June 2003 Fiction and Mystery Reviews

Money for Nothing
by Donald E. Westlake

Mysterious Press

ISBN# 0-89296-787-0
Suggested Retail Price: $24.95 or as low as $0.01 from Amazon.com!

When a new Westlake mystery appears I have to isolate myself and read all of it right away. Too bad it's very easy to do that again in this case. The fun is over so quickly that its like the cliche about eating Chinese food and being hungry again in an hour.

I miss Dortmunder and ache for his next adventure. I also understand that I cannot squeeze this great author like a toothpaste tube. He has turned out numerous good stories under his own name, and even more under his nom de plume Richard Stark to satisfy most of us fans. He says that he will hold off on the Dortmunder mysteries, only writing one every couple of years so that we don't get tired of him. (Not a chance!)

This time out the plot is simple. A man named Josh suddenly starts receiving a check for $1,000 every month. To give him a little credit, he does try to trace the check from the telephone number printed on it, but no one ever answers. The checks are good, and Josh deposits them because he really needs the extra money. After seven years of this bounty, he has become pretty successful in business and is married to a lovely and bright lady. They have a son. Josh keeps putting the checks in the bank, although he doesn't really need the money anymore. Then one day, to Josh's horror, he discovers that you don't really get money for nothing. He is approached by a complete stranger who tells him, "You are now activated."

From here on, Josh finds out that he was really recruited by this organization that wants to use him and his apartment for a nasty scheme that involves the assassination of a visiting head of a country.

I would not spoil this plot for the world. You need to enjoy the perilous adventures that Josh encounters for yourself. It is enough to say that Westlake has dreamed up another wonderful story about why you really never do get MONEY FOR NOTHING.

Crossed Bones
by Carolyn Haines

Delacorte Press

ISBN# 0-385-33659-4
Suggested Retail Price: $23.95 or as low as $0.74 from Amazon.com!

Those readers who already enjoy this new P.I. Sara Booth Delaney already know that she lives on her family's old estate. She has been hanging onto this home by beginning a new career as a private detective. You may also recall that her old house has a female ghost named Jitty who gives her advice and is always showing off various new outfits that she wears for each of her appearances. Jetty is the ghost of Sara's great great-great-grandmother's nanny.

As far as the plot is concerned, Jitty just is there. Sara Booth is recovering from a broken affair with the local sheriff who had decided to return to his wife.

It all begins with a call from the wife of a local blues musician named Ivory Keyes. Ivory owned and performed in his own nightclub. The police have arrested Scott Hamilton, a well-known performer who was playing at the club, for the murder of Keyes. Ivory's wife pays Sarah to find out who really murdered Ivory because she is sure that Scott is innocent. Scott doesn't want help at first, but he warms up to Sara and becomes one of her lovers who are threaded throughout this nail-biting mystery. The plot is intwined in racism and has so many clues that it gets confusing. Of course, Sara gets it all straightened out and solves the case. Along the way to the solution there are some interesting and very nasty men. Sara meets many dangers and handles a psychotic female fan of Scott's who causes all kinds of problems.

This is a good mystery from the Deep South, with lots of interesting characters to meet and wonder over until you get to the conclusion and then it all makes sense.

Water Lily
by Susanna Jones

Mysterious Press

ISBN# 0-89296-776-5
Suggested Retail Price: $23.95 or as low as $1.22 from Amazon.com!

Author Susanna Jones has given us a very dark and despairing tale. She tells the story of two people who meet on the way to China. They are traveling on a ferryboat. Ralph is an Englishman. He has been seeking a new mail-order bride to replace his first foreign bride. We are left to wonder whatever happened to her.

Ruana is a Japanese teacher who is fleeing from her homeland where she had an affair with one of her students. Ruana has fled after stealing her sister's passport and is using her idenity. She is, in reality, an English teacher, but is now pretending that she barely understands the language. When Ralph and Ruana meet on the boat they begin a love affair. Their past lives haunt them until the book ends in tragedy.

Jones writes with fewer words than most writers and gives the readers more insight into her characters until we learn to like, dislike or sympathize with each of the players.

Monkeewrench
by P. J. Tracy

Putnam Adult

ISBN# 0-399-14978-3
Suggested Retail Price: $23.95 or as low as $0.70 from Amazon.com!

This is a delightful and bloody mystery that weaves in and out around the theme of a new computer game. The new game constructed by a group that calls themselves and the game "Monkeywrench." This is a typical game that uses a series of very violent murders. Violence is popular in computer games and even though the group had disagreed about using murders as games, in each level the killer is caught and brought to justice. The game is being tested in beta form and on the web.

The horror begins when someone starts to duplicate the game's murder scenes. The murders are duplicated in minute detail. Now the police enter and the mysterious programmers who invented the game began to be concerned that their own strange past is going to be uncovered.

There are twenty murder scenes in the game. When the police try to trace the members of this computer group to find out who they are, it becomes clear that it is impossible to trace any of them or how they got together to form this group. This part of the mystery as compelling as finding out who is committing these murders.

As I say, the plot revolves around a cast of fascinating characters. The authors, who are in reality a mother and daughter writing team, have done a terrific job of keeping the reader on the edge of whatever they might be sitting on. This team has written a winner. Trust me. Try this one.

The Fabulous Saga of Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor
by William Hazlett Upson

Voyageur Press

ISBN# 0-89658-530-1
Suggested Retail Price: $12.95 or as low as $3.90 from Amazon.com!

These are the wonderful tales about a great salesman by the name of Botts. His stories first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in the late 1920's. Each of his tales of hazardous selling trips is conveyed by the letters that Botts writes to his boss and letters and telegrams that the boss sends back to him. Botts is a super salesman who will go to any lengths to sell his product, the Earthworm Tractor. He always wins despite the odds, which demonstrates the skill and plain pushy salesmanship of this super salesman. He doesn't need to put his foot in the door, although many doors do close on him. He will cleverly turn a problem into a sale using his skills and a few big lies or demonstrations that will boggle the buyer's mind. Botts is frequently receiving letters from the boss pointing out the complaints they get about him and sometimes telling him to come home. Botts survives by ignoring these demands completely and moving ahead to make his next sale.

I found these stories years ago and fell in love with them. Funny and endearing exploits that always turn out right in the end. They are delightful to read. Be sure to check out the other titles by this Minnesota publisher.

Back Story
by Robert B. Parker

G. P. Putnam's Sons

ISBN# 0-399-14977-5
Suggested Retail Price: $24.95 or as low as $0.01 from Amazon.com!

We celebrate this amazing private eye on the 30th Anniversary of the Spenser novels.

I like Spenser and all of the stories about him in print, audio and even on television (alas, poor Urich! We miss him.). However the smart cracks between Spenser and his buddy Hawk run a bit thin in this tale.

The story is about a 1974 group of revolutionaries that called themselves "The Dread Scott Brigade." During the robbery of a Boston bank, a woman named Emily Gordon was killed. She was just cashing traveler's checks in the bank when she was shot and killed. The Brigade claimed the responsibility, but no one was ever caught.

Meanwhile, Spenser's young friend Paul wants to marry a woman by the name of Daryl Gorden. Daryl is the daughter of Emily Gordon, who has now been dead for thirty years, and she wants Spenser to help her find the killers. Spenser steps into this investigation with a deep sense of foreboding. The crime is 30 years old, and right at the beginning he finds that there is a missing FBI report. No one in the FBI will help him. As he begins to search for answers, he uncovers a lot of very old clues.

The Guru of Love
by Samrat Upadhyay

Houghton Mifflin

ISBN# 0-618-24727-0
Suggested Retail Price: $23.00 or as low as $0.45 from Amazon.com!

This book takes the reader into a world that is completely foreign to most of us. Nepal is the home of a math teacher named Ranchandra. In order to add to his income, Ranchandra accepts students to tutor in his home. Ranchandra is married and has two children. He lives in very cramped quarters even though his wife comes from a family that has money. The teacher has often wondered why her family wanted him for her husband. The family always insults him and they treat him as an inferior. Ranchandra's wife, Goma, becomes aware that her husband has become enamored with one of his students. Her name is Malati and soon the teacher and the student are having an affair. Goma finds out, of course, and she insists that Malati move into their small apartment and into her husband's bed.

One day, Malati decides to move out. It is too late for Ranchandra's marriage to mend. Goma stays with him until her father dies and then she moves into her old and luxurious home with the children and her mother.

This is the first novel for this author. He is most skilled in bringing his readers the feel of a totally foreign atmosphere where the manners and living conditions are very different from ours.

Samrat Upadhyay brings the tastes, the smells and the people in the life of this math teacher into clear focus with a brevity of words that is admirable. Guru of Love is a charming trip into the very foreign lives of these people.

Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad
by Virginia Holman

Simon & Schuster

ISBN# 0-7432-2285-7
Suggested Retail Price: $23.00 or as low as $1.91 from Amazon.com!

The reader is invited into the strange world of Virginia Holman. During her childhood Virginia's mother suffers from schizophrenia. Mother takes off to relocate at a family cottage in a remote location on the Virginia Peninsula. This move is the mother's first psychotic episode. The two young girls are told that they must prepare the cottage for the children that will be coming there from the war. They are supplying this house as a hospital for these war children. The family is in hiding and the mother has painted the windows of the cottage black so that no one can spy on them.

They stock up on shoes and blankets, even though the children never turn up. Virginia's father eventually finds them and moves in with them. It takes five years to talk the mother into finding some help. She is given medication, but like many mentally ill people, she refuses to take it as soon as she feels better. Her mental health deteriorates to a point where she is sure that she is being stalked and that the house walls are full of poison gas.

Virginia is grown now, but is still trying to cope with her past life with her mother. She invokes the memories of Patty Hearst and thinks of comparisons to her own life of captivity by her mother.

This is a realistic and frightening tale. It brings to life the problems of living in a family that is driven by the mental health of one member. The author's own knowledge brings this issue to the attention it deserves and shows how devastating it is for a family to be involved with the consequences that can hurt everyone connected to the person who is mentally ill.

The Best Revenge
by Stephen White

Delacorte Press

ISBN# 0-385-33619-5
Suggested Retail Price: $24.95 or as low as $0.01 from Amazon.com!

FBI Agent Kelda James has turned up a bloody knife hidden in a hollow log. The DNA on the knife proves that a convicted murderer, Tom Clone, is innocent of the crime. Clone is freed from jail where he was serving a life sentence. Kelda picks up Clone at the prison and takes him into town. On the way, she suggests that Clone see a therapist she knows. Clone goes to the therapist, Alan Gregory, for some sessions and begins to tell him some of his deepest secrets. Now Gregory finds himself in a very dark place that might threaten his whole career. Kelda is also his patient, and as she has revealed herself to him, he finds himself to be the one person who might piece together a puzzle to which the solution is not at first revealed.

The reader is drawn into the hearts and minds of the two major figures in the plot. Stephen White is a psychologist and brings his expertise into this story with a welcome dose of reality.