Review: PAST TENSE, Margot Kinberg

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 4625 KB
• Print Length: 428 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0997889217
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Grey Cells Press (November 1, 2016)
• Publication Date: November 1, 2016
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B01K3CXVGY
• #3 in the Joel Williams series 

Synopsis  (Amazon)

A long-buried set of remains…a decades-old mystery

Past and present meet on the quiet campus of Tilton University when construction workers unearth a set of unidentified bones.
For former police detective-turned-professor Joel Williams, it’s a typical Final Exams week – until a set of bones is discovered on a construction site...

When the remains are linked to a missing person case from 1974, Williams and the Tilton, Pennsylvania police go back to the past. And they uncover some truths that have been kept hidden for a long time.

How much do people really need to know?

It’s 1974, and twenty-year-old Bryan Roades is swept up in the excitement of the decade. He’s a reporter for the Tilton University newspaper, The Real Story, and is determined to have a career as an investigative journalist, just like his idols, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. He plans to start with an exposé article about life on the campus of Tilton University. But does everything need to be exposed? And what are the consequences for people whose lives could be turned upside down if their stories are printed? As it turns out, Bryan’s ambition carries a very high price. And someone is determined not to let the truth out.

My Take

I thoroughly enjoyed this recently published title in Margot Kinberg's Joel Williams series.

The discovery of a skeleton leads to an investigation into the disappearance of a student 40 years earlier. And then one of the people the student was friendly with is murdered. So the police investigation hovers between the cold case and the present case, with the detectives becoming convinced that the two cases are related.

Once a detective, always a detective. Joel Williams can't help himself. Especially when he is the one who discovers the second body. Bringing a slightly different perspective to the investigation, as well as a good knowledge of the Tilton campus, Williams adds to what the police know and leads eventually to the arrest of a murderer.

I liked the characterisation of the detectives, and the empathy with their relationship. The plotting is tight and the plot threads are well carried through.

Highly recommended.
 
My rating: 4.4

I've also read
PUBLISH OR PERISH
4.5, B - VERY FLAT
4.3, IN A WORD: MURDER  (edit)

Review, SEE ALSO MURDER, Larry D. Sweazy

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 723 KB
• Print Length: 256 pages
• Publisher: Seventh Street Books (May 5, 2015)
• Publication Date: May 5, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00N6PCPX6
• #1 in Marjorie  Trumaine series 
• Author website: www.larrydsweazy.com 

Synopsis (Amazon)

1964—Life on the North Dakota farm hasn’t always been easy for Marjorie Trumaine. She has begun working as a professional indexer to help with the bills—which have only gotten worse since the accident that left her husband, Hank, blind and paralyzed. When her nearest neighbors are murdered in their beds, though, Marjorie suddenly has to deal with new and terrifying problems.

Sheriff Hilo Jenkins brings her a strange amulet, found clutched in the hand of her murdered neighbor, and asks her to quietly find out what it is. Marjorie uses all the skills she has developed as an indexer to research the amulet and look into the murders, but as she closes in on the killer, and people around her continue to die, she realizes that the murderer is also closing in on her.

My take

This novel is a bit like a cozy set in North Dakota, although some truly horrifying murders take place and it really looks like there is a serial killer on the loose.

It probably is important to note the time setting of the book: 1964, and at times I lost sight of that. It does help explain some aspects of the story: the fact that Marjorie's house telephone is a party line, the relative isolation of their farm, the cars they drive, the lack of medical treatment for Hank, and the sort of work Marjorie is doing as an indexer (although I guess there is still work doing that. The author himself is credited with having written indexes for over 800 books).

The thread that binds the plot together and explains the the murders is an interesting one, and I think the author does a good job with local customs and the North Dakota lifestyle.

It kept me reading until the end. One by one the suspects were eliminated, and then at the end there was a good twist which I should have seen coming.

My rating: 4.3


About the author
Larry D. Sweazy (pronounced: Swayzee) is a two-time winner of the WWA (Western Writers of America) Spur award. He won for Best Short Fiction in 2005 for the short story, "The Promotion" and in 2013 for The Coyote Tracker (Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger #5) for Best Original Mass Market Paperback. He was nominated for a SMFS (Short Mystery Fiction Society) Derringer award in 2007. His first novel, The Rattlesnake Season (Josiah Wolfe #1), was a finalist in the Best Books of 2010 Indiana literary competition. His second novel, The Scorpion Trail (Josiah Wolfe #2) won the 2011 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction and the 2011 Best Books of Indiana literary competition in the fiction category. The Scorpion Trail (Josiah Wolfe #2) is the only Western to win the Best Books of Indiana. The Cougar's Prey (Josiah Wolfe #4) won the 2012 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction, making Larry a two-time back-to-back winner of the award. He has published over 60 non-fiction articles and short stories, which have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; Boys' Life; Hardboiled; Amazon Shorts, and several other publications and anthologies. Larry is the author of ten novels, including books in the Josiah Wolfe, Texas Ranger series, the Lucas Fume series (Berkley), a standalone thriller, The Devil's Bones (Five Star), and the Marjorie Trumaine Mystery series (Seventh Street Books). He is member of ITW (International Thriller Writers), MWA (Mystery Writers of America), and WWA (Western Writers of America). He lives in Indiana with his wife, Rose. 

Review: THE GIRL IN GREEN, Derek B. Miller

• source ARC from Scribe Publications
• published 2016
• ISBN 978-1925-106954
• 372 pages
• Source: an ARC paperback

Synopsis (Scribe Publications)

From the author of Norwegian By Night comes a new novel about two men on a misbegotten quest to save the girl they failed to save decades before. 

1991. Near Checkpoint Zulu, one hundred miles from the Kuwaiti border, Thomas Benton meets Arwood Hobbes. Benton is a British journalist who reports from war zones, in part to avoid his lacklustre marriage and a daughter he loves but cannot connect with; Hobbes is a midwestern American private who might be an insufferable ignoramus, or might be a brilliant lunatic with a death wish — it’s hard to tell. Operation Desert Storm is over, peace has been declared, but as they argue about whether it makes sense to cross the nearest border in search of an ice cream, they become embroiled in a horrific attack in which a young local girl in a green dress is shot in the back and dies in Hobbes’s arms. The two men walk away into their respective lives. But something has cracked for them both.

Twenty-two years later, in another place, in another war, the two men meet again. Benton and relief worker Märta Ström are persuaded by a much-changed Hobbes to embark on what may be a fool’s errand in a last-chance effort to redeem themselves when the girl in green is found alive and in need of salvation. Or is she?

Set against the war-torn landscape of a shattered Iraq, The Girl in Green is an adventure story told with all the wit, humanity, and insight of Miller’s acclaimed debut.

My Take

I was fortunate enough to be sent a paper copy of this by the publisher some time back, and then a follower of my blog reminded me that I should read it.

Can I say that I wouldn't really classify this as crime fiction, although crimes are certainly committed in their thousands.

One reviewer has described it as a "moral thriller", and given recent efforts to free Mosul from ISIS, it is certainly a topical read. In 1991 Operation Desert Storm was declared a success and peace was thought to have been achieved. But now 25 years later, a whole generation has grown up in a war-torn landscape. 40 years ago I travelled through Iraq before the war began.

THE GIRL IN GREEN puts the story of the last 25 years into human language, when Arwood Hobbes, an American soldier discharged at the end of Operation Desert Storm, and British journalist Thomas Benton, try to go back into the past. Hobbes in particular wants to wreak his own form of justice.

The events of the book demonstrate in particular how difficult it will be to re-establish peace in the Middle East.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
4.6, NORWEGIAN BY NIGHT

About the author
Derek B. Miller was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and has lived abroad for over fifteen years in Israel, England, Hungary, Switzerland, and Norway. His interest in fiction began a few years after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. Currently, Derek is the director of The Policy Lab and a senior fellow with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. He has a PhD in international relations from the University of Geneva, and an MA in national security studies from Georgetown University, in cooperation with St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. He lives in Oslo with his wife and children.

Review: THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH, Donna Leon

• this edition published 2016
  
• ISBN 978-0-8021-2480-7
• 292 pages
• #25 in the Brunetti series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In The Waters of Eternal Youth, the twenty-fifth instalment in the bestselling Brunetti series, our Commissario finds himself drawn into a case that may not be a crime at all. Brunetti is investigating a cold case by request of the grand Contessa Lando-Continui, a friend of Brunetti's mother-in-law.

Fifteen years ago the Contessa's teenage granddaughter, Manuela, was found drowning in a canal. She was rescued from the canal at the last moment, but in many ways it was too late; she suffered severe brain damage and her life was never the same again.

Once a passionate horse rider, Manuela, now aged thirty, cannot remember the accident, or her beloved horse, and lives trapped in an eternal youth. The Contessa, unconvinced that this was an accident, implores Brunetti to find the culprit she believes was responsible for ruining Manuela's life. Out of a mixture of curiosity, pity and a willingness to fulfil the wishes of a loving grandmother, Brunetti reopens the case. But once he starts to investigate, Brunetti finds a murky past and a dark story at its heart.

The Waters of Eternal Youth is awash in the rhythms and concerns of contemporary Venetian life, from historical preservation, to housing, to new waves of African migrants, all circling the haunting story of a woman trapped in a perpetual childhood.

My Take

Donna Leon is another one of those authors who will always have a place on my reading lists. Sadly I don't always manage to keep up with her virtually annual publications.

At first glance THE WATERS OF ETERNAL YOUTH appears to be a departure from usual Brunetti cases, in that the initial case that Brunetti investigates is a cold case. He does it as a favour to a friend of his mother-in-law who wants to be reassured that she has done all that she can to find out what happened to her granddaughter who was nearly drowned 15 years earlier.

The title has ironic overtones but I'll leave you to work that out for yourself. Brunetti's investigation gets official sanction when he slyly suggests to Vice-Questore Patta that some social doors will open for his wife as a result.

However Brunetti sets a ball rolling when he contacts the man who rescued Manuela from the canal 15 years earlier. Brunetti also discovers that there were elements in the original medical report that should have sparked further investigation. There is a murder with just enough DNA evidence  to identify the murderer if the police could establish a match, but there is no-one on their records. Identification of the culprit comes from a chance meeting, but there were a couple of coincidences that the author let slip which enabled me to identify the murderer one step ahead of Brunetti.

And in the background? Some references to Venice's current problems. A satisfying read.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
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
4.6, DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY
4.7, BY ITS COVER
4.5, THE GOLDEN GOOSE

Review: DYING FOR A TASTE, Leslie Karst

• source: review copy from Netgalley
• File Size: 1029 KB
• Print Length: 306 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1629535974
• Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (April 12, 2016)
• Publication Date: April 12, 2016
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B01CSWPE5I
• Available from Amazon for Kindle

Synopsis (Net Galley)
After losing her mother to cancer, Sally Solari quits her job as an attorney to help her dad run his old-style Italian eatery in Santa Cruz, California. But managing the front of the house is far from her dream job.

Then in a sudden twist her Aunt Letta is found murdered in her own restaurant, and Sally is the only one who can keep the place running. But when her sous chef is accused of the crime, and she finds herself suddenly short-staffed, Sally must delve into the world of sustainable farming—not to mention a few family secrets--to help him clear his name and catch the true culprit before her timer runs out.

Leslie Karst serves a platter of intrigue in her stirring and satisfying debut Dying for a Taste, which is sure to become a new favorite of food mystery fans. 

My take

There is a lot about her Aunt Letta that Sally Solari doesn't know, in fact they weren't even really all that close, and it comes a great surprise to her when she inherits her aunt's restaurant. Aunt Letta's murder was quite vicious, but surely no-one hated her that much? And then Sally finds evidence that Letta had been being threatened. She is galvanised into action when, in the absence of any other suspects, the police arrest the head cook of her new restaurant.

Towards the end I felt that there were actually too many suspects and that blurred the plot lines a bit. Ultimately though quite a satisfying read, with a few recipes in the final pages to stimulate your culinary juices.

My rating: 4.2

About the author
Originally from Southern California, Leslie Karst moved north to attend UC Santa Cruz (home of the Fighting Banana Slugs), and after graduation, parlayed her degree in English literature into employment waiting tables and singing in a new wave rock and roll band. Exciting though this life was, she eventually decided she was ready for a "real" job, and ended up at Stanford Law School.

For the next twenty years Leslie worked as the research and appellate attorney for Santa Cruz's largest civil law firm. During this time, she discovered a passion for food and cooking, and so once more returned to school--this time to earn a degree in Culinary Arts.

Now retired from the law, Leslie spends her time cooking, singing alto in the local community chorus, gardening, cycling, and of course writing. She and her wife and their Jack Russell mix, Ziggy, split their time between Santa Cruz and Hilo, Hawai'i.

Review: THE BITTER SEASON, Tami Hoag

• this edition published 2016
  
• source: my local library
• ISBN 978-0-525-95455-2
• 408 pages
• Kovac/Liska #6
• author website includes an excerpt and some discussion questions

Synopsis (author website)

A murder from the past. A murder from the present. And a life that was never meant to be…

As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless. After moving to the cold case squad in order to spend more time with her sons, she misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter, the sense of urgency of hunting a murderer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki’s absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of Sam’s wardrobe. Sam is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Nikki’s case, the unsolved murder of a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective for the Minneapolis PD, is less of a distraction: Twenty years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away.

On the other end of the spectrum, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster homes: a beautiful home, a family, people who love her, a fulfilling job. Little does she know that a danger from her past is stalking her perfect present. A danger powerful enough to pull in both Kovac and Liska and destroy the perfect life she was never meant to have.

My Take

We have become used to multi-stranded police procedurals, but with its 3 strands THE BITTER SEASON is just a bit different. Hoag manages to keep the mystery of their convergence alive until almost the very end.

There is another plot line too: Detective Nikki Liska has recently moved into Cold Cases, thinking it will be more of a 9 to 5 job and that she will have more family time with her teenage sons. But she is not sure she has done the right thing - she misses the adrenalin surge of the homicide investigation, as well as her friends in that squad. And to top it all, her first cold case is nearly twenty five years old and focusses on the murder of a high profile cop. There is resentment from a retired cop that she has been given a case that has almost been his life work.

The tension in the second half of the story was very well done.
A good read.
.
My rating: 4.5

 

Kovac / Liska series (list from Fantastic Fiction)
1. Ashes to Ashes (1999)
2. Dust to Dust (2000)
3. Prior Bad Acts (2006)
     aka Dead Sky
3.5. The 1st Victim (2013)
4. The 9th Girl (2013)
5. Cold, Cold Heart (2014)
6. The Bitter Season (2016)

 

Review: THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS, Erle Stanley Gardner

• format Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 544 KB
• Print Length: 261 pages
• Publisher: Della Street Press (September 27, 2011)
  first published 1933
• Publication Date: September 27, 2011
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005QE7XPK
• #1 in the Perry Mason series 

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Thanks to a bungled robbery at a fancy hotel, the already-married Eva Griffin has been caught in the company of a prominent congressman. To protect the politico, Eva's ready to pay the editor of a sleazy tabloid his hush money. But Perry Mason has other plans. He tracks down the phantom fat cat who secretly runs the blackmailing tabloid -- only to discover a shocking scoop.

By the time Mason's comely client finally comes clean, her husband has taken a bullet in the heart. Now Perry Mason has two choices: represent the cunning widow in her wrangle for the dead man's money -- or take the rap for murder.

My take

Unlike many others in the Perry Mason series, this novel is not centred on a court room drama, but it does introduce the characters who featured in most other novels in the series: his secretary Della Street, a young woman at this time, and obviously in love with her boss; and private eye Paul Drake who hunts down the facts to back up Perry Mason's quirky theories.

It was hard not to see, in my mind's eye, the bulky Raymond Burr who played Perry Mason in the long running television series. And yet, somehow, the central character in this novel does not quite match that tv character.

I can see why, even over 80 years on, why this novel was a winner with readers. The characters are well drawn, the action fast-paced and the plot is full of unexpected twists and turns. Perry Mason points out to his client. who constantly lies to him, that he is hardly a novice. He already has files from hundreds of previous cases in his filing cabinets, and he expects to have many more. He specialises in getting people out of holes. Most of the cases he has been involved in are murder cases, and mostly he gets people off. So here is a lawyer who takes on clients regardless of how much they can pay for his services. See more at Wikipedia.

THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS was made into a film in 1936. 


A good read.

My rating:  4.4

About the author

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) is a prolific American author best known for his works centered on the lawyer-detective Perry Mason. At the time of his death in March of 1970, in Ventura, California, Gardner was "the most widely read of all American writers" and "the most widely translated author in the world," according to social historian Russell Nye. The first Perry Mason novel, The Case of The Velvet Claws, published in 1933, had sold twenty-eight million copies in its first fifteen years. In the mid-1950s, the Perry Mason novels were selling at the rate of twenty thousand copies a day. There have been six motion pictures based on his work and the hugely popular Perry Mason television series starring Raymond Burr, which aired for nine years and 271 episodes. 

Review: THE UNFUR-TUNATE VALENTINE'S SCAM, Alannah Rogers

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 329 KB
• Print Length: 94 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publication Date: January 21, 2016
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0192DPPBO
• source: review copy from author 

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Abigail Freedman, Beatrice Young's sworn rival, approaches her with a case she's too curious not to take it on. As it turns out, Abby has a very modern romantic conundrum: her Internet boyfriend may be the love of her life ... or a scammer who wants to suck her bank account dry.

It's up to the 62-year-old Cozy Cat Cafe owner and her three crime-solving cats to find this Romeo's identity. Too bad Hamish, Petunia, and Lucky can't help Bee with an even bigger problem: how to sort out her new feelings for ex-husband and best friend Matthew.

No matter what happens, things are about to get romantic in Ashbrook, New Hampshire...

This book will be 50% longer than previous Beatrice Young mysteries.

The Unfur-tunate Valentine's Scam is the sixth book in the Beatrice Young cozy cat mystery series. These books can be read in any order but are extra delightful when enjoyed in sequence.

My Take

If you are looking for a short cozy to read, and love cats, then this novella may be just the thing.

Beatrice Young spends so much of her time solving local mysteries, in cahoots with her three cats and the local sheriff, that she is thinking of setting up office as a private investigator.

This story is a cozy without a body, but there is still a serious theme: someone seems to be preying, via an internet dating site on lonely senior women, with the ultimate aim of asking them for money. Abigail Freedman, Beatrice's rival in the cafe business, has been trying to meet the Lothario she has been corresponding with but he always has an excuse. So far he hasn't asked for money... yet.

And there is another theme too: Beatrice has always remained friendly with her first husband Matt but recently she has detected a change in her feelings. A story for those who know that life doesn't end at 60!

My rating:  4.2

About the author:
Alannah Rogers is a retired librarian living in rural New Hampshire. She has three cats, all named after authors: Charlie, Wilkie, and Jane.
Alannah is an obsessive knitter and Scrabble player who loves a strong cup of English Breakfast tea. She makes a mean strawberry rhubarb pie and enjoys tinkering in her garden when time permits.

Review: VENGEANCE IS MINE, Joanne Fluke

• first published in 1986, and now re-published by Kensington Publishing Company, 2015
• also available for Kindle on Amazon
• ISBN 978-0-7582-8981-0
• 278 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

As a family clinic administrator, Michele Layton has seen her share of suffering. But never anything like this. Not here in St. Cloud, Minnesota. A local activist has been found murdered, his body frozen like a statue and placed in a Winter Carnival ice sculpture display. Next a vicious hate crime puts a man in the ICU. And locked away in the Holy Rest mental ward, a deranged man of the cloth prays for more sinners to be punished—and waits for a sign from above. These seemingly random acts lead police chief Steve Radke to Michele, who could be the next pawn in a madman’s chess game of life and death, good versus evil…

My Take

Set in St. Cloud Minnesota February 1985.  A small group of prominent citizens, who are also good friends, is putting together some winter games for the local community, to raise money for a centre for the gay and lesbian people. The committee includes the Mayor and his wife, the host of the local television station, the acting chief of police, and the manager of a family clinic, as well as representatives of GALA (the Gay and Lesbian community). But not everybody is comfortable with coming events, and the associated publicity makes these citizens easy targets.

The first to die is a member of the committee, a business man who has been active in his support for GALA. As yet another dies, and then another, with not even any idea what the murder weapon could be, the people of St. Cloud begin to stay at home and the WinterGame looks doomed to failure. Steve Radke, acting police chief, needs to hold the community together, and prevent mass hysteria.

I had some trouble in separating out the main characters at the beginning of the book although there was plenty of information, perhaps the problem was too much, about each of them. By about a third of the way through though I had them all sorted and I was able to appreciate the complexity of the plotting, and also the romance between two of the characters.

We know almost from the very beginning who is responsible for the murders, and it seemed just a matter of time before they were caught. It takes the police four murders before they develop a theory about how the victims have been selected, but they still don't know who the perpetrator is.

An interesting read.

My rating: 4.2


I've also read
3.5, PLUM PUDDING MURDER
Joanne Fluke is a well-established and quite prolific writer, publishing over 30 novels since 1980. See the list at Fantastic Fiction. 

Review: THE DROWNING POOL, Ross Macdonald

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1636 KB
• Print Length: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (July 5, 2012)
  originally published 1950
• Publication Date: July 5, 2012
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0082440BQ
• #2 in the Lew Archer series 

Synopsis  (Amazon)

When Maude Slocum - beautiful, frightened and angry - comes to Lew Archer's office with a poison pen letter intended for her husband, he reluctantly agrees to help her. As he follows the Slocums around, Archer finds that Mrs Slocum might have the least of the family's troubles: her teenage daughter is desolate, her husband is in the closet and her mother-in-law has just come to an unpleasant end in the swimming pool. But why is their handsome ex-chauffeur still hanging around? And what does the sinister Pacific Refinery Company have to do with the all the bloodshed?

The Drowning Pool is Ross Macdonald's gripping tale of adultery, jealousy, murder and lies.

Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer mysteries rewrote the conventions of the detective novel with their credible, humane hero, and with Macdonald's insight and moral complexity won new literary respectability for the hardboiled genre previously pioneered by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. They have also received praise from such celebrated writers as William Goldman, Jonathan Kellerman, Eudora Welty and Elmore Leonard.

My take

This Penguin Publisher e-book version comes with an excellent introduction by John Banville.

"as usual with Macdonald, the mud at the bottom of today's pool is stirred up by yesterday's storms. There is hardly a character in the book without something to hide from his or her past."

All this gives the plot an incredible complexity, although, as Banville says, Macdonald was really intrigued by the motivations of plausible people in plausible circumstances.

Three deaths later, Lew Archer comes up with an explanation that I had not seen coming.

I read it for my participation in the Crime Fiction of the Year Challenge @ Past Offences for January 2016, a book published in 1950.It also fits in with the Vintage Cover Scavenger Hunt, hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block.

My rating: 4.3

About the Author
MacDonald served as president of The Mystery Writers of America in 1965, received the Silver Dagger in 1964 and the Gold Dagger in 1965 from The British Crime Writers Association, and in 1981, received The Eye, the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Private Eye Writers of America.

The Drowning Pool was made into a film starring Paul Newman in 1975.