In this 6th book in the 'Josef Slonský Investigations' series, the Czech cop has a complex case on his hands. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Up until 1990 'The Red House' in Prague was used as an interrogation center by the StB - the Communist secret police in the former Czechoslovakia.
Arrestees brought to The Red House for questioning were beaten and tortured, and recalcitrant detainees were sometimes placed in a one square meter room "that could be filled with the contents of the bath and toilets above."🥵 With this kind of treatment, it's not surprising that the occasional prisoner died. That's the premise at the center of this story.
In current times, The Red House is used as a teacher training facility, and the grounds are tended by a gardener named Hanuš Himl. When Himl notices something odd about a plant bed he's been preparing, a word to Police Captain Josef Slonský leads to the discovery of a woman's body.
What's more, it appears that previous remains were removed to make space for the dead woman, and only a finger bone of the first victim is left.
Slonský thinks the first fatality was a casualty of the communist era, and the woman's murder was probably an act of revenge. To identify the current killer, Slonský needs to figure out who the original victim was.....which is very tricky without a body.
Both unlawful deaths - the one that occurred decades ago and the new one - are probed by Slonský's team, which is led by veteran detectives Lieutenant Kristýna Peiperová and Lieutenant Jan Navrátil.
Also on board are newbie officers Ivo Krob and Lucie Jernaková. As usual, Slonský also gets assistance from Desk Sergeant Mucha - who has an uncanny ability to locate files.....even hidden communist ones; and journalist Valentin - whose contacts and newspaper archives are useful.
As the investigation proceeds things get more complicated, especially when the cops delve into incidents that occurred long ago. Dark secrets of the communist era emerge, and officers from that era are questioned.
During the inquries, Slonský's mentee Navrátil comes up with a LOT of good ideas, and Slonský prides himself on being such a great instructor.
As always, Slonský keeps up his strength with frequent snacks of beer and sausage/ham rolls or coffee and pastries, and these scenes are a nice break from the more serious parts of the story.
Slonský's sarcastic - but good-natured - repartee with the pathologist Dr. Novak also draws a few smiles.
Novak: "It's a woman."
Slonský: "I guessed that. The bright red nail polish put me onto it."
Novak: "See? You're not a detective for nothing."
In the private lives of the detectives, Jernaková - who's had a difficult life - is happy to finally have a good job and a place to live; Krob and his wife are expecting a baby; and Peiperová and Navrátil are engaged.
As the wedding day approaches Slonský has to decide on a wedding gift, and he consults Dumpy Anna - the cook at the police canteen. Anna responds, "If you'll take my advice, the usual thing is rubbish. It's something they'll never use like an egg boiler or a fondue set. What they need is a good boot scraper." In the end, Slonský comes up with a great idea of his own. (Though a boot scraper is quite useful IMO. 😊)
The story builds to an exciting climax, and I feared for the lives of Slonsky's intrepid crew.
I like this series, and recommend it to mystery fans.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Graham Brack), and the publisher (Sapere Books) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
In this 4th book in the 'Jade de Jong' series, the private investigator looks into what, at first, seems to be an accidental death. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Private detective Jade de Jong - who I think of as a sort of female Jack Reacher - lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Jade, who recently 'disappeared' someone, is planning to take a break from work when she's approached by Victor Theron, a wealthy trader in commodities futures. Victor tells Jade that he and his girlfriend Sonet Meintjies enjoyed base jumping (parachuting off tall structures), and recently leapt from a sixty-eight story skyscraper called Sandton Views.
Victor jumped first, and when Sonet followed, her parachute didn't open and she was killed. Victor - who packed the defective chute - fears he'll be accused of murder, and asks Jade to investigate.
Jade doesn't want to take the case, but after she sees suspicious footprints on the rooftop of Sandton Views, agrees to look into the matter.
Jade learns that Sonet Meintjies worked for an organization that helps native South African tribes reclaim their land from white owners.....and then farm it with modern methods.
One homestead Sonet was assisting had been doing very well, and even had a windmill-powered granary. The tribe had sown newly developed disease-resistant seeds, and expected to show a profit by the second year. Instead, the farm failed and the tribe disappeared.
Jade visits the farm, which is several hours drive from Johannesburg. There she discovers something that's apparently a dire threat to someone. An attempt is made to involve Jade in a fatal car accident, and when that fails, hired killers pursue her.
Jade is a clever woman, though, and the goons underestimate her every time. (This is a gal you DON'T want to get on the wrong side of. 😡)
The thugs also target a man Jade has interviewed as well as members of dead Sonet's family.....and it's clear the stakes are very high. The reason is unveiled as the story unfolds, and it's a DOOZY! I can't say more because of spoilers.
Meanwhile, in a tangential story line, a single mother is forced to become the driver for a hired assassin. When the woman is on the job, she tools around in a Mercedes and dresses fashionably, so police will think she and the killer are a wealthy married couple.
The woman wants to run away, but her employer - who engaged the killer - monitors every move she makes, and she fears for herself and her little boy.
These two story lines - Jade's case and the roaming assassin - merge as the book approaches it's climax.
Over the course of the series, Jade has had an on-off relationship with married Police Superintendent David Patel.
David was estranged from his wife when he and Jade first connected, but circumstances forced him to return to his spouse. David and Jade still work together professionally, and - in this book - David helps Jade with her case and Jade helps David investigate anonymous letters he's been receiving. The ex-lovers still yearn for one another, and - as things shake out - there may be hope for them yet. 😍
This is an exciting story in an interesting setting. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Justine Eyre, who does a great job with the characters' names and accents. Fans of thrillers would probably enjoy the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
The lives of siblings Danny and Maeve Conroy are overshadowed by their childhood home, 'The Dutch House', an elegant glass mansion located in Elkins Park - a ritzy suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The house, which looks more like a museum than a residence, was built by the Dutch VanHoebeeks in the 1920s, and purchased - complete with furniture and home décor - by budding real estate mogul Cyril Conroy in 1946. Cyril is delighted to surprise his young family with the house, not knowing it will affect their lives in unpredictable ways.
Danny Conroy, who narrates the book as an adult, describes the three-story house as "a singular confluence of talent and luck that was too much house for anyone".....but that felt just right to him and Maeve. From certain angles, "the house seemed to float several inches above the hill it sat on" and "the panes of glass that surrounded the glass front door were as big as storefront windows and held in place by wrought iron vines." The blue Delft mantelpieces in the drawing room, library, and master bedroom were “said to have been pried out of a castle in Utrecht and sold to the VanHoebeeks to pay a prince’s gambling debts.”
The house also boasted silk chairs, tapestry ottomans, oil paintings, Chinese lamps, marble floors, gilt ceilings, egg and dart molding, a large ballroom, imposing portraits of Mr. and Mrs. VanHoebeek, a swimming pool, and much more.
The first casualty of the Dutch house is Danny and Maeve's mother, Elna, a humble woman who feels compelled to do good works. Elna is profoundly oppressed by the opulent house, and runs off to India to help the poor when Danny is three and Maeve is ten.
Since dad Cyril is more involved with his business than his children, Danny and Maeve are largely brought up by housekeeper/cooks Sandy and Jocelyn.
The women are conscientious and affectionate caretakers, but they aren't mothers, and Maeve essentially steps into this role for her brother. For her part, Maeve is inconsolable at the loss of her mom, and in addition to general malaise develops diabetes - which the family attributes to Elna's desertion.
In time Cyril meets a woman named Andrea, who's mesmerized by the Dutch house. Cyril isn't particularly interested in Andrea, but she slyly inveigles herself into his life, marries him, and moves in with her daughters Norma and Bright.
The children - Danny, Maeve, Norma, and Bright - get along like a house afire, but Danny and Maeve never warm up to Andrea.....or she to them. Sadly, as soon as Andrea moves in, she makes it her business to disenfranchise Danny and Maeve.
Right after Maeve leaves for Barnard College in New York, for instance, Andrea usurps Maeve's lovely bedroom for Norma and Bright. And when Cyril and Danny plan an excursion to New York to have lunch with Maeve and explore buildings, Andrea invites herself and her girls along AND changes the itinerary to accommodate her own interests. (This doesn't work out so well for Andrea though. 😊)
Cyril dies at 53, when 22-year-old Maeve has graduated college and 15-year-old Danny is in high school. Andrea promptly throws Danny out, calling Maeve to come and get him.
The angry, hurt siblings set up housekeeping in Maeve's apartment in a nearby town, where Maeve works as an accountant/manager for a frozen vegetable company. Danny and Maeve retrieve very little from the Dutch house, not even family heirlooms or Maeve's portrait, which was commissioned by her father.
As it turns out, Danny and Maeve are left with almost nothing. It seems Andrea managed to get EVERYTHING in her name: the Dutch house; Cyril's business; and Cyril's money. (One wonders what Cyril - and his lawyer - were thinking. 😒)
Cyril never made a will, and the only thing left specifically for the children (Danny, Maeve, Norma, and Bright) is a trust fund for their education.
Danny had planned to join (and eventually inherit) his dad's real estate business, which Andrea promptly sells. So - out of spite - Maeve insists that Danny attend Choate boarding school, then Columbia University, then Columbia Medical School.....all of which are very expensive schools. (FYI: Combined tuition and expenses would cost more than a million dollars in today's money). Andrea is infuriated by Danny draining the education fund, but is helpless to intervene.
Choate
Columbia
Though Danny and Maeve no longer have any ownership in the Dutch house, they're inexorably drawn back. The siblings periodically park in front of the house, lambaste Andrea, and reminisce about their lives there.
They talk about their mother, their step-sisters Norma and Bright, the housekeepers Sandy and Jocelyn, their bamboozled father, Danny's future, etc. Maeve wants Danny to be a doctor but - though he's training in the medical field - Danny continues to dream of going into real estate. Even in later years, when Danny and Maeve are adults with numerous responsibilities, they occasionally 'visit' the Dutch house.
We follow Danny and Maeve for several decades, during which a lot happens: marriage, children, career advancement, new homes, squabbles, chance meetings, re-acquaintances, illness, death.....the usual drama of life.
Through it all, Danny and Maeve remain the most important people in each other's lives. No matter what he's doing, Danny always longs to step away and call Maeve; and the only person Maeve loves more than Danny is her departed mother.
The story is by no means a tragedy, and no one is out on the street dressed in rags and starving. In fact, from an outside point of view, Danny and Maeve lead very successful lives. The siblings' own dearest wish would probably be to toss Andrea out on her ear....but, as the Rolling Stones sing, "No, you can't always get what you want; you can't always get what you want; but if you try sometime you find, you get what you need."
The Rolling Stones
By the end of the book, things in Elkins Park come full circle....but in an unexpected way.
The book is rather slow-moving for my taste, but I was invested in the story and found the characters memorable, so - for me - the novel was worth reading.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Salman Rushdie's book Quicotte (pronounced key-shot) is an homage to the tragicomic literary hero Don Quixote. In Miguel de Cervantes' novel 'Don Quixote de La Mancha', published in 1605, a middle-aged Spanish gentleman named Alonso Quixano becomes addled after reading too many heroic romances. Quixano dubs himself Don Quixote and - taking up sword and lance - embarks on a crusade to help the poor and destroy the wicked.
Don Quixote acquires a sidekick named Sancho Panza who accompanies him on his quest, and they have a series of adventures - including fighting windmills (that Don Quixote thinks are giants). During his crusade, Don Quixote falls in love with a peasant woman named Dulcinea, whom he thinks of as his princess.
In Quichotte, an Indian-American gentleman named Ismail Smile works as a sales representative for his cousin's American pharmaceutical company, called Smile Pharmaceuticals. Ismail travels around the southwest United States, stays in cheap motels, and gorges himself on television, including 'daytime talk shows; late-night talk shows; soaps; situation comedies; hospital dramas; police series; vampire and zombie serials; housewives from Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, and New York; singing competitions; cooking competition; business competitions; competition for the affection of bachelors and bachelorettes; baseball games; basketball games; football games; etc.
All this befuddles Ismail's mind, and he falls in love with a beautiful New York television host named Salma R, whom he's never met.
Ismail also starts to behave oddly with customers, so his employer/cousin Dr. R.K. Smile fires him, but provides a nice severance package.
Ismail is now free to pursue Salma R. Thus he renames himself Quichotte and embarks on a cross-country journey to prove he's worthy of her love. Quichotte magics up a teenage son named Sancho to accompany him, and Sancho - who's a phantom at first - becomes a real boy with the help of an Italian cricket called Grillo Parlante (aka Jiminy).
Quichotte keeps Salma R informed about his quest by way of letters, starting with this missive:
"My dear Miss Salma R,
With this note I introduce myself to you. With this hand I declare my love. In time to come as I move ever closer you will come to see that I am true and that you must be mine. You are my Grail and this is my quest. I bow my head before your beauty. I am and will ever remain your knight.
Sent by a smile,
Quichotte
This is followed by more notes, which alarm Salma R, who 'has a bad feeling about them.'
We soon learn that Quichotte is not a real person. He's the main character in a book by an Indian writer called Brother.
Brother, who's been publishing mediocre spy novels under the pen name Sam Duchamp, decides to try his hand at innovative fiction.....and he starts with the tale of "lunatic Quichotte and his doomed pursuit of the gorgeous Miss Salma R."
As Duchamp's fictional story takes shape, it's clear that Quichotte strongly resembles Brother. Both Brother and Quichotte are Bombay-born Indian-American men with physical ailments: Brother has a bad back and Quichotte has a bad leg. Both Brother and Quichotte have successful sisters who survived cancer and are estranged from their brothers, who did them wrong. And both Brother and Quichotte have sons who march to different drummers: Brother's son ran off and got involved in shady internet activities; and Quichotte's son sprang from his imagination. The story alternates back and forth between Quichotte's fictional quest and Brother's actual memories, so we learn a great deal about both characters.
The novel is a rambling affair that touches on myriad concerns of the current era. Brother (who I assume is a proxy for Rushdie) explains that, with his book, he was "wanting to take on the destructive mind-numbing junk culture of his time just as Cervantes had gone to war with the junk culture of his own age;
He was trying also to write about impossible obsessional love, father-son relationships, sibling quarrels, and yes....unforgivable things;
About Indian immigrants, racism toward them, crooks among them;
About cyberspies, science fiction, the intertwining of fictional and real realities; and the end of the world."
Duchamp also wanted to "incorporate elements of the parodic, and of satire, and pastiche", and to write "about opioid addiction too; the American opioid epidemic and the scams associated with it."
Rushdie accomplishes all this this by delving into the history of his characters as well as their ambitions, motivations, behavior, relationships, thoughts, activities, and so on. For example, Dr. R. K. Smile has become a pharma billionaire thanks to the development of a sub-lingual Fentanyl spray called InSmile, which is 100 times stronger than morphine. Dr. Smile got the inspiration for marketing InSmile during a visit to Bombay, where he came across a business card that read, "Are you alcoholic? We can help. Call this number for liquor home delivery."
Hence InSmile is now shipped to every city, town, village, and hamlet in the United States, where it makes a substantial contribution to the opioid epidemic.
In fact Salma R, who's bipolar and a proponent of electroconvulsive therapy, is a pharmaceutical addict who's trying to acquire a bounteous supply of InSmile. This is what eventually connects her to Quichotte, who has access to the drug.
Other noteworthy characters are Brother's parents - who had successful businesses in India; Brother's and Quichotte's sisters and their significant others - one of whom is a male judge who dresses in evening gowns and heels at home; Brother's pedophile grandfather; Dr. Smile's ambitious social climber wife, called Happy; Salma R's mother and grandmother - both of whom were famous actresses; Salma R's staff - who enable her drug addiction; scientist Evel Sent, who's built a portal to an alternative Earth; and more.
A good part of the book focuses on Quichotte and Sancho's road trip across the country, from the southwest United States to New York, where Quichotte hopes to meet and woo Salma R. Like their 17th century predecessors, Quixote and his Sancho have many memorable experiences. For instance:
- Quixote and Sancho camp at Lake Capote in Colorado, and take out a map to plot their journey. A stocky young white woman - suspicious of the map - approaches and says, "Where are your turbans and beards? You shave your faces and take off the headgear to fool us? You look shifty to me. You up to something. You can dress yourself out of J Crew but you don't fool me." The following kerfuffle with campers gets Quixote and Sancho ejected from the campgrounds.
- In Billy's Diner in Tulsa, a confrontation with fellow diners results in slurs like: "F**k you. Get out of my country and go back to your broke bigoted America hating desert shitholes. We're gonna nuke you all" and "Where did you hide your turbans and f**king beards?"
- Quichotte and Sancho stop at a New Jersey Motor Inn, where the owner wants to examine their ears, noses, and teeth before allowing them to check in. It seems that people in town are spontaneously morphing into mastodons....and wreaking havoc to their surroundings.
There's plenty more going on in the novel. Among other things, both Brother and Quichotte attempt to make amends with their respective sisters, which sheds light on the women's grievances; Brother meets his son after many years, and tries to coax him onto the right path; and Quichotte has a memorable interaction with Salma R.
I got a kick out of the novel's innumerable references to popular culture, which are liberally sprinkled throughout the book. It makes me smile to think of Salman Rushdie plonked in front of the television or computer, or trolling the streets, making copious notes.
Salman Rushdie
If you like literary novels, you'd probably enjoy this book, which is long-listed for the 2019 Booker prize.
Rating: 4 stars
