The Prophecy of Death

The Prophecy of Death by Michael Jecks. The author of this long-running series has attempted to breathe new life into the books by bringing his main characters, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock, closer to the intrigues surrounding the royal throne. The English King Edward II is a weak ruler, corrupted by his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser and estranged from his wife, Queen Isabella, sister to the French King Charles IV. Although this change in setting from the wilds of Devon to the political mazes at Winchester has created new opportunities for storylines, Baldwin’s relatively low status among the nobles and his self-proclaimed discomfort in their presence has weakened his ability as the lead actor in the story. Instead, much more time is spent describing the actions of the king, his advisors and his adversaries and the mysteries Baldwin and Simon are investigating become secondary plotlines as the books tilt more towards historical fiction.

In the current tale, a precious vial of anointing oil has been stolen from Christ Church Priory in Canterbury and all the major players see its recovery as a way of obtaining influence with the king. Baldwin and Simon are asked to investigate the theft and the related murders and threatened with dire consequences if they fail. Jecks introduces young Edward of Windsor, the Earl of Chester and first-born son of King Edward II, as another principal player in the country’s power games. Despite being not yet a teenager at the time of the story, he displays intelligence, cunning and ruthlessness one would expect of a much older man.

Readers interested in well-written stories taking place during a time of great turmoil, deceptions and revenge will enjoy Jecks’ work, but long-time fans of the series may be wondering if it’s time for Baldwin to fulfill his desire for a quiet retirement on his small country estate with his family.

Morality Play

Morality Play by Barry Unsworth. The most disappointing thing about this stand-alone mystery is that it isn’t the beginning of a series of books. The idea of an outsider joining a traveling troupe of players in rural medieval England is one I’ve read before in Margaret Frazer’s Joliffe series, but thankfully in this case Unsworth does not submit his readers to sleep-inducing pages of internal contemplation by the main character. Instead, he focuses his attention on the action making for a much faster paced and more enjoyable story. Nicholas Barber is a twenty-three-year-old priest who leaves his position at Lincoln Cathedral in shame after breaking his vows. In desperation he joins with a small band, replacing one of the group that has died suddenly, as they journey to Durham to perform at the Christmas festivities there. All seems normal when they stop in a small village to bury their fellow thespian in hallowed ground and to earn a few pennies for their journey. But when their master-player decides that they must depart from their normal roster of morality plays and create a new drama based on a recent local murder, they become embroiled in events darker than they had planned. In gathering information to flesh out their new characters and dialog, the players discover that the evidence points away from the convicted girl awaiting execution and towards other more powerful members of the community. In the same way that Frank Tallis uses music as a way to describe 1900 Vienna and Cora Harrison uses flowers to capture the lushness of 1500 Ireland, Unsworth uses the complicated hand gestures which pass as unspoken communication between players on stage to bring readers closer to the characters and the setting. Unsworth also does an excellent job of keeping readers as disoriented as the actors. Although the ending is not a complete surprise, one never knows for certain how the situation will turn with each new piece of the puzzle.

I Killed

I Killed: true stories of the road from America’s top comics compiled by Ritch Shydner and Mark Schiff. “Make me laugh!” “Entertain me!” That’s been the unrelenting demand from audiences throughout time and across cultures. Although today’s jesters need not fear for their heads if their jokes fall flat in front of royalty, as these stories from over 200 practitioners of stand-up show, they can still worry about their physical safety as well as their psychological balance. I love watching comics on television doing their acts, but I realize it is a much sanitized version of what happens every night at hundreds of clubs around the country. This book presents the raw images and the unfiltered language of life on the road. From before there were comedy clubs, through their heyday and up to current times comics have been scrounging for meals, putting down hecklers, nailing groupies and waitresses, and wrangling with owners and managers over getting paid. Not all these anecdotes are funny, but they do present a broad and realistic view of the business. Many of the stories are similar, but if you do get bored after the first fifty or so entries, I recommend skipping ahead to the last ten pages where the tales of performing for troops overseas, subbing for Johnny Carson, traveling with family and working a funeral are the most poignant of the book.

For a look at a different sector of American comedy business, check out Rob Long’s fictionalized tales of being a sitcom writer in Hollywood. Also, PBS is currently running a six-hour miniseries on American comedy called Make Em Laugh with interviews of hundreds of the best in the business.

The Little Book that Beats the Market

The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt. When reviewing any investment book, it is important, yet difficult, to separate one’s analysis of the proposed financial plan from that of the presentation of said plan by the author. Persuasive writing requires that one engage and draw the reader’s attention right away and Greenblatt does a fine job of this by introducing us to one of his son’s sixth grade classmates on his way to future entrepreneur glory by selling a simple product for a huge margin. He then expands this folksy anecdote into a full-fledged hypothetical situation from which he can explain several basic financial concepts and the two core components of his “magic formula” for beating the market: earnings yield and return on capital. A second tenet of persuasive writing is to get your audience inclined to your point of view ahead of time by informing them about what you’re going to tell them, then present your case, and then reinforce your arguments by telling it to them again. Up to this point (through Chapter 5), Greenblatt uses a simple writing style that will work for both beginning and advanced investors with clear summaries at the end of each section. He also successfully avoids overwhelming his audience with mathematical calculations. However, it all starts to fall apart when it comes time to proving that his formula is better than all others. The volume of numbers per page increases significantly as does the financial jargon. The writing style that was appealing early on now comes off as condescending at times. And he does a poor job of addressing another tenet of persuasive writing: anticipate your opponents’ arguments and address them completely. When presenting a plan of action in book form, there is no interactive dialog between reader and author. We can’t ask the writer to stop and expand upon a point, explain something more clearly or answer our concerns. The author must predict where his plan might be attacked and present evidence that refutes those arguments. Greenblatt barely touches on why investors should select a portfolio of thirty stocks instead of ten or fifty and he leaves it until a second, short appendix to even mention transaction costs and taxation issues. He never addresses why the two variables in his formula should have equal weighting nor under what circumstances the formula might not succeed. He also doesn’t discuss how large a stake an investor needs to have accumulated before beginning to implement this plan. As I said earlier, I point these problems out not to attack the formula itself, but to show that the presentation within those 150 pages could have been better.

A Plague of Angels

A Plague of Angels by P.F. Chisholm. Many years ago I read one of Patricia Finney’s Elizabethan historical novels and enjoyed it a great deal. I was not aware she also wrote historical mysteries under the name P.F Chisholm until I wandered around some at Library Thing. Although the author’s web site indicates that a new title in this series is forthcoming, it has been ten years since Plague of Angels was published as the fourth, and most recent, installment in the Sir Robert Carey line. In this adventure, the political infighting that was a hallmark of Elizabeth’s advisors has taken a nasty turn. Both Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon, Carey’s father, and Vice Chamberlain Thomas Heneage vie for the Queen’s attention and wish to be her most trusted confidante. Hunsdon’s elder son Edmund has disappeared and the Chamberlain fears that Heneage will use whatever scandal Edmund’s gotten himself into as blackmail material against the entire family. Therefore, he has summoned Robert back to London from his retreat in Scotland to investigate. Carey has brought with him his trusted Sergeant Dodd, his valet Barnabus and Barnabus’ nephew Simon. Whereas Dodd has rarely ventured outside Scotland and views the London metropolis as another planet, Barnabus and Simon are both natives, knowledgeable of the city’s treasures and dangers. The mystery surrounding Edmund’s disappearance is very slow to unfold, but in the interim readers are entertained by Dodd’s fish-out-of-water situation, both relating to the city and to the maze-like political scene filled with spies in every household and by Carey’s own familial squabbles and problems with creditors. Finney/Chishom does a fine job of capturing London’s atmosphere and the court scene and Heneage and his associates prove to be formidable villains. I think beginning the series would give readers a better sense of how Carey and his crew, especially Dodd, formed their alliances.

The House Bunny on DVD

The House Bunny on DVD. After a string of action movies, sometimes you just need something silly and funny for a change. This film certainly isn’t a masterpiece and it may not be all that original either, but it filled that need satisfactorily. It’s basically another retelling of the “ugly ducklings become popular but lose their inner beauty until they discover their true selves” story. Anna Faris plays Shelley, a former long-time resident at the Playboy Mansion who finds herself out in the real world for the first time in her adult life. She stumbles into the position of house mother to a sorority full of misfits who need a complete transformation in order to attract the pledges necessary to keep their charter. There are elements of Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds as our heroines battle their evil pan-Hellenic counterparts. There are also some similarities to Tommy Lee Jones’ character from Man of the House in that both Ranger Roland Sharp and Shelley are somewhat in the fish-out-of-water scenario with much to learn from their charges, especially when it comes to dating. Although a lot of the humor is of the “dumb blonde” variety, one never forgets that Faris is playing a character and doing it well. Emma Stone as the sorority president and Colin Hanks as Shelley’s love interest give good supporting performances, though the rest of the characters are rather one-dimensional. Overall, there isn’t much depth here, but it was a nice break from the testosterone-dominated fare lately on display. The DVD also contains almost an hour a featurettes.

Eagle Eye on DVD

Eagle Eye on DVD. The adrenaline junkies will love this one, but those looking for significant character development or a cohesive plot should seek satisfaction elsewhere. Two ordinary Chicagoans, Jerry (Shia LeBeouf) and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) are coerced by a seemingly omnipotent organization into participating in a high-level assassination plot. In between the car chases, crashes and explosions, there are a few attempts to give some back stories to the pair, but mostly it’s a series of car chases, crashes and explosions as they try to avoid the authorities led by Billy Bob Thornton as the FBI investigator.

What’s most disappointing is why the sophisticated, evil mastermind who can remotely control docking cranes, airport luggage systems and power grids not to mention a score of individuals besides Jerry and Rachel can’t conceive of a simpler, more elegant plan. Instead our villain emulates the scoundrels of the Adam West Batman television series by creating Rube Goldberg-like schemes with multiple moving parts. Jerry and Rachel inevitably make mistakes that require interventions and assistance from the behind-the-scenes puppeteer. Alert viewers will even find a similarity between Get Smart’s C.H.A.O.S. plot and this one.

Medieval Murderers

Sword of Shame and The Lost Prophecies by the Medieval Murderers. These two short story collections by a small group of well-established historical mystery writers can be a good starting point for readers unfamiliar with the authors’ works and characters and want just a taste of what’s on offer. The format also allows the authors a chance to introduce new characters, such as Ian Morson’s Venetian adventurer, Nick Zuliani, and to test their worth. Each book has a central theme, usually a specific item, such as a sword or book. However, the individual tales within each book are self-contained, so readers can pick and choose which sections to read. Because each story is fairly long (60-80 pages), the authors have sufficient time to give background on their principal and secondary characters, overcoming a problem frequently found with the short story format. Someone look for a wide range of settings will be disappointed however, because with the exception of Zuliani, all of the stories take place in medieval England. For those readers, I recommend the “Mammoth” anthologies edited by Mike Ashley. Book reviewer Liz provides a nice summary of various titles in this area.

2008 Book Awards

This past year wasn’t a great one for books.  Too much ordinary and uninspired material.  However, there were a few exceptions.  The best of the year’s finds are below with links to my full review for each.  To see previous year’s lists, try here.

2008 Book Awards

The Serpent’s Tale – Ariana Franklin. Mystery featuring a medieval female forensic scientist.

Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand – Fred Vargas. Another tale about this contemporary Columbo-esque Parisian detective.

The Black Hand – Will Thomas. Barker and Llewelyn take on the mafia in 1880s London.

I wish I’d been there, book 2. Twenty historians present their views on the major events in European history.

The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch. Life lessons from the famous Carnegie Mellon professor.

Around the world in 80 Rounds – David Wood. Traveling the world with just a laptop and a set of clubs.

Get out or die – Jane Finnis. Another mystery set in Roman-occupied Britain with a female innkeeper lead.

The Sandbox. American soldiers and their familys’ real-life tales from Iraq, Afghanistan and the homefront.

Broken Harmony

Broken Harmony by Roz Southey. With a musician in 1730s Newcastle, England as the main character, I had hoped that this debut mystery would be similar to Beverle Graves Myers’ wonderful Tito Amato series. Instead, this strange story contains elements of several television shows and movies. First, the ability of certain sensitive characters to cross into a parallel dimension is reminiscent of Quantum Leap, Sliders, or The Butterfly Effect. Also, in the universe in which most of the action takes place human spirits do not leave their temporal bodies upon death, but instead inhabit the vicinity of their demise for a century or so. They communicate normally with the living population and with other spirits in the general area, often providing assistance to investigators ala The Ghost Whisperer or Pushing Daisies. It is difficult to get past all the science fiction in the tale, but the core is a traditional mystery with jealousy between rivals and blackmail as the underlying causes for strife. The setting is well-described and the pace is sufficiently quick. The plot has several twists and our hero-narrator finds himself in increasing danger as he gets nearer to the center of the web. There are two more titles in the ongoing series, but I think I’ll keep my enjoyment of science fiction to other mediums.