It's been mild today and I've spent much too much time keeping tabs on the news of Trump announcing he has tested positive for Covid-19. To try and avoid too much news watching, I spent my morning finishing my first book of October. I received a 'new' book in the mail yesterday. I'll provide a review of the book I've completed and the synopsis of the next book in line as well as that of my latest book. I'll also continue with my ongoing look at my favorite authors.
New Book
1. Act of Passion by Georges Simenon (1947). I've enjoyed Simenon's Inspector Maigret series very much and continue to work through it. This is one of his standalone novels.
"For forty years Charles Alavoine sleepwalks through his life. Obedient to his domineering mother’s wishes, he trains as a doctor, takes a plain unassuming wife, opens a medical practice in a quiet country town, and settles into an existence of impeccable bourgeois conformity. After his first wife dies in labor, he remarries; children arrive; he becomes a family man and a cornerstone of the community. And yet at unguarded moments Charles is haunted by a sense of emptiness and futility, by the suspicion that real life is elsewhere. Looking for answers in his past, he spends more and more time recalling his depressive, suicidal father, and a youthful rendezvous with a prostitute who for a few hours gave him “the sensation of infinity.”
Then, one night at a provincial railway station, laden with Christmas presents for his wife and children, he encounters Martine, an enigmatic young woman helplessly adrift in the world. Their ensuing liaison precipitates a spiritual awakening in Alavoine—and sets the stage for his tragic disintegration. Like Camus’s The Fall, Georges Simenon’s thriller is at once a devastating personal confession and an indictment of modern society’s empty and deadening moral codes."Just Finished
"Stone Cold is the first book by American author James Glass. As an aside, this is the 4th book I've read in PDF format this year and I've also listened to an audio book as well. So you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Anyway, this is the 1st book in his planned (I presume?) Detective Rebecca Watson mystery series. Rebecca is a cop on the Eugene Falls, Florida police force. There are a few things going on in Rebecca's life. She is in court testifying on an old case; a retrial of a murder case; she is involved in a new murder case, a possible serial killer; and rehashing traumatic incidents from her childhood. A lot is packed into this first story, trial tension, gruesome murders, even some sexual tension.
The writing style is somewhat sparse, but then again, I've often bemoaned authors who, as they gain in popularity, seem to feel that necessity of 'being paid by the word'. There is sufficient description to give you a nice picture of Eugene Falls, of the main characters, even the graphic nature of the murders. The trial is fascinating, a case I haven't read in previous mysteries. The defence attorney is one of those sleazy, confident types that gets under your skin very early on.
The police are an interesting mix. Rebecca is smart, with some confidence issues (totally understandable when you get to know more about her). Her partner, ex football player, Francisco, is an excellent partner, a nice sense of humor and there is a developing sexual tension between the two. Even the boss, with his colorful clothing sense, is interesting and supportive. I also liked Rebecca's two aunties; independent, funny and so supportive of their niece.
There is tension. There are the normal mystery thrillers... When the character feels threatened why do they always decide not to phone for backup. But overall, it was an enjoyable first story, a favorable introduction to Rebecca Watson. I hope James Glass is already working on his second story. (4 stars)"
Currently Reading
"Some secrets should stay buried.
Ambitious TV reporter Whitney Connolly is certain the Southern Strangler is her ticket out of Nashville; she's got a scoop that could break the case. She has no idea how close this story really is -- or what it will cost her.
As the killer spirals out of control, everyone involved must face a horrible truth -- that the purest evil is born of private lies."
My Favorite Authors - Susan Elizabeth George
 |
| Elizabeth George |
Susan Elizabeth George is an American author (writing under Elizabeth George) born in Ohio in 1949. She is best known for her Inspector Lynley mystery series. Lynley is a British Lord who has eschewed his position as a royal to become a Police inspector. He tends to work his cases with Sgt Barbara Havers. Their different social positions make for an interesting interplay. I discovered the books in the early 2000's and read the first few and then sort of lost track of the series. I also enjoyed the TV series based on the books very much. One thing about Lynley is that I always found him somewhat of a whiny kind of guy. Anyway, still an excellent series that I need to get back into. Elizabeth George started the series in 1988 and continues to provide new novels, her latest to come out in 2021.
"'Award-winning author Elizabeth George gives us an early glimpse into the lives of Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James, and Lady Helen Clyde in a superlative mystery that is also a fascinating inquiry into the crimes of the heart. Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, has brought to Howenstow, his family home, the young woman he has asked to be his bride. But the savage murder of a local journalist is the catalyst for a lethal series of events that shatters the calm of a picturesque Cornwall village and embroils Lynley and St. James in a case far outside their jurisdiction—and a little too close to home. When a second death follows closely on the heels of the first, Lynley finds he can't help taking the investigation personally—because the evidence points to a killer within his own family." (4 stars)
2. Deception on his Mind (1997).
"I wasn't sure what to think about this one at first. I kept telling myself; this book could be 300 pages shorter. I think that was partially because I've caught myself up in this feeling that I have to read so many books a month and such. As I got into the story, it was tied together very nicely. It was interesting to read a Lynley mystery without Lynley being involved. There were frustrations, but mainly character driven. The mystery was well-crafted, the potential racial tensions raised in an interesting, thoughtful manner. It was nice to see Havers the center of the story. The other characters were all interesting, with their own traits well-presented. And it was wrapped up very nicely. All in all, it was nice to read an Elizabeth George mystery again. Most enjoyable. (3 stars)"
"Elena Weaver was a surprise to anyone meeting her for the first time. In her clingy dresses and dangling earrings she exuded a sexuality at odds with the innocence projected by the unicorn posters on her walls. While her embittered mother fretted about her welfare from her home in London, in Cambridge—where Elena was a student at St. Stephen's College—her father and his second wife each had their own very different image of the girl. As for Elena, she lived a life of casual and intense physical and emotional relationships, with scores to settle and goals to achieve--until someone, lying in wait along the route she ran every morning, bludgeoned her to death.
Unwilling to turn the killing over to the local police, the university calls in New Scotland Yard. Thus, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, enter the rarefied world of Cambridge University, where academic gowns often hide murderous intentions.
For both officers, the true identity of Elena Weaver proves elusive. Each relationship the girl left behind casts new light both on Elena and on those people who appeared to know her best—from an unsavory Swedish-born Shakespearean professor to the brooding head of the Deaf Students Union.
What's more, Elena's father, a Cambridge professor under consideration for a prestigious post, is a man with his own dark secrets. While his past sins make him neurotically dedicated to Elena and blind to her blacker side, present demons drive him toward betrayal."
"When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad's housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child--and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers's cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew's death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds--and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making...." (4 stars)
5. Payment in Blood (1989).
"The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an eighteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain's foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships, while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart." (3 stars)
"To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders.
Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry."
Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well." (4 stars)
I still have one of the Lynley books on my shelf but I need to fill in the gaps if I'm going to continue the series. The complete listing of Elizabeth George's works can be found at this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment