British Royal Excitement

Princess Elizabeth’s Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal

New York; Bantam Books [2012]

978-0-553-59362-4; $15.00

In the Prologue, Ms. MacNeal sets the stage, with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Lisbon, meeting with Walther Schellenberg, personal aide to Heinrich Himmler.  The couple had just gotten “banished” to Bermuda by Churchill, and they are none too happy.  Their love was condemned by the Royal Family, for not only was Wallis Simpson a two-time American divorcée, but she was also a close personal friend of Joachim von Ribbentrop’s, Foreign Minister of Germany.  In fact, there were rumors that they had slept together.

Germany hopes to put the former King Edward VII back on the throne of Great Britain, along with his disapproved-of-wife, who had never even been given the title of Her Royal Highness. This would, of course, give Germany an easy road to conquering the resolute little island.

The scene then moves to Bletchley Park, a manor house about 50 miles northwest of London, the home of the Government Code and Cipher School.  The Poles had passed a reconstructed Enigma machine, used by the Germans, on to the British. Alan Turing and others were learning to use it and working on finding the right configuration to decode Nazi secret messages.

A young woman who works there, Victoria Keeley, and a young codebreaker named Benjamin Batey have a date. Batey, a proverbial nerd, can hardly believe his good luck, and is not paying attention to what is going on when she vamps him and takes away a decrypted message.  After a brief sojourn in her rooms, she kicks him out and makes a phone call, saying she has something for her “darling” to see, and that she’s coming to London.  She checks into the fashionable Claridge Hotel in Mayfair.  She puts the decrypt on the bed, and goes to take a bath.  There she is shot between the eyes, and the decrypt disappears.

Head of MI-5 Peter Frain goes to see his “go-to” guy at Bletchley, Edmund Hope, who is trying to suss out the traitorous person rumored to be working there.  Perhaps there is a connection?

Meanwhile, our heroine, Maggie Hope is falling into the mud of the obstacle course at “Camp Spook,” somewhere in Scotland. When she had been Churchill’s secretary, she’d never thought of being a spy. But here she is, a member of MI-5, the British secret service.  But she fails her training – she just not athletic enough to be dropped behind enemy lines, although she is fluent in both French and German, excellent at math, and a whiz at codebreaking.  She is sent back to Peter Frain in London for another assignment.  Just before leaving the camp, she gets word that the man she loves, John Sterling, an RAF pilot, has been shot down behind enemy lines:  missing, presumed dead.

Her new job is to be ostensibly a math tutor for Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, but she is really there to keep watch on the Princess, to see that nothing happens to her, the heir apparent to the British throne, and to spy out what she can.  The Royal Family has decided to stay in England, and they are staying at Windsor, out of the direct flightpath of the Blitz.

Although Maggie is not happy to be in such a secondary “women’s work” sort of role, she rallies when she learns that a German, called Commandant Hess, is receiving radio transmissions sent from Windsor by an unknown.  She takes the position and meets her handler, Hugh Thompson, a pleasant and capable, and very good-looking, young man. 

Maggie’s flatmate and former colleague at No. 10 Downing Street, the gay secretary to Mr. Churchill, David Greene, agrees to chauffeur Maggie to Windsor.  She is greeted by Ainslie, the Royal Butler, who takes her to meet the Princesses Elizabeth, aged 14, and Margaret, aged 8, and their staff.  The end of the tour is at her rooms in the Victoria Tower – with the toilet and bath on the roof.  (Castles weren’t built with indoor plumbing, don’t you know?)  With the ominous “We dress for dinner,” Ainslie leaves Maggie to unpack.

The castle is so cold, and Maggie has so few clothes, she puts on a wool dress, and her coat, and goes downstairs.  Then she realizes that she doesn’t know where the Octagon Room is, where dinner will be served.  After walking what feels like miles and miles, she sees an apparition in the distance.

It turns out not to be an apparition, but a wounded war veteran of the RAF, Gregory Strathcliffe, who is currently serving at Windsor as an Equerry to the King.  He takes her to the room.  She enters and is rebuked for being late and for not dressing up.  She has witty response, which takes the rebuke aback.  The Gregory enters, says that, because they are late, they should go out.  Maggie agrees, causing the rebuke to be discomfited.

They go to a pub in town, where Maggie gets to meet 3 ladies-in-waiting, all recently returned from London, where they stayed at Claridge’s.  It wasn’t  a particularly pleasant stay, since there were air raids and bombs and not enough clothing rations to buy anything decent.  Maggie mentions that she’d read in the paper about a suicide there, and the young women agree that that wasn’t fun, either, will all of the police running around.  When one of the ladies gets ill as a reaction to the food, Maggie follows her to the Ladies’, learning that she is having morning sickness, and went to the city to see a doctor.  She is, indeed, pregnant, and no one else knows.  Her name is Lady Lily Howell.

The next day, Maggie is talking to Crawfie, Miss Marian Crawford, who is the governess to the two Princesses,  when the Princesses burst in with awful news.  They were out riding with Lady Lily and one of the grooms.  Lady Lily went on ahead, and fell off her horse!  When they came up, Margaret didn’t see her, but Elizabeth did – she had no head!  Yes, they say, it is most horribly true, and it must be, for the police come and interview everyone. Later, Maggie goes to see the detective in charge, and tells him about Lady Lily being pregnant.

But why was Lily killed?  Maggie goes to check and finds the place where the wire was attached that decapitated her.  She also goes to check in Maggie’s rooms, and discovers some books gone.  She finds them with the housekeeper, and takes a copy of The Phantom of the Opera with Lily’s bookplate in it.  When she sits down in her room to look at it, she discovers something under the endpapers: a decryption of a message from a German U-boat commander. It was dated the day that Lily and the others were at Claridge’s – the day the woman was shot in her bath.  What was Lily involved with?

Princess Elizabeth is not impressed with having to learn math, until Maggie tells her about Mary, Queen of Scots and Sir Anthony Babington, who communicated in code based on the frequency of letters in the message, and how Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, broke the code.  Elizabeth becomes very interested, and creates her own code.  She plans on trying it out with the man she’s sweet on, Prince Philip of Greece, who is now in the Royal Navy.  The Princesses also teach Maggie about the dungeons in the basement, and the secret passage out of the castle.

On another front, Maggie’s handler is changed from Hugh to a fellow named Nevins.  Hugh predicts that will not be a Good Thing, and he is right.  Nevins meets openly with Maggie, who tells him off for being so unprofessional.  He tells her he doesn’t take orders from women, and does not give her the information that she had asked Hugh to get for her, and which hugh has passed on to Nevins.  Maggie is revolted by Nevins’ condescension and patronizing attitude.

She is vindicated in her opinion of Nevins when Gregory asked her who the man was she’d been seen with.  She begins to work with the Princesses on the show they are to put on for Christmas, a version of Sleeping Beauty, and she works on the sets with Gregory.  They also play Sardines, a hide-and-seek game, and Gregory makes a pass at her, which she rebuffs, saying that she likes him, but “not in that way.” Then she breaks into Gregory’s office and films Lady Lily’s file.

Meeting with Nevins again, he orders her to give him the film, and calls her “Darling.” She tells him he was seen with her and she was asked about it.  She says Frain will not get the film unless it is picked up by Hugh.  When Nevins says that Hugh is a nobody, she tells him that Hugh is a better agent than he is, for he – Nevins – is all ego and no integrity.  Nevins calls her a bitch.

Determined to solve the murder of Lady Lily, Maggie goes back to the scene of the crime.  There she sees the Royal Falconer with his birds at the top of the Castle, and she convinces him to tell her what he saw.  He doesn’t want to tell, but finally does:  it was Mr. Tooke, the head gardener.  He was still angry at the Royal Family for having his German-born wife taken away to a camp, where she died.  Lady Lily didn’t have to go to a camp, and she was German, too.  Maggie reports this to the detective in charge.

Maggie had wanted to meet with her father, have dinner, and have her father explain to her the many secrets that seemed to swirl around her family, but her father stood her up.  Instead he sent her a book belonging to her mother – a volume of Grimm’s fairytales.  When she is with Princess Elizabeth, the Princess sneezes, and spills tea on the book.  She is ever so sorry, but Maggie then sees what she has not seen before:  little pinpricks above certain letters.  There is code in this book!

Maggie meets with Hugh and tells him about all she has learned.  They skate together while talking – she has been exercising all the time she has been at Windsor, and is much stronger now than when she was such a failure at Camp Spook.  Hugh agrees to get her father’s MI-5 file, which he does. That, plus the code in the Grimm’s adds up to some disappointing things.

Then it is Christmas, and the Princesses get to do their show.  Everyone is there, including Frain and Hugh, Churchill and his secretary, David Greene, Gregory, who has become even more prickly, but does show an interest in David, and all of the Royal Household.

This is capped off by a kidnapping of several people; the escape of several spies; the meeting of a U-boat, off the coast of England; several good guys being wounded; and a daring rescue at sea.  This last bit seems to be – as far as I know – out of the canon of World War II British experiences, but it has been built up to in a very exciting, and seemingly true-to-history way.

MacNeal has done extensive research on MI-5, Bletchley Park, and Windsor and the people who live there, as proven by her lengthy historical note. So much rings true.  It’s an exciting and plausible mystery, with a plucky heroine and excellently-drawn secondary figures.  Highly recommended. ~lss-r

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My book.



Crazy Happenings in a Crazy House



Peril in Paperback [by] Kate Carlisle

[New York]; Obsidian [2012]

978-0-451-23762-0; $7.99

Bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright has been invited to the quirky Lake Tahoe home of the aunt of one of her friends down the hall in her San Francisco apartment building, Suzie Stein. The aunt, Grace Crawford, has made a name, and a fortune, in the computer games industry, and her home shows her creative ingenuity, complete with secret passages, trapdoors, and arrays of gaming paraphernalia, such as a life-sized mouse cage that can be tripped to fall over one passing through the room.  Holograms appear to change the geography of the house, too – and Grace loves to confound some of her guests, especially those of the stuffy variety.

Grace also has a huge library, full of books, both simple modern paperbacks and genuine rare books.  Brooklyn has been invited as a friend of the family for the big 50^th birthday party Grace is giving herself, but also for her book-binding expertise, since Grace has decided to spruce up her library – having it cataloged and restored.  She has also hired an archivist named Nathan to assist in this project.

The guests are a varied lot.  Besides Brooklyn and Nathan, Suzie and her Lesbian partner, Vinnie, there are Grace’s brother Harrison, his wife Madge, and a niece, Kiki, who is daughter of the third Crawford sibling, who is not at the party.  There is Grace’s friend Ruth, who lives on the grounds, and her lawyer, Stephen Fowler.  There are the colleagues that she has worked with – her former partner Peter Brinker and his wife, Sybil, now the CFO, and Marko Huntley and Bella Santangelo, two game designers.  Lastly (but by no means least), Grace’s housekeeper and general factotum, Merrilee, is included in the general festivities.

After the first big dinner, Grace announces that she has finished her first novel, and everyone in the room is in it.  There are reactions from total joy to consternation amongst the crowd.  Each person is given a copy.  Brooklyn takes her copy back to her room and enjoys reading it.

But others must not have enjoyed the book so much, for things start to happen.  First, Bella dies; then Grace’s maid nearly is killed when the balcony outside Grace’s room collapses; someone pushes Kiki down the main staircase; Ruth behaves oddly; someone sends Brooklyn a dead blackbird in a shoebox; Lawyer Fowler disappears; a baby arrives at the house; Merrilee chucks a baseball at her employer; the corporate thief who nearly destroyed Grace and Peter’s company years ago is revealed; and the killer is apprehended.

Brooklyn’s friend Gabriel shows up just after the first diasaster, and helps her sleuth for clues.  In the last couple of scenes, Derek, Brooklyn’s main squeeze, arrives to help, too.  He is a member of British Intelligence, and was out-of-the-country for a while, and when Brooklyn, who had hoped he would be at the houseparty, tries to call him after she gets to the party, and a woman answers his phone, indicating that she had claims on the owner of the phone.  It has bothered Brooklyn all the time she has been at the house, and Derek apologizes to her.  Others in the party make their pairings known, and one person become unpaired, which is one of the best things that could have happened.  A nice, neat package of explanations turns up at the end, as should always happen at a houseparty, after the killer is revealed.  An excellent cozy with a spunky heroine.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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My book.

Redemption on the Highway



Blues Highway Blues by Eyre Price

[Las Vegas, NV]; Thomas & Mercer [2012]

978-1612183534; $11.95

Daniel Erickson has lost his way in more ways than one.  His wife has divorced him for their son’s former girlfriend’s brother, taking him to the cleaners financially.  He is estranged from his son, Zack, a wannabe musician, and his career in the music business in on a precarious downhill slide.  His gorgeous house above the ocean in Malibu is on the market.  And he’s attempted suicide unsuccessfully.  As we meet him, he is being dangled over the edge of a penthouse balcony 65 stories up in Las Vegas by the large economy sized enforcer of a Russian Mafioso, who is demanding he pay up.

He realizes that he still has a cool million stashed in his Malibu home safe, along with a handgun.  He could take out the big thug, Moog, and the little thug, Rabidoso, in the same sweep and be home free, still with the cash, and able to keep himself from the all-seeing eyes of Filat Preezrakevich.  No problem.  He offers cash to the greedy Russian, and the need for him to stay alive to get it – because the safe is voice-activated.  The Russian gives him 24 hours to get to Malibu and return, and off they go.  It is not a pleasant drive.  The 2 bad guys bicker a lot, and Rabidoso keeps mentally honing his knife – he is obviously a little crazy.

When they get to Malibu, Daniel discovers a shock awaiting him.  The safe is empty – except for the Ruger he’d locked away as suicide prevention, and a jewel case holding a CD by an unknown band called Dockery Plantation. He’s too slow on the uptake to get the gun out, but he does take the CD and jump off of his balcony, where he rolls and rolls on down to the Pacific Coast Highway.  There he causes a snarl in traffic and hijacks a man’s Lotus, which he drives to his ex-wife’s house, where he talks to his ex and her live-in boy toy, Randy.  He borrows their Kia, since Randy needs the Escalade and Connie needs the Jag.  He takes off, to find out where his money has gone and why he was left with “The Blues Highway Blues,” which he has listened to on the way over.

He doesn’t know it, but the two bad guys are just a few steps behind him.  When they get to Connie’s, she’s gone and only Randy is there.  They assume that Randy is Daniel’s kid, and, when Moog goes out to get food, Rapidoso kills him gruesomely and playfully.  They decide to follow Daniel and see where he is going.

Daniel realizes that the song is sending him to find answers. There is no satisfaction at Graceland, and he realizes that the first place to look is the legendary crossroads, where Robert Johnson was supposed to have sold his soul.  This sends him to Highway 61, the Blues Highway, which connects the Mississippi Delta with the greater world of Memphis, Nashville, and Chicago.  The name of the musical group is the name of the place Charlie Patton called home.  The crossroads is close by, where Daniel gets the next installment of the song from a strange character, who just happens by and calls himself Mr. Atibon. He joins Daniel in his drive to New Orleans.  There they encounter Moog and Rapidoso, but manage to get away.  They also have a conversation about “Today music,” which turns out to be a major learning for Daniel, although he doesn’t know it yet.

Next stop: Memphis, then Nashville, and then Chicago.  Daniel has adventures on his, while the other two are trying to find him.  On the south side of Chicago, they run into each other, quite literally, while Daniel is escaping the law, which is just one step behind him after Memphis.  Together they visit Detroit and Cleveland.  The next destination is Philadelphia, where Daniel is separated from the other two and meets a former punk rocker. Then he goes to New York, where he sees a photo of the complete band Dockery Plantation, and he recognizes one of the players.  They have one more concert, in Seattle. He has to get to Seattle.

Redemption happens in Seattle, until Moog and Rapidoso show up.  Their arrival creates several fights, including one in which Moog puts down the Mexican, whom they leave there.  They return to see  the Russian in Vegas. Daniel has acquired some money to repay him, but he still wants his pound of flesh.  He has enforcers from the New Orleans motorcycle gang, who are delighted to mix it up with our guys, as they have been doing ever since the Crescent City.  Rapidoso, left for dead, comes in with Zack, whom he is looking forward to taking apart.  But Daniel has learned lessons on the road. He imparts them to all, but the only one who understands is Moog, who has had some epiphanies of his own.  The bad guys are killed.  Zack gets away.  The Feds, who have been tracking them, get to pick up the pieces, and Daniel and Moog start a beautiful relationship.  In the Blues Highway Blues lies redemption. A most surprising book.  Highly recommended. ~lss-r

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Library book.

High Octane Heat

Hot Seat [by] Simon Wood

[Sutton, Surrey] Crème de la Crime [2012]

978-1-78029-023-2 ; $28.95

Aidy Westlake is a racecar driver.  He’s Pit Lane magazine’s Young Driver of the Year, which has earned him a drive in the European Saloon Car Championship with Ragged Racing, one of the top racing outfits.  He is very excited.

However, his excitement lessens as he continues to get targeted for various offenses.  He discovers a mechanic from a rival team, dying from a cut throat, next to the Ragged Racing transporter, when he, awestruck by his new fame, goes over to see his name on the back of the truck.  He tries to save the young man’s life, and is picked up by the police and questioned for several hours.

Then he is picked up by the man’s brother, a former loan shark, who has not forgotten his nasty ways.  He questions Aidy relentlessy, with pain and threats against his grandfather Steve, who has a classic car restoring business, and who virtually raised Aidy since his car racing father and mother died.

Later, on his way back from a race in Europe, he is nabbed by British Customs, which plants drugs in his car.  The major officer of that outfit wants Aidy to help him investigate and bring to justice his boss, Rags Ragsdale, who is surely cheating Customs, since he seems to be operating rather lavishly on nothing more than a shoestring.

And lastly, an angry woman accuses him of smashing her car when he ran her off the road on the Motorway, even though, in the actual incident, he did not touch her car at all.

With his racing career at stake, since, if any of these threats pan out, he could lose his license and his driving career would be over, Aidy pursues his racing with a heavy heart, and his concentration not of the best, until, with his best friend Dylan and his grandfather’s help, he is able to confront the villains and pass them off to law enforcement.  High octane thrills all the way, with an especially exciting grand finale! Recommended.~ lss-r

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Library book.



A Very Funny Town in a Pickle

Some Like it Hawk [by] Donna Andrews

New York; Minotaur Books [2012]

978-1-250-00750-6; $24.99

Caerphilly, Virginia has a new claim to fame as “the Town That Mortgaged Its Jail.” First Progressive Financial (FPF) – known to the townspeople as “the Evil Lender,” has foreclosed on all of the town’s public buildings and all of the employees have evacuated, save one.  The Town Clerk, Phineas Throckmorton, has barricaded himself in the Courthouse basement, guarding the archives.

Most of the town’s inhabitants – the notable exceptions being members of the family named Pruitt (which includes the previous mayor, who absconded with town funds) – are in on the secret of the pre-Civil War tunnel that runs under the town square to the basement of the Courthouse.  This tunnel is the way Mr. Throckmorton has been provisioned for the year he has been barricaded.

The town has had a celebration of itself all summer long: performances at the bandstand, right over the tunnel, have included cloggers; a local metal band called Rancid Dread; high-heeled Morris Dancers called Molly in Chains; Irish step-dancers; a calypso band; a polka band; and a dramatic production of the history of the United States (with special emphasis on the wars) – all loud enough to cover the activity in the tunnel.  When she is not demonstrating her blacksmithing skills for the visitors, Meg Langslow is often the guard at the outer door of the tunnel.  The town artisans are demonstrating their skills and selling their wares around the square.  The local churches are feeding the visitors, and the town is trying desperately to raise enough money to replace the funds “borrowed” by ex-mayor George Pruitt.

The Evil Lender is also considering taking over the property belonging to Meg and her husband and her parents in order to build a golf course  and country club, as well as condo complexes.  Meg has finally gotten her house in order and they have built the library of their dreams – although it is currently housing the town’s public library, also foreclosed upon.

Reporters come to cover the festival and the town situation.  The current mayor invites Meg to go along with him and the reporter and her camera-man to see the abandoned Courthouse and his visit with Mr. Throckmorton. Each month he visits to convince the Town Clerk to leave his post in an effort to impress the Evil Lender’s minions, most particularly the security service, referred to by the locals as “the Flying Monkeys.”

But then shots ring out in the basement and the group runs downstairs to discover a woman sprawled on the floor, shot in the throat.  She was a Vice-President at FRF named Colleen Brown.  The only clue seems to be the murder weapon, found by one of the Flying Moneys, between the barricade built by the Evil Lender and the one built by Mr. Throckmorton.  Automatically Mr. Throckmorton is suspe4cted, but he has an alibi – sort of – they just can’t talk about it, because it will reveal the tunnel.

But something seems to be going on with the Evil Lender.  There are many more people around, including a private eye, who disappears.  Word also comes to the town that the ex-mayor is no longer in Mexico, where he had supposedly gone.  The townspeople get their very sweet revenge and the Evil Lender gets in real trouble.  And we readers are laughing our heads off through the entire tale.  If you haven’t read one of these mysteries, you are in for a treat! Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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My book.





What Goes Around Comes Around

Trickster’s Point [by] William Kent Krueger

New York; ATRIA Books [2012]

978-4516-4567-5; $24.99

Cork O’Connor accompanied his boyhood friend, Jubal Little, on a bowhunt near the monolith called Trickster’s Point. There, Jubal was struck fatally by an arrow which looked suspiciously like one of Cork’s own making.  And Cork stayed with Jubal for 3 hours while he bled out and died before going for help.  Law enforcement couldn’t understand why, even though Cork explained that Jubal had asked him to remain.  Cork didn’t talk about what he and Jubal talked about.

Cork met Jubal when he was back in grade school and Jubal was the new kid in town.  Cork sometimes hung out with a sister and brother who were Ojibwe – Winona and Willie Crane.  Willie, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was an easy target for one of Aurora’s bullies, Donner Bigby.  That all changed the day Jubal arrived and beat up Donner.

Jubal was a larger-than-life kind of guy, even as a kid, and he captured the admiration of Cork O’Connor, the gratitude of Willie Crane, and the heart of Winona.  Since then, his fame grew.  He became a football player.  He married Camilla Jaeger and her family groomed him as a political candidate.  He was running for governor of Minnesota when he died.  His candidacy held within it the seeds of both health and destruction for the people of Tamarack County.  The other kids had changes in their lives, too.

Sam Winter Moon, who had been a good friend of Cork’s father, taught Winona, Jubal, and Cork how to bowhunt.  In fact, when Sam died, Cork made his arrows with the same fletching pattern as Sam’s.  Cork also went off to become a cop in Chicago and he married, too.

Henry Meloux, another friend of Cork’s family, an old shaman, saw Jubal and Winona as two halves of the same brokenness, and he encouraged them to heal each other, even encouraging their relationship after Jubal married.  Winona had had a vision that Jubal would go high upon a mountaintop, becoming an important man, and that he must do it alone, but that she was to help him to make it there.

Willie proceeded to make a brilliant name for himself as a nature photographer.  He learned to compensate for the clumsiness caused by his CP, and his pictures captured the pure essence – the soul, perhaps – of his subjects.  He and Winona created the Iron Lake Center for Native Art in Alouette, and Willie’s photos had a big place there.  Willie had also made a place for his equally awkward friend, Isaiah Broome, whom he had once saved from drowning, and then helped groom into a fine chainsaw artist.

In a later childhood incident, the bully Donner Bigby fell off the top of Trickster’s Point.  Jubal had climbed up there and looked down from the top as Cork looked up from below when Donner fell.  Cork strongly believed that Jubal had pushed him, but he never knew for sure.

An unknown man is found not far from the Point the day after the death of Jubal.  He seems to be a hunter, for he had good quality, but well-worn, equipment.  He’d been shot through the eye with an arrow similar to Cork’s.  The stranger is carrying a hunting rifle, and he looks to have been aiming it at where Cork and Jubal were when Jubal died.

How does this man fit in?  Who actually killed Jubal? Cork really wants to know, as his computers, guns and bows, and other so-called evidence is paraded from his home in the hands of cops who are his friends.  There are so many possibilities – some of them unthinkable.  Cork only knows that the reasons go back a long way into the history shared by the Cranes, Bigbys, Isaiah Broom, Cork, and Jubal.  But as he searches for answers, he is threatened by a bullet blowing through his windshield and lodging in his car seat, an arrow hitting the door of his paramour’s cabin, and a threat to him and his family if he ever mentions the name Rhiannon in public.  This is a name which appeared in his last conversation with Jubal, but he doesn’t know what it means.

Kent Krueger’s writing just gets better and better in this series which really delivers.  He gets to the centers of personalities in few words, and then just expands them into fully-realized people that you really do care about.  The lives of these characters are full and full of spiritual content.  The place they live, with its secrets and its legends, is a character in the books as well, shaping the people and their lives.  This is an awesome book.  Very highly recommended.~ lss-r

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My book.





Dipping Into Korean History

The joy Brigade [by] Martin Limón

[New York] ; Soho Press [2012]

978-1-61695-148-1; $25.00

Ordinarily we see Sgt. George Sueño patrolling the community of Itaewon, right outside the gates of the Eighth U.S. Army compound in Seoul, South Korea, with his partner, Ernie Bascomb.  But this time it’s different – Sueño is on his own, on a mission of extreme importance to both the South Korean Government and the U.S. Army.  Kim Il-Sung has vowed to reunite North and South Korea before he hands control of the Government over to his son. This means the forces of North Korea will cross the DMZ and overpower the American-allied South Korean Government.  Sueño’s mission is to prevent this by sneaking into North Korea to obtain an ancient map which details the network of secret tunnels that run underneath the DMZ.  This means Sueño will eventually meet his former lover, Doctor Yong In-ja, the keeper of the map.

Sueño enters the northern port of Nampo as a Rumanian member of the crew of an Albanian freighter.  As they are welcomed into the harbor, one of the sailors is taken aside, abused in front of the others, and then taken away “to be dealt with,” while the others are welcomes into the People’s Hall of International Friendship as guests of the Great Leader, Kim Il-Sung.  They receive food and “entertainment.”

Sueño bribes an employee to get him out of the Hall, so that he can go to the nearby People’s Grain Warehouse to meet his contact, Hero Kang.  When he gets there, he finds a message that says “run,” so he does, finally finding himself hanging off a cliff above the river, with a North Korean policeman urinating on him!  When he gets back to terra firma, it is not safe, for he is captured by the Commander who had the sailor from the ship abused.  But the scene is interrupted by a big man who begins to upbraid the Commander for taking this prisoner while out of his jurisdiction.  The man is quite flamboyant, to Sueño’s amazement, and the Commander gives in, marching his troop away, leaving Sueño with his savior – Hero Kang. Kang briefs him and gives him a Warsaw Pact uniform to wear.  The next day they board a train, which takes them to Pyongyang. There are several close calls before Sueño meets Doc Yong.  Fortunately, Sueño has kept the fact that he can speak Korean under wraps, but he can still negotiate through things with life-saving awareness.

Sueño learns more about his task, which is not to be an easy one.  He must win a taekwondo tournament, so he gets some practice time in.  But while he has a black belt, he is not as in-shape as he should be.  He beats all of the foreigners except one, and is badly trounced by the North Korean Army favorite.  He does not get chosen to take the course that will easily take him past some of the major hurdles in the rest of his journey.  Instead, he has to fight hard to get past them, involving others, including Doc Yong and their son, whom Sueño had never met until then, Hero Kang and his daughter, and another man known as Moon Chaser.  There are plenty of close calls, with them getting captured and tortured, and then escaping, only to be captured again.  The journey is long and arduous, as they seek the tunnels that will take them south, where the Sergeant will hopefully be able to convince the U.S. Army to help the Manchurian Battalion, the last hangers-on of the Korean revolution, who hope to reunite their country, not under the Great Leader, but under the forces of historic righteousness.

Is the Sergeant strong enough to do this?  Will the Army listen?  What will the South Koreans do?  Will Doc Yong be captured and imprisoned for her crimes when last in the south?  What will become of the little boy who is Sueño’s legacy?

Many times during the journey, Sueño crosses paths with a beautiful woman named Senior Captain Rhee Mi-Sook of the North Korean secret police and a so-called “fixer” when things go wrong.  The last time he sees her, she is wearing a Major’s uniform in the South Korean Army.  Who is this mysterious woman, really?  Why does he keep seeing her?

This is a somewhat different book than Limón normally writes – the violence is not so general, and there’s more politics and history, but it is just as compelling as his other books.  Highly recommended. ~lss-r

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My book.





One Day at a Time

Valley of Ashes by Cornelia Read

New York ; Grand Central Publishing [2012]

978-0-446-51136-0 ; $24.99

Madeline Dare has traded New York's gritty streets for the tree-lined ‘burbs of Boulder, Colorado when her husband Dean lands a promising job.  Now a full-time homemaker and mother to beautiful toddler twin girls, Madeline has achieved everything she thought she always wanted, but with her husband constantly on the road, she's fighting a losing battle against the Betty Friedan riptide of suburban/maternal exhaustion, angst, and sheer loneli-ness. A new freelance newspaper gig writing restaurant reviews helps her to get her mojo back, but Boulder isn't nearly as tranquil as it seems:  there's a serial arsonist at large in the city.  With the support of Jon McNally, her contact at the paper, and his friend, a fire inspector named Mimi Neff, Madeline joins in the case, while reporting on it.

None of these writing gigs is mentioned to Dean, since the state of their marriage is extremely precarious a structure. This doesn’t stop Dare from writing both her restaurant reviews and covering the increasing the number of fires popping up around Boulder.  As she closes in on the culprit, the fires turn deadly -- and the stakes become tragically personal. She'll need every ounce of strength and courage she has to keep the flames from reaching her own doorstep, threatening all she holds most dear.

Madeline’s desire to ferret out the truth is an instinct not easily stamped down, but it can be swamped by the sheer overwhelming time commitment of juggling nearly single-handedly the responsibility of caring for twins in a town where she knows almost no one. While she was ecstatically happy at first, as exhaustion wears her down, she becomes dissatisfied. Her world has shrunk to an endless round of taking care of two demanding babies, a house that is never clean, and a husband who, when he is home, is more and more critical of her.

Getting to know people, however, doesn’t seem to be Dean’s problem; especially people of the female persuasion. Whether he’s out of town on a business trip or in the office working long hours, he’s drifting away. The only friend who keeps husband and wife together is Cary, who works at Dean’s office.  After his death in one of the fires, Madeline discovers just how far Dean had strayed, and she finds herself in a fight, both for her life and the preservation of her family.

The mystery concerning the arsonist is an intriguing one, but this book is about so much more than arson. It's about motherhood and marriage, it's about friendship and tragedy and grief. It's about standing up for yourself and those you love. There are many things in life that can turn to ash within the blink of an eye.  Madeline is a wonderful creation, strong yet vulnerable; smart, but sometimes completely clueless; opinionated, interesting and observant. Her story involves both love and the heartbreak of betrayal. She couldn’t be more real.

As Madeline struggles with all the issues of her life, the reader gets very emotionally involved. This sassy-mouthed woman with a big, big heart can make you cheer, laugh, and cry within the space of a very few sentences.  This is beautifully-written, emotional, soul-searing and laugh-out-loud funny fiction at its very best.

What makes Read’s crime novels unique and difficult to pigeonhole, is the fact that the action doesn’t stop—and she doesn’t stop writing—when the murder is solved and the criminals are apprehended. Nor is everything tied up in tidy packages after the climax. That’s not how real life works, nor is it how satisfying fiction is supposed to work. And it’s definitely not how life has ever worked for Dare, whose whole world takes such a blow in this book that it’s hard to fathom how she’ll get up again. But, as readers of the series know from experience, she most certainly will, while eloquently telling off anyone who gets in her way! This is a funny and sad novel about a woman trying to establish an identity for herself and justice for everyone else.  I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that Cornelia Read's voice is one of the most original, vivid and memorable in all of contemporary crime fiction. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Library Book.

 

The First Detective Novel --- Ever!



The Notting Hill Mystery [by] Charles Warren Adams

[London; The British Library, 2012]

978-0-7123-5859-0 [$15.00]

This smallish tome represents the very first full-length detective novel ever published, according to the book’s introduction, bridging the gap between Poe’s short stories [“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was published in 1841.] and the prodigious The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins [1868].  This title was first published in 8 parts in Once a Week magazine beginning on November 29, 1862.  It was later published as a book in 1865 by Saunders, Otley & Co. of London, and it is the pages of that book which are recreated here by the British Library, but including the illustrations by George du Maurier [the grandfather of Daphne], which appeared in the magazine version.

The original was published under the name of Charles Felix. Felix only wrote a couple of other books, which are thoroughly unremarkable – one now exists in only 4 copies.  But it took some real detective work to figure out who Felix was, since there was nothing in the archives of the publisher – no correspondence between author and publisher exists.  The bottom line is that there didn’t need to be any.  Charles Felix is actually Charles Warren Adams, the publisher, who had, of course, no reason to write to himself!

Apparently, Adams had both legal training and a religious bent, and these show up in this story.  His book is profoundly moral:  it asks not only why and how evil exists, but also what is to be done about it.  The author’s law school training underlies the novel’s evidentiary process, which so wowed Julian Symons back in 1972, when he wrote Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel, one of the best-known critical works in the field of crime fiction. He admitted that the book “quite bowled me over.”

The plot is fairly straight-forward. The wife of Baron R** dies after sleep-walking down the stairs into her husband’s home laboratory and drinking a bottle of acid. It looks like a tragic accident, until a private investigator, Ralph Henderson, notices that the Baron took out five life insurance policies on Madame R**, worth a staggering £25,000! Hired by an insurance company, Henderson enters into a maze of intrigue that is perfectly Victorian, with a diabolical mesmerist, kidnapping by gypsies, a mysterious carnival with odd, secretive characters, slow poisonings, and a rich uncle’s will. Oh, and murder – actually, three murders.

Source documents compiled by insurance investigator Ralph Henderson are used to build a case against Baron R**. Although the baron's guilt is clear to the reader even from the outset, how he did it remains a mystery. Finally this is revealed, but how to catch him becomes the final challenge, for he seems to have committed the perfect crime.

The evidence against the Baron is presented as Henderson’s own findings — diary entries; family letters; depositions of servant girls, other roomers in the house, police officers, etc.; a chemical analyst’s report;  and a crime scene map.  These were such innovations at the time, and wouldn’t gain currency again until the 1920s.

It’s quite a joy to read this book, which is so modern, and yet so of its own time as well.  While the culprit is known at the outset, the thoroughness and tenacity of the investigator, and the materials he amasses, are a joy to see.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Library book.



Something Like Justice, With a Baritone Hum

Ranchero [by] Rick Gavin

New York; Minotaur [2011]

978-1-250-00658-5; $14.99

This book is billed as “a crime novel,” but it’s certainly one with a difference.  It’s really more of a slice-of-life around a crime.  Yes, a crime has been committed, but the question is not a whodunit, but more like a “will justice be served” kind of thing. It is a testosterone-filled road trip-type of romp, involving a number of good ol’ boys from the Mississippi Delta.

Nick Reid, former-cop-turned-repo-man, is trying to put the bite on Percy Dwayne Dubois [that’s Dew-boys] for the 42-inch flat-screen TV he’s missed 3 payments on.  But Percy Dwayne cold cocks him with a fireplace shovel and helps himself to Nick’s wallet, cell phone, and the 1969 Calypso Coral Ford Ranchero he’s driving.  Now the car rightfully belongs to Pearl Jarvis, Nick’s landlady, whose husband Gil drove it with great pride and joy until he croaked. Nick’s borrowed it since his wheels were in the shop.  Now he fervently promises to bring it back to Pearl in mint condition.

He enlists the help of his hulking African-American colleague, Desmond, who is driving his ex-wife’s Geo Metro.  They slip by their enraged Lebanese boss K-Lo and head off with a sort-of-plan:  to head to Yazoo City, where Luther Dubois – perhaps a relative of Percy Dwayne’s – reputedly lives.    Meanwhile, Percy Dwayne calls Nick, using his own cell phone, and offers to ransom the Ranchero.  This proves fruitless, since a violent meth cooker named Guy meets up with Percy Dwayne, and takes the Ranchero, along with Percy Dwayne’s wife Sissy and their son, the diapered PD, Jr.

The whole thing reads like the plot of a ‘70’s Southern exploitation flick starring a young Burt Reynolds. Most of the characters are an iffy bunch, but, generally, their hearts are in the right place.  Aficionados of Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard, who don’t mind a little b.o. and sleaze and potty humor, will enjoy this, for Gavin, like them, grounds his story in his colorful, weird, yet believable characters, their ways of thinking and speaking, and a comparison of Sonics from town to town.  It’s a trip through the backwoods South , combusting its way towards something like justice, to the music of that “glorious baritone hum” on a stolen 1969 Calypso Coral Ford Ranchero. Recommended. ~ lss-r

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Library book.





Husbands and Wives and Lovers, Oh My!

The Diva Digs up the Dirt [by] Krista Davis

New York; Berkley Prime Crime [2012]

978-0-425-25134-8; $7.99

Sophie Winston and Natasha Smith have been rivals for years, especially in the Domestic Diva department.  Now they are writing feuding advice columns.  Natasha has always been a bit over the top, but, then she also took Mars, Sophie’s husband, although they haven’t gotten married yet.

This time, Natasha is angling for a big TV show by showing how well she can work with the cast of the makeover show “Dig It Up With Troy.”  The person who is having the makeover – of her backyard, with the introduction of a garage, is – Sophie!

But before this even gets underway, Sophie is set upon by an improbable lady in a festive, brightly-colored ensemble.  She says she knows who Sophie is, and she would like to hire her to find her daughter, getting out a wad of cash.  Sophie explained she was an event planner and didn’t know how to find people.  Soon she finds the woman sneaking around, talking to her neighbors and trying to get into her house. And Sophie’s best friend and neighbor is encouraging her!

But Sophie is busy – that afternoon Roscoe Greene, the wealthy owner of a catalog store catering to Southern gardeners and outdoorsmen, is having his big picnic-party, complete with famous ice cream bar.  Because just 10 days before, Roscoe had married one of his employees, Mindy, in a destination Ireland wedding (after having dumped his wife of 45 years, Olive), he had hired Sophie to plan the whole thing.  And, apparently, Olive had taken umbrage at not being invited, and had had a dumptruckload of steer manure delivered to their house in Mindy’s name! (Olive has heard that Mindy is threatening to concrete over the gardens she spent many loving years cultivating.) Sophie tries to deal with all of the mishaps and last-minute-issues, and then the guests are there and the party starts. 

Roscoe shows off his new – and costly – print of Four Mallards.  He also announces that he has bought a retirement place, about which he is really excited.  Mindy asks if it’s the Palm Beach place, and he says No –it’s a 500 acre bed-and-breakfast lodge in the mountains, where there’s the best hunting and fishing in the world!  Mindy can barely hide her disappointment.

Later, Sophie and her best friend Nina spot a trio of interlopers watching the party from the woods.  One looks to be Olive, Roscoe’s former wife, one is a sandy-haired man, and the third is the woman who’d accosted Sophie about her missing daughter – a woman they have since learned is named Mona – short for Desdemona. Later, Sophie gets an eyeful of Roscoe’s 40-something son Audie (who is engaged to another employee, Cricket) with his arms wrapped around his future stepmother.  Hmm – what’s that all about?

The next morning, Sophie gets to meet Troy and the show crew, who have come to dig up her backyard.  Included in the crew is a man that Sophie and Nina saw yesterday, prowling in the woods near Roscoe’s.  Sophie gets a visit from the man she has been dating for a while, a Homicide Detective named Wolf.  They start to make a date for dinner, but when Sophie mentions her meeting with Roscoe tomorrow, Wolf gets angry.  He tells her to cancel it.  She believes he wants to give her more work, and she can’t.  Wolf stalks off.  The last person Sophie wants to see while her backyard is being torn up is Mona, but she shows up next.  Sophie has to avoid her – she gets her dog Daisy and walks her around the side of her yard and gets away, making it to her car, parked four blocks away.  (She really does need a garage!)

Every time she and Wolf sit in her yard, he admires the climbing Blaze rose she has. He used to have one, but it died not long after his wife Anne went missing.  He mourns both of those losses.  Since Troy will most likely chop her rose into oblivion, Sophie decides to plant one in Wolf’s yard as a sort of truce.

The need for this seems to be underscored as, when she goes shopping, she meets Wolf coming out of a restaurant.  They apologize to each other, but then get into it again as Wolf says that Roscoe isn’t to be trusted.  Then, Cricket comes out of the same restaurant, and stops to greet Wolf – they haven’t seen each other in years. Sophie is amazed that they know each other.

She buys the rose and takes it over to Wolf’s yard and begins to dig a hole to plant it in.  Wolf’s neighbor wants to know what she’s doing.  His neighbor is Roscoe’s ex-wife Olive (Small world!)  Sophie explains, and Olive leaves her to continue her digging.  Deeper into the hole she finds a purse.  A very nice leather purse.  Inside it is a driver’s license for Anne Fleishman, Wolf’s missing wife!  Rumors had circulated all over the place that Wolf had killed his wife, and thoughts of that rush back into Sophie’s mind.  Nina comes over to console her and then Mona shows up.  The Mona who is looking for her daughter – her daughter Anne, who married Wolf!

Sophie calls Wolf, who comes home.  He looks at the hole and the handbag, and then calls the police.  He seems not to be surprised at Mona’s presence.  He looks very sad.  His partner, Det. Kenner, whom Sophie does not like, arrives with a uniform.  He asks questions and looks at the hole and the purse, and then gives it to the uniform to bag. Kenner gives Sophie his card and suggests that she be very careful.  She’s surprised – this is the nicest he’s ever been to her.  

Wolf then disappears, telling no one where he is going.  Roscoe's mallard print goes missing. Sophie goes to Roscoe's, against Wolf's admonishments, and talks to Cricket, who used to be his late wife's best friend.  Meanwhile, Roscoe's housekeeper, Violet, dubbed by Sophie and her friends as "Mrs. Danvers" for her behaviour towards them:  condescending, closemouthed, and unforthcoming, is practically crazy over a calico cat, which is bothering her birds. Nina promises Violet she will capture the cat, with Sophie's help.

Sophie also discovers Mona in her closet. A body is found under the mulch at Roscoe's.  Roscoe goes to the hospital, then comes home.  Audie and Cricket begin their wedding in Roscoe's backyard, and Audie keels over and has to go to the hospital, too.  Then Sophie has a flash of insight in a junk store, where she and Natasha have gone to repurpose items for her backyard.  She also finds Roscoe's missing mallard print.

The final upshot is that Sophie loves her backyard, as made over by Troy, and Natasha's little touches aren't too bad.  The perpetrators of Anne's disappearance, as well as attacks on Roscoe's family are unmasked and jailed, and Sophie's group of friends is brought back together.  Roscoe takes back his first wife, and Sophie gains a friend, but loses her boyfriend.  She's gotten very philosophical about it.  We'll see if it holds up in the next one, or if there are other prospects.  Now that Kenner has proven to be a real person, he may also have a bright future.  Lose ends get tied up -- not necessarily as you would expect them to, proving that Krista Davis still has the magic in one of the best constructed cozies in the business.  Excellent recipes and gardening tips, too.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r
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My own book.