New To Me Authors for July to September of 2013

During the 3^rd quarter of 2013 I read the following New to Me Authors in crime fiction:
 

1.) Alamo, North Dakota by Phil Rustad;

2.) The Wrong Man by David Ellis;

3.) In Plain Sight by Tara Taylor Quinn;

4.) Havana Requiem by Paul Goldstein; and,

5.) Vodka Doesn’t Freeze by Leah Giarratano.

In a rare departure from crime fiction I read one new author in general fiction

1.) The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

In non-fiction I read three new authors:

1.) Diefenbaker for the Defence by Garrett Wilson and Kevin Wilson;

2.) The Apprentice – My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin; and,

3.) Assassins of the Turqouise Palace by Roya Hakakian

With 9 new authors this quarter I have matched the 1^st quarter. The second quarter had 7 new authors.

During the quarter my favourite crime fiction was the legal thriller, Havana Requiem.

From the non-fiction list it was Diefenbaker for the Defence though each of the non-fiction books was excellent. How could I not pick for non-fiction a book about a Saskatchewan lawyer who spent much time in rural courthouses such as Melfort.

My overall favourite was The Silver Linings Playbook. It is a great book.

For more posts on New to Me Authors please go to Kerrie Smith's Blog, Mysteries in Paradise.

“Z” is for Outburst by R.D. Zimmerman

“Z” is for Outburst by R.D. Zimmerman (1998) – Todd Mills is famous in Minneapolis. Not only is he a very successful investigative journalist for WLAK television Todd is one of the city’s best known gay men.

Mysteriously called to the old Stone Arch bridge one night he searches for the anonymous caller who promised him the lead to a blackmail story. As a powerful mid-American thunderstorm crashes down Todd encounters another man who was also summoned to the bridge. Before they can talk another figure appears and shoots the handsome young man Todd has just met on the bridge. As Todd tries to make sense of the scene he dodges a shot and then is knocked unconscious by a falling sign. As he comes to his lover, police detective Steve Rawlins, charges to his side.

At the same time Kris Kenney, formerly known as Christopher Kenney, is coping with thoughts of her future. As a teenager she had lost her testicles in an accident. Later she makes the decision to change genders and is in the midst of the process. Only partly transgendered she finds herself neither a member of the gay nor straight world. She desperately wants to find love.

With Todd on the scene of a murder and even being shot at the producers at the station are in paroxysms of joy. They have an eye catching story that forces other news sources to reference WLAK.

When it turns out the murder victim was also gay the producers are even more excited. Todd is the lead story newscast after newscast.

There are tensions between Rawlins investigating the murder and Todd investigating the story of the murder. While they love each other they are equally passionate about their work.

Rawlins has another level of stress in his life as he is HIV positive. It is an era when he could be out on the force but not open about his HIV status.

Zimmerman does a good job of plausibly connecting Kris / Chris to the investigation.

The investigation requires Todd, Rawlins and Kris / Chris to all consider their sexual orientations and how they fit into current society. The investigation takes everyone into the world of the transgendered.

It is a good book and I am glad I read it. Were it not for needing a “Z” post to finish the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise, I doubt I would have read the book.

I found myself forced to think about presumptions and assumptions in the murder of a gay man. (Oct. 1/13)

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My connection to the book is the city of Minneapolis. I have traveled there numerous times over my adult years. Most recently, Sharon and I were there last January. It is quite easy to get a good deal on hotel rooms in Minneapolis in January.

What Jumps My TBR Line (Queue outside North America)

Looking at my TBR pile, more accurately piles, this evening left me reflecting on my reading plans. I usually have planned out ahead 3-4 books to be read. Yet the plan is not rigid. There are books that jump the line.

As my blog features mysteries from Saskatchewan a new mystery by a Saskatchewan author is put atop the TBR piles.

However, if I am involved in one of the community memes sponsored by Kerrie Smith at her excellent blog, Mysteries in Paradise, reading for the meme will take priority over all else. I am currently taking part in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme. I wish I could say I stayed several letters ahead in the alphabet in my reading but I am not so disciplined.

In the spring I desperately wanted to read Anthony Bidulka’s new mystery, When the Saints Go Marching In, with his new character, Adam Saint, but I waited a few weeks to keep up with the alphabet.

Right now as “Z” is looming on Sunday I am just keeping up with the letter of the week. It has meant Gail Bowen’s new book, The Gifted, has been waiting since the beginning of the month. I will be reading it next week.

I also jump the line for the Canadian Book Challenge, my only reading challenge. As Canada Day approaches on July 1 usually need 1 or 2 or 3 books to finish the annual commitment of 13.

For individual authors Michael Connelly never waits to be read.

A new John Grisham book will not languish in the pile.

Louise Penny never sinks into the pile though I had reservations about the The Beautiful Mystery.

When I realize I have not read non-fiction for awhile I will forgo the waiting crime fiction for non-fiction. My sons often give me some non-fiction at Christmas. After being asked why I have not read their gifts promptly they now move up the pile. Last Christmas they gave me a copy of Defender of the Realm by William Manchester and Paul Reid. It is the third volume in Manchester’s superb biography of Winston Churchill. I completed the book but have not completed my review. The review will come shortly after the end of the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme.

What does not jump the pile are books on the shortlists for all the crime fiction prizes. After a year in which I have hardly read any of the short lists of major awards for crime fiction I have decided not to press to read those books shortlisted.

As always in my life there is an exception. I have made a personal commitment to read at least 2 of the 3 books on the shortlist for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

After further reflection, with all the line or queue (I do not know why we use line instead of queue in North America) jumpers I realize I really do not really have a line of TBR books. The exceptions outnumber the planned books!

Flying on the Edge of the World in Crime Fiction

A year ago after reading Murder in a Cold Climate by Scott Young, the first book featuring Canadian Arctic sleuth, Matteesie Kitologitak, I put up a post titled Traditional Outdoor Journeys in Crime Fiction. It discussed journeys by dogsled and on foot in vast barely inhabited regions of the world.

My last post was a review of the second book, The Shaman’s Knife, in which Matteesie solved an Arctic crime. In reading that book I was reminded how air travel is the current means of travel on the perimeter of the world.

In the far North it is possible to travel by snowmobile or, for a few, by dogsled but those methods of travel are limited in their range. To travel the great distances across the North an airplane is needed.

To illustrate those distances Matteesie opens the book by flying from Labrador to Ottawa (2,000 km) to Edmonton (3,400 km) to Yellowknife (1,500 km) to Cambridge Bay (850 km) to Sanirarsipaaq (about 250 km to the fictional village) on Victoria Island in the Arctic Ocean. He has covered 8,000 km (5,000 miles). Had he not stopped to visit his injured mother in hospital in Yellowknife he could have made the journey in 3-4 days.

On the flight to Cambridge Bay Matteesie travels with the Court. On the flight are the judge, court staff, Crown prosecutor and defence counsel. I once made a flight into northern Saskatchewan on such a flight. It was a unique experience to have everyone in the justice system travelling together.

Later in the book there is a burial service in Holman. The mourners, including the body, fly in for the burial. Between Cambridge Bay and Holman, both on Victoria Island is a trip of 550 km.

There are no road options. Once past Yellowknife there are effectively no roads beyond winter ice roads. Arctic residents are far more accustomed to flying than their southern Canadian counterparts.

It is the same for the residents of Chukchi (the fictional version of the real life community of Kotzebue) on Alaska’s Northwest coast in the mystery series by Stan Jones with Alaskan State trooper, Nathan Active as the sleuth.

It is a 1,600 km flight between Kotzebue and Anchorage, Alaska. Once again there are no roads on which to make the journey.

In Frozen Sun, when Active flies from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor during the investigation he flies a further 1,600 km. Within the state of Alaska he can travel 3,200 km.

Many of the flights are on smaller planes which are far more impacted by weather than big commercial jets. Matteesie describes a landing in Sanirarsipaaq:

Suddenly the flight got bumpier. O’Kennedy’s voice came on the intercom: “Seat belts! This might get worse. We’re in descent, coming in to land.” For minutes we pitched and yawed around, losing altitude. The mourners gripped their seat arms and hung on. I could see nothing. It was like flying through gray soup. Then suddenly the clouds got wispy and I saw the landing strip feet away, much too close. The engines roared us back up out of there. On the second try we came through the cloud the same way, saw the landing strip about twenty feet away, bumped down, braked like hell, and I realized that I hadn’t been breathing a lot, if at all, in the last few seconds.

Nathan Active, in Shaman Pass, jumps out of a plane onto the snow covered ground from a plane barely moving as it flies into a fierce wind.

Are you ready to go flying in the Great White North?

“Y” is for The Shaman’s Knife by Scott Young

“Y” is for The Shaman’s Knife by Scott Young (1993) – The second Matteesie Kitologitak mystery is a brilliant trip into the far North of Canada.

Matteesie has just arrived home in Ottawa from a trip to Labrador when he receives a call that a double murder has taken place in Sanirarsipaaq and his 90 year old mother, Bessie Apakaq, has been injured. She has been medivacked to Yellowknife.

On the difference in surnames Matteesie explains:

The Inuit system of more or less picking our own surnames baffles some people, especially the whites, but it’s one of our traditional ways that we’ve been able to hang onto. It’s not based on patronymics, like in Russia, or matronymics, if that’s a word, but simply allows the individual to take the name he or she wishes.

It is one of but many lovely little examples of Inuit life.

As Matteesie finishes the call advising he is on his way to Yellowknife his wife, Lois, overhears the conversation and makes a rude remark about “the bloody North” not realizing the trip is to go to his stricken mother and then fly to Sanirarsipaaq to investigate the murders. It is a painfully awkward moment when Lois learns about her mother-in-law being injured, a woman she met early in their 20 years of marriage and has not seen again. Matteesie says Lois “apparently didn’t really warm to a toothless old Inuit woman with a tattooed face and only one eye”.

In the North, Aunt Bessie is a much loved woman who loves to travel from one family group to another, the nomadic spirit still strong in her.

On arrival in Yellowknife Matteesie finds his mother gravely injured but stable. She had been knocked aside by the killer fleeing the house in which the murders were committed.

Matteesie receives long distance comfort from Maxine, the Inuit woman with whom he has had an affair almost as long as he has been married.

Matteesie finds himself content to continue both relationships.

After Bessie stabilizes he travels to Sanirarsipaaq on the Arctic coast. The case gains widespread publicity when there is a suggestion that there are shamanistic aspects to the murders.

Even though it is officially spring in southern Canada it is still winter in the Arctic. For a snowmobile trip out of town he readies himself in case the weather changes:

Most of my heavy-duty cold wear had flown with me from Labrador last Monday. The rest I’d borrowed from Bouvier. I had on a thermal shirt next to my skin, down vest, pants of caribou hide with rubber bottoms, winter parka, fur hat and googles …..

Northerners learn to respect the weather.

Once in the small Arctic community he returns to the life of his youth where the residents make their living from the land hunting and trapping.

Comfortably settled into the local hotel Matteesie commences his investigation with the aid of Corporal Bouvier.

The deceased, a young man and his mother, have been brutally knifed to death. There is blood everywhere.

Forensic examination shows several types of footprints – some in the blood and some prior to the killings. I could not help but think they needed Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte to help them study the footprints.

Matteesie is a dogged investigator. He neither has brilliant deductions or swift insights into the evidence. He carefully proceeds with assembling the evidence.

He considers the local shaman, Jonassie Oquataq, a famed Inuit carver and sculptor. Matteesie thinks of the role shamans have traditionally taken in the North.

As the investigation proceeds the reader is fully taken into the life of an Inuit village far above the Arctic Circle.

There is little doubt about the killer but can Matteesie build a case?

The Shaman’s Knife is an excellent book. I was left regretful at the end that Scott Young wrote no further mysteries featuring Matteesie and the people of northern Canada. It would have been a memorable series. (Sept. 24/13)

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Last year my entry for “Y” in the Crime Fiction Alphabet hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog Mysteries in Paradise also featured Scott Young in the following posts:
 
(2012) - Murder in a Cold Climate;  (2012) - "Y" is for Scott Young; (2012) - Traditional Outdoor Journeys in Cime Fiction

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My connection to the book comes from its setting in Canada and the author being a Canadian. My next post will contain some further observations on life focusing on modern travel in the North.

Reviewing the Movie Adaptation of Louise Penny’s Still Life

Armand Gamache, Yvette Nichol and Jean-Guy Beauvoir in the
movie Still Life from the CBC

Earlier this year I wrote about Canadian author, Louise Penny, becoming a movie producer for the film being made of her first book, Still Life, in the Inspector Armand Gamache series primarily set in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.

The movie was telecast on the CBC last Sunday. While I was unable to watch the initial telecast Sharon and I were able to watch it online a few evenings later.

I enjoyed the movie but could not call it brilliant.

As in the books the fictional village of Three Pines entrances the viewer. The trees, dressed in autumn colours, set the scene. In the village the bistro / B &B of Gabi and Olivier is perfect. You want to get in the nearest car, train or plane to travel to the village and settle in at the inn with the local residents.

Among the police, Anthony Lemke as Jean-Guy Beauvoir, is a fine choice. While sometimes exasperated by Gamache he is a clever and dedicated officer.

Susanna Fournier as Detective Yvette Nichol, is suitably nasty and a good foil to all the other very correct officers.

Kate Hewlett as Clara Morrow, the aspiring artist and close friend to the murdered Jane Neal, is convincingly vulnerable. Penny, who has described the Clara of the books as herself should be pleased with the portrayal of Hewlett.

I regret that I still have a problem with the casting of Nathaniel Parker as Gamache. The urbane English accents of Parker do not work well with the character of a French Canadian police inspector. The producers provide an explanation for the English accent but it felt contrived.

I am still uneasy that I am being unfair about Parker because he does not fit my image of Gamache from reading all the books in the series.

For another view, John Doyle in his Globe & Mail review said:

While the Gamache character has some richness in the novels, on screen he’s bland. An honourable man, given to questioning authority, but lacking the sinew and muscle of a truly commanding character. There was some fuss made about an English actor being cast as Gamache, but it really doesn’t matter here – it’s all very much in the English tradition, really.

I do consider Parker a credible leader of the investigation and he is as comfortable in the village as the Gamache of the books.

In Longmire there was little connection with the book story lines, Still Life follows the plot of the book.

The movie has a Canadian pace and flavour. There is nary a car chase, shootout or sexual adventure. It has a quieter feel for plot than current American crime drama.

At the same time I found the movie choppy at times with limited character development. I think Still Life would have worked better in a mini-series format where there would be more time to explore the characters and the village.

I am glad I watched the movie and grateful it was respectful of the book from which it was drawn.

Readers can go to http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2406432208/ to watch the movie online.

 

Reflections on red Mandarin dresses

In my last post I reviewed the book Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong. As I started reading the book I was caught up in the visual image of a red Mandarin dress and looked up some images online. As I continued reading I realized the red Mandarin dress in which each young woman victim was placed after being murdered had great social and political significance in Communist China of the 1990’s.

A red Mandarin dress is instantly a Chinese image. They evoke to me slender Chinese women drawing the attention of all around them in the brilliant brocaded dress. Form fitting they have traditionally been individually made for the woman wearing the dress.

In the book Xiaolong outlines how Mandarin dresses of the early 1960’s usually had long sleeves and modest slits up the legs. They have a sensual attraction.

Current Mandarin dresses are more overtly sexual. They tend to have short sleeves or be sleeveless with no backs and side slits as high as the thigh. Online, almost all of the images I could find were of the current style.

Mandarin dresses were worn after the Communist takeover in 1949. It was not until the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was launched in 1966 that they disappeared for over a generation.

Comrade Yu’s wife, Peiqin, says of that time:

“In our middle school days, such a garment was out of the question, decadent and bourgeois and whatnot.”

It is harder to think of a greater fashion contrast from beautiful richly coloured Mandarin dresses than the thick drab unisex Mao suits that were worn by the Chinese people of the Cultural Revolution.

When China started liberalizing its economy and money began flowing through the nation the Mandarin dress made its return.

The placement of the women in red mandarin dresses provokes speculation among reporters in the book:

“One deemed it a political case, a protest against the reversal of values in socialist China for the mandarin dress, once condemned as a sign of capitalistic decadence, had become popular again.”

What puzzles the investigators is that the red mandarin dresses in which the young women were found were 1960’s conservative dresses. Why was the killer using traditional dresses? What could be so important to the killer that he places his victims, without underclothes, in ripped red Mandarin dresses with bosom buttons undone? The red Mandarin dresses have a symbolism to the killer that, if Chief Inspector Chen, can but decipher will allow him to find the serial killer.

The red Mandarin dresses draw an intense public interest to the murders that would never have been the same had the victims been dumped by the killer wearing Mao suits.

The book uses the red Mandarin dress as a powerful effective image – politically, culturally, sexually – that is at the heart of the mystery. When I see a red mandarin dress in the future I will think of Xiaolong’s book.

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For readers interested in the role of clothes in books I recommend the Clothes in Books Blog (http://clothesinbooks.blogspot.ca/) where Moira has fascinating posts.

"X" is for Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong

43. – 732.) Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong – For a third year my entry for the letter “X” in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise, will be a review of a book by Chinese American author, Qiu Xiaolong. I hope it is more tradition that I have developed than being unable to find another author I like whose surname starts with “X”.

As with Death of a Red Heroine the book opens with the discovery of a young woman who has been murdered. What makes the case here unusual is that she was found wearing a red mandarin dress that has had side slits ripped and several double-fish-shaped bosom buttons left undone.

The police are left reeling for it is the second murder of a young woman in a short time who has been dumped in a public location wearing a red mandarin dress and no other clothes.

There is a media frenzy about the red mandarin dress murders. Even in the highly controlled culture of Communist China the authorities are forced to acknowledge there is a serial killer in the City. Until the economic changes serial murders had been kept out of the press but once Chinese media were forced to sustain themselves economically they look as avidly to murder as any Western media.

A serial murderer is not acceptable to the Party and there is enormous pressure on the police to find the killer.

Chief Inspector Chen Cao is not interested in the case. He is on a short leave. He has enrolled in an MA program for Classical Chinese Literature at Shanghai University. His first paper is due shortly and he is going to use his time away from the office to work on the paper.

After looking at several Chinese short stories he has decided upon a paper which will delve into similarities in how women are portrayed in love stories over several hundred years.

His love of poetry is a daily part of his life, whether on work or at home. Chen continues to quote favoured lines. On a textile worker growing old swiftly:

            Soon, the splendor fades

            from the flower. There’s no stopping
            the chill rain, or the shrill wind.

While Chen is trying to focus on his paper his dutiful aide, Comrade Yu, is racing around trying to find information. Yu’s wife, Peiqin, searches for information on the distinctive red mandarin dresses placed upon the victims.

When Chen leaves Shanghai for a rest Yu is distraught. He has always leaned heavily on Chen to guide him investigations.

When Chen does return the investigation takes him back into the cruel days of the Cultural Revolution. Terrible actions were taken in the name of the Party.

During the book I was diverted by the amazing descriptions of food.  Chen describes soup buns:

“….the soup in the bun comes from the pork skin jelly mixing with the stuffing. In a steamer over the stove, the jelly turns into hot liquid. You have to bite carefully, or the soup will splash out, scalding your tongue.”

At the same time I was stunned by some of the dishes. I can do no more for description than list one item as live monkey brains.

Xiaolong writes subtle mysteries taking the reader into Chinese society past and present. His sleuth is skilled at dealing with highly political superiors. Every action must consider what the Party would want done.

The ending was one of the most poignant I have read in some time. I look forward to reading more Chief Inspector Chen books.

My next post will provide some thoughts on a red mandarin dress. It is a striking sensual dress. (Sept. 13/13.)

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My personal connection is an affection for the beauty and power of the poetry in the series. I do not read books of poetry but I love poetry with great imagery and flow of words.

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Earlier posts involing Qiu Xiaolong are:

Death of a Red Heroine (Second best of 2009 fiction); (2011) - "X" is for Qui Xiaolong; (2011) - A Case for Two Cities; (2012) - "X" is for Qiu Xiaolong Again; (2012) - A Loyal Character Dancer;