BOOK & BLOG

May 27, 2010

Books of the Week:

• City of Dragons, Kelli Stanley
• Murder of a Wedding Belle, Denise Swanson
• Bullet, Laurell K. Hamilton

In the past week, I read a couple of old Agatha Christies sent me by a reader. I’d read them before, but it’s a timely reminder of just how closely a plot can be constructed. There are a lot of things about Christie’s style that seem dated now, and her characters are often interchangeable – the bluff ex-military man, the foreign femme fatale, the stiff dowager – but her twists and turns are still amazing. She didn’t know she was writing classics, but I think for anyone who wants to learn the bones of writing a mystery, her books are still the go-to primer.

I also read a very retro mystery, Kelli Stanley’s City of Dragons. Set in San Francisco in 1940, it’s a noir novel with a female protagonist, Miranda Corbie, a woman so hard-boiled you could crack eggs on her. Miranda, of course, has her vulnerable moments when she’s alone, but she has to present a consistent surface to the world that is constantly trying to belittle her. Stanley’s protagonist smokes incessantly, drinks frequently, and cusses constantly, and she’s a former “escort.” But Miranda is also tenacious and determined and lets insults roll off of her; in a world in which sexism is the norm, she has to struggle every day. The complicated plot centers around an executive found dead in a hotel in Chinatown, a dead Japanese man who lands on the sidewalk in front of Miranda, and city politics. Vivid and complex.

I always enjoy Denise Swanson’s mild and clever Scumble River mysteries, and Murder of a Wedding Belle is no exception to that preference. Skye Dennison, Swanson’s school counselor heroine, is carrying around an engagement ring in her purse in this entry in the series, but her former beau Simon is determined Skye won’t marry police chief Wally. Skye is conned into taking over wedding planner services for her demanding cousin after she finds the body of the original wedding planner in a florist’s cool storage locker. This time, Skye’s aged grandmother is providing the emotional blackmail to make Skye do something she really doesn’t want to do. Maybe in the next book, some of Skye’s manipulative relatives can be taken out!

I am a long-time Laurell K. Hamilton fan, so I was anxious to read Bullet. The most interesting thing about the opening of Bullet is that Anita Blake sees herself through the eyes of a child who’s repeating what his mother said about Anita, obviously. And Anita doesn’t like what she sees. The danger deepens for Anita and her posse when they discover that Marmee Noir has possessed several members of the Vampire Council. Anita begins to try to gather as much power as she can before the big showdown, and of course that means a lot of sexual politics. Another interesting development is Richard’s new tractability, which is a huge relief. I was beginning to think Jean Claude and Anita should throw Richard under a bus.

BLOG

It’s a huge pleasure to stay and home and know that very little travel is coming up. I have a trip to Los Angeles for the premiere of “True Blood,” which will be held on June 8; I have a trip to Iowa a week after that; and then, I think, it’s all clear sailing until ComicCon. This is all to the good, since I have a book to finish and it’s not even halfway done. However, I think I’ve spotted the roadblock now, and I’m removing it. When is a clever development NOT a clever development? When it stops the action of the book.

Paula is gearing up to mount another closet sale. I’m deducing this because she keeps opening the book closet and groaning very loudly. (I think she’s trying to tell me something.) She’s planning on pressing her daughter and my daughter into book mailing duty.

DEAD IN THE FAMILY continues to do well, thanks to all of you. This week it’s third on the NYT list, its third week on the list, and DEAD AND GONE holds onto its place on the mass market list. Even DEAD UNTIL DARK made an appearance on the extended list, I think since people are alert to the fact that the new season of “True Blood” debuts on HBO on JUNE 13. Send out your invitations and start working on the hors d’oeuvres. Let’s get this party started!