Review: Our Fathers by Karin Brynard

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There is still one book I read in 2018 that I haven't written about here: Karin Brynard's Our Fathers. This is the second in her Captain Albertus Beeslar series. The first is Weeping Waters and the third is Homeland. They are available in English and Afrikaans. Weeping Waters is available as a Kindle edition here. Our Fathers can be purchased from Book Depository.

This is a long post so let me say upfront that I really enjoyed this book and would like to hear what South Africans think of it.

For US readers of this blog, Our Fathers is very South African in story elements as well a language. Be prepared to visit Google frequently. Personally, I love books with local flavor so I think it's worth it.

This time the settings are Cape Town and Johannesburg. Albertus is on his way to visit an old friend in Cape Town when he gets a phone call that his friend, an old school colonel in the SAPS has died. After the funeral. At the funeral one of the mourners gets a call that her daughter-in-law, wife of a wealthy Stellenbach property developer has been brutally murdered. He is reluctantly pulled along to the crime scene where he meets Captain Vuyokazi Qhubeka (Vuvu). This is her first big investigation. While initially cool to Alburtus, she manages to ensnare him into the investigation, unofficially. It is awkward for him because he has no status in the case but the white family is overtly hostile to the Black captain and try to make him their personal investigator.

In Johannesburg, Sgt Johannes Ghaap has transferred to Johannesburg from the Kalahari where he and Beeslar worked together. Beeslar warned him that he wasn't ready for the big time and he was right. Ghaap is an outsider who doesn't know the lingo to be able to communicate effectively. Through a series of misadventures, he gets involved with trackies, private security who pursue hijacking and stolen cars for their clients. One case becomes desperate when a pregnant white woman with a small child is kidnapped in Soweto. It is even more desperate when it emerges that an legendary evil man known as The Fatha is involved.

Karin writes very good crime fiction and she is on my "always buy" watch list. This is tricky since her books are not readily available in the US. Readers not from SA might have difficulty since the stories are intensely South African. I can generally hold my own thanks to my long-time reading of SA literature, online SA newspapers, and Google. I learned lots of new slang words here.

Underlying the Cape Town story are issues of apartheid, distrust between Blacks and Whites, and land. Basically, what a mess South Africa is in. One character toward the end gives an impassioned speech on why the moral framework of South Africa is disintegrating and it hits a little too close to home for Beeslar's comfort.The social issues flow through the Cape Town and Johannesburg stories and are integrated into it without being imposed. By the time the book ends, the title will make sense.

I very much enjoyed the way Karin shows the criminal investigations proceeding. The trackies in Johannesburg dominate that story and it's both exciting and interesting. The author might have exaggerated their activities a bit but from what I've not by much. Karin rode with a Joburg company, Tracker, as part of her research. The Cape Town investigation is a bit more subtle since everyone is lying, big money and lawyers are involved, and the SAPS brass wants to see a quick resolution.

The character of Albertus Beeslar is very nicely developed. He is a blunt, rough, Boer only interested in justice. He is also very impatient and doesn't always want to listen. Often the reader —at least this one — would like to give him a klap to make him really hear what someone is trying to tell him.

Captain Vuyokazi Ohubeka — and her relationship with Beeslar — is an interesting part of the Cape Town story. Her trying to conduct a thorough investigation in the face of racial hostility and pressure from above is well done. She's someone I'd like to know in real life and I hope Brynard has plans for her in future books. I think she is strong enough for a book of her own she and Beeslar make for a good team as well.

Sitting 3,898 km away I come away from this book feeling both entertained as well as informed (the author includes a bibliography which warms this librarian's heart). I would be interested in hearing what people living in SA think about the book and how Brynard integrates social issues.

Review: My Sister The Serial Killer (2018) by Oyinkan Braithwaite

With a title like this how could I not pick up this book?

Update: I should have mentioned that the serial killer part is really peripheral to the family dynamics of the story and I especially enjoyed the bits where you get a look at Nigerian family life. The book was originally published as an ebook in Nigeria with the title Thicker Than Water andIn some respects I wish they had kept that title. Having "serial killer" in the title might put off people who would otherwise enjoy the book but think it the typical serial killer stalky slashy stuff.

Korede is  nurse in a hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. She is as practical and efficient as her younger sister, Ayoola, a master at social media, is flighty. Ayoola is also perfect in every one's eyes and so impossibly beautiful that everyone she meets is immediately smitten and captivated by her. She is also likely a sociopath whose last three boyfriends have ended up dead. Three, and they label you a serial killer Korede whispers to a comatose patient, Muhtar, in whom she confides her fears and frustrations believing he can't hear her. Ayoola doesn't comprehend that she might have done something bad and so completely believes her own lies that whatever she says is accepted. And Korede, the protective older sister and expert at cleaning, has ti cover up the murders. She says about Ayoola:

Ayoola lives in a world where things must always go her way. It's a law as certain as the law of gravity. 

Korede has been cultivating a relationship with a doctor in her hospital, Tade, and seems to be getting somewhere. Then Tade meets Ayoola and Korede disappears into the background.  To make it even more hurtful, Tade can't even articulate why he is drawn to Ayoola:

K: Tade . . . what do you like about my sister?
T: Everything.
K: But if you had to be specific?
T: Well . . . she is really special.
K: Okay . . . but what makes her special?
T: She is just so . . . I mean she is beautiful and perfect.

Will Korede's impulse to protect her sister collapse under the stress of a police investigation into the latest murder and losing her possible love to her largely indifferent sister?

My Sister the Serial Killer is a fun read told in first person from the viewpoint of a very harried Korede who is trying to balance her work, love life [nonexistent],  and trying to keep her sister from doing something stupid that will draw the attention of the authorities. Along the way Korede relates events from their childhood which, now that I think of it, might account for Ayala's homicidal tendencies.

What emerges is a sensitive , sometimes dark, portrayal of a woman shouldering an immense burden who has bitterness at being overshadowed by her younger sister but still willing to do what has to be done to keep the sister safe, something she has done all their lives.

The author is Nigerian and lives in Lagos. I would say that the book has a very nice local flavor. A few Yoruba words and phrases are in the text but nothing that Google couldn't handle or would pull the reader out of the story. The chapters are short and the writing pulls you along briskly so I finished it in a few hours.

The story stands alone but it would be interesting to see a sequel. There is certainly room for one.

Falling Angel (1978) by William Hjortsberg

Otto Penzler wrote that noir is about losers, not private eyes but Ray Banks, in an essay for Mulholland Books, cites Hjortsberg's Falling Angel as an exception. Banks also says that there does seem to be a distinct lack of properly noir PIs so that is something I will be keeping an eye out for. Banks' observation about Falling Angel inspired me to download the Kindle edition. I also viewed the film adaptation which is available on DVD as well as Amazon Prime Video.

Short answer —yes, it is noir.

I can't discuss why this book is noir without spoilers and I will alert readers when to stop reading if they don't want to know.

Harry Angel is a shabby private detective in New York City in 1959. He is approached by an attorney asking him to meet with a client, Louis Cyphre. Cyphre has a contract with a singer named Johnny Favorite which takes effect only upon the death of Favorite who was severely injured in WWII. He supposedly is in a vegetative state in a private clinic in Poughkeepsie, New York and every year Cyphre gets a letter certifying that Favorite is still alive. When Cyphre and his attorney were in the area and attempted to see Favorite, Cyphre says they got the runaround. Cyphre wants Harry to find out if Favorite is alive or dead.

Angel goes to Poughkeepsie and finds out that Favorite is no longer in the clinic and was supposedly transferred to a VA hospital. But a call to the VA confirms a clue on the paperwork that  the transfer is bogus and that Favorite isn't under care. Harry pressures the doctor who signed the transfer to admit that Favorite recovered consciousness —but not his memory — and actually was taken away by a man and woman in 1943. Unfortunately for Harry, the doctor commits suicide before Harry can learn more.

Back in New York, Harry tells this to Cyphre who now wants him to find Favorite. Harry figures his best approach is to talk with people who knew him as an entertainer as well as his ex-fiance. His investigation takes him to Harlem and a blues pianist and the teenage daughter of a voodoo priestess and Johnny Favorite who seems to be carrying on the family tradition then over to Coney Island to look for a fortune teller. Favorite, it appears was mixed up in some pretty strange stuff. And the bodies begin to pile up.

Hjortsberg's depictions of New York City contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the story. The author describes where Harry goes, how he gets there and what he sees such as the architecture.

And what would a hardboiled PI be without his cynical observations and colorful similes:

The revelation hit me like an ice-water enema.
It was Friday the thirteenthh and yesterday's snowstorm lingered in the streets like a leftover curse.
He introduced himself as an attorney. That meant his fees were high. A guy calling himself a lawyer always costs a lot less.
666 Fifth Avenue was an unhappy marriage of the International Style and our own homegrown tailfin technology ... It looked like a forty-story cheese grater.

Facebook chum Margot Kinberg has an excellent blog post with an in depth and spoiler free take on the story which I highly recommend — In The Spotlight: William Hjortsberg's Falling Angel.

I'll talk a little about the film later but I will say that it is a fine example of a film that improves upon the novel. Mickey Rourke and Robert De Nero are terrific as the rumpled private detective and the mysterious Louis Cyphre.

So far you might be thinking "Where's the noir? This is just a hardboiled PI story."

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
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In true noir style, Harry Angel is doomed. Even worse than doomed, he is damned. There are clues that our hardboiled detective is heading into to world of the occult, Satan worship, and, before the story ends, full on horror. in the form of a Black Mass. It opens on Friday the thirteenth, Harry's agency is called Crossroads Detective Agency, Harry meets Cyphre at a restaurant at the top of 666 Fifth Ave., and has frequent references to five pointed inverted stars. And if you're clever (I wasn't), it isn't hard to go from Louis Cyphre to Lucifer not to mention using "falling angel" in the title.

Harry's damned because Johnny Favorite and Harry Angel are the same person. Johnny sold his soul to Satan for stardom but thought he had had a way out of the bargain. He thought he could transfer psychic identities with someone else. He couldn't. He was planning to assume the identity of recently returned soldier Harry Angel but got shipped to the front, injured, lost his memory, and came to believe he was Harry Angel. The whole investigation was orchestrated by Cyphre to destroy Harry in this world before claiming his soul. Harry/Johnny's destruction is complete when Cyphre/Lucifer arranges to for Epiphany to die in a horrible way while setting up Harry/Johnny to take the fall. Before Harry discovered who he really was, Harry had an intense sexual relationship with Epiphany and in the end is left looking at the body of his daughter, completely without hope.

Angel Heart, the 1987 neo-noir film adaptation of Falling Angel is very well done. It sticks to the story line closely and where it diverges it actually enhances to story. Obviously the timeline has to be condensed but it also shifts the story to New Orleans which I think is a masterful decision. Voodoo plays a big part in the story and hot and humid New Orleans works much better than the snowy streets of New York. The two cops who suspect Harry of murdering the fortune teller and the blues pianist would work as well in New York but are a lot more fun to watch in New Orleans.

Epiphany Proudfoot is played by Lisa Bonet who you might remember played a daughter on The Cosby Show. Here's something I remembered from when the film came out and adds to the add to creep factor considering what has happenrd to Bill Cosby recently: when Bonet was considering the role of Epiphany,  she ask Cosby if he thought it would be OK for her to appear partially nude in the film. He gave her his blessing.

Angel Heart also ties up a few loose ends. In the book, we don't really know who killed the doctor, the blues pianist, and the fortune teller. In the film, Cyphre tells Harry that he, Harry, did it and Harry relives the murders in a quick flashback.

Rourke, De Niro, and Bonet are well caste for their roles and match the way Hjortsberg wrote his. characters. I hate to use this expression but the actors bring the characters to life in ways you don't get in the book. You don't have difficulty imaning De Niro as the avatar of Lucifer walikng the earth. Him peeling a hard boiled egg with elegantly tapered fingernails is expecially memorable.

The final scene over the end credits has Harry in an old elevator symbolically descending to hell. It is a really nice visual.

Keywords: voodoo, hardboiled, neo-noirf film , noir

Noir Review: Nightmare Alley (1946) by William Lindsay Gresham

Nightmare Alley is a remarkable piece of noir fiction. It is different from the classic noir I've been reading in that it isn't about the sort of criminal we see in crime fiction (murder, heists, etc). But it is definitely noir in its themes — doomed protagonist driven by greed, tormented, hurtling toward existential crises. It is now one of my favorite noir classics and should be read by anyone who appreciates the genre.

It was a bit too raw as written and according to Nick Tosches' introduction, censored for 30 years. This edition is not so you read ssociety dames with the clap, bankers that take it up the ass instead of society dames with a dose, bankers that have fishy eyes. I admit, fishy eyes has a certain appeal as a euphemism

The organization of the book is interesting. Instead of chapters it is organized by the 22 cards of the Major Arcana in a tarot deck. The book starts off with Card 1 The Fool. I kept a web site open with meaning of the cards as I read and Gresham matched the card to events. I'm not well versed in tarot reading but it seemed to me that sometimes it was the meaning of the card reversed. You might find it distracting but I had fun reading about the card then reading the chapter.

So if it isn't classic noir crime fiction, what is Nightmare Alley? It is the story of the rise and fall of Stanton (Stan) Carlisle who rises from carnival sideshow magician to influential spiritualist before his inevitable collapses. The first third of the book is set in a carnival where we first meet Stan who working in a carnival's Ten-in-One show. Stan has set his sights on bigger things and has taken up with an older performer, madam Zeena, a mentalist/fortune teller.He marvels at her skill at cold readings and want to learn. Zeena and her husband Pete were once in the big time where they had an elaborate code that enabled them to perform a convincing mentalist act. Pete lost his nerve, was unable to perform, turned to drink, and they landed in the carnival circuit.

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Stan is sexually inexperienced but Zeena likes him and he becomes her bed partner. When Stan learns that Pete wrote the codes down in a book, he talks Zeena into giving it to him.

Stan has an opportunity to test his cold reading skills when the law arrives to shut down the show. Stan is able to assess the sheriff's fears, anxieties, and longings and defuses the situation sending the sheriff away feeling at peace. With his skills validated Stan takes off with Molly, another carny and heads for the city and fame.

Stan realizes that the big money is in spiritualism and rises to prominence preying on desperate for closure with the departed.

But Stan in increasingly tormented by nightmares and when he becomes a patient of a psychotherapist, his life takes a turn for the worse.

This summary doesn't do justice to Nightmare because I don't want to provide too many spoiler details. You really need to read Gresham's words to appreciate the richness of his prose.

Stan's life goes through four stages—carny, mentalist, spiritualist, fall—but I think the first, carny, is the one I most enjoyed. The carnival setting also neatly bookends the story and delivers the story's devastating noirness. The depictions of the carnival life are very well written and younger readers may learn that geek didn't always mean someone socially inept and obsessed with technology or minute details. Hint: it involved chickens. There is a particularly evocative part at the beginning where we get to see the rubes queuing up for the show through the eyes of the performers. It ain't flattering.

Here is an example of Gresham's powerful descriptions. He is describing the carnival:

Dust when it was dry. Mud when it was rainy. Swearing, steaming, sweating, scheming, bribing, bellowing, cheating, the carny went its way. It came like a pillar of fire by night, bringing excitement and new things into the drowsy towns—lights and noise and the chance to win an Indian blanket, to ride on the ferris wheel, to see the wild man who fondles those rep-tiles as a mother would fondle her babes. Then it vanished in the night, leaving toe trodden grass of the field and the debris of popcorn boxes and rusting tin ice-cream spoons to show where it had been.

It wouldn't be noir if there wasn't darkness and there is true darkness. The mildest is the cynicism Stan has toward the people is exploiting—Fear in the key to human nature.  When it gets dark it heads into existential nihilism. Stan muses;

How helpless they all looked in the ugliness of sleep. A third of life spend unconscious and corpselike. And some, the great majority, stumbled through their waking hours scarcely more awake, helpless in the face of destiny. They stumbled down a dark alley toward their deaths. They sent exploring feelers into the light and met fire and writhed back again into the darkness of their blind groping

The alley image is a recurring, and effective, one that haunts Stan:

Ever since he was a kid Stan had had the dream. He was running down a dark alley, the buildings vacant and black and menacing on either side. Far down at the end of it a light burned; but there was something behind him, close behind him, getting closer until he woke up trembling and never reached the light. They have it too—a nightmare alley.

Stan gets increasingly unbalanced as he refines his con, finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities. He slips into fevered deleriums. There is indication that he might be bipolar. This leads him to a truely evil psychologist, Dr. Lisith Ritter, who knows how exploit Stan's fears, effectively turning his on con back on him. While the character doesn't occupy a lot of space on the page, when she is there she dominates.

The film version is a very good adaptation of the book although it has to condense events. The ending is softened from the book but the rest is so good that I overlook that bit. Tyrone Power plays Stanton Carlisle and is excellent. His cold reading of the sheriff is wonderful to watch because you can see from his eyes how Stan is reading the sheriff and adjusting his words by how the sheriff reacts. Beautifully done.

Helen Walker expertly plays Dr. Lilith Ritter like she came off the page. Coldly manipulating and eventually gas lighting Stan.,

Joan Blondell plays the aging mentalist Madam Zeena. Interestingly, she actually worked as a circus hand at one point in her career.

I recommend reading the book and watching the film. Both are excellent.

Here are a couple of reviews of Nightmare Alley where you'll also find out more about Gresham

The Book You Have to Read: "Nightmare Alley," by William Lindsay Gresham
The Grifters and Con Artists of Nightmare Alley
Beautiful, Monstrous, Delicios Mayhem: Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

Malice by Keigo Higashino

This mystery was a happy find. I saw Higashino's latest book, Newcomer, on a recommended list. When I saw that it was the second in the Detective Kyochiro Kaga series I decided to read Malice first.

Publication Information: Malice was first published in Japan in 1996. This edition was translated by Alexander O. Smith and published in the US in 2014.

Update: I forgot to mention that the story is a little outdated where technology is concerned but not annoyingly so. Mobile phones hadn't come into widespread use, for example.

Summary: Bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka has been murdered in his locked office in his locked house where he was alone at the time. He is found by his wife and his best friend, Osamu Nonoguchi. Nonoguchi is also an author but of children's books. They are likely suspects but both have tight alibis. Adding a complication to the investigation, Detective Kaga and Nonoguchi were colleagues when they both taught in a middle school. Kaga identifies the killer fairly quickly but without a clear motive a successful prosecution is in jeopardy. His investigations lead him to believe that the answer lies in the past.

My Take: This is an excellent read where,  just as the the reader gets comfortable, the author adds a  twist. I can't give many details without spoiling the story which I do not want to do. It is as clever a piece of plotting as I've read in a while. I know this is vague and not very informative but I found it to be an engrossing book that I had to read in practically one sitting.

The Amazon reviews are all over the place with a number of reviewers objecting to the translation. I didn''t any problems myself and didn't find it flat and sophomoric as some did. I also thought the plot original though some objected to the crime being solved early and the investigation focusing on the motive. Personally, that's what I liked and what kept me turning pages. So your mileage may vary.

Keywords: crime fiction, Japan, police procedural