STEVE HAMILTON – North of Nowhere.

St. Martin’s; paperback reprint; 1st printing, May 2003. Hardcover edition: St. Martin’s, 2002.

   When I went to undergraduate school in Michigan’s famed upper peninsula, there was a popular song (and maybe a movie) called “North to Alaska.” Our version was turned around and became “South to Alaska.” (Maybe you had to be there.)

   Anyway, this is the fourth of former Detroit policeman Alex McKnight’s recorded cases, the first of which, A Cold Day in Paradise, won an Edgar. There’s a town in the lower portion of the state called Hell, down around Ann Arbor, and I’ve been there, and I’ve been to Paradise, where this story takes place, up around Sault Ste. Marie, and more in the middle of nothing but trees, trees and more trees, it is hard to imagine.

   Well, there is the Lake Superior shoreline, and nearby Tahquamenon Falls. Could the area be the site of the next building boom, for rich down-staters to build multi-room faux-Victorian summer mansions along the lake?

   Alex gets involved when a poker party he’s invited to at the last minute is interrupted by gunmen who seem to know how much money the wealthy host (and would-be developer) has in his hidden upstairs safe.

   The tale as it develops from there is too long (322 pages) and too talky to be truly hard-boiled, but Hamilton has the knack of pulling the reader into his story with prose as smooth as you hope to live for and yet so seething with underlying tension that it sometimes hurts. McKnight also has a wonderfully uncool and all-but-inept private eye buddy whose loyalty is questioned but comes back answered.

   This is a guy’s book — the only women that show up are three or four wives, some faithful and some not. There’s also just enough honest-to-goodness detective work going on to add an extra dimension to a rip-roaring northern woods adventure novel that’s sheer all-out fun to boot.

FRANK TALLIS – A Death in Vienna. Random House, trade paperback, May 2007. First UK edition, as Mortal Mischief: Century, hardcover; June 2005.

   I’d been eying this novel, set in turn-of-the-century Vienna for some time. When I decided to buy a copy, my local bookshop was out of stock, but a copy was ordered and a week later I settled down to read it.

   Dr. Max Liebermann is a follower of the new theories of Sigmund Freud, which puts him in conflict with his superior at the hospital where he is affiliated. He is also the good friend of Detective Oscar Reinhardt, and when a psychic is murdered inside her apartment in a room locked from the inside, with no apparent means of entry other than the door, Oscar invites Max to assist him in his investigation.

   Vienna, in 1902, was a center of the arts. Mahler was conducting at the symphony and opera, Gustav Klimt was exhibiting his works at a museum, and the city was rich in cultural events, first-class restaurants and the inevitable conflicts between the conservative past and the new, more open present. Tallis evokes the city with great skill all the while constructing a plot that tests the professional and personal skills of his protagonists.

      Series: The Liebermann Papers

1. Mortal Mischief (2005). US edition: A Death in Vienna, Random House, May 2007.

2. Vienna Blood (2006). US edition: Random House, Jan 2008.
3. Fatal Lies (2008). US edition: Random House, Feb 2009.
4. Darkness Rising (2009). US edition: Random House, Mar 2010.

   Mystery writer Lyn Hamilton died of cancer earlier this week (September 10th) at the age of 65. At a pace of a book a year over the past 11 years, she was the author of an equal number of mystery adventures featuring her series character Lara McClintoch.

   From Lyn Hamilton’s website: “The series features Toronto antique dealer Lara McClintoch, who travels the world in search of the rare and beautiful for her shop, finding more than a little murder and mayhem along the way. Each book in the series is set in a different and exotic location and calls upon the past in an unusual way.

    “The first book in the series, The Xibalba Murders, was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award for best first crime novel in Canada, and the eighth, The Magyar Venus was nominated for an Ellis award for best crime novel. The Celtic Riddle formed the basis for the 2003 Murder She Wrote TV Movie starring Angela Lansbury.”

   The Chinese Alchemist (2007) had already been announced as Lara McClintoch’s final appearance.

   Also from the author’s website: “Courses in both cultural and physical anthropology in her student days at the University of Toronto inspired a life-long interest in ancient cultures. Lyn was for six years the Director of the Ontario Cultural Programs Branch, the branch responsible for the licensing of all archaeology in the province as well as for museum and heritage conservation support programs.

    “Lyn visits each of the locales she writes about, and has led tours to come of the sites in her books. Her books have been translated in Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Turkish and will soon be available in Croatian, Greek, Hungarian and Thai.

    “She was writer-in-residence at the North York Central Library in 2003, and held the same position at the Kitchener Public Library in 2004. She lives in Toronto, and like her sleuth Lara is something of an antiques addict.”

    More details about the author can be found in online obituriaries on the Toronto Star and CBC websites.

   The Lara McClintoch Archaeological Mysteries. The entire series was published by Berkley. The first two were paperback originals; all of the others were published first in hardcover, then in paperback.

      The Xibalba Murders (1997)
      The Maltese Goddess (1998)
      The Moche Warrior (1999)

      The Celtic Riddle (2000)
      The African Quest (2001)
      The Etruscan Chimera (2002)
      The Thai Amulet (2003)

      The Magyar Venus (2004)
      The Moai Murders (2005)

      The Orkney Scroll (2006)
      The Chinese Alchemist (2007)

Short story:

       “Stark Terror at Tea-Time.” Original story with Lara McClintoch. Included in Death Dines In, edited by Claudia Bishop and Dean James; Berkley, 2004.

MANDA SCOTT – The Crystal Skull. Delacorte Press, hardcover, April 2008. Paperback reprint: Bantam Books, February 2009. UK edition: Transworld, January 2008.

   According to Mayan lore, the world will end on 21/12/2012. The only salvation for humanity lies in the activation of 12 crystal skulls entrusted to the protection of a network of keepers.

   Stella Cody O’Connor, a descendant of Cedric Owens, the keeper of the ninth skull, who was murdered in 1599 after hiding the skull from the dark forces who would destroy it, with the help of her husband, Kit, retrieves the skull from a cave in which it has been buried.

   This is, however, only the beginning of her task, and the novel traces, with mounting tension, Owens’ odyssey in the past and Stella’s present-day struggle to protect the sacred skull.

   Owens’ odyssey takes him to the New World, where the powers of the Skull are revealed to him. The Skull is no inanimate object, the mute subject of the quest. Its keeper bonds with it, and it is that spiritual and emotional bond that is, perhaps, the most distinctive quality of this intelligent thriller, giving it an unusual and moving resonance.

         Bibliographic data [expanded from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin] —

SCOTT, MANDA (Catriona).

      The Dr. Kellen Stewart series —

   Hen’s Teeth. Women’s Press, UK, pb, 1996; Bantam, US, 1999.

   Night Mares. Headline Press, UK, hc, 1998; Bantam, 1999.
   Stronger Than Death. Headline, UK, hc, 1999; Bantam, 2000.

Note: The series is set in Glasgow, Scotland, and environs. Dr. Stewart is a doctor, a therapist and a lesbian, and in various ways she’s personally involved with each of the cases of murder she works on.

       Crime/mystery novels —

   No Good Deed. Headline, UK, 2001; Bantam, US, 2002. [Nominated for an Edgar, 2003.]

   The Crystal Skull. Transworld, UK, 2008; Delacorte, US, 2008.

MALCOLM PRYCE – Aberystwyth Mon Amour. Bloomsbury, UK, 2001.

    This has been on my must read list since it was first published and Maxim Jakubowski told me how funny it was. I have been looking forward to reading it for 8 years now and, in the meantime, acquired the three sequels (and a fourth has just been published).

    It is a private eye tale narrated by Louie Knight who operates in the eponymous Welsh town, though this is a sort of parallel universe version of it. Knight is approached by Myfanwy Montez, singer and night club entertainer, to investigate the disappearance of her cousin, the schoolboy Evans the Boot.

    The investigation uncovers the deaths of other schoolboys including Brainbocs [sic], the school swot. The investigation leads to a wholly unbelievable (to be fair it is not meant to be believable) conspiracy.

    Humour is subjective (as with most other qualities) but I’m afraid I didn’t find this to be funny in the slightest and, without that, there is absolutely nothing in the book to like. The good news is that I can now make the pile of books in the loft smaller by four volumes.

Bibliographic data — the Aberystwyth series:

      1. Aberystwyth Mon Amour (2001).
      2. Last Tango in Aberystwyth (2003.
      3. The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth (2005).
      4. Don’t Cry For Me Aberystwyth (2007).

      5. From Aberystwyth with Love (2009).

CELIA FREMLIN – The Hours Before Dawn. Victor Gollancz, UK, hardcover, 1958. J. B. Lippincott, US hardcover, 1958. Reprint US paperbacks: Dell D422, 1961; Dell 3770, Great Mystery Library, 1966.

   Celia Fremlin has the unusual ability to take a perfectly normal, if not mundane, situation and create an atmosphere of sheer terror. The Hours Before Dawn, which won an Edgar for Best Novel of its year, introduces us to Louise Henderson, a sleep-starved young housewife with a fretful new infant that is causing complaints from both her family and neighbors.

   The only person who doesn’t complain is Miss Vera Brandon, the boarder the Hendersons have recently taken in. In fact, Miss Brandon is so self-effacing and quiet that at times the Hendersons don’t even know she is in the house.

   Soon the boarder’s actions begin to arouse Louise’s suspicions, and she finds herself doing all sorts of things she has never done before — attempting to search the woman’s room, contacting total strangers for information about her, and finally taking the baby for a nocturnal stroll in his pram, only to fall asleep and lose him in a park.

   The author skillfully weaves truly frightening events into Louise’s daily routine of meals, housecleaning, and childcare, and her superb characterization has the reader thoroughly on Louise’s side — and just as terrified as she is — by the time the story reaches its surprising conclusion.

   Other Fremlin titles of note: Uncle Paul (1960), Prisoner’s Base (1967), The Spider-Orchid (1978), With No Crying (1981).

         ———
   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.

CELIA FREMLIN, R.I.P. It was Martin Edwards who first made known the news of mystery writer Celia Fremlin’s passing, announcing it on his blog three days ago.

    She died this past summer in a nursing home in Bournemouth, on June 16th, with very few in the world of mystery fandom knowing about her passing until now.

    Besides Martin’s appreciative tribute to her work, plus a long array of followup comments, a longer obituary by Rebecca Tope can be found online here. She says in part, in one poignant paragraph:

    “Her personal life was, in fact, full of tragedy. From the death of her mother when she was seventeen, she went on to lose three children and two husbands, before going blind and slowly sinking into a twilight world that lasted for several years. Her books are light and humorous at first glance, but just below the surface is an acknowledgment of the truly terrible things that can happen to a person. Her style is distinctive and the books immensely enjoyable.”

   BIBLIOGRAPHY: Taken from the Revised Crime Fiction IV, by Allen J. Hubin:

FREMLIN, CELIA. Pseudonym of Celia Margaret Goller, 1914-2009. UK publishers only, except for one case of a US retitling:
      The Hours Before Dawn (n.) Gollancz 1958.

      Uncle Paul (n.) Gollancz 1959.
      Seven Lean Years (n.) Gollancz 1961. US title: Wait for the Wedding, Lippincott 1961.
      The Trouble Makers (n.) Gollancz 1963.
      The Jealous One (n.) Gollancz 1965.

      Prisoner’s Base (n.) Gollancz 1967.
      Possession (n.) Gollancz 1969.
      Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark (co) Gollancz 1970.
      Appointment with Yesterday (n.) Gollancz 1972. No US edition.

      By Horror Haunted (co) Gollancz 1974. No US edition.

      The Long Shadow (n.) Gollancz 1975.
      The Spider-Orchid (n.) Gollancz 1977.

      With No Crying (n.) Gollancz 1980.

      The Parasite Person (n.) Gollancz 1982.
      A Lovely Day to Die, and other stories (co) Gollancz 1984.
      Listening in the Dusk (n.) Gollancz 1990.
      Dangerous Thoughts (n.) Gollancz 1991.
       Echoing Stones (n.) Severn 1993.
      King of the World (n.) Severn 1994.

JON L. BREEN – The Gathering Place. Walker, hardcover, 1984; paperback, September 1986.

   I’m on record as having serious reservations about occult and horror fiction, feeling most works in those genres are “copouts” in which the authors do not play by the “rules” of reality.

   Jon L. Breen’s The Gathering Place contains one unexplainable element, the ability of its heroine, Rachel Hennings, to, without practice, imitate the signatures of famous authors like ErIe Stanley Gardner. The plot device of automatic writing doesn’t help what is otherwise a classic detective story, but it doesn’t hurt it enough to keep me from recommending thls book.

   The setting is a famous old bookstore, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, recently inherited by Hennings from her uncle. There is real murder to go with the supernatural, and soon Rachel is acting as detective, with some help from a psychology professor, a reporter, and a Los Angeles Police detective.

   Hennings is a, strong enough character that she probably doesn’t need that many extra detectives. The mystery is crisply told and satisfactorily resolved, by strictly logical means. A real bonus is the atmosphere of an old-fashioned book store as seen through the eyes of an author who obviously loves old books.

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

HENNINGS, RACHEL
      The Gathering Place. Walker, hc, 1984.
      A Piece of the Auction. EQMM, July 1986. [Short story.]
      Starstruck. Murder in Los Angeles, Adams Round Table, Morrow, 1987. [novelette]
      Touch of the Past. Walker, hc, 1988.

      Rachel and the Bookstore Cat. Danger in D.C., ed. Martin H. Greenberg & Ed Gorman, Donald I. Fine, 1993. [short story]

LORNA BARRETT – Bookmarked for Death. Berkley Prime Crime, paperback original; 1st printing, February 2009.

   I ordered this sight unseen, attracted by the description of it as a bookstore mystery. What I didn’t realize was that it also included recipes, a seemingly popular device for some mystery novels that I have, up to now, avoided.

   Zoe Carter, author of a popular series of mysteries, is murdered during a signing at Haven’t Got A Clue, a mystery bookstore in Stoneham, New Hampshire. Tricia Miles, the proprietor of the bookstore, has a rocky relationship with the town’s sheriff and decides to investigate the case on her own in an attempt to speed up the identification and capture of the murderer.

   She has a sister, irritating to other people and, I suspect, to some readers as well; an ersatz boyfriend to whom she is not yet committed; and a tendency to put herself in situations that put her own life at peril.

   Tricia and I both fingered the wrong suspect, but the outcome is only slightly delayed. One of the chief suspects is a woman who has a bakery. and she keeps bringing treats to Tricia that are described in such a way as to provoke a reader with a sweet tooth into an instantaneous and severe craving for an over-caloried snack.

   I made it through the book without succumbing, but the fragrance lingers on. Now you know why I’ve avoided recipe mysteries.

   Most of the characters are quickly introduced in the first chapter, which had me retracing my steps more than once to find out who in heck the author was talking about. Distinctive characterizations are not her strong suit, but the plot has some tricky, intriguing turns, the setting is affectionately evoked (with a bookstore cat, Miss Marple, to pull in the animal lovers).

   In short, all the bases are hit for a conventional, undemanding cosy that’s dispatched with some flair.

      Bibliographic Data: Author’s Name: Lorraine Bartlett.

   Booktown Mystery Series, as by Lorna Barrett:

      1. Murder Is Binding. Berkley, pbo, April 2008.

      2. Bookmarked For Death. Berkley, pbo, Feb 2009.
      3. Bookplate Special. Berkley, pbo, Nov 2009.

   The Jeff Resnick series, as by L. L. Bartlett:

   [After insurance investigator Jeff Resnick is mugged, he discovers the resulting brain injury has left him able to sense people’s secrets.]

      1. Murder on the Mind. Five Star, hc, Dec 2005; Worldwide Mystery, pb, Oct 2007.

      2. Dead in Red. Five Star, hc, June 2008.

LAWRENCE BLOCK – The Burglar in the Closet. Random House, hardcover, 1978. Paperback reprints include: Pocket, 1981; Signet, 1997. Film: Warner, 1987, as Burglar, with Whoopi Goldberg as Bernie (as in short for Bernice).

   In Burglars Can’t Be Choosers, when last we met our favorite breaking-and-entering expert, Bernie Rhodenbarr, he was nabbed red-handed in an apartment which, quite unknown to him, came complete with a corpse in the bedroom.

   This time, he checks around first. While the murder’s being committed, he finds himself accidentally locked up in a closet instead. The victim? No one important, only his dentist’s not-so-favorite ex-wife.

   So, in the midst of the comedy routines provided by dentistry and other irreverent views of the world, Bernie is forced once again to become a detective on the run — burglars find it terribly difficult to get policemen to be sympathetic to their job-related problems. The end result is fast, fresh, breezy, and wow, was I slow on the clues!

Bernie Rhodenbarr novels:

Short stories:

LYON MEARSON – Phantom Fingers. Macaulay, hardcover, 1927. Hutchinson, UK, hc, 1929.

   Damon Knight, I believe it was, once reviewed what he called an “idiot novel,” wherein the hero was an idiot and the heroine was an idiot, but fortunately the villain was a super-idiot. This novel qualifies for that description.

   The Grand Theatre in New York City is about to put on a new play. The management and the two stars receive threatening letters — signed variously “Pro Bono Publico,” “Constant Reader,” and “A Well-Wisher,” affording the only intentional humor in the novel. If the male lead attempts to make love to the female star on the stage, he Is doomed, says the threatener.

   The play takes place, and the male star does indeed die, being strangled and then having his neck broken by some invisible agency in full view of the audience and almost in full view of the detective in the case, Steve Muirhead, who would have seen it from the beginning if he had been paying attention.

   Muirhead is more alert on the second occasion when an understudy takes over the role and begins being choked on stage, again by an invisible hand. With a visible knife Muirhead stabs the invisible hand and saves the understudy’s life.

   Does Muirhead remember his brave and intelligent — his only one — act? No. He puts the knife away somewhere safe and is thus at the mercy of the villain.

   Murder and attempted murder, and Muirhead is the sole policeman involved in the investigation. The rest of the force is directing traffic, one gathers. “A fate worse than death” is mentioned often enough in regard to the heroine to make one suspect that the author was trying to titillate his readers since he couldn’t entertain them.

   The only mysteries worth thinking about here are how Muirhead’s man Briggs becomes Muirhead’s man Grigson a few pages later and how this wretched amalgamation of mystery and science fiction went into a third printing.

   How it got published originally I will let others ponder.

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

MEARSON, LYON. 1888-1966. Born in Montreal; educated at New York Law School; art critic for New York Evening Mail.
      Footsteps in the Dark. Macaulay, 1927; Hutchinson, 1928. [Murder mystery revolving around an “oriental” decorated house and a stack of gold.]

      Phantom Fingers. Macaulay, 1927; Hutchinson, 1929.
      The Whisper on the Stair. Macaulay, 1924; Hutchinson, 1924.