TRUTH
By Peter Temple, Random House Canada, 387 pages, $32
Inspector Stephen Villani is back. For anyone who read the brilliant and unforgettable novel The Broken Shore, that's fabulous news because fans have been waiting impatiently for Villani's return. The even better news is that this sequel to The Broken Shore is every bit as good.
The setting is Melbourne in a roasting Australian summer. Not only is it hot, it's dry, and wildfires are raging outside town. Villani is now head of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad, with all the responsibilities. "For my sins," he says.
Those currently include a dead woman in the bath of a penthouse apartment in Australia's most expensive condominium project. The woman is unknown and the building's management wants the crime handled as quietly as possible. Part of the sales pitch is airtight security for the rich and pampered. That a woman managed to get in, much less get killed, is bad for business.
As with the first novel, Villani's complicated personal life is woven into the plot, along with lots of local lore, and the back story is as good as the mystery. The first few chapters are a bit of a slog until you get the hang of Temple's dialogue, which incorporates memories, arcane references and a lot of Aussie slang. It's rhythmic, though, and after a few pages, it seduces you. This is a wonderful book, one of the best of the year.
STETTIN STATION
By David Downing, Soho Press, 304 pages, $30
Seventy years on, the Third Reich still has power in crime fiction. One has only to reread Philip Kerr's marvellous Berlin Noir series, or Joseph Kanon's The Good German, to understand just how elegant and complicated a plot can be woven from bits of history and good writing. Stettin Station, David Downing's third novel set in Berlin in 1941, is just as complex and clever as the best of Kerr and Kanon, and it has spies for added style.
John Russell is an American journalist living in Berlin. He's also an agent connecting anti-Nazi elements in the Abwehr, German military intelligence, with American intelligence. But time is running out for Russell. He's uncovered the nasty secret the Nazis don't want made public: Jews are disappearing, in numbers. It's time for Russell to get out of town, but it's not as easy as it might be, especially when his companion, Effi, is not only a German citizen, but a movie star, known everywhere.
This is a tightly constructed novel with a complex plot set in a world that is on the verge of a terrible madness. Downing captures all of that and a bit more, with a touch of old-fashioned romance that really does call out for Bergman and Bogart. This is a great weekend getaway book, but be warned: If you read it, you'll want Zoo Station and Silesian Station, the others in the series.
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF CRIME STORIES: VOLUME II
Edited by Peter Robinson, Penguin Canada, 208 pages, $22
If you don't already know it, Peter Robinson, author of the marvellous British series featuring DCI Alan Banks, is one of crime fiction's finest writers of short fiction. His stories appear in most good anthologies and on award short lists. So when Robinson selects a group of short pieces, he does so with a master's eye for the best. This excellent collection is the result.
There are good stories by the usuals, the gifted James Powell and stalwarts Robert J. Randisi, Sue Grafton and Ruth Rendell. But it's the new names that make this book worth buying. Forked, by Colin Cotterill, is a devious little darling that's brand new and should introduce those who don't already know him to Cotterill's elegant and clever prose. Sophie Hannah's The Visitor's Book is another new find and there is a fascinating piece by John Connolly that was published last year in a collection inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Other authors include Maureen Jennings, Barbara Fradkin, Lee Child and Dennis Richard Murphy, along with a very good introduction by Robinson that is itself worth the price of the book.
THE TULIP VIRUS
By Danielle Hermans, translated by David MacKay, Minotaur, 278 pages, $29.99
Prepare to learn all about the great Tulip Bubble, when Europe's 17th-century economy tanked because of speculation in tulip bulbs. Yes, those sweet little flowers were the subprime mortgage bonds of their day, and Hermans, a Dutch author, has build an excellent first novel around them and their crash.
This isn't a historical novel, though it begins with a murder in 1636. The action is set in 2007 London, where Netherlander Alec Schoeller finds his uncle gravely wounded and on his lap a book about the tulip mania. Minutes later, the uncle is dead and Alec, assisted by his friend Damian Vanlint, an Amsterdam antiques dealer, is on the trail of a killer.
Hermans is a smart researcher and a clever writer. She works plenty of historical colour into her plot, taking us into the heart of old Holland as Alec and Damian follow the trail that's nearly 400 years old. There are also some bits of arcana for Da Vinci Code fans, and a really nice, slick twist at the end.
THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING
By Tarquin Hall, McClelland & Stewart, 256 pages, $29.99
This is the second in the delightful series set in India and featuring Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator. Fans of Alexander McCall Smith have already discovered Vish, and while his charm is reminiscent of Mma Ramotswe, his cases are definitely more deadly.
This time out, he's faced with the death of a prominent scientist. It appears that the deed was done by the Goddess Kali, in front of impeccable witnesses. The truth lies in a slum that is home to India's ancestral magicians. This second in the series is a terrific book with wonderful puzzle plot and a great setting.
THE DEVIL AMONGST THE LAWYERS
By Sharyn McCrumb, St. Martin's Press, 336 pages, $29.99
Sharyn McCrumb loves her Appalachian homeland. She's set more than a dozen books there. The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is a fictionalized version of the murder trial of Edith Maxwell, in Wise county, Virginia, in 1935. Then, as now, the United States was beset by unemployment and economic fears, and the media were hunting for a story to sensationalize.
McCrumb brings all this history into the story of Erma Morton, accused of murdering her father, and Carl Jenkins, a Tennessee reporter assigned to the story. McCrumb is a masterful storyteller, and she spins this yarn just right, with wonderful characters, a great setting and a woman gifted with the "sight."