SUTTON by J.R. MOEHRINGER (by guest reviewer "L'ÉTRANGER")

 

SUTTON by J.R. MOEHRINGER (Hyperion) a novel (2012)

The story begins on Christmas Eve 1969. Willie 'The Actor' Sutton has just been given his pardon by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Willie Sutton was an actual person –the most famous bank robber of the 1920's and 30's (and perhaps ever). His reply to the question of why he robbed banks “Because that's where the money is” has become known as Sutton's Law-- a modern Occam's Razor used by medical schools and others.

The novel tells his life in a mix of modern (1969 modern) and flashback stories. Waiting for Willie on his release are A Reporter and A Photographer (that is all Moehringer calls them). The Reporter wants the big scoop on who killed Arnold Schuster. Willie was famous for not shooting in his bank robberies yet he was convicted of killing Arnold Schuster in retaliation for ‘ratting’ him out. Everyone knew Willie hated a rat. But before Willie would give them their scoop he insisted on taking them on the 'nickel' tour of his life. Each stop on the tour is a touchstone for Willie as he relives and recounts these seminal moments. Some of the scenes of Willie in prison (which I take are true) reminded me of scenes from Stephen King's Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption! There is also romance in the story, as Willie loves a woman above his ‘station’ and she loved him back--but there are many obstacles in the way of their truly getting together.

One on the constant themes in the novel is the plight of Americans during tough financial times-- whether it was the recession of 1908, or 1915, or the difficult times of the Roaring 20's (which were only roaring for the well-to-do) or of course the Great Depression-- and how the ones who seemed to get away scot-free from the crime of causing the hard times are the rich; and how the super-rich get richer, making the case for Sutton as a kind of Robin Hood. 

So aside from a super novel that is suspenseful, and at times romantic, it is a hard to put down storytelling; it also has lots to say about our modern situation. There are certain conceits in the novel --and they are twisted at the end-- but I bought it all, hook line and sinker. This is a book that sucks you into the story almost right from the start. In my mind, it deserves to win a big literary prize, be it a Pulitzer, National Book Award, Booker, or whatever.

As a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, J.R. Moehringer was twice nominated for a Pulitzer, the first time in 1998, and he has received the award, two years later, "for his portrait of Gee's Bend, an isolated river community in Alabama where many descendants of slaves live, and how a proposed ferry to the mainland might change it". SUTTON is his first novel. He also published The Tender Bar: A Memoir (Hyperion) in 2005.

by L'Étranger

     Art by ©Thibault Balahy

 

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LIVE BY NIGHT by Dennis LEHANE (a review)

 

'Live by Night' illustration by Jeffrey Smith (with kind permission)

 

My Dad would have been 81 today; he lived only 60 years. This review is for him, because it was the kind of books he enjoyed and I know he would have been a fan of Dennis Lehane. When I was 12, he introduced me to George Simenon, James M. Cain, and Raymond Chandler, his favourite writers. Here's to you, Dad.

 

Dennis Lehane excels in the historical genre and he seems to be really comfortable doing it. I certainly enjoy reading them. It started with Shutter Island, a gothic psychological suspense taking place in 1954 (a mix of Patrick McGrath's novel Spider for its mental maelstrom, and of Boileau-Narcejac's The Living and the Dead for its dizzying suspense), then it was The Given Day, arguably Lehane's best novel (I put it in a tie with Mystic River, the book equivalent to a no-hitter in baseball, very close to a perfect game).

 

Now it is Live by Night, in which the main protagonist is Joe Coughlin, younger brother of Danny, the cop we follow through The Given Day which took place just a few years earlier, mainly in Boston and Tulsa. Joe has not followed in the footsteps of his brothers (the other one is a lawyer) and father, police captain Thomas Coughlin. He started out doing small mischiefs but rapidly graduated to bigger jobs for mobsters who basically run Boston.

 

It is the roaring '20s, prohibition time and profitable times. But after a heist gone very wrong –two cops and an accomplice of Joe have died—Joe is sentenced to 10 years in prison. Inside, he makes the right connections at the right time; so when he gets out, a good job awaits. Joe ends up in Florida, managing the rum running business while having to fight off the competition, finding the right allies (some old friends that can’t all be trusted, new friends and enemies that are not always what they seem), and making sure he doesn’t become too comfortable and complacent --a huge mistake in his line of work where life expectancy doesn’t allow many to retire into old age.

 

We'll follow Joe through his life changing encounters and opportunities, his good decisions as well as his costly mistakes. After all, he's only human.

 

Lehane is so good at telling stories, at putting the focus on his characters and on the major events they have to live through, that we tend to overlook the richness and beauty of his writing; here’s a writer who is fully aware of his abilities and strengths but who doesn’t stop to gaze in the mirror and let himself fall into self-congratulation. We notice it often by his use of humour; sometimes during intense scenes, proving that life can be funny at odd moments --even when death is knocking at the door.

 

Live by Night is a story of love, of family, of frienship but it is also a tale about those who chose the dark path of life, knowing it would probably be a shotcut to death but preferring to live intensely like an exploding bullet going through flesh and bones, expecting that it would become a bullet destined for their own flesh and bones. 

 

When I open a Lehane book, I expect to meet interesting characters that are defined by events in their past, characters who will go through moral dilemmas, social changes, emotional battles, and other defining moments; these characters will end their journey as different human beings with a slightly, or entirely, different past behind them; and, as is the case with characters from Live By Night, when the story on the page ends, I always end up wanting to follow them a little farther into their future. Those who are still alive, of course.

 

I give Live by Night 4 thumbprints out of a possible 5; the book won the Edgar Award for Best Crime Novel of 2012. It fully deserved it, but I think The Given Day (2008) was even better (4 1/2 thumbprints); surprisingly, it didn't receive a nomination at the Edgars at the time.

For more on Dennis Lehane, you can go to his website, or to his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter and Google+

I also recommend you visit Jeffrey Smith's website. He's the illustator of the image at the top of this review, which he did for Playboy Magazine when they ran an excerpt of Live by Night.
He has great stuff on his website, some for stories by Ellroy, Pelecanos, Billingham, etc.

Thanks for stopping by The House.

Jacques
August 18th, 2013
P.S.: instead of rating books with thumbs up or thumbs down, I give them thumbprints.

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THE ABOMINATION by Jonathan HOLT (a review)

(guest reviewer)

 

The Abomination is book one of the Carnivia Trilogy. A woman dressed as a priestess is found dead on a beach in Venice, Italy. Kat Tapo, a Captain in the carabinieri, is trying to keep her place in a male dominated profession while working this murder case (her first one) with her boss, a man named Aldo. 

 

Holly Bolland, 2^nd Lieutenant of the US Army, is based in Italy and charged with investigating a Croatian General regarding his role in his native country's civil war. Bolland's investigation will soon lead her to cross paths with Kat and Aldo.

 

Carnivia is a huge online world, modeled on Venice, where anyone can create an avatar and have complete privacy (in the Venetian tradition, they all wear masks). This made me think of Michael Crichton’s books, especially Disclosure.

This is a thriller with strong feminist elements: the abuse of women is a strong thread throughout the story, as are the forced prostitution of Croatian women and the fate of women during the Balkan War. The law against the ordination of women by the Church is also a major theme in the story.

 

There are conspiracies galore in this book, with agents and double agents and maybe even a triple agent (I lost track a little bit there!). As one of the early reviews mentioned, the story "piles the mysteries and twists one on top of the other", but all in a cohesive and well written way. The heroes of the story are fighting an unholy cabal of the CIA, the Church, the State, and the Mafia, so the powers against them are formidable.

 

One other note; having read Amanda Knox’s story, and having listened to some of the news surrounding her case, I think the author paints an interesting portrait of the prosecutor of the case in The Abomination; one that would lend credence to Amanda Knox’s story that the case against her was all made up.

 

text by L'Étranger

guest reviewer

art ©Thibault Balahy

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GIVEAWAY: JOHN RECTOR'S OUT OF THE BLACK

UPDATE: our winner is Anton Jansons, of Riga (Latvia). Congratulations Anton, and thanks to everyone who participated. Stay tuned, I'll have other great titles to give away soon.

****************

To be published on August 27, by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint, the new crime novel by John Rector, Out of the Black, is up for grabs here. If you've never read Rector before, you're missing on a great new talent; and if you've read him before, you'll want this one before everybody else, right? Well, here's your chance to win a copy: send me your name and address before Saturday, August 2nd, at 11:59 pm (23 h 59) Montréal time. Everyone aged 18 and over is eligible. No purchase necessary, no bribes either. Bonne chance!

Write to housecrimyst@gmail.com


John Rector has recently received an International Thriller Award for his novella Lost Things, and his previous novel, Already Gone, was shortlisted for the 2012 International Thriller Award. Rector also published three other novels and one short story collection, The Walls Around Us.  

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AN UPDATE ABOUT THE HOUSE

I'm writing this to let you know about the situation here at The House of Crime & Mystery, and about the reasons I've been silent for most of the last few months. I've had a car accident and health issues derived from it have prevented me from a certain quality of life. One of the repercussions was that I couldn't read or write for more than 15-20 minutes at a time without getting strong headaches and dizziness. Concentrating on a specific task was nearly impossible. I've started writing many reviews but couldn't finish them. It came to the point where I’ve seriously been thinking of closing down The House.  

Then, as if that wasn't enough, two major events have put that aside: in mid-June, one of my brothers decided to leave his climbing expedition on Nanga Parbat Mountain (in Pakistan) because he "didn't have a good vibe about it"; a few hours later, a group of Talibans killed a dozen climbers at base camp. One of the victims was on my brother's expedition.

Less than a month ago, a runaway train full of crude oil derailed and exploded in a little town (Lac Mégantic), wiping out half of downtown and killing 50 people. A town where my 84-year old mother lives, just a little outside of downtown. Her home was in the path of the black cloud of smoke which was raining drops of hot oïl. My mother is fine although a bit stressed out; my brother is fine although he just broke his wrist on the bike path; I am doing much better although I still get headaches and neck pain some days. To say that all three of us are lucky to still be alive would be an understatement. We know that a few centimeters to the left when a car collides with mine, or the decision taken is to stay at base camp one more day, or whether a fire spreads to a few more houses, can all tip the balance of life and death to the wrong side.

Sometimes it’s the little things, minor events in your life, that make you want to re-focus your goals and priorities, the ones you really care for and want to see through. Other times, major events like a car accident in which you come out with barely a scratch, or a loved-one escaping serious injury –or even death—will make you start questioning yourself until you decide that you want –that you need—to reassess your life; in my case, it means less time spent on the road (for work), more at home, and to keep The House open with regular updates (reviews, interviews and other views, etc.), and to continue writing fiction every day. I've changed jobs and I'm nearing the end of my novel.

After careful consideration and much thought, I’ve decided I had worked too hard to build The House to stop and end it all now. We’ll see how it goes but one thing I decided to focus on is to review books I really am interested in. That’s one of the reasons I started doing this gig (a hobby) but because I can’t say no (and because I was new to this whole thing), I’ve agreed too often to read books that didn’t really interest me. Fortunately, I’ve enjoyed the books more times than not, although I’ve ended up reading a lot of stuff that I never talked about or reviewed; sometimes because I didn’t enjoy the read, other times because I couldn’t find the time to write a review. My mother always told me: “If you have nothing nice to say, keep your mouth shut”. To writers and publicists out there who’ve sent me books (or who’d like to do so), let me be clear about this: if I don’t enjoy the story enough, I won’t write a review. When I have time to write reviews I prefer to concentrate on books that I enjoyed. I’m here to help promote books and authors, not to denigrate them—someone else might enjoy them.

I’ve also read many good books that I didn’t review, which is why I am now doing shorter reviews in bulk; to talk about more books and hopefully spend more time reading more of them. One thing we should all keep in mind is that this is all done as a hobby for most bloggers out there, me included; we are not getting paid to do it, it is all for pleasure: the pleasure of reading, the pleasure of passing along our enthusiasm about books, and the pleasure of keeping the book world alive and thriving as much as possible. I’m not a journalist anymore so I don’t follow the rules of journalism (whichever they are, and whatever their purposes). I do it all for fun; if you’re not happy about it, no one is forcing you to be here.

Even though I haven't posted much lately, The House of Crime& Mystery has welcomed its 135,000^th visitor (on July 15^th) and the constant traffic tells me that there must be something I'm doing right.  We are averaging 9,000 visits per month, since last March, so thank you very much, merci beaucoup! I still enjoy doing it and I'm back at it this summer, reading a lot, writing about it, and posting again.

Which brings me to the final word, intended to publicists and writers who send me books: I can’t guarantee that I will write a review (I know most of you understand that part, but I'm saying it for the others); how can I guarantee a review when I haven’t read the book yet. If I’m scheduled on a blog tour, I will cancel if I didn’t like the story because I will never endorse a book I didn’t enjoy. I write honest reviews --even if my English is not perfect (keep in mind that it is my second language).

I’m sincerely glad you’re spending time here, and I definitely hope you’ll come back to The House. The door is always open and I keep the interior as clean, as enjoyable, and as fresh as possible. Don't hesitate to leave comments, the praise as well as the criticism (as long as it's constructive feedback).

I hope this wasn't too long and that it all makes sense, but in the end, I want to say thank you for your continued support, and à bientôt.

Jacques

The Landlord

July 19th, 2013

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THE CORPSE READER by ANTONIO GARRIDO (a review)

In the 13^th century, a Chinese man named Song Ci wrote down what became the first texts on forensic science. In the 21^st Century, a Spanish writer named Antonio Garrido, wanted to write a book based on Song Ci’s life. Unfortunately, Garrido couldn’t uncover enough details about the Chinese man so he had to forget about writing a biography. He instead decided he might be able to write a historical novel based on Song Ci’s achievements. And why not make it a mystery novel, he thought. Well, he thought right.

While studying to become an assistant to judge Feng, a highly-respected magistrate, Ci attracts attention with his intelligence, his observation skills, and his ability to ‘read’ corpses; the Imperial Court then puts him in charge of finding the author of a series of vicious and brutal murders. When three more victims are found dismembered, Ci realises that more than one person might be involved, and that the motive could come from an old feud. More important, can Ci solve the case before becoming a suspect…or worse, before being the next dismembered victim?

I’m not a huge fan of historical novels (I prefer history books and biographies) and I’m even less a fan of the historical mystery genre. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading them (I do sometimes), and I certainly recognise there are many good writers who do it successfully and that there’s a huge market out there for the genre; but I just never have the impulse to look for them at the bookstore. Let’s just say that I probably prefer my mysteries and crime novels to take place in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, even the ones that fall into the historical genre.

Reading about murder investigations in Ancient Greece, Victorian England, Medieval Italy, and other long ago times just doesn’t do it for me. I like my investigators, detectives, cops, and PIs to live in a world I can relate to, even if I haven’t lived before the ‘60s (the 1960s, of course, thank you). There are exceptions, sure, like Umberto Eco’s The Name of The Rose, Iain Pears’s An Instance of the Fingerpost, Caleb Carr’s The Alienist (this one is 1896, not that far) and I’m sure a few more that I can’t remember right now.

Because of my indifference for historical mysteries, when I receive one such book in the mail it usually ends up on my too-many-books-not-enough-time pile, the one I keep on a bookshelf far from my desk, in my office, giving these books a false sense that they’re going to be read one day. They sometimes are; but mostly, the pile just grows. When I received Antonio Garrido’s The Corpse Reader, Vegas bookies would have put its chances of being read at around 75 to 1. Or even worse. What defied the odds is that the few books I’ve read about China have always captivated me. Which is why when I read on the info sheet: “1206, Tsong Dynasty. Eastern China. Inspired by the origins of forensic science, it follows Song Ci’s from gravedigger to deciphering corpses” I was hooked. When I started reading the book, I fell in and only got out at the last page, entirely satisfied.

Garrido has done his research well when it comes to the time and place but without overwhelming the story with too many details; I often forgot that it was happening in 1206 because the characters simply took over the story and ran ahead, taking the narrative and twisting and turning with it at each new development. One or two characters aside, all of them were defined with detailed aspects and motivation; almost all can be suspected of murder at one point or another, which makes it a compelling tale that I highly recommend; even if, like me, you don’t often read historical yarns.

THE CORPSE READER by Antonio Garrido 

(translator: Thomas Bunstead, from El lector de Cadaveres)

Rating: 4 thumbprints

As a bonus, you can learn more about the real Song Ci by reading Antonio Garrido’s interesting essay at the end of the book.

JF

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