This is the first time in a while that I’ve had books in every category. I want to read the new Charlaine Harris, but after the way that Sookie went downhill, I decided that borrowing it from the library was sufficient. If I really like it, I can always buy it. Whispers in the Sand by Barbara Erskine was on sale for Kindle. I loved her Lady of Hay, many moons ago, and thought that $2.99 made it worth trying her again.
I also have the annual treat: the new book in Michelle Sagara’s Elantra Chronicles popped up on NetGalley this week. I can’t wait to sink my eyeballs into that one!
Yesterday I discovered that I had completely missed the concept that not all publishers on Edelweiss send a message when they approve your review request. I didn’t miss much, but a couple of books I would like to have had. C’est la vie. And there’s always the library.
I am so glad that Diana Gabaldon’s latest doorstop is finally coming out this week. I preordered an ebook. The library got their copies a few days early, and OMG that thing is huge. I know it will be awesome, but I’m happy not to have to carry the thing around. Especially on the bus.
Format read: ebook provided by the author Formats available: ebook Genre: mystery Series: The Displaced Detective #5 Length: 344 pages Publisher: Twilight Times Date Released: May 10, 2014 Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
When an entire village on the Salisbury Plain is wiped out in an apparent case of mass spontaneous combustion, Her Majesty’s Secret Service contacts The Holmes Agency to investigate. Unfortunately Sherlock Holmes and his wife, Dr. Skye Chadwick-Holmes, have just had their first serious fight, over her abilities and attitudes as an investigator. To make matters worse, he is summoned to England in the middle of the night, and she is not — and due to the invocation of the National Security Act in the summons, he cannot even wake her and tell her.
Once in London, Holmes looks into the horror that is now Stonegrange. His investigations take him into a dangerous undercover assignment in search of a possible terror ring, though he cannot determine how a human agency could have caused the disaster. There, he works hard to pass as a recent immigrant and manual laborer from a certain rogue Mideastern nation as he attempts to uncover signs of the terrorists.
Meanwhile, alone in Colorado, Skye battles raging wildfires and tames a wild mustang stallion, all while believing her husband has abandoned her.
Who — or what — caused the horror in Stonegrange? Will Holmes find his way safely through the metaphorical minefield that is modern Middle Eastern politics? Will Skye subdue Smoky before she is seriously hurt? Will this predicament seriously damage — even destroy — the couple’s relationship? And can Holmes stop the terrorists before they unleash their outré weapon again?
My Review:
Mass human spontaneous combustion–it sounds like something that would be reported in the tabloids at the grocery checkout stands. And that is what happens in A Case of Spontaneous Combustion. But unlike the usual tabloid stories, this one is true, and MI-5 calls in Sherlock Holmes to investigate.
If it sounds like I’ve sailed even further into tabloid-land, I haven’t. This story is the fifth book in Stephanie Osborn’s Displaced Detective series, where Sherlock Holmes has been brought to our world through quantum physics. (Read The Case of the Displaced Detective: the Arrival (reviewed here) for details.)
The difference is that the Sherlock Holmes in this particular pastiche is a real person, not a fictional construct as he was in our version of the multiverse. And being human and not literary, he does not completely resemble the literary version in Conan Doyle’s stories. Because this one managed to fall in love, and get married. Eventually, and with a lot of persuasion and adaptation from the 19th century to the 21st. (See The Case of the Displaced Detective: At Speed (review) and The Case of the Cosmological Killer (review) for the full story.)
A Case of Spontaneous Combustion is a story designed to showcase both sides of the Holmes that came to our world. On the one hand, he has a diabolical mystery to investigate, and on the other, he’s in the middle of a fight with his wife, and it’s affecting the case. It also becomes a minor case in its own right.
Holmes and his wife Skye have their first major argument. And it’s the kind of thing that looms large at the time, but could be quickly gotten over in the morning, when both tempers have cooled off a bit. Instead, Holmes gets hauled off to England, and his orders specifically exclude Skye and invoke the Official Secrets Act. He’s stuck and screwed (or not, as the case may be)
He gets to London, and almost immediately goes undercover to look for the terrorists who set off something in the middle of a small town that exploded all the inhabitants, and every other living thing for a radius of two miles, without harming any of the buildings.
Skye can’t reach him, and it’s literally more than his life is worth to call her. They both write letters trying to patch things up, but neither set of letters is getting through. Each thinks that they have been abandoned by the other, and that their marriage is over. They both descend into a certain amount of self-destructive behavior, while Holmes is undercover among the terrorists.
Things look like they are not going to end well. The case turns out to be much bigger, and considerably more dangerous, than was originally believed. By the end, Holmes and Skye’s bodies may be among the dead, if someone doesn’t solve their missing communications first.
Is it all part of the terrorist plot, or is there a spy in MI-5? Holmes needs Skye to save him from himself, and to figure out the high-level physics behind the mass spontaneous combustion.
Escape Rating B: I love this series. The whole concept of an alternate-world Sherlock Holmes works for me. He’s Holmes, but he’s not quite Conan Doyle’s Holmes, and that provides enough leeway for the ways that he’s different. In fact, a point in this story is that people keep equating the living Holmes with the fictional creation, and make assumptions that prove very, very wrong or hurtful, sometimes both.
There are two stories here; the marital tension being exacerbated by the missing communication, and the terrorist plot. I’ll admit that there were points where I wondered if they might somehow be part of the same plot, but there were different “baddies” for each one.
One issue with basing a series on whether or not a romantic relationship forms between the main characters is that a significant part of the dramatic tension can dissipate when the sexual tension is consummated. The depths to which both Holmes and Skye sunk as a result of their argument took over too much of the story. And it felt like a misunderstandammit that should have been resolved much more easily. The reasons behind the plot to keep them from communicating were a bit simplistic and it was easy to spot the perpetrator.
The terrorist case was much more nefarious, and it took longer to develop and to bring to a (temporary) close. Watching Holmes work his undercover magic in a contemporary setting was marvelous. Changing his identity and immersing himself completely in his role is a skill that translated well from one century to the next. But I think the ringleaders of this one will be back, and I’m looking forward to it.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
For everyone in the U.S., I hope you’re having a terrific Memorial Day weekend! It feels like it has been forever since our last 3-day weekend, and it’s about six weeks to the next one.
This coming week I had a chance to review some books that I just wanted to do, and discovered that a week isn’t nearly long enough!
Format read: print book borrowed from the Library Formats available: ebook, hardcover Genre: Mystery Series: NCIS Special Agent Fran Setliff #1 Length: 243 pages Publisher: John F. Blair, Publisher Date Released: February 21, 2014 Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository
People like Ann Buckhalter, the wife of a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, often stay at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarter (B.O.Q.) when they return to Camp Lejeune to visit friends or shop at the Exchange. But their dead bodies don’t end up floating in the nearby New River.
When Special Agent Fran Setliff and her Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) team investigate Ann’s murder, they soon discover that more than one person’s life has been simplified by the victim’s death.
As Fran delves into Ann’s background, she begins to glimpse the unsavory things that go on behind the camouflage curtain—racial and gender discrimination, unethical medical practices, sexual indiscretions. As a freelance journalist for the local civilian newspaper, Ann was in a position to ruin more than one promising military career. But who killed her?
In addition to the strong female character of Special Agent Setliff, the book is filled with interplay among various colorful individuals in the military ranks. Readers also gain insight into the strict hierarchy set up for military men and women and their spouses and children. Besides providing a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a military base, B.O.Q. is a compelling detective story with an ending readers won’t see coming.
My Review:
The title is just a bit of a tease. Yes, I picked it up because it says its about an NCIS agent. While I knew perfectly well that it couldn’t represent any of the characters from the popular TV show (which I love) I was hoping for some of that same feel, even with a different set of characters.
What I got instead of was a good murder/mystery that involves military personnel and the closed culture that is created between a military base and the nearby town that is economically intertwined with it.
In other words, a case where everyone knows absolutely everyone, and everyone either owes everyone or hopes to get later favors from everyone. When there’s a “death in the family” under suspicious circumstances, the police come in as invaders to determine what went very, very wrong.
When the victim is part of the Navy or Marine “families”, or when the murder takes place on a Naval Base like Camp Lejeune, the special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, in other words, NCIS are the cops that come to investigate the crime.
Fran Setliff is the special agent in charge of this particular case. And it is a humdinger. The wife of a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel dies under very mysterious circumstances while she’s staying in the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters (B.O.Q.) at Camp Lejeune outside Jacksonville North Carolina.
The death looks like a bad case of death by misadventure, except for some very weird things. Ann Buckhalter drowned in a relatively shallow river. Somebody hit her on the head either before or after she died, or possibly both. And she’s a newspaper reporter.
Even as Agent Setliff unravels the layers upon layers of secrets that surround Ann Buckhalter’s life, the mystery about her death seems to just get deeper. The number of people who might have wanted her dead increases at every turn, but no one that comes to attention of the investigators actually seems to be the one who done it.
And Fran isn’t sure whether the Navy lawyer who is supposed to be aiding the investigation isn’t really there to keep the Base Commander out of political, or possibly homicidal, hot water. Or if that lawyer’s romantic pursuit of her is real or just another way of keeping the case (and the agent) muddled.
The mystery entangles everyone on the base, and as it unwinds, nearly everyone is a suspect. By the time the answer is revealed, secrets and careers are as dead as the victim. But the conclusion absolutely will keep you guessing until the very end.
Escape Rating B+: Don’t let the NCIS label fool you, B.O.Q. is a solidly good police procedural-type mystery in a military setting with a corkscrew of a case to solve. Evaluate it on its own merits.
Fran Setliff is an empathetic point of view character. She’s not part of the military (neither are most NCIS agents) but she is an intelligent and well-trained police officer. She has a case to follow, and she goes where the evidence leads her.
Sometimes, being the only female NCIS special agent in her area is an advantage, but mostly, it’s a pain in the ass. Which seems completely logical. She’s enmeshed in the problem of needing to be twice as good in order to be thought equal with the male agents, and she has a difficult time letting herself relax or quit thinking about (and living) her job.
The complications of this particular case are compounded, because the Base Commander is being sued for sexism in hiring and promotions, and there seems to be proof to back up the claims. Those allegations make him just one of the many possible murder suspects. People who are willing to cover up for him only add to that list.
Solving the case isn’t helped by the ways in which the victim played her military connections against her journalism career, and revealed secrets from both sides as it suited her purposes.
In the end, it feels as if there are no truly “good guys” in this case, just a lot of grey areas. But that’s what kept me guessing until the very end. I hope that I get to see Agent Setliff investigate more cases.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
I heard a terrible joke this week: “In Seattle, what do you get after two days of rain and gloom?” Answer: “Monday”. And it can be so damn true. But not this week. It was supposed to rain, and instead we got the gray but not the wet.
Mellie has taken to sleeping on a suitcase in the office. (Why we’ve left a suitcase in the office is a whole other question). But now it’s HER suitcase. Maybe she thinks it will keep us from traveling?
Humble Bundle (much better known for their indie gaming bundles) have a special Doctor Who comics bundle this week. If you love the Doctor, or are curious about the comics, this is a great way to read a pretty full starting collection.
1972. The Chicago Mob stands unchallenged, and college students with drugs provide fodder for political point-making. Michael Pollitz, a nineteen-year-old with connections to the Outfit, becomes one of those political pawns.
1994. Job-weary CPD Detective Larry Klinger becomes obsessed with a cold case from that pivotal moment twenty-two years ago. In the course of his investigation, he encounters questions of ethics, guilt, and justice that make him doubt certainties that have sustained him for decades.
Dialogues of a Crime examines guilt, innocence and the long-term ramifications of crime and punishment in a gray area where the personal lives of perpetrators, victims and law officers overlap.
My Review:
I was surprised at how absorbing this story was, even though it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be.
Obviously, based on the title, I thought it would be about a crime, and either someone would get away, it would turn out to be justified, or the perpetrator would suffer his or her due punishment.
Instead, we have a series of character portraits revolving around events in 1972. Yes, there was a crime, and yes, there were punishments, just not the way you expect.
We also have the story of the long twilight fall of the Chicago Mob, from a position of heavy-handed influence to death in the shadows.
In 1972, a kid is more-or-less railroaded into a plea deal that sends him to prison. It all seems like the worst coincidence of circumstances, but it turns out differently than expected because Michael Pollitz has connections, and because the Mob casts a long shadow.
There are two crimes; one is that Pollitz got caught up in the war on drugs and a politician’s need to be seen cleaning up the college campuses. All he did was show an undercover agent to a dorm room where he could buy drugs. It was the sort of thing that probably everyone knew and anyone would have done. The difference is that Pollitz is the only one of the college kids to do time, because his parents were too scared and too proud to take help from Michael’s best friend’s father, the head of the Chicago crime family.
When Michael is raped, beaten and brutalized in prison, the perpetrators are marked for death. Michael’s connection to the crime, and to the mob, come to light 20 years later, in the investigation by a cop who starts out thinking that murder is never justified, and ends up wondering who exactly was harmed in this particular crime.
We’re left with the same questions. Not just about “who dunnit”, but also who suffered for it and who deserved to. In the end, it doesn’t matter if Michael Pollitz committed the murders, requested them, or just celebrated afterwards.
He’s felt the sting of it all his life, both the crime committed against him and the ones that he might have influenced. It haunts him, and it haunts the reader.
Escape Rating B+: I was caught up in this from the moment that the rather late investigation starts, because the CPD cop, Larry Klinger, may not be the most sympathetic detective ever written, but he is dogged and he asks questions, both the right questions and the wrong ones. He wants the truth, but then isn’t sure what truth really is, or what it serves.
And he’s not quite as broken as Michael Pollitz, who seems to have lost all his emotions except anger at his own mistakes.
The story also describes the ways that the Chicago Mob held power, and then how it faded, as seen through the way that Michael’s friend’s family rises and eventually falls. Also in the way that the influence of the Mob bought restaurants, strip clubs, and prison guards.
I lived in the Chicago area in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and I could recognize some of the places described in the story. I drove some of the same roads that Pollitz does, and at the same time period. I almost felt like I recognized some of the restaurants, and maybe I did. In the newspaper and TV news of that area, the Mob was still a force, but fading. There were always stories of places that were owned, or people who went to school with the children of mobsters, just as Michael did.
The mystery, some of which remains a mystery, was compelling, and the Chicago felt right.
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~
John is giving away a copy of Dialogues of a Crime to one lucky (US/CAN) commenter. a Rafflecopter giveaway
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
In addition to the usual suspects, this week Library Journal sent me the next Inspector Gamache book to review. It’s a really ugly ARC, and I don’t care. I absolutely adore the series, and I’m thrilled to get the next book in any form available. If you like character driven mysteries, start with Still Life. If you are eagerly awaiting the new one (due out at the end of August) let me tell you, it’s worth the wait!
If it sounds like I’ve sailed even further into tabloid-land, I haven’t. This story is the fifth book in Stephanie Osborn’s Displaced Detective series, where Sherlock Holmes has been brought to our world through quantum physics. (Read The Case of the Displaced Detective: the Arrival (reviewed 
Blog Recap:
Mellie has taken to sleeping on a suitcase in the office. (Why we’ve left a suitcase in the office is a whole other question). But now it’s HER suitcase. Maybe she thinks it will keep us from traveling?
Whether or not you are a mom, the 
Dialogues of a Crime
