Books: The Detective and Mr. Dickens By William J. Palmer (1990)

“In Victorian London, Charles Dickens and his protégé, author Wilkie Collins, make the acquaintance of the shrewdest mind either would ever encounter: Inspector William Field of the newly formed Metropolitan Protectives. A gentleman's brutal murder brings the three men together in an extraordinary investigation that leads Dickens to the beautiful young actress Ellen Ternan, who would become the love of his life but who now stands accused of murder.” 

Dan Simmons took on Dickens and Collins in Drood, which I read back in 2009. Where Simmons book focused on final five years (1865 to 1870) of the authors life and his unfinished final novel, adding elements of the supernatural and an unreliable narrator that was Wilkie Collins, Palmer’s tales starts in 1851 where Dickens and his friend become embroiled in murder and mayhem in Victoria England in the middle of the 19^th Century. 

It’s interesting to note, that this is no cozy mystery the English do so well, but a dark tale with a dark subject manner. It has a meanness to it that will prove either fine with some readers or a distraction for others. All the female characters are terrible, written as barely human. They’re either whores, or just on the cusp of being whores. Field the cop is acts more like a modern crime scene investigator than a police officer limited by technology of the era. Meanwhile, Wilkie spends most of the time pining for Meg, another “fallen” women, who highlights the double standards for men and women. She has almost no agency whatsoever, which may be true of the time period, but is in no way charming today.

So yes, the novel seems a bit overtly melodramatic, which could be Palmer’s point, as it’s a reminder of the hypocrisy that was rampant in those repressed Victorian times. Historically, as well, Palmer postulates the meeting between Ellen Ternan –who would become Dicken’s mistress- five years before she was introduced to his fellow society people. Here again, is the pretense of the period, as Ternan was 15 in 1851, while Dickens was 39. Apparently, by 1856, a 20-year-old being with a 44-year-old was seen as less scandalous. This was the first of four novels in this series (I have book two, but will probably not hunt down three or four). Beyond the less than pleasant subject manner, Palmer also could not help but add a bit of modern style prose, especially in the fight and chase scenes, which go on way too long and would not be out of place in a modern cop drama.

Books: The Dead Are Discreet (Jacob Asch #1) By Arthur Lyons (1974)

“When Jacob Asch takes a job investigating the gruesome murders of socialite Sheila Warren and her boyfriend, film producer Randy Folsom, all clues point to Sheila's distraught husband as the obvious killer. At least until Asch discovers that Sheila had been attending séances and dabbling in witchcraft prior to her death. Using information coerced from Sheila's associates in the California black magic scene, Asch learns of a porno film starring Sheila, now in the possession of an arcane sect of Satanists, whose uncanny rites suggest a completely different motive for the crime.”

1970’s noir doesn’t get any creepier than this debut novel by Arthur Lyons. The Dead Are Discreet –the first of eleven books- introduced readers to 34-year-old Jacob Asch, an embittered but nonetheless witty and compassionate, half-Jewish former investigative reporter for the (fictional) Los Angeles Chronicle. After being jailed for six months because he refused to rat out a story source, Asch drifted reluctantly into a gumshoeing career, and found that it fit him.

Arthur Lyons was born January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles. His family moved to Palm Springs at age 11. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1967 and worked in his family’s restaurant business in the town before becoming a writer. Lyons published a nonfiction work in 1970, a study of Satanism and cult development in America called The Second Coming. However, it was this novel which would mark the course of his writing for the next 20 years.

The Dead Are Discreet is seemly an outgrowth from the authors research on cults, as it leads Jacob “through the underground of Los Angeles of the 1970s, from its arcane religious sects of Satanists and Jesus freaks to the kinky sexual pleasures of the wealthy who could callously destroy the life of a teenage girl for the sake of a roll of bizarre movie films.”

Lyons was one among a cadre of talented young American detective novelists of that era and into the early ’80s, all vying to wear the crowns once sported by earlier stars of the genre such as Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald. The New York Times called Jacob Asch “one of the more convincing private eyes in the business, thanks to Mr. Lyons’s skill at characterization.” Dorothy B. Hughes of the Los Angeles Times complimented Lyons on his “true ear for everyday dialogue.” And no less a critic than fellow author Charles Willeford commended Lyons as a “master of plotting.” Asch found himself involved in a wide range of criminal settings, and Lyons researched all of them so thoroughly that he alternated his crime novels with nonfiction studies of cults, devil worship, pornography, and other nefarious activities.

After 1994’s False Pretenses, Lyons turned his attention to noir motion pictures, an interest that led him to produce one last book, a nonfiction work titled Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir, as well help co-create the annual Palm Springs noir film festival, which celebrated its 25^th Anniversary this past spring (and which is now named for him). All of those books are currently out of print, and thanks to Tony, who runs @SideshowBooks here in Los Angeles, and who is a noir fan, I’m going to start reading some. Sadly, In March 2008, after suffering head injuries from a fall, followed by a stroke and then pneumonia, he passed away at 62.

Books: The Last Devil to Die (The Thursday Murder Club #4) by Richard Osman

“It's Boxing Day lunch at Cooper's Chase, where our resident septuagenarians Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce learn about the murder of antiques dealer, Kuldesh Sharma (who had a cameo in the previous book), who also happens to be a friend of Stephen, Elizabeth's husband. Of course, DCI Chris Hudson and Donna were determined to keep the members of the Thursday Murder Club out of their current murder investigation, but this proving hard to do. They’re quickly, however, get drawn into the dangerous world of drug dealers, art forgery and antiques. As the team investigates, Chris and Donna find themselves off the case, replaced by someone up the chain of command, which implies to them that there is more going on than anyone thought. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and her dementia suffering husband Stephen have come to a crossroad and nothing will be the same again.”

As The Thursday Murder Club further expands its caseloads beyond the confines of Copper’s Chase, including adding (and saying goodbye) to recurring characters, it comes to a natural breakpoint with The Last Devil To Die. A more emotional entry in the series, author Richard Osman still gives up a complex mystery, a dark look into some antique dealers business where forgery, deception, and murder seem to be the routine. We also get a B plot involving a lonely fellow resident, Mervyn, who has become the target of an online romance scam, and who refuses to believe his Tatiana is fictitious.

 

Despite some dark things (and a lot of death), Osman continues to give these wonderful characters a sense of humor. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, ones that are needed, mostly as the medical issues of Stephen and the couple’s solution to his dementia is a gut punch (and I wonder if there will be residual effects in later volumes). So goofy-fun Joyce steps up during a good portion of the operation, with Bogdan also playing a bigger, yet sympathetic role and Ibrahim also proves a vital part to play in the Murder Club's investigations.

 

While everything sort gets tied up neatly, there are a few dangling plot threads, but a fifth volume will be on the way –probably in late 2025- as Osman began a new series this year, We Solve Murders, with new characters and settings. Which means I’ll not read it until 2026. 

Books: The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt (2023)

“Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.”

Most of the novel is taken up with Comet’s past, with only a small part set in 2005/2006, where we learn of his adventures as an unhappy runaway child during the last days of the Second World War, of his true love that is stolen away, and pride and purpose he finds as a career librarianist. What sustains the novel is Bob, who is sort of a straight man surrounded by a number of outsized people like Connie and Ethan – and the ones in the retirement home, as well as June and Ida, who we see in the latter half of the book (and characters straight out of Dickens).

The Librarianist is, perhaps, deWitt’s most accessible novel, though it’s more prone to clichés of the genre than previous tales. I can identify a lot with Bob, an introvert, as well. Still, I found the book effective, with its dark humor and compassion little seen in today’s fiction;  a moving and delightful character study that is warmhearted with a likable hero.