A Study in Scarlet

 A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, 123 pages.

In this, the first Sherlock Holmes novel, John Watson is introduced to a weird man looking for a roommate while he is doing the same. Watson is fascinated and impressed by Holmes' deductive detective techniques, and is soon tagging along on a very strange murder where the clues don't seem to be adding up.

After about 150 years of near constant popularity I feel confident that everyone reading this knows who Sherlock Holmes is and his general deal. That being said, reading this novel still felt like a sort of original experience. And the Mormons were a surprise. 

I could definitely see myself reading more of these, and it's definitely a worthy book for fans of the classic mystery novel.

Real Easy

 Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski (2022, 320 pages)

In 1990s small town Illinois, a new dancer joins the tight knit group of a strip club; a group of detectives with secrets investigates a murder and a disappearance; and a woman is held captive without apparent reason.

Swapping between multiple perspectives, you follow along with the mystery surrounding the Lovely Lady strip club: the dancers, the owner, the bouncers, the regulars, the detectives. Themes include small town and sex worker culture, mild queer representation, and suspense -- my only complaint is that two women's stories seem to focus entirely around their kids without being their own person. 

While it has mystery aspects as you try to discover the killer, it reads more like a thriller. Rutkoski describes the mundane with a Ghibli-esque floral style, but with more adult themes. I love the way she led us down the rabbit hole of whodunnit, and the casual queer representation plus acknowledgement of racial divides.

Who Could That Be at This Hour?

 Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket, 258 pages. 

I found this book when a reading challenge I was participating in required a middle grade mystery, and I was delighted to find that Lemony Snicket a) wrote more books and b) wrote books that might finally tell us more about the mysterious VFD from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Unfortunately, either because this book wasn't as strong as his previous series or because I haven't read said books in a long time and have since exited the target audience, I was disappointed in this book. I mostly found it tedious and slow-going (surprising for a middle grade book) and wasn't especially satisfied with how the mystery came together. Overall, I am not sure I will keep following the adventures of a young Lemony Snicket in an organization I feel safe assuming is the VFD.

Death at La Fenice

Death at La Fenice: a Novel of Suspense / Donna Leon, 263 p.

The first installment in the now very successful Guido Brunetti series features a world-renowned German conductor dead of cyanide poisoning at the Venice opera.  A dead conductor and a cast of suspects including the soprano, the wife, and a disgruntled stage manager sounds like a cardboard plot, but Brunetti is a subtle, well-drawn character I may learn to like. 

The Lady in the Lake

The Lady in the Lake / Raymond Chandler, 266 p.

I began this Philip Marlowe novel with unease, having recently tried The Big Sleep and finding it hard-boiled to the point of unpalatability.  I had an entirely different reaction here: Lady is a later work, and perhaps Marlowe/Chandler had become more nuanced by the time of its writing.

Whatever the case, this tale of two missing wives and one found drowned corpse was, for me, wonderful reading and generated a great discussion at our Classics book group. Written and set in 1943, I found the war, superficially of little importance to the story, to be a crucial off-stage character.  While the novel's  wealthy socialites, brutal police and sundry low-lifes are romping in a SoCal dreamworld, people are dying daily by the thousands across the oceans.  I kept wondering about the male characters: why weren't they fighting?  were they ashamed?   Of course, I know that every male couldn't possibly have gone overseas, but the war's progress cast a sort of jaundiced glow on all the men in the story.  Terrific, edgy dialogue and gorgeous physical descriptions round out an almost perfect detective story.

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman (2015) 308 pages

I don't usually read short story collections, but I found Trigger Warning to be well worth my time, with several vivid stories that can't help but be stuck in my head, often because of their surprising turns. The selections are a pot pourri of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, fairy tales re-jiggered, and detective. Included is a Dr. Who story called "Nothing O'Clock." As I read the story, I felt as if I were watching an episode of the show. It turns out that Gaiman has loved the Dr. Who television series since he was a small child and eventually wrote episodes for it.

Gaiman's intro to Trigger Warning is every bit as good as one of his stories, starting with a discussion of the definition of trigger warning. Gaiman wondered if people would ever put a trigger warning on his fiction, and then decided to do it himself with the title he chose. It's a good warning to have, since these stories can go any which way! I also appreciated his brief write-ups of every story/poem, enjoying a glimpse of the background behind the selections.

Sherlock: A Study in Pink

Sherlock: A Study in Pink by Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, & Jay  224 pp.

This was reviewed previously by Christa and she pretty much says what I would. The only thing I would add is that I'm not sure how well the story comes across to those not familiar with the television series, especially the way Sherlock's thought processes are portrayed. I enjoyed it because I am a fan of the show and it all made sense to me.

Sherlock: a study in pink

Sherlock: a study in pink / Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss & Jay, 224 pgs.

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson chase a killer whose victims commit suicide.  Set in modern day London, this adaptation is done in Manga style, reading right to left.  This collection of the serialized comics was originally published in Japan. This work is based on the TV series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.  The drawings and story line will be familiar to fans of the show.

The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia / James Ellroy, 325 pp.

After finishing Rick Geary's Black Dahlia I thought I would compare it with the fictional treatment of Elizabeth Short's story, told by the author of L.A. Confidential, Suicide Hill and others.  Short was murdered in particularly gruesome fashion in 1947 Los Angeles; the crime was never solved.  Ellroy tells her tale through the narrative of two fictional detectives, Lee Blanchard and Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert, former boxers who happen to be in love with the same woman.

The novel was first published 30 years ago and its setting takes us back 70 years.  And it sure reads like a trip in a time machine!  There is one heck of a lot of misogyny, racism, and homophobia packed into these pages, most of it a perfectly accurate depiction of the setting, no doubt.  The lingo - a very noir LAPD-ese - is great fun, but it took some getting used to.  And the story?  On that point, I would have to agree with the rave reviews on the jacket.  Detective fiction doesn't get much better than this.  But I think my next LA noir read will be an Easy Rawlins by Walter Mosley.  Same time, same place, but a very different perspective.

The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything / D.A. Mishani, 289 pp.

The third in Mishani's series about Israeli inspector Avi Avraham, following The Missing File and A Possibility of Violence, does not disappoint.  An older women is found strangled in her apartment and signs point to her estranged son.  But Avraham remembers the victim from the past, and this is what nags at him as the case proceeds.  More of a whydunit than a whodunit, which seems to be Mishani's hallmark, we learn about the murderer early on, but don't quite understand his crime until the end.

The Missing File / D.A. Mishani 289 p.

The first in what promises to be a series featuring Detective Avraham Avraham, set in suburban Tel Aviv.  The Missing File is the story of Avraham's search for missing 16-year-old Ofer Sharabi.  And at first it seemed like a straightforward, if unexceptional, genre piece.  Avraham has a so-so personal life, strained relationships with his extended family, and a complicated attraction to a colleague.  And he can't figure out how to move forward with his case.  Such is the stuff of which detective fiction is made.  About 2/3 of the way through, I realized I was hooked into this story, though.  And by the end, I saw that Mishani is vastly more clever than he at first appears.  A bit dry, and the characterization is thin at first, but I think that will change as he keeps writing.  Detective Avraham just might be my new best friend.