A recommended English series for book club--

Our book club received a recommendation for an English detective series recently ("you [the club] don't like English mysteries do you" I was asked and I replied "no" but we had read only two other English mysteries that I readily remembered--[gulp]) and we gave it a shot. And to catch an early story of this series I went with the second book of the series since the library system had only a few copies of the first. The book selected was The Dedicated Man: an Inspector Banks Mystery. The author is Peter Robinson who has a long-running series with his hard-charging detective chief inspector. The Dedicated Man was first published in 1988. Here's a pix of Peter from www.inspectorbanks.com.



"The Dedicated Man" was aptly noted in the discussion group to identify the murder victim, a former professor consumed with local archaeological ruins and now Banks who has catch his killer. Mindful that the more time lingers in a murder case, the harder the case, Banks bounces from Steadman's small circle of friends and associates to find who is the murder. It is one of the those situations where repeated trips are needed to the likely suspects to build or establish a case in court (CBS-TV's "Cold Case" comes to mind). And as Banks finds out, a few who are involved are very tight-lipped.

The book club found the mystery to have a satisfying conclusion and one person--who went on to read other books in the series--said the other stories carry plausible reasons for committing murder (well, in as much as it a sound reason to murder another...).

One person noted how the book title is apt for the murder victim and for Banks who pursues his killer. Robinson says as much about the character through others and gives him a somewhat cloudy past as he's relocated to the smaller Eastvale from London. What job-related incident made Banks want to leave? Robinson says in an interview on "Bookreporter.com" that Banks "becomes more introspective and melancholy [throughout the series]. He is strongly affected by things that happen in his personal life and on the job. In that sense, he's more like a real person, an everyman, not a superhuman thinking machine or one-man vengeance society, and I often see the series as books just about a man and things that happen to him at home and at work."

Banks is by all measures a level-headed fellow with a family and interests in reading literature in "Dedicated Man." However, I later discovered via Wikipedia search that Banks is now divorced and his ex-wife remarried (initially, I did a search for Peter Robinson but found a "Banks" entry too).

Robinson certainly has staying power with his writing--he's up to at least 16 books about Inspector Banks. The newest title, released this year, is Piece of my Heart.

Hollywood true crime on the big screen--

"The Black Dahlia" film opens in movie theatres this weekend and it joins "Hollywoodland" as a one, two punch for movie audiences of old Hollywood true crime stories. And, as you would expect, books exist at the local public library about both stories.

"The Black Dahlia" is the name given to a murder victim, Elizabeth Short who was found tortured and murdered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles in 1947. The "Black Dahlia" was the nickname given to Short who dressed completely in black. An ambititous but apparently promiscuous starlet, Short's body was found nude and "crudely cut in half" according to the Encyclopedia of American Crime. The book adds the case remains unsolved despite "a rash of confessions" from those who could not accurately account for various aspects of the case.

The new film is inspired by the James Ellroy book of the same name. A new paperback edition of the book is being released this year.

And that murder case has inspired other books too, with at least three seperate titles in PLCMC.

The mysterious death of actor George Reeves of TV's "Superman" fame is depicted in "Hollywoodland." This death occurred in Los Angeles too, but in 1959. Reeves had acceived fame on TV portraying the superhero Superman for several years. However, he soon after died of a gunshot wound which was determined to be a suicide but some questions remain. In the movie, the questions are investigated by a private detective. In print, however, Reeves life is covered in more detail for the less than wholesome actor in Hollywood Krypotonite: the Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger.

And the interest in Reeves death just didn't translate into the mystery, sexy, speculation of the "Black Dahlia" story as the library system has only one copy of the Reeves book.

All the same, it's neat to have two period mysteries on the big screens.

I found a new series (to me) on the shelves...

As I walked around and looked at some of the different titles in the mystery section recently, I ran across the Chloe Newcombe series by Betsy Thornton and it caught my eye. I hadn't heard of this author or series before. Chloe is a victim's advocate with the county attorney's office in the fictional Old Dudley, Arizona. She describes her job as helping victims during "crisis intervention, courtroom accompaniment for hearings and trials, whatever we can do to help." (Writer Thornton writes from her own life experiences as she lives in Arizona and works for the Cochise County Attorney's Victim Witness Program as a victim compensation advocate and victim advocate.)

The notion of an amateur detective who works directly with crime victims sounded unique to me and I settled on a the latest book in the series Dead for the Winter since the first book of the series The Cowboy Rides Away is not in our library system.

It is a nicely-written effort by Thornton with its share "off-center" characters to give the book its distinct sense of community. Even Chloe is somewhat off-center here. Her judgment slips with dangerous results.

Chloe finds herself a suspect in the death of nearby town carpenter who she befriends after employing him. She finds him charming and even considers him a romantic prospect--she's broken up with her long-time boyfriend now--except he has pestering secrets. For instance, he's married.

I suspected later that I might have enjoyed another book in the series where Chloe is actually working (she's suspended from her job here--that suspicion of murder and all) but such as it is. And I hope that Chloe returns but Thornton has decided to write about others for her next book. Due this October, Thornton has taken a new turn with A Whole New Life with a new cast of characters featuring southern Arizona sheriff deputy Jackson Williams. Following the car crash death of Williams's wife, it is deemed a murder and he is arrested and imprisoned. This may be a nice character driven story as Jackson has helpful friends and family in corner to help him while he concedes his marriage was a mistake.


In any regard, I think I'll try another Thornton mystery at some point.