LitPicks - November '09

Criminally Addicted:  Mystery...detective...crime stories — they've been around since Oedipus Rex. Developed into an art form by Poe in the US and Collins in the UK, they offer a strange sort of comfort — presupposing a world that can be known, answers found, and order restored. No wonder so many of us are addicted.

A Lighter Touch | Wonderfully Written | Great Works



One for the Money - Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Janet Evanovich, 1996-2009

By Molly Lundquist
Stephanie Plum is hilarious. Or maybe it's author Evanovich who's funny. I'm not sure. Stephanie Plum is so real it's hard to believe she's merely a character in a series.

If you haven't read any of Janet Evanovich's books, you are in for a treat. Although, you certainly don't need to, you might want to start at the beginning—with One for the Money or Two for the Dough...or Three to Get Deadly. (You see where I'm going with this...)

Sadly, by the time Evanovich reaches Lean Mean Thirteen, Fearless Fourteen and Finger Lickin' Fifteen a lot of critics think she's wrung the cloth out one too many times. Her hi-jinks seem a little tired, and plots resort to Hollywood gimmickry—fires, explosions, and crude language. So stick with the earlier books, say 1 through 7, 8 or 9.

Stephanie is a bounty hunter from a solid working-class neighborhood in Trenton, New Jersey, who frequently finds herself on the trail of low-lifes and marginally reputable folk. Her family is in for the count: a mother who meddles and a grandmother "two cans short of a pack." Stephanie herself is a comic miracle...a mouth that goes a mile a minute and a tendency to leave behind more messes than fixes.

But if you like your detective work light, or you're looking for an escape from heavier lifting, this mad-cap series may be the perfect tonic. There are no reading guides for the any books in the series...c'mon...just have fun with this! It's almost impossible not to.

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When Will There Be Good News?
Kate Atkinson, 2008
400 pp.

By Molly Lundquist

This is 3rd in the Jackson Brodie series—none of which are are typical of the genre. They're plot-driven like all detective novels, but Atkinson's are also rich in character development. Her pages are filled with the angst of orphaned characters—survivors of family tragedies—who feel alone on the planet and yearn for connection.

Atkinson provides the connection, stringing them together in a tightly knit world that overflows with coincidence, parallel events, and literary allusions. It's all accomplished with crackling wit and sharp insight.

The book opens with a grisly murder, leaving one little 6-year-old girl behind. It picks up 30 years later in Scotland with Jackson Brodie and a group of indelible characters—Dr. Joanna Hunter (the young girl from the prologue); 16-year-old Reggie Chase, a mother's helper; and Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, a former if brief love interest of Brodie now recently married to the perfect husband. The initial plot line is that the killer of the opening scene has just been released from jail. But the story spirals out from there.

We see events through the eyes of four characters, each with a complicated past and present. But Kate Atkinson juggles all the elements brilliantly and pulls them together into a rich whole. I love Atkinson's writing; it's sharp and funny. But she's also poignant as her characters struggle to cope with the pain that life all too readily deals out to us. I think book clubs will have terrific discussions surrounding these characters.

See our LitLovers Reading Guide for When Will There Be Good News?

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The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins, 1859-60
720 pp.

By Molly Lundquist
Considered one of the first detective novels, The Woman in White was a sensation when published over 140 years ago—and, in fact, it helped establish the sub-genre of the "sensation" novel, wildly popular in the 1860's in England. 

Walter Hartright (get the names, here) falls in love with his art student Laura Fairlie—and she with him. Yet Laura is engaged to, and soon marries, Percival Glyde, a man older than she and a titled baron. After their marriage, Sir Percival strips Laura of her identity and fortune...and here crime story takes off. Both Hartright and Laura's beloved half-sister Marian set about to rescue Laura and restore her position in society.

It all makes for delicious reading—stolen inheritance, adultery, insanity, drugs, and a mysterious unidentified figure. Poor half-sister Marian—she of the light moustache, not lovely enough to land a husband—becomes the story's most appealing character, if not in appearance surely in spirit and intelligence! Collins must have rattled some Victorian cages when he created such an independent, resourceful female figure.

This is a long read, but it goes fairly quickly. Still you might consider dividing it up into 2 months... that is if you can stand the suspense. Also, take a look at Collins's The Moonstone, another ripping story he wrote in 1868. Both are great reads!

Take a look at our Reading Guide for The Woman in White.

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