Zone Defence by Petros Markaris

When detectives go on vacation, either they end up detecting a case in the holiday destination or forced to come back home to investigate a pressing case. When Athens Detective Costas Haritos, takes a vacation even the earth rumbles and coughs up a body. Yes. First there is the earth quake and then a corpse. A detective is never off-duty, is he?

Back home, a night-club owner is shot dead near the entrance of his night-club. Haritos takes up the case and handles both the investigations. Who murdered the night-club owner and why?

The story is like an onion (yes, I saw Shrek the millionth time recently). You peel one layer of mystery, there is another layer, you solve one, there is one more to be solved. Markaris takes us into the world of night-clubs, football clubs, politics, opinion polls and corruption in Athens.

We have our crossword crazy detective, poetry writing detective and philosophy spouting detectives. Here, our Costas Haritos is a politically incorrect dictionary reading detective. I love Haritos' wife Adriani and the way she gets her way with Haritos. I love the humour and the twists and turns. I didn't expect the ending. I look forward to reading more books by Petros Markaris.

This book is originally written in Greek and translated in English by David Connolly.

Why are noirs so funny?

Here is some wisdom from Haritos on doctors.

I don't go to the doctor's, because once you start looking, they always find something worse.

But because happy marriages thrive on contrariety, Adriani is terrified of illnesses and I of doctors.

This is my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet Z.

False Pretences by Margret Yorke

Isabel receives a call from her goddaughter Emily in prison whom she has not met in years. Emily was just four when they last met. So it is no surprise that Emily is changed and Isabel is not able to recognise her. But it is a shock for Emily to see the shaven head and obese girl who had not had a bath in days. After her mother's death, Emily had been living with her friends in a tent on a site taken up for road construction and got involved with the demonstrators. Isabel bails her and takes her home. Isabel feels responsible for Emily, at the same time is reluctant to make her open up about her past.

Godfrey Sutton, a small time crook, is back to the village, where he seduced young and naive Alice. He hoped to marry her and enjoy her inheritance. All didn't go according to plan. After four years, he just wants to check up on Alice. And when he finds Alice has a four year old daughter, he is sure that she is his child and wants to make most out of the situation by demanding money from the aging grandparents. These two quirky characters, Emily and Godfrey, move the story forward. Emily has some secrets. She does not open up about her past. What happened in her past? How did she end up with the demonstrators? What happened to her extended family? Will Godfrey be successful in his mission? Has he at last found his perfect money-making scheme? How will Alice protect her child?

I liked the writing style of Yorke. The opening was interesting and got me hooked immediately. The opening line is

She wanted to scream.

Short and powerful, I think. I couldn't help comparing the writing style and characterisation to my favourite writer Ruth Rendell. Like Rendell, Yorke introduces her characters and the story flows from their character. But I do think Rendell's book are more intense and many times short. Secrets play a huge role in this story. Everybody keeps secrets from everybody else complicating a simple issue.

I found the last one third repetitive. We already know the secrets and when they are divulged to each character again, I lost interest. The end was not as satisfying as the beginning was promising. I had almost similar problem with A Case to answer by Margret Yorke. I loved the characters especially Isabel and Douglas. Douglas with his DIY obsessions, ready criticism and cynicism was spot on.

Absent fathers seem to be playing a huge role in the crime fiction books I had been reading lately. Yorke seems to say bad father is better absent. This book was published in 1998. This is my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet Y.

X is for Qiu Xiaolong

Finding an author whose name starting with X seemed near impossible when I joined the A to Z author challenge. I was quite excited to find an author not just starting with X but a mystery author too. I have never read a book based in China. Ok. I would have read quite a lot based in Hong Kong but never in Mainland China at least not a crime novel.

When Red is Black by Qiu Xiaolong is set in Shanghai and features Inspector Chen, who is on a vacation, so more or less the case is investigated by Inspector Yu. Former Red Guard and University Professor Yin is murdered in her room in a traditional Chinese house. Who murdered her and why? Is it politically motivated? The story focuses more on the changing China, and its political past than the mystery. Oh! There are too many references to food. What Inspector Chen had for breakfast, lunch, dinner and any other snacks in between. Food and poetry seem to be Xiaolong's two great passions. Ever heard a girl described liked this

"She was a delicious girl with a watermelon-seed-shaped face, almond eyes, and cherry lips."

This is post for Crime Fiction Alphabet X.

W is for Edgar Wallace

This is my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet W.

I don't know why I never read a Edgar Wallace book before. This year I read Yellow Snake by Edgar Wallace and it was fun. If you haven't guessed from the title, this book is about Chinese- Chinese domination of the world. Yep! Racist, but given the times, I suppose Yellow Peril novels were quite common then. If you could overlook this bit you can have some great fun.

With twists and turns Yellow Snake is a fun read with some surprises, kidnapping, murders, mistaken identities and an evil chinaman with a mission to capture the world. Yellow Snake was published in 1926. I downloaded the book from Feedbooks. This work is in public domain in countries where copyright is Life+70.

V is for Domingo Villar

This is my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet V

I read Domingo Villar's Water-Blue Eyes based in Vigo in the Galician coast of Spain and enjoyed it. I loved the humour.

Luis Reigosa, jazz Saxophonist is found murdered in his bed with hands tied and mouth gagged. The method for murder is very cruel and novel. Inspector Leo Caldas and his assistant Rafael Estevez investigate the murder. Inspector Caldas regularly participates on Patrol on Air in Radio and is quite a celebrity. Who murdered Luis and why? And whoever murdered Luis, why did they use this horrible method for murder?

The Tragedy of Z- A Drury Lane Mystery by Ellery Queen

I picked this book for the London place name theme I am doing for the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge hosted by Bev. This book does not take place in London but in New York but has a London place name in its title.

The story is narrated by Patience Thumm, daugther of ex-Inpsector Thumm of New York Police. Elihu Clay, a businessman, requests the Thumms to investigate his partner Dr. Ira Fawcett, brother of Senator Joel Fawcett for fraud. Patience and Thumm stay at Elihu Clay's place trying to investigate the Fawcetts. They end up investigating a murder-murder of Senator Fawcett. Senator Fawcett is found murdered in his home. Who murdered him and why? Aaron Dow newly released prisoner from County jail is suspected. Though Patience logically proves(?) that Dow could not have committed the murder, nobody listens to her and Dow is arrested for the murder. Drury Lane is a famous retired Shakespearean actor who also investigates cases. Drury doesn't actively get involved in the case until the end.

Thumms go to investigate something, when their investigation is stopped for some reason, why don't they come back home? How long will they stay in somebody's house doing nothing? Don't they have anything else to do? And what happened to their initial investigation?

Patience is very observant, logical and is good at deductive reasoning and proves her skills early on. It has all the elements of a great detective story, mysterious past, spies, mysterious stranger leaving the premises, footprint in the ash etc. There are some codes to solve. But you cannot solve the code. You need to wait for Drury to do it. I lost interest somewhere on the way. I hardly ever abandon a book and not losing interest is never the reason. So I burrowed away to dig up a diamond in the end.

The finale is interesting, everything is summed up nicely, Drury Lane sets up an electrifying scene, explains the whole thing in a logical way eliminating suspects and finally revealing the murderer. If not for anything, the climax alone makes this book worth reading. I did not guess the killer.

I do wish Patience Thumm had more to do. Despite her intelligence, observation skills and deductive reasoning, she just solves the minor things, leaving the major things for Drury Lane. There are some bits of humour but very very little, after all it is the Tragedy of Z.

The book was orginally published in 1933 under the pseudonym of Barnaby Ross. I borrowed it from the Open Library.

My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet letter T.

The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen

It is ordered that Miss Batcheller for her adultery shall be branded with the Letter A.
- Unknown, Records of Maine Province (1651)

It was around this law that Nathaniel Hawthorne wove the story of The Scarlet Letter

No, I am not going to write about Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. This is about The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen published in 1953.

Dirk and Martha Lawrence are considered one of the happiest couples in New York. Of late, there seems a shadow over their happiness. There are times when Dirk lost his temper in public over no reason and Martha looked like a "dull pigeon". Martha is Nikki 's friend and Nikki, Ellery's Girl Friday. Did I say written by Ellery Queen featuring Ellery Queen the Mystery writer and amateur detective?

Dirk is also a Crime Fiction writer only of the darker sort. With his failing career, Dirk's moods become darker. He is convinced that Martha is having an affair. Martha is a nice girl, not the kind of girl you would expect to do something like that. Martha approaches Ellery to help her in anyway possible.

A good secretary can save a writer's career! I am not saying this, Ellery is! Ellery decides to lend Nikki not only to save his writing career but keep him sane and save Martha. Nikki notes that Martha is indeed seeing somebody. She gets Letters written in Scarlet with the day, time and .....a letter of the alphabet every week. ( like our crime fiction alphabet)

Thursday, 4 P.M., A

Will Ellery find out what code they are using? What is Martha doing? Why not divorce Dirk? Knowing Dirk, how can she meet somebody on the sly, hoping to get away with it. How long will Ellery and Nikki play the guardians? Can they make Martha see reason before Dirk becomes murderous?

This is the second Ellery Queen book I am reading. The first one I read was The Tragedy of Z, a Drury Lane mystery, it was disappointing except for the final denouement. This book had me glued to the screen(ereader), despite the murder not taking place until the end. I was wondering what was Martha up to? More than that, how long can  somebody interfere in other's lives? What are Nikki and Ellery up to? There was a sense of something going to happen. You kind of know what is going to happen. There is an interesting mystery at the end that Ellery solves. I can't say much without spoiling it to you. Some of it is probably a bit far fetched nevertheless an enjoyable mystery.

I borrowed the book from Open library.

My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet S and Colour coded challenge.

R is for Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell is one of my favourite writers. If Agatha Christie is the Queen of Plots, Ruth Rendell is the Queen of characterisation for me. I am fascinated by her characters. Ruth Rendell books deal with real crimes in the real society. She has constantly dealt with the issues of racism, immigration, mental illness, domestic violence, obsessions, the problem of isolation and loneliness in modern society. I love reading Rendell because of her writing style, her characters, plot, her observations about society, and most of all she never fails to surprise me. There is always the twist in the end. Ruth Rendell along with P D James is credited with creating whydunit.

Rendell writes police procedurals featuring Inspector Reginald Wexford and his assistant Mike Burden. I like the contrast between Wexford and Burden. While Wexford is older, open minded, and liberal in his views, Burden is younger, closed and conservative in his views. You can easily shock Burden. Wexford is sensitive and ponders a lot about everything. Somehow, I like Burden more than Wexford. Inspector Wexford series mostly takes place in fictional town of Kingsmarkham. More recently I find Hannah Goldsmith interesting. Atheist feminist anti-racist Hannah Goldsmith has a difficult time trying to balance between her different -isms. She should be irritating, annoying trying to be politically correct, balancing her different ideologies, but it is interesting to see her deal with her issues.

Ruth Rendell also writes standalone thrillers. In many Ruth Rendell standalone there are just one or two main characters. She sets the scene, introduces her characters and we know what is going to happen is inevitable but not predictable. I like her London based books. I wonder if Ruth Rendell lived near Hampstead. So many of her books feature the protoganist taking a walk in Hampstead. Ruth Rendell also writes more darker psychological thrillers under the pen-name Barbara Vine.

I like the title of her books- A Sight for sore eyes, An Unkindness of Ravens, A Guilty thing surprised, Some lie and Some die, No more dying then, Harm Done, A new lease of death- to name a few.

I read four Rendell/Vine books this year.

The Vault by Ruth Rendell Retired Inspector Wexford

The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford

The Saint Zita Society by Ruth Rendell standalone

Asta's Book by Barbara Vine


Here is the complete list of books from Wikipedia should I say I read most of them.

Novels
To Fear a Painted Devil (1965)
Vanity Dies Hard (1965)
The Secret House of Death (1968)
One Across, Two Down (1971)
The Face of Trespass (1974)
A Demon in My View (1976)
A Judgement in Stone (1977)
Make Death Love Me (1979)
The Lake of Darkness (1980)
Master of the Moor (1982)
The Killing Doll (1984)
The Tree of Hands (1984)
Live Flesh (1986)
Talking to Strange Men (1987)
The Bridesmaid (1989)
Going Wrong (1990)
The Crocodile Bird (1993)
The Keys to the Street (1996)
A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998)
Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (2001)
The Rottweiler (2003)
Thirteen Steps Down (2004)
The Water's Lovely (2006)
Portobello (2008)
Tigerlily's Orchids (2010)
The St Zita Society (2012)

Inspector Wexford series
From Doon with Death (1964)
A New Lease of Death (1967)
Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
The Best Man to Die (1969)
A Guilty Thing Surprised (1970)
No More Dying Then (1971)
Murder Being Once Done (1972)
Some Lie and Some Die (1973)
Shake Hands Forever (1975)
A Sleeping Life (1979)
Put on by Cunning (1981)
The Speaker of Mandarin (1983)
An Unkindness of Ravens (1985)
The Veiled One (1988)
Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (1991)
Simisola (1994)
Road Rage (1997)
Harm Done (1999)
The Babes in the Wood (2002)
End in Tears (2005)
Not in the Flesh (2007)
The Monster in the Box (2009)
The Vault (2011)

Written as Barbara Vine
A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)
A Fatal Inversion (1987)
The House of Stairs (1988)
Gallowglass (1990)
King Solomon's Carpet (1991)
Asta's Book (1993)
No Night Is Too Long (1994)
The Brimstone Wedding (1995)
The Chimney-sweeper's Boy (1998)
Grasshopper (2000)
The Blood Doctor (2002)
The Minotaur (2005)
The Birthday Present (2008)
The Child's Child (2012)

My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet R.

A Question of Belief by Donna Leon

In Summer, when all the world heads to the Venice, what do you think the Venetians do? They move to cooler mountains to beat the heat. Commissario Guido Brunetti of Venice is looking forward to his summer holiday to the cooler mountains with his family to escape the heatwave and tourist onslaught. He has even boarded the train and almost near his destination. Do you think crime is going to take a break too as Brunetti hopes? No such luck. Even before he reaches his destination, he is back investigating a murder.

A court clerk Fontana was found murdered. Brunetti hears rumours about delays in court cases which may have been due to Fontana. Was Fontana corrupt? Was he killed because of his dealings in the court? Or is there more to his murder?

Vianello, Brunetti's assistant, approaches Brunetti with his family trouble. Vianello's elderly aunt, the brains behind a successful business and a very level headed woman seems to have lost her rational behaviour. She is spending her hard earned money on a fortune teller. Can Brunetti and Vianello find out what is happening and stop this? What made the level headed rational woman part with her hard earned money?

The Fontana mystery is quite straightforward and one can guess what really has happened and Brunetti solves because he sees somebody in the funeral. But the case of the soothsayer is a surprise, I didn't guess it but the case solves itself. As usual I took a plunge into middle of a series. I do like putting up the bits like a jigsaw puzzle. This is the 19th book featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti published in 2010. An interesting mystery giving glimpses into corruption in most sacred places (read Justice) in Venice and how ingenious Con Artists have become.

Oh! I do understand that Summer may not be a good time to visit Venice.

I picked it from the library for the European Reading Challenge and this is my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet Q.

The Postman Always rings twice by James M. Cain

After reading Double Indemnity earlier this year, I wanted to read The Postman Always rings twice by James M. Cain published in 1934 considered a Noir Classic. I always wondered what Noir meant. Wikipedia tells me that Noir is the story where the preparator of the crime narrates the story.

The story is narrated by Frank Chambers, a drifter, somebody without any goal or destination. He meets Cora in a run down roadside joint in California. There is instant attraction between them. There are not many descriptions. Frank comes straight to the point without playing with words. He calls her a hellcat. She wants to be free of her Greek husband whom she married because she had no choice. Now she wants to kill him as she has a new choice. They don't mull over to think what is right or wrong. They have no moral rudder. No emotions are involved in their decision, they are quite matter of fact in their approach. They decide to kill Cora's husband Papadakis. They come with an idea and execute their plan. Will Cora and Frank be successful in their attempt?

She wants to stay, he wants to run and the story flows from their character. A real big cat also makes an appearance. The trick the lawyer plays is ingenious. At 116 pages it is an explosive fast read which I read in a couple of hours. The plot of double Idemnity is narrated in a paragraph about insurance in this story.

I am always interested in the why. Why someone did a crime? That's why I like Ruth Rendell's book, they are called the 'whydunits'. When the preprator narrates the story, you would know why, wouldn't you? Or would you? Oh! And it is all so real. Is this how real people go about commiting crime, thoughtless and bumbling!

I read somewhere that The Postman Always Rings Twice inspired Albert Camus to write The Stranger. I didn't know about it until I finished the book, I didn't see the similarities between Mersault and Frank Chambers while reading. Now I do see. They are so matter of fact without any emotions- Existential is the word, isn't it?

I haven't seen the movie, would love to watch it. My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet P.

Crime Fiction Alphabet letter O

This is my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet letter O.

The Great Impersonation by E Philips Oppenheim published in 1920 deals with doubles, impersonation, espionage, spooky ghosts, a deranged woman, and a woman mad in love.
British citizen Everard Dominey chances upon German Leopold Von Ragastein in German East Africa. Dominey and Ragastein look alike. After a night of drinking and confessing about their respective exiles, Ragastein murders Dominey and takes his place in English Society spying for Germany. Will he make people believe that he is Dominey? Immediately after reaching London he chances upon Princess Eiderstorm, his former lover, who is bent on causing trouble for him. Will Leopold be successful in his mission?

I was getting more excited at the story that is not being told than the one that is told. I can't say much. I did figure out what was happening that was the reason for the excitement. There is a ghost story for the side which is spooky.

What makes some mysteries, where you figure out everything great and others disappointing? I loved this one!

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

Is it possible to murder somebody in a busy crowded place and get away? In this Josephine Tey novel published in 1929, a man in a overcrowded queue for the last week show of a famous London play is murdered. Before who murdered him and why, the question is why this location? It looks like something done on the spur of the moment, if so do people carry ornate weapons for no purpose? If it was planned, wouldn't the murderer look for a more easy location where the person would have a greater chance to escape? Would nobody in the big long overcrowded queue, notice neither the murderer nor the murder? Why are there no identification papers or marks on the victim? Why is the victim carrying a gun? Who is the victim?

Inspector Alan Grant investigates! On seeing the murder weapon, Grant pronounces that no Englishman would use such an ornate weapon to commit murder or use such a location for murder. Therefore the murder should be a Levantine. After this, I wasn't sure what direction the story would take. Luckily for Grant, a foreigner is found on the immediate vicinity of the murder. Grant goes on a wild goose chase all over remote Scottish highlands before he apprehends his suspect.

I wasn't entirely sure of what to make of this story or Grant. First is the location. What kind of person would choose such an impractical location for murder? Second would any detective start with a prejudice? Englishman or not, if the murderer finds a suitable weapon for his deed, is he not likely to use it?

Another thing that irked me was Grant for all his running about all over England and Scotland does not solve the case. Though the ending is satisfactory and gives a plausible explanation, it wasn't easy for me to buy the story.

It took a very long while for me to understand that Tey is laughing at me. A second reading of the first few chapters brought the humour out to me and the points that irked me the first time brought smile now. It was reading Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder where Tey is featured and Ruth Rendell's The Saint Zita Society that brought home to me that the location is plausible.

I borrowed the book from Openlibrary. My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet M.

Leave the Grave Green by Deborah Crombie

Lord Asherton and Dame Caroline's son-in-law, Connor Swann is found dead in River Thames. Lord Asherton and Dame Caroline are renowned opera singers. Presumably upon Asherton's request Duncan Kincaid and Gemma are asked to investigate the case. Was Swann murdered? Was his death accidental? Did he commit suicide?

This is the third book in the Gemma and Kincaid series. I haven't read the first two books. The story starts with the death of young Mathew, son of Lord Asherton and Dame Caroline in the River Thames. The shadow of the event haunts the present case too. Was Mathew murdered? Or was it a accident? Is there a connection between both the cases?

I hear a lot about Deborah Crombie and wanted to pick a book to see if it works for me. I would just say it is a good mystery. There are details about lives of artists, Opera Singers, costume designers and the stage. One of the reasons I couldn't really get involved in the story was because of all the use of the best police, Swann's death could have been accident. I had the same problem with P D James' The Black Tower. I read these books around the same time. Maybe I should stop plunging in middle of a series, then probably I would enjoy more.

Why don't people answer the questions police ask? Okay, these people are celebrities but when the police are asking simple questions like what you were doing at a particular time, doesn't it make sense to establish an alibi rather than beat about a bush or talking something irrelevant? I suppose they are celebrities and they can get away with it.

There are some unexpected twists, and turns. Pool of suspects is really small and you can work out who long before, Kincaid and Gemma work it out. I should try another Deborah Crombie to really decide whether I want to read her books or not.

My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet L.

I am the Cat by Rosemary Kutak

Marc Castleman, army psychiatrist, is on his vacation to Mrs. Tufts mansion in Long Island. He is observant and "Spot(s) complexes in people". A woman in a train has a panic attack and Marc pronounces that she is claustrophobic. He is on his vacation and decides that "for the next five days I refuse to recognise a psychosis if it explodes in my face." But does he?

Mrs. Tufts,' widowed, wealthy and gregarious, ' 'fought off loneliness with crowds of young people', 'Children of her contemporaries, youthful aspirants in various fields, and strays she had run across and befriended. ' Mrs. Tufts grey castle is filled with guests. 'Six assorted human beings with little knowledge of each other, and nothing in common.'

The guests are the Vardis Brother and sister-Franz Vardis, who 'is in the process of getting over yet another jilting' and Ione Vardis, "fumbling with the loose ends of her life", Glenn Parson, interested in philosophy, who would 'want to discuss the meaning of things,' Jocko Harris, the golfer, well-known because of his wife Miriam and Leonard Johnson, the young man who "wrote" and of course Marc.

After Franz's failed attempted suicide, Marc pronounces that he will try again. Next time Franz dies. Is it suicide? When Marc's predicts and they unfailingly come true, what do you make of it? When people start dying in Mrs. Tufts mansion you can't help wondering what is happening here? First one looks like suicide, the second one accident. Third looks like an accident too. But third is one death too many. It smacks of murder. You cannot have too many coincidences. Or can you? Who is killing and why? Who is the Cat?

It wasn't difficult to guess the killer but Kutak plays a nice little trick. I am the Cat published in 1948 is an enjoyable psychological mystery.

I borrowed this book from Openlibrary. Mrs. Tufts and her home reminds me of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's The House of Stairs.

My post for Crime Fiction Alphabet K.

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

I picked this book for the Birth Year Reading Challenge. I decided to look for New York Times Bestsellers for the Year 1978 and Holcroft Covenant was second in the list. I read the three books in the Bourne series namely, Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum almost a decade ago. Ludlum writes great edge of seat thrillers, his books are as usual better than the movies.

Noel Holcroft is the son a Nazi father and an American Mother. Unable to bear the atrocities committed by Nazis, Holcroft's mother leaves his Nazi father and moves back to her home land where she remarries and creates a new life. Thirty years after the war, Noel is forced to think about his roots and do penance for his father's actions. Noel's father repents for Nazi atrocities and during his last days creates a plan to make good for some of his wrongs.

Noel is asked to form the Geneva covenant with hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Nazi funds during the last days of the Third Reich to do good for thousands affected by Holocaust. To do this Noel has to get in touch with the first child of two other Nazis. How to find somebody who does not want to be found? Noel cannot withdraw from this mission, the covenant creators would kill him and his family. Noel gets a mysterious message from British Secret Service. All is not as it appears. Noel is an amateur but he is thrown into the games of professionals. He has to save himself and fulfil the mission. What is the truth behind the covenant? Will Noel find other members of the covenant? Will he form the covenant and do the penance?

The action takes place all over the world from Paris to Buenos Aires to Berlin to Geneva, UK and US. I like the "lessons" Noel learns to investigate and survive. It is an edge of seat action thriller with events following one after another, no time to really pause and think. Half-way through we realise that Geneva Covenant is not what it appears to be, but Noel doesn't know. There is a group trying to stop Noel start the covenant at all costs and another that wouldn't let him think of anything else and there is Tinamou, the assassin and the Sonnerkinder and of course the Fourth Reich. So many conspiracies and twists that after a point I lost track.

At 547 pages, The Holcroft Covenant is an enjoyable read with twists and turns. It count towards various challenges and my post for Crime Fiction Alphabet H.

The Book of the Crime by Elizabeth Daly

Who is your favourite author? And your favourite author's favourite author? Would you love to read a book by your favourite writer's favourite writer? I wanted to read Elizabeth Daly when I heard that she is Agatha Christie's favourite mystery writer. I couldn't find any of her books in my local library. But was thrilled to find one in Opelibrary and immediately borrowed it.

Walking the dog Aby, Rena Austen would rather not go home. She didn't have anybody to tell her tale. If she had this is what she would have to tell


"My husband was an Airman, he wil always be lame from a war wound, he walks with a brace. I met him on a bench in Central Park, while I still had the good job you got me; I fell in love with him, and we were married in a month. That was about a year ago. He had plenty of money, because his uncle left him an income for life, an old house here; he and his brother and sister came from Oregon to live here, after the war. I have everything, and I had nothing and nobody. I wasn't a child, I was nineteen years old- it was a love match.
And in three weeks- three weeks!- I decided that we had both made a fearful mistake. "

There is nothing concrete but she feels her married home is oppressive. Why are her husband's sister and brother staying put. Her husband is injured in war, so she can understand that he doesn't do anything else except enjoy his inheritance. What about her sister-in-law and Brother-in-law? Why don't they do anything? Do they have nothing better to do?

Dragging herself home after the walk, her husband catches her with an old book and he flies into a murderous rage and locks her up. She just took the book to wedge to keep the windows from rattling and she didn't read the title. What was in the book that made her husband fly into a rage? She doesn't stay back to investigate. She manages to flee from this oppressive home. But she has nowhere to go. Nobody to really help her. Where will she go and what will she do? Is it madness to run away from home? He was angry and hurt her. But was it something for which she had to run away? What is really wrong with the Austens? Would anybody believe her and provide her a refuge? Was she right to run away on her instinct?

A simple plot that kept me interested to the end. I didn't guess what was coming. If this isn't enough for you to give it a go, there is a murder and of course a Crime. After all it is the Book of the Crime. There are some nice twists and some fun.

Published in 1951, it features Henry Gamadge and is the sixteenth book in the series. Now I know why Agatha Christie loves Daly. I go hunting for her books. Oh yeah, trust your instincts.

My post for Letter D for the Crime Fiction Alphabet.

A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow

If Mersualt in the The Stranger by Albert Camus pulled the trigger because it was a hot day, we have missing people possibly murdered on a really really cold day in Alaska here. Mark Miller, a park ranger, is missing for more than six weeks in record low temperatures. Ken Dahl, the investigator, sent to find him is also missing. Kate Shugak, living alone in Alaskan Wilderness after resigning from Anchorage District Attorney's Investigative staff, is asked to investigate because of her knowledge of the region and because half the tribe is related to her. Miller with his plans for development of Alaskan Railroad has made enemies with everybody in Park. What happened to Miller and Dahl? Since half the tribe is related to Kate, are they responsible for this disappearance?

Stabenow gives us glimpses into an isolated community, using snowmobiles to get around, eating Moose meat and older generation not wanting the younger one to move on to green pastures, literally. As per the mystery you can guess it after a point of time. Nevertheless an interesting read.

A Cold for Murder by Dana Stabenow is the Winner of the 1993 Edgar for Best Paperback Original and is available for free download from Amazon and other ebooks stores. It is the first novel featuring Kate Shugak.

My post for Letter C for Crime Fiction Alphabet.

The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr

Edward Stevens, 'who was not much different from you or me', was going by train to his weekend home in the countryside. It was not an unusual day or evening. Working in an important position in a publisher's house, his editor had given him a manuscript of murder trials by Gaudan Cross, the mysterious writer who liked having his photo printed on the jacket.

Stevens couldn't help thinking about the death of his neighbour, Miles Despard of gastro-entritis. Miles did not have children of his own, so his brother's children would inherit the estate. They found a string with nine knots beneath the dead man's pillow. And Mrs Henderson had reported a strange event, a woman in a 'queer old-fashioned dress' was in Miles' room just before he died and went out of a door that didn't exist. Nothing really significant. Maybe something wrong with Mrs Henderson.

Abroad the train Stevens starts reading the manuscript by Cross and gets the shock of his life, to see the photo of his wife, underneath the photo her name and that she was guillotined in 1861. Probably, an ancestor of his wife?

He comes home and finds the photo missing. No longer this evening is ordinary. There are so many bizzare events. At one point of time, I was expecting zombies walking in the middle of the night to the heavy metal music. (influence of watching too many horror movies). There are people disappearing into mirrors, corpses missing from their coffins. There are two locked room mystery components in this book. One, who entered the room and disappeared into the mirror and possibly murdered Miles when all the doors are locked. Next, how did the Corpse disappear from the vault. How or where did the Corpse go from a closed coffin?

Who killed Miles, if he was killed? And more importantly how? How did somebody enter a locked room and walk out of a door that did not exist? Oh! I love the twist in the end. I didn't see it coming. One of the best mysteries I have read and Carr creates quite an atmosphere. Now I want to read all books written by Carr.

My post for Letter B for the Crime Fiction Alphabet.