Tag: mysteries

Review 2252: #1962 Club! A Murder of Quality

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The second book I chose for the 1962 Club is A Murder of Quality, the second George Smiley novel. I found it surprising because all the other George Smiley novels I’ve read have been espionage novels, and this one is a straight mystery.

George Smiley is retired when he is summoned by his old colleague, Miss Brimley, now the editor of a Christian magazine. She tells Smiley she would like him to investigate a letter the magazine received from Mrs. Rode, whose family are great supporters of the magazine. In the letter, Mrs. Rode claims her husband is trying to kill her. Smiley agrees to look into it, but the next day they learn that Mrs. Rode has been brutally murdered.

Mr. Rode is a tutor at a prestigious boys’ school, Carne, with a high church atmosphere. Smiley attends Mrs. Rode’s funeral pretending to be a journalist from the magazine. He finds out that though both Rodes belonged to a Baptist chapel when they arrived, Mr. Rode has converted to the English church and has been trying to fit in with the school staff, while Mrs. Rode did not. Mrs. Rode appears to have been deeply involved in chapel charitable activities.

The police are searching for a homeless woman named Jane. When Smiley goes to look at the crime scene, he meets Jane, who tells him she saw the devil fly away on silver wings.

The solution to the murder relies heavily on Smiley’s ability to understand his suspects’ characters. The novel is an interesting character study and a plunge into the school’s secrets.

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Review 2247: Girls Who Lie

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Boys discover a body hidden in a cave on a lava flow. It’s quickly established that it’s the body of Marianna, a woman who has been missing for seven months and has been presumed to have committed suicide. But Marianna was murdered.

When officers Elma and Sævar investigate, they find that Marianna has had periods when her daughter, Hekla, was removed from her care. Now, things seem to be going well, but 15-year-old Hekla spends a lot of time with her foster parents.

Interspersed in the novel is a narrative by a woman containing at times disturbing information. But we don’t know who this narrator is. Is it Marianna or someone else?

This is the second book in this series featuring Elma (last name? first name? Ægisdottir seems always to use just one for all her characters). I have mixed feelings about the series. The plotting is fairly good, and the novel ends in a chilling way. However, the dialogue seems unconvincing, and characterization is minimal. This is the same way I felt about Camilla Lackberg’s novels, so it’s hard to know whether it’s a translation problem (the dialogue, I mean) or the author’s writing ability. I don’t think I’ll be sticking with this series.

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Review 2241: Suddenly at His Residence

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The grandchildren of Sir Richard March gather together in London to drive down to Swanswater Manor for an annual remembrance of Serafita, Sir Richard’s first wife. They are driving down with Philip and his wife Ellen, but before others arrive, his cousin Claire forces an admission from Philip about his relationship with her. Philip tells his wife he wants to be with Claire. Ellen seems to take this lightly, but she is upset.

It’s clear that the young people behave brashly with each other and tease their grandfather. He, however, becomes offended and vows to disinherit them all and make his second wife, Bella, his sole heir. Peta is currently the principal heir, but Philip, Claire, and Edward are due to get some money.

That afternoon, Sir Richard insists on spending the night by himself in a lodge after summoning Stephen Garde, his solicitor, to change his will. During the afternoon, Bella and Peta go there to try to convince him to sleep in the house or accept company, and Ellen takes him his green pen. In the evening the gardener rakes and sands all the paths around the lodge.

In the morning, Claire goes to the lodge and finds Sir Richard dead. Her tracks are clearly the only ones on the path. The family assumes he died from his heart condition, but he turns out to be poisoned with his medication.

The family tries not to think the murderer may be 17-year-old Edward, whose mother’s fascination with psychiatry has lead him to fancy himself with problems and who allegedly goes into fugue states. Although Edward knows that some of his problems are feigned, sometimes he’s not sure what he has done.

Inspector Cockrill is not sure who committed the murder, but the inquest finds a verdict of murder against Ellen because of a silly theory that she could have injected the poison using his pen, but also because she is the only “foreigner.”

Aside from the ridiculous belief that looking up suddenly could bring on a fugue state, which I assume was a belief of the time, I liked the characterization in this novel, which is accomplished mostly by dialogue. I thought that one aspect of the solution was unlikely and that the motive was thin. However, generally I enjoyed this one.

I received this book from the publishers in exchange for a free and fair review.

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Review 2240: Deception

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Since I discovered recently that I had missed one of Denise Mina’s books, I looked again and found I had also missed Deception (also published as Sanctum), from 2002.

Lachlan Harriot is on his way to his wife Susie’s trial at the beginning of Deception. She is a psychiatrist accused of having had an affair with a convicted serial killer, Andrew Gow, and then murdering him and his wife after he was released from prison on appeal. Lachlan is sure she is innocent and will get off. He is certain she never had an affair with Gow.

But Susie is convicted after the prosecution spins a lurid story. Lachlan begins spending his insomnia-filled nights in Susie’s office—previously off-limits—looking for evidence that can be used for an appeal. Slowly, he begins turning up indications that nothing is what he thought it was, starting with proof that Susie has lied. Months before the murder, she was fired from her job at the prison after being accused of stealing Gow’s files. She always said she was fired because of sexism and did not take the files. But Lachlan finds them in the office.

This is a slow-building novel that takes a little patience. The facts Lachlan turns up aren’t as shocking as promised by the cover blurbs, but Mina is a superb plotter. The book doesn’t disappoint.

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Review 2237: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

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It’s been interesting rereading a few Jane Marple books after I so recently viewed the television versions, because although I have known the identity of each murderer, I’ve been better able to judge how fair Christie is playing. That is, are there clues to the solution? In The Mirror Crack’d there are.

The villagers of St. Mary Mead are agog to hear that the famous actress, Marina Gregg, has purchased Gossington Hall (the site of The Body in the Library) and will be hosting the local fête. Miss Marple’s friend Mrs. Bantry, who used to own the house, will be a special guest.

At home, Miss Marple is a bit unhappy. She is no longer allowed to garden, and her doctor thinks she shouldn’t live alone. The solution is the kind but obnoxious Mrs. Knight, who talks in the plural and hovers and doesn’t listen to Miss Marple. One day Miss Marple sends her out shopping so she can escape and goes to investigate the new housing development. She has a fall and is helped by Heather Badcock, a foolish woman who doesn’t consider how her actions affect others.

At the fête, just after Heather has introduced herself to Marina Gregg and is again telling her how she met her, her drink is spilled. Marina gives Heather her own, and after Heather drinks it, she quickly dies. It is poisoned, but was the victim intended to be Heather or Marina? Neither woman seems to have serious enemies.

I think that this novel has one of the most powerful endings of Christie’s novels. You’ll also be happy to know that Miss Marple finds a way to rid herself of Mrs. Knight.

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Review 2229: The Field of Blood

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Ever since I read my first Denise Mina book, back in the Garnethill days, I thought I kept up with her. But it seems I might have missed The Field of Blood, which is the first Paddy Meehan book.

Two boys, 11 and 10 years old, take Brian Wilson, a three-year-old, out into a field and murder him. They are quickly found and thought to have committed the crime by themselves.

Paddy Meehan is an 18-year-old copy “boy” for the Scottish Daily News who wants to be an investigative reporter. When she reads about the story the police have put together of the crime, it doesn’t make sense to her. Why would the boys, who are from poor families, have taken a train out to a relatively posh area to kill Baby Brian when there are many desolate areas in their own neighborhood? She begins investigating and decides the boys were driven out to the scene.

Since she is not a reporter and is told to stop saying she is one, she uses the name of Heather Graham, the only woman reporter on staff. She is at outs with Heather, whom she previously considered a friend, because when the boys’ photo appeared in the paper, she recognized one as the cousin of her fiancé Sean and confided in Heather. Ambitious Heather suggested she break that story; however, she refused, saying her family would never forgive her. When Heather broke it instead, Paddy, who knew her family would think she did it, had a fight with Heather.

Heather is murdered, and Paddy doesn’t realize that because she was using Heather’s name, Paddy’s investigations have unwittingly caused her death.

Mina’s early mysteries are gritty. This one, set in 1980s Glasgow, is no exception—gritty and thrilling. Paralleling Paddy’s story is a real one about another Paddy Meehan, a thief who was framed by the police for murder.

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Review 2227: The Silver Swan

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In this second Quirke novel set in 1950s Dublin, Quirke doesn’t do that much investigating, the results of the last case having been hushed up. However, his poking around does stir things up.

Quirke, a pathologist, is contacted by a distraught Billy Hunt, a man he can barely remember from school days. The body of Billy’s wife Deirdre has been discovered naked in the water, assumed drowned. Billy begs Quirke not to perform an autopsy, because he can’t bear the idea of it. Quirke says he’ll do what he can, but he does do an autopsy and finds an injection site in her neck. However, he hides this information, and the coroner brings in a verdict of suicide. Quirke has assumed she took an accidental overdose, but he would like to know more about her, so he lets Detective Inspector Hackett in on enough to know everything is not straightforward.

The novel returns a bit in time to tell the story of Deirdre Hunt, who has been calling herself Laura Swan since she opened a beauty salon called The Silver Swan. Alternately, it follows several characters in the novel’s current time. One of the first things Quirke discovers is that Deirdre was having an affair with her partner, Leslie White, a silver-haired, languid man who affects a style that emphasizes his hair color and paleness. Quirke thinks he is dangerous and is disturbed to find that his daughter, Phoebe, knows him through her slight acquaintance with Deirdre. In fact, she is also drawn to him (although he seems singularly repulsive).

Deirdre has met White through her acquaintance with the mysterious Hakeem Kreutz, who offers “spiritual healing” to women clients and has been instructing Deirdre in Sufism. But she is just visiting him because she’s attracted to the exotic, as she is with White. The connection between the two men is much more complicated.

This novel is dark, with a slow-growing suspense as it reveals more information. It is not really a traditional mystery, but it makes compulsive reading.

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Review 2217: The Last Remains

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Things seem to be in flux for Dr. Ruth Galloway. Her university in Norfolk has decided to close its archaeology department. Detective Harry Nelson’s wife Michelle has finally left him, and he wants Ruth and Kate to move in with him. But Ruth is reluctant to leave her cottage and doesn’t know what to do.

In a wall of a building being renovated, a skeleton is found. Ruth identifies it as modern because of a plate in its leg, and it turns out to be a woman missing for 20 years. Nelson is dismayed to learn that their friend Cathbad was present at an archaeological campout from which she disappeared all those years ago.

It is still the time of Covid. Cathbad nearly died from it and is having problems recovering. As Nelson’s team questions the former owners of the building where the skeleton was found and the participants of the campout, DC Tony Zhang is exposed to the virus and must isolate.

Nelson’s team finds that the victim, Emily Pickering, was having an affair with Leo Ballard, the archaeology professor leading the campout. He took her to the train station early Monday morning on her way home, but there were puzzling sightings of her on CCTV in other places that day.

Ruth has made a trip to Grimes Graves, ancient mines where the campout took place, and noticed she got a lot of chalk on her pants. The cloths wrapping Emily’s remains also being coated with chalk, Ruth plans to return to Grimes Graves to take soil samples. But she has a lot to deal with at the university, helping with protests initiated by David Brown, who, if the department closes, wants her to move to Uppsala with him.

This is another excellent mystery in this series, and followers may be happy to know that the inertia in the relationship between Ruth and Nelson finally gets unstuck. I won’t say in which direction.

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Review 2212: Crimes of Cymru: Classic Mystery Tales of Wales

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This latest British Library Crime Classics collection features mystery and crime short stories written by Welsh authors or located in Wales. The stories were written from 1908 to the mid-1980s, and some of them are quite eerie in nature.

For example, in the 1936 story “Change” by Arthur Macken, holiday makers scoff when Vincent Rimmer tells them lights are on all night in the cottages of Tremant to keep the fairies away. Yet later a child is apparently exchanged by the fairies. Or is he?

In “The Way Up to Heaven,” Roald Dahl (born in Wales) tells the story of Mrs. Foster, whose husband purposefully torments her by being late even on the way to her flight to Paris to see her grandchildren for the first time. She figures out a way to take care of that problem.

In “No More A-Maying” by Christina Stead, the lies of two children with a guilty secret create an injustice in rural Wales.

Although most of the earlier stores are more traditional, “Water Running Out” by Ethel Lina White explains how Harvey deals with his aunt, who has been preventing his marriage to Annie for years by blackmail.

And another attempt to prevent marriage is perpetrated in “The Chosen One” by Rhys Davies. Rufus, whose family has occupied his cottage for hundreds of years, gets a note from his eccentric landlady, Audrey P. Vines, telling him his lease is up and she’s throwing him out.

This was one of the more entertaining and atmospheric of these collections that I have read. I usually like them, but prefer getting into a longer work.

I received this book from the publishers in exchange for a free and fair review.

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Review 2205: Nemesis

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Unfortunately, because my husband and I went on a Christie series TV binge last summer, I eventually remembered how Nemesis was going to end. Otherwise, I hadn’t read it before.

Miss Marple reads an obituary for Mr. Rafiel, a wealthy man whose assistance she requested to prevent a murder in A Caribbean Mystery. Some time later, his lawyers summon her. He has left her £20,000 if she will take on a project for him and get a result. The catch is that he doesn’t say what the project is.

She decides to take the project and a few days later receives tickets for a home and garden tour. At one of the stops, she receives an invitation to stay with three sisters, who have invited her at the posthumous urging of Mr. Rafiel. Here, she begins to get a sense of her mission when she learns from another tour participant, Miss Temple, that a former student, Verity Hunt, had been murdered by Michael Rafiel, Mr. Rafiel’s son, and she had been killed by love. Soon after this conversation, Miss Temple is killed by a falling boulder.

Mr. Rafiel wanted to right an injustice, Miss Marple decides. But can she figure out what it is and finish her mission?

I at first thought the writing of this one was a little choppy—lots of subject-verb-object sentences in a row with no variation. But eventually I got caught up into another clever and interesting tale.

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