Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "murder-mysteries"
Book Review: Columbo Under Glass by Sheldon Catz
Columbo Under Glass
Sheldon Catz
Publisher: BearManor Media (October 26, 2016)
ASIN: B01MG5VKHVPublisher: BearManor Media (October 26, 2016)
https://www.amazon.com/Columbo-Under-...
Sheldon Catz’s exhaustive analysis of the Columbo TV series and made-for-TV movies is strictly for Columbo aficionados. The show’s 69 mysteries are indeed placed under a hot glass, a magnifying glass in fact, that requires a reader to be interested in a show that aired, off and on, from 1968 to 2003 and be knowledgeable about the cast and crew, plots, supporting players and not be bothered to be told, again and again, details like Henry Mancini wrote the theme music for ABC’s rotating Mysteries.
One puzzling aspect of this new study is that Catz is far from an adoring fan, at least in terms of his conclusions about so many aspects of the show. The first 100 pages are his hit-and-run reviews of each episode and TV movie, and most are rated as fair or poor with few branded “excellent.” He points to weaknesses in storylines, especially what clues are credible or convincingly discovered by the frumpy detective, what Catz sees as poor acting, or the “bloating” he discusses that we saw, most notably in the two-hour stories. Obviously, he watched all the mysteries multiple times with a critical eye, so obviously Catz caught details few casual watchers would have noticed or cared about. For example, he spends several pages noting the 31 fleeting appearances by utility player Michael Lally who is only seen or heard briefly, usually so quickly it took Catz watching and freeze-framing video tapes of the show to spot Lally in the background as a bartender, cop, photographer, whatever.
Still, to point out so many foibles makes one wonder—why did Catz spend so much time investigating a series he seems to find more flawed than quality entertainment? Throughout his episode guide, Catz keeps cross-referencing his discussions with the short mini-essays in the second part of the book where he looks at nearly every aspect of the stories including what sorts of endings worked, or didn’t, the morality of Lt. Columbo, how the character developed over the decades, and the continuity, or lack of it throughout the decades. He even devotes an essay to suggesting why a number of episode titles weren’t the best and offers his suggestions for improvement. In fact, he puts forward a number of suggestions on how the stories and characters could have been better as well, especially when Columbo the character could have been truer to himself.
Clearly, Catz knows his subject intimately. In 1991, he began a ten year tenure as editor of The Columbo Newsletter. He has the full endorsement of Mark Dawidziak, author of The Columbo File (1989) who wrote the foreword for Catz’s study. Columbo Under Glass is 99% told from a viewer’s point-of-view, that is, it discusses what we see on the screen but there’s precious little about how it got there. Not until page 319 do we get much about the origins of the character on stage, and that too is a short discussion. There is next to no discussion of production histories, there are no interviews with insiders or participants. In short, this is from first to last Sheldon Catz’s take on Columbo and the reader is free to compare his own feelings with those of a man who has spent a lot of time dissecting every minute of Columbo ever aired.
If you’re extremely familiar with Peter Falk’s raincoated character or at least want to be, this book is for you. If you’re a less devoted fan, this is a book to skim but not immerse yourself in cover-to-cover reading. If you’re not already a fan of the cigar-smoking investigator who is always asking, “just one more thing,” Columbo Under Glass likely isn’t for you. Most of your questions are readily available online on the websites Catz lists in his final pages.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Nov. 14, 2016 at:
goo.gl/T9f35r
Sheldon Catz
Publisher: BearManor Media (October 26, 2016)
ASIN: B01MG5VKHVPublisher: BearManor Media (October 26, 2016)
https://www.amazon.com/Columbo-Under-...
Sheldon Catz’s exhaustive analysis of the Columbo TV series and made-for-TV movies is strictly for Columbo aficionados. The show’s 69 mysteries are indeed placed under a hot glass, a magnifying glass in fact, that requires a reader to be interested in a show that aired, off and on, from 1968 to 2003 and be knowledgeable about the cast and crew, plots, supporting players and not be bothered to be told, again and again, details like Henry Mancini wrote the theme music for ABC’s rotating Mysteries.
One puzzling aspect of this new study is that Catz is far from an adoring fan, at least in terms of his conclusions about so many aspects of the show. The first 100 pages are his hit-and-run reviews of each episode and TV movie, and most are rated as fair or poor with few branded “excellent.” He points to weaknesses in storylines, especially what clues are credible or convincingly discovered by the frumpy detective, what Catz sees as poor acting, or the “bloating” he discusses that we saw, most notably in the two-hour stories. Obviously, he watched all the mysteries multiple times with a critical eye, so obviously Catz caught details few casual watchers would have noticed or cared about. For example, he spends several pages noting the 31 fleeting appearances by utility player Michael Lally who is only seen or heard briefly, usually so quickly it took Catz watching and freeze-framing video tapes of the show to spot Lally in the background as a bartender, cop, photographer, whatever.
Still, to point out so many foibles makes one wonder—why did Catz spend so much time investigating a series he seems to find more flawed than quality entertainment? Throughout his episode guide, Catz keeps cross-referencing his discussions with the short mini-essays in the second part of the book where he looks at nearly every aspect of the stories including what sorts of endings worked, or didn’t, the morality of Lt. Columbo, how the character developed over the decades, and the continuity, or lack of it throughout the decades. He even devotes an essay to suggesting why a number of episode titles weren’t the best and offers his suggestions for improvement. In fact, he puts forward a number of suggestions on how the stories and characters could have been better as well, especially when Columbo the character could have been truer to himself.
Clearly, Catz knows his subject intimately. In 1991, he began a ten year tenure as editor of The Columbo Newsletter. He has the full endorsement of Mark Dawidziak, author of The Columbo File (1989) who wrote the foreword for Catz’s study. Columbo Under Glass is 99% told from a viewer’s point-of-view, that is, it discusses what we see on the screen but there’s precious little about how it got there. Not until page 319 do we get much about the origins of the character on stage, and that too is a short discussion. There is next to no discussion of production histories, there are no interviews with insiders or participants. In short, this is from first to last Sheldon Catz’s take on Columbo and the reader is free to compare his own feelings with those of a man who has spent a lot of time dissecting every minute of Columbo ever aired.
If you’re extremely familiar with Peter Falk’s raincoated character or at least want to be, this book is for you. If you’re a less devoted fan, this is a book to skim but not immerse yourself in cover-to-cover reading. If you’re not already a fan of the cigar-smoking investigator who is always asking, “just one more thing,” Columbo Under Glass likely isn’t for you. Most of your questions are readily available online on the websites Catz lists in his final pages.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Nov. 14, 2016 at:
goo.gl/T9f35r
Book Review: The Badwater Gospel by R.W. Magill
The Badwater Gospel Kindle Edition
R.W. Magill
Publication Date: April 10, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01DLPD32C
https://www.amazon.com/Badwater-Gospe...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
The Badwater Gospel opens with a bit of literal gallows humor. In his jailhouse journal, convicted murderer Langdon Dorsey looks out his cell window and only thanks one group in his acknowledgements—the termites that destroyed the gallows he was supposed to swing from.
Touches of such humor are rare in this quirky Western where card shark and con man Lang Dorsey arrives in the Montana town of Badwater while impersonating a Baptist Minister. He’s accompanied by 18 year old Paris Miller who’s pretending to be his daughter, a beauty Dorsey falls in love with as the two fornicate all over Montana in the winter of 1887.
Mainly told in a series of first-person journal entries, Magill adds considerable verisimilitude to the book with occasional court transcripts from The Territory of Wyoming vs. Dorsey, letters written by the secretary at the Badwater Baptist Church, and a newspaper article from the Laramie Daily Sentinel. Throughout, we hear Dorsey’s side of things as he explains how a number of killings occur around him while he argues his innocence of these crimes beyond his confidence man chicanery. In court, the evidence compounds against him as he’s ultimately convicted of multiple murders.
As the story takes us through many surprising twists and turns, I often thought Dorset is something of a raunchier, rougher, and randier incarnation of Bret Maverick. Had the ‘50s TV show not had to deal with the mores and broadcast codes of the era, perhaps James Garner’s gambling man character might have been more of a kindred spirit with Dorsey who’s never presented as a willingly violent man. He’s a criminal who simply wants to get ahead by hook or crook. The story’s true villains are far darker than either Dorsey or Paris, a seductive girl with increasingly suspect motives. Or perhaps author Magill has cards up his sleeve that he doesn’t want to show until he absolutely has to?
Publicity for Badwater Gospel uses terms like “genre bending, anti-Western, noir, murder mystery.” I suppose several killings can be called mysteries, although Dorsey and most readers will have no difficulty figuring out who’s responsible for the violent deaths. I don’t really know what an “anti-Western” would be, considering all the uses of Western settings in too many dark films to count, TV shows like Deadwood, or novels like this one. I don’t see how The Badwater Gospel bends any genres. And I don’t think any such distinctions really matter. Publicists like to use tag-lines and coin phrases that will draw prospective readers to their offered titles, but sometimes the book can stand on its own with no need of special puffery.
In that light, I’d recommend Badwater Gospel to any adult reader whether they’re fans of Westerns, anti-Westerns, or hard-boiled noir yarns. Gratefully, R.W. Magill has given us well-drawn and very sympathetic protagonists presented in vivid and very believable settings. I’m equally grateful Magill found a very plausible way to tie-off the story with an unexpected but very satisfying conclusion. To say more would be a spoiler. Just know however bloody and vicious the book gets, there’s justice, of a sort, after all.
First posted at BookPleasures.com May 31, 2017 at:
goo.gl/jB9ySa
R.W. Magill
Publication Date: April 10, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01DLPD32C
https://www.amazon.com/Badwater-Gospe...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
The Badwater Gospel opens with a bit of literal gallows humor. In his jailhouse journal, convicted murderer Langdon Dorsey looks out his cell window and only thanks one group in his acknowledgements—the termites that destroyed the gallows he was supposed to swing from.
Touches of such humor are rare in this quirky Western where card shark and con man Lang Dorsey arrives in the Montana town of Badwater while impersonating a Baptist Minister. He’s accompanied by 18 year old Paris Miller who’s pretending to be his daughter, a beauty Dorsey falls in love with as the two fornicate all over Montana in the winter of 1887.
Mainly told in a series of first-person journal entries, Magill adds considerable verisimilitude to the book with occasional court transcripts from The Territory of Wyoming vs. Dorsey, letters written by the secretary at the Badwater Baptist Church, and a newspaper article from the Laramie Daily Sentinel. Throughout, we hear Dorsey’s side of things as he explains how a number of killings occur around him while he argues his innocence of these crimes beyond his confidence man chicanery. In court, the evidence compounds against him as he’s ultimately convicted of multiple murders.
As the story takes us through many surprising twists and turns, I often thought Dorset is something of a raunchier, rougher, and randier incarnation of Bret Maverick. Had the ‘50s TV show not had to deal with the mores and broadcast codes of the era, perhaps James Garner’s gambling man character might have been more of a kindred spirit with Dorsey who’s never presented as a willingly violent man. He’s a criminal who simply wants to get ahead by hook or crook. The story’s true villains are far darker than either Dorsey or Paris, a seductive girl with increasingly suspect motives. Or perhaps author Magill has cards up his sleeve that he doesn’t want to show until he absolutely has to?
Publicity for Badwater Gospel uses terms like “genre bending, anti-Western, noir, murder mystery.” I suppose several killings can be called mysteries, although Dorsey and most readers will have no difficulty figuring out who’s responsible for the violent deaths. I don’t really know what an “anti-Western” would be, considering all the uses of Western settings in too many dark films to count, TV shows like Deadwood, or novels like this one. I don’t see how The Badwater Gospel bends any genres. And I don’t think any such distinctions really matter. Publicists like to use tag-lines and coin phrases that will draw prospective readers to their offered titles, but sometimes the book can stand on its own with no need of special puffery.
In that light, I’d recommend Badwater Gospel to any adult reader whether they’re fans of Westerns, anti-Westerns, or hard-boiled noir yarns. Gratefully, R.W. Magill has given us well-drawn and very sympathetic protagonists presented in vivid and very believable settings. I’m equally grateful Magill found a very plausible way to tie-off the story with an unexpected but very satisfying conclusion. To say more would be a spoiler. Just know however bloody and vicious the book gets, there’s justice, of a sort, after all.
First posted at BookPleasures.com May 31, 2017 at:
goo.gl/jB9ySa
Book Review: The Custer Conspiracy by Dennis Koller
The Custer Conspiracy (Tom McGuire Thrillers)
Dennis Koller
Paperback:350 pages
Publisher:Pen Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2016)
ISBN-10:0998080802
ISBN-13:978-0998080802
https://www.amazon.com/Custer-Conspir...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton for BookPleasures.com
The Custer Conspiracy is my first experience with a Tom “Mac” McGuire mystery. Then again, it’s only the second book in the series. Looks like I’ve discovered a new world to explore and enjoy.
To be fair, San Francisco homicide detective McGuire isn’t especially remarkable on his own merits. He is principled, experienced, professional, and focused. Mostly. He’s also very human, capable of having his head turned by at least one pretty face. I’d find it hard to resist CIA agent Katellyn Murray myself. Sometimes, his judgement calls aren’t the best. Still, I’d hire the man if I needed someone with his skillset.
What distinguishes The Custer Conspiracy is a very unique setup and very surprising storyline. Is it possible a conspiracy was created back in 1876 to allow Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer to fake his death at the Little Big Horn? Why would this have happened? Why was the cover-up necessary? Could Custer really have lived in France until the outbreak of World War I?
More important than this historical mystery to McGuire and an increasingly larger and larger circle of government agents and law enforcement officers , why would keeping this 140 year old secret so important that an unknown group is killing anyone who comes close to learning the truth? All these years later, who could be harmed if this conspiracy would be revealed? And how does all this connect to post-9/11 national security?
I admit liking the supporting cast of characters very much, in particular Vinnie Delgado who essentially serves as McGuire’s number two. All the players are fleshed out and sketched with believable backgrounds and personalities. But I suspect what will draw most readers to The Custer Conspiracy is the premise, and then by the continual twists and turns that really kick in during the book’s second half. The book has the best epilogue I’ve ever read, but I’m not providing any spoilers here. I must say there ar a number of very predictable elements to the book, including the opening chapter of an assassination at the present-day Little Big Horn followed by so many elements cascading into the mix thereafter. Like many another political thriller, a murder investigation attracts the interests of powerful government figures who lend assistance to McGuire and his team while dealing with a mole in the State Department.
Looks like I got to Go back and read book one of the series, The Oath, which came out in May 2016. It might explain some of the events alluded to throughout Tom McGuire’s second mystery. Then, we can all look forward to book number three.
First published at BookPleasures.com on July 2, 2017:
goo.gl/tF17eq
Dennis Koller
Paperback:350 pages
Publisher:Pen Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2016)
ISBN-10:0998080802
ISBN-13:978-0998080802
https://www.amazon.com/Custer-Conspir...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton for BookPleasures.com
The Custer Conspiracy is my first experience with a Tom “Mac” McGuire mystery. Then again, it’s only the second book in the series. Looks like I’ve discovered a new world to explore and enjoy.
To be fair, San Francisco homicide detective McGuire isn’t especially remarkable on his own merits. He is principled, experienced, professional, and focused. Mostly. He’s also very human, capable of having his head turned by at least one pretty face. I’d find it hard to resist CIA agent Katellyn Murray myself. Sometimes, his judgement calls aren’t the best. Still, I’d hire the man if I needed someone with his skillset.
What distinguishes The Custer Conspiracy is a very unique setup and very surprising storyline. Is it possible a conspiracy was created back in 1876 to allow Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer to fake his death at the Little Big Horn? Why would this have happened? Why was the cover-up necessary? Could Custer really have lived in France until the outbreak of World War I?
More important than this historical mystery to McGuire and an increasingly larger and larger circle of government agents and law enforcement officers , why would keeping this 140 year old secret so important that an unknown group is killing anyone who comes close to learning the truth? All these years later, who could be harmed if this conspiracy would be revealed? And how does all this connect to post-9/11 national security?
I admit liking the supporting cast of characters very much, in particular Vinnie Delgado who essentially serves as McGuire’s number two. All the players are fleshed out and sketched with believable backgrounds and personalities. But I suspect what will draw most readers to The Custer Conspiracy is the premise, and then by the continual twists and turns that really kick in during the book’s second half. The book has the best epilogue I’ve ever read, but I’m not providing any spoilers here. I must say there ar a number of very predictable elements to the book, including the opening chapter of an assassination at the present-day Little Big Horn followed by so many elements cascading into the mix thereafter. Like many another political thriller, a murder investigation attracts the interests of powerful government figures who lend assistance to McGuire and his team while dealing with a mole in the State Department.
Looks like I got to Go back and read book one of the series, The Oath, which came out in May 2016. It might explain some of the events alluded to throughout Tom McGuire’s second mystery. Then, we can all look forward to book number three.
First published at BookPleasures.com on July 2, 2017:
goo.gl/tF17eq
Book Review: The Oath by Dennis Koller
The Oath
Dennis Koller
Publisher: Pen Books (February 26, 2014)
ISBN: 0692656731
ASIN:B00IOGHZDC
https://www.amazon.com/Oath-Dennis-Ko...
It wasn’t so long ago that I reviewed Dennis Koller’s second Tom McGuire mystery, The Custer Conspiracy. In my review, I said I’d like to spend more time with the San Francisco homicide inspector. Dennis took note. He sent me a copy of ”Mac” McGuire’s first adventure, The Oath.
In many ways, The Oath is a far less complex, less layered thriller than The Custer Conspiracy. Which isn’t to say the first McGuire story is in any way less satisfying. Rather, it’s more focused following two parallel plot lines with far fewer characters.
One plot has Giants fan McGuire investigating the murder of Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist Ruth Wasserman. The writer had visited Vietnam during the 1960s where, as a member of the small radical group Women Against Imperialistic War, Wasserman and three of her friends interviewed American POWs where the women railed against the prisoners being participants of what her group felt was an immoral military action.
While it takes some time for us to learn his identity, we discover her killer was one of those POWS in the infamous Hanoi Hilton where captured Americans were brutally tortured. We learn he is dying of cancer and is out to kill all the living members of the Women Against Imperialistic War and their financial backer who happens to be the Governor of California. Another ex-POW who was imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton is police officer Tom McGuire who begins putting the puzzle together while spending considerable time with one alluring witness, Michele Sullivan.
So two very different views are juxtaposed throughout the story—the rage of one ex-POW who wants revenge for the wrongs he felt he suffered due to the intellectual stances of the war protestors and the perspectives of the women he captures who see the Vietnam era as long ago and far away. As it happens, the killer knows McGuire and sends him the evidence of his crimes feeling a fellow ex-POW would understand and sympathize with his motives.
Woven into these storylines are the reactions of the governor who wants more than his radical past suppressed and the unhappiness of McGuire’s boss because the detective didn’t follow established protocols. And the very sexual romance of McGuire and Sullivan fills as many pages as the first person narrative of McGuire revealing much about his character alternating with the third person account of the killer’s actions and his justifications of his interpretation of the oath he swore to when he joined the military.
While the book is now three years old, it will be fresh and new to all readers who haven’t yet met the very personable Tom McGuire. If you like mysteries, this yarn easily fits the bill. If you like hot romances, Tom and Michelle will give you very warm summer nights. Then, if you haven’t experienced The Custer Conspiracy, you may feel a desire to dive into that very novel thriller. Then, we can all await Tom McGuire book number three.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 12, 2017 at:
goo.gl/2hq5dN
Dennis Koller
Publisher: Pen Books (February 26, 2014)
ISBN: 0692656731
ASIN:B00IOGHZDC
https://www.amazon.com/Oath-Dennis-Ko...
It wasn’t so long ago that I reviewed Dennis Koller’s second Tom McGuire mystery, The Custer Conspiracy. In my review, I said I’d like to spend more time with the San Francisco homicide inspector. Dennis took note. He sent me a copy of ”Mac” McGuire’s first adventure, The Oath.
In many ways, The Oath is a far less complex, less layered thriller than The Custer Conspiracy. Which isn’t to say the first McGuire story is in any way less satisfying. Rather, it’s more focused following two parallel plot lines with far fewer characters.
One plot has Giants fan McGuire investigating the murder of Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist Ruth Wasserman. The writer had visited Vietnam during the 1960s where, as a member of the small radical group Women Against Imperialistic War, Wasserman and three of her friends interviewed American POWs where the women railed against the prisoners being participants of what her group felt was an immoral military action.
While it takes some time for us to learn his identity, we discover her killer was one of those POWS in the infamous Hanoi Hilton where captured Americans were brutally tortured. We learn he is dying of cancer and is out to kill all the living members of the Women Against Imperialistic War and their financial backer who happens to be the Governor of California. Another ex-POW who was imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton is police officer Tom McGuire who begins putting the puzzle together while spending considerable time with one alluring witness, Michele Sullivan.
So two very different views are juxtaposed throughout the story—the rage of one ex-POW who wants revenge for the wrongs he felt he suffered due to the intellectual stances of the war protestors and the perspectives of the women he captures who see the Vietnam era as long ago and far away. As it happens, the killer knows McGuire and sends him the evidence of his crimes feeling a fellow ex-POW would understand and sympathize with his motives.
Woven into these storylines are the reactions of the governor who wants more than his radical past suppressed and the unhappiness of McGuire’s boss because the detective didn’t follow established protocols. And the very sexual romance of McGuire and Sullivan fills as many pages as the first person narrative of McGuire revealing much about his character alternating with the third person account of the killer’s actions and his justifications of his interpretation of the oath he swore to when he joined the military.
While the book is now three years old, it will be fresh and new to all readers who haven’t yet met the very personable Tom McGuire. If you like mysteries, this yarn easily fits the bill. If you like hot romances, Tom and Michelle will give you very warm summer nights. Then, if you haven’t experienced The Custer Conspiracy, you may feel a desire to dive into that very novel thriller. Then, we can all await Tom McGuire book number three.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 12, 2017 at:
goo.gl/2hq5dN
Book Review: Merlin at War by Mark Ellis
Merlin at War (A DCI Frank Merlin Novel)
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (October 12, 2017)
ISBN-10:0995566712
ISBN-13:978-0995566712
https://www.amazon.com/Merlin-War-DCI...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley britton
Merlin at War is the third novel to feature Anglo-Spanish DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard. As with the previous two books (Princes Gate, Stalin’s Gold), Mark Ellis’s new whodoneit is set in England during World War II. To date, the series has been successful overseas, especially in England and Australia; Merlin at War is Ellis’s first attempt to crack into the American market.
But mystery fans, don’t expect Merlin at War to be a detective procedural with Merlin following a series of clues to uncover a murderer. The novel is more layered and complex than any one plotline. In fact, there are long sections where Merlin isn’t onstage at all and a number of events seem unrelated to the death of a botched abortion victim Merlin is investigating. World War II is more than an atmospheric backdrop. In fact, the book opens with a deadly mission by British soldiers in Crete during 1941. One survivor of a six man unit gunned down by Nazi planes is asked by his superior officer to deliver a letter for him, but the officer dies before he can do more than scrawl a single “S” on the envelope. That’s the book’s first mystery—who is the letter’s intended recipient and what is in it? Does it have anything to do with the dead man’s very remunerative business holdings? Does it reverse previous wills giving his son command of the business?
During the many pages of this unfolding storyline, and the three cases Merlin undertakes, we also meet many French characters on both sides of the battle lines, including spies and traitors. They represent those supporting a Free France and those willing to appease the Vichy government. These figures include the historical Charles de Gaulle and a French emigre shot in a seedy Notting Hill flat. Along the way, the deep cast of main characters are shown in Ireland, Buenos Aires, New York, occupied France, and especially London while the city was being bombed during the blitz.
Ellis is extremely good at providing the details and descriptions that give credible verisimilitude to his various overlapping stories. This is most evident in all the conversations that include reactions to the progress, or lack thereof, of the war, the political dynamics between the likes of de Gaulle and Churchill, the domestic relationships of a number of the protagonists, and the interviews Merlin’s team conducts as they investigate a number of seemingly unrelated murders in London. We are also taken to many night spots, hotels, offices, and restaurants, again mostly in London.
Without question, Merlin at War should please fans of espionage thrillers, mysteries, period dramas, and especially buffs of historical fiction set during the Second World War. Through it all, I often thought this novel would make for an excellent PBS mini-series. True, we already got the WW II set Foyle’s War which was primarily set on England’s south coast. Merlin at War has a wider canvas and is centered in the more cosmopolitan London.
Dear publisher: when you work on releasing Princes Gate and Stalin’s Gold in the U.S., please keep me in mind. I’d love to read and review the first adventures of Frank Merlin and his compatriots. Oh, and book four as well, whenever it comes out.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (October 12, 2017)
ISBN-10:0995566712
ISBN-13:978-0995566712
https://www.amazon.com/Merlin-War-DCI...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley britton
Merlin at War is the third novel to feature Anglo-Spanish DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard. As with the previous two books (Princes Gate, Stalin’s Gold), Mark Ellis’s new whodoneit is set in England during World War II. To date, the series has been successful overseas, especially in England and Australia; Merlin at War is Ellis’s first attempt to crack into the American market.
But mystery fans, don’t expect Merlin at War to be a detective procedural with Merlin following a series of clues to uncover a murderer. The novel is more layered and complex than any one plotline. In fact, there are long sections where Merlin isn’t onstage at all and a number of events seem unrelated to the death of a botched abortion victim Merlin is investigating. World War II is more than an atmospheric backdrop. In fact, the book opens with a deadly mission by British soldiers in Crete during 1941. One survivor of a six man unit gunned down by Nazi planes is asked by his superior officer to deliver a letter for him, but the officer dies before he can do more than scrawl a single “S” on the envelope. That’s the book’s first mystery—who is the letter’s intended recipient and what is in it? Does it have anything to do with the dead man’s very remunerative business holdings? Does it reverse previous wills giving his son command of the business?
During the many pages of this unfolding storyline, and the three cases Merlin undertakes, we also meet many French characters on both sides of the battle lines, including spies and traitors. They represent those supporting a Free France and those willing to appease the Vichy government. These figures include the historical Charles de Gaulle and a French emigre shot in a seedy Notting Hill flat. Along the way, the deep cast of main characters are shown in Ireland, Buenos Aires, New York, occupied France, and especially London while the city was being bombed during the blitz.
Ellis is extremely good at providing the details and descriptions that give credible verisimilitude to his various overlapping stories. This is most evident in all the conversations that include reactions to the progress, or lack thereof, of the war, the political dynamics between the likes of de Gaulle and Churchill, the domestic relationships of a number of the protagonists, and the interviews Merlin’s team conducts as they investigate a number of seemingly unrelated murders in London. We are also taken to many night spots, hotels, offices, and restaurants, again mostly in London.
Without question, Merlin at War should please fans of espionage thrillers, mysteries, period dramas, and especially buffs of historical fiction set during the Second World War. Through it all, I often thought this novel would make for an excellent PBS mini-series. True, we already got the WW II set Foyle’s War which was primarily set on England’s south coast. Merlin at War has a wider canvas and is centered in the more cosmopolitan London.
Dear publisher: when you work on releasing Princes Gate and Stalin’s Gold in the U.S., please keep me in mind. I’d love to read and review the first adventures of Frank Merlin and his compatriots. Oh, and book four as well, whenever it comes out.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02
Book Review: Mistletoe and Murder: The Fourth Pete Culnane Mystery
Mistletoe and Murder: The Fourth Pete Culnane Mystery
S.L. Smith
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Sightline Press; First edition (July 26, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0996464050
ISBN-13: 978-0996464055
ASIN: B074BHD1TK
https://www.amazon.com/Mistletoe-Murd...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
While this series is billed as “The Pete Culnane Mysteries,” actually the buddy cop duo of St. Paul police detectives Pete Culnane and Martin Tierney deserve equal billing. Throughout the series, their bantering adds a touch of humor while each book touches on one social issue or another. In book one, Blinded by the Sight, it’s homelessness; book two, Running Scared, deals with the impact of a failing marriage on the children; book three, Murder on a Stick, looks at assisted living and other plights faced by the elderly.
Book four continues this theme by looking at perhaps the most important social issue of our times, drug addiction. Smith also returns to his interest in the homeless and family relationships shared by the two policemen. In the new story, Collette Hammond orchestrates a New Year’s Eve wedding reception for her brother before collapsing just before midnight. Does a fresh needle mark suggest this recovering addict, allegedly clean for a year, have an unexpected relapse? Or did something more sinister occur that might make this death a possible homicide?
It takes a long part of the book before we know for certain a crime has indeed occurred. As the story progressed, I often thought of TV dramas created by producer/actor Jack Webb where the main characters were straight-laced, upright, moral paragons. Webb’s shows like Dragnet and Adam-12 also emphasized the procedural day-to-day work of police officers stressing the workaday roles of typical cops with usually everyday investigations.
We see exactly such circumstances in the low-key first half of Mistletoe and Murder as Culnane and Tierney seek out and interview potential witnesses to Hammond’s collapse, looking for a motive for someone wanting to do her harm. It’s all “gum shoe” work, as they used to say, until unexpectedly they run across a pair who try to kill a witness and then start a shoot-out with the cops. Everything changes, naturally, after that.
I admit, I never really understood the book’s title. The action begins on a New Year’s Eve and progresses through an extremely cold Minnesota winter. Christmas mentions are passing and only referred to in the past tense. Should you Google for the title, you’ll discover it’s been used several times before, for whatever that note is worth.
Mistletoe and Murder is a book for readers who want their cops likeable, professional, methodical, and very human. It’s for readers who like their stories extremely believable, based on obvious research to validate the smallest of details, and books that include behind the scenes passages that develop the protagonist’s personal lives. It’s for readers who like their leads the sort of characters we could easily encounter anytime, anywhere. That includes the bad guys whose motives are not farfetched nor outlandish.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 9, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/Bq0iQK
S.L. Smith
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Sightline Press; First edition (July 26, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0996464050
ISBN-13: 978-0996464055
ASIN: B074BHD1TK
https://www.amazon.com/Mistletoe-Murd...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
While this series is billed as “The Pete Culnane Mysteries,” actually the buddy cop duo of St. Paul police detectives Pete Culnane and Martin Tierney deserve equal billing. Throughout the series, their bantering adds a touch of humor while each book touches on one social issue or another. In book one, Blinded by the Sight, it’s homelessness; book two, Running Scared, deals with the impact of a failing marriage on the children; book three, Murder on a Stick, looks at assisted living and other plights faced by the elderly.
Book four continues this theme by looking at perhaps the most important social issue of our times, drug addiction. Smith also returns to his interest in the homeless and family relationships shared by the two policemen. In the new story, Collette Hammond orchestrates a New Year’s Eve wedding reception for her brother before collapsing just before midnight. Does a fresh needle mark suggest this recovering addict, allegedly clean for a year, have an unexpected relapse? Or did something more sinister occur that might make this death a possible homicide?
It takes a long part of the book before we know for certain a crime has indeed occurred. As the story progressed, I often thought of TV dramas created by producer/actor Jack Webb where the main characters were straight-laced, upright, moral paragons. Webb’s shows like Dragnet and Adam-12 also emphasized the procedural day-to-day work of police officers stressing the workaday roles of typical cops with usually everyday investigations.
We see exactly such circumstances in the low-key first half of Mistletoe and Murder as Culnane and Tierney seek out and interview potential witnesses to Hammond’s collapse, looking for a motive for someone wanting to do her harm. It’s all “gum shoe” work, as they used to say, until unexpectedly they run across a pair who try to kill a witness and then start a shoot-out with the cops. Everything changes, naturally, after that.
I admit, I never really understood the book’s title. The action begins on a New Year’s Eve and progresses through an extremely cold Minnesota winter. Christmas mentions are passing and only referred to in the past tense. Should you Google for the title, you’ll discover it’s been used several times before, for whatever that note is worth.
Mistletoe and Murder is a book for readers who want their cops likeable, professional, methodical, and very human. It’s for readers who like their stories extremely believable, based on obvious research to validate the smallest of details, and books that include behind the scenes passages that develop the protagonist’s personal lives. It’s for readers who like their leads the sort of characters we could easily encounter anytime, anywhere. That includes the bad guys whose motives are not farfetched nor outlandish.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 9, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/Bq0iQK
Book Review: Princes Gate: A DCI Frank Merlin novel by Mark Ellis
Princes Gate: A DCI Frank Merlin novel
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0992994381
ISBN-13: 978-0992994389
https://www.amazon.com/Princes-Gate-F...
First published on June 1st 2011 by Matador Books, then as a Kindle edition on September 3rd 2015 by London Wall Publishing, then as a paperback in November 2016 by the same publisher, Princes Gate is gaining renewed attention as Merlin at War, the third volume in the Frank Merlin mysteries, is scheduled for publication this October. (The second novel, Stalin’s Gold, was also reissued by London Wall in Nov. 2016.)
Throughout this series, DCI (Detective Chief Investigator) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard investigates domestic crimes in London during World War II. In Princes Gate, the story is set in the early months of 1940 when Neville Chamberlain was still Prime Minister and the Luftwaffe bombing of Britain had not yet begun.
Political concerns make Merlin’s investigations rather delicate as he’s looking into the murders of two staff members of the U.S. embassy when Joseph P. Kennedy was ambassador. Merlin’s higher-ups don’t want the detective to rock any boats as they’re hopeful the U.S. will come to their aid in the war with Germany. This, despite the fact Kennedy is against any war with the Nazis at all, as he feels Britain has no chance.
This history provides a backdrop to Merlin and his team’s investigations which include many sensitive interviews with diplomatic officials and their contacts, sojourns into seedy London nightclubs, and interviews in London businesses, apartments, and homes. I’ve read one review of the book which called it “atmospheric.” That descriptor is spot on. Clearly, Ellis has immersed himself in the place and time of his Merlin books and takes the reader to that setting with convincing and vivid details from Merlin’s shoes to the music of the era to the geopolitical debates of the times. Unlike the sequels to Princes Gate, there’s no espionage plot this time around. But we do witness hanky panky and dastardly deeds by individuals from both the highest of the higher and the lowest of the lower classes.
This attention to detail also applies to many of the characters, both primary and supporting. We learn much about the Anglo-Spanish Merlin, as with his ongoing grief for his dead wife. I must admit, I never understood the role of Detective Claire Robinson. After she’s assigned to Merlin’s team by her uncle, Merlin’s boss, she contributes very little to anything in the various investigations. On the other hand, we get a very satisfying conclusion, even if some justice comes by way of a much higher authority than Scotland Yard. Me, I’ve read two of the Merlin books so far—Stalin’s Gold is next. For those who are just now being drawn into the Merlin series, my review of Merlin at War first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02
This review of Princes Gate first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 14, 2017
http://dpli.ir/5nR2Vw
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 0992994381
ISBN-13: 978-0992994389
https://www.amazon.com/Princes-Gate-F...
First published on June 1st 2011 by Matador Books, then as a Kindle edition on September 3rd 2015 by London Wall Publishing, then as a paperback in November 2016 by the same publisher, Princes Gate is gaining renewed attention as Merlin at War, the third volume in the Frank Merlin mysteries, is scheduled for publication this October. (The second novel, Stalin’s Gold, was also reissued by London Wall in Nov. 2016.)
Throughout this series, DCI (Detective Chief Investigator) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard investigates domestic crimes in London during World War II. In Princes Gate, the story is set in the early months of 1940 when Neville Chamberlain was still Prime Minister and the Luftwaffe bombing of Britain had not yet begun.
Political concerns make Merlin’s investigations rather delicate as he’s looking into the murders of two staff members of the U.S. embassy when Joseph P. Kennedy was ambassador. Merlin’s higher-ups don’t want the detective to rock any boats as they’re hopeful the U.S. will come to their aid in the war with Germany. This, despite the fact Kennedy is against any war with the Nazis at all, as he feels Britain has no chance.
This history provides a backdrop to Merlin and his team’s investigations which include many sensitive interviews with diplomatic officials and their contacts, sojourns into seedy London nightclubs, and interviews in London businesses, apartments, and homes. I’ve read one review of the book which called it “atmospheric.” That descriptor is spot on. Clearly, Ellis has immersed himself in the place and time of his Merlin books and takes the reader to that setting with convincing and vivid details from Merlin’s shoes to the music of the era to the geopolitical debates of the times. Unlike the sequels to Princes Gate, there’s no espionage plot this time around. But we do witness hanky panky and dastardly deeds by individuals from both the highest of the higher and the lowest of the lower classes.
This attention to detail also applies to many of the characters, both primary and supporting. We learn much about the Anglo-Spanish Merlin, as with his ongoing grief for his dead wife. I must admit, I never understood the role of Detective Claire Robinson. After she’s assigned to Merlin’s team by her uncle, Merlin’s boss, she contributes very little to anything in the various investigations. On the other hand, we get a very satisfying conclusion, even if some justice comes by way of a much higher authority than Scotland Yard. Me, I’ve read two of the Merlin books so far—Stalin’s Gold is next. For those who are just now being drawn into the Merlin series, my review of Merlin at War first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02
This review of Princes Gate first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 14, 2017
http://dpli.ir/5nR2Vw
Book Review: Stalin's Gold: A DCI Frank Merlin Novel by Mark Ellis
Stalin's Gold: A DCI Frank Merlin Novel
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 099299439X
ISBN-13: 978-0992994396
https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-Gold-F...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Stalin’s Gold opens rather differently from the other two DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Frank Merlin novels published to date. Princes Gate, volume one of the series, and Merlin at War, volume 3, start off with Merlin and his four person Scotland Yard unit investigating murders in London during World War II.
But, set primarily in London in September 1940, the first hundred pages or so of Stalin’s Gold has Mark Ellis painting an elaborate canvas where he provides considerable detail about the life of Anglo-Spanish Merlin and his much younger Polish girlfriend, Sonia, her fighter pilot brother, Jan, and a number of other characters, some Russian, many Polish, many British . As the panorama unfolds, we are shown how Londoners dealt with the first months of the Nazi bombing of their city and we witness some dog fights in the skies as well as some criminal activity as looters seek treasures in bombed out homes and businesses.
The first investigation Merlin conducts isn’t official business, but instead he looks for a missing Polish airman at the request of Sonia’s brother. As his boss is very concerned about looting, Merlin stumbles on one such gang in one destroyed house where he discovers a mysterious ingot of gold. It isn’t long before these two cases become intertwined as a number of gold bars went missing in Poland, might now be hidden somewhere in London, and Russian spies are on the prowl to track them down. It isn’t long before Polish agents and Russian agents, along with a few English accomplices, are vying with each other to have possession of a lorry-full of gold. According to the Russians, a family of poles stole the gold from them in the early days of the war. According to the Poles, the gold was in the possession of that rich family for generations.
As with the other two Merlin mysteries, Elis is especially good at capturing the spirit of the times and places of his various stories. Showing considerable verisimilitude, it is obvious Ellis has immersed himself in the era and settings he explores. He’s also good at setting up his chess pieces and coordinating the movements of all his interwoven groups of players. Few characters are either black or white but are, for the most part, sketched with multi-dimensional depth.
Stalin’s Gold really should be read in sequence, in between the other two Merlin outings. It’s not vital readers do this, but that would help keeping track of some of the supporting characters in Merlin’s department and home life. However you do it, the DCI Frank Merlin novels are for those who like richly detailed historical fiction, international intrigue, murder mysteries, and World War II yarns, especially those set on the home front.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 21, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/TcbzED
Wes Britton’s review of book 1 of the series, Princes Gate, can be read at:
http://dpli.ir/5nR2Vw
Wes Britton’s review of book 3, Merlin at War, was posted at:
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02
And both reviews are archived here at my Goodreads blog as well.
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (November 1, 2016)
ISBN-10: 099299439X
ISBN-13: 978-0992994396
https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-Gold-F...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Stalin’s Gold opens rather differently from the other two DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Frank Merlin novels published to date. Princes Gate, volume one of the series, and Merlin at War, volume 3, start off with Merlin and his four person Scotland Yard unit investigating murders in London during World War II.
But, set primarily in London in September 1940, the first hundred pages or so of Stalin’s Gold has Mark Ellis painting an elaborate canvas where he provides considerable detail about the life of Anglo-Spanish Merlin and his much younger Polish girlfriend, Sonia, her fighter pilot brother, Jan, and a number of other characters, some Russian, many Polish, many British . As the panorama unfolds, we are shown how Londoners dealt with the first months of the Nazi bombing of their city and we witness some dog fights in the skies as well as some criminal activity as looters seek treasures in bombed out homes and businesses.
The first investigation Merlin conducts isn’t official business, but instead he looks for a missing Polish airman at the request of Sonia’s brother. As his boss is very concerned about looting, Merlin stumbles on one such gang in one destroyed house where he discovers a mysterious ingot of gold. It isn’t long before these two cases become intertwined as a number of gold bars went missing in Poland, might now be hidden somewhere in London, and Russian spies are on the prowl to track them down. It isn’t long before Polish agents and Russian agents, along with a few English accomplices, are vying with each other to have possession of a lorry-full of gold. According to the Russians, a family of poles stole the gold from them in the early days of the war. According to the Poles, the gold was in the possession of that rich family for generations.
As with the other two Merlin mysteries, Elis is especially good at capturing the spirit of the times and places of his various stories. Showing considerable verisimilitude, it is obvious Ellis has immersed himself in the era and settings he explores. He’s also good at setting up his chess pieces and coordinating the movements of all his interwoven groups of players. Few characters are either black or white but are, for the most part, sketched with multi-dimensional depth.
Stalin’s Gold really should be read in sequence, in between the other two Merlin outings. It’s not vital readers do this, but that would help keeping track of some of the supporting characters in Merlin’s department and home life. However you do it, the DCI Frank Merlin novels are for those who like richly detailed historical fiction, international intrigue, murder mysteries, and World War II yarns, especially those set on the home front.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 21, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/TcbzED
Wes Britton’s review of book 1 of the series, Princes Gate, can be read at:
http://dpli.ir/5nR2Vw
Wes Britton’s review of book 3, Merlin at War, was posted at:
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02
And both reviews are archived here at my Goodreads blog as well.
Book Review: THE EULOGIST by Jeffrey B. Burton
THE EULOGIST
Jeffrey B. Burton
Hardcover: 360 pages
Publisher: Permanent Press (September 30, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1579625029
ISBN-13: 978-1579625023
https://www.amazon.com/Eulogist-Jeffr...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
The Eulogist is the latest FBI special agent Drew Cady mystery following The Chessman (2012) and The Lynchpin (2015). If the preceding novels are anything like The Eulogist, readers should expect surprising and fresh twists to well-established murder mystery formulas.
In The Eulogist, the strangeness starts with the very first pages when we see Senator Taylor Brockman tied to a chair, forced to listen to his murderer deliver the senator’s pre-mortem eulogy. Shortly afterward, druggie Thaddeus Jay Aadalen—known as T.J. -- is found dead in his car, stabbed through the heart just like Brockman had been. He too has an eulogy for detectives to find, in his case a Thomas Gray poem hidden in his glovebox.
Agent Cady is drawn into investigating these two cases even though he’s only in Washington D.C. as the FBI liaison for the Medicare Fraud Strike Force out of Minneapolis. Along with representatives from other like groups, Cady is there to assist testimonials before the United States Senate Committee on Finance. But the FBI pulls Cady away from such tedious duties and pairs him with agent Liz Preston to look into the murders which don’t end with the senator and the druggie.
Like most contemporary mysteries, things get very complicated very quickly. We meet the hired assassin known as the Canadian who reveals much about their background, notably his, or her, admittedly being an adrenalin junkie. Threads of the investigation dig into a breakthrough Alzheimer's drug, a reluctantly helpful hacker, two potential heirs to a drug fortune, and alternating points of view showing just how the Canadian and the investigators go through their various procedures.
One distinguishing aspect of the novel is an often sarcastic streak of humor. One example is a moment where a character reflects on the concept of someone dying “doing so while doing what they loved.” The character wonders how that idea makes any sense when most people would rather live and not die at all, whatever the circumstances. Few people are likely thinking “At least I’m doing what I love” as they crash into a cliff, are eaten by sharks, or the like.
Burton mixes in some obligatory murder mystery tropes including a number of red herrings, very unexpected twists, and surprises that seem to come out of the blue in the final pages. In short, murder mystery fans should feel very comfortable with The Eulogist while they enjoy the inventiveness of Jeffrey Burton.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 31, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/L6iyEi
Jeffrey B. Burton
Hardcover: 360 pages
Publisher: Permanent Press (September 30, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1579625029
ISBN-13: 978-1579625023
https://www.amazon.com/Eulogist-Jeffr...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
The Eulogist is the latest FBI special agent Drew Cady mystery following The Chessman (2012) and The Lynchpin (2015). If the preceding novels are anything like The Eulogist, readers should expect surprising and fresh twists to well-established murder mystery formulas.
In The Eulogist, the strangeness starts with the very first pages when we see Senator Taylor Brockman tied to a chair, forced to listen to his murderer deliver the senator’s pre-mortem eulogy. Shortly afterward, druggie Thaddeus Jay Aadalen—known as T.J. -- is found dead in his car, stabbed through the heart just like Brockman had been. He too has an eulogy for detectives to find, in his case a Thomas Gray poem hidden in his glovebox.
Agent Cady is drawn into investigating these two cases even though he’s only in Washington D.C. as the FBI liaison for the Medicare Fraud Strike Force out of Minneapolis. Along with representatives from other like groups, Cady is there to assist testimonials before the United States Senate Committee on Finance. But the FBI pulls Cady away from such tedious duties and pairs him with agent Liz Preston to look into the murders which don’t end with the senator and the druggie.
Like most contemporary mysteries, things get very complicated very quickly. We meet the hired assassin known as the Canadian who reveals much about their background, notably his, or her, admittedly being an adrenalin junkie. Threads of the investigation dig into a breakthrough Alzheimer's drug, a reluctantly helpful hacker, two potential heirs to a drug fortune, and alternating points of view showing just how the Canadian and the investigators go through their various procedures.
One distinguishing aspect of the novel is an often sarcastic streak of humor. One example is a moment where a character reflects on the concept of someone dying “doing so while doing what they loved.” The character wonders how that idea makes any sense when most people would rather live and not die at all, whatever the circumstances. Few people are likely thinking “At least I’m doing what I love” as they crash into a cliff, are eaten by sharks, or the like.
Burton mixes in some obligatory murder mystery tropes including a number of red herrings, very unexpected twists, and surprises that seem to come out of the blue in the final pages. In short, murder mystery fans should feel very comfortable with The Eulogist while they enjoy the inventiveness of Jeffrey Burton.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 31, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/L6iyEi
Book Review: Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder by Piu Eatwell.
Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption, and Cover-Up of America's Greatest Unsolved Murder
Piu Eatwell.
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Liveright; 1 edition (October 10, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1631492268
ISBN-13: 978-1631492266
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Dahlia-R...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Eighty years after her murder on January 14 or 15, 1947, you’d think there’d be nothing new to say about the death of Elizabeth Short, dubbed “The Black Dahlia” by the Las Angeles press. Over the decades, her short life has been fictionalized in print and on screen, and she’s been portrayed as everything from a prostitute, would-be actress, a lesbian, to a frigid sexual tease.
Without question, the moniker of “Black Dahlia” put Short into the national spotlight in 1947 and afterward, along with the much publicized grotesque, lurid details of how her body was found. Her face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears, portions of her thighs had been sliced away, her body had been cut completely in half, and The lower half of her body was positioned a foot away from the upper half. And that’s just part of the mutilations she endured.
The public was further intrigued on January 24, 1947 when a suspicious manila envelope was discovered by a U.S. Postal Service worker that had individual words that had been cut-and-pasted from newspaper clippings. A large message on the face of the envelope read: "Here is Dahlia's belongings” containing Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen embossed on the cover.
Not surprisingly, Police quickly deemed Mark Hansen, a man with underworld connections, a suspect. Author Piu Eatwell thinks he was involved, even if she doesn’t think he was the actual killer. She thinks Leslie Dillon, a man with known connections to both Short and Hansen, was.
Much of Eatwell’s exploration of the case focuses on what happened after the discovery of Short’s corpse and why, in the author’s opinion, the case was never solved. According to the latest historian to try her hand at uncovering the truth to the brutal crime, that elusive truth could have been told long ago if not for the obstruction and cover-ups by a number of Las Angeles police higher-ups who either didn’t want to get into interdepartmental turf wars or didn’t want to upset some gangsters who’d corrupted the LAPD. Like Mark Hansen.
Eatwell spends little time reviewing the plethora of other theories and other proposed suspects but instead offers her research into why she’s convinced Leslie Dillon got away with murder. She explores what evidence was ignored, neglected, lost, not presented to the 1949 grand jury, and she discusses why some witnesses were pressured into keeping silent. While the crime is shocking enough on its own, how the criminal justice system operated during that era, at least as described by Piu Eatwell, is equally chilling. Like the views of several police officials who felt the death of a footloose 22 year old just wasn’t worth all the trouble to solve the case. Considering all the current problems we’re having with the U.S. judicial system, Piu Eatwell’s portrait of the events of 1947 and after are sadly much too convincing and believable.
Piu Eatwell’s nonfiction book should appeal to readers who like true crime stories but also fans of fictional murder mysteries. The story of the Black Dahlia is still one with sensational elements and Eatwell presents a vivid and gritty world in which Elizabeth Short died. Her book probably isn’t the last word on the subject, but it is one worthy of contemporary interest.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Oct. 4 at:
http://dpli.ir/Nft5Sn
Piu Eatwell.
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Liveright; 1 edition (October 10, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1631492268
ISBN-13: 978-1631492266
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Dahlia-R...
Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton
Eighty years after her murder on January 14 or 15, 1947, you’d think there’d be nothing new to say about the death of Elizabeth Short, dubbed “The Black Dahlia” by the Las Angeles press. Over the decades, her short life has been fictionalized in print and on screen, and she’s been portrayed as everything from a prostitute, would-be actress, a lesbian, to a frigid sexual tease.
Without question, the moniker of “Black Dahlia” put Short into the national spotlight in 1947 and afterward, along with the much publicized grotesque, lurid details of how her body was found. Her face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth to her ears, portions of her thighs had been sliced away, her body had been cut completely in half, and The lower half of her body was positioned a foot away from the upper half. And that’s just part of the mutilations she endured.
The public was further intrigued on January 24, 1947 when a suspicious manila envelope was discovered by a U.S. Postal Service worker that had individual words that had been cut-and-pasted from newspaper clippings. A large message on the face of the envelope read: "Here is Dahlia's belongings” containing Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper, and an address book with the name Mark Hansen embossed on the cover.
Not surprisingly, Police quickly deemed Mark Hansen, a man with underworld connections, a suspect. Author Piu Eatwell thinks he was involved, even if she doesn’t think he was the actual killer. She thinks Leslie Dillon, a man with known connections to both Short and Hansen, was.
Much of Eatwell’s exploration of the case focuses on what happened after the discovery of Short’s corpse and why, in the author’s opinion, the case was never solved. According to the latest historian to try her hand at uncovering the truth to the brutal crime, that elusive truth could have been told long ago if not for the obstruction and cover-ups by a number of Las Angeles police higher-ups who either didn’t want to get into interdepartmental turf wars or didn’t want to upset some gangsters who’d corrupted the LAPD. Like Mark Hansen.
Eatwell spends little time reviewing the plethora of other theories and other proposed suspects but instead offers her research into why she’s convinced Leslie Dillon got away with murder. She explores what evidence was ignored, neglected, lost, not presented to the 1949 grand jury, and she discusses why some witnesses were pressured into keeping silent. While the crime is shocking enough on its own, how the criminal justice system operated during that era, at least as described by Piu Eatwell, is equally chilling. Like the views of several police officials who felt the death of a footloose 22 year old just wasn’t worth all the trouble to solve the case. Considering all the current problems we’re having with the U.S. judicial system, Piu Eatwell’s portrait of the events of 1947 and after are sadly much too convincing and believable.
Piu Eatwell’s nonfiction book should appeal to readers who like true crime stories but also fans of fictional murder mysteries. The story of the Black Dahlia is still one with sensational elements and Eatwell presents a vivid and gritty world in which Elizabeth Short died. Her book probably isn’t the last word on the subject, but it is one worthy of contemporary interest.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Oct. 4 at:
http://dpli.ir/Nft5Sn
Wesley Britton's Blog
This just came in. My favorite two sentences of all time!
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
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