Agatha

Thomas Cook is one of the underappreciated treasures of American crime fiction. Although an Edgar winner in 1997 for The Chatham School Affair, he’s never achieved the popularity he deserves, maybe because his books are atmospheric, psychologically oriented stand-alones, with more in common with the works of Brits like Barbara Vine and Minette Walters than that of U.S. series writers like Sue Grafton or Michael Connelly.

Cook’s latest, Into the Web, is a wonderful example of his craft, a beautifully written tale of memory, murder and guilt which also features a clever, surprising, yet thoroughly plausible plot. In it Roy Slater returns from California to Kingdom County, the impoverished Appalachian community that he grew up in and couldn’t wait to get out of, to nurse his brutal father through his final illness. Although Roy, a bookish teacher, now leads a life completely different from his hardscrabble boyhood, he’s never really escaped Kingdom County or the bloody crime that suddenly erupted there. Once home his thoughts are inevitably drawn back to the double homicide his brother allegedly committed years ago, and as he fumblingly begins his own investigation, long hidden secrets are slowly and tantalizingly revealed, secrets that, although old, are far from dead, and which have deadly implications for the present. read more

You don’t have to be a movie lover to enjoy Jeffrey Cohen’s Some Like it Hot-Buttered, but it helps. It helps because as you read about Elliot Freed, whose dream (now reality) has always been to own an old style movie theater showing only comedies, you are mentally remembering the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, and Mel Brooks movies you’ve enjoyed yourself. Having your own movie memories to add to Cohen’s equation makes the entire reading experience a richer one – and the whole set up is a unique and clever one. Elliot himself is kind of a classic mystery character in that he’s almost a complete outsider – he’s divorced; he owns a business that’s, to put it charitably, struggling; and he doesn’t have a cat or even own a car. When someone is discovered dead in his movie theater after a showing of Young Frankenstein from eating poisoned popcorn, Elliot’s odyssey of detection and personal discovery begins. read more

There are a ton of “cozies” out there, and we sell a ton of them, but some of them, while pleasant enough, are almost instantly forgettable. This is not the case with Jeffrey Cohen’s “Double Feature” series which has such an original idea behind it (and such an original voice telling the story) that the books stick with you for awhile after you read them. This is the second book about hapless theater owner Elliot Freed, who owns a struggling, old fashioned movie house that only shows comedies. At the end of the books, there’s usually an annotated list of some of Jeff’s favorite comedies, which is always fun to browse through. read more

I wouldn’t have taken a second look at this book without the not so gentle urging of Julia Spencer-Fleming, a writer whose books I love, and who has proved to be a more than valuable addition to the mystery community as a whole, in many ways. One of the ways is the use of her now well known name to recommend books to the booksellers who have enjoyed reading (and selling) her books. Trusting her judgement, I cracked it open, and was rewarded by finding a delightful and unusual new voice who also has the welcome gift of a sense of humor. Cohen’s main character, Aaron Tucker, is a New Jersey freelance writer who is also a stay at home dad with two children – a daughter and a son with Asperger’s. Anyone with a child in any public school system will be at least marginally familiar with Asperger’s and its more difficult variation, autism. An Asperger’s child is bright and often very focused on one area of interest, while at the same time having an extreme amount of difficulty with normal social cues and interfaces. It’s milder than autism. If you have ever had a friend or a relative who cares for a “differently abled” child, you will know how much the attitude of the family affects the life of both the child and the family as a whole. The family in this book deals with their Asperger’s kid in pretty much a perfect way (as far as I can tell) while not being a”perfect” family, just a normal one with a messy house, a chaotic schedule, and a lively dinner table. The way Cohen writes about this family is the real heart of the book, and they are all distinctly interesting people. read more

If this isn’t one of the best Christmas reads ever, I don’t know what is (maybe Tied Up in Tinsel, by Ngaio Marsh?). This is a light, funny reissue of a series written in the 40’s about an extremely ditzy socialite who marries a vicar and finds herself very much a fish out of water when she ends up in the English countryside. Imagine her dilemma when the curate is murdered on Christmas Eve – luckily two of her most amusing London pals are on hand to help her solve the crime. There’s more to “Lady Loops” than this precis suggests, though, all of it enjoyable and somewhat indescribable. read more

Judy Clemens’ first novel, Til the Cows Come Home, made me cry buckets, and that’s partial proof of her adeptness at creating vivid and believable characters. She also has one of the more unique heroines in the mystery universe – Stella Crown is a dairy farmer with tattoos who rides a Harley for fun and hangs out with bikers. She lives with her friend Lucy, who helps with farm duties, and is shortly to be married, requiring the reluctant Stella (she doesn’t own a dress) to be the maid of honor. As the book opens Stella’s friend Jordan, sound man for a well know Philadelphia band, has gotten Stella and Lucy free tickets and a backstage pass to a concert. Lucy and her fiancee attend with Stella and her boyfriend, Nick, but things go wrong pretty quickly. read more

Rosemary Harris and Jane Cleland do many book events together, which makes perfect sense, since their books complement each other beautifully. Harris writes about gardener Paula Holliday, and Cleland about antiques expert Josie Prescott. Both bring real world knowledge to their respective topics (Harris is herself a master gardener, and Cleland has owned an antiques and rare book business), and both women share an obvious affection for mysteries as a genre, which shows in their books. While Harris’ character doesn’t actually have a mystery paperback at her bedside, Cleland’s character usually has a prime Rex Stout title to help her fall asleep. Again, the real world creeps in—Cleland is a giant fan of Stout and Nero Wolfe in real life. The verisimilitude adds a lot to the books. read more

For newcomer Tori Sinclair, the mores and customs of the South in the small southern town of Sweet Briar, South Carolina seem initially both incomprehensible and impenetrable. Tori, the new town librarian, lucks into the local sewing circle; but she instantly makes a gaffe by bringing lemonade to the gathering instead of something home-baked (one of the other ladies hisses to her in an aside that Southerners only drink sweet tea) and there’s more discomfort due to the fact that the retired librarian and fellow sewing circle member, Dixie Dunn, didn’t exactly take a voluntary retirement. She’s not at the first meeting, but her resentment of Tori at the second one is crystal clear. Tori is also informed that since her real name is “Victoria”, that’s what she should be called. Southerners, she’s told, don’t use nicknames. read more

Either you like Lawrence Block’s dark, depressingly violent Matt Scudder books, or you prefer the light hearted and frequently very funny Bernie Rhodenbarr books. I confess I fall into the later category. I’ve long been a fan of Bernie’s, and having even re-read several of the early series books a few times I was more than delighted when Block brought Bernie out of hibernation. I loved The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams but was put off by The Burglar in the Library and hadn’t picked up another “Bernie” book until this one, an affectionate homage to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. Almost everyone, I think, probably remembers the first time they read The Catcher in the Rye, and in Block’s deft and clever book, everyone remembers the fictional Nobody’s Baby, written by the fictional Gulliver Fairborn. Almost every character has occasion to say, in one way or another, “That book changed my life”. Bernie is on the hunt for some letters written by the ultra reclusive and mysterious Fairborn, but when he breaks into Fairborn’s agent’s apartment to “liberate” them, the agent is dead and Bernie has to leave empty handed.Though the plots in the Burglar books are almost always insanely clever, what’s really fun about them is the setting and the very real characters that Block chooses to populate Bernie’s world. There’s Bernie himself, bookseller by day, burglar by night (and I have to say in my early years of bookselling, Bernie’s choice was starting to seem like an excellent one); there’s Carolyn, the lesbian dog groomer and Bernie’s best friend; there’s Ray, the insensitive, uneducated cop on the take, who nevertheless manages to figure out what’s going on; and of course each book has it’s own individual characters. In The Burglar in the Rye there’s a mysterious female who apparently lived for a brief time with Fairborn, and a charming retiree named Henry who wants to learn the bookselling game and who turns up out of nowhere to help out at the store just when Bernie can use it. read more