Reviewing: "Fit to Die: A Supper Club Mystery"

Fit to Die: A Supper Club Mystery
By J. B. Stanley
http://.www.jbstanley.com/
April 2007
Midnight Ink
ISBN 978-0-7387-1067-9
Large Trade Paperback
ARC

This second book in the supper club mystery series brings readers back to the small town of Quincy's Gap, Virginia. Home of James Henry, Lucy, (who is an object of romance for Henry if he can just work up his nerve) Lindy, Gillian and Bennett who together are known as the Flab Five. For the group food and dieting is a constant issue. The recent holidays were less than helpful and with spring in the air, they all know that they need to work on their diets.

As it happens, Veronica Levitt has moved to their town and is about to open "Witness to Fitness." Combining exercise and foods bought through her, the persuasive and vibrant Veronica "Ronnie" Levitt promises to make the Flab Five leaner, stronger and definably sexier within the next six weeks. All they, and her other customers have to do is join her program at "Witness to Fitness" by eating her food, keeping a food journal, attending counseling and weighting sessions and attending at least three exercise classes a week and it isn't going to be cheap. Not only will it cost serious money there are absolutely no refunds.

Also new to Quincy's Gap is Willy Kendrick who owns and operates the new "Chilly Willy's Polar Pagoda." Willy intends to sell all types of detectable ice creams and treats which sets him quickly at odds with various parties including Veronica Levitt. Then there is the shape of his building and his t-shirts that have a clever marketing slogan. Both sit wrong with other parties who also make their displeasure known.

Before long, constant discussions of food make way for discussions of arson and murder, the Flab Five begin once more to investigate and put themselves in harm's way.

Featuring several secondary storylines, this cozy style mystery is very slow to get going. Much of the first half of the book is taken up constant discussion and consideration of food and dieting. Virtually every paragraph covers something good to eat, motivation to diet, how hard it is to diet, etc. Much like late night television where commercial after commercial announces tempting choices at this fast food restaurant or other (open later that ever before thank you very much) there is constant repetition about food bordering on obsession. Unlike late night TV where one can temporarily escape by changing channels, there is no escape here short of closing the book.

It is only after crimes have happened and authorities don't seem to have any basic curiosity into matters that the characters finally show that they have quite a lot going on besides food obsessions. Directly because of their interest and pursuit of justice, matters are finally resolved in classic style where all is explained to the group at the end and order has been once more restored.

The result is an entertaining read though difficult to stomach for those of us who do suffer the joys and perils of dieting. The characters are interesting and real, the case is interesting though rather obvious to seasoned readers, and ultimately happily resolved in the way preferred by cozy readers everywhere. Depending on your personal reading tastes, this might just hit the spot or be a little too sweet and sugary.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2007

Barry's Review: "KIRINYAGA: A FABLE OF UTOPIA" by Mike Resnick

KIRINYAGA: A FABLE OF UTOPIA by Mike Resnick
reviewed by Barry Ergang


Among all of the highly readable, intelligent and well-crafted novels Mike Resnick has written, I have three favorites: Walpurgis III, The Dark Lady, and the book under consideration here: Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia (Del Rey/Ballantine, 1998).

Although Resnick considers it a novel, it developed from a short story he was asked to write by Orson Scott Card for an anthology about future Utopian societies. “Because of my love for Africa,” Resnick explains in an afterword, “and my knowledge of East Africa in particular, I chose to write about a Kikuyu Utopia. The story was ‘Kirinyaga,’ and I handed it to Scott at the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton, England, where I stopped for a few days on my way down to Kenya for another safari....

“...Even before Scott let me know he was buying it, I took my Kenya safari--and a strange thing happened. Maybe it was because I had just written ‘Kirinyaga’ a couple of weeks earlier and it was still fresh in my mind, maybe it was because my subconscious is a lot smarter than my conscious mind, but whatever the reason, I realized that ‘Kirinyaga’ was not a stand-alone story, but rather the first chapter in a book....

“I decided to write the book a chapter at a time, and to sell each chapter as a short story...but never to lose sight of the fact that these stories were really chapters in a novel, which, when completed, would build to a climax as a novel does, and have a coda after the climax, as so many of my own novels do.”

Spanning the period from 2123 to 2137, Kirinyaga is narrated by Koriba, a man of Kikuyu descent who was educated at Cambridge and Yale, who reveres what Kenya and his culture was and has come to reject what it has become:

“In the beginning, Ngai lived alone atop the mountain called Kirinyaga. In the fullness of time He created three sons, who became the fathers of the Maasai, the Kamba, and the Kikuyu races, and to each son He offered a spear, a bow, and a digging stick. The Maasai chose the spear, and was told to tend herds on the vast savannah. The Kamba chose the bow, and was sent to the dense forests to hunt for game. But Gikuyu, the first Kikuyu, knew that Ngai loved the earth and the seasons, and chose the digging stick. To reward him for this Ngai not only taught him the secrets of the seed and the harvest, but gave him Kirinyaga, with its holy fig tree and rich lands.

“The sons and daughters of Gikuyu remained on Kirinyaga until the white man came and took their lands away, and even when the white man had been banished they did not return, but chose to remain in the cities, wearing Western clothes and using Western machines and living Western lives. Even I, who am a mundumugu--a witch doctor--was born in the city. I have never seen the lion or the elephant or the rhinoceros, for all of them were extinct before my birth; nor have I seen Kirinyaga as Ngai meant it to be seen, for a bustling, overcrowded city of three million inhabitants covers its slopes, every year approaching closer and closer to Ngai’s throne at the summit. Even the Kikuyu have forgotten its true name, and now know it only as Mount Kenya.”

Along with a group of like-minded people, Koriba leaves Earth to live on a chartered, terraformed planetoid called Kirinyaga, where he reverts to the old ways of the Kikuyu. As their mundumugu, he’s the repository of the collected wisdom and customs of the tribe, living alone and apart from the rest but participating daily in their lives, the most feared and venerated among them--feared even by Koinnage, the paramount chief. Only Koriba possesses the computer that allows him to communicate with Maintenance, which can change the orbit of Kirinyaga to maintain or alter climatic conditions. Koriba uses this facility, unknown to his people, to his own advantage, bringing rain or drought as he sees fit, often to fulfill his own prophecies and prayers to Ngai.

Each chapter presents Koriba with a new problem that threatens the Utopia he and the others have created. Invoking tribal laws with a fanatical stringency, he tries to find solutions. Not all of the solutions are happy ones, but Koriba is determined to prevent any change that will corrupt tradition, even if it means bettering his people’s lot--by what he sees as European standards. Ultimately he is forced to realize that change in a society is inevitable, that inherent in the concept of Utopia is stasis and stagnation, and that one man’s idea of perfection can be another’s agony. Resnick’s artistry lies in portraying Koriba’s fanaticism so that the reader is simultaneously repelled by and sympathetic to it. He and the other characters, and the problems that befall them because of the society they’ve created, will resonate in the reader’s mind long after the book has been put down.

Easily Mike Resnick’s finest work, Kirinyaga is, to date, the most honored book in the history of science fiction. Read it, and you’ll understand why.


Originally published in Maelstrom, Vol. II, Issue 2, 1999

Barry Ergang © 1999, 2007

It really is "A Dirty Business"

The problem with reviewing is often more books come than I have time to do in a timely manner. This was the case here as this book arrived just after the start of the year and as the weeks passed got shuffled down to the bottom of the pile. That is never a good thing to happen and certainly not here as this is a very good book.

A Dirty Business: A Kevin Bailey Novel
By Joe Humphrey
DaKarna Publishing
http://www.dakarna.com
2007
ISBN #978-0-9787871-0-3
Large Trade Paperback
184 Pages

Kevin Bailey is back in New York City after a year of being away and nothing much has changed except him. The second of January finds him in need of a job. He uses a connection, calls in a favor and before long by being in the right place at the right time, (despite his total non-experience and maybe directly because of it) he is quickly working for Frank Givens. Givens owns a private investigation agency and Kevin Bailey plans on learning the business from him.

While he gradually reconnects with his past, Bailey is eased into his first case. It is supposed to be a simple one perfect for a novice investigator. Selena Eldridge is a wealthy woman and has a son named Edward. Edwards intends to marry and the lucky woman is one that his mother feels strongly is below their station in life. Mom says that the woman is, “…of a different social class, and I suspect she has designs on our fortune. Look into any dealings her family has been involved with, and unearth as many damaging secrets as you can manage. But stop at nothing until the full truth concerning this woman is in the open.” (Page 26)

Givens takes the case and assigns Bailey to it as it should be something easily handled by him. Before long, Bailey is chasing clues, getting beaten up, and getting nowhere with the case in this fast paced mystery reminiscent of classic mystery novels. Bailey himself is an interesting character with little revealed but a lot hinted at and a determination to resolve issues from the past that are never really disclosed. Bailey seems to be carrying a load of personal guilt but the reasons why or what happened are never explained. Then there are the secondary characters such as Givens who also have a lot of potential should this series go forward and at the same time manage not to take over the novel.

The result is an engrossing 184 page read that reminds one of the style and tone of the class mystery novels and yet is clearly set in current times. Along the way, Bailey hints about his past and chases clues in a case that constantly twists and turns surprising Bailey and the reader. The book is a very good read that when finished leaves the reader eagerly anticipating another installment in the series.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2007

What I'm Reading

My bookmark recently traveled through A DIRTY BUSINESS by Joe Humphrey and FIT TO DIE: A SUPPER CLUB MYSTERY by J. B Stanley (reviews coming soon) and is currently in THE CLEANER by Brett Battles. THE CLEANER is about an operative named Quinn who is on the run after a number of his fellow operatives have been killed.

Barry"s Review: "Lucky You" by Carl Hiassen

I'm pleased to present Barry's second review which is on the novel "Lucky You" by Carl Hiassen. This is exactly the kind of situation I had in mind when I asked Barry to contribute here. The truth of the matter is I don't think I have read any of the other authors he lists below. Which isn't good since my TBR pile is quite large enough. I have read two of Carl Hiassen's novels and neither really appealed to me. I have no desire to read another. Obviously, Barry would disagree.
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LUCKY YOU by Carl Hiaasen
(Reviewed By Barry Ergang)





“Suspense” is one of those words that, in fiction, we probably take too much for granted as implying apprehension and associate purely with the sinister. We expect to experience suspense when reading a mystery, horror, science fiction or adventure story, but we forget that it can enter into even the homiest of tales--e.g., Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, unlikely as it would seem one of the most suspenseful novels ever. Ultimately, any good story contains an element of suspense or we wouldn’t bother reading it to the end. “Suspense” equals “page-turner,” whether the author is Homer, Dante, Dostoevsky, Raymond Chandler or Stephen King.

Where does suspense enter into comedy? A joke is a perfect example. You listen intently, waiting for the punchline, sometimes anticipating it, sometimes only thinking you’ve anticipated it correctly. If the punchline delivers the goods, you laugh; if it doesn’t, you remain silent--or groan.

Can a mystery or crime novel be both funny and suspenseful? All you have to do to answer that is read one of Jonathan Latimer’s Bill Crane novels, or Craig Rice’s novels and stories about John J. Malone. Even John Dickson Carr (a.k.a. Carter Dickson), best-known for the eerie atmospheres that surrounded his “impossible crime” tales, occasionally injected some wacky humor into otherwise macabre proceedings. Donald E. Westlake, in God Save the Mark, The Hot Rock and many others, has shown that the criminous can be comical.

Which brings us to Carl Hiaasen, who may be as good as comedic suspense writers get, and his recent book Lucky You (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997; Warner Books, 1998). It’s a page-turning good time that’ll have you smiling and occasionally laughing out loud. The only problem Hiaasen elicits is the conflict between wanting to devour his books in one or two sittings versus wanting to savor the hilarity over a period of days.

Lucky You starts when a young black woman, JoLayne Lucks, a veterinary assistant in the small town of Grange, Florida, learns that she’s won the state lottery to the tune of $28 million. With her winnings, she hopes to purchase a tract of land called Simmons Wood before developers do, to prevent it from being transformed into a shopping mall. What she doesn’t know is that there’s another winner, a white supremacist wannabe named Bodean Gazzer, who has enlisted the dubious assistance of the glue-sniffing, aerosol-huffing misfit Onus Dean Gillespie, who goes by the monicker Chub. Bodean intends to steal JoLayne’s ticket, $14 million not being enough to fund his newly founded organization, the White Clarion Aryans.

Tom Krome, formerly an investigative reporter for a New York paper that downsized its staff, and now working as a feature writer for a small Florida paper called The Register, is assigned to interview the reticent JoLayne. When she’s robbed, beaten and humiliated by Bodean and Chub, Krome decides to help her recover her ticket.

That’s how the book starts.

Deliciously complicating matters are various bizarre subplots and characters, among them Mary Andrea Finlay Krome, Tom’s wife, whom he’s been trying to divorce for years and who keeps eluding his attempts to do so; Katie Battenkill, with whom Tom has had a two-week affair; Judge Arthur Battenkill, Katie’s philandering but vindictive husband, who dispatches an inept assistant to burn Tom’s house down; Sinclair, Tom’s managing editor, who has a religious revelation in Grange and begins “speaking in tongues” after he holds a turtle whose shell is painted with the image of one of the Apostles--painted by Demencio, an entrepreneur who preys on the devotions of the ultra-religious by creating and perpetuating roadside miracles--among them a statue of the Virgin Mary that weeps perfume-scented tears; Dominick Amador, the incompetent builder who cashes in on the religious trade by drilling holes in his hands and feet to create “stigmata”; Shiner, the convenience store clerk recruited by Bodean and Chub and assigned by Chub to kidnap the love of his life: Amber, the canny waitress at Hooters; and Bernard Squires, investment manager for the Central Midwest Brotherhood of Grouters, Spacklers and Drywallers International, sent to Grange by Richard “The Icepick” Tarbone, who is skimming the union’s pension fund, to purchase under any circumstances the same tract of land JoLayne wants to preserve.

Hiaasen, himself an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald (which makes one wonder what kinds of people he’s encountered in real-life, and whether some of them find their ways into his books), skillfully blends these characters and situations into a plausible sequence of comic and not-so-comic events in a way that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Like Swift, Twain and Thurber, all of whom he’s been compared to, Hiaasen has a satirical take on contemporary life; like Dickens, he has a knack for rendering outlandish characters so as to make them goofily believable. Even his villains, if hardly likeable, are fascinating to watch.

If you haven’t read Hiaasen, whose previous novels--Tourist Season, Double Whammy, Skin Tight, Native Tongue, Strip Tease (the book is infinitely better than the movie!), and Stormy Weather--are all eminently worth your time, Lucky You is a wonderful place to start. If you have read him but haven’t gotten to this one as yet, you’re in for a laugh-peppered treat rich with subtle social commentary that never hinders the pace.

Still doubt that comedy can be suspenseful? Lucky you: you can dispel the doubts by reading Lucky You.


(Originally published in Maelstrom, Volume II, Issue 4, 1999)




Barry Ergang © 1999, 2007

Barry would like to remind readers that most of his reviews cover books that are no longer in print and may be found in used bookstores, libraries, etc. For those readers who would like to learn more about the Golden Age of Mystery go to the GA DETECTION WIKI at http://gadetection.pbwiki.com/

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THE LONG GOODBYE by Raymond Chandler
(Reviewed By Barry Ergang)

Mark Twain defined a classic as “a book which people praise and don't read.” The point is well-made, although Twain was fortunately wrong. People still read Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Prince and the Pauper.

They still read Raymond Chandler, too. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald, is the chronological second in the Supreme Triumvirate of the “hardboiled” school of mystery writing. All three worked in what was long considered a second-rate genre and elevated it to the status of “serious literature.” Chandler garnered accolades from, among others, cantankerous critic Edmund Wilson and poet W.H. Auden. In his first five novels, Chandler worked within the traditions of the genre but added his own distinctive touches. These included character development well beyond that found in the work of most of his peers and a writing style that was among the most influential of the Twentieth Century. Critics have called Chandler's style “the poetry of violence,” and Chandler “the hardboiled Shakespeare.”

Wisecracks and wry social commentary came from Philip Marlowe, the cynical but never quite despairing shamus with the unstated but steadfast code of honor and incorruptible character in a morally ambiguous world where chivalrous behavior no longer matters, whose brisk, simile-laden first-person narratives set the tone for generations of Chandler's/Marlowe's followers. (The best include Earl Emerson's Thomas Black and Stephen Greenleaf's John Marshall Tanner. The worst is the pretentious Robert B. Parker's Spenser, the Philip Marlowe wannabe with the New England pallor.) Marlowe was not the first private eye in literature, but he became the quintessential one. In his sixth book, The Long Goodbye, Chandler pushed beyond the boundaries of genre conventions. More than either his predecessor Hammett or his successor Macdonald, Chandler succeeded in blending elements of the hardboiled detective story with elements of the mainstream novel. The reader who approaches The Long Goodbye expecting lots of slugfests and gunplay will be disappointed.

There is action, certainly, but not in the quantities found in earlier Chandlers--The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window; The Lady in the Lake; The Little Sister--or in Mickey Spillane and Ian Fleming. The Long Goodbye should be approached as a novel that happens to deal with Philip Marlowe, who happens to be a private detective, and who happens to get involved in a murder case. Thematically it is much more. It is the story of a man who tries to do the right thing from deeply felt loyalty and conviction, who is punished and betrayed for his efforts. The story begins when Marlowe lends well-intentioned assistance to a drunken Terry Lennox, abandoned by his much-married wealthy ex-wife Sylvia in the parking lot of a Hollywood nightclub. Over a period of months, their acquaintance develops into friendship. Lennox and Sylvia eventually remarry, but their relationship is neither happy nor healthy.

When, very early one morning, Lennox shows up at Marlowe's home, demanding the detective drive him to a Tijuana airport, Marlowe agrees to play chauffeur. He knows intuitively that Sylvia is dead, but his instincts tell him Lennox is not her killer. Returning to L.A., Marlowe is arrested on suspicion of murder, assaulted by the police, and jailed for several days. When word comes from Mexico that Lennox committed suicide and left a confession, Marlowe is released, disbelieving the confession based on his knowledge of Lennox. As he remarks, “A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back.” The next day, Marlowe gets a visit--and a warning--from a powerful local hood named Menendez, who tells him to forget the Lennox case. Menendez, Lennox, and Las Vegas-based hood Randy Starr were in the Commandos together during WWII and Lennox saved their lives. Menendez resents that Lennox, when in trouble, sought Marlowe's help rather than his and Starr's. It also becomes increasingly clear that details of the case have been quashed by Lennox's influential multimillionaire father-in-law, who values his and his family`s privacy above all else.

Soon afterward, Marlowe is consulted by a New York publisher who wants him to babysit a bestselling historical novelist named Roger Wade. Wade, an alcoholic, has been unable to finish his latest novel, and the publisher wants Marlowe to keep him off the booze and at the typewriter. Marlowe refuses the job as an impossibility, but when Wade suddenly disappears, he's hired by the writer's beautiful wife Eileen. When Marlowe finds him and brings him home, he becomes almost inextricably involved with the Wades' tormented lives. The seemingly disparate plotlines eventually converge, other deaths occur, and Marlowe solves two murders--with some undesirable surprises. All of this sounds like standard mystery-novel fare. What sets it apart from the run-of-the-mill are Marlowe's and other's comments about society, crime and criminals, wealth, and power; the interplay among the well-defined characters; strongly visualized scenes; and the motifs: pride; honor; the abuse of official or private power; and the traps we set for ourselves.

Why review a well-known novel originally published in 1954? I recently reread it for the sixth time, rediscovering again Chandler's virile prose-poetry, irresistible storytelling abilities, and timeless observations. I thought it appropriate to recommend The Long Goodbye to readers who have not yet come to it, and to remind those who have that it is eminently worth reading again. To those who have only ever seen Robert Altman's feebly inaccurate film adaptation: read the book! With all due respect to Mark Twain, not all classics are ignored.

(A shorter version of this review originally appeared in
Maelstrom, Volume IV, Issue 3, 2003)

Barry Ergang © 2003, 2007