Everything Under the Heavens by Dana Stabenow

April 30. Kindle.

Stabenow has disappointed me, which makes me sad because I have enjoyed her Kate Shugak books so much. Of course, the disappointment is somewhat contingent on whether this is intended to be the first of a trilogy or the first of a series. I hope this is a trilogy, because I can excuse a cliffhanger ending in a volume of such; even Tolkien did it. I still think, unless the books are so long that dividing the story into parts is necessary (as in Tolkien), a blatant cliffhanger is a cheap trick to encourage readers to buy the next book.

She has produced another appealing strong female character in an intriguing setting: the Silk Road of the thirteenth century. I rather think that making Johanna the granddaughter of Marco Polo was a bit much, but I can excuse that; naming her Johanna is tougher to swallow, since her mother is Polo's half Chinese daughter and her father is fully Chinese. But, never mind that, the story is an entertaining picture of the transcontinental trade that did so much to shape the world, and the Venetian connection gives her a destination.

Still, I am seriously annoyed because it ended with Johanna's sidekick dead (but somehow I doubt he remains dead) and the evil villain not nearly as dead as he is supposed to be. By the way, the title is not a description of trade on the Silk Road, it is the name of the Chinese city where it all begins.

Longshot by Dick Francis

April 28. Kindle.

I actually remembered this one. I remembered the general setting of the last one, but this one - I even remembered whodunit and what happened to him.

This hero, John Kendall, has written a novel and has exhausted the advance while waiting for publication. So - against everyone's better judgement - he accepts a commission to write a biography of a (surprise!) trainer of race horses.

As we get going, we discover that the day job that he finally gave up to concentrate on writing was writing survival guides for a travel agency which specialized in "adventure holidays;" Surviving in the Wilderness, Surviving in the Jungle, Surviving in the Desert - that sort of thing - don't count on those being the actual titles of the fictional books. When the teenaged boy of the household learns about them, nothing will do but that he must read them. John provides a couple of sets of the books and inadvertently provides a murderer with a wealth of methods.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

26 April. Kindle.

My first inclination was just to say "wow" and leave it at that, but, of course, I couldn't do it. I don't read biography as a rule, but a friend rather tentatively recommended this. I had the impression that she was somewhat surprised by the impression that the book had made on her, so I got it and started reading. One might assume from the fact that it has taken me twelve days to finish it that it was rather tough going and I kept being distracted. In my case, that usually means that I have three or four other books that I have started in the meantime. Not really. It has been a pretty busy two weeks and it is much longer than my usual murder mystery, but the biggest "slow down" was that I kept going back and reading passages over - and over - not because they were difficult to understand, but because the events and personalities described seemed to demand it.

I am impressed by the way that the writer kept himself out of the way in the writing. I found very little direct "editorializing" and concluded that the writer might say that the story and the man spoke for themselves. It certainly seemed so to me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a familiar name to me; when my friend couldn't come up with it and started trying to describe who he was, I came up with the name easily - now I am amazed by how little I actually knew.

As often happens, I am now inclined to run out and buy Bonhoeffer's book and give it a try, but I'm not sure I'm actually ready to try a serious work on theology - translated from the German. Better go back to reading tripe for a while first. I wouldn't want to step too far out of my comfort zone - which I'm sure Bonhoeffer would characterize as cowardice.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

14 April. Kindle.

I expect that reading these chronologically will make them read a little differently. It will be interesting to look at Christie's development of the continuing characters. In this book, the first one, Poiret is almost ludicrous, a parody of something, but I'm not sure what. It would almost seem that Christie is indulging in the "everything not British is ridiculous" attitude that raises American hackles, but she has also made Hastings, Poiret's "Watson" a whiny self-important character who typifies that precise attitude with a vengeance.

Hastings, of course, narrates and spares us no possible observation of the un-Britishness of Poiret - and in every chapter details a fit of pique of his own at being shown up by the absurd little foreigner. An absurd little foreigner who, by the way, he considers a close friend. It rather reminds me of certain nameless individuals toward whom I feel a mild pity because I do not consider them quite bright, but who in turn are condescending to me for the same reason.

This book introduces the Christie take on several things which, if they were not cliche at the time she wrote, have become considered cliche. But, again, I wonder if they are considered cliche because no one else has been able to reproduce them more successfully. The British country house mystery is virtually Christie's personal property. It has the virtue of limiting the suspect pool while providing a setting of luxury and privilege which many of us enjoy "experiencing" - if only through the vehicle of a well-written story. This is also a "locked room" mystery. I think most mystery writers try that on at some point.

We are led from character to character in the role of "suspect of the moment" only to loop back to the original and obvious suspect - with the surprise lying in identity of the murderer's accomplice. Good fun. I'm looking forward to reading my way through them again.

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

12 April. Paper.

Love the freebie table. This one and book two in the series were there and I decided to give them a spin. They are definitely written for young readers - the hero is ten or eleven years old. They seem to be an attempt to cash in on the success of the Harry Potter series. There are a few twists, but essentially a young boy is discovered to have magical gifts and is sent to a special school for training. The first of these came out in 2002 and the first Harry Potter book was released in 1997.

The parallels to Harry Potter make comparison inevitable and this book does not fare well in that comparison. It isn't bad, it is entertaining and I will read the second, but it simply doesn't have the flare that makes Harry Potter so engaging. However, this was definitely better than the book that I read from the Suzanne Collins series for young readers that predated The Hunger Games. Don't bother to go there.

As I said, I plan to go ahead and read the second book, but I expect I will return them to the table after that.

Kris Longknife: Defiant by Mike Shepherd

11 April. Kindle.

To those who love these books - a large part of my frustration with them arises from my conviction that this guy could do this well, but isn't bothering. I suppose if I leave a sufficiently long gap between reading these books I might actually finish them someday, but right now I am sufficiently pissed off at Shepherd to consider never going back to them. On the global level, the story is poorly organized to an astounding degree; on the line by line level -- the man's grammar is atrocious! I'm not talking about the "electronic transcription artifacts" that readers of eliterature are learning to take in stride; the guy is purely illiterate to the point that I wonder if English is his first language. Or perhaps he is just careless and completely indifferent to his readers.

I have said several times in comments on these that they were space opera and it wasn't logical to expect great literary merit from space opera; although, I believe I lambasted another of his, not one of the Kris books (although I believe it was the one where he slipped and called his heroine "Kris" at one point), and suggested that they may have actually been written by an eleven year old with learning disabilities. Still there are appropriate standards for space opera - I don't expect careful foreshadowing and significant social commentary. On the other hand, I do expect a coherent, fast- paced story. A story which should be direct and clearly narrated, no need for symbolism or even character development, it may rely entirely on plot - because it is space opera. This does require of the writer that have a story and tell it. In this one, a full twenty percent of the print according to the running percentage counter on my kindle is wasted on one incredibly boring space battle. Minute by minute from every point of view and nobody, but nobody is as stupid as the Admiral and governor-to-be of the evil Peterwald clan - unless they are confined in a secure facility for their own protection. I turned pages (clicked page forward) very, very quickly. I decided I really didn't care.

He had enough event for two, even three stories, and ended up with a pointless hodgepodge. We open with our heroine accused of sundry crimes and at the point of trial and incarceration - in fact her whole family has been attacked - Dad (the prime minister) has lost a vote of no confidence in parliament; greatgranddad (the king) is unable to act because the interim government doesn't like him; grandpa (the industrial tycoon) is still making money. So little Kris is packed off to calm a planet wavering between joining the alliance of whatever and going with the evil empire. The story on that world would have made pretty good (if silly) space opera if removed from its setting in the middle of pointless crises back home.

When Kris returns from Hawaii (I forget the name of the planet - Hakili, or something - but it is patterned on Hawaii as the western missionaries found it back in the eighteenth century, i.e. before muumuus), the original crisis is all forgotten, except for having to work around tiresomely inept governmental idiocy. I guess Shepherd cooked up the temporary removal of the Longknife clan to create the situation which the evil empire is exploiting. The interim Wardhaven prime minister and his cabinet of bobble-head dolls have been tricked into sending the entire fleet away, so the evil empire can send in a troop of monster ships to bomb the planet back into the stone age - thus wiping out the Longknife clan and rendering the planet useless for thousands of years. Which kept me wondering what the governor-to-be was supposed to govern when all was said and done.

To no one's surprise, I am sure, Kris cobbles together a "fleet" and sallies forth to face monster battleships with her ragtag bunch of volunteers. Take your pick of analogies "In the manner of the Polish cavalry riding out to face the German panzer divisions" or "like the civilians who took their rowboats and crossed the English channel to evacuate the troops pinned down on the French seacoast at Dunkirk." Of course, the Germans never figured out that the rowboats were coming until the deed was done, and the Polish cavalry was completely wiped out. So, with enormous courage and individual acts of personal sacrifice -- and, of course, devastating loss of life, David prevails against Goliath and the world is saved. And of Kris's little bunch only one was killed - one whose wedding to another of her little band occupied much of the earlier parts of the book. He has been wearing a red shirt for a couple of books now. Fortunately, Kris had given him the opportunity to spend a night with his new bride before he was killed.

So much for the garbled excuse for a plot. The grammar issues are another whole realm of horror. The story deals with the elite of this world - royalty, high level politicians, ranking military officers in all branches. And even if a character originated in a mining community with collars as blue as can be, they have at this point been to military academies and universities and learned how to behave in polite society. They don't say things like "don't take it personal" - it is quite possible to get through life without knowing the difference between an adjective and an adverb, but, if you want to hang out with the big guys, you had better use them appropriately instead of inappropriate.

Perhaps like that one deadly dull Dick Francis book, this one was poorly received and he mended his ways hereafter - I don't recall problems of this type in the later books that I read.

I have always tried to avoid saying "Dang, Ah coulda done better mahself," for fear that someone will jump up and say "So go do it already and stop fussing about someone who did." Maybe this time I will procrastinate for fear that I might actually do as he as done. Although, given calibre of the people that read and correct and comment on everything I write, I think it unlikely that I could get away with it.

The Edge by Dick Francis

7 April. Kindle.

I have been rationing these, but I missed this one. It wasn't on the shelf - must be in a box somewhere - because this time I am quite certain that I have read it before. I definitely remember the train. It's all sort of Orient Express-ish - except that we know from the very beginning who the bad guy is. I guess we knew who the bad guy was in Murder on the Orient Express, too - only he was the victim -- it's been a long time, better get Agatha out again.

Tor (abbreviated from Torquil) Kelsey is the Jockey Club's invisible man. Now they are sending him undercover on the Canadian Jockey Club's Transcontinental Race Train to try and catch a known villain in the act.

I remembered the train and one or two events, but as with the last one that I read (which was really the next one, if I hadn't gotten them out of order) I was again impressed with the development of writing craft that has appeared in these later books. Tor is not physically memorable, which makes it possible for him to be the invisible man and that professional invisibility has become part of his persona. He must stay invisible and that has created isolation in his life in general. On the train, he spends many days in the company of the same comparatively small group of people - and even in his role as kitchen help - his essential character makes itself felt. This has the potential to destroy his effectiveness at his job, but promises much more satisfaction in his life - a dilemma which he deals with throughout.

These are simply getting better and better.

Straight by Dick Francis

3 April.

This was the next one on the shelf, and I didn't remember anything about it. I did get a bit of a shock when I found the bookmark that I had left in it from earlier reading. It was a cinquecento lire note. Perhaps the twenty-five intervening years accounts for my lapse of memory. It came out in '89, which was the year we returned to the states. Also, on this one I hit the wall. I have been steadfastly reading them on paper, since they are on the shelf. But this one was hard to manage with yellowed paper and small print - so I caved and bought it for my kindle. It was almost like the time I became fascinated by an excerpt from Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann. I ran to the library and checked out the complete work and read and read - and finally became so frustrated because the reading was difficult and taking more time and effort than I had hoped that I ran back to the library and checked out an English translation and read them side by side. There are only a few more Francis books on the shelf and I would have to go to electronic form anyway, so ... . Isn't rationalization great?

I really don't think I ever read it. His plots are becoming ever more complex. There are at least three subplots in simultaneous action. Derek Franklin is a steeplechase jockey. As the book opens, his brother, Greville, has been injured in an accident and dies. Greville is some twenty years Derek's senior and since neither is married, their two sisters have left England for Japan and Australia, and their parents are dead, they essentially have no other family. They are friendly, get together from time to time, but are not particularly close. Still, Greville has named Derek his next of kin, executor, and sole heir.

The main theme is Derek's growing knowledge of and affection for his much older brother as his sifts through his life and puts more and more of the bits together. Greville is very much a presence in the story. As for mysteries - there is the matter of the missing diamonds (Greville was a dealer in semi-precious stones), there is the drug lord trying to get a gaming license, and what is the deal with the trainer of Greville's race horses? And most particularly - who is trying to kill Derek? and did these persons unknown also kill Greville? And then there is Greville's most secret mistress . . .

As for the title, references float through the entire book and it seems to me to be the most nuanced of all Francis's titles so far. In Greville's diary, he had several quotations about honesty as opposed to crookedness. One of Derek's friends calls him "straight" because he hasn't ever experimented with drugs. And all through, Derek feels inadequate as he discovers more and more about the standards that his brother set for himself: "May I deal with honour. May I act with courage. May I achieve humility."

Voice of the Eagle by Linda Lay Shuler

1 April

This was a little disappointing, but I'm not exactly sure how to characterize the problem I had with it. The first book was all right, certainly not spectacular enough to send me ripping into this one immediately. In fact, I was somewhat reluctant to pick it up at all. I suppose it wasn't bad; it kept me reading, but not compulsively.

Kwani manages to stick with this guy through several crises, he raises her son as his own and they have a daughter. Characters from Book 1 resurface and cause new trouble. Her "mate" is killed and she eventually takes another.

There is a third book in the series. I bought all three of them when they were on the cheap books for kindle list some months ago. I suppose I am going to have to read it, if only to see what the author does. You see, at the end of this book, Kwani is dead - and the subtitle of all three books is "Kwani" - so how is that going to work? I expect that, as the new She Who Remembers, Kwani's daughter, Antelope, will be in communication with her mother as Kwani was with the previous holders of the title.

The Burglar in the Closet by Lawrence Block

29 March.

Can Block have established a pattern so soon in the series? As in the first book, Bernie takes on a job at the request of an acquaintance - against his better judgment, of course - and the execution of this crime leaves him on the scene with a corpse. This further leaves him homeless because the police have his place under surveillance waiting for the return of the obvious suspect. And all of this leaves him with no option but to find the actual murderer himself since it is the only way that he is going to get himself off the hook. Once is an accident, twice may be a coincidence, thrice is a conspiracy - or in this case, once is a clever plot device, twice might possibly be coincidental, three times is definitely a pattern. The plot similarities were simply too clear to ignore.

The title - which came first: the clever title or the ridiculous situation in which our hero finds himself? In the course of burglarizing the home of his dentist's ex-wife (that, too, is fairly ridiculous), she returns home unexpectedly, and Bernie hides in her closet while she and her male companion waste no time getting down to business. She even locked him in there, forcing him to be an unwilling earwitness to their activities. eventually they finish, the boyfriend leaves, and she takes a shower. Unfortunately, her shower is interrupted by the murderer who stabs her with a dental tool - to implicate the dentist/ex-husband - and decamps with the attache case which Bernie has carefully filled with her jewelry. For Bernie, that is definitely the last straw, after all, he stole the stuff fair and square himself and here some rank outsider comes in and takes advantage of his careful work.

This series is clearly written for fun - and it is fun. The stereotypes are so very stereotypical: lawyers are so smarmy, the cops are either completely corrupt or too dumb to be corrupted, Bernie the burglar is well dressed and urbane and an absolute master of the art of picking locks, fair maidens whether plant waterers or dental hygienists, are lovely and much too practical to stick with a professional burglar.

Hot Money by Dick Francis

28 March.

Dick Francis's usual hero is a loner without visible family; for a change, Ian Pembroke is digging into the murder of his stepmother and the repeated attempts on his father's life. Don't start imagining loving domesticity, however. The murdered stepmother is Malcolm Pembroke's fifth wife and Ian is the fifth of his nine children. In fact, the entire pool of suspects is the Pembroke family. Not exactly Happy Families. I've read references to Happy Families for years - finally looked it up. It is, as I was fairly certain, a British children's game, but not, as I imagined, a board game. It is a card game which sounds very much like the game of Authors which we played as children. It also has absolutely nothing to do with this story.

Ian has been estranged from his father for three years - ever since he strongly advised his dad against marrying his fifth wife - and his father decked him and broke his nose. Now that said wife has been murdered and there have been a couple of attempts on his own life, Malcolm (his children all called him by his given name) has called on Ian to serve as his bodyguard. And the evidence indicates that the murderer is one of the family.

At least we have a somewhat limited suspect pool. Not as limited as it might be given the extent of the family, but still less than the entire population of England. By the way, Ian makes his way as an amateur jockey - so the racing connection is maintained. The title, however, seems to come from some American racing slang which Malcolm picks up along the way.