Book 3 of the Dexter 'set' and a brooding Chief Inspector Morse grapples with the murder of a newly appointed member of the Oxford Examination Syndicate. Nicholas Quinn was deaf and though talented, not the unanimous choice of the other 'syndics', to join their studious ranks. Still, Morse needs to tease apart the complex social connections and doggedly unpick the dense layers of motivation and alibi to unmask the culprit.

 

My only criticisms would be the author's penchant for conferring tawdry weakness indiscriminately (all of the key suspects appear to have an appetite for pornography). Dexter commonly challenges the superficial gloss of academia and Oxford, often juxtaposing it with contrastingly brutal and uncivilized aspects of 'real' life. However, the tarring of so many characters with the same feeble brush seemed strikingly implausible. So too, the final gathering of the academics to hear Morse's conclusion. It felt rather reminiscent of Agatha Christie's drawing room finales, but simply not as convincing.

 

I was coming round to the notion that fictional detectives are necessarily a reflection of their environment. But, in that case, Morse might be expected to evince rather more style and class. Certainly, in this book, the depth of the Chief Inspector's intellect is rather betrayed by the shallow nature of his character. Even the long-suffering, up-holder of standards, DS Lewis, seemed to be detrimentally affected, as he went about his gofer duties. Perhaps, Morse will rediscover his love of opera and Wagner, conspicuously absent in this episode and be once more elevated to higher things. One can but hope!

I wish I were leisure reading.

 

(and maybe looking as cool as Grace Kelly, but that's a reading fantasy for another day :-p).

 

15K+ words on POISON GARDEN: An Elle Black Penny Dread (thanks to the amazing versatility of Scrivener), and 1 more illustration to complete for the SUNDARK paper book.

 

I have been reading, all for research. Victorian cookbooks and garden books are fascinating and all, but for the sake of expediency I'm only looking up what I need (all vegetable dishes, for one; large estate gardens with conservatories, for another). It's a bit of a dilemma listing my 'am reading' list when there really is no realistic goal to finish such books. Kind of like listing how to fix plumbing manuals, where one reads only the section on replacing a garbage disposal.

 

Therefore, my 'am reading' list is just going to grow, and though I hate being a dilettante with the subjects of my books---because as an obsessive-compulsive, I prefer being thorough and knowing *everything*---I do know that if I read all 400pp of Human Zoos: The Invention of the Savage in order to write a brief subplot to Dark Victorian: EVERLIFE, I'm not going to get any writing done.

 

The version of The Silent World, by Jacques Cousteau, that Grace Kelly is reading is a first print hardcover (of course), and can still be found around. I just listed the 2004 version, though the collector in me would like a 1st edition copy. ;)

Love this photo of Grace Kelly and finally found the title she's reading in this pic. The Silent World : A story of undersea discovery and adventure, by the first men to swim at record depths with the freedom of fish, by J. Y. Cousteau, 1953, the hardcover edition, though the one pictured at Amazon is one cover variation.

I enjoyed this one more than the first two Morse-novels. There's not as much drinking in this book (now I know that it's part of Morse's character to drink a bit too much but especially in the first book it felt like everytime Dexter didn't know what to write now he added a line about Morse going to the pub, now there's still the sense that Morse drinks a bit more than is healthy without it getting mentioned every chapter) and while there's still lots of red herrings they're no longer thrown out and two paragraphs later unmasked as false leads as it happened especially in the 2nd novel.

This is a slim collection of essays by different authors so naturally the style and substance vary. One I enjoyed was Eric Trust's hagiography of Friederich Guggenberger. Coming from a military family and finishing school during the hyperinflation and depression of the thirties it was no wonder he choose the naval service. As a member of "Crew 34" he was in illustrious company of several future u-boat commanders.

Guggenberger's claim to fame comes from his sinking of the Ark Royal, a British carrier, in the Mediterranean. That and the later sinking of a battleship made Hitler believe his decision to move subs from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean was a good one. It was not. Less tonnage sunk and more casualties was the result.

What made the book really interesting for me was the last essay on the case of Heinz Wilhelm Eck, the only U-Boat captain to be tried, convicted and , was hardly different than actions committed by numerous Allied soldiers and commanders. That hardly makes it right, but execution.....?

Before embarking on his last mission, Eck had been warned by U-Boat veteran Albert Schnee, ranked #22 among German U-Boat commanders, that Eck’s command, the U-852, was one of the largest and slowest U-Boats and to be extremely careful in the transit area, mentioning that traces of wreckage, and presumably survivors, of a torpedoed ship, could place the U-boat in danger. All four type IXD2 boats preceding Eck’s U-852 had been sunk. Schnee’s warning was emphasized by Gunter Hessler. Fifty-four days later, Eck ordered the machine-gunning of the survivors of the Peleus. Unfortunately for Eck, one survived. Ironically, the British knew of his presence less because of the wreckage he failed to sink and instead because of his radio message to Berlin reporting the sinking of the Peleus.

Located and attacked by British aircraft, the U-852 was so damaged that it could not dive, but Eck determined to save his crew by beaching the boat. They managed to fight off further strafing attacks. Eck failed to successfully destroy the boat with demolition charges and more crucially did not destroy the ship’s log which was then captured. It was only the log that linked the U-852 to the Peleus. Crewman escaping the boat were machine-gunned in the water by the British planes and several were killed.

Germane to Eck’s case was the Laconia affair in 1942 in which a German sub had torpedoed a large ex-liner transport carrying thousands of prisoners of war, civilians, and wounded British troops. The submarine, aided by others that came to the scene, began a rescue oiperation and broadcast their position saying they would continue rescue operations as long as they were not attacked. They draped their boats in Red Cross banners. Despite this, they were attacked and bombed by an American B-24 who had radioed for orders and was told to attack the U-boats, their decks covered with survivors. The American commander who gave the order to attack, Captain Robert Richardson, justified his actions as an “operational necessity.” Following this, Admiral Doenitz forbade helping any survivors. Eck wanted to use the Laconia incident and Doenitz orders as justification for his actions during the trial.

The trial was held in October of 1945 and the verdict was a forgone conclusion given the decisions of the court disallowing the defense time to prepare or even time for their witnesses to arrive.

I’ve probably already included too many spoilers but since the events surrounding the case are fairly well known, it most likely doesn’t matter. This essay alone made the book worthwhile. It’s a fascinating case that raise all sorts of moral and legal issues with regard to how we conduct war and the responsibilities of the combatants.