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A bit belated as a good chunk of March has gone by. I don’t seem to be able to concentrate when reading right now, so I have jumped around between books more than usual, and finished fewer.
New books
The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths. This is the first book in a new series. Ali is a police officer in her 50s who works for a cold case unit in London. Only they actually go back in time to solve the crimes. A high-ranking politician pulls strings for the unit to look into his great-great-grandfather who was rumored to have killed several women in the 1850s But instead of an hour in the past, Ali gets stuck in time, and while she is, the politician is murdered and her son gets accused of the crime. I always enjoy Griffiths books, and I liked this one too. Historical mysteries are always my cup of tea, and despite the fantastical premise, the book still felt grounded. Ali is a likeable character, and I always like it when middle-aged women get to be the hero. I also appreciate that Griffith clearly does her research. The description of 1850s clothes was very accurate, which pleased me. I look forward to continuing the series.
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman. It’s been a long time since Kellerman’s Alex Delaware-books have been anything formulaic, so sometimes I wonder why I still read them. Perhaps because it’s nice to read things that don't surprise you at all. This one was entirely as expected. An oddish kind of murder that makes Alex's police friend Milo call him in. Interviews with surrounding people, broken up with eating. Alex spending time with girlfriend and adorable dog. The murder being a psychopath serial killer, though no one, before Alex, realized there was serial killing going on.
Rereads
The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine. I never liked any of Ruth Rendell’s novels written under her name, but even if I don’t like all of her Barabara Vine novels, those I like I really like. The Brimstone Wedding is one of those I like, but I haven’t reread it for many years. Last time I was the same age as Jenny, in my early 30s, and now I’m a generation older. Makes my perspective a bit different. Anyway, the Vne-books aren’t typical crime novels, even if many of them contain a murder. This book certainly has a mýstery, but it’s also a book about friendship. Jenny works as a nursing assistant at a home for old people, where she befriends Stella, who is 70 and dying from cancer. Initially Stella is very reserved, but eventually she starts talking about her life, and Jenny gets the feeling there is something she really wants to tell her. One says Stella asks Jenny to check out a house she owns. A house, Jenny soon realizes, has stood empty for many years, showing signs of having been abandoned very quickly.
The House of Lost Shadow by F. G. Cottam. As a young man in the 80s, Paul offers to help his girlfriend out with a paper. While researching Pandora, a socialite and photographer active in the 1920s, Paul gets a number of spooky encounters, culminating in a horrific visit to an abandoned house, which shatters his life completely. Fifteen years later he learns that a group of students have visited the same house, leaving one of them dead, and the rest psychotic. And, of course, Paul is the only one who can help.
Cottam is a good horror writer, very atmospheric, and he is often even good at endings, which is often the weakest point in horrors. He also makes heavy use of one of my favourite plot devices where an old mystery is slowly revealed through archive materials. I’m a sucker for that. I don’t think The House of Lost Shadow one of his better books though, possibly because it’s one of his earlier works. The 1980s sequence works well with Paul researching and obsessing over Pandora, but the present day parts feel a bit disjointed. And the ending is rather Deus Ex Machina. I also feel weirded out by Cottam using real life persons as the bad guy. I guess Alisatir Crowley is pretty mythologized by now, but he also elevates an author, Dennis Wheatley into a supernatural villain. Wheatley, who wrote many books with occult themes isn’t very well-known today, and Cottam might as easily have made up a fictive character. In later books Cottam makes up a fictitious occult cult, The Jericho Society, which works much better as villains, and The House of Lost Shadow is part of that canon, even if the cult isn’t mentioned in it. Which is why I re-read it, as I recently read Dark Echo which partly ties in to this one.
New books
The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths. This is the first book in a new series. Ali is a police officer in her 50s who works for a cold case unit in London. Only they actually go back in time to solve the crimes. A high-ranking politician pulls strings for the unit to look into his great-great-grandfather who was rumored to have killed several women in the 1850s But instead of an hour in the past, Ali gets stuck in time, and while she is, the politician is murdered and her son gets accused of the crime. I always enjoy Griffiths books, and I liked this one too. Historical mysteries are always my cup of tea, and despite the fantastical premise, the book still felt grounded. Ali is a likeable character, and I always like it when middle-aged women get to be the hero. I also appreciate that Griffith clearly does her research. The description of 1850s clothes was very accurate, which pleased me. I look forward to continuing the series.
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman. It’s been a long time since Kellerman’s Alex Delaware-books have been anything formulaic, so sometimes I wonder why I still read them. Perhaps because it’s nice to read things that don't surprise you at all. This one was entirely as expected. An oddish kind of murder that makes Alex's police friend Milo call him in. Interviews with surrounding people, broken up with eating. Alex spending time with girlfriend and adorable dog. The murder being a psychopath serial killer, though no one, before Alex, realized there was serial killing going on.
Rereads
The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine. I never liked any of Ruth Rendell’s novels written under her name, but even if I don’t like all of her Barabara Vine novels, those I like I really like. The Brimstone Wedding is one of those I like, but I haven’t reread it for many years. Last time I was the same age as Jenny, in my early 30s, and now I’m a generation older. Makes my perspective a bit different. Anyway, the Vne-books aren’t typical crime novels, even if many of them contain a murder. This book certainly has a mýstery, but it’s also a book about friendship. Jenny works as a nursing assistant at a home for old people, where she befriends Stella, who is 70 and dying from cancer. Initially Stella is very reserved, but eventually she starts talking about her life, and Jenny gets the feeling there is something she really wants to tell her. One says Stella asks Jenny to check out a house she owns. A house, Jenny soon realizes, has stood empty for many years, showing signs of having been abandoned very quickly.
The House of Lost Shadow by F. G. Cottam. As a young man in the 80s, Paul offers to help his girlfriend out with a paper. While researching Pandora, a socialite and photographer active in the 1920s, Paul gets a number of spooky encounters, culminating in a horrific visit to an abandoned house, which shatters his life completely. Fifteen years later he learns that a group of students have visited the same house, leaving one of them dead, and the rest psychotic. And, of course, Paul is the only one who can help.
Cottam is a good horror writer, very atmospheric, and he is often even good at endings, which is often the weakest point in horrors. He also makes heavy use of one of my favourite plot devices where an old mystery is slowly revealed through archive materials. I’m a sucker for that. I don’t think The House of Lost Shadow one of his better books though, possibly because it’s one of his earlier works. The 1980s sequence works well with Paul researching and obsessing over Pandora, but the present day parts feel a bit disjointed. And the ending is rather Deus Ex Machina. I also feel weirded out by Cottam using real life persons as the bad guy. I guess Alisatir Crowley is pretty mythologized by now, but he also elevates an author, Dennis Wheatley into a supernatural villain. Wheatley, who wrote many books with occult themes isn’t very well-known today, and Cottam might as easily have made up a fictive character. In later books Cottam makes up a fictitious occult cult, The Jericho Society, which works much better as villains, and The House of Lost Shadow is part of that canon, even if the cult isn’t mentioned in it. Which is why I re-read it, as I recently read Dark Echo which partly ties in to this one.
