James W. Ziskin

Ellie Stone, the heroine sleuth of this engaging, clever mystery, is a reporter for an upstate New York newspaper. It’s August 1962, height of the racing season in nearby Saratoga Springs, when Ellie happens on a fire at the abandoned Tempesta Farm, once a quality breeding place for Thoroughbreds.

A barn has burned, which should have no particular significance, since it’s been years since Tempesta operated. However, Ellie finds human remains in the ashes and a bit of racing silk that suggests the victim was a jockey. A bullet hole through the head confirms that it’s murder, which leads the police to suspect gamblers as the criminals.

Ellie isn’t so sure, and, as is her wont, she pursues the case from every conceivable angle, like any good reporter; for about a week, she seems never to get any sleep. Knowing nothing about racing, she relies on a good friend to teach her, whereupon she drops the nuggets she’s learned into conversations with gamblers, horsemen, and racetrack swells, often with comic results.

Ellie befriends a beautiful, temperamental horse named Purgatorio, and crosses paths with hoods who have no beauty but plenty of temperament. Her allies in the police department worry about her, especially the closer she gets to the truth, and the more heat that results.

Ziskin tells his story with brisk economy, and despite a large cast of characters, he never loses you. That should be a given, but I’ve read many mysteries in which I’ve had to stop and say, “What just happened, exactly?” Yet the clarity never reveals too much, and the solution to the mystery comes as a complete surprise — another quality that eludes some authors.

The prose is nicely seasoned without being cute or cloying, and that helps too. As for historical flavor, I would have liked more than random details of dress, popular music, or news headlines. To his credit, though, Ziskin involves social issues hovering on the mainstream horizon in 1962. I particularly like how he handles the office politics, which conveys both background and contrast.

Ellie has an assistant, an older woman with a developmentally disabled child, who does a lot of the spade work, for little money and no recognition, except from Ellie. The younger woman, educated at Barnard and blessed with the more glamorous, better-paying job, realizes how unfair this is.

However, her status cuts two ways, for Ellie endures the sobriquet of “girl reporter,” symbolic of the hostility she faces on her beat and in the newsroom. Ellie never describes herself physically in her narration, but you get the idea that she’s very attractive, often more of a hindrance than an advantage. When an old-timer at the paper makes a remark about her derrière, she photographs his and posts the prints where other staffers can laugh at them.

But it’s not all fun and games, for Ellie faces constant sexual harassment, and she fights an uphill battle to be taken seriously. Luckily, her editor believes in her reportorial skills— but nevertheless, she depends upon a man’s good graces.

Also, Ellie’s Jewish, and Ziskin does a fine job portraying the shades of anti-Semitism she encounters, whether from the Saratoga blue-bloods or the underworld types. The blue-bloods also have no idea how racist they are toward African-Americans, even as they raise money to aid poor black schoolchildren. Properly, Ziskin never mentions the national movements or leaders campaigning for women’s rights or against racial and ethnic prejudice, a low-key approach that avoids earnestness or exaggerated significance.

These are some of the pleasures of A Stone’s Throw, an excellent, satisfying mystery.… (más)

Nothing is as it seems!

Danny Jacobs, a journalist caught up in Bombay as Irandi Ghandi declares an Emergency to help save her party and her power. Democracy in India is at a standstill. Ghandi rounds up her opposition as the whole country faces upheaval
A beautiful young Indian woman, Sushmita leaves him breathless
Her companion, a Belgian it turns out, Willy Smets, takes to Danny like father to son
An ugly American, Russell Harlan Jr., a gorgeous German Lufthansa hostess, and Danny’s manservant of a few days, Ramu and Police Inspector Lockhande. Then there’s his boss Frank’s secretary, Janice.
All form a nexus around which we, along with Danny, are whirled.
One of Danny’s first stories, still on the back burner, was an interview with a bomb maker and terrorist. An unfortunate photo leaves Dan in a precarious position.
A dive into Indian and European society and culture in 1975 India where nothing is as it seems, cultural differences aside.
An intriguing thriller embedded in a culture where nothing is at it seems. So enjoyed this!

A Oceanview ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.… (más)

Well, that was just grand. I'm a sucker for well-done historical fiction, especially when there's a sassy protagonist ahead of her time. Throw in some well-drawn characters, a baffling murder, and some solid head fakes and I really enjoyed this. The pacing seemed kind of uneven, though, and Ellie's emotional lability and jumping into bed with Isaac so rapidly strained my credulity just a little (there's a big difference between sassy and stupid).

Thank you to Seventh Story Press for the advance reading copy.… (más)

Hometown boy Tony Eberle is making it big on the West Coast, set to be the second lead in a new movie. The New Holland Republic sends Ellie Stone out to Los Angeles to interview him for the paper. This is the fifth Ellie Stone book by Ziskin, and the first I have read in this mystery series, set in the early 60's. The time period lends itself well to the hard boiled nature of the story--plus Ellie winds up doing a lot of things the old fashioned way, both in pursuing her story and the mystery of the missing Tony. She is both savvy and naïve, the atmosphere of Hollywood is still somewhat circumspect to the goings on in dark clubs and private parties.… (más)