An Insignificant Case by Phillip Margolin

(28. - 1271.) An Insignificant Case by Phillip Margolin - Charlie Webb is average in appearance. He was an average student in school and university, who scraped into Oxford School of Law, a below average law school. After graduating he sets up as a solo practitioner in Portland, Oregon as “nobody offered him a job”. 

Representing members of the Barbarians motorcycle club provides him with “steady customers”.

Charlie may be an average guy but he is above average in the courtroom. He deftly succeeds on an application claiming there was an illegal search of a Barbarians member’s car for drugs. He pins down the investigating Sergeant’s story of an inventory search and then exposes the truth by getting a rookie officier, testifying for the first time, to admit the Sergeant told him to search for drugs.

Charlie is chugging along when his life is upended by Guido Sabatani (he refuses to acknowledge his real name of Lawrence Weiss). While a mathematical genius, accomplished card counter and excellent painter, Guido is crazy. He asserts he is the re-incarnation of a Renaissance painter who studied with Da Vinci and Michaelangelo. Guido’s life is devoted to his art.

He creates a vivid impression for, at 6’4”, he is normally wearing “a white floor-length caftan that was secured at the waist by a gold rope. His thick blond hair flowed over his shoulders and his downy beard and moustache framed a beatific smile”.

Guido, having sold a painting to restaruanteur, Gretchen Hall, steals back the painting because she has it in her office and not on display in her restaurant. He takes a flash drive to have a bargaining chip to convince her to display the picture in the restaurant.

Charlie is his court appointed counsel. A simple case. All he has to do is persuade Guido to return the painting and charges will be dropped.

Before Charlie can deal with the case, Hall and movie producer, Leon Golden, are arrested for “running a sex ring that trafficked underage girls”.

The insignificant case becomes very significant when Guido is charged with murdering Hall and Golden’s bodyguard, Yuri Makarov.

Guido insists that either Charlie represent him or he will defend himself. I admired Charlie for doing his best to convince Guido he lacks the experience to conduct a murder trial. When he is promised experienced co-counsel he takes on the case. He is relieved when prominent Portland defence lawyer, Henry Roman, joins him. He is ecstatic when Roman agrees to be lead counsel.

The thriller element accelerates with an attack at Guido’s farm. Fortunately, while he is confident God will protect him Guido accepts security.

There are conspiracies afoot. When the allegations of abuse reach out to the rich and powerful it becomes impossible to know who you can trust. Charlie gives off a sense of naivete at times as he respects people but he realizes he must be suspicious when dealing with a conspiracy.

There are excellent twists I never saw coming.

There is more thriller than legal mystery. Usually I find lawyers in the midst of thrillers not credible but Charlie is an exception. He focused on being a lawyer.

There is a trial which involves the question of morality and the law. It is described as a conflict in the book rather than a question.

The trial is like a movie version of a trial where the questions are condensed to the bare minimum unlike Scott Turow’s books where the evidence and questioning by prosecutor and defence counsel are explored at length. The resolution is plausible.

What is striking is how little time is spent in the minds of the characters. We know something about the main characters but virtually nothing about the lesser characters beyond their actions.

Margolin is very skilled at driving the narrative and creating action scenes. I would have loved to have read more court scenes.

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

(27. - 1270.) Guide Me Home by Attica Locke - In 2019 Texas Ranger, Darren Mathews, is tired. Donald Trump’s actions as President have worn him down. The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas task force was shut down after Trump was elected before it could indict anyone. The local DA, having failed in 2017 and 2018 to get him indicted for obstruction, is running for Congress and threatening another grand jury. Darren is deeply concerned by the polarization of America as the 2020 elections near. He is weary of being a black man with a badge trying to safeguard black folks. He feels guilty over how he handled a handgun he thought was involved in murder. He was dishonest in an investigation. Jim Beam has become his best friend. He has lost hope. He turns in his badge.

Randie, the wife of a murder victim in the first book of the series Bluebird, Bluebird, has become his lover. She joins him in his country family home outside Camilla in East Texas. It is time for a new life.

His mother, Bell, appears. She is trying to get back in his life. He resolutely declines, unwilling to forgive a lifetime of maternal bad behaviour. He cannot believe she has given up drinking.

Bell wants him to investigate the disappearance of a young black woman student from a white sorority house at Stephen F. Austin University because no one in Texas officialdom cares. Darren is uninterested.

He loves Randie, has his grandmother’s ring and is ready to propose to her, but a discussion over the missing girl while he is drinking turns into an argument. Darren can be a mean drunk and, after a cruel remark, Randie leaves. He blacks out during a two day binge.

When he awakes he starts searching for the missing girl, Sera Fuller, with the aid of Bell. They form one of the most complex teams in crime fiction. His mother let his uncles take him when he was a day old. She provides information on his father who died before Darren was born that shakes him to his core. There are abundant feelings of guilt for both of them. Locke writes powerfully over the fraught mother / son relationship.

His mother, Randie and his Uncle Clayton all love him but each relationship is fractured. Can he, does he want to, will he work on each relationship?

Sera’s parents work for a meat processing plant, Thornhill, that has company housing. They are appreciative of the company even though a terrible smell pervades the company town. Sera’s father is a Trump supporter.

The desperation of America’s working poor concerning access to medical care is an overwhelming issue for the black families. We have issues in the Canadian health care system but not like the United States.

Darren is forced to face what happened in the murder investigation of Bluebird, Bluebird. It is a rare book that addresses consequences for the police.

Darren was a good Texas Ranger but a former Texas Ranger has no authority. A former black Ranger has even less status but he refuses to give up on the investigation. More and more he wonders why the white leaders of Thornhill are concerned about a teenage black girl.

Standing on your own without help from others is ingrained in the black and white psyches of America. To a Canadian it is a puzzle. You can be independent while standing with others. 

There is a trial with a witness who surprises everyone.

The layers in the conclusion are amazing. Each was entirely credible but I never saw them coming. A conscience is a heavy burden for a good man.

The trilogy of Darren Mathews has a fitting ending in Guide Me Home. Attica Locke is a remarkable writer.

****

Locke, Attica - (2016) - Pleasantville; (2017) - Black Water Rising and Wishing I had Read the Books in Order; (2018) - Bluebird, Bluebird and The First Black Texas Ranger in Real Life and Fiction; (2019) - Heaven, My Home

Hats In The In Crowd

My wife, Sharon, loves hats. She has several dozen. She divides them between summer hats and winter hats. Between Sharon’s love of hats and reading the fine blog. Clothes in Books, by my friend, Moira Redmond, I note when hats appear in crime fiction.

In The In Crowd Calliope Foster Millinery is doing well enough to give its sole employee, Callie, a tolerable living if she works 7 days a week.

Callie designs and makes hats, especially big hats, for the upper class women of the country. Her friend Harriet assists her by wearing Callie’s creations at Ascot.

When Callie meets DI Caius Beauchamp at the theatre
she is wearing a wide straw hat with silk monkshood flowers sewn into its burgundy band. (It is a coincidence that only three posts ago in Nightshade by Michael Connelly, the purple of nightshade flowers was featured. Monkshood is very much the same purple. While different species, nightshade and monkshood are often identified as the same flower.) Above and to the right are they type of hat I consider she was wearing and some monkshood flowers that would look wonderful on the band.

Callie lives in a world that still appreciates handwritten notes “landing on their doormat with a gentle thud and not in a text message with a ping”. She has personalised note cards printed for her and writes the notes with her “favourite fountain pen”.

She is uncertain she wants to expand her one woman business but answers the phone in the higher-pitched voice of the imaginary Amelia as “she pretended she had an assistant”.

Callie meets with clients individually. Penny is looking for a hat for her daughter’s summer wedding. She wants “something elegant, but distinct”. Callie suggests a pillbox.

In adding flowers to hats she considers the romantic meanings of flowers as defined in The Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway. Who knew “deep red roses mean ‘shame’ “ and Monkshood means “Knight Errant”?

Callie has an endearing quirk about her hats:

‘I give all my hats names like Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle. This is Petunia and this is Margot.’

It was not until this book that I learned the importance of hat blocks. For the equally uninformed they are carved wooden blocks to enable the milliner to shape a hat.

Callie loves vintage hat blocks and orders online German antique hat blocks. An example of vintage German hat blocks is above.

While Callie makes big hats for the big events she also makes small hats. The German antique hat blocks help her make cloches.

Sharon keeps hoping more women will wear hats but I cannot say I have observed a trend in women wearing hats. Pity.

****

Vasell, Charlotte - (2025) - The In Crowd

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell

(25. - 1268.) The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell - The members of the “in crowd”, whether old or new money, embrace class distinctions. 

Eight oarsmen, well past their university years, practise weekly for the Henley regatta where they are annually an early elimination. A practice session is interrupted when an oar connects with a drowned woman.

At a party Calliope “Callie” Foster, is resplendent in a “buttermilk-coloured linen sundress that fell to the floor with a tight waist and a balcony bust - a revelation compared to the other female guests’ aggressively ditzy floral prints”. She is dutifully cutting fruit for Pimm’s and lemonade. She is maid of honour for her best friend, Harriet. 

Callie is a milliner and my next post will discuss hats in The In Crowd.

Callie is socially judgmental. She does not regret have turned down Harriet’s betrothed, Inigo, for a date before he was going out with Harriet:

Callie could think of nothing worse than waking up next to such a boring man every day. He only ever wore grey or blue. She could never be in a relationship with someone with such a limited colour palette.

Subsequently, Harriet demotes Callie to bridesmaid mainly because Harriet does not want wedding photos with herself beside the very pretty Callie.

Harriet is comfortable being a snob. Her family is new money.

Callie meets DI Caius Beauchamp at a theatre where all the actors are intentionally drunk. The man seated beside them is found to be dead after being vomited upon by a cast member.

The deceased, Martin Hartley, was a retired optician, obsessed with a missing persons case 15 years old. Eliza Chapel had disappeared from St. Ursula’s, a boarding school in Cornwall.

The drowned woman, Lynne Rodgers, had been the secretary of Robert Symington 30 years ago. The day he stole his firm’s pension plan fund, he was to fly to Brazil with Rodgers. He never showed at the airport. Harriet’s father, Peter, was finance director of the firm at that time. He went on to a very successful business career in women’s fashion.

Caius is uncomfortable with the investigations. Persons in high positions, in the shadows of power, arranged for him to be assigned the cases and are pushing him for reasons unknown to Caius. He is always aware he is not a member of the upper class. With the approval of supervisors Caius shares information with the “friends in high places”.

Suspicions on where the stolen pension money went have never been proven.

The romance of Caius and Callie was captivating. Two bright and beautiful young people whose easy banter is entrancing. I wanted the relationship to succeed. 

English police nutrition is changing. Caius eats “an almond protein ball that he’d batch blended” and another detective picks up sushi for lunch.

There are brilliant twists that I never saw coming that cause chaos for all the major characters. Caius finds his personal and professional lives suddenly intersecting.

Until the twists I had wondered why The In Crowd won the 2025 Edgar Best Novel Award. It had been a good book. The clever complications made it a great book. I am going to have to find The Other Half the first in the series.

The Mountain Master of Sha Tin by Ian Hamilton

(26. - 1269.) The Mountain Master of Sha Tin by Ian Hamilton - A triad war is looming in Hong Kong. Ava Lee is drawn because Xu, head of the Shanghai triads and Chairman of the Triad Society in Asia, has bacterial meningitis. He had taken over the Wanchai triads in Hong Kong forcing Sammy Wing into a largely ceremonial position. Lop, Xu’s designated leader for Wanchai, has been badly wounded in an attempted assassination. There is reliable information that Carter Wing, the Mountain Master of the Sha Tin triads, is behind the attack in an effort to restore his uncle to power. The information is proven accurate when 7 of Lop’s men are kidnapped by the Sha Tin. Carter Wing demands Xu and his triads leave Wanchai.

Tension rises with an accelerated threat from Carter who thinks Xu is avoiding him. Ava and Xu’s executives want to keep Xu’s condition a secret.

It is the type of situation in which Uncle, Ava’s mentor, excelled. While not afraid of violence he could defuse dangerous situations with actions that showed strength and determination but kept violence in reserve.

Pang Fai, Ava’s lover, is worried about Ava’s safety. Ava acknowledges the risk but her loyalty to Xu, Uncle’s godson, and his triads means she will always be resolute in doing what is necessary for them.

Too ill to negotiate, Xu designates Ava to speak for him.

Ava talks with the Wings. She is used to dealing with men who would like to dismiss her. Can she negotiate a solution that saves face for each side?

Ava negotiates in good faith but she cannot find a weak point in the Wings position to press. They are highly confident they have the advantage.

To her dismay Ava finds the Wings are skilled plotters. She is very uncomfortable that the Wings are a step ahead and she is scrambling to react to them.

The Wings leave an unmistakeable message they are coming for Ava. She refuses to leave Hong Kong. The violence is spiralling. Ava learned from Uncle there is a time to be ruthless with those who will never give up on revenge. It is time to be ruthless.

Xu sends 100 men from Shanghai to Hong Kong to be ready for war.

Ava’s empathy leaves her with regret for the families and friends of those killed but regret will not blunt her ruthlessness.

The Mountain Master of Sha Tin is one of the action adventures of Ava Lee. Her only accounting is of the bodies falling. I prefer the books in the series where Ava is focused on accounting and business issues. Still, The Mountain Master of Sha Tin  is a compelling driving adventure that drew me through the 311 pages in 24 hours.

****

Hamilton, Ian - (2012) - The Water Rat of Wanchai; (2013) - The Disciple of Las Vegas; (2014) - The Wild Beasts of Wuhan; (2014) - The Red Pole of Macau; (2016) - The Scottish Banker of Surabaya; (2018) - The Two Sisters of Borneo; (2019) - The King of Shanghai; (2020) - The Princeling of Nanjing; (2020) - Fate; (2020) - Foresight; (2021) - Fortune; (2022) - Finale; (2022) - Body Counts in Fictional Gang Wars (Ian Hamilton, John Grisham and Don Winslow); (2023) - The Couturier of Milan; (2023) - The Iman of Tawi-Tawi; (2024) - The Goddess of Yantai

Resistance Man by Martin Walker

(23. - 1266.) The Resistance Man by Martin Walker - Father Sentout calls Bruno to come to the home of Loïc Murcoing, an old resistance fighter who has died at 86. Being a  resistance man provides special status for his funeral. Surprisingly, he also had several large denomination bills from the Vichy regime of WW II. The money came from a World War II robbery of the Neuvic train. A huge amount of money disappeared. It has never been clear where the money went.

Bruno is next called to the burglary of the summer home of a retired English civil servant, Mr. Crimson. Fine quality furnishings and even higher quality wine have been stolen. What appears to be a relatively routine burglary becomes more complicated when Bruno is advised that Mr Crimson was a senior intelligence administrator in England before he retired. Bruno’s sometime lover, Isabelle, is sent from the Ministry of the Interior to take charge of the investigation.

His third call is to a vacation rental where a Parisian actor and theatre director, Yves Valentoux, has found the brutally beaten body of his lover, English antique dealer Francis Fullerton.

Gay men have not always been treated well in rural France. The investigators from the gendarmes focus on Valentine as the killer, considering the killing a gay lovers quarrel. 

Mr. Crimson's intelligence connections - he may not fully be retired for he has a secure phone - draw more attention.

Isabelle’s arrival continues the awkwardness of Bruno's love life. Pamela has returned from Scotland. Neither relationship looks destined for permanency. 

Bruno's patient investigation, calling upon contacts and residents of the area, leads the investigation towards further gay connections. 

Rumours reach Bruno that there are political developments in Paris that could reach out as far as St. Denis. There is a pending federal election.

How far would the government go to prevent a scandal that could affect its electoral success? Jacqueline Morgan, a Franco-American historian, with a home near St. Denis, has unearthed information involving the French and American governments from decades ago that would be scandalous.

Bruno has a great phrase for describing political and government statements:

“Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied.”

Yet again, Walker credibly mixes into the plot issues of history, political intrigue and international affairs while continuing the focus on a local murder investigation. Few authors can realistically manage such a combination in a story that is set deep in the French countryside, over 6 hours by road from Paris. What more could a reader want in a work of crime fiction?

While Bruno is officially a simple country policeman he is as adept at intrigues as those within the palaces of power in Paris.

The webs of politics, sexual connections and money spread across nations.

As always, Walker involves the life of the community of St. Denis in the plot. In this book, it is the health of the mayor's wife.

Balzac, Bruno's basset hound puppy, is growing up. While charming all, he is demonstrating to Bruno that he will be a very intelligent dog.

Among the dining pleasures of this book is a simple dish made by Bruno for his guests. He heats sunflower oil and thinly slices zucchini. After lightly breading the zucchini he quickly fries the slices until they are “brown and crisp” and sprinkles salt upon them. He serves the beignets with two bowls - one of fresh cheese flavored with herbs and garlic and the other of salsa. Guests hold the hot beignets in paper napkins and smear upon them one of the two accompaniments. (Sigh.)

A remarkable find is a shrine in Fullerton's home that is unlike any I have read about in real life or fiction.

Walker does not shy away from life’s complexities.

Bruno is a modest man but he has a healthy Gallic ego. It occasionally leads him astray.

There is a revelation that deeply affects Bruno’s romantic relationships and left me very sad. 

The Resistance Man’s funeral draws out the full community in remembrance. It is a moving celebration of history and honouring Murcoing who fought for the liberty of France.

The ending had me racing through the pages. Martin Walker is one of the best writers of crime fiction in the world today.

****

Walker, Martin - (2019) - Bruno, Chief of Police and The Magic of St. Denis and Three Pines; (2023) - The Dark Vineyard; (2024) Black Diamond and The Crowded Grave; (2025) The Devil's Cave

Nightshade by Michael Connelly

(22. - 1265.) Nightshade by Michael Connelly - Connelly had me hooked in the pages it took Detective Sgt. Stilwell of the Catalina substation of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to transport in his utility task vehicle, an electric golf cart, Judge Harrell, who had swum ashore from his yacht, to the Justice Center. 

The Catalina substation is “a way station for the department’s freaks and fuckups”. Initially resentful at being assigned to the island, Stilwell has come to love island life.

Stilwell is focused on the mutilation of a buffalo when he gets a call to the harbor where he dons a wetsuit - he had been a member of the sheriff’s dive team - to confirm a body is anchored to the ocean floor.

The sight of the body reminds him of “floaters or sinkers” he had dealt with as a “body-recovery diver” - another occupation I could never have handled. He speaks of going under the surface as being in “the blue world”.

It is a woman with a purple streak in her hair.

Mayor Doug Allen is unhappy. Murder is bad for business and it is the Memorial Day Weekend.

The lead homicide detective from overtown (the mainland), Rex Ahearn, makes a memorable entrance into the book when, on the skiff dock gangway while wearing oxfords, he slips and slides into the ocean. Ahearn, whose nicknames are “A-Hole” and “King-A-Hole”, is sent for a shower and dry clothes.

Stilwell’s girlfriend is Tash Dano, the assistant habormaster. She is Catalina born.

Among Stilwell’s other cases is an investigation into the theft of a small black marlin statue from the exclusive Black Marlin club.

With regard to the buffalo there is speculation the head was severed by aliens. Several on the island are profiting from continuing reports of alien activity on Catalina. (In the Age of Trump, I clarify that the suspected aliens are the green extra-terrestrial kind, not foreigners to America.)

As often in a Connelly book the investigation shifts from exploring to finding supporting evidence when detailed police work finds the thread of proof that will be followed to solve the mystery.

Stilwell has a strong resemblance in character to Harry Bosch. Stilwell, formerly a homicide detective, personally investigates the woman’s murder. He knows the detectives assigned to the case will blow up if they find out he is actively pursuing the case. Stilwell does not care. He expects Ahearn will conduct a superficial investigation. The murder also happened on his island.

Considering the last blowup between Hearn and Stilwell ended up with Stilwell being sent to Catalina I wondered what would happen when Ahearn learns Stilwell has ignored his warning.

I should not have been surprised by how deftly Connelly handled the situation. By order of their Captain, Stilwell, Ahearn and Ahearn’s partner, Frank Sampedro become a three man team.

Stilwell discovers the purple streak in the hair of the victim was Nightshade, a deep violet color. That the berries of Nightshade are poisonous seemed appropriate.

As Stilwell pushes the investigation the circumstances become ever more complex.

I was troubled that Connelly once again has a detective, Stilwell, act without backup, and continue his investigation while  suspended from active duty. As well, the body count keeps rising.

As with all Connolly books the story moves smoothly. I could not stop reading but the resolution was not up to the opening.

Stilwell is an interesting character, though I think lacking a partner weakens aspects of the story for he is forced to do more on his own then is really credible. I did appreciate that he has come up with a new detective. Just as John Grisham is great at creating lawyers, Connelly is excellent at creating detectives.

Connelly continues to have one dimensional bad guys. 

There was modest suspense in identifying the perpetrators.

I found it an interesting quirk that Stilwell's first name is never revealed in the book.

For the first time I felt the writing was sometimes formulaic and predictable. Connelly remains an excellent author but Nightshade was not up to the high standard he has maintained for decades in almost all of the 31 books of his previous 39 books I have read. It is not a decline like Robert Crais was for me. Connelly says he is not putting a lot of time into his T.V work. I hope he further decreases his T.V. involvement. In reading other reviews I have not found another reviewer with comparable reservations about the book. 

****

Connelly, Michael – (2000) - Void Moon; (2001) - A Darkness More than Night; (2001) - The Concrete Blonde (Third best fiction of 2001); (2002) - Blood Work (The Best);  (2002) - City of Bones; (2003) - Lost Light; (2004) - The Narrows; (2005) - The Closers (Tied for 3rd best fiction of 2005); (2005) - The Lincoln Lawyer; (2007) - Echo Park; (2007) - The Overlook; (2008) - The Brass Verdict; (2009) – The Scarecrow; (2009) – Nine Dragons; (2011) - The Reversal; (2011) - The Fifth Witness; (2012) - The Drop; (2012) - Black Echo; (2012) - Harry Bosch: The First 20 Years; (2012) - The Black Box; (2014) - The Gods of Guilt; (2014) - The Bloody Flag Move is Sleazy and Unethical; (2015) - The Burning Room; (2015) - Everybody Counts or Nobody Counts; (2016) - The Crossing; (2016) - Lawyers and Police Shifting Sides; (2017) - The Wrong Side of Goodbye and A Famous Holograph Will; (2017) - Bosch - T.V. - Season One and Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch; (2018) - Two Kinds of Truth; (2019) - Dark Sacred Night and A Protest on Connelly's Use of Vigilante Justice; (2020) - The Night Fire; (2020) - Fair Warning; (2021) - The Law of Innocence and Writing a Credible Trial; (2022) - The Dark Hours; (2024) - Resurrection Walk; (2024) -Kim Stone and Harry Bosch; (2025) - The Waiting