Mysterious Mercury et les Grandes Dames

The British mystery tradition has been blessed by a few outstanding women authors whose names [or pen names] are recognized world wide. Below you'll find the few whom I believe meet the criteria of a British Grande Dame [and in parantheses their best known detectives]. Here are the authors whose books have wiled away the many hours of a dog's life, empty of fulfilling work, devoted only to sleeping, eating and other carnal pleasures.

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Josephine Tey [Allan Grant; including The Daughter of Time] The First of the Group & often considered The Greatest.
Dorothy Sayres [Lord Peter Wimsey & Harriet Vane]
Agatha Christie [Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple]
Ngaio Marsh [Inspector Roderick Alleyn]
Patricia Wentworth [Miss Maud Silver]

Introducting the Grandes Dames and their protagoniststs, the women who have written carefully plotted mysteries peopled by characters who seem to live & breathe and always full of surprising turns of plot, carefully revealed insights -- and loads of character! Let's examine them one by one.

Josephine Tey [aka Elizabeth MacKintosh]; also wrote as Gordon Daviot.

The Daughter of Time brought the controversy surrounding Richard III and the Princes in the Tower to a wide public audience and is perhaps the most popular defense of Richard. This mystery novel addresses the issue of historical truth. Inspector Alan Grant, trapped in a hospital with a broken leg, is bored senseless. ..This mystery demonstrates that once an idea, right or wrong, becomes "fixed" in a culture, people resist changing their opinions on the matter, even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence." Her book A Shilling for Candles was the basis for Alfred Hitchcok's Young and Innocent.

http://www.r3.org/fiction/mysteries/tey_butler.html

Dorothy Sayres wrote 14 Lord Peter Wimsey novels before devoting herself writing, first for the stage and secondly to Christian discourse. My favorite, Murder Must Advertise. Explore the Dorothy L. Sayres Society website:

http://www.sayers.org.uk/

Agatha Christie "remains the most popular novelist in history, with over two billion of her books sold at a conservative estimate. The rejacketing of her books and new adaptations of Poirot and Marple on ITV have all ensured that e magic of her storytelling continues to reach a contemporary audience and that she continues to be recognised as the undisputed "Queen of Crime." I find her infinitly re-readable. See her official website:

http://uk.agathachristie.com/site/home/

Ngaio Marsh, although a New Zealander, is considered a British Grande Dame. A few of her stories are situated in New Zealand, but for the most part, England is the backdrop and often the theater provides the mise en scene. Frankly, I find Marshs' books pleasurable upon first reading, but lacking the re-readable Mercury Rating evaluation.


Patricia Wentworth [aka Dora Amy Ells], forgotten even by many for whom the Grandes Dames, birthed the wonderful Maud Silver, sleuth, spinster, eccentric dresser, former governess, and altogether a woman of keen insight and the ability to put one over. I enjoyed Miss Silver Comes to Stay.

Although their Mercury Ratings vary by author and title, I can wholeheartedly recommend each author's works to novice readers as yet ignorant of the Grandes Dames of British mystery. And I extend that recommendation to all for whom a good mystery is the bed-rock of civilized life.

Coming Soon: The Lone Inspectors of the current British mystery world and their Mercury Ratings.

Please check out the preceeding 4 mystery authors' entries. And check back soon for upcoming lists, descriptions and evaluations of other mystery series.

Happy reading from your friend, Mercury Murphy Roushanzamir

Mysterious Mercury & Professional Marriages

Marriage between a man and a woman, same-sex marriage, liaisons, menage-a-trois. Amongst humans the myriad of relations intimate seem creative & endless.

The same can be said for a certain set of British mystery series [re-read the first paragraph], at the very center of which is some kind of coupling [or tripling, whatever]. Here I've listed some of the better of what I call the Professional Marriages genre of mystery, each with a selected title, beginning with the best writer and craftsman/predominantly woman of the field.

Author: Reginald Hill: Peter Pascoe and "Fat Andy" Dalziel [actually not a couple per se, both of CID] and the third, Sarge Edgar Wield of the "fragmented face," initially in, then out of the closet. (Dialogues of the Dead) Mercury Rating: Very good

Author Ruth Rendell: Inspector Wexford with prissy, but very straight Michael Burden [Wexford supported by his wife, Dora, and periodically thrilled and annoyed by his daughters]. (A Sleeping Life) By the way, Rendell also writes under the name Barbara Vine. (The Blood Doctor) Mercury Rating: Very Good.

Author Elizabeth George: Thomas Lynley, Barbara Havers & Winston Nkata [of Scotland Yard] and a confusing cast of other characters all of whom sleep with each other at various points [in time and space] throughout her large oeuvre. (Payment in Blood) Mercury Rating: Good

Author Jill McGown: Dectective Chief Inspector Lloyd and Detective Judy Hill [first illicit non-lovers, later boyfriend and girlfriend. (Murder at the Old Vicarage) Mercury Rating: Not Bad

NOTE: McGown and Crombie styles are similar enough that one can become confused about whose in a couple with whom, for example, is Lloyd breaking up his marriage of Jemma or what combination of overlapping illicit relationship. But no matter; these humans.

Author Deborah Crombie: Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Jemma James [on-again, off-again]. (Mourn Not Your Dead) Mercury Rating: Not Bad

Author Ann Granger: Meredith and Markby [girlfriend and boyfriend]; Meredith of the FO [Foreign Office], Markby [law enforcement]. (Murder Among Us) Mercury Rating: OK

All the above are good-spend-the-day-in-bed books. Today, the sky is gray, rain soaks the world,thunder is imminent. Nothing more satisfying than spending my time in bed, surrounded by favorite toys, waiting for food and drink to appear, and a very good [good, not bad, or even OK] mystery.

Mama agrees. She suggests that my next two entries review the Grande Dames of British mystery [such as Tey, Sayres, Christie & Marsh] and the Lone Inspector type [no tiresome emphasis on human coupling--just a good mystery] of which Mama is especially fond.

So please stop by again soon for the lists, descriptions & awards of the prestigious Mercury Rating evalution.

Mysterious Mercury, Cozy

Sometimes I like to read in bed. I've illustrated that activity with pictures, of Me in Bed and [a long shot of] My Loft.

Reading in bed is usually an excuse for selecting less demanding mysteries [see 2 previous entries]. But plots, characters and the writing skills of the authors must still be held to a high standard. Below I review three authors' works that fall into a rather strange, twee sub-genre: the British Cozy.

I've identified 3 types of British Cozies [No one's quite sure what actually counts as a British Cozy, itself a sub-set of the Cozy style. Essentially "Cozy" appears to be a recently coined marketing term.]

The 3 types are identified by their Mercury Rating: excellent, good & all-too-arch & rather sickening. Below examples of each type are described.

Excellent: The Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton. Here is the first sentence of Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wykhadden:

"There is nothing more depressing for a middle-aged lovelorn woman with bald patches on her head than to find herself in an English seaside resort out of season."

What more can I say? With titles like Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage, Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death, the series, set in the Cotswolds, is a jolly romp through the life of its heroine and her unlikely group of quirky friends. Note that M.C. Beaton also pens the Hamish MacBeth series situated in the Scottish Highlands. [Hamish is Lochdoub's town bobby whose penchant for solving murders is only equalled by his joi de vivre & utter lack of ambition. Try Death of a Dustman.]

The most recent Agatha Raisin: Love, Lies and Liquor: an Agatha Raisin mystery

Good: The Dorothy Martin series by Jeanne M. Dams, relates the tales of a widowed American expat living in Southern England. There she acquires a wonderful 17th century house and a husband and finds a whole lot of dead bodies each following one after another as surely as one novel in the series succeeds its predecessor. If you read Sins out of School, you'll find our heroine preparing a traditional [American] Thanksgiving feast and "discovering the body of a man whose death was really a blessing for his wife and daughter." Dorothy Martin is engaging and fun, but she doesn't have the charisma, vulnerability or raunchy charm that characterize Agatha Raisin.

All-too-arch: The Mrs. Malory series by Hazel Holt really isn't actually the worst of the worst. I've read several Mrs. Malorys and they pass the time. Mrs. Malory lives in Taviscombe, a British village. The series is not as bad as those with names like A Tea Room Mystery series, or stories [and titles] structured around scrap-booking, wedding planning, or soap operas. [For an example of arch-beyond-all-too-arch consider this title: Murder Most Frothy: a Coffee House mystery.]

But Mrs. Malory's life is so ordinary, so unutterably dull--other than her penchant for stumbling over cadavers--as to be a great cure for insomnia. If you read in bed to fall asleep, perhaps chose one of this series, for example Mrs. Malory and the Silent Killer.

I read in bed to heighten the lovely luxury of reading!

Please check back soon for another mystery books review & look for the highly prized Mercury Rating evaluation.

Mysterious Mercury and MacDonald

" 'My name is Archer, Lew Archer ... call me trouble, looking for a place to happen in ....' The place turns out to be Southern California, the trouble takes archer in search of a girl who jack-knifed too suddenly from high-diving to high-living and leads him on to an ex-fighter with an unexplained movie contract, a big-time gambler, the ghost of an eighteen-year-old girl whose murder was never solved, and finally to an answer he would rather not have known." [see The Barbarous Coast, cover illustration to left]





Meet Ross MacDonald, pen name for Kenneth Millar (1913-1983), M.A., University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. Although writing in the hard-boiled private eye tradition, MacDonald's protagonist, Lew Archer is a thoughtful inconoclast, a southern California native (like MacDonald), well-read and ready for exploring the seamier sides of the rich and powerful as well as the underclass--whose lives in any case are usually symbiotic.

Anthony Boucher of The New York Times Book Review wrote of one of MacDonald's early Archer novels that it was:

"....the most human and disturbing novel of the hard-boiled school in many years." He was more earthy in his direct praise to author Millar [sic]: "You can write like a son of a bitch...."

A personal favorite, The Galton Case, is MacDonald's most autobiographical work. As MacDonald found his voice, the mysteries began to explore intergenerational family sagas, with the setting always southern California, a locale that, in its MacDonald evocation, exists no more. As such the drama and romanticism of post-war California come alive, a lesson in recent social, cultural, ethnic relations and class history.

Bottom line, however, the Lew Archer novels have taught me that the mystery genre can be held to the highest literary standards while at the same time presenting an engrossing murder mystery.

To learn more about Ross MacDonald try this web site:

http://www.bastulli.com/Macdonald/Macdonald.htm

***Mercury Rating: First rate; all highly recommended***

Remember to check back during the next week as I continue to list and describe other mysteries, current and classic. Each will include the highly prized Mercury Rating evaluation.

Mysterious Mercury and Maigret

Reading is my hobby. Although as a dog I also enjoy chewing furniture, playing fetch-the-ball, gnawing on socks & shoes and other traditional past-times, I found that reading books is on a par with eating books.


And my favorite genre: detective stories, i.e. mysteries.


If I had to recommend a Favorite Author, I'd choose Georges Simenon, a prolific Belgian writer of "demi-novels" which include his world-famous Maigret series.

Above is a picture of Inspector Jules Maigret, that Paris fixture whose wisdom & compassion extends to the criminal class even while he remains committed to the rule of law. The quote below annotates the lot; read much more at this wonderful Maigret website http://www.trussel.com/f_maig.htm

"The Maigret stories are unlike any other detective stories — the crime and the details of unraveling it are often less central to our interest than Maigret's journey through the discovery of the cast of characters... towards an understanding of man. Simenon said he was obsessed with a search for the "naked man" — man without his cultural protective coloration, and he followed his quest as much in the Maigrets as in his "hard" novels."

Paris is Maigret's city. Although his origins were rural (see Maigret Goes Home), he lives and breathes the city, familiar with all the nooks and alley ways, with the crooks, the wealthy & politicos alike. Maigret's First Case [not the first published] recounts the story of a young, new-to-city life and recently married Maigret who unmasks the secrets of a wealthy, powerful family. My personal pick: Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine. The plot concerns a formerly unreported murder which a condemned prisoner boasts of witnessing; Maigret will solve this 4-year old crime. Miagret explores the world of petit-bourgeouis young marrieds, their often numbing work and home lives, their play times (Maigret inadvertantly participates in a mock wedding), their escapes from each other (Maigret befriends James who allows himself 1 hour a day after work to drink Pernod and more Pernod at the Taverne Royale). And perhaps the sweetest Maigret novel: Madame Maigret's Own Case.

In all there are 75 Maigret novels, 28 short stories and each a master piece of elegant simplicity and an intriguing mystery in which the bad guy is caught and the reader participates with Maigret/Simenon in exploring the vaguaries of human nature.

***Mercury Rating: First Rate: all highly recommended***

Remember to check back during the next week as I continue to list and describe other mysteries, current and classic. Each will include the highly prized Mercury Rating evaluation.

The Critic Recommends

We Think the World of You is the only novel of J. R. Ackerly, long the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. Although its themes are those of desire, class, sex and gender, justice and love, its central character is a dog, Evie.

Here is a brief synopsis & I'm quoting from the fly-leaf:

"This powerful short novel, with its extraordinary mixture of acute social realism & dark fantasy...[is] 'a fairy tale for adults.' Frank, the narrator, is a middle-aged civil servant....in love with Johnny, a young, married working-class man with a sweetly easygoing nature." The story shifts from Frank's struggle with Johnny's wife & parents for access to Johnny when he is briefly in prison to "a strange focus in Johnny's dog--a beautiful... German shepherd.... And it is she... who becomes the improbable and undeniable guardian of Frank's inner world."

This is not an "animal story." Before penning this entry I asked Mama to read We Think the World of You. She is definitely anti-animal stories; she resisted all attempts in her youth to read novels, watch television shows or attend films "about animals." Yet she found this subtle, hilarious and ultimately devasting novel about bitterness, longing and the mask of fulfillment a first-rate example of mid-2oth century fiction.

We Think the World of You was adapted as a film staring Alan Bates & Gary Oldman & directed by Colin Gregg; the film is [close to] equally fine in that it captures the humor & subtlety of the original.

I absolutely think the world of this novel. Please take the time to discover it for yourself; it'll be time well spent.

And for more critical insights on books of my choosing, see my post of July 22, 2006, "Good and Evil."