Book Review: Heart of Ice by Gregg Olsen

Heart of Ice

Author: Gregg Olsen

Publisher: Kensington

Date of Publication: March 1, 2009 (Hardcover)

March 28, 2017 (Mass Market Paperback)

Pages: 480

     Gregg Olsen has written many wonderful books, both fiction and non-fiction.  Unfortunately, Heart of Ice isn't one of his better efforts.  This novel is really two stories which seem totally unrelated until the very conclusion.  

      

     The first story is about a missing pregnant wife with an irascible and totally unlikable husband (who quickly becomes the solitary person of interest).  The investigation into the disappearance is led by small town sheriff Emily Kenyon.  Sheriff Kenyon is dealing with several personal issues, including a recently college graduated daughter who is traveling the country as a national representative of a sorority, an ex-boyfriend who happens to be a local defense attorney and all-around cad, and a new love interest that despite his obvious perfection, she just can't commit to. 

     The second story is a serial killer tale regarding a young man with a seemingly perfect life (wife, kids, steady job, etc...) who preys on sorority girls.  A lot of this story is told in flashbacks of the killer's tumultuous childhood in foster homes where he suffered countless acts of cruelty and abuse.  The motive for the killings (which don't seem to make much sense throughout the book) is not revealed until very late.  The modus operandi of the killer is described in graphic and gory detail.

     The book does have its strengths.  The settings are the Pacific Northwest, areas in and around San Diego, California and a few chapters in Tennessee.  The author aptly uses descriptions of locales to create mood and (often) a sense of dread.  He has done his research regarding the effects on adults of childhood abuse.  The sections dealing with the killer's and his sister's abandonment by their mother at Disney Land are particularly heart breaking.  

     The weakness are several.  First, I found the characters fairly stereotypical and in the case of the many minor characters, very quickly and inadequately developed.  Second, the two disparate plots are disconnected throughout most of the book creating a disjointed story line.  Just as the reader gets drawn in to one story line, the next few chapters will jump back to the other.  I found that distracting and frustrating to say the least.  Finally, the love entanglements of Sheriff Kenyon made this seem like a romance novel in spots, which is not my cup of tea.

     In summary, this book had its high points but all in all was disappointing to me.

Book Review: Florida by Lauren Groff

Florida

Author: Lauren Groff

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Date of Publication: June 5, 2018

Pages: 288 (Hardcover Edition)

    This is the second collection of short stories for this author (she published Delicate Edible Birds in 2009).  She also has published three novels.  This outstanding collection was published in 2018 and won the Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, Kirkus Prized and Southern Book Prize.  The author now lives in Gainesville and Florida paints a vivid and somewhat unflattering picture of her home state.  This is a "warts and all" view of the Sunshine State.

     There are eleven gripping stories here, all dealing with aspects of contemporary life.  There are treatments of homelessness, caring for aging parents, strained marriages, work-life imbalance and single parenting.  There is also an undercurrent in several stories of overpopulation and encroachment of development on natural territories   All of the stories are told with an economy of words but with striking description.

In Ghosts and Empties a young mother walks nightly in her new neighborhood after putting her children to bed:  "On my nighttime walks, the neighbors' lives reveal themselves, the lit windows domestic aquariums."

In "Flower Hunters" a woman on vacation in a remote cabin with two small children (while her husband is at home working) endures a violent summer storm: "The rain knocks at the metal roof, and she imagines it licking away at the limestone under her house, the way her children lick away at Everlasting Gobstoppers, which they are not allowed, but which she still somehow finds in sticky rainbow pools in their sock drawers."

In "Yport" the author describes the climate in her home state: "Florida in the summer is a slow hot drowning."  Later, the main character who is doing research on a book about Guy de Maupassant describes the town of Yport, France : "Look!  she tells them, gesturing up the harbor at a little cluster of nineteenth-century houses on the other side of the channel, which huddle together, distrustful of the twenty-first century industry around them."

   In summary, this is an outstanding collection of stories, exquisitely written with evocative descriptions.  Florida features many contemporary social issues woven into the fabric of entertaining and gripping stories.

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.

Book Review: A Gambler's Jury by Victor Methos (2019 Edgar Nominee)

A Gambler's Jury

Author: Victor Methos

Publisher: Amazon Publishing

Date of Publication: February 27, 2018

Pages: 336

     A Gambler's Jury 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 Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourne.  This is the fourth of the six which I have reviewed so far.

     You've got to love a book which starts out with the sentence: "It was all fun and games until I showed up to court so hungover that my head felt like it was going to explode."  Such is the life for Salt Lake City defense attorney Dani Rollins.  Alone and adrift in a life full of booze and bad decisions, Dani gets a new client.  A couple brings in their adopted 17 year old son who is mentally challenged.  He has been arrested in the company of some other (non-mentally challenged) teens from his high school and charged with distribution of drugs.  Dani assumes the kid has been used by the other teens, although the police see it otherwise.  Things don't add up when her client is charged as an adult and faces a potentially long jail sentence.  In between brooding over her ex-husband's new wife an the son she has lost custody of, Dani begins an investigation which circuitously leads in a myriad of directions.  

     The setting 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, although you want to smack Dani any number of times as she unleashes her temper and sarcasm in the courtroom.  Despite her faults, Dani has her client's best interests at heart.  The parents inexplicably abandon their handicapped son when he turns 18 and Dani takes him in until she can secure proper placement.  She works diligently to defend her client against odds which are stacked very high against him for reasons that initially are unclear.

     The ending has a neat twist of plot which was actually fairly predictable almost from the outset.  In retrospect, there were key clues in the early chapter describing Dani's initial consultation with this family.  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. 

Book Review: Down the River unto the Sea by Walter Mosley (2019 Edgar Winner)

Down to the River unto the Sea

Author: Walter Mosley

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date of Publication: February 20, 2018

Pages: 336

     Down to the River Unto the Sea 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, A Gambler's Jury by Victor Lethos, Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne, and A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourne.  This is the third of the six which I have reviewed so far.

     Walter Mosley is a prolific and much admired author who has published over 43 books including the Easy Rawlins mysteries as well as short fiction and non-fiction.  He has won an O. Henry Award, a PEN American Lifetime Achievement Award and a Grammy.  This novel is the first to feature private investigator Joe King Oliver.

     Oliver is a former NYPD detective who lost his job as the result of a frame.  He is convinced he was set up by his former police brothers.  After incarceration he has worked for ten years as a PI in New York City (the author's hometown).  One day a young attorney comes to his office with evidence that a controversial social activist who is being tried for murdering two NYC police officers has also been framed.  There are enough similarities to Joe's own case that he decides to chase down the slim evidence and see if he can exonerate the accused cop-killer as well as clear his own name.

     The plot is a bit circuitous, to say the least, but does end in a satisfying albeit imperfect ending.  The writing in this novel is sparkling, especially when describing the characters:

"Juan was a smallish bronze-skinned man with a debonair mustache and eyes that had somewhere else to be."

or

"Willa departed, and for a while I was alone and at peace the way a soldier during World War I was at peace in the trenches waiting for the next attack, the final flu, or maybe mustard gas seeping over the edge of a trench that might be a grave."

Mosley also has a poetic way of describing places which adds deep atmosphere to the story and sets the tone for the scenes to follow:

"On the south side of the small town, there stood an abandoned church.  I say abandoned, but what I mean is deconsecrated.  It was surrounded by an eighteen-foot stone wall.  The only entree was through a remote-control iron gate.  The rectangular brick structure loomed at  a height of at least two and a half stories.  Twelve slender stained-glass windows ran from the ground to the eaves of the steeply slanted, dark-green-tiled roof.  On one end was a silo-like cylindrical steeple, also made of brick;  it rose ten feet above the rest of the structure.  There was a satellite dish at the very center of the extreme-angled lower roof."

     The author also has a keen eye for social issues.  He addresses sexism, police brutality and corruption, economic disparity and the insidious and subtle racism that still pervades our contemporary society.  He also wrestles with the very adult concepts of compromising your values to achieve the greater good and the fact that not all stories have happy or even satisfying conclusions.

   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!

Addendum:  This novel was selected by the Mystery Writers of America as winner of the 2019 Edgar Award for the Best Mystery Novel of the year!