I read far more of Ian Fleming than any other author,
(re)reading the entire James Bond series in order, and this time getting to
read You Only Live Twice (which I had
skipped when I read these books years ago). The only character who even came
close to matching Bond was Sherlock Holmes, who kept popping up and doing
battle with other characters from English literature – but various authors were
trying their hand there, and the results varied. I have a very high opinion of
Ian Fleming, and a hangman’s dozen would probably result in multiple James Bond
books being chosen. But this would be unfair to the rest of the crew from this
year, so I have resolved to choose only one James Bond novel for this hangman’s
dozen. It’s a rule that applies to everyone else also—each author this year can
only be represented by one book. This is to make the hangman’s dozen a bit more
diverse and to make my job (writing a really quick blurb) easier.
With that being said, here is the hangman’s dozen of the
best books I read in 2013 (ordered by author’s name)
As a big fan of Margery Allingham, the only thing I regret
about her books is that she wasn’t more ingenious with her stories. She’s often
at her finest coming up with lovably loony characters, but the plotting
department just isn’t her forte. The strongest of her plots I’d read to date
was Police at the Funeral, which had
a plot that Allingham nicked from Sherlock Holmes. But in Death of a Ghost, she comes up with her own plot, and a beauty it
is at that. It’s not so much a whodunit as much as it a how-will-he-get-caught
novel. Campion knows whodunit instinctively, but he must find proof of his
suspicions, and this leads to a very memorable conclusion in which Campion’s
life itself is at stake.
Nicholas Blake is criminally forgotten in this day and age,
and I just don’t get it. The Beast Must
Die showcases his strengths as a mystery writer admirably. It’s about a
detective story writer named Frank Cairnes, but who writes under the pseudonym
of Felix Lane. And he’s going to kill the man who ran over his son Martie. When
he does find the careless motorist,
he turns out to be a positive beast of a man, a man who terrorizes his family
and makes enemies wherever he goes. It’s not long before a murder takes place…
Not only does this book have excellent characterization, it’s also
well-plotted. There are plenty of clues and red herrings, and multiple garden
paths for you to stray on. The ending is also an ingenious one. I honestly
cannot think of a single criticism to give to this book; it’s just that good.
Psycho is a
masterpiece, and it made for an equally-good film. It’s interesting to contrast
the adaptation with the novel, because for once Alfred Hitchcock remained
faithful to the source material, yet there are a few differences. I’m a big fan
of the novel and always have been – although it deals with some really
disturbing subject matter, it does so in a subtle way which doesn’t lessen the
impact of its blows. There’s even a sense of humour running through the book,
which plays all sorts of sneaky games with your mind and its expectations. This
is psychological suspense at its finest. It’s difficult to talk about the plot
without using spoilers, but let me say that it’s just as relevant today as it
was in 1959, and I admire Robert Bloch for the imagination it took to create
this book.
This is a tremendously funny book, a comedy of murders where
everything you could possibly imagine goes wrong. It starts with a
wrongly-acquitted murderer being recruited to join the Asterisk Club, a group
of murderers who have gotten off scot-free. But he’s then murdered himself, and
hijinx ensues as the homeowners, neighbours to the Asterisk Club, try covering
up the murder. Fortunately, the members of the club are experts in this
particular field, and they decide to lend their expertise, whether it’s wanted
or not! I laughed my way merrily through this book, and it’s made me hungry to
read more by Pamela Branch. Unfortunately, I must control my urges, because
Branch died after writing only a handful of books…
It started as a conventional mystery. Two young boys had
been discovered dead together, apparently a murder-suicide pact between two
young gay lovers. But one of the victims’ relatives insists that his younger
brother was no “fag”, and asks dwarf detective Mongo to investigate. It seems
like the start to another conventional crime novel, but if you approach this
book with such expectations, they will be completely subverted. Before I was at
the 1/3 mark, the book had completely changed its style, tone, etc. and had
morphed into a wild fantasy/sci-fi/thriller/epic with plenty of parallels to The Lord
of the Rings. Full of unforgettable touches (like a foul-mouthed gorilla
named Gollum), this was one of my favourite reading experiences in 2013.
The third Nate Heller novel, and third in the so-called
“Frank Nitti Trilogy”, it was the most ambitious undertaking of the trilogy,
skipping back and forth through time and experimenting with its storytelling
structure (as Nate Heller begins the book with a bad case of amnesia). The Million-Dollar Wound, like other
Nate Heller books, was an excellent read, balancing plot and character
development perfectly. The most interesting thing about this particular
instalment is seeing Nate Heller go to the battlefront during WWII, a
horrifying experience which drastically changes him. Yet throughout it all,
he’s the same Nate Heller I’ve come to know and love throughout the series. An
excellent read, and my favourite of the Nate Hellers I read in 2013.
For once, somebody kept the promise of their title. Michael
Dibdin’s The Last Sherlock Holmes Story
is indeed the very last Sherlock Holmes story. No more are possible after
you’ve turned the book’s final page. There’s nowhere to build on from here, no
“to be continued” sign, no teaser of upcoming adventures, nothing. And as much
as I love Sherlock Holmes, I liked seeing this. I wanted someone to feel bold
enough to do something different with
Holmes without having him battling Martians or Dracula or anything like that.
None of this Holmes-seems-to-be-dead nonsense only to have him come back 15
pages later – Sir Arthur already covered that ground, we don’t need more of
Watson’s sentimentalism. And even though this is a Holmes-vs.-the-Ripper story
(and I’ve seen that done to death), this has an original take on the Ripper
case, and it’s a good take.
Of all the James Bond novels I read in 2013, I decided to
showcase Goldfinger for this
hangman’s dozen. Why? Because there’s a good reason Goldfinger is the most-loved and best-remembered of the Bond
stories. It’s just that good. It’s a wild adventure, one escapade after the
other, and it sucks you in from the very beginning. It’s a damn good story,
with a great villain (with a great sidekick!) and a plot so crazy it seems like
it just might work. (Although there is a
problem with Goldfinger’s scheme which the film adaptation corrected.) It’s a
book so good that it even Anthony Boucher, who positively despised Fleming’s
work, seemed to enjoy it. He gave the book this backhanded compliment: “the
whole preposterous fantasy strikes me as highly entertaining”.
This was my favourite English-language detective story of
2013. It’s just phenomenal; it can stand proudly beside the classics of
detective fiction, like The Murder of
Roger Ackroyd or The Mystery of the
Yellow Room. It’s about a serial killer who writes stories based on his
murders and submits them to a competition. The victims have no apparent
connection to one another, and it seems impossible to catch the “Wordman”.
There’s an emphasis on games, especially word games, throughout the novel, and
with it comes a sense of fun. Make no mistake, this is a detective story, and
not a thinly-veiled drama. I particularly loved the surprising solution, but
the ending itself is positively brilliant: it’s one of the most interesting
ways I’ve ever seen a solution unveiled.
When I was asked to review Tomorrow City, I agreed to do so because of its short length. In
this day and age of bloated 500-page epics where 200 pages could easily be
chucked out without losing anything, I was intrigued to see a book that didn’t even
get to 200 pages. I’m glad I read it, because Tomorrow City turned out to be one of my favourite books of 2013,
and certainly my favourite of the new books (i.e. books published in 2013) I
read. It’s not a detective story but a crime drama about a man trying to escape
his past. But old sins cast long shadows, and it isn’t long before the past
catches up to him. This was a riveting, exciting read, and it made the most of
its page count – not a single word felt extraneous or wasted. It’s hard to
believe that this was a debut novel – it feels like the work of a seasoned
professional. If this is a preview of what’s to come from Kjeldsen’s pen, I’m
excited for the next book!
Margaret Millar is one of my all-time favourites, and if
anyone is looking for a solid introduction to her work, A Stranger in My Grave is a good place to start. It’s one of her
most ambitious books, with a twist ending that is only fully revealed in the final
sentence. It’s also got terrific characters, who almost seem to jump off the
page. And it’s concerned with many of the same themes that Millar and her
husband, “Ross Macdonald”, concerned themselves with, such as a family falling
apart. I had the pleasure of reading two books of Millar’s in 2013, and had a
very hard time choosing which of the two to feature on this list. They are just
that good.
Hands-down my favourite book I read in any language
in 2013. This is another Holmes vs. the Ripper yarn, but one of the most
unconventional ones I’ve ever read. Holmes himself doesn’t appear, and Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle only pops up in a cameo near the end. Instead, Holmes is a
fictional character who inspires regular people to do great things. This was a
complex yarn, with three mysteries being woven neatly together, one of them
being the Jack the Ripper case. And the Ripper’s identity is brilliantly
ingenious, the kind of solution that could only work in fiction, and is all the
better for it.
I didn’t intend to leave the non-mystery novel for last, but
that’s somehow how it happened. The
Shootist is a classic Western novel about the last of the shootist, J. B.
Books, and his battle with cancer, a battle that he is already losing and which
he cannot possibly win. It’s a tragedy about a man whose prime has come and
gone, and who must come to terms with his inevitable death, while those around
him try to profit off of his predicament. It’s a beautifully written book, and
it examines serious issues like any piece of quality fiction. It made for fine
reading, and I think I may have even enjoyed it more than the classic film
adaptation, which was (appropriately enough) John Wayne’s swan song. Definitely
recommended to anyone who enjoys Westerns, be it in book form or on the silver
screen.
***
There were plenty of other terrific reads in 2013. Why
didn’t they make the hangman’s dozen? Because if I had to write a brief piece
for each of them, we’d be here all day… plus, I wouldn’t be able to think of a
catchy phrase like “hangman’s dozen”. Also, some of the authors are already
represented on the list and I’m just trying to be fair here, mac. So here are
the honourable mentions, books that I felt were just as worthy as being on the
hangman’s dozen, but for one reason or another I didn’t want to write a blurb
about them.
A very varied and interesting list, Patrick. I was especially interested in The Shootist, even though I primarily read mysteries.
ReplyDeleteThe Shootist is excellent. I have read 4 Swartouts, and that is by far his best. True Grit by Portis is a superb western.
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