Case Histories. Kate Atkinson. Black Swan (2004)

An interesting mix of a book that does not quite catch fire. Jackson Brodie, an ex-policeman now private investigator working in Cambridge becomes somewhat haphazardly involved in three case histories. The first and most significant is the disappearance of a very young girl from the garden of her home. Decades later two of her sisters find her favourite toy in their recently deceased father's desk. They hire Jackson to investigate Olivia's disappearance. The second case is the 10 year old murder of a young woman in her father's office. Theo, Laura's father is determined to understand why his daughter was killed and hires Jackson to find out. The third case involves a young woman who murdered her husband, her sister hires Jackson to find the woman's daughter. The cases snake around each other without connecting, the reveals are nicely staged and the conclusion is generous and compassionate.
This story is a character drama for crime fiction fans and a crime story for character drama fans, it balances both very well without quite developing into a forceful,unified entity. The murders at the heart of the three case studies are smart and thoughtful and they do propel the drama in an effective fashion. The long echo from the disappearance of the young girl and the murder of Theo's daughter on the survivors is acutely drawn. The criminal element is much more muted in the third case and feels somewhat unfinished,the drama is considerably sharper and significantly more unkind to the cast.
The cast are given plenty of room to breathe and develop, they do not quite come off the page. They feel constrained by the framework of the violent actions that have marked them, at the same time the investigations lacks the force and focus to drive the narrative. All of the major characters are facing profound challenges which are forcing them into changes and choices they would rather avoid. The strength of the book is the way these changes are used to reveal the cast, the wide spread of focus within the book means it does not quite get to grips enough with any one thread to really engage the reader.

Sherlock Holmes. Soul of the Dragon. Northstar Press (1995)

This is an anthology of three short Sherlock Holmes stories within a framing sequence all written by Joe Gentile with a different artistic team on each story. All the stories are black & white. The framing sequence shows Holmes granting Watson permission to publish some more cases from his records. The first of these is "The Much Maligned Musician", art by Dave Ulanski & Bill Halliar,in which a very talented and egotistical musician commits suicide after being publicly revealed as gay. Sherlock Holmes finds that the evidence points to murder.In "Man of Medicine:Doctor of Despair", art by Alison McDonald, Sherlock Holmes becomes involved in an unusual kidnap case that uncoils nicely into something more. The final story "The Assassin's Lament", pencils by Pav Kovacic, inks by Lynda Licin, Kate McCoole and Joe Gentile starts with Dr.Watson assisting a woman and leads to murder and links with Professor Moriarty. All the stories are neatly constructed, capture Holmes and Watson effectively and give the great detective a chance to shine.
The art in the three stories varies very considerably and does not equally serve the story in each case. The art in the first story has clarity and depth, it is too rounded and clean to be entirely successful. The figure work is slightly static and feels a touch overdrawn. Dave Ulanski & Bill Halliar do have a very strong design sense and the variety of angles used in the panels is distinctive and effective.
With "Man of Medicine:Doctor of Despair" Alison McDonald's art is too flat, it illustrates the story without illuminating it. The style does nit capture the dynamic action needed by the story, it slows the narrative down too much and there is too much line work in the panels to allow them to breathe.
The art in "The Assassin's Lament" is the only one to try to actually exploit the possibilities of black & white, using the contrasts very assertively to create mood and action. The cast are the most individual and developed and the action is sharp and forceful. All told these are enjoyable stories created with interesting artistic choices and strategies which provide mixed results.

Hollywood Station. Joseph Wambaugh. Quercus (2007)

Very engaging and frequently laugh out loud funny police story. A mosaic of incidents and anecdotes slowly coalesce around the story of two couples, one a set of armed robbers the other a pair of tweakers, crystal meth addicts. The very large cast is expertly shuffled and reshuffled as the story threads emerge and knot together in a brilliantly staged, brutal and very unexpected fashion. The reveals are superb, surprising, frequently funny and always perfectly judged to reveal the character in the situation.
That this book is not a meandering mess is due to Joseph Wambaugh's skill in structuring and writing the narrative. The action is episodic and apparently random, following the large cast as they pursue their legal and criminal activities across the area covered by the Hollywood Station. Joseph Wambaugh is passionately in favour of the patrol staff of the LAPD, without being in any way sentimental about them or their work. He captures exactly why a police office would start and remain in the job in spite of the extraordinarily difficult conditions they work under. The most difficulties coming from their own organisation.
The cast are memorable, vital and all demanding the readers full attention as they live life at full speed, the dialogue sparkles and crackles with energy and bite. The structure of the book captures the chaotic life of the police and their opponents and the story of disastrous collision between the armed robbers and tweakers gradually comes into focus. The criminals are given as much time and care as the police and the action arises naturally and forcefully from the characters themselves. Joseph Wambaugh's romantic and heroic vision of police work is tempered by a vivid sense of the harsh and violent reality of Hollywood, they combine to make a superb book.

Woman With Birthmark. Hakan Nesser. Laurie Thompson (Translation) Pan Books (2010)

Vivid and compelling crime story that has smart structure,superb cast and powerful emotional undertow. A man is shot and investigation reveals that he had received odd phone calls prior to his murder, when a second man is murdered in the same way and having received similar calls the police struggle to find the connection and the killer. As the police investigation proceeds two other men realise the the cause of the deaths and the fact that they too are in danger, unwilling to involve the police they plan their defences. The reveals are superbly staged, the various strands of the story are brilliantly drawn together to a bitter and satisfying conclusion.
The most striking aspect to the story is the way Hakan Nesser solves the story problems in deeply satisfying and unpredictable ways.Two of the cast know they are being hunted and they know why, this does not release the tension as surprise murder becomes a deadly battle of will and wits. The police investigation is thoughtful and competent, it drives the story as a nearly random factor in the deadly duel between the hunter and the hunted.
The cast are vivid and sparkle with life, all of them are given the space to emerge as fully fledged characters, the reader becomes involved with them all. Inspector Van Veeteren has a cranky forcefulness that is entirely engaging, the woman who finally finds a life purpose in revenge is brilliant, believable and finally, truthfully unheroic. The men she hunts are discovering that actions can have consequences very much after all thought of them had gone, they struggle to understand just how utterly their lives have been torn asunder. A must read.

The Savage Sword of Conan. Volume Six. Dark Horse Comics (2009)

This volume collects issues 61 to 71 of The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian black & white magazine. It includes all the original covers as well as the various pin ups from each issue. The volume is packed with great stories and outstanding art.
The stories are written by Roy Thomas, Michael Fleisher and Bruce Jones all of who understood how to manage the story formula with skill and care. The mixture between sword and sorcery is a delicate one and requires subtle skill to bring off successfully. The ingredients are obvious, scheming politicians, kings and queens, power hungry wizards, beautiful women and lots of fighting. The hinge of the stories is that Conan with his taste for wine, women and swordplay and his instinctive dread of magic is also possessed of a sophisticated understanding of how power works. His wits and observation are as quick as his sword arm and knowing how and when to highlight one or the other is the craft in these stories. With the extended length provided by the magazine format and no requirement for issue to issue continuity the writers had the scope to mix plot and character to great effect.
The art is the most obviously striking aspect to the stories, it is as subtle and sophisticated as the stories, providing a nuanced and detailed flow for the stories that draws the reader in. My favourite artists on the stories are John Buscema and Ernie Chan, together they have a detail and texture that is unrivalled. In the "The Lurker in the Labyrinth" there is a single panel of a brawl in a tavern that shimmers with action, the details are crisp and clear, the physical reality of Conan's world is made plain. This volume is a slab of unadulterated pleasure.

Red Wolf. Liza Marklund (Writer), Neil Smith (Translator). Corgi Books (2010)

A Swedish thriller with a great plot and a very engaging cast lead by a intriguing protagonist. Annika Bengtzon is a journalist, recovering from a severely traumatic event, she becomes interested in the death of a fellow reporter. The dead reporter had been working on the story of the worst terrorist incident in Sweed that had taken place years before, the same story Annika was interested in. As Anniks takes a closer look at the death she discover it may not have been accidental and that the incident at the airfield may not be ancient history. The reveals are very well staged and the conclusion is sharp and satisfying.
Annika Bengtzon is a very engaging and somewhat unsympathetic character. She is struggling to regain her equilibrium after nearly loosing her life and her work and home life are coming under pressure. She responds in unexpected and dynamic ways to her circumstances, is never willing to give up or knuckle under. She is very willing to fight dirty to protect her interests and this adds depth and force to her character.
The context of the enthusiasm of a lot of young people in the early 1970's for both Russian and Chinese communism and the unexpectedly long shadow it would cast in their lives is carefully explored. One of the nice aspects to the book is that the honest idealism of the times is not undermined by the bitter aftermath and weary hindsight. The cast are allowed to managed their own choices and the fallout from them as individuals. Liza Marklund sidesteps any stereotypes or cliches by giving her cast such strong personalities, the story is unexpected because they are happily unpredictable. There is also a very strong and pointed thread in the book about the Swedish media and the steps its owners would go to to preserve their assets, it is backed up a nice afterword by Liz Marklund which shows how skillfully she created fiction out of fact. Great fun.

Hypothermia. Arnldur Indridason (Writer), Bernard Scudder (Translator). Vintage Books (2009)

A quietly effective crime story that delivers a considerable punch. Icelandic police detective Erlendur is approached by the friend of a suicide victim who has doubts about the death and he agrees to investigate it further. At the same time a thirty year old missing person case is weighing heavily on his mind. As he steadily pursues his investigations into both cases it becomes clear that there are significant questions regarding both that need to be answered. The reveals are quiet and superbly staged, the apparently irrelevant investigations into the two cases starts to reveal unexpected turns. The conclusion is as cold and gripping as the hypothermia of the title.
Arnaldur Indridason has taken an interesting route in this book, the investigations are shrouded in questions of memory and loss and how they can overshadow the the present. Erlendur is conducting the investigations as a private crusade, there is no official reason for them and the question of why he is undertaking them is nicely woven into the story. The Icelandic context is strongly drawn in the story and adds to the flavour of the book.
The structure of the narrative is clever, the suicide victim emerges as someone looking for answers all her life and seeking them in increasingly strange places. the way her search to understand her past collides with the present is subtly and effectively woven together. The missing person case stirs a dark pool of memory and long term loss with skill and a melancholy grip. Thoughtful and gripping, a great read.