The backstory: about a year ago I saw a number of good reviews of I’d Know You Anywhere and went to the library to find a copy. I accidentally walked out with What the Dead Know, and by the time I realized it was a different Laura Lippman book, I was interested enough to keep going with it. Months later I ran across I’d Know You Anywhere at the library, so I picked up the audiobook and listened (did I mention I have a new car? A Toyota RAV4. And this was its inaugural audiobook).

The story involves a woman who was kidnapped as a teenager; years later her captor contacts her from prison, and she has to decide what to do about it. Eliza Benedict has just returned to the United States after living abroad with her husband and children for a number of years. She was pictured with her husband at Washington, D.C.-area society event, and Walter Bowman, her captor, is on death row desperately searching for… something, Eliza’s not exactly sure what, when he sees the picture and figures out a way to secretly contact her. You’d think she’d want nothing to do with him, but actually the one thing Eliza doesn’t want is for Walter to dredge up her story and put her back in the public eye. There are things Walter never told at the time of his conviction, and on top of that, Eliza hasn’t told her children and isn’t ready for them to know about her past.

This is not so much a mystery to be solved as it is a story that unfolds as Eliza remembers what happens and deals with Walter’s attempts to reconnect. Elements of it are clearly drawn from a well-known U.S. kidnapping — by no means all of it, but enough for that story to be recognizable. I frankly wish that were not the case, as I have no interest in dragging that young woman’s experience out for public entertainment again, either. That may be why I ultimately found I’d Know You Anywhere unsatisfying. If you want to read a Laura Lippman, consider What the Dead Know instead.

Laura Lippman, I’d Know You Anywhere originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 21, 2012.

I’ve complained about Ruth in reviews of The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone because she seemed to sit back and let things happen to her, even bad things, and I just found it hard to believe that someone could have accomplished as much as she has without having a stronger spine. In The House at Sea’s End, she takes charge more, even with an infant daughter to look after, or perhaps I should say because of her infant daughter.

The story begins with the discovery of six bodies found in a crevice in the cliffs near the sea. A forensic archeologist, Ruth quickly concludes that fifty to 100 years ago they were murdered — young males, hands bound, with gunshot wounds to the back of the neck — and so Nelson is brought in. Nelson as in DCI Harry Nelson, the father of Ruth’s baby, Kate. The Nelson who’s married to someone else. Awkward!

The mystery isn’t that difficult for Ruth and Nelson to solve: the men involved in the crime left behind an explanation. The problem is that someone today is desperate to keep the secret and keeps eliminating anyone who might want to reveal what happened. As with all Ruth Galloway mysteries, she ends up in a dire position with the murderer out to get her, but this time she’s got a bigger incentive to live. I liked this Ruth, ready to fight back against not only the criminal but the elements, and although it’s a bit stereotypical to think that it took having a child to bring out the mama bear in Ruth, I was glad to see this side of her.

It’s also becoming a stereotype to see a mother struggling to balance child with career (or maybe I just read a lot of books with this scenario), but it’s also reality (or at least my reality). At one point Ruth’s friend criticizes her for leaving her child with a sitter she hardly knows, and I had to cringe because I’ve done it before, too, based on recommendations from my daughter’s regular sitters. Fortunately, I wasn’t punished for it in the way Ruth is.

The story ends with a bit of a cliffhanger involving Ruth’s private life… and all because of baby Kate’s hair. If I hadn’t already been looking forward to the next Ruth Galloway mystery, that would’ve been enough to make me threaten to hold my breath until the next one comes out.

Elly Griffiths, The House at Sea’s End originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 20, 2012.

In “50 Ships” Foyle investigates the body of a man found on the beach — a drunk whose meaningless life seems to have led him to end it all. When they realize it was actually murder, Foyle, Milner and Sam Stewart dig deeper, in part with the help of a Nazi spy who turned up the same night on the beach nearby the dead man. It turns out that the investigation could jeopardize the American entry into war (through Lend-Lease), and that the spy — who’s no doubt going to be hung — is more honorable than the American and even some of the Brits involved.

“Among the Few” brings the viewer into Foyle’s son Andrew’s war. A pilot in the RAF, Andrew is involved in the murder of a young woman — aside from the killer, he was the last person to see her alive. After Foyle solves the murder, he’s faced with the choice of letting (or not) the killer continue wartime duties which really are making a difference in the British war effort.

“War Games” involves a British businessman who puts profit before war when he makes a secret pact with the Nazis. Foyle is refereeing a Home Guard war game on the businessman’s property when a young man is shot at close range and apparently not because of an accident during the war game, and it all unravels from there.

“The Funk Hole” begins with some food thieves being shot at by a warden. The food is for a “funk hole,” an expensive place for the wealthy to escape the privations (and danger) of war. Meanwhile, Foyle is accused of sedition and is barred from working on the case. Sam and Milner take on more important roles in this episode as a consequence. The resolution to it all turns out to be related to revenge for a wartime injustice in which many innocent people died — not intentionally, but because defenses didn’t operate as planned.

Michael Kitchen stars as Christopher Foyle, and he plays the quiet yet forceful character to perfection. Though he butts heads with military intelligence, the RAF, and higher level police officers, he never stops in his quest for justice for murder victims — but, be warned, even Foyle can’t always achieve it.

Foyle’s War, set 2 originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 17, 2012.

Sasha is a 30ish private eye in Toronto; her mysteries are edgy and occasionally violent (though not graphically so), but they’re told with humor and some connection to the sex industry that’s also played for the occasional laugh.

The Lies Have It begins with Sasha helping her friend Jessica bartend at a private party for a group called Bound for Glory. Yes, it’s an S&M party, and as Sasha mixes drinks she can’t help but notice the black-leather crowd making use of their paddles and whips. Not to mention the odd apparatus or two brought in just for the party.

Sasha thinks the whole scene is weird, but when she discovers that Ian, the party organizer, was murdered, she shifts into detective mode — she accidentally brought his phone home, so she’s got access to his last phone calls, and the bar’s owner hires her to investigate because he’s worried about the negative publicity, never mind his liquor license.

In the meantime Sasha’s also searching for a runaway teenager, who’s definitely gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd, and attending a political fundraiser for her brother’s favorite mayoral candidate. In other words, she sees Toronto from just about every angle, and it’s not all pretty.

As for the humor, here’s an example. In doing research on Ian’s lifestyle, Sasha reads classified ads on the Bound for Glory website. “Moose called just as I was about to respond to an ad from a guy who wanted to be someone’s slave. Damn, I was this close to finding someone to do my laundry for me.”

Sincere thanks to author Jill Edmondson for sending a review copy of The Lies Have It. It’s nothing but fun to read and review a book like this one.

Jill Edmondson, The Lies Have It originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 15, 2012.

The book is first and foremost a police procedural, with DI Irene Huss and the rest of the violent crimes unit investigating the apparent suicide of a wealthy financier, who fell to the ground from his expensive rooms to the sidewalk below, near where his wife and adult son are waiting. Richard von Knecht is connected to lots of important people, and Irene feels intimidated just by the appearance of his apartment, which she contrasts to her IKEA-furnished home. Yet Huss and the others know that they have a job to do, and, directed by their boss, Sven Andersson, they begin the slow investigation that goes into any suspicious death. It all gets even more mysterious when Knecht’s office blows up, after he’s already dead.

Irene is a wife and mother (of twin teenage girls) in addition to being a fine investigator, or perhaps I should put the investigator part first… she often does. Luckily her husband doesn’t seem to mind, at least not most of the time. She’s also part of a larger team of detectives, each interesting in their own right. Tommy Persson, for instance, is one of Irene’s dear friends, and he plays an important role when one of her daughters flirts with a skinhead — and his beliefs. Although some of the characters seem a bit stereotypical (a guy close to retirement who doesn’t want to bother with any actual work) and others bordering on the unlikeable, on the whole the team was believable, their interactions both credible and interesting.

I found conflicting information about whether this is the first book in the series, or just the first book that’s been translated into English, but either way I’ll definitely look for more DI Huss books by Helene Tursten.

Counts toward Europe in the 2012 Global Reading Challenge

Helene Tursten, Detective Inspector Huss originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 13, 2012.

Gene Tierney plays an advertising woman who’s murdered, and Dana Andrews plays the police inspector who falls for her, especially her portrait, after interviewing the men who loved her — Clifton Webb as Otto Lydecker, a newspaper columnist, and Vincent Price in a surprising turn as Shelby Carpenter, the film’s romantic lead — as well as Judith Anderson, a.k.a. Mrs. Danvers. You can see the characters in action here:

If you have a non-mystery lover in your life (??), “Laura” may be a movie you can watch together. It’s not only #4 on the AFI’s mystery list, but the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry for being ”culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It’s classic ’40s noir with a surprising twist that will change McPherson’s whole investigation, and maybe even his life.

AFI #4: “Laura” originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 10, 2012.

I listened on audiobook to the story of the murder of young Saville Kent, a three-year-old boy who was found stabbed with his throat slit and dumped in a privy at his family home, Road Hill House. At the time (1860s England), the case caused a tremendous sensation, in part because famed London detective Jack Whicher was sent to solve the locked-house crime. Unfortunately for Whicher, the case was already a couple of weeks old, and he was unaware of certain evidence until much too late to do anything with it. Under these circumstances, it’s not surprising that the person he ultimately accused wasn’t convicted of the crime. The story doesn’t end there, though; eventually, a member of the household comes forward to confess to the crime; and then, at the end, Summerscale comes forward with a theory of her own.

In short, the story is not told in the classic murder-investigation-solution format, nor is it just a mystery. Instead, the story winds around as new evidence or theories are revealed, and not always in chronological order. Summerscale also demonstrates how many aspects of the murder and investigation were incorporated into early crime fiction such as Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone (1868); and she simultaneously uses the case to demonstrate how the occupation of detective developed in mid-19th century England.

It’s a hard book to classify — is it history, true crime, mystery? In fact it bothered me sometimes that it was so weirdly hard to tell what is known fact and what is speculation. And it was a little like Patricia Cornwell’s attempt to solve the Jack the Ripper murders in that the author has her own solution to the crime, a theory first set forth by Mr. Whicher but not discussed until the end of the book.

I guess it’s clear by now that although I enjoyed listening to the book, at times it also frustrated me with its purpose that’s not clear until the very end (to offer a new solution to the crime) and its multiple themes that sometimes get in the way of each other. I definitely learned a lot about the history of detecting and the influence of this one case on crime fiction. It just takes a little patience to allow the various threads to come together.

Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 7, 2012.

I am not and never will be a shaman.

Dr. Siri Paiboun, however, discovers that he has 33 Teeth, a sure sign that he is a shaman, as he first discovered at the ripe old age of 72 in Colin Cotterill’s first Dr. Siri mystery, The Coroner’s Lunch. 33 Teeth takes place in 1976, and it involves a series of weird and unexplained deaths that the chief coroner of Laos, Dr. Siri, must try to figure out, despite an almost complete lack of medical and scientific instruments or assistance.

You have to be willing to believe that Dr. Siri could be a shaman, that he sees ghosts and that there might be a supernatural animal killing people. You also have to believe that a shaman could figure out how two badly charred bodies are connected to the royal family, and that he could meet the king without realizing it. But all of that is the charm of the series: serious issues addressed with cleverness and wit, so that you laugh even as you witness the deplorable conditions that people endure in communist, postwar Laos.

33 Teeth originally appeared on How Mysterious! on February 2, 2012.

The story begins with Beck’s fellow homicide officer, Gunvald Larsson, who is described as having “little understanding for human weaknesses,” scolding a regular officer, Zachrisson, for not being properly dressed or moving his feet enough to stay warm as he stands watch over a building where a suspected criminal lives. Larsson sends the officer away for a 30-minute break and is raising his arms to warm himself when the building explodes.

Larsson is a hero that day, saving a number of the building’s occupants, but three people die in the fire and he ends up with a concussion. You can imagine his surprise when he emerges from the hospital some days later to be told that the explosion was caused by the criminal’s suicide. But Larsson doesn’t think it all adds up, and he secretly investigates until fire investigators discover that in addition to the suicide by gas, there was an incendiary device planted in the man’s bed.

The fire engine in the title belongs to the child of one of the officers. That it disappeared is frustrating; but his complaint about it triggers another officer to figure out something odd that happened at the crime scene, and this in turn eventually leads the team to the solution–though only after a great deal of investigation, particularly by the new young officer, Skacke, whom fellow officer Kollberg can’t seem to stop pestering. (What happens in the last couple of pages of the book will surely influence that relationship!)

This book is less focused on Martin Beck than some of the earlier books, but a couple of important things happen to him, too. First, his young daughter Ingrid decides to move out, and urges him to do the same; and second, he deliberately lies to his wife in order to avoid vacationing with her and her dreadful brother. I feel there must be hope for him yet.

The Fire Engine that Disappeared also showcases Sjowall and Wahloo’s humor, often at the expense of the police. Here’s an example:

[Fredrick Melander] was generally known for his logical mind, his excellent memory and immovable calm. Within a smaller circle, he was most famous for his remarkable capacity for always being in the toilet when anyone wanted to get hold of him. His sense of humor was not nonexistent, but very modest; he was parsimonious and dull and never had a brilliant idea or sudden inspiration. Briefly, he was a first-class policeman.

This series continues to delight, and I’m happy to say that I’ve got Murder at the Savoy in my “gotta read soon” stack.

Sjowall and Wahloo, The Fire Engine that Disappeared originally appeared on How Mysterious! on January 31, 2012.

Agatha is M.C. Beaton’s former PR agent who retired to Carsely, in the English Cotswolds, but then her success as an amateur sleuth led her to open her own private detection agency. She’s abrasive, makes the same mistakes in her personal life time and again, and she drives both other characters and her readers nuts.

And, yet, she’s successfully run two different businesses. In As the Pig Turns, Agatha is navigating her agency and its assorted employees through the economic recession — lots of lost pets and divorce cases, nothing very interesting, but they pay the bills.

Poor Agatha has not one but two run-ins with the law, a local officer who tickets her for taking her hands off the wheel when she’s stopped in traffic and again for going 32 miles per hour. Everyone in the village hears her say she’d like to kill the man: “May he roast slowly over a spit in hell.” Of course, the man’s body turns up on the spit at a nearby village’s pig roast, with a pig’s head stitched on. Oh, Agatha. Her bad luck only turns worse when it turns out the dead police officer was connected to some unknown but violent criminal gang.

Series fans will also appreciate the return of Simon Black, some gumption from Mrs. Bloxby, Agatha’s clever use of a bedpan, and Agatha’s interest in her new gardener. In other words, endearing things that Agatha’s detractors would probably point out as flaws.

Perhaps Alice, a new officer on the local police force, provides Agatha’s best defense:

I’ve heard a lot about Mrs. Raisin…. She has had a lot of successes in the past. Everyone says she just blunders into things and gets lucky, but I think she must be clever.

M.C. Beaton, As the Pig Turns originally appeared on How Mysterious! on January 30, 2012.