Happy Returns

 Happy Returns: A Ghostly Comedy (1955) by Manning Coles

This is the second of three books featuring the ghostly cousins James and Charles Latimer and their pet monkey Ulysses (also a ghost). The Latimers met their fate in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. Full of the courage that comes from strong drinks, they had tried to stop a German advance and the residents of a small French village had given them an eternal (so it was thought) resting place in their local cemetery. 

But our brave, gentlemanly ghosts just can't stay put--at least not when a relative is in trouble. So, when their young cousins Sally and Jeremy come to pay respects at the gravesite and James and Charles pick up an air of disquiet, they know they must come back to the earthly realm and fix up whatever's wrong. Sally and Jeremy are on their way to a bachelor uncle in Italy who is being hounded by an eager widow who doesn't know the meaning of the word "no." Poor Uncle Quentin definitely needs a rescue. 

By the time James and Charles materialize, their young cousins have spun away in their spiffy Rolls and our heroes must find a way to get hold of more modern clothes as well as means of transportation. They outwit two sets of thieves--winding up with the loot and helping the local policeman earn a promotion by capturing a murderer. Then, after keeping enough of the money to meet their sartorial needs and to buy a motor car, they play Robin Hood to various citizens in the town. We then follow their adventures as they learn to drive (the last thing they drove was a pony cart), stage an old-fashioned duel, and solve an old murder with help from the victim (who just happens to be a fellow ghost). They also find themselves in the middle of a terrific muddle when Ulysses, who loves wine and occasionally misses the company of others of his kind, discovers a yard full of retired circus animals in a small garrison town. The drunken Ulysses thinks it would be a fine idea to set the 78 monkeys, juggling seal, kangaroo couple, and an Educated Elephant by the name of Ernie free. Once the hullabaloo calms down, James and Charles (and Ulysses) finally catch up with Sally and Jeremy and they all set off together to rescue Uncle Quentin.

If you're looking for good, clean fun with ghosts. This will be right up your alley. If you need absolutely everything to make sense....well, then maybe not. But if you're willing to suspend your disbelief and swallow the idea that ghosts can become just as solid as you or I (at least for limited amounts of time), then this is a rollicking good read. James and Charles are fish out of water. Life has moved on quite a bit since they were put in the ground and even their first adventure with Sally and Jeremy (see Brief Candles, 1954) didn't quite prepare them for everything in the modern world. It's great fun to see our well-mannered gentlemen of yesteryear try to to adjust to whatever year it's supposed to be--that was never quite clear to me. There are fast cars and motor bus tours--but then we have an old-fashioned duel, so it's really quite confusing.

While James and Charles do help solve mysteries--thefts and murder, those who want clues and the ability to work out the puzzle before being told may be disappointed. The best thing to do is to just hop in the car with the Latimers, hang on tight, and enjoy the ride. It's been a while since I read one of the Manning Coles ghostly mysteries (the non-Latimer book The Far Traveller) and I had forgotten how much fun the ghost story version of mystery was. 

Thank you to Kate from Cross Examining Crime for the gift of this one in our Secret Santa 2019 (see, Kate, I do read my TBR books eventually!)

First line: St. Denis-sur-Aisne, like most towns, has a cemetery.

Last lines: "Where do you and Cousin Charles want to go?"
                 "To St. Denis-sur-Aisne."

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

Deaths = 5 (two in war; one shot; one natural; one pushed off cliff)

[finished 10/24/26]

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The Opening Door

 The Opening Door (1944) by Helen Reilly

Eve Flavell has been estranged from her family. Rather than marrying money as expected, she leaves home to start her own shop--starting with books and then adding gloves and stockings (quite a combination). Her family, especially her father, thinks it's demeaning. 

"The book shop he might have been able to swallow, books were cultural and not undignified, but when she had added stockings and gloves he had thrown up his hands: 'A female haberdasher, after four years of college--my dear girl. What an achievement! You must be proud of yourself."

She decided to visit her family one more time to let them know that she has decided to marry Jim Holland. It will be a nice, comfortable marriage...but not one for love. She can't marry the man she loves because Bruce Cunningham has promised himself to her stepsister Natalie. And Eve adores Natalie and could never hurt her. The worst part of visiting her family will be seeing her Aunt Charlotte. Charlotte also adores Natalie and is fond of Eve's brother, Gerald, but she never cared for Eve. And the feeling is mutual. If Eve can only slip in to make her announcement and out again without seeing Aunt Charlotte or Bruce. Then all will be well...

But of course, Aunt Charlotte is there. And there is a bit of scene. And then Bruce comes. And Eve is miserable. She finally makes her escape and thinks life can finally begin new. Except...at some point Aunt Charlotte goes out to the neighborhood park and gets herself shot. And Bruce is the prime suspect because it was his rifle that was used to do the deed. Inspector McKee is on the job to find the killer and despite the DA's insistent that they've already got their man, McKee isn't too sure. But can he prevent one more death before he can gather up all the right clues?

Let's start with the drawbacks--Eve, our point-of-view character behaves like suck a nitwit for a large portion of the book. She's going to give up the man she loves for her stepsister. A stepsister who has everything--looks, the adoration of the family, and wealth. A stepsister that she also adores--for reasons that are unclear. Then, when the murder happens and Bruce is under suspicion, she goes out of her way to do stupid things that will draw even more attention to Bruce. Now, fortunately, Inspector McKee is not a nitwit and is not prone to go with the obvious just because it's obvious and will bring the case to a quick conclusion (cue the DA who likes that kind of thing). Another slight problem (for those who love a good, old-fashioned mystery) is the lack of fair play. There aren't a lot of clues hanging about that the reader gets to see and try to figure out on their own. By the time a real, live clue actually showed up, I had given up looking and it flew right by me. Maybe that was the strategy. I won't give a lot of clues. Then when I do stick one right under their noses, they won't even notice it. :-)

However, even with those items on the deficit side of the ledger, there is still a lot to like. Reilly does a good job with police procedure and Inspector McKee is, as always, fascinating to watch in action. Some of the later books focus too much on suspense and woman in danger, but this one has a very nice mix. It'd be even better if Eve didn't go out of her way to make things complicated for herself. The solution is solid even though the solution is more Holmesian with plot points held close to the chest before the big reveal. ★★★ and 3/4 

First line: The murder didn't take place until after 7 p.m. on the night of December 2nd.

Last line: She snatched it [her coat] from a hanger and Bruce put her into it and they moved to the door and out into the storm side by side.
**********************

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

[Finished 10/18/26]

The Final Problem [spoilerish]

 The Final Problem (2026) by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

From the book flap: ...a locked-room mystery set in 1960 at an isolated Greek island resort following a group of strangers, a suspicious death, and a washed-up actor ready to put his on-camera detective skills to the test.

June, 1960. Rough weather at sea leaves a group of strangers stranded on the idyllic Greek island of Utakos, all guests of the only local hotel. Nothing could prepare them for what happens. Edith Mander, a quiet British tourist, is found dead inside the beach cabana. What appears at first glance to be a clear suicide reveals possible signs of foul play to Ormond Basil, an out-of-work but still well-known actor who in his glory days portrayed the most celebrated detective of all times. Accustomed to seeing him display Sherlock Holmes' amazing powers of deduction on the big screen, the other guests believe that the actor is the best quipped to uncover the truth behind this classic closed-room mystery.

Ormond Basil has pretty much retired from the silver screen. He's retired to a lovely home in the Antibes on the French Riviera but also loves to travel and treat himself to a shopping trip or two. On his lates trip, he runs into the movie producer, Pietro Malerba, and his current lady love, Najat Farjallah. The couple are traveling on Malerba's yacht and they invite Basil to join them. Malerba is cooking up a scheme for a tv series focusing on great villains and he wants to convince Basil to agree to play a new villain every week. They stop for the night on the small island of Utakos and find themselves stranded when a sudden, intense storm crops up. Then the murders begin and instead of preparing to play villains, Basil finds himself stepping into the shoes of the world's first consulting detective for real. At his side, as Dr. Watson, we find not Malerba, but a Spanish mystery writer by the name of Francisco Foxá. Does the "great detective" get his man/woman in the end? Well...that would be telling. [which I might do...so read my comments below at your own risk.

Okay...first question. How many times is Foxá going to fawn all over Basil and tell him how he's "just like Holmes"??? Which leads to...How many times is Basil going to say "Elementary"--apparently just to be saying it? Not because something really is. But because we want to say it again. How many times is Basil going to say he's just an actor and then proceed to reel off Holmes-like observations like a boss? 

This is both the most frustratingly meta mystery I've read in a very long time as well as a tremendously interesting one. We have Ormund Basil (an obvious play on Ormund Sacker--Watson's initial name--and Basil Rathbone, who in some fans' minds is the Sherlock Holmes) who I could not not imagine as Basil Rathbone in my mind. It's like we have an actor pretending to be Rathbone pretending to be Holmes. It was an interesting concept to have someone who'd played Holmes actually try to use the Holmes technique to solve a mystery. Though, I have to say, Pérez-Reverte isn't the first author to come up with that idea (see Julian Symon's Three-Pipe Problem, for instance). But Pérez-Reverte is the first (to my knowledge) to play it so meta. And that is part of the problem. The number of times that Basil & Foxá have long, drawn-out conversations about how this is all a mystery novel really took me out of the story. If we had played it straight--just had Basil take up the mantle of Holmes and solve the murders--then I would have found it much more satisfying. But all the navel-gazing focus on "look at us being Holmes & Watson in this murder mystery" really was a bit much. 

And don't get me started on the non-ending. I might have bought into Basil's handling of the situation if we had stuck with one of the motives (the one for which I had the most sympathy)--but when we gave the same person multiple motives of varying sympathetic value and they were all true...well that kind of lost me. I do see what Pérez-Reverte was going for there. And that makes the writing and construction interesting. But a solid mystery plot? Not nearly as much. If you like your murders all neatly solved and your murderers handed over to justice all tied up with a bow, then this isn't the book for you. I'm going to give this one a nice, middle-of-the-road ★★★ , primarily for concept and the interesting writing & construction.

First line: It was June of 1960 and I had traveled to Genoa to purchase a hat.

Last line: "Then possibly," she said, "my answer has crossed yours."
*******************

Deaths =  4 (one natural, one hanged; one stabbed; one hit on head)

Death Draws the Line

 Death Draws the Line (1949) by Jack Iams

Mark Wallis is the young manager of the Whitcomb publishing syndicate, having taken over the reins when the legendary founder Bill Whitcomb died after a sudden illness. Another sudden death puts Wallis in the middle of mystery and mayhem. Zeke Brock, the morose and drunken cartoonist who created the little ray of sunshine known as Little Polly Pitcher, is found dead at the drawing board by his assistant Mary Bradley. Mark and Zeke were expected at the annual Whitcomb dinner held in remembrance of Big Bill. Mark stopped by the cartoonist's place to try to get him in shape for the event--but Zeke passes out. So Mark had asks Mary to check on the cartoonist about an hour before the dinner to make sure he's presentable (sobered up) for the occasion. But nothing would ever make Zeke lively enough for the occasion....and Mary calls Mark for help when she finds the body.

The Whitcomb family doctor is all set to pronounce death due to alcoholic over-indulgence, but Mark and Mary notice a few oddities that make them suspect that someone had been in Zeke's rooms after they left. Mark calls on his friend in the DA's office to see if a preliminary investigation can be made on the down-low. It doesn't stay low for long...because an autopsy proves that Zeke was drowned using a little basin of water. The fact that the basin had been moved between Mark's visits was one of the oddities Mary and Mary had noticed. Now that the investigation has become official...and officially a murder investigation...the police want to know who benefits from the death of the man behind the money-making cartoon. And curiously enough, the clue needed will be found in the last cartoons Zeke ever penned. Once they can be found.

The book has an interesting premise for the conclusion. That Zeke knew something about someone and was set to reveal it in a lightly disguised story line in Little Polly Pitcher. What was fascinating was watching Mark and Mary figure this out and find a way to recreate the missing cartoons. It sets up a nice gotcha moment at the end where they can help the police catch the killer without forcing a confession. Iams gives us good character studies in the Whitcomb family menage and throws in a very weird scene with a woman who was infatuated with the cartoonist--just to add a bit of spice. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: The street in the plush Eighties, was dark with a late September rain.

Last line: "Let's wander off hand in hand and get our Wassermann tests."
*******************

Deaths = 2 (one drowned; one poisoned)

Ten Pins Game: 2026-2027

 Rick at the Mystillery has the bowling lanes waxed, the bowling pins polished, and the bowling shoes all lined up for those who don't have their own. Your reading challenge goal is to knock down all ten pins using books with numerals in the title. You can use any book read this year. For full details click on the link above.

I've got my bowling shoes on and am on my way to knocking all ten pens down:

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (3/2/26)

Two Bronze Pennies by Chris Nickson (7/20/26)

"Two Out of Three Rule" by Patrick J. Hurley (5/2/26)

The Fourth Policeman by Craig Rice (2/25/26)

"Nineteen Sixty-Four Ford Falcon" by Tim Foley  [Wild Card] (5/2/26)

 The Six Iron Spiders by Phoebe Atwood Taylor [2 deaths] (5/30/26)

 "The First Seven Deaths of Mildred Orly" by Fred Senese (5/2/26)

"The Poisoned Dow '08" by Dorothy L. Sayers (1/31/26)

  

And Then There Were None (Audio Version Redux)

 And Then There Were None (1939) by Agatha Christie
[read by Hugh Fraser

For those who would like a more in-depth look at my views on the story itself, please see my previous review under the previous title: Ten Little Indians

And Then There Were None (1939) is one of Agatha Christie's most famous mysteries and the plot is well-known among mystery fans. It regularly makes "Best Of" lists--from Best Crime & Mystery Novels to Best Books of the 20th Century to PBS's Great American Read. One would think that everyone would know the story by now. As I've mentioned in previous reviews, I regularly find people in my life who don't--who have never read it. Or seen one of the adaptations. Or listened to it on audio. And every time I convince one of them to give it a try, I make the same offer. If they can read it and honestly tell me at the end of the book that they figured it out before the grand reveal...then I will buy them dinner at any restaurant of their choosing. Over 30 years of periodic offers and I have not had to pay up once. Dame Agatha was that good at what she did.

This time it was my own son who hadn't experience this particular Christie masterpiece. Whenever he and I make a car trip together (usually to go visit my parents), he indulges me and listens to audio mystery novels. I prefer to listen to audio novels for books I've already read in print form (especially in the car so it won't matter if I don't hear every detail). It is always fun to listen to his commentary as he hears a story for the first time that I already know what happens. When we got to the afterword portion of ATTWN, I stopped the CD and asked if he knew who did it. He didn't--I will say that he (like a few of my friends) had his eye on the correct culprit until certain events made him revise his guess. By the time everyone was dead, he was just as baffled as everyone else I've known. (Including me--I didn't figure it out when I first read it either). 

Christie's story is always a five star read for me. If I could give double-points this time I would--just because I had such a good time listening to it with Kyle. ★★★★★

First Line: In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in the Times.

Last Line: And they will find ten bodies and an unsolved problem on Indian. Island. 
************************

Deaths = 21 total [eleven by the island murderer (four poisoned; one strangled; one stabbed; two shot; one drowned; two hit) and ten+ caused by our current murder victims (two run over; three neglect/medical malpractice; one shot (war); two drowned; one hung; one overdose [and a bunch of unnamed natives that Philip Lombard left to die in the jungle])

The Clue of the Broken Locket

 The Clue of the Broken Locket (Original text 1934/Revised text 1965) by Carolyn Keene

Once again I have returned to the revised text which I read when growing up. This book was my all-time favorite Nancy Drew novel and I wanted to see if it held up when read in my mid-fifties rather than during elementary school. I thought that I might read both versions of the text, but I think I'll put off the original text for another time. I was more in the mood for nostalgia than I was for a different version.

Here, Nancy, Bess, and George make a trip to Misty Lake. Carson Drew has asked Nancy to meet a young woman by the name of Cecily Curtis and give her the key to a cabin on the lake. The job was originally assigned to Mr. Winch, the cabin's caretaker, but Winch has cried off the job. He swears the place is haunted and that a ghostly launch appears out on the lake. Nancy, of course, can't resist the mystery. 

And then once the girls meet Cecily, Nancy is faced with two more mysteries. Cecily's fiancé, popular singer Niko Van Dyke, is missing royalty payments for all of the records sold of his latest hit single. He's sure that the record company is cheating him, but there may be more to the story. In addition, Cecily is on the hunt for a treasure that belongs to her family. According to a note in a locket passed down in the family, a clue is supposed to be hidden in "an iron bird" on the family's estate--but the estate was sold long ago and records have been lost. Cecily believes that Pudding Stone Lodge on Misty Lake previously belonged to her family and longs to investigate. 

The lodge is currently being rented by a surly man by the name of Driscoll and his brother--and his wife. After an uncomfortable encounter with Mr. Surly Driscoll, his brother comes to apologize and offers the girls the opportunity to search for Cecily's iron bird. But strange events start happening--Nancy gets locked out on the roof: there are a pair of twins that don't look very much like the Driscolls; there's a flashing light from a little round window in an inaccessible part of the house; and there are odd humming noises coming from the beach near the lodge. Before Nancy is done, she will have solve the mystery of the iron bird and the mystery of twins and the light...and the mystery of Niko's missing royalties. 

Well...I enjoyed my trip down memory lane. The story is still thoroughly enjoyable and I love the adventures that Nancy and company get up to. I know a bit about the original text and it's both interesting and a bit baffling how the original storyline of the children is used. Other than adding one more mystery to the already full plotline, I'm not sure how much it adds. There are always coincidences involved in any Nancy Drew story, but we do push the limits a bit on this one. I'm not going to change my rating, though. I loved this book as a child and I'm giving it the full ★★★★★ that I originally handed out.

First line: As Nancy Drew seated herself at the breakfast table, she noticed a door key beside her plate.

Last line: "I'll never, never forget you or the clue of the broken locket!"
********************

Deaths = one auto accident 

Random Killer

 Random Killer (1981) by Hugh Pentecost

Most days, everything runs like clockwork at the Hotel Beaumont in NYC. That's thanks to Pierre Chambrun, manager extraordinaire, and his loyal army of hotel employs. But today is different--in the morning, in Suite 3406, the breakfast table was set for two, but Geoffrey Hammond, one of the world's best and sometimes most hated television journalists, doesn't get to sample the culinary delights from the kitchen. When the waiter returns to retrieve the serving cart, he finds Hammond strangled to death...with picture wire. Chambrun and Mark Haskell, Chambrun's right-hand man, are just getting things calmed down when another guest is found strangled. Joanna Frasier, women's lib advocate, had laid out all the accoutrements for a cocktail tête-à-tête but who as her unexpected guest?

In each case, the victims' secretaries had no record of an expected breakfast or cocktail partner. And there was no struggle, so Hammond and Frasier must have been comfortable enough with the other person to turn their backs on him or her. At first, it looks like the Beaumont just has a psycho roaming the halls, killing famous acquaintances at random--and the Beaumont is full of famous personages. But as Chambrun, Haskell, and Lt. Hardy begin digging, they find a connection to a similar murder a couple of years ago at a ski lodge in Colorado. Sharon Dain had been accused and convicted of strangling her lover with picture wire. There were many who thought Dain was innocent and both Hammond and Frasier were approached to lend their influence to help the defense. Both turned the suggestions down for difference reasons. When others are killed in connection with the Dain case, it becomes clear that someone has taken it upon themselves to eliminate those who didn't help Sharon "enough" (whatever that means in the killer's mind). 

Chambrun is convinced that someone in the hotel must have seen something...but will he find out who and what before it's too late?

I have to say--I don't care how exclusive, how nice the Beaumont is. It's one of the last fictional hotels I'd want to stay in. Considering how many books are in this series, the odds of getting knocked off are about as high as if you were visiting Jessica Fletcher in Cabot Cove (or anywhere in her vicinity wherever she is). Probably higher, because the Beaumont tends towards multiple murders and Jessica seems to run to one per episode. Why on earth you'd want to stay at a hotel where the guests drop like flies is beyond me. But...setting aside that little thought...is this a good mystery?

Yes. It's actually one of the better clued and better plotted mysteries in the Chambrun line-up (not that I haven't enjoyed the others I've read). You have to fill in some blanks and work off of things that are implied--but you absolutely can get there from what Pentecost gives us on the page. Just remember...you've got to mistrust what people tell you. The one quibble I have is how Pentecost tends to recycle plot points. The ending of this one and Murder in Luxury (my most previous read--though it appears two books further in the series) are almost identical: Killer knows Chambrun is on to them. Killer takes hostages and insists on escape vehicle. Chambrun comes up with plan to nab the killer on the way to the escape vehicle that will keep the killer from killing the hostages. But that's a small quibble for an other-wise very good mystery. ★★★★

First line: I suppose if you were psychotic and you wanted to kill famous people at random, you couldn't find a better hunting ground than the Hotel Beaumont.

Last line: "We still have a hotel to run."
*****************

Deaths = 5 strangled

[Finished on 9/25/26]

Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion

 Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion (1941/1971) by Carolyn Keene
[originally published in 1941; I have read the revised edition first published in 1971]

Apparently there is a substantial change in the storyline between the original and revised texts. I do have an original text copy around here somewhere (haven't found it on the TBR mountain range yet). The revised version is what I grew up with. In this edition, Mr. Billington, a client of Carson Drew's (with interests in New York, though a resident of Florida) has been charged with hiding explosives within the oranges sent in the latest batch for the Cape Kennedy Space Center. He swears he had no idea that explosives had been stuffed in the oranges and has asked Carson to help his Florida lawyer find out who has framed him and why. 

Carson brings Nancy along to help with the detective work and, of course, she invites Bess and George to join them as well.  And later Ned, Burt, and Dave come to Florida as well.There's all sorts of mysterious goings-on at the orange farm and the spooky old neighboring moss-covered mansion--from the odd behavior of Billington's packing plant manager and wife (who serve as houseman and housekeeper as well) to the men who live at the mansion to the wild animals that roam the mansion's fenced-in grounds. Someone sets fire to the orange grove, Nancy and Ned are locked in another old house, and the motorboat (in which they traveled) is stolen. Someone wants the Drews and company to leave the matter alone...but Nancy can never leave a mystery unsolved--especially when the entire space program may be at risk!

The reread of the revised version hit me about the same as it did when I read it back in the mid- to late-seventies. It's a decent story with a good amount of action and it was nice to see Ned have a fair amount to do as a partner in Nancy's investigation. But the story just didn't grab me. I had a difficult time with the explosive oranges (did the bad guys really think that would work?). The back-up plan with the laser seemed to be a much better idea. A fun afternoon's read and walk down memory lane. When I find my original text copy, I'll be interested to see how it compares. ★★★

First line: The Drews' living room was in semidarkness as Nancy walked in.

Last line: "But I'm terribly proud of you!"
*********************

Deaths = one natural

[finished on 9/23/26]

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