May 2008

Welcome to May at Mystery Morgue! While there are those describing this month as "lusty," we'll stick with our usual fare of violence, mayhem, investigation, crime and overall bad behavior.

This month, you'll find a wealth of mystery book reviews, with titles from such authors as Cornelia Read, Linda Fairstein, James O. Born, Laura Lippman, Parnell Hall and Libby Fischer Hellmann.

There's also a very well-illustrated "How I Write" essay by Jane K. Cleland, author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, most recently with the just-published Antiques to Die For. You'll see what I mean, but it is fascinating.

So sit back, take your socks off, and indulge your taste for a little bad behavior. It's a great month to be here at the Morgue.

In this month's issue:

How I Write, by Jane Cleland

Reviews:
Death of a Gentle Lady by M.C. Beaton
Burn Zone by James O. Born
Delicate Chaos by Jeff Buick
The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri
Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein
Dakota by Martha Grimes
Hell's Bay by James W. Hall
The Sudoku Puzzle Murders by Parnell Hall
Easy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson
The First Stone by Judith Kelman
Dying to Be Thin by Kathryn Lilley
Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman
Maiden Rock by Mary Logue
Lifelines by C.J. Lyons
The Fourth Sacrifice by Peter May
Close Call by John McEvoy
Devil's Peak by Deon Meyer
Slip of the Knife by Denise Mina
Shades of Blue by Bill Moody
The Crazy School by Cornelia Read
The Silk Train Murder by Sharon Rowse
Dance On His Grave by Sylvia Dickey Smith
Prepared for Rage by Dana Stabenow
This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas
Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh
Desert Cut by Betty Webb

Link to Archives

 

How I Write
by Jane K. Cleland

Jane K. Cleland is the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, the latest of which is the newly published Antiques to Die For, in which Josie investigates the death of a friend. Her previous (and second) title in the series, Deadly Appraisal, is now available in paperback.

The "how" of "How I write" is that I think, I write, and then I revise.

I divide the world of communications into content and process. Content is the what of an issue; process is the how of the issue. The message can be well-developed, but if the delivery is poor or mean-spirited or sarcastically expressed, the content loses impact; no matter how important it is, it's hard to assimilate.

I apply this principle to my creative writing, not only my business and personal communications. Interestingly enough, that sequence—think, write, revise—is, I've learned, actually counter-intuitive for many writers. Most people, when given a writing challenge, begin to write, then take a look at what they've written, and then they revise it. In other words, they  write, they think, and then they revise. (I actually wrote a book on the subject called Business Writing for Results [McGraw Hill] and have developed several business communication seminars teaching this tactic to employees at Fortune 100 companies in my day job.)

Writing is an intimate process, and what works for one person may not work for another—especially if we're talking about creative, not business, writing—but, that said, this system works well for me.

At this point in my career, my focus is on increasing my efficiency in plotting. And following a think, write, revise sequence is the most efficient approach I've found for me to produce publishable work. I'm good at characterization, and I think, to tell you the truth, I'm a whiz at creating evocative settings and writing believable dialogue. But plotting—oh, my God, plotting kills me (no pun intended). And thinking before I write helps me plot well.

Which begs the question—what do I think about?

I think about ideas. I think about big picture issues that I want to write about and from that drill down to the everyday manifestations of those ideas. I think about ethical issues. Personal issues. Moral dilemmas. Success strategies. The nature of friendship. Why relationships work—or don't. Trust. Secrets. Love. And then I think about the implication of those ideas. And how those ideas might showcase themselves in the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries.

Because one of the questions I'm most frequently asked is where my ideas come from—how I start—I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about it, and still, I don't have a definitive answer.

Sometimes I hear or see something, or read something, and it sticks, and then later, when I need to move the plot along, out that long-forgotten fact comes—usually, I might say, bearing little resemblance to the original.

For example, twenty years ago, when I was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I visited a woman's house. It was a business call—I owned a rare bookstore and she wanted to sell her books. I was there to look at them and make an offer. She was older, born, at a guess, in about 1910, so at the time, I figured she was about 75. Her house was distinctly middle class, but her decorations were anything but.

Every inch of wall space was covered with oil paintings. I spotted a Van Dyke, two Renoirs, and a Matisse. They weren't arranged artfully; they were wedged in without any thought of relating one piece of art to another or to the space itself.

At first, I assumed they were reproductions, but they weren't.

"It's beautiful," I said to the woman, pointing to a Monet.

"Yeah," she remarked casually. "My brother brought them home from the War."

I was young then and naïve and gullible, and I grew up in a sheltered environment, one in which my parents tried to shield me from evil intentions and acts, so I assumed that she meant that her brother had purchased the art in Europe.

More than twenty years later, I read an article about how Holocaust survivors and their heirs were suing governments, institutions, and individuals for the return of the art the Nazis had methodically ripped off the walls of Jewish homes. For me, it was an epiphany—it was as if someone had slapped me awake. The art on that woman's walls weren't the carefully chosen objects of a devoted art collector; they were the bounty of a thief.
And that's the origin of the plot of Consigned to Death, the first Josie Prescott antiques mystery.

I invite you to read the excerpt (or listen to the audio podcast) of Antiques to Die For. The idea for this book came from Josie's experience growing up—her mother died when she was 13, so she empathizes with the 12-year old orphan, Paige, who is the central character in the book. In using her knowledge of antiques, Josie is able to find a missing treasure, solve the murder—and give a young girl hope.

So here's the bottom line—where do ideas come from? Life, mostly.

How do I write? I think before I write, and then I revise like nobody's business. And then I revise some more.

More information about all of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries is available on my website, www.janecleland.net—and as always, I welcome your comments—how do you write?

 

Reviews

Death of a Gentle Lady
by M.C. Beaton
Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover, 245 pages, $23.99
ISBN: 978-0-446-58260-5
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

When an author creates a character that's so appealing, with all the human emotions and foibles and the ability to bumble into solutions to murders and crimes, it is mandatory that the series continue on and on.  Such a protagonist is Hamish Macbeth, the constable in the sleepy village of Lochdubh, Scotland.  This novel is the 23rd, and it is still as fresh and entertaining as the first.

In Gentle Lady, Hamish encounters a recent resident to "his" town who is much adored by the people for her sedate manner and promises of donations, for example, for a new church roof.  Hamish, in performing his perceived duties, pays her a welcome visit and apparently antagonizes her for some reason he can't fathom.  As a result, she undertakes a strong effort to get his one-man police station closed.

In an effort to stay in his beloved village, Hamish blunders his way into a foolish situation.  Then two murders take place, giving him the opportunity once again to prove himself.

A delight to read.

Burn Zone
by James O. Born
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Hardcover, 310 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 978-0-399-15454-6
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

This novel is the second in the series featuring Alex Duarte, ATF agent living and working in Florida. Alex, whose family is from Paraguay, is now nearly thirty years old, and seems to have commitment issues.  His nickname is Rocket, because of his focus and drive; he believes "once you hit your stride, you never let up."  He is called in by his friend, DEA agent Felix Baez, working out of the agency's headquarters in West Palm Beach, to assist in the attempt to shut down a smuggling operation run by a mysterious Panamanian named Ortiz—guns and drugs seem to be involved, thereby bringing it under Duarte's jurisdiction as well.  With the informal help of his girlfriend, a crime scene tech (or "forensic scientist" as he prefers to think of her), Alex joins the hunt for this infamous and slippery criminal. 

The ensuing investigation pits them up not only smugglers, but a white supremacist group intent on "changing America."  The man called Ortiz is seen to be a sadistic brute, but sadism is the least of his failings.  A helluva combination, as it turns out.

This is a thriller which doubtless will be enjoyed by many.  This reader was disappointed, however:  Having enjoyed Field of Fire, I expected more from its successor novel in the series. The identity of the alter egos of the two "bad guys" was apparent to me early on, which might have been intentional on the part of the author, perhaps to heighten the suspense—if that was the purpose, it didn't work, at least not for me. The book began with a great opening line, addressed to Alex by his ATF partner:  "You ever think we should write some of this b***s*** down and put it in a book?" With the author's background, it just may have originated that way, and while I am sure the scenarios laid out are possible, this thriller just didn't hold up for me.  I found the characters almost caricatures and the whole not nearly as well written as the prior entry in the series.  That said, I would probably read the next chapter in Alex Duarte's life, in the hope that it will come up to the level seen in Field of Fire.

Delicate Chaos
by Jeff Buick
Dorchester Publishing
Paperback, 336 pages, $7.99
ISBN: 978-1-8439-6038-9
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The novel opens with a scene of alternating beauty and brutality—peaceful Kenyan forest, herds of elephants, zebras and wildebeests, and the rangers who are entrusted with their safety, immediately followed by the rifle fire of poachers intent on taking the elephants' tusks, firing with equal abandon on both man and beast and achieving the death of both. 

The action then switches abruptly to Washington, D.C., depicting the two worlds of the protagonist, 37-year-old Leona Hewitt, founder of Save Them, a non-profit organization based in the U.S. dedicated equally to saving the African wildlife in the 700 square miles allocated for the purpose by the local government, employing 27 well-armed and -trained park rangers in the process, and to improving the life of the local population, building water wells, schools and a clinic.

Her invaluable assistant is Mike Anderson, a 45-year-old ex-cop (handsome, intelligent, divorced—something of which he needs to keep reminding himself—and trying to control his drinking), who handles the distribution in Africa of the huge amounts of money raised by the foundation.  The African end of the organization is headed by Kubala Kantu.  After the scene described above, after three elephants have perished, one ranger killed and another badly wounded, to Leona's question of "Why does it have to be like this?  Why is there always death?" Kubala can only answer: "TIA... This is Africa.  This is the way things are."  By the end of the tale, each of the three will be in peril, placed there by disparate scenarios, each motivated by greed.

The following day Leona returns home, where she is Director of Corporate Acquisitions and Accounts for DC Trust.  A big promotion is offered to her, and her first assignment is to oversee, and ultimately approve, a structural change in a publicly-traded utility company mining and generating electrical power with coal, one of her company's biggest clients.  The question of environmental ethics becomes paramount, and complicates Leona's ability to do the job expected of her and, with many millions of dollars at stake, ultimately, her life. 

The environmental discussions offered are thorough without being preachy, the corporate, financial, environmental and even political aspects all get equal time from the author.  Leona, vulnerable despite her success, is a commanding presence as the protagonist.  This is the fifth novel by Jeff Buick and, with equal parts tension-filled suspense, taut plotting, an unredeemingly awful killer, and a shocking (if somewhat implausible) ending, the whole adds up to a most satisfying read.

The Paper Moon
by Andrea Camilleri
Penguin Books
Paperback, 272 pages, $13
ISBN: 978-0-14-311300-3
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid

This is the first Inspector Montalbano series that I have read, but it won't be the last.  The Paper Moon is a good mystery and the Inspector is a wonderful character.  The book is full of humor as well as excellent detective work.  Detective work in Sicily is approached a little differently than in the United States. 

Michela Pardo arrives at the office of Inspector Montalbano seeking assistance to locate her brother Angelo.  Michela insists that something must have happened to him since he hasn't been in contact with her for a few days.  Inspector Montalbano accompanies Michela to Angelo's apartment where everything seems in order.  As they are leaving Michela remembers a room on the terrace that Angelo rented.  The body of Michela's brother is found inside a small room on the terrace in a very unusual position.

Angelo was a single man with a girlfriend who is married.  He was also a doctor who had lost his license to practice.  Now he'd been selling supplies to practicing doctors.  Inspector Montalbano suspects that somehow Angelo might have been involved in some recent deaths of well-known people due to drug overdoses.

While the Inspector delves into Angelo's private life his associate Cat tries to uncover the passwords to Angelo's computer.  Cat is very funny while being very serious but the Inspector seems to understand him.

As the Inspector visits with Angelo's current lover and one from the past and tries to better understand the relationship between Angelo and his sister the puzzle pieces begin to come together and the reader is treated to a surprising ending.

 

Killer Heat
by Linda Fairstein
Doubleday
Hardcover, 384 pages, $26
ISBN: 978-0-385-52397-4
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

This latest legal cum detective fiction brings back the dynamic trio—DA Alex Cooper and her two detective buddies Mercer and Chapman.  This time, they are faced with a series of rape-murders with almost no clues.  As side stories, Alex prosecutes a serial rapist decades after the events, is faced with gang-related revenge efforts, and, on the lighter side, pursues her romantic involvement with the Frenchman, Luc, who she met in the previous novel in the series.

As in previous entries, Ms. Fairstein's trademark descriptions of various New York City landmarks providing authentic knowledge of the sites and history lend an unparalleled flavor to the story.  In the present case, such information relating to Governor's Island and Breezy Point provide background to the plot.

The novel is so well-paced that the reader will have a hard time putting it down before reaching the stirring climax.  About all that's unresolved in this, the author's tenth crime novel, is what is going to happen next—if anything—with her relationship with Luc.  Nevertheless, it's a great read and shouldn't be missed.

 

Dakota
by Martha Grimes
Viking
Hardcover, 414 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 978-0-670-01869-7
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

In Rainbow's End, Grimes introduced readers to Mary Dark Hope, an orphan with an extraordinary sense of self preservation. In 2000, Mary Dark Hope returned in Biting the Moon when readers met Andi Oliver for the first time. Although we don't know if Andi is an orphan, she too is very much on her own. The two girls teamed up for a series of mishaps and adventures that focused on animal rights issues.  Now, eight years later, Andi is back in Dakota. While it's not necessary to have read Biting the Moon first, it certainly helps understand Andi. Grimes gives the basic background of Andi early on in Dakota, but some of her behavior is better understood if the reader has the benefit of the first novel.

To enjoy the Andi Oliver books, readers must be willing to suspend reality a bit. A teen-aged girl wandering around the country, meeting helpful, kind folks at the most opportune times and conquering danger through foolhardy bravery doesn't exactly ring true. Especially since pretty much everyone Andi encounters seems to be willing to take her at her word, however implausible her story. However, if one can accept the basic storyline and just go with it, the books make for interesting reading.

Andi is an amnesiac. She has no memory of her life prior to waking up in an inn in Santa Fe. However, the man who left her at the inn has pursued her across several states to Idaho.  As Dakota opens, Andi is heading into the Badlands.  When Andi spots a  bedraggled donkey in a field with his pack still on, she decides to rescue him. Before you know it, she has cut the fence and left with him in tow.  Later when she wanders into the next town, she is confronted by the donkey's owner. When she lies about the donkey, the stable owner, whom she has just met, backs her story up. Then the stable owner finds her a job as a stable hand with a widower just outside of town. From that farm, she becomes aware of and interested in a massive hog farm operating nearby. She decides to investigate the hog operation and the slaughterhouse that is affiliated with it.

Dakota takes a hard look at the meat producing industry. Though interesting, it's not  comfortable reading by any means. Grimes, a long-time vegetarian and a staunch supporter of various animal rights causes, has used her Andi Oliver character to draw attention to the plight of animals in our society. Certainly those who agree with her will be drawn to the books, while some readers may be converted to the cause. However, it's a safe bet that some people will be put off by the subject matter completely. Though every bit as interesting, these two books are quite a change from her Richard Jury books.

 

Hell's Bay
by James W. Hall
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 320 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-312-35958-4
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Thorn, the iconoclastic and naturalist protagonist of James W. Hall's novels set in the untamed regions of Florida, has gotten himself into all kinds of dangerous situations in the past.  This time, he seems to have outdone himself in a thriller containing a huge surprise for him.  Set against a privately owned conglomerate headed by a rugged 86-year-old free-enterprise-and –all-else-be-damned matriarch intent on running her billion-dollar phosphate and-whatever-else conglomerate to milk the last penny of profits, the novel enables the author to use his ever-present ability to describe the wild Everglades to a tee.

The plot involves the fight against environmental hazards, and pits Thorn against those fighting the dangers of the mining operations.  Early in the book, we discover that Thorn actually is a member of the family that owns the mining dynasty, setting him up as both a target for the opposition, as well as possibly making us wonder if he will change his values in his own economic interests.

It seems the matriarch drowns—or is she murdered?—shortly after which Thorn's uncle and niece engage Thorn and his ex-girlfriend, Rusty, to take them on a fishing expedition.  That is when Thorn learns of his mysterious background.  But more important, on the first day of the trip, all hell breaks loose.  It is a shocking tale of environmental rape and misguided revenge. A well-told tale that is highly recommended.

The Sudoku Puzzle Murders
by Parnell Hall
Thomas Dunne Books
Hardcover, 304 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 978-0-312-37090-9
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The latest chapter in the Puzzle Lady Mystery series is a convoluted, complicated but amusing plot in which Cora Felton proves adept at solving Sudoku puzzles in quick time.  The problem is that she is a syndicated newspaper "author" of crossword puzzles and she can't write, much less solve, them.  But then, she does assist the chief of police in solving murders and other crimes.

In case you don't know what a Sudoku puzzle is, it uses numbers instead of letters in nine squares, each consisting of nine boxes.  The spaces have to be filled in with numbers one through nine without conflicting with the same number in another row or column.  The book is enhanced with several crossword and Sudoku puzzles created by Will Shortz, the crossword editor of the New York Times.  These serve as "clues" in a couple of murders.

The book is light and fun to read, and the puzzles (both the mystery and crosswords and Sudokus) more than worth the effort.  Recommended.

Easy Innocence
by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Bleak House
Hardcover, 396 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-932557-66-4
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Returning to the Chicago setting of her previous work, Hellmann takes on the frightening world of teen-aged prostitution in Easy Innocence. This is not a book about prostitutes generally written about or shown on TV, but rather a group of upper middle class school girls.

A group of kids from one other better high schools on the North Shore got together for a powder puff football game one Saturday. Before the day ended, Sara Long, one of the girls in attendance, was found bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat.  A handicapped young man was found wandering near the scene and was quickly arrested. The judicial process moved at an unheard of speed to get the young man's case on track for a quick trial. It seemed to everyone to be a slam dunk of a case. Everyone, that is except the young man's sister. Knowing in her heart that Cam was not capable of such a crime, she  hired Georgia Davis, a former cop turned  P.I., to investigate. Georgia immediately sensed something was not right, but struggled to figure out what it was. Why was everyone in such a hurry with this case?  Why was not even the most obvious loose ends being investigated by the police? As she began to unwind the mystery, she stumbled into a world of young girls selling themselves for fancy cell phones, Ipods and designer clothes. Before she is finished, some people from her past life as a cop turn up as well.

Easy Innocence is the beginning of a new series with former Chicago cop turned P.I. Georgia Davis. New in that the protagonist is now Georgia Davis instead of Ellie Foreman, but Georgia won't be completely new to Hellmann's readers, as she is a character from the Foreman books. Georgia is not the only familiar face to pop up in Easy Innocence. Ellie and her daughter Rachel have a role as do several other characters.  

While I've read and enjoyed all of the Ellie Foreman books  by Hellmann, I have to say I like Georgia Davis as a protagonist better. Yes, she does some impulsive, unprofessional things during her investigations, but that is who she is. It was that sort of impulsiveness that got her suspended from the police force. She is, in many ways, much like Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski. She cares about the people involved, which leads her to sometimes not use the best judgment. When she is on a case and needs information, her impulsiveness causes her to go after the facts no matter what risks are involved.

The book is somewhat darker than Hellmann's Foreman books,  but the tone is not drastically different. Overall, I think Hellmann fans as well as readers who enjoy  female P.I. books such as Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski or Muller's Sharon McCone will be delighted with Georgia Davis, P.I.

Kindness Goes Unpunished
by Craig Johnson
Penguin Books
Paperback, 288 pages, $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-14-311313-3
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

In Kindness Goes Unpunished, the third book featuring Walt Longmire, Johnson moves the setting from Absaroka County, Wyoming to Philadelphia. Walt agrees to accompany his friend Henry Standing Bear to Philadelphia for a gallery show of Native American art  and to visit his daughter Cady. However, Cady is attacked and left for dead on the steps of the Franklin Institute. While Cady lays in the hospital in a coma, Longmire, determined to find her attacker, works his way into the investigation.

In many ways, this is a very different book from the first two in the series, The Cold Dish and Death Without Company. In the previous books, the setting, rural Wyoming, fit with the cast of characters, to give readers a true sense of place. Those same characters set down in Philadelphia without the Wyoming backdrop, are out of context and have to stand on their own. For the most part they do.  The bond amongst the characters plays an important role as does the sense of family for Walt. Readers also get to meet Vic Moretti's large, extended, Italian family of cops.

Another thing that is different with Kindness Goes Unpunished is the pacing of the book. It is much more along the lines of a thriller than the earlier books. As Walt searches for answers about his daughter's attack, the action moves quickly, whereas in the earlier books, the reader sort of moseyed along at a cowpoke's pace while Walt solved the crimes.

Readers new to the series should definitely read at least the first book before reading this one. While a trip to Philadelphia allows the readers to see the characters in a different light, I don't think it's a proper introduction to them.

I enjoyed this book, but I'm looking forward to returning to Wyoming.

The First Stone
by Judith Kelman
Berkley
Paperback, 356 pages, $7.99
ISBN: 978-0-425-21788-7
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

"God," his wife and daughter are Emma and Sam Colten's new upstairs neighbors. Not really, of course, but Dr. Malik, the renowned cardiologist, moving to New York from Cleveland is reported to think of himself as at least as important as God.  This could be really good news for Sam Colten... or not. Sam is in his last year of his surgical residency and hopes to get a fellowship under Dr. Malik, so it's very important that things go well with the new neighbors. However, problems start when Emma thinks she hears Dr. Malik possibly abusing his daughter during the night. Emma confides in her best friend and before she knows it, their lives are turned upside down.

Kelman is known for writing "edge on your seat" suspense novels. The First Stone does not disappoint. In the first several chapters Kelman gets the readers into the story through Emma. Emma is a freelance artist running a portraits business from home while she cares for her young son and awaits the birth of her second child. Her struggles with holding the household together—dealing with her son's anxiety over the new baby, problems at the cooperative preschool and trying to keep up the necessary social niceties, while her husband works long and unpredictable hours, mirrors many wives lives.  Her difficulties make her a character that readers can relate to and care about. This sets up the rest of the book which is filled with surprising twists. The pace really picks up leaving readers' fingers flying to turn the pages. While there are certainly some things that happen that will cause readers to say, "why in the world did Emma do that?" as a whole, the book is a very good read.

There is very little romance in this book. It is suspense, not romantic suspense. People who are fond of Patricia MacDonald or Joy Fielding would probably enjoy The First Stone.

Dying to Be Thin
by Kathryn Lilley
Obsidian
Paperback, 296 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 978-0-451-22240-4
Reviewed by Shirley Wetzel

Kate Gallagher has been having a bad week.  The TV station where she was a producer said they couldn't use her anymore, her boyfriend dumped her for a younger, thinner model, and her high-stress job and junk food diet had contributed an extra fifty pounds to her frame.  Not that it isn't a nice frame—it is, and she also has wonderful auburn hair and brilliant blue eyes. 

She says to heck with the old life, takes her severance pay and signs up for an exclusive weight loss program in Durham, North Carolina, the Diet Capital of the World. When those extra pounds melt away, she can use her good looks to get in front of the camera where she's always wanted to be anyway. To help subsidize her program, she gets a part-time producing gig from a local station, planning to write about the diet business.  Against her better judgment, she agrees to their request that she do a feature on someone who is going through the program—herself.

After her first day at the Hoffman Clinic, she's ready to ditch the cuisine—rock-hard fruit and "oatmeal spit" gruel, and go in search of  a Whoopie Pie—or two—or three, but her new-found friend convinces her to stick with it another day. She still senses that something is off at the clinic, and when, on her first early-morning walk, she stumbles across the murdered and mutilated body of the clinic founder, she knows she was right. While many of the clinic residents bail out, Kate decides to stick around, figuring the good doctor's death and an exposé of the clinic will make a much better story than her diet progress.

She starts poking around in the doctor's background and that of his staff, and finds out pretty quick that somebody, or somebodies, doesn't want her to be doing that.  A few near-death experiences can't stop Kate, who keeps on digging.  Her quest is both helped and hindered by a handsome British police detective, Jonathan Reed.  Sparks fly as their relationship develops—sparks of intense attraction between the two, and sparks of anger when Kate refuses to stay out of harm's way. It doesn't help that her father, an overprotective Boston cop, joins forces with Detective Reed.

This is a good beach read, with a believable plot, engaging characters, and a likable heroine who is, for a welcome change, not a perfect size zero.  The humor and romance components are subtle, not over the top as is too often the case in similar books.  I enjoyed the quotes from the fictitious Little Book of Fat-busters at the heads of each chapter.  Or is it fictitious?  I wouldn't mind having a copy.  I look forward to the next book in this promising series.

Another Thing to Fall
by Laura Lippman
William Morrow
Hardcover, 322 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-061-12887-5
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Tess Monaghan returns for the 10th time in this Baltimore-based series when she is retained to babysit an obstreperous starlet, who is featured in a television show being produced in the city.  A series of mishaps—a fire, a suicide and various other pranks and events—are hampering progress on the show, and the producer, fearing for the safety of his leading lady, asks Tess to protect her.

Then a murder takes place late one night near the production office, and Tess warms to her specialty.  The task becomes more and more difficult amid the egos and foibles of the actors and writers, lies and hidden motives.

Lippman is a skilled craftsman, using her native city as a backdrop, and her recently learned knowledge of the television industry (her significant other has been the writer/producer of a wonderful TV series) to good advantage.  She has written about people with a deep insight into human emotions and, as usual, told a sparkling tale.  Highly recommended.

Maiden Rock
by Mary Logue
Bleak House Books
Paperback, 239 pages, $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-932-55760-2
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

A young girl takes a hallucinogenic drug and in the throes of the experience steps off Maiden Rock sure that she can now fly.

Claire Watkins, mother and Deputy Sheriff of Pepin County, Wisconsin awakens in the night.  She senses that something is wrong.  Her fifteen year old daughter is spending the night with a Krista, a friend from school, after a Halloween party. When morning finally arrives and she goes to check on her daughter, Claire finds that the girls have not come home after the party.  The hunt begins with both sets of parents realistically fluctuating between anger at the girls for not coming home and fear that something has happened.

Meg's friend, Krista, is found at the base of Maiden Rock and when an autopsy is done, traces of methamphetamines are found in her system.  And so the search begins for the source of the meth in the small town in Middle America.  No one knows exactly what happened to Krista—whether she jumped or was pushed.  Her father calls it murder.  Meg is certain that she and Krista's ex-boyfriend, Curt, are really to blame because they told Krista about their budding relationship just before she took the ride to Maiden Rock that ended with her death.

While the mystery winds through the town with Claire trying to find out who gave the meth to Krista and who is making the drug to begin with, the author draws compelling and grim portraits of the meth users and those who make  the drug in the town.  Some of the wider effects of the drug on other lives are also explored with the depictions of both the mother whose son has been an addict for some time and Krista's parents who lost their daughter the first time she tried it.

Maiden Rock is an interesting read.  It is a well written mystery that keeps the reader avidly involved to the very end.  At the same time the story of what meth is all about—how it is made, how it hooks people and destroys them—is clearly drawn and very informative. 

Maiden Rock is the sixth in a series of crime novels involving Clair Watkins.  She is an engaging figure and worth exploring in the earlier works before or after reading Maiden Rock. 

 

Lifelines
by C.J. Lyons
Berkley
Paperback, 416 pages, $7.99
ISBN: 978-0-425-22082-5
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

C.J. Lyons is an engaging new voice in the mystery scene, and a most welcome one.  With her debut novel, she presents Dr. Lydia Fiore, who as the book begins is entering her first day of work as attending physician in the Emergency Department at Angels of Mercy Medical Center, as well as the new medical director and training advisor of the EMS.   Lydia, now 30 years old, is a product of LA's foster care system, newly arrived in town and trying to adjust to life in Pittsburgh, a far cry from the surfer world she knew.  She appears to be earning the grudging respect of her new colleagues when a trauma patient comes in, a twenty-eight year old male pedestrian struck down by a car, suddenly in much worse condition than originally thought, having lost consciousness and gone into profound respiratory distress in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

Although Lydia takes every conceivable step she can think of to save him, the patient dies.  Lydia, tormenting herself with what she may have missed that might have saved the young man's life, finds she doesn't have that luxury as her problems have more far-reaching consequences:  the dead man is the son of the hospital's chief surgeon, who publicly accuses her of killing his son.  She is immediately placed on suspension, threatening her entire professional career and civil and possibly criminal charges promised.  The mystery arises when it appears that the dead man, a gay rights activist, may have been murdered.

Lydia is but one of the hospital workers featured in the book.  There is also Gina, third-year emergency medical resident; Amanda, 4th-year med student; Nora, the charge nurse who butts heads with Lydia on her first day but is slowly coming to admire her medical skills; Seth, fourth-resident surgical resident and Nora's boyfriend, who apparently has some secrets; and the assorted male docs, interns and paramedics who orbit their lives.  Interspersed with exciting and realistic medical crises both in and outside of the hospital (the author is a pediatric ER physician) are scenes giving the reader gradual knowledge of the women's private lives.  At the risk of getting corny (which the book is not), the novel is all about the literal as well as figurative lifelines we all reach for. This is a first-rate novel, with strong plotting, well-drawn characters, and just enough romance to not get in the way of the mystery, and is recommended.

The Fourth Sacrifice
by Peter May
Thomas Dunne Books
Hardcover, 405 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-312-36464-9
Review by Carl Brookins

Scotsman Peter May is a fine writer and a good journalist. He has experience, a good memory and he knows how to do research. For several months he was afforded unprecedented access to Chinese law enforcement behind the curtains. His books ring with authenticity. Sometimes all this expertise and research gets in the way of a really good story. If readers are fascinated by Chinese history the excavation of the terracotta warriors at X'ian, the capital of the Middle Kingdom, and interested in the rise and fall of the Red Guards during the cultural revolution, here's a novel that opens wide a window on those parts of Chinese history.  For the rest of us, there's a little too much detail.

While the mystery is carefully rooted in those subjects, the principal plot concerns the main characters in May's first novel in this series. American forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell is a smart, irascible expert, widely recognized in her field. After a disastrous affair with a Bejing detective who had abruptly disappeared from her life, Margaret is determined to return to the U.S. although she has little to look forward to. Then an American citizen of Chinese descent who worked at the American Embassy in Bejing is murdered—decapitated. It is intriguing to the authorities because this killing is similar to three other recent deaths of native Chinese.

Higher authority assigns top detective Li Yan, Margaret's former lover, to the case. Then the Embassy insists that Margaret be present at the autopsy of the dead American. Once again Margaret and Le Yan are forced together in a conflicted and tempestuous joint effort to find a killer or killers.

The author's high level skills in characterization and his excellent descriptions of exotic and unusual locations are on display. The novel is replete with insider looks at legal procedures and locations most will never experience. The novel is a wonderful excursion into police procedures and the passions of two individuals from very different cultures who find themselves almost inextricably linked.  An excellent novel.

Close Call
by John McEvoy
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 296 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-59058-495-8
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

In the previous three novels in the series, John McEvoy demonstrated his uncanny ability to match the master, Dick Francis, in writing mysteries with a horseracing background.  Now, he again has written a memorable tale using the same protagonist, Jack Doyle, and his "fairy godfather" and raconteur, the furrier-to-the-mob, Moe Kellman.

Just returned from New Zealand and at loose ends, Moe suggests that Jack become the publicity and advertising director of a rundown racing park south of Chicago, Monee Park.  The track was owned and operated for many years by Moe's friend, Jim Joyce, who recently died, leaving 51 percent ownership to his niece, with the balance to his nephew who lives in Ireland.  The racetrack is run down and hardly making any money.  The niece, whose husband suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), intends to keep running the track in the memory of her uncle.  The nephew would rather have it sold to developers and use the cash to expand his bookmaking business.

From this conflicting interest a whole series of events takes place, with Jack at the center.    As in previous entries in the series, this book is tautly written and suspenseful, well-plotted and exciting right up to the conclusion.  It is highly recommended.

Devil's Peak
by Deon Meyer
Little, Brown & Co.
Hardcover, 416 pages, $24.99
ISBN: 978-0-316-01785-5
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Three very flawed but sympathetic characters populate this novel.  There is Thobela Mpayipheli, a Black South African who was trained as an assassin by the East German secret police.  Then there is Benny Griessel, alcoholic detective.  And lastly, Christine van Rooyen, a prostitute with a three-year-old daughter.  Somehow, their lives intertwine in a gripping story which keeps the reader off-balance all the way.

Initially, Thobela is introduced as a farmer who recently lost his wife, leaving him with a young boy who he loves very much. The boy is shot dead during an armed robbery, setting off a chain of events which leads Thobela to act as an avenging vigilante against abusers of children.  Benny, once (and possibly even in his present continual alcoholic haze) a superior detective, is kicked out of his home by his long-suffering wife with the admonishment that he might be permitted to return if he stays sober for six months.  Meanwhile, he is placed in charge of two important cases, including the serial killer of abused children.  Christine's story alternates with the other two as she sits confessing to a priest.  Her tale plays a pivotal role in the lives of the other two.

This is the author's fourth novel, each superior reading.  His complex stories and descriptions of South Africa are exceptional, his characters unusual and graphic, his works top-notch.  Like his previous efforts, Devil's Peak is highly recommended.

Slip of the Knife
by Denise Mina
Little, Brown
Hardcover, 352 pages, $24.99
ISBN: 978-0-316-01558-5
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Denise Mina's newest book opens with the shocking murder of Terry Hewitt, former boyfriend of her protagonist, Paddy Meehan.

Paddy is now 27, and has graduated from her lowly position at the Daily News to her present celebrity status with a regular column of her own, in addition to being a published author.  Terry, in turn, had just signed a book deal of his own, and Paddy is told by the police that his killing "had all the hallmarks of an IRA hit…his body found stripped naked in a ditch, single shot to the head."

In many respects Paddy has changed little over the years since she first appeared in Mina's books, of which this is the third: She still hates her appearance, believing she is too fat; still feels she has to prove herself to the misogynistic men around her; though she attends Mass, she still rebels against her family's Catholicism—her sister is a nun, "wasn't even prepared to take communion and had had a child out of wedlock," a son, Pete, now nearly six years old, whom she adores.  When she is told by the police that Terry had listed her as his next of kin, with her new address that she didn't even realize he had known, she has no choice.   When the effects of that investigation threaten not only Paddy but her son as well, the stakes are raised all the way around.

A parallel story line deals with the release after nine years in prison of young Callum Ogilvy, who with another boy had been found guilty of the brutal murder of a toddler, following Paddy's investigation—she had been engaged to Callum's cousin, Sean—described in an earlier book.

Ms. Mina's descriptions conjure up her characters precisely, e.g., someone's wife is "blond, tall, and so thin she could have opened letters with her chin"; in a photo she sees "a woman of eighty, arms crossed, grinning, the folds in her skin deep enough to lose change in"; and, of her editor: "Nature, time and his temperament had conspired to perfect McVie's glower.  His face and posture fitted around misery as neatly as cellophane over a cup."  The author maintains an undercurrent of menace.  Paddy is a gutsy, slightly vulgar and very human protagonist, the characters and the setting very well drawn, the writing and the story taut with a hold-your-breath quality.  Highly recommended.

Shades of Blue
by Bill Moody
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 272 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-59058-485-9
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Bill Moody's fourth Evan Horne book is a welcome return of this series.  Evan, a jazz pianist who has been living and working in London and Amsterdam, has returned to the US and settled down in San Francisco.  When he receives a call from an attorney in LA telling him that his mentor of many years ago, a pianist named Calvin Hughes, has died and named Evan as his sole beneficiary, the world as he knows it is turned upside down.

Evan travels to LA and, among Hughes' things, discovers evidence that, incredibly, Hughes might be his father. (As far as he knew, Cal had never been married and, further, Evan's mother and father are alive and well and living in Boston.) Also unearthed are some sheets of music, in Hughes' writing, that Evan recognizes as famed old jazz pieces ostensibly written by the late and great Miles Davis, that were included in two legendary old jazz albums.  Is it possible that Hughes was the actual composer?  Either one of these mysteries would be daunting enough to solve; Evan must attempt to get to the bottom of both.  He turns for assistance to his girlfriend, an FBI agent, though he vaguely fears she has some knowledge she is not sharing with him.

The sense of place is strong of both NYC and California, and I especially enjoyed the description of the small town on the Russian River in northern California where Evan lives.  The author, himself a skilled jazz musician with an impressive background, brings to life the vibrancy of this music and its practitioners, and a knowledge of the history of the music and the musicians isn't at all necessary to thoroughly enjoy his writing, although it is certainly makes it that much more wonderful.  As good as the story is, what makes it so special is the entrée it provides into the world of jazz music.  The articulation of what a jazz musician, or indeed probably any musician, has in his head as he listens to, or creates, great music is absolutely elegant.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it is highly recommended.  I was delighted to see that Poisoned Pen Press has published this new Evan Horne book, and hope it portends more of the same in the future.

The Crazy School
by Cornelia Read
Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover, 326 pages, $23.99
ISBN: 978-0-446-58259-9
Reviewed by Jeffrey Cohen

First, it should be noted that Madeline Dare needs the money, and she needed to get out of Syracuse, New York. But taking a job at the Santangelo school in the Berkshires might not have been the best solution to those problems.

In this, Read's follow-up to the excellent A Field of Darkness, Madeline is teaching privileged students who have some history of psychological or behavioral problems, in 1989. And fans of the body on page 1 will have some issues with this book, while those who savor well-drawn characters and insightful storytelling most certainly will not.

Lured by the charismatic David Santangelo to the school he has founded, Madeline feels trapped in something approaching a cult: the students are treated very much like prisoners, while the staff dare not question a single decision Santangelo makes.

Read (an anagram for Dare, for those of you keeping score at home) has some background working in such a facility, and her experience serves her well. The characters are believable and interesting, and the author's trademark wit is very much intact, but this is not a funny story.

Two students are found dead, assumed suicides after the girl had become pregnant. Madeline, however, who had been keeping the couple's secret, believes otherwise, and thinks they drank poisoned punch unintentionally. She has some symptoms of having ingested something dangerous herself, and not long afterward is taken in as a suspect in the murders.

The investigation continues from there, with Madeline suspecting pretty much everyone, and having good reason to do so. Read weaves a harrowing tale, but it is her characters, particularly Madeline, who shine most brightly. This is a very worthy sequel to an outstanding debut.

The Silk Train Murder
by Sharon Rowse
Carroll & Graf Publishers
Hardcover, 320 pages, $24.99
ISBN: 978-0-786-71946-4
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid

Opium dens, brothels, saloons, corruption and wealth are found in Vancouver in 1899. 

Back from the gold fields John Lansdowne Granville finds that his distinguished name and privileged background are not a lot of help when you are broke and hungry. Granville is spending almost the last of his funds on a drink in Beaver Tavern, a tavern near the Vancouver docks, when Sam Scott his former partner and friend walks into the tavern and offers him a job.  Scott has been hired to guard the silk trains.  There are special railcars to carry the silk and it is important that the cars are not tampered with while in the rail yard.

On the first night on the job Scott and John halt an attempt to sabotage one of the trains.  The culprits are let go with their promise that they will leave town immediately.  On that same night, the two find a man that has just been murdered.  His name is Clive Jackson and his reputation is not good.  When the police arrive on the scene, Scott is immediately arrested although there is no proof that he did the crime.  Scott's arrest ends Granville's new job.   The police in Vancouver in that time were very corrupt.  John determines to free Scott but Scott is very uncooperative.  John realizes that Scott is holding back something but he can't figure out what.

John goes forward with his investigation with his new sidekick Trent Davis, a young boy he has picked up along the way.  John has resorted to gambling, a vice he swore he would never participate in, to make money to keep going.

The investigation takes John into the homes and offices of some of the shakers in the Vancouver community.  He meets Emily Turner, a very intelligent, inquisitive woman, who is determined to assist in the investigation even at her own peril and her father's wrath.  Emily and her good friend Clara find it very exciting to feel that they are assisting an accused murderer.  Emily's father does not find it so amusing.

The Silk Train Murder takes the reader on an adventure in the town of Vancouver during the year 1899.   The fact that opium is legal during that time is amazing.  The devastation that the drug brings about is horrible.  The things that Emily and Clara dare to do are humorous and shocking for that period.

I enjoyed the very exciting story set forth in this book as well as reading about what was expected of women during that era.

 

Dance On His Grave
by Sylvia Dickey Smith
L & L Dreamspell
Paperback, 252 pages, $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-60318-006-1
Reviewed by Patricia Reid

What horrors can a parent force a child to endure that could make that child hate so much that the parent is despised?  How can a newly divorced minister's wife help with tracing years old memories and solve a cold case? 

When Sidra Smart arrives in town to settle her brother's estate, she finds she has inherited his detective agency.  Her first client is Jewell Stone.  Sid explains that she isn't a detective and is just in the office of The Third Eye Detective Agency to settle her brother's affairs.  Jewell is not one to take no for an answer and Sid is intrigued by the story Jewell tells of her memories of a woman's murder that she witnessed as a child.

Sid has no training except that of the wife of a minister, a life she now despises.  George Leger, the only other detective in town, convinces Sid to give herself a chance at making The Third Eye a success.  Sid's Aunt Annie turns up with an announcement that she has moved to town to act as Sid's receptionist and help Sid run the business.

Sid is dealing with moving out of the parsonage where she has lived so long, finding a new place to live, and trying to reestablish her life.  Jewel is trying to deal with all of the memories shared by her sister Emma who is in hiding outside of the country.  Sid makes a trip to visit Emma as well as Nancy who is Jewell and Emma's mother.  The more Sid digs into the past the more convinced she is that Roy Manley, Jewell and Emma's father, is indeed a very cruel man.

When Emma turns her information over to the police Chief Quad Burns is very interested and brings in Ben Hillerman, County Prosecutor.  Ben is not only interested in the cold case but is very attracted to Sid as a woman.

Dance On His Grave is full of excitement and suspense.  Sid becomes suspicious that her brother's death may not have been accidental.  She also begins to suspect that one of her ex-husband's parishioner's is involved in an illegal project and she takes Aunt Annie on a stakeout with her.

Once you finish Dance On His Grave, I don't think you will want to miss Deadly Sins Deadly Secrets, the second book in the Sidra Smart series.

Prepared for Rage
by Dana Stabenow
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 304 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-312-36973-6
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

When an author has a passion for a subject, it shows mightily.  Such an author is Dana Stabenow, who expends great efforts in first-hand research aboard Coast Guard vessels in an effort to portray the men and mission of that service with authenticity.  This approach was demonstrated in the previous effort, Blindfold Game, and again in this, the author's 15th novel and second standalone, which also adds  NASA and a space shuttle launch to the mix, as well as a terrorist plot on a level equal to 9/11.

The Coast Guard's mission during launches is to keep a wide area off the coast of Florida clear of surface ships to avoid collisions with falling debris.  In this case, the cutter Munro, captained by Cal Schuler, son of a U.S. Senator, is assigned the duty of directing the operation because it is named for a relative of Kenai Munro.  Kenai is one of the shuttle's crew, and also has the role of providing a love interest for Cal.

The "bad guy" goes by many names, the latest of which is Isa, apparently a play on the name of Jesus.  He is acting independently of bin Laden and al Qaeda in an effort to establish his rep, and recruits his own cell independently of the terrorist organization.  He is determined to strike at the space shuttle, a most visible symbol of the United States on a par with, if not even more important than, the twin towers.

Written with the power and excellence of the previous novels, the book is mind-boggling and eerie, full of action which includes a high-speed ocean chase.  It is a clever concept, smartly executed, and is highly recommended.

 

This Night's Foul Work
by Fred Vargas
Penguin
Paperback, 409 Pages, $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-143-11359-1
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, Commissaire of the Paris police department, is back in Vargas' fourth book of the series.  Two bodies show up in the morgue with their throats cut and everyone but Adamsberg thinks it's a drug related crime. 

Part of what concerns him is the fresh dirt under their fingernails.  The pathologist assigned to the case is Dr. Ariane, a woman Adamsberg worked with earlier in his career.  After examining the bodies, Dr. Ariane concludes that the murderer was not only a woman, but one much shorter than either of the men.  This knowledge, along with the report of a shadow seen in a cemetery, leads him to the grave of a woman who died only a few months earlier.  Further investigation brings Adamsberg back to a case from long ago where he helped convict an angel of death, a woman who was killing the elderly, making the deaths look natural.

Meanwhile, while visiting the Normandy area, the Commissaire is drawn into a local incident involving the shooting of a stag, found in the woods with its heart cut out.  He learns that this is a horrible offense to nature and the locals are very angry.  When a second stag is found, Adamsberg feels that this seemingly unrelated event could be connected and he begins trying to see how the pieces all fit together.

Adamsberg is an intense character, who often unravels clues as he spends time deep in thought, as opposed to talking to those around him and investigating the crime in a traditional way.  There exists an intense loyalty in his subordinates that turns into jealousy when it appears that one is favored over another.  Vargas' books are psychological in nature and always thread a complex series of events, assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, that when completed reveals a clear solution.  The missing pieces are not revealed until the end, and not until then will the whole puzzle make sense to the reader.  Highly recommended.

 

Hollywood Crows
by Joseph Wambaugh
Little, Brown & Co.
Hardcover, 343 pages, $26.99
ISBN: 978-0-316-02528-7
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Joseph Wambaugh literally invented this kind of novel—the daily lives of LAPD police—on patrol in the streets as well as in their personal lives, through use of anecdotes, situations and quips.  This is the 13th novel of the type since the first—The New Centurions—was introduced 14 years ago.

The story is about a crime, but more important, about the men and women of Hollywood South, cops like the two surfer cops—Flotsam and Jetsam—and Nate Weiss, Cat Song, Ronnie Sinclair and Bic Ramstead.  The plot describes the duties and foibles of the Community Relations Officers—the Crows—in their efforts to assuage the fears or complaints of citizens, such as illegal parking in an apartment house lot across from an upscale strip joint or the noise from a house whose front lawn is strewn with stolen supermarket shopping carts.

The strip club is owned by Ali Azis, who is going through a bad divorce suit with his wife, Margot. Each wishes the other dead (for different reasons).  Margot's plot involves a couple of the cops, which leads to more complications, as she continually makes complaints about her husband's "threats" to establish a record.  It is Wambaugh at his best, and should be read.

Highly recommended.

Desert Cut
by Betty Webb
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover, 290 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-59058-491-0
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Scottsdale PI Lena Jones, in four previous appearances, has tackled some different and interesting and controversial topics, ranging from polygamy, the homeless and a former WWII German POW camp.  In this latest novel, she uncovers a horrific subject one knows about in Africa and the Middle East, but hardly comes to mind in the United States.

While horseback riding with her boyfriend scouting a film location in the Arizona desert, Lena finds the body of a seven-year-old girl.  It turns out there are other young girls either missing or dead from a nearby town.  Many of the inhabitants work for a chemical factory there, and are African or Middle Eastern immigrants.  Lena can't get the thought of the little girl she found in a shallow grave from her mind, and starts her own investigation.  Eventually, she ties together a common thread for all the dead and missing young girls, and a horrific one it is.

As in the previous books in the series, the plot is meticulously researched, with an outstanding bibliography, carefully written and documented, and the writing and story substantial.  While constructed as a mystery, the novel truly has an importance beyond the genre.

Highly recommended.