A Saturday Reading Update and My Ongoing Look at the Mystery Genre - English Detectives Part 10

Schnauzers rough housing... (Old photo)

I finished another book this morning as Clyde and I were watching FA Cup football. January as been a good reading month so far. I hope I can continue this way throughout the year.

I'll update my latest book completion, let you know what I've started since, update my latest book purchase (one arrived yesterday in the mail) and continue with my look at the mystery genre.

New Book

1. A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor (The Chronicles of St Mary's #2). I was just introduced to this series. The first book was nicely different.











"Book Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone's cup of tea. In the second book in the Chronicles of St Mary's series, Max and the team visit Victorian London in search of Jack the Ripper, witness the murder of Archbishop Thomas A Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and discover that dodos make a grockling noise when eating cucumber sandwiches. But they must also confront an enemy intent on destroying St Mary's - an enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself to do it."

Just Finished

1. When in Rome by Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn #26).












"The Inspector Alleyn mystery series by Ngaio Marsh is one of the classics, like Agatha Christie's mystery books or those of Josephine Tey... to name a few. I've enjoyed 13 of the books so far, all entertaining and excellent mysteries. When in Rome is one of the later books, originally published in 1970 and it finds Alleyn on his own, working undercover for Scotland Yard and Interpol in Rome.

Alleyn is trying to find out about the drug syndicates, led by a man known as Ziegfeldt. His syndicate has changed its routing of drugs and Alleyn believes his contact in Rome is a man by the name of Sebastian Mailer, a British citizen. Mailer has other side lights besides dealing drugs; they include blackmail and murder.

Mailer organizes a tour of the city, which includes visits to shady night spots. Alleyn instigates himself into one of the tours. The other members of the tour all have their own secrets; maybe being blackmailed or trying to purchase drugs from Mailer. It's an interesting group and becomes more interesting when a body is found and Mailer disappears.

There is your kernel of the story and mystery; and Alleyn must tred carefully and ensure he doesn't interfere or upset the Italian authorities in their own investigation. Marsh almost sets the story up as a play, as she does in many of her stories. She provides the Cast of characters and then enjoyably presents them and develops them.

As in all the Alleyn mysteries I've read so far, the Inspector is smart, intuitive and capable. He must work without his intrepid sidekick, Fox for this one, although we do see him briefly even just as a correspondent to Alleyn. As well, his love, Troy is only another character we see at the end of Alleyn's correspondence, but that suffices for this story. As always, enjoyable and caringly presented. It's not necessary to read in sequence although I'd suggest reading the first few to get comfortable with the story style and the various characters that people Marsh's excellent mystery series. (4 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. Sleeping Beauty by Ross Macdonald (Lew Archer #17). I started reading this series just in the past couple of years and have enjoyed the books I've read so far very much.










"In Sleeping Beauty, Lew Archer finds himself the confidant of a wealthy, violent family with a load of trouble on their hands--including an oil spill, a missing girl, a lethal dose of Nembutal, a six-figure ransom, and a stranger afloat, face down, off a private beach. Here is Ross Macdonald's masterful tale of buried memories, the consequences of arrogance, and the anguished relations between parents and their children. Riveting, gritty, tautly written, Sleeping Beauty is crime fiction at its best."

Bill's Ongoing Look at the Mystery Genre - English Detectives Part 10

Anthony Horowitz

1. Anthony Horowitz - Sherlock Holmes. English screenwriter and novelist Horowitz has been successful in a number of Young Adult series; Alex Rider, The Power of Five, etc. I was interested in his Sherlock Holmes books; he has also written two James Bond books as well. I've read the first Sherlock Holmes book and enjoyed it. I've got the 2nd one on my book shelf.

a. The House of Silk (2011).












"For the first time in its one-hundred-and-twenty-five-year history, the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate has authorized a new Sherlock Holmes novel.

Once again, THE GAME’S AFOOT…

London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap – a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.

Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase-the House of Silk-a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society." (4 stars)

b. Moriarty (#2 / 2014).









"Sherlock Holmes is dead.

Days after Holmes and his arch-enemy Moriarty fall to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls, Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. The death of Moriarty has created a poisonous vacuum that has been swiftly filled by a fiendish new criminal mastermind who has risen to take Moriarty's place.

Ably assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones of Scotland Yard, a devoted student of Holmes's methods of investigation and deduction, Frederick Chase must forge a path through the darkest corners of the capital to shine light on this shadowy figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, a man determined to engulf London in a tide of murder and menace.

Author of the global bestseller The House of Silk, Anthony Horowitz once more breathes life into the world created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. With pitch-perfect characterization and breathtaking pace, Horowitz weaves a relentlessly thrilling tale that teases and delights by the turn of each page.

The game is afoot . . ."

Val McDermid

2. Val McDermid - Kate Brannigan. I've highlighted other series by McDermid in other sub-genres; the Wire in the Blood series especially under British Cops. Kate Brannigan is a private investigator and McDermid has written six books in this series, from 1992 - 1998. I have one book in the series so far and look forward to trying it.

a. Clean Break (#4 / 1995).











"Kate, a Manchester-based private investigator, is definitely not amused when thieves steal a Monet painting from a stately home where she has arranged the security. The theft is clearly the work of professionals: they penetrate alarm systems, enter quickly, grab only what they have come for, and disappear into the night. Kate feels responsible. And, according to her contract, she owes Henry Naismith, owner of Birchfield Place, thirty hours of her time to try to find his Monet. The police will search, too, but Kate has sources that the authorities could never touch. And if finding a missing Monet isn't difficult enough, Kate must also confront a deadly case of industrial sabotage. Someone may be intent on putting the Kerrchem company out of business. What seems at first to be a simple instance of blackmail soon turns into a shocking case of murder."

The remaining books in this series are -
- Dead Beat (1992)
- Kick Back (1993)
- Crack Down (1994)
- Blue Jeans (1996)
- Star Struck (1998)

John Mortimer

3. John Mortimer - Rumpole of the Bailey. John Mortimer lived from 1923 - 2009 and was a barrister, screenwriter, dramatist and novelist. He was a prolific writer who was maybe most noted for his series of books featuring barrister, Rumpole. The books consisted of short stories based on the TV series and a variety of novels.I've read two of the collections and have a number of others on my bookshelf.

a. Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988 / from Season 5 plus one additional story)











"The lovable, irreverent, claret-swigging, Wordsworth-spouting criminal lawyer returns to the fray to fight new battles against injustice, in Rumpole and the Age of Miracles. Rest assured, Horace Rumpole, whose fame depends on an unsurpassed knowledge of blood and typewriters an on never having his clients plead guilty, is as outspoken, witty, and cynical as ever in these continuing adventures. (Publisher’s description)

Contents: Rumpole and the bubble reputation — Rumpole and the barrow boy — Rumpole and the age of miracles — Rumpole and the tap end — Rumpole and the chambers party — Rumpole and Portia — Rumpole and the quality of life" (3 stars)

b. Rumpole of the Bailey (1979 / All episodes of Season 1)











"Horace Rumpole, the irreverent, iconoclastic, claret-swilling, poetry-spouting barrister-at-law, is among the most beloved characters of English crime literature. He is not a particularly gifted attorney, nor is he particularly fond of the law by courts if it comes to that, but he'd rather be swinging at a case than bowing to his wife, Hilda--"She Who Must Be Obeyed." In this first title of the popular series featuring Rumpole, all of the major characters who occupy the Rumpole stories make their introductions: the sneaky, slightly effeminate Erskine-Brown; the bumbling Guthrie Featherstone; and various and sundry other lawyers and clerks whose lives weave in and out of these stories. These six stories include the Younger Generation, the Alternative Society, the Honourable Member, the Married Lady, the Learned Friends, and the Heavy Brigade." (3 stars)

The remaining Rumpole books are (asterisk for those I have) -
- The Trials of Rumpole (1979) *
- Rumpole's Return (1980) *
- Regina v. Rumpole also published as Rumpole for the Defence (1981) *
- Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
- Rumpole's Last Case (1987)
- Rumpole à la Carte (1990) *
- Rumpole on Trial (1992) *
- Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
- Rumpole Rests his Case (2001)
- Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002) *
- Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004) *
- Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006)
- The Anti-Social Behavior of Horace Rumpole (2007)

Well, there you go folks. This took me a bit longer than normal to prepare as Jo and I were catching up on the first episode of Season 3 of Cardinal. Excellent show.