Crime Fiction Alphabet: G is for Gambit

The Crime Fiction Alphabet meme, hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is gathering new participants each week and is a great source of recommendations about a wide variety of crime fiction. Do check out letters A, B, C, D, E and F if you haven’t already done so.

I’m not nearly as well versed in classic crime fiction as other participants of this meme but I have read my share of the older stuff so this week I thought I’d talk about one of my favourite ‘golden age’ characters: Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe who appeared in more than 70 novels and stories. Published in 1962 Gambit is one of the later books of the series (which started in 1934) and so is less dated than the earlier works. As always, the book is amusingly narrated by Wolfe’s able assistant Archie Goodwin. In it Paul Jerin is a chess master simultaneously playing 12 games (blindfolded) at a private club (the Gambit Club) when he dies of poisoning via his hot chocolate. Sally Blount, who knew Jerin, engages Wolfe, a private detective, to prove that her father, Matthew, is innocent of Jerin’s murder which he has been arrested for.

In our house when I was growing up most of my cultural references were English. What little TV we watched was English (all those dreadful 70’s sitcoms like Love thy Neighbour that made me cringe even then), the magazines my mother got her recipes and knitting patterns from were English and the books we borrowed from the library were, for the most part, English (I started my mystery reading with Enid Blyton and moved to Agatha Christie and Dick Francis). When I chanced upon a Rex Stout novel with its dapper hero who lived in a lavish house in mysterious (to me) New York I was therefore intrigued.  The fact that he solved almost all of his cases without ever leaving the house was icing on the cake (perhaps even then I was anti-social) and I also liked the fact he was a larger than life character in so many ways. In the opening of Gambit for example Wolfe is burning the pages of Webster’s New International Dictionary because, among other crimes, it states that the words imply and infer are interchangeable. I adore that kind of eccentricity in fictional characters. Actually I adore that kind of eccentricity in real people just as much.

I haven’t read a Nero Wolfe book for many years and I wondered if I would still get the same enjoyment out of them now that I did as a teenager. However when I browsed a copy of Gambit at the library to reacquaint myself with the story before writing this post I found myself smiling and chuckling at the same things I used to like. I no longer have the same need to prove how different I am from the rest of my family (by reading American books instead of English ones) and think I’d tire more quickly now of Wolfe’s attitude to women (although I don’t think he’s the misogynist some people claim, I just think he’s incredibly socially awkward). However, the books do provide wonderfully complicated puzzles and they are genuinely funny. Also I think this series offers one of the first real partnerships in crime fiction as Archie Goodwin is a far more an equal partner to Wolfe than say Watson was to Holmes. Goodwin as a character is equally as well rounded as Wolfe and he is heavily involved in the investigations, in fact it’s often his contacts such as crime bean reporter Lon Cohen, who provide vital information, and he is far more than a simple foil to demonstrate Wolfe’s superiority.

I don’t seem to see Stout’s work discussed as much as that of Christie, Marsh and others but he’s hugely popular still. At the 2000 Bouchercon the Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century at the same time. Visit The Wolfe Pack for extensive information about Stout and his best known creations Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

 

Weekly Geeks 2009-42 – Favourite Podcasts

I have been an awfully bad Weekly Geeker this year but as someone who is subscribed to about 40 podcasts (I was reviewing them long before I was reviewing books) I felt I should have something to say about this week’s topic which is to provide links to or reviews of podcasts, especially book related ones.

All but one of my favourite book podcasts are all radio shows that I wouldn’t be able to listen to if it weren’t for the magic of podcasting:

• Radio National in Australia produces The Book Show every weekday and the format is wide-ranging. Some days the entire show will feature an interview with a single author while at other times there will be multiple books discussed. There are also book readings and interesting segments like Off The Shelf where famous Australians talk about their favourite books.
• The BBC Five Live Books Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Simon Mayo which airs on Thursday afternoons UK time and is released via podcast later the same day. The format involves having the authors of two new release books on the show plus 2-3 reviewers who have read the book and there is a 10-15 minute discussion about each book which includes some plot synopsis and review comments.  The show discusses a wide variety of books including from literary fiction to most of the popular genres (though I’ve never heard them discuss a horror book).
• The BBC is also responsible for the World Book Club which is aired once a month (except during the English summer) and involves an interview with a single author about a single one of their books (normally their first). It’s normally recorded with a live audience who can ask questions and it’s also possible to email questions prior to the show or ask by telephone during the show. These shows tend to be with authors of literary rather than genre fiction although several crime fiction authors, including Sara Paretsky and Patricia Cornwell, have appeared in the past.
• Not entirely book related (and not a radio show) but an excellent podcast for those who write is Grammar Girl (or to give it its full name Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing). Even if you’re not a grammar junky you’ll get something from the show which is short, informative and well produced. Host Mignon Fogarty is American but always includes tips for users of both British and American English where there are significant differences.

The rest of my podcast aggregator is filled with non-book related podcasts on subjects like technology, politics, news, movies, TV and music. Among my favourites are

• Coverville which is a music podcast release 2-3 times per week and plays cover songs. Most episodes have some kind of theme, for example covers of one artist or band’s songs, and there are listener request shows too. I would never have thought there’d be enough cover songs to keep me interested for long but the show has been running for over 600 episodes now and it’s consistently introducing me to new artists and interesting music. Last week’s Sesame Street Cover songs episode (to celebrate the 40th birthday of the famous TV show) was a treat.
• Car Pool which is a video podcast hosted by Robert Llewellyn (yes the one who played Kryten on Red Dwarf). Each week he does an interview in his car of someone interesting. Guests can be film or TV stars, comedians, technology experts and, increasingly, scientists and environmentalists. Past guests have included Jo Brand, Stephen Fry, Chelsea Sexton and a swag of others. I always learn something and/or laugh out loud.
• The Daily Giz Wiz is a tech gadget show released each weekday. It’s among the 20 or so shows hosted by Leo Laporte (who runs an internet-based broadcast network focused on technology) and Dick DeBartolo and each day they highlight and review a gadget. I don’t really listen for the tech-y stuff (although I have found some great gadgets via the show) because the show is plain funny. DeBartolo writes for Mad Magazine and has written for TV game shows and comedy shows and he brings the quirky sense of humour to the show.

Hopefully there’s something among all that for you to check out and I look forward to seeing what other podcasts fellow Weekly Geekers have to share.

 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: F is for Fortress

For my contribution to the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme this week I’m taking a look at Australian author Gabrielle Lord’s first novel Fortress, published in 1980. It tells the story of a small school in Sunny Flat NSW (about 500 kilometres west of Sydney) where the sole teacher, Sally Jones, and her 12 students are getting ready for a visit by an Inspector when they are kidnapped by men wearing cartoon character masks. Although neither the teacher nor any of the students are famous or from wealthy families they are held for $1 million ransom. The entire book takes place over the next 40-odd hours as Sally first comforts the children then develops an urge to escape and, ultimately, turn on her captors.

This book is interesting because over the years it has been classified as both adult fiction and young adult fiction and even now I’m not sure where it would belong. I did first read it when at high school but read it again about 10 years later and enjoyed it both times so perhaps it doesn’t really matter. However you classify it the strong psychological elements to the story and unexpected ending made it quite gripping. The students range from kindergarten age to mid-teenage which adds a complexity to the book that is also quite interesting although it doesn’t make it much like Lord of the Flies (despite the many reviews that say it does).

Lord uses real life events as the basis for her book (a 1972 kidnapping from outer Melbourne’s one-teacher Faraday School) although Fortress is far more sinister than the original story. This is an early demonstration of something that has always struck me about Lord’s work: the in-depth research that she puts in. Somehow she manages to strike the right balance between including enough realistic detail to make the story work but not too much as to bog it down unnecessarily. In Fortress the details of remote schooling in Australia are spot on as is the behaviour depicted of both kidnappers and victims.

Personally I think the more subtle elements of the book were lost in the film that was made in 1985 starring Rachel Ward as Sally Jones but, as is often the case, if you ignore the fact it was based on a book it’s not a bad movie in its own right.

Gabrielle Lord is quite prolific having written 10 standalone novels plus having two ongoing crime series and in 2010 she will add to her young adult work by releasing one thriller each month for the whole year in a project called Conspiracy 365. Over the years I think I’ve read most of her books and they certainly do become more polished in terms of writing and structure than Fortress however it’s a damned fine debut novel. Lord has gone from strength to strength since Fortress and her accolades include a Ned Kelly Award in 2002 (for Death Delights) and a Davitt Award in 2003 (for Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing).

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My earlier contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme

• A is for Absolution (Caro Ramsay)
• B is for Bones (Jan Burke)
• C is for Contest (Matthew Reilly)
• D is for Deadlock (Sara Paretsky)
• E is for Entombed (Linda Fairstein)

 

Sunday Salon 2009-11-08 – Week in Review

Books Then and Now

This week was a good reading one for me. I finished and reviewed four books starting with a cosy by new to me author Elaine Viets (Murder Between The Covers), moving to a fast-paced thriller by another new to me author Harlan Coben (Tell No One) then an audio version of an Agatha Christie novel that I don’t recall ever reading before (Dead Man’s Folly) and finishing up with the second novel in Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series (The Dogs of Riga).

Arrivals and Departures

So far this month I have shown unusual restraint, acquiring 6 books (3 of them audio downloads) but giving away 23 books to friends and colleagues. I also have found a charity shop that will take as many books as I can give them so I plan to get rid of a lot more books in the next few weeks. My aim is to keep only the books I might one day read again or the ones that have some sentimental value.

Link Fest

This week, most of what I read online made me cranky for one reason or another.

• This post about authors needing to brand themselves started the trend. I certainly don’t disagree that authors should have decent websites and other promotional tools but I am sick to death of the religion that is branding. Books are not burgers and as a reader I am sick to death of being treated like the kind of moron that picks what I want to read based on the pretty covers. The author of the blog post uses James Patterson as the prime example of a branded author and on that issue I agree with him – Patterson is wonderfully branded. However if all authors become Patterson-like I’ll need to find a new hobby because his product is dross and not remotely the kind of thing I actually want to read.
• It’s nothing to do with books but this news article about the plastic bag ban in my state made me crazier still.  It’s only a few lines but for me it epitomised what is wrong with the media, politicians and society in general (what, me over-react?). Earlier this year the government here banned the use of single-use plastic shopping bags and this is what the relevant government minister had to say

SA Environment Minister Jay Weatherill is happy with the outcome. ”Eighty-two per cent of people think that this has had an impact that is on reducing plastic bags to landfill and also getting it out of our natural environment,” he said.

Nowhere so far has there been any reporting on whether the ban has actually had any impact on the environment but apparently that doesn’t matter as long as a majority of people believe it has. It’s not that I’m opposed to the bag ban (hey I’ve been taking my own bags to the shops for ten years) but I am opposed to making law based on the nebulous beliefs of the majority.

• This press release from Women in Letters and Literary Arts (WILLA) about the lack of women in the Publishers’ Weekly top ten books of the year also made me cranky. I’m not thrilled that the PW list had no women writers in it but neither am I convinced that hurling insults and unhelpful labels at PW is going to do much for the cause. Why does this stuff always have to be so confrontational? To my mind WILLA would have been better off just publishing their own list of ten great books by women writers so that commentators might discuss the differences. WILLA is preparing its own list of books by women authors but as it’s happening via a publicly editable wiki it could conceivably contain any (every?) book published by a woman this year and looks petulant rather than considered.

…and one more thing

I don’t know what’s true and what’s not in the great climate change debate but I do know summer is here with a vengeance a whole month before it’s officially supposed to be and I’ve had enough already.

 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: E is for Entombed

My post this week for the crime fiction alphabet meme continues my homage to Sue Grafton, the original purveyor of a single word crime fiction alphabet, with a look at Entombed by Linda Fairstein.

This is the 7th book in Fairstein’s series featuring New York District Attorney Alexandra (Alex) Cooper and the detectives who have become her friends over the series, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace. The novel features two main cases with the first involving a skeleton which is discovered in the wall cavity of a building due to be demolished. Because Edgar Allan Poe once lived in the building the case generates more curiosity than concern initially but when it is revealed that the skeleton is a relatively recent one and that a rapist who previously terrorised the city but was never caught has struck again on a victim who used to work in the same building, the find takes on more sinister overtones.

I have read 10 of Fairstein’s 11 Alex Cooper books over the years and, unlike some of my other favourite authors from my early days of crime fiction reading, she has never truly disappointed me. Some of the things that I particularly enjoy about this series are present in abundance in Entombed including the focus on different aspects of American cultural history, a subject I am woefully ignorant about but enjoy reading about because I now have family living in the US and always feel like I should know more. In this book the focus is on Poe’s life and work and this element is woven well into the story via the introduction of a group of Poe enthusiasts called the Raven Society. Also, for fans of the series there is, as always, the friendly competition between the three main characters to answer (or is that ask?) each evening’s Final Jeopardy question which is another unique feature of this series that I’ve always gotten a kick out of.

Fairstein has held the same position as the fictional Cooper and so the legal and procedural details have always felt very genuine. With so much media comment about violence against women being depicted in crime fiction I’m particularly pleased to be talking about this series because I cannot recall a single time when any description of violence in these books felt gratuitous. Subjects such as the rape or torture of women are dealt with but generally from the point of view of the victim and how they cope and are treated by ‘the system’. Here the story focuses on the young Swedish exchange student who is raped and almost killed rather than on her rapist’s point of view. I also think the books do a good job of exploring the complex legal issues surrounding sex crimes and this one is no exception with Alex attempting to indite the rapist based on his DNA profile even though they don’t know the name of the individual.

Towards the end of this book there’s a major incident in the personal life of one of the three main characters and this highlights another strong aspect of this series which is the strong relationships that feature. Although Alex is not terribly lucky in love she does have terrific relationships with both Mike and Mercer and also has some strong female friendships that help her cope with the traumas she observes and is occasionally part of.

My only review of one of this series here at Reactions to Reading is Killer Heat which I read earlier this year. It’s probably my least favourite of the series but I still rated it a very respectable 3.5.

My previous crime fiction alphabet entries are

• A is for Absolution (Caro Ramsay)
• B is for Bones (Jan Burke)
• C is for Contest (Matthew Reilly)
• D is for Deadlock (Sara Paretsky)

 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: D is for Deadlock

My entry this week in Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet meme is Sara Paretsky’s Deadlock. The second in what has recently become a 13-book series, Deadlock was published in 1984 and features one of the earliest hard-edged female private eyes in crime fiction: VI Warshawski. The plot displays many of the features the series is known for including the involvement of VI’s friends or family and lots of under cover work as VI investigates the murder of her cousin Boom Boom, an ex hockey player. Boom Boom is assumed to have drowned by accident in Lake Michigan but VI thinks differently and investigates his new employer, a large grain company, only to discover corruption on a grand scale. The book features blackmail, sabotage and men doing nasty things and there’s no one but VI to stop them. In this interview Paretsky says the novel was written for her husband Courtenay Wright who is an ex naval officer, which possibly explains how all the shipping details were so spot on.

The plotting is complex but tight which makes the book a genuine page turner. It is also one of those books where when you work out the clever double meaning of the title you smack your head Homer Simpson style.

This series was one of the first I started reading as a late teenager when I deliberately sought out books in which the women did more than either wait patiently for their men to come home or hop into bed with any bloke that asked. For that reason I really enjoyed VI who was starting out in her own business after a short-lived career in the public defender’s office and, although she had a healthy sex-life, didn’t behave as if a man was the answer to all her prayers. Other traits I enjoyed were that VI never responded appropriately to ‘authority’ (yes mum I particularly identified with that one) and drank Johnnie Walker black label scotch at the same time as being an opera buff and staunchly loyal to her friends. These contradictions in her personality made her seem very realistic to me and also led to unpredictable twists and turns in the books as she didn’t always behave as you might expect.

The other standout feature of Paretsky’s novels, including this one, is the depiction of Chicago. One Christmas I visited my brother and sister-in-law who’d been living in that city for a year and they were both astonished at how much of the city I could recognise or quickly get the hang of and I owe it all to my many re-readings of these books. Despite a windy, wintry cold the depth of which I’d never experienced before, I loved doing my very own VI tour and it’s still one of my favourite places to visit.

I used to wait with breathless anticipation for each new book in this series but I’ve become a bit disillusioned of late. Although it’s been four years since the last book in the series was published I haven’t rushed to get my hands on this year’s release: Hardball. The last several books have, for me, seen too much of Paretsky’s own politics bleed into the narrative and I got tired of being lectured at about the evils of big business, racism and whatever other rant Paretsky felt like making. VI had always had a social conscience but in the later books the social themes seem to have taken over the stories and, as always, this makes me cranky. I’ve no quibble with authors wearing their political hearts on their sleeves but only if they do it naturally, through their characters’ actions. Still, for old time’s sake I will be reading Hardball eventually.

My crime fiction alphabet so far

• A is for Absolution (Caro Ramsay)
• B is for Bones (Jan Burke)
• C is for Contest (Matthew Reilly)

 

Sunday Salon 2009-10-25: Week In Review

I normally write my Sunday Salon post while sipping coffee at a nearby cafe after my Sunday walk but this week I seem to have made it to Sunday evening without stopping to write my post. How is it that some days disappear without you even noticing?

Books Then and Now

This week I finished Frozen Tracks by Åke Edwardson, Tilt A Whirl by Chris Grabenstein and Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. I enjoyed them all for different reasons although I found Martin reading his own biography on audio book surprisingly disappointing. His delivery was very flat.

I’m currently reading The Trojan Dog by Dorothy Johnston (an Australian book not much talked about that I don’t quite know what to make of yet) and next on my print pile is another new to me author: Tania Carver’s The Surrogate. Before I head off to work tomorrow I have to decide between listening to Sandra Brown’s The Chill Factor or Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express read by David Suchet. Choices Choices Choices.

Arrivals and Departures

There’s no way I can twist this to make it sound good. I acquired seven books this week while disposing of only a single book via bookmooch! I swear I will start my own 12 step program if I can’t stop this madness soon. A person with an entire year’s worth of reading on her TBR shelves does not need to be bringing more books into the house but I can’t seem to control myself. The good news is I only paid for three of them (and they were all on special) but still.

Link Fest

Again I’ve spent a limited amount of time online this week. Who’s got time for dithering about on the internet when Australian TV finally started showing one of my favourite shows (previously only available from channel bit torrent) QI? I may have mentioned my adoration of Stephen Fry before (I’d be shocked if I hadn’t) and am delighted I can finally watch this show legally.

Anyway, I did manage to draw myself away from repeated viewings of legal Mr Fry and find a few things of interest

• An article from the UK’s Guardian newspaper that discusses crime fiction reviewer Jessica Mann’s decision to stop reading and reviewing the plethora of crime fiction which depicts women being tortured and brutalised. The article quotes award-winning crime fiction author Val McDermid as saying

There has been a general desensitisation among readers, who are upping the ante by demanding ever more sensationalist and gratuitous plot lines

I’d love to know who exactly is demanding all this extra violence. I read crime fiction and i’m not demanding it. Not a single one of the crime fiction devotees I know is demanding it either. In fact many of us are more likely to join Ms Mann’s boycott of the sub genre than any group demanding more blood, rape and victimisation.

• A tongue-in-cheek essay about whether or not Melbourne is a city of books and how the way we like to think of ourselves is often at odds with reality.

 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: C is for Contest

This week’s entry into the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme concerns Australian author Matthew Reilly’s first novel: Contest which was published in this version in 2000 and I read in 2001. I’m not even sure it qualifies for the genre but I tend to think of crime and thrillers as vaguely on the same spectrum and I do like a jolly good romp every now and again.

Widower and radiologist Steven Swain is relaxing at his Long Island home one afternoon when he is selected by aliens to represent Earth in an intergalactic game which is played every thousand years. The good news is he will have a home turf advantage (the game will take place in the New York City public library) but the bad news is it’s a game played to the death. And Swain’s 11-year-old daughter Holly is along for the ride. Swain is transported to the library and has the game rules speedily explained to him and is introduced to his guide Selexin before being thrust into a contest of wits, cunning and luck.

What I like about Contest is that although it has a far-fetched premise it doesn’t get lost in the ‘other world’ details that can so often happen with this kind of story. Basically it’s a ‘normal guy gets caught up in an abnormal situation’ kind of thriller and you don’t need to learn a new language or be able to faithfully recite a list of names with no consonants to enjoy it. It’s the story of a loving father trying to get himself and his daughter out of a mess not of their making and the cheating aliens and other nasty surprises could just as easily be gangsters with guns or spies with poison darts as in more conventional thrillers. The book rollicks along at a cracking pace and there’s a good deal of humour scattered throughout to add to the enjoyment. There’s not a load of character development or pensive, introspective moments but if you go looking for those in a thriller you’re almost always going to be disappointed.

It’s well known in Australia that this book, Reilly’s first, was rejected by every publisher in the country so he published it himself. This perseverance earned him some publicity and he then scored a publishing deal for his first Shane Schofield (a.k.a. Scarecrow) action adventure Ice Station which became a best seller. There have since been three more novels featuring Scarecrow, a separate series featuring Jack West Jr (the third of these, The Five Greatest Warriors, will be released tomorrow here in Australia) and several standalone novels. All the Reilly books that I’ve read are jam-packed with action and make particularly good audio-books if you like that kind of thing.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I’ve decided to add an extra challenge to my posts in this series by attempting to make all 26 about books I read prior to starting this blog that only have one word titles. So far, so good:

• A is for Absolution (Caro Ramsay)
• B is for Bones (Jan Burke)

 

Sunday Salon 2009-10-18: Week in Review

Books Then and Now

The two books I finished this week were The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl by Joseph Telushkin and Ann Cleeves’ White Nights. Both were above average reads and each offered something unique.

My current reads are all thanks to you, my fellow book bloggers. Last week I asked for audio book recommendations and all the suggestions I hadn’t already read are now waiting patiently in my audible wishlist (I have an account which allows me two downloads per month). Belle of Ms Bookish was so passionate about Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepack novels narrated by Jeff Woodman that I started listening to the first in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl, immediately.  My current print book, Åke Edwardson’s Frozen Tracks was also recommended by a book blogger: Maxine from Petrona whose review is at Euro Crime. I wouldn’t have chosen either book for myself based on the blurbs alone but I’ve grown to trust my favourite book bloggers and so have been rewarded with two very different but thoroughly enjoyable reading experiences. Lucky me.

I’m not sure what I’ll read next. There are more than a hundred books on my TBR pile but none are screaming at me especially loudly just yet although I suspect it’s time for something Australian.

Arrivals and Departures

Rarely for me this week I have maintained the status quo. I didn’t acquire any books or dispose of any. But before you all congratulate me for my restraint I should declare that I did do some online shopping this week and expect my orders to start trickling in soon. I blame the global financial crisis which has done terrible things to everyone’s economy but ours which means that our little Aussie dollar buys a heck of a lot more than it used to and I’m making hay while the sun shines. Oh and I’m very (very) weak.

Link Fest

I haven’t spend much time online this week but a couple of reports about the multitude of awards handed out at the annual Bouchercon caught my eye:

• I’m sure it’s lovely for the authors and publishers to have so many chances to win something but some of the categories have baffled me. The Barry Awards gave an award for Best British Novel which was won by Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (written by a Swede, set in Sweden) from a field of equally non-British novels. What’s the point?
• I also noticed that there was an Anthony Award for Best Cover Art, which was also won by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I don’t find the US cover art (which won the award) nearly as striking as the UK/Aust cover sitting on my shelves. What about you?

US TGWTDT

UK TGWTDT

Just so you know The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo also picked up Best First Mystery (Macavity Awards voted on by members of Mystery Readers International) and Best First Novel (Anthony Awards which are voted on by the convention’s attendees).

…and one more thing

Nothing to rant about this week but I would like to announce that I finally did the draw for winners of the Aussie Author Giveaway #2 (yes I know I’m slack). Margot Kinberg and Maggie Mason have won copies of PD Martin’s Body Count while Ann in Ottowa will be receiving a copy of Brian Kavanagh’s The Embroidered Corpse. I have more signed copies of PD Martin’s books for next month’s give away as well as some other titles so please come back on the first of November to enter.

 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: B is for Bones

I’m using the Mysteries in Paradise Crime Fiction Alphabet meme to highlight books I read prior to starting this blog. This week’s letter is B and I’m discussing Jan Burke’s 7th Irene Kelly novel Bones which was published in 1999 and I read in January 2007.

Bones opens with a cold case. Nick Parrish, on death row for a series of murders, claims to know the location of the body of Julia Sayre, a young mother who disappeared 4 year previously, and will lead police there if his sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. When officials, with Irene Kelly along for the ride, are at the site of the body a booby trap sets off a bomb and Parrish escapes. He then proceeds to stalk Irene Kelly by sending her repulsive gifts (think body parts) and otherwise physically and psychologically torturing her.

The series is a sort of cross-over between amateur sleuth and police procedural as the protagonist, Irene Kelly, is a crime reporter for her town’s newspaper who, by the time this novel starts, is married to a police detective. This makes the fact that she becomes involved in a swag of criminal investigations a lot more credible than some series where I struggle at the outset because I just can’t accept the premise that a chef/school teacher/librarian/etc would encounter that many murderers in their day-to-day lives.

These days I tend to shy away from psychopathic serial killers on blood lust rampages but this book is far more about the characters than the killing and the plot is not a predictable one which is why I rated it so highly (4 out of 5). Irene is a smart female character and in this setting, much of which takes place in the Sierra Nevada mountains, she’s surrounded by interesting outdoors-y type people. I particularly enjoyed the dog tracker / forensic anthropologist and his two brilliant dogs Bingle and Bool who can even locate decomposing bodies under water.

Bones won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar award for best novel in 2000.