Archive Entries for March 2023
« February 2023 | Main | April 2023 »
Friday March 31, 2023
Books in March
-
The Murder Book by Mark Billingham [read by Mark Billingham]
We are set firmly back in the present with this book, which sees the return of Thorne's bête noire - or nemesis. Personally.I'm not fond of bête noires, and this includes Stuart Nicklin, "the most dangerous psychopath [Thorne] has ever put behind bars". However, many other aspects of this thriller/mystery plot are so excellent that I can put my natural prejudices aside. Keeps you guessing right to the end...
As an aside to the real detective story, I admit I am very interested in the soap opera that is Thorne's domestic life. So I was pleased to find the (lovely) Helen and her son Archie make a reappearance - I was a bit worried about Archie as Thorne seemed to have gone from full surrogate to total absentee father - anyway, contact is renewed. Helen seems to be the only sensible woman Thorne has ever met as far as I can see, and is clearly a solid friend not to be discarded lightly (either by Thorne or by the author). In addition, with one mighty bound, Mark has neutralised my objection to the apparent ease with which Thorne finds himself in improbable relationships with beautiful and intelligent women.... you'll have to read it to find out how. - The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers [read by Ian Carmichael]
I was encouraged to read this novel from 1934 after listening to one of the podcasts from SheDunnit which pointed out to me that it's critically acclaimed as her "her greatest literary achievement"; she spent a long time with the research for the background to this bellringing puzzle and the Campanological Society of Great Britain felt that her handling of the bell ringing plot was so masterly that they invited her to become their vice president.
I have heard the radio dramatisation with Ian Carmichael as well as seeing a TV adaptation in 1974, but I never really fully appreciated the subject matter so felt that revisiting the text might be of interest. The title refers to the nine strokes of a church bell to announce the death of a man - a point which again (almost unbelievably) passed my younger self by.
And so to the plot: storm-bound over the New Year at a Fenland rectory, Lord Peter Wimsey willingly steps in to take the place of a bellringer who has the flu (as you do) and lend a hand in the ringing of a New Year's Eve peal of the church bells.
Some months later, a handless, disfigured corpse is discovered in a fresh grave in the churchyard. Lord Peter receives a plea for help from the rector and embarks on one of his most complicated investigations - for this is not the first crime the village has experienced. Fifteen years ago the Wilbraham Emeralds were stolen, and they are still missing. Can there be any link?
[Well of course there can!] -
Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles
A Christmas gift from George, which I devoured and then passed around any of my fellow cosy crime enthusiasts who had not already read it! And I would say it is surely the definition of cosy crime, with a local village setting, and a crime-solving vicar? However, Coles makes a sincere effort at realism in his setting, and tries to make it clear that someone dying, and worse, being murdered, is no trivial matter in a small community, and not something to be treated lightly (or cosily). However, if this is to be a "Canon Clement Mystery Series" I'm not sure how long he can continue to do so as dead bodies are likely to abound beyond the plausible unless Clement is reduced to unravelling more trivial mysteries - we'll have to see.
One of my friends observed that all his female characters were described rather caustically - which I have to say I did not really notice in quite that way. It is true that the "church ladies" were in some ways rather figures of fun or even overtly unpleasant, but I suppose I did not feel much affinity with them, and didn't see them as representative of "women" in general. It seemed to me he was just describing in a humorous manner the factions that arise in local or volunteer organisations - which might be unkind, but to me no more than in Agatha Christie's "Murder at the Vicarage" which is narrated by the vicar poking fun at his parishioners in much the same vein.
So.. was it any good? The plot was a bit convoluted - but sound - and Coles wit and obvious intellect, both of which I very much enjoy, were definitely to the fore - and I did really enjoy his diversions into interesting aspects of church ritual, church politics, and points of theology which he would have liked to take up with his bishop (but didn't...).
So - yes - it was good and I'm looking forward to the next installment. -
The Blue Movie Murders by Ellery Queen
A vintage volume that was another Christmas gift.
Although a supposed golden-age thriller enthusiast, there are many famous authors I have never dipped into, and although I have read a number of the short stories as part of crime anthologies, Ellery Queen is one of them - or are one of them, since it's the pseudonym of two writers Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905-1971).
Anyway, this was excellent, with a good plot and an interesting writing style. However this novel, published in 1972, was probably their last. It was ghost written (as many of them were) by Edward Hoch, and edited and supervised by Dannay since Lee had died in 1971.
Being written in the seventies, I guess it needs to come with the usual "good taste" warning that it "reflects language and attitudes of the time" which may now be deemed offensive. [However, it stands up pretty well against, for example, The Eiger Sanction from 1975, which I viewed recently; I was genuinely horrified by the casual sexism and homophobia displayed in such a mainstream piece of entertainment!]. -
Death of a Dreamer and Death of a Maid by M C Beaton [Read by Graeme Malcolm]
I read the first Agatha Raisin book as I was intrigued by the title, and then quickly fell for Agatha herself. While I was aware of the pre-existing series, I had only ever read a short story featuring Hamish McBeth. Beaton herself put me off going any further as she clearly loathed the TV series - which I loved; her major objection was the casting of Robert Carlyle - and to be fair he is not Hamish who is a huge red-headed Highlander - but other than that I thought the series was very true to the rather quirky spirit of the rural society described in the books.
Anyway - time to try a couple of "Death of a ..." - and I found them charming enough. However, Hamish does not really speak to me as Agatha did, so I doubt I will try any more. [Having said that, I doubt I will be reading any more of Agatha now that the original author is no longer with us].
.
- A Death in the East, and The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee
[Read by Simon Bubb and Mikhail Sen]Time to move on with this excellent series.
It's 1922 and Captain Sam Wyndham (ex policeman relocated from Scotland Yard), is facing up to the fact that he can no longer deal with his opium addiction. He has travelled to a remote ashram where he endures a gruelling regime to achieve a cure. While there he believes he sees a face he recognises from 1905 when he was a newly qualified PC in England. After a man is murdered - possibly in mistake for Wyndham - he calls on his friend and colleague Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee to travel up country to assist in solving the case (and perhaps help save his life).
In his stories, the author addresses (or at least describes) the many social injustices inherent in the times, and had expressed the view that his two protagonists could not continue as a conventional "Morse and Lewis" type pairing, and that the younger man was obviously going to be influenced by and ultimately involved in the pressure for social change in India. So it starts mildly - Sam is taken to task over his continued use of the almost derogatory nickname Surrender-not despite the supposed true friendship between the two - and then in The Shadows of Men Suren gets his own voice. The pair are split up and so control of the narrative alternates between the two as the plot unfolds. At the end of the book, the ridiculous accusation of murder levelled at Suren is rescinded, but despite the fact he has no need to be on the run any longer, he has chosen not to return to India.
I think the author is taking a break from this series for a while and plans a couple of stand-alone novels, but I hope he returns to Sam and Suren - I want to hear what happens next....
Craddock and Co
Turn of the Century (yes, ok, I mean 1899 not 1999) tongue-in-cheek drama by Chris Thompson, starring Martin Jarvis and Emma Tate:
Lucy joins her uncle Charles working at his London book shop, but discovers he has a secret profession as a private investigator. [First broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in October 1993]- The Crompton Canvas - an Earl is assaulted and a painting stolen; it's up to Victorian bookseller-cum-detective Charles Craddock and his niece, Lucy, to solve the crime.
- The Play's the Thing - Charles and Lucy investigate some mysterious backstage dramas at a London theatre.
- My Dear Isabelle - the reappearance of an old flame prompts a trip to France for Charles and niece Lucy.
Posted on March 31, 2023 at 12:13 PM. Category: Books of the Month.
