My, how time flies

It's been a little while-- 18 months! -- since I've recorded any books here. I'm not going to be able to recover much, I'm afraid. But randomly, here's what I can remember:

Wodehouse: The Small Bachelor (meh), Love Among the Chickens (meh), all the Psmith books (awesome; had already read two or three).

Some not-so-hot Ian Rankin books: Hide and Seek, The Black Book, Mortal Causes, Strip Jack, and one -- Tooth and Nail -- which was so creepy I decided I was done with Rankin and Rebus, who I never liked much anyway.

Probably the best thing I read in 2010: Dombey and Son. Dickens was a genius who understood the human mind and heart. And what flat-out awesome prose he could produce:

Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty minutes. Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet. On the brow of Dombey, Time and his brother Care had set some marks, as on a tree that was to come down in good time - remorseless twins they are for striding through their human forests, notching as they go - while the countenance of Son was crossed with a thousand little creases, which the same deceitful Time would take delight in smoothing out and wearing away with the flat part of his scythe, as a preparation of the surface for his deeper operations.

Sigh.

man and wife

by Andrew Klavan

A psychological mystery. Had a bit of a Josephine Tey vibe, a la Brat Farrar. I'll read more Klavan for sure.

everybody kills somebody sometime

Sounds cheesy and it is. I was childishly delighted when Steve brought this home from the library


But it just wasn't very good. I won't bother with the others, even Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die.

donald westlake

The next book I read will be by Mr. Westlake. He wrote comic mysteries as well as hard-boiled detective fiction.

(Photo: Louis Lanzano - AP)

From the Corner:

Donald Westlake R.I.P. [Mark Hemingway]

One of the best crime/mystery writers around just passed away. The work of the prolific Westlake, also wrote under the pen name Richard Stark, was the subject of numerous Hollywood adaptions including the influential Point Blank with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson (the more recent Mel Gibson vehicle Payback was based on the same classic Stark novel), the underrated Robert Redford heist movie The Hot Rock and others. I don't know if Westlake was a conservative, but he was a favorite author of Bill Kristol and once wrote a piece for The Weekly Standard, FWIW.

UPDATE: Terry Teachout, critic par excellence, was a fan of Westlake and has a nice remembrance here.

01/01 08:58 PM

Don't miss the Teachout remembrance mentioned above.

From the Post:

Westlake wrote more than 90 books, mostly on a typewriter. Aside from his own name, he also used several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and Edwin West, in part because people didn't believe he could write so much so quickly.

The print-version of the Post ran a longer and better article. In it, Westlake is called "the funniest man in the world" by Carolyn See. Patricia Sullivan writes, "As Richard Stark he produced the leanest, bleakest and fastest-moving crime novels of the 1960's."

I know that when I check, I'll find that my husband has already gone online and reserved some Westlake books for us from the library. :) Thanks!

the case of the gilded fly

by Edmund Crispin

Well, I finished The Case of the Gilded Fly. If I had been in a better frame of mind, I might have enjoyed it more. I was more or less obsessed with the presidential election while reading it, and I was impatient with the erudite and mannered Oxford characters, and the quirky Gervase Fen. Once again, I was left cold by the characters. This happens to me so often, I'm beginning to wonder if the fault lies in myself.

I do think it would be worthwhile to try more books by this author. I did love the writing, especially the beginning passages I mentioned earlier.

finished knots and crosses, started the case of the gilded fly

Knots and Crosses was pretty good, especially if you like the deranged-serial-killer-with- past-personal-link-to-detective genre. I'm going to try another one. They're not the refined type of British, or in this case, Scottish (or is it Scotch?) mystery, but more down and dirty. But our policeman, Sgt. Rebus, is different and kinda believable.

Meanwhile, I've started The Case of the Gilded Fly. Very British. Written in 1954, set in 1940 in Oxford. Characters are sophisticated and nasty (some of them, anyway). I loved the beginning - wonderful writing about a train slowly, maddeningly arriving at Oxford station. Also great writing about our sleuth, a professor of English who is an amateur policeman, close pal of a policeman who's an amateur literary critic. I'll try to post a couple of excerpts.

This book has a theater context. That's a negative for me; I find the whole theater thing wearisome, even when it's presented in a critical light. But I'll continue.

knots and crosses

by Ian Rankin

I'm reading the first book in the John Rebus series. Set in Edinborough. Sgt. Rebus is after a serial killer. Shades of Inspector Morse, mostly in that the protagonist drinks and smokes to excess, and has various other personal problems. Really quite different from Morse, though. Rebus does more police "grunt work" than Morse ever did.

I'm not too far into it, but so far it's quite good. Rankin is a skilled writer, and not prone to the political or cultural correctness so typical of recent mystery writers.

Follow-up post here.

distractions

How, pray tell, am I supposed to get anything done when husband brings home goodies like this from the library?

33 stories. Among the authors included:

• Arthur Conan Doyle
• R. Austin Freeman
• G K Chesterton
• Ronald Knox
• Agatha Christie
• Dorothy Sayers
• Ngaio Marsh
• Margery Allingham
• Nicholas Blake
• Julian Symons
• P D James
• Edmund Crispin
• Ruth Rendell
• Robert Barnard
• Simon Brett

Edited by Patricia Craig
1990
554 pages

winspear, winton

I read a modern mystery, and sampled another.

Read Jacqueline Winspear's An Incomplete Revenge. It was okay. I probably won't try any of her others. Good points: not graphic or vulgar, set between the wars, feminism but not the aggressive strain. Bad points: the gypsy vibe didn't do much for me, and once again I wasn't invested in the characters. I should have read the first Maisie Dobbs book first, but it was recalled to the library before I had a chance. Perhaps I'd be more attached to the main character if I had done things properly.

I sampled Dirt Music by Tim Winton. Certainly a skilled writer, but not my cup of tea. Rough and tumble characters in wild Australia.

becoming attached, incomplete revenge

I'm about a third of the way through Becoming Attached by Robert Karen, Ph. D. An excellent writer, he explains the theory of attachment by telling the story from the beginning, presenting a narrative of the history of child psychology and psychoanalysis. The story, with its fascinating personalities and raging controversies, is compelling. The detailed accounts of emotionally deprived children from the various studies makes for a sometimes painful reading experience.

So, to give myself a break, I'm also reading a mildly engaging mystery, Jacqueline Winspear's An Incomplete Revenge, set in England between the wars.

favorite mystery writers

The best mysteries feature poison pen letters, herbaceous borders, a corpse before page 20, and buckets of strong tea.

Agatha Christie, the Original and the Best

Notable titles:

Sad Cypress
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
A Pocketful of Rye
The Moving Finger

She published from 1920 to the 70's.


Dorothy Sayers
The nine Peter Wimseys are must-reads. Written in the 20's and 30's.

Ngaio Marsh
Publishing from 1934 until her death in 1982. A pro.

Josephine Tey
The Franchise Affair and Brat Farrar , written in the 40's, are especially good.

P D James
Writing from the 60's to the present. See post.

Colin Dexter
Good old Inspector Morse. Lovable in spite of his various personal problems. The Morse books were written between 1975 and 1999.

p d james

She is an undisputed master of her genre. I eagerly devoured most of her novels. My favorite might be A Taste for Death. These police procedurals, enriched with psychologically complex characters, take place in the bubble of a limited group of suspects, a la Agatha Christie. It's a formula, but a very satisfying one.

But readers may eventually tire of her hero, Adam Dalgliesh. He's been a bad influence on a generation of detectives who have striven to be as brilliant, sophisticated, cultured, and sensitive as he. But how could they possibly compete with a Scotland Yard detective who is also a published poet?!

The following question (roughly accurate) from one of her later books was the last straw for me. As Dalgliesh considers retiring from the Yard, he wonders, "But would I then still be a poet?"

Other creators of handsome, brilliant, politically correct sleuths include Elizabeth George (talk about relationship angst) and Deborah Crombie.

deborah crombie mysteries

Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James books. The first couple of these were good. After that, the relationships took over, with all the usual angst and rending of garments. I can't remember how many I read, maybe all but the last one.

• A Share in Death (1993)
• All Shall be Well (1994)
• Leave the Grave Green (1995)
  
• Mourn Not Your Dead (1996)
  
• Dreaming of the Bones (1997)
  
• Kissed a Sad Goodbye (1999)
  
• A Finer End (2001)
  
• And Justice There is None (2002)
  
• Now May You Weep (2003)
  
• In a Dark House (2005)
  
• Water Like a Stone (2007)
  

iain pears' "art history mysteries"

"Art History Mysteries" by Iain Pears:
The Raphael Affair
The Titian Committee
The Bernini Bust
The Last Judgment
Giotto's Hand
Death and Restoration
The Immaculate Deception

I liked these. More refined and gentle than most contemporary mysteries. Likeable characters.

out of the blackout

by Robert Barnard

Another Felony & Mayhem selection. A small boy who is evacuated from London during WWII is never reclaimed by his parents. Interesting but forgettable.

books by patricia carlon

I recently read 3 pretty good books by Patricia Carlon: The Price of an Orphan, Crime of Silence, and Hush, It's a Game. She was Australian and wrote under many pseudonyms. The titles I read were written between 1965-1970. They were compelling and not offensive in the usual way many contemporary books are. But the 4th book, Death by Demonstration, was so dull I didn't finish it. It was concerned with student uprisings and filled with the students' political "thought." Blurbs on the back of the Carlon books indicate I might also enjoy Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) and Patricia Highsmith, mentioned above.

a very private enterprise

by Elizabeth Ironside

I read this a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to find that I drew a complete blank when I tried to remember what it was about. So I guess I'd have to call it forgettable. I went to Amazon to refresh my memory. It was well-written, as were her other books, but somehow not as engaging. The main character, a middle-aged man, was a rather detached personality. The setting was India, which didn't add or detract anything for me. Eh.

books I've read in the past month

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
Rupert of Henzau (sequel to above)

Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Raising Your Child, Not by Force but by Love by Sidney Craig

A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside

Ramage books, 10-14, by Dudley Pope

St. Monica by F. A. Forbes

Winning Souls for Christ by Raoul Plus, S. J.

donna leon's guido brunetti books

Donna Leon: mysteries set in Venice, featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. I read 4 or 5 of these. They were okay. Pretty good summer reading. The Venetian setting was the best feature.

1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994) aka Dressed for Death
4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995) aka Death and Judgment
5. Acqua Alta (1996) aka Death in High Water
6. The Death of Faith (1997) aka Quietly in Their Sleep
7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
8. Fatal Remedies (1999)
9. Friends in High Places (2000)
10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
12. Uniform Justice (2003)
13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
18. About Face (2009)

anna's book

by Ruth Rendell as Barbara Vine

I guess it's just a coincidence that this, like the Elizabeth Ironside books mentioned earlier, is a mystery that jumps back and forth between the past and the present. The modern characters learn of, and solve, a mystery that originated in the past. This was fairly compelling reading, but for some reason felt like a longer book than it was - not a plus. Maybe the tedium arose from the diary format that part of the book is written in. Again, I felt less than totally involved with the characters, but still it wasn't bad.