The Lace Widow by Mollie Ann Cox

(16. - 1305) The Lace Widow by Mollie Ann Cox - Eliza Hamilton, the wife of Alexander Hamilton, has been a widow for 10 days in July of 1804.

She is determined to have Aaron Burr shunned in New York City and charged with the murder of her husband. She is convinced Burr murdered her husband in their duel. She will not have Hamilton’s legacy be that he died in an ordinary duel.

Eliza’s carriage is suddenly stopped on its way from Manhattan to the family home in Harlem. A body is hauled from the river. It is John Van Der Gloss who acted as second for her husband. She instantly thinks he has been murdered to prevent him from saying what happened during the duel.

Eliza is usually greeted as “Mrs. General Hamilton” reflecting the status of her father, Philip Schuyler, as an American general.

Eliza had been a founding member of the Widows Society who aided widows with financial troubles. She is worried she may face such troubles. Eliza is uneasy about the financial security of herself and her eight living children for she did not know her husband’s finances.

Eliza is stunned when her 18 year old son, Alexander Jr., is arrested for killing Van Der Gloss. At a tavern earlier in the evening they had argued over the duel and Alexander struck Van Der Gloss. Alexander insists it was but one blow and no more.

She is determined to find out who actually killed Van Der Gloss. A strong willed woman, Eliza bristles when told the investigation into the murder is “man’s business”. She will accept help but saving her son is her business.

Alice Rhodes, a beneficiary of the Widows Society, who has taken up lace making offers to ask questions for Eliza. As a woman of a certain age and modest standing in society, Alice is almost invisible. 

Eliza can ask questions at upscale establishments such as hotels.

She recruits other women to ask questions.

She will stir the pot.

Several widows who were aided by the Widows Society are now living together in a house and making their own way in the world through weaving and lace making. They are not looking for “good marriages”.

Eliza’s lawyer bluntly tells her that she has little money and must economize.

Burr’s lawyer, Jonathan Drake, may be involved. Some refer to him derisively as Burr’s dog.

It is hard for Eliza, personally known by many as Hamilton’s widow, to be inconspicuous.

Eliza pushes forward. She is uneasy but has the classic trait of a sleuth. She is persistent, even obsessive, in solving murder.

Anger builds in Eliza over Hamilton not providing for her before he went off to duel.

Eliza’s grief has been complicated by her investigation, her financial circumstances and her relationship with her late husband. She puts aside mourning.

Women of America’s upper class of the era were trained to make lace. Eliza, while long out of practice, finds she still has the skill to make lace.

Eliza pushes the investigation in a personal manner I would never have expected. She dared convention in her effort to clear her son’s name and find justice for the murdered.

It is an interesting book. I am not sure if I will read another in the series.

Quant by Anthony Bidulka (Hopes)

*(21. - 1310.) Quant by Anthony Bidulka (Hopes) - Every time I open a book I hope it will be a good book. I would be surprised if any  reader had a different hope. With authors I know well I have more hopes. With authors I know best such as Anthony Bidulka I have the most hopes. This post will be the 37th I have written about Anthony and his books. I estimate the posts total about 28,000 words or 85 pages.

Fourteen years ago I hoped the Russell Quant series would continue after Dos Equis. Twelve years ago I expressed regret to Anthony that he was not planning to write another Russell Quant novel. Anthony told me he was standing by the position that he had stated to Metro News that he would “never say never” about continuing the series. I described the situation as an “indefinite hiatus”.  I clung to a faint hope Russell would return as Anthony wrote seven novels not featuring Russell. Thus, I was very excited when my hope of more Russell Quant was realized this year with Quant.

I had two further hopes in the email exchange with Anthony in 2014 over the Russell Quant hiatus. I wrote:

I have always thought Russell could be involved in an adventure with his mother in the area of the family farm.

My heart is bursting as both hopes were fulfilled in Quant where Russell’s mother, Kay, is deeply involved in the plot and the Canadian parts of the book are set in and around Howell, the community where Russell grew up and the family farm is located.

I had also hoped that Russell might encounter some of the characters from Anthony’s other books if the hiatus ended. After all, Saskatchewan has only 1.2 million people. We encounter each other a lot. In an email exchange with Anthony last year on Home Fires, the third book in the Merry Bell trilogy, I wrote:

In a final plea I would love to see you write a mystery in which Russell joins Merry and Roger/Stella. I think it would be a grand adventure.

Quant is not about Russell joining Merry and Roger/Stella but it is entertaining with its connections to Anthony’s non-Russell Quant books, especially for readers familiar with the series.

I hoped, actually I knew that in a new Russell Quant mystery, that Anthony would continue to write about under-represented people and places in crime fiction.

Anthony carries on exploring Anthony’s life as a gay man in Saskatchewan.

Anthony has a powerful section on Russell’s  private investigation agency agonizing over an almost impossible LGBTQ+ situation. Sometimes, as first year law students learn to their dismay, there is no right answer but there may be a best answer.

I am not sure if it was intentional but Anthony was writing in Quant about a different under-represented group and place. Rural Canada and its residents, outside Saskatchewan, are under-represented in crime fiction. 

Taking a quick look at the over 200 reviews I have written on Canadian crime fiction outside Saskatchewan, about 30 are set in the country. 

I did not include the 20 books in the Gamache series by Louise Penny as set in the country. While some books in the series mainly take place in the fictional Three Pines, most of the action in the series is in Montreal and urban Quebec.

The country is well represented in Saskatchewan crime fiction as a setting outside the books of Anthony and Gail Bowen.

In the combined 35 books of Anthony and Gail Bowen before Quant which  have Saskatchewan as their major setting, only Anthony’s Going to Beautiful is truly set in rural Saskatchewan. In the 35 books characters visit or come from or sometimes stay in rural Saskatchewan but the plots primarily take place in our largest cities, Saskatoon (Livingsky) and Regina.

Of the 17 books of Saskatchewan crime fiction by authors other than Anthony or Gail that I have read 16 are set in rural Saskatchewan.

I expressed a modest hope to Anthony years ago for Russell to have at least part of an adventure in Melfort where Anthony’s sister Fran, now sadly gone, and I have both lived. The hope was partially fulfilled. Russell made a visit to Melfort in Quant to interview a witness.

I had another hope for the series that was realized but I will not describe it as I feel it is too great a spoiler. That hope will be a mystery within my trio of posts about Quant. I will be interested in talking to readers of the series after they read Quant in the fall to see if they had that same hope.

My final hope after reading Quant is that there will be another Russell Quant book. I believe there are abundant plots to explore. Anthony could fulfill my hope for Russell to have an adventure in Melfort.

****

The author's website is http://www.anthonybidulka.com/ 

2011 Questions and Answers with Anthony; (2012) - Where's Anthony?; (2013) - Anthony Bidulka has Lambda Nomination and New Book; (2014) - Post on Carol Balawyder's blog on How I Got Published; (2016) - Why do so Many Canadian Crime Series have Cross-Border Settings and Anthony's Personal Experience; (2021) - Anthony Bidulka and Hesitation Over the Cover Photo; (2024) Rural Life in Saskatchewan Through Crime Fiction; (2024) - Anthony Bidulka at the Melfort Library

    1.) Russell Quant series – (2004) - Amuse Bouche

    (Most interesting of 2004 – fiction and non-fiction);

    (2005) - Flight of Aquavit (2nd Best fiction in 2005);

    (2005) - Tapas on the Ramblas (2006) - Stain of the

    Berry; (2008) - Sundowner Ubuntu; (2009) - Aloha, 

    Candy Hearts; (2010) - Date with a Sheesha; (2012) -

    Dos Equis and Q & A and Thoughts on Q &A; (2012)

    - Book Launch in Saskatoon of Dos Equis; (2014) -

    Russell Quant onIndefinite Hiatus; (2026) Quant 

    (Family Picnics and Farewells) and (The Review)

    Paperback or Hardcover

    2.) Adam Saint series - (2013) - When the Saints Go

   Marching  In; (2015) - The Women of Skawa Island

    3.) Merry Bell series - (2023) - Livingsky and Merry

    Bell - Saskatchewan Transgender Sleuth and

    Exchange with Anthony Bidulka on Livingsky; (2024)

    - From Sweetgrass Bridge and I Am Excited to

    Become a Fictional Character and Poetry in Football -

    Fictionally and Real Life; (2025) Home Fires

    Burn and Reading to Sharon and Email Exchange

   With Anthony on Home Fires Burn

    4.) Standalones - (2017) - Set Free; (2022) - Going to 

   Beautiful and Stellar Book Launch for Going to

   Beautiful

Quant by Anthony Bidulka (The Review)

*(21. - 1310.) Quant by Anthony Bidulka - After 15 years Russell Quant makes a welcome return to crime fiction. I have missed him.

The setting for the mystery is not in Saskatoon where Rusell has lived his adult life but in and around Howell where Russell grew up.

Russell’s family are an important part of the book. As set out in my last post Russell’s deeply loved mother, Kay, has dementia. She has confused him with his deceased father. 

Russell goes into Howell to meet his mother’s good friend, CeeCee Toth, who has recently lost her husband, Clem. CeeCee is close to Kay who never condescended to her when she came from the Phillipines over 35 years ago to be the bride of the quiet Clem.

CeeCee is in distress. She confides in Russell that Clem was murdered but no one will believe her. The police consider his death to be a suicide.

CeeCee provides convincing electronic evidence contradicting the conclusion. I was glad to see a 70 plus rural Saskatchewan woman showing dexterity and skill with 21st Century electronic technology.

However, there is a complicating factor. Clem is suspected of being a vandal. CeeCee is convinced that her Clem would never commit a crime.

The police may have tunnel vision but Russell gets a tingle that “there’s something suspicious about this” and sets out to determine what happened.

Russell questions a high school classmate Stuart Symak who is a principal in LYFElines, a corporation which links “technology with social justice”. They developed an app for connecting restaurants, grocery stores and social services agencies to distribute unsold food. 

Stuart was a secret crush of the teenage Russell. Some 35 years later Stuart remains a very handsome man.

Russell looks for a place for Kay. I smiled when one of the options was in Beautiful just outside Saskatoon. 

The good folk of Howell and area are adamant that Clem was a good man who would not vandalize and then commit suicide. When Russell asks who might have vandalized they are less certain about Clem and do not want to think anyone they know could have done it. 

Surnames I associate with Saskatchewan and Anthony populate the characters of the book.

I am proud that Russell made a road trip to Melfort to the real life Bluebird Inn. Regrettably it was not a productive meeting.

In the grand tradition of the first eight Russell Quant mysteries he leaves Canada to visit a distant locale. In Quant it is to visit the beautiful isle of Providenciales, better known as Provo,  in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Sharon and I enjoyed a vist there 38 years ago. Anthony and his husband, Herb, know Provo well.

One of the reasons I love Russell is that he has a irreverant sense of humour, especially in times of peril. Chasing an intruder on foot in Provo while wearing flip-flops he jokes on whether the intruder is “some kind of James Bondian villain with a submarine awaiting him”.

I chuckled aloud when he found a spray painted threat the intruder had sprayed on Russell’s rental car - “Go Home Please”. I immediately thought the intruder must be a Canadian. I was wrong.

Anthony credibly ties a massive multi-national real estate development company into a plot about events in small town Saskatchewan. I was impressed.

As always, Russell is a persistent investigator though he could have benefited from consulting his friendly neighbourhood lawyer about land titles during his investigation.

Saskatchewan rural folk love to talk. We have relatively few neighbours with which to converse. However, rural tongues, just as with city folk, become stilled when questioned by a private investigator.

It is awkward at times for Russell to have to question people he has known through his life. I have had the same experience as a lawyer. I would prefer to question people with whom I do not have a personal relationship.

Anthony had me smiling my way through the book. Many fictional P.I’s could benefit from being less serious about themselves. Russell proves a P.I. can be bright, capable and self-deprecating. I thought of Nero Wolfe’s sidekick, Archie Goodwin.

Some of the earlier Quant books did not have a strong finish. Quant is different. Anthony gradually and relentlessly builds tension. The climax of Quant was not just perfect, it was very satisfying. I think it is the best ending in the whole series.

****

Hello Bill

Speaking of Provo, Herb and I are en route there today, but just wanted to drop you a quick thanks before you post the review. ‘Best ending in the whole series.’ Love it. 

Wondered how many readers or reviewers would recognize references, some hidden, to pretty much every book I’ve written, so it gave me a smile to see the Beautiful mention.

Cheers!

Tony

****

** Bidulka, Anthony – Russell Quant series and Adam Saint series and Merry Bell series and standalones:

(2021) - Anthony Bidulka and Hesitation Over the Cover Photo

Russell Quant books - (2004) - Amuse Bouche (Most
Interesting of 2004 – fiction and non-fiction); (2005) - Flight of Aquavit (2nd Best fiction in 2005); (2005) - Tapas on the Ramblas; (2006) - Stain of the Berry; (2008) - Sundowner Ubuntu;   (2009) - Aloha, Candy Hearts; (2010) - Date with a Sheesha; (2012) - Dos Equis; (2026) - Quant (Family Picnics and Farewells) Paperback or Hardcover

Adam Saint books - (2013) - When the Saints Go

Marching In and (2015) - The Women of Skawa Island

Merry Bell books - (2023) Livingsky and Merry Bell - Saskatchewan Transgender Sleuth and Exchange with Anthony Bidulka on Livingsky; (2024) From Sweetgrass Bridge and I Am Excited to Become a Fictional Character and Poetry in Football - Fictionally and Real Life and Anthony Bidulka at the Melfort Library; (2025) - Home Fires Burn and Reading to Sharon and Emails With Anthony on Home Fires Burn

Standalones - (2017) - Set Free; (2022) - Going to Beautiful and Stellar Book Launch for Going to Beautiful

Quant by Anthony Bidulka (Family Picnics and Farewells)

*(21. - 1310.) Quant by Anthony Bidulka - The opening pages of Russell Quant going through the farm home of his youth sent me into a kaleidoscope of cascading memories with every page. My next post will review the book. This post is for those of us who grew up in rural Saskatchewan in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. I think of my sister, Ann Marie, now gone for 26 years. I think of the neighbour kids - Karen, Wendy, Joanne, Terry, Linda, Philip, Susan, Norma, Stuart, Dean, Grant, Bryan (Buck) and Sherry. Norma and Bryan are also gone. I think of Anthony.

Life was not perfect but Russell recounted many vivid memories of what it was like to live in a happy family in that time and provided a powerful memory on the passing of an era.

The Quant family picnic on a hot sunny Saskatchewan summer day by a slough in the pasture took me back to our farm at Meskanaw. As with Russell’s family our picnics were not often which made them more memorable. My Mom, Dad, Ann Marie and I would pile into the car and go to a small lake.

Like the Quant family we would put blankets on the grass. There were no picnic tables.

The picnics were homemade feasts. Nothing would be made at a store. Russell’s mother Kay would have “tuna and chicken salad sandwiches, chunks of Ukrainian sausage and hard-boiled eggs, seeded grapes, ripe peaches and strawberries”. She would mix up potato salad from garden ingredients. My Mom made wonderful potato salad and fried chicken at home which she would put into a cooler.

Kool-Aid, not soft drinks, were served to the kids. I equally remember grape and orange. I know my sister and I would usually end up with an orange ring around our mouths.

As did the Quants we would have a wiener roast. There were no portable barbecues or fire pits. You would scrape a space and get a fire going. In the meantime, you would cut wiener sticks. The Quant’s used ash or birch. Our family had willow sticks. The ends would be sharpened and the bark cut back. I never saw a metal wiener stick until I was in my 20’s.

A wiener you have cooked over an open fire at a family picnic is culinary perfection. I would always have two.

The Quants would play catch with a baseball “black by age and farm life” for what “seemed like hours”. Ann Marie and I loved to play catch with Dad. He had played ball for years and years with the Meskanaw Mallards and would tell us stories of those exciting days. On ordinary days we would often ask Dad if he could play catch with us after supper. He was never too busy nor too tired.

Russell’s family would stay by the slough to watch as the “impossibly large sun dipped into a multi-hued horizon”. Our family would be driving home with the beautiful sun setting behind us. My sister would often be asleep before we reached home.

Kay was an amazing cook with not a cookbook in the house. My Mom was a good cook but not with the variety of Kay. I did have a Grandma Selnes who was famed for her white cake. She could only give you the ingredients. She measured with her hands and never used a clock for how long to bake the cake. She was my cousin’s wife but Ann Marie and I were included in her grandchildren. My paternal grandmother had died almost 40 years before I was born. I was close to a teenager before I knew her first name was Louisa.

As with the Quant family we had a modest home. I never thought of it as small growing up. It was a white stucco clad house with a bright red door. The photo at the top of this post is a photo of a painting my mother’s father painted of the house. It is on the wall of the family room downstairs from me as I write this post.

Russell’s memories are triggered by going through the house his Mom has lived in for 60 years and will soon have to leave as dementia diminishes her mind. His Dad had died some years previously.

I  remember the day my Dad had to leave our farm. My Mom had died a couple of years earlier. As with Russell’s Mom he had to leave because of health issues. Diabetic complications had affected his mobility and left him almost blind.

I wrote about his departure in a reflection for a lay-led service at our Catholic parish a few years ago.

I said:

At the end of October Sharon and I met some friends and neighbours at the farm to move Dad.

 

It was an emotional day for all of us. Dad had lived all his 72 years on the farm and loved living on the farm. We knew he would return to visit the farm but he would never live on his farm again.

 

Dad also loved nature. He had trapped for 60 years and knew the Waterhen Marsh north of our farm intimately.

 

Finally we had the last load of furnishings in the half-tons and it was time to go. Everyone paused. No one was quite ready to say “let’s go.”

 

At that moment a flock of Canada geese in a perfect V swept over the yardsite honking their way south. Unlike many flocks which fly hundreds of feet in the air this formation was just over the treetops.

 

With faces uplifted we stood in silence watching the geese.

 

When they had passed it felt right to go. God had blessed Dad’s leaving.

Thanks for the memories Anthony.

****

Anthony replied to my post as follows after I sent it to him:

Well, Bill, ya got me. 

It was just after 6am this morning, at the gym on a treadmill, when I opened your email. Of course I was not expecting it, so it took me by surprise. Perhaps that is why I found myself getting a wee bit teary-eyed next to all the gym bros. But in truth, it was because of how beautifully you recounted the Quant family experience of yesteryear, which of course brought back memories of when I wrote the words and how they reflected my own feelings and memories and indulged my nostalgia, and then you topped it off with a generous helping of your own charming childhood experiences which share undeniable DNA with the aforementioned. Thank you for that. And thank you for always allowing and making room for the possibility that crime fiction—when your focus is on it—is often about much more than just the crime. For seeing the humanity, the relationships, and the underlying emotions which, in my mind, are critical for storytelling.

And yes, the QUANT cat is out of the bag, so feel free to post away! Thanks for checking.

Love the painting. What a treasure.

Best

Tony

The Fury of Beijing by Ian Hamilton

(19. - 1308.) The Fury of Beijing by Ian Hamilton - Consequences affecting Ava have been modest in recent books of the series. Her schemes and occasionally violent actions in support of a worthy goal have succeeded without major cost to her. Hamilton was setting up the reader and Ava. In retrospect, she was getting complacent about repercussions. They came crushing upon her in General Tiananmen. If you are reading the series and have not read General Tiananmen stop here as this review has spoilers because The Fury of Beijing is a continuation of that book. What I will say early in this review is all in the opening of The Fury of Beijing. Hamilton has created abundant spoilers with regard to the previous book as an explanation is needed for the actions being undertaken by Ava.

At the end of General Tiananmen the producer, Chen, and the director, Lau Lau, are killed by assassins in Taiwan. The Communist Chinese government will reach outside its borders to exact revenge on those who would attempt to publicize to the world what happened in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989. Uncle had warned Ava in a dream not to poke the bear. She ignored his warning and Chen and Lau Lau are dead.

Distraught and furious, Ava vows revenge. I went down to the library the day after finishing General Tiananmen and borrowed The Fury of Beijing. I had to know what happened.

Ava normally feels no guilt over her actions. It is different this time. There is good reason to feel guilty over pushing the Tiananmen movie to be made and screened at the Cannes Film Festival and then screened in America to be made eligible for the Oscars. She underestimated the Chinese government. At the same time she realizes wallowing in guilt is self-pity.

While furious she remains rational. She contacts Xu, the head of the Shanghai triads, to help her.

He swiftly finds out from Taiwanese triads that a local businessman, Song Pin-Lin, was recruiting assassins to kill Chen and Lau Lau. The Taiwanese triads turned him down.

She starts investigating Song. A bright and ferocious Chinese triad, Lop, is sent by Xu to help and protect her.

Anticipating she wll need to go to Asia Ava realizes she may need another identity beyond Ava and beyond her second identity, Jennie Kwong. She has false documents created for her to be Chow Qi. In Mandarin Qi means “wondrous”.

She senses the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) is involved. Chinese in and out of China dread the MSS.

Song’s company, Green Dragon Import / Export, is a front for the MSS.

Ava and Lop aggressively question Song.

Ava crosses a line in pursuing who ordered the deaths of Chen and Lau-Lau. Ava and Lop had alternatives to killing. As with most thrillers there is no exploration of the lives and families of the killed. The investigation takes them to Beijing. It is no surprise the murders were orchestrated at high levels of the Chinese government.

Ava and Lop describe themselves as avenging angels. I say they are at best tarnished angels.

Just when I thought that Ava was proceeding with a bloody vengeance that would leave bodies strewn in her wake she re-evaluates her thirst for retribution.

Perhaps unconsciously, she channels Uncle`s approach to making a high level response to violence. He would carefully assess what could hurt the opponent the most with the least impact on his triads. Any violence would be measured and only used in furtherance of his sought resolution of the conflict.

When even Lop hesitates as he considers the risks of violence against the MSS Ava realizes she must adjust her approach. She schemes to exact focused revenge. 

Ava, while no longer a Catholic believer, is a believer in Old Testament justice.

While I cannot enjoy vigilante justice, which often has collateral damage, Ava’s determination to avenge the deaths of her friends felt right for her character. The book was very well written with more complexity than some of the later books in the series.

As the book raced to the ending I was reminded of how I was caught up in the drama of the assassin in The Day of the Jackal as he meticulously planned to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. 

I knew the ending of the series was coming but had not realized it was The Fury of Beijing until I read the acknowledgements. While reading the book it had the feel of winding down the series but I also felt there would be 1-2 more in the series. I will write more about my thoughts on the series. It is the second long running series I have recently finished. I read the last of the Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear two years ago. Next will be Gail Bowen whose book Homecoming will be the final Joanne Kilbourn book.

****

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; (2025) The Mountain Master of Sha Tin; (2025) - The Diamond Queen of Singapore; (2026) - The Sultan of Sarawak; (2026) The General of Tiananmen Square