The Plumley Inheritance

 The Plumley Inheritance (1926) by Christopher Bush

Major Geoffrey Wrentham has just arrived back in England after wrapping things up abroad after the end of the Great War. He's at loose ends and think he'll look up his old friend Ludovic Travers after checking in with his financial advisors. He learns two things from the financial wallahs--that Henry Plumley, the business magnate with whom Wrentham had invested money, had gone a bit mad while Wrentham was out of England and the finances are not all that they should be and that Travers has been serving as one of Plumley's secretaries (after Travers was invalided out of the war). Wrentham learns that Plumley is going to give a speech that very night and figures that Travers will be on deck for the event, so the major decides to kill two birds with one stone and try to see both men at the event.

He doesn't see Travers and he doesn't get a chance to talk to Plumley because the man drops dead in the middle of his speech. And a very odd speech it was. One of Plumley's other secretaries hands the man a note and suddenly the businessman starts spouting off about treasure and lillies and gardens. When Wrentham finally runs Travers to earth, he finds that Plumley had his secretary on a scavenger hunt shortly before he died--finding particular bits of wire, pine cones, used suitcases, waterproof cement,methods for making glass opaque, and other odd things. 

Plumley had more than one residence and one of them just happens to be in the village where Wrentham grew up. Travers has to stay in London to wrap up Plumley's affairs, so the major heads home to stay with his father and to scout around. He discovers that Plumley did some rather odd things in the garden the last time he was at his country house--ordering the replanting of the garden border and redesigning an old well among them. Just as Wrentham has been writing clues down like mad and tidying up his notes to share with Travers, someone steals his notes, sets a booby trap (that gives the major one of several knocks on the head), and Plumley's other secretary, Andre Moulines, is found dead from wounds very similar to Wrentham's. Next thing we know, someone has been digging up the gardens at both of Plumley's residences...someone else is in search of buried treasure. Will Wrentham and Travers figure out the hidden message in Plumley's last speech before their unknown rival? Will Burrows, the local policeman, arrest one of them for Moulines murder--or if not that, then for impeding an officer in the pursuit of his duties? And, in the midst of all the treasure-hunting, will anyone figure out who killed the secretary? 

So...what we have here is the very first of the Ludovic Travers mysteries by Christopher Bush. Except...our protagonist is Geoffrey Wrentham. The man who does nearly all the on-page legwork and brainwork is (you guessed it) Geoffrey Wrentham. Ludo (as he's known to his friends) comes across as a bright side-kick to the hero. I somehow don't think that the most auspicious beginning for a series sleuth. But then maybe Bush didn't plan on a series. Or maybe he started out thinking that Wrentham was going to be his main man. I don't know--but other than figuring out the last bit of the treasure hunt puzzle (with a clue that unless I missed it Bush didn't even give to us), Travers really doesn't do much of the detective work here. Wrentham isn't the best detective in the world (our culprit gets the best of him repeatedly), but he does decipher about 90% of the treasure puzzle. Nobody really figures out the murder--we get a convenient confession letter left mailed to Wrentham after the bird has flown. 

On the other hand, I really enjoyed Wrentham and his boys own adventure antics. It's a shame that Bush didn't make him just a little more perceptive and a little less prone to getting bashed on the head. He could have made a very appealing lead detective. Fortunately (from previous experience), I know that Bush polishes up Travers and makes him into a better detective than his first appearance would leave us to believe possible. This one is an enjoyable read even though the tale leaves a bit to be desired. ★★★

First line: Geoffrey Wrentham yawned sleepily and stretched his long legs, then, eyes opening to the sun of a July evening, started up quickly.

The reception of money was to him [the vicar] much of a mystery. That he generally found somethin in the bank when he was there was enough for him. (p. 40)

People talked about the army and its stereotyped phraseology, but that was plain as the way to the parish church compared with the sort of drivel those lawyer blokes could produce when they really got going. (p. 53)

A more unlikely conspirator than Ludovic Travers could hardly be imagined. He did not possess that keenness of manner and that incisiveness of speech which would appear to be the distinguishing marks 

of the human bloodhound. (p. 67)

The thing was that you never knew just what he [Travers] was capable of doing or when he was going to do it. Such was Wrentham's faith in him that he would have consulted him on anything, form toothache to tattooing, and have been sure of an answer. (p. 68)

Last line: "By Jove!" exclaimed Wrentham; "there goes one more bloke who'll remember the Plumley inheritance!"
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Deaths = 5 (one poisoned; one natural; one fell from height; one hit on head; one in the war)

Secret of the Old Post Box

 Secret of the Old Post Box (1960) by Dorothy Sterling

It's the mid-1950s and Pat Harrison is excited that her family has moved from a cramped apartment in New York City to a country house in Haven. She's never climbed a tree or ridden a bike on a street without traffic or made friends with any boys (having attended an all-girls school). But all of these things are in her future...as well as solving an old mystery tied to the Revolutionary War.

Behind her new house is a deserted, Revolutionary-era house that looks like it ought to be haunted. It belongs to the Woodruff family who are about to lose it because they haven't been able to pay the back taxes or keep the house up after the father died in a plane crash during the Korean War. There have always been rumors that there was a treasure hidden in the Woodruff house, but no one's ever found it. When Pat and Barbara, one of her new friends, see a flashlight bobbing around in the house one night, they decide to get the boys (Nat, Johnny, and Sam Woodruff, and Jim) and investigate. It isn't long before the kids are on a treasure hunt hoping to find something valuable enough to save the Woodruff home from the tax auction block.

A very good juvenile mystery--one I know I would have loved had I discovered it when young. 

I love the fact that despite Nat's disgust at "Girls!" (he's at that age when boys either think girls are icky or begins to realize they are more interesting than ever), there isn't any "girls can't do that" going on here. And in fact Pat and Barbara each make huge contributions to the discovery of the treasure. It was fun to watch the kids work together to solve the mystery and it was also good to learn a bit of history (though fictionalized for the story--it was based on very real historical fact). ★★★★

First line: Even the rain couldn't spoil Pat's first day in Haven.

Last line:  That was because the note was in code, and only Pat and Barbara an Jim knew that the key to the code lay in the sixth grade's new green spelling book.

 ******************

Deaths = one plane crash

(picture cover at top left = the one that belongs with my copy [bottom right], but, sadly, my edition is missing the dust jacket)

Nine--And Death Makes Ten

 Nine--And Death Makes Ten (apa Murder in the Submarine Zone; 1940) by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr)

January 1940. The story takes place on an ocean liner, the Edwardic, which has been converted to wartime use and carries a minimum number of passengers, a huge load of munitions, and one stowaway--murder. The passengers aboard ship are those in a big enough hurry to make the crossing from New York to England that they could stand the danger of entering the submarine zone with a boatload of explosives. Those passengers include a newspaper reporter recovering from a dangerous fall while covering a fire, a member of the NYPD on his way to collect a dangerous criminal, a blonde wrapped in sable with a mysteriously bulging pocketbook, a young woman with a mysterious mission, a French captain who is only seen at mealtime, the younger son of a Lord who has a serious case of seasickness (or the worst hangover ever...we're not too sure, a doctor, and British businessman who talks like a car salesman.

When Mrs. Zia Bey, the woman with the bulging bag, winds up murdered, Max Matthews--the reporter and brother of the ship's captain--is sure the arrogant young woman with the secret is involved. But there are too many questions that need answers--questions that don't seem to point to Miss Valerie Chatford. Whose fingerprints are pressed in blood on the murder woman's back? And why don't those prints match anyone on board? Who had been throwing knives in the passageway late at night? Who was the man wearing the gas mask and poking his head into other passengers' compartments? Fortunately, there is one more passenger on board the Ewardic...the Old Man himself, Sir Henry Merrivale. If anyone can figure this screwy case out, it's H.M.

I enjoyed this so much more than the last ship-board mystery by Dickson/Carr (The Case of the Blind Barber). That one came across as too much slap-stick and over-the-top. And there was not nearly enough of Gideon Fell. I was beginning to think that we were going the same route here with Merrivale--he doesn't show up until almost half-way through the book, but once he does, he's very present with all his "Burn mes!" and "for the love of Esaus!" And, of course, he spots all the clues that went right over my head. I should have noticed them, but I was too busy being entertained by H.M. 

I do have a couple of complaints though...First, why do all the little romances have to start off with the guy and the gal at odds? They both think the other is insufferable until suddenly at the very end (with no scenes to indicate a change in mood) they realize they can't do without one another. Seriously? And, second, I was expecting a motive with a little more oomph to it. Especially with all the certain kind of overtones we get (can't explain...because spoilers). It just seemed to fall a little flat. Otherwise, this would have been a five-star winner--great characters, I love a mystery on a ship, nicely done clues (that I missed), and a lot of fun with Merrivale. As it is...★★★★

First line: Painted battleship-gray, the line lay by the pier at the foot of West Twentieth Street.

I have come across this sort of thing in books and films; but, by all the gods, I never imagined it could happen in real life. Do you seriously imagine that you, or any other woman outside a story, can get away with that? Do you think you can tell what you choose to tell, and keep back what doesn't suit your purpose; and then look like a matyr and say you're sure some poor goop will trust you? They ruddy well won't. I won't. (Max Matthews; p. 58)

But, if you ask me, this whole case is screwy. It sounds like Nick Carter. First the bloody thumb-mark, and now the packet of papers. If you can only dig up a hypodermic full of strange Indian poison... (John Lathrop; p. 67)

It's the infantile mind that planned this murder, and every detail of the business. That's what you're dealin' with, son; arrested development in an adult. What makes it worse is that it seems to be an adult of caution and brains as well; and that's an awful bad combination. (Sir Henry Merrivale; p. 74)

Last lines: But as the orchestra struck up at signal from Commander Matthews, they sang God Save the King. And never had those words been sung more strongly, never was more sincerity poured from the heart, than when those strains rose to the roof, and the great gray ship moved up the Channel; and, steady as a compass-needle in death and storm and peril and the darkness of great waters, the Edwardic came home.

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Deaths = 5 (one neck broken; one stabbed; one shot; one natural; one hit on head)

The Body in the Library

 The Body in the Library (1942) by Agatha Christie [read by Stephanie Cole]

What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it, if you know what I mean.

Colonel Arthur Bantry and his wife Dolly wake up one fine morning to discover their usually well-ordered house in disarray (or at least their household staff to be dismayed). Mary, their maid, on her usual morning rounds had opened the curtains in the library, letting the sunshine in to reveal the body of a blonde woman on the hearth rug. The Bantrys have a difficult time believing that they didn't just dream that Mary came in and announced she'd found a body, but Dolly finally convinces Arthur to go and see. And then when it's proved that there really is a body in the library, the first thing to be done after ringing up the police is to get Miss Marple over as soon as possible to begin sleuthing like mad. Dolly very naturally wants to play detective--after all it's her very first dead body--but she knows that she won't be able to make heads or tails of it. Jane Marple will take care of that and Dolly can play Watson to Miss Marple's Sherlock Holmes. Inspector Slack thinks he gets everything in hand--obviously that film bloke, Basil Blake, with his wild parties and platinum blondes all over the place, must have done it. But Miss Marple knows there's more evil than what the energetic inspector suspects.

I've read this Miss Marple story several times, but after a couple of books that didn't strike my fancy quite they way I had hoped, I wanted something comfortable and familiar. So, I settled down and listened to an audiobook of the third entry in the Marple series. Stephanie Cole does an excellent job with the performance and gives a quite lively reading. It was most enjoyable to visit with Miss Marple, the Bantrys, Colonel Melchett, Sir Henry Clithering, and company again. For a more detailed review of the story, please see my previous review HERE. ★★★★★ for the audio version.

First line: Mrs. Bantry was dreaming.

Last line: And Raymond returned to the ballroom.

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Death = 5 (three airplane crash, one strangled; one drugged)

The Ultimate Reader's Block Challenge Prize Winners!

 

First, thank you again to everyone who played along with my reading challenges in 2022. I am so glad you enjoy the challenges. I'm afraid I just don't get around to visit your reviews and posts like I used to--someone has stolen several hours out of my day and I can't figure out how to get them back. But I do appreciate your participation very much!

Second, I had one person submit their wrap-up in the comments and when I made the numbered list for the random number generator, I inserted them on the day and time indicated by the time stamp on their post relative to the time stamp on the linky list. This means that numbered entries were shifted by one spot after entry number nine in the linky.

After that adjustment, I fired up the Random Number Generator and asked it for three winners and our winners are (in order of selection):

Laura@RBA for her Color Coded entry

Kirsten from the Goodreads Mount TBR group

Mark@CC for his Mount TBR/Virtual TBR entry

Congratulations to all three! I will be contacting you all by email about the prize. If, as I believe, all three are from within the United States then I may be able to add one more name to the winner's circle. Stay tuned!

A Nameless Coffin (spoilerish)

 A Nameless Coffin (1966) by Gwendoline Butler

During a particularly hot June, a rash of purse slashing and snatching breaks out on Inspector John Coffin's patch in London. The thief isn't consistent and a week may go by without an incident, but just when the police think he has stopped there is another outbreak. Meanwhile, in Murreinhead, Scotland, a similar slashing outbreak occurs--but this time it's coats. Coffin is convinced that something worse is brewing and he's proved right when Giles Almond, a clerk of the Murreinhead Court, is attacked and slashed across the stomach. Almond successfully fights off the assailant and isn't hurt too badly, but the same can't be said for the missing Murreinhead woman whose body is found in an old apartment building in London destined to be knocked down to make way for new flats. Why was the woman in London? What connects the two towns? And why is an old woman the next victim on the list?

***************Spoiler ahead. Read at your risk.************

It's been a while since I've read any of the Coffin books, but I don't remember the writing being so disjointed. The narrative jumps around from Coffin's point of view to that of Giles Almond primarily, but also among some of the other characters. The way it's handled is very jerky and the story just doesn't seem to flow properly. There is a lot of potential for an early look at a young psychopath and Coffin's investigation could have been so much more interesting if the narrative had just hung together properly. It's pretty obvious who the culprit is from a very early point in the narrative. I'm afraid my last read of 2022 has been a disappointing one--though I do like that cover--the reversed black and white, pen and ink style with the almost glow-in-the dark green really caught my eye (and would be the reason I picked it for my last category in the Vintage Scattergories Challenge). I had hoped for a much stronger outing with Inspector Coffin. ★★ and 1/2

First line: Agenda for the Burgh Court of Murreinhead, Angus, Tuesday, May 12th, 196--.

Last line: So perhaps this was the real ending to the case.

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Deaths = 5 (three stabbed; one natural; one bomb)

The Triple Hoax

 The Triple Hoax (1979) Carolyn Keene

Nancy, Bess, and George go to New York City to investigate a swindle that has been perpetrated against one of Aunt Eloise Drew's friends. A man posing as a travel agent sold her tickets and hotel reservations to the tune of $3,000, but the tickets were phony and so were the reservations. They learn that Mrs. Richards had attended a magic show put on by a group called the Hoaxters and that part of the show involves asking audience members to come on stage to observe the tricks more closely. While up there, possessions such as wallets, purses, and the like are removed and not returned until the end of the show. Nancy is sure the Hoaxters are up to no good. It isn't long before she's proved right and finds herself on a cross-country trip to bring the con men (and women) to justice. The mystery involves fraud, a stolen ancient vial of poison, and a kidnapped child. But Nancy is quick to pick up the clues that lead to the villains' ultimate hide-out.

I know I enjoyed this one when I was young, but middle-age me wonders how on earth Nancy, Bess, and George (in their late teens) can just flit off to NYC and then Mexico City and then Los Angeles at the drop of the hat. There was an effort to make it realistic by having Mr. Fayne put up a bit of protest about cost when the girls want to take off to Mexico, but it didn't take long for George to jolly him into upping her allowance so she can go (what kind of allowance lets a person fly to NYC, let alone any of the other places?). The mystery itself was good. The plans of the con men actually made sense and reflected actual con jobs that have occurred in real life. So, I enjoyed the mystery and visiting with Nancy and friends again--Ned, Burt, and Dave show up for the grand finale in L.A. But I can't say that this one stands out as a favorite. ★★★ for a middle-of-the-road ND mystery.

First line: "Dad! Aunt Eloise wants me to come to New York immediately to solve a mystery!" eighteen-year-old Nancy Drew called out excitedly.

Last line: As he presented it to her, there was loud applause, a standing ovation, and wild cheering from Nancy's many admirers.

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Deaths = one natural

Murder Impossible

 Murder Impossible (1990) by Jack Adrian & Robert Adey, eds.

As with so many short story collections, this is a mixed bag--ranging from brilliant solutions, to big let-downs (especially after the build-up in the introductions given by our editors) to just plain silly parodies. The best (those rated *****) are true impossible crimes with absolutely terrific solutions and, quite often, a nifty little twist at the end. My favorites are "Coffee Break," "Proof of Guilt," "Now You See Her," and "The Blind Spot." Of those that garnered four stars, Carr's "The House in Goblin Wood" is quite good with a rather macabre solution. Overall ★★★ and 1/2 for whole collection.

"The House in Goblin Wood" by John Dickson Carr: When Vicky Adams was small, she disappeared from a locked cottage and then magically reappeared. Now, twenty years later, it's happened again--right under the now of Sir Henry Merrivale. Is it just a trick or has something more sinister happened this time? (one stabbed) ****

"The Other Side" by Hake Talbot: Rogan Kinkaid and his friend Svetozar Vok (a magician) must prove that a charlatan priest has shot a young woman's guardian through a solid wall--leaving no bullet hole. (one shot) ***

"The Courtyard of the Fly" by Vincent Cornier: A mystery concerning a huge fly that manages to steal a rope of pearls weighing a quarter of a pound. Constable Hamilton--first on the spot--spends years trying to get to unravel the puzzle of how the deed was done.****

"Coffee Break" by Arthur Porges: History and Philosophy of Science Professor Emeritus Ulysses Price Middlebie works with Sergeant Black to plumb the mystery of Cyrus Denning's apparent suicide. He seems to have poisoned himself with cyanide inside his locked cabin turned laboratory. Not only was the cabin locked, but the window was nailed shut and the door under observation during the crucial period. If it was murder, how was it done? (one poisoned) *****

"Bullion!" by W.  Hope Hodgson: Gold bullion safely stashed in chests within a locked room on ship bound for London from Melbourne manages to disappear. Strange deaths by "just sickening and going off" and mysterious late-night whisperings haunt the ship. The second mate realizes just in time what it all means. (two poisoned) *** 1/2

"Proof of Guilt" by Bill Pronzini: George Dillon has a meeting with a lawyer named Adam Chillingham. The two go into Chillingham's office, there is a shot fired, and Dillon, when the clerk comes to the locked door, opens the door and calmly tells the clerk that Chillingham has been shot--supposedly while leaning out the window. When it's discovered that Chillingham, executor of Dillon's father's estate, had embezzled a large portion of the money, it seems clear that Dillon must have killed him. But how? There's no gun in the room--nor anywhere outside the room. (one shot; one heart attack) *****

"An Absence of Air" by Jacques Futrelle: Miss Violet Danbury is dead in her hotel room--to all appearances she committed suicide by poison. Except there is no poison found at the autopsy. What is found is an absence of any air in her lungs as if something had sucked all the air out of her. But what could do that? The Thinking Machine, Professor Van Dusen will find out. But not until after a longshoreman is found dead in the same manner. (three suffocated) ****

"The Impossible Theft" by John F. Suter: A man bets his old schoolmate, who collects rare letters and memoranda by famous historical figures, that he can remove one of the items from the man's strong room within 15 minutes of being left alone in the room. If he wins the collector must donate $50,000 to a hospital in need. With all the safeguards, it seems impossible.... ***

"It's a Dog's Life" by John Lutz: Private detective Morgan has a four-legged side-kick by the name of Sam. When Carl Creel is killed and the gun goes goes missing, Sam is the one who finds the weapon which had seemingly vanished into thin air. (one shot) ***

"The Death of Cyrus Pettigrew" by Sax Rohmer: Dr. Saxham and our narrator investigate the mysterious poisoning of Cyrus Pettigrew. Pettigrew and his niece were locked in a first-class train compartment--no one else entered and the man was found poisoned with puncture wounds in his arm. The police suspect the niece who stands to inherit a tidy sum. But how did she do it? No instrument was found in the compartment. (two poisoned) ***

"Ghost in the Gallery" by Joseph Commings: Linda Carewe has had enough of her odious husband and dumps some grains of arsenic in his milk. But...she always said he was the Devil and maybe he made a pact with the demon because she and her lover Borden Argyll start seeing what they think is Carewe's ghost. When it appears that the ghost has killed Argyll's model (he's an artist), they ask Senator Banner to investigate. (one hit on head; one hanged) *** 1/2

"The Missing Romney" by Edgar Wallace: Four Square Jane, a somewhat latter-day Robin Hood, manages to steal a famous painting from a closely guarded display room--all in order to get a sizeable donation for a children's hospital. ***

"The House of Screams" by Gerald Findler: A man rents a county place in England in order to get away from it all and to write his book in peace and quiet. But apparently a ghost has other ideas and after spending a sleepless night listening to horrific screams, he discovers skeletal remains in locked room in the attic. (one natural; one poisoned) ***

"The Impossible Murder" by Edward D. Hoch: Captain Leopold must discover how a dead man could drive a car in a traffic jam and whether his murder has anything to do with his father's death 30 years ago. (one strangled; one shot) *** 1/2

"A Nineteenth Century Debacle" by George Locke: A Holmes pastiche about a man who seems to have been killed twice--at the exact same moment. This one fell a little flat for me--pun jolly well intended. (one fell from height) *

"A Razor in Fleet Street" by John Dickson Carr: Bill Leslie, American, and his British wife visit London together for the first time. Bill has romantic expectations of England--from foggy streets to street music to Scotland Yard inspectors with bowler hats. And England seems to have rolled out all the nostalgic bits just for him. But when he winds up mixed up in a murder and meets a real (bowler-hatted) inspector...it's not quite so romantic anymore. (one stabbed) *** 1/2

"Dinner at Garibaldi's" by Leonard Pruyn: How could a man who dined three times a day at a gourmet restaurant die of malnutrition? (one starved to death) **

"The Hanging Rope" by Joel Townsely Rogers: Tuxedo Johnny, a former cop who worked for old Dan McCue and Big Bat O'Brien of homicide are trying to figure out how McCue's killer (who also knocked off Kitty Kane in the same apartment) managed to get out of a locked apartment with Johnny and another ex-cop right there and the janitor for the building camped out at the bottom of the fire escape. (one hit on head; one throat cut; one blood poisoning; one drowned; one fell from height) * [I just don't seem to get on with Rogers. There are lots of folks who think his The Red Right Hand is all that and I....didn't. This short novella reads very weirdly (and I think the effect is on purpose) and the killer seemed to have a neon "It's me!" glow around them every time they were on the page. So...the "awe-inspiring twist" that Jack Adrian describes in his intro to the piece wasn't.]

"Now You See Her" by Jeffrey Wallman: A woman reports a man in the neighboring building as a Peeping Tom. He sits with his binoculars trained on her window all the time--never seems to move Two detectives come and keep him under observations...meanwhile, the woman's closest friend has disappeared and the detectives are convinced her husband did her in. But what did he do with the body? (one strangled) ***** This story had the surprise ending that Rogers's tale didn't.

"The Blind Spot" by Barry Perowne (Philip Atkey): Mr. James Annixter, playwright, devises the perfect locked room murder plot for the play he's writing, but forgets the solution when in a drunken stupor he gets hit by a taxi. He spends his time after recovery looking for the man in the bar...the only other person who knows the solution. When he finds him, the man claims he's never seen James before in his life. (two stabbed) ***** Another with an absolutely terrific ending.

"Chapter the Last: Merriman Explains" by Alex Atkinson: Pure parody of Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) and the style of mysteries in his Merrivale books. *** Fun, but not really a mystery.

First line (1st story): IN Pall Mall, that hot July afternoon three years before the war, an open saloon car was drawn up to the kerb just opposite the Senior Conservatives' Club.

Last line (last story): As I groped my way down the back stairs, I reflected sadly that this would probably go down in history as Merriman's Last Case.

Sweet Poison

 Sweet Poison (1970) by Douglas Clark

Fay Partridge wasn't much liked at the Throstlecombe Holiday Camp in Devon. She had been a "no better than she should be" second wife to the late Claud Partridge. Some called her no better than a tart. She was self-absorbed and in it for the money and good times. Claud and his first wife and their two daughters had built the Holiday Camp up from nothing to a thriving business. The daughters expected to inherit when daddy passed on, but his bumbling attempt at a self-made will left the earnings from the camp to Fay Partridge for her lifetime. And she planned to live as long as possible and squeeze out every penny she could. So the daughters and their husbands weren't exactly fond of their step-mama. Mr. Compton, the manager of the Holiday Camp, also resented the way the second Mrs. Partridge ran the business (or tried to run it into the ground, as he saw it). She interfered with his management in ways that Claud and his first wife never did. She thwarted him at every turn...and elbowed the girls out of their rightful inheritance. And the local doctors (a husband and wife team) had cause to dislike Fay as well. She cancelled their contract as chief medicos for the camp, which put an end to a nice, guaranteed stipend.

Somebody decided that it might be better if she didn't live as long as she had planned--and most likely it was one of these seven. Though only in her thirties, she died suddenly from toxic necrosis of the liver...most unusual in someone her age. And her two prized poodles succumbed to the same ailment that same day. Apparently all three were poisoned, but the difficulty is to prove it. The post-mortem and examinations of the dogs reveal none of the standard signs of poisoning of any sort. The doctors are stumped and so are the local police. 

So, Detective Chief Inspector George Masters, Inspector Bill Green, and the team from Scotland Yard head to Devon to investigate. Masters has quite the reputation for unraveling the thorniest problems and he'll need everyone's help in gathering the clues that point to what kind of poison, how it was delivered, and by whom. Bill Green will get to spend time interviewing the rather comely Dr. Meg Meeth and Sergeants Brant and Hill will get to dress up as cowboys and mingle among the guests at a fancy dress ball all in the line of duty--gathering up evidence for their Chief. Masters takes an inordinate personal interest in some perfumed decorations in Fay's rooms never thinking that they might lead him to part of the solution (this isn't necessarily the spoiler you might think it is).

Another enjoyable plot from Douglas Clark. He excelled at interesting murder methods and I'm quite sure that this one was even more interesting at the time it was written. Simply because the method was a fairly new innovation (can't get detailed here or it will spoil things) that we take for granted nowadays. I vaguely remember commercials making a big deal of the innovation back in the 70s. So, I'm sure readers at the time would have been even more surprised at the reveal. One thing that confused me was Masters' hang-up on the word "dessert"--especially since the man knows what phrases mean in various dialects around England (and displays the ability in this very story). I recognized what our victim was referring to immediately, though I didn't quite make the connections Masters did once he finally came round to the right connotation.

This is the fourth in the series and Masters and Green still aren't completely comfortable with one another, but we can see the development of the mutual respect that will prevail in later books. Green is pleasantly surprised to receive a "well done" over a particularly helpful bit of detecting. And Masters is really beginning to appreciate his inspector's differing viewpoint. Clark provides a good view of the teamwork that goes into a successful police investigation.  ★★★  and 1/2.

First lines: The first Thursday in July. A growing rain falling.

Last line: "I think you're right. Your sergeants say you usually are."

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Deaths = 5 (three natural; one shot; one poisoned)

The Ultimate Reader's Block Challenge Wrap-Up

 Last year, I decided that rather than post wrap-up links for each challenge, I would have a one-stop shopping plan. If you participated in any of the Reader's Block challenges, then you may submit your wrap-up posts here. The linky will be open until Friday, January 6th. At that time I will pick random winners* from all the challenges to select a prize from the prize vault. If you have participated in more than one challenge, you are welcome to submit a separate wrap-up post for each challenge and earn yourself an entry for every challenge. (*Number of winners will depend on where winners are from--I don't want to exclude my friends from outside the US, but shipping costs won't allow me to do many of those.)

Please list your name in the following manner (especially if you've got more than one entry): 

Name (challenge name) [example-- Bev@My Reader's Block (Vintage Scattergories)]

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The Candle Shop Mystery

 The Candle Shop Mystery (1967) by Eileen Hill

During Christmas break Robin, her brother Kevin, and friends Mindy & Michael visit an old Spanish neighborhood in Los Angeles at the behest of Mindy's friend Pilar. Something strange is going on at the local candle shop--long owned by Senor Garcia and now operated on his behalf by the Lodato family. At first the family was very friendly and open, but now they have banished Senor Garcia from his own backroom and act very suspicious and afraid. Pilar is sure that the son, Ramon, wants to confide in her but he's too afraid. When she visits Mindy and hears stories about the mysteries that Robin has solved in the past, she asks her new friends to come to Olvera Street and help find out what's wrong at the candle shop. There is a small fire in the shop and a mysterious man with a pin-striped suit hanging around--not to mention his friend with the eyepatch. When Robin finds a shard of pottery in the ashes from the fire, she's more than half-way to finding the solution.

My first Robin Kane story. She's made in the standard girl detective mode and a little bit younger than Nancy Drew. Somewhere between Nancy and Trixie Belden--Mindy's father is wealthy enough to purchase a hydroplane of his own and the story opens with Robin helping her mother make curtains. I get a bit of a Trixie/Honey vibe with a charming mystery from the late '60s. Not an intricate plot, but fun and with a little bit of danger/action--just enough to make it adventurous for young readers, but not too violent. It also provides a look at some Spanish/Mexican Christmas traditions that lets us see how others celebrate the season. It was a nice low-key read for the holiday season. ★★★ 

First Line: Robin Kane, sitting cross-legged on the window seat in her bedroom, was struggling to sew a hem in the new curtains she and her mother were making

Last Line: The sounds of happy voices followed Robin and the others as they left Olvera Street, sounds they would remember for a long time to come.

December Vintage Scattergories Reviews

 

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The Longer the Thread

 The Longer the Thread (1971) by Emma Lathen (Mary Jane Latis & Martha Henissart)

John Putnam Thatcher, senior vice president of the Sloan Guaranty Trust bank makes his way to Puerto Rico to sort out a situation at Slax, a garment manufacturer specializing in women's pants. The Sloan has backed the company to the tune of a 3 million dollar loan and there's some dispute about which arm of the company should be managing the account. Commercial Credit has backed all of Slax concerns within the contiguous United States and the bank officers in charge feel that they know the business. International Credit takes care of businesses outside the United States and believe that Puerto Rico, U.S. territory or not, should fall under their purview. Somebody needs to bring harmony back to the Sloan family. So, Thatcher goes to Puerto Rico to see the situation at first hand. He expects only business problems.

But then the garment factory suffers a spate of "accidents" that can only be sabotage. Could the Puerto Rican workers be getting tired of the American bosses? There's been talk of a push for independence and a group of young radicals have already protested at the university. Benito Dominguez, the line foreman, seems to take great delight in the difficulties posed by the sabotaged lot of clothing and the ruined machinery, but none of the Slax management believe that he could be in league with the radicals...until Dominguez is found shot to death with a membership card for the radical group in his pocket and a handful of sand. Sand which was apparently used to doctor the lubricant for the cutting machines. Did one of the managers discovery Dominguez's complicity and kill him? Or are there other factors at work? When Harry Zimmerman, head of the New York Slax office disappears and a letter is received from the head of the young radical group claiming responsibility and making demands before he will be returned, it looks like maybe the protestors have been behind everything all along. But then Zimmerman is found killed as well and Thatcher and Captain Vallejo (the Puerto Rican police officer in charge of the case) will need to review the case from other angles.

This was quite a slog. I learned way more than I wanted to know about 1970s politics in Puerto Rico--whether they wanted independence or wanted to remain connected to the U.S. The details about the Slax company weren't all that interesting and most of it did nothing to move the plot along. And--for this being "A John Putnam Thatcher Mystery" per the book blurb, there was little of Thatcher throughout most of the book. When he was there and actually investigating (which pretty much only occurs in the last few chapters), the plot moved along nicely and held my interest. But both he and Captain Vallejo (the Puerto Rican police officer in charge of the case) disappear for a good chunk of the time. You would think the most important thing in the book was whether or not Slax was going to keep production going--not that two men have been murdered. I'm glad that this wasn't my first taste of the Thatcher books--I know from the previous book I read that the mystery is good when he's more involved. If this had been my first Lathen mystery, I doubt that I would have picked up another. ★★

First line: Wall Street is the greatest financial market in the world, and the function of the market is to provide an arena for smooth and orderly transactions.

Last line: "Well, now," she marveled, "what do you know about that?"

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Deaths = 2 (one shot; one throat cut)

The Old English Peep Show

 The Old English Peep Show (aka A Pride of Heroes; 1969) by Peter Dickinson

Old England or the Peep Show as it's known locally, is Disney-style theme park set at a graceful country house. The servants greet visitors with a bob and curtsy, the butler makes everyone think of Jeeves, and the eccentric owners keep pet lions. There are daily duels and "live" hangings for the more blood-thirsty thrill-seekers. Everything's running according plan...until Sir Richard Clavering's manservant hangs himself. But why would the loyal and faithful Arthur Deakin hang himself in his pantry? And why didn't he leave a note? Oh...and why does Mr. Harvey Singleton (Clavering's son-in-law) insist that he heard a thud and then a drumming sound at the time of the death?

Scotland Yard superintendent James Pibble is sent to deal with the incident and he has to wonder why the local police didn't take care of a supposedly simple suicide. He soon learns that life at Herryngs (the estate in question) is anything but ordinary. Sir Richard and his brother Sir Ralph, retired admiral and general respectively, are war heroes who have gone from charmingly eccentric to downright certifiable. A disappearance and an encounter with a man-eating lion make Pibble understand that danger lurks behind the theme-park façade. And if he's not careful he may wind up next on the killer's list.

I have an on-again, off-again relationship with Peter Dickinson. The very first one I ever read caused me to merely list him in my "books to be found" spreadsheet with a notation of  "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  I don't know what it was, except that it was a mystery. I don't have the title logged. I sortof suspect it may have been this one, though I haven't had quite that violent a reaction upon reading it this time (if, indeed, this was the title in question). I just find the whole thing very weird--from the behavior of the family to the behavior of our detective. I don't understand why Jimmy Pibble, an officer of the law, is willing to try so hard to ignore the signs that Deakin's death was not a suicide. He spends about three pages telling himself he's being conned, listing things that don't fit, and then choosing to say that they don't mean much and, by golly, it sure is a suicide after all. "O.K., he was going quietly. But let them stretch his conscience one notch further and the lion would feel the talons of the vulture, blunt, bourgeouis talons though they were." So, I guess he's willing to believe eight impossible things before breakfast...just don't make it nine. I, personally, stopped believing after the first two...and promptly skimmed my way through this thing just so I can count it towards challenges. But, honestly, Pibble and his investigation did very little for me here. I liked him a heck of a lot better in One Foot in the Grave. ★

First line: Pibble thought, I am the chosen vulture spiraling down onto a dying lion.

Last line: With a noncommittal grunt (risky to be affable with a potential scapegoat) Harry Brazzil slouched into Herryings.

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Deaths = 2 (one hanged, one shot)

No More Dying Then

 No More Dying Then (1971) by Ruth Rendell

Nine months ago Stella Rivers, twelve years old, disappeared when walking home from riding lessons. Inspector Reg Wexford and the Kingsmarkham police did everything in their power to find her, but there was no trace. Now a five year old boy, John Lawrence, has gone missing after walking away from the neighborhood park. This time letters start arriving--saying that the kidnapper only wanted to keep John for a while and--if the police keep out of it--he will be sent safely home. But when Mike Burden, recently returned from compassionate leave after the death of his wife, discovers Stella's body in the well of an abandoned house, they fear that little John Lawrence may never come home. If the same person is responsible for the disappearance of both children, then it is a race against time that Wexford can't afford to lose.

I actually finished this a couple days ago. I haven't been exactly sure what I want to say about the book. My reading tastes have changed a bit since my teens--not in all ways, but I'd say my affinity for Ruth Rendell is one of them. Back then I read everything of hers our local library had because I couldn't get enough of her. And kept picking up her newer ones into my twenties. In recent years I've revisited some of her books and have been disappointed to find that they just don't hold me the way they did back then. I couldn't even finish A Judgment in Stone though I still realize what an important book it was.  

No More Dying Then was better, though the child endangerment trope hits me harder now than it did before I had a son. The mystery plot itself was intriguing and the motive for the murder was an interesting one and led to a satisfying, surprising ending. But I have to say that Mike Burden got on my nerves here. He's supposedly grieving for his wife (and, yes, he does think about some sweet moments with her)--but it seems to me that what he's really missing is sex. Until about midway or so in the book he's been too prudish to seek relief outside of the marriage bed--which turns him into a snarly, distracted colleague for Wexford. It's amazing how his late-book fling turns things around for him (not that Burden is ever an extraordinarily cheerful kind of guy). And the way he treats his sister-in-law and children--well, he ought to be ashamed. He is a bit at the end, so there's that. [Though I still get the sense that he's very self-absorbed.]

Good mystery. Less focus on Burden would have made it better. ★★★

First line: The spell of fine weather which so often comes in the middle of October is known as St. Luke's Little Summer.

Last line: She leaned towards him, her face serious and intent. "Let's talk," she said.

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Deaths = 2 (one strangled; one drowned)

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

 The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960) by Agatha Christie

This collection features six stories--five with Hercule Poirot and one with Miss Jane Marple. The title story is the only one which is holiday-themed, though food and drink do feature in a couple more. A good short collection with some of the best stories from other collections I've already read. ★★★★

"The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding": Hercule Poirot is asked by an emissary of a foreign prince to investigate the theft of a priceless ruby. The trail leads to a classic English country house where Poirot takes part in the festivities of an old-fashioned English Christmas--plum pudding and all. The plum pudding has a secret and Poirot receives a warning:

DON'T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING. ONE AS WISHES YOU WELL.

Poirot and all the household indulge in the pudding with no ill effects. But an unexpected surprise is found in it. Next morning there is a body on the lawn and much for Poirot to unravel.

"The Mystery of the Spanish Chest": Six people are invited to an evening party which is held in a room with a large Spanish chest against the wall. Five of them drink and talk and dance. But the sixth is found dead in the chest. How did the dead body get into the chest while a dance party was going on? Hercule Poirot is asked to find out the answer...and, of course, who put it there.

"The Under Dog": The irritable Sir Reuben Astwell is found dead and his nephew is blamed for the murder. Lady Astwell is certain she knows who the killer is, but can offer no evidence. Poirot is called in to prover her right...but is she?

"Four & Twenty Blackbirds": Hercule Poirot is have dinner with his friend Bonnington when he becomes interested in a particular diner. This man has eaten at the restaurant every Tuesday and Thursday for the last ten years. No one knows his name, but the staff knows what he eats. Or at least they think they do. When he doesn't show up on one of his regular days, Poirot is even more interested and he discovers that on his last day "Old Father Time" (as the man had been dubbed) had ordered something different. Then he finds out the man has died in a fall downstairs and Poirot becomes very interested.

"The Dream": An eccentric millionaire has a disturbing dream about killing himself, tells Poirot about it, and then is found dead one week later--an apparent suicide. But Poirot thinks not.

"Greenshaw's Folly": Raymond West winds up witnessing an old lady's will and finding out that she needs someone to compile her grandfather's diaries for publication. He suggests his niece Louise for the job and then, after only two days at the lady's home at Greenshaw's Folly, she witnesses a murder that couldn't have happened. Miss Marple is able find out how it was done and by whom.

First line (1st story): "I regret exceedingly--" said M. Hercule Poirot.

Last line (last story): "And a fine house it is, for all they call it Greenshaw's Folly!"

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Deaths = 5 (one shot; two stabbed; one fell from height; one natural)

 

November Vintage Scattergories Reviews

 

 

 

 

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The Pale Horse

 The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (1961); read by Hugh Fraser

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... (Revelation 6:8)

I apparently first read this in 2014--at least that's what my reading log told me, though I had a hard time believing it. Since then, I acquired the audio CD version with Hugh Fraser reading it to me. And I have to say, this is one of the rare times that I didn't enjoy Fraser reading to me just as much as when I read it for myself. Perhaps I was just not in the mood to be read to. But I'm not going to deduct star value since Fraser is usually good. I gave the book four stars when I read it for myself and we'll stick with that.

Christie's only novel in which Ariadne Oliver makes an appearance without Hercule Poirot is a twist on the plot device used by Philip MacDonald in The List of Adrian Messenger two years previously. The story begins with Father Gorman, a Catholic priest called to the deathbed of a woman apparently dying of flu. She tells him that there is "Wickedness...such wickedness...Stopped...It must be stopped...You will..." And the priest assures her that he will do what is necessary. But before he can do anything about what he has heard, he is murdered on his way home. The police find a list of names in his shoe--a list of names of people who seem to have nothing in common. Except when historian Mark Easterbrook is brought into the investigation through the passing of his godmother (whose name, incidentally, appears on the list), he discovers that the names do have something in common....death.

Christie also dabbles in a bit of apparent black magic in this one. The Pale Horse of the title is an old inn, now inhabited by three women who have a reputation for witchcraft. Seances and secret rituals involving white cocks and modern death rays are rumored to occur. Easterbrook, being a modern man, scoffs at the idea of voo-doo or death-wishes, but as each name on the list winds up dead he begins to wonder if there isn't really such a thing as murder by remote control....

This is one of the better Christie stand-alone novels. There is a fine sense of atmosphere from the coffee shops of Chelsea to the country village and mystic Pale Horse. She does her usual excellent job of misdirection--making me completely misidentify the culprit. I should have know better, I really should have--but like Mark Easterbrook I was thoroughly taken in. Mrs. Oliver makes cameo appearances, adding just the right amount of her general dottiness...and helping Easterbrook spot the method of murder even if he does make a mistake in fingering the villain. The romance is also a nice touch--given enough limelight to make events believable, but not too much attention to distract from the business of tracking down the murder. Good classic Christie fun. ★★★★

First line: The Espresso machine behind my shoulder hissed like an angry snake.

"My husband's a very good man," she said. "Besides being vicar, I mean. And that makes things difficult sometimes. Good people, you see, don't really understand evil." (Mrs. Calthorpe; p. 66)

"People are so proud of wickedness. Odd isn't it, that people who are good are never proud of it? That's where Christian humility comes in, I suppose." (Mrs. Calthorpe; p. 70)

Last line: "If you want to go to the Old Vic in the future," she said firmly, "you'll go with me."

****************

Deaths = 4 (one hit on head; three poisoned)

The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy

 The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy (1965) by Robert Arthur

The Three Investigators find themselves investigating two mysteries that intertwine. The first doesn't sound too exciting: an excitable woman by the name of Mrs. Mildred Banfry wants them to find her missing cat. The cat is an Abyssinian by the name of Sphinx with one orange and one blue eye. It's been missing about a week. The second mystery comes their way via their friend Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock writes to them and asks the boys to help out his friend Professor Yarborough.

The professor is an Egyptologist with many artifacts in his home--a veritable private museum. Among his treasures is the mummy of Ra-Orkon. The mummy has recently arrived from Egypt where it had been on loan to an Egyptian museum. No sooner had it arrived than it began whispering--but only to Professor Yarborough when he was alone in the room with it. The mummy seems to be muttering in a foreign language, but the professor can't quite make out any of the words. His butler thinks either his employer is getting a little senile or, if the mummy really is whispering, then it's because Ra-Orkon is angry and ready to carry out the curse against those who disturbed his rest in Egypt. Several men associated with the expedition have died...and Wilkins doesn't want the professor or himself to be next. 

Jupiter is eager to take on the case and he and Pete meet with the professor. They are unable to get the mummy to whisper while they're in the room. But they do capture (and then lose) an Egyptian boy who seems awfully interested in the professor's house. Jupiter gets an idea about how to fool the mummy into speaking to him and says they'll come back later. But when Pete seems to be reluctant to take on muttering ancient Egyptians, he sends the Second Investigator to interview the lady about her cat. Before Jupiter can fully unravel the mystery, the mummy is stolen. When the boys track it down, they're then able to beard the thieves in their den and discover exactly how and why the mummy speaks. And...they find the cat which has played an important role in the case.

This was an excellent Three Investigators mystery. Jupiter does a nice bit of deduction figuring out how the mummy whispers. That's the most ingenious part of the plot. And the adventures the boys have on their way to the solution are engaging and action-packed and just right for the target age group. It was easy to figure out who the villain of the piece was (there aren't exactly suspects thick and heavy on the ground), but I can't say that the Investigators really deduce that one....Jupiter (locked inside the mummy case) is taken straight to the suspect's place and the others wind up there purely by accident. But it is a nice wrap-up nonetheless. Very enjoyable. ★★★★

First lines: "Save me! Save me!" cried a strange, high-pitched voice in great terror.

Last lines: Whatever it was, it would be something unusual. Of that he had no doubt.

**************

Deaths = one hit by car; murdered in a bazaar; one snake bite

The Witches' Bridge

 The Witches' Bridge (1967) by Barbee Oliver Carleton

Set in Massachusetts. The Pride family has had its share of troubles over the years. During the time of the witch trials in America, an ancestor by the name of Samuel Pride was accused and executed as a witch--based on an accusation by the Bishop family. The years that followed found the Prides being blamed for all that went wrong in the area around Pride's Point and superstition kept everyone from using the causeway bridge that led to their land. Rumor said that the witch Samuel would appear as a large black dog and folks claimed to hear Samuel playing his fiddle near the Witches' Bridge.  And a feud-state existed between the Prides and the Bishops from that day to the present. 

Years later Daniel Pride (our young hero's grandfather and namesake) decided that all the superstitions were bunk and determined to lay the feed between the families to rest. He offered an olive branch as well as making an offer to buy back the shipyard which the Bishops could no longer make use of. But on the night the transaction was to take place, something strange happened. Daniel set off across the causeway to meet the Bishops, but he never made it. Footprints showed that he had run--as if in fright--and he was found dead near the family chapel. There was a mark in the mud from the briefcase he had carried, but no briefcase was ever found. The Prides believed the case had the papers proving that the shipyard had been bought and paid for, but the Bishops claimed Daniel never arrived for the meeting and the case should still hold the money. Each side believed the other to be at fault--and so the feud continued.

Young Dan Pride's father left Pride's Point (and America) as soon as he could--living for the most part in England. When Dan's father and mother are killed in a plane crash, his Uncle Julian sends for him to come live at the family estate. Dan hopes for a warm welcome and a new home, but his uncle is withdrawn and the townsfolk are wary of a new Pride--especially when Dan hears the strange music and talks about it. And even when he seems to make new friends--the handyman Billy Ben and the twins Pip and Gilly--there is unexplained tension. He's just not sure who he can trust. Especially once he realizes that someone is still searching for that missing briefcase and someone is setting him up to be a scapegoat when things go wrong. Can Dan find the case before his unknown enemy and will he be able to prove himself innocent when the time comes? 

Carleton does an excellent job with atmosphere and uses the witch legend to full advantage. It may be the middle of summer, but the foggy marshland, eerie nights in the country, storms rolling in, and the spooky music near the bridge all work to make this a very appropriate book to read during the month of Halloween. We get all the trappings for a spooky story--a witch's ghost, creepy music, an ancient curse (uttered by the original "witch"), a large, ugly black dog, and an unexplained death. If the atmosphere hadn't been so good and the characterizations of Dan, Pip, Gilly, and Uncle Julian hadn't been so vivid, it might have been easy to read this as a Scooby-Doo type mystery. After all, good ol' [redacted] winds up being the villain and s/he nearly says "If it hadn't been for those meddling kids..." But Dan's struggles against loneliness and his efforts to find friends in a new place are very poignant and his bravery in the face of those against him and the mystery surrounding him makes this a better than average story. 

It was also good how Carleton used Dan's overcoming his fear of swimming to help him solve the mystery of what happened to the briefcase. If he hadn't finally made friends with Pip and Gilly and learned to swim with them, the mystery would never have been solved. There are a lot of good lessons about overcoming--overcoming one's own doubts and fears; overcoming prejudice; and overcoming superstition. The one thing I didn't care for was the escape of the villain at the end...after all that s/he had done we (and Dan) deserved to see them hauled off to jail. ★★★★

First line: The gray day ended as it began, too cold for May, and threatening a storm.

Last line: Then they reached the bend, and Pride's and all with it was lost to view.

************

Deaths = 5 (two plane crash; one hanged; one tortured; one natural)