Book Review: Mysteries
A two-fer!
I’d had a lot of time to read while traveling, as I learned that the big iPad is great for drawing surface area, but actually too large to use as a laptop in Economy class on an airplane. Whoops! Well, I had a bunch of books downloaded on my device, and it was supposed to be a vacation three-day trip, so I got to read books for no other reason than they looked like fun.
In exploring beyond my favorite British mystery writers, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham, and the enduring classic author Agatha Christie, I stumbled over a publisher which has been finding lost books and republishing them. The pricing is iffy, but some are in Kindle Unlimited and so very reasonable to try them out. This is a great way to find new authors with a low barrier to entry, but in the case of this first book I’m reviewing, this is the only book available in ebook1 by the author Nap Lombard.
Murder’s a Swine is a romp of a mystery, set in the very early phases of World War II, when the war had not yet come to haunt London. When Agnes and a air-raid warden find a body in a shelter, the mystery begins to haunt everyone who lives in the block of flats overhead. The relationship between Agnes, her husband Andy, and the zany side-characters resonated to me like Nick and Nora of The Thin Man. They are alcoholic (just a little!2), snarky, and in over their heads. With Inspector Eggshell, and Andy’s Scotland Yard cousin, nicknamed Pig, the mystery will, eventually, hopefully, be solved. I enjoyed this one, it’s playful and while it does have dark moments of death and grue, the overall feeling is that no one is taking anything very seriously, not even the war. I recommend it, if for nothing more than a glimpse into history, and how life was lived before the Blitz began.
I tend to think of British mystery as being less prone to brawling than American detective fiction of the same era (later books, from Dick Francis, are not so reticent). I was pleasantly surprised to find action reminiscent of Alistair MacLean (another of my favorite authors) in Death Has Deep Roots, along with a courtroom drama worthy of Erle Stanley Gardner’s3 pen. Two parallel storylines switch back and forth, ratcheting up the tension, making this a bit of a thriller. I found it very readable, and enjoyed it a lot. Besides which, there’s something endearing about three men who risk reputation, life and limb to try and prove a woman innocent even if she is a stranger to them. There is nobility of purpose here, and I definitely recommend it. Again, it is set after the World War II time-period but deals with things that happened in the War, and shows that even in chaos, clues4 can lead to answers to mysteries if pursued with intelligence and determination. I have started reading another of Michael Gilbert’s books, Death in Captivity, which deals with a locked-room (so to speak) murder in a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy during WWII. I am finding this one slower going. There is a large and slightly confusing cast of characters, murky motivations, and some repetitious plot-points being hammered which need not, I think. I’ll finish it, but I’d say your mileage may vary on this other book of his.
And because when I did a poll a while back, this was specifically mentioned, I’ve done a little video of my recent book haul. I’d popped in to the library book sale, said ‘oh, I don’t need a bag!’5 to the little old ladies, since I thought I probably wouldn’t find anything. One $5 bag later…
Next week I have a pair of non-fiction reference books, both on cover art and design for science fiction books of the past. They are very different, and promise to be quite useful to me, at least.
There is another novel by this husband-and-wife team referenced in Murder’s a Swine, but it seems to be long out of print.
Drink like fishes.
Specifically Perry Mason.
Speaking of alcohol, one witness in this testifies to having drunk seven whiskies in an evening. I would be pickled! But they seem to take it in stride. They made ‘em different back then I suppose.
Dear Readers, I was wrong!
Cool beans. I see quite a few authors under that publisher that I recognize, many of which were on my mother's book shelves (my dad went more for westerns and military/action stories). I did notice that some of the prices rivaled some new releases, Yikes! I have a list of new authors to try out. Thanks for that, as if my TBR pile is large enough already.