January Books

I had high hopes for January reading and ended up with four books, three mysteries and one novel. I did clock in a lot of pages -- most were pretty big. But more important, they were good, too. 

"The Black Wolf" by Louise Penny 

 

In September 2024, Louise Penny submitted her final draft of "The Black Wolf," her more recent Armande Gamache mystery/thriller, to her publisher. In January 2025, Donald Trump made his own war on her native Canada, with outrageous tariffs and talking about making the country the 51st state of the US.

Does she have a crystal ball?

"The Black Wolf" is a sequel to her previous novel, "The Gray Wolf," in which Gamache and his team uncovered a plot to poison Canada's vast water sources. At the end of that book and at the beginning of this one, Gamache says, "We have a problem."

He realizes that the poisoning plot, which ended in the arrest of the Deputy Prime Minister, was only half of a greater master plan threatening his country. The problem was that he and his team -- Jean-Guy Bouvier and Isabelle LaCoste -- can't determine what that second half of the plot is -- or who  is at its helm.

Gamache has enemies in all elements of government and security and is unsure as to whom to trust or who might be behind things. Is it the Deputy's assistant, Jeanne Caron, who saves his life in the last book? His highly ranked colleague Evelyn Tardiff? Mob boss Joseph Moretti, leader of Montreal's biggest crime family? Finding the laptop  of the deceased Charles Langlois, which had clues to both the poisoning and new plot, is essential. But where to look?

This one is a page turner -- part mystery, part thriller -- pitting Gamache and his team against the highest levels of government in both Canada and the United States. And yes, there are still plenty of visits to Three Pines, the village in which the detective lives with its charming mix of characters, especially when Gamache, still recovering from the incident at the end of "The Gray Wolf" is recuperating at home.

I stayed up way too late reading this one and it was worth the lack of sleep. Penny, who often writes in an arc, may well have another chapter of this one in her next book. I hope so.

Two points. First, you do not HAVE to read "The Gray Wolf" to get into this one, but I think it helps, if only to introduce the relationships of the characters with a bit more depth. I re-read the last 10 chapters or so of the first one, but Penny does a good job of bringing the reader up to date, so don't let that stop you. 

Second, and a fun one, she has a little Easter egg in this one. Readers of her thriller "State of Terror," co-authored by Hillary Clinton and not a Gamache novel, introduced readers to American Joint Chief of Staff for the military, Bert Whitehead, whom at the end of that  book makes a brief visit to Three Pines and meets Gamache. They meet again. 

 "Death in Fancy Dress" by Anthony Gilbert

 

This British Library Crime Classic is a good one (and so, too, are the two bonus short stories included at the end of the book.) Lawyer Tony and his friend Jeremy (a somewhat madcap adventurer) are tasked with getting to the bottom of who might be blackmailing Lady Nunn, a longtime acquaintance of Tony's, and the two set off to her country home. Jeremy also hopes to win the hand of Lady Nunn's daughter, despite her being engaged to Secret Service agent Andrew Dennis, who will also be a attending.

Lady Nunn is being blackmailed by the cousin of her late husband, Roger Feltham, Feltham owns the house they live in now, though it is protected for them through the will of Lady Nunn's former husband. The price? The hand of her daughter in marriage. 

This isn't the only blackmail scheme going on. Also taking advantage of men and women around the area with secrets in their past and the resources to pay, is a blackmailer known as "The Spider." The question is if that, too, is Roger or someone else.

Tony, Jeremy and Drew decide to join forces to investigate and all is on the up-and-up until Roger, scheduled to attend the fancy dress ball hosted by Lady and James Nunn, does not arrive and is later found dead. More than one person was missing for a bit from the ball -- but which one might have murdered him?

Gilbert (aka Lucy Mallenson) is a good storyteller and I confess, when the end came, I was both surprised and satisfied. The two short stories that follow are also well worth a read. 

"Wild Fire" by Ann Cleeves

 

This is Cleeves' final "Shetland" mystery, featuring Jimmy Perez and his colleague, Sandy Wilson. In this excellent read (I read it in 24 hours because I couldn't put it down), the nanny of a respected family in town is found murdered and hanging in the barn of neighbors -- newcomers to the Islands. Emma's life had been complicated -- abused as a child, admired by many men, including young Magnie and Daniel Flemming, on whose property her body was found, hanged in an empty barn. 

The Flemmings -- Daniel and Helena -- have two children, including Christopher, who has autism and who finds Emma's body. The discovery follows a series of anonymous notes Helena has received with the words "Hangman."

Willow Reeves is brought in as Senior Investigating Officer. She and Perez have worked together in the past and have had a personal relationship as well. But this visit finds them unable to communicate well with a hidden tension in the air that baffles Sandy. But they manage a solid working relationship, checking out many suspects, including Emma's employers and the young people in her charge, the Flemings, Magnie, and Magnie's mother, Margaret. But it's not long before a second murder takes place, clearly related. Will they find the murderer before another tragedy occurs?

Cleeves always spins a good tale and this one was excellent. The loose ends are well drawn together and the conclusion is most satisfying. When I can read 400 pages over two days (with a few other things on the agenda too!), you know it has to be good.

Jimmy Perez fans, never fear. Cleeves will continue his story line in the first of what may be a new series, finding the detective moving to Orkney. I'm looking forward to that.

"By Any Other Name" by Jodi Picoult

 

I should really love this book. Strong women characters. Set in the theatre. Lots of Shakespeare references. Set (partly) in the Tudor Era of Queen Elizabeth I. All my thing. And it is based on copious research, which Picoult highlights in pages and pages of author notes at the end. I like that. And much of it I did. But. . . 

There were two elements that kind of set me on edge. It takes place in two time periods and jumps back and forth. I won't rule a book out for this conceit but I really don't like that. I would have liked each of the two stories separately. But that wouldn't work; the story is in their interplay. So, that's not a book problem, it's a Jeanie problem.

And second, as I continued along I thought "If Hallmark movies were set in the theatre, this book would qualify." There is some upsetting physical violence and abuse as well. It doesn't last long and the strong female character comes through but it merits mentioning. (The thing about a nice English murder is that once the murder is done, it's done (unless there is a second victim.) They're pretty tidy.

The Tudor and modern eras are parallel. Melanie  Green is an aspiring playwright whose confidence is shaken by a bad review in her college playwriting class. Years later she is struggling at low-level jobs in New York, rooming with her gay friend Andre (Andre is black and I mention this only because it figures in as a major point in the plot) and writing on the side. Her work is about a very distant ancestor, Emelia Bassano, one of the period's first known women poets.

And, according to Melanie, Emilia was a ghost writer whose plays were performed under the name of William Shakespeare.

Afraid to submit her play to a contest that will be judged by the misogynistic critic who panned her earlier work, Andre secretly submits it under the male name of "Mel Green," and to Melanie's surprise, it is chosen for a New York production. Afraid to admit the ruse, she convinces Andre to be Mel and she will be his assistant, "Andrea."

Meanwhile, we learn about Emilia, who for many years is courtesan and in some ways, advisor to the Lord Chamberlain of Elizabeth's court, who oversees London theatre. All is well until she falls in love with another and becomes pregnant. She is cast out and married to a cousin who is brutal and cruel. Along the way, she has been writing her plays and "selling" them to Shakespeare, whose own works have been lacking.

There is much I enjoyed about this book but I think Picoult totally missed the boat here. From where I sit, she should have ditched the contemporary Melanie plot and made it be a semi-fictional biography of Emelia, a real person and yes, quite possibly one of Shakespeare's many suggested ghost writers. Her end notes are terrific and well documented and she's clearly done her research. But the book suffers from a great need for editing (it clocks in at close to 500 pages, not counting notes). This could have been remedied by cutting the modern plot. Near the end of that one, we get one of those  Hallmark "twenty minutes till the end of the movie" moments where everything goes wrong, but you know it will all go right at the end. I hate those moments. (It's the time you can brush your teeth and get ready for bed and still be back for the happy reunion. Can't do that in a book!)

I've never been Jodi Picoult's biggest fan and this hasn't changed that, mostly for the contemporary plot. But it also was something I will remember. It is a fascinating and an interesting idea. (Theatre folk have long wondered about the authenticity of Shakespeare's play based on his life and skills, and if you've read or seen a lot of Shakespeare, you'll recognize many of the references, which is fun; Picoult also highlights them in the end notes, play by play.) If the novel has a message, it is about gender roles and how in some ways, to some people, maybe they haven't changed too much. And yet, maybe they can.