my TBR mystery pile, in a photo

   I thought you would enjoy seeing what my TBR mystery pile looks like:

 Yes, it's true, I have had these and haven't read them yet, and they are all ones I really want to read, which is why they are pulled into these stacks.

If you look at my blog header, I have added a new one for reading 50 mysteries for this year.  I updated 2013 so you can see I only read 32, far short of my goal.  This year I will!  And I will get these stacks read!

If you want some more good crime writing to read:

Of course, all this was triggered by the announcement of the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Writing List:  Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year has announced the longlist for 2014.  Look at this list and see if your mouth doesn't water:

• Rubbernecker, by Belinda Bauer (Bantam Press)
• The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes (HarperCollins)
• The Dying Hours, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Like This, For Ever, by Sharon Bolton (Bantam Press)
• A Wanted Man, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• The Honey Guide, by Richard Crompton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Cry, by Helen Fitzgerald (Faber & Faber)
• Dying Fall, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Until You’re Mine, by Samantha Hayes (Century)
• The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, by Malcolm Mackay (Mantle)
• The Chessmen, by Peter May (Quercus)
• I Hear the Sirens in the Street, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
• The Red Road, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• Ratlines, by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
• Standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Children of the Revolution, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Eleven Days, by Stav Sherez (Faber & Faber)
• Weirdo, by Cathi Unsworth (Serpent’s Tail)

I've linked you to the original site, so you can drool like I do over the dream of one day attending this festival.  It honours the best in crime writing published in softcover in the UK and Ireland the year before.  

I am happy to say I have already read three books on the list!  Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin, Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths, and The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.  I see I haven't reveiwed 2 of them yet, my bad.  I will by the weekend, as they are both very good and I should have reviewed them last year when I read them. Certainly they both return in my thoughts frequently, always a sign that books are working away inside me, especially The Shining Girls, and all of Elly Griffith's books.  Rebus I just plain love.....

Although, this means I have many good books to catch up with.  Several are already on my to-get list as soon as we get them in softcover over here:  Ratlines by Stuart Neville, Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson, and Like This, Forever by Sharon Bolton.  I already own The Chessmen by Peter May, although I'd like to read the one before it, first (you can see it in the photos - The Lewis Man).  I also own the first in the Adrian McKinty books, The Cold Cold Ground, and it's on my TBR pile too...

I really want to read some of the Theakston's list.  And I haven't even got started on wanting to read this year's Edgar Award winner, Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. I first heard about it earlier this week on Praire Horizons, here.  Now of course I want to read it as soon as possible!  

I do believe that I will always have stacks like that of books to read, it's just the titles that will change as I read one and replace it with another.  I am so very rich, even I am not wealthy with money, with the abundance of books I have to read (and want to read). For this I am very thankful, on this sunny Wednesday afternoon.  I am recovering from visiting the dentist yesterday and having 2 crowns and 6 fillings added.  I think a new book and some reading time is just the thing to heal with, don't you?

What's on your book stacks that you have been wanting to read for a while?

RIP VII - the scary fun begins!!

   Oh, it's my favourite time of the year!  Autumn, glorious leaves and colours, the tinge of sadness and decay in the air as the growing year ends, the smell of wood fires, the last of the fall flowers......Thanksgiving Turkey and pumpkin pie.....and the best of all, Hallowe'en. I can't think of a better way to slip into autumn and the ending of the year than by participating in Carl's RIP 7 challenge.  Readers Imbibing Peril. As Carl explains it on his site (go here to sign up):

The purpose of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII is to enjoy books and movies/television that could be classified (by you) as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.
Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

There are two simple goals for R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII

1. Have fun reading.
2. Share that fun with others.

  R.I.P. VII officially runs from September 1st through October 31st. But lets go ahead and break the rules. Lets start today!!!

I'm glad he wrote the above, because I did!  I have already read two short stories and two books for this challenge!

Before anyone says how, I confess I am still on my holidays  - which end today, with Labour Day Monday.  Tomorrow I am back at work.  Summer is over, and although the calendar year says there are still two weeks left before the equinox and the seasonal change, I know in my heart that autumn is here.  So I celebrated by reading as soon as Carl put his post up, Wildwood Road by Christopher Golden, Find Me by Carol O'Connell, and two short stories from The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories.            
                                          
I am doing Peril the First, which is reading 4 books in any of the categories above.  I will also be participating in Peril the Short Story, and Peril the Screen. 

So, for the first time ever, I'm starting with two book reviews: 
                                               
 Wildwood Road - Christopher Golden
   - a ghost story.  It has some very creepy moments, some chills, and is very sad, too.  Here is the Amazon book description:
 Michael and Jillian Dansky seemed to have it all–a happy marriage, two successful careers, a bright future. But late one October evening, all that changed. Driving home from a Halloween masquerade, Michael momentarily nods off behind the wheel–and wakes to find nothing is the same.

Standing by his car is the little girl he came within a breath of running down. She leads Michael to her “home,” an empty house haunted by whispers, and sends him away with a haunting whisper of her own: “come find me.” But in the weeks to follow, it’s clear that someone–or some thing–doesn’t want Michael to find her: ominous figures in grey coats with misshapen faces are following him everywhere. And then Jillian wakes one morning replaced by a cold, cruel, vindictive woman Michael hardly recognizes as his wife. Michael must now search not only for the lost girl, but for a way to find the Jillian he's always loved, and to do so he must return to where the nightmare began. Down an isolated lane where he’ll find them, or die trying.

It was very well written, and contains an idea about ghosts and essences that I found intriguing.  A very good ghost story. 4/5

Find Me - Carol O'Connell.  A Kathy Mallory mystery, and one of the best.  At it's heart, a serial killer has been working old Route 66, killing children and burying their bodies over a large span of time, along the roadside.  Due to the nature of city and state police forces, no one is alerted for many years that these cases are related.  Not until Mallory starts to ride down the old route 66 because she has discovered that her father drove this very route when he was young.  He was before now almost a mystery to her, and when she obtains a series of letters that he wrote, she decides to follow his route to try to learn more about him.  As she starts out, a grisly discovery is made: a body of a man is discovered at the start of route 66 in Chicago, only he has one hand chopped off, and the bones of a small child's hand point up the road, the same route Mallory is taking.  The killer wants his victims found, so that he will be known for how many he killed.  Along the way, there is a caravan of parents who are being guided by a online psychiatrist, all of whom are parents of missing or dead children.  And the killer starts to pick off parents, one by one.....
                                                
This was a fabulous, gritty mystery, filled with police force/state/FBI politics, Kathy discovering more about her father, and Riker and Charles Butler, her partner and her friend respectively, chasing her as they think she is falling apart.  How the New York police intervene and figure what is going on is nothing short of brilliant.  How Kathy discovers that all is not lost for her, is a grand moment in this series, for up until now, she has been alone except for her foster parents, who gave her a home, loyalty and love when she needed it most as a child.  This is one of my favourite mystery series, not the least of which no one is perfect - all the characters are slowly being changed by their proximity to Mallory, who is brilliant if amoral as a detective.  The hardest part is the number of children who have been killed, and how the killer finds them, and the way the FBI have treated the parents in this novel - or rather, one officer in particular.   A gripping mystery, one of the best. 5/5

I will review the short stories another time, this post is long already!

 Now to the best part:
my pool of books (and this is by no means final, if I find something  catching my eye):

Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel (currently reading)
Underground - Kat Richardson (book 3 in the series)
Deadline - Mira Grant  (book 2 in the trilogy)
The Silent Land - Graham Joyce
Raising Stony Mayhall - Daryl Gregory
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
Hell Train - Christopher Fowler
Wolf - Gillian Cross
Graveminder - Melissa Marr
The Vampire Tapestry - Suzy Mckee Charnas
Alice Hearts Welsh Zombies - Victoria Dunn (local Ottawa author)
The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler
Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner *thanks to Geranium Cat over at Geranium Cat's Musings for putting this on her list!
The Moon of Gomrath - Alan Garner **and the final sequel Boneland if it comes out here
Stephen King: either The Shining, or 11//22/63
The Hallowe'en Tree - Ray Bradbury

and assorted short stories in various collections:
Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories  - ed Michael Cox and R.A Gilbert
Hallowe'en  - ed Paula Guran
The Best Horror of the Year, Vol 1 - ed Ellen Datlow
The Dark - ed Ellen Datlow
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010 - ed Paula Guran
Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead - ed Stephen Jones
Ghosts by Gaslight - ed Jack Dann and Nick Gevers

 Yaaaay!  I love this challenge reading experience.  I wonder if I can fit some poetry in there too?

Now to come see your lists and see what you are reading, my dear blogging friends.

My first reviews of the year

I have decided among my personal goals, to review every book I read this year.  So in keeping with the newness of the year and that I've read 4 books only so far, here for review are:

1. The Unstrung Harp - Edward Gorey.  Can I just say, if you are a writer or want to be one, run to your nearest second hand bookstore and start hunting for this book?  It's perfect, and perfectly describes everything we go through as writers, from the way we do anything but put pen to paper, to the way we react when we see our book in the sale bins.  Fabulous and funny.  One of my favourite quotes:

"Mr Earbass belongs to the straying, rather than the sedentary, type of author. He is never to be found at his desk unless actually writing down a sentence.  Before this happens he broods over it indefinitely while picking up and putting down again small, loose objects; walking diagonally across rooms, staring out windows, and so forth."

This also has the benefit of being accompanied by Gorey's wonderful pen and ink drawings.

This was a Library book so I have one completed already on my Library Challenge! Recommended, recommended, recommended!

2. Lifelode - Jo Walton.  I couldn't  figure out why I couldn't find this book anywhere, until I found it at the library and discovered it had been written expressly for Boskone, the Boston Science Fiction convention held every year.  The New England Science Fiction Association are the publishers of this book, a limited hardcover edition of 800, of which Ottawa Public Library holds # 589. All this to say, it might be hard to find, but if you see it, grab it.  For anyone who likes fantasy, this is a fantasy book quite unlike any other, sort of like every other book Jo Walton has written recently.  It's fantasy, set in a medieval invented world, with a different kind of religion and making of the world, and the story is small: an ancestor comes back to her ancestral home and her actions threaten to destroy it.  One of the particular beauties of this story is that it is set in the domestic domain: much of the magic comes from Taveth, who's lifelode (life path) is to keep the house of her lord.  It is a path she has chosen willingly, as any does in the world of this book.  Everyone has the right path that fulfills them, and one of the fun and interestng ways in which this is domestic fantasy, is that hardly anyone is doing what they were meant to do.  They have given up their lifelode to do what is demanded of them by family, by relationships, by circumstances.  The wonder of this fantasy tale is that so many people find a way to step into their right path anyway.

I really enjoyed this fantasy.  The religion, the gods, the setting of the manor house, the way in which the harvest is depicted, the villagers helping the lord out in return for his protection, and most of all, the long look  at the heart of the manor, which is the kitchen and all that goes on there.  Taveth is the main heroine. Part of her magic is that she can see all the past and future of a person by the shadow selves that pop out around someone.  Everyone in this world has a gift, and part of their growing up is learning about it as well as about what they are to do in the world.  It sounds simple, and it's not.  It's magic, and what life is about - happiness, love, choice, where guests are going to sleep, is there enough food, and making sure everyone is cared for.  Even though Teveth can see the future selves, she can't prevent or even act to change the future because she doesn't know what leads to it.

Very fun, and a little bit different, and recommended.

This is part of the Library Challenge, and the Canadian Challenge 4.

3. Hypothermia - Arnaldur Indridason.  Detective Erlendur investigates a suicide that isn't quite normal - just the slightest intuition that something is off.  He also goes back over one more time two old missing person cases, because it's been over 20 years now, and the parents are dying in one case.

Hypothermia is a state that Canadians grow up being cautioned about from the earliest days in childhood: what the danger of extreme cold is, what the signs of freezing are, and when you should come in from the cold.  Hypothermia is the state of slowly growing colder, of the body parts shutting down until you freeze to death.  Hypothermia is also what almost killed Erlendur when he was lost in the blizzard when he was a boy.  It still affects him today, the nearness of death and escaping when his brother didn't, and in this book we see Erlendur talk about what it has done to him, and why he couldn't stay in his marriage.  It is fascinating and sad, and even if you have never experienced cold, you will have suffered loss at some point in your life and so this becomes a story about grief and loss, and how people never really recover from tragedy, though they do find ways to move on.  In the end, I was most surprised to discover that I think Erlendur is a romantic, because he won't, he can't, give up on these cases.  He is not a flowers-and -cards romantic, far from it!  It's in his soul though, the ability to care and keep caring long after all hope is gone. This series, and the writing also, keep getting better and better. If I didn't already have my love Harry Hole, Erlendur would be a close competitor.  I must have a thing for lonely police detectives who stand guard against the darkness of the world. 

4. The Serpent Pool - Martin Edwards.  This is the 4th Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind mystery novel.  I have to admit up front that I found it disappointed me in one area, though overall it is good.  The problem I have with this mystery is that Hannah's partner, Marc Amos, should be questioned when it turns out he has a link to an old case Hannah is investigating.  Hannah decides she doesn't want to question him that night, and then the action takes over.  Not only do I have a problem with Hannah's decision, but I found myself distracted, thinking that Hannah should at least go to her superior and let her know of her conflict-of-interest and have someone else assigned to questioning Marc, if not get herself removed from the case. She doesn't, and I don't like this, because wouldn't normally the first accusation be that she was hiding information about him from the investigation? Impeding it? Otherwise, it is quite an interesting mystery, with gruesome killings and the slow falling apart of Hannah's and Marc's relationship.  Despite the flaw this is still a good mystery and given the high quality of the previous books, I hope it's a one-off.  Recommended, with reservation.

This leads me to the last review for tonight, another mystery I read last year from a favourite author who also had a problem with her mystery, I thought.

5. The Murder Stone - Louise Penny.  Normally I love Armand Gamache and the Quebec woods setting.  The Murder Stone is no different - set in an historic hunting lodge deep in the Quebec woods, Armand and his wife Reine-Marie have gone to celebrate their wedding anniversary, as they do every year.  Only this time a whole other family have also come at the same time, and when one of them turns up dead, and it's plainly not accidental or suicide, the Surete du Quebec must be called in.  So far, so good.  But stop me if I'm wrong, shouldn't Armand and his wife be investigated?  This is a 'locked-room' mystery, where there is a known set of guests, hotel workers etc in the remote countryside.  Even though Armand and his wife have no obvious links to the murdered victim, they should still be investigated and cleared.  However, Armand is put in charge of the investigation!  I really think he wouldn't be allowed to lead it.  He should have been side-lined and worked from the inside (because he is Armand and Chief Inspector, he would never stand idly by, but get involved anyway) to find the killer. So once again, I am left wondering, is it me? do both of these mysteries seem to have a fairly large hole in the investigative process?  Despite this, this was a very good mystery.  I enjoyed the locked room feel, the setting of the hotel in the far woods, the closeness of nature (there is a violent thunderstorm the night of the murder), the mosquitos that torment his second in command Guy Beauvoir, and the writing is excellent.  I really enjoyed this mystery over all, except for the blip.  We find out more about Armand's father and see much more of Reine-Marie than normal, and I quite like her, and them together, also.  Overall, this is still a wonderful mystery series, very well written.  Highly recommended, with one reservation.

This counts for the Canada Challenge 4.

I hope you are enjoying your first books of the year, my Gentle Readers.

Summer time reading is mysteries

I don't know about you, Gentle Reader, but this is a very warm summer where we are in Ottawa. Certainly the warmest for at least 3 years. We had a heat wave at the beginning of the month, which is over now. The temperatures have to reach 90F for three days in a row to be declared a heat wave. We have been hitting the mid-80's for the past several days. Today it's 88F and all the fans are running. What's a girl to do in the heat but......READ. It's bliss, pure bliss, to be so hot that all I can do is read.

I have discovered that this summer, I want to read mysteries. In January, I had set my goal of reading 50 mysteries this year, and after my abysmal reading in May (one book!!) I've been more determined to get reading. I've read 7 mysteries since May 30, 15 books in total since May 30. 20 mysteries in total this year. Almost half-way there! I have two shelves full of mysteries waiting to be read, series I want to catch up in, new series to start. There are so many mystery series out there, the field has exploded in the past twenty years. My local Chapters store has 5 long shelves devoted solely to mysteries - the middle of the floor shelves, that pack a lot of books in them. So I thought I'd ask you, my dear readers, and try to answer myself, this question: what makes a mystery worth reading? How do you find the series that you love?

Things I Look For in Mysteries

- layered plot
-intelligent hero/heroine, cast of characters
-well-written
-clues sprinkled throughout
- sense of morality
- asks why
- the crimes have repercussions experienced through following the victims too. so we see the cost in human terms, and we see the ripple effects in the community.

How do I find mysteries to read?
I mostly find my books through browsing in stores, reading reviews from various sources, and you, my dear book bloggers. You have brought me Susan Hill (I wasn't aware really of this series before), Martin Edwards, Elly Griffiths (still to be reviewed, very good first mystery), Jo Nesbo, Peter Lovesey, Christopher Fowler........My mother is a big source, as are my friends who read mysteries. I'm always looking for a new series to read, new detectives to bond with.

The five series I'm going to talk about are ones I've been reading this summer.

Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, Graham Hurley's DI Joe Faraday series, Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series, and Martin Edward's DCI Hannah Scarlett series. These are all police procedurals. I've realized that I am attracted to the search for justice within the police services. In real life, men and women who join the police do so usually because they want to protect, to defend, and to solve mysteries. The detectives in mysteries represent the same ideals, I think. Each author brings something different to the their detectives and to the themes or issues they are interested in exploring.

Susan Hill: Like PD James' Adam Dalgleish, Simon Serrailler has a secret other life: he is a painter. He goes away on breaks to his hideaways and sketches, that he develops later into paintings. It sounds faintly ludicrous, that a DCI could be an artist as well as chief Inspector, but in Susan Hill's hands, it more than works. It is thrilling and like with Dalgleish's poetry, I really wish I could see Serrailer's art! I think that because Simon is at some remove from his detective work - he enjoys it, is passionate about finding the killers and bringing closure to cases - that, also like Adam, neither are defined solely by their police work. They bring a detachment that allows them to view colleagues and the crimes with intelligence unmarred by political ambition. It is also a way for them to hang on to their souls when faced with the hideous crimes and actions they witness every day.

I really like the Simon Serrailler mysteries. They are quite addictive. I have to know more about Simon and his twin sister Cat Deerborn, who is a GP and happily married to another GP. Their house is another sanctuary for Simon, who is single. They are actually part of a set of triplets, but the third child, Ivo, is in Australia and so far (end of book three) we haven't met him yet. There is a deep sense of humanity in the Simon Serrailer mysteries. The crimes, when they occur, are sometimes terrible. Hill is good at depicting all the characters involved in each mystery, all the secondary characters and their inner lives, and how the crimes affect them. I find this fascinating. The killer in books 2 and 3 is an amazing portrait of a psychopath. I can't recommend this series enough. The first three books I've read so far - and if you note, Book 2 and Book Three do follow on one another, so this series should be read in order.
The Various Haunts of Men (read and reviewed last year **can't find it, still looking)
The Pure in Heart - 5/5
The Risks of Darkness - 5/5

Graham Hurley - DI Joe Faraday is a widower raising a deaf son. He is also a bird-watcher, and the first book in the series, Turnstone, takes its name from one of the many birds that live on the shores of the beaches around Portsmouth, where this series takes place. It's how he gets away from it all, when he needs to. It's interesting that in today's crime novel, detectives need to have some interest away from work, in order to keep their sanity. Something to balance the horror.

Faraday is set up against DC Paul Winter, who is a lone wolf in the detective force. Winter sets his own rules, and has directly wrecked one of Faraday's investigations in revenge for trying to reel him in. In the Portsmouth police force, there is as much betrayal within the police department as without. Most of all though, is Joe Faraday, who still makes the effort to connect to the people affected by the crimes, and through whose eyes Portsmouth the ancient port, once proud Naval bastion of England, comes to grips with grim, modern life. It's not a pretty city, but it does have its places of charm and beauty, despite the rampant crime the police face. This is a nitty-gritty police series, where every step of the investigation is detailed, and it's fascinating and gripping. There are 10 books in the series now, I've read three:
Turnstone
The Take
Angels Passing 4.5/5

Louise Penny: Inspector Gamache is from the Surete Du Quebec, the provincial police force called out on major crimes. The first three books are centered around Three Pines, which for a tiny village has alot of serious crime! Three Pines is so beautiful and cosy that everyone who reads about it wants to move there, myself included. It's not a real place, but is set in the real countryside of Quebec.

Inspector Gamache himself is unusual - quiet, charming, intelligent, and very, very observant. He also has a team of detectives under him, and pulled from nearby forces for local knowledge and help, that come with him when he goes out on cases. Over the three books I've read so far in the series, we've seen Gamache fight for his life with both the criminals and from betrayal within his force. He is so good at his job that he has incurred much jealousy, and in the third book, The Cruellest Month, it comes to a head. How Gamache escapes, and how a seance features, makes for a very creepy ending. The Cruellest Month was very good. Gamache's team are interesting because they vary from novices to experienced detectives, so we get a range of what working on an investigation - and the mistakes made - as well as the leaps of intuition that Penny has so skillfully written that we feel brilliant too, reading these books. Very, very entertaining. Penny is my personal favourite of our Canadian mystery writers.
All three of her books that I read, are linked in the post I did on Louise Penny last fall:
Still Life
Dead Cold
The Cruellest Month

Martin Edwards: DCI Hannah Scarlett heads up the newly formed Cold Case Review Team in England's beautiful Lake District. Aiding her is Daniel Kind, son of Scarlett's former detective partner, Ben Kind. When the series opens, Daniel comes to the Lake District in an effort to understand a little bit about his recently dead father, and ends up buying a cottage and staying with his girlfriend. As he gets to know the locals, he often investigates on his own initiative, though by The Cipher Gardens, the second book, both Hannah and Daniel are beginning to be aware they are attracted to one another. DCI Scarlett views her position on the Cold Case team as a setback, a punishment for failing on a big case before the series opens. She wants to get back to the real work, in the serious crimes division, but has realized that Cold Cases have their own satisfaction when they are solved.

Hannah Scarlett is interesting and I almost wish we could have more of her. I like her personal struggles as well as her professional ones. She is not a detective who has it all together, but because of this, we get to see her learn about herself as well as her team and the part of the Lake District she lives in. Daniel Kind is a fun character. He is a historian, which in the books they make comparisons to being a detective. Because these are cold cases, of course Daniel is used to questioning and looking for clues in historical facts and stories, and he easily slides into finding local knowledge, though not without some personal risk to himself. It's going to be interesting to see how this relationship develops. There is danger of course, as secrets long held are finally exposed. I'm really enjoying watching the Cold Case team decide if they should follow anonymous tips or letters received about old unsolved crimes or not. I've read two out of the existing 5 books in the series so far.
They are:
The Coffin Trail (read and reviewed earlier)
The Cipher Garden 5/5

The others are on my shelf, waiting their turn to be read this hot summer!

Jo Nesbo: You all know from my previous reviews (see links just below) how much I love Harry Hole. He's the detective I've fallen in love with. He is the loner here, the wild card, the one who goes off on his own, protected by his immediate boss when he would be thrown out of the force - mostly for insubordination, and not always telling his bosses exactly what he's doing until he's done it. But he gets results, almost always because Harry is persistent. Dogged. Determined. Heroic in the best sense of the word. Certainly not angelic and brings about his own problems. I love how he wants the truth, no matter how much it costs.
The Redbreast
Nemesis

All the above detectives wonder at times what they are doing in the police force, and that the job isn't what it used to be. There is a melancholy about these detectives as they fight their often lonely battle against crime, against criminals who don't care they are breaking the law, and often battle elements within the police force itself - pointless paperwork and staying within the law.

Mostly, these characters have become characters I care about, revealing the world we live in, often standing between us and the darkness that crime threatens to pull us all into. All of these books are very well-written, gripping adventures, heart-breaking in places, with excellent characters and interesting stories to tell. I have the next books in all the series lined up on my shelves to be read shortly. It seems to be a mystery reading summer for me.

What are you reading this summer? Is it unusual for you to be reading what you're reading, or do you have a normal summer fling - beach read - that you reach for when the temperature is hot and all you can do is read? Where you are, have you found you've been doing more reading or less, in our above-average hot summer?

Mysteries! Science Fiction! and The Cipher Garden arrives.....

So, you're wondering where I've been. So am I. Imagine my surprise when I was entering a book read - The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt - in my book journal, and I looked at the date and realized it took me a month to read it. A month!!! A MONTH!!! Work hours have changed and now my morning commute is usually spent standing, I have a friend I write about Fringe with over lunch, and at home I've been so involved with Fringe that I didn't realize my reading had fallen off so drastically. I'm not mad at myself, I have loved and continue to love all moments with this show! I am puzzled that I haven't made reading time elsewhere, somehow. Last night I stayed up late to read Nemesis, and it was the first time in a long time that I stayed up late to read this year, I think. It was rather nice to be reading again. I have to somehow work these two loves into my life now!

What I really think though, is that I've been waiting for Martin Edward's book The Cipher Garden to come in the mail. It threw me off when I lost it on the bus, just as I was beginning to read it. I felt like I was in a holding place, that the universe wouldn't be righted until I had it again. All right, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I really felt like something was off, that would only be put right when I had the book again. It arrived two weeks ago, and ever since I have felt better. It's funny what books mean to me, even unread ones that I am only anticipating reading. And no, I haven't read it yet - I was finishing The Court of the Air, and then I realized I had a date with Harry Hole in Nemesis, which I started reading for my birthday treat (it was my birthday last week). I finished it early this morning. I picked up The Cipher Garden - was it time for Hannah and Daniel - and I realized that Nemesis had been so good that I didn't want to read another mystery right after, I needed something different. Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day fell into my hands, and I am laughing and delighted already - and then it will be time for Hannah and Daniel. I have the next three books in the series now. Daniel and Hannah and I have a date in a couple of days!

I don't really have a reading plan any more this year. I do want to finish quite a few mystery series - get caught up in them, and this is why I expected to read close to 100 books this year. However this last month of not reading much has derailed that plan, and I don't know what my expectations are any more. I think I am going to read as much as I can, and if I get to 75 books that will be quite an achievement now for me.

Science Fiction thoughts:

Why are the best shows on tv so often science fiction? Is it because they examine the unusual, the 'out there' stories that end up reflecting the human condition in all its various shapes and colours and emotions? Is it because science fiction lets us see ourselves as others would really see us, as a human race? Is it because we all secretly wish we could escape from the boring mundaneness that is every day, and experience the joy of discovery again? is it because if we can love the other, the alien, the different, if we can find a way to accept it, then we can find a way to accept our differences here? I think so. I think science fiction holds up hope to us. There will be a tomorrow, and it will be different from today. If our brains need puzzles (and books!) to stay alive, then as a human race I think we need to have a horizon to aim for, to keep our focus on striving to be better. Science fiction is our hope that tomorrow exists. I know that I want to believe we can overcome our differences as a human race and look outwards and upwards to exploring the stars. First, though, we have to conquor the alien that is within each of us, the fear of being different and outcast, before we can hope to take our place in the stars. For exploring all the ways we have of being human, and of encountering what might lie out there, science fiction is our gateway within to get out there.

Two tv shows in particular that seem to me the best for showing us all that is human happen to be science fiction:

Dr Who: We are enjoying the new series very much, the children especially. I wasn't sure how I could adapt to a Dr after David Tennant's marvellous heart-breaking and edgy performance, but I like Matt Smith as the younger Doctor. Just one thing, he's a mean to Amy Pond, his new pretty assistant. He is forever telling her to be quiet, to shut it, and I don't know if its' because he is young and so brash and less aware of other people's feelings, or if he genuinely thinks he's smarter and so he has the right to tell her to shush, but I find it rude. Especially as Amy has already saved him and the universe. I think the clue is that he picked up on the theme of pain, which is something the doctor seems to be struggling with in the last few seasons also with Tennant, whereas Amy picked love. Despite this flaw, when they came up with the idea of the star whale, I fell in love all over again. That, and 7 year old Amy, waiting with her suitcase for the doctor to come back, because she believed in him. that's the power of science fiction, to imagine and reveal our hearts in that imagining.

Fringe: the two-part season finale was fabulous. I keep rewatching it. It is so satisfying, and ends on such a cliff-hanger. This has been the first week without a new episode, and I have been feeling lost with no new episodes to look forward to until September. I find this show much more satisfying than Lost, for although I enjoyed Lost, it never filled up my thoughts the way Fringe does. I find myself wondering about different elements of Fringe - story, plot, characters, questions and answers - but mostly, I love it. My favourite line from this second season: There are as many cells in each of our bodies as there are stars in the sky. (Walter, and William Bell, both say this in the two-parter). There's magic and beauty in that sentence that just sings to me.

Mysteries - who do I love?

Harry Hole: I still love you. How do I know this? When you went to have dinner with your old flame in Nemesis, I was so anxious I didn't think about Fringe at all, and felt this knot of anxiety and dread. Oh Harry, that was silly. And when you thought the person you were working with was going to be shot and you fell to your knees calling out Ellen's name, I loved you all over again. You really won't let go, you won't give up until you find out what happened. You are willing to make a deal with the scariest of criminals to get the information you need, and somehow it all works out in the end. Please don't wreck things with Rakel. I don't think Oleg or I could get over it. You're a quiet, persistent, cynical investigator, and I'll follow you anywhere that you take me.

Some fast mystery book reviews so it looks like I read something this year:

All of these books are at least a 9/10. They are all highly recommended, and I'm not sure how I can have just 10 top mysteries for this year, since most of these are on this list right now, and it's not quite June.

Nemesis - Jo Nesbo - 2nd book published in the Harry Hole series. We pick up two years after The Redbreast. Rakel and Oleg are still in Harry's life, and he has quit drinking. The murder of his colleague is still unsolved. Of course, we the reader know from The Redbreast who the killer is. But Harry doesn't. The killer makes a reappearance again also. We see the net being drawn just a little tighter, though the breakthrough eludes Harry in this book. The main mystery, a bank robbery that ends in a killing, take Harry from Oslo to Brazil and back, and into his own past as he tries to solve the death of his old flame, for which he has been potentially framed as the last one to see her alive. This is a complex book on love and revenge, well-written and densely layered, so the themes reappear over and over until it becomes a philosophical musing on how love and revenge so often go hand in hand. Nemesis is a perfect title and perfectly worked into the plot. This is a must-read. 9.5/10

The only reason why I'm not reading book three is because I discovered it is not The Devil's Star, which I do have, but The Redeemer, which I don't yet. I will be buying it very shortly, because I have to know how Harry solves the death of his colleague. He will, I know he will. And because, see above, who do I love?

Dead Famous - Carol O'Connell - the 7th book in the Kathleen Mallory series. I haven't written much about Mallory here as I'd read all the other books before I began my blog. This is one of my favourite mystery series. Kathleen Mallory is a detective like no other you will encounter. She is a psychopath, but on the side (barely) of the law, luckily for the police. Her victims are usually those she is pursuing in an investigation, which she frequently breaks the law in her pursuit of. She is coldly beautiful and frighteningly intelligent, so bright that she is breathtaking in how she foils the plans of those criminals who are as equally intelligent and convinced they are going to get away with it. Dead Famous features such a brilliant mind, but to say more would be to give away who the killer is and why. Suffice it to say this is a clever mystery, and just when I think Mallory is too cold, one of the few friends she does have, discovers that she has outsmarted him in convincing him to coming back into the force, because she doesn't like change, either. Heartbreaking. She can't say she loves you, but she will do anything, anything, for those she does love. A heroine unlike any other, and if you haven't read her, then begin with Mallory's Oracle, and meet what should be touted as one of the best detective creations in literature. 9.5/10

Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich. Number 14 in the Stephanie Plum mysteries, this is as funny as ever. I love Stephanie. If I were a bounty hunter, I would be as clumsy, unlucky, and ineffective as Stephanie is at being one. I could only hope for a guy like Morelli though. This one features various losers hanging out at the Morelli residence as they try to track some missing family members of the Morelli clan. Bodies keep turning up and disappearing, Lula is engaged to The Tank, an employee of the hunky and fascinating Carlos the security expert (very hunky), and there is a bomb, which frequently explodes around Stephanie in most of her books. She's like that, attracts trouble and love, and this is the funniest series in mysteries going. I read these when I need to laugh, and this one was very good. 9/10

The Last Detective - Peter Lovesey. Kerrie over at Myststeries in Paradise brought this series to my attention. The latest book in the series, Skeleton Hill, made the top 10 of her mysteries for 2009. I decided to begin at the beginning, with The Last Detective, which won the 1992 Anthony Boucher Award for Best Mystery Novel. I'm so glad I did. I like Peter Diamond. He is the last of a dying breed, relying on his investigative and interview techniques to nail his suspects over the new 'computers' that in 1991 still have the orange writing on the black screen. He is fat and out of shape and proud of it. It is told from the point of view of Diamond, and the two main suspects. I found the first suspect, Gregory Jackman, annoying as anything, though I did appreciate what Lovesey was doing - we are getting into the mind of this self-obsessed horrible shallow professor, who it turns out does have feelings after all. I really enjoyed the writing and the mystery, and the ending is sad. This is a mystery that shows how love can lead people to horrible acts. I'm going to continue with this series as soon as I can. 9.5/10

The Coffin Trail - Martin Edwards. At last, the mystery novel you've been hearing about for a little while now, the first in the series of which the infamous The Cipher Garden belongs to, which was left on a bus. DCI Hannah Black is asked to head a Cold Case task force in the Lake District as a way of showing people that the police are taking the unsolved cases seriously. Daniel Kind is a tv-famous historian, whose father was a police detective who lives in the last place - the Lake District - where Daniel has happy family memories. The last ones, as his father left his family for another woman. His father did work with Hannah, and they were quite close, but he has recently died, leaving Daniel with the sense that he wants to reassess his life and comes to find out what he can of his father. One thing leads to another and Daniel buys a property in the Lake District. He sets out to discover what really happened during that same childhood summer long ago because he has never believed that Barrie, his summertime friend from that childhood visit, was guilty of the ghastly murder of a woman on an altar stone . A tip is received when the cold case is the same one reopened by Hannah, and Daniel and Hannah eventually meet up. They do not work together in this book, but they have the potential to have a unique pairing given their respective trades. I enjoyed this book very much. There is some sorrow, as evinced by the title, the Coffin Trail, which is the trail the coffin bearers took from to get to the nearest church, in centuries past. I like the beauty of the Lake District in this book - I really need to go visit it now! - and the melancholy as Daniel tries to recovers some good memories of the man his father was, as well as clear the memories of his friend. This is a good mystery, with many possible guilty parties, and still the killer when unmasked is unexpected. I like DCI Hannah Scarlett, and I like Daniel Kind. Very solid mystery. 9/10

The Serpent's Tale and Grave Goods - Ariana Franklin. Books 2 and 3 in the A Mistress of the Art of Death series. I really love this series. Something about how Ariana writes Henry II makes him vivid and come alive for me. The historical accuracy is amazing. Above all, is Adelia Aguilar, a Mistress of the Art of Death, an early version of a forensic investigator. She has been trained in Sicily where women have much more freedom than they do in England, where she is forced to hide what she is behind her friend and servant Mansur, an Arabic eunuch, who plays the role of investigator while Adelia translates for him. How she investigates murder in 11th century England is fascinating. In The Serpent's Tale she is investigating who killed the mistress of King Henry II. I love how real these books make this time period. In The Serpent's Tale, I am trapped with them in the abbey as the winter settles in and covers them with impenetrable snow. In Grave Goods, I enjoyed the visit to Glastonbury Abbey near Wales, and how even then the legend of King Arthur was used by the locals and by the King. Adelia has to prove or disprove if some bones found hidden in a grave, revealed by an earthquake, are indeed the bones of Arthur and Guinevere. All of the characters are well drawn, and it really seems as if history has leapt of the page and we are there, with Adelia and her group. I really like Adelia, she is a courageous and honest woman, far ahead of her time, who must wrestle with her conscience over what she sees around her, as well as learning what it means to love her newborn daughter who is her illegitimate child of her liasion with the Bishop of St Albans, Rowley Picot. Their love is hilarious and heartbreaking. These are intelligent people who live in the early-developing English society, and I enjoy seeing these characters questions their loyalties, and loves, and themselves, even as they pursue justice at the request of the king. They are each 10/10.

This Night's Foul Work - Fred Vargas. The latest in the Commissaire Adamsberg mystery series from France. I really enjoyed this mystery. It is set in Normandy and in Paris, in the past and the present, and Adamsberg must unravel how the various incidents between two men killed in Paris, two stags killed and hearts cut out in Normandy, and an escaped murderer is linked. He has to discover who is betraying him within his division and why, even as he tries to solve the cases, and discovers how long revenge can simmer in the heart of someone he once offended. Again love and hatred are shown as linked, easily flipping from one side to another depending on the heart involved. The lengths one will go to achieve a sense of retribution seems to be a common theme in the mysteries I have ben reading this year. It's very interesting to see how often crime has at its roots, some form of passion or thwarted emotion. Adamsberg discovers who is loyal to him, and how easily he can be hurt. I think this is one of the best of the Adamsberg mysteries so far. 9/10.

Full Dark House - Christopher Fowler. The first book in the May and Bryant mystery series, this features May and Bryant retired from the force. An explosion at the old station kills Bryant, forcing May to remember their early days when they met during the Second World War, and how the Peculiar Crimes Division was set up then. They are an odd couple detective, Bryant the brilliant, eccentric detective, May logical and reasonable and as Bryant almost instantly recognizes, what he has needed to make the Peculiar Crimes Division work. Their first case is a killer who is stalking a risque production of Orpheus in Hell, killing several of the cast members in grisly deaths. The case is unsolved, the crimes stopping suddenly, until the bombing in the present day reveals that Bryant had discovered something and had been quietly investigating the old crime again.

Once again this is very well written, with a lively group of characters in the theatre, as well as May and Bryant, who leap off the page. I enjoyed both the current investigation as well as the story of how they met and the initial murder investigation. The Blitz is also recreated vividly. Unusual and a lot of fun to read. 9.5/10. I will be reading more as soon as I can get them.

I've been busy reading......

I can't believe almost two weeks has gone by since I last posted! I really thought it was only last week since I posted.....I've been under the weather, and very happily reading. I've read 4 books so far this month! You already have the review for The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. So I thought for this very late Sunday night, I'd give a short review for the other three books.

Blood on the Strand - Susanna Gregory - Book 2 in the Thomas Chaloner series. Set in 1663 London, this book sees Chaloner asked by Lord Clarendon, for whom he works, to investigate the murder of wealthy merchant and a vagrant who tried to attack the king outside Whitehall. I don't know if it was the aftereffects of Christmas, but I kept falling asleep through the first half of the book. I didn't matter when I tried to read it, I'd start dozing within a few lines. I finally made myself sit and read it for over an hour one day this new year, and the longer period of reading helped. There is a long period of set-up, and lots of double-dealing with the agents, lots of potential murderers. This is all made more complex by the Castle Plot failed set in Ireland before this book opens but many of the same spies are back and are named in a conspirator letter that sees some sentenced to death, which the vagrant turns out to be one of, and so the mystery deepens. Why was Chaloner left off the list? Why are some freed on a King's pardon and others not? Who killed Matthew Webb, and why? There are all sorts of subplots here, which I am glad to say finally in the last quarter of the book satisfyingly pull together. I do enjoy Thomas Chaloner as a character, and there is a serious twist to the ending that caught me unprepared - it's quite good. So while it starts off slowly, there is really good characterization, dialogue, and Restoration London comes to life. It's a 3.5/5 read. I will continue on with this series.

Arctic Chill - Arnaldur Indridason. This is so good! I can see why it made so many lists over at Kerrie's Top Ten Mysteries Poll she was running at the beginning of this year. You, my dear readers, know that I have been talking about Indridason for over a year now, ever since I read Silence of the Grave and Tainted Blood. I can't recommend this series enough. It is well-thought out police-procedural with a main character who is very quiet and a very astute observer of people, although not of himself. It's only in this book that he really begins to wonder how his disappearance from his children's lives has affected them, even as he continues to reveal slowly the deeper aspects of his childhood before and after his brother died, and how that has affected him. It's interesting that he doesn't talk about how burying himself in the snow to survive has affected him, but that's part of the charm of this series. There is time to learn, time to puzzle it out, even as he throws himself into murders to solve them. It is the ones who die alone who get to him,which he admits in Arctic Chill is because of his brother, the ones whose mysteries he has to solve while he waits to solve what happened to his brother all those years ago. This haunting sense envelopes this particular book, as it did the previous one (The Draining Lake, which I have sadly yet to review from last year!). A boy dies alone, and the book is about the investigation into his death.

I found this a moving book to read because the victim's death reminded me a real-life case, of Damilolo Taylor, who was murdered in London in 2000. I don't want to say much more about Damilolo's case because this book has many similarities to the outcome of the real case as well, so I don't want to give anything away to my readers who aren't familiar with the Taylor case. I, as well as most of Britain, was horrified during the investigation, and it is one that I find still affects me now - I expect it always will. So Arctic Chill could have been too similar to a real case, and I am relieved to say it wasn't. It's different enough, that I think it is more a comment on youths and crime today, and modern society. This is a gripping read. I cried at the ending, for both the book and the real life case, again. Even if Arctic Chill is entirely a creation out of the author, it so eerily recreates what happens all over the world that it becomes about a crime we have all heard about, somewhere. This is a mystery, and a series, that really is among the very best currently being written. And all the way through it is a haunting sense of loss that almost feels like music. A slow elegy, a mournful awareness of loss and change, and that some things can't really be recovered from. Excellent. 5/5

The Calling - Inger Ash Wolfe. A new Canadian author! A new mystery series! I'm excited! And how is it, you ask? Very good. It has its flaws (this is good to see in a first novel, because otherwise I'd be completely jealous that a first novel could be perfect!), mostly regarding how the acting chief of police for the tiny town of Port Dundas, Ontario, could lead a country wide investigation for a serial killer. To Wolfe's credit much of it is credible; I only wonder at Inspector Hazel Micallef not getting into major trouble as she would in real life, for not calling in the RCMP, although this is kind of talked about in the book, it's not what would happen in real life. That aside, this is really well-written. Hazel Micallef is believable as the acting Inspector of her station - acting because her superior officer actually wants to amalgamate the station with others in the region, thus cutting costs, so he won't hire a permanent Inspector. The killer is believable and surprisingly sympathetic at times. The premise is an elderly woman dying of cancer is found murdered in her home. When links are discovered to another murder later that weekend, suspicions begin to amount even though the murders are over 300 km apart.

The supporting cast of detectives is very well-drawn, the dialogue is excellent, the descriptions of Ontario in the fall makes me wish it was fall again! and the pace is fast and this is a very enjoyable mystery. I highly recommend it, and very much look forward to reading her new one later this year when it comes out in paperback. 4.7/5

****Hmm. Just discovered while downloading the pictures of the books, that Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym for a "well-known Canadian literary figure". So not a first novel!!!***** Well, at least I don't have to worry at it's being soooo good for a first novel.

Only The Calling and Arctic Chill count for my 100 Books read challenge; Blood on the Strand was started in December. But, I count that as four books read this month, so I'm pleased.

I hope you have been happily reading this new Year too, dear Reader.

All about mysteries

I've decided to do a post about mysteries, because it's overdue that I write about my favourite genre! I've written about fantasy, science fiction, horror, fairy tales, and I've written about particular mystery authors, but I don't think I've devoted a whole post to the wonderful world of mystery novels. So:

Considering I read 25 last year, the most of any genre, as it is every year since I've been keeping a list of books read, it's about time I think that I gave it some appreciation. It is the genre I am most comfortable with. The very first novel I read was a Nancy Drew mystery, when I was 8. I've read almost every mystery series for kids when I was growing up, from Trixie Belden, to Cherry Ames, to Meg Diamond, to the Enid Blyton series - Famous Five, Secret Seven, Adventurous Four.......I even read all the Hardy Boys I could find! I have always gotten a thrill from picking up a mystery book. It's like a frisson of excitement, a little oh! or ahh!, and I am really excited when a new book by a favourite author and series comes out. I get such a bookaholic joy when I look at my shelves and see my mystery series lined up in order.

By saying I am comfortable with mysteries, I mean that I understand how it works. It is a story structure that I can see and admire even while I read it. I know what a mystery is supposed to do, and why, and when one works, and when one doesn't. It is the first kind of story I ever tried to write, and it is a how I dream - I dream mysteries, who done it's, suspense. This is not to say that I don't love fantasy - I do! really good fantasy writing transports me to a magical world, and I love it. Mysteries, however, are dark and deal with the horrors and nightmares of the real world and what people do to each other, layered in thoughtful analysis of the world, and glimpses of unsung heroes who battle on street corners for truth and justice. That is so noir! But where would we be without our lonely detectives and inspectors and private eyes seeking the truth in the darkest corners of our world? Bringing a sense of closure often, and other times, a struggle to find a sense of peace even if justice is not fully served? They are our guardians against the night, against the dark, they bring the light so that there can be cleansing and healing for the ones left behind. Maybe I find a sense of rightness in reading mysteries, but whatever it is - and I don't think I've captured it all tonight, that sense of real joy when a mystery is true, and the story reveals something about the world as I know it, too. I need that fight against the darkness, that fight to right a wrong, and I am thankful every day for all the mystery writers out there.

I also think mysteries explore a sense of place. Take Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski, set in Chicago; forever more, when I think of the Windy City, I think of VI and the battles she's fought with the corruption of the officials so that there is some freedom for especially the weak and downtrodden of society. Or Erlendur, in Iceland, the cold windswept landscape mirroring his frozen child self always looking to forgive the moment he lost touch with his brother's hand. Or the cold Moscow nights as Arkady Renko, ever more tired, battles against corruption that never goes away, it slinks off to come again another day. What about Hercule Poirot with his brain, or Jane Marple in her village, or Sherlock Holmes as he sees ahead miraculously to stop the final act of the villain? His Baker Street residence is etched firmly in all our minds. (and yes, I am going to go see the movie, this weekend I hope!) Or, two of my Canadian favourites, Inspector Gamache in Three Pines, that lovely tiny Quebec village that gives a sense of community and love even as evil threatens all around, and the cold forested Ontario landscape around Algonquin Bay with Det John Cardinal fighting is lonely battle with himself as well as with the criminals who live in and out of his town in Giles Blunts' series. Or, my favourite humorous mystery series, Joan Hess' Maggody series, set in a tiny town in Arkansas, overrun by the Buchanon clan, that neanderthal family who scarily could be in any town anywhere.......interrelated and always at the edge of morality as well as crime. It's also the character of the detective/PI whoever, that makes the mystery series work, too, but I'll save this topic for another day.

I really believe mysteries give us a glimpse of society. A good mystery looks into the dark heart of people, and finds resolution - an ending to the evil, so that we can all experience catharsis and heal a little bit from the horror stories that are all around us in the world. We can't change the crimes committed, the innocence lost, but we can try to understand so that we can prevent it in the future. Or, as Detective Jack Whicher says in The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, let Saville, the victim, have justice served for him by finding out who killed him.

So, now to the next part:

my favourite mysteries of last year:
Turnstone - Graham Hurley
The Draining Lake - Artur Indridason
Various Haunts of Men - Susan Hill
Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear
Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin
The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
Last Rituals - Yrsa Sigurdottir
This Night's Foul Work - Fred Vargas
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale (my book of the year)


I was doing some thinking today about my stats from last year, as well as other years. If I read mysteries the most, and I want to get to 100 books read this year, then I had a brilliant idea (well to me it was, to you, you've probably seen this coming all this post, dear Reader!): why don't I increase the number of mysteries I read this year? So, I am. I am going to read 50 mysteries this year. My own challenge to myself.

Wherein I set my own challenge:
I don't know whether to laugh at myself because obviously my inner mystery book goddess has known all along what was coming, or thump myself on the head for being so thick: but at a quick count, I already have over 30 new mysteries on my TBR shelf, just waiting for me to read!!!! And, please don't tell my husband, but I snuck into Chapters today, looking for Nicola Slade thanks to Geraniumcat's lovely review of this series, and ended up finding a book that made it onto a couple of reader's lists over at Kerrie's Mysteries in Paradise 2009 Crime Novels of the year list that is open to bloggers: yes, on the 5th day of the new year, I bought two books, already, just because.
Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin (two readers picked this among their favourite mysteries last year), and:
A Cure for All Diseases by Reginald Hill, the latest Dalziel and Pascoe mystery, mostly because it looks very good, and partly because he dedicates it to Janeites everywhere - the book is a mystery homage to Jane Austen's unfinished Sandition. Well, how can I resist that? so that's another two mysteries to add to the 50 Mystery Challenge!!!!

*****I'm sorry, I'm unable to provide the link tonight to Kerrie's blog, my computer is acting very slow and not letting me link. Grrr! ******** Or to Geraniumcat's blog. ****Grrrr Grrrr******They are both on my sidebar.

So, because I know you want to know what mysteries I have been collecting over the past year or so, here is a partial list of mysteries I have waiting to be read RIGHT NOW:

A Cure For All Diseases - Reginald Hill
Echoes From the Dead - Johan Theorin
Bone By Bone - Carol O'Connell
Dead Famous - Carol O'Connell
Winter House - Carol O'Connell
The Pure in Heart - Susan Hill
A Deeper Sleep - Dana Stabenow
Prepared for Rage - Dana Stabenow
Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich
Doors Open - Ian Rankin
The Red Fox - Anthony Hyde
The Calling - Inger Ashe Wolfe (a new Canadian mystery author!!!)
The Broken Shore - Peter Temple - highly reviewed Australian Ned Kelly winner
A Restless Evil - Ann Granger
The Black Path - Asa Larsson
The Blood Spilt - Asa Larsson
A Beautiful Blue Death - Charles Finch
Never End - Ake Edwardson
The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin
Seeking Whom He May Devour - Fred Vargas
Morality for Beautiful Girls - Alexander McCall Smith
Blue Shoes and Happiness - Alexander McCall Smith
Damage Control - J.A. Jance
Deadly Web - Barbara Nadel
When Gods Die - C. S. Harris
The Grave Tattoo - Val McDermid
The Serpent's Tail - Ariana Franklin
Raven Black - Ann Cleeves
The Murder Stone - Louise Penny
The Shape of Water - Andrea Camilleri
Sweet Revenge - Diane Mott Davidson
Firewall - Henning Mankell
A Quiet Belief in Angels - RJ Ellory
Death is a Cabaret - Deborah Morgan
Perception of Death - Louise Anderson
The Dead Hour - Denise Mina
The Red Breast - Jo Nesbo
Arctic Chill - Artur Indridason
Winter Study - Nevada Barr
Every Dead Thing - John Connolly
The Sign of the Book - John Dunning
One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson
Stalin's Ghost - Martin Cruz Smith
Missing Justice - Alafair Burke
What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman
Not in the Flesh - Ruth Rendell
Death in the Off-Season - Francine Mathews
Immoral - Brian Freeman
Stripped - Brian Freeman
Hard Row - Margaret Maron
Death's Half Acre- Margaret Maron

I think that's over 50!!! And they were all on my TBR shelves!!!!! Honest. That's not counting the other mysteries tucked away on the shelves, like Stephen Booth and Graham Hurley (missing book three to continue the series), Charles Todd....

Plus, I want to buy the latest Henning Mankell (the one with Kurt and Linda wallender investigating together, and the one with her alone), and as soon as the latest by Fred Vargas - Chalk Circle Man, Artur Indridason - Hypothermia, Louise Penny - A Brutal Killing, and Yrsa Sigurdottir and Sara Paretsky, are in paperback, I'll be picking them up!

And, I have The Coffin Trail by Martin Edwards on order at Amazon.ca, as well as An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears........and the Nicola Slade, and the other mystery series people are reading and recommending! **warning, going to Kerrie's Crime Books of 2009 will find you adding more authors and books to your reading list!!***

I don't want to read just mysteries this year. I do get to a point where I need to read something different, and then I pick up fantasy, which is the second most read genre for me, every single year also. So if I bump fantasy up to 25 (and you don't want to see how many fantasy books I have also on my TBR shelves, tonight, do you??), that will give me 75 books read, and let me read some non-fiction, sf, horror and poetry to make up the rest.

So what do you think, my Gentle Reader? Can I pull it off, can I finally read some of these mysteries and get to my 100 books this year? I think I can! Do you have any mystery series that you love? Do you agree or disagree with what I said about mysteries? Let me know, I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you read mysteries also. What does it satisfy in you? What do you enjoy most about them?

Sunday Salon - Maisie Dobbs, an extraordinary mystery

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear is the first in a series of now 5 books featuring Maisie Dobbs. In Book one, she opens her detective agency in 1929, 11 years after the Great War has ended. But the Great War is still very much alive in the minds and hearts and bodies of everyone who was at the Front, and this book - and I suspect the series - is about that effect. Maisie herself served as a nurse on the front, and most of the characters - the victims, the soldiers, the doctors, the killer - also served on the front. The War shaped everything after, a cataclysmic event that Winspear writes about evocatively, and yet, this is not a book about the war at all. It's a mystery, about why a survivor of the war, after he goes to a retreat for soldiers wounded in the War, is found dead, supposedly by his own hand. And yet, it isn't even the sister who asks for help, but the husband of the sister who is grieving and who spends part of her day at her brother's cemetary, unable to let go.

This mystery is about grief, and about change, but it's also about so much more. Maisie herself is an utterly fascinating character - strong, determined, focussed, and very very intelligent. She works her way up from being the lowest maid in a Lord's house, to going to Cambridge, and becoming a nurse, before opening her own detective agency. Her detective teacher is a marvel also, Maurice Blanche, who teaches Maisie so many things, among the most important, to sit still even when it's uncomortable, when asking a question, because asking the question is the important thing:
" I never want to learn that you 'don't know', Maisie, I want to know what you think the answer to the question is. The more it troubles you, the more it has to teach you. In time, Maisie, you will find that the larger questions in life share such behavior."

Isn't that a fascinating way to see the development of an investigator? Ask questions. Ask more questions. He also teaches that the answer comes in many ways. We are never told how he has come by all his knowledge, but I see traces of Far East teachings as well as Jung, in what he tells Maisie.

The mystery is part of the book, and then Maisie's life as she developed as a person and into an investigator is also part of the book. There is a reason, but to give it would be to spoil the revelation of Maisie's character and how the Great War affected her.

If you want to try any mystery series this year, try this one. I'm already looking for the second one in the series. It's on my Christmas list for people I love this year. In other words, this is one of my top 10, I think, for this year. It's not often a book has me crying at two separate times, on the bus! This is a very moving book, a well-recreated look at how World War 1 shaped the years after it, and a very tragic mystery as well. We might do well to remember this, when we come to look back on this decade, and the war currently being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has, and will surely continue, to scar the world and wound so many lives. And in spite of the wounds that war leaves behind, and the psychological probings by Maisie, this book also has love and warmth at its heart, really loving relationships between Maisie and her father, Maisie and her mentor Maurice, Maisie and Billie Dodds, one of the thousands of soldiers whose lives she saved on the front, Maisie and Lady Rowan. It is also tender; Maisie doesn't hound her subjects, those she is asking questions of; her caring for the well-being of those she is ever so gently questioning - and how she gets the answers from them, is illuminating. There is no one like Maisie in the annals of detective fiction.

She's like a little bit of Hercule Poirot (although Maurice is more like him), a little bit Sherlock Holmes in her deductive reasoning and powers of observation, but to her, it'a normal way of being in the world. And lest you think she is all brain, she also falls in love.....

5/5 - except for the cover, which has to be one of the worst for a detective series, EVER. I honestly thought this was some Edwardian fiction (and thus utterly boring) so I only picked up it up because of Bride of the Book God, who is raving about the series, her posts books 4 and 5 here, and because someone else reviewed one of her books. I can't remember who - this is why I started my 'blogging books to get' journal! - so if you have reviewed Maisie Dobbs or any of the series, please let me know and I'll add your link. Someone out there beside Bride knows of this awesome series.......

Two extra things:
If I believed in hitting myself, I would be sporting a huge lump on my forehead right about now. I thought I had until midnight tonight to send my 5 posts for the next round of Blogger Appreciation Week Awards.....No, I discovered this morning when I opened my email, all ready to send my 5 posts today, that my deadline was last Friday at midnight. Yep, a great big lump right there....so my name sadly won't be going ahead (if the committee had chosen me), and for anyone who was going to vote for me, my humblest apologies. Obviously I should read more carefully rather than getting so excited I don't look at the date again! I will be casting my vote for other blogs, though!

And Bride has a post here, from today, that is continuing our deepening discussion about whether it's ok to use live people in fiction and probably/potentially/possibly fictionalize them too, without it being clear if they are fictionalized. I really do think it's okay to use people who lived, if they remain bound within who they were when they lived; that their interior life isn't made up of untrue things. I know, it sounds boring! It's not. As the schism deepens between those who believe it's fine to use real people and change their character somewhat in fiction, and those who don't believe this is fine, I think we are approaching something that is important in fiction, that's at the heart of why we read: telling a story, and what's permissable to use, and what needs to be created by the author. Let us know!!

Also, Bride has laid down the gauntlet by reviewing a book in the same post today - Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder by Gyles Brandreth - that uses real people as the main characters, and even though I'm against fictionalizing real people in a big way, the book sounds interesting! Darn it! Isn't life just full of quandries? Stay tuned to whether I give in and try reading the book, to whether more readers (that would be you, Gentle Reader!) weigh in on this interesting question, and to whether anyone else has read the same book and if they can say if Oscar Wilde and the other 'true' characters are true to life or not.

I leave you this fine Sunday with a final quote from Maisie Dobbs:
Maisie sat back on the bench and started to compose her questions. She would not struggle to answer the questions but would let them do their work.
"Truth walks toward us on the paths of our questions." Maurice's voice once again echoed in her mind. "As soon as you think you have the answer, you have closed the path and may miss vital new information. Wait awhile in the stillness, and do not rush to conclusions, no matter how uncomfortable the unknowing."

As I was writing that quote down, I began to apply it to our own debate, and so I'm taking it to heart. There is no right or wrong answer in using real people, but I do think there has to be respect and a clear line about saying - yes, he's fictionalized, no, he never acted that way, or I've tried to make it true to him as possible. I know that fiction is a marvellous way to come to understand ourselves and this wondrous universe we live in. I just wonder if it's some paucity of imagination, that we turn to real people more and more to write as fiction characters.

And - I have long been an admirer of Bride and her fabulously named blog, and normally we have very similar tastes, so I think this comes down to what can one live with in fiction? Interesting, isn't it?

Happy Sunday reading, everyone!

Other bloggers posts:
Bride of the Book God - Book 4
Bride of the Book God - Book Five
Word Lily: Maisie Dobbs
Word Lily: Birds of a Feather (Book 2)
Word Lily: Pardonable Lies (Book 3)