Mystery: Strange Affair, by Peter Robinson

An Inspector Banks mystery

Turned up missing

As if life hasn’t thrown him enough curveballs lately, Banks’ holiday is interrupted by a mysterious phone message from his estranged brother Roy, who, as they say “turns up missing.” Banks being Banks, he places his depression firmly on the back burner and sets out to discover what’s going on in the life of his wheeler-dealer sibling. Chapter by chapter, this investigations becomes more and more complex, as several seemingly unrelated events and crimes prove to be very much related indeed. Along the way, he learns that there’s more to Roy than he ever suspected.

Peter Robinson is a gifted writer whose skills include the creation of 3 dimensional characters, the development of intricate and believable plots, and the genuine understanding of human emotions. It is remarkable that in a series with as many entries as this one, the central character continues to change and grow as we follow the twists and turns in his life and career. Robinson’s many awards are well-merited.

I won’t throw out any spoilers by discussing the outcome of Strange Affair, but readers will find a similar theme, just as well handled, in Donna Leon’s Fatal Remedies.

Historical Fiction: The Summer of Katya, by Trevanian

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serendipity

(from the back cover: In the golden summer of 1914, Jean-Marc Montjean, recently graduated from medical school, comes to the small French village of Salies to assist the village physician. His first assignment is to treat the brother of a beautiful woman called Katya Treville. As he and her family become friendly, he realizes they are haunted by an old, dark secret, but he can’t help falling deeply in love with Katya.)

 

I came across The Summer of Katya by accident, and am happy to have discovered both the author and the novel. This is a witty, often amusing little story, with dialog that you can practically hear and a mystery that remains a tantalizing, just-out-of-reach secret until the end. Both of the male characters are vitally human – Katya, the love interest, is superficially charming but strangely wooden, the first clue that something is seriously wrong with this picture. The plot epitomizes the old adage that love is blind; although the reader is not sure what the problem is, you know there is one, a discovery that Jean-Marc stubbornly refuses to see until it is literally forced upon him. Part love story and part psychological thriller, this book is a little known gem; a quick yet enthralling reading experience.

Mystery: The Finishing School, by Michelle Martinez

sex, lies, and school girls

Sexy Federal Prosecutor Melanie Vargas, soon-to-be single mom, is called in to view a Park Ave. crime scene that is literally a mess. Two students from a posh private girls’ school appear to have OD’d on heroin, dying particularly painful (not to mention smelly) deaths. To complicate matters, one of the school’s charity students, Carmen Reyes, is missing, and seems to have been the supplier.

Enter Dan O’Reilly, hottie detective with whom Melanie had a brief fling that ended disastrously, now assigned to this case. Sparks fly, as Dan and Mel try to cooperatively solve the crime while fighting their intense desire for one another. Together with their team, this duo exposes internet porn, additional grisly murders, sordid drug runs, embezzlement, political corruption – talk about nests of vipers…

Dan and Mel, of course, eventually take down the scumbag drug and sex lord, but not until they behave, on page after page, just like adolescents they’re investigating, instead of like the seasoned professionals that they are supposed to be. They exchange nasty insults rather than discuss their personal differences. Melanie inexplicably sends an 18 year old (boyfriend of one of the dead girls) on several perilous undercover operations. She remains in an incredibly dangerous, demanding job that prevents her from properly caring for her toddler, against her own better judgment.

Wild hunches and risky moves lead to ultimate success. There is a crime novel buried somewhere within this overwrought romance, but be prepared to put up with a lot of sleazy, unlikeable characters, in the secret worlds of the upper and lower classes alike.

Mystery: At Risk, by Patricia Cornwell

Missing links

 

By now, it’s very clear that the majority of those who have read Cornwell’s latest are “disappointed”. I’ve read all her other stuff, and just finished At Risk this afternoon. This book is more a novella then a fully developed novel, originally published as a serial in the NYT. The mystery is two fold: why has Massachusetts prosecutor Monique Lamont called detective Win Garano back from forensic school in Tennessee, just because of her interest in a 20 year old cold case? And what sort of political high jinks is she up to behind the scenes. Is it up to the author’s usual standards? Nope. Is it the worst novel ever written? Certainly not. Plenty of other popular genre authors routinely produce much trashier drivel. But At Risk IS missing the sharp edges that characterize the Scarpetta books, even the less brilliant later ones. It also lacks the strong, fascinating forensic component that has made so many fans for Cornwell, and the mysteries are pretty run-of-the-mill. Long story short, At Risk is just an ordinary murder mystery, not a great one, and that may be why so many readers are so terribly disenchanted.

Historical Fiction: World Without End, by Ken Follett

*****

Page counters need not bother….

Historical purists will not be pleased. Neither will readers who make their selections based on the length of a book, or people who object to a little sex in their reading (World is hardly pornography), or religious fundamentalists.
But those who enjoy ripping epic adventures, historical settings, compelling characters, and plot twist after twist, should have a fine time in World Without End. Yes, it mimics its predecessor, but that is precisely what I, for one, was hoping for. Jumping back into Jack the Builder’s city after 200 years was a joy. Few writers on the scene today are capable of creating such appealing protagonists and such hateful villains. Few are capable of filling 1000 pages with heartfelt conflict, human mistakes and foibles, or gut-wrenching turns of event. Follett can do all of this, and has proved it again in World.
The treatment of the bubonic plague in World is worthy of comment. Rather than focus upon the horrific physical element, Follett has chosen to represent the vast psychological, financial, and societal consequences of this most devastating of diseases: the breakdown of mores, conventions, and behavior, the inability to produce enough food, the utter uselessness of mere wealth, the failure of the religious establishment to meet the needs of its flock. It is difficult today to imagine that time, and the narrative here helps.
Circumstances change, but human nature doesn’t. Here’s hoping Mr Follett has another Kingsbridge novel in him, set perhaps during the religious and political upheaval that characterized the Tudor era.

Mystery: Death Qualified, by Kate Wilhelm

Chaos

 

I recently read Wilhelm’s The Deepest Water, finding it flat and predictable. It was with great pleasure, therefore, that I found myself engrossed from the opening sentence of Death Qualified, in which the heavily sedated and confusing world of Lucas Kendricks is revealed. Page by page, the suspense builds until, about a third of the way through, the murder comes almost as a relief. From that point forward, the plot becomes ever more complex, as characters and circumstances, emotions and evidence, puzzles and solutions, emerge and rebound. Although I was able to identify the murderer fairly early, basing my guess upon information contained within a single sentence, the motive and methods were much more difficult to discern. Some scenes could have been eliminated (the pursuit through the woods, for instance, and one of the romantic affairs), and several loose ends were left dangling (just exactly did Doc’s wife know?), but such flaws are minor enough to ignore when balanced against the novel’s considerable assets. The excitement comes to an abrupt end in the final chapter, which is subtly chilling.
Intelligent and satisfying.

Historical Fiction: Loitering with Intent, by Muriel Spark

English Rose

An aspiring writer striving to complete her first novel, young Fleur Talbot finds herself loitering in post WWII London with the intent of gathering material for her literary debut. When she is offered a job as secretary to an eccentric troupe of autobiographers, it seems like just the thing. And it is, but in stranger ways than she could have foreseen. And what an eye has Fleur for the foibles of her employers, who, being Very Important People, lead Very Ordinary Lives. As Fleur incorporates what she is learning into the fabric of her novel, some of the VIPs begin to sense that art is imitating life – or, is it the other way around? Perhaps her book is a little too good, and it’s nearly lost before this serious but amusing literary tour de force draws to a close. But Fleur is no English Rose, she’s one smart cookie who, after a series of mis-steps, beats her nemesis at his own game.

Historical Fiction: Rise to Rebellion, by Jeff Shaara

Curiously flat

Jeff Shaara turns his attention away from the Civil War with this introduction to his series about America’s first rebellion. Following in the footsteps of his father Michael, Shaara the younger can’t quite match his dad’s virtuosity. Rise to Rebellion is a creditable history, but as a novel, it falls curiously flat. All the major players are here, but this work reads like a history book set with dialog. Rather wooden dialog. The founding fathers come across as stuffed shirts, even the famously charismatic Ben Franklin. While the plot covers all major events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and the battle for New York, there is plenty of principle, but little sense of urgency or fervor. Even the incredible mid-winter transfer of the captured Ticonderoga guns, a truly remarkable feat, is treated as though they were simply delivered by Federal Express. In The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara infused his characters with vitality and passion, people real enough to identify with and care about, engulfed in peril and tragedy. This gift for dramatization is what is so sorely lacking in Jeff’s novels.

Historical Fiction: The Religion, by Tim Willocks

Lost

The Religion is a huge, sweeping novel that in part reminds me of the sagas of Dorothy Dunnett. Author Tim Willocks interprets and reworks the legends of Tannhauser for the modern reader. Unfortunately, the plot gets lost among the surfeit of florid description, and the sense of daily life in this time period is obscured. Willocks is a talented writer who, in this particular piece of work, allows himself to be carried away with the squalid cruelty of the age. Graphic, minutely detailed scenes of brutal torture, maiming, and murder fill page after page. The perpetrators, including the hero Tannhauser, commit these acts with deliberate, rather obscene enjoyment. To describe this narrative as overstatement is an understatement in itself. Enough already. With judicious editing, this could be a compelling story. As it stands, it’s barely a story at all. Perhaps the author had a screenplay in mind? Clive Owen as Tannhauser? Works for me….

Mystery: The Closers, by Michael Connelly

A Harry Bosch novel

You can teach an old dog new tricks

Harry’s back from retirement and is chomping at the bit to get back in the old groove. He’s on probation though, as the new chief has stuck his neck out for Harry, whom some cops think is now past it. Assigned to the unsolved crimes unit, his first case strikes home. Now that Bosch is a father, with and adorable little girl to love, the death of other young girls has become personal for him. Harry and Kis make a great team, but this case is tricky, perhaps because of some underhanded politicking by the weaselly assistant chief Irving. The Closers is more a police procedural than a mystery, set in the time period when DNA evidence was coming into its own as a legit technique. A new DNA ID sets Kis and Harry on the right track, but somehow the obvious clues just don’t fit quite right. Harry nearly blows his return on several occasions, but, mainly because of his tenacity and intelligence, he and Kis get their man and deliver some belated justice to the victim’s heartbroken parents. Police work at its best. This is not the most exciting of the Harry Bosch novels, but it is one of the most satisfying.