January 2009

Welcome to a new year! In 2009, Mystery Morgue will be seeing a lot of changes, and to begin with, this will be the last issue of MM for a while. In order to best implement our new ideas for the site, we're going to take a (relatively) brief hiatus, work out some things, change others, and come back with a new, improved Mystery Morgue! Can't say yet exactly when that will be, but keep checking back—and count on us to make a splash when we return, so hopefully, you'll hear about it.

This month's issue, then, is a review-only installment. Savor the latest in crime fiction from a variety of authors, check out the archives for past reviews and features, and—we promise—we'll see you back here soon!

In this month's issue:

Reviews:
In the Dark by Mark Billingham
Dying for Dinner by Miranda Bliss
Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder by Gyles Brandreth
Chasing Smoke by Bill Cameron
Interred with their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Blood Memory by Margaret Coel
Mr. Monk is Miserable by Lee Goldberg
Cold in Hand by John Harvey
Prayer of the Dragon by Eliot Pattison
The Memorist by M.J. Rose
Buffalo Bill's Defunct by Sheila Simonson

Link to Archives

 

Reviews

In the Dark
by Mark Billingham
HarperCollins
Hardcover, 370 pages, $25.95
ISBN: 978-0061432736
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

While this standalone novel departs from the excellent Tom Thorne series written by Mark Billingham, apparently he couldn't resist including his favorite protagonist in a cameo role.  In this story, however, we are introduced to a whole new set of characters including Helen, a very pregnant policewoman, days away from giving birth. 

Helen's significant other also is on the job.  He is killed while on an apparent drug gang initiation, during which a new member shoots at a car that has flashed its headlights at the one in which he is a passenger.  As a result, the victim's auto swerves into a bus stop smashing into Helen's mate and killing him.  Helen then begins to look into her partner's recent activities, and to wonder whether he was on the take.  Despite her swollen belly, Helen undertakes an investigation of her own, leading to all kinds of ramifications.

The graphic descriptions of drug culture and the kids involved in the operations are matched only by the intricacy of the plotting.  There is more than one twist when the story takes another turn.  The novel is as well-written as anything the author has done.  A must read.

 

Dying for Dinner
by Miranda Bliss
Berkley Prime Crime
Paperback, 250 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 978-0425226100
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

Annie has just quit her steady job at the bank in order to work as manager for her boyfriend Jim's restaurant.  This would not be such a scary career move except for the fact that Annie can't cook and is afraid of kitchens.  On the upside, she does get to work with her best friend, Eve, the restaurant's hostess. Being able to see her hunky, Scottish boyfriend every day doesn't hurt either.

On her first day at the job, she settles in to handle some paperwork, but instead of paying bills, she finds herself driving over to look for Monsieur Lavoie, a well-known chef and friend of Jim's who has failed to show up for a cooking class where he is supposed to be the guest of honor.  She doesn't find Monsieur, but she does find the police and the dead body of Monsieur's assistant.  Since her detecting skills far exceed her cooking skills, she and Eve decide to look into things and try to find Monsieur and the killer.

This is the fourth in the Cooking Class Mystery series.  Annie and Eve make for an entertaining detective duo.  Annie uses her brains and Eve uses her looks, which prove effective in getting them the information they need.  The mystery unravels nicely and the author provides information and clues for the reader to keep up.  Very likeable characters and an enjoyable read.

 

Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder
by Gyles Brandreth
Touchstone
Paperback, 392 pages, $14
ISBN: 978-1416534846
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

Apparently casting Oscar Wilde as a protagonist served well in the introductory volume of what seems to be a burgeoning series.  And the technique serves well in this second in the mystery series.  Set in 1892, Wilde is surrounded by friends such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), and the flavor of London of the era is delicious.

Wilde chairs what he calls the Socrates Club, where his friends and their guests enjoy dinner and a game.  This time, Wilde invents one called "murder," in which each participant is asked to write down the name of someone they would most desire to kill if there was no danger of being caught.  When each slip of paper is read, the names vary from the supercilious (a parrot, Sherlock Holmes, Eros and Father Time) to the much more serious: Wilde and his wife, Constance, among others.  The very next day, the first victim falls, followed on three succeeding days by more victims on a daily basis.  Are Wilde and his wife next?  Read on and find out.

Step by step, we learn more about Oscar Wilde, his erudition and analytical ability.  It becomes his task to solve the mystery of the four deaths and who has perpetrated the acts.  Written in the style of a 19th Century novel, some readers may be put off in the reading.  But rest assured, it is well worth the effort.  For the most part, it's a lot of fun and some of the observations quite charming.

Chasing Smoke
by Bill Cameron
Bleak House Books
Paperback, 300 pages, $14.95
ISBN: 978-1606480182
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid

I picked up Chasing Smoke and couldn't put it down until the book was finished.  Needless to say I didn't get much done but I had the pleasure of reading a really good book.

Skin Kadash is a Portland homicide detective on sick leave.  Skin is fighting cancer and the fight takes all of his strength.  When his former partner summons him to the scene of a suicide he is more irritated than anything else.  The man in the jeep, Raymond Orwoll, has been shot and it appears the wound is self-inflicted.  Prescription bottles in the jeep show the prescribing physician is Dr. Tobias Hern, Skin's oncologist.

Susan Mulvaney, Skin's former partner, explains that Dr. Hern's name has shown up on pill bottles found at several scenes in the last few weeks.  It seems a girl named Jerilyn Titchmer had shown up at police headquarters with a list of five names that she claimed were targets.  One was her father Davis Titchmer, who died of a self-inflicted gun shot the previous week. Two of the men on the list were already dead when Jerilyn turned over her list.  That makes three dead and now Orwoll is the fourth.

In spite of his illness Skin begins an investigation on his own.  He interviews family members of the men on the list that are deceased and meets with Abraham Brandauer, the last person on the list who is still among the living.

The police aren't impressed with Skin's efforts but nothing can stop him once his mind is made up to find out the true story of the apparent suicides.

Chasing Smoke is a good mystery with a dramatic conclusion.  The author's description of the suffering of a cancer victim is gripping.  Skin spends a lot of time in a coffee house run by a gal named Ruby Jane.  Ruby Jane is a character I would like to read more about. I am very glad I had the opportunity to read this book.   As soon as I finished Chasing Smoke I ordered Cameron's Lost Dog.

 

Interred with their Bones
by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Plume
Paperback, 416 pages, $15
ISBN:  978-0452289895
Reviewed by Terri M. Tumlin

It doesn't matter whether you are a Shakespeare fan, a mystery fan, or just a fan of good writing and good books.  Interred with their Bones is a delight.  The novel begins with a Prologue set in June 29, 1613, with the burning of the Globe Theater, and continues in four acts set in the modern day as a wild mystery spanning countries and continents with murder and mayhem punctuating a hunt for a possible lost play of William Shakespeare.  Interspersed with the modern action are short "Interludes" from Shakespeare's time that dole out clues to the modern situation.

The modern story begins the protagonist, Kate Stanley, is directing a production of Hamlet in the modern reconstruction of the Globe Theater in London.  Her mentor from her previous life as a Shakespeare scholar at Harvard, Rosalind Howard, suddenly shows up to give her a small wrapped box described as "an adventure... a secret."  With the box comes the admonition "If you open it, you must follow where it leads."  The same day, June 29, Rosalind Howard is murdered and fire again ravishes the Globe.

The police come.  When Detective Chief Inspector Francis Sinclair begins asking questions, Kate lies.  She conceals the box, unwilling to give it up until she has the opportunity to examine it herself.  When she opens the box, she finds the first clue that leads her from London to Boston and beyond.

Along with Kate, the novel is filled an assortment of fascinating characters. Sir Henry Lee is a major figure of the London stage who plays the ghost of Hamlet's father in Kate's production.  He is the first to help her avoid both the police and other, darker figures who seem to be after her.  Then Ben appears, purportedly the nephew of Rosalind engaged before her death to keep an eye on Kate.

As the mystery unfolds, amid plenty of suspenseful action, questions about who really wrote the Shakespearean dramas keep surfacing, with many of the novel's characters taking one side or the other.  Although the murder mystery that drives the plots is satisfactorily solved, the Shakespearean authorship mystery remains an enigma.

Interred with their Bones is well written, delightfully convoluted, and a thoroughly good read. 

Blood Memory
by Margaret Coel
Berkley Prime Crime
Hardcover, 305 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0425223451
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The Wind River Series featuring Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden, set on the Arapaho Reservation, established the author as a writer of sensitivity and compassion for the Indian culture.  Now she has written a standalone, with a past tragedy which took place during the mid-19th century known as the Sand Creek Massacre playing a key role in present-day Native American affairs.

Catherine McLeod, an investigative reporter for a Denver newspaper, becomes the target of an assassin after she writes a story about the massacre.  Two Indian tribes have proposed to trade with the Federal government their claims to ancestral lands amounting to about one-third of Colorado, including Denver, for merely 500 acres adjacent to the airport on which a Casino/hotel and museum would be built, on the theory that the project would create jobs and income for the tribes.  Is there a connection to the Massacre?  Or is there some other reason Catherine has become a target?  She barely escapes an initial attack, but a good friend is murdered during the attempt.  Further attacks confirm that the assassin is after Catherine, and she is the only one who can put the pieces together.

Written with the author's accustomed feeling and fluidity, the novel takes Catherine on a whirlwind experience of terror until the end.  The combination of history and contemporary Native American affairs involving how badly they were treated in the past and today's gaming business is an intriguing concept.  Massacred in the beginning and taken advantage of today. 

 

Mr. Monk is Miserable
by Lee Goldberg
Obsidian
Hardcover, 277 pages, $21.95
ISBN: 978-0451225153
Reviewed by Kerry Hammond

San Francisco's most celebrated detective, Adrian Monk, is in Paris.  He has arrived after a trip to Germany, where he followed his psychiatrist to a conference in order to continue his thrice-weekly sessions.  Needing to get some sort of vacation out of her obsessive-compulsive employer, his assistant Natalie blackmails Monk into spending a few days in France before returning to San Francisco.  She then makes the mistake of convincing herself that it will be a vacation, forgetting that dead bodies and Monk are never far apart. 

At first, Natalie thinks Monk is enjoying the trip.  He even suggests a visit to Paris' famous sewer.  After that, at Natalie's request, they take a tour through the Catacombs under the city.  While in the catacombs looking at 200 year-old skeletons, Monk finds one that's a little more recent.  The police confirm that the skull Monk found has only been there for a few months.  So much for Natalie's vacation.  The cast of characters is complete when Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher arrive in Paris to help with the investigation, after learning that the dead man has a connection to San Francisco. 

Goldberg doesn't disappoint in his latest Monk installment.  This one has even more twists and turns than the last.  The Monk series is great and the characters mirror those of the television series.  Monk even lets loose a little in Paris and is especially entertaining when he drives a French street sweeper through the city.  I can't wait for the next one.

Cold in Hand
by John Harvey
An Otto Penzler Book/ Harcourt
Hardcover, 384 pages, $26
ISBN: 978-0151014620
Reviewed by Gloria Feit

The newest book in the Charlie Resnick series by John Harvey finds Charlie, lover of cats and good jazz, and his fellow police officer, Lynn Kellogg, having lived together for nearly three years.  Charlie, much the older of the two, is almost at retirement age and uncertain of where he wants his life to take him at this point.

As the novel opens, two girls, 15-16 years old, are facing off in a gang confrontation, ending when two shots are fired by a young boy, the first bullet hitting Lynn Kellogg, the second one killing one of the girls.  Luckily Lynn is not badly hurt, thanks to her bulletproof vest.  In the aftermath, the family of the knife-wielding dead girl blames Lynn for their loss.

When Charlie is placed second in command of the investigation and charged with finding the boy who had pulled the trigger, some conflicts arise, some of them expected and some of them less so.  And then the threats begin.

A separate story line deals with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), a recently created division, looking into one of Kellogg's old murder cases with ramifications well beyond the obvious, including trafficking in drugs, guns and people.  The fallout from both of these investigations has a profound impact on the lives, both personal and professional, of Kellogg and Resnick.  The title, as usual, derives from a jazz recording, this one "that song Bessie Smith used to sing... something about waking up lonely, cold in hand."

The book is wonderfully well-written, gripping from start to finish, with sadness and tragedy interwoven in a tautly plotted tale.  A stunning entry and perhaps the best yet in this terrific series.

Prayer of the Dragon
by Eliot Pattison
Soho Press
Paperback, 357 pages, $14
ISBN: 978-1569475348
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The Inspector Shan series—five in all—provides deep insights into Tibet and the consequences of the Chinese takeover.  In this installment, however, there is an additional twist.  Shan is summoned to a remote village to save a comatose man from execution for two murders.  It turns out that the man is a Navajo descendant visiting Tibet with his niece, an American anthropology professor researching a link between Tibetans and Navajos.

The two murders, Shan discovers, are but part of a series of homicides, and he has to solve not only those, but the riddle of Dragon Mountain, "where the world begins."  The village is located on the mountain and the suspects are numerous.  With the help of his friends, the unlicensed monks, Gendun and Lokesh, Shan undertakes an arduous task.

The common religious and cultural aspects of Tibetans and Navajos described throughout the novel are fascinating.  The descriptions of the people and bleak geography are penetrating.  The novel, like its predecessor, gets off to a slow start, and the author lays the groundwork for the plot.  But once it gets going, the mystery moves apace solidly.  Also like its predecessor, Dragon is very much worth reading.

The Memorist
by M.J. Rose
Mira
Hardcover, 464 pages, $24.95
ISBN 978-0778325840
Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid

The Memorist is a story of many people.  Meer Logan has been haunted from childhood by memories of a past life.  This is the story of Meer and the women in her past.  It is also the story of David Yalom, an Israeli journalist, who has lost his whole family to a terrible explosion.  Jeremy Logan is Meer's father and a firm believer in memories of past lives.  Jeremy's goal in life has been to bring Meer's past to the present and release her from the haunting memories.

The story also includes Malachai Samuels, head of the Phoenix Foundation.  Malachai is under investigation by the FBI and Special Agent Lucian Glass is assigned to his case.  Lucian seems fascinated by Meer as if he has known her before.

Jeremy discovers a gaming box similar to the one that Meer drew as a child based on what Meer believes to be false memories.  Meer travels to Vienna to view the box that was once owned by a friend of Ludwig Beethoven.   Meer's presence in Vienna seems to draw her closer to her memories.  While Meer is busy with her father and his friend Sebastian visiting various places where Beethoven once lived or worked, David Yalom is underground beneath a concert hall planning to destroy the hall and everyone inside.

Meer's story is told in flashbacks to times in the past when she wasn't Meer but another woman.  Other flashbacks take her further back in time when she was a woman on an entirely different continent.  The story is suspenseful, thought provoking and very exciting.  M.J. Rose brings the story to a conclusion that is satisfying but not a happy ending for everyone.

The Memorist is a follow-up to the book The Reincarnist.  It is not necessary to have read The Reincarnist to enjoy The Memorist but The Reincarnist is a great story and ties in with this new novel.

Buffalo Bill's Defunct
by Sheila Simonson
Perseverance Press
Paperback, 280 pages, $14.95
ISBN: 978-1880284964
Reviewed by Theodore Feit

The pairing of a Sheriff's chief investigator and a librarian makes for an odd combination in more ways than one.  But when it works, as it does in this engaging novel, there's nothing to complain about.  Sheriff's investigator Rob Neill has been haunted by his lack of success in solving his first case, the theft of sacred objects of the Klalo tribe from the western end of the Columbia River Gorge.  Meg McLean has just been hired as the head librarian of the small town in which he works and lives.  She buys a house next door to Rob and they develop a close working relationship—and then some.

A body is discovered buried in her garage, setting off a chain of events that brings Meg and Bob together (in more ways than one).  Her information-retrieval skills prove useful in an investigation that grows as two more murders take place.

The author lives in Vancouver, WA, and the descriptions of the region in the book reflect her appreciation of the area.  Written in a smooth style, the story progresses logically toward a suspenseful conclusion.