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★]

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★]

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★]