Blood Never Dies by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

First Sentence:  Exsanguination was the word Slider found wandering around his mind.

       

When is a suicide not a suicide?  When it’s a murder.  When the details are just slightly off.  When is a murder particularly hard to solve?  When you don’t know the identity of the victim.  It’s even harder when you find a name but realize it’s false.  For DI Bill Slider and his team, the more they dig, the more murders occur, and the more obscure becomes the motive behind it all. 

       

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles has a wonderfully descriptive style.  Her writing, and dialogue, is natural, sprinkled with wry humor, and occasional colloquialisms.  She is very British, so occasionally some of her references of phrases might not be understood by Americans.  It doesn’t matter; look them up and move on.  It is well worth it and you learn something along the way.         

      

 Her writing can make you stop and consider…”Death was so mysterious, Slider thought, not for the first time.  The difference between a human being and a dead body was so profound, it always amazed him that made the difference, the vital spark, could disappear so instantaneously and completely.”…”He looked at her. ‘Animals just follow instinct.  It’s only humans who perform calculated acts of vileness.’”

       

It is particularly appealing that, although Bill Slider is the protagonist, it is truly an ensemble case.  Everyone has an important role to play.  I also appreciate that Harrod-Eagles shows the harsh and plainly unfair reality of one’s career being limited by either not having the “right” look or manner.  “But scrawny frog-eyed Hollis, with his despairing hair and feather-duster moustache…made Peter Lorre look like a model from a knitwear catalogue. …He was a damn good policeman, which was all that counted to Slider—though not, of course, with the media-obsessed top bods in the Job, who would never promote Colin Hollis to any position that might get him on camera.”  Slider is misfit in his own way.  He doesn’t judge others but has a dogged determination to find the truth; he believes in fighting for right and justice.

       

What was missing was the some of the sparkle that makes this, for me, such a must-read series.  There wasn’t as much interaction between Slider and his wife, Joanna, his father and Atherton, to which one always looks forward.  Even the lovely and malaprop-plagued D.S. Porson—“A case of walking your chickens before they can run…” was little less apparent than in past stories.   

      

It’s the excellent plotting that makes this such a compelling read.  You feel the team’s frustration knowing the clues are leading somewhere, but having no idea where.  You become part of the team, looking for the answers, rather than stand outside the story. 

      

 “Blood Never Dies” is a solid police procedural, with a strong plot and characters you want to visit again and again.    

BLOOD NEVER DIES (Pol Prod-DI Bill Slider-England-Contemp) – G+

Harrod,Eagles, Cynthia – 15^th in series

Severn House, 2012

 
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A Question of Honor by Charles Todd

First Sentence:  The letter came for Lieutenant and Mrs. Standish on an afternoon when the heat was at its height, and we had already retired indoors to rest until the evening.

      

 As a child, Bess Crawford lived with her family in India where her father served as a regimental colonel.  A sense of dishonor was borne by the regiment when one of his officers, Lieutenant Wade, was accused of murdering his parents and three others while on leave in England.  He escaped back to India, disappeared, and was believed dead, before he could be brought to trial.  Ten years later, Bess is serving as a nurse on the front lines, a dying Indian ambulance driver recognized her and said he had seen Lt. Wade.  Knowing how painful the incident had been for her father at the time, Bess starts doing a bit of investigation; first to see whether Wade really is alive, and then to find out what really happened as her findings about him conflict with the supposed events.

      

 Normally, prologues seem disconnected and a bit annoying.  Not the case here.  This prologue was interesting, well-written and critical to the subsequent story.  It not only presents the characters and establishes their history, but it is a wonderful contrast in setting to that which follows.

       

The Todds’ have a wonderful way of introducing their characters.  Bess is capable, smart, understanding and independent.  However, she is also true to her period as she knows her actions could reflect on her parents, who are well known within her circle.  Simon, a regimental sergeant-major and aide to Beth’s father, is someone she’s known all of her life.  He is there to help her and protect her; not because she is weak and needful, but because it is appropriate in her position.  He is an intriguing character, about whose history we learn a bit as the story progresses, as is the Aussie Sergeant Larrimar, introduced in a previous book but makes a cameo appearance here.  Larrimar is someone you’d definitely want as a best friend or big brother.  I also very much appreciate that when actual historical figures are included, it is done in a realistic way.

       

The level of research done by the Todds’ is very apparent.  To say they create a strong sense of time and place would be an understatement.  We experience the numerous trips Bess makes between the front lines, field hospitals, taking patients back to England, and having break time in London and at home.  You feel her exhaustion and wonder at the sense of contrast between being in the trenches and being in a lovely English village.  What is interesting in their writing style is that, perhaps due to the voice being first person, it is not florid or emotional, but realistic and informative.  They neither sugar coat nor make the scenes horrendously brutal, yet all the emotion is there.  “…I dealt every day with life and death.  I’d watched men die who would have given everything they owned to live one more week, one more month, one more year. … It was heartbreaking, it was real, it was impossible sometimes to forget.”

       

Odd as it sounds, the Todds’ have, in Bess, created a character I respect.  She doesn’t make assumptions or fly blindly off, but takes time, requests help when needed, and searches out answers carefully and intelligently.  Better yet, she, and they, take you along, step-by-step through the investigation.  It makes the journey very satisfying, but not at all without suspense along the way.

       

“A Question of Honor” is a very good book; possibly my favorite in the series, so far.  That’s saying a lot for a series I’ve liked better with each new book.

A QUESTION OF HONOR (Hist Mys-Bess Crawford-France/England-1918) – VG

Todd, Charles – 5^th in series

Wm. Morrow, 2013

 

The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker

First Sentence:  For once, the chef de police of the small French town of St. Denis was carrying a gun.

It is a busy time for police chief Bruno Courrèges.  Local farmers of geese and ducks are being set upon by members of PETA who oppose fois gras.  A local archeology site has turned up four skeleton’s-- three that could cause a significant change in the science of evolution, one much more recent who was murdered—and now the head of the dig has gone missing.  A high level summit is about to take place between representatives of France and Spain over the Basque separatists.  And Bruno has two attractive women and a new magistrate with whom he must contend.

Walker’s evocative descriptions transport one to the sights, sound, smells and tastes of Provence.  Each book being set in a different season—in this case, Spring—heightens the experience even further.  

Bruno is a very likeable and appealing character.  He is very much part of his small community and protective of its residents.  He is part of their lives and understands them.  His approach to law enforcement is always to abide within the letter of the law, but to do what is just, and provides the best solution to the people involved.  

An excellent descriptions comes from Bruno himself, “He could imagine what young magistrates might think of him, an ex-soldier who hunted and drank and who tired never to arrest anyone and cared little for the subtleties of modern law enforcement with its counseling and political correctness.” although this makes him seem harsher than he is.  The woman he most loves now lives in Paris and he can’t imagine life anywhere but in St. Denis.  It also leaves out that he built his own house, grows most of his own food, makes wine, rides horses, and cooks.  The descriptions of food and its preparation were mouth-watering and somewhat amusing.  Above all, he is no one’s fool.

I always learn something from Walkers’ books.  The archeological information is fascinating with the subject of the dig being a discovery that could change thoughts of the evolution of man from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnin.  There was also and interesting, and well-handled, perspective given on the controversy over fois gras.  However, some of the history from WWII, the French Resistance, the Spanish Civil War, the Basque separatists, and the “Dirty War” in Argentina, was a bit confusing to me.  I certainly know of them all, but not necessarily how they fit together politically.  Still, it made me look things up and was fascinating.  It also led to a moment of introspection…”Generation after generation, so many bodies must lie scattered in the soil of France, so many battlefields where the bones must lie thickly together. …France is built on a heap of bones, he thought; we are the sum of all the dead that went before us.”

“The Crowded Grave” is a very good read.  It has all the best elements of character, sense of place, a bit of humor, some suspense, and a compelling plot.    I’m happy to say the next book is already waiting for me.

THE CROWDED GRAVE (Pol Proc-Bruno Courrèges-Provence, France-Contemp) - VG
Walker, Martin

Alfred A. Knopf, 2011 

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

First Sentence:  He sent his mind in search of me that morning.

     

Nicola Marter has a gift but it’s one with which she is uncomfortable.  However, when a woman comes into the art gallery for which she works, she is intrigued by the history behind an item the woman desperately wants to sell.  Asking the help of Rob McMorran, briefly a former lover, whose gift is even greater than her own, they travel to St. Petersburg, Russia looking for answers for a gift given to the woman’s ancestor, Anna, by Empress Catherine.  In order to find the answers, they much follow Anna from Scotland to Belgium to Russia, seeing her life through the years.

     

A curious, but intriguing open fades to precise descriptions bringing you back to reality.  One thing I remember about the movie "The Da Vinci Code" were the scenes when the characters saw locations as they once were.  Ms. Kearsley's descriptions obviously reminded me of that as they are just that vivid.  No matter the time period, the sense of time and place is clear and compelling.

Kearsey has a wonderful voice, with a lovely wry humor, reminiscent to that of Mary Stewart’s earlier books.  She draws you into the story, the locations and the characters, bringing them all to life.  Her dialogue is natural and flowing with regional accents to provide veracity yet not to the point of making reading difficult.

       

The level of Ms. Kearsley research is very apparent.  Whether it be, the history of the Jacobites, or the various locations and actual historical characters, you know you can trust the information which has been overlaid with a very good story.  Insofar as the abilities of the modern characters, while I do believe in people having the abilities of telepathy and psychometry, I’m not certain anyone has them to the level of the characters.  However, my criticism is very small in comparison with how essential those talents are to the story and how well it made the whole plot work overall.

       

The story set in two time periods; contemporary and the 1700s and the transitions are done very smoothly.  You never feel lost.  What is even more remarkable is that both stories are equally strong.  There is never a sense of wishing there were more of one story than the other.  Although they move from one to the other, it was as though I was reading two books simultaneously and loving them both.  While perhaps not a mystery in the true sense of the word, there is the mystery of finding out about the history of the object which sends Nicola and Rob on their travels. 

       

Ms. Kearsley creates wonderful characters that are fully developed and come to life.  None of them feel as though they are secondary characters as each has a significant role to play.  However, I must say that for those of us who read “Shadowy Horses” and “The Winter Sea” there are wonderful connections to both of those books.  At the same time, new readers will have no sense of confusion from not having read them—except to have missed out on two wonderful reads.

       

There is a wonderful building of romantic tension in each story line.  These are not impassioned bodice-rippers—okay, there was just a tiny bit of bodice ripping—but waltzes that gracefully build to satisfying conclusions. 

     

 “The Firebird” is a wonderful read.  I am always entranced by Ms. Kearsley’s writing.  She is one of my "don't bother me, I'm reading" author, and it’s so delightful when you find one. 

THE FIREBIRD (Novel/Mys-Nicola Marter-Europe-Contemp) – VG

Kearsley, Susanna – Standalone

Sourcebooks Landmark, 2013