MarysLibrary

And I'm 0 for 0

The Edgars have been announced and alas I was wrong about all three awards I predicted. (I haven't read the winner of the juvenile award because the Spokane library didn't buy the book. I continue nonetheless to hold that the best mystery published this year is the first of the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer, The Case of the Missing Marquess.)

Here are the winners, announced just a few minutes ago:

• Best novel: The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
• Best first novel: The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
• Best paperback original: Snakeskin Shamisen by Naomi Hirahara
• Best fact crime: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L Swanson
• Best critical/biographical: The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear by E J Wagner
• Best short story: "The Home Front" -- Death Do Us Part by Charles Ardai
• Best juvenile: Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements
• Best young adult: Buried by Robin Merrow
• Best play: Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure by Steven Dietz
• Best television episode teleplay: "Life on Mars" -- Episode 1, Teleplay by Matthew Graham
• Best television feature/mini-series teleplay: "The Wire," Season 4, Teleplays by Ed Burns, Kia Corthron, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon, and William F Zorzi
• Best motion picture screenplay: "The Departed," Screenplay by William Monahan

The Edgars

As you know, I like to predict what books will win prizes, and since the Edgar winners will be announced tonight by the Mystery Writers of America, it's time to make my choices. You can find the list of nominees here.

The one book I'm sure of is The Case of the Missing Marquess, by Nancy Springer, which is a shoo-in for the best juvenile mystery. I consider myself a minor expert on the genre, the best of which I believe are those of my friend, Bobbie Wallace, four of whose books were nominated for Edgars, two of which won (The Twin in the Tavern and Sparrows in the Scullery.) I spent yesterday reading the second book in Springer's Enola Holmes series, The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, which is nearly as good as the first. Springer is every bit as good at writing children's mysteries as Bobbie. She will win tonight.

For best novel, I think the Edgar will go to Joanne Harris' Gentlemen and Players. It's an exceptionally well-plotted book with excellent characterization. It's of those "crossover" books -- a first-rate novel that happens to be in the mystery genre. Harris is best known for Chocolat, which is another first-rate novel.

My prediction for the best first novel is a mystery I began reading only yesterday on the recommendation of my pal Sarah, but it's so good I'm going to go ahead and predict it will win even without finishing the book. Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith is about two Montana cowboys, Big Red and Old Red, who in 1893, have been sitting around the campfire of the Bar VR Ranch reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries in Harper's Weekly magazine.

When the Red boys come across a dead body they decide to employ their "Holmes-inspired deducifying skills" to find out who done it. Much humor ensues, not least from the old-fashioned chapter sub-titles: "Old Red's Brain Is Put Through Its Paces -- and Comes Up Lame," and "Something About the Outhouse Doesn't Quite Smell Right," and "The Truth Comes Out -- and So Do the Guns." You should read it even if it doesn't win tonight.

Cruciverbalism

Stanley Newman is well know to crossword puzzle fans as the editor of many fine books of puzzles and as the editor of Newsday's puzzles, which are in widespread syndication.

Newman has now written a little book about crossword puzzles called Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic's Guide to Life in the Grid. It's a small book, about 5" by 7" and with 140 pages. I read it in one night.

Whether you are a puzzle fan or not this book might be appealing to you. It's witty, provided you have a certain tolerance for puns (and if you don't you won't be solving crossword puzzles these days.)

Newman tells us the history of his career in cruciverbalism. He is one of a very few people in the US who have been able to support themselves in that particular career. Payment for a crossword puzzle that could take the composer days to create is a couple of hundred dollars at most.

But more interestingly Newman gives us a primer for the enthusiast who has just started to solve or is trying to improve her skills. He lists the words that a solver has to know (adit, nene, eos, yser, ute) and explains that they can be vital to a composer because of their vowels. Oreo is another, as is Ocala. A four-letter word for a college in North Carolina is always Elon, never Duke.

He lists ways in which the clues signal to us. If the clue includes an abbreviation, so will the fill. (Crossword people call the letters you write in the puzzle "fill.") If the clue used the first name of a person, so will the fill. A question mark at the end of the clue means it's a trick.

He also tells us what some of those tricks are. Keep in mind that a word like "fine" or "figure" may have more than one meaning. A clue like "What Crete and Greece both have" might be referring to the words Crete and Greece and not the countries, and what they have in common is a long e.

He urges the solver always to look up the answers and to remember them because they will probably pop up in a future puzzle.

He also explains the Monday through Saturday system of increasing difficulty. Monday's puzzle is designed to be solveable by a high school student (and not necessarily a National Merit Scholar who got a score of 800 on his SATs.) Each day's puzzle becomes a little harder until you come to the hardest of all, which is Saturday's. I'm pretty good at crossword puzzles and it routinely takes me until Sunday to finish the Saturday New York Times puzzle. It's really difficult.

So what about the Sunday puzzle? It's about a Wednesday level of difficulty. It's just a lot bigger (21 blocks across vs 15 for the weekday puzzle.)

There's a lot more in there, but for somebody who is interested in crossword puzzles or who saw and enjoyed the documentary, Wordplay, this is a good place to get started.

The Underground Economist

The blurb on this entertaining approach to economics calls it an economist's version of The Way Things Work. The Undercover Economist also resembles Freakonomics in the diversity and unexpectedness of the examples the author uses to explain why there's a Starbuck's on every streetcorner, why China's economy is booming and Cameroon's isn't, why you can never find a good used car, and how supermarkets and airlines are "vacuuming money from our wallets."

For some time now I've been saying that economics is no longer the dismal science -- it's become the sprightly science. Dismal or sprightly, economics is dead serious -- people live and die over questions of distribution of scarce resources. We all have a civic obligation to be informed about economics. This is a great way to meet your civic duty and be entertained at the same time.

Unrehearsed

All the world's a stage, and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. - Sean O'Casey

Dissolution

1537. Henry VIII has just chopped off the head of Anne Bolyen on spurious charges of adultery, evidence for which was acquired by torturing the principal corespondant. Henry has long since broken with the Pope and instituted his own version of the Christian religion, now known as the Church of England.

Next come the monasteries. Parliament is giving Henry a tough time, as legislative bodies are wont to do with dictatorial autocrats, and he needs money. So he decides to destroy the religious houses, give their lands to his adherents so as to cement relationships with his favorites, and to gather in the wealth the monks have acquired over the centuries.

In a five-year period in the middle of the 16th century he achieved his goals. By 1540 the monasteries were all gone, their lands enriching the king's friends and their chalices and reliqueries melted down for Henry's treasury.

This novel, Dissolution, is the first in a mystery series the protagonist of which is Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer. Cromwell sends him off to a monastery in the south of England to investigate the murder of another of Cromwell's commissioners, in the course of which Shardlake must face up to some unpleasant truths and solve some unsolveable problems.

Eyes over Africa

Photo taken by Michael Poliza and included in his new book, to be issued in August, Eyes over Africa. To see more of these stunning photos, go here.

Vanishing Act

Thomas Perry has written a fascinating mystery called Vanishing Act about a Seneca Indian woman who helps people disappear. Taking her inspiration from the Seneca guides of years past she uses her skills to help people escape from perilous situations -- a battered woman whom the courts cannot protect, an abused child with nowhere to go, even a man with a shady past who can't go to the police for protection from underworld threats.

It is the last situation that John Felker describes to her as he asks for her help. A mutual friend told him about her, he says, a man who has been out of sight for 5 years, running from an organized crime figure who wants him dead.

Part of the attraction of this book is the detailed description of how Jane Whitefield arranges for people to find sanctuary using an assumed name and forged papers. But more interesting for me was the Seneca lore that we learn as Jane finds a way to hide Felker.

The suspense comes from the question that arises after she has parted from Felker. Was he who he said he was? Is he really running from the law? Is he actually a policeman? Does he want something more from her than her help to go into hiding?

This is the first of a series by Perry, who is a native of upstate New York where much of the action takes place. He has a poet's perception of the beauty and frightfulness of the deep woods. A wonderful book.

Thanks to Sarah who recommended it.

Hail Thee Festival Day!

Posted by Wilhelm

EASTER 2007

Pasque flowers, Manito Park, Spokane

Buy a Friend a Book

This is Buy a Friend a Book Week, and I have bought a book for a friend. It's Margaret Dumas' Speak Now, a delightful mystery that I'll review soon. It will be delivered, they tell me, on Tuesday.

The first weeks of January, April, July, and October are designated BAFAB weeks, during which you are encouraged to send a book to a friend. Although he probably knows nothing about this, our friend Les has sent us a book that arrived today. It's a great treat to receive an unexpected book and this one looks great. It's Thomas Howard's The Secret of New York Revealed. I'll let you know what I think when there's been time to read it.