Mysteries, thrillers and adventures

The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

2006-08-20T12:48:00.000-06:00

I LOVE this book series! If you haven't read any of them yet, you could have a treat in store.

The main characters in the books are a husband and wife team of archaeologists who are excavating in Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They have a son named Ramses (a great character too) and a stepdaughter called Nefret. Not only do I feel as if I know all four, I also seem to know many of the peripheral characters who keep recurring in all the books. The stories are great fun and I also love the characterization and dialogue. I often laugh out loud --- people look at me strangely on the bus!

The first one I read was "The Last Camel Died at Noon" and I think I picked it because I couldn't resist the title! Anyway i was hooked right away and couldn't wait to read more. This is not the first one I'd recommend though, because at that point Ramses is already twelve years old. However, the early books tell how Peabody and Emerson meet and marry, and there are lots of adventures before Ramses even appears on the scene. If you start with the early books you'll get to know the family, which is half the fun.

Although I've read them all several times, I never did collect the early books because at that time I didn't have space for them. So now I pick up the missing ones when I see them. I recently reread every one of the ones I have, because once I read one I get so into their world that I just want to read more and more.

If you like adventures stories like the Indiana Jones series, you'll LOVE these. Elizabeth Peters writes other series too, so be careful you get the right ones. Just look for Amelia's name on the back cover. I'd love to have your comments if you do read them!

I finished Anne Perry's Long Spoon Lane

2006-04-21T18:11:00.000-06:00

I finished Long Spoon Lane last night. As always with Anne Perry's books, I did enjoy it very much and looked forward to my nightly sojourn in Victorian London.

I feel as if I know Thomas and Charlotte Pitt, their maid Gracie and her "young man", Sergeant Tellman. And for me, that's one of the great things about reading series of books, with the same lead characters in each one. You begin to think of them as people, rather than just characters.

Perry's books can be just a little bit dark. Maybe it's the times she's writing about. Life was wonderful for the upper classes. She doesn't succumb to the temptation to make all the upper class people unpleasant, and Aunt Vespasia is Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould, who is one of the best people in the books. But life wasn't so great for many of the less fortunate classes, and that seems to be where much of the action takes place. So it can be kind of grim. But at the same time, the actual story lines and the intrigue that go with them are good enough that it's not a problem.

Another thing I've noticed about Anne Perry's books, and Long Spoon Lane is no exception, is that they don't always have nice neat endings with all the loose ends tight up tightly. Sometime people get away with things, and Pitt is devastated because he can't always "get the bad guy". I suspect that's the case more often than not in real life, especially back then when they didn't have the benefit of all the forensic advantages we have today. No DNA testing in Victorian England!

Anyway, again I heartily recommend Long Spoon Lane and any other Anne Perry books you come across. I'd love to hear your review of this or any other books you've read.

Long Spoon Lane, by Anne Perry

2006-04-19T11:16:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm now reading yet another novel by Anne Perry. I love her Victorian novels not only because of the characters and story lines, but also the way she evokes the era.

Each of Perry's novels is called by the name of either a district of London or a street in London. In this one, Long Spoon Lane is the street on which an explosion occurs and begins Pitt's investigation of police corruption and anarchy.

It's another of Perry's strengths that she uses the political events of the times to add to the stories and the atmosphere of the books. In Victorian England, anarchy was a new and frightening force. Mostly made up of young people from poor backgrounds, who felt the only way out of poverty was to get rid of the existing order and replace it with something else --- of course it's the nature of anarchy not to really know what that something else is.

In Long Spoon Lane, she evokes the sense of panic people are feeling about this new and terrifying violence that seems to affect guily and innocent alike. Mix in a measure of corruption in police and government, which the intrepid Pitt must track down, and you have the makings of a great read. I'm enjoying it a lot.

I finished "One Shot"

2006-04-17T15:40:00.000-06:00

I finished "One Shot" and although I enjoyed it a lot, I don't think it quite reaches the standard of the other Lee Child books I've read. The level of intensity was there, as well as the suspense, but the unveiling of the villain in the end wasn't as much of a shocker as the others.

Having said that, I still liked the book a lot and will be looking for more Lee Child offerings soon.

Do you tend to read your favourite authors over and over? Sometimes I think I'm in a bit of a rut, and I've noticed it even more since I began this blog. I've done a couple of Carolyn Harts already, and on this past holiday weekend I read another "The Cat Who..." book by Lilian Jackson Braun. And the one I'm reading now is another Anne Perry. After I finish this one I must go out and buy some mysteries by authors I haven't read at all. If you have some favourite authors you could recommend, I'd be thrilled to hear from you.

Meanwhile, I'll report soon on "Long Spoon Lane"

Something with a bit more substance now: Lee Child

2006-04-08T14:45:00.000-06:00

I've been reading a lot of lightweight mysteries lately, which I really enjoy. But sometimes I just want something a bit meatier. I'm in that frame of mind now, so I've started a new Lee Child book called "One Shot".

I was introduced to Lee Child a couple of years ago on vacation by my brother. Three of us read the book during the two-week vacation and I was the last. When I got to the bit in the last chapter when "whodunnit" was revealed, I actually gasped out loud because I was totally taken by surprise. Both the others who had read it smiled, because they had the same reaction.

Since then I've read a couple of more of his and had the same experience, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one unfolds. I must admit, it's been a bit slow to start over the first couple of chapters, but it's picking up now and getting interesting.

Child's protagonist is a strange guy called Jack Reacher. He is ex-army, ex-police and now pretty much of a loner. He moves around constantly, and nobody can ever find traces of him so I don't know what he does about papers. What can you say about somebody who lands in a new town, finds a cheap clothing store, buys a whole outfit including underwear for forty bucks, wears them until they are dirty and then ditches the lot for a new set? Apparently it saves him carrying any bags! Yep, quite a guy!

I'll let you know if "One Shot" is as good as his others.

Should they kill off people we already know?

2006-04-04T13:11:00.000-06:00

Because of the Carolyn Hart book I'm currently reading, "Murder Walks The Plank", I began to wonder about the practice of authors killing off characters who are regulars in their series. And of course we mystery readers know that for us they are not really characters, but people, and when they turn up regularly in many of the books in the series we feel as if we already know them.

The usual practice is for the victim of the murder to be someone who is introduced to the series only for the book in which they die --- in other words, a stranger. But sometimes they surprise us and make the victim a regular. I've seen Lilian Jackson Braun do this in her "The Cat Who..." books, and now Carolyn Hart...

What do you think of this? I must admit I'm not keen, especially when the victim is someone nice, or at least not horrible. Not too many writers do this, actually. I wonder why. Interesting.

I'm back to Carolyn Hart

2006-04-01T18:14:00.000-06:00

I went to my local bookshop this week and stocked up. I actually picked up two Carolyn Hart novels, which is unusual. But the ones I've been reading of hers lately are books I had on my shelves and had read before. Normally I feel lucky to find one new book by a favourite author, but to find two at the same time that I haven't read is a real thrill.

So last night I started "Murder Walks the Plank" and it promises to be as good as I've come to expect from the Annie and Max Darling stories.

Interestingly, the opening chapters are little vignettes about different characters and their relationship to one central character. I can't wait to see how they all tie together. I recently wrote about an author who tried to do this on a more detailed level, a la Robert Ludlum, but it didn't (for me anyway) quite come off. Carolyn Hart's version is for each little scene to be much less involved, just enough to make you interested before she whisks you off to the next one. It's a special talent, and just one of the many mystery writing talents of Carolyn Hart.

Because Annie Darling is the proprietor of a mystery bookstore called "Death On Demand", the author has a built in excuse to talk lots and lots about mysteries, which is clearly a passion for her. She quotes freely from some of the classic writers like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers (in fact her two cats are named after those two), as well as many I didn't know at all. Now when I go to the bookstores I take a list of those names and try to find some of their books --- although some are so old now that it's hard to find them. The great thing is that a great mystery is always a good read, and no matter how old and dated the story, it's still a treat for the real mystery lover!

Why don't you tell me about your favourite authors and books? I'd love to compare notes. Just comment on any of the posts, any time!

Yankee Doodle Dead

2006-03-24T09:03:00.000-06:00

I found myself with no new books to read yesterday --- sometimes happens, although not often because I like to keep some unread treasures on my shelves at all times.

Anyway, I don't mind at all rereading books, and I have whole collections by favourite authors that I often go back to. Yesterday I was in the mood for Carolyn Hart's Annie and Max Darling, so I picked up "Yankee Doodle Dead" and I'm enjoying it just as much as on the first reading. I can't remember "whodunnit", but even if I did I would still enjoy it.

The Annie and Max books are set on a fictitional island in the "low country" of South Carolina called Broward's Rock, where Annie owns a mystery bookstore called "Death On Demand". For such a small community, Broward's Rock sure has its share of murder and mayhem! This one takes place around the Fourth of July holiday --- hence the title --- and involves a whole new set of characters as well as regulars such as Miss Dora, the dowager from Chastain on the mainland, Max's mother Laurel, and Henny Brawley, Annie's favourite customer. Annie and Henny are both ardent mystery lovers, and are fond of firing quotations at each other to see if they can recognize them. I must admit, I am not in their class and don't know many of the authors, let alone the books and quotations.

As I said, I started the book yesterday and will probably finish it tonight, which is one of the joys of mystery stories. On the weekend I'll make sure I stock up on some new ones to start next week. I'll keep you posted.

Robert Ludlum he ain't!

2006-03-15T18:49:00.000-06:00

As a reader, I hate to give up on a book. In some books the storyline takes a while to build up, or the characters don't really become real for a bit. Even though I don't like that, I do persevere because I know things could get better. I could probably count on my fingers the number of books I've EVER started and then abandoned before I finished.

Well, I can now add "The Moscow Vector" to that list. Patrick Larkin is clearly trying to follow the Ludlum formula, but it's not an easy thing to do without the Ludlum talent! Larkin's writing is so self-conscious it intrudes into the reading process, which is not good. There's a difference between language that helps set a scene, and a bunch of words that just sound as if someone found them in a Thesaurus.

Another problem for Larkin is the vaunted Ludlum way of beginning in one location, such as Moscow, and telling just enough of a story to get the reader hooked, and then stopping, and starting another story in, say, London. He jumps around among these various stories and places, and eventually there's a thread that pulls the whole novel together in the end. The trouble is, that's a hard thing to pull off unless you are truly talented, as Ludlum was.

I've read about a quarter of the book, and honestly I couldn't really tell you much about it because my mind keeps wandering as I try to read. Rather than being intrigued, I'm just bored. So after using up three nights of my recreational reading time, I'm afraid I'm giving up on this one. I've also made a resolution: never buy another book with Robert Ludlum's name on it unless it was written by Robert Ludlum!

But is it really a Ludlum book?

2006-03-13T09:20:00.000-06:00

In my last post I ranted a bit about the book always being better than the movie (and having finished the Harry Potter book again, I'm even more convinced of that), but today I'm questioning another practice: that of one writer continuing the work of another.

I've always been a Robert Ludlum fan. I read everything from the early novels like The Osterman Weekend through The Bourne Identity (much better than the movie), and on through each new novel as it was released. If you're a fan, you'll know that Robert Ludlum died a few years ago, but a person wouldn't necessarily know that from glancing at the most recent books. Ludlum books have been rereleased for years, with the same picture of the author on the inside back cover. The blurb talks about his prolific writing career, but never mentions his death.

Now, a number of other authors have come into the picture. I didn't notice this at first, but when reading one of those books I suddenly thought the dialogue was "off" somehow --- just not what Robert Ludlum would have his characters say. That's when I realized I wasn't reading Robert Ludlum! I've just begun reading "The Moscow Vector", which is one of the Covert One books. On the cover it says, "Series created by Robert Ludlum, author Patrick Larkin". I don't know whether I'm biased, but even in the first few chapters I feel the book doesn't have the momentum a "real" Ludlum would have. But as I say, maybe I'm biased, so I'll reserve judgement until I've read the whole book.

Maybe if I read the other authors' books completely separately from the Ludlum books I would enjoy them better. I'm afraid, though, that this way I just see them as "no Robert Ludlum".

The book is always better

2006-03-10T11:26:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I watched the movie "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", and it just reinforced what I've always believed: when you can choose between a book and the movie, always go for the book!

Everyone raved about this movie when it came out last year in theatres, and I will admit it's quite well done. But I have two negative comments about it:

First, there are at least three storylines in the book that simply don't appear in the movie. I realize why, of course, because if everything was there the movie would last about eight hours! But still, it's a powerful argument in favour of the book.

Second, and I think this is very important with recurring characters and themes, although the director's vision of Harry and his friends, as well as Hogwarts, and train and all the other things that make the stories special, are quite well matched to the book, still they are not MY vision. That's the beauty of a book --- you are the director, you can see, hear and feel it exactly the way YOU want it.

But watching the movie put me in a "Harry" mood, so I'm rereading this story now and loving it.

I finished Bedford Square

2006-03-09T09:43:00.000-06:00

I finished "Bedford Square", and I can tell you I was kept guessing until the last page!

Do you often figure out "whodunnit"? Of course it's hard not to try to guess who did the crime, but one of my criteria for judging a really good mystery is that I didn't get it right. In fact, it's kind of disappointing when I do guess.

I'm moving on to something different now because although I do enjoy Anne Perry's Victorian atmosphere, I need a rest from it now. I'll let you know what I'm reading next after I decide!

In the meantime, what are YOU reading?

Anne Perry's "Bedford Square"

2006-02-26T15:24:00.000-06:00

Recently I seem to have been revisiting favourite books I've read before, sometimes more than once. One of the mystery authors whose works I collect is Anne Perry, and when I start reading her stuff I find I want to read more than one. I think the reason for that is that she sucks me into the world she writes about and I need to read more books to stay there.

Perry's specialty is detective stories set in Victorian England, and she is a master at creating the environment. She does it through her characters, but also through the type of language they use (which is vastly different from the English of the 21st Century), her mention of the events that were happening at that time, and her description of the London that existed then.

Let me give you an example from "Bedford Square".

"He looked up from his desk as Pitt cam into his room. It was a sultry day outside, and the windows were open, allowing in the noise of traffice fro mthe street below, the rattle of carriage wheels, the occasional cry of a coachman or hansom driver, the heavy rumble of brewers' drays, the sharper treble of crossing sweepers hoping for a penny, peddlers calling their wares: bootlaces, flowers, sandwiches, matches." Quite different from the traffic sounds of today, eh?

Perry has two series, one featuring Superintendent Thomas Pitt, his wife Charlotte, their intrepid maid Gracie, and Charlotte's rich and titled in-law, Great-Aunt Vespasia. Bedford Square is in this series. The other series, which I like a little less, stars William Monk and his wife Hester. Of course, in Victorian times the likelihood of wives taking any active part in these adventures would be slim to none, but we mystery lovers are good at suspending our disbelief in the interests of entertainment!

I'll report further on Bedford Square as I read on. In the meantime, what are you reading? Send me your comments!

Hawk

2006-02-09T13:46:00.000-06:00

Hawk is one of the best characters in all my favourite detective novels, and he's just come into the plot in "Bad Business".

I can never quite make up my mind whether Hawk is a good guy or a bad guy, and the author does a great job of keeping me guessing. I mean, he does carry a very big gun -- a Magnum -- and he drives fast, expensive cars and wears expensive, stylish clothes. We're never really told where he gets his money, but dark hints are dropped.

Hawk is always there for Spenser, and whatever his other clients pay him for his work, when he works for Spenser he usually gets paid in donuts!

His dialogues with Spenser are wonderful. Hawk switches between African American hip hop dialect and the King's English with ease, depending on the situation and how he's feeling. The interracial kidding that goes on between him and Spenser makes you wish everyone could get along so well.

What do you think about Hawk?

Spenser --- I just love the way he uses words!

2006-02-07T18:23:00.000-06:00

Robert B. Parker has created a fascinating persona for his private detective, Spenser. Nobody knows, by the way, what his first name is because everyone, including Susan, calls him Spenser!

But although he is clearly a tough character—ex-cop, ex-professional boxer, all round tough guy—he is also highly educated and intellectual. Susan is a PhD, and he is intellectually her equal. He often quotes Shakespeare's plays and other classics, and always in a way that fits the situation, so it never feels forced.

But it's the way he expresses just simple ideas that makes me chuckle. Here are a couple of quotes from "Bad Business".

Talking about a new female client: "She shifted a little in the chair. she was wearing yellow sling-back heels and no stockings. Her legs were tan. It was May. I suspected artifice."

After a stiff workout in the gym: "At four in the afternoon, sound of muscle and pure of mind, with a tall can of Budweiser to replenish my electrolytes, I drove back to Kinergy and waited for Rowley to come out."

And one more, in a conversation with his friend Healy, the policy officer: "I gave him my big charming smile. 'Better late than never', I said. 'Yeah,' Healy said, 'sure.' My big charming smile generally worked better with women."

It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it makes me chuckle, and it makes the Spenser books even more fun to read.

What do you think?

The Spenser novels

2006-02-06T12:34:00.000-06:00

I've just started reading a Robert B. Parker novel from 2004 called "Bad Business". Although Parker has a couple of other series, and they're both good, I have to say Spenser is my favourite.

I have a feeling Spenser is based on the man the author would like to be himself! The photo on the back cover is of a man who is quite good looking, but probably not quite as much as he thinks he is! The author's dog also looks like the same breed as "Pearl the Wonder Dog" in the stories.

There's lots of action and intrigue in these stories, but I think what I like best is the characters. I feel as if I know them all: Spenser, the love of his life Dr. Susan Silverman, the mysterious good/bad guy Hawk, the long suffering police inspectors Healy and Quirk, and even some of the villains who keep popping up in several of the books. I also love the dialogue, which makes me chuckle even as I'm wondering what is coming next.

I keep my mystery reading strictly for evening, particularly bedtime reading, or otherwise I'd never get anything done! So it can take me almost a week to finish a book, although sometimes I can't resist reading on until it's done. Anyway, I'll comment on "Bad Business" on the blog as I work my way through it this week. If anybody else out there has read it, feel free to leave a comment --- but don't give away the plot!

Do you read your mysteries more than once?

2006-01-30T18:31:00.000-06:00

I've heard people say that because a mystery is, well, a mystery—and because you always know the answer when you finish the book—there's no point in reading it again. In fact, I used to think that myself. But no longer. I have books on my shelves that I've read not once or twice, but several times, and this includes mysteries.

I don't know about you, but when I find an author I like, I buy all their books as they come out. So, just as a couple of examples, I have whole collections of novels by Carolyn Hart, Ann Granger, Robert Ludlum, Lilian Jackson Braun, Anne Perry, Elizabet Peters, Peter Robinson and more. Take the "cat who" books by Lilian Jackson Braun. I think I probably have about 15 of them by now. They are all set in the same fictional city of Pickax in Moose County (400 miles north of everywhere, as the author likes to tell us in each book), and there are a number of people (as well as two Siamese cats) that appear in all the books. So that makes for a certain familiarity to the books, but that's not a bad thing. Remember, this is escapist reading, not great literature. So after a while, the stories kind of blend together in my mind and as long as I don't read the same book again TOO soon, I don't remember how it turns out, so it doesn't matter.

The other thing about a good mystery, is that you enjoy the development of the characters almost as much as solving the mystery. I love Jim Qwilleran of the "cat who" stories. Carolyn Hart's Annie Darling is someone I feel I know. And Ann Granger's Mitchell and Markby are old friends who have driven me mad with their second-guessing of one another over the years. Why wouldn't you want to visit old friends and hear their stories again?

Of course it's still a thrill to find a new writer I like and to begin another collection. Mystery lovers usually appreciate both the new and the familiar.

What about you? Add your comment and let us know what you think.

"Dead Man's Island" and other marooned mysteries

2006-01-29T12:57:00.000-06:00

I've just finished a Ken Follett book, "Whiteout". It's one of those stories in which a group of people is marooned in a country home because of a prolonged blizzard. This is more of a thriller than a mystery, and I'll write about it in another post.

It did remind me, though, of this tried and true formula for mystery suspense novels. I suppose the granddaddy of them all was Agatha Christie's "10 Little Indians". Ten murder suspects are all cooped up in a castle — I think it was on an island but it's such a long time since I read it that I don't quite remember. Anyway, they all kept getting bumped off one by one and the trick was to guess who the murderer was before the last one fell. Nobody does this kind of thing quite like Agatha, but some others have come close. One is Carolyn Hart.

Ms Hart has two mystery series, one starring Annie and Max Darling, and the other Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins—affectionately known as Henrie O. "Dead Man's Island" stars Henrie O. It was published in 1993.

She is a retired newspaper reporter who has travelled around the world in that work. Now she's in her sixties, and her talents have made her into an intrepid amateur detective. I like her feisty personality, and the fact that some sad episodes in her past life have helped shape it. Like most heroines of detective fiction, she can be a bit over the top, but the author helps us suspend our disbelief very nicely.

In "Dead Man's island", Henrie O has been invited by an old lover, now an arrogant media magnate and obscenely rich, to come to his private island and find out who has been trying to kill him. On the island, of course, there is a selection of people with reasons to kill him (why do these people surround themselves with people who hate them?) and much jealousy and tension among the group.

Add to this the fact that the island is in the path of a deadly hurricane, and you've got all the ingredients for a great read for detective fiction fans like us. The descriptions of the hurricane and what they all have to do to survive (and of course they don't all survive) are well done, and of course Henrie O can't just think of escaping the wind and the waves because the murderer is still at large. Oh this is pure escapist fare!

Has anyone else read "Dead Man's Island"? What do you think of Henrie O? Or have you read anything else by Carolyn Hart, or any other "marooned" type mysteries?

By the way, if you are new to blogs and don't know how they work, click on the Comments link below to leave your comments and that will continue the discussion. If you want to tell a friend about this blog, click on the envelope icon below and send them an e-mail. I'll be looking for your comments. I do plan to post regularly, so do come back often.

Want to talk about the books you're reading?

2006-01-28T14:20:00.000-06:00

This blog is very different from my usual writings, which tend to be in the realm of business. But I'm excited about this new space and I hope it will make me lots of new reading pals.

Here's why I am starting the blog. I love mystery novels—everything from the classic English "whodunnit" in the style of Agatha Christie to the hard-boiled detective stories of folks like Robert B. Parker, the whimsical "Cat who" stories of Lilian Jackson Braun and almost everything in between. I'm also a big fan of thrillers of a certain type. I say that because I don't like lots of blood and gore, and I don't like violence for its own sake, but I like to be kept up late a night because I can't put the book down. Authors that do that for me include Robert Ludlum, Lee Childs and Harlan Coben. The other genre I call adventure stories, and one of my favourite series in this category is the Amelia Peabody stories from Elizabeth Peters.

Long ago I used to work in a company where there were quite a few of us mystery/thriller/adventure readers, and we all loved to exchange views about what we liked and what we were reading, and add more titles to our "must read" lists. Somehow I don't have many people in my circle now who like to do that, or at least not a bunch who get together very often. And I miss that.

I went on the Internet to see if I could find a blog or community already established, but I was disappointed. When I searched on terms like "mystery novel" I'd get a posting or a site that mentioned the words, but they weren't really devoted to discussions about mystery novels. So finally I decided to start my own—and here I am.

I don't know how many folks will read this, but I'll do my best to build the readership so that there will be lots of comments and chat about the books we've read and loved, or read and hated, are currently reading or plan to read. Obviously I'm the only one who can put up new posts, but I do want your comments. If you want to start a new book topic, just post a comment to the last one, and I'll put up the post that will open up the discussion. And if you like the blog, please do tell your friends who like these types of books about it so that they can join us too.

Well that's it for my first post, just to let you know why I'm doing this. Next time I'll write about a book or author that's on my favourites list.