Review: Three Sevens: A Detective Story

Three Sevens: A Detective Story by Perley Poore Sheehan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book sets out to be serious and profound. Because it fails so badly at being profound, it's also just absurd enough that the serious part doesn't quite come off either. Despite the subtitle, it's really not a detective story except by an extremely generous definition that involves almost no on-screen detective work, by someone who is almost as far as it's possible to be from being any kind of official detective. (I picked it up out of the Project Gutenberg new books feed, even though I knew nothing about the author and there was almost no information, and no reviews, on Goodreads, because it said it was a detective story and I was prepared to give it a chance.)

It is an original premise, at least. The title doesn't, as I suspected, refer to a hand of cards, but to the prison number of the protagonist, 3777, real name Daniel Craig (no, not that one). He has allowed himself to be imprisoned under another name for a crime he didn't commit, because he felt sorry for the young man who did commit it and sympathetic to his reason, and also because he was in some despair after being expelled from college because of a moment of poor judgement. The book opens with him unjustly in solitary confinement because of a vengeful prison guard who he had annoyed in some way I've forgotten, probably by standing up to his injustice.

He receives (via trained cat) a smuggled saw, originally intended for the previous inhabitant of his cell, who has died. He saws his way out and masterminds a prison takeover, but what he didn't realize was that on that same day, the corrupt and cruel prison governor was being replaced by a reformer, who would have fixed up the issues that are driving his revolt. The new governor's daughter arrives in advance of her father, and is caught up in a riot that breaks out among the newly freed prisoners. Craig's intention is to let out the people he believes to be innocent, or who he thinks have served a long enough sentence and are harmless, and keep the bad ones, but this doesn't go as he'd hoped, and several dangerous criminals get loose. Meanwhile, he saves the young woman (she's about 18, but very competent and brave), and of course they fall for each other. They meet a total of four times in the course of the book, mostly briefly, but this constitutes a romance for purposes of subplot and Craig's inspiration, hence my "thin-romance" tag.

Craig himself goes on the lam, with a red notebook filled with details of the escaped convicts he swears to bring back, since it's his fault they're on the loose. He has a number of adventures in doing so, many of them pretty unlikely, especially the ones near the end, where he gets high-level assistance in the climactic capture of the last few crooks. Along the way, the narrator makes various generalizations about black people, Americans, men, and women, mostly complimentary, but generalizations nonetheless. There's a good twist at the end that ties a few things together, and although it's reliant on coincidence, I think the author pulls it off.

At its best, it's suspenseful and action-packed. At its worst, it's just silly, and there's more of that than there is of the good stuff. But there is some good stuff, and the premise is (as far as I know) original; there are worse century-old books you could be reading.

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Review: The Case of the Gilded Fly

The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This is what you get when a young man who has had more education than is good for him, and is smug about it, writes a book. "Edmund Crispin" is a pseudonym, but it perfectly conveys the exact kind of Englishman the author is. It's set in Oxford in the 1940s, which is where the author was studying at the time he wrote it, so he's following "write what you know" even if he sometimes does less well with "show, don't tell".

Very few of the numerous characters (all introduced in a lump, so it's hard to remember who is who) are at all admirable, definitely including the detective, and none of them are happy even before the murders start. This is articulated at some length and with considerable obscure literary reference, most of which failed to land for me because I don't have the exact education the author had. The detective blithely excuses some genuinely awful chosen behaviour, including what we would today call human trafficking, in other characters, while fiercely judging other people for simple human failings they can't help.

The point of view is omniscient, but mostly follows Nigel, a journalist who never seems to do any journalism. He is Watson to the detective's Sherlock, if Watson didn't like or respect Sherlock and found his eccentricities frustrating and overdone. He has a far-too-fast romance with one of the numerous secondary characters/suspects.

I kept reading mostly because I wanted to know how the crime had been done, and it turned out to be contrived and unlikely, as I'd feared. It was both carefully prepared for and also took advantage of a spontaneous situation that couldn't have been predicted, and then the murderer overcomplicated it.

"Overcomplicated" is a good description of the book as a whole. The style is baroque, which isn't to my taste, and that and the annoying characters (and narrator) and the rigged ending bring it down to three stars for me. The craft is not bad for a first novel, it's well edited apart from a couple of dangling modifiers, and it was popular both at the time of publication and since, but it wasn't a good fit for me, and I won't be reading more in the series.

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Review: Dragons, Heists and Other Retirement Plans

Dragons, Heists and Other Retirement Plans by Meg Pennerson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I went into this with high expectations - I love heists, generally enjoy dragons, and am reaching a stage of life where retirement plans are also of interest - but I was prepared to be disappointed, and unfortunately I was, somewhat. It isn't bad, but I felt it was lacking in a couple of ways.

A common complaint made against cozy fantasy is that it's boring. Now, I usually don't find it so - stakes don't have to be high and things don't have to be happening every second for me to enjoy a book. Actually, plenty happens (in a plot sense) in this one, but I never felt much of a sense of urgency or tension or suspense or even importance of the stakes until near the end. It meandered from one thing to the next, without the protagonists ever seeming to be in much danger or even to be strongly motivated. I'm not sure why this was; all of the elements were there. There was even a ticking clock after a while, something that had to be done within four days, but it still didn't feel as urgent as it should have. Perhaps it's something in the way the author conveys, or doesn't convey, the inner lives of the characters. The characters themselves, even though they had backstories and interests that should have made them more than just their archetype plus their plot role, still didn't feel to me like they had much depth, and it was probably for the same reason. I seldom got a sense of them feeling anything strongly, even when that's what was being described in narrative; it felt like I was being told it but not shown it.

Even when another, shorter ticking clock was introduced, I didn't find it plausible - it was one of those cinematic cliches where there's a very specific deadline after an exact amount of time for a phenomenon that will harm multiple people, even though if you think about it even for a second, the phenomenon concerned is something that will affect different people differently, and will affect all of them gradually. It's not a binary state of "after this exact second, everything will be irretrievably bad, but before that exact second, if we stop the phenomenon everyone will be perfectly fine almost immediately," but that's how it's represented.

But the book did have some original aspects, and wasn't just a rehearsal of standard tropes (despite occasionally making use of one). The protagonists are close female friends who, forty years before, at which time they were in their 30s, were a famous duo of criminals. That's where the heist comes in, though part of my disappointment was that we didn't really get to see the heist. We saw the heist fail, in a flashback right at the beginning, and we were told later on about how intricate it had been to set up, but that was it.

Largely because the heist failed - through the cheeky and crude intervention of another thief - the pair retired, one to keep magical cats and the other to get married to a solid, decent man and raise a son. She's now widowed. The story is about them coming out of retirement to clean up the continuing mess that their failure 40 years before led to, in the course of which they re-encounter their old rival and discover that he was a dupe of an unscrupulous businessman, and is now a rather pathetic old man.

I did appreciate the avoidance of one common trope. (view spoiler)[There are hints throughout that the unmarried one of the pair and the old rival might have some kind of romantic spark between them, but it doesn't end up coming to anything. I like the realism of this; most actual relationships that do get initiated don't end up with happily ever after, let alone attractions that don't lead to initiating anything, and I'm always glad to see an author going against expectations in this way. (hide spoiler)] Other people probably won't like it for much the same reasons that I do.

I also enjoyed the fact that the cats (and dragons) can talk to each other, but their humans don't understand them, even though they understand the humans. It provides a second set of viewpoints in the scenes, and most of the humour.

There's a subplot, which comes up near the beginning and at the end but not in between, about someone who is raising property taxes and driving older people out of their homes when they can't pay. (The word "foreclosure" is used, which isn't quite right; that's when you can't pay a mortgage. When you can't pay taxes, that's seizure.) I assume that's setup for the next book, since it isn't fully resolved or even given much attention in this one.

I wasn't engaged enough, though, to definitely want to continue with the series. It has potential and originality, but something in the style didn't quite connect for me. I increasingly make the distinction these days between sound craft and human appeal. The best books have both; a lot of books I read have human appeal, or, put another way, an engaging story, but fail to back it up with sound craft. This one has decent craft and some good ideas, but as a story it didn't reach me.

I received a copy via Netgalley for review, which may not be exactly the final version.

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Review: The Hermit Of Turkey Hollow: The Story Of An Alibi, Being An Exploit Of Ephraim Tutt, Attorney & Counselor At Law

The Hermit Of Turkey Hollow: The Story Of An Alibi, Being An Exploit Of Ephraim Tutt, Attorney & Counselor At Law by Arthur Cheney Train
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A wandering, sprawling and often amusing recounting of a trial for murder.

For the prosecution, the recently-appointed county prosecutor. What nobody knows is that in order to afford the bribe that got him the job, he has embezzled the trust fund that assists in the support of the accused, a harmless indigent known as Skinny the Tramp. He then had to borrow the money that was due to Skinny as his six-monthly interest payment.

For the defense, Ephraim Tutt, a series character of the author's. He's motivated by a love for justice and a belief that his client is innocent. He's been called in by the town lodge, of which Skinny was once a member; they also believe that he's innocent, even though the sheriff, who's the head of the lodge, is a key witness for the prosecution.

Central to the case are two facts. There are eight witnesses who swear Skinny was in the town three miles away at 4pm; and the lumberjack who found the victim, the hermit of the title, breathing his last noted that the hermit's clock was showing 4pm when he expired. A perfect alibi - if the clock was running at the time, and on this point the defense hinges.

There's an uncomfortable night-time expedition over bad roads in an unreliable car (this is 1920) to check this point with the lumberjack, who's left town for another job. This trip turns out to be for nothing; he can't be located.

There are some suspenseful courtroom moments, and some good reading of his opponent by Tutt. Overall, though, it's not a tight plot, and the prose is sometimes verbose (as you'd expect from a lawyer). There's some casual racism towards Roma people and black people, and a good deal of contempt directed at the "hicks" in the small town. It was entertaining in its way, but not outstanding, and from me it gets three stars.

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Review: Twig's Traveling Tomes

Twig's Traveling Tomes by Gryffin Murphy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one reads as if it was consciously crafted to appeal to the Platonic ideal of the cozy fiction fan, and indeed it is being published because it drew the attention of the "tastemaker" who discovered Travis Baldree. My cozy fantasy bingo card filled up quickly: tea, love of books, small business, gender and relationship diversity in all the usual ways (except that nobody is clearly trans), broadly D&D-style setting, quirky introvert protagonist being pushed out of her comfort zone by events, supportive love interest, cute familiar (though not until halfway through).

For me, contrarian that I am, this was almost a downside. It's not all the way to "made from box mix," but it does fall into my category of "if you like this sort of thing, this is definitely one." I personally prefer fresher ideas rather than variations on an established theme, but I know I'm in a minority there, and lots of people will love this unreservedly.

The worldbuilding, while not startlingly original, has had a bit more work than is often the case with cozy. Four kingdoms themed around the traditional four elements, elemental and natural magic, approximately the usual D&D species, though elves have brightly coloured skin and gnomes brightly coloured hair.

The editing is also a bit above average; there are several of the usual issues (occasional missing past perfect tense, "may" in past tense narration instead of "might," dialog sometimes punctuated incorrectly), but fewer examples than I usually see. The biggest problem is the vocabulary. The author uses a number of words that don't have quite the right connotation (the most obvious example being "amorously" for "lovingly" when it isn't sexual love), and a couple that sound similar to the word she means but are a different word, like "hurdling" for "hurtling" and "clamored" for "clambered". Both of those are relatively common confusions, and there may yet be more editing before publication; I had a pre-publication version via Netgalley for review.

The romance begins with instant attraction, then there's a long will-they-won't-they period (about three-quarters of the book) with minimal justification given. There's some very steamy kissing and some innuendo, but nothing more than that on screen.

There's nothing so badly wrong with it that I feel justified in dropping it to three stars, but I'm giving it four a bit grudgingly. Put that down to my curmudgeonly nature and dislike of the expected choice.

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Review: Look to the Lady

Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kicks off with a great burst of fascinating, suspenseful, apparently inexplicable events, explains them, and continues that cycle until the end.

There's a wonderful contrast between Campion's persona of an upper-class twit who doesn't even quote classic literature (like Wodehouse's characters), but the cliches of the advertising industry, and his actual keen intelligence and wonderful ability to organize surprising events. This is assisted by his wide circle of lowlife contacts, so not only does he have a mask over his real personality, but he lives two distinct lives in different spheres (using a number of different pseudonyms, of which "Albert Campion" is one; his real first name, apparently, is Rudolph, and his surname a famous one from an old aristocratic house).

Like the previous book in the series, this one takes place around a very ancient country manor in a remote rural district of England. This one, though, protects an ancient chalice on behalf of the Crown, using a combination of subterfuge and what appears to be a supernatural guardian.

The action blasts along, with real danger at plenty of suspenseful moments, the characters are varied and amusing, and the title is a big hint at the villain. It's like an Edgar Wallace, but more clever, and I'm a big fan of Wallace even with his pulpy limitations. I'm looking forward to more in this fortunately long series.

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Review: There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia: & Other Bare Facts

There's Not a Bathing Suit in Russia: & Other Bare Facts by Will Rogers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rogers was a comedian, known as the "Cowboy Philosopher," and this is a mixture of comic observation delivered in a down-home manner with actually insightful reflections on Russia. His introduction says that everyone has been writing about Russia lately, and the difference with this book is that he doesn't claim to know anything about the topic, but he's being too modest; he actually went there (unlike some of the contemporary pundits he pokes fun at), and has some thoughts that still resonate today.

The Russian revolution was still relatively recent at the time, and he first discusses the Russian refugees he encountered in Paris. All of them claimed to be dukes or higher, and his reflection is that they obviously hadn't had those positions based on any merit, since they're doing menial jobs and not even doing them very well. No wonder Russia was in a mess if they were in charge.

On the other hand, he skewers socialists for being much better at giving speeches and publishing newspapers than they are at running anything. Nobody could run a country the size of Russia very well, and they aren't doing so. This isn't entirely their fault, but if someone isn't good at something, they should admit it and leave off, is his opinion. Not to mention: "We all know a lot of things that would be good for our Country, but we wouldent want to go so far as propose that everybody start shooting each other till we got them. A fellow shouldent have to kill anybody just to prove they are right." Something that more and more people in today's America should probably be reminded of.

The first section, where he's clowning around and being satirical and describing his journey before he gets to Russia, is less interesting than his observations after he gets there, but it is fun in its own way. The whole thing is short, and well worth reading.

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