USA Fiction Challenge - progress so far

State by State - ongoing challenge

The USA fiction challenge is going to take me years, and I even cheated just a little by including books I had read in 2013. Even so I've only covered 19 states so far.
Here is a repeat of the record I keep.

All my books are crime fiction and connected to the state either by setting or by author.
The home for the challenge is at USA Fiction Challenge: state by state in 2014. 
However the challenge is ongoing (until you complete it actually).

I've also set up a personalised map at World66


create your own personalized map of the USA

Here is my easy reference list
Current total of states covered: 19/51 
As you can see I have also decided to list multiple books for each state if needed.
The books are related to the state either by setting or author birth place.

1. ALASKA
   A COLD DAY FOR MURDER, Dana Stabenow (setting, author's birthplace)
2. CALIFORNIA:
   TURN OF MIND, Alice LaPlante (author's residence)
   BAMBOO AND BLOOD, James Church (author's birthplace)
   PRIMAL, D.A. Serra (author residence)
   THE BIG SLEEP, Raymond Chandler - setting
3. CONNECTICUT
   4.4, THE RULES OF THE GAME, Georges Simenon (setting)
4. DELAWARE
   4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS, Charles Todd (author residence)
5. FLORIDA:
   EVERY BITTER THING, Leighton Gage (author residence)
   BUNDORI, Laura Joh Rowland - author residence
6. KANSAS:
   4.4, NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, James Hadley Chase (setting)
7. MASSACHUSETTS:
   NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT, Derek B. Miller (author birthplace)
   4.5, CHRISTINE FALLS, Benjamin Black (setting)
8. MISSISSIPPI:
   4.4, A TIME TO KILL, John Grisham (setting)
9. MISSOURI:
   GONE GIRL, Gillian Flynn (setting)
10. NEW HAMPSHIRE
    THE LAST POLICEMAN, Ben H. Winters (setting)
11. NEW JERSEY
      DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY, Donna Leon (author birthplace)
    4.3, FINAL CURTAIN, Ed Ifkovic (setting)
12. NEW YORK:
    PAGO PAGO TANGO, John Enright (author birthplace)
    MRS POLLIFAX AND THE LION KILLER, Dorothy Gilman (author residence)
    4.6, VISITATION STREET, Ivy Pochoda (setting)
    3.7, THE FOOTPRINTS ON THE CEILING, Clayton Rawson (setting)
13. NORTH CAROLINA
    3.8, LIQUID FEAR, Scott Nicholson (author residence)
    4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS, Charles Todd (author residence)
14. OHIO:
    MURDER IN A BASKET, Amanda Flower (author works in a college near Cleveland)
15. OKLAHOMA:
    KINGDOM OF STRANGERS, Zoe Ferraris (author birthplace)
16. PENNSYLVANIA
    4.5, IRREPARABLE HARM, Melissa F. Miller (setting)
    4.0, DEATH-WATCH, John Dickson-Carr (author birth-place)
    3.9, THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, Mary Roberts Rinehart (author birth-place)
17. TEXAS:
    THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS, Deborah Crombie (author birthplace)
    5.0, LIFE OR DEATH, Michael Robotham (setting)
18. WASHINGTON:
    THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD, Debra Dean (author birthplace
19. WYOMING:
    ICE COLD, Tess Gerritsen (setting) 

Thanks to Ms Wordopolis for the inspiration for this post.

Review: A TIME TO KILL, John Grisham

• format: Kindle (Amazon) - I bought it
  
• File Size: 754 KB
• Print Length: 530 pages
• Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (April 21, 2010), first published 1989
• #1 in the Jake Brigance series
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099134012
• ISBN-13: 978-0099134015
• ASIN: B003IDMUWC

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his ten-year-old daughter, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal.

But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice.

Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It's the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer. But in the maelstrom of Clanton, it is also the kind of case that could get a young lawyer killed.

My Take

Despite the popularity of John Grisham, particularly among those who frequent airports (it seems from the book stands there), I have not read one in recent years. I chose this title to read because I was looking for a "Silver" Vintage Mystery read - written 1960-1989 - and featuring a courtroom or a lawyer.  It is the last title for my Vintage Mystery Bingo for 2014.

The novel has an interesting foreword by the author, in which he says it took him three years to write and is largely autobiographical. It is an exploration of a scenario that he came across in the press, and then personalised: how would he himself react if someone raped/killed his daughter?In the long run that is the question that Jack Brigance poses for the jury in Carl Lee Hailey's trial.

The story is set among the black/white tensions of the rural town of Clanton, Mississippi. Suspense builds as white and black residents take opposing views about whether Carl Lee Hailey should be found guilty: indeed there is a widespread belief that if he had been white he would not even have been charged. And then the black churches go into fighting mode, raising money for his defence. A local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is created, and Klan members come from all over local counties to plant flaming crosses in the front yards of jury panel members and others. The National Guard is called in to keep the peace in Clanton town square after a battle breaks out between the blacks and Klan members. Jake Brigance sends his wife and young daughter out of state when he receives death threats on the phone.

The novel gives detailed descriptions of the workings of the Mississippi justice system. Court scenes come across graphically and vividly. The characters really came alive for me. Even until almost the last chapter, this reader had almost no idea how the story would end.

My rating: 4.4

The sequel to A TIME TO KILL, SYCAMORE ROW, was not published until 2013.
A TIME TO KILL certainly reads as if Grisham thought he might write a series with Jake Brigance at the centre, but he followed this up with THE FIRM.

Review: NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, James Hadley Chase

• format: Amazon (Kindle)
• I bought it
• File Size: 346 KB
• Print Length: 188 pages
• Publisher: The Murder Room (September 6, 2012). Originally published 1939
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00946TPFC

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Dave Fenner is hired to solve the Blandish kidnapping, he knows the odds on finding the girl are against him - the cops are still looking for her three months after the ransom was paid. And the kidnappers, Riley and his gang, have disappeared into thin air.

But what none of them knows is that Riley himself has been wiped out by a rival gang - and the heiress is now in the hands of Ma Grisson and her son Slim, a vicious killer who can't stay away from women, especially his beautiful new captive. By the time Fenner begins to close in on them, some terrible things have happened to Miss Blandish . . .

My Take

James Hadley Chase was an English writer born René Lodge Brabazon Raymond and well known by various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond Marshall, R. Raymond, and Ambrose Grant. See Wikipedia for more details.

NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH (publ. 1939) is set in the gangster era of the mid 1930s in Kansas, although Chase had never been there. It was his debut novel, and the beginning of a long and immensely successful career as a novelist. Dave Fenner appeared in a second novel in 1941. He is an ex-journalist turned private eye, and works with the "bulls" (police) to find Miss Blandish.

I thought it had a surprisingly modern feel about it although it is exceptionally noir, with an incredible amount of violence, which apparently drew considerable criticism at publication. It was indeed based on events and people who had gained notoriety in the early 1930s in America. I didn't expect the ending to have the twist that it had, and I thought that was a redeeming feature. A fast paced thriller.

My rating: 4.4

I read this as part of my participation in the Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge for 2014.

Review: THE CROSSWORD MURDER, Nero Blanc

• source: NetGalley review book, e-book (Kindle)
  
• first published 1999 - available from Amazon
• this edition published 2014 by Open Road Media.
• #1 in the series
• author website

Synopsis (NetGalley)

Solving puzzles can be murder when a PI and a crossword editor join forces to catch a killer in the first novel of Nero Blanc’s fiendishly clever crossword mystery series.

Playboy Thompson C. Briephs has just been found strangled in his bed. The police believe the Newcastle Herald crossword editor, a scion of a blue-blooded New England family, died from kinky sex gone wrong.

But cop-turned–private investigator Rosco Polycrates thinks there’s a six-letter word for what happened. Enlisting the help of Annabelle Graham, the crossword editor for a rival paper, Rosco unearths a crazy quilt of suspects who had it in for the victim—and one of them was blackmailing him. Belle is certain the answers lie in Briephs’s twisty puzzlers. Now she and Rosco will have to employ some dazzling wordplay of their own to stop a cunning killer from crossing paths with another victim.

Readers will delight in solving the crime, along with six crossword puzzles, which can be downloaded as PDFs, with answers in the back of the book. The Crossword Murder is a book to be savored by mystery lovers and crossword-puzzle enthusiasts alike.

My Take

Thompson Briephs, Newcastle playboy (Massachusetts) and crossword editor is found murdered in his bed in his Minoan-style mansion on his private island.

Briephs always works five days ahead of his deadline and he outwits his murderer by leaving five unpublished crosswords which reveal the murderer's identity. These will be published in the Newcastle Herald by his assistant on five consecutive days. The first two crosswords are published and then the other three go missing when Briephs' assistant is threatened over the phone and decides to post them to various people as insurance.

These crosswords are provided for the reader to play with both in the book and online, and so there is the opportunity to solve the mystery along with the sleuthing pair, cop-turned–private investigator Rosco Polycrates and Annabelle Graham, the crossword editor for a rival paper. Many of the crossword clues are cryptic, and Briephs also taunts some of the people he worked with by naming them in the crosswords. In the story these provide red herrings although the murderer is actually named (using a nickname) in the very first one.

The murder mystery is quite well plotted while the crossword clues are designed to further tantalise the reader.

This was the first in a series written by husband and wife team, Cordelia Frances Biddle and Steve Zettler who are serious crossword buffs.

Fantastic Fiction
1. The Crossword Murder (1999)
2. Two Down (2000)
3. The Crossword Connection (2001)
4. A Crossworder's Holiday (2002)
5. A Crossword to Die for (2002)
6. Corpus De Crossword (2003)
7. A Crossworder's Gift (2003)
8. Anatomy of a Crossword (2004)
9. Wrapped Up in Crosswords (2004)
10. Another Word for Murder (2005)
11. A Crossworder's Delight (2005)
12. Death on the Diagonal (2006)

My rating: 4.1

Review: THE CONFESSION. Charles Todd - audio book

• format: audio book from audible.com
• Narrated by: Simon Prebble
• Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins 
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 14
• Format: Unabridged 
• Published in 20102

Synopsis (Audible)

Declaring he needs to clear his conscience, a dying man walks into Scotland Yard and confesses that he killed his cousin five years earlier during the Great War. 

When Inspector Ian Rutledge presses for details, the man evades his questions, revealing only that he hails from a village east of London. 

With little information and no body to open an official inquiry, Rutledge begins to look into the case on his own. Less than two weeks later, the alleged killer’s body is found floating in the Thames, a bullet in the back of his head. 

The inspector’s only clue is a gold locket, found around the dead man’s neck, that leads back to Essex and an insular village whose occupants will do anything to protect themselves from notoriety. For notoriety brings the curious, and with the curious come change and an unwelcome spotlight on a centuries-old act of evil that even now can damn them all.  

My Take:

Another really good read from Charles Todd. Simon Prebble does an excellent job of the audio presentation. Although this is #14 in the series, it is only 1920 so we haven't progressed very far from the demons and ghosts of World War One. Ian Rutledge seems in better control of his own personal ghost Hamish, but even so wonders whether sometimes people hear him in conversation with Hamish.

Things are changing at the Yard. The Chief Inspector has had a heart attack and been hospitalised and so underlings like Rutledge are able to take advantage of the laxer supervision to operate this case on his own initiative. Of course that also means that the Yard doesn't actually know where he is and should anything happen to him, it will be some time before help arrives, if ever.

The audio versions of these books are produced to a very high standard, assisted by the fact that each story is carefully plotted and sufficiently tangled to be intriguing. World War One lurks there as a background without being intrusive.

my rating: 4.6

I've also reviewed
SEARCH THE DARK
A PALE HORSE
A TEST OF WILLS
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD
4.7, A LONELY DEATH
4.7, HUNTING SHADOWS 

Review: THE FOOTPRINTS ON THE CEILING, Clayton Rawson

• first published 1939
  
• locked room mystery
• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 542 KB
• Print Length: 243 pages
• Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (May 22, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007ZI09CO

Synopsis (Amazon)

“Wanted To Rent: Haunted House, preferably in rundown condition. Must be adequately supplied with interesting ghost.”

Ross Harte knows that only the Great Merlini could be behind such a strange classified ad. A magician, salesman, and occasional sleuth, Merlini is producing radio investigations of paranormal activity, and he needs ghosts to put on-air. His first target is Skelton Island, an eerie speck of land just a few hundred feet off the coast of Manhattan, but seemingly out of another time.

On a late-night trip to the island, Merlini and Harte find the house perfectly rundown and well-stocked with ghosts, including one fresh one. Linda Skelton, granddaughter of the famous Scourge of Wall Street, has been poisoned with cyanide. Unless Merlini works quickly, he and Ross will join her among the ranks of Skelton Island’s famous spirits.

My Take
 
This novel has a huge cast of characters and a hideously complex and very tangled plot. I chose it because the review I read said it was a locked room mystery and I needed one to complete a "bingo" line in the 2014 Vintage Mystery Challenge.

The story is mainly told through the eyes of Ross Harte, the Great Merlini's friend, and mostly the author plays "fair" with the reader. There are times though when the police detective, Gavigan, or even Merlini himself, or another character playing sleuth goes off on a tangent which Harte is excluded from. At times the solution to a knotty problem is something the reader could not be expected to know: such as how to produce footprints on a ceiling, the characteristics of death by "the bends", or the nature of a disease that produces blue pigmentation in the skin. These are pieces of antiquarianism provided to tickle the reader's fancy.

As I've come to expect from crime novels of The Golden Age, red herrings, which Merlini calls "misdirections", abound. Just when you think you've got it all worked out Merlini puts another spanner in the works and you see that your solution has many holes in it. People are not who they appear to be either - almost as if the author is looking for another way to confound his own logic and to prolong the pages a bit more. By the end though I was getting a bit tired of these extensions and just wanted to know the "proper" solution.

This is my third "vintage" crime novel in a row and I think I'll be glad to get back to a more modern author.

My rating: 3.7

About the author (Wikipedia)

Born in Ohio, 1906-1971, an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies. He also wrote four short stories in 1940 about a stage magician named Don Diavolo, who appears as a principal character in one of the novels featuring The Great Merlini. "Don Diavolo is a magician who perfects his tricks in a Greenwich Village basement where he is frequently visited by the harried Inspector Church of Homicide, either to arrest the Don for an impossible crime or to ask him to solve it."

Review: THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, Mary Roberts Rinehart

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 627 KB
• Print Length: 226 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1489526706
• Publisher: first published 1907, this edition Start Classics (April 25, 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00K0UAR3U
• source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)

The following are the opening paragraphs of the novel.

This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous.

 For twenty years I had been perfectly comfortable; for twenty years I had had the window-boxes filled in the spring, the carpets lifted, the awnings put up and the furniture covered with brown linen; for as many summers I had said good-bye to my friends, and, after watching their perspiring hegira, had settled down to a delicious quiet in town, where the mail comes three times a day, and the water supply does not depend on a tank on the roof.

And then -- the madness seized me. When I look back over the months I spent at Sunnyside, I wonder that I survived at all. As it is, I show the wear and tear of my harrowing experiences. I have turned very gray -- Liddy reminded me of it, only yesterday, by saying that a little bluing in the rinse-water would make my hair silvery, instead of a yellowish white. I hate to be reminded of unpleasant things and I snapped her off. "No," I said sharply, "I'm not going to use bluing at my time of life, or starch, either."

My Take

I think I may have bought this quite cheaply, seeing an opportunity to do a bit of "vintage" reading. It has been on my kindle for a few months only.

At the beginning of this e-book version of THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE there is a biographical introduction to the life and works of Mary Roberts Rinehart. Here is an extract:

This book is credited with having been the first mystery to use the "Had I But Known" formula. This style of mystery centers around the protagonist withholding important details until it is too late. Often this variety of tale is narrated as a flashback from the protagonist's point of view. They will withhold the special damning piece of information from the reader as well, only revealing it after the climactic moment involving the secret clue. When done well, the technique can create real suspense for the reader.

I found myself remembering the phrase "Had I But Known " because once you know this was a feature of Rinehart's style, then it is certainly there.

There is an almost Gothic quality to the plot lines and setting of THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE. The story is narrated by Rachel Innes, who doesn't always understand the implications of what she has observed. There are two deaths, ghostly rappings emanating from the walls and ceilings, and as the novel progresses the plot strands get increasingly complex, as if the characters have got away from the author. In fact one part of the plot resolution gives the impression of having been plucked from the air. The central plot appears to relate to the stock market crash of 1903.

My rating: 3.9

About the author

Mary Roberts Rinehart 1876-1958 was a writer of detective stories and mysteries who was billed as the American Agatha Christie. She wrote over sixty popular mysteries and is credited with the creation of the "Had I But Known" school of mystery writing. She is also credited as the source of the phrase "The butler did it," though she never actually used it in her writing.

Her first novel, The Man in the Lower Ten (1906) and then in 1907, The Circular Staircase, are the earliest American novels that are still in print today as forms of entertainment rather than as "classic" works of literature. The Circular Staircase brought Rinehart national fame and prosperity. The book sold over a million copies and allowed the Rineharts more financial breathing room.

More details on Wikipedia

Review: DEATH-WATCH, John Dickson-Carr

• format e-book (Kindle) supplied by NetGalley by the Hatchette Group.
•  ISBN 9781480472372
• originally published 1935.  This e-book version published 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media
• available from Amazon - read a few pages through this link
• #5 in the Gideon Fell series
• author aka John Dickson

Synopsis (NetGalley)

John Dickson Carr, a master of the Golden Age British-style mystery novel, presents Dr. Gideon Fell’s most chilling case, in which a clock-obsessed killer terrorizes London

A clockmaker is puzzled by the theft of the hands of a monumental new timepiece he is preparing for a member of the nobility. That night, one of the stolen hands is found buried between a policeman’s shoulder blades, stopping his clock for all time.

The crime is just peculiar enough to catch the attention of Dr. Gideon Fell, the portly detective whose formidable intellect is the terror of every criminal in London. Working closely with Scotland Yard, he finds that the case turns on the question of why the clock hands were stolen. And learning the answer will put Dr. Fell squarely in the path of a madman with nothing but time on his hands.

from Amazon
For Dr Gideon Fell this is the only case that has ever really frightened him, and before he can solve it he must find answers to some seemingly impossible questions: why was Calvin Boscombe standing near the corpse with a silencer on his gun? Who locked the attic door? And what has become of the sixteenth-century death-watch?

My Take

A number of the Gideon Fell titles have been released recently as e-books with a collective title THE MURDER ROOM.

DEATH-WATCH has the reputation of a classic of Golden Age crime fiction. In some ways it's main protagonist Dr Gideon Fell reminded me of detectives who went before and those who came after. He has a reputation for his great powers of deduction as did Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. And the similarities don't end there - there is the companion/observer Melson who compares favourably with Dr. Watson and Captain Hastings, and the policeman/foil Hadley who serves to demonstrate the superiority of Fell's deductive powers.

The plot is very complex and convoluted with a number of red herrings. At one stage Hadley is ready to make an arrest for the two murders that have taken place, but Fell manages to prove to him that he has been cunningly led to his conclusions by the real murderer. I think the complicatedness of the plot gives the reader a greater appreciation of the pared down simplicity of Agatha Christie's novels.Add to this some of the absurdity of detail: why use the gilt covered big hand of a clock as your weapon?; the meaning of why there is a sliver rather than a patch of light; a multiplicity of skylights, staircases, and sliding panels - just to identify a few.

To be honest, this title is not going to send me rushing to find another, but students of Golden Age crime fiction will appreciate that these out-of-print titles are being made available for modern readers.
I was interested in reading this for my participation in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2014. 

My Rating: 4.0

Biographical Notes  (Hatchette UK)

John Dickson Carr, the master of the locked-room mystery, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the son of a US Congressman. He studied law in Paris before settling in England where he married an Englishwoman, and he spent most of his writing career living in Great Britain. 

Widely regarded as one of the greatest Golden Age mystery writers, his work featured apparently impossible crimes often with seemingly supernatural elements. He modelled his affable and eccentric series detective Gideon Fell on G. K. Chesterton, and wrote a number of novels and short stories, including his series featuring Henry Merrivale, under the pseudonym Carter Dickson. 

He was one of only two Americans admitted to the British Detection club, and was highly praised by other mystery writers. Dorothy L. Sayers said of him that 'he can create atmosphere with an adjective, alarm with allusion, or delight with a rollicking absurdity'. 

In 1950 he was awarded the first of two prestigious Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, and was presented with their Grand Master Award in 1963. He died in Greenville, South Carolina in 1977.

Review: LIFE OR DEATH, Michael Robotham

• review copy courtesy publisher Hatchette Australia on Net Galley
• Available for pre-order from Amazon
• ISBN: 9780751552898
• Publication date: 29 Jul 2014 (Australia), 12 Aug 2014 (US)
• Page count: 464

Synopsis (Net Galley)

Why would a man escape from prison the day before he's due to be released?

Audie Palmer has spent a decade in prison for an armed robbery in which four people died, including two of the gang. Seven million dollars has never been recovered and everybody believes that Audie knows where the money is.

For ten years he has been beaten, stabbed, throttled and threatened almost daily by prison guards, inmates and criminal gangs, who all want to answer this same question, but suddenly Audie vanishes, the day before he's due to be released.

Everybody wants to find Audie, but he's not running. Instead he's trying to save a life . . . and not just his own.

My Take

Australian author Michael Robotham, already acclaimed both in Australia and internationally, takes a different direction in this novel: not the next in his Ruiz and O'Loughlin series set in Britain, but a stand-alone set in Texas. For me it shows another step, a necessary one, for Robotham in his development as a novelist. And one that I think will be popular with American readers.

Audie Palmer is a survivor - first of all from a gunshot that shattered his cranium, and then a decade where every other inmate in the prison seemed to want to be the one who killed Audie Palmer. As the day for his release looms Audie knows he is not going to make it to freedom alive.

The story is told from Audie's point of view, but in the third person, and we gradually piece together Audie's life before the armed robbery, and then his part in the robbery. We understand what has kept him going for a decade and why he escapes the day before his release date. But will he survive on the run as he tries to put the record straight?

There is a cinematographic quality to this story and I would not be surprised to find it optioned for a film.

LIFE OR DEATH puts Robotham right up there with modern crime fiction writers. It is a tightly plotted thriller with a roller coaster of suspense. It has made it  into my top 5 reads for this year.

My rating: 5.0

I've also reviewed
BOMBPROOF
SHATTER
SHATTER (audio)
BLEED FOR ME
5.0, THE WRECKAGE
4.8, SAY YOU'RE SORRY
5.0, WATCHING YOU
4.8, IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU (edit)  

Review: FINAL CURTAIN, Ed Ifkovic

• Format: e-book (Kindle)
  
• review copy from publisher via NetGalley
• File Size: 1288 KB
• Print Length: 268 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (June 5, 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00KTCTXHK
• #5 in the Edna Ferber series 

Synopsis (Publisher)

Who murdered the handsome young actor? And why?

In 1940, against the chilling backdrop of Hitler’s rise and the specter of another war, Edna Ferber decides to follow an old dream: to act on the stage. Selecting The Royal Family, the comedy she wrote with George S. Kaufman, for her starring role, she travels to Maplewood, New Jersey. But her escape from the troubling daily headlines is short lived. Before opening night, a mysterious understudy is shot to death, opening up a world of lies, greed, and hypocrisy.

Ferber, along with Kaufman, who is directing the production, begin a different kind of collaboration: the discovery of the murderer. As rehearsals evolve, they deal with a cast of characters who are all hiding something from their days spent in Hollywood: a stage manager, a young ingénue, an American Nazi and his boisterous girlfriend, a stagehand named Dakota who is the son of a famous evangelist, his charismatic preacher-mother, her money-bags husband, and a driven acolyte of the church. Each character, Edna discovers, has some connection with the dead man. Why have they all converged on quiet Maplewood? As Edna investigates, she realizes that the answer to the murder lies back in Hollywood.

As Kaufman wisecracks his way through the story, Edna methodically examines the facts, determined to find the answer. Opening night looms and so does World War II. Edna, resolute, believes that justice needs to prevail in a world that is falling apart.

Background material (Wikipedia)

Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).

She also wrote

• Minick: A Play (1924) (play, with G. S. Kaufman)
• Stage Door (1926) (play, with G.S. Kaufman)
• The Royal Family (1927) (play, with G. S. Kaufman)

FINAL CURTAIN is #5 in the author's Edna Furber series. - check Publisher Poisoned Press.
The others are
#1. LONE STAR: Writer Edna Ferber arrives on the set of Giant to find her self in the middle of a murder investigation. Set in 1952.
#2. ESCAPE ARTIST: 19 year old reporter Edna Ferber interviews Harry Houdini.Set in 1904.
#3. MAKE BELIEVE: in June 1951 Edna Ferber heads to Hollywood to support an old friend who has found himself blacklisted as a result of the McCarthy hearings.
#4. DOWNTOWN STRUT; Manhattan 1927: Edna Ferber prepares for "the Ferber season on Broadway." On December 27, the musical adaptation of Show Boat by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern opens. On December 28, The Royal Family, her comedy of manners written with George Kaufman, hits the stage despite Ethel Barrymore’s disapproval of the play’s depiction of “theatrical royalty.” But despite the excitement, Edna misses both opening nights. She has something else on her mind—murder.

My Take

I've included the background material above in my review because it indicates the search I did to understand the background to this novel. My curiosity was pricked by the foreword to the review copy provided by Barbara Peters, Editor-in-Chief, Poisoned Pen Press.

Initially the name Edna Ferber meant nothing to me, but then discovered that I knew at least about ShowBoat. However I don't think I have ever read any of her novels or short stories. That may be because I am not an American resident, and so her work has never been part of any course reading I have done either at school or university.

I really am of two minds when a contemporary writer hitches his star to that of a "great". However I have tried to be as objective as I can be about FINAL CURTAIN, even though it attempts to bring both Edna Furber and G.S. Kaufman to life. I have no means of deciding how accurate these depictions are.

On its own, FINAL CURTAIN, is quite an intriguing plot. Edna Furber is delighted with the opportunity to go on stage, but from the very beginning there is a murder and intrigue. There is a focus on the Nazi element in the USA in 1940 which adds period authenticity. Furber and Kaufman are Jews. There is a second murder and Furber's investigation intensifies.

I think the author has taken great care with the style of these novels, to try to capture the style of how Edna Furber wrote - did I mention that the novel is presented in the first person?
 
My rating: 4.3

If you want to understand why I've used the graphic to the right, you might want to check this post.

Review: DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY, Donna Leon

• # 2/23 in the Guido Brunetti series
  
• first published in 1993, republished in 2004 and 2009
• ISBN 978-0-0995-3659-8
• 373 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

The second novel to feature Guido Brunetti, Commissario of the Venice Police. Brunetti confronts the grisly sight of the body of an American soldier in a canal. He becomes suspicious and discovers toxic waste-dumping and a high-level cover-up that extends from the Mafia to the US Army.

My Take

I was delighted to find a Brunetti novel that I hadn't read. Very early in this long standing series, the author is just establishing the characters of Guido Brunetti and his wife Paola. Their children are in their early teens. Vice-Questore Patta tries in vain to mould Brunetti, and Signora Elektra, Patta's computer literate assistant is yet to come on the scene. For those who have visited Venice there are evocative descriptions.

Already too there are signs of Donna Leon's intense interest in corruption in high places, and the roles that both Italy and America are playing in global waste and pollution.

Not to be missed. If you haven't yet read any Donna Leon, this is a series you shouldn't miss - one certainly worth reading in order.

My rating: 4.6


I've also reviewed
ABOUT FACE
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
4.4, A QUESTION OF BELIEF
4.5, BEASTLY THINGS
4.4, QUIETLY IN THEIR SLEEP
3.9, THE JEWELS OF PARADISE
4.8, DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Guido Brunetti
1. Death At La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994)
     aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995)
     aka Death And Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996)
     aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997)
     aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1998)
9. Friends in High Places (1999)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)
19. A Question of Belief (2010)
20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)
21. Beastly Things (2012)
22. The Golden Egg (2013)
23. By Its Cover (2014)

Review: HUNTING SHADOWS, Charles Todd - audio book

• Narrated by: Simon Prebble
• Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
• Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge, Book 16
• published  in 2014
• Format: Unabridged 

Synopsis (Audible.com)

A dangerous case with ties leading back to the battlefields of World War I dredges up dark memories for Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge in Hunting Shadows, a gripping and atmospheric historical mystery set in 1920s England, from acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Charles Todd.

A society wedding at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire becomes a crime scene when a man is murdered. After another body is found, the baffled local constabulary turns to Scotland Yard. Though the second crime had a witness, her description of the killer is so strange it's unbelievable.

Despite his experience, Inspector Ian Rutledge has few answers of his own. The victims are so different that there is no rhyme or reason to their deaths. Nothing logically seems to connect them - except the killer. As the investigation widens, a clear suspect emerges. But for Rutledge, the facts still don't add up, leaving him to question his own judgment.

In going over the details of the case, Rutledge is reminded of a dark episode he witnessed in the war. While the memory could lead him to the truth, it also raises a prickly dilemma. To stop a murderer, will the ethical detective choose to follow the letter - or the spirit - of the law?

My Take

It is a couple of years since I've caught up with this series, despite the best intentions of reading them all. HUNTING SHADOWS makes me want to read more.

However Ian Rutledge hasn't moved on very far in that time. The setting is 1920, he is still working on demand out of Scotland Yard, and still suffering from post-war stress. World War One is still raw in the memories of rural England, where so many young lads went off to war and either did not return or came back maimed in body and soul.

Rutledge comes from London to the Fens to solve a murder at Ely Cathedral. The expectation both by his boss in London and the local Inspector in charge is that it won't take long. On the face of it there are no connections between the first murder and the second, nor with the shooting that follows. But of course there are connections as Rutledge will eventually ferret out.

The plots in this series are so well constructed, and there is enough of Rutledge's continuing story to maintain the reader's interest too. There is a post-war flavour that comes out well, and some interesting characters and occupations, some of which no longer exist.

My rating: 4.7

I've also reviewed
SEARCH THE DARK
A PALE HORSE
A TEST OF WILLS
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD(A Bess Crawford novel)
4.7, A LONELY DEATH  

Review: VISITATION STREET, Ivy Pochoda

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 602 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sceptre (July 18, 2013)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00BQDC7MO

Synopsis (Amazon)

Summer in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a blue collar neighbourhood where hipster gourmet supermarkets push against tired housing projects, and the East River opens into the bay. Bored and listless, fifteen-year-old June and Val are looking for some fun. Forget the boys, the bottles, the coded whistles. Val wants to do something wild and a little crazy: take a raft out onto the bay.

But out on the water, as the bright light of day gives way to darkness, the girls disappear. Only Val will survive, washed ashore semi-conscious in the weeds.

June's shocking disappearance will reverberate in the lives of a diverse cast of Red Hook residents. Fadi, the Lebanese bodega owner, trolls for information about the crime. Cree, just beginning to pull it together after his father's murder, unwittingly makes himself the chief suspect - although an elusive guardian seems to have other plans for him. As Val emerges from the shadow of her missing friend, her teacher Jonathan, Juilliard drop-out and barfly, will be forced to confront a past riddled with tragic sins of omission.

In VISITATION STREET, Ivy Pochoda combines intensely vivid prose with breathtaking psychological insight to explore a cast of solitary souls, pulled by family, love, and betrayal, who yearn for a chance to escape, no matter the cost.

My Take

First of all I'm going to say this is not really crime fiction although crimes are committed in the novel's background. It is more an exploration of how one girl copes with the disappearance of her friend, of what makes up the community of Red Hook on the waterfront in Brooklyn, of how residents work to create community cohesiveness, and the lengths that someone will go to to pay a debt.

Ivy Pochoda creates a vision of a community that is haunted by the ghosts of the past. Sometimes the voices of the past reach out and keep the people of the present anchored there.
There was a passage that I particularly liked:

He understands what keeps Gloria in Red Hook. It’s not what is here now, but what was here back when—the history being buffed and polished away in the longshoreman’s bar. 

As he crosses from this abandoned corner of the waterside back over to the Houses he becomes aware of the layers that form the Hook—the projects built over the frame houses, the pavement laid over the cobblestones, the lofts overtaking the factories, the grocery stores overlapping the warehouses. 

The new bars cannibalizing the old ones. The skeletons of forgotten buildings—the sugar refinery and the dry dock—surviving among the new concrete bunkers being passed off as luxury living. The living walking on top of the dead—the waterfront dead, the old mob dead, the drug war dead—everyone still there. 

A neighborhood of ghosts. It’s not such a bad place, Cree thinks, if you look under the surface, which is where Gloria lives.

Hovering on the horizon is the imminent arrival of the Queen Mary II, promising great things for Red Hook, and in the long run failing to deliver.

This is a book that will provide many engrossing talking points.
My rating: 4.6

 See review on Reactions to Reading

Review: IRREPARABLE HARM, Melissa F. Miller

• Format Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 498 KB
• Print Length: 416 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0983492700
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Brown Street Books (April 19, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004XDACV2
• Source: review copy supplied by publisher/author
• Setting: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Synopsis (Amazon)

After eight long years, attorney Sasha McCandless is about to make partner at a prestigious law firm. All she has to do is keep her head down and her billable hours up.

When a plane operated by her client slams into the side of a mountain, killing everyone aboard, Sasha gears up to defend the inevitable civil lawsuits.  She soon realizes the crash was no accident: a developer has created an application that can control a commercial plane's onboard computer from a smartphone.  

Sasha joins forces with a federal air marshal, and they race to prevent another airline disaster. But when people close to the matter start turning up dead, Sasha must rely on both her legal skills and her Krav Maga training to stop the madman before he kills her.  

My take

We are in no doubt about who or what caused the crash of Hemisphere Air Flight 1667 for we are there when Angelo Calvaruso hits SEND on his smart phone. But who is behind it, and what does he/they hope to get out of it?

The race to avert another disaster is nicely paced, and and I enjoyed the tight plotting. An excellent read - I'm just sorry it took me a while to get around toreading it.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed DARK BLOOMS

Review: MRS POLLIFAX AND THE LION KILLER, Dorothy Gilman - audio book

• originally published in 1996, #12 in the Mrs Pollifax series
• available from Audible
• narrated by Barbara Rosenblat
• Length: 6 hours, 16 mins

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Part-time CIA agent Emily Pollifax accompanies her young friend, Kadi Hopkirk, to Africa on a mission to stop terrorists from disrupting the coronation of Sammat, Kadi's childhood friend, as the new king of Ubangiba.

My Take

Beneath the rather cozy exterior of this story are some quite serious considerations related to issues surrounding small African nations trying to establish their place in world affairs, and viable lives for their citizens, in the late 20th century.

Kadi Hopkirk is a reminder of the violent past of the improbably named Ubangiba for she is the daughter of white American doctors killed during a revolution. Sammat on the other hand is the overseas educated grandson of the old king. He once imagined that he could set up a democracy but finds that he is actually king-to-be.

The country of Ubangiba has been impoverished by megolomaniac rulers since Sammat's grandfather was assassinated and even now there is a group murdering people but making it look as if they have been killed by a lion. But there are no lions in Ubangiba. We are talking here of a population that still believes in witchcraft.

On the surface Emily Pollifax is an elderly woman, but, some years before, at the age of 60 she became a part time CIA agent, and she has rather Marple like qualities of observation.  Soon after their arrival young Kadi is attacked in the palace grounds, and, having survived that attack, she is abducted. Mrs Pollifax thinks king-designate Sammat is altogether too trusting of those around him.

My rating: 4.2

I have also reviewed #13,  4.0, MRS POLLIFAX, INNOCENT TOURIST

About the author
Dorothy Edith Gilman (June 25, 1923 – February 2, 2012) was an American espionage and mystery fiction writer. She was best known for the Mrs. Pollifax series. Emily Pollifax, her heroine, became a spy in her 60s and is very likely the only spy in literature to belong simultaneously to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the local garden club.

In 2010 Dorothy Gilman was awarded the annual Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.
She died in New York of Alzheimer's disease in 2012, aged 88.
More at Wikipedia.

Review: THE BIG SLEEP, Raymond Chandler

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 311 KB
• Print Length: 177 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1604445181
• Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (July 7, 2005)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002RI9AH2
• originally published 1939

Synopsis (Amazon)

The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler's most famous and popular novel of all

Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse . . .

My Take

It is probably highly improper for a crime fiction addict to admit in public that she has never read any Raymond Chandler, or at least I don't think I have. Of course, I have heard of Philip Marlowe, the P.I. that Chandler created, the model for many P.Is for future generations of writers.

And so why hadn't I read THE BIG SLEEP before now? Probably because American noir has not really been my genre of choice, because I mainly read British, Australian, and translated crime fiction.

I can see how the gun-packing Marlowe is very different to sleuths created in Europe at approximately the same time. Poirot, Marple, and Maigret are altogether more cerebral with blood and guns rarely sighted. Many modern American sleuths are really just more modern versions of Marlowe, solving more modern murders.

To be quite honest though, I didn't find THE BIG SLEEP as captivating as I had expected. It felt a bit dated, although Chandler is a good model for characterisation and descriptive prose. It probably still should be regarded as essential reading for crime fiction students, especially those who are interested in the history of the genre. But then again I have managed pretty well without, haven't I?

My rating: 4.2


Philip Marlowe (Fantastic Fiction)
1. The Big Sleep (1939)
2. Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
3. The High Window (1942)
4. The Lady in the Lake (1943)
5. The Little Sister (1949)
6. The Long Goodbye (1953)
7. Playback (1958)
8. Poodle Springs (1989) (with Robert B Parker)
The Simple Art of Murder (1950)

Review: A COLD DAY FOR MURDER, Dana Stabenow - audio book

• #1 in the Kate Shugak series
• this edition from Audible
• originally print published 1992
• audio version 2011
• unabridged
• narrator Marguerite Gavin
• length 5 hours 31 mins

Synopsis (Audible)

Eighteen months ago, Aleut Kate Shugak quit her job investigating sex crimes for the Anchorage DA’s office and retreated to her father’s homestead in a national park in the interior of Alaska. But the world has a way of beating a path to her door, however remote. In the middle of one of the bitterest Decembers in recent memory ex-boss — and ex-lover — Jack Morgan shows up with an FBI agent in tow. A Park ranger with powerful relatives is missing, and now the investigator Jack sent in to look for him is missing, too.

Reluctantly, Kate, along with Mutt, her half-wolf, half-husky sidekick, leaves her wilderness refuge to follow a frozen trail through the Park, twenty thousand square miles of mountain and tundra sparsely populated with hunters, fishermen, trappers, mushers, pilots and homesteaders. Her formidable grandmother and Native chief, Ekaterina Shugak, is — for reasons of her own — against Kate’s investigation; her cousin, Martin, may be Kate’s prime suspect; and the local trooper, Jim Chopin, is more interested in Kate than in her investigation. In the end, the sanctuary she sought after five and a half years in the urban jungles may prove more lethal than anything she left behind in the city streets of Anchorage.

My Take

I haven't read many crime fiction novels set in Alaska. Similarly while I have heard of Dana Stabenow I have never read one of her books. A COLD DAY FOR MURDER is the first in her Kate Shugak series of which there are now 20, the latest published just this year. See Fantastic Fiction.

I think I solved the mystery of what had happened to the two missing people, and who was responsible, about half way through the novel, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment. The characters are well drawn and the plight of the Alaskan Aleuts trying to make their way in a "modern" world is well described. As is the concern of the elders to preserve the old ways and their wish to keep the young people from leaving.

So if you are ready for a new series, maybe this is the one for you. I read it as part of my reading for the USA Fiction Challenge.

My rating: 4.2

About the author

Dana Stabenow was born in Anchorage, Alaska on March 27, 1952, and raised on a 75-foot fish tender in the Gulf of Alaska.  Read more

Learn more about Kate Shugak on the author's website.

People have made a start...

State by State in 2014

A number of people have already joined up to the USA Fiction Reading Challenge and quite a number of reviews have been recorded.

Ever thought you would like to read your way across America?
The USA Fiction Challenge asks you to do just that.
Read just one novel from each state - you choose whether the link is the setting or the author.
You choose whether you confine yourself to a particular genre or not.

The challenge has its own blog site:
USA Fiction Challenge - state by state in 2014
 
I decided to include books that I have read this year that are either set in the USA or the author either resides/works in an American State or was born in the USA. My books will most probably be all crime fiction, simply because I rarely read outside the genre. But yours might be a much broader selection.

I have created a page on my blog for keeping track of my reading in a state by state list, and I have also created a map showing the states I have "visited". Here is what it currently looks like.


create your own personalized map of the USA

So why not join us? No pressure to read all 50+ books and on the site there are some suggested mini-challenges with groups of states such as MidWest, Northeast or South Atlantic.

Take as long as you like too. Although the blurb says "state by state in 2014" you can start now and and continue for as long as you are still interested.

Sign up here.

Launching a new USA Fiction Challenge - State by State in 2014

Ever thought you would like to read your way across America?

The USA Fiction Challenge asks you to do just that.

Read just one novel from each state - you choose whether the link is the setting or the author.

You choose whether you confine yourself to a particular genre or not.

Join the challenge using the Mr Linky provided on the site.

I'll be focussing my reading, as far as I can, on crime fiction titles.

This challenge is being managed by me and Col Keane from COL'S CRIMINAL LIBRARY.

We originally meant the challenge to run for the calendar year 2014, but there is really no reason why you can't sign up and get started now.
With 51 states trying to complete the challenge in 12 or 14 months will be some undertaking, and so you may prefer to regard it as an ongoing challenge to be completed when, and if, you can.

I have created a separate page for keeping my own challenge record, if you want to check how I'm going to do it.
I've decided to "backdate" my efforts to include the US books I've read this year.