Something different today - its been nearly six months since I wrote my last mini-review, and a book habit as heavy as mine means that I really haven't the time to properly write reviews on many books that are now firm favourites. So, here is a brief hit list:
The 87th Precinct Novels of Ed McBain
It was a long time coming, but I finally got around to reading a few (well, lots, actually) of the 87th Precinct novels by the godfather of police procedural writers. A consistently excellent series - watch out for a feature coming soon! McBain turns out believable (well, except for the Deaf Man, perhaps) plots and sympathetic characters in the boys (mostly) of Isola's 87th Precinct, even practically perfect beings like Steve Carella. In particular, I'd single out Nocturne, one of his latest, for special praise. Stomach-churning, tense, believable.
The 'Profiler' Novels of Val McDermid
A change of pace for McDermid, from the radical lesbian cosies of the Lindsay Gordon series, and the Kate Brannigan series, Manchester's answer to V.I. Warshawski (both excellent series, though I tend to favour the Brannigans a little more highly). McDermid has received much acclamation (including a CWA Dagger, unless I'm mistaken) for her two new novels about Dr. Tony Hill, serial killer profiler. The first, The Mermaids Singing, follows Hill and Det. Insp. Carol Jordan on the trail of a killer who has subjected a series of gay victims to brutal toruture on hand-built torture machines. Gut-wrenching stuff, with Hill a deeply flawed but effective protagonist and Jordan an admirable example of the modern (fictional) woman copper. The less gripping, but none-the-less superb follow-up is The Wire In The Blood (reviewed here, where Hill gains his ambition of a National Profiling Task Force, whose first training exercise uncovers the most unlikely serial killer (imagine Gary Lineker as a serial killer...), leading to the death of one of their number and a very personal retribution.
Paul Doherty Well, I like the man so much I've devoted a special feature to the man - click here. If you can't be bothered, go out and read any of the Hugh Corbett novels by Doherty (e.g. Murder Wears A Cowl) or Brother Athelstan novels by Paul Harding (e.g. House of the Red Slayer) for a fine example of the historical novel. An Ancient Evil, A Tournament of Murders and Ghostly Murders are also well worth a read if you enjoy good old-fashioned ghost stories with a medieval setting, as is The Rose Demon, a mystical/supernatural epic about demons and men.
Michael Connelly
Possibly one of America's best contemporary crime novelist - hard-boiled in the extreme, but damned good. Journalist Connelly is best known for his Harry Bosch series, about Detective Hieronymous Bosch, an unorthodox, troubled detective in L.A., and his attempts to solve crimes in the present whilst confronting his personal demons from the past. Absorbing, exciting, involving. Superb. The Bosch novels are The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote and Trunk Music, and are best read in order to follow the development of Bosch as a character. Less good, but worthwhile, are his stand-alone serial killer novels, The Poet and Blood Work. These novels are enjoyable, but tend to be rather contrived and strain credulity in places.
'The Inspector Rebus Novels' of home page at Tangled Web is also well worth visiting, especially for his piece 'Exile on Princes' Street'.
'The Mamur Zapt Novels' of Michael Pearce
An unusual form of the familiar historical novel, the Mamur Zapt novels are set in British-occupied (sorry, advised) Egypt in the first decade of this century, and follow the exploits of Gareth Owen, a Welshman who has risen to become Mamur Zapt, Head of Cairo's Secret Police and as such has his hands full dealing with political agitators, student nationalists, power-hungry Pashas and eccentric British colonials. Added to this is a great supporting cast including Owen's Egyptian girlfriend, the obstinate Zeinab, Nikos the retentive but brilliant clerk and Georgiades, the Greek with the sympathetic eyes. Also enjoyable is the way he handles dialogue between Egyptians, capturing both the fact that these are not English people, but also that they're just normal, everyday folks. Pearce has a deft hand with complex, reticulating plots (a little hard to follow at times), a feel for time and place, and best of all, a terrifically black sense of humour. Wonderful. PS: He has also just written the first in a new series, set in Tsarist Russia, entitled Dimitri and the Milk Drinkers. I'll keep you posted...
Its rare for me to find a crime novel where an amateur sleuth is the protagonist that I enjoy, but Martin Edwards series about Harry Devlin, down-at-hell Liverpool solicitor who finds himself investigating all manner of crimes that he becomes involved in. In short, the Devlin novels are by turns tense, atmospheric and blackly humourous. Edwards captures the atmosphere and distinctive culture of Liverpool perfectly, and Devlin is a fascinating character. Damn good. To date, the novels are:
All The Lonely People
Suspicious Minds
I Remember You
Yesterday's Papers
Eve of Destruction
The Devil in Disguise
'The Chronicles of Matthew Bartholemew' by Susanna Gregory
I seem to have acquired a taste for historical novels of late, but who could blame me with examples like Susanna Gregory's superb series? A major attraction for me is the setting of 14th century Cambridge, a place I frequent in the twentieth century, but in addition, Gregory is up there with Doherty for her superb evocation of the atmosphere of the times. Doctor Matthew Bartholemew is a fellow of Michaelhouse, a real College which later became subsumed by the monster that is Trinity, and physician of the town. Needless to say, Bartholemew becomes involved in various plots, conspiracies and wrong-doings in the city, against a turbulent backdrop of political machinations and the scourge of the Black Death. As crime novels, they're first-rate, but added to the sense of place that Gregory achieves, its hard to find anything close. Bartholemew is a strong lead, although his insistence on hygiene is a little too much like twentieth-century values imposing themselves on a fourteenth-century mind, but the depiction of the city, the young University and the immense expanse of the Fens before their draining adds immensely to these novels. Its also fascinating on a personal level, for me, a member of a University department and a College founded at that time, to look at how suprisingly little things seem to have changed, and to marvel that one of my favourite watering-holes (the Radegund, on King Street) was once on the site of an out-of-town abbey. Even if you don't know Cambridge, still give these a try if you love historical crime novels. To date, the novels are:
A Plague Upon Both Your Houses
An Unholy Alliance
A Bone of Contention
A Deadly Brew
A Wicked Dead
Legal Stuff: All material on this page copyright Daniel M. Staines 1999.
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