Okay, this should be the last of the fiction.
41. An Elderly Lady is up to No Good, by Helene Tursten. "No good" doesn't begin to describe it! Maud is 88, living in a fabulous, rent-free apartment, which some no-goodniks would like to get their hands on. Maud takes care of them, all right. Great fun.
42. Fiori sopra l'inferno, by Ilaria Tuti. A thriller set in a small town in Italy, close to the Austrian border. Teresa Battaglia is sent to Travenì to investigate a series of gruesome murders and mutilations. She has to work with a rather arrogant, much younger cop, and contend with a village that would rather not know and would rather not have the outside world know it. The narrative goes back and forth between the present, and events in an orphanage years earlier. The end is heart-rending.
43. Fox, by Dubravka Ugresic. The fox is a trickster, a shapeshifter, and so is this book. Hard to describe its mix of fiction and history, invented characters and real people, its story told in several section jumping to different parts of the world. What's true and what's false? It's not an easy book, but it's worth the effort.
44. The Willow Pattern, by Robert van Gulik. A Judge Dee story, with plague and murders.
45. Sperando che il mondo mi chiami, by Mariafrancesca Venturo. The title is a bit of a pun. Carolina comes from a family of teachers, and is herself what we call in the States a substitute teacher. It's really hard to get a full-time position, and to get a temporary one, you have to be constantly on call and nearby. (You'll learn a lot about the Italian educational system and what it's like to be a teacher there from this book.) Carolina loves her work, and she has an amazing ability to establish rapport and understanding with her young charges, even when she's there a very short time. Her desire to figure out what's best for them and what's best for her is what drives the plot. Secondary characters are drawn really well. We understand her close connection with her grandmother, for instance, and her need to help a student in distress. The book does not appear to have translated into English (yet), which is a shame.
46. Little Novels of Sicily, by Giovanni Verga, translated by D.H. Lawrence. More short stories than novellas, this volume includes the story on which the opera, Cavalleria Rusticana, was based, though there's a whole lot more to it. The stories reveal the lives of rural Sicilian peasants, corrupt clergy, and greedy landowners.
47. The Sole Survivor, and the Kynsard Affair, by Roy Vickers. Two, two, two mints in one! Okay, two stories in the same volume. In the first, a group of men are stranded on an island following a shipwreck. One survives. What happened to the rest? Some were clearly murdered, but the last might have been a suicide. A judicial inquiry may or may not reveal the truth. In the second, the question is, who has been killed? A naked corpse is discovered, and there are two possible victims. Or are the women one and the same?
48. Cakes for Your Birthday: a criminal extravagance, by C. E. Vulliamy. The Liquidation Committee decides to perform a public service, and rid
their town of a nasty, malicious, slander-slinging biddy. The chair, a
retired headmaster, and his younger accomplices, take advice from a
dahlia-loving professional hit man. Things go wrong.
49. The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner, by Giles Waterfield. Oh, funny! A a satire on what goes on behind the scenes in museums, covering twenty-four hours in the run-up to the gala opening of an exhibition at "BRIT: the Museum of British History". If you've worked in a museum, if you go to museums, if you know anything about them, you'll enjoy the romp.
50 and 51. False Dawn and The World Over, by Edith Wharton.
In False Dawn, Lewis Raycie's father sends him to Europe to buy "great art", which will be the nucleus of a collection that will make Raycie's name echo down the ages. But in Italy Lewis falls under the influence of John Ruskin, and the art with which he returns is not what was expected. His father basically disowns him, and it is not until years later, when it is too late for him or his widow financially, that the paintings are truly appreciated. Read for a class and it engendered quite a good discussion about "what is art".
The World Over is a collection of short stories, set in Wharton's usual worlds of Gilded Age New York and the Europe of wealthy American travelers.
52 - 56. The Code of the Woosters; Right Ho, Jeeves; Heavy Weather; Galahad at Blandings; Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (a/k/a The Catnappers), by P. G. Wodehouse, of course. What else needs to be said? If you like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing you'll like. I do and I did.
57. Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar, by Olga Wojtas. I picked this up because I thought the concept was interesting, but it goes horribly wrong.
The protagonist, Shona McMonagle, is a librarian and a graduate of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, snitched from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. But this connection goes nowhere, so what was the point? She
finds herself on a time traveling mission to tsarist Russia, but has not
been told where she's going, what year it will be (she never finds
out), or what her mission is, which is a strange way to go about things.
And this, naturally, contributes to her idiotic behavior, behavior that
one would not expect from a theoretically intelligent woman, one who
comments that being wrong was a new experience for her. She is
ridiculously dense, missing things that anyone with an ounce of common
sense would realize immediately.
A note at the end of the book suggests that there will be more books featuring this woman. I will not be reading them.
58. Sorcery and Cecelia: the Enchanted Coffee Pot, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. An epistolary novel set in Regency England featuring Cecelia and her friend and cousin Kate. Wrede and Stevermer alternate the writing, so Cecilia and Kate each has her own distinctive voice. It's got fantasy, magic, wizardry, as well as a couple of feisty teen-aged girls. I enjoyed it.
59. A Coin in Nine Hands, by Marguerite Yourcenar. This is a collection of short stories, culminating with an assassination plot against Mussolini, linked by the "coin" of the title. Everyday lives, isolated, lonely, are connected as the ten-lira piece changes hands.
To be continued . . . with non-fiction.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
2019 Reads - Fiction Part 2
I was listing books alphabetically by author, and discovered that I missed a few!
So . . .
21. Flight of the Falcon, by Daphne du Maurier. A rather odd book. The protagonist is a courier for a tour company in Italy. There's a murder of an old lady in Rome, and he might or might not know who she was. He returns to his home town, where his brother (whom he thought was killed in the war) is organizing a pageant about a dubious Renaissance duke. It's all very odd.
22. Eve's Ransom, by George Gissing. A shorter Victorian. Maurice Hilliard, having unexpectedly come into a bit of money, goes (doesn't everyone?) to London to enjoy life, and not incidentally to track down a young woman with whose photo, shown to him by his landlady, he has fallen in love. She is not doing well financially, and so is willing to take what she can get from him, including a trip (accompanied by a friend) to Paris - rather compromising at that time. Things get complicated, but all works out in the end.
23. La Ragazza con la Leica, by Helena Janaczek. This is a fictionalized account of the life of photographer Gerda Taro (the first woman photojournalist killed covering a war - the Spanish Civil War) and various of her colleagues and friends. It jumps back and forth in time, and is primarily other people's recollections of her. Interesting enough that I sought out non-fiction about Taro.
24. The Island of the Mad, by Laurie R. King. A Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery. Mary is asked by an old friend to track down her aunt, who disappeared with her nurse after being furloughed from Bedlam (a mental hospital) to attend her brother's birthday celebration. All clues lead to Venice, so Mary heads there with Holmes, whose brother Mycroft has charged with reporting on the political situation. While there, the two also become involved with "bright young things", like Cole Porter.
The island of the title is Poveglia, one of the lagoon islands, a place where in the late 1700s plague victims were sent, likely to die, and in 1922 a mental institution was built there. There are all sorts of stories of an evil doctor and hauntings, and the like. I was there once, in the dark, it's very spooky.
25. Chicago, by David Mamet. 1920s Chicago, the mob, newspaper men. I finished this only because my book club was reading it. I don't think I've ever read such ridiculous, stilted, pretentious dialogue in all my life. Seriously, after half a page, I threw the book down, yelling, "No one talks like this!" And this man is a playwright (not that I've ever thought much of his plays, either)! The narrative is pretty bad, too.
26. Compulsion, by Meyer Levin. A novel based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case. Not bad. It drags a bit once we get to the trial. There's a reason that books, films, television shows about trials are so unrealistic. They need to be dramatic, and, let's be honest, trial (in this case, sentencing) transcripts aren't, and Levin basically just parrots the testimony.
27. The Quiet Side of Passion, by Alexander McCall Smith. This is one of his Isabel Dalhousie series. Isabel is coping with now two children while editing her philosophy journal, and sticking her nose into other people's business (in fairness, usually because someone asks her to do so). The usual secondary characters - housekeeper Grace, niece Cat - are their usual selves, and the always obnoxious Professor Lettuce also puts in an appearance.
28. The Peppermint Tea Chronicles, by Alexander McCall Smith. A 44 Scotland Street book. This is my favorite series of his. It's always a joy when a new one comes out. Bertie and Stuart are reveling in the absence of the truly annoying Irene, who is off getting an advanced degree in Aberdeen. Bruce the narcissist is thinking of settling down(!), but his ego trips him up badly. Elspeth and Matthew continue to figure out how to raise triplets. Can't wait for the next!
29. Speedy Death, by Gladys Mitchell. Murder at an English country house, where one of the party, Mrs. Bradley, is a psychoanalyst and amateur sleuth. Very twisty and enjoyable.
30. Festa di Famiglia, by Sveva Casati Modignani. Italian chick lit. A group of friends meets regularly for dinner, and support each other through life's trials and tribulations.
31. Charade, by John Mortimer. Mortimer's first novel (it shows) is based on his experience in a film unit during WWII. The narrator is basically a "gofer" in the unit, the other people are all a bit odd, and there's a death that might be murder. A bit weak, but, I say, it's his first, and we know he'll improve.
32. Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata. Keiko is definitely not leading the life expected of a young (well, not so young any more) Japanese woman. At 36, she has been working at a convenience store, where the prescriptive, rule-bound nature of the work suits her personality very well. Family members, though, try to get her have a more "normal" life. A bit quirky, and with some good points made about the difficulty of fitting in.
33. The Story of the Treasure Seekers, by E. Nesbit. A re-read. There are some "children's books" that I still like to read, and E. Nesbit's are among them. When the family fortunes disappear, the children vow to restore them. Well, you can imagine! Fun.
34. The Pit: a story of Chicago, by Frank Norris. This concerns a Chicago trader's attempt to corner the market on wheat, and the financial and familial consequences. The descriptions of trading in the old Board of Trade building are excellent, as are those of the social and business lives of the city. This is the second in what was intended to be a trilogy, The Epic of Wheat, but Norris died before writing the third.
35. Dear Mrs. Bird, by A. J. Pearce. This is set during the London Blitz, and the protagonist is Emmy, a young woman who would love to become a Lady War Correspondent, but finds herself as dogsbody to an agony aunt, one who will answer only Acceptable problems. Feeling that even (or especially) the writers of Unacceptable letters need help, Emmy starts to write back. The book has its comic moments, but it's also a very good picture of life during the Blitz, the worries and the rationing, how the folks, particularly the young ones, went on with life.
36. The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman. The second of "The Book of Dust" trilogy focuses more on Lyra, now an adult, than did the first. Poor Lyra. She and Pantaleimon are at odds. Truly. That's not supposed to happen with your daemon. But, unlike just about everyone else, they can separate, and it's in part the circumstances that led to that that also caused Pantaleimon's sense of betrayal, their inability to communicate with each other in the old way. And now each must take a dangerous journey without the other.
37 and 38. Unnatural Death and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. These are both re-reads. In fact, I re-read Bellona Club because I'd acquired a new copy to replace one that was falling apart.
39. Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, translation by Nicholas Rudall. Chicago's Court Theatre mounted a production of Oedipus this season, and will later do The Gospel at Colonus and (next season) Antigone. They used (mostly) the Rudall translation. In conjunction with the performance, they held a seminar about the play, facilitated by a staff member and classics professor from the University of Chicago. I liked doing a deep dive into the play, the discussions were thought-provoking and made seeing the production so much better. I told the artistic director that they should do this sort of thing more often!
40. Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. Another re-read, for the anniversary of the murder of Richard III.
So . . .
21. Flight of the Falcon, by Daphne du Maurier. A rather odd book. The protagonist is a courier for a tour company in Italy. There's a murder of an old lady in Rome, and he might or might not know who she was. He returns to his home town, where his brother (whom he thought was killed in the war) is organizing a pageant about a dubious Renaissance duke. It's all very odd.
22. Eve's Ransom, by George Gissing. A shorter Victorian. Maurice Hilliard, having unexpectedly come into a bit of money, goes (doesn't everyone?) to London to enjoy life, and not incidentally to track down a young woman with whose photo, shown to him by his landlady, he has fallen in love. She is not doing well financially, and so is willing to take what she can get from him, including a trip (accompanied by a friend) to Paris - rather compromising at that time. Things get complicated, but all works out in the end.
23. La Ragazza con la Leica, by Helena Janaczek. This is a fictionalized account of the life of photographer Gerda Taro (the first woman photojournalist killed covering a war - the Spanish Civil War) and various of her colleagues and friends. It jumps back and forth in time, and is primarily other people's recollections of her. Interesting enough that I sought out non-fiction about Taro.
24. The Island of the Mad, by Laurie R. King. A Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery. Mary is asked by an old friend to track down her aunt, who disappeared with her nurse after being furloughed from Bedlam (a mental hospital) to attend her brother's birthday celebration. All clues lead to Venice, so Mary heads there with Holmes, whose brother Mycroft has charged with reporting on the political situation. While there, the two also become involved with "bright young things", like Cole Porter.
The island of the title is Poveglia, one of the lagoon islands, a place where in the late 1700s plague victims were sent, likely to die, and in 1922 a mental institution was built there. There are all sorts of stories of an evil doctor and hauntings, and the like. I was there once, in the dark, it's very spooky.
25. Chicago, by David Mamet. 1920s Chicago, the mob, newspaper men. I finished this only because my book club was reading it. I don't think I've ever read such ridiculous, stilted, pretentious dialogue in all my life. Seriously, after half a page, I threw the book down, yelling, "No one talks like this!" And this man is a playwright (not that I've ever thought much of his plays, either)! The narrative is pretty bad, too.
26. Compulsion, by Meyer Levin. A novel based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case. Not bad. It drags a bit once we get to the trial. There's a reason that books, films, television shows about trials are so unrealistic. They need to be dramatic, and, let's be honest, trial (in this case, sentencing) transcripts aren't, and Levin basically just parrots the testimony.
27. The Quiet Side of Passion, by Alexander McCall Smith. This is one of his Isabel Dalhousie series. Isabel is coping with now two children while editing her philosophy journal, and sticking her nose into other people's business (in fairness, usually because someone asks her to do so). The usual secondary characters - housekeeper Grace, niece Cat - are their usual selves, and the always obnoxious Professor Lettuce also puts in an appearance.
28. The Peppermint Tea Chronicles, by Alexander McCall Smith. A 44 Scotland Street book. This is my favorite series of his. It's always a joy when a new one comes out. Bertie and Stuart are reveling in the absence of the truly annoying Irene, who is off getting an advanced degree in Aberdeen. Bruce the narcissist is thinking of settling down(!), but his ego trips him up badly. Elspeth and Matthew continue to figure out how to raise triplets. Can't wait for the next!
29. Speedy Death, by Gladys Mitchell. Murder at an English country house, where one of the party, Mrs. Bradley, is a psychoanalyst and amateur sleuth. Very twisty and enjoyable.
30. Festa di Famiglia, by Sveva Casati Modignani. Italian chick lit. A group of friends meets regularly for dinner, and support each other through life's trials and tribulations.
31. Charade, by John Mortimer. Mortimer's first novel (it shows) is based on his experience in a film unit during WWII. The narrator is basically a "gofer" in the unit, the other people are all a bit odd, and there's a death that might be murder. A bit weak, but, I say, it's his first, and we know he'll improve.
32. Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata. Keiko is definitely not leading the life expected of a young (well, not so young any more) Japanese woman. At 36, she has been working at a convenience store, where the prescriptive, rule-bound nature of the work suits her personality very well. Family members, though, try to get her have a more "normal" life. A bit quirky, and with some good points made about the difficulty of fitting in.
33. The Story of the Treasure Seekers, by E. Nesbit. A re-read. There are some "children's books" that I still like to read, and E. Nesbit's are among them. When the family fortunes disappear, the children vow to restore them. Well, you can imagine! Fun.
34. The Pit: a story of Chicago, by Frank Norris. This concerns a Chicago trader's attempt to corner the market on wheat, and the financial and familial consequences. The descriptions of trading in the old Board of Trade building are excellent, as are those of the social and business lives of the city. This is the second in what was intended to be a trilogy, The Epic of Wheat, but Norris died before writing the third.
35. Dear Mrs. Bird, by A. J. Pearce. This is set during the London Blitz, and the protagonist is Emmy, a young woman who would love to become a Lady War Correspondent, but finds herself as dogsbody to an agony aunt, one who will answer only Acceptable problems. Feeling that even (or especially) the writers of Unacceptable letters need help, Emmy starts to write back. The book has its comic moments, but it's also a very good picture of life during the Blitz, the worries and the rationing, how the folks, particularly the young ones, went on with life.
36. The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman. The second of "The Book of Dust" trilogy focuses more on Lyra, now an adult, than did the first. Poor Lyra. She and Pantaleimon are at odds. Truly. That's not supposed to happen with your daemon. But, unlike just about everyone else, they can separate, and it's in part the circumstances that led to that that also caused Pantaleimon's sense of betrayal, their inability to communicate with each other in the old way. And now each must take a dangerous journey without the other.
37 and 38. Unnatural Death and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy L. Sayers. These are both re-reads. In fact, I re-read Bellona Club because I'd acquired a new copy to replace one that was falling apart.
39. Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, translation by Nicholas Rudall. Chicago's Court Theatre mounted a production of Oedipus this season, and will later do The Gospel at Colonus and (next season) Antigone. They used (mostly) the Rudall translation. In conjunction with the performance, they held a seminar about the play, facilitated by a staff member and classics professor from the University of Chicago. I liked doing a deep dive into the play, the discussions were thought-provoking and made seeing the production so much better. I told the artistic director that they should do this sort of thing more often!
40. Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. Another re-read, for the anniversary of the murder of Richard III.
Books read in 2019 - Fiction - Part 1
I'm going to do this is multiple posts, as it would get crazy long if I didn't!
One of my goals has been to lighten my overladen bookshelves by reading heretofore unread books that I doubt I'll want to keep. As a result, there are a fair number of older works of fiction on this list, including many detective/mystery books. But, of course, a lot of newer books as well.
1. The Piccadilly Murder, by Anthony Berkeley. A "Golden Age" mystery, with the usual convoluted plot. A great deal of fun.
2. The Lawyer's Secret, by M.E. Braddon. Braddon is best known for Lady Audley's Secret, but wrote absolutely TONS of "sensational" fiction. My copy of this novella also included a shorter work, "The Mystery at Fernwood". I must say that the "secret" was pretty obvious (at least to me) early on, but I nevertheless do enjoy these Victorian sensation novels, even when they aren't triple-deckers.
3. The Lake on Fire, by Rosellen Brown. I had so looked forward to this book. It's Brown's first novel in many years, and is set in Chicago at the time of the World's Columbian Exposition. It follows a young Jewish immigrant, who leaves rural Wisconsin for Chicago, accompanied by her prodigy of a young brother. So it sounded pretty interesting. Unfortunately, it's surprisingly poorly written. The characters never came to life, and the ending is very weak.
4. The Pyramid of Mud, by Andrea Camilleri. What can I say? If you enjoy the Montalbano series (which I do), you'll enjoy this book. Gosh, I'm going to miss Camilleri.
5. The Lady in the Lake, by Raymond Chandler. An excellent bit of noir.
6. La ragazza nella nebbia, by Donato Carrisi. Read for my Italian book club. A murder mystery set in the small town of Avechot, it is also a commentary on the media and police work. A complex plot well worked out.
7. The Cunning Man, by Robertson Davies. I enjoy Davies work a lot, and, as usual, his characterizations are very well done. His last, and, though perhaps not his best (I think I'll always like The Salterton Trilogy the most, perhaps because that's where I first encountered him), worth reading.
8. Cold for the Bastards of Pizzofalcone, by Maurizio de Giovanni. This series features a group of police officers, all of whom have not-so-stellar reputations, who have been sent to the Pizzofalcone station to replace a bunch of corrupt cops. The powers-that-be are always looking for a reason to disband the squad, but good police work stops that from happening. Here, a double murder provides the basis for the plot, but I always think that de Giovanni's strength is in creating the Neapolitan atmosphere, and creating fully-fleshed-out, interesting characters. (I also recommend his Comissario Ricciardi series, also set in Naples, but during the Fascist period, which is a character in itself.)
9. Optic Nerve, by Maria Gainza. Not so much a novel as a series of connected chapters, in each of which a work of art becomes the trigger for memories and meditations.
10. Time for Frankie Coolin, by Bill Granger. Set in Chicago in the '70s. Coolin is a white, blue-collar guy, who owns a couple of rundown apartment buildings in black neighborhoods. He's doing okay, working in the trades has got him and his family out to the 'burbs. Then favor for a relative lands him in hot water with the feds. This is such a great book! Really captures the flavor of the people and neighborhoods and culture of Chicago at the time, and will help you understand the impact that had on where we are now.
11. Goodbye, Piccadilly, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. This is the first of a series of the author's "War at Home" series, following a family before and during World War I. I read it on the recommendation of a friend. It's not a bad read, but I guess I'm not really a "family saga" sort of person, as I am not inspired to continue the series.
12. The Tale Teller, by Anne Hillerman. Tony Hillerman's daughter has continued his Chee/Leaphorn series, and in the more recent contributions she has started to make the series her own, by giving more prominence to Officer Bernie Manuelito, who is married to Chee. Leaphorn has been asked to track down a missing Navajo artifact, Manuelito stumbles on a body, while Chee and Manuelito are also looking into a series of burglaries. You'll not be surprised to learn that some of these things are connected.
13. Was it Murder?, by James Hilton. Of course it was! This was rather a fun book to read, despite the fact that I had the culprit's identity figured out very early on, and also despite the fact that the author never grapples with the legal impossibility of the supposed motive (the culprit may not have been aware of the issue, but the detectives certainly would have been).
But I really liked this quotation: "Someone had actually tried to murder him, to shoot him in cold blood as he sat at his typewriter; it was a monstrous thing, and he experienced, though a hundred times more intensely, the feeling that constrains so many Englishmen to write to the Times." Ha!
14. Pictures at an Exhibition, by Sarah Houghteling. A novel about a young man's attempt to recover his family's art collection, stolen by the Nazis. Because it's long, I'm linking to My review at LibraryThing
15. Keep it Quiet, by Richard Hull. Another "Golden Age" mystery. Murder and blackmail at a staid London men's club. First published in 1935, it's quite amusing (intentionally so).
16. No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a 60th Year, by Virginia Ironside. An amusing account of just what the title says - a woman's 60th year. She's a bit of a curmudgeon, to which I can relate. Not great literature, but an enjoyable light read.
17. The Game is afoot! Parodies, pastiches, and ponderings of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Marvin Kaye. Like all anthologies, some of the offerings are great, some are terrible, and most are somewhere in between. If you are a fan of Holmes, it's worth dipping into.
18. Unto Us a Son is Give, by Donna Leon. A Comissario Brunetti mystery. Brunetti's father-in-law, Count Falier, is concerned about an old friend who wishes to adopt his much younger lover (basically to get around Italian inheritance laws). When the friend drops dead in the street, is it murder? A second death definitely is. Leon's are always enjoyable, if only because they take me back to Venice. And the food!
19. The House Sitter, by Peter Lovesey. Nobody notices when a woman is strangled on a crowded beach. There's also a serial killer on the loose, and it turns out the dead woman was a profiler who worked with the police. Any connection? An okay book, but good enough to make me hunt up others in the series.
20. Under Cover: Death Stalks the Book Dealer, by F. J. Manasek. Linked short stories of crime and murder in the antiquarian book world.
One of my goals has been to lighten my overladen bookshelves by reading heretofore unread books that I doubt I'll want to keep. As a result, there are a fair number of older works of fiction on this list, including many detective/mystery books. But, of course, a lot of newer books as well.
1. The Piccadilly Murder, by Anthony Berkeley. A "Golden Age" mystery, with the usual convoluted plot. A great deal of fun.
2. The Lawyer's Secret, by M.E. Braddon. Braddon is best known for Lady Audley's Secret, but wrote absolutely TONS of "sensational" fiction. My copy of this novella also included a shorter work, "The Mystery at Fernwood". I must say that the "secret" was pretty obvious (at least to me) early on, but I nevertheless do enjoy these Victorian sensation novels, even when they aren't triple-deckers.
3. The Lake on Fire, by Rosellen Brown. I had so looked forward to this book. It's Brown's first novel in many years, and is set in Chicago at the time of the World's Columbian Exposition. It follows a young Jewish immigrant, who leaves rural Wisconsin for Chicago, accompanied by her prodigy of a young brother. So it sounded pretty interesting. Unfortunately, it's surprisingly poorly written. The characters never came to life, and the ending is very weak.
4. The Pyramid of Mud, by Andrea Camilleri. What can I say? If you enjoy the Montalbano series (which I do), you'll enjoy this book. Gosh, I'm going to miss Camilleri.
5. The Lady in the Lake, by Raymond Chandler. An excellent bit of noir.
6. La ragazza nella nebbia, by Donato Carrisi. Read for my Italian book club. A murder mystery set in the small town of Avechot, it is also a commentary on the media and police work. A complex plot well worked out.
7. The Cunning Man, by Robertson Davies. I enjoy Davies work a lot, and, as usual, his characterizations are very well done. His last, and, though perhaps not his best (I think I'll always like The Salterton Trilogy the most, perhaps because that's where I first encountered him), worth reading.
8. Cold for the Bastards of Pizzofalcone, by Maurizio de Giovanni. This series features a group of police officers, all of whom have not-so-stellar reputations, who have been sent to the Pizzofalcone station to replace a bunch of corrupt cops. The powers-that-be are always looking for a reason to disband the squad, but good police work stops that from happening. Here, a double murder provides the basis for the plot, but I always think that de Giovanni's strength is in creating the Neapolitan atmosphere, and creating fully-fleshed-out, interesting characters. (I also recommend his Comissario Ricciardi series, also set in Naples, but during the Fascist period, which is a character in itself.)
9. Optic Nerve, by Maria Gainza. Not so much a novel as a series of connected chapters, in each of which a work of art becomes the trigger for memories and meditations.
10. Time for Frankie Coolin, by Bill Granger. Set in Chicago in the '70s. Coolin is a white, blue-collar guy, who owns a couple of rundown apartment buildings in black neighborhoods. He's doing okay, working in the trades has got him and his family out to the 'burbs. Then favor for a relative lands him in hot water with the feds. This is such a great book! Really captures the flavor of the people and neighborhoods and culture of Chicago at the time, and will help you understand the impact that had on where we are now.
11. Goodbye, Piccadilly, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. This is the first of a series of the author's "War at Home" series, following a family before and during World War I. I read it on the recommendation of a friend. It's not a bad read, but I guess I'm not really a "family saga" sort of person, as I am not inspired to continue the series.
12. The Tale Teller, by Anne Hillerman. Tony Hillerman's daughter has continued his Chee/Leaphorn series, and in the more recent contributions she has started to make the series her own, by giving more prominence to Officer Bernie Manuelito, who is married to Chee. Leaphorn has been asked to track down a missing Navajo artifact, Manuelito stumbles on a body, while Chee and Manuelito are also looking into a series of burglaries. You'll not be surprised to learn that some of these things are connected.
13. Was it Murder?, by James Hilton. Of course it was! This was rather a fun book to read, despite the fact that I had the culprit's identity figured out very early on, and also despite the fact that the author never grapples with the legal impossibility of the supposed motive (the culprit may not have been aware of the issue, but the detectives certainly would have been).
But I really liked this quotation: "Someone had actually tried to murder him, to shoot him in cold blood as he sat at his typewriter; it was a monstrous thing, and he experienced, though a hundred times more intensely, the feeling that constrains so many Englishmen to write to the Times." Ha!
14. Pictures at an Exhibition, by Sarah Houghteling. A novel about a young man's attempt to recover his family's art collection, stolen by the Nazis. Because it's long, I'm linking to My review at LibraryThing
15. Keep it Quiet, by Richard Hull. Another "Golden Age" mystery. Murder and blackmail at a staid London men's club. First published in 1935, it's quite amusing (intentionally so).
16. No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a 60th Year, by Virginia Ironside. An amusing account of just what the title says - a woman's 60th year. She's a bit of a curmudgeon, to which I can relate. Not great literature, but an enjoyable light read.
17. The Game is afoot! Parodies, pastiches, and ponderings of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Marvin Kaye. Like all anthologies, some of the offerings are great, some are terrible, and most are somewhere in between. If you are a fan of Holmes, it's worth dipping into.
18. Unto Us a Son is Give, by Donna Leon. A Comissario Brunetti mystery. Brunetti's father-in-law, Count Falier, is concerned about an old friend who wishes to adopt his much younger lover (basically to get around Italian inheritance laws). When the friend drops dead in the street, is it murder? A second death definitely is. Leon's are always enjoyable, if only because they take me back to Venice. And the food!
19. The House Sitter, by Peter Lovesey. Nobody notices when a woman is strangled on a crowded beach. There's also a serial killer on the loose, and it turns out the dead woman was a profiler who worked with the police. Any connection? An okay book, but good enough to make me hunt up others in the series.
20. Under Cover: Death Stalks the Book Dealer, by F. J. Manasek. Linked short stories of crime and murder in the antiquarian book world.
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