacker. The brutal crime appears to be without motive, but medical examiner Maura Isles’s autopsy of the dead woman yields a shocking surprise: twenty-year-old Sister Camille gave birth before she was murdered. Then another body is found mutilated beyond recognition. Together, Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Maura Isles finds herself drawn inexorably toward the heart of an investigation that strikes close to home–and toward a dawning revelation about the killer’s identity too shattering to consider.  Also available as an abridged audio cassette, abridged audio CD, an abridged downloadable audiobook, an abridged downloadable audiobook and an eBook.

VANISH (4.5)
The last thing that Boston medical examiner Maura Isles expects to find in her morgue in a zipped up body bag is a Jane Doe that is still alive. And the last thing that Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli expects to happen when she goes to hospital to have her baby is to become a hostage. When these two threads combine you have an explosive mixture.   

 

Series: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles
1. The Surgeon (2001)
2. The Apprentice (2002)
3. The Sinner (2003)
4. Body Double (2004)
5. Vanish (2005)
6. The Mephisto Club (2006)
7. Keeping the Dead (2008)
     aka The Keepsake
8. Ice Cold (2010)
     aka The Killing Place
9. The Silent Girl (2011)
10. Last to Die (2012)

Review: THE CORPSE ON THE COURT, Simon Brett

• Published 2012 by Severn House Publishers
  
• ISBN 978-1-78029-032-4
• 217 pages
• #13 in the Fethering series
• Read an extract 

Synopsis (Amazon)


The genteel game of Real Tennis takes a murderous twist in Simon Brett’s witty and entertaining new Fethering mystery. 

 Jude’s life has been turned upside-down thanks her new man, Piers Targett, who’s keen to get her involved in his hobby – or obsession – of Real Tennis. But when one of Piers’ friends dies on the court in suspicious circumstances, Jude finds herself caught up in the police investigation.

Meanwhile, Jude’s neighbour Carole is trying to identify the human remains known locally as the ‘Lady in the Lake.’ As the two investigations become intertwined, Carole and Jude’s efforts to find the truth look set to lead to more murders.

My Take

Reading THE CORPSE ON THE COURT brings my reading of the Fethering series up to date. This was always on the cards after my recent completion and enjoyment of GUNS IN THE GALLERY.

Following the pattern of recent titles in this series the two sleuths Jude and Carole undertake independent investigations at the same time as occasionally collaborating and comparing notes.
The story is narrated largely from Jude's point of view. The main action of the story, the death of an elderly man on a real (royal) tennis court, is connected to her. She has recently become involved with a real tennis player whose past provokes the actions leading to the death. The dead man's wife requests Jude to find out why her husband was on the tennis court at the time of his death.

Once again this is substantially a cozy, no blood in evidence. A relatively quick read and underlying the story are again Simon Brett's astute observations of society. And you even learn a little about real tennis. For the first time that I remember in this series, both Jude and Carole have to make decisions about what to do with their knowledge about the mysteries they solve.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read and reviewed (on this blog)
BLOOD AT THE BOOKIES
THE POISONING IN THE PUB
4.4, THE SHOOTING IN THE SHOP
4.3, SO MUCH BLOOD
4.2, A DECENT INTERVAL
4.5, BONES UNDER THE BEACH HUT
4.2, GUNS IN THE GALLERY

My recommendation - read the titles in order.

The Fethering series
1. The Body on the Beach (2000)
2. Death On the Downs (2001)
3. The Torso In The Town (2002)
4. Murder in the Museum (2003)
5. The Hanging in the Hotel (2004)
6. The Witness at the Wedding (2005)
7. The Stabbing in the Stables (2006)
8. Death Under the Dryer (2006)
9. Blood At the Bookies (2008)
10. The Poisoning in the Pub (2009)
11. The Shooting in the Shop (2010)
12. Bones Under the Beach Hut (2011)
13. Guns in the Gallery (2012)
14. Corpse on the Court (2012)
15. The Strangling on the Stage (2013)

To Finish the Global Reading Challenge, I need to read ...

To finish the Global Reading Challenge for 2013 I need to read 5 books, so I have plans, but I also have some holes.
Perhaps you can make a suggestion.

1 from New Zealand
CAPTURED, Neil Cross - already on my Kindle

3 from South America

1. EVERY BITTER THING, Leighton Gage - from the library
2. BLACKOUT , Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza - already on my Kindle
3. ??

1 set on a small island
Doesn't really matter where - just not Mallorca or Tasmania as I've already been to those islands

Review: DEADLY HARVEST, Michael Stanley

• Published 2013
• This edition published by Harper Collins
• ISBN 978-0-06-222152-0-5149
• Source: my local library
• 474 pages
• Read an extract

Synopsis (Harper Collins)

Girls are disappearing in Botswana. The rumor is they're being harvested for muti, a witch doctor's potion traditionally derived from plants and animals—and which, some believe, can be made more potent by adding human remains. Detective David "Kubu" Bengu joins the investigation with the police force's newest detective—and only woman—Samantha Khama, for whom the case is personal.

Soon one girl's father, convinced that his daughter's death is linked to the recent popularity of a political candidate, takes the law into his own hands. After the father flees, what Kubu and Samantha find in the politician's home confirms their worst fears: muti containing human DNA is real.

Now Kubu and Samantha are thrust into a harrowing race to stop a serial killer or killers—and those who would pay for their special, lethal muti.

My Take

If your reading experience of Botswana is Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY with the unforgettable Precious Ramotswe, then you'll find the Kubu series very different in flavour, not quite so cozy. Although unmistakably we are in the same place, with a similar mixture of new Western and traditional African cultures. Michael Stanley's style is deceptively simplistic, but underlying all is two pairs of keen eyes (see my note below about the author) and an awareness of the political and cultural challenges being faced by modern Botswana.

In a note the authors comment

Although this is a work of fiction, it is, as were our three previous books, set on a background of reality.

And then they go on to talk about the belief in muti which underpins the murders and crimes in DEADLY HARVEST. Organs are being harvested from live human victims, not for the trade in illegal transplants which other books like Peter James' DEAD TOMORROW have highlighted, but for the belief in their magical powers.

The well established central character in this series Detective David "Kubu" Bengu is joined in DEADLY HARVEST by a female officer Samantha Khama. Kubu is not used to working with a woman and for a while he tries to put her on the back seat, but then he comes to realise that they make a very good team.

Kubu's boss Mabaku values the intuitive dimension that Kubu brings to policing. Most of the time Kubu's hunches are right and only rarely does the more cautious and politically minded Mabaku refuse to follow Kubu's plan of action.

I appreciated the cast of characters listed at the front of the novel and the glossary in the final pages.

So, my verdict - an excellent read. If you are new to Michael Stanley, start at the beginning,  A CARRION DEATH, and follow Kubu's career.

My rating: 5.0

I've also reviewed
5.0, A CARRION DEATH
5.0, DEATH OF THE MANTIS

I've realised today that I haven't yet read A DEADLY TRADE (#2) and I've also found a set of short stories, DETECTIVE KUBU INVESTIGATES on Amazon Kindle

About the author

The author with their Barry Award

Michael Stanley is the writing team of Johannesburg natives Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Sears lives in Johannesburg and teaches part-time at the University of Witwatersrand. Trollip was on the faculty at the universities of Illinois, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and at Capella University. A full-time writer, he divides his time between...

In 2012 Michael Stanley won a Barry Award for DEATH OF THE MANTIS

	Current books - see author's website

1. A Carrion Death (2008) 2. A Deadly Trade (2009)      aka The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu 3. The Death of the Mantis (2011) 4. Deadly Harvest (2013)

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: S is for Shamini Flint

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will mainly feature authors or books that I have read recently.

This week's choice is INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A DEADLY CAMBODIAN CRIME SPREE by Shamini Flint


Synopsis (Amazon)

Inspector Singh is in Cambodia - wishing he wasn't. He's been sent as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, the latest effort by his superiors to ensure that he is anywhere except in Singapore.

But for the first time the fat Sikh inspector is on the verge of losing his appetite when a key member of the tribunal is murdered in cold blood. The authorities are determined to write off the incident as a random act of violence, but Singh thinks otherwise.

It isn't long before he finds himself caught up in one of the most terrible murder investigations he’s witnessed - the roots of which lie in the dark depths of the Cambodian killing fields. . .  

See my review

See what others have chosen for the letter S.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: the Letter S

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme is an annual event on this blog. This is its 4th outing.
We already have a strong core of weekly contributors but you can join at any time.

Last week we featured the letter R



This week's letter is the letter S - we have just 8 weeks of our journey left.
Thanks for hanging in there.

Here are the rules

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.

Thanks for participating.

---

11 August 2013, On the doorstep, waiting to be read

As you can see from my list below, I am not making a lot of headway in making my TBR (To Be Read) pile diminish. Review copies are piling up, not helped by my self selected library books. Hopefully you will also find something to interest you among these. See the history of this occasional post. 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.

Review books continue to arrive and I continue to read slowly.

Here is a selection

GOOD AS GONE, Douglas Corleone
Review copy supplied by Macmillan Australia

Australian release scheduled for 1 Sep 2013
Available for Kindle

Former U.S. Marshal Simon Fisk works as a private contractor, tracking down and recovering children who are kidnapped by their estranged parents. He only has one rule: he won't touch stranger abduction cases. He's still haunted by the unresolved disappearance of his six-year-old daughter, and non-family kidnappings hit too close to home.

Until, that is, another six-year-old, Lindsay Sorkin, disappears from her parents' hotel room in Paris, and the French police deliver Simon an ultimatum: he can spend years in a French jail for past misdemeanors, or he can take the case and recover the missing girl. Simon sets out in pursuit of Lindsay and the truth behind her disappearance. But Lindsay's captors have not left an easy trail, and following it will take Simon across the continent, through the ritziest nightclubs and the seediest back alleys, into a terrifying world of international intrigue and dark corners of his past he'd rather leave well alone.

ZERO AT THE BONE, David Whish-Wilson (Australian author)
Review copy supplied by Penguin Australia.

Publication date 21 August 2013

For ex-detective Frank Swann, being on the outside of Western Australia's police force is the only way to get justice done.
Perth in 1979 is a city of celebration and corruption. There are street parties, official glad-handing – even a royal visit – to commemmorate a century and a half since colonisation. But behind the festivities a new kind of land grab is going on, this time for mining leases. The price of gold is up, and few are incorruptible before its lure.

When Swann is hired to probe the suicide of a well-regarded geologist, he's drawn into a mire of vice and fraud that has at its heart a lust for wealth that verges on a disease . . .

By the author of the acclaimed Line of Sight, Zero at the Bone lifts the lid on Perth at the start of the mining boom to show a town where Chinatown meets Underbelly, and where the establishment and the lawless blend into one.

'Full of crooked cops, corrupt politicians and rapacious mining companies . . . I really enjoyed Zero at the Bone.' Michael Robotham

'Has all the economy, pace, unexpected humour and local colour we've come to expect from David Whish-Wilson. Highly recommended.' Adrian McKinty

Bought recently for my Kindle

ALEX, Pierre Lemaitre  Kindle version

Joint Winner of the CWA International Dagger Award 2013
The other book was THE GHOST RIDERS OF ORDEBEC by Fred Vargas.

In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are crucial. After that, the chances of being found alive go from slim to nearly none. Alex Prévost – beautiful, resourceful, tough – may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out.

Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: no suspect, no lead, rapidly diminishing hope. All they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van.

The enigma that is the fate of Alex will keep Verhoeven guessing until the bitter, bitter end. And before long, saving her life will be the least of his worries.

DEAD CAT BOUNCE, Peter Cotton (Australian author)
Kindle version

Very topical as Australia is now in election mode.

A federal election campaign is thrown into chaos when a popular government minister goes missing and then turns up dead on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.

With Detective Darren Glass and the Australian Federal Police on the case, the investigation into the minister’s murder quickly becomes entangled in a game of high-stakes politics. And all the while, the body count mounts.

Glass’s suspects include some of the most powerful people in the land. With the nation in shock and wanting answers fast, Glass has to negotiate a murky world of shifting allegiances, half-truths, and finger pointing, where everyone has a motive for murder.

And no one is safe — not even the prime minister. As election day nears, Glass risks everything for a breakthrough in the case, and his life is soon hanging by a thread. But if he thought he’d hit rock bottom, he was wrong …

A TRACE OF SMOKE, Rebecca Cantrell
The first Hannah Vogel mystery
Kindle version

Berlin. 1931.

The year that Germany was lost to the Nazis. Storm Troopers and Communists fight in the streets. Wealthy Jews and intellectuals think of fleeing. Desperate sexual and social outcasts cram Berlin’s famous nightclubs to wring out one last dance.

Hannah Vogel lives alone and works as a crime reporter.

On a routine assignment, she sees a picture of her brother’s body in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. But since she loaned their identity papers to escaping Jewish friends, she cannot identify him and demand an investigation.

So she tracks the killer herself.