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Murder by the Bye

a more-or-less monthly newsletter from Murder by the Book, 3210 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR, 97214 503-232-9995 ~ http://www.mbtb.com

March 2010

When we say “Soft-Boiled,” we’re not talking eggs . . .

You’ve heard about hard-boiled detective novels and movies. They feature tough-talking, gin-swilling, fist-swinging manly men. At Murder by the Book, the “Soft-Boiled Sleuths” section isn’t quite the opposite of that, but it is (usually) a kinder, gentler, sometimes bumblier way of detecting. Our Soft-Boiled section is replete with amateur detectives of all ages and sorts. Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman) lives here, as does Jessica Fletcher (as she’s brought to life by Donald Bain). But it’s not just populated by women; most notably, Simon Brett and Robert Barnard, both eloquent Brits, and Pacific Northwest author Aaron Elkins live here, too.

Soft-Boiled sleuths come from all walks of life, but lately they’ve been coming from the handy and handicraft backgrounds. Want a house fixed (Jennie Bentley), your tea stirred – but not shaken (Laura Childs), gardening advice (Ann Ripley), or a sweater knitted (Anne Canadeo, Sally Goldenbaum, Maggie Sefton)? S-B sleuths also bind books, write books, sell books, and scrapbook – when they’re not busy finding bodies in inns and kitchens, under potted plants, and strewn all over the picturesque landscape. S-B sleuths mostly take care of cats (Lilian Jackson Braun, Carole Nelson Douglas, Blaize Clement), but there are some hounds and horses thrown in as well (Rita Mae Brown). (Oddly enough, quite a few of our doggy mysteries are in “Cherchez la Femme”!)

“Old timers” include Jane Langton’s academic mysteries, wonderfully illustrated by the author; Emma Lathen’s Wall Street treats; Jane Haddam’s long-running Gregor Demarkian series; and John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey.

We have a few new entries to Soft-Boiled Sleuths this month . . .

Do you enjoy tackling projects around your home and then rewarding yourself by curling up with a mystery once the job is done? Then you’ll welcome Jennie Bentley’s Plaster and Poison ($6.99), the third in her series. Designer Avery Baker, enjoying the success of her home renovation business in Maine, is happy to help an engaged friend with a project. But renovating a carriage house that includes a dead body that may or may not be the friend’s ex is not on Avery’s to-do list. Bentley includes tips for all you do-it-yourself fans. (FYI, one of the founding mothers of DIY mysteries is Sarah Graves – in the “Cherchez la Femme” section.)

Red Delicious Death ($6.99), by Sheila Connolly: This third book in the “Orchard Mysteries” series features big city banker turned orchard owner Meg Corey. As usual, Meg has her hands full working in her orchard and trying to keep the house she inherited from falling down around her ears. She welcomes the news that a restaurant specializing in local foods is planning to open nearby, thinking what could be more local than tasty apples from her orchard? But before Meg can sell her first bushel, one of the chefs turns up dead and she discovers that there may be a homegrown killer with other plans. (The author includes recipes – minus the dead bodies.)

In Motherhood is Murder ($6.99), by Diana Orgain, new mom Kate Connelly is just beginning to get the hang of balancing the demands of motherhood and her new part-time sleuthing career. Kate jumps at the rare chance of an evening out with her husband but discovers what many seasoned private eyes know – crime doesn’t take the night off! You may want to start with Bundle of Trouble, the first book in the series.

Yay! Releases from a few of our favorite authors . . .

A Quiet Flame ($15), by Phillip Kerr: Readers first met German ex-policeman Bernie Gunther in March Violets, set in 1936 Berlin. The Pale Criminal, set in 1938, and A German Requiem, set in 1947, quickly followed but soon went out of print. We often recommend Berlin Noir, the title under which these three novels were reissued. We were delighted when after a 15-year gap, Kerr published The One From the Other, which continues Bernie’s story in 1949. Now in A Quiet Flame, we find Bernie seeking exile in Argentina in 1950. This series is full of rich historical detail, and complicated and very human characters. Kerr’s latest in the series, If the Dead Rise Not (hardcover, $26.95), is due in mid-March.

Denise Mina has won both our star (for Deception) and our best-of-the-year pick (for Field of Blood). Her latest in the Paddy Meehan series, Slip of the Knife ($13.99), is another hard-edged tale from the streets of Glasgow. Paddy is a crime reporter for the local paper who has covered her fair share of violent deaths, but she is ill-prepared to deal with the murder of her former boyfriend. His death appears to be a political execution and Paddy is determined to discover why her fellow journalist was killed. Using notes that he willed to her, she follows a twisted trail involving both the police and the IRA. Also due this month, Still Midnight (hardcover, $24.99), a stand-alone thriller for fans of “Tartan Noir,” hard-boiled Scottish crime writing at its best!

Risk of Darkness ($14.95), by Susan Hill, is the third in the DCI Simon Serrailler series. In prior books, Simon had no luck with the ladies. Perhaps Jane Fitzroy, the new red-headed Anglican priest, will stop that trend. What’s that you say? Jane has her hands full with a grief-maddened widower who thinks Jane had promised that his wife would live? Simon is too busy solving the serial murders of several local children, anyway. In her typical tension-laden fashion, Susan Hill weaves the tale of Simon and his eccentric family with depictions of crime in a small English town.


A look at this month’s overwhelming landslide of historical titles . . .

P.D. James, grande dame of the elegant British mystery, said that Dissolution by C. J. Sansom is one of the five best mysteries of  all time! We bet Sansom’s got that quote framed on his wall. If you’ve already read it, get ready for the fourth book in Sansom’s series, Revelation ($16). Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer in 16th century Tudor England, defends a teenaged religious fanatic imprisoned in the infamous Bedlam hospital for the insane. Also, in trying to solve the murder of a friend, Matthew finds more threads relating to Bedlam and, unfortunately, also to Catherine Parr, King Henry VIII’s beloved.

Like clockwork, Anne Perry’s latest William Monk tale is here. Execution Dock ($15) is a grim tale set in 1864 London. When the suspected leader of a child prostitution ring is acquitted, Monk takes it upon himself to track down new evidence to put the odious man away for good. Unfortunately, the trail leads into unsuspected areas of polite society and may even involve heretofore unimpeachable members of the police force.

Rhys Bowen’s In a Gilded Cage ($6.99) brings back Molly Murphy, the plucky Irish immigrant who has managed to make her way in the New World as a private investigator. Turn-of-the-(last) century New York City is in the eye of the women’s suffrage movement, and Molly is marching right along. In the process of making history, Molly meets some women with serious problems when they are all arrested for demonstrating. Sure and begorrah, Molly must save the day. Also being released this month is The Last Illusion (hardcover, $24.99), in which Molly meets Houdini. He is under the illusion that someone is trying to make him disappear, and Molly must pull a rabbit out of a hat to save him.

And this wins our award for “Strangest Title of the Month”: The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag (hardcover, $24), by Alan Bradley. Bradley is the author of the wonderful The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, one of our favorites of 2009. When last glimpsed, 11-year-old Flavia de Luce was a chemistry whiz, a prank-playing younger sister, and a headstrong young lady, mature far beyond her years but with the lonely burden of a child set emotionally adrift by her family. Now Flavia must solve the death of a master puppeteer, discover what makes the madwoman of the woods mad, and what’s up with the oddly behaving vicar.

Woo hoo! Deanna Raybourn, of the “Silent” series (Grave, Moor, Sanctuary), is heading off in another direction – straight towards the current obsession with vampires – with The Dead Travel Fast ($13.95). In 1858, Theodora Lestrange flees staid Edinburgh for mysterious and romantic Rumania, home of Count Andrei Dragulescu. Would it do any good to shout, “Don’t open that door, “ “Don’t walk in that graveyard at night, “ or “Carry some garlic at all times”? Probably not. Our heroine must do what heroines have done through the ages, ignore common sense and go forth into the dark, dark night.

Ariana Franklin, the author of the provocative Adelia Aguilar series, returns with Grave Goods ($15). Adelia is a pathologist, or at least the 12th century equivalent of one. Trained in Spain and living in England, she has never had a case like this before: examining what may be the skeletons of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. Toss in the prospect of seeing the Bishop of St. Albans, father of her daughter, and Adelia’s plate is full.

Wot hath Jane Austen wrought? In contrast to the vampires and sea monsters that other authors have Jane or her characters chasing, Carrie Bebris’ series starring Mr. and Mrs. Darcy seems relatively sedate, despite the dead bodies. In The Intrigue at Highbury: Or, Emma’s Match ($6.99), the Darcys are robbed on the highway and stumble across a poisoned dinner guest at the home of Emma Knightley (nee Woodhouse).

Kate Morton follows up the critically acclaimed The House at Riverton with The Forgotten Garden ($15). It is 1913 in London and a very young girl is put on a ship heading to Australia. The woman with whom she is traveling disappears, and the young girl arrives alone. Adopted by a kindly family, Nell does not find out her history until she is grown, at which point she returns to England to learn about her past. However, it is not until many years later that Nell’s granddaughter seeks the trail’s end in Cornwall and a forgotten garden.

Louisiana author Tim Gautreaux sets The Missing ($15) in post-WWI America. Sam Simoneaux loses his job as a department store floorwalker when a little girl disappears on his shift, and he is determined to find her. He goes undercover as a musician on a Mississippi River steamboat. Just in case you think this might be a reworking of  the 1960s TV show “Maverick,” listen to this: The New York Times says that Gautreaux “has a mythic sense of plot, a keen ear for dialect and vivid powers of description.” Take that, Bart and Brett!

Tony Hays debuts as a mystery author with The Killing Way ($14.99), set in medieval England. Arthur is not yet king, but he is on the verge of legend. Malgwyn, his right-hand man, who unfortunately no longer has a right hand (having lost it in one of the many battles of the time), is depressed and drunk most of the time. When Merlin is accused of murder, Malgwyn must pull himself together, examine the clues, and attempt to understand the mind of a murderer.

Nellie Bly, Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, and Louis Pasteur – a real reporter, real writers, and a real scientist in the late 1800s – are now stars in Carol McCleary’s The Alchemy of Murder (hardcover, $24.99). An epidemic arrives and  a serial killer strikes in the middle of the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Led by Nellie, this team of world-famous people must stop the killing. (Can a mystery starring the team of Lewis Carroll, Friedrich Nietzsche, and George Sand be far behind?)

DAVID CORBETT
Thursday, March 11, 1:00 p.m.
Do They Know I’m Running? (trade paperback, $15)

David Corbett has received many accolades and award nominations for his prior works, including Blood of Paradise, Done for a Dime, and The Devil’s Redhead. Do They Know I’m Running? centers on the young nephew of Salvadoran immigrants. When his uncle is caught in a raid and deported, eighteen-year-old Roque Montalvo must help bring his uncle back home. He wonders what he has gotten himself into when he finds himself not only transporting his uncle but two other people with dubious intentions. Corbett was a former private investigator and attorney in California.

JO NESBØ
Friday, March 26, 7:00 p.m.
The Devil’s Star (hardcover, $25.99)

Jo (pronounced “Yo”) Nesbø is one of Norway’s premiere writers. The Devil’s Star is the third in the series starring Harry Hole, a Norwegian police inspector. (His books The Redbreast and Nemesis, the first two in the series, were previously released in English.)  A young woman is found murdered in Oslo. A red diamond star is found on her body. Later another unfortunate young woman is found dead, with a red diamond star ring adorning her severed finger. Harry must partner with a police inspector whom he suspects of malfeasance to catch what may be a serial killer. The Redbreast was awarded the distinction of “Best Norwegian Crime Novel Ever Written” by the Norwegian book clubs in 2004. Jo, who lives in Oslo, is also a musician and economist.

CARA BLACK
Friday, March 26, 6:00 p.m.
A presentation of Alliance Française – attendees must register
Murder in the Palais Royal (hardcover, $25)

Although this presentation is free and open to the public, seating is limited. If you are interested in attending this event, you must pre-register at the Alliance Française website:
http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2r51bn763086f9c

This is Cara Black’s tenth Aimée Leduc novel named after a famous Paris landmark or area. Edgy PI Leduc is arrested for shooting her partner. She finagles her way out of jail in order to prove her innocence, and winds up embroiled in a backmailing scheme, neo-Nazis, and whatever mess involves her fugitive mother.

NOTE: This event will be held at Alliance Française, not at the bookstore.

ALAFAIR BURKE
Saturday, April 3, 4:30 p.m.
212 (hardcover, $24.99)

We welcome back Reed College graduate, former Portland resident, and former assistant D.A. Alafair Burke, who now lives in New York City and is the author of many novels starring Ellie Hatcher, an NYPD detective. When an NYU sophomore is murdered, Ellie and her partner, J.J. Rogan, investigate threatening messages about the young woman posted on an online site. When her murder connects to another murder, and then yet another murder, Ellie and J.J. find themselves exploring a much bigger scene than just a university campus.

END