Murder Every Monday: A Toast to 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 titles from books you own that meet prompts which she posts well in advance (see link). I've been participating for quite some time on Instagram and I have decided to post here as well.

 

Today's theme is covers or titles with drinks. Click on pictures for a larger view.

 

 

 

The Harlequin Tea Set ~Agatha Christie

Cocktails & the Killer ~Peter Cheyney

A Taste for Cognac ~Brett Halliday

Death in the Clouds ~Agatha Christie

The House without the Door ~Elizabeth Daly

Alive & Screaming ~Alfred Hitchcock 

The Black Seraphim ~Michael Gilbert

Service for Two ~Kate Kingsbury

Happy Returns ~Manning Coles

A Genteel Little Murder ~Philip Daniels

Malice Domestic ~Carolyn G. Hart (ed)

Rutland Place ~Anne Perry

Slight Mourning ~Catherine Aird

An English Murder ~Cyril Hare (aka The Christmas Murder)

Death on Demand ~Carolyn G. Hart

Mrs. Malory & the Fatal Legacy ~Hazel Holt

Death of a Mystery Writer ~Robert Barnard

Show Business Is Murder ~Carol-Lynn Rossell Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg & Isaac Asimov (eds)

 

 

The Silver Anniversary Murder ~Lee Harris

Murder at the Savoy ~ Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

Till Death Do Us Part ~John Dickson Carr

Unhappy Returns ~Elizabeth Lemarchand

A Deadly Sickness ~John Penn

The Litmore Snatch ~Henry Wade

Cocaine Blues ~Kerry Greenwood

Hangman's Holiday ~Dorothy L. Sayers

Getting Away with Murder? ~Anne Morice

 

 

Say Yes to Murder ~W. T. Ballard

Murder for the Asking ~George Harmon Coxe

Dorothy & Agatha ~Gaylord Larsen

The Deadly Truth ~Helen McCloy

Bury Me Deep ~Harold Q. Masur

Murder After Hours ~Agatha Christie (aka The Hollow)

A File on Death ~Kenneth Giles

Strong Poison ~Dorothy L. Sayers

Murder on the Left Bank ~Elliot Paul

To Spite Her Face ~Hildegarde Dolson

Champagne for One ~Nero Wolfe

Montengrin Gold ~Brian Ball

Cold Light of Day ~Emma Page

No Vacation from Murder ~Elizabeth LeMarchand

Knocked for a Loop ~Craig Rice

The Black Coat ~Constance & Gwenyth Little 

Premedicated Murder ~Douglas Clark

Mr. & Mrs. North & a Pinch of Poison ~Frances & Richard Lockridge

Headlined for Murder ~Edwin Lanham

A Friendly Game of Murder ~J. J. Murphy

The Final Ring ~Marcia Blair

The Squealer ~Edgar Wallace

The Frightened Wife ~Mary Roberts Rinehart

Cyanide with Christie ~Katherine Bolger Hyde

Drink to Yesterday ~Manning Coles

Dangerous Ground ~Francis Sill Wickware (a drink for a kitty)

The Man with a Load of Mischief ~Martha Grimes

Wycliffe & the Guild of Nine

 Wycliffe & the Guild of Nine (2000) by W. J. Burley

Francine Lemarque is the newest member of the Guild of Nine, an artist's colony housed in the disused mining buildings on moor west of St. Ives. The small community is owned by Archer and his wife Lina who have differing ideas about how things work. Archer put the guild together based on astrology and numerology. The number nine is extremely important to him and so it's important to have nine members at all times (at the moment, they're one short). Lina wants to get the Guild turning a better profit and is hoping to expand their artistic offerings.

This is where Francine comes in. Francine is the recent recipient of a large legacy and is thinking seriously of investing in the Guild. But rather than just hand over the cash, she's been asking a lot of questions. Some of them very awkward. And before she can get answers and make a decision, she is found dead--the victim of a blocked vent on a heater. 

When Chief Superintendent Wycliffe learns the victim's identity, he's surprised. He knew Francine from an early case. She had shot and killed her natural father--a man who wasn't even close to being beloved by much of anyone. He'd always wondered what became of her upon her release. Now he wonders if the earlier case has any bearing on her death--or is it truly connected to her questions about the Guild. He and his team find both connections to the past and some present-day secrets that members of the Guild would just as soon not have had known. More deaths follow and Wycliffe finally finds the thread that leads him to the killer.

An enjoyable entry (and the last!) in the Wycliffe series. It had been a while since I read any of these mysteries and it was good to visit with Wycliffe again. He's a good solid copper who relies on his wits to solve the mysteries--well, his wits and his excellent team. There are several members who are specialists (in following the money, making connections between apparently disconnected items, putting witnesses at their ease, etc.) and they all work together to get to the solution. This mystery has several well-placed red herrings which may or may not distract the reader. I have to say that I spotted the killer, but only because I managed to latch onto one of the clues and wouldn't let anything put me off. ★★★

First line: Archer's Guild of Nine was a craft colony on the site of a disused mine on the seaward slope of the moor, west of St. Ives.

Last line: "Odd, your attitude to that girl, considering that in her short life she caused so many people so much grief."
*******************

Deaths = 8 (one shot; one gassed; three natural; two strangled; one hit by car)

Seven Keys to Baldpate

 Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) by Earl Derr Biggers

William Magee is a well-known pulp writer who wants to prove to his critics that he can write a serious novel. Of course, to write a serious novel one must barricade oneself away--away from friends and family, away from parties and plays, away from anything that might distract the "great author" from deep thoughts and serious plots. While brainstorming places to go for such intense authorial endeavors, his friend Hal Bentley finally suggest Baldpate Inn, owned by his father, It's a summer resort that stands empty in mid-winter. There will be no staff and no guests to interrupt a man playing with fictional realities. 

So off Magee goes to Baldpate--no running water, no heat (save for the fireplace in his room), and no food (save for canned goods and the occasional meal sent up by the caretaker's wife)--for a period of quiet contemplation. Or at least that's what he expects. He's barely gotten settled in his room, when the first of a parade of visitors arrives--each with what they believe to be the only key to the inn. There's the first man who hides a package in the lobby safe and who makes a phone call to someone called Andy. There's a pretty girl and her mother. And the crooked mayor of a nearby city with his hired strong man in tow. And a professor of Comparative Literature who may not be what he seems. And a professional hermit. And a dark figure who wrestles with the mayor and his sidekick. And a second mysterious pretty girl. And they all want the package in the safe--even if they all won't say so. Magee finds himself with a dilemma when both of the pretty girls ask for his help in getting the package. But his loyalties are with the first one--a young woman who stole his heart as soon as he saw her crying at the railway station. But will he be aiding the cause of justice or helping a lovely thief? Only time will tell.

This was an extraordinarily fun outing from the author of the Charlie Chan mystery series. With everyone popping in and out of the inn, with the addition of a hermit who becomes the chef for the group at Baldpate, with Magee as the befuddled hero, the plot reads as though Biggers planned for the story to be filmed. And...it was...six times from 1917 (silent) to 1947. I sampled two of the movies and they, too, were fun but came with slightly different endings from the book and each other. And I'm not sure which ending I like best. The book is straight forward. There's a crime and a solution and our hero wins out in the end. The films are less so. In the first, Magee is writing his book to fulfill a bet. Everybody that shows up and everything that happens is just part of a plot by the man with whom Magee has made the bet to prevent Magee from winning. In the second, everything that happens at the house is really just the plot of the story Magee is writing. When we reach the end none of it "really" happened, except on the page. The lead-up to those twists is very good in each film and the endings are both a surprise and satisfying all in one.

The book is just one wild ride full of humor and outrageous shenanigans. If you're looking for an intricate, well-clued puzzle, then this isn't it. But if you're looking for a good time and a fun read, then this just might fit the bill. ★★★★

First line: A young woman was crying bitterly in the waiting-room of the railway station at Upper Asquewan Falls, New York.

Last line: "Why. darling," he explained gently, "this is it."
*******************

Deaths = one shot

Murder Every Monday: Keys to 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 titles from books you own that meet prompts which she posts well in advance (see link). I've been participating for quite some time on Instagram and I have decided to post here as well.

 

Today's theme is covers or titles with keys. Click on pictures for a larger view.

 

The Hidden Key ~George Harmon Coxe

The Glass Key ~Dashiell Hammett

The Silver Key ~Edgar Wallace

 

 

 

The House Without a Key ~Earl Derr Biggers

A Key to the Morgue ~Robert Martin

The Mystery of the Skeleton Key ~Bernard Capes

 

Mystery of the Dead Police ~Philip MacDonald

The Great Mistake ~Mary Roberts Rinehart

The Daughter of Time ~Josephine Tey

 

Skeleton Key ~Lenore Glen Offord 

7 Keys to Baldpate ~Earl Derr Biggers

The Case of the Solid Key ~Anthony Boucher

A Key to Death ~Frances & Richard Lockridge
The Bulldog Has the Key ~F. W. Bronson
The Clue of the Black Keys ~Carolyn Keene

 

The Key ~Patricia Wentworth

Dead March in Three Keys ~Peter Curtis

Cats' Don't Smile ~D. B. Olsen

 

 

The Under Dog & Other Stories ~Agatha Christie

Rear Window ~Cornell Woolrich

13 for Luck ~Agatha Christie

 

Think Twice

 Think Twice (2024) by Harlan Coben

It's been three years since Myron Bolitar gave the eulogy at the funeral of renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron, former basketball star at Duke, former FBI contact and current sports agent, and Greg had been a lot of things to each other--respected foes on the court, rivals in both basketball and love, and most recently business associates. Myron had served as Greg's agent. Having presided over Greg's ashes, the last thing Myron expects when two FBI agents come to his office about the recent murder of supermodel Cecelia Callister and her son is for them to ask him, "Where's Greg Downing?" His reply, "In a mausoleum at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson" doesn't go over well. The agents tell him and his best friend Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III) that Greg is apparently alive and kicking...and murdering. Because his DNA has been found at the scene of the crime. Oh...and they heavily imply that Myron knew Greg was alive and must have helped him go off the grid for three years.

Myron decides that he needs to investigate. IF Greg is still alive, then he's still Myron's client and he owes it to Greg to try and help him. Win doesn't like it--but if Myron is determined to investigate, then he's going to help him. The two don't know what they're getting themselves into. The investigation leads them into a dust-up with organized crime, Myron nearly loses his baby toe to "Joey the Toe" (a mob member who collects pinky toes as souvenirs), and they begin to suspect there is a serial killer on the loose--a diabolical killer with intricate game plans, logical follow-through, and a knack for setting up the innocent to pay for the killer's crimes. Just when they think they know what's happening and who's doing it, they find they need to think twice.

First-off: Is this my usual kind of book. Nope. Never read a Coben book before in my life and have never really thought his books were my kind of thing. It's amazing the things I wind up reading for challenges--even serial killer thrillers. Did it reach out and grab me and keep reading until I got to the end? You betcha. Think Twice has quite a lot going for it: punchy dialog (lots of dialog!); a buddy-movie vibe between Myron & Win (aAe they hunting a serial killer; does Myron nearly become a victim himself? Sure. But they're having a good time doing it.); a great hook; and a nice twisty ending. Did I figure out most of the solution before we got to the ending? Well...yes. But I didn't matter. I was so invested in Myron and Win and their story that I didn't feel cheated. 

And that for me was the heart of this book. I really enjoyed the relationship between Myron & Win. And isn't it fortunate that Win has so much money and influence that he can get them out of all kinds of scrapes? I'm really tempted to go back to the beginning of the series and just read them all...if only I didn't have a couple thousand books sitting on my physical TBR pile right now. I read this one because of a reading challenge (it seemed the best of various options for one of the prompts), otherwise I still wouldn't have read a Coben novel. I'm glad I did, it's a nicely plotted thriller with good characters and an interesting method of serial killing. ★★★★

First line: Here is how you destroy a life.

Last lines: And me? I raise my fingers and swipe my eyes.
********************

Deaths = 13  (ten shot; two fell from height; one stabbed)

Death in a Pheasant's Eye

 Death in a Pheasant's Eye (1971) by James Fraser (Alan White)

Detective Superintendent Bill Aveyard, one of the youngest of his rank, is faced with an interesting problem on Guy Fawkes Night. No one seems to be missing from the village, but there's a man's body sewn into the Guy's clothes and sitting atop the Guy Fawkes bonfire. If a pair of keen eyes in the crowd hadn't noticed it before the fire took hold, the body would have been unrecognizable....something someone was probably counting on. At first the villagers suggest that the body might be Brian Sharpe--a man who was supposed to be in London, but maybe he never made it there? When Brian shows up safe and sound, Aveyard and his team must try to figure out who would have killed a stranger and substituted them for the Guy. Things become more interesting when the medical examiner discovers cactus spines embedded in the victim's hands. How and where could that have happened?

Meanwhile, a young ne'er-do-well was caught in the act of stealing lead tiles from the vicarage. But before the police can come and question him, he disappears--without pants or shoes on a bitterly cold November night. There has also been a spate of thieving by a thief with a taste for Victoriana and the poaching of the squire's pheasants. Are these things connected? And if so, how? But when a young wife is killed by an arsenic injection...delivered through a hypodermic hidden in a chair, Aveyard begins to wonder if there is more than one culprit in the village. And...was that dose of arsenic really intended for Helen Robinson or for her husband Stanley? Because the chair in question seems to be more of a man's chair. 

So...I read this one back in 1991 (long before blogging) and wasn't terribly impressed. My logging of books at the time was limited to star ratings only (just two awarded) and I had no memory of the book at all. When I spied this Walker & Co edition at Half Price Books a few years ago, I decided to give it another try. Having done so, I think I know what put me off last time--Fraser's writing style. He jumps around in the story a lot and we get so many different viewpoints that it's difficult to get a rhythm going. And some of the brief scenes are so abrupt that they don't make a great deal of sense. He also, very annoyingly, veers back and forth between present and past tense for no apparent reason.

But I do have a greater appreciation for the characters. Superintendent Aveyard and his Sergeant Jim Bruton are a great team. I really wish that we had stuck with them more because those scenes are well done. Aveyard has a great deal of compassion for the suspects and perpetrators and, though an outsider to the village, seems to quickly get the measure of each person. It's easy to see why he has moved quickly up the ranks. The plot is interesting and the reveal on who the identity of the first victim is a nice twist, though I could have done with a few more clues. There are a couple but they're not big enough to give the reader everything they need to reach a full solution. Overall, a solid read which could have been better had the style been more fluid. ★★★

First line: Harry Greaves poured paraffin over the wood; when the can was nearly empty he jerked it upwards, trying to splash the effigy of Guy Fawkes at the top of the pyre.

Last line: When the arsenic took effect he jerked upright in the first spasm of pain: the chair in which he had been sitting toppled over, and his hands clutched a Chrysanthemum and the Cleistocactus Straussii as he fell across the staging of the greenhouse, then rolled to the floor.
*****************

Deaths = 5 (two natural; one bonfire; two poisoned)

The Rising Tide

 The Rising Tide (2022) by Ann Cleeves

 Every five years for fifty years, a group of friends have met for a reunion stemming from their school days. A young new teacher brought together promising students for an "Only Connect" field trip to Holy Island, an island cut off from the mainland each day at high tide. It was a time to connect as students and friends; to learn more about themselves and each other. Philip, Annie, Rick, Louisa, and Kenny spending a weekend of rituals together--quiet time in the chapel, meals prepared a certain way and always by Annie, telling the same stories over and over, and each year learning one more new thing about one of them. 

After the way their first reunion ended, it's kind of surprising that they still get together. There was an argument between Rick and Isobel, older sister to Louisa and a member of the Only Connect group. Isobel stormed off in her car, headed for the mainland. But the tide was rising and she didn't make it. It was put down as an accident--a young woman driving too fast across the causeway with water making everything slick. 

Now, fifty years later, Rick's "new thing" for the group is the revelation that he's writing a novel based on real life. Is it based on his life in the limelight? Up till recently, he'd been a celebrity on television. But his ratings had been dropping and then sexual misconduct allegations forced the show to fire him. Is he going to use fiction to tell his side of the story? But certain comments made during the course of the evening seem to indicate that the events he has in mind may relate to his "connection" friends. When he's found hanging in his bedroom the next morning in what might have been taken for suicide, Inspector Vera Stanhope soon realizes they are dealing with murder. But who needed Rick to die and why? Vera has a feeling that the events of fifty years ago are important, but every question seems to lead to a dead end. Until a conversation late in the investigation shows Vera what they all had been missing.

This is the first Vera Stanhope book I've read (yes, jumping in late to the series--but it doesn't seem to have hurt my enjoyment or understanding of the book). Cleeves does another great job with setting and character in this outing. The island has an almost mystical quality and the fog plays an important role just as it did in her book Thin Air which I read earlier this month. The group of friends is portrayed as a tight-knit bunch, but we soon know that they all are keeping things back and have secrets--not just from the police, but from each other as well. Cleeves does well with her red herrings--within the group and with various motives and suspects outside the group. I changed my mind several times about who did it and when Vera went to what I thought was her final interview, I thought I had landed on the right one. 

Spoiler Alert: I didn't. So, well done, Ann Cleeves. An enjoyable mystery (except for that final death--I'm not a fan of that one) and now I believe I need to go back to the beginning and work my way forward. ★★★★

First line: Philip was the first of the group to the island.

There was no point, she'd learned, in raging against the inevitable, and incompetent bosses seemed to be inevitable. (p. 221)

Last lines: Then she got into her Land Rover and drove back to her cottage in the hills to grieve in her own way. There, she could howl to her heart's content.
*********************

Deaths = 4 (one drowned; two smothered; one hit on head)

The Last Bookshop in London

 The Last Bookshop in London (2021) by Madeline Martin

Grace Bennett and her best friend Viv (Vivienne) head to London in 1939 when Britain is on the brink of war. Grace was forced out of her childhood home when her mother died and her uncle enforced his rights to the house. She tried to live with him and his family as well as to work in his shop for a while, but it just didn't work out. She's come to London hoping to find work. Fortunately, her mum's best friend Mrs. Weatherford has offered her and Viv a room for free while they look for work. Unfortunately, Grace's uncle refused to write her a reference for her good work at his shop (miffed that she "abandoned" him) and she doesn't know who would take on a girl without references.

Not to worry--Mrs. Weatherford has a way of managing things and soon convinces Mr. Evans, owner of Primrose Hill Books, to take Grace on as an assistant. He isn't particularly enthusiastic and seems, at best, very gruff. Both he and Grace are very set on the agreement that she will spend only six months with him--long enough to get experience and, hopefully, a glowing recommendation that will help her get a job at Harrod's (where Viv, with a forged reference--she did offer to do one for Grace, but was declined--now works). But over the coming months, Grace learns to love books--thanks initially to a handsome young man named George Anderson--and to love the bookshop as well. She helps Mr. Evans make several adjustments to the shop that bring in more customers and as the months go by she begins to dread the end of her six month stint. 

Meanwhile, Hitler's army invades Poland and Britain and France declare war on Germany. Colin, Mrs. Weatherford's gentle, animal-loving son, is called up to serve. George also joins up in the RAF. The Blitz begins over England and Viv signs up with the ATS, working in the radar rooms at first and later helping with the anti-aircraft guns which worked to protect London during the air raids. Grace divides her time between the bookshop and serving as an air raid warden. Eventually, her two jobs blend as she begins reading novels to those waiting out the air raids in the London underground in her district.

This is a story about love, friendship, hope, and resilience in the face of war, danger and loss. It was inspired by the few London bookstores which survived the relentless bombing during the Blitz. And Martin works her research into her writing, creating a very realistic look at life during the bombing of London. I love a good story that revolves around books. I love a good historical novel and World War II is one of my favorite time periods. The only thing that could have made the story better for me (being a mystery junkie) would have been a good mystery to solve in the middle of it all. But I enjoyed Martin's style and found her characters engaging an relatable. An outstanding read. ★★★★★

First line: Grace Bennett had always dreamed of someday living in London.

Last line: It was everything and everyone coming together as a community, drawn by the power of literature, that truly made her love of books complete and what put the heart into Evans & Bennett--or as some of her long-time patrons still referred to it, The Last Bookshop in London.

Murder Every Monday

 

 

 

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 titles from books you own that meet prompts which she posts well in advance (see link). I've been participating for quite some time on Instagram and I have decided to post here as well.

 

Today's theme is covers or titles with candles. Click on pictures to see all three covers.

 

The Case of the Crooked Candle ~Erle Stanley Gardner

The House of a Thousand Candles ~Meredith Nicholson

Death Lights a Candle ~Phoebe Atwood Taylor 

 

The D.A. Holds a Candle ~Erle Stanley Gardner

The Candle Shop Mystery ~Eileen Hill

The Sign of the Twisted Candles ~Carolyn Keene 

 

Candleshoe ~Michael Innes

Our Second Murder ~Torrey Chanslor

Lonesome Road ~Patricia Wentworth 

 

Mrs. Jeffries & the Feast of St. Stephen ~Emily Brightwell

Blood from a Stone ~Ruth Sawtell Wallis

Murder in Mesopotamia ~Agatha Christie

 

The Golden Box ~Frances Crane

The Happy Birthday Murder ~Lee Harris

Mistletoe Mysteries ~Charlotte Macleod (collected by)

 

Murder at Plum's ~Amy Myers

You'll Die Laughing ~Margaret J. Grove

Sleep No More ~Margaret Erskine

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine 32nd Anniversary Issue

 Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine 32nd Anniversary Issue (March 1973) by Ellery Queen, ed 

Still making my way through the batches of the mystery magazine. You would think that a grand anniversary issue might pull out all the stops with quality, but we've got another mid-range issue with a mix of good and not-so-good. I love the Marsh story (even though I wish she hadn't killed off Timothy Bates). And other good mysteries include "How to Trap a Crook," "The Gold Medal Caper," and "Captain Leopold Gets Angry." The Ron Goulart story is fun--but not really much of a mystery and the rest are pretty meh. ★★★

"Chapter & Verse" by Ngaio Marsh: Timothy Bates, a New Zealand bookman who had become friends with Alleyn when the inspector was in that country, arrives in England with an old Bible with odd inscriptions. Alleyn is not at home & Bates tells Troy that he's got something a bit in Alleyn's line...but he dies in a fall from the church tower before Alleyn gets home.  [four fell to their death] (Can I just say that I'm a little disgruntled at how Marsh bumps off charming friends of Alleyn's--first Bunchy in Death in a White Tie and now Bates, who is a lovely little bookseller.)

"Bread Upon the Waters" by Robert Edward Eckels: A con man helps a younger man realize a greater return on his inheritance.

"The Biological Clock" by Isaac Asimov: Mario Gonzalo, one of the Black Widowers, relates a story about the murder of his sister. Her death was ascribed to junkies breaking into the house and he doesn't dispute that. He just wanted to talk about the odd feeling he had that day, but Henry, the waiter with a flair for detection, sees a different solution. [one stabbed] 

"Stand & Deliver" by John Dickson Carr: Carr's short essay on real-life highway men in 17th & 18th centuries.  [three hanged; one shot]

"The Cornish Mystery" by Agatha Christie: Mrs. Pengelley suspects that she might be a victim of steady poisoning. But she's not sure. She thinks it might be her husband who is doing the poisoning. But, again, she's not sure. She asks Poirot to investigate...and then she dies. Did her husband really poison her? [one poisoned]

"The Baby Spoon" by Patricia Highsmith: The story of an English professor, his wife, a starving poet (from a real garrett, no less), and a missing baby spoon.  [one hit on head]

"Lobster Shift" by R. R. Irvine: A newsman on the "lobster shift" (late night babysitting of the news tickertape machine--where journalists in the doghouse get sent) finds himself in the middle of a RFK-style assassination plot. [one shot]

"Thomas Wolfe & the Tombstone Mystery" by Theodore Mathieson: A historical mystery about Thomas Wolfe and the revenge that followed him--one tombstone at a time. [one  suicide; one complications from pneumonia]

"How to Trap a Crook" by Julian Symons: Francis Quarles provides a very simple example of how to trap a crook who dabbles in the arts.

"The Gold Medal Caper by Ron Goulart:  A really fun parody of tough guy, noir mysteries. Best first line I've read in a long time: It had probably been a mistake killing the engineer because now there was nobody to make the train go. [one shot; lots more deaths, but Goulart couldn't be bothered to give any of them names]

"Fifty Years After" by Anthony Gilbert: Vicky Gaye got herself in "trouble" in the Victorian era and then was found dead. It was labeled a suicide, but the housemaid and Vicky's former governess meet 50 years later and realize that Vicky didn't do it herself. [one poisoned; two natural]

"Captain Leopold Gets Angry" by Edward D. Hoch: Captain Leopold gets really angry when crooks kidnap children. But he gets even angrier when they kill old men who try to protect children. [one hit on head; one burned alive]

First line (1st story): When the telephone rang, Troy came in, sun-dazzled, from the garden to answer it, hoping it would be a call from London.

Last lines (last story): "No," Leopold agreed. "I guess it didn't."

Kill the Boss Good-by

 Kill the Boss Good-by (1956) by Peter Rabe

The boss, in this case mob boss Tom Fell, has disappeared. No one seems to know where he's gone and his second-in-command, Pander, wants to make the business his own. But if that's his goal, why is he letting things fall apart? The cops are getting cocky and making raids--that would never have happened under Fell. 

We find out mid-way that Fell, a borderline psychotic, had checked himself in for a "rest cure." When his most trusted lieutenant (not Pander) comes to give him a report on business (not good), he declares himself cured and checks himself out of the clinic. But the ruinous results of Pander's "leadership" threatens to push Fell completely over the psychotic border and anyone who tries to stop him from regaining control over his empire of vice may see just what a psychotic rage looks like.

So....this is definitely not my usual thing. The book was part of an allotment of books I bought on eBay (along with vintage mysteries I was actually in search of...) and, being the bookworm I am, decided to keep it and give the story a try. Again...this is not my usual thing. I'm not a big fan of noir or crime syndicate type stories. Shoot-em-ups among gangsters with no real mystery involved just don't do it for me. There is an interesting look at Fell's character and descent into madness, but that's about all this has going for it. ★

First line: For a town of three hundred thousand, San Pietro looked very dead, but it was noon and it was out of season.

Last line: She sat like that, as if she were waiting to cry.
*****************

Deaths = two shot

 

Terrace Story

 Terrace Story (2023) by Hilary Leichter

Synopsis from book flap: Annie, Edward, and their young daughter, Rose, live in a cramped apartment. One night, without warning, they find a beautiful terrace hidden in their closet. It wasn't there before, and it seems to only appear when their friend Stephanie visits. A city dweller's dream come true! But every extra bit of space has a hidden cost, and the terrace sets off a seismic chain of events, forever changing the shape of their tiny home, and the shape of the world.

Terrace Story follows the characters who suffer these repercussions and reverberations: the little family of three, their future now deeply uncertain, and those who orbit their fragile universe. The distance and love between these characters expands limitlessly, across generations. How far can the mind travel when it's looking for something that is gone? Where do we put our loneliness, longing, and desire? What do we do with the emotions that seem to stretch beyond the body, beyond the boundaries of life and death?

Based on the National Magazine Award-winning story, Hilary Leichter's profound second novel asks how we nurture love when death looms over every moment. From one of our most innovative and daring writers, Terrace Story is an astounding meditation on loss, a reverie about extinction, and a map for where to go next.

This is described above as a second novel. It feels nothing like a novel to me. It reads like a series of loosely related short stories--related because people mentioned in the very first one appear in later stories (not all every time). We jump around in time and the book has a very disjointed feel even though the final story does bring us around full circle. I don't mind time travel stories and I don't mind stories with a message--as the blurb implies this has. But I do like to feel as though I understand the characters and what's going on. The conversations between Annie and Edward make zero sense to me about 80-90% of the time, so I didn't connect with them as much as I would have liked.

I was very intrigued by the concept in the first story...which is where the idea of the hidden terrace is explored. I think if the rest of the book had fleshed that out in a more concrete way I would have enjoyed it a lot more. ★★ and 1/2. 

First line (1st story): The old window gave a grand view of yellow tree, trunk to branch.

Last lines (last story): Then the ship tilted away. Toward what, she could not guess.

Murder Every Monday

 

 

 

 

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 titles from books you own that meet prompts which she posts well in advance (see link). I've been participating for quite some time on Instagram and I have decided to post here as well.

 

Today's theme is titles with literary allusions.

 

Nothing Like Blood ~Leo Bruce [Vanity Fair by Thakeray]

The Mirror Crack'd ~ Agatha Christie ["The Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson]

Clouds of Witness ~Dorothy L. Sayers [Hebrews 12:1]

 

Cold Bed in the Clay ~Ruth Sawtell Wallis [Medea by Euripedes]

A Guilty Thing Surprised ~Ruth Rendell ["Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by Wordsworth]

Sound of Revelry ~Octavus Roy Cohen [Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii. Stanza 21 by Lord Byron]

And Be a Villain ~Rex Stout [Hamlet by Shakespeare]