Murder Every Monday: Can't See the Forest for the Trees

 

Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts a fun mystery cover game on Instagram called Murder Every Monday. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to display book covers and/or titles  from books we own that match the prompts she posts in advance (see link).

This week's prompt is crime fiction with a forest or woods on the cover. Any that I have read have reviews linked.

Trixie Belden & the Gatehouse Mystery ~Julie Campbell

The Babes in the Wood ~Ruth Rendell

The House of Care ~W. J. Burley

An Owl Too Many ~Charlotte MacLeod

Murder Misread ~P. M. Carlson

The Betrayal of Trust ~Susan Hill

The Markenmore Mystery ~J. S. Fletcher

The Sleeping Tiger ~D. M. Devine

What Beckoning Ghost ~Douglas G. Browne

Gownsman's Gallows ~Katharine Farrer

Gently Through the Woods ~Alan Hunter

Murders in Outline ~Anne Morice

Death Walks the Woods ~Cyril Hare

No Wind of Blame ~Georgette Heyer

The Dark Place ~Aaron Elkins

Miss Zukas & the Stroke of Death ~Jo Dereske

The Secret of the Old Clock ~Carolyn Keene

The Clue of the Screeching Owl ~Franklin W. Dixon

Hunt with the Hounds ~Mignon G. Eberhart

Season of Snow & Sins ~Patricia Moyes

The Deathless & the Dead ~Anna Clarke

The Arsenic Labyrinth ~Martin Edwards

When Maidens Mourn ~C. S. Harris 

The Youth Hostel Murders ~Glyn Carr

Transit of Earth

 Transit of Earth (1971) by Playboy Press

An anthology of stories that originally appeared in Playboy Magazine. Though most of the stories are by big names in classic science fiction, I wouldn't say these are their biggest and best stories. The title story is a good one that I've read before. "It Didn't Happen" gives a nice twist to crime fiction as does "Let There Be Light." But for downright science fiction, I believe "Control Somnambule" is the best of the lot. ★★★

"Transit of Earth" by Arthur C. Clarke: A doomed astronaut on Mars fulfills his mission by recording the rare transit of Earth across the sun. He knows that he will be the last human to witness it for a century.

"Button, Button" by Richard Matheson: A couple receive a mysterious package. They learn that if they just press the button on the gadget inside they can earn $50,000. The catch? Someone, somewhere will die if they do. They're told they won't know the person who dies. The husband is horrified at the thought, but the wife is intrigued. 

"The Machineries of Joy" by Ray Bradbury: Priests argue over the idea of space travel and whether there ever was a papal encyclical on the subject. An interesting study on the reluctance to accept change...as well as a character study of people who know each other well enough to get under each other's skin.

"The Invasion" by Avram Davidson: When aliens take over the Earth it may not be as obvious as monsters showing up in spaceships. A young woman soon learns the terrifying truth from the man she meets in a bar and takes home with her....

"Bernie the Faust" by William Tenn: Featuring the only man to sell the Earth...and buy it back again. And the reason why it happens.

"Cephalotron" by Thomas M. Disch: Written in the style of a press release, this is about the release of a brand new toy--post-atomic, mutant humans in miniature form. Lots of fun! And a way to (maybe) make these poor creatures less miserable.

"It Didn't Happen" by Fredric Brown: A wealthy playboy fancies a lovely stripper and is sure she'll be glad to give him a private performance--for money, of course. When she refuses, he doesn't take rejection well...and shoots her. But the rest of the story just goes on to prove that all may not be what it seems. (one hit by car; two shot)

"The Man in the Rorschach Shirt" by Ray Bradbury: A psychoanalyst has a moment of truth about his profession. 

"Waste Not, Want Not" by John Atherton: At the rate humans fill up the dumps, is it any wonder that one day there will be no more room for the non-biodegradable waste? Future leaders come up with an ingenious solution--not once, but twice.

"Control Somnambule" by William Sambrot: The first man to circumnavigate the moon goes "missing" on  Earth's tracking system for almost six hours, but he says he never lost a minute of contact with Earth. What really happened during those missing hours?

"Let There Be Light" by Arthur C. Clarke: When an astronomy buff becomes aware that his much younger wife is having an affair, he devises what he believes to be the perfect (perfectly undetectable) murder method. (one fell from height)

"Speed Trap" by Frederik Pohl: A man just knows that if he could find the time that he could devise the perfect way for everyone to have plenty of time to do all the things they need/want to. But just as he thinks things are coming together, they fall apart. Someone had told him that "the world conspired against anybody who'd ever done anything." But what if that force conspiring against us wasn't of this world? (one fell from height; one drowned)

"Souvenir" by J. G. Ballard: This is a weird one. The body of a giant washes up on the shore. That's it. It's basically about the impermanence of life and the short life span of any newsworthy item. But I have so many questions. Scientists show up to examine the body and measure it and whatnot--then go away and are never heard from again (in this story). And that's it? Nobody really seems to think that it's particularly odd that this humongous man has just appeared on the beach. No apparent worry that there might be more giants out there somewhere--giants who might be alive when they show up next time. 

First line (1st story): Testing one, two, three, four, five...Evans speaking.

Last line (last story): In the winter the high curved bones are deserted, battered by the breaking waves, but in the summer they provide an excellent perch for the sea-worrying gulls.

The Ghost & Mrs. McClure

 The Ghost & Mrs. Mcclure (2004) by Alice Kimberly (Cleo Coyle)

More than fifty years ago, a tough private eye by the name of Jack Shepard was murdered while trying to track down the killers of his pal Freddie. He walked into a bookshop in Quindicott, Rhode Island and was never seen again. And in the present day, Penelope Thornton-McClure and her Aunt Sadie, current owners of the bookshop, are set to host Timothy Brennan for an author's talk and book-signing. Brennan writes a series of private eye thrillers based on Jack Shepard and his real life cases. During the talk, he drops the bombshell that Shepard was last seen in the bookstore where he now stands and that he plans to abandon his fictional tales to write the real crime story about Shepard. He plans to investigate the murder fifty years later and unmask the killers. But before he can finish his talk, he himself drops dead. Penelope has hopes that the older man has died of natural causes (a heart attack, maybe?) but it's soon discovered that someone who knew Brennan well enough to know about his allergies doctored his water bottle with peanut oil. A big enough dose to send him into anaphylactic shock.

But who could have wanted him dead? Well...as it happens, just about anybody who knew him. He was an insufferable man who treated his daughter and son-in-law like slaves. Insulted his friends and publicist and wasn't above being rude to his hostesses. And...if Jack Shepard were still in his physical body, he would have gladly strangled the man who was getting rich off of his old case files--especially since Brennan claimed that Shepard wasn't nearly as bright as the fictional detective he had created. 

What's that, how do I know that Shepard wouldn't mind killing Brennan himself. Well...he said so. You see, Shepard is hanging out in ghostly form among the books in the shop. And he has these lovely conversations with Penelope McClure. She's the only one that can hear him. She swears she doesn't believe in ghosts, but when he keeps talking in her head what's a girl to do? He comes in pretty handy when it initially looks like the "Staties" (State Troopers) are fitting the struggling bookshop owner for the picture of a murderer. So, Jack starts teaching Penelope how a real P.I. goes about detecting. After a few false starts, Jack and Penelope finally spot the villain and manage to serve them up to local Officer Eddie Franzetti so the Troopers won't get the glory.

A few years ago, I read The Ghost & the Dead Deb, the second book in the series, and I wasn't all that impressed (see link for the review). I'm pleased to say that the debut novel of the series is a much stronger offering. I enjoyed the initial set-up and watching Penelope adjust to the fact that ghosts do exist and she's the only one who can hear and see this one. The interactions between her and Jack are fun, though I am still weirded out by the attraction between the two (see previous review for more on that). I also enjoyed the peek at the mystery behind Jack's death. As I mentioned in the other review, I really think I'd like to see a book that focuses on when Jack was really alive (reading about his cases). It would also be interesting to see a proper investigation of his murder. There's a hint at the end of this one that he and Penelope are going to look into that, but it hadn't happened in book two. Maybe it comes later in the series.

The plot here is, I think, more intricate than that of book two. There are some good red herrings and clues to follow up. A solid beginning to the series. ★★★

First lines (Prologue): Cranberry. What kind of cornball name was that for a street?

First line (1st Chapter): "We killed him!"

Last line: Then he faded temporarily away, back into the old fieldstone wall that had become his tomb.
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Deaths = 6 (one poisoned; one suicide; two hit by car; two shot)

Murder Every Monday: Location, Location, Location!

 

Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts a fun mystery cover game on Instagram called Murder Every Monday. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to display book covers and/or titles  from books we own that match the prompts she posts in advance (see link).

This week's prompt is crime fiction with a place in the title (state, region, county, country, etc. but NOT a city). Any that I have read have reviews linked.

The Cornish Coast Murder ~John Bude

The Beacon Hill Murders/The Back Bay Murders ~Roger Scarlett

The Shortest Way to Hades ~Sarah Caudwell

Decision at Delphi ~Helen MacInnes

Murder in Burgundy ~Audrey Peterson

Captain Nash & the Honour of England ~Ragan Butler

The China Sea Murders ~Van Wyck Mason

The Singapore Exile Murders ~Van Wyck Mason

Death in Zanzibar ~M. M. Kaye

Zanzibar Intrigue ~Van Wyck Mason

Death in Cyprus ~M. M. Kaye

Murder on the Orient Express ~Agatha Christie

The Saint in Europe ~Leslie Charteris

Murder, London-South Africa ~John Creasey

Wings Above the Diamantina ~Arthur W. Upfield

Secret Mission to Alaska ~Rober Barlow

The Cape Cod Caper ~Margot Arnold

The Cape Cod Mystery ~Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Trixie Belden & Mystery in Arizona ~Julie Campbell

The Secret of Skeleton Island ~Robert Arthur

Basil in Mexico ~Eve Titus

Seven Great Detective Stories

 Seven Great Detective Stories by William H. Larson (ed)

One should be careful when choosing titles for books. For instance, if you're going to say that you've got seven Great detective stories, then you ought to be sure that the majority of readers are going to agree with you that all seven really are great...and really are detective stories. As in, there is actually some detecting going on. Of the seven stories in this collection, I'd agree that three are great (the Wade, Futrelle, and Doyle) and one is almost, but not quite (the Chesterton). And I'd agree that most, but not all, are detective stories. The Cooper story has a detective--but we really don't see him detecting. Here we see him trapping the guilty man, but we don't the gathering of clues. Futrelle's story, while be a great look at how Van Dusen thinks, also isn't really a story about detection. And neither is the Kemelman. In fact, Kemelman's story doesn't really hang together all that well. I'm not buying that the professor could just string together all those "logical" inferences and, hey, presto, actually solve a crime he didn't even know had been committed. 

My favorite story of the bunch (on this reading) is "The Missing Undergraduate." It was the first short story I've read by Wade (although I have enjoyed several of his novel-length mysteries) and I'm always happy to find a good academic mystery. I've read both the Futrelle and Doyle stories so many times over the years that I know them pretty well backwards and forwards. So, they don't make quite the impression they did when I first discovered them. ★★★ for a decent collection.

"Suspect Unknown" by Courtney Ryley Cooper: The FBI Inspector was certain he knew the identity of the man responsible for the Tilliver murder. But there is no hard evidence. How can he get the man to reveal himself as the suspect unknown? (one shot)

"The Blast of the Book" by G. K. Chesterton: Father Brown teaches a scientist interested in the paranormal and psychic phenomena how to distinguish between what is really there and what isn't when a clergyman comes along with a story about a cursed book which makes people disappear.

"The Missing Undergraduate" by Henry Wade: Inspector Poole is called back to Oxford, his alma mater, to look into the disappearance of an undergraduate known for his practical jokes. The solution is a bit macabre--reminding me of an Edgar Allan Poe story or two....

"The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle: Futrelle's most famous story. Professor Van Dusen insists that nothing is impossible to a thinking man. His friends wager that he can't think his way out of a prison cell...but he proceeds to do just that.

"Silver Blaze" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson are off to Dartmoor to investigate the disappearance of a famous race horse and the murder of the horse's trainer. Inspector Gregory & company have been on the case, but have made no headway. Holmes is in the area for a mere afternoon and soon has all the threads in his hand. [one hit on head]

"The Nine-Mile Walk" by Harry Kemelman: Our narrator, a candidate for district attorney, is challenged to provide a sentence of ten words or so to his professorial friend and the professor guarantees that he can come up with a logical chain of inferences that are correct--even if they aren't the true inference the narrator intended. What begins as an pedantic exercise soon turns into the solution of a daring murder on a train. 

"The Man in the Velvet Hat" by Jerome & Harold Prince: Reynolds, a journalist, spurs Inspector Magruder to hunt an apparent serial killer who targets victims from all social classes in deaths that pass as accidental. The culprit is said to be a man in a velvet hat and a brown overcoat. Magruder just wants to be sure he finds the one really responsible.... [one fell from height; one registered as pneumonia; one car accident

First line (1st story): Inspector Jessop of the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been expecting the call.

Last line (last story): "But that was this morning, Reynolds; that was this morning."

Murder Listens In

 Murder Listens In (Arrow Pointing Nowhere; 1944) by Elizabeth Daly

Someone is tossing crumpled papers out of the window at Fenway House--the home of a rather secluded family. At first, the postman just thinks someone has dropped a bit of trash on the way to the dustbin. But when the papers keep coming just in time for him to find them, he begins to think there's a purpose behind it. A little bit of sleuthing on the part of the his office soon determines that the messages written on book dealer envelopes are meant for that book sleuth cum amateur detective Henry Gamadge. But the messages are, by necessity, so vague that Gamadge isn't quite sure what his pen pal wants him to do.

The first thing is to arrange to get in the house. He learns from his wife's Aunt Clara that Blake Fenway, head of the house, is a book collector and asks her to effect an introduction. Once in the house, Mr. Fenway makes it easy for him to make his presence known to "the client" by introducing Gamadge to everyone. Everyone includes Blake's daughter Caroline; Belle Fenway, wife of Blake's younger, deceased brother, and their son Alden who is mentally handicapped; Mott Fenway, Blake's cousin; Alice Grove, Belle's companion; and Craddock, Alden's attendant. Alice Grove's niece Hilda should be one of the party, but she is currently at Fenway, the family's country estate, sorting books and papers to be brought into town. Through various hints (a book carried around with him, for instance), Gamadge attempts to let "the client" know that he's on the case. And he finds another crumpled ball that he unobtrusively manages to take with him.

Both Blake and Mott approach him separately about solving a little mystery. An illustration in a book about the Fenway family history has been torn out. It's the only surviving picture of the family's first estate--long since sold. And they want Gamadge to find it. He's happy to add that to his to do list, but he also knows that neither of these men are his client--they move freely from the house and have no qualms about talking to him about their trouble. Whoever brought him to the house obviously can't move about freely--otherwise they could have sent him a more straightforward message. But it soon becomes apparent that there is more to the missing illustration than meets the eye and Gamadge begins to wonder if any of these people are exactly what he thinks they are.

This is a cleverly plotted (particularly for the time period) mystery with a somewhat shaky hook at the beginning. Depending on cryptic notes written on crumpled envelopes to be delivered to Gamadge and just tossed out as trash is a pretty poor method of communication. And I realize "the client" was in a desperate situation with little choice. But how on earth the post office knew to hand it to someone who would know that it needed to go to Gamadge....and then how on earth Gamadge made heads or tails out of the cryptic messages is beyond me. Once we get Gamadge on the spot, it's all good. He dives in and figures out where the missing illustration is and why it's so important to his client and who the villain of the piece is and it all makes perfect sense from there. [Not that I spotted the final twist before it came, mind you.]

I read this once upon a time [long before blogging] and had a nice time getting reacquainted with Gamadge. Good solid mystery. Creepy old house (make that two--if you count the country estate). Mysterious goings on at night. All good fun. ★★★ and 1/2 

First line: Schenck pushed the ball of crumpled paper across the table.  

Last line:  Perhaps mine told her that I always answer my letters.
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Deaths = 5 (two natural; one fell from height; two shot)

[Finished on 9/30/25] 

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Murder Every Monday: Lights, Camera...Murder!

 

Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts a fun mystery cover game on Instagram called Murder Every Monday. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to display book covers and/or titles  from books we own that match the prompts she posts in advance (see link).

This week's prompt is crime fiction with a Film or TV studio Setting.

The Murder Game ~Steve Allen

The Case of the Angry Actress ~E. V. Cunningham

The Four of Hearts ~Ellery Queen

Final Cut ~Eric Wright

Cold Poison ~Stuart Palmer

Murder, Murder, Little Star ~Marian Babson

The Five Assassins ~Owen Fox Jerome 

And So to Murder ~Carter Dickson

Falling Star ~Patricia Moyes

Bullet for a Star ~Stuart M. Kaminsky

Swing Low, Sweet Harriet ~George Baxt

A Death for a Darling ~E. X. Giroux

Death of the Party

 Death of the Party (1985) by Leela Cutter (Mark Giles & Linda Shank)

Lettie Winterbottom, well-known mystery writer and sometime amateur sleuth, is surprised to get an invitation to the grand opening of the Gwenna Hardcastle Museum of Historical Romance. Lettie has never had an ounce of respect for or any contact with the author of bodice ripper romance novels and wild horses couldn't drag her to that woman's party. But her niece Julia Carlisle (and fellow amateur detective) has no such scruples. Sensing a mystery behind the invitation, Julia goes and immediately finds herself in another intrigue. Max Genader, a charming and handsome party crasher, enlists her aid in getting him in the door. Now Julia has two mysteries to ponder: Why was her aunt (and herself) invited to the party and what exactly is Max Genader up to?

Before the night is over, she has a third mystery to solve. The lights are dimmed and then during the presentation of a Romeo and Juliet diorama specially designed for the museum, the body of Gwenna's conniving and lascivious nephew Freddie is found stabbed to death at the feet of Juliet. Gwenna looks very guilty with a smear of blood across her party frock. Though she claims someone brushed up against her in the dark. And Max seems to be involved somehow as well, because Julia finds him knocked unconscious and rolled up in a rug in the library (where the diorama was stashed prior to the grand reveal). The police suspect first Gwenna, then her stable hand Hal, then her assistant Penny Smith, and then...well, you get the idea. There aren't any real clues pointing to anyone in particular (other than the bloody frock) and there isn't a motive strong enough to hang a murder on and nobody has an alibi.

Gwenna asks Lettie (whose reputation as an amateur sleuth precedes her) to investigate on her behalf--not just the murder. Apparently, there has been an ongoing campaign to harass the romance writer and drive her crazy. (Lettie thinks it might be working.) Is the murder part of the campaign or did someone just have it in for Freddi? Soon Lettie, Julia, and Max (who keeps popping up) are sorting through the eccentric doings and little subterfuges of the Hardcastle household to find not just who might have wanted to kill Freddie, but who wanted to kill him the most and why. 

So: Welcome to the country house/party meets spy thriller! This combination shouldn't work, but somehow it does. What starts off looking like your usual British country house party murder soon ventures off into MI5 territory. We find out that Lettie and Julia are besties with Colonel Thorn who manages all kinds of hush-hush operations and who has had his eye on the Hardcastle entourage. It begins to look like the campaign against Gwenna is tied to a plot to wangle secrets out of important British personages. And when Lettie discovers a stash of "truth-serum" pills amongst Gwenna's pharmaceutical supplies it looks to be a near-certainty. 

Julia and Max wind up shadowing Gwenna's doctor (and partner in the museum project), Dr. Hoggwell, and their task takes them on a journey to France where they go undercover in the middle of a group of hot air balloon enthusiasts. Before the mystery is solved, Julia will impersonate a stunt driver, Lettie will impersonate the richest woman in England, and Max will wind up taking part in what becomes a villainous nearly-fatal scene from an episode of  The Avengers (Steed & Peel). 

As I said two paragraphs ago, this combo shouldn't work, but it does. It's great fun and worth the price of admission to watch Lettie swan about the French health spa like she owns the place (as well as half of England) and Julia drive vehicles like the Bandit or the Dukes of Hazzard. It's also nice to see the women come dashing to the rescue of the incapacitated hero. SPOILER: Seriously, how does Max keep his job as an undercover agent? He gets knocked out at the beginning of the book and snatched by the baddies at the end and injected with truth serum. He fights the drug manfully, but is on the brink of spilling all his beans when the cavalry (Julia and Lettie) show up to save his bacon. We're going to hope he's just having a bad day...or two. The book loses all claim to fair play and clue-finding after just a few chapters--it isn't difficult to figure out who the bad guys are. In fact, one of them is straight-up introduced as a bad guy. But it is great fun and a quick read. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: The harvest moon was well over the horizon, gleaming amber on the soft leather of the convertible's interior.

Last line: "I hope it's The Spy Who Loved Me," she replied.
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Deaths = 3 (one stabbed; two fell from height)

Mrs. McGinty's Dead

 Mrs. McGinty's Dead (1952) by Agatha Christie

Mrs. McGinty's dead!
How did she die?
Down on one knee, just like I!

The old children's rhyme comes to life (or rather death...) when Mrs. McGinty, a woman who made her living cleaning for others (down on her knees, as it were) is found killed. She was hit over the head by an unknown weapon and apparently for her small savings of about thirty pounds. All signs point to her lodger, James Bentley. Bentley is an ineffectual man who had recently lost his job and was badly in need of money. But would a man hide the money under a rock in the backyard? 

Even though the evidence pointed to Bentley and a jury of his peers found him guilty and the man has already been sentence to hang in a very short time, Superintendent Spence isn't happy about the verdict. He can't say why exactly, but he doesn't think Bentley did it. So, he calls on his old friend Hercule Poirot and puts the case before him. Poirot is interested enough to go stay in the village of Broadhinny to see if he can spot anything that Spence missed. The detective's attention is drawn to two things: the bottle of ink that Mrs. McGinty bought two days before her death and a newspaper article cut out of the paper used to wrap her shoes. When he discovers that the article featured four women who were involved with old murder mysteries, he's sure he has found a trail to follow. And when a second woman, who had said she recognized one of the photographs associated with the article, is killed, Poirot knows he's on the right track. But he won't be able to name the killer until he can figure out which photograph both Mrs. McGinty and Mrs. Upward recognized.

I had a good time reading the book and then also listening to Hugh Fraser narrate it on Hoopla. He does excellent voice work and manages to give everyone their own vocal qualities. Given how large the cast of characters is, this is quite a feat. It's always fun to listen to "Captain Hastings" narrate an Agatha Christie story. The novel was a palate cleanser after the Beeding I just finished. It was so nice to sink into a nice straightforward detective story after Beeding's spy-thriller. Christie does it again--clues strewn about in such a way that you don't necessarily pick up on the right ones...or, if you do, you don't look at them the right way. We've got four women from the past, one of whom just might be hanging out in Broadhinny, and we've got to figure out where she's hiding. Or do we? Somebody killed Mrs. McGinty for her money. Or did they? She recognized a photograph and if we find the right photograph, we'll know who the killer is. Or will we? Christie managed to keep me in the dark (mostly) until the reveal. I had my suspicions, but couldn't quite put the clues together properly. 

While I enjoyed the scenes with Mrs. Oliver and Robin Upward wrangling over his adaptation of her book to the stage, I'm not sure she fits in well to the story. I mean, yes, she does provide one of the means (can't be more specific without a spoiler) by which Poirot begins to see daylight, but otherwise she really doesn't add to the investigation. In other appearances, she provides more information and data that Poirot needs and she seems a little more integral to the plot. But overall another great outing with Poirot. ★★★★

First line: Hercule Poirot came out of the Vielle Grand'mere restaurant in Soho.

Last line: "He's a murderer all right!" He added: "Cocky enough for anything!"
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Deaths = 7 (two hit on head; two natural; one poisoned; one hanged; one strangled)

Murder Every Monday: Hit the Road Jack!

 

Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts a fun mystery cover game on Instagram called Murder Every Monday. Our assignment, should we choose to accept it, is to display book covers and/or titles  from books we own that match the prompts she posts in advance (see link).

This week's prompt is covers/titles with a road, highway, etc.

The Belting Inheritance ~Julian Symon

What Cannot Be Said ~C. S. Harris

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy ~Ann Cleeves

Postscript to Poison ~Dorothy Bowers

Blotto, Twinks & the Rodents of the Riviera ~Simon Brett

Who Killed the Curate? ~Joan Coggin

Finders Keepers ~Geoffrey Homes

Dying in the Wool ~Frances Brody

Road to Folly ~Leslie Ford

The Quiet Road to Death ~Sheila Radley

The Shore Road Mystery ~Franklin W. Dixon

Lonesome Road ~Patricia Wentworth

Dark Street Murders ~Peter Cheyney

The Shadows in the Street ~Susan Hill

The Cater Street Hangman ~Anne Perry

And...two of the most iconic roads in the United States:

Murder on Wall Street ~John B. Ethan

Murder on Route 66 ~Carolyn Wheat (ed)

The Nine Waxed Faces

 The Nine Waxed Faces (1936) by Francis Beeding (John Leslie Palmer & Hilary St. George Saunders)

In the absence of his chief, Colonel Granby, Bob Hardcastle was serving as head man at intelligence headquarters when an urgent message came in from an Italian painter who had provided information in the past. Ludwig Berthold needs to meet with a highly placed intelligence office, so Hardcastle goes himself--only to receive a coded message that directs him to another, more famous, painter and a secret society known as Edelweiss. Berthold is having difficulty getting out of Italy and the members of Edelweiss, who hide their identities behind wax masks, are experts at helping those who need to cross the mountainous Italian border without fuss. But when Bob and his guides ski into a trap, Bethold vanishes and Colonel Granby shows up to help Bob sort everything out. With Nazi spies and Italian agents hiding behind friendly faces, the two men are in a race against time to find Berthold and the vital information he carried.

The fate of Central Europe is in the balance in this spy thriller set on the eve of the second world war. Germany and Italy are jockeying for position in Austria in an effort to "secure their borders against France." Lots of intrigue and action in the Austrian snow! Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Hmph. I'm thinking that maybe I just wasn't quite in the mood for a spy thriller, because I feel like this is a better book than I think it is at the moment. Maybe I'm a bit depressed because of what's currently going on in the world (and the good ol' U. S. of A) at the moment. Either that or I was disappointed that this wasn't more of a traditional mystery (as my previous experience with the author's Murdered: One by One would lead me to expect). So, yeah, very little mystery here--other than are all the people we think are dead really dead? (SPOILER--no, in fact they aren't. Or--if they are, not when we think they are.) Mostly a lot of running about looking for people who get snatched and tied up or snatched and (maybe) killed. The writing is pretty snappy and fast-paced, so there's that. But I really would have liked a bit more mystery and less hole-in-corner business. Especially when the wrap-up at the end doesn't feel very wrap-up-ish. Probably because Beeding had no idea where world events would take everyone in just a few years.

This is one that I'm probably going to need to read again sometime, just to see if it really is better than I think right now. ★★★

First line: I was working, aloft in Battersea, in the high flat which is not a flat, and the butler, who is not a butler, had received orders that I was on no account to be disturbed.

Last line: As for Wilhelm Fuchs and his brotherhood of Edelweiss, for all I know, the nine waxed faces still move around the pleasant streets of Innsbruck or upon the wind-swept crags of the mountains around the city, helping those that fly from a tyranny still triumphant in a world heading ever faster for Armageddon.
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Deaths = 4 (three shot; one executed)