Knots of Connections

Blind Goddess [by] Anne Holt

New York; Scribner [2012]

978-1-4516-3476-1; $15.00

Hanne Wilhelmsen, the “star” of 1222, is back on the streets of Oslo, her regular stomping grounds.  She is partnered with police attorney Håkon Sand for a very important case, as it turns out.

It all starts out when attorney Karen Borg is out for a walk with her dog, when she discovers the body of a man, shot three times and mutilated.

Then a young Dutchman is found sitting in the street, with blood all over him. He will not speak to the police when they take him in, but he will speak to Karen Borg, and only to her.  He tells her that he killed the dead man.  She tells him she can’t be his lawyer, because she doesn’t do criminal law, but he will only have her, because, since she found the body, she can’t have had anything to do with the man who died.  A rich, powerful defense lawyer, Peter Strup, offers to defend him for her, but the young man will only have Borg.

Then Hans E. Olsen, a lawyer, is killed.  Hanne tells Håkon that she believes the two murders are related.  Ludvig Sandersen, the first man murdered, had had the second man murdered as his lawyer.

Karen Borg goes to the lock-up to talk to the Dutchman.  Gradually he tells her that he was part of a syndicate.  His contact was a used-car salesman in another town. He believes there are lawyers involved in the syndicate at a higher level than his.

Frederick Myhreng, a journalist, comes in at Håkon’s behest.  He has intimated that he knows something about the case, but doesn’t really say much.  Håkon reminds him not to blab to the public, but to keep a tight lip, and report what he discovers.

Håkon and Hanne visit Olsen’s office, where he was shot.  They are looking for clues, not about the murder, but to see if they can find anything about his connection to a syndicate.  They find porno films and a piece of paper which looks like a code. This last they stash in their evidence box.  A retired cop specializing in codes tells them it is a code based on a book.  They just have to find out which book and the code will solve itself.

Hanne comes in to work on a Sunday.  She is bludgeoned over the head.  No one saw anything.  The Dutchman receives a threatening note, which causes him to go off the deep end, ending up in a locked hospital ward.  And they get a bit of a clue:  the initials J.U.L., which can only mean the lawyer Jørgen Ulf Lavik.  Hanne and another cop do a stakeout to watch him.  They end up chasing a man who climbs over a wall, leaving a large-sized boot behind.  The cops pull Lavik in for questioning, but get nothing.  Lavik leaves in ecstasy, because they don’t know anything.

Then Myhreng visits Lavik.  Lavik puts him off with lawyerly rhetoric, but Myhreng sees a chance.  He asks to go the restroom, and jimmies the window, so that he can return that night, which he does.  He discovers a key, which he copies in beeswax and takes to a keymaker for duplication.

Karen Borg accepts a dinner invitation from Peter Strup.  She is having a lovely time being wined and dined, when he begins to pressure her with questions about the Dutchman.  Then he threatens her – he must take over the case.  Karen defends her client’s right to have whom he wants to defend him, and then leaves the restaurant in a fury.

Hanne and the cop she was on stakeout with go to visit the used-car dealer who had been the Dutchman’s contact.  They find the Dutchman’s phone number encoded in the fellow’s personal phone book.  Meanwhile, they have to get a belt to keep the Dutchman’s trousers up, when he goes to court – he’d lost so much weight in custody.  He’s taken back to his cell, where he uses the belt to hang himself.

Another man dies from an overdose while in custody.  He is a client of Lavik’s.  They find money under the floorboards in his apartment.  Fingerprints taken from one of the banknotes matches what they lift from a coffee cup used by Lavik during one of his visits to Police HQ. Håkon and Hanne visit his office to arrest the outraged Lavik.

Karen Borg believes it is her best interest to get out of town.  She badly needs a rest, and the case had been hard on her, especially with her client committing suicide.  She goes to her country house, looking forward to being alone, in a peaceful place.  But her statement is needed for the case – it’s the only thing that can really tie things all together, and the hearings are not going well without it.  Håkon sends Hanne to get her statement.

She is exhausted when she brings the statement, which she typed up on a laptop while there, back to Håkon.  She doesn’t photocopy it. Håkon is too tired to photocopy it, either.  He goes home, leaving the original – and only copy – on his desk.  An interloper sneaks in and takes it, looks for other copies, and, finding none, destroys the only copy there is.

Lavik is set free without Borg’s statement.  Hanne and Håkon end up on a motorcycle riding through the snow to get a new statement.  But all hell has broken loose at Borg’s cottage.  It is on fire; her dog is dead; she is badly hurt; Hanne and Håkon are both hurt, trying to save her; both Lavik and Strup are there, as are a number of henchpersons of various kinds.  Eventually, all is tied up, both there and back in the city.  The journalist Myhreng gets his licks in finally, helping to prove the case for the police. A number of prominent people go down for their bad deeds, but not all.  There will obviously be a lot of mopping up afterwards to do.  A rollicking good time, with the tension mounting to the big climax and the even more fascinating dénouement.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Library book.

The Collision of Bad Faiths



Bad Faith [by] Robert K. Tannenbaum

New York; Gallery Books [2012]

978-1-4516-3552-2; $26.00

Faith has turned very bad in this book, with True Believers committing crimes in the name of religion. 

It all starts with a group of Christian fundamentalists who believe in faith healing.  A phone call comes into 911 saying that a little boy is dying in this tenement building on the Upper West Side, and when the paramedics go to see what’s up, they are stopped by the child’s mother and the Rev. C.G. Westlund and his followers in the End of Days Reformation Church of Jesus Christ Resurrected. Cops help the paramedics, and when they see the boy, they know he isn’t long for this world.

The parents, David and Nonie Ellis are accused of reckless manslaughter in the death of 10-year-old Micah, because they didn’t seek medical attention for him, when he was obviously so ill.  When the couple lived in Memphis, he had been diagnosed with astrocytomas, a kind of cancerous tumor on his brain.  That’s when Rev. C.G. Westlund, then known as Doctor of Divinity John LaFontaine of the Holy Covenant Church of Jesus Christ Reformed, came into their lives.  Now the Reverend and his flock are protesting in front of the court building, railing particularly at Butch Karp, the District Attorney for the City of New York. 

The protestors have been there for several days, but the trial of the Ellises is coming up soon and David has just found in the mail a letter about an insurance policy he knew nothing about.  It is purported to be signed by his wife and himself, with Westlund/LaFontaine as the benefactor.  David is angry, and he is walking towards the court building, in front of the crowd.  Suddenly a woman named Kathryn Boole steps out of the crowd and shoots David Ellis.  Then she turns on Butch Karp, who asks for the gun.  Suddenly one of the police takes out Boole.

It turns out Boole’s will gives Westlund the building housing both his church and his living quarters.  Marlene Ciampi, Butch’s wife, and a private investigator in her own right, decides to find out more about this rather incestuous group of so-called Christians.  She goes to Memphis.

Then there are Muslim fanatics, following a Chechen woman terrorist named Ajmaani [née Nadya Malovo]in blowing up a tourist ferry in front of the Statue of Liberty.  Attendant in the party that deflects their actions is Lucy Karp, daughter of the District Attorney for the City of New York, Butch Karp, and her fiancé, Ned Blanchette.  Lucy is conversant in many of the languages being used by the group.

Nadya is actually working for a group of federal investigators, including the F.B.I. and the U.S. Marshall’s Service.  She asks for a lawyer and gets Bruce Knight, a former up-and-comer, who practically drank himself off the map, and is working to atone.

Bruce had a memorable trip to the bowels of NYC 4 years ago, when he found a place to sleep off a subway tunnel.  He is awakened by David Grale, known as the Mad Monk, because of his style of dress and behavior.  Grale is the leader of the Mole People, homeless people living in the subway tunnels and sewers and contributing to the community in various ways.  Their group is formed like the early Christian Communities, and they help one another.

They also line up behind David when he declares war on those he believes are possessed by demons, and are out to wreak havoc upon the City of New York. One such person is Andrew Kane, a former mayoral candidate, for whom Nadya Malovo worked, before he was captured by Grale and forced to live, chained as a dog, underground, where he went slowly mad.  Grale is a friend to the Karp family, especially Lucy, with whom he worked at a soup kitchen years ago.

Thus the stage is set for the big Hallowe’en parade, with Butch as the Grand Marshall, riding in a float at the end of the parade.  All hell breaks loose.  It also explodes big-time in Memphis, where Butch’s wife Marlene is.  The collision of the “bad faiths” is quite an extravaganza, but the moral Jew Karp prevails.  Excellent thrill factor, mounting to a fever pitch. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Fire Fun and Games



Fireproof [by] Alex Kava

New York; Doubleday [2012]

978-0-385-53551-9; $24.95

Cornell Stamoran is a drunk, and on the streets, sleeping in a cardboard box.  But he used to be a partner in one of the District’s top accounting firms.  When he returns to his box one night, he discovers that someone else had been there, and there was a body in his box.  A dead woman with her face smashed in.  He drags her body out, then discovering that there is gasoline on his clothing.  He looks up to see a man, closer to the warehouse, who is pouring gas on the ground.  The man smiles and lights the gas.  Cornell runs.

Ace reporter Jeffrey Cole and his camerawoman, Samantha Ramirez, are there to cover the big warehouse fire.  So are F.B.I. agents Maggie O’Dell and R.J. Tully, and District detective Julia Racine.  Tully and Maggie are profilers, trying to find a clue to the identity of this serial arsonist.  Maggie is still  recovering from the attack made on her during the last case she was on, with headaches and nightmares.  She does have a sense that she is being watched, and that the perpetrator is at the scene of his crime.  They discover the body outside the warehouse, thinking that it’s odd it’s not in the flaming warehouse.  Then there is an explosion which torches a second warehouse.  Firefighters put out the blaze and they find a badly burned skull.  Tully also sees someone skulking about and tries to follow him, but the man throws his backpack at him and runs away.  Maggie follows him, even through a manhole down into the sewers, where she is rescued by Julia before she gets lost. Not only is she chasing someone down there, but someone is chasing her, before Julia gets her.

When Tully explores the content of the backpack, he discovers Cornell Stamoran’s passport.  A homeless guy with a passport?  Huh?  This bears some looking into.

Meanwhile, Maggie has a battle on another front.  Jeffrey Cole has had a first part special on her, including pictures of her home, which came from his skulking around her house, which has high walls and is not easily found, because she is trying to guard herself from attack.  She discovers Sam back there, and asks her why Jeffrey is doing this to her.  Sam has no answer.

The second night of coverage of her life is an interview with Maggie’s mother.  She and Maggie have a strained relationship, since Maggie believes it’s her mother’s fault her dad left the family.  Also, he started another family, which produced her half-brother Patrick, who is currently staying with her while he has a job as a firefighter with a private security agency.  Patrick has already gotten into hot water with the company for using private equipment and personnel to help fight public fires – not ones his company has interest in.  Maggie’s mother tries to get Patrick to leave Maggie’s house, but Maggie comes home and throws her out, since she is angry about the interview.  Mother gets back at Maggie by trying to commit suicide.

Meanwhile, it looks like Patrick’s partner, Wes Harper, is also interested in Maggie.  She is interested in him, thinking he might be the serial arsonist.  He does have experiences with fires, as he describes what fire does to the human body to Sam and Jeffrey.  He and Jeffrey hit it off, with their mutual interest in fire, but Sam is disgusted.  In fact, she is getting pretty disgusted with Jeffrey, who has pushed her around through her entire career.  She leaves to go home and see her mother and 6-year-old son, whom she takes out for Chinese food.

She gets a phone call from Jeffrey, but ignores it.  Firetrucks go by the restaurant, and she realizes that there is a fire in the next block, and Jeffrey must be really angry at her.  This proves to be true, as he pulls up to her house just when she leaves her mother and son off.  He really reams her out because her tardiness has lost him the story, which actually had fatalities in it, which would have made their manager happy. 

Later that night, Sam is drugged and left to burn up in the house next to Maggie’s, which is torched, along with Maggie’s.  Maggie comes home from the hospital to see fire and police personnel all over the street where she lives.  She also realizes that Patrick and her two dogs are inside the house, too.  She is frantic.

However, all is OK in the end.  The firefly, as the team calls the arsonist, confesses – and you’ll be surprised to know who it is, and Patrick and the dogs are safe – one of them, Jake, also saves Sam next door.  But there are several loose ends that are not tied up.  We are bound to see these people again.  A first-rate thriller. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Chick Lit Meets Mystery in L.A.

Tote Bags and Toe Tags [by] Dorothy Howell

[New York]; Kensington Books [2012]

978-0-7582-5332-3; $23.00

Haley Randolph hits a milestone in her young life.  Hoping to get out of her dead-end job at Holt’s Department Store, she enrolled in the University of Mixology Bartending School and has just graduated.  Unfortunately, her official boyfriend Ty believes that she has a degree in business from the University of Michigan, and throws her a very fancy graduation party.  A past nemesis at Holt’s calls up a contact and gets her an interview at a business nearby, Dempsey Rowland.

She gets to the office early, meets her new boss, Violet, and sits in on an orientation class with the other new hires.  All of the new people learn that background checks will be done on them.  Haley realizes that, if a background check is done, she’ll lose her job because of the mistake over “UM.”  She gets cold feet, but there’s nothing she can do.

The next day, she also arrives early, only to find Violet lying in a bloody heap behind her own superior’s desk.  The next person to come along starts screaming that Haley is the culprit.  Seeing an opportunity to show her skills under pressure, Haley bars everyone from the crime scene, and calls both building security and the police.  This makes her even more suspect. She gets interviewed by the same police team that has followed her though the previous 4 books of the series – one who is convinced she is guilty, and the other who doesn’t believe it for a minute, but can’t go against his partner.

Since the dead woman was to be doing the background checks, these have been postponed, and Haley is moved into the office next door to where she found Violet.  She is put in charge of all of the company’s celebrations:  birthday club, retirement parties, and, of course, Violet’s memorial.  Although she has no idea what the company does, nor where anything is, she starts to work, which means – to her – texting her friends, updating her Facebook page, and daydreaming about the clothes that she will need to buy to work there, and especially the Temptress handbag that she covets.

She gets a little direction from some of the secretaries and a little help, such as a Dempsey Rowland corporate charge card, which she uses to purchase a cake and balloons for the first birthday party, as well as Mocha Frappuccinos at Starbuck’s for herself.

Meanwhile, there are things going on in the rest of her life.  Because she is still unsure whether she’ll be able to keep the job, she is still working shifts as a clerk at Holt’s.  A woman she’d once helped get over her fears after bring the victim of a crime there comes back to work and, following Haley’s advice, gets a backbone, and demands that Haley take the makeup tests on all the training she has managed to avoid all the time she’s worked there.

Her relationship with Holt’s CEO, Ty Holt, takes a turn for the weird.  She gets a phone call from Palmdale – Ty has been in an accident – he’s OK, but would she come and get him? (And WHY has Ty gone to Palmdale?)  He tells her that he’s decided to become the boyfriend she deserves.  He moves into her apartment so that he will be more available.  [He has always called at the last minute to cancel dates, because work has interfered, or he spends all his time on his cell phone, instead of with her.]

Now he has lots of time to shop for presents, like the big grill and the big flatscreen TV he’s ordered, and then leaves in pieces all over her living room, pushing her interior decorating touches into the background.  And he takes over her diet, providing her with healthy choices, without any knowledge of what she needs or requires.  He also makes her life interesting at her new job by sending enormous flower arrangements and a crooner.  But he never gives her the look that "her" detective gives his girlfriend.

And her mother, a former beauty pageant star, calls her to tell her that her maid has been kidnapped.  Not to mention, the supportive cop from the L.A.P.D. Homicide Unit has suggested that she sleuth about the place and find out who might actually have killed Violet.  So when Haley isn’t designing parties for her job, she is following her co-new-hires, consulting with a man who may have connections with the Russian mob, interviewing retirees, and detecting with her private detective friend.  No wonder she hasn’t time to find the Temptress handbag!

But she does realize that she hasn’t communicated well with Ty, who is not being the boyfriend she deserves, and that her mother’s mis-communication with her maid has resulted in total misunderstanding.  She uncovers who killed Violet and lots of other problems with the company, thus ending her job there, but with 8 new suits and enough money to buy the Temptress, if she can get her hands on one!  A funny and clever romp, as Chick Lit meets Mystery.  Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Library book.



A Bad Day in Scotland



Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder [by] Catriona McPherson

New York; Minotaur [2012]

978-1-250-00737-7 ; $24.99

The time is the early 1920's, the setting is Dumferline, Scotland, and upper-class sleuth Dandelion Gilver has received a summons to the home of the owners of one of the two department stores in town.  The youngest young lady of the family has gone missing.  There is great fear that she is either a) eloping with the youngest male of the other department store family or b) running away from this match.  When Dandy arrives at the house, everything is in a tizzy, for it is the 50th anniversary of the store, and so much is going wrong.  Dandy gets swept up in the festivities and is taken to the store for the celebration.  The celebration's questionable highpoint, however, is the appearance of the missing young woman, who is now dead, seemingly shot by her own mother.

The mother is discredited as the murderer, and, for a brief time, Dandy is no. 1 suspect.  At the funeral, held where it happened in the department store, is marked by the death of the young man from the other family, who seems to leap to his doom on the top of the elevator in the store.

Dandy and her crime-solving partner Alec are plunged into a very confusing disarray of families, with lies, rumors, affairs and presumed affairs and other secrets abounding.  They discover tings, leading to other things, and then they find their finds have feet of clay.  What begins as a Montague-Capulet feud, ends up a series of crumbling relationships and lies.  And as these well-to-do merchant familes struggle with each other, the world that they knew, the pre-World War I world, crumbles around them.   An interesting view of the old giving way to the new, in more than one way.

Dandy Gilver is a plucky young woman in the mold of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs and Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple.  I found her refreshing and funny:  witty, clever, and engaging. Highly recommended. ~lss-r

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