Necessary as Blood

I don't know why it has taken this one so long to come to the top of the read pile. I had it signed at Bouchercon, which was months ago, and she is the featured author next month at Mayhem in the Midlands. That would normally have gotten this read a long time ago. Oh yes I remember now.

I started the saga of Naz and Sandra in February in the midst of the Ruth Rendell feast which happened earlier this year. Unfortunately, I started it directly after reading Simisola. Although the plots differ, the thematic background of each of these books is essentially identical. And when Sandra disappeared, I could tell why. I didn't know who, but I could tell that the book was heading into people trafficking. I didn't feel up to another round of degradation, so I put the book aside.

Now that it's spring and I haven't been locked up in the house for months, I felt ready to face it again. And the plot was handled deftly enough to lead me to suspect a few people I shouldn't, but finally settle on the right one in the first offhand remark which Duncan and Gemma miss. This is par for the course for me. I didn't know the very first time, but I wasn't led astray by the red herrings.

This book marked a welcome change in the series. Up until this book, Duncan and Gemma suffered from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer syndrome. All you vampire geeks will remember that the slayer could never be happy, never find contentment. It was part of the job description. I was beginning to think that Gemma was the slayer. The end of each book brought her some new heartache. Her personal life ran the gauntlet from bad to worse to miserable. I always knew if something nice happened, Gemma would pay for it at the end. And although I loved the concentration on different areas of London and think Gemma and Duncan are interesting characters, I ended each book screaming, "Throw the girl a bone, for God's sake. Anything. Relieve the misery."

Apparently Deborah Crombie heard me. She threw Gemma a ton of bones. At least one may be of the "be careful what you wish for" type, but I was relieved. I nearly quit reading the series. I quit reading Elizabeth George for this very thing. I can read the news if I want unrelieved misery. Tension and conflict are great in a series. But most people have good news every once in awhile.

The plot of Necessary as Blood concentrates on the East End of London. The markets and gentrication and the council housing are all featured. Race relations are involved, and the usual police politics. And in a clever way, the actual solution has nothing to do with this. And the plot tests your prejudices. Why do you suspect the person you suspect?

This book does a good job expanding the list of suspects. Sometimes, you just know that a person is questioned merely to add to the suspect count. Here, everyone is a little suspect because you know so little about them and their relationships to the victims. All the information is second hand. Who is lying and why? And there is a certain amount of lying to save face. And with no close family or spouse to question, it's hard to pinpoint the character of either victim.

This was the best of the series for me. I loved the story being complex. I love the supporting cast. And I adored the ending. I wasn't screaming at Ms Crombie after this one.

I can't wait to say thank you to Deborah Crombie at Mayhem in the Midlands. A great manageable conference. You really get to talk to the authors and attend great panels. The conference is within walking distance of restaurants and shops. It's a relaxing fun time. Come join us.

I had me some Thorne

Do I love Tom Thorne? I must because I read Death Message in record time.

I have to admit that it's more difficult for me to pinpoint what I love about something than what I hate about something. I have read all of this series. This is one that I buy the day it comes out. And sometimes order from UK if publishers are too slow here. But I'm not completely certain what I love about it so very much.

Tom is a maverick and a curmudgeon. He is a source of exasperation to his girlfriend, his best friend, and his bosses. But as with any maverick detective, he does get things done. This book was incredibly satifying because Thorne got how own back on several people. Finally.

Billingham's plots wind all over the place. This story presented itself as a straightforward vendetta plot. Except the killer is wrong about the responsible party. Thorne, in his usual out of left field way, helps the killer zero in on the right person. Doesn't every cop help the serial killers in his bailiwick?

I like the development of Thorne through the books. He's less tortured and more human now that he has a girlfriend. And he needed to add to his circle of people to piss off. He can't always be mucking things up for Phil or Holland. Louise makes for a change.

For those of you living under a rock, Mark Billingham is also a stand up comedian. This leads to many hilarious throw away lines. Thorne has taken the investigation into his own hands by giving the person sending him death messages another number. So his colleagues are monitoring his other phones for messages while he's still getting them on this other new line. He muses to himself: "To wonder if it was the stupidest thing he'd ever done.

It was a tough chart to top. . ."

That little two line thought reveals so much of his character. He recognizes the stupidity of his actions and carries forward with them. Convicted of his own righteousness.

And these little bits of rueful self-awareness break the tension of a tightly wound plot. A reader catches her breath, laughs, moves on. Wow, he's good. If he didn't have his pacing down this well, the reader would pass out from holding her breath.

Billingham also changes up the sort of villain that Thorne is trying to catch. This killer had recognizable motives. Some of the others are more in the Norman Bates arena. Thorne goes at each one the same way. Head first.

If you haven't read Mark Billingham, start with Sleepyhead, and read all the way through. Truly a roller coaster ride.

A Season for the Dead

I finished A Season for the Dead by David Hewson a few days ago. I've been chewing over what to say about this book. Pressure mounts because both David and I have read it. This is almost unheard of.

In the interest of complete disclosure I need to make it clear that if I really don't like a book, I do not finish reading it. I have heard lots of readers tossing around page number counts for how long they give an author to get going. My count varies quite a lot. But I wouldn't spend time talking about any book I really didn't like and didn't finish. So anything I read to the end I like in some aspect. It's a matter of degree with me. So I'm not going to ever dump all over a book. I just don't read it.

I measure crime fiction by how fast I read it. Was I so enamoured with it that it kept me from doing what I should have been doing? Did I stay up to finish it? Did I talk about it incessantly?Did I tell everybody in the world they should read it too? And on that note if you haven't read Louise Penny, you should.

This book fails in the compelling read category. I didn't read it every single chance I got. I messed around with the iphone between chapters. In general, I was not engrossed. That doesn't mean I didn't want to know how it ended. It just didn't matter to me how long it took me to find out.

But, and this is what makes a book for me, I really liked Nic Costa. He deserved better treatment from the people around him, but he was likeable. He understood what was going on. The balance of naive, yet intelligent worked for me. I didn't yell at him for being stupid. I was never irritated at him. He acted on the information he was given. Not his fault that he didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle.

Less than halfway through the book, the police figure out who they are looking for. The tension created by that was one of the book's strong points. Most of the time, mysteries are built around figuring out who this looney might be. Here they know, but can't find him anyway. Nice bit of business.

I figured out the central mystery concerning Sara Farnese. It was her name that made me start thinking that facts about her were not actually facts. Come on. Farnese. Even I knew enough about Rome to think that couldn't be her name. And Rome is not anything like an area of expertise for me. In fairness, I figure many things like that out. The first Ruth Rendell book. Soylent green is people. I almost never take anything at face value. I think that says more about me than how the book was constructed. I don't hold it against any author if I am not surprised or shocked. I'd never read anything if I had to be surprised.

I wasn't sure where the ending would head, but I thought it left a lot of wiggle room for further books, while at the same time satisfying the plot at hand. That is no mean accomplishment, and Hewson deserves applause for it. Since the killer had been identified, how his "capture" came about was the ending. Very good ending. It tied everything up for me, while leaving a few things open for future books.

I probably will read more in this series. But I won't feel bad just getting the books out of the library.

I probably will read more in this series, justnot right away.

I read another book

I finished Mr. Ripley. And the story came out the same this time as last time. I love the feeling you get while reading this book. My number one reader rule requires that I like a character in the book. Any character, but preferably the main character. Henry James lost me in graduate school because I hate his characters. They are silly, frivolous, and rude. And although I love Jane Austen, I detest Emma. I know she gets over her silliness, but I've lost interest by the time she does. This makes me a character driven reader. The plot needs to make some sense, but I'll take character over plot.

Coming to this conclusion makes me slightly nervous. I am, with Ripley, rooting for a killer. And I do like him. And that's a little weird. I can't forgive Emma for being stupid, but I forgive Tom for murdering two people. Moral code? You're doin' it wrong.

So let's look a little deeper into this manipulation by Patricia Highsmith. She makes you like Ripley with two writerly methods. First, you see everything from Tom's point of view. This makes you understand his motives and thoughts and no one else's. Second, and I think most importantly, the other characters are odious. They deserve to die. At least in a harmless fictional universe.

Which leads right into the book I just finished--The Shooting in the Shop by Simon Brett. I have a ridiculously difficult time getting Brett's books here. I have finally just started ordering directly from the U.K. when they are released there. This series, which takes place in the small village of Fethering, is more about the friendship between Jude and Carole than about any murder which occurs. This is definitely one of those books in which I take character over plot.

Carole is a divorced, retired civil servant. Jude is a free spirit. They have little in common but their inveterate nosiness about murders. Of course the Cabot Cove syndrome is present here with murders happening all the time in this tiny little place. But the development of Carole's character is so much fun that you have to see what happens next.

Normally an uptight snobby civil servant would not make a great leading character. But again you are privy to all her thoughts and fears and understand her actions. This is exactly the same method practiced by Highsmith. You forgive her rudeness when you know she feels out of her depth during a party.

Brett does not have odious characters in contrast to Carole to elucidate character. Part of your liking Carole is knowing that Jude and Ted the publican like her too. Those two are likeable on the surface, and they really like Carole. I think this is why readers like Nero Wolfe. Readers adore Archie Goodwin who likes Wolfe. You trust Archie's judgment. You trust Jude and Ted.

So really the series revolves around the changes in Carole's character. It's a novel broken into episodic murders. I can hardly wait until she babysits her granddaughter. And Christmas in this book was so fraught for Carole. Making dinner, buying gifts, telling Stephen he couldn't ask his father. You can't help liking her when obviously she frets so very much.

I'm more interested in the methods employed by Carole and Jude to solve the murders than by knowing the solution of the murder. Their adventures and character exposition always revolve around trying to nose out the same information the authorities have. Jude drags Carole into unCarole-like situations. Carole has flashes of logic which Jude misses and then finds out to be true. Both are blinded at times by their own prejudices.

My favorite bit of business concerned an involved telephone call made by Carole pretending to be someone else. She did this on her own, trying to one up Jude. She intended to get a woman's home phone number from her place of employment. She accomplished her goal through subterfuge, only to find the number listed in the phone book.

The combination of humor and character development entertains me every time. It's not the best book ever written or a don't miss under any circumstances. But it pulled me out of the doldrums. And that's what I was looking for. American bookstores--could we stock this series please?