Mystery
By Jo Ann Vicarel -- Library Journal, 06/01/2006
Police Blotter Police procedurals, a staple of American and British crime fiction, are now crossing national borders. Karien Fossum details Norwegian police work, while Alicia Giménez-Bartlett profiles investigators in Barcelona. And Colin Cotterill follows the investigations of national coroneor Siri Paiboun in war-torn Laos.
Bloom, Elizabeth. The Mortician’s Daughter. Mysterious. Aug. 2006. c.304p. ISBN 0-89296-786-2. $24.95. MReturning to the small Massachusetts mill town she left ten years earlier seems like a good idea to suspended New York City cop Ginny Lavoie. But what started as a request from her best friend to find the murderer of her 19-year-old son quickly becomes a complex investigation involving a number of secrets hidden for 15 years. Ginny peels back layers of guilt, remorse, and past crimes while dodging attempts on her life. Bloom (See Isabel Run) is a pseudonym for Beth Saulnier, the author of four crime novels featuring Alex Bernier. It does not matter what name she uses, as her books are always of the highest quality. She lives in Ithaca, NY. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 4/1/06.]
Cotterill, Colin. Disco for the Departed. Soho, dist. by Consortium. Aug. 2006. c.247p. ISBN 1-56947-428-1. $23. MIt is 1977, and Dr. Siri Paiboun, Laos’s national coroner (The Coroner’s Lunch), and his nurse, Dtui, are sent to the mountains of the Hiraphan Province to deal with a corpse encased in cement. Unfortunately, the body is found on the property of the new president, who is planning a huge national celebration there in just days. Once again, Cotterill demonstrates his extensive knowledge of Laotian history and his ability to create memorable characters. Readers who enjoy Eliot Pattison’s Asian thrillers (Bone Mountain) will find that Cotterill shares the same sardonic view of Asian communism mixed with a touch of mysticism (the dead speak to Siri), a quality that sets the work of both authors apart from most mystery fare. Cotterill lives in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 4/1/06.]
Fossum, Karin. When the Devil Holds the Candle: An Inspector Sejer Mystery. Harcourt. Jul. 2006. c.259p. tr. from Norwegian by Felicity David. ISBN 0-15-101188-5. $24. MBest friends Andreas and Zipp are 18 and cruise around town looking for beer, fun, and trouble. First they steal a wallet from a young mother whose baby carriage goes over a cliff during the mugging. After drinking that money away, the boys follow an old lady to her home. When Andreas’s mother reports him missing, Inspector Konrad Sejer suspects something is terribly wrong. But this is not your usual police procedural—Fossum’s third Sejer novel (after He Who Fears the Wolf) is psychological suspense at its best. Her dark story focuses on the dilemma facing those whose lives have come to a point where a decision must be made and a new direction taken. Several of Fossum’s characters handle this conflict in distinctive ways. Not for the faint of heart, this book will satisfy patrons who cannot get enough of Minette Walters and Barbara Vine. [The Nordic crime wave continues with Åke Edwardson’s Never End, reviewed below.—Ed.]
Fowler, Christopher. Ten Second Staircase: A Bryant & May Mystery. Bantam. Jul. 2006. c.356p. ISBN 0-553-80449-9. $24. MThe North London Peculiar Crimes Unit is about to be dismantled. But that does not stop Arthur Bryant and John May from taking on the odd murder of an artist drowned in her own installation piece—a large tank filled with formaldehyde. The suspect is a cape-wearing highwayman riding a black horse; the elderly detectives are as cantankerous and unfocused as ever yet always seem to get the job done. When they realize that this crime may relate to their unsolved Leicester Square Vampire case, things get dicey. Will they be able to solve both cases before the Home Office padlocks their doors forever? Laced with humor, the fourth book in Fowler’s imaginative series (after The Water Room) pokes fun at almost everything in society today. Fowler offers a distinctive prose style and characters so unusual that it is difficult to think of another author’s work this creative, unless, of course, it’s Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. For readers who enjoy a bit of the bizarre in their mysteries.
Giménez-Bartlett, Alicia. Dog Day. Europa, dist. by Consortium. Jun. 2006. c.311p. tr. from Spanish by Nick Caistor. ISBN 1-933372-14-1. pap. $14.95. MA man is found badly beaten on a street in Barcelona, Spain. As he lies in a coma in the hospital, Inspector Petra Delicado and Sergeant Fermin Garzon try to identify the victim. The two officers have very little to go on, but a dog found abandoned in a dingy apartment leads them into the underground world of dog trafficking and fights. The author cleverly divides her story between the actual investigation and the private lives of her investigators. A fast-paced plot and engaging characters set in a city not overly used in the mystery genre make this a good choice for most collections. Giménez-Bartlett, winner of the Feminino Lumen Prize for best female writer in Spain, is very popular in her native country for her Petra Delicadto series. She lives in Barcelona.
Harvey, John. Darkness & Light: A Frank Elder Mystery. Harcourt. Jul. 2006. c.357p. ISBN 0-15-101133-8. $25. MClaire Meecham has been missing for a week when Frank Elder’s ex-wife calls him for help in finding her. Frank, retired from the Nottingham police and now living in Cornwall, is reluctant to return, but he does in the hopes of seeing his estranged daughter. Claire is found strangled, and the case reminds Elder of a similar murder he investigated. To solve the crime, he is asked to work with his former sergeant, Maureen Prior. What had begun as a deceptively simple disappearance turns into a complex story of psychological motivation and hatred. Devotees of British police procedurals will demand this. Harvey, author of the much-acclaimed Charlie Resnick novels (Resnick makes a cameo appearance here) and two other Frank Elder books (Flesh & Blood), has won a number of awards, including the British Crime Writers’s Association Silver Dagger Award.
MacBride, Stuart. Dying Light. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Aug. 2006. c.424p. ISBN 0-312-33997-6 . [ISBN 978-0-312-33997-5]. $24.95. MDetective Sergeant Logan MacRae, held responsible for the fatal shooting of a young constable when a planned raid goes wrong, is assigned to the “Screw-Up” squad. Soon the Aberdeen police are hip deep in a series of brutal murders and a fatal arson case. MacRae juggles both investigations as he works with his old and new squads. Tough, gritty, and dark as only a Scottish crime novel can be, MacBride’s follow-up to his debut, Cold Granite (which has been shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers’s inaugural Best First Novel award), offers a twist ending that leaves the reader gasping. MacBride joins Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, David Lawrence, and Stephen Booth in elevating the British police procedural to the highest levels of quality. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 4/1/06.]
Muller, Marcia. Vanishing Point: A Sharon McCone Mystery. Mysterious. Jul. 2006. c.323p. ISBN 0-89296-805-2. $24.95. MNow married to longtime boyfriend Hy Ripinsky, Sharon McCone (The Dangerous Hour) runs a thriving detective agency with more work than her staff can handle comfortably. Then Sharon’s former assistant asks if she will look into the 20-year-old disappearance of Lauriel Greenwood, an artist who apparently abandoned two young daughters and a husband. A few days after McCone’s agency swings into action, one of Lauriel’s now-adult daughters goes missing. Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Muller writes flawless mysteries with a harsh edge. In something of a departure, this novel lulls the reader into viewing self-centered characters as benign until McCone’s investigation reveals ugly, long-hidden truths. Highly recommended. Muller lives with her husband, Bill Pronzini, in northern California.
Pronzini, Bill. The Crimes of Jordan Wise. Walker. Jul. 2006. c.231p. ISBN 0-8027-1493-5 . [ISBN 978-0-8027-1493-0]. $24. MIn 1977, Jordan Wise, an accountant in a large San Francisco firm, falls in love with a woman who wants money and all that it can buy more than she wants Jordan. So he concocts a fool-proof scheme to embezzle $600,000 from his firm, and the couple flees to the Virgin Islands. Twenty-seven years later, Jordan recounts what happened following their escape to a man who recognizes him. Three-time Shamus Award winner Pronzini, author of “The Nameless Detective” series, never tells the same story twice, a rare achievement since he has written 66 novels. A dark take on the wages of sin, his latest is reminiscent of mysteries by Stuart Woods and Thomas Perry. Pronzini lives in northern California with his wife, Marcia Muller.
Reuben, Shelly. The Skirt Man. Harcourt. Jun. 2006. c.250p. ISBN 0-15-101078-1. $24. MThe Bly family, first introduced in Tabula Rasa, has gathered in Killdeer, NY, to see Meredith Bly perform in a benefit ballet. Then her state trooper father and fire marshal uncle are asked to investigate the fiery death of town eccentric Morgan Mason, who wore a skirt and drove an old tractor. Did Mason spontaneously combust in his favorite chair, or was this a case of arson? Reuben, author of two of the best novels about arson investigation (Origin and Cause; Spent Matches), writes with insider knowledge as a licensed private investigator and a certified fire investigator; her touch is lighter than Earl Emerson’s or Suzanne Chazen’s, but her prose style is just as good. A surprise ending raises the mystery up several levels above the ordinary. Recommended. Reuben lives in New York.
Mysteries in Brief
Armstrong, Vivien. Blue Murder. Severn House. Jun. 2006. c.236p. ISBN 0-7278-6367-3. $27.95. MRecuperating from a stabbing he received while rescuing a woman from a mugging, Detective Chief Inspector Roger Hayes is invited to convalesce on the Isle of Man, where the woman’s brother owns a spa. Soon Hayes is looking into the numerous attacks on the spa residents. Despite the disappointing ending, this is a finely plotted procedural. Armstrong (Bird of Prey) lives in Surrey, England.
Bowen, Michael. Putting Lipstick on a Pig. Poisoned Pen. Jul. 2006. c.244p. ISBN 1-59058-287-X. $24.95. MMilwaukee lawyer Rep Pennyworth (Unforced Error) reluctantly agrees to give the eulogy at the funeral of Vance Hayes, a harsh-mannered attorney with no friends. But Rep discovers that the one good deed that Hayes committed may have led to his death, and Rep and his wife, Melissa, are soon up to their necks in trouble. Even though the pace lags a bit, the witty repartee between the Pennyworths carries the day. Bowen is a trial lawyer in Milwaukee.
Raichev, Raiko. The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette. Carroll & Graf. Aug. 2006. c.220p. ISBN 0-7867-1734-3. $26; pap. ISBN 0-7867-1786-6. $13.95. MOn the July day in 1981 when Prince Charles married Diana, a little girl, Sonya, vanishes from a large country estate outside London. Twenty years later, mystery author Antonia Darcy, now working as the librarian at the Military and Naval Club, sees the girl’s father in the club and wonders if she could have done something differently to prevent Sonya’s disappearance. This is the first in a projected cozy series set in the English countryside. Raichev lives in London.Schwartz, Richard B.. The Last Voice You Hear: A Jack Grant Mystery. Midnight Ink. Jun. 2006. c371p. ISBN 0-7387-0830-5. pap. $14.95. MA California congressman is impaled on a London Underground escalator. Then another man is killed in Los Angeles with a similar swordlike weapon. P.I. Jack Grant (Frozen Stare) offers to help LAPD Lieutenant Frank White because the State Department has shut down the police investigation. An interesting and unusual tale about justice and a distinctive assassin.
Additional Mysteries
Edwardson, Åke. Never End: An Erik Winter Novel. Viking. Jun. 2006. c.320p. ISBN 0-670-03766-4. $24.95. MAs the summer sun beats down on the Swedish coastal city of Gothenburg, death has cast its own dark pall. In Edwardson’s second “Erik Winter” mystery to be translated into English (after Sun and Shadow), the chief inspector and his team face a string of rape/murders eerily similar to those in a five-year-old unsolved case. In tracing the relationship of the victims to each other and uncovering their secrets, Winter finds his investigation taking an even more personal turn that leads to a shocking conclusion. Patrons who enjoy dark, moody crime novels set in foreign locales will want this. Strongly recommended for all crime fiction collections. [The Nordic crime wave continues with Karien Fossum’s When the Devil Holds the Candle, reviewed above, and Mari Jungstedt’s debut Swedish crime novel, Unseen, coming in September from St. Martin’s Minotaur.—Ed.]—Susan O. Moritz, Montgomery Cty. Pub. Libs., MD
Grabenstein, Chris. Mad Mouse. Carroll & Graf. Jul. 2006. c.320p. ISBN 0-7867-1760-2 [ISBN 978-0-7867-1760-6]. $23.95. MThis worthy sequel to Grabenstein’s successful debut, Tilt-a-Whirl, takes place about a month after the events in the previous book end. It’s almost Labor Day in the summer resort town of Sea Haven, NJ, and part-time cop Danny, who has just been offered a full-time position, and his childhood friends are targeted by a sniper. Fortunatelley, Danny gets help from his by-the-book partner, John Ceepak. While the crimes and the rationale behind them are darker and edgier here than in the first novel, Grabenstein’s writing remains quick, sharp, and funny. The well-developed characters of Danny and John remain true to form, and plenty of new and interesting personalities are thrown into the mix. Highly recommended for all mystery collections.—Nicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., Upper Montclair, NJ
Mystery Anthologies
Short stories can pack a wallop disproportionate to their length, and the following anthologies serve up a feast for fans of crime and suspense fiction. Tried and true work by such masters as Ed McBain and Lawrence Block is gathered in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense, while other collections feature original, previously unpublished tales. And writers affiliated with the newly launched International Thriller Writers Inc. are featured in a nail-biting collection being published by Mira.—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense. Pegasus. Jun. 2006. c.560p. ed. by Linda Landrican. ISBN 1-933648-03-1. pap. $16.95. MTo commemorate its 50th anniversary, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine staff—with input from its readers—selected 34 stories and arranged them chronologically here, starting with Jim Thompson’s “The Frightening Frammis” from February 1957 and ending with “Voodoo” by Rhys Bowen from December 2004. Although the introduction notes the variety in this selection, the stories tend more toward the hard-boiled than the cozy, with the emphasis on solving crime and/or attaining a measure of justice. Many of crime fiction’s notables are here: Donald Westlake, Bill Pronzini, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, George Chesbro, S.J. Rozan, Jan Burke, Loren Estleman, and Janice Law, but—fittingly—only the master of the genre over the decades has two entries: Evan Hunter is represented with “Not a Laughing Matter” from August 1958 and, under his pseudonym Ed McBain, with “Leaving Nairobi” from June 2003. These are uniformly satisfying stories that have stood the test of time. Having them available again, under one cover, is a bonus for mystery fans. For all mystery and short story collections.
Baltimore Noir. 2006. 291p. ed. by Laura Lippman. ISBN 1-888451-96-2.Twin Cities Noir. Jun. 2006. c.256p. ed. by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz. ISBN 1-888451-97-1.
ea. vol: Akashic. (Akashic Noir). pap. $14.95. M
Launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir, Akashic’s series of regional noir anthologies continues with these welcome eighth and ninth entries. Who better to edit the volume dedicated to Baltimore than Lippman, a former Baltimore Sun reporter whose popular Tess Monaghan series is set in Charm City (also known as “Bulletmore” for its steadfastly high homicide rate)? Lippman also contributes the first and one of the best of the 16 original stories, “Easy as A-B-C,” about a contractor who puts his building skills to use when his affair with his client ends. Charlie Stella’s on-target dialog spotlights mob efficiency in “Ode to the O’s.”, while the Fell’s Point area is the locale for two tales: Rob Hiassen’s “Over My Dead Body,” which revolves around the area’s gentrification, and Dan Fesperman’s “As Seen on TV,” in which a Balkan hit man doesn’t know that his favorite show, Homicide, which was set here, has long since been cancelled. Other writers include Marcia Talley, Sujata Massey, Tim Cockey, Jim Fusilli, and Homicide author David Simon.
Once known as the Saintly City, St. Paul, MN, sheltered criminals on the run during the 1920s and 1930s, and in the mid-1990s Minneapolis was tagged as “Murderapolis” for a rash of killings one summer. So these wholesome Midwestern metropolises have their underside, as several good authors—Pete Hautman, K.J. Erickson, Larry Millett, David Housewright, William Kent Krueger, and Mary Logue—reveal in this collection. A famous writer finds a satisfying means of dealing with the hijacking of her web domain name in Judith Guest’s captivating “Eminent Domain,” and in Ellen Hart’s suspenseful “Blind Sided,” a man who’s losing his sight comments “You can’t go blind in Minnesota without being offered a lot of help—it’s the way Minnesotans are.” That may explain why these 15 original stories—some dealing with organized crime and less-than-peaceful death—are overall less dark than in the other anthologies reviewed here.
Hardboiled Brooklyn. Bleak House. 2006. c.224p. ed. by Reed Farrel Coleman. ISBN 1-932557-17-2. pap. $15.95. MThese 17 original stories by writers with a past or present connection to Brooklyn (including three also represented in Baltimore Noir above) are indeed hard-boiled. Several have children as perpetrators, victims, or horrified onlookers, which makes the collection particularly dark. In Robert Randisi’s “The Bocce Ball King of Farragut Road,” a five-year-old witnesses a brutal mob murder. The violent side of women, often out for retribution, also is amply on display. However, S.J. Rozan’s “Sunset” is more clever than dark; in it, no one dies. Other authors include Peter Blauner, Charlie Stella, Jim Fusilli, Naomi Rand, and Ken Bruen. A worthy competitor to Akashic’s Brooklyn Noir titles, this will be relished by readers with a taste for the dark. For collections where gritty crime
Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night. Mira: Harlequin. Jun. 2006. c.573p. ed. by James Patterson. ISBN 0-7783-2299-8. $24.95. MAs editor Patterson notes in his introduction, thrillers cross the lines of genres and fictional topics, but whether political, legal, military, romantic, high-tech, or historical, their common intent is to thrill. This first anthology devoted to thrillers features 32 original short stories by the top authors in the field—among them, Lee Child, John Lescroart, David Morrell, James Grippando, Michael Palmer, Douglas Preston, J.A. Konrath, Heather Graham, and T. Paul Wilson. Each story is preceded by Patterson’s introduction to the writer’s work and the story’s place in it. The entries occasionally fall short of the contributor’s long fiction, as in Child’s lead-off story, which barely hints at the complexity of his compelling series protagonist Jack Reacher. Still, the individual introductions and the overall high quality of the stories, with their range of settings, make this adrenaline-producing collection a winner for all libraries.
