Wrap-Up: Thriller and Suspense Challenge 2010

I am pleased to have finished the Thriller and Suspense Challenge for 2010! I read and reviewed the following 12 books:

Audrey Niffenegger- Her Fearful Symmetry
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Helen Grant- The Vanishing of Katharina Linden
Carol Goodman- The Drowning Tree
Carol Goodman- Arcadia Falls
Agatha Christie- At Bertram's Hotel
Agatha Christie- The Moving Finger
Agatha Christie- The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret
Katharine Weber- The Music Lesson
Therese Walsh- The Last Will of Moira Leahy

And then there's the thriller/suspense/mystery books I finished but haven't posted m reviews yet:

P.D. James- Cover Her Face
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Agatha Christie- Peril at End House
Agatha Christie- Sparkling Cyanide
Agatha Christie- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie- Spider's Web

All in all, quite a satisfying year.

Review: At Bertram's Hotel

Bertram's, a central London hotel, attracts a wealthy and staid clientele. It specializes in creating an old-world ambiance for those who want to relive days past. But not all is right at the hotel, which Miss Marple discovers when she spends a holiday in its quarters. What exactly is amiss in the hotel is unraveled over the course of the book.

This book was somewhat different from the other Christies I've read. Most begin with a murder, and the rest of the book is spent sorting out whodunit. When I'd reached the halfway point of this book, I realized that no one had died yet; quite unusual for Christie. Instead, much of Miss Marple's time is spent trying to determine what, if anything is wrong. Several parallel story lines converge by the end of the book at Bertram's.

The unique format makes a nice diversion for the Christie fan, though I don't think that this is one of her best, it is still solid.

Agatha Christie, At Bertram's Hotel (Black Dog and Leventhal, 2007) ISBN: 1579127320

Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I had previously read Holmes in novel-length, but this is the first I've read Holmes in short form. The shorter form really seems to suit the larger-than-life character that is Sherlock Holmes. Holmes's quirks and ego, and Watson's sycophantic toadying are far more tolerable in smaller doses. Holmes's deductive reasoning is also on full display in these short tales, as attention to the details leads him to the solution, which is always "really rather simple, Watson!"

It's possible for the reader who attends to the details to figure out the solution to many of these cases, generally at least, if not in all the details. The stories in this volume are just the right length to be suspenseful without being stale. It is easy to see why these detective stories have withstood the test of time.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Puffin, 1995, orig. 1892) ISBN: 014036689X

Review: The Hound of the Baskervilles

This was my first Sherlock Holmes, and it very much lived up to my expectations. In this novel Holmes is called from London to consider the death of Charles Baskerville, apparantly by a crazed and superhuman dog. Reports have come from the manor of a ghostly, dog-like creature that haunts the hills. When Charles's heir arrives to take up residence at Baskerville Hall, Holmes is convinced that the young Baskerville's life is in danger. Watson takes up residence at Baskerville Hall to watch out for Henry Baskerville's safety. When Watson notices strange things happening in the moors, the reader starts to wonder if, in fact, there is something supernatural haunting the moors.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is certainly an engaging read. I stayed up late to finish it, and I can imagine that reading it in serials would create great anticipation for the next installment.

The one shortfall I found was in my ability to visualize the scenery. I'm not entirely familiar with Dartmoor, and it was difficult sometimes to understand the placement of Baskerville Hall and the surrounding terrain. That's not entirely Doyle's fault, and I certainly did get the sense that the countryside was hilly and desolate.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (Wordsworth, 1999, orig. 1902) ISBN: 1840224002

Review: Her Fearful Symmetry

I quite enjoyed this book. I've not read The Time Traveler's Wife, so I'm not colored by any disappointment of this not living up to Niffenegger's earlier work. Normally I don't care for books that tread into the fantastic, but I was taken with this one.

Twins Julia and Valentina Noblin inherit their estranged Aunt Elspeth's flat, on the border of London's Highgate cemetery. The girls move in and quickly discover that there is something mysterious about the flat; it appears to be haunted by Aunt Elspeth's ghost. In addition to Elspeth the ghost, the girls are introduced to their troubled neighbors, including an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobic, and Elspeth's boyfriend, obsessed with the cemetery and crippled by grief. The twins are rather odd too, and they fit in well with this troubled lot.

This story drew me in because it was just strange enough to be interesting and fresh. The setting in and around Highgate Cemetery was delightful, and Niffenegger's writing is atmospheric. Perhaps if I read more ghost stories I would be more critical of this one, but the fact is that I do not. For the reader who stays within the realm of realism, this book makes a nice diversion. I was not at all disappointed by the ending, and I will surely seek out more of Niffenegger's books.

Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry (Scribner, 2009) ISBN: 1439165394

Review: The Drowning Tree

This novel contains all the elements that reverberate through Goodman's work: single mother and teenage daughter, historical mystery, academic institution with a potentially dark secret, and mysterious works of art. Carol Goodman can write a cracking good mystery, and she's done it again here. Reading Goodman means that I can be sure I'm getting a good page-turner, that I'll be taken in with suspense, and that I'll be rushing to get to the end to find the solution to the mystery.

Those praises accounted for, I must also mention that this is my third Goodman novel, and the formula is getting a bit worn. The plots are always well-constructed, but the cast of characters and the love story are always so very similar. The main character is always a single mother, an artist or academic interested in the arts. I'll keep reading Goodman's books, but it's starting to seem like an exercise in diminishing returns. I first read The Lake of Dead Languages, and thought it was brilliant. I'm not sure that The Drowning Tree (or Arcadia Falls, which I've also read) are lesser books, it's just that they're starting to seem repetitive.

This particular story relied on the descriptions of some rather complicated architecture, including a sunken garden. I sometimes found it quite difficult to visualize these features, and they are integral to the plot. Goodman has the ability to visualize complicated and dramatic landscapes, but they're not always easy for the reader to recreate.

All of this said, I will continue to read Goodman's books, but I'm hoping that some of her other works will offer some new elements.

Carol Goodman, The Drowning Tree (Ballantine, 2004) ISBN: 0345462122

Review: The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

Not being a reader of fantasy or fairy tales, I took a chance on this book, and was pleasantly surprised. This book is a rather dark coming-of-age story, replete with child abduction and parental hysteria. Young girls begin disappearing from a small German town, and eleven-year-old Pia Kolvenbach desperately hopes to solve the mystery. Pia is something of a misfit: her only friends are the similarly unpopular "StinkStefan," and her late grandmother's sometimes boyfriend. The elderly gentleman delights Pia and Stefan with regional folktales, which add to the ambiance for two youngsters in a town gripped with hysteria. As the town grows more fearful Pia faces her own problems, as her parents marriage is falling apart. These tales ultimately weave together into a dramatic conclusion. That conclusion will likely not surprise most readers, and as a whodunit, this book falls flat. As a more general work of fiction the book is stronger. Grant does a particularly good job of setting the scene, bringing the reader into the town of Bad Munstereifel. The holidays, the festivals, the landscape with all of its interesting corners for children to explore: all of these are vividly detailed. That said, I never did get a good sense of why Pia was so intent on solving the mystery. There's a small subplot about Pia's grandmother "exploding" (i.e. burning to death) at Christmastime. Theoretically this is what thrusts Pia into the depths of unpopularity. This was probably the weakest thread in the larger work. This is a book to read for the environment it creates.

Helen Grant, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden (Delacorte, 2010) ISBN: 0385344171

Review: Lady Audley's Secret

This is a delightful Victorian Gothic novel, full of suspense and intrigue. Braddon's book has all of the elements of a good Victorian suspense tale: a country estate inhabited by the landed gentry, a pining lover, and a Victorian lady who is not what she seems.

George Talboys arrives home from Australia to discover his wife has died. Robert Audley, seeing his friend mad with grief, brings George to Audley Court, his uncle's country estate. It is at Audley Court that Talboys mysteriously vanishes. As Robert investigates his friend's disappearance, it becomes clear that the prime suspect is the lady of the court, Robert's new aunt, Lady Audley. Beautiful and child-like, the fact that Lady Audley may be a cold-blooded murderer adds a particularly horrifying twist for a Victorian readership.

Anyone who thinks that the Victorians couldn't produce a page-turner should have a look at this book. Braddon effectively creates a dark and suspenseful atmosphere. While she relies on particularly Victorian conventions to do this, such as stressing Lady Audley's hyper-femininity, the result is still sufficiently gripping, even for the modern reader.

Mary Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret (Virago, 1987, orig. 1862)

Review: The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories

This collection of Miss Marple short stories highlights many of the things I find interesting about Christie, as well as some of her weaknesses. Christie's strength lies in setting up complicated plots and drawing out rich characters in all of their particularities. The short story format, then, takes away Christie's greatest strength. What is left are bare-bones Christie-style stories.

Each story in this collection is a whodunit, usually featuring a murder. Everyone is either bewildered, or convinced that the wrong person is guilty, except, of course, for Miss Marple. Christie affords no energy to the set-up; most of these stories begin with a group telling each other stories. The solutions to these stories involve knowledge of all sorts of things with which the average reader will have little familiarity, such as the uses and results of certain poisons.

Perhaps most striking to me was just how weak the character of Miss Marple actually is. There's simply very little to her, except a conviction that young people are foolish. The introduction to the volume tries to argue otherwise, but I am not convinced.

Christie aficionados will certainly want to read this volume, but I would recommend one of Christie's novels to the uninitiated.

Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories (Folio, 2003).

Review: The Moving Finger

Poison pen letters spread throughout an English village, upsetting recipients, and leading to a suicide. The village is full of quirky characters, any one of whom might be responsible for the anonymous missives. Ultimately the mystery will be solved by one of the villagers' acquaintances, none other than Miss Jane Marple.

This was my first Miss Marple mystery, and I was surprised at how small a presence Miss Marple actually was in the story. She didn't appear until more than halfway through the book, and then remained in the background, sort of like the furniture. Yes, she does ultimately solve the mystery, but she's hardly a character of much consequence. It appears that The Moving Finger is one of the earlier Miss Marple mysteries, and perhaps the character was not yet well-developed. As this was my first Miss Marple I don't really have another novel for comparison.

The story is told by an injured pilot, who has moved to the countryside to recover. As he meets the various villagers, especially the women, there's an added element of romance, but as with all of Christie's work, the mystery remains the heart of the book. This is not one of Christie's more remarkable works, but it is certainly solid, and kept me riveted to the end.

Agatha Christie, The Moving Finger (Black Dog and Leventhal, 2007) ISBN: 1579126944

Review: The Music Lesson

This novel tells the story of Patricia Dolan, a middle-aged art historian who finds herself in the midst of a mid-life crisis of epic proportions. The book opens with Dolan in the midst of a large-scale art heist, which removed a Vermeer from the clutches of none less than Buckingham Palace. Dolan is holed up in a cottage in a tiny, remote Irish village with the stolen painting. How an American art history professor came to find herself in this situation comprises the first three-quarters of the book. The rest brings the heist to its dramatic and suspense-filled conclusion. At the outset of the book Patricia Dolan finds herself stalled in her career, divorced, and grieving the death of her daughter. She finds solace in a long-lost, decades younger cousin who tumbles into her life and becomes the other half of Dolan's torrid love affair. It's the fling with this Irish cousin who launches Dolan into an Irish Liberation plot to steal a British-owned Vermeer. I found this book undeniably slow to get going. The details of Patricia's relationship with her cousin Mickey were not especially interesting. What was interesting was how an unassuming professor came to find herself in the midst of an international art heist. For as exciting as this book should have been, it simply was not. The characters were not especially well-developed, and were not always believable. The most interesting entity in this book is the painting, The Music Lesson. Perhaps this is intentional. The best-expressed emotion in this book is Patricia's love for the painting. The final, dramatic ending is the highlight of the book. Getting there, however, is slow going.

Katharine Weber, The Music Lesson (Crown, 1998) ISBN: 0609603175

Review: Arcadia Falls

This book bears distinct resemblance to Goodman's earlier Lake of Dead Languages. Both take place at elite private schools in the northeast. Both books' main characters are single mothers and teachers who move to these schools to teach under difficult circumstances. And both books rely heavily on student and faculty obsession with old myths. In Arcadia Falls the single mother in question is Meg Rosenthal, recently widowed folklore scholar, who moves herself and her daughter to a remote region of upstate New York to take a much-needed teaching job at the Arcadia School. The school began its life as a feminist artist colony, whose founders wrote and illustrated fairy tales. The school's founders, Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhart, are professional and romantic partners, but with the arrival of a charismatic sculptor at the colony, Lily finds herself in the midst of a troublesome love triangle. The consequences of this triangle will lead to Lily's death. It quickly becomes apparent to Meg that the Arcadia School is a dangerous and deadly place,not just in Lily's time, but in her own, too. The books is the retelling of three stories, that of Meg and Sally Rosenthal, that of Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhart, and the fairy tale, The Changeling Girl. Goodman does an excellent job of weaving these tales together. While the book does bear some similarities to some of Goodman's earlier work, it is not merely the same story retold. I was captivated with discovering who or what was responsible for Lily Eberhart's death. I did find that after the circumstances of Lily's death were revealed the book was neither as compelling, nor as plausible. The ending is not the most satisfying, but this was still an enjoyable and suspenseful read.

Carol Goodman, Arcadia Falls (Ballantine, 2010) ISBN: 0345497538

Review: The Last Will of Moira Leahy

I should start by mentioning that this is quite a different book from the sorts I usually read. Normally I read mainstream literary fiction. This book is mostly mainstream literary fiction, but with a distinct twist. In writing style and character development this book certainly fits the bill, but Walsh adds distinct threads of the fantastic and supernatural as she weaves the story of Maeve Leahy and her departed twin, Moira. Maeve Leahy lost her twin at sixteen. Nine years later she finds herself drawn to an antique Javanese knife, a keris, which seems,s somehow, to embody her sister's spirit. After purchase of the keris at auction strange elements of the past reappear in Maeve's life. It's difficult to explain the progression of the plot or what is so different about it without giving away important parts of the story, except to say that Maeve travels to Rome to try and unlock the mystery of the keris, and there finds danger and surprise she hadn't anticipated. Walsh does an excellent job building suspense as Maeve travels to Rome in search of an expert who can explain the keris to her. She has written what is certainly a gripping mystery. The writing is good and the characters are well developed. I do, however, generally prefer more concrete explanations in my fiction, obviously other readers' mileage may vary depending on their tastes, and even for someone such as myself who doesn't generally venture into the realms of fantasy or supernatural, what Leahy has done seems well-done, at least to my untrained mind. What I did find difficult, or perhaps distracting, was that Maeve was never very believable as a foreign language professor. Her character appeared to have minimal research skills, and little ability to track down information or experts. Also, it's nearly impossible that a foreign language professor with an academic appointment could have never left the country, or have cloistered herself at home in the ways that Maeve apparently does-- research and conferences would have commanded that. I will fully admit this is a bit nick-picking, and likely will not affect the majority of readers, but if you live in what is Maeve's academic world, you'll likely find it implausible. I also disliked the discussion of Maeve's relationship with her friend/maybe-boyfriend Noel. I've read a number of books lately where the female protagonists treat their maybe-boyfriends poorly, and this seemed to fall into the same trap.

Therese Walsh, The Last Will of Moira Leahy (Shaye Areheart, 2009) ISBN: 0307461572

Thriller and Suspense Challenge

Having looked over my reading for the past year, it's pretty surprising just how many of the books fit in the thriller and suspense category, broadly speaking. Thus, I've decided to join the Thriller and Suspense Challenge for next year. The rules are to read 12 books in the genre over the coming year, which will hopefully not be a problem. In the spirit of how I read (choosing on a whim) I'll not be making an advance list, but I'll be posting and reviewing once the new year starts.