Murder at the Christmas Emporium

First of all, this novel by Andreina Cordani has a terrible book jacket image which does not represent the setting in any way, shape, or form--picky I know but really. I found the plotting entirely too complicated and the multiple flashbacks distracting, but Publishers Weekly loved the book. Here is their review in its entirety:

"Holiday magic goes horribly wrong in Cordani's delightfully eccentric follow-up to The Twelve Days of Murder. Merry Clarke steals her boss's invitation to the reopening of Verity's Emporium, a bespoke London toy store that's home to elaborate displays and strange mechanical attractions. After Montagu Verity, the store's Willy Wonka--esque proprietor, offers a warm welcome to Merry and a handful of other VIPs, the shoppers discover they've been drugged by their complimentary hot cocoa. They awake trapped in the multilevel, secret passage-filled building, their phones having been confiscated upon entry, and soon discover the dead body of the store's head toymaker. From there, flashbacks tease out each character's backstory and relationships to the Veritys, while tense conversations in the present slowly reveal their links to one another. Meanwhile, the store brims with clues and terrors, including a display depicting each guest's brutal murder. Cordani's plotting is devious and perfectly calibrated, revealing just enough to heighten dramatic irony while leaving plenty of room for shocking twists. This canny combination of whodunit and horror makes for a gleefully demented stocking stuffer." 

Likewise, Booklist praises characters and setting: "Told from multiple points of view, both past and present, this compelling, stand-alone mystery with its myriad plot twists, well-drawn characters, and a lovingly described Christmastime setting will appeal to locked-room-mystery fans." 

Kirkus, on the other hand felt much like I did. "...The problem is that at no time do any of her retrospective thumbnail sketches give readers much reason to wish for the grown-up characters’ survival. Even Merry, stuck in a dead-end job and hopelessly in love with co-worker Ross, is foolishly controlling, and TV celebrity Fran, tortured by a secret Cordani teases for more 100 pages before revealing as the most obvious thing possible, is shallow and self-serving. When bad things happen to good people, justice cries out for an explanation. But when bad things happen to bad people, well…why the hell not? A joyless Yuletide tale offers little to celebrate."

 

 

The Killing Stones

This is the latest installment resurrecting characters from the "Shetland Island" series by Ann Cleeves. Detective Jimmy Perez is now living on Orkney with his live-in partner Willow and their 4 year old child James. Another baby is imminently due.  Willow is technically Jimmy's boss but they don't seem to step on one another's toes when a missing person turns out to be a murder victim--Jimmy's best friend from childhood, Archie Stout. Archie has been killed near a neolithic archaeological site with one of the two "story stones" unearthed in the excavation. Jimmy constantly struggles with the boundaries between his own personal sense of grief and friendship with the deceased's family and his role as investigating detective. It's approaching Christmas and bad weather has grounded flights from Glasgow so Jimmy and Willow are on their own to figure this out. Two subsequent deaths, also at archaeological sites convince them that it is a single murderer they're seeking. The culprit will come as a total surprise to most readers. I loved the sense of place and the well-developed characters.  

Publishers Weekly calls the plotting "crafty," and ends their review with this endorsement: "The intensely personal nature of the case infuses it with welcome emotional depth, and Cleeves keeps readers guessing until she delivers a gutting climactic reveal that few will see coming. This proves Detective Perez still has the goods. " Kirkus likewise praises "A first-rate mystery full of historical detail and descriptions of a beautiful place."

The Predicament

This novel by William Boyd is the second of his "Gabriel Dax" series about a reluctant spy. Dax is, by profession, a travel writer with several published books to his credit and just about to finish another one called Rivers. Somehow--and one would ostensibly have to go back to the beginning of the series (Gabriel's Moon) to find out the origins of this situation --he has become an occasional spy for MI6 and a double agent for the Russians. Reviews are glowing and Booklist gushes "...this John Le Carré-esque Cold War thriller is something rare--a sequel that surpasses the original. Full of wry humor, this is a compelling novel full of intrigue..."

Dax's profession allows him to travel without suspicion and he is sent first to Guatemala to report on an up and coming labor leader who is expected to become the next President--until he gets assassinated right after Dax's abortive interview with him.  Dax feels he's been set up by the CIA and, to top it off, he gets attacked and stabbed for his trouble. After recovering, he is sent to Berlin to keep an eye on a man suspected of plotting an assassination of John F. Kennedy who is coming for a week-long state visit. Dax manages to "... thwart disaster via a string of accidentally heroic acts inspired by his instincts as a writer. Readers will be charmed by Dax's tendency to fail upward, and Boyd smoothly incorporates real history into his wildly entertaining plot. This is a treat" (Publishers Weekly).  Kirkus concludes their positive review by saying "A thriller that's always in motion but, unlike its hero, always knows where it's going."

The Woman in the Library

This thriller/ mystery by Sulari Gentill will keep you on the edge of your seat as each chapter ends with something of a cliff hanger. Four patrons in the reading room of the Boston Public Library--strangers to each other we are led to believe-- are suddenly united when they hear a woman scream. A dead woman is found in the library later that day, they undertake to find out who the killer is. This is a story within a story and a mystery within a mystery. Writer Winifred "Freddie" Kincaid is joined by fellow writer Cain McLeod, failing law student Whit, and graduate psychology student Marigold in the hunt. Is one of them the killer? Of course they all alibi each other at the time of the scream and supposedly of the murder. Someone begins to terrorize Freddie with text pictures of her own front door as well as that of Whit's house. It's coming from Cain's phone which he says he lost. An interwoven plot line is the correspondence between famous Australian author Hannah Tignone, who is using the events of the 4 to fuel the plot line of her next manuscript, and American wannabe writer Leo. His responses to her manuscript become increasingly sinister and graphic, making you glad they are on different continents--or are they?  Booklist says "The two story lines work together beautifully, amping up the suspense before reaching a surprising conclusion." 

Library Journal concludes their review of the book as "a complex, riveting story within a story. The fictional story of an author writing about another writer with messy, complicated friendships and suspicion is an innovative literary mystery. " Publishers Weekly calls the book a "thrilling excursion into metafiction from Australian author Gentill [which]... wittily examines the writing process itself." They close with this endorsement: "This elegantly constructed novel is intelligent, funny, and profound. Who could ask for more?" Kirkus concludes their review by saying "A sharply drawn fictional hall of mirrors sure to tantalize and occasionally frustrate." 

Bangalore Detectives Club

This light read from Harini Nagendra is like an east Indian cozy, the first in the "Bangalore Detectives Club" series.  Kaveri Murthy is a recently married young woman whose husband Ramu is a doctor at the local hospital in Bangalore. Set in the caste, class and gender structured Raj of 1921, stirrings for independence are afoot. Here is most of the plot from Publishers Weekly: "... Kaveri Murthy, who has a passion for advanced mathematics, lives just outside the sprawling city of Bangalore. While Kaveri and her physician husband, Ramu, are attending a reception at the prestigious Century Club, the body of a pimp is found murdered in the garden. When the deputy inspector of the local police force arrives to investigate, Kaveri confides that she saw the dead man in the garden with his hands around the throat of a beautiful woman. Kaveri's desire to see justice done takes her from the bastions of British wealth to humble mud-floored shacks. By placing her intelligent and clear-eyed protagonists in the multilayered and multicultural milieu of colonial India, Nagendra...imbues this mystery with a rich, edifying, and authentic feel."

Booklist calls this book "A fine start to a promising series." They describe Kaveri as ingenuous and brave, intelligent an charming. Her husband and the local police superintendent, although worried for Kaveri's safety chasing after a murderer, applaud her investigative skills. They make comparison to the "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith, and also to the "Nancy Drew" series mysteries. You'll like all the characters here. A fun read.  

The Great Gatsby

Hard to believe I've lived this long and never read the book although I vaguely remember seeing the movie. Such a tragic story...love gained, love lost, love gained, love lost. Gatsby is considered to be the seminal representation of the Roaring Twenties. Maybe for the ultra rich. I would agree with the reviewer in the Guardian who notes that "...the characters in The Great Gatsby are in themselves very flawed and very hard to sympathise with."  And also with the quote he picks out that characterizes their flaws: "They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness." Even our narrator, Nick Carraway, offers little to hold onto or empathize with. Here is the conclusion to their review: "Their inability to care is what makes The Great Gatsby the stark opposite to Romeo and Juliet where the lovers are sacrificed and Verona is healed. In Fitzgerald's masterpiece nothing is made whole by this tragedy. Many consider The Great Gatsby to be depressing because, in the end, those who dream do not achieve their aspirations. However, the main message that Fitzgerald sends to us isn't that dreaming will lead to despair, but that chasing an unworthy dream will lead to tragedy." Gatsby is stuck in a memory from years ago and he can't seem to imagine that, while he has been working to earn Daisy's love, Daisy has changed.

The New York Times examines the reviews of the book, both positive and scathingly negative, e.g., meritricious, a bauble, work of an author who is "barely literate" (Gore Vidal). And they note that perhaps the best way to gauge the immortality of a work is by reviewing the "insane glut" of influence that the book has had on literature, stage and screen.   In that regard, Gatsby certainly deserves its reputation.