Book Review: Original Sin by P.D. James

British author P.D. James, critically acclaimed by such literary journals as the Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review, is another writer whose finest work transcends the mystery genre. Original Sin (1994), featuring New Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh, is set in the modern publishing world and showcases the author’s uncanny penetration into even the most minor of characters. The characters live on the page with a fierce intensity, even deeper than the mystery at Innocent House occupied by the venerable publishing firm of Peverell Press.

 The directors of the firm believe the suicide of senior editor Sonia Clements in the archive room of Innocent House is the last and most shocking episode in a series of disruptions to their business. But their troubles have barely begun as they learn when they open the door to discover the body of managing director Gerard Etienne dead of carbon monoxide poisoning, with his dead jaws open and the head of a stuffed snake stuck inside. Commander Dalgliesh is assigned to investigate and ferret out motives and opportunity that lead to a hair-raising resolution.

Review by Peter Critchley of the Vernon Branch

Book Review: Havana - Gritty and Bloody

Havana (2003) by Stephen Hunter is a gritty, bloody tale of tremendous power and satisfaction set in Cuba 1953, a world of vice, gambling, sex and drugs just thirty minutes by air from Miami. The Mafia runs the casinos and Meyer Lansky, the mob’s leader in Cuba, vies with the CIA and American business interests to control the Batista regime and keep the river of cash flowing. Into the cauldron steps Earl Swagger, the protagonist of three previous 1950s-set Earl Swagger novels.

 This time the ex-Marine Medal of Honor winner and legendary gunfighter is called in by the American government to serve as a bodyguard to Congressman Harry Etheridge in his investigations of New York-gangster activity at the American naval base in Cuba. The congressman is more interested in exploring the city’s culture of vice and Swagger is reluctantly drawn into a complicated plot to kill self-centered, failed baseball star Fidel Castro, intent on wresting power from the corrupt government and returning it to the people. But Swagger thwarts backstabbing countrymen, the mob and even the Russians in this excellent addition to the series.

Review by Peter Critchley of the Vernon Branch