William Shaw's DS Cupidi Series and the Real Dungeness, England

 I've finally started reading William Shaw's Deadland, and I'm surprised at how quickly I'm becoming totally immersed in the book's unusual setting of coastal Dungeness, England. The closest I drove to Dungeness during the years I lived in the UK was Rye via the A259...oh, if only I had known what was only a dozen or so miles away. I hate now to think that I was so close and missed the opportunity to take a look at a truly unique portion of England. But even though I've never been there, Shaw's Alex Cupidi books make me feel that I have seen the place with my own eyes. Setting is so important to the plots of the Cupidi books that I can't imagine them taking place anywhere else now. 

These pictures will give you an idea of what Dungeness looks like (fans of the series will not be overly surprised because Shaw so vividly describes the region):

It is easy to picture DS Alexandria Cupidi living here with her teenaged daughter Zoë, and going about her business of helping to solve the assorted murders that have plagued the region since her arrival - and the incarceration of fellow cop William South. The selected photos show the often referred to nuclear power plant and the isolated area that give home to the bird sanctuary so beloved by Zoë and South. 

I'm reading the "quality paperback" edition of Deadland that was published in the UK, and I've also purchased the UK edition of Grave's End from the Book Depository, so I have that one on hand now, too. Next, it looks like I'll be ordering 2021's The Trawlerman from the UK because Shaw's publisher is sinfully negligent in getting his books into US bookstores. I'll never figure that one out.

Those as intrigued by the whole Dungeness mystique as I am, will probably enjoy this short YouTube video from 2015:

I highly recommend this author and this series to readers who enjoy high quality, and very atmospheric, crime fiction. Shaw does it as well as anyone out there today.

12 Detective Series, 220 Books...135 of Them Read

One of the goals I set for myself coming into 2020 was to do as much catching up on the many detective series I read as I could comfortably fit into my schedule. I finished the latest John Rebus novel from Ian Rankin this morning before the Texas A&M football game, and that got me curious enough to check on my progress.  

And, I've made more progress than I thought:

The John Rebus novels by Ian Rankin:

• 23 in total (1987-2020)
• 12 read
• 3 Read during 2020
• Read novels include first 4 and last 5
• British author
• Set in Scotland

The Armand Gamache novels by Louise Penny:

• 16 in total (2005-2020)
• 13 read
• 4 read during 2020
• Read novels include first 4 and last 7
• Canadian author
• Set in Canada

The Walt Longmire novels by Craig Johnson:

• 16 in total (2004-2020)
• 14 read
• 4 read in 2020
• Read novels include first 10 and last 4
• American author
• Set in the U.S.

The Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novels by Deborah Crombie:

• 18 in total (1993-2019)
• 8 read
• 2 read in 2020
• Read novels include first 2 and 4 of last 5
• American author
• Set in England

The Inspector Banks novels by Peter Robinson:

• 26 in total (1987-2019)
• 7 read
• 1 read in 2020
• Read novels are first 5 and last 2
• British/Canadian author
• Set in England

The Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly:

• 23 in total (including Bosch/Ballard novels) (1992-2019)
• 12 read
• 0 read in 2020
• Read novels include last 6
• American author
• Set in the U.S. 

The Charlie Resnick novels by John Harvey:

• 13 in total (1989-2013)
• 12 read
• 0 read in 2020
• All read but number 7
• British Author
• Set in England

The Thomas Lynley novels by Elizabeth George:

• 20 in total (1988-2018)
• 17 read
• 0 read in 2020
• read novels include first 14
• American author
• Set in England

The Alexandria Cupidi novels by William Shaw:

• 4 in total (2016-2020)
• 2 read
• 2 read in 2020
• read novels are first 2
• British author
• Set in England

The Inspector Wexford novels by Ruth Rendell:

• 24 in total (1964-2013)
• 8 read
• 0 read in 2020
• read novels are scattered 
• British author
• Set in England

The Adam Dalgliesh novels by P.D. James: 

• 14 in total (1962-2008)
• 7 read
• 0 read in 2020
• read novels include first 4
• British author
• Set in England

The Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke:

• 23 in total (1987-2020)
• 23 read
• 1 read in 2020
• American author
• Set in the U.S. 

There you have it. I prepared this largely for my own edification, but hopefully I've included enough data that other readers will find it at least a little bit useful.

The Hanging Valley - Peter Robinson

The Hanging Valley is book number four in Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks series. By this point, Chief Inspector Alan Banks has been in Yorkshire for almost two years and is settling nicely into a considerably slower pace of crime-fighting than the one he once faced in London. Banks really enjoys detective work, and always has, but in London he knew that too many citizens see contact with the police as a confrontation - and he found the resulting unpleasant pressure to be more uncomfortable than it was worth. Too, Banks found it difficult to work while under the constant scrutiny of superiors, and in London he felt there were way too may chiefs meddling in his investigations. But in Eastvale, Superintendent Gristhorpe is happy enough to let him get on with things on his own, and Banks is a happy man.  

 This time around, Banks is called to the nearby village of Swainshead to look into the death of a hiker whose two-week-old remains are discovered by a wildflower enthusiast out on a hike of his own. Quickly enough, it is determined that the man’s death is a homicide – and that this is not the first murder this tiny village has seen in recent years. When Banks moves into the village’s only hotel to begin his witness interviews, he begins to realize that Swainshead’s citizens are hiding a lot of secrets – from him and from each other – and that this will be no simple investigation. Swainshead is a little self-contained world all its own, a world in which ancient grudges, out-of-control ambition, a still-powerful wealthy family, and deep-set guilt will all play their part in bringing the hiker’s killer to justice. Before that happens, Banks will spend a week in Toronto tracking down a key witness and time in Oxford where he hopes to identify the link between the murders and the person responsible for them.

Peter Robinson

Four books into the series, it is becoming clear that Peter Robinson is not particularly interested in sharing his main character’s personal life with his readers (perhaps this will change in later books). Readers know that Alan’s wife, Sandra, is supportive and that she understands his frequent absences from their home. They know that he has two children, Brian and Tracy, but they know very little about the children’s personalities or how they are coping with the move from London to the Yorkshire countryside. More times than not, the detective’s entire family is conveniently out of town during his homicide investigations, and they only return when the case is over or at some investigatory lull. After four books, the reader still doesn’t have much of a feel for who they are and what their world is like. 

Bottom Line: The Hanging Valley is a complicated, but rather straightforwardly handled, murder mystery that requires the reader to pay close attention if it is all to make sense in the end. The ending itself is a bit abrupt (in an almost off-putting way), and the climax relies a little too heavily on a lot of conversational explanation from Banks to his sergeant (too much telling and not enough showing is never a good thing). By this point, Robinson may have realized just how complicated his plot was and decided that the conversation was something he needed to do to ensure that his readers were up to speed. Maybe he was right.

Series Fiction: James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux

I have enjoyed "series fiction" for as long as I have been reading, particularly series that focus on crime detectives - be they "official" or "private," male or female, American, Japanese, or anything in between.    And, it seems that the longer the series, the more I enjoy them.  There is something very special about watching a character evolve and go through the same aging process that I, as a reader, am experiencing in the real world.

So it makes perfect sense that many of my favorite authors write exactly the kind of stuff I love most: James Lee Burke, Elizabeth George, Sue Grafton, Ruth Rendell, John Harvey, Dennis Lehane, Ian Rankin, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, and Denise Mina.  I knew I could depend on them to provide me with a new chapter in their hero's life story each and every year, regular as clockwork.  Some of them are still doing that, others have killed off their hero (or themselves died), and a few have gone in others directions.  Some lost interest in the old storyline and started entirely new series or decided to spin secondary characters into series of their own.  Others have simply slowed the pace down by going longer than a year between series books.

James Lee Burke is still Old Dependable.  He somehow manages a new Dave Robicheaux novel almost every year while steadily adding to his shorter Hackberry Holland and Billy Bob Holland series.  I really like the Holland clan, but it is a new Dave Robicheaux novel that still gets me most excited about Burke's writing.  It all started twenty-five years ago with 1987's The Neon Rain in which I was introduced to Dave, the first popular-fiction Cajun hero I ever ran across.  Has there ever been another, for that matter?  As someone of Cajun heritage, I have always taken the jokes, the name-calling, and prejudice pretty much in stride, but I have to admit that it was rather gratifying to finally run across a heroic cajun (even though, at times, Dave is more anti-hero than hero).  I was hooked - and still am.

Dave is, or has been, many things: recovering alcoholic, oil field trash, Viet Nam veteran, homicide cop in one of the dirtiest police forces in the country, jazz fan, racetrack regular, fisherman supreme, and defender of the weak.  The man has almost as many flaws as the bad guys he chases, and that's why he gets the job done - he does whatever it takes.  We've almost lost Dave to the bad guys a time or two (see 2010's The Glass Rainbow), but he's still with us.  Thanks for that, Mr. Burke.

Dave Robicheaux's story is a fascinating one best experienced in the order it was published.  Catching up will require some time and energy, but it is well worth the effort.  You will thank me, especially if you read the books in this order:

1. The Neon Rain (1987)
2. Heaven's Prisoners (1988)
3. Black Cherry Blues (1989)
4. A Morning for Flamingos (1990)
5. A Stained White Radiance (1992)
6. In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993)
7. Dixie City Jam (1994)
8. Burning Angel (1995)
9. Cadillac Jukebox (1998)
10. Sunset Limited (1999)
11. Purple Cane Road (2000)
12. Jolie Blon's Bounce (2002)
13. Last Car to Elysian Fields (2003)
14. Crusader's Cross (2005)
15. Pegasus Descending (2006)
16. The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007)
17. Swan Peak (2008)
18. The Glass Rainbow (2010)
19. Creole Belle (2012)

So there you have it - 19 James Robicheaux books in roughly 25 years.  It doesn't get much more consistent than that.  Throw in the three Hackberry Holland novels and the four novels in the Billy Bob Holland series and Burke is right on that one-a-year pace that his loyal fans hope for.