Golden age style

Ann Cleeves: A Lesson in Dying

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Inspector Ramsay #1

This welcome re-release of the first book in Ann Cleeves’ Inspector Ramsay series, originally published in 1990, is a pure delight.  Our bookstore (open 1992-2018) was lucky enough to have many of these  now collectible volumes on our shelves.  Before breaking out with her Vera books in 1999, the hardworking writer produced two now completed series, one centering on birdwatching, and this debut in the Ramsay series, a real, golden age gem.

Of course, the golden age of mystery ended many decades before this series began, but Cleeves follows many of the plotting and set up tropes familiar to any fan of the classics.  Set in a small village, the book begins when the much hated school headmaster of the insular community  is done away with at a combination Halloween/Guy Fawkes party for the school kids.  To the natives, all of whom are more than familiar with each other, Inspector Ramsey seems like  a exotic creature who appears from above to swoop in to solve the crime. read more

G.M. Malliet: Death and the Old Master

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St. Just #6

I’m a huge fan of G.M. Malliet, who writes in a classic, golden age style, right down to the length of her novels.  Like the masters of the genre who came before her, she keeps her books on the shorter side.  With their sharp prose and quick but indelible characterizations, authors like Christie, Marsh, and Tey got their stories told in a much briefer manner than we are now accustomed to.  I have a dear bookseller friend who insists that you should be able to settle in after dinner, say, and finish up your read that evening.  That is indeed possible with a Malliet book.  She shares the dry humor of her foremothers, as well as their clever way with a puzzle. read more

Erica Ruth Neubauer: Secrets of a Scottish Isle

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Jane Wunderly #5

Secrets of a Scottish Isle is the fifth full-length book in Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly series, which also includes a delightful e-novella, Murder Under the Mistletoe.  Set in the 1920s, the series features the American war widow Jane, who travels the world after the death of her abusive husband has left her a free woman.  Each book has a different setting.  So far, Jane’s adventures have taken her to Egypt, an English country house, an Atlantic crossing on the sister ship of the Titanic, Istanbul, the north of England (in the e-novella), and, in this novel, Iona, a remote island off the west coast of Scotland. read more