Review: The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse by Caroline Lawrence

The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse by Caroline Lawrence (June 2013, Orion Children, ISBN: 444006460)

The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse takes place straight after The Case of the Deadly Desperados and sees the return of the young orphan P K Pinkerton. It's 1862, PK is twelve and is now running a detective agency in Virginia City. PK's first case is to solve the biggest mystery in town – who strangled Short Sally? PK is hired by Sally's maid, an ex-slave girl of a similar age to PK, who witnessed her mistress's murder and is in fear of her own life. So much so that she disappears almost straight away. The description of the murderer is that he is tall, blond and has a “billy-goat” beard. As the investigation progresses PK finds that there are many such men matching that description!

The reader gets to know more of PK's little foibles and eccentricities and way of coping with the world such as tricks to remember people's names. PK's “thorn” is an inability to read people but several friends of PK offer words of advice and tips. PK still remains somewhat mysterious though and has a “secret”...

The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse is a fabulous entry in the series, possibly even better than the first. I was completely immersed. I loved the setting, the snippets of American history, the inclusion of real characters like “Mark Twain” and there's plenty of action and lots of close calls for PK. The case is solved in a very Sherlock Holmes tradition and though I had my suspicions as to the guilty party I hadn't spotted all the clues. PK returns in the intriguingly titled The Case of the Pistol-Packing Widows (out now).

Guest Post: Caroline Lawrence

If you follow my other blog, Euro Crime, you'll have seen this already but as Caroline is talking to current crime writers about their favourite children's books then it fits nicely into both blogs.

I'm very pleased to welcome Caroline Lawrence to Teenage Fiction for All Ages. She has guest-posted before about her favourite character from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and I have reviewed the first of her Western Mysteries, The Case of the Deadly Desperados (which is now out in paperback) and I have the second book, The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse in my tbr.

(The links in the article below are to the author's bibliography on the Euro Crime website.)

Adult Crime Writers' Fave Kids' Crime Books

I was recently invited to attend Crime in the Court at Goldsboro Books in Cecil Court - not a ‘court’ at all, but a charming pedestrian alley two skips and a hop from Leicester Square. Full of antiquary book shops, old post card dealers and other such quainteries it even has its own website and Twitter account.

Goldsboro Books, owned by David Headley and Daniel Gedeon, specialize in UK first editions, especially crime novels. I first began signing stock for them a dozen years ago when my first Roman Mysteries came out and they were working out of their own homes. Now they have a posh shop where a real murder was once committed. They had a notion to host a drinks’ party wherein fans could meet authors and vice versa. Thus Crime in the Court was conceived.

On Tuesday 3 July 2012, about sixty authors, agents and faithful fans were invited to arrive at 6.30. In theory it was to be wine and canapés on a balmy summer evening. In reality it was grey and drizzling. But crime writers are not easily discouraged, nor are their fans!

By 7.00 the alley was seething with literary types. I don’t drink and being an author of kids crime books I knew hardly any of the 'grown up' crime writers, so in order to break some ice I went around asking the illustrious writers to name the first crime book they read as a child. Although I only spoke to a couple of dozen, they were all good sports and played along. (Crime writers really are among the nicest people in the world.)

As you might expect, many of those I canvassed claimed the early influence of authors such as Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle & Dorothy L Sayers.

Erin Kelly told me that her seminal book was The Body in the Library, by Agatha Christie. She read it aged twelve and it changed her life. My pal Sophie McKenzie was also twelve when she read Christie’s 4.50 from Paddington at her aunt and uncle’s house. Sophie writes crime for Young Adults and her first adult crime book is out in September. Kate Rhodes (author of Crossbones Yard) loved all of Agatha Christie’s oeuvre and Elly Griffiths specifically remembers adoring Murder on the Orient Express.

Charlotte Phillips devoured Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew series, about the feisty American high school student sleuth. My pal Lauren St John, author of the Laura Marlin Mysteries for kids, seconded Nancy Drew but also mentioned John D MacDonald and Alastair McLean as early influences. (Not too early, I hope!)

Adrian Magson, author of the Inspector Rocco crime series set in 1960s France, got started reading Leslie Charteris’ The Saint books at the tender age of 8. He liked the crime and admitted that "the girls didn’t hurt".

Barbara Nadel, author of more than a dozen books about Çetin İkmen, a chain-smoking and hard-drinking cop on the Istanbul police force, remembers The Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton. Not really crime, she admitted, though there was often a mystery.

Mark Billingham read The Godfather and Jaws the summer he was fourteen, and loved them both. This was before either came out as a film. He told me they were hugely influential on his decision to become a writer.

You don’t often think of Roald Dahl, Dodie Smith and Beatrix Potter as crime writers, but they are.

Simon Toyne, author of Sanctus and The Key, loved Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl. He particularly relished the drugging and stealing of the pheasants by placing sleeping pills in raisins. (Kids, don’t try this at home.)

Alison Bruce, author of the DC Goodhew series, praised Dodie Smith’s 101 Dalmatians with its child kidnap and extortion.

Platinum blonde noir-writer Laura Wilson loved A Fierce Bad Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. The way he took a carrot without asking gave her a frisson she never forgot.

Matt Hilton cited a coming-of-age crime novel called Ginger, and also the adventures of Willard Price.

Chris Carter author of the L.A.-based Robert Hunter mysteries, remembers a Portugese book roughly translated The Crime Genius.

Western-loving Mike Stotter devoured the Adam Steele series of Western crime novels by George G. Gilman. (I hope they weren’t as horridly violent as Gilman’s more recent books!)

When Penny 'Tideline' Hancock was eight or nine, she read The Young Detectives by R.J. McGregor and relished the secret passages, etc.

Finally, Goldsboro co-owners Daniel Gedeon & David Headley shared their picks. Daniel’s favourite kids’ crime author was the overall winner Agatha Christie, and David’s fave crime book was oft-chosen Danny the Champion of the World. And mine? Nancy Drew, the coolest, cleverest, most independent girl I had ever met.

* * *

Caroline Lawrence writes three history-mystery series for kids, The Roman Mysteries, The Roman Mysteries Scrolls and The P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries. Her latest P.K. Pinkerton Mystery for kids 8+ boasts a dozen shootouts, three corpses and one forking in the Wild West town of Virginia City.

Many thanks to Caroline Lawrence and Orion Childrens for arranging this.

Review: The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence

Here's the second post in my week celebrating the young crime solver.

The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence (June 2011, Orion Childrens ISBN 1444001698)

Review: Roman goddess Caroline Lawrence turns her hand to a new era and place: the Wild West of the 1860s. In this the first of the Western Mysteries the reader meets twelve-year-old PK Pinkerton. Part white, part Native-American and orphaned twice-over.

The book begins with PK stuck down a mine and not expecting to survive the day. PK's adventures are then chronicled from the murder of PK's foster parents and the flight to Virginia City, the home of silver mining, to escape the evil desperados who want something valuable from PK. PK meets many characters in Virginia City, including the reporter who became "Mark Twain", and not all of them are trustworthy. There are plenty of chase scenes and gunfights and along the way the reader gets to know more about PK's character and abilities, some useful, some handicapping before the final showdown.

What a fabulous idea this is having a young detective in the Wild West. I loved it. The action is non-stop and with almost every chapter ending on a cliff-hanger the pages just flew by. I loved learning about this time and setting, one which will be quite new to UK readers I imagine, touching on slavery, the US Civil War as well as mining. PK is an intriguing character and should have equal appeal to boys and girls.

I can't wait for the sequel to find out more about PK's new life and adventures.

Caroline Lawrence stopped by the blog last week to talk about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. You can read her recap of the whole blog tour on the Western Mysteries blog.

Blog Tour: Western Mysteries

To celebrate the release of Caroline Lawrence's The Case of the Deadly Desperados, the first of the Western Mysteries, Caroline is currently doing a blog tour. I'm very pleased to be able to host a guest post from her today about her favourite character from the Wild West.

My favourite character from the Wild West comes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly AKA Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. This 1966 spaghetti western is the most popular Western in the world. Yes, it is. Go check it out over at IMDb where it consistently ranks as one of the top five films among viewers top 250. And rightly so. It is a masterpiece of storytelling: funny, exciting, brutal, touching and always unexpected. It is about three men searching for two hundred thousand dollars in gold during the final years of the American Civil War.


Clint Eastwood plays The Good AKA Blondie. He is neither blond nor good. But he does squint really well and he chews his cigar with aplomb. I love Blondie, but he is not my favourite character.


Lee Van Cleef plays The Bad AKA Angel Eyes. He is a great baddie: a cold-blooded killer who always honours his contracts, even if he's just killed the person who paid him. I love Angel Eyes and I partly based someone in my book on him, but he is not my favourite character.


Eli Wallach plays The Ugly AKA Tuco AKA Tuco Benedicto Pacfico Juan Mara Ramrez. He is a grubby, greasy, greedy Mexican who cares for nothing but gold. He has neither the cool aloofness of Clint Eastwood nor the menacing good looks of Lee Van Cleef but he totally steals the film from both of them. Tuco is my favourite character.


What I love about Tuco is his huge appetite for life, his passion, his vulnerability and above all his irrepressible optimism. We first see him crashing through the window of a saloon, a smoking revolver in one hand, a half-eaten turkey drumstick in the other and napkin around his neck. He has just vanquished three deadly desperados, killing two and winging one. His beady little ferret eyes dart first one way, then the other, then he scampers off to jump on a handy horse. From that moment on the story fizzes whenever he is onscreen. Ive seen the film half a dozen times and his performance is always fresh, always funny, always endearing.


In my opinion, the Jewish American stage actor Eli Wallach is the key to Tuco's lovability. His face expresses every selfish thought. His muddy brown eyes glow with life, humour, vulnerability. Wallach does great physical comedy, too. When Blondie gives him a cigar he eats it. When bomb is about to go off he dives into a trench head first, butt up! The way he crosses himself is hilarious. The scene of him in the bubble bath is sublime.


In his autobiography, The Good, the Bad and Me, Wallach says that when he first met Sergio Leone he noticed the Italian director wore braces AND belt. He asked if he could dress like that for Tuco. Leone snapped his own braces and grinned. Oui, certo, of course, he replied. And from that moment on the two were friends.


Clint Eastwood was worried that Eli Wallach might steal the film. And with reason. Wallach totally steals the film. In a way, Tuco is the real hero of the film. He's the first one we see and the last one we see. He has more screen time than either of the others. He is the only one with a back story. In many ways he is director Sergio Leone's alter-ego. Yes, Tuco is the hero of the greatest Western ever made.


Wallach was a trained method actor who worked with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Peter OToole, Audrey Hepburn and many others. He can play any type of character, but comedy is his fort. He makes it look easy. The three characters together make The Good, the Bad and the Ugly work. Tuco makes the other characters work. Eli Wallach makes Tuco work. Long live Eli Wallach (95 years and going strong at the time of writing)!


Ten things I love about Tuco

1. He wears a belt AND braces.

2. He wears his gun on a string around his neck.

3. He likes bubble baths.

4. He likes cigars as snacks.

5. He has a silver tooth.

6. He is man enough to carry a parasol in the desert.

7. He doesn't let life get him down.

8. He has a rich vocabulary... for cussing.

9. He has a sense of humour.

10. He is very religious. Well, he IS always crossing himself.


My five fave Tuco quotes:

1. There are two kinds of spurs, my friend. Those that come in by the door, and those that come in by the window.

2. Don't die, I'll get you water. Stay there. Don't move, I'll get you water. Don't die until later.

3. Hurrah! Hurrah for the Confederacy! HURRAH! Down with General Grant! Hurrah for General... What's his name? Lee! LEE! Ha ha.

4. If I get my hand on the two hundred thousand dollars, Ill always honour your memory. I swear.

5. When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.

Viva Tuco!

Listen to the amazing theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:




You can read more about the Western Mysteries on their website and read a sample from The Case of the Deadly Desperados at the Orion website.

Check out the other stops on the tour via this schedule on the Orion website or on twitter: #westernmysteries.

Many thanks to Caroline and Orion Childrens for arranging this.