31 March 2011

Forgotten Book: ANGEL HUNT, Mike Ripley

This week's Friday's Forgotten book for the meme hosted by Patti Abbott on Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books is the first entry in my records for 1993.

Publisher's Blurb
Angel is house-sitting for a relative of his landlord when a body drops in through the bathroom skylight. Things start to get really complicated, however, when the corpse turns out to be an old fellow student trying to cut loose from an Animal Rights splinter group.

Between 1988 and 1996, the CWA presented an award for the year's best humorous crime novel; this was initially known as The Punch Award, but subsequently changed to the Last Laugh Dagger. (The Last Laugh Awards are currently presented at CrimeFest)
Mike Ripley won it twice
1989: Angel Touch and 1991: Angels in Arm.

ANGEL HUNT is #3 in a 15 book series of comedy thrillers published 1988-2008. The central character of the series is Band-leader, Fitzroy Maclean Angel.

More about Mike Ripley: source
Mike Ripley is the author of 18 novels, including the award-winning “Angel” series of comic thrillers and about a dozen short stories; and was also a scriptwriter for BBC TV’s “Lovejoy”. As a critic of crime fiction since 1989, he has reviewed over 1,000 crime novels and thrillers, including a ten-year stint as reviewer for the Daily Telegraph. He now writes the monthly “Getting Away With Murder” column for the crime fiction website www.shotsmag.co.uk and is the Series Editor of Top Notch Thrillers, which aims to revive Great British thrillers from the Sixties and Seventies which ‘do not deserve to be forgotten’.

30 March 2011

Canadian Book Challenge 2010-2011 Update, 30 March 2011

The Canadian Book Challenge is hosted by John Mutford who blogs at The Book Mine Set.
You have one year to read 13 Canadian books and review them somewhere online, from Canada Day, July 1st, 2010- Canada Day, July 1st, 2011. There will be check-ins at the beginning of each month to see how everyone is progressing and have their current status marked in the sidebar of this blog. Participants are encouraged to read each others' reviews, discuss the books, and cheer one another on.



As always, my books will all be crime fiction.

So far 10/13
  1. 4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, Alan Bradley (7 Mar 2011)
  2. 5.0, BURY YOUR DEAD, Louise Penny (4 Feb 2011)
  3. 4.9, A RULE AGAINST MURDER,  Louise Penny (20 Jan 2011)
  4. 4.6, ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS, Peter Robinson (10 September 2010)
  5. 4.5, FEAR THE WORST, Linwood Barclay (11 October 2010)
  6. 4.5, NEGATIVE IMAGE, Vicki Delany (17 December 2010)
  7. 4.7, ROOM, Emma Donoghue (23 December 2010)
  8. 4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY, Linwood Barclay (28 December)
  9. 4.4, LOVE YOU TO DEATH, Gail Bowen (28 December)
  10. 4.5, MIDNIGHT CAB, James W. Nichol (1 Jan 2011) 
already on my shelves:
Peter Robinson, A DEDICATED MAN
Peter Robinson, BAD BOY
Vicki Delany, WHITEOUT
William Deverell, APRIL FOOL
L.R. Wright, THE SUSPECT

On my Kindle

Rick Mofina, VENGEANCE ROAD
Alan Bradley, WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG
Vicki Delany, MURDER AT LOST DOG LAKE
Linda L. Richards, MAD MONEY
Stan Jones, WHITE SKY, BLACK ICE


Suggestions from blog readers: Catherine Hunter, Michael van Rooy and Allan Levine.

Good reference point: Arthur Ellis Awards shortlist; past winners

Virtual Peaks to be scaled
GLEN VALLEY (1 book read)
WHITE HILL (2 books read)
ISHPATINA RIDGE (3 books read)
MOUNT CARLETON (4 books read)
BALDY MOUNTAIN (5 books read)
CYPRESS HILLS (6 books read)
MONT D'IBERVILLE (7 books read)
MOUNT CAUBVICK (8 books read)
BARBEAU PEAK (9 books read)
MOUNT NIRVANA (10 books read)
MOUNT COLUMBIA (11 books read)
MOUNT FAIRWEATHER (12 books read)
MOUNT LOGAN (13 or more books read)

29 March 2011

Review: THE SERPENT and THE SCORPION, Clare Langley-Hawthorne

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 461 KB
  • Print Length: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (September 30, 2008)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B003RWSKSC
  • Source: I bought it
Blurb from author's site:
It's nearly two years since her father's death and Ursula Marlow is embroiled in personal and professional struggles. Her relationship with Lord Wrotham has cooled since she rejected his marriage proposal and she continues to fly in the face of society's conventions as to the appropriate role of a woman in Edwardian England. Now she is besieged on all fronts as she struggles to succeed as an independent businesswoman, despite financial difficulties, labor unrest and arson attacks on on her mills and factories.
While on a business trip to Egypt, Ursula witnesses a friend's murder in Cairo's Khan el-Khalili bazaar, and embarks on her own investigation, convinced the Egyptian police and Scotland Yard are mistaken in assuming the death was politically motivated.
Days later a young woman dies in a fire in one of Ursula's factories in England.....

My take:

This sequel to CONSEQUENCES OF SIN seemed to start off a little slowly, but then there was quite a bit for us to learn. Most of the action is set in 1912, and the author provides several pointers to the period, including the testing of the Bleriot biplane, the sinking of the Titanic, the preparations for war, and descriptions of fashion. There are references also to events from the first novel when Ursula's friend Winifred was accused of murder. Both Winifred and Ursula are suffragettes participating in the militant activities of the WSPU, particularly the window-smashing that characterised 1912. Ursula too is trying to do her best for women by providing safe employment conditions for women from poor socio-economic circumstances. Interesting too was the preoccupation with the effects of Bolshevism in England.

THE SERPENT AND THE SCORPION is quite long and detailed, but picks up momentum in the last third. The romance element between Ursula and Lord Wrotham is sustained throughout, although I felt his character still remained a bit obscure. I did feel like shaking them both at times!
The ending is a cliff hanger that ensures there will be a 3rd title in the series. We are not out of the woods yet!

My rating: 4.3

About the author:
Clare has some biographical details on her site, but has, since writing them,  returned to live in Australia.
THE SERPENT and THE SCORPION is Clare's second novel.

Other reviews to check:
Reactions to Reading

This is my contribution to this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet (the letter L), and in addition I'm listing it in the following reading challenges:
Historical Fiction Challenge
Aussie Author Challenge
e-book challenge 

You can see my progress on my reading challenges on Reading Challenges Update

28 March 2011

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2011 - Letter L - week begins 28 March 2011

 
The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

It is never too late to join in on this meme and you don't have to post each week if reading (or life) gets in the way. And it is so easy!

The books and authors being suggested are a great way of learning about books you haven't read, or authors you haven't yet met.
We have participants from all over the globe too. Do take the time to check the entries towards the end of the week.

Letters already covered: A B C D E  F G  H  I  J  K

A note to remember: We'll have a little rest on the week beginning April 24. There's a double public holiday here in Australia for Easter Monday and then Anzac Day. But we'll start up again on Monday May 2. 

This week's letter is the letter L:

Here are the rules

By Friday of each week you have to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.
[Those who intend to participate regularly have signed up here.]

Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname.
So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, or even maybe cover a crime fiction "topic", so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)

Please link your post for the week back to this page. (a letter image is supplied that you can use in your post as well as the meme icon if you wish).

After your post is published, put a link to your actual blog post in the Mr Linky that appears below.
(leave a comment if Mr Linky has disappeared)

Then come back at the end of the week to check to see who else has posted and visit their blog (and leave a comment if you can).

Please check each Monday for the letter of the week

Letters already covered: A B C  D  E F G  H  I  J  K    

Thanks for participating.


27 March 2011

Sunday Salon: 27 March 2010: SS a way of life


Sunday Salon has become a way of life for me,an opportunity to summarise my week.
But I'm not really sure that many of my fellow Sunday Saloners actually visit. Certainly, from what I can see from my RSS feeds coming in, few of them are actually crime fiction readers.
So if you are a fellow Sunday Saloner, do leave a comment and let me know where to find your post this week.

The best book I've read and reviewed this week was CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER by Tom Franklin.
    The book explores relationships in a small Mississippi town where segregation and accompanying class differences had once been entrenched. We glimpse too how life has changed over a period of about thirty years. That makes it a story of a nation too, and makes this novel much more than crime fiction. An excellent read. One of those books that will stay in your mind long after you've read it.
Currently reading
  • now: A GRAVE IN THE COTSWOLDS, Rebecca Tope
  • next: COLD JUSTICE, Katherine Howell
  • now on Kindle: THE SERPENT AND THE SCORPION, Clare Langley-Hawthorne
  • next on Kindle: THE JANUS STONE, Elly Griffiths
  • next audio: THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, Keigo Higashino
  • current Agatha Christie - AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Other blog posts this week:
News & Headlines
Coming up this week
  • Tomorrow the Crime Fiction Alphabet moves onto the letter L.
    It is never too late to join in this one so check it out.

26 March 2011

Pitfalls: Reconciling two TBRs



This is an updated image of the TBR Range at my place, and I regret to say it is not getting smaller. My latest estimate is that it may indeed be over 100 books higher than it was last year.

Today I realised it has become complicated by the fact that unless I am careful I am likely to buy a Kindle copy of a book I already have on books-in-the-hand.
 
That nearly happened with Donna Leon's A QUESTION OF BELIEF this morning after I had read the review on Crime Scraps. In fact, if I hadn't gone to search the tbr bookshelf, it would have happened! My memory of what is lingering on the bookshelf is dimming, the longer the book is there.

I did buy THE POISONED CHOCOLATES CASE by Anthony Berkeley after I had read Martin Edwards' Forgotten Books post about it (although I don't have another copy of that). It will fit nicely into my Vintage Mystery Challenge, but so will any one of about 40 other books I have on the Mount Kindle TBR.

So while I am trying to read faster, and have read 46 books so far this year, I don't think I'm, in fact I know I'm not, keeping pace with the growth of TBR. Thank goodness I have some extended travel coming up in about 6 weeks' time, when I'll be basically relying on my Kindle, but there will not be any danger of running out of readable books.

Last week I said that I was seriously thinking of disconnecting the link between  my Kindle and it's money tree, my credit card, and that may still happen. Perhaps I need make use of the Kindle wish list a lot more, but that might begin to look like the one I maintain on my Library account, Mount NeverGoThere. I can report that I am being more controlled with my library book borrowing.

25 March 2011

Review: LATE, LATE IN THE EVENING, Gladys Mitchell

First published 1976
This edition ISBN 0-7278-4793-7
190 pages
Source: Local Library
A Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley Mystery
#50 in a 66 book series published 1929-1984

Publisher's Blurb:
In the small Oxfordshire village where Ken and Meg Clifton spend their school holidays, the Fair is the most exciting thing that ever happens - that is, until a double murder is suddenly committed.

My take:

LATE, LATE IN THE EVENING, we are told on the dustjacket, returns to the days before Gladys Mitchell's sleuth, Mrs Beatrice Adela LeStrange Bradley, became Dame Beatrice.

This is the only title I have read in the series and was probably not a good one to start with.

The structure of the novel is difficult, apart from being set in the past, there are three narrators: Mrs Bradley herself who does not really feature until the second half of the novel, in which she solves the crime; young Margaret (Meg) Clifton, 10 years old, and her younger brother Kenneth, and between them they do all the ground work. They find out a murder has been committed, and save a gypsy from being accused of it. The third narrator is the local matriarch and lady of the manor, who engages Mrs Bradley to make a psychiatric assessment of her brother who appears to have become deranged and is digging holes all over the village. When he disappears, all the strands begin to come together.

The structure is made more complicated by the fact that Meg Clifton is speaking in retrospect,  harking back to days long gone, to one of Mrs Bradley's first cases. Mrs Bradley's account on the other hand mainly takes the form of letters to Sir Walter - and I don't have a clue who he was.

One aspect that slowed my reading was the author's insistence on reproducing the dialect of one of the families in Hill village where the action takes place.
Here is a sample:
    So you says. A lettle bet of a lah-di-dah, ennee? Seems loike I heered hem talken to you t'other day loike the gentry talks, and that's talk as Oi don't 'old weth, nor moi dad neether.
I defy you to read that quickly!

For all that, it is an interesting cozy plot from an author who was obviously popular in her day. LATE, LATE IN THE EVENING has the air of a vintage novel, of earlier times, although it was not published until 1976. Perhaps it sat in the bottom drawer for a time?
I couldn't find a cover image for the copy I had so have photographed it. It is a cozy gem!

I'm adding it to my list of  Cruisin' thru Cozies Reading Challenge and British Books Challenge novels.

My rating: 4.0

From Wikipedia
Mitchell was an early member of the Detection Club along with G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers and throughout the 1930s was considered to be one of the "Big Three women detective writers", but she often challenged and mocked the conventions of the genre - notably in her earliest books, such as the first novel Speedy Death, where there is a particularly surprising twist to the plot, or her parodies of Christie in The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (1929) and The Saltmarsh Murders (1932).
You may have seen the BBC television series, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (starring Diana Rigg), produced in 1999.

Gladys Mitchell  wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career. 1929-1983.  She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie, and wrote ten children's books under her own name.

March edition of Agatha Christie Blog Carnival now available

It is that time of the month again.

Another ripper of an Agatha Christie Blog Carnival featuring 20 contributions from 10 contributors.

Find it here.

24 March 2011

Forgotten Books: MURDER IN PARADISE & SEA FEVER, Ann Cleeves

Friday's Forgotten Books this week is being hosted by the improvisatory and impulsive Todd Mason.

This week I want to point you to a series that should not be forgotten, but that many people would be unaware of.
It is a series that Ann Cleeves, better known for her "Shetland" series, published over a 10 year period.

I've only read two of the series, some years apart, but really should look for more.
Just last week I reviewed MURDER IN PARADISE and on that page you will also find a mini-review of SEA FEVER.

At the beginning of the series George Palmer-Jones, a public servant, and an elderly birdwatcher, is on the verge of retirement. His love of twitching takes him all over the UK, and his twitching nose involves him in a series of murder investigations, sometimes leading him into dangeous situations. In some titles his wife Molly accompanies him.

Palmer-Jones
1. A Bird In The Hand (1986)
2. Come Death and High Water (1987)
3. Murder In Paradise (1988)
4. A Prey To Murder (1989)
5. Sea Fever (1991)
6. Another Man's Poison (1992)
7. The Mill On The Shore (1994)
8. High Island Blues (1996)

22 March 2011

Crime Fiction Alphabet: K is for Kindle



I now have over 270 books on my Kindle (80% of them still to be read), and don't seem to be having any problems in adding to them. I monitor a couple of blogs that alert me to free books.

In fact I have unfortunately got into the habit of checking whether new titles that others talk about on their blogs are available on the Kindle. I'm seriously thinking I'll have to make impulse buying harder by taking the extra step of disconnecting my Kindle account from my credit card!

What seemed to happen frequently about a year ago, a barrier that said "not available to Australian subcribers", doesn't seem to come up so often now. I have a rule that I basically don't buy e-books if they are over $10, and many of them are much much less than that, sometimes even free.

Australian publishers are still not really with it yet, and tend not to supply e-book versions of new publications, but that will get better. Certainly many are willing to supply early reviewers with a pdf copy.

You can check the books that I have read on my Kindle through this label:




21 March 2011

Review: CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, Tom Franklin

Published Pan Macmillan 2011
ISBN 978-0-230-75305-1
272 pages
Source: supplied by the publisher

Publisher's Blurb:

Amos, Mississippi, is a quiet town. Silas Jones is its sole law enforcement officer. The last excitement here was nearly twenty years ago, when a teenage girl disappeared on a date with Larry Ott, Silas' one-time boyhood friend. The law couldn't prove Larry guilty, but the whole town has shunned him ever since.
Then the town's peace is shattered when someone tries to kill the reclusive Ott, another young woman goes missing, and the town's drug dealer is murdered. Woven through the tautly written murder story is the unspoken secret that hangs over the lives of two men – one black, one white.

My take:

The hook:
    The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house.
We have a saying downunder, mud sticks, and that's what happened to Larry Ott. When Cindy Walker disappeared when Larry took her out on a date, there was no evidence to suggest that he had killed her, or that she was even dead, but life changed for Larry and his family. He had always seemed a bit of a disappointment to his father, a book reader, not a sportsman, apparently not destined to be a mechanic like his father. After he was cleared of Cindy's disappearance, Larry went into the army, became a mechanic, and came back to Chabot, Mississippi to be labelled Crazy Larry and to live the life of a recluse, always under suspicion when a child disappeared.

In part CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER is Larry's story, but it also the story of his former friend, Silas Jones, known as 32, and now a policeman working out of the county office. In some ways Silas had the attributes Larry didn't: a baseball player all the girls liked. Larry and Silas share a bond although neither really understands why or exactly what the bond is.

The book explores relationships in a small Mississippi town where segregation and accompanying class differences had once been entrenched. We glimpse too how life has changed over a period of about thirty years. That makes it a story of a nation too, and makes this novel much more than crime fiction.

An excellent read. One of those books that will stay in your mind long after you've read it.

My rating: 4.8

Award nominations:
2011 Barry Award Best Novel
2011 Edgar Awards - Best Novel
ALA Notable Book (2011)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist (Mystery/Thriller, 2010)

Other Reviews to check:
Listed in my books for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2011 - Letter K - week begins 21 March 2011

 
The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

It is never too late to join in on this meme and you don't have to post each week if reading (or life) gets in the way. And it is so easy!

The books and authors being suggested are a great way of learning about books you haven't read, or authors you haven't yet met.
We have participants from all over the globe too. Do take the time to check the entries towards the end of the week.

Letters already covered: A B C D E  F G  H  I  J
 
A note to remember: We'll have a little rest on the week beginning April 24. There's a double public holiday here in Australia for Easter Monday and then Anzac Day. But we'll start up again on Monday May 2. 

This week's letter is the letter K:

Here are the rules

By Friday of each week you have to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.
[Those who intend to participate regularly have signed up here.]

Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname.
So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, or even maybe cover a crime fiction "topic", so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)

Please link your post for the week back to this page. (a letter image is supplied that you can use in your post as well as the meme icon if you wish).

After your post is published, put a link to your actual blog post in the Mr Linky that appears below.
(leave a comment if Mr Linky has disappeared)

Then come back at the end of the week to check to see who else has posted and visit their blog (and leave a comment if you can).

Please check each Monday for the letter of the week

Letters already covered: A B C  D  E F G  H  I  J   

Thanks for participating.


20 March 2011

Sunday Salon - 20 March 2011, 'bin travellin'

We've spent this weekend in Melbourne, and waiting in airports and flights (even though Adelaide to Melbourne is relatively short), and loads of free time, always means a bit of extra reading.

Yesterday we visited my favourite second hand bookshop in Melbourne, Kill City, and came away with a copy of  MURDER IN PARADISE  by Ann Cleeves. A very apt title for this blog!

There was great excitement in our household at the beginning of the week. Visit  Brand New Addition and you'll see why.

Other blog posts this week:
News & Headlines:
TBRN (To Be Read Next)
  • now: CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, Tom Franklin
  • then: COLD JUSTICE, Katherine Howell
  • now on Kindle: THE SERPENT AND THE SCORPION, Clare Langley-Hawthorne
  • next on Kindle: THE JANUS STONE, Elly Griffiths
  • next audio: THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, Keigo Higashino
  • current Agatha Christie - AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Coming up this week
Interested in Australian Crime Fiction?
  • Have you caught up with Fair Dinkum Crime yet?
    Fair Dinkum Crime is hosted by two Adelaide-based book bloggers, Kerrie and Bernadette, who are fans of Australian crime fiction. The site is a place for their reviews of Australian crime fiction to be highlighted and includes author interviews, news, award updates and anything else relevant to Australian crime fiction.
    By invitation, reviews of Australian crime fiction written by other bloggers are also incorporated into Fair Dinkum Crime, either by linking from here or by re-publishing here (always with the blogger's permission). If you have reviewed a work of Australian crime fiction and would like a link or copy of the review posted on Fair Dinkum Crime please email us.
  • Do you know about the 2011 Aussie Author Challenge?
  • April is Aussie Authors Month and at Fair Dinkum Crime we'll be celebrating.

Review: MURDER IN PARADISE, Ann Cleeves

published Ballantine Books, 1989
214 pages
ISBN 0-449-1450-9
Source: I bought it secondhand

Publisher's Blurb
The honeymoon was over .. and Jim and his English bride, Sarah, had come home to Kinness to settle down. But first there was to be one huge celebration for the newlyweds, with the whole island present. And before the party was over, there would be a shockingly unexpected death. Somehow, in the dark of the night, Jim's young sister, Mary, slipped off Ellie's Head to the rocks below. A terrible end to a boisterously cheerful evening.
But did Mary fall, or was she pushed? George Palmer-Jones, retired birdwatcher and amateur detective, suspected the latter, but proving it would be difficult: no one wanted to upset the balance of the isalnd's ancient relationships.
Yet those with something to hide inevitably to to hide it, and George, helped by Sarah, began to piece together a tragic story he wished he had nver heard. Kinness was a paradise lost.

My take:
How could I resist it? I saw this title beckoning me on the shelves of a second hand book shop in Melbourne yesterday. The synergy with the title of this blog hit me.

I had already read one title (SEA FEVER - see mini-review below) in Ann Cleeves' Palmer-Jones series and had mentally marked it as a series I would enjoy reading more from. MURDER IN PARADISE is #3 in the series, and George has recently retired from the public service, and not at all sure he will have enough to occupy him. He comes to the northerly island of Kinness to do some twitching (bird watching), but normally he would have his wife Molly with him.

Investigating Mary's death almost comes as a relief for George, as it gives him something to do. The island is small, only 3 miles long, and 2 miles wide; just a few families, divided into a couple of clans that don't get on terribly well, and so we have the equivalent of a locked room mystery. The murderer can't easily get off the island, so it is very likely one of the inhabitants.

You can see the makings of the Shetland series in this novel as Cleeves explores the ingrained suspicion of the islanders of both incomers and even those who were born on the island but are of the opposing clan. George is a very methodical sleuth (he reminded me a bit of Simon Brett's Carole Seddon who is also a retired public servant), and he is also an outsider which means he doesn't always get told the truth.

A very enjoyable cosy read.

My rating: 4.3

mini review, SEA FEVER, my rating 4.2
George Palmer-Jones and Greg Franks, despite a separation of four decades in age, have in common the fact that they are both twitchers. So George just happens to be on the spot when Greg is discovered murdered during a pelagic trip on the "Jessie Ellen" off the coast of Cornwall. In fact George is on the boat to meet Greg whose parents have hired George to find Greg and ask him to come home. It appears however that Greg has made sure that all his enemies know that he is on the bird-watching trip - so who is responsible for his death? Cosy medium paced detective novel "starring" amateur detective George Palmer Jones and his wife Molly. A story full of ifs…

Read a profile of Ann Cleeves by Martin Edwards

Anne Cleeves website

The series (listing thanks to Fantastic Fiction)
Palmer-Jones
1. A Bird In The Hand (1986)
2. Come Death and High Water (1987)
3. Murder In Paradise (1988)
4. A Prey To Murder (1989)
5. Sea Fever (1991)
6. Another Man's Poison (1992)
7. The Mill On The Shore (1994)
8. High Island Blues (1996)

I'm listing MURDER IN PARADISE in the British Books Challenge and the Cruisin' thru Cozies Reading Challenge

Review: DARK WATER, Georgia Blain

published 2010
ISBN: 978 1 86471 983 3 (pbk.)
Target audience: For secondary school age
Read on my Kindle but also available as ePub from publisher Random House Australia.
Source: I bought it.

Publisher's Blurb:
Amanda Clarke is dead.

Her body was found floating facedown by the riverbank, and no one knows what happened. As rumours fly and fear grows, it seems that everyone suspects Lyndon, one of Amanda's friends. He's known for his temper, his cruelty and his criminal family - and now the police want to talk to him.

It's the end of summer, 1973, the heat is enough to melt asphalt and a sleepy riverside suburb is losing some of its innocence. Fifteen-year-old Winter went to the same school and hung out in the same places as Amanda. As she finds herself alone in trying to defend Lyndon, Winter learns that you can never really know someone - and the answers she has been looking for are closer than she has ever wanted to believe.

My take:
The story is told in the first person by Winter Blair and is set on "the peninsula" which I mentally set in Victoria. Winter is the younger sister of Joe who was in Amanda's class and was just one of the boys who had the "hots" for Amanda.

DARK WATER, once the police designate Amanda's death as "suspicious", becomes a murder mystery laced with threads about the perils of growing up. Winter becomes a self-appointed investigator, concerned first of all to prove that Joe could not be guilty of Amanda's murder, and then extending her protection to his friends. In the background, Winter's mother Dee is leading an environmental protest about saving Greenwood Bush from the predations of developers who want to clear the land for factory development.

I'm far from an expert in young adult fiction but it seems to me that this age group would find DARK WATER a good read.

My rating: 4.2

About the author

Georgia Blain, an Australian author, has published five novels: CLOSED FOR WINTER, CANDELO, THE BLIND EYE, NAMES FOR NOTHINGNESS and the young adult novel DARKWATER.
She was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists in 1998, and has been shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.
Two of her novels have been optioned for feature films, including CLOSED FOR WINTER, which was filmed as Elise in 2007.
She has been published internationally, with her work appearing in publications such as Granta and The Independent Magazine.
Her most recent book for adults BIRTHS DEATHS MARRIAGES was shortlisted for the Nita B Kibble Award in 2009.

I'm listing this title in the Aussie Author Challenge, the Cruisin' thru Cozies Reading Challenge and  the e-book challenge.

19 March 2011

ACRC Update - 20 March 2011

My intent in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge is to read her books in order, so that I can get some idea of what she is doing, problems she is attempting to solve, and her development as a writer. If you look at some of my reviews you will see that I have been able to undertake some of this reflection.

Currently I am managing about a book a month, and now I'm back on schedule.
I've read 26 books and 11 collections of short stories.

Read & reviewed so far
  1. 1920, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES
  2. 1922, THE SECRET ADVERSARY
  3. 1923, THE MURDER ON THE LINKS
  4. 1924, THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT
    1924, Poirot Investigates (short stories: eleven in the UK, fourteen in the US)
  5. 1925, THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS
  6. 1926, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD
  7. 1927, THE BIG FOUR
  8. 1928, THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN
  9. 1929, THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY
    1929, Partners in Crime (fifteen short stories; featuring Tommy and Tuppence)
  10. 1930, THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE
    1930, The Mysterious Mr. Quin (twelve short stories; introducing Mr. Harley Quin)
  11. 1931, THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY (aka MURDER AT HAZELMOOR)
  12. 1932, PERIL AT END HOUSE
    1932 The Thirteen Problems (thirteen short stories; featuring Miss Marple, also known as The Tuesday Club Murders in the US)
  13. 1933, LORD EDGEWARE DIES (aka THIRTEEN AT DINNER)
  14. 1934, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (aka MURDER IN THE CALAIS COACH)
  15. 1934, WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS? (aka THE BOOMERANG CLUE)
    1991, Problem at Pollensa Bay publ. 1991 (Two of them feature Hercule Poirot, two Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Harley Quin, and two Mr Parker Pyne.)
  16. 1935, THREE ACT TRAGEDY (aka MURDER IN THREE ACTS)- Hercule Poirot and Mr Satterthwaite.
    1933, The Hound of Death - 12 short stories, UK only
    1934, Parker Pyne Investigates - 12 stories introducing Parker Pyne and Ariadne Oliver
    1934, The Listerdale Mystery - 12 short stories, UK only
  17. 1935, DEATH IN THE CLOUDS (aka DEATH IN THE AIR) - Hercule Poirot
  18. 1936, THE A.B.C. MURDERS (aka THE ALPHABET MURDERS) - Hercule Poirot
    1947, The Labours of Hercules - Hercule Poirot - 12 short stories
  19. 1966, THE THIRD GIRL - Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver
    1997, Miss Marple: complete short stories - Miss Marple - 20 short stories
    1997, While the Light Lasts - 9 short stories - incl. 2 Hercule Poirot
  20. 1936, MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA - Hercule Poirot
  21. 1936, CARDS ON THE TABLE - Hercule Poirot, Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race, Ariadne Oliver
  22. 1938, HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS (aka MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS, aka A HOLIDAY FOR MURDER) - Hercule Poirot
  23. 1937, DUMB WITNESS (aka POIROT LOSES A CLIENT)
  24. 1937, DEATH ON THE NILE - Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race
  25. 1938, APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH - Hercule Poirot, Colonel Carbury
  26. 1939, MURDER IS EASY (aka EASY TO KILL) - Superintendent Battle

    Reading schedule
  27. 1939, TEN LITTLE NIGGERS (aka AND THEN THERE WERE NONE; also TEN LITTLE INDIANS)
  28. 1940, SAD CYPRESS
  29. 1940, ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE (aka AN OVERDOSE OF DEATH; also THE PATRIOTIC MURDERS)
  30. 1941, EVIL UNDER THE SUN
  31. 1941, N or M?
  32. 1942, THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
  33. 1942, FIVE LITTLE PIGS (aka MURDER IN RETROSPECT)
  34. 1942, THE MOVING FINGER (aka THE CASE OF THE MOVING FINGER)
  35. 1944, TOWARDS ZERO
  36. 1944, DEATH COMES AS THE END
Check the opening blog post of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge here.
If you'd like to join the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge click here.

I am using the list at Wikipedia of novels and collections of short stories. I will interlace the short story collections into the list where I can, but may have to read them out of order. I have decided on a method for reporting on the short stories. Here is my latest short story update.

Please feel free to join in my challenge, comment on my reviews etc.

I have set up a block over in the right hand column called Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (with the same logo as this post) where I am listing the books I'm currently reading and those I've finished.
The challenge is called ACRC so each review will be preceded by those letters.

If you want to follow my progress through your RSS reader, then the RSS URL is
http://www2.blogger.com/feeds/8273911883856580200/posts/default/-/Agatha%20Christie%20Challenge
Just save that in your bookmarks or RSS reader and you will be notified when I have written a new post.
Alternatively you could subscribe to the feed through FeedMyInbox. Just copy the RSS URL, click on the FeedMyInbox link and paste the URL in there.
You will need to confirm your subscription by email.

Contribute your blog postings about any Agatha Christie novels to the monthly carnival. Make an agreement with yourself that whenever you complete reading an Aggie you will write a blog posting about it and then submit the posting to the carnival.
If you are participating in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge then write updates like this one and submit them to the Carnival. Let us know what progress you are making.

17 March 2011

Forgotten Book: TWELVE ANGRY MEN, Reginald Rose

Friday's Forgotten Books is being hosted this week by George Kelley.
TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose is listed in my records for May 1992 when I was teaching Year 12 English.
I guess one could argue that, because it is actually a play, this title is actually crime fiction.
It was originally written in 1954 as a television play, and went on to become a film starring Henry Fonda.

The play was inspired by Rose's own experience of jury duty on a manslaughter case in New York City. At first, he had been reluctant to serve on a jury, but, he wrote, "the moment I walked into the courtroom … and found myself facing a strange man whose fate was suddenly more or less in my hands, my entire attitude changed." Rose was greatly impressed by the gravity of the situation, the somber activity of the court, and the "absolute finality" of the decision that he and his fellow jurors would have to make. He also thought that since no one other than the jurors had any idea of what went on in a jury room, "a play taking place entirely within a jury room might be an exciting and possibly moving experience for an audience"

There's a good summary of the plot here.

Brand New Addition

Let me introduce you to Theodore Sebastien Rouse, our brand new grandson, who was born in Abu Dhabi to Kat & Andy on 13 March, nearly 5 weeks ahead of schedule, but weighing in at an impressive 3.15 kg and 52 cm in length.
All are well, and are now home.
We get to see Theo when we visit in early May, but it will be a long wait!


We now have a "pigeon pair" - with Georgia Louise now over 5 months old.

15 March 2011

Review: FROZEN MOMENT, Camilla Ceder

first published in Sweden 2009
published in Great Britain 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy
ISBN: 978-0-297-85947-5
378 pages
source: my local library

Publisher's Blurb
One cold morning, in the wind-lashed Swedish countryside, a man's body is found in an isolated garage. The victim has been shot in the head, and run over repeatedly by a car. Inspector Christian Tell, a world-weary detective with a chequered past, is called to the scene. But there are few clues to go by, and no one seems to be telling the truth.

Then, a second brutal murder. The method is the same, but this victim has no apparent connection with the first. Tell's team is baffled.

Seja, a reporter and witness, thinks a long-unsolved mystery may hold the key to the killings. Tell is drawn to Seja, but her prescence at the crime scene doesn't add up, and a relationship could jeopardise everything. For the inquiry to succeed, the community must yield the dark secrets of its past.

My take:
The opening pages struck an immediate chord with me - Ake Melkersson is on his way to his last day at work, thinking about what retirement will be like, when his car breaks down. He pulls into a garage just off the highway and discovers a body. At first he panics and drives away but then realises he must go back and alert the police. Not wanting to disturb his wife he phones his neighbour Seja to come and collect him. Seja is a free-lance journalist and the name over the garage door rings a bell with her.

Inspector Christian Tell and his team are (I think) at the Goteborg police station. They are a very mixed bunch, men of a variety of ages from near retiring to newly recruited, with one woman, Karin Beckman, who is rather sensitive about her role and status in the team. The author explores the team dynamics, showing how they work together, even though relationships are not always harmonious.

The structure of the book is interesting, with the "modern" action taking place from just before Christmas in 2006 to early January 2007.  The secondary timeline begins in 1993 when Maya, who is nearly eighteen, leaves home to enrol for three years in a folk high school. Maya's teenage years have been full of rebellion and she is looking forward to making a new start. Two years later Maya comes home to visit her mother..
It is inevitable that the two timelines will intersect.

FROZEN MOMENT is far from being just another police procedural. The plot is well developed and there is a lrage cast of charcaters. For both timelines there is quite a bit of back story, and it did come as a surprise to me to realise that this is Camilla Ceder's debut novel.  I had even thought at one stage that maybe FROZEN MOMENT was the second in a series.

My rating: 4.5

Other reviews to check:
  • Reactions to Reading: There are memorable and interesting characters among Tell’s team who I’m sure I will enjoy getting to know further in future installments of the series.
  • EuroCrime: Maxine Clarke's review: a substantial, rounded novel and a welcome newcomer to Scandinavian crime fiction.
  • Material Witness: Another week, another Scandinavian crime fiction author. Another strong, well-structured, terrifically readable novel and yet another strong, introspective leading man.
Camilla Ceder's second novel, BABYLON, was published in Swedish in 2010.

I am listing FROZEN MOMENT in my books for the Nordic Challenge 2011

14 March 2011

Crime Fiction Alphabet - J is for Peter James

Peter James, the current chair of the Crime Writers' Association, is an author I keep promising myself to read more by.

My blog contains 4 reviews:
DEAD MAN'S FOOTSTEPS (2008)
NOT DEAD ENOUGH (2007)
Mini-reviews
LOOKING GOOD DEAD (2006) and DEAD SIMPLE (2005)

I have two titles to read: DEAD LIKE YOU (2010) on my TBR, and DEAD TOMORROW (2009) waiting for me on my Kindle.

With the publication of #7 there will be the following titles in the DEAD (Detective Superintendent Roy Grace) series
1. Dead Simple (2005)
2. Looking Good Dead (2006)
3. Not Dead Enough (2007)
4. Dead Man's Footsteps (2008)
5. Dead Tomorrow (2009)
6. Dead Like You (2010)
7. Dead Man's Grip (2011)

If you check Fantastic Fiction for Peter James you will notice that in the period 1981-2000 he wrote 17 novels and then came a period without publications until the first of the DEAD novels was published in 2005. In this article Peter talks about what made him return to writing. 


The CWA site says
Peter James is one of the UK’s most popular crime and thriller novelists. His Roy Grace detective novels have sold more than one and a half million in the UK alone and six million worldwide in total. The series is now translated into 34 languages and his latest novel, ‘Dead Like You’, went straight into the Sunday Times bestseller lists at no 1 in both hardback and paperback. His novella, ‘The Perfect Murder,’ went to No 1 on iBooks and has spent 40 consecutive weeks in the iBooks Top 10.

Many of Peter James' titles are now available on Kindle, including some of those written before 2000.

Peter's website includes book reviews, some extracts, and a subscription form for his newsletter.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2011 - Letter J - week begins 14 March 2011

 
The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

It is never too late to join in on this meme and you don't have to post each week if reading (or life) gets in the way. And it is so easy!

The books and authors being suggested are a great way of learning about books you haven't read, or authors you haven't yet met.
We have participants from all over the globe too. Do take the time to check the entries towards the end of the week.

Letters already covered: A B C D E  F G  H  I 
 
A note to remember: We'll have a little rest on the week beginning April 24. There's a double public holiday here in Australia for Easter Monday and then Anzac Day. But we'll start up again on Monday May 2. 

This week's letter is the letter J:

Here are the rules

By Friday of each week you have to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.
[Those who intend to participate regularly have signed up here.]

Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname.
So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, or even maybe cover a crime fiction "topic", so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)

Please link your post for the week back to this page. (a letter image is supplied that you can use in your post as well as the meme icon if you wish).

After your post is published, put a link to your actual blog post in the Mr Linky that appears below.
(leave a comment if Mr Linky has disappeared)

Then come back at the end of the week to check to see who else has posted and visit their blog (and leave a comment if you can).

Please check each Monday for the letter of the week

Letters already covered: A B C  D  E F G  H  I   

Thanks for participating.


13 March 2011

Sunday Salon: 13 March 2011, enjoying a holiday weekend


What better way to spend some quality time on this Adelaide Cup holiday weekend than to get some reading done?

Mind you, if I was at the races I'd have my Kindle or a book with me!

Reminder: you have a week left to participate in Do the Write Thing (until 19 March)


 
Do the Write Thing! is a charity raffle put together by Margot Kinberg at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist to raise funds for Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake relief.

Thanks to the generosity of 39 authors from around the world (Woot! Thank you!) you’ve got a chance to win signed copies of some wonderful books for just about every taste. Each winner will get a package of 3-4 titles. 

To enter the raffle click HERE.

*******************
I've had a really good reading week actually: a mixture of books from the library, on the Kindle, and audio.
Other posts this week:
News & Headlines
Currently reading:
  • now: FROZEN MOMENT, Camilla Ceder
  • next: CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, Tom Franklin
  • then: COLD JUSTICE, Katherine Howell
  • next on Kindle: THE JANUS STONE, Elly Griffiths
  • next audio: THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, Keigo Higashino
  • current Agatha Christie - AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Blog improvements:
I added side bar gadgets for some existing labels: library books, Kindle, audio books
This is actually quite easy to do: you just use the RSS feeds for the labels.
I already have some there for Friday's Forgotten Books, Reviews, Crime Fiction Alphabet and more.
As I add posts where I use those labels, then the little gadgets will update.

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