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Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored by Philippe Georget (Translator Steven Rendall)

Philippe Georget is a French television anchor and author of five crime novels. His debut, L'été tous les chats s'ennuient, published by Éditions Jigal in 2009, won the SNCF Crime Fiction Prize and the City of Lens First Crime Novel Prize. Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored (Europa Editions, 2013), the first Inspector Gilles Sebag book, was translated from the French by Steven Rendall.

It’s miserably hot on the French Mediterranean coast, as usual during the summer, and Inspector Gilles Sebag is tired of his job. The air conditioner at the Perpignan police headquarters breaks down with depressing frequency. The tedium of tourists and petty crime along with the heat have him sleepwalking through his days. His real interest is his family, and he’s consumed with the realization that his children are growing up. Both of them are spending part of their vacation away from the family for the first time and he misses them dreadfully. In addition, he’s caught his wife Claire, whom he loves deeply, in a lie and he fears she is having an affair. His anxiety is heightened when she decides to go on a cruise alone for part of her vacation, since she has more time off than he does.

Sebag’s mind is nowhere near work when a Dutch girl is found murdered on a beach. Then another Dutch girl disappears. Still a few days later a third Dutch girl is attacked with a knife during a failed kidnapping. The belief that a local serial killer has singled out Dutch tourists for his attentions has caused a slick Paris cop to be assigned to the force to serve as liaison between the police on the ground and the French authorities in touch with the Dutch police. Sebag despises him on sight and the feeling is mutual. The investigations flounder while leads dissolve one after another. Sebag is singled out by the kidnapper to receive a series of taunting messages, and his management wonders why. The team follows thorough but plodding police procedures with some success but it’s Sebag’s instincts that finally get them a true break.

The book is labelled noir but Sebag is far from the average noir character. He dislikes guns, doesn’t carry one unless he has to, and has to think to remember where he put his service weapon. He runs marathons; his practice sessions give Georget frequent reasons to describe the picturesque scenery of southern France. He enjoys housework. He feels great compassion for those caught on the wrong side of the law. The typical detective of crime fiction he is not.

I bought this book for its title and was rewarded with a fine police procedural. Intricate and well-executed plot; gorgeous writing, for which the translator must take some credit; great behind-the-scenes look at the operations of an investigative law enforcement team; powerful sense of place. A really good book!

Starred review from Publishers Weekly and a PW Pick.

·         File Size: 1077 KB

·         Print Length: 429 pages

·         Publisher: Europa Editions; Reprint edition (July 2, 2013)

·         Publication Date: October 8, 2019

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

FFB Review: "THE LORD OF MISRULE" by Paul Halter Translated from the French by John Pugmire

Friday means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Pattie Abbott here. Barry first wrote the review below back in 2011 and it seemed appropriate to bring it back today. After you read Barry’s always excellent work, check out the other reading suggestion on Patti’s blog and enjoy your Friday…..

THE LORD OF MISRULE

by Paul Halter

Translated from the French by John Pugmire

My favorite kind of traditional mystery is the “impossible crime” tale. You know, the story in which a crime is committed in a room later found to be locked from the inside, from which there is no apparent means of egress for the criminal. Or the one in which someone is murdered in a field of snow or on a sandy beach--killed in a manner that requires his assailant to be up close and personal--but the only footprints in evidence are the victim’s. Or any other kinds of seemingly impossible situations writers can invent and solve. Writers who specialized in impossible situations included Hake Talbot, Clayton Rawson, Herbert Brean, Joseph Commings, Edward D. Hoch, and the acknowledged all-time master, John Dickson Carr.

Many others have contributed impossible crime stories to the genre, but few outside of those mentioned above have specialized in them. One notable modern exception is Carr disciple Paul Halter, an award-winning French author whose work, thanks to translator John Pugmire, is starting to become available to those of us who don‘t read French. Having previously translated some of Halter’s short stories and brought them out in the collection The Night of the Wolf (Wildside Press, 2006), Pugmire has recently given us the novel The Lord of Misrule, available as a trade paperback and in Kindle format.

Although first published in France in 1994, it has all the trappings of a Golden Age detective novel: an English country estate at Christmastime full of people who are not necessarily what they seem to be; a family curse that stretches back through several centuries; multiple “impossible” murders and the ghastly-looking title character who purportedly commits them; and the idiosyncratic amateur sleuth who ultimately unravels the puzzles.

 The story begins when, newly arrived in London from his native South Africa in the late 1890s, and believing that “Life is full of coincidences,” Achilles Stock makes the acquaintance of the quirky aesthete Owen Burns, after which his life is never quite the same. During the course of a year or so, the acquaintanceship burgeons into friendship.

Owen Burns, who has “been known to give the police a hand when they find themselves at a dead end,” and who is so smitten with an actress he has become involved with that he doesn’t want to leave London,  inveigles Stock, whom he knows to be an adventurous sort, into assisting him with an investigation by functioning as his remote eyes and ears. He wants Stock to pose as the fiancé of Miss Catherine Piggott. Miss Piggott, along with her brother Samuel, for whose life she fears, will be staying at the country estate of Charles Mansfield over Christmas.

Mansfield has two attractive daughters, Sibyl and Daphne. His son Edwin was murdered in a seemingly impossible manner several years earlier, another in a long line of victims of the Lord of Misrule. The additional house guests are Edgar Forbes, Samuel Piggott’s business partner, and Professor Julius Morganstone, a medium brought in to contact the murderous spirit and put an end to its life-taking.

Charles Mansfield explains to Stock that several hundred years earlier, as part of the Christmastime celebration in the village and its environs, a “Lord of Misrule” was elected to preside over the usual revels and create new ones, “the more depraved the better.” The Mansfields chose a man named Peter Joke to serve as the Lord. “That Christmas,” Mansfield explains, “Peter Joke dressed up in a thick black cloak, tights decorated with tiny bells, and a grotesque mask on his face made from some kind of whitewashed dough which gave it a horribly leprous effect.”  Behind the Mansfield house is a lake which was frozen over, and where the drunken revelers decided to play. Peter Joke drowned when the ice gave way beneath him. For years afterwards, every Christmas a member of the Mansfield family was murdered. The incidents became fewer with passing centuries, but resumed several years prior to the novel’s present. Several people in the Mansfield household have heard the tinkling of bells and seen the white-faced terror often enough to speak about him with a kind of jaded resignation.

As the story progresses, Stock learns about Edwin’s murder and is witness to the impossible murder of a house guest. Eerie incidents and seemingly impossible events follow one after another until Owen Burns finally arrives, learns what Stock has learned, and elucidates solutions.

Halter writes a leaner prose than John Dickson Carr, but he nonetheless manages to effectively create sinister events and atmospheres a la the master that will keep readers turning the pages. His weakness is characterization, and readers who demand well-fleshed-out characters who get up and walk off the pages will be disappointed. Halter distances himself from big emotional scenes as well, preferring to work up to them and then, in the next chapter, to retrospectively summarize the charged moments and their outcomes. He is almost exclusively concerned with moving his plot forward.

What differentiates Halter from Carr and the others, to my mind, is the way he piles on surprise after surprise when Owen Burns explains the whos and hows of the crimes. Almost nothing is what you think it is--and that includes the actors in the drama.

Despite its weaknesses, The Lord of Misrule will hurtle readers back into the Golden Age of the mystery story and leave them applauding its author’s skill. If you love “impossible” murders, you’ll chug through this novel and want to read more of Halter’s work. Let’s hope Mr. Pugmire plans to translate more of it.       

***This review originally appeared at The American Culture website: http://stkarnick.com/

Barry Ergang ©2011, 2013

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. Barry is selling books from his extensive personal collection at http://www.barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/

Review: "Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking with a French Accent" by Ellise Pierce

Cooking has always been a part of Ellise Pierce’s life whether it was living back home in Denton, Texas or half a world away in Paris, France. With a relationship under stress and her freelance writing career tanked, she slowly found herself again by cooking. Gradually she built a cooking career by teaching home cooking for other ex-pats living in Paris. This and much more is explained in the introduction to Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking with a French Accent.

After the introduction it is on to “Cowgirl Chef Kitchen Basic” where her equipment and ingredients are discussed. That leads folks into” Cowgirl Speak:  A Trail Guide” that covers how to make adjustments for cooking times, sizes, etc.

The recipes start on page 22 with “Chapter One: Appetizers: Old Favorites and New Beginnings.” Whether you want to make the Texas shaped cookies “Texas Killers” (pages 26-27) “Mushroom Tapenade” (pages 42-43) or “Cheesy Rosemary Olive Flatbread” (pages 48-51) among other dishes there is something here that blends Texas cooking with French cooking.  Each recipe has an introduction to it about the background of the recipe, a serving suggestion, and a couple of tips regarding ingredients, freezing options, or other helpful advice. Pictures accompanying the recipe can be of the dish itself, ingredients, of Paris or elsewhere in France providing local color to the recipe being discussed. This same format continues throughout the book.

“Chapter 2:  Cowgirlified Frenchy” begins on page 56 where the author notes, among interesting things, that jalapenos are not available in Paris. Over time she learned not only how to adjust to that, but to blend French Cuisine into her cooking. That gives rise to dishes such as “Cowgirl Quiche” (page 59-61), “Paris Chicken Fricassee” (page 72-75) among others.

According to the author the French are crazy about soups. They come next in “Chapter 3: Souped Up” starting on page 82.  After some soup tips it is onto recipes such as “Smokin’ Tortilla Soup” (page 86-89), “Broccoli-Basil Soup” (pages 95-97) or “Skin & Bones Chicken Stock” (pages 111-112) among others.

Of course when one thinks of soup, salad cannot be far behind. In “Chapter 4: Greens” the topic is salad in many varieties. “Les Halles Spinach Salad” (pages 124-125), “Texas Pickup Salad” (pages 138-140) among other choices are here. By the way, in this chapter you learn the interesting fact that Paris grocery stores close at 8 pm during the week and at 1pm on Sunday.  Puts our 24 hour seven day a week grocery stores in real perspective.

If it is a Texas based cookbook it absolutely must have tacos. Part of the state constitution. Tacos are here in “Chapter 5: Tacos, Tarts, and Tartines” starting on page 152. You can put just about  anything in a taco so give “Corona Beer-Braised Brisket Tacos” on pages 154-156 a try as well as some of the other taco suggestions. You can also try the “Tomato-Ricotta Tart” (pages 171-173), the Tex-Mex Tart” (pages 174-176) or the “Adobo Salmon Salad Tartines” (pages 192-194) among others.

Farmer markets are very big in Paris and there are over seventy of them in the area. That means there is a lot of produce to consider and Ellise Pierce uses what is season to drive her meals.  That is just part of the introduction to “Chapter 6: Riding Side Saddle: Veggies” starting on page 198.  Of course, there are Texas based dishes like “Mom’s Black-Eyed Peas and Jalapeno Cornbread” (pages 208-210) as well as “French Bistro Green Beans” (page 218-219) and “Roasted Ratatouille” (pages 230-231) among others.

Meat, fish and poultry finally get their turn in “Chapter 7: From the Farm and Sea.” Starting on page 234 there are recipes for items such as “Provencal Fish Stew” (pages 248-250), “Gascon-Style Pork Chops with Pepper Honey” (pages 254-256) and “Easy Roast Chicken” (page 264-265) among others. It was also interesting to learn in this chapter that the chicken is the national mascot of France (page 264).

If you still have room for dessert that begins on page 274 with “Chapter 8: Desserts.”  Among other delectable treats here there are recipes for “Grilled Oranges-Vanilla Pound Cake with Strawberries” (pages 279-281), “Watermelon Granita “(page 290-291) and “Peach Croustade” (page 306-309)

“Chapter 9: Tex-Mex” starts on page 310 and is all about home in Texas. The author may be living in Paris, France, but who she is day to day is Texan. Here are the recipes that made up her first cooking class such as “Wheat Tortillas” (pages 312-313), “Holy Guacamole” (page 318) among others including “Texas Chili” (pages 320-321).

The cookbook concludes with a very brief epilogue, a two page acknowledgment section, and a six page index. Unfortunately, there is no nutritional information in the book for those of us who need to pay attention to certain issues.

Despite the lack of nutritional information in the book, overall, this is a very well done cookbook. In addition to the cooking side of things, the over 300 pages cookbook also provides a lot of culture and history information about Paris, France as well as the joys and sorrows of American living abroad. Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking with a French Accent is more than a cookbook. It is also a cultural awareness guide and inspirational regarding reinventing yourself and adapting to new situations and experiences.

Cowgirl Chef: Texas Cooking with a French Accent

Ellise Pierce

http://www.cowgirlchef.com

Running Press Books

http://www.runningpressbooks.com

May 2012

ISBN #978-0-7624-4463-2

Hardback (also available as e-book)

336 Pages

$25.00

Material supplied by the good folks at the Plano, Texas Public Library System at

http://www.plano.gov/Departments/Libraries/Pages/default.aspx

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012