April Reviews

   CHARLEY'S WEB
   by Joy Fielding
 ISBN 9780743296014
       437 pages
     ATRIA BOOKS
      April 1 2008
            $24.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
       February 8 2008

Joy Fielding is an author who does a really nice line in menace. She is one of those people who can inspire readers to shout warnings at her protagonist not to do venture into a place where we are absolutely sure something nasty is lurking. The author callously continues to march her heroine into the room where we know something is about to jump out and sink its poisoned claws into her soft, yielding, endangered flesh, but the reader is unlikely to cease her shouted warnings.

Charley Webb writes a weekly column for The Palm Beach Post. It actually reminded me of J A Jance's protagonist's blog in WEB OF EVIL, which I had only just finished prior to beginning to read Charley. Like Ali Reynolds, Charley receives well intentioned advice from readers. Mind, some of it is not as good humoured as it might be and some is downright malicious.

Charley and her sisters are named after the Brontë girls, but their brother is simply called Bram, rather than Branwell. He, unfortunately, is a drug addicted alcoholic. Their mother deserted their icily cruel academic father when they were very young but she returned two years previous to the beginning of the tale. Only Charley deigns to talk to her, and even she is very distant with Elizabeth.

Charley does not wish the complication a serious relationship would bring but she did want children, so she set about getting herself impregnated and now has a son and a daughter.

The columnist is approached by notorious child killer  Jill Rohmer. Rohmer claims she has a story to tell and wants Charley to write the book. Through Jill, Charley meets lawyer Alex Prescott, a very attractive man and one who soon starts seeing a lot of Charley, despite his obvious disapproval of the project.

I have to admit I found myself holding my breath in some of the scenes this talented author created. Her bluffs and double bluffs are things of beauty and, unfortunately, her characters bear the imprint of Life.

It's hard for loving parents to conceive of creatures who gain pleasure from the suffering of children but the popular press ensures we are aware of these horrible entities. Suffice it that Fielding has created  convincing child murderers in Jill and the pseudonymous Jack, the villains of the  tale.

I couldn't help but wonder if the research involved in writing such a book necessitated the author meeting and interviewing such malefactors as she portrays so well. If so, I don't envy her, but really admire the result.

So impressed am I with this novel, to my own utter amazement, I just found myself exhorting a publicist from a different publisher to read the work! She has promised to try to do so.
                                            THE DEATH CHAMBER
                                                   by Sarah Rayne
                                             ISBN 9780743285841
                                                       546 pages
                                              SIMON & SCHUSTER
                                                     April 1 2008
                                                         $29.95
                                      reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                    January 17 2008

Sarah Rayne has, time and again, proven herself to be an accomplished story weaver, able to write a thriller and incorporate a soupcon of supernatural horror yet still keep a firm grip on her audience. I don't know about other readers, but I invariably have to keep reading until well after my customary bedtime, just so I can see how she resolves her plot. THE DEATH CHAMBER proved no exception to the rule.

Again the author sets the narrative in a spooky old building. Calvary Gaol is no longer in use as a house of correction but the building still exerts a sense of menace in all who behold her. The execution chamber itself holds a particularly gruesome and frightening aura.

In the present day (the story is set in several time frames) Georgina Grey is approached by Vincent Meade of the Caradoc Society to request her help in disposing of the assets of the society. After all debts are paid, any remaining money is to be passed on to her, as the descendant of Dr. Walter Kane, her great grandfather. George is currently short of money, having been swindled by her business partner who, at the same time as pinching George's cash, also swiped her boyfriend. She is, therefore, quite happy to seek evidence that she is, indeed, Dr Kane's descendant.

In the meantime, a small team of people is preparing to make a television programme about the old Cumbrian prison. Calvary contains an execution chamber in which prisoners had, until the abolition of capital punishment, been killed since 1790. Because director Chad Ingram feels the place would be imbued with a certain sense of Weltschmerz, he determines to incarcerate a blind friend of his, someone who wouldn't know where he was and so would be unaware of what he might sense, for three hours during the night, then film Jude Stratton 's reactions.

The perspective switches around throughout the narrative. Walter Kane is seen as he is interviewed by the prison governor, Sir Lewis Caradoc, for the position of doctor to the institute, in 1938. In that portion of the narrative, there is a reference to Neville Fremlin, a man convicted and hanged for murder. These characters comprise a large part of the peripatetic story, as do Bartlam and Violette Partridge, a fine pair of rogues who prey upon the gullible bereaved who wish to contact dead loved ones.

As always, this author manages to ramp up the atmosphere of uneasy  tension. For a change, no characters are obviously deemed insane by their contemporaries, but the reader is, of course, in a privileged position and the two chief baddies are very nasty indeed, with quite base motivation.

Come to think of it, there are a number of baddies peppered throughout the text. Rayne does baddies very well, be they sane or otherwise. Sometimes I have the feeling she is far happier creating the less than pleasant than she is when dreaming up the noble and worthy.

This author has previously proven herself adept at evoking shiver-making atmosphere and she certainly doesn't shirk that task in this outing. Similarly, she has previously proven herself to have a real feel for the language, carefully choosing her words for the greatest impact: again, this book exemplifies all that is good in the use of her prose.

Sarah Rayne: eruditely eerie.
COLD IN HAND
by John Harvey
ISBN 9780434016952
     405 page
WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON
April 1 2008
   $32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
February 11 2008

DI Lynn Kellogg stops off at an incident, on her way home. A group of about fifteen youths is fighting. Lynn seeks to intervene between two female combatants and grabs one of them. She turns briefly, wrenching the girl she is holding around with her, but at that moment, someone fires a gun, killing the girl she is holding and injuring Lynn. Fortunately, Lynn is wearing  a bullet-proof  vest or she, too, might have been killed, but the perception of the dead girl's parents-as well as some of the friends -- is that Lynn used  Kelly Brent as a shield in order to save her own life.

Lynn recovers and goes back to work. Charlie Resnick, with whom Lynn lives, finds himself the Number Two in the investigation of Kelly Brent's murder. Meanwhile, Lynn receives a large bunch of roses from a SOCA officer named Stuart Daines, a slimy, self confident man who thinks he can interest her in his smarmy self.

The investigation leads on to an inquiry into the importation of illegal guns. There are several more deaths - including that of a police officer.

Detective Chief Inspector Karen Shields, together with the officer assisting her, Mike Ramsden, are called onto the case, which has expanded to include Eastern European women who have been imported into England for the purposes of prostitution.

This is a beautifully constructed novel but it is terribly pessimistic, for all (most of) the baddies get caught. It presents a reflection of an England (or Nottingham, at least) with which the reader would rather not become too familiar. The face of gang youth, whatever the colour, is not a pretty one and Harvey has quite a lot to say about the crime ridden streets that make ordinary citizens afraid to walk down them as gang violence takes its toll.

The characters are very well drawn. Charlie Resnick, approaching retirement age, is a man determined to track down those responsible for crimes he finds almost unbelievable. Always the thought of his own career coming to an end hangs over him and not even his jazz records and the voice of Bessie Smith can ease his mind for long.

I like the way Harvey's people are just so human. Lynn Kellogg, called upon to exercise her skills as a hostage negotiator is no superwoman, confident in her own abilities to sort out every situation with which she is confronted but is, instead, uncertain in her own mind. Charlie himself is very human, troubled by the thought of retirement and deeply moved by death.

Be warned, the reader will be confronted with shocks in this work.
NOTHING TO LOSE
by Lee Child
ISBN 9780593057032
  428 pages
BANTAM PRESS
April 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
March 5 2008

ìNever trouble trouble till trouble troubles youî is a wise old adage but scarcely one Jack Reacher finds of use. Somehow, no matter where he is or what he is doing, trouble manages, unerringly, to locate him and enmesh him in its sticky web. In this episode of the doughty drifter's deeds, Reacher finds an entire town ranged against him -- quite a stretch, even for Reacher.

Chapter One details the dying thoughts of a man -- or should that be a boy? The poor fellow is prey to a certain amount of confusion but the reader may be sure that Jack Reacher will find the answer to the puzzle before the end of the novel.

As the action begins, Jack Reacher is in Colorado, leaving the town of Hope in favour of the group of dwellings known, appropriately enough, as Despair. Unfortunately, the people of Despair, unaccountably, want nothing to do with him and Reacher winds up in the slammer suspected of being a vagrant. He senses something amiss about Despair so when he is released and goes back to Hope, he decides to discover just what desperate dealings are being performed in the pessimistically named area.

Reacher teams up with a woman officer, Vaughan, from the Hope police department. She warns him of the peculiar nature of the company town, Despair. Reacher rents a room in Hope's motel and undertakes exploratory trips to Despair and finds out, as well, rather more about Vaughan-and her husband.

Lee Child has a lot to prove with his novels' hero. Mind, over the years he has, as his protagonist has become well known, possibly, found he has less to do to convince his audience that the brainchild of a Briton can be as convincingly American as the most American of all the native born. But Child has invested a lot of work in perfecting his creation and well deserves all the plaudits he has collected.

Most of the Reacher books have concentrated on that character's post-army experiences. For myself, I have to say I rather enjoyed the chronicles of when Reacher was an MP, finishing with the army as a Major. While Reacher enjoys the freedom of being able to wander where he will across the US, untroubled by the reader's foreknowledge that he is but a few punches away from murder and mayhem, I must confess that I would like to see him settle down for a while, shackled to a single spot and a bit of predictability.

I admit to having enjoyed this episode of Reacher's adventures-but then, when have I not? Perhaps, though, I would appreciate an adventure with a little more depth for that enormous man's next outing.
HARUM SCARUM
by Felicity Young
ISBN 9781921361104
      288 pages
   Fremantle Press
     April 7 2008
         $22.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
25 February 2008

Stevie Hooper returns in this episode of the fiction of up and coming Australian author Felicity Young. Stevie is now equipped with a young daughter, child of her one time boss Monty McGuire. Her domestic situation may strike some people as odd (one of the characters likens it to a broken home) as she and Monty keep their own separate residences. No doubt many married couples would see the advantages of such an arrangement.

There is an emphasis on modern technology in this novel. Undoubtedly most crime fiction readers are familiar with fan websites and websites where people can communicate with one another via chatrooms or fora.

The prologue opens the book with an impromptu murder, after three people emerge from a car in a deserted spot. The prologue ends with the two survivors assuring each other that each knows the identity of the other.

Chapter One has Stevie and her colleague Natasha arresting a paedophile. Tash's tactics could well be seen as unorthodox but it is obvious that she feels strongly about those malefactors and sees nothing wrong with subjecting them to devices which might be outside police guidelines.

Monty is investigating the murder of a little girl. He thinks it possible that the killing was unintentional, that the murderer only wished to immobilise and silence the child, but the gagging made it impossible for a child suffering from a cold to breathe. Stella Webster, mother of the girl, inevitably blames herself for her daughter becoming a victim.

Miranda Breightling runs a modelling agency. She is nervous of men who hang around at the close of the day. What if they approach one of the girls who work as models?

Emma, Miranda's daughter, obviously has all the right instincts. She sponsors a child in Morocco for World Vision and does without lunch every school day, preferring to put the money she saves toward Josef's upbringing. Emma is also responsible for ongoing adventures of Katy Enigma, a child superhero who entertains the Net savvy children who daily visit her website. Emma, when called upon to babysit Izzy, Stevie's daughter, entertains the child with further tales of Katy Enigma.

Felicity Young has the happy knack of concentrating on topical issues. Anyone with even a slight knowledge of the Internet is aware of chatrooms. Anyone with even a slight knowledge of the kind of criminal preying on society is also aware of how paedophiles are liable to use the Internet in order to meet their targets. Young is to be congratulated for bringing this particular danger to the attention of aficionados of crime fiction who may be parents and may, therefore, be warned of the dangers which face kids. Kids, after all, are notorious for wishing to keep their private lives private from their parents so are quite likely to be enthusiastic about meeting a cyber-friend in real life.

As always, Young's characterisation is particularly well done. Emma is such a vivid character that she practically leaps from the pages. I would hazard a guess that the author had great fun in creating her.

The police procedures are, as ever, well researched and informative for those of her audience who don't have the same resources as she to investigate just what happens behind the scenes of news stories.

It's always good for an Australian crime fiction audience to be able to read novels set in familiar territory, although some American cities have, over the years, become very familiar territory indeed for some readers.

It was very gratifying to see an Australian publisher pick up this excellent author rather than permitting her to remain with the British publisher who published Young's first novel. One trusts that Fremantle Press doesn't let this particular author slip through their fingers and into the hands of perhaps larger overseas concerns.
                                                THE GAME
                                             by Diana Wynne Jones
                                             ISBN 9780007267132
                                                    199 pages
                                     HarperCollins Childrenís Books
                                                    April 2008
                                                       $14.99
                                    reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                March 25 2008

This little volume is exceptionally good value. In addition to the pages of text there are appendices featuring an identification of the characters by the author,  a brief instruction on a little astronomy, an explanation of how the characters tie in with mythology, the common western zodiac, recommendations of other Wynne Jones books and a game.Very importantly, too, there is an excerpt from a future book, HOUSE OF MANY WAYS, which is a sequel to HOWLíS MOVING CASTLE. With any luck, that will serve to dilute the taste in the mouth for anyone who was sufficiently unfortunate to go to see the Japanese anime version of that wonderful novel. Not that Iím a movie critic but......

Hayley has been horribly condemned to spend the earliest years of her life growing up in Grandmaís house. Grandma is a stiff, unloving, rule making sort of person who has taken umbrage at something Hayley has done and packed the child off to live with her aunts and cousins in a big house, known as The Castle, in Ireland. She didnít bother to explain to Hayley the nature of her crime so the poor child arrives knowing no one -- and having been previously kept unaware of the existence of any relatives. Her parents had vanished in her earliest childhood, leaving her at the mercy of her heedless relatives.

Despite feeling terribly alone and bewildered by the crowd of cousins and aunts, Hayley fortuitously becomes a heroine to her new family, rescuing a situation which Hayley suspects was engineered by her one truly unpleasant cousin, Tollie.

The cousins introduce Hayley to The Game, a magical, mysterious romp in the mythosphere, a place at the existence of which Hayley has been steered away from speculating. Itís a frightening location in which both good and evil run rampant and where people may change from being themselves into other, equally valid, people. There she meets Flute and Fiddle, brothers whom she feels she can trust.

Diana Wynne Jones is a vastly underappreciated author. It is inevitable that parallels be drawn between her and JÝKÝRowling. The latter burst upon the childrenís fiction scene in a spectacular manner dealing with subjects closely allied to those written about by Wynne Jones. My own feeling is that it was a matter of time and place. Perhaps publicity may have had something to do with the remarkable success of the one and the less obvious impact of the other.

This is a lovely , happy story on every level. Small children can enjoy it without knowing anything at all about mythology, astronomy or the classics, while older children can greatly benefit by having their knowledge increased quite painlessly.
THE SEANCE
by John Harwood
ISBN 9780224081870
294 pages
JONATHAN CAPE
April 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
March 28 2008
 

That charming man and talented author, John Harwood, has returned to our bookshelves four years after the appearance of his first novel, THE GHOST WRITER. While it is a long time between drinks, so to speak. I would suggest Mr Harwood has been devoting his time to achieving the certain perfection to detail which characterises his work.

Before the main text begins, Harwood has included an extract from REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM, in which he details certain methods used by the spiritualist charlatans of the day, in order to convince their victims of their authenticity. Very useful for the reader unaccustomed to reading about such frauds!

Constance Langtonís narrative, set in 1889, details the effect on the household where she lives, of the death of her baby sister, Alma. Unforgivably,  Constanceís mother sinks into a deep depression and refuses to come out of it to try to bring Constance up in a manner to which she is entitled. Constance, in an effort to make her mother happy, accompanies that woman to seances. Unfortunately, these visits do not promote any feeling of cheer in the older woman. Even the unveiling of a charlatan by the Society for Psychical Research does nothing to deter Constanceís zeal to bring comfort to her mother.
 

Constance learns she is the heir to Wraxford Hall, but at the same time, receives a packet of papers from John Montague, yet another stranger.

Montagueís narrative begins in 1870 and details his knowledge of the events at Wraxford Hall. Thus, the reader is introduced to Magnus Wraxford, the then owner of Wraxford Hall, and is told the tragic story of what happened to Constanceís predecessors in that decayed mansion.

Eleanor (Nell) Unwin  is likewise introduced to the reader. She, unfortunately, is beset by ìvisitationsî from people who have died. She, therefore,becomes cursed with the reputation of being a reluctant medium. The story of the purported haunting of Wraxford Hall enchants her and she requests that she be taken to see the pile.

The author constructs a wonderfully engaging plot, with a dastardly villain and heartbroken heroine. His ability to evoke creepy atmosphere is astonishing while his attention to detail, as previously mentioned, is wonderful. His ancillary characters, too, are nicely developed -- although I wish he had given us a bit more of a glimpse of the Society for Psychical Research people.

I would like to say something about the authorís resolution of the mystery, but unfortunately, canít very well include any ìspoilersî in my review. Suffice it that an eerie atmosphere is not the only kind well supplied by Mr Harwood.

I canít help but wonder if the author has any other work in mind to delight us at some later stage. If so, I am torn between wanting it NOW not later, NOW, and realising that the perfection of the text relies on the time taken to produce the work.
CHANGE OF HEART
by Jodi Picoult
ISBN 9781741750737
447 pages
ALLEN&UNWIN
April 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 2 2008

Right, well, thereís this man whoís picked up for murder and is languishing on Death Row. Heís spending his time, while heís waiting, performing all kinds of miracles and while the reader comes to feel he didnít do the crimes, heís building up a reputation as the next incarnation of Christ. What book is it? THE GREEN MILE? Nope, sorry. Itís Jodi Picoultís CHANGE OF HEART. There are, of course, many differences. Kingís protagonist is a coloured man and he is innocent. Picoultís hero admits to his guilt in a double murder-- that of a young girl and her policeman stepfather. In fact, Shay Bourne, the killer, in a throwaway line, says that the girl he killed, Elizabeth Nealon, is better off dead.

Bourne affects many lives. Michael is a juror on the trial at which Shay is condemned. He does not wish the death penalty to be imposed but feels the pressure of his fellow jurors to be too great for him to hold out against it, so succumbs. His conscience troubles him to the extent that he loses his vocation in life-- or, from another point of view, finds it, and becomes a Catholic priest. Even in this he finds no surcease-- not when he is appointed to be the spiritual adviser of the man he condemned to death.

June Nealon is the mother of Elizabeth,  the little girl shot by Shay and wife of the murdered policeman. She is the mother of Claire, a child who never knew her father and one with a heart disorder that will kill her in the near future if a suitable heart is not found to replace the ailing one.

Shay claims that in order for him to find salvation, he must give up his own heart for Claire (and no, the organ of an adult man will not be an incompatible match for a child) but the law of that state says that death must be by lethal injection. Therefore Bourneís lawyer, Maggie Bloom, finds herself arguing for the death of her client rather than his life, demanding that he be killed by hanging. But what happens if the dying child and her mother donít wish the heart of the man who killed the sister Claire never met?

Lucius is another death row inmate. He killed his gay lover, Michael. He is dying of AIDS. His role is to narrate what happens inside the prison and also to be the subject of one of Shayís miracles. He is, apparently, cured of AIDS. Then, of course, there is Batman the Robin, the bird that dies but is revived by Shayís ministrations. The Miracle at Cana is reproduced when the water in the prisonersí supply is turned into wine in the pipes. But what happens to the miracles if the miracle worker becomes capricious?

What to make of the whole opus? The characterisation seems to me to be a bit iffy. One of the topics of the novel is child abuse and what is likely to happen when an abused child grows up. Here in Adelaide, right at this time, there has been an enquiry into that very question by a retired judge, the highly respected Ted Mullighan. He examined the impact on victimsí lives, but never did he, or the victims, decide they were unworthy and should simply be chucked away, dead, as is the implication in this novel.

June Nealon, to me, seems a right drip. She is totally blind to what is going on and inflicts the ultimate horror on her dead daughter-- for all eternity.

Shay, the potential messiah, is uncertain and subject to his own fancies. The Gnostic gospel of St Thomas, to me at least, seems to have not a great deal of relevance to the tale, although much is made of it.

Picoult always introduces a heavy emphasis on love of every kind and the romantic love in this case is allotted to the lawyer, Maggie. Overweight and seen by her stylish mother as supremely unattractive, it is her lot to captivate a charming British doctor (and no, she doesnít have a lovely, prepubescent sister.)

Jodi Picoult always works hard at research but this time I had to wonder how much time she spent with Catholic priests in discovering how they become so. Ordainment? I never realised the Catholics would have a different name for the making of their priests. Church of England priests experience the sacrament of Ordination.

Had I not read Stephen Kingís THE GREEN MILE, I think I would have been far more appreciative of CHANGE OF HEART. Even so, I think it is virtually impossible for Jodi Picoult to write a bad book. I just hope Picoultís next novel will, when released, remove the bitter aftertaste of this one from my heart and mind.
DIABLERIE
by Walter Mosley
ISBN 9780747591870
BLOOMSBURY
April 1 2008
$23.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 3 2008

Itís quite a while since Walter Mosley wrote DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS. After reading that work, I became a confirmed Mosley addict. I love his Easy Rawlins books and am very fond, too, of Fearless Jones. Last year, with the release of KILLING JOHNNY FRY, I discovered that it was possible for Mosley to write a book that I disliked. When I saw that DIABLERIE was to be released, I hoped, fervently, that it would be another in the Easy Rawlins series or at least another Fearless Jones adventure, but it is a stand alone and one which has, I fear, more in common with Johnny Fry than with Mosleyís usual protagonists.

Ben Dibbuk, a middleaged computer programmer, is doing well financially. Unfortunately, he is emotionally dead. He is a recovering alcoholic, having huge gaps in his memory dating back to his drinking days in the seventies. Ben is married to the beautiful Mona, to whom he is unfaithful, but that doesnít matter, because she is unfaithful to him. He feels nothing for her, nor does he feel anything for his teenage student daughter, Seela. His Russian mistress, Svetlana, also a student, likewise fails to have an impact on his emotions.

Mona is an editor and the company for which she works is about to launch a new magazine, DIABLERIE. She forces Ben to attend the launch party and there he is approached by a guest of honour, Barbara Knowland, who refers to herself as ìStarî and claims that Ben canít possibly have forgotten ìthat nightî, which they spent together. Ben has forgotten it, along with what happened in the remainder of his drinking days, but she is determined he canít have done so. Who can possibly  forget a night on which they murdered someone?

Ben used to suffer nightmares but, after therapy, had lost them. Now Mona suggests it is time he return to therapy.

As mentioned before, this novel has more in common with Johnny Fry than it has with any of the series novels. There is the big pornographic sex scene-- Mosley seems to have a thing about his protagonists stumbling across their spouses having graphic and violent sex with other men, whilst they are hidden in odd places. I didnít find the sex scenes in this novel any more attractive than I did those in Johnny Fry. I just wish Mosley would return to Fearless Jones and Easy Rawlins!

To me, the characterisations in this book were weak. Why would Ben bother with a mistress if he had a wife to provide intimate relations? He doesnít care who it is, so why worry?

Star didnít impress me as Benís partner in the long ago crime. She lacked personality. No doubt she would welcome the money to be made from her notoriety as someone once suspected of serial killing, but would anyone credit her with being guilty?

Seela is just a student, and one who isnít particularly fond of her father-- although she seems rather fond of sex, even with the partner of her best friend.

Unfortunately, there is no real story line to capture the readerís interest. Itís fine, if you are interested in pornography (although, thankfully, there is less of that than there is in Johnny Fry.)

Iíve no idea why Mosley would be satisfied that he has written a good book in this outing. I hope he isnít. My firm wish is that he returns to his old form and produces something that the majority of his readers would fancy.
WHEN GODS DIE
by CÝSÝHarris
ISBN 9781741753646
ALLEN & UNWIN
379 pages
April 1 2008
$22.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 8 2008

I quite enjoy Regency novels, most especially those written by the inimitable Georgette Heyer. She, too, used to indulge in mysteries and sometimes also in straight historical books. Based on the combination of themes, I was very much looking forward to reading CÝSÝHarrisí work, even though she claims Mary Stuart, daughter of Prince James, as an ancestress.

The tale begins dramatically enough with the Prince Regent mistaking a still malleable corpse for a malleable married woman. The woman is present in his private apartment and things could have proved nasty indeed for the heir presumptive (or should that be ìheir apparentî?) to the British throne had  Sebastian St Cyr not been invited to investigate. He, oddly enough, discounts the popular theory that the lady hsd committed suicide by stabbing herself in the back. Unfortunately for Prinny, the dagger employed in the apparent slaughter came from his own collection. Distressingly for Viscount Devlin, a familiar pendant is with the corpse-- a pendant that had belonged to his own mother, but which had disappeared with her when he was a prepubescent lad. His mother was reputed to have drowned, but the pendant shows no sign of having been left underwater for decades. His interest piqued, St Cyr agrees to investigate.

The dead woman is the Countess of Anglessy. She  is pregnant, into the bargain. Since her husband is known to have been desperate for an heir in order to thwart a relative with designs on the title and accompanying estate, that worthy becomes, briefly, a suspect, as does the new heir.

It doesnít take Sebastian long to realise the dagger is not the instrument of death but that the unfortunate woman has been poisoned. It would have been advantageous to those who wish to rid England of the Hanoverian king in order to replace him with a Stuart, to frame the Prince Regent, but it is obvious that Prinny hasnít taken revenge on a noncompliant subject by murdering the lady.

The authorís Ph D is in History. A shame she hadnít studied English literature, specifically Jane Austen, as well. Austenís comedies of manners are delicious. They give the reader a view of society of the time as well as an insight into the form  of speech. If Harris (or Dr Proctor, as she is in life) found Austenís works too much like hard work (but they are a true delight!) then she might have tried indulging in Georgette Heyerís Regency novels, for that author captured the period perfectly.
 

The author makes various errors, apart from the grossest of not attempting the contemporary idiom. For example, she speaks of
a collie dog in the throes of whelping as perspiring from the shoulders. Either dog evolution has undergone a remarkably swift change or the author hasnít bothered to find out that dogs perspire from their tongue. Thatís just one of the faults.

As to the characters, I didnít find any of them springing to life from the page (though I must admit that had one done so, literally, I would probably have been the next corpse). I didnít even think Tom, the Tiger, was especially attractive and Sebastian certainly wasnít.

The solution to the mystery is quite good although rather a circuitous path is taken to try to justify it.

I wonder if Dr. Proctor could possibly be prevailed upon to familiarise herself with the idiom of the day. While her knowledge of history impresses, her lack of use of contemporary speech doesnít.
AN EXPERT IN MURDER
by Nicola Upson
ISBN 9780571239078
292 pages
faber and faber
April 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 17 2008

Before beginning the meat of this review, I suppose I had best state my own bias. I loathe the practice of employing real life personalities as protagonists in fiction. Thus, I shuddered to find Josephine Tey to be the central character of this novel. The fact that the character bore the name ìTeyî, rather than the authorís real name of Elizabeth Mackintosh, ameliorated the effect slightly but I canít see why an entirely fictional protagonist could not have been created.

Josephine is on a train bound for London from the Highlands. She is sitting next to a girl named Elspeth who, fortuitously (it appears at first) is a devotée of the playwrightís RICHARD OF BORDEAUX, a work about Richard II. Both women are to see the production and Elspeth waxes enthusiastic about the play. Josephine is enchanted by the girlís youth and eagerness. When they leave the train in London, Elspeth has to go back aboard the train, whence she never emerges alive. She has been murdered in a stylised manner, with two dolls arranged as though they were actors, opposite the corpse, which appears to be applauding a show.

DI Archie Penrose (who bears a strong similarity to  Teyís Detective inspector Grant) comes to Kings Cross Station to begin his investigation into the case and is delighted to find Josephine in the company of his cousins who are to play host to her.

Before too long, there is another murder. Bernard Aubrey, ìone of the West Endís most prominent and influential theatrical managersî meets a particularly gruesome end and once more, there is an aspect of the dramatic in his surroundings. Could there be yet more deaths in store for the people associated with the theatre and, in particular, with RICHARD OF BORDEAUX?

Upson manages to mix fictional characters with historical with a measure of success. Contrary to my expectation, she doesnít have Josephine tracking down the murderer a la Miss Marple (and Agatha Christieís work does receive a mention in the text.) Instead, she occupies the role of bystander for much of the time.

The plot is very complicated, with unexpected connections between all the characters turning up at different times. Sometimes I felt I should draw a diagram so that I didnít get lost when remembering who was who in relation to whom.

The mystery is a very good one. I would hate to rate my performance at guessing whodunnit in detective stories but I certainly had not the slightest inkling in this instance.

An interesting sidelight in the novel is that homosexual (which includes lesbian) relationships are taken for granted, despite the fact that they (male relationships) were not legalised until the 1960s.

There is no denying that this is a very promising debut in the crime fiction field and it will be interesting to read Ms Upsonís further output.
ALIBI
by Sydney Bauer
ISBN 9781405038485
504 pages
MACMILLAN
April 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 24 2008

Sydney Bauerís first two books, UNDERTOW  and GOSPEL were very, very good and I was prepared to encounter the same standard in ALIBI. Perhaps I am too demanding, but I felt that Bauerís third outing was not quite on the same level as her previous works. One annoying thing, which I can really only categorise as belonging to the class of ìnit pickingî is what I feel is the gratuitous use of quotation marks. For example, does one really need to qualify ìdo goodî in such a manner? And that is just one of many instances, a usage which a quick skim of Bauerís previous books did not disclose. A new editor, or subeditor , perhaps?

The body of Jessica Nagoshi,  daughter of exceptionally successful businessman John Nagoshi and sister of potentially as successful a businessman, Peter Nagoshi, is discovered in the greenhouse of the Nagoshi Boston home. Her body is arranged in such a manner as to suggest the murderer is familiar with certain aspects of Japanese lore.

Unknown to their contemporaries, Jessica is the lover of fellow law student, James Matheson. It doesnít take much digging for the police to decide that James is the logical suspect, so he is arrested. Naturally enough, David Cavanaugh and his girlfriend Sara Davis line up on his defence team.

Jessica and James are students at the prestigious Deane law school. This is an institute of learning confined to the best and brightest of the children of the most affluent people so it is almost a given that David and Sara encounter some extremely obnoxious and egotistical, not to mention snobbish, people around.

Suspects are not in short supply. ADA, the abominable Roger Katz, is quite certain that Matheson did the foul deed, and even if he didnít, Katz will make him the scapegoat. After all, Matheson is the client of his deadly enemy, Cavanaugh.

Sydney Bauerís novels always follow a circuitous path, with quite a few of the twists and turns being shocking to the reader. ALIBI does not  prove the exception to this rule. Mind, the author plays fair with the reader, scattering clues-- albeit a minimum of them--to the identity of the murderer. I am not absolutely certain that all of the zigzagging was completely necessary, however, but the nett effect is a rollicking good tale.

As always, the back story provides a picture of the developing relationship between David and Sara so it will be interesting to see how the future pans out for them. It might prove necessary for the author to introduce more characters to provide a future love interest.

Interesting though the setting of Boston is to readers, as I have remarked in previous reviews, I do wish the author might consider setting one of her future books in Australia.
A GREATER EVIL
by Natasha Cooper
ISBN 9780743495325
318 pages
POCKET BOOKS
April 2008
$19.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
May 27 2008
 

Trish Maguire is not accustomed to breaking hearts, but has just about accomplished the oracle on this occasion. When Sam Foundling was a child, she acted for him and for ever afterward, he has regarded Trish as someone special, someone with whom he has a unique bond. She is ashamed at his disappointment when Sam comes to see her to ask her to investigate the claim of a woman in prison, a woman claiming to be his mother. He had been brutally abused when he was young but now he is a successful, sought after sculptor, there is always the thought that someone might claim relationship falsely, in the hope of sharing his good fortune.

Sam soon has more than a possible mother to worry him. His heavily pregnant wife, Cecilia, is murdered. The baby, named Felicity, is rescued, but Sam, who is known to have a violent temper, is suspected  of killing Cecilia so Trish is called upon to act for him, despite Cecilia having been one of her friends. To make the situation even more complicated, Cecilia is the daughter of a judge, one who has never disclosed to her daughter the identity of her father.

Of course, the police are able to call on documented cases of abused children who grow up to become abusers themselves. The facts certainly weigh heavily against Sam but do not take into account the fact that Sam is deeply in love with his wife and would never be able to hurt her physically.

Trish is subject to a conflict of interest in the case. Her best friend, Chief Inspector Caroline Lyalt of the Metropolitan Police is investigating and, to her mind, Sam Foundling is the only possible suspect. The case builds unheard of barriers between the two friends and both feel a degree of embarrassment which has never before existed. Caro is unable to give even a hint of privileged information to Trish, and Trish is frustratingly unable to convey her own feelings about Samís innocence to her friend.
 

I really enjoyed Cooperís style of writing. The prose is clear, the plotting good and the characterisation strong. One of the ìcharactersî that I enjoyed greatly was the London Arrow. Its beauty, as decribed by Cooper, is wonderful, so that it is a great shame that it doesnít exist in Real Life!

If Cooper pens another novel in which both Maguire and Lyalt feature, it will be interesting to see if the author makes an attempt to paper over the cracks in the friendship, or if the friendship will resume as though the incidents in A GREATER EVIL never occurred.