2019 Best Novel Edgar Award - Updated

     Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne, The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard, House Witness by Mike Lawson, Down to the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley,  A Gambler's Jury by Victor Methos and A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourne are the six novels nominated for the 2019 Best Mystery Novel Edgar Award.  I have reviewed each individually and you can read those reviews by clicking on each link.  The Mystery Writers of America announced the 2019 winner on April 25.  My pick is as follows:

     First let me say that I enjoyed every one of these novels and that is not the case for all Edgar nominees in previous years.  Each novel has its unique strengths and every one was entertaining.  Here's a condensed review of each nominee:


     The quality of the writing and the ringing clarity of the descriptions of everything from the characters to the setting keep the reader turning the pages even when the plot lags a bit.  Staying true to the "bewilderingly dreamlike plots" of Raymond Chandler makes the pace of this almost glacial in spots.  The splendid writing, however, saves the day.






     Set in Victorian London, this book is a cat and mouse game of puzzling clues and misdirection.  The book has exciting twists of plot and a tumultuous ending.  A Treacherous Curse was the one novel of the six which I though I would enjoy the least, but it was great.  I read it quickly and would recommend it highly.







     The setting for A Gambler's Jury is Salt Lake City and its surrounding counties.  This is a nice change from the usual Los Angeles or New York locales for mystery novels.  The author, a seasoned criminal-defense and civil-rights lawyer himself, deftly describes the peculiarities of the justice system in Utah.  The characters are all very human and very believable.  The ending has a neat twist of plot which was actually fairly predictable almost from the outset.  I enjoyed A Gambler's Jury and found it to be a very worthy nominee for the 2019 Edgar for best mystery novel.  I will look forward to reading other books by this author.



     Mike Lawson actually has you rooting for the bad guys (although who the bad guys are in this book is a fluid notion).  The plot is so believable, the characters are so exceptionally well developed, the pace is so fast (though not hurried) and the dialogue is so genuine that the book is nearly impossible to put down.  Add to this the New York setting and in my opinion you have the perfect crime novel!  If Ed McBain was alive and writing, he would have written House Witness.  This book is that good!





     Read Down the River unto the Sea by Walter Mosley for the spectacular writing.  Read it because of the astute social commentaries contained within.  Read it because it is a great story.  Read it because it may very well be the 2019 Edgar Award winner for the best mystery novel of the year.  Just read it!

    This is a serial killer story with a twist.  A man is in jail for murders committed ten years ago.  When new murders occur, are they copycats or is the wrong man in jail?  I really enjoyed the author's descriptions of Dublin and Cork, two places I have never been but would love to visit.  They added a lot to what is a very enjoyable and entertaining mystery.  This is a worthy nominee for the 2019 Best Novel Edgar.  

     I enjoyed every one of these novels.  They are all worthy of nomination and any could win the Edgar for Best Mystery Novel.  My pick, however, would be Mike Lawson's House Witness.  The combination of tight plotting, great dialogue and superb character development made it my favorite.  My second place (and just as good, really) is Walter Mosley's Down the River Unto the Sea.  We will see which is the actual winner later this week!

   Well, I was half right.  The Mystery Writers of America chose Walter Mosley's Down the River Unto the Sea as the 2019 Edgar Award Winner for the Best Mystery Novel.  I can't disagree but would reiterate that all of the nominees were worthy of nomination and quite capable of being the award winner.

Book Review: Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne (2019 Best Novel Edgar Nominee)

Only to Sleep

Author: Lawrence Osborne

Publisher: Crown/Archetype

Date of Publication: July 24, 2018

Pages: 272

     Only to Sleep is one of six novels nominated for the 2019 Best Mystery Novel Edgar Award.  The other five are: The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard, House Witness by Mike Lawson, Down to the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley  and A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourne.  This is the final book of the six which I have reviewed.

     Lawrence Osborne is only the third author asked by the Raymond Chandler estate to write a new Philip Marlowe novel.  The other two were John Banville and Robert B. Parker.  In the epilogue to the book the author states that he "tried to stay faithful to the bewilderingly dreamlike plots of Chandler because it has always seemed to me that they incarnate the qualities of both fairy tale and nightmare to which he aspired."  Further, Osborne notes that Chandler himself wrote that he saw Marlowe "always in a lonely street, in lonely rooms, puzzled but never quite defeated."  Osborne has certainly not strayed from those two tenets in Only to Sleep.  It is an atmospheric novel, almost a quest.  The endpoint of the story is always moving, Marlowe's ultimate goal remains elusive.

     The basic plot is basically quite simple.  Ageless Marlowe, retired and living in Mexico, agrees to come out of retirement and investigate a suspicious drowning.  The insurance company has already paid out a large life insurance claim, but wants to make sure they are not being scammed.  The drowning victim, an elderly real estate developer from Southern California with large outstanding debt, washed up on a beach in Mexico.  His body was identified by his young widow and then was quickly cremated.  The insurance company is not comfortable with all of this.

     Marlowe begins by visiting the widow, a young Mexican who met her husband when she was a cocktail waitress in a bar in a Mexican beach resort.  Marlowe then visits the site of the drowning and follows a circuitous trail of clues.

     The writing in Only to Sleep is superb.  While being recruited by the insurance company, Marlowe ruminates:

"The drinks arrived.  I hadn't worked in ten years and I had retired too late as it was.  In those final days, I felt I had run out of courage rather than energy.  Seventy-two isn't a a bad age, but sixty-two is too old to be working.  You are just impersonating the man you used to be.  Retirement had seemed like the best way not to die, but the adrenaline had gone the day I threw in the towel and it never returned.  You have your books and your movies, your daydreams and your moments in the sun, but none of those can save you any more than irony can."

Describing the guests at a high society garden party:

"They had the high-wire arrogance of the intoxicated."

Dining with one of his aging investigators, Marlowe describes the scene:

"The burgers came with paper tubs of coleslaw, pickles, and cheese fries.  In the green light we looked like two aging chimps eating scraps in a cave."

Marlowe's (Osborne's) description of a man he comes across:

"He was a desert gnome made of wire and thorns, a human tumbleweed in a plaid shirt, with a can of tobacco and a pipe laid in the sand beside him."

     The quality of the writing and the ringing clarity of the descriptions of everything from the characters to the setting keep the reader turning the pages even when the plot lags a bit.  Staying true to the "bewilderingly dreamlike plots" of Raymond Chandler makes the pace of this almost glacial in spots.  The splendid writing, however, saves the day.

Book Review: A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourne (2019 Best Novel Edgar Nominee)

A Treacherous Curse

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: January 16, 2018

Pages: 320

     A Treacherous Curse is one of six novels nominated for the 2019 Best Mystery Novel Edgar Award.  The other five are: The Liar's Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard, House Witness by Mike Lawson, Down to the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley , Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne, and A Gambler's Jury by Victor Methos.  This is the fifth of the six which I have reviewed so far.

     Veronica Speedwell, the heroine of A Treacherous Curse, is a modern-day woman living in Victorian England.  She is happily independent, a scientist when women were not scientists and confidently self-reliant.  She manipulates men at will:

"He proceeded to lecture me for the next quarter of an hour, about what I cannot say, for I turned my attention to the contents of the packing crate.  I had long since discovered upon my travels that men are largely the same no matter where one encounters them.  And if one is prepared to let them discourse on their pet topics of conversation, one can generally get on with things quite handily without any interference."

     These men she so casually manipulates include Stoker, her partner in scientific and criminal investigation.  Speedwell and Stoker are hired by Lord Rosemoran to catalog his collection of "art, artifacts, zoological specimens, books, manuscripts, jewels, armor, and a thousand other things that defied description" with the intent of eventually opening a private museum.  The two then become fascinated with the Tiverton Expedition to Egypt, led by Sir Leicester Tiverton, "an excitable baronet of middle years."  This expedition had uncovered some incredible artifacts in unanticipated locations.  However, the excavation director died on location under suspicious circumstances.  Also, one of the expedition photographers, along with the most valuable artifact discovered by the expedition, is missing.  There are rumblings of a curse on the expedition.

     Sir Hugo Montgomerie, head of the Special Branch hires Veronica and Stoker to find out what they can about the Tiverton Expedition in general and the missing photographer in particular.  What follows is a cat and mouse game of puzzling clues and misdirection.  The book has exciting twists of plot and a tumultuous ending.

     The setting of Victorian England is a major plus for this novel and the writing is strong throughout and spectacular in spots:

"If I am honest, the space was narrow enough to cause my chest to tighten uncomfortable.  The passage itself was not so small as to constrict me, but the feeling of imperfect liberty was alarming.  I had little experience of caves - butterfly hunting, of necessity, takes place in meadows - but I was not certain a familiarity with enclosed spaces would help.  Only resolve and discipline would carry the day, I reflected."

A Treacherous Curse was the one novel of the six which I though I would enjoy the least, but it was great.  I read it quickly and would recommend it highly.