Book Review: Shamus in a Skirt by M. Ruth Myers

IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER

Each book in M. Ruth Myers’ series featuring Maggie Sullivan, a lady private detective just gets better and better.

In Shamus in a Skirt, Maggie is hired by a strange couple of former theater performers who now run an upscale and very discreet hotel. The hotel caters to the wealthy and powerful, but someone is breaking into the hotel safe — or are they? When a young cleaning lady is found dead in the alley behind the hotel, Maggie must learn if certain murder is connected to possible thievery.

Shamus in a Skirt is a very good historical mystery focused when World War II is breaking out in Europe, and many in the US asked if we’d be involved in another European war.

Shamus in a Skirt, like all of her Maggie Sullivan books, feels so … immediate. I don’t really feel like I’m reading historical fiction when I read these books, though the historical details are very good. So good in fact they fit seamlessly in the narrative. If you’re looking for a historic mystery series of quick reading books you can really submerge in, pick up the first book No Game for a Dame in ebook format for FREE. And maybe like me, you’ll find yourself keeping an eye peeled for the next word of Maggie Sullivan.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a history museum curator.

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

30 August 2016

Win A Front Page Affair by Radha Vatsal!

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Continental US addresses only, please. Yes, this is the copy I read for my review, so it’s very gently used. My newsletter is only a couple times per month, featuring great stuff at the intersection of history and mystery, and also updates on my own stories. You’ll be the first to hear when my new books drop. THANKS!

23 August 201624 April 2017

Book Review: Front Page Affair by Radha Vatsal

Out of the Gate Like a Stutz Bearcat

Radha Vatsal is a scholar and a talented storyteller, evident in her strong historical mystery debut, A Front Page Affair, just released this summer.

Capability Weeks (“Kitty” to her friends) and her father (a well-to-do, self-made mogul) live well in 1915 New York City. Kitty, a young addition to the New York Sentinel‘s Ladies Page, covers a July 4th society soiree and becomes tied to a murder and what looks like a plot to endanger the delicate international balance.

Kitty Weeks (and supporting cast) are wonderful. She’s young and privileged and begins to recognize what that has meant in her life throughout this story. I don’t go for that combination in a hero much, but Kitty’s introspection and awareness redeem her (to me at least). A hero who can throw money at their problems and make them go away is not much of a hero. Kitty also works not only externally but internally as well, to find solutions, being creative and brave throughout.

Radha Vatsal has sentences in this book that are heavy with history. It’s hard to write historical novels without ‘info dumping’ on readers. It’s a challenge to weave historical information, foreign to modern readers, and achieve a native harmony so readers glide along, learning without being jarred by the thrills and not the history.

…

Get in on this new series straight away. You’ll enjoy this plucky young hero as she matures during a time of great change in our nation and our world. Strong historical research sunk deep below the surface pushes this debut novel to the top of my recommendation list this month. For a work of fiction, there’s a fantastic ‘Further Reading’ and ‘Selected References and Sources’ pages. Old historian habits die hard.

About the Author: Benjamin Clark writes historical mysteries and works as a history museum curator.

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Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review.

16 August 2016

Book Review: Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston

It was the blurb on the cover that did it. “This is one mean, cold, slit-eyed mother of a book.” — Peter Straub.

A couple weeks ago, I roamed Omaha’s wonderful Jackson Street Booksellers, and I know there’s at least one dedicated James Crumley fan on staff who puts books on a certain big table for browsers. Finding this book on that table carries the same weight to me as a personal recommendation from a good friend. This table is one of my best friends.

Table’s recommendation didn’t let me down. Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston is book two of a three book series. It’s unlike me to go out of order (if there’s an order) but I felt like I was caught up quickly and not too out of the loop on the main character and what had gone on to this point at the opening of book 2. It’s contemporary noir (ca. 2005), so my history die-hards may look askance, but shouldn’t! Classic noir fans will enjoy Huston’s style, though I will warn you, this is not a book for those with language and violence sensitivities.

This book is nearly non-stop, with nuanced and realistic action, and a main character that perfectly walks that line between hero and anti-hero. The main character, Hank Thompson, is also nuanced and realistic, conflicted. There are cracks in his life and character as a result of his choices. It’s also unexpectedly funny.

A big recommend from me. Thanks, big table.

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15 June 201626 May 2020

Old Gems found in Fourteen Great Detective Stories

I dipped into this wonderful old anthology over the past couple of weeks. I once actively collected the Modern Library series, and this book was on those shelves, though it’s in far from collectible condition. It does have a fun old gift inscription and a big old crease through the front board, which somehow makes the book look more friendly.

Earlier I read an essay about how the story The Case of Oscar Brodski, one of the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries by R. Austin Freeman was revolutionary for being the first We See Who Commits the Crime, Will They Be Caught style of stories. In old essays about crime fiction, this is often called an Inverted Detective Story. I had never read Dr. Thorndyke and was not familiar at all with The Case of Oscar Brodski. Then, VOILA, springing forth from my own shelves, there it was. I think Freeman’s story holds up and was pretty good, even to this modern reader.

However, also in this book, the real treat was Cornell Woolrich’s short story The Dancing Detective. Wow! For suspense, menace, and just a straight-up creepy story, what a knockout! The narrator’s voice was so enjoyable, with just the right amount of dark humor. The contemporary slang, also very well done and hilarious. This short story exceeds a lot of stuff coming out today, but then again, Cornell Woolrich is still considered a master of the genre.

The stories included in this edition (earlier editions had slightly different contents):

Bailey, H.C. The Yellow Slugs
Bentley, E.C. The Little Mystery
Chesterton, G.K. The Blue Cross
Christie, Agatha The Third-Floor Flat
Dickson, Carter The House of Goblin Wood
Doyle, A. ConanThe Red-Headed League
Freeman, R. Austin The Case of Oscar Brodski
Futrelle, Jacques The Problem Of Cell 13
Poe, Edgar Allan The Purloined Letter
Post, Melville Davisson The Age of Miracles
Queen, Ellery The Adventure of the African Traveler
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Bone of Contention
Stout, Rex Instead of Evidence
Woolrich, Cornell The Dancing Detective

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

30 January 2016

Book Review: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

“Reader, I murdered him…., A reimagining of Jane Eyre as a gutsy, heroic serial killer….”

With a lead-in like that, I had high expectations. That and this is Lyndsay Faye we’re talking about, the creator of the marvelous Timothy Wilde series, and the one who finally gave us a gripping account of Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper that frankly is better than anything Conan Doyle would have come up with.

Jane Steele is a fun, action-filled homage to the Gothic triple deckers of the Victorian age. It has the classic tropes: Girl orphaned young, named Jane, abused by the wealthier kinfolk she lives with, sent away to horror-show school and becomes governess … I go into books labeled ‘reimaginings’ with gun-shy wariness. Like satire, it can be a fine line between brilliant and obnoxious, too cute or cloying. Steele is not a satire of the genre, but it is sly and winking, more like a quiet unspoken joke between old friends. Jane Steele is even published as a triple decker — thankfully under one cover. It’s action-filled and just tons of fun with some great characters I deeply hope to see again.

Steele, is also unflinching from the ugliness in ugly people, and hardships of the time. Some of that ugliness is only hinted at in those classic Gothic novels we love, but here if someone is a sexual predator, it’s said/shown.

Anyone shying away from the ‘serial killer’ tag — I think it’s not used well here. Jane Steele isn’t a serial killer. More like a vigilante, or frankly just someone who lives in hard place during a hard time. The violence is largely unflinching, but far from Tarantino-esque. This isn’t a cozy knitting mystery, but I think the majority of readers won’t be put off by the violence.

Faye’s descriptions are gold, building tension then giving readers that pinching little twist of anticipation making payoffs that much sweeter. Book to book, she just gets better and better.

Jane Steele comes out in March, and available for pre-order now.

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23 October 2014

Book Review: First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

If you’re a follower of many bloggers, talkers, and reviewers in the bibliosphere (i.e., booklr, bookstagram, et. al.), you’ve probably already heard about Charlie Lovett’s new book, First Impressions. I received a copy of Lovett’s latest bibliomystery from his publisher for review.

It’s good.

For a long time I was a “Decide to read a book, finish it no matter what” reader. If I chose poorly, it was an act of contrition to the bibliogods to finish a crappy book.

But, I began to feel like Life’s Too Short for that kind of strict observance. I asked around what other readers did. Some read to page 100, which seemed like a lot. I was surprised how many were like me — finish it no matter what. Those who would drop a stinker didn’t follow any guidelines, which should have been obvious had I also lead that kind of bohemian, lawless lifestyle like some kind of flamboyantly dressed Borneo ape-man.

Then I heard Nancy Pearl’s good advice, to subtract your age from 100, and that’s the number of pages you should give a book. As you age, and your reading time on earth shortens, and you become a better judge of literature, you don’t have to be quite so full of grace for books that don’t quite deserve to take up precious reading time.

So, for me, that means 66 pages.

By page 40, Fred got his answer:

Yes. Yes, it is a kissing book.

And by page 66 (actually well before page 66 …), I was hooked. But it was good I had adopted that guidance to give First Impressions a fair shake — the opening is cheesier than the pickup lines borne bravely by our protagonist. (An aside: I had a lot of terrible First Impression puns I’ve spared you. You’re welcome.) Not that I’m cheesy-opposed — I’m a big fan of the Aubrey-Mauturin series, but when it comes to romance, I prefer it given a bit more straight.

I found myself drawn in by Sophie Collingwood, a bibliophile in modern London who inherits an amazing library and far more trouble than she ever wanted. A curious bibliophile through and through, I was fascinated to tag along with her for a fun story, intertwined with a story about Jane Austen. I’m no Jane-ite, so I’m definitely not the best one to tell you how accurate/ fulfilling/ uhhh….. Janey(?) that part of the story was, which I know is why many readers will pick this one up. To be honest, I found myself frequently wanting to skip ahead to the modern side of the tale. Not because the Jane side of the story was not interesting, but that I identified more closely with Sophie and her side of the novel.

In the end, it was a good story I’d recommend especially to Anglophile bibliophiles, and I deeply hope it’s a dandy for the Jane Austen fans out there. After all, it’s probably been at least a week since the Jane-ites had a new book to read, which can be way too long for you people. Also in the plus column, I’d rank it highly on “bibliofactor”. The book stuff was meaty and not at all the simple McGuffin some authors try to foist off on us, rather the only setting in which this story could be told. Very good stuff.

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16 October 2008

Bookbinding Tool Mystery?

I bought this for $5 a while ago. I have no idea what it is. The seller proudly proclaimed it was a very antique bookbinding tool. No, he didn’t know I have an interest in bookbinding, so I wasn’t baited. Too badly. Anyway, does have a bit of age on it, wood turned screws, etc. It is not very big, and hinged at the back. I think it’s the back. It has been used a lot, the screws have worn corresponding holes in the board they push against. Of course, there are no markings. The only thing I can think of is it is used to trim small text blocks. One photo has a standard sized Zebra ink pen for scale. Anyone?