JO BANNISTER – A Bleeding of Innocents. Frank Shapiro & Liz Graham #1. St. Martin’s Press, US, hardcover, 1993. Macmillan, UK, hc, 1993. Worldwide Library, paperback, 1997.

   Jo Bannister has written other mysteries, and won an EQMM prize, but this is the first of her work that I’ve read. It’s also the first in a new series.

   The police force in Castlemere, England is in disarray. A Detective Inspector has been killed and a Detective Sergeant injured in what may have been a hit and run; or may, as the Sergeant believes, been a deliberate murder engineered by a local racketeer.

   Chief Inspector Shapiro brings in an old colleague, DI Liz Graham, to temporarily replace the slain DI, and she is greeted by the shotgun murder of a retirement home nurse. At the same time, she must try to work with the injured Sergeant, a difficult person who had a close relationship with his slain boss, and who is determined to pin the death on the racketeer he suspects.

   I have a predilection for British police stories, and I’m happy to say that this is a pretty good one. It isn’t of John Harvey or Reginald Hill caliber, but it’s competently done and well written. The third person narrative is straightforward, and shifts among the three police officers.

   Characterization is not really in depth, but sharp enough that Graham and the Sergeant are brought to life decently, though Shapiro was less well developed. The plot was the weakest link, but tolerable.

   I did think that the book ran on a bit at the end after the real denouement, with perhaps a little too much talk, but that’s a minor cavil. On limited exposure, I think Bannister fits comfortably in the middle of the pack with which she’s chosen to run.

       The Shapiro & Graham “Castlemere” series —

1. A Bleeding of Innocents (1993)
2. Sins of the Heart (1994) aka Charisma (US)

3. Burning Desires (1995) aka A Taste for Burning (US)

4. No Birds Sing (1996)
5. Broken Lines (1998)
6. The Hireling’s Tale (1999)
7. Changelings (2000)

   Jo Bannister has also written four books in her Dr Clio Rees (Marsh) and Harry Marsh series; two books with Mickey Flynn; two in a series about columnist Primrose “Rosie” Holland; and nine books featuring Brodie Farrell, a woman who “finds things for a living.” She’s also written nine standalone novels, not all of which are crime related.

ANN PARKER – Silver Lies. Poisoned Pen Press, hardcover, September 2003; trade paperback, April 2006.

   A first novel, and for a mystery, it’s a long one, some 420 pages, but for a work of historical fiction, the page count might be about right. It’s 1879, and Leadville is a booming small metropolis in Colorado, the inhabitants of which are afflicted with “ever-present cold, lingering homesickness, and the pangs of silver fever.”

   Inez Stannert is one of the few women in the town, co-owner of a flourishing saloon, and since the town marshal seems to be totally uninterested, she’s also the only person willing to investigate the possible murder of the town’s assayer, who’s been found trampled to death on the frigid muck of a nearby street.

   Adding to Inez’ concerns is her husband, who’s been missing for several months, but the new minister in town seems more than willing to help her forget. The legendary Bat Masterton also makes an appearance, but it’s little more than a cameo, as Inez and the Reverend J.B. Sands end up doing all of the heavy lifting.

   As a mystery, it’s adequate. It works better as a historical novel — life in this rough-and-tumble corner of the world is brought to life quite effectively in two quite opposite and surprising ways: the scenic wonder of 19th century Colorado and the wretched environment it had to have been for anyone actually trying to live there.

   The story in Silver Lies is less effective as far as the romantic elements are concerned, falling prey to some fairly stand-by cliches, and much of the author’s work is undone, paradoxically, by some better-than-average characterization that has to be retrofitted, and abruptly so, to make the rather lurid conclusion work.

   Acceptable, and maybe more so, depending on where your interests lie, but if there’s a paperback forthcoming, you might choose to put it off till then.

Note: This review has been revised slightly since it first appeared in Historical Novels Review.

       The Inez Stannert “Silver Rush Mystery” series —

1. Silver Lies (2003)
2. Iron Ties (2006)

3. Leaden Skies (2009)

KATE ELLIS – The Merchant’s House. Piatkus, UK, hardcover, 1998. St. Martin’s, US, hardcover, 1999.

Genre:   Police procedural. Leading character:  Sgt. Wesley Peterson; 1st in series. Setting:   England.

First Sentence:   The child flung his tricycle aside and toddled, laughing, toward the basking cat.

    A university graduate in archeology and the first black police officer in Tradmouth, DS Wesley Peterson begins his first day at work with a murder. The body of a young woman has been found off a cliff path, the damage to her face rendering her unrecognizable.

   Wesley’s university friend, Neill, is heading a team of archeologists on the site of a 17th century merchant’s house in town when the skeleton of a child is found. A fellow officer is dealing with the mother of a missing toddler who is adamant her son is still alive in spite of a lack of clues.

   Can a clue from the past solve a crime in the present?

   To find a book which is a skillful combination of archeology and police procedure is definitely in my “happy-reader” zone. Ms. Ellis does just that and much more. Although the locations are fictional, I was ready to pack my back and go. Those who are familiar would know the differences, but for those who don’t, the locations are visual and real.

   Not only is there a nice introduction to Wesley, but to all the book’s major characters. One thing particularly refreshing is that the police officers all like one another and work as a team. There is an odd man out, but you don’t feel he’ll be there long. It’s not just the primary characters Ms. Ellis brings to life, but the secondary characters as well. I never had to question who a character was or why there were there.

   It can be a tricky business, bringing together four plot lines, but it works. The information from the 17th century is provided in diary excerpts as chapter headings, while fascinating, does not intrude on the present-day investigations.

   The dig at the merchant’s house plays to Wesley’s background and as an escape from issues at home. The kidnapping is largely the responsibility of another team, and the murdered girl is Wesley’s primary investigation. Yet Ms. Ellis cleverly designates Wesley as the hub which brings together the various spokes of the wheel in a way I didn’t predict until it was revealed.

   The Merchant’s House is a very good police procedural in which the plot unfolds not by flash, but bit-by-bit, following the clues. It is filled with great characters, dialogue, humour, and a plot that kept me reading. Happily there are many more books ahead in this series.

Rating:   Very Good.

       The Wesley Peterson series —

1. The Merchant’s House (1998)
2. The Armada Boy (1999)

3. An Unhallowed Grave (1999)
4. The Funeral Boat (2000)
5. The Bone Garden (2001)
6. A Painted Doom (2002)
7. The Skeleton Room (2003)

8. The Plague Maiden (2004)
9. A Cursed Inheritance (2005)
10. The Marriage Hearse (2006)
11. The Shining Skull (2007)
12. The Blood Pit (2008)

13. A Perfect Death (2009)
14. The Flesh Tailor (2010)
15. The Jackal Man (2011)

Editorial Comment:   LJ, your last sentence seems to be rather an understatement!

  STEVEN SAYLOR – Catilina’s Riddle. St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, October 1993. Reprint paperback: Ivy Books, August 1994. Other reprint editions exist. Roma sub Rosa #3.

   I thought the first of this trilogy, Roman Blood, was the best first novel of 1991, and one of the best of that year, period. I have yet to read the second, Arms of Nemesis.

   Now Gordianus the Finder (the Roman equivalent of a private eye) is Gordianus the Farmer, having inherited a farm in Etruria from an old friend. He is surrounded by that friend’s relatives, who bitterly contested the will but were defeated in the Roman courts by Gordianus’s old acquaintance and employer, Cicero.

   Now Cicero is calling in his marker. He wants Goridianus to allow Catalina, one of Rome’s radical politicians, to occasionally use the farm as a refuge. Not because he’s Catalina’s friend, though; au contraire. He sees this as a way to keep track of his comings and goings. Gordianus reluctantly acquiesces, and thus is drawn into what history was to label the Catiline Conspiracy.

   I remain tremendously impressed by Saylor’s skill at interweaving history and fiction and by his ability as a wordsmith. He has created a memorable character and chronicler in Gordianus, whose portrayal has deepened over the course of the series. He has acquired a larger family in the interim between the first and third books, and they too are finely drawn.

   As I remarked at the end of the first book, Saylor’s love and knowledge of Roman history is evident on every page – as is his own opinion of the various historical personages.

   This is less of a mystery than the first, though there is one, dealing with a series of headless corpses that appear on the farm. Mystery included or mystery aside, though, it’s an excellent novel. I can’t imagine you not liking it.

      The Roma sub Rosa series —

1. Roman Blood (1990)
2. Arms of Nemesis (1992)

3. Catilina’s Riddle (1993)
4. The Venus Throw (1995)

5. A Murder On the Appian Way (1996)
6. The House of the Vestals (1997)
7. Rubicon (1999)

8. Last Seen in Massilia (2000)
9. A Mist of Prophecies (2002)
10. The Judgement of Caesar (2004)
11. A Gladiator Dies Only Once (2005)
12. The Triumph of Caesar (2008)

MIGNON WARNER – Speak No Evil. Doubleday Crime Club, US, hardcover, 1985. Robert Hale, UK, hc, 1986. Hardcover reprint: Detective Book Club, 3-in-1 volume, no date given.

   There are some interesting things to be found in Mignon Warner’s mystery bibliography. She was born in Australia but lived primarily in England, and of her eleven books (as of 1994), all take place in the U.K.

   What’s unusual, though, is that several of them appeared in the U.S. before the British edition, and one, Death in Time (1982), was published only in this country. Three early non-series books were published only in England, and are extremely scarce, with (doing a quick search) none presently available on the Internet, at least at the moment. [Update: This is no longer true, but the few copies that are available are pricey.]

   Warner’s series character was Mrs. Edwina Charles, a clairvoyant detective who appeared in eight of the eleven, including Death in Time. Speak No Evil, the one in hand, came close to being the last one, but some nine years later another one appeared. Under what circumstances the curiously titled Exit Mr. Punch (1994) finally was published, with no US edition, I cannot say, and I’d like to know.

   Hubin, by the way, calls this book a paperback in the Revised Crime Fiction IV, but several copies for sale online are described as having dust jackets, so that’s something we now know that he didn’t (until now).

   While I have several of Mrs. Charles earlier adventures, this is the first I’ve read, and besides the actual mystery, she remains also something of a mystery to me. While her given name is actually Adele, she’s revised and adapted her ex-husband’s name, Edwin Charles, for use as her own, even though (on page 26) she considers her marriage to him a very bad mistake. Dating back to the depressing days of “Charles the Third,” she says, there are “names, names of some very important people socially and politically, the publication of which could place them (and her) in very hot water.”

   These people may have been clients in those days, but in any case Eddie Charles has an invisible something he’s holding over her. Which brings us to (at last) the case at hand. When is the last time you read a mystery in which a small-time thief (calling himself Jimmy Valentine) hires a private detective (Mrs. Charles) to investigate the strange death (deemed suicide by the authorities) of a another private detective? The latter, also female, is named Tony Manners.

   In case you missed the connection, Jimmy Valentine was sent by Mrs. Charless former husband, and she considers having to agree to look into Tony’s death a form of blackmail. It’s a first for me, too.

   Also puzzling to me — which is hardly the first time — is — without reading the earlier books in the series — why Mrs. Charles is constantly referred to as a clairvoyante. She doesn’t do anything that even slightly resembles clairvoyeuring until page 163, when a seance is held, which admittedly does help in bringing the case to a close.

   Before then, the search for Ms. Manner’s killer, if indeed it was a murder, is a perfectly ordinary one, in a muddled, rambling sort of fashion. Lots of connections between people whose names come up in the investigation, too many coincidences (Mrs. Charles’s very words on page 70), with lots of false trails for the unwary reader to make their down.

   Great stuff, I thought, even while I was totally mystified. Or while I was being totally and massively misdirected. Sleight-of-hand such as this is rather uncommon, and if that’s the kind of mystery you enjoy, I think you’ll like this one.

       The Mrs. Edwina Charles series —

1. A Nice Way to Die. Hale 1976.
2. The Tarot Murders. Hale 1978.

3. Death in Time. Doubleday 1982.
4. The Girl Who Was Clairvoyant. Hale 1983.
5. Devil’s Knell. Hale 1984.

6. Illusion. Hale 1985.
7. Speak No Evil. Hale 1986.
8. Exit Mr. Punch. Breese 1994.

[UPDATE] 08-19-10.   I don’t know about you, but I’m intrigued by my own review. I have to confess that I do not remember this book — only that I read it, and in the Detective Book Club edition — but that last paragraph I wrote is a clincher. I’ll have to read it again.

   I don’t think either the author or her series character was ever very well-known, and I’m sure both are quite forgotten now.

[UPDATE #2] Later the same day. Here’s some intriguing news from British mystery bookseller Jamie Sturgeon:

Hi Steve,

There are two more Edwina Charles books by Mignon Warner – The Devil’s Hand and The Tarot Reading – both published by Robert Hale in 2008

http://www.halebooks.com/display.asp?K=9780709086215&pge=hale&st2=not+67351&sort=sort_date%2Fd&sf1=Keyword&sf2=lcode&x=20&st1=warner&y=10&m=1&dc=2

Regards,

Jamie

    Me again. This is intriguing news. I wonder where these books came from. Is Mignon Warner actively writing again? There are no dates for her in CFIV, so at the moment she’s very much a woman of mystery.

    (To see details of the second book, you have to follow the link in the first page of two that the one above sends you to.)

[UPDATE #2] 09-12-10.   I’ve postponed saying anything until/unless I had a more definitive answer, but based on an online plot description, Jamie and I now suspect that The Devil’s Hand is a retitled reprint of Devil’s Knell, and therefore it’s a good possibility that The Tarot Reading is the same for The Tarot Murders.

LENORE GLEN OFFORD – The Smiling Tiger. Duell Sloan & Pearce, hardcover, 1949. Hardcover reprint: Unicorn Mystery Book Club, December 1949. Paperback: Harlequin #159, Canada, 1952.

   Although Todd McKinnon, who writes fictional short stories based on true cases, is having a writing slump, he is not interested in the tale presented to him by Hugh Hartlein. According to Hartlein, someone in Beyond-Truth, a cult opposed to any marriage that will produce children since the world is shortly to end, is bumping off its members who disobey that tenet.

   Since some of the bumpees are Hildegarde Latham, Harriet Withers, and Grace Vane, McKinnon naturally is not duped.

   Still he does take an interest in the leader of the cult. When Hartlein either commits suicide or is murdered by means of an inhaler containing crystalline cyanide, McKinnon gets somewhat involved. Later, after his wife, Georgine, is threatened, he takes the whole matter very seriously.

   Another fine novel by Offord.

Bio-Bibliographic Data:   Besides being a mystery writer, although not a prolific one, Lenore Glen Offord (1905-1991) was, I have discovered online, the long time mystery critic for the San Francisco Chronicle (1950-1982). She and the newspaper received the Mystery Writers of America Edgar award for best criticism in 1952.

   Mike Grost has a lengthy commentary of several of her books on his Classic Mystery and Detection website. (He has placed her in the Mary Roberts Rinehart school of mystery fiction.)

    Crime Novels:     [Taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin]

# Murder on Russian Hill (n.) Macrae-Smith 1938 [Bill Hastings; Coco Hastings; San Francisco, CA]

# The 9 Dark Hours (n.) Duell 1941 [San Francisco, CA]
# Clues to Burn (n.) Duell 1942 [Bill Hastings; Coco Hastings; Idaho]
# Skeleton Key (n.) Duell 1943 [Todd McKinnon; San Francisco, CA]

# The Glass Mask (n.) Duell 1944 [Todd McKinnon; California]
# My True Love Lies (n.) Duell 1947 [San Francisco, CA]
# The Smiling Tiger (n.) Duell 1949 [Todd McKinnon; California]
# Walking Shadow (n.) Simon 1959 [Todd McKinnon; Oregon; Theatre]

C. J. BOX – Nowhere to Run. Putnam, hardcover, April 2010. Paperback reprint: Berkley, April 2011.

Genre:   Licensed investigator. Leading character:  Joe Pickett; 10th in series. Setting:   Wyoming.

First Sentence:   Three hours after he’d broken camp, repacked, and pushed his horses higher into the mountain range, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett paused on the lip of a wide hollow basin and dug in his saddlebag for his notebook.

   Game Warden Joe Pickett is making the last pass before going home through the territory he has been covering for the past year. He’s following up on reports of vandalism and other hunter’s game butchered out. He doesn’t expect to run into twin brothers who resent being asked to follow the rules and nearly cost Joe his life.

   He also doesn’t expect the only reason he escapes is a woman who may have been an Olympic contender but disappeared. His determination to enforce the law and to possibly rescue the woman sends Joe, with his friend Nate, back into the mountains and an old-West showdown.

   Box writes books that are entertaining, exciting and occasionally touching. He also writes book that make you think about the bigger issues and does it in such a way that doesn’t preach or become didactic, but makes you weigh both sides of the question and make your own choice. That is a real talent.

   The character of Joe Pickett is one of an average man; very human, married, loves his family, loyal to his friends. He learns he is not invincible, but believes in his job even it’s dangerous and, perhaps, not smart… “It’s my job. I do my job.”

   Even his wife, Marybeth, acknowledges his job is who he is… “You do what you do because you’re hardwired for it. You get yourself into situations because you have a certain set of standards…”

   That relationship and those principles give Joe the structure that defines him. The interaction between Joe and the other characters is believable, and occasionally humorous.

   In this book, Box has given Joe two very challenging enemies; both in terms of surviving against them, but opposition of views on issues that are very timely. One thing, of which I am becoming very tired, is the overuse by authors of the ignorant, obstructive, jealous superior official. Yes, I know it all-too-often exists, but it has become rather cliché.

   The pacing is wonderful; it fluctuates between tension and rest. Box’s descriptions demonstrate his knowledge and love of Wyoming, and shares that with us by taking us along and letting us see what Joe sees, both in terms of its beauty and potential danger.

   The dialogue has a natural flow and refreshingly little profanity. This is a very good story. I became so involved, it was a one-sitting read for me and I am now anxious for the next book.

Rating:   Very Good.

        The Joe Pickett series —

1. Open Season (2001)

2. Savage Run (2002)
3. Winterkill (2003)
4. Trophy Hunt (2004)
5. Out of Range (2005)
6. In Plain Sight (2006)

7. Free Fire (2007)
8. Blood Trail (2008)

9. Below Zero (2009)
10. Nowhere to Run (2010)

S. J. BOLTON – Blood Harvest. Bantam Press, UK, hardcover/softcover, 2010. US edition: St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 2010.

Genre:   Suspense. Leading characters:  Rev. Harry Laycock / Dr. Evi Oliver / ensemble; standalone (3rd book). Setting:   England.

First Sentence:   “She’s been watching us for a while now.”

   Reverend Harry Laycock has come to his new parish which includes Heptoncough in the Yorkshire Pennines. Here there is an old church, a very old church a village which still carries out the old traditions and where young girls have disappeared or died.

   One of the girls died in a house fire, but her mother, Gillian, never accepted her death and constantly roams the moors at night. Psychiatrist Evi Oliver is trying to help her put her life back together.

   Tom Fletcher and family have moved to the village having bought the only new house built in many years. It was built on the old Church’s land, next to the graveyard. They all learn that events of the past are still part of the present.

   Although I really liked Ms. Bolton’s first two books, this one knocked my socks off. Everything about it was so well done, it’s hard to know where to start.

   Even from the page before the prologue, I was captivated. I am not a particular fan of prologues, but this one really worked. I was introduced to a number of the significant characters who immediately jumped off the page and made me want to know more about them.

   I am also not usually a fan of ensemble casts. Again, this worked. Although Harry, the antithesis of a stuffy vicar and for whom I would have provided a different surname, and Evi, the physically impaired, intelligent and independent psychiatrist, are the pivotal characters, all characters were alive and their interactions realistic.

   Dialogue is such an important element of a story. Ms. Bolton has a skill with dialogue that echoes in cadence the speech of the characters. As well as establishing a strong sense of place, she incorporates the history and traditions of the area.

   Combined with all these ingredients, what caused me to read this 421 page book in eight straight hours was the author’s voice and the plot. The first half of the book is an amazingly skillful balance of humor… “I haven’t had this much success with a woman since I got drunk at my cousin’s wedding and threw up over the maid of honour.” … and underlying, delightfully creepy menace.

   There is a real sense of “things that go bump in the night” which made me happy I was reading the book during the day.

   The second half of the book moved to police and forensic investigation, and a race-against-time fear, while the climax was filled with an increasingly ratcheted tension and surprises right up to the very end.

   One observation is that Ms. Bolton does have a penchant for her female protagonists to be somehow physically impaired. While the overcoming of the particular impairment shows the character’s strength and resolve, it can also become formulaic or even cliché over time.

   However, as this is a general observation and not a criticism of this particular book, it does not impact my rating at all. In this case, it greatly added to the suspense. This really was an exceptional, “wow” book and one I shan’t soon forget. I cannot wait for Ms. Bolton’s next book

Rating:   Excellent.

      Novels by S(HARON) J. BOLTON —

1. Sacrifice (2008)

2. Awakening (2009)
3. Blood Harvest (2010)

E. LOUISE CUSHING – Murder Without Regret. Arcadia House, hardcover, 1954.

   During a party after the reading of a will, one of the guests presumably commits suicide. Barbara Hillier finds the corpse and aids Inspector MacKay of the Montreal police in the investigation of an undoubted murder later.

   Striving as always to say something good about any novel, I can report that this one has very large type and a great deal of space between the lines. Thus, it’s only about a 30-minute waste of time.

    Bibliographic Data:   [Taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin.]

CUSHING, E. LOUISE. Pseudonym of Mabel Louise Dawson. Inspector Richard MacKay appears in all four books below.

       Murder’s No Picnic (n.) Arcadia House, 1953.
       Murder Without Regret (n.) Arcadia House, 1954.
       Blood on My Rug (n.) Arcadia House, 1956.
       The Unexpected Corpse (n.) Arcadia House, 1957.

LEA WAIT – Shadows at the Fair. Pocket, paperback reprint; 1st printing, July 2003. Hardcover edition: Scribner, July 2002.

   Since Lea Wait herself is a long-time antique dealer, one specializing in prints, it comes as little surprise that Maggie Summer, her detective heroine in this, the first in a series, is one also. An antique dealer, that is, specializing in prints.

   And that’s the part of the story that’s the most fun to read, even though most of Maggie’s discussion of her stock in trade and other shop talk with her customers is quite irrelevant to the mystery — the death of another dealer who’d set up at same Rensselaer Antique Show as Maggie.

   In fact, both customers and dealers are beautifully portrayed in all of their foibles and eccentricities, of which (from my own personal experience) customers and dealers have many. To put it mildly. Also right on in terms of characterization is Ben, the mildly retarded nephew assisting one of Maggie’s friends, who’s also set up at the show.

   Which brings me to the part I didn’t care for so very much. Ben is accused of the murder — which allows the show to go on, with (as the police say) the killer caught. A fatal flaw for many a cozy: there’s far too much laughing and joking and kidding around when murder’s been done — with poor Ben sitting there alone in the lockup.

   I was also ready to add another source of dissatisfaction, that of predictability, but I have to tell you that while the first two-thirds of the murder investigation falls into that particular category, I did not see the ending coming. My socks are still on, but it opened my eyes a little wider.

   And so. With all of the pluses and minuses added in, subtracted off and weighed up against each other, the bottom line? An average sort of mystery, but with a nudge or two in the right direction, one that could have been improved upon immensely. There’s promise here, but apart from the antique dealer background, the rest is fairly uneven, at best.

     The Maggie Summers “Antique Print Mysteries” series —

Shadows At the Fair (2002)
Shadows On the Coast of Maine (2003)
Shadows On the Ivy (2004)

Shadows At the Spring Show (2005)