January Newzine
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! WELCOME TO 2019!
Awards!
2018 Nero Award Winner Announced:
Winner: Stephen Mack Jones, August Snow (Soho Crime)
The 2018 Nero Finalists:
Warren C. Easley, Blood for Wine (Poisoned Pen Press)
Loren D. Estelman, The Lioness is the Hunter (Forge)
Matt Goldman, Gone to Dust (Forge)
Kathleen Kent, The Dime (Mulholland Books/Little, Brown)
November 27: MWA Announces 2019 Special Edgar Awards – Grand Master, Raven and Ellery Queen Award Recipients
Podcasts
Michael Connelly is starting a podcast called Murder Book. Sounds like fun! It starts January 28th.
Word of the Month
nick-fidge: a child who is always getting scolded (thanks to Says You, episode #815)
Book Events
January 9: Christopher Sandford, Third Place Books/SP
January 11-20: Tasveer South Asian Literary Festival
January 12 and Jan. 16.: Jayne Ann Krentz
January 18: Lindsay Faye, Powell’s
January 18: Gail Carriger, UBooks
January 29: Ian Rankin in conversation with Phillip Margolin, Powell’s
Links of Interest
November 30: Powell’s Books CEO reflects on her career, reading habits and why she loves books
November 30: Books are back: Indigo CEO talks the future of book stores, new Robson Street store
December 2: Jeeves And Wooster, But Make It A Modern Spy Novel
December 2: Is Your Holiday Gift Spying On You?\
December 3: In Love With Teen Lit: Remembering The ‘Paperback Crush’ Of The ’80s And ’90s
December 3: Spoiler Alert! The Psychology Of Surprise Endings
December 3: 2018 Bad Sex Writing
~ Bad Sex in Fiction Award: James Frey ‘honoured’ to win 2018 title for novel ‘Katerina’
~ Bad Sex in Fiction Award: Haruki Murakami, James Frey and Gerard Woodward among all-male shortlist
~ Bad Sex awards: 20 of the worst shortlisted extracts from Morrissey to Stephen King
December 5: Former Guild Theatre in downtown Portland will become home to Japanese bookstore
December 6: How We Got Hooked On Grisly True Crime Murders
December 6: Val McDermid’s ‘Broken Ground’ Balances Location, Character And Props In Perfect Proportion
December 6: What Kind of Monster Tears the Pages Out of Books? Aquaman!
December 7: The worst things about working in shops at Christmas
December 7: The Paper Publishing a Holiday Books Guide since 1851
December 8: Is Listening to a Book the Same Thing as Reading It?
December 9: The Man Making Art From Government Surveillance
December 10: Starving The Watchdog: Who Foots The Bill When Newspapers Disappear?
December 10: John le Carré’s Next Novel to Land in 2019
December 11: Mystery Blast Sank The USS San Diego in 1918. New Report Reveals What Happened
December 11: Brazilian Booksellers Face Wave of Closures That Leave Sector in Crisis
December 11: What’s eating this 400-year-old painting?
December 12: Chocolate meltdown closes German road
December 12: 25 Movies Added To National Film Registry
December 12: James Patterson made $86 million in 2018, topping the list of the world’s highest-paid authors
December 12: When out-of-date code causes chaos
December 13: Roald Dahl’s war medals finally arrive, 73 years on
December 13: New Zealand anger over Google naming murder suspect
December 13: New York Times London crime Twitter appeal backfires
December 14: The inside story: How police and the FBI found one of the country’s worst serial killers
December 15: Oregon library halts book-discard effort after list revealed
December 17: Amazon faces boycott ahead of holidays as public discontent grows
December 18: She swiped her co-worker’s Coke can. Police say it cracked a 28-year-old murder case.
December 18: “Making a Murderer” detective sues Netflix for defamation
December 18: Cate Blanchett Disappears in the Trailer for “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”
December 19: Lee Child on HARDtalk
December 20: Third of rare Scotch whiskies tested found to be fake
December 21: Why this Tokyo book shop is charging customers an entry fee
December 22: True-life treasure hunt that turned into a comic book
December 23: Bottleneck at Printers Has Derailed Some Holiday Book Sales
December 27: James Lee Burke ~ By the Book
December 28: This American Life ~ The Room of Requirement: “Libraries aren’t just for books. They’re often spaces that transform into what you need them to be: a classroom, a cyber café, a place to find answers, a quiet spot to be alone. It’s actually kind of magical. This week, we have stories of people who roam the stacks and find unexpected things that just happen to be exactly what they required.”
December 28: Notes from the Book Review Archive: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Thought Sherlock Holmes Was ‘a Lower Stratum of Literary Achievement’
December 28: How paperback redesigns give publishers a second chance at winning readers
December 28: Glasgow’s LGBT book shop a ‘wonderful success’
December 28: Josephine Baker’s secret life as a World War II spy
December 29: The Krull House by Georges Simenon review – a dark masterpiece
December 29: New Life for Old Classics, as Their Copyrights Run Out
December 30: Tell Us 5 Things About Your Book: A Deep Dive Back Into ‘The Sopranos’
Word of the Month – Continued
Murdermongress – (nonce-word) A female writer of murder stories.
Origin: From murdermonger + -ess. Earliest use found in Ogden Nash’s (1902–1971) description of Agatha Christie in a 1957 work.
Pronunciation: /ˌməːdəmʌŋɡəˈrɛs//ˈməːdəˌmʌŋɡ(ə)rɪs/
(Thanks to Oxford English Dictionary)
R.I.P.
December 14: Sondra Locke: Any Which Way You Can actress dies aged 74
December 18: Penny Marshall: US TV star and director dies aged 75
December 27: Seattle loses its chronicler of vice: journalist Rick Anderson
This is a photo from our old blog: “Journalist, columnist and all-around-writer Rick Anderson was in to sign ‘Seattle Vice’. The sub-title says it well: ‘Strippers, Prosititution, Dirty Money and Crooked Cops in the Emerald City’. 11.20.10”
Word of the Month – Lastly
scot-free (adj.) Old English scotfreo “exempt from royal tax,” from scot “royal tax,” from Old Norse skot “contribution,” literally “a shooting, shot; thing shot, missile” (from Proto-Indo-European root *skeud- “to shoot, chase, throw;” the Old Norse verb form, skjota, has a secondary sense of “transfer to another; pay”) + freo (see free (adj.)). First element related to Old English sceotan “to pay, contribute,” Dutch schot, German Schoß “tax, contribution.” French écot “share” (Old French escot) is from Germanic. (thanks to etymonline)
What We’ve Been Doing
Amber
Don’t forget to check out my original mystery! Finder Of Lost Things
This Friday Phoebe meets her mystery during an unexpected FLYT fare!
Murder At The Brightwell by Ashley Weaver
Murder At The Brightwell is a rare treat, a contemporaneously written mystery which feels as if it were penned during the nineteen-thirties. A closed caste of characters, subtle violence, and with the very glamorous upper-crust class of English society – all of which are hallmarks of the era (of writing).
What I find fascinating is the author’s ability to slip in complex emotional ties without ever detracting from the story: the not-so-subtle marital issues, the love triangles and a finely illustrated double standard applied to husbands & wives of the period – all of which concern, in one way or another, our band of vacationers. But Weaver does such an excellent job of using these same motives in a variety of ways it adds to the underlying tension without ever once becoming monotonous.
I loved it.
Her styles reminds me a bit if you crossed Georgette Heyer’s mysteries with Agatha Christie’s. Not romance as such portrayed on the page, but the detailing of complex relationships shared by people which can give rise to all kinds of unresolved or unexpressed feelings which in turn can lead to happy endings if hammered out or dangerous, dark emotions if left to fester.
This understated attention to the interpersonal relationships and social mores makes for fascinating and rich reading.
Because our detectives are suffering the woes of marital strife, much of the book feels a touch melancholy. Which is not usually my cup of tea, but because the mystery and the people are so interesting, for once this didn’t bother me. Which is a huge tribute to the author, because the prose never tipped into the trap over overstated sadness or despair – or having the heroine witter on about what a bad wife she thinks she is (taking on blame that isn’t her own trying to justify her husband’s bad behavior is an irritating read, in my opinion).
In any case, I would recommend this first in series to anyone who enjoys reading a great classic/historical mystery set in England!
Fran
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine. Of course, I always thought of it as “Way Back” machine, but it did make history interesting.
Fun Fact (before I actually start talking books): For a long time, nobody knew what WABAC meant, just that computers of that period generally ended in AC – ENIAC, UNIVAC, which lead to “brainiac”, where AC stood for Analog Computer – so of course WABAC had to end in “AC”. It was theorized at one point that WABAC stood for “Wormhole Activating & Bridging Automatic Computer”, but in 2014, DreamWorks created the “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” movie, and they announced that WABAC actually stands for “Wavelength Acceleration Bidirectional Asynchronous Controller”. So now you know.
Anyway, we hop into the WABAC machine, and we head to the 1970’s, which is farther back than I’d prefer to remember it being, and the sentence that always led to brainiac exercises was, “How do you justify your existence?”
That was the question that was asked of guests at every meeting of the Black Widower Society, a fictional monthly meeting of men who were based on the real life society Isaac Asimov belonged to at the time, although the cast was never based on his compatriots.
Tales of the Black Widowers and More Tales of the Black Widowers are frequently overlooked by both science fiction and mystery lovers, which is unfortunate because they are some fabulous little mysteries. At each meeting of the Black Widowers, a puzzle is presented, whether deliberately or not, and all of the wildly intelligent members of the Black Widowers takes a turn at trying to solve it. In the end, it’s the waiter, Henry, who comes through, because he sees things simply and straightforwardly.
Okay, before someone starts shouting at me about sexism and whatnot, remember the time this was written. Yes, it’s sexist. Not necessarily misogynistic, but definitely sexist. My response is that’s the time it was written, it’s a period piece – you’ll notice no one has cell phones either – and just enjoy the puzzles. The personalities of each of the characters is well-defined, and as a treat, in one of the stories in the sequel, Asimov inserts himself as a guest, although he uses the pseudonym “Mortimer Stellar”.
Seriously, take a trip back to the mid 70’s and have a few evenings with the Black Widowers, if you can. The books are largely out of print, to the best of my knowledge, so you have the added delight of tracking them down, like the detective you know you are!
(BTW: Amber Here – I read all these short stories at Fran’s urging and she’s right – as always – these are Fine mysteries! Which are well worth the extra effort of tracking down!)
JB
I’ve read most of the books by Ben MacIntyre. I missed the book on the formation of soldiers during WW2 of what would become the SIS. That came out when the shop was closing and I just didn’t get to it. His newest is The Spy and the Traitor. It’s a very timely book as it deals with Soviet espionage and the Russian spy who became an important double agent for the West at the end of the Cold War. 
It’s full of Soviet aims and Soviet skills, as well as the mixed efforts of their side. For every die-hard Soviet agent intent on defeating the West there was one who didn’t care and worked more for themselves. This story of Oleg Gordievsky is illuminating because he was from a KGB father and had accepted the entire Soviet line about the decadent West. While he did see as much decadence in the West as in his own country, he was staggered by the freedoms, the art, the music, and the happiness of the West.
In an age where Russia seems to be turning back to Soviet life under Putin, MacIntyre lays out the fruitlessness of this. It’s all about control at the top and power and those who suffer are those ordinary citizens, not the elite. In this, the mirror is held up to the West these days and we have to ask where we are going.
The truly alarming section of the book deals with the Andropov era and how he steered the Soviet world into a concrete belief that the West under Reagan was about to preemptively launch a nuclear attack against the Warsaw Pact and orders were sent out to be alert for certain signs that the attack was near – signs that largely were of everyday actions and policies of the West that had no part of an attack. It’s a chilling account that I had not heard about before.
I highly recommend this book, indeed, any book by Ben MacIntyre. You can’t call them “true crime” but fascinating history told well they are.
Shop Small Businesses If You Don’t
They go away …
Happy Christmas!
A Gift Idea
Amber Here!
With December in full swing, most of my spare time is taken up with shopping, crafting or baking commitments. Leaving me very little time for reading and reviewing books for you guys.
However, back in the beginning of November while killing some time in Bellevue Square I ran across a toy I think any mystery lover would enjoy!
Lego’s Detective’s Office !
With a suspicious barbershop (which has a secret exit), hoods playing pool & drinking beer in the Highlander and a femme fatal, this Lego set answers the question: Does Lego Town contain a seedy side? And the answer is yes!
(Though it is a kids toy so it’s rather tame.)
So if you are looking for a gift idea for someone who already has enough mysteries to read (like that’s even possible) and enjoyed Legos as a kid, I highly suggest this build!
BTW the finished product is nowhere close to the size of the box all the pieces come in, I promise! It fits comfortably on an IKEA bookshelf!
One other thing, it takes 2,262 bits and pieces to build and if you’re great at following instructions, then you shouldn’t find this build to intimidating (even if you haven’t played with Legos for over thirty years). However, younger less patient builders may find the set frustrating if assembling it on their own – so I’d recommend building it with them.
Seriously I forgot how much I enjoyed playing with Legos as a kid until I picked up this Lego set and assembled it over several weekends while watching football. It even inspired me to purchase another set, the Ninjago City, which reminds me of the cityscapes in Total Recall (the new version), Firefly and Bladerunner.
I cannot wait to start putting it together!
My Other Blog:
And don’t forget to check out my weekly penny dreadful – Finder Of Lost Things!
This week the crew’s recounting unfortunate roommates over pizza and Phoebe discovers she might not be the oddest one in the house!
A Dangerous Threat to Freedom and Fun
The new “community guidelines”* announced by tumblr are, to me, insidious and dangerous. We’re being told that anything with “adult content” will not be allowed. It is limiting free expression in so very many ways and leaves us at the mercy of the repressive tastes of others. In effect, tumblr is setting itself up to be an “adult filter”. In 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stevens wrote “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [“hard-core pornography”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.“ Bullshit!
My fear now is that the mystery and crime and noir images that I have spent years assembling may fall prey to tumblr’s new rules and old images may have to be removed, new images will be rejected, or this entire site may be turned off by them against my choice.
It is very true that a majority of the images I have posted over the years involve violence and cruelty by one person against another: thugs roughing up women, gunman blasting tommyguns at g-men, femme fatales shooting marks, dames stealing and tux-clad dandies smiling while they turn the screws. These are the dark streets of American culture as Chandler eloquently wrote, accompanied by “the raucous laughter of the strongman.”
I do not support the violence included in these images but they are images that we can no more suppress or ignore than we can ban Mark Twain for the language of his time that he used in his books. This is the way it was, ladies and gentleman, deal with it. It is our cultural history, our cultural landscape. You cannot have “Chinatown” or “LA Confidential” without the pulp images of the early 20th C. Do we no longer show “Psycho” because a naked woman is slaughtered in a shower?
And while we’re at it, some of those who painted the covers for the early pulps were Great American Artists: Dalton Stevens, H.J. Ward, Norman Saunders, Gloria Stoll, Robert Maguire, Robert McGinnis, Walter Popp, Robert Stanley, Modest Stein, Jes Schlaikjer – the list is large. No one should be able to tell you you can’t see any of them due to a painting of a fist, a knife, an unclad bust, or a face twisted in fear. That’s just un-American. It is also ludicrous.
I reject that anyone can tell me what I can see. I reject that anyone has the right to monitor and decide for themselves what can be seen. Tumblr may say they are doing this to create a safe place for all but censorship to achieve safety is a slippery slope. Are you prepared to “exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead roll in a cage”?
I will continue to post what I want, what I think is good and worthy of being shared. I do not post what I find to be cruel or salacious. I post what I find interesting visually. There are thousands of images of true crime magazines from the 60s on what are stupidly ugly and there’s nothing at all, for me, redeeming in how they’re presented or designed or composed.They’re just mean and I won’t use them. Others may think what I have posted are mean and that’s fine. Turn away, don’t look. But I filter myself, you don’t get to do it.
I began this blog as a creative outlet for myself and for something else for the customers and fans of the bookshop. Since then, as of this moment, I’ve posted 15,561 images, I have 61 in queue to post and have 142 in draft form. I had never thought about how long I’d continue but rebel at the idea that others may decide what I can and cannot post. That’s unacceptable.
So it may come some day that there are no more posts on the Seattle Mystery Bookshop Hardboiled site. My bookshop is gone, living only in our memories and in places like this. Building this collection has been a labor of love. I hope to continue. If it ends, it will not be by choice.
If you enjoy this site, if you like sites like this, take the time to let those who have instituted it know.
~ JB Dickey
*From tumblr’s new guidelines:
“Adult Content. Don’t upload images, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples —this includes content that is so photorealistic that it could be mistaken for featuring real-life humans (nice try, though). Certain types of artistic, educational, newsworthy, or political content featuring nudity are fine. Don’t upload any content, including images, videos, GIFs, or illustrations, that depicts sex acts. For more information about what this guideline prohibits and how to appeal decisions about adult content, check out our help desk.
Violent Content and Threats, Gore and Mutilation. Don’t post content which includes violent threats toward individuals or groups – this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don’t post violent content or gore just to be shocking. Don’t showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality), or their remains. Don’t post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of violence or the perpetrators.”
December Newzine
Dictionary.com contends that the Word of the Year, 2018, is misinformation. Our point of view is why should there be only one?
Stan Lee
As you’ve no doubt heard, American Master Stan Lee died on November 12th. While much has been written about his impact and accomplishments, we ran across this that we’d not heard about when it was originally printed. From November 2007 issue of The Atlantic, this is Stan Lee’s “powerful definition of the American idea”. Take a moment to read this: America is a Dream.
Awards!
It’s that time of year again, award season for books! Announced on October 27th (we are a hair late) are the CWA Dagger Award Winners. Grats to one and all!
The CWA Diamond Dagger:Michael Connelly
The CWA Gold Dagger: Steve Cavanagh – THE LIAR
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Attica Locke – BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD
The John Creasey Debut Dagger: Melissa Scrivner Love – LOLA
The CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction: Thomas Harding – BLOOD ON THE PAGE
The CWA Historical Dagger: Rory Clements – NUCLEUS
The CWA Short Story Dagger: Denise Mina – “NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT”, BLOODY SCOTLAND
The International Dagger: Henning Mankell – AFTER THE FIRE
The CWA Debut Dagger: Bill Crotty – THE ETERNAL LIFE OF EZRA BEN SIMEON
Highly Commended: Joseph James – RIVERINE BLOOD
The CWA Dagger in the Library: Martin Edwards.
November 15th: National Book Award Winners
Word of the Month
Bunyip (noun – plural -s – bun·yip | \ˈbənˌyip\) – impostor, phony
Bunyip comes to us from Australia, where the word originally had the meaning “a legendary wild animal usually described as a monstrous swamp-dwelling man-eater.” Bunyip comes from an Aboriginal language, and began appearing in print in the 1840s.
The “impostor” meaning came shortly thereafter, appearing the following decade.
“…and they one and all recognized the bone and picture as belonging to the “Bunyip,” repeating the name without variation.”
— Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate (Victoria, Aus.), 2 Jul. 1845
Thanks to Merriam-Webster website for the word & definition
Links of Interest
October 31st: Judge’s copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover fetches £56K at auction
October 31st: The Scottish writer who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula
November 1st: Medieval ‘Porpoise grave’ remains a mystery
November 1st: Gunpowder Plot: 1605 Thomas Percy link found in archives
November 1st: Portland’s Rose City Book Pub, a bookstore and bar, now open
November 1st: Pride and Passion: Jane Austen novels the Brazilian way
November 1st: Killing Eve: How the hit BBC show’s killer soundtrack was made
November 2nd: West Side Story’s gangs get new moves after 60 years
November 3rd: Ian Rankin Interview ‘I couldn’t get on with War and Peace’
November 3rd: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ to Release Campaign Setting Book in 2019
December Issue: Jack Reacher Still Won’t Quit, 23 Books Later
November 4th: Murdered mob boss gave stolen Boston art to IRA, says former Met detective
November 5th: Booksellers show unprecedented act of solidarity
November 5th: Morbid exhibits of UCL’s Pathology Museum
November 6th: Why a Book Tour Is More Brutal Than a Political Campaign
November 6th: How Stan Lee led the 1960s superhero revolution
November 7th: Drowning cow saved by ‘mermaid’ on a swim
November 7th: Collection of ‘obscene’ books on display at Oxford University
November 10th: How Edgar Allan Poe Got Kicked out of the U.S. Army
November 12th: Enigma code veteran to take secrets ‘to end of my days’
November 12th: ‘A pas de deux of sex and violence’: a poet’s guide to film noir
November 12th: Amazon asked to share Echo data in US murder case
November 13th: Arrest in hunt for ‘Ross from Friends’ lookalike
November 14th: Reusable coffee mugs that can be borrowed like library books
November 14th: The Birth, Death, and Long Afterlife of The Gashlycrumb Tinies
November 14th: ‘Too short’ Tom Cruise to be replaced for Jack Reacher reboot – Maybe they’ll get it right this time?
November 15th: John Sandford: By the Book
November 15th: Lost Disney ‘Oswald’ film found in Japan
November 15th: Megan Abbott’s Work Diary –‘My Psychiatrist Notes How Tired I Look, Which Is Great’
November 15th: Seattle high-school teacher shares ‘the wonder of books’ with students on a different kind of field trip
November 16th: Mark Twains Complicated Relationship with the Typewriter
November 18th: 4am Starts and Spinach Smoothies – Dan Brown on How to Write a Bestseller
November 18th: Dan Brown on Trump – “Reality Has Surpassed Fiction”
November 18th: Bookstore’s Tweet On The Sale Of A Children’s Book After 27 Years Goes Viral
November 19th: The Birth, Death, and Long Afterlife of The Gashlycrumb Tinies ~E is for Edward who wrote a gory masterpiece.
November 19th: Canadian literary prize suspended after finalists object to Amazon sponsorship
November 20th: How Agatha Christie hides her plot secrets in plain sight
November 20th: NYTimes ~ 100 Notable Books of 2018
November 23rd: Stop Thief! An otter on the loose is eating koi from a formal garden
November 23rd: Laura Lippman ~ Books That Made Me
November 26th: The isolated Albanian artillery base hidden in a cliff
November 28th: Margaret Atwood to write Handmaid’s Tale sequel
November 28th: Harry Potter are endless tie-ins diluting the magic?
Word of the Month – Continued
phony (adj.): also phoney, “not genuine,” 1899, perhaps an alteration of fawney “gilt brass ring used by swindlers.”
His most successful swindle was selling “painted” or “phony” diamonds. He had a plan of taking cheap stones, and by “doctoring” them make them have a brilliant and high class appearance. His confederates would then take the diamonds to other pawnbrokers and dispose of them. [“The Jewelers Review,” New York, April 5, 1899]
The noun meaning “phony person or thing” is attested from 1902.
thanks to etymonline
R.I.P.
November 2nd: Raymond Chow: Film mogul who discovered Bruce Lee dies at 91
November 7th: Kitty O’Neil: Wonder Woman stuntwoman dies at 72
November 7th: Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Long-Serving Times Book Critic, Dies at 84
November 12th: Douglas Rain: Actor who voiced Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey dies
November 12th: Stan Lee
November 25th: magician, author, and actor Ricky Jay (he was in a terrific crime movie filmed here in Seattle, David Mamet’s House of Games)
Word of the Month – Lastly
What We’ve Been Doing
Amber
Don’t forget to check out my original mystery! Finder Of Lost Things
Jenn McKinlay – Hitting The Books
Lindsey Norris, Library Director of Briar Creek Library, didn’t seek out trouble this time. She just gazed out the window during the weekly crafternoon meeting, when she witnessed the hit-and-run of one her patrons. The weird thing? Lindsey is pretty sure the car sped up and swerved into Theresa Huston. But who would want to hurt the former tennis pro? When the driver turns up dead in the car with a stack of library materials in the passenger’s seat – Lindsey can’t help but do her own investigating…
I am so glad I stuck with this series! This installment is an excellent read! The mystery itself is engaging, and the variety of subplots (which are woven in flawlessly) are hilarious. I also enjoy how McKinlay is able to keep her library angle fresh and interesting for her readers.
I would recommend this book (which you can start with, provided you know going in that this installment isn’t close to being the first-in-series) to anyone looking for a fun fastpaced cozy read! Seriously this book moved at a quick clip from cover to cover!
Brandon Sanderson – Legion
Stephen Leeds is a genius.
Kinda.
Stephen can learn any new skill in a matter of hours, has a photographic memory and is considered the smartest man on the planet. But unlike Sherlock, who utilizes his mind palace to recall information from the depths of his psyche, Stephen speaks with his aspects.
What’s an aspect? Glad you asked…An aspect is how his brain outsources its knowledge. Stephen only has access to the information when that particular hallucination is advising him. A new aspect pops into existence each time Stephen acquires a new skill, like learning Hebrew or astrophysics. Each aspect (or hallucination, but most of them don’t like this term) comes complete with their own name, unique physical features and is nutty as a fruitcake in their own unique way. Stephen has forty-seven aspects and counting.
Having gotten tired of being studied by people with strings of letters after their names (which made him rich), Stephen and his team of imaginary experts now solve mysteries; such as locating a missing scientist and his revolutionary prototype or figuring out who stole a dead body and why.
Perfectly ordinary cases, well except for the teleporting cat…
Stephan Leeds is one of the most unique characters I have read in a very long time, and I’m kinda bummed that Sanderson only wrote these three novellas featuring this extraordinary detective!
While this novel is composed of three individual components – it doesn’t feel that way. There’s an overarching mystery which helps to marry the three together. Plus Stephen Leeds’ (as well as his aspect’s) voice is consistent thru the entire book, which also helps keep the continuity.
Then there’s Stephen himself who provides a fascinating point of view to read from. He’s quirky (not crazy as he repeatedly tells us), but all of his aspects are mad as March hares – which causes no end of hilarity! Plus watching how he’s learned how to cope with the nuances of his own mind is inspiring (for those of us still trying to master our own).
Then there are the mysteries themselves, which Sanderson jampacks with action, levity, and depth. Skin Deep’s (the second novella) resolution contains one of the comical twist endings I’ve read in a long while.
Overall I think anyone who enjoys mysteries with a splash of strangeness will enjoy reading Legion and I cannot wait to badger Fran into reading this book! (Which, BTW, is much harder now that we don’t see each other five days a week – perhaps a letter writing campaign? Everyone likes getting mail that isn’t a bill…Right?)
Seriously if the shop was still open I’d be putting this book into your hands and telling you to trust me – you’re going to love it!
Fran
Okay, I know you don’t like short stories. I get it, I do.
(Not you. You love short stories, and you probably already have this anthology. Just have my back, ‘kay?)
But I’m asking for a leap of faith here – this is a “trust me” moment.
Last year, Soho Press put out a Christmas/Holiday anthology called The Usual Santas. Eighteen short stories, all holiday themed although not necessarily Christmas themed. And you must read this book.
I’m not kidding! Holy cats, is it FUN! Dark in many ways, laugh-out-loud funny in others, compelling no matter what. Stash it in the car so you can read while you’re waiting in line. Tuck it into your jacket for when you’re on the bus. Hell, put it in the bathroom, and read the occasional story there.
This is a holiday buffet that simply can’t be beat. And see, just look at all the authors – Martin Limón, Peter Lovesey, Helene Tursten, Stuart Neville, Cara Black, Colin Cotterill, and James Benn, whose quote about the anthology, “The Usual Santas: a very good example of that kind of thing.” is perfect.
Oh, and fair warning. When I get older, I’m changing my name to Maud.
You’ve been warned.
JB
I have stacks of books around here that I had gathered during my decades at the bookshop that I never allowed myself enough time 
to read. I have one pile of biographies of jazz masters, or painting masters, of history and biography and I am now getting to some of them. Starting in early October, I picked up David McCullough’s Truman. While the President and I come from the same area, and I knew the basics of his life, I have to say I really knew very little about HST’s life. This thousand-page book won McCullaugh the Pulitzer Prize and every page shows why. It has been worth every moment of the nearly two months it took to read it!
I did take a couple of breaks. One was to read the latest Lee Child (great news they’re going to find someone LARGER to play Reacher) and Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers (disappointingly thin on detail in comparison to the Truman tome…).
From page 947-8 of the McCullough:
“The opening installment of the Memoirs, titles ‘The Most Momentous First 18 Days’ appeared in the September 25th issue of Life, with a cover photograph of the former President and the First Lady standing in front of their Independence home. Doubleday’s publication of Volume One, called Year of Decisions, followed five weeks later, with an author’s autographing party in the grand ballroom of the Muehlbach, on Tuesday, November 2, 1955.
“To the delight of the publisher, Truman had agreed to sign books for all who came. ‘I expect to use, probably, a couple of $1.75 fountain pens that I bought at the Twenty-five Cent Store, along with a half dozen others that I happen to have, and I don’t want any advertising stunt [for the pens] whatever,’ Truman had written to Samuel Vaughan, Doubleday’s advertising manager. ‘I will go along with any party arrangements which you make for Doubleday, but don’t get me into any advertising for pens, cakes or anything, because I won’t do it.’
“Arriving in Kansas City a few days in advance to make arrangements, Vaughan was distressed to hear people asking why they would want to come to such an occasion for Truman, ‘when we see him all the time anyway.’ Greatly concerned, Vaughan worked to line up Battery D {Truman’s WWI comrades} veterans, the Boy Scouts, anyone he could think of, to be sure there was a crowd. But he need not have bothered. More than three hundred people were already in line waiting before the party began.
“‘Hand Firm to the End’ was the headline in the next morning’s paper.
“It was almost unbelievable. ‘I had no idea it would be anything like this,’ Truman said as he saw the crowds grow, the people still coming, hour after hour. His hand fairly flew as he signed books, until he was doing six to eight autographs a minute. If there ever was a demonstration of his extraordinary vitality, this was it. He kept going hour after hour, not only signing his name but greeting people. ‘There, that one’s all slicked up,’ he would say with satisfaction, finishing his signature and handing over the book.
“By the end of the first session, he had signed over a thousand copies. In all, incredibly, he turned out four thousand autographs in just five and a half hours. Reporters on hand, his publishers, watched in amazement. Earlier, when Ken McCormick of Doubleday has suggested to Truman that perhaps he might prefer to have the autographs done by a machine, Truman had replied, ‘I will autograph as many as I can. I am not an expert with a machine, and I would rather do it by hand.'”
Truman turned 77 six months later on May 8th.
So what to read next????????
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Don’t forget to check out the latest installment in my mystery series Finder Of Lost Things! This week Phoebe & Beatrice hammer out details and you get introduced to the Residents…
Mercedes Lackey – The Bartered Brides
What happens when you combine Sherlock Holmes and one of the pillars of the fantasy genera?
You get Mercedes Lackey’s The Bartered Brides!
An exciting take on what happens when Watson, Mary, and their (new to us) crew work a case after the events of Reichenbach Falls…
Now I must tell you I have a secret vice….after years of advising everyone at SMB to read series in order. I must admit I absolutely LOVE to start a long series in the middle! If an author can catch you up with who everyone is without using standard boilerplate descriptions of characters (one of the few things which drive me crazy about the In Death series by J.D. Robb) I take it as a positive sign for the quality of the story.
Now, mind you, in this case, the only reason why I started with the fourteenth book in the series is that I wasn’t wearing my glasses in the bookstore (seriously I need to get a chain for them & channel my inner librarian). So the cover art caught my eye, the author name sealed the deal – but I completely missed the fine print – ah’well no one is perfect.
But to my complete satisfaction Lackey did an excellent job with this book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading the shifting perspectives of all involved, detectives, elemental masters (this is Mercedes Lackey after all – there had to be a supernatural spin to it – which Holmes regards with no small amount of skepticism), a mass murderer & his maid and two master criminals (one living and one dead)! A plot device which sometimes can get out of hand, but works well in this mystery.
Overall I think this book (and undoubtedly the entire series – which I intend to hunt down and read in its entirety) is well worth your time. Lackey marries together the quintessential detective duo of Holmes & Watson with the supernatural flawlessly while sprinkling in gothic elements to add an extra zing to her mystery. With the addition of two remarkable, well rounded, heroines it makes the Sherlock & Watson’s adventure more accessible to a wider range of readers (plus Mary Watson is rather kick-ass herself and hilariously often shields her husband from the more flagrant flouting of social conventions – like the when Nan & Sarah sneak off wearing men’s clothing!)
I would recommend this book to anyone who’s had trouble getting a foothold in the Sherlock canon. There are enough fantasy elements to keep a fan of the genera engaged (seriously, they are fun to read – elemental masters & wizards – earth, air, fire, water, and spirit nothing but fun). But for those of you who are Sherlock aficionados, there are enough of the elements from the original texts to keep you content (plus Lackey does not have Watson, Holmes, Mary or Mrs. Hudson doing anything out of character. Watson & Mary may have a bit more going on – but they stay true to their roots).
I cannot wait to start cracking on the other preceding thirteen books!
