Whodunit?

whodunit? read haddam's prep school satire 'the headmaster's wife'

BOOKS:

i've read a number of books during this past week. i can't help myself. even if they are terrible, 99% of the time, i finish them.

 

but today i want to write about one that i thoroughly enjoyed. i think you will, too.

 

Jane Haddam's 'The Headmaster's Wife' takes place at a precious new england prep school. if you or anyone you know has attended a preparatory school, a college (or university) or a public high school with a monolithic culture, even though, of course, they all try for 'diversity,' if you fall into any of these categories, you will love her satire on a prep school that has adopted an ultra liberal stance. yes, this is an easy target, but it is funny. and haddam doesn't hammer at the targets as much as she does in other books. well, maybe she does, but in this case it's all part of the plot, whereas in other novels, her aim has been directed to add-on targets instead of to ones that are part of the plot.

 

we have three murders (i think), multiple robberies, and an attempt at poisoning, also various infidelities and other minor crimes. they all add to the fun. yes, they do. i'm not sure how ms. haddam knows that one couple who announces themselves as lesbians aren't. but maybe i skipped a salacious page where that was explained!

 

it really doesn't matter whodunit, though you'll want to know. the characters and minor plots are so well drawn that you won't be able to put the book down

 

it is 436 delightful pages, published by st. martin's minotaur. the book sells for $6.99. the copy i have was marked down to 50 cents!

 

MOTHER"S DAY: happy mother's day to all. last minute gifts are kindle editions of my books. they are delivered immediately and cost only a few bucks.

 

HOW TO WRITE:

1. free summer writing workshops, please contact the Cuyahoga County Public Library

2. Breaking Genre: A Writers Conference will take place June 1, 2013 on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. please contact c.w.r.u. 

 

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

beaton, parker, and mother's day gifts!

greetings, readers,

i've been in new york for a few days and miss my blogging. i hope that you do, too.

can you imagine, i was in n.y. and didn't partake of one cultural attraction, except in a socio-anthropological way. what my husband carl and i did was to try to catch up with various members of our far-flung family. we managed to spend time with eight delightful relatives, one meaningful-other, and two good 'old' buddies from northwestern days. i'd call that a successful trip.

BOOKS:
not quite as successful is M .C. Beaton's  hamish macbeth mystery, 'Death of a Kingfisher'. i think it's the newest in the scottish series; it's certainly the one i've most recently read. series kind of peter out after a while. i hope this one doesn't as hamish can be extraordinarily clever and charming at the same time. i am, however, getting tired of his mismanaged love life. i hope m.c. beaton lets him find a girl friend/wife/ or boyfriend. his missing the mark with every woman he meets is getting tiresome. the actual death of the kingfisher is a warning or a symbol of what's to come in the tiny village of braikie.

the novel was published in 1912 by grand central publishing. it is 245 pages and sells for $24.99.

T. Jefferson Parker's 'The Famous and the Dead' was for me an impossible to read novel. i tried. i had nothing else to do on my flight from canton/akron to n.y. and my flight from n.y. to canton/akron. looking at the airline's flight magazine was more interesting than this charlie hood book. parker has a great reputation, so if you are looking for a lot of hard hitting, hard talking people working along the border to stop  gun traffic, you can buy the novel for $26.95. it is 371 pages and published by dutton.

GIFTS: Mother's day is almost upon us. you can still order 'eloquent blood', 'eloquent corpse' and/or 'eloquent tattoo' as a terrific gift for your mother. i'm sure she'll let you borrow it (or them). amazon.com will take your order and get the books to you in two days. i'm not quite as speedy, but we have a week. i can mail them to you, also. as a special bonus, you will learn a great deal about the trendiest poison being used in front page news today. as you know, ricin laced letters have recently been sent to a number of politicos. this is the poison writers are faced with in 'eloquent corpse.' see if you can figure out how cleverly they distribute it.

SUBMISSIONS: We would like to include the best answers to the following question in the next issue of the PostPoetry Magazine: “If you knew the whole world would listen to you for 20 seconds, what would you have to say?”Be bold. Be creative.                        

submission@PostPoetry-Magazine.com

Related articles

ryan and vico, an unlikely duo

NOT MUDER MYSTERIES-------FOR A CHANGE

 

 

KUDOS:

Denise Talbott, adult services librarian of the akron_summit county public library, deserves applause for all of the work she did to set up accommodations at the green library for my book chat there.  imagine driving up to the library and seeing 'dr. audrey lavin' in flashing lights. i thought i was in vegas for a while!

thanks, denise.

BOOKS:

in case readers of this blog think that all i read is murder mysteries, i am going to write about three of the non-crime books i am now in process of reading:

1. 'The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson' is worth dipping into. i think many of you who are also writers and who dream of publication will enjoy a different twist:

Publication-is the Auction

Of the Mind of Man-

Poverty -be justifying

For so foul a thing

 

it ends

But reduce no Human Spirit

To Disgrace of Price-

 

Ms Dickinson's  1775 poems are contained in the book's 716 pages. open at random and sniff around. you will enjoy most of what you read. the editor is thomas h. johnson and the book is published by little, brown and co.

 

2.  Mark Twain's "The Diaries of Adam and Eve and Other Stories" is a pleasure. at least the story that is included in the title. the extracts from adam's and eve's diaries ("translated from the original") are charming satires on feminism and masculinity with many sly pokes at religious establishments. for all of his jokes about men and women, twain ends the story with adam at eve's grave, saying "wheresoever she was, there was eden."

'extracts from adam and eve' is 28 delightful pages.

the other six stories in the collection are not as interesting, but occasionally show flashes of twain's humor, understanding, and descriptive abilities, esp. the seven pages that comprise 'the californian's tale.

 

dover publications is the publisher of this ninety-four page book that sells for $4.95. you'll be happy i suggested it.

 

3. Michael Gorra's "Portrait of a Novel"  is subtitled 'henry james and the making of an american masterpiece.' it is an elegant biography of james. i'm sure there are those who will disagree with me, but i really think that you have to read or have some familiarity with james's most famous novel, 'the portrait of a lady' before reading it. the title of gorra's novel echoing that of james's almost tells us that.

when i started the book, gorra's  book, i was overcome with all of his words and references. then i thought, 'if he is spending a large chunk of his life reading james that's exactly what he will end up sounding like,' and plunged on, much to my own reward.

mr. gorra weaves together literary criticism, travelogue, and psychological analysis of real and literary characters in his 334 enjoyable pages published by liveright publishing corp. it can be yours for $29.95 or stop by your nearest public library and put your name on the waiting list. there must be one.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. A workshop in poetry and performance

on Friday, March 29th, 2013, 12:30-1:50 p.m.

at Case Western Reserve University
Clark 309, 11130 Bellflower Rd.

2. Thursday, March 28th
Dana Ward at Case Western Reserve University
Guilford Parlor, 11112 Bellflower Rd.
6:00 p.m.
for those of you still ending submissions to the LITTLE magazine on the blog, thank you, but i have closed the journal. i loved publishing it, but i am not looking for a full-time job, which is what i was getting into. i did tell  mrs. kurtz i would give her a plug (when i thought i was going to publish some of her work), so  try reading The Way It Was, Recollections of the Life and Times of an Opinionated Granny, a memoir by Olga B. Kurtz

 

 

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

norwegian whodunits? & scroll back for the LITTLE magazine

COMMENTS:

"The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps."

~ Robert Benchley by way of writers digest

"'I enjoyed your blog very much. I really liked the account you gave about your sudden "anguish" over the report of the Siberian tigers being gunned down nearby; only to find out that the tigers were in the neighborhood "on business"'.  s.g.b. ohio

 

BOOKS: norwegian

'Phantom' by Jo Nesbo

this is the 7th book available in english that stars harry hole, detective and crime solver. as the series has gone on, the hole books have gotten steadily grimmer, and “phantom” is the bleakest yet. it is so bleak and so grim that i see no reason to read it, though i have read and enjoyed previous novels by nesbo. also, part of the 'phantom' written in italics to delineate it from the main story, is a parallel and true story of what really went on during, before, and after the main murder. the dying man's thoughts are in perfect chronological and, just about perfect, grammatical order. i've never been a dying man, but i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be thinking like that. 

the english version is 377 pages. (nesbo's books have been translated into 47 languages) the publisher is alfred a. knopf. the book sells for $25.95 and has been translated from the norwegian by don bartlett.

 

Blessed are Those who Thirst by Anne Holt is a much more interesting novel. three protagonists are on the trail of a bloody murderer/rapist. if the reader counts hanne wilhelmsen's colleague hakon sand as a separate searcher, we have four parallel searches going on, which ups the reader interest. who will get there first becomes almost as important as whodunit? because each searcher will treat the culprit in a different manner. this book was written or at least published in 1994. perhaps to keep up the reputation of scandinavian noir, each norwegian crime writer who comes along has to make his novels much darker than his predecessor's. anne holt does not suffer from this need. yes, her novels are dark; her chief protagonist is in a wheel chair. also, hanne is a lesbian, but does not make a big deal about it, although we follow her thoughts as she wonders whether or not to come out to her colleagues, who, of course have already figured it out.

 

the novel is translated from the norwegian by anne bruce, published by scribner, and the paperback 211 page edition is $15.

 

GIFT IDEAS: 'eloquent blood,' 'eloquent corpse,' and 'eloquent tattoo'--murders that will make you smile.

GRISHAM, COTTERILL, & HOW TO WRITE

ODDS & ENDS:

 

please join the crowds in green, oh, who will be hurrying over to the green library  9 march from 2-4 in the afternoon to hear me talk about writing and publishing. no charge. i look forward to meeting you there.

for those of you who are interested in collage, decoupage. bibliolage, and deviant art forms (i like that best), please go to this web site: www.williamdaviesking.com, Ruined Books: The Art of Bibliolage
and speaking of web sites, here's one about me that amazon sent. i don't know what its purpose is, but enjoy!!

https://www.amazon.com/author/audreylavin

also, i had an e-mail from Marquis Who's Who, saying that i'd been so honored for fifteen years. really? how could that be? i'm not even sure i've ever seen a copy of the book.

then, a big disappointment. with my question about your preference in endings, i had hoped to start a big internet discussion on the subject. it fell flat. the few, very few answers i received ranged from, 'Iike everything all wrapped up' to 'what's wrong with endings,' but to be honest, there was no interest in starting or continuing a discussion on a subject i find fascinating. why does that happen to me so often?

 

BOOKS:

a blurb or two ago, i wrote that colin cotterill could do no wrong.

he did. sorry.

in 'curse of the pogo stick' and more so in 'thirty-three teeth,' he leans too heavily on laos mysticism. i, for one, quickly loose empathy with a 'detective' who solves crimes with magic, even if he is the reluctant coroner of laos.

soho crime. 235 and 238 pages. cotterill redeems himself in later books and in the jimm juree series starring a female former crime reporter.

 

much of the mysticism is similar to what can be found in nigerian novelist chinua achebe's highly proclaimed 'things fall apart'. the rest of that line is 'the center will not hold.' the title of the novel is taken from "the second coming" by yeats, one of my favorite poems. to describe the novel (too briefly, i know) i will take the chance of quoting desmond tutu for the umpteenth time: "When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'let us close our eyes and pray.' When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land." actually, it's a questionable attribution.  also, there's a great deal more to the novel than that quote implies.for those of you who have never had the chance to read it, go!

 

'the racketeer' by john grisham is a fun mystery. the readers knows the twist from the beginning, but it is a pleasure to watch it so well played out. the book is published by doubleday. it is 340 pages at $28.95. it's fun, but not a keeper. see if you can find it in a paperback.

 

and 'two graves' by preston and child is probably the worst mystery i have ever read.  while reading the first few chapters i thought they were going to turn out to be the plot of a bad movie the chief protagonist was either watching or making. then the plot goes downhill. as i've written before, where have all the editors gone; these guys are in love with adjectives.

 

thanks for all of your comments, for reading this blog, and for buying my books. love to hear from you. audrey

whodunits to read and your thoughts on endings, please

 

 

  

COMMENTS regarding the LITTLE magazine on the blog:

"I TIP MY HAT TO YOU" from jo m., chicago

"YAYAYA!!!" from eleanor l., n.y.

"Great Moldova story" from m.l., chicago

"Loved the Moldova story and Gary Sirak's "If Money Talked..."

Always enjoy your web site" from caroline t. canton oh

and finally "J" from betty m., canton oh  

PLANS TO START 2013:

now i'm going to list some books i've read over the holidays, more than i usually list in one blog. i'm doing this because lately i've been thinking of endings.  i would like your in-put for the next whodunit blog.  i would like it to be all about endings. do you like endings that tie up crime, romance, and any other puzzle that has made an appearance in the novel you're reading? say, like jane austen does? or do you like the crime solved, but not the subsidiary stories? or neither? or both? please dash off your thoughts in just a few words or long paragraphs. send your ideas as comments on this blog or to me personally at lavingroup@aol.com. thanks so much.

BOOKS:

Anarchy and Old Dogs, Never Hand Money to a Transvestite on a Street Corner, The Merry Misogynist and anything else you can find by Colin Cotterill. i've read the three books listed above during the last week or two and have enjoyed them immensely. they're about 265 pages. as a first step, enjoy the titles listed! any  book i've read about dr. siri paiboun, the reluctant national coroner of laos, has been a pleasure. dr.siri is in his 70s; his second, noodle-making wife is in her 60s and they become astounding, brave, intelligent, satiric, and funny guides through a county not many of us know.

i also am extremely fond of the author colin cotterill. he dedicates the merry misogynist, 'to my wife, jessi, who rescued me from my misogynous ways and turned me into a big soft thing.' awww.

 

Death and the Maiden by Frank Tallis is a period murder mystery that takes place in vienna and is solved by a psychoanalyst/detective. it's 369 pages, not bad, but not my cup of tea. if you like historical fiction with a medical slant, it might be yours.

 

The Other Woman's House by Sophie Hannah is a little longer at 438 pages. it stars charlie zailer and simon waterhouse, who are now married, but still don't have their sex-act together! hannah is well-known for her suspense fiction and award wining poetry.  she can write. she is super at the beginning of the novel, but by the end she is kind of twisted up in her own plot, which would be great if only slightly less convoluted. the narrator's husband kit has another woman, or so she suspects. she takes a virtual tour of the other woman's house on the internet. there's a dead body in a pool of blood in the living room. she tires to show others and oops! there's no dead body in a pool of blood. it's 438 pages that will pull any reader along with it, except for that darn ending!

 

to all who are reading, thanks so much. i appreciate your support and the comments you send to me. reading and writing can make for a lonely life. i don't think of these activities that way at all, but still it is wonderful to have this internet bond with you. i sincerely and happily wish you all a merry   2013 full of good health, joy, laughter, and whooo dunits?

audrey

whodunits by fairstein and meyers + dorian gray & lavin

BOOKS:

Classic Calls the Shots, crime in the fast lane by Amy Myers is a mystery novel for antique car lovers. i am not one. we had an antique rolls for a while and it certainly was fun to go out for rides in it, but that's as far as my interest goes.

i ask myself, would i like this novel better if an andy warhol or a chagall had been stolen, any object i might have a slight emotional or aesthetic attachment to. i don't think so. a 1935 auburn boattail speedster disappears from the site of a movie production in kent, england. the mystery is solved in 198 pages.

the publisher is severn house.

 

Night Watch by Linda Fairstein is a great deal of fun in the beginning. this  might be because i've spent some happy times in the south of france, where the novel starts. alexandra cooper is there visiting boyfriend luc rouget. luc is a famous restaurateur, so famous that alexandra and he go off to n.y. to start a new lutece. they keep falling over bodies, rather bodies keep falling over them. drugs are quite often involved. ms. fairstein throws in a lot of n.y. restaurant history and other bits of special knowledge that the reader may love--or not.

the book runs 398 pages and is published by dutton, penguin group.

 

 

MOVIE:

Oscar Wilde with colin firth (what was he thinking?). The film received mixed to negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, the film reviews aggregator, gave the film 42%, which is probably more than it deserves, though there is an unintentional comedic aspect to it. 

 

WRITING HINTS:

“Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”
—William S. Burroughs

“All readers come to fiction as willing accomplices to your lies. Such is the basic goodwill contract made the moment we pick up a work of fiction.”
—Steve Almond, WD

 

HELP WANTED:

betterbuilt.com moved my heading for the LITTLE magazine on the blog to typepad, but not to the rep. and when i wanted to use a photo (i'm blowing a huge balloon, which does tie in with my column and makes the column seem odd without it). i couldn't get it on either site. how do i do this?

 

Submissions are open for the december issue of the LITTLE magazine on the blog.

 

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

happy birthday, oscar wilde, +marie winn and central park. more writing hints

 

'i'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air.....1917-1918

oh,SHOOT the photo of audrey blowing bubbles didn't move to  typepad!!!!

'i'm forever blowing bubbles' is almost as old as the first book i'm going to discuss today.

BOOKS:

'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by oscar wilde was published in 1890 ( the bubble song almost thirty years later). both stay on as contributions to popular culture. listen. often when a bubble is blown in a movie, the background score moves into this once popular song and show tune. more important to us today is dorian.

  

it is fitting, though accidental that i re-read the book this week, the anniversary of wilde's birth, 16 october 1854. i'm celebrating, by the way, with irish whiskey and decadent chocolate cake. dorian is a variation on the theme of adam and the apple or to bring it a little more up-to-date, a bargain with the devil, or a faustian contract, trading knowledge (specifically, eternal youth) for his soul. 

 

another theme that is subsumed by this major one is the fear of ageing, still referred to in arrowsmith's 'every time i look in the mirror/all these the lines in my face getting clearer,' though my favorite novel and movie (outside of wilde's) that shows the awfull effects of aging is 'lost horizon', 1937.

 

dorian gray is a pleasure to read again. it is amazing how well the epigrams hold up. the copy i have was published by costa books. it is 181 pages and sells for around $10-15. a good book to have in your library.

 

Central Park in the Dark is not a murder mystery. even though it's a good title for one. in fact, it is subtitled 'more mysteries of urban wildlife.'  it is about bird, moth, and other wild-life-watching in, as you might guess, central park after dark. the author marie winn is an exuberant nature lover, generous with the friends she meets who are following similar hobbies and a delight to read. the book was suggested to me by judy n. of canton. i must get hold of her and thank her.

the book is 287 pages, published by farrar, strauss and giroux. it sells for $25.

 

HINTS FOR WRITERS:

“Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.”
—Enid Bagnold

“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.”
—Allen Ginsberg, WD

a triple whodunit by colin cotterill

COMMENTS:

speaking of my problems with the little magazine on the blog, r.z. of zoar writes, 'Sort  of like a Murphy's law.'  yep!
and on a more positive level about the little magazine itself are the following: 'super - congratulations' from f. l. of h.k.

'Congrats on the Little Magazine, Wonderful idea, wonderful multiple distribution venues, wonderful realization.' from m.l. of chicago.

''Thanks for sending this little nugget. I forwarded the LL Cool J (no periods, correct?) to my kids. I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of it.' m.v. of akron oh

BOOKS:

Love Songs from a Shallow Grave is a 2010 laos mystery by colin cotterill. i mention the date because i think cottrill's later books are better. this is the seventh in the series starring dr. siri paiboun, the people's democratic republic of lao's reluctant national coroner. siri along with his noodle making wife and sarcastic best friend civilai are the amateur detectives in the investigation of three murdered women.

 

the serious problem with this novel is that it really is two books. one book is a realistic condemnation, a combined denunciation and expose, of the khymer rouge, the followers of the communist party of kampuchea in cambodia. it is full of horrors as seen and experienced by dr. siri.

 

the other book is a mystery: three women who are found dead have been killed by fencing swords. who is the killer or killers and why? the problem with this 'novel' is that it is a story that is more told than shown.

 

dr. siri is in his 70s in this story that takes place in 1978 laos and continues to be a charmer

 

OTHER READING:

sent from a.l. in n.o.

gail collins  starts her column, "In my next life, I want to be an undecided voter in Ohio."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/opinion/collins-ohio-gets-the-love.html?ref=opinion

and if you'll coninue to scroll down, you'll come across the little magazine on the blog
and the ll cool j story.

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

three whodunits: cotterill, silva and temple

 

COMMENTS:
thank you all for your e-mail and snail-mail comments on my blog, e-zine, and books. i enjoy the huge range in enthusiasm and targets. comments range from  'Thank you for sharing this' by w.s. in ca to 'would love to submit something' by b.h. in kent, oh to 'I enjoyed reading  your story of the $5.00 bill for your grandson' by a.w. in boca raton fl to 'i really enjoyed reading eloquent blood and can't wait to read eloquent corpse and eloquent tattoo. i have both of them and will start reading tomorrow.' by p.d. of north canton.

 

for those of you who have not read the september edition of the little magazine on the blog, after you have finished this blog, keep on scrolling back and you'll find it. i'd love to hear your comments.

 

BOOKS:

Slash and Burn by colin cotterill is a dr. siri mystery set in laos. i have reviewed this book in a previous blog. i re-read it because i was on an airplane for hours with nothing else to read. unlike most mysteries, the re-reading was worth it. the novel is much denser than some of cotterill's earlier work. the equal opportunity satirical stabs at the americans and their communist counterparts are clever and cleverly woven into the fabric of the story. i again highly recommend this novel.

  

The Fallen Angel by daniel silva takes place in italy, the vatican, the u.s., switzerland, france, and israel. maybe i left out a country or two where gabriel allon travels to solve the mystery started by finding a sort-of colleague fallen on the marble floors of the vatican. only, no surprise here, she didn't fall. if you like these master spy stories (gabriel is on leave from israel intelligence to restore a vatican masterpiece), you'll love this. you will certainly have to admire all of the research silva did in all of the above countries. i liked an earlier allon novel better.

 

the 393 page novel is published by harper and sells for $27.99.

 

The Broken Shore is the eighth novel by australian writer peter temple. it concludes with a seven page glossary of australian terms. beware. i figure that if an author has to do that much explaining, maybe he should do more editing and make the definition of the words apparent from their context. peter temple is no james joyce. and i don't like it when joyce aficionados do it either. temple's joe cashin is an interesting and appealing detective. temple is also good with his sense of place, as are silva and cotterill. the broken shore involves racial tensions and pedophilia, such contemporary themes that i first though it was written after the penn. scandal, but no, it was written before that horror came to light.

 

ANNOUNCEMENT:

When: October 13, 2012 (Saturday) Where: Coburn United Methodist 3618 N. Maple Ave. Zanesville, Ohio 43701

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