Getting Medieval

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

So I picked up Her Royal Spyness because I’m going to be on my first panel with, among others, Rhys Bowen at Bouchercon (History in Jeopardy: A Forensic Game Show. Those of you coming, it’s on Thursday at 11. Come watch me make a complete ass of myself.) I figure you should at least read something of the other historical novelists, particularly those with whom you will...um...panel.

My expectations have been low lately. Frankly, every time I pick up a “must read” book or an “award winner” I find myself continually looking at the cover, wondering if I haven’t got the wrong one. Is anyone writing decent books worth reading these days? I wondered.

Well, yes. They are. Bowmen’s Her Royal Spyness smacked me immediately like a Lord Peter book (same time frame, a lot of rich young things spouting “Cheerio” and “spot of tea?” It’s chatty, first person style was fun to read from the get-go but I did begin to wonder just when the spying or the murder might show up. The queen wants our heroine Georgiana to spy on her son the Prince (later Edward VIII) and a certain American divorcee he’s been hanging around with. But mostly Georgie—a minor royal, who is 34th from the throne—is too preoccupied at the moment trying to find a way to make a living as her half-brother the duke cut off her allowance when she turned 21. Her father is no more and her mother is a flighty and oft-married former actress. Her only hope is to either be sent off to the country as a lady-in-waiting to boring relations or marry some deadly dull foreign prince--until she comes up with a few plans of her own.

Full of interesting characters as their “whimsy” takes them ;), I didn’t mind that the murder doesn’t happen till the middle of the book! Just like a foray into a Madam Sayers novel, I didn’t really care how hardcore the mystery is, I just like listening to the characters. I did enjoy this. I look forward to more.

The next book was Simon Levack’s Demon of the Air. Here is a true original. This is an Aztec mystery, set in Mexico in 1517. Yaotl is a slave who used to be a priest and he is plunged into a myriad of circumstances whirling way out of his control that dredge up a bit of his past while at the same time forces him to chose sides between his master, the Chief Minister, and no less than Emperor Montezuma himself. But it’s not your drop-a-detective-in-the-Aztec-Empire kind of book. Yaotl is a truly unique character set against an unusual and fascinating backdrop.

There’s a lot of blood, as the story opens on the daily sacrifice of slaves, hearts torn out on top of the Great Pyramid. But after a while, you sink into the Aztec mindset and it seems to make perfect sense, if any religion does.

Beforehand, we get a good and brief explanation of the Aztec calendar and pronunciation guide, but after that--though there is a lot to absorb--Levack is very skillful at weaving his tale in a language we can all understand. This was a Debut Dagger Award-winner in 2004 and it certainly deserves it. What this author doesn’t deserve is having to self-publish his fourth in the series. Are publishers nuts? What are they thinking dropping this fascinating series? I for one am glad to have found it. I saw Simon at last year’s Bouchercon and was hoping to see him at this one but he tells me he has to skip it. Let’s keep him on the bookstore shelves where he belongs.

My third foray was a satire by Robert Kaplow called Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America? We get a very funny peek into the (fictionalized) lives of Sue Grafton on the Orient Express, Danielle Steel and Curtis Sittenfeld in Paris, Tom Clancy (and a very funny cameo by Ann Coulter), and Stephen King, who is unwittingly thrown into the investigation of their tragic deaths.

There are, frankly, some very funny moments in this book but I got the feeling that Kaplow isn’t a fan. Kaplow gets into each writer’s styles and vamps on every writer’s constant worry about reviews and the next book. And the next.

There were a few cringe-worthy moments, however, but the stuff with Stephen King and especially Tom Clancy was priceless. Worth a read but I don’t know if it was worth the price of the ticket.

I am now delving into Jasper FForde’s The Eyre Affair and liking it so far. But I’m taking on the plane to Bouchercon Charlaine Harris’ latest Sookie Stackhouse and Neil Plakcy’s Mahu Surfer. Hope to see some of you there.

Mahu

Book : Mahu by Neil S. Plakcy,

Haworth Positronic Press, 2005

Kimo Kanapa’aka is many things. He’s a mixed-race man in Honolulu. He’s a surfer. And he’s a police detective undergoing the most difficult of self-scrutinies: he’s gay and he’s got to learn to deal with it.

He inadvertently outs himself when he discovers a dead body outside a gay bar, and from this first of his police procedural blunders, his troubles begin. A murder, a suicide (that may not be a suicide), smuggling, and drugs all come into play in this new mystery, and all the while, Kimo struggles with his sexuality which he has been denying far too long. Not only does he grapple to catch the bad guys but it may be his very job on the line now that he is known as the “gay cop.”

The titular Mahu is the derogatory term in Hawaiian for homosexual, and so Kimo, only just plunged into the shallow waters of his sexuality, must face this stereotype even amongst his own family. But family is what it’s all about in Kimo’s life, whether running into his blustery brothers, his Asian parents, his wise but wily Uncle Chin, or his homophobic fellow officers.

Though I am not partial to things Polynesian, the Hawaiian setting is different (dare I say exotic?) enough to catch my interest, seeing that the mainland or Europe get most of the play in mysteries. I found this book to be an enjoyable read, from its physical structure (all the chapters were the same brief length) to its plot structure (the plot balances between just enough mystery interspersed with Kimo’s personal life). Kimo is also an extremely likable protagonist. That in itself is enough to keep me reading, but his life isn’t so perfect that I’m rolling my eyes. The sexual content is erotic but not graphic, and dealt with tastefully. My biggest worry at first was the Hawaiian words. I thought they would slow me down but there’s a rhythm to them and Plakcy adds just the right amount of them to give us the flavor of the islands without overwhelming us, while offering enough explanation as to what they mean to keep the prose flowing.

My only gripe was that I felt it was one chapter too long. Some of the info from the last chapter could have been incorporated in the penultimate chapter (which I fully expected to be the last, the way it summed things up).

I will happily be looking forward to more adventures with Kimo to see how he copes in his new skin. I see that Alyson books will be releasing Mahu Surfer in August 2007. Something to look forward to. Aloha.

Book Review

8 July 2006

I think I’m going to build a little shrine of books that feature Templars and the Holy Grail. After all, it’s better than hurling the books across the room.

My original intention was to read other contemporary novels dealing with these themes of which I have intimate acquaintance and comment on them here. But as someone once said, if you can’t say something nice… The first one I picked up from a small press started off all right, though it read like a Michael Crichton script…er…novel, just begging to be more visual than literary. I can’t complain there as I think cinematically when I write as well. Can’t help it. I was raised on movies, especially old ones. But then it was veering again into the Holy Blood, Holy Grail scenario and that’s when it let loose from my hands and accidentally hit the wall. Hmm. Anyway. I have another that I have begun to ease into and we’ll see if that also returns to the pile that will soon be the shrine.

However, I do have a book I read over my vacation that I can talk about. Over the past year I have read books I enjoy, even books I like. But it is rare that I come across a book I absolutely love. The book in question is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I know this is a few years old now but it takes me a while to get to things. I didn’t know anything about this novel except its enigmatic title and that it was a bestseller, so when I dived in I was immediately captured by her prose. (Those who read my blog and my list of all-time favorite books know I’m a sucker for wonderful prose.) It is indeed a story about a time traveler and his wife. There are no goofy machines, no funny devices to muck it up. This time traveler has a genetic disorder that makes him move back and forth through time and all he can take is himself, so he is constantly inconvenienced with having to obtain clothes upon his arrivals. Henry the time traveler is well-read, well-educated, and deals with his disorder, learning horrible truths and the one great one—that love above all things transcends even time.

On one of his arrivals, he meets Clare and so they begin their strange romance, as Henry shows up in Clare’s life at its different points, from when she was six to her teenaged years and beyond. Niffenegger deals gently with all the characters, giving us glimpses of Henry’s father, the violinist whose downfall into alcoholism is the result of the loss of his wife in a terrible accident, one Henry is doomed to helplessly visit again and again throughout his life.

It is so cleverly wrought, so complicated and touching, that you immediately believe the world that Niffenegger creates. I certainly wouldn’t give anything away but it is above all a love story and definitely has it all, from its very funny moments to its poignant ones. I highly recommend this book. Time will fly for you as you read it and it will be most difficult to forget.