Review Archive for author's that start with ... L
Reviewed on this page Mission Flats (William Landay), The Bottoms (Lansdale), Above Suspicion (Lynda La Plante), The Red Dahlia (Lynda La Plante), Clean Cut (Lynda La Plante), Deadly Intent (Lynda La Plante),  Soul  (Tobsha Learner), Sphinx (Tobsha Learner), Tango One (Stephen Leather), Hard Landing (Stephen Leather), Mystic River (Dennis Lehane), Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane), Coronado (Dennis Lehane), The Death of Faith ,Frtiends in High  Places, A Sea of Troubles,  A Noble Radiance  (Donna Leon),Wilful Behaviour (Donna Leon) Uniform Justice  (Donna Leon), Doctored Evidence  (Donna Leon), Blood From A Stone (Donna Leon),  Suffer the Little Children (Donna Leon), The Girl Of His Dreams  (Donna Leon), Rum Punch (Elmore Leonard), The Hot Kid (Elmore Leonard), Quiver (Peter Leonard),The Vig (John Lescroart),The Oath (John Lescroart), How To Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints) (Kathy Lette), To Love, Honour and Betray (Kathy Lette), City of Spies (Simon Levack), Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Jeff Lindsay), Dearly Devoted Dexter (Jeff Lindsay), Butcher's Hill (Laura Lippman), Undertow (NicoleLobry de Bruyn), Baby Did A Bad, Bad thing (Gabrielle Lord).Lethal Factor (Gabrielle Lord), Moving Target (Elizabeth Lowell) The Prometheus Deception  (Robert Ludlum), More Over The Top With Jim (Hugh Lunn), The Spellman Files (Lisa Lutz), Revenge of the Spellmans (Lisa Lutz), The Water Underneath  ( Kate Lyons), The Corner of Your Eye (Kate Lyons),

MISSION FLATS  is a first novel. The author, William Landay, admits in an interview to be found on the Net, that he has drawn on his experience as a prosecutor for some of the incidents and characters to be found in his book. He does not, however, specify which are fictional and which drawn from life. Landay admits to crafting his debut outing very carefully in order to combine the qualities of entertainment with those of literacy and intelligence. To my mind, he has succeeded admirably. His characters are convincing and have excellent depth.

Ben Truman is the first person narrator of the story. In the prologue he describes a movie clip displaying his very pregnant mother, in 1971,  floating in a lake near where Truman lives in the present. The second part of the prologue is more disturbing: in 1977 a young cop walks unawares into a holdup when he notices lights on in a bar when lights should, as per custom, be off. The cop is murdered by the perpetrators. The third portion of the prologue portrays the killing of policeman, Artie Trudell, when he and his partner, Julio Vega, are involved in a narcotics case. Trudell is shot through the closed door of an apartment they are investigating. The prologue contains the basis for the ensuing narrative, comprising as it does, all the indicators to the resolution of the plot.

In the late nineties, Ben Truman, is the police chief (at twenty-four he was, for a short time, the youngest police chief in the country) of the town of Versailles (anglicised pronunciation as opposed to correct French.) He has more or less inherited the position from his father Claude, whom everyone still regards as the real chief. Ben returned to the town when his vibrant and intelligent mother fell prey to Alzheimer's and continues living there instead of returning to his academic position as an historian, after her death. Ben, when making his customary rounds of the town, comes upon a corpse in a cabin on Lake Mattaquisett, the lake where the movie of his mother was made.

The body is that of Robert Danziger, an Assistant District Attorney from Boston. The method of his murder  approximates that used by a gangster, Harold Braxton,  who is being investigated by Boston police. Truman meets police and prosecutors from Boston but seems anxious to call the case his own - Versailles is not the most crime ridden town in which a novice police chief may learn his craft to the best advantage - and follows the case to the city.

John  Kelly, a retired cop, is looking into the case of his own accord and meets Truman. Together they investigate the mystery of the murdered prosecutor. In the meantime, Truman is introduced to, and becomes intrigued by, Kelly's daughter Caroline.

This is a truly wonderful novel. The levels of plot and characterisation are fascinating. Many facets of human life from family love and loyalty to far less appetising activities involving murder, drugs and disloyalty as well as Macchiavellian web spinning are investigated. Despite some moments that could, perhaps, be described as didactic, the reader's interest is maintained. The intricate plot has a most unexpected - although it might not be surprising - resolution. It is good to know that Landay has a second book in the offing.
 
 

Television actress, award winning television scriptwriter and now well regarded author, Lynda La Plante has been a firm favourite with viewing  and reading audiences alike for quite some time. ABOVE SUSPICION proves that the author can build on knowledge gleaned from her television successes in order to write a convincing police procedural novel.

Detective Sergeant Anna Travis is about to cut her teeth on her first murder case. It is all the more difficult because it seems a serial killer has been operating in Britain. All but one of his victims to date have been prostitutes whom he lures to a handy killing ground then  binds them, using their underwear, before strangling them with their own tights. Anna is assigned to Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton, a man impatient to obtain results, one who demands high standards of his staff while setting impossible targets for himself. Langton's team determines that the killer is breaking new ground since his latest victim is seventeen years old, accidentally in the area which prostitutes customarily use as their beat, following a quarrel with her boyfriend.

The investigation leads Langton along various paths leading to very different suspects. Langton is dubious about using Travis as bait for a killer but does he have a choice? The young woman is the daughter of a former Detective Chief Superintendent and wishes to prove herself worthy of so brilliant a father by building for herself an equally successful career.

The research done for La Plante's  well known series PRIME SUSPECT stands her in good stead  in this well written police procedural. She incorporates a great deal of  forensic detail as well as policing background to the story. She has written a fully fleshed protagonist for this tale, one who is at once insecure but talented, able to produce insights missed by her more experienced colleagues. Anna must fight against discrimination and prejudice as well as more physical dangers provided by the criminal the team is seeking. It is unfortunate that insufficient care has been devoted to the invention of the minor characters.

While the plot is a good one, illustrating just how carefully police must tread in some high profile cases, and while the character of Travis herself is well done, perhaps the author gets carried away at times with minute detail which could have been sacrificed in the pursuit of pace. The history of abused children is enough to make any reader's blood run cold but provides a plausible motive for a twisted killer.

ABOVE SUSPICION is now in small paperback format so is a very good value read.
                                       THE RED DAHLIA
                                              by Lynda La Plante
                                              ISBN 0743257081
                                                     485 pages
                                           SIMON & SCHUSTER
                                             November 1 2006
                                                     $29.95
                                         reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                              November 6 2006

Anna Travis who first appeared as a Detective Sergeant in  ABOVE SUSPICION is now a Detective Inspector. She is called to the banks of the Thames, in Richmond, where an unfortunate paperboy has discovered the mutilated corpse of a young woman. The body has been bisected and tastefully arranged to mirror the body of the victim of the Black Dahlia killing, an unsolved Los Angeles murder from the 1940s.

When the officer in charge of the case, DCI Morgan, is taken ill, Anna's colleague and former lover, DCI James Langton, takes over the investigation. Anna is somewhat perturbed as she and Langton have some unresolved issues despite Anna's decision not to continue their affair.

The victim has been dubbed 'The Red Dahlia' by the media and, learning of the case of the Black Dahlia, Anna does some research on the earlier case. She is horrified when she discovers the exact similarities between the two cases.

When the investigative team seems to be getting nowhere, Langton calls on the services of a profiler, the beautiful American Professor Aisling Marshe. Anna is certain Langton and Marshe are an item --especially since Marshe seems to contribute nothing to the case but Langton is determined to continue using her services. Travis, indeed, seems to be making more progress than the profiler when she becomes involved with a journalist.

The investigators are led to a suspect as the perpetrator continues on his course parallel with the old case. They are even provided with a corpse similar to another victim of the Black Dahlia killer.

The family of the suspect is also investigated by the team and the investigation takes on a whole new, even more revolting aspect as Langton and Travis delve deeper into the nauseating secrets that the family is attempting to conceal from them.

This is a particularly gory narrative, but, given the original case, it could scarcely have been otherwise. Langton and Travis are both convincingly painted, with their all too human frailties affecting the efficiency of their abilities. The author certainly doesn't shrink from inflicting the most abominable suffering of various kinds on her characters.

La Plante provides an interesting look at an historical case along with an inventive tale replete with a good many unexpected twists and turns at various levels. Doubtless the teaming of Travis and Langton is a good one which could be exploited without loss of reader interest in future novels.
                                        CLEAN CUT
                                 by Lynda La Plante
                                ISBN 9780743295734
                                           503 pages
                                 SIMON & SCHUSTER
                                    October 1 2007
                                            $29.95
                        reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                    October 1 2007

CLEAN CUT opens on a sour note, with Anna Travis fulminating because her one time boss and current lover, James Langton,  is late home for another ruined dinner. Her feelings set the tone for the remainder of the book, in which La Plante gives rein to her own reactions to the state of Great Britain today. Travis quickly overcomes her resentments when she learns that James has been gravely injured, with machete slashes to the chest and thigh. Despite ominous predictions, Langton survives and, almost miraculously, even recovers to the extent of being able to stand and then walk again. Anna takes him home with her to recuperate but, inevitably, the two strong characters clash and eventually Langton walks out, determined to work on his own case and make sure that justice is visited on the man who did his best to kill him. There are even faint resonances with one of Ian Rankin's earlier works in matters of corpse disposal -- but hey, everyone knows pigs are virtually omnivorous

There are some nasty murders going down. Library worker Irene Phelps is murdered and her body found by her own young daughter. Anna is assigned to the case. A young, very beautiful prostitute, Carly Ann North, has also been murdered and her murderer, an illegal immigrant named  Idris Krasinque, is in custody, apparently terrified of retribution through voodoo.

This is a very disturbing novel, on more than one level. The author uses the work to rail against the disintegration of the British system. Because of overcrowded prisons, dangerous offenders are allowed out into the community on parole. Illegal immigrants are controlling a hefty slice of criminal activity and the police are virtually hamstrung in their attempts to overcome crime. .

The introduction of voodoo into this work reflects the real life case of the young boy whose dismembered body was found in the Thames. The two people called into the case as consultants about voodoo,  Dr Salaam and his wife Esme, are interesting constructs and are very useful to Langton and his team.

Almost everything that is going wrong with British society is held up for criticism in this work, from the overcrowded prison system to the NHS. Given the combination of the author's television work and her literary efforts, one can hope that she may be able to stir the collective conscience of the powers that be to try to remedy the more egregious transgressions against society.

The relationship Anna Travis has with James Langton in this outing reflects the state of British society in that it develops deep cracks. Langton is not the man to whom readers have become accustomed but displays tendencies that I, for one, hope are quashed before La Plante resurrects him for the next adventure.
DEADLY INTENT
by Lynda La Plante
ISBN 9780743295758
641 pages
SIMON & SCHUSTER
October 1 2008
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
October 14 2008

I like Lynda La Planteís attention to detail. At the beginning of DEADLY INTENT, she provides a detailed back story for the plastic surgeon who operates on a ìMr Smithî, a citizen of England. That worthy trusts to human nature to rid himself of uncomfortable witnesses who could attest to his new appearance, when he returns to England.

DI Anna Travis is no longer romantically involved with  Chief Superintendent James Langton. In order to make a complete break and get Langton out of her system, she even  sells her flat, the home where he had spent so much time with her. As Anna returns to work, after having moved (although not having unpacked completely. by any means) she is sent to a murder scene, a place that has obviously been used as a site for drug deals. The corpse provides a nasty shock for the investigators: he is a former Detective Inspector, Frank Brandon.

At the crime scene, Travis meets DCI Carol Cunningham (on whom she makes a bad impression) as well as forensics officer, Pete Jenkins (on whom she makes a far better impression.)

Brandon has been working as a chauffeur. He also has a new wife, one who quickly proves to be  of interest to Travis. Julia Brandon used to be the partner of  Alexander Fitzpatrick, aka Anthony Collingwood, a big-time drug trafficker, supposedly exiled from England but actually the man for whom Brandon was working as driver.

Soon, bodies are dropping in rapid succession and a drug called Fentanyl is implicated .

Lynda La Plante has the talent to create good, strong characters. All of those featuring in this novel are credible although I felt Langton could have made more of an impression on Annaís emotions.

Cunningham surprised me by, eventually, dropping her tough guy attitude and becoming almost human.

I like the realisation given Travis of her own failings in not being  a team player. Still, that does disguise the fact that therein lies a lot of her success.

As always with this author, the mystery is well plotted.  She has deftly tied together both the official and the personal lives of the players and manufactured a wholly believable composite.

I look forward to the next time Travis and Langton jointly tackle another slew of baddies.
                                          SOUL
                                   by Tobsha Learner
                                            489 pages
                                      ISBN 0732281091
                                  Harper Collins Publishers
                                         October 1 2006
                                               $32.99
                                  reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                        October 13 2006

In SOUL, Tobsha Learner fictionalises the notion of nature vs. nurture in the production of a murderer. In the modern day, Julia Huntington is an American scientist given the task of tracking down a gene which will enable the army  to send into battle soldiers who will be able to kill without the bane of post traumatic stress disorder: killers without remorse. Lavinia Huntington is Julia's great-grandmother, a young Irish woman who is married off by her minister father to an adventurer with a taste for natural science who is more than twice her age.

In Afghanistan in 2002, Julia is studying adrenaline and hormonal levels in soldiers immediately following conflict. The vehicle in which she is travelling is attacked by a young Afghani and her companions are murdered. Julia is able to kill the attacker and is amazed she feels no remorse at taking a life.

Julia is met by her husband Klaus when she returns to the US. She is determined not to let him know about the killing. She is pregnant but when she learns her husband has been unfaithful and he leaves her for her best friend, she miscarries.

In 1849, nine year-old Lavinia is molested by a young labourer. She protects herself by stabbing him with his own knife. She feels no remorse at her actions.

Lavinia is very interested in the natural science of the day. Her father has taught her his favourite subject, which has brought him in contact with Colonel  James Huntington,  a man completely outside his social stratum and one whom he would never have met save for their common interest. Lavinia fascinates the Colonel and marries him.

The young bride is obsessed with her husband and craves the physical side of their relationship. She becomes pregnant and has a child, the child being the fulfilment of the Colonel's ambition and marriage, but is distressed that her husband is no longer interested in exercising his connubial rights. Instead, he seems to have eyes for no one but a young man who becomes his student. Together, the men practise the love that, at that time, dared not speak its name.

The reader is treated to the detail of both women's tragic lives as each is led inexorably toward her fate.

The portrait of nineteenth century London society is nicely painted and no doubt the reader will be caught up in the tale of the mystified and badly treated young Irish woman. The modern day scientific investigation, too, is very interesting.

I must say that I found the reactions of the two women rather less than convincing. Julia may not feel remorse at having killed the young Afghani but she certainly has an emotional reaction to it -- she feels remorse at feeling no remorse. In fact, she seems a very emotional woman in every other respect. As to Lavinia's reactions, they, too, are impelled by emotion. Neither woman is as callous as would be required to make the premise of the book completely convincing.

Despite these shortcomings, the book may be read as sheer entertainment, especially if the reader's taste is for the graphically erotic, in which art Learner excels.
SPHINX
by Tobsha Learner
ISBN 9780732286736
462 pages
HarperCollinsPublishers
May 1 2009
$32.99
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 14 2009

Oliver Warbock describes himself as a Newtonian. He is a geophysicist, working on oil fields in the Western Sinai in 1977. Because of a fire on the oilfield, Oliver is forced to return to Alexandria, where his wife, Isabella, lives and works.

Oliver is unimpressed by implications of the supernatural. His wife, on the other hand, is a great believer in the Egyptian legends and is governed by her translation of them into her life. She has been told the date of her death and is determined to locate the precursor of the astrarium popularised in the fourteenth century. She is convinced that if she finds the machine, she can postpone indefinitely the date of her sad demise. Unfortunately, the day she finds the thing is the predicted date of her death and she drowns.

The geophysicist therefore takes possession of the astrarium and cleans it of the mud of centuries. Unfortunately, he canít resist tinkering with the apparatus and this causes his own death date to become apparent.

Oliver suddenly becomes of great interest to various parties who feel they have a greater claim to the astrarium than has the geophysicist. Despite his reservations (or downright disbelief) Oliver dreams about his wife and is, at times, convinced of he continuing presence.

Prior to her death, Isabella had had a recurring nightmare of the ritual of the weighing of the heart against a feather, as performed by the Egyptian gods of the afterlife. To Oliverís horror, when he sees his wifeís corpse, it is missing its heart.

The subsequent text is devoted to Oliverís learning more about the astrarium and guarding it from the various factions who are attempting to seize the device from him. He is doing all these things against the few days of life he has left to him, according to the prediction of the machine.

I found the book fascinating, despite -- or perhaps because of-- the implications of the supernatural. The insight it gives into the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, together with the mystery of the king Nectanebo II is intriguing, to say the least.

The characterisation of Oliver is well done; that of some of the other characters perhaps less so, especially that of the villains.

Stephen Leather has moved around the world. Despite studying Biochemistry at  the University of Bath he became a journalist. His work took him to Asia and, having managed to write his first book Pay Off  whilst working as a journalist in England, his second book, The Fireman was written when he was working for the South China Morning Post  in Hong Kong. In 1992 he forsook professional journalism and settled down to full-time writing of fiction. His thrillers are more usually renowned for being on an international scale: Hard Landing is in a far more confined setting!

Bob Macdonald is involved in an armed holdup that goes wrong. It becomes far more violent than Verity, the organiser, had promised. Victims are splashed with petrol while being threatened with fire. Then someone shoots at a policeman. Macdonald finds himself on remand in gaol and refuses to cooperate with the authorities to the extent of not even giving them his name. Then, unexpectedly and apparently uninvited, a lawyer arrives for Macdonald and the reader learns Macdonald's true identity : Daniel Shepherd, undercover policeman.

A big-time drugs importer, Gerry Carpenter, is an inmate in the same prison. There is a strong case against him, built up by undercover Customs (or Church) officers as well as undercover policemen. One of the officers who had been trusted by Carpenter is murdered and another officer threatened, despite being moved with his wife and children to a 'safe' house. It is Shepherd's responsibility to get close to Carpenter and discover how the criminal is getting his orders out to his minions and just who will be the next victim. Without witnesses, the case against Carpenter will collapse.

It soon becomes obvious to Shepherd that some of the prison guards must be corrupt. Carpenter is patently in charge of the prisoners and a lot of the staff. How could that situation have developed? Shepherd makes his mark within the prison community as a 'hard' man, one with whom it would not be wise to trifle. The law enforcement officer  risks discovery and injury as he seeks to preserve the case against Carpenter but he discovers the safety of his own family may be threatened.

Because of its setting, the tale is somewhat claustrophobic. There is violence in abundance and it is difficult to develop the empathy required with both Shepherd and Carpenter as  good family men. It is quite customary in thrillers to have doubts as to which characters, exactly, are the goodies and which the downright baddies but this book seems to contain an over-abundance of the corrupt. As the danger to Shepherd increases and he seeks to escape it without further putting his family at risk, the author presents a situation which I am afraid I could not believe in the slightest. I realise that fiction means a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader but I couldn't muster sufficient belief for that particular thread!

The novel is indeed an exciting one. I do not deny that. It is engrossing and well written but oh, those proofreaders! The book is riddled with errors, not only typographical but incongruities in the action. In one scene the author has a woman go into the kitchen to make tea yet she is still in the room and contributing to the conversation. Then she appears in the doorway carrying the tea things. One wonders if so many flaws have been permitted to creep in just how many were present in the first draft! These things having been said, I enjoyed the book and will gladly read Leather's next opus. I just hope Hodder gets competent copy editors onto the work before releasing it!

Fans of Dennis Lehane's long fiction, such as MYSTIC RIVER, GONE, BABY GONE and SHUTTER ISLAND, are likely to find themselves in unexplored territory with CORONADO, an anthology comprising five short stories and a two act play which has its roots in one of the stories. 'Noir' is a description that has been aptly applied to Lehane's work in the past and this collection will do nothing to transmogrify that epithet into a whiter shade of pale.

RUNNING OUT OF DOG is the first story in the book. It tells of Vietnam vet Elgin Bern and his friend Blue, men who grew up together in Eden, South Carolina. The town has a problem with wild dogs and the Mayor, Big Bobby Vargas (whom no one ever addresses as 'Mayor', much to that functionary's chagrin) asks Elgin to take advantage of the training provided by Uncle Sam, to sit in a tree and diminish the canine population by judicious use of a rifle. Elgin declines but Blue accepts.

Elgin is currently conducting affairs with two women, one of whom, Jewel Lut, is also the object of Blue's ardour. She is  the wife of Perkin Lut. Blue, unattractive, indeed, just plain weird, is unlikely ever to attract a woman. Nonetheless, Jewel turns to him as a friend when her husband strikes her in public and she feels she has nowhere to go.

At the same time, the Mayor realises Eden is 'running out of dog' and attempts to bring Blue's unofficial employment to an end. But where, now, will Blue find an outlet for his murderous instincts?

ICU is a Kafkaesque little tale about Daniel, a man who is told by a woman regular in a bar he frequents that 'a guy' is asking about him. He is accosted by someone, presumably the same man, in a car park and given a warning. Then things begin to go wrong in his life. In order to escape, Daniel takes refuge in the ICU of a local hospital, a massive affair that is divided into smaller subdivisions of care. Migrating from one specialist area  to another, Daniel, ignorant of his offence, remains in hiding, becoming acquainted with genuine family of patients.

GONE DOWN TO CORPUS is an unpleasant  number involving footballers wishing to 'kick the shit' out of a fellow footballer who they see as having ruined one of their games. As their target is absent, they set about destroying his home and a jolly good time is had by all until the boy's sister, Lurlene, arrives  and incites them on to greater heights of destruction at the grand home of a friend.

MUSHROOMS is a drug infested story of young  people and murder.

UNTIL GWEN is the basis for the play, CORONADO. Bobby has just been released from gaol and is met by his father who provides a reception featuring a hooker, Mandy. It soon becomes evident that the motivation for his father's generosity is that Bobby, gaoled for his part in a diamond robbery inspired by his father, hid what remained of their loot. Bobby claims he can't remember where he hid the gem as he was shot and the shock destroyed parts of his memory. Bobby is determined to find his former girlfriend Gwen, whom he expected would wait until his release from prison. His father's explanation as to the probable fate of Gwen doesn't satisfy Bobby -- but then, neither does Bobby's explanation of the missing diamond satisfy his father.

CORONADO, the play, was, Lehane tells the reader, in response to his actor brother Gerry's need to relinquish his 'nice guy' image and play the part of the worst villain Dennis could imagine. The writer had already created the villain: Bobby's father, in UNTIL GWEN. Despite his dark side, Bobby's father could well be a charming drinking companion in a bar. Characters other than those in the short story forced their way into the author's consciousness and the play was written around an expanded tale of people attempting to reach the unreachable Coronado, the place where they might all be happy.

As the play, set in a bar, progresses, it appears the different characters may represent aspects in time of only a few people.

For those readers unfamiliar with Lehane's work prior to his novels, this volume will be a welcome addition to their knowledge. Each unit is a polished little gem demonstrating Lehane's mastery of characterisation and atmosphere. The layers of story and convolutions of character are beautifully unrolled in each dark, compact, pessimistic establishing of  the present and bleak prediction of the future.

Donna Leon does not wish to be famous. She values her privacy and anonymity; thus, despite her popularity in other countries, her books have not been translated into Italian. Nevertheless, her baker's dozen of tales has garnered her something of a cult following throughout the world, a following that will rejoice to see this, her latest Guido Brunetti adventure, Doctored Evidence, released.

It is quite a few years now since Commissario Guido Brunetti entered centre stage in Leon's first novel, Death At La Fenice. The book was written in a lighthearted spirit, almost by accident. It is well for the world of crime fiction that Leon did not relinquish the popular protagonist, leaving him to star in a sole role.

Brunetti is on vacation when Dottor Carlotti goes to make his weekly call on Maria Grazia Battestini. The good doctor is horrified to find his unpleasant patient has been murdered. Lieutenant Scarpa. Brunetti's perpetual enemy, is given the case and is quite content that the malefactor has been suitably punished when his suspect, a Romanian woman, Florinda Ghiorghiu, who worked for Battestini, is killed by a train as she flees Frontier Police. Scarpa is annoyed when Signora Gismondi, newly returned from an intensive English course in London, comes to his office and tells him that it would not have been possible for the Romanian woman, Flori, to have killed the widow.

Brunetti, newly returned from vacation, takes up the case and, convinced by Signora Gismondi of the maid's innocence, seeks to identify the murderer. As usual, he is helped by Vianello, now an Inspector, and Signorina Elettra, the computer maven and near omniscient secretary  to Vice -Questore Patta. The Commissario is forced to employ less than ethical strategems in order to investigate but is, of course, working against the titanic forces of corruption in Venice's high officialdom. He uncovers a motive which may have caused Battestini's death despite her oft stated belief in the protection of the Madonna.

As usual, Brunetti's official work is mirrored by things happening in his domestic life. Paola, his lecturer wife (who could almost be seen as a mirror image of Donna Leon herself)  causes Guido to brood on the motive for the murder as embodied in the seven deadly sins, in which his daughter, Chiara, is being instructed at school. The uxorious (yes, the author has used the word which has been absent from her books for many years) Commissario is grateful for the insight Paola's reading has given him yet he is distressed by flaws in his own character which temporarily set him at odds with his friend and ally, Vianello.

The story is as elegant and involving as readers are accustomed to expect from Leon - who seems unable to pen inferior work. As usual, her depiction of Venice can almost convince the reader that he or she has actually seen that watery city. Leon always manages to make her points without resorting to gruesome pictures of the results of violence or equally, perhaps, gruesome depictions of graphic sex. This little piece of perfect writing can only make readers anxious for the appearance of the next book in the series.
                            BLOOD FROM A STONE
                                        by Donna Leon
                                      ISBN 0434012998
                                              276 pages
                                  William Heinemann: London
                                        March 15 2005
                                                $54.95
                               Reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                        March 12 2005

It seemed to take a long time for Venice resident Donna Leon to achieve the appreciation she deserves. Her Commissario Guido Brunetti series proceeded decorously down the years (rather like its protagonist) attracting little attention aside from that of the fortunate few who had happened upon these excellent mysteries set in a beautifully depicted Venice. At last, with the CWA Silver Dagger, the talents of this author are finally being recognised.

A group of American tourists bear unwilling witness to the killing of a black African, a  vu cumpra. The man was busily plying his trade of selling counterfeit bags after the legitimate shops' closing hours, when two men approached the crowd gathered around the seller, drew guns and, with the accuracy of professional killers, executed him.

Brunetti is sent to the scene but the incompetent Alvise has already effectively dispersed any useful witnesses. The Commissario makes the best of a bad situation but finds himself thwarted on several fronts, eventually being forbidden to investigate by his superior, the ineffectual and corrupt Vice-Questore, Patta.

As usual, Brunetti is able to maintain a covert investigation. He is ably assisted by the computer genius, Signorina Elettra, and his friend and colleague Vianello. Also as usual, the investigation is narrated in parallel with Brunetti's home life. His wife, Paola, is horrified to hear their daughter, Chiara, dismiss the murder as being 'only' that of a vu cumpra. In her own way, without delivering an overt lecture, Paola attempts to convey to the girl that no one life is worth less than any other. She is heartened when Paola brings home an Islamist friend whom she is anxious to protect.

Leon always emphasises the corruption of high office in Venice and, indeed, in the Italy in which Brunetti moves. In order to solve his cases, the Commissario himself is forced to call upon Paola's noble relatives and friends of his own - perhaps by way of fighting fire with fire. Guido inevitably recognises things about himself in each novel that increase his self-knowledge - for example, in this narrative he is startled to recognise the love he bears for two of his colleagues

The depiction of Venice is always vivid in Donna Leon's books. While one might not, perhaps, wish to meet some of her characters and deal with the corruption that runs rampant, certainly the Venice she obviously loves is portrayed in brilliant  and attractive colours. Her mysteries are never the same as the previous but are always inventive and her characters grow in each novel. While the book is successful as a stand-alone, it can only benefit the reader to broaden  acquaintance of that talented policeman, Guido Brunetti, by reading more than just one book.
                         SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN
                                      by Donna Leon
                                 ISBN 9780434016266
                                            264 pages
                       WILLIAM HEINEMANN : LONDON
                                           May 1 2007
                                               $32.95
                         reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                            May 1 2007

Donna Leon has, since the release of DEATH AT LA FENICE  garnered for herself a faithful following of readers, of whom she is unlikely to lose any in this episode of the adventures of Commissario Guido Brunetti.

A Venetian woman has come to Brunetti's workplace in order to tell him about events surrounding a pregnant girl in a neighbouring apartment, events she considers unusual. Brunetti, while seeing nothing strange in the situation as a whole, stores the memory of the conversation.

Gustavo Pedrolli,  a paediatrician, realises, just as he is dropping off to sleep, that he has experienced what is possibly the happiest day of his life. His eighteen month-old son has, for the first time, called him Papa. Any parent would understand what a cause for joy that would be.

Unfortunately, the joy doesn't endure as three Carabinieri burst through his front door and assault him, taking his son and rendering the doctor fit for hospitalisation. Brunetti is called out in the middle of the night in order to investigate the assault.

The Commissario learns that the adoption was illegal and, despite the case belonging to the Carabinieri, begins to investigate.

At the same time, the Commissario's men are examining a case involving possible fraud between pharmacists and doctors. Pharmacists, who get paid for each appointment they make for patients with doctors, are referring phantom patients (in some cases, dead ones) to doctors, who also get paid, if the appointments are reported to have been kept.

Brunetti is appalled by the actions of the Carabinieri. Quite apart from the assault on the paediatrician, they have permitted a child to stay with the father who obviously adores him, for eighteen months, more than enough time for the two to establish a loving bond.

As usual, Leon allows Brunetti to handle the case with his customary common sense and regard for principles. It is difficult for him, as a parent, to contemplate the notion of a child being taken from a loving parent, no matter how legal the action. The fraud between doctors and pharmacists is, unlike the baby adoption case, black and white with no real shades of gray.

There are certainly villains in both of the cases,  the identity of the one being far more difficult to uncover than that of the other. Brunetti, as always, finds himself torn and has difficulty in assigning moral guilt. He is not above using his own connections (his father-in-law is, after all, a Count) to advance his  cause.

At one point in the narrative, much is made of an 'oath' sworn by pharmacists. That surprised me. I am a pharmacist and we, certainly, never swore any pharmacy related oaths (not for  protection afforded by pharmacists for patients, that is.) Of course, oaths of a different kind have been known to be sworn! Still, perhaps European pharmacists are subjected to different training from Australian pharmacists.

Fraud, on the other hand, is always possible and that which Brunetti investigates is not far different from some I have witnessed,  where amounts have been claimed from the government for prescriptions that have never been dispensed.

As always, Donna Leon has constructed a truly involving narrative, made more so by the fact that tales of children tend to strike a primal chord in the human psyche.

This author has invented a wonderful character in Guido Brunetti. While he manages to assuage his conscience when he bends his observation of the law, to a degree (for example, his tacit condoning of Signorina Elettra's hacking and her indoctrination of Brunetti's staff into computer related mysteries) on the whole, he upholds the letter as well as the spirit of the law, regardless of the corruption that proliferates in Donna Leon's Venice.

Once again, the author has brought to life the landscape (waterscape?) of Venice and the conundra a sensitive law enforcement officer must face in the performance of his duties.
                 THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS
                         by Donna Leon
                   ISBN 9780434018031
                             276 pages
      WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON
                             May 1 2008
                                  $32.95
           reviewed by Denise Pickles
                           March 25 2008

I felt, after reading this novel, that it must surely be the darkest Leon so far-- though I donít have the time nor the patience to re-read all her previous works to make quite sure. Leonís books are never terribly long, but the prose relevant to the murder in this book is even sparser than usual. It is not until page 101 that the corpse of the little girl is discovered.

The first part of the book sees Guido Brunetti coming to terms with the death of his mother. He knows she would never have wished to continue living in the state of health in which she found herself, so Brunetti is relatively content that she had been released from such a life. The priest who conducted the funeral, Antonin, a friend of Brunettiís elder brother, has quite a different effect on the Commisario. Brunetti is uncertain of his own reactions to the cleric but is determined to get to the bottom of a mystery posed by the man and, at the same time, examines his own reactions to religion.

The puzzle of the little girl is by far more upsetting than that perturbing the priest. She seems to be around ten, yet is infected with gonorrhoea  Her clothes are typical of those worn by gypsies, or Romany, and she proves, indeed, to be one of that race.

Brunetti goes to interview the childís family but at no point does he feel he has communicated successfully with the girlís relatives. No one, from the apparent head man of the camp to the parents of the little girl, seem inclined to talk to the police.

Brunetti has his usual problems with his boss, Patta, although these are ameliorated somewhat in that Patta has taken himself off to a conference to which Brunetti would have been the more appropriate representative. By the same token, Signorina Elettra is absent from the tale for a goodly portion since she is not one to waste the opportunities Pattaís absence from his workplace present.

I didnít really know quite what to make of this opus. Iíve always enjoyed Leonís work but this book seems different from all her others. Yes, her characterisations are as competent as ever, she has her usual gourmet interpolations as the reader is invited to salivate over the Italian delights that Brunetti is savouring, but, to my mind at least, the two portions of the book donít seem to fit together as well as they might. The ruminations on religion could quite easily have been removed without affecting the mystery of the gypsy girl.

Leon, through her protagonist, always seems disillusioned with Venetian society and this book proves no exception to her rule.

Customarily, when I finish reading a book by Donna Leon, I come away from it feeling a strong desire to visit that city. No doubt it is simply an idiosyncratic reaction of my own, but on this occasion, I lacked that enthusiasm.

I trust that Leonís next offering leaves me feeling a bit more satisfied. Donna Leon is incapable of bad writing but I do feel she has more to offer than is obvious in this outing.

                                                            Rum Punch
                                                            by Elmore Leonard
                                                                     Dell
                                                                 copyright 1992

                  In case there is any reader out there so sheltered as not to know, Elmore Leonard is an extremely productive writer of the hard boiled genre. So hard boiled is he that were I to meet the gentleman I would never dare approach him with a hard cover to be autographed lest I, in my customary clumsy manner, trip and inadvertently strike him with the book thus fracturing his integument.

                In a bio that I found, I read that Leonard developed an interest in writing when still at school in Detroit in 1935. From school he went on to join the Navy (obviously not the Queen's Navy) which may account for his development in writing 'Real Men's Fiction'. When he left the Navy he went on to an advertising agency and in addition began writing short Western fiction.

                In 1966 he became a full time writer and changed from Western to contemporary fiction and concentrated on full length novels. He has also written screen plays including treatments of his own books.

                Leonard was awarded the supreme accolade by his peers of the Mystery Writers of America by being given the Grand Master Award.

All the above explains how Elmore Leonard became such a talented writer and achieved such a command of his chosen field.

The characters in the book tend, to my mind at least, to be caricatures of people. I could not find one wholly 'good' nor sympathetic person in the novel, although the reader is able to understand the motivations of the main characters. Personally, I find the insouciant destruction of human life, even on a fictional level, somewhat nauseating. To his credit, Elmore Leonard is not one of those authors who dwells lovingly on the gruesomely  gory details of the demise of his baddies. Or his goodies. Still, the body count is high.

This book, which became the basis for the movie Jackie Brown, begins with white ex-con Louis talking to black crime organiser Ordell Robbie. Ordell wants to involve Louis in a meeting with a neo-Nazi he calls Big Guy. It quickly becomes apparent that Ordell deals in guns.

Jackie Burke is an air hostess who is used by Ordell to bring money, his payments from customer Mr Walker, into the country. Jackie is caught by the Feds who have been notified she is bringing money in a larger quantity than the permitted $10,000 into the country. They discover, unexpectedly, that she has unknowingly also brought in some cocaine. She is thus coerced into becoming an initially unwilling accessory to catching Ordell.

Max Cherry is a bail bondsman who becomes increasingly aware that the insurance company for which he works has become crooked. He is intimidated into employing Louis and is approached by Ordell to launder money put up for bail by Ordell. A very complicated plot sees Cherry introduced to and falling for Jackie and becoming a part of the sting to catch Ordell for the Feds.

The writing is attractive: powerful and easily understood with lots of action and an involving story.

If you like Leonard's brand of humour, a very intricate plot and random acts of casual murder, then this book should charm you.
                                    THE HOT KID
                                     by Elmore Leonard
                                      ISBN  0297848186
                                              312 pages
                                 Weidenfeld & Nicolson
                                                London
                                      November 4 2005
                                                  $29.95
                              reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                     November 21 2005

Thirty-nine years after becoming a full time writer and uncountable corpses since, Elmore Leonard has given birth to several more hard boiled characters including THE HOT KID of the title, Deputy US Marshal Carlos Webster, in his most recently published oeuvre. Jack Belmont, the ungrateful son of a millionaire oilman is Webster's chief adversary in this shoot 'em up.

Carlos witnesses a robbery and murder when he is fifteen. Emmett Long, a known bankrobber, gives way to an impulse when making a purchase in a drugstore, unable to resist the lure of a laden cash register. Long also steals Webster's ice cream and the combination of crimes inspires the boy's ambition to become a lawman.

The year Carl is fifteen is a memorable one. He manufactures a corpse of his very own. Well, the baddie is, after all, attempting to steal the lad's cattle.

While Carl is growing up, so too is Jack Belmont. Unlike Carl, who loves his father, Jack hates his millionaire dad and his mother is not enamoured of her offspring, especially after he is responsible for brain damage to his young sister. Jack begins his criminal career when a juvenile, attempting to blackmail his father and, when that fails, to kidnap his father's girlfriend.

It is almost inevitable that the two young men, rising stars in their chosen careers, should clash. Each becomes the others target.

Men are definitely men in this action driven adventure. Women are beautiful and at some time usually work hard in a whore house. Jack somehow finds the amours of his enemies attractive in equal measure to the repulsiveness of their men. Described as a 'show-off' by his father,  Carl invents a sentence which he likes to quote before firing at his criminal targets: "If I have to pull my weapon I'll shoot to kill."  Something of a poseur,  Webster always attempts to use his little speech on appropriate occasions.

Journalist Tony Antonelli is another who marshals his words with care. He manages to get close to the action involving Webster and Belmont, rehearsing what he will write as he witnesses the mayhem.

There is not much to choose between Webster and Belmont. Each is ruthless, each likes the most pulchritudinous women around the place but at least Carl attributes motives of good to himself.

This typical hard boiled adventure is laden with Leonard's trademark laconic humour.  For those aficionados of the deeds of derring do of American criminals of the early twentieth century and their scarcely more moral counterparts on the other side of the law, this Leonard work is a must.
QUIVER
by Peter Leonard
ISBN  9780571243891
276 pages
faber and faber
October 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
August 18 2008

Iím very glad I was not aware of the fact that Peter Leonard is the son of Elmore Leonard, prior to finishing QUIVER. I make a determined effort, whenever I write a review, not to permit anything, other than the text I am reviewing, to influence me, but heck, how could anyone overlook such a relationship? As I said, Iím glad I didnít know about it or I might have begun to compare and contrast the fictional work of both and found the one not as accomplished as the other.

The book opens just after the wake of Owen McCall. Kate, his widow, is suffering on two fronts. She has lost not only her husband, but also some portion of her young son. Luke, by accident, killed his father at the same time as he shot a deer, while on a hunting expedition. Luke is, naturally enough, horrified at what he has done, and has withdrawn into himself.

There is a bright side, however, as Kate is Owenís beneficiary and becomes extremely wealthy since Owen was well insured.

Kate is an interesting woman. She had been a member of the Peace Corps and had volunteered to go to Guatemala. She fell foul of the male culture there and killed two policemen. Her then boyfriend, Jack, got her out of Guatemala ,unharmed.

Jack is not a nice man. He has been in gaol, unbeknownst to Kate, but has been released on early parole, having found the Lord. (Halleluia?)

Jackís redemption doesnít take long to fall through. He becomes caught up with some people-- including a truly nasty woman named Celeste-- who think it is about time Jack turns his talents to separating Kate from her millions.

There are certainly some nasty characters in this opus. Thereís the odd assassin who is willing to knock off a wife or a husband-- whoever bids the least.  Celeste, as previously mentioned, is quite a strong character. Luke comes across quite realistically. If I had accidentally killed my dad, I think I would very definitely consider suicide and would, quite likely, turn up at school, drunk.

It must be borne in mind that this is a debut novel from the child of a tremendously well known and well regarded author. Would any of us, in similar circumstances, have been brave enough to attempt to capture the same range of readers in oneís fatherís genre? Or could one  perhaps, fear that one might be attempting to ride to success on dadís coat tails? To my mind, Peter Leonard has made a brave attempt and his should not be compared with that of  his father, overwhelming though the temptation might be.

I tried to view the book as though it is the debut of an author about whom I know nothing and I hope I was successful. Anyway, on that basis, I found the plot not sufficiently tight enough but think he has made a good start.
 
 

                                                            The Vig
                                                             by John Lescroart
                                                             Headline Feature
                                                              copyright 1990

                The bio notes that Lescroart (A Certain Justice, Guilt, Dead Irish, Hard Evidence, The 13th Juror, The Mercy Rule, Nothing but the Truth etc.) has no legal background. He graduated with Honours in English: no mention made of Law. Nonetheless, the author's chief protagonist is a disillusioned lawyer, Dismas Hardy. Unlike other books in the series, The Vig'contains no courtroom dramas. It is, plain and simple, a thriller/mystery.

               Dismas, whose character is beautifully and deeply developed,  is working as a bartender in the Little Shamrock which he part owns with Moses McGuire, whose life he had saved in Vietnam. Hardy is an ex-cop who became a lawyer and married a judge's daughter. Tragically, Dismas' negligence was responsible for the death of his young son which, inevitably, broke up his marriage to Jane, although in a previous novel their fractured relationship looked as though it could be healed.

             Rusty Ingraham, a lawyer with whom Hardy worked as a prosecutor, seeks out Dismas at the bar and tells him that Louis Baker, a man whom they had both helped put behind bars, was free and had sworn to kill both former prosecutors. They make a pact that they will each ring the other daily, one in the morning, one at night, and should one not answer, the other is to instigate an investigation into Baker.

            Ingraham does not ring Hardy, who goes to the boat where Ingraham lives and finds the corpse of Rusty's girlfriend and further blood and damage suggesting Ingraham has been murdered and his body thrown into the water.

            The vig of the title is the vigorish, an impossible interest levied on one who borrows from loan sharks, in this book Angelo Tortoni. Hardy's investigation into the presumed murder of Ingraham leads him into an encounter with Tortoni's operations and encounters with the hideously brutal massive bodyguard and enforcer Johnny LaGuardia.

            Frustratingly, Hardy is unable to convince the police that Ingraham must have been murdered and so takes on the investigation almost singlehandedly, with only the unofficial aid of Abe Glitsky, a friend from his police days now sadly disillusioned with life in the San Francisco police force.

            The book probes the seamy side of life in San Francisco. The injustices of the justice system are examined together with the impossibilities of success in life of an ex-con and more especially a black ex-con.

            Dismas Hardy's own life, as continued in this book, provides interest as he is torn emotionally between his ex-wife and the pregnant Frannie, sister of his partner Moses, whose husband was murdered in an earlier novel.

           When the action switches to Mexico, late in the book, the excitement, never slack, builds up. Perhaps the plotting could be seen as a bit too forced here, but it is always breathtaking.

          The work of Mr. Lescroart is well worth following.

Not one to stint on making an impact, Kathy Lette, while still a teenager in the seventies,  exploded onto the literary scene with  the unforgettable PUBERTY BLUES, which she co-authored with Gabrielle Carey. With that book she began her career of rubbing society's disapproving nose into her criticisms of the way things are run and the way people react. Mind, she does it with such humour, bitter pills slide down effortlessly and only afterward do we have more time to digest her messages. Her books, such as MAD COWS and FOETAL ATTRACTION have all been runaway bestsellers and her public have difficulty maintaining their souls in patience until the next effort should make its appearance.

In this current outing, teacher Cassie O'Carroll, Jasmine Jardine, the wife of an eminent doctor, and Hannah, a childless but very happily married career woman, have been best friends since college. Most  years  have seen them exist in perfect harmony , supporting each other through any trials that might beset them. Recently, however, things have not been quite so happy and the situation climaxes when Jazz  summons Cassie to Holloway Prison, where is she being held for the murder of her husband, David Studlands, or Studz, as he is affectionately known. Mind, there is a small hitch in the prosecution case, in that the body, presumed still to be in Australia, where the couple were holidaying, is absent, but the authorities are morally sure Jazz is guilty.

Lette then takes us through the preceding months when the lives of all three friends begin to crumble, putting at risk the formerly sturdy relationship. Jazz discovers that David is being serially unfaithful to her (six different women in six nights) so decides the best way to avenge herself is by procuring toyboys for her delectation, one of whom is actually a murderer (which doesn't, later, do her reputation much good with the police). She involves both Hannah and Cassie in the affair, attempting to provoke Cassie into partaking of the forbidden entertainment. Cassie resists but at her friend's prompting, takes her husband, veterinarian Rory, to a therapist. There had been nothing beyond a certain tedium and boredom wrong with the marriage until then but therapy altered the status quo.

At work, Cassie is up for promotion to the position of Vice Principal, but she has a rival, the egregious Perdita Pendal, plagiarist extraordinaire and preferred candidate of head Claude Scroope.

As is her wont, Lette takes a swipe at any and every custom and situation of which she disapproves. Therapists are smacked a good one upside the head but errant husbands, promotion, prisons, predatory middle aged women and the education system do not escape scot- free. Her prose is, as customary, pun ridden and at the beginning of the book there is plenty to make the reader laugh. As the tale progresses, however, darkness falls and the occasional laugh is hard to uncover against the altogether deeper depression.

Readers will no doubt come away from the book feeling they have dined on a filling repast in which sweet is well and truly balanced by bitter.
TO LOVE, HONOUR AND BETRAY
by Kathy Lette
ISBN 9780593060353
320 pages
BANTAM PRESS
October 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 22 2009

With this opus, Kathy Lette is prepared to trample the feelings of every unfaithful husband that may be offending his way through a myriad of loose women. Lucy is forty-two. She has two daughters, one being the disdainful fifteen year-old (a tautology there?) Tally and the other the still human  ten year-old Ruby At the beginning of the novel, Lucyís husband, Jasper, has already been absent from the marital home in the company of Lucyís erstwhile best friend, Renée, for a fortnight. Incredibly, Lucy is prepared to forgive him unconditionally, if only heíll return to her.

Renée has gone to considerable pains to endear herself to Jasperís daughters. Mind, she does have some plans for Ruby that would not be a model for a good mother  to design herself.

Jasper and Lucy have not long been in Australia. Had Lucy only known it at the time, Jasper had lust rather than location on his mind when he travelled to the wide brown land. Renée was already here, but Lucy interrupted his plans to a degree by insisting on accompanying him. She is horrified, naturally, when she learns of Jasperís treachery.

Of course, Lucy is not the only one in the family to be affected by Jasperís desertion.  Ruby reverts to bed-wetting, as well as constant weeping. It is, however, because of Rubyís interests that Lucy, too, finds a new interest in life. Ruby wants to join Nippers, a group for youngsters at Cronulla Beach, but in order for her to do so, Lucy must get her Bronze in lifesaving.

Meanwhile, Lucyís next door neighbour, Susie, takes a neighbourly interest in Lucy and Lucyís outlook begins to lift.

Lucyís circle of interest enlarges to the extent of taking unto herself a toyboy named Sebastian.

Lette is wonderful at character building-- that is, building the characters of the people who feature in her novels. Mind, Renée might, at times, boundary hop and become a bit of a caricature, but, on the whole, she is credible as a, well, unbelievably bad baddie.

At first, one might cry ìImpossible!î when viewing Lucyís willingness to take back the faithless Jasper into her bosom, but when one considers just how much some women adore their husbands, Lucyís thoughts and actions do become believable, if not admirable.

Kathy Lette has always had the ability to make me laugh and she has shed none of that with this outing. I canít wait until her next foray into fiction.
                                            CITY OF SPIES
                                              by Simon Levack
                                            ISBN 9781416502548
                                                       335 pages
                                                 POCKET BOOKS
                                                    April 3 2007
                                                        $18.95
                                        reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                    March 27 2007

Yaotl, former priest but now a slave, is not enjoying himself. He has seriously displeased his master who has had him caged. Yaotl is unable to stand up or even to stretch himself. The cage is manifestly too small for him and even if it weren't, the sticks poked at him -- or the bag of  ground maguey thorns poured over him -- would not permit him to sleep comfortably. Lord Feathered in Black, his master, is so savagely dissatisfied with Yaotl that although he is prepared to sell his slave, it would only be to someone who wishes a sacrificial victim -- one who would be killed in the most excruciatingly painful manner possible.
 

Fortunately, Tiger Lily, a woman who, at one time, was briefly his mistress, buys the slave, although she almost repents her purchase when she learns his cost. The fact that she was bidding against his brother does not serve to lessen her displeasure.

Yaotl, Lily and Lily's father, Kindly, make their way to the city of  Tetzcoco -- not the slave's preferred destination. Lily explains that they need to obtain a message from a merchant, Hare, which she is to take to Mother of Light, a royal concubine. Unfortunately, when they arrive at Hare's house, they discover a body and Lily is almost immediately arrested for the murder.

Kindly retains a lawyer, Obsidian Tongue, to defend Lily and he and Yaotl, together with Nimble, Yaotl's son, return to Hare's house, where they find the corpse of Hare -- and a little Mayan girl. They do not speak the child's language so add her to the already augmented party.

The city is riddled with spies since there are two claimants to the throne: Prince of Willows and Lord Maize Ear, because the former monarch, Hungry Child, had not appointed a successor before pining away after losing a lover. Yaotl's party find they are equally at risk from either side.

This book is a true delight. If you, Dear Reader, have ever felt any curiosity about the history of the Aztec (or Mayan, for that matter) civilisation prior to the coming of the conquistadors, you could do far worse than to read this meticulously researched book. Not only does Simon Levack present the facts, some of which are decidedly unpalatable, about the old empire, he tells a very good story to sweeten the pill of History. The only aspect of the story which the author confesses might be less than accurate, is the introduction of the lawyers. He has had to rely on surmise to construct that particular facet of the otherwise beautifully researched tale.

The characterisations are particularly well done. Yaotl fairly leaps off the page, so convincingly is he drawn and Lily, Kindly and Nimble are equally persuasive. The implications of the advent of the conquistadors, too, are more than sufficient  to hone the interest of the reader in subsequent books.

While  CITY OF SPIES is but one of the Aztec series, it is sufficiently stand alone to satisfy any reader.
 

                                     DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER
                                                      by Jeff Lindsay
                                                   ISBN  0752866761
                                                           288 pages
                                                             Orion
                                                 November 5 2004
                                                              $29.95
                                             reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                 December 26 2004
 

The publisher Orion certainly has a talent for snagging outstanding new authors for its stable. While Jeff Lindsay is a playwright and sometime writer for television, DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER is his first novel. One can only trust it is but the first of a long line.

The beginning of the story is set on a moonlight night. Dexter Morgan has been watching a priest for five weeks. At long last he is convinced that the priest is the one for him so Dexter abducts the man and takes him to the site of the paedophile's murderous rampage where he, Dexter, may happily vivisect and bury the malefactor at his joy-filled leisure.

Dexter is the adopted son of a policeman, Harry Morgan, a man who was utterly sick and tired of the obvious miscreants who flout the law with impunity. While they may not flaunt their smugness at getting away with crimes, the criminals are eminently guilty but remain at large. When it became apparent to Harry that Dexter has a tendency to take joy in killing, he instructed the lad in whom he must target, when the time comes, and how best to carry out the executions.

The younger Morgan is a forensics officer with the Miami police, specialising in the analysis of blood spatter. His adoptive sister, Deborah, is a police officer with Vice but she has ambitions of becoming a detective. Dexter has been able to assist the Department in catching serial killers and Deborah enlists his aid when one such begins plying his trade on her patch.

The killer, who specialises in murdering prostitutes, has a modus operandi remarkably similar to Dexter's own. There is even a strange trademark to the kills - the victims are discovered, neatly dissected, but nowhere near any blood. Dexter is horrified - perhaps - that someone is aping his methods and at times wonders if the work could be his own, perpetrated when he thinks he is asleep. If this is not so, then Dexter, driven by a bloodlust he externalises as his 'Dark Passenger', is at once being taunted and invited to play, by the other killer.

This is a wonderful novel. While the characterisation of people other than Dexter could be described, at best, as sketchy, Dexter himself is a protagonist one could recognise as, well, definitely flesh and blood. Although he is at pains to tell the readers, in many places, that he does not feel emotions, that he always acts in a cold and logical way, that he simply patterns himself on normal people and pretends to experience the emotions others feel, it is obvious that Dexter is a prey to emotions - albeit some that would feel strange to other people. Dexter Morgan, despite maintaining his inability to feel love, is obviously deeply committed to his adoptive sister or he would follow his own best interests and not help her in her quest. He is unaware of his own background - he was adopted when he was three - and Harry had assured him that it is best he not know of his origins. Whether the psychology of the character is a hundred per cent according to the text books is immaterial. It is a tremendous tale. The resolution is satisfying and there is an opening which a delighted audience could hope would be the hook for a follow-up.
                                        DEARLY DEVOTED DEXTER
                                                    by Jeff Lindsay
                                                  ISBN 0752868969
                                                          292 pages
                                                             Orion
                                                  February 3 2006
                                                             $29.95
                                          reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                         May 11 2006
 

Anyone who read Jeff Lindsay's debut novel, DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, will no doubt be happy to discover the next in the series, DEARLY DEVOTED DEXTER, is now available and, oh joy, that a third is in the works. Dexter is a delightful creation, a sociopathic killer who plays by a strict moral code. Thanks to the cop who adopted him when he was a small child, he learned all the tricks at the command of the police (and added to that expertise when he became an adult and adopted the profession of  blood spatter analyst with the Miami police) while his adoptive father, Harry, taught him to channel his understandable lust for killing in the right direction: he must kill only killers and then only when the proof of their guilt is incontrovertible.

Dexter's bloodthirsty side, the Dark Passenger, as Dexter calls him, is always most filled with the blood lust when the moon is full. At the beginning of this tale, the moon is up and Dexter is lurking but a strangely tamed Dexter. He is, perforce, playing with children some kind of hide and seek game at which Dexter is clearly less adept than the children. The reason for this is that one of his colleagues, Sergeant Doakes, is certain Dexter is guilty of something, but what? To find out, Doakes is busily shadowing Dexter who has had to adopt protective camouflage: lovely Rita and her two children, six year-old Cody and his nine year-old sister Astor. Mind, after despatching a paedophile child killer, MacGregor, Dexter has ascertained that the miscreant had a partner-in-crime, a photographer named Reiker. To add to his criminality, Reiker wears red cowboy boots. The man deserves to die! Dexter is happy to see Reiker fulfil his destiny but the egregious Doakes prevents Dexter's understandable wish.

Dexter is having lunch with his sister, Sgt. Sarah Morgan, when she is called to the scene of a crime. They see a horribly mutilated corpus, but the mutilation has been so neatly performed that Dexter is full of unwilling admiration for the surgeon and wishes to meet him. A series of circumstances sees Dexter teamed with Doakes to solve the crime and the subsequent kidnapping and feared dismemberment of Deborah's boyfriend, Washington bigwig Kyle Chutsky.

Lindsay is a complete master of black humour. Dexter  is always deprecating himself with wonderful appellations such as the titular Dearly Devoted Dexter but also Dauntless Dexter,  Sir Dexter the Chaste on a Dark Charger and Dashing Dexter and even Dauntless Dexter. The author has a knack, too, of making very grisly scenes absurdly comic, for example, when one of the victims of the baddy goes after the talented surgeon despite being minus half a leg and an arm. Still, a lot of what frightens readers lies in the blood and both Dexter and the villain are very fastidious. They both hate blood so the grisly scenes lack that necessity of life.

Delectable Rita introduces Dexter to something new, too: beer. Hitherto, Dexter has been abstemious but in this novel, he falls victim to a taste for the beverage and then to something more. Rita, too, has other attractions for Dexter and it is to be hoped that the lure of these will be developed in Lindsay's forthcoming works.

This book is a must for anyone with a taste both for thrillers and black comedy.
 
 

                                                                  Butchers Hill
                                                                by Laura Lippman
                                                                    Avon Books
                                                                  copyright 1998

         This is the second of Laura Lippman's mysteries that I have read, the first being Baltimore Blues. There is an intervening book. Charm City which I have, unfortunately, not been able to obtain.

         Lippman is a journalist, as is her detective Tess Monaghan, although, in her late thirties, Lippman is a little older than Tess. Tess loses her job as a reporter, unlike Lippman, and becomes a private investigator. Lippman is intensely interested in social problems to be found in Baltimore and has written stories, in her incarnation of journalist, on the terrible conditions and  inequalities she has encountered together with the poverty inspired crime and drug taking in the area.

       Butchers Hill is based on a story the author had to cover. In real life, a man in his sixties accidentally killed a thirteen year old child, one of a group which was harrassing him and destroying both his peace of mind and his property. He was gaoled for five years. Butchers Hill'begins with two clients coming to see Tess in her new office. The first one, Luther Beale, identifies himself as the Butcher who killed one thirteen year old boy in a gang of five children living in a foster home, five years previously. He served the time in gaol but now wishes to find the three boys and one girl remaining in order to give them, anonymously, the chance to improve their lot in life... through scholarships or cars or anything needful to  extend their potential.

       The second client identifies herself as Mary Browne, a black woman looking for her sister, Susan King, who was thrown out of home by their mother when Susan became pregnant and wished to give up her daughter for adoption. Tess successfully finds Susan, now known as Jackie Weir, who has become a wealthy businesswoman and the investigation changes to become a search for Jackie's daughter.

       Tess has discovered, in an attempt to trace the four black young people, that as a white woman she is severely limited in what she can find out, despite identifying the names of the people whom she is seeking. Black people simply won't disclose anything to her. Jackie has discovered, in her search for her daughter, that she is unable, despite her success in business, to deal with the white people she must interview in order to trace her daughter's whereabouts. Tess and Jackie therefore form an uneasy partnership, which gradually deepens into friendship, in order to track down the witnesses as well as Jackie's daughter, with Jackie questioning the previously reticent residents of black Baltimore.

       In the process of narrating the story, Lippman casts light on the terrible inequalities inherent in the adoption and foster parenting systems of Baltimore as well as the dreadful rackets that can be run, disadvantaging both the adopted and foster children as well as the relinquishing mothers, while giving unequal advantage to foster parents and sponsors. I feel that telling the story in fictional form gives far more impact to it than a simple (or not so simple) investigative story in the press.

        Lippman provides humour in the delineation of Tess' relatives, but never reduces them to caricatures, as is found in some of the other books I have recently read. Tess is a Jewess who, because of her Catholic seeming name of Monaghan, is never recognised as such except by her own family. She even has a severe anaphylactic reaction to crab and other shell fish which would provide sufficient grounds for her maintaining a Kosher diet. Lippman, on the other hand, is a Gentile with a Jewish name and so is constantly being mistaken for a Jewess. As Lippman is at pains to point out in her novel, Jewishness is passed down through one's mother. In the bad old days of the Jews being a subject race, constantly raped by conquerors, only the identity of one's mother was certain, hence one's religion followed hers rather than that of an uncertain father. Lippman writes of what she knows, albeit in an inverted form.

        Butchers Hill'never flags. The events, based as they are on fact, never seem unreal. I thought I had identified a baddie fairly early in the book, and indeed I had, but only a very minor player. The plot, although convoluted, is not unrealistically contrived. The shock resolution leaves an unpleasant, although pathetically genuine, taste in one's mouth.

       Butchers Hill is added to my list of books to be re-read.

                 Since her first novel, hastily written Fortress, Gabrielle Lord has made an impressive name for herself in Australian crime fiction. Lord has had a wide range of jobs, including  unqualified teacher, brick cleaner, peach picker, market gardener  and, rather more long-term, employment officer and these together with the intense and wide ranging research she has pursued have given her an enormous base on which to build her fiction. The Sharp End, Tooth and Claw, Jumbo, Whipping Boy , Bones, Feeding the Demons and Death Delights have all enhanced her reputation as a novelist, while she has also written scripts, which have earned widespread admiration, for film and television.

                 Gemma Lincoln (note her initials) is a private investigator who made her debut in Feeding The Demons. Gemma,  who runs her own investigations business, obtains a large part of her income from insurance work. Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing includes one such examination involving a fire and the death of a prominent millionaire, Benjamin Glass. Gemma is hired by the widow, Minkie Montreau to discover just what took place. In tandem with that case, Gemma tries to ensure the safety of street girls by uncovering the identity of the man who seems bent on raping and killing them, along the way beating a disguised Gemma. As if that were not enough, Gemma must also satisfy a client as to whether his wife is being unfaithful and deal with problems within her own company.

              A former police officer, Gemma is distressed when her lover  Steve,  a serving police officer goes undercover  in order to try to trap Sydney's leading crime figure, George Fayed. Gemma later learns that Steve is closely involved with Lorraine Litchfield,  the widow of Sydney's former crime lord, who has been assassinated by Fayed. Gemma must not only deal with all kinds of hazards - including a patronising police officer with whom she must cooperate - but also try to convince a runaway child to return to his mother.

              Lord is a consummate suspense writer. Her characterisation of Gemma is excellent. Not for her the idea of the heroine supporting her man with blind faith despite his appearance of perfidy. Gemma is believably jealous and the average woman  reader would surely understand the almost unreasoning emotion that impulsively endangers the life of her boyfriend Steve. The pace of the novel is hectic. Lord's dialogue is well done. Not for her the blatant ockerisms of some of her male counterparts yet her protagonists are unmistakably Australian in their speech. I do have one small quibble with the adventure : I felt the double denouements were a trifle overdone and unnecessarily melodramatic. I felt very sorry for Gemma as she struggled with personal; injury - Lord, unlike some other authors, does not have her protagonist blithely and agilely leaping around after being hurt. Nonetheless, I felt some of the dangers were too reminiscent of those besetting Harrison Ford on a bad day, and the grand finale could have been a shade more understated. This having been said, the novel is one of the better reads of this year.
                                                    LETHAL FACTOR
                                                      by Gabrielle Lord
                                                      ISBN 0733616216
                                                           318 pages
                                                             Hodder
                                                      October 1 2003
                                                             $29.95
                                                 reviewed by Denise Wels
                                                       October 1 2003

Gabrielle Lord is a stickler for research and it shows. She must have spent an inordinate amount of time studying bacillus anthracis (anthrax to you and me) in preparation for writing this latest novel. Apart from that, it is obvious she has spent long periods reading the history of Yugoslavia and forming an opinion on what motivates the men of that sadly divided country - or men of any country, for that matter. Lord's first published novel was not her first book, despite being the first accepted for publication,  but it seized on the mood and interest of the readers of the time. Fortress was published in 1980 and since then Lord has written many more books, including The Sharp End, Tooth and Claw, Jumbo, Whipping Boy,  Salt, Feeding the Demons, Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing, Death Delights and Bones. Along the way Gabrielle Lord has picked up a Ned Kelly Award and, more recently, the Davitt Crime Fiction Prize. Now she writes full time, after a varied career during which she has worked as a saleswoman, a fruit picker, and an employment officer. She has also written scripts for film and television.

Lethal Factor opens with a prologue which describes events leading up to the murder of a Catholic nun, Sister Gertrude. Forensic scientist Jack McCain, who appeared in one of Lord's earlier novels, Death Delights, is called upon to investigate. At the same time he is studying the circumstances of the death of a colleague, Doctor Tony Bonning. He concludes the agent of the death is that popular bacillus, anthrax. McCain must discover how the anthrax was delivered. Bonning is not the only victim of the disease - a postal worker who handled the parcel the contents of which were ingested by Bonning was also infected, although her condition turns out not to be fatal. Later, the wife of McCain's boss also falls prey to the spores and McCain finds himself Acting Chief Scientist of the Forensic Services.

Handling  dangerous material as he does, McCain must frequently don the space suit which provides the dramatic picture for the front jacket of this book- not, one would think, the most comfortable of working uniforms. Jack has many trials and tribulations concurrent with his investigations - his daughter Jacinta now lives with him and can  be very, very touchy and edgy despite having overcome her drug habit after living on the streets of Sydney and becoming involved in the drug trade there. Jack's ex-wife, too, is making spurious yet vile and damaging claims against him. Then a predatory woman who has stalked him in the past makes an unwelcome return just when a more desirable possible love reappears.

Echoes of Gabrielle Lord's own childhood are to be found in Jack's reminiscences of his  education by Catholic nuns. Obviously these are not happy memories, a background shared by so many of today's adults who have been damaged by the religious hypocrites of  earlier decades. Jack encounters inexplicably inimical lack of cooperation from the various religious, both women and a man, involved at the convent. In his place of work he must also deal with an envious and neurotic scientist who resents McCain's elevation, seeing himself as the natural successor to the Chief Scientist. Oh yes, and there is a thug going around assaulting women students at the ANU and stealing their handbags.

Lord has long been acknowledged as one of the best Australian women crime fiction  writers of today. To my mind, although very good, this book is not her best work. Perhaps she devoted a bit too much space to retelling the science of the scientific background of her ex-policeman/recovering alcoholic protagonist.  I felt that perhaps the author had introduced too many story lines to this plot so that there was not quite the development necessary of any single story line that would have made it a more gripping tale. I didn't find any of the characters particularly enchanting and had sympathy for only one of the corpses. For a lesser author, this book would have been adequate but from Gabrielle Lord I would have expected something more involving and polished.

                                                      MOVING TARGET
                                                              by Elizabeth Lowell
                                                         Harper Collins Publishers
                                                           ISBN 0-7322-7059-6
                                                                    $26.50
                                                        reviewed by Denise Wels
 
 

             Elizabeth Lowell is the nom-de-plume  of Nebula Award nominee Ann Maxwell. Initially driven to writing fiction by isolation, a baby and a pregnancy, Maxwell produced science fiction. Subsequently she collaborated with her husband Evan under the pen name of A.E. Maxwell and wrote mysteries. She was introduced to the delights of romance fiction and  produced numerous books in that genre under the same pen name as that used for Moving Target. A very few of her other titles under that by-line are Amber Reach, Jade Island, Pearl Cove and  the very successful Midnight in Ruby Bayou.

            The author has said that Moving Target  is the beginning novel of a cycle of books featuring the company Rarities Unlimited. who buy, sell appraise and protect Art. Unlike other companies involved in this complex area, Rarities Unlimited includes as part of its contract with its clients, the stated notion that their first duty is to the art, not to the client.

               The narrative begins with the murder of Ellis Weaver at the hands of an arsonist who attempts to gain possession of a few pages of the Book of  the Learned. Ellis, who has almost totally segregated herself from society, with the exception of her granddaughter Serena Charters, foils the murderer's ambition despite losing her life.

               Weaver Serena Charters, a year after the death of her grandmother, seeks to discover more about the book, a mediaeval manuscript, of which she has only a few pages. She sends copies of the pages to the House of Warrick and to Erik North, an expert on mediaeval palimpsests. She is bewildered by her reception from the exceedingly rude billionaire owner of the House of Warrick and turns to North, who is employed by Rarities Unlimited but who is indirectly working for  Norman Warrick, the owner of the said House. Erik is himself working on pages of the twelfth century manuscript and is, for various reasons, obsessed with them.

            Lowell credits the creation of the novel to a holiday in the U.K. where she and her husband discovered that their families had apparently been intermarrying for many generations. She has produced a book which is a mélange of romance, science fiction, fantasy, mystery and suspense. The two chief protagonists are outstandingly beautiful and have memories for which they cannot account of the characters featured in the Book of the Learned. The author has researched her subject well and if the reader has a hankering for ensorcelled scarves, reincarnation, illuminated manuscripts and romance, this book will satisfy the appetite.  Certainly there is objective evidence that Lowell is appreciated by her audience, in all her personae, given her large readership. Having said that, I must admit that I found her prose rather too flowery for my taste. There was a great deal of loin heaving, breast burning and fiery cascades of hair as well as eyes that gleamed pure gold (which, frankly, would terrify the gizzard out of me should I encounter them in my drab reality.) Every character, too, seems to lust after some other protagonist, with the possible exception of Norman Warrick. Still, for all who enjoy torrid romance against a backdrop of intellectualism, you will probably enjoy this oeuvre.
 

                                             THE PROMETHEUS DECEPTION
                                                             by Robert Ludlum
                                                                  Orion Trade
                                                                    $27.95
                                                          ISBN 0-75284-210-2
                                                            December 1 2000
                                                     reviewed by Denise Wels

                      In the fifties and sixties Robert Ludlum was an actor and producer.   In the seventies he went on to become a writer of thrillers (22 up until this one, including The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum,  The Osterman Weekend  and  The Scarlatti Inheritance),which have been translated into 32 languages. The authorís work is constantly on the best-seller lists. Until now, I have read none of his adventures so perhaps I  have not achieved the correct mind-set with which to peruse this oeuvre.

                          The hero of The Prometheus Deception, Nick Bryson, must be some kind of bio-engineered marvel. He is frequently wounded nigh unto death, yet by some magic adrenalinising process, is able to continue his fatality-challenging feats regardless of the damage. His near-death experiences outnumber those of even the most dedicated  heaven-seeker.

                         After his latest brush with mortality, Bryson is called into the office of his boss in the top-secret (does the President know of it?) spook outfit known as the Directorate. Ted Waller tells Bryson that his expertise has been compromised and he may therefore no longer be employed as an operative. Bryson knows his apparent inefficiency is due to the unexplained and inexplicable desertion by his wife Elena, a spookess also with the Directorate.

                       Our hero is provided with a new identity, Jonas  Barrett, a lecturer at a small college and five years on ,  he is approached by one Harry Dunne, deputy Chairman of the CIA. Dunne tells him that, far from having acted in the best interests of his country he has been working for a Russian controlled body doing  its best to destabilise and destroy the United States. Oops.

                       Nick does not make too much moan about having been hoodwinked, other than to vow vengeance on the Directorate and swear to destroy them.  The remainder of the book is devoted to the hectic adventures he encounters while  attempting to pursue this noble goal. The mysterious Prometheus plot only comes to his attention midway through the narrative.

                         Nick Bryson, an admirable family man, goes around adding to a body count which could have populated a small nation, with a certain amount of glee. Nowhere in the book is mentioned just how the multitude of corpses is tidied up. There must be a myriad of undertakers around the world all giving thanks for the exploits of this Directorate-turned-CIA trained killer yet the writer does not include any words of gratitude from the people, who have been provided with so much work and wealth, for their benefactor. But the author does balance Nickís profligate wastage of human life with a touching scene in which Bryson reflects on a precious new life being nurtured within a pregnant woman. Precious indeed but
scarcely  enough to replenish populations depleted by his hand.

                         And then there is the problem of money. Now, as a practised reader I very easily suspend disbelief within certain basic limits (not only am I addicted to mystery fiction but also to the science fiction and fantasy genres) yet one must draw the line somewhere. Nick had taken a job as a lecturer, presumably so he could earn a living, yet throughout this adventure he expends hundreds of thousands of dollars on disguises, bribes, arms, computers and other assorted toys. Why, then, did he work if he possessed such financial resources? And whence sprang his wealth? I toyed with the idea that it might come from Workersí Compensation... all those wounds, you see. Still, that was not a very convincing explanation. Toward the end of the book there is speculation as to how Bryson will find sufficient capital on which to exist in later life (one would doubt that superannuation funds for covert Russian spies would be as large now as during the Cold War).  A competent financial adviser, if consulted at the outset, would probably have counselled early retirement and careful husbanding of those finances regardless of the worthiness of the use to which they were to be put (uses of  which Bryson had cause to doubt the wisdom.)

                             To get down to Mr Ludlumís writing apart from the above: a friend of mine claims that the author does not use one word when fifteen will do. Possibly. I do know that if he were a personality on one of the BBCís radio panel shows he would be gonged out for repetition . Then there is his research. He may have studied the construction of Westminster Palace, where the Brits have their Parliament and where Ludlum set some of his fastest action, but he did not examine in any detail the structure of the British Police Force. At one point he introduces a British bobby as a Sergeant... then goes on to refer to him as ëthe constableí, although reverting to the form of address as ëSergeantí. Come on, Mr. Ludlum! Everyone  knows a constable is the lowest form of police life while a sergeant has rather more seniority. Havenít you ever watched The Bill  or   Inspector Morse with his faithful sidekick Sergeant Lewis?

                           Research aside, the plotting of the novel is intricate (one could say confusing and convoluted) and the pace is breathtakingly fast. There is a large audience for this kind of book amongst the reading public and if The Prometheus Deception is representative of Mr. Ludlumís other work it will probably prove  popular.

                                     MORE OVER THE TOP WITH JIM
                                                                 by Hugh Lunn
                                                                      Hodder
                                                          ISBN 0-7336-1435-3
                                                                  $19.95
                                                             April  11 2002
                                                      reviewed by Denise Wels

                 Hugh Lunn, formerly a journalist but now a full time writer, was born and grew up in Brisbane. His seven awards, including three prestigious Walkleys, attest to the excellence of his writing. It is unfortunate but true that excellent writers are not as often brought to the attention of the wider Australian public as they might be. It was therefore extremely fortunate for the reading public that Lunn's initial childhood memoir, Over the Top with Jim was featured on Ian McNamara's immensely popular  A.B.C.radio programme, Australia All Over. One wonders if, without that show, Over the Top with Jim might have not become the biggest-selling book ever about an Australian childhood. The demand of the Australian public for more Lunn on the programme caused More Over the Top with Jim stories, beautifully illustrated by   David Mackintosh, to be written. Others of Hugh Lunn's books are Head Over Heels, Spies Like Us, Vietnam: A Reporter's War and, more latterly  Working For Rupert.

             The two childhood memoirs are set in the forties and fifties and depict a very different Brisbane from that of today. Lunn's parents, the idiosyncratic Fred and Olive, were a charming pair who provided their strongly Roman Catholic family with an excellent upbringing. Hugh's friend Jim, Dimitri Egoroff, was a Russian immigrant who had a very different outlook on both sports and relationships from that of his left hand man Hugh. Wily Jim wan an inventor extraordinaire, but no sportsman, insisting, against all advice, that the best way to wield a cricket bat was one handedly, and to field was not in the slips, but where the ball most often landed (well, it is  logical!) It would be nice if Lunn could have appended an afterword sketching Egoroff's subsequent life.

             Time has shown that the Jim books are very popular with both children and adults and I must confess that I, too, delight in the anecdotes. Wherein lies the fascination? It is hard to determine why the children of today, addicted as they seem to be to horror and violence, should find the stories so attractive. The boys led very simple lives. They had no electronic toys, nor did they go to (for us) exotic places for holidays. Yet the allure for children is certainly there. The stories have no plot, as such; there is no tension and no mystery, yet there is great charm. Perhaps one day Mr. Lunn will see fit to follow the childhood memoirs with some kind of biographical memoir of the adulthood of his friend Jim. I hope so.
                                    THE SPELLMAN FILES
                                                  by Lisa Lutz
                                         ISBN 9780743295154
                                                      360 pages
                                          SIMON & SCHUSTER
                                                  June 1 2007
                                                          $29.95
                                       reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                    May 25 2007

Here is a thriller with not much in the way of thrills but which is one of the most entertaining books I've read this year. Part of the charm may be the notable lack of gore -- not to mention the lack of a truly riveting mystery, but THE SPELLMAN FILES certainly cast a spell on this woman.

The novel starts with  a car chase (#3, though I am not too sure what happened to #s 1 and 2). The reader is led to believe Isabel is being chased by desperate crooks. In fact, she is being chased by dangerous desperadoes but leave it to the reader to determine just how dangerous they are. Following (so to speak) that introduction comes the interview with Inspector Stone.

Isabel began her career as a private investigator with the family company when she was twelve. Her older brother, perfect David, became a lawyer (not everyone can be successful). From that lofty position, he is able to feed the occasional case to the family company.

There are two main cases actively followed by Isabel for the duration of the novel. First, and most importantly, the disappearance of her sister, Rae and second, the case that is to get Isabel out of the clutches of the family business: the disappearance of Andrew Snow. The latter is a so-called "cold case" but Isabel is desperate to solve it.

Isabel is not lucky in love. In fact, she tends to look at interesting men wondering if they could be the next ex-boyfriend. Her relationships seem never to have sticking power. Even so, when she meets dentist Daniel, her luck seems to change. Nonetheless, because she is ashamed of her occupation, that tends to endanger her happiness. One thing that serves to reinforce their relationship, however, is that they are both addicted to the old TV show GET SMART.

Apparently this debut novel is the first of a series. I can't help but wonder if the next book will have rather more meat but can't say that this effort loses anything by being comparatively slight in the mystery department. The characters of Isabel and Rae are delightful, even though Isabel is the only person to be fully fleshed out. Rae is the horrible little kid one would never wish to meet, since she would have your most intimate secrets on display in nothing flat -- or, more profitably, would use them to extort money from you with the threat of having them on display.
 

This is a most engaging debut and one which deserves success. I trust it meets with the welcome it warrants.
REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS
by Lisa Lutz
ISBN  9781921470134
375 pages
SIMON & SCHUSTER
June 1 2009
$32.99
reviewed by Denise Pickles
May 22 2009

That completely atypical family of private investigators is back to entertain readers anew. Unlike their fictional contemporaries, they donít find themselves faced with terrible murders which must be solved and only the occasional blackmail case (usually wreaked by one of their own.) Nonetheless, they do not lead uneventful lives.

Isabel is currently enduring the attentions of a psychotherapist. This is the result of a court order and Isabel is most unhappy about it. It doesnít seem as though the therapist is terribly happy about it, either. Isabel is not working for her parents as a private investigator. She is, in fact, working as a bartender, although that state of affairs does change when a customer in the bar requests that she investigate his wife, whom he suspects of being unfaithful. Milo, the owner of the bar, has, in the meantime, cut Isabelís hours so that she is forced to take on the investigation.

In the meantime, Isabelís perfect, lawyer brother asks his sister to house sit while he goes away for a time. Isabel is pleased to oblige and leaves her erstwhile apartment, finding another, secret place to live when her brother returns-- complete with a broken arm. What could have happened to the ideal David?

The youngest Spellman sibling, Rae, has, meanwhile, found herself in trouble. She has sat for her PSAT exams but not taken much trouble with them, so has accidentally found herself with an exceptional score, a score that causes her parents to decide she should go to college.

Isabel, meanwhile, is having cause to doubt her mental acuity, psychotherapy notwithstanding. Somehow, her car is never where she thinks she remembers parking it at night.

These disparate threads do eventually come together and a nice little sideline on Raeís part is disclosed-- amongst other things. Isabel is even compelled to consider her future a bit more seriously than has been the case.

The characterisation of the piece is, despite the improbability of the plot, well done within the bounds of the Spellman world. The reader might even feel a sneaking sympathy for Raeís plight while definitely understanding Isabelís sleep deprived condition.

It will be interesting to see how Lutz can come up with more improbable situations in future books.
                                        THE WATER UNDERNEATH
                                                              by Kate Lyons
                                                             Allen & Unwin
                                                          ISBN 1-86508-418-2
                                                                    $19.95
                                                            19 January 2001
                                                     reviewed by Denise Wels
 

                               There is no doubt that Kate Lyons is a very talented writer. She has previously been published in some of Australiaís most prestigious literary magazines, but The Water Underneath, which was a runner-up in the Vogel award of 1999,  is her first novel. Let us  hope she has more to come.

                           Some of the more larrikin Australian novels I have read in the past year or so
       have used such ockerish language as to be practically unintelligible to this dinkum Aussie.
       Not so this delicate work which nonetheless manages to capture the vernacular of the
       ordinary Australian. I would, however, like to take issue with Allen & Unwin in that their
       subediting left quite a bit to be desired. A couple of fírinstances...íreknowní and ëexortí. I
       donít know about other readers out there, but I always am pulled up short when I come
       across such errors, which should not be permitted. These were not orphans either; there
       were others of which I did not make a note as I was more intent on reading the lovely prose.

                              Kate Lyons is now a resident of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.
       Earlier in life she resided in Broken Hill,  and it is a reasonable assumption that the mining
       town in which this book is set was inspired by the real life town.

                                The narrative is the poignant tale of a part aboriginal man, Frank Kelly, and the women of his family. Frank is a silent man and never discloses to the women their exact relationship to him and to each other, so speculation is rife, both amongst them and in the town.

                               Frank is part of Australiaís tragic Stolen Generations and was brought up on Catholic charity. There is a very troubling, dramatic scene depicting Frankís removal from his natural mother. He eventually traced his mother but she died and he removed his baby sister, whom he named Von, and took her to live with a very religious woman whom Von dubbed ëThe Motherí (because of a perceived resemblance to the Virgin Mary) and grew up  hating.
 

                                Eventually Frank takes Von to live with him and his wife, Mavis. Von is
       seduced by a boy from a different school from hers, and becomes pregnant with Ruth, on
       whose shoulders the latter part of story rests. She is forced to marry the boy, Trevor, and
       later gives birth to baby Lil, a baby of the water.

                                Von, like Frank, regularly goes off on long walks by herself but never returns from one of these, having taken baby Lil with her. Twenty years later small bones, thought to be those of Lil,  wash from the river. Vonís are never found. The mystery of just what happened to the two is gradually revealed.
 

                                     Frankís silence, as he goes, horribly scarred, through the book toward his final  illness, is almost a character in its own right. The cruelty of the people in the town, their initially unfounded gossip and the effect of that gossip on a young woman, is all too
       realistically portrayed, all against the curtain of the supposed religiosity of the righteous burghers.
 

                                     The action of this book is not fast. One could say it meanders but is well worth following. The characters are very well drawn... not a sketch among them. The novel  provides uncomfortable, but unfortunately authentic, insights into the lives and prejudices of an outback town and their wretched consequences.

                          THE CORNER OF YOUR EYE
                                              by Kate Lyons
                                         ISBN  1741142423
                                                   346 pages
                                              ALLEN & UNWIN
                                                 May 5 2006
                                                      $22.95
                                   reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                 May 7 2006

Those who enjoyed Kate Lyons' first novel THE WATER UNDERNEATH, will no doubt be enchanted with her second outing. Lyons has a very distinctive literary style in which language plays a more important part than plot. Which is not to say there is no plot just that it takes a while to realise the whole.

Lucy  had a daughter, Florence, who would have been about to turn twelve. She ran away, however, and six months later, after a sojourn up the coast, Lucy returns to Sydney, having been inspired to do so after receiving photographs from Archie, her drug addicted friend. Lucy is certain she knows who is responsible for Flo's disappearance and sets about tracking him down. Despite having a good relationship with new boyfriend Leo, she has left their home because she is sure she can find her daughter. Now she allies herself once more with old friends and former lovers as she tries to locate the man she suspects.

Lucy's friends are, for the most part, drug addicts and/or small time crooks. Florence has been brought up in a strange atmosphere of neglect and corruption. Small wonder that she became self destructive -- as is, indeed, her mother. The pair were constantly fighting and Lucy seemed unable to establish as cordial a relationship with her daughter as Florence had with Lucy's friends. Florence, wild and unheeding, attracts the notice of Lucy's landlord prior to her disappearance.

This is a heartrending tale. Lyons evokes a truly sordid and morbid atmosphere with her masterful prose. The story depicts the destruction of both Lucy and Florence as Lucy rushes blindly and heedlessly through her life. Scorning her home, Lucy disregards her rather unpleasant mother and must confront the fate of her beloved father. She wallows in the murky depths of society as she seeks to retrieve her daughter from a fate she has herself inflicted.

For all the writing is beautiful and powerful, the tone of the book is desperately dark.