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), 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), 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), 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.

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.