Review: VALLEY OF THE LOST, Vicki Delany

Poisoned Pen Press, February 2009, ISBN 978-1-59058-596-2, 291 pages

After a long and hectic day at the Trafalgar Women's Support Center Lucky Smith is savouring the peace of the quiet valley town. That's when she hears the soft cry and discovers baby Miller in the bushes alongside his dead mother. The call to police emergency goes to Lucky's daughter Moonlight, Probationary Constable Molly Smith.

The police autopsy concludes that the dead woman Ashley has died from a heroin overdose, that at some stage, not recently, she had been a regular user, but the restraint marks on her wrists and ankles cast suspicion on the manner of her death.

Lucky Smith decides to take the baby home with her until his family can be located. This act in itself causes tension in the Smith household. And then Lucky resists attempts by the representative of the Child and Youth Services, a recent arrival in the town, to take him into care.

VALLEY OF THE LOST surprised me with the complexity of its well teased out plot and interesting characters. It is the second in what the blurb calls "a traditional mystery series" featuring Molly Smith, her boss Sergeant Winters, and the town in the shadow of the glacier, Trafalgar, British Columbia. I actually feel very priveleged to have read this in ARC format.

My rating: 4.3

• Read an excerpt from the first chapter
• Vicki's website
• Vicki blogs on Fridays at Type M for Murder

Promotional trailer


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Books to look for by Vicki Delany
IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLACIER, 2007
BURDEN OF MEMORY, 2006
SCARE THE LIGHT AWAY, 2005
WHITEOUT, 2001 - recently re-released, and an Eppie Award winner in 2001

Coming in 2009:
GOLD DIGGER - A KLONDIKE MYSTERY

Review: THE SUITCASE KILLINGS, Miles Tripp

Severn House Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-7278-5297-3, 218 pages.

Nick Hadley-Jones has always landed on his feet. He has been told he is amoral, irresponsible, a womaniser, and even once a psychopath. This time his heavy gambling debts have led to him making a a drug run on the continent, on the understanding that it will wipe out his debt to Tony, the very nasty owner of the Red Slipper nightclub in London.

Nick decides to store the suitcase containing the drugs in the storage room in the basement of his apartment block until Tony gives him delivery instructions. But he never gets to carry out those instructions, as he is shot dead at a wedding reception the next day. Enter John Sansom a private eye engaged by Nick's father to find out why his son was killed.

While the story is interesting enough, THE SUITCASE KILLINGS is marred by loose plotting and minimal character development. Miles Tripp (1923-2000) began writing in 1952 and this is his second to last novel. He wrote 14 other John Sansom titles over a 27 year period, and perhaps I would have enjoyed THE SUITCASE KILLINGS more if I had been familiar with earlier titles.

My rating: 3.6

Miles Tripp wrote also as John Michael Brett, and Michael Brett.
Check out other titles at Fantastic Fiction.

Review: DEAD HEAT, Dick and Felix Francis

Pan Macmillan 2008, ISBN 978-0-330-45482-7, 409 pages

Mass poisoning is every chef's nightmare and a black tie gala dinner at Newmarket on the eve of the 2,000 Guineas a most unlikely occasion. And follow that up with the explosion of a bomb at the races on the day itself.

Max Moreton is the Michelin chef whose reputation is in tatters after the dinner, his Newmarket restaurant is closed, and then many of the clientele for whom he is catering, and one of his staff, are killed in the bomb explosion. Max is determined to find out how the food poisoning occurred, certain that it wasn't his food that caused it. And when things begin to happen as he asks questions, he begins to wonder whether the two events are connected.

DEAD HEAT is good reading, a page turner with a credible chain of events, and background details that tell you it is written by authors who know their stuff: this time long acknowledged master Dick Francis together with his son Felix. Felix's role as researcher and in writing this and other recent novels is acknowledged in the blurb.

I've been reading Dick Francis for decades. He has written forty-one international bestsellers and is widely acclaimed as one of the world's finest thriller writers. His awards include the Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the crime genre, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts University of Boston. In 1996 Dick Francis was made a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement and in 2000 he received a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. For a complete list of books see the list at Fantastic Fiction. My review: SILKS, Dick Francis & Felix Francis

My rating: 4.4

Review: DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, Colin Cotterill

Text Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-921351-41-9, 264 pages

The year is 1977 and Laos is about to sign a big much publicised treaty with Vietnam in just a few days time. Dr Siri Paiboun, Laos' 73 year old rather reluctant coroner, has been summoned to revolutionary headquarters in the north east where the treaty is to be signed because, rather inconveniently, a mummified arm is protruding from a concrete path in the President's compound.

Dr Siri and his assistant Nurse Dtui are normally to be found running the morgue at Mahosot hospital in Vientiane. They have come away leaving their Downs Syndrome assistant Mr Geung in charge of the morgue. Recently Dr Siri has discovered that he hosts the spirit of an ancient Hmong shaman called Yeh Ming. The discovery has helped to explain his ability to communicate with the souls of the departed, but it does mean there are times when Siri has a problem distinguishing the supernatural from reality. On the other hand his supernatural "abilities" often play a far greater role in solving mysteries than his coronial skills do.

DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED is a rather quirky mixture of sleuthing and the supernatural, together with gobbets of Laotian culture and Communist history. Dr Siri's own acceptance of his shamanism means that the Western reader who would perhaps not normally accept this view of the world have no problem in accepting its role. Read more.

This is the third in this delightful but different series, the other two titles being THE CORONER'S LUNCH and THIRTY-THREE TEETH. There is just enough of the back-story from the two earlier novels recounted in DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, although both of the other titles are also worth looking for.

Colin Cotterill's website
Titles to look for in the Dr. Siri series
THE CORONER'S LUNCH (2004)
THIRTY THREE TEETH (2005)
DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED (2006)
ANARCHY & OLD DOGS (2007)

Review of THE CORONER'S LUNCH on It's Criminal

My rating: 4.2

Forgotten Books: Sue Grafton's Alphabet series

Another contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books theme.

I "discovered" Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books in 1993 according to my records, about 10 years after the series started.
Now, 25 years on, there are 20 books in the "alphabet" series, A to T, and fans wonder whether Sue will make it to the end of the alphabet.

If you are new to crime fiction, or you've never read any of these books, then it is not too late to start. You'll find them all readily available. In addition Sue's own site will bring the books to life for you. Do try to read them in order though. I think I have seen them in omnibus editions. Even single copies are not going to break the bank.

Kinsey was born in 1950, but she really hasn't aged like the rest of us (I think she has reached a point where she doesn't age any more) . And around her Sue Grafton has built a "family" of characters, adding human elements to crime fiction scenarios that often reflect events in American society or politics.

In 2008 Sue Grafton won the 2008 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing. Three of Ms Grafton’s novels have won the Anthony Award at the annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention; she has won three Shamus Awards, and in 2004 received the Ross Macdonald Literary Award given to a California writer whose work raises the standard of literary excellence.

Mystery Writers of America (MWA) has announced that James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton will be installed as its 2009 Grand Masters in honor of the Bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe's birth.

You might enjoy this video: Sue Grafton being interviewed by Barbara Peters of Poisoned Pen Press and Bookstore, Arizona, where she talks about the creation of A IS FOR ALIBI. The interview is actually in 6 parts each about 10 minutes long. Once you have watched this one, the other videos will show up.


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Further on Stop You're Killing Me

Review: THE RINGMASTER, Vanda Symon

Penguin New Zealand, 2008, ISBN 978-0-14-300834-7, 308 pages

Sam Shepherd, the central character of Symon's first novel OVERKILL has moved to Dunedin, and from being in charge of a local police station to the bottom rung of detective training. She has just completed a six month trial period, and is now a detective constable. A blot on her immediate landscape though is that her boss in the current murder investigation is her old boss DI Greg Johns and neither of them trust nor like each other.

The current investigation is the murder of a young female post graduate university student, found battered and drowned in the local river. Sam chafes against the lowly jobs that Johns gives her and initiates a case breakthrough when she realises there are connections between this murder and earlier unsolved murders.

Sam's friend Maggie whom we also first met in OVERKILL has also come to Dunedin, and provides the role of support and confidante to Sam. I like the development of both their characters. I'm not sure that the final resolution of the murder that Symon comes up with isn't just a little too far fetched for my liking.

However I do think Vanda Symon is a writer to watch. There is a third novel on the way: CONTAINMENT - you'll find a short extract in the back pages of THE RINGMASTER. So here are a couple of novels to look out for: OVERKILL (2007) and THE RINGMASTER (2008). Do yourself a favour and read them in order.

my rating: 4.4

From Vanda's blog:
When I'm not writing Crime novels I'm busy being a Domestic Goddess and queen of my household in Dunedin. The first in my Sam Shephard detective series, Overkill, was published by Penguin New Zealand in 2007. The Ringmaster was released in August 2008. The German translation of Overkill, Ein Harmloser Mord was published by Blanvalet in October.

Explore Vanda's blog and her website for yourself.

ACRC Update - 3 February 2009

My intent in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge is to read her books in order, so that I can get some idea of what she is doing, problems she is attempting to solve, and her development as a writer. If you look at some of my reviews you will see that I have been able to undertake some of this reflection.

I am mainly borrowing the books from my local library and as such am a bit subject to some outside influences, and as a result may do a little out of order reading.

Check the opening blog of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge here.

1. 1920, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES - finished
   
2. 1922, THE SECRET ADVERSARY- finished
   
3. 1923, THE MURDER ON THE LINKS - finished
   
4. 1924, THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT - finished
   1924, POIROT INVESTIGATES (short stories: eleven in the UK, fourteen in the US) - finished
   
5. 1925, THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS - finished
6. 1926, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD - finished
   
7. 1927, THE BIG FOUR - finished
   
8. 1928, THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN - on reserve at the library
   
9. 1929, THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY - I have a copy of this
10. 1930, THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE
    

I am using the list at Wikipedia of novels and collections of short stories. I will interlace the short story collections into the list where I can, but may have to read them out of order. I have decided on a method for reporting on the short stories.

Please feel free to join in my challenge, comment on my reviews etc.

I have set up a block over in the right hand column called Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (with the same logo as this post) where I am listing the books I'm currently reading and those I've finished.
The challenge is called ACRC so each review will be preceded by those letters.

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