“The housing commissioner,” replied Detective Lo, “will not, I suspect, be much longer in Turpan. Corruption is a serious crime in today’s China. Agents of the Public Security Bureau, such as myself, have recently begun making contact with the mining companies, warning them against unscrupulous officials who might try to take advantage of their high offices for personal gain. The companies have been warned to be particularly alert to forgery and false documents. If such a thing were to be reported, the Public Security Bureau would not be able to turn a blind eye.”
Lo reached out a hand for his cannon, but a voice over his shoulder said, “I wouldn’t do that.” Lo turned to see a broad-backed Uighur man in a gray tribal cap. “I don’t mean to interfere, of course,” the man went on. “But Mustafa Sadiq has just played his chariot. In this opening, you must respond with your chariot also.”
Detective Lo looked to Sadiq, then back to the other man. “I’m Ahmet Erxidin,” the new man said. “I’m honored that a Han policeman enjoys our ancient game.”
“Xiangqi is ancient among my people too, Ahmet Erxidin, and many enjoy it. I’m Lo Pen-wei of the Public Security Bureau. I appreciate your advice.”
“Ahmet Erxidin is renowned for his skill at Xiangqi,” Sadiq told Lo. To Erxidin he said, “My friend, will you have tea?”
“Thank you, I will.” The gray-capped man moved a chair and sat. “Mustafa Sadiq is too kind,” he said to Lo. “My skill is only what it is, but I do spend a great deal of time at the Xiangqi board. I’m always seeking new opponents. Perhaps, if Mustafa Sadiq is not available, you would consider giving me a game? I can be found in this teahouse most days.”
Lo beamed. “I would be honored. To sit in a teahouse playing Xiangqi is one of the joys of life in Turpan.”
The proprietor brought a third silver-handled tea glass. Mustafa Sadiq poured tea for the newcomer, and for himself and Detective Lo. All lifted their glasses, and before they drank, Sadiq said, “I offer this toast: To my friends.”
“To my friends,” they each said, and drank.
Copyright © 2012 by S.J. Rozan
The Jury Box
by Steve Steinbock
A thousand books pass through The Jury Box every year. Of those, only a handful are chosen for review each month. I was asked how I select the books I review. Like any other mystery fan, I pick books that grab my attention. I look for themes among the books. And I try to seek variety.
The question that inevitably comes next is, how can I evaluate “fluffy” mysteries alongside “serious” crime fiction? Easy. I judge each book on its own merits. A novel featuring a crime-solving canine chef might be likely to have less literary merit than an epic coming-of-age novel with a serial killer or a work of historical noir. But I’d rather read well-written “fluff” that keeps its promise to the reader than a mediocre or pretentious version of either of the latter.
Every book is a promise made by the author to the reader. It’s a promise that the book is the author’s sincere attempt to tell a good story with integrity and skill. As individual readers, we may choose cozies or noir, historical or contemporary, humorous or starkly serious. It’s the mission of The Jury Box to place as many titles as possible before you under the wide umbrella of “mystery fiction” and let you choose. It’s also my goal to give my readers honest evaluations of the books I review. I’ve been finding that my star ratings have been sliding upward. I find myself less inclined to finish an average or below average book, so I’m less likely to review two- or three-star books. A three-star book is a solid novel that keeps its promise, while a four-star book exceeds it. A five-star book, of which I include two this month, takes me completely by surprise and raises the literary experience. With that in mind, this month we look at a very wide variety of titles, running the gamut of crime fiction.
*** Bailey Cates, Brownies and Broomsticks, Obsidian, $7.99. A cozy mystery set around a bakery run by witches is about as lightweight as crime fiction gets. The heroine is, in fact, named Katie Lightfoot. But I couldn’t help but smile all the way through Katie’s antics as she tries to open a new business and solve the murder of the curmudgeonly community leader who wanted to close it down, all the while discovering her covenous family background. An enjoyable first-in-a-series by Cricket McRae (writing as Bailey Cates).
*** Lisa Lutz, Trail of the Spellmans, Simon & Schuster, $25.00. Document #5 of the Spellman Files series continues to follow the misadventures of Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, the thirty-something slacker who probably wouldn’t be in her parents’ detective business if she didn’t do it so well. Her younger sister is now in college, her brother married with a child. The family takes a series of separate cases that seem to be at cross-purposes. Lutz’s style is offbeat and unique, but very accessible, making this series one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
Lutz and ex-boyfriend David Hayward worked together on another off-beat project, Heads You Lose, which recently was released in trade paperback (Berkley, $15.00). The result is a tag-team collaborative novel about a headless body that won’t stay put. This modern-day “Trouble With Harry” echoes the affectionate rivalry between the two authors.
**** Jess Lourey, November Hunt, Midnight Ink, $14.95. I’ve been following Lourey since her 2006 debut, May Day. Lourey’s heroine, rural Minnesota librarian and accidental detective Mira James, worked her way through eight months of sleuthing. The series started off on a high note and has only gotten better. November Hunt opens with a fatal hunting incident; but the victim’s daughter suspects it was not an accident. Mira wades through a field of local pot growers, a library fundraiser, and a long-kept community secret. A good story told well, with solid writing.
***** Howard Shrier, Boston Cream, Vintage Canada, $17.95. Shrier is my top find of the year. The Toronto-based author is not well known below the Canadian border, but his excellent P.I. series deserves much wider attention. Hired by an Orthodox Jewish couple to travel to Boston to locate their medical-student son, P.I. Jonah Geller and his partner Jenn cross paths with an evil but altogether believable criminal consortium. Geller is an exceptionally well-drawn character, a true man of peace who is forced to harness his own inner violence.
***** Ariel S. Winter, The Twenty-Year Death, Hard Case Crime, $25.99. At 672 pages, The Twenty-Year Death is the biggest book yet from Hard Case Crime. Contained in this first novel are actually three separate interconnected novels, each set a decade apart. Malniveau Prison, set in 1931, is written in the style of Georges Simenon. The Falling Star (1941) is modeled on Raymond Chandler’s work. Police at the Funeral (1951) is an homage to the dark style of Jim Thompson. The entire volume, which bears some comparison to Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy, is a dark, affectionate tribute to the genre.
There’s been an upsurge in the number of novellas and short novels published recently. Some may blame it on the short attention spans of electronic-age readers. But I welcome it as the return of a neglected literary form.
James Sallis, Driven, Poisoned Pen Press, $19.95 (HC), $11.95 (TPB). This sequel to Sallis’s 2005 novel Drive (the basis for the 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling) follows the semi-fugitive former stunt driver as he’s pursued by vengeful gangsters. When they kill his fiancée, he sets out on his own quest for vengeance. While it’s not imperative to have read Drive, an important aspect of the plot hinges on a character and event from that earlier novel. Sallis has created a starkly heroic anti-hero.