Summer Books
2002
“Your beach book for the summer,”
I told my dermatologist as I offered him my copy of Walter Mosley’s new
book about Easy Rawlins: Bad Boy Brawly Brown (Little, Brown;
$24.95). The good doctor smiled, said “You know I never go out in
the summer sun to the beach, but I’ll call it my summer book.” I took
one look at that sensational smooth face, said “I’ll have what you’re
having”, went home with his retinoic acid and tossed my pricey skin seaweed
mixture away. And began reading the pick of this season’s summer books.
Do some words make you laugh? I remember the phrase “Anaheim, Azuza and Cucamonga”, a radio tagline from some long-ago show—Jack Benny ,I think. Say the words: everybody laughed. Another example, “New Jersey”. Don’t know why but just saying the words is a giggle. Which is part of the reason for the success of the books written by Janet Evanovich about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, who resides in the Burg inTrenton with her rowdy Italian-Hungarian family. One of her sidekicks is her grandma, who’s always up for something—be it a car chase or a hunky guy. Stephanie and Janet have done so much for each other that Janet no longer resides in New Jersey but in New Hampshire near Dartmouth.
Meanwhile Stephanie (Hard Eight, St. Martin's Press, $24.95) is back in the wacky world of the Burg, where her next door neighbor is searching for a missing daughter and seven-year old granddaughter. Not having enough on her plate bringing in the shoddy miscreants that are her regular bounty-catching business, Stephanie volunteers to help. Which puts her up against sleazeball Eddie Abruzzi, a scary character who likes to play war games. Stephanie finds snakes and spiders in her home, manages to get another two vehicles blown up. Oh, and there’s a killer rabbit on the loose!
It was only a matter of time before some writer mined the Last Laugh status of New Jersey with a male hero. Or maybe Andy Carpenter, a defense attorney , is an anti-hero whose legal maneuvers are legion in and out of the courtrooms of Passaic County. Andy is asked by his father, a judge, to take on the appeal of Willie Miller, a young black man on death row for the murder of a white woman…a man put there by Andy’s father.
A few days later his father dies leaving Andy 22million dollars richer and attempting to solve two mysteries: where did his father get this kind of money and is there a connection to the Miller case? That’s the story line but I have to tell you that this book, only 243 pages long, took me three nights to read because it’s a book I just didn’t want to end. It has already sold to films, comes complete with kind words from Don Westlake, Harlan Coban, Margaret Maron, all terrific writers and all published by Mysterious Press, as is Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt (Mysterious Press; $23.95; 243 pages.)
New book from Dorothy Cannell, an Ellie Haskell Mystery, The Importance of beingErnestine (Viking; $23.95; 272 pages). We first met Ellie in Cannell’s TheThin Woman a few years back. Cannell then left England for America, now lives in Peoria. (No jokes, please, about Peoria.) Here, Ellie and her trusted cleaning lady, Roxie Malloy, get mixed up in a thirty-year old death when Roxie takes a new job she considers more up-market than cleaning, assistant to private eye Milk Jugg, who is away on vacation. Her local ladyship comes into the PI's office, and Roxie hastily calls for Ellie’s help. It all began, her ladyship tells them, when she hired a parlor maid, Flossie, who became pregnant by the under-gardener, Ernest. Flossie was fired from Moulty Towers and later gave birth to a girl, Ernestine. Before Flossie dies, she vows vengeance on the Krumley family and indeed members of the family keep “dropping off the twig”. Mrs. Krumley suspects Ernestine and wants to find her. Can the newly-established duo of Ellie and Roxie find Ernestine and solve the case?
If you missed the reality series “The Hamptons” on TV, not to worry because
in James Patterson’s and Peter deJonge’s The Beach House
(Little, Brown; $25..95) the rich and powerful once again clash with the
locals on the East end of Long Island. Law student Jack Mullen leaves
NYC and the confines of academia to go to the eastern tip of Long Island
to seek an answer to his brother’s death. Using grief to keep focused
Jack recruits home town friends to discover the truth—confronting some
of the rich and powerful, who seem determined to put him off track.
If
you’re tired of reading about today’s miscreants, you might pick up a
big paperback just issued as one of Penguin’s Classic History
Books and called Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask (Penguin
Classic History; $15.00;377 pages). Its author, Englishman Hugh Ross Williamson,
was, by turns, editor of The Bookman, Acting Editor of the Strand Magazine,
Director of the London General Press, an Anglican Priest, finally reconciled
to the Catholic Church. Historical Enigmas was published
in 1974,and returns today in its latest guise, which covers what happened
to the two princes in the tower; as well as several historical puzzles
in addition to the identity of the man in the iron mask.