Anna O

Blake, Matthew. Anna O. New York: Harper 2024. Print.

First Sentences:

"The average human spends thirty-three years of their life asleep." She leans closer, enough for me to catch a gust of expensive perfume This is usually the moment when I know. "And that's what you do?"

"Yes.

"A sleep doctor?"

"I study people who commit crimes when they sleep."


Description:

Sometimes the premise and first lines of a book are just too intriguing not to give it a read. Such is the case with Matthew Blake's novel, Anna O. The irrestible plot here? Can a person who, while sleep-walking, commit and be charged for a crime (murder) that she, when awakened, cannot remember doing? And what if the woman in question, referred to as "Anna O," never wakes up after being found with a bloddy knife in her hand and two friends stabbed to death nearby.

And she still has not awakened after four years.

Time is running out for the London Ministry of Justice to bring her case to trial. She cannot be indefinitely held in Her Majesty's Prison Service, but cannot be released possibly to kill again. The Ministry seeks her murder conviction, something they cannot do unless Anna O: 1) awakens; 2) is ruled competent; and 3) is found guilty due  to overwhelming evidence (including her last text sent that said "I'm sorry. I think I've killed them").

Enter Dr. Benedict Prince, a forensic psychologist at the Abbey Sleep Clinic who specializes in "people who commit crimes when they sleep." The Ministry hires him to work with Anna O to re-awaken her. 

But Prince believes Anna O to have "resignation syndrome," a functional neurological disorder, having suffered a trauma so great that she has given up hope of living and therefore has retreated into the safer world of sleep. 

People think the animal side is the body and the rational side is the brain. But it's often the other way round.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that Prince's ex-wife, Clara, was the first police officer on the scene for the Anna O stabbings and is now is the major police figure on the case. Needless to say, Ben and Clara are at odds, with him wanting to undersatnd and study the sleeper, and Clara only wanting a conviction...that is, if Anna O ever awakens.

There are twists and turns aplenty as Prince tries various methods to reach into Anna O's consciousness, all the while dealing with the pressure of the Ministry, Clara, and social media advocates for Anna O's release or conviction. And just maybe not all these messenging figures are simply non-involved onlookers.

It's a fascinating study of sleep disorders, treatment, and consequences for sleep-walkers and the people they affect by their actions. This was a completely new concept to me, one clearly written in a well-told scenario by intelligent, concerned characters. 

Author Blake has a winning style and imagination, so I thoroughly enjoyed Anna O and look forward  with eager anticipation to his next book. For now, Anna O is a winner.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Feeney, Alice. Sometimes I Lie.   

A paralyzed woman is just awakening from a long-term coma with only a vague memory of how she got in her condition. She can hear and understand what goes on in her hospital room but cannot respond as she tries to piece together bits of conversations to comprehend her history and the veracity of the people who now surround her, including her husband and best friend. (previously reviewed here)

The Appeal

Hallett, Janice. The Appeal. New York: Simon & Schuster 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you read the enclosed.


Description:

I am always intrigued by epistolary novels. You know, the ones told completely through written documents (e.g. letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, texts, emails, etc.). Here, in Janice Hallett's first novel, The Appeal, she frames the story through the eyes of two junior lawyers assigned by their boss to read through a file of correspondence and related notes, then come to a conclusion about what really happened. Apparently, Tanner, their boss, needs information for an upcoming case he is defending and wants fresh eyes to study the details and present him with their thoughts.

 

Slowly, slowly, we read with the copious emails and notes exchanged between a small group of people who are preparing their roles for a community theater presentation. While they find nothing exciting at first, soon an email surfaces that the director's two-year-old granddaughter, Poppy, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer that is probably incurable. But fortunately, her grandfather notes, Poppy's doctor has heard of promising results from a new drug in its test stages that might help, possibly even cure the child. It has not yet been approved for the general public, the Poppy's doctor has a means of obtaining the medicine at a stiff price: $175,000 for the first of four treatments.

An appeal goes out to the theater players and their friends and family to help raise the funds to acquire this test drug privately which can then be administered by the girl's doctor. Everyone contributes, creates fund-raising opportunities, and even dedicates the proceedings from the upcoming play to Poppy's medication.

But there are hints that maybe something might not be quite right in this appeal. And when a cast member is found dead after apparently falling off the balcony, no one knows quite what to think or whether anyone from their group might be responsible.

Epistolary novels usually reveal themselves slowly as we need time to, piece by piece, understand the characters and actions. Lots of writing is placed in front of the researching lawyers (and us readers) full of thoughts, ramblings, misdirection, rumors, accusations, dreams, and relationships flicker across the pages, writings presented to the lawyers (and us readers), for analysis and then discarded or held onto as key information.

Hallett is the master of spreading subtle clues buried in a complex plot and benign yet somehow suspicious characters. As I read these missives, I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye, unable to clarify whether it was really there or even what, if anything, it was, yet thinking that it might be important to remember and understand. Such is the skill that drew me to Hallett and novel, The Appeal. And I was not in any way sorry to be immersed in its story and characters. A challenging, satisfying read.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code

The best, most baffling, intriguing mystery, full of twists, turns, questionable narration, undiscovered treasure, and a possible code/treasure map found in a child's book. Fantastic. (previously reviewed here)

 

 

The Fix

 Baldacci, David. The Fix. New York: Grand Central Publishing. 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

It was normally one of the safest places on earth. But not today.

Description:

OK, I admit it. I am a huge fan of David Baldacci's Amos Decker character, the ex-policeman/football player with the perfect memory. Having nothing to read that could quite match the intensity of the brilliant 787-page The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes that I had just finished, I returned to my old reliable crime-solver, Amos Decker in Baldacci's The Fix. This is the third book in the 7-book Amos Decker detective series, the crime-solver introduced in Memory Man, the first (and in my mind the best in the series), and then the second book, The Last Mile. The Fix, I found, was a fine chaser to my Amos Decker thriller binge reading.

In the first four pages of The Fix, Decker is walking in front of the J Edgar Hoover building, home to the FBI, heading to a meeting. Several yards ahead, he notices a well-dressed man, Walter Dabney, walk up to a woman, Anne Berkshire, pull out a gun and shoot her in the head. Then, before Decker could intervene, Dabney put his gun under his chin and shoot himself.

Wow, what a start. Two deaths, sudden, intentional, in front of the FBI Headquarters, and  with memory-perfect Decker as an eye-witness.  Seems an easy case. But the only question is who were these two people? Why did Dabney kill Berkshire? And why did he choose the very public FBI building for this action?

Not much to go on, but Decker is roped into the investigation of these questions mainly due to one other minor point. The FBI has intercepted messages that very soon there will be a terrorist act on the magnitude of 9/11. And it is scheduled to take place sometime very soon. Where, when, how, and by whom are a new set of questions. Could these recent shootings and terrorist threat somehow be linked?

Slowly, slowly, Decker and his partners on the FBI investigation team, uncover tiny nuggets of interesting information that may or may not contribute to these investigations. As they peel back layers based on new discoveries, the two cases become more and more unclear. Rather

than getting closer to a solution, Decker and his team feel increasingly confused with the disjointed information.

And the day of the terrorist event is rapidly approaching.

Highly recommended for readers who love to watch detailed crime procedure, grapple with tiny clues, and then try to puzzle out for themselves who is telling the truth and who is involved in these events up to their necks. The Fix, through Baldacci's terse writing and dialogue, encourages readers to immerse themselves and binge read until their eyes droop. But what a pleasant way to stimulate your mind and wear out your eyes.

 

P.S. If you are new to the Decker series, start with the first and second books, Memory Man and The Last Mile to get some background on Decker and his partners, The Fix can clear up their backstories on its own, but it is more satisfying to start at the series' beginning and read the first two equally complex and brilliant Amos Decker books, then dive into The Fix as a dessert.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

 

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Baldacci, David. Memory Man.   

The first book in the Amos Decker mystery/thriller series. Decker, due to a football accident, cannot forget anything: words, pictures, faces, events. After his wife and child are brutally murdered, and even though someone has confessed to the crime, Decker takes on his own personal investigation and uses his perfect memory to identify key clues to unravel the event and find the true killer(s). Highest recommendation. (previously reviewed here)

 

The Lost Tomb

Preston, Douglas. The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. New York: Grand Central 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Some writers drank when the words didn't come. Now we have the Internet. Whenever I get stuck writing, instead of sliding open the bottom drawer with the whiskey bottle, I load up the New York Times or Politico, check my email, or, when all else fails, start Googling old acquaintances.


Description:

Who doesn't love a good mystery? Some sort of puzzle filled with suspicious characters up against thoughtful people who try to unravel the tangle of facts to eventually arrive at the truth and a satisfying conclusion by the last page?

But true life mysteries, while equally compelling as fictitious ones, are often not so neatly explained. Conclusions can be muddled, even after scores of scientists, treasure hunters, and researchers have delved into the physical and historic data for years. 

If you are like me, a true life mystery-lover, you should pick up Douglas Preston's The Lost Tomb and Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. The author is a man curious about the odd, unsolved oddities he has read about over the years, leading him to publish heavily-researched articles which detail these mysteries for magazines including Wired, Harper's, and The New Yorker. Thirteen of these articles are collected in The Lost Tomb, conveniently organized into sections of "Uncommon Murders," "Unexplained Deaths," "Unsolved Mysteries," Curious Crimes," and "Old Bones." 

And what unsolved mysteries are detailed? Here's a sample:

• The author's own boyhood treasure chest buried with a friend, but in later life he was unable to find. His search led him to unexpected information about this boyhood friend whom he had lost touch with;

• Hundreds of skeletal bones found in a remote lake high up in the Himalayas whose age, how they got there, and what caused their deaths remain unknown;

• The Oak Island Money Pit, over 190' deep (so far) which has been explored for over 100 years by fortune-hunters and scientists looking for a rumored buried treasure;

• The New Mexico skeleton and accompanying artifacts that might be 20,000 years old, (making this the oldest evidence of man in America), discovered by a quirky Indiana Jones-type anthropologist;

• A 3,500-year-old Egyptian tomb that has 150 rooms (only 10% of which have been uncovered) that might be the final resting place for Rameses II and his 50 sons;
  

• Rare points from arrows and spears created by the ancient Clovis people in America, that suddenly turned up together in a suspiciously rich cache;

• A site with fossils of feathers, glass raindrops, delicate fish, and plant materials so carefully and instantaneously preserved that they might document the exact date when the asteroid hit Earth and destroyed 90% of all life.

Preston gathers the origins of these mysteries, researches the often-conflicting data from various people and scientists who are experts in the mystery, then allows each reader to draw his own conclusions. The people involved in the mystery are as fascinating as the mysteries themselves, presenting diverse opinions and drawing solid, if unproven conclusions that continue to be debated today.

I find real-life mysteries like these to be fascinating, even if they often do not have a tidy conclusion. Buried treasure, ancient bones, lost cities, and unexplained anthropological artifacts stretch my brain to wonder at the complexities of human life and our attempts to understand nature and our own past history. Highly recommended.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Preston, Douglas. The Lost City of the Monkey God  

The author relates his electrifying, dangerous, scientific adventures in 2012 seeking the (rumored) fabulously wealthy, but cursed lost city of gold in Honduras as documented by Cortez and other explorers. A real page-turner for history and treasure buffs alike. (previously reviewed here)

The Invincible

Lem, Stanislaw. The Invincible. London: Sidgwick & Jackson 1973. Print.

First Sentences:

The Invincible moved across the outermost quadrant of the Lyre Constellation. the heavy cruiser was propelled through space by photon drive. It was the largest ship at the disposal of the space fleet based in this section of the universe. The ship's complement numbered eighty-three men, presently asleep inside the hibernation tunnel.


Description:

When you combine science fiction with odd mystery, I find it very compelling, especially when the author is Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. And his book from almost 50 years ago, The Invincible, does not disappoint in any way.

The science fiction part? The plot introduces the mission of a huge space cruiser, "The Invincible,' dispatched to the small planet, Regis III, to investigate a mystery. The mystery? The Invincible's sister ship had landed on Regis III two years earlier, but had abruptly stopped communicating with Earth. Of course, curiosity and concern were raised, so The Invincible was sent to this barren planet to unravel the situation.

 

The sister ship is quickly located, but all the crew are dead. Bodies are found both inside and outside the rocket. What is strange is they all seem to be without injury. In fact, they seem to have starved to death despite the ship having ample stores of food and water. The captain's log is of no help as his last message ends in gibberish scrawling.

 

One crewman, however, is found in the hibernation chamber of that doomed ship, but The Invincible's medical staff is unable to revive him. Upon further examination they discover that this crewman somehow has had all his memories erased. Odd, to say the least.

 

The Invincible leaders realize that they have the same sensors, defenses, and weapons as the sister ship, all of which seem to have proved useless against whatever killed the other crew. But answers must be found, so The Invincible's crew begins a cautious forays away from the safety of their own ship onto the planet, not knowing what awaits them.

What I love about author Lem is the intricate plotting and reasoning behind every step of the adventure. His books are never about good vs. evil, but instead offer questions about the unknown, of different life forms, strange evolutions, and encounters with worlds completely different from Earth. The outcome of these scenarios and the conclusions drawn are always logical, even if challenging, to everything we understand as reality.

Lem is a highly prolific writer of international fame.  His book, Solaris, (also made into a movie), is a masterpiece of his alternative world and lifestyle plot that is so surprising and completely unpredictable. 

If you enjoy sci-fi, I highly recommend you become familiar with Lem and his challenging worlds. A couple  of my favorites are shown below, and his complete list of writings are found here. A great way to challenge your concept of the universe, of life, and of different philosophies.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Science Fiction from Stanislaw Lem (Special Post).   

Here are a couple of my favorite Lem collections of tongue-in-cheek tales from astronauts of the future. Ijon Tichy, the seen-it-all astronaut (think, Harrison Ford in "Star Wars") and Pirx, a fresh-out-of-cadet-school pilot, travel throughout the universe full of boundless curiosity, daring, resourcefulness, and audacity en route to the most unusual of adventures. Wonderful, challenging, mind-bending, and always ironically humorous. (previously reviewed here)

 

 

Our Missing Hearts

Ng, Celeste. Our Missing Hearts. New York: Penguin. 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

The letter arrives on a Friday. Slit and resealed with a sticker, of course, as all their letters are: Inspected for your safety --- PACT. It had caused confusion at the post office, the clerk unfolding the paper inside, studying it, passing it up to his supervisor, then the boss. But eventually it had been deemed harmless and sent on its way. No return address, only a New York, NY postmark, six days old. On the outside, his name -- Bird -- and because of this he knows it is from his mother.


Description:

Seems like almost every week lately I have come across a new book that makes my top 10 all time list. Such was the case with Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts, a story that often hints at out current fearful society today in America and its repercussions on the people who must bend their lives to accommodate restrictive rules, government, and even neighbors intolerant of anything not patriotic or accepting of their new world.

You see, 12-year-old Noah (Byrd) Gardner lives in the United States under the laws created and enforced for the past ten years by PACT (The Preserving American Cultures and Traditions Act). These patriotism laws were overwhelming enacted in response to the worldwide Crisis, an international depression with joblessness, poverty, inflation, and ensuing riots. It was determined, without evidence, to have been brought on by the Chinese government and its people.

The Three Pillars of PACT: Outlaws promotion of un-American values and behavior: Requires all citizens to report potential threats to our society. Protects children from environments espousing harmful views.

Therefore, PACT forces everyone to promise allegiance, support, and love for the American government, while ostracizing anyone not meeting these goals in action or speech. Neighborhood Watch groups are everywhere, seeking out dissident opinions of actions and, if found, intensively questioning (or removing) the suspects. 

Children can be forcibly taken from homes of parents determined to be a bad influence and relocated to more suitable couples, never to be allowed to communicate with their biological parents. There are no protests of this action by parents since any questioning would contribute to the suspected parents' anti-PACT leanings, risking the real possibility that the children might never be returned.

Bird's mother had left him and his father three years earlier, never letting him know she was leaving and never corresponding with him until this note. It was a mysterious single sheet of paper without any words, filled with multiple drawings of cats and a tiny cupboard. 

Margaret, Byrd's mother, was a noted poet who had written the line "All our missing hearts" in one of her obscure poems. With these words, she had inadvertently created a slogan, a rallying phrase, that was taken up by an underground anti-PACT network. Her words appeared scrawled on walls, on signs, and other locations as the network tried to raise awareness of the seized children.

Margaret, despite knowing nothing about this loose organization, chooses to leave her home and go into hiding, protecting her husband Ethan and son who must now disavow all ties to her, her and especially her writing to insure Byrd (now called Noah) is not taken from his father as an "unsuitable influence."

With this new note, however, Noah takes on the challenge to find out more about his mother and hopefully locate her. 

Along the way, we read of Margaret's backstory, her life with Ethan, her word-loving husband and Noah's father, and the life she chooses to pursue while in hiding. Along with other notable friends, enemies, and "citizens" looking for any misstep by neighbors, Our Missing Hearts is both a gripping and heartfelt story, one filled with seeming hopelessness against a government of fear, and yet containing  a glimmer of hope from individuals trying to survive and make a difference in a twisted world.

Yes, yes, yes, I would recommend this book. It's a mystery, a warning, a breath of hope, and a gripping tale celebrating family strength. It's a book of friendship and secrets, fanaticism and consequences. But most of all, it is a deeply personal tale of perseverance toward achieving personal goals in order to understand one's self and the world, and how those two fit together now and in the future. Highest recommendation.

  

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Orwell, George. 1984.   

The classic and still important story of a totalitarian society and one man who tries to fight back.

 

The Art Thief

Finkel, Michael. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession. New York: Knopf 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Approaching the  museum, ready to hunt, Stephane Breitwieser clasps hands with his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, and together they stroll to the front desk and say hello, a cute couple. Then they purchase two tickets with cash and walk in. 

It's lunchtime, stealing time, on a busy Sunday in Antwerp, Belgium, in February 1997.


Description:

The details behind true crime and the people audacious enough to attempt and often pull them off successfully is always a fascinating topic to me. In Michael Finkel's The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, we readers are presented with the almost unbelievable details of Stephane Breitwieser and his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, both in their twenties, who in the late 1990s and early 2000s stole hundreds of art pieces from museums throughout Europe. They took paintings, chalices, firearms, crossbows, teapots, tapestries, figurines, coins, and even a 150 pound wooden statue. In short, they made off with anything that caught their discerning eyes.

The tools they used? A second-hand Hugo Boss overcoat, a large woman's handbag, and a Swiss army knife. That's it. Usually their grabs are right in front of guards, shielded from any security cameras, during regular museum hours full of tourists. They considered themselves artists, scornful of burglars who overpower guards (like the "savages" who committed the Gardner Museum heist) or sneak around in the dark (such as the theft of the Mona Lisa). 

[Side note: We learn from author Finkel that Pablo Picasso was the first person accused of masterminding the Mona Lisa theft since he had previously hired a thief to grab two ancient stone figures from the Louvre. The figures "had distorted faces, and Picasso kept them in his studio as templates...for the groundbreaking Les Demoisells d'Avignon."]

Breitwieser and girlfriend Kleinklaus averaged three heists every four weekends (when Anne-Catherine was off from work) for a decade, amassing a collection valued at over $2 billion (yes, "billion" with a "b"). But they never tried to sell even one piece of their accumulated art. Instead, they placed each piece in their attic apartment (the upstairs unit in Breitwieser's mother's house), and just admired the beauty of the art in a quiet, uncrowded environment all by themselves. No one else, maybe not even his mother, knew about their attic collection. "They lived in a treasure chest."

What were the origins of this crime spree, the motivations or psychological causes? How did they do it? Why did they pursue this behavior? And when, if ever, will they be caught? Author Finkel searches through newspaper articles, interviews, psychological reports, and courtroom transcripts to offer possible factors that brought Breitwieser to this obsession with art theft. And its a wild ride he takes us on to understand these two art thieves and to provide details of their escapades.

You cannot help but be caught up in this couple's boldness, their love of art, and their obsession to possess it and keep it secret from the world. Heist after heist unfolds in casual detail by Finkel, giving us readers an insider's view of the crimes and the minds of these two young people. It's a riveting, audacious book that is difficult to put down for the tension as well as for the descriptions of the beautiful art it presents. 

Stealing art for money, [Breitwieser] says, is disgraceful. Money can be made with far less risk. But liberating for love, he's known a long time, feels ecstatic.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Dolnick, Edward. The Rescue Artist.   

When Edward Munch's The Scream painting is stolen from the National Museum in Oslo in 1994, Scotland Yard's Art Theft Department steps in. Led by Charley Hill, the department slowly tries to track down the thieves and recover the painting. Dolnick covers this chase as well as many other art crimes Hill has investigated. Riveting.(previously reviewed here)

 

Girl in Ice

Ferencik, Erica. Girl in Ice. New York: Scout Press 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

Seeing the name "Wyatt Speeks" in my inbox hit me like a physical blow. Everything rushed back: the devastating phone call, the disbelief, the image of my brother's frozen body in the Arctic wasteland.


Description:

I'm a big fan of intriguing storylines in novels and Erica Ferecik's Girl in Ice, comes through with just such a page-turning concept. 

Scientists in northern Greenland have discovered a young girl frozen in an icy crevasse, decide to cut her body out of the solid ice, and bring the ice block with her inside back to their outpost. They then slowly melt the ice cube surrounding her, shock her heart, and somehow miraculously revive her.

She is now somehow alive, living in the outpost, and actually speaking, although in an unknown language.

Enter the plea emailed to narrator/linguist Val Chesterfield to travel to the far north and attempt to communicate with the child. Val, while excited by such a unique challenge, is also hesitant. It is at this same Greenland outpost and under the same lead scientist that her twin brother worked until recently when he unexpectedly committed suicide.

Of course, Val takes on the challenge although she hates travel and is highly suspicious about the people and conditions to be found at the station. But attempting to communicate with this child is too much a temptation, so off she goes.

To find out what happens next, well, you'll just have to read for yourself. To say more on my part would ruin the anticipation, process, successes and failures Val finds in Greenland working with the child and the scientists. Suffice to say, if this brief plot outline, interests you, you won't be disappointed by the developments and the story unfolds to its unexpected, yet highly satisfactory conclusion.

  

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Harper, Kenn. Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo

At the turn of the century, arctic explorer Robert Peary brought back seven Eskimos (his words) to New York City. After a few weeks, only one survived, a young boy named Minik. His story of living the the New York City museum with his father's bones on display nearby, is fascinating, heartbreaking, and challenging on every page. Highly recommended (previously reviewed here)

 

Man in the Queue

Tey, Josephine. Man in the Queue. New York: MacMillan. 1929. Print.

First Sentences:

It was between seven and eight o'clock on  a March evening and all over London the bars were being drawn from pit and gallery doors. Bang, thud, and clank. Grim sounds to preface an evening's amusement. But no last trump could have so galvanized the weary attendants on Thespis and Terpsichore standing in patient columns of four before the Terpsichore standing in patient columns of four before the gates of promise..


Description:

To me, there is nothing that beats a quiet police procedural murder mystery. I love the methodical, by-the-book process of tracking down a murderer using the only advantages a police force has: manpower and time.

For this her first mystery novel, author Josephine Tey begins simply with a large group of people standing in tightly-packed lines awaiting the opening of the cheap seats on the last night of a hit play. As the gates open and the line presses forward, one person, the titular Man in the Queue, slumps over and falls to the ground. Upon examination by others in the line, he is found to have a knife sticking out of his back and is, of course, dead. 

Alan Grant, London's chief inspector, has little to go on. The dead man has had all his labels torn from his clothes and nothing in his pockets ... except for a loaded revolver.

All Grant can do is try to locate the queue people standing near the victim, interview them, and hope they offer some means of identifying this dead man, and ideally help Grant find the killer. No easy task this, but Grant is the man for the job.

He is an unusual police figure in mystery literature. He is generally happy, well-dressed, sophisticated, and enjoys his work. So unlike the troubled, angry, brooding detectives often found in other criminal novels. 

And piece by piece, Grant gains small insights into the victim and the case, although he does follow some dead or misleading trails. The story involves romance, jealousy, secrets, and mansions. Tey even  provides Grant a chance go fishing, his deepest love, during a stakeout, giving the author a chance to wax eloquent:

The river babbled its eternal nursery-rhyme song at his feet, and the water slid under his eyes with a mesmeric swiftness.

Grant is the main figure of several other of Tey's mysteries, notably The Daughter of Time (see recommendation below). In that novel, Grant tries to unravel the true facts behind the actual historic case involving King Richard III and his alleged murder of his three nephews. But Man in the Queue is Grant's worthy introduction into the literary mystery world, and it's a solid case to challenge the inspector in his debut.

A police officer who was impressed with a hard-luck story, however well told, would be little use in a force designed for the suppression of that most plausible of creatures, the criminal.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Tey, Josephine. The Daughter of Time.   

Probably my favorite and most unusual mystery stories ever. Alan Grant, police inspector, while laid up in a hospital recovering from an injury, researches the mystery of King Richard III and his reputation for murdering his nephews. Historical research, original documents, and records are examined by Grant to determine the facts and actual murderer, whether it be Richard or someone else. Absolutely fascinating and very highly recommended.

 

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Feeney, Alice. Rock, Paper, Scissors. New York: Flatiron 2021. Print.

First Sentences:

My husband doesn't recognize my face. I feel him staring at me as I drive, and wonder what he sees. Nobody else looks familiar to him either, but it is still strange to think that the man I married wouldn't be able to pick me out in a police lineup.

Description:

I'm a big fan of Alice Feeney's twisty-turny novel, Sometimes I Lie, so was really looking forward to plunging into another of her books, Rock, Paper, Scissors. Well, it was lulu, too, so much so that when I read the last page, I immediately turned to the first pages to start it again, looking with newly-aware eyes at every thought, person, and incident. Not many books will make you do that.

Feeney is the master of the unreliable narrator(s) and edgy circumstances. In Rock, Paper Scissors, husband Adam and wife Amelia have agreed to try to save their marriage with a weekend away at an isolated inn, a converted chapel in the backwoods of Scotland. 

Along with faithful dog, Bob, they suffer a long car trip through a blinding snowstorm and unplowed dirt roads to reach their destination. Constant bickering ensued throughout the drive and memories emerge as the story's narration shifts between each person, unfolding their past lives and personal challenges from vastly differing perspectives.

Sounds like it's going to be a fun weekend, huh? 

To have wasted so much of our lives by not really living them, makes me feel so sad. We weren't always the people we are now, but our memories of the past can make liars of us all.

Add to these two smoldering individuals an environment full of clues that would warn any sane person to get the heck out of there: creepy, dusty living quarters; oddities glimpsed out of the corner of their eyes (or right in front of them); breathy whispers in the dark woods; electrical outages (with no available flashlights, of course); locked and then mysteriously unlocked doors; and, of course, no cell phone coverage. Naturally, a huge snowstorm prevents them from immediately fleeing upon arrival at this freezing spot. 

As they wait in these unwelcoming quarters, the narrators unravel the backstories behind their lives and marriage, although each remembrance is a bit different, tainted by the emotions, desires, and distrust of the other person.

You can feel it when someone you love is lying. What I don't know, yet, is why....

These seemingly rational narrators often do the exact opposite of what any normal person would do. They peer into and enter unnerving spots like the dank wine cellar located in the chapel's crypt. They open the door marked, "Danger. Do Not Enter" and walk right in. They lean on and then almost fall through the tall bell tower's crumbling wall. 

Soon, they begin to realize something very odd is going on besides their unraveling marriage and mounting suspicions about their partner. But don't worry, readers. I'm not one to read or recommend horror stories or slasher tales. Rock, Paper, Scissors, while definitely unnerving and edgy, does not offer a bloodbath, just the impending threat that something unsettling is just about to happen. It's a genuine thriller, one where you constantly say, "Don't go there" and "Don't do that," reading line after line between your fingers that partially cover your eyes.

I cannot reveal any more than this barest of backgrounds to get you absorbed into this tale of sad people trying to figure out what future is best for them, either with the other person or without. The choice to recover their relationship or forget it entirely and start afresh proves a challenge neither seems up to. And the lies continue to flow...

The reason why a person lies is almost always more interesting than the lie itself. My husband shouldn't tell them; he isn't very good at it.  . 

 Happy reading.

Fred

About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

O'Nan, Stuart. The Odds: A Love Story.   

A couple decides to take all the money they possess and use it all to bet on the future of their marriage -- on one roll of the dice. Win and they stay together; lose and they part. Narrated by each person on their drive to Niagara Falls, a reader will probably sympathize with one person, then reverse opinion after hearing the other side. Their fate is revealed only in the very last sentence. "Wow!" is all I can say.  (previously reviewed here)

 

The Count of 9

  Fair, A.A. (Erle Stanley Gardner). The Count of 9. London: Titan 1958. Print.

First Sentences:

As I opened the door and stepped into the reception room, a flash bulb blazed into brilliance and blinded Big Bertha Cool, who had been facing the camera with a fatuous smile on her face, whirled angrily, glared at me and turned to the photographer.

"Did that hurt anything?" she asked.

 

Description:

Everyone is probably familiar with author Erle Stanley Gardner and his most famous creation, the brilliant lawyer, Perry Mason. But Gardner also wrote under the pen name A.A.Fair. creating the hard-boiled detectives Bertha Cool and Donald Lam operating in the grimy world of the 1940s.

Bertha Cool runs a small time (just her) detective agency inherited from her dead husband which focuses on small paperwork jobs, serving subpoenas, tailing cheating husbands, and the like. That all changes when she hires Donald Lam, a fast-talking go-getter with no detective experience. Lam proves to be clever, resourceful, and dogged in his pursuit of answers to the investigations. But the ordinary cases of Cool and Lam now seem to evolve into much deeper crimes. They start to take on larger cases that come to their grubby office, mainly because they allow Cool to reap more lucrative retainers, her primary goal for her detective agency.

In The Count of 9, Cool is hired by a globe-trotting millionaire to protect his valuable collection of international souvenirs from theft by any guests attending a party at his residence. For security, there is a separate elevator to his apartment which Cool personally guards. All attendees are x-rayed (unbeknownst to them) in the elevator to make sure they are not filching any items. But still, a 5-foot long ancient blowgun and poison-tipped darts, along with a small precious jade statue somehow turn up missing right under Cool's nose. A small statue and darts could possibly be swiped, but who could smuggle out a very long blowgun?

Even worse, the millionaire soon is found dead, killed by, you guessed it, a poison dart. Is it his wife? His secretary? A girlfriend? The fence? Someone else?

It's up to Lam to find to missing blowgun, darts, and jade statue, and while he's at it, uncover the murderer. A tall order, but Lam is so clever, so quick-witted, that he is soon hot on the trail of solving all these mysteries. 

But there are, of course, bad guys and gals along the way with their own agendas that include keeping nosy detectives from discovering their roles in these crimes.

Noir detective fiction is captivating to me. Simple stories told in a street-wise language of a bygone era: what's not to love? The Count of 9 a great page-turner full of nefarious crimes, gritty bad guys and gals, along with seemingly innocent everyday people which keep the action moving forward at breakneck speed. There's never much violence, although the threat of it is always hanging over everyone's head, and sometimes there is a dead body in a locked room. And in most Cool/Lam books, Donald Lam usually gets beaten up by thugs as he gets closer to the truth. Nothing life-threatening, though, and he always comes back eager as ever.

The Count of 9 is just one of twenty-nine (!) in the Cool/Lam detective series, so if you love this style of clever writing, tough characters, and unusual crimes needing be untangled, you have plenty more wonderful stories in this series to keep you busy.

[P.S. This is the first re-publication of the Cool/Lam detective stories in 50 years. Wonderfully, the publishers have reproduced the original lurid cover art, often depicting mysterious ladies in various stages of undress with weapons nearby. The artwork doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I find it fascinating to see the style of covers from the 1950s. Hope you aren't too outraged.]

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

More book recommendations

About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Fair, A. A.. Cats Prowl at Night.   

With Donald Lam serving his military requirement, Bertha Cool must take on a case herself without the assistance of Lam's problem-solving powers. Another great on in the series.  (previously reviewed here)