A disappointment...

For some years now I have been a fan of the mystery novelist Val McDermid. I was very keen to read one of her most recent novels "A Darker Domain".
Well.... I read about half of it. I just couldn't reconcile reading it when I have dozens of great books waiting to be read.
The plot was disjointed and did not hold my attention. I felt no real empathy or connetion to any of the characters.
Have you read this novel? Was I too hasty in dismissing it? I'd love to hear from you with your opinions...

Whodunit Book Club - August 25, 2009

Summer book club meeting attendance usually reflects that many are on vacation. We were a small group of a dozen, but very vocal!
The monthly question: What attracts you to your next book?
The answers were varied but mostly boiled down to: Setting, cover, reviews, and referrals by people with similar reading tastes.

The book this month was "The Calling" by Inger Ash Wolfe. Voted one of the Best Mystery Books of 2008 by Publisher's Weekly, much hoopla has been made about this book's author. A pseudonym of a well known North American writer. There have been many speculations including Jane Urquhart, David Adams Richards, Margaret Atwood and many more. We wondered why. Did the author want this title to be considered separate from his/her other works? Did they feel that this was a less 'literary' work than their previous works? An online interview with the author stated that the name Inger Ash Wolfe was chosen to honour a relative of the author's who likes mysteries. Click here to view another online response by Inger Ash Wolfe.
There was some lively discussion about the book's plot and protagonist(s). Some felt that the plot didn't 'ring true' based upon the protagonist's personality. He was not depicted as a true serial killer because initially his victims came to him. They were consenting adults who were terminally ill. However the euthanasia angle fell flat with the terrible act he committed while in Quebec. It was felt that when he desecrated the bodies to mask his compassionate euthanasia, he was eventually corrupted by his own acts and became evil over time.
Whodunit members were disappointed that the character of Hazel Metcalf was not more fully developed as she was flawed and interesting.
Of the twelve members present, seven felt they would like to read the sequel "The taken".

"Bad things" by Michael Marshall

When bad things happen to people is it because they deserve it? When bad things happen to you do you say to yourself “What did I do to deserve this?” The whole concept of action and consequence is brought into play… At least in your mind. In the case of Michael Marshall’s protagonist in Bad Things it seems that the very ultimate in bad things has happened, his four year old son has died. As an indirect result of this tragedy his marriage has ended and his legal career waylaid.

When we meet John Henderson he is living in coastal Oregon and working as a waiter in a seaside restaurant. His is a solitary life with little to no contact with his former wife and remaining son, or, for that matter, any of his former friends or co-workers. Then one night he receives an ominous e-mail message that reads “I know what happened”. John himself does not know what happened even though he was a witness to his son’s death. Naturally he follows up the message by returning to Black Ridge where he once lived and where the tragedy occurred.

Black Ridge is depicted by Michael Marshall with an ominous sense of foreboding reminiscent of the early works of the master Stephen King. An eerily real, small Pacific Northwest community surrounded by a menacing forest with local inhabitants who seem chillingly distant and a prominent town family who seem to have local authority figures and all the townsfolk under their power. The setting in this novel is as much a ‘character’ as the human characters.

Once there, John meets up with the sender of the email message, Ellen Robertson. She maintains that the death of John’s son has eerie similarities to the death of her husband. She intimates that she is being watched and that her emails and phone messages are being monitored. John recognizes her sincerity and decides to remain in Black Ridge to discover if there is any basis to her paranoia.

John is not the only person to have recently returned to Black Ridge. Kristina has been away for a decade, but has now returned. She doesn’t like the place and doesn’t understand herself why she has made her way back to her home town. John also reunites with a former co-worker who has remained in the area, and whose history seems tied to John’s buried past.

The mounting suspense and the revelations of the plot culminate in a page-turning climax where John’s past is explained and he is temporarily reunited with his ex-wife and son. The periphery characters are tied into the revelations in a satisfying way.

More of a supernatural thriller than a mystery, this novel evokes a sense of imminent evil. The reader wonders if this is all in the mind of the protagonist somehow brought about by his sense of guilt for past wrongdoings, or whether the evil is an entity unto itself. The ending leaves the reader with just the right amount of unease and a feeling that the evil encountered in the pages of the novel could resurface at any time to dishevel someone else’s world.

I will read more of Michael Marshall’s fiction even though his novels do not follow the criteria for the mystery genre which is my favourite. After reading this novel I have become a fan of his writing style. Written with a flair for stating profound truths which make the reader nod his/her head in agreement, while at the same time evoking a sense of looming dread, this novel is a masterwork of supernatural suspense.

Whodunit Book Club - July 28, 2009

We were honoured tonight to have the author of this month's selection visit our Whodunit meeting. Eugene Meese was a delight! He regaled us with some of the background preparation and notes that he used as 'fodder' for his debut mystery novel, "A Magpie's smile". Members of the club asked lots of questions, and it was generally agreed that everyone enjoyed the book. (That doesn't often happen).
It seemed quite obvious that there were two protagonists of the book. One the policeman Jake Fry and the other the city of Calgary.
Written with a keen sense of place and time, the novel was painstakingly researched even down to what the weather was on any one of the eight days in May 1977 in which the book was set. Eugene Meese lived in Calgary during that period and took copious notes on all of the news stories of the time. He employed a storyboard to aid in the chronological structure of the novel.
All of the characters in the novel, both primary and secondary, were fully rounded out. The detail was sharp but not monotonous. The sights and smells came through with deftly placed words that evoked a sense of place not often found in first novels.
Mr. Meese assured us that "A Magpie's smile" is a stand-alone novel. He did say however that he has an idea for a series 'in the works' set on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia during the 1990s. He is also exploring the idea for a historical novel set in 1920s Romania.
This photo was taken this evening at club.
If you were not one of the lucky ones who attended tonight's meeting, you can listen to Eugene Meese by following the links found here.
The blurb from the back cover reads: "When the scalped remains of a Jane Doe are discovered within the rubble of a demolished house, Detective Jake Fry is assigned the task of hunting down Calgary's most disturbed murderer. Working against a rising body count and police department politics, Fry must relentlessly pursue a murderer with an agenda no one but he can comprehend. During Calgary's first economic boom, people flocked from all corners of the country to the city rumored to have streets paved in gold. Explore the dark side of this boom in "A Magpie's Smile", a tautly chronological police thriller and cinematic portrait of the frenetic Calgary of the 1970s."

"Hurting distance" by Sophie Hannah

Anyone who is a fan of psychological mystery/thrillers by such authors as Ruth Rendell or Minette Walters is sure to enjoy "Hurting distance" by Sophie Hannah. This is the second title I've read by her and they keep getting better! The author had SO many loose ends that I couldn't imagine how she would resolve the storyline. However, she tied everything together flawlessly. Quite a feat!
The novel's title is explained on page 80 which states: "The people you love are within hurting distance, close range. Strangers aren't."
The novel begins with Naomi Jenkins who is fearful for her lover when he doesn't show up at their weekly rendevous site. She is certain that he would never not show up without first letting her know. She becomes so upset that she reports the matter to the police. They interview the man's wife who insists that he is fine and visiting friends in Kent. Then when the police won't follow the matter further she changes her story and says that he raped her and must be found at once! The police view her as very unreliable as she keeps lying to them and changing her story.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the back story of the policewoman Charlie Zailer becomes an integral part of the plot. The novel is told alternately by Naomi and Charlie Zailer, so the reader gets a two-sided view of the plot development. Convoluted, but in a brilliant way, Sophie Hannah manages to keep all of her ducks in a row and has written a complex novel of obsessive love, betrayal and damaged psyches.

"Sweetness at the bottom of the pie"

What a novel premise for a mystery novel! The protagonist is an eleven year old female aspiring chemist. Growing up in a motherless, and very eccentric household, Flavia de Luce is memorable to say the least. Throw in a dead bird, a little poison and some rare stamps, and you've got a unique historical British mystery written by a Canadian, Alan Bradley.
The book is the first of a proposed series called the Buckshaw Chronicles and Flavia even has her own fan club!
It has placed on numerous bestseller lists and has won the Debut Dagger Award awarded by the British Crime Writer's Association!

Whodunit Book Club - June 30, 2009

Another great evening spent at Chapters Dartmouth. The question posed this month was: "Do you save books up to take on vacation?" It is always interesting to hear how others answer the questions and even more interesting to hear the little anecdotes that go with them. Most of us DO take books on vacation, but not that many actually save them up for this specific purpose. Some take as many as one for each day they will be away, others just take one book to read on the journey and buy more when they reach their destination. We heard about the rewards of writing travel journals, the merits of taking books with us that are local to the area we are visiting so as to possibly get our books signed when we are there!

This month's novel was "The Spellman Files" by Lisa Lutz. Most of us enjoyed the book, in fact there didn't seem to be anyone who disliked it. However, that being said, most of us agreed that there was no real 'mystery'. It was just a nice light read bordering on the farcical. The Spellman's seemed unable to differentiate between their own personal family life and their work, partly we suppose due to the fact that they work from their home.
We heard that the second novel in this series "The curse of the Spellmans" has been nominated for an Edgar Award. Personally, even this accolade will probably not entice me to read it. Although I rather enjoyed the first novel, I feel that I have no wish to make further acquaintance with the Spellman Family.
Next month's meeting should be exciting as we have the author Eugene Meese attending our meeting. His novel "A magpie's smile" is our selection for next month.