The Road to Heaven

The Road to Heaven by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson (2024) 328pp

Set in 1960s Toronto, this mystery from Canada follows the standard Chandleresque formula. A burned-out private eye, femme fatales, a missing person. and of course, murder. Aspiring PI Patrick Bird works for a crusty old-school detective agency and is glad to be assigned a missing person case, a chance to move on from divorce work, photographing illicit trysts. Trent Linklater, Bird’s high-end client, is concerned that his teenage daughter Abbie has gone missing. Bird uses practically every gumshoe trick in the book looking for the daughter. Red herrings abound and seediness is the rule as Bird takes the reader across the city uprooting rocks and uncovering sleaze. He is run over, finds a body, is dragged to the police station and interrogated, and eventually faces down the murderer. And that is the abbreviated version. Stefanovich-Thomson was just short-listed for an Edgar and has certainly earned it. Readers will be glad that there is no tariff on maple noir – yet.

Secrets Typed in Blood

 Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood, 384 pages,

This third installment of the Pentecost and Parker mysteries brings Lillian and Will back to New York City, and into another knotted nest of murders. Author Holly Quick writes pulpy murder stories for detective magazines under half a dozen pseudonyms, and someone is stealing her murders. Bodies keep turning up, murdered in ways that match her stories exactly. She's desperate for them to solve the murders, and to do it without letting the police know that they're looking, or that the murders are connected. Pentecost and Parker are on the case, and hopefully their professional relationship can survive it. 

This is a strong installment in a series that seems to be consistently good. I really appreciate that each book really shows Will Parker growing as a character. The tone of these books is also so immersive and engaging. This one takes place in 1947, and Will Parker narrates with a noir style that feels both classic and modern. I'm really looking forward to continuing with this series. 

Ash Dark As Night

Ash Dark As Night by Gary Phillips, 295 pages

It's 1965 in Los Angeles and photographer Harry Ingram is risking his neck to document the Watts riots that are raging in the city. When he captures a damning photo of police officers killing an unarmed young Black man, Ingram is thrust into the spotlight himself, drawing unwanted attention from the police and others who aren't so keen on what the people are fighting for. However, the notoriety helps him out as Ingram searches for a man who went missing during the riots, a man who may have been involved in some nefarious deeds.

The era and noir feel of this book are fantastic — it captures the unrest of the time and the grittiness of Ingram's life perfectly. However, this is billed as a mystery, and that seems to take a backseat to all of the protests and investigation involved with the civil rights movement. So it's a good book, just maybe not a mystery.

Table for Two

A Table for Two by Amor Towles (2024) 451pp

My fiction selection process is pretty simple. If the book is not on the bottom shelves and it has an interesting cover and blurb I will give it a try. Naturally I end up reading (and not reading) books that should be left unopened. Vaguely aware of Towles’ reputation, I checked this out. According to the back cover it includes a collection of New York stories and a novella set in LA.  Being contrary, I started at the end with “Eve in Hollywood,” a noir story which is a continuation of an early Towles story, Rules of Civility. The story is split into seven vignettes, each from the point of view of one of the main characters. Each character has a clear voice, a motive and a part to play. Excellent writing. What a treat. This is classic noir with double-crosses, muted brutality, blackmail and vice. Equally entertaining, but not obtrusive, is Towles’ description of Hollywood in 1938. He explains the studio system and the attendant turmoil generated by the movie industry and the moguls who ran it. The reviews say it all – exhilarating, witty, humorous, erudite and sophisticated.

Trouble in Queenstown

Trouble in Queenstown by Delia Pitts, 314 pages

Private investigator Vandy Myrick has been back in Queenstown for about 8 months when she gets a visit from Leo Hannah, who asks her to shadow his wife, Ivy, who he fears has a stalker. But just before Vandy's ready to hand over her report from the week, Leo calls her to his home where Ivy and an unknown man are dead. Leo says that he killed the man who was in the process of killing Ivy, and while that's what the police department officially writes up (at the behest of Leo's aunt, who is the mayor of Queenstown), Vandy has a sneaking suspicion that there's more to the story.

A modern-day noir mystery with a troubled Black woman protagonist, this is an intriguing and fun read. I had a few quibbles with the way things wrapped up — it felt a bit unlikely and convenient — but I'll happily read more in this world, assuming this is a series starter. I hope it is.

Ash Dark as Night

Ash Dark as Night by Gary Phillips (2024) 295pp
You know you are getting older when you read historical fiction that you lived through. Phillips has set his novel in the heart of LA in 1965 in what has been deemed the Watts Riots. The protagonist, Harry Ingram, is in the middle of the action as the insurrection takes place and in his job as a lone African-American photojournalist he describes a variety of incidents, looting, burning and shooting, culminating in his photographing the murder by police of a young activist. On a personal note, I was a photojournalist in the 1970s and found myself in a few, albeit minor, civil disturbances similar to those described in the book, Phillips’ description of the mayhem and uncertainty reflects my experience. I remember the march of the police phalanx as it confronted “rioters” and the need to seek shelter as night fell and cars burned. One dubious detail is the description of photo equipment used by Ingram. I found it unlikely that he would use a large format press camera in a such a tense environment. In his defense though, he does use the sheet-film camera as a plot element in a true-to-life scenario. Following the riot, Ingram, after surviving a brutal beating, becomes involved in a noir mystery tracking down a missing person and unraveling a knot of corruption. Many characters are introduced, including his love interest, a no-nonsense woman with a number of secrets and a fascinating back story. This fictional re-telling of the infamous incident takes the point-of-view of the people living in the area and reflects a narrative untold in the main-stream media of the era.