The Searcher by Tana French

Cal Hooper #1

391 pages

Publisher: Penguin/Viking

Publishing date: October 2020

 

Blurb

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens.

But then a local kid comes looking for his help. Trey’s brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can’t make himself walk away.

Soon Cal will discover that even in the most idyllic small tow, secrets lie hidden, people aren’t always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door.

 

Review

To say this book has a slow start would be an understatement. The first quarter of the story leisurely meanders along. The reader is in Cal’s head as he reflects on his new life and surroundings in Ireland and what, and more importantly who, he left behind in America. The writing was beautiful, and Cal is an interesting main character, but the slow pace didn’t urge me to keep on reading. On the other hand, it is fair to say the story's pace perfectly matched the pace of the life Cal thought he was settling into.

Everything starts to change and speed up as soon as Cal meets Trey, a thirteen-year-old kid who wants Cal to use his police skills to find out what happened to their older brother who disappeared a few months earlier. Once Cal starts asking questions the story and events pick up speed, but it isn’t until the last third of the book that the tale really explodes off the page and events follow each other at a much faster, at times rather uncomfortable but always fascinating, pace.

So much for the story since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I have a few thoughts about what exactly did and didn’t happen in the end. For starters, if you read crime fiction because you love the straightforward endings in which evil gets punished and everybody gets what they deserve, this may not be the book for you. I think it’s safe to say there are no clear-cut good and bad people in this story with the possible exception of Lena, the widow Cal befriends and ends up relying on for assistance. While that may not be ideal for a fictional mystery, it does feel true to life. In fact, true to life could be used to describe a lot of what happened in this book. The way small local communities are inclined to distrust outsiders and, for better or worse, tend to take care of their own, for example, as well as the rural gossip, and the leisurely pace of life. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I believe Cal, the former cop, would behave as he does in this story; his actions should go against everything he was trained to believe in. On the other hand, any other decision on his part might have let to more harm rather than a ‘satisfying’ conclusion so the jury is still out in that respect.

In an interview with the All About Agatha podcast (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Sl35ZwxlgtSNxOrnKWYXb), Tana French revealed that she took tropes from the Western genre and applied them to the west of Ireland, and as far as I’m concerned, she succeeded very well. This story has that ‘loner against the rest of the community’ (the old gunslinger who gets rocked out of retirement for one more mission, to paraphrase Tana French) vibe that we also find in traditional westerns as well as the ‘us against the rest of the world’ sentiments we often encounter in small, close-knit communities.

For a long time while reading this story, I didn’t think I would want to read the sequel. The last quarter of the story changed my mind; I now can’t wait to find out what will happen next to Cal, Trey, and Lena. Bring on March 2024 and The Hunter.

 

Murder in a Country Village by F.L. Everett

An Edie York Mystery #2

318 pages

Publisher: Bookouture

Publishing Date: November 23, 2023

 

Blurb

England, 1941. With World War Two shaking the nation, rookie reporter Edie York wants to write the front-page news. But she ends up as the headlines when she stumbles over a body on the moors...

Eager to follow Churchill's order to keep calm and carry on, Edie York has left the bombed-out streets of Manchester behind for a stroll in the countryside. But her rationed picnic lunch turns to ashes in her mouth when she discovers Joyce Reid, a well-known anti-war activist, lifeless at the bottom of a cliff.

Despite infuriatingly handsome DCI Louis Brennan's less-than-amused warnings ringing in her ears, Edie is unable to leave the conscripted local bobby to do his work. Heading off to investigate, she immediately uncovers potential suspects galore. From alleged black-marketeers to the local land girl, a shell-shocked artist to Joyce's on-off lover, Edie is sure the murderer is right under her nose.

Then Edie makes another gruesome discovery, and realises she needs long-suffering Louis on the scene to officially investigate. Can they uncover the killer hiding in plain sight, before it's too late? Or will Edie's own obituary end up featured on the front pages she's coveted for so long...?

 

Review

I should start this review by saying that I haven’t read A Report of Murder, the first Edie York mystery, yet. While there are references to that first book in this story, I’m very happy that I never felt as if I missed out on vital information.

Murder in a Country Village is a charming, well-plotted, and fluently told mystery. It is also somewhat of a slow burner. While the first body is discovered fairly early on in the story it isn’t even qualified as anything other than an accident until well beyond the midway point of the book. Having said that, Edie has her doubts from the very start and can’t help but investigate both the death and the controversial community of pacifist artists Joyce, the victim was part of.

It isn’t until much later on in the story and Edie’s discovery of a second corpse that things speed up. That is also the moment when her friend, DCI Louis Brennan starts taking an active interest in the case.

There was quite a lot to enjoy in this story. Edie is a very likeable, be it at times exasperatingly impulsive, main character. It’s quite refreshing to encounter a DCI encouraging the amateur investigator to do more sleuthing rather than sternly forbidding them from such action. Edie’s roommate, her colleagues, her friends, and the girl she fell out with years earlier were all interesting and vividly described secondary characters. What’s more, Manchester and its surroundings during WWII made for a fascinating setting, just as the conflict between pacifists and the rest of the population added extra tension to the story.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written and easy-to-read mystery. The crimes were enticingly mysterious, and the solution was satisfying. What’s more, the author played fair with the reader; the clues were there and I’m happy to say that Edie and I reached the same conclusion at more or less the same time. It’s highly probable that I will revisit Edie and Louis in the not-too-distant future.

 

De Cock en de eenzame dood by Peter Römer

(De Cock and the lonely dead)

De Cock series #89

158 pages

Publisher: Fontein

Publishing Date: August 2021

Own

 

Blurb

De Cock wordt naar de Lindengracht geroepen. Hennie, de vrouw die tientallen jaren de aardappelkraam op de markt bestierde, is in haar bed gesmoord met een kussen. Hennie was geen vriendelijk mens, maar wel rijk: achter de aardappelhandel waaraan ze goed verdiende zaten flink wat investeringen, ook in huizen. Naast zakelijke conflicten, zoals met Dennis, een ontevreden huurder met wie Hennie hooglopende ruzie had, denkt De Cock ook aan een motief in de familie. Want Hennie's zoon Tonnie blijkt ook zo zijn redenen te hebben om niet rouwig te zijn om haar dood...

(Translation:

De Cock is summoned to the Lindengracht. Hennie, the woman who for decades ran the potato stall on the market, has been smothered with a pillow in her bed. Hennie wasn’t a friendly person, but she was rich: the potato trade from which she profited nicely let to numerous investments, including in property. Apart from business conflicts such as the one with Dennis, a dissatisfied lodger with whom Hennie had a heated argument, De Cock is also considering a motive within her family. Because Hennie’s son Tonnie also appears to have reasons for not mourning her death…)

 

Review

A few opening notes before I get to my thoughts about this mystery:

• I read the original Dutch version of this book, but I’ll do the review in English. I’m not sure how many (if any) people who read my reviews understand Dutch, but I am sure that if any Dutch speakers do follow my reviews, they’ll be more than proficient in English.
• Peter Römer, the author of this title is not the creator of De Cock. In fact, the first 75 books in this series were written by A.C. Baantjer.
• At least a few of Baantjer’s titles have been published in English. For obvious reasons the name of the main character underwent a small change during the translation process. English-speaking readers know De Cock as DeKok.

I do have a soft spot for this series of books. I can’t say I’ve read them all, or even that I adhered to the order in which they were published, but I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed every single De Cock mystery I have ever started. There’s something about our main character and his quiet and calm approach to his investigations and his deep-rooted sense of justice that always works for me. It’s the recognisable descriptions of Amsterdam, and the wonderful way in with the author(s) manage to capture characters with just a few pen strokes. And the mysteries always work and always manage to keep me on my toes.

The mystery in The Cock en de eenzame dood was satisfying. With a universally unliked victim, a few likely suspects, and a lack of definitive clues, I enjoyed the puzzle. I almost found my way to the solution but managed to miss the final twist. For me, that amounts to a rewarding mystery and enjoyable reading experience.

I’m now out of unread De Cock mysteries. I’ll be stocking up next time I find myself visiting the Netherlands.

 

Shot With Crimson by Nicola Upson

#11 Josephine Tey Mysteries

352 pages

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Publishing date: November 2, 2023

 

Blurb

 I will never understand why murder is considered such a lowbrow speciality in Hollywood.

September, 1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock's Rebecca.

Then a shocking act of violence reawakens the shadows of the past, with consequences on both sides of the Atlantic, and Josephine and DCI Archie Penrose find themselves on a trail leading back to the house that inspired a young Daphne du Maurier - a trail that echoes Rebecca's timeless themes of obsession, jealousy and murder.

 

Review

 “The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.”

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

While I have to admit that I may have missed a title or two, I can honestly say that I have loved Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey mysteries since I first read An Expert in Murder thirteen years (13!) ago. Right from the start I’ve loved Upson’s attention to detail, gentle voice, vivid descriptions, clever introduction of real historical figures, and perfectly plotted mysteries and Shot With Crimson was filled with all those qualities.

This isn’t the first Josephine Tey mystery featuring Alfred and Alma Hitchcock and fortunately, the first one, Fear in the Sunlight, is among the previous titles I have read (click the title for my thoughts on that book). The quote below, taken from that older review could have been written today for Shot With Crimson.

 In fact, there were times when I had to remind myself that I was reading a work of fiction featuring real historical figures. There is such detail in the descriptions in this story that it is quite possible to believe that all of it really happened.

Shot With Crimson starts with a prologue set in an English country house during WWI. The house is used as a hospital for wounded soldiers, and we are witness to a six-year-old Daphne du Maurier undertaking but not completing a task set by James, a medical orderly there.

Fast forward to the start of WWII and James is now a special effects artist working on Rebecca for Alfred Hitchcock. He is back at the estate where he worked two decades ago and discoveries about what happened then lead to him lashing out in the worst possible way.

When we meet James again, he is on his way back to America on the same boat as Josephine Tey who is on her way to visit her lover Martha in Hollywood. He is obviously distressed, and Josephine reaches out in the hope of calming him.

Meanwhile, back in England Josephine’s friend DCI Archie Penrose is sent to the country house to investigate the murder of a woman there.

Finding themselves on different sides of the Atlantic, Archie and Josephine are unaware that they are both dealing with the same case and, as they both dig deeper, the issue only becomes more complicated until it leads to its final, rather sad, conclusion.

For a long time, I thought this was the kind of story where the writer might have revealed too much information at the start of the book. Since I had read books by Nicola Upson before, I should have known better. Layer upon layer of secrets still waited to be exposed and absolutely nothing was quite as it seemed at first. In other words, this is a very cleverly plotted mystery.

Apart from Alfred Hitchcock, his wife Alma, and his daughter Pat, quite a few other famous people feature in this story: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, producer David O. Selznick, and du Maurier herself also make brief appearances. For film buffs, there was also quite a bit of detailed information about the making of a film in Hollywood in the late 1930s.

I loved the parallels between Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and the mystery. They added to the sense of realism and were all too plausible. As I said before, I had to remind myself occasionally that what I was reading was fiction.

Overall, I loved this book. The plot fascinated me, the writing was smooth, the conversations flowed naturally, and the mystery was intriguing, leaving me truly baffled before providing a very satisfying, be it devasting solution.

My final thought is less related to the book than the times we live in. Given how long it takes to write a book, edit it, and get it published, there is no way Nicola Upson could have known how shockingly appropriate the quote below would be for the times and events we live through right now.

 We think we’ve learnt our lessons from the past, but we never really get beyond an eye for an eye.