Monthly Archives: June 2011

Review: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

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At the very beginning of this story we learn that Michael, its first-person narrator, had something terrible happen to him as an eight-year old and he subsequently became known in his native Michigan as ‘Miracle Boy’. Although he has physically healed following this event he has not uttered a word since the day of the event. In the same opening sequence we find out Michael has been in prison for more than nine years; since he was 18 years old. What unfolds following this, in a complicated non-linear fashion, is Michael’s journey from one point to the other.

Michael is re-telling his story from his vantage point in prison but he can’t, at first, go right back to the ‘awful event’. Instead he has three fairly distinct narratives that unfold a little bit at a time in intervening, short segments. The first of these strands covers the period immediately following ‘the event’ when he is taken in by his uncle Leo, begins the slow recovery process and undergoes the seemingly endless round of counselling and testing that would inevitably follow such a thing. Then there is a strand dealing with his move from being a junior to a senior in high school and his previously hidden talent, as someone who can pick locks, becomes more widely known. This is also when he meets Amelia, his true love, and begins an unorthodox, speechless ‘conversation’ with her that lasts, on and off, for the rest of the book. The final strand covers the period when he prematurely finishes school and becomes the box man (safe cracker and lock picker) for a loosely connected network of criminals.

Although complicated, I managed to follow this structure easily enough once I got into its rhythm and it did allow the story to build up suspense. I do wonder though if it was part of the reason the book felt unnecessarily long, as there were some things that were repeated in each distinct narrative thread that really only needed to be told once.  For example, I reached my limit of interest in the mechanics of lock picking and safe opening well before the end of the book.

The only character depicted with any depth at all in this book is Michael so as a reader you have to find him pretty compelling to be fully engaged with the novel. For me this happened most successfully when he met Amelia and demonstrated the lengths he would go to for her protection. As he described the creative communication method they developed because Michael couldn’t speak I got a real sense of him, his thoughts and feelings. For the rest of the novel though I found him a very passive character, describing things that were done to him or events beyond his control and not really acknowledging his own role in events. While at times this was realistic at other times it felt a bit like a cop out and lessened my engagement with him as a character.

I found The Lock Artist entertaining, even if I am not as overwhelmed by it as some of its reviewers. I liked the structure and the ‘coming of age’ element of Michael’s story but was less captivated by those parts of the story that dealt with his unique talent and the trouble it caused him. The forced coincidences of these events and Michael’s passive involvement lessened my overall enjoyment of the book just a little. MacLeod Andrews did a great job narrating the book, managing to make his voice ‘age’ subtly for the different narrative threads. Still this is probably not an audiobook I would recommend to listening novices as these kinds of non-linear plots can take a little getting used to in audio format.

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My rating 3/5
Publisher Brilliance Audio [2010]
ISBN N/A downloaded from audible.com
Length 12 hours 37 minutes
Format mp3
Book Series standalone
Source I bought it

Review: Water-Blue Eyes by Domingo Villar

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As this book opens we meet Leo Caldas, a Police Inspector in the Spanish town of Vigo, as he is participating in the weekly radio broadcast Patrol on the Air, during which people can ring in with questions or complaints for the police to investigate. Caldas is a grudging participant in the PR exercise and entertains himself by keeping a running tally of how many enquiries he will need to follow up on and how many he can hand over to the City police. When he’s finished the show he barely has time to sit in his office chair before he and his subordinate, Rafael Estévez, are rushing to attend a luxury apartment building where a man has been killed. The man, local jazz musician Luis Reigosa, has been tied to his bed and suffered horrific burn-like injuries to his stomach and groin but forensic specialists need time to identify the exact cause of death, which doesn’t give Caldas and Estévez many leads with which to begin their investigation.

Several elements of this excellent novel compete for status as the standout feature but in the end they all come together to form the perfect novel. Perhaps the thing I loved most were the characters who are richly drawn and highly believable. Although this is the first novel in which he appears Caldas is a fully formed man whose past we see in glimpses as the current narrative unfolds. His personal life is complicated by an uneasy relationship with his father and a split from the woman in his life due to their differences over the idea of having children. His working life is also complicated, mainly by having to deal with the consequences of Rafael Estévez’ aggression which is generated when he encounters the difficulties of his new home. Poor Estévez is not a native of Galica (the region of northern Spain in which Vigo is situated) and he has struggled to adjust to his new environment. He finds the unpredictable weather and steep streets equally frustrating but worst of all

To Rafael Estévez’ stern Aragonese mind, things were this way or that, got done or didn’t, so it was only with considerable effort that he managed to decipher the ambiguous expressions of his new fellow citizens.

This issue generates much of the warm humour of the book, though I felt a little guilty for laughing at Estévez as I too have a tendency towards literalness and find ambiguity annoying to deal with.

If the local tourist bureau in Galicia hasn’t paid Villar something for his work then they should because my overwhelming desire upon finishing the book was to investigate how much it would cost me to fly there and stay a while. The environment is described beautifully and the relaxed pace of life depicted appeals to me greatly. Even a serious police investigation must stop for deliciously described meals and the occasional paddle in the ocean and I couldn’t help but wish that all of life was prioritised in this way. Of course Caldas manages to have a fascinating conversation about philosophy with other patrons during one memorable lunch and this ends up leading him to an important discovery in his investigation which proves there’s nothing wrong with this way of working at all.

I was undoubtedly pre-disposed to liking this book because of its length. At 167 pages it is tiny in comparison to many of the lengthy tomes published these days but is an absolutely captivating read without any of the dead weight of its competitors. It’s fast, witty, oozing a sense of its location, has terrifically memorable characters and a taut, compelling plot. It is also beautifully readable in its second language, a testament no doubt to the skill of translator Martin Schifino, who has managed to capture the poetic essence of the Spanish very well. This is a true gem of a novel that would be enjoyed by all readers, crime fans or otherwise.

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This book has been reviewed at Crime Scraps, Petrona, Reviewing the Evidence and The Game’s Afoot (where Jose Ignacio read the book in its original Spanish).

I’m using this as the first book for my European leg of this year’s global challenge

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My rating 5/5
Translator Martin Schifino
Publisher Arcadia books/Euro Crime [this translation 2009, original edition 2006]
ISBN 9781906413255
Length 167 pages
Format paperback
Book Series The first in a series to feature Leo Caldas
Source I bought it

Aussie Authors Update #2

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My reviews of Aussie crime fiction are published exclusively at my other blog, Fair Dinkum Crime, which I co-host with fellow Australian blogger and crime fiction fan Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise. But I like to do an occasional wrap-up of my recent Aussie crime fiction reads here at Reactions to Reading

HOW THE DEAD SEE by David Owen

Synopsis: Detective Inspector Franz Heineken of the Tasmanian Police Force is nicknamed Pufferfish, described as

A prickly, toxic bastard, ability to inflate and even explode when severely provoked.

In this outing he is confronted by several high-profile cases including the theft of a valuable diamond necklace, the death of a well-known actor which is reported as suicide until the actor’s girlfriend claims it was murder and the vicious beating of a young Indian woman. Heineken and his team, DC Faye Addison and DS Rafe Tredway, think they know which of the island’s criminal fraternity is responsible for the necklace theft but they have a devil of a time proving it as their prime suspect has claimed police harassment before so they must read very carefully indeed. The investigation into the actor’s death meanwhile introduces the police to an entirely.

Review summary: The book makes excellent use of the first-person point of view by showing us both the public face and private thoughts of its protagonist. It also has a really topical and clever mystery element in addition to its great sense of humour and deliciously off-beat characters. A delight to read.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, My rating 4/5

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BEYOND FEAR by Jaye Ford

Synopsis: Jodie, Hannah, Louise and Corinne plan a relaxing weekend away without their kids or husbands. Jodie has chosen a newly renovated barn in the country town of Bald Hill, a short drive from Newcastle where the women all live, for the annual getaway. The weekend starts to go wrong when the women have a minor car accident on their drive to the barn, though this does provide the opportunity for them to meet Matt Wiseman, working at his father’s garage while recovering from injuries received in his job as a policeman. Though they do manage to squeeze in some some of the champagne-drinking and chocolate-eating they planned, the weekend turns very grim for the four friends when two men turn up at the barn and won’t leave.

Review summary: A debut novel by a former journalist, Beyond Fear is a fast-paced psychological thriller and an easy read that I gobbled up in a single sitting. The strong female characters are a highlight, though I did think the first half of this one was stronger than the second.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime. My rating 3/5

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VIOLENT EXPOSURE by Katherine Howell

Synopsis: Paramedics are called to a domestic disturbance at the suburban home of Suzanne and Connor Crawford one night only to have the couple explain the incident away as nothing more than a disagreement. The next evening Police and paramedics are again called to the address only this time Suzanne Crawford is dead and her husband is missing. Detective Ella Marconi and her partner start to focus on the missing husband as a suspect in his wife’s murder. They are hampered  by not being able to discover much about the husband’s past and then then learn about some bizarre behaviour that Suzanne was engaging in prior to her death. Although a very focussed policewoman, usually to the detriment of her personal relationships, Ella is troubled here by her father’s health problems and there’s also a minor but thought-provoking thread involving the paramedics who were called to the Crawford house on the night of the murder.

Review summary: In my view Katherine Howell has risen to the upper echelons of crime writing story tellers, having now produced four very accomplished tales which just keep getting better. Here she manages the multiple plot threads expertly and creates credible suspense out of the lives of average people and throws in a moral conundrum or two.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime. My rating 4.5/5

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MATTER OF TRUST by Sydney Bauer (audio)

Synopsis: In his youth Boston-based lawyer David Cavanagh had two best friends, Chris Kincaid and Mike Murphy, though he hasn’t kept in close contact with either. However there is a shared history that binds the three together and when Chris is arrested for the murder of a woman they all knew, David can’t help but go home to Newark, New Jersey to help. Deeply buried family secrets need to be investigated before there’s even a glimmer of hope that Kincaid can be successfully defended.

Review summary: A fairly standard legal procedural/thriller that had a little too much of a TV sensibility for me to be fully engaged with it, though the story did have a decent pace and the complex plot was logical even if it was a bit predictable and tended towards the soap opera at the end.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime. My rating 2.5/5

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THE PERICLES COMMISSION by Gary Corby

Synopsis: A dead man falls from the sky and lands at the feet of Nicolas son of Sophroniscus the sculptor one Athens morning in 461AD. The body is that of Ephialtes, creator of the world’s first, and still fledgling, democracy and his death could mean civil war. In the absence of a family member to do the job Pericles, a politician and fellow supporter of the move towards democracy, commissions Nicolas to investigate Ephialtes’ death with the hopes of quickly being able to discover the responsible party and bring them to justice. Of course the most obvious suspects are those old-guard politicians who weren’t to keen on handing political power over to the people, so Nicolas is literally putting his life at risk by taking on the job. However he’s young and idealistic and also sees it as the perfect opportunity to get a foothold in politics himself which would mean he doesn’t have to follow in his father’s profession.

Review summary: Corby has woven and intriguing and plausible fictional tale around the real events of the time in this debut historical mystery. The engaging young hero and humour of the book are definite highlights of the book.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime. My rating 3.5/5

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A DECLINE IN PROPHETS by Sulari Gentill

Synopsis: It’s 1932 and the luxury ocean liner RMS Aquitania is making its way to Australia with Rowland ‘Rowly’ Sinclair and his travelling companions on board. Their fellow passengers include an octogenarian political activist and former head of the Theosophist movement, several other members of the movement, a Catholic Bishop and a couple of priests. When there is a grim murder on board Rowly is at the centre of things, mostly because he’s a bit too polite for his own good. The boat stops in New York before making landfall in Australia but things go from bad to worse for Rowly and his friends and at one point it looks like  poor Rowly will hardly be considered a suitable godfather for his newest nephew.

Review summary:  Highlights of this book include thoughtfully drawn characters, a gentle but clever humour, fantastic insight into the period and a real Australian feel to it.  A very satisfying read for me and one I would recommend widely.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime. My rating 4/5

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I’m trying to read as many books as I can that are either nominated for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards (best Australian crime fiction) or are eligible for this year’s Davitt Awards (I can vote in the Reader’s choice category of the awards for crime writing by Australian women) so there will hopefully be lots more Aussie books to come in the next few weeks.

Review: Plugged by Eoin Colfer

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Being more than a little annoyed with Eoin Colfer, because he wrote the unnecessary and (by me) unwanted posthumous sixth book in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, I had no intention of reading his first non Adams-related foray into adult writing. But I saw this review and heard Colfer discuss the book on Australian radio and thought I might be being a bit harsh to excommunicate the man based on one poor decision. This turned out to be a good choice on my part.

Ex-pat Irishman Danny McEvoy is 42 years old, losing his hair and works as what the Americans call a doorman (and we’d call a bouncer here in Oz) at a seedy New Jersey casino. When his almost-girlfriend Connie is killed Danny is not only one of several suspects but he becomes embroiled in the case which, quickly, spirals into surreal territory as the investigating cops get violent with each other and all manner of mayhem ensues. At the same time as this is going on Danny’s best friend, cut-price hair-transplant ‘doctor’ Zeb Kronski goes missing from his ‘clinic’ and takes up residence in Danny’s head. Although he wants to find out who killed Connie he needs to find Zeb because he’s half-way through installing (that can’t be the right word) hair transplants into Danny’s balding scalp (and he’d also like to get Ghost Zeb out of his head).

Plugged is funny. Fast-paced, crisply written and brimming with great dialogue it is, above all these, funny. It’s narrated in the first-person by Danny so we see the whole, crazy world from Danny’s rather lonely, somewhat jaded, and follicle-obsessed perspective and the best of the humour comes from Danny’s take on the craziness he sees around him. Of course there are also some slapstick, almost surreal, scenes like the one where Danny has just finished bonking one of the investigating detectives when his neighbour walks in with a dish of home-baked lasagne and mistakes Danny for the husband she last saw two decades ago. Most of these scenes offer a refreshing take on the kinds of things you might expect from this genre (crime kingpins, drug dealers etc) and even though slapstick stuff is not my favourite kind of humour it still had me chuckling on multiple occasions.

As well as the rapidly unravelling current-day events we get some insights into Danny’s former life as a young man with a violent father then as a peace keeper with the Irish army in Lebanon (where he first met Zeb). I forgot to make a note the time code for the quote so can’t easily find it in the audio book now but when Danny first mentions the Irish army’s peacekeeping role he says, in his thoroughly deadpan way, something along the lines of ‘you would use the Irish to keep the peace wouldn’t you, given they’ve such an excellent record of cooperation between communities on their own island’. You can’t help but laugh (well I couldn’t help it anyway which saw me revert to crazy giggling lady on the bus status).

I seem to be drawn to crime capers lately, I think they offer me the same light “I don’t have to take this seriously but I can still have a great read’ escape that cosy mysteries used to do (before there were so many not very good ones crowding the space and I kind of gave up on them). I can appreciate that the genre isn’t for everyone but if it is for you, or you’re wondering if it might be, then Plugged is a strongly recommended book. The plot is, of course, outlandish but it does hang together in the context of the book and the laugh count is way above average. If you like audio books then definitely track down the version read by Patrick Moy as he’s a dreamboat of a reader and I find first-person narratives always work particularly well in audio format.

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Plugged has been reviewed at The View from the Blue House

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My rating 4/5
Author website there’s no point in linking to it, Plugged is, oddly, not mentioned AT ALL
Narrator Patrick Moy
Publisher Headline Digital [2011]
ISBN n/a downloaded from audible.com
Length 7 hours 11 minutes
Format mp3
Book Series standalone
Source I bought it

A Review (and musings on storytelling) – The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill

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I’m going to provide even less of a plot synopsis for this book than my usual skimpy effort because a big part of my enjoyment of this book was that I knew so little about it to start with (I listened to it on a whim following a comment by Barbara at the 4 Mystery Addicts online reading group). I quite literally had no idea what it was about when I started and still had no clue what direction the story would take when I was well into its Machiavellian depths and think you should have the same opportunity. So all I’ll say is that it’s one of Hill’s standalone books and tells the story of Wilfred ‘Wolf’ Hadda, a Cumbrian native of working class birth who makes a name for himself in the world of business before his world falls apart in a rather alarming way. If that’s not enough for you to ponder reading it, there are plenty of great easily google-able reviews that will tell you more.

The thing I have discovered more lately than I ought to have done is that Reginald Hill is a truly superb storyteller in the purest sense of the term and this, in my opinion, is one of his best. Having studied the storytelling art a little over the years I’d boil the essence of a good story (regardless of whether it is told, written or shown) down to these attributes

  • they must draw their audience in and make them feel connected to the events being described
  • they must have a basic structure of beginning, middle and end
  • they need at least one central character who encounters some form of conflict that prevents them from going along the path they had been taking
  • they must invite, even prompt, the audience to picture or imagine the places, people and events that are being described
  • they cannot offer an easy resolution to the issues or conflicts they are describing

For me The Woodcutter ticks all of these boxes with gusto. The audience is drawn in by Hill’s wonderful depictions of Wolf’s out-of-the ordinary young life in the forests of Cumbria and then a very early depiction of his fall from grace. Knowing that an author wouldn’t willingly use up all their most dramatic material in the first few chapters of a novel the reader is left wondering what sort of theme this story will explore..redemption? wronged man? revenge? something else?

Using several characters in addition to Wolf, Hill manages to present several versions of the truth, exploring the notion that what’s true depends on the perspective and facts or knowledge a person has at any time. As a reader you are prepared to go along with each subtle variation of reality, never quite knowing where the whole thing is headed, but somehow always feeling confident that the resolution will be a satisfying and authentic one. Along the way there are splendidly depicted images of both the Cumbrian landscapes and the characters (including a terrific fictional dog) who are central to the story.

Part of the way Hill draws the reader in and keeps them glued is the interesting array of ideas and themes he explores along the way and unlike so many writers he does this, always, as part of the story. The book is a masterclass in the concept of showing not telling. He examines things like the way the British class structure plays out in contemporary society, the role and nature of the justice system and even takes a look modern psychiatry in a way that makes you think.

Literary critic (and professional controversy-starter) Christopher Booker once claimed that there are only seven basic plots for stories and, if this is true, it must get harder to be original as they keep being re-told. In broad ways The Woodcutter is an age-old tale that you’ve heard a thousand times before (in fact it bears a strong resemblance to a 19th Century French adventure classic) but with it’s sparkling dialogue, intricate plot, wonderfully realised characters and the thought-provoking ideas it ponders it is utterly unique. I cannot think of any reader who would not enjoy this wonderful book, crime fiction fan or not, especially via the narration of English actor Jonathan Keeble whose mastery of accents and gender roles was, as always, outstanding.

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My rating 5/5
Narrator Jonathan Keeble
Publisher Whole Story Audio Books [this edition 2011, original edition 2010]
ISBN n/a downloaded from audible.com
Length 16 hours 34 minutes
Format mp3
Book Series standalone
Source I bought it

Crime Fiction Alphabet: W is for Walking the Dog (and other clichés)

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I have logged a lot of kilometres with one dog or another over my 43 and a half years and have never once stumbled across a dead body but in crime fiction it happens with alarming regularity. I know that bodies have to be found somehow and it must be difficult to come up with new ways for a body that has been unceremoniously dumped outdoors to be found, but by now any time I even get the hint of a dog I’m mentally jumping ahead to the body discovery moment.

Just in books I’ve read this year I’ve come across several ‘dog walker discovers body’ scenarios and I’ve noticed the phenomenon is world-wide:

  • In Leighton Gage’s Blood of the Wicked a dog called Snoopy finds a body which has been dumped in the Brazilian countryside.
  • In Simon Brett’s Body on the Beach a fussy retired woman called Carole is taking her routine walk with Gulliver on an English beach one morning when they stumble across a body (which then disappears)
  • In Katherine Howell’s Cold Justice a teenager walking the family dog Wally finds the body of a fellow school student in suburban Sydney but it takes 20 years for the case to be solved.
  • In Jon Loomis’ High Season a dog called Molly finds one of the several dead bodies littering a small Cape Cod summer resort town
  • In Denise Mina’s Scottish noir tale Exile an un-named pooch finds a body in a story that someone tells as part of the book

I don’t let the phenomenon bother me too much (there’s one 5-star and two 4.5 star books in that list) but it does make me giggle.

Do you notice the ‘dog walker discovers body’ cliché in your crime fiction reading? Or is there another cliché that’s on your personal radar? What’s the best (non-dog related) body discovery method you’ve come across in your reading?

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

An Uncertain Review of Fred Vargas

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I’m really not the right person to be reviewing Fred Vargas’ work, so don’t expect a rating at the end of this post. I read and enjoyed her standalone novel (The Three Evangelists) as a one-off oddity rather than as an example of something I’d willingly read more of and, for me, a little of Commissaire Adamsberg and friends (who appear in her well-known series) goes a very long way. I’ve read one and a half of the books in this series up to now and I wouldn’t have bothered with this one at all if it weren’t for the fact it is nominated for this year’s International Dagger award. The thing is I can’t (or won’t) wrap my literal, logical mind around the fantasy and paranormal plot elements that Vargas is so enamoured of.

An Uncertain Place is the fifth book (in English translation) to feature the legendary Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg of the Serious Crimes Squad in Paris. In this outing he and his Anglophile offsider Danglard are in London for a conference when they happen upon a gruesome scene: nine pairs of boots are discovered outside Highgate cemetery with feet still in them. Ugh. Upon their return to Paris they soon become embroiled in the case of the murder of a retired journalist, whose body has been chopped and smashed into dozens of pieces in his rural home. Via the very opposite of anything approaching actual police work, the case is ‘investigated’ in the usual haphazard way of this crew (whose individual character flaws and neuroses are all well-understood and accounted for by team mates) and, eventually, a connection is made to a family of vampires.

Of course I can’t be sure that I haven’t looked for other things not to like about Vargas’ work simply because I’m not a fan of the kind of myths and legends that she incorporates into her work but even if that is the case I can’t help having found other things not to my liking. Reading this was, for me, on par with watching a David Lynch movie or the TV show Lost: the enjoyment is meant to be obtained from the intellectual games that are played along the way and one is, I presume, meant to turn a blind eye to anything ridiculous or impossible and I struggle to do this. I can see the cleverness of the linguistic games and even enjoyed things like the way the news account of the man who ate an aeroplane was woven into every aspect of this story.  But these games don’t make up for the fact that even the non-fantasy elements of the story are completely unbelievable. In the end there is a total absence of suspense in a book in which any corner can be gotten out of by inventing something that wasn’t there a second ago and couldn’t possibly occur in the real world. At one point in this story for example Adamsberg gets himself into a real pickle far away from his home town and it read to me as if the author hadn’t given a moment’s thought as to how she would get him out of it (there was never any doubt that she would) so she reverse-engineered a character into the spot to save the day. It never really rang true for me but I think as a reader I was meant to be so mesmerised by the verbal jousting between the players that I wouldn’t question the fact it really couldn’t have happened that way at all.

I don’t find Adamsberg or any of his colleagues remotely engaging either: they’re just a mass of quirks and oddities, not real people that you get to know and care about over time. For me there comes a point at which it isn’t amusing (or charming or whatever it is meant to be) that the man supposedly in charge of such an important team is such an obtuse fool he wears two watches that are both inaccurate. It’s just stupid.

In the same way that I finally admitted publicly a few years ago that I would never finish The Lord of the Rings despite having started it several times, I’m comfortable with the fact that Vargas’ writing is not for me, regardless of how many award shortlists she appears on in the future. I wish her fans many happy hours of reading ahead, I’ll be reading something (anything) else.

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This book has been reviewed by two people who loved it and one who didn’t at Crime Scraps, Euro Crime and Petrona.

It is one of 7 shortlisted titles for the 2011 CWA International Dagger Award.

Aussie Authors Challenge done and dusted

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This year I went for the True Blue level of the Aussie Authors challenge which requires reading 12 books by Aussie authors during the year (at least 9 by different authors) and am pleased to wrap it up before the mid-way point of the year. I still have a pile of books by Aussie authors left to read though, perhaps I can double this amount by the end of the year?

Books read

  1. Death Mask by Kathryn Fox (4.5 stars)
  2. Document Z by Andrew Croome (4 stars)
  3. Cold Justice by Katherine Howell (4.5 stars)
  4. Line of Sight by David Whish-Wilson (4 stars)
  5. The Tower by Michael Duffy (3.5 stars)
  6. The Black Russian by Lenny Bartulin (3.5 stars)
  7. The Wreckage by Michael Robotham (4 stars)
  8. Naked Cruelty by Colleen McCullough (2 stars)
  9. How the Dead See by David Owen (4 stars)
  10. Beyond Fear by Jaye Ford (3 stars)
  11. Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell (4.5 stars)
  12. The Pericles Commission by Gary Corby (3.5 stars)

Although these are all crime fiction novels there’s quite a range of sub-genres including police procedurals, a comedy caper, a romantic suspense novel and several works of historical fiction. Six of these are by new (to me) authors and I feel lucky to have found some great new authors to follow.

As I only count a book towards one challenge I didn’t count these other books by Aussie authors that I’ve also read this year but that shouldn’t stop you from reading them :)

 

 

 

Crime Fiction Alphabet: V is for Victoria (the bit of Australia not the Queen)

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I have neglected the last couple of alphabet letters but it can’t be helped: day-job workload and a dead computer reduced my blogging in recent weeks. Unfortunately I’ve chosen to return to the meme for a pesky letter of the alphabet for which I could think of only two subjects to discuss. One is a theme common to crime fiction but is a word I can never spell correctly and the other is a state in Australia that I am meant to be at war with. I’ve chosen to go with Victoria, the state of Australia that we South Australians are taught to hate from birth (it’s all to do with sport which is a subject that bores me witless) but which is home to some of the best crime fiction in the country. Victoria is a small state in the south-east of the country and its capital city is Melbourne.

As far as I know Carolyn Morwood only wrote two novels featuring Marlo Shawe who is a professional cricketer and amateur sleuth based in Melbourne but I enjoyed them both and would like to know what happened to this author. In the second of the books, 2002′s A Simple Death, Marlo finds a homeless man who has been bludgeoned to death and her boss becomes a suspect in the case.

One of the world’s earliest mystery stories is Fergus Hume‘s 1893 tale Mystery of a Hansom Cab in which a hansom cab driver finds his passenger has been poisoned and has died during their journey. I think I read this book many years ago but I picked up a new copy last year when a new publisher released it in a spiffy leather-ish binding.

Garry Disher has two crime series which are both set in Victoria. The novels featuring Detective Inspector Hal Challis and Sergeant Ellen Destry take place in and around the Mornington Peninsula, one of the state’s holiday destinations. The first novel of the series is 1999′s The Dragon Man which involves the investigation into a series of assaults on women and takes place across a blistering Australian summer (fans of the series take note, Disher’s website says there’s a new instalment of this series with a working title of Whispering Death due this year)

Jarad Henry has written two books set in Victoria. I haven’t read the first, Head Shot, which is about a drug squad detective who is accused of murdering a gangland figure who killed a policeman but I did read the second novel to feature the same detective as its central character. Blood Sunset takes place across a sweltering Melbourne summer in which bushfires ring the city and detective Rubens McCauley investigates the death of a young runaway. Melbourne, warts and all, is a distinct character in this terrific novel (more rumours, via tweets from the emerging writer’s festival held in Melbourne recently, are that Jarad Henry’s third novel will be out later this year)

Kerry Greenwood’s historical series starring Phyrne Fisher features the Melbourne of the 1920′s while her Corinna Chapman series takes place in the present day, inner-city version of the place. While the series is definitely at the lighter end of the crime fiction spectrum it does present a very recognisable Melbourne, including some of its darker elements (fact this time, Greenwood’s historical series and its Victorian setting will be brought to television next year).

Leigh Redhead‘s protagonist is Melbourne based former stripper Simone Kirsch. In her first outing, 2004′s Peepshow, Kirsch has enrolled in a course at security college (she won’t be accepted into the police force due to her former career) and becomes involved in the hunt for the kidnappers of one of her old dancing colleagues. This series shows off the seedier side of life in Melbourne .

Lindy Cameron‘s trilogy featuring Melbourne-based private detective Kit O’Malley is a treat. The first book in the series, Blood Guilt (1999), uses another sweltering Australian summer (trust me this is an almost annual occurrence so it’s not surprising to see the weather as a recurring theme) as the backdrop for a philandering husband investigation which turns into a hunt for a murderer.

Peter Klein brings the world of Victorian horse-racing to life in his series of novels featuring John Punter, a professional gambler and amateur detective. These novels have a real ring of authenticity due to Klein’s long history with the racing world in which he started as a strapper. Although racing takes place everywhere in the country (we are a nation of gamblers after all) it is the Melbourne Cup that, quite literally, stops the country on the first Tuesday each November and Klein draws out this aspect of Victoria’s life very well in novels such as Punter’s Turf.

Peter Temple made his home in Victoria after leaving his native South Africa and spending time in several places (including Sydney) and most of his crime fiction is set in the state. His quartet of novels featuring lawyer/gambler/private detective Jack Irish paint a picture of Melbourne that you’d swear could only have been drawn by someone born and bred there. It’s the little things, like the lamenting of the old-timers for the loss of the football clubs they knew and understood, that make Temple’s Melbourne come alive.

Melbourne is also home to one of the few writers of Australian crime caper novels I can think of. Shane Maloney‘s series featuring political aide and bumbling amateur sleuth Murray Whelan is based in Melbourne. Melbourne certainly seems to be the home of comedy in Australia (it boasts one of the world’s largest and most influential comedy festivals) so perhaps it’s not surprising it is also home to some fictional crime comedy.

Have you read any of these crime tales set in Victoria? or have I missed your favourite crime fiction set in Victoria? Do tell in the comments

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Review: Needle in a Haystack by Ernesto Mallo

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In 1976 Argentina’s Dirty War had begun and its environment of state-sponsored illegal arrests, torture, killing and forced disappearances provides a brutal backdrop for what would otherwise be a simple tale of a policeman investigating a murder. Superintendent Lascano is asked to follow up on a report of two bodies being found but when he arrives at the site there are three bodies. Two are of young people who were clearly killed by the Junta’s death squads and their deaths will not be investigated further but the third body is an older man’s which appears to have nothing to do with the others. It is this death that Lascano decides to investigate and he learns it is the body of an Auschwitz survivor who is now an almost universally loathed money-lender.

I have ranted at length about the enormous (seemingly unedited) tomes that are produced in such numbers these days so it is worth noting that I did a little happy dance when I opened this book on my eReader and found it to be 192 pages short. If anyone needs evidence that an engaging, thoughtful story can be told in less than a house brick sized lump they need look no further than the rather haunting Needle in a Haystack. Told from the perspective of several different characters and not in chronological order, the story comes together as a kind of literary jigsaw puzzle with some pieces being found early and having to lie on the table for a while, awaiting their connecting pieces to appear before the full picture could become clear. The book’s snappy length enabled this to be a very successful storytelling mechanism.

There are very memorable characters here, both good and evil. Lascano is a widower who has struggled to come to terms with his wife’s death and the scenes describing his home, from which nothing of hers has been removed, are sad but very credible.  His determination to his job, in the face of widespread corruption and overt threats is also credibly portrayed. Some of the most memorable characters have only fleeting appearances, like the General’s wife who thinks the baby she has adopted hates her, but they are all beautifully drawn.

I must admit I found the long blocks of italicised text which eschewed quotation marks and other punctuation a little off-putting as they slowed down my reading pace and I’m still not sure what the format was meant to add to the story. Also the sex scene which spoke of Lascano’s ‘sex being reborn and wanting to fly’ just made me laugh and the schmaltzy tone of the whole scene seemed out of place with the rest of the book. Overall though these are minor quibbles about an excellent book which is both a sound mystery and an unsentimental depiction of what must have been a horrifying time to live through.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This book has been reviewed at Crime Scraps, Euro Crime and Petrona and is one of 7 shortlisted titles for the 2011 CWA International Dagger Award

I’m using this as the second book for the South American leg of this year’s global challenge

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4/5
Translator Jethro Soutar
Publisher Bitter Lemon Press [this translation 2010, original edition 2005]
ISBN 9781904738565
Length 192 pages
Format ePub
Book Series The first in a trilogy (I believe the second has been translated into English and will be released soon)
Source I bought it