Fires of Edo by Susan Spann

First Sentence:  FIRE!

Samurai Hiro and the Portuguese priest, Father Mateo, who Hiro has been assigned to protect, have arrived in Edo to warn their fellow spies to return to Kyoto since their lives are in danger. A fire sends them to assist the fire brigade, headed by Daisuke, a fellow member of Iga Ryu who bullied Hiro when they were children.  This is the third recent fire, yet this one reveals the partially dismembered body of yet another samurai. A bookshop owner and his apprentice are arrested and may die unless Hiro and Father Mateo can save them, the guild, and even their own lives which are now at risk.

What a wonderful look at 16th Century Japan, its villages, and its technique for fighting fires.  But this was no gentle time.  Spann makes clear how harsh feudal life, and law, could be.

Hiro and Father Mateo Ávila de Santos, along with their delightful housekeeper Ana, and her cat Gato, are characters one enjoys spending time with, as well as they do with one another.  As usual, it is best to start this series at the beginning to understand the character development.  Part of the intrigue is in following their travels to the Portuguese colony at Yokoseura where Father Mateo can be kept safe until Japan names a new shogun, a matter fraught with danger and spies from rival sides.  Yet it is in their travels that they find themselves embroiled in murder and great danger.

One can’t set a book set in Japan without talking about the food—“Paper-thin slices of fresh sashimi rested on delicate, palm-sized dishes glazed the color of autumn leaves.  Nearby, a pair of whole grilled fish sat side by side on a rectangular, black-glazed plate.  Coils of pale, fragrant steam rose from the covered soup bowl and the heaping of rice on the far lacquered tray.  Beside the rice, two tiny plates of bite-sized tsukemono rounded out the meal.”

But it’s the mystery, and the characters involved that keep the pages turning.  You have Daisuke, commander of the fire brigade, and Hiro’s long-time adversary Hanzō, a famous ninja commander and leader of the Iga ryu, and Hiyoshi who is politically ambitious and wants to be the new head of the fire brigade. One wishes the Cast of Characters was at the beginning of the book, rather than the end. 

FIRES OF EDO is suspenseful, with plenty of twists and a very dramatic climax. It is educational as Spann includes actual historical figures.  It’s a quick, engrossing read and a very good addition to the series. 

FIRES OF EDO
HistMys/Hiro Hattori/Fr.Mateo-Japan-1566
by Susan Spann – 8^th in series
Seventh Street Books, Feb 2022, 265 pp.
RATING: VG+/A  

Death on a Galician Shore by Domingo Villar

First Sentence:  Inspector Leo Caldas got out of a taxi and, stepping over the large puddles on the pavement, entered the hospital.

DI Leo Caldas is called out to a small fishing village to sign off on the supposed suicide of Justo Castelo, a local sailor.  But something doesn’t add up; a suicide doesn’t have bound wrists.  The more Caldas and Rafael Estevez, his second, investigate, the more complex the case becomes as a decade-old shipwreck and two disappearances add to the mystery. 

There is nothing better than reading a book set in a location unfamiliar to the reader.  It’s nice when we’re taken to a small community of hard-working people yet can see commonalities with people everywhere.

Caldas, and his second Estevez, are fascinating protagonists.  Caldas is observant, logical, and gets terribly carsick. He is local to the area and hosts a radio program where people air their complaints, almost none of which he can resolve—“After the seventh call, he tallied the score:  City police seven, Leo nil.” It’s nice having his father and grandfather as part of the story. Even the absent wife contributes to who Caldas is.  Estevez is not local, much rougher around the edges, and just doesn’t understand Caldas or the people of the area. He’s continually having to be kept in check by Caldas.

Estevez can be a little hard to take, but Caldas manages him well. Between Caldas always being asked if he is the one on the radio, and Estevez always being told he's not from around there, there's just enough mild humor to take the edge off.

The description of the food, simple food, may leave one hungry—“Soup from the fridge, made with slab bacon, beef broth, turnip tops, broad beans, and potatoes.”  The excellent descriptions of the book's settings create a strong sense of place as Caldas gets to know the people in this fishing village.

The plot is well constructed with well-drawn characters.  The more Caldas digs, the more he finds that secrets from the past have determined the present.

DEATH ON A GALICIAN SHORE is a very well-done detective story. There’s no use of technology here, just basic police work.  One thing keeps building on the other with plenty of red herrings and a very good twist toward the end. This is an author worth reading.


DEATH ON A GALICIAN SHORE (PolProc-DI Leo Caldas-No. Spain-Contemp
by Domingo Villar - 2^nd in series
Abacus Reprint Edition, May 2012, 384 pp.
RATING:  VG/A-

Even the Darkest Night by Javier Carces

First Sentence:  Melchor is still in his office, simmering on the low flame of his own impatience waiting for the night shift to end, when the phone rings.

Melchor, convicted of working for a Colombian drug cartel, when to prison as a teenager.  While there, he read “Les Misérables,” and it changed his life. After his mother was murdered, he decided to become a cop. Now the murder of a wealthy local man and his wife will change his life again.

Was Cercas trying to write a philosophical, literary novel, or a police procedural?  If the former, the effect was pretentious and overblown.  If the latter, the story was filled with every cliché one could imagine and those, too, felt exaggerated and overused.    I am normally not one to skim a book, but I did this one.  

EVEN THE DARKEST NIGHT contains too much personal history, unnecessary descriptions of people and their environment, and overall exposition.  Peel that away and there are about 100 pages of a good story.  Sadly, I found myself not really caring.  However, for a really good police procedural/mystery set in Spain, I recommend “Water Blue Eyes” by Domingo Villar. 

EVEN THE DARKEST NIGHT (PolProd-Melchor-Terra Alta, Catalonia, Spain-Contemp)
Javier Cercas – 1st in series
Knopf, Jun 2022, 353 pages
Rating: Okay/C

The Botanist by M.W. Craven

First Sentence:  There were bastard trees and there were wait-awhile trees and there was a building that didn’t exist. 

Pathologist Estelle Boyle’s father has been fatally shot, twice in the head.  Traces of gunpowder are on Estelle's hands and her footprints are the only ones leading into the house where her father is found. Estelle is arrested, and all she will say is “Tell Washington Poe.” In the meantime, someone the press has named “The Botanist” is sending poems and pressed flowers to celebrities prior to their deaths. Despite the security measures taken to protect them, the killer succeeds in his goal. It’s up to Washington Poe and the Serious Crimes Unit to stop the killer, as well as prove Estelle’s innocence.  

The first four books by Craven were a complete treat, making anticipation high at the beginning of “The Botanist.”  The promise of a locked room mystery, and the hope that Craven was moving away from another serial killer plot, created the expectation of something new and exciting.  Instead, he took what could have been a clever, intriguing story, placed the most interesting character in jail, and went back to his formula.  Very disappointing.

Washington Poe, a supposedly brilliant detective, now comes off as arrogant, insolent, and a bit of a bore.  Tilly Bradshaw, a fascinating character and true genius, was mainly off-stage with her talents underutilized.  The solution to the locked-room puzzle was both over-the-top and obvious.  It was something Tilly should have been able to solve in minutes. 

Should one decide to proceed with the serial killer theme, the best ones create empathy for the victims and even sometimes the killer.  But here, the author fails. Even with the threat that unknown innocents may die, one instinctively knows it won’t happen, so any sense of real danger is lost. Sadly, the one scene which was, one supposes, intended to be clever, mimics a scene from “The Thomas Crown Affair.” 

When starting a new book, one hopes for something original, creative, and compelling, not a rehash of things done before, whether by the same author or someone else. Calling the opening a prologue or chapter one doesn’t matter.  It is still an unnecessary, irrelevant device and information one quickly forgets. 

THE BOTANIST might have been interesting were the reader a science/biology nerd.  Instead, it was at least 100 pages too long, with an Agatha Christie pronouncement that jumped between two time periods--are we not done with the device of time jumping?--and little tension.  Every author has an off-book.  This was Craven’s. Here’s hoping his next book is shorter, tighter, and something original.

THE BOTANIST (Susp-Poe/Tilly-UK-Contemp)
M.W. Craven – 5th book in series
Constable, 2022, 433 pages
Rating:  Poor/D

Her Child's Cry by S.A. Dunphry

First Sentence:  ‘Between 2015 and 2019 a total of one hundred children were abducted in Ireland, one third of whom were taken within the Dublin Metropolitan Area.’

Ten days.  That is all the time the police have to rescue Rosie Blake.  Rosie is a child with cancer who was stolen from the hospital.  She can only survive ten days without her medication.  The police find the suspect quickly, except he is dead; murdered and Rosie still is missing. It is up to criminal behaviorist Jessie Boyle and her team to find Rosie in time before Jessie dies too.

Doesn't everyone love a good race-against-the-clock mystery? Dunphy creates a setup that is tense and effective and encourages the reader to keep going. To end the opening section with a single-sentence portent—“That would come later.”—is both unnecessary and lazy. There was no need to add an extra push.

Dunphy’s principal characters are interesting and fully developed.  You know who they are and how they fit together, giving you bits of their personalities. He knows how and when to interject humor, both in his dialogue and in the situations he describes.  

 It is unfortunate when the author begins with a plot for a compelling mystery but decides to veer off down a strange path.  The plot becomes overly complicated, filled with extraneous historical information, and unnecessary portents, of which there are many. The story gets lost due to a lack of focus. The folklore is interesting, but it overshadows the strength of the plot rather than adding to it. 

Dunphy has the talent to write a superb mystery, if that’s his goal, or to write a fascinating book of magic and folklore, or a history of Ireland. Unfortunately, combining the three became messy and convoluted.   

HER CHILD’S CRY is the third book in the Boyle/Keneally series.  One hopes an author learns and grows with each book.  Sadly, that is not the case here. 

HER CHILD'S CRY  (PolProc-Boyle/Keneally-Ireland-Contemp)
S.A. Dunphy– 3rd book in series
Bookouture, Apr 2022, 343 pp.
Rating:  Okay/C