White Heat by M.J. McGrath

Review by Vicky T. (VickyJo)

I love reading all kinds of books, both fiction and non-fiction.  I think that’s one of my problems: I like too many fiction genres, and I’m interested in too many topics!  It makes for an overwhelming amount of titles that catch my interest.

But anyway, lately I’ve been on a mystery kick.  Most mysteries seem to be set in the U.S. or the U.K. so when I came across the book White Heat by M.J. McGrath, and saw that it was set in the far north (as in Canadian Arctic far north) I was intrigued.

McGrath introduces us to Edie Kiglatuk, a half-Inuit, half white woman who teaches school, but supplements her income by guiding hunters from ‘down south’ on hunting expeditions.  She compares these white hunters to “taking a couple of toddlers out on the land” but it’s good money, and she loves the old ways of her people.  The book opens with a particular hunting trip with two men, Felix Wagner and Andy Taylor; men who profess to be interested in hunting, but don’t seem to act that way.  Things get even stranger when Felix is mysteriously shot and killed while on Edie’s watch.

The Council of Elders declares that Felix was killed by his own bullet ricocheting off a rock.  Case closed.  Edie knows this isn’t true, but keeps quiet, and hopes to instead convince local policeman Derek Palliser that something fishy is going on.  When the second tourist Andy Taylor comes back with another buddy, and then disappears, she knows something is seriously wrong.

The mystery in this novel unfolds at a fairly slow pace, and I found myself thinking that some concise editing might have been in order.  But I loved the glimpse into Inuit culture and language (although the glimpse into Inuit cuisine left me slightly queasy).  The land is almost a character in and of itself; McGrath shows us the beauty and the danger of the Arctic in its various seasons.

I liked the characters too:  Edie, a former alcoholic and an all-around tough cookie; her stepson Joe, a likeable young man who has ambitions to become a nurse; Aunt Martie, a hard-drinking bush pilot; Derek Palliser, a good cop who has dreams of getting his studies of lemmings published in a scientific journal; and Sammy, Edie’s ex-husband who remains a friend but not the best influence on Edie and her struggles to maintain her sobriety.

The writing is good, detailed and yet clear. If you allow the story to unfold at its own pace, you will find yourself immersed in a foreign culture within an equally foreign landscape.  The clues may seem confusing, but they all come together at the end in a satisfying resolution.  I’m looking forward to the second book featuring Edie and Derek, The Boy in the Snow.

Ask For Me Tomorrow by Margaret Millar

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Gilda was married to B.J. Lockwood, a nice guy that bad stuff just happened to since he never learned from experience and was too dumb to foresee the risks of impulsive decisions. His decision to run off with their pregnant 15-year-old house girl back to her natal village in Mexico left Gilda at loose ends. Gilda then married Marco, who had a paralyzing stroke soon after their nuptials.

Wanting to conclude unfinished business with B.J., Gilda hires young lawyer Tom Aragon to go down Mexico way and find him. Though he’s by no means an experienced detective, Tom is bilingual and quickly finds out B.J. and a con man named Jenkins were jailed on fraud charges. Their hapless plan to convert a poor Baja California village into a resort transformed into a criminal enterprise mainly because they were both out of their financial league. As Tom gets closer to his quarry B.J., however, three brutal murders eliminate informants.  I found the ending a surprising hoot, while harder to please, less willing to be tricked readers of mystery may be less impressed.

Millar’s settings of Southern California and Mexico feel authentic and evocative though the attacks on the corruption endemic in both places may put off readers who like those places. The dialogue is snappy and funny, but sometimes we wonder if it is likely that sleazy Mexican cops out of Touch of Evil would really come up with such witty rejoinders. Many scenes shine as Gilda and Tom interact with each other, mainly by phone, and with a variety of curious characters. I think the exposition, dialogue and characterization make this one worth reading.

Margaret Millar was married to Kenneth Millar who wrote mysteries under the pen name of Ross Macdonald. If you like Macdonald, you will probably like Millar.

Touched by Corrine Jackson

Review by Kelsey O.

Remy O’Malley’s life isn’t easy. Her mother is married to an abusive man who only wants the child support check that her father sends every month. On top of that she has a mysterious power to heal people with touch. The side-effect to that is for every injury she cures it becomes hers. She has healed her mother over and over again and has even had to endure pain without healing to hide her abilities. After the worst beating of her life, Remy is sent to live with her estranged father and meets a boy just as strange as her, Asher Blackwell, only to find out that they are enemies. Asher is a Protector and immortal and his kind hunt down her kind.

I was instantly grabbed from page one. Right away I felt for Remy and knew that her journey was going to be tough. Being abused and being different without knowing why leads to some very deep scarring. This was about Remy’s turn to be healed. Even though I felt that Asher was not a original described character, I still enjoyed his story. He compliments Remy well and their growing attraction leads to some tense moments.

The intertwining of fantasy and reality was effortlessly done. The story managed to deal with real issues but added the fantasy element that makes for intriguing reading. All the characters interact well together and support the main characters. Perfect read for the lovers of YA paranormal.

Rating: 4 BUTTERFLIES

The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll by Erle Stanley Gardner

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Usually mysteries starring super-lawyer Perry Mason open in Mason’s office. However, Gardner departs from custom with one of the longest first chapters that he ever wrote in his 75- Mason-book output. In the initial chapter, about ten percent of the book, he tells the odd story of Mildred Crest and the mess she landed in.

A working woman, Mildred receives a double blow. Her fiancée breaks their engagement and vanishes with funds he purloined from his accounting firm.  She then does what lots of Americans do when they are agitated: she jumps into her car and drives around aimlessly.

Distraught and thus distracted from noticing another person is as desperate as she is, she gives a girl hitchhiker a lift. The hitchhiker grabs the wheel and the car plunges down into a Southern California abyss. Mildred then does what anybody would when presented with the chance to start a new life. She assumes the identity of the dead hitchhiker.

The problem, of course, is that we should be really picky about just whose identity we filch. The hitchhiker has a past. It catches up with Mildred in the guise of a blackmailing PI. The dodgy PI gets an icepick in his chest.  Poor Mildred, who has just made a couple unfortunate choices anybody could’ve chosen, finds herself up against charges that she snuffed both the hitchhiker and the blackmailer.

Like Dame Agatha, Gardner was not a producer of pretty prose. For instance, in this one his subtle wit names a hotel Vista del Camino – A View of the Road. What distinguishes his writing is the sheer narrative power – once started, must finish! Also, he plays lots of enjoyable tricks with two bullets or multiple guns so in this one it is six – count ‘em, six – icepicks.

To me, the lasting attraction of Gardner’s fiction is that the deadly issues of improper police procedures, eyewitness misidentification and incorrect understanding of circumstantial evidence are still dangerous issues for people today who wittingly or not fall afoul of our criminal justice system. Recall, it is a system that is staffed by human beings, entities not known for perfection.

Persuaded in their own minds that Mildred is the perp, the police manipulate and prime an impressionable  eyewitness to misidentify Mildred as the one who bought the icepicks.  And witnesses may testify falsely, though they will swear up and down they are telling the truth (the research on witness unreliability turned my hair white). Because juries and judges are unduly receptive to eyewitness evidence, wrongful convictions are frequently caused by witness misidentifications.  Usually circumstantial  evidence – when it is correctly construed – is the best evidence. But in this story, the DA’s office misinterprets such evidence.

It’s an existential issue: cops, witnesses, juries, and judges may be convinced they are doing the right thing, but the reality is that they may be doing some poor joker – or Cousin Scooter, or you, or me  – a monstrous injustice. Hoo-boy. Who needs to read about ordinary people that make the usual unfortunate decisions and end up dealing with a hostile universe in Simenon, Camus or Sartre when you can read Erle Stanley Gardner?

The Dalai Lama’s Cat by David Michie

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

In this book you will find a cat’s eye view of Buddhism; call it an illumination of Buddhism perhaps.  After all, what is a feline who walks at the heels [and occasionally bites at the ankles] of one of the great spiritual leaders to do but study the path toward Enlightenment?

The narrator cat immediately experiences the foundation of Buddhist thought; `compassion for all living things’; in action when the Dalai Lama rescues her – half-drowned, starving and near dead – from the gutters of New Delhi.  It’s the first step the feline [and the reader] take down the path towards the illumination of Buddhist thought.

Much of the book consists of the cat’s observations: of His Holiness, of his followers, of students and of the personages that come and go through the temple doors.  These observations of the `enlightened’ and the `not so enlightened’ are then refined to illuminate her feline world view.  Sounds heavy, doesn’t it?  It’s not.  You spend a lot of time figuring out who the various famous visitors are.  You are moved by some of the situations  and laugh with Snow Lion’s observations.  The `nuggets’ of Buddhism shared are not `preachy’ – you don’t have to be Buddhist or even religious to find them both interesting and useful in every day life.

If you’re looking for a warm, fuzzy, `kitty’ story; you won’t find that here. If you’re looking for the revelations of Great Truth, you won’t find that here either.  What you will find is a good, thought-provoking read.  One you’ll probably recommend to friends or give as a gift.

Daughters in Law by Henry Cecil

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Retired army major Claude Buttonstep comes from a long line of losing litigants. He accordingly detests lawyers and judges. His two sons, justifiably, worry about breaking the news that they have fallen in love with twin sisters Jane and Prunella. The brothers fret that their lady-loves being kind, intelligent, and attractive will fail to balance the fact that Prunella is a barrister and Jane a solicitor.

Provoking a legal crisis is Mr. Trotter, a new neighbor. He borrows the major’s power mower – a high end item in the Fifties in England. Trotter refuses to return it despite the major’s increasingly heated demands.  Against his instinct, the major goes to law. Jane and Prunella take up the cudgels in order to get in good with their prospective father-in-law.

If this mystery sounds all homey and fluffy, that’s because it most definitely is domestic and light. After all, not for nothing is author Henry Cecil listed on Cozy-Mystery.com. A lawyer and judge, Cecil used his professional life as the foundation of his writing. This cozy courtroom drama is full of comic touches and curious plot twists.  I’m not saying it’s laugh out loud hilarious (rolling on the floor laughing isn’t healthy  for middle-aged backs anyway).  But the amusement naturally comes out of the characters and incidents. The writing is pristine, especially in the climactic courtroom scenes.

I’m not much of a P.G. Wodehouse fan because I find his novels too silly. Nor do I care much for John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole, because I find him too cynical. Call me Goldilocks but I find in Cecil just the right amount of genial fun and lifelike heft. All to engage ze leetle grey cells, eh, Hastings? I want to read more of Henry Cecil’s novels, because they are light-hearted, smart and well-written.