Friday 24 March 2023

Catching up - a couple of crime titles

A couple of crime titles to catch up on today and a couple of good'uns too!

First up, Murder in the Mill-Race by E.C.R Lorac, this is one of the BLCC reissues dating from 1952 so just a little bit older than me. I wonder which of us has aged best. (No need to answer that...)

So, a young doctor, Raymond Ferrens, moves to a small village in North Devon, very close to Exmoor. With him goes his wife of four years, Anne. The village is Milham-in-the-Moor and lies on a hilltop about ten miles from the nearest town. It's a stunningly pretty place but it doesn't take long for the couple to realise how isolated it is and how insular the villagers are. The new neighbours trot along to introduce themselves, among them Sister Monica, the nun who has run a small orphanage for many decades. Anne takes an instant dislike to the woman although she's not really sure why, something about her feels malign. So it's no surprise when, some months later, Sister Monica's body is found floating in the mill-race at the bottom of the hill, below the village. The local policeman, Sergeant Peel, does his level best with the villagers but he's from the local town and therefore 'not one of them'. It's decided to call in Scotland Yard and Chief Inspector MacDonald is consequently dispatched to Devon, along with Sergeant Reeves, to find out who could possibly want a nun, so beloved of the village, dead. And it's no easy task for them either. All they can get out of people is, 'Her come over dizzy, poor soul. That be it. Terrible dizzy Sister's been these weeks past'. That and how wonderful she was, what a saint and so on. But somebody clearly did not agree... So this is actually book 37 of Lorac's Inspector MacDonald books and I have not read the previous 36 in order, I've read 4 or 5 completely out of order. It doesn't matter, MacDonald is not a tortured soul and neither is Reeves, so there's no backstory to keep up with. I love how down to earth both of them are too and most of the humour that runs through the book is down to those two, particularly as regards the villagers and their, 'Her come over dizzy, poor soul'. I laughed quite bit having lived in Devon for many years. The village is a beautiful setting and it jumps off the page at you, and Lorac clearly knew her village mentality 'very' well. Parts of the book are almost creepy, taking place as they do in the dark and one scene near the end in a dark house was really quite edge-of-your-seat. E.C.R. Lorac (Edith Caroline Rivett) was a top-notch crime writer and why she was ever forgotten is as much of a mystery as you'll find in any of her books. A really excellent read.

Next, Camino Island by John Grisham. I thought he only wrote court-room, lawyer type books until Lark mentioned that she might read this for the Bookish Books challenge, back at the beginning of January. Intrigued, I looked it up and then reserved it from the library. It then languished on the shelf and I forgot what it was about and was very pleasantly surprised when I found it was about 'books'. *Head-desk* I'm 70 in May... that says it all really.

Anyhoooo. Mercer Mann is an author who's had one literary book published that did very well and a book of short stories that did not. She's been working in a uni, teaching, but is losing her job due to cuts. She's approached by a mysterious woman who knows all about her, even down to the fact that she spent a lot of her summers as a child on Camino Island off the coast of Florida. Why is that of interest? Well, five valuable original manuscripts of the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald have been stolen from the vaults of Princeton university. The woman, Elaine, works for an insurance company and is conducting her own enquiry into the whereabouts of the stolen manuscripts. She thinks a bookseller, Bruce Cable, who lives on Camino Island has them and she wants Mercer to return to the island on the pretext of trying to finish her next book and of having writer's block, which she actually does have. But really she wants Mercer to infiltrate the writing and book-selling community on the island to try and find out if Bruce actually does have the stolen works. So, John Grisham is not an author that generally appeals to me as I'm not a huge fan of court-room, lawyer types of books (although The Client is a great film so I should probably try the book). This is nothing like that. I wasn't sure what to expect of his writing and found it spare, not many frills, although the island is very real and I could picture it beautifully so the writing is not that spare. I absolutely loved the authors on the island, especially the couple, Myra and Leigh, one of whom writes sexually charged pot-boilers which have made a fortune and the other, literary novels, which have not. It was also an excellent glimpse into the world of rare book selling and the wheeler-dealing which goes on in a very shadowy sort of underworld. The heist at the start of the book was exciting and ruthless and I didn't know I liked that sort of thing so there you go... you never can tell. A pageturner, I read it in two sittings and ignored pretty much everything yesterday until I'd finished it. The end fizzled out a bit weakly I thought but no matter, I thought this was an excellent read and there is a another book about Bruce Cable I gather, Camino Winds. I'll get that as soon as my library reopens after renovations. If anyone has any other Grisham recommendations that are not set in court-rooms I would welcome them.


16 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

I have to admit, Cath, I like Grisham quite a lot. He does suspense so very well, in my opinion, and he creates memorable characters. I hope you'll try more of his work. As for Lorac, I'm so happy that the BL has made her work more easily available again. She really had a lot of talent, and I often wonder why she was - is forgotten the word? - for so long.

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

I haven't read a Grisham book in years, although I have no idea why, as I always enjoyed his storylines and style of writing. Perhaps it is because so many of his early books were optioned for feature films and having watched them all, I didn't feel the need to read the books as well. According to the FF oracle, there is a follow-up book to 'Camino Island' called 'Camino Winds' so that might be one to look out for. I just quickly scanned one set of my bookshelves and found three paperbacks, but it looks as though they are all legal dramas!

Lorac is definitely on my list of classic authors to read, although I see that list has grown exponentially, as she also wrote books under the name of Carol Carnac!

Have a lovely weekend :)

Lark said...

Glad to hear you liked Camino Island even if the ending fizzles a bit. I've got it on my list and hope to read it in the next month or two. And I think all the Grisham books I've read have been his law ones. My favorite is still The Firm, which is a very good thriller and not set in the courtroom at all. And someday I hope to find time to read more BLCC mysteries. One year that should be my sole reading goal. Great reviews as always, Cath! :D

FictionFan said...

Totally agree about it being incomprehensible how someone as good as Lorac came to be forgotten. Makes you wonder if there are other hidden gems out there still to be rediscovered! I'm an occasional Grisham reader, loving some of his stuff and being rather less wowed by others. His court-room ones do tend to resemble each other after a while, I think. But I loved The Litigators - unusually for him it's about a small firm of "ambulance-chasers" rather than the big corporate legal outfits, and there's so much humour in it. If you're a baseball fan you might like Calico Joe - I didn't! 😉

Cath said...

Margot: Yes, I could see his penchant for creating memorable characters, Bruce Cable being such a one in this book. I wasn't surprised to find that he's in book 2 as well.

I find it so odd that such a capable crime writer came to be, well, not exactly forgotten as I expect many vintage crime experts knew of her, but to the vast majority she had sort of disappeared.

Cath said...

Yvonne: It did seem for a while that every film that came out was from a book by John Grisham. LOL And I did love The Client with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon. I think I actually owned the book at one time but never read it. Yes, I mentioned Camino Winds in my review, I will definitely look out for that at the library.

I was going to say that I don't think she wrote many books as Carol Carnac but when I looked on FF there were over 20, so yes, quite big back list of books to her name.

Have a good weekend too, more rain coming in late Saturday I think. We're off to my daughter's but should be home well before that.

Cath said...

Lark: I hope you enjoy Camino Island as much as I did. The Firm is a movie too I think, but I've not seen it. Will look into that one. It's always a good plan to read more BLCC books! Thank you!

Cath said...

FictionFan: Absolutely it makes you wonder about other hidden gem authors that have been forgotten. I'm sure it must be the case. I'll look into The Litigators, thanks for the rec, just what I was hoping for. Not a baseball fan so I won't bother with Calico Joe!

Fanda Classiclit said...

I used to love John Grisham's, but haven't read a lot if his lately. I loved Camino Island, didn't know what it's about when I picked it, and thrilled to know it's about rare books and F. Scott Fitzgerald's manuscripts!

Would love to read Lorac's too, if I can get a copy.

Cath said...

Fanda: I think we all have authors that we used to read years ago and don't so much nowadays. Sometimes when I go back to them I love them all over again, other tims, not so much. LOL! I was very pleased with Camino Island and will read the sequel soon. Now I need to read some F. Scott Fitzgerald.

TracyK said...

Thanks for these two reviews about interesting books and authors. I was curious about Camino Island when I saw you were reading it (on Goodreads). The ECR Lorac book sounds very good and I will have to get my hands on a copy. We do have two two unread books by Lorac in the house so I don't have to be in a rush.

I have only read two books by Grisham. The first was The Pelican Brief, and I loved that book. I should read it again. The other was A Time to Kill, and that was a hard book for me to read. I have an unread copy of The Client because I liked that film also. Now your review motivates me to read Camino Island. I will put it on my "to buy" list for the book sale, that is one that could easily show up there.

Cath said...

Tracy: Camino Island is well worth keeping an eye out for at the book sales you go to every year. I would think it could easily show up there too. I must check charity shops for more Grisham books - they nearly always have some but I've never really been interested before. This is the fun thing about reading, you just never know what there is to discover around the corner!

I just looked up A Time to Kill as I'd not heard of it or seen the film. Yes, I can see why that would be a hard read for you, coming from Alabama. I may give that a go at some stage.

CLM said...

I just finished Camino Island and enjoyed the audio.


SPOILER


I didn't really care for Mercer (whine whine) and I was surprised she actually slept with Cable. Then I thought her reaction to seeing the manuscripts was over the top. Even if he hadn't already suspected her, that could have caused him to magic them away. But the FBI, knowing about the door in the basement, should have been watching shipments from the antiques store too. And for him never to get caught was kind of annoying. I see she finally finishes her book in the sequel.

Cath said...

Constance: Yes, I was surprised she slept with Cable too. Made me think about the differences between male authors and female. Controversial, but I think male authors sometimes fail to judge accurately what women will do, especially when it comes to sex. I don't think a female author would've done that. I wonder if Cable gets caught in the next book. Probably not as it seems like Grisham might make a hero out of him even though he's a criminal. I still liked the book though, it had such a nice sense of authors living on an island off the coast of Florida.

Susan said...

Hmmm, I might have to read this. The plot sounds intriguing. I used to read Grisham's court thrillers all the time, but I didn't care for the last book of his that I read and I haven't read him since. I might have to give this one a go, though, especially if both you and Lark liked it.

Cath said...

Susan: I can't say for certain but I think the two Camino books are completely different to Grisham's normal fare. I loved all the antiquarian bookish stuff and the authors on the island.