Children of the Savage City by Elizabeth Heider

(15. - 1304.) Children of the Savage City by Elizabeth Heider - Naples is dangerous.

Krav Maga is excellent but martial arts are limited when a stronger, bigger, more powerful attacker launches a surprise assault. Nikki Serafina, an Italian police liasion officer to the American navy, despite her Krav Maga skills, is struggling against the attacker. She is saved from a beating, or worse, by a hard man, Benedetto De Rosa, who is Tito Calandra’s man. Wanting to preserve her indpendence, Nikki declines a request to assist De Rosa and Calandra. They are calling on a favour. It is a questionable decision.

At the same time in the cathedral, Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo, a young woman is stabbed to death. Capo Valerio Alfieri, an officer in the police anti-corruption unit, is called by his distraught mother, Leonora, who was in the cathedral. There was a profoundly moving description of the victim:

When she closed her eyes, Nikki saw the childlike face, the pooling blood, and the fine layer of feathers. Everything arranged beneath the altar as if a young angel had fallen violently to earth.

Complications start when the police want to question two young women who were also in the cathedral. One of the women is Monica Lissom, the daughter of the American ambassador to Italy. She will only speak to Nikki.

Nikki’s father Raoul, a former officer in Italian naval intelligence, returns to Naples and her life. He is past the disabling grief of the death of his wife, Beatrice. Much of his zest for life has returned. It is Nikki who is struggling with depression.

The victim was a nanny, Claire Sexton, and Nikki is drawn into the chaotic life of the Lake family for whom Sexton worked. The family is staying on their yacht, The Prophet, which Nikki estimates at 85 metres in length. 

The characters are vivid. The Naples of Children of the Savage City is a harsh city. Powerful crime clans are pervasive. Il Sistema, the “System, is everywhere. Even the joys of the Christmas season are but a cover.

The investigation inevitably becomes more complicated when the ambassador’s daughter and her friend are charged with murder. The Navy offers the assistance of the Phoenix Seven unit to the defender of the young women, Advocate Ferragni. The police had earlier ended their collaboration with Phoenix Seven. The unit is on questionable jurisdictional grounds aiding the defence.

Nikki’s superior, Angelo Figliomeni, bitterly resents Nikki’s relationships with the Americans and her disdain for his misogynistic attitude.

She travels to London to be with Aunt Izzy and Uncle Preston. She had lived with them for several years. His brilliant mind is failing and he has had a terrible fall.

Nikki recalls their story of love at first sight. Preston said to Izzy the words of Chartier from Las Belle Danme sans Mercy:

‘Love has bound me to be your man, and leave all other pursuits.”

Valerio and Nikki search for elusive connections in their respective cases.

As the book progresses the complexities of the multiple police organizations increase and the plot grows darker with a wicked and sordid tale unfolding.

Nikki reflects on the deaths of her brother and her mother. The dismal rainy day of Adriano’s funeral is always fresh in her mind. It is rare to find lyrical writing of death and mourning. Heider evokes the powerful emotions of deep grief coursing through Nikki.

Nikki fits uncomfortably in a hierarchy. Her fierce independence is ill-suited to the paramilitary structure of police.

Valerio and Nikki find their bargains with the devils of the Camorra clans ever more costly. There is but a faint line between compromise and corruption for a police officer.

In the last third of the book the plot line involving Nikki and Valerio and the Camorro clans dominated the book. The investigation into Claire’s murder comes to have a modest role. I would have preferred more balance between the plot lines.

In May the Wolf Die, much of the plot dealt with the challenging interactions between American Navy personnel and the Italians. I wish there had been more of such interaction in this book.

I thought Children of the Savage City was a very well written book though I was uncomfortable with part of the book which shall be discussed in my next post.

I see Heider reaching stardom in the world of crime fiction with Children of the Savage City.

****

Heider, Elizabeth - (2025) - May the Wolf Die and A Letter Exchange with Elizabeth Heider

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979) - Part II

E.W. Hornung author of the 
Raffles stories

I found interesting so many of the stories in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979) that this post will be my third about the book.

It was intrigued by the stories of William Le Queux about the Count’s Chauffeur. Written in 1906 it was at the dawn of the motorcar. The Chauffeur drives a large open car. He drives Count Bindo di Ferraris, a charming rogue who is the mastermind behind clever criminal schemes. Unlike most modern crime fiction the criminals are successful and are not condemned for their thieving ways.

It is the dawn of the age of motoring. Many motorcars have no top. Warm coats, rugs over laps and googles are needed in bad weather. There is a whole fashion for motor clothes. One day the beautiful Valentine dons “a silk dust-coat and the latest invention in veils - pale blue with long ends twisted several times around her throat” to go for a drive.

Two female authors are included in the book.

Mrs. L.T. Meade, the nom-de-plume of Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, described as “prolific” by the editor, contributed two stories she wrote with Robert Eustache, the pseudonym of Dr. Eustache Robert Barton. They are well done. Most interesting was The Secret of Emu Plain set in Australia at the end of the 19th Century. What makes it special is that the solution of the mystery was not revealed. Instead, there was a contest organized by Cassell’s Magazine in which readers were invited to provide the solution. There were 386 entries from countries covering much of the world. Only 4 were correct. They still awarded the full 10 prizes of One Guinea with prizes going to 6 non-correct but ingenious answers. I did not have the answer. The authors’ solution submitted under seal to the publisher before the contest was suitably clever and felt plausible to me.

The second woman was Baroness Orczy who wrote The Old Man in the Corner stories. I read a volume of those stories and wrote a post in which Hercule Poirot and Nero Wolfe discuss the Old Man’s investigative approach.

In this book we have a murder mystery by Orczy featuring a barrister, Patrick Mulligan, known as “Skin o’ my Tooth” for his talent at gaining acquittals for clients in very sticky situations.

Mulligan is described as: 

Funny looking man, too, old Skin o’ my Tooth - fat and rosy and comfortable as an Irish pig, with a face as stodgy as a boiled currant dumpling … Then, we all know that gentle smile of his, and that trick of casting down his eyes which gives him a look that is best described by the word “coy”; that trick is always a danger-signal to the other side.

I do not find many contemporary authors willing to provide their sleuth with an unflattering appearance.

A dramatic scene ensues when a letter from a murder victim containing an accusation from the grave is handed to the Coroner at an Inquest by the deceased’s sister.

In The Case of Major Gibson the unfortunate Gibson loses badly at baccarat. Later that night, contemplating a gloomy future as he has gambled away thousands of pounds, he observes a woman passing a necklet to a man. After she departs he confronts the man and gets the necklet. In turn, he is confronted over the necklet but refuses, as a gentleman, to slander the woman by saying she was involved.

Gibson’s reputation is destroyed. He goes to see Mulligan about a slander suit that he was not a thief. 

The Orczy stories were published in The Windsor Magazine in 1903. I believe the author’s story of Major Gibson was inspired by the events of the famous Baccarat case of 1890 in which Sir William Gordon-Cumming rashly sued for defamation after being accused of cheating at baccarat. 

The wily Mulligan advises Gibson a defamation action is ill-advised. Sir William Gordon-Cumming should have had similar advice.

Mulligan does engage in an ethically questionable meeting featuring abundant lies to gain Gibson’s vindication.

I loved Mulligan’s comment:

“Now, I am not one for believing that there is ever a truth without any proof …”

The story showed how a clever author can take a real life event and make it their own.

The Ides of March by E.W. Hornung introduced me to A.J. Raffles, “Cricketer and Criminal”.  Late at night Raffles is accosted in his rooms by his old public schoolmate, Bunny, who cannot cover his losses at baccarat. He is a desperate man. Raffles calms Bunny, convincing him to lower the revolver, with which he was threatening suicide. Bunny reveres the suave Raffles saying he was “the most masterful man whom I have ever known”. 

Unless they can raise money that night Bunny’s honour will be shattered. I was reminded again of the consequences for honour and status in English society of the 1890's as set out in The Baccarat Case mentioned above.

Raffles is a great cricketer. He explains to Bunny that It is important to have another career when a criminal:

To follow crime with reasonable impunity you simply must have a parallel ostensible career - the more public the better. The principle is obvious ... fill the bill in some prominent part and you will never be suspected of doubling it with another of equal prominence.

Raffles explains to Bunny that he lives by his wits, cricketing is not lucrative, and equally broke. Bunny is ready to do whatever Raffles proposes to raise money. Bunny is loyal but not swift of thought. Only when they are in a room above a jeweler’s store does he grasp that they will engage in burglary.

Raffles displays remarkable skill and knowledge in dealing with locks.

Raffles is a gentleman burglar. Two years ago I learned of the fictional Raffles while reading a book of non-fiction - A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue by Dean Jobb. Arthur Barry was a debonair real life rogue robbing the wealthy of New York City and Long Island often while they were eating dinner or asleep.

Raffles explains why he is a thief:

Why settle down to some humdrum uncongenial billet, when excitement, romance, danger and a decent living were all going begging together? Of course, it’s very wrong, but we can’t all be moralists, and the distribution of wealth is very wrong to begin with. Besides, you’re not at it all the time.

Arthur Barry was equally a man not to shrink from the limelight. He was a bon vivant in New York City’s best social circles and clubs in the 1920’s creating the impression he was a man of leisure with independent means.

Raffles and Barry both love diamonds and are eager to relieve the wealthy of them.

It has been a long time since I read the compact mystery stories of magazines. I had forgotten how intriguing magazine mysteries can be as they focus on the mystery having but a few pages for the story.

****

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979) and Arthur Conan Doyle Studies Murder

Remembering Gail Bowen

The world of crime fiction lost a great writer when Gail Bowen died last week. I lost a bright, kind and generous friend.

Our first contact came almost 20 years ago in 2007 when I wrote to her by email about The Endless Knot, the 10th book in the Joanne Kilbourn series. I was partially prompted to write to her as she introduced Zack Shreve, an accomplished Regina lawyer in a wheelchair, into the series. I wrote:

As a Saskatchewan lawyer in his mid-50’s whose practice includes criminal law I am avowedly prejudiced in favour of a book that features such a lawyer as a primary character.

In her prompt reply she said:

I'm working on the next Joanne Kilbourn novel, and you'll be happy to hear that Zack is still very much a part of the plot and, more significantly, of Joanne's life. For that reason and for many others, I hope that you and I can meet some day to talk about the mystery genre face to face. I should warn you that I'm not knowledgeable.

Our email exchanges continued book after book. 

I started writing this blog and this post will be the 34th I have written about Gail and her books.

We did get to meet in Regina and had wonderful visits. As you would expect she was excessively modest in saying she was not knowledgeable about the mystery genre.

Sharon and I went to Gail and Ted’s home for a lively supper of chili and peach cobbler.

She startled us by saying their home had a special feature. There was a Cold War bunker under the backyard. I know of no one else who has a bunker at their home. I noted that she had not made the bunker her writing space.

A lovely touch to the backyard were mirrors along the fence surrounding the yard. Purchased in yard sales the reflections created constantly changing images.

Conversation with Gail and Ted was a joy. Conversing with the pair of English professors was lively and wide ranging.

When I think of Gail I also think of Ted. They were a couple in all the best ways. Their commitment to each other was clear to all who met them. I wish Ted the best as he grieves with his family.

I do not personally know Gail’s family but could follow their lives, especially her grandchildren, through posts on Facebook. Her love and admiration and expectations for them were present throughout her posts.

Gail provided me with my most unique literary experience. Dave Carpenter was looking for a chapter on Saskatchewan crime fiction for Volume 3 of A Literary History of Saskatchewan a decade ago. Gail suggested he contact me and I wrote a chapter called, Saskatchewan Mysteries: A Report from the Field, which was published in Volume 3. I will always appreciate her thinking of me for that opportunity.

Gail’s actual knowledge of the mystery genre was best shown in her book Sleuth - Gail Bowen on Writing Mysteries. In the first part of my review of the book I said:

From knowing Gail, Sleuth reflects her personality. She is a woman of great learning. She has read widely and thought about what she has read. At the same time she is not burdened by her knowledge in Sleuth. She is not pedantic. She dispenses her advice with flair and self-deprecation.

Gail and her sleuth, Joanne, were fiercely progressive in their politics and lives. They spoke eloquently in favour of their ideals and lived out their convictions. I asked her what made Joanne a practical activist. She responded:

Truly, I drew upon my own experience. In my adult life I’ve moved from starry-eyed idealism to a much more pragmatic approach to how we can create a community in which everyone has a chance to create a good life. Like you, I am acutely aware of the fact that I have been blessed, but to paraphrase J.S. Woodsworth, I believe we have to work for a world where these blessings are shared with others.

I have enjoyed every Joanne Kilbourn Shreve book. Few authors have managed in my almost 70 years of reading to hold my interest through a series of over 20 books. Gail is the only author among those few whose quality of books was maintained through every book.

When I get to read Homecoming, the final book in the series, later this year it will be a read of conflicting emotions. I will be sad it is the end of the series and that Gail is gone. I will be happy as the series has been a great reading experience and glad Gail was able to finish the series.

While reading The Solitary Friend last year I learned that it was to be the second last in the series. I decided not to wait until the final book was published this year to write a letter of tribute and reflection to Gail on the series and our friendship. I had no premonition that she would be gone. It just felt right to write to her and I am grateful we had a final exchange. A link to that post is below.

Gail’s reply, graceful and kind, was our final communication:

Dear Bill,

I'm an early riser, and it's now 9:31 for me---very, very much past my best before time, but I did want you to know how much your letter means to me.  I'm almost finished with the first draft of Homecoming, which will be the final book in the series.  And I do promise a real letter of thanks for generous, thoughtful and forgiving reading of the JKS series very soon. 

Thank you for your support and for having a family life that makes me smile every time I think of it.  We are blessed, and you and I and those we love all know that.

Till the next time, many, many thanks for everything, and hey the Riders won! Do we believe in miracles?  You bet!!!

Affectionately and gratefully,

Gail  

****

Bowen, Gail – 2011 Questions and Answers with Gail; 2011 Suggestions for Gail on losing court cases; The author's website is http://www.gailbowen.com/ - (2011) Deadly Appearances; (2013) Murder at the Mendel; The Wandering Soul Murders (Not reviewed); A Colder Kind of Death (Not reviewed); A Killing Spring (Not reviewed); Verdict in Blood (Not reviewed); (2000) - Burying Ariel (Second best fiction of 2000); (2002) - The Glass Coffin; (2004) - The Last Good Day; (2007) – The Endless Knot (Second Best Fiction of 2007); (2008) - The Brutal Heart; (2010) - The Nesting Dolls; (2012) - "B" is for Gail Bowen; (2012) - Kaleidoscope and Q & A on Kaleidoscope; (2013) - The Gifted and Q & A and Comparing with How the Light Gets In; (2015) - 12 Rose Street; Q & A with Gail Bowen on Writing and the Joanne Kilbourn Series; (2016) - What's Left Behind and Heritage Poultry in Saskatchewan Crime Fiction; (2017) - The Winners' Circle; (2018) - Sleuth - Gail Bowen on Writing Mysteries / Gail the Grand Master - Part I and Part II; (2018) - A Darkness of the Heart and Email Exchange on ADOH; (2020) - The Unlocking Season; (2021) - An Image in the Lake and The Fourth "F" is Forgiveness; (2023) - What's Past is Prologue and  and Law Matters in What's Past is Prologue; (2023) - The Legacy; (2025) - The Solitary Friend and Letter to Gail Bowen on the Joanne Kilbourn Series and Our Relationship

Arthur Conan Doyle Studies Murder

While reading The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979) I was surprised to find three articles on real life crime written by Arthur Conan Doyle which were published in 1901. Doyle’s articles are told with the flair of fictional short stories.

I had remembered I had a book, Conan Doyle Detective by Peter Costello, about Doyle as an amateur detective and keen student of real life crime but did not recall the book summarized those stories until I looked at the book for writing this post. (A link to my review is at the end of this post.)

The first article - The Holocaust of Manor Place - recounts the story of William Godfrey Youngman and his fiancee, Mary Wells Streeter. After securing a 100 pound insurance policy upon her life he invites her to London. After a day of sightseeing and an evening at the theatre they stay overnight at his parents flat in separate bedrooms. In the early morning, after Youngman’s father has left for work, other residents of flats in the house hear noises and a thump. Mary and Youngman’s mother and his two brothers have been killed through stabbing. Youngman claims his mother went insane killing Mary and her other sons and he stopped her and killed her in self-defence. A jury takes less than half an hour to convict him.

Doyle sees Youngman as suffering from the “insanity of selfishness”. Recounting family history of insanity he concludes:

…. It is doubtful whether the case should not have been judged upon medical rather than upon criminal grounds. In these more scientific and more humanitarian days it is perhaps doubtful whether Youngman should have been hanged, but there was never any doubt as to his fate in 1860.

A link to the account of the case at the Old Bailey is https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18600813-723

The second article - The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker - With names altered to avoid pain to surviving relatives Doyle explores insanity again. Parker, a young “man of artistic temperament, with all the failings of nerve and character which that temperament implies” becomes engaged to a young woman. After four years, with both families disapproving of the engagement, she writes to end the engagement. He is deeply upset. He agrees but wants to see her again. Their letters are moving. In that meeting he stabs her and then tries to save her but she dies. He says he knows he will be hanged. At trial there is evidence on his sanity. His mother recounts a family history of insanity. There is professional evidence:

Two specialists in lunacy examined himn and said that they were of opinion that he was of unsound mind. The opinion was based upon the fact that the prisoner declared that he could not see he had done any wrong.

The judge stated to the jury:

To be mad with the meaning of the law, a criminal should be in such a state as not to know that he has committed crime or incurred punishment. 

Doyle opines:

Now, it was clear that Parker did know this, since he had talked of being hanged.

You will need to read the book to learn of Parker’s fate.

Doyle was a firm believer in the principle that an accused must be proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. In the third article - The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley - he stated:

But when one looks back and remembers how often one has been very sure and yet has erred in the issues of life, how often what has seemed certain has failed us, and that which appeared impossible has come to pass, we feel that if the criminal laws has been conducted upon such principles it is probably the giant murderer of England. Far wiser is the contention that it is better that ninety-nine guilty should escape than one innocent man should suffer, and that, therefeore, if it can be claimed there is one chance in a hundred in favour of the prisoner he is entitled to his acquittal. 

Costello discusses the articles:

These he called ‘Strange Studies from Life’ and they were published in The Strand between March and May 1901. He originally planned to write a series of twelve, which would have been enough material for a book; but he soon gave them up, discouraged by the nature of the material, ‘I don’t think I ever felt more uncertain about anything,’ he told Greenhough-Smith, the magazine’s editor, and refused to continue.

I can understand Doyle’s reluctance if the other nine planned studies were about murder as foul and sordid as the trio about which he wrote. As well, the studies left  Doyle with doubt about the correctness of the verdicts and punishment. Defence counsel would have loved to have Doyle as a juror.

****

Conan Doyle Detective by Peter Costello

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979)

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979)

(5. - 1247.) The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 selected and introduced by Alan K. Russell (1979) - Part I - Books come to readers in various ways. Just after Christmas a year ago Sharon, our older son Jonathan, our granddaughters Hannah (7) and Hazel (5) and myself went to the Fair’s Fair used bookstore in the Inglewood area of Calgary. I gave the girls $20 each to buy books. Both of them carefully added up the books they could buy with $20. Hazel desperately wanted an additional book for $5. She worked out with her Dad that she could use $5 from her saved allowance money to get the extra book.

I wandered the store and came across The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes 2 which contains 46 stories from “a Golden era of crime and detective fiction”. The stories from 18 different authors were published in the magazines that abounded around the turn of the 20th Century. Illustrations that accompanied the stories when published are included.

The collection began with The Spawn of Fortune by Angus Evan Abbott. In 7 pages, including 2 pages of drawings, Abbott recounts an intense encounter on the London underground. For this one story I will provide a spoiler which reveals the ending.

Arthur Brackenbridge has entered a first class compartment with a gun so that he can commit suicide. He is facing a warrant for fraudulent bankruptcy and his fortune is gone. He is certain his fiancee will forsake him. A brawny stranger rushes in disturbing Brackenbridge’s privacy. Brackenbridge wants him to leave so he can kill himself. The stranger, in conversation with Brackenbridge, establishes that Brackenbridge can prove his innocence and does not know if he has lost his fiancee. It was shame and embarrassment that were causing the suicidal plan. The stranger convinces him that only being a murderer justifies suicide. Brackenbridge leaves his gun with the stranger and departs. The stranger, who has just committed murder, takes the revolver and kills himself.

It is a brilliantly crafted haunting story with an all too credible ending.

The second sleuth is Romney Pringle (author Clifford Ashdown). In the introduction he is described as a type of Raffles - a gentleman thief. Last year in A Gentleman and a Thief by Dean Jobb I read of a real life Raffles in Arthur Barry who was a jewel thief in Long Island and around New York City in the 1920’s.

Robert Barr’s story featured Monsieur Eugine Valmont “formerly high in the service of the French Government”, and now a private detective in London. A brilliant dapper man, I was reminded of Hercule Poirot though Poirot debuted 16 years after Barr’s detective appeared in Pearson’s Magazine.

I was struck that there were stories where there was a clever heist and the thief was never caught. The pleasure was in seeing how the crime was committed. It is exceedingly rare in the modern crime fiction I have read for the villain to be successful.

The stories are well written with interesting characters. I was struck that they are not filled with dramatic shifts and twists. Modern crime fiction seeks out drama.

There are a series of Professor Van Dusen stories by Jacques Futrelle. The professor, looking vaguely like Albert Einstein before Einstein was known, is a master of logic. His motto is:

“.... Remember that two and two always make four - not sometimes, but all the time.”

He rigorously follows logic and finds solutions.

Futrelle is deft with a phrase. He describes a master criminal as “so smooth that he made ice feel like sandpaper”. Sadly Futrelle was gone at 36 in the sinking of the Titanic.

One of my favourite stories involved a lawyer. In The Tragedy of a Third Smoker by Cutliff Hyne an experienced barrister, the Q.C., recounts defending a Mr. Guide charged with murder. Despite compelling evidence Guide claims he did not kill Mr. Walker and the murder must have been done by an unknown third party. Recognizing the defence of the unknown stranger is virtually impossible, the Q.C. sets out to find a plausible alternative killer. The police allow him to review the evidence as “they were not exactly anxious to hand over a poor wretch to the hangman if he was not thoroughly deserving of a dance on nothing”. Following the path of all good counsel the Q.C. carefully examines the evidence and considers how Walker died.

I noted that none of the sleuths killed a villain. They were arrested and brought before the courts.

The book prompted so many thoughts I will have a series of posts concerning the book.

The Keeper by Tana French

(23. - 1312.) The Keeper by Tana French - After 3 years in Ardnakelty Cal Cooper can easily banter with the quick tongued locals. He has earned a place in the hierarchy of the townland partly because of his engagement to Lena Dunne. A favoured topic for Noreen, the local shopkeeper, is  the extended nature of the engagement to her sister. She pokes Cal about the lack of a wedding date. He does not disclose they have no plans to wed.

Trey Reddy is now 16 and mixing with other teenagers. She is finding her own place in the community. There is some stability in her life. Weekdays with her mother and siblings. Weekends with Cal woodworking and Lena learning about life.

Unlike the other residents of Ardnakelty, Lena is reserved. She is content to live alone and enjoy a companionable intimate relationship with Cal. She rarely joins in the Ardnakelty passion for gossip. Not for Lena to pass on or create or embellish a rumour. 

She is astute in recognizing Trey is becoming a young woman seeking new relationships and contemplating an apprenticeship to a professional woodworker. Cal is dismayed. It had taken him years to feel comfortable in dealing with a young teenager. Now he must start over again.

The rhythms of fall in Ardnakelty are broken when Rachel Holohan, a young woman of about 20, is found drowned. The villagers and farmers contemplate her death. There is a collective complex assessment of whether she died accidentally or by suicide or by murder. As in the earlier two books of the trilogy the people of the townland will reach their own conclusions and take their own actions. They reject officialdom deciding what happened. In a uniquely Irish approach one of the farmers in the pub provides their verdict by singing a cappella a haunting song of death with the other patrons joining him by humming.

Rachel was going out with Eugene, the smarmy son of local big man, Tommy Moynihan. Tommy is adept at using the levers of power to get his way.

The complications never end. When the cause of Rachel’s death is determined the same process of communal review is applied to the reasons for her death. The analysis is wide ranging and the gossip often vicious.

Trey and what in North America would be called her squad get involved.

On the pretext of delivering a jar of homemade blackberry jam Lena speaks to women she has not spoken to in 30 years. This time she will not let the community reach the convenient resolution.

As readers of the first two books would expect, Cal leaves the sidelines when there is a plot to cast a blame with which he cannot abide. At his core he needs to fix things.

Rachel’s Catholic funeral draws the community to physical proximity though at the funeral and the “afters” at a local hotel the mourners separate into their proper group. There is no communal emotional togetherness.

Lena’s decades of resisting involvement in local matters is dissolving and she is slotted at the hotel with the “girls” of her teenage years still living in the townland.

Words flow as easily among the women as among the men and all are experts at saying nothing. Still there are nuances to the conversations that the expert local interpreters pick up.

French has created characters to fill the townland. It is amazing how many men, women and children have roles in the book. Each has a personality.

While we all know the wicked exploit vulnerability the virtuous can also be ruthless. The reaction of the townland feeling threatened is primal and set the hair rising on the back of my neck.

The response to the reaction of the townland is calculated and dangerous especially for Lena.

And then there was a counter to the response. Contrary to centuries of rumour being the method of attack, all the conjectures are brought into the open in the pub leading to a dandy “roola-boola” in Mart’s words..

Mart, ever the realist confides in Cal that they can win the battle but progress and development are powerful foes. Ireland has a history of fighting for lost causes.

The ending was dramatic in ways thrillers cannot match. There is the subtlety of real life. There is loss and regret and reconciliation. Imperfect justice prevails and life in Ardnakelty carries on in the second quarter of the 21st Century. It is a satisfying end of the trilogy.

**** 

French, Tana - (2022) - The Searcher; (2025) - The Hunter

Emails With Sam Wiebe on Travis McGee and Dave Wakeland

I exchanged emails with Sam Wiebe concerning The Last Exile and Guns Across the River and his sleuth Dave Wakeland. The emails are below. It would be best to read the reviews before the emails. There are links to the reviews at the end of this post.

****

Dear Sam,

It has been a few years since I wrote to you. On the Victoria Day Weekend, though it snowed two days I read The Last Exile. In the past couple of weeks I read Guns Across the River.

I attach a link to my review on the blog of The Last Exile and a copy of my review of Guns Across the River which I will be posting shortly.

As I read about Dave Wakeland acquiring a float home in the Sea Village at Granville Island I thought about Travis McGee in the series by John D. MacDonald.

Travis lives on the The Busted Flush, a pontoon houseboat, at a marina in Fort Lauderdale from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Travis loves The Busted Flush.

The houseboat occasionally travels from the marina.

In past email exchanges you spoke of MacDonald and Robert B. Parker, the author of the Spenser series, being formative in your reading of crime fiction.

Reading Guns Across the River made me wonder if you were inspired by The Busted Flush in Dave getting a float home.

Both Travis and Dave get their water borne residences in unconventional ways.

Travis wins The Busted Flush in a poker game.

Dave gets his float home when its owners are murdered and outlaw motorcycle club leader, Terry Rhodes, appreciative of Dave’s efforts for the Exiles, arranges for Dave to get the multi-million dollar float home.

I have thought those float homes in real life at Granville Island would be amazing places to live but the practical side of me worries about maintenance. Travis is always fixing something on the houseboat. Do you know if float homes require a high level of maintenance?

I read on the Sea Village Marina website that:

The adults here are or have been employed in health care, telecommunications, construction, film, finance, consulting, sales and marketing and as artists. They include a tradesman, a professional Santa Claus, a Paddling Hall of Fame member, a contractor, two former toy company owners, a film director, and a Nobel Peace prize recipient. 

Dave should fit right in.

As I thought more about the two series I realized that I think of Dave as the Canadian nephew of Travis.

Each has a world weariness to their personalities. 

Both are philosophers with trenchant comments on the vagaries of life.

Each is a large physical man comfortable with physical confrontation.

They refuse to be intimidated even when discretion is well advised.

Both provoke reactions to advance investigations.

Neither is a young man. Dave is about to turn 40. Travis, a Korean war veteran, ages from his 30’s through to his 50’s during the series.

Love has been elusive for both of them. Travis never found a stable relationship. The odds are against Dave.

Thus I ask if Travis was in your mind as Dave became a character?

I had a touch of unease as I finished Guns Across the River on the future of Dave. Will there be more books featuring him? I hope there will be additional Wakeland adventures.

As usual, if you are able to respond and willing to have your response published I will include it in a post.

All the best.

Bill

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John D MacDonald is definitely an influence on me. The McGee series and his standalones mix brilliant character work and social criticism with a strong sense of place, namely Florida. MacDonald was my dad's favorite author, and I'm honoured by the comparison.

In another email to me Sam commented:

…. the houseboat was both a tip of the hat to Trav as well as a cool feature of Vancouver (when MacGyver filmed here, the character lived on a houseboat as well).

As to Wakeland's future, he's nothing if not resilient, and it's my hope to bring him back soon. I have a couple of good ideas for the next one, including sending him out of the country.  In the meantime I'm working on a standalone thriller, and my nonfiction book Shot in Vancouver, about the many films and TV shows filmed in BC, comes out this October. 

Best,

Sam

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Wiebe, Sam - (2015) - Last of the Independents and The Unhanged Arthur Award; (2016) - Invisible Dead and Sam Wiebe on His Sleuths; (2018) - Cut You Down and Sam Wiebe on Dave Wakeland; (2021) - Hell and Gone and A Vulnerable Tough Guy; (2023) - Sunset and Jericho; (2024) - Ocean Drive; (2026) - The Last Exile; (2026) Guns Across the River