The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen, translated by Lisa Hartford

Rating:

*****

The book's synopsis from the publisher's website:

The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Adler- Olsen's Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself.
So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects.
But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl's been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigations division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases to keep him company, Carl's been put out to pasture. So he's as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A missing politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she's dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he's wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh, and redeem himself in the process.
Because she isn't dead . . . yet.

  I really, really enjoyed this crime novel. One of the best I've read (European and otherwise) in a long time. Everything just clicked for me; the pace, the characters, the suspense and the setting worked beautifully and made up for a memorable read in the mysteries department. I absolutely loved Assad, the assistant to Carl, the head of the Department Q (that makes up all of two members of the said department). He is the strongest character in the novel and his interactions with Carl caused me to chuckle quite a few times and helped me enjoy the whole story all the more. 

Call me slow-witted but, contrary to other reviewers, it wasn't obvious to me who the 'perpetrator' was from early on in the novel at all. Which wouldn't have made all that much difference in the end anyway because The Keeper of Lost Causes is a lot more than just a simple 'whodunit' book. I'm very glad it's the beginning of the series and will be jumping on the next installment when it hits American market. 

Let's not forget about the translator, Lisa Hartford. A lot of credit goes to her for doing a wonderful job giving us this Danish crime novel without a blemish and translated it so that an American reader can easily transport him/herself into the world of contemporary Denmark and to the streets of Copenhagen.

FTC: I received an e-galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

2-in-1: Andean Express by Juan De Recacoechea & Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

1. Andean Express by Juan De Recacoechea, translated by Adrian Althoff

This is a crime/mystery novel written by a Bolivian author and set in 1952. The action takes place on an overnight train journey from La Paz (which is the administrative capital of Bolivia, the country that has two capital cities and the second one is Sucre), through the Andean plateau to the coast of Chile.  Innocent enough when it starts, the journey turns deadly to one of the passengers and everybody concerned seems to have some kind of issue with the one person that will soon be murdered. There are too many characters to list but they all play important roles and no one is truly as they seem.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading Andean Express. Never having read any Bolivian fiction before, I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a small novel with quick action and even though the crime seems to be at the forefront, it really serves as the background to the Bolivian society of the fifties in a capsule. There are people involved that represent almost every walk of life, from a recent high school graduate, a miner, a politician to a shady businessman. We have a prostitute, a woman scorned and a young girl seemingly sold into an unwanted marriage. Truly a cornucopia of personalities and it was a delicious feast to read about them all. I enjoyed the author’s sharp language, humor and a prose that’s very much to the point.

The best part though, and I’m not sure if it’s something representative of South American crime fiction or not, was that the murder actually goes unpunished because everyone agreed that the person that died fully deserved their fate and there’s no need to seek justice. The justice has just been dealt. Very much unlike North American crime fiction that I read where the murderer is always found and punished regardless of the motives. I must say it was a breath of fresh air and I will gladly look for more.

 
2. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

This one is more of a literary thriller than a crime fiction. We are introduced to several characters. There’s Miles, searching for his schizophrenic twin brother; Ryan, who just found out he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, and Lucy, a fresh high school graduate who leaves her hometown behind and goes off with her history teacher in search for a better and more exciting life. All of their lives come together in unexpected and somewhat shocking ways.

I wish I could say more what this novel is about but the way it’s written begs for not divulging too much because it may quickly spoil the plot for those who have yet to read it. There is a lot of mystery surrounding all of the characters and the end may indeed come as a surprise to most readers. The whole novel has to do mostly with our identities, what are they and how fragile they really are, how easily discovered, destroyed and rediscovered or reinvented. The whole atmosphere of the book reminded me the most of du Maurier’s writing although not so much the evocative prose as the mystery and the mood permeating the whole novel. I did like it but I wasn’t as impressed or crazy about Await Your Reply as some other reviewers. In the words of Randy Jackson, “It was just okay Dawg”.

Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

You know how you sometimes buy books based purely on the opinions of others or the buzz that's being created about a specific title? Well at least I do. Sometimes I don't even read the full description or synopsis and just 'go with the flow'. With some books, it works surprisingly well. With others, not so much. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott unfortunately turned out to belong to the latter group. And I really mean 'unfortunately' because I had high hopes as far as this novel was concerned because of how many people were talking of it in positive terms when it just came out.

Lydia Brooke, a writer and a historian, returns to Cambridge for a funeral of another historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang. Elizabeth was close to Lydia in two ways. She helped her with research for a book and she also happened to be a mother to Cameron Browne, a former lover of Lydia. The death of Elizabeth is deemed either a suicide or an accidental drowning but Lydia knew her to be a person who wouldn't kill herself and as more details are revealed, accidental drowning sounds fishy (forgive the pun) as well. It turns out that Elizabeth was working on a biography of Isaac Newton and his life not as a scientist but an alchemist, a label all other Newton experts refuse to pin on him. She never got to finish the book and now Cameron asks Lydia to finish it. As Lydia delves deeper and deeper into the world of seventeenth century Cambridge and of alchemy, she realizes that there is a lot more to Elizabeth's death and that finishing her book may not be an easy task. She also realizes that when she finished her relationship with married Cameron years ago, she never really was quite done and soon their love life starts afresh as if it never ended. Lydia has some personal revelations to deal with while real danger lurks and some other forces she's not fully able to explain appear to hinder her work to finish the book.

Simply put, I was not impressed with Ghostwalk at all. I'm not sure what Ms Stott tried to accomplish here and from the looks of it, Ms Stott might not know herself. It's supposed to be a fiction book, with made up contemporary characters and real persons from the seventeenth century including Isaac Newton. The idea of Newton meddling with alchemy was very intriguing to me and I think it would have worked had the author not included pages upon pages of the supposed biography of Newton within the novel. So there I was reading a ghost story, mixed with a love story when all of a sudden I get blindsided with chapters that seemed to be taken straight out of a very boring non-fiction book on glassmaking, Newton's life written in a very dry tone that could put a night owl to sleep. That's why I think that the author wasn't sure what Ghostwalk was supposed to be. It's as if she couldn't decide whether to write a fiction or non-fiction, so why not do both. It's just that for me it didn't work at all.

Another thing that didn't work for me was a first-person narrative. In general, I think it's no easy feat to pull this off and Rebecca Stott probably shouldn't have used it for her debut novel. Because of Lydia narrating the whole story, there pretty much is no character development present. Besides maybe Cameron, all other characters fall really flat and evoked in me zero emotions. I just couldn't bring myself to care for someone who felt like a stenciled puppet not a true person. Also, while there is a ghostly atmosphere here and there,Ghostwalk has really not much to do with ghosts and apparitions and if you're looking for a horror story, this is not one. The only thing that I did like were the descriptions of Cambridge which made me really yearn for visiting it one day. But that alone wasn't enough to redeem the whole book in my eyes.

No Wind of Blame by Georgette Heyer

It’s already November, the end of year is near and I can safely speak about who my favorite awesome writer discovery is this year. It is undoubtedly, definitely Georgette Heyer. I am completely taken by this author of mysteries and historical romances and also extremely happy that luck was on my side and I did get to know about her, considering that I had lived on this planet for 31 years (20 of which having been a total bookworm) before I laid my hands on the books of Ms. Heyer. It is therefore not going to be a surprise to you to learn that No Wind of Blame was yet another hit for me.

Wally Carter provided all who knew him many reasons to want to kill him and the list includes his overly dramatic wife, absurdly theatrical stepdaughter and a newly acquainted phony Russian prince who isn’t really Russian and has no princely belongings. However, the fact that everyone had a motive is not what complicates the case of Mr. Carter’s murder. It’s not why but how he was killed that Inspector Hemingway has to figure out first because none of the suspects were anywhere near the murder weapon when it was used to fire the deadly shot. Now Inspector Hemingway has quite a cast of characters to deal with before the guilty party is found and how he gets to interrogate the suspects makes up for one hilarious read.

I honestly cannot praise Heyer’s talent at writing mysteries enough. No Wind of Blame my fourth Heyer mystery I read this year and they just keep getting better for me. On the surface it is a cozy whodunit read in the same field as Agatha Christie’s books. And as such it already would have been enjoyable enough. What makes this book extra special for me is the clever dialogue showing off the absurdity of some human characters and the hilarious comedy of manners. Ms. Heyer will provide you with tons of laughs if only you’ll give it a chance. At least I couldn’t stop myself from bursting out laughing every once in a while. And boy did I need it! I think it takes a special kind of author to write intelligent, hysterical mysteries that provide just the right mixture of entertainment and secrets to keep a reader intrigued and hooked until the last page. I also think that Georgette Heyer is that special kind of author and No Wind of Blame is that special kind of book.

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Special Thanks to Danielle J. from Sourcebooks, Inc. for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

I have been complaining lately about not reading as many books as I’d like to and quietly thinking that I have the worst luck with the quality of the books that I do manage to read (more ‘so, so’ ones than the wonderful ones). But then I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and everything just got better. It is because of books like this one that I love reading because it makes me realize that one has to dig deep, long and hard to find true gems and once they are found to appreciate them better.

Max de Winter, the owner of magnificent Manderley estate, comes to Monte Carlo to recover after the death of his wife, Rebecca. While there, he meets a young girl, barely an adult, who is a mousy little thing working as a maid-in-training for a know-it-all, nosy Mrs. Van Hopper. Suddenly, a strange relationship develops between Max and the girl. They spend together enough time for her to fall in love with Mr. de Winter and his sudden marriage proposal to her ends up to be a shock to everyone around including the girl. She agrees (what else could she do, it’s her dream come true) and after a few months of honeymoon, Max and new Mrs. de Winter arrive at Manderley. From pretty much the first day, Mrs. de Winter realizes that she would never be treated as the rightful wife of Maxim de Winter by the people who live in Manderley because this honor will always belong to mysterious, beautiful and very much dead Rebecca. And so what was supposed to be a dream life turns into a nightmare for the unsophisticated and timid second lady of the estate.

There wasn’t a single thing about Rebecca that I could criticize. Du Maurier had this wonderful ability to pull the reader into the gloomy, mysterious atmosphere of Rebecca right from the start. I didn’t so much read about this new to me world (a thing most readers look for when starting a book) as really experience it. The descriptive passages of nature and Manderley’s surroundings are beautiful and some observations on what may seem mundane, truly extraordinary. Here are excerpts on roses and rhododendrons (flowers that are common, albeit beautiful) that made me see them in a new light.

A rose was one of the few flowers, he said, that looked better picked than growing. A bowl of roses in a drawing-room had a depth of colour and scent they had not possessed in the open. There was something rather blowsy about roses in full bloom, something shallow and raucous, like women with untidy hair. In the house they became mysterious and subtle.(p.33)

We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking about the suddenness of their discovery. The woods had not prepared me for them. They startled me with their crimson faces, massed one upon the other in incredible profusion, showing no leaf, no twig, nothing but the slaughterous red (underline mine, I just love this phrase), luscious and fantastic, unlike any rhododendron I had seen before. (p.65)

The peculiar thing you’ll notice when reading Rebecca is that the second Mrs. de Winter is never called by her first name. As I turned pages, it became quite obvious why. The way she acts is as if she is never her own person. She is actually quite a sad character. Her innocence and naiveté about love, future life in Manderley and I think, life in general are recipes for disaster as it’s quite easy to have them shattered by the first evil person that comes her way. In this case the girl had a very bad luck of contending with evil Mrs. Danvers and most importantly, with dead Rebecca. Mrs. de Winter’s submissive behavior became quite frustrating to me and I just wanted to go over there and shake her and tell her to wake the heck up and start standing up for herself. She finally had but I can’t go into the reasons (you’ll have to read it to know). The only thing I can say is she didn’t do it because she thought one day, ‘Okay, enough of this bullying, I am not Rebecca but I am a person that deserves respect and will get it!’. No, she did it only after having gotten a validation from another person.

Rebecca is called a classic, Gothic romance and I tell you, just when I thought I got it all figured out, I got smacked with a twist after twist. And the character of Mrs. Danvers has to be one of the most evil in the history of mysteries. I was glad to see her cry after Rebecca. It wasn’t because I am just such an evil person myself that enjoys the emotional suffering of others. It was because up to that point, I started thinking that maybe Mrs. Danvers died with Rebecca and it was her demonic ghost governing the Manderley household. I was relieved to find out she had human feelings.

It is true that it took me a long time to finish Rebecca, but instead of feeling the usual frustration that comes with reading a book for an extended period of time, I am happy I allowed myself the luxury to spend more time in the world of Manderley. It would have been a shame, had I read the whole book in one sitting.

Book Info:
Title: Rebecca
Author: Daphne du Maurier
ISBN: 0385043805
Published by: Doubleday

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eclectic/eccentric

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Back in my days working for a big chain bookstore I would let myself be swayed in my reading choices by what the customers were buying. If I noticed a trend, I would start making a list of titles to be bought when the next paycheck came. I knew I wouldn't be reading those books right away but that i would let them ripen on my bookshelves until the right time arrived. So was the case with Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It was very popular among the buyers and book lovers and I just couldn't resist the temptation.

Labyrinth is an intricate story of the Holy Grail and the Cathars spanning centuries. The reader gets to be let into the world of the Medieval Carcassonne and the modern day France via the stories of two women, Alais who lived in the first half of 13th century and Alice Tanner, a volunteer working at the archaeological site in the Pyrenees in Southern France. Alice, being slightly stubborn and acting before thinking, decided to go alone into a cave she just discovered while working. What happens to her there and what she finds triggers events Alice hadn't ever dreamed of (in her worst nightmares). All of a sudden, the police, a dangerous and influential lawyer, plus her friend Shelagh are mysteriously interested in the discovery and seem to go to any lengths to get from Alice the last bit of information on what she found in the cave. And so it is that Dr.Tanner finds herself running for her life, stumbling on secret upon secret and not knowing who her friends and enemies are. Rewind to 1205 Carcassonne and we meet Alais, a seventeen-year-old daughter of honorable and faithful Bertrand Pelletier, wife of chevalier Guilhelm Du-Mas, and a sister to traitorous and dangerous Oriane. They all lived in murderous times on Pope Innocent III's crusade against Cathars of Languedoc. Alais is a girl of independent and stubborn spirit much loved by her father, who entrusts her with safekeeping of a mysterious ring and a book right before he leaves to fight the French Crusaders. Alais's life takes an unexpected turn and many things happen that break her heart but also make her strong in the resolve to protect the secret of the real Holy Grail.

I am aware that the plot may seem a tad complicated but the novel itself is not so. Labyrinth is many things, it's a historical novel, it's a mystery, it's a faced paced thriller and it's a romance story of tragic love. But all these elements blend together surprisingly well and in the end there's no need for a reader to try to comprehend it all better. As a historical novel, it was very well researched and very interesting. I really felt myself pulled into the world of Cathar religion and their persecution, especially because I had known next to nothing about that part of Medieval history before I read Labyrinth. Mind you, I usually do not like reading books whose main purpose is to ostracize the Catholic Church for all the wrongs but in this instance I felt that Ms. Mosse presented merely what happened without any obvious bias for one side or another. I realize that we're talking here about fiction but we all know how sometimes feelings and views of authors can be transported on to the pages of a book due to a possible lack of writing skills. Anyway, the only feelings that were loud and clear in Labyrinth, were Kate's love for history and for the country she writes about. It's certainly contagious and without being overly descriptive, the passages on the landscape and history of the land were inviting me to be there.

The only thing I did not like was the "over" usage of the French language. Despite being a translator and speaking two languages fluently and another one on an intermediate level, it is probably one of my greatest pet-peeves in books: when a writer uses phrases, words or even whole sentences in foreign language, without translating them. So was the case with Kate Mosse. I am not a genius, okay. French happens to be one of the languages I do not speak or understand therefore when I had to get immersed in the quick action and dialogue only to come to an abrupt stop because the people talking switched to French, I was agitated. Ms. Mosse did provide a glossary at the end of the book but that only contains maybe half of the French and Occitane words actually used in the novel. I understand the need to use some of the language of the country the book is set in, just to maybe ease the readers into the atmosphere of the world written about, but are whole sentences (and sometimes even more than one at a time) really necessary? I don't think so. It is my honest and humble opinion that the writer would have been better off skipping the foreign phrases altogether.

Pfew, is this long enough or what? I think that if you like historical fiction, filled with mystery, secrets and adventure, you'll definitely enjoy Labyrinth. If, on the other hand you expect the like of The DaVinci Code because you're a fan, skip this one. Although Mosse's novel is much better and there isn't much of the sensationalist theories on the Legend of the Holy Grail here.

Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson

I am a reader with pretty much eclectic tastes. Very often I start my reviews with this or that genre being one of my favorites and the reason behind it is that many genres are indeed ones I like the most. It would probably be easier for me to list the ones I don’t particularly like than the ones I do. A British detective murder mystery is yet another one of those I enjoy. The trick is to find new authors that I can add to ‘my favorites’ list and not limit myself to only the few tried and tested ones. I was lucky enough to find that new author while reading Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson.

Friend of the Devil is installment number 18 in the series featuring detectives Annie Cabot and Alan Banks. I guess with this one I started from the end and will be going up to the beginning, but it’s quite all right since even being a part of the series, it may as well be a stand-alone book. It starts off with two murders committed in different parts of North Yorkshire, England. First of them is a murder of a paraplegic who is found on Sunday morning sitting in a wheelchair with her throat cut. Detective Inspector Annie Cabot ends up being in charge of this investigation. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks has another murder on his hands. This one is a rape/strangulation killing of nineteen-year-old Hayley Daniels. The two cases seem to be completely unrelated until another death occurs that might change the course of investigations. And Banks and Cabot have plenty of other personal issues to cope with besides the cases that are turning up zero results and more questions than answers. It turns out that Annie and Alan had been romantically involved before and are still trying to come to terms with their break-up and post-dating relationship that would not impact their professional lives.

I am an obsessive-compulsive reader who has to start any series from the beginning and has to have all the following books already on my shelves waiting for their turn. It was a wonder therefore that I started reading and continued on until the end Friend of the Devil, which is one of the latest books featuring Inspector Banks. When I started reading it I didn’t know that it was indeed a part of the series and then it just didn’t matter because the book was really good. All I was thinking instead was how lucky I was that I had seventeen more books written by Mr. Robinson waiting to be read. Friend of the Devil is such a good mystery because it’s quick paced, it has a lot of sharp dialogue, which I always enjoy, and the murders are true mysteries until the very end. The plot gets complicated but it’s not confusing at all and despite all the nuances and new developments, it was easy for me to follow the action and the investigations. Also, I really liked Annie Cabot. In general, I enjoy insight into personal lives of the detectives leading the stories and I got plenty of it in this book. Annie is just such a complex and at times really sad character that I just had to sympathize with her and cheer her on. She deals with demons from the past and mistakes from the present and how she does that makes her really identifiable and real. And so is the case with all major characters in this novel. As I read it I didn’t feel detached from them but I instead could easily imagine that there are people like detectives Banks and Cabot out there, in the real life. I would say that if you like murder mysteries by Elizabeth George or P.D. James, there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy Peter Robinson (unless you all read him and I’m the last person on earth who just discovered this author).

Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer

It’s no secret by now that I am a fan of Georgette Heyer, considering that I read, reviewed and enjoyed three books of hers in the past 20-something days. The previous ones were all mysteries set in the times contemporary to Heyer. I had a slight anxiety therefore when I started reading Cousin Kate which even though still a mystery, it’s also a historical fiction, romance and Gothic mystery. It turned out I needn’t have worried.

Kate Malvern is considered at 25 on the brink of old age by the Regency standards. Her prospects for the future are looking worse and worse by the minute. With no parents, no dowry to speak of and no real prospects for substantial income, Kate has only one person to turn to: her nurse Sarah Nidd. But Sarah has her own family and household to care for and as much as she loves Kate, it’s only a matter of time when Kate will become a nuisance and yet another mouth to feed. With the appearance of Kate’s aunt Minerva, the estranged half-sister of Kate’s father, it looks like the deliverance from all worries has finally arrived. Kate is overwhelmed by the kindness bestowed upon her by Minerva and wishes with all her heart to repay it any way she can. When taken to Staplewood, Minerva’s family estate, Kate discovers soon enough that what she’s expected to do in return for Minerva’s benevolent treatment may be more horrifying than she could ever imagine. The household has the gloomy atmosphere with uncle Timothy living in a separate wing, the moody and often unpredictable cousin Torquil living in another part and Minerva ruling the house with an iron fist. Soon, Kate finds herself entrapped in Staplewood with only one person, cousin Phillip willing to help.

Cousin Kate is a completely different novel from the ones I’ve read but also the same talent Heyer’s for writing with style, humor and cleverness shines through. Kate is a very likable character, she’s independent, she knows what she wants, how to say what she wants and most importantly, how to stand up for herself and say no. I suspect she got it from her nurse Sarah, which I think I liked the most, even though she only appears at the beginning and end of the book. Talk about a no-nonsense woman. I like to imagine that Georgette Heyer used some of her own characteristics when creating Sarah. Also, I was happy to see that despite writing in a different genre, Heyer didn’t lose any of her wittiness, humor and a knack for truly bringing to life all her characters. There was one other new element introduced: mental illness. That just added more fun for me because I enjoy reading books with at least one person who suffers from some kind of mental impediment. Heyer never names what the illness is, but it really doesn’t matter because a name is not necessary when the portrayal is so excellent. Cousin Kate was simply another great performance by this wonderful writer and it only makes me elated to know that there are plenty more of her books to read.

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Special Thanks to Danielle J. from Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book.

Book Info

Title: Cousin Kate

Author: Georgette Heyer

Published in: 2009

By: Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Do you have books that as soon as you finished reading them, you were sorry the story ended? Or maybe you would read the story slower than usual, savoring every phrase and paragraph as one would savor a favorite piece of candy, because you didn’t want to part with it too soon? I hope you do and you would because I think that such books are the grand reward for reading altogether. And My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier was such a book for me.

It is a typical gothic mystery but at its best. A distant cousin Rachel bewitches Mr. Ambrose Ashley during one of his winter stays in Italy. Ambrose leaves his beloved estate in Cornwall every year in winter due to health problems, leaving his cousin, Philip Ashley, to look after the household. Ambrose raised Philip from infancy and it is no wonder that a twenty-four-year old boy loves Ambrose as his father and mother both. It is further no wonder that Philip is shocked and jealous of the mysterious cousin Rachel who he thinks stole Ambrose from him. The quick marriage ends as abruptly and unpredictably as it started. Mr. Ashley dies suddenly in Italy without ever having returned to Cornwall with his new bride. And now, cousin Rachel appears at the doorsteps of the Ashley’s estate leaving Philip with no choice but to make her welcome as the widow of Mr. Ambrose Ashley. Philip’s attitude towards her and the amount of trust he is willing to place in her will ultimately decide whether she is a woman of virtue but a victim of unfortunate circumstances or a conniving person with evil purposes.

As you can tell from my opening paragraph, I genuinely enjoyed My Cousin Rachel. It is one of the classics that I know I will be returning to time and again. The language was poetic and captured my attention right at the beginning. Mind you, I am not a fan of poetry, but when such flawless tone and manner of writing as we find in classic poems is engaged in a novel, I instantly fall in love with it. That is the case with du Maurier. There aren’t, after all, many novels out there from which I want to commit to memory passages found in the first ten pages. One such quote jumped at me right when I started reading My Cousin Rachel. It’s short but beautiful and strangely reflective of my own character:

“Disliking our fellow men, we craved attention; but shyness kept impulse dormant until the heart was touched.”(p.6)

That’s only a small taste of what Ms. du Maurier could do but it portrays perfectly, in my opinion, how there really is no need for elaborate descriptions of character, to capture the essence. And here goes my next point. Du Maurier’s writing in My Cousin Rachel, as in her other books, is an exquisite example of the golden rule for authors to show and not tell. While the descriptions of Cornwall’s natural landscape are rich but never boring, I could probably count on my fingers the times that any adjectives were used to describe the characters in the novel. And I came to know them like my own family or at least next door neighbors. Not once were I confused or frustrated by such a thing as lack of depth and trust me, I don’t think that the word “one-dimensional” ever existed in du Maurier’s dictionary. I think you get my feelings about My Cousin Rachel by now. I enjoyed it so much that I already wish I could read it again for the first time.

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Special Thanks to Danielle J. from Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book.
Don’t forget to enter my “Happy Birthday Daphne!” giveaway, if you haven’t already! It ends on May 31st.

Book Info
Title: My Cousin Rachel
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Published in: 2009
By: Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

Why Shoot The Butler? by Georgette Heyer

It does not happen often that I discover an author I had not heard of before and become an instant fan of that author’s writing with the very first book. It does however happen, infrequent as it may be. And so was the case with Georgette Heyer. I have first heard of her Regency novels but have not yet had the chance to read any of them. I instead decided to try out her mysteries first. I fell under Heyer’s spell with Behold, Here’s Poison, I remained under that spell while reading The Unfinished Clue and now Why Shoot The Butler? confirmed my belief that Ms. Heyer is one of the most entertaining writers I have ever read.

Why Shoot The Butler? starts off a little differently than the two previous mysteries. The murder is committed right at the beginning and we know nothing of the character of the person that was murdered. Frank Ambereley, who is a barrister, is on his way to visit his uncle in the country side when he spots a car with a woman standing beside it. Being a curious person, Frank soon discovers that the car holds a dead body of an unidentified man and the lady claims to know nothing of the occurred death. Mr. Amberely soon finds out the identity of both the victim and the mysterious girl. As it turns out Frank had already been a tremendous help to the local police before and is now unofficially employed by them to help solve the mystery of the butler’s murder, as it is certain that he was murdered. Shirley Brown, the mysterious girl met on that first night, claims to be innocent even thought all the clues point toward her being the killer. Frank believes her innocence and actually goes as far as allowing himself to feel more than just the need to bring the real murderer to justice.

Having written that Why Shoot The Butler? was entertaining enough to keep my interest in reading more of Ms. Heyer’s work, I have to say that it was a little weaker than the other two books and if you are just thinking to try this author out, you’re probably better off putting this one away for a later time. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy it as much as her previous novels. I did. I loved the character of Frank Amberley. He is as arrogant and as outspoken as you can find them. His wordy sparring with the inspector and the sergeant of the local police is always hilarious. Frank does not waste a moment to let everyone around him know how truly superior he is and to expose all the vices of the small countryside residents. He enjoys annoying his uncle and stirring anger in the inspector but despite all that I couldn’t help but like the guy. I also liked that the romance element, which is always present in Heyer’s books, was much more developed in Why Shoot The Butler? and occupied a central stage right beside the mystery of the murder itself. All and all, the book was still a delightful and pleasant read with plenty of clever dialogue and witty humor, which are Heyer’s trademarks. I just think that action-wise it was on a slow side and if you are a fan of cozy mysteries but haven’t read any of Georgette Heyer’s yet, you will like Why Shoot The Butler? but there’s a danger that it will not make a die-hard fan of hers.

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Special Thanks to Danielle J. from Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book.

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'The Unfinished Clue' by Georgette Heyer

As it appeared quite clear in my review of Behold, Here’s Poison, I have become a fan of Georgette Heyer. Now I know that it’s only one book but her writing talent shone through enough to convince me. As any respectable fan, I promptly proceeded to feed my Heyer bug with another one of her mystery books, The Unfinished Clue.

The premise of The Unfinished Clue is the murder of Sir Arthur Billington-Smith in his country house. The book starts off with a promising, friendly weekend with quite a few people attending. Apparently, Sir Arthur is a highly disliked figure by all of the guests and members of the family living nearby. He is abusive towards his young wife Fay, he hates his son Geoffrey, whom he ends up disinheriting for being engaged to Miss Silva, a Spanish dancer with questionable character for a proper English lady, and besides Mrs. Camilla Halliday, Sir Arthur has something negative to say about pretty much everyone around him. No wonder they all hate him. One of these people hates him enough to kill him. And with the violent death of Sir Arthur the fun begins. Obviously everyone has a reason to murder him and not even the persons with alibis are beyond suspicion. Inspector Harding from Scotland Yard makes sure that this difficult case will get solved.

I have to say that for me it’s just impossible to not like Heyer’s writing. I don’t even put so much importance on the murder mystery as on the dialogue and the characterization. I loved the ladies’ snappy and quite often cruel remarks always disguised as polite, so as not to step outside of the decorum. It was really very witty and funny. All the characters, including the secondary ones, have so much depth surprisingly, and are so vividly portrayed that I can just imagine myself sitting amongst them all and forming opinions of who would be my friend, who I would cross words with and so forth. This is not to say that the plot was of no interest to me. I was absolutely and completely engaged in trying to solve this murder mystery ahead of Inspector Harding, and not surprisingly, I failed. The ending was quite unexpected and that’s what made The Unfinished Clue all the more delicious. This delightful book is, in my humble opinion, a perfect remedy for a gloomy mood and a thing to enjoy on a summer day at the beach (just make sure you put a lot of SPF on, as there’s a danger you might forget all about it as you start reading).

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Special Thanks to Danielle J. from Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book.

'Behold, Here's Poison' by Georgette Heyer

Am I the only person on Earth who up until yesterday didn’t know what Georgette Heyer had been capable of producing with her writing talent? I had surely felt like that for quite some time before I actually picked up Behold, Here’s Poison to see what the ruckus was all about. And I have to say that the fact I had not heard about Ms. Heyer seems now to be verging on abomination.

Behold, Here’s Poison is one of mystery books written by Heyer and yes, there are more genres that this author was very skilled at writing. It is what one might call a cozy mystery. The action of the book revolves around the murder of George Matthews, a master of the Poplars where he lived with his sister, Miss Matthews, his sister-in-law, Mrs. Matthews, and her two children, Stella and Guy. Mr. Matthews is found dead one morning in his bed and upon closer examination it turns out that the cause of his death was poison and not his high blood pressure. Of course no one in the house accepts this fact easily even though everyone seems quite glad that the master is dead, including family members living outside the Poplars, Mrs. Lupton and a new head of the family, Randall Matthews. And everyone, as it turns out, may have benefited from his untimely death. That’s when Inspector Hannasyde steps in to try and untangle the web of secrets and find the murderer.

Hats off to Georgette Heyer! She is now my most favorite author and I am only glad that I have so many more books of her waiting for me to delight in. This book got me hooked from the first pages and I was laughing out loud by page 10. The Matthews family is absolutely hilarious with Miss Matthews and Mrs. Lupton leading the way. It’s amazing how witty and clever the dialogue is and quite refreshing after many books where all you read is slang and cursing. The way the whole book is written just gave me this feeling of unadulterated pleasure and I am positive that when I wasn’t laughing I had a grin on my face all the while reading. Yes, it is a classic whodunit where everyone has a motive and no one has a solid alibi. But above all the elements that are necessary to create a perfect murder mystery, Ms. Heyer also created wonderful characters, some quite simple, some outrageously funny and others very unlikable, but none of them boring. The fact that the author made me start accusing people from one character to another and then back to the original, until I just gave up trying to guess, was simply icing on my favorite cake. All I have to say to the ones who have not yet read any of Heyer’s books (if indeed there are such unfortunates), don’t despair and waste your time looking for a perfect book. Instead delve right into the world of Behold, Here’s Poison.

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Special Thanks to Danielle J. from Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book.

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

You would think that after months of exclusive study of Shakespeare’s work in college and years of reading I would have a better idea of the Bard himself. As it turned out during reading The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, I have no clue. And that might be one of the reasons why I liked this book so much.

The Book of Air and Shadows is a great mystery. It starts with Jake Mishkin, an Intellectual Property lawyer hiding in a cottage in some remote place and writing down the events that brought him to the point of fearing for his life. The events were triggered by the letter written in the 17th century by Mr. Bracegirdle. The letter revealed clues to finding a play by Shakespeare that the world didn’t know existed. Of course if found, the treasure would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and there are many dangerous people who will kill to get it. The narrative switches between Mishkin’s recollections and the following of Albert Crosetti, a movie geek who happened to be the first person to lay his hands on Bracegirdle’s letter. The plot may seem complicated but even as such is easy to follow.

I have to say that The Book of Air and Shadows is no ordinary mystery novel. Gruber is very skilled on many levels as a writer. He created a great, action filled chase after the treasure, enough suspense to really keep the reader guessing till the end and also managed to inject just the right amount of clever humor into the story. I think this was actually a first for me, laughing while reading a mystery. But that’s not all. The characters of Mishkin and Crosetti are surprisingly complex and despite their many flaws I couldn’t help but like them. Both of them were complete laymen in regards to Shakespeare, yet managed to produce a lot of enthusiasm for the legendary writer during the course of action. Which brings me to my opening point. I am not positive about it, but the book certainly made me stop and wonder if Shakespeare’s personal life is indeed a mystery of the literary world. I will certainly do some more digging.

My personal favorite parts of the book were the documents written by Bracegirdle. For a literary geek it was a lot of fun and pleasure to try and read the 17th century language. Gruber managed to make them sound like originals to the point where I actually caught myself several times thinking that I was reading things written by a Shakespeare’s contemporary. I didn’t even mind the deciphering parts, which were crucial to the action but to me sounded like mathematical mumbo-jumbo at first (you can tell I am no fun of mathematics) but then it turned out to be another fun and intriguing side of the novel.

The Book of Air and Shadows is a fantastic read, never boring (Gruber manages to insult everything and everybody, yet because it is so fairly dispensed, I didn’t mind) and quite educational as well. Michael Gruber is a skilled writer, with great sense of humor and I will definitely be reading more of him.

My favorite quote from the book:

"against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain"

CHALLENGES: Winter Challenge, Ban On Spending Challenge, Chunkster Challenge 2009, 100+ Reading Challenge