Two for the Taking - On Books and On Murder

Things have slowed down a bit here in BelleBookandCandle land. I have just barely started two books, both by authors I have not read before.

The first is More Baths Less Talking by Nick Hornby. It is a collection of his book columns — Stuff I've Been Reading —written for Believer, touted as "a magazine of interviews, essays, and reviews." The format is simple. Mr. Hornby begins each monthly essay listing Books Bought and Books Read. As you can imagine the lists don't always overlap. Usually, more bought, fewer read. 

I have only finished the first couple of essays/musings. Although many books about books lean heavily on fiction, Mr. Hornby includes many nonfiction titles. For example, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 by David Kynaston he finds to be surprisingly entertaining. But American Rust, a novel by Phillip Meyer about the "long, slow death of working-class America," also captures his heart.

Then there are his Muriel Spark binges, a tale of attending the Oscar ceremonies in Hollywood, meeting Patti Smith (Just Kids), and chatter about the World Cup. 

Something for everyone.

It appears that Mr. Hornby enjoyed writing these essays as much as I am enjoying reading them. They are quite witty. They were published in 2010-2011. This is the fourth and final collection of columns and I see now that many of them are on the magazine's website.  He also wrote a couple of books that were turned into films:  High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, and About a Boy. I will be checking Netflix for these. 

The second book is a mystery titled The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone. Dahlia, an unemployed not-your-Miss-Marple millennial, is not really a detective but is hired to be one. Her 'client' sends her on a quest to recover a virtual weapon — The Bejeweled Spear of Infinite Piercing — from an online game called Zoth. He pays her a thousand dollars up front and promises her another thousand dollars when the spear is returned to him. Unfortunately, her client doesn't live long enough to pay her the second thousand dollars. 

That's as far as I have gotten in the tale. I'll just have to see how this one goes. It is pretty humorous but some of the 'gaming' talk is beyond me. Oh, well. Perhaps I will learn something as I try to solve the mystery along with Dahlia.

How are things in your book world?

The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras by J. Michael Orenduff

When I tell you that Hubert Schuze is a pot thief you might think that he goes around stealing marijuana plants. You would be wrong.

Mr. Schuze (pronounced shooze) is a potter. He owns a small shop/home/studio in Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico. The pots he steals are ones crafted by ancient Native Americans and left buried in the desert. Although, now that the federal government has put the kibosh on digging up artifacts on public land, Hubert must do his digging under cover of night.

He doesn't consider himself a thief as the art he uncovers would remain buried and its beauty unseen and unappreciated. Besides, he feels an affinity with the ancient potters — touching hands across the centuries.

But, when a stranger walks into his shop and offers him $25,000 to steal a rare pot from a local museum, Hubert takes on the job. He needs the money. He cases the joint, comes up with a plan, gets accused of murder, and starts a little sleuthing on his own.

I am crazy about Hubert. He loves margaritas, authentic Mexican food (huevos rancheros and champagne for breakfast anyone?), has a generous heart, is baffled by technology (aren't we all), and has definite opinions about the modern world. I love his rants.

The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras is the first in the mystery series by J. Michael Orenduff. I ordered the first three ebooks in the series as a package deal. I am glad I did. This is one of those books that tells a story, introduces a little history, and is fun. 

As to studying Pythagoras? Well, Hubert's plan to steal the pot from the museum comes to him while reading articles about the ancient mathematician's theorem concerning triangles and the hypotenuse of said triangles. Hmmmm. I am sure we all remember that from high school geometry.

In the next two books, The Pot Thief studies Ptolemy and then Einstein. Ooh. The stars and relativity. Adventures await.

The Cold Blue Blood, The Marx Sisters, and Unwelcome Guests

I have spent the past week fighting tiny ants in my kitchen. All of a sudden there was one, then two, then a swarm. (To me, any gathering of bugs over two is considered a swarm.) Mostly I was just smashing the one or two scurrying about, but recently I have had to resort to Bug Spray. 

In the mean time, I began two new mystery series. One by an author I already know and like — David Handler — and another by new-to-me author Barry Maitland.

Mr. Handler, if you remember, is the creator of the Hoagy and Lulu series that I wrote about here. In The Cold Blue Blood he has created the unlikely duo of Mitch Berger, film critic, and Lieutenant Desiree Mitry of the Connecticut Major Crime Squad.

It is summer and Mitch, who is grieving the death of his young wife, has rented a cottage on a private island off the coast of Connecticut. Desiree enters the picture when Mitch unearths a body in the cottage garden plot. It turns out to be Niles, the man everyone thought had run off with his wealthy wife's money and his new girlfriend. Desiree is already investigating the murder of a woman who, as it turns out, is the girlfriend of the murdered Niles. 

I already like Mitch and his infinite knowledge of movies and actors. Desiree is a graduate of West Point and rescues and finds homes for feral cats. She also has a secret passion for rendering in charcoal crime scene photos. She doesn't show them to anyone. It is just her way of processing the gruesome sights she comes upon in her job. She is an intriguing character.

The Marx Sisters introduces the team of Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla and Scotland Yard Chief Inspector David Brock. 

When the elderly Meredith Winterbottom is found dead in her apartment in London's Jerusalem Lane, it looks as if she simply died in her sleep - until DS Kolla discovers a plastic bag in the garbage that contains hair and saliva of the dead woman. Was Mrs. Winterbottom smothered because she was the last property owner on the historic lane who refused to sell to the development company? Or was she murdered for the collection of papers she had in her possession that were written by Karl Marx?

There is no shortage of suspects and this one gets more and more entertaining the further along I read.

Both series are most promising. I do love a good mystery.

Now, a third mystery. Where are those pesky ants coming from?

Murder Mystery History at the library

Tonight begins a six-week course at my public library entitled Murder Mystery History: An Examination of the Whodunnit Genre. It is free (we love free) and is offered as part of the library's short-course program. There have been other courses on architecture, the origins of modern science, and classical music. 

Really, my library is quite brilliant to think of this. (OK, I know a library can't think, but you know what I mean.)

I have signed up and look forward to this overview of murder mystery fiction (and am hoping for an extensive reading list) taught by the provost of the community and technical college here. According to the LFPL website, the instructor has multiple degrees in English and I hope at least one degree in Mystery. 

More to follow after I see what this 'body in the library' has to reveal. 

A Feast of Foreign Climes

British author Ann Bridge (1889-1974) wrote a passel of novels based on her travels around the world. She also wrote a series of entertaining mysteries featuring Julia Probyn, intrepid journalist and part-time spy for British Intelligence. The first in that series, The Lighthearted Quest, took Ms. Probyn to Morocco. 

The time span in the Probyn mysteries covers the years 1956 to 1972 - a time of civilized travel - and the stories take the reader to foreign locales including Portugal, Switzerland, and Ireland. 

I bring this up because today Amazon has all eight of the Kindle editions of the mysteries published by Bloomsbury Reader (as well as other classic ones by Edmund Crispin, Margery Allingham and Nicolas Freeling) on sale for $1.99 each. I paid $7 for the first one in January 2012 when I was introduced to this globe-trotting heroine. So now it looks like I can get the remaining seven for only twice that much!

Ms. Probyn's adventures in North Africa led me to Edith Wharton's In Morocco, an account of her time spent there after World War I. Wharton stayed in the Bahia Palace, a fact mentioned in Ms. Probyn's tale. 

A case of one book leading to another, or in this case, many others.

Mystery Madness

Bridge can be deadly!

Today I sampled two of the tales in the 2012 Best American Mysteries introduced by Robert Crais. The first one, "The Hit" by Tom Andes, was a bit too over-written for me, but the puzzle was good. A fellow hires a hit man to kill his wife but who is the hitter and who is the hittee?  

Here is a slice:
    Her life no longer seemed to be happening to her but to someone else. 
    She ran a bubble bath before the kids got home, luxuriating in the folds of steam, scraping the dead skin from the balls of her feet. The flakes drifted away on the water, softened to opacity. She wondered what her life would seem like if it were on television, what some anonymous viewer in a faraway living room or den would think. She felt alienated from her own experience, atomized, like the molecules of steam rising from the water in the tub.

The second tale begins in the genteel atmosphere of the Moss Harbor Bridge Group.  Genteel, that is, until Mattie's new partner, Olivia, mouths across the bridge table: I will kill you.

Was Mattie's card playing really that bad?

Mattie, who is a meek little woman to begin with, becomes even more terrified as Olivia begins to stalk her. The suspense rises: When will Olivia strike? And where?

Here is a bit from "The Bridge Partner" by Peter S. Beagle:

    On the whole, after sixteen years of marriage, Mattie liked Don more than she disliked him, but such distinctions were essentially meaningless at this stage of things. She rather appreciated his presence when she felt especially lonely and frightened, but a large, furry dog would have done as well; indeed, a dog would have been at once more comforting and more concerned for her comfort. Dogs wanted their masters to be happy - Don simply preferred her uncomplaining.

Of course, these selections give nothing away as I wouldn't dare spoil any surprises or twist the authors have in store. 

Of the twenty writers represented here, I am only familiar with one - or is it two: Charles Todd, the mother and son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd, who write the Inspector Ian Rutledge series and the Bess Crawford mysteries. I have heard good things about both but have not read any of them. They are on my list.

Since I mostly read classic British mysteries I am hoping to discover one or two modern authors to add to my mystery madness.

Do you have any favorites?

Georgette Heyer - Mystery Writer

Until I read a piece by Michael Dirda praising Georgette Heyer for her wit and charm in his book Classics for Pleasure, I would have snobbily refused to read her thinking she just wrote Edwardian romance novels. Oh, how wrong I was.

I discovered one of the twelve mysteries she wrote when I was browsing the few books left on the shelves when one of the three Borders stores in my city was closing. I was smitten not only by the cover but by the characters and the plotting. When the two other Borders stores closed a few months later, I went and scooped up another four of her mysteries.

Now, the remaining seven are in my cart at Amazon. At $12 a piece, that is a chunk of change, but I must have them. I love everything about these books - inside and out. The size is perfect. The covers are gorgeous. I obsess.  They are available for my Nook, but I don't want the ebooks. I simply must have all of her mysteries on my shelves. And I am afraid that if I don't go ahead and order the remaining seven, the publisher will come out with a new edition that won't match the ones I have.

Oh, the trials and tribulations of a book lover.

Killed at the Whim of a Hat

Now this is a great book title. About halfway through the story, the author Colin Cotterill, explains where the odd phrase comes from. Hint: one of our illustrious presidents who had trouble getting his mouth wrapped around his words.

Anyway, the story is the first-person account of Jimm Juree, a crime reporter living in the south of Thailand. There are two mysteries so far: how did the two people whose skeltons were found buried in an VW van come to die and who killed the Abbot? It is all great fun with some wonderful characters...Jimm's brother who is now her sister; Mair, their mother who bought a run-down resort and moved the entire family there; a grandfather who for years was a traffic policeman and was never promoted because he wouldn't take bribes; and a gay policeman who is smart as a whip and is helping Jimm in her detection.

I am enjoying the ride and can hardly wait to see how it all turns out. I do so love a mystery with a sense of humor!

Reading Recap 2011

I don't do well with numbers. It turns out that instead of having read 44 books in 2011, in putting together this little recap, I find I only read 42. You can see why I am a reader and not a numbers cruncher.

Anyway, of the 42 books I read, 21 were mysteries, 15 were non-fiction, five were novels, and I read books 1-11 of the Odyssey but don't really know how to classify it.

I read three books on a friend's Kindle and two books on the Nook Color I bought for myself in March as a birthday present.

The book that most surprised me: Dracula by Bram Stoker. It came with my Nook and I was totally compelled by the mixture of diary entries and newspaper stories that made up the tale. It is a very long and heavy 'real' book but on the Nook it was light as a feather.

The book I almost gave up on but am so glad I didn't: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse. I was lost at the beginning but stuck with it and found the idea of a bookstore stocked by recommendations from a panel of authors to be just right.

The book that shocked and fascinated me: Seal Team Six by Howard Wasdin. Wow. Although not the best written book in the world, it was quite an eye-opener as to the chaos of the military and its operations and the intensity of its training.

The oddest mystery: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann in which a flock of sheep solve the murder of their shepherd. At the time, I was living on a farm with three sheep grazing in the nearby pasture and this insight into how sheep think was very helpful.

The author I had scoffed at but in turn found I loved: Georgette Heyer. Funny and insightful. I discovered her through her mystery No Wind of Blame. She has 11 more mysteries for me to enjoy.

The most delightful book I devoured in one sitting: An Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. The ending was perfect and came as a complete surprise.

The book that made me want to visit Wales and stay in a castle: Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett. Corbett tells the tale of renovating a castle in a wonderfully warm and witty voice.

The author I am so glad to have discovered: Gladys Taber. An American journalist who wrote about her life at Stillmeadow in the 1950s and '60s. Her book Stillmeadow Calendar is one that I immediately wanted to own. I wonder if the library would miss it. (Just kidding. I would never steal from the library.)