November 2007 Fiction and Mystery Reviews

The Tomb of Zeus (Laetitia Talbot Mysteries)
by Barbara Cleverly

Delta
Paperback
ISBN# 0385339909
Suggested Retail Price: $13.00 or as low as $6.10 from Amazon.com!

There's more than a touch of Agatha Christie in this novel by Barbara Cleverly. The story unfolds on the isle of Crete in the post-War era, where the aspiring young student Laetitia Talbot joins the company of the famous archaeologist Theodore Russell - an unpleasant and ambitious man who is determined to discover the lost Tomb of Zeus - the legendary Greek god. Yes, on Crete even the gods may die. But its a classic murder mystery when Pheobe Russell, Theodore's scandalously young second wife, is found dead. At first its thought that she committed suicide, but Letty knows the Phoebe was not suicidal and she sets out to solve the crime.

Yes, all of the elements are here. The Russell household includes his shiftless son George, William Gunning - with whom Letty had a fling some years ago that ended badly, a local Greek guide, and even a police Inspector. The Grecian environment adds to the air of romance and mystery. Its a ripping good yarn, as they say. I'm a huge fan of British mysteries and I loved this story.

Terminal Vibrato And Other Stories
by Stanford Pritchard

Beaufort Books
Hardcover
ISBN# 0825305136
Suggested Retail Price: $23.00 or as low as $9.00 from Amazon.com!

Stanford Pritchard gives us a first-person novella that tells of a boxer's internal musings as he performs a silent monologue with his roommate, followed by a tortured discussion of their lives once the roommate awakens. The search for self, the meaning of life, the universe, and everything... with the conclusion that the world is incredibly large and incredibly small at the same time. I enjoyed the free-association as the boxer's mind wanders, but this isn't my genre so I can't give this collection a hearty endorsement.

Murder on the Rebound
by Jeffrey Miller

ECW Press
Paperback
ISBN# 978-1-55022-793-2
Suggested Retail Price: $16.95 or as low as $2.70 from Amazon.com!

Its another outing for Amicus Curiae, QC (Questing Cat) and his human, Justice Theodore Elisha (Ted) Mariner. Set in a law school, we meet Prefessor Mack Kerskowitz, a philandering bully of a teacher who is universally despised by his students to the point where there's graffiti half-jokingly calling for his death. If this were an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" we'd all be thinking to ourselves "we have our victim for tonight" as we have all done whenever that show introduces a despicable character. But there's a twist to that overused device. A student is found murdered in the professor's flat. Did the killer miss his intended victim, or was the student killed on purpose?

As with the previous two mysteries in this series, the grim reality of the murder is offset by the lighthearted internal musings of the remarkable cat Amicus that accompanies Ted Mariner through the investigation. Its an easily digestible little mystery that will keep you guessing to the end.