December 2007

Ho-ho... never mind. It's December at Mystery Morgue, and that means a great deal of murder, mayhem and general mystery for those who can't get enough.  This month: maybe you'll find enough to be satisfied. We think you can find reviews and an interview that open up world of mystery books.

Read on!

There are 19 mystery book reviews this month, including titles from James Patterson, Thomas H. Cook, a Rumpole book from John Mortimer, a title from William G. Tapply, one from Melissa Glazer and one from Robert W. Walker.

You'll also find an intriguing interview with Richard Doetsch, author of two Michael St. Pierre Thieves novels (with The Thieves of Faith now available and a third on the way). This Renaissance man talks about real estate, writing, being a triathlete and a professional musician.

There are still a number of shopping days, and books make lovely gifts! Help make your selections here at Mystery Morgue!

In this month's issue:

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Richard Doetsch

Reviews:
Written in Bone by Simon Beckett
The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook
In the Shadow of the Glacier by Vicki Delany
The Cruel Stars of the Night by Kjell Eriksson
Turkey Flambé by Nancy Fairbanks
The Last Nightingale by Anthony Flacco
A Murderous Glaze by Melissa Glazer
On the Wrong Track by Steve Hockensmith
Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon
Chat by Archer Mayor
A Perfect Grave by Rick Mofina
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror by John Mortimer
Double Cross by James Patterson
The Death of Corinne by R.T. Raichev
Second Shot by Zoë Sharp
One-Way Ticket by William G. Tapply
Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas
City of the Absent by Robert W. Walker
Crawfish Mountain by Ken Wells

Link to Archives

 

The Mystery Morgue Interview: Richard Doetsch

Richard Doetsch is a respected expert in the field of commercial and residential real estate, having served as the president, managing director, and owner of several large national real estate firms.

He's an accomplished musician, playing and composing for both the guitar and piano. He has scored the soundtracks for several independent short films, and his music has been featured on MTV, VH1, and "Good Morning America."

Richard's writing is informed by his life and imagination. His mischievous, story-filled childhood, combined with a MacGyver imagination in solving problems, has served him well when bringing pen to paper. He finds his inspiration in the love for his wife and how far he would go to protect her; it is what helps him fill his stories with heart and hope.

He is a triathlete, expert skier, scuba diver, an erratic golfer, and an extreme sport enthusiast who has jumped off bridges, cliffs, 200-foot cranes and sky high planes with rubber bands around his ankles, parachutes on his back and sometimes just enjoying the hundred-foot freefall into water with nothing to slow his descent.

He has been married for 20 years and is the father of three children ranging in age from 7 to 19.

Interview by Gloria Feit

How do your athletic endeavors influence your present outlook or interests?

I'm a triathlete and a fan of the riskier sports that get the adrenaline going. When adrenaline is flowing through your veins, for me at least, my senses are heightened. The colors are richer, the sounds more acute, you can smell the wind and time seems to slow. Action scenes flow the easiest for me as all I have to do is tap into some memory whether it be jumping off a bridge, a two hundred foot crane or being in the bowels of dark ship 90 feet below the surface with a six foot shark between me and the exit.

When Michael St. Pierre is running away from danger, when he is facing his fears, that is my juxtapositioning of the experiences from my life.

I have very strong image and sense memory and can translate that into my material. The feeling as you're falling through the air with nothing to stop you but a rubber band around your ankle is pretty spectacular and applies to so many thrilling moments in my stories.

As to your educational background, have you taken any formal writing courses, participated in any writers' conferences or workshops?

I came to writing very late in life. I've never taken an actual writing course; instead, my schooling came from the books I loved to read, the movies I liked to watch. I have always had a good sense of story and a grasp for rhythm and pacing much of it coming from my background as a musician. You need to know when to build up tension, when to release it, and when to breathe. All three aspects are key to music and key to a taut thriller.

I did participate in one writer group through NYU where eight authors got together and critiqued each other's work. It was a fun experience and helpful to get varying opinions on my material but ultimately time did not allow me to continue.

How/when did you become interested in mysteries?

When you are young, there is so much required reading that it takes the fun out of the experience, the fun out of enjoying the story.  I vividly remember my father had every Alistair MacLean novel and one day, with nothing to do, I picked up MacLean's novel, Circus. I recall finding a whole world opened to me, movies playing out in my head, mysteries to wrap my mind around. Suddenly, reading became fun again and I ended up reading everything he had written.

What did you try writing before your first novel?

I wrote a screenplay several years ago to see if I could do it. Though not purchased, I was offered work based on its strengths if I was willing to move to the west coast. They told me the east coast was really for novelists. Well, I had no intention of moving so I sat down to write my first book.  Ironically, I took my screenplay and turned it into The Thieves of Heaven, which was sold to 20th Century Fox before my deal with Bantam Dell came about. Funny how the world works.

What did you learn writing The Thieves of Faith?

As much of the story takes place in Moscow and within the Kremlin, I found a place that most of the western world never knew existed. We all have these cold, dark images of the military parading in Red Square and the iron hand of USSR but since the fall of Communism, their hidden mysteries have been gradually exposed.

We think of the Kremlin as political, yet it contains enormous museums rivaling the Louvre, the Vatican and the Smithsonian. In an odd dichotomy, it has the world's highest concentration of churches within the Kremlin walls where religion was forbidden for seventy-five years. And most alluring, it sits atop a labyrinthine system of rooms and tunnels that contain Ivan the Terrible's torture chamber, the lost library of Byzantium and scores of hidden rooms and vaults. The most amazing fact is much of it has been lost to time and though the Russian government has sought to rediscover these historically documented places, they have yet to reveal their actual locations.

How long did it take to write?

My first novel, The Thieves of Heaven, took me about a year, my current novel, The Thieves of Faith, took about nine months and I just finished The Thieves of Darkness in about seven months.  I should note that this includes rewrites, research and the obligatory sticking it in a drawer to ferment period.

I generally write, on average, two thousand words a day, every day. I usually end up with around nine hundred pages, which I then whittle back. It's on the second pass that I approach my story like a chess match. Twisting it, shifting characters to make it more suspenseful and lopping off all of the fat so I have a tight, compelling page-turner.

My process turns a normal day upside down. I have always been a night owl as that's when my creative juices seem to flow best and life is free of distractions. My first novel was written mostly on the train to and from work and then from eleven p.m. until two in the morning. Now, without the burden of a commute, I write from ten p.m. until around three a.m. And I do my research in the more respectable hours of the day

I do an outline including the major plot points, character points, historical facts, and a very specific ending so I know where I am going.   But since so much of my writing flows from the ideas that hit my mind as my fingers fly on the keys, the journey veers from the outline as I discover things about the characters and they end up taking me to some great places via a far different route than I initially intended. 

How do you do your research?

I love research and find myself overly absorbed in amazing, rarely heard facts. I have to consciously pull myself back and stay focused; otherwise the night can become a bust.

I'm a voracious reader of science, medicine, and global mysteries. I love researching the history of the world and the little-known stories that float beneath the surface. They are all seeds with the potential for great stories.

I am a huge fan of libraries. If they don't have the book, they can probably find it for you. I also access a great deal of research papers, which are generally available through colleges and universities. For example, one Ivy League school had a thesis on the Parisian catacombs while MIT had a great paper on lock picking.

A good resource that I avail myself of is the consulate system. Once someone within a consulate hears you are writing a book about their country, they are usually happy to put you in touch with their experts and provide you access to various resources.

I do find it interesting in this Google-reliant world that while you can find some interesting facts buried in the internet, so much of it can prove to be wrong. The word expert is used far too loosely, now that anyone with a PC can proclaim themselves an authority postulating theories and sighting fictional facts. There should be a warning sign on all internet home pages to students and writers: Beware, the facts contained within may have no bearing on reality.

Where did you get the idea for your novels?

My inspiration comes from all around. I love when we see humanity at its best: the seldom told individual tales of heroism in the war(s) by people who love this country, the firefighter who runs into a burning building to save a child, the man who dives on the subway tracks pulling a little girl to safety under the train platform as the train races by inches from their heads.

I love reading about the lost worlds that exist under our noses, the artifacts whose mythic tales have grown legendary, the conflicts that exist when both sides believe with all their heart that God is on their side. 

My greatest inspiration, though, is the love for my wife and how far I would go to protect her. It is what helps me to fill my stories with heart; it is what I draw on to give my characters their emotional weight.

Eight out of ten thrillers revolve around a cop, an ex-special forces/military type, a private investigator, attorney, or an academic fish out of water.  It was important for my main character to be unique. I have always been a fan of the anti-hero whose deeds came about as moral compromise. It makes the character deeper and far more interesting.   There are the rules of society, the rules of man, the rules of God, but sometimes, to do the right thing, you have to violate those rules, compromise even your own beliefs. It makes for a richer, more conflicted character who has to not only battle outside forces but the moral compass within himself.

Michael St. Pierre is a reformed thief forced back into the world he left behind in order to save those he loves.  His greatest skills were as a thief and if he is to succeed he must resurrect not only his former skills but his former self all the while facing the risk of prison, death, and, worst of all, if he fails, the loss of those he loves.

When you create a character, how much of that character comes from your personal experience?  Are your characters just an extension of your own life and are their experiences from your own life, or are they completely fictional?

Much of the emotional journey of my characters is drawn from personal experience such as the love for my wife, my children, my father, but the action, particularly the crimes, are pure fiction.  I do draw upon situations in my youth. I was not a true delinquent but with my brother, cousins, and friends I was involved in some mischief where we usually ended up on the run with hearts pounding and nervous laughter pouring from our mouths.

Without going into detail, many of those experiences are hinted at and greatly embellished in my stories. So when you read about Michael St. Pierre climbing up a building, or sneaking into some place he shouldn't be, you could probably tie it back to my childhood in one way, shape, or form.

Who are the writers whose work you most admire, and who perhaps have influenced your writing?

I love Ian Fleming, Charles Dickens, William Goldman, Stephen King, Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, and as I mentioned earlier, Alistair MacLean.

I love screenplays, you can read them quickly, the prose, by virtue of the genre, is tight, the dialogue flows and you can get a full three-act story read in less than an hour. I love William Goldman, who can convey so much with so few words.  I also love Frank Darabont; his adaptations of Stephen King are some of the best reads out there.

Is your background in real estate going to play a part in any future novels?  What about your music background?

The real estate business is a great place to draw characters from. It is very cutthroat and you see much of the definition of greed and ego, all of which can be stirred up into some great characters.  By the same token, as a landlord, you get glimpses of the way people live, their triumphs and tragedies, their experiences and emotions as people enter and leave their lives.  For me it is important to interact with people and live life, not just create it in my head, to see and hear people at their best and worst, it helps you to form more tangible characters, characters that people can truly relate to.

Music can evoke an emotional response, be it happiness, sadness, excitement. It has a flow it to that pulls you into its rhythm. I try to capture this in my writing, be it leaving you excited upon a precipice at the end of a chapter, or a tearful moment when someone passes away. I don't proclaim to be a writer of philosophical introspection, but I do strive to hit the heart, be it to excite it, soothe it, scare it, or comfort it much as a song does.

 

Reviews

Written in Bone
by Simon Beckett
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0385340052
Hardcover, 336 pages, $24
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Off the west coast of Scotland there are a number of desolate islands, the Hebrides.  On one of them, Runa, a charred body is reported—was it an accident or is it a suspicious death?  Forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter is asked to go there to determine the circumstances of the death.  The body is little more than ashes, with fragments of bone, burned beyond recognition while no damage was done by the fire to the structure enclosing it.

The working theory was a case of spontaneous combustion, until Dr. Hunter finds evidence that it was no accident, leading to a murder inquiry.  Obviously in the small self-contained community lurks a murderer.  But a raging storm prevents a full-blown police contingent from being sent from the mainland.  Power and communications cut are off making matters worse.

This is a fascinating tale with almost a thrill a page.  The conclusion is so surprising that the reader has to scratch his or her head in near disbelief.  Tautly written, the book is highly recommended.

The Cloud of Unknowing
by Thomas H. Cook
Harvest Paperback/Harcourt
ISBN: 0156032803
Paperback, 320 pages, $14
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

This psychological thriller recounts the hereditary effects of mental illness.  A brother and sister grow up in the shadow of their schizophrenic father.  The sister, Diana, is blessed with a photographic memory and shines in front of the parent, spewing quotations at the drop of a hat.  She was on a full scholarship at Yale when she left in her senior year to take care of the father, who was institutionalized at least twice.  She marries shortly after the death of the father and soon gives birth to a son.  The brother, David, becomes an attorney, with a fairly commonplace practice, handling "dissolutions": marriages and businesses.

Diana goes shopping one day, only to find on her return that her son, who was at home at the time with her husband, wandered off to a pond and drowned.  She becomes obsessed, convinced her husband murdered the boy, who also was mentally disturbed, because he was a "distraction."  (None of the foregoing constitutes a spoiler—it all takes place very early in the book and is mentioned on the back cover.)

David and his daughter become entwined in Diana's preoccupation.  He doesn't know what to believe.  Is she suffering from the family's history of mental aberration—or could there be some truth to what she says? 

The novel is constructed in an interesting fashion, with introductory chapters during which the brother is being interrogated by a detective before the story is told.  It is an interesting technique, as is the plot itself, and the book is recommended. 

In the Shadow of the Glacier
by Vicki Delany
Poisoned Pen Press
ISBN: 1590584484
Hardcover, 312 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

During the Vietnam War there were men of draft age who fled to Canada to avoid serving in the army.  In this novel, Trafalgar, British Columbia, is characterized as a center of such settlement, and apparently will be the site of a new series featuring Constable Moonlight ("Molly") Smith.

One such draft evader who prospered north of the border upon his death bequeathed his land to the town for a garden to be dedicated to honor draft dodgers, thus setting the stage for conflicts between the "peaceniks" and their opposites, especially businesses fearing antagonizing U.S. tourists upon whom they were dependent.  One opposed to the garden was the developer of a proposed luxury resort who is found by Molly dead, presumably murdered, in an alley.

Molly is but a lowly beat cop, but she is assigned to assist Detective Sergeant John Winters in his investigation of the death.  Further trouble is fomented by a TV personality and outside agitators.  Winters and Smith continue seeking clues.  While he resents her presence, he teaches and she learns.  The DS has his own fears haunting him, which caused him to leave the Vancouver police department for the small town, and these are increased by the frustration of not solving the case quickly.

The author has a way of coming up with unusual themes, and this novel certainly lives up to this ability.  In addition, the descriptions of the small town, its citizens and environment are handled exceptionally well.  It is a good, solid mystery.

The Cruel Stars of the Night
by Kjell Eriksson
St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN: 0312366671
Hardcover, 312 pages, $23.95
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

In The Cruel Stars of the Night, Erikkson returns to the Violent Crime Division of Uppsala, Sweden, first introduced in The Princess of Burundi.  While the whole unit is back in this book, the story is centered much more on Anne Lindell and the victims.

Laura Hindersten's father is missing and the police don't seem all that concerned. The fact is, the man was an ornery, rigid, odd professor who seemed to go out of his way to alienate everyone. Yet, he is Laura's father and she wants to know what has become of him. 

Petrus Blomgren is found bludgeoned to death in his barn. Ironically, when police investigate, they find what appears to be a suicide note that he left on his kitchen counter. Apparently he was killed as he was on his way to commit suicide. The elderly man, basically alone in the world except for the older woman next door, had no enemies and few acquaintances. Who could possibly want Petrus dead?

While police are still puzzling over Petrus's death, Jan-Elis Andersson is found dead with his head bashed in. The police are faced with the murder of two old men, both lonely, both former farmers, both with no enemies. What sick killer is loose in Uppsala? What could possibly be the motive?  Are these men's deaths connected in any way to the missing professor? Anne Lindell, Police Inspector with the Violent Crimes Division, is given the formidable task of finding the answers to these questions. And, she needs to do it quickly because the Queen is due to visit and it would not be good to have a serial killer on the loose.

Scandinavian mystery authors are enjoying enormous popularity in the United States of late. Possibly it is because they have perfected a slower paced form of the psychological thriller by ever so slowly peeling away the layers of the characters and their stories instead of relying on action to propel the plot forward.  Certainly Eriksson's two books are excellent examples and well worth the attention of readers.

 

Turkey Flambé
by Nancy Fairbanks
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN: 0425219041
Paperback, 274 pages, $6.99
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Food columnist Carolyn Blue is off to New York for her tenth adventure in Turkey Flambé. Her book on the restaurants and cuisine of New Orleans has finally been published and Carolyn, accompanied by her friend Luz, is in New York for the book launch party. Things immediately take a turn for the worse though when her editor insists that Nancy flambé her turkeys for a spectacular effect. It was spectacular, all right—the flames shot up to the ceiling, caught the tablecloth on fire and then the flaming turkeys were pitched off the balcony! While at first it seemed like a publicity stunt gone bad, by the next day it was evident that someone had tampered with either the turkeys or the cognac and Carolyn was in trouble with the police once again.

While finding the culprit, Carolyn and Luz take readers on a hilarious ride through New York City. Readers get to visit to Lincoln Center for a performance of "Rigoletto." You don't have to know the opera to laugh out loud at Luz's description of the experience. One can't help but chuckle at Carolyn's bumbling while buying her first cell phone ever in Chinatown. A possible brush with the Mafia, three Chinese men following Carolyn, a woman who holds séances and a multitude of other colorful characters to make this book just a whole lot of fun to read.

While there are many mystery series that are set in the food world, the Carolyn Blue series is unique in that author Fairbanks sets each book in a different place and the recipes reflect the culture of the setting. In this case, the recipes are a celebration of the ethnic mixture of New York City, with samplings from Italian, Indian, Jewish, Chinese, Mexican, Thai and Peruvian cuisine. Along with the recipe is often a bit of the history of the dish or an unusual ingredient in it. This makes the Carolyn Blue series among the best.

The Last Nightingale
by Anthony Flacco
Ballantine Books/Mortalis
ISBN: 0812977578
Paperback, 258 pages, $12.95
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Just over 100 years ago—1906—the Great Earthquake nearly destroyed San Francisco.  Amidst the destruction and carnage, the Nightingale family was murdered, although the police observation at the scene attributed the deaths to the earthquake.  Hidden in the house undetected was Shane, an adopted son, who heard the perpetrator talking to his victims as he slew them.  When the carnage was over, Shane—the last Nightingale of the title—left the house and took refuge at the Mission Dolores, where he was given a job caretaking the cemetery, and a shed in which to live.

A larger-than-life police sergeant, Randall Blackburn, makes Shane's acquaintance when the boy writes him a note suggesting a motive for the murder of a prominent citizen for which Blackburn was assigned the investigation.  Impressed with Shane's intuitive abilities, the policeman befriends the boy and tries to get him to assist in capturing a serial killer. Other relationships among the main characters develop, to a rousing conclusion.

The descriptions of the havoc caused by the earthquake are graphic, and the characterizations excellent.  Written at a fast pace, the novel grips the reader from cover to cover.  The book is among the first issued under the new Mortalis imprint.

 

A Murderous Glaze
by Melissa Glazer
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN: 0425218365
Paperback, 213 pages, $6.99
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Business definitely declines when the town suspects you of murder. Carolyn Emerson is the owner of Fire at Will, a pottery shop and studio that just happens to have been the recent scene of a murder.  The story opens after the crime has been committed and therefore the reader never meets Betty Wickline, the unfortunate woman found dead in Carolyn's shop.  Carolyn, who didn't much care for Betty when she was alive and whose awl has been used as the murder weapon, is the number one suspect.  Since the Sheriff seems intent on pinning the murder on her, she has no choice but to try and solve the crime herself.  Not only does she need to clear her name, but she also needs to bring back customers to her floundering business. 

As Carolyn starts to snoop around the small Vermont town, she learns that she was not the only one who didn't like Betty, not by a long shot.  She even discovers information that lands the town Sheriff on her list of suspects.  With the help of her friends and fellow pottery club members, Carolyn digs deep into Betty's past and uncovers many motives for murder and many suspects to go along with them.  She knows she's getting closer to the truth when the killer starts to target her.

A Murderous Glaze is the first in the new Clay and Crime Mystery series and includes clay-crafting tips.  It is a light cozy made enjoyable by a picturesque setting and colorful characters, with some twists and turns thrown in along the way.  Carolyn Emerson makes a good sleuth and her circle of close friends round out the investigative team.  A fun read.

On the Wrong Track
by Steve Hockensmith
St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN: 0312347812
Hardcover, 304 pages, $23.95
Reviewed by Janet Koch

Once upon a time, just after the West was won, two brothers grew weary of the cowboy life. Gustav (aka Old Red) had imprinted on the tales of Sherlock Holmes that his younger brother Otto (aka Big Red) read and reread to him. His mind was made up. Detectives, that's what they'd be.

When Gustav finds them jobs working for Southern Pacific Railroad, Otto is a touch startled. All proper cowboys hate the railroad and every railroad man worth his salt hates cowboys. What the heck was Gustav thinking?

Soon the pair are aboard the Pacific Express, bound for San Francisco with orders to shoot anyone who tries to rob the train. While Gustav and Otto know this means keep an eagle eye for the notorious Barson and Welsh gang, the macabre death of a baggage man sends the brothers in a different direction.

To the surprise of many, the illiterate Gustav quickly proves he can detect with the best of them. But can he and Otto track down the killer before the killer strikes again? The answer is no, of course, but Gustav plods along in his best Holmesian fashion, resolute in his determination to fulfill his dream. If it doesn't kill him first.

Full of high jinx and hilarity, Steve Hockensmith's On the Wrong Track is packed with a clever wit that manages the difficult feat of ringing with historical authenticity. At times laugh-out-loud funny, at times poignant with the weight of long-hidden emotions, On the Wrong Track is everything a comedic mystery should be, and much more.

Who, after all, can resist a story that includes pearl-handled six-shooters, a Chinaman, Pullman sleeper cars, a suffragette, and a poisonous snake? And as Old Red says; "Sometimes nothing tells you something when something would've told you nothing at all."

 

Fatal Remedies
by Donna Leon
Penguin Group
IBSN: 0143112426
Paperback, 303 pages, $7.99
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

Fatal Remedies is the eighth book of the Commissario Guido Brunetti series and like other well written series stories, it stands alone well and at the same time intrigues the reader into looking for the earlier novels to delve deeper into the main characters in the story.  Brunetti is a police official in Venice and his wife Paola works as an academic with strong opinions.  It is her need to stand up and do something about the sex tourism trade operating from a travel agency in Venice that opens the story.  Unable to take legal action, Paola heaves a rock through the front window of the agency in hopes of starting a movement against those who participate in the tours. 

The complications, both marital and professional, that arise from the arrest of the Commissario's wife are only the beginning.  The owner of the agency is murdered and a note left at the site harks back to Paola's actions.  Could she be morally responsible for his death?  As in any satisfying mystery novel, there are many plot twists and subplots before the killer is unmasked and the motive determined.

The pleasure of reading this novel comes not only from the plot, however.  Leon is intimately familiar with life in Venice and brings that knowledge into every aspect of the story, from the pace of life and a wide array of foods, to the ins and outs of how Italian police work is accomplished. 

There are a number of interesting minor characters in the book including Lieutenant Scarpa, who obviously dislikes Brunetti, although the reason probably arises out of an earlier novel.  Here it is enough to know that when Scarpa can, he makes things more difficult for Brunetti. At the computer, we find Signorina Elettra, whose methods for unearthing information apparently go far beyond surfing the web. 

Fatal Remedies (and you have to read the book to understand the significance of the title) is an enjoyable read.

 

Chat
by Archer Mayor
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 0446582582
Hardcover, 326 pages, $24.99
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Joe Gunther of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, at the start of one murder investigation, learns that his brother and mother were seriously injured in an automobile accident and are in the hospital.  He rushes there and subsequently learns maybe it was no accident.  Then a second similar murder occurs with a similar, but slightly different, MO.

The plot is that simple—but boy, is it complicated.  To begin with, In discovering the circumstances of how his brother's car went off the road, Joe theoretically has to remove himself from the investigation, depending on the local sheriff's office and one of his own people to move the inquiry forward.  But as it progresses, a lead into the murders opens up. The title, Chat, refers to the use of a chat room by the murderer to entice the victims to a motel room.

This excellently written novel is up to the series' high standards, and the descriptions of the author's beloved Vermont are penetrating.  It is always a joy to read a Joe Gunther mystery, and Chat has been no exception.

A Perfect Grave
by Rick Mofina
Pinnacle Books
ISBN: 0786018482
Paperback, 362 pages, $6.99
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

A Perfect Grave is the third in the new series by Rick Mofina, whose previous books have been very well received and reviewed by many, including this reviewer.  It brings back Jason Wade, rookie reporter working the night cop desk at The Seattle Mirror, doing the only thing he has ever wanted to do: be a crime reporter at a major metropolitan daily.  His career took a major hit when, two months before this book opens, he was, through no fault of his own, involved in a major screw-up at the paper, and his every move is second-guessed and criticized by his editor.  Reading this book makes one wonder why Jason, or indeed anyone, would subject himself or herself to a deadline-driven job such this, but one would assume the rewards make it worthwhile, and Jason certainly is up to the task.

Other players include Jason's father, a private investigator, ex-Seattle cop, and recovering alcoholic, whose past demons play a large part in the story, and Grace Garner, who thinks of herself as "a pathetically lonely self-doubting cop," with whom Jason was previously romantically involved.

This time around Jason is covering the story of a much loved Seattle nun who is brutally murdered.  She had worked for years as a counselor in prisons and women's shelters as well as locally with the poor and homeless, and it is unfathomable that someone would have wanted to kill her—she is dubbed after her death as "an angel of mercy who eased pain," and as the "Saint of Seattle," but as Jason looks into her life before she became a nun, there is no information to be found, other than suggestions that she had a dark past and was looking for absolution in her present life.  There are ominous hints of a malignant presence, and a recurring image of a knife in a man's hand.

Among the nun's last words are "We can never erase the sins of our past," and this theme permeates the book as Jason and the police race against time to prevent another murder.  The suspense, as is usual with this author's books, is relentless till the gripping conclusion.  This is another strong entry in the series, and is recommended.

 

Rumpole and the Reign of Terror
by John Mortimer
Penguin
ISBN: 0143112587
Paperback, 184 pages, $14
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

When Rumpole agrees to defend a Pakistani doctor accused of terrorism, the Timson family, whose members are prone to thefts and other unlawful acts, boycott his services.  Without anyone else to defend, and not quite sure if his current client is guilty or innocent, Rumpole's world is turned upside down.  To make matters worse, the powers that be are not only refusing to give his client a fair trial, they are refusing to even tell him what the charges are against him.

All the while, Hilda—Mrs. Rumpole—a.k.a. She Who Must Be Obeyed, has decided to write her memoirs without telling Rumpole her plan.  Mortimer intersperses chapters of Rumpole's progress defending his client with Hilda's observations as to his possible success or failure, his moods and the torture Hilda must go through to put up with her moody husband. 

Whether Rumpole is down in the dumps or "cock-a hoop," he doesn't fail to entertain.  He's a quirky character that you can't help but like.  The courtroom drama is reminiscent of a Perry Mason episode and Rumpole manages to hide a trick or two up his sleeve to surprise the reader.  An enjoyable read.

Double Cross
By James Patterson
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316015059
Hardcover, 389 pages, $27.99
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The latest in the Alex Cross series finds the psychologist bored with private practice and itching to get back in the game.  What do they say—"Be careful what you wish for?"  Alex finagles himself back in the Metropolitan Police Department and teams up with his girlfriend, Detective Brianna ("Bree") Stone, seeking a maniacal murderer known as DCAK (the DC Audience Killer), so named because each killing is a performance before an audience.

To top off the gruesome story, arch enemy Kyle Craig, "the Mastermind," engineers the first ever escape from the maximum facility in which he has been jailed for the four years since Alex caught him.  Thus, presumably, the title, referring to two psychopathic killers.

The plot, as in previous novels, is pretty straightforward, with the writing and suspense taut.  The thrill-a-minute pace that is inherent in the Alex Cross novels paces the tale from beginning to end.  It is exciting and a fast read, and recommended.

 

The Death of Corinne
by R.T. Raichev
Carroll & Graf
ISBN: 0786719729
Hardcover, 224 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Antonia Darcy and her new husband Major Payne are visiting Chalfont Park, the country house owned by Major Payne's aunt, Lady Grylls.  Corinne Coreille, Lady Grylls' goddaughter and a well-known French singer, is also due to arrive at the house.  Corinne has been receiving death threats, along with letters from an American woman who claims that Corinne lured her son into committing suicide.  Among the singer's entourage is Maitre Maginot, her business manager, and a private detective, Andrew Jonson. 

Even Jonson's diligence and Maginot's persistence are not enough to stop a murder from occurring.  Antonia, who is also a writer of detective stories, and Major Paine must piece the clues together to unravel a very mysterious sequence of events that led up to the murder. 

Raichev tells a good story, a British mystery with a few French characters thrown in.  Some of the plot twists are easy to follow and guess, but even the astute reader will miss at least one of the surprises.  This was a very enjoyable story and the plot and characterization are very reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery.  Recommended.

Second Shot
by Zoë Sharp
Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 0312358952
Hardcover, 288 pages, $23.95
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The Second Shot of the title is the one that has, as this book opens, inflicted a nearly fatal wound to Charlotte ("Charlie") Fox, nee Foxcroft, former SAS Army and present-day bodyguard.  Charlie is employed by her lover, Sean Meyer, who runs an exclusive "close protection agency," and her present assignment is to guard Simone Kearse, a recent winner of a little over $13,400,000 in lottery prize money, and her four-year-old daughter.  The fear is that Simone's ex, the father of the little girl, is stalking her.

A second meaning of the title is about the chance for new beginnings.

We learn the aforementioned background after the first few (rather harrowing) pages, following which is a flashback that lasts for well over half the book (a bit disorienting initially when the flashback ends and we go back to real time).  Back in the present, a fairly low-risk job turns into anything but when, after the recent death of her mother, Simone decides to travel from England to the US to try to find her biological father, who disappeared when she was a young child.  The tale then takes us to a New England winter, where a local investigator's search has found evidence that the man they are seeking can now be found.  That is, until the investigator's dead body is found after his car apparently ran off the road.  Then things start to get more complicated.  Especially when after a few days they are approached by a man claiming to be Simone's father.  Charlie doesn't know who is lying and who is telling the truth, nor does she know who to trust, and things inevitably lead to the incident described in the opening pages of the book, with Charlie being shot and seriously wounded and Simone dead, shot by the police.

Charlie's own backstory, of which we are given tantalizing bits and pieces, has to do with a scandal that forced her to leave the Army and an incident nearly a year earlier when she had her last assignment in the US, memories of which leave her spooked at the thought of returning there.  Another thread has to do with her very cool relationship with her parents, who have thoroughly disapproved of the paths her life has taken, resulting in part in her changing her surname.  She feels a need to prove to her father she "wasn't quite the psychopath" he feared she had become.  Charlie is a quite fascinating and original protagonist, and has piqued this reader's interest enough that I will seek out First Drop, the first on this exciting new series, and look forward to the next one as well.  (A number of this author's earlier books are available only in/through the UK.)

One-Way Ticket
by William G. Tapply 
St. Martin's Minotaur
ISBN: 0312358297
Hardcover, 304 pages, $23.95
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Brady Coyne is back in this new entry in the series by the prolific William G. Tapply.  It is wonderful to again meet Mr. Coyne, his lady love Evie, and his no less beloved dog, Henry David Thoreau, his friend Gordie Cahill, the p.i. with the wonderfully awful puns, et al.  The Boston attorney is called by Robert, son of Brady's old classmate from Yale Law and present-day client, Dalton Lancaster, when Dalt is on the receiving end of a brutal beating in a parking garage.  He can think of no reason for the attack, but when Brady realizes that Robert himself was similarly beaten one week earlier, and that the boy had inherited his father's predilection for gambling and had gotten badly into debt with the local crime boss, the connection seems obvious.  Dalt's mother, Robert's grandmother, is a respected Boston jurist whose wealth and/or position is apparently a target.  Things only get uglier, and Brady finds himself squarely in the middle of the ensuing events.

At the same time, Brady is dealing with Evie's preoccupation of late—her father, who is divorced from her mother, living now in California and with whom she has had a guilt-inducing relationship, is ill, the exact nature and severity of which illness is uncertain.  Also uncertain is what effect this will have on their own relationship, one which Brady treasures dearly. There's a lot here about sons, and daughters, living up to the expectations of their fathers—or not.

Mr. Tapply is a masterful story-teller, and can wax sentimental one moment while the next it's all gritty realism with intimations of violence.  The book is immensely enjoyable, with suspense sustained throughout, the depictions of Boston and environs wonderfully recreated, and is highly recommended.

And now readers can also look forward to reading Third Strike, and co-authored by Mr. Tapply and Philip R. Craig and bringing back Brady Coyne, who in this instance is teamed up with Mr. Craig's creation, J. W. Jackson—I for one can't wait!

 

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand
by Fred Vargas
Penguin
ISBN: 0143112167
Paperback, 388 pages, $14.00
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is a chief of police in Paris.  One day he reads of a murder in the town of Schiltigheim, where a girl has been found stabbed to death.  Three clean cuts in her abdomen, perfectly placed as if made from the same tool.  For Adamsberg, the murder is all too familiar.  It has the mark of a killer that he has been tracking nearly all of his adult life.  A killer who strikes out the same way each time, with three cuts in a perfectly straight line.  The only problem is, the killer he has been tracking, and who he is sure is responsible for the girl's death in Schiltigheim, died 16 years ago—and Adamsberg himself attended the funeral.

At first, Adamsberg tries to convince other members of law enforcement of his theory of the killer.  What inevitably follows is that they are angered to realized that they have been listening to a man tell the story of a ghost.  With nowhere to turn, he decides to track the killer on his own, because finding the ghost has become his life's obsession.  When there is another death, Adamsberg finds himself so embroiled in the case that he fears he is losing his mind.  By then there are very few he can turn to for help and even his trust in himself starts to falter.

Adamsberg is an extremely complex character.  He is driven not only by a sense of justice, but one of responsibility to those he loves.  All the while he struggles with an inner turmoil that threatens to put him in danger from a killer that no one but he believes in.  The reader must be patient with him.  He is not a man you learn about all at once.  He is someone who is revealed in layers, each new one peeling back to show another side to what makes him the man he is.

Vargas' writing style and storytelling is wonderful.  The depth of her characters is extraordinary and the story unfolds at just the right pace to keep the reader guessing.  The plot twists and symbolism will keep you hanging until the very end.  This was a great book and very highly recommended.  Several other Commissaire Adamsberg Mysteries have been translated from French, like this one, and I plan to search for them.

 

City of the Absent
by Robert W. Walker
Harper
ISBN: 0060740122
Paperback, 307 pages, $7.99
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

On October 28, 1893, the World's Fair in Chicago came to an end, two days later than its scheduled closing, to allow former President Benjamin Harrison to visit.  That Fair was the setting for a prior novel in the series featuring Inspector Alistair Ransom of the Chicago Police Department, Shadows in the White City.  Both novels reflect the author's love of the Windy City and its history.

As the Fair was being closed down, the Mayor was assassinated on his front lawn by an office seeker.  Never a dull moment in the nation's second city.  In addition, there occur a series of "disappearances" of persons who "wouldn't be missed." These didn't rate much attention until a disguised female Pinkerton agent was found murdered and disemboweled. She was a friend of Ransom's, and he leads the charge to solve the grisly murder.

Ransom is a larger-than-life protagonist, allowing the author to make all kinds of observations about the city, its politics, graft and other characteristics.   His methods are unorthodox, and in this episode he finds himself accused of one act of which he is not guilty.  The book is written in the same tone as the era it depicts and is a page turner.

Recommended.

Crawfish Mountain
By Ken Wells
Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-50876-9
Hardcover, $25.95, 362 pp.
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Too often a novel based on an author's pet peeves falls flat.  That is not the case in this novel, which combines environmental issues, corporate greed and political shenanigans, with bribery, love affairs and blackmail thrown in.  The story is told with the background of the Louisiana Wetlands and the power of the oil interests in the state in the forefront.

At the heart of the story is the degradation of the bayou ecosystem and the effects on the coastal areas, which led to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Justin Pitre's grandfather bought acres of pristine marshland, built a "shack" there, fished and trapped, living a happy life.  He left it to Justin, asking him not to let any changes take place.  When a greedy oil executive tries to cut a pipeline through it, all hell breaks loose.

The characters include a charismatic Governor (not quite a Huey Long), and true-to-life, loveable Cajuns, among others.  The tale is well-told, although this reviewer found the wrap-up somewhat contrived.  Nevertheless, it is a most enjoyable read, and, given the time, it probably would be well worth the effort to go back and read the previous Catahoula Bayou trilogy, which we missed.

Recommended.