Forgotten Book - More Dead Than Alive

Roger Ormerod (1920-2005) was a member of the first panel of crime writers in which I ever took part, in a local library in Liverpool, quite an unforgettable occasion even if it was more than three decades ago. I remember him as a pleasant, quiet individual, but I never got to know him well. We did, however, have a mutual friend in Eileen Dewhurst and I now have a copy of a book he inscribed to her, More Dead Than Alive (1980), which I feel is a pleasant memento of that long-ago evening we spent together.

Despite the clues on the dust jacket cover, I hadn't realised that this is a locked room mystery until I took a closer look at it. This was the penultimate book in his series featuring private eye David Mallin (who drives a Porsche!), and the story is narrated by Mallin's wife Elsa, but in many ways - in particular because of the focus on plot rather than character or setting - this is a book that is in the Golden Age tradition.

Elsa has been staying at Kilvennan Castle, an eerie old pile on the coast, with her old schoolfriend Clarice, who happens to be married to Konrad Klein, the renowned escapologist, whose act has fallen on hard times. Elsa forms part of a house party in the Golden Age country house tradition, but the socialising is rudely interrupted by Konrad's sudden disappearance from a closed room high above the cliffs. Has he thrown himself out? Is he pulling some kind of stunt? This is the problem that David and his business partner George have to solve.

Roger was a very different writer from, say, John Dickson Carr. Whereas Carr enveloped his puzzles in all kinds of macabre adornments, sometimes with lashings of humour, Roger had a plainer style. But there's no denying that this is an ingenious story, told at pace. The fact that the book was published by Robert Hale, who focused on the library market (he later created two new series and moved to Constable) probably meant that this one soon disappeared without trace, rather like Konrad Klein. But it deserves a better fate than Klein's.   

 

The Menu - 2022 film review

As anyone who knows me well will readily confirm, I'm not one of the world's great gourmets. Far from it. Give me a steak and ale pie with chips and I'm happy; exotic cuisine (with some exceptions, admittedly!) leaves me cold. But on one of my recent flights, I was tempted to watch The Menu by the presence of Ralph Fiennes in the lead role. Fiennes is not only a very good actor, he has a great range: I find him appealing in all the different roles he undertakes. Though he's far from likeable in this one, playing the part of that most irritating of creatures, the egotistical celebrity chef.

The premise is simple. A group of people travel by boat to a small private island for a very special meal served up by celeb chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes) and his staff. The guests are, by and large, an unappealing bunch and it soon emerges that the apparent protagonist, Tyler Ledford (Nicholas Hoult), is accompanied by someone who was not his originally intended guest. This is Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy, who was so good in The Queen's Gambit, and who is another actor of high-calibre). 

Slowik introduces each course of the dinner with a monologue - the contents of which become increasingly disturbing. There's a dramatic moment, probably the best in the whole film, where for the third course, tortillas are served which carry laser prints depicting regrettable aspects of the guests' lives. What on earth is going on?

This is a highly regarded black comedy horror film and it's certainly watchable, not least because of the quality of the lead actors. However, I feel that it's rather over-rated. The script struck me as pretty average, with a bit too much silliness, and if there was an explanation given as to why all Slowik's staff went along with his plan, it escaped me. A case of style over substance, like so many posh meals.

Joker - 2019 film review

When it comes to books and films about superheroes and supervillains, I tend to take them in small doses. Too many of them I find unable to get excited about, but every now and then they provide interesting escapism. I'd read good things about Joker, the 2019 film about the character from the Batman universe, and so I decided to give it a go. And I'm glad I did.

I first came across the Joker as a child, in the long-ago TV series in which he was played by Cesar Romero, and for some reason the character has stuck in my memory. So I was interested to see what Joaquin Phoenix would make of the role. He's a very good actor and evidently the idea was to turn traditional ideas for a movie about comic book characters on their head. That is, I think, a key reason why I found this film so interesting.

This is an origin story that seems to have very little connection to the Batman stories (although I have no expertise at all in them, or in the Batman films), but a young Adam Wayne does feature. Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a mentally troubled individual whose rotten treatment by society leads him inexorably towards becoming a deranged criminal.

There has been some debate about whether the film glorifies criminality and violence. I understand why some people think it might, but I don't think it does. It's more an attempt to get inside the mind of a disturbed person. Difficult to do, but the combination of a strong screenplay by director Todd Phillips and Scott Silver and an Oscar-winning performance by Phoenix makes the film compelling to watch, even if this isn't your usual cup of tea. So now I'm wondering whether to give the sequel a look. Reviews have been very mixed, but apparently it does feature 'What the World Needs Now' and 'Close to You' on the soundtrack, so surely it can't be all bad...   

Forgotten Book - A Ring of Roses

A Ring of Roses is a curiosity in more ways than one. For a start, its publishing history is extremely odd. The novel first appeared as a 'Star Original paperback' in 1977 with the author's name given as Mary Ann Ashe. Star was an imprint of the publisher W.H. Allen. As the front cover of this edition said, she was the author of Alas for Her That Met Me!, a strangely titled novel that had appeared as a 'Star Original' the previous year; this was a historical mystery, originally serialised in Woman's Realm, that was said to be the first in a series.

But later in 1977, reversing the usual way of doing things, W.H. Allen issued the book in hardback. This time the author's name was stated to be Christianna Brand. The brief career of Mary Ann Ashe was at an end. I have no idea what the thinking was. Maybe the Ashe name was a sort of reBranding exercise and either the author or publishers had second thoughts about it. If there was a cunning commercial plan, it doesn't seem very cunning: for a start, there are characters in this novel who appear in Brand's much earlier book, Cat and Mouse, so anyone well versed in Brand's work would have figured out the author's identity and probably been rather baffled. Nor does it seem to have been successful. Copies of both paperback and hardback are rare, suggesting small print runs, especially for the hardback.

I'm lucky to have a copy of the hardback which Brand inscribed thus: 'This is frankly a potboiler...it is all set in my own bit of Wales - the farmhouse is just above our cottage...' Edmund Crispin's review said carefully: 'Miss Brand has done better than this, but she still writes a tale worth telling.' But there are positive online reviews by good judges here and here.

There are some really good ingredients in this story, including the setting, and the detective character, while Brand juggles false solutions to her puzzle with her customary dexterity. Unfortunately, there are two elements that I didn't care for. First, the inclusion of American gangsters in the plot - never a good sign. Second, the way that a disabled child is referred to time and again. Perhaps the problem was that she wrote the book too fast, and primarily as a money-making exercise. A pity, because with some reworking this might have become a first-rate mystery. As it is, I see it more as an interesting oddity.

A holiday of a lifetime - Part 3

For the final part of our New Zealand odyssey, we travelled south, flying to Queenstown and then being driven to Te Anau, a small resort town on the shore of Lake Te Anau in the aptly named national park of Fiordland. Te Anau is a gateway to an area which is largely uninhabited wilderness and much favoured by adventure tourists braver than me. People will go tramping for days on end, often in the trickiest weather conditions - this is one of the wettest areas in the world. Much of Fiordland is remote in the extreme, but it was very pleasant to dine in the comfort of the hotel a couple of times with a fine view of the lake!

The trip from Te Anau to Milford Sound was dramatic and truly unforgettable. Milford Sound has been called the world's top travel destination, and Rudyard Kipling - of all people - described it as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The only way to get there, unless you're trekking, is along a long and winding road, hoping to avoid the avalanches. Vehicles are monitored to see if they are fire risk - you wouldn't want to be caught in a fire in the Homer Tunnel through the mountains, that is for sure. On our trip, in a small tour group in a van, the weather was astonishing. On the way out, the rain was absolutely torrential. As we drove along, by the roadside, there were dozens of 'pop-up' waterfalls created by the downpour. And yet, as the two-hour drive came to an end, the skies were clearing. We boarded a boat to explore the fiord that is Milford Sound, and had a picnic on board as the skies turned blue. There were dolphins and seals to be seen, though I didn't spot any whales or penguins - maybe the weather had deterred them! And on the way back, the weather had become close to idyllic - and most of those waterfalls had disappeared. There was a 'mirror lake' that looked as calm as a mill pond. But you'd never, ever find me trekking in that territory! An amazing trip - unique in my experience. We celebrated our survival with a couple of mocktails...

 

 

Next morning, a drive to the swish resort of Queenstown, via the small town of Garston (very different from its Liverpudlian counterpart and boasting the smallest 'library' I've ever seen), and another room with a fantastic view, this time of Lake Wakatipu. The long coastal walk into town took us into the Queenstown Gardens and then to the waterfront. A relaxing day, rounded off with a meal in a pub complete with Premier League football on TV (one can't be an adventurous tourist 24/7...) Next day, it was up in the Skyline Gondola (the cemetery and hospital are conveniently located nearby...) to enjoy sensational views. And then it was the final boat trip of the holiday, across to Walter Peak farm, where a fantastic barbecue, one of the best I've had, was followed by a farm show including sheep shearing and a sheepdog show. And that was our last full day in New Zealand, a country I found truly gorgeous, full of friendly and interesting people. It's very well suited to hardy, paragliding types (which I'm definitely not) but the landscape holds a universal appeal. Hugely impressive, totally memorable.

And then it was time to head back for Singapore and continue the exploration of all that it has to offer. Which is plenty. On the first visit, I'd been very taken by the Skypark and so I wanted to check out the views from the top, which was fun. After that, a truly iconic experience - afternoon tea at Raffles Hotel. This was great, and made even better by a harpist who had the good taste to serenade the tea drinkers with a Burt Bacharach tune! We went round a couple of cathedrals before taking a final walk around Marina Bay, enjoying the light show from the other side of the bay, and then heading back to the hotel to await our driver. Even in the airport lounge, there was time for one final memorable experience - my first Singapore Sling. It probably won't be my last...

 

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife - the cover reveal

So here it is - the cover reveal for my Christmas puzzle mystery, Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife. The novel (and it is, first and foremost, a novel, with lots of clues and puzzle ingredients) will be published by Head of Zeus in September in the UK and by Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen in the US in October. There will be translations in various languages including French (the first time my fiction has appeared in French translation), Italian, and Spanish. 

I'm really pleased with the Head of Zeus cover and also with the promotional trailer - as well as with the wonderful quotes from fellow authors.

And yes, this book does have a Cluefinder!

A holiday of a lifetime - part 2

The North and South Islands of New Zealand are separated by the Cook Strait, said to be one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world. Luckily, our trip on the Interislander ferry was a sheer delight - calm seas and excellent cuisine on a lovely summer's day. We landed at Picton and headed for Blenheim, a pleasant town with an excellent library (and yes, that does of course mean they had copies of my books...) and art gallery. A tour of the Marlborough area's wineries (one of which occupies a former chapel) - specialising in Sauvignon Blanc - was the next item on the itinerary, followed by a scenic rail trip along the coast to Kaikoura.

The highlight of the short stop in Kaikoura, apart from a long walk along the waterfront, was a boat ride to watch dusky dolphins - and there were a huge number to be seen. Years ago, we went on a dolphin watching boat trip off Gibraltar and didn't see any - but there were hundreds to be found in Kaikoura. 

Another appealing rail journey came next, this time to Christchurch, a delightful city with wonderful botanical gardens. Exactly 14 years had passed since the devastating earthquake, and the renaissance of the city is impressive. I arranged to visit the Ngaio Marsh House, enjoying an excellent guided tour and a pleasant discussion with some of the trustees. More about this marvellous place another time. After that, it was time for a tram ride around the city with dinner as part of the package - quite splendid. Next day, a trip to Arthur's Pass by train and bus, and yet another chance to marvel at the landscape, not least the amazing Kura Tawhiti Conservation Area, as well as the cheeky keas.

And after that, it was goodbye to Christchurch and time to head to the southern resorts...