Mystery/Thriller Book Reviews
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Viking, July, 2005Hardcover, 383 pages
ISBN: 0670034321
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Tuesday Next, Jasper Fforde's intrepid heroine, is nowhere to be
found, but there is still much to enjoy in this first of his new
Nursery Crime series. Mary Mary has transferred to the Reading police
department, where she assigned to work with Detective Inspector
Jack Spratt to investigate the death of Humpty Stuyvesant van Dumpty who is
found in many pieces near a wall in a bad
part of town. Inspector Spratt, who is still furious over the jury's
failure to convict the three little pigs for the vigilante killing of
Mr. Wolff, nevertheless must forge ahead in this newest case. At least
it's a change from investigating the latest "spinning straw into gold"
scam. Spratt and Mary forge ahead, encoutering a bizarre array of
clues, suspects and red herrings. Still, it might just be the kind of case that
makes it into Amazing Crime Stories, which would be a feather in all their caps.
Jasper Fforde has clearly decided that most nursery rhymes are riddled with criminal types: the characters behind the Emperor's New Clothes scam, the murderous pigs, the (now deceased) baronet Dumpty, who made his fortune laundering money for the Porgia crime family. Still, he didn't deserve to murderered, being "a good egg, at heart" as the Jellyman noted. If you enjoy a wild alternative world, witty writing, lots of literary allusions and can accept the whimsical conceit of the novel, The Big Over Easy is just the ticket.
The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez
MacAdams/Cage, October, 2005Hardcover, 200 pages
ISBN: 1596921501
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
A 22 year-old Argentinian math scholar heads for Oxford, England,
continues his studies. But before he even has had time to acclimate
to the colder British weather, he finds his elderly landlady dead. The dead woman
was a whiz at codes, who helped work on the Enigma Code during World War II.
With him when he found her is his hero, the renowned logician
Dr. Arthur Seldom, whose books have reached a wide popular audience.
Seldom reveals that he was visiting the dead woman because of a cryptic
note someone left in his mailbox which presaged the murder.
The police begin to investigate, but it seems clear that a serial killer
is on the loose. The killer taunts Seldom with
mathematical clues, which he and his young protégé attempt to decipher.
But all is not as it might seem in this enclave of academia and intrigue.
Guillermo Martinez, himself a mathmetician, does a delightful
job with this well-written, cerebral thriller set against the backrop
of Oxford University. The structure of the mystery plot is sound and the prose
is clean and crisp, making for a most entertaining read.
--Claire E. White
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
Henry Holt, AugustHardcover, 340 pages
ISBN: 0805078975
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
It's 1930 and the Great Depression is just getting started in London. Maisie
Dobbs a psychologist and investigator is making a go of her own
business in an age when single women didn't qualify for mortgages.
Maisie was a nurse during World War I (or The Great War as they called
it in those days) and she -- like the rest of her generation -- is deeply
scarred from the war experience. Maisie takes on three cases this time:
helping a 13 year-old country girl who is accused of murder; proving
that Sir Cecil Lawton's only son is really dead (he was shot down
in France during the war); and finding out the circumstances of the death
of another soldier, this time the beloved brother of her best friend
Priscilla Evernden Partridge. To look into the deaths of the soldiers
requires Maisie to return to France, where she saw so much devastation.
The more Maisie looks into the death of Lawton's son, the more dangerous
things become for her. Someone is following her and there have been
several attempts on her life. And her mentor, Maurice Blanche, is acting oddly,
inviting himself to come to France with her. Maisie digs deep into the lives
of the two soldiers, turning up a poignant story of spies, intrigue, love and loss.
This is Maisie Dobbs' third adventure, after Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather. Maisie herself is an unusual woman: she's slightly preconitive, for one thing, although those aspects of the book aren't really advertised -- perhaps to avoid scaring off mystery readers who object to paranormal elements in mysteries. Ms. Winspear delicately disects the pretensions and prejudices of British society of the time, while providing characters with depth and dimension.
Return to the September 2005 issue of The IWJ.
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