Midnight Taxi

TITLE: The Midnight Taxi

AUTHOR: Yosha Gunasekera

A nice cover and a good review in Publishers Weekly convinced me to try this debut mystery set in present-day NYC. Siriwathi Perera, who immigrated to the US with her parents and brother from Sri Lanka when she was a young girl, drives a cab to support her family while trying to find her purpose in life. Listening to true crime podcasts while cruising the city, looking for fares, has given her a slanted view of the criminal justice system that is put too the test when she's arrested for murder of her most recent passenger who was stabbed in the back seat of her cab. An earlier chance meeting with a fellow Sri Lankan proves fortuitous because the woman is a public defender. Together, they set out to find the actual killer.

This is a breezy, fast-reading book, with a chatty narrator who gets a bit repetitious and there's a lot of New York City trivia, which normally wouldn't bother me, but in a book with not much actual action and story, it feels like filler at times. There are some nifty plot twists, though most didn't really surprise me. 

Overall, this is a pleasant mystery with appealing characters, and judging by the excerpt of a forthcoming book by the author, it's the first of a series. I'll probably read that when it's published. 

Death at the Sign of the Rook

TITLE:  Death at the Sign of the Rook

AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson

It's been a tough year for me for reading, but hopefully, I'm now back on track.

Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite authors and her PI character, Jackson Brodie, is one of my favorite fictional creations. This latest installment in the series is a complete delight. The mystery -- possibly connected art thefts -- is almost beside the point, serving mainly to bring Jackson and the rest of the main characters together for a murder mystery weekend at a mansion/hotel during a blizzard. Jackson is merely one character in the quirky cast and the alternating points of view bring them all to life, so much so that some of them deserve their own novels. This is a compulsive, delightful read.

City and the City

TITLE:  The City & the City

AUTHOR: China Mieville

This is pretty much a standard mystery involving the murder of a young woman who was killed in one city and her body dumped in another city. What makes this a fantasy is that both cities, Beszel and Ul Qoman, occupy the same piece of geography. For the cities to safely co-exist, their citizens must master the art of unseeing the other. While this forms the foundation of the story, it's never fully explained how this can be. No mention of phasing or alternate realities are mentioned, hence the fantasy element rather than this being science fiction, I suppose. To see the unseeable, or to cross any of the boundaries separating the cities is to breach, invoking the justice of the Breach, the mysteries beings who oversee the integrity of the two cities. 

As Inspector Borlu of Beszel investigates the murder, he is forced into working with Detective Dhatt of Ul Qoma, an investigation that suggests the victim was killed because she knew too much about the long rumored entities that live between the cities, something scarier than Breach. 

This would have made for a decent mystery without the fantasy element, but the setting does factor into the resolution and provides for intriguing character tensions and suspense. Still, I wish the set-up of the cities had been more scientific. Stronger characters would have gone a long way to flesh this out. Only Borlu seemed fully realized and most of the characters speak in similar patterns, in both cities, in choppy, incomplete sentences. This was good enough for met to wish it were better.

Day Ends at Dawn

TITLE:  The Day Ends at Dawn

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

Reading the last book in this series (Valentin St. Cyr Mysteries) felt, to me, like watching the finale to a beloved TV show. My first thought was the hope that the author didn't screw it up. 

As with the other reprint volumes from Crescent City Books, this one was flawed with poor proofing. I wish I had access to the original volumes to compare and see if they were similarly flawed. But the missing words, grammatical errors, and other oopsies didn't hurt my enjoyment of what was a satisfying end for the series.

True, there were some plot points that seemed to really stretch things, but the return of a few characters from past books was worth it. The story is set primarily on the last day of Storyville before that New Orleans Red-Light District is legislated out of existence. On that last night, Valentin and a number of police officers are patrolling Storyville to keep violence that is likely to erupt to a minimum. In addition, Valentin has gathered info about the corruption that fueled the end of Storyville and a hired killer is stalking the District with plans to kill the private detective, but not until striking at the people Valentin cares about.

The tight timeframe leads to some indulgent character scenes that don't advance the story much, while other scenes ratchet up the tension. I was satisfied with the payoff, yet wouldn't mind reading another adventure or two about the early 20th-century Creole detective. 

Eclipse Alley

TITLE: Eclipse Alley

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

I really hadn't planned on reading the rest of this series without a break for something else, given that I prefer variety in my reading, but these are rather addictive and fast reads, even with the awful typesetting and proofreading of these later volumes from a second publisher.

In this one, set in 1916, private detective Valentin St. Cyr investigates after a prominent, wealthy man is found dead, his body mutilated, in a dark and notorious alley in Storyville, New Orleans' red-light district. Clues are hard to find, but when a priest is murdered a day later, the hunt is on to find a cunning serial killer.

There are a couple of loose ends left dangling, ones I hope will be tied up by the end of the next and final book in the series.

Iron Angel

TITLE:  The Iron Angel

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

I've been zipping through the remaining books in the Valentin St. Cyr historical mysteries series, and really wish I'd been able to buy the last four titles by the original publisher as I doubt they had all the poor typesetting issues, missing words, extra words, and other problems -- unless I missed something, one character's surname actually changed mid-book! -- that these volumes from Crescent City Books have.

The story was stronger this time than in the previous volume, with Valentin taking on the case of a missing teen while also investigating the brutal murders of prostitutes in the red light district, Storyville, in 1914 New Orleans. None of the scenes felt like filler as in the previous book, and a mysterious older woman with amnesia who becomes a pawn in the escalating feud between Valentin and corrupt police captain Picot ratchets up the suspense. And giving Justine, Valentin's wife, more to do in this book -- she pretty much takes over the missing teen case -- was a nice plus. 

Lost River

TITLE:  Lost River

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

After reading the third Valentin St. Cyr mystery, set in the early 1900s in New Orleans, I found the remaining four books in the series online and quickly ordered them. These trade paperbacks are a bit taller, published by a different press, different than the first three books, and apparently, quality control is not prioritized with regards to typesetting and proofing. Typos, poor scene breaks in a number of spots, extra words, missing words, and other oddities marred this book. 

Another strike against it is typical for many ongoing series when the author has to catch new readers up on character backstories and the events from the previous books. In this case, it comes across as filler and I hope Fulmer found more interesting ways to insert these info dumps in the remaining three titles. In addition, there are brief scenes that seem to have been included to pad the page count as they are little more than a quick check-in with a character without advancing either story or character development.

And yet, once I got to the back half of the book, I found Valentin's latest case as compelling as ever. The case revolves around the murders of three wealthy men found at or in a high level house of prostitution that have one thing in common: they're all owned by the same man. The victims were all shot and each has a long cut on his face. Is a madman on the loose in Storyvill, the red-light district, or is something more sinister at work? Valentin's efforts to solve the mystery and end the killing causes trouble between him and his live-in lover, former prostitute Justine who had thought Valentin was finished with Storyville and its problems.

I'm still enjoying this series, but the feeling of padding and a lack of freshness in the telling keep this from being as good as the earlier three.

Rampart Street

TITLE:  Rampart Street

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

The third Valentin St. Cyr mystery, set in early-20th Century New Orleans, finds the Creole detective tasked by the King of Storyville Tom Anderson to investigate the murder of a wealthy shipping magnate in that infamous red-light district. The case should be a simple one, but things don't add up. When the victim's daughter urges him to pursue the truth, no matter what, and when a business partner of the victim also turns up dead, Valentin finds himself out of his element, putting more than himself at risk.

This time, the whodunit isn't as much of a mystery as the why. With New Orleans as much a character as the people who live there, this is a quick read.  I'm enjoying spending time there with them and am happy there are four more installments in the series.

Jass

TITLE: Jass

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

I read the first Valentin St. Cyr mystery a dozen years ago and meant to read this soon thereafter, but other books claimed my attention, and I didn't get to this until now. Which does not mean I didn't find the first compelling. I loved it, and in reading this sequel, I fell in love with Valentin all over again. A Creole detective who usually passes for white in 1908 New Orleans, Valentin is coaxed by Jelly Roll Morton (one of the cast of characters based on real people) into investigating the deaths of two jass (as jazz was called back then) musicians. At first, Valentin is skeptical that there's a connection, but when a third musician is found dead, a pattern emerges. The more he investigates, the more pushback he receive from a local police lieutenant and from Valentin's boss Tom Anderson, the politically connected "King of Storyville," the district where prostitution was legal. 

Fulmer has a way of bringing both his characters and early-20th Century New Orleans to life. That I figured out one part of the puzzle before it was revealed just made the resolution of the mystery more satisfying for me. 

Secret of the White Rose

TITLE:  Secret of the White Rose

AUTHOR: Stefanie Pintoff

The third historical mystery featuring Det. Simon Ziele is better than the second, making better use of the 1906 New York City setting by tying the anarchist activity of that time into the plot. A judge presiding over the trial of an anarchist, whose bomb killed a child among other victims, is found brutally murdered in his home. Criminology professor Alistair Sinclair, a friend of the judge since they were classmates at Harvard Law School, calls on Simon, now reinstated with the NYPD, to find the killer, despite the case being outside Ziele's jurisdiction. While Ziele risks his career to help, he is increasingly aware that Alistair is keeping secrets from him, while he also must contend with the brother of his deceased fiancee, a young man involved with the anarchists. That both Simon and Alistair have something personal at stake gives the story a bit more tension than the previous book had. I figured out some of the mystery, but not all, and found this a fast, compelling read. 

A Curtain Falls

TITLE: A Curtain Falls

AUTHOR: Stefanie Pintoff

The second book by the author featuring police detective Simon Ziele, set in 1906. The story picks up a few months after the events of the first book, with Ziele brought in by his former NYPD partner to help with the murder of a Broadway actress. The book is a quick read and while I wasn't surprised when the killer was revealed, there were enough plot twists to satisfy me. My main complaint about this and its predecessor, is that NYC of that time period isn't much of a character. The time and place seemed to have been chosen because there are enough similarities to the present day, without all the technology and related complications of our time. Fortunately, that isn't much of a distraction. The characters are likeable and the mystery intriguing, enough to make me want to read the third Ziele book. 

In the Shadow of Gotham

TITLE: In the Shadow of Gotham

AUTHOR: Stefanie Pintoff

I enjoyed this historical mystery, just not as much as I wanted to. The mystery,, itself, was fine. The narrator, a NYC police detective now working with a police force just north of the big city, catches a case involving a brutal murder of a young woman that brings him back to his old haunting grounds, as well as having him cross paths with a criminologist, Alastair Sinclair, who wants to assist in the investigation.  

Det. Simon Ziele lost his fiancee in the 1904 General Slocum ferry disaster and is still dealing with his grief a year later. Sinclair believes the criminal he's been studying with his research staff at Columbia University is the killer Ziele is hunting. Of course, nothing is ever that easy, and this book didn't win its author an Edgar Award for nothing. With Ziele revealing as much of the story as the reader needs to know at any point, the likely culprit seems to change whenever new info is uncovered. I wasn't correct in all my suppositions -- I entertained far more possible resolutions to the killing than the author did -- but the solution to the case wasn't much of a surprise. I also liked the characters. But Pintoff's prose is matter-of-fact simple and doesn't evoke the time and place as well as other historical mystery writers have done. It is a fast read, however, and I have the next two on their way to me.

Big Sky

TITLE: Big Sky

AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson

Much as I love Kate Atkinson's literary novels, I 'm enormously happy when she has an idea for a Jackson Brodie novel. Despite Jackson being a private investigator, these books really aren't mysteries, not in the traditional sense. Yes, there is a crime or a multitude of crimes, and yes, Jackson usually ends up in the middle of things, but these novels don't depend on him to figure everything out. He's just a middle-aged guy trying to live his life, with all its messiness, which includes trying to be a father to his seemingly indifferent teenage son. As always in these books, we learn as much about the other characters as we do about Jackson.

The unlawful activities this time focus on the sex trafficking of girls, told through the perspective of police, survivors, and perpetrators. Secrets from the past collide with secrets in the present, and as is the pattern for this series, seemingly unrelated plots come together in a satisfying way. I hope Atkinson finds a worthy story for him sooner, rather than later next time.

Countdown City

TITLE: Countdown City (The Last Policeman Book II)
AUTHOR: Ben H. Winters

There was no letdown from the first book in this near future trilogy. This time, Hank Palace is no longer a police detective, but he's still obsessed with solving a mystery, a missing person case. With the asteroid Maia hurtling toward Earth, the husband of Hank's long ago babysitter asks him to find her husband and bring him back home. Hank's search for Brett takes him into an increasingly chaotic and lawless landscape. He has to deal with anarchists forging their own society with their own rules, groups of hoarders, and a lack of the basics of life we all take for granted.

The mystery is almost beside the point, its main function being the thing that gives Hank's life meaning when life is slowly eroding into meaninglessness. The details feel alarmingly real as Winters weaves his simple story with big ideas. This is a future that could realistically happen and Winters covers a myriad of human reactions that are just as plausible. Given the current political climate, this series feels incredibly relevant.

Dublin Murder Squad Series

This has me very excited: Starz is adapting the Dublin Murder Squad books for next year. If you've been reading this blog, you know how much I love Tana French's series. I can't wait to see this. The first two books will be adapted for the first of what I hope is a continuing series.

The Last Policeman

TITLE: The Last Policeman
AUTHOR: Ben H. Winters

The premise of this first book in a trilogy is killer. A giant asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. Suicides are up. So why does newly-minted police detective Henry Palace think an obvious "hanger," an insurance investigator found with a belt around his neck secured to the grab bar in a bathroom stall in a MacDonald's, is really a murder victim, especially when no one cares.

With six months until impact -- the exact location is still unknown -- Henry throws himself into the perceived mystery while everyone around him reacts to the impending doom. The things we currently depend on and take for granted -- cell phone service, the internet, etc. -- start to fail because people are killing themselves or quitting their jobs to spend their last days enjoying the time they have left.

Winters has fashioned an old-fashioned mystery as well as an exploration of the human psyche and the meaning of life. Henry's dogged pursuit of truth, of the why as well as the what and how, makes for compelling reading. Throw in some personal drama that Henry has to deal with, involving his flaky younger sister, and you get a very accessible work of near-future science fiction. I can't wait to start book two.

The Trespasser

TITLE: The Trespasser
AUTHOR: Tana French

Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad is probably my favorite mystery series, mainly because it doesn't focus on just one detective or pair of detectives. This book focuses on Det. Antoinette Conway and her partner Stephen Moran, both of whom appeared in the previous book, The Secret Place. This one, told from Antoinette's point of view, follows the detectives as they investigate the murder of a young woman in her home, as well as all the harassment Antoinette has faced since transferring to the Murder Squad from Missing Persons.

What first appears to be a slam-dunk-the-boyfriend-did-it case turns into something more complicated, especially after Antoinette realizes she's met the victim a while back, not to mention they both live in the same general neighborhood. The evidence against the boyfriend is circumstantial and in their desire to finally have a major case to solve, Antoinette and Stephen find their imaginations running wild through possibilities. But, could they be right? Things just aren't adding up for a simple solve and the pressure from more senior detectives working the case with them isn't helping.

French is skilled in moving along the story in what feels like real time while delving just as skillfully into Antoinette's psyche. And that's the best part of this series. Each narrator has his or her personality and it shows through the narration, making each book connected while being able to stand on its own. If you love mysteries but haven't read this series yet, I suggest you give it a try.

Fatal Flame

TITLE: The Fatal Flame
AUTHOR: Lyndsay Faye

The third, and last, because this is a trilogy, not an ongoing series, Timothy Wilde mystery. I'm going to miss spending time with these characters. It's now 1848 in a still-young but already grimy and gritty New York City. Tammany Hall's corruption touches everything, and women are expected to fill the roles men allow and nothing more. A police detective before the word "detective" was in use, Tim is assigned the case of an arsonist torching the properties owned by a corrupt alderman, Richard Symmes, the same Richard Symmes Tim's brother Valentine decides to oppose in an upcoming election. Throw in immigrant women forced to work for low or barely any wages as seamstresses and their attempt to gain more rights through a strike, and you end up with a powder keg waiting to be set off. Then Tim's personal life gets complicated by the return of Mercy Underhill, the woman who he first adored when they were growing up together as friends. And, fittingly, Tim is forced to face his biggest fear: fire. Because a fire killed his parents when he was young, and a later fire almost claimed him, leaving him scarred.

Faye balances all the story and character elements of this complex plot with skill. Her research seems topnotch, and has inspired me to read up on this time period in New York City. The narrative voice is Tim's as he writes of the events, and of his own heart, from the distance of time. An epilogue puts a satisfying cap on the trilogy. I'm going to miss Tim and his way of looking at his world.

Seven for a Secret

TITLE: Seven for a Secret
AUTHOR: Lyndsay Faye

The second Timothy Wilde mystery is the middle book in a trilogy and an examination of the threats to free blacks living in New York City, and by extension, anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line. When a free black woman rushes into police headquarters at the Tombs in 1846, claiming her son and her sister were kidnapped by slave hunters from the south, Copper Star Timothy Wilde takes the case, and becomes embroiled in a complex, heartbreaking case that earns him the wrong kind of attention from the Democratic party bosses.

Faye, as she did in the first book of the trilogy, The Gods of Gotham, brings New York City in the 1840s to life, showing the fruits of her research. Between the details of life at the time, the political climate, the bigotry that echoes modern times and shows how little has changed in too many ways, and the intricate machinations at the heart of the case Tim investigates, I was once again drawn into the past. The mystery might be fiction, but the time and place were all too real. I highly recommend this for lovers of historical fiction and mysteries.

The Gods of Gotham

TITLE: The Gods of Gotham
AUTHOR: Lyndsay Faye

When I bought this book, I had no idea it was the first in a series, but I'm happy to discover there are at least two more available for met to read. Set in 1845 New York, this mystery uses to good advantage three historical happenings: a devastating fire that destroyed much of lower Manhattan, the potato famine in Ireland that brought large amounts of Irish immigrants to New York that led to a Protestant-Catholic conflict, and the formation of the New York Police Department. Upon reading the Historical Afterward, I learned a smaller incident, that of the discovery of the body of a murdered infant that sets the tone for the book is also based on reality.

The protagonist is Timothy Wilde, a bartender-turned-copper star of the newly minted NYPD after he's burned in the aforementioned fire and lost his home and savings. Thrust into a case of missing and dead children who were working as prostitutes in one of the bawdy houses, he comes to realize he has real skill at getting to the truth of things. Throw in a complicated relationship with his older, politically connected brother and some social commentary, and the reader is treated with the presence of a wonderful character I sure want to spend more time with. The first half of the 19th Century in New York City is a period with which I'm not very familiar, as it was mostly skipped over back when I was in school, but thanks to this book, I feel I've gotten a bit of education. A good work of historical fiction inspires me to read up on the events covered in the book, and The Gods of Gotham is no exception.