Reviews from SALLY POWERS

JANUARY - FEBRUARY  REVIEWS

THE EYE OF JADE
DIANE WEI LIANG
Simon & Schuster  February, 2008

The concept of a female private detective operating in Beijing, China, is both intriguing and, on the face of it, extremely unlikely.  In the first place, private detectives are banned.  The nature of a private detective – a loner, working at odds with the establishment, going off on tangents without regard for protocol – an individualist, flies in the face of every aspect of Chinese culture.  Even a man essaying that role in China would have a rough road, and for a woman it’s an incredible undertaking.

Mei Wang doesn’t call herself a private eye.  She runs an information consultancy firm.  At twenty-nine, she has quit her job with the Ministry of Public Security (aka the police) and suffered the loss of face brought on by the mistaken assumption she was fired.  On the advice of her ‘Uncle’ Chen, she hires an assistant, Gupin.  Once again, Mei goes against tradition.  Gupin is twenty-one, a country boy, a migrant worker.  But he’s a quick learner and has the physique to facilitate “payment recovery.”

‘Uncle” Chen brings Mei a very interesting case.  During the Cultural Revolution the Red Guard in Luoyang destroyed the Luoyang Museum and all its artifacts.  Or did they?  Recently a ceremonial bowl that had been in the museum collection has turned up in Beijing.  If one piece survived perhaps others did.  Chen is interested in one piece in particular – a jade seal that belonged to King Cao Cao of the Three Kingdoms.

Mei’s search for the person selling the ceremonial bowl and information on any other pieces that might have survived takes her -- and the reader – on a tour of Beijing that armchair travelers will relish.  Things are changing in China .  There are Chinese who are growing rich, owning property, and testing their entrepreneurship.  A perfect milieu for crime to thrive, whether in the skyscrapers sprouting up everywhere or in the shabby, poverty ridden byways.

Mei’s personal life is not slighted.  Single, a loner (well, that fits the P.I. profile), she is a disappointment to her mother and always, to Mei’s way of thinking, comes in second to her gorgeous, successful -- and married – younger sister.  When her mother is taken ill, and as a result of the investigation she’s conducting, Mei suddenly begins to learn a great deal more about her mother’s early life.

- Sally Powers

PETER MAY

THE KILLING ROOM
PETER MAY
Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin ’s Minotaur  February, 2008

Across the river from Shanghai, in the suburb of Pudong, China, with enormous pomp and ceremony, in a drenching rain, an American businessman representing U.S. interests in a  joint banking venture steps onto a platform to pull a lever that will release a flow of concrete to cement (pun intended) the deal.  The platform collapses, the businessman is unceremoniously dumped into a morass of mud and body parts.  At least sixteen victims are discovered.

Unfortunately for the Chinese government, the ceremony was being broadcast live to America .  A high profile crime seen around the world on live television is not what the Chinese want.  In an effort at damage control, the Shanghai Ministry of Public Security (aka the police) bring in Beijing Deputy Section Chief Li Yan.  Li investigated a dismembered body found in the grounds of the summer palace in Beijing the preceding year.  The case was never solved and there is the possibility that they may be connected.  Then too, it shifts responsibility from the Shanghai police to Beijing ’s hot-shot detective and offers them a scapegoat if needed.  On his arrival in Shanghai , Li is taken to meet Director Hu, who sums up his demands to Li:  “What I want is a high profile solution in the shortest possible time.  And in the full glare of the same publicity.”

Thus begins Li’s search for a serial killer, hampered by the restrictions inherent in Chinese politics.  There are those who are above the law, those who are beneath the law, and those who lend themselves to a quick, non-political, result.  Since Li is an honest, hard working, cop the simple way isn’t going to work for him.

Li’s opposite number in Shanghai is the only female detective on the force, Deputy Section Chief Nien Mei-Ling.  Unfortunately for Li, he’s attracted to her, despite having a relationship with an American forensic pathologist, Margaret Campbell.  Margaret is back in the States for her father’s funeral, but she returns to China when Li arranges for her to conduct the autopsies on the body parts.  The animosity between her and Mei-Ling is instantaneous and provides the clueless Li with further complications.  Margaret finds herself seeking solace from a freelance journalist, Jack Geller.

The atmosphere is exotic, with screaming street vendors, unrestricted smoking, the splendor of the buildings of Shanghai , and fourteen million people crammed into one city; and there is the minefield of not stepping on the toes of anyone who is protected by political connections.  It is a tour of Shanghai and its environs that lends a great deal of color and substance to this police procedural.  For that is, after all, what this is, and the hard slog of basic police work is what will solve this case.  It is an ugly case and the perpetrators of these heinous acts are despicable.

Author Peter May does a great job of depicting both the police and the political aspects of the case while exploring the various idiosyncrasies of the personalities involved.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

 - Sally Powers

VIENNA BLOOD
Volume Two of the Liebermann Papers
FRANK TALLIS
Random House / Mortalis Books Trade PBO 1/08

It’s 1902 in Vienna.  Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt and his assistant, Haussman, have been called to the zoo where an anaconda, Hildegarde, has been murdered.  Hildegarde is a favorite of the emperor, hence the presence of a senior police officer.

Hildegarde’s plight takes a back seat to the deaths discovered later in the day.  In the seedy, run down neighborhood of Spittelberg a madam and her three girls are brutally murdered and mutilated.

In counterpoint to the gruesome crimes Rheinhardt is investigating, we follow Dr. Max Liebermann, a young doctor just beginning his psychoanalytical career.  Max is engaged to be married to Clara, daughter of a wealthy tradesman.  He is taking fencing lessons and meets various friends in coffee houses where they enjoy the justly famous Viennese pastries.

The worlds of Rheinhardt and Lieberman meet because the burly detective inspector is an amateur operatic singer and the doctor accompanies him on the piano.  Following these lessons, detective and doctor consult on Rheinhardt’s latest cases.  The doctor, with distinctly Holmesian perceptions, provides insight that sets the inspector on the right track.

The Vienna of 1902 is a hotbed of secret societies.  Anti-Semitism and nationalism are endemic and the foreshadowing of the Nazi movement is evident.  Set against these repressive and regressive movements is the developing importance of psyoanalysis (Freud appears as friend and mentor to Liebermann) and the advances in criminal investigation – blood testing and the collection of crime scene evidence – creates a volatile and exciting milieu.  At the same time, the tone of VIENNA BLOOD is such that it seems to have been written in the time it takes place.  There is great attention to detail of place and the depiction of the life of Vienna . 

A story as rich as the pastries the characters consume.  A fascinating read.

 - Sally Powers

PUSHING UP DAISIES
ROSEMARY HARRIS
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur  February, 2008

Paula Holliday has been downsized right out of the New York high pressure-high life TV business and right into the small community of Springfield, Connecticut, overlooking Long Island Sound.  Fortunately for Paula she has other talents and her gardening prowess is keeping the wolf from the door, barely.  This is handy when the significant other who moved to Springfield with her decides to move on.

Paula has made good friends in Springfield, including Babe Chinnery, who owns Paradise, the local diner and meeting place.  Babe is the one who urges Paula to bid on resurrecting Halcyon Gardens.  The owner, Dorothy Peacock, has recently died and left Halcyon, house and gardens, to the local historical society.  To her surprise, Paula gets the job and, on her first day at work, digs up the mummified remains of a newborn baby.

The town is immediately rife with speculation.  Was it the illegitimate child of one of the Peacock sisters?  Does it have anything to do with Yoly Rivera, a young Mexican illegal who disappeared at about the time the baby would have been interred?  Or is someone else harboring a secret tragedy from all those years ago?  As Paula says, “It is a nice town.  It’s like the garden, though: everything looks beautiful from a distance.  It’s only when you look closely that you see the snakes.”

Despite the underlying social themes – including the treatment of Mexican illegals and sexual harassment, PUSHING UP DAISIES (obviously no relation to the hit TV series, “Pushing Daisies”) is a light and breezy “Sex And The City” kind of read.  Paula has a good friend, still in the TV rat race, who not only encourages her romantic forays, such as they are, but lends a hand with the gardening at Halcyon – which pays off for her professionally in the end. 

Delightful characters, a charming milieu and an intriguing mystery – or two or three.  What more could a mystery reader ask?  RECOMMENDED.

 - Sally Powers

CLARE CURZON

THE EDGE
A Superintendent Mike Yeadings Mystery
CLARE CURZON
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur  November, 2007

Hoad Manor Farm is the scene of an unimaginable crime.  The Hoads and their daughter, ten, and a friend sleeping over for the night, have been murdered.  The wife was chased down to the stable, murdered and mutilated.  Missing is their sixteen-year-old son, Daniel, who immediately becomes the focus of police inquiries.  Is he a missing victim or the perpetrator?

Once the police turn the full force of their investigation on the Hoads and their property it is evident strange things have been going on.  Alma Pavitt, the Hoads’ housekeeper, was, fortunately, away caring for a sick relative, but what is the extent of her involvement with the family?

Squadron Leader Anna Plumley, MBE, is the late Mrs. Hoad’s mother.  She arrives to be of any help she can to her grandson, once he’s found.  She’s of little help to the police since her forte is a military command and she has had little to do with her daughter, even when she was younger, despite the fact she seems to love Daniel and have a fond regard for her late son-in-law.

While the crime is the central theme and moving force for the novel, the underlying theme is of dysfunctional families running rampant, the true delight in Clare Curzon’s Yeadings’ mysteries is the exploration of the Thames Valley Police who have developed over the course of the series.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

 - Sally Powers

NEW-SLAIN KNIGHT
The Haunted Ballad Series
DEBORAH GRABIEN
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur  November, 2007

It starts with a ballad, as usual.  Ringan Laine and Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes have the care of Ringan’s thirteen-year-old niece for three weeks and decide to visit Cornwall and some of his old mates – musicians always willing to lend a spare room.  Becca, Ringan’s niece, is preparing to audition for a prestigious music academy and they decide sitting in on a couple of sessions – she’s a violinist – will give her an edge for her audition.  Gowan Camborne is their charming host who has a very strange reaction to Becca when they arrive but Ringan and Penny put it down to the fact that Gowan is a womanizer and Becca, even at thirteen, is gorgeous. Gowan sets up a couple of nights at the local pub, the Duke of Cornwall’s Own.  He has played there on and off for decades with various musicians sitting in under the name the Tin Miners.  Sitting in with him and Ringan is Cian Williams on flute and their rehearsal to introduce Becca to their music is amazing.  Becca may be young, but she’s a virtuoso.  At the end of rehearsal, Gowan plays a tune on the piano that results in one of Penny’s out of body experiences.  She sees the last moments of a young man’s life through his eyes as a gorgeous young maiden, who looks disturbingly like Becca, murders him.  From there on out it’s a matter of finding out what Penny saw in her “dream” and keeping Becca, who denies it but almost certainly saw the same vision, safe.

If you’ve never read one of Deborah Grabien’s ballad mysteries you’re in for a treat.  Ringan, Penny and their friends are fascinating and, if you can suspend disbelief for the woo woo element, their experiences successfully mesh history with the world of show business.  RECOMMENDED.

 - Sally Powers

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NOVEMBER - DECEMBER  REVIEWS

Look for my review of THE ACCIDENTAL FLORIST 
by Jill Churchill on the PAPERBACK PAGE.

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