July 25, 2024

Today, we open box #2 of old books. It is an Allied moving box made primarily for books, so that's a plus. However, the box is marked "Fleming Livonia Bookholders and Misc," which means the box goes back to 2007 and two houses ago. I also have no idea what was meant by "bookholders?" The Flemings have had lots of bookends over the years, but none that would ever require such a large box. Clearly the box was repurposed long after we moved to Grand Rapids.

Although maybe not, as the first thing I pull out is a two-VHS set of Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet," the one miscellaneous item I will find. I doubt I have looked at that since my teaching days at Detroit College of Business, pre-dating the Livonia to Grand Rapids' move. However, dozens of other VHS tapes from those days are not in the box, and I am not sure if any of those survived the late 2000s. Maybe I thought I might use it again for some future teaching.

Anyway, enough of that boring "Hamlet." What of the books? Well, there are 41 total, a smaller number owing to the inclusion of 8 textbooks, most quite big, from Pix's undergraduate days (and one "Science and Technology Libraries," a very thin textbook, from her graduate school days). I am kind of surprised she ever let me box these up. While I type this, above my computer are "Fundamentals of Government Information," while to my right are 5 science textbooks similar to the ones in storage, which include a Nutrition, Astronomy, Endocrinology, Respiration, and 3 chemistry textbooks. One of the latter, "Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Organic Chemistry," actually has a 1991 publication date, which makes me think she purchased that early in her career as the science reference librarian at Wayne State University.

Old textbooks will be a treasure trove in this search through these boxes, but even though she hasn't been a science librarian since 2007, my wife has wanted these books nearby for quick reference, none of which has happened, I am sure, since Lincoln was about 6 when she liked to terrify him with pictures from her microbiology textbook, still on the shelf to my right. Pictures of the effects of gonorrhea have to haunt the poor boy.

If Pix finds out I boxed those textbooks (luckily she rarely reads my blogs), she might be even less happy to note that 3 pieces of historical fiction, books that clearly are hers, are also in the box. Probably the most surprising of these is "Time and Chance" by Sharon Penman, somehow separated from the other Penman in our living room. Do I sneak it back upstairs in the hopes she never notices the change on the bookshelf?

Besides these textbooks, the box is mostly full with more consumable, cheap mysteries: 26 in total. Recognize that most of these are the small (7 inch by 4 inch) paperbacks that you might find in the tiny book section of your local RiteAid. Almost all of them ring no bells as I look at them. James Patterson's "Kiss The Girls" is in there. As noted with the first box, it is a good basic read, but I tired of Patterson quickly, so much so that his few books can't qualify for space with my mystery collections, most in the master bedroom: Michael Connelly, Peter Robinson, Denise Mina, John Sandford, and my mother's collection of Agatha Christie's.

No, most of these boxed mysteries are by writers represented by the single book from their canon ever purchased. Occasionally, a name like Val McDiermid shows up more than once, but otherwise, it is a anti-litany of serial killers hunted by haunted protagonists in books with provocative titles: "The Upright Man," "Sacrifice," "Mercy," "Killing The Shadows," "The Ugly Duckling," "Icarus," "Burnt Bones."

Allow me an aside to describe, briefly, these kinds of mysteries, addictive and unhealthy at the same time. I mentioned for Box #1 that I pulled two mysteries out, almost randomly, to reread. One, "Lost Souls," lasted 4 pages before I sent it back into the basement. It involved vampires and that was enough. The second, James Swain's "Midnight Rambler" (I am tempted to say, "cue, The Rolling Stones," but given how that song features in the story, I won't). I re-read "Midnight Rambler" yesterday. That is feature #1 of these books: quick, easy reads. As I have said, a mind munchie. Feature #2 is that on the surface they present old-fashioned good vs. evil, where good wins. That will always be what I need in such a book. And I can't discount the evil, part of what attracts me is seeing a bad guy so thoroughly bad that I will have no empathetic response to him. While I enjoy mysteries where it involves a one-time murder, perhaps in the heat of the moment, there can still be moral ambiguity about such a crime's resolution.

So, "Midnight Rambler" gave me all that, especially in the serial killer who has killed 8 women. However, there is a lot to put up with, almost all of which is replicated in all these books.

1) Our hero is a a disgraced former cop, having beaten multiple suspects over the years, and is not above breaking the law in his quest to bring down the bad guy(s).

2) Our hero is separated from his wife and daughter, as the personal life suffers when the professional life takes over.

3) Our hero is pretty much broke and yet many people extend IOUs to allow him to function.

4) Our hero has a dog as his only constant companion. The dog spends most of the book in the car (in Florida) and is incredibly well-trained, although it is not clear when and how the hero trained the dog who had to be rescued from the pound because he is an aggressive dog.

5) Our hero sees things at crime scenes others can't.

6) Our hero will have a life-and-death moment with the bad guy (or guys, in this case) at the end, not only risking his life but the life of a woman he knows in the clutches of the bad guy.

7) Our hero may or may not have killed the bad guy (of guys, in this case) by the end, suggesting another book to come.

Sadly, I should probably just get rid of all these clichéd mysteries, but they get put back in the box, including "Midnight Rambler."

Interestingly, among the mysteries, I find a hardback copy of Lee Meadows' "Silent Suspicion." Meadows was a business faculty at Detroit College of Business when I was there, and when I found he had published a few mysteries, I jumped to get one. They took place in Detroit. I don't have much other memory of the books . . . or Professor Meadows.

Before I move away from these mysteries, I do feel the need to comment on the "not-quite-so-pedestrian-looking mysteries" that occasionally, but pretty rarely, show up in these boxes. In Box #2, that would be "Death In A Mood Indigo," which by evocative title already stands out from the "Burnt Bones" and the "Killing The Shadows." It's also an 8-inch by 5-inch paperback that seems more likely to have been on the Barnes & Noble (or back then, Borders) "Buy-Two-Get-The-Third-50%-Off" table. Reviewing the description on the back, I learn that it is about a potential serial killer in Nantucket investigated by local police chief, Merry Folger. Hmm? I wonder why I am sure Merry Folger doesn't have the same twisted, depressing back story as all the other cops, lawyers, private detectives, and writers who pursue serial killers in the Rite-Aid books? I also can't help thinking that Merry sounds a little much like Jessica Fletcher from "Murder, She Wrote." I bought this? Really?

Finally, there are 4 true crime books, two of which come out and come back upstairs for my True Crime shelf just to the left of my computer. Ann Rule's "The Stranger Beside Me" has to be in the permanent collection. Hell, Rule and this book, her account of being friends with Ted Bundy, pretty much resurrected the true crime movement from the literary clutches of writers like Truman Capote. In addition, a book, "Hunting The Devil," about Andrei Chikatilo, Russia's version of Bundy, should come back up. I know I have read it a couple of times, as depressing as it is, mostly as a reminder of things the Soviet Union shared and didn't share with the United States of America. These two books sneak back into the permanent collection while Pix is out doing errands. She doesn't need a reminder of my most macabre reading interests.

However, "The Anatomy of Motive," another John Douglas, will remain in the box. Sorry, John, or maybe sorry, Mark Olshaker, Douglas' co-writer for all of these of quick-to-market books.

In retrospect, box #2 is a bit of a disappointment. I enjoyed the variety of what box #1 produced. And I am pretty sure I haven't even unearthed one-tenth of the cheap mysteries. How much more will I have to say on that sorry subject matter? Here's hoping Box #3 is less filled with such mystery.

Full series here.