5 posts tagged “mysteries”
Last summer in this post I mentioned my discovery of and fondness for Chris Knopf's Hamptons mysteries, featuring the hard-drinking tough guy Sam Aquillo. As Publisher's Weekly said, "How can you go wrong with a philosophizing hero who drinks Absolut, reads Kant, drives a '67 Grand Prix and has a dog named Eddie Van Halen?"
Imagine my surprise a few weeks back when I received an email from the author himself asking if I'd like an advance reviewer's copy of of the fourth novel in the series, Hard Stop, which is due out in May.
Sure!, I said and, lo and behold, a few days later I received and uncorrected bound galley copy of the new book. Pretty cool! (Chris's day job is marketing and he's obviously very good at it.)
I haven't gotten around to Hard Stop yet because I realized I had yet to read number three in the series, Head Wounds, and we all know (repeat after me) "You have to read them in order!"
Head Wounds finds Sam accused of the murder of a local builder. (Real estate seems to be to the Hamptons what Politics is to D.C.) As Sam tries to extricate himself from his predicament, we're treated to a parade of colorful characters - lawyers, barkeeps, good cops, bad cops, and a sexy school psychologist with an outsized nose - and to plenty of action.
Like the two earlier installments, Head Wounds oozes with Sam's (and Chris's) cynical humor. Sam reminds me of nothing less than a latter day Travis McGee.
Knopf's Hamptons in not the Hamptons of Ina Garten and Billy Joel. Conflict and tension between Hamptons old-timers and the big money that has turned the area into a haven for the super-rich is bubbling below the surface in all of these books.
Each book in this series has been better than the last. I'm looking forward to Hard Stop and to many more Sam Aquillo novels to come.
One of my favorite mystery writers - or writers period - is John D. MacDonald. MacDonald wrote dozens of novels beginning in the 1950's until his death in the 80's, most notably his Travis McGee series, one of the landmarks of the genre. Robert B. Parker called it "one of the great sagas in American fiction".
His work has influenced a whole generation of hardboiled writers. Carl Hiassen said: "Most readers loved MacDonald's work because he told a rip-roaring yarn. I loved it because he was the first modern writer to nail Florida dead-center, to capture all its languid sleaze, racy sense of promise, and breath-grabbing beauty." Stephen King called MacDonald "the great entertainer of our age".
Over the years I've read a bunch of the McGee novels and a few of his others, and I've collected quite a few in paperback from library sales, yard sales, etc., but I'm sure that there are at least a few that I've missed.
So I'm planning to embark on a new project: to read all 21 Travis McGee novels - in order of course.- and then to move on to MacDonald's other work.
Next Friday we're headed to the beach in NC for 17 glorious days - barring any hurricanes (I'm talking to you Hanna) - so I hope to get a good start.
One thing that's fascinating is the evolution of the cover art for these novels, from the racy covers of the 60's when they were first published, to the more, shall we say, staid covers of the recent editions.
To wit:
60's - Va Va Voom!
An interesting site for mystery lovers, recently 'tweeted' by Citizen Geek.
Not very deep - it mostly just links to Amazon - but lots of good lists of award winners, upcoming releases, authors, characters, etc.
According to the author profile, Norwegian writer Karin Fossum has written many novels and books of short stories, but, as far as I can tell, only three have been translated into English so far, Don't Look Back, He Who Fears the Wolf, and When the Devil Holds the Candle. I wish there were more.
These books are all part of her Inspector Konrad Sejer series of mysteries. I've read all three (in order of course!) and each is better than the last. Devil is one of the best mysteries I've read in a while, full of twists and surprises - just brilliantly done. While it's advertised as part of the Sejer series, we hardly see Sejer at all for the first hundred pages and, even after that, he and his police colleagues seem almost incidental to the story.
The real story centers around a bitter, slightly deranged old woman, Irma Funder, and two young punks, Andreas and his friend Zipp, and what happens when their paths cross in a seemingly random manner. Without giving too much away, the book reminded me of a cross between Stephen King's Misery and Ian McEwan's early novel The Cement Garden.
Along with the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, Fossum is one of my new favorites. (I turned my wife on to Mankell and, suddenly, there's a large pile of his books about to take over my living room.) Her next book in English, The Indian Bride, is due out in July. I'll be at the head of the line.
I've seen Swedish mystery writer Henning Mankell's name mentioned favorably enough times that he has been high on my To Read list for a while. I've recently read two of his novels, Faceless Killers, and The Return of the Dancing Master.
Faceless Killers is the first in Mankell's Inspector Kurt Wallander series, which now numbers 10 or 11 novels. (I have what some call a neurosis about reading series' in order.) In a genre replete with flawed heroes, Wallander is a particular mess. Approaching middle age, he pines for the wife who has recently abandoned him. He's estranged from his 19 year old daughter. He's gaining weight and can't seem to change his habits. He hasn't had sex in a year. His car needs expensive repairs. He drinks too much and doesn't sleep well. He may be falling in love with the prosecutor.
The case in this police procedural involves the brutal murder of an elderly couple in a remote farmhouse. The old woman's last word is 'Foreign'. The novel explores the undercurrent of xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment in outwardly liberal Sweden. Written in the early 90's, it's subject is still very timely today.
The Return of the Dancing Master is, I believe, a standalone, not part of a series. The hero here is a young policeman, Stefan Lindman, who travels to the north of Sweden partially to investigate the murder of a retired former colleague, and partially to take his mind off of a recent cancer diagnosis. He throws himself into the investigation to keep his mind occupied, but the terror and despair over his upcoming treatments and his own unknown fate keep rudely intruding. This case also begins with the brutal murder of an elderly person at a remote house. But the secrets here stretch back many years, to the Second World War, when many Swedes actively supported Hitler's regime and, indeed, were part of Hitler's armed forces.
Two very good books. I will definitely be reading more Mankell.
