Bon Bons

I appear to have gone back to an old addiction this week. mystery books! I finished three of them up this last weekend. One, Elaine Flinn's Dealing in Murder (2003) is set in Carmel and involves art and antiques. The situation, ambience, tone of the book and characters fit what are called the Cozy mystery. And although this book kept me interested enough to finish it, I was alternately irritated by the main character and by some of the writing, which seemed more than a little clumsy. Nevertheless, a Cplus just for being interesting and a little unusual (in setting and mis-en-scene, if not in amateur detective, real detective and romance). I wish the author was a little more self reflective, or at least the inimitable Molly Doyle was a little bit more reflective, less pointedly know it all and eminently happy with herself, well despite this and that. Lawrence Block's The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian is much better book stylistically. Punchy sentences, a sense of irony and self reflection, smart quick, humor and good sharp rhythmic syntax and great vocabulary. The story is a little contrived but it doesn't really matter (all the cutting of Mondrians from frames is scary and unnecessary, just steal the picture dammit). Nevertheless, good old Bernie the Burglar is attractive in a curmudgeonly way and this was fun. Michael Connelley's The Poet (1996) was perhaps the most complex of the three, with an involved plot and more sophisticated characterizations. It was a little disappointing, especially the end, and perhaps because this author has such hoopla surrounding him I was expecting more. Lets see: B plus for The Poet and B for the Burglar. I am in the middle of Richard Stevenson's Tongue Tied (2003), which seems weak in writing and characterization and a little big on the attitudinizing, but I am soenchanted by the idea of a gay Amish guy and will perservere for another fifty pages. I also am beginning the Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling (1979) by Block, Tagged for Murder (2004) by Elaine Flinn and Michael Connelly's The Narrows (2004). Must have liked them all enough to give them all another chance. Its all like eating bon bons though.