Review of Marie Benedict's The Queens of Crime

 

Benedict, Marie The Queens of Crime

As a long-time lover of detective novels, I was intrigued by the central idea of Marie Benedict’s 2025 novel, The Queens of Crime.  Set in London in 1930, it posits that six grand dames of crime fiction (Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and the Baroness Emma Orczy), feeling left out by the male writing contingent ignoring their accomplishments, decide to form a secret club to solve a real murder.

The murder of a young nurse in France provides their case, and by investigations in both London and France, they close in on the villains who have preyed on at least two women. Their methods strain credulity at times, particularly the use of out-and-out blackmail and a convenient accident to put things to rest.

We get constant references to the plots of the ladies’ own books, plus a style rundown of every piece of clothing worn each day by our female sleuths. If there is a category for “chick mysteries,” this one fits it to a T. I found it a bit too fru-fru for my tastes.   

I give it a 2 out of 5

Jonathan Kellerman The Ghost Orchid

 

Jonathan Kellerman The Ghost Orchid

I have enjoyed Kellerman’s Alex Delaware crime procedurals for many years. They depend on a pair of dissimilar friends who complement each other’s strengths and provide readers two alternate poles to identify with. Milo Sturgis is an overweight, hard-boiled, gay homicide investigator. He is a tough and canny questioner and is a whiz at finding and researching databases. Dr. Alex Delaware, is a cool, straight social psychologist who brings empathy and a real-life consulting background to the often puzzling murder cases that are the pair’s forte’.     

This time it is a double murder of a couple alongside a back yard swimming pool in a fancy house in a fancy neighborhood.  Is it a case of a robbery gone wrong? No. There has been no apparent break-in. Is it the husband of the woman, who has discovered she has been  having an affair there with the man? Or was it someone who had it in for the guy making the female collateral damage? Good research begins to suggest that both victims have things in their past that could merit violent revenge. As you might expect, the entanglements get more complicated as the sleuths probe further and further into both victims' checkered and mysterious pasts.

             Kellerman is a long-established pro, and he writes with authority on police procedure, human psychology, and the Los Angeles West Coast scene. He will keep you guessing on who did it and why right up to the end. The Ghost Orchid is a quick and satisfying read that claims nothing other than being entertaining crime fiction. It is perfect for the beach or as that book at your bedside table that you can read a few chapters in each night just before going to sleep. If this is your first exposure to the Delaware novels, and you like it, there are over forty previous titles available. Kellerman’s books do tend to spend a fair amount of time on the seamy side of West Coast life, but the blood and gore is not as thick as some similar authors. 

Jim De Young

I give it a good, solid 4 out of 5

The House of Cross by James Patterson

 

Patterson, James The House of Cross

This 2024 espionage novel from the prolific Patterson does everything he is famous for. He spins a far-out plot of a master villain “M” who is out to save the world by killing people rather than bringing them to justice. We meet evil twins and explore his hyper-modern headquarters deep in an abandoned mine in the Canadian wilderness, not on a James Bond-style island. It is populated by hordes of expendable followers who drive snowmobiles into carefree extinction. Where do these zombi armies come from anyway?

Alex Cross, his wife, and best friend tackle the threats head-on, get caught in a snowstorm are conveniently captured, and save the world just by a hair. I found the book formulaic (i.e.typical over-the-top villains chased by supremely intelligent, patriotic, heroic, sharpshooting  Feds) Personally, I prefer thrillers that stick a bit closer to reality.   

2.5 out 5

 

 

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

There is no better character to build a book titled Land around than a surveyor. Land continues on through the ages even though it may ultimately erode or metamorphose. O’Farrell’s book is a lyrical, historical, masterpiece that also captures the mysticism or magic that so frequently populates the new fiction shelves at your local library today.

So, once upon a time, there was a mystical spring in a copse. It was found by a prehistoric woman whose remains still lie there. Thousands of years later, Tomas a surveyor has a wife (Fina), a son (Liam), two sisters (Rose and Enda), and a strange mute brother (Eugene). He and his family find, drink, and are altered by this hallowed watery spot over time. In between this central story, O’Farrell jumps back and forth in time. There are sections dealing with prehistoric peoples, ancient Vikings, and Romans, but always we come back to the lives of the surveyor and his brood in the 1860’s just after “the great hunger” has devastated Ireland and its people.

 The lushness of O’Farrell’s language, much evident in her earlier novel Hamnet, will capture you. Consider her evocative sound and sight images. “Liam at a distance hears first the sound of the family dog barking. Then he hears the sound of his sister’s fiddle and can picture her in the lee at the cottage’s end, giving him a tune to send him on his way.”  Or consider the absence of sound as in “There is a thick febrile silence throughout the house.”  In another place, she encapsulates both the time, the sight, and the silence. “Later, when darkness has wrapped itself around the peninsula like a cat settling into sleep.” You can see it and feel it.

Liam, the son of the surveyor, pulls away from his family to become a priest and then loses his faith. How is it described? “Liam felt his faith loosening in its foundations, like an unsound tooth.” Much later, when he returns to his family home, there is a long passage that shifts your perspective to what a skylark might see as she cruises above the land. “The skylark passes unseen, directly over his head, and to her, his thoughts are a tangible line rising from his cranium, like steam: she flies right through them, she pierces the nimbus of his ruminations as a needle passes through cloth.” In other parts of the book, she shifts the narrative perspective to that of a dog or a baby in the womb.

No, this is not an easy read. O’Farrell’s vocabulary is challenging. The time and space shifts abound, the narrative perspectives change, and sophisticated images meet you on almost every page. You may need to keep your dictionary at hand while reading, but ultimately The Land won me over, and I think it will win you over too.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

 

God’s County by William Kent Kreuger

 

 

My quick first thought about this book was that Kent Krueger now shares a useful symbol with Louise Penny. Both writers have prominently focused on wolves in their recent work. Krueger’s God’s Country draws directly from Indigenous people’s legends that tell of the lupine pressures present in all humans. There are good wolves, but they have a hard time dealing with the disorientation spread by the evil ones. And that is what Krueger’s central character, Cork O’Connor, faces in this book.  

Cork’s son and his grandson have visions of an evil wolf eating the heart of their father/grandfather at the opening of the story. In spite of these warnings, Krueger has O’Connor continue to schedule a trip with them into Minnesota’s beautiful, remote, and dangerous Boundary Waters. The party is not on the trail long before blood is found near a tree. Then the group’s satellite phone has an accidental and fatal tumble into the evening campfire. If there ever was a more obvious set-up for future disaster, I am pressed to come up with it.

The family members are sent back home the following morning to report on what appears to be dangerous goings-on just ahead of them. Whoever they are, they are leaving a trail of cigar wrappers, food waste, unquenched campfires, and potential death. Cork stays to pursue the possible evil and shortly finds himself marooned with two murderous brothers searching for a treasure concealed by their father some years before.     

Because the setup is so obvious and the violence so graphic, I can’t bring myself to call this a defining work of moral conflict, but it's still an awful good, suspense-filled yarn. Krueger’s descriptions of the Boundary Waters, along with his mastery of survival skills, have not deserted him. My only quibble is that he does seem to be repeating similar plots rather than moving off in newer directions. There is danger in “them their woods.”

I give it a 4 out of five.

Book Review of RANSOM by Daniel Silva

 

Ransom by Daniel Silva

I have long been a fan of Daniel Silva’s espionage books. Unlike the more fantastical plots spun by Dan Brown, his work usually mirrors real-life international intrigue closely enough to retain a sense of plausibility.  His main character, Gabriel Allon, is a retired Israeli spy chief and renowned art restoration guru.  Ransom begins with the kidnapping of Alice Winter, who is married to billionaire real estate mogul Edward Knight. Allon is drawn from his Cornwall retirement to help find her and negotiate a price for her release. Needless to say, the right price turns out to be very wrong and the attention shifts toward a complicated Russian-based plot to target multiple armed drones on NATO airports and the city of London itself. Given the increasing use of drones in the Russia/Ukraine war, this is no longer an improbable piece of futurism.  Allon must turn to some of his most trusted friends in the United States and European intelligence services to solve the challenge. The final pages will keep your heart rate elevated right up to the last syllable.  

Silva’s London and European locations are depicted in delicious detail. Financial and political intrigue abound at every turn. And there are enough close shaves to make a professional barber proud. Some might find Silva’s plots too melodramatic, but I think this one meets all the requirements of a first-class thriller.   

 I give it a 4.5 out of 5

 

THE SUNSHINE BOYS by Neil Simon

 

The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon

We made a Grand Living group trip to see Neil Simon’s 1972 The Sunshine Boys last week at the TKM Theatre in the Amana Colonies.  The play is essentially a two-hander with some minor supporting roles. Willie and Ben are two one-time vaudeville headliners, who haven’t spoken to each other in ten years. They get recruited to do a reprise of their old act for a TV commemoration of the entertainment of the past and as a result the buried animosities that contributed to their breakup, are opened up. The middle parts of the show could use some cutting and the humor definitely shows its age occasionally. For instance, the duo’s signature doctor skit depends on sexual jokes based on a skimpily clad and well-endowed nurse. The women’s movement has made those leering wisecracks a bit politically incorrect now. Also problematic, perhaps just for me, was the dependence on memory-loss jokes throughout the script. I currently live in a senior community, and cognitive decline isn’t quite as funny to me now as it used to be. On the other hand, the audience, which almost all senior citizens, did react with gusto. enjoyment mode.  

Tom Milligan, the current TKM producer, played Willie Clark and kept the irascible pajama-clad old performer beautifully alive with his constant pent-up rage. Adam Burnham handled the impeccably dressed Ben Silverman with aplomb. Lisa Margolin, playing the registered nurse who tends to Willie after his health crisis, provided a funny contrast to the comic nurse from the boy’s old act. Deb Kennedy, Tom Milligan's wife, provided the capable direction. 

“Acting isn’t pretending: it’s finding truth in someone else’s story.” As I noted above, I thought the play makes a bit too much fun of the beginnings of Alzheimers, but as we neared the end, the actors did sell the idea that in spite of deep differences, positive connections can still occur.   

I do regret that the theatre itself echoed some of the sadness buried in the script. The seats sag, a water fountain in the lobby was out of order, and there were cobwebs on the front of house lighting bridge. I had to ask the house manager to clear walkers from in front of an emergency exit. I know the show is set in a rundown New York city hotel room, but that should be depicted in the stage setting and not the theatre building. I hope and pray that the company’s tenure is not on the ropes since live theatre is still my first love and seeing it at the Amana Theatre has been one of the highlights of our Cedar Rapids life.

Production is 4 out of 5 and well worth while.