Book Rec of the Day 2/25-2/29/2008

IT’S A MYSTERY

“The best mystery writer in the English-speaking world.”—Time

“Unequivocally the most brilliant mystery writer of our time. She magnificently triumphs in a style that is uniquely hers and mesmerizing.”—Patricia Cornwell

Mistress of Mystery Barbara Vine, aka Ruth Rendell, has tapped the ghost of Daphne du Maurier for this gothic tale that takes place in the 1960s at Old Lydstep Hall, complete with box-hedge maze, a disturbed brother, and a reunion between two women that sparks a long flashback story. Treat yourself: Vine/Rendell always delivers a real novel along with a mystery.

THE MINOTAUR, by Barbara Vine (Viking, 2005)

YOU GOTTA LAUGH

She’d been presented at court and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, but her sense of mischief and curiosity led the young author to see how the other half lived, downstairs. As maid or cook in several grand establishments (of her social peers), she drops roasts, renders eccentric services to aristocratic English wackos, and generally suffers hilariously.

ONE PAIR OF HANDS, by Monica Dickens (Academy Chicago Publishers, 1988)

A drought in the Yorkshire dales dries up a reservoir, exposing the remains of the town of Hobbs End and the body of a woman brutally murdered there 50 years ago. Detective Inspector Alan Banks patiently gathers evidence to reconstruct the story of a young bride who had deserted her shell-shocked husband. Robinson parallels Banks’s detective work with a manuscript written by the victim’s sister-in-law that seems to tell the murdered bride’s story. This beautifully crafted mystery was a New York Times Notable Book for 1998.

IN A DRY SEASON, by Peter Robinson (Avon, 2000)

ALL THAT JAZZ

Doerschuk, a music journalist and jazz pianist, starts his 88 chapters with “the man who invented jazz” (Jelly Roll Morton) and takes us through stride, swing, bop and funk, the sophisticates, the neotraditionalists, postbop, and the future. Morton, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk, Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor, and Keith Jarrett are singled out as defining something their own. Includes a bonus CD with 11 great jazz tracks, 100 photos, and a foreword by Jarrett.

88: THE GIANTS OF JAZZ PIANO, by Robert Doerschuk; foreword by Keith Jarrett (Backbeat Books, with CD, 2001)

SHORT FICTION

“Nelson is a superb storyteller preternaturally attuned to the wildness in our hearts.”—Booklist (starred review)

Tales of childhood and middle age, of love and loss, and gritty, totally real dialogue—there’s a new(ish) writer on the block for those who love Lorrie Moore or Alice Munro or any good woman who can tell a good story. Antonya Nelson is a name to remember and a force to be reckoned with.

SOME FUN: STORIES AND A NOVELLA, by Antonya Nelson (Scribner, 2006)