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HISTORY HISTORY MYSTERY<br />
MYSTERY<br />
POTPOURI<br />
POTPOURI<br />
by by Sally Sally Sugarman,<br />
Sugarman,<br />
Jay Jay Waggoner Waggoner &<br />
&<br />
Guests<br />
Guests<br />
Sally Sugarman Reviews<br />
THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM by Robert<br />
McCammon (Pocket Books, $16.00, 2007). Rating: A<br />
In this absorbing novel, the reader is immediately transported<br />
to eighteenth-century New York City, a town in<br />
transition, expanding in every way. Unfortunately, this<br />
means crime is on the upswing. Some leading citizens have<br />
been brutally murdered. The strange markings around the<br />
dead men’s eyes lead the local newspaper editor to dub<br />
the killer, The Masker.<br />
Trying to find the identity of the mysterious murderer,<br />
Matthew Corbett is an appealing hero. As clerk to<br />
a magistrate, Matthew is intelligent, observant and resourceful,<br />
eager to advance beyond his humble beginnings<br />
as an orphan boy. However, his commitment to the<br />
principles of justice earns him enemies as well as friends.<br />
When Matthew is recruited into an organization of problem<br />
solvers, an early version of a detective agency, one of his<br />
assignments is to uncover the identity of a sad and silent<br />
woman dubbed the Queen. Matthew has other mysteries<br />
to solve as well as learning how to become a swordsman.<br />
The skill of the author is evident from the first pages of the<br />
book. Not only does he effectively recreate colonial America,<br />
he presents a range of fascinating characters from an<br />
upchucking coroner to a dandified Governor, all of them<br />
credible portraits. The strange and powerful Professor Fell<br />
echoes the Holmesian villain, Professor Moriarity. There<br />
are tantalizing hints of the paths detection will take as we<br />
leave Matthew looking at a fingerprint through a magnifying<br />
glass at the end of the tale.<br />
This is the second book about Matthew Corbett<br />
(SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD, 2002) and the reader<br />
looks forward to further adventures of this enterprising and<br />
attractive sleuth. Nominated for this year’s Best Paperback<br />
Original Barry Award.<br />
THE BIBLE OF CLAY by Julia Navarro Translated<br />
by Andrew Hurley (Bantam, $24.00; John Murray,<br />
£11.99). Rating: A+ For those readers of THE DA<br />
VINCI CODE who enjoy a fast paced mystery connected<br />
to religious artifacts that can change what we know about<br />
the past, this is an excellent mystery with plenty of<br />
surprises and suspense. Set in Iraq, shortly before the<br />
current war, the story also flashes back to Nazi Germany<br />
Reviews<br />
<strong>Deadly</strong> <strong>Pleasures</strong><br />
57<br />
and to biblical times. The three stories are<br />
smoothly entwined and add to the general<br />
richness of the text. There are myriad<br />
characters working at cross-purposes, all<br />
of them vividly portrayed.<br />
Unlike THE DA VINCI CODE, there<br />
is no single sympathetic character to follow<br />
through the story. Indeed, two of the major<br />
characters are quite despicable, but there<br />
is intrigue, betrayal, loyalty, friendship,<br />
corruption, hatred and the hovering threat<br />
of war. A group of archeologists is persuaded<br />
to engage in a dig in a rural part of Iraq<br />
as the war is about to erupt because of the<br />
belief that there are clay tablets which transcribe Abraham’s<br />
tale of the earth’s creation by God. As the murders pile up<br />
and time grows short, will the tablets be found? Do they<br />
even exist? This is a long book but it never lags and is<br />
continuously absorbing. The images of war, whether in<br />
Germany or Iraq, provide a political context for the events<br />
that occur; showing the impact war has on survivors. This<br />
aspect adds another dimension to the complexity of<br />
motives and actions for some of the characters. The<br />
conclusion is oddly satisfying.<br />
TRUMPETS SOUND NO MORE by Jon<br />
Redfern (RendezVous Crime, 2007). Rating: B+ This is<br />
a richly textured look at the theatrical and police worlds in<br />
1840, when Victoria was still a young monarch. Although<br />
Inspector Owen Endersby is the focal character in the<br />
book, other individuals stand out vividly. There are myriad<br />
characters but they all are sharply drawn, as is the city.<br />
Endersby is an unusual detective in that he is devoted to his<br />
wife, he has gout and is always hungry, but he is keenly<br />
observant and also willing to cut a few corners with<br />
deceptive disguises and schemes to catch wrong doers.<br />
The police force is newly formed from the old Bow Runners<br />
and Endersby has a sense of responsibility to the organization.<br />
He has two crimes to solve. The one he is most<br />
interested in and which takes up the bulk of the narrative<br />
is the murder of a theatrical producer. Once the main<br />
suspect is cleared, it becomes fairly evident who the culprit<br />
is, but that happens late in the story and does not spoil the<br />
pleasure of reading about the various people who inhabit<br />
the colorful landscape. Redfern does an excellent job of<br />
transporting the reader to the busy streets of an overcrowded<br />
London. After concluding the case, Endersby<br />
feels he will miss the theatrical environment and so will the<br />
reader. Winner of the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for<br />
Best Novel (Best Crime Novel written by a Canadian<br />
crime writer).<br />
Jay Waggoner Reviews<br />
THE BLACK HAND by Will Thomas (Simon &<br />
Schuster; $14.00). Rating: B+ THE BLACK HAND is<br />
the fifth book in an enjoyable series (the Barker & Llewelyn<br />
novels) written by Will Thomas. This outing introduces the<br />
reader, and London, to the Sicilian Mafia. It also intro-
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