Mystery Books Read in September 2013
I continued with series debuts in September – and one series epilogue that introduced me to an author that I must read more of!
Any of these tickle your fancy?
RING IN THE DEAD by J.A. Jance (mystery/Crime Fiction, Police Detective, Novella, Epilogue) 
This was a Kindle novella that I received free as part of a promotion for Jance’s work. It’s also available in paperback.
The protagonist, J.P. Beaumont, is retired from policing when some papers belonging to his deceased ex-partner surface and raise perplexing questions. J.P. reminisces about a particular case with said partner and does some current sleuthing to find the answers.
I thought the whole package—J. P., the mystery, the writing—quite classy. This is my first Jance and it did the job it was intended to do: I’m starting at the beginning of this series of 21 books and if the first couple live up to the promise displayed in the novella, I will happily read the series through, and meet up with J.P. in retirement again.
Read this if: you’ve never read Jance’s Beaumont series and want the perfect intro; or if you’ve read the series through and mourned when J.P. hung up his gun – here’s a tidbit more for you. 4 stars
THE PERICLES COMMISSION by Gary Corby (Mystery Fiction, Amateur Sleuth, Ancient Greece) 
This stars Nicolaos, a young Athenian in 461 BCE, just after the (still unsolved) assassination of Ephialtes, the man credited with bringing democracy to Athens.
It’s cozy mystery meets history lesson. Corby presents a plausible solution to the real-life crime.
Read this if: you want a fun introduction to ancient Greek, particularly Athenian, culture & political history. 3½ stars
BURIED IN A BOOK (A Novel Idea Mystery) by Lucy Arlington (Mystery Fiction, Amateur Sleuth, Cozy, Bibliophilic)
Lila Wilkins, out of her journalist job at 45, moves to a small North Carolina town where she obtains work reading manuscripts at the local literary agency, A Novel Idea. This is a cozy mystery with the attendant plot coincidences.
Since it’s been some months since I read this, I really can’t remember much more about it but, at the time, I rated it 3½ stars.
ERASING MEMORY by Scott Thornley (Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Canadian) 
Okay, this one I remember – but not fondly. MacNeice, police detective in the southern Ontario Canada industrial city of Dundurn, investigates the murder of a beautiful young musician.
I was interested in this book chiefly because Dundurn is really Hamilton, Ontario, our “hometown” for 12 years before we moved to Nova Scotia. To my disappointment, the city doesn’t really play much of a part in the story which was a little far-fetched and hard-edged to suit me.
Read this if: you enjoy tough police procedurals or you’re a long-time Hamiltonian who’s looking for a new series. 3 stars
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Set in modern Nigeria, this book follows Kingsley Ibe, a young village man, who wants to fulfill the responsibilities of oldest son and is encouraged to do so by his traditional parents, who think that education is still the way to a well-paying job. But rapid changes in modern society have altered “the rules” and Kingsley finds himself turning to a black sheep uncle who involves him in 
Georges and his parents have recently had to sell their house in Brooklyn and move to a near-by apartment. There Georges meets Safer and his younger sister, and reluctantly joins their spy club.
McCoy wrote in the 1930s in a contemporary setting. This story revolves around Ralph, a small-town hick who’s come to Hollywood to break into pictures, and his roommate Mona who is equally desperate to become a star. McCoy didn’t sugar-coat the reality of Hollywood life or the effects of the Depression on Americans of all stripes. 
Fourteen-year-old Miles undertakes a mission for an ailing elderly friend, and finds himself transported from today’s Vermont to the English countryside of 1928. There he must find “a girl and a secret”. With not much more than that to go on, he bravely sets out to fulfill his mission.
Reviewer Trixie says: “After writing about London settings, Pym returns to the small country village of her beginnings. But, this village lacks the comfortable traditionalism of her earlier Some Tame Gazelle. Much of the book dwells on the changes that have come about in the English countryside by 1980.”
Although this could be said to about the books that Schwalbe and his mother read and discussed as she underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer, it really is about Mary Ann(e) Schwalbe: her life, and her battle with that cancer. If you know that going in, you might not find this as disappointing as I did.
Bridget was already divorced; Bill left his family; they’ve booked their hasty wedding—Bridget has breast cancer—at a Massachusetts inn that another college classmate owns. Instead of inviting current friends and extended family, they have chosen to gather their college classmates. 
, compiled by Bill Rompkey and Bert Riggs (Non-Fiction, Epistolary, Memoir, WWI, Newfoundland) 
In 1916 Fanny Cluett, a nurse from Belleoram Newfoundland, volunteered to serve in the nursing corps in WWI France. During her journey, training, and posting in Europe, she wrote letters to her mother. Many of these have been collected and reproduced in this book, along with a foreword by Nfld politician Rompkey.
Two young immigrants from the Indian community in the city have been murdered. Maisie is hired to find the killer
As the obesity issue in North America becomes critical, we want to be informed consumers. This fine piece of investigative journalism by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Moss is not so much a shocking exposé of the processed food industry as confirmation of what we’ve suspected all along.
When the civil war in Sierra Leone came to Ishmael Beah’s village, he was a thirteen-year-old boy, doing what other boys all over the world do: hanging out with friends, listening to music and practicing dance moves. In fact, he was in a neighbouring village to enter a competition. He was not able to return to his home village that day and he never saw his family again
This is the feeling encapsulated in Pym’s story. 
I didn’t really understand what this book was about before I started it, and had expected a story set in a home for “juveniles with disabilities” to be darker than this ultimately is.
who weaves words into art so lovely you’ll be bewitched by her language even when her stories don’t have the impact you wish they did.
Beautifully written, this modern-day story feels like a folkloric myth and although it is based on Japanese lore, it has universal appeal and could easily be Ukrainian, Finnish, or Native American.
The adult children of Robert & Gretta Riordan converge at their mother’s house after their father disappears one morning on an errand to the corner store.
Drew Silver’s life is in the toilet: he’s divorced from the woman he loves, estranged from his teenage daughter, and he’s living in a community of other pathetic lonely divorced men who are also waiting for their wives to take them back. When he’s diagnosed with an aorta that’s going to split and kill him, he opts to not have surgery since he feels his life isn’t worth living. Instead, he’ll use the remaining time to repair relationships with the people in his life.
This is a new series starring Drew Farthering, a young member of the gentry, who is pressed into service as a detective when an obviously murdered body turns up at his parents’ country estate during a weekend party. This first offering is set in 1932.
Cameron Flaherty, downsized from her corporate job, has moved from the city to take over her inheritance: her great uncle’s farm in rural Massachusetts. There, she sets up a 
At first, only the ideal of the academics in southern Nigeria, the move to secede gained impetus after a shift in government power that resulted in ethnic killings, based on tribal lines. The “take-no-prisoners” approach to battle launched the country into a bloodbath from 1967-1970.
This book revolves around four aging people who work together in an office that seems to have been forgotten by the company they work for. All four, two men and two women, live alone in varying circumstances. Although they are not close friends, the four have only each other in their lonely lives. When the two women retire (and are not replaced) the dynamics between the four changes.
Set in various locations across Canada, but especially in Ontario, the stories have varied themes and feature characters that include a young man struggling with whether or not to report a good friend of his wife as an unfit mother, a naïve young woman trying to launch a network marketing business, and a woman at her deceased neighbour’s yard sale. Her characters and themes are universal and guaranteed to make you squirm in recognition.
What emerges [from the correspondence between the two men] is a brilliant and eye-opening meditation on the relationship between ‘truth’ and ‘accuracy’(.)” The book is presented in the form of emails between D’Agata and Fingal. Both men ‘push the envelope’ to make points that contribute to the overall premise of the book: just how negotiable is a fact in non-fiction?
Although there are some heroic deeds performed, the author does not lose sight of the reality of war.
Publishers’ Weekly says: Jin’s quiet but absorbing second novel (after In the Pond) captures the poignant dilemma of an ordinary man who misses the best opportunities in his life simply by trying to do his duty—as defined first by his traditional Chinese parents and later by the Communist Party. 
The book is much more a novel about “coming home”. But, as the book jacket says:: “Where do you go when home is Detroit?” 
by A.A. Milne (Mystery Fiction, Vintage, 1920s England)) 
The Red House Mystery is A.A. Milne’s only mystery novel; he is better known for his humorous writing, children’s stories (including the timeless Winnie the Pooh), and poems. 
I began more impressed with this first in the series featuring Will Anderson, scion of one of Detroit’s leading electric car manufacturers, circa 1910, who by necessity turns detective.
This is the fourth installment in the Mickey Rawlings series of baseball novel. Rawlings, an up and coming baseball player living and playing in the early part of the 20th century, turns detective in the name of social justice. 
by Finley Martin (Detective Fiction, Atlantic Canadian author) 
From the beach near our home on Nova Scotia’s North Shore, on a clear night we can see the lights of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I wouldn’t want to live on PEI but it’s a great place to visit and, after all, part of this “Atlantic Canada” that is now my home.
This is the highly anticipated sequel to 
Somehow, as I was growing up and cutting teeth on Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, I missed knowing about New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh. I love how the Web has made the world so small! I started to read Marsh with 
I so enjoyed the first in this series, 
In 2010, I also greatly enjoyed Charles Todd’s first Ian Rutledge mystery, 
The winner of Australia’s Miles Franklin Award and several other prizes, Funder’s WWII drama, All That I Am, is said to be based on real characters. A group of left-wing German activists find themselves self-exiled to England when Hitler comes to power in the 1930s. From their London base, they try to alert the world to the human-rights atrocities being perpetrated by Hitler’s government. With hindsight, we think all should have listened. But no one did.
What could be more contemporary than a reality television show? In this show, teams of two decipher clues to discover where in the world they will go next and what they must find there. The contestants race across the globe—from Egypt to Japan, from Sweden to England—to battle for a million-dollar prize.
This version of this title is a charming picture book about a boy who one day finds a penguin at his door. The boy decides the penguin must be lost and tries to return him. Since no one claims the penguin, the boy decides to take it home himself, and they set out in his row boat on a journey to the South Pole.
In Tears of the Giraffe Mma Ramotswe searches for the fate of a young American man who worked on a co-operative farm in the area a decade earlier. She is also surprised by her fiancé with the addition to their ‘family’ of two orphans.
Since then, I’ve wanted to read more about this duo whose older half idolizes Sherlock Holmes and wants to model himself after him. It’s left to Otto to chronicle their adventures. In this instalment, they are hired by the Southern Pacific Railroad as detectives on a Utah to California trip, and run up against notorious train robbers. 
I’m a big fan of Flavia, a spunky 11-year-old with a passion for chemistry, who travels her world of Bishop’s Lacey on her trusty bike Gladys. 
Set in 12th century France, this features Catherine, a young novice and scholar at the Convent of the Paraclete, who is sent by the Abbess Heloise on a perilous mission to find out who is trying to destroy the reputation of the convent and, through it, that of the abbess’s onetime lover and patron, theologian Peter Abelard.
This is the book I spent the month telling everybody they should read. It’s a seemingly light-weight epistolary novel set on the fictitious independent island-nation of Nollop, off the coast off South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, ‘The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.’ In fact, a statue with Nollop’s name and said pangram stands in the town square, and when letters start falling off, the Town Fathers see it as “Nollop’s Will” and ban the use of those letters, both in oral & written communication. As each letter is dropped from used by the islanders, so it is by the author of the book.
Set in WWI, the story tells of young officer Robert Ross who enlists after a family tragedy leaves him bereft. Written and published in the mid-1970s when it was still possible to talk to people who remembered that war, and the elderly veterans who marched in the Remembrance Day parade had fought in the French mud, it has an immediacy and power that many other First World War novels that I have read lack.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what this one is about. If you haven’t read it yet, you’ve read about it scores of times. I came to this book with a slightly cynical attitude but, although I didn’t cry, I did get teary-eyed a couple of times. It’s intelligently told and humanely felt. 4 stars
by Edeet Ravel (Fiction, Historical, Canadian author) 
The story jumps to various points of view and time periods, as well as formats (bits of a play, excerpts of committee meeting minutes, diary entries, and so on) at what is, at first, a dizzying—and sometimes annoying—rate. But piecing it together is all part of the plot, illustrating the complexities of any experiment to create a utopia.
Felix had explained so clearly what it was that anthropologists did (. . .) They went out to remote places and studied the customs and languages of the peoples living there. Then they came back and wrote books and articles about what they had observed (. . .) It was as simple as that. And it was a very good thing that these languages and customs should be known, firstly because they were interesting in themselves and in danger of being forgotten, and secondly because it was helpful to missionaries and government officials to know as much as possible about the people they sought to evangelize or govern.
by Spencer Quinn (Mystery, Short Story, Animals) 
This is really a short story, the prequel to 
by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (Mystery, Short Stories, Classic) 
Published in 1909, this collection of short stories, initially serialized, feature the nameless man in the corner who reveals to intrepid reporter Polly Burton his solution to several unsolved crimes in London and other cities such as Dublin, Liverpool etc. Many of the crimes are elementary but still clever, and given that this genre was still cutting its teeth, Orczy shines. In addition to thinking of unsolved crimes, she must always have ones in which the fact that they are unsolved , or wrongly solved, didn’t mean the false conviction of an innocent person.
by Mignon Eberhart (Mystery, Vintage)
This story is set in Chicago high-society in the 1930s and is a very matter-of-fact glimpse into that lifestyle, similar to early EQ novels. The puzzle itself is pretty standard, but entertaining. And the reader is thrown off to a slight degree because Eberhart wrote mainly stand-alone novels, so there was no knowing “good guys” from “bad guys” because of continuing characters.
delved into the on-line sex trade while still having the feeling of a cozy about it. The mystery is solid, though as with any cozy, there are stretches of suspension of disbelief. But it’s Odelia herself who will take me back to more of this series. She’s fun, she’s sexy, she has a life, she’s plus size, and although she’s aware of the world’s perceptions of her (“Weight was the last acceptable prejudice. It was still politically correct to assault and ridicule fat people.”), she’s not overly bitter about it: what more could you ask for in a novice sleuth?
This first in the 
Another first in the series, this time featuring antiques appraiser Sterling Glass. Although the information about the various antiques is very interesting, Sterling herself borders on being one of those perfect heroines – and as this first book closes, she nabs a job that will have her jet-setting and living on expense accounts.
Yet another first in the series, this one of Dr. Siri Paiboun, state coroner in Communist Laos in 1976. This was promising, although I must admit that after reading 
by Eva Hornung (Literary Fiction, Award Winner)
Four-year-old Romochka is abandoned in Moscow at the beginning of winter. Hungry and cold, he follows a feral dog to her lair – and so starts Romochka’s 
by Kazuo Ishiguro (Literary Fiction, Award winner) 
This modern day classic, the 1989 
(here’s Carson, perhaps, 35 years on); or you enjoy elegant and understated prose and character-driven books. 4½ stars 
by Vincent Lam (Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canadian author) 
Canadian author Vincent Lam is the son of ex-pats Chinese from Vietnam.
by Brian Moore (Literary Fiction, Vintage, Award Winner, Canadian author) 
Another ‘immigrant’ story, this time of the Irishman James Francis “Ginger” Coffey in 1950s Montreal. Ginger really is a loser – the ne’er-do-well who got by on his charm and connections at “home” but who isn’t willing to take a step down and make his way by working hard here. Winner of the 1960 
by Barbara Pym (Fiction, Vintage, Humour) 
Jane (age 41) and Prudence (age 29) have been friends since their days at Oxford , where Jane tutored Prudence. Jane is now married to a clergyman, recently assigned to a country parish, to the delight of Jane’s Victorian-novel-fueled imagination; Prudence is a career woman in London.
by Heather Jessup (Literary fiction, Canadian author) 
This started out so promisingly. First, the book itself: a soft cover with a heavy-weight dust jacket – quite different. Then, the location and time period: 1950s Malton (a suburb of Toronto). Then the fact that the male protagonist is designing the 
by Anthony Trollope (Fiction, Classic, Humour) 
This is the first in the classic 
by Neil Pasricha (Non-fiction)
Based on, or perhaps the basis of, the website 
by Hugh MacDonald, illustrated by Glen Craig & Perri Craig (Picture Book, Canadian author) 
tells the story of Chung Lee who spent his working life on PEI cooking lobsters for tourists and other customers. Now that he’s retired, Chung Lee spends part of each of his monthly pension cheques to buy a live lobster from the restaurant where he used to work. Then he walks down to the beach and releases the lobster into the ocean.
by Henry Beston (non-fiction, nature) 
In 1925 Beston spent a year living in a simple two-room home on the outer arm of 
by Stuart McLean (audio, fiction, humour)
His stories are so brilliant that they work on the printed page (I have several of his 
) but are that much more perfect in an audio performance such as this. Trish at 
by Frances Hodgson Burnett (fiction, classic, children’s chapter book) 
Cedric is a paragon of beauty and virtue but, even though I tried, I couldn’t dislike him. “He was always lovable because he was simple and loving. To be so is like being born a king.”
by Geling Yan (fiction, historical, translated) 
by Barbara Pym (fiction, vintage, gentle humour)
The “Excellent Women” of the title are those sacrificing “spinster” (in their thirties and unmarried!) ladies who filled every church congregation in England throughout the twentieth century. Those who peopled the committees, fed the bachelor rectors and vicars, and never expected that their lot would change.
by Clyde Edgerton (fiction, gentle humour)
Set in 1950 in the Southern U.S., The Bible Salesman tells the story of a few months in the life of Henry Dampier, 20-year-old door to door bible Salesman. Henry is a ‘good boy’, intelligent but oh-so-naïve. Preston Clearwater, a key figure in a large auto theft ring, hires Henry for a small job and manages to convince him that he is undercover FBI and Henry can be too.
by Helen Dunmore (literary fiction)
It sounds like something you’re read a hundred times, but in Dunmore’s hands, it turns into much more. The story is told from various points of views and persons, but is mainly Louise’s story. As the plot builds to its almost inevitable conclusion, one almost wants to look away and not watch how Louise destroys her life.
). Her writing is so adroit! See the stories that these few words paint:
by Peter Geye (fiction) 
Noah Torr is summoned by his dying father to said father’s cabin in the woods near Duluth Wisconsin. Olaf was an officer on the great freighters that ply mighty Lake Superior and in 1967 was one of only three survivors when his ship went down – comparisons to the 
by Elizabeth Taylor (fiction, vintage) 
aka Off With His Head by Ngaio Marsh (fiction, mystery, vintage) 
This was my first Marsh because I won it from Bev at 
by Josephine Tey (fiction, mystery, vintage) 
This is the second in the 
. So I know I will be reading more and, while I enjoy the stories moderately well, I’m hoping for stronger mysteries in future books. 3½ stars
by Richard Wright (fiction, 20th century classic)
by Adam Gopnik (Non-fiction, Essays) 
I chose to read this collection of 
by Barbara Kingsolver (fiction) 
I approached Flight Behavior with mixed emotion. On one hand, I’ve loved every Kingsolver book I’ve ever read and rate her 
as one of the best books in my reading lifetime. On the other hand, I roll my eyes (quite literally) at heroines with names like Juniper or Venetia or, in this case, Dellarobia, AND the book was purported to be full of butterflies. Dreams of fluff danced in my head.
by
This is one of those read-alongs I mentioned: LibrayThing’s Virago Group is r
by Jane Harris (Fiction, Historical fiction) 
Bessy Buckley, a young teenager serving as a housemaid, is asked by her mistress to keep a journal. The blurb hints of something sinister coming of that, but Bessy discovers the purpose early on in the book and it’s not earth-shaking. In fact, I thought the book over-long for the plot.
(fiction, graphic novel, translated fiction) 
This oversized graphic novel (a little outside my usual genre) was recommended by 
By Maria Semple (Fiction, YA?) 
After all the raves about this book last year, I was disappointed by this novel. I so looked forward to the epistolary format but, honestly, the emails, letters and articles seemed forced, and the plot farcical.
by Kevin Powers DNF
This year, I’ve determined that I’m censoring my reading more closely than I did in 2012. In particular, one big trigger for the red flags to go up is that four letter word that starts with f that used to be so shocking. Thing is, I want it still be to be shocking and I’m tired of its overuse in modern literature . I’m willing to overlook the occasional use within a novel – once or twice perhaps for effect but that’s my limit.
I didn’t intend to read any picture books this month, but some of my library holds from last year started to arrive, and I couldn’t resist reading them!
As for all the other 138 books I read last year, I’ve prepared pages for my blog, listing them 
by Elizabeth Enright 
Winner of the 1939 
by Barbara Baynton 
by Jane Urquhart 
This 1997 winner of Canada’s 
by Charles Foran 
If you’re Canadian—and perhaps if you’re not—you no doubt recognize that this is a biography (“unauthorized, of course”) of one of Canada’s foremost ‘men of letters’, Mordecai Richler. It’s a rich, multi-layered story of a man whose life was the same – and who lived it large and controversially.
by Michael Ondaatje 
“In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy boards a 
by Ernest Hemingway 
by Ellery Queen 
by Barbara Gowdy 
Publisher synopsis: “The Canary family are unlike any other. Joan is exquisite, tiny, mute, plays the piano like Mozart and lives in a closet. Marcy is a nymphomaniac, while Sonja earns a fortune clipping hair-grips to cardboard and knits compulsively. Their parents keep their own habits secret for as long as they can.”
by Richard Powers 
The Echo Maker of the title is the sandhill cranes which descend in spectacular numbers on the Platte River in Nebraska each spring during their 
by Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham
, a copy of which still sits on my book 
by Cybele Young
By Kay Thompson
by Sherrill S. Cannon
