smik's reviews from LibraryThing

THE COMPLAINTS by Ian Rankin

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:48:37 -0500

smik's review: "Malcolm Fox, Foxy, works in the Dark Side of the Complaints and Conduct section of Edinburgh's Lothian and Borders Police HQ. Their job is to keep the cops honest - investigate grievances about cops, hints of corruption, smells of backhanders. Foxy and his colleagues are not popular, as you can imagine, and they've just had a result. They've had Glen Heaton under surveillance for months. It's Friday and now Heaton is under suspension, and the paperwork has gone to the Procurator Fiscal for prosecution. So there's always someone out for revenge, and if you work for the Dark Side you have to be extra careful to keep your nose clean. On Monday Fox is asked by another section, this time Child Protection, to begin an investigation into Jamie Breck, a policeman working in the same station as Heaton. His boss is ok with him doing some low key investigation. On the same day he hears that his sister Jude has been beaten up yet again by her boyfriend. This time she has a broken arm. Jude's boyfriend Vince appears to have disappeared. The further Inspector Fox gets drawn into Vince's disappearance and into investigating Jamie Breck, the more he finds that things aren't what they seem, and he gets drawn further into a complex web that challenges not only his personal safety but also his career. THE COMPLAINTS has all the hallmarks of the beginning of a series. There was a lot of speculation about what Rankin would find to do when he retired John Rebus. And so he produced Mark Mackenzie in DOORS OPEN. That didn't feel like the beginning of a series like THE COMPLAINTS does. In this novel Rankin spends a lot of time giving the reader background to Fox and his colleagues, establishing the parameters by which the Dark Side operates."
Orion Publishing Co (2009), Paperback

LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER by Mike Befeler

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:52:53 -0500

smik's review: "This book, #2 in the Paul Jacobsen Geezer-Lit Mystery series, is the first book I've completed reading on my new Kindle. I noticed also that this book is available as an audio from Audible. Finding that it was available on Kindle was great because the paper versions don't appear to be available yet here in Australia, and the US versions are quite expensive. I read and reviewed the first in the series, RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER, earlier this year after we had been to Left Coast Crime in Hawaii and met the author Mike Befeler there. The background to the series is that 85 year old Paul Jacobson has short term memory loss. Like most elderly people he remembers things from the past very well, but most of them will be thankful they don't have his peculiar affliction - sleep wipes the slate of his memory perfectly clean. So if he takes a nap, all that preceded it is gone, and overnight sleep erases the previous day. To counteract that, in the first in the series, Paul's granddaughter got him to write a daily journal so that he can read it the following day and and least get some idea of what he has been doing. In RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER, Paul was living on Hawaii in a retirement home, but his son Denny thought that was too far away and has persuaded Paul to come to live with his family in Boulder Colorado. The idea is really to keep a better eye on Paul, who always seemed to be getting into serious trouble in Hawaii. But Paul's move to Boulder doesn't start too well - the man he is sitting next to on the plane rather inconveniently dies, and that's just the start of a succession of serious situations for Paul. Like the earlier title LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS is an irreverent poke at the lives of the elderly. You'll discover for example that there is one thing that Paul can do that seems to prevent his memory loss, but is it a sustainable solution? Paul's son Denny is worrying that his memory may be going the same way, his daughter-in-law Allison is amazingly welcome, and his 12 year old granddaughter is delightful, a sleuth and lawyer in the making. I kept thinking of what an amazing job the author Mike Befeler does of keeping his wires uncrossed. We, the reader, basically see the world through Paul Jacobson's eyes, and of course we can remember a lot of what he has forgotten. Just occasionally I felt like poking Paul, to tell him that we had already discovered the answer to that question - why the heck didn't he write it down! You can probably tell from my tone that I thoroughly enjoyed reading LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER. I think Mike Befeler has hit on a story line that the elderly will find enjoyable too. It's not a long read - the hardcover version is 261 pages."
Five Star (ME) (2009), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 261 pages

A CERTAIN MALICE by Felicity Young

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:17:14 -0500

smik's review: "As one of my friends is won't to say, life is really too short to spend precious time re-reading books. I originally read A CERTAIN MALICE back in 2006, soon after its publication. So why have I just re-read it? Well, it is our discussion book over on oz_mystery_readers for the next few days starting tomorrow, and my memory just isn't what it used to be. And I'm glad I took the time to do it! Back in 2006 I wrote "Felicity Young, new West Australian author, hits the spot with her debut book. Senior Sergeant Cam Fraser accepts an appointment to run the police station in a small country town in West Australia to get away from the trauma that he and his 15 year old daughter have experienced in the last 3 years. He was brought up in this town, but his expectations of a quiet life are shattered with the discovery of a charred body after a bushfire in the grounds of a local school. To complicate matters the police at the station are mainly young and inexperienced, apart from Vince against whom there have been many complaints by locals. And what are the school principal and her husband hiding? The story moves at a good pace and the plot is well woven. Young makes good use of the uniqueness of her Australian setting." and I rated it at 4.5 I don't think I need to tell you more about the plot here, except to say that my rating has gone up to 4.8. After this re-reading what I want to tell you about is Felicity Young's considerable air of assurance in this her debut novel. If you are looking for an Australian author to start reading, then here is certainly one for you. Felicity currently has 3 published books, and one on the way. Her website is at http://www.felicityyoung.com If you are in Australia Booktopia has all 3 Felicity Young titles available. So do Felicity's publishers Fremantle Press. Look for A CERTAIN MALICE, AN EASEFUL DEATH, and HARUM SCARUM. If you are outside Australia try the Book Depository: A CERTAIN MALICE, and HARUM SCARUM are both in stock, although the latter is a bit expensive."
Creme de La Crime (2005), Paperback, 288 pages

MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY by Peter Lovesey

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:32:28 -0400

smik's review: "Like many of Peter Lovesey's other books, MAD HATTER'S HOLIDAY doesn't seem to get around to the crime fiction bit until about half way through. This tale is set in 1882 England and the beginning of summer. Albert Moscrop goes to Brighton for a seaside holiday, taking with him his latest acquisitions, a couple of telescopes. Albert is a bit of a voyeur and likes to watch people, and Brighton with its promenading tourist population is the perfect place. Albert arrives at the beginning of the "real season", the accommodation prices have risen, and a better class of tourist has arrived. Albert discovers the attractive face of Zena Prothero, and decides to find out more about her. He follows her, her son, and then contrives to meet her husband. Still no crime. And then Zena seems to disappear. Albert feels compelled to go to the police. At the same time a severed hand is discovered in the Alligator cavern at the Aquarium on the Brighton promenade jetty. The Brighton police feel that this is an investigation outside their capability, and send for London expertise in the form of Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackery from the Criminal Investigation Department. And so the two strands of the novel converge. Peter Lovesey's first novel WOBBLE TO DEATH (1970) introduced the redoubtable Victorian policemen, Cribb and Thackeray. He won the Gold Dagger Award with THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW and in 2000 joined the elite group of people awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award. I have been a Lovesey fan since WOBBLE TO DEATH arrived in South Australia in paperback, and you'll find him among my favourites."
Harpercollins (1989), Paperback

ANOTHER THING TO FALL by Laura Lippman

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:36:27 -0400

smik's review: "Tess Monaghan becomes involved in the protection of a young star of a television series, Mann of Steel, being filmed in Baltimore. Selene Waite, barely twenty, rather self-centred and seemingly vacuous, has already been the prey of a twisted stalker who then committed suicide. But that's not the only cause for concern - small incidents are happening on the set, and it seems that it won't be long before something really serious occurs. Selene is far from co-operative with Tess and even spikes Tess's drink at a nightclub to get away from her. From the very start the reader knows, even if one stalker is already dead, there is another watching Selene, taking photos, planning havoc. And then there are the protesters, the steelworkers of Baltimore, who say the television series is not treating their industry with any accuracy, and is riding roughshod over the residents. And what about the ageing Johnny Tampa, playing opposite Selene, who definitely believes the script is being manipulated for her benefit? I found ANOTHER THING TO FALL very hard to get my head around. It seemed to me to lack focus. There were lots of characters and for a large part of the plot I really didn't know where it was going. This is #10 in the Tess Monaghan series, and lovers of the series will probably be aghast at my criticism. I felt that Lippman has not taken sufficiently into account that the reader may have picked the series up for the first time. I was looking for a bit of background about Tess and her background, and yes, I did get some, eventually. I felt much of the characterisation, particularly of Tess herself, assumed that I had met Tess in earlier books. There are some interesting characters - I loved Mrs Blossom for example - but for many the details are thin, and I actually felt there were too many characters for me to assimilate into one story. I was really disappointed that I didn't enjoy ANOTHER THING TO FALL more, because I have enjoyed other Lippman novels. For example I gave WHAT THE DEAD KNOW a rating of 4.7. Back in 2005 I gave BY A SPIDER'S THREAD a rating of 5."
William Morrow (2008), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 336 pages

THE KILL CALL by Stephen Booth

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:39:13 -0400

smik's review: "The discovery of a body in the vicinity of a fox hunt, and near where animal rights protesters have been seen provides an intriguing puzzle. A phone call reporting the death has been made from a mobile, the caller not identifying himself, and the body supposedly in a building half a mile away from where it has been discovered. And why has the body, one Patrick Rawson, a horse dealer, driven out to this isolated spot? Who was he meeting? And is there a connection to the hunt? The story doesn't actually begin with this incident but with the reading of a page from a journal from 40 years before. The connection between this journal, with pages popping up occasionally, and the main action, begs for explanation for most of the novel. In those days, there were always just the three of us. Three bodies close together, down there in the cold, with the water seeping through the concrete floor, and a chill striking deep into flesh and bone. The three of us, crouching in the gloom, waiting for a signal that would never come. The hunt for a murderer leads Dianne Fry and Ben Cooper, tension always crackling between them as Cooper tries to help Fry who is facing demons he doesn't understand, on a path from the local fox hunt, to the horse meat trade, to Britain's preparations 40 years before for a nuclear cataclysm. It is a complex path, complicated by the relationships between various characters. I've probably come away knowing a lot more about fox hunting, the horse meat industry, and even the workings of the police force than I really needed to know, but I've come away feeling that I've had a thorough immersion. Make no mistake - it all works together well. There were many voices for the narrator Will Thorpe to produce, but I need to comment here on what I feel was a mistake. It is not a problem you'll notice if you read a paper copy of the book. However the voice that Thorpe chose to give Dianne Fry is dreadful and sounds as if she is speaking with her epiglottis half closed, and a peg on her nose. If you think it's just my hearing check what others have said."
Harper Collins Omes, Paperback, 416 pages

GENTLY DOES IT by Alan Hunter

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:44:49 -0400

smik's review: "When Nicholas Huysmann, Dutch immigrant, and timber merchant in the city of Norchester, is murdered, the immediate suspect is his son Peter. Father and son have been estranged for some time, but currently Peter is in town with the circus for the Easter Fair, and is known to have visited with, and argued with, his father. Chief Inspector George Gently is in town too, on holiday, and by coincidence has just seen Peter Huysmann perform his Wall of Death act at the circus. Just as Superintendent Walker of the Norchester City Police is thinking of asking Scotland Yard to send George Gently to assist him, Gently providentially walks into police station. Inspector Hansom, in charge of the investigation, resents Gently's intrusion, and the fact that he has to regard Gently as his superior officer. There are times when Superintendent Walker regrets involving Gently in the investigation, because Gently believes in thorough investigation, with the case proved without doubt, and many times in this investigation, when both Walker and Hansom believe they are "done", Gently proves they aren't. I decided to track GENTLY DOES IT down, because of the recent screening of some Gently programmes on Australian television. I wrote about the George Gently novels about 5 weeks ago. There's a YouTube video embedded in that post showing Martin Shaw as Gently. There's also a list of the 47 Gently titles that Fantastic Fiction know about. They were published over a period of 45 years. I'm happy to report that I really enjoyed GENTLY DOES IT, gave it a rating of 4.6, and will be looking for another. A foreword titled A GENTLE REMINDER TO THE READER says This is a detective story, but NOT a 'whodunit'. Its aim is to give a picture of a police investigator slowly building up his knowledge of a crime to a point, not where he knows who did it - both you and he know that at a fairly early stage - but to a point where he can bring a charge which will convince the jury. I thought it worth while mentioning this. I hate being criticized for not doing what I had no intention of doing. There's a lot to enjoy about GENTLY DOES IT. First of all meeting a new detective. In the long run, I thought those who cast Martin Shaw got it pretty right. A man in his senior years, mandarin-like, solid build, quiet observer, with a passion for munching on peppermint creams. The latter does not appear in the television series. In GENTLY DOES IT he smokes a pipe almost incessantly, on the television, cigarettes. I liked the tension between Hansom and Gently: The ash dropped off Hansom's cigar and fell neatly on to the blotter in front of him. He grabbed it away savagely. 'See here,' he snapped, 'I know you're dead against us. I know you'd go to any lengths to get young Huysmann off, even if you're as sure as we are that he did it. Because why? Because you're the Yard, and you think you've got to show us we're a lot of flat-footed yokels. That's why! That's why you're going to upset this - if you can. But you can't, Chief Inspector Gently, it's getting much too one-sided, even for you. By the time we've lined this case up there won't be a jury in the country who'll give it more than ten minutes - if they give it that!' I loved Gently's response: 'There is between us, Inspector Hansom, a slight but operative difference in rank... And now, if you will start sending these people in, we'll try to question them as though we were part of one of the acknowledged civilizations.' I loved Hunter's writing in GENTLY DOES IT. Gently smiled into the window. 'There's so much we don't know', he said, 'it's like a picture out of focus... ....... It's taking shape a little bit, but it's full of blind spots and blurred outlines.' When Hansom challenges what Gently is trying to do, Gently responds '... I am trying to find out things. I'm trying to find out what happened here yesterday and what led up to it, and how these people fit into it, and why they answered what they did answer this morning.' Hansom said: 'We're not so ambitious. We're just knocking up a case of murder so it keeps the daylight out.' 'So am I....' Gently said, 'only I like walls around mine as well as a roof.' And one more insight into Gently's mind. Here he is teasing the man he knows is the murderer. 'There's a time in every case that I've had anything to do with when you suddenly find yourself over the top of the hill... usually, there's no good reason for it. You just keep pushing and pushing, never seeming to get anywhere, and then some time you find you don't have to push any longer... the thing you've been pushing starts to carry you along with it. It's odd, isn't it?' So off you go, do yourself a favour, look for an Alan Hunter novel! GENTLY DOES IT is the first in the series, so why not start there?"
Constable (1995), Hardcover, 208 pages

WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS? by Agatha Christie

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:59:37 -0400

smik's review: "Synopsis: While playing a round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’ WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS is an interesting exploration of the impact of class differences in English society, at the same time as being an absorbing murder mystery. The original title is self-explanatory, but the title THE BOOMERANG CLUE comes from the fact that the first clue to the identity of the murderer is in fact the one that, when understood, actually counts. Bobby Jones is the fourth son of a clergyman, at a loose end and without prospects because he has recently left the Navy. His fellow "detective" is the Lady Francis Derwent, well above him in social class, but a friend from childhood, when social station made no difference to their friendship. Frankie is a woman of means, with the leisure to pursue mysteries, a car at her disposal, and able to move in the spheres of the wealthy, and able to winkle information out of people in a way that penurious Bobby never could. One of the themes of this mystery has to be that personal opinions can cloud your judgement as both Bobby and Frankie believe in the innocence of the person who turns out to be the murderer. If you want to read a real spoiler, and learn more of this story than I am going to tell you here, then you can do that on Wikipedia. Another of the lessons must be that true sleuthing is largely a matter of luck, and that culprits are not always brought to justice. WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS has stood the test of time well I think, and largely held my attention, although I got a bit impatient to be finished in the last 30 or so pages, where Christie rather pedantically led me through a recount of all the plot points (just in case I had missed anything). This is a technique that Christie tended to use in most of her novels."

WOMAN WITH BIRTHMARK by Hakan Nesser

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:43:12 -0400

smik's review: "A pre-Christmas funeral, a solitary mourner, a dead woman whose whole life had been littered with defeats and messy failures, a death bed promise to exact revenge. Just over three weeks later the murders begin. When the first victim's wife comes home from the theatre near midnight she finds her husband dead just inside the door, shot twice in the chest, twice under the belt. There are few clues for the police to work on. None of the neighbours noticed anything, there seems to have been no motive, the killer simply shot Malik when he opened the front door, then closed the door and walked away. Solving this case, amid a rising death toll, takes Inspector Van Veeteren and his team the best part of two months. The tension rises as the reader identifies the next victims, and the race is on to see who gets to them first: the police or the killer. Although this is the 4th of the Van Veeteren series, it is the first I have read. Van Veeteren is an interesting character, insisting on methodical techniques among his colleagues and subordinates, but more inclined to intuitive leaps himself. He insists in the end that i's are dotted and t's are crossed. This quotation sums up the sort of job he does: ".. we must continue playing our roles to the very end." The series take place in Maardam, a fictitious city in a made-up country that could be anywhere in northern Europe. Nesser's website says "Van Veeteren is a philosophical detective with a unique ability to draw lines between dots that are far apart and nearly invisible. He firmly believes that he is able to solve any murder case. He is somewhat enigmatic and at times difficult to deal with. Vaguely gruff, temperamental, a little eccentric, but overall very warm, and funny, and someone it’s easy to identify with." I found WOMAN WITH BIRTHMARK a relatively easy but satisfying read, and I'll certainly be looking for another. But read them in order if you can - I just have the hunch that will pay dividends. The books have been translated out of order but try to locate them in the order in which they were written: 1. MIND'S EYE (trans. 2008), published 1993 2. BORKMANN'S POINT (trans. 2006) - won the 'best novel' award from the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy in 1994. 3. THE RETURN (trans 2007) 4. WOMAN WITH BIRTHMARK (trans 2009), published 1996. Hakan Nesser (Håkan in Swedish, born February 21, 1950) is a Swedish author and teacher who has written a number of successful novels, mostly crime fiction. He has won Best Swedish Crime Novel Award three times, and his novel Carambole won the Glass Key award in 2000. His books have been translated from Swedish into 9 languages. Hakan Nesser has published 20 books in Swedish. Four of them have so far been translated to English. The Van Veeteren series actually consists of 10 books, so let's hope the translations keep happening."
Pantheon (2009), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 352 pages

PUNTER'S TURF by Peter Klein

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:29:13 -0400

smik's review: "John Punter is a professional gambler and private investigator, estranged son of one of Australia's top horse racing trainers. He once wanted to be a jockey himself, but his size got in the way. He makes his living at the racetrack betting, winning enough to keep him going. His father regards him as a pariah, feeding off gambling rather than doing the honest work of training. Punter numbers bookmakers, trainers, jockeys, and journalists amongst his friends. He has already had some success in finding out 'unexplained' occurrences both on and off the track such as tracking down a drug syndicate, nailing an insurance scam, and supplying information for stewards, and assisting racecourse detectives. And so it is to John Punter that Big Oakie White, a well known Victorian bookmaker, turns when his daughter is kidnapped. Oakie doesn't want to go to the police because of what happened to a fellow bookie's wife, but now his daughter Michelle's ear has been delivered to him, earring still attached. Oakie wants Punter to deliver the ransom money. The kidnappers lead Punter a merry dance, but he successfully rescues Michelle, although an attempt to follow the kidnappers with a tracking device fails. Punter has a pretty good idea of who the kidnappers are though, and tracking them down becomes an ongoing thread in PUNTER'S TURF. Kate is a crime reporter with The Age, and an avid racegoer. Her request to Punter to investigate the form of a horse she is thinking of raising a syndicate of friends for begins the second major thread in PUNTER'S TURF. The horse unexpectedly stops running on its first syndicate outing. By that time Punter has joined the syndicate himself so his interest is also personal. Some of the reviews of PUNTER'S TURF are claiming that Peter Klein is Australia's answer to Dick Francis. Well, I don't think he is yet, but he could be. If you enjoy reading Dick (partnered recently by Felix) Francis, then I think you'll enjoy PUNTER'S TURF. Klein has a bit of work to do with dialogue, I thought some of the minor characters were a bit two-dimensional, and one of the elements of the ending a bit soppy and predictable, but the novel has a good Australian flavour to it, a feeling of knowledge and authority, and I'll look for another."
Pan Macmillan Australia

RED BONES by Ann Cleeves

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:34:53 -0400

smik's review: "The island of Whalsay is one of the most easterly of the Shetland Islands. It is where Jimmy Perez's colleague Sandy Wilson comes from. The arrival of spring brings with it the resumption of an archaeological dig taking place on land near Sandy's grandmother's croft. There is great excitement when first the remains of a merchant's house, some bones, and then a hoard of silver coins is found. But the excitement fades when first of all Sandy's grandmother, then one of the young archaeologists is found dead. Neither of the deaths look like murder at first, although Sandy's grandmother's appears to be a tragic accident. Jimmy Perez is not so sure. There are secrets on Whalsay - talk of a Norwegian murdered during World War II - and there is ambition too. Jimmy Perez's lady friend Fran Hunter has gone south for a holiday to London with her daughter Cassie. RED BONES largely concentrates on Jimmy's relationships with his colleague Sandy Wilson, and his feelings for Fran. We also get insights into why Jimmy is such a good detective. And somehow in this novel, whether it is the effect of the narrator's characterisation of Jimmy's voice I'm not sure, Jimmy seems older, more mature than he did in the two earlier novels. I thoroughly enjoyed RED BONES. Ann Cleeves is a top notch teller of tales. My rating of RED BONES: 4.7 You'll have noticed that I said RED BONES is #3 in the Shetland series. So do you have to read them in order? I'm afraid the answer is yes. Console yourself with the fact that this is #3, and that they are all excellent reads. The final in the series, BLUE LIGHTNING, is due to be published in 2010. There is more to this series than the central character Jimmy Perez: there are the Island relationships he is part of, the seasons in which the novels are set, and the Shetland culture that Cleeves appears to understand so well."
Isis Audio (2009), CD

FIFTY GRAND by Adrian McKinty

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:10:24 -0400

smik's review: "When Mercado was 13, her father walked out of her life. He committed treason, hijacked a ferry, and escaped to Mexico. He never came back, never wrote, and left Mercado, her brother Ricky, and their mother to fend for themselves as best they could, which wasn't well. Mercado becomes a cop in Cuba. And then 14 years on her brother is told their father has been killed in Colorado, the victim of a hit and run. Mercado's brother Ricky is allowed to go to Colorado to make the funeral arrangements, and comes back convinced there was something strange about their father's death. That idea eats at Mercado until she decides she has to go to Colorado herself. Set in a world of drug smuggling and illegal immigration into the USA, in a Colorado ski resort where the local sheriff turns a blind eye, and takes his cut, FIFTY GRAND almost lost me in the second chapter with incredibly graphic violence. The fact that the third chapter is in a different time frame, and much calmer, kept me reading. By its end I knew what Ricky had found out, and what Mercado intended to do. I once had a book where the chapters were un-numbered, each one packaged. The reader was invited to read the chapters in any order of their choice. That's not quite what McKinty has done here. What he seems to have done is taken one of the last chapters and dealt it first, and then a middle chapter and dealt it second (that's the gruesome one). By the time you've read them, and then the more sedate chapter 3, you'll be hooked. You'll want to know why those first two chapters happened. This is a very powerful book, with a twist in the tail (or is it tale?) that I bet you don't see coming."
Serpent's Tail, 2009, ISBN, 978-1-846668-723-5, 308 pages

AS DARKNESS FALLS by Bronwyn Parry

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:26:38 -0400

smik's review: "Some failures are worse than others. Most of us, when we fail, can mark it down as a lesson learned, and move on. But when your failure results in, first, the death of a child, and then, the death of a man you believe to be innocent, then moving on is almost impossible. For Detective Isabelle O'Connell, it was all made worse by the fact that it has happened in the town of her own childhood, and the dead child is that of people she grew up with. That was a year ago. The disappearance of another little girl in Isabelle O'Connell's home town of Dungirri sends Detective Chief Inspector Alec Goddard from the State Crime Command in Sydney to offer Isabelle a chance of redemption, a chance to find and stop the perpetrator. Again the child is that of friends from Isabelle's childhood. It is soon clear that by returning to Dungirri Isabelle is putting her own life on the line. Not everybody is pleased to see her. From the start too it is obvious that under other circumstances Isabelle and Alec would find each other very attractive. The copy of AS DARKNESS FALLS that I borrowed from my library has a promo that says If you enjoy reading Nora Roberts you will love... I went into reading WHEN DARKNESS FALLS knowing that it was a finalist in the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year Award 2009, in the Romantic Elements category. Prior to publication, the manuscript won the Romance Writers of America 2007 Golden Heart Award, for best unpublished Romantic Suspense. Now, I have read Nora Roberts, but mainly prefer her more noir writing as J.D. Robb, and romantic fiction is not generally on my reading platter, even when combined with crime fiction. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this novel. It was Bronwyn Parry's first novel, apparently scheduled to be the first of a batch of 3. The romance element is well done, as both Isabelle and Alec struggle to maintain their separateness. I thought the crime fiction bit was well plotted too, and comes to a satisfying denouement. Parry clearly sets this in a dusty, parched, hot Australian environment but that really didn't feel overwhelming. Dungirri is really just a closeknit Australian town on the edge of the bush, where every one knows every one else. It is town like most other small rural towns, where those who live there have mainly been there all their lives, where memories are long. When I reviewed Nick Gadd's GHOSTLINES recently, I remarked that "For an Australian novelist it has an unusual blend of crime fiction and the paranormal." I feel much the same about AS DARKNESS FALLS: it is an unusual blend of romance and crime fiction, to the point where in the book shops you will find it on the Romance shelves. Recently the Books Alive catalogue listed DARK COUNTRY, the sequel to AS DARKNESS FALLS, as "Mystery, romance, and suspense in the outback", but not in the crime fiction titles. Perhaps, because I usually read a darker flavour of crime fiction, I don't often come across this end of the genre."
Piatkus Books (2009), Paperback, 384 pages

A SMALL CASE FOR INSPECTOR GHOTE? by H.R.F. Keating

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:38:30 -0400

smik's review: "Inspector Ghote has recently won a place in the highly sought after Bombay Police Crime Branch. He is a little disappointed that he has not yet, after being there for nearly six weeks, been given any real work. The head of the Crime Branch, the Assistant Commissioner, has been keeping him busy working on the bandobast, the schedule of work, of leave, of police dog availability, of transport demands, and memos from the Assistant Commissioner. Inconveniently his peon, Bikram, the one who runs his messages, has failed to turn up for work. Every now and again Ghote is aware of a smell, like a dead dog, a defective drain, or perhaps a deceased crow. He then identifies it as the smell of blood. Bending down to pick up his typewriter from the floor, he discovers that his waste bin is full. Further investigation reveals that his bin contains, wrapped in an old shopping bag, and covered in newspaper, a man's head. The head is Bikram's. The Assistant Commissioner's reaction to Ghote's discovery is not at all what he expects. "Just dispose of the damn thing, man. Dispose of the damn thing and get on with your work." Ghote decides that Bikram's death deserves investigation. He was after all a human being. As for disposing of the head - he is not sure what to do with it, so he decides to take it home and hide it there temporarily. This eventually leads to Inspector Ghote investigating Bikram's death without authority, venturing into the slums of Bombay without authority, risking his career to investigate on his own. This was my first Inspector Ghote novel, even though it is actually #26 in a series that began in 1964, 35 years ago. I really wasn't sure what to make of it, and it took me quite a while to settle into reading it. It is characterised by a rather quirky sense of humour, and perhaps that was part of my problem. I've written before about how my sense of humour, when combined with a murder mystery, is a bit confined. There were a couple of other things that irked me just a little. I'm not sure whether this is a characteristic of Keating's novels but the narrative constantly switches between describing Ghote in the third person, to a first person account, making the reader privy to Ghote's thoughts. This can be a little disconcerting. I'm not sure either that I like Keating's attempt to reproduce Ghote's version of English. "You know what they are calling a trick like that in English?" Ghote asked him. "Blackmail, they are calling it.... Under Indian Penal Code, section 383, blackmail is called extortion. But, whatever you are calling it, it is one very bad crime." I think what Keating has tried to do is to reproduce the sound of an Indian speaking. To me it sounds just a bit patronising. I came close to abandoning this book several times. To be honest I virtually skated through the last 100 pages. All I wanted to find out was how the threads resolved. Tell me, did I just choose the wrong one as my first taste of Keating? I think I originally saw THE PERFECT MURDER recommended but my library no longer stocks it, so I chose A SMALL CASE because it was the most recent. What would you recommend I read?"
Allison & Busby (2009), Hardcover, 288 pages

GHOSTLINES by Nick Gadd

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:37:12 -0400

smik's review: "Philip Trudeau was once a journalist with a future, working for Australia's premier financial newspaper. That was before. Now he's down almost as low as you can get, holding down a desk on a local suburban rag. The death of a local boy on his bicycle on a level crossing late at night looks an open and shut case. All Philip needs to do is get the story, get some local comments, and then his job is done. The next morning he visits the boy's mother, his school, and writes his story. Job finished, or so he thinks. His editor is pleased, until a rival paper picks up on angles he never thought of. And just what was Michael doing dodging around the barriers at that time of night? Where had he come from? And where was he going in such a hurry? Philip's training as an investigative journalist rises to the top and strange elements of a complex story begin to emerge. Philip is contacted by an 80 year old antiquarian with an obsession who wants a ghost writer to write his memoirs. As we would expect the various threads of the novel converge the longer Philip's investigation continues. And then someone from Philip's past reaches out to stop his probing. GHOSTLINES is Australian writer Nick Gadd's first novel. For an Australian novelist it has an unusual blend of crime fiction and the paranormal. I've actually had GHOSTLINES on my shelves for some months, and I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get it down. It is well worth looking for. GHOSTLINES won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award in 2007 for an unpublished novel, and the Ned Kelly award for best first fiction for 2009."
Scribe Publications

THE PERFECT SUSPECT by Vincent Varjavandi

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:04:03 -0400

smik's review: "Australian doctor Tom Hackett arrived in New Orleans as a Paediatric Surgery Fellow full of joy at his perfect life. Three months later he is back in New South Wales, wifeless. Tom's wife Olivia has been murdered in New Orleans, and Tom has returned home to learn to live without her. Tom is living in Sydney but commuting to Sanctuary, a small town on the South Coast where he has a clinic in the local hospital. The first sign that Tom's past is following him comes when a dozen black roses are left on his Sydney doorstep. "Hell has found you", says the note nestled among the roses. In Sanctuary that morning a husband finds his wife dead on the kitchen floor, battered to death with a frying pan. Senior Sergeant Jack Maguire, a homicide detective demoted to Sanctuary because he has followed his instincts once too often, feels that there is something odd about this murder, although he can't put his finger on it. Tom Hackett, on the other hand, knows that there is something strange, when he reads the local newspaper report about the murder, and realises that not only has he met the murdered woman, but her murder bears considerable similarity to his wife Olivia's. THE PERFECT SUSPECT is author Vincent Varjavandi's first novel. It reads a bit like a first novel, too - complex and tangled plot, some unlikely scenarios, and a relatively "all's well that ends well" ending. But for all that it is not bad; the tension builds well, and the mystery element is well teased out, and I think Vincent has potential. The relationship between Jack Maguire and his assistant, newly promoted Detective Constable William Tucker, is interestingly described and could provide the basis for future books. The novel is very firmly set in Australia by the author's inclusion of Australian colloquialisms in dialogue, and in his references to New South Wales place names and events. That said, I don't think it will reduce its appeal to non-Australian readers. Vincent Varjavandi is a Sydney-based paediatric surgeon. He uses his medical knowledge sparingly in the novel but it does emerge on occasion in the description of murder scenes and in autopsy reports. Without doubt Tom Hackett is Varjavandi's mouthpiece and his alter ego. Tom feels strongly about child abuse, paedophilia, and child pornography."
Longueville Media

TELLING TALES by Ann Cleeves

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:43:31 -0400

smik's review: "Ten years ago Abigail Mantel died. In what appeared to be an open and shut case, her murderer Jeanie Long was quickly identified and charged. To some people in the East Yorkshire village of Elvet, Jeanie had seemed an unlikely culprit, but even her father believed she was guilty. Now, after years of protesting her innocence, Jeanie has committed suicide in prison, and someone has come forward to give her an unshakeable alibi for the time of the murder. So the killer, probably a local, is still at large, and Inspector Vera Stanhope comes to the village to seek the truth. She has an advantage - Dan Greenwood, local craftsman, is a former copper whom she has worked with, and he was on the Mantel murder case. For one of Abigail's friends, Emma Bennett, who discovered Abigail's body the past comes back. Ann Cleeves tells us that TELLING TALES is set in a fictitious landscape east of Hull, but that doesn't stop it from feeling very real. Vera Stanhope is an almost larger than life character, gruff, with a way of winkling confidences from people, and a little unorthodox in her methods. She has that attribute of all good detectives, the ability to make the intuitive leap, to see past what she is being told, to admit when she has made a mistake, and finally to come up with the goods."
Macmillan (2005), Hardcover, 416 pages

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS by Agatha Christie

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:19:43 -0400

smik's review: "What has delighted me so much in this audio book has been Suchet's superb characterisation of each person. I have particularly enjoyed Mrs Hubbard - the depiction has had me laughing out loud as I'm driving. It contrasts so beautifully with Poirot's calm voice of reason, and Monsieur Bouc's willingness to jump to conclusions. I must admit, I really already knew how this novel turned out, so the element of surprise that a new reader gets from this novel is not there for me. But that has given me a chance to appreciate how carefully Christie constructed the plot, how meticulously she laid the red herrings across the path, and just how well it shows Hercule Poirot's little grey cells in action. It also shows how Agatha Christie uses current events in the setting of her novels: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS was clearly based on the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in the previous year, and Christie's own experience when the Orient Express train she was on was stuck for twenty-four hours. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS was Agatha Christie's 14th novel, the 8th Hercule Poirot. Poirot's usual foil, Captain Arthur Hastings, is missing from this novel. Poirot is on his way back to London from an assignment in Syria, and so he bounces his ideas off two others: Monsieur Bouc, the director of Wagon-Lits, an old friend of Poirot's, who employs him to discover who has killed Mr Rachette; and a Greek Doctor Dr. Stavros Constantine. There must have been considerable outcry, one would think, about the final solution to the crime. Poirot comes up with two solutions, but the one he finally goes with reveals great humanity."
HarperCollins Audio (2005), Audio CD

INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:13:03 -0400

smik's review: "Chelsea Liew, mother of three, Singaporean ex-model, is in custody in Kuala Lumpur, remanded on the charge of murdering her ex-husband Alan Lee, business magnate, head of Lee Timber, a firm rumoured to be plundering and laying waste to Borneo's reamining natural rainforest. Alan Lee and his wife had been in a very public custody battle for their 3 boys, complicated by the fact that he had recently converted to Islam, thus shifting the jurisdiction of which court would decide on the custody. Alan Lee was shot just a week before on a deserted street two hundred yards from his front gate and his ex-wife was arrested within hours and charged with his murder. Enter Inspector Singh, sent from Singapore, to ensure that Chelsea who has retained her Singaporean citizenship despite twenty years of marriage and residency in KL, gets a fair trial. A problem arises when Singh becomes convinced that Chelsea Liew is not guilty. It becomes even more complicated when Jasper Lee, Alan Lee's elder brother, and self declared nature activist, walks into the Bukit Aman police station and declares that he in fact murdered Alan. Inspector Singh has not been sent to KL because he is a brilliant detective ensured of success. In fact quite the opposite. he has been handed a "poisoned chalice". The case is surrounded by politics and he is one of the last mavericks in the Singapore police force, "the elephant in the room that noone talked about but everyone hoped would do the decent thing and take early retirement". And rather conveniently he has a sister in KL so he can stay with her if needed. INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder is Shamini Flint's debut crime novel, the first of a promised series of 3, and I find myself quite willing to read the second. This is despite the fact that there were times when I almost lost interest in this one. It is hard to put my finger on what went wrong for me, but I suspect that at times there was just too much detail provided and some of it was repetitious. I understand though the author's desire to make sure the reader understands the cultural context of the novel's setting. She also picks up on internationally sensitive topics such as the pollution caused annually by the burning of Indonesian rainforests. The custody battle reminded me a little of the case of Shahira Gillespie, particularly of some of the issues that surfaced there. I liked the character of Inspector Singh and I think Flint has created a protagonist with possibilities. Despite the fact that INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder is a relatively short novel, I think it possibly needed a bit more editing, to get more "show" and less "tell" into it."
Piatkus

A TEST OF WILLS by Charles Todd

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:50:42 -0400

smik's review: "The Great War is over, and Ian Rutledge has survived. He's come back to London Yard to pick up the brilliant career he left in late 1914. But though he's survived he hasn't come through unscathed. He's suffering from shell shock, the legacy of the Somme where he was buried alive, subsequently spending time in a psychiatric hospital. And he carries with him memories that he can't escape. Rutledge is turning out to be a problem for Superintendent Bowles, his superior at Scotland Yard. Bowles dislikes Rutledge, his education, his reputation as a war hero, and his pre-war history as an intuitive clever detective. So the request from Warwickshire for help in managing the investigation into the murder of Colonel Harris seems as if heaven sent. The most obvious suspect is a much decorated pilot, a favourite of the Queen's no less, and so the policeman who brings him to trial will be very unpopular. A TEST OF WILLS is the first in the Ian Rutledge series, written by mother and son team Caroline and Charles Todd. I have already "read" #3 in the series SEARCH THE DARK, and #10, A PALE HORSE, but in both cases I had listened to them as an audio book narrated by Simon Prebble. I enjoyed them both immensely, but the question I asked at the end of my review of SEARCH THE DARK was how far my enjoyment was being determined by the excellent narrator. I'm pleased to report that A TEST OF WILLS came up to the mark of the other two. The story is a fascinating exploration of crime in a world already shattered by the First World War. Everyone in Upper Streetham, the village where the murder has taken place, assumes that Rutledge somehow escaped service. And now he threatens the fragile stability they've achieved, by trying to pin the murder on their local hero. And how could the Colonel have survived the war only to be so viciously murdered on his own land? At the same time Rutledge is fighting his own battle, tormented by the voice of "Hamish in his head", determined that he will solve this crime, but struggling to recapture his detection skills. A TEST OF WILLS, with an ambiguous title, is crime fiction in Golden Age style. When I first discovered Charles Todd, I was surprised to find that this mother and son duo were Americans. For me they capture a British style pretty well, although in this novel I noticed the use of "plow", but that sort of slip is a rare occurrence."
Harper (2007), Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages