An Unkindness of Ravens. Ruth Rendell

An Unkindness of Ravens.
Ruth Rendell

Yet another modern female British mystery novelist who needs to have weird sex and/or a severely troubled childhood thrown into the plot. In this case, at least, the detective seems to be as normal as the rest of us. As it turns out, the semi-pedophile bigamist who was murdered did not rape his own daughter, but she had half-convinced herself that he had. Or something like that. The killer is fairly obvious, but when, for no real reason, Rendell evaporates the motive to a mere vapor of a motive, it leaves me wondering why.

Death and Dishonor. Iaian Pears.

Death and Dishonor.
Iaian Pears.
Scribner's: 1996.

Jonathan and Flavia Argyll are the husband and wife team of this mystery author, who is an art history professor. As we saw with Elizabeth Peters, the novel allows the author to show off (rather than share) his or her specialized knowledge. Fortunately, Pears is not nearly as obnoxious as Peters in this regard. I rather enjoyed the basic plot of the book, because although there were two murders, the mystery to be solved is an art theft, not a murder. However, there is a major stretch of imagination to be made (a monestary has proof that Constantine spent his last days there and brought a holy relic with him), and the crime is too easily solved. On the other hand, one character, who is a retired art thief and now a grandmother, is pretty amusing.

The author has the opportunity to develop some interesting points -- do supernatural powers of holy icons dissipate if no one believes in them? why is the mass public satisfied with religion, yet not the clergy? etc., but the author opts for a short, mostly-brainless, easy-to-read book instead.

'H' is for Homicide. Sue Grafton.

'H' is for Homicide.
Sue Grafton.

The two complaints that I hear most often about Grafton are that she's wordy and that all her books are alike. I read this book as an abridged audio book, which takes care of the first complaint, and I probably won't read another of her books, which takes care of the second.

Nothing really mysterious about this mystery. The reader and narrator both know that she's investigating a bad guy. This is more of a suspense novel without the suspense.

Kinsey Millhone is an insurance PI investigating false claims. The police persuade her to work under cover. She does, and does nothing too interesting, until the bad guy shoots someone, then she chases after him. No Poirotesque grey cells in action here: this is the new breed of mystery novel.

Too Many Cooks. Rex Stout.

Too Many Cooks.
Rex Stout

This is a Nero Wolfe mystery. Wolfe is a big fat detective, and his stories generally have a gastronomical lean.

The great chefs of the world hold a conference, and one of them is murdered. The killer is very easy to identify, and although this is written as a Christie-like mystery, you get the feeling that Archie Goodwin, Nero's sidekick, would rather be (or thinks he is) in a hard-boiled detective novel. At any rate, his very dry, sarcastic wit carries the story along, and Nero Wolfe himself is more of a plot device than a truly interesting character (although he does have his share of good lines.)

The Hunters and the Hunted. Lesley Egan.

The Hunters and the Hunted.
Lesley Egan.
Doubleday: 1979.

The only reason I read this is that I happened to notice it takes place in Glendale, California, the city I grew up in. It was kind of fun to read along and see familiar street names and landmarks...

The book itself, however, is boring. Supposedly about an ex-husband wanting to kill his ex-wife, it is really just a couple of weeks on the beat with Glendale's finest. A bunch of completely unrelated cases occur, paperwork is filled out, and the bad guys confess.

No suspense is built at all on this main "case" and it ends with the bad guy getting killed in a car accident when someone runs a red light. What kind of plot device is that? Egan is scratched off my list of potential authors to read.

The Last Camel Died at Noon. Elizabeth Peters.

The Last Camel Died at Noon.
Elizabeth Peters.
Warner, 1991.

The worst elements of series writing abound here: flat characters, inside jokes, repeat jokes (I mean, repeated within the same book -- I can't imagine how tedious it must be to read all of her books), and lack of interesting plot. Author is professor of Egyptology and likes to show it off. She attempts to compare her novel with Haggard and Wilkie Collens, yet she is seriously deficient in one area: she lacks the ability to write a good story.

The plot moves lamely along and mostly consists of opportunities for the characters to make jokes or refer to previous novels in the series. Two 19th-century egyptologists find a lost emplire that sill mostly lives as ancient Egyptians. Various forms of danger follow, their son usually helps them because he's so darn smart, and evetually the good guys win. I finished it yesterday and can't even remember how it ends, it was so unimpressive.

Billed as a mystery, the only redeeming quality of this book is that it sort of tries to be an old-fashioned mystery. It fails, but at least it makes the attempt.

The Thinking Machine: Adventures of a Mastermind
by Jacques Futrelle.

Originally written during the first decade of the 20th century, the Thinking Machine stories introduced one of the first story-book scientist-detectives (alas, they don't really make them like this any more.) Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Deusen, a.k.a. The Thinking Machine, uses his great powers of logic and deductive reasoning to solve crimes and other problems.

These stories are great fun and although they require some stretches of imagination, they are on the whole well thought-out. The best puzzle was the secrety who was stealing company secrets by typing memos in such a way that her key strokes were Morse code translations of the memos she was typing. Awesome!!

These stories are written for grade schoolers, and are entertaining & thought-provoking. Interestingly enough, Futrelle went down with the Titanic. Lost with him were several unpublished Thinking Machine stories.

John MacNab

John MacNab

John Buchan. Wordsworth Classics: 1986.

A fairly short but entertaining adventure/mystery about three men, bored with respectable life, who go to the country and challenge their neighbors that "John MacNab" will poach an animal from their estate during a given time period of three days.

Of course, there are minor subplots, and some fun characters, but the bulk of the story is the planning and execution of the stunts. It has the same intellectual stratagem of a mystery, the excitement of a suspense novel, and a LOT of Scottish colloquialisms.

Yes, this is fun, but the former English major in me cannot resist seeing the Christian Trinity in the MacNab three-in-one persona: father (loss of innocence plot), son (fish miracle plot), and Holy Ghost (power of love plot.)

March 12, 2005

The Case of the Borrowed Brunette

Erle Stanley Gardner. Walter J. Black: 1946.

This is the first Perry Mason novel I've read and I was reasonably impressed with the writing style and the story itself.

It seems to be more of a "story" than some mysteries, but less of a drama (read: soap opera) than others - a happy medium, perhaps. No real interesting stylistic manoeuvering or symbolism, but at least the story is clear and concise.

The case involves impersonation, murder, theft, adultery, blackmail, gambling. The whole gamut, I suppose. The plot line, however, pulls you through a lot of the miscellanea, and it is interesting to see Perry Mason's guesswork and hypotheses (not always accurate) develop along the way.

(Also of note is Mason's age and description being not at all similar to the TV program!)