Review: Follow the Money by Bob DeGeorge

Synopsis: Welcome to San Jose, the hi-tech capital of Silicon Valley, where the streets are lined with silicon instead of fruit trees. But beneath the shiny facade of this city lies a dark and dangerous underbelly that can easily turn the so-called 'safest large city in America' into a lie. Seasoned San Jose Police Department police detectives Rex Johnson and Kat Sanchez know this all too well as they navigate through the treacherous world of crime in their city.

From sex crimes to financial fraud, they've seen it all. But their latest case is unlike anything they've encountered before. As they dig deeper into a seemingly simple counterfeit check scam, they uncover a tangled web of Asian Organized Crime, led by a ruthless Vietnamese crime boss who will stop at nothing to become the ultimate kingpin of San Jose.

As their investigation heats up, so does the danger. With their families at risk and a psychopathic criminal mastermind on their trail, Rex and Kat must race against time to take down this crime boss before it is too late for them and the city they have sworn to serve and protect.

Follow Detectives Rex and Kat as they navigate through the dangerous streets of San Jose in this thrilling tale of crime, corruption, and survival. If you enjoyed books like John Connely's 'Bosch' series, then you won't want to miss this first in the series gripping crime novel set in the hi-tech world of Silicon Valley.

~ ~ ~

Just not for me - it felt like a (poor) serialisation more attuned to the TV than print. Too much going on that it just felt ... off. I quickly lost all interest, skimming through the chapters to at least make it to the end. I wish I hadn't bothered - I should have set it aside after the first few chapters and moved onto something else.

Will not be pursuing book two.

Review: Frank's Bear Cave by Glenn Harvey

Synopsis:

The second decade of the 20th Century was a period of great transition, especially with the beginning of WWI in 1917. The war accelerated the industrial revolution and took an estimated forty million lives. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic decreased the world population by upwards of another fifty million.

The United States probably experienced more changes during that brief era than in any period since. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote and serve on juries. Prohibition gave rise to the moonshine industry and associated gang activity. Automobiles were coming onto the scene. Yet, farmers and timbermen were using centuries-old horse-drawn technology. There was increasing demand for farm produce by the expanding population of mill workers who kept the factories humming. Likewise, the virgin forests of the northeastern U.S. were providing the lumber needed for new homes in the cities and mill towns.

People coped with the 1918 influenza pandemic and industrial accidents without health insurance or welfare assistance outside their family, friends, churches, and local social institutions. The introductory chapters provide the early 1900s, rural setting, through the experiences of one family. As all of the individuals cited are deceased, this content is based on both written and verbal memories passed down through the family, verified to the extent possible by public records. The complete 1921-22, "Trial Book" of over 1000 pages, tells the story of the murder trial.

At 1:00 am, April 3, 1921, an intruder in Frank Harvey’s Butler County, Pennsylvania, farmhouse opened a life-changing chapter in his life. The murder he witnessed led to a sensational trial, “The Commonwealth vs. Henry A. Blakeley." The resultant testimony, motions, and appeals dominated local news from April 1921 through Blakeley’s execution in October 1922.

The murder trial is told verbatim through selections from the original typewritten trial manuscript. More than seventy witnesses from many walks of life provide us with vivid images of the day and times through their unredacted words, slang, and local expressions. Witnesses for the prosecution left little doubt that the defendant was profane, mean-spirited, mentally unstable, and guilty of murder.

A verdict of first-degree murder was an automatic death sentence in Pennsylvania in 1921. Thus, the defendant’s attorneys pulled out all stops trying to convince the jury and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that the murder was not first-degree. They failed, as the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's sentence. Nonetheless, the wide range of defense witnesses provided fascinating testimony. The defendant’s attorneys called more than forty witnesses, including the defendant’s children, local drunks, and distinguished physicians, to prove the witness was acting in self-defense or was unaware of his actions due to intoxication, insanity, or being in an epileptic coma.

In the end, his body was unclaimed by the family and Henry Blakeley was interned in the prison cemetery. He left behind photographs that he had taken for his friends and a final letter that prison officials refused to release due to its extremely vile language.

~ ~ ~

Begin with the family and local history leading up to the fateful events, which are interspersed with occasional fictional chapters to give colour to events are recollected by family members.

With regards to the criminal trial, Harvey states that he has presented the testimony in a different order than the actual trial: 

Harvey presents the details of the trial through the reproduction of the original transcripts which literally encompasses nearly seventy-five percent of the tome. We finish with the accused's execution and a footnote on Blakeley's final, vile missive, wherein "... he vulgarly assails those who had anything to do with the trial ..."

Harvey finishes with a comparison of times then and now and laments that things really have not changed.

A great source for local historians who get a very of life in early 20th century Pennsylvania, as well as the court proceedings in a capital trial.  Definitely one for true crime aficionados.

Review: The Lewis Trilogy by Peter May

The Blackhouse

The Isle of Lewis is the most remote, harshly beautiful place in Scotland, where the difficulty of existence seems outweighed only by people's fear of God. But older, pagan values lurk beneath the veneer of faith, the primal yearning for blood and revenge.

When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched north to investigate. But since he himself was raised on Lewis, the investigation also represents a journey home and into his past.

Each year the island's men perform the hunting of the gugas, a savage custom no longer necessary for survival, but which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of the demands of modern morality. For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy, which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice.

The Lewis Man

A MAN WITH NO NAME. An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer. A MAN WITH NO MEMORY. But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child. A MAN WITH NO CHOICE. When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

The Chessmen

Fin Macleod, now head of security on a privately owned Lewis estate, is charged with investigating a spate of illegal game-hunting taking place on the island. This mission reunites him with Whistler Macaskill—a local poacher, Fin's teenage intimate, and possessor of a long-buried secret. But when this reunion takes a violent, sinister turn, Fin realizes that revealing the truth could destroy the future.

The Black Loch

A MURDER

The body of eighteen-year-old TV personality Caitlin is found abandoned on a remote beach at the head of An Loch Dubh - the Black Loch - on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis. A swimmer and canoeist, it is inconceivable that she could have drowned.

A SECRET

Fin Macleod left the island ten years earlier to escape its memories. When he learns that his married son Fionnlagh had been having a clandestine affair with the dead girl and is suspected of her murder, he and Marsaili return to try and clear his name.

A TRAP

But nothing is as it seems, and the truth of the murder lies in a past that Fin would rather forget, and a tragedy at the cages of a salmon farm on East Loch Roag, where the tense climax of the story finds its resolution.

~ ~ ~

I have read the first three in the series, and all stories follow on from the previous - I have yet to read the fourth instalment. These are not your typical police procedural nor detective fiction; but there is certainly mystery, crime, drama.

The stories are a look into the darker side of a small enclosed, almost claustrophobic community, with long hidden secrets, whose community, like the island itself, is not without scars, and no-one remains untouched by tragedy. The truth of murder lies in a past best forgotten.

The Blackhouse sees the return to Lewis of Fin Macleod, sent to investigate a local death. His presence brings to light that long buried secrets from the past, which is a catalyst for the crimes he is sent to investigate. Even Fin himself has secrets so deeply buried that he has forgotten them.

The Lewis Man delves into the past of another island family with the discovery of the bog-body of a murdered man. But are those revealing what they know reliable narrators.

The Chessman deals with past events linked back to Fin's university days and a local rock band.

May has a way of slowly luring in the reader until they find themselves fully immersed in not only the narrative and characters, but the island of Lewis itself. May's prose is dark and brooding, at times even menacing, that one almost feels the isolation and harsh ruggedness of the Outer Hebrides.

For those with an interest in family drama with long hidden secrets, this series is one for you.

Review: The Bishop Murder Case by SS Van Dine

Synopsis: After solving the Greene murders, Philo Vance has taken a well-earned holiday in Switzerland. Returning to New York City he finds his old chum, District Attorney Anthony Markham, up against a bizarre series of murders inspired by children’s nursery rhymes. 

The first murder, involving a beautiful young woman and a private archery range, was apparently based on “Who Killed Cock Robin?”; it is followed by more hideous deaths referencing “Mother Goose.” But Philo Vance is not a man to be fobbed off with points to juvenilia. Markham and his colleagues may be worried that a certain Mr. H. Dumpty is riding for a great fall, but Philo Vance suspects a connection to a rather more sophisticated writer.

~ ~ ~

The fourth in the series with the Benson Murder Case, the Canary Murder Case & the Green Murder Case all preceding. There are - including this one - twelve books in the series, all set in the 1920s and 1930s. I read all of these quite, quite some time ago and enjoyed them all.

Vance is portrayed by his creator as "a stylish — even foppish —dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent." A homage to Sherlock Holmes, Vance even has his own Watson in the form of one Van Dine (friend, legal advisor, narrator, chronicler). Author Van Dine often has Vance monocled, impeccably attired (gloves, hat, top coat), and his speech frequently tended to be effete, affected, quaint and whimsical. He is invariably accompanied by and works with: DA Markham, Sgt Heath, Dr Doremus, Van Dine (his Watson), and Currie (his valet).

In this outing, the nursery rhymes of Mother Goose provide a backdrop for murder, which Vance, using his vast and unique knowledge of subjects obscure, will solve for the police.

Each tome is accompanied by a cast of characters and murder scene to assist the reader follow the narrative.

This is a golden age detective novel - it is a novel of its own time, not ours. Enjoy it for what is represents - the foundations of the modern day private detective tomes - and a little bit of escapism. For unbeknownst to the world at large, the Great Depression was was about to descend - and escapism from the harsh realities of life would provide a little relief for many.

You can find both the films and radio plays still - enjoy!

Review: The Physicist Detective by Raymond Marylowe

Synopsis: Meet Professor Raymond Marylowe — flamboyant theoretical physicist and self-proclaimed “world’s greatest private detective.” Armed with absurd logic and bizarre applications of physics, he can theorize anyone into guilt—no matter how innocent they are. Wrong and humiliated often, uncertain never.

Follow him on a globe-trotting adventure through seven cases, as he attempts to tackle impossible crimes, outwit phantom thieves, duel secret spies, uncover mythic treasures—and face his most baffling mystery romance, with a woman as much of a chaotic wildcard as he is.

But in every shadow lurks his sworn nemesis, the worst nightmare of every an elite criminal defense attorney, who vows to defend all criminals Professor Marylowe accuses, no matter how guilty…

~ ~ ~

Suspend all belief all ye who enter here. This is a farcical, comical, nonsensical, self-indulgent piece of buffoonery. Picture the Tassie Devil from the WB cartoons - that is Professor Marylowe - as he pontificates, accuses, surmises, rushing in like a bull in a china shop, and literally makes it up as he goes along, solving (??) crimes with the use of physics. Usual one dimensional crooks, villains, suspects and numerous other characters, who don't seem to be allocated any real depth but a pretty much page fillers to keep the highly unusual narrative flowing (or rocketing along at break neck speed into oblivion). Continue the journey at your own peril .....

PD Lennon — The Case of the Mad Doctor

Inspired by the true story of Jamaica’s first serial killer.

Jamaica, 1772. Caribbean jewel, or a killer’s playground?

On the island of Jamaica, people have started disappearing without trace. Have they run away, trying to start new lives in the British colony under assumed names, or is something darker afoot?

Some of the missing had taken out large life insurance policies before leaving England, and so word of the vanishings reaches Bristol when relatives try to collect their payouts.

With suspicion of a grand fraud in the air, ambitious Black barrister’s clerk Isaiah Ollenu is thrown together with pious insurance agent Ruben Ashby, and together they are ordered to the Caribbean to investigate.

But, confronted by prejudice, untoward characters and vengeful spirits, the task may cost this unlikely duo more than either man is willing to pay…

A searing snapshot of the British Empire at the threshold of emancipation, and a chilling historical adventure.

Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect

An investigation into the man Scotland Yard thought (but couldn't prove) was Jack the Ripper. Dozens of theories have attempted to resolve the mystery of the identity of Jack the Ripper, the world's most famous serial killer. Ripperologist Robert House contends that we may have known the answer all along. The head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the murders thought Aaron Kozminski was guilty, but he lacked the legal proof to convict him. By exploring Kozminski's life, House builds a strong circumstantial case against him, showing not only that he had means, motive, and opportunity, but also that he fit the general profile of a serial killer as defined by the FBI today.

The first book to explore the life of Aaron Kozminski, one of Scotland Yard's top suspects in the quest to identify Jack the Ripper, combines historical research and contemporary criminal profiling techniques to solve one of the most vexing criminal mysteries of all time. The book draws on a decade of research by the author, including trips to Poland and England to uncover Kozminski's past and details of the case. Includes a Foreword by Roy Hazelwood, a former FBI profiler and pioneer of profiling sexual predators. Features dozens of photographs and illustrations. Building a thorough and convincing case that completes the work begun by Scotland Yard more than a century ago, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know who really committed Jack the Ripper's heinous and unforgettable crimes.

Review: Buried Above Ground by Mike Ripley

Synopsis: An original spin on the crime novel in which the race to gain the rights to an author’s backlist proves to be more head-scratching – and deadly! – than the plots in his books.

The Librarian

It’s been two decades since mystery writer Duncan Torrens was last published. I should know, I was his editor. So why a blogger would turn up asking questions about the rights to his books is beyond me . . .

The Reader

That librarian Roly is a bit odd. You’d think he’d be happy with my blog’s research into a largely forgotten author, but he’s . . . resistant. If I can get into Duncan’s home – and his mysterious garden shed – I know I’ll find what I’m looking for . . .

The Publisher

Torrens’ books are crying out for a revival. I just need that blogger, Jacon, to work out who holds the rights to his backlist. Then I can acquire them before Duncan’s old publishing house realises they’ve missed a trick!

The Editor

I never worked directly with Duncan before he died, but if someone is sniffing round, there must be money involved. I just need to find out what’s happened to the rights before they do . . .

The Writer

After twenty years, will the sudden interest in this author’s forgotten mysteries reveal a dark – and deadly – twist?

Told from the point of view of five unreliable narrators, none of whom can be trusted – The Librarian, The Reader, The Publisher, The Editor and The Writer – this amusing and darkly intriguing novel is a refreshingly fun, subversive take on the crime fiction genre.

~ ~ ~

Five unreliable narrators (Roland / Roly Wilkes, Jacon Archer, Stephen Crow, Robina Robinson, and Duncan Torrens) take the reader into the heart of modern-day publishing, where only the bottom-line matters and making a buck off an author, dead or alive, however they can, has nothing to do with ethical considerations or authorial proprietorship.

The tale progress as each of these seemingly unconnected  narrators adds a little bit more to the overall plot-line, which is in no way broken or disjointed for doing so - these narratives compliment each other. However, as both we and our narrators near ever closer to the truth, things turn a little deadly, as long buried secrets (and the body count) are starting to rise.

A skillfully plotted mystery that at times leads the reader astray, yet the clues are there to be pieced together, revealing an surprising twist.

Review: Ink Ribbon Red by Alex Pavesi

Synopsis: Knives Out meets Saltburn in this wickedly plotted thriller where a group of friends play a deadly game that unwraps a motive for murder, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Alex Michaelides.

Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention: Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: everyone chooses two players at random and imagines a scenario where one kills the other, then writes it down as a short story.

Points are given for making the murders feel real, as Anatol explains to the group. Of course, when given this assignment, it’s only natural to use what you know. Secrets. Grudges. Affairs. But once you’ve put it in a story, that secret is out. It’s not long before the game has reawakened old resentments and brought private matters into the light of day. So with each fictional murder, someone new gets a very real motive.

Ink Ribbon Red ultimately asks: When a real murder is headed your way, will you be able to spot it in time?

~ ~ ~

You really need to read this as a physical copy, because as the author states, this is ... " a mystery novel that builds its central mystery on the reader’s inability to tell story from story within story ..." and boy does the author achieve that in spades!

OMG .... talk about being led down the proverbial rabbit hole over and over again before some faint glimpse of reality presents itself ... the unreliable narratives (yes plural) ... the red herrings ... the back and forth between past and present ... this is definitely one book that needs to be savoured slowly, not rushed, and definitely read again ... and again!

Many will take umbrage at the narrative style and story format (even I was sceptical) but it really does work!

Highly recommended.

Review: Arden by GD Harper

Synopsis: Alice Arden, idealistic and wealthy beauty, burnt at the stake for killing her husband, the former mayor of Faversham in Kent. But was she really the one responsible for the most scandalous murder of the sixteenth century?

William Shakespeare, England’s greatest playwright, born thirteen years after Alice’s execution. Why does his first-ever play, written about this murder, not bear his name?

This is a story of two people – one reviled, one revered – whose fates become linked in a tale of corruption, collusion and conspiracy. Based on historical documents and recently published academic research, Arden unveils shocking new evidence about the murder of Thomas Arden and reveals, for the first time, a remarkable new theory about Shakespeare’s early years.

~ ~ ~

The premise of this historical fiction tome was the lure for me - the delivery left me a little undecided with regards as to how I felt about the narrative as a whole - but persevere I did.

This tale of murder is told in the first person by both of our primary characters - William Shakespeare and Alice Arden - their stories separated in time by some fifty years with Alice's story taking place from the early 1530s and Shakespeare's from the 1580s.

We already know (or should do if we have picked up this tome) that Alice's rise and falls end with her being burnt at the stake for her involvement in her husband's murder.  This was the fate for wives at the time as it was considered treason for a wife to kill her husband.  Wifely insubordination must be neutralised and contained; scrutiny and proper regulation of the household was vital to the preservation of domestic order. Tudor society too was dominated by what Alice herself refer's to as "narrow-prying neighbours" where the public and private activities of individuals was open to observation and interference by the greater community.

We also know that this crime is the focal point for exploring the possibility the Shakespeare himself wrote as his first-ever play, based on the fate of Alice, with whom he may have been related to through his own mother. The play existed - it was written and presented and the reader can find a copy for themselves online (see links below).  Harper posits that quite possibly this theme such that the Bard was unable to ascribe his name to it - it was that much of a career-ending political hot-potato.

For me, the journey from beginning to end was itself a little arduous and didn't really pick up until Alice's lover re-appears in her life. Harper does a decent job of exploring through the Shakespeare narrative, of whether Alice was a naive tool of her lover Mosby or a willing participant, who used her husband's own greed to get what she wanted.

I found the author's note at the end the most informative, and if crimes set in Tudor England are of interest, then definitely pick up this historical fiction tome.

Further reading:

The English Broadside Ballad Archive - the Complaint & Lamentation of Mistress Arden

The Newgate Calendar - Alice Arden of Feversham

Chambers' Book of Days - Entry for November 23rd

Project Gutenberg - Arden of Feversham

Review: Something Wicked by John F Myslinski

Synopsis: Something Wicked plunges readers into a labyrinth of corruption, organized crime, and religious intrigue at the heart of the Catholic Church. When Father Dan Lanaham - newly elected Superior General of the Jesuits - stumbles upon a series of bombings, murdered nuns, and unsettling ties to the Vatican Bank, he realizes the danger lurking beneath Rome's hallowed corridors is far more sinister than anyone dares admit.

Determined to uncover who ordered the Jerusalem bombing and why, Dan teams up with unlikely allies ranging from Mossad agents to secretive hackers-even a terrorist whose motives are murkier than they seem. At every turn, he battles shadowy Mafia connections, extremist plots, and twisted ambitions vying for control of the papacy. As the ailing Pope struggles to bring Dan into the Church's innermost council, a shocking global conspiracy unravels, threatening both faith and the lives of those closest to Dan.

Brimming with moral complexity, high-stakes subterfuge, and characters torn between devotion and ambition, Something Wicked will keep you on the edge of your seat. In a world where evil wears a saint's robes and redemption hinges on secrets best left buried, Father Dan's quest for the truth may cost him everything-including his soul.

~ ~ ~

This type of book was certainly down my alley - yet this was not.

I am not sure if it was how the narrative was delivered, the over abundant cast of characters, the multitude and complexity of themes, I just could not get into this - despite my most ardent desire to immerse myself in this tome, I found myself flagging with every chapter.

Quite possibly I need to re-revisit this in a physical format.

Review: Britain's Greatest Detective by Nell Darby

Synopsis: From his offices at Basinghall Street in the City of London, Henry Slater presided over Britain's best-known private detective agency, king of all he surveyed. In the late Victorian era, and into the twentieth century, his name was synonymous with the Golden Age of private detection; he was a truly modern operator, utilising the press and technology, and creating innovative publicity campaigns to keep his agency in the public eye.

One of the key skills of the private detective was the ability to make friends - to infiltrate the lives of individuals, and to get them to trust them with their secrets. Slater, however, would make one mistake: to befriend the wrong person and to entrust them with his secrets. When that friendship ended, competition in the private detective world would lead to a trial so infamous that Winston Churchill himself came to watch proceedings play out at the Old Bailey. The trial would destroy Henry Slater's career, and expose his real identity.

This is the first in-depth study of private detective work in nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain, looking at the 'Golden Age' of private detectives and the work they did. It provides a fascinating look at the type of person who became a private detective, the people who wanted to be their clients - and the crimes that could be committed along the way. This book sheds new light on this profession, building on the author's previous work on female private detectives in order to enable the reader to gain a better understanding of a job that people of all classes desired to do. But it is also about the career of one man. Sherlock Holmes may have been the most famous fictional private detective, but Henry Slater was, for twenty years, the real star of the private detective world.

~ ~ ~

This book does what is sets out to do - gives the reader an entree into the world of the early private detectives, the people drawn to this type of work, the methods used, and the cases they were typically involved in. Anchoring this tome is the character of Henry Slater - the self proclaimed "greatest detective" of his time.

Darby notes that it was with the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 that gave rise to the private detective as courts required evidence of matrimonial misdeeds in order to grant a divorce. This was primarily the type of work available for the private detective, especially one with no connection to the police department.

It is against this that Darby focuses on the case that brought down Slater and his agency - the Pollard divorce case - and highlighted the underhanded dealings that went on to secure the evidence (ie: honey trap, payment of witnesses). None of this would have come to light had Slater not spurned the friendship of one of his employees - Francis Stevens - ".. a man who would do anything to get revenge ..." - including setting up a rival agency and using others to bring about Slater's downfall.

The proceeding court case against Slater and his employees is followed in detail, always referring back to the original Pollard divorce case and methodology used in gaining the required evidence.

Darby follows through to not only the conclusion of the case against Slater et al, but also what followed afterwards for the main players in this drama. Did they get off or were all incarcerated? What happened to the Pollards?

At times the construction of the narrative was a little annoying as it tended to go back and forward in the timeline, but overall it was quite easy to follow. The research that went into this tome is very evident, a times a little dry but never uninteresting.

Definitely one for those interested in the detective agencies that were the UK equivalent of Pinkertons in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Review: The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi

Synopsis: A bewildering locked-room murder occurs as an amateur crime writer investigates strange events in the Chizurui mansion in this prizewinning classic Japanese mystery.

This ingenously constructed masterpiece, written by one of Japan’s most celebrated crime writers and translated into English for the first time, is perfect for locked-room mystery fans who can’t resist a breathtaking conclusion.

In the Chizurui family mansion, a haunting presence casts a shadow over its residents. By night, an eerie figure, clad in a sinister Hannya mask is seen roaming around the house. An amateur murder mystery writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate — but his investigation takes a harrowing turn as tragedy strikes the Chizurui family.

Within the confines of a locked study, the head of the family is found dead, with only an ominous Hannya mask lying on the floor by his side and the lingering scent of jasmine in the air as clues to his mysterious murder.

As Takagi delves deeper into the perplexing case, he discovers a tangled web of secrets and grudges. Can he discover the link between the family and the curse of the Hannya mask? Who was the person who called the undertaker and asked for three coffins on the night of the murder? And do those three coffins mean the curse of the Hannya mask is about to strike again?

The Noh Mask Murder’s legendary ending offers locked-room mystery fans the perfect coda to an ingenously constructed mystery.

~ ~ ~

Japanese crime fiction is not a simple genre - it is complex, tedious, ingenious, complicated, enthralling, gruesome. There is a narrative that can be as long and winding as a mountain path - it is never direct and never clear-cut. It is an onion - each layer revealing something new, something deadly, something confusing, something linked, something delicious. 

Japanese crime fiction of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s - or deductive reasoning fiction - is a genre that explores human driven motives that, as Seichō Matsumoto says "... originates from the psychology when people is left in the extreme situation..". 

An article from The Guardian discusses the art of "Honkaku" which refers "... to the crafting of fiendishly clever and complex puzzle scenarios".  In this same article, writer Haruta Yoshitame is said to have defined or described "Honkaku" as "... a detective story that mainly focuses on the process of a criminal investigation and values the entertainment derived from pure logical reasoning”."

The Noh Mask Murder is no different - the author narrates his own murder mystery, when he is called in to investigate by one Koichi Yangi, whose journals also form part of the narration.

As Takagi notes: "... unnatural facades have a habit of concealing sinister motives .." and as more family secrets are being revealed or unraveled as the case progresses, the corpses pile up. Prosecutor Ishikari observed that "... the Chizurui mansion was not a place where normal notions of justice held much sway ...". In fact, as the author notes, "... once the curtains had opened on the tragedy, the Chizurui family was plunged into catastrophe after catastrophe - and at a terrifying speed ...".

It is deliciously gripping narrative that slowly draws the reader into the spider web deftly woven around the key themes of family, suspicion, fear, hatred and death. No one is innocent but who is truly guilty ..? You must read on till the very end!

Review: The Scent of Murder by Felicity Young

Synopsis: 'If a black dog appears along the old corpse way, the route a funeral procession takes to the churchyard, it is thought to be escorting the dead soul to the afterlife. A black dog sighting without a funeral procession, however, is supposed to foreshadow death.'

For Doctor Dody McCleland, the unearthing of an ancient skeleton in a dry riverbed is a welcome break from the monotony of chaperoning her younger sister at a country house near the isolated hamlet of Piltdown. But when she begins her analysis of the bones, Britain's first female autopsy surgeon discovers they are much more recent - and they are the result of murder.

With Chief Inspector Matthew Pike's help Dody begins to investigate. Soon she finds herself pitted against ugly traditionalism, exploitation, spectral dogs, a ghostly hunt and a series of events that not only threaten her belief in scientific rationalism, but threaten her life itself.

~ ~ ~

Tackling another of the social issues of the day, author Felicity Young takes us back to Edwardian England in this third instalment of the Dody McCleland series. Teaming up with Chief Inspector Matthew Pike and sister Florence, Dody is again, faced with another mystery and one that puts her own life very much at risk. Young gives the read more than one mystery to solve!

Review: The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

Synopsis: One bright spring morning in London, Diana Cowper – the wealthy mother of a famous actor - enters a funeral parlor. She is there to plan her own service.Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home.

Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator who’s as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life; a Watson to his Holmes. He chooses Anthony Horowitz.

Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself a the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying but even so his latest case with its many twists and turns proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.

~ ~ ~

Thought I'd read a couple of pages but a few hours later had found that I had finished - that's how much I was invested in the prose. A great first book in a series where I began with book two, but this sets up things up nicely. Horowitz is a master storyteller and our narrator in this tome, as he once again inserts himself into is own novel.

Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Synopsis: Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

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Yet another entertaining story from Foley using her trademark multiple narrative that once again, moves between past and present events. This time, the setting is in a Parisienne apartment complex, a literal hive where all residents are hiding some sort of secret, both from those within and those without. It takes not one but two outsiders to bring fast held (and disturbing) secrets to the fore - and with tragic consequences. Did everything change after the outsiders arrived or did events happened because of them?.

As Foley writes: "... what's that old French saying about family .... le voix du sang est la plus forte  .... the voice of blood is the strongest ..." - will blood hold out ....

Knocked this one over in the space of a few hours as the format was familiar and the storyline engaging.

Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Synopsis: On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The handsome and charming, a rising television star. The smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

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Another great read from Lucy Foley. Stuck on a remote Irish island, past secrets and long-held jealousies came to the fore as guests gather for a wedding. Once again, the golden child comes off as rather tarnished once the surface of their facade begins to crumble. The past raises its ugly head as a number of the guests come to realise that their own long concealed skeletons are being slowly let out of the cupboard - and incidents, once unexplained, are now given substantial meaning.

And then the lights go out ...... one victim but more than one guest with ample motive and opportunity.

Foley once again retells events from the viewpoint of the main characters, with the narrative being told in both the past and present tense. Along the way, little pieces of each of these people is being revealed in such a way as to create the "aha" moment as the final few (short) chapters bring events to the apogee we all know is imminent.

Review: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Synopsis: All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirty-something friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?

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Not so much a thriller but a rather engaging mystery wherein you know there is a murder, there are multiple suspects, but the victim is never identified as such until the last few chapters. The narrative moves between the present and the few days leading up the deed, whilst each of those involved add a voice and perspective to chronicle of events. Clues are scattered like the proverbial breadcrumbs in a forest - but not to the extent that they are obvious and leading the reading down the path to deliverance. Much is muted and subtle - a bit like the landscape that provides the setting for our tale of jealousy, deception, betrayal and ultimately ... murder.

This was my first from this author - and I have two more of her books awaiting their turn - The Guest List and The Paris Apartment.

Review: Broadway Butterfly by Anthony M DeStefano

Synopsis: The definitive book on one of the most notorious murders in Jazz Age New York history, that of Vivian Gordon, the high-end escort, con artist, and blackmailer connected to gangsters like “Legs” Diamond and Arnold Rothstein, whose death exposed the dark underbelly of police corruption throughout the city—from the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist who is one of the foremost Mafia experts writing today. 

Like so many other pretty butterflies, Indiana-born Vivian Gordon fluttered to New York in 1920 looking for fame and fortune. Before long, the flame-haired chorus girl parlayed her youth, beauty, and ambition into more profitable means as a tough and glamorous symbol of Prohibition-era excess. She was a speakeasy owner, blackmailer, high-end escort, extortionist, racketeer, and con woman. But given her dangerously intimate associations—from ruthless underworld gangsters to corrupt high-ranking city officials—Vivian was also a woman who knew too much and who rightfully feared for her life. On February 26, 1931, Vivian’s bludgeoned and garroted body was found dumped in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. 

Now, in the first in-depth biography of its kind, Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano unravels her tumultuous life and the headline-making murder that became an obsession for many, including then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The evidence Vivian left behind was a diary with more than three-hundred names implicating powerful officials, philanthropists, businessmen, and every major gangland figure in collusion and corruption. The investigation eventually resulted in the career-ending investigation of James “Jimmy” Walker, disgraced mayor of New York City. Ultimately, Broadway Butterfly finally finds a place in history for Vivian, a woman with a rare legacy in gangster lore, whose demise was as tragically inevitable as the brutality of the city’s demimonde during Prohibition.

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More of a case of the author providing a central figure around which to delve into the history of the period rather than the other way around. Jazz Age New York is the star and Vivian Gordon is the understudy.

However, it is a highly compelling look at the huge amount of graft and corruption taking place in all levels of government, as well as an insight into some of the legendary characters of the period - gangsters, cops, politician and madams. The reader will not be failed to be entertained.

Nice wrap up at the end with a chapter dedicated to what happened to those key players mentioned in the book.

Review: The Recruiter by Gregg Podolski

Synopsis: An action-packed debut from Gregg Podolski, The Recruiter is a thrilling and unique adventure through the European underworld.  When bad guys need good help, they call Rick Carter.

He’s a criminal recruiter, searching for contract killers, cyber hackers, gun smugglers, and any other assorted villains-for-hire a European crime boss might need. But, when the family he left behind in New Jersey is caught up in a client’s plot to monopolize the black market, Rick has to save them from two of his own top candidates: deadly assassins known only as Ghost and The Persian.

Fixing his own mess will require a set of skills he doesn’t have—not a problem, as finding qualified help is where he excels. But stepping into action, becoming the hero his family needs, that’s new territory. For a man who’s spent the last ten years being the best at helping the worst, this may be his last chance to do something right.

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Barely a quarter of the way in, I gave this four stars. It deserves five - what a roller-coaster ride through the murky underworld and the shady world of espionage. The bad guy is the good guy and the villains are suitably bad.

Rick Carter is a recruiter - he lines up "staff" for those who are willing to pay big bucks for a job to be done - no questions asked. However, things go a little awry (understatement) when a new client comes on the scene and makes Rick an offer he cannot refuse. Now Rick must use his skills and contacts to ensure that this new client does not achieve their end game - and it will come at a personal cost.

It is so easy to become invested in Rick's narrative as the tale rockets along - sometimes a break-neck speed - to an inevitable outcome, which is not a a tidy affair at all. The body count is high, the violence oft times gratuitous, the humour suitable dark, the undertones noirish, the action non-stop. For a first novel, the reader could not ask for anything more. Except more!

A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to read a number of books of a similar genre (Truhen, Milford, Johnson, Holmen, Hamdy, and McDonnell). Podolski is in good company and I look forward to reading more.