Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Hare takes chances in this 1939 outing, his third novel and the first to feature his series character Inspector Mallet. Hare ensures that we patient readers dislike two of the protagonists from the get-go. Coincidences abound, even for a whodunit. And Inspector Mallet neither plays a major role in the story nor is he accompanied by his usual foil, the exasperated Francis Pettigrew. Mallet solo worked fine in Tenant for Death, but less so in this outing.

Leonard Dickinson’s death was the result of an overdose of a prescribed medication. Inspector Mallet had talked to the victim and had been mildly distressed by Dickinson’s gloomy pessimism, which the jury thought was sufficient to conclude was suicidal ideation and that Dickinson had later done away with himself. The problem is that insurance company will not pay up in the case of a suicide. The victim’s son, daughter and her fiancé team up to prove it was murder committed by one of the other hotel guests.

The amateur trio bungles their investigation. Their solicitor you-peoples them with “You people took it upon yourselves to prove that the late Mr. Dickinson was murdered. I dare say he was … (but) you have gone about it in a way that I can only describe as imbecile.” However, they meet a variety of curious characters in interesting settings. Hare’s prose is not flashy but it’s always clear. I get a good feeling when a writer plainly assumes that the reader has a vocabulary of more than 500 words. The dramatic twist is a fascinating twist indeed.

This is very much a mystery from between the wars in that we have eccentric characters, little violence, and a countryish setting. So readers of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers will probably enjoy it. The solid prose, if self-consciously literary, calls to mind Rex Stout.

Florentine Finish by Cornelius Hirschberg

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Mystery writers who have used their own personal or professional experience include Erle Stanley Gardner (lawyering), P.D. James (health care administration), Sarah Paretsky (insurance) and writing as “Emma Lathen,” Mary Jane Latsis (banking and law) and Martha Henissart (economics and finance).

Three years after publishing his autobiography, The Priceless Gift, Cornelius Hirschberg put his experience as a jewelry salesman to work in a crime novel, Florentine Finish. It is a fast-paced adventure of murder in the black market jewelry business. The story is about Saul Handy, an ex-police officer who sells jewelry. As the result of a private deal, he finds himself in the midst of three murders connected to the jewelry black market. He is being framed for the murders, so he decides to solve them himself.

The violence in Florentine Finish is contrived at times, according to Elmer Pry of Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers. For example, Handy has a bloody body hanging out of his back seat as he drives for blocks. Finally, a police officer stops him and asks, “Who’s your friend?” Overall, though, Pry was impressed with this novel. He wrote, “[Hirschberg’s] use of the commercial setting is as intriguing, as informed and informing, and as central to his story as Wall Street’s banking milieu is to any of Emma Lathen’s Judge Thatcher stories, although Hirschberg’s style is closer to the hard-boiled mode, with its colloquial language, violence, and isolated and cynical, but finally somehow sentimental, hero.”

This mystery won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1964. Hirschberg never wrote another book.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Review by Mirah Welday (mwelday)

My book club recently read Still Alice by Lisa Genova and our discussion was a sobering and thought-provoking one.  Some of us found ourselves thinking about friends and family members who had been stricken with Alzheimer’s.  Some of us found ourselves over-analyzing every moment we were forgetful in recent weeks, especially while reading the book.  Some of us began wondering if we should consider early screening for the genetic markers for Alzheimer’s.  Genova’s book pushed us all to reexamine our lives and the lives of those we know.

Alice Howland is a psychology professor at Harvard University with an illustrious career giving lectures, writing textbooks and mentoring students. She is world-renowned researcher and educator of linguistics. When Alice finds herself feeling disoriented in familiar places and forgetting simple facts and appointments, she thinks it’s a side effect of menopause.  After testing, Alice is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and eventually her grasp of her memories becomes harder and harder to hold on to. The changing dynamics of her relationships with her three children and husband create tension and heartache for everyone.

The novel is told from Alice’s perspective and this allows the reader to really experience Alice’s confusion and frustration while coping with Alzheimer’s.  Many of us know what it is like to communicate with and love someone battling Alzheimer’s but I think Alice provides us a window into the mind of someone diagnosed with the disease.  I believe Genova intelligently delivers Alice’s struggle with respect and sensitivity without shirking away from the reality.