Brett Halliday: Murder Is My Business

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Murder Is My BusinessHard as it is to believe, there’s a detective out there who has been the protagonist in novels that sold over 30 million copies, starred in hundreds of short stories, radio shows, movies, a television series, had his own digest magazine that lasted almost 30 years, and who at present has exactly one book in print. His name is Mike Shayne, his creator was Brett Halliday and I’ll wager that many of you have never heard of him, much less read any of his books.

I’d seen copies of Shayne paperbacks around, but it wasn’t until one of our faithful book scouts brought in (literally) a boxful of them that I really examined the phenomena. At first I was drawn to the covers, the early ones by master pulp artist Robert McGinnis, little paintings with a dramatic title like Violence Is Golden superimposed over a vivid image of a lush babe, work that if presented in a museum could easily pass for Pop Art. The later covers were much less art and much more camp, the kind of ridiculously posed photographs of random models that were inexplicably popular in the 70s and 80s. read more

Cath Staincliffe: Dead to Me

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Dead to MeMinotaur does a good job picking up and publishing British police procedurals and this is one of their latest finds – a genuine, no-holds-barred procedural with not one central female character, but three, which makes it a bit different.  The men in the book are either villains, eye candy, present or ex husbands, or sidebar co-workers.  It’s the women Staincliffe is interested in and that sets this novel apart.

It’s labeled on the cover a “Scott and Bailey” novel which gives things away a bit as the two main characters, Janet Scott and Rachel Bailey, are immediately front and center.  Janet’s boss, Gill, encounters Rachel on a crime scene and likes her enough to ask her to join her elite homicide team, which is Rachel’s dream job.  Janet is older, seasoned, experienced and irritated with Rachel, who is like an overeager puppy, charging in and acting without thinking.  Part of the novel is definitely concerned with Janet and Gill’s efforts to “train” her to act like a grown up police officer. read more

S.J. Gazan: The Dinosaur Feather

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The Dinosaur FeatherThis is an original and captivating novel.  Set in Copenhagen on the campus of the University of Copenhagen, the politics swirling through academe are apparently brutal to the point of fatality.  The central character, Anna Bella Nor, would probably get along well with Lisbeth Salander in terms of both brains and anger.  Unlike Lisbeth, she’s more anchored to the world – she has parents, a toddler, an ex, friends, and she’s juggling the planned defense of her PhD thesis in biology while taking care of her daughter and, it turns out, helping to solve the murders of some colleagues. read more

Robert Crais: Suspect

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Robert Crais is hands down one of the absolute best writers of action.  That’s not an easy thing to do, though he makes it look that way.  The miracle of his writing is that he combines the action of his stories with some real emotional punch.  If, when you finish this book, you aren’t a) crying your eyes out, and b) wishing you had a dog (if you don’t already have one), there’s something the matter.  I heard Crais at a conference say that he starts every story with something that breaks his heart, and this one has a whopper of a heartbreaking beginning. read more

Laura Lippman: After I’m Gone

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Laura Lippman is truly a master at what she does.  Her latest novel, a stand alone, takes a ripped-from-the-headlines story and she puts her own Lippman-esque spin on it.  The story concerns one Felix Brewer, a slick operator who decides to vanish rather than face prison time over his many unlawful misdeeds.  Lippman’s concern and interest, however, is not so much Felix as the women Felix leaves behind: his beautiful wife, Bambi; his three daughters; and his mistress, Julie.  The connecting thread is not only the women, but the cold case officer who is trying to figure out, many years later, who caused the death of Felix’s mistress ten years to the day after his own disappearance. read more

Mary Logue: Lake of Tears

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Mary Logue has long been one of my favorite authors and after waiting an increasingly long time between installments, I’m more than eager to pick up one of these tightly written, exciting and emotionally resonant novels.  Unfortunately I inhale them far too quickly and am forced to settle in for another long wait for the next book.  Logue’s main character is deputy Claire Watkins, who works in tiny Fort St. Antoine, Wisconsin.  She lives with her husband, the laconic pheasant farmer Rick, and her now almost adult daughter, Meg. read more

Kwei Quartey: Murder at Cape Three Points

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The return of Ghanaian detective Darko Dawson is a very welcome one.  I enjoyed Quartey’s first two novels in the series very much and I’m grateful to Soho Press for giving him a new home.  Quartey, born in Ghana to an American and a Ghanian, has ended up in L.A. but his heart remains in Ghana and it’s on his sleeve as he relates the adventures of Detective Darko.

Murder-at-Cape-Three-PointsDarko is happily married and has a son with a heart condition – in the first two books his condition was worsening, and the Dawsons had no way to pay for surgery.  That problem has been overcome as the book opens with little Hosiah recovering well with his anxious parents looking on.  That’s a relief for all (including this reader) but Darko is called away from his son’s bedside before his leave is up to attend to a case in another city. read more

Nevada Barr: Destroyer Angel

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I haven’t checked in with Anna Pigeon in a few books and I see she’s gotten married (congrats, Anna!) and she seems to have morphed into a Jack Reacher-of-the-woods.  In this book she’s the coolest, most badass character you can imagine.  I was absolutely unable to stop reading.

Destroyer-AngelAnna has taken a bit of time away from her spouse to spend a weekend with the “girls” – two women her own age and their teenage daughters.  One of the women, Heath, is almost as badass as Anna herself, though she’s paralyzed from the waist down.  She and her daughter Elizabeth, or “E,” have a good relationship and E seems like a very level headed teen.  They’ve brought their dog, Wily, with them. read more

Rhys Bowen: City of Darkness and Light

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There’s just one word for this book: delicious.  The thirteenth installment in Rhys Bowen’s fine Molly Murphy series finds Molly at home with her new baby, Liam, when all hell – literally – breaks loose.  Molly is missing her friends from across the way, Sid and Gus, who are away in Paris; and she’s missing her husband, Daniel, who is away at work almost all the time.

cityofdarknessWhen Daniel stops by for a quick bite to eat, the sound of breaking glass is the last thing Molly knows before she realizes her house has blown up and is on fire.  Baby Liam is still inside as is Molly’s maid – the baby makes it out fine.  Daniel realizes he’s the target of the Cosa Nostra, and he thinks it’s a good idea to send Molly and baby Liam off to Paris to stay with Sid and Gus while he works things out at home.  They’ve already begged her to visit. read more

Interview: Janet Rudolph

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Janet RudolphIn the mystery community, Janet Rudolph is virtually everywhere.  A tireless proselytizer and devotee of mystery fiction, she’s the editor of Mystery Reader’s Journal as well as the executrix of the annual Macavity Awards.  She runs a weekly—yes, I said weekly—book club and is, in short, one of the finest ambassadors mystery fiction has to offer.   I thought it was past time to ask her a few questions.

Q: Can you talk about how you started your book club?  What makes it unique?

A: I think our book group is unique because we are the longest running weekly mystery group in the U.S. We’ve been meeting for 35+ years, September-June, every Tuesday night. I began “the group” by teaching mystery fiction at UC Extension in the mid-70s as a way of supplementing my meager grad school income (non-existent income, actually). I first started by teaching Women in Science Fiction, but quickly turned to something much closer to my heart—The Female Sleuth. Our original class wanted more, as did I, and I expanded the offerings to a class on Agatha Christie, Women Mystery Writers, Religious Mystery Fiction, Art Mysteries and more. I also expanded locations to UC Santa Cruz, St. Mary’s College, the Graduate Theological Union, SF State and some other institutions and organizations. We always met weekly, so when I decided to have a more informal setting—my home—it seemed only natural to continue to meet weekly. Back then we read and discussed two books a week. Now we only read one. Still that’s a lot of reading. I’m thematic in my thinking, so the first 20+ years I ran 10 weekly sessions on themes, mostly, such as New York Mysteries, medical mysteries, food mysteries (a favorite), religious mysteries, etc. Over the years we’ve had people drop out and people join, people die and people move, but we still have many in the group who have been in it for over 25 years. read more