Forever books

This title might indicate that I'm gonna hop on my hobbyhorse and extol the the virtues of books. Not e-books, books. Although I do espouse this belief, I will save it for another time.

My concern today is all those books I have been reading forever. And ever. Ones I never seem to finish. Those thick, scholarly books I like and want to read but can't seem to hang on to for the long haul. I have devised a cunning plan to finally zip through these forever books in one year.

Yes one year. It's taken me five or more years to get where I am right now. In 11 short months, I will be finished. It's an amazing thought.

This list of forever books includes: The Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama, An Outline of History by H. G. Wells, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West, and Blake by Peter Ackroyd. The one closest to being done is Blake. The one least closest to being done is Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.

What is this plan? I added all the extant pages together, divided by 366, and came up with . . . 5. If I read 5 pages in one of these books every day, I will be done December 31. Not 5 in each. No 5 pages a day. How hard can that be?

And it turns out, not very difficult at all. I am ahead of the requirement. I've continued to read other books--25 of them so far. At the end or beginning of each day, I read at least 5 pages in one of the forever books. Instead of trying to read information-laden pages of 50 or so at a time, I read 5. I look up maps. I look up terms. I read all the footnotes. I savor the 5 pages.

Suddenly, it seems doable. And I'm enjoying the forever books so much more this way. It doesn't weigh me down to see the 1150 pages of Rebecca West staring at me. I delight in a short chapter on Dalmatia and the next day read Wells talking about Greece. Or Schama on the Dutch.

It turns out that forever means one year. And all of them will be finished. All of them.

Fan Girl Goes to Bouchercon, Part 2

By Jody Speer

Bouchercon 2011

I almost skipped Bouchercon this year. The economy isn't looking so good, work was piling up, we had obligations. It seemed like an indulgence. It turned out to be a necessity.

St. Louis itself turned out to be a fabulous host city. The hotel was within walking distance of many restaurants and shops. We tried out Stefano's, Mosaic, Copia, Rooster, and Sen. All fabulous. We particularly liked Mosaic for indulging our ordering preference. We wanted to do small cold plates first, then see how many small hot plates we wanted after finishing the cold. They were fine with that. And a huge shout out to Copia for accomodating our group's vegetarian. Wow. Bringing plates out in the right order so that we all ate together was quite a juggling act, and it was managed expertly.

And then there was the conference. All panels and events were held in the adjoining convention center. My immediate reaction was that this would be an absolute pain. It wasn't. You knew where you had to go and how to get there. Signs were posted at critical junctures like the escalators so you knew where to go. After one panel, it was effortless. And the hotel staff were helpful at every turn. Our experience with the concierge desk was excellent for finding lunch on Thursday. My only complaint with the hotel was my usual with large hotels -- give me free something. I was surprised we weren't charged extra for breathing. And $20 for one for breakfast buffet? Seriously? But can't pick on the conference hotel that much. All hotels of a certain size do this.

But I'd rather concentrate on the high points of the conference. Too rich with experience.

First, the bowling. An event to raise money for the library. A good cause. And slightly boring. Uh no. First we chose Team Talent to root for and tweet about. Team talent consisted of Mark Billingham, John "I Suck" Connolly, Laura "Nine Pins" Lippman, Karin Slaughter, Martyn Waites, and Jeff Tindall. For three hours, they poured heart and soul into trying desperately to bowl a decent game. Laura hit 9 pins. Every time. It was eerie. Of course that was 9 more than John hit. And damn, Mark can bowl. Martyn was receiving unsolicited advice from Val McDermid. Many adult words. Many adult beverages. Watching someone bowl sounds boring. It's not. John came up to us at a break and said "I'm glad you are being entertained because I'm not." Yes, we were entertained.

After the bowling, we watched Joe Finder try to hold his own with Val McDermid, Laurie King, Laura Lippman, and S. J. Rozan. Not a pretty sight. Post-bowling slaughter. They did give him a bottle of Crown Royal afterward to ease the pain.

I've been to several mystery conferences including one other Bouchercon. This takes the prize for the most accessible authors. They would patiently talk to you when you descended on them, gawky and tongue-tied. So warm. So nice. Thank you Val for you patience and forbearance. It was almost more than I could do to approach in the first place.

The panels I attended were thoughtful. In every sense. Every moderator was prepared (not always the case), and the authors gave real answers that didn't necessarily include a plug for their newest book-. Well, after the smart-ass answer, of course. I found insight into many aspects of publishing, including the demands of American publishers upon UK writers. I wanted to call Mark Billingham's American publisher and say, "I'm a big girl. I understand that that they say boot for car trunk. And petrol for gas. And I know what a roundabout is. If I don't, I can look it up, and I SHOULD HAVE TO." These expressions are what make this book British. I don't want them to sound American. If I don't understand something, I'll figure it out. And I'd read different authors if I didn't want to try to make this leap. Please dumb down for someone else.

Lagniappe from the conference -- meeting Avery Aames and Julie Hyzy in the bar after their panel. They brought snacks. And were delightful. Julie had me when she alluded to Pollyana, my all time favorite movie. Free books over and above the books bags. Yes I'll take a Carol O'Connell ARC please. Martyn Waites being the nicest guy on earth. Paragraghs at the book store reading being so intriguing. Discussing clothing with Deborah Crombie. Dancing with Carl Brookins. Dinner with Kent Krueger. Meeting Al Abramson and learning about Bouchercon Albany.

The piece de resistance -- Roy Orbison as interpreted by Val McDermid and Mark Billingham. Too wonderful. Song has been stuck in my head ever since. Of course, so has I Saw Her Standing There. Thank you, Mr. Billingham.

Jon, Ruth, and Judy did a bang up job entertaining, educating, and enthralling the mystery readers and writers. What a great conference.

Confessions of the Non-Serial Reader

By David

I'm a mystery/crime reader who is not big on novel series. (Full disclosure: I stopped reading Lee Child's Jack Reacher books in the middle of Nothing to Lose and haven't gone back. I may be the only person in the world who can say "I stopped reading Reacher." Not something I'm bragging about, by the way.) I spend a fair amount of time trying to figure out which one or two books I should sample from a series to try out writers.

I know it's just me and that I'm out of step with most other mystery readers who just can't wait for the next Poirot novel by Agatha Christie to come out. Imagine. Me. Out of step. Go figure.

There are writers who I enjoy reading their standalone books but can't really get into their series character. Laura Lippman, for example. And some writers, I slurp down all the books in a series in what seems to me like a single gulp. The Dave Brandstetter novels by Joe Hansen.

My brainy wife and blogmate can sit down and rip through an entire series by an author in a week and enjoy every one of them. She can read authors who have multiple series (in order, in a row), enjoy all the books, and even keep the characters straight. See Charlaine Harris and her characters Sookie Stackhouse, Aurora Teagarden, and Lily Bard.

I've tried to devise the best way to try out mystery series. I've failed.

Here's why. I don't think that the first book in a series is necessarily the best place to start. Ian Rankin wrote in The Lineup: the world's greatest crime writers tell the inside story of their greatest detectives (edited by Otto Penzler) that he thinks that Knots and Crosses is in some ways too literary. That Rebus knows books a detective in his position, with his background shouldn't know. So that may not be the best introduction to the series.

Some authors definitely get better as they go. Some hit it for a six their first time at the crease. How do you know?

So, where do you start with a series detective? Whose word do you take that this would be the place to first encounter Lord Peter Whimsey or Travis McGee or Stephanie Plum? Luck? Trial and error?

So I turn to you, mystery and crime readers. Help me out here. Suggestions for series to sample and one (or two) books from that series as a place to start?

2010 Top Reads

Since I kept track of every book I finished this year, it was easy to pick out the ones I liked best. I know I haven't forgotten the absolutely great one I read in February because I wrote it down. And these include books I happened across this year. Not published this year. Or written this year. This was the year I discovered Ruth Rendell, so my taste evolves constantly. Suggest somebody I haven't read. I look for new authors all the time.

1. The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard Absolutely the best book I read this year. I could not put the book down. She employed the "if this one would only talk to that one" technique in an excrutiatingly brilliant way. The bloodbath of an ending rivals Hamlet. She captures the self-involved world of the teen ager so well. It is riveting.

2. The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill This book should have been breathtakingly frustrating. All of the plot lines of the book end without resolution. But it certainly left me eager for the next book. The plots advanced the characters that I adore like Simon's sister, Cat. The first in this series, Various Haunts of Men, didn't engage me as much as this one. Making Simon aloof from everyone in that one meant I had no interest in him. Or sympathy for him. I was right there with him about Diane. But wanting to giving him a swift kick as Cat did. Do Something, Simon. Anything.

3. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny In a year that I hadn't read the previous two books, this would have been at the top of the list. Gamache is an absolutely excellent character who needed some weaknesses exposed. And this book does that. This series is fast becoming my favorite. I still think the first one in this series, Still Life, is one the most beautifully written books I have ever read. The villagers of Three Pines are really the stars here.

4. Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope This book had all the permutations of women's lives. All the life choices modern women make to try to exist in the world are represented by the characters in the book. Single women, married women with children, single women with children, widowed women with children, career women. And the painful and glorious role men play in those strategies. An excellent look at the problems and joys of children and work and home.

5. Simisola by Ruth Rendell I read every single Wexford book this year. I picked the sad story of Simisola because when I see the title of this book, I remember the story instantly. I can be reminded of the story in the others, but this resonated with me. Wexford has a misstep in this book and comes all over with liberal guilt, as he should. The racial overtones and implications in this book raise questions for the reader as well. I'm sure I'd have done what Wexford did. And that is sobering.

6. A Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris No this is not the vampires. This is my personal favorite series written by True Blood's author. Harper Connolly can tell where bodies are buried and knows how they died. She is hired by private people to either find the body or tell them more about the body. And her family situation is complex in that modern way. Her half sisters live with her aunt and uncle who hate her. She travels with her "brother" who is really not her brother--he was raised with her when his dad married her mom. So the half sisters are related by blood to each of them. Um yeah. The plots here are ingenious in presenting situations that require her "talent."

7. Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews These books are so funny and so outlandish that a reader should be put off. But somehow it all makes sense. And you follow the intrepid Meg while more and more people camp at her house and she becomes more and more pregnant with twins. Of course a murder occurs with all the other mayhem. But somehow keeping her mother from decorating the nursery is on Meg's list more than the murderer. I wish Donna wrote several books a year. Everyone needs to laugh this much.

8. Death Message by Mark Billingham Billingham represents the token male on my list. I read Bloodline as well, but the story of the murderer and the cell phone is better. Thorne trying to work this out while being just this side of a Luddite is priceless. His usual sidekicks are there, making it difficult for him. Great cop story.

9. The Fixer-Upper by Mary Kay Andrews As much as I miss this author being Kathy Hogan Trochak, these fluffy Southern tales are fabulous for a light boy meets girl or rather girl meets boy. Her heroines always learn something and fall in love. This book is no exception. I love the work on the house almost as much as the romance. But I was happy this was actually work that crapped on the heroine instead of a cad. Her previous book, Deep Dish, I didn't like as much because it traversed well-traveled ground. This was different.

10. Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin My favorite Gail Godwin of all time is Father Melancholy's Daughter and I recommend it as well. Unfinished Desires is about a girl's school, and how changing alliances and friendships affect the lives of one class of girls. And what effect that all has when their daughters go to the school. In less skillful hands, the dual timeline and changes in narrator could leave a reader bewildered. Godwin weaves together mother and daughter stories with ease. Truly awesome.

The most surprising thing to me after re-reading my list of books was that I read 90 books this year and only seven were by men. Ouch. And two of those were the same man (Billingham). Men don't seem to be doing much better this year--first three so far are also by women.

Review at new Harrogate festival blog You're Booked

The Deputy – Victor Gischler

BY ANN, ON NOVEMBER 18TH, 2010

Reviewer: David Speer

The Deputy by Victor Gischler, Tyrus Books

I’m tempted to call Victor Gischler a Renaissance man. In at least two ways. Maybe more.

One. He’s the writer of all sorts of things. His debut novel, and one of my favorites, “Gun Monkeys,” was nominated for the Edgar Award. You may be more familiar with some of his other novels — the ones with the clever titles like “Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse” and “Vampire a Go-Go.” He also writes comic books, Deadpool and X-Men and others. There’s Twitter talk sometimes about a screenplay. And if you do follow him on Twitter there’s the occasional feature called “Ask Gischler” where he offers to answer any and all questions. Note I said he offers to answer them. I’m not sure he ever answers anything.

Two. When I said Renaissance man, I was thinking more of a typical man who lived during the time of the Renaissance. The kind of man whose life was nasty, brutish, and short. One who learns that life has a noir underbelly. Who rolls life over on its back and says, “Come over here and look at this. Is that cool or what?”

The kind of man who could write “The Deputy” (Tyrus Books). The kind of novel that could make you to want to go out and clean up a town.

“The Deputy” is about Toby Sawyer, who the local police chief lets work as a part-time deputy so that Toby can make something of himself. Toby is a deputy in Coyote Crossing, Oklahoma. Take Washington D.C. out of the competition (after all, it’s in a class all by itself), and Coyote Crossing could be in the running for the title of the most corrupt town on Earth.

At its core, the story of “The Deputy” is a western movie of the type we’ve all seen or heard hundreds of times. It takes place in a town that needs one good man to clean it up. But Toby is not Shane of the movie or Marshal Matt Dillon of TV’s Gunsmoke. He’s not Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op. And he’s surely not Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. Because Toby sure doesn’t set out to clean up a town. He just wants to love his son, have a good woman by his side — or with him in bed — and find the missing body of Luke Jordan so he can go home and get some sleep.

But Toby is a guy who can’t manage to do one thing right. Or the easy way. So, naturally, when he goes about cleaning up Coyote Crossing, he does it in a really messy way. Given that chance to make something of himself, Toby goes out of his way to screw up. Given the seemingly dead-easy task of guarding the freshly killed body of one member of the town’s most notorious trouble-making family, Toby wanders off to have sex with his girlfriend. His girlfriend who is not his wife and not the mother of his child. Who probably is not going to be the good woman by his side by the end of the book. Or even by the end of the night.

And believe it or not, it goes downhill from there.

Gischler’s genius is that he makes us want good things to happen for Toby. No matter how stupid he is. And he is. No matter how violent he is. And he is. No matter how much of a screw up he is. And he is. We like Toby. We root for him to win. We want him to clean up Coyote Crossing, even though Gischler has shown us over the course of 249 pages that this ass-end-of-nowhere town is not worth cleaning up. We want Toby to win even while we’re questioning whether what he’s winning is really worth having.

It might just take a real Renaissance man to make us want that.

Louise Penny

I finished Bury Your Dead quite a while ago. I've been hemming and hawing around about talking about it because it is so complex and difficult to talk about without ruining the book for other readers. I grasped completely the brouhaha on Louise Penny's blog when someone blurted something out. It's difficult not to. Let's just say that I peaked ahead on this one to reassure myself about one of my favorite characters.

There are four stories going on at once in the book. Some are told in flashbacks, some in historical documents, some direct drama. I thought from the blurbs I had read that this was going to be similar to Daughter of Time. It does have that element to it, but it so much more than that.

The book really turns Gamache into Sherlock Holmes or even better, Nero Wolfe. His detecting is almost all done through reading documents, even in the present day murder. He does meet and talk to people, but not as much as a usual Three Pines mysteries. He does very much let other people be his "Archie". And his solving of the Champlain mystery is indeed straight out of Josephine Tey.

I adore all the minor characters in these books and was relieved when they came back in with such vigor. The use of Clara as a fifth columnist was hysterically funny. And of course any time that Ruth is around is fun. The poignancy of Ruth and the duck is an absolutely stunning element. It's just bizarre, but wonderful.

And this use of the minor characters is the reason I love these books. There are comic elements in all the books, but at the heart, something deadly serious is going on. There is a murder and it's not funny. And it is usually dangerous. Louise Penny knows how to combine all the elements of life in a story about a murder investigation.

And although I am absolutely character driven, this book, and by extension all the Three Pines books, is also technically brilliant. I normally hate weaving around from one story to another and letting out bits of story drop by painful drop. I might in less skillful hands have called the story about the raid sandbagging. Because the characters know the whole story--it just isn't revealed all at once. But the pacing and all the distractions of the three other stories kept me hanging. on. every. morsel.

A fabulous denouement and almost a cliffhanger at the end of the book. But a character one, not a plot one. What will happen next? The last book left me stunned. This book left me in despair at how long it will be until the next one comes out. How will she dodge the Cabot Cove conundrum and find another way to kill someone in the eensy town? Will everyone welcome Gamache back with open arms? And what complicated technical problem will Louise Penny set for herself? I can't wait.

What kind of reader are you?

I am finding out a lot about myself as a reader since I began to keep a journal of everything I read. I started this after Zoe Sharp's husband, Andy, asked me how many books I read in a year. A lot was my first answer. Then I narrowed it to probably 150. I was pretty close, although I'm about 15 off the pace so far to reach 150 by December 31. It has, however, identified one reader habit I was not completely aware of. I read large blocks of the same author. In other words I tend to read in clumps. So far this year, I've had a Patricia Highsmith clump, a Ruth Rendell clump, and a Marcia Talley clump. Last year it was Donna Andrews and Kent Krueger. If I discover an author I haven't read before, I read everything I can about them and by them.

David, on the other hand, actively dislikes clump reading. He thinks it magnifies any verbal tics and strategies the author may have. This ruins the books for him. So he tends to read in a very one from column A, two from B, etc. kind of way.

Series books for me become a nice long 19th century novel if read one after the other. I became absolutely enamored with Inspector Wexford while reading the Ruth Rendell books. I'm completely fine with the fact that time is a bit fiddly in the books, and that Wexford should have retired a long time ago. Beginning in the sixties and working into the next century, Wexford remains a constant in the police force. The books are not about the crimes. I forget sometimes which crimes go with which book. The books are about this policeman and his family and his job. And I care about his eating right to maintain his weight.

The books have moved from relatively standard mysteries with twists to twisty mysteries involving some kind of social issue. Simisola asks Wexford and the reader to examine their attitudes toward race. Wexford comes out of this poorly after misidentifying a murder victim who happens to be African. He knows he wouldn't have made the assumptions he did if the victim had been white. It makes a nice change to have the detective examining himself over social attitudes instead of personal relationships. And adds some real depth.

Creating a hero with depth is unusual, but not difficult. The reader is absolutely expected to like the hero. Rendell has set herself a challenge with the character of Mike Burden. He's Wexford's second in command and in most attitudes, his opposite. But he is so fully realized that you like him, too, even when you disagree with him. He does not ever examine himself because he is always sure he is right.

My reading, then, is usually done in clumps and almost always involves character-driven books. I don't care about plots because I generally figure them out. I figured out From Doon with Death the first Inspector Wexford book. If you haven't read that one, I'll just say it proves I never take anything at face value. And that's the only way to consistently figure out mystery books.

And as a postscript because I'm so excited and can't wait, Peter Robinson's new book, Bad Boy is out today. I put a note about it on my bulletin board so I don't forget. Woo Hoo.

Alex's new book is out today!

Alexandra Sokoloff's new thriller Book of Shadows is out today from St. Martin's Press. I would have said it is "in bookstores today" but neither of the two Barnes & Nobel stores in West Des Moines nor the local Border's has it in stock. Grrrrrrrr.

So instead of going by and picking up a copy so I can tell you about it, I'll just quote what some other people said. Who obviously live in places with better bookstores 'cause they could get a copy. (I know, I know. They got galleys or ARCs to comment on. I'm just being my petulant self.)

(Cut and Paste time)

"A wonderfully dark thriller with amazing is-it-or-isn't-it suspense throughout.  Highly recommended." - Lee Child

"Sokoloff successfully melds a classic murder mystery/whodunit with supernatural occult undertones." - Publisher's Weekly

Jody and I met Alex at Bouchercon in Indianapolis. She was super-super fun to talk to about books and never blinked when I asked her to sign a copy of The Harrowing (her first novel and still my favorite) to "Plastic Santa."

Detective investigates killings with Satanic overtones and a witch shows up to help. Cool.
Can't wait to read Book of Shadows. Oh, wait. I guess I'll have to.

David

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?

Hello and welcome to my world

My name is Jody S. and I'm a reader. I read everything. Literally. I read the backs of the shampoo bottles in a hotel. I read cereal boxes. I'm addicted to my British newspaper app. And I read all nature of books. History, biography, mystery, cookbooks, philosophy/religion, archeology, and so on and so on and so on--you get the idea. I'm particularly fond of Brits in all their many splendoured writings. I do read Americans now and again. But mostly only American mystery writers.

That long-winded introduction leads to my current distress--I'm having a hard time finding anything that really interests me right now. It's not the fault of the authors. Let me be clear that this is a Jody problem. My bookcases overflow with many of my favorite authors' newest books. I also have about 20 acquired at Bouchercon which are "let's try these books." This book malaise resembles the "nothing sounds good for dinner" malaise. I'm unsure what I wish to snarf down next.

Reading books I've read before signals the onset of this problem. I just finished Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. I've read this more than once, but it's one of my go to books when I feel the need to reinterest myself in reading. I enjoyed it. Pym has the most incredible internal dialogue going on in her characters' heads. She's one of those authors I feel compelled to read aloud to whoever is nearby (sorry, David). She delights me. I thought that would cure my reading doldrums. Hmmm.

Next up was Carolyn Hart with Merry, Merry Ghost. I borrowed this from my mother, so I felt that I should read it and return it. Bailey Ruth is a ghost sent to earth to help some mortal in distress. There are many rules about the conduct of the ghostly emissary broken into pieces by Bailey Ruth. Bailey Ruth is an engaging character, incorrigible in her methods. The plots don't really amount to much, but then, they don't really need to. It is a lovely piece of fluff. Although I wasn't swept away by the plot, the characters jumped right out of the book. Unlike most books with secondary characters, this book delineates each and every one. It's pretty easy to sketch in the red herring characters, leaving the reader unclear about the difference between George and Charlie or Mary and Debbie. I think Agatha Christie does this all the time. So the strength in this series is the character portrayal. I admit I prefer Hart's Death on Demand series. I enjoy the setting in those, as well as the characters. I hate readers who say the setting is a character, but it is in these books. And the fact that it is a resort island influences many of the plots. Bailey Ruth didn't release the doldrums. I was still at a loss.

After the unconscionable pugilism surrounding the health care debate, I felt I needed a more civilized brand of psychopath. So I'm now rereading The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Ok, this was what I needed to return to reading. We had seen Matt Damon as Ripley, and we were disappointed in the adaptation of the book. Halfway through the book again, I'm seeing why the movie didn't suit. That atmospheric, homoerotic mood of the book is totally overlooked. Perhaps the inability of a movie to depict the claustrophic internal dialogue contributes to its failure. I'm blown away by Highsmith's ability to make me like this damaged and very unpleasant little thief and murderer. I want him to get away with things. It turns the quest for justice of a mystery novel on its head. I enjoy my psychopaths with more straightforward motives, which is why I dislike hypocritical, psychopathic politicians. You know who you are.

Here's hoping Tom Ripley puts my reading back on track. God knows, it's been a train wreck lately. Let's do some reading.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls - Review and Contest

(I met Steve Hockensmith at the Bouchercon mystery convention last fall in Indianapolis. I was already a fan of his cowboy detectives Big Red and Old Red and regularly read his blog. He had dropped hints on the blog about a big, new, secret project he was working on but said he couldn't disclose details. To his credit, he didn't even give up the secret that he was writing a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies when confronted about it in person. Well played, Steve. Here's my review of the book and then a link to a contest sponsored by the book's publisher Quirk Classics. Remember to mention our blog in the contest. I hope to publish an 'Impertinent Interview' with Steve in the near future. Check back.)

In being chosen to write the prequel to the publishing phenomenon that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Steve Hockensmith was handed a formidable set of tasks. Write a prequel to a one-joke sendup of one of the most beloved novels in English literature. Continue the knockoff novels that have become a genre unto themselves: 19th Century classics mashed together with movie monster tropes. And while you're at it, Steve buddy, don't damage the franchise.

Good thing Quirk Classics picked the right guy for the job. It turns out that Hockensmith doesn't even owe Jane Austen a letter of apology for turning Jane and Elizabeth and the other Bennet sisters into katana-wielding ninjas. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls is funny, brash, and moves at a breakneck pace. Hockensmith makes even the living dead come to life on the page.

The cast is a laundry list of Jane Austen character types that you all recognize from movie and TV adaptations of her novels even if you haven't read the books: the demure daughter, the buffoonish nobleman, the doting father, the social-climbing mother, and the blustering military man. But, like the Amlingmeyer brothers in Hockensmith's Old West detective series (Holmes on the Range, On the Wrong Track, etc.), each character type is given its own twist. Just as his well-plotted series books make you believe that two Sherlock Holmes-loving cowboys can solve crimes in the manner of the great detective, Hockensmith keeps the thin premise ("Oh, it's Jane Austen, with zombies") from coming apart in the middle by keeping the action fast and furious.

The only effective way to deal with such a tissue-thin premise — it reminds me a lot of a drunken frat boy's take on the Monty Python skit "The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights" — is to not care too much when you poke holes in it. Or poke fun at it.

To make this work, Steve keeps the characters fresh, funny, and unpredictable. He is ultra careful to never let the plot sag. For in that saggy plot instant, a thoughtful reader might begin to wonder if this is all worth it.

There's never a doubt as to who will live and who will die. It's a PREQUEL. The people who are alive in the first book, which is really the second book, can't die in the second book because they already have appeared in the first book. There's never a doubt that love and virtue will triumph or that the lord of the manor will turn out to be a total prat. It's a JANE AUSTEN NOVEL. Or at least a take-off on one. It's what happens in a Jane Austen novel.

Hockensmith manages a couple of twists on the genre. For example, not all of the heroes turn out to be heroic. But it's all fair play and for fun. Read it in that spirit and you'll enjoy every page. Take it too seriously and maybe not.

And to all you serious-faced English majors out there (In the interest of full disclosure, I was, am, and always will be an English major, but not one of the serious-faced ones.), we wouldn't be able to laugh at this stuff if we didn't read, understand, and love the originals. So chill, OK?

——

As I said above, Quirk Classics is running a contest to coincide with the publication of PPZ:DD. Here's the link to their site and the contest. Be sure to tell them you got there from our blog. Thanks!

Here's the details on what you'll win in the Quirk Classics contest:

One of 50 Quirk Classics Prize-Packs worth more than $100, each of which includes: 

o   A Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Journal

o   Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Postcards

o   Audio Books of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

o   An advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

o   A password redeemable online for sample audio chapters of Dawn of the Dreadfuls

o   A Dawn of the Dreadfuls Poster

Winning Memory

Just got an email from Charles Ardai, the editor at Hard Case Crime, telling us that we've won one of a dozen advance copies he's giving away of the unpublished noir novel Memory by the late Donald E. Westlake. The Hard Case Crime webpage about the book calls it "a dark and painful portrait of a man's struggle against merciless forces that threaten to strip him of his very identity."

I'll blog about the book here after we receive it. But you can learn more about it by clicking About Memory

The Decade’s Most Awarded Hard-Boiled Authors � The Mystery Bookshelf

Our friend Kent Krueger is included in this list of The Decade’s Most Awarded Hard-Boiled Authors � The Mystery Bookshelf

An Actual Blog For A Change � Christopher Fowler's Blog

One of my actual favorite bloggers actually writes an actual blog for a change. At least that's what he says.

An Actual Blog For A Change � Christopher Fowler's Blog

Nebula Awards nominees

The SFWA has released the 2010 Nebula Awards nominees.

Final cover for Android Karenina

The folks at Quirk Classics are showing off the final cover for the next classic novel to get their "quirky" treatment. (If you don't like puns, maybe you are in the wrong place. Or just read Jody's entries.) This one is called Android Karenina and here's what it will look like when released in June.

This steampunky take on Tolstoy's classic follows other Quirk Classic titles Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and the soon-to-be-published and reviewed here Pride and Prejudice and Zombies prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith. Check back after our official launch in March to see David's full review. And maybe Jody's appalled reaction. 

Stay tuned.

David

Strand Critics Awards

Nominees for the 2009 Strand Critics Awards announced and Elmore Leonard honored

The Strand Magazine has announced its nominees for the 2009 Strand Magazine Critics Awards. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction, the Critics Awards were judged by a select group of book critics and journalists, including Ron Charles (The Washington Post), Julia Keller (Chicago Tribune), Tom Nolan (Wall Street Journal) Paul Harris (The Guardian), and Hallie Ephron (The Boston Globe).

Best Novel

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Ballantine Books)
Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Riverhead Books)

Best First Novel

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell (Little, Brown and Company)

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (Penguin Press)

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin Books) Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Touchstone)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Harper)

The Strand bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award to Elmore Leonard for his huge body of mystery and crime novels which have been translated into dozens of languages and are regulars on the New York Times best-seller lists.

The awards will be presented in the categories of Best Novel and Best First Novel at an invitation-only cocktail party, hosted by The Strand on July 7 in New York City.