A strong month for thrillers with the action moving from Zanzibar to London pre WW2, Tokyo’s notorious Shinjuku district and Constantinople as well as the more familiar murder grounds of the UK and the USA, yesterday and today. Almost a body every few pages, and isn’t that what draws us to mystery fiction (and, of course, retribution and answers to puzzles…)?
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Jane Thynne/MIDNIGHT IN VIENNA (Quercus)
Imagine a murky spy thriller written in the format of a Golden Age mystery puzzler and following its strict rules, and you have Jane Thynne’s delightful new novel, with guest appearances by well-known historical figures, cameos by Dorothy L. Sayers and Winston Churchill, the involvement of the Detection Club and so much more to please even the most demanding reader of classic mysteries. Bestselling crime writer Hubert Newman collapses in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey from what appears to be a heart attack, shortly after agreeing to recruit Stella Fry, recently back from Vienna to type up his final; manuscript. Disgraced Special Branch operative Harry Fox who is freelancing following left wing writers and poets crosses her path and the somewhat less than dynamic duo join forces to investigate the anomaly of Newman’s death, attracting much opposition on the way. Set in London and Vienna in September 1938 as Chamberlain was attempting to appease Hitler and avoid all-out war, the portrayal of the two febrile cities as they prepare for the inevitable conflict on the horizon is starkly evocative and authentic, and the many twists held in store prove wonderfully effective in peeling through the layers of a story inspired by real life events. Whether Stella and Harry will sleuth again is left hanging in the air but, at any rate, you’ll never think of Botox in the same light again! Truly wonderful.
Midnight In Vienna Jane Thynne – (amazon.co.uk)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Akira Otani/THE NIGHT OF BABA YAGA (Faber & Faber)
A truly original first novel from Japan which proves to be both a curious version of a possibly queer affair between two fundamentally different women and delivers the prose equivalent of an ultra-violent manga, with broken limbs, outrageous torture and severed human parts in abundance. Yoriko Shindo, a bear of a woman from the Provinces, is working delivering flowers in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district and always ready for a bloody fight. Her atavistic and feral pugilistic talents are noticed by a Yakuza family and she is recruited against her will to become the bodyguard of the clan’s sheltered daughter Shoko, a friendless 18-year old who initially resents her but is soon drawn into a tentative friendship, fascinated as she is by their fundamental differences. Shindo is resented by the other male Yakuza in the compound and, despite her destructive strength, barely escapes a multiple rape attempt thanks to Shoko, which brings them closer together in an ambivalent version of the Beauty and the Beast which comes to a climax when the perverse industrialist and gangster Shoko has been promised to accidentally crosses their path and the couple go on the run like a Japanese version of Thema and Louise. Both bizarre and evocative and full of fascinatingly flawed characters, ultra violence and a curiously poetic touch, this is rather unique and worth a read as long as you don’t cringe at the mass castrations!
The Night of Baba Yaga Akira Otani – (amazon.co.uk)
Simon Mason/MISSING PERSON:ALICE & THE CASE OF THE LONELY ACCOUNTANT (Riverrun)
A marked change in direction from Mason, whose three Ryan Wilkins Oxford-set novels saw him elegantly taking over Colin Dexter territory. These two short novels being published simultaneously see him move onto the darker shores of noir with aplomb, and in their terse realism carry echoes of both Simenon and Derek Raymond. The first-person narrative principal character is a nameless private detective the police call in on missing person cases and his dogged investigations have deep personal ramifications. A young schoolgirl disappears in Sevenoaks during the course of her paper round and is seen later getting into a black car some miles away; abduction? Runaway? Or something more sinister? In the companion volume, a bank manager abruptly leaves a meeting and the building and is hours later spotted in a state of confusion in a seaside café and his discarded clothing found close to a hotel; mental breakdown? Or criminal instance? The methodical, painstaking hunt for crumbs of information and for motives forms part of a descent into the Finder’s psyche, completing a jigsaw of grim events sometimes years after the events. With tantalising hints at the sleuthing protagonist’s equally murky back story these novellas break the walls of the police procedural down and descend into dark corners. I couldn’t put them down.
Missing Person: Alice Simon Mason – (amazon.co.uk)
The Case of the Lonely Accountant Simon Mason – (amazon.co.uk)
Gareth Rubin/HOLMES AND MORIARTY (Simon & Schuster)
From the outset I have had strong reservations about Gareth Rubin’s fiction. Although undeniably fascinating and terribly ingenious reads, and to his credit each totally different from the volume that preceded it, they are more like Hollywood pitches, each in turn offering a variation on an existing theme or format: Soviet-occupied England post WW2, British spies in Nazi-controlled Paris, a revival of the classic Ace double back-to-back book format. So it comes as no surprise that his new book annexes Sherlock Holmes and his archfoe Professor Moriarty and comes up with another variation on a well-worn genre. Not that there is anything wrong in doing so (and I have committed anthologies on both the protagonists myself…) and Rubin’s story proves must intriguing and clever. A famed actor hires the Baker Street duo to investigate why his audience every night consists of the very same people, while in parallel Moriarty and Moran are on the run. Naturally the two cases merge into a single one, with fiendish folk at the helm which Sherlock and the plodding Watson eventually unveil and explain. Entertaining and a pleasant addition to a growing post-Conan Doyle canon but surely mystery chameleon Rubin should next come up with something more original or personal?
Holmes and Moriarty Gareth Rubin – (amazon.co.uk)
David Goodman/A RELUCTANT SPY (Headline)
An outstanding espionage thriller debut by a new British author who took his first steps in the science fiction genre, A RELUCTANT SPY treads with assurance in the footsteps of the great spy writers albeit leaving the Cold War behind and like other newcomers such as David McCloskey, Paul Vidich or I.S. Berry offers a contemporary twist on the global stage of espionage that the reader will recognise from current news headlines, with Africa, the Middle-East, state-financed mercenary groups and geopolitical turmoil at the heart of the febrile plot. Jamie Tulloch has been recruited, back in his university days, by British intelligence to become a ‘legend’ so that, when the time is right, a properly-trained field agent can provisionally assume his identity on a mission but on the first occasion he is activated, he finds his ‘replacement’ dead and must actually undertake the dangerous mission himself and travels instead to Zanzibar in Tanzania to face a farrago of terror, corruption and peril with little expertise to navigate the ensuing dangers, a not quite innocent at large on a stage he was quite unprepared to navigate. With a variety of narrative voices and POVs following his struggle, this is a breathless and ultrarealistic thriller torn from today’s headlines, with a palette of strongly-etched characters and much originality. Impressive.
A Reluctant Spy David Goodman – (amazon.co.uk)
Chelsea Bieker/MADWOMAN (Oneworld)
A powerful 3rd novel by an American author but her first to appear in Britain, this psychological thriller examines in forensic detail the legacy of domestic violence and seldom pulls its punches. Clove is a stay-at-home mother of two and has somehow carved herself a new life despite a horrendous history of familial abuse which culminated in her mother killing her coercive father in self-defence. She is obsessed by wellness and manically determined to protect her young children from any kind of harm. A letter from prison from her incarcerated mother triggers extreme psychological disturbances in her well-ordered new life as she endeavours to hide her past from husband and society. A chance encounter with Jane on the occasion of a minor car accident leads her to befriending her to the point of obsession and even envisaging taking her on as a nanny for her 7- and 3-years old children. Clove’s descent into a peculiar form of madness is accompanied by a series of ingenious twists as the author maliciously turns the screws on her character’s illusions of safety and the novel soon reaches an agonising crescendo, pandering to inner anxieties and societal pressures. Not an easy read but a heartfelt one.
Madwoman Chelsea Bieker – (amazon.co.uk)
Charlotte Langley/THE INTRUSION (No Exit Press)
The second novel by a young British journalist whose debut THE BLAME didn’t get the attention it properly deserved and was a twisty, involving police procedural tale of two detectives beginning a love affair while on a case only for one of them to become the prime suspect. Following the stressful events of the first novel Erin Crane is no longer a DI but has become a private investigator. Amma, a young black woman, is the principal suspect in the murder of Mark Stormont, a police detective, but steadfastly refuses to cooperate, angry at the way the force previously botched the case of own brother found dead in a river in the recent past, and her family recruit Erin, in the hope she might convince Amma to speak. Inevitably the connections between present and past cases slowly rise to the surface and Erin’s investigation will badly affect her own relationships with friends and ex-colleagues in the Wakestead force. Not just a thriller but an insight into racial prejudice and a coming of age for a fierce and determined heroine, this turns out to be a topical and powerful psychological thriller, with highly believable characters, and a new author well worth following.
The Intrusion Charlotte Langley – (amazon.co.uk)
Duane Swierczynski/SECRET DEAD MEN (Titan)
Swierczynski has been a hidden gem of the US hardboiled scene for a couple of decades, as well as a staple of the comics writing scene and this timely reissue of his debut 2004 novel, initially published by the enterprising and sadly defunct Point Blank imprint, is the first opportunity for British readers to get a taste of his gently subversive work. A combustible blend of noir mystery and science fiction, the novel oscillates between genres with dexterity and carries echoes of Philip K. Dick. Set in US Bicentennial year 1976, it features Del Farmer, a soul collector taking on a criminal group known as the Association and his decidedly gonzo adventures prove a hit: funny, scabrous, bloody and tongue in cheek, and navigate the blurred line between parody and thrills with contemptuous poise. Now dead, Del was in his past life an investigative reporter and is out to avenge his own murder, now that his mind has been absorbed by an entity housing an assortment of brains, a brain hotel concept both outrageous and challenging. The book hasn’t aged in the slightest and moves along in overdrive, a relentless John Wick-like trail of violence and sardonic interactions. Delightful stuff.
Secret Dead Men Duane Swierczynski – (amazon.co.uk)
A.E. Goldin/MURDER IN CONSTANTINOPLE (Pushkin Vertigo)
A most promising historical debut by a new British author, MURDER IN CONSTANTINOPLE is mostly set in the eponymous city on the eve of the Crimean war in 1854. Both traditional and gritty, this fast-moving romp makes for wonderful entertainment. At the helm is Ben Canaan, a good for nothing young Jewish lad operating with his cohorts in Whitechapel, part of London’s wild East End, to the disapproval of his tailor father. When he falls foul of the law and a local crime baron, he flees to the capital of the Ottoman Empire on the trail of a serial killer and mayhem a-plenty is on the cards. In the grand old tradition of past serials, almost every chapter ends on a cliffhanger, which makes for a breathless and joyful read as our hardy, imperfect hero becomes embroiled in foreign shenanigans he often has little true understanding of. Deliberately old-fashioned and with knowing nods to Jules Verne, John Buchan, Graham Greene and other stalwarts of colourful adventure writing, MURDER IN CONSTANTINOPLE takes many liberties with historical facts in the interest of exciting storytelling, heavy on the anachronisms but drags the reader along in its unstoppable wake. A guilty pleasure.
Murder in Constantinople A.E. Goldin – (amazon.co.uk)
Mark Aldridge/AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MARPLE:EXPERT ON WICKEDNESS (HarperCollins)
A companion volume to the author’s 2020 Hercule Poirot book in format and style, this admirable paean to a classic fictional sleuth might well prove to be the definitive book to be written on Christie’s immortal and possibly favourite and iconic amateur detective of this parish. Not just a lengthy essay but a thorough examination of the books, stories and the much-loved character, this proves healthily non-academic and accessible, with a veritable treasure trove of illustrations (book cover reproductions, posters, documents, photographs) as Aldridge, a leading Christie expert, takes the reader through the stories behind the stories, the circumstances that brought the character to life on page and its many film and TV incarnations in minute but never boring detail. The ultimate guide to an immortal character this is the sort of book to both read and dip back into on repeat occasions and overflows with affection and admiration for Agatha Christie’s achievements. My only (terribly minor) reservation is the fact that both Aldridge’s books might have deserved a larger format and the use of colour for the invaluable iconography (which the publisher adopted for their magnificently lavish book on the Collins Crime Club), but then I’m also a lover of illustrated books, and am aware the cover price had that decision been taken might have put the volume out of reach of many.
Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness Mark Aldridge – (amazon.co.uk)
