Howard Engel. The Ransom Game (1981)

     Howard Engel. The Ransom Game (1981) In a bleak February, Benny Cooperman gets the job of finding a disappeared ex-con who knows where the $500K ransom money is stashed. A week and two corpses later, Cooperman has solved the case, which involves a few nasties in high places, ancient double crosses, and a dysfunctional family. As usual, Engel is good on Cooperman, less so on the other characters. His mild send-up of tough PI talk continues to amuse, but the puzzle is less than satisfactory; the final solution has not been fully clued, although the real villain has been signalled quite early on. Benny’s romance with Anne is proceeding, albeit slowly A good entertainment nevertheless. **½ (2008)

Colin Dexter. The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983)

    Colin Dexter. The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983) Another over-elaborate crime. There are five corpses, three murdered, one a suicide, and one dead of natural causes. The mess includes mistakes about past events, excessive ambition, academic feuds, a Soho nightclub, erotica, conspiracy to commit murder, University examinations, red herrings strewn about by the conspirators,  and  the usual bit players. Dexter’s trademark characterisation-by-tic is front and centre here, as is his schtick of anticipating events. “Little did he know...” that this would begin to wear down my patience. I mentally rewrote a couple of the short chapters omitting those foreshadowings, and felt a bit better.
     Still, by giving us the unriddling via Morse’s and Lewis’s peregrinations, false starts, discovery of small details, and sudden shifts of view, Dexter compels us to read on. The solution is, as already mentioned, too complicated by half. That the perpetrators won’t be brought to justice because they’re all dead is just another twist in an overly twisted tale. **

Anne Perry. The Carter Street Hangmen (1979)

     Anne Perry. The Carter Street Hangmen (1979) The first in the Charlotte Ellison & Thomas Pitt novels, in which they meet because of the murders mentioned in the title, and end up in each other’s arms and with an “understanding”. Perry is better than most authors at producing a Victorian pastiche, mostly because she doesn’t try too hard. She’s more concerned with serving up Victorian attitudes and values than with imitating Victorian prose. A pleasant entertainment, very much in the Harlequin romance mode, but without that genre’s excessive focus on the heroine’s emotions, and with accurate period detail. Perry’s exploration of character nudges the book towards the psychological end of the crime novel spectrum, but since she doesn’t want to give away the perp too soon, she focusses more the effects of the crimes on the Ellison family than on the clues. Good, but not a keeper. **½ (2007)

Mordecai Richler. Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang (1975)

     Mordecai Richler. Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang (1975) I finally read this book, years after it appeared and made a splash. It’s awful. If this book were written by anyone other than Richler, it would not have been published, or else it would have been heavily edited. The ostensible audience is children from K to about grade 2, which means it must sound well read aloud. It doesn’t. Richler seems to think that funny names, CAPITAL LETTERS, and elaborate explanations of the obvious are the difference between adult and children’s books. Not so. The plot of this book is lame, the style is pedestrian, the characterisation is cardboardy as can be. If this book resulted from Richler’s attempts at bed-time stories for his children, too bad for his kids. Ugh! (2007)

Howard Haycraft and John Beecroft, eds. Three Times Three (1964)

     Howard Haycraft and John Beecroft, eds. Three Times Three (1964) Three crime omnibuses bound together, each containing a short novel, a novelette (or long short story), and three short stories. I read all except the Marsh novel, which I’d read recently, and the Geoffrey Household novel, a tediously detailed “suspense” story whose narrator fancies himself a hunter. It’s an example of gore-porn. The short stories are nicely done examples of the crime shaggy-dog story, a very popular genre before the days of TV. Good entertainment, but not a keeper. 0 to *** (2007)

Ngaio Marsh. Light Thickens (1982)

 

     Ngaio Marsh. Light Thickens (1982) Marsh’s last Alleyn mystery. The title quotes Macbeth, and the mis-en-scene is a production of that play, described in wonderful detail. I think it’s Marsh’s vision of the play, and wonder if she ever actually staged it this way. Anyhow, I’d love to see someone take up her concept.
     The murderer is a mad devotee of ancient Scottish culture (no doubt thoroughly misunderstood), who avenges an “insult” to the real claymore used in the production. Alleyn has to use one of his tricks to prod him into confession, a schtick that Marsh has overused, but it suits this story. Apart from this, the novel is near perfect, one of Marsh’s best. **** (2007)

 Update 2022-03-08: Just reread this book. I'd forgotten the murder puzzle's solution, but it doesn't actually matter that much. Most of this book deals with the production of Macbeth by Peregrine Jay, who twenty years before had rescued the Dolphin Theatre from ruin with the help of a moneyed benefactor. The book is worth reading for the story of how Jay envisions the play, and manages to meld a disparate group of egos into a wonderfully successful version of the play. It provides not only insights into the collaborative work of putting on a play, but also into this play itself. I will be watching any Macbeth I see with eyes and ears and brain informed by Marsh's version.

Ruth Rendell. The Veiled One (1988)

     Ruth Rendell. The Veiled One (1988) A woman’s body is found in a parking garage, but there are no obvious clues: no family or business connections with possible murderers, etc. As so often with Rendell, the essential clues lie in the past: an ancient grudge has led to this murder, and the perpetrator is a psychopath (Rendell likes psychopaths as perps). Wexford and Burden are nicely drawn as always. Wexford is nearly killed by a bomb intended for someone else, which puts him off the case for the first couple of weeks. This gives Burden an opportunity to fixate on the wrong suspect, who however does become a murderer. He too is a psychopath, and his victim is the murderer of the victim in the car park. I don’t really like twisty plots like this, I prefer straight police procedurals. The TV series plays down the moody and psychological aspects of Rendell’s fiction, which IMO improves the stories. **½ (2007)