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Reviews from MICHELE A. REED
JANUARY - FEBRUARY REVIEWS
GIULIO LEONI*
THE
MOSAIC CRIMES
A Dante Alighieri Mystery
GIULIO LEONI
Translated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel
Harvest Books pb 2/08
It is the year 1300 and poet Dante Alighieri has just been named a prior
of the city of
Florence
, one of an elite group charged with keeping peace in the city. He is hard at
work at his writing one evening when the Bargello, captain of the guard, bursts
in to request his presence at the scene of a death. Near an uncompleted mosaic
in a church under restoration, a body hangs, its face obscured under a shroud of
caustic quicklime. As Dante chips away at the covering, he finds it is the
mosaicist, a Comacine master, one of an elite group of skilled builders. His
beautiful mosaic of a colossus in a verdant landscape has been defaced as well
– a pentagram has been scratched into the tesserae
with a sharp object. Is witchcraft at work here? Dante wonders. It is, after
all, a time when the Inquisition is at large in the land. Why would the killer
obliterate the face of his victim? And why kill a skilled craftsman brought to
the city for a special project? Dante’s investigation leads him to the Third
Heaven, a new studium or group of
scholars in various fields brought to the city to form its first university: a
pharmacist, a navigator, another poet, an astronomer, an architect, a chemist.
The refurbished church was to be their home, but for now they meet in Baldo’s
Tavern, run by a one-armed former Crusader. Dante joins them for philosophical
debate and a few glasses of wine. There he finds another enigma – the
exquisite Antilia, a copper-skinned beauty who dances nightly in the tavern,
adorned with golden disks. Who is the exotic woman and where does she come from?
Dante traces her to Paradiso, a luxurious brothel in town. Dancer, whore, spy?
Murderess? Whatever she is, she ignites a passion in Dante that troubles his
dreams. When another member of the studium turns up dead, his face shrouded in a
substance used in his trade and a pentagram carved on his chest, Dante must
redouble his efforts to solve the mystery of who is killing the leading
intellectuals of the city.
THE MOSAIC CRIMES
is a fascinating look at life in medieval
Florence
and at one of the great literary figures of all time. One moment our hero is
engaged in a philosophical discussion, the next he is demonstrating his command
of the foulest language as he cajoles, threatens and physically abuses those who
stand in his way. We are privy to discussions among the city’s intellectual
elite and descend with Dante below the reconstructed church, into the underworld
where beggars and lepers dwell. The reader is given a glimpse into the political
intrigue of the day, which ultimately caused Dante to be exiled from his home
city. The poet is outspoken in his contempt for the current pontiff, Pope
Boniface, and the power he is trying to wield over Dante’s city. THE
MOSAIC CRIMES was written in Italian and is masterfully translated by Anne
Milano Appel, who includes an afterward explaining many of the references to
Dante’s poetry sprinkled throughout the book. In fact, all of the appended
material makes fascinating reading, from Leoni’s historical context to his
glossary setting the terms found in the book in their historical perspective as
well. Leoni is a professor of Italian literature and his novel is rich, not just
in suspense but also in layers of imagery and literary nuance. It is a marvelous
read.
- Michele A. Reed
*UNACCREDITED WEB SITE PHOTO
THE
ANATOMY OF DECEPTION
LAWRENCE GOLDSTONE
Delacorte Press February, 2008
 It
is 1889, and young Dr. Ephraim Carroll is a man on his way up. After a youth of
hardship, he earned his medical degree and is now honored to be studying in
Philadelphia
under the legendary Dr. William Osler, who would come to be regarded as the
father of modern medicine. One of Dr. Osler’s more controversial teaching
methods is the use of autopsies. With
the Philadelphia League Against Human Vivisection protesting his practices, Dr.
Osler surreptitiously obtains bodies from the Dead House, where the city’s
poor await burial.
One day a drawer in the morgue is opened to reveal
the body of a beautiful young woman. Osler, and young Dr. Turk as well, react
with shock and the professor suspends autopsies for the day. Carroll is
suspicious and accompanies Turk to a seedy waterfront bar, where he is sure he
sees Turk arguing with Osler and another distinguished-looking gentleman. Things
become even more complicated when Osler introduces Carroll to
Philadelphia
high society and the young doctor falls for the daughter of one of the city’s
movers and shakers. As he learns the identity of the dead young woman, and
begins to discover the nefarious goings on on the waterfront, Carroll is faced
with the grim prospect that, if he continues to investigate this particular
death, not only his career in medicine but indeed the entire future of his
profession will be in jeopardy.
In a masterful work of fiction that has been
compared to Caleb Carr’s THE ALIENIST and Matthew Pearl’s THE
DANTE CLUB, Goldstone gives us a
glimpse at medicine on the brink of some of its most important discoveries. He
introduces us to prominent figures like Osler, master surgeon William Stewart
Halstead and the famous painter Thomas Eakins. And he takes us down the
alleyways and into the seedy dives of a city teetering on the brink of the 20th
century.
Goldstone’s prose is totally appropriate to the
era, his research deep and thorough, and his characters believable and
compelling. THE ANATOMY OF DECEPTION
is a beautifully atmospheric, shockingly realistic and perfectly told tale of
murder, deceit and class differences. One can only hope we hear much more from
Lawrence Goldstone.
- Michele A. Reed
THE
QUEEN'S GAMBIT
A Leonardo da Vinci Mystery
DIANE A. S. STUCKART
Berkley
Prime Crime
January, 2008
Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, is having a little bet with the
ambassador from
France. Both Ludovico — known as Il Moro (The Moor) for his swarthy complexion
— and the Frenchman want a painting of a beautiful woman by court painter
Leonardo da Vinci. So Il Moro orders da Vinci, who is also his chief engineer,
to construct a living chess match for the duke and ambassador to play, with the
winner taking the painting. In the middle of the match, Leonardo’s apprentice,
Dino, makes a ghastly discovery. Dino finds one of the white bishops murdered,
stabbed in a secluded garden on the castle grounds. Leonardo has Dino dress as
the white bishop to finish the game. After the match, Il Moro charges Leonardo
with solving the mystery of who killed the man, who was Ludovico’s cousin,
recently named as ambassador of
Milan
to
France. With Dino at his side, Leonardo explores every suspect, with the castle gates
locked to keep anyone from exiting. The dead man’s widow, his great-aunt, the
ambassador and even the archbishop all come under their scrutiny. As an
apprentice, Dino has access to kitchens, servants’ quarters and many other
behind-the-scenes places Leonardo cannot go. Through Dino’s eyes, the reader
gets a glimpse of life in the Sforza court as well as a major figure in Western
art, with his genius and his foibles. Not only do we get an up-close view of the
master at work, we also learn Dino has a carefully guarded secret. Stuckart
makes nice use of Leonardo’s notebooks, inventions and even his backwards
writing as plot devices. Stuckart’s prose is tight and precise, her plotting
marvelous and the characters warm and believable. The reader comes to care about
Dino and the eccentric da Vinci, all the while learning about life in
Renaissance Milan. THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
is a masterful historical mystery and one can only hope we see more of Leonardo
and the intrepid Dino in future books. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED.
- Michele A. Reed
THE
SERPENT'S DAUGHTER
SUZANNE ARRUDA
Obsidian January, 2008
Adventuress and pioneering photojournalist Jade del Cameron meets her
mother in Tangiers, hoping the encounter will bring the two closer together. But
North Africa
in the 1920s is full of pitfalls for American women, as Jade and Doña Inez soon
find out. Inez is kidnapped and the authorities are eager to find her – not to
rescue her, but because she is their main suspect in the murder of a man found
dead in a tunnel system believed haunted by the malevolent spirits, the jinn.
Jade is determined to find her mother and tracks her to Marrakech, where she
uncovers additional intrigue and finds herself facing grave danger. Jade’s
search for Doña Inez allies her with a Berber man, Bachir, and she is drawn into
his village’s search for an ancient amulet. Along the way Jade is reunited
with two characters from her past — one beloved and one set on her destruction
at all costs. The final pages of
this rollicking adventure find Jade in mortal combat for her own life and her
mother’s in the basements, twisty passages and dungeons below Marrakech.
In
Jade del Cameron, Arruda has created a memorable and lovable character. Her
spunk will remind the reader of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs but,
although they both served and were wounded in the Great War, the two are very
different heroines. While Maisie solves mysteries using her empathy and
understanding of the human psyche, Jade is a bold adventuress, with a knife
sheath secreted in her boot and a most unladylike proficiency with both firearms
and hand-to-hand combat. THE SERPENT’S
DAUGHTER is a great period read, with a strong, competent, capable heroine
the reader will come to love. RECOMMENDED.
- Michele A. Reed
Look for these reviews from Michele on the
PAPERBACK PAGE:
CAT PAY THE DEVIL by
Shirley Rousseau Murphy
PUSS 'N CAHOOTS by
Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
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NOVEMBER - DECEMBER REVIEWS
ALL
SHOTS
A Dog Lovers' Mystery
SUSAN CONANT
Berkley Prime Crime November, 2007
Dog
writer and Alaskan malamute owner Holly Winter returns home one day to find a
stranger — who looks distinctly like the biblical Moses — in her kitchen,
his magnificent Harley parked outside. He’s demanding something he thinks she
has and Holly has no idea what he’s talking about. Shortly after he leaves,
she gets a call about a missing Siberian husky, who turns out to be a blue
malamute (the two breeds are often mixed up by people outside the dog fancy).
She sets out to find the dog, but instead finds a dead woman — one who has
apparently stolen Holly’s identity. Now there are three Holly Winters in
Cambridge,
Massachusetts: our protagonist, the dead woman
and a severe academic who appears to be stalking dog-writing Holly. Did the
Harley-riding stranger kill the identity-stealing Holly? Does her killing have
anything to do with the identity theft, or the missing blue malamute? Why are
DEA agents swarming Holly’s father’s farm in
Maine? And what of simple-minded Mellie, who was dog-sitting the “husky” when the
dog went missing. Holly tries to keep sane showing and training her dogs, but
the fear that someone is out there ready to kill her is preying on her mind.
Soon she and her dogs will be hot on the trail of a killer, who will not
hesitate to murder again to get what he’s looking for. This is Conant’s 18th
Dog Lover’s Mystery and the series continues to delight fans. You don’t have
to be a dog devotee to enjoy the series, but it helps. Conant crafts a
fast-moving plot, with themes straight out of today’s headlines. She sprinkles
in plenty of dog show lore and a genuine love for her furry friends. And those
friends are wonderful characters in their own right, as we delight in the antics
of Rowdy, Kimi and puppy Sammy while they help Holly work out the mystery.
“Write what you know,” goes the old saw, and Conant is living proof of the
wisdom of that adage: She is an award-winning dog writer, an owner of malamutes
and lives in
Cambridge. So when she expounds on the uses of liver in training dogs or how to tell if
your canine has tapeworm, you know you’re getting the real poop (sorry,
couldn’t resist it). But even if you don’t love dogs, you’ll enjoy curling
up on the sofa with this latest entry from Conant. RECOMMENDED.
- Michele A. Reed
THIRD
STRIKE
PHILIP R. CRAIG and WILLIAM G.
TAPPLY
Scribner December, 2007
A
strike against the Steamship Authority has thrown life on
Martha’s Vineyard
into disarray. It’s the end of August: The summer people can’t get home and
the islanders are paying premium prices for the necessities of life. When
Boston
lawyer Brady Coyne gets an urgent call from his client, eccentric ex-baseball
player Larry Bucyck, he hurries to the island. Larry appears to be in fear of
his life, but he’ll only tell Brady in person. Coyne calls on his good friend
J. W. Jackson. An ex-Army guy and cop, J. W. lives on the island and is only too
happy to ferry his good buddy to “paradise” on his catboat. While Brady
tackles the problem of what’s up with Larry, J. W. has a mystery of his own to
solve. Someone has blown up the ship Trident, and striker Eduardo Alvarez
perished in the explosion. Eduardo’s widow believes he is innocent, and
prevails upon J. W. to clear her husband’s name. It appears everyone agrees
with her: Eduardo might as well be a saint; he can do no wrong. In the meantime,
Brady visits Larry, who takes him out to the edge of Menemsha Pond, where they
see men with Uzis loading wooden crates onto a dock belonging to a local
physician. When Larry ends up dead the next day, Coyne and J. W. take on the
mystery of his death as well. The resulting investigation pits the two friends
against some very desperate characters, set on perpetrating a heinous act. Craig
and Tapply have crafted a thriller that has all the atmosphere of a summer
sojourn on
Martha’s Vineyard
combined with the immediacy of today’s headlines. Usually a co-written book
is as hard to read as I imagine it would be to write. But in this third Brady
Coyne/J. W. Jackson mystery, good friends Craig and Tapply have created an
exciting, readable tale. Each chapter is from one of the protagonists’ point
of view, alternating between Brady and J. W. Thus, although there really are two
distinct voices, it works perfectly. Tapply is the author of forty-two books,
including nearly a dozen on fishing. Craig, who passed away in May after a brief
battle with cancer, penned nineteen
Martha’s Vineyard
novels and lived on the island year-round with his wife and hosted frequent
visits from Tapply. Thus the book
has the ring of authenticity, whether our heroes are exploring the back roads
from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs, or sailing between the island and
America. This novel would best be savored during a summer’s eve on a deck overlooking
a body of water with a pitcher of martinis and a plate of bluefish pate (one of
J. W.’s favorite pastimes with his wife, Zee), but at any time of the year,
it’s a great escape to a favorite vacation spot. RECOMMENDED.
- Michele A. Reed
Louie
Michele Bazan Reed’s story “Cash Rewards” appears in
the new volume
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER’S SOUL.
It was originally published in CHICKEN
SOUP FOR THE WRITER’S SOUL, in 2000.
Through an editorial glitch, you’ll need to look for Michelle,
not Michele, and Bazan,
her maiden name, in honor of her father.
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