I is for Investigation

[Thank you to Kerrie, Mysteries in Paradise, for hosting the alphabet meme]

When I first fell for the genre of crime fiction, it was the puzzles, the game of trying to make sense of the clues, that caught me. My first ´love´ as an adult reader was Dorothy L. Sayers, one of the most famous Golden Age writers.

What I enjoyed in her books (apart from Lord Peter Wimsey whom I found rather charming) was the way she let the reader follow Wimsey´s investigation. She let us play along, showing us the cracked egg and the tube of paint, the cipher letter and the stains on the floor. So when I read a great mystery, it appealed to my curiosity, making me want to solve mysteries myself.

Give me some good detective work, and I´ll keep quiet - for a few hours at least.

I have learned to like other subgenres, but I still appreciate a good, old-fashioned investigation, and whether I write about amateur sleuths or police procedurals, I like to add those little clues: the dirty towel, the binoculars in the tree, the little toe etc.

Come back tomorrow for a new Kickinbottom story (a rather open-ended one) with a none-too-brilliant character who might need YOU to figure out what´s going on.
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My Challenges - progress in January and February

In a bout of optimism, I joined no less than five challenges for this year, and so far I have done fairly well. If you want to read a review, please select the relevant author among my tags. 

The Global Reading Challenge (medium level, 14 books):
Australasia: Vanda Symon, Overkill
Europe: Esther Verhoef, Close-Up
North America: Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Cathryn Grant, The Demise of the Soccer Moms
The Seventh Continent: Kate Summerscale, The Suspicion of Mr Whicher (history)

2011 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge (4-6 novels)
Margery Allingham, Hide Your Eyes (1958)
John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)

What´s in a Name (6 novels)
A number: C.J. Box, Three Weeks to Say Goodbye
A gem: Peter Lovesey, Diamond Dust
A size: Declan Burke, The Big O

Ireland Reading Challenge (6 novels)
Declan Burke, The Big O
Tana French, The Likeness
Brian McGilloway, Gallows Lane
Colin Bateman, Mystery Man (not reviewed yet)

Bogudfordringen 2011 (Danish)
January: crime before 2000:
Margery Allingham, En morder lukkes ind (1958/1971)
John Buchan, Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
February: short story collections
Roald Dahl, Kiss, Kiss
Cathryn Grant, Flash Fiction for the Cocktail Hour
Laura Lippman, Hardly Knew Her


And another kind of progress: in January I had so many books in my TBR that I couldn´t squeeze any more in. Since then I have read at least six of those without buying new ones (but don´t ask me how many e-books I have acquired in the meantime - they don´t take up space so they don´t count at all).

What about you; did you join any challenges?
Have you made some progress?

Peter Lovesey, Bloodhounds (2004)

This is the thirteenth British DS Peter Diamond novel. I had not planned to read it so soon after Diamond Dust, but when I closed that book, I realized a profound truth about TBRs and omnibuses: you cannot remove the book from the TBR until you have read both stories.

Shirley-Ann, who is new to Bath, joins the local crime fiction club, The Bloodhounds, a small group of individualists who discuss their favourite subgenres heatedly. Then a very valuable stamp is stolen, and one of the group is involved in the crime - apparently someone has grown tired of fictional crime and decided to play games with the local police.

This book struck me as more interesting than Diamond Dust, partly because the characters, e.g. the female members of the crime fiction club, Shirley-Ann and Jessica, seemed more real to me. Besides, lovers of crime fiction will probably enjoy the discussions of real crime fiction writers.

It is not likely that I will read all the volumes before these two (see my review of Diamond Dust), but I may return to Peter Diamond at some point.

I bought the omnibus myself.

Daniel Woodrell, Winter´s Bone (2006)

This novel is an American stand-alone.

Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly is all alone with a mother ´gone daffy´ and two younger brothers. The police come looking for her father who left months ago, telling her that unless her father turns up in court, they will lose their home which her father put up as security.

Ree needs her father, dead or alive, and the only way to find him among the taciturn country folks in the Ozark Mountains is to search for him herself.

This fine, little mystery has quite a lot in common with the British novel Blacklands which I reviewed last week.

First of all there is the bleak and remote environment. The Ozark Mountain is the kind of place where you are surprised every time you are reminded that these people actually watch television. They have a long tradition of taking matters into their own hands, and you´d better obey their code of honour. Besides, producing methamphetamine is quite a common line of business.

Second, there is no stable and reliable father figure in the house, and the mothers are not exactly strong or active; thus the oldest child feels responsible for setting things right. Steven and Ree both assume the responsibility for the well-being of the whole family far too early in life.

Finally, Ree and Steven believe that by finding a missing person (Steven´s uncle, her father) they can restore some sort of order.

So there are several similarities between these two intriguing stories, yet Winter´s Bone seems even darker and more desolate than Blacklands.

I think I bought the book myself.

Thy´s Day # 41

Have snow - want spring.

DJ´s Bait in the Box # 90

A debut again, but like last week, I have tried to pick a significant quotation for you.

"He what, now?"
"Signed it all over. You didn´t know? Jessup signed over everything. If he don´t show for trial, see, the way the deal works is, you-all lose this place. It´ll get sold from under you. You´ll have to get out. Got somewhere to go?"

The Rules:
If you recognize the quotation, or if you think you are able to guess who wrote it, please post a comment. Just leave a hint, do not spoil the fun by giving too much away. The book will be reviewed on Friday.

H is for Horror

- I rarely read horror, but in this thriller the writer plays with the genres by adding a touch of horror (or perhaps I just wanted an excuse to combine Kerrie´s alphabet meme with a post about my latest read? Who knows what is true and what is fabrication?) 

Andrew Wilson, The Lying Tongue - a Death in Venice (2007)
This is the British writer´s first novel, and it is set in Venice.

One of the ways Wilson builds up suspense is creating a creepy atmosphere in the old, Venetian palazzo where much of the story takes place.

"Running down the centre of the large, three-storey, perfectly symmetrical building, like a spine of a long-dead monster, was a series of arched windows, four on each level, the extrados sculpted out of white marble. In one of the rooms on the first floor candles flickered, illuminating patches of the darkened interior and casting strange shadows up onto the ceiling."

The narrator´s description of the old writer Gordon Crace adds to this tone. Here is young Adam Wood´s first impression of his new employer:

"In front of me stood a man who seemed much, much older than I had imagined. He was stooped, nearly bent double, and as he slowly raised his head upwards to look at me I saw that the flesh on his neck had lost all definition. His tiny, grey-green eyes narrowed as he squinted into the sunlight, and instead of moving forwards to greet me he took one step back into the shade."

For two proper - and very fine - reviews of this interesting thriller, you may visit Petrona (Maxine who sent me the book) or "It´s a Crime! (Or a Mystery)". As I have not read much Patricia Highsmith, I can only say it reminded me of Oscar Wilde´s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

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I could also mention Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minister´s Black Veil (1836) which I am reading in my English class this week as it also has certain horror aspects.  I´d like to share a fine example of show, don´t tell. The congregation has just seen their veiled minister and "... several little boys clambered upon the seats, and came down again with a terrible racket."
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