Mysteries: More Murders, More Minor Misdemeanors, More Moors, More Pies

[LongRider]

I’ve been rereading the Tony HILLERMAN Leaphorn/Chee mysteries lately and loving every minute of them.  Great writing, characters and his descriptions of the desert landscapes are so good. 

I’m not much for mysteries, and these are perfect for me.  
 

[maarsen]

On 10/2/2023 at 12:54 PM, LongRider said:

I’ve been rereading the Tony HILLERMAN Leaphorn/Chee mysteries lately and loving every minute of them.  Great writing, characters and his descriptions of the desert landscapes are so good. 

I’m not much for mysteries, and these are perfect for me.  
 

I have always enjoyed them. They were a great series.

[Zorral]

The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge, by Golden Age Crime and Mystery savant and practitioner, Martin Edwards, the third in his Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mystery series.

I enjoyed the first two, particularly the arc that brings that reveals, slowly, the core group, who work  together to solve what seemingly appears unsolvable, overseen of course by the beyond measurable brilliance of the also unbelievably beautiful (and rich!) Rachel.

[Ser Lany]

On 9/7/2023 at 12:37 PM, Zorral said:

BTW, Peter Robinson's When the Music’s Over (2016) #23 in his DCI Banks series, p. 234 provided the purrfect quote for my article's thesis as to a long series, with a consistent, thoughtful, intelligent protagonist's perspective can offer insights into the history of the non-fictional world out of which the fictive series emerges.

Banks remembered lines from another of Linda Palmer's poems: "In no time at all, we alter what we / see--not nature, but nature exposed / to our vision." She was right about the constant Dance of memory and imagination, perception and creation, history and fiction.  How easily the one was transformed into the other, or by it, sometimes to such an extent that we actually believed a thing had happened the way we remembered it, when it hadn't happened that way at all.  He gave up pursuing the thought.  It wasn't a fruitful line of inquiry for a detective."

After reading the paragraph's last sentence I barked laughter, which I'm sure many other readers of the DCI Banks series did as well, because the entire series is about that!  As ever, Robinson finds ways to enjoy himself as a writer, and never take himself/Banks too seriously (except the older he/they get, the more seriously he seems to take himself as a genius of pan-musical knowledge ).  

I've been in a British detective mood for both tv and books.  Just got the first one of this series free on my Kindle Unlimited. Looking forward to it

[Zorral]

Spy thriller, The Helsinki Affair (2023) by Anna Pitoniak.

Double, triple agents, betrayals and moles, among characters with relationships going back unto three generations previously, starting at the close of WWII, through the Cold War, Glasnost, and then into the contemporary Russian oligarch London money laundering, cyber farms, US corps and political influencing, particularly via cyber, and far, far, far worse, with the CIA, GRU and FSB all up against each other -- as well as a CIA father-daughter -- the daughter running the contemporary situation.  Quite engaging.  However, unlike some dumbass blurber, never would I call this 'fantastic fun' as it is all, all, all too contemporary and dangerous.  Nobody ever called a John le Carré spook book fantastic fun. 

Worse, this same damned blurber -- from the NYT -- called this novel Emily in Paris meets Scandal.  It's anything but and this person should be dragged into a windowless room and forced to watch both television series over and over for the rest of her life.  One suspects this reviewer actually knows the author (author has the same sort of background and has been a publishing professional all her life too) and is terribly, terribly jealous and is deliberately making sport.

Lee Child's blurb was much more to the point: " Spectacular -- a global thriller with pace, tension, and ever-higher stakes  . . .  The story succeeds on every level."

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Zorral

[Winterfella]

Also on the espionage side of things, this year I've been starting to work through the Slough House series by Mick Herron, basis for the AppleTV show Slow Horses. The show is really good, and the books are even better. Currently on book 4, Spook Street and for me they've gotten increasingly better. Compelling writing, good characters, a bit of humor, along with one or two nicely done backstory revelations in each book so far.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Winterfella said:

Slough House

was recommended to me some years back.  I bounced off it hard.  This is why we need many different books! 

[Winterfella]

2 minutes ago, Zorral said:

was recommended to me some years back.  I bounced off it hard.  This is why we need many different books! 

Understandable. There have been books even in general fantasy that people on these boards have raved about over the years and when I got to them I was baffled as to what they saw in them. 

[unJon]

I just finished The Thursday Murder Club series. Really enjoyable. A group of elderly living in a retirement community solve murders. Some great characters and moving moments. Some of the plot is a little too cute, but overall I recommend to folk that enjoy this genre. 

[A wilding]

I have finished the last (for now apparently) book of The Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die, and have been ruminating over it.

The series combines two widely disparate elements. On the one hand a light hearted crime caper series with a high body count and numerous twists; on the other hand a serious novel about old age and death. Both these elements are well written and well done in themselves, but to me they just don't combine well. For example in this last book compare and contrast (spoiler)

Spoiler

how the deaths of Stephen and Samantha are treated, and the reactions to these deaths

the difference is jarring, to say the least.

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by A wilding
fix spoilering

[maarsen]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:23 PM, Zorral said:

Spy thriller, The Helsinki Affair (2023) by Anna Pitoniak.

Double, triple agents, betrayals and moles, among characters with relationships going back unto three generations previously, starting at the close of WWII, through the Cold War, Glasnost, and then into the contemporary Russian oligarch London money laundering, cyber farms, US corps and political influencing, particularly via cyber, and far, far, far worse, with the CIA, GRU and FSB all up against each other -- as well as a CIA father-daughter -- the daughter running the contemporary situation.  Quite engaging.  However, unlike some dumbass blurber, never would I call this 'fantastic fun' as it is all, all, all too contemporary and dangerous.  Nobody ever called a John le Carré spook book fantastic fun. 

Worse, this same damned blurber -- from the NYT -- called this novel Emily in Paris meets Scandal.  It's anything but and this person should be dragged into a windowless room and forced to watch both television series over and over for the rest of her life.  One suspects this reviewer actually knows the author (author has the same sort of background and has been a publishing professional all her life too) and is terribly, terribly jealous and is deliberately making sport.

Lee Child's blurb was much more to the point: " Spectacular -- a global thriller with pace, tension, and ever-higher stakes  . . .  The story succeeds on every level."

 

 

Just curious but have you read any of Alan Furst's near history books? I loved them for the detail and atmosphere.

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, maarsen said:

have you read any of Alan Furst's near history books?

O, you betcha!  Spies of Warsaw remains a high favorite along with some le Carré's.  It's also a terrific television series, that is rewatchable more than once, and there aren't that many series or films that work that way for me -- at least not action films.

[Zorral]

Haven't seen anything new in the mystery - crime line that has remotely appealed to even crack open.

So, as one does in these circumstances, I have resorted to the Golden Age of Brit crime fiction, with Josephine Tey's 1948 The Franchise Affair, which I've never read - haven't read Tey since adulthood, though the few of her books I did read as a kid, I enjoyed.

At this age I can appreciate just how good she is with structure and pacing and plotting.  Gosh!  I'm not that far into the novel, however I am wild with curiosity as to who, what and why, which I won't learn until the end.  In the meantime, I keep thinking about the final name of a mother and daughter, who are, if not the protagonists, at least the victims ... or ... their last name is Sharpe ... and so far we are recognizing ... possibly ... the hallmarks of a highly structured, cleverly planned and prepared scam; though Thackery's Sharp was without the marginally more elegant final 'e' . . . .

As thin on the ground as attractive new crime fiction is, I shall have to look out more Teys, particularly how cold the ground is too! 

[Wall Flower]

On 1/19/2024 at 8:47 AM, Zorral said:

Haven't seen anything new in the mystery - crime line that has remotely appealed to even crack open.

So, as one does in these circumstances, I have resorted to the Golden Age of Brit crime fiction, with Josephine Tey's 1948 The Franchise Affair, which I've never read - haven't read Tey since adulthood, though the few of her books I did read as a kid, I enjoyed.

At this age I can appreciate just how good she is with structure and pacing and plotting.  Gosh!  I'm not that far into the novel, however I am wild with curiosity as to who, what and why, which I won't learn until the end.  In the meantime, I keep thinking about the final name of a mother and daughter, who are, if not the protagonists, at least the victims ... or ... their last name is Sharpe ... and so far we are recognizing ... possibly ... the hallmarks of a highly structured, cleverly planned and prepared scam; though Thackery's Sharp was without the marginally more elegant final 'e' . . . .

As thin on the ground as attractive new crime fiction is, I shall have to look out more Teys, particularly how cold the ground is too! 

I've very much enjoyed some of Tey's mysteries but I really struggled with the Franchise Affair. The author's prejudices seemed a bit too transparent in this one.

The British author Sarah Waters used the premise loosely in one of her own books and wrote a really interesting article (in the Guardian, I think) discussing some of things that troubled me about the book and it's depiction of Betty. Waters placed the book in the context of a post-war moral panic, particularly by the upper middle class who saw the comfortable conservative certainties of their pre-war lives disappearing. Worth a read for a different perspective on the novel.

[Zorral]

3 minutes ago, Wall Flower said:

The author's prejudices seemed a bit too transparent in this one.

O yah -- recognize already what you're referring to.  Not quite as bad as Dorothy Sayers, for one instance, and there's always Christie, since there seems to be, at this point at least, some satire or irony involved, considering how all the 'smart' characters are playing the game of eyes-physiognomy and heritages.

[Zorral]

Historical/Period Mystery/Noir -- In El País.  It is fun to read these sorts of articles written in countries not US or UK. 

I use Google Translate, which is just about adequate, with quirks my own limited Spanish doesn't have, and w/o quirks my own limited Spanish does have.  Ha!

Historical crime novel: this is how the new recipe for success works
It entertains, teaches and engages: the publishing world is experiencing the rise of hybrid fictions that seek the best of the two most popular genres among readers

https://elpais.com/cultura/elemental/2023-12-23/novela-negra-historica-asi-funciona-la-nueva-receta-del-exito.html

 

[Castellan]

Classic style british murder mysteries seem quite popular on the thread so I thought I'd mention I've been on a binge of reading British Library crime classics edited by Martin Edwards. They are reprints of classics mostly prewar (possibly entirely - not sure). The good thing from my point of view is that they are mostly on kindle unlimited so if you subscribe to that its a treasure trove. I have been interested enough to get through all bar one of those I've tried, though I have to say I'm glad the form has evolved beyond the set puzzle - e.g. a murder happens at a party so noting who goes in and out what door etc etc is important. I did find E C R Lorac which was a pen name for Edith Caroline Rivett among them, and have since gone on to binge on those which are also available on kindle unlimited, not as part of the British Library crime classics. She was very prolific and some of them ere not quite as good as the others but I have become a fan. I like the environments and the personalities she protrays and her main series has a very likeable 'London Scottish' detective.

Having written this I am now having doubts about how many people would actually like these, even if you like their more modern descendants.

BTW, the great Kate ATkinson has a novel coming out this year Death at the Sign of the Rook which is the form of a classic Agatha Christie mystery and continues the Jackso Brodie series.

https://www.kateatkinson.co.uk/jackson-brodie/

 

[Zorral]

I've read a lot of these British Library Crime Classics.  They seem to be perennially popular.  I may have reached my limit of them though.  

[Zorral]

Waiting for me upon home arrival is a copy of Tana French's latest novel, The Hunter, sequel evidently, of sorts, to the preceding French novel, The Searcher (2015), which was supposedly somewhat modeled on John Ford's famous, The Searchers, film (I didn't buy into that, particularly), featuring, as does this one, Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop in a small Irish village.

Ha! I started reading it this weekend, w/o realizing this weekend is St. Paddy's Day.  Seems appropriate.  Glad to have it as I'm still discombulated and exhausted from these weeks traveling.

Edited March 18 by Zorral

[Castellan]

On 3/17/2024 at 6:44 AM, Zorral said:

Waiting for me upon home arrival is a copy of Tana French's latest novel, The Hunter, sequel evidently, of sorts, to the preceding French novel, The Searcher (2015), which was supposedly somewhat modeled on John Ford's famous, The Searchers, film (I didn't buy into that, particularly), featuring, as does this one, Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop in a small Irish village.

Ha! I started reading it this weekend, w/o realizing this weekend is St. Paddy's Day.  Seems appropriate.  Glad to have it as I'm still discombulated and exhausted from these weeks traveling.

  I agree I think any connection to the Searchers is a pretty superficial thing.