30 April 2009

Forgotten Book: THE WATCHER IN THE SHADOWS, Geoffrey Household

This week's contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books.

I found a reference to this book in my records from 1977, and it took some research to track down information about it.

It was the 10th book published by Geoffrey Household (1900-1988), who worked all over the world, including Eastern Europe, the US, the Middle East and South America, as, among other things, a banker, a salesman and an encyclopedia writer. He served in British intelligence in World War 2.

WATCHER IN THE SHADOWS(1960) was filmed for TV as Deadly Harvest (1972).

Various Amazon reviews give the book 5 stars:
This is an amazing work of fiction that is impossible to put down before it is finished. If you have ever visited England in the summer you will appreciate Household's love of the countryside and the intense beauty of it. Household weaves together a story about a man who is forced to confront his past by an unknown stalker, and a beautiful woman who is struggling to find what she wants out of life. Nature, human and otherwise, figure strongly in this amazing story that defies categorization.

Last year The Rap Sheet identified it as a book "you have to read."
So, tension, suspense, thrills, humor, sympathetic characters, and a hero (and a villain) with a sense of honor, plus the odd bit of natural philosophy. What more could you possibly ask for in 192 pages of finely written prose?

I feel quite pleased to have read it! even if 32 years ago.

Review: BLACK OUT, Lisa Unger


Bantam, Random House Australia, 2008, 358 pages, ISBN 978-1-86235-594-3

BLACK OUT begins very provocatively:
Today something interesting happened. I died.


Annie Powers named her daughter Victory, a symbol of a past she thought she had conquered and left behind. In another life in a very dysfunctional family where her mother fell in love with a murderer and rapist on death row, Annie was part of traumatic events she has tried hard to forget. But now her past is catching up with her. A man she thought was dead, the father of her child, has come back for her, and Annie can no longer tell whether her memories are true or delusions.

There can be no doubt to the reader that Annie Powers has a psychotic problem, a dissociative disorder. At times she sees her former persona as a separate person, someone she hates and has tried to destroy. By the time of her death mentioned in the opening lines, she is no longer sure of who she can trust.

Lisa Unger explores Annie's vulnerability as she tries to leave her former life behind. She paints a disturbing picture of Annie's mind as those around her, even those she is closest to, try to persuade her that what she knows has happened hasn't.

The reader may find Unger's technique of slotting in episodes from different time frames difficult to cope with. There are three major slices of time: the present, the recent past, and the deep past; and the book plunges from one to the other with little or no warning, and only contextual clues.

This was an extraordinary book: very provocative in its exploration of how a person with a dissociative disorder may see the world. Looking at it as a thriller, I did find that some of the events stretched the bounds of credibility.

My rating: 4.3

You can read quite a considerable part of the book online, in fact the Prologue and the first 7 chapters, in my copy that is the first 42 pages. There is also a synopsis to read, and a trailer to watch.

Lisa Unger has written 4 books:
Beautiful Lies (2006)
Sliver of Truth (2007)
Black Out (2008)
Die for You (2009)

I read BEAUTIFUL LIES shortly after it was published and rated it at 4.7.
My synopsis:
The day Ridley Jones rescues a little boy from the path of an oncoming vehicle is the day her own life changes forever. After the initial flurry of media coverage, Ridley is contacted by someone who thinks she is his daughter. But Ridley already has parents. Her father is a well respected pediatric surgeon, so who is this stranger?

29 April 2009

The dangers of reading crime fiction

Sometimes I wonder about the titles of the books that I read.
I guess they could be worse.
The only time I really wanted to hide the cover of the book that I was reading was when I was reading Kathy Lette's HOW TO KILL YOUR HUSBAND.
What is the most embarassing title you've ever read?

I don't read books in public much, but perhaps you read on the bus or train?
Have you ever felt the need to hide what you are reading?

Years ago people used to put covers on their books, material ones and paper ones, and I've discovered they are still available.
Do you use them?

28 April 2009

Brunetti's Venice

There's a new Donna Leon book out this month: ABOUT FACE.
I'm looking forward to getting hold of it.
It is #18 in the Brunetti series, published at a rate of about 1 a year since 1992.

I identified Donna Leon as one of my favourite authors soon after beginning this blog.

In that post I listed some sites you might check:
Tours of Guido Brunetti's Venice
Places to visit
Her UK Random House site
Italian Mysteries site

I also listed and described titles that I had read before beginning the blog.

About this time last year I reviewed THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS.

There have been a couple of new things come across my desk recently that may be of interest to Brunetti fans.

First of all there's Taking a walk through Detective Brunetti's Venice but I'm not sure if you will be able to listen to it if you are outside Australia.
Toni Sepeder, author of Brunetti's Venice, and Donna Leon took Tom Morris from the BBC World Service for a tour of Brunetti's haunts in Venice. The mp3 file is on the Australian national broadcasting site at the ABC.
Let me know how you go in listening to it.

Venice Panoramas is a real treat for those who read Donna Leon's books, and indeed for all who enjoy Venice.

There are a number of panoramas to look at. The trick is to click on one of the panoramas and then let it load. Once it is loaded, click & drag your mouse to navigate in the panorama. Compiled in 2004, some of these panoramas are just stunning. They are 360 degrees so you can look all around you. You can almost smell the water! Enjoy!

EuroCrime reviewed the book BRUNETTI'S VENICE by Toni Sepeda, and there's a list of feature films located in Venice at Fictional Cities.

If you have reviewed ABOUT FACE do let me know.

27 April 2009

And the winner is... THE IRON HEART, Marshall Browne

Two weeks ago a post announced Up for Grabs - THE IRON HEART by Marshall Browne

I obviously made the questions too hard, because while many read the post, only 4 submitted answers, and so I put all 4, whose answers were largely correct, into draw for a winner.

And so, after a lot of politically incorrect mumbo jumbo, involving the conducting of an eeny-meeny-miny-mo incantation, the winner was Maria. Maria is a follower of my blog, so I know she will see this and I ask her to email me with a physical address to send the book to.

There were 10 questions to answer.

The Questions:


A B C D
  1. Which of the above is Marshall Browne?
    answer: C. A was Brian Kavanagh. B was Adrian Hyland. D was Garry Disher.
    The answer was in an earlier post.
  2. Which Marshall Browne book is basically a classic locked room mystery?
    answer: There was choice of two: RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN, or INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE SHIP OF FOOLS
  3. In which Inspector Anders book does a bomb explode in the boardroom on the 33rd floor of a Frankfurt office tower?
    answer: INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE SHIP OF FOOLS
  4. Who is the protagonist in THE IRON HEART?
    answer: Franz Schmidt
  5. What has been Marshall Browne's profession for most of his life?
    answer: banker
  6. For which novel did Marshall Browne win Best First Novel Ned Kelly Award in 2000?
    answer: THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS
  7. What is Inspector Anders' distinguishing physical characteristic?
    answer: he has an artificial leg: first of all a wooden one, more recently a titanium one.
  8. In which Australian city are Browne's historical novels set?
    answer: Melbourne
  9. How many titles are there in the Inspector Anders series?
    answer: currently 3
    1. The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders (1999)
    2. Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools (2001)
    3. Inspector Anders and the Blood Vendetta (2006)
  10. How did Anders lose his leg?
    answer: he lost it in a Mafia bomb explosion - before the first novel in the series.
Thank you for participating.
I promise to make the next competition a little easier - perhaps fewer questions, and a shorter time frame. Look for it in a week or so.

26 April 2009

Sunday Salon, 26 April

I've really written altogether too many blog posts this week so I will attempt to make this shorter.

This week's posts
Project: Collaborations in Paradise

You can join a dozen or so people writing a short story collaboratively. The story is meant to be crime fiction, has opening lines written by last year's Ned Kelly Award winner, Michael Robotham, but various authors have contributed some really quirky bits. However there is nothing to stop you from introducing romance, a vampire or two, a car chase, a bit of history etc. You get my drift?
Breaking News
Last week's poll asked How many books are you reading at present?
    29 people participated
    The results
    1 - 5 people
    2 - 6
    3 - 9
    4 - 6
    5 - 1
    more than 5 - 2
Not sure what all that means, except that we are a bit like smorgasboard diners, we like a lot on our plates.

This week's poll: When do you abandon reading a book that you don't like?
Some people have rules: they give the book 10 pages, 20 pages, 50 pages, etc. while others find it difficult to abandon reading a book once they've started. They sort of feel committed.
Pop in and vote (the poll is in the right margin) and leave a comment on this post if you want to explain why you voted the way you did.

Top rated posts - I have a little widget running in the side bar.
It depends on people hitting the "rating" bar under a particular post
1. Organise an online meeting for your book group
2. Forgotten Books: VENOM HOUSE, Arthur Upfield
3. Forgotten Book: A MORBID TASTE FOR BONES, Ellis Peters
4. Up for Grabs - THE CRUELLEST MONTH, Louise Penny
5. Your Best Crime Fiction reads in 2008
Do you ever give the blogger feed back using these tools.
Perhaps you could today - what rating do you give this post?

Currently reading
  • now - BLACKOUT, Lisa Unger
  • next - THE WRITING CLASS, Jincy Willett
  • in the car - A PALE HORSE, Charles Todd

ACRC Update - 26 April 2009

My intent in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge is to read her books in order, so that I can get some idea of what she is doing, problems she is attempting to solve, and her development as a writer. If you look at some of my reviews you will see that I have been able to undertake some of this reflection.

Currently I am managing about a book a month.

I've just started THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, and the next Agatha Christie Blog Carnival is due in just over a week. Hope I get it done in time. Currently there are 9 articles for the Carnival and we could do with a few more.

I am mainly borrowing the books from my local library and as such am a bit subject to some outside influences, and as a result may do a little out of order reading.

Check the opening blog of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge here.
  1. 1920, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES - finished
  2. 1922, THE SECRET ADVERSARY- finished
  3. 1923, THE MURDER ON THE LINKS - finished
  4. 1924, THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT - finished
    1924, POIROT INVESTIGATES (short stories: eleven in the UK, fourteen in the US) - finished
  5. 1925, THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS - finished
  6. 1926, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD - finished
  7. 1927, THE BIG FOUR - finished
  8. 1928, THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN - finished
  9. 1929, THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY - finished
    1929 Partners in Crime (fifteen short stories; featuring Tommy and Tuppence) - on order from library
  10. 1930, THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE - finished
    1930 The Mysterious Mr. Quin (twelve short stories; introducing Mr. Harley Quin) - waiting on the shelves (from library)
  11. 1931, THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY (aka MURDER AT HAZELMOOR) -waiting on the shelves (from library)
  12. 1932, PERIL AT END HOUSE
    1932 The Thirteen Problems (thirteen short stories; featuring Miss Marple, also known as The Tuesday Club Murders in the US)
  13. 1933, LORD EDGEWARE DIES (aka THIRTEEN AT DINNER)
  14. 1934, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (aka MURDER IN THE CALAIS COACH)
  15. 1934, WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS? (aka THE BOOMERANG CLUE)
I am using the list at Wikipedia of novels and collections of short stories. I will interlace the short story collections into the list where I can, but may have to read them out of order. I have decided on a method for reporting on the short stories.

Please feel free to join in my challenge, comment on my reviews etc.

I have set up a block over in the right hand column called Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (with the same logo as this post) where I am listing the books I'm currently reading and those I've finished.
The challenge is called ACRC so each review will be preceded by those letters.

If you want to follow my progress through your RSS reader, then the RSS URL is
http://www2.blogger.com/feeds/8273911883856580200/posts/default/-/Agatha%20Christie%20Challenge
Just save that in your bookmarks or RSS reader and you will be notified when I have written a new post.
Alternatively you could subscribe to the feed through FeedMyInbox. Just copy the RSS URL, click on the FeedMyInbox link and paste the URL in there.
You will need to confirm your subscription by email.

Contribute your blog postings about any Agatha Christie novels to the monthly carnival. Make an agreement with yourself that whenever you complete reading an Aggie you will write a blog posting about it and then submit the posting to the carnival.
If you are participating in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge then write updates like this one and submit them to the Carnival. Let us know what progress you are making.

Review: ECHOES FROM THE DEAD, Johan Theorin

Bantam Dell, Delta trade paperback, 2008, ISBN 978-0-385-34221-6, 385 pages, translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy.

Julia Davidsson's life fell apart when her beautiful son Jens disappeared one foggy afternoon on the remote island of Oland in Sweden. Jen was just six years old, and Julia's relationship with his father had already collapsed. Her own mother had already begun her decline and never recovered, and Julia under-estimated the guilt her father felt afterwards.

Now, twenty years on, Julia, haunted by the need for resolution, returns to Oland to visit her father, and to find out once and for all, what really happened to Jens. Did he fall into the sea and drown, as so many have tried to say, did someone take him, or, illogical as it sounds, is he still alive just waiting to be found?

Julia's father has been sent a package containing what seems to be a sandal Jens was wearing on the day he disappeared. Gerlof Davidsson, coming to the end of his life, too needs resolution. He has always believed Jens was taken by someone, even though a thorough hunt and investigation at the time revealed nothing. He can't shake the thought that Jens's disappearance was somehow connected with the rumoured return of a notorious local killer, Nils Kant. When his friend Ernst is found dead at the stone quarry, Gerlof becomes even more convinced the killer is still at large.

A child's disappearance is the worst nightmare for any parent, Johann Theorin has captured the nightmare that Jens's disappearance created for both Julia and Gerlof very well. The twists and turns their investigation takes as they question the residents of Oland are both believable and unpredictable. The final denouement caught me by surprise.

I was reading something the other day about how we tend to use hackneyed cliches such as "page turner" far too often in book reviews. This is a book though that just keeps you reading. You want to help Julia and Gerlof to find some sort of closure, as well as reconciliation.

I don't know how you talk about the quality of a translation if you can't read the original, but let me say I think this one is well done.

My rating: 4.9

Johan Theorin is one of a number of new Scandinavian crime fiction authors who needs to be on your reading list. His second novel NIGHT BLIZZARD will be out later this year, and I'll certainly be waiting for it.

Read the opening chapters of ECHOES FROM THE DEAD online.

Other reviews to read
I couldn't help but be reminded of other books that I've read that have the same core topic:
Do you like this review? Please give it a rating.

The Story ..... Updated

The Story has grown well, if a little unpredictably, since we began writing it a week ago. As that post is about to slip of the main page of the blog, I have updated it here, incorporating the latest contributions added through
http://todaysmeet.com/murder_paradise

Find out about the project here.

The opening lines were written by Ned Kelly winner Michael Robotham.

Contributors so far (apart from me)


Michael Robotham
Trish
Lourdes
Rik Shepherd
Sally
Sunnie
Robin Thomas
Felicity Young
Wally
Rhubarb Whine
Sally from Oz
Timothy Hallinan
Anything Art
Bernadette
Jon
Mr. O. Monkey

The story so far..

You can't rush a man who's committed murder. Condemned men always shuffle. And you need to know a man's history before you storm his house.

But Victor, who was well aware of this advice, ignored it entirely, and barged up the cracked driveway, fuming. This was rich! Such a nerve!

Danny watched Victor through the window. He figured soon or later he would turn up. Danny had things in place. Victor was going to be in for a real shock in more ways than one.

Danny was sick of being bullied by Victor. He just wanted to be left alone, but Victor was too full of himself to understand.

It took Victor just two kicks to find out that front door was unlocked. Danny waited until he was inside before taking off the handbrake.

Suddenly, a shot rang out. And a second, and a third. Victor and Danny both paused - neither of them had a gun.

Danny came to his senses first, hit the ground hard, dragging Victor down with him. Danny looked up at his pet turtle. Marshall Thomas Amos Bountiful Ramirez was hiding in his shell. He was safer right now than Danny and Victor.

Two more shots rang out - the turtle with the embarrassingly long name retreated further into his shell. But Victor pulled himself free. "We can lie here hating each other or we can do something about this." He reached out and grabbed the turtle.

Another shot grazed the wall behind them. It was clear that this could only be the work of one man. A man who was the most despised in the county. And possibly the craziest as well.

That man was... Masked. And running full tilt away from them both guns blazing.
Danny meanwhile was trying desperately to wrench the turtle from Victor so neither was really paying any attention to the gunman. Masked gunmen generally hate being ignored, even when they are lousy shots.

Also ignored since Danny had pursued Victor indoors to claim Marlowe McGuffin III was Danny's car, which started to roll down the drive just at a gentle pace at first, backwards, into the path of the No. 9 bus to Paradise. Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw it moving, but Victor suddenly let go of the turtle, completely unbalancing Danny.

The masked gunman paused at the end of drive and carefully took aim at the prostrate Danny - or was the turtle the target?

The driver of the No. 9 saw Danny's car rolling towards him on the wrong side of the road, panicked and swerved, crushing the turtle under it's wheel. This was all it took to detonate the explosive device deviously hidden under the turtle's shell. What no one knew was that this wasn't any ordinary exploding turtle: this turtle was from the Galapagos Islands. For millions of years it had endured Komodo dragons and David Attenborough film crews: it wasn't ready to turn "turtle" just yet.

Not even Danny had known about the explosive device attached by his agency to the turtle's shell. All he knew was that he had been told, "when you are in trouble, just throw Marshall Thomas Amos Bountiful Ramirez (the turtle's ridiculously long name) at your opponents. He will do the rest."
Danny had assumed the turtle would take a bite and latch on, or something similar.

Leaving the carnage on the road for the moment Danny turned his attention back to what was going on in the house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Victor was still cowering on the lounge room floor just inside the front door and Marlowe McGuffin III was trying to get out of the back door which he had found dead latched.

Using his full body weight, he hurled himself against it. Hard. With a resounding 'POP' he dislocated his shoulder. It was only then that he remembered he had the keys in his jacket, having deftly snaffled them from Danny when they'd met that memorable night in the club under the railway arches. He fished in his and realised that's not a clever thing to do with a dislocated shoulder. So he screeched instead, then stopped, took a deep breath, and gathered his thoughts. So much to do, so little time. "Prioritise", he thought. "What is the first thing I must do?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, back at HQ, Danny's boss, Lolita Montoya de Valasquez O'Hara gazed at the video of the destruction and sighed.
It was a long-suffering sigh. In all her born days she had never come across anyone with such a penchant for trouble. After all Danny was an accountant, not a secret agent. And a tax accountant at that. About the only thing he had going for him was a cute bum -God what a fool she'd been!

She wrote a short note on her To Do Pad - Never employ agents because of their arse quality - and started trying to think of a way of improving the day. Preferably a way that caused pain to Danny, Victor and Marlowe. The masked gunman was somewhere under the bus, covered with exploded turtle and didn't need her help in the pain department.
She added another memo - Get new exploding creature. Maybe a puppy this time.

[editor's note: we seem to have 4 (5?) characters now. I'm having trouble with the characters - but then I'm only the editor!]

Danny stood up, and considered his situation. The sound of sirens indicated that his neighbours were the sort of whingers who'd call the authorities just because of a few gunshots, and an explosion and a crashed bus.
His original plan had been quite simple - lure Victor into breaking into the house, then take off down the road to call the cops and let Victor be found with the stuff in the front bedroom. Nice simple plan, slightly foiled by lunatic gunmen. Then again, Victor *was* inside the house with the thing upstairs, and the police were on their way. Result! He smiled, wiped a smear of blood from the side of his mouth and limped off as nonchalantly as he could.

Victor looked down the hall and saw that there was someone in front of the back door. Was Danny smart enough to have back up muscle? Running away is the better part of fighting another day, and he who goes out the back window, down the drain pipe and over the garden wall can punch Danny tomorrow, thought Victor, tiptoeing up the stairs.


Add your contributions through http://todaysmeet.com/murder_paradise and come back to check on progress (which may be a bit slow as The Story has to be updated manually)

25 April 2009

ANZAC Day Adelaide 2009

The photo on the right is of the Adelaide War Memorial on North Terrace. Not today though, and the photo is not by me. (see acknowledgement in the foot of this post)

ANZAC Day observations began for us last night at the footy match (at which Port Power were soundly trounced by St. Kilda unfortunately) with a small ceremony with The Last Post and the Rouse being played, the Australian flag lowered and raised, and the Ode spoken.

The person speaking the Ode To the Fallen must have been a bit nervous and will long be remembered, probably to his eternal embarassment, for "at the going down of the morning, and in the sun".

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Today in Adelaide is a bit damp and overcast.
My account is through the eyes of a camp follower of the Enfield Brass Band. It began for us with the Dawn service at the Walkerville Cross of Sacrifice, followed by a gun-fire breakfast at the Walkerville RSL.
Today the Mayor of Dernancourt in France was with us, so the band played the Marseillaise as well as the Australian National Anthem. [I wrote last year about our close association with French towns like Dernancourt, after which a nearby suburb is named, and Villers Bretonneux.]
The gun-fire breakfast consisted of bacon, eggs, a meat patty, and baked beans, and the gun-fire part, a tot of rum in our coffee. Gerdt, Enfield Brass Band's Belgian import, had never come across it before, but that didn't inhibit his enjoyment.

We have just come back from the 2 hour Anzac Day March through the streets of Adelaide. Enfield Brass had to play and march twice, and it rained lightly from time to time, and at one stage an F-111 roared overhead.
Just now we've been watching the dawn service at ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli on television, and now the service at Villers Bretonneux, with the Unley Concert Band as the band.

Last year I posted about some fiction associated with World War One.
The books I wrote about in that post were
  • THE FIRST CASUALTY by Ben Elton. My rating 4.6
  • MURDER IN MONTPARNASSE by Kerry Greenwood. My rating 4.6
  • THE SHIFTING FOG (aka THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON) by Kate Morton. My rating 4.7
  • BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Jacqueline Winspear. My rating 4.6
  • PARDONABLE LIES by Jacqueline Winspear. My rating 4.6
In that posting I also listed a couple of films to look out for, and a play to hunt down.
Read the post to learn more.

I haven't read a lot since then set in the period, but I have read the first 10 Agatha Christie novels and have come to recognise in her an astute observer of the relief, social dislocation, and general fear that followed the cessation of hostilities at the end of 1918.

For example THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, published in 1920, is set towards the end of World War One, and Christie makes a number of observations about the privations of life in England during the war, rationing, and shortages, and a style of living that is fast disappearing. The house at Styles once had a much larger domestic, household and garden staff, but is now "making do". The Cavendish brothers have inherited money, John lives the life of a country squire, and Lawrence, the younger brother is delicate and follows literary pursuits. Other members of the family are working in "acceptable" occupations, for war time that is, a nurse, the land army, and a companion. The War features not only in Hastings' convalescence, but also in the fact that one of the characters is a German spy.

More links to check out:
  • A new resource has been released this week for Anzac day by the ABC
    It is an interactive 3D exploration of Anzac Cove and the events around 25 April 1915.
  • The Australian Department of Veteran Affairs has a page called Commemorations and the Australian War Memorial has a page with, among other things, the sound files for the Last Post and the Rouse.
  • Another page to check is the Anzac Site, a government sponsored page of resources.
  • Check also ANZAC - newly created by SouthOzSue.
  • Visit the The London War Memorial site. Click on Australians in World War I and hear the Last Post, World War II and you hear O God Our Help in Ages Past. Search for the name of your town on the wall.
  • There is also an edna theme page which contains a number of customised search links drawing on the edna database.
  • More on ANZAC DAY at Wikipedia.
Just some stats:
  • 46,000 Australians died on the Somme
  • 62,000 Australians died altogether in World War One
  • 18,000 Australians who died on the Somme have no known grave.
  • 113,000 Australians were wounded on the Somme.
Photo courtesy http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2044/2303609908_696f7daea7.jpg

24 April 2009

Forgotten Book: MAIGRET and THE ENIGMATIC LETT, Georges Simenon

A contribution to a special edition of Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books

First published in 1931, my copy was published in 1963, and judging by my handwritten name in the front, I read it soon after that.

Original title: PIETR-IE-LETTON. Also published as The Strange Case of Peter the Lett , and The Case of Peter the Lett.

This was the first of the Maigret novels, one of a dozen(!) published in 1931.

Synopsis from the back of the book:
    PIETR-IE-LETTON was among the very earliest Simenons. It must be the most tortuous puzzle of indentities ever handled by Maigret.

    Pietr the Lett had for many years been clocked across the frontiers by Interpol: he had the personality of a chameleon. Apart from his extraordinary resemblance to the twisted corpse they found in the toilet of the Pole Star express when she drew into the Gare du Nord, he passed as Mr Oswald Oppenheim, immaculate friend of the Mortimer-Levingstons, multi-millionaires; he seemed to be Olaf Swaan, the Norwegian merchant officer of Fecamp; and he was Fedor Yurovich, a down-and-out Russian drunk from the Paris ghetto, to the life. Maigret needed the obstinate nose of a basset-hound to run down this dangerous international crook. He nearly lost his life once and, when they killed his old friend Inspector Torrence, nearly lost his head as well. But he was in at the kill.
I've paid tribute to Simenon before. This novel pre-dates that novel in my reading by at least a decade.
Perhaps what I should pay tribute to is the role of Penguin books in making Simenon novels available to Australian readers. According to the cover, I paid 2/6 for this copy. Now, for the young ones, that was the equivalent of 25 cents. Unreal isn't it?
I remember haunting, of all places, the bookshelves in David Jones, looking for the new green Penguins, and the Fontana paperbacks (Agatha Christies)

There is an interesting list of Penguin Maigrets here.

By the way, can you identify the sleuths in the cartoon below? Answers here.

23 April 2009

Agatha Christie Blog Carnival #4

The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival #4 is up!

12 titles reviewed in this carnival:
    WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION
    THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD
    THE BIG FOUR
    THE MYSTERY ON THE BLUE TRAIN
    THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY
    THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES
    EVIL UNDER THE SUN
    LORD EDGEWARE DIES
    THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
    THE MOVING FINGER
    THE MIRROR CRACK'S FROM SIDE TO SIDE
    MURDER ON THE LINKS
Participants
Many thanks to all the above. Without them there would be no carnival!

22 April 2009

Blog Improvement Project #8: Leaving Good Comments

I've recently decided to join the Blog Improvement Project, so I've missed out on doing some of the earlier tasks.

This week's task
is about leaving quality comments on the blogs of others and seeing whether that attracts commenters to your blog.

In addition the task includes hunting down some advice about how to write quality comments.

We are also asked whether we keep track of the comments we leave on other people's blogs. Well, I do in a way, but I don't always tick that box that sends follow up comments back to me.

My goals this year have included leaving a comment, if I can, on every blog I visit.
  • I do try to make the comment relevant to what I found on the blog.
  • if the person has reviewed a book I have blogged about then I leave the URL of my review. Sometimes I comment on what they've said in their review.
When people comment on my blog, I try to leave a reply.

Here are some websites I found
What suggestions do you have?

At the time of writing (21 April) my blog has 624 posts and 1799 comments.
That is a ratio of 2.89 comments per post.

21 April 2009

Just Desserts - McCall Smith style

    Why is the writer of detective fiction put under such pressure to deal out just desserts to wrongdoers? The truth is that for many of us fiction is in some sense real and that what happens to fictional people is, in a curious way, happening in the real world.
This comes from an article by Alexander McCall Smith that was originally published in The Wall Street Journal, and then republished in the Weekend Australian. It makes very interesting reading. McCall Smith took up a suggestion by one reader that his character Isabel Dalhousie should have a relationship with one of the other characters, a male 14 years younger than her. Then rather predictably, another reader, at a book signing, told him it was a bad idea, after he had incorporated it in the next book.

I'm not sure how much notice writers normally take of their critics and readers, but certainly McCall Smith has made himself available and approachable in a number of ways. In the case of both 44 SCOTLAND STREET and CORDUROY MANSIONS, both published as serials in daily newspapers, he made a point of suggesting that readers could give him feedback and suggestions about characters and plot points.

Do you know of other authors who welcome this sort of reader participation?
I read a comment by an author recently when he said that a negative review had "scarred him for life".
Would you be game to tell an author face to face what he or she had got wrong? At a book signing?

20 April 2009

Review: THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, Agatha Christie

Originally published in 1930, this edition is a Marple tie-in edition published by Harper Collins in 2005, to match up with the tele-movie starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, Derek Jacobi as Colonel Protheroe, and Stephen Tompkinson as the Vicar, Leonard Clement, married to Griselda.
ISBN 0-00-719100-6, 380 pages.

Church warden Lucius Protheroe must have been the most unpopular man in St. Mary Mead. Even the Vicar had been heard to wish him dead. And now he was. Dead that is. And what's more shot while he was sitting at a writing table in the vicar's study.

It was more than a decade since there had been a murder in the village, before the vicar's time. Until this point Miss Jane Marple who lives right next door to the vicarage had only exercised her deductive skills on petty incidents. She has always believed the method she has developed could be used in a 'real' case and here is her chance. Between them Miss Marple and the vicar make a formidable sleuthing team.

This is Agatha Christie's first book with Miss Marple. Up until now she has seemed to be in search of a satisfactory protagonist, although Hercule Poirot has made 5 appearances. Indeed Miss Marple won't get another outing for another 12 years. In THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE the Vicar plays a similar role to Hastings with Poirot, and Watson with Holmes. However I did feel he was more of equal standing with Miss Marple.

THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE is written through the vicar's eyes, and at first we see Jane Marple as a village busybody, not particularly popular, and extremely observant. The vicar comes to appreciate that she misses very little. I wasn't convinced that Agatha Christie had quite settled on Miss Marple as her next sleuth. In fact, I wondered if she was thinking of a partnership, and indeed, the vicar and his wife appear in the next Miss Marple mystery THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY (1942).

I thought this, #10, the best in the Agatha Christie novels so far, but apparently it did not get a particularly good reception. A number of reviewers in 1930 said that it was far from her best.

Browse inside the book and read the first 5 chapters online.

My rating: 4.7

19 April 2009

The Story

The sole purpose of this post is the growing short story being written through http://todaysmeet.com/murder_paradise

Find out about the project in my earlier post.

This post, The Story, will be updated as contributions are made. However this is a manual process so may take an hour or two..

The opening lines were written by Ned Kelly winner Michael Robotham.

The story so far..

You can't rush a man who's committed murder. Condemned men always shuffle. And you need to know a man's history before you storm his house.

But Victor, who was well aware of this advice, ignored it entirely, and barged up the cracked driveway, fuming. This was rich! Such a nerve!

Danny watched Victor through the window. He figured soon or later he would turn up. Danny had things in place. Victor was going to be in for a real shock in more ways than one. Danny was sick of being bullied by Victor. He just wanted to be left alone, but Victor was too full of himself to understand.

It took Victor just two kicks to find out that front door was unlocked. Danny waited until he was inside before taking off the handbrake.

Suddenly, a shot rang out. And a second, and a third. Victor and Danny both paused - neither of them had a gun.

Danny came to his senses first, hit the ground hard, dragging Victor down with him. Danny looked up at his pet turtle. Marshall Thomas Amos Bountiful Ramirez was hiding in his shell. He was safer right than Danny and Victor.

Two more shots rang out - the turtle with the embarrassingly long name retreated further into his shell. But Victor pulled himself free."We can lie here hating each other or we can do something about this." He reached out and grabbed the turtle.

Another shot grazed the wall behind them. It was clear that this could only be the work of one man. A man who was the most despised man in the county. And possibly the craziest as well.

That man was... Masked. And running full tilt away from them both guns blazing.
Danny meanwhile was trying desperately to wrench the turtle from Victor so
neither was really paying any attention to the gunman. Masked gunmen generally hate being ignored, even when they are lousy shots. Also ignored since Danny had pursued Victor indoors to claim Marlowe McGuffin III was Danny's car, which started to roll down the drive just at a gentle pace at first, backwards, into the path of the No. 9 bus to Paradise. Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw it moving, but Victor suddenly let go of the turtle, completely unbalancing Danny.

The masked gunman paused at the end of drive and carefully took aim at the prostrate Danny - or was the turtle the target?

The driver of the No. 9 saw Danny's car rolling towards him on the wrong side of the road, panicked and swerved, crushing the turtle under it's wheel. This was all it took to detonate the explosive device deviously hidden under the turtle's shell. What no one knew was that this wasn't any ordinary exploding turtle: this turtle was from the Galapagos Islands. For millions of years it had endured Komodo dragons and David Attenborough film crews: it wasn't ready to turn "turtle" just yet.

Not even Danny had known about the explosive device attached by his agency to the turtle's shell. All he knew was that he had been told, "when you are in trouble, just throw Marshall Thomas Amos Bountiful Ramirez ( the turtle's ridiculously long name) at your opponents. He will do the rest."
Danny had assumed the turtle would take a bite and latch on, or something similar.

Leaving the carnage on the road for the mome
nt Danny turned his attention back to what was going on in the house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Victor was still cowering on the lounge
room floor just inside the front door and Marlowe McGuffin III was trying to get out of the back door which he had found dead latched.

The Story... Updated

Collaborations in Paradise

A writing challenge

Are you up to contributing a few lines to a collaborative crime fiction story? Whether you are a published writer or simply a reader of the genre, and even if you aren't, here is your chance to contribute to a unique project.

I am running an activity which is a variation of a "serial" story, written by multiple contributors, authors and readers of crime fiction.

For the purpose of writing the story I have created a site at http://todaysmeet.com/murder_paradise
I'm inviting you to contribute to the story. You have to write in gobbets of 140 characters (a bit like Twitter really) but you may contribute more than one gobbet either in sequence or from time to time.
I'll copy the gobbets into a special post called The Story in sequence, so you will be able to follow the story there, as well as via an RSS feed of my blog.

I want to acknowledge the contributors as much as I can, so when you've made a contribution make a comment on this post letting me know.

I'm not sure how long this project will run for, but I'm sure we'll know when it has run its course.
I will be inviting some writers of note to make specific contributions, so we don't just meander on aimlessly.

Once we are at the end, then I will call for suggestions for titles and we will vote on the most suitable.
Follow our progress at The Story

If you are reading this post, you could assist by promoting the project on your blog and email lists.

Contributors
The Story ... Updated

Sunday Salon - 19 April 2009

A week is quite a long time in cyberland, and I am still blogging far too often..
33 posts so far this month!
This week I have been playing around with a few more things.
  • I've set up a Twitter account (smiksa) and learning about how it works. I am still thinking about separating my work-a-day persona and my crime fiction one though.
  • Petrona pointed her readers to Frankenstory and I have issued a general invitation to any of mine to write a story with me.
Breaking News
Last week's poll asked Do You ever listen to a novel? and there was an associated post.
    33 people voted but the stats are a bit difficult to reconcile.
    11 said they never had
    Of the remaining, 7 said often, 7 sometimes, and 5 rarely.
    how: tapes (4), CDs (13), mp3 (11), computer (2), radio (1), other (1)
Thanks to everyone who participated.

This week's poll: Are you a monobook or polybook reader?
In other words how many books do you have "on the go" at present?
Perhaps you are having a rest from serious reading, or perhaps you have a book parked in various places for different occasions? Take the poll in the sidebar and then leave a comment on the post if you like.

Competition
The opportunity to win a copy of THE IRON HEART by Marshall Browne by doing a bit of cyber sleuthing until April 25. Details here.

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival.
A reminder to those who read Agatha Christie books, that the next edition of the Carnival will be published on April 23. Submissions will close on April 21st. Submit your contributions here.

This Week's posts:
Currently Reading
  • now - THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, Agatha Christie
  • next - ECHOES FROM THE DEAD, Johan Theorin
  • then - THE WRITING CLASS, Jincy Willett
  • in the car - A PALE HORSE, Charles Todd.
    This is great. I can see already I'll be looking for more by Charles Todd.
Online Places to buy Australian Books

monobook or polybook reader?

In other words how many books do you have "on the go" at present?
Perhaps you are having a rest from serious reading, or perhaps you have a book parked in various places for different occasions?
Take the poll in the sidebar and then leave a comment on the post if you like.
The poll closes on April 25th.

18 April 2009

Write a story with me - sequel

In a post yesterday I invited readers to join me in creating a Frankenstory.

The offer still holds, but the first of the stories have been completed.

by Gautami and Kerrie : stored at http://frankenstory.com/stories/04001d75

The castle was dark with only a candle lighted somewhere inside. Something was bubbling in a cauldron. She was sitting in a corner stirring a pot and singing to herself. No one had seen her face ever.
How did he come then to be climbing in through her bedroom window? It's a long story actually and I don't have much time now. He was walking down the narrow alley way under her window and heard a desperate scream for help.
It was that pesky child. Pesky or not, she needed her help. She picked up her bread knife and stealthily tiptoed next door. At least she tried to tiptoe. Her flip-flops were making so much noise. scream turned to singing...
How could have I been so wrong he thought, shaking his head in disbelief, as he burst on the scene: choir practice! True the lead soprano was straining for the top note, but he'd been sure he'd heard a scream!

Gautami is also running one of these on her blog.

by Kerrie and Bernadette : stored at http://frankenstory.com/stories/08d1eb34

There was no doubt about the body. It lay in the middle of the kitchen floor. A total stranger. But Bob had been out mowing the lawn and not seen or heard a thing. The cat showed no interest either in assisting his human to find out if there was someone lurking in the garden nor in offering the human any sort of comfort. His self grooming session had been interrupted and he was thoroughly disgruntled.
That frigid draft coming from the open bathroom door, and through it he could see a window open to the black winter's night. But that was not all he could see. There was a foot, attached to a leg, on the floor, and a trail of blood... leading, of course, up the stairs which, with the lights out, wasn't somewhere she wanted to go but she had to know if the sounds she'd heard meant what she was afraid of. God she hated the darkness.

By Maxine and Kerrie - stored at http://frankenstory.com/stories/b11e16bb

Midsomer is no place to visit without your wits about you. It must be the most dangerous place in Britain. Murders are always happening. Blood Will Out is the episode I am watching tonight with no obvious suspect. for the disappearance of the gold bathroom taps. "At least they didn't steal the plug", muttered muddy Detective Shurley Best, "so I can tip in some buckets of water and wash off the slime before the gorgeous Inspector Wingnut appears on television to talk about the caterpillar murders. Until now the Slug's role in these murders had been a mystery but now it was obvious that he not only paid the villains but supplied the means by which they carried them out. in such a way that nobody could disover the secret. "But what about the wellies?", they wondered. Would they give the game away? As the sun rose above the distant hills, a quiet "quack" was heard on the deceptively peaceful pond.

So if you want to write a story with me, just go to Frankenstory. You will need my email address - look at the link in the top right corner and you will have it.

ACRC Update - 18 April 2009

My intent in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge is to read her books in order, so that I can get some idea of what she is doing, problems she is attempting to solve, and her development as a writer. If you look at some of my reviews you will see that I have been able to undertake some of this reflection.

Currently I am managing about a book a month.

I've just started THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE, and the next Agatha Christie Blog Carnival is due in just over a week. Hope I get it done in time. Currently there are 9 articles for the Carnival and we could do with a few more.

I am mainly borrowing the books from my local library and as such am a bit subject to some outside influences, and as a result may do a little out of order reading.

Check the opening blog of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge here.
  1. 1920, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES - finished
  2. 1922, THE SECRET ADVERSARY- finished
  3. 1923, THE MURDER ON THE LINKS - finished
  4. 1924, THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT - finished
    1924, POIROT INVESTIGATES (short stories: eleven in the UK, fourteen in the US) - finished
  5. 1925, THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS - finished
  6. 1926, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD - finished
  7. 1927, THE BIG FOUR - finished
  8. 1928, THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN - finished
  9. 1929, THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY - finished
    1929 Partners in Crime (fifteen short stories; featuring Tommy and Tuppence) - on order from library
  10. 1930, THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE - this is what I am reading now
    1930 The Mysterious Mr. Quin (twelve short stories; introducing Mr. Harley Quin) - waiting on the shelves (from library)
  11. 1931, THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY (aka MURDER AT HAZELMOOR) -waiting on the shelves (from library)
  12. 1932, PERIL AT END HOUSE
    1932 The Thirteen Problems (thirteen short stories; featuring Miss Marple, also known as The Tuesday Club Murders in the US)
  13. 1933, LORD EDGEWARE DIES (aka THIRTEEN AT DINNER)
  14. 1934, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (aka MURDER IN THE CALAIS COACH)
  15. 1934, WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS? (aka THE BOOMERANG CLUE)
I am using the list at Wikipedia of novels and collections of short stories. I will interlace the short story collections into the list where I can, but may have to read them out of order. I have decided on a method for reporting on the short stories.

Please feel free to join in my challenge, comment on my reviews etc.

I have set up a block over in the right hand column called Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (with the same logo as this post) where I am listing the books I'm currently reading and those I've finished.
The challenge is called ACRC so each review will be preceded by those letters.

If you want to follow my progress through your RSS reader, then the RSS URL is
http://www2.blogger.com/feeds/8273911883856580200/posts/default/-/Agatha%20Christie%20Challenge
Just save that in your bookmarks or RSS reader and you will be notified when I have written a new post.
Alternatively you could subscribe to the feed through FeedMyInbox. Just copy the RSS URL, click on the FeedMyInbox link and paste the URL in there.
You will need to confirm your subscription by email.

Contribute your blog postings about any Agatha Christie novels to the monthly carnival. Make an agreement with yourself that whenever you complete reading an Aggie you will write a blog posting about it and then submit the posting to the carnival.
If you are participating in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge then write updates like this one and submit them to the Carnival. Let us know what progress you are making.

17 April 2009

Write a story with me (or another friend)

Many thanks to Petrona for the tip off about this little widget.

If you'd like to try it out with me, or somebody else, just click on the image to get to the site.
If you want to write one with me, my email address is available in the top right corner of this page.
Be warned though, I might use "our story" in a future blog post.

16 April 2009

Review: TEA TIME for the TRADITIONALLY BUILT, Alexander McCall Smith

Little, Brown, 2009, ISBN 97801-4087-0103-4, 250 pages

An annual meet up with Precious Ramotswe, proprietor and founder of the No 1. Ladies Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, is one of the pleasures of life. For me it is like renewing a friendship with an old friend.
For TEA TIME for the TRADITIONALLY BUILT is #10 in the series, the first of which was published back in 1998.

Mma Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi are called upon to investigate why a local football team has begun to lose on a regular basis. Mma Ramotswe's faithful little white van has a terminal illness, and Mma Makutsi's fiance Phuti Radiphuti does not recognise a Jezebel when he comes into contact with one. There is a more detailed synopsis in my earlier posting.

If you are looking for a blood and guts read, then this is not the book for you. As always with all the books in the series, this is a gentle progress, characterised by investigations into the small problems that loom so large in ordinary lives.

While I enjoyed the book, it is not the best in the series. I thought it felt a little padded out, with descriptions and philosophising as Mma Ramotswe ponders the meaning of life.

My rating: 4.0

The series:
1. The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998)
2. Tears Of The Giraffe (2000)
3. Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001)
4. The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002)
5. The Full Cupboard of Life (2003)
6. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (2004)
7. Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006)
8. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007)
9. The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008)
10. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009)

Alexander McCall Smith's website is at http://www.alexandermccallsmith.co.uk

My other McCall Smith postings: all of them
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