Book Reviews: The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Requiem for a Gypsy by Michael Genelin, The Big Goodbye by Michael Lister, and Midnight Alley by Miles Corwin
The Keeper of Lost Causes
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Dutton, August 2011
ISBN No. 978-0525952480
Hardcover
Carl Morck was an exceptional homicide detective in Copenhagen until a bullet struck him down. He lived but two of his colleagues weren’t so lucky. Carl suffers from guilt since he didn’t even get his gun drawn during the battle. Fellow workers have begun to complain about Carl. He arrives late to work, rides the staff, interferes with other cases and will not return phone calls. Marcus Jacobsen, Chief of Homicide, decided that he could kill two birds with one stone. The Denmark Party is making speeches and complaining about cases that have not been solved. Marcus makes a decision to create a new department called Department Q. With outside pressure to create such a department for unsolved cases and with adequate funds to fund the department Carl Morck is put in charge of Department Q. What appears to be a promotion is actually a demotion. Carl is given a small office in the basement of headquarters and a ton of unsolved cases.
Carl is not one to be outsmarted though. Realizing that money is coming in to fund his department but that none is drifting his way he makes demands for equipment and an assistant. His assistant is very unusual. His name is Assad and he is from Syria. Carl realized immediately that he had made a mistake in asking for an assistant. With an assistant nearby he could no longer sleep in his chair or work Sudoku puzzles to pass away the time. The more chores he found for Assad the faster Assad accomplished the tasks. Soon they both begin to sift through some of the cold case files and the case of the disappearance of Merete Lynggaard caught their interest.
Merete Lynggaard is a very attractive woman who served as Vice-President of the Social Democrats. Merete had a beautiful home but her private life she kept secret from the people she worked with. At night, she hurries home to spend the evening with her special needs brother.
Carl and Assad are sure that Merete is dead but determine to find out exactly what happened to her. Merete is not dead but has been held captive for years. She has almost given up hope of anyone locating her and setting her free.
The book skips back and forth between Carl’s actions and Merete’s struggles as told by Merete. Although the search for Merete is very serious, there are many humorous incidents between Carl and his assistant. Carl also has a way of getting what he wants from his superiors from the large budget allotted to Department Q.
The Keeper of Lost Causes is a long book but I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and I didn’t want the book to end. The cover of the book states that this is the first installment in the Department Q series and I cannot wait for the next installment.
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid, July 2011.
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Requiem for a Gypsy
Michael Genelin
Soho Crime, July 2011
ISBN No. 978-1569479575
Hardcover
When Commander Jana Matinova of the Slovakia Police witnesses the assassination of Klara Bogan at a party honoring Oto Bogan, Klara’s husband, Jana immediately begins to wonder if Klara’s death was the fault of a stray bullet or if she was actually the intended victim. Jana’s Colonel gives her permission to proceed with the investigation even though as a witness to the shooting she is told that she cannot be actively involved.
The department in charge of the main investigation refuses to share all of their information with Jana. It is not long before Jana is on the trail of the pieces of information that she has no doubt will eventually lead to the reason behind the death of Klara Brogan. Jana has access to the Murder Book but knows that the contents are incomplete. Jana finds that Oto Bogan as well as his son has disappeared.
A girl whose name is Em Mrvova shows up at Jana’s door, cold and hungry. Jana takes pity on the girl but soon finds out that there is more to Em than meets the eye. Em seems to appear and disappear with frequency. Much wiser than her years Em is able to give Jana a few tips that help in her investigation.
Klara Bogan’s is not the first death that happens in this novel and Jana’s trail eventually takes her to Paris where she learns the real identity of an anonymous man that is run down on the streets of the city.
Jana is a brilliant police officer with a talent for interrogation that eventually gets her the answers she needs to put the puzzle pieces together that eventually tell the story behind the death of Klara as well as a long kept secret that goes back to a dark time in Slovak history.
The author has worked as an international consultant in government reform. I hope to see Jana Matinova in many future novels.
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid, July 2011.
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The Big Goodbye
Michael Lister
Pulpwood Press
Kindle Edition
ISBN No. 978-1-888146-80-6
Also available in hardcover and trade paperback from Pottersville Press
Jimmy “Soldier” Riley is a one-armed Private Investigator in Panama City, Florida and the time is 1943. Jimmy is in a partnership with Ray Parker, a former Pinkerton detective. July is a cute little gal that works for the agency.
Ray and Jimmy have a lot going on and things are jumping in Panama City. When Lauren Lewis walks into the office Jimmy isn’t sure how to handle it. July wanted to send her in to see Ray but Jimmy insisted he could handle it. Lauren was married to Harry Lewis who was a leader in the city and getting ready to run for office. Jimmy and Lauren had an affair that was over now but just seeing Lauren made Jimmy remember every moment of the affair.
Lauren thinks someone is following her and wants to know if it is Jimmy. Jimmy denies that he is following her but senses that she is in danger. Jimmy decides whether Lauren likes it or not he is determined to protect her.
Protecting Lauren is easier said than done. Part of the time, he can’t even find her. Soon bodies start turning up and Jimmy is facing danger every step of the way. Jimmy has to call in help from his friends before he eventually is able to locate Lauren and attempt to get her to safety.
The story is puzzling as well as exciting. I figured out exactly what was going on with Lauren about half a dozen times. None of my ideas were correct. The ending was a shocker and I went back and reread some of the book and even though I knew what was going to happen I still couldn’t see it coming. A great book.
If you like exciting detective novels don’t miss this one.
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid, August 2011.
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Midnight Alley
Miles Corwin
Oceanview Publishing, April 2012
ISBN No. 978-1-6080-038-9
Hardcover
When I reviewed Kind of Blue I commented that Miles Corwin had written a book full of danger, excitement and secrets and Midnight Alley is more of the same. The reader learns more about Ash Levine, top detective in the LAPD’s Felony Special squad. Ash is not an ordinary detective. He served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces and this experience gives him a little different outlook.
This second in the Ash Levine series puts Ash in charge of solving the murder of two young black men found shot to death in a Venice alley. The timing could not be worse. Ash has just left for a weekend with his ex-wife Robin. When he received the call ordering him back to work, Robin understood, but Ash was very disappointed.
Raymond Pinkney, one of the victims, was the son of City Councilman Isaac Pinkney. Isaac has been a frequent critic of the LAPD. Ash is under heavy pressure to find the killer but the case is puzzling. Teshay Winfield, the other victim, had just returned from serving in the armed forces. The two victims had known each other when they were younger but had gone separate ways. What brought them together to be found dead in an alley? And what was the strange marking on Pinkney’s bicep? And what does it mean? These are just a few of the many questions that leave Ash searching for answers.
Ash discovers that Teshay had returned to the States with a mask he discovered while serving overseas. Teshay had high hopes that the mask would bring him a lot of money. The more answers that Ash finds the more danger he is placing himself in.
This is a complicated story that reveals itself little by little until the surprising conclusion. It leaves the reader waiting for more about Ash Levine, his life, and the cases he investigates in a manner that is totally devoted to solving the puzzles presented to him.
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid, April 2012.
April 12, 2012
Tags: assassination, cold cases, Copenhagen, Dutton, hardboiled, historical, Los Angeles, missing persons, mystery, Oceanview Publishing, Panama City, Paris, police procedural, Pottersville Press, private investigator, Pulpwood Press, Slovakia, Soho Crime, war veteran, WWII-era Posted in: Full Reviews 
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Book Review: Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
Trail of the Spellmans
Lisa Lutz
Simon & Schuster, March 2012
ISBN 978-1-4516-0812-0
Hardcover
Fans of the earlier adventures of the irrepressible Spellman family who thought the series ended with #4, The Spellmans Strike Again, will be delighted with this new entry. For those who haven’t met these characters before, it would be best to start with the first book, The Spellman Files, but feel free to jump right in with this one and then catch up on the others later if you want to. There are a few references to earlier cases but not enough to make the new reader wonder too much about backstory.
The Spellmans are a family of very eccentric private detectives, and Isabel is wondering if she might now be the only somewhat rational one in the bunch. Her sister and non-detecting brother are fighting over something big, the same brother and sister-in-law expect non-maternal Izzy to babysit, mom is taking all sorts of seemingly random outside classes and dad is clearly up to something he doesn’t want the rest of them to know about. As usual, everybody in the family is spying on each other because they simply can’t resist detecting.
On the business side of things, Izzy, Rae and dad all have some strange cases and they seem to be getting stranger as time goes by. For instance, what on earth is up with the guy who wants Izzy to make sure horrible things don’t happen to his apartment when he’s not there?
In the romance department, Izzy’s trying to avoid her boyfriend Henry’s attempts to “talk” and finds herself spending drinking time with a very unexpected new buddy. Is Henry about to become ex-boyfriend #13?
And Demetrius, the ex-con who was innocently incarcerated for years and now works for the Spellmans as a sort of home/office manager, is actually embarrassed by the family.
We’ve had to wait too long for this installment but Ms. Lutz has lost none of her touch with wacky humor and sharpness of pace. It’s rare to read a page without smiling about something the Spellmans are up to and, as goofy as some of their cases are, the author manages to make the reader want to know what’s going to happen next in the investigative department. Along with all the zaniness, though, there are signs that Izzy is finding a little maturity in herself and it will be interesting to see where the author takes her in the future. A side note: one of the pleasures of these books is the footnotes and, while they work very well in the print and audio editions (I have both), not so much in ebooks because they’re all gathered at the end. Just be prepared to flip back and forth—make use of your bookmarks.
Trail of the Spellmans is for the mystery reader who likes a little romance, a lot of humor, and a scattering of puzzling activity and is a very worthy addition to the series I hope will continue for years to come. It looks like her next book is a standalone and then there will be at least two more in the Spellman saga. Good news all around!
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, April 2012.
April 11, 2012
Tags: dysfunctional families, humor, mystery, private investigators, San Francisco, Simon & Schuster Posted in: My Reviews 2 Comments
Writing What I Know
Richard “Ricky” Bush has been listening to, writing about and playing the blues for most of his adult life. He has written articles about the lives and careers of many of the blues musicians that he admires in publications such as; Blues Access, American Harmonica Newsmagazine, Hittin’ The Note and Southwest Blues.“Write what you know. Write what you know.” I’m pretty sure that this phrase in tattooed somewhere on my brain matter. Have I adhered to this advice? Pretty much, I’d say. Some writing gurus preach it and others admonish us to think outside the box.
My high school years were fairly barren of any creative strokes of my pen, but deciding to major in journalism in college forced my hand, literally, to gather words and construct sentences. Even though journalists may not write what they know until they uncover the facts, many gravitate towards their special interest; be it sports, business, fashion or entertainment. So they eventually become knowledgeable with what they know.
The more I wrote in college, the more it dawned on me that I didn’t know anything about much of anything. I dabbled around writing various feature stories with subject matters that held very little interest for me. Then it struck me. I do know something about something. Blues music. So my pen aimed towards writing for that musical genres’ audience.
Heck, I’d been listening to, reading about and playing the blues (harmonica) forever and a day. Since my subscription to American Harmonica Newsmagazine hit my mailbox frequently, my first target market was a given. The publisher enthusiastically accepted my submissions for harmonica related music reviews and eventually interviews with some of the top blues harmonica players on the scene. My pay was never more than contributor copies, but some great friends were gained with incredibly talented blues musicians. Soon my articles found their way into the music magazines Blues Access, Hittin’ The Note and Southwest Blues Magazine. My relationship with The Delta Snake (now defunct) website gave me my first online presence.
Eventually, the suggestion that I create a blog took root and allowed me to share my blues musings whenever the notion struck and http://bushdogblues.blogspot.com was born. The blog has never gained tons of followers, but I know a thing or two about blues people. They don’t follow. Enough e-mail comments found their way into my inbox thanking me for recommending a recording to keep my enthusiasm up though.
So when it came time to finally get that novel out of my head, that had been floating around for years, what else could I do but base it on what I knew, and my debut murder mystery, River Bottom Blues, floated from my finger tips. The protagonists are both, natch, blues harmonica musicians who are dead set on finding out who killed their buddy, who they know did not die from a heroin overdose. The factual unsolved murders of blues harmonica musicians from Chicago back in the 50s and 60s get a very fictionalized weaving throughout the tale.
Now the only problem with writing what one knows is wanting to share everything one knows with everyone else; many of whom just may not want to know that much. Since I wrote the book with my blues brethren in mind, I knew that they knew much of what got applied into the book, 
so my goal was accomplished. Then the query process began generating rejection replies that normally read, “Sorry, not for us” based on a one page query letter and maybe the first chapter. The replies that weren’t auto responses remarked that they thought that it would only appeal to the blues audience, which would be a woefully small market. Of course, I never replied back with the fact that it was a murder mystery and that fans of that genre were not in a small market.
After a ton of those agent query rejections or non-responses, and I mean a ton, I attacked the small publisher market and found an acquisitions editor who loved the blues and the story and a contract was offered. That’s when rounds of editing convinced me that maybe some of my knowledge needed a bit of tempering and the blues details that bogged the story down were downsized. River Bottom Blues emerged more polished and had a better rhythm to drive the story. I guess you might say that I finally got it. By the way, that publisher quit publishing and left the book orphaned, but I promptly found another blues loving publisher, who just as promptly went out of business. That seems to be the major hazard of latching on with a small press, but that’s all another story. My third publisher has been the charm and the book has been on the market since late January. Blues fans, who have contacted me, love it and I’m beginning to receive favorable feedback from the murder mystery crowd.
So my mantra is to continue to write what I know, but make sure that it stays with the flow of the story and doesn’t get in the way of the tale. I’m still going to write with the blues music fans in mind, but without alienating those who could do with less information dump and are just looking for a rousing tale of murder and mayhem.
April 10, 2012
Posted in: Guest Blogs 10 Comments
Book Review: Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quinn
Thereby Hangs a Tail
Spencer Quinn
Atria Books, September 2010
ISBN 9781416585862
Trade Paperback
It’s a dog’s life in the desert with plenty of treats to eat, javelinas to chase, fellow pooches to befriend…and don’t forget murder. View the world through a dog’s eyes and watch him get excited about taking on a new case with the smartest human in the room. Spencer Quinn comes out with another winner with the second in the Chet and Bernie series.
Chet and his owner Bernie Little are hired to protect Adelina Borghese’s prizewinning pooch, Princess. After Chet steals Princess’ treat, they are summarily fired. However, soon after, both Princess and her owner disappear. Then Bernie’s on again off again girlfriend, Suzie Sanchez, a reporter, also disappears after a desperate phone call. The trail leads to an old ghost town where Bernie is arrested and Chet is knocked out. Chet gets separated from Bernie and begins his own adventure. Discovering first Adelina’s dead body, then finding Princess, he subsequently runs into two hippies who sell him to a man bound to take Chet to Alaska.
Who killed Adelina? Where is Suzie? Where did Princess disappear to for the second time? How do a strange acting sheriff and his deputy in the next county tie into the case? Chet and Bernie track down the clues.
As with the first book in the series, the POV is first person, or rather, uh, dog… Quinn does an excellent job of unfolding the case while showing both Chet’s intelligence and his lack of knowledge in certain areas such as human language, memory on certain cases, and his inability to realize when he’s done something because it’s instinctual. Apparently, even though this is only the second book in the series, Chet and Bernie are veterans of investigative work with Chet remembering a lot of previous adventures. I love the humor and Chet’s quirks. I so wanted to read the first book and when I had the chance to buy the second I took it. I will definitely be buying the third and fourth books in the this series and hope there will be plenty more.
Reviewed by Stephen L. Brayton, January 2012.
April 9, 2012
Tags: animal sleuth, humor, mystery, private investigator, Western US Posted in: Full Reviews No Comments
A Joyous Easter To All!
April 8, 2012
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller No Comments
Book Review: Night Game by Carol Davis Luce
Night Game
Carol Davis Luce
Revised edition December 2011
Kindle e-book
Amazon link: http://tinyurl.com/7xgjjjq
Also available in used bookstores as a mass market paperback from Zebra, 1996
I don’t read suspense very often and there’s a reason for that… if done right, I’m up late, biting my nails, turning pages, unable to sleep until I get to the end. Night Game is that kind of book and Carol Davis Luce has a winner with both wonderful characters and a slimy bad guy whose quirks are a house of horrors all his own. This is a very satisfying read. Full of interesting, behind the scenes facts and stories of the Nevada gambling scene that only comes from hard research.
Enter Kasey Atwood, a self-employed “spotter” whose talent at spotting cheats and thieves saves thousands for the casino and store owners who hire her services on a job per job basis. Kasey lives outside Reno, Nevada in a renovated garage on the dwindling acreage that might or might not be her heritage. Her mom, ever the optimist, struggles to make ends meet after divorcing her drunk husband and dealing with the upkeep of the big old rambling house full of boarders.
An old friend whose advantageous marriage to a wealthy hotel/casino owner looks like the ticket she needs to help with those bills, but the plot thickens when an elderly woman is found dead in her hotel room. Kasey, asked to take a look at the room where the woman died, sees a clue, asks the right questions, and what looks like an accidental death is revealed to be a homicide. I like it that she’s clever and smart. Yeah, she’s got issues, but she soldiers on throughout the book, and never lets us, the readers, down.
Another death in the hotel, then threats to the owner, his wife, and the fears and tempers escalate to a boiling point. And, into the mix, Kasey finds that not only is she still attracted to the handsome hotel owner who is also her friend’s husband, he’s feeling much the same towards her.
As in any really good suspense novel, we see the tension raised in every scene: between Kasey and the murderer it escalates until it becomes personal, and then there’s Kasey and the hotel owner and whether or not their attraction will ever become reality.
The author does the suspense just right, but she’s also given the reader a mystery to solve: Who’s behind the out-of-control mad man? I think you’ll be surprised. I know I was.
Reviewed by guest reviewer RP Dahlke, January 2012.
April 7, 2012
Tags: gambling, mystery, Reno, Self-published, spotter, suspense Posted in: Full Reviews, Guest Reviews No Comments
Establishing a Series Character
Marni Graff is the author (as M. K. Graff) of the Nora Tierney mystery series, set in the UK. The Blue Virgin is set in Oxford; The Green Remains in Cumbria. Graff is also co-author of Writing in a Changing World, a primer on writing groups and critique techniques. She writes a weekly mystery review at www.auntiemwrites.wordpress.com. A member of Sisters in Crime, Graff runs the NC Writers Read program in Belhaven. She has also published poetry, and her creative nonfiction has most recently appeared in Southern Women’s Review. Her books can be bought at Amazon.com, bn.com or at www.bridlepathpress.com.
I’m a voracious reader, and once I find a writer whose work I’ve enjoyed, I’ll read his other books. If he’s writing a series, I try to read those books in the order they’re written to see the development of his continuing characters.
So when I decided to write mysteries, I knew a series would allow me to stretch and grow my characters in the same way I’ve enjoyed the growth and development of those writers whose books I reach for again and again.
When I developed the character of Nora Tierney, an American writer living in the UK, I made her reasonably young to allow for years of growth as I decided on what I call her “bible–” the history of her life that may or may not make it to the page. This background helps me know Nora better, so I have a feeling for how she would react in certain situations. The two most important things I have to decide for any character are: what they want the most, and what they fear the most.
As a writer, Nora loves research of any kind and is an information gatherer. I also gave her an insatiable curiosity, which leads to her snooping, and a strong sense of fairness and justice, both of which contribute to her tendency to become involved in murder investigations. Nora has been known to lie at the drop of a hat if it will further her gathering of what she considers important or necessary information. She sees these fabrications as harmless. The detectives she runs across don’t necessarily agree.
The underlying theme of all the books is how the choices we make affect our life, and Nora’s background had to have some kind of kink in it that has ramifications for her now. Nora still suffers guilt from her father’s death in a sailing accident. A teenager at the time, she’d turned down his 
offer for an evening sail in favor of a date, a reasonable thing for anyone of that age, until a squall capsized his boat. She carries the unreasonable idea that if she’d gone with him, he would have survived. This also has an impact on her relationships with men. She’s often confused about her feelings for the men she cares about and has difficulty becoming too attached.
Then I threw in a real kicker in the first book, The Blue Virgin: her backstory had her unhappily engaged to a workaholic scientist. Nora was on the verge of calling it off when he’s killed in a plane accident. A few weeks later she finds out she’s pregnant and she has to decide whether to keep the baby as a single parent. This is in the midst of trying to prove her best friend, artist Val Rogan, innocent of a murder charge in the death of Val’s partner, Bryn Wallace. The book is set in Oxford, where Nora is packing up to move to Cumbria. But first, she is determined to clear Val.
Saddling Nora with a child to raise alone in the future will give her many challenges and responsibilities that thwart her natural desires. When writing the second book, The Green Remains, Nora is living in the Lake District and heavily pregnant. I had to keep in mind Nora’s physical condition and how that would impact and interfere with her ability to snoop actively when she stumbles across a body at the edge of Lake Windermere.
There will be more challenges for Nora down the road. I’ve already planted the seeds in these first two books that will grow into plot lines in books three and four. And I’ll keep Nora growing and changing in relation to the situations I set across her path.
April 6, 2012
Posted in: Guest Blogs 4 Comments
Book Review: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge by Cara Black
Murder at the Lanterne Rouge
Cara Black
Soho Crime, March 2012
ISBN 978-1-61695-061-3
Hardcover
In Murder at the Lanterne Rouge, a new mystery featuring detectives Rene Friant and Aimee Leduc, author Cara Black draws the reader right onto the cold and slushy streets of Paris, France.
When the happy occasion of Rene’s girlfriend, Meizi Wu’s birthday goes awry and she disappears from a fancy restaurant without a word to anyone, Aimee, at Rene’s insistence, immediately takes on the job of finding her. This is not easy in a city like Paris, which seems almost overrun with illegal sweatshops where thousands of illegal Chinese toil. As Aimee follows the girl’s flight, she is caught up in murder. Making the job more difficult is a corrupt police department and various government agencies. Who can Aimee trust? And where does Meizi figure in the murder? How will Aimee protect her partner Rene from heartbreak if the Chinese girl turns out not to be a victim, but a criminal?
Lots of puzzles pepper this fast-paced crime novel. Aimee is a lady of derring-do, armed with a mean set of pick-locks and wearing vintage designer clothing. The fascinating details in this convoluted mystery keep the reader involved while being treated to a close look at exotic Paris.
Reviewed by Carol Crigger, December 2011.
April 5, 2012
Tags: Chinese sweatshops, corrupt police, France, illegal immigrants, missing person, mystery, Paris neighborhood, private detectives, Soho Crime, vintage couture Posted in: Full Reviews No Comments
For The Love Of The Horse
Patti Brooks is a Writer who sold her first article to a national magazine at age 16. She has published 500+ articles for trade magazines, and general interest newspapers and magazines like “Goodhousekeeping.” Patti is a Rider who got her first horse at age 13. She has competed in shows and distance riding where she has accumulated 3,000 miles of competition. Patti, with her husband Bob, have raised over 100 Morgan Horses on their farm in Connecticut. She has served as president of several equine associations and has been inducted into the American Morgan Horse Assn’s Hall of Fame.
In order to devote more time to Writing and Riding, Patti recently stepped down from her Realtor position as Marketing Mgr of a firm that markets horse farms in Connecticut.
Patti teaches a fiction writing class at a community college. Her work is included in anthologies. Her grasp of writing something worth reading as well as marketing has made her a popular participant on literary panels and discussion groups.
You can find Patti at her website http://www.pattibrooksbooks.com/
To read more about Patti’s book, Fame & Deceit, go to
Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/6slutse or
Barnes & Noble at http://tinyurl.com/76uhy49
Ever since early man sketched horses on cave walls, he has strived to capture the beauty and power of horses in art and literary work.
I’m please to pronounce that the horse is alive and well today due, in no small part, to writers and artists who have horses play a role in their work.
Today, with the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby just a month away, an elite group of young equines may even make the media coverage of the Republican nominations take a back seat– for an hour or two!
For centuries, man partnered with horses to fight their wars, plow their fields, herd thousands and thousands to cattle to market and be their prime source of transportation.
Horses survived the mechanical revolution and actually thrived at the new endeavors man set them to. Not only are saddle and harness racing big business, but in steeple chasing and cross-country events horses meet the challenge of sailing over impossible obstacles for the sole purpose of thrilling our hearts.
Although they are no longer asked to fight in our wars, there are programs springing up across the country where they play a major role in re-habilitating our war veterans. And, more and more correctional institutions have come to see how much being with horses has helped prisoners.
No wonder it is almost in our genes to admire the horse. Truly Winston Churchill got it right when he said, “Something about the outside of a horse is good for the inside of man.”
For generations young people grew up on Black Beauty and devoured Walter Farley’s classic series on the Black Stallion. In Liz Taylor’s time, we watched “National Velvet” and more recently “Seabiscuit.” Today, “War Horse” is still enjoying center stage.
When folks ask me what I write, I respond “…mysteries set in the horse world.” Many say, “Oh, just like Dick Francis.” I have found it interesting to see how many readers, who have never even touched a horse, enjoy reading work populated with a horse or two.
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Jane Smiley, wrote several books where horses ran rampart. One is even in the Point of View of a horse. I suspect if it were some lesser known writer, editors would have laughed at publishing a book in a horse’s POV that was intended for adults.
Toni Leland has six novels in print where horses play a key role. Her fiction has been branded as “Women’s fiction with a kick!” Readers tend to really care about the plights of both the human and equine characters.
Sasscer Hill has several mysteries involving jockey, Nikki Latrelle, set in the racing horse world and claims on her blog that “horses (are) a powerful inspiration for a writer.”
Although Michelle Scott may be better known for her wine mystery series where the character Nikki Sands includes recipes and wine pairings at the end of many chapters, Michelle has a series of mysteries featuring Michaela, a horsewoman forced to become an amateur sleuth.
In my own small state of Connecticut, I’ve gathered a group of writers and artists and we call ourselves “Equine Authors & Artists of Connecticut.” One of our prime goals is to give back to the horse world by joining in fund raisers for charitable equine rescues and therapeutic riding.
Laura Crum has a twelve book series revolving around the life of fictitious California vet, Gail McCarthy. Laura has done an excellent job in letting Gail age over the years, so that in the last book, “Barnstorming,” Gail is weighing the merits of retiring to continuing her career.
See a trend here of using horses in mysteries? I suspect it comes about because of the horse’s mystique. It makes that a natural to populate mysteries, adding to the mysterious atmosphere.
Perhaps the most high profile book in recent months is Elizabeth Letts’ The Eighty-Dollar Champion. It’s the true story of how an every-day horse, Snowman, escaped the killer’s van and rose to national fame.
So, even if you never had a pony ride as a child, you should see for yourself how horses have enhanced many books. Although in many of the above authors’ work, horses play a key role, you do not have to have a history with horses to enjoy them. Not only will you enjoy them, you’ll find yourself wondering what might be happening in the horse character’s life for weeks after finishing the book.
April 3, 2012
Posted in: Guest Blogs 4 Comments
Book Reviews: Body Line by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Every Bitter Thing by Leighton Gage, The Caller by Karin Fossum, Murder New York Style ed. by Terrie Farley Moran, and A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
Body Line
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Severn House, March 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7278-6957-9
Hardcover
The tone of the book, the newest in the wonderful Bill Slider series, is initially set with the very first line – in point of fact, the first chapter heading, “The Wrath of Grapes,” describing as it does a thoroughly hung over D.S. Jim Atherton, as he joins his boss, D.I Bill Slider, both of the Shepherd’s Bush police, for just another ‘day at the office,’ i.e., driving to a murder scene. The day that is just starting is portrayed as follows, in typical lovely fashion: “Shepherd’s Bush was not beautiful, but it had something to be said for it on a bright, breezy March morning. Clouds were running like tumbleweed across a sky of intense, saturated, heraldic azure. The tall, bare planes on the Green swayed solemnly like folkies singing Kumbayah. All around, the residents – young, old and middling – were sleeping, getting up, planning their day, thinking about work, school, sex, shopping, footie. Some were perhaps dying. One was dead in what the police called suspicious circumstances, and that, fortunately, was unusual.”
The reader is thereby immediately put into a smiling and receptive mood, the grim destination notwithstanding: When they arrive at the scene, they discover the body of a man very efficiently murdered, with a single gunshot at close range to the back of the head. As the investigation ensues, there are no suspects, no forensics, no obvious motive, and the fact that they cannot find any information as to where the dead man worked or as to the source of his apparently substantial income, only makes matters more puzzling. The police are told he was “a doctor,” “a consultant,” but beyond that there is no information. As Slider says, “it’s astonishing what people don’t see and hear, even when it’s under their eyes and ears.”
The second chapter is headed “Witless for the Prosecution,” but that’s about it for play-on-words – - well, no scratch that, for of course Superintendent Porson, Slider and Atherton’s boss, is present in this book, and malapropisms abound, always guaranteed to bring back that smile. Various permutations of relationships between and among the several well-drawn characters become clear as the investigation
continues. The novel is immensely enjoyable in this well-written murder mystery [there are other deaths as the tale continues], and it is as highly recommended as were the previous books in the series.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, July 2011.
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Every Bitter Thing
Leighton Gage
Soho Crime, October 2011
ISBN: 978-1-56947-998-8
Trade Paperback
On the opening page of Leighton Gage’s newest book, the fourth in his series featuring the Brazilian Chief Inspector Mario Silva, the reader is introduced to Jonas Palhares, a petroleum engineer who is very soon after brutally murdered in his Ipanema apartment. This is but one of several murders committed in the same manner, and with the same weapons. A famous social psychologist is soon found dead in Sao Paulo State. But when the next victim is the son of the Venezuelan foreign minister and former ambassador to Brazil, the political implications become quickly obvious, and the investigation goes into high gear.
Silva, chief inspector for criminal matters with the Federal Police, is described as “a repository of totally useless information,” but self-described as possessing “occasionally amazing instances of insight”. He teams up with the head of the Brasilia civil police, as well as his usual team members, including Arnaldo Nunes and Haraldo “Babyface” Goncalves, known as the Federal Police’s Lothario. The body count rises, and the cops are frustrated by the fact that there seems to be no common denominator among the victims.
The author provides another glimpse into a world and a country with which this reader and I suspect many others are unfamiliar [despite my having traveled there twice, but I’m pretty sure tourism doesn’t count]. We are given examples of “. . . how things work in this country . . . how the rich and powerful get justice and the rest of us can go to hell.” The investigation proceeds rapidly to try to find the killer before more bodies appear, and the ending is as logical as it is startling. A thoroughly satisfying novel, and recommended.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, September 2011.
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The Caller
Karin Fossum
Translated by Kyle Semmel
Harvill Secker, August 2011
ISBN: 978-1-846-55393-6
Paperback
[This book is presently only available in/through the UK/Canada, not yet available in the US]
Lucy thought she had everything a woman could want [and who could disagree?]: youth, beauty, health, a loving husband, and a baby girl they both doted upon. Until the warm summer day when evil is suddenly visited upon her perfect life in the form of an unknown monster, for when Lily approaches the pram under the maple tree outside their house where the baby had lain sleeping, she discovers that the baby is covered in blood. In their terror and panic, they rush to the hospital, where they are soon told that the baby is unharmed, that the blood was not hers, and that the police have been called. The Inspectors assigned to the case are Konrad Sejer and Jacob Skarre. Later that same night, a postcard is delivered to Sejer’s door reading “Hell begins now.”
Happy people content with their lives, suddenly made anxious, unable any longer to feel secure, as “a soundless form of terror” and utter vulnerability spreads through the community. That is the story line of this newest in the Inspector Sejer Mysteries. And a gripping, albeit somewhat depressing, tale it is, with a perpetrator who fancies himself as invincible, with unimaginable cruelty and an almost equally twisted quirk: He needs to see for himself the effects of his pranks: “Everyone lives on an edge, he thought, and I will push them over.”
The writing is wonderful, as one has come to expect of this author. She describes Sejer’s dog as follows: “a Chinese Shar Pei called Frank, lay at his feet, and was, like most Chinese, dignified, unapproachable and patient. Frank had tiny, closed ears – and thus bad hearing – and a mass of grey, wrinkled skin that made him look like a chamois cloth,” and someone’s “cat [which] slept in a corner, fat and striped like a mackerel.” The humans are just as well-drawn. Widowed at a young age, Sejer is now feeling the frailty of impending old age, and along with him the reader feels a palpable sense of inescapable mortality, as well as “what was raw and brutal in the heart of every living creature.” A disturbing but ultimately thoroughly enjoyable novel, very fast reading, and highly recommended.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, November 2011.
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Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices
Terrie Farley Moran, Editor
L&L Dreamspell, September 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60318-423-6
Trade Paperback
Although short stories are not usually my preferred reading choice, this anthology proved to be perfect for this time of year, when so many of us are overloaded with the demands and hecticness of the holiday season, and ready for short bursts of good writing. A group of twenty-two authors, some whose work is published here for the first time and others who are award-nominated or award-winning writers, combined for this mixture of genres and the second such anthology written by members of the Sisters in Crime NY/Tri-State Chapter, the unifying theme being the various neighborhoods in and around New York City. Those encompass such diverse areas as Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn and its neighbor, Brighton Beach; Greenwich Village; downtown Manhattan; and College Point, Queens, among several other sections and towns in what is known as the “greater metropolitan area.”
There is one lone entry authored by a man [k.j.a. (Kenneth) Wishnia]. I had initially thought – mistakenly – that there was only one with a male protagonist, but then realized that over a third of the stories have male narrators/protagonists. Lest any reader be concerned that the points- of-view might feel monolithic, they not only range in age and class, but also in gender, even including one inanimate-object as narrator for people who want variety from the usual human POV The tales run from eight to twenty pages in length, and vary widely, though each is worthwhile reading, dealing with characters ranging from a vampire; a widow whose long-buried secret is about to be exposed; a young woman with a scary stepson, in what is perhaps a cliché in reverse; and although most of the protagonists are fairly young, there are an 84-year-old and two centenarians included. I especially enjoyed Catherine Maiorisi’s first published story, “Justice for All,” of a young African-American detective, Cappy Jones, who draws the short straw in partnering up with a misogynistic male cop in an investigation into the death of a young Asian woman on a path adjacent to the Hudson River; Triss Stein’s “The Greenmarket Violinist,” included in which is a tribute to a place dear to this reader’s heart: “a spot sacred to all true Brooklynites . . . the original home of the team that became the Brooklyn Dodgers and was managed by the original Mr. Ebbets himself;” as well as Liz Zelvin’s miniature addition to her wonderful “Death Will . . . “ series, this one entitled “Death Will Tank Your Fish,” not, from the title, obviously dealing with recovering alcoholics, but which turns out to be just that.
All in all, these short stories provide very enjoyable reading, and the anthology is recommended.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, January 2012.
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A Trick of the Light
Louise Penny
Minotaur Books, September 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-65545-7
Hardcover
As with Miss Marple, or the folks who live in the environs of the protagonist in “Murder She Wrote,” and as a couple of the residents of Three Pines say, “there must be something in the water,” almost “a cottage industry.” And to quote the author, “this little village produced bodies and gourmet meals in equal proportion.” For shortly after Louise Penny’s newest Chief Inspector Gamache book opens, a celebratory party held in that bucolic Quebec village just south of Montreal is dampened when a dead body is found in the garden of the hosts, Clara and Peter Morrow, with her neck broken. A decidedly personal manner of death, all agree. The dead woman, Lillian Dyson, was Clara’s BFF [before there was such a term] many decades earlier, their friendship coming to a shattering end when Dyson’s treachery became known, and it had been years since they had had any contact. The party itself followed a vernissage, a private solo showing of the artist’s work at the Musee d’Art Contemporain in Montreal, a dream come true for Clara.
Armand Gamache, the deceptively mild-mannered head of homicide for the famed Surete du Quebec, and his second in command, Jean Guy Beauvoir, are investigating the murder, not the first time they had come to Three Pines on such a mission. As Gamache says, “Why not just move the whole homicide department down here?” [In jest, almost certainly.] Jean Guy, with his unspoken love for Gamache’s daughter [who is, after all, married], is still recovering, mentally as well as physically, from a horrific incident six months prior, as is Gamache himself. [Although not essential, I’d recommend first reading the prior book in the series, Bury Your Dead, as to the events and the repercussions thereof which ended that book.]
The inhabitants of Three Pines [a village so small it doesn’t even show up on a map] who have been introduced to readers of the earlier books are still present, including Ruth “the demented old poet;” Gabriel and Olivier, the gay owners of the local B&B; Myrna, the bookstore owner; and assorted horses, including one that looks like a moose. There is also an interesting sub-plot on the subject of AA. The dominant theme is “do people change,” and there are many examples of the possibilities, as well as the need, for such change, with varying degrees of success. The book describes the rivalries, egos, politics and backbiting that exist in the art world, as well as a good mystery. It is a true pleasure to read, well deserving of its recent nomination for the Agatha Award for Best Novel of 2011, and is highly recommended.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit, February 2012.
April 1, 2012
Tags: anthology, art world, Brazil, England, Federal Police, Harvill Secker, L&L Dreamspell, Minotaur Books, mystery, New York City, Norway, police procedural, Quebec, Severn House, small town, Soho Crime Posted in: Full Reviews No Comments
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