Fall Preview 2014: Part Eleven

Are we becoming a homogenized society with the same Wal-Mart and Gap store everywhere we turn? I don't think so! Every place in the country has its unique features and, occasionally, still-distinctive accents. Just like Arizona's Sedona said no to the Golden Arches for their town because the city fathers felt they clashed with the desert, every community has exceptional features that make it one of a kind. I look forward to reading American crime literature from all parts of the country this fall.

Betty Webb's Desert Rage (Poisoned Pen, October 7) brings back Lena Jones, a formidable PI who had been scarred on both the inside and the outside by a tumultuous childhood, which has made her particularly sensitive to the problems to the problems of children.

There has been the horrific killing in Scottsdale, Arizona of a prominent doctor, his wife and their 10-year-old son. Their adopted daughter, Ali, and her boyfriend, Kyle, confess to having beaten the victims to death with a baseball bat. Lena is surprised when a candidate for the upcoming US Senatorial elections, Juliana Thorsson, asks her to find out if Ali is telling the truth. Juliana has kept it a secret that she is Ali's biological mother. Thorsson is keeping more secrets than this, but they could ruin her chances for election.

Lena suspects that the murdered family also had secrets, and when she begins to uncover them she lets more danger out of the bag. Webb has a deft hand with characters such as these, who are both good and evil, and she tells their stories with compassion and grace. She always picks tales worth telling.

I am a sucker for stories about big city detectives who leave the hotbeds of crime to move to backwoods America, looking for small town Saturday nights where the shooting out of streetlights is what fills the local police report.

A case in point is Faye Kellerman's Murder 101 (Morrow, September 2). Detective Lieutenant Peter Decker of the LAPD has had it to the back teeth with the bedlam and ugliness of life on the streets lined with palm trees, so he has retired. He and his wife, Rina Lazarus, have migrated to upstate New York, to be closer to family, and he has taken a job with the Greenbury Police Department. This is a sleepy old town that hasn't seen a murder in a quarter of a century. It's a long time coming, but one fine day he is called to the scene of an actual crime, a break-in at the local cemetery.

The North American version of pharaonic burial involves ornate mausoleums. In the case in point, the burgled tomb contained gorgeous Tiffany panels that had been stolen and replaced by forgeries. Decker's investigation in this art theft is at first hampered by his burgeoning relationshipwith his new partner, an erstwhile Harvard scholar with an attitude problem, and then by the brutal murder of a coed at a nearby college. This takes the case to a higher echelon, with echoes of international crime, ruthless killers and intrigue far beyond dirt roads and haystacks.

Decker's job isn't boring any longer, but to solve this crime he needs help from family and old friends to stop some evil that has roots in the past. It takes a village.

Autumn in the northeast always makes for striking visuals. I believe the changes in LA are more subtle, but maybe it's more of a case of keeping the details of what you see to yourself. That's the way it is in Unnatural Murder (The Permanent Press, September 26), by Connie Dial. In plain view of several witnesses, a striking transvestite is murdered on a Hollywood street. But apparently no one saw a thing. Captain Josie Corsino is in charge of the case. It doesn't make it any easier that the death occurred on streets where menace lurks around every corner, or that here the bizarre is almost commonplace. When a second murder follows before the first corpse is cooled, Josie and her crew of the LAPD's finest begin to discover new meanings for the word strange. These seasoned vets are on some virgin territory.

Connie Dial is perfectly placed to tell the story, because she has had a 27-year career with the LAPD herself, working on the street and as the area's commanding officer. This is a ride into Joseph Wambaugh territory and should be an exciting read.

A story from the heartland is Ellen Hart's The Old Deep and Dark (Minotaur, October 7) that takes place in Minneapolis.

Once, there was a speakeasy in the center of downtown Minneapolis that was closed after a Prohibition-era double murder. Because of its lurid history, it was renamed The Old Deep and Dark when it was remodeled into a theater. Cordelia Thorn, a well-known director, had plans to reopen this historic venue, until three skeletons were found bricked up in the walls. What makes the bodies of immediate concern is that they were killed by the same gun used in the more recent, and maybe more scandalous, death of a famous country/western singer.

The sleuth in this case is Jane Lawless, a restaurateur in the city. Though this is my first experience with this author, she has written 21 books in the Lawless series. Since every day in the fall can be a surprise, it's a good time to give a new author a try.

Like author Janet Dailey, who wanted to write a book with a background in each state in the nation, I hope eventually to read one from each of the 50 stars on the flag.

North Dakota has an offering set in the backdrop of the oil boom. The Missing Place (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster, October 14) by Sophie Littlefield. This book might be just the thing for fans of Gillian Flynn, who wrote Gone Girl.

When the oil business was booming, there were shantytowns filled with men hired to work on the rigs, places of iffy addresses and even less certain acquaintances. Two young men disappear during their first year on the job, without leaving a trace. It takes a mother to figure out that there is more to the story when the police can't help and the oil company is stonewalling.

Colleen, a wealthy East Coast suburbanite, and tough gal Shay, from the poor part of a town on the West Coast, have nothing in common except their lost sons.

Survival instincts, determination and grit bond these women together to help them face the adversity that may be more than they can handle. This story just might prepare me for the brutal winter the Farmer's Almanac is wishing on us.

Now, for a book that is perfect for when the shadows begin to lengthen, ominous gloom appears around every object on your walk home, the owls hoot just after six in the evening, and the skeletal, now-bare branches tap, tap on your windows. Of course, Stephen King has just the thing. It is billed as having the most terrifying conclusion King has ever written. For thrills, I may grab a copy of Revival (Scribner, November 11).

Like all King books, the beginning is a description of an almost idyllic scene of a boy, little Jamie, playing with toy soldiers when a darkness falls over them. It was the shadow of a new man in town, a charismatic minister, Charles Jacobs. This man and his wife will be initially idolized by one and all

Unknown to others, Jamie and the man of the cloth share a secret bond, an obsession really.

A serpent comes to Eden, as usual, and Jacobs suffers a tragedy, turns his back on God and is banished from the village. Jamie has demons of his own. His life is his guitar and rock and roll, and he goes on the road. Eventually, he becomes addicted to heroin and is desperate when he meets the ex-Reverend Jacobs again. Between these two, the devil has plenty to choose from and revival takes on a whole new meaning.

When your heart is back in your chest, enjoy a nice warm cup of cider and remind yourself that it was fiction, just fiction!

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Should we believe in coincidences? I believe I should. Lately, I picked up several books in a row that all repeated a similar theme. It meant either that plenty of authors have similar dreams, or my reading picks are not as random as I thought. It may also be a sign that I am meant to write about these books. Their main idea is that what goes around comes around, and what you did during World War II will come back to haunt you, no matter where you did it. It is usually Sister Mary who has the goods on skullduggery during the Second World War, but I will trespass just a little bit today.

William Faulkner said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." This quotation might be the best part of his Requiem for a Nun and it really came to mind with Death on the Marais by Adrian Magson.

Marais is the French word for marsh, or quagmire, and that is what Inspector Lucas Rocco finds when he is transferred from his Paris job to Poissons-les-Marais. He had been a Paris policeman for a long time when a new broom in the Interior Ministry felt that the more rural provinces needed some Parisian expertise in law enforcement. Rocco was exiled to this country village in Picardie, a northwestern province of France. His superiors had a few interesting things to say of him, like that "he was an insubordinate bastard, insolent as well as pushy, dogmatic and a nobody, reckless … a rebel. A good cop, though."

Rocco expects the new assignment to be quiet, uneventful and maybe boring, but he doesn't expect that the first thing he will run into in the village is a crowd pulling a dead woman from the marsh at the edge of a war cemetery. The shocker is that she is wearing a Gestapo uniform––when World War II has been over for 20 years.

This novel is set in the 1960s, and Rocco's war experiences are of another war, not World War II. He spent his army days in the jungles of Indochina during the conflict between the French and the Vietnamese, after France reoccupied the area after World War II. He had developed sharply-honed survival skills that come back to him as he negotiates the treacherous bogs of the marais, as well as the vagaries of the locals as they once again align themselves into separate camps of collaboration and resistance.

Once the woman is identified as the daughter of a well-connected wealthy man named Phillippe Bayer-Barbier, Rocco heads back to Paris, following the trail of very dirty secrets. The detective is astounded at the man's reaction to his daughter's death. Bayer-Barbier begins to lie and then distance himself, behaving as if she brought this on herself. He is a man with many skeletons in his closet, most of them nasty, and most of them having been buried during the war.

There is an interesting cast of ancillary characters in this village: the local policeman, a tramp whose expertise is defusing bombs left over from the war, as well as several people who service a small mansion where Parisian men come for nefarious, mostly sexual, purposes and perversions. Rocco doesn't know whom to trust, and the seemingly calm waters hide dangerous undercurrents. The mystery is exciting and as murky as any marais, and what has happened in the past lies bubbling just under the surface.

The dogs of this war refuse to lie down in other countries as well. In Italy, there is still a pas de deux featuring people who took different sides in the war, and who still distrust each other, but now must perform together amicably.

Jill Downie's Daggers and Men's Smiles begins in Guernsey, a Channel Island that was the site of great German fortifications and an Organisation Todt forced-labor camp in which prisoners were worked to their deaths. Detective Inspector Ed Moretti returns from a trip to Italy to find that while away, he has been assigned a new female partner, DC Liz Falla. There is also an international production company on the island, making a movie based on a bestselling novel about an aristocratic Italian family at the end of the Second World War.

The novel is called Rastrellamento and dramatizes a military round-up of partisans who had been betrayed to the Nazis. Guernsey's cement bunkers, underground command post and hospital make for excellent film locations, and the cream on the pie is that the manor house is still inhabited by expatriate Italians, the Vannonis.

Ed Moretti himself is of Italian heritage. His father was a prisoner of war in the Todt camp and his mother was a native Guernsey girl who risked her life to give him food. After the war, he came back and married her. Ed speaks Italian and this is of help when a series of murders shakes up the island.

First to die is the philandering son-in-law of the Vannonis, and then the pompous author of Rastrellamento. The striking feature of both murders is the use of a ceremonial dagger similar to one on the Vannoni coat of arms.

There is quite a bit of mystery surrounding the Vannonis, and the past is never spoken of. The solutions to the crimes lie in Italy and in what went before. The Vannonis were, at one time, involved with Mussolini, fascism and more. Moretti goes to Italy to find his answers.

Both Death on the Marais and Daggers and Men's Smiles are the first in a series. I liked Rocco, Moretti and Falla. Both of the Guernsey cops moonlight musically in the evenings, when they have free time. Ed plays a mean jazz piano and Liz is a folk singer with an Enya sound.

Even in the US, the echoes of the World War II past come back like ghosts. In Desert Run, by Betty Webb, the mystery is fashioned on some of the real events surrounding the German POW camps in Arizona. A documentary is being shot at Papago Park about the German POW camp that had been located there, and the "Great Escape" of Christmas Eve, in 1944. The film is to tell the story that during the autumn months, the prisoners dug a tunnel under the desert floor to a nearby river, which the escaping Germans planned to use to transport themselves to Mexico.

With the help of a map, which appeared to show that a nearby river flowed all the way to Mexico, and under the cover of singing Christmas carols, 28 escapees went under the fence. They soon discovered that in the Sonora Desert, rivers are usually dry and go nowhere. Most escapees were recaptured in days.

One surviving escapee, Kapitan Erik Ernst, is now 90 years old and about to be interviewed about these past events. Before he can speak his piece, he is murdered. Scottsdale PI Lena Jones is doing security for Warren Quinn, the director of the documentary. Both Quinn and the Ethiopian caregiver, who has been accused of Ernst's murder, want Lena to find his killer. The answer may lie in the past.

During the escape, three men separated from the others, who were recaptured. Ernst was among the three who avoided immediate recapture. They fled into the mountains, where they were suspected of brutally murdering a local family. Another suspect in Ernst's death is Chess Bolinger, the only member of the family to survive the massacre. He had plenty of motives to kill Ernst, because he had been living under the suspicion of being the murderer of his family as well. And he knew the truth.

Nothing is known of the other two men who were with Ernst, and Betty Webb weaves an intriguing tale about what happened to these men. In a postscript, she gives the reader a short history of the POW camps, the 1944 escape and the recapture off all of the 25 escapees. She mentions that several former POWs moved to Arizona after the war. In 1985, there was a reunion of former POWs at the site, which is now part of the Oakland Athletics training fields.

Out of the blue, the next book I picked up was Kate Ellis's The Armada Boy, which tells a tale of a D-Day veteran returning to England for a reunion.

Fifty years after D-Day, a group of elderly Americans have returned to the Devonshire town of Bereton, where they had prepared for the Normandy invasion. One of the old soldiers, Norman Openheim, is found murdered on the grounds of an old chapel where the GIs used to meet the local girls for romantic encounters.

The people of the area have long memories––many of them good, but most bitterly recall that their village was taken from them by the authorities, and when they return, it was a shambles. It was no secret that the GI influence over the local girls was resented.

It seemed also that Norman might have left more than just memories behind. His wartime girlfriend was pregnant when he was recalled to the US. Norman's wife does not seem particularly saddened by his demise when Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson begins his investigation by interviewing her. Motives swirl around this case, because one of the reunion party is suspected of raping a local girl and one of the GIs was supposed to have shot a local man who was poaching in an out-of-bounds area. Yes, indeed, the past is where the answer is to be found for this death in the present.

The historical facts of the matter were that there was an area of Devon evacuated at the end of 1943 so that the US troops could rehearse the D-Day landings there. All the local people and their animals were evacuated and had to find alternative places to live. There is a memorial on Slapton Sands in South Devon to the American troops who died during Exercise Tiger, a practice for the D-Day landings held in April 1944. Nearly 800 men (more than the number who died during the actual invasion of Normandy) were killed in the exercise, one of the great tragedies of World War II.

I began with Faulkner and end with Faulkner, who really understood the past and the present. "It's all now you see. Yesterday won't be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago."

Here Come the Brides

A fanciful person once asked me: "Why do women cry at weddings?" Well, I have an opinion about that, but it's one I usually keep to myself. There are, of course, many marriages that are an excellent cause for a good cry.

In Wife of the Gods, by Kwei Quartey, there is an interesting story about one of these sad instances.

In Ghana, on the western part of the African arm, there is a custom that goes back for generations. Accepted in the past, it has become controversial in the present. The custom relates to the Trokosi, which is translated to wife of the gods or slave of the gods. These are young women who are given in their early puberty to the holy man of the village to serve him in all ways and to make reparations for possible wrongdoings. Traditionalists are in favor of the custom and deny that slavery is involved. The Ghanaian government, as well as other organizations, oppose the practice.

Detective Inspector Darko Dawson is a city boy who lives in Accra. He is quite pleased with his life as a policeman, husband and father. He has had tragedies in his past, having lost his mother when she disappeared after a visit to her sister in Ketanu, and when his brother was severely and permanently injured in an accident.

Accra

Aside from having an anger management problem, Darko is ordinary––except for a special sense called a synesthesia, with which he can hear special qualities in people's voices. He describes voices as the sensation of soft, wet grass on bare feet, the texture of rich warm velvet, and even the sense of a sharp wet river reed scraped across the palm. These descriptions help the reader get a better sense of the character so described.

A young medical student, Gladys Mensah, was helping out in the village of Ketanu, bringing education about sanitation and AIDS. She was also trying to help the young girls and women known as the Trokosi. One day, she is found murdered near the area where the village priest/holy man lived. One of the Trokosi, Efia, is the person who finds the body. Many years earlier, Efia’s uncle murdered a man and was imprisoned, but the family feels they have been cursed and are suffering from the gods' displeasure. The elders of her family go to the high priest, Togbe, who communes with the gods and tells them that all will be well if they bring him a female child to serve at the shrine. She will belong to the gods and she will give birth to the children they give her through Togbe. Thus, at the age of 12, Efia becomes a wife of the gods.

Witchcraft and traditionalist healing and spirituality are essential elements of the story. DI Dawson has more modern beliefs, and he decries old-fashioned notions. This is what makes this story especially satisfying; the juxtaposition between a modern city like Accra, and life in a rural area such as Ketanu.

Dawson is sent to the location to clear up this case. He has relatives in the area and he speaks the local language, Ewe. He has mixed feelings, because he feels more at home with concrete under his feet, and memories of the disappearance of his mother in this part of Ghana have kept him from visiting his family, his mother's sister, for decades. But, on the other hand, he may re-investigate this mystery as well. He too, has a foot in both worlds, even though he has tried to put the past behind him.

This is a story of contrasts. The reader gets a better sense of Ghana because of the inclusion of both the city and the country life. The elements of the story that give a picture of the past make the present stand out, as the culture of the Ghanaians evolves as do all ways of life. Solving a mystery with modern techniques at hand makes the witchcraft stand out in stark relief. Finally, Gladys and Efia are women who belong to two different worlds, but in a small town in Ghana, their stories come together in a nice contrast.

This book has been compared to Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana mysteries, but aside from the African setting most things are quite different. The pace, the characters and the subject matter make this a unique mystery of Africa. I am really looking forward to the next in the series, Children of the Street.

Another problematic form of marriage is expounded upon in the novel Desert Wives, by Betty Webb.

"What do you call a dead, sixty-eight-year-old polygamist? In the case of my thirteen-year-old client, you call him your fiancé."

Arizona private investigator Lena Jones took Rebecca Corbett away from Prophet Solomon Royal, because her job was to rescue her from a polygamy compound called Purity, and soon the men from the area would be swarming to take back what they saw as their property: a breeding-age girl.

Rebecca's mother, who had left the compound sometime before, has hired Lena to find the girl, whose father had returned to the compound and taken young Rebecca with him. He brokered a deal in which he would get two 16-year-old brides, and the head of the polygamists, Prophet Solomon, would get beautiful Rebecca.

It is no use to call in the police, since the reality of the political situation is that despite laws against polygamy and child marriage, it was still prevalent in many small enclaves of Mormon fundamentalist sects that separated from the mainstream LDS Church, and the local authorities do not interfere with the sects.

Lena and Jimmy Sisiwan, her partner at Desert Investigations in Scottsdale, Arizona, have hidden Rebecca among Jimmy’s Pima Indian relatives. Then, the leader of the compound, Prophet Solomon, is found dead and Rebecca’s mother is arrested for the murder of the polygamist.

Polygamist sect wives and children

Lena goes undercover at the Purity compound, masquerading as one of the wives of a sympathetic member of the compound who, while believing in polygamy, do not endorse child marriages.

As Lena learns while undercover, there are troubles afoot in Purity. The new “Prophet” is more moderate, and is totally against underage marriage, as well as forced marriage, but he has an uphill battle and his life is also been threatened.

Many of the male members of the Purity compound have access to arms, and many of the women who seemingly are docile and hardworking are seething below the surface. What is causing this pot to boil? Why do the authorities turn a blind eye time and again?

As The New York Times pointed out, if Betty Webb had gone undercover and written Desert Wives as a piece of investigative journalism, she'd probably be up for a Pulitzer.

Who would you ask to define wife? You might get an unexpected answer. When Anonymous was asked to define a husband, he had this story to tell: "I told my wife that a husband is like a fine wine; he gets better with age. The next day, she locked me in the cellar."

Best Books of 2011

I read very few books hot off the presses, since I like to keep the best of what I read, so I wait for the trade paperback in most cases. With these, I can store more for future rereading. So my best reads for 2011 include only a rare 2011 publication. I have not separated books into mystery and nonmystery, because great books transcend genre. These are the books that hit the target:

The best I read: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

I started 2011 out in a good way when I read this book a year ago. The medical background of the book interested me, but I really was drawn in by the history of Ethiopia and I was even compelled to add to my knowledge of the geography and history of the area. I picked up Evelyn Waugh's Waugh in Abyssinia. I also read Verghese's book The Tennis Partner and highly recommend it.

Every Bitter Thing, by Leighton Gage, was another of my favorites. Mario Silva is at his best in this mystery. The title of the book is taken from the Bible: "To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet" (Proverbs 27:7). There are bitter and sweet throughout this book: in the descriptions of Brazil, in the solving of the crime, as well as in the feelings one has when the last phrase is reached.

The book that swept me off my feet: In All My Sad Dreaming by John Caulfield.

This is a mystery set in Cape Town, South Africa, during a violent modern era. Captain James Black is a member of the Police Service and part of the serious violence unit. He is just leaving the hospital after having been there for a considerable time suffering from two gunshot wounds. The story is filled with musical references that go back to the '70s. The prose itself is musical in many ways. There is a tone of foreboding overlying In All My Sad Dreaming that reminds me of Alan Paton.

The best new-to-me series that I began in 2011: Timothy Hallinan's Poke Rafferty series, which begins with A Nail Through the Heart.

This series takes place in Bangkok, Thailand, and introduces us to a fine cast of characters who are making a life that is intended to obliterate all the poverty and evils of their past lives. At the end of the story, I felt I had a nail through my heart.

And coming in second is The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. This book has some subtle, sly digs that perhaps take an adult to appreciate.

The book that best tickled my funny bone was Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel. This book has some broad, sometimes crude, humor but it was laugh-out-loud time for most of the story. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid came in second and I found Simon Brett’s Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter hilarious.

My favorite character was Walt Longmire in the Craig Johnson series. I really looked forward to reading Junkyard Dogs and I was not disappointed.

The book I most looked forward to reading in 2011 and the only book I bought before the printing press cooled was Chris Grabenstein’s Rolling Thunder. You just can’t beat John Ceepak and his partner Danny Boyle for a solid mystery with a soupçon of humor.

The best book I read that I chose by its cover was The Definition of Wind by Ellen Block. It was a perfect summer read.

The best book I finally read years after publication: Beau Geste by P.C. Wren.

The book that took me the longest to read was Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.

The book that stirred me the most was Bamboo and Blood by James Church. At a time when we are celebrating holidays characterized by plenty of food I think of this book and the people in this country, North Korea, who treat each other to a cup of hot water––which they serve cold, because they have no fuel.

This is the third in the Inspector O series, but it is a prequel beginning in the winter of 1997. North Korea is in the midst of a famine that is devastating the country. The very young and the very old are dying and only people of strong will are likely to survive until the spring. The country is hiding its desperation from the rest of the world, so it is a great surprise to Inspector O when he is asked to play host to an Israeli agent who is able to come and go seemingly at will into society. Beautifully written by an author using a pen name, James Church is the pseudonym of a former member of a western intelligence organization.

The book that awakened my righteous spirit the most was Desert Wives by Betty Webb. The book begins: "What do you call a dead, sixty-eight-year-old polygamist? In the case of my thirteen-year-old client, you call him your fiancée."

The book that surprised me the most was one that seemed to land on my door by itself, and I loved it: The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras by J. Michael Orenduff. I immediately put all of his books on my wish list. The main character makes a living in the Southwest by finding native American pots that are salable. Hubert is a likeable protagonist who lives on huevos rancheros and margaritas and is studying Pythagoras in order to figure out how the ancient potters could manage to space 17 design elements evenly around a pot. This pot thief studies Ptolemy and other great scientists, so you can always brush up a bit on your science when reading Orenduff.

Since 2012 promises to be an excellent reading year, I am always on the look out for the special books. I would rather hear your opinions than look at any best-seller list. The date of publication is of no interest to me, because my feeling is that just because something is new that doesn't make it better!