Ordinary Grace

by William Kent Krueger, Atria Books, March 2013

...a coming of age story that is engrossing and memorable

The story is set in a small town in Minnesota in the summer of 1961. Folks are going to the soda fountain and drinking ice cold root beers and the Twins are a brand new team in Minnesota.   Our narrator is Frank Drum, the 13 year old son of the local minister.  His father Nathan is a vet haunted by memories of his WWII experiences, his mother Ruth struggles in her role as a minister’s wife.  Frank has a younger brother Jake, wise beyond his years who stutters in public and an older sister Ariel who is an accomplished musician headed for Julliard at the end of this fateful summer.

Frank narrates the story from a perspective 40 years later.  It is a technique that works well.  The first death in the book, a train accident that kills a mentally challenged young boy, sets the stage for the events that will follow.  Frank and Jake are an adventurous duo, walking the edge between serious trouble and normal boyhood adventures.  They spend a lot of time eavesdropping on adults and learning information that alters their take on events.  The author does a nice job in writing about the relationships among the three siblings, it is a family dynamic that rings true.

Frank grows into an adult maturity as he considers and responds to the action in the story.  I particularly enjoyed the writing when he describes his thought process on events.  It seemed so realistic.  The events of the summer are life changing for all involved.  The town will witness multiple deaths at least one of which is a murder.  While this story is described as a murder mystery,  it is not a page turner  and the murderer is apparent well  before it is revealed.  It is more of a coming of age story that examines the role of faith in response to horrific events.  

I liked this book and will search out more by this author.   I think he tells an engrossing  story of how good people struggle with loss, deal with guilt, participate in a community, support each other, weigh whether forgiveness is possible and find comfort in a religious faith.

I read a copy of this novel that I bought.

The Boy in the Snow

by MJ McGrath, Viking Adult, November 2012

This is the second Edie Kiglatuk novel by MJ McGrath.  In this mystery Edie, an Inuit from near the Arctic Circle is in Alaska to support her ex husband Sammy in his Iditarod race.  In a walk in the woods prior to the race, Edie finds a frozen corpse of an infant boy. Who he is, how he died and how he came to be placed in the woods serves as one of two major story lines.  The second story line centers on tourism land development and the cut throat politics that is involved in it.  Edie relentlessly follows the clues related to the infant's death wherever they take her.  An Old Russian Orthodox community comes under suspicion for the child’s death because Edie has reported seeing some members of this community near the spot where she found the boy.  Local prejudices against this reclusive community lead the local police to the Old Believers for their murder suspect. 

The look we get into Inuit culture and customs and descriptions of the landscape of the frozen North are the strong suites of this story.  The author knows this culture and is able to weave into this story many aspects of this fascinating native community.  A scene later in the novel where the characters fight for survival is compelling in its realism.  Unfortunately the mystery and its characters do not hold up through this story.  Edie as the heroine is hard to like; she is somewhat self righteous and lacking in emotion (is Derek a love interest a/o partner -impossible to tell from this story).  The two storylines which finally intersect are improbable at best.  The denouement is way too convenient to accept.  

In my opinion the first novel in this series, White Heat was stronger than this one.  I still think this could be a good mystery series.  Its settings and characters are  unique in a genre where many protagonists are indistinguishable from one another. I think a more focused story with a bit better character development could really improve this series.  Read this one if you love stories of the frozen wilderness, but read White Heat first if you haven’t. 

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

A Pimp's Notes

by Giorgio Faletti, translated by Antony Shugaar,  Farrar Straus and Giroux July 2012

If you like mysteries and want something different read this.

The protagonist in this Italian thriller is Bravo, a shadowy underworld figure who makes his living as a procurer of women for the rich and powerful.  The story is set in the corrupt society that was Italy in the 1970s.  The prime minister, Aldo Muro has been captured by Red Brigades and will soon be murdered. Politicians, police and the Mafia work hand in hand for their own gain.   Right in the middle of this mess you have our most unusual antihero Bravo.  He has been castrated by an unknown assailant (not a spoiler as this fact is announced in the first sentence of the book).  He is wounded not only physically but also spiritually.  We do not learn his back-story until almost the end of the novel and it is a shocker.

The narrative moves slowly until some murders at a high society weekend where a millionaire and a state senator are killed.  Bravo unwittingly finds himself right in the middle of this action.  Then things take off and the twists and turns that the story makes rank it right up there with the best crime noirs.  I surely could not figure out where the story was going.  It is a fairly violent story with plenty of murders throughout.  I found myself rooting for Bravo to prevail in this tale, I think because everyone else in the story was so corrupt and had such self serving motives.  I loved the ending of the story, I know it might be described as contrived but I enjoyed it.

This novel was translated from the Italian and does read well.  After a slow start the story flies along and the characters are well developed.  The author, Giorgio Faletti, has written several mystery thrillers which are very popular in Europe including the number one best seller I Kill.  I enjoyed this story well enough to ensure that I will read more of his work.  If you like mysteries and want something different read this.

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Broken Harbor

by Tana French, Viking Adult July 2012

... an excellent psychological mystery!

Tana French, queen of the psychological thriller is back with more from the Dublin Murder Squad.  This time we meet Scorcher Kennedy, a minor character in one of French’s earlier novels (The Likeness) is a 40 something veteran homicide detective who takes his profession very seriously.  Scorcher follows all of the rules and exercises supreme control of himself and his emotions as he solves cases.  Like all of French’s characters Kennedy has a back-story that will influence this story.  He has a sister Dina, who drifts in and out of psychotic episodes and depends on Scorcher for support. 

The setting for this tale is Ireland in the middle of the cruel economic recession.  The Spain family, Pat and Jenny and two young children Emma and Jack are the victims.  The children have been smothered in their beds, Pat has been stabbed to death and Jenny clings to life in a coma.  Their lives had been in a downward spiral after Pat lost his job.  The author painfully recounts the stresses both financial and emotional that affect families where unemployment has struck.  The list of potential killers includes Connor Brennan a childhood friend of Jenny and Pat who is obsessed with the happiness of the Spain family.  Fiona, Jenny’s sister has something to gain from these murders and becomes a suspect. Throw into the mix the neighbors, the Gogans and you have a rich group of characters. 

Scorcher is assigned the case and given a talented rookie partner Richie Curran who is learning the trade from him.  Scorcher takes his mentoring role very seriously and works to make Richie a good detective.  The investigation proceeds and a number of potential killers are identified and the pair carefully works through the evidence in their effort to solve the crime.  This author is particularly good with explaining the ins and outs of police work.  The writing has a real authenticity to it. 

While in the end I was reasonably sure of who committed these murders, the elegance of French’s novels is not the complexity of the mystery but the journey that her characters make themselves.  What fine fully developed characters these are!  The challenges that Kennedy faces in keeping his balance as disappointment and disillusion abound are very genuine.    This is a harrowing tale that really does not leave anyone including the reader untouched by the end.

 This author would be successful in any genre she chooses; we are lucky to have her writing mysteries!  No disappointment for fans in this offering, it is excellent!

I read a copy of this novel provided by the publisher.

Child 44

by Tom Rob Smith, Grand Central Publishing, April,2008

 ...a great book for mystery fans- highly recommended!

A neighbor handed me this book with a great recommendation.  He was so right.  This is a taut, chilling mystery set in Stalinist Russia.  Leo Demidov, who works for the State Security Service, is a war hero and a believer in the communist state.  As the story opens Leo is charged with explaining away the murder of a co-worker’s child (in communist Russia the state is “crime free”).  Ever dutiful, he carries out this task, despite his desire to work on a more serious case of a defector.  The paranoia that existed is post war Russia is palpable in this story.  There is no one who can be trusted – coworkers, neighbors and even spouses are capable of spying and denouncing. Because Leo has tried to control the savagery of his second in command he is then charged with investigating his wife, Raisa for Anglo-American sympathies.  In the investigation he refuses to denounce her and is demoted and exiled from Moscow.   Leo and Raisa barely escape Moscow with their lives.  Their marriage appears irreparably damaged by Leo’s actions during the investigation. At this point the serial killer plot starts to develop.  The state refuses to recognize that someone is murdering children but Raisa and Leo with the help of ordinary citizens mount an investigation knowing that these actions will doom them.

The plot summary I’ve given really doesn’t convey how good this story is.  The author has done a remarkable job of creating the setting of Stalinist Russia and the fear of being arrested for saying (or even thinking) the wrong thing.  He has conveyed the absolute hopelessness that marked this era.  Leo is a very believable character.  He is far from the standard detective hero, more an anti-hero; he has done some horrible things for the state and is now penitent.   In the 1950s there were still a significant number of Russians who thought that communism was the answer to the chronic poverty and hunger that had challenged Russia.  Leo’s gradual loss of faith in this system is documented throughout this story.  His relationship with his wife Raisa matures as the story progresses and in the end is very credible and convincing.  The serial killer story (based on a real life Russian serial killer from the ‘80s) is excellent.  The tension that develops as Leo and Raisa attempt to prevent the killer from taking another child is palpable.  This is really a page turner.  I will even forgive a bizarre twist at the end of the story. That twist really strained credibility and wasn’t necessary to make this a great book for mystery fans.  Highly recommended!

I read a copy of this book borrowed from a friend.

Another Time, Another Life

by Leif GW Persson  Pantheon,Tra Edition, March 2012

This is a very good mystery

This is a complex murder mystery set in Sweden over a 25 years period.   In 1975 leftist radicals capture the German embassy in Stockholm and inadvertently blow up the embassy.  Several of the radicals are killed and many are gravely injured.  While the radicals are all German the police suspect that they had help from Swedes.   A decade later a seemly unconnected murder of a civil servant is investigated by police officers Bo Jarnebring and Anna Holt.  The investigation is headed up by an incompetent supervisor, Evert Bäckström and despite the best investigative efforts of the police the murder is unsolved and lumped into a series of homosexual sex crimes.  Ten years later the murder case resurfaces and the investigation leads right into the prime minister’s cabinet.

This is a very good mystery.  It is translated from Swedish and has a clinical documentary style to it.  I’m unsure if the author intended this style or it came from the translation but it works well for this story.  The majority of the story deals with the murder investigation and the techniques used by the Swedish police.  This section is very interesting and as good a police procedural as you’ll read.  The character development of the major characters is well done and the author gives them enough of a back-story to make you care about them.  The section of the book that deals with the investigation of a potential government minister reads like an investigative journalist report.  You can really imagine this stuff happening!

I’d highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia

Elegy For Eddie

Elegy For Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear, Harper, March 2012

If you read Maisie you’ll enjoy this one, if you don’t and like historical fiction try this series

In this ninth novel of the series we find Maisie solving the mystery of the death of a boy from her childhood community. Maisie is petitioned by friends of her father who are costermongers (great word!) working the Covet Garden area in London to look into the circumstances around the death of Eddie Pettit, a "slow" boy beloved by all. The investigation takes her from the lowest to the highest classes in British society and expands beyond the scope of the death of a simple working class boy to matters that deal with national security.

The Maisie Dobbs books are really not mysteries in the true who dunnit sense. They are more about the life and times of Londoners in the decades between the World Wars. For those who haven’t read any of this series Maisie is a rags to riches character. She was born in Lambeth the daughter of a costermonger, sent into service as a house maid, mentored by the lord and lady of the house and allowed an education. She was a nurse in WWI and like so many women lost her fiancée in the war. She studies with a famous psychological detective and upon his death inherits his fortune. She struggles with her place in society, never totally comfortable with those she grew up with nor totally at ease with the upper classes with whom she now socializes.  She has an active love life but can never seem to settle for the somewhat restricted life of a married woman in the 1930s.

I think I like these books so well for their historical setting. The time period between the wars saw major changes in British society. The always rigid class system was breaking down, women were joining the workforce, and the transition from horses to automobiles was taking place. The backdrop for all of this is the fear of a new war with Germany, a particularly horrid possibility for those who had suffered and lost so much in WWI. In addition to meeting all kinds of every day London characters the stories are rich in historical references. In this novel set in 1931 an out of power and somewhat down and out Winston Churchill makes an appearance. Also present is Hugh Dowling, a prescient Briton who understood the Nazi threat and did more than anyone to prepare Britain’s air force for the coming air war. Lastly I enjoy the depth of character development in the recurring characters in this series. I guess I am just a sucker for a good historical Upstairs/Downstairs soap opera, gotta finish this post and watch Dowton Abbey! If you read Maisie you’ll enjoy this one, if you don’t and like historical fiction try one out but start at the beginning with Maisie Dobbs- Book 1.


I read a copy of the book provided by the Amazon Vine program for early reviewers.

The Innocent

The Innocent by Taylor Stevens, Crown Publishers, December 2011

...all in all this sequel is not as good as the first book in the series.


Taylor Stevens is back with a second novel featuring Vanessa Michael Munroe as the central character. The story centers on the recovery of a child (Hannah) from a cult (The Chosen). The child was kidnapped from her mother five years before and has now been located in a cult location in Argentina. The child is the daughter of Munroe’s long time friend Logan. Working with Logan and other survivors who have left The Chosen, Munroe hatches the plan to free this child from the cult. Along the way it becomes apparent that the Chosen are also engaged in child sex rings. The action move right along as Munroe inserts herself into the cult family and tries to free Hannah. There are a couple of minor plots that are interspersed throughout the book that also add to the suspense of the story.


Munroe is a flawed heroine at best. Her troubled life has produced a psyche that is deeply damaged. In the first book – The Informationist – Munroe had some violent tendencies that were merely worrying, in this story she has completely broken down and commits some horrifically violent acts while sleep walking (yes, I am not kidding). The author continues to liken Munroe to Lisabeth Salander (Dragoon Tattoo) but these stories are just not that good. They lack the sense of place that comes with the Swedish stories. The heroine lacks the vulnerability present in Salander’s character and the violence seems to me over the top and presented to shock rather than advance the story. The plot is well formed and entertaining but I found the characterizations wanting. All in all this sequel is not as good as the first book in the series.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

A Sea of Troubles

A Sea of Troubles
by Donna Leon, narrated by David Colacci, 8hrs. 7 mins., August 2011

...the tenth novel in this series is every bit as good as earlier ones.

I have always enjoyed the Donna Leon series with Commissario Guido Brunetti as the protagonist and the city of Venice as the backdrop. This is the tenth novel in the series and it is every bit as good as earlier ones. There are a couple of hallmarks of this series. There is always an environmental theme, there is always a slice of Venetian life, and there are always wonderful passages about Italian food and drink. Leon recognizes the corruption and dishonesty of what is the Italian government and despite it has Brunetti working for justice.
This story is centered on the island of Pellistrina, which is a barrier island between the Venetian lagoon and the Adriatic Sea. A tight knit community of fisherman (the Vongolari) closes ranks when the murders of two local fishermen come under police investigation. Nobody would ever describe this story as a thriller but the mystery rolls along at a relaxed pace as Brunetti attempts to know the community on the island. Signorina Electra, beautiful secretary to his superior, insists on visiting relatives on the island in an attempt to dig up information that will solve the murder. Brunetti though loyal to his wife finds himself obsessed with Electra’s safety causing some stress in his marriage and some loss of focus on the key parts of the murder investigation. As Brunetti oversees the investigation we learn more about the deteriorating conditions that challenge the centuries old fishing industry of Venice. There is always a little despair and cynicism in Brunetti’s response to Italian government corruption and it is in evidence here. Despite the obstacles, the investigation moves forward and Brunetti identifies the killer. As he moves to arrest the killer nature intervenes with a legendary storm and chaos ensues. In these stories the mystery takes a back seat to the people and panorama of Venice, but here the denouement holds much more suspense than is usual.

For the first time, I listened to this story rather than read it. I really enjoyed it. The narrator, David Colacci, with a great Italian accent enriched the experience.

I listened to a copy of this novel borrowed from the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Mysteries x 3

Time is short and the holiday chores are piling up so I’ve decided to write short reviews for three books I’ve finished in the last week or so. All are mysteries and have many things in common. This is my go to genre so I read a lot of these stories and I can be fairly critical but I liked each of these books. They have plots that are complex and interesting, characters that are well defined and endings that worked for me. The first two have recurring characters – Kinsey Millhone in V is for Vengeance and Harry Bosch in The Drop. I like the familiarity of these series; I feel like I know these detectives and enjoy the minor characters that recur in the narrative as well. These detectives are always righteous and after the bad guys even if they bend the rules a bit – they are easy to like. The third book – Headhunters – has an unsympathetic and unethical hero that somehow you end up rooting for possibly because the villain in this story is so wacko!

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton, Putnam, November 2011 – We reconnect with Kinsey who is working her way alphabetically through the crime in the fictional town of Santa Teresa in California. Kinsey is a reluctant detective who when she interrupts a shop lifting gang is drawn into a complex mystery that includes gangsters, a dirty cop, a lonely senior citizen mourning the loss of his fiancée, and a society woman flirting with danger. Kinsey continues to be Kinsey – not caring about her appearance, continuing her penchant for junk food, drinking bad wine at Rosie's and partaking in her daily jogging routine. The plot is way too complex to summarize but it is as good as any in this enjoyable series.

The Drop by Michael Connolly, Little Brown & Co. November, 2011 – Harry Bosch, the LAPD homicide detective is back and after the bad guys. In the last couple of books he has had this annoying partner, Stephen Chu and he is again in this story. A prominent city hall lawyer (aka fixer) is found dead on the pavement of a plush Hollywood hotel. Was he thrown from the balcony or is it suicide? The dead man is the son of one of Harry’s old enemies, Irvin Irving. At Irving’s request Harry is assigned the case. Concurrently, Harry is investigating a cold case murder of a young woman raped and killed 20 years ago in Venice Beach. Each of these cases takes multiple twists and turns before they are solved. Harry also continues to be Harry – he still likes jazz, he has a new girlfriend in every book (here it is Dr. Hannah Stone), his daughter is a key part of his life and he is hell bent to find out the truth in each case he works. Highly recommended. I listened to the audio book of this story that was read by Len Cariou. Cariou did a good job on the narration but I could not get his Blue Blood character (Henry Reagan) out of my head. I kept picturing Reagan instead of Bosch.

Headhunters by Jo Nesbǿ, Vintage, September, 2011 – This is a Norwegian story that has been translated into English. It is a little quirky. It is first person narrated by the protagonist Robert Brown. Brown is a half Norwegian, half English employee of a headhunting firm responsible for filling most of the executive positions in Norwegian industry. He has a glamorous wife who is an art dealer. They live beyond their means and we slowly come to realize that Brown has a second career as an art thief. He meets his match in Claus Greve, a Dutch executive who Brown courts for a CEO position in Norway. Brown arranges to steal an expensive piece of art from Greve. Greve is not what he seems and Brown soon has the tables turned finding himself running for his life. This story moves right along, it has plenty of black humor and the prose is spare and descriptive. There is at least one plot twist that the author has that I never saw coming. The body count was a little high for me but the violence is contained to one or two scenes. Somehow the author is able to get your sympathy for Brown and I found myself rooting for him to succeed. This book is a standalone mystery, the author Jo Nesbǿ has a series with a detective (Harry Hole) that I’d try after reading this story.

The Girl Who...

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The Girl Who Played with Fire

by Steif Larrson, Knopf, 2009, 2010

I realize I may be the last person in the western world to read these mysteries. I read the first novel in the trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) when it was published in English. I enjoyed it but was left wondering what the buzz was about this series. I recently read the last two and I have the same reaction. These are good mysteries no doubt, but in my mind not to the level of best stories from P.D.James, Michael Connolly or even Tana French.

Spoilers ahead. The last two books are in reality one story that deals with Lisbeth Salander’s life. In Dragon Tattoo she is introduced as a fairly quirky character but we don't learn much of her life story. In these stories we are told about her KGB defector father and the cruelty of her early life. The kid couldn’t get a break and things aren’t improving for her here. She is wrongly accused of the murders of an investigative journalist and his partner who were in the process of exposing a sex trafficking ring. While most of Sweden believes her guilty she is assisted only by Blomkvist and a loyal group of supporters. In Fire the action centers on the chase to catch Salander and convict her of the murders, ending the story with her shot in the head after a violent confrontation with her father and a previously unknown half brother. Hornet’s Nest picks right up where Fire stopped. The key story line here is the cover-up within the Swedish Secret Police that allowed Salander’s father to operate with impunity as a criminal in Sweden. This story is the weakest of the three. There are pages upon pages that attempt to explain the Swedish government system of checks and balances or lack thereof. There is no end to administrative steps that go on as Blomkvist et al attempt to roll up the Secret Police cabal who are responsible for Salander’s troubles. Within the Secret Police there isn't a strong villian character to focus on.  Salander is in either the hospital or in jail throughout the entire story so there is way less action in this novel. There are some side stories in this one that help a bit with the lack of action in the main event but not enough in my opinion.

So I’d say if you read mysteries and thrillers you should probably read this trilogy. Tattoo was far and away the best, Fire was decent but Hornet’s Nest was a yawner for me. The English language version of Dragon Tattoo (Michael Craig as Blomkvist, Rooney Mara as Salander) will be released by Sony Pictures in December of this year. I bet that only adds to the hype that these books have received. Can’t figure it out!

I read copies of these novels borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

Shelter - Review and Giveaway

Shelter: A Mickey Bolitar Novel by Harlan Coben, Putnam, September 2011

Mystery lovers of all ages enjoy!

Shelter is published as a teen novel, but I thought it was a pretty good adult read. Harlen Coben introduced Mickey Bolitar in Live Wire and now gives him his own story. He is a bright, energetic, high school student who is having a really bad year. He has witnessed his father’s death and is now dealing with his mother’s drug addiction. Forced to live with his uncle Myron he starts the school term by meeting an enchanting girl, Ashley, who quickly becomes his girlfriend. Just as quickly she goes missing without a trace. Working with some quirky new friends he has made at school Mickey tries to find Ashley. He uncovers a conspiracy and along the way finds out some things that cause him to question his father’s death.

The writing is good, the wry humor that Coben is noted for is fully present and actually sounds realistic coming from a teenage boy. The plotting is also good; the action moves right along. I think this will be a successful series for Coben and will bring new young readers to the mystery genre. Mystery lovers of all ages enjoy!

I am happy to giveaway my gently used copy of the novel.  Follow the rules posted to the right of review.  Giveaway ends September 9, 2011

I read an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

Shut Your Eyes Tight

Shut Your Eyes Tight (Dave Gurney, No. 2): A Novel  by John Verdon, Crown Publishing, July, 2011

...the plotting was complex and engrossing but at 500+ pages it is just too long

Shut Your Eyes Tight is the second novel to feature Dave Guerney, the highly decorated, retired NYPD detective now living in upstate New York. Guerney is enticed into an investigation where a bride has been beheaded at her wedding reception. The obvious suspect is nowhere to be found and the police investigation is stalled. Guerney is hired by the victim’s mother to investigate the murder. Guerney uncovers clues that the police have overlooked and the investigation focuses on sex crimes, a sex procurement business and a school for young sexual predators.


I thought the mystery element of this book was very satisfactory. The plotting was complex and engrossing and the denouement was quite good. The story really needs better editing though, and at 500+ pages it was just too long. Many passages share the detective’s thoughts and doubts and really doesn’t advance the story. The other disappointment I had was Guerney’s personal life didn’t progress at all. He still has a poor relationship with his son, if the author is not going to develop this side story just leave it out of the book. He still has a poor relationship with his wife. I found the passive/aggressive wife to be a very inconsistent character, again not really well developed or very appealing. I think the author needs to jettison all of his personal life if he can’t do a better job developing it in subsequent books.

So in summary, this book doesn’t improve on the promising debut novel Think of A Numb3r but I’ll probably read the next in the series in hopes that this author can sharpen his writing.

I read a copy of this novel that I received through the Amazon Vine program.

The Return of Captain John Emmett

The Return of Captain John Emmett
 by Elizabeth Speller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, July 2011

Some of the prose was excellent, the research was outstanding but it did not all come together for me


London in 1920 is the setting for this mystery. The protagonist is Laurence Bartram, a young widower who has lost his wife and child while he was serving at the front in France in WWI. Bartram is withdrawn and uninvolved in life as he struggles to deal with the horrors of the war and the personal losses he has suffered. A letter from the sister of a school friend asking him to investigate the circumstances of her brother’s suicide draws him back into society. Laurence, with the obligatory sidekick, his friend Charles looks into the suicide of Captain John Emmett. As you might expect the investigation uncovers evidence that makes the suicide less likely and murder more likely. Laurence finds that Capt. Emmett was involved in an incident during the war where an officer was charged with cowardice and executed for it. This allows the author to examine how shellshock was treated during the First World War, as he continues to puzzle out the circumstances of Emmett’s death.
I may have World War I fatigue myself. I have read quite a bit of both fiction and nonfiction from that time period. This story had good period detail and examined an interesting issue – the way the military handled soldiers who refused to fight – but all in all it left me fairly unexcited. The mystery aspect was long and meandering. Bartram never focused on the obvious suspects - relatives of the executed officer. When the murderer was revealed he arrived from left field in my opinion. Also the characters were not well developed despite lots of detail I found myself hard pressed to care about them. I think the issue may have been that the author couldn’t decide whether he was writing a mystery or writing literacy fiction. Some of the prose was excellent, the research was outstanding but it did not all come together for me. If you are interested in the effects of WWI on the post war British I’d recommend the Maisie Dobbs series. In that series the characters are well drawn and the mystery complex enough to engage. Also quite good are the early novels by Charles Todd in the Ian Rutledge series. Perhaps if I hadn’t read mysteries in those two series I’d be kinder to this one but it just didn’t do it for me.

I read a copy of this book borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia.

White Heat

White Heat: A Novel

by MJ McGrath, Viking Adult, August 2011

...The mystery part was engaging if in the end a little farfetched but the setting in the far north was very interesting.

This is a mystery set in the Arctic tundra. The protagonist is Edie Kiglatuk, a half Inuit half Caucasian guide. Because of her mixed background and because she is a woman she struggles for acceptance in her village. When she is leading a hunting trip with two tourists and one is shot dead she senses that this death was not an accident. Following this event the suicide of her stepson leads her to believe that something is rotten in the small village where she lives. Initially unable to get the interest of the police inspector Derek Palliser, she, using her hunting skills, works to solve these crimes. Edie keeps to the native Inuit beliefs that include an appreciation of nature and the surrounding environment and the place of all creatures living and dead in the circle. Not to give away too much of the plot let me just say we are treated to a tour of the far north, from Arctic Canada to Greenland.

This story has an authentic feel to it. The author has included many words from the Inuit language and while they seem almost unpronounceable they do add to the uniqueness of this story. All of the Inuit lifestyle is embedded in the novel. Sustenance living, dependent in the north on hunting, fishing and trapping skills is shown in an interesting way. The absolute place of weather and seasonal changes on the lives of the Inuit’s is integral to this story. Also the descriptions of how the Intuits relate and interact with the white political establishment had a real ring of truth to it. In a place so far from the centers of power the law has only a limited ability to touch people. Inuit culture has a more stabilizing value to the villagers than anything the white man has to offer.

I enjoyed this mystery. The mystery part was engaging if in the end a little farfetched but the setting in the far north was very interesting. The characters including Edie and Inspector Palliser were well drawn and very likeable. I’ll look forward to the next entry in this new series
I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.

4:50 From Paddington

4:50 From Paddington: A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie, read by Joan Hickson, 7 hours, 7 minutes

It's been a long time since I read an Agatha Christie mystery and I had forgotten just how good they are.  This is a Miss Marple mystery that was read by the wonderful Joan Hickson who has played Miss Marple on stage and screen.  The murder takes place as two trains slowly pass one another on the track.  A friend of Miss Marple's sees the strangulation and reports it .  Only Miss Marple believes her and follows with a thoughtful investigation.  The setting is a large family estate Rutherford Hall (so many Christie's have this setting)  with a family - the Crackinthorpes (love the name) with many members.  No more of the mystery from me!  If you are looking for a good read or a good listen Agatha Christie is always a good choice.  Some of the BBC full cast productions of Christie are also good options - try One Two Buckle Your Shoe.

Today's question on the Audio Week list is do you like sound effects in audio books.  With out going into a rant let me just say no!  It's a book not a play. 

I listened to a copy of this story downloaded from The Free Library of Philadelphia

A Lesson in Secrets

A Lesson in Secrets: A Maisie Dobbs Novel
by Jacqueline Winspear, Harper, March, 2011

While this book is a little light on the mystery it is a worthy addition to the series

This book is the eighth in the Maisie Dobbs series and can easily be read as a standalone book but I really suggest you start at the beginning if you are new to the series. The two hallmarks of this series are period detail and character development. This story like the previous ones is set in Britain between the world wars. Maisie, a psychologist and private investigator is now an independent woman with an inheritance from her mentor Maurice.  She is asked by the government to investigate subversive activities at a pacifist college in Cambridge. Since this is a mystery there is the requisite murder but that story line is almost secondary to the descriptions of British life. Maisie encounters the nascent fascist movement among her students. In typical fashion the government is not worried about the Nazis but about potential communists. In the midst of the murder investigation Maisie discovers a government cover-up of a WWI mutiny where British and German soldiers refused to continue the front line fighting.

While the lasting effects of the First World War on the British has been an integral part of this series, the coming war gives the series and this book a sense of dread that is palpable. On a more optimistic note things are going very well in Maisie’s private life, her love affair with the aristocratic son of her former employer is advancing nicely, her assistant Billy and his family are recovering from the death of a child and her elderly father has a girlfriend.

While this book is a little light on the mystery it is a worthy addition to the series. The author has a talent for realistic descriptions of characters at all levels of British society from her assistant Billy a working stiff to her former employers, Lord and Lady Compton. In this book Maisie for the first time works for the government security forces, a relationship sure to continue as the country moves towards war. Maisie is really the linchpin of these books, daughter of a costermonger (love that word) a former parlor maid who has risen to independence without sacrificing her integrity – she is one of my favorite mystery detectives!

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.