The Missing Clue - February 2017 - Crossover Crime Fiction by Jack

When you think about the contents of the Whodunit Mystery Bookstore, there are two possible ways of looking at it: one is that it’s a specialty bookstore with a very limited range of books, the other is that it is a specialty bookstore with an extremely wide range of books, stretching from Agatha Christie-type whodunits to cookie baker cozies to Sherlock Holmes to great spy novels to books set in about 50 different countries to steam punk and beyond. As co-proprietor, I choose to think of the store in its latter conceptualization. Moreover, the shop features an interesting assortment of “crossover” titles that defy easy categorization. In this category, I would put a fairly substantial number of books that involve fantasy elements about crime detection. The sort of books I mean are mainly British in origin; the Americans don’t need any fantasy about FF since they have Donald Trump.

For the most part the typical fantasy book involves a large dose of magic. Take Douglas Adams’ The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, for example. Adams made his international reputation with his space fantasy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but followed this success with a detective series featuring Dirk Gently. The second volume of Gently, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, opens with the mysterious explosion of an airline ticket kiosk and follows the adventures of several elderly gods through the British private healthcare system, with all sorts of zany blackouts owing much to Monty Python along the way. We’ve got The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul in stock in new trade paperback and book #1 in the series, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, on order. Netflix’s dramatization of the series is available on, where else, Netflix in an initial 5 episode season.

There are robots. Adam Christopher’s Made to Kill stars the World’s last robot, Raymond Electromatic, formerly a private eye and now a hit man for hire. One day a beautiful young woman appears in his office with a bagful of gold bars and a job. He and his controller, a compute named Ada, are off and running in sixties Hollywood. We’ve got the book in stock in hardcover in new. Book #2, Killing is My Business, comes in hardcover in July.

Then there is George Mann’s The Affinity Bridge, a steampunk novel set in 19th-century London. The main task at hand it the investigation of the crash of an automated airship, although there are also strangulations by a mysterious bobby and a plague of zombies that must be resolved. There are four books in the series thus far and we’ve got them all in stock in new trade paperback. Book #5 comes in hardcover in January 2018.

I am personally very fond of police procedurals investigated by special units devoted to paranormal goings-on. These are always British. Perhaps the best illustration of this sub-genre is by Ben Aaronovitch. The first in a series of books by Aaronovitch is called Midnight Riot (or Rivers of London, in the UK, we have had both in stock) and features PC Peter Grant with the assistance of Lesley May who have been co-opted to the Economic and Specialist Crime Unit 9, a Scotland Yard unit also known as ‘The Folly’ headed by a wizard named Inspector Thomas Nightingale. The Folly is one of a number of fictional British crime units in these kinds of books devoted to the supernatural. Grant is a biracial young constable with magical capabilities who has come to the Force’s attention by successfully interviewing a ghost. This act sets off a series of actions and incredible events which stretch across six books and two graphic novels (i.e. expensive comic books). We’ve got all six books in stock in new mass market, The Hanging Tree (book #7) is on the way also in mass market, and the graphic novels in stock too.

After Aaronovitch comes Charles Stross, who has written eight novels in the ‘Laundry’ series. The Laundry is a British government agency along the lines of MI5 or MI6 which specializes in the paranormal. Stross has gotten more ambitious as he has gone along and his latest effort The Nightmare Stacks involves an invasion (called here an intrusion) into the British countryside around Leeds by a small army of extraterrestrials. We don’t currently have any in stock, but can order the first six titles in the series in mass market and The Nightmare Stacks in hardcover.

Guy Adams’ novel The Clown Service – that is what his British government agency consisting of one old man and a younger assistant recently sent there is nicknamed– also deals with the paranormal. So far there are three novels (also The Rain Soaked Bride and A Few Words for the Dead) and undoubtedly more will follow. We’ve got all three in stock in new trade paperback.

A recent entrant into this world of paranormal crime detection is Oscar de Muriel The Strings of Murder which is set in 1888 Edinburgh and features a Scotland Yard Inspector investigating under the cover of a made-up department specializing in the paranormal. We’ve got this first book in the series in new trade paperback. Books #2 and #3 seem to be coming this spring.

Saving the best for last: the master of modern fantasy is the recently deceased Terry Pratchett. One of his best novels of crime investigation is The Hogfather. The main crime is the kidnapping of a figure much like Santa Claus. His disappearance leaves a gaping hole in the world of belief which is very hard to fill. An enlarged tooth fairy just doesn’t hack it. The major investigator is Death’s granddaughter, a gal who is very handy with a frying pan to battle creatures under the bed of the children she looks after. We’ve got a copy in stock in new mass market. We can also recommend the film adaptation, available on DVD, starring Michelle Dockery of Downtown Abbey fame as Susan, Death’s granddaughter.

Fantasy really requires no more suspension of belief than sf novels about space travel. Try it sometime.

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Recent Bestsellers

October
Hardcover
1.    Peter Robinson, When the Music's Over      
2.    Alexander McCall Smith, Precious and Grace          
3.    Alan Bradley, Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mewed
4.    Joanne Fluke, Christmas Caramel Murder   
5.    Ian Rankin, Rather Be the Devil        

Trade Paper
1.    Susan Ellia Macneal, The Queen's Accomplice
2.    Kate Ellis, The House of Eyes
3.    Stephen Booth, Secrets of Death          
4.    Allan Levine, The Bootlegger's Confession  
5.    Gord Downie, Secret Path                

Mass Market
1.    Sheila Connolly, Seeds of Deception         
2.    Sofie Kelly, Paws and Effect            
3.    Laura Childs, Parchment and Old Lace      
4.    Victoria Abbott, The Hammett Hex     
5.    Leslie Budewitz, Killing Thyme              

November
Hardcover
1.    Ian Rankin, Rather Be The Devil
2.    Ann Perry, A Christmas Message
3.    P.D. James, Mistletoe, Murder & Other Stories
4.    Charles Finch, The Inheritance
5.    Lee Child, Night School

Trade Paper
1.    Allan Levine, The Bootlegger’s Confession
2.    Ann Cleaves, Cold Earth
3.    Peter May, The Critic
4.    Andrea Camilleri, A Voice in the Night
5.    Charles Todd, No Shred of Evidence

Mass Market
1.    Victoria Thompson, Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue
2.    Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Cat Shout for Joy
3.    Vicki Delany, We Wish You A Murderous Christmas
4.    Kate Carlisle, Deck the Hallways
5.    Michael Connelly, The Crossing

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Gift Guide: If They Liked This, They Might Like That

One of the most frequent requests we get over the holiday shopping season is to make a recommendation for a friend or loved one. We have our favourites of course, as seen in our picks for 2016, but we’re also happy to help you find another title. A Whodunit gift card is always appreciated, but for those times you’d like to make sure your giftee (or you!) has something under the tree they can read right away, we can offer some guidance. If you know they like a theme or genre, we can direct you to something similar they might like as much or more! The list as follows is based on our bestselling titles in Whodunit for 2016.

This: Set in a remote location like Peter May’s ‘Enzo Macleod Investigation’ or ‘Lewis Trilogy’
That: We’ve seen an influx of series set in remote locations in the British Isles and North Atlantic, most popular of which has been Peter May’s two series. May fans will also enjoy Chris Ould’s ‘Faroes’ series with The Blood Strand and upcoming The Killing Bay (February 2017) and Ann Cleeve’s ‘Shetland’ series which now numbers 7 titles, most recently Cold Earth. Next time you see Jack, as him about his time in the Hebrides (no murder, but he did lose his luggage).

This: Quirky and witty like The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and A Murder of Magpies
That: Wendy is your resident expert for matters quirky and witty, so any of her recommendations will be winners. Another series worth trying (if you haven’t already) via Jack’s recommendation is Alan Bradley’s ‘Flavia de Luce’ books. We’ve got all 8 titles in stock, including the most recent hardcover Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd.

This: British Historical Cozy (20th Century) like Rhys Bowen’s ‘Her Royal Spyness’ series
That: If you’ve seen the new Netflix series The Crown, you’ll know that royalty and politics have often been intertwined. If you don’t mind switching your focus from the palace to No. 10, Bowen fans will enjoy Susan Elia Macneal’s ‘Maggie Hope’ series. We’ve got all six titles in store, including the most recent trade paperback The Queen’s Accomplice.

This: Female sleuth like in Sue Grafton’s ‘Kinsey Millhone’ or Sara Paretsky’s ‘V.I. Warshawski’ series
That: We’ve got lots of options for female sleuths, but a more recent (British) addition to the genre is Kerry Wilkinson’s ‘Jessica Daniel’ series. We’ve got a handful in store.

This: Scottish police procedural like Ian Rankin’s ‘John Rebus’ series
That: Here’s another genre where you’ve got lots of options, but might we suggest Denise Mina? She’s got three series, but we mostly have her ‘Alex Morrow’ series, with several titles in new and used.

This: British Police Procedural written by a Canadian author like Peter Robinson’s ‘Inspector Banks’ series
That: Steve Burrows is a Canadian author whose ‘Birder Murder Mystery’ series is a police procedural set in the UK (albeit with a Canadian Chief Inspector). Don’t let the bird theme put you off, the bird-phobic Bumsted who shall remain nameless was the series biggest fan! We’ve got the first three books in store.

This: Historical Espionage like Gavin Scott’s The Age of Treachery
That: Jack is your man to talk to about spy fiction. Some of his favourites include Aly Monroe’s ‘Peter Cotton’ series (although all the titles are proving a little hard to get, we’ve got Washington Shadow in stock) and Ariana Franklin’s standalone City of Shadows. Wendy would also add Jane Thynne’s ‘Clara Vine’ series (she is married to Philip Kerr, another Jack favourite), of which we have several.

This: Food themed cozy like Joanne Fluke’s ‘Hannah Swenson series’
That: Stand in front of our ‘New in Mass Market’ shelf, stick out your hand, and you’ll no doubt grab a cozy with food as part of the theme. But if you want a specific recommendation, try JoAnna Carl’s ‘Chocaholic’ series, which has an equally sweet backlist and lots of fun holiday tie-ins.

This: British Historical Cozy (Victorian) like Emily Brightwell’s ‘Mrs Jeffries’ series
That: We’re coming up on book #36 in the Mrs. Jeffries series, but we’d like to offer the first in a brand-new series as something else to try. Kate Saunders’ The Secrets of Wishtide launches the ‘Laetitia Rodd Mystery Series’ with more books to come.

This: Canadian Female Sleuth like Gail Bowen’s ‘Joanne Kilbourn’ series
That: Joanne Kilbourn started as a reluctant amateur sleuth whereas the protagonist in Janet Brons ‘Forsyth and Hay’ series, RCMP Inspector Liz Forsyth, is a professional detective, but both these series feature strong and interesting Canadian women solving crimes (it is 2016, afterall). We’ve got the first two Brons in stock.

This: Modern British cozy like Hazel Holt’s ‘Sheila Malory’ series
That: Sadly, Hazel Holy passed away in 2015 so there will be no further ‘Sheila Malory’ titles. Still, Rebecca Tope’s ‘Thea Osborne’ and ‘Lake District Mysteries’ series can both ably fill the void.

This: Post War WWI like Jacqueline Winspear’s ‘Maisie Dobbs’ series
That: This is an easy one! Jacqueline Winspear fans will find that Charles Todd’s ‘Bess Crawford’ series fits like a (medical) glove. We’ve got the most recent titles in store.  A post WWII equivalent would be Iona Whishaw’s Lane Winslow series. We have the first title, A Killer in King’s Cove, in stock.

This: Historical with an unusual female sleuth like Darcie Wilde’s ‘Rosalind Thorne’ series
That: Of course, you may not have realized you wanted to read a historical mystery with an unusual female sleuth (Sian’s specialty), in which case you’d start with An Unusual Woman, her book of the year. But assuming you loved that book, why not try Caro Peacock’s ‘Liberty Lane’ series or Deanna Raybourn’s newest ‘Veronica Speedwell’ series?

This: Unusual British male sleuth(s) like Christopher Fowler’s ‘Bryant and May’ series
That: Why, Michael’s book of the year The Vinyl Detective Mysteries: Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel will fit the bill perfectly here. Other options would include store favorites Ben Aaronovitch and Michael Robertson.

This: Historical with romantic partners as sleuths like Anne Perry’s ‘Charlotte and Thomas Pitt’ series
That: There are more of these to choose from than you might think, but our resident expert Sian recommends particularly C.S. Harris’s ‘Sebastian St. Cyr’ series as well as book of the year author Tasha Alexander’s ‘Lady Emily’ series and Deanna Raybourn’s ‘Lady Julia Grey’ series.

This: Atmospheric modern European detective fiction like Donna Leon’s ‘Guido Brunetti’ series
That: Andrea Camilleri’s ‘Inspector Montalbano’ and Cara Black’s ‘Aimee Leduc’ series are both well established players in the genre. We’ve got lots of both in stock.

This: “Grip Lit” like Paula Hawkin’s The Girl on the Train
That: The great thing about psychological thrillers is that they are often standalone novels, so you don’t need to commit to a whole series or track down the first book. Might we suggest Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris or The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell?

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Mystery Reading Club Winter Session

The book club will be spending the winter examining Asian Historical crime fiction. New members are cordially invited to join the fun.

Tuesday, January 31st – Elsa Hart, Jade Dragon Mountain

Tuesday, February 28th – I.J. Parker, The Dragon Scroll

Tuesday, March 28th – M.J. Carter, The Strangler Vine

I know that some non-members of the group do read the assigned titles. If you would like to have the questions that Jack writes, please let Wendy know (via email, phone, or in person). Books will be available for purchase at the store and feature a 10% discount. Questions for discussion should be available a few weeks before the meeting.

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Allan Levine at Whodunit

We were very pleased that Allan Levine could come to Whodunit on Sunday, November 27th to read from his new book and to sign books. The Bootlegger’s Confession is the first title in a new trilogy set in Winnipeg featuring private detective Sam Klein. Klein appeared in Levine’s earlier trilogy which began with the The Blood Libel. The Bootlegger’s Confession is set in 1922, three years after Prohibition had become law in the United States and by this time the business of moving liquor south across the 49th parallel had become entrenched on the prairies.  In talking about how he wrote the book Allan made it clear how much his fiction writing benefited from his work as a historian. A thoroughly entertaining, illuminating and enjoyable afternoon.

For those unable to make the event we do have autographed copies available for sale in the store.

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Bumsted Picks of the Year - Michael's Pick

The Vinyl Detective Mysteries: Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel
(TP, $19.50, order here)

This year I was a long list judge for "Bloody Scotland". As a result, I read a small pile of not yet released books, and, for the first time in several years, I had already found my book of the year front runner in May; had it ordered by July; and had my statement about it ready to go by late September. Then, in October, the Canadian release was delayed until April 2017.

So while I had subsequently read quite a lot of niche stuff, and even more advance copies, I couldn't find anything that would match my original choice. So, this year, I will instead highlight a debut which should tick a lot of boxes, The Vinyl Detective Mysteries: Written in Dead Wax.

Andrew Cartmel is one of Ben Aaronovitch's TV writing partners, and their mutual influences come quickly to the fore. Rather than fantastical, however, Cartmel is instead taking his inspiration from the cutthroat, yet mundane world of vinyl record collecting. Enter his jazz obsessed cat loving protagonist. Hired to find a rare record, he finds himself on the trail of a pair of killers, in the sights of a femme fatale, and part of an ever-growing conspiracy reaching deeply into the history or recorded music.

Light-hearted, easy reading rarely comes with this balance of complex themes and oddball characters. However, Cartmel should appeal not just to music lovers, but to cosy readers, Aaronovitch fans, and fans of British mysteries in general.  If a book can appeal to that many types of reader, it certainly belongs on this list.

(Book #2 in the series, The Vinyl Detective: The Run Out Groove will be available in May 2017 [pre-order here]. We’re supposed to have Ben Aaronovitch’s ‘Rivers of London’ #6, The Hanging Tree, in mass market at the end of January. This has been pushed back multiple times, but it looks like it’s finally happening [pre-order here].)

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Bumsted Picks of the Year - Sian's Pick

A Terrible Beauty by Tasha Alexander
(HC, $36.99, order here)
&
A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde
(TP, $20.00, order here)

With five weeks to go in 2016 as of this writing, I’ve read 90 books (of my goal of 100). Of those 90, I rated 13 with 5 Stars, and four of those were mysteries (or books that we carry). It goes almost without saying that I adored Charles Finch’s The Inheritance, but in the end (with only a small bit of family pressure) I chose Tasha Alexander’s A Terrible Beauty as my favourite book of 2016. Her last four books were four star titles for me, which made this an easier decision. We’ve all seen series fall apart when they hit the double digits but this book, #11 in the ‘Lady Emily’ series, breathed new light into the series for me. It’s beautifully and atmospherically written and keeps you guessing right until the end, although I must confess I skipped ahead at one point to soothe my anxiety. We get to spend more time with Emily’s brilliant friend Margaret as well as see flashbacks to when Philip Ashton had first died (before we meet Emily in And Only to Deceive, the first book in the series). But as much as this book is a culmination of the previous 10, a new reader could easily get up to speed due to the nature of the plot. If you lost interest a few books back, I recommend jumping back in so that this title can be the climax of a delightful binge read.

Now, is the rule one book of the year per person? Yes, yes it is. But am I the one who edits the newsletter? Yes, and as such I can do whatever I want. I declared Darcie Wilde’s A Useful Woman to be an early favourite in the race for book of the year and lots of you have purchased it since. But I don’t want it to go unheralded in this forum. It’s such a fantastic read. Almost never what you expect with a character, Rosalind Thorne, who isn’t your typical historical heroine. She is neither beautiful nor monied, but she is, as the title portends, useful. I loved watching her unravel the murder of an aristocrat at Almack’s (where we see a slightly different side of the storied assembly room), and while her romantic interests are intriguing, they don’t dominate the narrative. A Purely Private Matter will be available in trade paperback in May (pre-order here).

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Bumsted Picks of the Year - Wendy's Pick

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
(TP, $22.99, order here)

Susie Steiner was a reporter for The Guardian newspaper in the UK. Missing, Presumed is her first mystery novel. The novel is set in present day Cambridge and revolves around the disappearance of graduate student, Edith Hind. The main character Detective Sargent Manon Bradshaw is one of the officers involved in the search. There are many twists and turns in this well written novel. While the disappearance and its ramifications and final resolution are front and centre, this is a police procedural and so other crimes are also investigated. As with most police procedurals there is an undercurrent of the internal politics of the department and the jostling for position among the officers. This is exacerbated in this book as the father of the missing woman is one of the Queen’s physicians with lots of influential friends.  A sequel, Persons Unknown, will be published in June 2017 (pre-order here) with Missing, Presumed itself is coming out in mass market in April (pre-order here).

Later....Discovering that some nameless person had had two picks, I also have another title. Joanna Cannon, The Trouble With Sheep and Goats. Set in London in the very hot Summer 1976, (and yes, I was there), it involves two 10-year-old girls trying to work out what happened to a woman who seems to have disappeared.

Once I started to read both titles I could not put them down so a couple of very late nights.

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Bumsted Picks of 2016 - Jack's Pick

The Crossing by Michael Connelly
(MM, $12.99, order here)

I have read Michael Connelly books in the past, but have enjoyed none so much as his most recent mass market The Crossing. It is technically the 20th ‘Harry Bosch’ novel, but it also features the main character from Connelly’s other main series, Mickey Haller. The book is somewhat violent, featuring multiple murders over several days, and the timeline of the story is quite short. You need not have read any other books in either series to enjoy The Crossing, although you may find yourself, like me, searching for the other crossover titles in both series. This is a relatively easy read, so perfect for vacation or plane travel. Overall, I found it very well plotted, very exciting, and I enjoyed it a great deal.

For those who are already familiar and caught up with Connelly, ‘Harry Bosch’ #21 The Wrong Side of Goodbye came out in hardcover in November (in stock, reserve here). The TV series based on that character, Bosch, is available it was on the local Global channel and is now available on Crave TV. There are currently two series, with a third on the way.

The Missing Clue - December 2016 - Upcoming Events and Promotions

Advent Promotion: The Gift of Reading

To get ourselves into the holiday spirit, and show our appreciation for you, our customers, We will once again be giving away free books!

We have collected up the year’s Advanced Readers Copies, wrapped them up, and will be including one in each purchase of $20 or more.  They run the gamut of theme, origin, and period, so if you are choosing for yourself, or getting a little extra to go underneath the tree, we have colour coded the wrapping for guidance.  However, just as with any gift, the best part of it is the surprise.

February 2017 Used Book Sale

It’s back! Friday, February 17th to Sunday, February 19th, all used books will be 50% off.

The Missing Clue - October 2016 - September Bestsellers

Hardcovers

1.       Louise Penny, A Great Reckoning        

2.       Alan Bradley, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mewed

3.       Ann Perry, Revenge in a Cold River   

4.       James Benn, Blue Madonna

5.       Charles Finch, The Shattered Tree

Ben Winters, Underground Airlines

Trade Paperback

1.       Ann Perry, Corridors of the Night

2.       Sophy Hannah, Closed Casket 

3.       Stephen Booth, Secrets of Death 

4.       Martin Walker, The Patriarch

5.       Jane Thynne, Woman in the Shadows      

6.       Fred Vargas, Climate of Fear

7.       Chris Brookmyre, Dead Girl Walking  

8.       Peter Lovesey, Down Among the Dead Men   

9.       G. M. Malliet, The Haunted Season

10.   Will Thomas, Anatomy of Evil

Mass Market

1.       Cleo Coyle, Dead to the Last Drop     

2.       Rhys Bowen, Malice at the Palace       

3.       Sue Grafton, X

4.       Jean Flower, Cancelled By Murder      

5.       Faye Kellerman, Theory of Death

6.       Laura Childs, Parchment and Old Lace

7.       Miranda James, Digging Up the Dirt

8.       Julia Buckley, Cheddar Off Dead

9.       Leslie Meier, Candy Corn Murder

10. Gail Oust, Cinnamon Toasted

The Missing Clue - October 2016 - Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes by Michael

As many of you know, and have already noticed, over the course of the summer we have been making changes to the layout to better reflect the changes to the way our books now arrive (ie. fewer mass market paperbacks and hardcovers, many more books in the medium, trade paperback size). The latest of these changes is the long discussed re-sizing of the shelves. This action has actually caused a much larger change than anticipated, because it meant that for the first time, all of the mass-market paperbacks fit onto only one walls worth of shelves in the store. In turn, this meant that we could move the other subsections "Historical", "Scandanavian" and "Crossover" onto the other wall, and out of the various corners and cubbies that they once were kept. Although we expect that, like with any changes, it will take some time for you, our customers, to get used to things being in new places, we do hope that it will make things easier to find, and give you all a chance to see some old things with fresh eyes.

I would also like to thank everyone who has started using the web store. We have had a visible uptick in online orders, as well as searches. For those of you who still haven't visited it, (still at the slightly ungainly www.book manager.com/117455x) it is a resource to allow you not only to see what we have in store and reserve it, but to order new books regardless of subject or genre. We do appreciate that not everything people read are mysteries, and while we are unable to service those genres in store, we are more than happy to bring in the books you want that are available for us to order. We will give stamps regardless of genre! For those of you who visit us from out of town, we really recommend taking advantage of this service to reserve the books you want before your trip.
As before, we are also still happy to take your orders and reservations by phone or email.

EDITOR’S NOTE: That was a subtle dig up there from a younger brother to his older sister for not doing a thing she said she’d do. I’m on it, I promise!

The Missing Clue - October 2016 - What I'm Reading by Sian

The good news is that according to my counter, I have read 84/100 books I challenged myself to read this year. And this isn’t even counting books I’ve re-read in 2016 (most notably, the always excellent ‘Hilary Tamar’ series by Sarah Caudwell). Sixteen books in twelve weeks sounds quite doable, especially when I consider what I already have on the shelf waiting for me at the store.

I’m not sure how it ended up on my ‘to read’ pile, but I’ve worked my way through Gregory Harris’s ‘Colin Pendragon Mystery’ series this summer. The series is set in turn-of-the-century London and features a young aristocrat, Colin Pendragon, and his companion Ethan Pruitt. My tagline would be, “what if Sherlock were gay and had social skills and Watson were the former drug addict”. Like similar series, they are at constant odds with Scotland Yard. The books bleed into each other, so we were introduced to the next book in the final chapter of the first. We only have book #4, The Dalwich Desecration, in store at present (in new and used), but you will not be at a disadvantage if you start there. Books #1-3 are available to order with book #5 coming in March, all in trade paperback.

Long-time readers of the newsletter will know that I am the guardian angel that brought Gail Carriger to Whodunit. Soulless was a revelation and I loved the whole ‘Parasol Protectorate’ series. I quite enjoyed her foray into YA in the same world with the ‘Finishing School’ series. ‘The Custard Protocol’ series stars Alexia and Connall’s daughter, overtly raised by Lord Akeldama, Prudence. I liked the first book, Prudence (in store in trade paperback). But I sat on the second book, Imprudence. And even having gulped it down, I wasn’t sure if I enjoyed it. I think my challenge is that Carriger has done what very few authors are willing to do, which is to properly retire their main characters. Alexia and Conall are an important part of the plot, but they are still secondary and more importantly old. They are not the same people they were in the Soulless, they are a grown-up woman’s aging parents. But upon reflection, it was all quite wonderful and I shall look forward to any future adventures. It is worth noting that this one is very much NOT appropriate for younger audiences, if you know what I mean. Available in trade paperback in February.

I read As Death Draws Near, #5 in Anna Lee Huber’s ‘Lady Darby’ series not long before The Dalwich Desecration, so it was a lot of murders in religious orders that week. This is a smart series featuring a crime-solving aristocratic couple, so if you like Deanna Raybourn’s ‘Lady Julia’ series or Tasha Alexandra’s ‘Lady Emily’ series, this will be right up your alley. Kiera and Gage find themselves in Ireland where a young nun-in-training has been murdered and they find the locals not particularly sympathetic (nor to Catholics in general). I don’t think these books are quite as fun as Raybourn or Alexandra, but they are still an engrossing read and do a lot to make us consider what is appropriate “women’s work”. We’ve got this one in store in used as well as books #1 and #4.

I have mixed feelings about Rhys Bowen’s ‘Her Royal Spyness’ series. I started out loving it, then after about book #6 I refused to buy it in hardcover anymore, because I thought it was just silly. I was also frustrated that the plot didn’t seem to be moving anywhere, particularly in relation to Georgie’s relationship with Darcy. We seem to be moving forward on that front though and Malice at the Palace (book #9, in store in mass market) featured some interesting plotlines. I’m nervous of course as we plunge closer to WWII, as I’m not sure how the tone of these books will handle Nazi Germany. Book #10, Crowned and Dangerous, is available for order in hardcover, but I’m waiting for the mass market, as yet unscheduled.

As for the books I’m looking forward to for the rest of the fall, book #2 in David Morrell’s excellent ‘Thomas and Emily De Quincey’ series, Inspector of the Dead, is now available in store in trade paperback with book #3, Ruler of the Night, coming in November. Tasha Alexander’s ‘Lady Emily’ #10, A Terrible Beauty, is also in store in hardcover. Her first husband is back from the dead, it seems, but is he really? And speaking of Deanna Raybourn, she speaks highly of the new ‘Lady Sherlock’ series that launches this month (in trade paperback) with A Study in Scarlet Women. I love Sherlockian stories with a female twist, so I have high hopes for this one!

Lots of yours and my favourite authors often publish short stories available online only for Kindle, Kobo, or iBooks. Fortunately, Laurie R. King has taken pity on us and published all her ‘Mary Russell’ short stories in one collection, Mary Russell’s War. Nine short stories, one brand new, this will be an excellent Christmas gift for the Mary Russell fan. In stores in trade paperback this week.

The Missing Clue - October 2016 - Jack on Television by Jack

One of the things that my change in situation has led to is my increased consumption of television serials. While I have been slowly reluctant to embrace the new technologies of digital television, I have tried a large number of series of late. For those who are interested in finding new series, whether they be on screen or in book form, (or perhaps both), I have compiled a list of some of the notable ones that we have in the store.

Longmire (Netflix, iTunes, Google Play)

Longmire is based on Craig Johnson‘s thirteen book series, which follows a character of same name in his work as a sheriff in present day Wyoming.

When I was 9 years old, I used to cadge a quarter from my mother and take it to the motion picture emporium, which on Saturday afternoon had an afternoon’s worth of motion pictures, including two serials, a half dozen cartoons, and the main feature. When I watched the version of Longmire recently, I was struck by how little had changed. The cowboys no longer rode on horseback, but the pickup trucks came pretty close on. Sherriff Longmire wore a star on his shirt and a holstered gun at his hip, in fact, the most impressive feature of Longmire was the guns, which do not seem to have changed much in 70 years.

Longmire is a violent series, one that has recently changed from being on A&E to being on Netflix. As books, they are relatively short, punchy narratives that move straightforwardly and quickly from beginning to end. If you are looking for a dependable, modern cowboy narrative, then this may be one for you to try.

IN STORE: Craig Johnson’s ‘Longmire’ series, Books #1-2, 4-9, and 11 are in store. #3, 10, 12, and 13 available to order.

Endeavour (PBS, iTunes, Google Play)

Colin Dexter wrote fourteen Morse titles, in which his aged, and aging inspector thwarted crime all around Oxfordshire. Made even more popular with the long-running TV adaptations starring John Thaw as Morse, Endeavour is a prequel series in which we see Morse not as the Inspector in full command of his powers, but as a freshly minted detective constable.

Endeavour is a TV series based upon the Colin Dexter books of twenty years ago. Basically, it fills in the gaps between Inspector Morse’s early life and his later one. It is set in Cambridge in the 60s. This new series is quite competently done, although it lacks something of the original Morse, chiefly, John Thaw as a much more curmudgeonly detective.

While there are no book adaptations of the Endeavour scripts (nor, for the original Morse spinoff Lewis), Dexter remains a much loved author at WhoDunit? and the whole series is now back in print and available.

In Store: Colin Dexter’s ‘Inspector Morse’ series, Books #3-4, 6-14 in store, #1-2, 5 on order.

Bosch (Crave TV)

Before The Lincoln Lawyer put Michael Connelly on the radar of the world at large, he was already a best-selling, award winning author for his jazz loving, anti-authoritarian Hollywood detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch.

Bosch, which is the Amazon Studio series based on the character (who, in Hollywood fashion, lives in a house paid for by his work as advisor on a TV series based on his own life), is a bit of a timeline nightmare for those who are faithful followers of the series. Each season so far has taken inspiration for three or more separate titles in the series, and has interwoven them into something new.

Titus Welliver, who portrays Harry, does so with the same quiet intensity and semi-concealed power of the character in the novels. However, the mixing of the narratives that make up the original book series makes long-time fans like myself (Jack), have some trouble following along. It is probably best to simply read all the books (there are now 21). Still available in paperbacks, the Michael Connelly’s show that the art of the great American detective novel is not dead, and that it can still be chilling and effective in the right hands.

In store: Michael Connelly’s ‘Harry Bosch’ series, Books #6, 7, 9, 15, 16 available in store, #20 (Oct 25th) and 21 (Nov 1st) on order, rest available to order.

Maigret

Based on the prolific work of French author Georges Simenon (more than seventy-five novels, which Penguin is slowly reissuing in paperback), the most recent English rendition of the character is something of a surprising one, as it features Mr Bean/Blackadder star, Rowan Atkinson, as the titular character, Maigret. So far two 2 hour programmes have been released in North America. The first, ‘Maigret Sets A Trap’, is based on the novel of same name. The second is ‘Maigret and the Dead Man’ due for release around Christmas. Atkinson, who may at first seem a strange choice for such a character, nevertheless seems to have the one ability which makes Maigret exceptional, the ability to see through his suspects to discover their flaws. I liked particularly the psychological emphasis placed on the solving of the cases.

The novels, which Simenon first started publishing in 1931, have little bearing on one another, save for featuring the Marchel Guillaume inspired detective, his loyal wife, and his loyal colleagues. Brief, pithy novels which evoke a strong sense of France at the time, they go well in any sequence, and can be found with nearly any combination of crime and theme.

In Store: 8 titles in stock, mixed between new and used. Check our webstore, call, or visit if you’re looking for a specific title.

Homeland (Netflix)

While Homeland has existed in the television world for some time, (being itself based on an earlier Israeli series ‘Prisoners of War’), the popular, American version has relevance to WhoDunit? as it has supplied us with a number of spinoff novels.

Set in the present day, and featuring powerful performances by an all-star cast, Homeland is a suspenseful, sexual, and complicated series which shows the difficulties in intelligence gathering, the horrors created by the modern political climate, and the powers and stigma which come from, and can be attached to the mentally ill. Andrew Kaplan, himself a reasonably successful spy author, has written two spin-offs novels to help fill in some of the character’s backstory, Homeland: Carrie’s Run and Homeland: Saul’s Game.

In what I am told is standard HBO style, nudity, violence, and profanity is frequently on display in the TV series. For those who prefer their murder in a slightly more serene, safe setting, the following series may serve a better fit.

In store: both titles available to order.

Father Brown (Netflix, Acorn TV, iTunes, Google Play)

Another revival of a classic series, Father Brown is based on G.K. Chesterton’s books following the English Roman Catholic priest. The new series, which places Father Brown in the 1950s, is loosely based on some of the original, early twentieth century tales written by Chesteron, but ensconces the priest in a single landscape, rather than the changing locations of the cannon. More interested in the soul than the earthly nature of the crimes he is investigating, Brown finds himself at occasional odds, and with convenient foils, in the succession of inspectors that he comes into contact with.

While the original texts truly are of a different time, this “updated” Father Brown nevertheless evokes the feel and nature of post-war Britain. Intended for the daytime BBC TV crowd, it is a relatively peaceful, pleasant place to visit, if not the most thrilling update of an early twentieth century work.

In Store: G.K Chesteron’s ‘Father Brown’ series, Books #4 and 5 available in store, the rest available to order (Michael loves a challenge).

Sherlock (Netflix, iTunes, Google Play)

In terms of the magnified possibilities of what an update can do to a character, the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Sherlock Holmes is our present day gold standard. With ably done modernisations of the original narratives, and an overarching structure that helps to fit the Consulting Detective (and his more able sidekick Dr Watson, played by Martin Freeman) into the twenty-first century, the smash hit of this article is this BBC update.

Now moving into a fourth and fifth go around, the three series (and Christmas special) to date have so far hit many of Doyle’s own greatest fictions, and will presumably now shift to dealing with some of his latter day fare. I (Jack), as previously mentioned here, find these particular shows to be too full of flashes and montages to deliver a clear narrative, and find the frenetic pace of the dialogue difficult to follow. The characters themselves, however, are well cast, which I must admit I do not always find to be the case.

However, the original cannon, and the many pastiches based upon it are always available in store. And, should you be interested in reading more by this particular group of adapters Mark Gatiss, who plays Mycroft and has co-written a number of the original episodes, has his own short series of mysteries featuring a character called Lucifer Box.

In Store: Check our webstore, call, or visit if you’re looking for a specific title. Every Bumsted has their favourite.

Shetland (Netflix, iTunes, Google Play)

Finally, in terms of odd casting choices, Ann Cleeves Shetland is one of the most glaring. Her Jimmy Perez character, who in text is a large man with wild dark hair, is not really anything like Douglas Henshall, the actor who portrays him, in appearance. Despite that, the series, which to this point has followed the books with reasonable faithfulness to this point, does nonetheless evoke the beauty and solitude of the Scottish archipelago.

Ann Cleeves other series, featuring Vera Stanhope, is also being given the same treatment on television. Both series, as well as a photo-essay book featuring Shetland as the main character itself, are all available in the store.

In Store: Ann Cleeves ‘Shetland’ series, Book #4 in store, #1, 2, 3, and 7 (November 3rd) on order. #5 and 6 available to order.

The Missing Clue - Mystery Reading Club - Fall 2016 Titles

The theme for fall will be “murder during war”.

Tuesday, September 27th – Christopher Fowler, Full Dark House

Tuesday, October 25th – James Benn, Billy Boyle

Tuesday, November 29th – A Dark Song of Blood

I know that some non-members of the group do read the assigned titles. If you would like to have the questions that Jack writes, please let me know and I will email them to you or you can ask me for a copy when you are in the store.

The group meets on the last Tuesday of the month. Books will be available for purchase at the store and feature a 10% discount. Questions for discussion will be available a few weeks before the meeting. 

The Missing Clue - August 2016 - Mysteries in Alternative Histories by Michael

My intention for this issue of the newsletter was to write about a number of new alternative history novels. The one that had originally caught my attention had been The Book of Esther by Emily Barton. Set in a history in which the Khazar Empire of Central Asia maintained its hold on territory, and on its Jewish faith, into the twentieth century. Faced with the growing power of Hitler's Germany, and its eastern expansion, Esther bin Josephus, one of the few to recognize the real danger, journeys to have a mystical conversion to become the man her culture requires her to be to join military service.

Barton's novel, while well crafted, takes so long to get onto the track of its longer narrative. As a result, it was quickly interrupted by the arrival of the other book I wished to compare it to, Underground Airlines by Ben H Winters. Winters, notable for his ‘Last Policeman’ Trilogy, has created a world in which the American Civil War is stopped by an early assassination of Lincoln, and a compromise written into the constitution of to permit slavery to continue. Jumping into the present, escaped slaves, as well as those who are attempting to aid them, are the responsibility of the Marshall Service. His nameless ex-slave protagonist finds himself an agent of laws many, including himself, do not agree with, but are largely helpless to change.

Winters', who allows his alternative to history to feed into dribs and drabs, creates a narrative that makes it much harder to put his book down. To the point, in fact, where it sucked me in so deeply that I didn't manage to finish Barton's work by the time of printing. While The Book of Esther evoked a world in which I was interested in reading more, it failed to pull me in the same way that Underground Airlines has. That said, once I am finished, I would be happy to let anyone is interested know how the two compare.

The Missing Clue - August 2016 - What I'm Reading by Sian

I was on vacation at the beginning of July and, as promised, I made great progress on my To Read list. 20 books!

Carrie Bebris had taken four years off between the 6th and 7th books of her ‘Mr and Mrs Darcy’ series, so I admit that I had sort of forgotten about it. I was delighted when I heard about Suspicion at Sanditon. Sanditon is an unfinished novel by Jane Austen, but Bebris worked Elizabeth and Darcy into the unfinished novel and created an interesting tale of vanishing house guests. I’m not sure if there are more to come, but this was a welcome addition to the series.

You all know how much I love Charles Finch’s ‘Charles Lenox’ series and his latest, Home by Nightfall, was as good as ever. Charles is trying to balance troubles in London with his business with troubles with his brother in the country and Jane can’t help because she’s expecting royalty for luncheon. The crime here is a historical take on a modern issue that is centre-stage these days, and it’s an interesting perspective.

I know I wasn’t the only one who felt that Laurie R. King’s The Pirate King wasn’t her best and it took until Dreaming Spies for her to recover to her full strength. The Murder of Mary Russell was obviously ominously (and cheekily) titled, but all I will say of the title implication is that I don’t believe this to be the last book in the series. At any rate, this is really Mrs. Hudson’s story. If you’re interested in her background (and future), you’ll love this book. If, like me, you just want to hear about Sherlock and Mary, you might be a bit bored.

I get a sneak peak at the lists as I format them for this newsletter and I was excited to see a number of fall releases from my favourite authors. Stella Rimington has an inconsistent publishing schedule, her professional obligations may preclude her from writing fulltime after all, but book #9 in her ‘Liz Carlyle’ series, Breaking Cover, is coming next week in hardcover. The subject matter is very timely too: a new cold war is coming and a Russian spy is on the loose in London.

I was also lucky enough to get my hands on advanced copies of Tasha Alexander’s upcoming A Terrible Beauty (‘Lady Emily’ #11, coming in October, set in Greece) and Charles Finch’s The Inheritance (‘Charles Lenox’ #10, coming in November. I’m keeping an eye out for Will Thomas’s Hell Bay (‘Barker and Llewelyn’ #8).

The Missing Clue - August 2016 - My Recent (Summer) Reading by Wendy

If you were a fan of Dorothy Cannell, I found a new series that reminded me of her characters and her settings. Murder at Honeychurch Hall, (tp $18.50), is the first in the series and the second title, Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall, will be available in October. The main character is a Kat Stanford is a presenter of a TV show but she is giving it up to open an antique shop with her widowed mother, however, unbeknownst to our heroine her mother has moved away from London and bought a somewhat ramshackle property in the West of England. Kat tracks her down and she and her mother are soon embroiled in various rural shenanigans involving the local nobility. The author is Hannah Dennison who previously wrote the Vicky Hill series.

I had not read any of Deanna Raybourn’s previous series but I really enjoyed the first in her new series, A Curious Beginning (tp$20). The series is set in Victorian England and the main character is a young woman called Veronica Speedwell, who is an entomologist specializing in butterflies. The story begins with the death of her aunts who have raised her since she was a baby. Returning from the funeral an attempt is made to kidnap her and she is rescued by a somewhat enigmatic German nobleman.  From there on the plot, as they say, thickens. Veronica is a very appealing heroine and I am looking forward to the second title due out next year. 

I know that Sian has written about Darcie Wilde’s, A Useful Woman, a couple of times. I finally got around to reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was reticent to read it because I have since my teens been a super fan of Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels all of which I have read. In fact all of which I own and had just finished a rereading.

Susie Steiner is a writer for the Guardian newspaper and Missing, Presumed is her first mystery novel. A graduate student has disappeared from the flat that she shares with her boyfriend. As the daughter of one of the Queen’s doctors, whose parents have many connections to the government of the day, the local police are from the get go under enormous pressure to find out what happened.  The plot has many twists and turns, and it is a very satisfying read.  The main police character is D.S Manon Bradshaw and I hope that this will be the beginning of a series.

Quintin Jardine’s Bob Skinner series has been a perennial favourite of mine. The newest title in the series has recently arrived in the store, Private Investigations (tp$22.99). Skinner has now officially left the Scottish police force and does have a private investigators licence. Two seemingly unconnected events, a request by the brother of one of his previous lovers to help settle an insurance claim and a rear-ender in a mall car park coalesce and lead Skinner and the Scottish police force to a series of much larger crimes. The involvement of the police of course brings in the usual cast of characters. An excellent way to while away a summer afternoon and evening.

Summer is always a good time to try new authors and a good way of doing that is to check out the used section. Despite what the sign on the door, might have led you to believe we have bought a fairly substantial amount of books for our used section.  As a result we do have many series where we have almost complete runs of titles in a series. So please come and check them out.

The Missing Clue - August 2016 - Lecture - Crime Fiction in the British Empire by Jack

(Originally presented on December 3rd, 2008)

As is usually the case with such matters, the British Empire works in a variety of ways in mystery fiction. It serves (1) to provide authors, both in Britain in the classic period and in Canada since World War II; (2) to provide characters; (3) to facilitate plots, chiefly by allowing people to be not whom they seem; (4) it provides exotic settings. Let us turn to each of these in turn.

There are five authors in the early history of British mystery fiction who were born in or brought up in the “colonies:” Rudyard Kipling, Grant Allan, Robert Barr, Ngaio Marsh, and Leslie Charteris.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay, the son of John Lockwood Kipling, the principal later of the School of Art at Lahore and Alice Macdonald, sister of a Methodist minister named Frederic Macdonald. There is a tendency to think of Anglo-Indians as British nobodies but that was certainly not true of the Kiplings. Lockwood was a distinguished artist (sculptor and pottery designer) , educator, and scholar. One of his wife’s sisters married Edward Burne-Jones, the distinguished pre-Raphaelite painter and friend of William Morris; another married Edward Poynter, a president of the Royal Academy; and a third married a wealthy ironmaster and became the mother of Stanley Baldwin, a British Prime Minister. So Kipling had close family connections into the world of Victorian high art, and a cousin who was prime minister of Great Britain. Like many Brits, Lockwood had gone to India because he was offered a better-paying job at an earlier age than he would have received at home. Young Ruddy came from an artistic background and was brought up among artists. He was educated at the United Services College, which he would make famous in Stalkey and Company as “Westward Ho.” We do not normally think of Kipling as a mystery writer, but in his time he was associated with writers like H. Rider Haggard and John Buchan who wrote adventure stories, and certainly Kim was, among other things, a very fine novel about the espionage side of the “Great Game in Asia.” A number of Kipling’s better stories have mystery overtones, such as “The Drums of the Fore and Aft,” which explains why a British regiment in India breaks before the enemy, and the better-known “The Man Who Would be King,” which is framed in the first person by the narrator, who may well be Kipling himself. Kipling was one the great imperialist writers in the age of imperialism, particularly noted for his verse.

Grant Allan (1848-1899) was born in near Kingston, Canada West. He was privately educated in Canada before entering Merton College, Oxford. He then went on to teach at a school for black students in Jamaica (1873-6) before returning to England to earn a precarious income as a freelance writer. In the course of his career he published more than forty novels and short-story collections, as well as an enormous volume of journalism and non-fiction (including a study of Charles Darwin and The Evolution of the Idea of God). His last work, being serialized in The Strand Magazine at the time of his death, was completed by his close friend Arthur Conan Doyle. Allan’s most famous (or notorious) novel was entitled The Woman Who Did (1895). And what did she do? Well, she insisted on having a love affair and a child without marriage and living happily ever after. Many of his novels and short-stories were criminous or mysterious, although he is remembered mainly for one book, which is frequently anthologized: An African Millionaire: episodes in the life of the illustrious Colonel Clay (1897). This collection of short-stories featured a confidence trickster, master of disguise and legerdermain named Colonel Clay, who was “the first great thief of short mystery fiction”, anticipating by several years E. W. Hornung’s Raffles.

Robert Barr (1850-1912) was born in Glasgow, but was brought to Canada by his family at the age of 4, growing up near Windsor. After an early career as a school teacher he entered journalism, then removed to England to become a journal editor and writer. With Jerome K. Jerome (the “three men in a boat” man), he established The Idler in 1892, which published Stephen Carne, George Gissing, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and Conan Doyle. Many of his short stories were mysterious; his first collection of stories was entitled Strange Happenings. (1883). His major contribution was a collection of short stories published in 1906, entitled The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont. Valmont was a French detective who narrated his tales in the first person and has often been taken as the model for Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. I think myself that Hercule is more the product of an author who wanted a detective as far removed from Sherlock Holmes as it was possible to get. Make him a Frenchman, give him a funny name (Hercule is obviously not Hercules), and set him going. But Barr’s Valmont stuff, especially a very well-known piece entitled “The Absent-Minded Coterie,” is often anthologized.

Leslie Charteris was born in Singapore in 1907 as Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin, of mixed-blood parentage -- his father was a Chinese physician, his mother an Englishwoman. He was never quite regarded as “pukka” at the English public schools he attended, nor at Cambridge. Like many a mystery story writer, he bummed around a lot and was educated mainly in the school of life. Not surprisingly, he created the greatest of the Robin Hood figures in the person of Simon Templar, “the Saint.” Templar had more than a forty-year run in almost as many novels, and was made several times into a TV and film character. His best known interpreter was Roger Moore. One can hardly help but see Templar, a suave debonair character of no known background but able to pass as a gentleman in the best of British company, as a fantasy projection of his author, much as James Bond was a fantasy projection of Ian Fleming. Templar specializes in rescuing damsels in distress, and in creating vastly elaborate schemes of retribution against gangsters and especially respectable criminals who would otherwise escape scot-free from justice.

Ngaio Marsh (1899-1982) is somewhat different than the previous four, and not just in that she is not a male. Ngaio (it is pronounced “Ny-o”) was born in Christchurch, New Zealand to English emigrant parents. She was educated in New Zealand at St. Margaret’s College and made her first trip to England in 1928. She ran an interior decoration shop, and with her hair bobbed, she worked as a mannequin. She published her first mystery novel in 1934, introducing the detective characters that would remain with her for the remainder of a career that spanned nearly fifty years: Inspector Roderick Alleyn, assisted by Brer Fox and various other Scotland Yard types. While the previous writers all emigrated to Britain and settled there, Marsh returned home to New Zealand in the mid-1930s and remained there, where she concentrated on creating an English country garden around the family house, directing a student theatrical company of Canterbury College in Shakespeare, and labouriously drafting out in longhand most of the more than 30 novels she wrote featuring Roderick Alleyn. Marsh was one of the younger members of the “Queens of Crime,” women detective writers who remade the British detective novels in the interwar period. Like her compatriot Queens (Christie, Sayers, Allingham, Heyer, Mitchell, and Tey), she was a liberated woman who smoked and lived a thoroughly independent life. She never married, never had children, and at least one biographer claims she was a lesbian. Not only did Marsh spend most of her life in New Zealand (with regular trips to England to refresh the old ambiance), but was one of the first major British mystery writers to set her books outside England. A number of her works, beginning with Colour Scheme (1942) were set in New Zealand, where Inspector Alleyn had ended up engaged in counterespionage during the Second World War Like most of the Queens, Marsh not only created a fictional detective and entourages, but a romantic interest which ripens to marriage in the person of the artist Agatha Troy. She does not accompany her husband to New Zealand and is not in any of the New Zealand novels. Marsh stuck to closed environments in her New Zealand fiction, setting one novel in a spa, another on a sheep farm, and a third in a New Zealand theatre among a visiting touring company from England. Marsh also created a fascinating portrait of a leader of Post-colonial Africa and his entourage at his country’s London embassy in Black as He’s Painted (1974). The African president (nicknamed “The Boomer”) had been to school with Inspector Alleyn, which explains how he gets assigned to protect him from a threatened assassination. In most of Marsh’s work, the setting is better realized than is the detection. Marsh novels tend to have long lead ups to the murder in which some rather nice social description provides a nuanced view of upper middle class and artsy society in both England and New Zealand. Most critics agree that the novels tend to stultify when Inspector Alleyn finally has to detect. Marsh was proud of her versimilitude. She read extensively in crime literature and was proud of getting things right. But whether many real Scotland Yard detectives allowed their wives to become involved in their cases is another matter. And it should be added that the Alleyn TV series is, in my view, one of the least well-realised efforts of British television. You always know you’re in trouble when the period of the show is different from that of the novel.

While the colonial writer in England was a fairly common phenomenon in the days of empire, it is now happens considerably less often. About the only recent mystery writer I could think of who was born in the colonies is Gillian Slovo, who was born in South Africa to marxist radical parents and who writes some of the best feminist mystery stuff around today.

I don’t want to say much about the reverse process with authors, by which Britain supplies the colonies with some of its best writers, because it tends to be a post World War II phenomenon and technically post-imperial (if not post-colonial). But just to remind you, a number of Canada’s best mystery writers come from the British Isles. Names include Eric Wright, John Brady, Peter Robinson, Matthew Quogan, Shaun Herron (who actually lived in Manitoba and wrote spy thrillers about a retired spy named Miro), and Sara Woods. With the exception of Eric Wright, whose Toronto detective Charlie Salter was an inspired piece of Canadiana, and Matthew Quogan, the rest of these guys and gals wrote most of the time as though Canada never existed. They resolutely continued to set their books in the old country. John Brady writes about contemporary Ireland, Peter Robinson about the contemporary North of England territory, Herron about an international spy world often centered in Ireland, and Woods about a sort-of contemporary barrister living in London. A few Canadian authors such as Norah Kelly also set their books in Britain, so I guess turnabout is fair play.

As far as character development is concerned, the empire contributes only a fairly narrow range of stock characters. One is the “Buchaneer,” the type of hero usually associated with the writing of John Buchan. Many people associate Buchan’s writing with the empire, but in truth most of his adventure and spy fiction (especially that involving Richard Hannay) is set in Europe during and after World War I. Nevertheless, Hannay himself was the classic Buchaneer: tall, clear-eyed, bronzed, a perfect specimen of mankind who had kept himself fit on the veldt of Africa. Thanks to Buchan and H. Rider Haggard, heroes who come from the colonies almost always hail from South Africa. Agatha Christie produced a similar specimen in The Secret of Chimneys (1925). Anthony Cade -- with his “tall lean figure, his sun-tanned face, and [his] light-hearted manner” leaves the tour he was guiding in South Africa and returns to England to substitute for a friend. Before the novel is over it transpires that Cade is really the Crown Prince of Herzoslovakia, who has escaped his country’s dynastic turmoil by retreating into the anonymity of the British colonies. Christie did produce a non-South African colonial hero in Murder is Easy (1939). Luke Fitzwilliam has recently retired as a police inspector somewhere in Asia. She also produced a Buchaneering heroine in Anne Beddingford, star of The Man in the Brown Suit (1924), which was Christie’s third novel. Africa figures in this book, only in reverse. Instead of coming from Africa, one goes to Africa. Anne uses a small inheritance from her archaeologist father to pursue villainy to the diamond mines of South Africa. She is easily one of Christie’s most liberated women, at least at the beginning, although she ends up marrying a rich young man and moving to Rhodesia.

More than heroes and heroines, however, the empire produces villains. Nearly half of the first 25 Sherlock Holmes stories feature colonial villains of one sort or another. Some come back from the colonies with their ill-gotten gains to settle into respectability, and others follow them to England to wreak a terrible revenge for the way they had been treated earlier on. Often there is a gang of conspirators sworn to vengeance. The other stock ex-colonial villain in the Holmes stories is the cruel older man who has obviously had his morality buds excised through his years abroad dealing with colonials. Often these villains are ex-officers, usually from India. They often emotionally abuse females and in some cases threaten them with physical violence. The evil ex-Indian army man is a stock villain in mystery fiction between the wars. He makes an appearance in Georgette Heyer’s first book, Footsteps in the Dark, in the person of Colonel Ackerly. When Ackerly is exposed at the end of the book, he asks the young detective “how did you guess my identity?” The answer is, “When a man of your stamp is seen to be on terms of apparent intimacy with the local publican, one is apt to draw unwelcome conclusions.”

The Empire also produces plot devices. The early mystery story frequently used the colonies (particularly Australia and Canada) as a place from which people (often wealthy) returned to England who were not known to anyone in the old country. They could pass as somebody else. Their bodies also could be misidentified and could be given other names at will. One of the most common plot devices in the early mystery is the live impersonation, but only just behind it is the impersonation of dead bodies, which are passed off as somebody else. A couple of examples of this convoluted impersonation stuff will suffice. In Christie’s Murder on the Links, the victim is an accused murder of 20 odd years earlier, who has assumed a new identity (as a Canadian) and plans his own false death to escape a blackmailer. In Dame Agatha’s Dead Man’s Folly, the murderer impersonates a rich businessman in order to live as an outsider in his familial property, using the money generated by his wife, who is impersonating a rich Caribbean heiress. In Christie’s The Clocks, the second wife impersonates the first wife in order to inherit a Canadian fortune, and the murder is simply to prevent someone knowledgeable from identifying the imposture. The second wife simply uses all of the documents of the first (deceased) wife, and is never checked up on in the Canadian legal process. Christie obviously didn’t think the Canadian legal process was very thorough. Finally, the colonies were a place to which scapegraces and other criminals could escape instead of bringing brought to justice. The murderer in Christie’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, another tale in which the corpse impersonates somebody else, in the end escapes to the colonies, leaving a note behind tying up all the loose ends.

But mostly what the Empire does is to provide some splendid settings and some splendid characters to people them. Few of the mystery books and series about exotic locations in the British Empire are produced by natives or even long-term residents of that location. Most are by professional British writers, usually writing from Britain. With the exception of the earliest, all are police procedurals, focusing on policemen in various corners of the world doing their jobs under semi-realistic circumstances.

One of the earliest and most interesting is “November Joe,” the detective in a book of short stories of the same name by Englishman H. Hesketh Prichard (1876-1922). Prichard wrote extensively on sports and the outdoors. He had a serious heart defect (a wonky valve) and like many of his era preferred to ignore it in favour of the active life. He travelled extensively, big-game hunting in Africa and small game hunting in Canada. Joe is a Canadian woodsman, possibly of mixed blood, who helps the Quebec police investigate crimes in the province’s backwoods wilderness. As the author points out, “The specialty of a Sherlock Holmes is the everyday routine of a woodsman. Observation and deduction are part and parcel of his daily existence. He literally reads as he runs. The floor of the forest is his page.” So Joe uses woodcraft in imitation of Baker Street in order to solve his cases. In “The Murder at the Duck Club,” Joe deduces from the absence of footprints that the killer has used a canoe, and from his knowledge of shotguns and shotgun cartridges the identity of the killer, who is an Indian squaw seeking revenge for the earlier death of her son, sentenced to prison by the victim. Joe concludes this story: “I guess our civilized justice does seem wonderful topsy-turvy to them Indians sometimes,” he said.

Another interesting setting is provided by Elspeth Huxley, who wrote three mystery novels in the 1930s set in Chania, a thinly-disguised Rhodesia. The sleuth is a former Mountie named Vachell. He is perhaps the first Canadian-born series detective, since he stars in all three books. Murder at Government House describes the murder of the colonial governor in his residence in the colonial capital. The reader learns a good deal about how the British governed their third-world colonies. The capital city, with a few brief sentences omitted, could have passed for any European city anywhere in the world, however. The few sentences, of course, acknowledge the existence of a huge black community. In The African Poison Murders Vachell has to deal with a Mau-Mau type of black uprising in a rural district of white farmers, within which white people murder one another and try to blame it on the rebels. In Murder on Safari, Vachell goes on a big-game hunting safari to try to solve a jewel robbery and eventually a series of murders. This one features another one of those rare liberated women. Chris Davis is a pilot and hunter who can read the spoor of an elephant and knows more about the flora and fauna than almost anyone on the safari except the chief hunter. Once again the author spoils it, however, ending up treating Chris as the love interest and concluding the book with a promise of romance.

Arthur W. Upfield was an Englishman who emigrated to Australia. In the later years of his life during the 1940s and 1950s he wrote a series of mystery novels set in Australia featuring the mixed-blood detective Napolean Bonaparte (better known as “Boney”). The Upfield novels are almost invariably set in the Australian outback, and offered many a reader (this party included) one of their rare views of this part of Australia. The outback is hot, dry, and distinctly underpopulated. Boney is the son of a white man and an aboriginal woman. He has November Joe’s outdoorsman’s lore -- he is one of the best “trackers” in all of Australia -- but he also has access to all of the “magic medicine” of his people, which he often uses in order to solve the crime and/or catch the criminal. There are a lot of out-of-body experiences in Upfield novels. They are impossible to obtain new in bookstores and virtually the only copies now held by the Winnipeg Public Library are large-print editions done in the 1980s. They occasionally turn up at garage sales or in used bookstores.

H.R.F. Keating’s novels about Inspector Ghote (pronounced Go-tay) of the Bombay Police in India are interesting simply in terms of their genesis. Like most of the authors I am discussing (and a good many more who set their work in unusual foreign locations), Keating was a Brit, actually an Anglo-Irishman born and educated in Dublin before moving to London to become a journalist and writer. Keating wrote the first novel about Ghote in 1963. He was an experienced mystery writer whose specialty was the use of unusual, even exotic, locations. He had never been to India, however, and so his Indian background was based entirely on research he had done at his local library. The novel was intended as a one-off. The Ghote novel, The Perfect Murder won several major mystery prizes, including the Gold Dagger and an Edgar Allan Poe award in the United States. And so Ghote had an unexpected lease on life. Keating had completed a number of novels and short stories about Ghote before he finally got to visit India in 1974. He made some mistakes, but most of them were on cultural details that he might have got wrong even had he been in permanent residence in India. He has written that he did not have to correct his previous images of Bombay and India very much after seeing it all in person. “Everything was more than I had believed. The colours were brighter. The clamour was louder. The rich were richer. The poor were, yes, poorer and occasionally more outwardly wretched than I had been able to conceive of.” But the India of his imagination held up pretty well. One change he made was to the police department environment, based upon visits there. Ghote lost his old scratched-up desk and acquired a glass-topped one, for the Bombay police worked in more modern quarters than Keating had imagined. You either like Ghote or you don’t. I am one of the don’ts. I sense that both he and his characters are larger than life caricatured Indians, subtly different than the one written about by authors like Rohinton Mistry. I have some difficulty knowing when Keating is trying to be amusing and when he is not. I also don’t like the constant interior monologues which Ghote carries on with himself -- he has no colleagues to discuss his cases with. But nobody else writes police procedural detective stories set in India. I find it curious than no native Indian (or ex-Indian) writer has had a go at the genre, but I don’t know of anybody. To my mind Keating’s less successful books often send Ghote abroad -- to London, to the United States -- where the cultural conflicts become very stereotyped.

William Marshall is another Brit who spent a lot of time in Asia. He has used two Asian locations for mystery fiction: the Phillippines and Hong Kong. The Chinese city appears as the location for a series of police procedurals. Marshall has created an imaginary precinct (Hong Bay) and an imaginary precinct house (Yellowthread Street station), which he has peopled with an international collection of policemen who all work in Hong Kong. Most of the police detectives and specialist staff (the pathologists, the coroner) are British, although Christopher O’Yee is of Irish-Chinese ancestry educated in the United States. The lower rank cops are mainly Chinese. This is apparently very accurate, at least for Hong Kong before 30 June 1997. The Yellowthread Street stories are modern police procedurals strongly influenced by Ed McBain. Unlike the traditional procedural, which follows the investigators attempting to solve a crime (the classic procedural is Freeman Willis Croft’s Inspector French stories of the 1920s and 1930s, and Vachell, Boney, and Ghote, as well as several cops I haven’t yet discussed), the new style follows a precinct or a station house, where the detectives work on a variety of cases simultaneously. This format was successfully used by Ed McBain in his 87th Precinct novels and imitated by many others, including Dell Shannon. The approach works very well in polyglot Hong Kong. The detectives are multilingual, speaking English and Cantonese, occasionally English and Mandarin. The criminals are usually not Europeans, but Chinese or Hong Kongers. Marshall has a macabre sense of humour, and he often writes in a vein of black comedy. This series is not easy to get, although the WPL has copies of most it in various branches. Nor is it for everybody, but it is wonderful.

South Africa has given us two series. One, by James McClure, features an Africaner detective, Tromp Kramer and his black Bantu assistant, Sergeant Zondi. Writing about South Africa, of course, is always controversial, especially in the days of Apartheid. McClure is originally a South African, although the books are written from England. There has been much criticism of this series, claiming in the words of one literary commentator, it “gives a frozen and ultimately unrealistic picture of social reality” in South Africa, communicating a sense of stability not ordinarily observable. It is certainly true that McClure does not write about the black communities or about police activities in them or in defense of apartheid. There is no riot control in McClure’s books, for example. At best, the author tries to embody the liberal hopes for slow evolutionary change. His is the voice of privilege, and he cannot speak for the black majority in a repressive system. Only the white victims embody the particular social pathologies of South Africa’s system, although the antipathy of English and Boers is a constant chorus in the books. The blacks are both seen and unseen, often part of the anti world of non-gentility. Zondi is said to have bought into the system, which of course affirms apartheid. The series was extremely popular in South Africa in the white communities.

The other series, only two books long, is by Englishman Tom Sharpe, who emigrated to South Africa in 1951. The books are entitled Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. Sharpe was a social worker, a teacher, and a photographer in Natal, before he was deported from the country for his criticism of the regime. Like McClure, Sharpe writes of the Afrikaaner police force in a town called Piemberg, obviously the Pietermaritzburg where he lived for some years. His detective is Kommandant Van Heerden, the town’s chief of police, assisted by Luitenant Verkramp and Konstabel Els. Van Heerden was an anglophile, while Verkramp hated the English and Els the blacks. “His natural aptitude for violence and particularly for shooting black people was only equalled by his taste for brandy and his predilection for forcing the less attractive parts of his person into those parts of African women legally reserved for male members of their own race.” But Els had his virtues, one of which was his ability to operate “the electrical-therapy machine which had proved such a boon in extracting confessions from suspects.” Sharpe’s Afrikaaners are caricatures. They are not very bright, narrow-minded, and repressive. In Riotous Assembly this collection of cops are summoned to Jacaranda House, the ancestral home of Judge Hazelstone, an Anglo judge who had advocated flogging for parking offences. [read pages 16-18] It does turn out to be a difficult case. Miss Hazelstone not only insisted that she had shot her Zulu cook, but that he was her lover in a variety of forms of kinky sex and the motive for the shooting had been jealousy. [read 25 ff.] The plot gets very convoluted, and Konstable Els is in the middle of what becomes for Sharpe in later novels a typical situation of total mayhem. In Indecent Exposure, Sharpe allows the Kommandant, who was told at the end of the previous book he had been given in a heart transplant the heart of Miss Hazelstone’s clergyman brother, to become involved with a group of English who call themselves the “Dornford Yates Club.” Dornford Yates wrote a series of criminous stories between the wars about the “clubland”set, and Sharpe builds a literary satire into his larger political one. There are many strands to the plot. One involves efforts by the police to identify those within their ranks who would be susceptible to Communist infiltration (in South Africa, any critic of the regime was a Communist). [read 33-35.] Sharpe is a satirist who specializes in vaguely or sometimes explicitly off-colour humour, and these books are full of it. In the end, the reader senses that the Afrikaaners have been truly sent up.

Finally, we turn to a series of detective stories by Michael Pearce, involving Captain Gavin Owen, the “Mamur Zapt” in turn of the century Cairo. Egypt in the early years of the century was officially autonomous politically, but was really administered by a small cadre of British advisors who worked quietly beyind the scenes to run the country. The Mamur Zapt was a traditional post carried over from the days of Turkish rule. He was head of Egypt’s secret service. This series, written in the 1980s and 1990s about Egypt a century earlier, gives the reader some notion of how indirect rule worked in Egypt and elsewhere around the world. The political situation, in which the British “advisors” are caught between the Nationalist Party on the one hand, and the French on the other, between the Muslim majority and the Coptic minority, is the backdrop for cases of crime and murder that have to be solved.