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Murder by the Bye
AUGUST 2010
a more-or-less monthly newsletter from
Murder by the Book
3210 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214, 503-232-9995
Do you prefer gruff police detectives or (seemingly) ditzy grandmothers? Tough-talking P.I.s or intuitive scrapbook makers? People whose jobs involve putting their brains in action and their bodies in harm’s way or people who stumble across the untenable as they go about the mundane? Amateurs vs. professionals. If you favor one over the other, you may want to cross the line this month, as both sides offer a selection of interesting titles.
In this corner, the professionals:
Sara Paretsky and her Chicago-based private eye, V.I. Warshawski, anchor our "Cherchez la Femme" section. V.I. defines tough and cool, a feat she has been accomplishing since 1982, when Indemnity Only was released. We have waited four years for Paretsky’s 13th novel in the series, Hardball ($9.99). Elderly sisters hire V.I. to find a man who has been missing for forty years. V.I.’s investigation is closely tied to the history of Chicago, warts and all. Racism and secrets, including some directly related to V.I.’s own family, are exposed before the case can be solved.
Michael Koryta delighted us with the release of award-winning Tonight I Said Goodbye, a book he wrote at the age of 21. Four years later, the fourth Lincoln Perry book, The Silent Hour ($7.99), continues this Cleveland private eye’s adventures. An ex-con wants Lincoln to investigate the disappearance of the woman he says saved him from continuing his life of crime. Alexandra, the daughter of a Mafia don, and her husband wanted to help paroled murderers, but the program failed and the couple disappeared. Now the husband’s bones have been discovered, and Lincoln must find Alexandra, dead or alive.
Seattle comes back for a rematch with Cochise County, Arizona, in Fire and Ice ($9.99), and sparks fly. J. A. Jance’s popular creations, private eye J. P. Beaumont and Sheriff Joanna Brady, find they have cases that are linked: a serial killer in Seattle and the hit-and-run of an ATV park caretaker in Arizona. Jance has resurrected Diana Ladd a couple of times since her first appearance in 1991 in Hour of the Hunter. She once again decides to put the Ladd/Walker family in jeopardy in Queen of the Night (hardcover, $25.99). Lani must deal with a traumatized young girl who has seen her family killed, Brandon works on an unsolved murder of a university coed, and Diana is haunted by a past death.
In the other corner, the talented amateurs:
Charles Finch’s gentleman sleuth, Charles Lenox, debuted to acclaim in Beautiful Blue Death. The Fleet Street Murders ($13.99) continues his tale in 1860s London. Lenox is involved in solving the murders of two journalists. At the same time, he is running for a seat in Parliament. (This gives us Yanks a chance to see the strange contortions a Brit has to go through to be a member of government.) A stranger to the area he wants to represent, Lenox must journey to Stirrington to campaign, making it difficult to help solve the murders in London. Quietly dogged and understatedly determined, Lenox balances his burdens, while saving his threatened engagement to Lady Jane Grey at the same time.
The Merry Misogynist ($14) takes Colin Cotterill’s fascinating Laotian coroner, Dr. Siri Paiboun, into rural Laos in the late 1970s. Someone is killing village maidens, leaving them tied to trees with their hands and feet mysteriously callused and blistered. With his talent for investigation, insight into human behavior, and otherworldly connections, Dr. Siri, with help from his loyal crew, is ready to catch a killer. It’s not easy working in a Communist country as a quasi-government official when your sentiments are definitely not Communistic and you despise but tolerate governmental regulations. In Love Songs from a Shallow Grave (hardcover, $25), Dr. Siri must tread carefully when he finds that three young women have died of fencing sword wounds. When he lands in Cambodia as part of the investigation, he is wrongfully imprisoned and beaten by the Khmer Rouge. Things are looking bad. Will there ever be an eighth book in the series?
Although Dick Francis died earlier this year, we have these two books, both written with his son, Felix, to read before we bid him farewell. Even Money ($9.99) tells the tale of a bookmaker who is surprised when a stranger claims to be his father ... just before he’s murdered. Ned Talbot must play the odds to find out who murdered the man and if the man was really his father. Crossfire (hardcover, $26.95) features a soldier who has just returned from the war in Afghanistan and finds a cool welcome at home. Tom Forsyth’s mother, “the first lady of British racing,” always loved horses more than she did her family. However, it is her son who must save her when she is blackmailed into forcing her horses to lose.
“The Skeleton Detective,” Gideon Oliver, is back. Aaron Elkins sends peripatetic Gideon to Oaxaca, Mexico, in Skull Duggery ($7.99). Two corpses whose causes of death were wrongly identified might mean coroner incompetence or ... something more devious. What started as a vacation for Gideon and Julie turns into a police investigation. Will the murderer simply curse his bad luck in having the “Skeleton Detective” visit his patch of the woods, or will he try to turn Gideon into a corpse as well?
What happens when an amateur and a pro walk the shaky path of discovery together?
Faye Kellerman should be the first name that leaps to mind. Her characters, LAPD detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus, are probably the best-known hand-holding pro-am combination. In Blindman’s Bluff ($7.99), Peter is assigned the murders of a billionaire developer, his wife, and four employees. Rina has her own problems with jury duty and a court translator who asks for her help. Wouldn’t you know it? Rina and Peter’s paths are set to cross, and it’s a race to find the killer. Hangman (hardcover, $25.99) is about one of Peter’s old cases that has a current twist to it. Years ago, a teenager confessed to a crime he hadn’t committed. After he was released, he married a high school classmate and became a contract killer. When he and his wife disappear, their 14-year-old son becomes the responsibility of Peter and Rina. Peter’s second case involves a young nurse who is found hung in an empty suburban house. Foul play or not? Peter and his team have their plates full.
If you were the Chicago bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, what would your first award-nominated mystery be about? Yes, we had the same thought: snowmobiles. Starvation Lake ($15), by Bryan Gruley, begins when pieces of a snowmobile are washed up on a lakeshore. They belong to the snowmobile that crashed and killed the legendary hockey coach of the town of Starvation Lake. The only thing is that the coach’s snowmobile crashed in a different lake. Local newspaper editor Gus Carpenter and Pine County Sheriff’s Deputy Darlene Esper smell murder. This pro-am duo must delve into Starvation Lake’s past to unearth the truth that someone would really rather they not uncover. Then Gus and Darlene must find out why a woman who had recently returned to Starvation Lake would kill herself in The Hanging Tree ($15).
Finally, the last entry in the pro-am competition may be the walk-away winner: Heat Wave ($7.99), by “Richard Castle,” plays off of the ABC-TV hit show, “Castle.” In the TV show, mystery author Richard Castle teams with police detective Kate Beckett to solve crimes. These cases inspire (fictional) Castle to write a (fictional) hit novel, Heat Wave, which is liberally promoted on the show. The fictional novel finds an odd place in reality when an unnamed (real) author (in the guise of “Richard Castle”) takes what could be a funny, sassy Castle script and turns it into a bona fide book, starring magazine journalist Jameson Rook (a thinly disguised Castle) and police detective Nikki Heat (ditto for Beckett). Clear as Hollywood mud?
EVENTS
Sunday, August 8, at 4 p.m.
BARRY OZEROFF
The Dying of Mortimer Post ($15.95)
Barry Ozeroff is a Gresham police officer, a SWAT sniper, and author. His latest book tells the tale of Mortimer Post, who, as a young man, is sent to Vietnam, experiences the horrors of My Lai, and returns to the United States to redefine himself. Decades later, he finds himself a police officer in south central Los Angeles. At the end of his days, Mortimer must determine if his life’s journey has been worthwhile and what really matters to him.
* * * * *
Sunday, August 15,
The Hawthorne Street Fair, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and
Sunday Parkways in Southeast Portland, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Stores up and down the boulevard will be having sales galore, and so will we. As a bonus to you, if you don’t want to hassle the parking on the 15th, we will continue our special sales until the end of the month. Sunday Parkways will create traffic-free streets, linking parks and providing places to walk and bicycle in safety. See the six-mile loop on www.PortlandSundayParkways.org. By the way, Hawthorne Blvd. will not be closed, but S.E. 34th, 41st, and 52nd, from about Lincoln to Salmon, will be.
We hope August brings you good times and good books,
Barbara, Carolyn, Jean, Nick, Jackie & John
Note to “snail mail” recipients: The price of postage has gone up and our subscription cost will have to reflect this. As of your next subscription renewal, the cost will be $6 to receive our newsletter by mail. We usually produce between 10 and 12 issues a year.
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