Squire of Death

 Squire of Death (1965) by Richard Lockridge

The book opens with James McLaren arriving home from a business trip to find his wife missing. There's a note left behind that tells him that's she gone away to think things over because "things have gotten out of hand." While it's true that they had had a few squabbles before he left--primarily over her career as a singer, McLaren didn't really think it had gotten that bad. And...there's something not quite right about the note she left.

Quickly he walked back to his bedroom, where the letter she had written him lay flattened on his dresser. He looked intently down at the letter and then took it up and read it once more.

For an instant there seemed to be only one word in the letter Lucile McLaren had written to her husband. That word was  wrong.

We leave McLaren puzzling over his personal problems to find Lieutenant John Stein, Detective Paul Lane, and Assistant District Attorney Bernie Simmons knee-deep into an investigation of the murder of Jefferson Page--a financier engaged to Teresa Langley (who is in line to be wife number four) and waiting for a divorce from Isabel, the current Mrs. Page. Mrs. Langley insists that Charles Halstead has killed Page. That Halstead, who had been so "kind and gentle" while she was mourning the death of her first husband and who probably hoped to be considered as the next in the husband sweepstakes, had uttered threats against Page. Had warned her against Page. And had killed him. There's just one snag. Halstead was at Le Cafe Bleu all the evening that Page was shot and there are three witnesses who say he never left the restaurant.

Stein and Lane start digging into everyone's statements and looking for other motives and Simmons, who admits to being nosy and poking that nose in where detectives ought to be going, also does the rounds. And then McLaren (an old classmate of Simmons') brings the story of his missing wife to the Asst. D. A. It ought to be a job for the Missing Persons Department, but...Joan Southey (Lucille's stage name) was the singer at Le Cafe Bleu until the Saturday night when Page was killed and Halstead was apparently parked in his usual booth. The brothers who run the restaurant for Halstead say that she gave notice (very abruptly) that night and just walked out. But Simmons (and McLaren) begins to wonder if Lucille saw (or didn't see) something that night that has resulted in her disappearance. Then one of the three witnesses is killed in a hit-and-run accident...and it becomes even more imperative to find the singer and find out what she knows. If she's still alive....

Okay...so I didn't put any spoiler alerts on this because it becomes obvious real soon who is behind the killing of Page. There aren't any viable alternate suspects despite Lockridge trying to dangle a few pale pink herrings in front of us. The real questions is whether that person is responsible for everything that happens after Page's death. That adds a bit more spice to the pot--though I must say that I think Richard Lockridge was really missing Frances and her plotting abilities here. I wouldn't say that the Lockridge books were ever intense puzzle-plots, but those that were joint-written have better plots with a little more in the way of suspects and possible motive. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the books written after Frances's death. They just have a different flavor and aren't quite up to the mark of those which came before. ★★★ --just

First line: It was good to be back in the tight, close-knit city.

Last line: We shall not, I think, go to Le Cafe Bleu.
*********************

Deaths = 4 (one shot; two natural; one run over by car)

How to Solve Your Own Murder

 How to Solve Your Own Murder (2024) by Kristen Perrin

Synopsis (from book flap): It's 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances's life takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn't happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously. Until, that is, nearly sixty years later when Frances is found murdered. 

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances's lifelong habit of digging up secrets, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder.

Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer? As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closter to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her great aunt's fate instead of her fortune.

My take--the short and sweet version: not nearly as captivating as anticipated. 

The premise was really good. Here we have the village busybody keeping track of everyone and their doings for a completely new reason. They're not just doing it to be nosy. They're not feeling holier-than-thou and wanting to point out everybody's "sins." They're not the village blackmailer. No--they just want every little fact they can get their hands on to try and figure out who might want to kill them and why. But, honestly, I wasn't all that taken with Frances. I definitely didn't care for her "friends." And Annie wasn't all that appealing either. Neither the diary entries from 1966 nor the current-day chapters featuring Annie felt authentic. The portions supposedly written by teenage Frances feel more mature than the bits with Annie, who has graduated from a London arts college and, I assume, is older. 

Of the two mysteries (there's a disappearance in the 1960s that is never explained until Frances is killed), I actually found the missing girl more interesting. While there was a definite effort at red herrings and false clues in the matter of Frances's death (and I did appreciate the attempt to create a classic crime novel), it didn't pay off. The culprit was obvious to me fairly soon after Annie started trying to piece things together.

It appears that there's a series of these books where Frances keeps getting involved in murders and whatnot and somehow those murders mirror or are connected to modern-day mysteries in Annie's life. Really? I'm thinking you can only take duality so far...and the first book seemed to me to reach that limit. ★★

First line: "Your future contains dry bones."

Last line: Putting pen to blank paper, I started writing.
*********************

Deaths = 3 (one poisoned; one shot; one natural)

When the Wolves Are Silent

 When the Wolves Are Silent (2026) ~C. S. Harris (Candice Procter)

London, 1816: We open with Sebastian St. Cyr, Lord Devlin's nephew Bayard Wilcox awakening from a drunken stupor to find his friend Marcus Toole's body burning up in the bonfire they had built as part of a raucous night. Despite the rift between his uncle and his mother, his first thought is to run to Devlin for help. Bayard claims that he and Marcus got rip-roaring drunk (as they are wont to do--usually with a larger group of friends) and thought it would be hilarious to build a bonfire up on Primrose Hill where people who believe in the druidic practices like to hold little get-togethers. He wandered off into the woods to relieve himself and the next thing he knew he was waking up to a strange smell coming from the clearing where he'd left Marcus and the fire. 

While Devlin is waiting for Sir Henry Lovejoy and his Bow Street Runners to arrive, he searches the area and finds a wooden carving shaped like a wolf--on each flank is a Celtic knot. Was this part of some Celtic rite gone wrong? Or is there more to it? When Devlin learns that another of Bayard's friends was recently killed--stabbed and thrown into the river--he has to wonder if the men themselves hold the reason for the killings. In fact, he has to wonder if Bayard is telling him the whole truth or might be responsible himself. His investigation shows him that Bayard and his friends were not nice men. They picked fights, harassed, and destroyed the property of the powerless. All of the men were privileged sons of the wealthy and were never properly brought to account for their actions. Has someone decided to take justice into their own hands? 

More deaths follow--including two of the groups victims--and one of the original six men has disappeared altogether. Now Devlin has to wonder if there is more than one killer at work. The crown (for which read Jarvis, the real power behind the throne) wants someone, anyone arrested and hung for the murders NOW. Preferably one of the riff-raff who are protesting the government. Devlin will have to work quickly if he doesn't want to see an innocent man (or men) hang.

I don't know why I do this to myself. I get the latest Sebastian St. Cyr mystery as soon as I possibly can, read it in a day, and then look around and bemoan the fact that I have to wait a whole year for the next one. You'd think I'd learn--to take my time, to savor the experience, to let it last as long as possible. But, no. These stories are so good. I just can't help gobbling them up. Harris writes an incredible story using her skills as a scholar to research the period, sprinkle interesting facts throughout the narrative (without boring us silly with minute details), and peopling the plot with both real personalities of the time as well as fictional characters with depth.

Devlin's wife Hero has played a role in his detective work occasionally throughout the series and it was nice to see her more involved in this latest case as well. Her contacts in the scholarly realm helped Devlin discover the meaning behind various Celtic and druidic symbols which cropped up along the way. Tom, his tiger, and Calhoun also had their moments to shine--tracking down important witnesses and bits of information that Devlin needed to unravel the case.

I will say that this is quite the complicated plot--far more than I realized while reading it. I can't say much without giving things away, but there are a number of threads to keep track of and I didn't manage keep hold of all of them. The ending was a surprise...but a satisfying surprise.  I was a bit disappointed that we still haven't made any progress on finding out more about Devlin's heritage nor has there been a follow-through on a dangling issue from Hero's side of the family tree. Added to that, we now have to wonder about Sebastian's sister Amanda and if what he predicted for her future will come true. Her son Bayard may have been a nasty piece of work, but she's not far behind....I'm hoping that the next installment will bring some closure on at least one of these issues. ★★★★ and 1/2

First line: Where the bloody hell am I?

"It never ceases to amaze me how otherwise intelligent, reasonable men can have such faulty, antiquated notions about the true nature of fully one half the human race." (Hero, Lady Devlin; p. 49)

Last line: "They got away!"
*****************

Deaths = 19 (two drowned; two stabbed; one burned to death; three strangled; three natural; two in war; one beaten to death; five shot)

A Case of Mice & Murder

 A Case of Mice & Murder (2024) by Sally Smith

From the book flap:

When barrister Gabriel Ward steps out of his rooms at exactly two minutes to seven on a sunny May morning in 1901, his mind is so full of his latest case—the disputed authorship of bestselling children’s book Millie the Temple Church Mouse—that he scarcely registers the body of the Lord Chief Justice of England on his doorstep.

But even he cannot fail to notice the judge’s dusty bare feet, in shocking contrast to his flawless evening dress, nor the silver carving knife sticking out of his chest. In the shaded courtyards and ancient buildings of the Inner Temple, the hidden heart of London’s legal world, murder has spent centuries confined firmly to the casebooks. Until now . . .

The police can enter the Temple only by consent, so who better to investigate this tragic breach of law and order than a man who prizes both above all things? But murder doesn’t answer to logic or reasoned argument, and Gabriel soon discovers that the Temple’s heavy oak doors are hiding more surprising secrets than he’d ever imagined . . .

My take: This is a fun first mystery from a King's Counsel turned novelist. Smith brings the Temple of the early 1900s to life and peoples it with extraordinary characters from our amateur sleuth Gabriel Ward to Constable Wright, the officer assigned to assist him, to young Percival Dunning, the son of the murdered man, Gabriel Ward is a man after Hercule Poirot's heart--making sure his inkwell and gold pencil are positioned "just so" on his desk and looking for method and order and connections where others might miss them. He also brings a warmth and humanity to the legal field that is in sharp contrast to some of his colleagues. 

Many of the barristers and judges who live in the Temple are looking how best to position themselves to climb the judicial ladder, if they get justice for their clients or those who appear before them then that's all well and good too. But that may not be their primary goal. This gives them a mighty good motive for doing away with the Lord Chief Justice, because some of them would love to step into his robes. But it's also possible that he was killed for his shoes...after all, his shoes are missing. And then there's the rumor that there have been some odd goings-on in the Temple Church. Maybe Lord Dunning came upon something that someone would rather not have know and paid the price. Though Ward's brief is only to interview the Temple inhabitants and report to the police (with a mandate from the Treasurer to find evidence that some miscreant from outside the Temple walls awas responsible), he keeps investigating long after the last interview. And he's amazed to find that there may be a connection between his important case and murder.

I thoroughly enjoyed Gabriel Ward's first venture into detection--even though I did spot the suspect about midway through. It was still great fun to watch Ward and Wright work their way toward the solution. I hope that Wright will get the recognition due him and his inspector won't steal all the glory.... ★★★★

First line: It is anybody's guess what went through the mind of Lord Norman Dunning, Lord Chief Justice of England, on the evening of 20 May 1901, in those frantic seconds when he knew that his death was inevitable.

Last line: He always went home at nearly six o'clock.
*****************

Deaths =  3 (one stabbed; one natural; one poisoned)

The Murder Wheel

 The Murder Wheel (2023) by Tom Mead

Edmund Ibbs is a young, idealistic lawyer working for the defense in what looks like a hopeless case. Dominic Dean, bank manager, and his wife Carla took a ride on the Ferris wheel at the local fair. But only one of them survived the ride. When their carriage reached the top, there was a shot and Dean was dead before he could receive medical attention. Carla swears that she's innocent and Ibbs wants to find a way to make a jury think she could be. He hears about a mysterious "limping man" who had been following Dean and was seen leaving the fair after the shot by the man who operated the Ferris wheel. He starts looking for answers--interviewing workers at the bank and learning that there had been a robbery at the bank not long before. Is there a connection?

Ibbs is also an amateur magician and decides to take in a show featuring Professor Paolini. During one of the illusions, a dead man falls out when a locked crate is opened....and it is Varga, the operator of the Ferris wheel. When another impossible crime happens in the theater, Ibbs finds himself the prime suspect. But fortunately, Joseph Spector, the expert on impossible crimes is on hand to investigate and between the two of them, they will discover who is responsible for each murder. Do they all tie in with the robbery? And if so, does that mean that Titus Pilgrim, an underworld crime boss, is at the back of it? Or are there different culprits with different motives? We will have to wait and find out.

Tom Mead is carrying on the tradition of John Dickson Carr and other locked room/impossible crime experts from the Golden Age...and doing it well. Using the magician's stocks-in-trade (the art of distraction and sleight-of-hand), he makes it difficult to keep your eye on the ball and figure out which cup it's really under. I absolutely fell for one of the red herrings and was busy trying to tie it to one of the suspects. This kept me from spotting the clues that Mead obligingly sprinkled through the text (and which he helpfully footnotes during Spector's wrap-up scene). I'm still not sure I completely understand how the body got in the crate--even with the delightful little map/diagram that we're given. But I'm trusting that it really does make sense to those more able to decipher the layout. 

Just as with a good magic show, I thoroughly enjoyed being mystified and I really liked the opening mystery with the Ferris wheel. It was also satisfying that we came full circle and had a second helping of attempted murder on the wheel, creating an exciting finish for our hero. This second adventure in the Joseph Spector series is nearly as good as the first and it is another terrific effort at recapturing the spirit of the Golden Age of Detection. ★★★★

First lines: It began with the book. If not for the book, the rest of it would not have happened.

Last lines: Ibbs looked back at the old man. Spector's pale eyes gleamed.
******************

Deaths = 12 ( four natural; four shot; one beaten to death; one broken neck; one fell from height; one hanged)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (audio novel)

 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) by Agatha Christie
  (read by Hugh Fraser)

My synopsis of the story (for those who have not yet read it...and why not, I ask you): 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd actually begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, widowed within the last year. The rumor mill of King's Abbot had been grinding away--envisioning wedding bells between Mrs. Ferrars and the wealthy Roger Ackroyd. But Mrs. Ferrars is found dead from an overdose of veranol in what is first supposed to be an accident, but the village grapevine suspects is suicide. Dr. James Sheppard, our narrator, is confronted by his  sister when he returns home after the discovery.

My sister continued: "What did she die of? Heart failure?"
"Didn't the milkman tell you that?" I inquired sarcastically.
Sarcasm is wasted on Caroline. She takes it seriously and answers accordingly.
"He didn't know," she explained. (p. 3)

 When Sheppard insists on accident, Caroline rejects the idea. She's convinced the woman killed herself out of remorse. Because obviously she killed the husband who was cruel to her. 

Then that evening Roger Ackroyd is found dead--stabbed to death by his own decorative dagger and rumors are flying about blackmail. But then there is also the fact that Ackroyd's nephew, known to have disputes with his uncle over money, has disappeared from the scene. And what about the maid who gave notice that very afternoon? And the mysterious stranger who was looking for Ackroyd's home at about the time of the murder? And who made the phone call to the doctor that brought him to Ackroyd's house and resulted in the discovery of the crime?

Fortunately for King's Abbot, a funny little foreigner who "looks like a hairdresser" has come to the countryside for his retirement. A foreigner by the name of Hercule Poirot. He's sure to get to the bottom of the mystery, for as he tells Ackroyd's niece (who has asked him to investigate): What one does not tell to Papa Poirot he finds out.

If you would like to see my full review of the mystery, please follow the link above, but be aware that there are spoilers. This review is devoted to the audio edition which I borrowed from Hoopla through the local library. Hugh Fraser is my favorite reader for Christie novels which do not feature Miss Marple. I think he is perfect as Captain Hastings in the Poirot television series and even though Hastings does not appear here (except as Poirot references him) it is still delightful to listen to Fraser tell us the story of Poirot and murder in King's Abbot. He manages to give each character a bit of distinction so you aren't confused about who is speaking--even when there's a longer bit of dialogue. Reading--or in this case, listening to--an Agatha Christie novel is a comfort read for me. And it was fun to settle in and let Fraser's words flow around me. ★★★★★
 

First line: Mrs. Ferrars died on the night of the 16th-17th September--a Thursday. 

Last line: But I wish Hercule Poirot had never retired from work and come here to grow vegetable marrows.
*********************

Deaths = 3 (two poisoned; one stabbed)

Murder Enters the Picture

 Murder Enters the Picture (1942) by Willetta Ann Barber & R. F. Schabelitz

Christopher "Kit" Storm is a moderately successful commercial artist who also does portraits and acts as an artistic consultant to the New York Police Department. He regularly assists his friend, Captain Tony Shand with sketches of the crime scenes as well as the suspects interviewed. And has gotten more intimately involved in more recent cases (see my review of Murder Draws a Line) But he and his new bride, Sheridan (Sherry), are off on their honeymoon--little suspecting that a plea from Sherry's aunt will embroil them even more deeply in murder than ever before.

Sherry's Aunt Mattie asks the couple to stop by the Plateau, home to the Mints and a place that Sherry knew well growing up. It seems that Uncle Ezra (long since deceased) has recently been seen roaming the grounds--or rather his ghost has. And Aunt Mattie wants them to check in on Sara (the seer of ghosts) and find out what's going on. What's soon to be going on is murder. Andrew Mint, the heir of the Mint's Meats business and fortune is soon found murdered--killed by the stab of an ice pick. He's quickly followed by other members of the family. The youngest of the clan goes missing for a while (but found safe, thankfully); a field is set on fire; there's a question whether some valuable etchings have been sold (and replaced with replicas); there's blackmail; and a whole slew of motives swirling about. Kit is quick with his sketches and spotting the clues he captures in them--but Chief JIm Lang doesn't know Kit like Captain Tony Shand does and is more apt to view him with an eye of suspicion. After all, isn't odd that Kit's always on the spot when another body is discovered? Kit will have to work hard to convince Lang of his innocence and even harder to put the sketched clues together to identify the culprit. Especially if he doesn't want to become the killer's final victim.

There are a lot of things to like about this series. I love the drawings that accompany the stories and the fact that if I were better at spotting all the clues then I could have had solid evidence to justify my suspicions. Yes, I did spot the killer (after an initial miscalculation)--and most of the motive--but I missed the biggest clues in the sketches that would have supported my theory.] Barber and Schabelitz also provide terrific characters with interesting personalities and good interactions. The mystery itself is solid and all the clues are provided, as well as enough red herrings to muddy things nicely. 

My biggest complaint is Sherry. Not as a character--but as a narrator. I noted my dislike of Sherry's "Had-I-But-Knowning" in the previous review and it's still in evidence here (though toned down a bit). I really think we could do without it altogether and get rid of Sherry's first-person narration and we'd have a better book. I'm not a huge fan of first-person perspective in general and Sherry's perspective just doesn't sit well. You'd think since she's a newlywed and all that we'd get a lot more of Kit in this story than we do--after all, the book's conceit is based on his sketches. But other than the last few chapters and the places where it's necessary to bring him in so we can have another sketch, we don't see a lot of him. The first couple chapters he's there in name only. It's really a bit bizarre.

Don't think that means I didn't enjoy the book. I did. Quite a lot. It's a fun book and a good mystery despite my quibbles with the narrative voice. ★★★★

First line: Ezra's ghost, come back to haunt the Plateau!

Peter Plow is handsomer than any man has a right to be; that is, in a vigorous, reckless, half-ugly sort of way. (p. 21)

Last line: But, in time, that would come too.
********************

Death = 5 (four stabbed; one poisoned)

That Affair Next Door

 That Affair Next Door (1897) by Anna Katharine Green

Synopsis (from the book blurb): Miss Amelia Butterworth prides herself on being an observer of human nature, especially of the people she sees every day from her usual spot at her front window--that is, until she witnesses the prelude to a ghastly murder. Late at night two people enter her neighbor's home, but only one leaves, The next morning a young woman is found dead, crushed beyond recognition beneath a cabinet. But her death was no accident--it soon comes to light that she was stabbed by a seemingly innocuous item: a hat pin.

Rife with social tension and mistaken identity, the messy case is assigned to veteran detective Ebenezer Gryce. He expects Miss Butterworth to demurely return home, but she was there at the beginning of this case and she intends to see it through to the end. Miss Butterworth is determined to solve the mystery before the detective, but what begins as a battle of the sexes soon turns into a fight for the ever-elusive truth.

Miss Butterworth is your standard nosy neighbor--not that she would admit it. But she misses nothing that happens outside her house and she's especially interested in the house next door which belongs to the Van Burnam family, a well-known and well-to-do. So, it isn't surprising that she just happens to look outside when a carriage pulls up to the house around midnight. And it isn't surprising that she's very interested--especially since the house has been closed up while the family is away. So, who on earth could these late-night visitors be and why don't they turn on any lights while they're there? Then man leaves--leaving the woman in total darkness. When there is no sign of life the next day, Miss Butterworth calls on the policeman doing his rounds to investigate. And when the police seem all too eager to fasten the guilt on the younger son of the family, Miss Butterworth sees it as no more than her duty to ensure that justice is done--even if i means going out late at night with her maid and investigating a Chinese laundry or playing nurse to an anonymous young woman or being called an old busybody.

This is quite a complicated story from the pen of the grandmother of American mysteries. We have everything from husband and wife conflict to missing jewelry to quick costume changes to mistaken identity. We have suspicion focusing on first one then another of the Van Burnam family and then a surprise twist ending that makes Miss Butterworth reconsider everything she thought she knew about the case--but she still manages to stay a few steps ahead of Gryce and the police. I certainly didn't spot the correct killer or motive. A clever early American mystery. ★★★★

First line: I am not an inquisitive woman, but when in the middle of a certain warm night in September, I heard a carriage draw up at the adjoining house and stop, I could not resist the temptation of leaving my bed and taking a peep through the curtain of my window.

Last line:  He has never lifted the veil from those hours, and he never will, but I would give much of the peace of mind which has lately come to me, to know what his sensations were, not only at that time, but when, on the evening after the murder, he opened the papers and read that the woman he had left for dead with her brain pierced by a hat-pin, had been found on that same floor crushed under a fallen cabinet; and what explanation he was ever able to make to himself for a fact so inexplicable.
*****************

Deaths = one stabbed

[finsiehd on 3/11/26]

A Lady's Guide to Mischief & Mayhem

 A Lady's Guide to Mischief & Mayhem (2020) by Manda Collins

England 1865: Lady Katherine Bascomb is a rather unconventional Victorian woman. She not only owns a newspaper, thanks to her husband's early demise, but she also (gasp!) writes columns. When a serial killer who has been dubbed the "Commandments Killer" by the press goes uncaptured by Scotland Yard after four murders, she and her newly found friend Caroline "Caro" Hardcastle decide to cowrite a column to investigate the latest murder. A column they plan to develop into practical advice for ladies about how to stay informed and protect themselves. They realize that not only has the killer been leaving cards with one of the Ten Commandments on the bodies, but it can be proved that each victim was "guilty" of breaking that particular commandment. Their investigation finds a young barmaid whom the Yard managed to miss interviewing and who may have seen the killer. The ladies write their article and the Yard immediately finds a man matching the description and arrests him....

Except Inspector Andrew Eversham, who was relieved of duty on the case because his superior was upset that mere reporters found what he couldn't, doesn't believe the right man is behind bars. And neither does Lady Bascombe, for that matter. When they meet (in the fracas that follows the new inspectors announcement to the press), he's understandable upset with her over what he regards as interference. She points out to him that it wouldn't have been necessary if he'd done his job. They part on less than friendly terms.

Lady Bascombe is invited to her friend Lord Valentine's country estate for house party--she plans on enlisting his aid to get the Yard to investigate the murders more thoroughly (knowing that the men in charge will listen to a titled man before listening to a woman's "fancies" about justice). She doesn't expect irrefutable proof that the wrong man has been jailed to appear on a country walk near the estate. But that's just what happens and Katherine is the one to find it. Another murder and another card with a commandement. And guess who the Yard sends to investigate? Inspector Eversham. Those two are sure to lock horns....unless they realize that they're on the same side and actually....the other person really isn't that annoying. In fact, they're kind of attractive....

First observation: If there really had been as many progressive/headstrong women determined to live outside the conventions in the 18th and 19th centuries as historical mystery writers have strewn about, then there would have been a social revolution much sooner with more far-reaching results. Especially, if there had also been as many men who were so willing to support these women. I mean, they would have been tripping over each other all the time. 

Now that I've gotten that out of the way....This is a fun, nicely plotted mystery. Did I spot the culprit? Yes (Qualified, yes, that is. Can't explain or that would be a spoiler.). Did I completely figure it out? No. And that's satisfying. I figured out just enough to be able to pat myself on the back and enough was left for the author to explain that I got a bit of surprise. I like Katherine and Andrew together and Caro and Lord Valentine are good supporting characters. It's hard to believe that a mystery featuring serial killings could be cozy and done with a light touch, but Collins achieves this. There are more in this series and I've already put the next one on hold at the library. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: If Sir Horace did not desist from his asinine talk about what constituted appropriate conversation for a lady, she would do one of them an injury, thought Lady Katherine Bascomb, hiding her scowl behind her fan.

Last line: Eversham was sure he was up to the challenge.
*****************

Deaths =  10 (six stabbed; four natural)

An Affair to Remember

 An Affair to Remember: The Remarkable Love Story of Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy (1996) by Christopher Andersen

(From the dust jacket): She was a living legend, a symbol of fierce independence who defied convention to live life on her own terms. He was the greatest screen actor of all time, the personification of the rock-solid American male. During their twenty-six years together, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy mesmerized the world with their famous on-screen chemistry like no other couple. Yet their private love affair--which ended only with Tracy's death in 1967--remained shrouded in secrecy. Now, as Hepburn turns ninety, international best-selling author Christopher Andersen draws on his own extensive conversations with Kate--as well as those who knew the legendary duo intimately--to paint the first full, inspiring portrait of these beloved American icons and the life they shared. As Andersen did in Jack and Jackie, in An Affair to Remember he reveals the strength, wit, and dignity that characterized that historic partnership--and offers new revelations, including: 

New information about Hepburn's pre-Tracy affairs with Howard Hughes and others./The five family suicides that haunted Kate her entire life--and ultimately shaped her approach to the man she loved./Tracy's Other Women--from Joan Crawford to Loretta Young to Gene Tierney and Grace Kelly; why Kate never forgave Ingrid Bergman for having a secret romance with Spencer./The true, shocking extent of Tracy's alcoholism and undiagnosed depression; his erratic, often violent behavior, and how Kate bravely tried to tame the demons that drove him./How J. Edgar Hoover came close to destroying their careers./Never-before-told details of their physical relationship--including how Kate helped him to overcome impotency./The real reason why Tracy would not divorce his wife Louise, and marry Kate--and what Kate would have said had he asked her.

An Affair to Remember is, first and foremost, a poignant love story--the often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always captivating portrait of a Great American Romance.

My take: While I learned a great deal about Spencer Tracy and a little bit about Katharine Hepburn (I've read two previous biographies about Kate)--and those things were very interesting, I didn't feel like the book lived up to its billing. Nearly the entire first half is spent giving us the biographies of these two fascinating people. Then the real focus on the on the relationship begins. But even then, a fair number of the remaining pages are devoted to them separately (Kate off on the East Coast working in Shakespeare or in the Congo filming The African Queen; Spencer fretting away on the West Coast or working on his separate projects...or more often off on a drunken bender). 

I'm not sorry I read this--as I mentioned I learned a lot about Spencer Tracy that I didn't know and I did learn more about their relationship than I already knew. But...it's not quite the book as advertised. I expected more of a spotlight on the love affair than we got. Spencer and Kate have quite an interesting dynamic--and looking back on the relationship from 2026, there are many aspects that are troubling. Particularly when you consider what an independent woman Kate was in all other aspects. Quite an interesting book for those who are fans of either (or both) star or who are interested in the golden age of movie making. Just know that the love affair does not really get top billing, despite the credits. ★★★

First line: Lying on the floor, her head resting on the down pillow she had brought in from her bedroom, Katharine Hepburn pulled the blind back, slid the patio door open a crack, and breathed in the California night air.

Last line: Theirs was an affair to remember.

The Avenging Chance

 The Avenging Chance & Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham's Casebook (2004*) by Anthony Berkeley

The collected short works of Anthony Berkeley [Cox] and this second edition contains added material--one "lost story," an article by Berkeley on why he writes detective stories, and one parody. I originally read the first edition back when it first came out and was pleased to find this copy at our annual community book fair in 2018. I remembered reading some of these--especially the title story since it has appeared in various anthologies and was the basis of Berkeley's novel, The Poisoned Chocolates Case. But I didn't remember the solutions to most of them. My favorites among the stories are "White Butterfly" and "Perfect Alibi," but all of them have their merits and only "Unsound Mind" and the parody (which didn't strike me as at all amusing) were well and truly disappointing.  ★★★★

"The Avenging Chance": A box of poisoned chocolates--sent to one man and brought home by another--kills Joan Beresford. Who was the intended victim? [one poisoned]

"Perfect Alibi": Eric Southwood, a notorious rake, very conveniently dies while visiting the home of his latest conquest. He was shot while out in the woods--but everyone with a motive also appears to have an iron-clad alibi. [one shot]

"The Mystery of Horne's Copse": Could also be called "The Case of the Reappearing Corpse." Frank Chappell keeps finding the corpse of his cousin (and the man who would be his heir). But when he brings the authorities to examine the body, it disappears. Is he going crazy? Or is someone trying to drive him there? [one stabbed]

"Unsound Mind": A man rings up the police station to announce that he's just taken prussic acid and left a note to explain everything. But when Chief Inspector Moresby gets there, he's sure it's murder. But can he prove it? [one poisoned]

"White Butterfly": Mr. Warrington says that his pretty but volatile wife has left him for another man. But the village gossips say that he has done away with her and got rid of the body. Sheringham is certain the woman has been killed, but just who did it and where her body is, is the question. [one strangled]

"The Wrong Jar": Cynthia Bracey is poisoned by arsenic in one of her medicines. But how did it get there? Did the doctor accidentally grab the wrong jar when making up the medicine? Did the nurse have it in for her patient? Was the husband tired of his wife? Did the doctor's assistant meddle with the prescription? Sheringham will find out. [one poisoned]

"Double Bluff": Several witnesses all claim to have recognized James Meadows as the man who shot  Mrs. Greyling in the middle of the busy town. Can they all be wrong? Sheringham believes so. [one shot]

"'Mr. Bearstowe Says...'": Mrs. Hutton is quite taken with Mr. Bearstowe and impresses this upon Roger Sheringham when they have a chance meeting at a party. Two years later, Mr. Hutton has gone missing while bathing and a body is found drowned. Sheringham has to wonder what exactly Mr. Bearstowe said to Mrs. Hutton and what did he (and she) do? [one drowned]

"The Bargee's Holiday": An additional short, short story, found after the first edition of this collection of stories, in which Roger Sheringham correctly deduces when and where the next major campaign of WWII will take place simply by speaking with a couple of men on leave and meeting up with their commanding officer in a bookstore. The reader is asked to figure out how Sheringham did it.

First line (1st story): When he was able to review it in perspective Roger Sheringham was inclined to think that the Poisoned Chocolate Case, as the papers called it, was perhapes the most perfectly planned murder he had ever encountered.

Last lines (last story--the parody): I wish I could remember my idea. It was such a brilliant one.

*All stories originally written/published pre-1960

The Fourth Postman

 The Fourth Postman (1948) by Craig Rice

"Please, Mr. Postman, look and see

Is there a letter, a letter for me..."

John J. Malone finds himself representing Rodney Fairfaxx when a procession of postmen get themselves killed in the alley that runs beside the Fairfaxx house. Rodney is a small, mild-mannered man who just likes to collect stamps while waiting patiently for a letter from his sweetie, a woman whose name appeared on the Titanic passenger list and whom everybody (except Rodney) has accepted as lost at sea. The police (in the person of Captain Daniel von Flanagan) believe Rodney has been driven crazy by the non-appearance of letters and has decided to take it out on the innocent postmen who are not delivering the goods. But when Malone takes a look at the scene of the crimes and considers the circumstances, he knows his client didn't do it...and what's more, he knows that von Flanagan knows it too. So....

Who would want to kill a postman? [A question posed by several of our characters.] And...who would want to kill three postment? These are questions that John J. Malone and Captain Daniel von Flanagan are trying to answer. But to my mind, the more burning question is why on earth, after two of your fellow postmen have been bashed on the head while going down an alley short-cut, would you--as the third postman to take this route--go down that alley? If I'm the third postman, I'm going to take the long way round and avoid that alley like the plague.

Another observation, as soon as one of the characters announced to all and sundry that he was changing his will--and definitely not in y'all's favor; in fact, none of you are gonna get anything now--I fully expected another murder/attempted murder. And, by golly, I was right. But not in the way I thought. 

Anyway, Malone, von Flanagan and Helene Justus spend the rest of the book running around town looking for hammers, making mysterious phone calls, tracking down motives for either killing postmen or seeing that Rodney Fairfaxx takes the rap, feeding their newfound doggy friend beer, and trying to keep Jake Justus, currently suffering from a bad case of chicken pox, safely at home in bed. Malone discovers that Rodney's family (a brother and a niece and nephew) and neighbors (who are the wife and daughter of one Rodney's dearly departed friends) all might have a motive to keep postmen and Fairfaxx from seeing one another. But who wanted it enough to kill? 

Malone's antics with his new booze-hound side-kick and the interactions with Helen and Jake (and the doctor who keeps popping in and out to attend to the chicken pox) are well worth the price of admission. The quirky motive behind the murders adds a bit of spice to the proceedings and it all makes for a fun, fast-paced mystery. ★★★★

First line: The sound of a dead body falling is like no other sound on earth, as any effects technician who has tried to create it in a radio studio will tell you.

"I can't arrest all of 'em," von Flanagan muttered. He added, "Besides, butlers don't commit murders."
You'd be surprised what butlers will do," Malone said. (p. 151)

Last line: Then he leaned his head back and went to sleep.
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Deaths = 8 (three hit on head; two natural; one shot; two car accident)

Frederica

 Frederica (1965) by Georgette Heyer

Vernon, the Marquis of Alverstoke, is at the top of the ton; the highest  levels of fashion. He is wealthy and handsome and the hope of every mother determined to make an excellent match for one of her daughters in the Marriage Mart. But...Alverstoke is easily bored by the ladies of the ton and never spends longer more time than a brief flirtation or discreet liaison on any of them. Then along comes Frederica Merriville with her three younger siblings. He's never met a woman like her.

The Merrivilles are distant cousins and Frederica is determined that Cousin Alverstoke will launch her sister Charis into ton on her come out. There is nothing that Alverstoke would less--as he's already explained to his sisters who have wheedled and schemed and everything in between trying to get him to host a ball in their daughters' honor. Hosting balls bore him and he hates being bored. But there's something about Frederica that appeals to him--she's not pretty and she's "on the shelf" (an elderly twenty-four [!], no longer seeking a entree into society for herself), but she can talk to him without resorting to coquettish ways and (gasp) even argue with him. Her sister Charis is a beauty, a diamond of the first-water, and he suddenly realizes that helping Frederica to bring her out into society will put his sisters' noses so far out of joint that they (the nose) may be facing backward. And what great fun that will be! 

What he doesn't bargain on is becoming fond of Frederica's two younger brothers--Jessamy and Felix and serving as a father-figure/guardian stand-in. But at least with Felix, he is never bored. Felix is a scientifically-minded young fellow who gets into the most extraordinary scrapes all in the interests of science--from disappearing overnight on a steam packet (to get an up close and personal experience of the steam engine) to going up in a hot air balloon and then falling out of it when it had a bad landing. Jessamy isn't far behind, having a run-in with some Londoners when he tries out the latest conveyance (an early form of the bicycle). No, boredom has never been so far away. And...he also doesn't bargain on becoming fond of Frederica. She interests him more than any woman of the ton ever did. But does she interest him enough to make this confirmed bachelor settle down for life?

So often bookish quizzes and challenges either want to know your "guilty pleasure" reads or have a prompt asking you to read a "guilty pleasure" book. I generally say that I don't really have any guilty pleasure reads: If I like reading a thing, then I like it and will own up to it. There's no feeling guilty about it. That said, if I have to choose a guilty pleasure read then I will claim historical romances for that category simply because I'm not a big romance fiction reader. And if I'm going to read romance then there's nothing better than one of Heyer's Regency romances. I love the research Heyer has put into getting the period right; I love making my way through the colloquialisms of the time--everything from "top-lofty" to "making a cake" of oneself to "ninnyhammer." [As an aside, it's a shame that there is not even a hint of a mystery in this particular Heyer--some of the romances do have a bit of mystery as well--because it's chock full of words and phrases that could have been used as the GAD Word of the Day.]

This is another of Heyer's best. Frederica makes for an admirable love-interest for Alverstoke. She's able to give plenty in their verbal give-and-take and she has enough force of character to stand up to him. The subplots involving Felix and Jessamy are well-done, incorporated nicely, and most interesting. I find Charis and Harry (the eldest Merriville--mostly off at Oxford) a bit disappointing, but I suppose the whole family can't be interesting. The one thing that keeps this from being a full five stars is the fact that, despite being a Regency romance, the romance is very definitely flying under the radar. In fact, for most of the book, Frederica doesn't even realize that romance is in the works for her. But the finely-drawn characters and the various storylines carry the day and make this a compelling historical fiction read. ★★★★

First line: Not more than five days after she had despatched an urgent missive to her brother, the Most Honourable the Marquis of Alverstoke, requesting him to visit her at his earliest convenience, the widowed Lady Buxted was relieved to learn from her youngest daughter that Uncle Vernon had just driven up to the house, wearing a coat with dozens of capes, and looking as fine as fivepence.

Last lines: "If I promise faithfully not to blow the house up? If you please, Cousin Alverstoke...?"

Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives

 Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense (2013) by Sarah Weinman (ed)

A collection of 14 suspenseful tales by notable domestic suspense authors such as Shirley Jackson, Vera Caspary, Charlotte Armstrong, and Dorothy B. Hughes as well as others. In general, I'm not a huge fan of domestic suspense novels, but this is an excellent collection with just a couple stories that didn't strike me as all that suspenseful. But there are also a couple that are downright creepy. ★★★★

"The Heroine" by Patricia Highsmith: Lucille Smith has just found the perfect job in the country as nurse to two children. She loves her job and working for the family.But something within her tells her that it's not quite enough. [one natural]

"A Nice Place to Stay" by Nedra Tyre: Our protagonist grew up poor--never knowing if she'd have a roof over her head. She's a nice woman...but she'd kill for a nice little place of her own. (four natural; one stabbed)

"Louisa, Please Come Home" by Shirley Jackson: Three years ago Louisa Tether ran away from home. She's doing very well for herself--found a job and nice place to stay. But each year on the anniversary of her run, her mother's voice is on the radio begging her to come home. When she decides to do so, she finds that you just can't go home again.

"Lavender Lady" by Barbara Callahan: "Lavender Lady" is the title of our heroine's most famous (and most requested at concerts) song. The story reveals the dark history behind the lyrics and the anguish our heroine feels each time her fans demand to hear it. (one hit on head)

"Sugar & Spice" by Vera Caspary: Mike Jordan tells our narrator that he knows who murdered a famous actor and gives her a jolt--it seems well-bred, middle class girls can commit murder just as calmly as she might knit a sock. (one natural; one poisoned)

"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" by Helen Nielsen: Loren is the secretary to a married boss, who winds up being wife number two. She thinks she's made it in life...but then the anonymous phone calls start. 

"Everybody Needs a Mink" by Dorothy B. Hughes: And that's just what Meg, our heroine, gets. She's always dreamed of something a little bit fancier than her own life, but has been realistic enough to know she'll never see some of the luxuries she's dreamed of....until an unnamed benefactor suddenly gifts her with a beautiful mink coat..... [Not really a mystery--except for wondering who the man was and why he did it. Not, to my mind anyway, really suspenseful.]

"The Purple Shroud" by Joyce Harrington:  George Moon cheats on his wife once too often.  Don't be fooled by that placid smile, George.[one hit on head]

"The Stranger in the Car" by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding: Carrol Charleroy, wealthy businessman, is more like a neurotic housewife when it comes to his home and daughters. When Julia, his youngest--and the only one of his kids who still lives at home, gets into a bit of a jam, he gets things even more tangled by trying to keep everything from his wife. [one shot; one poisoned]

"The Splintered Monday" by Charlotte Armstrong: Sarah Brady is staying with her nephew and his wife aft er the funeral of his sister, a domineering hypochondriac. The family always tiptoed around the very trying matriarch and now Sarah feels like she's getting the same treatment. What is being hidden from her? [one poisoned]

"Lost Generation" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis: Very chilling story of town "justice" gone really wrong. [one shot]

"The People Across the Canyon" by Margaret Millar: More of a science fiction/fantasy story than a mystery. Marion Borton is worried when the family moves into the house across the canyon. She's afraid that their quiet home in the country will be ruined by loud music or cars or a huge number of children She's even more worried when she sees what effect the family has on her daughter....

"Mortmain" by Miriam Allen Deford: The greedy Miss Hendricks decides to hurry her patient into the afterlife so she can enojy the money he's got stashed in his safe. She knows there's danger from his little pistol. But she doesn't see the danger in the other items stored with cuffs...at least not until it's too late. [one poisoned]

"A Case of Maximum Need" by Celia Fremlin: An elderly woman tries to refuse the phone the social worker insists she needs (in case anything should happen to the woman). She's tells the social work that "it's a danger" but she doesn't explain that the danger isn't to herself....

First line (1st story): The girl was so sure she would get the job, she had unabashedly come out to Westchester with her suitcase.

Last line (last story): "It's too dangerous"--for them.

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)

A Death for a Double

 A Death for a Double (1990) by E. X. Giroux

Buford "Buffy" Sanderson, young friend of London barrister Robert Forsythe, asks the sometime amateur sleuth to look into the goings-on at the Dower House. The Dower House near the village of Safrone has been bought by Anthony Funicelli a wealthy Italian-American businessman whom Sanderson stayed with during an exchange year in the States. Apparently, Funicelli has been receiving death threats and, in the words of a movie, "the call is coming from inside the house." Once Fortsythe is established in the house, he learns from Funicelli that the threats are coming on his personal notepaper and make references that only those who live at the Dower House would know.

And who's at the Dower House, you might ask? The businessman's much younger, beautiful wife, Lucia--who is recently pregnant. Funicelli's strong-willed mother, Mama Rosa--who's on hand to make sure her daughter-in-law has a safe and healthy pregnancy. Hansel and Gretchen--Funicelli's adult children from a previous marriage. Funicelli's cousin, Fredo Clemenza--a poor relation and a near identical double for his rich cousin. There's also Tip, the houseman--brought from Mexico and indebted to his master (or is that indentured?); Mrs. Flower, the cook, and her son Jacob, who tends the gardens and nurses hate, and her other son Noah, a gentle soul with the mind and emotions of a six-year-old. 

Most of the household have reason to hate the master of the house from Hansel and Gretchen, who believe Funicelli to be responsible for their mother's death, to Fredo, who is completely dependent on his cousin, to the Flowers who believe Funicelli to be responsible for the deflowering of the daughter of the house, to Tip, who says Funicelli keeps him working for him by threatening his (Tip's) family's security in the States. But when murder rears its ugly head, it isn't Anthony who is shot and killed in his personal elevator...it's his double Fredo. Did the killer miss his mark or was Fredo the target all along. Forsythe will have to sift through the red herrings to find the answer.

Three stars seem to be the standard for the Giroux series. Each one is perfectly fine--with a decent mystery and mostly interesting characters, but just lacks a certain something that would boost the rating. For this one, I miss Forsythe's secretary, Sandy. She doesn't make an appearance until the very end and then it's she who poses the really vital questions that turn the solution slightly on its head. The other thing that nags me a bit in this outing is the final death (which a good armchair detective will catch if they read every bit of this review)--I had a bit of a difficulty with that one (as did Forsythe--it really made him angry). The surprise for me wasn't in the final twist (I thought that was the complete solution)--it was the bit just before that I didn't see coming. Forsythe seems to think that justice will be served in the end, but it's not quite as satisfying to think that Mama Rosa will be dishing it out instead of the courts. ★★★

First Line: Robert Forsythe decided he might qualify for the Guiness Book of World Records as the only person in London who had never entered any of the outlets of a world-famous chain of hamburger restaurants.

Last Line: "Because of a child named Noah, Sandy, and a little dog he called Blackie."
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Deaths = 5 (one trampled by horse; one natural; two car accident; one shot)

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Great War

 The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Great War (2021) by Simon Guerrier

Another adventure for Holmes & Watson! Wait...not that Watson. Augusta Watson is young VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) member serving at a hospital near the frontlines in France in 1917. She's a very frustrated service member--after being trained in medicine, ambulance (and other) driving, mechanics, and various other skills, she's being used as skivvy for the nursing staff. Got dirty linens that need washing--let Watson do it. Got patients that need all sorts of bodily fluids cleaned up--let Watson do it. And her attitude sometimes let's her frustration show. So, she's surprised to find that when she's been called to Matron's office (again) it's not to have the riot act read.

She's to have the honor of showing the latest dignitary to visit the front around the hospital. These men generally come to see what "can be done for the boys in the trenches" and then don't seem to get anything done. But when she sees that this particular guest is the illustrious Mr. Sherlock Holmes, she's even less thrilled than usual. You see, with her last name she's had to endure every kind of joke possible--especially when she (a woman!) expressed the desire to study medicine. Nobody takes her seriously and she blames the celebrity of Holmes and his biographer. 

But she can't help but get interested when she realizes the detective is there to investigate a mystery and not just dole out empty promises about making things better. Holmes is on the trail of a young officer who was injured at the front and supposedly died at the hospital, but there is no record of him. Not as having been on the ward. Not as having been dead on arrival and sent straight to the morgue. No record at all. Watson is assigned to assist Holmes in his inquiries and the further they dig, the more they come to realize that there is a deeper plot...one that seems intent on causing unrest and higher casualities among the soldiers--on both sides of No Man's Land. It's up to Holmes and Watson to find those behind the plot and put a stop to it.

Not every entry in "The Further Adventures" series of Holmes stories is created equal. I don't seem to be able to resist these whenever I come across them--in used bookstores, at our annual community book fair, or at Barnes & Noble--and I've let myself in for some real stinkers (The Veiled Detective, I'm looking at you). But once I got over the fact that we just had to have a nurse's aid by the name of Watson, I settled down and enjoyed this one. The mystery is a good one with several well-placed clues and a lot of war-time adventure. I was just a bit worried that we were going to venture down the path blazed by Laurie King (throwing this Holmes & Watson into a relationship), but I don't think that was the plan. And by the end of the story I was hoping that Guerrier had penned another. There are some sentences here and there that refer to an adventure in which Augusta Watson gets to meet the Dr. Watson. But, alas, it seems that adventures has not yet been discovered among Watson's papers.

Overall, an enjoyable Holmes pastiche. ★★★★

First line: By the first week of December 1917, I thought myself quite inured to the horrors of war.

Las line: Nonetheless, do write and say if, for the sake of your archive, you should also care for my own account of those events.
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Deaths: 8 (six shot; two stabbed)

Dangerous Crossing

 Dangerous Crossing (2017) by Rachel Rhys

It's 1939 and as Europe heads towards another world war, Lily Shepherd is headed for a new life in Australia. Leaving her parents and brother behind (sadly) as well as memories she'd rather forget, Lily is taking part in a program that gives her passage to the land down under and an opportunity to find employment. But during the weeks spent aboard ship she finds a different sort of opportunity--the chance to sample a world full of adventure, new friends, dancing, visits to some of the wonders of the world, and a taste of life among the upper classes. But that world is also full of danger--men with only one thing on their minds; men with grudges against certain groups of people--including some of Lily's new friends; and women who are so bored with life that they will try anything at least once. Lily thinks she may find romance with a young law student who is traveling with his sister...but when a friend disappears one night (apparently lost overboard--or was she pushed?) and another death occurs, she finds herself in the middle of a terrible situation and nowhere to go.

First thought: I am not a fan of present tense--especially when it seems to be done in such a weird way. It's like it's trying to be partially first-person present tense and mostly omniscient present tense and not quite successful at either. This, I'm sure, colored my reading somewhat. There was all the makings of a really good mystery, but somewhere it went a bit off course and we wound up with a middle-of-the-road story. The background was good. And the beginning started well. But once we settled in onboard ship, we spent way too much time on the weird interpersonal interactions between Lilly and the Campbells. And, honestly, wound up with very little mystery. It's obvious what happened to Maria (the friend who disappears overboard) and the second death happens right before our eyes, so we know immediately who did it. If Rhys had simply wanted to write a historical story set aboard a ship, that would have been one thing. But--she states plainly in her afterword that she thought the journal written by a friend of her mother's about doing just what Lily did would make a marvelous basis for a "historical crime novel." And the blurb led me to expect just that, so I think it natural that I felt a bit let down. 

As a historical novel, it is a good solid read (especially if you don't mind or can get past the present tense). But if you're looking for a great historical crime or mystery novel, then I don't think it quite meets the case. ★★★

First line: Sandwiched between two policemen, the woman descends the gangplank.

Last line: GREETINGS FROM THE NEW LADY CULLEN STOP MARRIED TWO WEEKS STOP SETTING OFF FOR NYERI KENYA TOMORROW STOP IF EATEN BY LIONS MY PEACH SILK IS YOURS STOP ELIZA
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Deaths = 4 (one drowned; one stabbed; one bled to death; one suicide)