Whodunit?

daniel silva's spy story, audrey's whodunit, and more

in trying to find professor batty's e-dress (see his icelandic comments in previous blogs) so that i could tell him i continue to write about him, i came across his review of an art show in minnesota with this line:

 

 i thought it pretty tacky for the photography judge, Sean Smuda, to showcase his own work (WTF?) in the prime location in the gallery

 

it reminds me to tell you, my blog readers, that although i am editor of turning leaves, and the anthology does contain three of my short pieces, i am not suspect as is the photography judge above. the reason is that i carefully chose three creative non-fiction stories that had already been accepted and published by other editors as my contribution to the book. that is, i did not use my position to further my own literary ambitions!! it is tacky to do so. remember to order your non-tacky copies from amazon.com or barnes&noble.com

 

speaking of literary ambitions, eloquent tattoo is now in the hands of anaphora literary press. time to start thinking of the cover. any ideas? i know you haven't red the novel, but any ideas in general? any do's or don'ts? what about colors that sell? i'm happy to hear from any and all.

 

the novel i am going to discuss today differs from any book i've talked about before. it is daniel silva's portrait of a spy. as far as i can remember i have not discussed spy novels in this blog. i seldom read them. oh, i read a few james bond novels, then i was quite taken with the anti-bond novels of le carre. the oxford companion points out that 'women excelled in crime writing throughout the twentieth century, men very largely monopolized the spy novel. to a lesser extent this gender distinction is reflected in the readership of the two kinds.' that makes me as typical as i can be.

 

other obvious differences are the amount of action, which usually plays a larger part in spy novels than detective stories and in the amount of humor, which seldom makes it way into spy stories and often is the lynch pin of a detective story, or of a sub-genre of detective stories.

 

this brings me back to portrait of a spy. for those of you who have read previous books in the series, it is not news that gabriel allon is an israeli anti-terrorist and art restorer, famous in both careers, also handsome and brave and married to a beautiful italian woman.

 

one criticism of this novel is that silva repeats descriptions of characters and occupations from previous novels. i haven't read the previous novels and i sure needed to be told who was who. this is a problem in a series that each series author has to deal with. i'm afraid i haven't told enough about professor mary beth goldberg's history or tony bartlett's either in the eloquent tattoo, the third in my eloquent murder mystery series. when it comes out, let me know.

 

for me, everyone was fresh and interesting in portrait of a spy. the story is surely timely. it has thinly veiled contemporary political figures in the u,s., composite ones in the arab world, and a few fictive personalities. no surprises in the story, no real challenges to the reader, but it is deftly woven, and i recommend it.

 

harper collins is the publisher of this 448 page quick read.

 

audreylavin.com     http://bit.ly/flTthc

louise penny, announcements, and whodunit?

i'm sad to announce the closings of two organizations that have helped aspiring as well as established authors: the lit and book tour.

 

1. the announcement from the lit reads:

 report thatstthe lit that started as the poet and writers league of greater cleveland is no more.ain an appreciation and Cuyahoga County Public Library will take on The LIT's valued programs, workshops, classes and publications. Recognized as one of the premier library systems in the United States, Cuyahoga County Public Library will be able to not only maintain The LIT's core programming, but also elevate and expand its reach to a wider audience of writers and readers.

2. book tour has also sent recently sent an e-mail:

We regret to inform you that BookTour will be shutting down on Thursday, September 1, 2011. On that date, all of our services will end and our data will be unavailable.  we recommend tools from Amazon Author Central, Google Calendar, Upcoming.org and Eventful.com as worthy replacements.

 

for those of you who missed the comment to my icelandic blog, please read what professor batty has to say. he is responding to my monologue on icelandic place names. you can scroll back to get his site url.

"I know it's a lot to ask of a non-native, but the place names really add a lot to the stories, especially after you've been there. I read this entire book aloud to my wife, and it really does become poetry after awhile.  There are numerous posts about Laxness and Indriðason on my site. professor batty."

 

 

and on to the main subject for today's blog, the mystery or the four mysteries i just finished, all contained in louise penny's bury your dead. the book is sub-titled, an inspector gamache novel. poor inspector g. he has to solve or bury the thoughts of four crimes. i'll give ms. penny points for balancing the four plots, but now that she has proven she can handle four stories, i'd like her to go back to one or two worth while tales, preferably ones that take place in the brigadoon of canada, three pines. in three pines, she has created a lovely setting with wonderful characters. my advice is to sustain that world.

 

as far as i can tell, here are the four 'deads' that need to be buried in today's novel. the first is the explorer champlain. if it is true that no one knows exactly where he is buried, we readers know darn well that detective gamache isn't going to find that place in a novel. gamache/penny would be celebrities if they made such a discovery. so it is difficult to be excited by this mystery.

 

but somebody was and this brings up the second mystery, who killed the quester of champlain's burial on the steps of the english library in quebec? and why? (which doesn't make much sense).

 

while these two mysteries are being solved we have the undercurrent of the mystery from the last book. gamache thinks he might have found the wrong person guilty. he wasn't the judge and jury though was he? this turns out to be a complicated murder. my own theory is that penny's fan didn't like the way that last book ended and have demanded that the lovely inn keeper be released from jail and sent back to his partner, so penny has invented a convoluted plot to over-turn the previous one. that crime has to be put to rest also, as well as all of its back story.

 

finally the dead that gamache has to bury is his guilt and responsibility in the death of a colleague and good friend who trusted him. this death as well as the others who were killed at the time haunts him, haunts him. but really he saved many more lives in that raid than were destroyed, potentially thousands in canada and the u.s.

 

i really enjoyed the other five chief inspector gamache stories. not this one. penny tries too hard. let this be a writing lesson. if you have created a wonderful world, stay in it. it didn't hurt tolkein!

 

i've just started daniel silva's portrait of a spy. as a rule, i do not read spy stories  (o.k. le carre), but this one starts out to be fun. more about it will follow....

whodunits: fanning and louise penny

hi, blog readers,

 

speaking of which, it has come to my attention that many of my readers are not particularly fans of the detective novel. they read this column for comments on other works, on writing, publishing, etc. i will try regularly to insert a few non-mystery story comments.

 

i've had too much family visiting these past few weeks , and continuing, to be able to get much blog writing done. this is not in any way a complaint. i happen to like my family a great deal. and i've still had time to read, though not to think about what i'm reading. it's the thinking about the reading that i try to express in this blog.

 

here's one of the non-mystery story comments, sent by c.l. in california. he quotes:

 

"I visit the Huntsmans at their house in Kalorama. Given that they had bought it when they were still in China and moved in only two months ago, it's not surprising that it looks a bit like an ambassador's residence, with a series of reception rooms and some large canvases depicting migrant Chinese workers that Huntsman bought to decorate the American Embassy in Beijing"

we've heard rumors of chinese slave labor, but this is not the type of souvenir we expect our ambassadors to purchase.

 

and if i haven't already mentioned this, rhys bowen's Naughty in Nice, the fifth Royal Spyness mystery, will be in stores Sept 6th , in case you have the problem with the title that i did, it's not naught 'n nice, but rather naughty in nice, the riviera city near cannes.

 

lately my own mystery reading has included diane fanning's twisted reason, the fourth book in her mystery crime series. fanning is an edgar award finalist and readers of this novel will see why.

 

the book starts with finding a missing man with alzheimers. edgar, the previously missing man, is found on the porch of his son's house. the only thing strange, and not very, is that he has many acorns in his pocket. finding him solves the immediate mystery of where is he, but it does not explain where he had been. lucinda pierce, virginia homicide detective, is brought in and this quirky novel gets quirkier. someone has been 'collecting' the elderly who are destined for alzheimer wings in nursing homes. the book is an extreme case of twisted reasoning that is a pleasure to read.

 

it is published by severn house and is a quick read at 215 pages.

 

i am also reading bury your dead by louise penny. the book has the gentleness of her five previous books in the series although this time the story takes place in quebec instead of the brigadoon-like town of three pines. chief inspector grenache and his dog henri (mme grenach is conveniently out of the picture, back home) work unofficially to solve the murder of a local character. at the same time, we have plot #2 in which grenache is constantly haunted by a most tragic error he made that resulted in the death of his comrades and plot#3, the re-thinking of the murder conviction of one of grenache's buddies in three pines. as i remember he was co-owner of the inn. i wouldn't be surprised if penny's readers registered a big complain that this likeable guy was a killer, and she more than, grenache has to re-work the conviction.

 

more later.

audreylavin.com    http://bit.ly/flTthc

laxness, indridason, & lavin whodunits

 

 

Jeff Rubin

Founder

National Punctuation Day®

September 24

http://www.NationalPunctuationDay.com

jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com

 

audreylavin.com http://bit.ly/flTthc

 

Rust Belt Literary Magazine - The "Cleveland Review" is a new, online magazine that features literature and art from the geographical region known as the Rust Belt.  Issue 2 is now available at http://clevelandreview.org/.  Submissions for Issue 3 will be accepted from August 1, 2011 until December 1, 2011.

from l.g. of new york: "I loved your contributions to Turning Leaves and still think that the next big project should be memoirs of a wandering professor.  There is just so much great stuff there!!!" 

 

greetings, readers,

 

above you will find:

 1. the url for the national punctuation day (neat concept) contest.

 2. a chance for those of you who are or who write about rust belters to submit.

 3. and a nice comment from a reader in new york, though my next project will be the publication of the third novel in my eloquent murder mystery series, eloquent tattoo, by anaphora literary press. but i'll think about the memoir angle. 'eloquent tattoo'does include some adventures that hark back to my teaching in lusaca, zambia.

 

i am beginning to think that  perhaps i read too many murder mysteries, maybe it is too many mediocre murder mysteries. the last time i wrote in my blog i talked about the return of captain john emmett and i think, harry dolan's very bad men. i got the occupations of the chief protagonist/amateur detective mixed up. one was editing a crime magazine and one was writing a book about churches. it really doesn't make any difference who was doing what. the point is that each has time  to wander around the countryside following obscure clues

to the murders of a group of people.

 

i think i did not mention earlier that very bad men is 412 pages and published by g.p. putnam's sons.

 

much more enjoyable than either of the above is arnaldur indridason's hypothermia, an icelandic thriller. i read and enjoyed his previous novel jar city or tainted blood.

 

hypothermia is translated by victoria cribb, who does a terrific job. i never thought that i was reading a translation.

 

inspector erlendur is persistent and intuitive as he solves really cold cases. this is iceland, after all and the novel is part of the northern invasion of dark new tales that other critics have written about. we care about the inspector, his own ghosts, the disappearance of the young couple, and of course the 'suicide' that starts the present day search.

i have one point of irritation. that is indridason's constant repetition of  icelandic place names. paragraph after paragraph contain sentences such as this one 'he and eva lind started at lake ellidavatn where a new suburb had sprung up, then did a circuit of raudavatn on a decent road, before continuing to reynisvatn which had now disappeared behind the new suburb of grafarholt. from there they drove past langavatn and had a view of numerous little lakes on middalsheidi moor before slowly proceeding to mosfellsheidi. the paragraph continues with eleven more place names.

 

does indridason consider himself the walt whitman of iceland? or is there such a flaw in my icelandic pronunciation that i don't recognize the poetry of repeated place names when i hear them?

 

hypothermia is published by minotaur books and is 314 pages.

 

two other icelandic comments: read halldor laxness's independent people, an excellent novel, not a mystery in the usual sense, but beautifully written. and my husband and i are planning a trip to iceland. i doubt if we'll get the feelingsof impending doom that we find in these novels, but they do give a cold welcoming.

period whodunits by tami hoad and elizabeth speller + more

writers set their stories back or forward in time for various reasons. i will talk of three of them today: three novels and three different reason for their period settings.

 

my last blog posting ( a few days ago because i've been so busy getting eloquent tattoo ready for publication that i haven't had a chance to do any other writing) included a review of tami hoag's secrets to the grave. this story is one that is set back in time. it takes place in 1986 for no apparent reason, except that the crimes are much more difficult to solve with dna and cell phones being discussed, but looming on the far horizon as far as anne leon, child advocate; her former fbi profiler husband vinc; and local sheriff's deputy, tony endez, are concerned.

 

the return of captain john emmett, a mystery by elizabeth speller, is set further back to 1928. in the aftermath of the great war in london, a whole firing squad is being killed off, though it takes the detectives on the case much longer to figure this out than it will take you, the reader. the firing squad is responsible for executing a rather shell-chocked officer. the independent review explains that "During the First World War, 346 British soldiers were shot, mostly for cowardice or desertion, but only three were officers."

 

the amateur detective trying to solve this series of murders is ex-army officer turned crime magazine editor, laurence bartram. his 'watson' is charles, so good, so handy with the money, with leg work with always being present that i was sure he had to end up being some kind of a bad guy, but no, he just likes to be the side-kick. 

 

and (almost a spoiler) why mary emmett can't marry laurence at the end is the biggest mystery of all. if she is acting as less than a sister to her former lover why can't laurie be less than a brother?

 

i didn't really care as i could not get emotionally or intellectually involved with any of the characters. this is ms. speller's first novel. her publisher, houghton mifflin harcourt, must have great faith in her future to publish this. i'll go along with this and look for something that moves a tad quicker in the future. the book is 436 pages.

 

another novel set in the past, 1890 to be specific, is a hazard of new fortunes by william dean howells. more correct, the novel takes place in our past, in william dean howells' present. i have only read 70 out of 496 pages, so i easily could change my mind. don't hold me to it then, when i say the novel is a delight. the conversion between husband and wife could be taking place in the present. if you know anyone who has recently looked for an apartment in new york, 1890 is the present.

 

to be continued.

 

audreylavin.com        http://bit.ly/flTthc

whodunit by hoag, warning by larsson, recommend by lavin et al.

as you-all, meaning readers of this blog, know, steig larsson is not my favorite crime writer. he exults in too much blood, gratuitous violence, unloving, even un-fun sex for my taste. but what he has done well, too well, is to give us fair warning of dangers inherent in the beliefs of the extreme right-wing. his novelistic specifics were all in sweden, but what happened recently in neighboring norway is only a slight geographic, not philosophic, extension. he knew from his own experiences, including his newspaper and political work that these dangers exist now in our present.

 

moving from political philosophy to literary, i quote christine ann evans from her article 'on the valuation of detective fiction: a study in the ethics of consolation. she is hardly as clear as larsson, except when she quotes auden:

     w. h. auden in the now classic 'the guilty vicarage sees detective fiction as fulfilling in the twentieth century the same role as greek tragedy 2500 years ago. the fabric of civilized society is torn by the murder, when guilt and suspicion fall over an entire community. in bringing the real culprit to justice the society triumphant regroups, and the danger is quarantined and banished to the far periphery of the society. the reader, in identifying with both the detective and the murderer, is able to play out and eventually expiate all antisocial, antinomian impulses, and finishes the detective novel a better citizen.

 

am i a better person for having finished tami hoag's secrets to the grave. i doubt it, but i did pass a few pleasant hours. ms. hoag knows how to twist up a neat plot and how to keep her readers engaged with her characters. she could cut out a little of the psychological explanation of the how and why they got to be so off beat, but not to quibble.

 

this is the second in a series. i have not read the first deeper than the dead, but secrets of the grave stands alone. it takes place in the same community of oak knoll california and i understand stars some of the same characters, but a reading of the first book is not a prerequisite to enjoyment of the second. also, i thought that the hints were too broad and the murderer too easy to pinpoint early on in the game. how much to identify the murderer is such a problem for me and other writer of detective fiction. you want to be fair to your reader and to give her all of the information anyone else on the scene would have, but clues in a novel don't stay in the background the way clues at the scene of a crime do.

 

we start out with a murder: marissa is killed and her four-year old daughter witnesses the crime. that poor four-year old. in the course of this novel she is the witness to three murders or attempted murder. looking forward to her books.

 

marissa is not who she seems to be. either is her best friend. either, surprise, is the murderer or 'bad daddy.'

 

secrets to the grave is 449 pages and published by dutton.

 

a final word today (really five or six final words) is the recommendation of girls! girls! girls! in contemporary art edited by catherine grant and lori waxman. linda nochlin calls the book 'the missing link in the new feminist art history/criticism.' but really, any intelligent browser will find something worthwhile in this collection of essays. pay special attention to maud lavin's (another wild coincidence with the names)  'marlene mccarty's murder girls. '