In A Dry Season by Peter Robinson

Detective Chief Inspector Banks is currently in trouble for insubordination, not an unusual occurrence.  However, this time was much worse because he actually punched his boss, Jimmy Riddle. Banks was suspended at first, but the powers that be forced Riddle to reinstate him.  Since then Riddle has made sure Banks was limited to the drudgery of desk duty and other mundane tasks.  Now Riddle has a new kind of punishment in mind. He appoints Banks to lead the investigation of a fifty year old murder that he doesn’t think can be solved.

To complicate matters, Riddle assigns Banks to work with the local DS, Annie Cabot, an officer with a reputation as a troublemaker.  Cabot took the position in a small town force where there is little activity because it was made clear to her she would not be in line for promotion any time soon.  She has been branded a loner who doesn’t work well with others on the force.  What Riddle doesn’t expect is that once Banks sinks his teeth in, he will do everything in his power to uncover the truth. Not only that, it turns out he and Cabot work well together, both on and off duty.

While this book is part of the Inspector Banks series, there is more to it than a straightforward detective story. The victim was discovered when a drought caused a reservoir to dry up, exposing a village which had been evacuated and flooded in the early 1950s. The woman was not buried by the flood, though; she was murdered and placed under a stone slab. Banks 1st task is to figure out when the body was buried before he can begin to find out why she was murdered.

Robinson’s novel switches back and forth between World War II, when the village was last occupied, and the present day investigation.  Telling the story this way makes the mystery more suspenseful, and  Robinson is able to make a very cold police case have relevance and urgency for the characters today; and I found the description of life during the war to be fascinating. This is my favorite book in the Inspector Banks series, although I would recommend all of them.  The series has also been recently made into a television series that was shown on WUNCTV in January.  Hopefully, they will repeat it soon!

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Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D.James

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is 200 years old! To celebrate its bicentennial, try Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James, the well-written and long awaited sequel to Pride and Prejudice, published in 2011.

We find Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth living happily ever after and six years into their marriage, living on the beautiful estate at Pemberley. The couple has two sons to carry on the Darcy name, and Elizabeth’s beloved sister Jane lives nearby. The Bennett family has visited just a few times, which seems the perfect amount to the Darcys. Elizabeth’s beloved father comes more frequently though, to make use of Darcy’s extensive and peaceful library.

As the story opens, Elizabeth and her husband are preparing for their annual ball. Family is gathering at Pemberley, including Jane and her husband, Charles Bingley. The unexpected arrival of Elizabeth’s youngest sister, Lydia, sends the household into an uproar. Recall that Lydia is the wild child who famously eloped with the dastardly Wickham in Pride and Prejudice. And Lydia’s dramatic entry into the story has her screaming that Wickham has been murdered!

This was a false alarm. Wickham was not the murder victim, but because the death happened on Permberley’s grounds, Darcy becomes entangled in the investigation. The death, and Wickham’s possible involvement in the crime, threaten to disrupt the Darcy’s peaceful country life forever. While the story-line follows Darcy more than Elizabeth, all your favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice will make an appearance in this delightful and suspenseful novel.

Numerous writers have attempted to imitate, reinterpret, or continue Jane Austen’s stories. Most have failed, some very badly. P. D. James is the first that I feel has really gotten it right. The tone of Austen’s masterpiece comes through, and it is a pleasure to visit the Darcy family again. Fans of James series featuring Adam Dagliesh might be disappointed with the mystery in this novel, but James was not attempting to write one of her modern novels. This book is a gift for Austen fans.

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The Book of Killowen by Erin Hart

Pathologist Nora Gavin and archeologist Cormac Maguire have been called by the police to a small farm in Killowen, Ireland to examine the remains of a body found in a bog. Like most bog bodies, this one has been in the ground for a long time.  What’s unusual is that this body was found in the trunk of a car. And when removed, a second body was found underneath it.  The first man turns out to have died 1000 years ago, while the second has been dead less than a year.  Both men, however, have been murdered.

Nora and Gavin stay at a local farm while they examine the bodies. The farm is an artist’s retreat, with many people living there on a long term basis, all contributing to the farm work while also practicing their art or craft.  As the investigation proceeds, Nora and Gavin identify the earlier victim as a monk who may have also been a scribe.  The police find that the most recent victim was Benedict Kavanagh, a prominent philosopher well known to the general public as the host of a national television program.  Kavanagh was fascinated by the ancient books produced in Ireland’s early monasteries and was searching for a long lost book of philosophy. The artists at the farm turn out to have known Benedict personally.  In addition, his wife frequently stayed on the farm.  Is it possible that Kavanagh’s murder was related to the bog man?  Can Nora and Gavin solve either murder before they become targets?

I love the idea of tying a current mystery to historical events, and Ireland is a wonderful setting for this.  The Book of Killowen is the most recent in a series of mysteries starring Nora and Cormac, and it was especially good.  But you may want to start with the first one, Haunted Ground.

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Good Bait by John Harvey

John Harvey’s new novel is a fast paced story about two parallel cases, both related to a vast criminal underworld in London.  The main story is Chief Inspector Karen Shields’ investigation into the death of a young immigrant found in a frozen pond on Hampstead Heath.    The more Shields looks into the case, the more complicated it becomes.   Another murder in the same area seems to involve some of the same people, and Shields is suddenly called to the office of superior officer to discuss the crimes with a major task force.  Shields and her team can’t determine if the young man’s murder is related to the suddenly escalating violent incidents between rival gangs in the neighborhood, or if there is a more personal element.

The other case is an unofficial one.  Detective Trevor Cordon has come to London from Cornwall out of a sense of guilt.  Maxine, a woman he had arrested many times, asked for his help locating her daughter, Letitia.  Cordon had tried to help Letitia out in the past by giving her a job, but tells Maxine there is nothing he can do this time.  So Maxine goes to London herself.  Now Cordon hears Maxine was killed by a train and no one knows whether she fell, was pushed, or committed suicide.  Cordon decides to track down Letitia and make sure she is okay.  The trouble is he is not the only person looking for her.  Cordon’s case will eventually cross with Shields’ investigation in an unexpected way.

I enjoyed this book, although at times it was difficult to keep the characters straight.  But this actually makes it seem more realistic since the real world is rarely as neat as detective novels.  Also, Harvey is good at the details of police organizations and investigations and his characters are as interesting as the plot lines. What makes a woman born in Jamaica become an officer in the British police force?  Why would Cordon feel ties to this particular child, and not the children of other folks he has run across in the course of his job?  Fans of Harvey’s other series’ will enjoy this new book, as will fans of British mysteries.

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Total Recall by Sara Paretsky

Sara Paretsky, for those who have not read her before, writes traditional hard-boiled mysteries set in Chicago.  Her detective, V.I (Vic) Warshawski, is half Polish and half Italian and grew up in the tough neighborhoods of South Chicago.  Vic’s father was a police officer, but she made her way through law school and built up an independent private eye firm.  Her cases have taken her all over the city from the best neighborhoods to the worst and she has dealt with the criminal underworld as well as the politicians and local leaders.

Yet this brief description doesn’t do this series justice.  All of Warshawski’s cases have much more to them than a simple murder mystery.  Total Recall, for example, begins with a recent widow finding out that the life insurance company has denied her claim because someone reported her husband dead ten years ago and claimed the money. Not only does her nephew have to pay for the funeral, but then both of them are considered suspects in insurance fraud. Warshawski is hired to clear their names. Following the trail of this mystery leads her to a somewhat sketchy insurance company, and then suddenly a murder, possibly involving a local African American minister with political aspirations.

Meanwhile, old friends of Vic’s are being stalked by a man who claims to have recovered his past memories as a Holocaust survivor and believes he is a long lost relative.  Her friend Lottie has never discussed her past and does not want to talk about it now, but she swears he cannot be a relative.  After Lottie faints upon seeing the man, Vic is very worried and begins to investigate the man’s claims.

Paretsky’s mystery novels are always complex, and this one is no exception.  Regression hypnotherapy, Slave Reparations, recovering the lost property of Holocaust victims, and corruption in large companies are all topics that somehow converge into a fascinating story.  In addition, the author’s descriptions of the various ethnic neighborhoods and the somewhat corrupt political system in Chicago really give you a feel for the city.  Mystery fans should try this novel, or better still, start with the first in the series, Indemnity Only.

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Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Pearl and May Chin are two of the “Beautiful Girls” of Shanghai in the 1930s. They live the life of the fortunate upper class, going from party to party in the evenings.  They are recognized by many because they have posed for calendars, so their beautiful faces are everywhere in Shanghai.  One day their world comes crashing down when they find out that their father has gambled away his fortune.  To get out of debt he has sold them as wives to Chinese men who live in America.  

Lisa See tells the journey of Pearl and May to America and their lives after they arrive in Shanghai Girls.  The journey is long and difficult due to the Japanese invasion of China. The girls lose their mother during this journey and arrive in California alone and devastated.  There they meet their future husbands who are not at all what they expected.  Pearl and May manage to build a life in California despite all that has happened to them.

Dreams of Joy continues the story but focuses on Pearl’s daughter, Joy.  Joy’s childhood in southern California was very different from what her mother experienced in Shanghai. When tragedy strikes the family, she reacts badly and her rebellion takes a drastic and potentially fatal turn.  Joy is convinced that the Communist Revolution in China is a wonderful new experiment and she runs away to China without telling anyone.  Pearl soon follows to try and bring her back. 

Many people were upset at the ending of Shanghai Girls because it really left you hanging.  Happily, the story is now finished so everyone is able to read the whole saga without interruption.  I really enjoyed both books, but was particularly moved by Dreams of Joy.  Joy’s experiences in China during the 1950s were fascinating, although dreadful. I had heard some about the “Great Leap Forward” of the communist government, but I had no idea of the extent of suffering in China at that time.  The book gave me glimpse into a culture I knew little about. 

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Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham

Fiona Griffiths is a new Detective Constable in the Cardiff police force. When a young mother and her daughter are found murdered in an abandoned house, it looks routine: the mother was a known prostitute and the building was frequented by drug users and pusher. There is one odd detail. The credit card of a millionaire who died in a plane crash 9 months ago was found at the crime scene.

Fiona cannot stop thinking about the little girl, even though she is not officially assigned to the case. She is supposed to be working on the paperwork for an upcoming trial against a former policeman accused of embezzlement. Fiona convinces her boss that she can work on both investigations, and eventually she finds that the two cases could be linked.

This new mystery from Harry Bingham drew me in right away. Fiona is an odd but appealing character with some interesting quirks, and the story is told from her point of view. She is a Cambridge graduate with a degree in philosophy who makes an unconventional career choice: to become a police officer. She also suffered a break down in her teen age years that she refuses to talk about. She is trying to live in what she calls “the normal world”, but still does things on her own and sometimes without the approval of her bosses. Her background and the reasons why she is so different are gradually revealed to us as the mystery unfolds. Despite her oddness, I was pulling for her from the beginning. I hope there will be more books featuring D. C. Fiona Griffiths! This book will appeal to fans of Mo Hayder and Denise Mina.

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Greatest Hits: Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough

Join us the next five days and kick off the new year with The Book-A-Day Blog’s most popular posts of 2012!

 

The settlement of Australia started because England could no longer ship their convicts to the colonies after the American Revolution.  With the prisons in England overflowing they needed to find another solution rather quickly. Fortunately, they had just laid claim to the Eastern half of the Australian continent. McCullough’s novel tells the story of Richard Morgan, who was a respectable business and family man in Bristol until he ran afoul of a smuggler with powerful connections.  He was framed for a crime and he was not allowed any defense at his trial.   He spent two years in prison in England before being put on the death ship to the new colony.  After surviving the difficult sea voyage, it was discovered that the ship had not carried enough food for the colony to survive a whole year.  The first days of the colony were extremely difficult. Many of the convicts, and also the soldiers guarding them, were in danger of starvation.

 

After a few months some of the prisoners, including Richard Morgan, were moved to Norfolk Island; a tiny speck of land out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  These prisoners were sent with several free men and no soldiers and were simply left there with little supplies.  They had to build their own shelters and grow or catch their food.  Norfolk Island was a bit better for the settlers than the inhospitable Botany Bay, though. The soil was rich enough for planting and there was ample fishing off the coast. England wanted this island settled so they could produce hemp and would no longer have to buy it from Russia.  The experiment ultimately proved unsuccessful even though the settlers survived.

 

This fascinating story is based on a real person who was an ancestor of McCullough’s husband. The book mentioned at the end that McCullough would be writing a sequel to Morgan’s Run, but unfortunately this has not happened yet. Still, I highly recommend this book for fans of historical fiction, or anyone with an interest in Australia.

 

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Pam W.’s Picks

I like to read from just about every section of the library, although I am especially partial to mysteries. I also tend to re-read books that I have enjoyed a lot. This list covers a little of everything and includes books I discovered for the first time this year as well as a few favorites I read for the second (or third) time. — Pam W.

The Last Child by John Hart
Johnny Merrimon was only 13 when his twin sister went missing. He has never given up the belief that she was alive somewhere but no one seems to be looking for her anymore, so Johnny decides to find her himself. What Johnny doesn’t know is that the officer in charge of the investigation has also never given up on Alyssa. He is keeping an eye on Johnny as well to make sure nothing happens to him. When another child disappears, Johnny and Detective Clyde Hunt find themselves mixed up with the worst elements of their town. This was an absolutely riveting book and the best one by Hart so far.

Magic Time by Doug Marlette
Marlette tells two stories in this book, one set in the racially charged days of 1964, and one set in the present day. Carter Ransom has gone back to his hometown in Mississippi after suffering a break down, only to find an event from his past has come back to haunt him. In 1964 several civil rights workers were killed in when a church was burned down. Carter’s girlfriend at the time was one of those killed. To complicate matters, Carter’s father was the presiding judge in the trial of the man accused of this crime. The trial took place in the 1980’s and the man was not convicted, but the trial is now being reexamined. Bringing up the past is painful, and possible dangerous, for everyone who was involved.

When I Married My Mother: A Daughter’s Search for What Really Matters-and How She Found It Caring for Mama Jo by Jo Maeder
Jo Maeder had lived in New York City for years when she found out that her mother was ill. The two had not been in contact for a number of years and Maeder was appalled when she found out the horrible living conditions her mother had been reduced to. Her mother was suffering from dementia and had been hoarding so much stuff you could barely walk in her house. Maeder did not know how they would get along living together, she only knew that she had to take care of her, so she left her job and moved in with her mother down south in the Bible belt. Her “marriage” to her mother truly changed her life. Maeder’s story is not new, but her story is told with humor and true compassion. I found it very compelling and not depressing at all.

Faithful Place by Tana French
French’s series about the Dublin murder squad is different than many mystery series’. Instead of following one detective through a number of different investigations, French switches focus in each book. Faithful Place, the third book in the series, is my favorite. It follows Detective Frank Mackey as he investigates a body found in an old building in the neighborhood he grew up in. When he was a young man, his girlfriend disappeared on the night they were going to run away together and Frank always thought she left without him. Now, he finds out she was murdered, and he is determined to find out who did it. This is fascinating look at family dynamics and loyalties.

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
Fans of All Creatures Great and Small or Maeve Binchy’s books will love this book set in Northern Ireland in the 1960’s. Barry Laverty has just finished medical school and has taken a job in the small town of Ballybucklebo, which is so small it barely shows up on the maps. He is not sure what to make of his new boss, who seems very gruff and old fashioned. He also finds the locals eccentric and difficult to understand. Gradually, Barry starts to fit in and learn how closely everyone in the town cares for one another. This is a heartwarming story told with lots of humor.

Best New Books of 2012: Pam W.’s Picks

I am a big fan of mysteries, but I also like to read a little of everything else, especially if it is set in jolly old England. 2012 was a really good year for new books, I have to say.   There were so many good books that I found it hard to narrow it to a small list, but here are my five of my favorites from this year! — Pam W.

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke
Caren, the caretaker of a plantation in Louisiana, is the descendant of slaves who worked on the same plantation. Her mother was also once the cook for the family who own the plantation, so the family has several generations of complicated history with the house and the owners. When Caren finds a young migrant worker on the land who was murdered, the investigation becomes entwined with the murder of a former slave who was Caren’s ancestor 100 years ago. I found the double murder plot intriguing and the setting was very unusual. Locke’s spooky setting and eerie suspense make this novel more than a traditional mystery.

Beastly Things by Donna Leon
When the body of a disfigured man is found in a canal, the police wonder how to go about investigating his death. No one has been reported missing, and they can’t post a photograph to get an identification. The autopsy shows that the man had a rare disease that caused the disfiguration. This gives the police a name and leads them to a slaughterhouse where he worked as a veterinarian. But was the murderer someone he knew professionally or personally? This 21st book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series is typical of Leon’s fine work. There are usually two or more investigations taking place at the same time, and each case tends to raise more issues than a simply murder mystery. In addition, the reader is given a glimpse into how an average Venetian lives through the life of Brunetti and his family. Start with the first book if you can, but this one is a good read by itself.

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
William Kuhn’s story is one I’m sure many folks have thought about in passing over the years. What is the Queen really like? Does she enjoy her life? Does she ever wish to be someone or somewhere else? In Mrs. Queen Takes the Train, the author imagines the answers to those questions. One day, the Queen finds herself outside of Buckingham Palace on her own. She begins to walk down the street and realizes she can slip away from all of her guards and staff for a while. Meanwhile, the palace staff race to find her before word leaks out that she is missing. I loved how Kuhn’s vision of the Queen makes her seem very human. I would recommend this book highly and I think fans of Downton Abbey and Upstairs/Downstairs will enjoy this modern version of what goes on behind the palace doors.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
In this updated version of Jane Eyre, Gemma Hardy is taken from Iceland to Scotland after the death of her parents to live with relatives, only to lose her beloved uncle soon after. Her aunt and cousins are not kind to Gemma, so she is happy when she finds they are sending her to boarding school. Unfortunately, she is little more than a servant in the school. Gemma is strong and resourceful, though, and survives the school long enough to get a position as a governess. The setting of Scotland in the 1950’s is interesting and Gemma is a very appealing character who I was pulling for from the beginning.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Julia is only eleven when the earth’s rotation starts slowing down. At first no one knows what will happen in the future. Will the slowing wreak havoc, or will it simply mean a change in schedule? For Julia, life is simply weirder than it was. Everything had already begun to change for her because she went from elementary school to middle school. Her old friends are no longer interested in her and she suddenly has become a loner. Her parents seem suddenly to be different and less dependable than she always thought. The boy she has a crush on is friendly on some days but on others he ignores her. How is a young girl to make sense of her own life when the whole world is going crazy? Thompson’s novel is less a post-apocalyptic novel and more a coming of age story, but a very good one. Riveting and intense, you won’t forget this book easily.