christopher fowler, mc call smith, even vargas llosa

thanks to reader of this blog, d.l. of new york, who suggests checking the following web site for information about the 2011 world mystery convention in st. louis.   http://www.bcon2010.com/what-is.php 

how could reader f.l. know that i had just ordered mario vargas llosa's captain pantejo and the special services when he sent me a copy of vargas llosa's nobel acceptance speech (2010)? i think all readers of fiction will be interested in this excerpt: "Without fictions we would be less aware of the importance of freedom for life to be livable, the hell it turns into when it is trampled underfoot by a tyrant, an ideology, or a religion. Let those who doubt that literature not only submerges us in the dream of beauty and happiness but alerts us to every kind of oppression, ask themselves why all regimes determined to control the behavior of citizens from cradle to grave fear it so much they establish systems of censorship to repress it and keep so wary an eye on independent writers. They do this because they know the risk of allowing the imagination to wander free in books, know how seditious fictions become when the reader compares the freedom that makes them possible and is exercised in them with the obscurantism and fear lying in wait in the real world. Whether they want it or not, know it or not, when they invent stories the writers of tales propagate dissatisfaction, demonstrating that the world is badly made and the life of fantasy richer than the life of our daily routine. This fact, if it takes root in their sensibility and consciousness, makes citizens more difficult to manipulate, less willing to accept the lies of the interrogators and jailers who would like to make them believe that behind bars they lead more secure and better lives.

i have been thinking, though not-as-deep thoughts, myself, but one that has me puzzled is where does alexander mc call smiths's isabel dalhousie get so much time to think? doesn't her dry cleaner ever break a zipper leaving her in a panic when trying to dress for an occasion? has her roof never leaked? has she never car pooled with a youngster who hits her with a swing of his metal lunch box? don't people misunderstand her? i have to admit that she is human enough to misunderstand others. but even mosquitos seem to leave her alone. could isabel be living in an imaginary doll house (check name)?  ah, well, the joys of fiction!

 

i have a few pages to go to finish christopher fowler's the victoria vanishes. according to my count, this is the sixth of the 'peculiar crimes unit mystery series' (that title being reason enough to read the books). the victoria is a pub, one out of the 56 that are mentioned in the novel. if you are interested in pub lore, this is definitely the mystery for you. even if you aren't, it is a charming story of a lonely hearts killer who targets middle-aged women in various well-known london pubs. arthur bryant and his partner john may are the irascible detectives who solve the crime. but, differing from most murder mysteries, the book isn't over when oldies but goodies, bryant and may, find whodunit.

 

you'll never guess what i am going to suggest for your last minute shopping: eloquent blood and eloquent corpse.

 

audreylavin.com           tr.im/whodunit