Sweet Freedom: FRIDAY'S "FORGOTTEN" BOOKS AND MORE: the links to ...

Sweet Freedom: FRIDAY'S "FORGOTTEN" BOOKS AND MORE: the links to ...: This week's books and more, unfairly (or sometimes fairly) neglected, or simply those the reviewers below think you might find of som...

FFB Review: The Chalk Pit: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths

Clearly, a book that was published last year does not really qualify for FFB. Yet, I have been doing this series as reviews for FFB since I started back in December of 2015. Therefore, I am doing it again this week with The Chalk Pit: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths. Make sure you check out the full list of reading suggestions over at Todd Mason's blog.

As The Chalk Pit: A Ruth Galloway Mystery begins, Forensic Archeologist Ruth Galloway is beneath the surface of the ground and not happy about it. She is in one of the many tunnels that are passageways below Norwhich. She does not like small spaces as it is and being underground with the reality of all that soil above her pressing down is making it very hard to cope. The fact that she is down there with Ted is not any help at all even if he is a good guy she has known for years. What brought them underground was the recent discovery of bones in a dirt core sample from a boring machine. Plans for an underground restaurant below The Guildhall are on hold after the police and Ruth were notified of the bones.

As they work in the tunnel that was probably part an old chalk mine, it is clear the bones left behind by the removal of the dirt core are also human and may or may not come from the same skeleton. The tunnel bones are leg bones, an arm bone, and what are probably rib bones. Missing is the skull and any pelvic bones among others which means that identifying the gender is going to be very difficult. The bones also are very clean and have a dull shine to them. While Ted thinks they are medieval, Ruth is not sure.

At the same time as Ruth and Ted are beneath the surface of the ground, DCI Nelson is very much above ground and rather annoyed over various issues. Part of the problem is that he is forced to deal with a new and micromanaging boss who would prefer him chained to a desk and doing paperwork while he would much rather be out working cases. Cases such as the current issue with missing homeless people. Various homeless women are disappearing and there are rumors that they have gone underground.

Did they go underground on their own or have they been abducted in some way and forced underground? No one seems to know. What is clear is that it seems that a number of homeless people, shunned by those on the surface, may have taken refuge underground in the numerous tunnels and shafts under the area. If so, the question is where did they go?

And are the recent murders of other homeless people connected in some way?

These two storylines as well as some secondary ongoing plot lines drive several mysteries in The Chalk Pit: A Ruth Galloway Mystery. A series that continues to push the characters in new directions and circumstances. That ongoing character evolution is one of the enjoyable aspects of this series. That angle is present here along with plenty of informative history and social commentary.

The Chalk Pit: A Ruth Galloway Mystery is another very good read in the series that began with The Crossing Places.

For another opinion on the book, make sure you read Jeanne’s review at the Bookblog of the Bristol Library.

The books, in order, and my reviews:

The Crossing Places (Reviewed 12/26/15)

The Janus Stone (Reviewed 11/18/2016)

The House at Sea’s End (Reviewed 12/2/2016)

A Room Full of Bones (Reviewed 12/30/2016)

A Dying Fall (Reviewed 2/10/2017)

The Outcast Dead (Reviewed 4/21/17)

The Ghost Fields (Reviewed  7/14/17)

The Woman In Blue (Reviewed 9/29/17)

The Chalk Pit: A Ruth Galloway Mystery

Elly Griffiths

http://www.ellygriffiths.co.uk/ 

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

http://www.hmhco.com

May 2017

ISBN# 978-0-544-75031-9

Hardback (currently available in eBook and audio formats as well)

368 Pages

$27.00

Material supplied by the good folks of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2018

FFB Review: PATTERN FOR PANIC by Richard S. Prather (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

Barry’s review previously appeared on FFB on October 26, 2007 back when the blog was relatively new and nobody knew I existed. It seemed fitting to run the review again today.  Make sure you check out the list over at Todd Mason's blog as you make your weekend plans. Whether you are reading to relax or as research in order to get away with the crime, there are plenty of good books suggested to you each week.

PATTERN FOR PANIC (Fawcett, 1954) by Richard S. Prather

Prather's thirteenth novel, and the twelfth in the Shell Scott series, Pattern for Panic was first published in 1954 and "specially revised by the author" in 1961. The latter is the version I just reread for the first time in roughly forty years—a nostalgic revisit to the work of a writer I've long enjoyed, and who passed away on February 16, 2007.

 L.A. private eye Shell Scott is summoned to Mexico by his old friend Amador Montalba with the promise of a high-paying job of considerable urgency. The much younger, somewhat round-heeled wife of prominent General Lopez is being blackmailed, the blackmailer having obtained an incriminating film of one of her trysts he's threatened to make known to her husband. General Lopez is well-known in the U.S. as well as Mexico for his anti-Communist efforts.

Not long after Scott arrives, he meets Dr. Jerrold Buffington, his lovely daughter Susan (better known as Buff), and their beautiful friend Monique Durand. Dr. Buffington is in Mexico to address a meeting of the International Legion for Peace.

Buffington is a research scientist seeking an anti-polio vaccine more effective than Salk's, his wife having died from the disease despite three injections of the Salk formula. One of his experiments resulted in a deadly serum which, if it fell into the wrong hands, could become a potent biochemical weapon. A pacifist, Buffington destroyed the serum and all of his notes pertaining to it to prevent anyone from obtaining it.
 
Scott's pleasant evening of drinks and dinner with Buffington and the ladies is abruptly curtailed when a man unknown to any of them offers to buy Buff a drink. She declines, he persists, and Scott tells him to go away. This doesn't sit well with the man, and he invites Scott outside to settle it. The two get into a brawl, and suddenly the police appear, pummel Scott, and drag him off to jail—but not before he knocks out the front teeth of Captain of Police Emilio who, as you might imagine, is a man who holds a grudge.

Amador, however, prevails on Señora Lopez to bail out Scott. This she does, and Scott soon after begins his quest to recover the incriminating film before General Lopez has a chance to see it. This requires him to gain entry to a fancy whorehouse where the screening will take place, and to snatch the film off the projector in the presence of the general and his associates without being identified.

The mission accomplished, Scott delivers the film to Señora Lopez. He's concerned about the welfare of Dr. Buffington, his daughter, and Monique, but has trouble resisting the allure of the seductive señora. His resistance returns tenfold when General Lopez comes home unexpectedly early.

Matters quickly become more complicated when Scott can't locate either Dr. Buffington or his daughter, and it soon becomes obvious they've been kidnapped by Communists led by the mysterious, rather fabled Culebra. His motive is equally obvious. Dr. Buffington may have destroyed the notes for the unintentional biochemical weapon, but he knows how to reproduce it.

Scott sets out to save them, encountering a multiplicity of surprises, obstacles, and a dose of the nightmare chemical. Along the way, he realizes the situation concerning General Lopez and the one concerning the Buffingtons have converged.

A thriller rather than a whodunit—though Prather has written more than a few of the latter—Pattern for Panic reflects the prevalent anti-Communist attitude common to many a mystery writer of the 1950s (think Mickey Spillane in One Lonely Night). The Communist villains were portrayed as not only cunning, crafty, and conspiratorial, but also as slavering sadists. The pacifistic Dr. Buffington is portrayed as idealistically naïve. Scott, unsurprisingly, is virulent in his hatred for Communism.

It's not a vintage Shell Scott novel on the order of, say, Strip for Murder or Dance With the Dead, but Pattern for Panic contains a few moments of the racy, sometimes wacky, humor the series is famous for, along with a rapid-fire pace and plenty of action. I had completely forgotten the storyline, so my nostalgic visit was akin to reading the book for the first time. Taken on its own terms, it was an entertaining (re)read.

For more on the Golden Age of Detection as well as this novel which features a rather interesting cover, be sure to follow the link http://tinyurl.com/ywch6d
 

Barry Ergang © 2007, 2018

While his website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/  some of Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s work is available at Amazon and Smashwords.com 

FFB Review: THE CASE OF THE SLEEPWALKER’S NIECE (1936) by Erle Stanley Gardner (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

After taking last week off for obvious reasons and thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, condolences, and messages, FFB returns today with another all new review from Barry Ergang. This week he considers a piece of the Perry mason canon. After you read Barry’s review, head over to Todd Mason's blog for other reading suggestions. 

THE CASE OF THE SLEEPWALKER’S NIECE (1936) by Erle Stanley Gardner

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Before I ever read my first Perry Mason novel, I was familiar with the character from the TV series and from advertisements for The Detective Book Club on the back covers of some of the mystery magazines my father read.

There was a neighborhood sundries store my father, brother and I would occasionally go to after dinner a couple times a week if the weather were conducive, where we’d buy ice cream and/or candy, and where my father would purchase a paperback or two and I’d pick up some comic books. (I don’t recall what my brother bought.) As I mentioned in my review of a modern Hardy Boys book, Secret of the Red Arrow, I had begun at age 11 to read mystery fiction aimed at adults. So one evening at the aforementioned store, at the age of 12, I noticed a paperback copy of Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of the Vagabond Virgin and handed it to my father to pay for. Thus began my Perry Mason obsession, which resulted in my reading another dozen titles one after the other. It was a good lesson about the pitfalls of binge-reading a particular author and series, because I became so oversaturated with Gardner’s style and approach in the Mason novels that it was years before I could read another one.

Eventually I read quite a few more--spreading them out over time. When I recently came upon an electronic copy of The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece, I realized that it had been at least 20 years, probably more, since I’d read a Perry Mason mystery, so I decided to reestablish my acquaintance.

The eighth title in the series, it begins when Mason is hired by Edna Hammer to speed up the divorce of her wealthy uncle, Peter Kent. His estranged wife Doris has suddenly tried to demonstrate a kind of renewed affection for Kent, who wants the divorce so he can marry Lucille Mays. Because Kent once picked up a butcher knife while sleepwalking, Doris was certain he wanted to kill her.

Adding to the story’s complications are the presences in the Kent mansion of, among others, Kent’s shady business partner, Frank Maddox; Maddox’s pettifogging lawyer, John Duncan; Philip Rease, Kent’s hypochondriacal half-brother; Gerald Harris, Edna’s fiancé; and Helen Warrington, Kent’s secretary.

When sometime around midnight--or was it later in the morning?--a figure is seen walking across a patio toward another entrance to the house where people are sleeping, and said figure appears to be holding a knife, and still later someone is found dead in bed, having been stabbed to death, the most likely suspect, and the party arrested, is Mason’s client. The questions confronting the lawyer: was Kent actually sleepwalking, was he pretending somnambulism to commit a murder, or was he framed by someone else? And if he was actually walking in his sleep, how to prove it.

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Perry Mason knows the answer to some of those questions. I’m not going to answer them lest I spoil some of the book’s surprises, of which there are several. Having said so, I must also admit I found this one to be among the weaker entries in this classic series. Erle Stanley Gardner’s style in the Mason novels relies on lean narrative and an extensive use of dialogue to move the story along. But in The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece, there is too much talk and not enough action. It isn’t until Mason finally gets into the courtroom that the pace quickens a bit.

If you’re a Mason fan and have missed this one, you might want to read it for the sake of completeness. If you aren’t a completist, pass on it in favor of better entries in the series.

© 2018 Barry Ergang

Some of Derringer Award winner Barry Ergang’s work can be found at Amazon and Smashwords.