Mistress of the Art of Death.Ariana Franklin. Berkley Books (2008)

A hugely enjoyable and engaging medieval murder mystery that juggles plot mechanics, cast and context with confident ease. 1171 in Cambridge and four children have been murdered and the local Jewish community have been identified as the killers. This is a significant problem for Henry II, the Jews are a crucial source of revenue and they cannot provide any trapped within Cambridge castle. To investigate the case The King of Sicily has sent the only female doctor trained at the famous medical school of Salerno, Adelia, a woman who can read a corpse to understand why the person died. Travelling with two others, one of whom is a castrated Moor, Adelia investigates the deaths as quietly as she can, while navigating the weather and customs of a foreign country. The reveals are cunningly staged, the plot mechanics are very well delivered and the grim justice of the conclusion is harrowing.
For any historical  story the context looms large, it has to be credible and understandable which is a very difficult balance to achieve. The cast must inhabit it naturally and be accessible to a reader, too little or too much information are equally bad. Ariana Franklin creates the context via the landscape and the cast and does so with utterly convincing confidence. Cambridge, set in the marshy fens and prosperous trading routes on the river Cam, the potent fears of outsiders as the source of trouble, the political tides of monarchy and church are all carefully woven into the story that is brought to life by the wonderful cast.
Adelia is an outsider from birth, rescued from exposure on the slopes of Vesuvius, a female doctor and now in England understanding disease much better than humans. Simon of Naples and Mansur her companions who see Adelia for who see is and create the space for her to live as she needs to. The rest of the cast are vividly loudly alive and  demanding attention from the reader, in particular the voracious predator who stalks in the shadows of the story slowly coming forward into the light. The suspects are plentiful and credible, with great skill one investigation crosses with another and the tension between the two becomes personal and professional.
Most impressively Ariana Franklin develops a credible romance between two adults that respects the context and the cast equally, it never robs the characters of their hearts or their brains. Their responses to the developing situation increases the depths and engagement of the characters and the way they manage is very satisfying.
This is first rate crime fiction set in a superbly imagined and credible context with a great cast that are all fighting all the time to be the leads in their own lives. Fantastic.

Ghostly Tides: The Curse of Witch Island (Kickstarter). Kim Roberts, Chris Allen, Denis Pacher . Swamp Line Productions

Swamp Line Productions are running a Kickstarter campaign  for a pirate comic, Ghostly Tides: The Curse of Witch Island. Finn, having failed in the annual pirate trials is open to the suggestion of a witch that he travel to witch island to meet up with the greatest, most fearsome pirate in history The Black Pirate. It is fair to assume that this will not end well for Finn. The sample pages posted on Kickstarter show that the creative team are bringing all the required energy, smart detail, humour needed to make a pirate story.

The cast are full of energy, they are wildly expressive as they should be, this is high order melodrama everything needs to be at full blast. The decorative details in the art are a pleasure and add greatly to the story. The balance, hard to achieve between charm and genuine threat has already been established, the Black Pirate is no lightweight.  The project captures the possibilities of pirate comics with flair, since I would like to see the whole story I am backing this project, a visit to the Ghostly Tides: The Curse of Witch Island Kickstarter page will demonstrate why.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1139490928/ghostly-tides-the-curse-of-witch-island

Anna Galactic. Christopher Baldwin (Writer & Artist). Good Port Publishing (2016)

A wonderfully engaging and enjoyable romantic science fiction story. On board a stranded ship on an alien planet Foxglove Muriel defies the rules to search outside the ship, actions which bring her into direct conflict with security officer Dilvan Ceylon. Foxglove is sure there is something suspicious about their circumstances, Dilvan is trying to enforce the rules. When they cross paths with Anna Galactic, a young woman who parents are arrested , all three flee the ship along with Anna's nannybot, Pewter. They start on a journey to locate the energy source required to power the flight of their ship off the planet and find that the planet is full of surprises and dangers. The action is smart, forceful and frequently very funny, the reveals are cunningly set up and the conclusion is smart and satisfyingly unexpected.
Christopher Baldwin has embraced the challenge of presenting an unknown world with great energy and thoughtful detail. The variety of N.E.B. (Non Earth Beings) is nicely set up so that there are a limited number of different NEB's and the interactions with each are significant. They way the human cast respond to them and the N.E.B.s respond to the humans is always revealing and develops the themes of the story with deft wit. There is always a nice edge of incomprehension that makes the responses and actions ambiguous, every interaction has multiple possibilities, there is a consistent variety in the outcomes to keep the reader engaged.
The journey is not just about the outcome, it is as much a process whereby the human cast get to demonstrate themselves and question what and why they act the way they do. Dilvan and Foxglove are mature adults with established life patterns that they fall back on in trouble. They are also self aware enough to consider different ways of responding even if they are not always able to follow a new path. Anna Galactic is a young woman who is emerging into a entirely new life where she has to be more confident in herself and decide if what she is doing is what she wants to do. This process is very happily complicated by the presence of Pewter whose advice is consistently sharp, awkward and voices the happily unheroic at every turn. This nicely undercuts the more tortured thinking of the human cast and ensures that it never becomes pretentious.
The art is wonderfully friendly and welcoming, the cast are very expressive and move through their context with physical weight and impact. The N.E.B.s are varied without every being too fantastic, they fit into their context as comfortably as the human cast do. Christopher Baldwin sets the imaginative bar very high, knitting crabs should be a ridiculous point that blows up the story, instead they are a terrific and in context entirely credible event.  The art is never angular, its softer lines are complemented perfectly by the colouring. It is slight muted and brings out the details of the expressions for the cast and the details of the physical context with subtle care.
There is a great deal going on in this story and the various elements never trip each other up, smart ustilisation of the story framework allows Christopher Baldwin to effectively and dramatically follow the human drama without ever sacrificing the genre requirements for action and close escapes.
Anna Galactic is thoughtful, smart science fiction, a deep pleasure.

Cold in Hand. John Harvey. Arrow Books (2008)

A very engaging and enjoyable UK police procedural. In Nottingham Detective Inspector Lynne Kellog is involved in a fatal shooting, and finds herself being publicly blamed for the death by the victim's father. Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick, Lynne Kellog's partner, is called in to lead the investigation into the murder and has to manage the conflict of interest smartly exploited by the victim's father. Lynne Kellog on return to duty finds that a previous murder case at a sauna she was involved in is starting to take a very awkward turn and she has to manage two critical witnesses. DI Resnick's investigation finds itself stranded when a possible lead emerges, Lynne Kellog has to deal with some unwanted attention from a colleague involved in sauna murder. When a new murder shakes up everything, the investigations start to collide personally and professionally before they are driven to messy and horribly credible conclusions.
John Harvey has a masterful control of the plot mechanics , the cast and above all the context of the story. The city of Nottingham is seen from the police point of view as a constantly simmering cauldron of violent crime, carried out by people who are not exactly career criminals, more that they simply live lives where violent action and the willingness to take what they want is as natural as breathing. This context keeps bleeding into the story with apparent news flashes of crimes peppering the story, that slowly become entangled into the greater context of the investigation. This context is vital to the story as it makes the isolation of credible suspects fantastically difficult and the work that has to be done to find them all the more engaging.
John Harvey delivers great plot mechanics, a simple case proves to be extremely difficult in part because of the simplicity, a victim shot in public in front of a group of people who have absolutely no interest in revealing anything to the common enemy, the police. A grieving father who understand how to to use words to cut as effectively as any blade and direct his anger and guilt. A complex plan to smuggle a large number of guns into the country that is really the story of modern slavery. Surrounding, colliding with and desperately trying to influence these events the vivid cast that are bristling with life and all working really hard to get what they want. Charlie Resnick who is coming to the point where could retire if he chose handling a case that centrally involves his partner Lynne Kellog. Balancing the personal and professional is never easy, Resnick is given the room to manage it well while accepting the strain. Lynne Kellog is smart , competent and deeply wounded by the accusations of the victims father. Never distracted enough to loose sight of the implications of the sauna murder as she finds them. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Shields drawn into the investigations after another murder is dedicated, capable and forceful. All of them are surrounded by a cast of sharply drawn supporting players who assist and interere as they see the advantage to doing so. The dense and wide ranging cast make the work that Charlie Resnick, Lynne Kellog  and Karen Shields do more difficult and considerably more credible. None are superhuman, they are experienced and sometimes lucky, they know how to capitalise on luck.
This is top flight crime writing, it develops a whole community for the action to take place in, the plots pulls the cast and the cast force the pace of the plot. It is bleak and harsh,the cast have a weary resilience that allows them to continue and provides enough lift for the reader to engage and enjoy this excellent book.

Fredrick The Frost Gnome. Troy Vevasis (Writer), Tyrell Deaver (Art), Nikkki Sherman (Scripting). WP Comics (2017)

A charming and engaging comic that completes a nice set up and pay off in a single issue. The ice sculpture of the Frost Gnome king is vandalised by Ice Goblins who also leave a message about returning for the Frost Gnome King's crown. This naturally leads to a declaration of war though Fredrick is concerned that there may be more going on. As events unfold Fredrick proves to be cool under pressure as well as rather smart and the conclusion is nicely set up for more trouble.
Troy Vevasis, thankfully, does not take the view that writing for children means that a story should be any less well developed than for any other audience. The presentation is more light handed than it would be for a more adult audience, the plot mechanics and the story development would not be changed. The conflict is presented with a considered level of serious intent that the story and the audience deserve.
Tyrell Deaver's friendly art is a pleasure to read, the gnomes and the goblins are strongly differentiated, the Goblins are clearly green skinned villains, the are visibly angry and frustrated. They are going to be tricky opponents. The Frost Gnomes are altogether friendlier, they are peaceful but should not be taken lightly. Fredrick is every inch the hero, loyal and resourceful.
The action is delivered with just the right amount of force and weight, there is no blood but there is plenty of actions and reactions from the cast to bring home just how serious the problem is. The reader is never shortchanged in the story or the art, it is a rock solid action story.
Nikki Sherman's scripting is natural and easy, the lettering blends into the panels without ever drawing attention to itself. The sound effects are sparing and very well used, they give just the extra emphasis that is needed and at the end loudly and suitably underscore the situation.
Writing for an all ages audience with a particular emphasis on children is a seriously difficult matter, all of the distractions and short cuts that can be used for a more adult audience are not available and children are very critical of any attempt to shortchange them. Troy Vevasis and Tyrell Deaver make it look easy, talent has that effect.
Chief Wizard Note: This is a review copy, very kindly sent by Troy Verasis, to purchase a copy of Fredrick the Frost Gnome, which you should because good comics are always a great purchase, you can do so here, WP Comics.

COBRA. Deon Meyer (Writer), K.L. Seegers (Translation). Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (2015)

A gripping and very entertaining South African crime story. Four people are killed and another is missing after an attack on a guesthouse at a South African wine farm. The Hawks, an elite South African Police Service squad are given the case, the Hawks team is lead by Benny Griessel, a recovering alcoholic and very capable detective. The missing man quickly becomes a mystery and the bullet cases found at the scene, engraved with the image of a spitting cobra hint at flamboyance at odds with the precision of the attack. In Cape Town Tyrone Kleinbooi, a pickpocket is struggling to find the money to pay his sisters university fees. A deft piece of work goes spectacularly wrong and Tyrone finds himself running for his life. Benny Griessel finds that the missing man is of great interest to the intelligence services and the bullet cases have international links. As the investigation becomes more and more entangled with powerful agencies with agendas of their own and Tyrone's situation becomes more desperate, the plot threads wind together very cunningly to reach unexpected and very satisfying conclusions.
The plot mechanics are superb, the reveals are staged with great skilll to reveal and hide as they should, the pressure is maintained and increased very credibly as the story winds steadily to the conclusion.
Deon Meyer has achieved a wonderful balance between the plot and the cast, they collide with each other with sufficient force to create tension and with enough room for the unexpected to work really well and the cast to actively influence the sequence of events.
Benny Griessl is a great lead character, he was a policeman who took to alcohol to blunt the compromises that working under apartheid rules imposed on him and is still paying the price as a police officer in the new South Africa.  The impact of his drinking is nicely used , the problem he is dealing with is credible and harsh without distorting his competence as an investigator. Benny is widely experienced and thoughtful, he leads to investigation with care, as it becomes increasingly difficult to conduct the investigation he includes his team openly and they respond vividly.
Tyrone is a great counterpoint to Benny, a pickpocket who is trying to support his sister's studies while hiding how he gets the money. Tyrone is a competent, skilled operator who is under severe pressure and when the pressure becomes deadly does not give in. Tyrone is resourceful, he has to be to survive on the streets as he does, he is capable of making and executing smart plans against cunning enemies. He is never supernaturally or extravagantly clever, he is highly motivated and focused as well as having the advantage of being on his home ground.
The story moves between Benny and Tyrone with care and craft, the reveals that pull the threads closer together are very carefully set up, they reveal more to the reader than the cast and this is used to increase the tension in a very smart way. There is a very welcome thread of hard won compassion for his cast in the story, Deon Meyer pushes them very hard, he never needlessly punishes them for being who they are.
K.L. Seegers translation is transparent and clever, the story is littered with Afrikaans works which need no translation, the meaning is clear from the context, they add greatly to the flavour of the story bringing the context vividly home for the reader. Smart crime writing, an engaging cast this is a pleasure to read.

The Lost Child. Camilla Lackberg (Writer),Tina Nunnally (Translation). Harper (2013)

A very enjoyable, engaging and somewhat strange Swedish crime story. A man is shot in the entrance hallway to his apartment with no apparent motive. The investigation lead by Detective Patrick Hedstrom finds that Mats Severin was an intensely private man who did not seem to have any enemies who had recently returned to the seaside town of Fjallbacka as the council's financial director. Mats school sweetheart, Nathalie has also returned to Fjallbacka, she had moved to Graskar Island, known locally as Ghost Island. The investigation is thoughtfully managed and starts to focus on the event that preceded Mats return to Fjallbacka and when separate investigation in Stockholm starts to intersect with the one in Fjallbacka the satisfying sour conclusion is arrived at.
The plot mechanics of the main story are impressive, the reveals are carefully set up to hide as much as they show and the story moves in wonderful directions before convincingly coming back to a bitingly credible conclusion. The very large cast are energetic and full of life, Camilla Lackberg has a tremendous gift for concisely introducing and then developing her cast. She does not depend too much on continuity to support the series regular cast, they are given the space and time to make a full impression on any reader who is coming to this book cold. One of the very nice things about the book is the way that a genre staple, the incompetent police chief, is given significantly greater depth and humanity than usual. He may be incompetent, impulsive and largely lacking insifgt or foresight, he is also loving and vibrantly alive.
Critically this is a story about a number of relationships, some of which end with violent death, others of which are savagely damaged by past events and others of which are resilient and positive.
What makes The Lost Child somewhat strange are the ways that these relationships, some of which have a direct link to the major story line, some of which are essentially completely independent, are handled. There is an inescapable of judgement, harsh judgement, in the way some of these relationships are played out. Camilla Lackberg has a sharp and deeply critical eye of character weakness that leads to terrible decisions, the results of those decisions are never managed with forgiveness, grim justice is delivered to punish the weakness that lead to bad actions. It is weakness that is punished rather than deliberate malice, while that does get some measure of punishment. the greater load is carried by the weak.
While egotistical self importance does get a savage comeuppance, it is the more subtle weakness of the heart and mind that get the harshest weighting in the balance and the heaviest punishment. The weakness are not trivial, nor are the results of those weaknesses, still there is a steely lack of compassion in their treatment that is striking. There is a slight element of the supernatural in the story, Ghost Island has earned its name and it is used with care and subtle emphasis that never distracts from the harsh reality of the events.
Tina Nunnally translation is transparent, there is no sense that this story is anything less than entirely Swedish in its context, cast or atmosphere nor is there any sense that it was not in fact written directly in English. The translation allows the cast and the story emerge completely and forcefully.