On This Week in 2005: From the Historical to the Hilarious

It's me-- back again with more of my reading from eleven years ago! As I've gone through this book journal of mine, it's really given me food for thought. Why did I stop reading this series? Do I still read that type of book? When's the last time I read____? It seems as though I always have an endless loop of questions running through my mind!

On this week in 2005, I read three very different books. Each was a very enjoyable read, and each was a mystery. There's something for everyone in crime fiction, which is probably why I have yet to tire of the genre.

What was I reading back then? Let's take a look!

It's hard to describe a book by one of my favorites, Jasper Fforde, so I'm just going to give you the synopsis of this first in his Nursery Crime series, The Big Over Easy:

"It’s Easter in Reading—a bad time for eggs—and no one can remember the last sunny day. Ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, minor baronet, ex-convict, and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. All the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself.

But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary remain unconvinced, a sentiment not shared with their superiors at the Reading Police Department, who are still smarting over their failure to convict the Three Pigs of murdering Mr. Wolff. Before long Jack and Mary find themselves grappling with a sinister plot involving cross-border money laundering, bullion smuggling, problems with beanstalks, titans seeking asylum, and the cut and thrust world of international chiropody.

And on top of all that, the JellyMan is coming to town . . ." 

Hopefully what you got from that synopsis is that Fforde likes to take something very well known-- like a nursery rhyme-- and turn it on its head using brilliant word play, a wickedly silly plot, and some well-drawn characters. The word play and situations keep you laughing, and-- wonder of wonders-- there's actually a good mystery to be found. I love Fforde's imagination and rated this one an A+.

Troy Soos is a talented writer who has a series of historical baseball mysteries that my husband enjoyed and another historical series of only four books that I really enjoyed. The Gilded Cage is the second in the Rebecca Davies and Marshall Webb series set at the turn of the twentieth century. Here's the synopsis: 

"In the riveting Island of Tears, Troy Soos introduced dime-novelist Marshall Webb and reformer Rebecca Davies. Now, the critically acclaimed author plunges readers once again into the gritty underside of turn-of-the-century New York, as Marshall and Rebecca reunite to take on Tammany Hall and the city's ruthless elite. A cholera epidemic has forced New York's immigrants into quarantine, and fear and panic ripple through the city. Amid a shaky economy, Rebecca Davies' father cuts off funding for her woman's shelter. Rather than turn these destitute women out onto the cold, dangerous streets, Rebecca seeks investment help from Lyman Sinclair, a remarkably successful young banker. But when Sinclair is found dead--an apparent suicide--and Rebecca's money is nowhere to be found, the police refuse to investigate further. Determined to recoup her money, Rebecca approaches her friend, writer marshall Webb. Together, Rebecca and Marshall unravel a web of corruption that runs from the top levels of Wall Street, through the lavish theaters of Broadway, to the mean streets of the Bowery. At its heart is a massive cover-up, marked by unquenchable ambition and greed that could shake the very foundations of New York City."

I really appreciated Soos's grasp of the historical context of the books. The period came to life as I read each one. Of course, the mysteries were also good, but the author's characters really put the sparkle on these stories. Rebecca Davies comes from a privileged background which gives her entrée into areas of society where freelance reporter and dime novelist Marshall Webb cannot go. Both are strong, intelligent individuals with plenty of common sense, although Rebecca can be a bit more adventurous than Marshall. There's also a growing attraction between the two that is never fully realized in this short series. I rated The Gilded Cage an A.

Pardon me for sharing this hideous cover for Judith Cutler's Staying Power, but I could not find the cover of the edition that I read. Yikes. That thing is scary!

Cutler is one of my favorite crime fiction writers. She has a knack for creating female characters that are complex and fascinating-- and her sense of humor (check out her two Josie Welford mysteries) keeps me laughing. Although there are flashes of humor in all her books, most of her series are not played for laughs. Her Kate Powers series is an example. Here's the synopsis:

"Detective Sergeant Kate Power is on her way home from a trip to Florence when the textile importer sitting on the plane next to her strikes up a conversation. Days later he is founding hanging from a bridge in Birmingham - with Kate's card in his pocket the only means of identification. What follows includes a scam to forge ecstasy tablets, bondage, long firm fraud and domestic violence - and Kate's in the middle of it all." 

Besides the fast pace and intriguing mysteries, the thing that impressed me most about Cutler's Kate Power series (written from 1998 to 2003, six books total) was her depiction of what it was like to be a female police officer in Birmingham, England at that time. If you're a fan of British police procedurals and strong female characters, Judith Cutler's Kate Power series is definitely one you should check out. I rated Staying Power an A.


There you have it-- three more books that I read way back in 2005. Whatever will be next? Your guess is as good as mine!




 

Streets of Fire by Troy Soos

First Line: Marshall Webb wasn't even aware of how far he'd rolled his oak swivel chair back away from his desk.

Webb is dissatisfied with his job as a reporter for Harper's Weekly, mainly because he's required to sit at his desk and rewrite old articles instead of being out on the streets gathering new material. His old job as a dime Western novelist is looking more and more attractive. 

After striking a bargain with his editor, Webb finds himself back out on the news beat in one of the worse winters of recent memory, and the icy streets are filled with tension. Brooklyn is torn apart over the news that it is losing its independence and joining with New York City, and a strike by the trolley workers threatens to paralyze the area.

Police are called in to keep the peace along the trolley lines, and one of the them is shot in the back and killed. Webb finds himself joining forces with an old friend, Brooklyn detective Buck Morehouse, and the whirlpool of corruption they begin uncovering will even affect Webb's friend Rebecca Davies and fellow social reformer Vivian O'Connell.

I read and loved the first three books in this series, and when I discovered that there was a fourth, I just had to get my hands on it. Soos is extremely adept at creating historical mysteries, although he's better known for his baseball mysteries (which my husband enjoyed). Webb and Davies make a strong pair of sleuths. Webb is an investigative journalist whose contact in the Brooklyn police, Buck Morehouse, has helped him on more than one case. Webb knows how to root around and get the facts. Buck has his own ways of meting out justice. In our modern eyes, Buck is a bit of a crooked cop, but in 1895 he's one of the most honest ones you'll find in the New York City area. If anything, readers get the impression that Buck has been beaten down by all the on-the-job corruption he has to face.

Into the mix of Webb and Morehouse add Rebecca Davies, a young woman of wealth and privilege who is in charge of the family's shelter for young homeless women. Rebecca's background means that she has entry into the finest homes in New York City. Her experience working with the underprivileged means that she's an idealist with street smarts. Put Webb and Davies together, and there are sparks. Add Morehouse, and there are murderers being brought to justice. 

In Streets of Fire, Soos once again paints an indelible, three-dimensional portrait of the mean streets of New York during a time when graft and corruption were King. It's taken for granted that the rich and powerful will abuse their positions-- and the employees who work for them-- with alacrity. In setting this book during the trolley workers strike, Soos shows us people who are sick of the status quo and are willing to fight for better lives for themselves and their children. We get a further look at the plight of the poor as Rebecca shows Vivian how to choose the right building in the right area for a women's shelter as well as how to run it properly.

If only the mystery in this book lived up to its setting and its characters! As one chapter followed another, I couldn't help comparing Streets of Fire to its predecessors. Here the mystery is weak and extremely slow to start. The identity of the killer was not hard to deduce. I could even say that the investigation felt half-hearted-- almost as if the author had been told that his contract for the series wasn't going to be renewed before he even began writing. (This is pure speculation, by the way.) I love the first three books in this series, and I recommend them highly, and while this one is good, it just doesn't stand shoulder to shoulder with the others.
 

Streets of Fire by Troy Soos

ISBN: 9780758206251

Kensington © 2008

Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages

Historical Mystery, #4 Marshall Webb and Rebecca Davies mystery 

Rating: C+

Source: Paperback Swap

Celebrating Mysteries: Sports

June is Great Outdoors Month, and that provides me my excuse for why this post is a bit late: I was on holiday down in the Mule Mountains of Cochise County, Arizona... enjoying the great outdoors! I've already posted some of the photos I took while Denis and I were down there on my Facebook page, but you'll also be seeing them in my Wordless Wednesday posts as well.

Enough of me. Let's get down to what this week is all about. Last week, I celebrated authors whose characters were archaeologists or anthropologists, and this week it's time to spotlight some sportsmen. One of the kings of "sports mysteries" would undoubtedly be Dick Francis, who showed us all how well suited the world of horse racing is to crime fiction. The four authors I'll be spotlighting in this post might not be quite as well known as Mr. Francis, but each of them writes a mean mystery!

Troy Soos

Troy Soos worked as a research physicist at MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science and at Los Alamos National Laboratory studying photonuclear and pion-nucleon interactions with accelerators. (If you're feeling a tad under-educated at this point, join the club.) He's also written two mystery series that are both hits here at Casa Kittling, but only one of them fits this week's category.

Mickey Rawlings is a 1910s journeyman second baseman traveling the USA in the series my husband has really enjoyed. There are six books in this series: Murder at Fenway Park (1994), Murder at Ebbets Field (1995), Murder at Wrigley Field (1996), Hunting a Detroit Tiger (1997), The Cincinnati Red Stalkings (1998), and Hanging Curve (1999).

Publishers Weekly enjoyed the first book in the series as much as Denis did:

On a visit to Cooperstown, Mickey Rawlings, the oldest living ex-ballplayer, discovers his baseball card and is transported back to the Boston of April 1912--when the newspapers are full of stories about the Titanic , which has just sunk, and Fenway Park is brand new. Rawlings, a utility infielder just brought up by the Red Sox, reports to Fenway and trips over the body of Red Corriden, whose head has been smashed by a baseball bat. Rawlings, who throws up on the corpse, is grilled by Capt. O'Malley of the local precinct and Robert Tyler, the treasurer of the Red Sox. Joining the ball club in New York, Rawlings wonders why the the papers aren't covering the murder; then he learns from one of Tyler's flunkeys that the body was moved to avoid embarrassing the Red Sox. Next he finds out that Corriden was an unwitting accomplice in an effort to cheat Ty Cobb out of the 1910 batting championship and that some people have long memories. After the flunkey is murdered, Capt. O'Malley has more questions for his favorite suspect. Meanwhile readers will suspect ornery Cobb, crooked teammates and the PR-conscious club treasurer. Soos's delightful debut, mixing suspense, period detail and such legendary baseball greats as Cobb, Walter Johnson, Smokey Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, is a four-bagger that will leave readers eager for subsequent innings. 

Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote 24 novels featuring the "Codfish Sherlock", Asey Mayo, a former sailor and auto racer who lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Taylor grew up in Boston and was quite familiar with Cape Cod, using her knowledge to fill her books with local color. Her work is light in tone and fun and easy to read. Critic Dilys Winn called her the "mystery equivalent to Buster Keaton."

The first six books in the Asey Mayo series are The Cape Cod Mystery (1931), Death Lights a Candle (1932), The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players (1933), The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern (1934), Sandbar Sinister (1934), and Deathblow Hill (1935).

Back by popular demand for the first time in years, The Countryman Press is pleased to reissue four Cape Cod mysteries featuring the witty and salty Asey Mayo, "A local handyman who knows something about police work and everything about everybody's business" (Marilyn Stasio, Mystery Alley). Set within the brooding landscape of Cape Cod, these classic who-dunits are sure to please dedicated Phoebe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike. First, a best-selling author turns up dead. Then Asey's best friend becomes the chief suspect and Asey knows he has to do something. There's only one clue: a sardine can. And only one weekend to clear it all up. 

John Galligan

John Galligan has had an interesting employment history: "In addition to being a novelist and teacher, John has worked as a newspaper journalist, feature-film screenwriter, house painter, au pair, ESL teacher, cab driver, and freezer boy in a salmon cannery."

He also writes the Fly Fishing mysteries featuring Ned "Dog" Oglivie who travels the United States in a 1984 RV, trout fishing until his money runs out.

There are four books in the series so far: The Nail Knot (2003), The Blood Knot (2005), The Clinch Knot (2008), and The Wind Knot (2011).

Driven by tragedy to turn his back on human society, the Dog is on a quest to fish himself into oblivion. And he’s nearly made it. Playing the back highways of America in a wounded old RV . . . provisioned with a supply of peanut butter sandwiches, bad cigars, and vodka-Tang . . . armed with a loaded pistol. . . the Dog is nearly at the end of his tether when he rolls into little Black Earth, Wisconsin, intending to fish the yellow sally stonefly hatch . . . and finds a body instead.

Who killed Jake Jacobs, fellow fly fisher and late-coming agitator who was trying to save Black Earth Creek? Why was Jacobs disfigured in such a peculiar way? Why does the Dog give a damn? Can he rekindle his faith and interest in humankind? By caring about the death of a stranger, can the Dog recover his own life? Can he untie The Nail Knot?

John Corrigan

John Corrigan, originally from Augusta, Maine, now lives in Pomfret, Connecticut, with his wife and three daughters. He teaches Advanced Placement English and Mystery Literature, among other courses, and coaches hockey and golf.

He also writes a series of mysteries featuring Jack Austin, a golf player on the PGA circuit.

There are five books in the series to date: Cut Shot (2001), Snap Hook (2004), Center Cut (2004), Bad Lie (2005), and Out of Bounds (2006).

Life is pretty good for PGA Tour veteran Jack Austin. Like a snap-hook out of nowhere; however, Jack's world comes crashing down around him. At a tournament, rookie Hutch Gainer reveals to Jack that a Mafia-run gambling ring has invaded the Tour and Hutch is in the middle of it. Angry at first, Jack refuses to help. But after his fiancee Lisa goes looking for answers, Jack is forced to get involved in an attempt to prevent a scandal. When Hutch's sponsor turns up dead and the rookie is arrested for murder Jack enters the underworld in order to solve the crime, protect Lisa, and save the game he loves. 

I have Taylor's The Cape Cod Mystery sitting on a shelf waiting to be read. Asey Mayo sounds like my kind of character! I know that many of my faithful readers are female, and these books may not sound like your favored cup of Darjeeling, but I'll bet that, even if you're not willing to try these authors, there are men in your lives who would be more than willing to crack open a few of these titles. Just when is Father's Day, anyway?

Stop by next Saturday when Celebrating Mysteries will be back on schedule featuring more mysteries set in the great outdoors!