Retro Review: The Burnt Orange Heresy by Charles Willeford

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Keywords: art, art criticism, crime fiction, noir

The two books I'm currently reading (The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg and Early Riser by Jasper Fforde) are good reads but slow going. For a change of pace, I picked up Willeford's The Burnt Orange Heresy (1971) which had been lying around on my TBR shelf. Prior to this book, I only knew Williford from Miami Blues (1984),which featured the cold-blooded killer Junior Fenger who, in the first chapter, snaps the finger of a Hare Krishna who accosts him in the Miami airport. I expected a similar sort of story and characters in The Burnt Orange Heresy but boy was I wrong. For all that it has a style and plot I wasn't expecting, I love this book.

James Figueras is a young art critic devoted to his profession. His reputation as a critic is more important to him than money. He scrupulously avoids anything that might bring his impartiality as a critic into question and won't even purchase art much less accept any as a gift because it might introduce the appearance of bias.

The story is mostly set in Florida around Palm Beach and told in first person from the viewpoint of Figueras. As the story begins, he is avoiding thinking about a gallery exhibit opening he doesn't want to attend by pondering a problem named Berenice Hollis. Benenice is a high school English teacher from Duluth, Minnesota who came down to Florida for a minor operation and refuses to go back to Duluth. It  should have been a short and pleasurable interlude for both of them but now James can't make her go away. She'll have an important role later.

Wealthy art collector, Joesph Cassidy, arranges a meeting with Figueras  after the exhibit opening but not for the expected reasons, ie to catalog his collection or evaluate a potential purchase. Rather, Cassidy knows that the reclusive French artist, Jacques Debierue, is living several hours away from Palm Beach. Debierue is the greatest artist in the world and originator of the Nihilistic Surrealism movement which is a bridge between Dada and Surrealism. He never exhibits or shows his work and if Figueras can get an interview and see his Florida work it will be an incredible coup and move the young critic into the top tier of his profession. Cassidy will provide the address if Figueras does just one little favor for him. With Berenice in tow, James is off to meet his hero but will his hero meet his expectations and what will be the consequences.

I've always heard about Willeford as a writer of hardboiled crime novels and The Burnt Orange Heresy is described as his best noir novel which is why is caught me off guard when I started reading. A large part of the book is Figueras expounding on art and the role of the art critic. For a third or more of the book, Berenice serves to ask naive questions and give James an excuse to explain art and why she isn't qualified to have an opinion. This makes Figueras very unlikable and puts the reader's sympathy with Berenice. She asks the question that came to me as well: How do you know Debierue is the world's greatest painter when no one has seen his paintings? I was solidly in Berenice's corner when she tries to express that art should be accessible to people and James holding forth that art has a higher purpose. I don't know this for sure but I suspect that Willeford is poking a bit of fun at people who take art too seriously. Wait until you read James' description of Debierue's work, No. One, that launched Debierue's reputation as an artist. Besides being an audience for James' pontifications, Berenice also acts, unsuccessfully, as James' conscience in the events that occur.

You might be wondering why you would want to read a book that is essentially an art lecture. I think it is carefully constructed to develop Figueras as a noir figure who will meet the inevitable end of a noir figure. I was expecting the fall but not how the story actually wrapped up in the last eight paragraphs. This is an engrossing story that kept my interest until the end and confirmed that I want to read everything Willeford wrote.

Review: Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Price

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Aberystwyth Mon Amour (2001) is the first in Malcolm Pryce's Aberstwyth Noir series. Each title is a humorous version of a film title. The setting is an alternate version of the real Welsh coastal town of Aberystwyth (pronounced "aber・ ist ・with" according to the interwebs).

Noir and hardboiled detective stories have long been favorites of mine and when you add pastiche to the mix you can be in for a fun read. Based on this first book, I'd say that Pryce's Aberystwyth series delivers on that promise. The series is a humorous pastiche on the classic Chandler-esque detective. Aberystwyth's only private eye is Louie Knight who runs Knight Errant Investigations from a run-down office rented, furnished, from the library. With the name alone, already you know the territory you are heading into. Chandler's Philip Marlowe has been likened to a knight on a quest to make things right. Remember the opening scene in The Big Sleep when Marlowe looks up at the knight rescuing the lady tied to a tree? Like Marlowe, Louie doesn't make much money. And like Marlowe he'll keep working even if fired from the job. He works in a corrupt town, he doesn't respect authority, he's quick with a snappy remark, and he won't let go of a problem.

In Aberystwyth Mon Amour Louie is approached by the famous night club singer, Myfanwy Montez, to find her missing cousin, Evans the Boot. Though still in school, Evans the Boot is an unlikable thug. Louie turns her down but is curious enough to nose around quickly finding himself up against the local organized crime organization and a super secret militant religious organization. He finds more children missing under mysterious circumstances, people who aren't what they seem, and finds himself deep in danger and involved with Myfanwy.

To this straightforward sounding plot adds absurd details that will appeal to fans of Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde. The local crime organization is run by Druids. Tea cosies have an unexpected connotation. The local ice cream vendor runs an Existentialist promotion week. Cheese has different properties than we are used to and can be used to remove fingerprints.

Even if you don't get all the send-ups of Welsh culture this is still a fun read and I recommend it. I've already added the second book, Last Tango in Aberystwyth to my TBR stack.

Keywords: Wales fiction, noir, detective fiction, crime fiction, alternate reality, humor, pastiche, hardboiled

Recently Read: Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

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Keywords: Police procedural, kidnapping, British crime fiction, female detective fiction, Manon Bradshaw series

This was an accidental read. My wife checked it out as an ebook from our public library and since we share the amazon account it ended up on my Kindle as well as hers.

Manon Bradshaw is a female detective sergeant in the Cambridgshire Constabulary. Cambridgshire is a county in the East of England. On a cold, snowy night, near the Christmas holidays, she is called to the house Will Carter returns to the hoe he shares with girlfriend Edith Hind to find her missing. Her phone, car keys, passport, and winter outerwear are still in the house, the door was open, and there is a significant amount of blood on the floor. Edith is considered a high-risk misper, not only because of the circumstances but because she is the daughter of Sir Ian Hind. Sir Ian is connected in government, loud, demanding, not at all understanding of police procedures. So with intense pressure to solve the case swiftly, the search is on.

As with all procedurals, the police have to investigate all aspects of the victims life no matter how unconnected they may seem. This is a source of conflict since Sir Ian just wants them to arrest the most promising suspect and stop messing about with irrelevant details. For the reader these multiple paths to the investigation begin to peel away at what we know about the victim. Sometimes the investigation might lead to further tragedy.

This was a fun read. Manon is cynical and snarky like I like my British detectives. Her personal life is a mess. On the cusp of her forties, she despairs of finding a relationship and her efforts at online dating have all been wash-outs with no prospects for getting any better. The dates provide humor though her feelings afterwords are sad.

The chapters are told from the viewpoints of five characters, two of which are police officers, Manon and Detective Davy Walker, young, earnest, a promising detective, and admiring of Manon, with his own personal problems.

The personal issues of the two detectives don't get in the way of the story which I appreciated but serve to show who they are and why they act the way they do.

Missing, Presumed was published in 2016. The sequel, Persons Unknown, is now available. I suspect I will continue with this series.

Review: ID: New Short Fiction From Africa selected by Short Story Day Africa

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Keywords: Africa, short fiction, short stories

This short story anthology is the result of the 2017 Short Story Day Africa (SSDA) competition. It is an outstanding collection of stories and a delight to see how the authors interpreted the assigned theme, ID. Consider these two letters, ID: they can be interpreted as an abbreviation for "identification" or, as editor Helen Moffett writes in the introduction, the 'psychoanalytic construct of the "Id" – that deep structure that houses our unconscious desires...'. As with previous SSDA collections (see below), one of the appeals for me is the richness of having so many different voices, differences in word choices and syntax, experiencing the cultures and just the day-to-day existance so different from what I know. All of the stories are a pleasure to read even those where I was left thinking "wait, what?". They all give you something to think about and perhaps a new perspective n life.

The winner of the competition Nigerian author Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor. In his story, All Our Lives, he explores the many faces of young people coming to Nigerian cities looking for identity, belonging, love, a better life.

Joint runner-up is Agazit Abate's The Piano Player who gives us a moving glimpse at the life of an African piano player in a hotel in Addis Ababa. Blending into the background and barely noticed by the hotel guests, she sees and hears snippets of the lives of people whom she is background rather than a reason to be there.

The other runner-up is South African author Michael Yee. In God Skin she writes of a woman trapped in the family Chinese restaurant, alienated from her in-laws and brutish husband, denied the love she can see but not touch, forbidden by society, leading to a violent expression of her frustrations.


In addition to the authors, congratulations to everyone involved in producing the collection. It is quite an accomplishment to be able to select 21 stories from hundreds of entries stories much less to select clear winners.

Some words about the origins of this collection. ID is the product of the Short Story Day Africa (SSDA) competition which was founded in 2011 by Rachael Zadok. The competition is open to any African citizen, a person who is part of the African diaspora, and permanent residents in an African nation. For those who haven't thought about Africa very much, the continent is really big and consists of 54 recognized sovereign states (Wikipedia), from the countries on the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. With that span, you will be exposed to a mind-boggling range of cultures and voices and interpretations.

Each competition has a different theme. Here are the four to date:
Feast, Famine & Potluck (2013)
Terra Incognita: New Short Speculative Stories from Africa (2014)
Water: New Short Fiction From Africa (2015)
Migrations: New Short Fiction From Africa (2017)
ID: New Short Fiction from Africa (2018)
Hotel Africa (the upcoming competition)

SSDA is a non-profit doing good work to provide a multidimensional view of Africa and to give emerging writers a place to express themselves. I encourage everyone to purchase the short story collections at a minimum. The SSDA website can be found here, Short Story Day Africa.

Review: You'd Better Believe It by Bill James

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Keywords: Police procedural, crime fiction, detective fiction, British crime fiction

Bill James (pseudonym of Welsh author James Tucker) launched the Harpur and Iles series in 1985 and, 34 titles in, it's still going strong. Number 35 is scheduled for release in 2019.

This first book, You'd Better Believe It, is actually "A Detective Colin Harpur Novel". Iles is a character but it doesn't become the Harpur and Iles series until later. The novels are set in an unnamed coastal town south of London where Colin Harpur is Detective Chief Superintendent and Desmond Iles is Assistant Chief Constable.

When the story opens, Harpur has assembled a team to take-down a gang of villains plotting to rob a Lloyd's bank. When the attempted robbery does occur, the carefully planned police operation goes pear shaped, and officer is killed, and the gang leader, Holly, escapes. The death of one of their own puts pressure on Harpur to bring him in. The pressure increases as informants begin to drop as well.

Thirty-five years has done nothing to diminish the pleasure reading this book. Other than the absence of mobile phones and perhaps computers, I didn't have the sense that I was reading a dated story. Women don't have much of a role but I take that as an artifact of time. It is built on a good plot, character development, grim police humor, and a cynical, snarky attitude toward police bureaucracy which needs to be circumvented to get anything done.

In one scene, the brass and Harpur are attending the funeral of one of the snitches. Harpur points out that they didn't attend the funeral of another snitch. The chief replies:

This man is black. It's an opportunity as well as a responsibility. Get hold of our PR people and tell them to make sure the bloody media know we'll be along . We don't want to turn up to a do like that without some mileage.

Harpur delegates work to one of his officers:

That's how it was at the top. You kept a dog and did not bark yourself, not until the barking meant you'd landed some bugger. Yes, a true art, leadership.

This is an excellent introduction to a long running series and one I recommend if you like a good police procedural.

Review: My Name is Finn Jupiter by Gareth Crocker

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Keywords: young adult, strong female characters, South African authors

South African author Gareth Crocker is one of my favorite authors and falls into the "will always buy" category. He never disappoints.

With My Name is Finn Jupiter, Gareth moves into young adult literature. Finn –a young woman– is a high schooler in Victory, Colorado. She is strongly independent, non-conformist, highly unconventional, a skilled climber, and possessing the ability to perceive, analyze, and act while others are still standing around wondering what's happening. Finn's father goes missing in the Rockies at the same time an unimaginable disaster strikes Victory. With all available resources tied up with the disaster, Finn knows that she is the only hope her father has of survival and she won't be stopped.

I enjoyed this story as a grizzled old-timer and I'm positive I would have loved it as a young adult. I could be critical if reading it through my trifocal lenses but as a young person it would have hit all the marks for a satisfying escapist story. Finn Jupiter is exactly the kind of person the young me would want to be friends with, the kind of person who does and says things I would fantasize about doing. The dialog is snappy, very funny at times and gut wrenching others. If you're purchasing this for a young person, be aware that there is some mild cursing but nothing that is out of the ordinary these days which I can say as I work in a university library.

The book ends with a pretty slick setup for sequels that will move the story and characters in a different direction. I intend to read the next installment in Finn's adventures.

My Name is Finn Jupiter is only available as an e-book at this time and can be downloaded from Amazon here.

Review: A Rage in Harlem aka For Love of Imabelle by Chester Himes

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Keywords: Harlem Detective series, noir, detective, Black crime authors, detective fiction, crime fiction

CORRECTION: This blog post mistakingly states that Himes never lived in New York City. My research was cursory and inadequate.

If you are in any way a student of detective fiction then you've heard of Chester B. Himes, well known in crime fiction circles for his Harlem Detective series. I've had the first three of this series sitting on my TBR shelf for a couple of years and only picked up A Rage in Harlem (also titled For Love of Imabelle) three days ago. I'm sorry I waited this long because, man, could this guy write.

This is the story of Jackson, a genuinely good, church-going,  and hopelessly square man who finds himself embroiled is a series of increasingly chaotic and deadly events. Things kick off when Jackson falls for a scam only the most gullible would believe, The Blow, where the mark believes that the con man can "raise" a lower denomination bill to a higher one, eg a $10 bill becomes a $100 bill. All Jackson wants is enough money to support the love of his life, Imabelle, in the style she deserves. It goes badly wrong and Jackson steals from his employer, the undertaker H. Exodus Clay, only to lose the money gambling.  Desperate, he turns to his twin brother, Goldy, who runs his own scam dressed as a Sister of Mercy nun selling winning numbers and tickets to heaven. Then things get ever worse for Jackson. Trust me, this doesn't do the plot – which I've read described as surreal and Rube Goldberg-esque – justice.

In the course of Jackson's adventures, Himes delivers a tour of Harlem and its residents in the '50s. His descriptions are vivid and intense. Consider the way he relates the conditions of life in Harlem with the thundering of a train on overhead tracks:

...the train thundered past overhead, shaking the entire tenement city. Shaking the sleeping black people in their lice-ridden beds. Shaking the ancient bones and the aching muscles, and the t.b. lungs and the uneasy foetuses of unwed girls. Shaking plaster from the ceilings, mortar from between the bricks of the building walls. Shaking the rats between the walls, the cockroaches crawling over kitchen sinks and leftover food; shaking the sleeping flies hibernating in lumps like bees behind the casings of the windows. Shaking the fat, blood-filled bedbugs crawling over black skin. Shaking the fleas, making them hop. Shaking the sleeping dogs in their filthy pallets, the sleeping cats, the clogged toilets, loosing the filth.

That is searing imagery. Something interesting to me about Himes' tour of Harlem, is that he never lived in Harlem, or even NYC. He was born in Missouri, lived and served prison time in Ohio, moved to California, and ended up as an ex-pat living in Europe. I need to get a biography of Himes and find out what drew him to Harlem.
UPDATE
Himes did live in New York on two occasions, 1944/1945 and 1955. His Harlem Detective series was written while he lived abroad.
/UPDATE

A Rage in Harlem is Jackson's story but it introduces Himes' two memorable colored detectives, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. These guys are great. Here is how they are introduced:

Grave Digger stood on the right side of the front end of the line, at the entrance to the Savoy. Coffin Ed stood on the left side of line, at the rear end. Grave Digger had his pistol aimed south, in a straight line down the sidewalk. On the other side, Coffin Ed had his pistol aimed north, in a straight line. ...Whenever anyone moved out of line, Grave Digger would shout, "Straighten up!" and Coffin Ed would echo , "Count off!" If the offender didn't straighten up the line immediately, one of the detectives would shoot into the air. ...Folks in Harlem believed that Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson would shoot a man stone dead for not standing straight in line.

I'm not sure how to describe Himes' writing style except to say as I read him, I "feel" some Elmore Leonard, some Raymond Chandler, some Jim Thompson. He's really, really good and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, The Real Cool Killers. You can get it here at Amazon.

This is the first book in my project to work through the series I have been saving to read until I have all the books. I'm starting with the first couple of book in each series to see if I want to continue.

Next up, something different, Malcolm Pryce's fantasy noir, Aberystwyth Mon Amour.

Breaking the Book Blogging Paralysis

I am a horrible book blogger. The last review I wrote was in March 2018 and by now I should have 20+ posts up. I've hit upon a plan to overcome this slough by tackling four shelves of my book reading backlog. Actually, there are more than four, but baby steps. You see, I have been collecting books in series and waiting until I had the series complete up to the most recent before starting to read any. Years have passed. Thanks to Amazon, I have filled in a few gaps to ensure I can read the first five books in each of the selected series. I figure five books will be enough to tell me if I want to keep reading. Here, in author order, are the series I have chosen:

Himes, Chester —Harlem Detective Series
     First book — A Rage in Harlem (1957

James, Bill — Harpur and Iles Series
     First book — You'd Better Believe It (1985)

Kerr, Philip — Bernie Gunther Series
     First book — March Violets (1989)

Lackberg, Camilla — Flack and Hedström Series
     First book — The Ice Princess (2002)

Nesbo, Jo — Harry Hole Series
     First book —The Bat (1997)

Pryce, Malcolm — Louie Knight, Aberystwyth Noir Series
     First book — Aberystwyth Mon Amour (2001)

When I publish this post I will pick up A Rage in Harlem and launch my plan and hope to see at least ten posts published by the end of the year.