Bootlegger's Daughter-Agatha, Anthony and Edgar Award Winner 1992

This mystery has what many of the ones I've been reading lately have missed.  Atmosphere, a mystery as the central part of the plot, and heart.  Those things seem to be in short supply these days.

Deborah Knott is a southern attorney and decides that she wants to run for judge.  Her father is the bootlegger in the title, obviously, which has interesting connotations for a law-and-order citizen like Deborah.  A friend of Deborah's asks for Deborah's help to solve the 20 year old murder of the friend's mother.  Dredging up an old murder in the middle of a political campaign in a small southern town causes havoc in the lives of everyone involved.

I've read a number of mysteries lately where the mystery felt like it was secondary to something else the author wanted to say.  In that case, don't call it a mystery.  In this book, the mystery is front and center and it's clever.  I'm sure it's possible to solve it before Deborah does but I didn't. 

The warm damp southern atmosphere is also a star in this book.  Atmosphere is key to me.  The more I'm lost in the place I'm reading about, the better.

Deborah's big extended family are a pleasure to get to know.  If you grew up with a big family  or anywhere near the south this will feel very familiar to you.  If you didn't, you'll enjoy getting to know the Knotts.

Margaret Maron reminds me of the Golden Age of mystery writers like Christie and Sayers.  Not in style, but in the sense that the mystery is all-important.  It's surrounded by a great setting, deep characters and superb writing but the mystery is still the center of the book.  I'm moving on to book two as soon as I can get ahold of it.

Agatha, Anthony and Edgar Award winner in 1992

New Orleans Mourning-1991 Edgar Award Winner

New Orleans has always seemed to me to have an atmosphere all its own that feels foreign and exotic even though it’s part of the United States.  Julie Smith does a good job of recreating that atmosphere in New Orleans Mourning, the first book in the Skip Langdon series and the 1991 Edgar Award Winner.  

Skip Langdon grew up among the upper classes of New Orleans though she wasn’t exactly one of them.  Her parents were social climbers, her father being doctor to most of the New Orleans aristocracy.  Skip recently decided that being a cop was her career choice and she is a rookie, working the parade routes during Mardi Gras.  An old acquaintance of hers is Rex, King of the Carnival, and she happens to be in the right place to see him get shot, on his float, in the parade.  The murderer is dressed as Dolly Parton and happens to be on the balcony of an apartment whose owner she knows.  The death of Chauncey St. Amants gets Skip re-assigned from patrol to helping the detectives working on the murder because of her background with the upper-class family.  

There are things to love and things to dislike about this novel but it does have a very distinctive feel and it’s not hard to see why it won the Edgar and was nominated for an Anthony.  

I loved the plot line.  It’s multi-layered and complicated, but not confusing.  It draws you deeper and deeper in as you read.  You are seeing multiple points of view, lots of conflicting motivations, deep and genuine emotions and complicated characters. It’s a great picture of the old-money dysfunctional Southern family with deep, dark secrets hiding behind their place in society.  One can just about feel the heat and humidity and see the hanging moss and the lush greenery of the Deep South.  You can feel the silent servants moving in the background as the privileged go about entertaining each other as their social duties dictate.

What I dislike about this novel is the casual drug use that is pervasive.  That bothers me immensely and always diminishes my enjoyment of a book.  Some of the actions of characters that drive the plot are disturbing but without them there would be no story.  There would be plenty of story without the drug use.  

I had read books in the author’s other series set in L.A. and while I enjoyed them, they didn’t begin to have the depth that New Orleans Mourning had for me. It’s not hard to see why this one received so much recognition.

Agatha Award Winner-Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters

MPM is one of my take-to-a-desert-island authors whether she’s writing as Elizabeth Peters or Barbara Michaels.  Her books never fail to entertain and intrigue.  Naked Once More is one of the best as is evidenced by it’s winning the Agatha Award in 1989.  It comes as close to pure mystery as anything she writes and it’s wildly entertaining.

Jacqueline Kirby is in her fourth outing in this book. She’s become a famous writer of romance novels which she feels are complete rubbish but pay the bills.  She’s flamboyant, extravagant, stubborn and has a great sense of humor.  In Naked Once More, her manager takes her to lunch to tell her that he is retiring and also that a sequel is being planned to one of the most famous books published in recent history.  It was a book called Naked in the Ice and the author, Kathleen Darcy, disappeared mysteriously 7 years ago.  The courts have finally declared her dead and her family is looking for someone to write the sequel.  It’s all about money.

Though there are a number of authors vying for the job, Jacquelyn does get it and moves to the small town where Darcy lived and where her family still lives.  Mysterious events begin which make her and the readers realize that all is not as it seems. 

A lot of time is spent dealing with the difficulties of being an author and the oddities of the publishing industry.  I did wonder if the issues surrounding the problems of writers were autobiographical.  That writers are compelled to write, no matter what the circumstances, certainly is a theme of this book.

Through the entire book, homage is paid to many other mystery writers.  That’s always fun to see. It has great pacing, the story keeps moving forward and you are drawn along through the mystery with never a dull moment.  The characters are interesting and distinctive.  Her descriptions bring everything to life.  There is a feel to an MPM novel that is distinctive and you would know you were reading one even if you didn’t see the name on the cover.   Elizabeth Peters just knows how to make a book fun to read.  

I received this copy through Netgalley and I appreciated the opportunity to give it an honest review.

Agatha Award winner from 1989

The best mysteries in the English language

I love mysteries but I've realized that I tend to stick to my favorite authors over and over.  I'd like to expand my knowledge and enjoyment of the genre so I'm setting myself on a course of reading through the most highly acclaimed mysteries in the English language.  I'm going to do it by reading through the major award winning novels and those on the acknowledged "best mysteries" lists.  I have the awards and lists that I'm following on pages here on my blog.  I'll review each as I read it and I'm looking forward to enjoying the best of the best!