Digging into deadly secrets
Understand any of that? Great, then you know where we're going, and you're delighted with a successor to Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.
Don't have a notion where you are? Despair not, for you have an amazingly awesome murder mystery ahead of you.
Anna Lythgoe photo
Anthony Horowitz's mystery-within-a-mystery novels starring book editor Susan Ryeland demand the reader's attention.
Horowitz is the 70-year-old devilishly-clever English author who created Foyle's War, adapted novels for Midsomer Murders, wrote new novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, writes murder mysteries in which he plays himself as an always-a-step-behind, fumbling, bumbling John Watson-type chronicler to former cop Daniel Hawthorne.
He wrote Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, both turned into magnificent series on PBS, and now here's Marble Hall Murders, even more complex than its predecessors. Though just oh-so far beyond good.
Do not under any circumstances call it The Marble Hall Murders. The word 'The' does not appear in any of Horowitz's titles. You have been warned.
Susan Ryeland is a book editor living in our time. It was her job to edit the Atticus Pund murder mysteries written by Alan Conway, a very difficult man who obviously ripped off Pund from Hercule Poirot, but did a very good job of doing so.
Pund identified as a Greek Jew living in Germany who survived the Holocaust and ended up as a private detective in London in the 1950s. Conway despised the Pund books, always seeing himself not as a mystery writer but as a literary genius whose works would be dissected in PhD theses at Oxford and Cambridge. Alas…
Conway wrote Pund with characters and events drawn from his real life. In Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, Horowitz gifted us with full-length Pund books-within-a-book, in which were hidden clues about who murdered whom in the world inhabited by Conway and Ryeland.
Major characters in Pund's life mirrored people in Conway's life. That's why so many actors played dual roles.
Still with us?
Marble Hall Murders drives us much further up the wall because Ryeland finds herself reading not a book-within-a-book, but a Pund book delivered in four chunks of 10,000 to 30,000 words each, interspersed with contemporary adventures in which even Ryeland became suspected of — no, wait, can't get ahead of ourselves.
As Marble Hall Murders begins, (spoiler alert) Alan Conway is dead, Susan Ryeland is an unemployed book editor in England no longer living in Crete with her one true love, and she gets hired to edit a 'continuation' novel — the Conway estate having approved the Pund books continuing through author Eliot Crace.
Crace has a three-book contract, despite which he calls his first book-in-progress Pund's Last Case, poor Atticus having a diagnosis of terminal cancer.
Eliot is the ne'er-do-well grandson of Miriam Crace, whose dozens of books about a tiny-sized human family made her the most adored children's author in the universe and controller of a vast fortune. She died in her sleep of a heart attack 20 years before.
Marblee Hall Murders
In Pund's Last Case, an exceedingly rich English woman who's dying asks Pund to come to her estate in France to sort something so evil — well, she'll tell him when he gets there. And Pund arrives, hours after the woman dies of a heart attack immediately after drinking her daily tea that tasted a little funny.
Crace accuses his rather large and scurrilous family of having murdered granny Miriam — each character in Pund's Last Case is based on a character in the Crace family, and Eliot promises the book will reveal who murdered granny Crace.
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The Crace family can't afford a scandal — Miriam's books are having a resurgence, and Netflix has proposed a $200-million series of movies and a multi-year TV show.
Susan Ryeland is caught up in the middle of all this mess, desperately trying to decipher who among so many nasty people in a piece of fiction is the avatar of a killer in her world.
Horowitz plays fair. The clues are there, both in Atticus Pund's world and in Susan Ryeland's, if only we are keen enough and sufficiently sharp to catch them.
Anthony, you are a devious and wicked fellow — do keep it up.
Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin was dismayed to learn that Susan Ryeland does not approve of pets sleeping on their humans' bed at night. He had been unaware such attitudes even existed.
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Japan Forward
16 hours ago
- Japan Forward
Abduction is a Global Issue
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It is common to see reports of conflicts when you turn on the TV. However, we must not forget about the abduction issue. It has been a silent battle for much longer than wars. From Mr Yokota's lecture, the desire of the abductees to "return to Japan as soon as possible" touched strongly in my heart. The abduction issue is not the past, and Megumi and others are still waiting for help with the single-minded desire to "meet their families." Therefore, I believe that raising our voices in cooperation with the world for the early return of the abductees will be the driving force for their rescue. As a participant in the summit, I felt a mission to disseminate the abduction issue. It is necessary to widely disseminate the current situation of the abduction issue and what we can do. I want to actively participate in future activities for the early return of the abductees. At the time he submitted this essay, Masakazu Takata was a student at Maizuru City Kasa Junior High School, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. He delivered this comment upon receiving the Grand Prize for an English essay by a junior high school student: Comment from the winner: After listening to Takuya Yokota's lecture this summer [2024], I realized that I had to think of the abduction issue as something that concerned me personally. As a citizen, I want to take action in whatever way I can. Author: TAKATA Masakazu Student, Maizuru City Kasa Junior High School このページを 日本語 で読む
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
When artists die, they leave gifts to us
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Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canada-Mexico arrangement perfect fit for Pony Corral musician José 'Pepê' Cortes
'I usually do this one later on in the night but since I just had a request for it, here we go, off to Mexico!' It's Saturday evening at the Pony Corral Restaurant & Bar on Pembina Highway. Entertainer José 'Pepê' Cortes launches into a rollicking version of La Bamba, diners on the eatery's spacious riverside patio put down their forks and knives to clap along to the Ritchie Valens hit, which Cortes performs on guitar with the assistance of a pre-recorded backing track. Given his high-spirited delivery, one would never guess that Cortes, a summertime fixture at the Fort Garry hotspot since the mid-2000s, has sung the crowd-pleaser 'oh, about a million times,' over the years. Jose (Pepe) Cortes, who is a one-man show, performs on the riverside patio at the Pony Corral Restaurant & Bar three nights a week. 'The thing I try to remind myself is that there's always going to be somebody here for the first time who has never heard me do La Bamba, which, I suppose because I'm from Mexico, people kind of expect,' Cortes remarks later, during a break between sets. That's fine with him, he continues. His job, he feels, is to make guests forget about whatever might be troubling them, if only for an hour or two. So when he spots somebody beaming and raising their glass during La Bamba or Besamé Mucho, another Mexican standard that's part of his act, he tells himself, 'mission accomplished.' Cortes, 66, was born in Mexico City, the second eldest of five siblings. Growing up, he was a big fan of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he says, casually dressed in sandals, grey shorts and a pale-blue short-sleeve dress shirt . By the time he was 11, he was teaching himself to play popular songs he heard on the radio, on an acoustic guitar borrowed from a relative. Not that he always understood what he was singing about. 'We did take English in school but no, there were lots of times I didn't have a clue what the lyrics meant, I was mostly just pretending,' he says, mentioning he has answered to the nickname Pepê — even his mother calls him that — for as long as he can remember. Before long his older brother Eduardo, Lalo for short, began accompanying him on drums. Cortes guesses he was 12 or 13 when a sign went up in their neighbourhood, advertising for bands to volunteer their services for an outdoor music festival. After talking a pair of classmates into joining them, the foursome made its official debut as El Dilema, covering rock tunes by American groups such as Grand Funk Railroad, with Cortes handling lead vocals. El Dilema was well-received. Before long the group was getting booked for community dances around town, now billed as Children owing to how young they were. The band eventually expanded to seven members and by the mid-1970s, Children had become a popular nightclub draw, not just in Mexico City but in more touristy destinations, as well. Cortes was 21 in 1979 when Children was booked for a weeklong engagement at the Princess Hotel in Acapulco. Also appearing there was a band called Zig Zag, which got its start in Mexico before relocating to Minneapolis. Following one of Children's performances, the members of Zig Zag told Cortes they were impressed with his voice, especially when he sang falsetto on Bee Gees numbers. Also, would he be interested in going with them when they headed back to the States? It seemed like a great opportunity and after discussing it with his bandmates, he made the difficult decision to leave Mexico. Supplied José 'Pepe' Cortes in Mexico with the band Children 'Zig Zag mostly did classic rock — Boston, Kansas, that kind of stuff — and we used to get standing ovations for our version of Bohemian Rhapsody,' Cortes says with a laugh, adding besides the Twin Cities, they were also getting booked for shows in North and South Dakota, and, later on, in Canada. In August 1984 Zig Zag was hired for a social being held at the Canadian Forces Base in Shilo. In attendance was a pharmaceuticals rep originally from Deloraine who had relocated to Brandon. Cortes struck up a conversation with her between sets. Within a year, they were married and living in Winnipeg. Cortes continued his musical career after moving to the city. He started off with a country-rock outfit called Raven before being introduced in 1987 to Wayne Hlady, founder of the Beatles tribute act Free Ride. For the next 18 years, Cortes-as-George Harrison played guitar and sang with Free Ride. It was a lucrative gig, he says, but because the band was often booked as many as six nights a week, it caused a strain in his marriage. 'We had two kids, a boy and girl. I was Mr. Mom during the day, cooking the meals and seeing them off to school, but the minute my wife got home, I'd be out the door,' he says. Free Ride definitely helped pay the bills, he goes on, but still, his wife desired a normal life, one that would enable them to socialize with family and friends on the weekend, instead of him always appearing at this bar or that. He understood her point — he even tried his hand at a 'real' job working for a local landscaping firm — but in the end they had grown too far apart. Following his divorce in 2005, Cortes made the decision to part ways with Free Ride. For a while he'd been writing songs of his own, but because Free Ride was all-Beatles, all-the-time, he knew there would never be an opportunity for him to perform his compositions in front of a live audience. One of the first places that hired him after he struck out on his own was the Pembina Highway Pony Corral. There he was encouraged to mix in original tunes alongside time-tested favourites such as Under the Boardwalk, Imagine and Brown Eyed Girl. He also returned to his roots, by sprinkling in Spanish-style songs popularized by the likes of the Gipsy Kings and Santana. By 2011, Cortes, who did three sets a night, Wednesday through Saturday, had developed a loyal following. That summer he was on Facebook when he spotted a message from a person he'd gone to school with in Mexico City. He remembered she used to be pals with his first girlfriend. Out of curiousity he asked if the two of them were still in touch. They were, she replied. SUPPLIED Free Ride as The Rolling Stones. Jose 'Pepe' Cortes is Keith Richards,, front Five minutes later, he received a second message, this time from his ex, a woman named Gabriela. 'She was like 'hi, how are you.' She told me she was living in Tequisquiapan, about three hours from Mexico City. After messaging back and forth a bit more, she said I should come for a visit, which I ended up doing that winter.' Cortes fell in love with both Gabriela and the town, notable for its quaint cobblestone streets and rustic houses. On the flight back to Winnipeg he thought if he could land a gig there, he'd probably move. Four years later he was preparing to do just that. Ahead of his imminent departure, Peter Ginakes, owner of the Pony Corral, proposed they stage a 'Farewell Pepê' concert in his honour, on the patio. That night the place was jam-packed, with lineups stretching into the parking lot. As Cortes was putting away his guitar for what he thought would be the last time at that locale, Ginakes approached him to say, 'You know, there isn't any reason we can't do this every summer.' Cortes, who has dual citizenship, refers to his current situation, which sees him living and performing in Tequisquiapan for nine months of the years, and spending June through August in Lorette with his daughter Sam and her husband, as the 'best of both worlds.' Not only does he get to see his two adult children as well as a pair of grandchildren, ages five and nine, when he's here he holds down a Las Vegas-style residency at the Pony Corral three nights a week, Thursday to Saturday. Added bonus: his son Matthew occasionally supports him on bongo drums. 'It's funny because couples who used to come see me at the Pony 20 years ago, back when they were dating, now show up with their kids to catch the show,' he says. 'The other night my own grandkids were here and the oldest one spent the whole time in one of the Tiki huts, banging away on the table like he was playing drums.' Cortes, who has recorded four CDs of original material, figures he currently has close to 150 songs in his repertoire, including what he refers to as the calypso medley, which he put the finishing touches to in Mexico, this past winter. Jose (Pepe) Cortes on the patio at the riverside Pony Corral Restaurant & Bar (Pier7) at 1700 Pembina Hwy. 'For that one, I kick off things off with Lionel Richie's All Night Long, then switch to Kokomo by the Beach Boys, September by Earth, Wind and Fire and finally Hot Hot Hot (by Buster Poindexter). If that doesn't get people tapping their toes, nothing will.' And although Gabriela has only come with him to Winnipeg once — she found it too chilly, even in June, he says with a wink — he intends to make the annual trip north for as long as Ginakes and the Pony Corral will have him. 'The only tough part is I'm not as young as I used to be,' he says, polishing off the last of his coffee. 'Lots of times customers will go, 'Pepê, it's so good to see you,' and offer to buy me a drink. I have to tell them thanks, but no thanks… or at least to wait till Saturday night, when I don't have to work the next day.' Monthly What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. An email with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing. David Sanderson Dave Sanderson was born in Regina but please, don't hold that against him. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
