Crime Fiction – Page 142

Best Crime Fiction January-June 2012

Published on July 4, 2012September 1, 2017 by Margaret1 Comment

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is collecting readers’ best crime fiction reads for the year up to the end of June. She asks for the title, author and year of publication of your best 10 (or so) reads. They do not need to be recent publications.

These are the titles that I’ve rated at least 4/5:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (1859)
The Burry Man’s Day by Catriona McPherson (2006)
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie (1940)
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie (1976)
The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi (2007)
Before the Poison by Peter Robinson (2011)
Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death by W J Burley (1990)
The Redeemed by M R Hall (2011)
Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves (2010)
Fatherland by Robert Harris (1992)
The Coroner by M R Hall (2009)
Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (2009)
Endless Night by Agatha Christie (1967)

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month – June 2012

Published on July 3, 2012July 1, 2024 by Margaret7 Comments

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise by Kerrie. I read 5 crime fiction books this month and my pick of the month is:

Red Bones by Ann Cleeves

Red Bones is the third book in Ann Cleeves’s Shetland Quartet. It’s set on Whalsay, where two young archaeologists, excavating a site on Mima Williams’s land, discover human bones. They are sent away for testing – are they an ancient find or are the bones more contemporary? Sandy Wilson, Inspector Jimmy Perez’s sergeant is Mima’s grandson. He is visiting his family when late one night he finds Mima’s body. It appears she was shot accidently by his cousin Ronald, out shooting rabbits. Then one of the archaeologists is also found dead, and even though it appears to be suicide Jimmy and Sandy are not convinced, thinking it could be murder.

I really like these Shetland mysteries. They are complicated and slow-moving books that enable you to immerse yourself in the mystery. The characters have depth and the locations are superbly described. In this book Ann Cleeves explores both the history of the island, its close-knit community, its traditions and the intricacies of the close family relationships. In contrast to the rest of the series the novel is narrated by Sandy as well as Jimmy and consequently both their innermost thoughts and feelings are revealed.

Red Bones is currently being filmed for a two-part TV drama. More good news – Ann Cleeves’s website reveals that there is another Jimmy Perez mystery in progress – Dead Water to be published in January 2013.

The four books in the Shetland series are:

Crime Fiction Alphabet: G is for Sue Grafton

Published on July 2, 2012March 17, 2026 by Margaret8 Comments

This week’s letter in Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet is the Letter G.

Sue Grafton is the author of the alphabet- titled series of books featuring Kinsey Millhone, a private investigator. So far there are 22 books in the series covering the letters A – V. For the full list see Sue Grafton’s website.

The books are set in and around the fictional town of Santa Teresa, California, based on Santa Barbara, where Grafton has a home in the suburb of Montecito. She was born in 1940, the daughter of detective novelist C. W. Grafton. She began writing at the age of 18 and before writing the Kinsey Millhone novels she was a TV scriptwriter. I think it’s remarkable that her novels have been published in 28 countries and in 26 languages, including Bulgarian and Indonesian, but she has no wish to sell the film and television rights to her books. Based on the one book of hers that I’ve read, A is for Alibi, I think they would make an excellent TV series, but maybe it’s a good decision. TV adaptations have a most irritating tendency of changing plots and the characters rarely match up to my mental images!

A is for Alibi was first published in 1982.

Synopsis from Grafton’s website:

When Laurence Fife was murdered, few mourned his passing. A prominent divorce attorney with a reputation for single-minded ruthlessness on behalf of his clients, Fife was also rumored to be a dedicated philanderer. Plenty of people in the picturesque Southern California town of Santa Teresa had a reason to want him dead. Including, thought the cops, his young and beautiful wife, Nikki. With motive, access, and opportunity, Nikki was their number one suspect. The jury thought so too.

Eight years later and out on parole, Nikki Fife hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killed her late husband.

A trail that is eight years cold. A trail that reaches out to enfold a bitter, wealthy, and foul-mouthed old woman and a young boy, born deaf, whose memory cannot be trusted. A trail that leads to a lawyer defensively loyal to a dead partner – and disarmingly attractive to Millhone; to an ex-wife, brave, lucid, lovely – and still angry over Fife’s betrayal of her; to a not-so-young secretary with too high a salary for too few skills – and too many debts left owing: The trail twists to include every turn until it finally twists back on itself with a killer cunning enough to get away with murder.

My view:

I thought this was a well constructed and convincing murder mystery. Kinsey is a likeable, strong character. In this first book she comes across as a loner. She’s 32, twice divorced with no children or pets, or indeed any ties, although she does have plenty of friends and contacts who help out with her investigations and she goes jogging – a lot. There are some cameos of characters, who I suspect feature in the later books. There is her landlord Henry Pitts, a former baker aged 81 who makes a living devising crossword puzzles. Kinsey is ‘halfway in love’ with Henry.

It’s a fast-paced book, easy to read and with no gory details, which I have to skim read in other books (the equivalent of watching the TV behind my fingers). I liked it and now will have to find the other books in the series.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: F is for Fatherland

Published on June 25, 2012June 14, 2022 by Margaret8 Comments

This week it’s the letter F in Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet. I’ve chosen Fatherland by Robert Harris.

It’s a fast-paced thriller set in Germany in 1964, but not the historical Germany of that date, because Hitler is approaching his 75th birthday, and Germany had won the Second World War ‘“ it’s historical fiction that never was ‘“ an alternative history. And yet many of the characters actually existed, their biographies are correct up to 1942 and Harris quotes from authentic documents in the book. The Berlin of the book is the Berlin that Albert Speer planned to build.

What is definite is that this is a murder mystery, beginning with the discovery of the naked body of an old man, lying half in the Havel, a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. The homicide investigator is Xavier March of the Kriminalpolizei (the Kripo) and the victim is Josef Buhler, one of the former leading members of the Nazi Party who had been instrumental in devising ‘˜the final solution’. As March digs deeper, despite being taken off the case by the Gestapo, he discovers a larger conspiracy as more of the former leading Nazis are murdered.

March is in some ways a typical cop, disillusioned, sceptical and suspicious of authority. He’s also divorced and losing the respect of his son, with disastrous effects. He isn’t the only one investigating the deaths. Charlie Maguire, a female American journalist has her own reasons for wanting to uncover the murderer and together they travel to Zurich to inspect the private Swiss bank account of one of the victims.

It’s a complex book and leads March into a very dangerous situation as he discovers the truth. It’s a real page-turner, full of suspense and consequently I read it very quickly, eager to know what happened next and what lay behind the murders. The ending is suitably ambiguous – it’s not the sort of book where all the loose ends are neatly tied up. Neither is the alternative history element dominant, although I did find all the little details fascinating. For example Churchill and the Royal Family have gone to Canada and Joseph Kennedy is the US president. It is predominantly crime fiction, that makes you think about the nature of good and evil and about the ways in which society handles corruption.

Crime Fiction Alphabet : Letter D

Published on June 11, 2012 by Margaret7 Comments

This week’s letter in Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet is the letter D.

I’ve chosen to focus on Dana Stabenow, an Alaskan writer. I came across her books through Amazon Kindle, where her first book in the Kate Shugak seriesis available for free! It’s A Cold Day for Murder, which won an Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 1993.

Dana’s biography is on her website, where there is a complete list of her books. She’s a prolific writer who writes science fiction, mystery, and suspense/thriller novels.

The books in her series about Kate Shugak, an Aleut who is an investigator living in a National Park in Alaska, are:

1. A Cold Day for Murder (1992)
2. A Fatal Thaw (1992)
3. Dead in the Water (1993)
4. A Cold-blooded Business (1994)
5. Play With Fire (1995)
6. Blood Will Tell (1996)
7. Breakup (1997)
8. Killing Grounds (1998)
9. Hunter’s Moon (1999)
10. Midnight Come Again (2000)
11. The Singing of the Dead (2001)
12. A Fine and Bitter Snow (2002)
13. A Grave Denied (2003)
14. A Taint in the Blood (2004)
15. A Deeper Sleep (2007)
16. Whisper to the Blood (2009)
17. A Night Too Dark (2010)
18. Though Not Dead (2011)
19. Restless in the Grave (2012)
20. Bad Blood (2013)

Novellas:
Conspiracy (2011)
Nooses Give (2011)
Wreck Rights (2011)

There’s more information on Dana’s writing on her blog. I’m only part way into read A Cold Day for Murder, but so far I’m finding it fascinating with lots of description of both the setting, environmental issues and the characters. Kate comes across as a strong and independent female detective.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 – Letter C

Published on June 6, 2012 by Margaret3 Comments

The Crime Fiction Alphabet is run by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. This week’s letter is the letter C.

C is for Catriona McPherson, who writes the Dandy Gilver Mysteries. She is a Scottish author who was born in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh. Until 2010 she lived in Galloway and now lives in Northern California. Catriona, by the way, is pronounced Kuh-TREE-nuh (just like the hurricane). In addition to her website she has a blog, sitting typing alone in a room, where she writes about being a writer, gardening on her farm in North California, and reading.

Her favourite books include Rebecca, The Water Method Man, The Pursuit of Love, Agent to the Stars, The Bean Trees, Jane Eyre, After These Things, Wolf Hall, The World’s Wife, Oryx and Crake, The Handless Maiden,The Testament of Gideon Mack. (copied from her facebook page)

The first Dandy Gilver novel was short-listed for the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger 2005 and the second was long-listed for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award 2007.There are currently six Dandy Gilver books available with the seventh due out in July:

(Links are to my posts)

1. After the Armistice Ball (2005)
2. The Burry Man’s Day (2006)
3. Bury Her Deep (2007)
4. The Winter Ground (2008)
5. The Proper Treatment of Bloodstains (2009)
6. Unsuitable Day for a Murder (2010)
7. Bothersome Number of Corpses (2012)