Which of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Best Novel Shortlist is Hardest to Put Down?

Tomorrow evening there will be an online announcement by the Crime Writers of Canada of the winners of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Awards for Canadian Crime Writing. Just over a week ago I received in the mail the 5 books forming the shortlist for the Best Novel Award. I had ordered them from the Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore in Toronto.

I started with Fate by Ian Hamilton because he is the only author from the finalists I have read previously. I have enjoyed his series of thrillers featuring the dynamic forensic accountant, Ava Lee. Fate is the first in a trilogy on the origins of “Uncle” Chow Tung who was Ava’s mentor in the early books of the series. I was immediately caught up in Uncle’s escape from mainland China to Hong Kong in 1959 and his rise as a Fanling triad a decade later. I swept through the 295 pages in two days.

At that point knowing I could not read the other 4 books before the Awards announcement I could not determine which book I would read next. After some reflection I decided to read from each of them simultaneously to get a sense of all the shortlisted books before the announcement of the winner. I would read about 25 pages, make some notes and then move on to the next book. Using that approach I have read 50 - 100 pages in each of the remaining 4 shortlisted books.

I would not pick which I consider the best without reading more for I have enough first impressions that were changed for the better or worse by superior or disappointing endings.

I found I did read enough to know which book I wanted to keep reading rather than move on to one of the other books. Thus I will rank the shortlist by “Hardest to Put Down”:

1.) Fate - Even had I not read the full book I know I would have found it very hard not to keep reading the book. Hamilton is very skilled at drawing the reader through the narrative. I also believe I was driven as I wanted to know about “Uncle”. He had been such an intriguing and important character in the Ava Lee series.

2.) Greenwood by Michael Christie - In 2038 seekers of the experience of trees come to the Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral on an island off the coast of British Columbia. A “Great Withering” has killed most of the world’s trees. Great dust storms have caused economic havoc and rib retch, a virulent new strain of tuberculosis, is killing untold numbers of children. The seekers, known as “Pilgrims”, are wealthy world citizens who have isolated themselves from the wretched masses of poor people. Canada known as water rich and tree rich is a refuge for the wealthy.

Forest Guide, Jake Greenwood, has a Ph.D in dendrology (botany specializing in trees). She takes the Pilgrims around the island. 

Jake has just seen on a pair of ancient firs some patches of browned needles and an area of spongy bark. Has the Withering come to the island?

And then the story turns to the lives of her father, Liam, and her mother, Willow. Jake had never known their stories. More important she was unaware her great-grandfather had owned the island.

I rarely venture into the future, especially the future of great disasters, but the unsettling, compelling opening of Greenwood drew me into the book. And, as we are living amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, it feels uncomfortably real. I need to know what is going to happen in Greenwood.

3.) In the Dark by Loreth Anne White - Big city homicide detective, RCMP Sgt. Mason Deniaud, is now in charge of the 3 officer detachment at Kluhane Bay in remote northern British Columbia. 

As the book opens in early November he is interviewing the survivor of a bush disaster. The name and gender of the survivor is not revealed. Two weeks earlier 9 people took a floatplane from the dock of the Thunderbird Lodge. 

The story shifts to the discovery of a crashed floatplane a few days earlier. At the scene Deniaud, who has hid his fear of heights, trying to see the plane, has a branch break and tumbles down to a ledge where the plane is precariously perched. Just as the plane slips into the river he is grabbed by Callie Sutton, head of the Kluhane Lake Search and Rescue. Uncomfortable with heights myself it was a heart pounding scene.

The story shifts earlier yet in October. Executives and an aging private investigator gather to fly to a new exclusive lodge. They have been invited to experience the lodge and discuss potential business contracts for the services needed by the lodge. They find the Forest Shadow Wilderness Resort & Spa is not a luxurious resort. It is a huge empty house.

Each member of the nine thinks they recognize at least one other person. Cryptic thoughts of dark secrets occupy their minds.

Unease edges towards panic when they realize they were duped into coming and then learn the plane’s radio has been sabotaged and bad weather may keep them in the wilderness for a week or more unable to communicate with the rest of the world.

When they find a copy of Agatha Christie’s book, Ten Little Indians, on the coffee table in which there is a paper with a poem about “Nine Little Liars” who die one by one until there is but one I could barely put down the book.

4.) The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley - Pain. Acute and chronic. The lacerating pain of failing relationships. Grace and Miles Markell are specialists in such pain, At their beautiful resort on the Mayan Riviera of Mexico they host two week retreats for well-to-do couples on the abyss of separation. Yet they are living a failing personal relationship.

Shell and Colin are a mature Canadian couple with perfect hair. They are abruptly defined as the alcoholic and the workaholic. 

Ben and Johana have come from California. He is a busy district attorney. She is a social worker who has not left their home for weeks. 

All the couples are bitter. There is clearly an abundance of motive for violence.

Since I deal with family law every day at the office the stories and emotions are very familiar.

I am interested to know what develops but did not find it hard to put the book down.

5.) Hideaway by Nicole Lundrigan - A creepy chilling opening left me dreading what would happen next. Gloria “Glow” Janes is a nightmare mother. After he steals some chocolate Gloria takes her son, Rowan “Row”, into the woods and leaves him standing over night under a sign marked “Theif”. When her daughter, Maisy “Turtle”, a flower in a school play freezes on stage she ignores Maisie when they get home. Maisy thinks:

That is how I knew she disappeared me. She did that sometimes. Mostly, it was Rowan, but tonight it was me. She couldn’t see me no more. Gloria’s heart was all locked up because only one of us was allowed in at a time. 

Their father, Telly, has left Gloria. She desperately wants him back. He is not returning. He has no time for the children. He is focused on a new relationship with Dian. 

Rowan returns to the woods during the summer to seek out Carl, a homeless man, who gave him shelter that long lonely night in the woods. Carl lives under a bridge.

I am over 50 pages in and interested, but not eager, to find out what happens in this frightening family. I did not find it hard to put down the book.

I am excited to find out which book is announced the winner tomorrow. I shall be doing full reviews on the quintet in the near future.

Rolling Thunder by A.J. Devlin

(22. - 1047.) Rolling Thunder by A.J. Devlin – Lawrence Kunstlinger, best known as Lawrence O’Labia in roller derby and as Larry to his friends, is missing. Amazombie aka Stormy Daze aka Stephanie Danielson, Jabba the Slut, Pippi Longstomping and the other members of the Split-Lip Sallies Roller Derby team want Jed “Hammerhead” Ounstead, former professional wrestler and now Vancouver private investigator, to find their coach. The team plays in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. (I cannot recall writing a paragraph in any of my previous 1,244 posts with a set of names to rival those created by Devlin for Rolling Thunder.)

Jabba, 300 pounds of intense woman, introduces erself to Jed, who is 6’3” and 240 pounds, with a thunderous slap to his butt by her massive hand that leaves him walking gingerly. He is more upset that her blow caused him to spill his large DQ banana milkshake.

Stormy, the team captain, who rises to 6’3” herself with her skates on, is worried Larry has gotten into trouble over gambling debts.

Tracking down Larry’s bookie is no problem but he will not pass on information about Larry unless Jed undertakes a collection from a longshoreman.

Jed and his cousin, Declan, are soon headed to the Graf Zeppelin club where the bouncer says their attire (“a Henley over a pair of black pants” for Jed and “boots, blue jeans, and a flannel shirt” for Declan) does not meet the dress code. He returns with a “red and black rubber blazer” and “dog collar with large chrome spikes” for Jed and “a pair of black leather chaps, complete with cut-outs in the bum, and adorned with frilly tassels up and down both legs” for Declan. It is a kink club with a BDSM party going on that night.

The images inside on the dance floor and then below in “the best and safest dungeon in the province” are incredible. Having no personal experience of such a club or party I have no idea of the authenticity of the descriptions. Possibly a subsequent reader of the book can add a comment to the blog on the credibility of the club.

Jed returns to the wrestling ring for some stellar action.

When Larry is killed Jed feels an obligation to solve the murder as he did with Johnny Mamba in Cobra Clutch.

Beautiful Vancouver City Police detective.constable Rya Shepard is irritated by his zeal and forcefully tells him to stay out of her investigation. Jed rejects her admonitions and carries on with his investigation. It takes him into corporate skulduggery concerning the future of women’s roller derby.

The amazing characters kept coming including a rabbit, David Hasselhop, who is being bunny sat (could not resist) by Declan while his owner who was wearing a white rabbit costume at the kink club is away on a business trip. The owner is a kinky furry known as Candy away from the club. The rabbit only eats while listening to Shakira songs so Declan croons to Hasselhop.

And who knew there were daschund races in Vancouver?

As resolution nears there are violent episodes showing the prowess of Jed and Declan in hand-to-hand combat. While hardly a surprise Jed would enjoy a good scrap I was caught offguard by his enjoyment inflicting punishment on the bad guys. He believes they deserve the pain.

Devlin clearly loves Vancouver and area. Any writer who relishes Granville Island is bound to appeal to me. Every time I get to Vancouver I have to spend some time on the Island and walk through the Market and get something to eat from several of the great food stalls. On my last trip a leisurely tasting of a flight of beers at the Granville Island Brewery almost caused us to be late for a flight home on a private jet. I was not too worried as we were drinking with one of the owners of the plane.

I hope future characters are less defined by appearance. The good guys of Rolling Thunder look good and the bad guys look bad.

I further wish that Jed’s future cases find him investigating murders that do not involve Rya While conflict in investigations with the New York City police works in the Nero Wolfe stories it is hard to sustain that dynamic credibly through a series. 

Until near the end of the book I thought Rya should leave the VPD. She would be an excellent addition to the Ounstead & Son detective agency. Her clever mind would complement the highly phsyical, not always thoughtful, Jed and the numbers skills of his father. And their mutual attraction would add some drama. But the dark edge to Jed’s personality evident late in the book has chilled Rya’s interest in Jed.

The cover for Rolling Thunder is a distinct improvement over Cobra Clutch. I found it a touch misleading for, while roller derby is the focus of the book, the roller girls, except for Stormy, are barely present for, after opening the book, they did not make another appearance in the plot for over 200 pages. 

The “Hammerhead” Jed series is rolling right along. There is a wonderful flow to the book that drew me swiftly through the pages. I enjoy being with Jed on his adventures.

I believe Rolling Thunder will be in contention for a 2021 Arthur Ellis Award. I am confident it will do well in the marketplace. It was published on Friday.

****

Devlin, A.J. - (2019) - Cobra Clutch

2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2020 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has been announced by the University of Alabama. The following books from the 21 entries were chosen:

1.) The Satapur Moonstone by
Sujata Massey;

2.) The Hallows by Victor
Methos; and,

3.) An Equal Justice by Chad Zunker.

I have already read The Satapur Moonstone and thought it an excellent book. I plan to read the remaining two books on the shortlist and provide my reviews and thoughts on the best book.

It is interesting that it is the second year in a row Massey has had a book on the shortlist. Last year it was The Widows of Malabar Hill, the first in the Perveen Mistry series.

I am not familiar with the other two authors.

The press release from the University of Alabama School of Law did not include any reference to the ABA Journal. In recent years the Journal has invited readers to vote for their choice on the shortlist with the readers choice to be one vote for the winning novel. I will be watching the Journal to see if readers get a vote. I thought it good way to promote interest in the Award.

The judging panel for 2019 will be:

         A'Lelia Bundles, author and journalist
         Dr. James A. Crank, UA associate professor of
         English specializing in American literature and
         culture 
         Jesse Holland, journalist, author and  
         Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge
         Center in the Library of Congress
         David Mao, associate president and chief 
         operating officer for Georgetown University 
         Law Center
         C.E. Tobisman, attorney and winner of the 2018 
         Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

Of that group I know C.E. Tobisman having read her book, Proof, which was the 2018 Prize winner.

The Award will be presented later this year. There were no particulars about the presentation. Traditionally it has been given out at the Library of Congress during the National Book Festival.

Following my reading practice I plan to read the shortlist and provide posts on each book and my thoughts on the winner.

It is a special year for the Prize as 2020 is the 10th Anniversary for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.

The English Girl by Daniel Silva

(20. - 1045.) The English Girl by Daniel Silva - An English rose, Madeline Hart, disappears in Corsica. Her future had been bright:

With her television good looks, keen intellect, and boundless energy, Madeline was being groomed for a safe seat in Parliament and a ministry of her own. It was only a matter of time. Or so they said.

A few weeks later a video is delivered to the Prime Minister’s director of communications, Simon Hewitt, in which Madeline speaks of her sexual relationship with the PM, Jonathan Lancaster. With it is a sheet of paper that says:

You have seven days, or the girl dies.

He passes it on to the PM’s Chief of Staff, Jeremy Fallon, who contacts Graham Seymour of MI5 who reaches out  to Gabriel Allon, Israeli intelligence agent and assassin and art restorer. Calling on a favour Seymour asks Allon to find Madeline.

I was hooked.

Where should he even start? French police were unable to find a trace of her or even identify the man with whom she had lunch the day of her disappearance.

Not surprisingly Allon looks to contacts in organized crime who have access to different sources of information than the police.

He further contacts an expatriate Englishman, Christopher Keller, who is a former member of British special forces and British Intelligence. Keller is making a living in the dark shadows of the world.

I was surprised by a mystical element to Keller’s life. He wears a talisman and has faith in the visions of an elderly Corsican woman concerning the future.

As the search becomes more complicated Gabriel is called to a meeting at 10 Downing Street:

After a lifetime of service in the secret world, Gabriel had lost count of the number of times he had entered a room in crisis. The nature and setting didn’t seem to matter; it was always the same. One man pacing the carpet, another staring numbly out a window. And still another trying desperately to appear calm and in control, even when there was no contol to be had.

When the kidnapper specifically demands Gabriel handle the ransom it is clear there is clearly a personal connection between the kidnapper and Allon.

There is a disaster and Gabriel seeks revenge.

Gabriel’s search for the mastermind “Paul” is the best part of the book. Where the early section relied heavily on violence there was more intelligence in pursuing Paul.

You need to suspend some disbelief on what the Israeli Secret Service might do for an agent’s personal vendetta but the convincing of Israeli leadership was well done.

Tension built for a classic thriller ending.

The bodies piled up rather easily early in the book but there were none for several hundred pages.

Silva is skilled at moving the thriller forward. I wanted to read the next page and the next and the next. Yet I wished Gabriel used his fine mind more than his killing skills. It is smoothly written but I am ambivalent about reading another in the series.

****

Silva, Daniel – (2000) - The Marching Season; (2001) - The Kill Artist; (2003) - The Confessor; (2009) – The Secret Servant

Tibetan Demon Masks

In The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison the Buddhist faith is ever present. In Tibetan Buddhism spirits and demons play important roles. In the book a demon, Tamdin the Horse-headed, is involved in a series of murders.

Pattison describes a costume made for the demon protector, Tamdin:

The magnificent costume was here, its face a savage bulging mask of red lacquered wood, four fangs in its mouth, a ring of skulls at its neck, a tiny, ferocious, green horse head rising about its golden hair.

The costume includes arms for the wearers which end in clawed hands.

It is a terrifying sight to encounter Tamdin in daytime, let alone night when he moves about most freely.

Looking around the internet provided examples of the masks used in Tibetan ceremonies.

While I could not find Tamdin masks I found Hayagriva mass. Hayagriva, known as the horse-necked one, is chief among the wrathful emmations in Tibetan Buddhism.

I know little of Tibetan celebrations but I found some dramatic photos of Cham dancers wearing demon masks.

From Wiipedia:

The dances is accompanied by music played by monks using

traditional Tibetan musical instruments. The daces often offer

moral instruction regarding to karuns (compassion) for sentient

beings and are held to bring merit to all who perceive them.

Chams are considered a form of meditation and an offering to

the gods. The leader of the cham is typically a musician,

keeping time using some percussion instrument like cymbals,

the one exception being Dramyin Cham, where is kept using

dramyin.

The term "devil dance" was an early 20th Century Western

description of the performance, its name was derived from the

costumes worn by performers.

What a sight those dances must be in real life. I wish I could attend a cham dance.

****

Pattison, Eliot - The SkullMantra - Begun and Finished and Tibetan Demon Masks

The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison Finished

In my last post I started a review of The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison. It is an intriguing thriller set in Tibet in the late 1990’s. Shan, a prisoner on a work brigade, is chosen to conduct a show inquiry into a murder. Shan, formerly a top level investigator in Beijing, cannot do a superficial examination of the facts and is given latitude by Colonel Tan.

Shan patiently commences his investigation by studying the location where the body was found. He asks another prisoner, Jilin, who is a murderer, his professional opinion on why the body was left there rather than tossed over the nearby cliff. Jilin explains:

“Someone told me once about a tree falling down in the mountains. It don’t make a sound if no one’s there to hear. A killing with no one to appreciate it, what’s the point? A good murder, that requires an audience.”

When the head is found the status of the murdered man means his death cannot be bureaucratically confined to file obscurity. Tan is confident Shan will not flee or fail to do his duty for the lives of his fellow prisoners will be forfeit if he disappears or shirks his responsibility.

There is a special bond between Shan and the monks forged in the misery of their imprisonment. The lama, Chotje, physically shielded Shan from a beating by a guard on Shan’s arrival.

While a convenient killer is avaiable Colonel Tan has unexpected integrity in wanting the actual killer found.

An unexpected character is Rebecca Fowler, an attractive American woman, who has come to manage a mine as China promotes the development of Tibet. Extroverted and outspoken she is a striking contrast to the reserved Chinese and even more reserved Tibetans.

She is precipitating rare minerals that have leached out of the volcanic rock of the mountains and accumulated over the centuries. It is a mine made of ponds.

As the investigation proceeds Shan learns of more murders and convenient killers being identified. The local people are resentful over Tibetan resisters being identified as the murderers. Shan provides the Colonel with a good socialist reason for finding the actual killer. Too many murders and Beijing may consider him negligent.

A competing investigation by the Assistant Prosecutor for the County is ready to convict the preferred killer.

The exploration of the mystical world of Tibetan Buddhism is fascinating. Demons inhabit the mountains. Ghosts are real. Rituals are vivid. Sorcerers wearing conical hats are respected and feared. Yeshe says:

“... To the old Buddhists, words were the most dangerous weapon of all.”

Yet there are so many government departments involved. Colonel Tan from the Army is in charge of the County. The Ministry of Justice has an important role in maintaining public order. The Ministry of Geology has a strong presence in regulating any actions involving the mountains. The Religious Affairs Bureau licences Buddhist activities. 

The mountains aid the meditations of the monks. They can retreat into reflections for hours to days to months to years. It is a spiritual world of an intensity beyond the Western mind.

Shan cannot question monks by conventional methods. They rarely respond directly. They ask questions in reply. They are sometimes in another world, a different reality. 

Shan recognizes a fundamental challenge of life:

Investigations, meditations, careers, relationships were much the same, he mused. They failed because no one thought to ask the right question.

The Tibetans believe a demon is killing Chinese officials.

One of the victims has been killed by small pebbles being dropped into his mouth until he suffocated. One of the pebbles is in the shape of a skull.

Burial rituals and those who prepare bodies provide evidence. For traditional Tibetans there are sky burials.

On almost every page there is a part of Tibetan life and culture filled with fascinating people. My next post will be about powerful masks.

The relationship between Yeshe and Shan deepens during the investigation. Yeshe had been a young monk before he was sent to university in China. As he works with Shan he contemplates his future and his spirituality.

Christians speak of being closer to heaven when atop mountains. Jesus went up mountains to pray. Tibetans, living on the highest mountains in the world are the closest people to God.

Pattison discourses on the American distance from God:

“.... The Buddhists, they have eight hot and eight cold hells. But there’s a whole new level in America. The worst one. The one where everyone’s tricked into ignoring their souls by being told they’re already in heaven.”

As the thoughtful Shan works through the conflicting information, the concealment of evidence, the efforts to mislead him he adopts a Tibetan approach to the investigation. He accepts it is “best to know of not knowing”. To solve the crimes he pursues an understanding of what he does not know.

All of the plot lines come together in a convincing and suspenseful ending.

The Skull Mantra is a brilliant book I wish I had read the book years ago. It is wonderful to read an intelligent thriller.

****

Pattison, Eliot - (2020) - The Skull Mantra - Begun

The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison Begun

(19. - 1044.) The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison (1999) - Comrade Shan has been placed in a work brigade in the mountains of Tibet. They are in a Chinese gulag. His fellow prisoners in the 404th brigade are mainly Bhuddist priests. They are building roads to accommodate the colonists who are coming to occupy the land. Thousands and thousands of Chinese settlers will gradually dominate the local population. 

Shan has a rare spirit. He survived months of torture and fierce questioning when he was arrested for probing too deeply into corruption in Beijing. Serving an indefinite sentence he has endured 3 years in the brutal work camp. He has learned that he will never give up.

Shan is gradually discovering his inner God, his soul, under the guidance of an abbott. He joins in the evening prayers around an imaginary altar to which the monks offer invisible gifts.

Over the years he has become reflective:

Shan had become a connoisseur of fear, learning to appreciate its many textures and physical reactions. There was a vast difference, for example, between the fear of the torturer’s bootsteps and the fear of an avalanche descending on an adjacent work crew. And none compared to the fear that kept him awake nights as he searched through his miasma of exhaustion and pain, the fear of forgetting the face of his father. In the first days, during the haze of hypodermics and political therapy, he had come to realize how valuable fear could be. Sometimes only the fear had been real.

A headless body is discovered on the brigade’s worksite wearing real American jeans. Shan is brought before the fearsome Colonel Tan. The body is of an unknown unauthorized man. The clothes suggest a visitor to the region. A Ministry of Justice team is coming for an inspection and the Colonel does not want an unsolved death of a significant person awaiting them.

Having discovered Shan was formerly a top investigator in Bejing, the colonel wants him to conduct a short investigation and come up with a plausible explanation of the death. If he succeeds Shan can expect a modest improvement in his life as a prisoner. Tan does not realize Shan is an honest investigator no matter the consequences. Yet no matter the pressure on Shan it will be hard to come up with a report of accidental death for a decapitated man.

Shan does his best compiling an initial report within hours that says “the victim walked up a dangerous ridge at night and suffered a suden trauma to the neck …. possible explanations …, stumbled on a rock in darkness, fell upon razor-edge quartz …. fell onto a tool left by the construction brigade”. Even in the show reality of authoritian bureaucracy the explanations are recognized by the Colonel as fantasy.

Shan tries to help by suggesting they identify the victim as Taiwanese to avoid the attention if he was said to be a Chinese American. The Colonel thinks it could work until Shan says the doctor has noticed the head is missing and is unlikely to sign off on the report.

From past experience Shan says there must be a political explanation of the murder. The Colonel learns the monks will not work upon the mountain because of jungpo:

“It translates as hungry ghost. A soul released by a violent action, unprepared for death. Unless death rites can be conducted on the mountain, the ghost will haunt the scene of the death. It will be angry. It will bring bad luck. The devout will not go near the place.”

The colonel seizes upon their reaction to demand a report that “the 404th caused this death as an excuse to halt their work”. Shan is crushed. Such a report would bring harsher punishment on the monks who have become his family. Can he find another explanation that would be satisfactory to the Ministry? He knows the monks would want him to find out the truth no matter the cost to them.

There are deft tidbits of information. Tibetans are derisively called locusts by the Chinese because of “the droning sounds of their mantras”.

The colonel provides him with an assistant, Yeshe, a young Tibetan who had studied in China but has just completed two years of re-education at the labour camp. He has computer skills and is accustomed to dealing with reports. He does not want to be Shan’s assistant but has no choice.

My second post on The Skull Mantra will discuss the investigation.