Mysteries Roundup
No Daisy Dalrymples in this one: she'll get her own post tomorrow.
Return of the Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett
More Nick and Nora, yay!
Return of the Thin Man isn't so much a novel as it is two film treatments by Hammett, for After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man respectively. It shows pretty badly, too; Another Thin Man in particular gets nigh unreadable at times and I'm still not sure what, exactly, it was about, who did what, and who committed which crime (though it does have a great ending).
That said, it's actually pretty fun to read. The introductions and conclusions give some insight onto Hammett's thought processes and intentions with the treatments, and the treatment of After the Thin Man is a great deal of fun, well-written with some intriguing deviations from the movie as filmed. There's at least one change I wouldn't have made, and one change I'm very glad they did make.
So, in short, I'd read the introductions and conclusions and After the Thin Man, but you're probably better off just watching Another Thin Man, since the treatment is difficult to follow. If you're a fan of Hammett or Nick and Nora, this might be a good book to own, but otherwise just get it from the library.
Unnatural Death, Dorothy Sayers
I've been steadily working my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery serieses (occasionally out of order, though it hasn't mattered much so far), and uh. This isn't my favorite.
In Unnatural Death, Lord Peter happens to be eating dinner when a doctor complains that he believes a patient was murdered, but he wasn't believed. Our hero pricks up his ears and dives into the mystery, only to find that it's a lot darker and deeper than he imagined. We don't get a lot of Lord Peter in this one, odd as that may sound: the book is much more about the plot and the miles of new characters than it is about anything that I find more interesting. That said, the plot is pretty intricate and interesting, and I had no real idea what had happened until it was explained at the end, when it made perfect sense. It's just that the book ends on something of a down note, and our villain is implied to be a lesbian, which was just not fun for me at all. I don't think I'll be rereading this one. Thankfully the next Peter Wimsey book, on which I have already begun, is a great deal more fun so far.
A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton
Eh.
I read this book because I'd always meant to and also because one of my favorite podcasts (The Worst Bestsellers, check them out, I'll wait) was reviewing it, so I thought I'd read along. And it's... fine? I mean. This is a very popular mystery series. I was sort of expecting it to be a little better, but eh. It's fine.
Private eye Kinsey Millhone is hired to look into a man's death by his wife, Nikki Fife, convicted eight years ago of his murder and out now on parole. Kinsey isn't very convinced of Nikki's innocence, but she takes the case, and soon discovers that there's a great deal more to this murder than she or Nikki ever expected. The writing's reasonably good, with a nice noir tone to it, and since the book was first published in the eighties it's sort of an unintentional period piece. I enjoyed watching Kinsey solve the murder without the internet's resources. That said, I'm usually drawn to books because of the characters, and the characters in this book were just not really very interesting. They seemed like caricatures more than people, and they didn't catch my interest at all (well, except for Kinsey's elderly landlord, who I adored, but much to my sorrow he was barely in it).
I think this is a competently written mystery, and good for people who are in it for the plot, but it's not my thing at all.
The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie
And now for a book I really DID love.
People who've been hanging around my blog for a while may be aware that I'm on something of a couple-fights-crime kick (all het, sadly; if you know of any queer-couples-fight-crime media, POINT ME AT IT IMMEDIATELY, otherwise I got a book to write). Daisy Dalrymple and Alec Fletcher are my current favorite, obvs, but I've also enjoyed the Thin Man, with Nick and Nora Charles, and of course Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (the show), and now Tommy and Tuppence, who are really just tons of fun.
In postwar England, Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley find themselves short of money and long on time, so they found the Young Adventures Ltd and advertise for adventurous things to do. This pitches them headfirst into an espionage thriller, complete with a mysterious American millionaire, a helpful judge, a rather avuncular head of secret services, and some very dangerous spies. What really makes this book exceptional, in my opinion, is the lightheartedness of the whole thing. Tommy and Tuppence are quite aware that they're in danger the whole time, but they still seem to treat it as a kind of grand adventure, and their unabashed enjoyment of everything really charmed me. The plot can be a bit confusing, and I did rather resent that Tommy got to rescue himself but Tuppence had to be rescued, but I still really enjoyed myself and would absolutely read it again. And all the rest of the Tommy and Tuppence mysteries.
Partners in Crime, Agatha Christie
Speaking of Tommy and Tuppence!
Partners in Crime takes up with Tommy and Tuppence a year or two after the end of The Secret Adversary, married and comfortably settled down and bored. Or at least Tuppence is. So naturally, when their old friend in the secret services asks them to take over a detective agency, both of them are thrilled. This isn't a cohesive book so much as it is a bunch of short stories loosely stitched together with an overarching espionage plot, but it's still a great deal of fun to read, all charming and lighthearted like their first outing.
I must say, one of my favorite things about this book was the way Tommy and Tuppence started pretending to be various fictional detectives. I hadn't heard of most of them, but Tommy is Sherlock Holmes at least once, and another time he's Poirot, which I found hilarious considering that it's the same author. Anyway, most of their cases are rather silly, but they do have the occasional murder and attempted murder, usually of Tommy, who's remarkably sanguine about the whole thing. My earlier criticism about Tommy rescuing himself and Tuppence getting rescued still applies, but it's still a surprisingly sweet and charming take on espionage thrillers.
Popular Crime, Bill James
This is actually a true crime book, sneaking into my mysteries roundup because I just finished it.
So, Popular Crime. This is Bill James's microhistory of the tabloid crime, a la Lizzie Borden, the Lindbergh baby, OJ Simpson, and the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. I picked it up because it looked quite interesting, which it is, and because it promised to tell me about some obscure crimes I hadn't heard of, which it did. What was not advertised was James's occasional digression into prison reform, the sixties hippie generation, and conservative vs. liberal ideologies regarding crime and why the rights of the accused shouldn't be focused on (??).
I think I would like this book a lot more if it stuck to its actual claimed topic and quit veering off into these weird digressions on other parts of the justice system. James, in his introduction, said that he wanted to discuss the impact of popular crime stories on the public, which he does quite handily; he ties it into reforms in the justice system and the trials of certain crimes. However, he'll then go a step further and start talking about what's wrong with the present system, and I'm still really not sure where those came from. He also, somewhat hilariously, keeps trying to come up with an equation for deciding whether or not an accused criminal is guilty. And finally, he kept saying that he wasn't a historian and then proclaiming something historical as absolute fact and demanding we take his word for it, which... just proves his point about not being a historian, because that's not good history at all.
I'm really not sure if I would recommend this book or not. I kept veering back and forth between really enjoying it and wanting to shout at the author. I suppose if you're a true-crime junkie like myself, maybe give it a read, see how you feel about it. If not, probably give it a miss, particularly if you're politically liberal. James might just make you angry.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/411345.html. Please comment over there if possible.
Return of the Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett
More Nick and Nora, yay!
Return of the Thin Man isn't so much a novel as it is two film treatments by Hammett, for After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man respectively. It shows pretty badly, too; Another Thin Man in particular gets nigh unreadable at times and I'm still not sure what, exactly, it was about, who did what, and who committed which crime (though it does have a great ending).
That said, it's actually pretty fun to read. The introductions and conclusions give some insight onto Hammett's thought processes and intentions with the treatments, and the treatment of After the Thin Man is a great deal of fun, well-written with some intriguing deviations from the movie as filmed. There's at least one change I wouldn't have made, and one change I'm very glad they did make.
So, in short, I'd read the introductions and conclusions and After the Thin Man, but you're probably better off just watching Another Thin Man, since the treatment is difficult to follow. If you're a fan of Hammett or Nick and Nora, this might be a good book to own, but otherwise just get it from the library.
Unnatural Death, Dorothy Sayers
I've been steadily working my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery serieses (occasionally out of order, though it hasn't mattered much so far), and uh. This isn't my favorite.
In Unnatural Death, Lord Peter happens to be eating dinner when a doctor complains that he believes a patient was murdered, but he wasn't believed. Our hero pricks up his ears and dives into the mystery, only to find that it's a lot darker and deeper than he imagined. We don't get a lot of Lord Peter in this one, odd as that may sound: the book is much more about the plot and the miles of new characters than it is about anything that I find more interesting. That said, the plot is pretty intricate and interesting, and I had no real idea what had happened until it was explained at the end, when it made perfect sense. It's just that the book ends on something of a down note, and our villain is implied to be a lesbian, which was just not fun for me at all. I don't think I'll be rereading this one. Thankfully the next Peter Wimsey book, on which I have already begun, is a great deal more fun so far.
A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton
Eh.
I read this book because I'd always meant to and also because one of my favorite podcasts (The Worst Bestsellers, check them out, I'll wait) was reviewing it, so I thought I'd read along. And it's... fine? I mean. This is a very popular mystery series. I was sort of expecting it to be a little better, but eh. It's fine.
Private eye Kinsey Millhone is hired to look into a man's death by his wife, Nikki Fife, convicted eight years ago of his murder and out now on parole. Kinsey isn't very convinced of Nikki's innocence, but she takes the case, and soon discovers that there's a great deal more to this murder than she or Nikki ever expected. The writing's reasonably good, with a nice noir tone to it, and since the book was first published in the eighties it's sort of an unintentional period piece. I enjoyed watching Kinsey solve the murder without the internet's resources. That said, I'm usually drawn to books because of the characters, and the characters in this book were just not really very interesting. They seemed like caricatures more than people, and they didn't catch my interest at all (well, except for Kinsey's elderly landlord, who I adored, but much to my sorrow he was barely in it).
I think this is a competently written mystery, and good for people who are in it for the plot, but it's not my thing at all.
The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie
And now for a book I really DID love.
People who've been hanging around my blog for a while may be aware that I'm on something of a couple-fights-crime kick (all het, sadly; if you know of any queer-couples-fight-crime media, POINT ME AT IT IMMEDIATELY, otherwise I got a book to write). Daisy Dalrymple and Alec Fletcher are my current favorite, obvs, but I've also enjoyed the Thin Man, with Nick and Nora Charles, and of course Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (the show), and now Tommy and Tuppence, who are really just tons of fun.
In postwar England, Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley find themselves short of money and long on time, so they found the Young Adventures Ltd and advertise for adventurous things to do. This pitches them headfirst into an espionage thriller, complete with a mysterious American millionaire, a helpful judge, a rather avuncular head of secret services, and some very dangerous spies. What really makes this book exceptional, in my opinion, is the lightheartedness of the whole thing. Tommy and Tuppence are quite aware that they're in danger the whole time, but they still seem to treat it as a kind of grand adventure, and their unabashed enjoyment of everything really charmed me. The plot can be a bit confusing, and I did rather resent that Tommy got to rescue himself but Tuppence had to be rescued, but I still really enjoyed myself and would absolutely read it again. And all the rest of the Tommy and Tuppence mysteries.
Partners in Crime, Agatha Christie
Speaking of Tommy and Tuppence!
Partners in Crime takes up with Tommy and Tuppence a year or two after the end of The Secret Adversary, married and comfortably settled down and bored. Or at least Tuppence is. So naturally, when their old friend in the secret services asks them to take over a detective agency, both of them are thrilled. This isn't a cohesive book so much as it is a bunch of short stories loosely stitched together with an overarching espionage plot, but it's still a great deal of fun to read, all charming and lighthearted like their first outing.
I must say, one of my favorite things about this book was the way Tommy and Tuppence started pretending to be various fictional detectives. I hadn't heard of most of them, but Tommy is Sherlock Holmes at least once, and another time he's Poirot, which I found hilarious considering that it's the same author. Anyway, most of their cases are rather silly, but they do have the occasional murder and attempted murder, usually of Tommy, who's remarkably sanguine about the whole thing. My earlier criticism about Tommy rescuing himself and Tuppence getting rescued still applies, but it's still a surprisingly sweet and charming take on espionage thrillers.
Popular Crime, Bill James
This is actually a true crime book, sneaking into my mysteries roundup because I just finished it.
So, Popular Crime. This is Bill James's microhistory of the tabloid crime, a la Lizzie Borden, the Lindbergh baby, OJ Simpson, and the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. I picked it up because it looked quite interesting, which it is, and because it promised to tell me about some obscure crimes I hadn't heard of, which it did. What was not advertised was James's occasional digression into prison reform, the sixties hippie generation, and conservative vs. liberal ideologies regarding crime and why the rights of the accused shouldn't be focused on (??).
I think I would like this book a lot more if it stuck to its actual claimed topic and quit veering off into these weird digressions on other parts of the justice system. James, in his introduction, said that he wanted to discuss the impact of popular crime stories on the public, which he does quite handily; he ties it into reforms in the justice system and the trials of certain crimes. However, he'll then go a step further and start talking about what's wrong with the present system, and I'm still really not sure where those came from. He also, somewhat hilariously, keeps trying to come up with an equation for deciding whether or not an accused criminal is guilty. And finally, he kept saying that he wasn't a historian and then proclaiming something historical as absolute fact and demanding we take his word for it, which... just proves his point about not being a historian, because that's not good history at all.
I'm really not sure if I would recommend this book or not. I kept veering back and forth between really enjoying it and wanting to shout at the author. I suppose if you're a true-crime junkie like myself, maybe give it a read, see how you feel about it. If not, probably give it a miss, particularly if you're politically liberal. James might just make you angry.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/411345.html. Please comment over there if possible.