Tag Archives: Mystery

Prisoner’s Base by Rex Stout

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I first became fascinated by this story watching the Nero Wolfe series with Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. Priscilla Eads comes by to stay with Wolfe and Goodwin until a certain. They turn her out and she ends up dead, but that’s not the worst part. No, it gets much worse as Archie tries to solve the murder case without the help of Wolfe.

The part that fascinates me is the game prisoner’s base. Trying to get from one point to another without being tagged is a thrill for nearly everyone. When Archie is honestly trying to save Sara, an associate / one time friend of Ms. Eads, he does the best he can from across town with only a 50′s era telephone system.

The show was very close to the book. I keep reading that part over and over. I’m weird like that.

The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy

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Lots of conflict today. just working through it all.

I expected more from The Thanatos Syndrome. Instead, I got a convoluted story of a ex-con psychiatrist track down the horrific experiments of his colleges, break up a child pornography ring and stop another Holocaust.

Dr. Tom More, on parole for selling prescription drugs as a truck stop, has come home to Feliciana to find his wife cheating on him and a sudden bridge champion, old patients with complete personality changes, and colleagues with ulterior motives offering him a dream job even though they are his parole officers.

The whole book made me wants to take a shower and use a salt scrub. The main character is put in the position as savior. He does not seem to be connected to his past at all. Instead, it is used as a reason his colleagues hold power over him. His own morals come into question even as he’s questioning others. He puts no stock in claim of a second holocaust, though the author expects us to make the connection when More confronts them and the problem of the school/porno ring. I’m not even sure he thought the euthanasia was wrong in the first place. He had nothing against chemical behavior modification only that it was being used by others (non-colleagues) for sex with minors. Until that came to light I worried that Tom had no morals at all.

Besides the name, I could not tell if he was trying to connect Tom to Saint Thomas More or not. There was no other connection.

Overall, the book is fast paced so the convoluted story line can be easily glossed over.

Sudden Mischief by Robert B. Parker

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Sudden Mischief by Robert B. Parker is a Spenser detective novel. Spenser is asked by his girlfriend to look into a sexual harassment case against her ex-husband. As he digs around things get complicated.

The mystery is set on the back drop of Spenser and Susan’s relationship going through a rough time. Hawk appears as always ready, able, willing and generally a few steps ahead. The book is fun with a serious undertone. Parker twists the story away from the predictable. I have I said how much I like Spenser novels. Well I do.

Perchance to Dream by Robert B. Parker

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The late Robert B. Parker wrote some of my favorite mystery titles. Perchance to Dream is the sequel to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. The novel is interspersed with the scenes from The Big Sleep as Philip Marlowe remembers what happened during that case.

Perchance to Dream takes place a few years after The Big Sleep. Marlowe is called back to the Sternwood mansion by the butler, Norris. He hires Marlowe to find Carmen, who has disappeared from her institution. No one knows where she is, Vivian, her sister, asks Marlowe to stay away. She’s sent her less than desirable boy friend Eddie Mars to find Carmen.

The story is a little thick at first, moving slowly between scenes from Sleep. However the book picks up and I found it enjoyable.

Before and After by Rosellen Brown

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Before and After is the tale of a family whose son is accused of murder. Told from the point of views of the father, the mother, and the daughter…the book details their reaction and struggles as they first deal with the son’s disappearance, then his capture and finally his trial.

In a sense the book is horrifying. From the selfish and horrific actions of the father, to the prideful and brave actions of the mother the book shows a broken family scattered and lost. The book is engaging and terrifying on a very human level. Roesellen Brown has captured the pain of the family and exposes the sinews of their strained life.

The Missing Madonna by Sister Carol Anne O’Marie

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The Missing Madonna by Sister Carol Anne O’Marie is a mystery novel featuring the elderly nun Sister Mary Helen. The novel starts in New York during and OWL trip (Older Women’s League). Sister Mary Helen is in the midst of rekindling her relationship with Erma after a fifty year lapse. After returning to San Fransisco, Erma disappears.

For a mystery the book is entertaining. However the main character, Sister Mary Helen, leads a charmed existent through a charmed world. All characters are good as long as they are Catholic. With each new character introduction, the religion question is almost immediately proposed. If they are good they are Catholic, if not then they are Something Else. The story is about how much you really know about a person. Erma is constantly described as good old Erma, though there is little good about her as the story proceeds.

Overarching the mystery, is the side plot of a detective trying to get pregnant. It is suggested by the characterization that she is an ideal woman, who does not violate her body with piercings and does her wifely duty well. Hard to find in a hard boiled detective of the late 1980s.

It was fun to read but read more like a fairy tale than a mystery.

Things I’m Not Doing

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Sweeping Epic Gothic! That’s how best to describe Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates…a book I’m no longer reading because the prose drowns you.

Drowns I tell you.

I made it one third of the way through the book and couldn’t take it any more. I couldn’t breath, think without despair and I didn’t care about anyone.

Didn’t help the book started with a drowning either.

So that book went to Black & Read…they didn’t want it either. I’m having trouble with the O’s. Besides O’Dell (Island of the Blue Dolphins and Zia) and my current book I’ve dropped Kevin O’Donnell of the brink for his boring, make me do math, Sci Fi snoozer Fire on the Border. Then there was Tawni O’Dell’s murder most foul and unlikable character tome Back Roads. At least I made through Twilight and got many hours of entertainment out of it with making of the fun. These I couldn’t even deal with. It is possible the Edwin O’Connor books might end up on the same pile…but they are at least readable so far.

Also I’m apparently not selling my house. The banks said no at the last minute before closing and the buyer pulled out because she can’t get a conventional loan or pay cash only. Frell…anyone want a house?

I have a ton of other things to do then leak money. Don’t worry, I’d be in this same position had a kept my day job. Worse actually, because I’d be letting down folks other than myself. The room cleansing continues.

We’re not getting a bread maker. The broken one J. bought still sits in the kitchen. He called Cuisinart, who agreed to replace it. Apparently they didn’t say what they’d replace it with. So far we have an espresso maker, and a brick oven (I kid you not) sitting next to the broken bread maker. We give in Cuisinart…we’ll just bake the old fashioned way.

Finally, I am not on schedule. Damn. Kick me now.

Fortune like the Moon by Alys Clare

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Fortune like the Moon is a historical mystery by Alys Clare. Set during King Richard the Lionheart’s reign, the action mostly takes place at a fictional abbey named Hawkenlye for which the series is named. Josse a knight of the realm is sent by King Richard to discover the source of a gruesome murder. Josse teams up with Abbess Helewise to solve the murder.

The story is a straight forward mystery with little action, anachronistic language and a lot of snobbery of which only Helewise is properly repentant. It was good for a quick read, but the book wasn’t extremely memorable nor riveting. Once the mystery is solved, Clare goes on for nearly 100 pages to set up what happens to Josse…which, without spoiling it, is extremely predictable and could have been dealt with in a paragraph. At least then it wouldn’t have been boring.

Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata

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I’m not really into manga.  I’ve read a few but nothing caught my eye like this.  Death Note was, of all things, an impulse buy at Walmart.  I found the first five volumes on sale (there are 13, with number 13 being a recap of what the Death Note does.) for really cheap.  Yes, I shop Walmart.  Shoot me.

The basic plot is this:  A Shinigami (death god), is bored.  People live a long time.  He has an extra death note, which the shinigami use to write people’s names in and kill them.  So he decides to drop it in the human relm to find  some entertainment.  Light Yagami finds the notebook, and starts killing criminals with it in order to create his on utopia with him as god.  Since the shinigami, Ryuk, finds this hilarious he stands by and watches.

What follows is part police drama, part look into the psychotic.  There are no good guys when it comes down to it, and as for who should win…it’s hard to really say.

It’s brilliant, engrossing, and utterly beautiful in both story and art.  I quickly bought the rest of the volumes and read through them all in about 3 weeks (stupid delivery times).  It’s an amazing series which makes you question the base of morals and ethics.  Would you kill to make peace?  Is it right to do so?

The series has spawned an Anime series and two live action movies.  In fact the random trailers for Death Note 2 at my local movie theatre made me notice the series in the first place.   The story holds up well through the 12 main volumes and I found it personally engrossing.  The characters are very interesting, the plot spans the globe.  I wouldn’t mind reading more manga like this.

The Body by Richard Sapir

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The Body was a disappointing novel. I’m going to spoil it for you if you read this.

A body that could be Christ is found in Jerusalem by an Israeli archeologist, Sharon Golban. In order to get the Vatican to recognize Israel, the government tells the church about it. They send Jim Folan, a reluctant Jesuit to Israel.

After much time they prove it’s Christ. The Russians send a disillusioned Arab to apprehend them but he tries to escape Russia instead. Finally Sharon and Jim fall in love. The Vatican fakes their deaths and Jim and Sharon spend the rest of their lives alone thinking each other dead.

If that weren’t depressing enough, Sapir then feels the need to go back and tell you that body is really just some unfortunate boy who got buried there…and has nothing to do with Christ at all.

The book is depressing and wanting.