Review: Just One Evil Act

Title: Just One Evil Act

Author: Elizabeth George
Genre: Mystery/British Detectives
Price: $29.95 (Hardcover)

Barbara Havers, nothing gets in the way of her loyalty to a friend

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, second banana to Inspector Thomas Lynley of Scotland Yard in most novels in the series, takes the lead in “Just One Evil Act,” a story of betrayal, lies, and loyalty.

Barbara does not let anything get in the way of her quest to help her neighbor Taymullah Azhar, whose daughter has been taken by her mother Angelina. Hadiyyah’s parents never married. Consequently Azhar’s name isn’t on Hadiyyah’s birth certificate. He has no legal claim, which makes getting the
police involved problematic.

As the story progresses Angelina returns and demands to know what Azhar has done with their daughter. It turns out the child has disappeared, this time from in a marketplace in Tuscany where Angelina now lives with her lover.

The story heats up and so does Barbara’s efforts to find the child. Barbara figuratively climbs into bed with a tabloid journalist whose prime directive is to get the story, spin it with rapier disregard for consequences and sell papers. The best that can be said for Mitchell Corsico is his determination to get the facts. What he does with them is another matter entirely. Barbara hopes to manipulate him and his newspaper to achieve her own ends, but her plans backfire on her time and again, causing Lynley’s high regard for her to take a tumble, and their boss to threaten to sack her.

She can hardly get past one crisis before another rises. The private investigator Azhar hires hits a dead end and Barbara is left with nothing but frustration.

But there is much more going on than Barbara knows. As she learns about Azhar and his actions, she must decide between loyalty and facts. She will do anything to protect him. In her determination to find Hadiyyah and keep Azhar safe from legal action, she is blind to what is going on around her. An enemy within the ranks of Scotland Yard is doing everything he can to undermine her and tarnish her reputation. Not even Lynley can protect her, especially since she insists on going her own way. The private investigator she has hired, who had previously worked for Azhar, is lying and covering his tracks.

The one thing Barbara refuses to believe or even consider is that she cares more deeply for Azhar than she’s willing to admit. These feelings color every decision and effect every choice on her road to discovery.

Be prepared to curl up for a long siege of reading. Every one of the 725-plus pages draws you into the story. You want to keep going until you reach the climax.

In “Just One Evil Act,” we see Barbara in a different light and come to understand more about her as a woman. She is clever, determined and loyal. She may not be conventionally attractive but everything about her speaks of a woman at peace with who she is.

Elizabeth George is a master at complex story lines. Her characters are rich and colorful, distinctive and compelling. Her plot development is flawless and her use of language memorable.

George is a graduate of University of California in Riverside. She also attended California State University at Fullerton, where she was awarded a master’s degree in Counseling/Psychology and an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

She is American born and educated but writes with a sharp understanding of British culture, use of language, and police procedure.

According to her website she started out as a teacher, and much like Barbara, not inclined to go along to get along. She was fired from her first job along with ten other teachers for union activity.

George has won the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and France’s Le Grand Prix de Literature Policiere for her novel “A Great Deliverance,” for which she was also nominated for the Edgar and the Macavity Awards. She has also been awarded Germany’s MIMI for her novel “Well-Schooled in Murder.”

Book Review

Title: Spider Woman’s Daughter
Author: Anne Hillerman
Publisher: Harper Collins
Genre: Crime Mystery
Publication Date: Oct. 1, 2013

Bernie Manuelito isn’t about to sit out the investigation into the shooting of her mentor and friend, Joe Leaphorn. When the retired lieutenant is shot point blank Bernie is the first to see him fall, and the only witness to the incident. Joe’s prognosis isn’t good. Bernie, and fellow officer on the job – and husband at home – Jim Chee, start looking into what Joe has been up to, and who might have wanted him dead. They are troubled by questions about his personal life, factors which lead other investigators to suspect someone close to Joe of the crime. Add to the mix a case he’s been working on as a private detective that delves into the history and provenance of Native American pots dating back centuries.
 
Missing data, incomplete reports and the mysterious activities surrounding the car used by the shooter all serve to complicate the investigation. Bernie has been ordered to stay away from direct involvement. After all, she is the only witness, and her boss doesn’t want her testimony to be tainted when the perpetrator comes to trial. And then there is Bernie’s relationship with Joe, rocky in the past, but rock solid as her respect for him has grown over time.
 
Spider Woman’s Daughter is a first class mystery filled with interesting detail about being a member of the Navajo police department, and part of an extended and sometimes complicated Native American family. While Bernie is coping with her concerns about the shooting, and trying to adhere to her boss’ order to take a few days leave, she is also dealing with an aging mother and an irresponsible sister whose troubles are escalating.
 
There is plenty in Spider Woman’s Daughter to hope author Anne Hillerman will continue in her famous father’s tradition of taking character to new depths with every outing. Bernie is a conscientious officer, a dedicated wife, daughter and sister, and a strong character whose future seems golden as a respected police officer, and as a strong protagonist in what we can only hope will become a new series. Hillerman’s research is evident, her love of New Mexico comes through in her clear description of southwest vistas, and her respect for Native American culture is an underlying melody that holds the novel together and gives it life.
 
This book is described as a Leaphorn and Chee Novel. In my view it stands on its own, a crime mystery in which a determined young woman becomes a police office to be reckoned with; someone who doesn’t wait to be rescued, but who takes an active role in her own survival, her own success.
 
About the author (From the Harper Collins website): Anne Hillerman is the author of six books and has been a journalist for 10 years. She has received awards for her work from the National Federation of Press Women and the New Mexico Press Association. She is the director of Wordharvest Writers Workshops and the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery. She lives in Santa Fe, N.M.

________________

This article also appears in Happenstance Magazine, published by Happenstance Publishing. For more information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com.

Book Review

Anonymous Sources
Author: Mary Louise Kelly
Publisher: Gallery Books
$26.00
ISBN: 978-1476715544

Women who are flawed but focused make for intriguing characters. Alexandra James is fighting personal demons, and on some days barely keeping it together when a story falls into her lap that alerts her reporter’s instincts. In “Anonymous Sources,” James becomes convinced the death of Harvard graduate Thomas Abbot Carlyle, a gifted student who has just returned from a year abroad, is neither an accident nor a suicide, despite evidence – or the lack thereof – to the contrary.

She manages to get past police lines and other barriers through sheer guts to further her investigation. Her tenacity and ability to sort through clues keeps her moving forward to the story of a lifetime, or perhaps to no story at all.

In this fast-paced book about international intrigue and an ever-changing newspaper world where online instant headlines vie with above-the-fold breaking news that sells papers, James finagles her way to Cambridge believing Thom’s last year holds the key to his death.

She learns a lot about Thom, his liaison with a glamorous woman, and other facts about his life in England, most of it innocuous, hardly cause to commit suicide or reason enough be a murder victim. Nor does everything she’s learned about him indicate he is careless. He was well liked, had no controversial friends and seemed to have it all. With a charmed life ahead of him, how and why did he end up with a broken body in the cobbled courtyard at Harvard?

In her pursuit of the truth the New England Chronicle reporter triggers events that put her life in danger and make her even more determined to continue asking questions. What she learns exposes a conspiracy bigger than anything she could have imagined and puts her in the crosshairs of an assassin.

Author Mary Louise Kelly spent two decades traveling the world as a reporter for NPR and the BBC. Her assignments have taken her from Belfast bars to the glittering ports of the Persian Gulf, and from mosques in Hamburg to the ruined deserts of Iraq. As an NPR correspondent covering the spy beat and the Pentagon, she reported on wars, terrorism, and rising nuclear powers. A Georgia native, her first job was working as a staff writer at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kelly was educated at Harvard University and at Cambridge University in England. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their two children.

_________________________

This article also appears in Happenstance Magazine, published by Happenstance Publishing. For more information go to www.vandermeerbooks.com.

On the Shelf: All About Books

Writer’s Block airs every Tuesday, at 9 a.m. MST on KFUN/KLVF, streaming live at www.kfunonline.com 

_________________________________________

Local Authors and Store Events Highlighted

Before focusing on his topic of the day, great mysteries for summer reading, Tome on the Range manager Michael Siewert talked about local authors and events of note and interest to Las Vegas readers.

Don Wales, now living in Albuquerque, has written an historical novel about first century Rome. Once a Warrior follows the life and times of a Roman legionnaire.

At a recent author event retired educator Jane Hyatt introduced her new book of short stories entitled Temporary Arrangements. Edwina Romero was on hand to talk about Footlights in the Foothills, her history of the early days of theater in Las Vegas and at Fort Union. Liza Hyatt read from Under My Skin and discussed the fine art of poetic writing. All the books are available at Tome on the Range. “Wonderful books, front to back,” was Michael’s comment.

Also available is Marcus Gottschalk newest edition of Pioneer Merchants of Las Vegas, complete with interesting illustrations and photographs. I agree wholeheartedly with Michael’s assessment that this is an important book, a focused history containing information you won’t find anywhere else. Michael said during the Romero Family Reunion Pioneer Merchants of Las Vegas, along with the J. Paul Taylor book, “…sold like hotcakes.” There are still some left. Be sure a pick up your copy.

On July 17 Ray John de Aragon will be a Writer’s Block in-studio guest talking about his latest book Enchanted Legends and the Lore of New Mexico. Ray John’s books celebrate Hispanic culture, history and folk lore. Enchanted Legends and the Lore of New Mexico is about witches, ghosts and spirits. Adults and children will get a kick out of reading it. On July 21 at 3 p.m. Ray John will be at Tome on the Range for an author event. 

Also of interest to writers, Alice Carney will be back with the Green River Writer’s Workshop July 19 – 22. On Friday, July 20 at 5 p.m., there will be an author event featuring the work of former workshop attendees, among them J.P. Baca.

Fifty Shades of Grey, a book read by “…half the female population of Las Vegas,” according to Michael, is a breakout phenomenon that leapt out of digital publishing and onto the page. Michael said during the week of Mother’s day, nationwide, it alone represented 46 percent of all book sales. Author E.L. James must be in a swoon, and if what I’ve heard about the books (Grey is a trilogy) is true, reading them will make you swoon as well.

Michael also reminded listeners with mid-school children that both school districts have summer reading lists out, most of which are in stock at Tome. If you don’t have the reading list handy, check at the shop.  

The 3^rd Annual Literary Day Camp for children 8-12 (no exceptions) is scheduled for July 30 – Aug. 3. Riding the Rails will focus on Las Vegas’ railroading history and be highlighted by a train trip to Lamy for a visit to the rail museum. Two sessions will be at the museum and two at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish Hall. “The fee is $50 per child. We have worked hard to keep the content up and the cost down,” Michael said. Stop by the bookstore for details and to sign up.

Michael's recommended summer reading:

Cop to Corpse – Classic British police procedural by Peter Lovesey featuring Detective Peter Diamond. “British mystery writers write differently; the novels have more space, more air. The characters take time to reflect. In American mysteries you sometimes feel pushed along; British mysteries pull you.”

Don't Cry, Tai Lake:An Inspector Chen Novel –­ by Qiu Xiaolong is set in modern day China and gives the reader insight into a world and culture little understood by most Americans. “Interesting reading and you have to pay attention. The author isn’t as concerned with plot, although that’s there and important; the focus is on the characters.”

Beastly Things – is one of Donna Leon’s best, said Michael. As an American living in Venice for more than 30 years, Leon is able to create a sense of what the city is like. The protagonist is an inspector of the police force, Commissario Guido Brunetti. “In these novels the sleuth or detective is not threatened by the action – they have another life. The final scene portrays the funeral of the murder victim, a vet who has been moon lighting as an inspector at a slaughterhouse. It is one of the best funeral scenes I’ve never read. Leon is a terrific writer.”

Mission to Paris by Alan Furst –  This is one of Michael’s favorite authors. The stories are set in the days immediately preceding World War II and the protagonists are typically ordinary people who get drawn into intrigues. “They’re not super sleuths; they’re pulled into a world of espionage that is tremendously atmospheric, full of richness and complexity that only literature can bring.” 
Instruments ofDarkness by Imogen Robertson – This historical series is set in 18^th century England. The puzzle here isn’t so much who the murderer is, but how the murderer is found out. Put Patricia Cornwell in the British country side with a curious early student of how the body works and you have a forensic duo to be reckoned with. “This is an early version of a pathologist. The books are gipping. You’re brought face to face with how little we understood, how little the medical profession understood, about the human body.”

The best way to find out more about these and other books is to visit your favorite independent bookstore, which in this case is Tome on the Range, 158 Bridge Street, Las Vegas, NM.

_____________________________

Please share this post by clicking on one or more of the buttons below. Your comments will be welcomed and appreciated.