A Sunday Reading Update and My Continued Look at the Mystery Genre

I finished one book this weekend, one of my 12 + 4 challenge books. I've picked another from that list for my follow-on book. I'll update those and also continue with my look at the Mystery Genre, Part V of my look at American PI's. Tonight at 8 we're going to try a New Zealand mystery series on TV, The Brokenwood Mysteries. I hope it's interesting.

Just Finished

1. Nevada Barr - Deep South (Anna Pigeon #8).












"Deep South is the 8th book in the Anna Pigeon mystery series by Nevada Barr. I have read 10 or so books in the series and I have to say this is one of the better ones.

Anna Pigeon is a Park Ranger for the US National Park Service. Each story highlights a different national park around the US. In this story, Anna decides to bite the bullet and apply for a promotion and gets the job as District Ranger on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. With some trepidation she moves to this new job; it being a new area for her and she feeling somewhat nervous about becoming a boss and dealing with the the administrative aspect of the job and of having to lead Rangers instead of just being one.

She gets off to a somewhat rocky start as her two subordinates feel some resentment in being bossed by a woman and leave her to her own devices in the first two incidents. Anna gets involved in a ruckus at the campground where she is housed, two cars of teenagers causing problems with the campers. During this Anna discovers a young girl, drunk an abandoned. It turns out another girl is missing and she is found later, nearby and unfortunately, murdered. The body has been covered by a white hood with eye holes cut out and a noose placed around her neck. During the upcoming investigation, Anna and her two rangers and the local sheriff must keep racial implications in the back of the mind.

In its way, it's one of the more straight-forward mysteries of this series. As incident after incident crops up, Anna deals with it and continues with the investigation. She is threatened by an alligator (maybe left at her place on purpose), she deals with feelings for this new sheriff, she deals with the obstructionism of her deputy rangers and all the time she learns of her new district and continues to investigate.

It's an excellent mystery, lots of tension and sufficient action to satisfy you. Anna must deal with being somewhat of a stranger in a strange land, being a woman, white and a Northerner in this area of the US. The story works on many levels. My one minor complaint is that I find it somewhat difficult to believe that she would gain such familiarity with the areas so quickly, since she only just arrived there. But it's a minor complaint as the story is totally engrossing. And, you'll understand this when you read it. Give you doggie a hug. Excellent story! (4 stars)"

2. Swan Song by Edmund Crispin (Gervase Fen #4).












"Before odious Edwin Shorthouse can sing the lead in the first Oxford post-war Die Meistersinger, someone kills him in his own locked dressing room. Gervase Fen, eccentric professor of English Literature with a passion for amateur detecting, is on the case. American title is Dead and Dumb."


My Continuing Look at the Mystery Genre - American PI's Part 5
In my last entry I looked at Lee Child / Jack Reacher, Jack Connolly / Charlie Parker and Clive Cussler / Isaac Bell. On to today's group of authors / PI's.

John Dunning

1. John Dunning / Cliff Janeway. John Dunning has written more than his Cliff Janeway series but that is my focus. I have read one other of his books but I didn't particularly like it. But the Janeway series of 5 books, written from 1992 - 2006 was excellent. Dunning, besides his writing, opened a 2nd hand bookstore that also featured rare books. Cliff Janeway is an ex Denver cop who retires and also gets involved in the book trade. His mysteries all focus on the hunt for rare books, perfect for me; a mystery and a book about books. I've read all five of the books in this series and enjoyed them all.

a. Booked to Die (#1 / 1992).












"Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he is an avid collector of rare and first editions. After a local bookscout is killed on his turf, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect's spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway's wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge.
Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop -- all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. But when prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now, Janeway's life is about to start a precarious new chapter as he attempts to find out who's dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains.(4 stars)"

b. The Bookman's Wake (#2 / 1995). (4 stars)

c. The Bookman's Promise (#3 / 2004).



"When Cliff Janeway investigates the provenance of a signed first edition of a memoir by nineteenth-century explorer Sir Richard Burton, he becomes embroiled in a mystery involving a lost library of rare Burton material. (4 stars)"





d. The Sign of the Book (#4 / 2005) (3 stars)

e. The Bookwoman's Last Fling (#5 / 2006).












"
Denver bookman Cliff Janeway would have liked Candice Geiger. She loved books with a true bookwoman's passion. Her collection of first-edition children's books is the best that Janeway ever hopes to see. Sadly, Janeway and Candice Geiger will never meet. She died much too young. Now, twenty years later, her books remain a testament to an extraordinary woman's remarkable vision.

Janeway first learns about the juvenilia collection when Candice's elderly husband, H. R. Geiger, passes away and Janeway travels to their Idaho home to assess the collection. The estate can't be distributed until the books are valued, so there's pressure on Janeway to do the job quickly. But one look at the books tells Janeway something's wrong. Valuable titles are missing, replaced by cheap reprints. Other hugely valuable pieces remain. Why would a thief take one priceless book and leave an equally valuable volume on the shelf?

The answer may lie in Candice's story. The daughter of a wealthy industrialist, she married horse owner and trainer H. R. Geiger at a young age. They traveled the racetrack circuit with some success, as evidenced by winner's-circle photographs -- in which Candice is always a mysterious background figure dressed in white.

Two decades after Candice's strange death, Janeway finds himself deep in a book mystery that may turn out to be much more than a cataloging exercise. It may even involve murder. Candice's daughter, Sharon, may be one of the few people who can help Janeway discover the truth. Sharon has her own Idaho ranch where she takes in sick and injured horses. Janeway worries that her house contains something that could make her very vulnerable: half of her mother's fabulous book collection.

The trail of Candice's shadowy past leads Janeway to California's Golden Gate and Santa Anita racetracks, where he signs on as a racehorse hot walker. A novice at racetrack life, he tries to remain inconspicuous while listening to the chatter among the hands. He doesn't like what he hears. And when he goes to the house where Candice died to look for answers, he finds more than he bargained for. (4 stars)"

I'm going to stop here now so I can focus on the mystery show. Enjoy your week!