A Time for Mercy by John Grisham

(47. - 1072.) A Time for Mercy by John Grisham - Stuart Kofer is a mean drunk with a badge. Capable and sober as a Deputy Sheriff he enjoys spending his evenings drinking and brawling. Should a fight not develop he can relieve his frustrations upon his girlfriend, Josie Gamble, and her children, Drew (16) and Kiera (14), at home. After knocking out Josie but failing to breach the barricaded bedroom door of the teenagers he passes out. Terrified of Kofer and convinced his mother is dead, Drew takes Kofer’s gun and holding it next to the deputy’s head fires a shot killing him.

Grisham is back in Ford County, Mississippi. I am glad. Not with a story that deals with domestic violence but because Grisham knows so vividly the people of rural Mississippi. Many of his best books are in Ford County.

The county’s Black sheriff, Ozzie Walls, is blindsided. His deputies had covered up Kofer’s private life. Ozzie does not condone misconduct but protection of their own runs deep in law enforcement. He immediately calls in the state police to investigate.

Jake Brigance will get the call to defend Drew. He made his name as a defender in A Time to Kill defending Carl Lee Hailey, a black man who killed two white men who had raped his daughter.

I thought of how a defence would be mounted. Now a boy, for Drew is a young 16 who is small and quiet in nature, has committed vigilante justice. Can a jury be convinced that he was protecting himself and his sister not exacting vengeance on behalf of his mother?

It will be a challenge for the Gamble’s are at the lowest level of Ford County society. Josie had the children by different fathers when she was a teenager. She has served time for involvement with drugs. They have no family in the county. To many they are trailer trash.

Can it be implied, even claimed, that Kofer was a man who needed killing? Unlike many books where there is a despicable victim Kofer has a family. Ozzie visits the Kofer’s. They are a clan that “had always worked hard, lived frugally and tried to avoid trouble”. He extends regret and sympathy. 

Kofer’s parents and extended family demand justice. Some ask during the visit if Drew can be put on death row. It is 1990 and mercy is not emphasized in a county focused on the Old Testament rather than the New Testament.

Knowing Judge Omar Noose is likely to appoint him, Brigance is conflicted. It has been 5 years since the turmoil of the Hailey case. For 3 years after the trial a “deputy parked in front of their house at night”. Does he want “another high-profile, controversial case”? Prominent cases have not come his way as he expected after the Hailey case. He wants to be known as a lawyer unafraid of and successful at jury trials.

All the residents of Ford County are relieved the participants are white. None want to deal again with the racial issues of a killing involving black and white. 

Brigance’s good friend and fellow attorney, Harry Rex, forecasts no public sympathy for a cop killer even if Drew is 16. He predicts devastation for Brigance’s law practice.

The good people of the Good Shepherd Bible Church, which the Gamble family had attended a few times, led by their young pastor, Charles McCarry gather around Kiera and Josie in support.

And Brigance and Rex are deeply involved in the Smallwood case. A family was killed at a dangerous railway crossing and they act for the family against the railroad. The defence is about to run out of delaying tactics and a trial is ready to be scheduled. While a trial is a major risk there is the potential of a multi-million dollar verdict in favour of the family.

When Brigance meets his client he is startled by how small and young Drew appears. The boy is deeply withdrawn. He spends hours humming and groaning to himself. He does say he killed Kofer because Kofer had killed his mother. Self defence has just become much harder to claim to a jury. More will be needed to plead to the jury that the killing was justified. If Brigance is to blacken Kofer he needs ironclad evidence. The town and county folk who will form the jury are already upset with Brigance for taking the case. And it is impossible to see them accepting an insanity defence

Pressure is already building in the Smallwood case the insurance company lawyers can see the community turning against Brigance. They are quite ready to let it build.

Then I realized the book is really about Brigance. The cases set up his life but the story is about practising law in rural Mississippi. I wiil discuss the life of a rural lawyer in Mississippi and Saskatchewan in my next post.

Jake’s preparation for the trial is careful and thorough. Unlike most authors Grisham delves into the hard work of getting ready for a major trial. Such are his gifts as a writer that the pace never flagged.

Hard as it may seem for readers outside America it was a capital trial with the prosecutor seeking the death penalty for young Drew. With the highest consequences possible tension rises and rises.

I appreciated the prosecutor was skilful and doing his job. Grisham refrains from making him a bad guy.

Jury selection is taut with each side seeking jurors who will favour their view.

The trial is riveting. I could see every witness. The questions and answers were absolutely credible. The way answers were subtly shifted from original statements to achieve emphasis happens in every real life trial.

A reader best set aside the time needed to read the trial in a single session. It is Grisham at his best. The detailed build up on the trial preparation lets you anticipate witnesses. The emotions are raw. The trial decisions of the lawyers are agonizing as they analyze who to call or not call. There are unexpected questions. 

For half the book there was an inexorable increase in anxiety over a pivotal witness whose evidence readers know will be shocking to the jury. I was so tempted to read ahead to see what happened but held back just barely.

There is a devastating answer by that witness that is so perfect I will remember it the rest of my days.

It is gripping and page turning. The ending may disappoint some but it is fitting.

****

Grisham, John – (2000) - The Brethren; (2001) - A Painted House; (2002) - The Summons; (2003) - The King of Torts; (2004) - The Last Juror; (2005) - The Runaway Jury; (2005) - The Broker; (2008) - The Appeal; (2009) - The Associate; (2011) - The Confession; (2011) - The Litigators; (2012) - "G" is for John Grisham - Part I and Part II; (2013) - The Racketeer; (2013) - Grisham's Lawyers; (2013) - Analyzing Grisham's Lawyers; (2013) - Sycamore Row; (2014) - Gray Mountain and Gray Mountain and Real Life Legal Aid; (2015) - Rogue Lawyer and Sebastian Rudd; (2016) - The Whistler; (2017) - Camino Island; (2017) - The Rooster Bar and Law Students and Integrity; (2019) - The Reckoning; (2019) - Cullen Post in The Guardians and The Guardians

Dark August by Katie Tallo

(45. - 1070.) Dark August by Katie Tallo - I was profoundly sad as I read of Augusta “Gus” Monet as a child. With her father already dead, her mother Shannon dies in a car accident. Gus is 8  and left to an uninterested great-grandmother, Rose. Her stuffed animals (Claudius, Louis, Praline and Girly) are left behind. No one remains to call her Sugar Bunch.  Two years later Gus is sent to boarding school. Having gone to boarding school at 15 I feel her overwhelming loneliness. 

For a couple of years after high school she drifts along in petty crime until she gets a call from Ms. Santos, the long long time caregiver of Rose, that her great-grandmother has died. She returns to Ottawa.

Gus camps out in Rose’s decayed home avoiding the need to give the house some “curb appeal” so it can be sold. Sharing the house is Levi, the dog her mother brought home 12 years earlier. While Levi tries to win her over Gus is a challenge. She is lost in her mind constantly running through her life.

Gus finds a blue trunk filled with her 8 year old life:

Her Hilroy notebooks filled with doodles. Her plastic art kit, pastels, crayons and colored pencils worn to the nib. Sunny, her yellow-haired doll with the ceramic feet, wearing the same pink pinafore with the lacy pockets. A collection of clip-on earrings in the emerald silk bag. Her Barbies. Her beanbag frog, Louis. Class photos from Junior K through grade three. Swimming medals. Olympic coins. Her sticker collection. And rolled up right where she left it. Her pink pashmina scarf. The one her mother have her their last Christmas together.

Memories envelop her.

Gus finds  hidden in the trunk photos, reports and clippings of a cold case her mother, an RCMP officer, was studying. Her father had also been an RCMP officer. When she was 8 Gus asked her mother if she was keeping the cold case warm by reviewing it.

Teenager Henry Neil had disappeared 15 years earlier but his body has just been found. Gus re-creates the collage of documents and photos on her living room wall as her mother had placed them on the garage wall where she worked at home. Gus finds a red marker to re-draw the lines her mother had used to connect the evidence. She takes comfort from re-creating Shannon’s wall.

There is also evidence of the death of a young woman of 23, June Halladay, in a freak car accident a year before Neil vanished. Shannon has a photo of Gracie, June’s 7 year old daughter, on the wall. June was the daughter of the wealthy Senator, Kep Halladay. Kep is also dead.

The disappearance and the accident both take place near the small community of Elgin, Ontario not far from Ottawa. Her curiosity piqued, Gus makes a road trip to Elgin but cannot reach the town. All roads are blocked by signs stating “hazardous toxic waste”. Fracking for natural gas encountered a deep crack in the earth. The resulting explosion and fire 5 years ago destroyed Elgin and devastated the countryside.

As Gus walks through Elgin I thought of Chernobyl. It was a lovely village that was turned into a wasteland. The crater at the epicenter of the explosion is still a bubbling cauldron.

More than most people Gus can appreciate the disorienting effects upon the psyche from a disaster that alters life permanently in an instant.

A startling connection between Kep and Shannon grabbed the attention of Gus and myself and every other reader of the book. The connection and secrets revealed about her mother drive Gus to find out what happened.

Having had no purpose in life Gus now delves into the tangled collective destructions of a family, a town and her mother with a fierce determination. She has been a victim long enough.

But why is there such secrecy? The cause of the disaster is well known. Compensation, no matter how inadequate, has been made. Who cares about Gus’s quests?

There is darkness to the story even during the long hot days of the Ontario summer when secrets revealed clash with long cherished images.

I appreciated that Gus was treated as an unskilled investigator. She tries to be logical but tends to improvise. It is a credible approach.

Few mysteries undertake an exploration deep into the minds of a daughter and her deceased mother. To her dismay Gus realizes how little she really knew of her mother.

There are layers to the secrets. The truth is a stunningly believable revelation. 

As befits the story there is dramatic finish. After reading a hard story, uncompromising in the telling, I was a touch disappointed by the ending. Tallo did not need to go Hollywood. I expect most readers will be satisfied.

Tallo is a talented writer. At one point Gus considers words of sympathy:

But she knows words won’t matter. They never do. Once regret seeps into your bones, it lives in your marrow until the day you die.

I will definitely read more of Tallo. She has gifts for characters, atmosphere, tension and psychological insight. Most important I will remember Gus. Damaged, not broken, she is especially memorable for her tenacity in clinging to love. 

Bill's 2020 Best of Non-Fiction and Most Interesting

It is a warm Saskatchewan New Year’s Day to start 2021. The temperature this afternoon is  -10C (14F) and I am glad to be sitting downstairs with our wood fireplace crackling in the background. 

Today I am posting my annual double Bill’s Best of the year for the categories of Non-Fiction and Most Interesting. The latter is a list of books that were not favourites of the year in Fiction or Non-Fiction but had qualities that made them intriguing to me. 

NON-FICTION

1.) Cases in Court by Sir Patrick Hastings (Begun and Finished) - I do not think a book written 73 years ago has ever reached one of my Best of lists. Cases in Court resonated with me because of the story telling skills of Hastings and because of its insights into courtroom techniques. Hastings was one of England’s best known barristers for decades. As well he was a playwright. He lived in an era where a barrister handled trials across the spectrum of civil and criminal law and included appeals. Unlike many lawyers who throw out all the arguments they can think of and hope one or two find favour with a judge, he had the conviction there was only one pivotal issue in a civil case and the fortitude to so focus a case. He was braver than myself in that he avoided prepared cross-examinations stating you must have “a very poor memory” if you do not know the details of your case without notes. Among the cases he discussed was a slander case which involved a Russian princess and the death of Rasputin during WW I in Russia.

2.) Seven Days in Hell by David O’Keefe (Attack and Accountability) - On July 25, 1944 Canada’s elite Black Watch regiment entered a French wheatfield in a suicidal attack on entrenched German positions. They suffered 94% casualties. The book explores the leadup to the attack and the appalling decisions that led to the decimation of the regiment. Canada’s revered WW II General, Guy Simonds, gets significant criticism for insisting that the Black Watch attack. The leaders of two other Canadian battalions that day were sacked after they refused attacks they considered equally suicidal. Those officers were sacked but their soldiers were not sacrificed in futile attacks. Not knowing the secret information of Ultra would be revealed Simonds wrongly claimed he did not know of German reinforcements. O’Keefe said about Simonds:

But what is inexcusable, and can only be interpreted as an egregious act of cowardice and disloyalty to his subordinates, is Simonds’s choice to turn his back on the men who faithfully obeyed his authority and executed his plan as prescribed.

3.) The Massey Murder by Charlotte Gray (Review and Comparison) - I do not read a lot of true life crime. The Massey Murder caught my attention as it dealt with the killing of Bert Massey, a member of one of Canada’s most prominent families in 1916. He was shot on the doorstep of his house by his family’s only servant, Carrie Davies. She asserted he had ruined her. Most often we expect the lowly killing the lordly to be swiftly convicted and severely punished. The Massey family would have appreciated such prompt actions but the 18 year old Davies was represented by skilled lawyers who fought for her. In particular, Hartley Dewart, K.C. relentlessly claimed Davies was protecting her virtue from a despicable man. Massey’s prominence worked against him in that defence. I would not have predicted the result of the trial when I began the book. In a second post I compared the defence of Davies with that of another young Ontario woman of that era, Florence Kinkade

MOST INTERESTING

1.) Rolling Thunder by A.J. Devlin - Jed “Hammerhead” Ounslow returns to another wild, sometimes weird, adventure on the streets of Vancouver.  He is hired by the members of the Split-Lip Sallies Roller Derby team to find their coach Lawrence Kunstlinger, best known as Lawrence O’Labia. The investigation takes Hammerhead to a kink club where a BDSM party is taking place. Another day he takes in dachshund races (betting is involved). Along the way Hammerhead makes a return to the professional wrestling ring. Hammerhead enjoys a good scrap. The book is filled with memorable characters and lively action.

2.) The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison - A bishop’s wife in the Mormon faith has a major role. She both supports her husband and has a significant role within the bishop’s responsibility for 500 members of the church. Linda Wallheim lives in the heart of Mormon America at Draper, Utah. She is a bright woman who is dedicated to her church and her family. She provides compassion and logic to the women of the ward. A young wife leaves her husband and daughter. Sister Wallheim is shaken when a young woman leaves her husband and young daughter. The situation becomes complicated when there are accusations of infidelity and domestic abuse. I appreciated that there are interactions between Linda and her sons. Not many mysteries make family life an important part of the story. Linda is the most interesting sleuth I met in reading this year.

3.) Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards (Review and Comparison With a Real Life Case) - Edwards is one of the world’s most distinguished writers of and about crime fiction. The English lawyer has drawn upon his extensive research into real life crime and the writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The result is a clever complex story from 1930 drawing upon real life cases and twisting them just enough to fit into a tale set in that Golden Age. Rachel Saverlake is a distinctive, even aloof, sleuth. I think of the cool and distant and brilliant sleuth to be a speciality of English crime writers. While Savernake lacks an aide she has excellent deductive skills. The book culminates in a weekend country house gathering at Mortmain Hall with the featured guests being men and a woman either found not guilty or strongly suspected of murder.

Happy New Year everyone!

Bill's Best of Fiction for 2020

I think I may be the last blogger in the world to post a Best of 2020 list. I just cannot put together a best of the year list in November when there are still 6 weeks of reading or early December when there 3 weeks of reading left in the year. I do not know whether other earlier blogger list markers do not count the books read in the remainder of the year or count them in the following year. I plan to stay with my actual end of the year lists. This post will have Bill’s Best of 2020 Fiction. My next post will have Bill’s Best of 2020 Non-Fiction and a personal category of Bill’s Most Interesting of 2020. The lists do include books published earlier than 2020.

For the best of 2020 fiction -

1.) The Last Trial by Scott Turow - A brilliant book about the last trial of Sandy Stern who has been featured in several of Turow’s books. The 85 year old Stern is joined by his talented daughter, Marta, and his quirky granddaughter, Pinky. In an ironic twist it is Marta’s last trial as she is also retiring after the trial. The Stern team is defending Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Kiril Pafko, on charges of murder. He developed a powerful drug, g-Livia, to treat lung cancer. It saved the life of Stern. Unfortunately, there have been a number of deaths in patients because of allergic reactions to the drug. Did Pafko falsify data in a drug trial leading to more deaths?

I was so wrapped up in the book I wrote 3 posts on the book - opening, mid-trial and closing with commentary from my own real life experiences in court.

2.) A Time for Mercy by John Grisham - I have not actually posted a review of the latest Grisham book. I received it Christmas Day and finished it 3 days later. I almost stayed up late on the 27th as I was so caught up in the story but stopped just after midnight. Grisham returns to Ford County in northern Mississippi in 1990 where Jake Brigance is compelled by Circuit Judge Omar Noose to defend Drew Gamble, a 16 year old boy, charged with capital murder of County Deputy Sheriff, Stuart Kofer. There is no doubt Gamble killed Kofer. In a strong law and order state how can Jake defend the teenager. Will the jurors send a 16 year old to death row? As common in murder cases the character of the victim becomes an issue. Kofer was abusive to Drew, his mother and his sister. It is a long book at 480 pages as Grisham meticulously builds the case. Jake is facing multiple challenges. He is struggling financially and most of the county is hostile to his representation of Drew. It is such a vivid portrayal of life in rural Mississippi, trial preparations and a riveting trial that will evoke memories of Jake’s defence in Grisham’ first book, A Time to Kill. 

3.) Greenwood by Michael Christie - My most memorable book of the year occupied another 3 posts. (One of the posts discussed the physical makeup of the book and the beautiful edging.) It is a powerful story of trees and people. Beginning in 2038 during the “Great Withering” of the planet’s trees and going back to 1908 when two boys are found after a train crash and named the Greenwoods. The story then works its way back to the present and ultimately 2038. The Greenwood family is deeply involved with trees throughout the book. One of the brothers becomes a lumber baron in British Columbia. Southern Saskatchewan, one of the rare areas in southern Canada with few trees, has a significant role. I exchanged emails with the author on the trees of my life from the family farm and how I treasure Canada being known around the world by a red maple leaf.

3.) The Skull Mantra by Eliot Paterson (First, second and third posts) - Comrade Shan has been sentenced to a labour brigade in Tibet for being too good an investigator. Survival is a daily challenge. When a headless corpse wearing American jeans is found at the worksite the commanding colonel of the region knows more than a superficial investigation is needed. Shan is designated. The colonel does not recognize that Shan can only be an honest investigator though Shan is astute enough politically to provide the colonel with a good socialist reason for finding the real killer when a convenient killer is quickly identified. The story digs deeply in Tibetan culture. Spirits are alive. After the discovery of the body the members of the labour brigade refuse to return to the mountain because of jungpo which translates to “hungry ghost”. The spirit of the deceased will haunt the site and bring bad luck until proper death rites are performed. Wondering why the body was left upon the mountain rather than dumped over the edge into oblivion Shan consults a murderer who advises him:

“A killing with no one to appreciate it, what’s the point? A good murder, that requires an audience.” 

Happy New Year to all! I know I need a new year.

A Real Life Case and Mortmain Hall

In Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards, which I reviewed in my last post, there are a series of murder cases where the accused was either found not guilty or the suspect not charged. Those cases and the persons “cleared” play an important role in the plot.

As I was reading the trial of Clive Danskin I realized the facts were very similar to the real life case of Alfred Arthur Rouse which I had read about earlier this year in the memoir, Cases in Court by Sir Patrick Hastings.

Rouse was “a commercial traveler of moderate means” who had “a large number of illicit attachments”. He owned a Morris Minor car and was “thorougly familiar with the mechanism of a motor vehicle”.

In the early morning hours of November 6, 1930 a car went up flames near Northampton. Rouse was seen coming out the ditch a short distance away and spoke to two young men about “somebody has had a bonfire”. Inside the car was the body of a man who was never identified.

There was expert evidence from the Crown at trial of the fire being deliberate through a loosening of a joint between the “petrol tank and the carburettor” but defence experts provided a plausible alternative of the burning of the car causing the loosening.

Rouse caught a ride in a lorry to London advising the driver he had missed a friend in a Bentley who was to pick him up. He went on to Wales to see a young lady whose father thought they were married. He said his car had been stolen.

He told the police that he had picked up a man looking for a lift. They had stopped for Rouse to relieve himself. Running low on fuel Rouse asked the passenger to put some petrol in the tank and had “just got my trousers down” when he noticed his car on fire. Frightened, he said he ran away. He added that he took his case from the car when he went to relieve himself,

Rouse went on to say in a further statement that he was “very friendly with several women” and had been going to sell his home and furniture and make an allowance for his wife.

Though his infidelities were not part of the trial he went into the witness box having told contradictory stories. He should not have testified. With whatever story he told he would be cross-examined on the contradictions. He could hardly admit he had been mistaken in telling different stories. He chose to admit he had lied about his car being stolen. He convicted himself.

Rouse was found guilty and hung. Hastings bluntly stated that:

If Alfred Arthur Rouse had only kept his mouth shut, he would nver have been hanged.

In Mortmain Hall, also taking place in 1930, Danskin is a traveling salesman of women’s silk stockings. During his journeys he establishes relationships with several women not his wife. With his life ever more complicated and debts piling up his car is found on fire in the “north of England” and “a man’s charred remains were discovered inside”. The deceased was never identified. A “distinctive silver tip from the cane Danskin carried was found at the scene”. Originally it was thought Danskin was the victim but he is recognized after his photo is published in newspapers and is arrested shortly before taking a flight to France. The Crown theory is that he decided to fake his death to escape his debts and domestic responsibilities.

Danskin provided an explanation:

He claimed that a tramp had stolen his car and possessions, but this seemed like a fabrication. The police had made strenuous efforts to trace the mysterious limousine, in which he claimed to have hitched a lift from northwest Enland to London, or its driver.

When the Crown closed its case Danskin’s fate was grim.

Everything changed when Major Grenville Fitzroy Whitlow, DSO confirmed Danskin’s statements. He said he had picked up Danskin and given him a ride to London. Danskin told him the same story of the tramp adding that the tramp had assaulted Danskin during the theft. He continued that a “bullnose Morris Oxford” car, Danskin’s model, driving erratically had passed him going the opposite direction a few minutes before he picked up Danskin. With his war hero credentials Whitlow was allowed, contrary to the rules of evidence, to say he believed Danskin. Whitlow’s evidence saves Danskin.

While much of Danskin’s case could be drawn from the Rouse case Edwards makes three critical changes. Danskin did not provide contradictory statements about what happened. Whitlow’s statement that the driver of Danskin’s car was alive when he picked up Danskin provided a perfect defence. With Whitlow’s evidence Danskin did not have to go into the witness box and explain his actions. Had Edwards not made the changes it would have been implausible to have Danskin acquitted.

Beyond one statement that was corroborated Danskin kept his mouth shut and was not hanged.

I have written to Martin, who wrote an essay on the Rouse case, asking if he did draw on the Rouse case and whether I am correct in my belief that he made the changes to achieve a credible acquittal.

****

Edwards, Martin - (2018) - All the Lonely People and A Dislike of Cynical Lawyers; (2020) - Mortmain Hall

Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards

(46. - 1071.) Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards - Rachel Savernake, with a veil masking her face and “dressed in black from head to toe,” enters the first class compartment of a funeral train of the London Necropolis Company and addresses the only other occupant. He is a “ghost” with a “bushy moustache and beard” acquired during the years he was away from London. It is 1930 and Gilbert Payne has returned from northwest Africa for his mother’s funeral. Savernake tells him:

“I’m offering to save you from being murdered”

and I was smitten.

In the Old Bailey Clive Danskin is on trial for murder. His car has been destroyed by fire with the body of an unidentified man found inside the car. Danskin, a traveling silk stocking salesman, had a spouse and liaisons. Disappearing would let him escape from his domestic challenges. He claimed a tramp to whom he had offered a ride had assaulted him. Journalist Jacob Flint sees a formidable case assembled by the Crown. (I shall have more to say about the case in my next post.)

Savernake, the daughter of a deceased “hanging” judge, resides in Gaunt House, a large home shrewdly acquired in a bankruptcy sale. Residing with her are Clifford Trueman, a “mountainous figure, his wife, Hetty, and his sister, Martha. They are her only servants. Unconventional in many ways Savernake treats them as equals.

With the wealth to indulge her obsession with murder the “formidable” Savernake pursues justice her way. Unsolved “sleeping murders” await her attention.

She has a 300 square foot library filled with thousands of books. Many involve murder.

Savernake had a personal relationship with Flint which ended when he told her that “she treated him like a fool”. The aloof Savernake replied he was “free to leave”. Yet Flint cannot resist the cool beauty.

Savernake is establishing a relationship with another redoubtable woman, Leonora Dobell, who is a prominent ciminologist writing under the pen name of Leo Slaterback. She resides at Mortmain Hall.

Reggie Vickers is passing time defending the Realm from his desk in Whitehall. His passions are drinking and cricket. He is indiscreet about secret information that passes his way but a good fellow.

Various private clubs feature in the book. I would have loved to be a member of the Bookman’s Club. The walls are covered with paintings of distinguished English authors. Conversation flows on books and publishing. The food is excellent.

As Flint probes the dark side of London, Savernake and Dobell plan a weekend at Mortmain Hall. The theme of the country party will be persons either found not guilty of murder or cleared in an investigation. It is a distinction, unwanted to be sure, of being in a select group suspected of, even tried for murder. They have faced death in a time of capital punishment and survived. And why is Savernake invited when she has neither been investigated nor charged?

After a dramatic night out Flint finds himself in a desperate situation. Arriving at Savernake’s home he utters the perfect phrase to gain entrance:

“I’ve got myself involved in a murder.”

Would someone kill to satisfy a perverse intellectual desire to feel what it was like to take a life and get away with murder?

As the country party assembles at Mortmain Hall further bodies fall. (If they were not so dangerous I would love to spend a weekend at a great home in the English countryside.)

Tension is high with the guests acutely aware of their common circumstances and the deep interest of their hostess in murder.

I had wondered how, even if, Edwards would resolve the many threads to the plot. In an almost dizzying narrative all is explained.

It is rare I refer to a blurb but the cover comment by author Lee Child is perfect:

“Superb … This is the book Edwards was born to write.”

Edwards has written an impressive addition to Golden Age Detective fiction. I am sure the giants of that era such as Christie, Marsh and Carr would appreciate the novel. Ms., or should it be Miss for the Golden Age, Savernake has a keen understanding of human nature and the essence of murder. Her creator’s vast knowledge of the history of crime fiction and his writing skills draw together in a strikingly imaginative series. Edwards is an amazing time traveler in his mind.

****

Edwards, Martin - (2018) - All the Lonely People and A Dislike of Cynical Lawyers

Will You Buy a Book From a Bookstore that is New to You?

Just over a week I put up a post on how I bought books during the pandemic. (The post is just below if you scroll past the review of the The Power Couple.) There were a few comments including one from KathyD. She is a regular commentator on book review blogs and resides in New York. Her comment was:

I miss bookstores and browsing in the library. There are no bookstores near to my apartment building. But I had an appointment and had to take a cab and walked over to an Amazon store. I could only go in for a few minutes, but I was so happy to see a huge selection of books. And I looked at fiction on display. I enjoyed my few minutes. It’s like going into a bakery. 

The library closed in March and so I did buy books. I treated myself and then loaned them out to friends. Now the library is open for stop and grab, so books are set aside and one rushes in and out. Nothing to browse is set out.

I do miss bookstores. I was on a roll reading, then stopped. Now I’d like to restart again, but I have work to do. I must get back into the books. A close friend passed away at the end of September, and I think that’s when I lost the reading zest. But there’s nothing like escaping into fiction, especially mysteries. I’ve got the Grisham and Connelly books on library reserve. 

If anyone wants to order books from a wonderful bookstore, I can recommend another one. Some good friends moved to Duluth, Minn. a few years ago, bought a building and turned it into a bookstore called Zenith books. It has a lovely website, and they are only too glad to ship out books.

Curious to visit Zenith I looked up their website which is https://www.zenithbookstore.com/

At the top of this post is a photo of the exterior of their store. What a clever design. It looks so inviting. I wish I was closer to Duluth.

As I looked around the website and thought about Kathy’s comment I decided I would try ordering from them. While I live in another country books do freely cross the border.

Their mystery box concept intrigued me and I have written to them to see if they ship to Canada. If they do I plan to buy a mystery box with a request for crime fiction, especially legal mysteries or Minnesota mysteries. I have requested they check my list of fiction authors to avoid sending books I have already read.

As I reflected further I thought I would list a couple of my favourite independent bookstores and encourage readers of the blog to consider reaching out to purchase in person or online from a bookstore they are unlikely to have purchased from in the past. Maybe we can give a boost to some independent stores.

I would refer readers to:

1.) McNally Robinson in Saskatoon. They also have a store in Winnipeg. I enjoy their selections and their lovely cafe, Prairie Ink - https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/home

2.) Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto. It is my favourite bookstore anywhere. You can read more about it in posts I have listed in my page on Mystery Bookstores - https://sleuthofbakerstreet.ca/

Each store will take good care of you.

I invite readers of the blog to provide in comments their own recommendations and links to independent bookstores near or far. Even better would be to hear you have made an order for a book or books from a store that is new to you.

Thank you again to Kathy for her inspiration.