Dekok And The Disillusioned Corpse by A.C. Baantjer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars







On a windy damp March day in Amsterdam a body is fished out of a canal. There is no identification on the person and the only clue to his identity is the way he is dressed in black turtleneck,black jeans and new Keds. Detective-Inspector DeKok and his partner Vledder are quite surprised when the next day a beautiful young woman comes into the police station claiming she know the victim and they were in fact lovers. Unfortunately the little she knows about him doesn't include his real name.

Amsterdam is a city of canals in a system that is even more extensive than that of Venice, a little know fact that the citizens of the city are proud of. They are also proud of the fact that murder is somewhat of a rare happening in this beautiful. Death on the other hand is common because of wide spread drug addiction and alcoholism. In fact DeKok wants to rule out an accidental death in the current matter at hand but the post mortem reveals the fatal wound on the young man's face.


These two detectives have only one cryptic clue to start them on their search. The dead man was heard to say 'Can a dead person commit murder?' a day or so before his death.


The story is gripping, beautifully complex and a very good example of A. C. Baantjer's work. A subtle mix of psychology, history intuition make DeKok a sleuth many compare to Maigret. I like him a bit more. He is a maverick, a luddite and most of all compassionate man.

Chesapeake Crimes II by Donna Andrews



My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Chesapeake Bay Marina

This volume contains fifteen stories  about a variety of mayhem written by some of my favorite authors and some writers new to me that I will definitely read more of.





Represented among others are G.M. Maillet who writes the St. Just mysteries and more; Marcia Talley who writes the Hannah Ives Mysteries and other members of Sisters in Crime.

Georgetown

One of my favorite stories was Sandi Wilson's The Blond in Black which takes place in Georgetown an historic section of DC.

Another was by Peggy Hansen entitled Death in The Aegean which had an exotic flavor.

Small town on the Chesapeake

Howtown by Michael Nava
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lawyer Henry Rios travels north to the area where he grew up to take a case as a favor to his estranged sister.  Henry had a very painful childhood as did his sister but they both had left their past behind in different ways. Rios refers to his hometown as How Town, a phrase taken from an E. E. Cummings poem called 'anyone lived in a pretty how town'.



"women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars and rain....'

Central valley

The case is a difficult one involving a pedophile who has purportedly committed murder. Under another circumstances he would have refused the brief but he does want to help his sister and their by her friend. It means meeting old friends whose reactions to him he is unsure of, but immediately he realizes that there is something very wrong in the city of Los Robles amidst the politicos, the movers and shakers as well as the police.



Henry believes the truth must come out one way or another and he has to step lively or he will be steam rolled into the ground.

Henry Rios is a complex character with many shadows in his life but at least during this book he tries to stay in the sun.

          The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Every time I read this book  and it is worth rereading, I am flabbergasted by the fact that Georgette Heyer began it when she was fifteen years old. The characters are very well drawn with a subtle mixture of emotional depths that is very insightful. Even her villain is quite three dimensional with an intriguing blend of good and bad that made him in the end quite likable.


Nobody does period speech as well as Heyer and she has been much emulated. If I had to compare Heyer with Jane Austen all I can say it I have read her more often and more repeatedly that any of Austin's works in which case once was enough. Heyer sets a beautiful scene and takes the reader back in time. Then she gives each character a voice and they come alive. 




The first books that she wrote had several that either foreshadowed or segued into other books.

	In These Old Shades it is apparent that the story was foreshadowed in Georgette Heyer's first book The Black Moth because the main characters bears many similarities in both books. But in this case Justin Alastair the Duke of Avon is more fully fleshed out. He is never as bad as he is painted. This is one of her best. Heyer spends a lot of time discussing the clothes of the era. The wealthy had little else to do so they spent an inordinate amount of time on their person and their outfits. . She does have a thing for shoes with red heels, they show up in all her early books. The story begins when he rescues a waif from the streets of Paris with striking hair and makes him his page. There is a mystery subtly interwoven in between action and adventures that makes this book very enjoyable. The sequel to this book is Devil's Cub. The young Marquis of Vidal is known to be even wilder that his father the Duke of Avon. As he flees England after one misadventure he kidnaps a young lady who changes his life. This book is one of my favorites. The Talisman Ring is not classified as one of Georgette Heyer's mysteries but the story does revolve around the solving of the murder of Sir Matthew Plunkett and discovering the location of a talisman ring. When Lord Lavenham crosses the great divide, his grandson and heir Ludovic is supposedly hiding in Europe because he is suspected of being the killer of Sir Matthew. There is definitely an air of adventure and excitement mixed with some romance as the story unfolds with with, humor and mild suspense. There are cutthroats, smugglers, Bow Street Runners, hidden basements, priest holes and foolish as well as clever heroes and heroines. It is fun to read. Regency Buck

This is Georgette Heyer's first story actually set in the regency era .  Beautiful heiress Judith Tavener and her younger brother become wards of Julian St John Audley the Earl of Worth. What a great name! The two young people have travelled down to London from Yorkshire planning not to set the world on fire but just to shake the straw out of their hair.

Before long a game is afoot to murder the young Percy. Is the culprit the free spending Lord Worth  are there other villains in the family such as a dipsomaniac uncles whose pockets are to let. The book is filled with such interesting turns of phrase which are well researched by Heyer at heart a historian. It is said that her book The Infamous Army which details the battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon is used a a British Military college as required reading.

These books are just a taste of Heyer. She has written excellent historical books, golden age mysteries and more. Her books are still frequently republished.

Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo police becomes involved in the case of the disappearance and death of a young boy in this story the second of the Leaphorn series.  Ernesto a young Zuñi has been chosen to impersonate the FireGod in the incoming Zuñi sacred celebrations. He has been training so that he can run, dance and participate with great strength. Pround of the fact that he has been so honored he could't help tell his friend George about it which was improper thing todo but he needed George's help in his workouts.


When his body is found cruelly murdered George takes off trying to right the karma. But as is often the case one death follows another and Leaphorn knows he has to find George before anyone else does.


Leaphorn has always believed that there is a reason for everything. Every cause has it's effect. Every action it's reaction. There is a synchronicity to nature. In all things there is a pattern but in this situation Joe Leaphorn is struggling to find it.


Tony Hillerman creates  a wonderful picture of a certain time and place. He educates the reader in this book about several of the very differences between the Navajo and the Zuñi both in their creation beliefs, and the way they live their lives.


The value of a book is what you take away from it and Dance Hall Of The Dead is a gem.

Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Japanese Americans are a very unique group. As far as I know they are the only  people who have names for the different generations with in their group. The SOB (Straight off the boat) are  the Issei, their children the second generation are the Nisei and their grandchildren or third generation are the Sansei.  In addition to this they are one of the most resilient people who suffered great indignities and hardships  in the course of their history in the Western Hemisphere. It was not until the 1950's that they were allowed to become naturalized American Citizens. Despite being interned during the war, losing their property and more they elected to look to the future rather than to the past.

There is a subgroup the Kibei Nisei who were born in America and raised in Japan. Mas Arai is one of these young men who eventually found himself deep in a subterranean train station in Hiroshima during the 1945 bombing and it had naturally marked his life in very significant ways. He is now a 70 year old part time gardener who is getting a reputation for solving murders and he gets involved in the death of a recent lottery winner. The situation is complex and reaches back to Okinowa and WWII, to the red scare in the 50's and brings up some of the bad things men do for what they think are good reasons.

Mas Arai may appear to be a grumpy old man, but in reality he is just a person who suffers fools badly, has little use for regrets about things that cannot be changed and he never wears his heart on his sleeve but he definitely has one.

There are a lot of characters to keep straight and convoluted motives but you won't regret reading this book, both for the history and the mystery. The tidbit I took home was the fact that many Japanese went to Peru when a call when out in a need for labourers. The Peruvian government rounded up these Japanese-Peruvians and sold them to the US Government who planned to exchange them for US POWs who were being held by Japan. This tranfers was incomplete but some were sent to Japan.. The other kidnapees were held in Texas and eventually release and some stayed in the US and some returned to Peru and their previous lives. Peru refused to have most back and they languished in Crystal City,Texas for two years after the war was over.

Crystal City Internees

Crystal CityInternees 

Gasa-Gasa Girl by Naomi Hirahara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Mari Arai was always known to her parents as being gaza-gasa, an into everything kind of girl,  just the opposite of laid back. Mas Arai, her dad tells her she takes after her mother. Mari  retorts that her mother claimed it was a trait taken from her father. This may be the closer to the truth. Mas Arai had dreams of becoming an engineer but he life took another path after he was fortunate enough to survive the Hiroshima bomb.


Mas ended up becoming a gardener in the LA area and spent many decades at this craft. Retirement is a word that he knows will never apply to him. He spent many years living very quietly until he was involved in a case chronicled in THE SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI the first in this series by Naomi Hirahara. Now he is traveling to New York because his daughter has issued a cry for help.


He is just getting his feet accustomed to concrete sidewalks when he discovers the dead body of his son-in law LLoyd's boss in a Koi pond with mysterious markings. This victim was Kazzy Ouchi a magnate in the silk garment industry was the son of a humble gardener at a big New York City estate. Mas becomes enmeshed in the complex affair because one of his strengths is that he is not a quitter. Mari and Lloyd are in the middle of this scenario and Mas investigates so he can extricate them.


This is a lovely book with interesting fascinating characters who have a background as a part of American history. The author touches gently on all the different generations of Japanese-Americans and how East coast and West coast lives of the citizens differ.

Miss Clare Remembers and Emily Davis by Miss Read


This volume is a double with two gentle stories written about ten years apart. The first can be summed up by a phrase which aptly depicts the times in a few words. "It was an age that was geared to great efforts for small returns.' How very different from current times in which we expect a large return for every little effort.


Miss Clare was a school teacher who began her work just after the turn of the last century. It was a difficult era with society in a post industrial revolution rural poverty that affected many.

The story follows Miss Clare through the war to end all wars and changes from gas to electric, horse to car, kite to rocket science. These were part and parcel of Miss Clare's existence and none of it challenged her equanimity.





The second story chronicles the death of octogenarian Emily Davis. As the news diffuses to many people who remember Miss Emily Davis their fond memories of how this stalwart school teacher touched and improved their lives, are shared. If the reader can ever seeing him or herself as leaving such footsteps in the sand they blessed indeed. Emily was Miss Clare's lifelong friend and fellow teacher. There are many parallels in these two lives, part of which is the same struggles of losing the loves of their lives, teaching in small country schools  and the ardent love of nature in the country and all it has to offer.

borrowed from Janet Rudolph's blog The Mystery Fanfare

The Best American Short Stories 2007 by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a great reader of short stories I was anxious to try this volume edited by Stephen King. Since I don't tend to read a book such as this in one sitting I have been perusing it for a few years. There are stories from wonderful authors like T.C. Boyle, Louis Auchincloss, Ron Kesey and Alice Munro.


My favorite story was by Jim Shepard entitled Sans Farine which means with outflour. It chronicles the lives of the royal and later state executioners. These men and their families had a somewhat inherited occupation and were restricted in many the ways they could live their lives. They were in a way pariahs with no way to rise out of their caste.


During the Reign of Terror this job had many ramifications affecting their personal and professional lives. The history in this story was fascinating.

Slicky Boys

by Martin Limón

Itaewon

George Sueño and his partner Ernie Bascom are both grateful to the army. What for? For George it is because he has a real life, money coming in, and having a job to do. He and Ernie are CID investigators for the 8th  United States Army in Seoul, Korea. They wear suits and do important work, something George never thought he would do growing up in East LA. Ernie's Chicago youth also left much to be desired.

After work these two friends and partners spend their free time in Itaewon, a seedy part of town filled with bars and business women. On this  occasion they do a favor for one of the girls they met and it results in the death of a British soldier. It turned out that he was a little shady and as the CID investigators they need to find his murder before they themselves are in hot water for perhaps leading him to his death.

Part of the investigation reveals connection to a wide spread systematic thievery of the American enclaves. After the devastation of the Korean war twenty years before people were desperate and and starving. In the middle of these wastelands were American military settlements surrounded by barbed wire, and these were the only places with food, clothing and shelter. The people would barter with the GI's for the wealth they held be it so small as a used bar of soap. Others were more aggressive using thievery. 'Slick boys' is what the GI's called them and it was softened to slicky boys by the Koreans. Many were exactly that, boys of 6 to 10 years old. They would slip through the wire and take anything that could fit in their pockets.

8th Army PX

In George Sueño's time they were very organized and he was going to find out just how much. What he found impressed him because it a way there was a certain honor to the way the  losses to the American compounds was always kept just below what the US Government allotted for.No greed was permitted. In this way they also hid from investigations.

As Sueño's investigation proceeds he feels that he is becoming wrapped in the tentacles of a giant squid. There  are more brutal murders and the partners find far reaching fingers in the pie such as the North Koreans, the Korean Police, the Korean and the US Navy. The case is dragging them down to the deeps of evil.  On the surface at least part of the problem is the lose of military secrets.

Sueño has to lower himself to abide by the dictates of common thieves but this did not really bother him. He was from East LA and he had been fighting his way up from the bottom all his life. His strength in his relations with the Koreans is that he is one of the few who bothered to learn the language, to learn about the culture and to understand the desperate circumstances that force people into certain ways of life.




Martin Limón takes us to a Korea that is fascinating, exciting and very complex. He uses a bit of the history of the people he writes about to make us appreciate a very different oriental culture that has suffered for for the last centuries.

Murder of the Bride by C.S. Challinor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Scottish Barrister Rex Graves and his fiancée Helen have been invited to a wedding in England after which they play on taking a walking holiday. The bride to be, Polly is a former student of Helen's who lives with her mother in what some might call a faux castle. The bride and her mother were deserted by  Polly's father years before in mysterious circumstances.


Aside from the excellent food and beverages, the wedding offers an opportunity for Rex to meet some of Helen's co workers and in particular her old boyfriend Clive. When the festivities re wrapping up and  the wedding cake is distributed a hidden scenario comes into play and murder is added the menu.

Rex tries to find the motive for the mayhem and while lives hang in  the balance the rush is on to bring different elements of the past and present together and see what caused them to erupt.


All the clues are there and it is very fortunate the QC Rex with his sharp eyes, intelligent instinct photographic memory is on the scene. The reader has the same inside tract to solving the case.


This mystery moves a at a rapid pace, is interesting, entertaining and fun.

The First Rule of Ten : A Tenzing Norbu Mystery by Gay Hendricks, Tinker Lindsay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Tenzing Norbu is the product of a romance between a young American woman and a Tibetan monk. He spent his early formative years in Paris with his mother who died young. He then went to a a monastery in India where his after lived. He was completely  immersed in the the Buddhist teachings until late teenage years when his naturally rebellious personality finally made it increasingly difficult to stay on this past.The efforts of an intuitive monk set him one a path to teach Buddhism in Los Angeles where he realized that the kind of order that he wanted to belong to was law and order. Thus he became a part of the LAPD.

Once he asked his father why people die and the answer he received was that they died in order to learn how to live. Tenzing "Ten" after many years on the force decides to try to lives a private citizen helping others thus he becomes a PI.

The badge is barely cooling in his drawer when his first case chooses him rather than the other way around. A desperate woman comes to house in Topanga Canyon fleeing from a cult and mutters dire warnings about people dying. She leaves and Ten is not sure what to make of her but he finds out the next day that she has been brutally murdered.


Tenzing uncovers a machiavellian plot involving many criminal elements and lawyers. It boils down to a case of murders for either love or lucre. Filthy lucre is most likely the driving force.

Tenzing approaches the case as he does his life, trying to understand himself and his own feelings and motives for what he is involved with. It really works for him making this an interesting story with a complex character who is very likable. I am not exactly clear on the ins and outs of the first rule of Ten but I am very eager to read THE SECOND RULE OF TEN.

COOKING THE BOOKS

Cooking The Books by Kerry Greenwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is summer in Melbourne, Australia and baker Corinna Chapman has closed her shop, Earthly Delights for a few weeks in order to have a vacation. That surely wouldn't work in my neck of the woods but it is a detail that reminds the reader that there are other exciting and different places in the world.


Amidst the hot northern wind that the Aussie's have no name for but many others do, like mistral, khamsin, sirocco or Santa Ana's mischief and mayhem is bound to occur because tempers get hot, people are uncomfortable and emotions are stirred. A Chinese friend of Corinna's calls it Dragon's Breath which is very apt.

Flinders Street Station

Corinna is a little bored with her vacation and helps an old school friend out by helping her in her job as a caterer for a new TV soap about a wedding planner. Some funny and some not so funny things are happening on the set and Corinna is on the spot to help her partner Daniel, a PI who has been asked to find the culprits who are behind the pranks. Daniel is also working on another case of stolen bonds so the days and nights are filled with mysteries. There are several other sub-plots that keeps the reader alert.

Parliament House, Melbourne

In the case of the bonds the duo are following clues based on nursery rhymes and other literary references. It is this that gives this book a lift because I always like a variety of mental stimulations. I had known that many nursery rhymes had meanings reflecting the times in which they were born but I got a lovely mini-education about the rhymes. Just my cup of tea or cupcake as the case may be. Following the clues I used Google images to see what Corinna and Daniel were visiting and this further enhanced my enjoyment of this book.