Fowler, Christoper: Bryant and May London's Glory

A series of short stories featuring the eponymous detectives is prefaced by the author's

comments on earlier detective novels and rounded off by comments on the Bryant and

May books to date with an indication of the inspirational source.   The individual

stories are all in the same vein as the full length novels with esoteric facts about London

and unsual settings and methods of killing.   People are killed in locked rooms, in

the centre of snow-covered fields with no tracks except the victim's, with some very

unusual ways of causing death involved.   Despite the unsavoury subject of murder,

the stories, like the novels, have a lightness of touch which is, in no small part, a

reflection of the pair and their interaction with each other.   The short stories are an

excellent introduction to the novels providing a feast of enjoyment.

Brekke, Jorgen: Where Evil Lies

The opening of this novel is set in 16th century Bergen to where an Italian monk
has travelled to collect a set of scalpels.   The scene changes to contemporary
Richmond, Virginia, where the curator of the EdgarAllan Poe Museum is found
dead.   He had been flayed with this being the primary cause of death.   At about
the same time in Trondheim, a retiring university librarian is discovered in the
locked inner area of the library similarly killed.   A celebrated manuscript, the
Book of John, bound in human skin, is missing and suspicion falls on a security
guard at the library.   Th case is given to Odd Singsaker, who has just returned
to work following a serious operation.   The similarity of the two cases is soon
recognised and Felicia Stone, a detective from Richmond, flies to Norway to
check if there is any link.
There are some chapters which return to the past without really adding to the
core of the present-day investigation.   There is a new librarian who is under
suspicion briefly because she had access to the inner area without her presence
really adding much except as a diversion.   Where the Norwegian detective is
flawed by memory loss, the American one has a relationship problem caused
by her having been raped on her Senior Prom night.   The two of them are,
however, attracted to each other.   The investigation proceeds, as seems to be
the case in most thrillers, in fits and starts but with a fair degree of realism.
The unusual, to British readers, settings add to the pleasure of this well-
constructed thriller.  While, for once, I worked out who the villain was before
his exposure the denouement was somewhat unexpected.
Overall, very enjoyable

Kerr, Philip: If The Dead Rise Not

The novel is in two parts, the first and longer set in Berlin, 1934, during the build-up to the
1936 Olympics and the second in pre-Castro Cuba in 1954.   Bernie Gunther, Kerr's main
protagonist, has left the police and is now house detective at the Adlon Hotel.   In the course
of checking out a murder in the hotel, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful American
journalist, Noreen and crosses paths with a Chicago gangster who is involved with Nazis
and the building of the Olympic stadium.   The girlfriend is strongly anti-Naziand finds it
best to leave while declaring and demonstrating her love for Bernie.   The gangster, Max
Reles, threatens to kill the girl even though she has left but Bernie trades for her life at
the close of the first part.
In Cuba, Bernie has a different identity, Noreen is now married and wealthy and Max is one
of the gangsters enjoyinglife under Batista.   Bernie agrees to work for Max but he is killed
soon afterwards and Bernie is asked by Meyer Lansky to find the murderer quickly to stop
a gang war breaking out.   Bernie produces the killer who has committed suicide before
being revealed so everyone is happy.   The denouement does, however, produce the real
killer though not to the gang bosses.
The historical background appears accurate and Kerr is praised by reviewers for his close
attention to the nexessary details.   Possibly this is why the inclusion of historical figures
in both parts fits in without annoying.   Though, as ever, the book took me some time to
read, it progressed with ease and at no time did I have any problem in accepting that what
was written could well have happened, not only among the leading characters but also
among the many lesser ones whose appearance added colour to the tale.

Anthony, Piers: Pornucopia,

Best known as a writer of science fiction, this 'picaresque black comedy' presumably had some
appeal when I first read it over 12 years or more ago.   This time, even in short doses, I have
possibly managed to read less than a quarter before giving up for good.  Only completeness of
book reviewing justifies this entry.

Tower, Wells: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

The title is that of the final short story of nine by the author who, according to one critic, has
'sentences so good you want to cut them out and pin them to the wall'!!!   I have taken some
months to get through the stories, all of which are well written but none of which had me more
than mildly interested or impressed.   Since my reading these days is more than a little piecemeal,
as the times between reviews will show, possibly I have missed something.   however, I did not
find the collection any more inspiring than the works of most of the authors I have reviewed up to
now.