Detective Stories with Professional or Amateur Sleuths:

Fictional detectives come in all guises, whether amateur or professional, male or female, experienced or newbie. While the amateurs are probably fairly rare in real life, they are a popular genre in mystery novels. In this month's review of a handful of crime novels and thrillers, I'll deal chiefly with police procedurals, one spy novel, but also a couple of lighter works featuring irrepressible amateurs.

First up is John Le Carre's latest (A Most Wanted Man, 2008) which features a possibly innocent refugee with apparent ties to Muslim extremists and Russian gangsters. Trying to broker a deal allowing freedom for Issa Karpov, the Chechen illegal alien, are Tommy Brue, a British banker based in Hamburg, Germany, and Annabel Richter, a lawyer and civil rights advocate. But they are up against a murky crew of German, British, and American secret agents with their sights on global security issues. The German spy Gunther Bachmann may remind some Le Carre aficionados of George Smiley. While this novel presents strong characters and clever plotting, the disastrous ending is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Michael Connelly unites two of his many fans' favorite characters in The Brass Verdict (2008), a legal thriller and detective novel. Los Angeles defense attorney Mickey Haller and police investigator Harry Bosch come to terms in a scenario involving the murder of a lawyer whose case load Haller assumes unexpectedly. Among the legal shenanigans disclosed are jury tampering and a so-called 'magic bullet,' a piece of evidence that clears up most, if not all, of the damning evidence claimed by prosecutors. Bosch tries to trick Haller but finds the wily lawyer is no pushover. Is Haller's client guilty of murdering his wife? What about the FBI's interest in the matter? The plot is complicated but neatly, if somewhat emotionally, untangled at the end.

Burn Out by Marcia Muller (2008) is a private-investigator novel starring Sharon McCone, owner of a San Francisco detective agency and currently on sabbatical to reassess her life. While staying at the family ranch in the high desert near the Nevada border, Sharon naturally is drawn into a case involving murder and other crimes. But it is in befriending a horse that she finds balance in her life and vocation. Some sections, such as those establishing how depressed Sharon is, read a little slow, but there is plenty of action too, including Sharon's crashing of a small plane. There's rather a lot of traipsing about here, getting from one relevant location to another, although that is often the case in procedurals.

A London murder case recalls a notable crime from 1947-era Los Angeles in Lynda LaPlante's The Red Dahlia (2006). This British police procedural showcases detective inspector Anna Travis in a team headed by the workaholic DCI James Langton. Half the novel is spent looking for a prime suspect, but finally an anonymous caller gives them a name to follow up. The story is carefully plotted, with a final revelation of the chamber of horrors in the killer's basement and the unexpected escape of the suspect. The conclusion leaves a moral quandary for the investigators despite a measure of poetic justice.

Oklahoma in tornado season is the setting for Alice Blanchard's The Breathtaker (2003). Police chief Charles Grover adds his father to a list of suspects when storm chasers are pinpointed as the only ones likely to target houses and people in the path of quickly moving storms. The Debris Killer is apparently a madman who uses the cover of a tornado to find victims, impale them with sharpened fence posts and the like, and even removes teeth. Although the plotting is quite good, some readers will catch on to the likely killer early on and others will dislike the way the chief's daughter keeps getting into trouble and, eventually, into the killer's clutches. Details on the storm-chasing subculture add interest to this fine novel.

Back to London for Mark Billingham's Burried (2007) which starts out as a kidnapping investigation. The lead character, detective inspector Tom Thorne, is just one small cog in the police team, but his advice, instincts, and canny ability to be available at critical junctures allow him the insight to unravel a crucial but misleading assumption. The missing teenager is the son of a retired cop whose intrusion into the investigation is a lingering problem. In a related matter, a fugitive sought for a murder is found but then turns out not to have been guilty of that particular crime. An apparently unrelated, racially motivated killing is also resolved in the course of this methodical procedural. There is a thriller-style ending and satisfying denouement.

Amateur sleuth Gloria Lamerino stirs up a murder investigation in The Nitrogen Murder (2005) by Camille Minichino. Gloria, a retired physicist, and her partner homicide detective Matt Gennaro, who is recovering from cancer treatment, arrive in California for a wedding but stumble upon murder, fraud, and industrial spying. Gloria stays out of the way of the standard police investigation, enjoys traveling around Berkeley, manages to conduct a few science tutorials, finds out where the missing groom has been staying and why, and manages to catch the killer at the wedding party. This is a relatively gentle, not gritty like others mentioned above, story and, while not terribly believable, is pleasantly crafted and adequately paced. Some familiarity with returning characters in this series, which features science lessons as necessary for figuring out key parts of the mystery, may add to the reader's enjoyment.

Amateur investigators of an entirely different sort may be found in Emily Brightwell's Mrs. Jeffries Sweeps the Chimney (2004). In this Victoria-era mystery, part of a long-running series, the household staff of a London homicide detective engage in seeking out crucial information to ensure that their relatively clueless master gets credit for solving the case. The housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, parcels out assignments, mulls over the resulting clues, and figures out how to bring the suspects to justice. In this novel, there are lots of red herrings associated with the murder of a clergyman, newly returned from a decade spent in India, and the discovery of a skeleton in a chimney at an address noted on paper held in the dead man's hand. The detective's servants, very eager to ferret out the details of this case, are also assisted by close friends, a rich American and her British butler. This one is a nice little murder mystery in the Agatha Christie style.

Deborah Crombie's Where Memories Lie (2008) is a standard police procedural, devoid of amateur antics, but featuring the partnership of Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid, British detectives who are cohabitants with kids to consider. Gemma's friend Erika recognizes a piece of jewelry in an auction catalog and asks for Gemma's help. This simple request begins a chain of events leading to several deaths but also ends in the discovery of who killed Erika's husband 50 years earlier. The novel intertwines the original investigation into the death of Erika's husband with the current case. Other subplots feature Gemma's family life, including her mother newly diagnosed with cancer and her father struggling with his bakery business. One of her sons finds out key information from Erika, an elderly woman who doesn't hesitate to step in to help catch the killer for the thriller-type ending.

So, there you have it--a few police procedurals and a couple of amateur investigations--with the bad guys discovered and dispatched and the mysteries solved one way or another. Unlike real life, fictional crime stories usually have a satisfying resolution or perhaps a thoughtful commentary on the important things in life. The stories, too, are often fun, puzzling and cryptic, while real life crime is typically mundane, sad, and chronic. Still, spending a few hours with fictional crime-solvers is relaxing, entertaining, occasionally informative and intriguing, and provides some inkling of other lives, other world views and thought processes, and characters one would never hope to meet in person.