Challenge Complete: Criminal Plots III

This was my second year for participation in Criminal Plots III challenge sponsored by Jen. She required us to read six books from six specific categories. I've plowed my way through all the categories and here are the books conquered in the process:

1. Novel with an animal in the title: The Puzzle of the Silver Persian by Stuart Palmer (1/15/13)

2. Two short stories written by two different authors who are new to you:
"The Guilty Secret" by Paul de Kock
"Out of Exile" by Wilbur Daniel Steele
"The Knightsbridge Mystery" by Charles Reade
"Silence" by Leonid Andreiev
"The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield
"The Bamboozling of Mr. Gascoigne" by E. Phillips Oppenheim

**All new authors to me and all in The World's 100 Best Short Stories Vol. III: Mystery by Grant Overton, ed (2/24/13)

3. Book written by more than one person: The Man Who Went up in Smoke is the second novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1/8/13)

4. A YA crime novel:  Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams (3/19/13)

5. A book from a series optioned for television: The Case of the Negligent Nymph by Erle Stanley Gardner [TV Episode 12/7/57] (1/24/13)

6. A novel that's been nominated for an Edgar® in the last five years: In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Best First Novel of 2010) [I'm so pleased that I actually have one sitting on my TBR pile for this one! I don't generally buy a lot of modern mysteries.] (4/9/13)

The Shadow of Gotham: Review

When I started looking for a final book for the Criminal Plots III Reading Challenge (Read a novel that's been nominated for and Edgar in the last five years), I was relieved to find In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff sitting on my shelves since I'm trying really hard to read more from my own stacks.  I'm not much for reading more recent books, but I had picked this one up last May while browsing in our Friends of the Library used book store.  It was purely a whim--based on the cover, the blurb on the back of the book, and the fact that it's a historical mystery set during one of my favorite time periods--early 20th C.  Not only was Shadow nominated for an Edgar, but it was the winner of Award for Best First Novel in 2010.

The book introduces us to Detective Simon Ziele, a man trying to recover from the tragedy of losing his fiancée in a terrible disaster aboard the ferry General Slocum.  Ziele has left his position in New York City's police force and is now working as a detective in Dobson, New York.  He hopes to escape the brutality of the big city, but just months after he begins his new post, he finds himself faced with the horrific murder of a female mathematics graduate student.  

Sarah Wingate had come to her aunt's home hoping for a little tranquility of her own--telling her aunt that she needed somewhere quiet to work on her graduate thesis; somewhere removed from Columbia University.  What she found instead was an untimely end.  Ziele is called to the wealthy home in the middle of the afternoon to investigate a murder that ranks with some of Jack the Ripper's slightly less gruesome efforts.  Sarah's throat has been cut and then the killer beat and slashed her repeatedly while taking one of her golden braids as a souvenir.  

It looks like the work of a pyschopath...and Columbine University criminologist Alistair Sinclair believes he knows the identity of the murderer.  Sinclair has been studying Michael Fromley, younger son of one of New York City's elite families, in the hopes of rehabilitating the man and curing him of his violent behavior.  Michael had fantasized about committing such atrocious acts, but now it looked like he had crossed the line from fantasy to make his violent dreams a reality.  Sinclair and his team of researches join forces with Ziele to find Michael and try and prevent further deaths.

The investigation takes Ziele from the gambling dens and brothels of the Tenderloin are of the City to the houses of the elite.  The more he learns about Michael, the more confused the case becomes.  Ziele begins to doubt that Fromley is behind the crime--or if he is that he has acted alone.  And somehow the killer manages to stay one step ahead of Ziele and the researchers all along the way.  Does this mean that the culprit is really closer to Ziele than he'd like to believe?


In some ways, this is indeed an impressive first novel.  The plotting is well-done for the most part and portions of the research are as well.  I really like the character of Ziele--although I must agree with another reviewer on GoodReads that despite many utterances of "I don't trust him," Ziele seems to be a very trusting sort.  He has never heard of Alistair Sinclair and his researchers before the murder and yet he's willing to bring them all into the investigation as equals and reveal every bit of evidence to them.  I, too, was immediately struck by a certain character's behavior (and others' reaction to him/her) upon introduction and was certain that s/he was involved.  Kudos to Pintoff for putting a deft spin on that bit of information so I wound up not being completely right....but still the clues were a bit heavy-handed for that early in the book.

The research allowed Pintoff to give us a flavor of turn-of-the-century New York (last century, that is).  But it feels like she did the research rather haphazardly.  Others have pointed out historical problems--the naming of one of Columbia's halls, for example--and I noted a few blunders with historical word use.  The word "overkill" doesn't come into usage until the 1950s and yet Sinclair tells Ziele that the excessive violence of the murder, may be "what you would call over-kill."  Actually, no, Ziele wouldn't.  Not in 1905.  

Despite the sometimes obvious anachronisms, this is a highly enjoyable first novel.  It was a quick read and I regretted each time I had to put it down and do such non-essential tasks, such as working and sleeping.  I look forward to reading the next two in the series and hope to find out more about Ziele's past and the death of Sinclair's son.  Just over three stars.

 
Challenges: 150 Plus Reading Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, Off the Shelf, Outdo Yourself, Criminal Plots, Mystery and Suspense Challenge 2012, Monthly Key Word, Book Bingo, 52 in 52 Weeks, Embarrassment of Riches

Down the Rabbit Hole: Review

Let me just confess up front...Young Adult literature is not my thing.  It wasn't really my thing back when I was in the appropriate age group.  And I certainly never sought books out because they were geared for me as a young adult.  The main thing I think about when choosing books to read is whether the story interests me...and the stories that have interested me most since I graduated from Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Chronicles of Narnia and the like (all read pretty much pre-fifth grade) have been stories about adults.  I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons for this...but I attribute it to the fact that for the longest time I was the youngest in our extended family and I spent a huge portion of my time with cousins, aunts, uncles and second cousins who were all much older than me.  Sunday afternoons were spent at Grandma's where all the adults would sit in the living room, around the card table, and at the dinner table sharing adult "stories."  These made up the narrative of my life.

So...when I pick up a Young Adult novel, there has to be a compelling reason. Sometimes it's because a title/cover just happens to catch my eye when browsing; sometimes one of my beloved fellow bloggers brings up a book that just sounds too good to miss; and sometimes my weakness for challenges makes me go out of my comfort zone and find a YA novel for one reason or another.  This time it's the Criminal Plots III Challenge sponsored by Jen.  Jen has asked us to read 6 crime/mystery novels from different categories....one of which is a YA crime novel.  Which brings me (the long way 'round) to Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams.

This is the first novel in his Echo Falls mystery series and features Ingrid Levin-Hill as a Sherlock Holmes lover who finds herself smack in the middle of her very own murder mystery.  Ingrid is thirteen, a whiz a soccer, miserable at math, and an aspiring young actress.  When her mother doesn't show up on time to take her from an orthodontist appointment to soccer practice, Ingrid attempts to walk to the soccer field.  That little detour from her usual routine brings Ingrid to the wrong side of the tracks in Echo Falls and sets up a meeting with Cracked-Up Kate, one of the town's unconventional residents.  Within twenty-four hours Kate has been murdered and Ingrid will realize that she has lost her lucky red soccer shoes at the scene of the crime.  An attempt to retrieve the shoes without running into the police (or anyone else who might be watching the crime scene) leads from one thing to another....and before she knows it, Ingrid is trying to emulate her favorite fictional detective and discover the murderer on her own.  But her snooping attracts attention and if she's not careful there just might be another murder that needs solving...her own!

This was a fairly enjoyable book.  It had a lot of action and it swept me right along.  I did spot the culprit early on, but that didn't bother me too much.  I liked Ingrid and I think Abrahams did a good job making her a fairly realistic teenager--although I do think the chief of police (father to Ingrid's soon-to-be first boyfriend--if I'm not misreading the signs) is a bit slow on the uptake in several scenes where he finds her out wandering about (looking for clues) when she obviously should have been either home in bed or off at school.  I also think it odd that a girl who loves the logical Holmes and his methods should be so dismal at math.  Not looking for a math genius here--but I'd expect a better showing.

I'm sure the rest of the series will be quite delightful and, although I probably won't be reading any more myself, I would definitely recommend the books to anyone who enjoys Young Adult novels and mysteries.  Three stars for a good solid read.

World's 100 Best Short Stories--Mystery: Review

The World's 100 Best Short Stories Vol. III: Mystery by Grant Overton, ed. was published in 1927 and contains stories written from the 1840s to the 1920s.  The selections fall under a rather broad interpretation of "mystery," but the stories are all very entertaining.  The book features work by well-known authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins, and Katherine Mansfield as well as those primarily known by mystery fans--Melville Davisson Post  and E. Phillips Oppenheim.  And then there are a few whose names may only be known by those completely immersed in detective fiction lore (and more well-versed than I was before plunging into this little red volume). An entertaining little collection: Three Stars.

"The Doomdorf Mystery" by Melville Davisson Post: Perhaps Post's most well-known story featuring Uncle Abner.  An early and classic locked room murder in which a man is shot while resting in his room--door securely bolted on the inside and windows coated with dust and obviously undisturbed (not to mention the sheer drop below the windows that make it impossible for the killer to have entered). There is always a moral to the Uncle Abner stories and in this one Abner finds the clues to the mystery in quotations from a Protestant preacher.

"The Three Strangers" by Thomas Hardy: A local shepherd near Casterbridge throws a party to celebrate the christening of the latest addition to his family.  In the midst of the dancing and the toasting, a stranger comes in seeking shelter from the storm raging outside. The first man has barely settled with a mug beside the fire when a second stranger arrives seeking shelter on his way to the town. The company has reached a moment in the party where they are calling upon one another to sing a song and the second man obliges with verses that indicates that he is a hangman--on his way to dispatch a sheep thief in the morning. Before he can finish his song, a third stranger comes to the door, steps across the threshold, and quickly turns and flees.  It's obvious that something has scared him. A gunshot follows--indicating that a prisoner has escaped.  The hangman calls on the shepherd's guests to help chase the fleeing man.  But who really was the prisoner? Are they chasing the right man?

"The Gold Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe: I've read this story about about William Legrand and his treasure-hunt for Captain Kidd's treasure more times than I can count.  It was a favorite of English teachers at various stages of elementary through high school.  Not strictly a detective story, but there is the mystery of how Legrand figured everything out to be revealed.

"The Guilty Secret" by Paul de Kock:  Nathalie De Hauteville is a young, pretty widow who invites her uncle to come live with her and be her guardian until she can find another suitable husband.  Uncle knows a good thing when he finds it--a pretty niece who houses him and bows to his every wish.  If only the darn girl could play backgammon.  But then Nathalie meets Captain Armand d'Apremont, a handsome and rich young man who seems to be the husband of her dreams....and her uncle's, for the captain plays a mean game of backgammon.  But once the honeymoon is over, the captain's doting mood changes to dark brooding and restlessness.  What guilty secret lurks behinds this change in her husband?

"Out of Exile" by Wilbur Daniel Steele: Mary Matheson, a young beauty, has all the young men falling at her feet.  Chief among her admirers are Andrew and Joshua, two brothers whom she has kept dangling without making a clear choice between them.  Finally, at a party given on a night when there is a storm brewing out at sea, she tells them that she will marry the first one to come to her with a wedding ring.  Andrew takes exception to Mary's making a game of their love and goes out into the night saying he's sailing for unknown parts.  Joshua is sent out after him--but returns without his brother and with a ring for Mary.  She refuses to marry him until his brother returns and can stand up with them at the wedding.  But...when the exile does return, will they be married after all?

 "The Knightsbridge Mystery" by Charles Reade: There is much mystery surrounded Captain Cowen.  He keeps himself to himself at the inn where he is staying and there is much speculation by the regulars, the innkeeper and the stable hands.  Is he really a captain?  Was he perhaps a member of the footpads who have been robbing the defenseless travelers?  But when the Captain comes into money and becomes more social and then saves an older couple from footpads, public sentiment turns in his favor.  Then there is murder and theft in the inn. The Captain is gone and blame is placed on a drunken master of horses.  But a member of the Bow Street Runners is none too sure.

"Silence" by Leonid Andreiev: A stern minister's daughter commits suicide, but no one knows why. 

"The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield: The least mystery-like of the bunch.  Three girls living with their aunt are given a doll house.  They're allowed to share their new treasure with everyone at school--everyone except the daughters of the local washerwoman.  There's intense speculation about the washerwoman's husband.  Is he a convict?  Where is he?  But there's also a bit of a mystery involving the girls' aunt.....


"The Strange Bed" by Wilkie Collins: Another of the famous stories--included in many anthologies. A gambler has a night of huge winnings and much celebration.  So much celebration that he's convinced to spend the night in the gaming house rather than take his winnings out into the street in his inebriated.  But the gaming house master doesn't intend that the gambler will leave the house at all.

"The Bamboozling of Mr. Gascoigne" by E. Phillips Oppenheim: An American in Monte Carlo hooks up with an impoverished Marquis and his niece. Their goal? To swindle an American millionaire out his interest in a few oil wells.  

Challenges: 150 Plus Reading Challenge, Adam's TBR Challenge, Book Bingo, Criminal Plots, Embarrassment of Riches, Mount TBR Challenge, Mystery and Crime Challenge, Off the Shelf, Outdo Yourself, A-Z Mystery Author Challenge

The Case of the Negligent Nymph:Review

In The Case of the Negligent Nymph Perry Mason is floating in a canoe while keeping a pair of binoculars trained on the island hide-away home of George Alder.  Mason is looking for a chink in the businessman's armor--a chink that will help his clients manage a claim for drilling rights.  He's not sure what he expects to see...but he's certain that he didn't expect to see a woman swim up to the sandspit beach, climb nude out of the water, don a summer evening gown, and sneak up to the house where a party is going on.  The woman isn't gone long before she racing back to the water with a rather ferocious guard dog on her heels.  Mason decides to play gallant hero and helps the woman escape her pursuers.  What begins as a gallant act turns into a case when the girl is identified by the police and accused of robbing Alder of $50,000 worth of jewelry.  Mason gets set to defend the girl on the robbery charge (and to try and keep his identity as the "mystery man in the canoe" a secret) only to have the scene change again.  This time to murder.  Alder is found shot in his own home and the guard dog apparently went berserk in his closet in an effort get free and help his master.  The local sheriff puts two and two together and decides that the thief has turned murderer.  It's up to Mason to reveal the true killer without admitting his habit of canoeing in the evening.

This is a very solid installment in the Perry Mason series.  Not quite enough Della Street for my tastes.  I really enjoy her interactions with Perry (something that was very prominent in my first Erle Stanley Gardner read--The Case of the Grinning Gorilla last year) and would have liked to have had more of them here.  But the ending is terrific--watching Perry twist the Prosecuting Attorney and the Sheriff into knots of contradiction is worth the price of admission. A nice three-star read.

Criminal Plots III Reading Challenge

Why did I even bother to say that I planned to restrain myself when it came to reading challenges this year?  Did anyone out there really believe I would be able to do it? Show of hands?  Anybody? Anybody? [insert sound of crickets chirping]  Ahem.

Well, Srivalli over at Valli's Book Den just had to post about the Criminal Plots III challenge sponsored by Jen and requiring us to read six books from six specific categories. I enjoyed this challenge last year. So here I am signing up for yet another.  Here is my tentative list.

1. Novel with an animal in the title: The Puzzle of the Silver Persian by Stuart Palmer (1/15/13)

2. Two short stories written by two different authors who are new to you:
"The Guilty Secret" by Paul de Kock
"Out of Exile" by Wilbur Daniel Steele
"The Knightsbridge Mystery" by Charles Reade
"Silence" by Leonid Andreiev
"The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield
"The Bamboozling of Mr. Gascoigne" by E. Phillips Oppenheim

**All new authors to me and all in The World's 100 Best Short Stories Vol. III: Mystery by Grant Overton, ed (2/24/13)

3. Book written by more than one person: The Man Who Went up in Smoke is the second novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1/8/13)

4. A YA crime novel:  Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams (3/19/13)

5. A book from a series optioned for television: The Case of the Negligent Nymph by Erle Stanley Gardner [TV Episode 12/7/57] (1/24/13)

6. A novel that's been nominated for an Edgar® in the last five years: In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Best First Novel of 2010) [I'm so pleased that I actually have one sitting on my TBR pile for this one! I don't generally buy a lot of modern mysteries.] (4/9/13)

Challenge Complete: Criminal Plots II 2012

Jen over at Jensbookthoughts.com hosted her Criminal Plots Reading Challenge for a second year. All I had to do was read six books this year in six predetermined criminal categories.  Mission accomplished! [Cue Mission Impossible theme music.] See below for the books I read to fulfill the challenge. For full details and to see about signing up click on the challenge link above. . 
1. Novel with a weapon in the title: A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong (5/17/12)
2. Book published at least 10 years ago: The Black Seven by Carol Kendall, pub.1946 (1/29/12)
3. Book written by author from Indiana (the state I live in): The House of a Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholson (from Crawfordsville, IN) [6/17/12]
4. Book written by an author using a pen name: The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake (aka Cecil Day Lewis: Poet Laureate, Great Britain 1968-1972) [5/14/12]
5. Crime novel whose protagonist is the opposite gender of the author: Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly (protagonist--Henry Gamadge) [2/18/12]
6. Stand-alone novel by author who writes at least one series: So Many Steps to Death (aka Destination Unknown) by Agatha Christie (Poirot series, Miss Marple series, etc) [5/25/12]

 

 

The House of a Thousand Candles: Review

There are several reasons why I grabbed up The House of a Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholsoan from the local library Friends of the Library Bookstore a couple years ago: it's a vintage mystery (written in 1905); it takes place in Indiana (that's where I'm from and where I am); and it  promised a "classic romantic thriller" with "all the elements of a good mystery story."  There were lots of reasons to read it now (or at least this year): my very own Vintage Mystery Challenge (for the number in the title); the What's in a Name Challenge (a kind of house); the Death by Gaslight Challenge (Victorian era mysteries); the A-Z Mystery Authors Challenge (letter "N"); the Criminal Plots Challenge (book written by an author from where I live); and the adult summer reading challenge from my local library (a book with an Indiana connection).  As you can see, it's all about the challenges.

The story line really did seem to promise a great deal. John Glenarm has been wandering around through Europe and Africa, blithely spending the inheritance left him by his father--getting into scrapes and having all sorts of adventures.  He's just come to the end of his finances and determined to settle down and practice his profession (engineering) when he receives word that his grandfather has died and he must return home to learn the contents of the will.  He is dismayed to find his old classmate and rival, Arthur Pickering, is the executor of his grandfather's will and holds sway over his inheritance.  The old gentleman's final wishes are simple: In order to inherit, John must go to live in Glenarm House in Indiana for a period of one year and live a quiet and sober life.  If he doesn't then the inheritance will go to one Marian Devereaux....someone of whom John has never heard.  There is also and odd clause which states that if John and Marian happen to marry within a five-year period of John's agreeing to the terms of the will then the entire fortune will be given to a local school.

John determines that since he had been such a ne'er-do-well while his grandfather was living, he will do his best to live up to the gentleman's wishes after death.  He settles into the house in Indiana and that's when the fun begins.  During his tenancy, John is shot at, hears mysterious noises in the house, has run-ins with intruders and ghostly sightings, discovers secret passages, and begins to fall in love with a girl who seems to treat the house as her own.  And before it's over, he will suspect nearly everyone of being in league against him and there will be an old-fashioned shoot-out.  

There are many reasons why this story should have been a success--lots of action and intrigue--but it fell a little flat for me. I wasn't very invested in the main character.  Quite often when you have a hero who is represented as a bad boy, you find that he is really a lovable rogue.  I felt like John was supposed to be....but he just didn't quite cut it for me.  My favorite character was actually Stoddard, the battling minister who stands by his side in the final assault on the house.  One thing I will say for John, I totally sympathize with him over feeling betrayed.  And I don't quite get why a certain young woman can't understand why he might think she was working against him.  If you refuse to explain your actions, what else is a poor guy to do? On the surface, the evidence is very much in favor of his interpretation.

This was a decent read from the turn of last century.  It does have an interesting twist at the end and it's always satisfying to see the villain of the piece get what's coming to him. Not quite as exciting as anticipated, but a solid three star outing.

So Many Steps to Death: Review

So Many Steps to Death (originally published in 1954 as Destination Unknown and first published in the US under this title in 1955) is one of Agatha Christie's non-series books.  As seems to be usual for her stand-alone books, this is a foray into spy/thriller territory.  This time we have scientists and chemists and medical researchers disappearing at an alarming rate.  In the Cold-War-Era climate, this is particularly disturbing and England's secret service becomes especially interested when a young scientist by the name of Thomas Betterton vanishes. They suspect that his wife knows where to find him and when she suddenly decides to leave England for her health on "doctor's orders" they decide to keep close tabs on her.  Then her plane crashes and she isn't expected to live.

Enter Hilary Craven.  Hilary's husband has deserted her for another woman and her daughter has just died from a long illness.  She thinks that taking a trip will somehow change her life.  But when she arrives in Morocco she finds that what she has been trying to run away from is herself...and you can't do that.  Thinking that she has nothing left to live for, she goes from pharmacy to pharmacy gathering enough sleeping pills to end her life.  But Hilary has caught the eye of one of the secret service men...or rather her red hair has.  And he offers her a bargain...take an assignment that means almost certain death (and which might just get her interested in living again) rather than taking pills which may not be as pleasant a way out as she anticipates.

What is wanted is for Hilary to take the place of Mrs. Thomas Betterton and her particular shade of red hair makes her the perfect candidate.  The scientist's wife is definitely not going to survive her injuries and Hilary is to take on her persona.  If anyone contacts her about joining her husband, she is to follow along and lead the agents to where the scientists have been taken.  It will be dangerous and she's going to have to be letter-perfect in her role.  Will she do it?  Hilary decides she will.  Off into the unknown, taking what seems to be So Many Steps to Death.

Generally speaking, I haven't been as big a fan of Christie's stand-alone novels as I am of Poirot and Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence.  The one big exception is And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians, etc), which I think is absolutely awesome.  But this one is pretty darn good. Christie loves to take the standard of various plots in the mystery/detective world and give them her own little twist.  Here she does it with the "scientists defecting to the other side" motif.  Only....are they?  Or, rather, are they going where they think they are and for the purpose that they believe in?  That's the real question.

Hilary Craven is a very intelligent and likeable character.  It is easy to see why she might have been full of despair, but being the type of woman she is, it's also easy to see why she would take up the challenge offered her by Jessop.  It's not that she despises life in general--she just wants a reason for living.  And he provides that for her.  The plot--her taking on another woman's persona--may be a bit shaky, but it's got enough grounding to make the reader willing to believe it.  A fun and quick read.  Four stars.

Quotes:

W: Nobody's so gullible as scientists. All the phony mediums say so.  Can't quite see why.

J: Oh, yes, it would be so. They think they know, you see. That's always dangerous.

~Wharton; Jessop (p. 3)

As for Nigel, she had no wish to burden him with useless remorse even if a note from her would have achieved that object...."Poor old Hilary," he would say, "bad luck"--and it might be that, secretly, he would be rather relieved. Because she guessed that she was, slightly, on Nigel's conscience, and he was a man who wished to feel comfortable with himself. (p. 23)

HC: You think I shall differently tomorrow? [about suicide]

J: People do.

HC: Yes, perhaps. If you're doing things in a mood of hot despair. But when it's cold despair, it's different. I've nothing to live for, you see.

~Hilary Craven; Jessop (p. 26)

I don't go in for being sorry for people. For one thing it's insulting. One is only sorry for people if they are sorry for themselves. Self-pity is the biggest stumbling block in our world today.

~Jessop (p. 36)

E: When one has at last reached freedom, can one even contemplate going back?

HC: But if it is not possible to go back, or to choose to go back, then it is not freedom!

~Ericsson; Hilary Craven (p. 83)

One must have common sense, nothing is permanent, nothing endures. I have come to the conclusion that this place is run by a madman. A madman, let me tell you, can be very logical. If you are rich and logical and also mad, you can succeed for a very long time in living out your illusion. But in the end....in the end this will break up. Because, you see, it is not reasonable what happens here! That which is not reasonable must always pay the reckoning in the end.

~Dr. Barron (p. 118)

There speaks the passion and the rebellion that go with red hair. My second wife had red hair. She was a beautiful woman, and she loved me. Strange, is it not? I have always admired red-haired women. Your hair is very beautiful. There are other things I like about you. Your spirit, your courage; the fact that you have a mind of your own.

~Mr. Aristides (p. 144)

A Dram of Poison: Review

******Spoiler Alert!!! Kind of.  I'm not sure you can ruin a mystery that isn't--but you've been warned, anyway.******

I have a feeling that I missed a memo somewhere.  Or the boat.  Or something.  When I look at Goodreads, the average rating on Charlotte Armstrong's "mystery" novel A Dram of Poison is 4.04/5 stars.  The text reviews that have been given are pretty rave-y.  It was the winner of an Edgar for Best Mystery novel of 1957. It's listed by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association as one of their favorite mysteries of the 20th century.  And, I'm all, like, um....yeah.  Whatever.  I mean it's a nice little story about this shy, introspective academic-type who has taught poetry (You'd think I'd be hooked right there--I mean, come on, it's got an academic in it for crying out loud.  I love those.) and has been all dependable and reliable and what-not and is now 55 and never been in love and then it happens.  He meets the girl....only he doesn't know it yet.  He just thinks he's being helpful and marrying her to help her out after her crazy father's death--and she needs someone to take care of her and to give her time to regain her strength and actually eat something, for heaven's sake.  So, good, old, dependable Kenneth Gibson is right there to save Rosemary's day--bacon--something.

She blossoms--gets all nice and healthy--and he suddenly notices how lovely she is and....zap! Cupid zings him a good one and he falls in love with his wife. Happy ending, right?  And where's the mystery?  Ain't got one yet.  But that's okay, 'cause we're only half-way done with the book and when you turn two or three pages you'll find the happy couple in hospital.  Car accident....on the way home from celebrating Rosemary's blooming health and the beginning of love's middle-aged dream.  Ah-ha!  You say.  Now we're getting down to cases.  Somebody's trying kill one or both of them off.  There's a secret fortune hidden in Rosemary's crazy father's effects and the secret heir wants it.  OR somebody's lusting after the newly-beautiful and radiant girl and wants to bump off ol' reliable.  Yeah, no.  Just an accident. Really.

Then....Kenneth's sister shows up to take charge while he (who got the brunt of the injuries) recovers.  Sis is an amateur psychologist and starts spouting her theories hither and yon and making both Kenneth and Rosemary doubt themselves and their motives and each other.  Kenneth is filled with sis's doom and gloom psycho-babble and decides that Rosemary never cared and could never possibly care for a middle-aged, stuffy old academic like himself and decides to kill himself --'cause, that's a logical thing to do, you know.  He traipses off to pick up some handy tasteless, do-the-trick-in-a-flash-and-with-no-pain, unnamed poison that his neighbor has conveniently displayed to him way back in chapter one.  He dumps it in a bottle of olive oil (the better to slide it down the hatch), stuffs it in a green bag, climbs on a bus......and somewhere along the way manages to lose the darn stuff.

Ah ha! You say again.  This is one of those inverted mysteries.  You know who the killer is (albeit an unintentional one) and you know how it was done.  All we do now is wait for someone to drop dead from tainted olive oil and watch the fun while the cops try to figure out who had it in for Mr./Ms. X.  Yeah, no.  Nobody dies.  There's no mystery as far as I can see.....except the mystery as to why this was categorized as a mystery.  And maybe, if you want to stretch a point, you could label it as suspense.....because, after all, you--the reader--are on the edge of your seat wondering when the heck the mystery is going to show up.

Charlotte Armstrong is hit or miss for me.  I hated The Chocolate Cobweb; I loved Lay On, MacDuff!  I'm just plain at a loss with A Dram of Poison.  This book has some really delightful, comic dialogue in the second half--which might have done a lot more for me if I hadn't been searching high and low for a mystery hidden somewhere.  I think I might have liked the characters if it had been billed as a straight fiction novel.  I'll never know.  No rating....I have no idea what I want to give it.

The Morning After: Review

In The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake, Nigel Strangeways has contacted an acquaintance from Oxford days who happens to be the Master of Hawthorne House at Cabot University for permission to come and do some research in the famous Ivy League library.  Strangeways is welcomed at the American university and is introduced to a interesting cast of characters.  There are the three brothers who are all professors of the university--Josiah (Classics), Chester (Business), and Mark (English) Ahlberg--who have brought their sibling rivalry with them.  There is the graduate student John Tate--accused of plagiarizing some of of Josiah's work, but claiming that it's really the other way 'round.  Tate's sister, Sukie, who is highly protective of her brother and who has been involved with more than one of the brothers Ahlberg.  And then there's Charles Reilly, Irish poet and drunken, would-be rapist.

Strangeways swears that he has come to America for peace and quiet and thoughtful poetic research.  All that goes by the wayside when Josiah Ahlberg is found shot to death and stuffed in on of the lockers on campus.  Zeke Edwardes, Master of the House, requests that Strangeways use his investigative skills to assist the police and look out for Cabot University's interests.  Nigel is reluctant to put his oar in--citing his unfamiliarity with US police procedures, but he can't resist when Sukie bats her eyes at him and begs for his help as well.

There are all sorts of motives--from the sibling squabbles that may have represented something far more dangerous to the possibility that Tate was looking for revenge on the man who blighted his career to the Irish poet hoping to keep his amorous adventures underwraps.  Nigel must sift through false alibis and cover-ups in order to help the local police find the culprit--and even when they do, the motive isn't quite as clear as it would seem.

I always enjoy the Blake detective novels.  He has quite a flair for dialogue--it's quite like watching a verbal tennis match at times.  And the fact that "Blake" is a pseudonym for Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968-1972, is very apparent in his lyrical style.  The best of his books come with terrific descriptions and language as well as the good dialogue.  He sets up a pretty twisty plot as well.  Four stars.

Quotes:

...he had adapted himself to what seemed to Nigel a basic rule of American conversation--one may be serious or frivolous, but never in the same paragraph. (p. 5)

"I do not have persecution mania. I am persecuted. That is quite different." [Chester Ahlberg] (p. 7)

"That is typical of the American student. He believes that indiscriminately sucking in information is  equivalent to acquiring knowledge." [Josiah Ahlberg] (p. 18)

Academic circles are too damned articulate, too bright altogether. These sorts of people would talk their way into the dock if they didn't get there by conventional means. What on earth is Brady going to make of them, all talking away like books and acting like mental defectives? [thoughts of Nigel Strangeways] (p. 47)

Most women are good actresses in an emergency: some don't even need one. [Nigel's thoughts] (p. 53)

The Black Seven

The Black Seven by Carol Kendall is a first edition, debut novel that I picked up on one of my book-buying extravaganzas. Found this one in our local used bookstore, the Caveat Emptor. Before snagging this off the shelf, I had never heard of Carol Kendall before...probably because this would seem to be her only adult mystery. The story stars a twelve-year-old protagonist and she found that she enjoyed writing about children so much that she went on to publish two mysteries for children before writing The Gammage Cup, a fantasy novel which received a Newbery Honor in 1959 and which prompted two sequels.

As mentioned, the story features Roderick "Drawers" Random--a precocious 12-year-old who fancies himself a small-town version of Sexton Blake. His father has him on a regimen of reading the classics--but Drawers has fixed himself up a secret hideout where he can read Astounding Stories and other pulp magazines in peace. That is until the owner of the property where his cozy little shed shelters in the tangled, neglected garden manages to get himself killed. Then Drawers finds himself drawn into the real-life realm of mystery and excitement that surrounds his odd neighbors, the Twiggs.

Originally a large family living in Twigg Terrace and bullied by their eccentric father Tobias, the Twigg family--Jasper, Casper, Toby (Jr.), Dulcet, Cannas, (siblings all) and Tammany (their cousin--went their separate ways when Tobias died, an apparent suicide, five years ago. Detective Peter Mood has always had his doubts about the manner of Tobias senior's death, but with no proof and no encouragement from his superiors to investigate further he had been forced to leave the case alone. Then Casper, current head of the family, calls his relatives together to let them know he plans to restart the bullying campaign that ended with Tobias senior's death. Well, you can imagine how well that went over...and soon Casper is found beaten to death among Cannas's petunias (or whatever variety of garden flower she goes in for--it's not specified).

There are many clues and interesting items that are soon brought to Drawers' attention (and through him to Peter Mood)--from the rumor of the Seven Black Babies (which may or may not be gems) to the sprightly, talking starling to the regular parade of Twiggs who visit him in the Gas House (his humble hideout). They're all on a treasure hunt for the Babies; they're all trying to keep that fact from the others. And one of them is a murderer. But which one?

I'll just tell you upfront--this is not exactly the most intricate and literary vintage mystery. It's not even all that good as an example of the genre. But it is fun. Drawers is an appealing character. And it's very entertaining to watch him make his way through adventures not unlike those his pulp heroes have faced--rats in the cellar, being jumped and searched, facing a gas-masked villain intent to kill. All the thrills and chills of the early adventure/detective stories. And his poor father--totally oblivious to everything. It's totally worth it just for Mr. Random's speech to Drawers about murderous strangers running amok in their small town.

"This morning's paper carries the story of a murder in this very neighborhood. No one you would know, of course--an older man. I really didn't read the whole story, but I gathered he used to live over on the next street. Therefore I think it wise that you should be careful not to speak to strangers. If they offer you candy or an automobile ride, you must refuse and get away from them quickly. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir. I'll be very careful."

"And Roderick..." His father hesitated. "Roderick, of course I know I don't need to say this, but if I were you I would be very careful not to go out after dark, even with any of your little friends." [Oh, how little he knows his son...]

"Yes sir," said Drawers. "I suppose, sir, it would be all right if I...talked on the telephone?"

"Yes, Roderick," Said Mr. Random gravely. "But don't let anybody lure you away from the house on a false errand."  

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Three stars--for good, decent fun.

Oh...and a favorite quote:

It's a lot easier to like people when they can't make life miserable for you any more.

**One small note: There is a usage of the N-word. It's not in reference to actual characters in the story, but it's a phrase of the time and may offend some.

(Just) One More Challenge

Like neer at A Hot Cup of Pleasure, I thought I had signed up for all the mystery-related challenges that might interest me in 2012. Winds up I'm wrong. Jen over at Jensbookthoughts.com is hosting a second year (how'd I miss it last year??) of her Criminal Plots Reading Challenge. The rules are pretty simple--in a nutshell: read six books this year in six predetermined categories. For full details and to sign up click on the challenge link above. Since we can count books from other challenges, my madness isn't really as bad as it seems. I'm only adding ONE new book (that's right, just one) and if any of my other mystery challenges had a book with a weapon in the title I wouldn't have had to add that one. (Who knew that I could read so many mysteries with NO weapons in the title?).

Here's my plan:
1. Novel with a weapon in the title: A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong (5/17/12)
2. Book published at least 10 years ago: The Black Seven by Carol Kendall, pub.1946 (1/29/12)
3. Book written by author from Indiana (the state I live in): The House of a Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholson (from Crawfordsville, IN) [6/17/12]
4. Book written by an author using a pen name: The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake (aka Cecil Day Lewis: Poet Laureate, Great Britain 1968-1972) [5/14/12]
5. Crime novel whose protagonist is the opposite gender of the author: Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly (protagonist--Henry Gamadge) [2/18/12]
6. Stand-alone novel by author who writes at least one series: So Many Steps to Death (aka Destination Unknown) by Agatha Christie (Poirot series, Miss Marple series, etc) [5/25/12]