The Books of July

I only made it through six books in July, but when one is over 500 pages and another close to 1,000, I submit to defeat with a bit of grace. (My own personal goal was to read eight in July. Why I make goals like this, I have no idea.)

I'm pleased to say that five of the six are highly recommended. The last? It was fine. Just not memorable.

 "Marble Hall Murders" by Anthony Horowitz

 

Have I ever read a 582 page book in two days? (Most of it in one.) Nope. But when it is Anthony Horowitz's latest "Susan Ryland" book, how could I not. Yes, it's that good. 

This is the final book in Horowitz's "Ryland" series and will be a PBS mini-series, like his first two books. It's a wonderful closure piece (although I'd be happy if he decided to whip out another.)

Susan is now a freelance book editor after splitting from her longtime partner and returning to London from Crete. Her publisher asks her to take on aspiring author Eliot Crace, who has been commissioned to write three more books in the Atticus Pund series. Ryland had edited the earlier series by Alan Conway, who was murdered by her former publisher before trying to kill Susan as well. 

Needing the work, despite not wanting to deal with the series again, Susan takes it on. Eliot is the youngest grandson of a renowned children's book author, one dearly beloved by her public and now, after her death, still a cash cow with a Netflix deal and plenty of merchandise from her prolific series. As Susan reads his manuscript, she finds it intriguing and respects his writing but is concerned that he may well have his own family axes to grind and is doing it in the book, much in the way Conway had ridiculed those he knew personally through thinly veiled characters.

As with Horowitz's earlier pieces in this collection, we follow both Susan's life in "real time," interspersed with Eliot's Pund novel as Eliot brings her a large number of pages for her review. As the reader explores the fictional story while also hearing more about Eliot and his family in 'real life,' the pieces begin to fall in place. Will Pund discover that the lead character in the novel was murdered? And was Eliot's own grandmother murdered as well? And the big question -- who dunnit and who would figure it out. All this becomes even more complex when circumstances come together to call a stop to Eliot's work.

I wanted to read this before seeing the mini-series, scheduled to air this fall on PBS. I was already familiar with Leslie Manville as Susan and Tim McMullen as Pund, so I had a good visual for them both. With Horowitz at the helm of the screenplay as well, I suspect it will be quite true to the book. 

I hope so. It was worth every fast-reading page. (And no, you don't have to have read the other books in the series, but if you have read "Magpie Murders" especially, this one will be even better.)

"Fall of Giants" by Ken Follett

 

Erika wrote about this book and others in Follett's Century Trilogy and I was so intrigued that I knew I had to read them at some point. But weighing in at close to 1,000 pages, was I ready? (Wikipedia and many editions give it 1008. You can condense a lot with that tiny paperback type!) 

Well, it's summer. There's more free time. If I could do nearly 600 pages in a couple of days, this shouldn't be too bad! And it wasn't -- but boy that type was small! And there are a lot of characters to keep track of in this saga that follows five families and their descendants through the 20th century.

In this one, which focuses on the years before, during and after World War I, we meet the Williams family, miners in Wales in 1914, where a  mining disaster in their village triggers a series of events that inspires young Billy. Meanwhile his sister Ethel Williams is the housekeeper for Earl Fitzherbert, lord of manor and husband to Princess Bea, a Russian princess and niece of the Tsar who is as cold to her husband as the frigid Siberian winter. You can probably guess where this is going! Then there is Fitzherbert's sister Maud, an ardent feminist and suffragette (much to her brother's dismay) whose relationship with a German intelligence officer, Walter von Ulrich, is threatened by a war to end all wars. Let's not forget two Russian brothers, Gregori and Lev, as Russia enters World War I and Bolshevism is on the rise.

Follett does his readers a great favor by making a three-page cast-of-characters list in the front of the book. There are many to keep straight and yet, it is surprisingly easy to do so, for their stories are so engaging. Seeing a war and the impact of the times on personal stories, some of which intertwine over the years, really brought the power of war and its effect on people from all socioeconomic sectors to life.  

I powered through this eagerly and look forward to the next next volume in the trilogy. Set against a critical time in world history, events are covered that cross a spectrum of class and environment. From the battles in the no man's land of World War I to Russia's Bolshevik revolution, the country houses of the aristocracy to the impoverished miner's village, prohibition in New York, and the streets of London to the halls of power in Berlin, Follett captures them all. Well worth the time.

"Killing Cassidy" by Jeanne M. Dams 

 

After "Fall of Giants" I wanted a fast read and something where no one dies in battle. "Killing Cassidy" is a Dorothy Martin mystery and this one finds the 60-something ex-pat and her second husband, former police constable Alan Nesbitt visiting Dorothy's home town, Hillsburg, Indiana. She has been left a legacy by the recently deceased friend of Dorothy's and her late husband's, Kevin Cassidy. But the legacy comes with a hitch -- she must come claim it in person within 30 days. 

When they arrive in Hillsburg, Dorothy is given the check and a letter from Kevin in which he indicates that someone is trying to kill him and he fears his death (though pronounced pneumonia) was triggered by this person. He wants Dorothy to find the culprit.

Kevin has given them a list of potential candidates and Dorothy and Alan must investigate while not appearing to do so and while on their search, encounter many from Dorothy's home town. 

The mystery plot is nothing to write home about. It's fine, but Dorothy's character, though less annoying than in her earlier books, is more so than her most recent and began to bug me. But an underlying theme of the book was interesting. Can you go "home" again after leaving a town? After three years of living in England, Dorothy finds many things in Hillsburg have changed and not necessarily for the better. As she shares her town with Alan, she begins to discover that she no longer "belongs" in the place she called home. For this this reason alone, it was a worthwhile read, with much to ponder.

"Local Gone Missing" by Fiona Barton

 

Elise King hasn't had a great time of it lately. The police inspector is on medical leave, following breast cancer surgery and getting a little bored. And, her colleague Hugh, with whom she'd had a relationship for nine years, had dumped her for a "newer model." It's time to get back to work.

Fiona Barton has written a gripping and well told mystery that continues to deliver surprises, even after the villains have been caught. She introduces readers to Elise and some of her fellow townsfolk, including the affable Charlie Williams (everybody loves Charlie) and his much less lovable wife, Pauline; her cleaner Dee and Dee's husband Liam; Toby and Saul, local restaurant owners planning to meet the surrogate mother of their future child; weekenders Kevin and Janine and others, many of whom are busy with the upcoming and controversial town rock concert.

But when Charlie, last seen at the concert and behaving oddly, goes missing, her attention is captured. Still on leave, she and her next door neighbor, Ronnie, begin to casually investigate on their own. And, as Elise gets the OK to return to work, their efforts are enhanced by her policing team, especially her sergeant, Caro, and the forensic examiner Aiofe.

 Barton writes well and the characters are well drawn, the plot clever. I confess, I wasn't sure at the beginning, simply because the book is divided into sections "Now" and "Before," a narrative that can be confusing. But she manages it well and in doing so, lets readers in on some of the characters, their motivations and histories in a way that a straight narrative might find more cumbersome. 

I've read other books by Barton and enjoyed them. This is no exception. It's a good one. 

"Silent Voices" by Ann Cleeves

DI Vera Stanhope has been told by her doc to lose weight, so she's swimming at an exclusive health club before work. When she slips into the sauna, she realizes the woman across from her hasn't moved -- with good reason. She's dead, strangled, 

Ann Cleeves' "Silent Voices" follows Vera and her team as they investigate the death of Jenny Lister, a social worker living in a small town with her twenty-year-old daughter, Hannah. By all accounts, Jenny is revered as the perfect social worker, even by Connie Masters, a former employee whose name was dragged through the press when one of her clients drowned her child. Connie, while not tried in court, was tried in the press for not better monitoring the client, Mattie, more closely. Because of this, Connie and her young daughter have been more or less shunned in the village.

So, why would a woman so dearly loved and admired be murdered? As Vera and her team -- Sgt. Joe Ashworth, Holly and Charlie, are on the case and their efforts reveal no end of potential suspects and witnesses. Meanwhile, she and Joe are both concerned about the deeply grieving Hannah, who is comforted only by her finance, Simon, and about Connie and little Alice. When a second death occurs, the pressure is on to find the murderer -- and a motive.

Once again, Cleeves does not disappoint. The characters are well drawn, the atmosphere of the village life is on target and there are numerous twists to the plot that add depth to the mystery.

A side note -- after I finished this, I watched the television episode of "Vera" dramatizing the story. I was surprised with the number of changes the screenwriter made to the plot. It is still essentially the same with most of the same characters, but the side plot and several characters have disappeared, a new one created and motives sketchy. It worked -- if you hadn't read the original -- but I think they should have stuck with Cleeves' telling.

"The Tragedy at Freyne" by Anthony Gilbert 

It's a pity that author Lucy Mallenson used the pen name of Anthony Gilbert when writing a mystery of such mindbending cleverness. She deserves credit in her own right. 

"The Tragedy at Freyne" is a classic, country house locked room mystery, written in 1927. Alan Ravenswood has been invited to the country estate of the artist Simon Chandos, along with other guests that include Chandos' ward, Rosemary; her likely fiancee, Scott Egerton; war veteran Rupert Dacre;  and the MP Guy Bannister, along with Sandos' secretary Althea Dennis and his wife, Lady Catherine. 

It is obvious to all, certainly to Sandos, that Catherine and Dacre are having an affair but he refuses to grant her a divorce. It also becomes apparent early on that the artist is dying from cancer and has little time to live. He takes morphia tablets for the pain.

So, when his body is found in his locked study the morning after the dinner party with a half-empty bottle of pills at his side, it appears to be suicide. That is, until tiny marks from a syringe are found and when crushed morphia tablets are found in the fireplace grate. The death is clearly a murder.

Thus begins the intriguing mystery that finds Ravenswood and eventually Egerton working first together and then in conjunction with Inspector Bradlaugh to find the killer. Could the suspect be Lady Catherine or her lover? Secretary Dennis, who clearly is in love with Sandos? Or one of the other guests?

It's a wonderful story with lots of twists. If you enjoy the classic mysteries, I think you will like this one.  

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