The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher (1932)

After the murder of a Harlem psychic a police detective and local doctor join forces to solve the mystery.

Mystery Review: The Conjure-Man Dies demonstrates that the Harlem Renaissance brought notable achievements in African American poetry, music, art, dance, theater, and … a murder mystery. Rudolph Fisher (1897-1934), a medical doctor, hung with the likes of Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson (Hughes said Fisher had "the wittiest and sharpest humor"). His varied and creative biography is worthy of a book despite his short life. In The Conjure-Man Dies a Harlem psychic is murdered and a police detective and local doctor form a crime-solving bromance. If Agatha Christie and Dashiell Hammett co-wrote a book it would look a lot like this as Fisher seamlessly combines their disparate styles. As might be expected with a doctor for a protagonist, medical and scientific techniques play a major role in resolving the case. Even more intriguing, the victim becomes a suspect! The conclusion was somewhat overdone and convoluted, but didn't detract from my enjoyment. As did Zora Neale Hurston, Fisher presents both the good and bad of the black community, painting an honest, realistic, and colorful  portrait. As far as I could tell there was only one white character in the book (a walk-on part, and not a villain). The Conjure-Man Dies features numerous humorous moments similar to what Chester Himes later did in his Harlem Detectives series featuring black detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, but considerably less violent. I can't help but think that Himes must've read this book. I read the Library of Congress Crime Classics edition which has helpful and interesting annotations, as well as an Introduction, bibliography, biographical chapter, and a reminiscence by his granddaughter. There are about a dozen novels in the series so far putting the spotlight on a widely diverse range of mystery authors from 1860 to 1960. The Conjure-Man Dies is also available in the Collins Crime Club edition, which isn't annotated but includes an introduction by Stanley Ellin and adds an excellent short story reuniting the detectives from this novel, "John Archer's Nose," in which an odor plays a key role. Rudolph Fisher also wrote one other novel, The Walls of Jericho (1928), and several short stories.  [4★]

The Door by Magda Szabo (1987)

The fraught 20-year relationship between an older woman and a younger one.

Book Review: The Door is the book for those who enjoy getting punched in the gut. I only find a couple books a year with that effect. This is the powerfully affecting story of two women, the strained relationship between a novelist and her cleaner (wow, that description does not do it justice). The women are opposites, the writer young, modern, educated, religious, artistic, while the domestic is old, rooted in the past, almost illiterate, impious, straightforward, immune to pretense. The center of the novel is the house cleaner, Emerence, who is difficult, mercurial, wholly independent, unpredictable, elemental, almost mythic, strong as an oak tree. The women form a tempestuous bond, neither willing to give in or appear weak (reminiscent of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend). Both women are proud, refusing to show vulnerability, and both can fly into sudden rages for little apparent reason (or perhaps that's a Hungarian stereotype). There are elements of The Door that seem distinctly Hungarian and outside my experience, but unlike some novels of this type the reader is not immersed wholly in an exotic ethnic and cultural world. The narrator, a woman whose biography is much like that of Szabó herself (named Magda, a writer prevented from publishing, married and childless), could be any modern European. This was my first book by noted Hungarian author Magda Szabó (1917-2007), who now has five novels published by NYRB. It took me a few pages to get into Szabó's rhythm, but then the story flowed effortlessly. Although in The Door Magda is the one who is church-going and a novelist, arguably Emerence is the more religious, the better Christian, the greater artist in her appreciation of the world, and the story digs into her history, which is essentially the arc of the whole novel as presented through Magda's memories. The novel can be appreciated and enjoyed solely on a level of human interaction between the women, Emerence and Magda can also be read as the contrast between the past and future. Emerence as the history of Hungary, as the past all crumbles (literally) in the end. There is much of history: the Second World War (Hungary was an Axis country), the subsequent Communist repression, the easing of the Iron Curtain. At times the story is mythic, or with a touch of magical realism, and even an ironic sense of humor. At times the story reminded me of Elena Ferrante and My Brilliant Friend (which here too leaves one wondering which is the brilliant friend). The Door has a refreshing maturity (much like Ferrante), or at least lacks the self-indulgence that I find present in much English language literature.  [5★]

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (1937)

Poirot foresees tragedy while alone on holiday in Egypt.

Mystery Review: Death on the Nile is one of her best and here Christie brings more big mystery energy than usual while simultaneously ramping up the romance. Sort of a three weddings and five funerals kind of thing. She presents a wide cast sprinkled with her effortless twists, turns, and red herrings. This is one of her overseas (or colonial) excursions where Christie seems to feel a little freer to let it all hang out. At heart this is one of her darker books. The characters get a little more background than usual and the mystery is top drawer. Two caveats. First, I guessed the perp early, which I don't usually do. If the solution is apparent to most readers I'd consider this a flaw. I assume, however, most won't solve it easily and I just suffered a misfiring neuron. Second caveat. Less than an hour after finishing Death on the Nile I watched the Kenneth Branagh adaptation. It's certainly Great Gatsby glitzy (for no obvious reason) and over the top, but very much a disappointment as there's little genuine Poirot or Christie to be found while the book's plot was needlessly modified and simplified. If not jarring, awkward, and pointless, the movie's Sister Rosetta Tharp homage would've been its only saving grace. Other than that Death on the Nile is the Queen of Mystery in top form.  [5★]

Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway (1927)

Fourteen stories from Hemingway's early period.

Book Review: Men Without Women was published the year following The Sun Also Rises. As with all such collections some entries are good and some weak. A few are among his most acclaimed and popular: "In Another Country," on the vulnerabilities of strong men; "The Killers," which was the basis for a notable film with Burt Lancaster; and "Fifty Grand," the story of an aging and damaged boxer. Hemingway's favorite themes are here, bullfighting, love, and war. There's even a story about homosexuality (presented not unsympathetically) and a short play about the first Good Friday. The best story in the book is "Hills Like White Elephants," an example of his iceberg theory. Others are too obvious ("A Canary for One") and "An Alpine Idyll" seems more like a barroom tale than the work of a craftsman. Men Without Women was published when Hemingway was 28, yet several of the stories involve the travails of aging and end of life. Whether he was trying to present as tough or simply representing his characters and the time, there's more than a fair share of racial epithets in these stories. Men Without Women is also the title of a book by Haruki Murakami, which is unlikely to be a coincidence. Despite the uneven nature of this collection, it's well worth reading for the work of someone who labored hard over his sentences.  [3★]

The Dutch Shoe Mystery by Ellery Queen (1931)

A millionaire matriarch dies moments before surgery, but not because the doctors are too late.

Mystery Review: The Dutch Shoe Mystery is the third in the Ellery Queen (author and detective) series, set in the 1920's, and is simply a good story meant to entertain during a train ride and then be discarded upon arrival at the reader's destination. It's not much more than average, simply a good but small premise stretched over an entire novel. A carefully plotted puzzle but without much enthusiasm or passion. The story focuses more on the mystery than on the characters, which are only thinly developed. Not much there, there. Even Ellery Queen himself lacks charm and is given to uttering pompous and affected quotes at the drop of a hat (such a dated phrase!). The casual racism of the first book (centered on the Queens' manservant) is fortunately more muted here. The resolution of The Dutch Shoe Mystery is insubstantial. It seems cheap and easy when a nonentity of a character suddenly and for the first time gets center stage just in time to conclude the story. The method is overly elaborate, and the motive is unpersuasive. Solely as an intellectual exercise, however, there is some fun to be had. The Ellery Queen books have a "Challenge to the Reader" toward the end to give mystery fans a chance to play detective. The title The Dutch Shoe Mystery has nothing to do with wooden shoes, just as the first Queen mystery had nothing to do with legionnaire's helmets. Just clever wordplay. The question I'm still pondering is that Ellery Queen was a big noise back in the day, but neither of the two books I've read have seemed anything special. I have more EQ books on the shelf so I may figure it out eventually.  [3★]

The Odor of Violets by Baynard Kendrick (1940)

An errant daughter, spies, Nazis, confessions, and more than one murder that must be solved by a blind detective and his two dogs.

Mystery Review: The Odor of Violets demonstrates that author Baynard Kendrick (1894-1977) never met a complication he didn't try to incorporate. Wheels within wheels within wheels. First, start with blind detective, Duncan Maclain, ably assisted by his two German Shepherds. Maclain isn't the first fictional blind detective (see beloved though unrealistic Max Carrados), but he's the most credible. Then add a murder mystery, replete with spies, secret inventions, Nazis, war plans, and national intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, the Second World War rages in Europe. The U.S. hasn't yet entered -- but will soon if Duncan Maclain has his way. The first half of The Odor of Violets is slow as the story is set up with a series of disjointed events, some that are never linked up. The second half moves a little more quickly with the only caveat being that we never get close to the characters. There's little personal interest or humanity as some characters appear out of nowhere and then disappear. A blind detective may seem to be a gimmick, but the book earns its place as a genuine story without overly sensational tricks (as opposed to the superhuman Max Carrados who could read a newspaper with his fingertips). The author, although not blind, was heavily involved in organizations for the blind and even in 1940 fervently and wholeheartedly believed that the U.S. should enter the War. The Odor of Violets was made into a film in 1942 called Eyes in the Night, starring Edward Arnold. Arnold returned for a second installment as Barton Maclain in The Hidden Eye (1945). There was also an American television series, Longstreet (1971) based on the character. This is the third (of 12) in the Duncan Maclain series, but the first I've read. I'm planning to read more.  [3½★]

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie (1936)

A murder occurs during a sedate evening of bridge, but fortunately M. Poirot is one of the players. 

Mystery review: Cards on the Table presents an interesting premise: four detectives meet four suspects, and Christie has a lot of fun with it. She doesn't want the readers to become too attached to the victim so names him Satan. She then introduces inspired mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, clearly intended as a stand-in for Christie -- both Oliver and Christie wrote novels titled The Body in the Library. (Dorothy Sayers had previously introduced her own alter ego in four novels with Harriet Vane.) The detectives and suspects were playing two tables of bridge at the time of the homicide and Poirot delves deep into the psychology of the suspects, finding numerous signifiers in their pattern and practice of play. Bridge was a big deal back in the day, as we learn from Edith Wharton among others (does anyone still know how to play?). Since the players' game scores are given in the frontispiece I thought Cards on the Table would be a purely puzzle kind of mystery, but it's more thoughtful and better developed than that. How Christie constructs her characters is an art: just as deep and as mildly exaggerated as they need to be, but no more and no less. More than cardboard but less than flesh, yet credible and a reasonable facsimile thereof. She's also at her twisty turny best here, providing a veritable school of red herrings. There are many false summits before the end, which is somewhat ironic as "cards on the table" is a synonym for being open and honest. Christie may have been loling all the way with Ariadne Oliver but Cards on the Table is one of the better Poirot outings.  [4★]