REVIEWS FROM CAROL HOWELL
OFF TRACK
CLARE CURZON
Minotaur Books April, 2010
In this latest Superintendent Mike Yeadings mystery, the themes of the folly of making unwarranted assumptions and the painful effects of miscommunication are endlessly repeated. Each character, villain, victim and cop, acts out each theme until the very end, when some light glimmers through and the mysteries finally come to a resolution. The story begins with Piers Egerton, a research biologist, who decides to end his involvement with a top-secret project and run for the hills. At the same time, train driver Lee Barber is frustrated to find that a simple misjudgment at work will derail his hopes of career advancement. When Barber misidentifies Egerton as the man responsible for his wrecked future, he strangles the scientist in a drunken rage. Fortunately, his violent act doesn't result in death and the two men form a bizarre alliance which strengthens with passing events. The police, under Yeadings' command, join with Special Operations, doing the scut work required to assist them in locating the missing scientist; but they also take the lead role when Barber's little girl is kidnapped for no apparent reason. Police Sergeant Rosemary Zycynski finds herself in the awkward position of suspecting that her lover, reporter Max Harris, may have some connection with the cases, but since she too is victim of the book's two "themes", pressures have to build to an explosive climax before she can finally see the light. Solving the two cases is an engrossing read, and there was great pleasure to be had by me in shouting "NONONO you've got it WRONG" at every one of the characters. Curzon's series gets better and better, and there are two more already in print in the UK, waiting to show up here - this makes for a bright reading future.
- Carol Howell
STRANGE IMAGES OF DEATH
BARBARA CLEVERLY
Soho Constable April, 2010
ISBN:978-1-56947-632-1
A decaying chateau in the Provence region of France is the summertime residence of a group of Bohemian artists. Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands is heading to the Riviera, and agrees to drop off his teenaged "niece" Dorcas, who plans to spend her summer at the castle with her dad, a charming but impoverished artist. Sandilands too decides to spend a few days amidst this curious and noisy creative group to solve a bizarre mystery: the 600 year-old beautiful effigy of an ancestor of the chateau's owner has been utterly destroyed, the alabaster figure ferociously broken into small pieces. The destruction is so unexpected that all of the chateau residents are in turmoil, and Sandilands is hard pressed to restore some level of calm. But that calm is totally shattered when Estelle, one of the lovely artists' models, is found stabbed to death and artistically displayed in the place of the missing statue, dressed in ancient wedding garments. The victim was purportedly quite generous with her favors, and even Sandilands had been treated to some of her flirtatious attentions. The convoluted relationships amongst the castle's inhabitants make for wonderful potential motives for the killing and the not-so-coincidental breakage adds an interesting twist to the crime. The arrival on the scene of a French Inspector of Police, himself wanting to avoid complications in his personal life and happy for the diversion, adds to the delicious tangle; and the investigation begins. The methodologies of the two policemen are strikingly similar, but not their conclusions or their cultural perspectives. Their guarded interactions are as much fun to watch as the actual investigation itself, and Sandilands' sardonic wit, although generally hidden from public view, makes this a delectable read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Carol Howell
THE TULIP VIRUS
DANIËLLE HERMANS
Translated from the Dutch by David MacKay
Minotaur Books April, 2010
The "tulipmania" craze in Europe in the 1630s provides the backdrop for a series of crimes in Europe in 2007. The 17th Century tulip craze was the first bubble in history, where a single tulip bulb could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; and, like other bubbles, the collapse brought about catastrophic drops in fortune. Wouter Winckel, a well-known tulip merchant, was murdered in Holland at this time, an atheistic pamphlet stuffed into his mouth. His vast collection was sold at auction, and was linked with the failure of the bulb market. An equally violent murder in London, 2007, is discovered by young Alec Schoeller. The victim is his uncle, a man with no obvious connection to tulips; however, he is clutching an old book of tulip illustrations and his dying communication indicates there is some "botanical" relationship to his death. Determined to solve his beloved relative's murder, Alec engages the assistance of an old school chum who is an antique dealer from Amsterdam. After following up on clues provided by close friends of the deceased, it is apparent to the pair that the villain has followed their every move. More violence happens, and the truth-seekers themselves become the target of a diabolically clever assassin. Interwoven with the admirably fast-paced plot is a scattered dose of irrelevant melodrama, complete with some long-standing sexual tension and occasional histrionic dialogue, all of which I felt was distracting and added nothing of interest. (It is possible that the dialogue's translator didn't do justice to the author's original intent.) The amateur sleuthing and historical flashbacks were well-done and more than sufficient to keep my interest, and I hope that the distractions are simply a sign of a debut mystery writer testing the market's waters.
- Carol Howell
THE LAST FIX
K. O. DAHL
Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
Minotaur Books March, 2010
This latest murder case of Detectives Frolich and Gunnarstranda, set in Oslo, Norway, is a wonderfully dark character study of the victim, the suspects and, of course, the detectives. The nude corpse of Katrine Bratterud, a beautiful young recovering drug addict is found and the last person who admits to seeing her alive is a conscientious objector working at the clinic in which she had been a patient. The reader knows that she had been at a party on the night of her death, where she had continued her argument with her boyfriend and had left somewhat abruptly, calling her clinic friend to give her a ride. They had ended their evening by having a slightly tipsy good time and making love in a secluded area outside the city. Katrine had taken a solo stroll by the lake where she encountered a naked man coming toward her. And then... It's up to the detectives to interview the partygoers, her counselors, and her connections at the clinic and they find no shortage of potential suspects. The likeliest of them is soon thereafter found dead in a hangman's noose, an apparent suicide. But, in the absence of a suicide note, and with many as-yet unanswered questions, Frolich and Gunnarstranda aren't satisfied and continue their investigation, uncovering layers upon layers of secrets, some of which go back decades. This is a fascinating police procedural with a pair of lead characters who at times resemble a long-married couple, bickering their way through the case, chastising each other for their personal foibles. Despite the overall dour nature of the tale, I found a remarkable amount of humor, most of which was generated by these foible-ridden cops. There's a different cultural style to their police work as compared to American or British coppers and it all makes for a well-written, intriguing read. RECOMMENDED.
- Carol Howell
THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH
JACQUELINE WINSPEAR
Harper March, 2010
The remains of a World War I soldier are unearthed more than a decade and a half after his "disappearance". A medical examination reveals he had died by blunt force trauma rather than from German artillery. The victim's parents, wealthy Americans from Boston, travel to England and hire Maisie Dobbs to uncover the truth about Michael's death. They give to her a packet of unopened letters along with his journal, private papers they couldn't bear to open and read. But just as Maisie gets started on her investigation, the elderly pair is savagely attacked, and Maisie surmises that this assault must be related to the newly uncovered murder. Someone is eager to keep the doors to the past firmly closed, regardless of the cost. But Maisie is well-organized and persistent as she digs into the distant wartime years to find Michael's friends and colleagues. She is also determined to find the author of the letters, an English nurse with whom Michael appears to have had a passionate romance. Maisie's search requires that she use many of the contacts made available to her by her association with Dr. Maurice Blanche, her mentor and close friend. Because of him, she is able to open doors and connect with people who would ordinarily be unreachable, either because of their elevated place in society or their "protected" employment. And her relationship with Blanche is also the source of personal distress as his recent illness appears to be critically serious, and Maisie is torn between her desire to spend time with him as well as uncover the murderer. Added to these weighty matters are ongoing recollections of her own anguished wartime experiences along with a potential blossoming romance with the son of the family who sponsored her through school. This seventh entry into the series is bursting with plot lines and character developments, and the mystery which is at the core of the book is complex and convincing. Maisie Dobbs fans will not be disappointed. RECOMMENDED.
- Carol Howell
Carol's reviews of
THE DEAD OF WINTER
by Rennie Airth and
STONE'S FALL
by Iain Pears
appear on the
PAPERBACK PAGE
.
A MURDER OF CROWS
P. F. CHISHOLM
Poisoned Pen Press June, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59058-657-0
- Carol Howell
FAR CRY
JOHN HARVEY
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt June, 2010
A family tragedy: young Heather Pierce goes missing while on holiday in Cornwall with a girlfriend's family. Days later, after her chum Kelly is found chilled but unharmed, Heather's corpse is discovered in a ruined engine house on the beachside cliffs, the cause of death a probable accident. Her parents, Ruth and Simon, let the child's death tear their marriage apart, and years pass. Ruth remarries and, with new husband Andrew, has another daughter, Beatrice. When the unimaginable happens and this child goes missing in Cambridgeshire, Detective Inspector Will Grayson and his partner Detective Sergeant Helen Walker focus their attention on a convicted child molester who has recently been released from prison. Grayson had previously arrested Mitchell Roberts for his attack on an adolescent girl and Will is convinced that Beatrice's disappearance is too much of a coincidence. Trawling through old police records, Will finds three other child abductions occurring over a period of years in the local area that were never solved, and despite strenuous objections from above, he attempts to construct a case with Mitchell front and center. Woven throughout the disturbing investigation is a description of the parents' withdrawal and emotional collapse, made more poignant by Ruth's ongoing fantasies about Heather and her acknowledgement that she had never recovered from that first loss. Past and present intertwine painfully and the detectives themselves become involved in ways that are potentially devastating and life changing. As always, Harvey delivers far more than a police procedural, and FAR CRY is an engrossing gut-wrenching page turner which kept me up way, way past midnight.