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Readingomnivore Reviews

BACKHAND SMASH is the latest to date in J. M. Gregson’s DCI Percy Peach series. It was published in 2015 in the UK, with the US edition available in e-book format in 2016. The whole Brunton CID is back in BACKHAND SMASH, but the story concentrates on new graduate-entry PC Elaine Brockman and DS Clyde Northcott, DCI Peach’s black legman. “[Clyde] gave the slightest smile of satisfaction and leaned forward to loom over his adversary, so that Catterick instinctively flinched six inches away from him. Peach didn’t quite understand how he did it, but Northcott had the capacity to loom over other people whilst sitting down. He admired this rare quality in his legman.”

Olive Crenshaw, longtime influential member of the Birch Fields Tennis Club who’s determined to broaden the social class and ethnic membership of the club, proposes Clyde for membership and railroads both him and the admissions committee into accepting. Elaine has belonged to Birch Fields since she was twelve years old; she becomes Clyde’s mentor on club behavior and manners, while he mentors her at Brunton CID. Two men in whom Clyde and Peach are interested professionally also belong to Birch Fields: Jason Fitton, whose father built Fitton Metals, the power base from which Jason has built a lucrative criminal organization, and Younis Hafeez, first Pakistani member of Birch Fields, for whom Jason is a middleman in procuring young girls and boys for sale to sexual predators down south. Then Jason is found dead in his car in the Birch Fields parking lot the morning after the club’s summer ball. Which of his enemies garroted him?

The relationship between the continuing characters is one of the great strengths of this series. Introduction of the new PC Elaine Brockman provides opportunity for new insights into character and for drama as her relationship with Clyde develops. Enough is given of the team members’ personal lives to create the sense of real people whose lives continue between stories. DS Lucy Blake Peach, formerly Percy’s legman and now his wife, is pregnant; she, Percy, and her mother are ecstatic. Gregson skillfully uses shifts in point of view to reveal personalities.

Gregson keeps readers’ attention focused firmly away from the killer’s identity, though the motive for Jason’s murder is fairly given. The denouement hints that investigation into Jason Fitton’s criminal empire will not conclude with the arrest of his killer.

Setting is not emphasized, but there are moments of vivid detail: “The sun was invisible now, though they could see it gilding the woods and the hills away to their right, towards Whitewell and the glories of Bowland. This was the area the Queen had once said was her favourite part of Britain. Percy hadn’t much time for royalty or the establishment in general, but he thought that in this matter his monarch had shown excellent taste. As they ran through the valley along the long flank of Longridge Fell, the sun emerged again, dipping away towards the sea on the Fylde coast twenty miles to the west.”

BACKHAND SMASH is another well-crafted entry in this strong police procedural series. (A-)
 
“A Lamb for a Sheep” is the Romney and Marsh short story included in Oliver Tidy’s anthology THREE SHORT BLASTS. Published in 2016, THREE SHORT BLASTS also includes a story each from his Booker and Cash and from his Acer Sansom series. It’s intended to give a new reader a sample of his characters and his writing style.

DI Tom Romney and DS Joy Marsh are on the cliffs at Dover when a violent storm blows up; they take shelter in an old WWII gun emplacement where Marsh, poking around in the detritus finds Jacques, an old homeless man well known to Romney. Jacques is dying from stab wounds, and mobile phone service is dead. In short order arrives an assortment of potential suspects: Albert Green, a solicitor who’d concealed himself for half an hour while planning his suicide off the cliffs; middle-aged honeymooners Alan and Juliet Blackwell; a tall, heavily built man who refuses to give his name, referring to himself as a “gentleman traveller”; and Dougie, an addict and drug dealer also well known to Dover police. Jacques becomes conscious long enough to say that he hears his assassin’s voice but dies before he can name his killer. Since they cannot summon backup, Romney decides to solve the murder the old fashioned way, by interrogation and application of his experience and reasoning. Can he do it?

I can’t say more about the plot without doing a spoiler, but Tidy has a couple of neat surprises before it ends. Some humor enlivens the action. He uses what Romney says and what Marsh thinks to contrast their personalities and attitudes: “From his signals, Marsh understood that Romney was expecting her to pay close attention to the suspects and not him. She knew that part of his grandstanding, his pontificating was designed to make him the centre of their collective attention thereby rendering her more invisible in order that she might observe, notice and form opinions on her own. Just occasionally, her boss didn’t play the knob for nothing.” Much of the story consists of dialogue. Sense of place is conveyed through details of landscape with occasional brief descriptions of the storm.

“A Lamb for a Sheep” is a good story. (B+)
 
DEATH IN LA FENICE is the first book in Donna Leon’s long-running mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police. It was published in 1992 and is available in e-book format.

When Maestro Helmut Wellauer fails to return for the third act of the opera he’s conducting at Teatro La Fenice, he’s found dead of cyanide poisoning in his dressing room. Brunetti is assigned the high-profile case with instructions to finish it quickly. As he investigates, he discovers the acclaimed musical genius had many secrets, including his association with the Nazis before and during World War II, his homophobia and destructive influence used against gays and other musicians, and his womanizing. Does Wellauer’s death stem from current grievances or from the distant past?

The plot in DEATH IN LA FENICE is carefully crafted with a multitude of suspects and motives, though its conclusion is fairly foreshadowed. A careful reader may discern why Wellauer had to die and who’s responsible before Brunetti, who then must choose which he will serve, the letter of the law or the cause of justice.

Leon’s sense of place, especially the atmosphere of Venice, is outstanding: “The next morning was as dismal as his mood. A thick fog had appeared during the night, seeping up from the waters on which the city was built, not drifting in from the sea. When he stepped out of his front door, cold, misty tendrils wrapped themselves around his face, slipped beneath his collar. He could see clearly for only a few metres, and then vision grew cloudy, buildings slipped into and out of sight, as though they, and not the fog, shifted and moved. Phantoms, clothed in a nimbus of shimmering grey, passed him on the street, floated by as though disembodied. If he turned to follow them with his eyes, he saw them disappear, swallowed up by the dense film that filled the narrow streets and lay upon the waters like a curse.” (242)

What I most enjoy about DEATH IN LA FENICE is Leon’s construction of character. She creates believable human beings in realistic situations with glimpses of back story and family life to reveal personality and motivation. Brunetti, through whose eyes we see the action, is a complex man given to introspection but one who doesn’t take himself too seriously: “As [Brunetti] walked, he reflected on how very little he had learned about the dead man. No, he had a great deal of information, but it was all strangely out of focus, too formal and impersonal. A genius, a homophobe, adored by the world of music, a man whom a woman half his age would love, but still a man whose substance was elusive. Brunetti knew some of the facts, but he had no idea of the reality. He walked on and considered the means by which he had acquired his information. He had the resources of Interpol at his command, he had the full cooperation of the German police, and he had sufficient rank to call upon the entire police system of Italy. Obviously, then, the most reliable way to get accurate information about the man was to address himself to the unfailing source of all information--gossip.” (88-9) Other individuals are also well-developed.

DEATH IN LA FENICE convinces me that I want to follow this character. (solid A)
 
Brent Purvis’s MINK ISLAND is a free or inexpensive e-book published in 2014. It features Alaska State Trooper LieutenantJim Wekle, recently transferred to Craig, Alaska, on Prince of Wales Island, one of the islands of the Inner Passage of Southeast Alaska. The day he arrives, a woman’s body clad in a bikini is recovered from the sea. Not only is it improbable that even on 1 June anyone would swim in the frigid water, but she has a bullet in her back. Wekle has one trooper Tavis Spurgeon, a dispatcher / office manager Shelly Gurtzen, no forensics backup, no friends, and no place to live. Welcome to Craig.

I was tempted at a couple of points to give up on MINK ISLAND, but I’m glad I persevered. Characterization is good. Jim Wekle is a sympathetic protagonist, self-deprecating and sensitive to the public: “Jim Wekle was not a believer in everything always being by the book. He believed that he was employed to keep the peace and to keep people safe. On a place like Prince of Wales Island, not all laws would necessarily be strictly enforced, but some more local-friendly handling of petty infractions might help Jim achieve the desired result; Jim felt as though he did have some way of getting Hauler Steve to slow down a bit but shutting Steve down for lack of paperwork and slamming a huge fine on him probably wouldn’t accomplish a positive result.” Purvis creates an interesting community in Craig, especially Wekle’s landlord Kram, an aging ex-rock star whose brain may or may not be fried from 1980s drug use, who’s bred and is raising a new variety of mink.

Sense of place is developed with bits of history that add verisimilitude: “Creek Street [in Ketchikan] wasn’t actually a street, but rather a wooden boardwalk that followed a short length of the historic Ketchikan Creek. Back in the old days, Creek Street was a red light district that was frequented by fishermen. The saying goes, ‘Ketchikan Creek was a famous spawning grounds for fish and fishermen alike.’ Now historic buildings built on stilts hanging over the creek featured shops, restaurants and the famous Red Light Museum that attracted visitors daily.”

The plot sprawls, encompassing a second murder, a series of local break-ins, efficient drug-dealing in prescription pain killers with surprising criminals, an ex-US Senator out to get Jim, Jim’s adapting to Prince of Wales Island and its people, and two tragicomic secondary story lines. One involves the retirement dreams of Bill and Gladys Fetcherson, who’ve sold up and plan to spend two years seeing North America in their 2010 Luxury Coachman Plus RV, getting stuck on Prince of Wales the third day into their adventure, after which things go downhill fast. The second involves the Torcaderos Yachting Club (four sailboats, four elderly retired couples), local response to its annual regatta (the four sailboats), and the club’s plans for revenge. Either subplot is worth the price of the book (the story of the memorial service that Bill and Gladys stage for Snookums, the pet poodle eaten by an eagle, is that by itself), and either is sufficient to keep reading to see where Purvis is taking it next.

There are some significant editorial problems. Plurals and possessives use apostrophes incorrectly. The text needs proofreading and correction, not just spell-checking. “Quite” and “quiet” are not the same world; neither are “discreet” and “discrete,” nor “palate” and “palette.” Purvis is inconsistent in how he refers to Jim Wekle, but he identifies Tavis Spurgeon as “the young trooper” each time. Mink are carnivores to the point of cannibalism and notoriously difficult if not impossible to tame (“wild as a mink”), so it seems doubtful that Jim’d be able to tame one with crackers or that Oscar (who turns out to be a female, pregnant) would stockpile carbohydrate foods for her kits. More importantly, the other town on Prince of Wales Island is moveable. In the first reference to Hollis, it’s specifically located on the west side (seaward) of the island; within the same paragraph, it’s on the east side of the island. Another thorough revision could greatly improve the writing style and heighten the impact of the story.

While MINK ISLAND is not a polished product, it’s easy for the reader to overlook its flaws. I hope it will become the first in a series. (B)
 
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A LAMB’S TALE is the second book in J. J. Salkeld’s new Natural Detective series featuring Owen Irvine, who’s now working as a mechanic specializing in agricultural machinery. He’s in a low-keyed relationship with DC Kathy Stone as he prepares himself for son Danny’s leaving home for Durham University. A LAMB’S TALE was published in e-book format in 2015.

Owen can’t help getting involved when farming neighbor Brian Thwaite is accused of rustling thirty young ewes from another neighbor Pete Timpson. Thwaite’s story of being told by a walker that sheep are out on the road puts him on the scene of the robbery, and he has a youthful conviction for rustling sheep. Police and neighbors alike assume his guilt. Nor can Owen fail to be intrigued by local feed merchant Tony Lancaster’s taking orders and payment from customers but not delivering; he’s been the victim of a phishing scam that’s cleaned out his bank accounts. His bank and the police think he’s set the situation up himself. As Owen works with DC Stone, both cases take on unexpected ramifications.

A LAMB’S TALE is unusual in that it does not involve murder. It’s police procedural in format, with Owen functioning almost as an auxiliary policeman. DI Andy Hall’s team from Kendal CID is on the scene, this time the story concentrating on DC Kathy Stone. All are frustrated by cutbacks in budget and manpower that impede their ability to prevent crimes and to catch and prosecute criminals. Crime bosses like Sammy Butler know and plan to take full advantage of the situation. Its conclusion is realistic.

One of the strengths of the series is the relationship between characters, both professional and personal. Character are believable with realistic back stories, emotional baggage, personality quirks. Owen is appealingly human: “[Kathy’d] spent her whole life round men like Owen Irvine, single-minded, obstinate bastards every one. And there was something in his expression, too. The kind of anger that he hardly ever showed, but which she knew was always there, resolute and unflinching.” A good man to have a friend or neighbor’s back.

Setting is less well developed than in the first book in the series INVASIVE SPECIES. Still, A LAMB’S TALE is well worth the time. (B)
 
MURDER IN THE MIND is book six in Bruce Beckham’s mystery series featuring DI Daniel Skelgill of the Cumbria CID. It was published in e-book format in 2016.

Skelgill is “volunteered” by his Chief to donate a weekend’s fishing as part of an auction at a local conference. Through this, he meets Dr. Agnetha Walker, a psychologist-consultant at Haresfell, a high-security mental facility for serial killers and other dangerous inmates. Shortly thereafter, he and DS Leyton find themselves at Haresfell, investigating first unexplained shortfalls in medications, then the death of patient Frank Wamphrey, apparently of a heart attack. At the same time, famed serial killer Harry Krille escapes from a gardening detail. The next day convicted serial killler Meredith Bale, who’s written Krille love letters, also escapes after attacking psychologist Dr. Helen Pettigrew and leaving her for dead. Skelgill and Leyton discover a Manchester-Broadmoor connection involving both escaped prisoners; Dr. Peter Pettigrew, head of psychiatric services; Dr. Walker; Briony Boss, the director of Haresfell; Eric Blalock head of Security; and Arthur Kerr, nurse permanently assigned to both Krille and Bale. What on earth is going on at Haresfell?

I am disappointed in MURDER IN THE MIND. For one thing, characterization is not as crisp as in previous books in the series. While I don’t expect as much development of continuing characters, even the new characters are not satisfying. Each might as well be wearing a sign saying, “Look out, shady character”--their actions and reactions are too blatant for Skelgill as a normally suspicious policeman to take at face value as he seems to do. DC Emma Jones is seconded to an undercover assignment with despised DI Alec Smart; Skelgill’s interaction with DS Leyton consists of sending him hither and thither without much explanation.

Beckham uses a story-telling device that interrupts the flow of the story. He leads up to a pivotal moment at the end of a chapter, starts the next chapter off somewhere else at a later time, then flashes back. It’s frustrating and used so often that it loses its effectiveness. Beckham does not keep the reader apprised of what Skelgill knows or thinks as events unfold. The interconnections between the Haresfell characters are too convoluted and long lasting to seem probable. The mastermind is telegraphed.

Easily the strongest element in MURDER IN THE MIND is Beckham’s evocation of place and atmosphere: “The scene is pleasant, despite the drizzle, a wooded gorge lined by gnarled alders and oaks. The motion of the river both mesmerises and lulls--its rocky bed and shallow nature conjures a perpetually changing pattern of sight and sound, ripples and eddies that ebb and flow and splash and swoosh with a certain improvised harmony. A dipper buzzes past, and then performs an acrobatic turn to land upon a half-submerged stone. Small songbird though it might be, it bobs once or twice, showing off its smart evening suit, and then plunges recklessly into the torrent. A few moments later it emerges several yards downstream, popping up onto another boulder, now with its dinner wriggling in its beak.”

MURDER IN THE MIND is at best average, not up to the series standard. (C)
 
A CASE FOR MURDER is a true-crime book by Burl Barer and Frank C. Giradot, Jr., telling the story of the murder of Jose Francisco “Frank” Rodriguez by his wife Angelia “Angie” Rodriquez in September 2000 in Montebello, Los Angeles County, California. It was published in free or inexpensive e-book format in 2016.

Frank Rodriguez was a good guy--devoted husband, loving stepfather, devout Pentecostal Christian and churchgoer, former alcoholic who’d turned his life around, and teacher at Angel Gate Academy, a boot-camp facility treating troubled teenagers. He died following a week of illness, diagnosed on a Thursday at the Emergency Room of Kaiser Hospital in Baldwin Bark as food poisoning. His wife Angie found him dead on Saturday morning. Her behavior aroused suspicions in first responders, but autopsy revealed nothing to account for his death. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Division Deputy Brian Steinward and Sergeant Joe Bob Holmes took on the case, with Angie identified immediately as the primary person of interest since she’d been the one caring for Frank and also the beneficiary of a $250,000 life insurance policy.

As Steinward and Holmes awaited an official ruling on the cause of death, they discovered Angie’s background to be one of extreme poverty, incestuous sexual abuse by her paternal grandfather from age eight throughout her teen years, at least two sudden deaths in her family when the incest was exposed, life as a scam artist, sexual promiscuity and multiple marriages, along with possibly killing her toddler daughter Alicia to collect $50,000 in insurance and a multi-million dollar settlement from Gerber. Angie was convinced that she was smarter than the police and that she could manipulate their investigation. The police played her into revealing that she’d poisoned Frank first with a tea made from oleander and, when he didn’t die quickly enough, then with ethylene glycol (antifreeze) administered in sports drinks prescribed for his “food poisoning.” While she was in jail awaiting trial, Angie solicited the murder of her good friend Palmira Gorham who was to testify to Angie’s plans for Frank’s death; she later added Mira’s boy-friend and children to the list. Angie Rodriguez attempted to manipulate the system until the end, when she was found guilty of first degree murder with special circumstances (murder for financial gain). The jury recommended the death penalty, and Judge William Pounder sentenced Angie to the gas chamber.

Several things weaken the impact of A TASTE FOR MURDER. There are no sources for specific incidents, other than “newspaper accounts, police records, court documents.” There is no bibliography. Despite the claims about Angie’s horrific upbringing, it’s apparently based only on interviews without further evidence. Angie tried her best to convince the police that Frank had been poisoned by a co-worker at Angel Gate, Peter Robespierre (his name is given later as Holloway) whom Frank had reported for sexually molesting students; nothing’s cited to show that Frank ever made the complaint or if it had any basis in fact. The authors bring in unrelated poisonings, trials, and death row inmates that serve mostly as padding. After minute explication of the events leading up to Angie’s arrest, the trial process speeds past with minimal detail given. Angie’s lawyers are barely mentioned, with cross-examination of witnesses and defense arguments amount to less than four paragraphs of text. Oleander is telegraphed in the first pages of A TASTE FOR MURDER; ethylene glycol has become a poison of choice in recent years in both literature and life.

What I find hardest to grasp is the reported behavior of Angie’s relatives in the face of incest that was common knowledge within the family. When Angie told first her grandmother, then an uncle, about the incest, each died shortly thereafter. No one apparently suspected anything or did anything about Angie’s situation. In the same manner, Angie had talked widely, especially to Mira Gorham and her family, about ways and means of killing Frank. She’d told them about loosening gas connections in their home some four months after their marriage, hoping to kill him by suffocation or through a gas explosion. Mira’s mother and boy-friend suggested the use of oleander. But no one warned Frank or expressed disapproved of her plans. What were people thinking?

In the epilogue, Barer and Girardot speculate on Angie’s having an alternative personality as Victoria, set up to protect herself as Angie’s body was being raped by her grandfather. Victoria, not Angie, was responsible for her life and her decision to murder her husband.

A TASTE FOR MURDER isn’t worth the time. (F)
 
Penelope Swan’s DARCY REVEALED is a fan-fiction variant of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was published in free or inexpensive e-book format in 2015.

Some five months following Bingley’s leaving Netherfield, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet are on a long-term visit to Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in Gracechurch Street when a mix-up in the modiste’s delivery of Jane and Georgiana Darcy’s dresses leads them back into the orbit of Bingley and his friend Fitzwilliam Darcy. Neither Elizabeth nor Darcy has forgotten the other. Darcy straightens out the problem and uses it to introduce Elizabeth and her family to Georgiana and her new friend Miss Amy St John. Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy begins to change, his perception of the inadequacies of Elizabeth’s background softens. Then George Wickham arrives in London in pursuit of Mary King, who’s inherited £10,000 and expects to become engaged to him forthwith. Elizabeth flares up at Darcy when he gives Wickham the cut direct in Hyde Park; she agrees to take a letter from Wickham to Mary King, supposedly to say goodbye since her uncle Horace King has forbidden communication. Except it contains a secret message written in invisible ink (lemon juice which becomes visible when the paper is heated gently) setting up an elopement, and Elizabeth realizes she’s seen Georgiana and Amy poring over papers written on the same distinctive stationery. Can she and Darcy rescue Georgiana from Wickham’s clutches a second time?

As Austen fan fiction goes, DARCY REVEALED is above average. It’s reasonably faithful to the original characters and introduces only a few new ones, most notably Mary King as an on-stage presence and Amy St John. Mary King, in her boasting to Elizabeth about her expected engagement to Wickham, is distinctly reminiscent of Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility, lording it over Elinor Dashwood with her engagement to Edward Ferrars. Amy St John serves as a focus for Elizabeth’s jealousy, reminiscent of Emma Woodhouse when she thinks Mr. Knightley and Harriet Smith may become a couple. The major change is in Georgiana Darcy. Not only is Georgiana not traumatized from her failed elopement from Ramsgate the previous year, she’s still madly in love with Wickham and plans a second flight with him. Only Elizabeth and Darcy are dynamic characters, with Darcy receiving less attention than implied by the title. Most of the story is still from Elizabeth’s viewpoint.

Swan rearranges sequences and locations of action in DARCY REVEALED. Mr. Collins has not come to Longbourn, so he and Charlotte Lucas are not married, there’s no visit to Kent or Rosings and therefore no previous proposal from Darcy to Elizabeth. Darcy tells Elizabeth about Wickham’s background when he explains why she can’t deliver Wickham’s letter to Mary King. Bingley and Jane, then Darcy and Elizabeth, become engaged at the Gardiners’ home in Cheapside. Swan also moves into her story chunks of dialogue from scenes not shown in DARCY REVEALED. The physical landmarks and streets of London lend authenticity to the locale, but there’s little atmosphere. She uses “Bennett” as Elizabeth’s family name, though Austen spells it “Bennet.”

DARCY REVEALED is a pleasant quick read, but it can’t compare with the masterwork. (B)
 
Donna Leon’s DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY is the second in her Commissaro Guido Brunetti series set in Venice, Italy. It was published in 1993.

DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY opens with the discovery of the body of U. S. Army Sergeant Mike Foster, stationed at the post outside Vicenza, in Venice; he’s apparently been stabbed during a robbery gone bad. Thieves steal three priceless paintings from the Venetian palazzo of Milanese businessman Augusto Viscardi in an apparent insurance fraud. As Brunetti investigates, his boss Vice-Questore Patta makes it clear that both cases are to be accepted at face value and closed quickly. The Foster murder involves pressure from both the Vicenza Carabiniari and the Americans, along with the apparent death by suicidal heroin overdose by his immediate commanding officer and lover, Captain (Doctor) Terry Peters. Before her murder, she sends Brunetti the medical record of a boy she’d treated for a mysterious skin problem along with a journal article that suggests its cause. Brunetti connects the cases and discovers the perpetrators.

Like good science fiction, mysteries often deal with social problems contemporary with their writing. Without doing a spoiler, so does DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY. The plot is a bit thin at the point of connection of the two story lines, and the conclusion is frustrating. Brunetti is devastated to realize who’s at least partially responsible for the murder of three people (a petty crook involved in the Viscardi theft as well as the two Americans), and the pervasive corruption and influence of Italian government and business make it impossible to bring any to justice. That Viscardi gets what he has coming is small satisfaction.

Brunetti is a lone-wolf investigator. His subordinates do most of the legwork and produce results he uses, but Brunetti actually spends little time with them. They are not developed as individuals. Only Brunetti has a life outside the office: “It was the smell of cooking to welcome him, one scent mingling with another. Tonight he could make out the faint odour of squash, which meant that Paola was making risotto con zucca, available only in this season, when the dark green squat barucca squash was brought in from Chiogyia, across the laguna. And after that? Shank of veal? Roasted with olives and white wine? He hung his jacket in the cupboard and went down the hall to the kitchen. The room was hotter than usual, which meant the oven was on. The large frying pan on the stove revealed, when he lifted the lid, bright orange chunks of zucca, frying slowly with minced onions.” (168) Leon uses Brunetti in strictly limited third person point of view, so he’s the only character much known.

Sense of place is outstanding. Venice is almost a character in the story. This, however, has the down side of producing a sense of futility. How does an ethical man continue to work in a system so corrupt, one where everyone knows the influence of government, big business, and the Mafia always trumps justice?

Both Brunetti books (the first is DEATH IN LA FENICE) end with only partial resolutions in which the whole truth remains concealed. I find this depressing. DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY (B)
 
THE RHYME OF THE MAGPIE is one of Marty Wingate’s Birds of a Feather mystery series, published in e-book format in 2015.

Julia Lanchester, formerly personal assistant to her father, popular ornithologist Rupert Lanchester, and associate producer for his BBC2 program A Bird in the Hand, now works for Lucius, the Earl Fotheringill, in Smeaton-under-Lyme to promote his estate Hoggin Hall as a tourist destination. He envisions the Hall becoming a Suffolk version of Chatsworth. Julia’s estranged from her father over his too-rapid remarriage following her mother’s death in a hit-and-run. He calls upon her to try for a reconciliation and to consult her about a letter he’s received. They do not discuss the letter before she turns him away. Lanchester’s new personal assistant Michael Sedgwick, who has no experience in television or organizing large scale operations, comes looking for Lanchester; together he and Julia go to the family’s cottage Marshy End where they expect to find him, only to discover the body of Kenneth Kersey near the cottage. Kersey had been the director of communications for Power for the People, an energy company planning a wind farm in nearby Norfolk. Lanchester had opposed the wind farm, an now he has gone missing. Julia and Michael agree to work together to locate Rupert Lanchester before the police.

I’m giving up at 29%. The characters are too generic to excite much interest. Julia is a divorced woman, 37 years old, who pouts about her father’s hasty marriage like a spoiled tweenie, who jumps to conclusions and holds them to pigheadedness. Sedgwick is standard chick lit fare, with the initial almost hostile reaction to Julia that’s a tip-off for a developing romantic relationship. The number of characters exceeds that necessary.

Police, as is common in the cozy genre, are conspicuously absent. Several days after their discovering Kersey’s body, Sergeant Flint still has not taken a formal statement from either Michael or Julia. Other than vague references to opposition to the wind farm, nothing indicates a possible motive for Kersey’s murder or a viable suspect. Nor has Kersey’s background been investigated. Julia and Michael just wander around casually without information or planning. Setting and atmosphere are undeveloped.

No grade because not finished.
 
Margaret Mizushima’s KILLING TRAIL is the first in her Timber Creek K-9 mystery series, published in e-book format in 2015.

Mattie Lu Cobb, deputy in the Timber Creek Sheriff’s Department, is the probationary partner of the town’s first K-9 officer, a black and tan German shepherd named Robo. She and Robo graduated first in their class in the training academy, so expectations are high. Called in to search the site of suspicious activity in the nearby national forest, they find Belle, a Bernese Mountain Dog who’s been shot in the leg, trying to guard the body of her teenaged owner Grace Hartman. Local dog handler Mike Charbon, who breeds and trains Bernese, had been seen in the area that morning; he, his truck, and his dogs and trailer are now all missing. He’s the person of interest for the murder until he turns up shot to death with the same gun that killed Grace and wounded Belle. Cole Walker, the local veterinarian who treats Belle discovers that she’s been forced to swallow balloons containing cocaine. Grace had a major crush on Mike, to the point of following him and recording his activities in her diary. Did she see something to do with the recent increase in drug trafficking in Timber Creek that made her death necessary?

KILLING TRAIL is by no means a five-star book. The writing style is simplistic. The plot has problems that need fixing, including an over-long conclusion. There are too many unnecessary characters. Not every person in Timber Creek needs to be introduced in the first book. Sense of place is not firmly established. Nevertheless, I will read at least the next book in the series, because it definitely shows potential.

Mattie Lu Cobb is a gritty, believable protagonist, a woman with definite personality flaws and emotional baggage. At age six, when Mattie called the police on her abusive father who’d nearly killed her mother, her family disintegrated: her father went to prison, where he was later killed; she and her older brother Willie went into foster care, at first together, then separated; when she left the hospital, their mother disappeared, leaving her children in the system. Mattie takes on herself all the blame. “[Mattie] couldn’t help feeling drained from the stress she’d put on herself prior to the meeting. She’d always know that she would stand a better chance of leaving her past behind her if she moved away from Timber Creek, but this was the only place she’d ever called home. Besides, she couldn’t help but believe that one day her mother would come back to look for her. And more than anything, Mattie wanted to be found.” (109-10) Viewpoint shifts between Mattie and Cole in strictly limited third person which adds to the verisimilitude of their characters.

Another encouraging sign is Mizushima’s ability to use setting as a revelation of character. “State Highway 12 divided Timber Creek into two halves. On the east side,well-manicured lawns spread in front of modern houses, each with a freshly painted fence, colorful flower beds, and a shiny car parked in the driveway. On the west, adobe houses were small, built eighty to a hundred years ago, and had barely any lawns to speak of, let alone shiny cars.... In the backyard, Robo...lay stretched out among tufts of buffalo grass and weeds that she kept whacked down with an old push mower the landlord supplied. Six-foot chain link surrounded her small backyard, provided by Timber Creek County in anticipation of Robo’s arrival. A huge blue spruce towered in the early evening light. Yuccas, agave, and cholla--the only plants that Mattie set out in a ‘flower bed’--lined the back part of the fence. Mattie liked prickly things; they suited her.” (40)

The pain and self-doubt caused by Mattie’s childhood abuse, her troubled adolescence, and her longing for her family seem a continuing storyline, as does a potential relationship with recently divorced Cole Walker. Much of the story focuses on Mattie’s learning to read and trust Robo’s instincts and training, as she struggles to overcome her self-doubt. A reader who trusts Robo is likely to discern the killer long before Mattie, though Mizushima intends a surprise. She’s effective in focusing attention on the wrong person.

KILLING TRAIL shows elements that encourage belief that the Timber Creek K-9 mysteries may develop into a strong series. As it stands alone now, it’s pretty much average (B-/C+).
 
I LOVE THE SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS is Paul Charles’s police procedural featuring Detective Christy Kennedy, originally from Portrush, Northern Ireland, now 23 years in London, with eight years on the Camden Town CID. It was published in 1997.

Christy Kennedy is a major fan of early rock and roll music, so he’s a natural to take the lead when Peter O’Browne of Camden Town Records goes missing, then is found dead in his new studio. As he and his team investigate, Kennedy finds suspects going back to former mates who’d helped O’Browne found CTR whom he’d denied a fair payout for their work, along with motives including illegal record “hyping” to raise the positions of singles on the charts, use of the purchased records to pay for drugs from the Continent, Peter’s affair with an old friend’s wife, and blackmail. Can Kennedy find the killer?

I like Christy Kennedy. He has enough quirks, emotional baggage, and uncertainties about his relationship with ann rea (who adopted her lower-case name from poet e. e. cummings), a journalist for the Camden News Journal, to be believable. He takes his job, particularly catching murderers, seriously: “I don’t think that there is a single kind of person capable of committing murder. I think that for part of the time, these people lead normal, ordinary lives. That is if you believe there is such a thing as a normal, ordinary life. Maybe they are just like you and me. Then something happens which makes them feel aggrieved, vengeful, spiteful or angry towards someone and they are, well, they are bad. It’s the simplest word I can use to describe them. They are bad, or they let the bad which is in us all to take over. They are bad enough to calmly plan a killing. Because they are prepared to act without conscience, they are very dangerous.” (173-4)

Charles surrounds Kennedy with strong characters that make up a smooth-functioning team. Judicious shifts of focus between Kennedy, ann rea, Detective Sergeant James Irvine, and WPC Ann Coles offer insight to their personalities and minimize exposition.

The plot of I LOVE THE SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS tells more about the early days of rock and roll and the established methods of the record companies than readers may want to know. The murder method is ingenious, one I’ve not previously read. To say more might be a spoiler. Charles uses quite brief chapters, many only two or three pages long, which creates a sense of rush to the action but also makes it choppy.

Sense of place is good, mostly established through geographical locations, though he effectively uses humor to enliven both atmosphere and characterization. “Getting a London black cab to take you where you want to go is about as easy as getting into a Marks and Sparks triangular sandwich packet. Kennedy hated using his police ID for such a privilege, if you could call insisting that someone does their job a privilege. He consoled himself with the thought that he was striking out for all the fares left stranded by the kerbside. His house was quiet, as silent as a Canadian art movie, lots of static noise but nothing of substance.” (54)

I LOVE THE SOUND OF BREAKING GLASS is a solid read, one that I hope will be the beginning of a strong series. (A-)
 
SHOTS FIRED, DEPUTY DOWN is the story of San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Johnson (not Walt Longmire’s Craig Johnson) and his 25-year career in law enforcement. On 25 September 2012, he and a group of deputies under his supervision, intent on taking accused child rapist Daniel Witczak into custody, were ambushed. Deputy Ali Perez was permanently disabled from his wounds, and Johnson suffered serious physical and psychological injuries that ended his career. The story was published in e-book format in 2015.

Johnson’s story is an inside look at law enforcement and its effect on a person following that career. Johnson summarizes his experiences before the Witczak shooting without going into much specific detail on other cases or on training techniques. Generalizations not supported by examples become tedious. He recounts Deputy Perez’s recovery in major detail, including his vision of Jesus as he lay bleeding out in Witczak’s apartment, crediting this for Perez’s less stressful mental/emotional recovery. Johnson’s frank about his own PTSD and related problems, discussing treatment techniques and their effects.

The writing style is simple, personal, and conversational in tone. Johnson’s political and religious convictions are clearly stated. There’s little sense place or of fellow officers as more than names. There’s no suspense or feeling of immediacy. SHOTS FIRED, DEPUTY DOWN doesn’t develop the inherent drama of its story. (D)
 
Emanuel E. Garcia’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF HAMLET is a novella published in e-book format in 2008 in the anthology SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THREE POISONED PAWNS. The premise for the stories is that in 1938-9 James J. Watson, Esquire, of London, literary executor of his uncle Sir John H. Watson, is using his uncle’s carte blanche to publish notes and cases left in the strongroom at Cox and Company Bank at Charing Cross. These are adventures Dr. Watson had considered too sensitive for publication during his and Sherlock Holmes’s lifetimes.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF HAMLET occurs during the last years of Holmes and Watson’s lives, when Holmes summons Watson to Sussex to hear his solution to the greatest of all his mystery investigations. Through his friend Professor Sigmund Freud, now in England after fleeing the Nazis, Holmes has become interested in the Shakespeare authorship question, helping Thomas Looney (pronounced Lone-y, with long “o” sound) investigate the qualities needed by the man who wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon. Holmes supports Looney’s conclusion that Edward DeVere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, is the playwright. The mystery of Hamlet is whether the ghost of King Hamlet is an authentic ghost or an actor in disguise. If an actor, who’s behind the impersonation, and why? Holmes’s reading of the play proposes an unsuspected instigator and deeper motives than personal revenge. It’s an interesting interpretation.

The Oxford identification of Shakespeare is the standard anti-Stratfordian argument, much too complex and religious faith to be argued here. The Shakespeare authorship question is probably the greatest single literary mystery extant, and interjecting Holmes into it is a good touch. Writing style is faithful to the original stories, characters are essentially unchanged except for a significant mellowing of Holmes in extreme old age (into his nineties). The conclusion is a major surprise.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF HAMLET is excellently done. (A)
 
Roger Jaynes’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BELGRAVIAN LETTER is a novella published in e-book format in 2008 in the anthology SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THREE POISONED PAWNS. The premise for the stories is that in 1938-9 James J. Watson, Esquire, of London, literary executor of his uncle Sir John H. Watson, is using his uncle’s carte blanche to publish notes and cases left in the strongroom at Cox and Company Bank at Charing Cross. These are adventures Dr. Watson had considered too sensitive for publication during his and Sherlock Holmes’s lifetimes.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BELGRAVIAN LETTER occurs in October 1895 when Watson, newly remarried, has returned for a visit to 221B Baker Street. Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard comes to ask Holmes’s help in the death of Sir Arthur Wilcox, the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, his close friend. His butler Davis found Sir Arthur’s body in his study, sitting at his desk in front of his open safe. He’s been shot in the head. Diplomatic papers of great importance may be missing. But Holmes sees small discrepancies that make him doubt Lestrade’s politically convenient theory of a robbery gone wrong. How did Sir Arthur die, and why?

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BELGRAVIAN LETTER resembles plot situations in the original Conan Doyle stories, with a similar level of characterization. Watson and Holmes are traditional, no major changes. Jaynes’s mastery of the original writing style isn’t as deft; in several instances the connotations of words do not convey the sense of the word as used.


Atmosphere is a bit more developed than in most Sherlock Holmes stories: "At Oxford Street, we turned past Marble Arch and swung south along the eastern edge of Hyde Park, where crowds had gathered upon the lawns and public benches, taking in the pleasant night air. Throngs of people were in the streets as well, and traffic at the crossings was unusually heavy. In the area beneath Wellington’s memorial the scene was festive, with vendors hawking ginger beer and ices, and children dancing to an old man’s hurdy-gurdy. One enterprising fellow had even erected a telescope atop a small wooden platform, offering views of the stars for only a penny.”

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BELGRAVIAN LETTER is above average in Holmes fan fiction. (B)
 
Leta Serafim’s THE DEVIL TAKES HALF is the first in her Greek Islands mystery series featuring Chief Officer of Police on Chios Yiannis Patronas. It was published in e-book and print format in 2014.

When American archaeologist Jonathan Alcottt arrives at his former student’s dig at the monastery of Profitis Ilias on the mountain above the village of Chora, he expects some minor pottery shards, nothing of importance. Instead he discovers one of her excavation trenches soaked in blood, with Eleni Argentis and her sixteen-year-old assistant Petros Athanassis missing. Patronas and his police come to investigate. Eleni thought she’d discovered an outpost of the Minoans who survived the eruption of Thera and the tsunami created when its caldera collapsed into the sea. It’s clear someone besides Papa Mchalis, the elderly priest who’s the only official inhabitant of Profitis Ilias, comes and goes from the site, apparently looking for treasure locals believe hidden there. The police discover the bodies, along with small artifacts that suggest they had indeed uncovered a rich archaeological site. But where is it, and who’s involved in the murder of Petros and the torture, mutilation, and murder of Eleni? It’s a long, slow process with unexpected twists and turns before Patronas solves all the mysteries.

It must be difficult for an author to hit the mark in how much history or archaeology is required to support the plot in a story involving either. For my taste, Serafim goes overboard. The information in places seems more padding than essential, and none is much beyond National Geographic in depth. The pace of the story is very slow, and the conclusion is so drawn out as to make parts distinctly anticlimax. Serafim goes to great pains to detail Patronas’s marriage, which he describes as hell, to the virago Dimitra, whom his mother chose for his wife.

Characters are strong in THE DEVIL TAKES HALF. Patronas himself is a man much concerned with what it means to be Greek, conscious of his shortcomings as policeman and husband. “Patronas entered his measurements in the spiral notebook he’d brought with him, next to the date and time. He didn’t know what had transpired here, but he suspected it was a double homicide. He had never seen so much blood. Perhaps the priest was right and he should look to the forensic specialists on television to guide him. Write down things the way they did. As to what the policemen then did with it after they wrote it down, he had no clue. As he’d told the priest, he’d never investigated a crime like this before. Assault and battery, sure. Violence against one’s spouse any number of times. But murder, never. As a cop, he was an amateur at best and he knew it.” (14-5) Supporting characters, including the hateful Dimitria, are believable though more numerous than strictly necessary.

Serafim does an excellent job of integrating physical locales and history to establish Chios as a viable community. “She [Petros’s grandmother] returned a few minutes later with two demitasses of coffee, glasses of water, and a plate of candied nectarines. It was one of those unspoken rules that governed life. A matter of filotimo, pride, to be able to offer something. Even during the war, when there had been nothing and people were starving, the Greeks had saved a little food, a sweet on a plate in the kitchen, to offer visitors. The guest was expected to refuse the food the first and second time it was offered. If the host offered it a third time, that meant there was other food in the house and the guest could eat. If not, the ritual had been observed and, the shame avoided. And all this was done in silence. Nothing was ever said. The tray the woman offered reminded him of those times.” (20)

A few things bothered me. Nero Wolfe is referred to as living in his pajamas, an error of fact since Archie says explicitly that Wolfe wears suits, generally brown, in the office. It’s not clear whether Eleni Argentis is the stepsister or the half-sister of Antonis Argentis; he calls her his sister, his mother emphasizes that he and Eleni are not blood relatives in any degree. At one point Marina Papoulis is referred to as Maria. The glossary of Greek words is not referenced at the beginning of the book. All of this is piddling, not spoiling enjoyment of the story. THE DEVIL TAKES HALF convinces me to follow up on the series. (B)
 
SPIDER WEB is the fifteenth book in Earlene Fowler’s Benni Harper mystery series. It was published in e-book format in 2011.

Benni Ramsey Harper Ortiz is curator of the Josiah Sinclair Folk Art Museum in San Celina, California, half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. She runs some cattle on the ranch owned by her father and grandmother, and she’s married to Chief of Police Gabe Ortiz. In March 1998, Benni is busy with the first ever Memory Festival in San Celina when a sniper begins taking shots at San Celina policemen, wounding two. Stress from the sniper situation triggers Gabe’s PTSD left over from Vietnam, putting major strain on their marriage. Plus Benni is getting strange vibs about newcomer Linda Snider who’s scraped an acquaintance with her through the museum’s artists’ co-op and who’s definitely asking too many questions about Benni and Gabe. What’s going on?

SPIDER WEB is more than usually character-driven. Benni is a believable first-person narrator, strong, firmly rooted. Fowler is good at revealing character through use of setting: “The steady rain had softened to a mist during my ten-mile drive back to San Celina. The emerald hills spotted with blue lupine and the occasional early patch of California poppies were a photographer’s dreamscape. It was one of those extraordinary Central Coast spring days in a year where we’d been receiving enough rain to turn our normally dun-colored landscape the brilliant green of a Disney cartoon. The beauty of this land--my home--never ceased to amaze me. I might be Arkansas born, but I’’d been raised here. Rich, dark California soil flowed through my veins.” (13) Fowler surrounds Benni with a whole community of quirky individuals, the number of whom greatly exceeds those necessary to carry the plot.

San Celina seems a good place to live: “San Celina’s Thursday night farmers’ market had become one of the most famous farmers’ markets in the state. It was actually a combination of street fair/farmers’ market and became an eagerly anticipated event for tourists, locals and Cal-Poly students. Besides providing a seasonal variety of local fruits and vegetables, the weekly event offered grilled tri-tip, giant turkey legs, smoked chicken, ribs, barbecued Portuguese luinguica sausage, as well as homemade pizza, spicy carne asada or Hatch green chile-cheese tamales. Then there was the deadly rich, home-style ice cream made by the Cal-Poly Food Service department. Besides the food, there were craft booths, political booths, henna tattoos and face painting. And there was always some band playing--blues, zydeco, country, oldies rock, Cajun or mariachi. Every Thursday night downtown San Celina was off limits to cars so people could wander the market on foot.” (123-4)

The plot in SPIDER WEB meanders and does not achieve much urgency or suspense. We’re told that Gabe is working day and night, coordinating personnel from multiple law enforcement agencies and despising the political maneuvering; we see no police action in trying to identify or capture the sniper. There’s next to no foreshadowing of the sniper’s identity or motive. That Lin Snider is up to something is obvious early on though her mission is not explained until the last chapter. The probability of that conclusion seems questionable.

Still, SPIDER WEB is a pleasant read with much quilt and local history lore. (B)
 
THE MILL ON THE SHORE is the seventh book in Ann Cleeves’s mystery series featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones. It was published in 1994. He’s a retired civil servant, a Home Office liaison with local police forces, and Molly is a retired social worker. Because George’s bored and depressed with retirement, they begin a private enquiry agency.

When celebrity naturalist, environmental activist, and TV presented James Morrissey dies, his death is ruled a suicide after three years of depression brought on by the death of his daughter Hannah in a one-car accident when he was at the wheel. He’s seriously injured and, while he’s incapacitated, his perfect wife Meg, who’s also a professional perfect mother sharing her philosophy with women less enlightened, arranges for the purchase and establishment of Markham Mill, near the village of Markham Law, as a highly successful field research/educational center. She’s unwilling to accept that Morrissey committed suicide, so she hires George and Molly to discover his cause of death. George had known Morrissey through his ornithological connections, had worked with him as a director of Green Scene, a conservation magazine Morrissey founded, and he doubts Morrissey had the temperament to suicide. Morrissey had just finished his autobiography which he expected to be a blockbuster best-seller, he’d indicated that he was about to make major changes in his life, including resuming his career. Why suicidal now? Then his young protege Aidan Moore, a successful wildlife illustrator who got his start with Green Scene goes missing and turns up dead on the shore. George and Molly trace the current deaths back to events around the time of Morrissey’s accident and Hannah’s death, but what happened then, and why?

Cleeves does an exceptional job of using readers’ preconceptions about social class and human nature to keep attention focused firmly away from Morrissey’s killer, even as she provides appropriate clues to that person’s identity. She includes much detail of the pressure on a child forced to live in someone else’s idea of a perfect family, one that must be protected at all costs; she also shows believable irritants between Molly and George working in tandem.

Characterization is strong, particularly of Molly and of Meg Morrissey. “The image they had of Meg Morrissey when Tim pushed ope the door of the family living room was calculated to confirm all Molly’s prejudices. She sat in a low chair by the fire with a wicker sewing basket beside her and a pile of mending on her knee. Molly had never darned a sock in her life. The room was warmly lit by the fire, the last of the daylight reflected from the water through the large uncurtained window and a single spot that shone over Meg’s shoulder on to her work. As they came in she stood up, set the jeans she was patching on the arm of the chair, and slipped a thimble from her finger. She wore a calf-length cord skirt and a hand-knitted, blackberry-coloured sweater. Very cosy and domestic, Molly thought. The perfect picture of a wonderful mother. She probably bakes her own bread, too. Then she remembered that the woman had only recently lost her husband and wondered that she could be so bitchy.” (32-3) The number of characters much exceeds those necessary, and shifts in point of view between characters sometimes make the action choppy.

Sense of place is outstanding, with Cleeves adept at using setting and atmosphere to convey character. Editing for correct use of apostrophes in plural and possessive names is needed. THE MILL ON THE SHORE is a worthy addition to an excellent series. (A-)
 
THE CASE OF THE HIDDEN FLAME is the second book in Alison Golden and Grace Dagnall’s mystery series featuring Detective Inspector David Graham of the Gorey Constabulary on the isle of Jersey. I did not find a publication date or the significance of the title.

Graham has just arrived to take over the quiet police district on Jersey when retired Army Colonel George Graves discovers the body of Dr. Sylvia Norquist, whom he’d planned to marry, buried in a sand dune on the beach. Death resulted from asphyxia, but what caused the asphyxia? There are no signs of a struggle, no physical wounds, no forensic evidence, no witnesses. Graham’s investigation by necessity centers on Norquist’s fellow guests at the White House Inn, several of whom had issues with her. But which person?

THE CASE OF THE HIDDEN FLAME leaves much to be desired. The characters are standard; we are told but not much shown that they are dynamic. They are stereotypes. Graham is a bit too smooth to be believable, and quirks like his frequent resort to fine teas to help his thinking process seem contrived. He has a tough female Sergeant Janice Harding, who’s immediately attracted to him, and two young constables, one ambitious and one a slack-off who drinks. The restricted number of characters makes for a very tight circle of suspects for Dr. Norquist’s murder.

The plot is simplistic with the identity and motive of the killer apparent from the introduction of the character. The main question at that point becomes how the murder was committed. A hint in the conclusion suggests that the killer may have been incited by another guest, which weakens the whole story. The tone is much more cozy than police procedural. Little is made of the setting, either physical locale or even the approximate year in which the story occurs.

One of my pet peeves is misuse of words. Golden and Dagnall at least twice use “enervated” when the sense of the sentence calls for “energized” or “invigorated” as more appropriate: “...feeling enervated, quick of mind, light of foot.”

THE CASE OF THE HIDDEN FLAME needs much more work. (D)
 
WHEN THE DEVIL’S IDLE is the second book in Leta Serafim’s Greek Islands mystery series featuring Yiannis Patronas, chief officer of the Chios police. It was published in e-book format in 2015. Patronas’s “team” consists of his second in command Giorgios Tembelos, elderly priest Papa Michalis, and inept Evangelos Demos, transferred to Patmos after their last murder case.

When the body of Walter Bechtel, an elderly German spending the summer with his son’s family at Chora, on Patmos, is discovered with the head bashed in and a swastika carved on his forehead, Demos immediately calls for Patronas to come solve the murder. There are no witnesses, no forensic evidence, no apparent motive. Why did someone kill the stray kitten Bechtel’d adopted and left its body where he would find it? Why would someone then murder a ninety-year-old man crippled by arthritis and senile? Patronas ties the swastika to the German massacre at Aghios Stefanos in the Epirus region of Greece in October 1943 and uncovers the devilish history behind Bechtel’s death.

Serafim’s created a powerful set of continuing characters with an especially appealing protagonist in Patronas. With everything seen through his eyes, it’s easy to appreciate his quirks and his self-deprecating humor. “Who reads the cautionary notes the Almighty leaves for you at twenty-two, the modest hints that you might want to rethink your choices? Had Napoleon felt a chill as he was plotting the assault on Moscow? The German army as it approached Stalingrad? We’d all be better off if God quit His hinting and used a bullhorn, he thought. Better yet, if He took up skywriting, spelled it out with flashing arrows: ‘Retreat! Retreat!’ Maybe Moss could decipher the message in the burning bush, but Patronas was sure if it had been up to him, he would have grabbed a bucket and thrown water on it.” (9-10) Serafim’s use of limited third person narration is adept. She gives glimpses of personal lives that add to the sense of the team as genuine people; in WHEN THE DEVIL’S IDLE, Patronas discovers that Demos must deal daily with a mentally challenged son.

The plot in WHEN THE DEVIL’S IDLE is police procedural but reads more like a cozy mystery. Serafim’s good at setting up a suspect that seems absolutely the only possibility, then rings in a surprise motive and killer. An experienced reader may discern these well ahead of Patronas because she does play fair with foreshadowing. Political unrest in Greece caused by the austerity program imposed by creditor Germany and the economic impact on the ability of the police to function effectively add to verisimilitude.

Serafim’s skilled at using bits of local color to establish setting. “They ate at the restaurant, sitting at a table next to the sea. Called Lampi Taverna, the interior was decorated with sea shells and fishing nets, ancient amphora the owner said he’d found when he was snorkeling. There was a strong swell along the shore, the waves tumbling the rocks over and over, grinding them against one another. It was a soothing sound, the water rushing forward, only to pull back again a few minutes later. After inspecting the fish on display, Patronas selected three lavraki--sea bass--and asked the owner to grill them and serve them with ladolemono, a sauce of olive oil and lemon. In addition, he ordered fried gavros--anchovies--and a half kilo of the tiny pink shrimp from the island of Symi. He also invested in a kilo of wine. If the priest was still hungry after the meal, he could, as the farmers said, ‘go shear himself.’” (161)

WHEN THE DEVIL’S IDLE is a definite improvement on the introduction to the Greek Islands mystery series. Recommended. (A-)
 
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