Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by CRussel

What a wonderful book. I really, really enjoyed this re-read of West with the Night, by Beryl Markham. A great book, wonderfully descriptive and compelling, about East Africa in the time from WWI to WWII. And about flying in the days when a compass was nearly your only instrument. Markham has a great talent for going off on a tangent without losing track of where the story is going and without letting you mind, or even really notice. If you've never had a chance to read this book, I highly recommend it.

If you liked Beryl Markham as a female aviatrix in general as well as her literary contribution in WWTN, may I take the liberty of highly recommending one TV mystery miniseries and one historical mystery novel series set in early Kenya/British East Africa which kind of have characters based upon her?

Heat of the Sun (PBS, Wikipedia) is an excellent ITV miniseries done in the late 90s, which has Trevor Eve in it starring as an ex-London cop who shoots an unsavoury but highly politically connected man in the line of duty and gets quietly reshuffled to 1930s Kenya colony as the new Nairobi Superintendent of Police to get rid of him.

Along the way, he ends up solving mysteries based partially on and incorporating characters from real-life British East Africa colonization history, including Karen Blixen's coffee farming efforts, the debauched denizens of that club whose name I can't remember which served the Happy Valley set, the post-Boer War tensions with the South African settlers, and of course Emma Fitzgerald, a feisty, self-made aviatrix who's directly based, looks and background and character-wise, on Markham who contributes a great deal towards the new Superintendent Tyburn's crime solving rate, along with his eventual Assistant Superintendent, who happens to be played by one of my favourite British actors.

It's one of my personal favourite series and it's been shown on PBS, so chances are good that if your local library carries DVDs, they'll have this since libraries tend to love having PBS stuff on shelf.

NB: If you're thinking possibly of buying a copy for yourself, I highly recommend importing the Region 2 UK release from ITV DVD if you've got a compatible player. It's pretty low cost and contains extra scenes that were edited down or cut out in order to make the series fit PBS Mystery! runtimes with the added introductions by Diana Rigg in them.

Incidentally, fun fact: Trevor Eve once played Denys Finch-Hatton in a made for TV miniseries biopic about Beryl Markham (IMDB), which I also happen to own on Region 2 import DVD.

Also in a more adventurously-oriented vein are Suzanne Arruda's (SYKM, Wikipedia) Jade del Cameron mystery series set in 1920s British East Africa Protectorate before it became Kenya.

Jade is a very independent and slightly commitment-phobic former WWI ambulance driver who eventually learns to fly, and while she does initially start off her cases being prodded by the loss of a former (heterosexual) love and discovering a new one along the way, there's very little relationship drama in these and Jade is much more likely to save a guy's hide than to be saved by him (although at certain points, there is reciprocal mutual saving going on), and she develops strong female friendships and ties as well.

I'll warn that sometimes these have a bit of a Mary Sue/White Saviour element going on in them, because Jade is occasionally written as the bestest brightest and most resourceful Especially Special Action Girl Who Can Action and Help Save The Locals From The Evil Things, but sometimes Jade's skills and connections get her into more trouble than they get her out of, and she has to stop and think and take time to work out a better solution to the problem than the one she thought she could use going in.

Also, while there is a lot of Jade Saves The Day For Both The Native And The Transplanted Proto-Kenyans (occasionally with Unfortunate Implications), Arruda did a lot of historical and cultural research which she put up on her blog here, and generally tries to treat the local cultures with respect.

The first 6 of these were published by Penguin's Berkley imprint and I bought the lot of them as they came out, and I thought the series had finished, but now that I look it turns out the author is self-publishing the new ones (on Amazon-exclusive, it looks like, alas, though I guess I'll just set price-drop alerts and hope some of these become the Kindle Big Deal Monthly Sale picks at some point).

I really liked this series back when they were still coming out and would count them as nearly as fun as the Ava Lee books, though not quite as good writing quality/plot-wise, but still highly enjoyable, so YMMV. (Unfortunately, they're rather price-y if you're trying them from the start as Penguin sets these at $13-ish CAD non-couponable, and you do have to read them in order, though perhaps the library can get them in for you if you're interested).

[WT Sharpe]

Just finished the most enjoyable mystery I've read in ages, written by a fellow who's name is not at all synonymous with mysteries: J. Thorne Smith; the author of Topper, Night Life of the Gods, and other mischievous comedies. What's not to like about this book? You have a detective with a keen and logical mind who by nature is obsessed with doing his duty even if it hurts his friends, a cunning and devious vamp who plays an innocent for a fool and pays the ultimate price, and a group of suspects that are such likable and warmly interconnected folks you don't want any of them to be saddled with the crime. Yet one is a murderer and must be officially charged. I highly, highly recommend Did She Fall? by J. Thorne Smith, available in ePub format in our own Patricia Clark Memorial Library.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished the most enjoyable mystery I've read in ages, written by a fellow who's name is not at all synonymous with mysteries: J. Thorne Smith; the author of Topper, Night Life of the Gods, and other mischievous comedies. What's not to like about this book? You have a detective with a keen and logical mind who by nature is obsessed with doing his duty even if it hurts his friends, a cunning and devious vamp who plays an innocent for a fool and pays the ultimate price, and a group of suspects that are such likable and warmly interconnected folks you don't want any of them to be saddled with the crime. Yet one is a murderer and must be officially charged. I highly, highly recommend Did She Fall? by J. Thorne Smith, available in ePub format in our own Patricia Clark Memorial Library.

Thank you for the suggestion and the link.
Apache

[HarryT]

Just finished "The Misenchanted Sword", by Lawrence Watt-Evans. I bought this a very, very long time ago - I forget where and when, but it was probably from Fictionwise around 2000 or so.

An extremely enjoyable fantasy novel. Valder, a young scout in the army of Ethshar, comes across an old wizard while trying to evade capture by soldiers of the Northern Empire. The wizard puts a spell on Valder's sword, to aid him in finding his way back to his base, but the spells are cast in difficult circumstances, and Valder finds himself the owner of a sword he can't get rid of, which has extremely inconvenient magical properties (saying more would be a spoiler).

Very good indeed. I look forward to reading more from this author.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished the most enjoyable mystery I've read in ages, written by a fellow who's name is not at all synonymous with mysteries: J. Thorne Smith; the author of Topper, Night Life of the Gods, and other mischievous comedies. What's not to like about this book? You have a detective with a keen and logical mind who by nature is obsessed with doing his duty even if it hurts his friends, a cunning and devious vamp who plays an innocent for a fool and pays the ultimate price, and a group of suspects that are such likable and warmly interconnected folks you don't want any of them to be saddled with the crime. Yet one is a murderer and must be officially charged. I highly, highly recommend Did She Fall? by J. Thorne Smith, available in ePub format in our own Patricia Clark Memorial Library.

Originally Posted by Apache

Thank you for the suggestion and the link.
Apache

. I've just downloaded it.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished the most enjoyable mystery I've read in ages, written by a fellow who's name is not at all synonymous with mysteries: J. Thorne Smith; the author of Topper, Night Life of the Gods, and other mischievous comedies. What's not to like about this book? You have a detective with a keen and logical mind who by nature is obsessed with doing his duty even if it hurts his friends, a cunning and devious vamp who plays an innocent for a fool and pays the ultimate price, and a group of suspects that are such likable and warmly interconnected folks you don't want any of them to be saddled with the crime. Yet one is a murderer and must be officially charged. I highly, highly recommend Did She Fall? by J. Thorne Smith, available in ePub format in our own Patricia Clark Memorial Library.

Originally Posted by Apache

Thank you for the suggestion and the link.
Apache

Originally Posted by orlok

. I've just downloaded it.

...as did I!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished the most enjoyable mystery I've read in ages, written by a fellow who's name is not at all synonymous with mysteries: J. Thorne Smith; the author of Topper, Night Life of the Gods, and other mischievous comedies. What's not to like about this book? You have a detective with a keen and logical mind who by nature is obsessed with doing his duty even if it hurts his friends, a cunning and devious vamp who plays an innocent for a fool and pays the ultimate price, and a group of suspects that are such likable and warmly interconnected folks you don't want any of them to be saddled with the crime. Yet one is a murderer and must be officially charged. I highly, highly recommend Did She Fall? by J. Thorne Smith, available in ePub format in our own Patricia Clark Memorial Library.

Originally Posted by Apache

Thank you for the suggestion and the link.
Apache

Originally Posted by orlok

. I've just downloaded it.

Originally Posted by alansplace

...as did I!

Thanks!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by issybird

Thanks!

Please don't download this book from our library if you're in the US. As its description tells you, it's not in the US public domain. It is in the public domain in "life + 70" countries, such as the UK, but not in the US.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Please don't download this book from our library if you're in the US. As its description tells you, it's not in the US public domain. It is in the public domain in "life + 70" countries, such as the UK, but not in the US.

I didn't realize that. I have a mobi version I downloaded from somewhere, but when I checked our library before writing that post, the only version I saw was that ePub. It was written in 1930, and since so many off his other books are public domain in this country, I didn't even bother to check about this one. A pity, as I was planning to proof the version I have and upload it to the library. A special pity, as the author died 81 years ago.

It can be had for $5.99 at Amazon, however.

http://amazon.com/Did-She-Fall-Thorn...id+she+fall%3F

Amazing that this was the only mystery he ever wrote. His name could have been up there with the greats.

[Apache]

I too looked at the date and saw 1930 and thought it was legal in the US.
Apache

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Apache

I too looked at the date and saw 1930 and thought it was legal in the US.
Apache

It's the date that tells you it's not. With very few exceptions, anything published in 1923 or later is not in the US public domain.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

If you liked Beryl Markham as a female aviatrix in general as well as her literary contribution in WWTN, may I take the liberty of highly recommending one TV mystery miniseries and one historical mystery novel series set in early Kenya/British East Africa which kind of have characters based upon her?

Heat of the Sun (PBS, Wikipedia) is an excellent ITV miniseries done in the late 90s, which has Trevor Eve in it starring as an ex-London cop who shoots an unsavoury but highly politically connected man in the line of duty and gets quietly reshuffled to 1930s Kenya colony as the new Nairobi Superintendent of Police to get rid of him.

Yes, I remember watching it on PBS, and then again on Amazon Prime. Sadly they only did 5 episodes, so far as I can tell. It was a series that I thought had a lot of potential to go further, but apparently ITV didn't agree.

Unfortunately, the price of admission to the Suzanne Arruda series is $10.99 for the first one and most of the rest. And not in the BC Library Downloads site. I'll put it on my wishlist, and save it for when I'm feeling flush.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Apocalypse Ocean by Tobias Buckell

Excellent story, wish there were more. I'm surprised I missed the Kickstarter for it, but I snagged it in a Kobo sale.


Next up: The Paladin by C J Cherryh. My oldest unread purchased book. Looking good so far.

[DrNefario]

I normally prefer Cherryh's SF, but I seem to remember liking The Paladin.

I finished Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie yesterday, a pretty solid Poirot, and have started The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley.

[Stitchawl]

I've just begun "Light of the World," a Dave Robicheaux novel by James Lee Burke, and like all the rest of the Robicheaux books, it took right off from the very first page! Burke's writing always has a dark, overcast feel to it, and you tend to feel a bit sorry in the back of your mind for his characters, but the character development is so well grounded that it doesn't distract from the story. I'm only about 150 pages into the book but I know this is going to be one more winning novel in a long string of Dave Robicheaux mysteries!

Stitchawl