Tag: mysteries

Day 372: A Trick of the Light

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Cover for A Trick of the LightThe morning after the village of Three Pines throws a big party to celebrate Clara Morrow’s show at the prestigious Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montreal, the body of a murdered woman is found in Clara’s garden. The body turns out to be that of Clara’s childhood friend Lillian Dyson, whom she has not seen in more than 20 years.

Clara’s friendship with Dyson was broken because Dyson cruelly betrayed her in art school. This puts Clara on the list of suspects. However, as Inspector Gamache’s team investigates Dyson, they find that she has a reputation for doing harm to others by trying to ruin their careers in art, providing a broad field of suspects, especially after a party celebrating an art debut.

On the other hand, Dyson is viewed completely differently by her new circle of acquaintances, which leads Inspector Gamache to wonder if people can really change their natures. Eventually, the police realize that Dyson was on a 12-step program and that she was probably intending to ask forgiveness of one of the people at the party.

On another front, Clara seems to be headed toward trouble in her marriage. Although her husband Peter has been happy with his own moderately successful career in the art field, now that Clara may be proving to be more talented than he is, he is becoming jealous and insecure.

Although this mystery has Penny’s usual hallmarks of beautiful description and insight into people’s characters, I do not like where the plot involving Jean Guy Beauvoir is going. Also, I thought it took the police an awfully long time to figure out about the 12-step program.

Day 370: The Preacher

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Cover for The PreacherA little boy on vacation in the fishing village of Fjällbacka goes out early one summer morning and sees the body of a young woman in a crevice called the King’s Cleft. When the police come to remove the body, they discover bones of two more women beneath it. The medical examiner finds that many of the bones were broken, not only in the recent corpse but in the old remains, in exactly the same way.

Eventually, the older bodies are identified as Siv Lantin and Mona Thernblad, two young women who disappeared 25 years before. Although those crimes were never solved, Gabriel Hult reported that he saw his brother Johannes with Siv Lantin the night she disappeared. Johannes later committed suicide, according to his family because he was innocent and couldn’t bear the suspicion.

Patrik Hedström is on vacation with his massively pregnant wife Erica, the main character of Läckberg’s first novel, but he is called back to head this investigation. Soon the situation becomes more urgent, because another young woman who is staying in a local campground with her parents disappears while hitchhiking into town.

Fearing that Johannes Hult is perhaps not actually dead, Patrik has his body exhumed. Johannes is indeed dead, but he was murdered, not a suicide, and semen found on the most recent victim’s body belongs to a close relative of Johannes.

This situation still leaves Patrik with several suspects in the feuding Hult family, all descendents of a leader of an odd religion that believes in faith healing. Gabriel Hult inherited the property of patriarch Ephriam Hult, known as “The Preacher,” leaving Johannes’ sons Stefan and Robert poverty stricken. Gabriel’s son Jacob runs a farm for reforming delinquent teens and continues with his grandfather’s religious work, although he does not have the ability of faith healing that his father and uncle supposedly possessed as boys.

While Patrik stresses over the case, Erica suffers in the oppressive summer heat and tries to cope with holiday guests who descend upon them without notice.

As with Läckberg’s previous novel, The Ice Princess, I liked this book perhaps more than it deserves. Patrik and Erica make attractive, likeable main characters, and the characterizations seem to have more depth in general than I’ve found with other Swedish police procedurals. However, again, Läckberg’s writing seems clumsy at times, particularly the dialogue.

Aside from a confusing typo early in the book where Johannes is referred to as Stefannes, I had a serious problem with the chronology of the mystery. The older crimes took place in 1979 and yet 30ish Patrik and Erica both say they remember them, not that they heard of them. This discussion confused me so much that I actually looked up the original publication date of the book, thinking that it may have come out earlier than I thought, but it was published in 2004. Although I suppose this timing is not impossible, it may have worked better to have an older police officer clue Patrik in to the details of the case.

The police investigation details also seem a little odd. It is hard for me to believe that any police station in Sweden would still have a modem connection. In addition, maybe they do things differently in Sweden, but blood tests for DNA analysis seem excessive. Of course, they are necessary for the plot, which, if that is the only reason they are done, makes them a cheat.

The Ice Princess depended for its plot mostly on Erica poking around where she shouldn’t be, and I think that works better for Läckberg than a police procedural, about which she seems to need to do more research. Nevertheless, despite these criticisms, I still find myself liking these books a lot.

Day 368: Dead Lagoon

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Cover for Dead LagoonDead Lagoon is the most atmospheric of the Aurelio Zen mysteries I have read. In the novel, Zen returns to his home town of Venice, ostensibly to look into the “haunting” of the Contessa Zulian, his mother’s old employer, who is convinced that costumed “swamp dwellers” are invading her home. The contessa has long ago been deemed batty because of a tale she has been telling for years about a missing daughter. Although Zen has hitherto been incorruptible, he is actually there to work on the case of a missing wealthy American businessman, being paid under the table by the businessman’s family.

As Zen wanders or boats through the misty winter setting of Venice, visiting places he knew in his youth, he keeps stumbling over “ghosts,” some from his own past, and some actual dead bodies. A fisherman who spotted a ghost on the Isle of the Dead is drowned, then a crooked cop, head of the Venice drug squad, is found smothered in a sewer. In the search for the ghost on the cemetery island, an unexplained skeleton is found.

Zen’s investigation leads to a string of discoveries, of dishonest police, drug smuggling, and ambitious local politicians. His biggest discovery, though, is about his own family, including that nothing is what he thought it was.

I think what makes this Aurelio Zen book stand out is its depiction of Venice. The plot itself is rather disjointed and difficult to explain. Zen is able to solve both cases, but some readers have expressed frustration about the conclusion.

Day 366: The Pale Blue Eye

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Cover for The Pale Blue EyeGus Landor, a retired New York police detective, is dying, and he writes the account of his last case in The Pale Blue Eye. Gus is a lonely widower who earlier moved up to the mountains near the Hudson Valley with his wife and daughter to help improve his lungs. But his wife died within a year, and his daughter left him soon after. So, Gus lives as a veritable hermit.

On an October morning in 1830, an officer from West Point fetches him. The body of a cadet named Fry was found hanged the night before, presumably a suicide, but during the night his body was stolen and later he was found with his heart removed. Superintendent Thayer and Commander Hitchcock wish to hire Landor to find who stole the heart. Landor is quick to figure out that Fry did not commit suicide but was murdered. A mysterious message clutched in his hand seems to indicate an assignation.

Landor soon realizes that his investigations on the reservation will be sorely hampered without the assistance of an inside man. So, he asks for the help of an unusual cadet he has met who is not in good favor with the academy–Cadet Edgar Allan Poe.

This is a clever novel with a macabre mystery that would have been completely to Poe’s taste. Just when we think everything is figured out, Bayard presents us with a twist. His portrait of the young Poe, bombastic, ridiculously romantic, and fearfully intelligent, is a great pleasure.

I would only fault the novel for a slow-paced middle section, and only because Landor doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Most of the plot is driven forward by Poe’s reports, which begin to dwell on his infatuation with a lovely young woman, Lea, the daughter of the post doctor, who unfortunately suffers from the “falling sickness,” or epilepsy.

Of course, Landor is doing something–he’s deciphering Fry’s diary–but since he doesn’t relate its revelations, his investigation seems to flag, and he barely seems to look into a second death, with a second missing heart. Otherwise, the novel is well written, with well-developed and interesting characters and a surprising ending.

Day 364: Hell Is Empty

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Cover for Hell Is EmptyThis Walt Longmire novel is more like an adventure story than a mystery.

Walt and his deputy Sancho are transporting prisoners to a rendezvous with other county sheriffs and FBI agents. One of the prisoners, a sociopath named Reynaud Shade, has confessed to murdering a boy and burying him in the Bighorn Mountains. During this trip he is supposed to take the feds to the body.

After Walt drops off his prisoners and leaves the meeting, he learns that the prisoners have escaped with the help of accomplices. Finding one sheriff badly injured and a federal officer dead, Walt sends Sancho off for help and goes alone after the convicts and their two hostages into the Bighorn Mountains during a snowstorm.

This Longmire novel is notable for the mysticism that occasionally appears in the books. In this case, Walt again runs into the troubled Vietnam vet Virgil White Buffalo, who assists him in an unusual way.

The Longmire novels are not just whodunnits, but true ensemble pieces that further develop Longmire and the regular characters with each entry in the series. Wyoming is a character, too, and in this case, the mountains during a massive snowstorm make for a grueling environment.

Day 362: Finders Keepers

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Cover for Finders KeepersBelinda Bauer returns us to Shipton, the setting on Exmoor of her first two chilling novels. Someone abducts a girl from her father’s car, leaving a note that says “You don’t love her.” At first the police assume the kidnapping is for money or revenge against the girl’s apparently wealthy father, but more abductions follow. The small town, which has been ravaged by serial killers twice, is horrified.

Constable Jonas Holly is still on leave following the murder of his wife Lucy the year before. He will soon be returned to duty, although Inspector Reynolds is skeptical of the help he can provide.

Steven Lamb, almost a victim in the first novel, thinks he knows who murdered Lucy Holly. As more children disappear, he becomes worried about his younger brother Davey, as well he might. Unknown to their mothers, Davey and his pal Shane have been running around the countryside while their families think they are at each other’s houses.

Reynolds and his team are at a loss. They hope the children are alive but can’t figure out where they’re being held, despite having covered the moor with heat-seeking technology from a helicopter.

Bauer’s thrillers keep me on the edge of my seat. Her novels are well written and suspenseful, her characters complex. If you like dark thrillers, you can’t do much better.

Day 360: 4:50 from Paddington

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Cover for 4:50 from PaddingtonWhile traveling by train, Miss Marple’s friend Elspeth McGillicuddy witnesses a murder on another train along a parallel track. The police find no trace of a victim, so they are inclined to think Mrs. McGillicuddy imagined the incident. Miss Marple knows her friend, however, and imagination is not her strong suit.

Jane believes the body must have been thrown off the train near an estate called Rutherford Hall. She sends her friend Lucy Eyelesbarrow in as a housekeeper to investigate, and Lucy eventually finds the body, not lying somewhere in the bushes along the track, but hidden away.

The money from the estate will eventually be divided among the grown children of Luther Crackenthorpe, a semi-invalid widower, while the house will go to his eldest surviving son. But does that have anything to do with the murder? All of the children seem to have their secrets. Cedric is a bohemian painter who lives in Ibiza, Harold is an aloof banker, Alfred is engaged in shady business deals, and Emma is a spinster who is in love with Dr. Quimper, Luther’s doctor.

The biggest puzzle is to identify the body. Who is the woman murdered on the train, and why does Lucy find her in a sarcophagus among a bunch of antiques in the stables? Soon Miss Marple is on the scene visiting Lucy at tea time. The solution will soon be divulged, we feel.

Christie is great at drawing convincing characters, and Lucy is one of her most attractive. We wish we could see more of her. 4:50 from Paddington is yet another entertaining mystery from Christie.

Day 359: The Yard

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Cover for The YardThe Yard contains elements that should have made it interesting to me, particularly the period, but it didn’t really grab me.

The novel takes place shortly after the failure of Scotland Yard to capture Jack the Ripper, and the police are dispirited, while the public has grown scornful of them. The body of Detective Little turns up in a trunk at Euston Square Station. Detective Inspector Walter Day is put in charge of the investigation to the surprise of everyone, as he is new to the force.

We are not left in ignorance of the identity of Little’s murderer, as he is watching the case from the sidelines. He didn’t intend to murder anyone, but Little discovered his secret. Soon another officer stumbles onto his secret and also must be killed.

Constable Hammersmith is assigned to the case, but he becomes embroiled in another incident. A thief breaking into a house finds the body of a boy stuck in the chimney and stops Hammersmith on the street to tell him about it. Directed by his superiors to concentrate on the more important case of Detective Little’s murder–the death of a chimney sweep’s boy not being considered a crime–Hammersmith continues to search for the sweep on his own time.

Another case is preoccupying Inspector Blacker. Some men have been found murdered with their beards newly shaven. Blacker thinks it is unlikely that two serial killers are loose in London at the same time, but Day and Dr. Kingsley, the coroner who is interested in new forensics research, do not agree.

This first series book sets the stage for all the recurring characters as well as attempts to recreate the chaos of the Yard. I feel it is spread a bit thin. The writing is capable rather than brilliant, although I encountered enough clichés in the first few pages to irritate me. A technique used several times of flashing back to explain something right in the middle of the action seems very disruptive and only serves to stall the flow.

Some unlikely events disturbed me as well. That two police officers would stumble onto the killer’s secret in the space of two days seems completely far-fetched. A minor incident where a family claims to have made a day trip to Birmingham seems equally absurd. I can’t imagine even in these days that a trip from London to Birmingham and back would be something anyone would want to do in one day, but back then the trains were surely slower. Such a trip may have been possible, but that the police officers receiving this information don’t challenge it seems absurd.

Almost despite myself I found myself beginning to like the major characters, but I still don’t think I’ll be picking up the second book anytime soon.

Day 357: The Dying of the Light

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Cover for The Dying of the LightThis is going to be a fairly short review, because The Dying of the Light was a book I could not finish. I usually enjoy reading Michael Dibdin’s mysteries and I also like dark tales with a macabre sense of humor, but if that is what this is, it is too much.

Rosemary Travis and Dorothy Davenport are two little old ladies who live in a horrible nursing home run by William Anderson and his sister Letitia Davis. The owners are blatantly torturing the residents.

Rosemary and Dorothy react to this environment by turning it into a game, pretending it is some kind of convoluted mystery plot. When Hilary Bryant dies or George Channing is mauled by Anderson’s Doberman when he tries to escape, they fold this into their plot. But when Dorothy dies the night before her departure from the home, Rosemary finds she has a real mystery to solve.

This plot sounds as if it could be darkly humorous, but it is too sickening for me. One reviewer on Amazon says that Dibdin relies on the shock value, and not much else, to carry the novel. That about says it for me, and it doesn’t work.

Day 355: Deadly Web

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Cover for Deadly WebA naked teenage girl is found dead in the grounds of Yoros Castle in Turkey. She has apparently stabbed herself through the heart, but there is evidence of some strange sexual practices. Someone is convincing young people in Istanbul to participate in what they believe are sex orgies, only to murder them. Inspector Mehmet Suleyman draws this conclusion while investigating another incident involving a teenage boy, although one death seems to be a suicide.

Inspector Çetin İkmen has made several visits to a friend, local magician Max Esterhazy, for information about a strange obscene symbol someone has been painting on the walls of religious sites. His investigation seems to indicate some connection with Suleyman’s case. Then Max disappears, and blood is found splattered around his study.

Suleyman is having his own problems. His wife has left him for a visit to Ireland, taking their infant son. His unfaithfulness has broken them up, and he has been exposed to the HIV virus through an affair with a prostitute.

Soon another girl is killed, and Suleyman and Ikmen find links to the city’s goth clubs and possibly to Satanism.

I find Nadel’s mysteries set in Istanbul interesting because they often provide fascinating insights into the city’s subcultures.