The Golden Egg (Leon, 2013)

 Donna Leon. The Golden Egg (2013). The deaf-mute helper at the laundry that does Guido and Paola Brunetti’s dry-cleaning dies of apparent suicide. The necessary bureaucratic protocols fail to turn up any record of his existence. His mother gives conflicting and unverifiable accounts of their history. The neighbours, who know much of what actually happened, refuse to tell Brunetti what he needs to know. He eventually digs away the layers of  deception that victimised the man, but decides to withhold the final piece of the puzzle from the guilty person, because he cannot prove their guilt. But Brunetti knows that their plans will be thwarted when the evidence they believe will prove their claim to wealth will fail. The solution explains the title.

The casual corruption of Italian political and economic life is once again both backdrop and cause of the troubles and pains that these people suffer and inflict on each other. Leon’s great talent is imagining rounded characters: The walk-on parts are more than cardboard cutouts, and the main players are so fully imagined that we feel we would recognise them on the street.

Recommended. ****

When Blood Lies (Richards, 2016)

 Linda L. Richards. When Blood Lies (2016) A nicely done puzzle that begins when Nicole Charles buys an old desk and finds some ancient wine in a secret compartment. There’s more: money-laundering, attempted murder, etc, and a handsome young man. Charles is a gossip columnist who wants to be promoted to real reporting; this provides a subplot that points to a series. I haven’t found any other of Richards’s books.

This book was on of an easy-reading series published by Orca Book Publishers. The style makes for a quick read. Good for when you haven’t much energy for close attention. **½

Fatal Remedies (Leon, 1999)

  Donna Leon. Fatal Remedies. (1999) Guido Brunetti’s wife Paola smashes the window of a travel agency said to sell sex-tours to more complaisant countries than Italy. Brunetti suppresses the report of the crime, but cannot of course escape its consequences. Oddly, the agency’s owner wants to compromise: if Paola apologises and pays for the window repairs, he will not press charges. A serious robbery takes Brunetti’s attention away from his wife’s legal problems. A witness to the robbery promises to give a deposition, but before he does so, his wife falls down the stairs in their apartment block. And so Brunetti embarks on another investigation of interlocking cases. The travel agency is a key element. Neither  Guido nor Paola fully achieve their goals, but they have tried. That's all they can do.

Leon shows us how the police proceed step by step to the solution, and how the their erratic work schedule and the revelations of human weaknesses and evil affect their personal lives. Politics and the endemic casual corruption  interfere with the investigation. Paola understands that their family is not insulated from these effects. But Paola and Guido consider each other as equals. It’s not a friction-free relationship, but it works.

I think Leon is one of the best crime-fiction writers of our time. ****

Kinsey And Me (Grafton, 2013)

Sue Grafton. Kinsey and Me. (2013) A re-read. I enjoyed the stories perhaps more this time, since I knew them well enough to suss the solution, and so could enjoy watching Grafton drop the clues and lead up to the final twist.

The second half of the book is tough reading. It’s  a series of short stories and sketches that amount to a (fictionalised) memoir of Grafton’s mother (“Vanessa”) and her relationship with her daughter (“Kit”). They inflicted pain on each other, unintentionally, but effectively. Each needed the love of the other, each tried and failed to do it well. Vanessa’s alcoholism barred the path to the easy companionship they both wanted. Grafton herself says she “learned the secrets of the human heart” from her mother. One secret is that we fear we do not deserve each other’s love. But love is not about deserving.

Recommended. ** to ****

Poetic Justice: R is For Ricochet (Grafton 2004)

Sue Grafton. R Is For Ricochet. (2004) Nord Lafferty, rich and used to getting his way, hires Kinsey to look after his daughter Reba when she’s paroled. At first, Reba is apparently willing to live a reformed life. She had been convicted of embezzlement. The money was never recovered, which makes her a target not only of the law, but of her old associates. It takes her a while to realise she’s been played, whereupon she engineers a suitable retribution. Miscellaneous mayhem and murder, betrayals, and deceptions that even Kinsey believes for a while, and assorted misinterpretations and shenanigans make for a well done puzzle and ultimately a kind of justice, albeit not legality. Reba is a criminal, and pays for her crimes, but she’s also Nemesis for the crooks that betrayed her. Grafton disapproves of crime, but disapproves of injustice even more.

Recommended. ****

The Ferguson Affair (MacDonald, 1960)

 Ross Macdonald. The Ferguson Affair (1960) Lawyer Bill Gunnarson believes his client Ella Barker is innocent. An unlikely P.I., he starts digging, and turns up the usual corruption, ancient secrets, double crossings, dysfunctional families, and impossible dreams that characterise MacDonald’s world. The McGuffin is a stolen diamond, which his client received as a gift. The police believe otherwise, and charge her with theft.  Murders ensue.

Published in 1960, but it reads like an early novel. There aren’t many of the edgy metaphors that make the Lew Archer novels such a pleasure to read. But MacDonald as always raises uncomfortable questions about the difference between legality and justice, and about the desperation of people trapped in situations where the only options are bad ones. The line between perpetrator and victim is sometimes blurred.

Still, I enjoyed the book. Gunnarson’s willingness to risk reputation and life in his quest for truth and justice makes him another knight in rusty armour. Recommended ***

Uniform Justice (Leon, 2003)

 Dona Leon. Uniform Justice (2003) A murder at a private “military academy” leads Brunetti into discovering corrupt politics, ruthless power seeking, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The perpetrator(s) will never face justice. Brunetti finds them out, but knowing how a good man was punished for his unwillingness to play the power game sours his success.

Another in the Commissario Brunetti series, darker than previous ones I've read in its depiction of the moral filth in which political corruption grows. Recommended, but not a happy read. **** 

The Cat Wears A Noose (Hitchens as Olsen 1944)

Dolores Hitchens (originally published by "D. B. Olsen"). The Cat Wears A Noose. (1944) Hitchens wrote a lot of books, mostly mysteries, under various pseudonyms and in several series. This one (#4 in the Rachel Murdock series) begins with Rachel’s sister witnessing a murder on her way home from a church meeting, but she doesn’t tell Rachel. Rachel meets one of the household who enlists her aid in finding out what really happened. She offers her services as cook, which enables her to find the clues she needs. Family secrets, money, and tangled, unacknowledged  relationships make for a good puzzle. The cat is a wanderer. Following her, Rachel chances on a couple of the crucial clues. Hitchens is a bit weak on character and ambience, but the book is pleasant read.

The online info on Hitchens indicates she must have made a decent living writing these novels, some of which were made into movies or TV episodes. I enjoyed it. **½

Died in the Wool (Ngaio Marsh 1945) [reread]

 Ngaio Marsh. Died In The Wool (1945) Set in New Zealand. A bossy, well meaning, self-satisfied MP disappears one evening during sheep-shearing season. Her body is found in a bale of wool a few weeks later. Alleyn is in New Zealand on a security mission. Acting semi-officially, he winkles out the motives, real and disguised; sets a few relationships right; and, most importantly, lifts the clouds of suspicion darkening the lives of the innocent.

A well-done puzzle. Marsh’s ability to create ambience and character keeps these now ancient books fresh. I enjoyed this reread. ***

Wycliffe x 3: How to Kill a Cat (1970); the Scapegoat (1978); Four Jacks (1985).

W. J. Burley. Wycliffe and How to Kill a Cat (1970) A victim deliberately disfigured to prevent or delay identification. Wycliffe is on holiday; he has mixed feelings about having to investigate. The girl has a mixed past, her life intersecting with people who value respectability, families who thrive on power games, and of course witnesses and suspects who omit or misrepresent the truth. A satisfactory early member if the series. Burley obviously loves Cornwall; some of the best passages gave me vivid impressions of the harbour, the tourists, the mix of locally necessary and tourist-trap businesses, the cramped streets and houses, and the weather. **½ 

W. J. Burley. Wycliffe and the Scapegoat (1978) At Hallowe’en, a Wheel with a life-sizedeffigy is lit and rolled blazing down a hill and over a cliff into the sea. Jonathan Riddle, a hard-hearted, money-focussed business man, has disappeared, and the awful thought that he may have been inside the effigy first raises the possibility of murder and then distracts Wycliffe and his team into red-herring strewn byways which both extend the tale and allow Burley to do what I think he really likes best: comment on the darkness and absurdity of the human heart’s longings.

Riddle is an unpleasant man for whom business is as much a means of exerting power as for making money. Hence many suspects, most with the common motive of vengeance. One of the better Wycliffe novels. ***

W. J. Burley. Wycliffe and the Four Jacks. (1985) A successful writer receives four Jacks of Diamonds in the mail, reminding him of an ancient guilt. He’s killed, and his body’s burned in the tent that serves as the workshop for an archeological dig on his land. Wycliffe, on holiday once again, must lead the investigation. The motive is vengeance for an ancient wrong. The murderer is cunning and careful, placing clues to implicate first one innocent then another. He overdoes it, which gives Wycliffe the insight he needs to rearrange the evidence and construct the true account of the crime. One of Burley’s best. ****

Three by Simenon (First Omnibus, 1970)

 Georges Simenon. First Omnibus. (1970)

The Neighbours (1967). Started reading this one, didn’t get past the first half dozen pages.

Maigret & the Nahour Case. (1967) Early Maigret. They get better as Simenon develops his terse, dialogue-heavy style. The Maigrets’ friend Dr Pardon calls late at night with a strange tale of treating a gunshot wound. Complications include a missing gun, people claiming false identities, dysfunctional families, and so on. A right mess. Reading it was fun while it lasted, but I had to skim a few paragraphs to remind myself what it was all about.

 Monsieur Monde Vanishes. (1952) Mr Monde, late 40s, prosperous, respected, owner of a successful business, married to a woman who values only his money, one morning walks out of his office leaving no word about his plans. He takes most of his bank account with him, but it’s stolen less than a day later in a seedy hotel. He finds a job, has an intermittent affair with a small-time actress, eventually makes his way back to his old life and wife, released from illusions about the necessity of respectability etc. Worth a reread.

Simenon fans may want to read all three novels. **½

S Is For Silence (Grafton, 2005)

Sue Grafton.  S Is For Silence. (2005) Violet Sullivan disappeared on a July 4th evening. Her daughter Daisy wants her found, because she feels abandoned. Kinsey winkles out the truth. Her investigation upsets a lot of apple carts, as usual. Grafton includes flashbacks to narrate Violet’s story up to the time of her disappearance. These also give us glimpses of the suspects and bystanders, as well as clues that Kinsey (and later the police) do not have. Even so, it takes the reader (me) a while to suss who killed Violet.

Grafton’s interested in character, and in how mistaken ideas of morality, the yearning for respectability, and the rigidity of socially defined roles deform relationships and prevent happiness. That some people bring psychopathic evil into the mix just makes the world more dangerous. Still, in the end, a sort of justice prevails, and people achieve acceptance of what they can’t change. Grafton indulges in a few bits of poetic justice, thus satisfying our all-too-human thirst for revenge.

One of Grafton’s best, not least because the interleaving of past and present. ****

Q is for Quarry (Grafton 2002)

 Sue Grafton. Q is for Quarry. (2002) Two retired detectives ask Kinsey to help them solve a cold case. They can flash their badges, and call in favours from old colleagues and have new evidence processed, but Kinsey can get unforced and therefore likely more truthful evidence from the people who may be involved.

About twenty years earlier, an unidentified girl’s body was found at the edge of a quarry. The task seems simple: find out who she was, and the murderer should be easy to find.

The quarry happens to be on land belonging to Kinsey’s family; the subplot of her still unwilling response to her relatives’ fence-mending attempts isn’t needed to make a good story, but Grafton’s fans want to know more about Kinsey, and Grafton (and her publisher) are happy to oblige.

A well done puzzle. The basic facts are real: there really was an unknown girl found near Santa Barbara. Grafton’s solution is ingenious, plausible, and entirely fictional. Wikipedia has the current status of the still unsolved cold case.

Recommended. ***

Boomps-A-Daisy Timing Solves the Crime (Death and the Dancing Footman, Ngaio Marsh 1942)

Ngaio Marsh. Death and the Dancing Footman (1942). A re-read, and more enjoyable because this time I could see how Marsh constructed the puzzle and developed characters just enough to engage our sympathies. She’s good at using stereotypes for ambience. This novel is now an historic document showing what the readers of the time expected by way of comic relief, and what they took for granted about the social fabric of their time.

The puzzle centres on a radio used to provide an alibi. Times are of the essence, and the footman’s dance, executed when he hears a popular song on the radio, crystallises the timetable. A suitable mix of motives, past griefs and conflicts, and present evils complicates Alleyn’s work, and provides the narrative texture that satisfies the reader. Me, in this case.

Recommended. ***

Repressed Spinsters (Overture to Death, Marsh 1939)

Ngaio Marsh. Overture to Death (1939) Winton St Giles parish hall needs a new piano. The fundraiser will be a play. The cast comprises the squire Jocelyn Jerningham, his son Henry, his spinster cousin Eleanor Prentice, the Vicar’s daughter Diana Copeland, Doctor Templett and his mistress Selia Ross, and the other spinster, Idris Campanula. She’s the victim, shot through head when she stomps on the soft pedal on the old piano, which, via a series of pulleys and twine, pulls the trigger of a gun wedged into the old instrument for just this purpose.

Alleyn and crew have to pick their way though the usual mix of relevant and irrelevant information. The novel is really a study of Freudian repressions. The two spinsters loathe each other, but are united in their fascination with and censure of other people’s sex lives. Both have designs on the vicar. And so on. Marsh is very good at depicting hypocrisy and other evils. This makes her books more than mere puzzles to be solved.

Recommended. *** 

Unpleasant Barrister Dies in a Pub (Death at the Bar, Marsh 1939)

 Ngaio Marsh. Death At the Bar (1939) A rather unpleasant, overbearing King’s Counsel is the victim. The weapon is a poisoned dart set up in the bar of the Plume of Feathers, hence the title. The poison apparently had to travel from a locked cabinet to the dartboard in full view of a roomful of people. The impossibility creates the puzzle. The usual complications of fraught personal relationships, complicated family histories, and so on, further muddled by a political movement of dubious utility, create the maze that Alleyn must navigate.

I enjoyed this reread, mostly because Marsh’s novels are contemporary, which has now made them historical fictions, which spells nostalgia for old fogies like me. Post-war England into the mid-1950s was not so very different from the 1930s and 40s. It was the 1960s that transformed England, and by that time I was in Canada. A good read, recommended for any Marsh fan or for the classic puzzle whodunit. ***

Three more Ngaio Marsh rereads: Death in Ecstasy, Vintage Murder, Death in a White Tie

This copy of Death in Ecstasy was printed in 1943, and contains a note requesting the reader to forward it to the armed forces for the entertainment of the troops

Ngaio Marsh. Death in Ecstasy (1936), Vintage Murder (1936), Death in A White Tie (1938). More re-reads. Marsh has become a steady seller, hence the three novels published in 1936.

Between Vintage Murder and Death in a White Tie, Alleyn has met Agatha Troy and solved a rather grisly murder perpetrated at her studio summer school (Artists in Crime). She has a walk-on part in Death in a White Tie, which ends with her accepting Alleyn’s proposal. There’s a good deal of sentimental back story about their courtship and Alleyn’s mama wishing Troy were her daughter-in-law, etc. Fox has stiffened into a cardboard cut-out; in later books, Marsh shows us a good deal more of Alleyn’s team, but they never become fully realised characters. The murder of Lord ‘Bunchy’ Robert Gospell following a debutante ball is nicely set up and solved, and Marsh shows once again that she has a sharp eye for human folly. She’s really a satirist; her depiction of the Alleyn-Troy romance is rather awkward. In later books, she shows them as a married couple comfortable with each other and supporting each other’s careers.

I enjoyed these re-reads. I don’t try to puzzle out the solution, I prefer to watch the ‘tecs doing their stuff. If I get a sense of whodunit (or have a vague memory from a previous read), I still want to see how Alleyn and Fox come to their conclusions. You may want to shut the book where Alleyn and Fox discuss the case, and work out the solution yourself. I don’t.

I especially liked Marsh’s evocation of a touring theatre company’s life on the road (railroad) in Vintage Murder.

Recommended to all fans of the classic English murder mystery. ***

Three by Ngaio Marsh: A Man Lay Dead, Enter a Murderer, The Nursing Home Murders

Ngaio Marsh. A Man Lay Dead (1935) Ngaio Marsh. Enter A Murderer (1935) Ngaio Marsh. The Nursing Home Murders (1936) Three re-reads. Entertaining, and revealing: Marsh’s narrative skills improve over these first three Alleyn novels. The novels are also excellent data for understanding the social  milieu of the 1930s: prejudices that to us seem glaringly obvious are taken for granted and even approved as common sense. There’s increasing awareness of caste and class differences, but they don’t yet grate on people’s nerves. Freudian psychology has its day, and figures in the characters’ psychology. It may even supply motives, or make them intelligible. “Modern” means current and cutting edge fashion, as it always does. Many of the objects used to signal culture and hence character are now coveted antiques.

I enjoyed these rereads. **½ and ***

The age of these books has made them accurate historical novels.

The World of Agatha Christie (Martin Fido, 2012)

Martin Fido. The World of Agatha Christie (2012) A series of two-page spreads on topics that add up to a life and a survey of the works, and their adaptations to other media. I learned a few new facts about Christie’s ancestry and early life: she had an upper middle class upbringing. Her service in a hospital during the 1914-18 war no doubt widened her view of life, which helped her devise convincing plots and characters.

Her wartime marriage to Archie Christie meant more to her than him. As Mary Westmacott, she wrote love romances. I think she needed to write them to work out her feelings of abandonment and betrayal by Archie Christie.

A good summary of Christie’s life and work, but not a keeper. **

Nero Wolfe in Montana (Death of a Dude, 1969)

  Rex Stout. Death of a Dude (1969 Archie’s a guest at Lily Rowan’s ranch, on a rare break from work. There’s a murder, Archie’s stuck for various reasons, the main one being that he’s an outsider who believes the obvious suspect is innocent. The community believes the suspect acted out of exculpatory rage at the seducer of his girl. Archie’s attempts to find the real killer interfere with the sheriff’s investigations. A lot of people don’t want to talk. And so on.

Surprise, surprise!  Nero Wolfe travels to Montana to lend a hand. He ups the gastronomic and investigative ante. Lily Rowan helps out. Several people serve as plausible suspects for all the plausible reasons. The case ends happily for the people who deserve it. The reader (me) spent a pleasant few hours absorbing this concoction. Recommended. ***