Victim 2117 by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2020: eighth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“The newspaper refers to the body only as Victim 2117─the two thousand one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold case division led by Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous─and deeply personal─case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past but has deadly implications about the future.

“For troubled Danish teen Alexander, whose identity is hidden behind his computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in real life. For Ghaalib, one of the most brutal tormentors from Abu Ghraib─Saddam Hussein’s infamous prison─the death of Victim 2117 is the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for Department Q’s Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past─and the family he assumed was long dead. . .”

 

Review

Caveat: (possible) mini-spoilers in this review.

Twelve years have passed since the happenings of The Keeper of Lost Causes, and two since the last entry, The Scarred Woman.

Victim is (thus far) my favorite Department Q novel, a pulse-thumping thriller with underlying potent pitch-black nastiness (e.g. mentioned rape, torture), mixed with equally shaded (sometimes humorous) twists and, eventually, a semblance of guarded hope. This eighth entry in the series also gives more writing space to the mentally fragile Rose Knudsen (still recovering from the traumas of The Scarred Woman) and Assad (and his mysterious past and family life)─in writing this, Adler-Olsen adds further emotional depth to his recurring and Victim-introduced characters, particularly Rose, Assad, and Lars Bjorn, the Homicide Chief for whom Carl Mørck bears much animus, much of it deserved. Even opportunistic reporter Joan Aiguader, new to the series, gets some understanding, though the main villains of Victim (Ghaalib and unrelated incel, Alexander) don’t get much sympathy (understandable, given their motivations and actions).

Victim, heartbreaking, cautiously hopeful and starkly realistic, is an excellent, burn-through, how-can-I-set-this-down read, one worth owning. Followed by The Shadow Murders, scheduled for publication on September 27, 2022.

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie

 

(hb; 1934)

From the inside flap

“Believe it or not, Bobby Jones had topped his drive! He was badly bunkered. There were no eager crowds to groan with dismay. That is easily explained─for Bobby was merely the fourth son of the Vicar of Marchbolt, a small golfing resort on the Welsh coast. And Bobby, in spite of his name, was not much of a golfer. Still, that game was destined to be a memorable one. On going to play his ball, Bobby suddenly came upon the body of a man. He bent over him. The man was not yet dead. “Why didn’t they ask Evans?’ he said, and then his eyelids dropped, the jaw fell. . .

“It was the beginning of  a most baffling mystery. That strange question of the dying man is the recurring theme of Agatha Christie’s. . . story.”

 

Review

Evans is a light-hearted, fast-moving, and fun read, even with its underlying (relative) darkness about the goings-on of its villain character(s). Its two main characters, Bobby Jones and Frances (“Frankie”) Derwent, are hardly practical amateur sleuths─though Frances is clearly the smarter and more forward-looking of the two, despite her spirited faith in Bobby. The villain(s) is/arent’ difficult to spot for eagle-eyed readers, and the twists are solid. Evans is a good (possible) murder romantic comedy by a great writer.

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Four television or streaming app adaptations have resulted from this novel, broadcast/streamed in these years: 1980, 2011, 2013 and 2022.

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson

(hb; 2021: memoir)

From the inside flap

“On Good Friday in 1953, at only eighteen months old, Casandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water, resulting in third degrees burns over 35 percent of her body. She miraculously survived, but burned and scarred, the impact would stay with her and become an obstacle she was determined to overcome. Feeling like a misfit led to her love of horror. While her sisters played with Barbie dolls, Cassandra built model kits of Frankenstein and Dracula, and idolized Vincent Price.

“Casandra left home at fourteen and supported herself as a go-go dancer. By age seventeen, she was performing as the youngest showgirl in Las Vegas, where run-ins with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tom Jones helped her grow up fast. A chance encounter with the ‘King’ himself, Elvis Presley, inspired her to travel to Europe where she worked in film and toured Italy as lead singer of a band. She eventually made her way to Los Angeles, joining the famed improv group, The Groundlings, honing her comedic skills alongside Phil Hartman and Paul ‘Pee-wee’ Reubens.

In 1981, as a struggling actress considered past her prime, Cassandra auditioned for a local LA station as a hostess for their late-night horror movies. She got the job as ‘Elvira,’ never imagining it would lead to fame and a forty-year career.. .”

 

Review

Yours is a burn-through, smart, timely and entertaining read, sometime humorous, often serious, and charmingly feminist in its subject matter─as far as seriousness goes, Peterson was raped, something that only the darkest-hearted people joke about, and Peterson isn’t that sort of entertainer. The telling of that horror is balanced with practicality, maturity, and balance, one that doesn't tank the levity of much of the rest of the work.

Yours is one of the best, waste-no-words memoirs I’ve read in a long while, one worth owning.

The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(pb; 2017: seventh book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“Detective Carl Mørck of Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold case division, meets his toughest challenge yet when the dark, troubled past of one of his team members collides with a sinister unsolved murder.

“In a Copenhagen park, a woman’s body is discovered. The case bears a striking resemblance to another unsolved murder investigation from more than a decade ago, but the connection between the two victims confounds the police. Across town, a group of young women are being hunted. The attacks seem random, but could these brutal acts of violence be related? Detective Carl Mørck is charged with solving the mystery.

“Back at headquarters, Carl and his team are under pressure to deliver results: failure to meet his supervisors’ expectations will mean the end of Department Q. Solving the case, however, is not their only concern. After an earlier breakdown, their colleague Rose [Knudsen], is still struggling to deal with the reemergence of her past─a past in which a terrible crime may have been committed. It is up to Carl and his team to uncove the dark and violent truth at the heart of Rose’s childhood, while working the cases that will define their careers before it is too late.”

 

Review

A social worker, sick of the slutty layabouts she is forced to deal with, decides to start offing a few of them. Meanwhile, Rose Knudsen, one of Department Q’s key investigators, has a multiple-personality crisis stemming from the events of The Hanging Girl, a crisis that that threatens not only her role within the department, but her continued breath.

This seventh Department Q novel is an especially emotional entry in the series, and like its preceding books, deftly juggles multiple cases─which may or may not be linked─and elements that come together in a satisfactory, well-paced and entertaining manner. Another great police procedural-hybrid-genre read, Scarred is worth owning. Followed by Victim 2117.

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen by Michael Avallone

 

(pb; 1981: movie tie-in)

From the back cover

“They call her the Dragon Queen, a woman of impenetrable mystery and unknown powers. . . Then someone makes the fatal mistake of putting her in jail for murder.

“Years later, San Francisco is paralyzed by a wave of the most bizarre killings ever documented, each more unspeakable than the last, each devoid of clues─at least to Western eyes.

“There is one man alone who stands a chance of outsmarting the elusive killer─Charlie Chan, detective supreme, Oriental genius. On him rests the fate of a city steadily being wiped out by the curse of the dragon queen.”

 

Review

This cartoonish, slapstick-silly movie tie-in murder mystery is a mostly fun and frenetic read, sometimes satiric, sometimes bizarre (beyond its cinematic-splashy murderer)─e.g., the recurring brick through Lee Jr.’s office window gag which continues long after it wears out its welcome.

Those who lack a sense of humor regarding changing social norms and era-related context, or are intensely racially political, may want to skip this one, beyond the questionable nature of its yellow-face casting. Chan, who speaks like a fortune cookie (the book explicitly says so) is not made fun of─though he makes fun of himself─and other Asian characters speak like normal American characters. Charlie is not high art, nor does it pretend to be; Avallone deftly moves through the story with masterful pacing, while maintaining sufficient character development and skewering-racial-stereotypes lightness.

Film buffs might enjoy the action-climactic tip of the hat to actor Warner Oland’s many Chan films, as well as those looking for a silly, if somewhat outdated, hourlong read that eschews racial politics for an innocent silliness, and a good reveal of a could’ve-been-almost-anyone killer.

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Its source/counterpart film was released stateside in February 1981. Clive Donner directed it, from a screenplay by Jerry Sherlock, Stan Burns, and David Axlerod.

Peter Ustinov played Charlie Chan. Lee Grant played Mrs. Lupowitz. Angie Dickinson played Dragon Queen. Richard Hatch played Lee Chan Jr. Brian Keith played “Police Chief.”

Roddy McDowall played Gillespie. Rachel Roberts played Mrs. Danger. Michelle Pfeiffer played Cordelia. Paul Ryan played Masten. Johnny Sekka played Stefan.