Blog Tour: Titanic 2012

TITLE: Titanic 2012

AUTHOR: Bill Walker

PUBLISHED BY: Cemetery Dance Publications (EBook)

Bill Walker Designs (POD Print On Demand)

ISBN:

ISBN-10: 0615592392

ISBN-13: 978-0615592398

GENRE: Mystery/Romance

SYNOPSIS:

Best-selling mystery novelist Trevor Hughes has no idea that attending his twentieth reunion at Harvard will forever change his life.

Persuaded to go by his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Dr. Julia Magnusson, he meets up with three old friends: Solly Rubens, a self-made Wall Street millionaire; Ken Faust, a successful software entrepreneur; and Harlan Astor, New York real estate tycoon and the glue that holds their circle together.

That afternoon, over drinks at the Harvard Club, Harlan drops his bombshell: He is doing what James Cameron did not -- he is rebuilding the Titanic, and sailing the ship on the hundredth anniversary to honor those who died, including his great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor IV. Only Trevor is intrigued by Harlan's audacity. Touched by his friend's interest and concern, Harlan invites him on the maiden voyage to serve as the official chronicler.

On April 10, 2012, Trevor journeys to Southampton and, along with the hundreds of handpicked passengers, boards the Titanic. He is awed by the immensity of the ship and the feelings that well up in him. His friend has made his grand dream a reality.

During the journey, armed with his iPod Touch and a miniature wireless camera hidden in his glasses, Trevor interviews both passengers and crew, eager to learn the reasons why they chose to sail on the reborn ship.

Nearly every one of them claims to have been profoundly affected by Cameron's film, wanting to recapture the magic for themselves. And some of them are dying -- their last wish to be on the maiden voyage of the new Titanic.

Trevor is touched that his friend has allowed these people to come aboard, and is unprepared when he meets Madeleine Regehr, a beautiful, free-spirited woman who resists his entreaties to be interviewed, intriguing Trevor all the more. Slowly, and inexorably, Maddy draws him out of his shell, allowing him to love deeply and completely, for the very first time in his life.

But Trevor soon discovers a darker purpose for the voyage, a purpose that threatens to destroy him and the woman he loves. In a race against time that pits friend against friend, Trevor must stop the unstoppable or risk a horrific replay of history...

My Take: What a breathtaking ride! Bill Walker has given us tale worthy of the original Titanic story as well as the epic movie by James Cameron to which many references are made and many comparisons may be found. I picked this up in the afternoon on April 9 and finished by afternoon on April 10--and if there hadn't been a need for sleep and a morning's worth of work I would have read straight through and finished sooner. An incredibly readable and unputdownable book. The characters are lively and credible and I instantly become involved with their stories. I wanted to know why every single one of the passengers had come on board--not just the ones whose stories are shared. As Maddy says after she has read the initial chapters of Trevor's book:

I kept wanting it to go on. When I reached the last page, and it wouldn't scroll any further, I actually got angry with you.

Well, I didn't get angry....but I was sad to have the book end. I wanted more. That is definitely a sign of a good author. And Walker has done what few authors have done with me--moved me to tears in the final chapters. A lovely tribute to the Titanic tragedy and a potent and poignant story of its own, Titanic 2012 will definitely stay with me for a long time to come. Five stars.

AUTHOR BIO:

A graduate of Emerson College's prestigious film school, Bill wrote and directed his first feature film, Pawn, while still a student. After graduation, he co-founded Newbury Filmworks, Inc., an award-winning production company renowned for making high-quality corporate films and commercials.

In 1990, Bill relocated to Los Angeles, and began a freelance story analysis career for various studios and independent production companies, while devoting his spare time to the writing of novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is also a highly-respected graphic designer, specializing in book and dust jacket design. He has worked on books by such luminaries as: Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King. In addition, Bill is a member of the Authors Guild.

He has won awards for his screenwriting, his two short story collections for Mid-Graders, Five-Minute Frights and Five-Minute Chillers, are perennial Halloween favorites, and his first novel, Titanic 2012 was enthusiastically received by readers. His second novel, Camp Stalag was released in 2001. Bill lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Debbie, and their sons, Jeffrey and Brian.

AUTHOR SITES: website: www.billwalkernovels.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000852734908

DISCLAIMER

Every eBook and print copy received for review on the tours for Partners In Crime are given in exchange for an honest review. The eBooks are sole property (copyrighted) of the author and should not be sold, distributed to, or exchanged among other people not part of the tours, nor should they be listed on file sharing sites. Failure to comply with this disclaimer, will result in removal from all future tours.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

Once again, I'm behind-no Monday posting last week, so this is two week's work of reading.
Books Read (click on titles for review):

 The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö 

Titanic 2012 by Bill Walker   (reviewing coming soon as part of a Blog Tour)
Bland Beginning by Julian Symons 
A Finer End by Deborah Crombie 
The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart 
The Gemini Man by Susan Kelly 
Chancellorsville & Gettysburg by General Abner Doubleday

The War of the Worlds Murder by Max Allan Collins

 

Currently Reading:

Dracula by Bram Stoker: After discovering the double identity of the wealthy Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, a small group of people vow to rid the world of the evil vampire.   

 

Books that spark my interest:
Pearls Before Swine by Margery Allingham

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories by Michael Sims (ed & intro)

The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart   

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday says:

A while ago, I interviewed my readers for a change, and my final question was, “What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?” I got some great responses and will be picking out some of the questions from time to time to ask the rest of you. Like now.

Bookish Sarah asks:

What are your literary “pet peeves”?

I did this previously for another post (Top Ten Tuesday...year or so ago)...so here are my Top Ten (slightly adjusted):

1. People who dog-ear books that do not belong to them. (All my friends understand that I have a murderous streak when it comes to the maltreatment of my books....). Finding it in library books drives me nearly as crazy....not quite, but nearly.
2. Ditto for people who highlight in books that do not belong to them. Did you pay for that library book? (Not counting tax money support here.) Didn't think so. Take notes--that's what pen & paper are for. Or buy your own copy...then you can refer to your highlighting whenever you want.
3. Stores that slap stickers all over the books (particularly used book stores that use the kind that apparently have super-glue on them). I can't stand having stickers on my books.
4. In the same vein...bookstores and libraries who stick stickers and/or their library coding system directly over the synopsis. How the heck am I am supposed to find out if this book really needs to come home with me if I can't figure out what it's about?
5. BUT I don't want book blurbs that TELL ALL. It's really annoying when the book blurbs/synopses give away the whole plot.
6. Book cover art that has nothing to do with the story. When there is a blond, blue-eyed damsel in distress on the cover and none to be found in the book or a bug-eyed monster on that science fiction novel just because the artist was told it was Sci-Fi, this tells me that the artist has no clue what the story was about.
7. Speaking of covers...neon covered books of any sort. Sorry, Janet Evanovich--but it's unlikely that I will every read one of your books. They make my eyes hurt.
8. People who say, "I don't see how you can read that many books" when standing behind me in the checkout line (bookstore or library, doesn't matter). What do they care? OR people who come to my home, regularly see me with a [different] book, etc who ask the same kind of questions. How can you read that many? Don't you have a life? Have you actually read all these books? It's like my book habits threaten them in some way.....
9. Stream of consciousness writing. Something in me just wants to scream: "It's a book! It's supposed to have a plot!"
10. Children in danger/murdered/tortured etc. I'm not sure that this is a pet peeve....but it's something I cannot read unless it's a Golden Age type mystery that leaves out all the details of the crime. I just can't take details like that about children.

The War of the Worlds Murder: Review

Unlike the Sherlock Holmes pastiche of a similar name (which I read last year), The War of the Worlds Murder by Max Allan Collins does not take place in the world of the H. G. Wells classic. At least, not exactly. This story revolves around the historic Mercury Theatre radio presentation of The War of the Worlds by Orson Welles which caused mass panic in 1938. It features Welles, John Houseman, and Walter Gibson (aka Maxwell Grant), creator of the Shadow, among other historical figures. And, as in his other "disaster" mysteries, Collins uses an author of detective fiction (in this case, Gibson) as his amateur crime solver.

The first half or so of the book is spent in build up. We are introduced to the characters and given a very plausible set up for the murder. Collins gives us a look at the creative spirit of Welles and how the dramatic production of the Martian invasion came about. Gibson is brought into contact with Welles when he (Welles) decides that it would be a great idea to collaborate on a Shadow movie, as a natural extension of the successful radio show. Then Gibson (and through him, the reader) is introduced to the worshipers, admirers, hangers-on...and even possible enemies of the brilliant young actor/director.

Just as the radio production is about ready to go on the air, Welles, Gibson and Houseman discover the body of a young woman in one of the empty sound rooms. She had been the latest in a long line of Welles flings--just recently given the heave-ho. There is blood everywhere and and an incriminating knife that points straight at Welles. The door is locked (but there is a window which has given them the view)...and by the time the security guard can be summoned to bring a key the body and the weapon have disappeared!

But you know what they say in show business...the show must go on. And so it does. One of the most historic radio programs ever goes on the air and panic takes over the country as thousands believe that the Martians are really invading. In the midst of all this, Gibson is watching, thinking and gathering clues to the real disaster that has taken place off-stage. Who killed the young woman? Was it someone trying to frame Welles--or has the actor/director (and amateur magician) pulled a conjuring trick of his own? And what happened to the body? By the end of the evening Gibson will have answers to all these questions.

Collins, as always, has done his homework--and that is quite evident. Historical and anecdotal details are superb. The tale of the panic-inducing radio broadcast is quite interesting. And exciting--as Collins takes us from snippets of the broadcast to scenes from the world outside the broadcasting studio. He uses stories of actual audience reactions to show how effective the broadcast was. The murder mystery itself leaves a bit to be desired. It's not nearly as good as either The Titanic Murders or The Hindenburg Murders, for instance. But for a look at the world of 1938 and particularly for a look at what happened when Welles allowed the Martians to invade...it's very good. Three stars for a good solid story overall.

Chancellorsville & Gettysburg: Review

Campaigns of the Civil War: Chancellorsville & Gettysburg by General Abner Doubleday

The author, a Union general at both Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg, was purported to be the inventor of baseball--this has been debunked by almost all sports historians--although Doubleday himself never made such a claim. The book was initially published about 20 years after the Civil War ended. Doubleday's convictions permeate the book. As a commanding office in both battles, his perspective is essentially that of a military professional, yet is strongly flavored by personal feeling. In revisiting these campaigns, he rekindles old political hostilities that had lain dormant for almost 20 years.

My take: The 20 years theme is kind of interesting. Doubleday wrote this account about 20 years after the war had ended. I've had this reprint edition for almost 20 years. Back in 1996 when my parents wanted a suggestion for a birthday present, I gave them this title (among other present options) and it wound up on my shelf. Life and other interests have gotten in the way and I just now have gotten around to reading it. And, let me tell you, a gripping story-teller Doubleday ain't. This is a very dry-as-dust blow-by-blow rattling off of every little military move of the two campaigns. "General So-and-So had a brigade (division...regiment...insert suitable military unit) of Umpity-Thousand men. It was decided to move them over the XYZ Gap to try and hold off the enemy--Rebel General Whosiwhatsit's brigade (division... regiment...you get the idea) of Hmm-Hmm Thousand men." The only time Doubleday gets passionate or injects any interesting bits into his narrative is when he is talking about how General So-and-So disobeyed this order or that OR when various generals disagreed with one another or jockeyed for position.

Give me Michael Shaara's account of Gettysburg in The Killer Angels any day. 2 stars--very informative, but better as a sleep aid than as a riveting tale of the Civil War.

The Gemini Man: Review

The Gemini Man is Susan Kelly's debut novel and the first in a series of mysteries starring Liz Connors, free-lance writer, and her police lieutenant lover, Jack Lingemann. The setting is Cambridge, Massachusetts--with strong ties to Harvard University. Liz has lived in her new apartment building only three weeks and hasn't had time to really get to know her neighbors. But she comes home one evening to discover her next door neighbor Joan Stanley battered to death in a particularly violent crime. More deaths follow and Liz feels driven to do what she can to help Jack get to the bottom of what looks to be the work of a sexually-driven serial killer. Liz's leads take her to a crisis counseling center in Cambridge, the Harvard Psychology Department, and singles bars. But she doesn't expect her investigation to bring the danger so close to home.

Definitely a product of the 80s, the story is laced with humor and realistic characters. It gives us a peek back into what life was like twenty years ago (some of us remember...). I enjoyed the relationship between Liz and Jack and also enjoyed her abilities to get people to talk to her. Her job as a free-lance writer made it very plausible that others might confide in her when they were reluctant to talk to the police. The one draw-back--I spotted the culprit early on and the red herrings and false clues just weren't strong enough to cloud the issue. But--a good first book. Good enough that I'd certainly give this author another try. Three stars.

The Bat: Review

In Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Bat (a book based on the play which was a collaboration between Avery Hopwood and Rinehart--see note below), Cornelia Van Gorder, a spinster who has longed for adventure, takes herself, her Irish maid Lizzie, and her neice Dale off to the country to escape the city's summer heat. She rents a country home that has recently become available when Courtleigh Fleming, a local bank manager, died. She's bemoaning her quiet, unadventurous existence when suddenly the countryside becomes the center for some very mysterious activity.

Cornelia begins receiving anonymous notes meant to frighten her away from the house. There are rumors that The Bat, a notorious criminal mastermind, is in the area. And...in the wake of the bank manager's death, it is discovered that a large amount of bank funds are missing--as well as one of the bank clerks. Cornelia's neice begins acting strangely, her maid Lizzie is nervous as a cat, and her butler Billy is inscrutable (as all Chinese men of the time are represented). Dale brings home a new gardener who isn't what he seems and Cornelia decides to request that a detective be sent to help her get to the bottom of the nasty notes. Who on earth could possibly care if she spends her summer in the banker's abandoned house?

That's when the excitement begins. There are mysterious people popping in and out of rooms. Strangers on the roof and bats flying through the rooms. The detective seems ready to round up and use the rubber hose on anyone who even looks at him cross-eyed. Billy the butler scurries around seeing ghosts and Lizzie is screaming at the drop of a hat. Before long, the banker's nephew is dead, a secret room is discovered, and the missing money is found. Cornelia gets her adventure....and even gets the satisfaction of outwitting The Bat.

Great fun. This book (which is based on the play The Bat, which in turn was based on Rinehart's The Circular Staircase) reads like a serial story. Just about every chapter ends in a cliff-hanger moment and there is more action going on in this old house than you'd believe. Four stars.

Quotes:

Columnists took him up, played with the name and the terror, used the name and the terror as a starting point from which to exhibit their own particular opinions on everything and anything. Ministers mentioned him in sermons; cranks wrote fanatic letters denouncing him as one of the seven-headed beasts of the Apocalypse and a forerunner of the end of the world; a popular revue put on a special Bat number wherein eighteen beautiful chorus girls appeared masked and black-winged in costumes of Brazilian bat fur; there were Bat club sandwiches, Bat cigarettes, and a new shade of hosiery called simply and succinctly Bat. He became a fad - a catchword - a national figure. And yet - he was walking Death - cold - remorseless. But Death itself had become a toy of publicity in these days of limelight and jazz.

The situation's this: for the first time the super-crook - the super-crook of fiction - the kind that never makes a mistake - has come to life - real life.

"Sally doesn't remember when she was a younger generation herself," thought Miss Cornelia. "But I do - and if we didn't have automobiles, we had buggies - and youth doesn't change its ways just because it has cut its hair."

"I've stood by you through thick and thin," she mourned in a low voice. "I stood by you when you were a vegetarian - I stood by you when you were a theosophist - and I seen you through socialism, Fletcherism and rheumatism - but when it comes to carrying on with ghosts - " (Lizzie)

"Every man leads a double life and some more than that," Lizzie observed. "I guess it rests them, like it does me to take off my corset."

"Oh," she whispered, "you're just as bad as all the rest of 'em. A good-looking man comes in the door and your brains fly out the window!" (Lizzie)

"Miss Van Gorder, I confess - I'm very anxious for you," he continued. "This letter is - ominous. Have you any enemies?" (Dr. Wells) "Don't insult me! Of course I have. Enemies are an indication of character." (Cornelia Van Gorder)

"You won't change your mind?" he asked anew. (Dr. Wells) Miss Van Gorder's smile was obdurate. "I have a great deal of mind," she said. "It takes a long time to change it." Then, having exercised her feminine privilege of the last word, she sailed out of the room, still smiling, and closed the door behind her.

In her mind she was already beseeching her patron saint that she would not have to show the gentleman to his room. Her ideas of detectives were entirely drawn from sensational magazines and her private opinion was that Anderson might have anything in his pocket from a set of terrifying false whiskers to a bomb!

"I have read a great deal on the detection of crime," she said hotly, "and - " (Miss Cornelia)"Well, we all have our little hobbies," he said tolerantly. "A good many people rather fancy themselves as detectives and run around looking for clues under the impression that a clue is a big and vital factor that sticks up like - well, like a sore thumb. The fact is that the criminal takes care of the big and important factors. It's only the little ones he may overlook. To go back to your friend the Bat, it's because of his skill in little things that he's still at large." (Anderson)

Miss Cornelia moved over to her niece protectingly. She put a hand on Dale's shoulder to reassure her. But Dale was quite composed now - she had gone through so many shocks already that one more or less seemed to make very little difference to her overwearied nerves.

"My dear child," said the indomitable lady, with a sharp glance at Bailey's bewildered face, "I have employed many gardeners in my time and never before had one who manicured his fingernails, wore silk socks, and regarded baldness as a plant instead of a calamity."

"God knows I hate to move, but if there's one place safer in this house than another, I've yet to find it." (Lizzie)

"I'm going!" she announced. "I don't know where, but I'm going!" (Lizzie)

"I wish somebody would knock me on the head! I'd like to forget a few things!" moaned Lizzie, but the interruption went unregarded.

A brave man may be willing to fight with odds a hundred to one - but only a fool will rush on certain death.

A Finer End: Review

A Finer End by Deborah Crombie begins in Glastonbury. Glastonbury is known as the site of an ancient abbey and is the mythical burial place of King Arthur and Guinevere. The Tor is believed to be a source of druidic powers and a focus for those who believe in goddess worship. Strange forces seem to be swirling around the ancient city and Inspector Duncan Kincaid's cousin Jack is at the center of it all.

Jack, a down-to-earth architect finds himself experiencing episodes of what seems to be automatic writing. Latin messages flow from his hand unprompted--purported to be from a monk by the name of Edward who lived over a thousand years ago. Edward seems to have an urgent message on his mind. Something do with a terrible and bloody moment in the abbey's history. Something very special and sacred is missing and Jack--and those in the town who believe in the spiritual power of the place and Jack's message--must discover what it is and recover it so Edward's spirit can rest.

But Jack isn't the only one experiencing promptings from beyond. Fiona, a local artist, paints in a trance-like state. Paintings that feature violent images and one child over and over again. But are these really messages from past--or is there a very modern force at work? Tensions mount and it isn't until Jack's love, Winnie, nearly dies from a hit-and-run accident and another woman is murdered that Kincaid and Inspector Gemma James get involved. Ostensibly, Duncan and Gemma are on holiday and on an errand of mercy to lend support to Jack and Winnie. But the detective team can't resist helping the local law enforcement--especially when it seems that the local inspector is determined to lock up an innocent man. Clues both past and present come together with a grand finale on the storm-swept side of the Tor.

There's no denying that Deborah Crombie can write. Her stories are always elegant and lyrical. The descriptions of both people and place--especially place--are lovely. The mystery is intricate--although I was able to get at least part of it right fairly early. I do question the whole mystical side of things though. And the answer to that mystery was just a little too pat....not sure I'm believing that the secret would have survived all that time. Still, a well-told tale and worth a good three and a half stars.

A-Z Book Titles

A-Z Book Titles

Matthew at A Guy's Moleskin Notebook presented this A-Z book title meme the other day and Julie at Read Handed posted about it, and I am up for the challenge. The objective is to name a favorite book title starting with each letter of the alphabet (lead articles not counting, of course). This is what I've come up with:

A: Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
B: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
C: The Complete French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rilke
D: Dune by Frank Herbert
E: The Elegance of the Hedgehog Review Part II by Muriel Barbery
F: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
G: Gilgamesh translated by Herbert Mason
H: Howards End Is on the Landing by Susan Hill
I: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
J: The James Joyce Murders by Amanda Cross
K: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
L: The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny
M: Middlemarch by George Eliot
N: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
O: Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
P: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Q: Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood
R: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
S: Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers OR Shatterday by Harlan Ellison
T: To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
U: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers
V: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
W: What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James and Jack the Ripper by Paula Marantz Cohen
X: Xenogenesis: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, & Imago by Octavia Butler
Y: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee
Z: Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald: An American Woman's Life by Linda Wagner-Martin


Got it! Z was my difficult one. The Zelda book is good...but it certainly didn't stick hard enough that I automatically came up with it. Had to go hunting....

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme now sponsored by Rose City Reader (who originally inspired the meme). Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Gilion's place.

Here's mine from A Finer End by Deborah Crombie:

The shadows crept into Jack Montfort’s small office, filling the corners with a comfortable dimness.

{A nice cozy beginning}

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.Here's mine from A Finer End by Deborah Crombie:

Whether she had meant to confess as much when she had contacted him last spring, Kincaid would never know.

Bland Beginning: Review

Bland Beginning by Julian Symons (1949) Synopsis: It all began when Tony Shelton found himself paying a hundred guineas for a book - a rare collection of his fiancee's grandfather's poems. It was supposed to be a present for his fiancee - but it led him into a tangle of forgery claims, fantastic offers for the book - and finally robbery, violence... and murder.

This book is aptly named--for several reasons. First of all, it's one of Symons's earliest mysteries (third one, in fact). Second, although it is the third book written with the character of Bland, it shows us Bland before he becomes a police inspector and before he becomes a policeman at all. It shows us his first actual involvement in a case as a peripheral character and semi-suspect. And, third, the book truly does have a bland beginning. Most of the first half is like a bland diet--plain rice, oatmeal, vanilla pudding, toast...no seasonings and no spices lest we upset the tummy. It's like an anemic Wodehouse-wanna-be with a literary mystery thrown in. The characters are trying to be all witty and blithe and involved in humorous little misunderstandings, but it doesn't quite come off. 
Things don't really get interesting until the first murder, which occurs rather late, and Bland finally gets involved when one of the central characters goes to consult his "young friend." It had become his habit

to call on the young man once a week, and to discuss with him many subjects, generally connected with current crime. Very often the young man had an explanation to offer of a criminal case of the day, which seemed to Basingstoke ingenious, though it also seemed to him far-fetched. It was in the hope of being given some plausible explanation of events that Basingstoke called on his friend this Thursday night.

From that time on, it's as if Symons's muse finally got down to work and told him that he needed to pep things up a bit. The characters suddenly have more life, the action seems to follow on logically, the wit is a bit sharper, and the misunderstandings seem funnier. It doesn't quite make it to Wodehousian standards, but it's a heck of lot closer.

The mystery itself is a fairly good one. I certainly didn't pick up on all the clues and was still playing "pick the perpetrator" when the final wrap-up came along. Had the entire book met the standards of the second half, I would give this at least a full three stars--possibly a little over. As it is...two and a half stars.

Booking Through Thursday: Eternity

Booking Through Thursday says:

A while ago, I interviewed my readers for a change, and my final question was, “What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask?” I got some great responses and will be picking out some of the questions from time to time to ask the rest of you. Like now.

Bookish Sarah asks:

What book took you the longest to read, and do you feel it was the content or just the length that made it so?

My response: I'm really tempted to say Emma by Jane Austen. But I think in reality that one only seemed to take an eternity because I did not enjoy it at all, unlike all the other Austens I have read. Middlemarch by George Eliot, on the other hand took me over a month--which is an incredibly long time in Bev reading time. Part of the reason it took so long was, indeed, that it is just one really, really long book--around 800 pages. But it is also a dense book....Eliot can't just tell or show the reader that something happened. No. We must analyze what happened from every angle possible and wring every little bit out of every single incident. But the strange thing is....even though it did take forever to read, I enjoyed it very much. Much more than Emma.

Teaser Tuesdays

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.*Open to a random page.
*Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! You don't want to ruin the book for others.

*Share the title and author too, so other TT participants can add it to their TBR lists if they like your teaser.

Here's mine from Titanic 2012 by Bill Walker (p. 133):

Aside from the fact that nothing I wrote inspired me, I was haunted by what happened with Maddy on the Boat deck. She'd even invaded my dreams, my waking time disturbed by vague feelings and images I could no longer clearly recall.


Be watching this blog on April 24th for my review of Titanic 2012 as part of the Partners in Crime Blog Tour!

The Fire Engine That Disappeared: Review

So...there isn't just one fire engine that disappears, but two. The fifth book in the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö finds a great deal going on in Stockholm. It all begins with the suicide of a man whose only farewell note consists of two words: Martin Beck scribbled on a notepad by his bed. Beck has never heard of the man and, as there is no doubt about the circumstances of his death, he promptly forgets about him. Not long after his colleague, Gunvald Larsson is headed home for the night--with no plans at all for becoming a hero. He stops on his way to check on a stake-out that he has organized and when he finds his man freezing at his post he takes over long enough for the officer to take a half hour break to warm up and get some coffee inside him.

He never expects the apartment house to explode in flames before his eyes. Before the night is over, he will rescue eight of the eleven people inside and be proclaimed a hero--particularly because the fire department was so unreasonable slow in responding. But Malms, the man they had been assigned to watch, is dead and the methods are unclear. An autopsy reveals that the man died of carbon monoxide poisoning--apparently a suicide. A suicide who just barely cheated his murderer of the chance to take his life--for lodged in his bed had been the source of the blaze...a tiny chemical explosive.

It has been assumed that Malms was a small-time operator in the world of drugs and car theft and the hunt is on to find his contact, Olofsson. Olofsson has been missing for some months and every trail seems to lead to a dead end. The trail will lead to Malmö, Denmark, and even to contacts in Interpol before Beck and his team finally get to the bottom of who planted the bomb in Malms' bed.

Oh...and the title? Rönn, another of Beck's team, buys his son a spiffy red fire engine for his birthday. Within a couple of days the boy has managed to lose it--without having left his apartment. It is...the mystery of the fire engine that disappeared. And when Rönn mentions it to Beck and Larsson, they are reminded of another fire engine that disappeared on the night of the fire. A fire engine that was supposedly on its way within minutes of the explosion, but didn't arrive. That clue sets the team on most informative track.

A fast-paced police procedural with a realistic view of police work. You have a hodge-podge of various character types--some of whom definitely don't like each other--who manage to work together and get the job done. Just as in real life, I can't say I like all these men. But it's obvious that they know their jobs and they each have their specialty. Sjöwall and Wahlöö have also begun to show the police as having more than one case going on at a time. In many of the books prior to this (by other authors), you would think that when Lord So-and-So gets murdered that all the burglars and other criminals take a holiday while the police force concentrate on just one crime. Or...if any other crimes do occur then they naturally wind up being part of the overall mystery. Not so here--or in real life.

Not quite as un-putdownable as The Man on the Balcony (the best Sjöwall and Wahlöö that I've read so far), but a fairly intricate mystery that holds you till the end. Three stars.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.


Books Read (click on titles for review):
The Golden Scorpion by Sax Rohmer
Swan Song by Edmund Crispin
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Star Trek Vol 1 by Mike Johnson
Venetia by Georgette Heyer
Morgue Drawer Four by Jutta Profijt
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Whitechapel Horrors by Edward B Hanna
Silver & Guilt by Cynthia Smith

Currently Reading:
The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Someone--or something--is trying to frighten Cornelia Van Gorder to death. But the plucky patrician doesn't scare easily. In fact, she's always longed to play detective. Until she stumbles on a corpse one storm-swept night, and realizes she's involved in a deadly game with an elusive killer known as The Bat.

The Fire Engine that Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahloo: The cunning incendiary device that blew the roof off a Stockholm apartment not only interrupted the small, peaceful orgy underway inside, it nearly took the lives of the building's eleven occupants. And if one of Martin Beck's colleagues hadn't been on the scene, the explosion would have led to a major catastrophe since-for reasons nobody could satisfactorily explain-a regulation firetruck has vanished. Was it terrorism, suicide, or simply a gas leak? And what, if anything, did the explosion have to do with the peculiar death earlier that day of a forty-six-year-old bachelor whose cryptic suicide note consisted of only two words: “Martin Beck”?

Books that spark my interest:
Bland Beginning by Julian Symons
A Finer End by Deborah Crombie
Pearls Before Swine by Margery Allingham