The rules of the meme are that you have to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week and your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book’s title, the first letter of an author’s first name, or the first letter of the author’s surname.

I thought that I would try to stick to the authors’ names (either first or last) rather than the title and in the main that is what I did, with 21 of the letters.The letters A, P, R and S relate both to the authors’ names and to the titles.

Some were books by old favourites, such as Agatha Christie and some by new-to-me authors, such as Anne Zouroudi.

The ones I enjoyed the most (in A – Z order) are:

• Agatha Christie’s Autobiography - reading it was like listening to Agatha Christie talk to me.
• Colin Dexter – The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn – I wanted to start it again as soon as I’d finished it.
• P D James – The Private Patient - a thoughtful book, with precise descriptions of people and places and yet it is tense and dramatic.
• Donna Leon - Drawing Conclusions - a book I didn’t want to end!
• Dan Waddell – The Blood Detective - even though there are parts (not many) that were just a bit too graphic for me.

Here is the complete list:

• A is for Agatha Christie - An Autobiography
• B  is for  W J Burley - Wycliffe and the Last Rites
• C is for Christopher Brookmyre
• D is for Colin Dexter - The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
• E is for Edgar Wallace - The Clue of the Twisted Candle
• F is for Frances Fyfield - The Art of Drowning
• G  is for Erle Stanley Gardner - The Case of the Substitute Face
• H  is for Reginald Hill – Exit Lines
• I is for Ian Rankin – Rebus’s Scotland
• J is for Janie Bolitho – Betrayed in Cornwall
• K is for Karen Maitland
• L  is for Donna Leon – Drawing Conclusions
• M  is for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• N is for A number of N’s
• O  is for One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
• P is for P D James - The Private Patient
• Q is for Q Books
• R  is for Ruth Rendell – Tigerlily’s Orchids
• S is for Simon Brett - The Stabbing in the Stables
• T is for Peter Turnbull – Once a Biker
• U is for Nicola Upson – An Expert in Murder
• V is for Val McDermid Cleanskin
• W is for Dan Waddell The Blood Detective
• X is for X, Y, Z: a Story told by a Detective by Anna Katherine Green
• Y is for Margaret Yorke - Intimate Kill
• Z is for Anne Zouroudi – The Doctor of Thessaly

My thanks go to Kerrie as I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through the Crime Fiction Alphabet and also reading what my fellow bloggers have read too – some of whom wrote about specific topics instead of sticking to the rules – I think they are most ingenious! Kerrie has listed a summary of the A- G posts, with the rest of the alphabet coming soon.

Anne Zouroudi was born in England, has lived for some years on the Greek islands and now lives in the Derbyshire Peak District. The Doctor of Thessaly is the third in the series of her Mysteries of the Greek Detective, about Hermes Diaktoros, a mysterious fat man. I was never sure who he worked for, or how he knew of the mystery to solve. Each of the books in the series features one of the Seven Deadly Sins – in this one it is envy, a tale of revenge and retribution.

Set in the little Greek village of Morfi, it begins with Chrissa, a jilted bride weeping on the beach, and then moves on quickly to the discovery of the local doctor, the victim of an attack that has left him horribly scarred and blind. He is the absent bridegroom. Meanwhile Hermes has arrived in the village, waiting to be served at the kafenion:

Adonis, riding by, stared at the man – a big man, perhaps even fat, whose curly, greying hair was a little too long, and whose glasses gave him an air of academia. Beneath a beige trench-coat, he wore a suit without a tie; beside him lay a holdall of green leather. In Eva’s comfortable chair he seemed relaxed, drawing on a freshly lit cigarette, one foot crossed over the other; and it was the stranger’s feet that drew Adonis’s eyes. The fat man was wearing tennis shoes – old fashioned, canvas shoes, pristinely white. (page 9)

Hermes involves himself with the mystery of who attacked the doctor, made more puzzling because the doctor doesn’t want his attacker to be found. At the same time the village is expecting a visit from a government minister, an event that not all the locals want to be successful, and the family of the garage owner is going through some traumatic experiences. Hermes helps out in some unorthodox ways.

Just who is Hermes Diaktoros, I wondered as I read this book? My knowledge of Greek mythology is very rusty, but the clue is in his name, I think – Hermes, the messenger of the gods. He wore shoes with wings, and this Hermes is indeed fleet of foot in his pristine tennis shoes.

There are many things I like about this book, not just the mystery and the references to mythology, but also the characters and the setting which evoke the scenes of a little Greek village so well and the close-knit almost claustrophobic relationship of its inhabitants. And there is a map of the area and a list of characters.

I really must read the other books in the series:

• The Messenger of Athens
• The Taint of Midas
• The Lady of Sorrows
• The Whispers of Nemesis

Thanks to Kerrie for organising the Crime Fiction Alphabet. I’ve listed the books I’ve read in a tab at the top of the blog and soon I’ll do a summing up post about the highlights.

Margaret Yorke has written numerous crime fiction novels and is a past chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). In 1999 she was awarded the CWA’s Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for her outstanding contribution to the genre.

Intimate Kill was first published in 1985 and I think it’s an excellent example of her work  Margaret Yorke writes in a fluent style, one that draws you into the story effortlessly. Stephen Dawes has been released from prison after serving 10 years of a life sentence for murdering his wife, Marcia. Her body had never been found. Stephen knew he was innocent and believed that she had killed herself, making him out to be the murderer, devastated when he had asked for a divorce. He is determined to find out how she did it.

The book is divided into three parts. Part One deals with Stephen’s search for the truth about Marcia’s death and for his daughter. Stephen’s marriage had not been a happy one and he’d been having an affair with Ruth Watson which resulted in the birth of his daughter, Susannah. Part Two moves back in time eleven years, dealing with the events that led up to Marcia’s disappearance and subsequent events. In Part Three Stephen discovers the truth and nearly loses his own life.

It’s not difficult to work out what actually happened but that doesn’t detract from the pleasure of reading this book. Margaret Yorke is so skilled in characterisation that she has captured the emotions and feelings, as well as the weaknesses and ambitions of all the characters. I believed in all of them. The plot moves swiftly and with a real sense of evil as the tension mounts.

Kerrie’s Crime Fiction Alphabet has now reached, for me at least, the most difficult letter of the alphabet. Last year I wrote about Qiu Xiaolong’s  A Loyal Character Dancer and I had intended to read another of his books for the letter X - Death of a Red Heroine. But time and inclination overtook me and I haven’t read it yet.

So, I was going to pass on this letter until I came across X, Y, Z: a Story Told by a Detective (1883) by Anna Katherine Green, a short mystery free on Kindle. It’s only 97 pages and didn’t take long to read.

I hadn’t heard of Anna Katherine Green (1846 – 1935), but according to Wikipedia she was an American poet and novelist and was one of the first American authors to write detective fiction. She published about 40 novels and her first book, The Leavenworth Case was a bestseller, praised by Wilkie Collins. Looking at Amazon, I think most of her books are available free as e-books.

The narrator, an un-named detective has been assigned to investigate a gang of counterfeiters and being told of a number of suspicious-looking letters addressed to X, Y, Z, Brandon, Mass., discovers a completely different crime. (We’re told at the end that the counterfeiters were discovered but not by the narrator.) After waiting to see who collects these letters the detective follows the trail to the house of the wealthy and secretive Benson family where a fancy dress ball is to take place that evening. When  Mr Benson is found dead it is up to the detective to unmask the guilty person.

It wasn’t difficult to work out who the culprit was. Its greatest attraction for me is that it is an example of crime fiction written before the ‘Golden Age’, a forerunner of detective fiction. It’s written in a somewhat formal and stilted style, and is melodramatic as this extract describing Mr Benson’s death shows:

Mr Benson at once turned the key, but no sooner had he done so than he staggered back. For an instant or two of horror he stood oscillatiing from side to side, then his frame succombed, and the terrified eyes of his children beheld his white head lying low, all movement and appearance of life gone from the form that but a moment before towered so proudly above them.

With a shriek, the daughter threw herself down at his side, and even the cheek of Hartley Benson grew white as he leaned over his father’s already inanimate body.

“He is dead!” came a wild cry from her lips. “See! he does not breathe. Oh! Hartley, what could have happened? Do you think that Joe -”

“Hush!” he exclaimed, with a furtive glance around him.

But it moves swiftly along, with clearly defined characters and a well-described setting and it interested me enough to want to investigate more of Green’s novels.

That said it’s a fascinating fast-paced book linking the crimes of the past – the events of 1879 - to a series of murders in the present. DCI Grant Foster enlists the help of genealogist Nigel Barnes to track down the killer who has left cryptic clues carved into his victims’ bodies.

I used to work with archives, much of it helping people track down their family histories and so was very familiar with the sources Nigel uses to discover the original killer. I loved the way Waddell wove this into his story. Nigel Barnes is a convincing character and manages to solve both the modern day murders and the historical ones too, not only through family history but also through working out the topography of London through the years.  I loved that part of the book.

Dan Waddell as well as writing crime novels is the author of Who Do You think You Are?, the accompanying book of the TV series – one of my favourites, so it’s no surprise that The Blood Detective is so good on genealogy. He has his own website and also writes regularly on the Murder is Everywhere blog. His next book featuring Nigel Barnes is Blood Atonement and despite my phobia about graphic violence I’m planning to read that one too.

The Blood Detective

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (7 Aug 2008)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 9780141025650
• ISBN-13: 978-0141025650
• ASIN: 0141025654
• Source: library book

The Crime Fiction Alphabet is hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. All you have to do is write a post relating to the letter of the week – either the first letter of the book title or of the author’s first or second name.

There are many to choose from but I picked the shortest one, thinking if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t waste much time reading it.

Cleanskin is one of the Quick Reads series, aimed at “adults who’ve stopped reading or find reading tough, and for regular readers who want a short, fast read.” 

Summary (adapted from the back cover where Jack Farrell is erroneously called Jack Farlowe!):

When career criminal, Jack Farrell’s body is found washed-up on a Suffolk shore, it looks to the police like a clear-cut case. Broken-hearted at his daughter’s death, he has drowned himself – good riddance and one less crime to solve, according to CID. Then again, maybe not. For, one by one, Farrell’s enemies are being killed. And the horrific manner of their deaths makes drowning look like a day at the beach!

My thoughts:

Val McDermid’s style in this long short story is clear, straight-forward and chatty. The narrator is DCI Andy Martin. He’s the world expert on Jack Farrell, a criminal known as a ‘cleanskin‘ because he had no criminal record:

Farrell’s crew ran just about every dirty racket you could think of: drugs, guns, hookers, porn. You name it they were into it. They bought and sold human lives like they were bargains on eBay. (page 2)

Martin identifies Farrell’s body from the vivid tattoos still visible on his battered and bloated body. Being a novella the action is fast paced, the characters are briefly sketched and although I had worked out some of the mystery, the final dénouement came as a surprise. And there is a certain amount of  graphic description of the gruesome methods of killing and torture, so I’m still not sure about reading any of Val McDermid’s other books.

Can anyone recommend where I should start – bearing in mind that I am squeamish?

Cleanskin:

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; World Book Day edition edition (18 May 2006)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0007216726
• ISBN-13: 978-0007216727
• Source: Borrowed from the library

A Crime Fiction Alphabet post – for more posts featuring the letter V see Kerrie’s blog.

Nicola Upson has written three novels featuring novelist Josephine Tey (Elizabeth Mackintosh 1896-1952):

• An Expert in Murder
• Angel with Two Faces
• Two for Sorrow

She has also written two books of non-fiction:

• Mythologies: Sculpture of Helaine Blumenfeld
• In Good Company: A Snapshot of Theatre and the Arts

I recently read An Expert in Murder, a very detailed and intricate murder mystery. Nicola Upson has a passion for the theatre and it shines through to great advantage in this book, set in the theatrical world of  the 1930s – March, 1934 to be precise, as the final week of Josephine Tey’s play Richard of Bordeaux begins. Josephine is travelling from her home in Inverness to London by steam train when she meets an enthusiastic fan, Elspeth Simmons, who boarded the train at Berwick-upon-Tweed. They chat and Josephine takes a liking to her, feeling protective towards her.

They arrive in London, but then Elspeth is murdered and soon afterwards Bernard Aubrey, the theatre owner is also found dead, poisoned. Detective Inspector Archie Primrose, a friend of Josephine’s investigates. It’s a blend of fact and fiction. I don’t know much about Elizabeth Macintosh and so this representation of her persona as Josephine Tey seemed wholly fictional and actually she is a minor character in the sequence of events and plays little part in discovering the murderer. I think, on the whole, there is too much ‘telling’ and not enough ‘showing’ for my liking.

There is a great amount of family background, back stories and theatrical information that slowed down the action. But I liked the detailed descriptions of people and places and I especially liked the background details of the World War One, that had ended 16 years earlier but still cast its shadow. There are a number of coincidences in the book, but as Josephine tells Archie,

‘Anyway’, she continued wryly, ‘the only people who don’t believe in coincidence are the ones who read detective novels – and policemen. These things happen, Archie, even if we’re not supposed to use them in books. (page 45)

Reading An Expert in Murder made me think about mixing fact and fiction by using real people as characters. I decided that I don’t have a problem with historical fiction so wondered why its use in crime fiction should give me pause for thought. I think maybe it’s a step too far and I would have preferred it if Tey had been wholly a fictional character based on the author in the same way as John Terry, the leading actor in Tey’s play, is a fictionalised version of John Gielgud. Nicola Upson’s Author’s Note at the back of the book is interesting on this point when she explains that Elizabeth Mackintosh

… took a dim view of mixing fact and fiction – but she allowed it if the writer stated where the truth could be found, and if invention did not falsify the general picture. (page 290)

I think she succeeded in this, although, as she then adds

Murder, of course, does rather distort the general picture, but I hope that it won’t entirely eclipse a unique moment of theatrical history and the true beginnings of a remarkable writing career. (page 290)

I think that was a slight stumbling block for me, but I’m glad that it may have advertised Josephine Tey’s work to a wider audience. I haven’t read many of her books, but those I have read are excellent, especially The Daughter of Time. Nicola Upson’s website has more information on ‘Josephine Tey: Fact and Fiction‘.

Since reading An Expert in Murder I am interested in reading more of Nicola Upson’s Tey books and have  Angel with Two Faces lined up to read soon.

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Faber and Faber; paperback / softback edition (5 Feb 2009)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0571237711
• ISBN-13: 978-0571237715
• Source: I bought the book

Synopsis from the book jacket

My view

This is the 16th Hennessey and Yellich mystery, a police procedural set in the city of York. Once again I have jumped into a series that is well advanced in the sequence, but Once a Biker works well as a standalone. Chief Inspector George Hennessey is nearing retirement - ‘His pension was calling his name more and more loudly with each day that passed.’(page 15)  But he is still very much in charge and leads his team, Detective Sergeant Somerled Yellich, Detective Constables Thompson Ventnor and Reginald Webster (new to CID) in uncovering the murderer.

Tony Wells, dying of cancer in a hospice tells Gillian Stoneham, a counsellor, the whereabouts of Terry North’s body, buried in Foxfoot Wood outside York. Both Tony and Terry had been members of a bikers’ gang known as the Dungeon Kings. The post-mortem reveals that Terry had been killed by a blow to the head. There were fractures all over his body but no facial injuries. The pathologist Dr Louise D’Acre describes it as ‘a very dispassionate execution, but somebody wanted to hurt him before they killed him.’ (page 20)

One of the biker chicks had been murdered three weeks before Terry had been reported missing and Harry the ‘Horse’ Turner, a gang member had been convicted of her murder. Released from prison he now maintains that he was innocent and Hennessey believes him, but first he has to penetrate the bikers’ code:

“Don’t grass on your mates”. They are still bikers in their hearts, early middle-aged as they may be. Once a biker, always a biker. (page 62)

I know nothing about bikers and their gangs, but learnt a lot from this book, enough to make me glad that I didn’t – if the initiation ceremony is dangerous, the biker’s chicks’ leaving ‘ceremony’ is very brutal and shocking.

There is a very strong sense of place in this book, as George Hennessey walks to and from his office in Micklegate along the medieval city walls. I liked the chapter headings giving a short preview of the contents, in a similar vein to a Dickens’ novel, such as this for chapter 4 ‘Wednesday, 19 June, 10.10 hours – 13.40 hours in which life in the biker gang is recalled.’ (page 71) In places the dialogue also has an old fashioned feel and the use of words, such as ‘forenoon’ adds to the formality not found in most of today’s crime fiction books. I liked it.

There is an intriguing ending to this book involving George Hennessey which made me realise that I have missed something in not reading the earlier books in the series, something I hope to remedy.

• Paperback: 201 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Paperbacks Ltd (Jun 2008)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 9781847510266
• ISBN-13: 978-1847510266
• Source: Borrowed from the library

Description from Fantastic Fiction:

Fethering’s favorite sleuths are at it again as Jude and Carole Seddon find themselves in the midst of some horseplay, after stumbling upon the body of ex-equestrian Walter Fleet at Long Bamber Stables.

The police attribute the stabbing death to the mysterious “Horse Ripper,” who’s been mutilating mares across West Sussex-and who Walter obviously caught in the act. But considering Walter’s track record out of the saddle, Jude and Carole find that there are plenty of suspects- including Walter’s put-upon wife and more than a few jealous husbands who wanted Walter put out to pasture.

Jude and Carole are amateur detectives, who live next door to each other in the village of Fethering. Jude (who won’t give her last name) is a healer and takes on a new patient a horse and his owner Sonia Dalrymple, kept in stable owned by Lucinda and Walter Fleet. Carole,  retired from the Home Office, divorced and shy, is very different from Jude, but they work well together.

They make enquiries and discover that Walter was not a popular man, not even his wife mourns his death. The Stables, however, is a source of rivalry and secrets, and suspicion lands on Donal, a drunken ex-jockey and horse healer. Jude and Carole don’t believe he is the murderer even when the police arrest him. Sonia, tense and  verging on hysteria is obviously hiding something and Imogen, a teenager helping out at the Stables, behaves very oddly.

It’s an easy read, a ‘cozy mystery’, enjoyable and not too taxing on the brain, as I did work it out before the denouement.

A Crime Fiction Alphabet post for the letter S.

Ruth Rendell was born on 17 February 1930 in London. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has received many awards for her work, including the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award), and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Ruth Rendell's books - click to view full size

She is the author of a series of many novels featuring Detective Chief Inspector Wexford, set in Kingsmarkham, a fictional English town. The first of these, From Doon with Death, is also her first novel and was published in 1964. Books in the series include Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter (1992), Simisola (1994), Road Rage (1997), End in Tears (2005), and Not in the Flesh (2007). Under the pseudonym Barbara Vine her books include A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986), A Fatal Inversion (1987), winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction, Gallowglass (1990), King Solomon’s Carpet (1991), Asta‘s Book (1993) and The Brimstone Wedding (1995). The Blood Doctor (2002) is a psychological novel based on the diaries of Lord Henry of Nanther, Queen Victoria’s physician.

In 1996 she was  awarded a CBE in 1996 and in 1997 became a Life Peer –  Baroness Rendell of Babergh.

Tigerlily’s Orchids, published in 2010, is her 60th published book. It’s one of her stand-alone psychological crime novels, full of decidedly disturbing and disturbed characters.

Summary from the book cover

Rendell weaves together a story round the various characters, first concentrating on one then another, in a way that made me want to know more about each one. I read it quickly and it’s one that may benefit from re-reading but I don’t want to. By the end I was happy to finish it and return my copy to the library.