P. D. James: The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories

P. D. James
The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories
Intro by Val McDermid
Preface by P. D. James

P. D. James is my favorite mystery writer.   The only works of hers that I haven't read are a true-crime work in collaboration with T. A. Critchley and her autobiography.   Consequently I was overjoyed to discover that there was now a collection of several of her short stories in print.  I hadn't even been aware that she had written any shorter works, so I immediately searched the public library for a copy.  I'm now thinking about getting my own

The first two stories are flashback tales, the third is a cold case mystery, and the fourth is a contemporary crime.  The third and fourth are a joy to read because I thought that there would be no more Adam Dalgliesh stories. 
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"The Mistletoe Murder"

The anonymous 1st person narrator is a "bestselling crime novelist" who explains her part in a murder that happen many years ago.  The others are dead now, so it's safe to finally tell what happened.

It happened during WWII.  Her husband was an RAF  pilot who was killed two weeks after they were married.   That Christmas she received an invitation from her grandmother to spend the holidays with her.  There would be only one person there besides them, a first cousin, Paul, whom she had never met because of a family feud.

When she arrived, she found that her grandmother had misled her:  there was another person there.  He was Rowland Maybrick, a distant family relation and an antique dealer who specialized in old coins.  Her grandmother had invited him to evaluate a coin collection and possibly locate buyers.  The narrator found him obnoxious.

On the evening of  Christmas Day, Maybrick decides to evaluate the coins, for he has to leave the following morning.  The next day, Maybrick does not appear for breakfast, and he hasn't slept in his bed.  A search begins, and his body is found in the library (where else in a stately isolated mansion?), his head bashed in.  The local constabulary is called in, and he decides he must have been killed by an intruder.

So the matter rests until the narrator, the young woman who will become a "bestselling crime novelist" begins her own investigation.




"A Very Commonplace Murder"

Many years ago, a married woman was found stabbed to death in an apartment.  She had left a note for her friend, who had given her the key,  in which she explains that she was going to end the affair for her husband was getting suspicious.   Various witnesses placed him in the vicinity of the apartment on the evening she was murdered.  In spite of the circumstantial evidence against him, the young lover insisted he was innocent.  He had been there, but she never let him in.   It's all very ordinary, commonplace as the title suggests.  However, it is not quite so commonplace as believed..

She gave the old man the key to the apartment, but she'd been in real estate long enough to know he wasn't a serious inquirer.  Why he wanted to look around, she didn't know, but it wasn't any of her business.  She was  right, though; Ernest Gabriel did have his reasons. 

Gabriel had evidence in support of the young lover's story.  There was, however, a slight problem.  First, he would have to explain what he was doing in a place that he had no right to be in at that time.   Secondly, he would have had to explain why he was there, and that would have been even more embarrassing.   To sum up his problem: if he told the police what he know, he would most likely lose his job and be blacklisted by his former employer.  In addition, he would become an object of ridicule, such that the few people who knew him would laugh and sneer at him.  On the one hand, his job and reputation would be at risk; on the other hand, an innocent man's life was at risk.

The young lover is arrested, and Gabriel decides to wait, for the police may find more evidence and free the young man.  Then, Gabriel's sacrifice would have been in vain.  Best to wait until the lover is actually charged.  Then he would speak.  The young man is charged with the crime . . .

This is less of a mystery and more of a psychological study of a man caught in a trap of his own devising.  It wouldn't have occurred if he hadn't been where he shouldn't have been and doing what he knew he shouldn't be doing.



"The Boxdale Inheritance"

This, in a sense,  is a cold case mystery, one of my favorite types.  It's a bit unusual for, as best as I can remember, it's the only cold case that the Met's  Adam Dalgliesh has been involved in.  In addition, it's not a formal investigation, for Dalgliesh is doing this on his own time for his godfather, Canon Hubert Boxdale.

Great Aunt Allie had just left Canon Boxdale the tidy sum of fifty thousand pounds. His wife has serious medical problems, and the unexpected inheritance seems almost miraculous.  This, however, posed a problem for the Canon, and he wished Inspector Dalgliesh would look into it.   Ir was a matter of conscience.  Some sixty-seven years ago Great Aunt Allie, as a very young woman, married a rich older man.  The man's family was upset, for she was a few months younger than the old man's granddaughter, and he had made a new will that left her everything. You may decide for yourself which was the most distressing.

Several months later he died, and an autopsy revealed that he had been poisoned.  Great Aunt Allie was charged, tried, and found Not Guilty.  Now, some sixty-seven years later she dies and leaves Canon Boxdale fifty thousand pounds.  The Canon is worried that the money may be tainted in that she murdered her husband to get it.  He asks Dalgliesh to investigate and decide whether he can honestly and without any doubt accept the verdict of Not Guilty.

Chief Inspector Dalgliesh investigates with his usual thoroughness and does come to a conclusion, but not without undergoing a matter of conscience of his own.



"The Twelve Clues of Christmas"

The title, of course, is a play on the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  And, there are twelve clues.  Unfortunately I didn't take the title seriously, so I wasn't really counting the clues as they appeared.  I did pick up a few though.

Sgt. Adam Dalgliesh is on his way to spend Christmas with his Aunt Jane, when occurs that cliched opening to an adventure.  He is driving down a lonely road, not far from his Aunt Jane's place, when a man "leaps from the side of the road in the darkness of a winter afternoon, frantically waving down the approaching motorist . . ."

Dalgliesh stops and Helmut Harkerville excitedly asks Dalgliesh to take him to a telephone.  He must call the police for his uncle has just committed suicide.  That task accomplished, Dalgliesh then takes him back to Harkerville Hall.  (These isolated mansions in the countryside keep popping up everywhere).   Dalgliesh unofficially looks around and then turns it over to the local constabulary.

Unfortunately, he's still involved.  He has just begun to relax at Aunt Jane's when Inspector Peck arrives.  Peck has called the Met and discovered that Dalgliesh is a bit of a fair-haired boy there and requests his help.  Dalgliesh sighs;  there goes that quiet evening in conversation with Aunt Jane in front of a fireplace with a drink in hand. (In an interview, James had said that her favorite author was Jane Austen.  The aunt's name is a coincidence, I'm sure),

He returns with Inspector Peck, and they conduct a thorough search of the place.  Afterwords, Inspector Peck asks, "So what stuck you particularly about this little charade?"

Sgt. Dalgliesh responds, "A number of oddities, Sir.  If this were a detective story, you could call it 'The Twelve Clues of Christmas.'"

(James is having some fun with us--doing a little post-modern stuff here.)

Dalgliesh continues:  "'It's taken a little mental agility to get the number to twelve, but I thought it appropriate.'

"'Cut out the cleverness, laddie, and get to the facts.'"


And, so Sgt.  Dalgliesh gets to the facts, the twelve clues.

As for the type of a story this is, Sgt Dalgliesh says it best in the last words of the tale: "My dear Aunt Jane, I don't think I'll ever have another case like it.  It was pure Agatha Christie."

These are four enjoyable tales, and they are pure P. D. James.  The only problem is that there are only four.  Now that I know that P. D., James has written some short stories, I will conduct a little investigation of my own: are there more?

Favorite Mystery Series--Books

This is the growing list--both in the sense that authors are occasionally added to it and that many of the authors are still providing us with more adventures of their detectives. I have attempted to list them according to the following pattern:

Author
Mystery category
Name of featured detective
Usual location for the series
Time of the novel
Prequel, if any
First novel in the series



Ingrid Black (husband and wife collab)
Former Law-enforcement Officer
Saxon, ex-FBI profiler
Dublin, Ireland 
Contemporary
First novel in the series:  The Dead  (2003)
May move this to a different list as there hasn't been a new novel since 2008


Giles Blunt
Police Procedural
Detective John Cardinal
Algonquin Bay, fictional town near Toronto, Canada
Contemporary
First novel in the  series: Forty Words for Sorrow  (2000)


Karin Fossum,
Police Procedural
Inspector Konrad Sejer
Elvestad, Norway
Contemporary
First novel in the series:  In the Darkness aka Eva's Eye (1995)


Michael Gregorio (wife and husband collab)
Judicial Detective
Magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis
Konigsberg, Prussia
Historical mystery set in Prussia during the Napoleonic wars in 1804.
First Book in Series   Critique of Criminal Reason  (2006)
They may have ended the series as there hasn't been a new one since 2010.


Eliot Pattison
Former Law-enforcement Officer
Shan Tao Yun,
Tibet: Former police officer in Beijing, China, whose duty was to investigate corruption in the party and ends up in a work camp in Tibet for being too diligent in his duties.
Contemporary
First novel in the series: The Skull Mantra (1999)


Peter Robinson
Police Procedural
Chief Inspector Alan Banks
Yorkshire, England
Contemporary
First novel in series: Gallows View  (1987)



C. J. Sansom
Judicial detective
Matthew Shardlake,  lawyer
London, England
Historical mystery, 16th century,  during the reign of King Henry VIII,
First novel in the series:  Dissolution   (2003)



Steven Saylor
Private Professional
Gordianus the Finder
Rome
Historical mystery,  1st century BC
Prequel:  The Seven Wonders.
Second Prequel:  Raiders of the Nile
First novel in the series:  Roman Blood  (1991)



Charles Todd (mother and son collab)
Police Procedural
Inspector Ian Rutledge
London, England and countryside
Historical mystery, just after WWI
Prequel:  A Fine Summer's Day, set in 1914. 
First novel in the series:  A Test of Wills, (1996)


Fred Vargas
Police Procedural
Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg
Paris, France
Contemporary
First novel in the series:  The Chalk Circle Man  (1991)



The following is the sad list--those favorite series that have ended, usually because of the author's death but sometimes because of the author's decision to end the series.


Agatha Christie
Talented amateur
Miss Jane Marple
St. Mary Mead,  England
Contemporary when written in 1930
First novel in the series:  The Murder at the Vicarage  (1930)


Colin Dexter
Police Procedural
Inspector Morse
Oxford, England
Contemporary
First novel in the series: Last Bus to Woodstock  (1975)
Colin Dexter ended the series


Batya Gur
Police procedural
Inspector Michael Ohayon,
Jerusalem, Israel
Contemporary
First novel in the series:  The Saturday Morning Murder: a psychoanalytic case  (1992)


P. D. James
Police Procedural
Commander Adam Dalgliesh
London, England
Contemporary
First novel in the series:  Cover Her Face  (1962)


Bernard Knight
Technical professionals
Sir John de Wolfe (coroner)
County of Devon, England
Historical mystery, 1196 AD
First novel in the series:  The Sanctuary Seeker  (19980
Bernard Knight ended the series and now has two other series


Ellis Peters
Talented Amateur
Brother Cadfael  (a Benedictine monk)
Shrewsbury Abbey, Shrewsbury,  Shropshire, England
Historical mystery set in mid 12th century
Prequel:  A Rare Benedictine
First novel in the series:  A Morbid Taste for Bones  (1977)


Dorothy Sayers
Talented Amateur
Lord Peter Wimsey
London, England
Contemporary when written
First novel in the series: Whose Body   (1923)


Arthur Upfield
Police procedural
Inspector Napoleon (Bony) Bonaparte
Australia, various fictional locations
Contemporary when written
First novel in the series:  The Barrakee Mystery (1928)

PD James: Unnatural Causes, Aunt Who?

PD James
Unnatural Causes

This is the third in the series of mysteries featuring  the cases of Dalgliesh, James' poetry writing Scotland Yard detective.  This one is a bit different in that it really isn't Dalgliesh's case, for he's on vacation, visiting his Aunt Jane Dalgliesh who lives in a small village on the coast that has become sort of an undeclared writers' colony.  However, the officer in charge of the case is very ambivalent towards Dalgliesh.  He doesn't like Dalgliesh, and Dalgliesh returns the feeling, but he wants to draw upon Dalgliesh's experience and expertise.  This makes for a rocky professional relationship.

A corpse is discovered in a small dinghy floating off the coast.  His hands have been cut off, probably after his death, according to the autopsy.  He is soon identified as he had been one of the writers who lived in the small village.  How did he die?  Why were his hands removed after death?  Some sort of warning?  A false trail?  As usual, James provides much to keep us occupied.

This is probably my third, and perhaps even the fourth, reading of this novel.  Even though I knew whodunnit, I still find James' works entertaining as novels about people and their behavior.    And something new always shows up at each reading.  This time Dalgliesh's aunt stood out from the background.  I become aware of her this time, much more than in previous readings.  Just why, of course, is probably a case of over-reading on my part, but I find it interesting anyway.

Adam Dalgliesh and his Aunt Jane are very close, in spite of the difference in their ages, or perhaps because of this difference.  She is in her eighties now and a spinster.  She had been engaged as a young woman back in 1918, but her fiance had been killed six months before the Armistice in November.  Apparently no one has come along since then to engage her affections.  She was the daughter of a minister, and after her mother died, shortly after her fiance's death, she took over the role of housekeeper for her father.

After his death  in 1955, she moved to the coast of Suffolk and lived quietly there.  Her one hobby, ornithology, kept her occupied.  Her careful and meticulous observations provided her with material for several books and she found herself, eventually, considered to be "one of the most respected of  amateur ornithologists in England."  Her reputation in the small village increased when it was discovered that several distinguished individuals, including a famous writer who had been a recluse for many years, were seen in her company. 

Dalgliesh later in the novel remarks that Aunt Jane was not a sentimental woman, quite the contrary.  "To Jane Dalgliesh people were as they were.  It was as pointlessly presumptuous to try to change them as it was impertinent to pity them.  Never before had his aunt's uninvolvement struck him so forcibly; never before had it seemed so frightening."  Jane Dalgliesh seems to be one who see people clearly and objectively, with few romantic illusions about her fellow inhabitants of this small planet and views them coldly and dispassionately.  They are as they are.

Now, why does this suddenly stand out, waving frantically for my attention.  Well, PD James' death last November got me to begin rereading her works again and to also remember an interview I had seen many years ago.  In the interview she said that Jane Austen was her favorite writer and that if she were alive today, Austen would be writing mysteries.

Jane Austen, who,  in the past, had frequently been referred to as "Dear Aunt Jane,"  was also a spinster at her death.  She too had been the daughter of a minister and remained in the family household until her death at 41.  She had never married, but had several chances.  One, at an early age, according to a family tradition, had occurred while they were living on the coast.  According to her sister Cassandra, a young man had fallen in love with Jane.  He had made a favorable impression on Cassandra, and she thought that he would have been successful in his courtship.  However, he had to leave, but he also made it clear that he would return.  Shortly afterwards, however,  they learned of his death.

Jane Austen's novels, based on careful and meticulous observation of the people around her, while never making any top ten list, did attract readers, one of whom was the Prince Regent who apparently kept copies of her works at each of his residences.  Her novels fostered no illusions about people and clearly presented them as they were, warts and all.

I suppose this is a real stretch.  Both aunts are named Jane, both had a minister for a father, both remained spinsters, both when young apparently lost a possibly successful  suitor  through death, both gained some fame as a writer whose works featured close and meticulous observation of their subjects, and both apparently had a clear and unromantic view of those about them, perhaps approaching a cruel and detached vision.

And to push this even further--I can't help thinking of another aunt who also clearly, perceptively, and objectively views her neighbors and sees the evil buried deep within--Aunt Jane Marple.   Obviously, I have a bad case of Aunt Jane fever. 

Two mysteries by unexpected authors

One of these I discovered by accident, browsing I no longer remember where, while the second I learned of from Yvette over at her blog, In So Many Words.  One of her regular features is a commentary on a forgotten book and this was one she mentioned.  I was so intrigued by the author and the subject that I immediately searched out the book.

I do reveal significant plot elements and developments.


C. P. Snow
Death Under Sail
Mystery Type:  talented amateur
Setting: England
Time:  1930's

C. P. Snow was a distinguished physicist and novelist, best known for his lecture The Two Cultures, in which he laments the gulf between scientists and "literary intellectuals."  According to Snow, it was the job of the literary intellectuals who were supposed to make science available to the non-scientific world, and they had failed to do so.  Snow is also known for his series of novels collectively called Strangers and Brothers,  which  concentrated on "depicting intellectuals in academic and government settings in the modern era."  Consequently it was a surprise when I stumbled across Death Under Sail a short  time ago, especially since it was his first published novel. (Quotations from the Wikipedia entry on C. P. Snow.)

Several nights ago I watched a dramatized version of P. D. James Death in Holy Orders.  It also included a short film of P. D. James discussing writers and settings.  She talked about mystery writers and what they do when setting up and writing a story.  One of the points she brought up was that it was very useful to set the story so that there were only a limited number of suspects.  The English country estate is a classic setting for many mysteries.

C; P. Snow was well aware of this for he set his mystery and murder on a small private yacht, with only six people aboard, all of whom, supposedly, were friends.   But, as in all good mysteries, the surface view bears little relationship to the real situation.  Roger, the host and owner of the yacht, has invited five of his friends about his yacht for a cruise. And, it is Roger, who is murdered, by someone he considered a friend.

He is found one morning at the tiller of the yacht, dead from a gunshot.  No weapon can be found, but some items, a cord and the ship's logbook, are missing.  Since no gun could be seen and autopsy showed that he died instantly, suicide was ruled out.  However,  I would suggest that fans of Sherlock Holmes might recognize the situation as being similar to one of his cases, "The Problem of Thor Bridge."  So, I was sure that I had cracked the case, very early on.  However, as the story progressed, the situation became more complex and I began to have doubts, still convinced though that it would turn out to be a suicide.

The crime actually was not solved by the police, although the office in charge, blessed with some unusual characteristics, wasn't as dumb as the others thought.  The narrator, a late arrival on the yacht, persuaded the others to invite a friend of his, Finbow by name, to join them on the yacht.

Finbow was a civil servant in the diplomatic corp who had spent considerable time in various obscure places about the planet.  But what was most important was "his only passion--the watching of men and women as they performed their silly antics for his amusement.  He watched in a curious, detailed, scientific way;  I  remember the astonishment I felt when he told me more than I knew myself about an absurd romance I had whilst I was in China. The chief impression which he made on me was of an amused and rather frightening detachment."  I think there's definitely a Sherlockian flavor here.   The narrator's idea, of course,  is that Finbow would be able to identify the killer.

While dragging the river at the point where the murder had been committed, the police found the gun tied with the missing cord to the missing heavy logbook. But, as Finbow points out,  the question is, therefore, whether Roger committed suicide and tried to make it look like a murder so as to get even with those aboard the yacht, or was this a murder which was first set up to look like a murder, but eventually would be revealed to be a suicide, and therefore allow the killer to go free.

The major disappointment is this:  I wish C. P. Snow had written at least one more mystery featuring Finbow.

Recommended for those who have enjoyed  C. P. Snow's novels and would interested in reading his first novel; for those who enjoy the more cerebral type of mystery; and for those who enjoy the mysteries of what is called "The Golden Age" of mysteries.


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T. H. White
The Darkness at Pemberley
Mystery Type:  first part is police procedural; the second part is thriller.
Setting:  first part at Cambridge University; the second at Pemberley Estate in Derbyshire
 Time:  the 1930s


Having just read P. D. James novel, Death Comes to Pemberley, I had to read this one when Yvette featured it on her blog:  T. H. White?   the author of one of my favorite fantasies--The Once and Future King.    Coincidentally, it was published in 1932, the same year that  C. P. Snow first published Death Under Sail.  This was White's second or third novel.

And, yes, Pemberley is the marvelous estate that Lizzy Bennett thought being mistress of would be wonderful.  The present inhabitants of Pemberley are Charles and Elizabeth Darcy, brother and sister, who are descendents of THE Lizzie and Darcy of Pride and Prejudice.

Part One takes place at barely disguised Queen's College, Cambridge and is a traditional police procedural.  Several murders have been committed, one of which takes place in a very ingenious locked-room setting.  Mr. Beedon, a history don, was found dead with a gun nearby in a  locked room,  That gun was later found to be the same gun that had killed a student at about the same time, and, therefore,  it seemed clear that Beedon had killed the student and then committed suicide because of guilt. 

Inspector Buller, of the Cambridge police, was not satisfied.  for there were several anomalies, one of which was that Beedon, it was later discovered, had died first.  The first part,  therefore, is of Inspector Buller's investigation in which he finally works out the identity of the killer.  Unfortunately, he lacks proof, but he informs the killer that he is known, hoping I suppose, to dissuade the killer from committing any more murders because the police are now aware of him.

It is at this point where the novel gets strange.  Buller is invited down to Pemberley for a vacation and participation in war games, with small, but very real, cannons.  It was a passion of Charles Darcy.  Buller had met Charles and Elizabeth Darcy several years ago on a vacation trip.  He had been driving by the estate when his front tyre was destroyed by a cannon shell that came over the wall.  Invited in while his tyre was replaced, he became friends with the Darcys, and eventually fell in love with Elizabeth.  Being a police officer, he was of a much lower social status than the Darcys, even though Charles had a prison record, and Buller, therefore, considered his situation hopeless.  But, being fiction, I could only wonder just how hopeless his situation was.

Buller tells the Darcys about his last case and that the killer, even though known, couldn't be arrested for the two murders.  Charles Darcy, a bit on the headstrong side, goes to Cambridge and  confronts the killer.  The killer immediately decides, once Darcy's connection to Inspector Buller is revealed, to kill Darcy for revenge and to show Buller just how helpless he is.

At this point, the novel turns into a thriller in which Buller desperately attempts to keep Charles alive.  It soon becomes clear that the killer has somehow managed to invade the Pemberley mansion and seemingly moves freely about the place regardless of the efforts of Buller and the estate staff, all of whom are devoted to the Darcys. Buller knows, though, that it's just a matter of time before the killer tires of the game and will move to kill Charles.  But, where is the killer hiding and how can he move about the mansion without being discovered?

Overall Comments:  it's a strange mix of cerebral mystery and an action-oriented novel   What makes it even stranger is the tie-in with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.   For those looking for something a little bit different, I would recommend this one.

While I no longer have the room to keep everything I read,  I have decided that these two are keepers.

2012: New Year's Resolution, Reading List, and Reading Challenges

Last year I created a combined New Year's Resolution, Reading List, and Reading Challenges for myself. It was simply to read two books a month from my TBR bookcase, a total of 24 for the year. The Bad News is that I only managed to read 15 of 24 books, not even two-thirds of my goal. The Good News is that I managed to read 15 of 24 books, therefore removing 15 books from the bookcase. Consequently, I have decided to try again this year, hoping to either make my goal or even exceed it.

Overall it was a good year. Following is a partial list of the books I did read and would recommend.


Stella Gibbons: Cold Comfort Farm
Hermann Hesse: Siddhartha
Kim Stanley Robinson: The Wild Shore
Hermann Hesse: Steppenwolf
Loren Eiseley: The Immense Journey
Fred Vargas: Seeking Whom He May Devour
Joseph Conrad: Victory
Mikhail Bulgakov: Heart of a Dog
Joseph Wood Krutch: Baja California and the Geography of HopeKS Robinson: The Gold Coast
Thomas Mann: The Transposed Heads
Russell Hoban: The Lion of Boaz-Jachim and Jachim-Boaz
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Bruce Stolbov: Last Fall
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: We Never Make Mistakes
Karin Fossum: The Indian Bride or Calling Out for You
Ken Grimwood: Replay
China Mieville: Kraken
Dan Simmons: Hyperion
Jack London: The Sea-Wolf
Rudyard Kipling: Kim
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Ingrid Black: Circle of the Dead
Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland
Philip Jose Farmer: To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Michael Gregorio: A Visible Darkness
Arnaldur Indridason: Silence of the Grave
P. D. James: Death Comes to Pemberley
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
Eliot Pattison: The Lord of Death
Kim Stanley Robinson: 40 Signs of Rain
Ben Sanders: The Fallen
C. J. Sansom: Heartstone
John Scalzi: Android's Dream
Manil Suri: Death of Vishnu

Combination Plate 18

Warning: I will discuss significant plot elements and endings.


Mike Ashley, ed. The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries, a collection of short mystery stories

Somtow Sucharitkul, Mallworld, a fix-up SF Novel

Fantasias and Trons: clones by Disney

Death Race (2008), SF film

Bernard Knight, "The Crowner John" series
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Mike Ashley, ed. The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries
Carroll and Graf


This collection contains thirty short stories that focus on perfect crimes, supposedly those so well planned out that the perps couldn't be identified, and those that couldn't possibly have happened, such as the man in a glass telephone booth, in plain sight, who was killed by an ice pick or a man who entered a cable car alone and is found dead when the car reaches the bottom even though the car was visible the entire route.

Some of the authors are Mike Ashley, Richard A. Lupoff, Bill Pronzini (author of the Noname Detective novels), Peter Tremayne (author of the Sister Fidelma historical mysteries), Barry Longyear, and Bernard Knight (author of the great "Crowner John" historical mystery series).
I knew Richard A. Lupoff and Barry Longyear from their SF stories and wasn't aware they wrote mysteries also.

This is a great collection to have when there's only short periods available for reading.


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Somtow Sucharitkul, Mallworld, a SF novel?


Sucharitkul's Mallworld, although marketed as a novel, really is a collection of short stories that could have been published separately in SF magazines and are loosely connected by a frame. Earth has been quarantined by a galactic federation because humans are too violent and unpredictable. The entire solar system out to Saturn has been enclosed in a small pocket universe. Humans can't get out, but tourists can visit the reservation. The linking is simple: every so often, a member of the federation government comes to observe humans to determine if they have matured enough to be allowed back into the universe. The stories, therefore, represent examples of human behavior upon which the Observer will make his decision.

All stories take place on Mallworld, a huge shopping mall the size of a planet built out around Saturn's orbit. It's the biggest shopping center ever built and has over 20,000 shops and claims to have over a million visitors every day. It was built after the quarantine was imposed. Apparently, the humans decided that if they couldn't explore the universe, they could at least go shopping.

The stories tend toward the comic and the bizarre. One of the establishments at the mall is a suicide parlor where one can select from a list of over three hundred types of suicide. One of the most popular choices is "death by vampire." Another store is Storkways, Inc. where one can order a custom-made baby. But, miss a payment and the repo team is dispatched.

This is also a great book for those times when only short periods are available for reading. One can ignore the interlinear links, and each story is independent, although a few characters do appear in more than one story.

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Fantasias and Trons

In 1940 Disney presented the world with Fantasia. To call it simply another cartoon is to grossly devalue the film. It was, and still is as far as I'm concerned, a revelation in Light, Color, Motion, and Sound. It is Disney's creative staff strutting their stuff, saying "Look at what we can do." It's a perfect marriage of the visual and the audio sensory worlds. It's one of my favorite films, and one which I view regularly.

Forty-two years later, in 1982, Disney gave the viewers something new and exciting--Tron. With the use of SFX, Disney opened up the world of cyberspace. He used the new special effects techniques to show us a possible view of what the inside world of those techniques might look like. The story line was acceptable, but the SFX made the film a very enjoyable viewing experience. I immediately thought of Disney's earlier masterpiece Fantasia. All Tron lacked, I thought, was the blending of Sound to Color, Motion, and Light at the level of Fantasia.

Then, inexplicably, in 1999, Disney comes out with Fantasia 2000--almost sixty years after the first film and seventeen years after Tron, which was a celebration of newer techniques. It, sadly, was just a remake of the original film with different music and visuals. It added nothing that hadn't been already accomplished in the original film. I was disappointed. It was good, but I found it nowhere as creative or innovative as the 1942 Fantasia.

In 2010, as should have been expected, Disney produced a second clone, Tron: Legacy. The plot was very similar to the first one (and the first one wasn't really that terrific). Surprisingly, I thought the 1982 version seemed to be more typical of a digital world than the 1999 version. Since I've never experienced the "digital world" of cyberspace, I'm obviously only guessing at this. But, it seemed to me that Tron: Legacy seemed to be in a more organic world than its predecessor. It frequently seemed to lack the sharpness of light and color, and the objects found there were rounder? softer? --characteristics I would associate more with the organic/analogue world than the digital world of cyberspace. Obviously, I'm not too sure of what I mean here and I'm really groping for the right words.

I don't know why the clones were produced, unless it was simply for profit. There's a psychological principle known as the Recency Principle which states that people remember best what they experienced last. That means that my memories of Fantasia and Tron have now been overlaid by the memories of the clones. That's sad. I think that the most effective cure would be to see Fantasia (1940) and Tron (1982) again.

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Death Race

This version came out in 2008. It is based on an earlier film, Death Race: 2000, which appeared in 1975. I don't remember seeing the earlier version, but the IMDB listing says that this is a new script, so it may be quite different.

The plot--well, it does have one. Jensen Ames, in a economically depressed US, sometime around 2015 loses his job and is framed for the murder of his wife. He ends up in Terminal Island, a privately run prison. He is persuaded to take part in the Death Race, a televised special that has high ratings. The drivers are prisoners who take part because one who wins five races gets released.

It's a throwback to the days of the Roman games, specifically the chariot races, when blood, carnage, and death were the main attractions. In fact, one of the encounters in this film comes directly from the famous chariot race in the film Ben Hur. In this modern version, the cars are heavily armored and armed with 50 cal. machine guns and whatever else they can scare up. Generally the survival rate is around 60%. The powers-that-be decided one race wasn't enough to take up the 90 minutes, so it's held in three heats.

Acting skills are minimal, except for the Coach, who is played by Ian McShane. His laid back attitude contrasts with the rest of the cast who specialize in macho-a-macho glowering throughout most of the film, and that includes Hennessy, the female warden played by Joan Allen, who must have seen too many Nazi concentration camp films during her formative years. Coach just looks around and smiles, possibly the only person in the cast who realizes how silly all this is.

Overall Reaction: recommended for those who enjoy demolition derby "races" featuring armed and armored vehicles.


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Bernard Knight "The Crowner John" Series
Historical mystery, technical detective category


Earlier, when I discussed the collection of stories about impossible crimes, I mentioned Bernard Knight, the author of the superb "Crowner John" series. I first encountered Knight in a novel by Priscilla Royal, Wine of Violence. It was an enjoyable read, and one of the most interesting characters in the novel was the crowner, an king's appointee who served as the king's representative for that area. Royal at the end of the novel stated that she based the character of the crowner on Bernard Knight's "Crowner John" series. So, I went looking, found them fascinating, and am now busy reading my way through the series, which now includes fourteen novels.

He has also begun a new series, featuring a forensic pathologist who sets up a private practice in England in 1955. Knight has spent many years as a practicing forensic pathologist in England and is past president of the Forensic Science Society.

The "Crowner John" series is set during the late twelfth and early thirteenth century in Exeter. Sir John de Wolfe has been appointed to his position by Richard the Lion-Hearted and is one of the first individuals to hold that position. His responsibilities include protecting the king's interests, mostly financial, by recording "all serious crimes, deaths and legal events for the King's judges." The quotation comes from the six page glossary provided by Knight.

Sir John de Wolfe, therefore, is the first coroner in Exeter. He is the second highest law officer in the area, second to the sheriff. Unfortunately the sheriff, Sir Richard de Revelle, is also his brother-in-law who strongly resents de Wolfe's presence in the area for two reasons. One is that he doesn't like someone looking over his shoulder; it cramps his grasping for ill-gotten wealth. The second is that de Wolfe is a strong supporter of King Richard, while de Revelle has thrown his support to Prince John and has been involved in several schemes that bordered on treason. Because of the marital relationship, de Wolfe kept quiet about what he knew of de Revelle's part in several plots to overthrow King Richard.

Those who enjoyed Ellis Peters' "Brother Cadfael" series will like this one. Both Sir John de Wolfe and Brother Cadfael are survivors of the various European conflicts and crusades. Both have gained considerable knowledge of wounds and injuries and the types of weapons that might be responsible. And, both, after long years in the military, have picked up considerable knowledge about diseases and possible cures.

Knight has also gathered several interesting characters as de Wolfe's aides. His assistant is Gwyn of Polruan, a huge Cornishman, who had been de Wolfe's bodyguard and friend for many years on the battlefield. His battlefield experience helps de Wolfe in various ways, from various incidents involving hand-to-hand combat to the simple autopsies that were possible at that time. Since neither he nor Gwyn could write, de Wolfe relies on Thomas de Peyne, a defrocked priest to keep the necessary records. His knowledge of Church rituals, rites, and rules also comes in handy at times, as is his ability to work his way into the confidence of the local clergy, most of whom are unaware of his disgraced status.

The first book in the series is Sanctuary Seeker. I found it surprising just how involved the whole procedure of claiming sanctuary really was. While each novel does stand alone, I would recommend reading them chronologically as the relationships among the characters--de Wolfe, his wife, the sheriff, de Wolfe's mistress, Gwyn, and de Peyne--do vary a bit.

Overall Reaction: a great series, one of the best historical series I have found--especially recommended to those who liked the Brother Cadfael series.

Some Great Reads from 2010

It seems to be traditional that summing up the year takes place now. So, here's a list of what I thought were memorable reads for 2010. This is not a list of the best books or whatever--just a list of books that I most fondly remember reading, some of which I have posted comments about during the year. They're in alphabetical order by author, so there's no attempt to rank them. The chances are that the ranking would be different tomorrow, and possibly even the list might be slightly different.


Greg Benford: The Furious Gulf and the rest of the "Galactic Center Series"

Walter van Tilburg Clark: The Ox-Bow Incident

Ivy Compton-Burnett: The House and Its Head

Joseph Conrad: Nostromo

Loren Eiseley: Another Kind of Autumn (poetry) & The Immense Journey

Michael Gregorio: Critique of Criminal Reason & Days of Atonement

Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House

Bernard Knight: The Tinner's Corpse

Ursula LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness

N. Scott Momaday: The Way to Rainy Mountain

Eliot Pattison: Prayer of the Dragon

Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin

Barbara Pym: Excellent Women

Kim Stanley Robinson: Vinland the Dream

Michael Shea: Nifft the Lean

Charles Todd: The Red Door

Jessie L. Weston: Quest of the Holy Grail & From Ritual to Romance


If you decide to read some of these, please let me know what you think of them.

Vanda Symon: The Ringmaster

Sometimes cloning sounds like a good idea. This past week I could have used a clone or two. It's been a week since my last entry here because I've been reading and watching films. If I read or watch films, then I can't put an entry here at the same time. Of course the opposite is also true.


Following are a few comments about one of the books I've read.

Vanda Symon
The Ringmaster
police procedural
Dunedin, New Zealand

I think Vanda Symon is the first crime writer from New Zealand that I've read, or at least the first one who has set her novels in New Zealand. I read many of Ngaio Marsh's mysteries years ago, but most were set in England. I think a few were set in New Zealand, but I don't remember anything about them. By the way, a number of Marsh's "Inspector Alleyn" stories have appeared on BBC and are now available on DVD.

Symon's novels feature Sam Shepherd, a young and inexperienced police officer, who has several handicaps, of which one of the most serious ones is her mouth.

The Ringmaster is the second novel in the series. The first was Overkill and the third is Containment, which is expected to come out in December 2009. In the first novel, Shepherd was the constable for a small town and actually was the only police presence there. Therefore, she was on her own most of the time. Now, she has gotten her promotion to Detective Constable and has been transferred to Dunedin for training--her dream come true. Except, that as in the real world, it hasn't quite turned out that way. There are a few downsides to her "idyllic" situation, some of which she brings with her and some belong to her new situation.

One is the usual problem of being the new kid on the block, which is usually a problem for anybody, but even more so for Shepherd. She is a detective constable, so she's no longer a constable, and it also means she's not exactly a detective either. So, neither group really sees her as one of their own. Secondly, she got her promotion ahead of others who had seniority over her, which leads to the usual gossip about a female who gets promoted quickly--"Who's she sleeping with?"

Another work problem is her senior officer Detective Inspector Greg Johns. I haven't read the first novel in the series, but Symon does provide us with a few clues, especially about Shepherd's previous encounter with Johns. It seems that Shepherd told Johns a few months ago that "he could go rot in hell" and that "he was a hack with a paper degree who couldn't solve a mystery if it was tattooed across his forehead." The clincher was probably when she "insulted his favourite poncy briefcase." I've never been a police officer, but I don't think this is a good way for the lowest ranking officer to address a senior officer.

Along with her work related problems are a few personal issues. One is her mother from hell, who wields guilt as skillfully as any brain surgeon, or perhaps even more skillfully. Then add in a member of her family with a serious medical problem. She also has a suitor, an unwelcome one, she insists. He's the Don Juan of the police force, and he's been pursuing her since they first met. Shepherd's best friend has a solution to the problem: give him what he wants--go to bed with him and he'll disappear the next morning and never bother her again. Will she or won't she?

The novel opens with Shepherd assigned to a job normally given to a constable--that of dealing with animal rights activists demonstrating at a circus. One has donned a gorilla suit and has locked himself in a cage. Shepherd comes up with a funny solution to the problem.

However, a more serious crime is the focus of the novel--a young woman is murdered. Johns, her boss, is stuck with her on his team and decides to make her life as miserable as possible. She gets all the tedious jobs he can find. What he finds most irritating is that she does the work and discovers some important clues along the way. One seems to be some sort of connection with that circus. As to be expected, there are a number of twists and turns and false leads along the way and a most unusual series of murders.

Overall Rating: Detective Constable Sam Shepherd makes the novel work, and I definitely intend to read the first one in the series, and the third when it appears in December.

For those interested in crime fiction from New Zealand, I can highly recommend the following blog--Crimewatch. Simply go to my blog list and click on the name on the list on the right side of the screen.

Vanda Symon's website
http://www.vandasymon.com/VandaSymon.html/

Combination Plate 9

Several short comments about some books I've recently read and films I've recently watched.


Run Lola Run: a film
German import in English
Live action with cartoonish inserts
Director: Tom Tykwer
Lola: Franka Potente

I hadn't heard of the film and I'm not even sure why I rented it, but it was a wonderful accidental discovery. It's mostly live action, but cartoon imagery is used very effectively sporadically throughout the film. It adds a lighthearted touch to the goings on in the film and reminds the viewer that this really is not for real.

The plot is simple: Lola's klutz of a boyfriend is trying to break in with the mob. As a test, he is given 100,000 marks to transport from Point A to Point B. He loses the money and calls Lola to tell her the sad news. I guess Lola's feelings for him demonstrate the old adage: love is blind (possibly not too bright either). As he sees it, his choices are limited: rob a grocery store or get terminated by the mob if he doesn't hand 100,000 marks over to his contact in about 20 minutes. Lola tells him to wait, for she's going to see if she can raise the money in that 20 minutes.

Now, Lola begins to run. As she runs, we get brief glimpses of the future lives of the people she runs into, some literally. Rather than spoil the plot, I'll stop here. The film does not end when Lola finally reaches her boyfriend some 20 minutes later, for the film is a fantasy that gives us the opportunity that we never get in real life: if we could only do it again, how different it would be. In fact, Lola gets three chances to do it. Each trial is different in some ways, with the effects on the others she encounters differing each time, and also producing changes later which result in a different conclusion each time.

Overall Rating: very high. I've seen it twice and will probably see it again.


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Mari Jungstedt: The Inner Circle, a novel
Mystery: Police Procedural
Protagonist: Inspector Anders Knutas
Setting: the Island of Gotland, just off the Swedish coast

This is appears to be the third novel in the series set on Gotland with Inspector Knutas. In this novel, a young archeology student on a dig in a Viking settlement has been murdered. Does this have anything to do with the decapitated horse found several days ago? Moreover, there seemed to be a suspicious lack of blood where the horse was found. It seems clear that there is a ritual element to this murder--a human sacrifice? As the body count increases, the tension rises, among the police who have no clues to go on and among the archeology students who are at the dig and also among the general populace.

It's a well-told story with a intriguing plot. The denouement is satisfying and fair--no last minute twin or sudden insertion of a character in a late chapter or a flash of insight that leaves the reader wondering where that came from. It's a good smooth translation also.

My only quibble is a personal quirk: mysteries should focus on the mystery. This one, well--to quote the back cover comment from the Svenska Dagbladet, "she succeeds in combining a fascination with macabre acts of violent crime with a focus on relationship drama..."

That's my problem--the "relationship drama" has little to do with the plot, except that it involves the secondary POV character Johan, a reporter who decides he will investigate the crime himself. As part of the "relationship drama," the reader is suddenly blessed with a chapter or two with Emma, the reporter's love interest, in the birthing room as she gives birth to their child, and then on the effect this has on their relationship.

Overall Rating: good--I would especially recommend it for those interested in reading crime fiction from other countries.

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Javier Sierra
The Secret Supper
Historical mystery: set late 15th century Italy
Focus: Leonardo da Vinci and The Last Supper


What secret code, if any, did da Vinci incorporate in his painting, The Last Supper? This novel is bound to draw comparisons with the more famous one by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code. However, this one is better, by far.

Agostino Leyre is a monk in the Order of Saint Bethany (OSB?), a super secret group buried within the Dominicans. The Order was "set up to examine government matters that might allow the Holy Father to foretell the movements of his many enemies. Any scrap of news, however minuscule, that might affect the status quo of the Church would immediately pass into our hands, where it would weighed and transmitted to the pertinent authority. That was our sole mission."

The Vatican has received several anonymous letters warning them of da Vinci's intention to insert heretical symbols in The Last Supper. Leyre is sent to Milan to investigate the claims and also to identify the sender of the anonymous letters. Then, the murders begin, and the hunt is on.

The usual suspects are present: The Last Supper, da Vinci, Mary Magdalene, St. John, the Cathars, the Gnostics, and Church/State politics. I don't remember the Templars making it into this one, though.

Overall Rating: good--nice depiction of the historical setting, interesting code set up for the interpretation of the painting, and characters that are a bit more than two-dimensional.


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Nine Queens: a film
Argentina, subtitles
a caper film

Two con men, the old wise experienced Marcos and the young inexperienced Juan, stumble into a swindle involving the Nine Queens, a sheet of rare and incredibly expensive stamps. Their target is a rich businessman whose hobby is stamps. However, he has to leave the country the next day, so he won't be able to give the stamps the thorough testing he normally would. That's the con men's advantage, for the stamps are forgeries, good ones, but they won't stand up to thorough testing.

The film follows the two as they desperately attempt to put their scam across. At each turn, there's a new and unexpected hurdle, each one threatening disaster for their plan. The fun is, of course, watching them struggle with each new potential catastrophe.

Overall Rating: good, a enjoyable couple of hours, with the usual twists and turns and crosses and double-crosses and triple-crosses that one would expect. One might wonder if there really
is honor among thieves. Nine Queens makes me reflect on what other gems might be awaiting discovery down there.

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The Producers
A Mel Brooks film


This is one of my favorite goofy movies of all time. Zero Mostel is a producer who has hit bottom. His most recent plays have all been flops. Gene Wilder plays the naive, innocent accountant whose consciousness is raised by the wily and unscrupulous Mostel.

After doing Mostel's books for his latest flop, Wilder discovers that several thousand dollars are still in the account. But, since the show was a flop, everyone assumes all the money is gone. Mostel sees the golden opportunity and persuades Wilder to go along. They will select a play that is a surefire loser, raise money from backers, spend as little as possible, and close out the books when it flops. Overall, they manage to sell several thousand percent of the proceeds to various backers, mostly little old ladies charmed by Mostel.

Their choice for flop of the year: Springtime for Hitler, written by a Nazi who attempts in his play to present the "real" Adolf Hitler, not the evil one portrayed by Allied propagandists. This, they are convinced, absolutely can not fail to fail.

They select a director and cast that hasn't enough talent to be even second-rate. Dick Shawn is a brain-damaged old hippie who is selected to play Hitler. I think his portrayal of Hitler can best be described as surreal.

One of the great scenes in the movie is that of the audience who are open-mouthed in shock as the play opens with the first song:

"Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Winter for Poland and France.
Bombs falling from the skies again,
Deutschland is on the rise again."

Sheer lunacy. Warning: it's a catchy tune, so you might find yourself humming it days later.

Overall Rating: Great. If you haven't seen it yet, then go rent it somewhere. If you have seen it, then perhaps it's time to see it again.

Some Authors' Musings on Detectives and Detecting

This post is Raymond Chandler's fault. It's not really a coherent commentary, but closer to an exorcism I would guess. I was reading an essay by Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder," which I found interesting, even if I didn't agree 100% with him. But, it was the ending that started me off and eventually was responsible for this collection of quotes taken from a few mystery writers, one or two who may be considered Classic while others are too new to have reached that exalted level.

Chandler's essay started me thinking, especially about his thoughts on the detective and detecting. I noticed that some other writers had done the same, and I now began paying more attention to these little asides that now stood up and waved at me. Now that I have become aware of them, something must be done about them. So...


So, the ending of Chandler's essay:

"In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor--by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I'm quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.

He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks--that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.

The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in."

Are Chandler's detectives like this--Philip Marlowe, for example. Does Chandler come close, or do you think he meant the above more as an ideal to strive for, rather than something that could be achieved?

==============================================

After reading the above, another example immediately surfaced --Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and his attempt to explain to Brigid O'Shaughnessy just why he was going to turn her in:

"Listen. this isn't a damned bit of good. You'll never understand me, but I'll try once more and then we'll give it up. Listen. When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around--bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere. Third, I'm a detective and expecting me to run criminals down and then let them go free is like asking a dog to catch a rabbit and let it go. It can be done, all right, and sometimes it is done, but it's not the natural thing. The only way I could have let you go was by letting Gutman and Cairo and the kid go. That's--"

I wonder what Chandler would have thought of Sam Spade. Does Spade fit Chandler's description of what a detective, or at least his detective, must be like? Is Spade a lonely man, a proud man, an honorable man? What would Chandler have thought of Spade's affair with his partner's wife?

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Hakan Nesser is one of the writers too young to be considered a classic, but he's won a number of awards for his detective novels in his native Sweden. This quote isn't so much about detectives but about the art of detecting. The novel's title is Borkmann's Point, and I misunderstood it to be a geographical location. It isn't. Borkmann was Chief Inspector Van Veteren's mentor when he first joined the Swedish police force. Borkmann's rule refers to a specific point in an investigation:

"In every investigation, [Borkmann] maintained, there comes a point beyond which we don't really need any more information. When we reach that point, we already know enough to solve the case by means of nothing more that some decent thinking. A good investigator should try to establish when that point has been reached, or rather, when it has been passed; in his memoirs, Borkmann went so far as to claim that it was precisely this ability, or the lack of it, which distinguishes a good detective from a bad one.

A bad one carries on unnecessarily."


Any thoughts? It's a rather large claim being made here. I know there have been times in the past when I was doing research for a paper, and at some point, I had to simply stop the search for more information and start to write. It was at that point that I felt I was losing track of my initial idea and was being buried under mountains of data. More often than not, I found I had too much data, and seldom did I have to do more research because I lacked information.

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Thomas H. Cook's detective in Sacrificial Ground provides us with a different view of the detective--the angst-filled cry of a lonely man, tormented by what he has seen and now struggling to justify himself to himself. He is neither Philip Marlowe nor Sam Spade.

"He returned to the living room and once again sat down on the sofa. He felt the need to view his life as some kind of whole, as if it could be captured in a single tone or color. But nothing held firm. Nothing but his work, his pursuit--however blind and full of error--of something which could be called justice, or at least, retribution. People had to pay for what they died, and he was one of the ones who made them pay. It was the badge which gave him the right to do that, and he suddenly found ;that he wanted to cling to it with all his remaining strength. Nothing could bring back Sarah, or Angelica or Ollie Quinn, or any of the scores of others whose bodies lay torn and broken in his memory, but whose spirits still moved sleeplessly through him They were more real to him than all the living who crowded the streets and buses. They lived more fully in his mind, and their flesh was warmer and more tangible. It bled and bled, as if the one great heart of all the unjustly dead still beat on through the ages, their cries still ringing out through time, heard like a low moan in the ground or like a scream echoing above it."

He strikes me as being a very different sort of person. Is he too much involved with the victims to be able to step back and think rationally about the crime? Should his feelings help him or hinder him in bringing the killer to justice?


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Here's another take on detectives and detecting--this time by W. J. Burley, author of a series of mysteries featuring Chief Superintendent Wycliffe, a representative of one of my favorite type of mysteries--the British police procedural. Wycliffe is on recuperative leave in a small seacoast town, in which a murder has taken place. He manages to stay clear of it for some time, but as in all novels with this premise, it isn't long before he gets involved. His reaction to his involvement, even though he's on medical leave?

"[Wycliffe] went to his room and replaced the photograph and the report in Gill's file. He would never have admitted it but for the first time since the start of his enforced holiday he was beginning to enjoy himself. He was indulging in the most delectable kind of pleasure which is both anticipatory and lightly spiced with guilt. Yesterday he had felt tantalisingly excluded from the community of the village, a spectator on the outside; now with this drab-looking file he was licensed to become a privileged interloper . Now, if he wanted to, he could probe into their lives; winkle out their secrets.

Often, at the start of a case, he would savour the prospect as one might turn the pages of a new autobiography or take a peep into a bundle of someone else's letters. The chance to live vicariously in other people's skins; for him, one of the attractions of the job. He knew it to be unworthy and salved his conscience with the reflection that he was rarely censorious, never malicious though always insatiably curious."

Burley's Wycliffe is a different sort of detective, one who in some ways resembles what others always assume police officers and PI's are--the snoop who gets a thrill out of looking through other's dirty laundry. I wonder what Chandler and Hammett and Nesser and Cook would think of him. Which detective of the four authors I just mentioned would most understand Wycliffe? Or would any?

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One last one--this comes from John Maddox Roberts' series of Roman mysteries featuring Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus and is set approximately 50 b. c., give or take a few years. Caesar has not yet finally demonstrated that the days of the Republic of Rome are over.
At one point in the novel, SPQR III: The Sacrilege, Decius meditates on the art of detecting:

"There are stages in the investigation of a crime, conspiracy or other mystery that involves many people acting from many motives. At first, all is confusion. Then as you gather evidence, things get even more complicated and confusing, But eventually there comes a point when each new fact unearthed fits into place with a satisfying click and things become simpler instead of more complex. Things begin to make sense. I now felt that things had reached that state. It seemed to me that my guardian genius, my ferret-muse, hovered near and was aiding me to untie this knot of murder and intrigue.

Or perhaps it was just the wine."



In wine, there is truth, so perhaps it was just the wine.

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Of course, these are only a few of the ways that writers have written about detectives and the art of detecting. But, these are the ones that have stayed with me for some time now. In spite of the variety of methods and attitudes of the detectives, some of which seem almost contradictory, they most always get their man or woman in the end. That must mean something, but I'm not sure what.

Combination Plate 6

Warning: I will discuss significant plot elements, including the endings of some of the works.


Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.

Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors. I must admit, though, that it was not love at first sight. I had tried to read Pride and Prejudice (P&P) several times but never got beyond the first couple of chapters. Since P&P is considered to be her most popular work, I figured that there would never be a meeting of our minds.

A decade or so later, I went to grad school, the English Graduate Department to be exact. In one of the first courses I took, I had to read Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I settled down for a grueling task and, instead, found it fascinating. I immediately dusted off P&P and discovered for myself why so many people enjoyed reading it. I then read her other four completed novels and have been a convert to this day. I've even read as much of her juvenilia as I could find. While I enjoy all of her novels, I must admit that Northanger Abbey (NA) is my least favorite of the six novels. If you are interested, my favorites are Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility.

The problem, or rather my problem, with NA is that it appears to be two separate novels. The first novel covers the first part of the book which sets forth her experiences at Bath, while the second novel begins with her trip from Bath to Northanger Abbey, the home of the Tilneys.

The Bath portion of the novel is a comedy of manners and, in a way, a growing up work, for we see Catherine as she encounters for the first time the great outside world and its manners, its foibles, and its hypocrisies. This part is reminiscent of the other five novels as she learns to distinguish between real and false friendships.

The second part really focuses on a satire, something of the sort one finds in Cervantes' Don Quixote or Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Don Quixote's mad behavior is supposedly induced by his constant and obsessive reading of the medieval romances which tell of knights in armor who sally about the countryside fighting dragons and black knights and wizards and rescuing damsels in distress. Madame Bovary's sad end comes about from reading romances which offer impossible flights of love and passion which she can't find in the small town where she lives, nor in Paris either, as she finds out.

Catherine's novelistic obsession is the Gothic novel, which leads her to romanticize (I'm tempted, but I won't say Gothicize) the Tilney's home--Northanger Abbey--for many of the Gothic novels take place in ancient and decrepit ruins, some of which are abbeys. She soon begins to suspect General Tilney, her host, of having mistreated his wife and perhaps even having been responsible for her death. This portion of the novel leads back to her earlier works, many of which are satiric.

What is curious is NA's history is that it apparently was the first or one of the first of her novels that was sold to a publisher. That was in 1803. However, the first of her novels to be published was Sense and Sensibility, which appeared in 1811. What happened to NA? Nobody is quite sure, but there is an Author's Note to NA (the only one I'm aware of to any of her novels) which tells us that the publisher, after having purchased the novel, did absolutely nothing with it. In 1816, Austen bought back the novel from the publisher, and it was finally published in 1818, posthumously, with Persuasion.

Perhaps one might see this as a transitional novel, one that bridges the gap between her juvenilia and her later more sophisticated works. In any case, it still is an enjoyable read, and I have read it a number of times, sometimes as a selection for a book group and sometimes when I'm in the mood to reread Austen, which happens frequently. And, it will happen again, I'm sure.



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John Harvey's Flesh & Blood.
Mystery--retired police officer type


I had read a number of John Harvey's works before--specifically his "Charlie Resnick" police procedurals and had enjoyed them. Resnick is an interesting character, if a bit morose, but that is the trend today and Harvey possibly contributed to its popularity. Flesh & Blood is the first novel I have read that features his new character, Frank Elder, who is a retired police officer.

Flesh and Blood (F&B) is a typical Harvey novel--characterization, especially of the major characters, is good, and the plot is tight and moves quickly through the usual maze that constitutes Harvey's works.

What is surprising, or what I found surprising, are the sexual encounters in the novel and a blatant attempt to increase the tension level during the last few chapters. To be blunt, if a film director attempts to bring this novel to the screen and depicts the sex scenes exactly as described in the novel, the film would probably earn an NC-17 rating. Moreover, the sex in the novel does not move the plot forward in any substantial way. Secondly, at the end, or near the end, Frank Elder's daughter is kidnapped by the killer. The only plot purpose this served, as far as I can tell, was to beef up what perhaps a publisher or agent might have considered a novel that lacked sufficient intensity.

All I can say is that I was surprised and then irritated when the "kidnapping" took place. It just didn't fit the flow of the novel and seemed to be something that was added later. It wasn't necessary.

F&B was a selection for a mystery book group, and all agreed that the sex and the kidnapping just didn't fit and actually lowered the book's rating--one of the few times this group has been unanimous about anything over the years.

While I could easily enjoy rereading one of Harvey's "Charlie Resnick" books, I will not voluntarily pick this one up again. Perhaps I might try another featuring Frank Elder to see if this was an aberration or the "new John Harvey."

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Batman: The Dark Knight, the film

Having grown up with the Batman and Robin comic books, I am interested in what happens to the Dynamic Duo when they appear on the big screen. I've been sadly disappointed by most of the attempts so far. The first of the more serious treatments, Batman with Michael Keaton, succeeded in restoring the dark ambiance of the early comic books, although Keaton's portrayal of Batman was poor. Pursing his lips seemed to be his interpretation of serious intent when he was Batman, but he did a creditable job as Bruce Wayne, a rich playboy. However, I found the second one, Batman Returns, impossible to sit through and stopped around 1/4 of the way into the film. All I will say about Batman and Robin with George Clooney is that I gave up after about ten or fifteen minutes.

In contrast to the above, I thoroughly enjoyed the two films with Christian Bale in the lead role, Batman Begins and Batman: The Dark Knight. Both captured the atmosphere of the early comic books. Christian Bale is far more convincing as Batman than Keaton was, and Michael Caine was perfect as Alfred. I'm not going to get into any comparison between Jack Nicholson's and Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, save to say the Nicholson had a bit more of the comic book element in his portrayal while Heath Ledger was a more "human" Joker. I enjoyed both performances.

I think the director of the 1989 version with Keaton, Tim Burton, started out well but somehow lost it with the next one. Christopher Nolan, on the other hand, started well and the second, The Dark Knight, was just as good as his first one.

It will be interesting to see what he does with the third one, if there is a third one.

Recommended: Batman Begins and Batman: The Dark Knight, both with Christian Bale. The 1989 version with Michael Keaton, Batman, is a decent attempt, especially at creating the atmosphere of the comic book.

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Pitch Black--a Sci-Fi film that appeared in 2000, with Vin Diesel as Richard B. Riddick.


Pitch Black (PB) is standard sci-fi fare. Sci-fi, my definition actually, is different from SF. SF consists of stories that focus on a scientific or technological development that does not yet exist, and perhaps may never exist. The story would not make sense without this element. Sci-fi stories, on the other hand, are those that are really thinly disguised adventure tales with some trappings that disguise its real nature.

Pitch Black is really the typical adventure tale of travelers who are stranded when their plane crashes in a wilderness or jungle inhabited by fierce hungry critters. In the film, the space ship crashes on a strange planet whose hungry inhabitants only emerge in the dark.

The crash landing, I thought, was well done and convincing. The special effects were acceptable, and the acting was decent. The plot called for the typical cliche of one of the survivors being a bad guy--Riddick--who is the prisoner of a bounty hunter. Riddick is a murderer who has been surgically altered so that he can see in the dark, and surprise--guess who turns out to be the one most responsible for the ultimate survival and escape of the others.

The characters make some stupid decisions, unfortunately, that are obviously driven by the plot requirements for tension, excitement, and gore.

What makes it an interesting movie is the performance of Vin Diesel (whom I don't remember seeing in another film) as Riddick, the lead character. Riddick is cynical and manipulative and unemotional, a sociopathic type who kills and thinks little of it afterwards. He does what must be done. However, at the end, he does do something that in reality has no effect on the outcome but is done for solely for revenge, something I didn't expect of him from what I had seen up to that point. Beats there a heart buried down deep somewhere?

A sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, is out there, as is an animated film, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. Dark Fury, the animated film that lasts around 30 minutes, takes place immediately after the events of PB. The other film, The Chronicles of Riddick, is set some five years after PB.

Overall, Vin Diesel's performance makes in an interesting film, and I'm curious enough to see what the next two are like.


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George Gently: a mystery TV series set in the UK
Type: police procedural

In an earlier post, I had talked about the problems that arise when the main character in a series is replaced by another actor. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. One of the cases was the replacement of Roy Marsden as PD James' Commander Dalgliesh by another actor whom I thought was a poor replacement for Marsden. I also commented that I thought the replacement was a good actor but one who was miscast as Dalgliesh.

Several nights ago I watched a DVD of a mystery series I hadn't seen before--George Gently. I was impressed by the whole production and especially by the actor who played the lead role of Inspector George Gently. He seemed familiar, but it wasn't until I did a search on his name that I discovered that I had seen him before. He was Martin Shaw, the actor who had replaced Roy Marsden as Commander Dalgliesh.

Shaw plays a different role in this police procedural. He has decided to leave London and move to a quieter, less demanding area to continue on as a police officer, much like Peter Robinson's Inspector Alan Burke, who also left London for quieter pastures. Of course, they soon learn that this is not going to happen the way they had expected or at least hoped.

Shaw plays Gentley as a low-key police officer, rather quiet and less commanding than Dalgliesh. He is perfect for this role. In fact, he reminds me of another series which I thoroughly enjoyed, Foyles' War, in which the lead character is played by Michael Kitchen. Kitchen and Shaw resemble each other to some extent--both appearing to be in their fifties, greying, a bit thick around the waist, and reserved.

I was sad when the Foyle series ended; perhaps I'll feel the same way at the last episode of George Gently.

P. D. James: The Private Patient

P. D. James' most recent novel is The Private Patient. It is as enjoyable as her previous mysteries featuring Adam Dalgliesh of the Metropolitan Police, Commander of the Special Squad which handles crimes of a sensitive nature--generally politically sensitive.

Dalgliesh gets a call at a particularly inappropriate moment--at the first meeting with his prospective father-in-law to announce that he wishes to marry his daughter. This isn't a surprise for fans of P. D. James, for all of Dalgliesh's romances have been interrupted the same way--his job comes first. It is no different now. This time, Dalgliesh is informed that No. 10 has has requested that his squad investigate a murder.

The private patient of the title is the victim in James' fourteenth Dalgliesh mystery. Rhoda Gradwyn, an investigative journalist, has finally decided to undergo plastic surgery to remove a scar on her cheek that she got in childhood. When the surgeon asked her why she had waited so long to have it removed, she enigmatically responded, "Because I no longer have need of it."
Unfortunately she never gets the chance to see the effects of the surgery for she is murdered just hours after the operation.

The format follows James' usual pattern--a careful introduction to the victim, suspects, and, at this point, the unknown murderer. By the time Dalgliesh is called in, the reader knows much about the people involved. James pulls no tricks; she always plays fair with the reader. The reader rides along with Dalgliesh and his team as they work their way through the mass of information, frequently contradictory, about the victim and suspects. There are no last minute surprises: the murderer who suddenly appears in the last chapters or a detective who finally reveals crucial information in the last chapter that he or she has known from an early chapter or a sudden and inexplicable burst of insight that leaves the reader wondering where that came from.

To keep readers aware of the progress of the investigation, James has Dalgliesh conduct an evening review with his team of the events of the day and the state of the investigation. This helps to cut back the amount of time needed at the end to sum up the evidence against the individual arrested and charged with the crime. In this way, the readers slowly begin to form their own ideas about the identity of the murderer, as the list of suspects begins to shorten.

I find a subplot in this work that has little to do with the crime under investigation. It has to do with Commander Dalgliesh himself, and his future. His team seems to feel that the Squad is not going to last much longer. There are rumors that the Squad will be broken up, that Dalgliesh will be promoted and transferred upstairs, that Dalgliesh will retire. Moreover, Detective Inspector Kate Miskin, perhaps the one who has been on the Squad the longest, has just gotten a promotion and feels that this may be the last investigation with the Squad for her. A transfer seems inevitable with the promotion.

In addition, while still the focus of the work, Dalgliesh is seen less often in this work than in the previous novels. We spend more time with the Squad than in the past. The reader also gets more background about several members of the Squad.

Another interesting point is Dalgliesh's engagement. As I mentioned earlier, he has been close to remarrying several times in the past, but the woman always left when she discovered his job came first. This relationship is different. In fact, there's a touch of James's favorite author, Jane Austen, here. Dalgliesh's fiance's name is Emma, the heroine of Austen's Emma. Mr Knightly, Emma's husband-to-be, has also to deal with an eccentric father-in-law. In fact, at the wedding ceremony at the end of the novel, we find this bit of conversation among several of Emma's friends:



"Clara said, 'Jane Austen would seem appropriate. Do you remember Mrs. Elton's comments in the last chapter of Emma? Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business!'

'But, remember how the novel ends. But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.'

Clara said, "Perfect happiness is asking for a lot. But they will be happy. And at least, unlike poor Mr. Knightley, Adam won't have to live with his father-in-law.'"



Austen's novels always end with the marriage or coming marriage of the heroine. Is this marriage the end of James' portrayals of the adventures of Commander Adam Dalgliesh? Or perhaps, is there one more coming, in which he will move into an administrative position or perhaps even retire, perhaps not to Sussex and take up beekeeping, but to some quiet out-of-the-way place along the coast and write poetry?

Ray Bradbury: A Graveyard for Lunatics

Ray Bradbury's A Graveyard for Lunatics
Mystery Category: talented amateur

Yes, in case you are wondering, this is the Ray Bradbury of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine and The Illustrated Man and numerous short stories that might be SF or fantasy or something else. Bradbury has seemingly never been too concerned about genre fences; he just writes.

This is a mystery; actually, it is the second work in a trilogy. The first is Death is a Risky Business, and the third, and last so far, is Let's All Kill Constance.

The setting is Hollywood. The nameless narrator has just gotten his dream job: he has been hired as a screenwriter (primarily for SF films) at Maximus Films. It's probably a coincidence that Bradbury himself has spent considerable time in Hollywood as a screenwriter.

The narrator gets a message to go to Green Glades, a cemetery that backs on the Maximus lot, at Midnight, of course, and when else but on Halloween Eve, the narrator's favorite night of the year. Curious, he goes and discovers an effigy of the former head of Maximus Films, a man who has been dead for over a decade now. Life suddenly becomes frantic and dangerous as several of his friends and acquaintances die or disappear. He goes for aid to Elmo Crumley, the police officer he encountered in the first mystery, who immediately calls in sick, for the narrator's problems are far more interesting than anything he encounters on the job. Along the way to the solution, they meet a number of thinly disguised caricatures of 'real' people.

The fun is trying to guess whom they are supposed to be. A director named Fritz Wong? Or Roy Holdstrom, a special effects genius who creates dinosaurs and other critters out of clay and painstakingly moves them and films each move to give the illusion of movement. Or JC, an actor who has played Christ so many times that he now believes that he either is Christ or a modern reincarnation of him.

The Plot? Well, let's just think a bit about The Phantom of the Opera and move it to the US. Could there be a better substitute for an opera house than a film studio and sound stages and recreations of the major cities of the world and of small dusty Western towns and, oh yes, of Green Town, Illinois?

Overall Rating: Great fun, along with a few jabs at Hollywood and its denizens, and a dose of Bradbury's own special brand of nostalgia.