Detective Fiction: From Victorian Sleuths to the Present

Narrated by Prof. M. Lee Alexander of the College of William and Mary
Produced by The Modern Scholar (2010)
Rating: 4.5

In a series of lectures, Alexander presents a history of detective fiction, covering all the subgenres, from amateur (Simon Brett, Diane Mott Davidson) to hard-boiled (Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler), and from espionage (Eric Ambler, John LeCarre, Tom Clancy) and legal (John Mortimer, John Grisham) to medical and forensic (Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs). She also talks about historical detective fiction (Josephine Tey, Bruce Alexander), women detectives (P.D. James, Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky), police procedurals (Ed McBain, Elizabeth George), as well as international and ethnic detectives.

In addition to all these and more authors, Alexander discusses the role detective fiction plays, as it provides commentary and criticism on the society, times and culture it reflects. A scholar who has talked about this subject before, she makes the connections between Sherlock Holmes and one of her favorite programs, House, M.D. We also get a look at current trends: detectives with disabilities (such as TV’s Monk), ecomysteries and irresolution (not only is the resolution unclear, but there’s confusion as to what justice might be in the case).

In short, Alexander covers a lot of territory. If you want an in-depth look at one genre, this is not it -- this is an overall, somewhat quick, look at detective fiction. But for an overview, it is very good, both entertaining and instructional.

Red Star Rising by Brian Freemantle

Protagonist: Charlie Muffin
Setting: Russia
Rating: 4.0
 
Charlie Muffin, an MI5 agent, is sent to the British embassy in Russia when a dead Russian is found murdered on the grounds. The dead man’s fingertips have been scorched with acid, so there’s no easy way of learning his identity. And the Russian government is insisting they retain control of the investigation. Once there, Muffin finds the British investigation has been slipshod, with the Russians taking away the body before much forensic work could be done. He also discovers that the embassy has been bugged. To complicate matters, the last time Charlie was in Russia (this is the 14th book in a series) he secretly married a KGB agent, Natalia. Together, they had a daughter, Sasha. Now, years later, Charlie tries to salvage that relationship and convince Natalia to return with him to England.

Although billed on the cover as a thriller, this is not the usual spy novel filled with car chases and dangerous undercover missions. Much of the spycraft involves a war of words and subtle techniques such as press conferences (and who attends). While the Cold War has ended, there is still much mistrust and dissembling among the Brits, Americans and Russians. Freeman has been compared to John le Carré, and this novel is very much like le Carré’s classic works, more intellectual intrigue than action -- and that’s just fine with me.

Damnation Falls by Edward Wright

Protagonist: Randall Wilkes
Setting: Pilgrim’s Rest, Tennessee
Rating: 4.5

Randall Wilkes has returned to his small hometown of Pilgrim's Rest after journalistic disgrace in Chicago. With no job, he agrees to write a biography for his friend, the former Gov. Sonny McMahan. But those plans soon go awry after Sonny's mother, Faye, and her caretaker are found dead by Randall -- Faye at Damnation Falls.

Before her death, Faye, who had dementia, had uttered what seemed gibberish to Sonny about her husband, Blue, who disappeared years ago, and the bones of Civil War soldiers recently found nearby. But when the gibberish starts to make some sense, Randall abandons the book project for his own investigation.


Wright's novel falls into the "Southern gothic" heading, with plenty of family secrets, damaged father-son relationships and a small town with a local legend that may or may not be true. It's a well-told tale about the nature of truth, trust and redemption. As my first read of 2011, it's set a high standard. I hope all my other books this year are as compelling.

The Private Patient by P.D James

Protagonist: Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh
Setting: London and Dorset
Rating: 4.5
The first line says it all: "On November the twenty-first, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death."


With that beautifully-crafted sentence, P.D. James takes us to Cheverell Manor, a private clinic in Dorset where Gradwyn, a well-known investigative journalist, checks in to have a lifelong facial scar removed. As we know, she's murdered. In typical Jamesian manner, that's followed by another murder at the clinic.


I could never be totally dissatisfied with a James novel -- she is one of my favorite novelists, after all -- but I expected more of a wrap-up in this final novel, the 14th in the series. James, now 90, has said this will likely be her last Dalgliesh novel. And while Dalgliesh, of New Scotland Yard, does finally marry Emma Lavenham, it comes at the very end of the novel and is dealt with almost as an afterthought (three pages). James always kept Dalgliesh an enigma, and he remains so at the end of this series. While James fleshed out some of his underlings -- Det. Insp. Kate Miskin especially -- Dalgliesh always remained somewhat at a distance. And maybe that's for the best -- it's always good for some mystery to remain.

2011 Reading Challenges

As if I didn't have enough to read, I've decided to join two reading challenges next year.

The first is the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. I've been thinking about it for a year, as I follow my friend Kerrie's reading of Christie novels. I figure it will take me years to read all of Christie's novels, but I have to start somewhere, right? You can join the challenge, too, at Kerrie's site.

The second is the Ireland reading challenge. My family and I hope to make a visit next summer, so this is perfect. I'm going for the Kiss the Blarney Stone level (6 books). I'm thinking about Ian Sansom's Mobile Library series and Tana French's The Likeness, already on my TBR pile. Any ideas for me? Leave a comment, please. For more about that challenge, see here.

20 Favorite Fictional Detectives

Recently, someone asked me who my favorite fictional characters have been. Many of them were detectives, mysteries being my main source of entertainment. So below is my very subjective listing of favorite fictional detectives:

1 and 2. The Bobbsey Twins and Encyclopedia Brown. These were among the first books I remember reading, and they’ve influenced many a mystery lover.
3. Sherlock Holmes. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, this detective is timeless. He still captures our imaginations, as can be seen by the current-day reincarnations (Robert Downey Jr. on the big screen and Benedict Cumberbatch in the current PBS series) and inspirations (the TV series House). There are many Holmes purists, but I like to see even the modern-day adaptations.
4. Inspector Morse. Colin Dexter wrote 13 novels, but mostly we know Morse through the TV series, and the late actor John Thaw. Even Colin Dexter admits that Thaw became, for him, Morse. Intellectually snobbish, pig-headed, often sharp with underling Lewis, and always unlucky in love, Morse was redeemed by his great intellect, humor and moments of vulnerability.
5. Inspector Robbie Lewis and DS James Hathaway. A spinoff from Morse, Insp. Lewis is more down-to-earth, working-class, but with a sharper edge in the new series, following the murder of his wife. Hathaway, tall and good-looking, is the intellectual here, but without the snobbery. It’s become one of my favorite PBS shows.
6. Insp. John Rebus. Ian Rankin’s creation is smart -- and smart-alecky. His demons are alcohol and women (divorced, and also often unlucky in love). Like Morse, he’s unorthodox and always battling his bosses. And like Morse, he’s also a loner and strangely vulnerable. Rankin retired him after 17 books in Exit Music. He’s been portrayed by John Hannah and Ken Stott on TV, but neither really seemed like Rebus to me. In this case, the books are definitely better.
7. Insp. Adam Dalgliesh. Ah, the poet-detective from New Scotland Yard, the silent but sensitive man. P.D. James created him in 1962 with Cover Her Face. In 2008, James, now 90, wrote what may be her last Dalgliesh novel, The Private Patient. The slowly-aging Dalgliesh is now facing retirement and married. Originally portrayed by Roy Marsden on TV, Martin Shaw took over the role later -- and, to my mind, is Dalgliesh.
8 and 9. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Some may criticize Agatha Christie for weak characterization, but she did give us two of the most well-known and well-loved detectives: private investigator Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer living in London (first seen in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920) , and amateur detective Jane Marple, the elderly spinster of St. Mary Mead (first seen in The Murder at the Vicarage, 1930). David Suchet has long portrayed Poirot on TV, and now it’s hard to picture anyone else. Miss Marple has been played by many actresses, most notably Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie.
10. DCI Jane Tennison. This ITV production (Prime Suspect) featured Helen Mirren portraying a tough-as-nails detective who often put work before family, and who slid into alcoholism as the series progressed. So well acted by Mirren, Tennison almost doesn’t seem fictional. The series is said to have served as inspiration for The Closer in the U.S.
11. Adrian Monk. Portrayed by Tony Shalhoub on the USA Network, this obsessive-compulsive private eye was funny -- and also heart-breaking, as a lonely former San Francisco police detective who now worked on his own. His two aims in life: find out who killed his wife and return to the police force. A wonderful cast backed Shalhoub: assistants Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) and Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lt. Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford). I still miss this show.
12. Spenser. The character created by Robert B. Parker in his books came to TV with Robert Urich. I liked the books, but I really loved the TV series. Spenser is the detective you would want to date: tough and good-looking, but a gourmet cook who can quote poetry. Alas, he already had a girlfriend.
13. V.I. Warshawski. This Chicago private detective, created by Sara Paretsky, is tough, independent and no-nonsense. A little grittier than some other female detectives, and maybe a little harder to love.
14. Kinsey Milhone. In some ways, a cousin to Warshawski, although not as tough. The California detective is smart, athletic, principled -- and only owns one good dress, a black number she can scrunch up in her purse and still wear. At least Kinsey (written by Sue Grafton) has stopped giving herself haircuts.
15. Kate Shugak. Another tough woman, she’s a native Alaskan (Aleut) created by Dana Stabenow. Shugak, once an investigator for the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office, now works alone and finds herself in all sorts of situations, going undercover on a fishing boat and posing as an old field worker.
16. Samantha Kinsey. Ok, this TV detective is really light-weight, but I was hooked on the show (Mystery Woman on Hallmark) nonetheless. I could see myself as Samantha (though she was probably better portrayed by Kellie Martin): a murder mystery buff who owns a bookstore and whose hobby is photography. And, of course, always happening upon a situation where she could sleuth. Nothing that good ever happens to me. Maybe if I owned a bookstore?
17. Lt. Columbo. There were no whodunits in these TV shows -- as viewers, we knew who the killer was -- but it was still great to see the seemingly-bumbling but really-brilliant Columbo (Peter Falk) solve the case.
18. Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. I saw the TV series (Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton) before every picking up one of Rex Stout’s books, and it was a case of a TV series influencing me to later read some of the books. Nero is an overweight gourmand who pays more attention to his orchids than to people, but can solve a case without even leaving his brownstone. He has his assistant, Archie, for all the legwork. The A&E series is said to have closely followed the books.
19. Aimée Leduc. Now here’s a female P.I. quite different from the others I’ve mentioned. For one thing, she lives in Paris and dresses in vintage Channel and Dior, even wearing high heels while chasing bad guys (or being chased). But she’s tough in her own right. Created by Cara Black, Leduc is half-American, half-French (there’s also a mystery surrounding her mother). She has a great sidekick in René Friant, a dwarf and computer expert.
20. Leroy Jethro Gibbs and the rest of the NCIS cast. One of the best TV shows today -- underrated, in my opinion. Great characters, great mystery story lines, a dark undercurrent, yet with lots of humor. This really is an ensemble cast, although Gibbs (Mark Harmon) is at the heart of it.

Who are your favorite fictional detectives?

Priceless: How I went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman

I love to read fictional mysteries, but everyone once in a while comes a true-story book that is as good as any fiction.

Former undercover FBI agent Robert K. Wittman, writing with Philadelphia journalist John Shiffman, takes us case by case through his real-life stories: recovering a headdress belonging to Geronimo, going after well-known TV appraisers who were conning people into turning over valuables for a pittance, and working to recover a Rembrandt and Vermeer stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston -- amid much turf squabbling and bureaucratic bungling within the FBI.

The stories are compelling, with equal doses of art history and suspense -- will he be able to fool the suspects, and pull a sting off? Is he going to be able to recover priceless paintings after missteps by a supervisor? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.

Halloween's tricks and treats

Yes, little kids dressed up in costumes are cute. But Halloween's real thrills, those are reserved for those of us who love to read about things that go bump in the night.

To that end, I have some recent treats -- and one that was a real howler.

Two recent historical fiction mysteries delve into old legends. Unholy Awakening by Michael Gregorio takes us into Napoleonic Prussia in the early 1800s, when people truly believed in the undead. When a woman is found dead with bite marks on her neck, vampire fear sweeps through the town. See my full review here.

The Demon's Parchment by Jeri Westerson is another historical novel, based on a true story. It's 1384 in London, and someone has hired Crispin Guest to retrieve a stolen Hebrew parchment -- one they believe has the power to summon a golem -- a devil. Young street urchins are also being killed -- by this same monster or someone more human?
See the full review here. Westerson writes with such detail that I want to go back and read the earlier ones in the series now.

Some things should not be resurrected. Unfortunately, that's what Dracula, The Un-dead tries to do. This sequel, written by Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, Dacre Stoker, and screenwriter Ian Holt, is a huge disappointment. They bring back not only the characters from the classic, but also make the author, Bram Stoker, into a character as well. It's a mess. Pass on this one.

For more chilling reads, check out the special Halloween issue at Reviewing the Evidence, as well as Mystery Fanfare's list and LJ Robert's picks.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Protagonist: Armand Gamache
Setting: Quebec
Rating: 5.0

I love Autumn for several reasons: the beautiful, rich colors on trees, the smell of wood smoke in the air, and a new Armand Gamache novel. Reading one of Louise Penny's books has become a Fall ritual for me - and this one I've been eagerly awaiting for a year.

A year ago, The Brutal Telling ended in a bit of a cliffhanger. Could our heroic, intelligent, honorable Gamache gotten it wrong, sending an innocent man to jail? Well, Penny answers that question in this book. But that's only one of three story lines. And it is Gamache's second-in-command, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir, who goes to Three Pines to unofficially ask questions.

Gamache, meanwhile, is in Quebec, visiting his mentor and recuperating, physically and emotionally, from a police operation that went horribly wrong, killing several agents and wounding Gamache. But when a man's body is found inside the city's Literary and Historical Society's library, where Gamache has been spending time, the Sûreté's chief inspector is pulled into the investigation.

The third story line, an emotionally wrenching look into the operation gone wrong, is revealed to us slowly. Gamache is haunted by the losses, and unable to forgive himself. Penny makes these characters seem so real that you want to be there by their side, consoling them. This is a powerful story, a bit unlike Penny's previous novels, and maybe her best to date.

Devices and Desires by P.D. James

Protagonist: Adam Dalgliesh
Setting: East Anglia
Rating: 4.4
Dalgliesh's aunt Jane has died, leaving him a windmill on the remote windswept headlands of Larksoken, also home to a nuclear plant. On a visit to the mill to settle her estate, he checks in with local police, who are hunting a serial killer named "The Whistler," a man preying on young women in Norfolk. When the nuclear plant's acting administrator, Hilary Robarts, is killed, in a murder made to look like the Whistler's, Dalgliesh finds himself pulled into the investigation. Robarts was reviled both within and outside the nuclear plant, so there are plenty of suspects.

This is, however, not entirely a Dalgliesh novel (although it is 8th in the series). Chief Insp. Terry Rickards of Norfolk CID is the main investigator, although he does rely on Dalgliesh, with whom he used to work, for advice. There's domestic drama going on in Rickard's life, as well, which makes him even more interesting -- but takes away from any storyline we might have had with Dalgliesh. And when the real killer is revealed, it is neither Rickards nor Dalgliesh who uncovers the truth. This is a well-written, well-plotted whodunnit -- but if you're looking for the usual Dalgliesh investigation, this one isn't it.

A Nail Through the Heart by Timothy Hallinan

Protagonist: Poke Rafferty
Setting: Bangkok
Rating: 5.0

Poke Rafferty is not a private investigator. He's a travel writer who has written a "Looking for Trouble" series, mainly for men (on everything from how to bribe a cop to where the best bars are). So it's not surprising that trouble is what he finds when Rafferty takes on a P.I. job for an Australian woman, agreeing to search for her missing uncle. The man's live-in housekeeper is also gone, and this leads Rafferty to a rich, domineering woman. She, in turns, throws a lot of money at Rafferty so he can find someone else -- a man who has stolen from her.

What started as a simple investigation eventually leads Rafferty into the dark world of child pornography and a dark period in Cambodia's history, when the Khmer Rouge tortured thousands. This could have been a very bleak story, but it is just the opposite, balanced by Rafferty's personal life.

In this, the first book in the series, we meet Rafferty's girlfriend Rose, a former bar girl/prostitute who is trying to start her own cleaning business, and the street orphan Rafferty hopes to adopt, spunky 8-year-old Miaow. For a while, another street urchin, the troubled Superman, also makes an appearance in their lives.

While the different elements might not seem appealing -- child porn, a prostitute-turned girlfriend, street children with strange names -- it all works somehow. And it works wonderfully. Hallinan is a gifted writer, and his series is one I will definitely continue.

Interview with Joanna Challis

If you like cozies, especially those with a gothic twist, then Joanna Challis' new series is for you. With an appealing protagonist -- the author Daphne du Maurier as a young woman -- it's sure to gain a following. Here's an interview with Challis about why she likes gothics so much:

Q. In your new series, the protagonist is Daphne du Maurier, the author of Rebecca and other novels. How did you decide on her, and how much of what you’ve written is taken from her real life?

A. Because of my love for du Maurier, Victoria Holt, and the Brontes, my agent came up with the idea of using Daphne du Maurier as a heroine in a new mystery series. Daphne appealed to me instantly -- she came from an upper-class family with good connections - an ideal starting point to build plots upon and the era -- late 1920s -- I grew to love with Agatha Cristie's Hercule Poirot. Combining the two together was an exciting concept.

Q. How do you take an iconic novel like Rebecca, and work backward, in a way, crafting a story that could have been the inspiration for Rebecca?

A. I've read Rebecca so many times I feel I know it backwards. In MURDER ON THE CLIFFS I started with a murder and built the story form there. Often, the characters determine the direction of the story and it was easy to weave the REBECCA theme into MURDER ON THE CLIFFS. The location and the setting, a grand mansion by the sea, also helped!

Q. For me, Murder on the Cliffs led me to reading Rebecca, which I had never done (although I love gothics!). What has the reaction been from other readers to your use of this wonderful gothic novel?

A. I've heard from many readers who love the connection. REBECCA is an all-time favorite with many, however, like with every book, there are critics. As a reader, I adore the old gothics and here was a chance to re-create those classic elements into new mystery with a great heroine and a great setting - beautiful Cornwall.

Q. At least one of your other books has been described as a romance. How would you describe your books -- are they gothics, mysteries, historical fiction, all of the above?

A. Historical mystery with a touch of gothic.

Q. You obviously love gothic novels. What about them appeals to you?

A. Location, location. Setting an entire novel around a grand old house. An intriguing mystery. Interesting characters. A happy ending.

Q. Your website says you started writing at 15. When did you begin achieving success as a writer, and how has your work evolved over the years?

A. I was 20 when SILVERTHORN, my first book, was published. I wrote two others (they were all e-published). SILVERTHORN became a quick favorite and was short-listed for Romantic Book of the Year in Australia. EYE OF THE SERPENT came out next (Robert Hale, UK), my first hard-cover, and also was loved by readers. For an attempt to hit the commerical market, however, my agent and I worked on the Daphne series. We knew it was a great concept and St Martin's thought so too. I have a wonderful and supportive editor at SMP. Together I hope to continue the series.

Q. Your second Daphne du Maurier book is coming out soon. Can you tell us a little about this book, and will this series continue?

A. PERIL AT SOMNER HOUSE will hit bookstores from the 26th October. I'm very excited about it. I love any book set on an island -- this one is an island off the coast of Cornwall in England. It's also set in Winter -- a house party murder-mystery.

Q. And the question I ask everyone -- who are the authors you like to read?

A. Agatha Cristie. Victoria Holt. Jane Austen. The Brontes. Any mystery really. And, of course, Daphne du Maurier!

Murder on the Cliffs by Joanna Challis

Protagonist: Daphne du Maurier
Setting: Cornwall
Rating: 4.0

Sometimes you're in the mood for an old-fashioned mystery. This is it -- with a twist. The protagonist is a young Daphne du Maurier, the real-life gothic author. And the events in this novel form the inspiration for her masterpiece, Rebecca. Daphne -- or the fictional version, at least -- is 21 and not interested in finding a husband, despite the pleas of her parents. Instead, she wants to go to Cornwall and explore the old abbey, the manors and the medieval inns. Her family insists she stay with Ewe Sinclaire, her mother's old nanny. But even safely ensconced, murder finds Daphne as she walks the cliffs of Cornwall.

She hears screams, and comes across the body of a young woman, who turns out to be the fiancee of Lord Hartley of Padthaway, a gothic mansion full of secret passageways and closed rooms (think Manderlay). Is the killer Lord David Hartley himself, his strange sister Lianne or their icy-cold mother? And what about that creepy housekeeper? As the person who found the body (and a person of society), Daphne is welcomed to Padthaway, becoming friendly with Lianne and catching the eye of the brooding Lord Hartley. But what interests Daphne the most is solving the mystery. Rather than being afraid of the gothic mansion, she eagerly embraces the secrets of the old house -- and the family. She's fearless, outspoken and confident -- quite unlike the main character in Rebecca.

You don't need to have read Rebecca to enjoy Murder on the Cliffs, although there are a few lines that will resonate if you've read the classic. This is a modern gothic, with an engaging heroine. Challis' second book, Peril at Somner House, will be out in October. It's one I eagerly await.

Interview with Barbara Fister

Barbara Fister is the author of three crime fiction books: On Edge, In the Wind and the recently-released Through the Cracks. Below is what she has to say on writing:

Q. In addition to being an author, you’re a librarian at a liberal arts college. Why did you choose that field and have you always had ambitions to be a writer?

A. “Choose” implies actual planning was involved. In fact, I sort of fall into things. I went to library school after enjoying part-time work in the university library when I was an undergraduate and not particularly enjoying the other graduate program I was enrolled in. I applied for a job at a school that I’d never heard of and had to quiz everyone who interviewed me for the job on what is distinctive about liberal arts colleges, since my education had been at research universities. I didn’t really expect to become a professional writer, though I impressed myself in the fifth grade by writing a story about a horse that was a whole eight pages long; when I was an undergraduate I wrote a novel to see if I could do it (a whole 300 pages long!) but I was wise enough to know it wasn’t any good. I didn’t write fiction again for years, until I reached a point in my life when I needed a creative outlet to balance the rest of my life. Making up imaginary worlds is fulfilling in a way that other kinds of writing is not. I’m sure I was also influenced by my father, who was a journalist, and my mother, a self-taught polymath who read mysteries constantly.

Q. How did you come up with the character of Anni Koskinen? She seems far removed from a university librarian.

A. That’s why I like hanging out with her - though oddly enough I’ve had some librarian friends say “she’s such a librarian!” I think that’s because she has an orientation toward politics and civil liberties that maps more closely to the average librarian than the average cop. And she’s a bit of a geek. At one point in Through the Cracks, when she’s looking for connections among cases, she inputs data to create a relational tag cloud - total librarian geekery. She also has a background that provides her with street smarts from early years in the child welfare system, but with a foot in a world that looks more like mine, having been adopted by a college professor.

Q. Much of your first book in the Anni Koskinen series, In the Wind, concerns civil liberties, especially those of underrepresented groups. Why did you address those issues?

A. When I was writing In the Wind I was angry about the ways our government was responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including the passage of a law that in many of its sections is an insult to the Constitution. I was struck by the way that law enforcement practices that were exposed by the Church Committee in the 1970s and repudiated by Congress were suddenly being made legal, or as legal as a law that is in conflict with the Constitution can be. And just as the civil rights movement became the target of illegal surveillance and suppression in the 1960s, even though “communism” was the supposed enemy, the fear of foreign “others” has been expanded to include immigrants of all kinds, both legal and undocumented.

Crime fiction deals with issues of justice, but often it’s justice in the abstract, a duel of wits between a clever hero and an evil antagonist, with victims scattered here and there to create tension. I’m more interested in the ways crime fiction can take a four-inch news story in the paper and imagine the world around it, and I’m fascinated by the ways anxiety (the engine for crime stories) shapes our priorities as a society.

Q. The American Indian Movement, which is a big part of that book, is a real-life group. Why focus on AIM, and were any of the events that occurred in the novel taken from real events?

A. The seed that grew into this story was planted when FBI agents arrested Sarah Jane Olsen, a completely ordinary middle-class woman in St. Paul, and charged her with being an accomplice in crimes committed by a bizarre radical group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, which she had joined decades ago. I wondered what it would have been like to lead a dual life like that, living quietly after being involved in violent radicalism. When I started mulling over a storyline, though, I didn’t want to focus on a group as peculiar as the Symbionese Liberation Army, which was stranger than fiction. Instead, I invented a radical offshoot of the American Indian Movement. AIM was formed close to where I now live and was targeted by the FBI, which made every effort to dismantle and discredit the movement.

I may also have been influenced by the fact that my house is on Dakota land taken from them in the treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Conditions got so desperately bad for the tribe a few years later, they rebelled and there was a terrible slaughter on both sides. On December 27, 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged in the largest mass execution in the nation’s history just twelve miles from where I live.

Q. In addition to writing characters who are people of color, you have characters who are autistic and bipolar. What drives you to create these types of characters?

A. I’ve always wanted to write something about the experience families have with mental illness, partly to offer an alternative to the fairly common depiction of mental illness in crime fiction as a convenient label applied to monstrous villains who commit extravagantly nasty crimes. My brother Paul was bipolar and, like most people in his situation, was not violent but had frequent run-ins with the law. I know a lot of people with serious mental illnesses, and the problems they and their families have while dealing with any chronic illness are exacerbated by the social stigma involved. Bipolar disorder usually presents during late adolescence or early adulthood, just as people are forming their adult identities, and it can make it very difficult to get an education, develop a career, and form attachments. It’s also frustrating for families, because getting help during a crisis is often impossible. So I invented a heroine whose job in part involves dealing with such crises. Wish fulfillment? I’m not sure.

Anni’s brother is autistic, and I’m not sure where he came from. In the first draft of the book, I never used the word and didn’t really have a “diagnosis” for him. That very messy first draft had a lot of things that needed fixing, and one of the recommendations my agent made was to cut back on the number of characters. I tried to write him out of the story, but I couldn’t make sense of Anni’s character without her brother, so he stayed and I’m glad, because I like him. I think her ability to understand his perspective even though he’s mostly non-verbal has helped make her a good detective and a compassionate person.

Q. You also set your books in neighborhoods that aren’t usually seen by the tourist. What about these settings appeals to you as a writer?

A. Man, I love Chicago, and the city is all about its neighborhoods. As a quintessentially American city, it offers the kinds of contrasts that give you lots to work with, including vibrant African-American and Latino communities as well as the lingering imprint of waves of immigration, particularly from Eastern Europe. The busiest retail areas in Chicago apart from the better-known Magnificent Mile are 26th Street in Little Village, a Mexican neighborhood, and Devon Avenue on the far north side, which is primarily Indian/Pakistani but with smatterings of Russian, Georgian, and Hassidic Jewish businesses. How cool is that? And of course there’s enormous economic diversity. Many of the city blocks in parts of the South and West Sides would be right at home in the third world. Anni lives in a neighborhood that’s traditionally Puerto Rican, but also has lots of black and Mexican residents. It’s right in the path of gentrification but is also home to some pretty violent gang disputes. If fiction needs conflict, there’s plenty of it right at her front door.

Q. You now have two books in the Anni Koskinen series. Are you working on a third, and any ideas on where this series will head?

A. Yes, I am, but no, I have no idea where it might go, though at this point it involves two stories, those of a young schizophrenic client accused of murder and an outsider artist whose rather unsettling work may provide clues in a case Anni investigated years ago. I am one of those writers who works with a concept and sometimes an idea of how the crimes will be solved in the end, but otherwise no outline or plan. I’ve never been able to plot a story in advance of writing; I have to be writing to discover the story. Don’t try this at home.

Q. You’ve been active in the mystery reading community for years, especially as a moderator with the online group 4Mystery Addicts. Any surprises in going from being a reader to being a writer?

A. I think at heart I’m more a reader than a writer. When I’m making up a story, I’m thinking like a reader. What’s going to happen next? How will this character respond? I was completely ignorant of the book business, and while it has been a good education for me as a librarian to see the sausage factory up close, particularly at a time when so much is in flux, I have been surprised at how much time and energy the business angle of writing occupies writers and how much of the creative energies of writers gets sapped by anxieties surrounding publication, particularly when so little is under their control. While I enjoy the craft aspect of writing, I’m not as interested in the business end, especially sales and self-promotion. Fortunately, I like my day job.

Q. You’ve written both male (On Edge, your first book) and female protagonists. Which do you like writing the best?

A. I actually found it harder to write from a female perspective. Readers tolerate a certain intensity and edgy behavior in men that would seem obnoxious, unrealistic, or simply disturbing in women characters. Men can drink too much, but not women. Men can get obsessed and neglect relationships, but women who do that are selfish and overly ambitious. When you put a female character at risk, it’s easy to fall into that annoying “be very afraid” kind of suspense that I find oppressive. I had fun with Slovo in my first book, and I’d like to bring him back and see how he’s doing after all the high-tension drama and his slightly unhinged state of mind, but I also have enjoyed trying to develop a female character who can be the kind of hero Chandler wrote about – honorable, not afraid, fit for adventure while remaining solidly human and rooted in reality. I think with Anni I’m trying to figure out what a hero should be when the hero is a woman in the 21st century.

Q. Finally, the question I ask all authors -- which authors do you like to read?

A. My favorite question! I have been enjoying Scandinavian writers lately – Arnaldur Indridason, Johan Theorin, Jo Nesbo, Karin Fossum among them. I also love Denise Mina (Scotland), Timothy Hallinan (Thailand), John McFetridge (Canada), and Deon Meyer (South Africa). For great writing I can always turn to David Corbett, Jess Walter, and John Harvey. Oh, and Sam Reaves and Sean Doolittle and Don Winslow and Minette Walters and Alex Carr and Adrian Hyland and . . . it’s impossible to know where to stop. Whatever you think of the future of publishing, there is no shortage of great books.

In the Wind by Barbara Fister

Protagonist: Anni Koskinen
Setting: Chicago
Rating: 4.6
In this first book in a new series, we meet Anni Koskinen, a former Chicago cop who left the force after she testified against a fellow officer who beat a kid, leaving him brain-damaged. While she may have done the right thing, other officers made her life difficult, so Anni's gone the private investigator route. She's not been at it long when a neighborhood priest asks Anni for help. Within a matter of hours, she's involved in a high-profile case, helping defend a woman, Rosa Saenz, a grandmotherly church worker the FBI says killed a federal agent in 1977. Saenz is really Verna Basswood, a former radical with an offshoot of the American Indian Movement and a fugitive since she was accused of the crime. But her lawyer, Anni and most of the community -- with the exception of law enforcement -- believe Basswood is innocent. To complicate matters, the man she's accused of killing, Arne Tilquist, was the father of one of Anni's closest friends.

Fister has been compared to another Chicago author, Sara Paretsky (V.I. Warshawsky). This is not overblown hype. Both have tough female P.I. characters, gripping writing and use the city to great effect, exploring the neighborhoods of the working class. In the Wind also tackles the subject of civil liberties, especially those of underrepresented groups, deftly. And Fister deals with issues of autism and bipolar disorder with sensitivity -- Anni's brother is autistic and another main character is a teenager with bipolar disorder. There's a lot, in fact, packed into this novel, but it doesn't slow down the plot.

The second in the series, Through the Cracks, was released this year. Hopefully, Fister will become another Paretsky -- with a long-running series to her name.

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

Protagonist: Harry Hole
Setting: Oslo
Rating: 4.9

Following the events in The Redbreast and Nemesis (and I highly recommend you read at least The Redbreast first), police detective Harry Hole has slipped into alcoholism. He hardly appears at work and is about to be dismissed when the department is faced with a big case -- a serial killer who is leaving pentagrams and red diamonds at each scene.

Amid his alcoholic haze, Hole has also been trying to prove that colleague Tom Waaler is corrupt. Not surprisingly, no one will listen to him. The only reason they haven’t fired Hole yet is because he’s so good at solving complicated crimes. And this is one complicated crime – what is the killer trying to tell police with the clues he leaves behind? They don’t seem to be sex crimes and there’s no link between the victims, so what is the motive?

The more Hole investigates, the more suspects there seem to be. In the end, the pieces fall together rather well, although Nesbo has weaved a complicated plot. It’s a pleasure to read crime fiction like this – with well-developed characters, a not-always-likable but intriguing detective, and a plot filled with twists and turns. In fact, if I were to recommend a Scandinavian author, it wouldn't be the flavor of the month (The Girl Who books), but Jo Nesbo.

Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves

Protagonist: Det. Jimmy Perez
Setting: Fair Isle
Rating: 5.0

Engaged now, Det. Jimmy Perez takes his fiancée, Fran Hunter, back home to Fair Isles to meet his parents, just as a fall storm starts brewing. Jimmy's parents have organized a party at North Light Field Centre, a bird observatory. The party is a success, but the next morning Jimmy is awoken early -- there's been a murder at the observatory. North Field's warden, Angela Moore, has been killed; the killer has woven white bird feathers though her dark long hair. With the storm now raging, it'll be days before other detectives and the forensics team can reach the island, so it's left to Jimmy to investigate.

Since the center was locked, it's obvious the killer is either a family member, one of the staff or one of the visitors, “twitchers” pursuing rare birds. Less obvious is who -- there are plenty of people who had reason to dislike Angela. In the midst of all this, one of the bird-watchers spots the first trumpeter swan seen in Britain. “I’d kill to find a bird like this,” one of the suspects proclaims. Yet another motive for murder!

This closed environment, with plenty of suspects, is a traditional mystery device. Cleeves even makes a nod to old-fashioned whodunits, with one of the characters contemplating, "There was an Agatha Christie book she'd read when she was a kid. A bunch of people on an island. Dying, one by one.”

But this is no Christie cozy. Amid the stark beauty of this isolated island, there’s a dark undercurrent. In fact, in the last of a quartet set in the Shetland Islands, Cleeves brings us a very dark book. (The quartet began with Raven Black, followed by White Nights and Red Bones, and I recommend reading them in order.) This atmospheric novel builds the tension slowly until its stunning denouement. I expected a good read, having liked the previous books. Blue Lightning delivers with a thunderous intensity.

The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

Protagonist: Vish Puri
Setting: Delhi, India
Rating: 4.7
Vish Puri, a 51-year-old detective, owns Most Private Investigators, an agency that deals mostly with matrimonial issues. In this modern age, in which aunties no longer set up as many arranged marriages, parents seek out Most Private Investigators to screen prospective marriage partners. The work keeps Puri busy, along with his undercover operatives, who he's nicknamed: Tubelight, Flush, Hand Brake (his driver) and Facecream.

But his life is about to get even busier. A public litigator asks Puri for help -- he's been accused of murdering his maidservant. The servant has gone missing; a woman is found dead in town, but she may or may not be the servant (Puri only has a first name, Mary, as a clue to finding her). Also, Brigadier Kapoor, an important man, wants Puri to discredit the man engaged to his granddaughter, even though the groom seems squeaky-clean. Finally, someone is trying to kill Puri, shooting at him as he tends his rooftop chili plants. But he's so busy that he doesn't spend much time on his own murder attempt. Instead, to his utter frustration, his mother starts sleuthing, leading Puri to chastise her with: "It's not a mummy's role, actually."

This was a quirky book, filled with much humor. But it also had great detective stories and a great character in Puri, who, for all his faults, has a mind equal to Sherlock Holmes or Poirot.

Hall, who has lived in India, has a great ear for the Indian way of phrasing sentences, and wonderfully describes the sights and tastes (especially!) of India. Fortunately, the second book in the series, The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, has just been published. I think I'll be visiting India, via Puri, soon.

Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

Protagonist: Det. Insp. John Rebus
Setting: Edinburgh
Rating: 4.5


In this, the sixth novel in the Rebus series, Rankin really gets things humming along. Rankin, who has said before that he’s tried to show the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Edinburgh, gives us the touristy Edinburgh Festival – and a murder right underneath the noses of festivalgoers. Literally. A young man’s body is found in the underground St. Mary’s King Close, tortured and shot six times.

When it seems that Scottish nationalists and extreme hardline Irish groups are involved, Rebus is seconded to the elite Scottish Crime Squad, since he’s had previous army experience in Belfast. This suits Rebus just fine – he can travel between the two offices without his superiors knowing what he’s really up to. In the meantime, Rebus, as a favor to a priest, has also ventured into the Gar-B, a notorious housing project in Edinburgh. These two threads tie eventually. Also making an appearance is Rebus’ nemesis, “Big Ger” Cafferty, an effective alter ego for Rebus.

Along the way, there are a few more murders and Rebus serves as a punching bag for almost everyone – the bad guys, the good guys (a fellow police officer) and a lawyer with whom he’s unwisely flirted, even though he’s living with Dr. Patience Aitken.

A very good entry in a great series.

The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell

Protagonist: Birgitta Roslin
Setting: Sweden and China
Rating: 4.0
A photographer is traveling through rural Sweden when he stops at a small scenic village. But something is off: no smoke is coming out of the chimneys even though it's a cold winter day. Soon enough, he starts to stumble on dead bodies. When police arrive, they find 18 dead, one of the biggest mass slayings in Sweden. But this is not the usual police procedural. In fact, it's not the police who solve the mystery -- they arrest the wrong man -- but a judge, Birgitta Roslin, who is connected to some of the victims.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I really, really wanted to like it. It is, after all, written by the great Henning Mankell, who writes the popular Kurt Wallander series.

And this is by no means a bad book. There's much I did like: the main characters are, for the most part, strong and intelligent women. I very much liked them. The story, up to a point, held my attention. However, about two-thirds of the way through, the action switches from Sweden to China. It jarred, taking me out of the Swedish story and into a more political story involving China and Africa.

Then there was the whole premise for the murders. The killer is avenging a family wrong committed 138 years ago, but taking his revenge out on innocents. And while we get to know the killer quiet well, it was still hard to believe he'd kill for that purpose. Lastly, the translation seemed clunky. I'm sure Mankell is a wonderful writing, but it read stilted in English.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but warily, not enthusiastically.