Category: Mystery

Phryne Fisher, the quintessential independent, daring woman of the 1920’s is back in this second entry in the popular series. If you’re a mystery reader and you haven’t heard of Phryne, you’ve been living under a rock. Greenwood’s first entry in the series – Cocaine Blues – gained modest popularity a few years ago, then Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries appeared on television with the incomparable Essie Davis in the lead role and Phryne claimed her rightful place on the throne of Aussie mysteries. Since then, Greenwood has pumped out close to 20 Miss Fisher mysteries.

I’d read Cocaine Blues and found it a passable mystery with a plucky heroine who I thought had a lot of potential to become a very memorable character. In Flying Too High, the author continues the character development while Phryne takes on two cases and solves them both neatly in 156 pages. First, she is retained by a distraught woman who fears her son will kill her husband. When the husband ends up with his head bashed in, Phryne steps in and saves the day. At the same time, she is also retained to find a young child who has been kidnapped. Within a few chapters, Phryne has solves both cases and is free to concentrate on seducing a handsome young doctor.

The mysteries are really incidental here: it’s Miss Fisher who takes center stage. Whether she’s walking on the wing of a plane, having unexpected sex with an Italian sculptor in the middle of the afternoon, tying herself to the back of a car driven by kidnappers, or shooting one of them neatly through the wrist – it is clear that Phryne is determined to live her life on her own terms. She is Nancy Drew mashed up with Madonna, and she is damned fun!

The books are different enough from the TV series that reading them isn’t a let down. My only issue with this one is the undercurrent of racism (Phryne actually uses the word “pickaninny”) which I suppose is indicative of the time period. I found it unnecessary and offensive.

Flying Too High is the first book I received in my latest postal book club, #WhoDunItByMail through the magnificent app, Litsy. There are about 30 people participating, and we all mail the next book on the 1st of every month. If you haven’t checked out Litsy, go get the app right now. I’m PatriciaU there, so follow me!

If you’re looking for a quick, light, entertaining reading experience, I recommend you spend some time with Phryne Fisher.

You know the old adage “Never judge a book by its cover?” Well, it was far from top of mind when I spotted this beauty buried in the Mystery section at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago. Hadn’t heard of the author. Wasn’t discounted. Set in Switzerland. But the cover! It called to me. So, I bought it.

What I found was a first-in-a-series, gently meandering but totally clever whodunit featuring the completely likable Inspector Agnes Luthi, charming aristocrat Julien Vallotton, and a cast of memorable characters.

We meet Agnes as she negotiates rapidly deteriorating roads, attempting to reach the grand Chateau Vallotton in the middle of the worst snow & ice storm Lausanne, Switzerland has seen in decades. The body of a young woman has been found outside the chateau, and Agnes is called to investigate her first case in the Violent Crimes Unit of the Lausanne Police Department. She manages to reach the chateau, where she finds herself snowed in with two fellow detectives, members of the Vallotton family, and assorted other characters, one of whom is most definitely a murderer. Even while she is neck deep in the murder, we find that Agnes is also wrestling with some personal tragedy. Her investigation becomes her own catharsis, leading to a very satisfying ending.

The author manages to weave Agnes’ personal tragedy into the story, so that the reader begins to know Agnes at the same time Agnes begins to know her suspects. Agnes herself is a welcome female protagonist, a professional woman who is also a mother trying to do the best she can and not always succeeding. This is one of those unusual mysteries that ride the rails between “cozy” and “hardboiled” detective fiction, which is a niche in which I will happily hide. In some ways, Agnes reminded me a bit of Martha Grimes’ Richard Jury, if that character had been female. I was delighted to find out that this is, indeed, the first in a series. The second in the series, A Well-Timed Murder, is scheduled for release in February 2018. Here’s hoping to finding an advanced reading copy!

Highly recommended.

Anthropologist Ruth Galloway is back in the latest from Elly Griffiths, The Chalk Pit. As usual, there’s a lot going on in King’s Lynn.

This time, we find Ruth preparing to head underground to examine human remains uncovered during a routine soil sampling process. At the same time, Ruth’s quasi partner DCI Harry Nelson and his police squad are dealing with several incidents: a hungover student reporting a man who appeared and disappeared in front of her car in the middle of the night, a homeless man reporting the disappearance of a fellow street dweller, and a sink hole that suddenly opened in the middle of a busy road.

It’s typical of Griffiths to introduce several story strands in the first couple of chapters, so it’s no surprise when all of those stories come together into a single fat braid. Griffiths skillfully blends in well-researched pieces of history and interesting facts about the King’s Lynn-Norwich area to her books, with the Chalk Tunnels being the star here. The chalk mining tunnels take center stage, as Ruth searches for the answer to the human remains, which appear to have been boiled, while Nelson and his team pursue a villain who has kidnapped three women and “taken them underground.” Wrapping around all the mystery is the continuing unrequited relationship between Ruth and Nelson. Clearly they want to be with each other, but both have misgivings or other commitments. And, as if their already complicated personal situation wasn’t complex enough, Griffiths introduces two major life experiences here – a death and an impending birth. As usual, their relationship ups and downs drive the story forward.

This is the 9th entry in the Ruth Galloway series, and they just keep getting better. Very often, a series has a single focus – it’s a mystery, it’s a thriller, etc. – and the author excels at the genre, but isn’t always able to build a convincing world for their characters. Griffiths does that masterfully in the Galloway series. The mystery is a part of the world, something to be handled and managed and solved, but the core of the story is always the characters and their relationships with one another. While Ruth and Nelson are the apex characters, Griffiths has spent a good deal of time fleshing out the supporting characters, which makes them and their world real.

At the end of this, I am left impatiently waiting for the next entry, and pondering the question, “Who’s the father?” If you haven’t read the previous 8 books, go get them, binge read 1-9, and then grab up #10 as soon as it comes out.

Reading an ARC is always a crapshoot. The reader has to be flexible and overlook things like excessive description, disjointed story arcs & grammatical errors and concentrate on the story. In Sharyn McCrumb’s The Unquiet Grave, scheduled for publication in June 2017, there’s none of the negative and ALL of the story.

I’ve read McCrumb’s work for years and remain a true fan of her Ballad novels featuring Nora Bonesteel, but also admire her ability to weave folklore and history into compelling stories. In Unquiet Grave, McCrumb tells the story of the “Greenbrier Ghost,” where we meet Zona Heaster Shue, murdered by her no-account husband “Trout” Shue, whose dirty deed is uncovered only after Zona’s mama Mary Jane Heaster claims to be visited by Zona’s ghost, who tells her what happened on the day she died.

McCrumb has taken an old story from the hills of West Virginia and put flesh on its bones through meticulous genealogical and history research. That approach to storytelling can sometimes fall flat if the author is not skilled at character development. There are no worries about that here, though, as McCrumb creates characters that pop off the page. We have Zona Heaster Shue, the beautiful “Greenbrier Ghost,” her swine of a husband, Erasmus “Trout” Shue, and Zona’s Mama, Mary Jane Heaster, who form the triangle that results in Trout Shue’s trial. Truth be told, I didn’t much like Zona or Trout, but Mary Jane? Oh my! Her dislike of Trout Shue leapt off the page, and I *felt* her cold rage when she was given the news of Zona’s death. McCrumb skillfully conveys Mary Jane’s helplessness, rage, and grief as she copes with the loss of the only beautiful thing in her life.

The companion story to the Heaster-Shue murder introduces attorney James P.D. Gardner and Dr. James Boozer. Gardner served as Second Chair in the Greenbrier Ghost trial, and lived a seemingly fulfilling and successful life and career. We find him at a crossroads, having lost his second wife and not seeing any point in continuing to live. After a suicide attempt, Gardner is committed to an asylum, where he meets Dr. Boozer, who attempts to understand Gardner and get him well through conversation. Gardner tells the story of the legal side of the Greenbrier Ghost, lending insight into 19th century law and the concept of “justice” in a small, mountain community.

By juxtaposing the two stories, McCrumb communicates the emotion of the situation through Zona, Trout, and especially Mary Jane. Gardner’s story provides the factual side of things, with the lead lawyer Mr. Rucker grasping at every straw possible to save his client. We get some insight to the tactics used by lawyers to get their clients off, as well as a quick peek at “mountain justice.”

There are one or two places throughout the story that could use some editing for length, such as the pages devoted to describing Rucker’s exploits in the Civil War, but on the whole, The Unquiet Grave is remarkable. I will be buying this in hardcover when it comes out in June. Recommended.

The Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James detective series by Deborah Crombie became a go-to for me when my favorite British detective series, Martha Grimes’ Richard Jury, petered out. I found Crombie’s writing similar to Grimes, but with a fresher, modern style. Crombie’s development of the Kincaid and James characters has always been nicely handled, with just the right amount of mystery, suspense, and spice, and the crime stories have been clever and well-plotted. So, you may presume that I have looked forward to the release of Garden of Lamentations for awhile.

Unfortunately, my expectations seem to have been misplaced. While the story ties up loose ends from previous books, I was surprised and disappointed to find Kincaid and James some how less. Less in tune with each other, less trusting, less smart. I spent a good deal of time shaking my head at some of Kincaid’s actions. I was especially frustrated with how he seemed to forget that James is his partner in every sense of the word. Sure, he thought he was protecting her, but come on, she’s totally kick ass! She doesn’t need protecting. You’re supposed to be partners, man!

I will say that the back story to the Angus Craig/Ryan Marsh arc from the previous book was tied up nicely, and the parallel story of Reagan Keating was clever…exactly what I’ve come to expect from Crombie. It really was the sudden-stone-in-road with Kincaid and James that made me like this book less than others in the series. Kincaid’s behavior just did not make sense.

This is one I may have to go back and read again later, just to see if my first reaction was really to the story, or my state of mind when reading it. Sometimes, it’s not good to anticipate too much. If you’re a Crombie fan, definitely read this and tell me what you think. Am I off?