Review: A CURTAIN FALLS by Stefanie Pintoff
Posted by Marlene in Historical Mystery on March 7th, 2010
A Curtain Falls
Stefanie Pintoff
Minotaur Books, New York
ISBN 978-0-312-58396-5
Reviewed by Marlene Pyle
This mystery marks the return of Detective Simon Ziele, first introduced in the author’s debut novel, In the Shadow of Gotham.
Set in New York City in the early 1900’s, this crime story is just as appealing as its predecessor. Ziele is a compelling character with a well-developed background from the first novel, deepened in this one with further glimpses of his past. The supporting characters are richly drawn as well, and Ziele’s relationships with them have grown and changed from one novel to the next.
The story opens with a court case in which Ziele has brought to trial a woman accused of poisoning her husband. There is no doubt in Ziele’s mind that she is a murderer and he is bitterly disappointed when she manages to convince the jury of her innocence. Ziele knows well that things are not always what they seem. The author is a master at foreshadowing and creating suspense.
Our hero is called to investigate the murder of a Broadway chorus girl. She is the second actress to be found dead in the theater within a matter of days. The first was thought to be a suicide, but now it is clear that something more sinister is going on. Ziele fears that a serial killer is behind the deaths. A suspect is quickly brought into custody, but he insists he is innocent, and while no one else is convinced, Ziele’s gut instincts tell him they have the wrong man.
Once again, he teams up with eccentric criminologist Alistair Sinclair to find the criminal. The interaction between these two is always interesting. Their history reveals that while they respect each other’s intelligence, they don’t trust one another, and are wary of working together. Also involved is Sinclair’s beautiful widowed daughter-in-law, Isabella. Here too, Ziele is guarded, but their attraction is slowly building. New pieces of Ziele’s personal life are brought forth, providing more insight into his character and personality.
Pintoff has proved that she’s more than a one-hit wonder with this novel. Readers will eagerly anticipate the next tale of Deterctive Ziele.
Copyright 2010 Marlene Pyle
*I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: THIS TIME by Joan Szechtman
Posted by betsym in Alternate History, Romance, Speculative Fiction, adventure on March 3rd, 2010
This Time
Joan Szechtman
2009
Basset Books
Trade paperback. 343 pages
$19.95
Reviewed by Betsy Murphy
There is something about the time-travel genre which leads readers to expect an endless series of comparisons between the marvels of today and the far simpler times from which the main characters hail. How ever will they adjust to indoor plumbing, interstate highways, or even the capacious closets now needed to house the ordinary person’s changes of clothing and bedding?
This Time by Joan Szechtman is a welcome departure from the expected gee-wizardy of the genre. In its pages Szechtman leverages her own engineering expertise into a story in which Richard III is snatched from the jaws of certain death at the battle of Bosworth and brought forward 519 years into the lab of a technology company in Portland, Oregon, a project financed and shepherded by a entrepreneurial Korean War veteran who believes that Richard has been unfairly maligned by historians in general and one particular bard of Avon in particular.
The how and why of Richard’s transportation across time is deftly handled, but not dwelt upon beyond that. Although he was originally intended to be debriefed and then returned to his 1485 battlefield, complications emerge including two love affairs; one with the early 21st century and the other with a woman who had developed the prototype for the time-travel machine while still a high school student but is now divorced with two children and – most unsuitable to the old Richard II – Jewish.
What makes this unlikely story work is Richard’s character and how he chooses to adapt to being the oldest 30-something man on the block. Szechtman mercifully avoids the obvious devices of the newly transplanted looking for the newscaster inside the television and focuses on Richard’s development as an individual – one who confronts his era’s antisemitism after watching a holocaust documentary and wrestles with the accountability issues raised by the Abu Ghraib in both a modern context and Richard’s own.
Historical issues surface as would be expected: What happened to Edward V and Richard of York - Richard’s two illegitimate nephews by his brother Edward IV and potential contenders to the throne: Did Richard III have them killed after sending them to the tower of London, as some historians have claimed, or can he prove that he had them sent to Portugal for their own safety? Judging by the number of King Richard III societies and blogs on the Internet and meeting groups in larger cities, curiosity about the princes in the tower is at least as strong today as it was 500 years ago.
Along with clearing his good name, Richard most wants to use technology to save the lives of his wife Anne and his son Edward although for technical reasons only Edward turns out to be the only one who can be saved if brought into modern times. Much of the second half of the book deals with Richard’s increasing leadership in the company which is responsible for bringing him into the present day. It is this rapid rise of Richard’s corporate career which strains credulity, or at least asks the reader to accept a fair degree of elastic pretense.
Still, This Time is an engaging read; well done, intriguing, and a different look at both Richard III’s character and our own times as well.
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: DEATH ON THE AEGEAN QUEEN by Maria Hudgins
Posted by Sue Ann in Cozy mystery, Crime on February 22nd, 2010
Death on the Aegean Queen
A Dotsy Lamb Travel Mystery
Maria Hudgins
Star/Cengage, May 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59414-862-0
Hardcover, 274 pages
$25.95
Reviewed by Sue Ann Connaughton
History professor, Dotsy Lamb is cruising the Greek Islands on the Aegean Queen with fellow Virginians, Lettie and Ollie Osgood and Marco Quattrocchi, an Italian military policeman she met on a previous vacation to Italy. Dotsy intends to explore ancient history sites and perhaps romance with Marco.
Shortly after the cruise begins, Ollie teams up with another American, George Gaskill, for some late night gambling with two Europeans: Malcolm Stone, an antiques dealer and Willem Leclercq, a designer. George wins $9000 and disappears. Dotsy discovers George’s fresh blood on deck and a quest begins to determine how he met his demise. Just as the reader settles in to expect a locked ship mystery, the ship’s photographer is murdered on Mykonos Island. Meanwhile, Dotsy discovers two pieces of potentially relevant information: George is a convicted sex offender and priceless antiquities displayed on the Aegean Queen are stolen, possibly through a notorious smuggling operation. Dotsy sets out to establish a link between George and the photographer and determine if there is a connection to the stolen antiquities. The author sprinkles enough red herrings to plant suspicions about several persons in the large cast of characters. It’s surprisingly easy to keep track of the 22 characters because each exhibits distinctive traits. The author doesn’t leave this to chance though; an annotated list of characters precedes the first chapter.
Death on the Aegean Queen is an enjoyable who and whydunit. All the characters—from the endearing Dotsy to the suavely continental Marcos to the pathetic George—are believable, the sort of people you might actually meet on a cruise. The story skips along nicely, maintaining a pace that moves quickly, yet still allows the reader to keep track of plotting details. Although a couple of loose ends are never entirely tied up, the pieces of the puzzle fit together well enough to provide a suspense-filled journey with a satisfying conclusion. Death on the Aegean Queen is the perfect novel to tuck into a suitcase for a vacation, especially a cruise.
Copyright 2010 Sue Ann Connaughton
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Revew: THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED PTOLEMY by J. Michael Orenduff
Posted by Allan in Cozy mystery, Crime on February 21st, 2010
The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy
J. Michael Orenduff
Oak Tree Press, Taylorville, IL, 2010
Trade Paperback - 233 pp.
ISBN 978-892343-79-6
$14.95
Reviewed by Allan Leverone
Hubert Schuze is a thief, arguably, and argue the point he does with his best friend and sometimes drinking buddy Susannah. In this, the second “Pot Thief” mystery, anthropologist Schuze, a potter not above using his extraordinary skills to create exquisite fakes of ancient Native American clay pots to supplement his income, finds himself smack in the middle of a murder investigation, accused of a killing only he knows he didn’t commit.
Schuze is convinced by the mysterious residents of San Roque, a New Mexico pueblo, to recover a series of sacred pots stolen from them years before. Sensing the irresistable opportunity to right a wrong - and maybe make a little cash along the way - Schuze happily agrees. Before long, he encounters a beautiful news reporter, a flamboyant department head and amateur art dealer from the very college from which Schuze was expelled years before, baseball-bat wielding thugs, a police detective who’s not exactly dirty but not totally clean, either, and assorted other characters, including a dead body which turns up in the very apartment the “Pot Thief” is attempting to burgle.
Driven by snappy dialogue at times reminiscent of Lawrence Block, Orenduff has crafted a likable rogue as his protagonist, a deep-thinking philosopher equally comfortable comparing Ptolemy to Kepler as he is debating the merits of drinking margaritas with and without salt. The book is at its best when Schuze and Susannah bounce ideas and theories off each other and Orenduff is able to unleash his talent for creating consistently witty and occasionally hilarious dialogue.
THE POT THIEF is a quick read, offering a satisfying mystery and a glimpse into life in the American Southwest. The resolution to the whodunit, in which Schuze must prove his innocence of the murder charge by sniffing out the real killer, seems a bit forced, but that’s a minor quibble in what is otherwise a very enjoyable book. The third “Pot Thief” adventure is scheduled for release in the fall of 2010.
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: SUMMER AND SHINER by Nolan Carlson
Posted by Agnes in Young adult, adventure on February 7th, 2010
Summer And Shiner
Nolan Carlson
Vintage Expressions, a division of
Vintage Romance Publishing, LLC
ISBN 978-0-9819896-2-4
$12.99
162 pages
Reviewed by Agnes Dee
Summer And Shiner, by Dr. Nolan Carlson tells the story of a boy, 12-year-old Carley, his best friend, Troop, and the raccoon Carley adopts as a pet. Almost every chapter is a story to itself, tied together by the boys‘ summer vacation in the late 1940’s Randall, Kansas.
It’s an idyllic small town life: no crimes are committed, and even the worst people have a good side. However, this book is not sugar-coated. The boys get themselves into some genuinely dangerous situations. At one point, Troop tells of his time spent living on the reservation, and it’s a bit sobering.
The middle-grade child who reads this book will get a good picture of what life was like during the 40’s, living in a small town, while the adult will enjoy the author’s descriptive prose. I’d recommend this to any parent or teacher looking for a wholesome, yet interesting, book.
Dr. Carson has written five books in this series, as well as ten other books, with the goal of writing adventures for the young adult market.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: THE BIG GRABOWSKI by Carolyn Rose and Mike Nettleton
Posted by Amanda in Cozy mystery, Crime on February 7th, 2010
The Big Grabowski
Carolyn J. Rose & Mike Nettleton
Krill Press
ISBN 978 0 9821443 3 6
$19.95 CA, $14.95 US
263 pages
Reviewed by Amanda Capper
The Big Grabowski is the first book I have read by the writing team of Carolyn Rose and Mike Nettleton, but it won’t be the last. I thoroughly enjoyed this laugh-out-loud who-done-it and look forward to reading more of their work.
Molly Donovan has returned to Devil’s Harbour, a town perched on the coast of Oregon and proud of its colourful whirligigs, to help her father, Mike, after his heart attack. A crime reporter, Molly is bored and ready to head back to the big city until Jennifer Daley, one of many memorable characters, spots Vince Grabowski floating amongst the sea lions. When the autopsy suggests murder, and not suicide, Molly’s interest is piqued; but when her father is hauled in by her some-time flame, Sergeant Greg Erdman, as the prime suspect, Molly goes into full battle mode.
The first four pages, depicting seventeen-year-old Jennifer as an aspiring Miss Whirligig in the upcoming town festival is, alone, worth the price of the book. Throw in Henri Trevelle, the gay retired Canadian hockey player; Prudence Deeds, the licentious wife of the mayor; and Icky Ferris, the pot grower who finds the love of his life and changes his ways; and you end up with new favourite authors. Though the cast of suspects is numerous, Rose and Nettleton manage to make each of them unique so the reader has little problem with the quick changes of scenes throughout the book. Even the animals are entertaining; the slutty tabby named Margaret; sea lions who end the book with words of wisdom; and a flatulent humpback whale named Air Biscuit who…well, I won’t spoil the surprise.
I highly recommend The Big Grabowski, and not just for readers who enjoy a well-written cozy but also for aspiring writers who need help in developing characters. Rose and Nettleton make it look easy.
Copyright @ 2010 Amanda Capper
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: SILKS by Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Silks
By Dick Francis and Felix Francis
ISBN 978-0-399-15533-8
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York
Reviewed by Marlene Pyle
I’ve always loved a good legal thriller. (Maybe I’m a frustrated lawyer at heart.) This one has the added appeal of being set in the UK, where the judges and barristers still wear gowns and wigs. That alone was enough to pique my interest. Other people may long to see Big Ben or Buckingham Palace. Me, I’d be thrilled to watch a courtroom drama in London.
Our narrator is a young, widowed attorney named Geoffrey Mason (prompting the nickname, of course, of Perry.) In his free time, Geoffrey can be found at the horse racing track where he rides as an amateur jockey. When another jockey is murdered (with a pitch fork sunk deep into his chest, no less) the prime suspect insists he is innocent and asks Geoffrey to represent him. The case becomes even more personal when Geoffrey receives anonymous phone calls instructing him to lose the case and threatening those closest to him.
If you were a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys fan in your younger days, this is the book for you. I don’t mean to imply that it is childish or juvenile. It’s just that, like those beloved books of my youth, this is a very well-written novel with a tightly crafted plot, and an interesting cast of characters—how many lawyers do you know who race horses in their off hours?
The author is an award-winning crime writer who collaborated with his son on this fast-paced novel. He’s written more than forty books including several which hit the New York Times best sellers list. It’s easy to see why.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Copyright Ⓒ2010 Marlene Pyle
Review: DEVILS ISLAND by Carl Brookins
Posted by Sue Ann in Crime, Suspense, Uncategorized on January 20th, 2010
Devils Island
Carl Brookins
Echelon Press, Laurel, MD, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59080-643-2
Trade Paperback, 238 pages
$13.99
Reviewed by Sue Ann Connaughton
The latest in a sailing mystery series, Devils Island follows the adventures of Seattle heiress, Mary Whitney.
Mary and her relatively new husband, public relations executive Michael Tanner, share a blissful, enviable life. Her vengeful ex-husband, Edwin Tobias, resolves to destroy that life. He gets his chance when Mary and Tanner plan a fly-sail vacation to Bayfield, Wisconsin and Tanner is delayed by work responsibilities in Seattle. Mary ventures forth alone, intending to sail, explore, and contemplate the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior before Tanner arrives.
In Wisconsin, Mary meets a local gadabout with information about her ancestors; cultivates a sailing buddy; and interacts with a Coast Guardsman who enlists her to note any suspicious activity on the Lake. Always, but unbeknownst to Mary, Tobias lurks. From a motor yacht, he stalks Mary on Lake Superior until he is able to set up the optimal conditions for kidnapping her: when she is isolated and without access to radio or cell phone communications. Thus follows a thrilling cat-and-mouse sequence of scenes in which feisty Mary struggles fiercely but is ultimately caught.
Because it’s a sailing adventure, Devils Island naturally includes characteristics of the sport of sailing. However, I found the explanation of sailing procedures and use of jargon to be so excessive that large portions read like a sailing manual. This could have spoiled the readability of the book as a suspense novel. Fortunately, enough of a foreboding atmosphere is maintained throughout to motivate the reader to keep reading by focusing on those aspects of the story that work best: the plot, the action passages, and the interesting characters.
Copyright 2010 Sue Ann Connaughton
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: BEYOND GUILTY by Richard Brawer
Posted by Von Pittman in Crime, Thriller on January 10th, 2010
Beyond Guilty
Richard Brawer
Published by L & L Dreamspell
Trade Paperback: 302 pp.
ISBN 978-1-60318-196-9
$17.95
Reviewed by Von Pittman
As crime novel villains go, “big pharma” is especially timely. It is an entity that many readers will welcome a chance to hate. Beyond Guilty almost certainly will not be the last thriller to outline elaborate and nefarious plots to revolutionize medicine and turn obscene profits. Sloan Wexler, the CEO of Merlin-Akre Pharmaceuticals Company, takes his company up to the edge of a medicinal revolution, “a new way of doing chemistry that molecule-sized rotors, robot arms, shafts, pumps, tanks, syringes, differential gears, bearings and computers would be assembled into a bacterium-sized robot that eventually would be injected into the bloodstream to repair damaged cells or digest harmful pathogens.” Wexler has decided to create an absolute, permanent cure for HIV-AIDS.
Wexler is in a hurry and can find no substitute for human experimentation. He cannot wait for the outcome of legitimate medical and pharmaceutical research trials that would be necessary to perfect a nanomedical cure for AIDS. Willing to go to any extremes, he builds a compound on an otherwise uninhabited Bahamian island to serve as a lab. He hires mercenary former military personnel to guard it. Under the command of the highly intelligent and resourceful Colonel Springer, they keep the curious out and the research subjects in. It is, of course, not easy to find humans willing to be infected with HIV, then to die within weeks, even in the name of science. Thus Wexler has found a clever and prolific source of subjects, the Texas penal system’s death row.
In Texas, convicted murderers taken to the death house at Huntsville for lethal injections. The fortunate few of them selected to be Wexler’s subjects wake to find themselves in a pleasant cottage, on a beautiful beach, with wonderful food that they haven’t tasted in decades. As they begin to process this incredible change in fortune, they note that except for a fenced-in area of water for swimming, the island is surrounded by sharks. And they have no privacy; the guards maintain close electronic surveillance. Most subjects easily resign themselves to a few more pleasurable weeks of life. However, two new arrivals quickly disrupt the system.
Eileen Robinson is a guilt-wracked common-law wife of a recently deceased drug dealer. She is framed and sent to death row for the murder of a politically connected burglar who had tried to steal her old man’s stash. In the Bahamian research compound, she allies herself—romantically and practically—with Mark Chetney, a homicidal serial psychopath, but one who only kills parents who have abused their children. Eileen and Mark make common cause to get off the island, settle scores with their captors, ruin big pharma tycoon Sloan Wexler, and restore Eileen’s reputation, for the sake of her children.
The set-up is long, and occasionally slow, as Eileen’s back story and the means by which Texas’s executioner—Dr. Metcalfe—spare, then snatch, death row prisoners are explained. However, once Eileen and Mark initiate their escape plan, and and Colonel Springer begins his pursuit, the action becomes fast-paced and non-stop.
The author’s inclusion of the concept of nanomedicine in the plot is articulate and intriguing. Some of his characters, especially Wexler, Colonel Springer, and Dr. Metcalfe, Huntsville’s executioner, are nicely done. The book could have profited from better editing. For example, a book featuring pharmaceutical research in a fictional company should not misspell the names of two actual drug companies (Pfizer and Merck).
Readers who like the thrillers and mysteries with a medical theme should find Beyond Guilty interesting and entertaining, as well as faster-paced than most books in this sub-genre.
Copyright @ 2009 Von Pittman
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION
I have a material connection because I received a review copy that I can keep in consideratioin in preparing to write this content. I was not expected to return this item after my review.
Review: AMONG THE MAD by Jacqueline Winspear
Among the Mad
A Maisie Dobbs Novel
Jacqueline Winspear
Picador; Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-42925-6
Paper, 318 pages
$14
Reviewed by Sue Ann Connaughton
Among the Mad is the sixth novel in a series featuring Maisie Dobbs, a British private investigator, psychologist, and former WWI nurse.
On Christmas Eve, 1931, Maisie attempts to offer money to a desperate-looking stranger huddled near her London office. As she approaches, the man blows himself up. Maisie sustains slight injuries. After relating her observations and limited information about the incident to her sometimes-colleague, Detective Inspector Richard Stratton, Maisie carries on with Christmas plans to visit her father in Kent. Meanwhile, an anonymous letter sent to the Home Secretary threatens unspecified harm unless the government provides relief to the unemployed, especially war veterans, within 48 hours. The letter-writer mentions Maisie Dobbs by name, so Stratton whisks her back to London for an emergency meeting at Scotland Yard with Detective Chief Superintendent, Robert MacFarlane. After the 48 hour deadline passes without government action, the letter-writer begins doling out punishment. Potential suspects include British Fascists, suffragettes, Irish groups, disenfranchised veterans, and mental patients. Thus, begins a three-way professional alliance between Maisie, Stratton, and MacFarlane to establish the identities of the letter-writer and the suicide victim; determine their connection to each other and to Maisie; and prevent further destruction.
The novel takes place over a one month period from December 24, 1931 to January 25, 1932. During that month, Maisie dashes from one lead, clue, or hunch, to another to solve the case while finding time to aid her friend Priscilla and her assistant’s wife Doreen in minor subplots. The effects of WWI on England saturate the storyline throughout: poverty, melancholy, hopelessness, fear.
Although coincidences and situations dovetail a little too neatly, Among the Mad is an absorbing novel with an engaging heroine who is a little bit old-fashioned, a little bit modern, and a little bit renaissance. Like the previous books in the Maisie Dobbs Series, this one holds its own as a stand-alone novel because the author skillfully works in the back story. You don’t have to read the previous five books in the series to enjoy Among the Mad, but you will want to do so.
Copyright ⓒ2010 Sue Ann Connaughton
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