Sunday, May 15, 2022

The Dead Letter by Seeley Regester (1866)

When a young woman's fiancé is found dead, the other man who loves her swears to catch the murderer.

Mystery Review: The Dead Letter, purported to be the first full-length American detective novel, was written by Metta Fuller Victor (1831-85) under a pseudonym in 1864 or '66. She made a living as an author writing over 100 books while having nine children. Her best known work was an Abolitionist novel that was said to rival Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Dead Letter is a wonderful example of the novel as time machine, giving a strong sense of New York City in 1866, though oddly no mention is made of the American Civil War. To me, The Dead Letter is more interesting and enjoyable than a historical novel written today about that period, this being living history. Being of its time, foreigners, especially the Irish, come in for some disparagement (the Famine (1845-49) and the great emigration was still recent). This is not a top-notch example of mystery story-telling by today's lights. The concept of the red herring was apparently undeveloped, coincidence was overdeveloped, and the detective depends on supernatural elements to solve the crime. I can't tell if Victor (as S. Regester) truly believed or if the hocus pocus was simply a convenient device, though she also touts the healing powers of electricity. Ghosts, at any rate, are pooh-poohed. Much like Sherlock Holmes (twenty years later!), our doughty detective has made extensive scientific study (such as taking handwriting analysis to a magical degree) to aid in his deductive abilities. The book has been compared to Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (1868) and other sensation novels. The writing is hyper emotional and melodramatic, but that very intensity and commitment succeeds in sucking the reader into the story. The Dead Letter is as interesting as a historical artifact as a mystery, Victor having created a strong,  individual, and incredible (in both senses of the word) detective to carry the tale. Another entry in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series.  [3½★]

Saturday, May 14, 2022

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1893)

The second collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories.

Classics Review: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is the fourth outing for the famed detective, a great installment with definite high points, but for me just not quite as irresistible as the classics in the preceding The Adventures of. The legend of Holmes grows, however, as we meet his smarter, older brother Mycroft (with a definite physical resemblance to Nero Wolfe), and we encounter Holmes' archenemy, Professor Moriarty, the Napoleon of crime. But disappointing in that the Baker Street Irregulars fail to appear and Mrs. Hudson makes but a single entrance in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Still we learn more about Holmes as a person and he is still the center of it all, even acknowledging his mistakes and flaws and more human than at first. Conan Doyle's writing has grown since the earlier books and he's added more variety to his formula. Of course it doesn't really matter, at this point I have to read everything featuring Mr. Holmes. It's well known that Doyle had tired of his crowning creation (as did Agatha Christie with hers). The final story of this collection is the crucial confrontation of Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes was followed some eight years later by The Hound of the Baskervilles.  [4½★]

The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens (1939)

An elderly woman goes to visit her niece at the seashore and unexpectedly encounters a murder.

Mystery Review: The Cat Saw Murder is the first in a series of 13 novels featuring septuagenarian amateur detective Miss Rachel (the American Miss Marple), all with the word "cat" in the title. Originally published by Dolores Hitchens (1907-73) under the pseudonym D.B. Olsen. Hitchens has an interesting writing style, recapitulating and explaining what is to come, while skipping over certain moments that the reader might have expected to be described. Miss Rachel lives in Los Angeles and here travels an hour away to "Breakers Beach" after a call from her troubled niece. The Cat Saw Murder is somewhat like a British country house mystery, only set in a seaside boarding house. After her cat Samantha and Miss Rachel herself are both imperiled, she allies herself with a police officer (as Miss Marple was wont to do), working together to find the mysterious perp among the residents of the boarding house. Miss Marple appeared nine years earlier than did Miss Rachel in The Cat Saw Murder; I like both but have a sneaking fondness for Miss Rachel who gets much more time in the limelight. As usual, do not read the (unhelpful) Introduction before the story. One aside: the title character Samantha, a cat, doesn't behave much at all like a cat.  [3½★]

Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates (1962)

Eleven short stories from early in Richard Yates' career.

Book Review: Eleven Kinds of Loneliness followed the first novel by Richard Yates (1926-92), Revolutionary Road, by a year and revealed more facets of the author. Mostly set in New York City, all the stories are essentially character studies more than plot driven narratives. Elements of the characters reappear, e.g., some facet of a drill sergeant in one story find a parallel in another about an elementary school teacher. The stories are realistic, especially the dialogue, and the realism conveys sharp emotion as the the reader feels these are real people to  care about. The characters are often delusional, hoping for what they can't have, unable or unwilling to communicate. Yates shows the terrors, pain and alienation, and yes loneliness, that life can present, but he offers little in the way of hope, family or community, to balance the ledger. Many questions, no answers. To paraphrase the final story: Many walls, no windows. Eleven Kinds of Loneliness is an excellent collection, if on the gloom and doom side, and a good textbook for learning to write stories. Fits into the Hemingway and Fitzgerald school of writing, but Yates definitely has his own view of the world. My one hesitation about this book is, as I've recently realized, that in every short story I look for an epiphany, a truth, a realization, an "ah ha!" moment. That's a tall order, and perhaps an unfair expectation, but even so for me some of the stories ended without anything to hold onto. Regardless, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness is required reading.  [4★]

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

The Metropolitan Opera Murders by Helen Traubel (1951)

When a member of the company is murdered during a performance of the Metropolitan Opera, the intended target must be identified.

Mystery Review: The Metropolitan Opera Murders has been recently republished as part of the Library of Congress Crime Classics series, apparently because it was co-written by Helen Traubel (1899-1972), the most famous Wagnerian soprano of her time. Forgotten today (numerous photos of her are online), she was then a larger than life character, and appears in the novel as "Elsa Vaughn." Other than her own appearance, I don't know how much might be a roman à clef, but it's fun even without that, containing credible characters and being very Manhattan. The Metropolitan Opera Murders is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys grand opera (assuming it hasn't changed much from the Fifties -- is Wagnerian opera still popular?). The footnotes are numerous, awesome, amazingly thorough, deadpan, and could serve as a college-level course on the subject. I learned more about opera than I'd ever known. For readers with no interest in opera this is not your book. The mystery is only average and while I may or may not have figured it out, the perp was the one person I was hoping it wasn't. But this isn't a book to be read for the plot, it's about an exotic and unique setting with eccentric characters, about getting a voyeuristic insight into an unknown and insular world. As we learn, a world dependent on the snobby upper crust, because opera isn't important at all to most people for whom it's just the shrill and noisy singers on the classical music station. This is the first book I've read with a (known) ghost writer (I debated even reading it), but there's obviously a whole lot of Helen Traubel here, with a good sense of humor (the detective's name is Sam Quentin). The book snob in me rebels against reading a ghost-written book, but somehow I survived without too much charring. The ghost writer was Harold Q. Masur (1909-2005), a lawyer (the story has legal elements) who had a significant mystery writing career of his own. The Metropolitan Opera Murders is an average gem in a resplendent setting.  [3½★]

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (1920)

When the family matriarch remarries, foul play isn't far behind; fortunately Hercule Poirot is on hand.

Mystery Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles was the first book by Agatha Christie (1890-1976) and also the debut novel of Hercule Poirot, perhaps literature's second most famous detective. In this origin story the often obtuse and overly sensitive Arthur Hastings fills the Watson role to Poirot's Holmes, and is both admirable and annoying. The mystery and concluding wrap-up are over-complicated, but well done especially for a first novel. Christie had the magic right from the start: baffling red herrings, suspension of disbelief, and vivid characters. Her characters are not deep or especially well-rounded, but they're engaging because they are believable and recognizable as drawn from life, even if not complex. The recent Great War is pervasive in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot is a Belgian refugee quartered in the English countryside), as it should be. What shouldn't be is the periodic casual bigotry and antisemitism. A quick and generally enjoyable read, this was my first Poirot so I don't know how it will rank among his 33 full-length appearances, but The Mysterious Affair at Styles is an excellent and worthy beginning.  [3½★]

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Build My Gallows High by Geoffrey Homes (1946)

A retired private eye is dragged back into a life he hoped he'd left behind.

Mystery Review: Build My Gallows High is classic pulp fiction with hard-boiled detectives, femme fatales, gangsters, betrayals, murders, and everything else requisite in noir fiction. A short novel, a quick read, and right in the Hammett, Cain, Chandler tradition. The plot gets confusing in places, but doesn't detract from the story because it's really about existential despair: doomed love, doomed life, and nobody gets out of this life alive. All sins must be paid. This was the last published novel by Daniel Mainwaring (1902-77) who went on to be a full time screenwriter. One can't talk about Build My Gallows High without mentioning the movie made from it, the quintessential film noir Out of the Past (1947) with Jane Greer, Robert Mitchum, and Kirk Douglas (remade as Against All Odds in 1984). It's sufficiently different to make reading the book still suspenseful. Although the film's screenplay is credited to "Geoffrey Homes" (aka Mainwaring), I don't believe he wrote it. None of the movie's best lines are found in the book, and, sadly, Build My Gallows High isn't as good as the film it inspired.  [4★]

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney (1984)

A Manhattan yuppie fights the blues with cocaine, women, and parties. 

Book Review: Bright Lights, Big City, title taken from a 1961 blues song by Jimmy Reed, was the first novel of the 1980's "Brat Pack" when a new generation of writers seemed to have appeared. Possibly the best novel written in the second person, it succeeds brilliantly. A short book with a lot going on. Unlike so many novels where work and employment is an afterthought or unnecessary, here work (or fear of firing) is one of the central themes. For most people work is the center of their world, putting far more time and energy into their job than any other aspect of their lives. (Okay, maybe less so nowadays when work-life balance is a thing.) The characters in the novel are developed to varying degrees, but all their relationships are based on appearances -- none of them thrive because they only relate superficially. Bright Lights, Big City has a manic energy balanced with existential angst, but funny, finding a valid metaphor in living life as a coma baby. This is also a novel about an aspiring writer that will naturally appeal to other aspiring writers, McInerney being well aware that he's writing in the semi-autobiographical, score-settling tradition handed down from Hemingway and Fitzgerald, with definite nods to both. If writing a thesis paper, the unnamed narrator's lurching efforts toward puritanism would be an interesting and creative subject. Bright Lights, Big City is the second book I've read recently about someone's mother dying young of cancer, which is too close to home. Also a 1988 film with Michael J. Fox, Phoebe Cates, and Dianne Wiest. It may not be a great film, but everyone involved gives it their all.  [5★]

Monday, May 2, 2022

Fadeout by Joseph Hansen (1970)

Dave Brandstetter, investigator for Medallion Life Insurance, is suspicious of a claim on a car accident without a body.

Mystery Review: Fadeout is the first of twelve in the Dave Brandstetter series. Dave isn't really hard-boiled, he's no Mike Hammer, but he's tough and no-nonsense; won't start a fight but he can finish it if he has to. He's also gay. Despite the hype this isn't (so far) in the league of other Los Angeles detective authors like Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, or Walter Mosley. Joseph Hansen (1923-2004) can write a nice description, but generally the style is workmanlike and serviceable. The real strength of Fadeout is the well-developed characters, and even more so the relationships between those characters. Additionally, there's value in the representation of a tough, gay detective who loves and has desires and relationships, in 1970. Perhaps that's why Fadeout has been reissued several times since its original publication. Despite a couple of twists, the mystery is secondary to the story as a whole, but that's not a drawback. This is only the first. I'll be reading more in the series, curious to see what comes next.  [4★]

The Chocolate Cobweb by Charlotte Armstrong (1948)

Twenty years later, a possible maternity ward switch leads to murder.

Mystery Review: The Chocolate Cobweb is clever, innovative, occasionally far-fetched, and an entertaining and compelling read. Featuring a brave and resourceful young woman as protagonist, this is a modern gothic suspense tale with a touch of romance. The prolific Charlotte Armstrong (1905-69) reveals the murderer early on, but can they be stopped? Despite the cringey title, The Chocolate Cobweb (it makes sense after a few chapters) is what's apparently called "domestic suspense" and isn't a cozy mystery. Unpretentious, entertaining, dramatic. A psychological thriller. In 2000, The Chocolate Cobweb was also made into a French film titled Merci pour le Chocolat (in English: Nightcap) with Isabelle Huppert, directed by Claude Chabrol. Truth, this isn't the cover of the book I read (from the American Mystery Classics series), but I like it so much better.  [3½★]

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood (1989)

Phryne Fisher travels from England to Australia to save an aristocratic young woman, encountering cocaine rings and murderous abortionists along the way.

Mystery Review: Cocaine Blues (aka Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates) is the first of the Phryne Fisher mystery series.  Well researched, at times even over-researched. Kerry Greenwood may know every building on any particular Melbourne street in 1920, but I don't need to do so. Having done all that swotting, naturally she wants it on the page. I know Miss Fisher from the television series (and the spin-off Ms. Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries), which is excellent and portrays the characters a bit differently (Dot and Inspector Robinson seem particularly reimagined). Essie Davis wears ravishing outfits in the shows and the fashion-porn descriptions in Cocaine Blues are no less well done. The mystery isn't the center of the story, which is focused on introducing a charming cast of characters and an engaging Australian atmosphere. Although I prefer the television series (which I saw first), Cocaine Blues is only minimally less entertaining and continues the can-do attitude of the shows.  [3½★]

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (2019)

The days and nights of a young, gay man living the fast life in Seoul.

Book Review: Love in the Big City is the first book published in English by this new South Korean author. Being bad Buddhists there's much we want from the world, but life ensures we don't get what we desire, and when we do we may fail to accept it. That thought remained after reading this novel about love: love of friends, family love, love of lovers. While Park's focus is clear, effective, and valuable, the story is more simply about people, human beings, those entities we try constantly to understand. Anyone will find some tugging of the heart: a mother dying of cancer, a feeling unspoken, recognizing a kindness. The honest and straightforward presentation of the four interrelated stories worked well in this brief coming of age story. The protagonist matures, realizing that people are beautiful because we love them, we don't love them because they're beautiful. While reading I wondered what This Side of Paradise would've been like if Fitzgerald could have written with the simple honesty of Love in the Big City. There's a hint of the "gay love is bad love" feeling, but isn't it just that for everyone love doesn't work out until it does. Any love can be miserable. Life is a series of failed relationships until one doesn't. This is a book I could read again in a year and find more to value. I thought I had some knowledge of Korean culture, but Love in the Big City required several searches for background, although it's wonderfully translated by Anton Hur.  [4★]

Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories by Philip Roth (1959)

Philip Roth's first work, a novella and five short stories.

Book Review: Goodbye, Columbus was published in 1959 when Philip Roth (1933-2018) was 26. This edition contains the title novella, five short stories, and the seeds of genius that speaks to history. It has the sense of autobiography of earlier authors such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald, while looking forward to a different expectation of the world. Roth falls into the young writer's trap of believing that the essential subject is one's first experiences with love. Because the whole world must be interested in what the writer is obsessing about. It should be against the law for novelists to write about their early relationships until they're at least 35 (even though here it's a metaphor, and so ... meta). Although Goodbye, Columbus is seemingly about Jews, as presented by other mid-century American writers such as Bellow and Malamud, this is really more about the immigrant experience in America. About leaving the past behind, saying goodbye to a world that can't last (the title is a subtextual reference to the first immigrant), and about what Roth thinks the current generation should be doing with their opportunity. His protagonist (and alter ego) Neil is shallow. He loves Brenda because she is what he is not, but he knows "no more of her than what I could see in a photograph." The heart of the story is the black boy looking at Gauguin books in the library. A parallel to Neil, but without the advantages, and for both there was "No sense in carrying dreams of Tahiti in your head, if you can't afford the fare." The novella is satire, but at times ungenerous, with a lack of empathy. Roth sees the communal flaws, but with the arrogance of youth he doesn't acknowledge the roots of those failings (actually he does once, in the story "Eli, the Fanatic"). The five stories are a mixed bag, but Roth uses them as explorations and experiments, finding out how and what to write. I can see various readers choosing any one of them as a favorite, mine being the difficult "Defender of the Faith" and the hallucinogenic "Eli, the Fanatic." As an aside, I enjoyed the passing reference in Goodbye, Columbus to Mary McCarthy as the conductor for youthful sexual exploration.  Also a mediocre 1969 film with Ali MacGraw and Richard Benjamin.  [4★]

Pitch Dark by Renata Adler (1983)

A woman who knows better examines her affair with a married man.

Book Review: Pitch Dark is an intelligent novel in which we learn much about the narrator and little about the object of her interest. Muriel Spark says it best in her incisive and insightful Afterword: "Renata Adler's novel Pitch Dark, like her first work of fiction Speedboat, is a genre unto itself, a discontinuous first-person narrative." After the two novels Adler wrote no more fiction; her unique, experimental style was a dead end. Although "discontinuous," presented in a jumble of cutting and pasting one or more linear narratives interspersed with set additions and recurring lines, ultimately it's formulaic, going round and round in predictable and comforting circles. Although more plot oriented, Pitch Dark adds little to Speedboat. In both the emotion just below the surface is sublimated to technique and becomes an underlying tension. Adler is wonderfully intelligent and captures the zeitgeist well. But once the reader gets past the experimental artifice there isn't as much there. And the occasional expression of Adler's reactionary beliefs can get tiresome. Although I'm happy to've read one of her novels, I didn't need to read both. Worth it, perhaps, if only to appreciate Spark's brilliant commentary.  [3★]