THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506170281
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY DOUGLAS G. GREENE
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
WHAT IS most notable about recent mystery and detective novels is the number of new authors who, with their first or second novels, are already masters of suspense. Take, for example, Alan Russell, whose second book about hotel sleuth Am Caulfield, The Fat Innkeeper (Mysterious Press, 337 pp., $19.95), makes him one of the best of the comic detective novelists. Russell's books are superficially similar to the classic hotel series of some 20 years ago by Hugh Pentecost, but while Pentecost treated his world seriously, Russell has an eye for the ridiculousness of human conduct - and there is no denying that many of us are at our most absurd when we are away from our normal haunts.
In The Fat Innkeeper, Caulfield is faced with several problems: a whale that washes ashore at his hotel's beach, a convention (``The Swap Meat ) of swingers and the death of a former magician at a gathering of people who all have had near-death experiences. The victim's last words were ``Be positive,'' but was he talking cheerfully about the afterlife or hinting at the identity of his killer?
Another second novel worth the attention of every mystery fan is Lynda S. Robinson's Murder at the God's Gate (Walker, 236 pp., $19.95), which is notable even in this current flood-season of historical mysteries. The Pharaoh Tutankhamun's special investigator, Lord Meren, is faced with the problem of the death of his spy, a priest at the temple of Amun. The priesthood of Amun hates the pharaoh and his family (his brother, Akhenaten, had heretically worshiped only the sun god). Schemes against the young pharaoh abound, even within his own family. Humane, wise and resolute, but fundamentally a person of his own times, Meren is one of the most interesting detectives in current fiction.
A historical novel set in more recent years is Dianne Day's first essay at detection, The Strange Files of Fremont Jones (Doubleday, 229 pp., $19.95). The year is 1905, and Jones has left her staid Bostonian home to make her living as a typist in San Francisco. Soon she meets a parade of curious characters - Edgar Allan Partridge, who asks Jones to type his short stories, which are reminiscent of his near-namesake, E.A. Poe; the charming lawyer Justin Cameron, who introduces Jones to love (or perhaps only lust); and Li Wong, who has her type a business paper. When Partridge disappears and Li Wong is murdered, Jones adds detecting to her interests. Even though Day doesn't always capture the speech patterns of the past, The Strange Files of Fremont Jones is a fascinating novel, especially in the excerpts from Partridge's Gothic horror stories. I predict that the book will be short-listed for ``Best First Mystery'' awards.
Jean Hager is not a new writer - Seven Black Stones (Mysterious Press, 294 pp., $18.95) is her sixth novel - but it is only recently that she has become recognized as one of the best of the new ``cozy'' writers. Her books do not feature violence for its own sake, and generally pay attention to the mystery of relationships as unraveled by Molly Bearpaw, investigator for the Cherokee Nation. Old Zebediah Smoke is furious that his fellow Cherokees are erecting a bingo parlor, and he invokes ancient ritual to foil the project. When Ed Whitekiller, who had applied for a job at the construction site, is found dead with the mystic seven stones beside him, it appears that Smoke may be helping the native gods. Filled with Native American lore, Seven Black Stones is a revealing discussion of the clash of cultures - as well as a convincing mystery novel.
To move to a writer who has already arrived, let me mention a new book by and about Lawrence Block, probably the most honored of current American mystery writers. After Hours, Conversations with Lawrence Block (University of New Mexico, 165 pp., $19.95) contains a lengthy interview with Block by Ernie Bulow; a detailed checklist of Block's novels and stories; a reprint of Block's first short story; and several essays by Block, including his classic division of mysteries into two categories - those that feature cats and those that don't. After Hours is for dyed-in-the-wool Block fans, and there are a lot these days.
In the tradition of Block's blood-drenched private-eye tales is Jeremiah Healy's Rescue (Pocket Books, 356 pp., $20), the most recent case of Boston investigator John Francis Cuddy. With its tales of child-murder and sudden violence, Rescue is not for the squeamish. But it is for those who like believable settings and a pacing that whips along like a racing car. Cuddy promises a 10-year-old boy that he will help him if he ever needs anything; when the boy disappears into a compound set up by a religious fanatic, Cuddy springs into action. The scene shifts from New England to Key West; but with an ethical sense reminiscent of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, Cuddy follows the boy into a den of madness.
Two of the best anthologists in the business, Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian, have produced the toughest of recent short-story collections, Hard-Boiled (Oxford University, 532 pp., $25). Made up of tales unearthed from Depression-era pulp magazines and more recent paperback originals, Hard-Boiled is filled with stories of gangsters and molls, speakeasies and grimy streets, corruption on the docks and in the police precincts. Authors range from the greats of the past (Dashiell Hammett, Chester Himes, Ross Macdonald) to the modern masters (Andrew Vachss, Margaret Maron, James Ellroy).
Mary Higgins Clark, the queen of romantic mystery, is not well-known as a short-story writer, having previously published only one collection of short pieces, but The Lottery Winner (Simon & Schuster, 265 pp., $22) is a smoothly told volume that leads me to the heretical conclusion that Clark's real strength is in the short detective story rather than the suspense novel. Former cleaning woman Alvirah Meehan has become wealthy from winning the New York lottery, and she and her retired plumber-husband investigate a series of mysteries, most notably a tale that starts from an interview on the ``Donahue'' show.
This has been a particulary strong season for classic reprints. Highly recommended are two mysteries by Mignon G. Eberhart, now the doyenne of mystery writers. The Patient in Room 18 and While the Patient Slept (both University of Nebraska, $9.95, paperback), originally published in 1929 and 1930, feature Nurse Sarah Keate and her private-eye boyfriend - as well as gloomy mansions and sinister hospital wards. Although dated in their social attitudes, Eberhart's well-crafted suspense tales are still fun to read.
An entirely different reprint is Donald E. Westlake's Kahawa (Mysterious Press, 477 pp., $21.95), originally published in 1982 and set in Uganda with Idi Amin as a main character. It is an odd combination of a comic caper novel - featuring the hijacking of a train loaded with coffee - and an adventure novel of sex and violence. Such is Westlake's writing ability that the tale is riveting from beginning to end, and leads the reader to a sort of grim pity for the characters.
- MEMO: Douglas G. Greene, director of the Institute of Humanities at Old
Dominion University, is author of the recently published ``John Dickson
Carr: The Man Who Explained Miracles.'' by CNB