Barry Ergang’s Favorite Books of 2020 Thru July 31st

Between Lesa Holstine’s recent list of favorites through June, my list of last week that also runs through June, and this list from Barry today, you should be able to find at least one read, if not many more, that appeal. 

Barry Ergang’s Favorite Books of 2020 Thru July 31^st

Regular readers of Kevin Tipple’s blog have probably noticed a dearth of book reviews by yours truly this year. It’s primarily attributable to innate laziness on my part. I have been reading regularly, however, something Kevin has been aware of, and which prompted him to invite me to follow his lead and submit a list of the books I’ve read so far in 2020 that I’ve especially enjoyed.

The Case of the Solid Key by Anthony Boucher: Private detective Fergus O’Breen, posing as an actor in a theater group, encounters a locked-room death that might or might not be an accident. (This being a mystery novel, take a wild guess which it is.J) It’s a well-paced novel populated with well-delineated characters.

The Nine Wrong Answers by John Dickson Carr: The author was often accused of doing a poor job of characterization, but I can’t call this novel guilty on that score. It’s not one of his great impossible crime works, but it moves along nicely as a cat-and-mouse game between its hero and villain—and still manages a whodunit explanation at the end. It’s also one of the rare Carr works in which I correctly guessed who the culprit was—not that it required a long list of suspects, and in which I think I caught the author in an error regarding the solution.

Young Lonigan by James T. Farrell: This is the first novel in the classic Studs Lonigan trilogy. I’d heard of the books for years but nothing substantive about them. In this one, William “Studs” Lonigan is not quite 15 and trying to both determine and create for himself an identity on Chicago’s South Side in the early years of the 20^th Century. Interested readers must brace themselves for offensive ethnic and racial slurs. These are reflective of the attitudes of the novel's milieu, its era, and many of its characters. Unfortunately, these attitudes prevail among many in our own era, independent of locales.

Murder, My Tweet by Bruce Hale: When I first learned of the series for young readers starring Chet Gecko, 4^th grader and private eye at Emerson Hicky Elementary School, I read and reviewed The Malted Falcon. Including the one listed here, I’ve since read several more titles in this great series—you can knock them out in a couple or three hours—and enjoy more than a few chuckles or out-loud laughs along the way. You’ll probably agree that few, if any, young readers the series is aimed at will understand and appreciate the spoofing, stylistic and otherwise, unless and until they discover adult hardboiled private eye fiction precociously or later in life.

The Staked Goat by Jeremiah Healy: The fourth book I’ve read in this series about Boston private detective John Cuddy, I have yet to be disappointed and look forward to reading additional titles. In this one, Cuddy sets out to investigate and avenge the murder of an old Army buddy from their Vietnam years. Healy’s style is impressively lean, which keeps the narrative moving without sacrificing solid characterization, which is elicited skillfully through action and dialogue.

Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen: Another gem of a comic crime novel by an author who can and does frequently evoke laugh-out-loud moments. As always, it’s populated by a quirky cast of characters, and headed by an ex-cop who suspects the apparent accidental death of a wealthy man is anything but. If you think being assigned to “roach patrol” and having to otherwise deal with a horny voodoo witch are problematic issues, you don’t know what problematic means.

All Shot Up by Chester Himes: I’ve known of Himes’s work for many years, but this is the first of his novels featuring Harlem cops Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones that I’ve read. It’s fast, loaded with action, and often humorous.  

All But Impossible by Edward D. Hoch: Those who remember the TV series “Murder, She Wrote” are probably familiar with the joke in which people hurriedly leave town when they hear Jessica Fletcher is visiting because her presence guarantees someone will be murdered. A similar joke could be applied to small-town New England doctor Sam Hawthorne, who has a knack for solving seemingly impossible crimes that typically involve corpses. This is one of a number of stellar collections of stories from this series which originally appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

Dumpty by John Lithgow: I first learned of this collection of satirical poems by the noted actor about Donald Trump’s investiture on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. If you’re a Trump fan, disregard it. If you aren’t, enjoy!

A Diamond Fell Into My Pocket by Morris Spurling: Years ago a cousin of mine on my mother’s side decided to investigate family history. Among the information he unearthed was the fact that we had a British cousin named Morris Spurling who’d written a (kind of) autobiography. When I was told a little about Morris’s life and “profession,” I had to read it. I mean, who doesn’t want to know about his cousin, the jewel thief? That said, I must admit this is not an absorbing read except, perhaps, for those like me who have familial connections. It’s an “as told to” and frequently reads that way, rarely dramatizing Spurling’s exploits in a suspenseful manner.

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck: This is the sequel to Cannery Row, which I immensely enjoyed when I first read it. This one is almost, but not quite, as good, but still worth the time for its insights to human nature, some wonderful characters, and its share of humor.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump: To call the Trump family dysfunctional is like calling the Covid-19 pandemic a mild case of the sniffles. Mary Trump, Donald's niece, provides an insightful recounting of how Fred Trump, her sociopathic grandfather, destroyed his oldest son, Mary's father, and created the monster second son Donald has become, as well as depicting other family members. A clinical psychologist, Mary explains in a manner readily accessible to the lay reader how Fred's manipulation and his wife's indifference resulted in Donald's severely arrested development.

© 2020 Barry Ergang

Among other works, Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang's own impossible crime novelette, The Play of Light and Shadow, is available at Amazon and Smashwords as is his recently released book of poetry, Farrago, and other entertaining reads. For more on Barry’s books as well as his editing services, check out Barry’s website.