Friday, June 28, 2013

Anthony Berkeley

Anthony Berkeley Cox is one of the lesser remembered writers of Britain's Golden Age of Detection, yet was oddly one of the leading members of the genre at the time. While not educated in the hallowed halls of Oxford or Cambridge, like many his contemporaries, he attended the secular University College London. After serving in the British army during WWI, Berkeley took to writing as a journalist for such magazines as Punch and The Humorist. Berkeley published under many pseudonyms, such as Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley (he omitted the Cox) and A. Monmouth Platts. In fact many people might recognize his writing as Francis Iles more, because his book, Malice Aforethought, was made into a BBC Movie staring Richard Armitage, and when I say staring, it's really a minor role, but it is staring to me.

In his writing, Berkeley is most known for the creation of the novice sleuth Roger Sheringham, who appeared in Berkeley's first novel, The Layton Court Mystery, which he published anonymously. Berkeley's book The Poisoned Chocolate Case staring Sheringham, is considered a classic of this classic genre. While he continued writing for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Gaurdian until his death in 1971, it wasn't his writing that Berkeley is most famous for.

In 1930 he co-founded the legendary Detection Club with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Baroness Orczy, G.K. Chesteron,  and other established mystery writers. The club had regular meetings where the authors would discuss their projects and get help with the technical aspects of their books. The club is noted for the fact that they adhered to a code of "fair play." Meaning, in their writing, they were to give the reader a fair chance at guessing the guilty party. While the club still exists, the fair play rule has become even more lax... in fact their were several members of the original club who didn't adhere to the rule at the time. They published several anthologies and co-authored many books, which Berkeley contributed to. Because of Berkeley's involvement in the club he is considered a key figure in the development of crime fiction and a worthy inclusion in my Golden Summer.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Book Review - A.A. Milne's The Red House Mystery

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Published by: Vintage Books
Publication Date: April 6th, 1922
Format: Paperback, 211 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Antony Gillingham has a propensity to change jobs as it suits him. He is financially secure enough to take on any job that pleases him from tobacconist to waiter to experience more of the world; and then, when he's done, he tells his boss precisely what he thinks of him and goes onto his next adventure. The first time he met Bill Beverley he was working as a tobacconist, after their next encounter at a restaurant where each was there in a very different capacity, a friendship was formed, wherein Bill realized that the moniker madman perfectly suits Antony. Antony was following one of his whims when, seeing a train station he liked, he disembarked and decided to stay in the small town. He quickly finds out that he is not a mile away from the Red House, where his good friend Bill is currently staying.

Up at the Red House, it's owner Mark Ablett, with the help of his cousin come secretary, Cayley, is hosting a riotous house party. Bill is one of the number of guests, who range from quite fetching young ladies to a rather famous actress. Mark loves to have his life filled with the bright young things at his Red House. On the same day that Antony decided he liked the look of a train station, Mark informs his guests that his disreputable brother is about to make an appearance at the Red House. When Antony unexpectedly shows up he finds all the guests out and Cayley banging on the office door. What they find behind that door is the dead body of Mark's brother, Robert. Antony was planning on this being his vacation, but he feels a sudden change of occupation presenting itself... he's never been a detective. With a dead body and Mark missing, now might be the best opportunity he will ever get, with Bill being the Watson to his Holmes.   

After the last few books I read for this summer's reading spectacular, I was feeling a little burnt out. The detectives were a little too quirky or a little too self involved. Originally I had not planned on reading The Red House Mystery, but I was feeling this desperate need for something different. A mystery written by the man known more for Winnie-the-Pooh then locked room mysteries seemed like it would fit the bill. And indeed it was the perfect antidote to bring me around. The introduction alone wherein Milne deftly skewers the plot contrivances of his fellow mystery writers and promises to avoid all their pit falls was well worth the price of this book. Thankfully this tone carried throughout the book and made it a fast and fun read.

A.A. Milne goes about avoiding the faults of other writers by clearing the decks. Instead of extraneous characters out the wazoo, we get a sparse mystery about two guys humorously trying to find out how their suspect committed the crime. There are no lovestruck ninnies or plethora of suspicious servants. There are no last minute surprises that come out of nowhere. While other writers have done a quick nod and wink to Holmes and Watson, Milne goes all out and embraces this trope and has Antony and Bill openly referring to each other by their designated roles. Milne believes in the fact that a detective must Watsonize (I'm totally going to use this word all the time now), because without that, how are we, the reader, to be brought along and given the evidence to solve the crime? Therefore Bill becomes Watson, though a rather clever one, and Antony dons the famous mantle of Holmes... or at least he smokes a pipe a lot.

Yet, the question becomes, how does this book sustain itself? You have the obvious good guys and the obvious bad guy and lots of time spent trying to one up each other. Also, to be frank, the mystery, well, it's not overly obvious, but it is not that taxing on the little grey cells. So why does this book work then? Because of the characters. Antony and Bill's camaraderie and witty banter belongs to the works of Wodehouse. The two of them sitting on a bowling green thinking out all the facts before them is more interesting then all of Inspector Grant's internal monologues combined. This humor just gives the book such a freshness that it should be considered one of the staples of the Golden Age of Detection... it has a lot more going for it then some of those other books!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Tuesday Tomorrow

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: June 25th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Seventeen-year-old Natalie Waite longs to escape home for college. Her father is a domineering and egotistical writer who keeps a tight rein on Natalie and her long-suffering mother. When Natalie finally does get away, however, college life doesn’t bring the happiness she expected. Little by little, Natalie is no longer certain of anything—even where reality ends and her dark imaginings begin. Chilling and suspenseful, Hangsaman is loosely based on the real-life disappearance of a Bennington College sophomore in 1946."

Shirley Jackson!

The Road Through the Wall by Shirley Jackson
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: June 25th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Pepper Street is a really nice, safe California neighborhood. The houses are tidy and the lawns are neatly mowed. Of course, the country club is close by, and lots of pleasant folks live there. The only problem is they knocked down the wall at the end of the street to make way for a road to a new housing development. Now, that’s not good—it’s just not good at all. Satirically exploring what happens when a smug suburban neighborhood is breached by awful, unavoidable truths, The Road Through the Wall is the tale that launched Shirley Jackson’s heralded career."

Am I a little obsessed with Shirley Jackson... um, yeah.

Cold Steel by Kate Elliot
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 25th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 624 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Trouble, treachery, and magic just won't stop plaguing Cat Barahal. The Master of the Wild Hunt has stolen her husband Andevai. The ruler of the Taino kingdom blames her for his mother's murder. The infamous General Camjiata insists she join his army to help defeat the cold mages who rule Europa. An enraged fire mage wants to kill her. And Cat, her cousin Bee, and her half-brother Rory, aren't even back in Europa yet, where revolution is burning up the streets.

Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue.

Cat and Bee have their work cut out for them."

I just picked up the first book in this trilogy and it's nice to know that if I love it I won't have to wait fifty million years for the ending, damn you GRRM!

Friday, June 21, 2013

A.A. Milne

Not many people would think of the man who created Winnie-the-Pooh as a mystery writer during it's Golden Age... yet he was. Sensation as the inquest reporters would write! A.A. Milne went to a private school run by his father where one of his teachers just happened to be H.G. Wells. When he went up to Cambridge with his brother Kenneth, they collaborated on articles for a local student magazine. His writing soon came to the attention of Punch magazine, where he joined the staff in 1906. But then the war intervened. After illness made him leave his regiment, he ended up working with Military Intelligence.

Once the war ended, he resumed his writing career, defying anyone to complain about what genre he was to write in next. He had a ready audience for whatever new direction he took, and one of those directions was to write a murder mystery during the height of the Golden Age of Detection. Of course, after the success of The Red House Mystery, his editor asked if he would write more mysteries, to which Milne responded but taking up a pen and writing When We Were Very Young, which contained the first appearance of Winnie-the-Pooh. While he attempted to regain his versatility of writing, he would forever be known as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh to his annoyance... so here's to a secret gem of the Golden Age of Crime Detection in the guise of a famous children's author.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Book Review - Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue

The Man in the Queue (Inspector Alan Grant Book 1) by Josephine Tey
Published by: Touchstone
Publication Date: 1929
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Inspector Alan Grant has been given the infamous Queue case. A man with no identification was stabbed in a busy queue outside the Woffington Theatre as fans waited to see the final hurrah of Ray Marcable in the smash hit Didn't You Know? With just a knife and a handful of witnesses that didn't see anything, Inspector Grant is able to quickly build a case against the mysterious man he nicknames the Levantine, because of his swarthy appearance and the passionate and daring way the crime was committed. Yet what if all this evidence pointing at the unknown Levantine is just circumstantial? What if, while Grant builds a solid case against this one man, the killer walks free? Because even after hunting down the apparent killer through London and the Highlands, Grant still thinks that maybe, just maybe, there is a different interpretation of the evidence that he hasn't quite yet grasped.

Dear lord, Josephine Tey sure loved to avoid paragraph breaks, sheesh. Sometimes there would be pages upon pages of just dense, heavy text that I would slog through. This is easily the most overly written book I have read in recent memory which caused my experience with the book to be a very labored one. The writing style lent nothing to the story, unless a lead weight around your neck is a plus with books. Now, I'm not slamming writers who others might consider as overly written, like Erin Morgenstern and The Night Circus... but there's overwritten and then there's a rich tapestry of words that are evocative and make a world vibrant and alive. This is not Josephine Tey. I have a feeling that to Robert Barnard, the Tey scholar and writer I've never heard of that wrote this book's introduction which has more paragraph breaks then the book's first chapter, that "them be fighting words." Because apparently, to denigrate Tey is outre, but to pile on the harsh criticism to Agatha Christie is perfectly acceptable. Now I've only read one Tey and many Christie... but if this book is a testament to Tey, then we are through.

The aspect of this book that just baffled me is that it was a given that people in a queue would ignore each other and not be able to even slightly identify those around them after several hours in each others company. Is this a British thing that I just don't get despite my desire to be as British as can be while still being in Wisconsin? Because, let's put it this way; I have spent many an hour in a queue. I don't think I could even add it up, nor would I want to, because, let's put it this way, if I did, it would probably depress me to learn how much of my life has been spent waiting. From queues at conventions waiting for entrance and autographs, to queues at book signings, to just lining up for a movie, I have been in every kind of queue you could imagine, and you know what? In every instance I have talked to the people around me. I wasn't in an insular little bubble ignoring everyone and just playing on my phone, oh no. A chance comment from someone near me would spark a conversation, in fact the most recent that I remember clearly was when I went to see The Hobbit. The friend I was with, well, the conversation was lacking, so I took to talking to the picture of Martin Freeman on the movie poster, and I was lambasting him for the crap fest his tv show The Robinsons was, the people behind us spoke up saying how much they agreed on this fact and we got to talking about Martin Freeman and his mostly genius career (The Robinsons excluded).

At first I was thinking that maybe the people in this book's queue just didn't have anything in common... like one does at a convention or book signing, but then I thought, uh, no. These people are Ray Marcable fanatics (yes, I did audibly groan at her name)... of course they have a common link. So unless someone can come out and offer me 100% proof that Britain is not at all like America in it's queues then I'm calling Josephine Tey out as saying the crux of her book plays false. J'accuse! 

Though the superfluous writing combined with an illogical premise isn't what made this book fail me in every way, it's the fact that it was boring. Alan Grant bored me to tears. He just toddles through life looking nothing like a police officer and always being complimented on this. He sits in tubs and at fancy restaurants where he is fawned over while he pushes the case to the back of his mind, because not thinking about it too much helps him solve it. He goes to the race track, he goes fishing, he goes and resigns and we never hear from him again, I wish! As for the rest of the characters... no one is really painted in a bad light. They're all just people going about their lives. Boring dull people with boring dull lives. If you think about it, if there was a murder and you were accused, I'd bet only a handful of us would have an alibi, because, let's face it, our lives are rather dull and unvaried and go along as they always have. Therefore, by extension, in Tey's book, while no one really has an alibi, they are just as dull as we are on the whole. Who wants to read about people like us? A good book is an escape, not a dulled mirror of our day to day lives. Give me something to whet my appetite, make me want to read late into the night, not hope to misplace the book and never find it again.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Book Review - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's The Long War

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties

Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you
What more can we do?

We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society
God save Mrs. Mopp and good old Mother Riley
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium
God save the George Cross, and all those who were awarded them

We are the Sherlock Holmes English-speaking Vernacular
God save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliates
God save Tudor houses, antique tables, and billiards

Preserving the old ways from being abused.
Protecting the new ways, for me and for you.
What more can we do?

We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties

God save the village green!

A generation has passed since the Long Earth has opened up. Travel is now easily possible between the worlds and large and small communities are forming throughout this stepwise expansion. Joshua is now married with a son and has a contented life. Then Sally shows back up and tells him that the Long Earth needs him. Joshua's wife realizes that as long as Joshua is Joshua, if Sally shows up and says the Long Earth needs him, he will go. Things are happening that his voice will lend credence to. Sure, there are political problems and questions of taxing and policing the footprint of America, but Sally couldn't care less. She is worried about the trolls. They have always lived peacefully in their way and have even proved a valuable resource to the settlers. Their long call binds the earths together. Yet humanity is uneasy of their presence. Violence has arisen against the trolls and the trolls have responded by disappearing. Sally knows, in her bones, that the Long Earth cannot survive without the trolls. They must be found. So their journeys begin again.

About a year ago, when I read the last page of The Long Earth, all I could think of was how was I going to be able to wait a year for the second volume. I am not at all patient in my nature, luckily my Barnes and Noble understands me, and I don't know by what fortuitous alignment of planets this happened, but they accidentally put this book out the Friday before it's release date and I was lucky enough to be stopping by looking for Father's Day cards (see, it pays to be a good daughter!) Going home I quickly finished off the book I was reading, how could I not, and then I returned to the world Terry and Stephen had made. The reentry was not the smoothest. I should have perhaps re-read The Long Earth, because there was more that I had forgotten then remembered, so that might have brought my appreciation for the book down a notch or two, but I quickly rebounded.

The Long War, set twenty or so years after Joshua's legendary journey with Lobsang, really doesn't have that much more of a plot then the first book. And seeing as it's twenty or so years on... shouldn't the jokes be less timely to 2013? I mean, sure, there is a stalling of continued innovation and invention due to people fleeing the Datum, but still, for 2040, less of the 2013 would be nice. The book continues with the further exploration of the Long Earth but weaves into it the ramifications of what this means politically, environmentally, and even morally. This book deals with massive concepts but in a palatable way. The Long War deals with humanities dual nature of innovation and destruction. That said, I think a book with "war" in the title might have a little more war and a little less barbecue parties as a denouement. Unless it really is "a war unlike any mankind has waged before" in that it's not really a war...

As for humanities innovation, they have spread across the Long Earth and made new colonies and new ways of life. Joshua lives in a little town in a stepwise Hannibal Missouri, home on the Datum of Mark Twain, where his life is very much like it would have been for a settler when "westward ho" was the call in America. Yet this new frontier and westward expansion is different from our ancestors, because the human capacity of ingenuity is infinite, and they create colonies, not just in one world, but in the same area over many. They are able to use different worlds for scavenging, and this changes the way things work and the need for life's sustainability converts back to a hunter gatherer nature versus an agrarian nature. Though just the fact that all these stepwise Earths are in the footprint of what is on the Datum, the United States of America... well, that brings a whole lot of other problems with it. But to me, there's a feel of a science fiction Little House on the Prairie meets Deadwood vibe, that in turn had me start rewatching Deadwood.

But humanity itself is the main problem. There are so many evils that man does. Without even consciously thinking, the expansion into the Long Earth has brought death and destruction to the worlds and to the indigenous trolls and kobolds and elves. I keep going back to the Kinks song that the kobold Finn McCool loves in the book, The Village Green Preservation Society, it's about preserving how we've always done things. The world, or in this case, worlds, around us have changed, but we stay dogmatic in our beliefs. We stay xenophobic, imperialistic, we believe in taxes and policing and destroying that which is "other." The violence to the trolls is just the most horrific iteration of this. If there is one point to The Long War, it's that we must learn to coexist. What we are doing to our world has ramifications. Will a Long Earth open up to save us?

Monday, June 17, 2013

Tuesday Tomorrow

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary science fiction journey begun in their New York Times bestseller The Long Earth.

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by “stepping.” A new “America”—Valhalla—is emerging more than a million steps from Datum—our Earth. Thanks to a bountiful environment, the Valhallan society mirrors the core values and behaviors of colonial America. And Valhalla is growing restless under the controlling long arm of the Datum government.

Soon Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a building crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any humankind has waged before."

Ok, firstly, I've been eagerly awaiting this book since the first in the series came out last year and was subsequently awesome, making it onto my top ten list for last year. Secondly, I think it's totally funny that seeing as Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are friends and I saw the two of them AND Stephen Baxter all at the last North American Discworld Convention, that their books would come out on the same day. Problem though... which to read first?

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: June 18th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real..."

Not sure if I'm excited for this or not... because really, I love Neil's YA writing so much more...

Friday, June 14, 2013

Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey is one of the pseudonym's used by Scottish writer Elizabeth Mackintosh. While caring for her invalid father she took to writing. The name Josephine Tey comes from her mother's first name and her grandmother's surname. There is not much known about Tey, but that has just added to her mystique. Her most famous character is Inspector Alan Grant, whose solving of the murder of the Princes in the tower in The Daughter of Time led to a renewed interest in Richard III. In 1990 this book was chosen as the greatest mystery novel of all time.

Unlike her contemporaries, Tey never resorted to formulas, but "to tell different sorts of story, in different ways." Yet her success did lead to other authors having a fascination with her. Agatha Christie supposedly based her character Muriel Wills in Three Act Tragedy on Tey to skewer her. While, more lovingly, Nicola Upson is currently writing a series of mysteries were Josephine Tey is the detective, much in the vein of J.J. Murphy and Dorothy Parker and Joanna Challis and Daphne Du Maurier. This enduring love of Tey has made "her place in the pantheon of mystery writers... unassailable."

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