The Case of the Lazy Lover by Erle Stanley Gardner

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

– Give up Mrs. Allred as a client. Let some other attorney take this case into his own hands.

– Why?

– Because you have no chance of winning.

In this 1947 mystery, super lawyer Perry Mason receives two $2,500 checks from a woman he’s never heard of before, Lola Faxon Allred. Plus, the checks, worth about $30K in 2023 money, are drawn on two different banks. Perry and his office manager Della Street then find out one of the checks is forged. Veteran readers of Gardner know that when there are two of anything – skirts, ice picks, illicit lovers – the Needle on the Complicated Plot Meter could spin right off the dial.

Bertrand C. Allred, a slick mining mogul who’s also Lola’s hubby, soon arrives at Mason’s office. He tells the tale that his wife Lola – supposedly, in her late thirties, at a “dangerous age” – ran away with a much younger lover, Robert G. Fleetwood. Not only that – Fleetwood was Allred’s right hand man and courted the daughter from Lola’s first marriage. Allred is not afraid of a cross-generational romance or scandal, because he’s ready to divorce his wife.

But Fleetwood remains problematic. Knowing all the skeletons in all the closets, only Fleetwood can provide blockbuster testimony against Allred’s company in a lawsuit. Allred says he needs to get in touch with the boyfriend-star witness Fleetwood, and pronto.

It soon turns out that the alleged lazy lover Fleetwood is not lazy at all, but is acting unmotivated and lethargic and blurry because he suffered amnesia as a result of car crash. Why was Allred lying? He can’t explain himself or his falsehoods, because he died in a car accident – or maybe on account of blows to the head, perhaps from a jack-handle wielded by his wife Lola?

The “lazy lover case” is perhaps one of the most difficult cases in the career of our favorite lawyer. Not only is Perry Mason’s client Lola lying – which is customary – but probably everyone associated with these events is lying as well. With the best intentions, though accidentally, trouble is also deepened by Mason himself. His nemesis Lt. Tragg can’t let a chance to gloat pass him by: “This is the first time not only Perry Mason’s client has a noose around her neck, but the great Perry Mason himself put it on her.”

The plot may seem a couple miles beyond confusing. There’s no courtroom climax. But it’s still good old Gardner – interesting twists, outstanding interrogation scenes, the reality of post-war America, typical of noir-light crime fiction, with a bit of humor and a surprising ending.

For fans of the series – a must-read.

One Way by S.J. Morden

Review by Cyndi J. (cyndij)

Frank Kittridge is serving a life term in prison for murdering his son’s drug dealer. One day he gets a visitor with an interesting proposal. Agree to build the first human habitat on Mars, and although you’ll still be a prisoner, you’ll be out of this cell. You get to do something for all mankind.   Frank thinks about it for a short minute and agrees.

Sent to a desert training facility, he and seven other convicts are given a six-month training course in how to build the Mars base. Each of the seven has a specialty and is supposed to  have one backup person, although Frank sees very quickly that all of them will be needed to do the actual construction work.  Brack, the boss, is verbally abusive, the training is exhausting, and the other convicts are, unsurprisingly, not particularly agreeable people.  But they persevere, and at the end of the training they’re frozen and sent to Mars.

The disasters start instantly. The supplies, which have been sent ahead over a period of years, have not landed where they are supposed to. So not only is the shelter a long ways off, but there’s very little food or water. Marcy, the transport specialist, and Frank her backup are defrosted first and sent out to recover the supplies. But wait, it gets worse…

Accidents are bound to happen in the hostile Mars environment. Are they really accidents though? What does Brack do all day, he’s certainly not helping the crew.  As their numbers dwindle, Frank has to get to the answers if he wants to live.

Shady corporations forcing desperate men to take on almost suicidal missions is not exactly a  new theme.  Morden does a good job providing excerpts at the beginning of chapters to explain how the corporation came up with their proposal, but I just couldn’t believe in it. Morden’s future isn’t far enough away for me to believe in such a shift. Nonetheless, he builds it up logically, and if you ignore all the real-life roadblocks it kind of makes sense.

I found Frank to be pretty dense. Their tablets have oodles of capability, but he never explores it, and is surprised every time someone else tells him about a capability. He doesn’t question the unbelievable promise Brack makes him before the trip begins. There’s not much to say about the other characters, they only get time as they interact with Frank. We’re limited to just a few flashes of character development plus learning what crimes they committed to get there.  You’ll notice that Frank’s crime makes him more sympathetic than the others.

This book won’t provide any surprises for the reader, but it’s a decent adventure with good pacing, a good sense of place and enough technical details to feel real-ish.  It also doesn’t end Frank’s story, which continues in the sequel NO WAY.  I haven’t decided if I’m curious enough to go there or not.

A Nest of Vipers by Andrea Camilleri

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

The 21st mystery starring Inspector Salvo Montalbano is set in the small town of Vigata, Sicily in 2008. Wealthy businessman Cosimo Barletta is found dead of a shot to the head. He has been ushered from this vale of tears by two culprits.

We know this because when cranky Medical Examiner Pasquano did the autopsy, he found that Barletta was killed with a paralyzing potion put in his Sunday morning coffee. Frozen in his kitchen chair, he was then shot from behind, presumably by a second party that didn’t realize Barletta was already hoisting a glass of marsala with his ancestors.

Montalbano has his two subordinates, Fazio and Augello, investigate Barletta and his background. The signor was a businessman with sharp elbows and no ethics, not above a lucrative loan sharking racket that deprived victims of their businesses, marriages, and sanity. Barletta paid for a good time but also lured young girls into affairs with money and presents. He also coerced them with pictures of them in compromising positions. Barletta’s son Arturo and daughter Giovanna are chips off the old block, because both cast aspersions on the other in the dispute over Barletta’s will, which has gone missing.

This is definitely not the strongest blend of mystery, comedy and drama that Camilleri has produced in this long-running series (see The Voice of the Violin or The Potter’s Field). It is fairly easy to figure out who is behind the murders. In his middle fifties, Montalbano is getting slow-witted and easily distracted, but he gets to the bottom of things in the fullness of time. I wonder if the reader being able to figure out whodunit before the hero is part of Camilleri’s trickeries – he’s a tricky novelist first, a mystery writer second.

But reading a Montalbano story is like settling down into a familiar sofa. The tale mixes scenes of the silly comedy and sharp wit with a harsh drama of family dysfunction. At work, we meet the usual parade of ladies man Augello, detail-obsessed Fazio, bumbling Catarella, and twisted prosecutor Tommaseo. Salvo’s GF Livia shows up from Genoa and Montalbano clashes with her over a mysterious hobo who lives in a cave near Salvo’s beach front house.

For foodies, the culinary excursions at Enzo’s trattoria and warm-up meals by housekeeper Adelina at home on the terrace when the weather is nice add to the usual beautiful atmosphere of Sicily. The nostalgia of home cooking takes some of the heaviness of the story away.

 The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky

Review by jjares

The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak

Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

This book reads like a brutal medieval soap opera. The author does a fantastic job of keeping you entertained and she gives a rich history on two women who are not very well known in our time. What a shame that their names were not carried on as well as their male counterparts.

The book surrounds the Merovingian dynasty, considered by some as the first race of the kings of France. The king of the Merovingians would tend to split the kingdom between his sons. So when he died, it was an all-out war between the siblings. This would last for decades only for one to be superior and later do the same thing.

Our story takes place in one of these family battles. The queens, Fredegund and Brunhilde, are both smart and ruthless but in their own way. Each one has a totally different background and handle matters in dissimilar fashions. I would have to say that I leaned more favorably to Brunhilde and the way she took care of things but they both had a passion and conviction.

While the author did lots of research, the book still had a good amount of speculation due to the lack of information back in that period. It was handled well and not put out there as definite fact. Look forward to reading more about this.

The only thing that took away from the book was there was so much going on and so many names to remember and keep lined up. At times I would feel myself drifting a bit and getting confused. I think I might have missed some things here and there and might go back later on in the future to reread it.

A Woman Named Anne by Henry Cecil

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

This 1967 mystery hinges on adultery, not murder. The main thread is the cross-examination between widow Mrs. Anne Preston and barrister Mr. Coventry, conducted to ascertain if Anne actually committed adultery with Michael Amberley, as his unhappy wife Jane claims.

This novel entertains and amuses even though the reader might think one cross-examination doesn’t seem enough to sustain a full-length novel. What draws the reader in and keeps attention is Cecil’s crystal-clear prose. The vocabulary is simple and the dialogue believable. His humor is gently cynical as if his years on the bench, observing the antics of ordinary people, have taught him to be skeptical and tolerant and generous. Cecil has the ability to surprise in abundance. All these features make the story un-put-down-able.

In fact, however, Cecil does digress from the cross-examination. The omniscient narrator gives interesting and funny backstory on the unhappy couple and the lawyer Coventry who finds Anne’s beauty distracting. The characterization of the titular character is the glue that holds the story together; he makes us readers feel sorry for her though we – like the other characters – doubt her veracity.

A county court judge himself, Cecil gives insight into how judges think and why they “win’ virtually every exchange with attorneys. He tells why barristers, solicitors, and judges ought to be above second-guessing themselves and fate, since worrying causes coronaries and premature death. Cecil also explains aspects of the British legal system that may confuse lay observers. He also discusses the vagaries of the legal system as the reasons why we should expect justice about 75% of the time.

So, while this is not a conventional mystery novel, it still has the elements of a courtroom drama. Highly recommended.