“Ticket to Ride,” by Janet Neel (St, Martin’s Minotaur, 287 pages, $24.95)
It’s always a joy to read a well-made English mystery, especially since the genre lately has become nearly an endangered species. Neel, a seriously overlooked and underappreciated writer who has produced an outstanding series featuring Inspector John McLeish and Francesca Wilson, has introduced an equally impressive new character, solicitor Jules Carlisle, rescued from a life of abuse and poverty to become the youngest member of a prestigious London law firm.
Although immigration law is not her specialty, Jules happens to be the only solicitor available when Mirko Dragunovic, a Serbian national who has overstayed his work visa, comes to the firm claiming his brother was one of eight illegal immigrants found dead on a beach in East Anglia. Although she’s quickly removed from the case,
Jules is already deeply involved. She finds herself increasingly attracted to a hard-working police detective, whom she’s in a unique position to help, and to the capable and caring farm owner who employed Dragunovic.
All of the characters are strong, original and convincing, and their complex story is tightly plotted and written with grace and intelligence. The author’s background as a lawyer and member of Parliament adds authenticity to the always absorbing proceedings, whether they involve the law, lettuce farming or trafficking in humans.
“Death in the Garden,” by Elizabeth Ironside (Felony & Mayhem Press, 294 pages, $14.95)
Although this wondrously textured, multilayered detective novel was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association’s Gold Dagger (the Eng-lish equivalent of the Edgar) in 1995, no publisher brought to America until this year when mystery bookseller Maggie Topris (of New York’s Partners and Crime) chose it.
Written by the wife of the British ambassador to the United States, “Death in the Garden” tells the story of Helena, a youngish attorney who discovers upon her great-
aunt Diana’s death the old woman had been acquitted – but never exonerated – of murdering her first husband nearly 70 years ago. Practically everyone thought Diana had cheated the gallows, partly because the accused could think of no one, other than herself, with motive to kill the fellow.
In 1925, George Pollexfen is a wealthy war hero whose violent temper threatens to ruin his wife’s 30th birthday party, especially after he discovers she has secretly constructed a photographic studio in a nearby outbuilding on their country estate. When George is found dead in the garden, poisoned by photographic chemicals, the police assume Diana killed him to continue her successful career as a photographic artist. Certainly, Diana admits the six weeks following her husband’s death and her arrest were the happiest times of her life.
Helena sees a kindred spirit in Diana and sets out on the daunting task of proving her innocence. She delves into Diana’s diaries as well as the letters and books of other houseguests and the fading memory of the one survivor of that doomed houseparty.
The awful truth behind George’s death becomes clear to Helena only after a parallel event in her life mirrors these events of that long-ago summer day.
This is mystery writing in the grand tradition: a strikingly original plot with a believable and satisfying resolution coupled with an intricately drawn cast of characters whose lives are revealed in subtle nuances.
“In a Teapot,” by Terence Faherty (The Mystery Company, 104 pages, $18)
It’s been argued that the detective story is at its best in novella form.
Certainly this oft-honored if largely commercially unsuccessful author delivers a clever, witty story of misdeeds and murder in 1948 Hollywood in just 23,000 well-chosen words. Security agent Scott Elliot turns detective again when murder threatens to stop the filming of a movie based on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
It’s a charming story of a time when the sun was setting on Hollywood’s British colony, whose members fear their cultivated accents and aristocratic manners won’t be enough to save their careers in this brave new world of movie-making.
The Mystery Company, like Felony & Mayhem Press, our own Rue Morgue Press, and Barbara Peters’ Poisoned Pen Press, is the brainchild of a mystery bookstore owner who figures if New York won’t publish the books he feels his customers want, then he will do it himself.
Tom and Enid Schantz write a monthly column on new mystery releases.
