Friends Tell Friends About Good Mysteries:  Two writers you may not have heard of

My friend Pam was on a safari in Africa about a year and a half ago when she happened to meet fellow traveler and mystery author Terry Shames.  Neither of us had ever heard of Shames before but, on Pam’s recommendation, I picked up her first book, A Killing at Cotton Hill, and two weeks ago just polished off Shames’ fifth and latest, The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake.  All five books take place in fictious Jarrett Creek, Texas and feature Samuel Craddock, the retired but still sharp police chief, who continues to get sucked back in to solving crimes when the man who succeeds him turns out to be fairly incompetent, an alcoholic who is eventually (by book 3) sidelined.  Craddock is a thoughtful middle-aged widower who collects expensive art and tends to a small herd of cows in addition to his sleuthing.  Shames does a nice job of creating a believable character and in populating Jarrett Creek with others who become continuing characters in the novels.  There’s Loretta, around Samuel’s age, who has been a good friend to him since his wife died, bringing over muffins and pastries every morning in addition to the latest gossip from the grapevine.  Jenny is his next door neighbor, a young lawyer with whom Samuel can talk out theories.  There’s always a death that starts the plot and, while solving the crime is Samuel’s focus, the books are really more about small town relationships. 

Another friend, Karen in Baltimore, has a friend from college, S. W. Hubbard, who has published six novels in the last dozen years.  Her first three, beginning with Take the Bait, feature Police Chief Frank Bennett and take place in a small town in the Adirondacks.  As with all good mystery series, Frank’s character grows and changes over the three books; we see him grapple with a troubled relationship with his grown daughter and his first attempts at romance after his wife’s death. Hubbard’s more recent novels feature a young woman in Baltimore, Audrey Nealon, who gets hired by surviving relatives to clean out houses and stage estate sales of old people who have died.  Audrey is not a detective, but her job creates opportunities for mystery and investigation without the police constraints and resources.  Audrey has a small team that works with her that includes a young black man who has done time but in whom Audrey has great faith.  Police suspicion of him seems pulled from today’s headlines, given the current atmosphere in Baltimore. 

My Favorite Mystery Writers:

Robert Goddard – I first discovered him with a review in The Washington Post for Hand in Glove.  I have since read almost everything he has written.  His protagonists are regular people who find themselves in situations not of their making.  Reading Goddard is like peeling an onion, with constant revelations that keep you guessing.

Martha Grimes – Her mysteries feature Scotland Yard detective Richard Jury and most are titled with the name of a pub that somehow features in the story. There’s a colorful cast of supporting characters who provide some humor.

Elizabeth George – writes a fantastic series that takes place largely in London featuring Met detectives Thomas Lynley, a titled aristocrat, and his partner, Barbara Havers, a working class woman.  The novels, not good for airplane rides (if not in ebook form) as they frequently exceed 700 pages, always have themes that are expertly woven through the main investigation as well as through the various subplots.

Tess Gerritsen – her books are the basis for the television show “Rizzoli and Isles”, which features a female detective in Boston and her best friend, a woman medical examiner. 

Marcia Muller – Sharon McCone is a San Francisco detective who starts out working for a law collective and eventually starts her own private investigative business.  Over the course of the 20+ books, Muller develops a strong cast of recurring characters – Sharon’s employees as well as her colorful extended family.

Christobel Kent -  Set in picturesque Florence, Italy, her series begins with The Drowning River in which ex-policeman turned private investigator Sandro Cellini investigates a seeming suicide in the city’s famous River Arno.

Donna Leon – An American ex-pat who has lived in Venice for 25 years sets her novels there.  Guido Brunetti is a Venetian detective with a large heart who understands true justice is not always served in the end as the criminals often have strong connections to corrupt government and to the Mafia.  The books focus on real issues such as the influx of African immigrants and the pollution of the canals by large cruise ships.   I order her books in hardback as soon as they are published.

Cara Black – her heroine and continuing character is Aimee LeDuc, a private investigator who lives on the Ile de la Cite in Paris.  The mysteries almost always surround political intrigue rooted in French history.

Ian Rankin – set in Edinburgh, Scotland and featuring police detective John Rebus, a hard drinking unconventional cop who cuts corners to get results.  In the later books, John has retired and is rehired to work cold cases.  While his younger colleagues lean on Google searches, John does good old-fashioned footwork that always yields results.

Sophie Hannah – well told British mysteries that always involve multiple points of view and unreliable narrators.  The stories always begin with situations that seem impossible (e.g. a man claims to have murdered a woman who is very much alive).  There are two continuing characters, police partners who eventually marry each other.  The stories are set in a village several hours outside of London.

Sara Paretsky – her heroine, V.I. Warshawski, is a smart Chicago detective.  Over the years, Paretsky has aged her so that in the most recent installment she is in her mid-forties.  Paretsky provides a strong sense of the city in all of its gritty glory.

Kate Morton – writes novels that revolve around old country estates in England and with present-day mysteries that go back several generations.  I just finished listening to her newest, The Lake House, which expertly weaved together a theme of mothers and children throughout all of the subplots as well as the central mystery.  It was just over 21 hours of listening and I couldn’t wait to get back to it each time.

Harlen Coben – has a series that features a sports rep, Myron Bolitar, who investigates crimes in the world of athletics, as well as a number of stand alone mysteries that feature protagonists who find themselves in the middle of something they never saw coming.

Taylor Stevens – has written a multi-book series featuring Vanessa Michael Monroe, a language savant and damaged, brilliant woman who gets paid millions to extract people from dangerous, impossible situations.

Henning Mankell – sets his novels, featuring Detective Kurt Wallander (portrayed by Kenneth Branaugh in the BBC series), in his native Sweden.  They tend to be fairly dark novels but they are well told and give a strong sense of the setting.  Several deal with political issues.

Sue Grafton – is a good deal lighter with her alphabet series featuring Kinsey Milhone, police woman turned insurance investigator turned private detective.  My favorite character after Kinsey is Henry, her landlord, a 91 year old retired baker who is always good for freshly baked bread, a stiff drink and a listening ear.

Susan Hill – Her Simon Serrailer series set in the cathedral town of Lafferton (England)  begins with The Various Haunts of Men and should definitely be read in order as the developments in the lives of the characters is often central to the mysteries. 

Tony Hillerman – wrote mysteries set on the Navajo Reservation featuring two Native American policeman.  I read several of his books before going to the Southwest for the first time and was amazed at how well the books prepared me for the visual landscape.  You also learn a lot about the Navajo history and customs.

Laura Lippmann – She has a great series set in Baltimore featuring private detective Tess Monahan, but also does good stand alones. 

Alan Bradley – Listen to these as audio books if you have the option; the reader is wonderful at channeling precocious 11 year old Flavia deLuce, who possesses a knowledge of chemistry to rival that of a graduate student (with a particular interest in poisons!) and a knack for ferreting out the truth.  Flavia is by turns, astonished and astonishing.  The first book in the series, set in 1950’s England, is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
Louise Penny - has a wonderful series that takes place in French Canada. The novels take place in  and around Quebec and Montreal and in a fictitious village, Three Pines, located a few hours away towards the American border. Inspector Ganache is the continuing detective who is an astute investigator, solid family man, and lover of the outdoors.  Penny shares a good deal of history and culture through her books; when we went to Quebec last summer, we toured the only Anglo public library in the province, the scene of one of her mysteries and a building with much history having once been a prison and then a college.

A Worthy Sequel:  After You

Last time, I compared two books with characters dealing with lost love.  Here’s a third, the sequel to Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You.  To quote NPR reviewer Maureen Corrigan: “Writer Jojo Moyes has a name that lacks gravitas. To be honest, I even feel a bit silly saying her name when I recommend her novels to people — which I do, often and energetically.”

While not great works of literature, Moyes’ books are, according to Corrigan, ones that carry on the “comedy-romance tradition” of Jane Austen and Maeve Binchy.  For me, this book and its predecessor, were both satisfying reads that involve believable characters faced with complex, real-world issues.

Me Before You is the story of Louisa Clark, a young woman in her mid-twenties given to wearing funky colorful clothing and bumble bee tights, still living with her parents and working as a waitress in the little English town whose claim to fame is a castle  (I pictured Windsor.)  She is in a dead-end relationship with a guy more interested in running and conditioning than he is in Louisa.  Without a university degree or any real training, few job opportunities are available to her until she spots a high-paying job as a caregiver for Will Traynor, a quadriplegic, who scares her at the interview with his best Daniel Day Lewis impersonation (My Left Foot).  Without giving away too much of this story, suffice it to say that the story takes off as Will and Louisa spar and then become friends and finally more.  Will tells Louisa at the outset that he has agreed to give his parents six months before he will go to a Swiss facility that administers assisted suicide. Previously a handsome, successful young jetsetter before being hit by a car, Will cannot bear to live this new life.  As the novel progresses and Louisa’s feelings for him grow, his choice becomes anathema to her.

After You picks up 17 months after Will’s death; Louisa continues to be depressed and rudderless.  After living in France for a while, Louisa is back in London, waitressing at an airport pseudo-Irish pub where she is forced to wear a leprechaun – like costume, complete with red wig, and suffer the abuse of the highly critical manager.  She lives in a flat purchased with the money Will has left her, but she has done nothing to personalize the place or make it feel like a home.  Despite Will’s last directive to her to “live well”, Louisa is sinking, sitting on her rooftop drinking white wine and staring at the night sky, immersed in her grief.  One night, Louisa walks over to the edge of the roof and looks down the 5 stories to the ground.  She isn’t really intending to jump but a sudden presence behind her startles her and over she goes.  Despite the fall, this is the point at which Louisa’s life actually starts to rebound. Sam, the hunky paramedic who pulls her off the third floor awning (that has saved her life) and Lily, the one responsible for scaring Louisa on the roof, a delinquent 16 year old who has a stronger connection to Louisa than she could have ever imagined, both bring substance and color to Louisa’s life.  There are also the quirky members of the “Moving On” group with whom Louisa meets weekly who help her as they help themselves recover from the grief of losing people they all loved deeply.

Returning to the sequel are Louisa’s family:  the senile granddad, the loving but judging sister Treena, Louisa’s mom who, at Treena’s urging has discovered feminism and her ever-exasperated traditional father.  Louisa’s mother provides some great comedy, refusing to continue to shave her legs much to her husband’s dismay, but also serving as a role model for Louise of what it looks like to reinvent yourself in order to make life more satisfying.  The Traynors, Will’s parents, appear too, now divorced but, like Louisa, still bewildered and grieving.

This book, if not quite as tear-inducing as its predecessor, is a worthy and satisfying sequel.  While the plot seems like it could be just another bestseller romance, the complexity of the conflicts that the characters face with not always clear solutions makes this a better read than you might expect.