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After the success of my binge-read of the Maisie Dobbs books (which I talk about here and here) I decided to do it again, this time with the series of novels about aristocrat, MP and private detective Charles Lenox, set in London in the late 1860s and early 1870s and written by the American author Charles Finch. Like Maisie, Lenox is a very engaging character whose personal life forms a backdrop to and often becomes closely entwined with the cases he investigates.
The main characters alongside Lenox are his best female friend and now wife Lady Jane, his best male friend and useful medical man Thomas McConnell, and his former protege Lord John Dallington. There are now seven books in the series with an eighth coming out later this year, and I read the most recent four in a row in less than a week.
Firstly – A Stranger in Mayfair
What is Lenox’s case?
A fellow MP asks Lenox to look into the murder of his footman who has been beaten to death an alleyway behind the house n which he worked, and it’s clear that all is not what it seems, either in the household itself or the young man’s personal life.
What did I learn about that I didn’t know before?
Quite a bit about the sport of boxing and how a new MP is inducted into the life of Parliament.
What’s happening in Lenox’s personal life?
Newly married, starting his career as an MP, trying to settle down into his new life and leave all that sleuthing nonsense behind.
Did I enjoy it?
Yes I did, a good story to ease myself back into the series after a break of some time, I guessed part of the reason for the murder but not the perpetrator.
What’s the book about?
The House of Silk is a Conan-Doyle estate approved revival of the Great Detective by Antony Horowitz, told by an aged Dr Watson with Holmes himself gone. The tale has been withheld because of the nature of the crimes involved and the fact that their becoming public would “tear apart the entire fabric of society”, so he is writing them while he still can for release after he too is dead.
Why did I want to read it?
I have always tried to read at last one Holmes-related novel during August Crime Month – the man’s portrait is of course the header for the challenge (the post is here in case you missed it) and this sounded really interesting. I also like what I have read of Horowitz.
What did I think of it?
This is really very well done indeed, capturing the tone of the original stories with slightly more edge to suit modern tastes, being a little less circumspect about the nature of the criminal acts without being explicit, and showing that what we might consider a modern crime does of course have its roots in the way young people in poverty were treated in the past and how the status of certain individuals meant that even the most appalling things would be covered up through fear of at best loss of respect for their betters and at worst potential revolution. All the usual stalwarts are here – Mrs Hudson, Inspector Lestrade and the Baker Street Irregulars – and of course Holmes gets himself into danger and shows of both his analytical skills and talent for disguise. But definitely quid a bit darker than most Holmes-related fare.
The next in the series, Moriarty, comes out later this year (just in time for Christmas, in case anyone’s interested)
What year are we in? 1933
What’s Maisie’s case?
In Leaving Everything Most Loved, Maisie is called in by Scotland Yard when the brother of a young Indian woman (who has been shot in London), appalled at the lack of progress being made but the police, wants to know why she was killed. For various reasons this becomes connected with an unfinished case and Usha’s death is not the first.
What did I learn that I didn’t know before?
Lots of interesting stuff about the Indian community in London between the wars, mixed marriages and so on, stuff I had never really thought about before and saw as a post-WWII issue (and shame on me for that).
What’s happening in Maisie’s personal life?
Big changes to her family, her business and her love life.
Did I enjoy it?
Really good story, one of the few times in the books where we see Maisie really speak her mind when previously she would have been more circumspect and I cheered when she did it (well, inward cheering anyway). The plight of women brought over from India as servants when they lost their positions for whatever reason was very sad. This is very much a game-changer in the series and I could see it being a finale, but understand the author plans to start a new series with Maisie still at the centre sometime in 2015. So hurrah for that.
I really enjoyed immersing myself in Maisie’s world through reading in such quick succession books that would normally have been available a year apart.
What year are we in? 1933
What’s Maisie’s case?
In Elegy for Eddie Maisie is approached by a group of men from her childhood who want her to look into the death of Eddie, a gentle but educationally challenged man with a real talent for working with horses, who has been killed in an apparent accident at a local paper factory. But he wasn’t himself in the weeks up to his death and his friends are convinced there is more to his death than appears.
What did I learn that I didn’t know before?
This is less about the impact of the war than most of the other novels in the series so not much knew to learn, but there is quite a bit about the inter-war period and politics and the shadow of coming war.
What’s happening in Maisie’s personal life?
She is still getting used to her change in circumstances, but worries about her love life are lurking in the background.
Did I enjoy it?
I came to enjoy this once the story really got going, but was worried at first because it smacked a little of those episodes of crime stories on TV where the murder of the week directly involves one or more members of the resident cast in a way that I almost always find entirely implausible. But here it makes sense that the men would seek out someone they knew and trusted to look into things and it does develop into something rather more interesting. I also like the fact that matters don’t work out entirely to Maisie’s satisfaction, which also seems realistic. A transitional novel for reasons that will become clear if and when you read it.
What year are we in? 1932
What’s Maisie’s case?
In A Lesson in Secrets, Maisie goes undercover in an independent college in Cambridge on behalf of Special Branch and the Secret Service to observe the goings-on of students and staff in the light of potential un-British activities (though I’m not sure such a thing actually exists). It’s all about the politics. there is of course a death and there is also much about identity and passing off.
What did I learn that I didn’t know before?
I didn’t know how badly some conscientious observers were treated when they ended up in prison rather than driving ambulances or working on the land. Horrible.
What’s happening in Maisie’s personal life?
She is getting used to her change in circumstances, and love continues to develop. Oh and it’s clear she is really good at teaching (and enjoys it).
Did I enjoy it?
I think this is my favourite of the four I read in a row, simply because I’m an absolute sucker for tales set in college or university and the whole administration of it all. I worked out quite early on what the reason behind the murder was but dithered backwards and forwards on the who dunnit part. And this is the first of the books where the rise of the Nazis has an impact.
I’ve talked about my binge-reading of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries here so won’t go into the details again, but I will say that I have read and enjoyed all of the novels in the series (and we are now on volume 10 and a little gap in the story) and they are just lovely books to read. I love Maisie as a character and one of the most enjoyable things is the development of her story over time informed by the cases she’s investigating, all harking back to her experiences in WWI. So when you read this and next three mini-reviews please keep this in mind as I want to avoid repeating myself. 🙂
And Lee Child is a massive fan apparently, so there you go.
What year are we in? 1932
What’s Maisie’s case?
In The Mapping of Love and Death, the remains of an American of English heritage who joined the British Army as a cartographer have been found and there are questions about how he actually died. Maisie is asked by his parents to look into the matter, and in particular to find the young English nurse with whom he fell in love.
What did I learn that I didn’t know before?
All the stuff about the work of cartographers in WWI was fascinating, and I also learned a little bit about the early days of documentary film-making.
What’s happening in Maisie’s personal life?
A key figure is coming to the end of his life, but love is on the horizon.
Did I enjoy it?
Absolutely, the story of the young soldier far from home and finding love and how the consequences of that all spilled over into the present was very affecting, and I was glad the ending didn’t tie everything up into a neat bow.
What’s the book about?
Broken Monsters finds us in Detroit where there has been an unpleasant and unusual murder (young boy mutilated and found in the company of animal remains, let’s not go into the gruesome details here) and we follow motley group of characters (the lead detective, her daughter, some homeless people, a local artist, a journalist and his girlfriend) who all clearly have some involvement with the death. A death which is of course the first but not the last.
Why did I want to read it.
I loved The Shining Girls (which I read last year and reviewed here) and was keen to read Lauren Beukes next novel to see if it was as good. And it is a serial killer novel so therefore falls into crime month territory.
What did I think of it?
Gosh this is grim. The Detroit location is a grubby and effective backdrop to a nasty set of murders with a side order of mental breakdown, poverty, journalists on the make with no thought to the consequences and the perils of social media for young people. You know that every one of the characters are going to get sucked into the story but not exactly how. I enjoyed it in the way that I enjoy quite a lot of horror that I read and at least one reviewer I’ve seen makes a link to the work of Stephen King which I don’t entirely agree with but can see where it’s come from (and isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I love King) but it’s worth saying that Beukes style is very much her own and I read the last third in one major chunk.
I think I still prefer The Shining Girls, which was so astonishing, but this is a worthy successor.
Oh, but it’s dark so be warned.
So a couple of weeks ago I was pretty unwell and off work for a couple of days, but thankfully was able to read my way through being stuck on the sofa wrapped in a blanket with a hot water bottle (which is weird for late July it must be said) and was so absorbed that I managed to stop feeling sorry for myself (quite a feat as that’s one of my best skills right there).
I’ve been more or less under the weather since then and finding real solace in books, and as the latter half of this week has been particularly tiring and I am well into August crime month I have found myself in a major binge read, almost exclusively of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs mysteries. And when I say a binge read, I mean four not-inconsiderable novels in three days. And it has worked; I feel distinctly more cheerful than I did when I started, I’m sure because these are very easy reads; that’s not to do them down, I just mean I find Winspear’s style flows so lightly that before you know it you’re a couple of hundred pages in and so absorbed int he story that you have to get to the end.
That being in the zone where reading is concerned, for whatever reason, brings me to my dilemma. There are two people whose opinions I value greatly, my other half the Book God and my closest friend Silvery Dude. And they are both strongly encouraging me to start reading the Song of Ice and Fire cycle by George RR Martin, the former because he has read them all, the latter because he’s just discovered them and come over all enthusiastic, and both because they think I would really enjoy them.
But.
I have a complicated relationship with certain types of fantasy (setting Tolkien aside) and I can find the sort with swords and stuff set in other worlds or versions of our own world a bit of a problem. Add to that the fact that I’ve seen (and to be fair enjoyed) all four seasons of Game of Thrones on TV and I’m asking myself the question “what more can I get out of reading the books?”
So that’s a question for you all – should I give them a go or leave well alone?
I have done this before a couple of times but not for a few years and I just have a hankering to read lots of crime function during August when it (theoretically) gets a bit quieter as friends and workmates go off on holiday.
This is a sort of personal challenge but one that doesn’t have any real goals and until yesterday afternoon was going to have a suggested reading list but frankly when I looked at the crime section of my TBR mountain I quailed at the enormity of the the task and I’m basically just going to wing it.
Although I will almost certainly start with the new Lauren Beukes which appeared as if by magic on my Kindle app yesterday morning 🙂
What’s the book about?
Mr Mercedes is a proper crime thriller from the pen of the great master of horror Stephen King. It starts with a retired police detective, Bill Hodges, who is in a bit of a state, without any purpose in life now that he is no longer serving. He gets a letter from the perpetrator of one of the cases he never solved, that of a number of people killed when a Mercedes was driven into a queue of unemployed people outside a job fair. The letter is taunting Bill with his failure, but instead o driving him to suicide it gives him a new lease of life and he is determined to track the killer down.
Why did I want to read it?
King is one of my favourite authors, I’ve reviewed a number of his book on this blog and have been reading him since I was 15 (but I’m not going to labour the point – I just think he’s great). He’s often underrated as a writer because his preferred genre is seen as horror although I’ve always been clear in my own mind that he has drifted into other genres at various points in his career. I will admit that I pre-ordered the automatically before I knew what it was actually about but was excited about trying something a little bit different.
What did I think?
This was really I had a great time reading this. I’ve always been quickly drawn in by King’s prose style which is deceptively easy to read but has real pace and verve. I liked the structure of the book; we find out extremely early on who Mr Mercedes actually is and the book alternates between him and Bill as the former’s plans careen out of control and the latter works with some unlikely helpers to track the killer down. There are a couple of points where King tries to lead us a little bit astray which I found great fun. I liked Bill very much; I was sorry that one of the plot strands didn’t work out for him at the same time that I could see why it obviously couldn’t (speaking us someone still bearing the scars of ‘Salem’s Lot many years afterwards) but it’s a crime thriller so there is peril and racing against time and a satisfactory resolution. Spent time between reading sessions trying to cast the movie. Brilliant stuff.
Bride of the Book God 