Book Clubbed: Review

Synopsis (from book flap): Cranky Chamber of Commerce receptionist Betsy Dittmeyer is done reading people the riot act. After she’s crushed by a fallen bookcase, the next item to be read is her last will and testament—which is packed with surprises. It soon comes to light that Betsy was hiding volumes of dark secrets behind that perpetual frown of hers—and one of them just might have been a motive for murder.

While Tricia tries to help Angelica—the newly elected Chamber of Commerce president and Betsy’s boss—solve the mystery, she discovers a hidden chapter in her own family history that rocks her to her very core. And with her ex-husband and the chief of police vying for her affections, it’s doubly hard to focus on who might have buried Betsy in a tomb of tomes.

But as Tricia and Angelica try to read between the lines, they need to watch their step…and make sure the killer doesn’t catch them between the stacks.

***********************
My Take: This is going to be fairly short. Book Clubbed caught my eye on the New Arrivals shelf at the library. I mean, what's not to love? A mystery bookstore owner as amateur sleuth. With a cat named Miss Marple. A corpse killed by a fallen bookcase.  A clue in a family Bible. Books everywhere you look. I was in need of just six more library books to fulfill the I Love Library Books reading challenge and this seemed like a perfect entry--a quick, cozy read.

Yeah...no. At first I thought that maybe the reason I wasn't connecting with Tricia Miles and her sister Angelica (and about 95% of the rest of the characters) was because I hopped on the Booktown Mystery Train at stop number 8, but a glance through other less favorable reviews by readers who have been on board from the beginning lead me to surmise that it wouldn't have mattered much. Tricia apparently has been in a weird funk from her divorce (and other man troubles) all along. She's being stalked by her ex--I don't care what anyone says. The fact that he watches her every move from a window that looks down on her store and straight across from her apartment is very creepy. And, it's not enough that she's got hang-ups over men. She's also got her troubled relationship with her mother. 

Quite honestly, living inside her head and seeing the other characters from her point of view is no treat. She's labeled a goody two-shoes, but she's not particularly charitable in her thoughts about most of the others. When tragedy strikes at the end, I'm not even invested enough in her character to feel terribly sorry for her. The most sympathetic characters--in my opinion--are her employees.  Unfortunately, we don't see nearly enough of them. And let's not even talk about the dialogue...mostly flat, almost always at cross-purposes, and sometimes I'm left thinking "what-the-heck?" because the subject has just been changed abruptly for no discernible reason.

The good points? Decent mystery and plotting, although not enough clues displayed so the reader could possibly arrive at the solution on their own.  Booktown atmosphere is also a plus. But not enough good points to entice me into reading any more of the series.  ★★

Shell Game: Review

A shell-gathering vacation in Florida nearly lands Bill Stuart in the local jail...and before he's done, he may wind up in the morgue instead.  

All Stuart wants is to spend some time on the beach--collecting rare shells and admiring the lovely scenery (of the bathing beauty variety).  He gets more than he bargained for when he discovers a beautiful young woman hiding under a fishing pier near his favorite stretch of beach.  She tells him a rather fishy story (all in keeping with her locale), but he doesn't let it phase him.  He offers her a ride back to town and she begs to drive his convertible.

Thinking nothing of it, Stuart agrees and soon they're off on a wild ride.  A mysterious gray sedan starts following them and Valerie swerves and dodges and drives the wrong way down one way streets to lose it.  She pulls into a bus station and manages to disappear before Stuart can ask too many questions.  From there on, Bill has beautiful girls and corpses popping in and out of his life like so many jack-in-the-boxes.  When he tries to get the local police chief interested in the missing girl and the mysterious sedan, the Chief is more interested in the traffic violations his little green convertible has collected.

Even the high-powered investigator from up North, doesn't seem very interested in Stuart's story, so he goes on a little hunt of his own.  It leads him back to the beach and a cabin near the pier where he met Valerie.  And inside....is the body of a recently murdered man.  The Chief and his northern counterpart show up just in time to try and fit Stuart for the part of first murderer.  But when the few stray prints in the place don't match Stuart's and DO match Valerie's (via a compact that she happened to leave with Stuart), the Chief gets much more interested in the missing girl. Stuart knows he didn't do it and he doesn't believe Valerie did--but can he find the missing girl, the mysterious sedan, and the right culprit before he winds up in jail or worse?

This is another 1950s, fast-paced, humorous mystery with a B-movie feel.  There's the hometown cop who doesn't quite know what to do when the crimes are worse than someone feeding slugs into the parking meters.  There are tough, gangster-types.  There's the hapless hero who seems to be suspected no matter what he does...and he does it all for the sake of a beautiful dame.  Lots of fun, lots of hi-jinks, and lots of misdirection.  Three stars for a nice, enjoyable read.

Challenge Complete: 150+ Challenge

Even though Amy over at My Overstuffed Bookshelf found herself overwhelmed this year and stopped hosting monthly link-ups for her 150+ Reading Challenge, she encouraged us to continue with our reading goals.  I've now hit the 150 mark (with 31 to go if I'm going to meet all of my other challenge goals).  So, this one is officially complete.  Thanks to Amy for starting us off this year--and I hope things calm down for you in 2014!

Here's my list:

1. A Dark & Stormy Night by Jeanne M. Dams (1/4/13)
2. The Man Who Went up in Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö  (1/8/13)
3. The Evil That Men Do by Jeanne M. Dams (1/4/13)
4. The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey (1/13/13)
5. The Corpse at St. James's by Jeanne M. Dams (1/13/13)
6. The Puzzle of the Silver Persian by Stuart Palmer (1/15/13)
7. Slippage by Harlan Ellison (1/19/13)
8. The Web Between the Worlds by Charles Sheffield (1/21/13)
9. Four Lost Ladies by Stuart Palmer (1/23/13)
10. The Case of the Negligent Nymph by Erle Stanley Gardner (1/24/13)
11. Murder at Markham by Patricia Sprinkle (1/26/13)
12. Veiled Murder by Alice Campbell (1/28/13)
13. India Black & the Shadows of Anarchy by Carol K. Carr (1/29/13)
14. Zima Blue & Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds (2/3/13)
15. The Cavalier's Cup by Carter Dickson (2/5/13)
16. Corpses at Indian Stones by Philip Wylie (2/7/13)
17. Whip Smart: Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniards by Kit Brennan (2/9/13)
18. Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood (2/11/13)
19. Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell (2/15/13)
20. Parlor Games by Maryka Biaggio (2/18/13)
21. The Desert Moon Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan (2/19/13)
22. Aaron's Serpent by Emily Thorn (2/22/13)
23. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2/24/13)
24. The World's 100 Best Short Stories, Vol. III: Mystery by Grant Overton, ed (2/24/13)
25. His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2/25/13)
26. Three English Comedies by A. B. De Mille, ed (2/27/13)
27. The Other Side of Tomorrow by Roger Elwood, ed (2/28/13)
28. The Green Plaid Pants by Margaret Scherf (3/3/13)
29. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (3/6/13)
30. A Cold & Lonely Place by Sara J. Henry (3/9/13)
31. The Lady in the Morgue by Jonathan Latimer (3/10/13)
32. Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers (3/11/13)
33. The Perfect Landscape by Ragna Sigurdardottir (3/12/13)
34. The Diplomat & the Gold Piano by Margaret Scherf (3/16/13)
35. The Lady Vanishes (aka The Wheel Spins) by Ethel Lina White (3/17/13)
36. Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams (3/19/13)
37. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (3/20/13)
38. A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greefield (3/22/13)
39. Unhappy Hooligan by Stuart Palmer (3/24/13)
40. Sally's in the Alley by Norbert Davis (3/25/13)
41. The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart (3/29/13)
42. Hammett Unwritten by Owen Fitzstephen (Gordon McAlpin) [3/30/13]
43. A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny's Story by Brenda Ashford (4/2/13)
44. Black Widow by Patrick Quentin (4/3/13)
45. The African Queen by C. S. Forester (4/6/13)
46. In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (4/9/13)
47. The Ivy League Chronicles: 9 Squares by E. K. Prescott (4/10/13)
48. The Frozen Shroud by Martin Edwards (4/14/13)
49. The Mountains Have a Secret by Arthur W. Upfield (4/16/13)
50. The Devil's Stronghold by Leslie Ford (4/21/13)

51. The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken (4/21/13)

52. Holiday Homicide by Rufus King (4/23/13)

53. A Private History of Awe by Scott Russell Sanders (4/27/13)

54. Death Has Green Fingers by Lionel Black (4/30/13)

55. Blood Makes Noise by Gregory Widen (4/30/13)

56. Inland Passage by George Harmon Coxe (5/2/13)

57. Choice of Evils by E. X. Ferrars (5/4/13)

58. The Talking Sparrow Murders by Darwin L. Teilhet (5/6/13)

59. Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell (read 5/8/13--review due for virtual blog tour 5/28/13)

60. Finding Camlann by Sean Pidgeon (5/18/13)

61. Sleep No More by Margaret Erskine (5/21/13)

62. Death at Crane's Court by Eilis Dillon (5/23/13)

63. Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood (5/24/13)

64. The Curse of the Bronze Lamp by Carter Dickson (5/27/13)

65. Miss Silver Deals With Death by Patricia Wentworth (finished 5/28/13)

66. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (6/4/13)

67. How Not to Murder Your Grumpy by Carol E Wyer (6/5/13)

68. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (6/7/13)

69. Murder on Safari by Elspeth Huxley (6/8/13)

70. The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman (6/10/13)

71. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers (6/12/13)
72. Murder Within Murder by Frances & Richard Lockridge (6/14/13)

73. Break Any Woman Down by Dana Johnson (6/17/13)

74. The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers (6/18/13)

75. The Father's Day Murder by Lee Harris (6/18/13)

76. Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare (6/21/13)

77. Devoured by D. E. Meredith (6/22/13)

78. Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov (6/23/13)

79. Death in Zanzibar by M. M. Kaye (6/25/13)

80. Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce (6/26/13)

81. The Listening by Kyle Dargan (6/28/13)

82. Mystery Train by David Wojahn (6/28/13)
83. Death & the Gentle Bull by Frances & Richard Lockridge (6/29/13) 

84. The Mummy Case Mystery by Dermot Morrah (7/3/13)

85. Dead Man Control by Helen Reilly (7/6/13)

86. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (7/8/13)

87. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (7/10/13)

88. The Hollow Chest by Alice Tilton [Phoebe Atwood Taylor] (7/12/13)

89. Twenty First Century Blues by Richard Cecil (7/13/13)

90. Photo by Sammy Davis Jr. [text by Burt Boyar] (7/13/13)

91. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (7/14/13)

92. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (7/16/13)

93. Spotted Hemlock by Gladys Mitchell (7/18/13)

94. Heirs & Spares by J. L. Spohr (7/19/13)

95. If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) by Betty White (7/19/13)

96. London Particular (aka Fog of Doubt) by Christianna Brand (7/22/13)

97. Dead Old by Maureen Carter (7/22/13)

98. The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner (7/23/13)

99. Capacity for Murder by Bernadette Pajer (7/24/13)

100. Mist on the Saltings by Henry Wade (7/26/13)

101. The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert (7/27/13)
102. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (7/28/13)
103. The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne (7/28/13)
104. The World of Christopher Robin by A. A. Milne (7/28/13)
105. The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers (7/31/13)
106. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (8/1/13)
107. Till Death Do Us Part by John Dickson Carr (8/2/13)
108. The Long Farewell by Michael Innes (8/3/13)
109. Death in the Air (aka Death in the Clouds) by Agatha Christie (8/5/13)
110. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (8/6/13)
111. The Scarlet Macaw by S. P. Hozy (8/10/13)
112. Age of Desire by Jennie Fields (8/14/13)
113. The Monster of Florence by Magdalen Nabb (8/17/13)
114. Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (8/20/13)
115. The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart (8/22/13)
116. Poems & Prose by Christina Rossetti (8/27/13)
117. Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh (8/28/13)
118. A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms & S. J. Simon (8/28/13)
119. Rules of Murder by Julianna Deering (8/31/13)
120. This New & Poisonous Air by Adam McOmber (9/3/13)
121. Murder & Blueberry Pie by Frances & Richard Lockridge (9/3/13)
122. The Croquet Player by H. G. Wells (9/4/13)
123. Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (9/6/13)
124. Malcolm Sage, Detective by Herbert Jenkins (9/8/13)
125. The Yard by Alex Grecian (9/9/13)
126. The End of the Alphabet by C. S. Richardson (9/10/13)
127. Famous Ghost Stories edited by Bennett Cerf (9/13/13)
128. The Temple of Death by A. C. & R. H. Benson (9/16/13)
129. The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene (9/17/13)
130. The Dreadful Hollow by Nicholas Blake (9/19/13)
131. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (9/24/13)
132. Death Knocks Three Times by Anthony Gilbert (9/27/13)
133. The Mystery Lovers' Book of Quotations by Jane Horning, ed (9/27/13)
134. The Yellow Violet by Frances Crane (9/30/13)
135. The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson (10/1/13)
136. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (10/4/13)
137. The Measure of a Man by Sideny Poitier (10/6/13)
138. The Haunted Dolls' House by M. R. James (10/9/13)
139. Unthinkable by Richard Cibrano (10/12/13)
140. Murder in Cambridge by Q. Patrick (10/15/13)
141. Cold Earth by Sarah Moss (10/18/13)
142. Dead of a Counterplot by Simon Nash (10/20/13)
143. Laddie: A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter (10/22/13)
144. The Water Room by Christopher Fowler (10/25/13)
145. Gently Go Man by Alan Hunter (10/27/13)
146. Once Upon a Crime by M. D. Lake (10/28/13)
147. Through a Glass Darkly by Helen McCloy (10/29/13)
148. Mystery & Crime: NYPL Book of Answers by Jay Pearsall (10/30/13)
149. By a Woman's Hand by Jean Swanson & Dean James (11/2/13)
150. Maid to Murder by Roy Vickers (11/3/13)

Maid to Murder: Review

Maid to Murder by Roy Vickers (1950)

"It would be grand to help you find poor old Velfrage. Pretty obvious that something has happened to him. I mean - well, he may have been murdered, mayn't he?"

Mr. Velfrage is a solicitor charged with the care of the famously cursed Rabethorpe diamond. Bruce Habershon is a mild-mannered, respectable businessman who is sent home sick by his motherly secretary.  On the way home, Haberson quaffs too much quinine (trying to bring that dratted fever down), picks up Velfrage (whose car has broken down) and delivers him to his destination, promptly loses Velfrage altogether, and wakes up in hospital after suffering from quinine-induced delusions and running his car into a lamppost. He finds a glittery, peacock feathered woman's bag about his person and takes it to the local police department.  The bag winds up in the hands of Inspector Kyle of Scotland Yard after the infamous Rabethorpe diamond is found in the lining.

When Kyle questions Habershon about the bag, Habershon tells a tale full of disappearing solicitors,  Disney dwarves, red-headed maids, gangs of nefarious criminals, open safes, and bodies wrapped in carpets.  As Kyle and Habershon try to sift the facts from quinine delusions, Habershon is prompted by two beautiful women who are just as deeply involved in the mystery as he is. Two murders and an attempt later, Kyle gathers everyone concerned--Habershon; the four "gang" members; a real-live, small-time burglar; the two lovelies; and a dotty old woman who may or may not be the Rabethorpe heir--in the house where Velfrage disappeared.  Using the classic Golden Age methods, he'll reveal all in the final scene.

Reading this one was like sitting down for one of those old, black & white, B-movie, mysteries that used to get shown on Saturday and Sunday afternoons (back in the dark ages when there weren't hundreds of channels--before AMC and any others dedicated to classic movies).  Madcap mystery! Hero hiding out from the law and trying to clear his name!  Beautiful dames!  Rotten crooks!  A bit of amnesia!  Cursed jewels!  Lots of mysterious goings on and a big reveal at the end.  There really isn't much of a surprise when the crooks are fingered--but it's so much fun getting there that you really don't mind.  A rollicking good time with a wonderful protagonist--it's great fun watching to see how Habershon's going to prove his innocence.  Four stars.

By a Woman's Hand: Mini-Review

By a Woman's Hand is a mystery reference book by Jean Swanson and Dean James. Published in 1994, it contains over 200 short, succinct profiles of women authors of mystery and suspense fiction--including Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, and many others. The book focuses on writers whose work appeared from the 1970s to the early 1990s.  It is a handy little volume which contains entries listing some of the author's best-known books, pen names (if any), style (hard-boiled, romantic suspense, cozy, etc), and offers the reader suggestions for similar authors. 

I have owned this book since 1996 and had skimmed through it in the past--primarily to look up an author I loved and find out what other authors might appeal to me.  I had never sat down and read the book cover-to-cover.  Now I have.  It is an interesting reference book--a little out of date, certainly.  After all, some of these authors have published much more since this book came out and there are better examples of their work.  And, of course, there are many extraordinary women in the field who began their writing careers after 1994.  Now that we have the internet, it is much easier to go to sites such as Whichbook or What Should I Read Next to find books that might appeal.  And reader sites such as Goodreads and LibraryThing have built-in suggestion functions that will offer up choices based on the types of books you've read.

I did pick up a couple of useful suggestions for authors I haven't tried yet.  And if you're the type to prefer a hard copy reference book to the electronic medium then this book or an updated version would be just the ticket.  Three stars.
 

Mystery & Crime: NYPL Book of Answers (mini-review)

This is a decent little mystery reference book with some interesting information. However, I am a little perplexed by a supposed mystery expert who gets several fairly common (to mystery readers) facts wrong. Hercule Poirot and Nero Wolfe are private investigators--they get paid for most of their investigations--therefore, they are not amateurs. Sherlock Holmes made his startling return from the dead in "The Empty House" not The Hound of the Baskervilles.  Pam & Jerry North (of the Lockridge mystery series) had several cats over the long series of books--in addition to Martini (which according to Mr. Pearsall is the only cat), there are Gin, Sherry, Ruffy, Pete, Toughy, Stilts and Shadow.  Lord Peter Wimsey was a Major in World War I, not a Captain.  I could go on.  It makes it a bit difficult to take the author's word for it on the information that is new to me, when he is mistaken on several counts throughout the book. There is plenty of correct information, though, so I'll take it in stride.

It is an interesting read and there is a good smattering of quotes from some of the big name books. (I love quotes!).  Two and 3/4 stars--rounded to three on Goodreads.

Through a Glass Darkly: Helen McCloy

Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen Mccloy opens with Faustina Crayle being dismissed from her post as an art instructor at an elite girls' school. The headmistress, Mrs. Lightfoot refuses to give a reason beyond the fact that Miss Crayle "does not quite blend with the essential spirit of Brereton." She does, however, give the art instructor six months' pay after only five weeks of work. Evidence indeed that she wishes her gone and spare no expense. 

Faustina confides in her only friend at the school, Gisela von Hohenems, who suggests she consult a lawyer.  When Faustina demurs, Gisela tells her boyfriend, Dr. Basil Willing--famous psychologist and medical assistant to the district attorney, about it.  He insists on meeting Faustina and convinces her to allow him to represent her with Mrs. Lightfoot.  His interview with the headmistress is very surprising.  It seems that Faustina has become the center of rumors about a doppelganger. Several maids and a few of the girls have claimed to see Miss Crayle in two places at once.  A few parents have pulled their girls out of the school because of the unhealthy atmosphere. The practical Mrs. Lightfoot could find no plausible explanation for the incidents and rather than investigate or allow the rumors to create even more havoc with her school's reputation she decided to ask Miss Crayle to leave.
 
As Willing investigates, he discovers that this isn't the first time Faustina has been dismissed from a school because of doppelganger rumors.  He will have to sift the supernatural from everyday villainy as he follows a trail littered with superstition and jewels; doubles and demimondaines.  There is a tale that says She who sees her own double is about to die...and despite Willing's efforts and his instructions to stay put in a hotel while he investigates, Faustina insists on making a trip to her beach cottage.  A trip from which she never returns.  Did she truly see her double? Or is there a more solid human agent behind her death?   Willing brings us the answer...but the ending is a bit unsettling nonetheless.

McCloy's powers to create atmosphere are at their strongest in this book.  Even though we're quite sure that there's some human deviltry behind Faustina Crayle's plight, Mccloy still manages to make the idea of a doppelganger seem almost possible.  And the ending leaves us just a little unsure that Dr. Willing has completely explained everything.  Yes, it all hangs together.  And, yes, I do believe that X really did orchestrate the whole thing and for the reasons given...but what if Dr. Willing is wrong?  There's a nice shivery feeling to that thought.  

A nicely done, atmospheric piece that also happens to be an excellent detective novel.  Often thought to be McCloy's masterpiece, Through a Glass, Darkly is certainly the best I've read by McCloy so far.  Four stars.

Quote:

"I knew people were talking about her, but I didn't know what they were saying. And even if I had--one doesn't repeat gossip to the victim, if the victim is a friend. It's one of the things you can't do. Unwritten law. Like telling a husband his wife is unfaithful."

"Even when the victim asks for it?"

"Especially when the victim asks for it! No one really wants to see himself as others see him. If people ask, they're really asking to be reassured. Just as no artist or writer ever wants real criticism for the work he shows you. Just praise."
~Gisela von Hohenems; Dr. Basil Willing (p. 33)

Once Upon a Crime: Review

Campus Cop, Peggy O'Neill, is back to crime-busting in M. D. Lake's Once Upon a Crime.  The fact that Peggy is represented as little more than a glorified nightwatchman hasn't kept her from landing in the middle of five murder investigations in the previous series books and being on the disabled list won't keep her out of this one.  According to Peggy, all she's supposed to do at night is walk the beat, watch out for suspicious-looking loiterers, and shepherd the inebriated undergraduates home. Detective duty is not supposed to be on her duty roster, and yet....

As mentioned, Peggy is on the disabled list--recovering from the lingering effects of her last tangle with a murderer (see Murder by Mail). In her now abundant spare time she meets Pia Austin, undergraduate Hans Christian Andersen scholar and girlfriend to Christian Donnelly--the university's star quarterback.  Her friendship will result in Peggy landing a minor role in a play adaptation of The Emperor's New Clothes and a leading role in the investigation of the murder of Pia's father.  Pia's dad is Jens Aage Lindemann, Danish scholar and the leading expert on Andersen.  Lindemann has been invited as the keynote speaker at the university's symposium on Anderson, an event meant to christen the newly built children's library and special Andersen room.

After the keynote address, Lindemann is found dead in the Andersen room--with a statue of the Little Mermaid as the weapon and a smashed display case at his side.  It looks as though Lindemann walked in a thief making off with original letters written by Andersen to a friend and paid for it with his life.  But Peggy isn't so sure.  What if Lindemann--a man who seems to have gathered more than his share of adversaries and enemies--was the target all along?  Peggy will have to wade through academic rivalries and Lindemann's past love life before the motive and the culprit become clear.

This series by M. D. Lake is a very pleasant, very cozy little take on the academic mystery.  Peggy O'Neill is a very likable character--and a very down-to-earth, believable one.  It is very nice that she is able to manipulate the case so she finally gets a guarantee from her boss that she'll be sent for detective training.  She really is wasted on that night beat.  The mystery is a pretty straight-forward one with very few bells and whistles.  There are, however, enough suspects and red herrings to keep the average reader guessing.  I spotted the vital secret--but I must say I wasn't able to spot the correct killer.

My one major quibble is having Peggy act as judge and jury at the end.  A character like Holmes or Poirot packs enough punch to carry that off....I'm just not convinced that Peggy does.  Three stars for a good solid mystery outing.

Gently Go Man: Review

Gently Go Man by Alan Hunter is like way out there, man.  Like the mostest in the way of late 50s/very early 60s talk.  Like maybe too much mostest.  You dig me, man?

Okay, I can only do so much of that.  Seriously.  So...Gently Go Man was first published in 1961.  The teddy boys have given way to jeebies (don't ask me, I have no idea).  These are jazz-loving, motorcycle-riding teenagers who have had it with the adults and are looking for a way out of squaresville.  They find their way out through the kick of riding their motorcycles hard and fast and through the smoke of a stick (that's marijuana to you and me).

Johnny Lister is one of them--until the night he and his girl are riding hard down five miles of straight road with a dead tree at the end of it.  Initially, it looks like an accident--because one small mistake when you're clocking over a hundred is all it takes to end it.  But there are traces of another rider who may have run Lister off the road and someone stopped to check on the damage (but didn't report the wreck).  Superintendent George Gently of Scotland Yard is called in to try and trace the other rider.  And while he's at it, he'll trace a line back to the supplier of the sticks and break up a cozy little drug ring.

I must say that I am solidly lodged in squaresville.  I just don't dig this book, man.  It doesn't reach me.  And I have to say that if I didn't know that this was published in 1961 and so Hunter must have had a pretty good idea what the lingo of the day for teenagers was, I would think this was a very bad, over-the-top, stereotype of what the early 60s British teenager was like.  There are whole pages of dialogue that is nothing but jeebie slang.  And wading through that was pretty tedious.  The best part of all that was how Inspector Gently didn't let the jeebies get the best of him.  He rolled with it and gave as good as he got.  So--star points for Inspector Gently.

And the actual detective work to figure out who was behind the drug trade and the death of Johnny Lister? That was pretty decent as well.  Unfortunately, the story and the character of George Gently was nearly buried by the jive-talking jeebies.  One and a half stars (rounded to two on Goodreads).  Not the best of the Gently series.


As a side-note--while this is the 8th (or 9th, depending on which list you believe) of the Gently series, the plot is used as the pilot story for the Inspector Gently television series.  It is updated just a bit (to the mid-60s) and an extra plot line involving Gently's wife and a notorious mobster is added (to spice things up a bit?).

The Water Room: Review

The Water Room by Christopher Fowler is the second book in his Peculiar Crimes Unit series.  It stars John May and Arthur Bryant, the octogenarian leaders of a unit of detectives who handle all the cases that the regular detective forces won't touch or can't solve.  This one begins with a simple question: How can an elderly woman drown, fully dressed to go out, in her otherwise dry basement?  Their search will lead them through a maze of shady real estate men, racist threats, shy academic types with something underhand on the side, lectures on the city's undergound river system, and some lessons in Egyptian mythology.  There's a killer on the loose who leaves no clues and who is ruthless in a hunt for a valuable art treasure.  Bryant and May are out to locate the treasure and capture the criminal before anyone else has to die. 

The use of "water" in the title of this one is very fortuitous...in a way.  Because this story is, quite frankly (in my opinion), duller than ditch water.  There are long explanatory, historical bits about the underground rivers.  There are repeated episodes with one of the characters hearing rushing water in her house, fighting off spiders, and thinking that someone is entering her house when she's not there.  There's a long time between the first murder (that no one except Bryant and May considers a murder for quite a while) and the next.  There's a lot of talk and not a whole lot of action.  The mystery could be a quite interesting one....if the story would just move along....

I read the first of this series quite a while ago (pre-blogging days) and all I can tell you about it is that I enjoyed it enough to snatch up a couple of the books when I got a chance.  But I honestly don't think I'll be reading any more.  This one just didn't do it for me.  One star.

Laddie: A True Blue Story

Laddie: A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter is a lot like my mystery favorite The Mystery of Hunting's End.  No, it's not a crime novel.  But I have loved this book for a very long time for a lot of reasons.  Like Hunting's End, it came in a box of books from my Grandma.  It's a first edition--but it's a well-loved, well-used first edition.  The spine covering was none too firm when it arrived and it fell off altogether before I'd managed to read it the first time.  I taped up the binding to keep it as protected as possible and then proceeded to read and reread it.  

When I was young, I longed for a brother.  I grew up with two boy cousins who I adored and there would have been nothing finer, in my opinion, than to have a brother. When I read Laddie...all about Little Sister and how she loved her big brother best of all and what a fine young man Laddie was...well, I wanted a brother just like Laddie.  My cousins were pretty good substitutes, I must say.  They treated their younger cousin pretty well--and they were the next best thing since I had no brothers of my own,.

And, not only did Laddie remind me of my cousins, but Gene Stratton-Porter's stories took place in my neck of the woods.  Little Sister (whose real name is never mentioned) talks about her father selling apples and other goods in Ft. Wayne--which was only an hour away from where I lived.  It was the first book I read that took place in Indiana--and in the very area where I grew up.

Laddie's story is a very sweet, family-oriented one.  Laddie and Little Sister are part of a huge family with twelve children and a mother and father who love each other and their children with all their hearts and who love God most of all.  Their main Christian precept is that God is Love and they show their love to their family, their friends, their neighbors, and even the strangers who come to live and resist becoming part of the community.  It is a very idealistic view of family life in the late 1800s--but it is very nice to think that folks could really be that way.  That they could live the Golden Rule and yet be strong people who stand up for their own.

The story is also about Laddie and his love for the strangers' lovely daughter.  It's about his efforts to break through their resistance and show them what friendship and love are all about.  It's about faith...faith in your friends, faith in your family, and faith in God to see you through.  And....actually there is a bit of a mystery.  The strangers....the Pryors have a secret trouble.  It's a trouble that keeps them to themselves and makes Mrs. Pryor white-faced, weak, and heart-broken.  It's a mystery that will have to be solved before Laddie can have his girl and the Pryors can truly become part of the community.  And Little Sister plays a major role in helping the happy ending come about.

There are some stories that having read them when you are young, you just can't go back to.  Either you've outgrown them or you've since read other books that make them seem unlikely or something has happened to change your point of view.  Whatever it may be....it's just not the same.  When I sat down to read Laddie, it was like 30-some years just fell away.  The story was just as dear and appealing as it was all those years ago when I longed for a big brother like Laddie.  Five stars for a lovely trip down memory lane and a memorable story that has stood the test of time.

Quotes:

Secrets with Laddie were the greatest joy in life. He was so big and so handsome. He was so much nicer than any one else in our family, or among our friends, that to share his secrets, run his errands, and love him blindly was the greatest happiness. Sometimes I disobeyed father and mother; I minded Laddie like his right hand. (p. 1)

As long as there had been eleven babies, they should have been so accustomed to children that they needn't all of them have objected to me, all except Laddie, of course. That was the reason I loved him so and tried to do every single thing he wanted me to, just the way he liked it done. That was why I was facing the only spot on our land where I was the slightest afraid; because he asked me to. If he had told me to dance a jig on the ridgepole of our barn, I would have tried it. (p. 6)

Do you know that being a stranger is the hardest thing that can happen to any one in all this world? ~Pamela Pryor (p. 16)

Maybe after all it's a good thing to tell people about their meanness and give them a stirring up once in a while. (p. 49)

You always must answer politely any one who speaks to you; and you get soundly thrashed, at least at our house, if you don't be politest of all to an older person especially with white hair.  Father is extremely particular about white hair. (p. 52)

Mother always tells me not to repeat things; but I'm not smart enough to know what to say, so I don't see what is left but to tell what mother, or father, or Laddie says when grown people ask me questions. (p. 58)

Dead of a Counterplot: Review

Dead of a Counterplot (1962) is the first in a series of academically inclined detective novels by Simon Nash.  Nash is the pen name used by Raymond Chapman, Emeritus Professor of English at London University and an Anglican priest, for five mystery novels published in the 1960s. Professor Chapman worked as a non-stipendiary priest in Southwark, and is currently on the staff at St Mary's Barnes in Southwest London. His police detectives are Inspector Montero and Sergeant Jack Springer, unofficially aided by the gifted amateur and lecturer at North London College, Adam Ludlow. Chapman has also written many books on religious themes and English literature. For more information on Nash/Chapman check out gadetection.  I owe Jon (author of the post) a great debt--previously when I went searching for information on Nash, there was pretty much nothing to be found.  Jon  did his own bit of detective work and tracked Chapman to his current post at St. Mary's.

I've said it many times, so frequent readers of the blog should know: I do love me an academic mystery.  And I was so pleased when I stumbled upon Nash's Killed by Scandal several years ago.  He wrote only five detective novels and I've managed to get my hands on four of them (Dead of a Counterplot; Killed by Scandal; Death Over Deep Water; and Unhallowed Murder).  I'm still on the hunt for the fifth--Dead Woman's Ditch--but fortunately I have two more to read while I hunt.

Counterplot is Ludlow's first venture into amateur detective work. He's visiting with a fellow lecturer and warden of Mudge Hall when Stuart Latham, sub-warden of the men's residence, comes bursting in to tell them that there is a female student strangled in one of the rooms.  Jenny Hexham is the woman--a staunch proponent of the College Communist Party and one who is not willing to let new recruits slip out of the Party's grasp...no matter what it takes. Even blackmail.  The room just happens to belong to Robert Trent, one of Ludlow's most promising students, who had wandered into the Party's clutches.  So, naturally, the English lecturer must get involved and look for clues and try to clear Trent's name. Trent hasn't helped matters by disappearing from College and he shoots to the top of Inspector Montero's suspect list.

But there are plenty of other suspects too.  There's the suspicious owner of a bookstore--well-known as a Party sympathizer. There's Jenny's cousin who now stands in line to scoop an inheritance that Jenny would have had a share in.  There's Latham who may have known Jenny better than a lecturer should.  There's Henry Prentice who seems much interested in the whereabouts of the missing Trent--but does he want to help or hinder?  And there's the little matter of the Polish student and the porter and a set of keys.  And everybody seems interested in Jenny's missing bracelet.  A bracelet that she said held the secret to her stash of blackmail evidence.  Ludlow will converse with Communists and dawdle at dance halls; he will be slugged and half-strangled himself before he produces an esoteric bit of knowledge that helps bring the crime home to the proper quarter.

This is another lovely little academic mystery to add to my campus crime shelf.  Sure, Ludlow really ought to let the police just do their job, but where's the fun in cozy crime novels if the amateur doesn't dabble in danger?  The clues are fair and even the esoteric knowledge is well within the grasp of an academic with a well-rounded education.  But--supposing the reader doesn't get that clue--it certainly fits with the information we've been given about the characters.  I learned to like Adam Ludlow in Killed by Scandal and it was very nice to go back and see him in his initial outing.  I didn't quite figure it out--although I did get the essential clue.  I just didn't realize that it could point in more than one direction.  Great fun for four stars.

Cold Earth: Review (possible spoilers)

Cold Earth is a debut novel by Sarah Moss.  It is set in Greenland with a team of six archaeologists and researchers from the United States, England and Scotland spending a few weeks at the beginning of the Arctic summer searching for traces of a lost Viking settlement. While they are on the expedition, there is an epidemic of some sort going on and they gradually lose contact with family at home and the outside world in general.  In response, they each write what may be their last letter home.

Added to their increasing distress at what might be happening to the world around them is the unease created by Nina.  Nina isn't really an archaeologist--she's an English major trying to tie Vikings into her research...and a friend of the team leader, Yianni.  Nina begins seeing and hearing things and believes that the ancient Vikings are not pleased to have their resting place disturbed.  With their connection to the outside world lost, food running out, and the possibility that no one will come back to get them, the possibility of a haunted burial site may be the last straw.

Described on the back of the book as an "exceptional and haunting debut novel" and a "heart-pounding thriller," it does sound like there's a lot of cool things going on.  Doesn't it?  Well....there's a lot of really cool ways that this story could have played out.  And it doesn't use any of them.  The ending is incredibly disappointing.  After creating all this tension regarding the "epidemic" back home, we don't really ever find out how this epidemic affected them. Or affected anyone, really.  After building up this atmosphere of a haunted archaeological site, we never find out if it's really haunted or if Nina is just one disturbed academic.  There's the suggestion that it might all be in her head or that she's even behind the odd things that happen (somewhat reminiscent of The Haunting of Hill House), but it's even vaguer than Shirley Jackson's novel on that point.  

This was a fairly decent read.  It kept me going to the end.  But I was thoroughly dissatisfied when I finished. I had very little sympathy with any of the characters--and two of them--Yianni, the team leader, and Ben--get very short shrift indeed.  Nina gives us 103 pages for her letter, Ruth--79...and the letters get shorter and shorter.  While both Yianni and Ben (the last of the writers) give us a mere four pages apiece.  The team leader has only four pages to relate about one of the most important digs of his career?  

So...this is represented as an apocalyptic, end of the world tale with dash of ghost story for added flavor.  It comes off as rather bland and certainly not "thrilling" in any sense of the word.  I didn't hate it--but I can't say that I'll be recommending it. Two stars.

Murder at Cambridge: Review

Murder at Cambridge has what I'm looking for in a British academic mystery: It's funny and witty.  It's set at Cambridge.  There are dons and students and proctors and an absent-minded Master.  We see our characters at class and in Hall and in their lovely, old-fashioned 'varsity rooms (which are way better than the dorms I stayed in here in the States).  We get to attend a cricket match and there's mention of punting on the river.  Not to mention, we've got a pretty decent 1930s campus crime spree. Q. Patrick really has it going on.  

Our narrator is Hilary Fenton, American student studying at Cambridge's All Saints College.  He has never been great pals with the South African student across the hall, but when Julius Baumann calls on him for help, he can't refuse.  Julius asks Fenton and another man to witness a document which he then seals in an envelope and makes Fenton promise to post in the event that Baumann should disappear from Cambridge.  He tells Fenton that he may have to leave suddenly and may not be able post it himself.

That very night there is a dreadful storm, the lights go out, and when Fenton tries to check that all is well with Baumann he finds his fellow student dead from a gunshot wound.  There is cleaner and a rag nearby and it looks like Baumann may have accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun.  "Death by Misadventure" will be the verdict at the inquest.  But Inspector Horrocks doesn't believe it.  Fenton knows it isn't true--but refuses to tell everything because there is evidence (he believes) that will implicate a certain Camilla Lathrop....light of his life and the girl he has just (that day as well) fallen head over heels in love with.  Despite knowing that Fenton is holding back, Horrocks takes him into his confidence and between the two of them, they will bring the culprit to justice.  But not before another death and an attempt on the beloved Camilla.

Q. Patrick is one of the several pen names used by various combinations of four writers (Patrick Quentin and Jonathan Stagge are two others whose mysteries I've sampled) and this is third novel using this particular nom de plume.  Most of the Q. Patrick books are written by Richard Wilson Webb and MaryMott Kelley, but this one is the work of Webb only.  Up till now, I have much preferred the Stagge novels to those written under the Quentin name and I was curious to see what I would think of the Patrick offerings.  

If this one is anything to go by, I like them. I thoroughly enjoy Fenton's outsider point of view and his interactions with the traditional British characters.  My favorite character, however, was the Master of the College, Dr. Martineau Hyssop--portrayed as the absent-minded professor, he is very quick on the uptake when the killer tries poison Camilla with a little prussic acid in her tea.  It's clear that Dr. Hyssop still has it all together--even if he may not have all the names right.  The clues are all there--and there are enough red herrings that I got distracted several times (just like Inspector Horrocks) before coming to the finish line just at the same time as Fenton.  A good solid mystery plot with excellent characters and a nice peek at the 1930s university. Four stars.


Quotes:
Now, to those whose jaded appetites require the constant stimulus of thrills and horror, I am afraid that this chronicle to date must have appeared hopelessly dull and singularly devoid of dramatic incident...Nothing in that to make a song about--let alone a mystery story. No? Well, the unexpected happens so seldom at Cambridge.

Today it had happened twice, and yet these extraordinary happenings afterwards seemed like the quiet lull before the storm if strange incidents that were to follow--mere hors d'oeuvres preceding a regular orgy of unexpectedness. (p. 20)

Whatever the truth about our Master, the longevity of the Cambridge don is notorious. The excellence of the college cellar is probably responsible, on the principle that the better the preservative the longer the preservative. (p. 48)

 ... I was ready to weigh, with impartiality, the pros and cons of the Baumann case. I went to my room, rolled up my sleeves and proceeded, literally and metaphorically, to sharpen my pencil. Would I could have sharpened my wits to that same fine point. (p. 82)

Having lived for almost a year among young Englishmen, I had realized the sad truth that distinction in athletics seemed to supersede all other worldly and spiritual considerations. To be a "blood" at Cambridge meant more to the average undergraduate than the hopes of a ringside seat in heaven. (p. 89)

Cambridge, apparently is proof against all outward chance and inward circumstances, It goes serenely on. Dynasties may totter, currencies may crash and a sick world may writhe in postwar agonies, But undergraduates still attend or cut their lectures, they hold their debates at the Union and they continue to exchange rather painful persiflage on religion, sex and communism over pale tea and improbable cakes from Matthews. So it has been, so it shall always be. (p. 114)

For, during the past eighty or ninety years Dr. Martineau Hyssop had had abundant opportunity to perfect the art of saying the right things to the wrong people....But he dropped his little bricks so charmingly that they seldom, if ever, fell on sensitive corns. A great deal is forgiven a man who has lived through four or five generations and retained his interest in the things that go on in the world around him.  Still more must be forgiven a man who has always been careful never to say the wrong thing to the right person. (p. 123)