Bernard Carpinter’s monthly roundup of crime and thrillers.
Sherlock Holmes is reincarnated in THE HOUSE OF SILK (Orion, $34.99) by Anthony Horowitz, who among other things created the TV series Midsomer Murders. In a cold London winter late in 1890, Holmes is asked by an art dealer to investigate a man who seems to be stalking him – a man believed to be a ruthless American gangster. Soon after, the American is found murdered. The trail leads to something called the House of Silk, a monstrous conspiracy involving people powerful enough to have Holmes arrested on a trumped-up charge of murder. Holmes still astounds Watson – and indeed readers – with his remarkable powers of deduction, and the novel is an honest effort to follow the Arthur Conan Doyle template. It’s still not as good, of course, and actually I’m uneasy about this whole business of bringing heroes like Holmes and James Bond back to life. It’s never quite the same, and apart from making money, what’s the point?
“High jingo” is Harry Bosch’s term for “the confluence of police and politics”. In the latest in Michael Connelly’s Bosch series, THE DROP (Allen & Unwin, $39.99), the Los Angeles detective is assigned to investigate the death of a councilman’s son – did he jump or was he pushed from an upper-floor room in the Chateau Marmont? The councilman is a former policeman but he hates the police in general and Bosch in particular. While threading his way through this political minefield, Bosch is also handling a cold case in which new DNA evidence indicates a vicious crime was committed by someone who was eight years old at the time. Straightforward police drama but better than most thanks to extra depth, lively characterisation and good writing.
David Zinc makes US$300,000 a year working as a tax lawyer for a big soulless firm in Chicago, in John Grisham’s THE LITIGATORS (Hodder & Stoughton, $49.99). But David works ridiculous hours, is too tired to get his wife pregnant and doesn’t like the job much anyway. One day he cracks, runs from the office, goes on a bender and somehow ends up joining a two-man law office that specialises in ambulance-chasing, drunk-driving and divorces. Then his two inexpert partners see their chance to make big bucks at last – they can sue a giant pharmaceutical company over a drug experts say causes harm. Engaging characters, wry humour and reflections on the American legal system make this a very readable, entertaining and worthwhile novel.
Wellington TV journalist Rebecca Thorne needs to do something to revive her flagging career. She finds a real killer story when she comes across Connor Bligh, who is seeking a retrial some years after being convicted of murdering his sister, her husband and their child. Rebecca becomes convinced he was innocent and works on a report that could vindicate him – and win her the recognition she craves. TRACES OF RED (Penguin, $30) by Dunedin writer Paddy Richardson, whose Hunting Blind was shortlisted for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, offsets the crime part of the narrative with a strong focus on Rebecca’s personal life, descriptions of Wellington and some droll reflections on the state of TV journalism. Very good.
Halfway through Patricia Cornwell’s latest Kay Scarpetta novel, RED MIST (Little, Brown, $39.99), it occurred to me that very little had actually happened. Instead we had people talking, interminably and humourlessly, about events that took place before the time frame of the story. Things do start to happen in the second half of this nearly 500-page book as, from a temporary base in Georgia, Scarpetta investigates the mysterious deaths – apparently natural – of women in prison, and also of a personal friend. As a rare poison is suspected, the authorities fear a terrorist attack. But it’s still not enough to keep the book going. I’ve enjoyed earlier Scarpetta novels but this one is terribly tedious – too long, too slow, too much talk, not enough action.
Bernard Carpinter is a Napier journalist.