Review - White Butterfly

White Butterfly (Easy Rawlins #3)

by Walter Mosley
250+ pages

Description via Goodreads

I kept my silence and Hobbes took his friendly hand back. I was in a hurry to get to my house. I felt bad about turning down the policeman. I felt miserable that young women would die. But there was nothing I could do. I had my own life to attend to--didn't I? (20)

I flew through this book. It's Mosley's great writing--straightforward, fast-paced and charged with grit. I can't say that this particular story was any better than Devil in a Blue Dress or A Red Death...but I'm at the point where I'm comfortable with the characters, so I don't need to ponder their every action or word spoken. It all just works. 

What's new with Easy? Well...he's married with a kid and his adopted son Jesus. One happy family, except not. He's called on once again to help the police find a serial killer of exotic dancers/strippers/women of that variety. But the time Easy spends away from home and enveloped in secrets and the L.A underworld is taking a toll on his family life. This story is as much about personal wrongdoing as it is criminal wrongdoing. What do I mean by personal wrongdoing? ...well in my opinion it seems that Easy only married his wife, so he can say he has a wife and a home. Same goes for his daughter, who is named Edna by the way--shockingly close to his ex-lover/best friend's ex-wife's name, Etta. Now, I'm sure he loves them, but I'm also sure he's more in love with the idea of having a wife and child at home, in the house he bought all those years ago. It's sort of ties back in with his struggle over possession in A Red Death. In the end we see where all his  creeping around at questionable hours, in questionable places gets him and the family he always wanted. 

White Butterfly didn't leave me with as big an impression as Devil in a Blue Dress did, and that's because I viewed this as a transitional book...Easy once built up, is now stripped down. Again. We'll see what happens in the next Easy Rawlins mystery. 

White Butterfly

Four stars

Review - The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
350+ pages

Description via Goodreads

The corpses of dogs, cats, and horses often remained where they fell. In January they froze into disheartening poses; in August they ballooned and ruptured. Many ended up in the Chicago River, the city's main commercial artery. During heavy rains, river water flowed in a greasy plume into Lake Michigan, to the towers that marked the intake pipes for the city's drinking water (28)

I am thoroughly disappointed with this book. I just knew this would be a fascinating read--but it wasn't. It's not that it is non-fiction written like a novel. It's written very well, but it's not interesting. The majority of the book is literally a meticulous recounting of American architects and engineers banding together in 1893, to place a fair in Chicago representative of American exceptionalism, worthy of international praise and symbolic of the nation's great legacy and  innovation of the future. 

What is it--Murphy's law? Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. That's a basic description of the planning, opening, success and demise of the fair...weather disasters, politics, a bad economy, labor unions, accidents, vandalism, crime...wrong measurements, rejected blueprints...newspaper headlines. Every possible detail that can be accounted for in the existence of this fair is recounted. I suppose that's good research on Larson's part. But for this reader it really dragged...except for the chapters on Holmes, the psychopath woman predator and Prendergast, a mentally ill man with political aspirations. These chapters could have belonged in a different book altogether. They felt somewhat like an afterthought.  But they're flawed in the same way. There is no intrigue. No tension. Larson loves to foreshadow, to a fault. Where was the magic and the madness? I think I may be expecting too much from novelistic non-fiction.   

The Devil in the White City

Two stars

Review - The Man in the Brown Suit

The Man in the Brown Suit
by Agatha Christie
200+ pages

Description via Goodreads

It was too dark to recognize anybody. All I could see was that he was tall, and a European, not a native. I took to my heels and ran. I heard him pounding behind. I ran quicker, keeping my eyes fixed on the white stones that showed me where to step, for there was no moon that night.

And suddenly my foot felt nothingness. I heard the man behind me laugh, an evil, sinister laugh. It rang in my ears, as I fell headlong--down--down--down to destruction far beneath. (156) 

So this was my first Agatha Christie mystery and overall I liked it. It's full of semi-interesting characters and witty, comical dialogue. Here's a simple plot breakdown: Girl witnesses suicide. Suicide related to past crime. Murder happens same day. Girl is nosy, wants to figure out connection. Identity of man in brown suit is priority. Girl travels from England to South Africa. Girl meets many suspicious people. Girl gets too involved, at risk, but carries on being nosy. Third-party interference. Girl makes weak connections, figures out very little. Identity of the 'Colonel' becomes priority. Third-party interference. Kidnapped once, attempted murder twice. Girl meets man who fills in blanks. Man also deeply involved in shenanigans. They fall in love. Girl discovers identity of the 'Colonel'. 'Colonel' is captured--then escapes. Girl and man live happily ever after in jungle of South Africa. The end. 

"This is South Africa," I kept saying to myself industriously, "South Africa, South Africa. You are seeing the world. This is the world. You are seeing it. Think of it, Anne Beddingfield, you pudding-head. You're seeing the world". (109)

The name of the nosy girl, the protagonist, is Anne Beddingfield. She's young, good-looking, posesses an interesting balance of smarts and naivete, and is seeking adventure...lots of it. What better adventure than to unfold the mystery of the man in the brown suit. I thought Anne was atypical in wanting to pursue such a dangerous case, but typical in how she went about it--using her looks to get what she wanted, using her father's status to get what she wanted, enchanted by lies, playing games, wanting the love of a 'bad boy'. That sort of thing. She was easily the most interesting and dynamic character.

I was surprised at how romantic this book was...I wasn't expecting that at all. I was also surprised at the transparency of the mystery. I think it was somewhat important to pay attention to the prologue. Read it thoroughly, and the answer is laid out on the table. But even if attention isn't given to the prologue, it's pretty easy to pick apart. When no one knows for sure how a rich man makes his money, raise the red flag. 

I'll definitely try more Agatha Christie...I want to read the less romantic side of her writing, if it exists. I didn't get the feeling this was the typical Christie novel, not the Agatha Christie everyone loves.

The Man in the Brown Suit
 

Three stars.



 

Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Author: Steig Larsson

Pages: 600+

Description:

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

My thoughts:

Bits and pieces...I liked bits and pieces of this book: the delving into photo archives, passages from Leviticus and the near death experiences of Blomkvist. The plot reveals family tensions, secrets and perversions -- but as a whole, I was bored.

I didn't care for the girl with the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth Salander; investigative genius and hacker who helps Blomkvist solve the mystery behind the serial rapes and murders of women in Sweden (which are somewhat religiously motivated, but not really). I guess what I really mean to say is that I didn't get Lisbeth Salander. I didn't believe her. Her actions didn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm not talking about her tendency to be distant. I'm mostly referring to her encounters with her creepy guardian, which I think could have easily been avoided. I get that she was playing victim to the system, but sexual exploitation is never the way to go. I didn't understand her relationship with Blomkvist either, but whatever, some things just are the way they are. And can someone please explain to me why Salander didn't want the police involved after they discovered the identity and torture chamber of a rapist/murderer? 

It was interesting that Blomkvist couldn't solve the mystery without Salander. I thought their collaboration on the case was rushed, vague and therefore slightly unbelievable. I also thought the dialogue was poor and a little boring (do we blame the translator?) and it took a while for even an ounce of 'thrill' to find its way into the pages. A charred cat comes to mind.  

There was an unusually frequent mention of coffee...

I don't know -- the word 'overhyped' comes to mind. I expected a little more. Not sure when I'll be reading the next book, but I have a few general predictions on what it will be about. (1) We'll learn more about a heart-broken Salander (2) Salander will get into more sexually exploitative dilemmas (3) I suppose Blomkvist will make another cameo.

I'm hoping the movies are more entertaining.


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Three stars.

Review - The Moonstone

The Moonstone
Author: Wilkie Collins
Pages: 350+

Description:

Rachel Verinder, a young Englishwoman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt English army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance as well as being extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond). Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party, whose guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night, the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill-luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it.

My thoughts:

First order of business, I'd like to give myself a pat on the back for finishing this book. I truly dreaded almost every moment of it.

The book is filled with social satire and witty commentary. Some are funny, many are not. Here, I'll let you be the judge:

A cloak (on a woman's back) is an emblem of charity -- it covers a multitude of sins (84)

Follow me carefully, and I will prove it in two words. You choose a cigar, you try it, and it disappoints you. What do you do upon that? You throw it away and try another. Now observe the application! You choosea woman, you try her, and she breaks your heart. Fool! take a lesson from your cigar-case. Throw her away, and try another! (124)

Poor thing! the bare idea of a man marrying for his own selfish and mercenary ends had never entered her head (194) 

Have you had enough? because there's a ton more I can share, thanks to the narratives of Betterredge.
 

Also, I was only mildly curious to learn why Rachel was acting so cruel to Franklin Blake...and in my opinion the only interesting character is Mr. Candy's assistant, Ezra Jennings. He's the unsung hero, the unlikely hero. Consequently, his narrative/involvment in the plot (the opium experiment) was the only part I enjoyed. However, this doesn't happen until the last maybe 50 or so pages. I think that's the major problem with this one: it's too slow and too tedious.

I know it's a classic, but I didn't care for it. And I'm a little confused because I really liked The Woman in White. I guess I'm in the minority of people who prefer The Woman in White over The Moonstone. It is for me the better of the two. But this is just my humble opinion. That is all.

The Moonstone

Two stars.

Reading Challenge: Smooth Criminals 2012

I finally signed up for a reading challenge! Dead End Follies has a Smooth Criminals Challenge where I basically have to read eight books related to crime fiction. Each of the eight books differs in the requirement for the challenge. For example, one book must be a Noir Classic and another must be a Gothic novel. I'm looking forward to this, especially since I have until December 31st  to get it done.

Review - The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Pages: 200+


Publisher's Description:

A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter names Joel Cairo, a fat man named Gutman, and Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett's coolly glittering gem of detective fiction, a novel that has haunted generations of readers. 

My thoughts:

What makes this book great is Hammett's writing style. The plot itself isn't overly complex or confusing and the characters are believable. One can easily attribute these things to how well written the novel is. I could read Hammett's prose forever, it's just so smooth and clean and I didn't have to go back once to reread anything for clarity. 

My favorite part of the book was probably near the end when Spade makes it clear to Brigid that he's not going to 'play the sap' for her...Also a lot of things made me laugh, mostly names; Ms. Wonderly's real name being Brigid O'Shaughnessy (completely ridiculous to just odd)...or Mr. Gutman the fat man. The book opens with a description of Sam Spade which basically concludes him to favor a blond satan, with a V theme dominating his facial features...and throughout the novel you get the feel that he's sort of a womanizer. But I'm wondering who in the world would find anyone resembling satan attractive? I digress. 

I liked the ending too. It would have been too easy for the falcon to have been authentic...I mean it's been floating around the globe for years, jumping in and out of history and for some sloppy thieves to have procured it, would have been too much. But Hammett knew what he was doing. 

 

The Maltese Falcon

Four stars.