Review: By Gaslight

This was an interesting read for me - and lost a star due to the one thing that irked me throughout - the lack of punctuation, especially for dialogue.  Moving past that, "By Gaslight" by Steven Price is the story of one man's quest to track down "the one that got away" is worth pursuing to the end (and its a long book).

London 1885: Billy Pinkerton - ".. a man without weakness, a man without pity .." - US Civil War veteran and son of the founder of Pinkerton's Detective Agency, is on the trail of a woman who is the accomplice of notorious criminal, Edward Shade. Pinkerton hopes to use this woman to lead him to Edward Shade, who has alluded his grasp, and that of his father's for some time.  The woman's ex-lover, one Adam Foole, also uses Pinkerton for his own dark purpose which is as shady as the shadow Pinkerton is chasing.

The narrative alternates between the present, London 1885, and the past, told in flashback and in no sequential order.  Not all is as it initially seems and we trudge the gas-lit streets of Victorian London in search of clarity to a secret that has a past betrayal at its very heart.

As mentioned, the lack of punctuation at times rendered that very good storytelling a little hard to follow, especially with a book of this length.  The flashbacks and flash-forwards, some of which seem irrelevant and unnecessary at the time, eventually coalesce and slowly a tale is spun that links them together, and reveals a secret that has its roots firmly planted in events of the US Civil War.

Could this be labelled noir fiction ...?  I was often reminded of the hero / nemesis catch and mouse game of Holmes and Moriarty, and where the lines of good and evil are often blurred.   I wonder how the story would have panned out in two tomes rather than the one .....

Review: A Short Life of Pushkin

"A short yet fascinating account of Russia's most celebrated writer. "   And that's it in a nut-shell.  

I was initially drawn to this work by Robert Chamdler as I have been reading many "Pushkin Press" titles and was intrigued - was this publishing company named after or in honour of the man, Pushkin?  And if so, why was he so deserving of such an honour?

Apart from being one of Russia's great historians and poets who left a lasting literary legacy, Alexander Pushkin's own story was larger than life.

Here was a man whose family was from the old Russian nobility, who were loyal to Peter III, fell under Catherine the Great; whose maternal great-grandfather was referred to as the "Blackamoor" of Peter the Great.  Pushkin himself lived on the edge - from an early age, his life was dedicated to writing, poetry, women, gambling, did I mention women, drinking, politics, theatre, frivolity - a dissolute life by all standards which led to duelling, imprisonment, exile, then repeat again and again - ".... only the intervention of friends and the dowager empress forestalled a worse fate and not for the first time ..."  A man who lived a charmed life, though towards the end, this lavish lifestyle led to his latter years spent in debt and ended in a fatal duel (1837).

I doubt very much any writer of fiction could have created such an extraordinary life for any character.  I very much want to track down and read not only is poetry but more in-depth biographies.

Review: Gambrelli and the Prosecutor

This is a well-written police procedural set in 1930s France, told over a period of a week. The storytelling of Laurence Giliotti is such that you actually felt part of the investigation and involved in the police-station politics of pre-WWII France. 

A senior prosecutor, Jean Michel Bertrand, is charged with the murder of his mistress, Annette Cuomo on the island of Q.  Bertrand realises quickly he will need help and calls upon his court-room rival, Chief Inspector Gambrelli of the Metro Police to investigate. The local police commander Henri Ormond wants a quick resolution but Gambrelli is not so sure ..... things don't quite add up. What is the mystery surrounding the two sisters, Annette & Lisa; why has the prosecutor's wife, Madame Bertrand, undergone such a noticeable change? Just when it seems that the case is solved, Gambrelli has some nagging afterthoughts. Despite a successful conclusion there are still a few loose ends - nothings is as clear cut as anticipated.

I, like many other readers, will be looking forward to the next installment.

Other Reviews:

Kirkus Review "The spirit of Georges Simenon is alive and well in this novel."

Portland Book Review "The book reads as if it is a series that has been ongoing for some time, but readers will find a delightful surprise to discover Gambrelli and the Prosecutor is only the beginning."

San Francisco Book Review "While the main mystery is solved two-thirds of the way through, the true mastermind is only unveiled near the end."

450-Year-Old Book Reveals What to Name a Baby Samurai

From Live Science: 

What should you name a baby samurai? What food should a samurai bring to a battle? What is a samurai's most treasured possession? 

A newly translated 450-year-old book supposedly written by a renowned samurai provides answers to these and many other questions about the Japanese swordsmen. Called "The Hundred Rules of War," the book is a series of songs that could be sung by samurai, who had never gone into battle. It was supposedly written in Japanese in 1571 by a famous samurai named Tsukahara Bokuden, who lived from 1489 to 1571, during a war-ridden time in Japan. 

Stories told about Bokuden claim that he fought in over 100 battles and slew hundreds of swordsmen. The book was recently translated into English by Eric Shahan, who specializes in translating Japanese martial-arts texts. The book was first printed in Japanese in 1840, and has been republished in Japanese several times since then, Shahan told Live Science. 

read more here @ Live Science

York author Lucy Adlington reveals the secret sewing rooms at Auschwitz in her new novel

York Press features a review of Lucy Adlington's novel, The Red Ribbon, set in a fictional concentration camp during World War Two.

It was during her research into historical fashion that Lucy uncovered a footnote that lead to a remarkable story – and became the focus of The Red Ribbon.

She discovered that Hedwig Hoss, the wife of the commander at Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, loved fashion so much that she demanded a tailoring workshop be established, to be staffed by female prisoners. These prisoners were tasked with making beautiful clothes for Frau Hoss, as well as the wives of other male officers and female guards.

For a historian with a passion for clothes and fashion, The Red Ribbon was a novel she just had to write. Lucy was struck that in the midst of the horror of a concentration camp the frivolities of fashion could flourish. Hedwig Hoss is recast as Madame H in the novel. In real life, she employed prisoners to make her clothes, first at a room in her house (a villa near the camp), but by 1943 this was moved into a workshop at Auschwitz. She had 23 staff, making beautiful clothes for herself and other Nazi women.

read more here @ York Press and at Lucy's website

The Ring of Truth: Myths of Sex and Jewelry

From The Daily Star, a review of Wendy Doniger's book, The Ring of Truth: Myths of Sex & Jewelry:

The first seven chapters are about rings throughout history; in particular, they are all recognition stories in which a ring is a vital clue. They deal with sexual rings (chapter 1), rings found in fish and found (with children) in the ocean (chapter 2), rings of forgetful husbands (chapters 3, 4, and 5) and of clever wives (chapters 6 and 7). Chapters 1 and 2 are broadly cross-cultural (though largely Anglophone) and deal with a number of relatively short texts; the next three chapters concentrate on fewer stories discussed in greater depths, taken from individual cultures: India (chapter 3), medieval Europe (chapter 4), and the Germanic world (chapter 5). Chapters 6 and 7 deal with a single theme – the “clever wife” – in cross-cultural distribution. Chapters 8 and 9 veer ever so slightly into stories about necklaces in particular cultures and particular historical periods: a treacherous royal necklace in eighteenth-century France (chapter 8) and true-and-false necklaces in nineteenth century English novels and twentieth century American films (chapter 9). The final two chapters return to rings, to the invention of the myth of diamond engagement rings in twentieth century America (chapter 10) and a concluding consideration of the cash value of rings and the clash between reason and convention in myths about rings of recognition throughout the world (chapter 11).

read more here @ The Daily Star

The Day Will Pass Away: The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard 1935-1936

Read a review of "The Day Will Pass Away: The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard 1935-1936" by Ivan Christyakov at the StarTribune:

Police states spread complicity by forcing citizens into immoral roles. With “The Day Will Pass Away,” readers get a remarkable opportunity to peek into the 1930s diary of one such citizen — Ivan Chistyakov, a guard in the Soviet gulag.

Under Communist rule during the 20th century, Russia herded millions of residents into labor camps without trial. Many were sent thousands of miles to vast infrastructure projects in an attempt to shock-industrialize the nation. As purges under Stalin began and executions swept the country, Chistyakov found himself in command of an armed platoon on the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway, an eastern outpost of the camp system.

read more here at Star Tribune

'The Good People' by Hannah Kent

From StarTribune:

Foreboding builds from the get-go of “The Good People,” Hannah Kent’s haunting historical novel about a rural Irish community gripped by sudden death and suspicion.

Kent’s suspenseful storytelling plunges readers into early 19th-century Ireland. She brings vivid life to the hardscrabble scenes: dingy cabins and backbreaking work and the grim hiring fairs where poor children sell their labor to less poor people such as Nóra. When Nóra and Nance head off to confront the fairies, you can feel the mud sliding beneath their bare feet.

Although “The Good People” is fiction, it faithfully represents the hold of ancient Celtic myths on generations of Irish. It also lays bare some hard truths about human nature and leaves you thinking about belief, suspicion and what happens to a community when fear takes hold.

read entire review here @ Star Tribune

Survival guide for women immigrants to 19thcentury Canada

From National Post:

In a new edition – Catharine Parr Traill’s The Female Emigrant’s Guide: Cooking with a Canadian Classic (McGill-Queen’s University Press) – Cooke and co-editor culinary historian Fiona Lucas present what they refer to as a “historical toolkit.” Their study of Traill’s world provides the context and resources necessary to unlock the Guide and other historical cookbooks.

The Guide was first published 162 years ago, in 1855. Cooke says that the timing is ideal for reframing the work. Food studies and food history emerged as a discipline in the 20th century, she adds – it wasn’t until the 1980s and ’90s that historians began to consider cookbooks as a source of valuable information.

read more here @ National Post

for more on Catherine Parr Traill

• The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography
• Wikipedia
• The Canada Site