Bill's Book Series

The Thursday Murder Club Novels

Author: Richard Osman

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Posted on: August 15, 2023 at 5:58 pm

The Cozy Mystery Genre is frequently maligned, especially by me, but many people (including myself for a long time) have misunderstood its essence and, therefore, dismiss this genre as light and insubstantial. As is typical there are many different definitions of cozy but in general my view of it is that the books should be fun to read, usually set in a small town or village, and omit all the gore and nastiness of the actual crime. In my defense, I have read many cozy mysteries and found them lacking, leading me to avoid books thus classified as much as I can. However, I do make a few significant exceptions.

It is a stretch to say that most of Agatha Christie’s books fall into the cozy genre but by my definition they sort of do, and I have certainly enjoyed all those over the years (although I do have a problem with Poirot who commonly goes off somewhere to find some information that we are not made party to until he announces the murderer). So that’s one exception. Simon Brett’s Charles Paris series of books (to be reviewed at a later date) is another exception and….drum roll please….The Monday Murder Club series is absolutely the biggest, the hugest, the most gigantic exception ever!!!!!

If you want to get in on the ground floor of a series, there is none better than this. It is a brilliant new mystery series of three so far (the fourth one is on its way) by Richard Osman. The first thing to say about it is that it is hilarious. Absolutely a laugh out loud a minute experience but, having said that, the stories are very cleverly crafted and the characters are stupendous. These are so good that the first book is already being made into a movie (not necessarily a good thing but I can always not see it). My enthusiasm for these books knows no bounds. This could be the best series I have ever read (where have I heard that before?).

The four main members of the Thursday Murder Club all live in Cooper’s Chase, an upscale retirement village in Kent in the south east of England. Ron is a retired union leader and champion of the working class, Ibrahim is a retired psychiatrist, Joyce is a retired nurse, and Elizabeth is a retired something-or-other in the government, the nature of which slowly reveals itself throughout the books and is part of the fun. They formed the murder club to give them something interesting and unusual to occupy themselves during their retirement but little did they know that they would find themselves solving real-life murders.

Being retirees and of a mature nature, the murder club members are sometimes limited in what the can do, so they are ably assisted by Bogdan, the enigmatic builder-cum-maintenance manager of Cooper’s Chase who has a somewhat checkered past and is always game to help the group, even if it is out of his comfort zone or marginally illegal. They are also assisted, mostly unwittingly but sometimes by design, by the local police force in the form of Constable Donna De Freitas and her superior officer Chris (whose last name I have forgotten).

Richard Osman uses an interesting technique to keep the plot and action clear to the readers. Joyce, is the newest member of the club and is replacing someone who has taken a turn for the worse. She keeps a diary and every few chapters or so, she creates an entry that describes what has been going on and what she thinks of it all. This is a very clever technique that keeps things moving at a fast pace, keeps the reader from straying, and allows Osman to take a few short cuts as necessary. It works really well. It not only gives us an insight into how Joyce’s mind works but also reveals her perceptions of how the other club members minds are working.

This is definitely a must-read series. I’m waiting patiently for the fourth book and hope there are many more to come.

Books in Order, The Thursday Murder Club (2021), The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2002)

Siri Paiboun Novels

Author: Colin Cotterill

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Posted on: November 12, 2022 at 10:25 pm

Ever been to Laos? Me neither, but I have often been transported there by Colin Cotterill via his series of Dr Siri Paiboun novels. This series is a huge departure from the other stuff I’ve written about so far and, once again, it could well be my favorite series (I told you I would probably say that more than once).

Nobody knows how old Dr. Siri and his wife, Madame Deng, really are, although most believe they are somewhere in their mid-70s. They both fought for the Pathet Lao communists who, after a long struggle, successfully defeated the Royal Lao Army in 1975 (it was far more complicated than that but that’s close enough for this review). Siri was an army medic trained in France while his wife had a more understated mysterious role that is tangentially referred to in some of the novels and appears to involve killing people at close quarters. Because of his training and partly because everyone else with the skill has left the country, Siri has reluctantly been appointed as the country’s coroner.

It is not clear if, having seen the results of the Pathet Lao’s victory, Siri is still a true believer in communism or if he is naturally altruistic but he could hardly exhibit a larger degree of cynicism about the affairs of government even though his longtime close friend, Civilai, is a senior member of the party. Siri accepts his government awarded house but populates it with an assortment of needy waifs and strays while he spends most of his time living above his wife’s, noodle shop. A noodle shop that, by the way, sells the best noodles in Laos.

Siri’s mortuary is in Vientaine, Loas, just across the Mekong river from Thailand. In the early books he is assisted by Nurse Dtui and Geung Watajak but as Siri’s adventures take him farther afield they pretty much run the establishment for hm. Geung was the assistant to the previous coroner and suffers from Down’s Syndrome but he taught Siri all he knows about being a coroner. Nurse Dtui is married to Phosy, the local police chief, but is using the mortuary to create a career of her own and is studying to be the coroner when Siri retires. A wise move on her part as Siri has tried, and failed, to retire four times so far.

Siri’s first adventure starts when he autopsies a body and finds it to have been buried alive. Curiosity and a sense of justice get the better of him and he sets off to find out what happened. During this and his other adventures, he, his best friend Civilai, Phosy, Nurse Dtui, Geung, and various other characters, including a naked Indian and even Siri’s dog, all combine in different ways to overcome the incompetencies and corruption of their leaders to solve the incredibly ingenious mysteries that Colin Cotterill has served up for them.

To add to your pleasure is a layer of the supernatural wending its way through the stories. It transpires that Siri is somewhat of a shaman, although he doesn’t really know it, and he is possessed by Yeh Ming, a dead Hmong shaman. Occasionally, and usually at inconvenient times, Siri will disappear into a spirit world where he receives insight from the spirits that often just confuses him more. In one story he and his wife make a deal with a magical woman who provides them with the means to solve a mystery in exchange for…..well, I’ll let you find that out for yourselves.

These are not hard core mystery books that have you on the edge of your seat but they are definitely page turners. The stories are complex, intelligent, and well crafted. Being immersed in Cotterill’s vision and first-hand experiences of post revolution Loas, it’s culture, and the influences that Vietnam and Thailand have on its people is an absolute education and adds massively to the enjoyment of these books. While there are certainly dark and poignant moments in the books, Siri has a delightful sense of humor that keeps everything on a lighter plane.

I absolutely love these books and can’t wait for the next one to be released. However, while writing this, I read a review that suggested that the fifteenth book in the series, The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot, will be the last in the series. I have tried researching this but I cannot find anything to substantiate it. I certainly hope it’s a mistake. If you know anything more about this, let me know!

Books in Order, The Coroner’s Lunch (2004), Thirty-Three Teeth (2005), Disco for the Departed (2006), Anarchy and Old Dogs (2007), Curse of the Pogo Stick (2008), The Merry Misogynist (2009), Love Songs from a Shallow Grave (2010), Slash and Burn (2011), The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die (2013), Six and a Half Deadly Sins (2015), I Shot the Buddha (2016), The Rat Catcher’s Olympics (2017), Don’t Eat Me (2018), The Second Biggest Nothing (2019), The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot (2020)

Logan McRae Novels

Author: Stuart MacBride

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Posted on: November 11, 2022 at 5:07 pm

The Noir genre has been defined in many ways by many people and there is a really good discussion of it in Wikipedia. Paraphrasing them all it denotes a darkness of theme and subject matter, generally featuring violence……..and I love it! I can’t get enough of it. In real life I abhor it but in a novel, the darker the better for me. The Logan McRae novels are Scottish Noir at its best! Just reading the titles gives you an idea of just how grizzly these books can get.

Apparently, there is an official sub-genre called Tartan Noir in which Ian Rankin (John Rebus Novels) and Val McDermid (Dr Tony Hill Novels) proudly sit. I have read all of Rankin’s novels and will review them later but I haven’t yet read McDermid’s, although I have watched the awesome Tyne Tees Television presentation of Wire in the Blood starring Robson Green. Personally, I prefer calling this genre Scottish Noir as I also use the terms Irish Noir, English Noir, German Noir, Swedish Noir, and Norwegian Noir, all with slightly different flavors and I don’t know what their equivalents of “tartan” would be. Maybe Lederhosen Noir for German but it doesn’t have the same ring to it really.

To the average tourist, Aberdeen is a beautiful city set in the bucolic county of Aberdeenshire on the East Coast of Scotland. Complete with a historic city center, ancient university, art museums, parks, the river Dee, a scenic coastline, and being a stone’s throw away from medieval castles, beautiful farmland, and Balmoral, the country home of the royal family (I was once bitten there by one of Princess Anne’ s horses), it appears to be an idyllic place to while away a significant portion of one’s life. However, to Stuart MacBride, it is nothing of the sort.

To the author, Aberdeenshire is a dark foreboding place and a hotbed of criminal activity and police corruption and incompetence. Adding to the atmosphere, everyone pessimistically accepts their lot in life, the buildings are built of depressing grey granite, and even the weather with its slate grey skies, harsh winds, and bitter cold rain and snow is determined to suck the lifeblood out of the people brave enough to live there.

But then there is DS Logan McRae. Not so much of an optimist but more of a fatalist who believes he can right the wrongs of the world, or, more immediately, Aberdeen through grit, hard work, and the occasional flash of brilliance. Unfortunately for him, he is surrounded by some who are less competent than himself and, even though he doesn’t look for it, trouble always seems to find him.

The series starts with McRae returning to work after a year-long recovery from stab wounds and, since he probably died a few times while he was in surgery, his colleagues, in their darkly humorous way, soon nickname him Lazarus. He is quickly plunged into the investigation of a murdered child that quickly turns into a media sensation when other children go missing, confidential information is leaked to the press, and fingers are pointed at a convenient scapegoat.

This first book typifies the soul of a Stuart MacBride novel. The action is local, the criminals are not masterminds even though there is always the threat of a local organized crime gang lurking in the background. Since the police are only armed with mace, extendable batons, and dog spray, there are no major shootouts, although there is sometimes a need to call out an armed response team. The police inquiries clearly show the fallible side of humans, mistakes are common and the best laid plans always seem to be thwarted by the randomness of life.

Detective Inspector Roberta Steel is in charge of a squad that she refers to as the “Screw-up Squad”. Even though Logan McRae has closed some important cases, he has a habit of running afoul of superior officers who have clearly been promoted to their level of incompetence. Consequently, he has occasionally received undue blame and eventually finds himself working for Steel. The working and personal relationships between him and his boss are a major theme that underpins the series and provides many very funny situations. Steel is a train-wreck but is a competent police officer and an unwitting mentor to McRae.

There are no holds barred in this series. Although there is a lot to laugh at and few guns are in evidence, the humor is often dark and there are plenty of things or than guns that can be used as weapons and tools of torture and, human nature being what it is, frequently are. If you are squeamish, you should probably avoid this series but if you enjoy realism and how the police really work or don’t work, you will enjoy these books. You will also learn a lot about Scotland and life in the harsh north east. More importantly, after you’ve read a few books you will be able to identify Rowies, Stovies, and Finnan Haddie (Spoiler alert: You can eat them all but you may not want to eat them all).

Unfortunately, it has been three years since the last Logan Mcrae book and Stuart MacBride has started the not dissimilar Ash Henderson series in the same genre (yes!), albeit with a new and very interesting cast of characters. I’m trying to get hold of the third and latest book but the libraries do not yet carry it. Heaven forbid if I have to buy it. I have no information as to whether an other Logan McRae book will be forthcoming but one can only hope!

Books in Order, Cold Granite (2005), Dying Light (2006), Broken Skin/Bloodshot (2007), Flesh House (20008), Blind Eye (2009), Dark Blood (2010), Shatter the Bones (2011), Partners in Crime – two short stories (2012), Close to the Bone (2013), The 45% Hangover (2014), 22 Dead Little Bodies (2015), The Missing and the Dead (2015), In the Cold Dark Ground (2016), Now We Are Dead (2017), The Blood Road (2018), All That’s Dead (2019)

Sharpe’s Rifles Novels

Author: Bernard Cornwell

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Posted on: November 19, 2020 at 12:04 am

I want to get away from the detective genre and the NY Times Best Sellers list and for that I have moved to the historical fiction section of my virtual book collection (my wife and I have a large collection of real books but were forced to transfer our allegiance to library books when we ran out of space in our house) and one of the best book series I have ever read. Bernard Cornwell is a terrific historian and writer of historical fiction and this will not be the only series of his I will review.

I have called this series Sharpe’s Rifles as that was the name of the TV series that was based on the books, although it is also the name of one of the novels so don’t get confused. It follows Richard Sharpe’s career through the Duke of Wellington’s campaigns through India, Portugal, Waterloo and beyond. There are 26 books altogether and I was so transfixed that I read the whole series, one book after another, in just under three months.

As was not untypical in 18th century lower class England, Richard Sharpe was born into poverty, orphaned, raised by a prostitute, became a thief, and killed a man (justifiably of course), and this was all before the series starts! We learn all this in the course of the series but it was not an uncommon explanation of why he “Took the King’s Shilling” (joined the army). There weren’t many well paying jobs around for an uneducated grunt in those days but, if you read this series, I think you’ll agree with me that serving in the military was extreme even for a desperate man.

Sharpe is assigned to the 33rd foot regiment but is rather fortunate that technology is changing and the rifle has recently been introduced to the army as a somewhat experimental instrument of destruction. He becomes a rifleman and is thus spared standing shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other musketeers blasting away at hundreds of enemy musketeers standing shoulder to shoulder just a few yards away blasting away at him (battles were usually won by the musketeers who could reload the fastest).

The role of a rifleman allows Sharpe some flexibility in his military positioning and, more importantly, allows Bernard Cornwell flexibility in his story telling. Hence, this is not just a description of a series of military engagements, this is a majestic transportation into a world of exotic locations, mysterious characters, intrigue, and romance, where Sharpe’s recurring evil nemesis Sgt. Obadiah Hakeswill is constantly and cunningly taking advantage of situations to plot Sharpe’s downfall and ultimate demise.

Although Sharpe is initially a ruffian serving as canon fodder, he unwittingly earns himself a promotion to an officer rank by being in the wrong place at the right time, somewhat typical of Richard Sharpe. A rarity in the British army, an officer from the ranks was very rarely accepted by his fellow “gentleman” officers and was treated with scorn and mistrust. However, Sharpe had also become known and respected by non other than Arthur Wellesley himself, aka., the Duke of Wellington, and the dynamic between Sharpe, Wellington, and his fellow officers is an important recurring theme in the stories.

Another recurring theme is Sharpe’s lifelong friendship with Patrick Harper. Born out of conflict but cemented by mutual respect, the relationship is all the more unlikely because Sharpe is English and Harper is Irish, and I know from personal experience that everything bad that has happened in Ireland is blamed on the English – although I can see their point. Along our way through the fascinating narrative we encounter romance, betrayal, despair, and, of course, detailed accounts of what a British soldier had to endure on a day-to-day basis and, especially, in the absolute hell of battle. For me this is “I can’t put the book down” territory. Many times I would find that I had been holding my breath for goodness knows how long while reading a particularly suspenseful passage.

Cornwell is a master at developing characters and in this series they are so deep they jump off the page and walk around your house with you. He makes you feel you are part of the action and often you don’t know whether to duck or grab a weapon and jump right in. He is also a great story teller and his plots are full of intrigue and not without a dash or two of romance. For some reason that I don’t understand Sharpe attracts beautiful women, not all of whom are trustworthy. This adds another dimension to the series and sometimes, if you are a romantic like me, the love story takes over as the main plot line in the novel.

As an aside, nobody but Sean Beane could have played Sharpe in the TV series. He portrays the perfect combination of brutality and intelligence required for the role.

Books in Order, Sharpe’s Tiger (1997), Sharpe’s Triumph (1998), Sharpe’s Fortress (1999), Sharpe’s Trafalgar (2000), Sharpe’s Prey (2001), Sharpe’s Rifles (1988), Sharpe’s Havoc (2003), Sharpe’s Eagle (1981), Sharpe’s Gold (1981), Sharpe’s Escape (2004), Sharpe’s Fury (2006), Sharpe’s Battle (1995), Sharpe’s Company (1982), Sharpe’s Sword (1983), Sharpe’s Skirmish (1999), Sharpe’s Enemy (1984), Sharpe’s Honor (1985), Sharpe’s Regiment (1986), Sharpe’s Christmas & Sharpe’s Ransom – short stories (1994), Sharpe’s Siege (1987), Sharpe’s Revenge (1989), Sharpe’s Waterloo (1990), Sharpe’s Assassin (2021), Sharpe’s Devil (1992)

Jack Reacher Novels

Author: Andrew Child,Lee Child

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Posted on: November 18, 2020 at 1:03 am

For my second blog I wanted to move the action from Britain to the USA. I will be writing a lot about British books as I am a big fan of Scottish and Irish noir (not sure if that is a real genre or I made it up but it will seem apt if you read the books) and, being from Britain, I have read a lot of British authors. So, I thought it would even things out a bit if I selected an American protagonist even though, by pure coincidence, Lee Child is a Brit (a fact I didn’t know until very recently).

Spoiler alert…for those of you who don’t know yet, Lee Child is no longer writing the Jack Reacher novels and has passed the mantle to his brother Andrew. Actually, I don’t know exactly when the transition is occurring or if it has already occurred. The latest book in the series, The Sentinel, out now but yet to be read by yours truly, is credited as being written by both Lee and Andrew. To add to the confusion, Lee’s name is in a larger font.

Lee Child started writing this series in 1997 and has written a novel a year since then. Jack Reacher is a larger than life character in more ways than one. He is a retired Military Police major who spent many years tracking down and subduing big-assed perpetrators who were trained to kill, so immediately you’d put your money on him in a donnybrook. He is also 6′ 5″ in his stockinged feet, 250lbs of toned muscle, has an internal clock that can tell time almost to the second, can analyze situations and predict outcomes like a chess grandmaster, has supernatural animalistic hearing, choreographs a fight better than a WWE promoter, is violent but only when absolutely necessary, has an acute sense of justice, doesn’t have a permanent address preferring instead to stay on the move, lives off the grid in hotels and buses and sometimes jail, doesn’t own anything other than what he can carry in his backpack and a bank account into which his military pension is paid, cannot walk away when he senses something is not right, and can get into trouble just by sitting on a park bench. In short, he is a capeless caped crusader without trying to be.

I exaggerate slightly but only very slightly. From the description above you might think of him as someone out of a marvel comic but Lee Child has somehow managed to keep him on the credible side of incredulity. It may be because we all secretly want a hero like Jack Reacher who can smash through the bullshit of real life, get to the crux of the problem and fix it in just the right way to satisfy our sense of justice and morality. Or it could be the way the author walks us through Reacher’s reasoning and logical train of thought that makes us believe there is only one solution to the problem and it is Jack’s way.

Either way, the books are addictive and difficult to put down. I warn you, if you want to read yourself to sleep do not try it with these books. Many a morning I have woken less than refreshed with my Fitbit telling me, “Yes, you did go to bed at 11:00 PM but you didn’t fall asleep until 2:00 AM you idiot. Put the book down and nobody will get hurt.”

Most of the stories start with him either hitch hiking into a small town, rolling into a small town on a bus or, on one occasion, just sitting on a bus when trouble somehow finds him. It be may something that someone says, the way somebody looks, he might see something suspicious along the way, someone who should know a lot better might looks at him the wrong way, or the local constabulary might think he looks suspicious (after all, in certain areas of the country he would be classed as a vagrant, arrested and run out of town). Regardless how it starts, escalation will occur and blood will spill and Jack Reacher will make it all right in the end. Along the way you can almost guarantee that he will be set upon by the local tough guys whose safety in numbers routine (at 6′ 5″ and 250 lbs would you challenge him one-on-one?) seriously backfires. It’s all good fun and usually very exciting.

Given that almost fantastical nature of Jack Reacher, I was shocked when the 5′ 7″ big nosed Tom Cruise was cast in the role of the 6′ 5″ colossus who is Jack Reacher. I was even more shocked when I watched the movies and really enjoyed them. Maybe they stood Cruise on a box in every scene to disguise his height but there was no way they could bulk him up to the large framed superhuman I was expecting but somehow it worked. In my opinion, the size of Tom Cruise actually made Jack Reacher a far more believable character and ensured that the movies, like the books, stayed in the realm of believability.

There is no doubt that Jack Reacher has stepped beyond what is conventionally legal in the pursuit of justice (that’s an understatement). He appears to live outside of the law but because he has no fixed abode and the reports of his against-all-the-odds achievements have reached almost mythical proportions, he appears to be a ghost to many in law enforcement. This has led to a very interesting spin-off series which I have just discovered and not yet had the pleasure of reading. Diane Capri has written what appears to be at least 14 books in a series called Hunt for Jack Reacher. Lee Child has endorsed them saying, “Intricate and ingenious. Make some coffee. You will read all night”, so I suspect they will be good. She may be a friend of Lee Child but I need to do a bit more research. If you know more than I do feel free to reply and fill me in.

Anyway, the Lee Child Jack Reacher series has spent a lot of time on the best sellers lists so I am sure you will enjoy them. If you have not read them yet, I hope this review has sparked your interest. Feel free to send me your thoughts as a reply below.

Happy reading!

Books in Order, Killing Floor (1997), Die Trying (1998), Tripwire (1999), Running Blind/The Visitor (2000), Echo Burning (2001), Without Fail (2002), Persuader (2003), The Enemy (2004), One Shot (2005), The Hard Way (2006), Bad Luck and Trouble (2007), Nothing to Lose (2008), Gone Tomorrow (2009), 61 Hours (2010), Worth Dying For (2010), The Affair (2011), A Wanted Man (2012), Never Go Back (2013), Personal (2014), Make Me (2015), Night School (2016), The Midnight Line (2017), Past Tense (2018), Blue Moon (2019), The Sentinel (2020) (with Andrew Child)

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