Eight Detectives / Alex Pavesi

 

Eight Detectives: The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month by Alex Pavesi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has an interesting structure. It is basically a series of short stories stitched together by the conversations between their author and his editor. Each story exhibits a “rule" of murder mystery fiction, such as the roles of victims, suspects, and detectives, plus whether there are overlaps of these categories. I'm reminded of The Detection Club's Ten Commandments of Detection, which I recently became aware of on a discussion thread about Agatha Christie.

I had a pretty accurate idea of what was going on by about halfway through the book, but it was certainly worth reading to the end. Pavesi managed to surprise me with details I hadn't anticipated. As clever as it was, with interesting twists & turns, the novel felt rather mechanical to me. It was obviously meticulously planned and carefully executed but it left me feeling unattached.

If you find this kind of playing with structure entertaining, I would recommend Jeffrey Deaver's book The October List, which is a thriller written in reverse. In my opinion, Deaver is better at both emotional engagement and at surprising me as a reader. Both books are worth reading if you are intrigued by the writer's process.



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Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder / Julia Zarankin

 

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir by Julia Zarankin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Years ago, I was birding with a group one evening in Arizona when a car sped past us. One of the occupants hollered, “Bird nerds!” as they whizzed by. I turned to my friend and said, “I think he meant that as an insult, don't you?” And we laughed like two hyenas.

I can identify with so much of what Julia Zarankin writes here! But I wasn't nearly as conflicted about becoming a birder as she was to begin with. Part of that was being a farm child and seeing birds while gardening or doing chores. My dad was a hunter and a great observer of nature, passing that love along to me. Birding is like hunting, but with binoculars instead of a gun. My mom kept a special box of treasures for rainy days that included a couple of flower field guides, so I knew about using books to identify things. I was an early riser from a very young age and I remember slipping on my shorts and a tee shirt and quietly heading outside while the rest of the family slept.

I also remember my very first official bird walk at a local bird sanctuary led by the man who later became my birding mentor. I was hooked! I started on the Path of the Bird with determination. There was so much to learn, so many details, and one could strive towards expertise, something I coveted. My biggest handicap was my vision, which has never been great, but I will always recall the wondrous day that my ears “clicked" and I realized that I knew what birds I was hearing. A glorious day indeed.
As Ms Zarankin describes, birding is addictive. You start small, frustrated by your inability to see what more experienced observers do. But once you've put in your ten thousand hours, you get good enough to enjoy your limited abilities. Plus who doesn't love spending a day outdoors? If you admire flowers and butterflies too, you have an even better time. As my mentor said many times, you can't let the weather control your plans. You are guaranteed to see more birds in the field than you would while sitting on your chesterfield. You will see something different every time you head out and you can never be absolutely sure of what you will find. The eternal lure of what might be out there will drag you out of bed at 4 a.m. to be to the perfect spot by sunrise and you will never eat a better sandwich than one eaten in some wild spot overlooking a lake.

OMG, I could write so many birding stories! I’ve been kicked out of at least three parks. Adventures vary from sleeping on the ice in Antarctica to the disaster that was camping in Bhutan to roaming rural southern Alberta, the thrill of identifying a rare bird unassisted, coming face to face with a Great Gray Owl, watching a Sandhill Crane turn her eggs, spotting my first Evening Grosbeak at a feeder, watching a Wilson's Snipe escorting two fluffball chicks across a country road and a young Western Grebe trying to swallow a fish almost as big as it was. Too many to list them all, but so many good memories.

I liked that this memoir was about the same size and had a similar design as a bird field guide. Very smart design. If you enjoy this book, may I suggest that you might also like The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession or Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World.


Ferruginous Pygmy Owl in Mexico


Juvenile Western Grebe determined to swallow a large fish




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Across the Green Grass Fields / Seanan McGuire

 

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Seanan McGuire somehow has held on to that feeling of being a child, of struggling to manoeuvre through a life that doesn't feel fair and is therefore frequently more difficult than it needs to be. Life is far more circumscribed for children. They have much less control over where they live, what or when they eat, or who they associate with. There may not be compatible friends among your peer group and you have to make the best of who you have available. Your interests and talents may not be valued by your peers. Even when your parents love you and try their best for you, they can't protect you from everything.

Not that children should be protected from all things. Dealing with our limitations and our circumstances is how we build lives for ourselves and become decent human beings. Nobody follows exactly the same path and we aren't all headed for the same place. Regan follows her own path, looks to her own values, and makes pretty good decisions.

One of the other things that McGuire gets really right is the lure of the equine in the lives of young girls. I don't think I had a more exciting day than when I was 9 and my dad took me with him to the auction market. He sold the pigs that we took with us and we took home a black Shetland pony who was instantly christened Nippy. That pony was my best friend for many, many years. He was stubborn but so was I and we bonded. I still have fond memories of that Shetland.

The Hooflands is such a perfect name for a fantasy world populated by unicorns, centaurs, minotaurs, fauns, kelpies, and other hoofed creatures. If I had to choose my portal world as a 9 year old, this one would have been it. I have a hunch there will be another book featuring Regan in the future, at least I hope so.


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A Court of Silver Flames / Sarah J. Maas

 

A ​Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been on the waiting list for this for a long time, looking forward to the publication date and then to my turn at the library book. There are 111 people waiting for their shot, so I felt I should get to it asap.

Here's the thing—I need my romance novels to have a strong plot outside of the actual relationship. This novel has that, keeping me happily reading along for the entire 700+ pages, just faltering during the last chapters. It also features one of my mfavourite romance tropes, two people struggling not to care about each other and failing spectacularly.

Nesta is a strong main character. Her magic is off the charts, but she has anger issues to deal with. The Night Court stage an intervention and she refuses to co-operate except under her own conditions. When she commits to combat training, her conversion is nearly instantaneous. She can learn how to protect herself, not depend on others. Any independent woman will understand this motivation. It feels real.

The book is of course about her romance with Cassian, but it also about a young woman learning to value herself, to take control of her own life, to make friends, to reconcile with her past, and to speak up for what she wants.

This is a romance novel, so you know you're going to get a happy ending, but this one was just a bit too saccharin sweet for me. A woman as tough & determined as Nesta shouldn't have life tied up with a pretty bow. There should be rough edges or sand in the shoe, not all sweetness and light. I mean, she's a fucking death goddess ! Her life can't be all flowers and fluffy bunnies. It's the ending that decreased my enjoyment of the reading experience as a whole.



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Look to Windward / Iain M. Banks

 

Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Last year, I read Inversions which was very different from the other Culture novels, so I approached this installment with curiosity. I needn't have worried. Here I found the usual AI minds, sentient space ships, smug drones, and a selection of Culture humans and assorted other beings. I must hand it to Banks, he was able to envision lives, ways of life, and potential non-humans in great profusion and detail.

We also get to kind of circle back to the initial Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, as this book deals with some of the aftermath of the Idrian war which featured in that volume. A representative from the world Chel, which suffered heavy losses during this war, comes to the Masaq' Orbital (a habitat which seems to be a more sophisticated version of Niven’s Ringworld), which now houses the Mind of a former Culture combat vehicle active in the war. Ostensibly, this Major Quilan is there to see if he can lure fellow Chellian, Composer Ziller, to return to his home world and the fold. His visit is timed to coincide with the commemoration of the end of the war, sponsored by the Masaq' Orbital with music provided by Ziller.

This is a secret mission story. We get to witness the Major's background and his training for his current mission, with Banks gradually revealing what is going on. Just as I got used to one thing, he would lead me on to other revelations. I appreciate anticipation as a source of engagement and entertainment—the lead up to Christmas is always better for me than the opening of parcels.

Banks also introduces the titanic Behemothaurs, amazing airborne beasts that live slow and die ancient. They initially seemed to be a distraction from the real action, but hang in there. Mr. Banks doesn't waste the reader's time, he uses these fascinating creatures as part of the spy story.

If you enjoyed this book, I would suggest you might also appreciate the Hyperion Cantos of Dan Simmons. There is a similarity to the presence of AIs and marvellous worlds that might appeal.

Book number 399 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.



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The Eagles' Brood / Jack Whyte

 

The Eagles' Brood by Jack Whyte
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Warning! This is a Petulant Pandemic Review (PPR). I fully admit to being cranky, picky, and squirrelly after months of aloneness. It's not the book's fault, it's very much my state of mind.

I really enjoyed the first two books back in the before times. I read them soon after meeting Jack Whyte at a readers and writers conference here in our city. With Jack's deep Scots voice still fresh in my memory, I could “hear" him in my head as I read. Jack has recently passed away and that news dragged me back to his Arthurian series, which I got distracted from by other shiny books.

Now, I adore the King Arthur story. I've been reading books based on it since I was a teen. But I have favourites and they are not the “Arthur as Roman" scenario. I am also a big fan of the magical and mysterious. So these are the biggest things bugging me with this series: Whyte's stated objective in writing this was to strip away all the hocus pocus and write a realistic version. It has taken three very thick books to finally have our potential Arthur appear and I have lived through an awful lot of descriptions of Roman warfare! Yes, it was a very warlike time, but surely there was more to life than just fighting.

Whyte gives his Roman-Briton men a very modern attitude towards women's rights, but he really doesn't give us substantive roles for female characters. Instead, we get Caius Merlinus Brittanicus, who is a Gary Stu character. He is tiresomely perfect, always coming up with successful plans and always winning the day. To Whyte's credit, he uses the Uther character to call Cay on this priggish judginess on a couple of occasions. Still, Cay is hard to put up with. And it is my belief that eliminating the magic, Whyte also got rid of the major roles of women in the story. No longer political powers, they are reduced to being mothers of the major actors.

I was also dismayed to find a lot of Christian religious debate in this volume, as Britain's relationship with Rome and the Pope is negotiated. Thankfully it never gets to The Name of the Rose levels (that book made me want to gouge out my eyes, so many heretics!) but I'm a confirmed pagan religion fan. Please don't strong arm my Arthur into Christianity! Once again, less room for women and for magic. At least, late in the game, Merlyn is given mysterious dreams that intrigue me.

So, a good book if Roman Britain is your jam. And I will undoubtedly read the next book to see what Whyte does with Arthur himself, but this isn't going to be one of my favourite Arthur series. Rest easy, Mary Stewart, your role as Queen of my Arthurian heart is unthreatened.


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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand / Helen Simonson

 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4+ fully lovely, sparkling stars

Major Ernest Pettigrew is caught between a rock and a hard place. He's part of the old guard with very definite notions of how one should do things, but must watch his shallow self-centered son ooze around, acting like he's God's gift to humanity. He has his old friends to associate with, but he has developed a new friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali. As a result of this new acquaintance, he has started to see more clearly all the casual racism in his village community. The two halves of his life, traditional and more contemporary, are like the two guns left to him and his brother: one exquisitely maintained, the other in rather rough shape.

Simonson lays bare the discrimination against the people of Indian and Pakistani heritage, many of whom have never lived in those countries: excluded from local clubs, unwelcome at community events, their point of view not at all considered. The WASP population wish to maintain their stranglehold on the privileges of English village life, which is hypocritical when they resent the very similar superior attitude coming from the rich American who has bludgeoned his way into their society.

I have to say that I enjoyed a gentle love story between two older adults. There's nothing precipitous, they get to know one another gradually over mutual pursuits and books. Half way through the book we come to realize that the Major is trying to devise a ruse to kiss his new friend, but he seems to keep ruining his own plans. There's as much friendship between two lonely people as there is romance. Still, there is romance and the admission that mature folks can still feel passion.

I wonder if the Major's surname, Pettigrew, was chosen to allude to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. In that book, a mature woman in a distressed condition comes to find friendship and perhaps even love from an unexpected quarter. It's a lovely book and I feel many of the same emotions stirring in this one.

A story that will get you thinking about which traditions to hang onto and which to release, how much one should struggle against change, and, as a result, which things are worth fighting for.



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Mendoza in Hollywood / Kage Baker

 

Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If ever you start to think that immortality sounds like a great idea, read this book first before committing yourself to anything. I personally hope that I don't see my 90th birthday, and not just because I anticipate that my body will have given up by then. I fervently hope I don't outlive my interest in life. Baker's immortal Company employees don't have the physical or mental deterioration to worry about, but there are still psychological issues to be dealt with. Mendoza has had a particularly rough go of it, falling in love with a mortal who was doomed to die. At the book's beginning, she is apathetic and misanthropic.

This is the side of things never broached in all the paranormal romances. True immortals have to learn to disengage their emotions, rather than bond with temporary beings. Baker finds an interesting way to reinvigorate Mendoza's will to live and love. It was reminiscent of She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard, where Ayesha, another immortal woman, awaits the return of her lover Kallikrates. It's an idea used in a lot of fantasy fiction, the recurring or reincarnating person.

There are more books in the series, so I assume that, despite her situation at book's end, Mendoza continues to feature in the action. The focuses on the mental health of cyborgs and on the recurrence of certain people through history both tend to distract from my questions at the end of book two. What exactly is the Dr Zeus Company up to? They seem to have fooled even their 24th century employees. The final pages of this volume seem to suggest a detailed, complicated plan of action, but we don't know who the mastermind is. (It also made me think of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates, where a man writes out poetry from memory and finds out later that he must have been the historical poet, leaving the circular dilemma of who actually authored the poetry?)

Next task: source the next book, The Graveyard Game.

Book number 398 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.

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A Dying Fall / Elly Griffiths

 

A Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can resist everything but temptation! (Thank you, Oscar Wilde.) There are other books due at the library or partially read, asking to be finished, but I couldn't resist the lure of another Ruth Galloway mystery. I was somewhat worried because I'd read the previous book in the series just last month that this volume would feel less enchanting as a result. I needn't have been concerned.

Griffiths manages to transport us almost a year from A Room Full of Bones. Kate is nearing her second birthday and has become a talkative, enthusiastic child. She and Ruth have settled into a comfortable routine and her godfather Cathbad has bonded with this little dyad. Harry Nelson is still struggling with his marriage, his desire to be Kate's daddy, and the incompatibility of these two things.

The author also reminds us of Ruth's past, so prominent in the first book of the series, when she hears of the death of a popular member of her university friendship circle. He has posted her a letter, which arrives the day after Ruth hears the bad news, giving her an uneasy premonition. Of course, she is promptly contacted by his faculty with a request to evaluate a recent archaeological find and wouldn't you know that it's in Nelson's home stomping grounds.

Because Ruth has asked Harry to find out some details for her, they both end up travelling to Blackpool, without informing each other. This serendipity does not impress Harry's wife and I wonder if Griffiths is setting up a permanent rift between them. As usual, there is a high stakes situation before the dust settles and Griffiths trifles mercilessly with the reader's assumptions and emotions. She also uses the King Arthur story to provide a focus for the mystery portion of the story. I am always a sucker for the High King and I love the spin that the author gives to the old story.

The temptation to binge these books is strong, but I must control this urge! I am caught up to date on too many of my favourite series and I don't want to lose the sweet tang of anticipation.



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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Agatha Christie

 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

2021 Re-Read

It has only been 4 years since I first read this mystery, yet I had no clear recollection of the identity of the murderer! My only clear memory was Poirot’s hurling of the vegetable marrow in the first few pages. What a detail to remember.

Now that I've read more of Agatha Christie's work, I think I appreciated this book more than I did on my first pass. I'm pretty sure that the references to Hastings went unremarked then, especially when Poirot asks Dr. Sheppard if he has a penchant for auburn haired women. Which is very appropriate since the doctor becomes our Hastings substitute in this volume. Dr. Sheppard is unusual in his dispassionate appraisal of the case. The strongest emotion he displays is annoyance with his sister. During this reading, I really noticed his strange detachment.

As I progressed, my hazy memory began to clear and I became quite certain that I knew how things ended. Although I had who dunnit, I hadn't recalled why or how, so it was still pleasurable to read to the end to be certain.


Original Review

M. Poirot, what were you thinking? Retiring to a small village to grow vegetable marrows? I too would hurl them in fits of regret! As if marrows could suitably engage those little grey cells!

Excellent depiction of the competitive sport of gossip. Small communities everywhere suffer from it. That is one of the reasons that I came to live in a city—I can actually keep my private life relatively private!

Dame Agatha really did set the patterns for current mystery literature, didn’t she? Very, very enjoyable and as usual, I had no idea who the perpetrator was until M. Poirot did the big reveal.

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Gardens of the Moon / Steven Erikson

 

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Steven Erikson has obviously done a lot of reading of fantasy fiction, just what authors are advised to do. Read other authors and learn. I think I detect a lot of influences here. Do you like Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time? Welcome to another complicated, slow revealing, multivolume epic. How about George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire? Well, Malazan has a plethora of characters, all with axes to grind and we get to observe them from all angles. Are you a fan of sword & sorcery books like Fritz Leiber's Faffhrd and the Grey Mouser, where gods and supernatural powers interfere in human struggles? Prepare for Oponn and Shadowthrone stirring the pot for their own purposes. How about Glen Cook's The Black Company? Malazan's Bridgeburners may remind you of them, what with their nifty names (Whiskeyjack, Fiddler, Hedge, etc.), their resident wizard (Quick Ben) and healer (Mallet), and their sneaky plans. In fact, there are a lot of similarities to Cook's series.

Erikson doesn't over explain things, either. He just keeps throwing characters and situations at the reader, with the expectation that you will sort it out as you go. It's a palpable relief when you start to recognize repeat appearances and when the plot starts to take on a hazy shape.

For me, I was a quarter of the way through the book before things really clicked for me. There's way too much pointless description for me, paragraphs and more paragraphs of cityscapes. I amused myself by mentally editing as I read, using my mental red pen to cross out reams of text. Then, at the two thirds point, I stalled. Mind you, library books with due dates affected this situation, but I found it difficult to return to the Gardens.

I had expectations of this series, possibly my mistake. The author is a fellow Canuck and I really wanted to love his writing. After all, I love another Canadian fantasy writer, Guy Gavriel Kay. And James Alan Gardner. Charles de Lint. There is precedent. However, Erikson writes more on the level of R.A. Salvatore (Legend of Drizzt). Serviceable, but not elegant. Thankfully, I like it enough to give the next book a try.

Book number 397 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.



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The Moor / Laurie R. King

 

The Moor by Laurie R. King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Hound of the Baskervilles is my favourite Sherlock Holmes story, I think, so I guess it's no surprise that this novel is my favourite so far in Laurie King's series. You do have to relax your grip on the Holmes canon in order to enjoy this series, but King writes a good mystery should you choose to join her.

I have yet to see Dartmoor, but maybe someday when this pandemic is history, travel will again be possible. Between The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Brontes, I have a strong desire to experience the moors. But zero desire to camp there!

King uses Arthur Conan Doyle's story as a sturdy base for this excursion. I wish I could feel more clever about solving the puzzle, but I was only seconds ahead of Mary Russell in putting the pieces together. Instead, it was the hearkening back to the original work and the looming atmospheric moors that really made the book pleasurable for me.


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Kisscut / Karin Slaughter

 

Kisscut by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First things first. If you have trouble with fiction that contains child abuse, set this book back on the shelf. You don't want to go here.

On a much less serious note, I love all the books where the most evil bitch is named Wanda. I'm not sure why my name is so popular among authors for criminal women, but I've encountered many of them.

Karin Slaughter is hard on her main characters and on this reader. The revelations and the action come fast and furious, propelling me along. The pauses, brief as they are, are then filled with relationship angst as Jeffrey and Sara try to sort out their future. Slaughter doesn't give much breathing room to reflect, which is probably strategic. The plot is so horrifying that I didn't want to linger over it, just get to the resolution.

This was another unplanned read, ordered on impulse, but providing a needed hit of adrenaline to my reading life.


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Last Scene Alive / Charlaine Harris

 

Last Scene Alive by Charlaine Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I hadn't been really planning to continue with this series right now, but some how I found myself pushing the ‘place hold' button on the library website. A little act of rebellion, even if it was just against my own reading plans. Maybe because it felt like a defiant act, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I find Charlaine Harris' books to be rather comforting, dealing with small communities as she does. Once a small town girl, always a small town girl, I guess. I also like the way she structures her mysteries. She's fair with the clues, but also manages to fool me frequently. That's more fun than being able to easily identify the murderer. Plus, Aurora is a young woman and her romantic life is obviously going to be a central concern in her life. Harris writes believable relationship complications and knows how gals from small, somewhat religious towns feel about these issues. I do have to smile a bit about how many guys seem to be hovering, interested in the main character. It reminds me of her Sookie Stackhouse novels, where the men are tripping over each other to get Sookie's attention. This must be a plot device that Harris enjoys.

The end of the last novel was pretty rough on Aurora. The way Harris writes it, I assume she is familiar with loss and grief. It was lovely to watch Roe start to come back to life a bit, realizing that she has been merely existing. I know that feeling, although my loss was different. It's so reviving, to rejoin regular life!


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Calculated Risks / Seanan McGuire

 

Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of the things that I appreciate about Seanan McGuire is her obvious interest in science. In this book, the main character, Sarah, is an imaginary species known as a cuckoo or Jorhlac. Evolved into a humanoid form from a large, parasitic wasp species, it makes perfect sense that her developmental stages would be known as instars, like other arthropods, and that a queen would be the leader in colonizing a new hive location, just like bees and ants. I had to dredge way back in my memory of invertebrate zoology courses taken in my dim, dark past, but these details nudged me into remembering those lessons. (I remember noticing these same kinds of details in Into the Drowning Deep, under her Mira Grant aegis.)

This is the strangest book in the Incryptid series, as it actually is set in another dimension, not on Earth at all. As a result, it will probably never be my favourite in the series. Sarah isn't my preferred main character either. And I should warn you that if you suffer from arachnophobia, this may not be a novel for you.

I'm still glad that I've added this book to my permanent collection. At this point, one year into the covid-19 pandemic, I know without a doubt that I've become a cranky reader, easily annoyed and difficult to engage. One day, in a healthy future, I hope to re-read this novel and feel more enthusiasm.


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