October Pick of the Month

 

 

 

It's that time again...time to choose October's mystery star and take a peak at the reading statistics. October wound up being a down month for me. Not sure why--after all, with 31 days, it had even more month to read in. I only managed 14 books. All but two of the books had a mystery flair. We'll take a look at the star ratings in a moment, but before we hand out the shiny prize/s, let's take a look at the stats.

Total Books Read: 14
Total Pages: 2,853
Average Rating: 3.45 stars 
Top Rating: 4 stars 
Percentage by Female Authors: 36%

Percentage by Male Authors: 64%

Percentage by both Female & Male Authors: 0%

Percentage by US Authors: 57%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors:  7%
Percentage Mystery: 86%

Percentage Fiction: 100%
Percentage written 2000+: 0%
Percentage of Rereads: 21%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}    
Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 23 (72%)

 

Mysteries Read:

The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy by Robert Arthur (4 stars)

End of Chapter by Nicholas Blake (3 stars)

The Widow's Cruise by Nicholas Blake (3.25 stars)

The Worm of Death by Nicholas Blake (2.75 stars)

The Witches' Bridge by Barbee Oliver Carleton (4 stars)

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (4 stars)

The Curse of the Fleers by Basil Cooper (4 stars)

Welcome Death by Glyn Daniel (3.5 stars)

To Spite Her Face by Hildegarde Dolson (3.5 stars)

Challenge for Three by David Garth (3.75 stars)

The Ghost in the Gallery by Carolyn Keene (3 stars)

Susanna, Don't You Cry! by Mary Plum (3.5 stars)

 

 

As you can see, I'm still chasing that elusive five-star winner for a new-to-me mystery. Only two months left to see if we can find the run-away favorite for the 2022 P.O.M. grand prize. I've had five-star winners in previous months, but the mysteries were rereads and the new-to-me books were not mysteries. October's best books all garnered four stars. The Pale Horse was a reread (and Dame Agatha just won last month), so it will stay on the bench. The three remaining contestants, The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy, The Witches' Bridge, and The Curse of the Fleers are all particularly appropriate nominees for the Halloween season--in fact, all three appeared in October's Friday Fright Night posts for Curtis's seasonal feature. All three have creepy goings-on that need explaining. All three were very good. This is going to be a very tough call for the judges....

There is a great deal of gothic atmosphere in The Curse of the Fleers. Fog seems to roll in on cue and the eerie nights make a perfect backdrop against which the Creeping Man can make his appearances. It's no wonder that Sir John feels like he's losing his grip on reality. The manor house has all sorts of hidden and spooky places--from the catacombs with hidden chambers to the tower where the dovecote is kept to the weird animal menagerie and the haunting cries and growls of orangutans and tigers. And the ancient curse gives a nod to Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles while creating a version of its own. However, as creepy and atmospheric as the book may be, there is a solid mystery here with clues to be had for the sharp-eyed and quick-witted reader. I found my way to the why of the matter, but lost sight of the who. A very good historical mystery.

The Witches's Bridge is set in Massachusetts where young Dan Pride has returned to live with his uncle after his parents die in a plane crash. Carleton does an excellent job with atmosphere and uses a Pride family witch legend to full advantage. It may be the middle of summer, but the foggy marshland, eerie nights in the country, storms rolling in, and the spooky music near the bridge all work to make this a very appropriate book to read during the month of Halloween. We get all the trappings for a spooky story--a witch's ghost, creepy music, an ancient curse (uttered by the original "witch"), a large, ugly black dog, and an unexplained death. But the mystery revolves around what happened to Dan's grandfather Daniel Pride's briefcase on a similar foggy evening. A briefcase that's rumored to have a large amount of money in it.

And finally, we have the Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy by Robert Arthur. The boys take on the case of Ra-Okron, an Egyptian mummy that whispers to Professor Yarborough, a friend of Alfred Hitchcock's. There are all sorts of mysterious goings-on, from the ancient Egyptian mutterings to statues that topple all by themselves to huge marble balls that tumble down hillsides (apparently unaided) to the reincarnation of Ra-Okron in the likeness of his favorite cat to the god Annubis appearing and stealing the mummy. The Investigators have quite an adventure dealing with all those spooky events.This was an excellent Three Investigators mystery. Jupiter does a nice bit of deduction figuring out how the mummy whispers. That's the most ingenious part of the plot. And the adventures the boys have on their way to the solution are engaging and action-packed and just right for the target age group. 

The judges have gone into a huddle...was that a coin I saw flip in the air? Surely not...okay, here comes the envelope...and the winner with great atmosphere and a nice bit of detective work on the part of the youthful investigator is....