February 2008

Welcome to the Leap Month edition of Mystery Morgue! That means there'll be an extra day to read great mystery book reviews and features this month, and you'll still have two fewer days than most other months. Go figure.

This month, 22 books (including three recently reissued Maigret mysteries) are reviewed, with titles from Chris Grabenstein, Sue Grafton, Steve Hockensmith, Roberta Isleib and many other authors. Something for every taste in murder.

Also, a look into the process of Karna Smith Bodman, the former senior director of the National Security Council whose second novel, Gambit is now available. She talks about blending the real and the fictional, with insight most authors can't have.

So look out for the Groundhog, send someone a Valentine, buy carpet in honor of Lincoln and Washington, and look out for that extra day—it's February at Mystery Morgue!

In this month's issue:

How I Write, by Karna Smith Bodman

Reviews:
Third Strike by Philip R. Craig and William G. Tapply
Wolf Woman Bay and 9 More of the Finest Crime and Mystery Novellas of the Year, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
Hell for the Holidays by Chris Grabenstein
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
Last Call by James Grippando
Precious Blood by Jonathan Hayes
The Black Dove by Steve Hockensmith
Preaching to the Corpse by Roberta Isleib
Hand of Evil by J.A. Jance
Salamander Cotton by Richard Kunzmann
Down Into Darkness by David Lawrence
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
Beware False Profits by Emilie Richards
A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket by Fran Rizer
Person of Interest by Theresa Schwegel
Inspector Cadaver by Georges Simenon
My Friend Maigret by Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard by Georges Simenon
Location Location by Kit Sloane
Dead Time by Stephen White
Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall

Link to Archives

 

How I Write
by Karna Small Bodman

Karna Small Bodman began her career in San Francisco as a reporter for KRON-TV as Karna Small. She then anchored the news for KGO-TV and covered breaking news stories throughout the Bay Area. She moved to Washington, DC, to anchor the Ten O'Clock News on Channel 5, host a nationally syndicated program on business and economic issues and a three-hour news/talk radio show.

When Ronald Reagan was elected President, he stood in front of Blair House and named Jim Brady as his Press Secretary with Karna as Jim's Deputy. She was immediately thrust into the tough task of explaining domestic policy initiatives to members of the national press corps. But there were benefits—being involved with the most important issues of the time, almost daily meetings with the President and traveling on Air Force One. She was also sent to South America and the Far East to give speeches to government, business and student groups on the President's economic priorities.

Later, Karna became a Senior Director and spokesman for the National Security Council. She attended arms control talks with the Soviets and traveled with the team that briefed the leaders of Great Britain, France and Italy as well as Pope John Paul II.

When Karna left The White House to become Senior Vice President of a Public Affairs firm, she was the highest ranking woman on The White House staff.

By now, she had written TV news scripts, briefing papers for the President, newspaper columns and magazine articles, but she had always wanted to write novels.

"How do you write your novels? Do you get up at 5:00 AM and write for a solid 15 hours a day when you're on deadline or what?"

That's a typical question most authors get on book tours, at speeches or signings. My answer is, "No." In fact, now that I think about it, I write when the spirit moves me, though I jot down bits of dialogue, crazy ideas or humorous observations whenever I hear them. I'm never without a pad and pen—even out at a party. As for writing chapter after chapter, okay, a deadline does move the spirit along so that I put aside paying bills, going shopping, and checking email. Well, wait a minute—I lied. Whenever I hear the little computer tone, sure I glance over and see if it's an important message. I mean, if it's from my editor, agent, publicist or my husband asking "what time is dinner?" (we email across the house, can you believe that?), sure—then I read it.

To honestly answer the question "How do you write a novel?" I have to go back to the genesis of a book and take things in order... the idea... the research... the interviews... the list of characters... the synopsis... the outline... and finally writing the whole story. That's really how I do it.

I write "political thrillers" with a romantic twist.  I had the incredible experience of serving in the Reagan White House for six years—first as Deputy Press Secretary and later as Senior Director the National Security Council. This gave me a unique vantage point on the world—at least how the world appears from a White House perspective.  As I gathered my thoughts for my first two novels, I thought back to the many events, policy proclamations and crises that occurred during those years, and quickly figured out that you could turn any one of them into a pretty good thriller. And if you didn't use the precise event, you could certainly think about the setting, the emotions of the players and the motives of the bad guys as we tried to figure them out.

Case in point: I was scheduled to be in the car with Press Secretary Jim Brady on March 30—the day of the assassination attempt on President Reagan.  At just the last minute, it was decided that I would stay back at The White House, handle a slew of press calls and other work, so I missed the bullets that surely would have come my way as I would have walked out of the Hilton Hotel with Jim. Instead, I spent the day in the Situation Room listening and taking notes as members of the Cabinet gathered to assess the situation: figure out who the shooter was and why the President and his entourage were attacked, check on the safety of other western leaders lest this turn out to be some sort of international plot, analyze what the Soviets were doing and if they would take advantage of us in our time of crisis, keep tabs on the surgery being done on the President, Jim and others at the hospital, locate the nuclear codes and ensure their safe-keeping, decide whether to raise our alert status (note: we did raise it when President Kennedy was shot), notify the Congressional leaders of developments,  and finally, endeavor to reassure the American people that everything was being handled in an orderly manner. An incredible day in history!

Many other events come to mind that I can use in my stories. Of course, other authors may use them as well by reading recent history, though again, it helps to be there or at least interview someone who was. The other events? Remember these: the assassination of Sadat, the attempted assassination of the Pope, the rise of the Greens and anti-nuclear forces in Europe over our deployment of INF missiles, the takeover of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murder of an innocent American on board, the explosion of the space shuttle with a school teacher among the astronauts. Another major development that was the inspiration for my first two books, Checkmate  and Gambit—the President's announcement of his Strategic Defense Initiative—the idea that we should develop defensive systems against all sorts of missile attacks. I created a heroine who invents new systems when several threats to the country materialize.

Okay, so now I have a ton of ideas. Next comes extensive research, interviews with government officials who often are pleased to talk with a novelist, as opposed to a reporter. I also try to visit most all of the settings in the book and even take photos of the streets, the buildings, the sky at certain times of the day. I also clip articles, read books and, yes, check out new developments on the internet.

After compiling the research, I develop a list of characters, their hopes, dreams, and hang-ups. No interesting character is "all good" or "all bad"—not even the villains. The more complex, the better.

Then comes the synopsis. I write a 5-10 page summary of the story and show it to my agent. If she thinks it has merit, I next attack that stack of research and organize it into a chapter outline.  Once the outline (one page per chapter) is together, I'm good to go to write the entire book. At that point, I can write the story in three months or less. For me, this is the fun part—creating the setting, the atmosphere, the emotions and especially the dialogue. Love to write dialogue.  One tip for fellow authors: read your dialogue out loud to be sure it sounds plausible.  

All of this is done at my desk—not out in the woods somewhere or staring at a waterfall or off on a lonely weekend in the mountains. For me writing is a job, done in an orderly fashion. But it's a job that I absolutely love!!!

 

Reviews

Third Strike
by Philip R. Craig and William G. Tapply
Scribner
Hardcover, 322 pages, $24
ISBN: 1416532569
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

In this, the third entry in the Brady Coyne/J.W. Jackson adventures, after the earlier First Light and Second Sight, Brady has been called to Martha's Vineyard, where J.W. presently makes his home.  Larry Bucyck, a client who he hasn't heard from in years calls him when he fears his life is in danger, and implores Brady to help him.  J.W.'s help is enlisted when the steamship strike on the island has idled the ferries which are virtually the only way to get to the island from what they term America (i.e., the mainland).

J.W. has his own problems: His wife, Zeolinda ("Zee"), has prevailed upon him to investigate the death of her friend's husband, who is believed to have died while trying to blow up the engine room of a boat, all part of the growing tensions arising from the strike.  It soon appears that two men have died from seeing what they should not have seen, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It is not apparent at first in what manner these two threads will come together, but the reader knows it will happen at some point and in some way as the book progresses.  The tale moves at a measured pace, unhurriedly, much as life itself does on a summer's day in Martha's Vineyard, I imagine, and with equal pleasure.

The authors alternate chapters with their respective protagonists moving the plot along: Mr. Craig's J.W. Jackson, the former Boston cop and Vietnam vet, happily married after ten years and with two young children. The steamship company has till now been the only viable lifeline between the Vineyard and America; now men are using their own boats, making two, three trips a day, ferrying eight cars at a time, and it was just such a boat that was destroyed in the attempted torching which resulted in the man's death. There are others who are making good money during the strike, ferrying people and cars and freight night and day, for whom the strike is a boon. Meanwhile Brady, who describes himself as a wills and estates lawyer from Boston and a trout fisherman, must find out who killed his former friend and client, who he describes as a "shy, private guy, living like Thoreau down there in the Menemsha woods. He said he just wants to be left alone," an innocent enough man who had managed to find a simple life on his own.  Had indeed "carved out a little Walden for himself in a patch of woods on Martha's Vineyard, how he raised chickens and pigs... how he built stone sculptures that I guessed would stand there for eons, the Stonehenge of future generations... "  The island at the moment is inundated with "pilgrims who came seeking the Promised Land, found it, and now can't leave because of the strike.  The gods are Jesters."  "The island cops were already stretched thin by the strike and by Larry Bucyck's murder, to say nothing of maintaining law and order among 100,000 August people who were rowdier than usual because they didn't like being trapped, even though they were trapped in Eden."

It would appear that the first man's death wasn't a suicide and that moreover there is a plot afoot with very sinister implications which Brady's client may have stumbled upon.  These two authors, who were also great friends with a common love of the natural world, fishing and the Boston Red Sox, have put together a seamless, well-written and suspenseful book, with the personalities of their protagonists blending into a well-oiled machine that gets done that which it must, never losing sight of the women they love or their love for the beauty of their surroundings and their fishing. The writing is wonderful.  Mr. Craig's J.W., at the end of a tense day, waiting for Mr. Tapply to return:  "'I imagine Brady's fine,' I lied.  I felt I was on the lip of the Void, ready to fall.  We sat close together in the fading evening light and looked out over the gray waters of Nantucket Sound where the sailboats were easing toward harbor under the low dark sky.  In spite of the sultry summer heat, the earth seemed without form, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  What had become of Brady?"  And Mr. Tapply's Brady, confronting one of the ‘bad guys:  "Harry Doyle ignored me.  He hunched his shoulder, squinted his eye, peered through the sight on his weapon, and tracked it across the sky above us like a skeet shooter wringing on a high-flying clay pigeon."

I particularly enjoyed J.W.'s query to Mr. Brady: "Maybe we can bring Stoney Calhoun down from Maine.  He's as good as (Sam) Spade." Brady gave me a blank look. "Who's Stoney Calhoun?" "I'm not absolutely sure, and neither is he."  Calhoun is, of course, another uniquely William Tapply creation. These words by Mr. Craig particularly spoke to me: "Above us, the innocent blue sky held clouds whiter than newborn lambs, and the sun shone down onto a world that should have been devoid of murder." Sadly, it is a voice we will hear no more.  That is the last collaboration between these two esteemed writers, and the end of their friendship as well, as Mr. Craig recently passed away.  But this is a book that can be enjoyed on many levels:  It is suspenseful, yet evocative of beautiful scenes of island life, beauty and leisure. (Actually, the authors had me before page one, with quotes from both Milton's Paradise Lost and Yogi Berra.)

Wolf Woman Bay and 9 More of the Finest Crime and Mystery Novellas of the Year
Edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
Carroll & Graf
Paperback, 556 pages, $17.95
ISBN: 0786719808
Reviewed by Clara Johnston

Ten novellas represent the mystery genre well.  Many names I have seen before as I am sure you have too.  "Honor Code" by Joyce Carol Oates commences the reading adventure.  This author has received numerous awards for her writing abilities.  When you finish this work, you will be reminded why this is.  Going to live with her aunt, Aimee meets her older cousin, Sonny. Admiration and curiosity emerges for him. Life progresses and sometimes the changes are unbelievable and stark.

Whenever I see the name Carole Nelson Douglas, I immediately think of the word cat.  This feline saves the day when havoc reeks as a greedy couple try to poison their aunt.  Then the hopes of a home for this cat may become a reality in the selection of Junior Partner in Crime.

Grieving Las Vegas, compliments of Jeremiah Healy, shows us that anytime a character deals with heroin, there will be repercussions.  This is a gritty and fast moving installment.  Sharyn McCrumb's gift writing of "The Resurrection Man" happens in the 1800's.  Tracing the story of Mr. Harris, note how much his life touches others dramatically.  Not only is this a story that involves race, it involves a man that has found justice in his profession.  He is a porter for the medical school. 

"The Temptation of King David" by Brendon DuBois examines the life of undercover agents, David and Harry. Amazing to see what temptation can lead to and the results of some choices made.

If you feel the need for some cowboy detective magic, turn to Steve Hockensmith's Gustav Armlingmeyer, "Holmes of the Range."  In a Montana setting, a murder is solved although it takes some astute reasoning to come to a conclusion. Moving east from Montana, Doug Allyn offers "Wolf Woman Bay." This comes with a mixture of Ojibwa culture and lore, construction projects, poverty, a child's pain and murder. 

Taxi cab drivers are killed in Ed McBain's "Merely Hate."  A lot of the drivers are Muslims and there are speculations.  Watch the way this story unfolds; it is quite apparent that Mr. McBain has done a great deal of writing and can draw in readers very well.  More murder in "Diamond Dog" by Dick Lochte.  This time a policeman is behind the eight ball when a skuzzy character is dead.  If you are a dog lover, you will certainly appreciate this story. "Arizona Heat" from Clark Howard finds Tim Murray, a newspaperman, looking for his big break professionally.  Telling the story and getting very involved in this case, the pages cannot turn quickly enough.  What an excellent mystery to end this book.  Enjoy all ten stories!

 

Hell for the Holidays
by Chris Grabenstein
Carroll & Graf
Hardcover, 400 pages, $27.95
ISBN: 978-0786720606
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Chris Grabenstein, the author of the wonderful John Ceepak/Jersey Shore mystery series, this time has brought back Chris Miller in a sequel to Slay Ride, which was published a little over a year ago.  Chris is the African-American FBI agent from Jersey City whose daughter's life was endangered in the earlier book.

His daughter, now seven years old, is suffering from PTSD as the anniversary of that traumatic event nears.  Chris' attention is diverted from those problems when the ten-year-old son of a neighbor, a Hispanic customs agent, is kidnapped on Halloween night, and a few days later Chris is called to the scene of a kidnapping in another part of the country which appears to be a hate crime: the victims are gay, and Chris' special expertise is needed.  But something much more sinister is brewing: domestic terrorists in the form of a White Supremacist hate group are planning an attack, to coincide with Thanksgiving Day, that most American of holidays.  They are armed with sophisticated weapons, and overflowing with hatred.

Mr. Grabenstein has given his growing audience a taut, fast-moving thriller, packed with suspense and a wonderful hero (dubbed "Saint Chris" by his friends and neighbors) determined to stop the impending catastrophe.  Filled with suspense and scarily real "bad guys," Hell for the Holidays is a great read, at holiday time or any other.

T is for Trespass
by Sue Grafton
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Hardcover, 387 pages, $26.95
ISBN: 0399154485
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

After 19 alphabet topics, coming up with a "T" seems simple: "Trespass."  However in this 20th Kinsey Millhone mystery, the theme is less about trespass and more about identity theft, elder abuse, murder and pedophilia.  The novel centers on Kinsey and Henry's 89-yeaar-old neighbor, Gus Vronsky, who falls and dislocates his shoulder.  Before the doctor would agree to release him from the hospital, some arrangement has to be made for providing home care for him.

Enter a woman predator whose credentials—checked by Kinsey—seem too good to be true.  She is hired to take care of Gus.  Previously, we soon learn, she has stolen from people she has nursed, and even murdered one patient.  The race is on—can Kinsey and Henry save Gus?

Meanwhile Kinsey goes about her business as a PI, finding witnesses to an auto accident, serving papers and performing similar functions.  One witness is a convicted pedophile who served 12 years in prison and is reluctant to give a deposition.  She has to find him time and again in a side story having nothing to do with the main thrust of the novel.

"T" is very much in keeping with the series.  Kinsey remains the poor-eating, whimsical character.  And she is the one guilty of trespassing—breaking into Gus' home, stealing his bank- and checkbooks—albeit in an effort to save him.  Now we wonder what "U" will bring.

Last Call
by James Grippando
HarperCollins
Hardcover, 336 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0060831165
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

After a one-book hiatus, Jack Swyteck and his long-time friend (and client) Theo return in this gripping story relating to Theo's boyhood.  It is the seventh in the series, with a backdrop of Miami's roughest neighborhoods and past glory in the jazz world.  As a youth, Theo ran with a gang.  Jack and Theo met while Theo was on Death Row, and the former governor's son, now a defense attorney, got him an acquittal based on DNA evidence.

Early one morning, Theo gets a phone call from an escaped convict (who was the gang leader of his youth), seeking help.  He offers to tell Theo the name of his mother's murderer in exchange for assistance.  Thus, the beginning of the tale which involves Theo's sax-playing uncle Cy, Jack, and FBI agent Andie Henning.  Throughout the novel, Jack has ups and downs with regard to his love life, wondering about Andie who he dated a few times previously but had broken off the relationship when he thought she "dissed" his friend Theo.

Grippando slowly builds the tension toward a gripping finale.  His descriptions of Miami's Little Harlem and jazz clubs are detailed and authentic.  The characters are well drawn and interesting.  A very good read.

Precious Blood
by Jonathan Hayes
HarperCollins
Hardcover, 400 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0060736668
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

This first novel is far more accomplished than anyone had a right to expect.  It is well plotted, sharply written and exciting.  Authored by a New York City forensic pathologist about a New York City forensic pathologist, it smacks of realism and self-knowledge.  It is a striking debut.

The protagonist, Edward Jenner, is caught up in a web of grisly murders; the police are baffled, the clues non-existent.   He's called in as a consultant on one, which starts him on a loose trail, as he uncovers a little forensic evidence, some history which should have been gathered by law enforcement officials.  He then uncovers another murder in Pennsylvania, and it becomes a race to the finish to put an end to the serial killer who ritualistically "prepares" and exhibits his victims.

This debut portends much more to come, perhaps a series built around Jenner.  The descriptions of New York City, the emotions displayed by Jenner who was a medical examiner post-9/11 (as was the author) are real, the characters complex and unusual.  Run, don't walk, to get a copy and read.

 

The Black Dove
by Steve Hockensmith
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 416 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 312347820
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Gustav "Old Red" and Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer are back again for their third adventure in The Black Dove. The two brothers from Kansas having worked as ranch hands in Holmes on the Range and as agents for the Southern Pacific Railroad police in On the Wrong Track, are now in San Francisco attempting to become "serious" consulting detectives.

Because they have aspired to their chosen career by reading Sherlock Holmes stories, they spend their free time trying to hone their skills as the great Holmes would do. As  they are practicing their "Sherlockery" in Chinatown, they choose someone to "detectify." That someone turns out to be Doctor Gee Woo Chan whom they met while working on the railroad. They call out a greeting to Dr. Chan,  he turns and fires a pistol at them. They are stunned. When a very nervous Dr. Chan realizes who they are, he apologizes, but won't tell them why he is so jumpy. Gus and Otto are determined to help their friend, but before they have had a chance to begin, Dr. Chan's body is found dead. The police assure them it was suicide, but by making Holmes-like observations, they are sure he was murdered.

They soon are joined by another friend from their railroad days, Diana Corvus. Before long,  the three of them discover a connection between Dr. Chan and a missing girl known as "the black dove." While searching for clues in not only the doctor's death, but the disappearance of the girl, they get crosswise to the powerful Tongs, a hatchet-wielding gang. 

Hockensmith has added a different feel to the traditional historical mystery. While the books do transport the readers back to a different time and place, they are funnier than most historicals—sort of the "dramedies" of the historical mystery genre. That's both good and bad. While the books are very entertaining to read, and the mysteries to be solved cleaver, sometimes the creative language and near slapstick action teeters on silly. Thus far, Hockensmith has been successful in making the brothers' quirky speech and methods colorful rather than cutesy. Hopefully that will continue through many more adventures.

Preaching to the Corpse
by Roberta Isleib
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN: 978-0-425-21837-2
Paperback, $6.99, 238 pp.
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

Rebecca Butterman is back, after her debut in Deadly Advice, in the second entry in the charming new series by Roberta Isleib.  Rebecca is a clinical psychologist, as well as writing a weekly advice column, what she describes as "Bloom magazine's answer to Ann Landers... I moonlight as Dr. Aster, Bloom! Online magazine's expert on heartbreak and love... comforting the sick at heart and counseling the confused." (There are even a few column entries included, always enlightening.) But suddenly she is called upon late one night when Reverend Wesley, the minister at her local church, is being held in custody after a woman he visited died shortly after he got there, apparently having been poisoned.  He refuses to talk to the police until Rebecca arrives.  The dead woman was heading up the committee formed to choose a new minister for the Shoreline Congregational Church in their small Connecticut town, a position intended to smooth the transition, from a man who had suddenly left the congregation, to his successor.

Rebecca is persuaded by the detective in charge of the case to accede to the pleas of Wesley to head up the committee in the place of the dead woman.   Her ambivalence is partially caused by the fact that she and the detective had briefly had a relationship of sorts in the case at the heart of the prior novel, which quickly ended due to the fact that he was married.  But she agrees to help, saying "If I can help ease Wesley off the hook, it helps the whole church."

The victim was known to be secretive and controlling, but the cops are hard put to try to find a motive.  The ensuing investigation, by the detective with the decided assistance of Rebecca, turns up some surprising things and, of course, endangers her life.  In the process, she gives the reader yet another wonderful read.  Rebecca is an interesting protagonist, still getting over the dissolution of her marriage, saying of herself, "The man in my life purrs and uses a litter box.  Slightly pathetic." I have been a fan of this author's terrific Golf Lover's Mysteries, but this new one is every bit as much fun.  Recommended.

Hand of Evil
by J.A. Jance
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, 384 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 1416537533
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The latest saga in the life of  Ali Reynolds, the ex-TV journalist, who has moved back to Sedona, AZ, from LA following her dismissal by her media employer, divorce and the death of her husband (before the divorce became final), finds her at loose ends—but not for long.  She is busy writing her blog and answering emails.

Ali got her start when she was awarded a college scholarship by the Ashcrofts, mother and daughter, after an invitation to tea at their palatial home.  Many years later, Ali is again invited to tea by the daughter, who asks that a diary she wrote be reviewed by Ali as the basis for a possible tell-all book.  This diary plays a role in solving a series of murders.

Meanwhile, Ali becomes involved with the wayward daughter of her friend, Detective Dave Holman, who is the victim of sexual predators.  And just to make things interesting, someone working for Ali's father is beaten to death, an event that intertwines with the background of the girl's circumstances.

Throughout, Ali plays a pivotal role in helping at least three police departments solve a whole bunch of murders, arresting the culprits and wrapping up the loose ends.  The novel is the third in the series, and continues at the same high level.  The author, of course, has written a dozen Joanna Brady mysteries and 21 J.P. Beaumont mysteries.  She doesn't really need our recommendation, but she has it anyway.

Salamander Cotton
by Richard Kunzmann
Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 305 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312360344
Reviewed by Janet Koch

The brutal murder of an elderly man yanks South African Inspector Jacob Tshabalala from his bed. Bernard Klamm's estranged wife says: "He was rotten, rotten to the core." But what could Klamm have done to deserve such a hideously painful death?

As the inspector begins his search for the killer, the widow asks for a private detective. The inspector calls on his former partner, Harry Mason, and convinces him to help out. Though Harry is having a difficult time living with the shadows of his wife's death, he takes the widow's money and heads to the farm where her daughter disappeared 39 years ago.

The farm's current tenants are filled with a fearful belief in a supernatural being that stalks the farm. Many townspeople believe it's the ghost of the murdered daughter, just as they believe Klamm himself killed her because she'd been having interracial affair—then illegal—with one of his black workers.

Harry ignores the tales. He's here to find out what happened to Claudette Klamm, nothing more. Hard information is what he wants, not ghost stories, and soon enough he is inundated with facts. Corporate myopia. Contaminated asbestos mines. Police corruption. Armed robbery. A missing police officer.

What it all has to do with Claudette or Klamm's murder, Harry isn't sure. But he's sure going to find out. If he can survive that long.

Salamander Cotton walks a tight path between the past and the present, tight enough that close attention must be paid to the scene headings of time and date. While the scenes set in the past are written in that tense, scenes told from Harry's and the inspector's points of view are in present tense. Any sense of discomfort at reading a novel written in present tense, however, is quickly lost as the plot moves ahead, pulling the reader into a spiral of violence.

Author Richard Kunzmann's South Africa is a place where the massacre of entire farming families—farm killings—isn't unheard of. High voltage fences and lasers are common security measures and leaving your car outside overnight is an invitation to thieves.

Apartheid is gone, yet, unsurprisingly, effects linger on. "God did not mean us to cross racial boundaries," Klamm's widow tells Harry. But there is more than one type of boundary, and by the end of Salamander Cotton, many will be destroyed.

Down Into Darkness
by David Lawrence
Thomas Dunne Books
Hardcover, 282 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312347420
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

This is the fourth book by David Lawrence, all in the Stella Mooney series.  Stella is a 33-year-old London detective sergeant, and a body found in the rough section known as Harefield Estate hits a little too close too home for her—this is where she spent her youth, an appalling neighborhood, known for its flagrant drug-dealing and prostitutes.  Stella never knew her father, and hasn't seen her mother in ten years.  In those early years, the author tells us, Stella spent her time "watching the weather, following the flight of birds and wishing she could do that, wishing she could find a thermal, like the city gulls, and tilt, sliding down the wind until she reached somewhere that was somewhere else.  Stella keeping quiet, keeping to herself, reading her own school reports, because her mother never would, looking for a way out, taking charge of her own life." 

As the book opens the naked body of a young woman, no more than 20 years old, is found hanging from a tree, the words "dirty girl" scrawled in marker across her back.  When another body is found soon thereafter, a man whose neck has been nearly severed found tied to a bench near the river, the words "filthy coward" similarly written across his arms, it would appear that the police have a serial killer on their hands.  But a connection between the victims is hard to discern:  the girl was apparently a prostitute, the man a researcher for a prominent Member of Parliament.  As to the motive for the killings, Stella finds herself thinking: "'Who are you to be judge and executioner?'  She gave a little shudder and suddenly was filled with a just and intense loathing for this man, this lone vigilante, this angel of wrath, or whatever he considered himself to be."  But even more than the police procedural aspect of the book, as good as it is, the pull of the writing lies in the characters, among them DI Mike Sorley, Stella's boss and her close friend; Stella's lover, John Delaney, former was correspondent but currently a features writer currently working on something called The Rich List; who misses the action, and, of course, Stella herself.  Most of all the book is about "secret lives.  Who could ever know everything about anyone?," as Delaney says.
                   
The poetry evident in this author's writing evinces his background as a prize-winning English poet.  The book is gripping, its characters well-drawn and though similarities may be found in the writing of Ian Rankin and TV's "Prime Suspect," among others, they are nonetheless original creations.  This is a haunting novel, and one I won't soon forget.  Highly recommended.

The Redbreast
by Jo Nesbo
HarperCollins
Hardcover, 521 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0061133992
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

During World War II, Norway was occupied by the Nazi army, and the head of the government lent his name to the English language synonymous with traitor—Quisling.  About 400 Norwegian youths volunteered to fight with the Germans on the Eastern front against the Russians.  Most of them did not survive the war. But those that did and returned to Norway were branded traitors and sentenced to years in prison.

It is against this challenging backdrop that the author has created a superb mystery novel equal to the best of the Scandinavian writers.  He introduces Harry Hole, an irreverent, alcoholic detective on a par with Harry Bosch and his contemporaries.  The story moves from events during the war to present times and back and forth.  A series of murders takes place in Oslo, and little by little Harry follows the leads subtly provided, ignoring the powers that be who tell him to ignore his intuition and "be a good boy."

The roots of the story are gleaned from the author's own background—his father served in the Leningrad siege and his mother in the resistance.  The novel was first published in Norway in 1997 and won the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel and later voted the best Norwegian crime novel ever written.  It is the author's second book, and we look forward to many more. Highly recommended.

 

Beware False Profits
by Emilie Richards
Berkley Prime Crime
Paperback, 293 pages, $6.99
IBSN: 978-0-425-21868-6
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

A small town named Emerald Springs, Ohio, hardly seems fertile ground for murder, arson, female impersonators and who knows what else.  And if you need an amateur detective to sort things out, Aggie, daughter of a free-thinking, much married mother and the wife of a minister, is probably not the first person you would turn to. But that would be your mistake. Aggie is very good at that sort of thing.  She has done it before.

Beware False Profits begins with Aggie and her minister husband, Ed, about to enter the Pussycat Club in New York, in an attempt to locate Joe, the director of the Helping Hands Food Bank in Emerald Springs.  The problem is, the Pussycat Club is where drag queens entertain.  Although they don't find Joe, they do learn that he was a very popular attraction there.

Back home in Emerald City, Mayday!, Helping Hands' prime fundraising carnival, is about to take place when Joe's wife enlists Aggie's help in hiding the fact that Joe has disappeared.  All goes well at the event until Hazel Kefauver, the mayor's wife, drops dead just after being coated with chocolate from an out-of-control chocolate fountain. Since the mayor's wife was a royal pain in everybody's life, there is no lack of suspects in town. 

In previous foray's into murder, Aggie apparently has gotten herself into serious trouble and has therefore promised both her husband and the police that she would stay far away from things criminal.  But when Joe's wife needs emotional support and the Mayor asks for Aggie's help since he is a prime suspect (husbands always are), what  can she do but get involved.

Beware False Profits is a nicely constructed mystery with assorted twists and turns in both the main plot and the various subplots which include disappearing crystal bowls and phantom contractors.  The humor works throughout.  This is an enjoyable read in the long and much loved tradition of the cozy mystery.

A Tisket, A Tasket, a Fancy Stolen Casket
by Fran Rizer
Berkley Prime Crime
Paperback, 282 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0425218006
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Rizer's novel featuring mortuary cosmetologist Calamine "Callie" Parrish is a promising entry in Berkley's Prime Crime lineup. Callie is a likable protagonist whose profession makes it a tad more realistic for her to stumble onto murders than most amateur detectives. It's at least plausible that someone working with the bodies in a mortuary might find something suspicious, and indeed, Callie does.

While preparing Bobby Saxon's body for viewing, Callie notices a broken off needle stuck just below the skin in Bobby's neck.  So off Bobby's body goes to Charleston for an autopsy. One would think the body being gone would stop the planned viewing, but Bobby's current wife, Bouncin' Betty, wants the viewing to go on as scheduled but with an empty casket. That's just the beginning of odd things happening surrounding this case. The casket is stolen, the former coworker of Bobby insists on seeing his dead body, the first wife wants to not only say goodbye in private, but wants to place something in the coffin with Bobby, and the current wife seems overly concerned with providing the "best of everything," including food, for Bobby's viewing and funeral while not seeming to be all that choked up about his demise. Soon there is another death, this time clearly a murder. Bar owner James "June Bug" Corley is found shot. Two murders in such a short time in the tiny town of St. Mary's is unheard of! What is going on?

The people in Rizer's book are truly characters in every sense of the word. Callie, the moon pie loving protagonist, is probably as at home with a hound dog and a rifle hunting with her brothers as she is on her shopping trips through Victoria's Secret.  And she's a pretty good banjo player as well. The families of her clients show the funny side to the undertaking profession—and I'm afraid they may not be all that much of an exaggeration. Her best friend Jane is a gourmet cook who also runs a phone sex business from her home. I am disappointed, though, that Rizer has Jane, who is blind, use her disability to run scams on businesses. That is the only negative thing I have  to say about the otherwise funny, likable characters populating St. Mary's, South Carolina.

A Tisket, a Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket is a great start to a fresh new series.

Person of Interest
by Theresa Schwegel
St. Martin's Minotaur
Hardcover, 384 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0312364267
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The dual plot line in this novel, combining the trials and zeal of an undercover cop and the effects of the job on his wife and daughter, make for a poignant and gripping tale.  The story centers on the human aspects in a highly charged and moving story in which Craig McHugh, a Chicago detective, goes beyond the last mile in attempt to gather information on an Asian gang distributing bad narcotics.

His wife, Leslie, is at the center of the plot, as she struggles to come to grips with the effects of the conflicts inherent in his duties, which he has always tried to keep separate from his family life.  But when she discovers he is withdrawing money from their savings account and sleeping in a seedy hotel, and suspects he is having an affair, she reaches the breaking point.  Unknown to her, the money which is being provided to him by the CPD to continue his cover as a poker player in the rear of a Chinese take-out has run dry, but he won't give up the task.  The hotel of course is part of his cover.

Person of Interest is a superb follow-up to the author's Edgar-winning first novel.  It portends even better things to come, and is highly recommended.

Inspector Cadaver
by Georges Simenon
Penguin Books
Paperback, 199 pages, $13.00
ISBN: 0143112815
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Worldwide, Georges Simenon's  Maigret character is one of the most popular vintage detectives in crime fiction. Featured in 75 full-length novels as well as numerous short stories, Maigret is certainly well established in the genre. Although originally written in the  late 1930's through the next few decades, the books have aged well making them true classics.

In Inspector Cadaver, Maigret is called upon to travel on an "unofficial" visit to the small insulated town of Saint-Aubin-les-Marais to look into a family matter for the Examining Magistrate. A young man from a good family was found dead on the railroad tracks. Logically, it first it was assumed he had been hit by a train. However, after the medical examiner was finished, questions as to the cause of death had been raised, and soon rumors were spreading that the Examining Magistrate's brother in law was somehow at fault. Maigret was sent to look into the matter.

Maigret was startled to find an old rival, Justin Cavre not only on board the same train, but headed for the same destination. Justin Cavre was an odd sort of fellow with some unusual personal habits, such as remaining silent for up to a week at a time and laughing to himself in a cynical manner. This lead to  those who worked with him to give him the nickname Inspector Cadaver. He had resigned form the police force under a bit of a cloud involving his wife and payoffs he'd made.  It was rumored that after he left the force, he'd started a PI business. So, when Maigret arrived in Saint-Aubins-les-Marais, he was already edgy wondering why Cadaver was also present.

As the case unfolded, Maigret is confronted with a very insulated small town pretty much closed to outsiders. The town is dominated by a few snobby old families who hang on to the old class distinctions complicating Maigret's investigative efforts at every turn.

Simenon's storytelling transcends time. While there are surely fewer small villages, readers today can relate to the small town attitudes and snobbery as easily as earlier readers. And while places and circumstances may change over time, human nature, it seems, does not. Maigret fairs quite well in 2008.

 

My Friend Maigret
by Georges Simenon
Penguin Books
Paperback, 195 pages, $13.00
ISBN: 0143112846
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

Originally published in 1949, My Friend Maigret finds Inspector Maigret suffering the pains of being known across the continent  for his savvy police work. It seems that while visiting the Lord Mayor of London, Paris's Chief of Police found many in Scotland Yard marveling at the great detective work done by Jules Maigret. And so when leaving London, the Chief of Police invited a representative from Scotland Yard to come and observe Maigret at work.  Thus enters Inspector Pyke, of Scotland Yard, into Maigret's life. Pyke arrives from London prepared to observe and learn from the great Inspector Maigret much the way a serious student starts a new semester. Maigret soon finds that although Pyke is ever so polite, it is awkward to have someone watching and analyzing his every move. 

So when a case comes up which causes him to have to go south to an Mediterranean island, Maigret hopes to finally have a break from his "shadow." Alas, no such luck. A small time thug with a line of penny ante crimes on his record is murdered shortly after having boasted that he was friends with the famous Inspector Maigret. When found dead,  a letter written by Maigret to a woman was found on the man's boat. These two facts raise the possibility that Maigret himself might be the actual target and the man's murder was a way to get to Maigret.

When Maigret, with Pyke still with him, arrives to start the investigation, he finds that while many people know the murdered man, no one really has any reason to want him dead. But then Maigret begins to find that nearly everyone involved has some sort of secret buried in his or her life.  How these secrets and the dead man are connected  make for a very interesting case.

Simenon uses the visiting Scotland Yard Detective Pyke to contrast Inspector Maigret's informal manner of uncovering the truth from the expected "correct investigative procedures" of the British.  The reader is inside Maigret's mind while he begins to act on reflex and then second-guesses himself as to whether the visiting Pyke would be shocked or offended by Maigret's actions. This adds some comic relief to the book while making Maigret an even more likable character.

 

Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard
by Georges Simenon
Penguin Books
Paperback, 214 pages, $13.00
ISBN: 0143112839
Reviewed by Caryn St.Clair

In Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard, Inspector Maigret investigates the murder of Louis Thouret found stabbed in a sort of alleyway running between two shops just off the Grand Boulevard.  Normally, Maigret would not have been called in for such a murder, but because there were a few inconsistencies, Maigret comes. The location of the crime is the first problem. How would someone even know this small area even existed and why would Mr. Thouret have been there? Then there is the fact that victim's watch and wallet are still on him. When Thouret's widow comes to identify the body, things really start getting interesting. She notices that neither the tie nor the shoes he's wearing belong to her husband.

When Maigret starts piecing together Louis Thouret's last few months of life, he discovers that Thouret has been leading a double life hidden from his wife for several years. The shop where she thinks he works each day has been closed for years. So where did the money he supposedly received as a raise a while back come from? Every day Thouret left the house at the same time and  returned home right on schedule. What did he do all day?

There are many possible suspects for Thouret's murder, each with an interesting connection to him-and in some cases to each other. The former prostitute who runs a boarding house as well as her boarders and her boyfriend, the former circus clown turned pickpocket, Thouret's daughter and her boyfriend, possibly even his wife all shared the same motive for wanting Thouret dead. He had money- quite a lot of money.

Simenon has written a tightly wrapped plot in this book, allowing the reader to follow Maigret as he slowly peels away the layers of Thouret's secret life.

 

Location Location
by Kit Sloane
Durban House Publishing
ISBN: 1930754997
Paperback, 235 pages, $15.95
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

In this, the fifth Margot O'Banion and Max Skull mystery, the couple are about to start their first independent film venture in Panama.  The only trouble is that the $2 million of their own money and a supposedly equal amount entrusted to their right-hand man can't be found, sort of putting a crimp on things.

Complicating the plot are a variety of other characters seeking to "invest" in the film, as well as the fact that the leading man was fought over by a female guide from the spiritual sect he has embraced,  his dynamic 200-pound female agent, and two British male financiers (one of whom has disappeared and had knowledge of the location of the missing money), among others.

The story is cute and the characters are larger than life.  The reader really skips through the novel at a fast clip to an unexpected conclusion. Read it and have some fun.

Recommended.

Dead Time
by Stephen White
Dutton
Hardcover, 368 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 0525950066
Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Dead Time opens at the Grand Canyon where a group of hikers are preparing for the hike out. The Canyon is in the midst of an extreme heat wave, so the group is anxious to get an early start before the sun is over the canyon wall. Another hiker the group had met briefly the previous evening comes up to them just as they were leaving to ask if any of them had seen his companion. She got up during the night and never returned to the tent. While everyone tries to reassure the guy that she'll turn up, some in the party are uneasy about the girl's fate. Before they had hiked very far, three of the six in the group decide to turn around and help with the search. That decision forever split the group. Although years later some of them remained friends, the friendships are clearly divided into two groups.

Dead Time is an interesting entry in White's Alan Gregory series. For the most part, Gregory's usual supporting cast is absent. His wife and daughter are in Europe, his newly acquired son is visiting his mother's relatives in New York. His best friend, Sam, is serving a suspension from the police department and is trying to work out some personal issues.  All of this leaves Alan alone and at loose ends. But not for long. Alan's ex wife Meredith asks Alan for help in locating a young woman. As fate would have it,  one of the possible leads in her case causes Alan to become involved with the group of hikers from the Grand Canyon.

Carmel, one of the girls on the hiking trip, is the daughter of  Alan's friends. When Alan first approaches the parents wanting to speak with Carmel, they are hesitant, but finally decide that talking with Alan might help her sort out some of her angst. When Alan flies to California to meet with Carmel, he becomes involved with much more than just helping Meredith or Carmel.  Meredith has also hired Sam to do some investigating so eventually, Sam and Alan's efforts are joined.

Through flashbacks, readers are given parts of the canyon trip story, giving us hints and allowing us to try to figure out what really happened and how those facts figure into Meredith's current dilemma.

 

Who is Conrad Hirst?
by Kevin Wignall
Simon & Schuster
Paperback, 227 pages, $14.00
ISBN: 1416540724
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The reader first meets Conrad Hirst at a point when he has been a hired killer for ten years (he is now 32 years old), having killed, by his best estimation, dozens of men and three women.  Something about his last "assignment" has filled him with revulsion for what he has become, and he vows to end that persona immediately.  He converses in his head with his lost love, Anneke, who died in the war in Yugoslavia from which he ran after her death, straight into his "profession."  But now, "the Klemperer job changed everything—he understood that now. Perhaps for the first time ever, as much as Conrad tried to suppress it, he feared what he didn't know about the world, and most of all, he feared what he didn't know about himself."

Accomplishing this will be no easy task, and he determines that in order to erase who he is, there must be four final killings: Frank, his handler; Fabio, his document forger; Freddie, his arms dealer; and Julius Eberhardt, his employer, the German crime boss who had hired him all those years ago.  He feels he needs to leave "with the right blood on his hands." The first of these is done easily, and he shoots Frank.  But before he dies, Frank utters these words:  "I lied..." About what?  "Everything."  He gets an inkling of the meaning of these cryptic words when he soon approaches Eberhardt to kill him, and is aghast to see that Eberhardt is not the man who hired him as his personal assassin a decade earlier.  It is obvious that the first thing he must do is find out the identity of the man for whom he has been killing people.  But then others start dying.  And his new priority, beyond reinventing himself and leaving the killing behind, is to discover who is now doing the killing, before he himself becomes a victim.

The author, born in Belgium and now living in England, with this, his fourth mystery novel, has created a fascinating protagonist with whom the reader cannot help but feel sympathy.  Well, almost.  The book is well-written, filled with surprises and suspense, and is recommended.