Challenge Complete: Reading Through Time

 "Reading Through Time" Challenge

January 6, 2015-December 31, 2015

Amy, our hostess for the Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge, was in search of a historical reading challenge and didn't find precisely what she was looking for...so she decided to put together her own. It's pretty simple...just read historical fiction. She's left the definition up to us and given us different levels to shoot for. There will be monthly link-ups and prizes. For full details, see her link above.

I started small and signed up for the lowest level:

Anthony Doerr = 5 books

I may read more historical fiction this year, but my commitment has been met with the following 5 books.

1. A Dead Man in Istanbul by Michael Pearce [set in 1911] (1/14/15)
2. Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Revisited adapted by Walter B. Gibson [various time periods from the Civil War era to turn-of-the-century (1900) to World War II] (1/20/15)
3. A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce [set in 1910] (1/27/15)
4. Playground of Death by John Buxton Hilton [framed with a story from 1920s-1950] (3/18/15)
5. The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey [1920s] (4/1/15)
Challenge commitment complete!

 

The False Inspector Dew: Review

The False Inspector Dew (1982) is a stand-alone historical mystery by Peter Lovesey, known as well for his historical mystery series starring Sergeant Cribb and Bertie the Prince of Wales, a modern series with Peter Diamond, several other stand-alones, and short stories. My first introduction to Lovesey's writing was his Victorian series with Sergeant Cribb. These are delightful historical novels with fine plotting and a good deal of fun and humor. I had heard of the Inspector Dew novel for years--it is a Golden Dagger award winner and has been featured on various "Best of" lists. Julian Symons has described it as “one of the cleverest crime comedies of the past few years" in his book Bloody Murder. And it is quite clever and entertaining, indeed.

The book takes place primarily in the early 1920s--with a bit of background filled in with scenes from the sinking of the Lusitania. Alma Webster, a romantically-inclined woman of 28--full of romantic sensation novel plots and no real experience with the opposite sex, falls madly in love with her dentist. The dentist, Walter Baranov, is married to a demanding, self-centered actress and comes to appreciate the unswerving devotion of Miss Webster. There is just one obstacle to their grand passion--Lydia Baranov. When Lydia announces her plans to give up the stage in England for an imagined career in the growing American film industry...and that those plans involve Walter leaving up his dentist practice (which she paid for) and joining her in America, Walter and Alma hatch a plot to remove the obstacle. 

Lydia sets about selling the dental practice and their home, packing up their belongings, and booking passage on the Mauretania, but Walter tells her he refuses to go. He then books his own passage under a false name--choosing by a quirk of humor to sail under the name Walter Dew, the name of a retired famous Scotland Yard Inspector. Alma, who fortunately resembles his wife, will sneak aboard and stand ready to take Lydia's place once Walter kills her and stuffs her through a convenient port hole. Things seem to have gone smoothly--Lydia is gone, Alma slips into her shoes, and Walter prepares to spend the voyage in the obscurity of second class. But then their plans fall apart...a woman's body is spotted in the water, a couple of card-sharpers get involved, "Inspector Dew" is called upon to help the captain and his crew get to the bottom of things, and someone takes a potshot at the "detective" as he does his best to live up to his namesake's reputation. Lovesey provides plenty of twists and turns as it seems that few people on board the Cunard vessel are really who they seem to be. It will be a clever armchair detective, indeed, who anticipates the final twist.

This is a terrific, near-perfect mystery in the traditional mode--it has everything: murder, ship-board romance, small-time crooks, mistaken identity (several), and a closed set of suspects. Lovesey expertly sets the reader up for certain scenarios and then, with a quick flick of the wrist changes things up in the most logical manner. He also seems to be having a great deal of fun playing with all the standard tropes of both detective and romantic fiction--from the passion of the romance-obsessed Alma to the Inspector who isn't really an inspector to the doting mother who's bound and determined to marry off her daughter. ★★★★ and a half stars for near-perfection.

This fulfills the "Man in the Title" square on the Silver Vintage Bingo Card.

All challenges fulfilled: Vintage Mystery Challenge, 100 Plus Challenge, How Many Books, Mount TBR Challenge, Password Challenge, A-Z Reading Challenge, Cloak & Dagger, Men in Uniform, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, My Kind of Mystery, Reading Thru Time

Playground of Death: Review

Playground of Death by John Buxton Hilton is the seventh in his Inspector Kentworthy series.Kentworthy has his own peculiar way of investigating matters that makes him something of a puzzle to the local constabulary when he is sent along by Scotland Yard to tend to cases that need an outsiders touch. But he also has a certain flair that allows him to find the solution that others miss.

Such is the situation in Filton-in-Leckerfield. Roger Bielby, a former mayor and all-around big-wheel in the Lancashire town was arrested for the shooting death of his wife Maggie. But he never made it to his initial hearing--he was shot himself by an as-yet unknown killer while on his way into court. The circumstantial evidence against him was quite strong and the local authorities have no doubt that he would have been convicted had he been allowed to face trial. But when Kentworthy examines the case notes and visits the crime scenes, he's not so sure. And then when he reads the journal Bielby had been working on in jail, he becomes convinced that the crimes have roots in the past. Bielby's journal is full of memories growing up in the slum area of town--a child with no father, skirting the law and getting into trouble until his father show up to marry his mother and to try and give him a respectable life. A stint in the army during the war seemed to point him onto the straight and narrow and he returns to his home town a war hero determined to better himself. Hidden in those memories are clues to current events and Kentworthy manages to trace the clues a solution that will surprise the village even more than an accused and murdered ex-mayor.

There must be something about the Kentworthy stories that keep me coming back. At least, I do keep picking up new entries in the series as I find them--but I consistently give them between two and three stars and never more than that, so I'm not quite sure that I can pinpoint what the overall appeal is. This one comes in for ★★ and a half. And most of the star power is for the historical framing of the story. The journal entries, which comprise almost the entire first half of the book, are some of the most interesting parts. The final wrap-up relies heavily on information from those entries and on current interviews with key players from that time period. Kentworthy is his usual peculiar self and his investigation has a somewhat disjointed feel (something I've noted in a few others in the series), but overall a decent police procedural story.

This fulfills the "Historical" square on the Silver Vintage Bingo card as well as providing Clue #2 in the Super Book Password.

A Dead Man in Trieste: Review

A Dead Man in Trieste is the first novel in Michael Pearce's series featuring Seymour of Special Branch. Growing up in the East End with exposure to the languages of many immigrants , Seymour has a special flair for languages that makes him invaluable to the Service and just the man to send to the Trieste when Lomax, the British Consul, goes missing. Of course, the older members of Special Branch aren't too sure--after all, he's "a member of one of those East End immigrant families from somewhere in Europe. He's all right, but with these blokes you never can tell. You can never rely on them. A bit dubious really." 

But with the mix of nationalities in Trieste--Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, Slavs, an Irishman or two, and a Bosnian/Croatian mix known as Herzegovinians [Seymour isn't even sure what that means]--Seymour feels more at home than some of those upperclass Foreign Office chappies might. He still has to feel his way carefully through the nationalist movements that are threatening to upset life in the port city. His real job, however, is to figure out exactly what Lomax had been up to and who he was involved with--no easy task, especially when he is acting in an unofficial capacity and keeping his position as a policeman hidden. 

On the surface, it looks like the Consul spent his days lolling at the tables at the Cafe of Mirrors in Piazza Grande, hobnobbing with the artistic crowd. Seymour knows there must be more to Lomax than that and the longer the man is missing the more sinister his absence seems. When Lomax's body is found by one of the fishing boats, it becomes apparent that the man was mixed up in something more than artistic endeavors and Seymour must work through the man's friends and the local police to discover what that something was.

Having read the second novel (A Dead Man in Istanbul), I decided to hunt up the debut of this series before reading any others. I have to say--if I had read this one first, I might not have gone on. Trieste, is a very slow-moving book. Very little action--until the end--and very little clue-gathering. For someone who likes their mysteries from the Golden Age where clues are strewn about, fair play is in force and an effort is made to distract the reader from the culprit, this is a disappointment. Not that I didn't guess who did it--I did. But not because there were clues to follow--simply because there really aren't that many people with motives to choose from. 

The book does give us an interesting look at Trieste before World War I broke out. Good period detail and historic descriptions of the tensions building in that area of the world. The cast of characters are quite colorful--although they could use a bit of depth. It was an okay read at ★★. Since #2 garnered three stars, we shall hope that the third novel (which I have sitting on the TBR pile) will be an improvement as well.


A bit of explanation--I am participating in the Travel the World Challenge and the European Reading Challenge. Although Trieste is now part of Italy, during the time period in which A Dead Man in Trieste takes place, it fell under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was considered part of Austia--serving as Austria's main trading port. I am therefore claiming this book under Austria for the purposes of the challenges.

Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Revisited: Mini-Review

Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Revisited is a collection of thirteen stories either based on Twilight Zone episodes or new stories written in the style of the television series. As far as I can tell, five of the short stories aired as actual episodes. And it is not entirely clear where the others came from. The title page reads "adapted by Walter B. Gibson" but nothing in the book explains what he adapted these stories from....episode suggestions and outlines that didn't make the cut? I'm just not sure.

The collection takes me back to elementary school. The edition itself reminds me of the large school-binding editions of Alfred Hitchcock sponsored collections like "Stories to Read with the Light On," etc. with very elementary school style illustrations. It gives me a nice feeling of nostalgia--but I can't say that the book as a whole does a whole lot for me. Most of the stories are written in a rather pedestrian, just-the-facts-ma'am fashion--not a lot of frills, not a lot of description and explanation. The best of the stories provide a bit more background and window-dressing--not necessarily explaining everything about the odd things that happen (after all, it wouldn't be the Twilight Zone if we understood it entirely), but making the experiences of the characters a bit more believable.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the best stories are those I've identified as airing on television. While those stories are stronger than the majority, the strongest stories seem to be "new" (whatever that might mean) and feature ghosts or characters rooted firmly in the past. There are two men who survive the Civil War only to head west and inadvertently wind up involved in one of the largest Indian/Army battles ever waged. There is a reporter from the 1960s who is sent to write about a ski-jumping contest on Iron Mountain who interacts with ghosts from the turn-of-the-century. There's ghostly riverboat pilot who takes revenge on the man who sent him to a watery grave. And there is the house on an island haunted by the ghost of woman who murdered several patrons of the inn (as it was in the days of river steamboats) and who tries to add one more to her tally.

Overall--this is a book that I would have thoroughly enjoyed when I was in elementary school. Reading it now, it was a fairly good, light read with a mixture of highly interesting historically based/ghost stories and other somewhat entertaining stories about premonitions, genies, and various unexplainable circumstances. ★★ and a 1/4. 

This is the third Clue book for my new Super Book Password Challenge: clue portion of the title is in bold above. Please feel free to join in and guess (using the form provided at the Headquarters link) even if you're not inclined to participate as a reader/clue-giver.
 

A Dead Man in Istanbul: Review

A Dead Man in Istanbul is a historical mystery by Michael Pearce set in 1911 in the leisurely days before the First World War. Special Branch Officer Seymour is sent to Turkey by the Foreign Office to investigate the death of the Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Istanbul. Cunnigham had made a lot of romantic noise about Hero and Leander and the famous swim across the Dardanelles Straits and vowed that he would make an attempt to recreate the legendary feat. But instead of Hero it was the dark figure of Death waiting on the other side and as soon as he reached the far shore he fell down dead with a bullet in the center of his forehead. Did he really swim in memory of the famous lovers or was it a cover for a spying mission? Seymour must follow a winding trail from the music theatres of Istanbul to coffee shops and barber shops to the Palace full of princes jockeying for position as the current ruler fades physically. Is it a matter of political violence and have the legendary Flesheaters returned to restore the Empire to the old ways? Or is the motive far more personal?

This was a good solid introduction (although it is the second in the series) to Pearce's historical mysteries. He authentically evokes the time and setting and introduces an interesting investigator--I do hope he gives more descriptive passages about Seymour in the future. The bulk of the book is carried by dialogue. Pearce is very adept with dialogue, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. One quibble--probably a very personal one--is the overuse of "Old boy" in addressing one another. There is one character in particular who throws those around as often as a Valley Girl uses "like." In fact, if I had read just a few more "Old boys" from that character, I would have been looking for a way to enter the page and murder him--that would give Seymour a nifty little mystery to solve.

Overall, I enjoyed the story itself and look forward to reading more of the series. The culprit was a little too obvious to me--I just thought Pearce was making rather a point of a certain possible motive and that, therefore, that couldn't be the real motive. I wound up being correct but I don't know if everyone would have a similar reaction. ★★★


This is the second Clue book for my new Super Book Password Challenge: clue portion of the title is in bold above. Please feel free to join in and guess (using the form provided at the Headquarters link) even if you're not inclined to participate as a reader/clue-giver.

"Reading Through Time" Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

 "Reading Through Time" Challenge

January 6, 2015-December 31, 2015

Amy, our hostess for the Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge, was in search of a historical reading challenge and didn't find precisely what she was looking for...so she decided to put together her own. It's pretty simple...just read historical fiction. She's left the definition up to us and given us different levels to shoot for. There will be monthly link-ups and prizes. For full details, see her link above.

I'm starting small and signing up for:

Anthony Doerr = 5 books

If I find myself with more historical fiction on deck, I'll up my level. But I will consider my commitment met with 5 books.

1. A Dead Man in Istanbul by Michael Pearce [set in 1911] (1/14/15)
2. Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Revisited adapted by Walter B. Gibson [various time periods from the Civil War era to turn-of-the-century (1900) to World War II] (1/20/15)
3. A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce [set in 1910] (1/27/15)
4. Playground of Death by John Buxton Hilton [framed with a story from 1920s-1950] (3/18/15)
5. The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey [1920s] (4/1/15)
Challenge commitment complete!
6.