By Jon L. Breen
Expanding previously published short stories into novels—cannibalizing as Raymond Chandler called it—has a long history in crime and mystery fiction, and some of the best writers in the field have practiced it. Still, it can be a tricky proposition.
*** Loren D. Estleman: Alone, Forge, $24.99. The second novel about UCLA film detective and wannabe movie theater operator Valentino is based on the short story "Garbo Writes" (EQMM, February 2007). The well-honed basic plot, concerning lost letters of Greta Garbo, is the same, so obviously a good deal of filler was necessary to get it to 250 pages. Such fine prose, witty dialogue, and movie-buff nuggets make up the filler, along with a couple of romantic subplots, that readers like me who admire Estleman's style and share his enthusiasm for vintage cinema won't mind a bit. Sixteen pages of provocatively annotated bibliography and filmography are appended. (But he's too dismissive of Louise Brooks and Ricardo Cortez. The former was more than a geek's screensaver, and the latter, as well as being Garbo's first leading man and the first movie Sam Spade, was the best of the 1930s Perry Masons.)
*** Barbara Hamilton: The Ninth Daughter, Berkley, $14. In the first of a projected series, Abigail Adams investigates murder during the run-up to the Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere is on hand, and John Adams appears as supportive spouse, but the most interesting historical figure in the cast is cousin Sam Adams, a righteous rabble-rouser. The writing, the mystery, and the period details (political, religious, social, and domestic) are all well-handled. Hamilton is the thinly disguised pseudonym of prolific historical novelist Barbara Hambly.
*** Rhodi Hawk: A Twisted Ladder, Forge, $14.99. Is the New Orleans family of psychologist Madeleine LeBlanc haunted by schizophrenia, river devils, or a combination of the two? Its action shifting between early 20th Century and the present, this Southern Gothic saga combines mystery and horror to fine effect. One of the more unusual trial scenes in fictional annals finds Madeleine trying to hold the family curse at bay to help to convict a murderer. (While an invisible demon wandering around the courtroom is perfectly believable, an attorney unnecessarily asking to treat as hostile a witness under cross-examination is not.)
*** Sharon Fiffer: Scary Stuff, Minotaur, $24.95. Jane Wheel, finder of oddball collectibles and sometime private eye, encounters two mysteries on a visit to California: Why are hostile strangers confronting her brother Michael (he looks like somebody but his eyes are different) and is he somehow involved in an Internet auction scam? Back in Illinois, the plot thickens to include Jane's plainspoken mother (a great role for the late Thelma Ritter), a reputedly haunted house elaborately decorated for Halloween, subtle and overt romantic complications, and, inevitably, murder. This is a prime example of the extended-family cozy, with strong writing, an unusual background, ingenious plot twists, and a nicely foreshadowed final escape ploy.
*** Al Roker and Dick Lochte: The Morning Show Murders, Delacorte, $26. Billy Blessing, Manhattan restaurateur and TV chef who fills various roles on Wake Up America!, tells his story in humorous first person, and it's easy to picture Roker in the role. Savvy readers of celebrity mysteries always check out the professional collaborator, not always credited on the title page as here. Lochte, who has previously worked with Bill Shoemaker and Christopher Darden, besides writing the celebrated Sleeping Dog and several other novels, is one of the best. Though a mysterious death in Afghanistan and a faceless assassin known as Felix the Cat (complete with cartoon calling card) suggest an international thriller, this is a generously clued multi-twist whodunit at heart, expertly written and plotted.
*** Mark Coggins: The Big Wake-Up, Bleak House, $24.95 hardcover, $14.95 paperback. The fifth case for San Francisco private eye August Riordan begins with a stunning action scene of murder by cable car and proceeds to unveil a wildly unlikely and utterly entertaining pulp-magazine plot, including a sinister female villain known as Isis. The Maltese Falcon-style treasure hunt has a most intriguing MacGuffin which I will not reveal, though the overly informative blurb writer does. The author's photographs from cemeteries enliven, so to speak, the chapter headings. Coggins continues to favor Chandler's recipe for saving a scene: the sudden appearance of a man with a gun.
Earl Derr Biggers's last two Charlie Chan novels, Charlie Chan Carries On (1930) and Keeper of the Keys (1932), have been reprinted in handsome trade paper editions (Academy Chicago, $14.95 each). The latter is both the best fair-play puzzle in the series and the one most influenced by the screen version of Chan, but ironically the only novel in the series never adapted for film.
Hard Case Crime, which recently reprinted a novel by Robert B. Parker (but not the one we know), has concocted another attention-getting stunt. Glen Orbik's cover shows a sexy girl in a flimsy nightgown menaced by a muscular, tattooed man. At the top are the words "inspired by a true story"; printed over the illustration: "They All Answered to . . . The BODYMASTER!" The blurb on the back is headed "Years ago, a P.I. out of Chicago brought justice to a dirty town. Now he's going to pay." The author, A.C. Doyle, is touted as "Best-Selling Author of 'THE LOST WORLD' " and credited by Entertainment Weekly with an "unconventional, inquisitive imagination." The title is The Valley of Fear. Yep, it's the fourth Sherlock Holmes novel, a classic repackaged (in a parody of 1950s paperback practice) as something other than what it is. Then, of course, the price would have been a quarter or maybe 35¢. Now it's $7.99.
Speaking of the Baker Street sleuth, placing him in other fictional worlds was far less commonplace than now in 1975 when Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds (Titan, $9.95) was first published. Apart from H.G. Wells's Martian invaders, the five connected short stories by Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman involve Holmes and Watson with Doyle's science-fictional character Professor Challenger and his own Watson figure, journalist Edward Malone. Longtime readers may recall that the elder Wellman won first prize in EQMM's first annual short-story contest for "A Star for a Warrior"(April 1946).
* * * © 2010 Jon L. Breen
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