Mystery
”Rebel Island,”By Rick Riordan
Bantam Books ($6.99 paperback, 330 pages)
It’s just a measure of how well endowed the mystery bookshelves are at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library that I am just now getting to read anything by Rick Riordan, a New York Times bestselling mystery author from my old stomping grounds of South Texas.
When the new library opened up, I reveled in the old books — S.S. Van Dine, Brett Halliday — that used to be hidden away in the stacks.
That’s my excuse for not being up on the latest mystery bestsellers, and I’m sticking to it.
But I’ve clearly missed some fun, because this latest Riordan opus has enough twists and action and interesting characters to definitely make me want to go back and peruse his previous work in the Tres Navarre private eye series.
In this case, Tres Navarre has officially given up his private investigation business to work as a full-time faculty member at the University of Texas at San Antonio (whence my nephew graduated — he’s now a Texas State Trooper). And Tres has just married his so-pregnant-she’s-ready-to-pop lawyer girlfriend, Maia, who happens to be a Chinese American.
50 States of Literature, Adventure, Bestsellers, Mystery, New in Paperback, Review, Suspense
“Blood Trail,”By C.J. Box
2008, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
$24.95 hardbound, 301 pages
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Here’s a book that probes some of the less-noticed wounds of America’s culture wars with all the delicacy of a 105 mm howitzer.
It’s part of a series of eight detective/mystery novels about a Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett, who works directly for the governor — a Democrat, oddly enough — named Spencer Rulon.
In this story, someone’s killing hunters and mutilating their bodies in particularly nasty ways. With a state economy that depends so much on the hunting industry, Rulon gets Pickett involved in the hunt for the hunter who hunts hunters.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
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“The Black Hand: A Barker & Llewelyn Novel,” by Will Thomas
(2008, Touchstone, 289 pages, $14, paperback)
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At last, I find a new story and cast of characters after my own heart — albeit with a Sicilian dagger.
This is the fifth in a series of historical mysteries set in England in the 1880s. The heroes, Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn, would have been contemporaries of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson (no relation to yours truly, although that happens to be the same name as my father, and my grandfather was a doctor — of veterinary medicine). Also, Barker and Llewelyn bear a surface resemblance to the venerable duo.
But while Holmes shows his remarkable mental acumen (e.g., concluding people’s activities from pet hair on a pant-leg) regularly throughout a story, Barker, who plays the lead sleuth in this series, spends much of this story, at least, teaching his apprentice, Llewelyn, about the sociology of London’s underworld.
And that’s just fine with me.
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Adventure, Historical Fiction, Mystery, New in Paperback, Review, Suspense, Uncategorized
“Spook Country,” by William Gibson(2007, Penguin Group, 373 pages, $15, paperback)
I confess that I’m one of many people who have not read William Gibson’s first novel, “Neuromancer,” so I had little more than the cover art and blurbs on which to build preconceptions when I sat down to read this book.
“Neuromancer,” according to Wikipedia, is one of the seminal works of cyberpunk science fiction, some of which I’ve enjoyed very much.
But “Spook Country” is not science fiction. In fact, it more resembles highly tech-oriented noir.
The book begins with a former rock musician — still famous in the story — named Hollis Henry, who is trying to get started as a journalist. In her first big assignment, she visits the scene of River Phoenix’s death with an artist who asks her to don a visor that looks like a welder’s face-guard. She then sees a three-dimensional virtual-reality recreation of Phoenix’s death scene.
This brings us into the concept of linking virtual reality with global positioning systems, creating the possibility of somehow inhabiting a world that is not at all what it seems.
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”Indiana Jones and the White Witch,” by Martin CaidinBantam Books (paperback, 1994, 329 pages).Those of you who saw my review (which you can see HERE) of a previous installment in this series of adventures based on the George Lucas-Steven Spielberg movies may remember that my standards aren’t very high.
I don’t ask for much.
Just don’t bore me.
This one failed on that score.
Btw, these paperbacks were reissued this spring to capitalize on the latest movie.
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”Shinjuku Shark”By Arimasa Osawa
Translated by Andrew Clare
Vertical Inc.
Paperback, $14.95
285 pages
Both my kids have taken four years of Japanese under “Irigashi Sensei” at White Station High School, and I sincerely hoped I would like this book, the first English translation of a series of police procedurals that are extremely popular in Japan.
I do like the characters and the story, but the translation has serious problems.
The Shinjuku Shark is the nickname of the book’s hero, Samejima, a rogue, loner cop who won’t kowtow to his go-long-to-get-along superiors in the Japanese police hierarchy.
He has a beautiful rock singer girlfriend, Sho, who seems to be poised to launch into stardom.
The plot involves a gay, sadistic maker of illegal firearms and a mysterious serial killer who targets young police officers.
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“Indiana Jones and the Sky Pirates”
By Martin Caidin
First published December 1993, Bantam reissue April 2008
Paperback, $6.99
311 pages
Just in time for this week’s release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Bantam has reissued a series of adventure novels based on the George Lucas movie character.
I came across five of them in what could be called the “slush pile” of books considered inauspicious candidates for reviewing in TheShelfLifeBlog.com.
I’d had my fill of reviewing books outside my reading “comfort zone,” and wanted something I was pretty sure to enjoy — at least not to actively dislike.
My modest expectations were not disappointed by this book by an accomplished British aviator whose earlier novel, “Cyborg,” was developed into the “Six Million Dollar Man” and “Bionic Woman” TV series.
2 Comments
Books on Film, Historical Fiction, Mystery, New in Paperback, Review, Science fiction, Suspense
“The Sukoku Puzzle Murders:A Puzzle Lady Mystery,”
By Parnell Hall
St. Martin’s Minotaur
Hardback, $23.95
308 pages
I can stomach the occasional cozy/comedy mystery, but this ninth Puzzle Lady mystery was definitely not my cup of tea.
This series is about a merry divorcee named Cora Felton, who maintains a public persona as a composer and solver of the wordgames many of us find delightfully aggravating — or vice versa, whatever.
The McGuffin, though, is that Cora finds herself at a loss for words whenever confronted by a crossword. It’s her niece, Sherry, who solves and composes them, with Cora serving as the charmingly deceptive face of the operation.
“Curse of the Spellmans,”
By Lisa Lutz
Copyright 2008
Simon & Schuster
$25 hardback
409 pages
One of my rare pleasures in listening to the radio in Memphis is the hour from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays when WYPL-89.3 FM (the library channel) broadcasts the reading of current mystery novels.
While going to pick up my son from White Station High School one Monday afternoon, I heard a delightful reading of “The Spellman Files,” the first installment of this series by Lisa Lutz. I don’t know the name of the young woman who read the book aloud, but she does a great job.
“The Spellman Files” was a big hit for the author in 2007, and this sequel, I hope, will do as well or better.
The Spellmans are a family of San Francisco-based private investigators: father Albert, mother Olivia, daughter Rae (who turns 16 in this book) and daughter Isabel Spellman (30), who is the heroine of the series. Rae and Isabel’s brother, David, is a lawyer who occasionally sends business to the family firm.
Last summer, when I was recuperating from surgery, a friend sent me a care package that included the book, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Hooked from the first page, I read each installment in the eight-book series back-to-back.
I was lured by author Alexander McCall Smith’s main character, Precious Ramotswe, called Mma. Ramotswe in the story. A woman of traditional build, as she describes herself, Mma. Ramotswe uses her innate kindness and intelligence to solve the mysteries that are brought to her agency — the first and only ladies’ detective agency in Botswana.
These are no Mission Impossible-type cases where dead bodies crop up or bullets fly through the streets. Mma. Ramotswe’s cases are everyday mysteries like missing persons cases and embezzlement.
After eight books in the series, Smith returns with his ninth release, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, which will be available Tuesday, April 15.
In his latest Mma. Ramotswe saga, the author once again employs his poignant and practical prose that make the books a joy to read.
As the tale opens, Mma. Ramotswe and Mma. Grace Makutsi, her associate detective, are receiving threatening letters.
“Fat lady: you watch out! And you too, the one with the big glasses. You watch out too!,” reads a note left at the detective agency.
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