Peachy Reads

The big scuttlebutt in the publishing world last summer was the debut of crime writer Robert Galbraith, who, it was discovered in pretty short order, was none other than Harry Potter’s creator J.K. Rowling.  Of course after the true identity of the author was revealed sales skyrocketed, but the attention, it turned out, was warranted. In the first novel in the series, The Cuckoo’s Calling , Galbraith/Rowling introduced the reader to a London-based detective by the name of Cormoran Strike, an ex-soldier from the war in Afghanistan, illegitimate son of a famous British rocker.  The Silkworm starts its narrative thread several months after the events in Cuckoo , in which Strike embarrassed the metropolitan police force by more or less independently solving a high-profile case involving a young Kate Moss-type character.  This time the story centers on the grisly murder of a midlist author, which grabs the tabloid headlines and captures the imagination of the capital. ...

David Baldacci is one of those authors who’s always on our bestseller shelf, and seems to crank out a new title every six months, so I thought I’d check out something light and give him a try for the July 4th long weekend.  The Hit is a Washington-based thriller with CIA operatives and CIA operatives-gone-rogue spilling brains all over our nation’s capital. It’s certainly a page-turner and if you like thrillers in the style of Robert Ludlum, Baldacci is for you. The government assassins don’t reveal much about their identities, that’s their modus operandi, but it makes for somewhat wooden characters… but then I suppose you’re not supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about guns for hire.

If you’ve ever read one of Donna Leon’s Inspector Brunetti mysteries, set in Venice, you may be interested in this collection of essays as I was.  If you’re expecting a love letter to Venice though, you may be disappointed as the “and Other Essays” part of the title represents the majority of the book, in which Leon covers topics as varied as her passion for Baroque opera, fat Americans, and an indictment of Saudi Arabian men.   Leon, in my mind, comes across as somewhat curmudgeonly, and like many expats, scrutinizes her country of birth with a highly critical eye. It sounds like this collection of essays was written less for her American audience and more for her UK or perhaps German readership. Leon has unapologetically ripped the rose-colored glasses from her face and crushed them underfoot, offering her unvarnished opinion of all and sundry. 

This is the second or third Bernie Gunther novel I have read, this one taking place in Berlin in 1938 when the excesses of the Nazis begin to boil over and their hatred of the Jews culminates in Kristallnacht.  Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich's Main Security Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and Sicherheitsdienst) reenlists Gunther in the Kriminalpolizei to investigate a series of murders of typically Aryan maidens, who are kidnapped and ritually killed in a manner that seems to suggest a sadistic Jewish plot.  Gunther's investigations uncover a plot that is anything but what it appears to be upon first inspection. What makes the Bernie Gunther series work is his skepticism and barely disguised disdain for the Nazi administration, and his attempts to work for justice in a society that increasingly devalues it.  The historical context of these novels is what fascinates me—there’s a lengthy discussion about the burning of the Reichstag, for example; a train le...

An American financier relocates his young family to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, but the details of his job are sketchy.  His wife starts snooping around, especially when agents of the FBI begin to monitor the family.  She tries to uncover his secrets, while keeping her own not so insignificant secrets hidden. The expat existence is accurately portrayed, and the charm of Luxembourg nicely described.  Other European settings include the Alps, Amsterdam, and Paris, which makes this thriller great for the armchair traveler!  The story is intriguing, though ultimately a bit complex, at least for this reader.

US cover It’s been awhile since I’ve visited the campi , canals, and calli of Venice with Commissario Guido Brunetti.  For a long while I was more partial to Aurelio Zen and even read some books by Andrea Camilleri, but I really enjoyed my reunion with Donna Leon in this slim novel.  The writing is really good, the story was engaging, and the cultural insights are astute.  I felt like I was following alongside Brunetti, drinking in the atmosphere of Venice, and seeing it through the eyes of a native.  Granted, Leon is not a native Veneziana, but after thirty years she's as Venetian as any American could hope to be. UK cover, which I think is so much better   Brunetti is called in to investigate the vandalism and theft of some priceless books at a Venetian Library.  The plot thickens when one of the library’s readers turns up murdered. Was it the mysterious American scholar with credentials from a university in Kansas, or someone else?

Kinsey Millhone is permanently stuck in 1988, which is probably about when I read A is for Alibi, the first in Sue Grafton's alphabet detective series.  It's fun to time-travel back to that nostalgic era each time a new installment comes out.  X,Y, Z is all that is left. Anyway, in W is for Wasted we learn a bit more about Kinsey's distant family ties when a homeless man dies and lists Kinsey as family.  Not only is the family link a surprise, but the fact that this seemingly destitute hobo has left half a million dollars to Kinsey, bypassing his own children.   The book ends with an exciting fight in which Kinsey fends off a crazy doctor with murderous intents with a pair of garden shears.