Elly Griffiths, mystery author

I haven’t read many new mystery authors that I’ve been really taken with lately. Elly Griffiths is an exception. The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone are set in an isolated part of England along the east coast. Ruth (or Dr. Galloway), the main protagonist, is a forensic archeologist, which entails investigating and dating old bones – like remains from the Bronze or Iron Age in England.

In The Crossing Places, Griffiths’ first mystery, Ruth is called to a scene on a beach and meets DCI Harry Nelson. The remains turn out to be much older than any case he has going, but he subsequently calls her to other scenes. In The Janus Stone a child’s skeleton is found under the doorway of a former children’s home and Ruth becomes involved in figuring out who this child could be.

The descriptions of the area where Ruth lives, a desolate saltmarsh, are also well done. Having only been to London, it’s interesting to read about a very different part of England. Here she’s walking near her house:

“For about twenty minutes she plods on, head down against the driving rain. Then she stops. She should have reached the gravel path by now. It is almost completely dark, with just a faint phosphorescent gleam coming from the marsh itself. Ruth gets out her torch but its shaky light shows her only flat marshland in all directions. Far off, she can hear the sea roaring as it thunders inland.”

In The Janus Stone Ruth is also dealing with an unexpected pregnancy as she heads out to various sites:

“They climb the hill. Ruth trying to disguise how out of breath she is. Jesus, at this rate she’ll be immobile at nine months.”

I enjoyed the humor throughout the books, even as they’re digging up bones.

Amagansett by Mark MIlls

The novel, Amagansett, is focused on events happening in and around the town of Amagansett, which is located on Long Island. One of the main characters, Conrad Labarde, immigrated to the United States as a small boy with his father and brother. After returning from fighting in WWII, he continues to earn a living fishing. The book opens with Conrad catching a body in his nets.

This town is also a popular place for New Yorkers to have summer homes. The tension between longtime fishing residents and summer-only visitors is exacerbated with this death of a daughter of a prominent summer family. Tom Hollis, an officer with the small town police force, suspects this is not a simple drowning. Tom is a former New York City detective sent to Amagansett as a punishment, and is not really accepted or trusted by either the fishermen or the summer people.

The author does a good job of moving between the different characters. Unlike many detective novels Tom does not spend every waking moment on the case, which seems more realistic. He even takes a day off to walk around the island with a woman he has just met.

I liked this book because it is a standalone well written mystery. It also examines what can happen when people are dropped back into their lives after serving in a war. I reviewed a more recent book by Mark Mills entitled The Savage Garden. It is also set after WWII, but in Italy. It is remarkable to me that the author was able to really capture each of these very different places.

Best Books Read in 2009

I liked Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner for its unusual setting in a remote part of Alaska and also the main character’s contemplation of his changing life. Another fiction book that I really liked was Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for its interesting story of a Chinese American boy in Seattle during WWII.

In non-fiction The Assist by Neil Swidey really stuck with me – that means it must be good as I really do not like basketball. The author followed high school basketball players and their coach in Boston.

I also liked the delicately creepy short stories in The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa. A mystery author I first read this year was Stieg Larsson who wrote The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. His third and final book in the series is coming out in 2010. These mysteries are set in Sweden with a journalist and a computer hacker as the main characters – if you are squeamish they are not for you.

Happy reading in 2010!
Escape to Books

I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming

I Shall Not Want is the sixth in a unique mystery series. Clare Ferguson is an Episcopalian priest and former Army helicopter pilot in a small town in upper state New York. As a reverend she has a reputation for acting before thinking. Her current Bishop is unsure of her commitment and a deal they’ve made is for her to be in the National Guard as she figures out how dedicated she is to being a priest.

Russ Van Alstyne is the police chief of the small town of Millers Kill and one main reason Clare is questioning her own judgment. To get the back story on their relationship it is best to start with the first book in the series: In the Bleak Midwinter.

In I Shall Not Want a body is found during a church picnic. Other bodies are found, all of young Hispanic men. The police chief and the town begin to wonder if they are dealing with a serial killer. Russ becomes even more entangled in this case as one of the bodies is found on his sister’s property. Even though Russ and Clare are estranged initially, she becomes involved as the number of illegal immigrants in the area and their treatment is brought to her attention.

Here’s Russ trying to tell Clare how he feels:
“It’s me. I’m …stuck. I’m like an old truck up to its hubcaps in snow. I go forward, I go back, nothing ever changes or shakes loose, and the whole time I’m cold, inside and out. The only time I feel anything is when I’m angry.”

The mystery is almost secondary to the ongoing story of Russ and Clare. Other characters are also well developed. New to town is Hadley Knox, the first female police officer in Millers Kill. A good portion of the mystery explores Hadley’s growth as an officer and her attempt to balance her job with being a single mom to two kids.

If you’re looking for a mystery that has more focus on character development than most, definitely try out these books by Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Escape to Books

The Mao Case by Qiu Xiaolong

Detective Inspector Chen works in Shanghai in the 1990’s. He gets an assignment to take personal leave, but it is a cover for him to work on a case that Internal Security is also working on. It involves Mao and something he may or may not have left with a dancer during his lifetime. The dancer’s granddaughter has recently come into good fortune and the speculation is that it must be an item from Mao that is behind this. Internal Security is involved in case it is something potentially damaging to Mao’s reputation.

This book, one of a series, by Qui Xiaolong is interesting for many reasons beyond unraveling the mystery. The society is still recovering from the Cultural Revolution. For example, Detective Yu, Chen’s assistant, and his wife, Peiqin are solidly middle class with two stable paying jobs. They live in one room with their son and struggle to make ends meets. Both were impacted by the Cultural Revolution as illustrated by this passage:

“Peiqin had been a straight-A student in elementary school, wearing the Red Scarf of a proud Young Pioneer, dreaming of a rosy future in the golden sunlight of socialist China. Everything changed overnight, however, with the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. Her father’s ‘historical problem’ cast a shadow over the whole family.”

Detective Chen is also a poet and a translator of poetry. This case involves examining some of Mao’s poetry. That adds another dimension to this mystery novel. I don’t really know of the tradition behind Chinese poetry or whether Mao’s is any good. Here’s an example of a poem written supposedly for Madame Mao:

“Against the gathering dusk stands a pine, sturdy, erect / in composure with riotous clouds sweeping past. / What a fairy cave it is, born out of the nature! / Ineffable beauty comes at the perilous peak.”

My favorite part of the book is the descriptions of life in Shanghai and Chen’s trip to Beijing. I especially appreciate all the meetings that take place in restaurants and describe the various dishes. I spent some time in Asia and definitely miss the food – hard to get in the middle of Oregon.

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

This mystery is set in South Africa in 1952. Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent from Johannesburg to investigate the murder of an Afrikaner police captain in a small town. Captain Pretorius’s body is found in a river and the investigation is complicated by the fact that the other side of the river is Mozambique and off limits. Pretorius’s five sons are used to ruling the town and interfere in the investigation as well.

Emmanuel forms an alliance with Shabalala, a black policeman in the town. Shabalala has been given the native name of Mfowemlungu or “brother of the white man”, with Captain Pretorius being the white man with whom he grew up. As Emmanuel looks more into Pretorius’s life he finds a number of contradictions. Unfortunately he is soon sidelined from the case by the Security Branch as discussed here:
“Prime Minister Malan and the National Party had begun to enact their plan as soon as they’d taken office. The new segregation laws divided people into race groups, told them where they could live and told them where they could work. The Immorality Act went so far as to tell people whom they could sleep with and love. The growth of the defiance campaign meant that the Security Branch, or Special Branch as it was tagged on the street, would walk right into Emmanuel’s investigation and call the shots.”

This mystery has many twists and intriguing characters. It is also set in a very interesting time in the history of South Africa, right before there are going to be many changes. I hope the author continues to follow this character in South Africa. It is in reading a book like this for fun that I realize how much history of the world there is that I never studied in school.

The Water Clock by Jim Kelly

The Water Clock is the first in a series of mysteries with journalist Phillip Dryden as an investigator. I found the backstory on the journalist almost more interesting than the central mystery. He’s working for a local paper, somewhat of a comedown, from his former job in London. Phillip has taken this job because his wife has been in a coma for the past two years ever since a traffic accident that he barely survived. Unfortunately, his unidentified rescuer (and the cause of the accident) did not realize that Phillip’s wife had been in the back seat. Phillip feels guilty about Laura being left behind. He also is beginning to acknowledge his feelings that he’d almost rather have her not recover than for her to need constant care for the rest of her life.

Phillip hasn’t driven since the accident. He has a long-term driver, Humphrey Holt or Humph, to take him to various accidents and interviews. Humph is strange character and pretty anti-social, but backs up Phillip when necessary. The discovery of a murdered body in the trunk of a car in a frozen river starts off a chain of events. Phillip doesn’t have much faith in Detective Sergeant Stubbs, who is assigned to the case, and begins investigations on his own. Evidence implicates an unsolved robbery from more than twenty-five years prior as central to the current crime. Phillip’s investigations put Laura at risk, but also offer him bargaining power with Stubbs in his hope to obtain the sealed documents about his own accident.

The story is set in the Fens of England. Water very much plays a role in Phillip’s life as he was rescued as a child from a frozen river, his father died of ‘misadventure’ during a flood, Laura and his car ended up in a ditch during their accident, and, as the identity of the murdered becomes clearer to Phillip, the Fens are threatened by a severe flood. I think astute readers will be able to solve the mystery before the end of the book, but I didn’t. I’m looking forward to reading the next few books in the series to find out what happens to Phillip and Laura as well as Humph.

Mystery Author Ian Rankin

The latest, and said to be last book, in the Inspector Rebus series by Ian Rankin is Exit Music. Rankin’s books generally feature a determined detective (Rebus), are fast-paced, and the mysteries convoluted enough to keep me guessing. In Exit Music Rebus has only days to retirement and ends up embroiled in a case involving a dead Russian poet. The implication is that any other retiring police officer would let this slide and leave it to his partner to solve, but Rebus is different. He has spent his entire life and most of his waking hours dedicated to his job, or at least drinking enough so that he can’t think about his job, and this last case is no different.

By my count there are about 19 books featuring John Rebus. I happened upon this series late, but have read four or so of the most recent books. It seems readily easy to jump into the series anywhere. I did read one of the first books in the series, Hide and Seek, and found that Rebus has always had trouble with women, alcohol, and authority. So far, my favorite book in the series is The Falls, which involves a case where tiny dolls in coffins are left at crime scenes. It is also the only book that I’ve read so far in which Rebus has a moderately successful romance.

Check out Ian Rankin’s website for a list of all the Inspector Rebus novels. I hope that Ian Rankin will continue this series set in Edinburgh, possibly with a focus on Rebus’s equally interesting partner, Siobhan Clarke.

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris

Finding Nouf is set in Saudi Arabia, which adds a different dimension to the traditional murder mystery. It would seem impossible to investigate a crime if you cannot talk to half the population. This is the situation that Nayir ash-Sharqi finds himself in when he is asked by a friend, Othman Shrawi, to investigate the death of Othman’s sister, Nouf.

Nayir is caught in a difficult spot. He is a very observant Muslim and cannot be seen in the company of an unmarried woman. He is even uncomfortable looking at women. His first meeting with Katya Hijazi is surprising to him. “There would of course be female examiners to handle the female corpses, but seeing one in the flesh was a shock. She wore a white lab coat and a hijab, a black scarf, on her hair. Because her face was exposed, he averted his gaze, blushing as he did so.” However, Nayir finds that he really needs Katya’s help to investigate Nouf’s death and has to figure out a way to work with her.

The story goes back and forth illustrating Nayir’s discomfort with Katya and Katya’s unhappiness at some of the traditions in her country. Here she finds it unpleasant to sit with her dad on their front step: “The day crowds were gone, the souk vendors’ carts were folded away, and now the local residents wandered by, some of them waving of calling greetings to Abu, others avoiding him for fear of seeing Katya’s unveiled face. She counted them as they passed – the men who wouldn’t say hello to a friend because she was there, because looking at her would have been as dangerous as staring at the sun – and she got to four before she went inside.”

The mystery itself is interesting and worth reading. There are unexpected revelations as the life of a wealthy, but unhappy, 16 year old is investigated. I found myself pretty interested in the descriptions of the way of life. Zoë Ferraris is an American who spent time living in Saudi Arabia with her former husband and has significant insight into that life. The plight of Nayir as an orphan from Palestine living in Saudi Arabia is also intriguing. He really wants to be married, but he cannot meet women on his own and does not have the necessary relatives that can make introductions.

Bendites will appreciate a scene involving Nayir and roundabouts. I am looking forward to more from this author.

End-of-the-Summer Book Blahs

Usually I read two or three books and then stumble across one that I am interested enough in to write more about. That has not happened lately. I was in the midst of a promising one, Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, when it hit a wrong turn for me. I can recommend some of her other books as light, fun fare set in Philadelphia. Little Earthquakes is about four new moms bonding, probably falling in that maligned chick lit category.


I also recently read The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black. The protagonist, pathologist Garret Quirke, seems an interesting character in his dealings with family and friends, but the murder mystery part was only so-so. The book spent a lot of time hinting at the previous book, Christine Falls, and events that took place therein. I wish I would have read that book first and maybe that would have helped me place all the characters in context, instead of spending my time wondering what had happened.


I keep a list of all the books I plan to read. It is occasionally months before I get to some of them. I had Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch under novels. I was quite surprised to pick up the very hefty book subtitled America in the King Years 1954-63. I am not going to be able to finish it before I have to return it to the library. I do highly recommend the chapter entitled “The Montgomery Bus Boycott”, especially if, like me, your American history education is spotty. I had no idea that the bus boycott lasted more than a year after the arrest of Rosa Parks. It was really by the efforts of every black person in Montgomery to carpool or walk that the boycott worked. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. It was also during this time that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for the first time (for going 30 in a 25 mph zone), his house was bombed, and he really came into prominence as a leader in the civil rights movement. I have gotten bogged down later in the book among the descriptions of presidential politics and King’s financial issues with Alabama.


If your summer reading is going well, let us know what gems you have found.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel Dalhousie is the editor of a journal called the Review of Applied Ethics. Her training as a philosopher allows her to ponder professional issues as well as everyday dilemmas. For example, she discusses a paper she has received with her housekeeper: “ ‘I believe he’s serious,’ she said, passing the letter to Grace. ‘An offer of a paper on the ethics of the buffet bar.’” (pg 203) This leads to an interesting discussion about whether it is alright to raid your hotel breakfast bar for later on.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate is billed as a mystery, but most of the action takes place in Isabel’s head. That’s okay. It is an interesting mystery and a calm, relaxing read. Isabel is quite ethical and spends a lot of time debating what will be her next step. Here she is trying to decide whether to be involved in a rather strange instance. “ ‘But you may recall that I said something about obligation earlier on. One of the consequences of being a philosopher is that you get involved. You ask yourself whether you need to do something and so often the answer comes up yes, you do.’ ” (pg 153) She is speaking to a man who has had a heart transplant and believes he is seeing something that the former owner of the heart saw.

This series is set in Scotland and the city of Edinburgh plays a significant role. Alexander McCall Smith is also the author of the very popular series beginning with the book The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. I recommend Friends, Lovers, Chocolate if you are looking for an interesting, thoughtful read with just a hint of a mystery.

Brodie Farrell Mysteries by Jo Bannister

I love finding a new, new to me that is, mystery series. Especially one that has a number of books in the series already published. It means you don't have to wait a year or two for the author to write the next one.

I have recently been reading Jo Bannister's mysteries featuring Brodie Farrell. I started with the most recent one, Flawed, and then went back and started at the beginning with Echoes of Lies. There are seven mysteries in all so far.

Brodie Farrell is a divorced, single mother living in England. To support herself and her daughter she starts up a business called Looking for Something? So, that is what she does. Some days she may be searching antique shops for a particular vase to match one a client has at home or she may be looking for a person. It is through this business that she meets Daniel Hood, a mathematics teacher. Daniel is stubborn and always insists on telling the truth; this may seem like a plus, but it tends to get him into difficult situations. Brodie also meets and develops a relationship with Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, who seems physically and emotionally to be the opposite of Hood.

The interactions between these three people are well-developed, realistic, and intriguing. Other characters that enter the different books are also interesting, including Deacon's assistant and the various villians that come and go. Now I'm waiting for book #8 to come out.

Billy Straight by Jonathan Kellerman

Billy Straight is a young kid on the run. He heads for Los Angeles and while living on the streets witnesses a murder. What is interesting about this book is the insight that Kellerman, a former child psychologist, brings to Billy. The choices that Billy makes, like to leave his family or to live on his own rather than with other runaways, seem believable. Billy runs into people who want to help him as well as those who want to take advantage of him and it becomes easier to understand why he just wants to be left alone.

The police trying to solve the murder eventually come to realize they are hunting for a 12-year-old as their witness. Petra Conner, a young LAPD detective, is a well-developed character and I wish she appeared in more of Kellerman’s novels. The frustration of trying to solve this high profile case, which involves an actor and the crazy bureaucracy of the LAPD, are highlighted here. Petra can see that some bad decisions are being made in the handling of the case, but can’t do much to stop them.

Here’s Billy at the beach once he knows the police are looking for him, and that possibly the killer could be too: “It’s stupid to even be thinking of a plan. I have no future. Even if I survive for a few months a year, two years, so what? I’d still be a kid, no schooling, no money, no control over anything.” Billy’s despair and desires clearly come through. I think this is one of Kellerman’s best books as he really delves into the characters’ psyches.

Kellerman is well-known for his lengthy mystery series with psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis. The mix of police action and psychological speculation generally make for a good read. If you want to see what I think of his most recent book in this series, Compulsion, check out my review at Curled up with a Good Book.

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

This is a story published in 2007, but set mostly in Italy in 1958. I started thinking – does that make it historical fiction? I tend to shy away from historical fiction. It seems messy. If a real-life person is written about in a fiction book, how do you know what is true and what is not? To be historical fiction does a book have to include historical events and people or simply be set in the past? Vision: A Resource for Writers has this definition: “…a literary work or category whose content is produced by the imagination and based on or concerned with events in history.” I think, according to that definition, The Savage Garden is historical fiction since it is crucial to the story that it is set in an area that was occupied by Germany during WWII. And, it is important that the story takes place when those events are still well-remembered by the community.

I picked it up because I heard from somewhere that it was a good mystery. I guess that makes it a historical mystery. There are actually two mysteries. Adam Strickland, a young English graduate student, goes to San Casciano in Tuscany to visit and research a garden at the urging of his professor. The garden was built in 1577 by Frederico Docci in memory of his wife. The garden has some unusual characteristics and Adam decides it will be a good topic for his dissertation. Uncovering the significance of the design and various artifacts in the garden is one mystery. It involves understanding many characters in the Greek myths and Italian literature. This book may be especially interesting to someone who has read or studied these ideas and texts. That is not me, but the information added rather than detracted from the story.

The second mystery has to do with the current branch of the Docci family living in the villa at the garden. Signora Docci lost a son during the war and her husband died soon after. It becomes clear that the circumstances under which her son died are somewhat mysterious. Was he really killed by Germans evacuating as the Allied troops approached? Adam becomes interested in figuring out what really happened that night. Mendelian genetics, fascists and communists, bullet trajectories, and rumors of the time all play a role in Adam’s edging closer to the truth. Complicating matters, Adam becomes involved with Signora Docci’s granddaughter, Antonella.

This is mostly an intellectual mystery. There is very little action or threats to the protagonist. The author does a good job of reminding us how young Adam is with his worries about his visiting brother or his parents back home. It is interesting to contemplate if there are 400-year old mysteries such as this garden still around waiting to be solved. That must be what drives archeologists and art historians. I definitely plan to read more by this author as it was an entertaining read and I learned something.

Don’t Miss This Mystery Series

Sometimes I get caught up in reading the newest and latest mysteries and forget there are excellent mysteries that were written decades ago. I thought I’d share my favorite series from the first half of the 20th century in hopes that would inspire other people to share their favorite authors from long ago. Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a four-book series between 1930 and 1937 featuring her well-known sleuth at the time, Lord Peter Wimsey. The books are, in order, Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night, and Busman’s Honeymoon. I’d highly recommend reading them in order, although if you are short on time, I think Gaudy Night is one of the best mysteries ever written and it can stand alone. Sayers’ mysteries are all well-thought out, intricate puzzles.

In this particular series she introduces Harriet Vane, a mystery author, who initially is on trial for killing her ex-lover. Lord Peter Wimsey steps in, as he often does, to disentangle her from this mess. In the process he falls in love. She does not. The next three books each have a mystery at the core, but also follow the Wimsey-Vane relationship. It is a remarkable series for the time, especially with the inclusion of a strong, independent woman as a lead character. It is also remarkably undated, although I think there are some academic quarrels with how Sayers represented servants. Sayers was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford University and was possibly trying in this work to imagine how two highly educated people would work out the issues of love and work. I think this is timely today as the women I know struggle with raising a family and a career simultaneously.

Gaudy Night deserves special mention. It is a mystery set at Oxford, where Harriet Vane, a former student, is asked to help. Here is a portion of the author’s note to help set the tone, “Certain apologies are, however, due from me: first, to the University of Oxford, for having presented it with a Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of my own manufacture and with a college of 150 women students, in excess of the limit ordained by statute.” Someone is harassing the students and teachers of this women’s college and early on it becomes evident it must be an inside job. Sayers lays a trail of clues that upon further readings of the book make the identity of the perpetrator clear, but I had no idea the first time I read it. Lord Peter Wimsey appears only at brief intervals to advise Harriet Vane, but those scenes are some of the best-written emotional scenes, which involve hardly any physical contact, that I have ever read.

Feel free to send me your suggestions for great mystery authors over the years at escapetobooks AT gmail DOT com, or leave them as comments.

Death Without Company by Craig Johnson

This author was recently in Bend for The Nature of Words. His mystery series centers on Walt Longmire who is a sheriff in a small Wyoming town. Death Without Company is the second in this series. Lucian Connally, the former sheriff and a current resident of the Durant Home for Assisted Living, is convinced a fellow resident did not die a natural death. His convictions are complicated by his past relationship with the woman, Mari Baroja. The sheriff investigates Lucian’s allegations while also delving into the past.

A major strength of the book is that Johnson introduces an incredible number and variety of characters. The town doctor is not just the local doctor, but a survivor of a concentration camp. Here Sheriff Longmire describes his deputy, “I looked at my recently divorced deputy, a beautiful, intelligent woman with a body like Salome and a mouth like a saltwater crocodile.” (pg 151) Johnson makes it seem like each person in this fictional Wyoming town is interesting in a unique way. Mari Baroja and her family’s identification as Basque is mentioned; more information on that transplanted culture would add to the book.

The writing is enjoyable. Some of it is just quirky and gives you a sense of the main character. “I pulled my pocket watch out and consulted it as to lunchtime; we concurred that it was early but acceptable.” (pg 54) At other points there were phrases that I almost missed and then wondered what they really meant. For example, “I smiled as the feathers brushed the inside of my chest like they always do when I get irritated.” (pg 42)

The mystery from the past was almost too easy to figure out. The present day problems with increasing violence and danger keep one interested in the plot. There are some dream sequences that I felt did not really mesh with the rest of the book.. It helps with background to have read The Cold Dish first.

Free Fire by C. J. Box

Somehow I had never heard of this author until Free Fire was published. It is the seventh in a series of mysteries staring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. The game warden’s wife, Marybeth, and their two children are also well-developed characters. The language is not eloquent, but to the point as in this example.
“But in a job where nearly every man he encountered in the field was armed as well as pumped up with testosterone- and calling backup was rarely an option- playing dumb was a survival skill. And Joe, much to Marybeth’s chagrin, could play dumb extremely well.” (pg 76)
It is very much a departure from many mysteries in that the action primarily takes place far removed from where most people live.

This particular mystery is set in Yellowstone National Park. Joe has been fired from his normal position of game warden in the Saddlestring area, but has managed to become known to the new governor as someone who stirs things up. The governor hires him to investigate a mass shooting in an area of Yellowstone, which is now being called the Zone of Death as the shooter is released on a technicality. The park is under federal control so the governor sends in Joe unofficially.

The plot is convoluted and involves the unique setting of Yellowstone with its geysers, paint pots, and wildlife in all forms. The book can be read on its own without reading any of the preceding mysteries. However, there were enough hints to prior activity that I felt compelled to read the rest of the books in the series. Also, I wonder what will happen to the Pickett family in the future and look forward to the next in the series. I liked these mysteries so much that I'm adding Box to my list of top ten writers of mystery series.

Gasa-Gasa Girl by Naomi Hirahara

This is an excellent novel with a mystery at the core. Mas (Maseo Arai) is asked to come to New York by his daughter. He is a 70-year-old gardener. His self-deprecation and practicality allow him to help his daughter the best he can without really knowing what she wants or how she feels about him. His son-in-law and daughter both work for a Japanese-American man trying to restore a traditional Japanese garden. When their boss is killed, they are both suspects.

Mas uses his connections and his friends' connections throughout the Japanese community in New York and Los Angeles to try to determine the killer. It is an intriguing glimpse into this community. Internment camps and Mas's experience in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped are discussed, but not dwelled upon. They are treated as rather matter-of-fact events that happened. The Japanese terms sprinkled throughout the book added to the interest. It was surprising to me that there was a special word, kibei, for people born in the US who grew up in Japan.

It is a good read as a novel and a bonus if you like mysteries as well. The writing is excellent with little gems thrown in here and there. For example, when observing his daughter's friends as they come to help when her young son is sick, "Mas could almost see all the kimochi that was being woven around his daughter and son-in-law like bolts of fabric, cocooning them from harm. But Mas knew those cocoons, no matter how saturated with love, were still fragile and vulnerable; anyone could still tear through and reach the soft parts." (pg 243)

The Quiet Game by Greg Iles

I loved reading mysteries as a kid. I did not read many in high school or college, but a friend re-introduced them to me in grad school. Thanks Deborah! A good mystery, for me, has to have an interesting main character as well as a good plot. Greg Iles is a writer I just started reading and I highly recommend The Quiet Game.

The mystery at the heart of this thriller is the 1968 murder of a black man, Del Payton, in Natchez, Mississippi. Penn Cage, former attorney and now best selling author, inadvertently brings this case to the attention of an attractive newspaper publisher, Caitlin Masters. The resulting uproar in the town leads Penn and Caitlin to further investigate the murder. Various characters emerge to either help solve the case or keep it buried. The town is divided mostly along racial lines, although there are exceptions. Those who were in power 30 years ago are still in town and adamantly against anything being done. Most of the cops who investigated the killing are still alive and so are the FBI agents who were brought in. The action is fast-paced and involves side trips to Texas and Colorado. Greg Iles does a remarkable job showing different sides of Penn, including as a devoted father, widow, and son. A side story that has some implication for the overall plot involves Penn and his father. A complication to the emerging romance between Penn and Caitlin is the presence of his former lover, Livy Marston, and unresolved issues between them. This book is billed as a legal thriller, but very little action takes place in the courtroom.

I have a few quibbles with Iles about the likeliness of some escapes and the timing of some revealed evidence, however, it is overall, an excellent book. It kept me up past 10 pm and it is a rare book that does that these days. I have never been to Natchez, but the descriptive power of Iles allows me to almost think I have. There is a second book with Penn Cage as protagonist (Turning Angel) and two more set in Natchez (Blood Memory, True Evil).