Crime Reads: the Mystery Is Holmes

What’s a mystery all about? The ending? Well, of course, you say—the
denouement, the unraveling of the clues, the big reveal. If it’s too easy to guess the ending before that very moment, or if the ending doesn’t seem to mesh with the clues provided by the author you’re disappointed with it. It’s a lousy mystery, right?

Really? Ever re-read a mystery? Even though you know the solution? (If you’re like me, of course, you can re-read it a year later because you’ve forgotten the solution, but that’s another matter.) But what’s the pleasure in re-reading if the entire pleasure is in the solution dangled like a carrot before you? Tom Stoppard, the great British playwright, opines that a play which depends on keeping its secrets isn’t worth viewing twice—which he found out the hard way. 

Review: The Paragon Hotel

 This is the third Lyndsay Faye novel I've read, and by now I'm convinced she either has a research team of a hundred, or a time machine. Her ear and eye for varied time periods are that good, and yet she's able to stamp each book with her own graceful, surprising style. 

  In this one we have a gun moll on the run from the New York mafia (in the 20s) and lands in Oregon. In the only black-run and owned hotel in Portland. In a time when blacks were barely tolerated on Oregon, and the KKK was on the rise. And she finds that the inhabitants of the hotel have nearly as many secrets among them as she harbors herself, including a slinky black chanteuse who believes that if she knew all her secrets, she might just not hate her. And as the secrets unravel, we alternately love and hate and are enthralled by the characters.

   Can you tell I enjoyed the novel?

The Paragon Hotel can be found here on Amazon.

The Alluring Puzzle of Fact and Fiction

         From my interview with Writer's Digest here.

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE DUTCH PAINTER News

 And by the way, Seventh Street will also be publishing my second strange case of Sherlock Holmes, THE STRANGE CASE OF THE DUTCH PAINTER. Look for news of it here.

The Shark Bites Podcast

                                                                       P. J.'s got his copy!

 A podcast interview about The 

Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle with PJ Rahall of Shark Bites.

Excerpts from Eliza Doolittle

Here's a quibble with Amazon for Kindle.

If you want a little taste of a novel. you can download 20 or 30 pages, the beginning of the book, which is cool. Except that's not the way I pick out a book. I open a book to a random page and read a little snippet. Then I open it to another random page, further along in the book, and dip down again. And so on. That way I can be sure all the good parts aren't stuffed into the first chapter. So I'm going to give you the chance to check out my book in that same way. i'm going to give you some random snippets. I hope they'll whet your curiosity.

"And there were certain cases, no more than a handful, of such bizarre aspect and puckered logic that he simply could not resist the temptation to wade back into the black cesspools of London’s vast criminal underworld."

"Holmes and Pickering were alone in the dining room when I arrived, but no revelations were forthcoming. “Still expecting conjuror’s tricks after all these years, Watson?” Holmes scolded. “I’m not a calculating chicken."

“I’m a detective is what I am,” said Wiggins proudly. “But the kind of detectin’ I do, Mrs. Brown is as valuable to me as Mr. Holmes’ magnifying glass were to him.” He opened up his bag and produced a small leather case, which held a Brownie camera. "

“Ah! You’re unaware of the case of Susan Wallace?” asked Newcomen, glad to have news to share. “We’ve just laid our hands on her. Murdered four men in a pub down by the docks, she did. Middle of the afternoon.”

“Of course he’s mad. Most aristocrats are mad. In the German states it’s practically a prerequisite. I was Freddy’s second." 

Review by Bookpleasures

Here's a link to a review of the novel by Dr. Wesley Britton at Bookpleasures"

"You don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes aficionado to enjoy The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle although Doyle fans will get to see many references to events and characters from the Holmes canon updated into a sort of sequel to the original stories.  So, on many levels, the novel is a lot of fun. I enjoyed this book more than many  a title I've read of late. A perfect diversion from the weird world of 2020."

Selfie

 

And here's an obligatory pic of the author with a copy of the book hot off the presses. It has that new book smell.

Ta Da! The Cover.

 I really have been delinquent. Here is the cover to the first of the strange cases (which I love), by the extremely talented Jennifer Do, as well as the link to its Amazon page.