53. The Suspect by L.R. Wright

I discovered this author and series because after decades, her work has finally successfully made it to the TV screen in the form of the new Canadian series Murder in a Small Town.  I backtracked to realize the books were written in the 80s and take place in and around Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast in B.C., which we visited last summer.  I found this, the first one, at The Book Exchange used English language bookstore in Amsterdam.  There were several others, but I wanted to see if I like it first.  Also, I suspect these should not be hard to find when I am next in B.C.

It starts out with a bit of a twist in that you the reader knows who committed the murder right from the beginning.  One old man, visiting another old man, bashes him suddenly over the head with an old shell casing.  The murderer recognizes his guilt and is about to turn himself in when realizes  why bother, as he will get caught eventually, he might as well live free for as long as he can. It's subtler and more nuanced than that, but you get the picture.  It's more of a "whydunnit" (I stole that from a Goodreads review), as well as an interesting cat and mouse game between he and the detective.

The detective is Karl Alberg, promoted from Kamloops where he had to leave his family behind as his wife had a successful business and his daughters doing well in school there (RCMP policy is to move their mounties around so they can never get embedded in the community which makes them assholes but also maybe less prone to corruption).  He answers an ad and meets the single librarian, Cassandra who moved from Vancouver to Sechelt to be near her older mother.  Cassandra has also become friends over time with George, the murderer.

It's a very absorbing and page-turning read, the kind of comfort mystery that readers can't put down and whose characters you grow attached to.  This is a great book to take on the plane and I actually forced myself not to read it at the airport because I knew I would get done too quickly.  I appreciated the locale and descriptions of the geography, though I found that aside from the old hippy fish seller, the characters were not all that quirky and you don't get the sense of some of the benevolent oddness that defined small B.C. coastal towns back in the day.  Maybe they get richer as the series goes on.

I won't seek these out but will grab them when I find them.  I do have one rant about the TV series.  How is it that in the year of our Lord 2024 fucking Canadian television productions still follow this dogma:

"A lot of U.S. media thought it was actually set in Canada, not in the U.S. They didn't actually grasp that this wasn't Canada," Roberts said. "We wanted to make it just a little more generic ... so that it would have the best opportunity internationally to succeed."

Are you kidding me!?  Have you learned absolutely nothing from the success of all those nordic and british crime series?  Or how about Trailer Park Boys or Schitt's Creek?  American viewers do not want watered down generic versions of mysteries they already see every night.  They want to see the unique cultures and perspectives of different places.  The very strength of the L.R. Wright series is that they take place in a uniquely beautiful and culturally interesting place in the world!  Thousands of American tourists now visit the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island every year.  It's just everything I hate about the media decision-makers in this country, the insecure, grovelling to the States, lowest-common-denominator thinking.  This is why the French-Canadians say we anglos have no culture.  We kill it ourselves out of fear and safety.  Just outrageous. Fire everybody.

52. Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie

I saw the Ealing movie adaptation of Whiskey Galore at an Ealing film festival in my younger days and quite enjoyed it.  I stumbled upon this trade paperback version of the book and thought I might enjoy it as well.  It served me as comfort and distraction during a trans-atlantic flight and then several subsequent nights of brutal jetlag from which I am still suffering as I write this.

It's a story of two small Scottish islands during the final years of WWII (1943 to be precise).  They are under rationing of many things, but it is the slowly dwindling and then finally exhausted resource of the island's whisky that is wreaking havoc among the psyche and relations of the people of the islands.  There are many subplots in this book and many characters.  The main one is the middle-aged English Sergeant who is engaged to marry the young Scottish lass, but whose father, famous already for prevaricating about everything, won't give his blessing nor agree on the wedding date.  The bad guy in the book, if there is one, is the local rep for English war security, who is the classic managerial popinjay spoilsport that nobody takes seriously.  He is always writing letters to his superiors, complaining about the laxity of the Islanders. We also have a nice school director who is also betrothed but completely beaten down by his puritan, domineering mother and too scared to tell her he is going to get married.

All these problems and the general mood and well-being of the region could be solved by whiskey and the solution arrives when a freight ship gets hung up on some rocks and turns out to be carrying 40,000 bottles of the best quality whiskey, to be sent to the US as part of I guess some lend-lease agreement.  The names, the descriptions of the bottles and the labels of all the different types of regional whiskeys was one of my favourite parts of the book.  I don't know if they were made up, but they were fun to read about and imagine.

It's a pleasant read, more of an exposure to the pleasant culture and people of these small islands, with an entertaining dig at English bureaucracy and superiority.  I was a bit confused at first, as I couldn't distinguish with any memory the various Scottish names (especially as several of them share last names), but once I got into it, it flowed nicely.

I left this book in a free book shelf in Amsterdam. I  hope it finds an appreciative next reader.

51. Ruler of the Night by David Morrell

I've wanted to read Morrell's more recent historical thrillers for a while now, but can never find them in a used bookstore.  I'm not sure what that means about his publishing success.  His books are published as big populist hard backs, though probably not in the numbers of huge name authors.  You would think some of them would show up used and in thrift shops, but so far they have eluded me.  I was in a different neighourhood and happened upon their library.  Never great pickings for English books in Montreal, so I will some times borrow books a bit recklessly, just because I want to leave with something.  I was psyched to stumble on a David Morrell book, and hastily took it out, without doing a bit of research.  Turns out Rule of the Night is actually the third book in his Thomas de Quincy and daughter Emily as historical fiction detectives.  It's not actually a trilogy, so each book stands on their own, but I nevertheless felt I was catching up and didn't have the connection with the characters that a proper narrative would have developed rather than expository reminders.

I think this added to some of the ungainliness I felt in the book, but much of it was inherent in the writing.  I was disappointed, I have to say.  The set up is really cool, with the early days of the railway and how the public, already hesitant but also fully caught up in the changes trains are bringing, are hesitant, especially after a brutal murder in a first-class carriage.  The ending as well, where we finally learn the truth of the complex mystery, is quite rich and clever.  de Quincy and his daughter are great detectives, with their mutual support and his opium addiction and her burgeoning medical skills.  It's a cool team.

It's the execution of the plot that I felt weakened its actual cleverness.  It goes all over the place, with several intriguing investigative threads and then suddenly about halfway through introduces a major character from de Quincy's childhood as a street urchin (and based on his real-life narrative).  On top of that, we suddenly get a really hateful major antagonist who does his horrible deed and is punished for it very soon thereafter.  It felt like that was supposed to be the climax.  I guess it was done to set up for the twist, but it ends up leaving the reader somewhat deflated and turning pages just to find out the mystery.

Even worse, for me, was the language.  Morrell is a very skilled writer, but it is the rare American writer who can grasp the subtleties of British dialogue.  Here, it's even worse because it feels like he simplifies it even more for the mass audience.  The dialogue between the police detectives, Ryan and Becker (allies of de Quincy and his daughter) and the evil peer is particularly unrealistic, both in the way it sounds and in the class relations that dialogue is supposed to be supporting.  Just felt super simplistic, like the Netflix version.

In the end, the backstory was quite intricate and clever, integrating a historical railway murder and de Quincy's life in a complex and cool mystery that made it overall a decent book to read and I may say for those of you who aren't sensitive to the nuances of British culture and dialogue in detective fiction might enjoy the series.  This may have been my one test of Morrell's Victorian fiction unless I hear that his others are far superior.  One good thing, for sure, is that it did convince me to read Thomas de Quincy!

50. Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down turned out to be such a hit that, despite my hesitation, my daughter demanded we get this out of the library and read it.  It took us a while as there were a lot of missed reading nights during the vacation and summer nights.  I was hesitant because I worried it wouldn't capture the magic of Watership Down and leave us feeling disappointed (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator being the biggest culprit of this).  I'm happy to say that Tales is a satisfying and engaging sequel that doesn't try to replicate the epic, original story, but builds on it and lets the reader be in the world of the rabbits a little longer.

The first part of the book are more tales of El-ahrairah.  I wasn't so into this mythology in Watership Down, but here El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle's adventures are more down to earth.  There is magic but it's not so powerful and abstract as the tales from the first book were.  Here they go on cool, scary quests and encounter (and often have to outwit) all kinds of fascinating creatures.

The third section is several short stories that continue the Watership Down story, as the warren evolves, changing its political structure to have co-chiefs one of whom is a doe, welcome new rabbits and expand to new outposts.  Leadership comes up a lot thematically, as Hazel, Bigwig and Fiver are now getting older and there are more and more rabbits who didn't live through the migration and the fight with Efrafa.  It ends with life in progress for the rabbits, there are issues and man is always threatening.  We are left as readers feeling very much that Watership Down is alive.

49. Negroland by Margot Jefferson

I found this in the new free book box in my neighbourhood (actually had an interesting collection of 80s and 90s paperbacks not to my taste but will keep an eye out).  I've long been curious about the Black upper class communities and their history.  I have to also admit that the slick cover design also went some way to me deciding to grab this.

At it's core, this is indeed Jefferson's biography.  We start with several interesting examples of the early histories of wealthy and educated Black families, following their ancestors who came out of slavery.  History, philosophy and social theory mix with her personal narrative to tell us about her and racism.  The racism stuff is really interesting; she demonstrates its complex and damaging impact in so many contexts.  You really get a sense of how all-encompassing race was for an African-American girl growing up in upper middle class Chicago to educated, well-to-do parents.  

The parts about herself were less compelling for me.  I get that its a biography and I do think she was successful in using herself as a vehicle to portray racism.  There is also a lot of adolescent anxiety and adult self-absorption that just doesn't interest me.  I mean we even get a whole section where she talks about which character in Little Women she would want to be and why.  So it dragged a bit for me and kind of fizzled out at the end, though not enough to negate the interesting parts of the first two-thirds.  I think readers who enjoy more poetic and intellectual style of writing might enjoy this book much more than me.  Not my jam, though was worth the time.

48. Beware of the Trains by Edmund Crispin

This post is really an admission of guilt to a crime against books.  I found this Edmund Crispin paperback before I had read any of his books and decided that he wasn't for me.  I kept it in my errands backpack as an emergency read if I ever get stuck somewhere and don't have my main book with me.  Short story collections are good for that. I have become quite consistent in my chore habits and tend to not have much waiting time and when I know I have a wait (like anything health-related), I will make sure to bring whatever book I'm reading.  So Beware of the Trains ended up in my backpack inside pocket for several years, getting more and more beat up as it shared the pocket with plastic bags for shopping and cutlery for lunches.  Taking off a chunk of the cover one day, I finally decided to clean it up and realized I had basically destroyed the book.  I've now taken to scrubbing my hands incessantly to get the little bits of pulp fibre that have dug their way into my skin.

Crispin is a great writer.  I enjoy the way he can paint an English scene and he often has interesting characters.  It's just that his books are primarily built around an intricate mystery that is supposedly solvable by the reader.  Not this reader!  These short stories are the same, which is kind of incredible, that he can come up with so many little mysteries.  These are like Encyclopedia Brown for grown-ups.  So if that is your jam, I would strongly recommend Crispin.

Now what to do with the body? 

47. The Lady in the Morgue by Jonathan Latimer

Latimer is in the "buy everything by him" category in my hunting list. It started with just looking for Solomon's Graveyard and not finding it to now just having his name (and still looking for the elusive Solomon's Graveyard).  His books are really fun!  It took me a bit to understand some of his stylistics as well as the cultural context and now that I do, I enjoy them so much more.

At their base, they are solid mysteries with a level of pre-WWII manly action.  They are also very much escapist entertainment where you get to follow detective William Crane (often with several quirky, competent allies along) as he gets to both party (with the fun lower classes and the fancy upper classes), do cool detecting and kick a little ass along the way.  Latimer lifts these pleasures to a higher level with his writing style, his complex plotting and most of all many interesting characters and locations/situations.  On top of this, like a maraschino cherry, is the drinking.  It's weird and fetishistic!  This was written in 1939 just a few years after prohibition ended and I guess alcohol was a big cultural deal for certain readers.  It's not just that they are almost constantly drinking incredible amounts of alcohol, but he also is very specific about which drinks and how much.  And the characters are always talking and joking about it.  It still feels a bit added; you could remove all the booze mentions and it would not impact the plot at all. 

The story here starts out in the morgue where two journalists and William Crane are waiting around to see if anybody will identify the dead body of a beautiful young woman.  This is all messed up when somebody sneaks into the cadaver room, kills the attendant and steals the body.  Crane was hired initially by a wealthy New York family who believe the body might have been that of their missing daughter.  Two rival gangsters believe it is the body of the moll they fought over.  Things get even more complicated and we get a raid at a taxi-dance hall, reefer addicted jazz musicians trying to get to the next level, multiple graveyard and morgue raids and fights and several parties.  There is a lot going on in this book!  Near the last third, it actually dragged out just a teeny bit too long for me, but it's still a lot of fun and the final climax in morgue is fantastic, involving hiding under the sheets on those rolling metal beds and then a fight in the dark.  

These books should be reprinted today, though they are full of that deep, assumed racism of the early 20th century which might be a deal breaker.  Characters use the n-word in every day conversation the way we might say Black or African-American today.  Even if you edited that out, these are probably a bit too niche to earn a proper reprint.  At least I hope somebody does a retrospective on Latimer's work.

As an aside, the marijuana scene is really wild.  It's a religious ritual where the musicians sit in a circle and chant certain sayings to certain gods, trying to get to the next level.  It requires multiple joints apparently as I guess the weed was much lighter back then.  It can't be a coincidence that in the scene where they are getting ready to go to the back room of the bar where the reefer party is going on, the bartender rings them up and the change is exactly 4.20 can it?!

 

This book is quite lovely. Printed in 1944, the paper quality is quite good and it has beautiful bright red cardstock pages inside the front and back covers.  Below is the promotion for their books for soldiers program which was responsible for both lots of reading from vets coming back from WWII as well as popularity for the various crime and action genres.  In the following pages are lists of various books you can order with quotes from real soldiers appreciating the program. It's very cool.

46. One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens

I stumbled upon a Monica Dickens book a couple of years ago and brought it out to the family seat to read during the xmas holidays.  My mother and sister immediately glommed on to it, one of them took it to read, then passed it on to the other and it never made its way back to me.  Typical.  They loved it so much that they started looking for her other books and this was one they got that I stole back.

It's a biographical telling of the year and a half that Dickens, born into a genteel family and bored with life, decided to get a job as a domestic in the role of the cook.  She recounts in a light and entertaining way each of the houses where she worked (from bourgeois apartments in London to country family estates).  She is admittedly not great at her job but does really try hard and improves.  It's not laugh out loud funny, but it is, as they say, thoroughly delightful and I would add, quite readable.  She has an excellent way of describing the worst kind of people in a way that is damning and yet excusing at the same time.  A large part of her enjoyment in the experience, which she shares with us, is the eavesdropping of the people for which she works.  Some of them are just awful, whereas others, particularly the last family, are quite loveable.

There isn't really anything deep here beyond perhaps a very nice anthropological exploration of the evolving relations between the classes in the context of domestic service in England at the beginning of the 20th century (it was written in 1939).  Underneath, though, you really do see how hard this work is.  You have to have a significant skill set (cooking is huge but also cleaning those old houses required all kinds of knowledge and techniques) but more importantly be really efficient and organized.  It's one thing to make a meal for your own family (a decent enough amount of work), but with these jobs, everything has to be presented correctly and with the exact right stuff.  It's kind of like running a private restaurant, not to mention that you have to be up before everyone else to get the stove running to make the hot water to prep breakfast.

I really enjoyed this book and will now have another name to look for in the gasp literary section of used book stores!