High Marks for Murder

 High Marks for Murder (2008) by Rebecca Kent (Kate Kingsbury)

Meredith Llewellyn is the headmistress at the Bellehaven Finishing School. A place that is known for transforming the "most incorrigible tomboy into a refined young lady." It's also a bit progressive for the beginning of the 20th Century--encouraging their refined young ladies to think for themselves and allowing exploration into other ways to find fulfillment beyond the role of wife and mother. The teachers may teach deportment and household management, but you just might find them chanting "votes for women" along with their students. You never know what you might see if you arrive unannounced. But I don't think anyone expected to see a ghost...

That's just what Meredith does see after her friend Kathleen Duncan, the home management teacher, was found bludgeoned to death with a tree limb. The local bobby doesn't want to waste precious time investigating too deeply into the demise of a woman out wandering in the garden at night alone (where no respectable lady should be...) and decides it's a death by tramp. A very convenient tramp who is long gone with no way to trace him. Meredith is upset that her friend's death is so easily dismissed and thinks about investigating on her own. But she has no idea how to go about it. Until she starts seeing Kathleen's ghost who seems to be trying to tell her something through various signs. If she can just figure out what Kathleen's motions in the garden mean, she just might have the clues to get an investigation started. 

Pure cozy mystery. No blood to speak of. No traumatic or complicated goings-on in our amateur sleuth's life. And, honestly, not a whole heaping lot of detection. So--if you're looking for a standard mystery with clues to follow and deductions to make, then this might not be your thing. If you like a gentle mystery with a hint (just a hint, mind you) of the supernatural and likeable characters, then this might well be your thing. 

I like the setting at a girls' school. I like our main characters--Meredith and her two, somewhat reluctant, Watsons, Felicity and Essie--though I'm not quite sold on Meredith as a Sherlock just yet. This was a pleasant read but the mystery wasn't too difficult. I knew exactly what Kathleen's ghost meant when she kept pointing at the garden and I'm not quite sure why Meredith was so baffled. Perhaps her grief got in the way? I have the second book in this series and hope that we will see more detecting than trying to communicate with spirits (though I already know there is a ghost involved in that one as well). ★★★

First line: Under normal circumstances Meredith Llewellyn enjoyed the Sunday services at St. Edmund's.

Last line: "Now what's your story?"
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Deaths = one hit on head 

Old Bones

 Old Bones (1943) Herman Petersen

 Marian Wayne, wife of our narrator Ben Wayne, is on the hunt for local-sourced, vintage pine board for a redecoration project. She's hunted high and low in abandoned barns and farmhouses with no success. But then she remembers the grist mill on the property of the area's power family--the Wights. She finds what she's looking for there...and a bit more. While looking around she happens to look in the stand pipe, a well-like opening with water in the bottom, and sees a jumble of bones lying at the bottom. When her husband hears her story, he brings in Doc Miller, the county coroner, who in turn calls upon the D.A. Even before they try to retrieve the bones, Miller is convinced that they've an old murder to solve because someone dumped in old timbers as well in an effort to hide the remains. 

Since it is after dark and there's no lights in the mill, they decide to return in the morning to drain the stand pipe and bring up the bones. But when they get there, they find that someone has beaten them to it and the bones are gone. 

Bones, bones, who's got the bones? 

by grandeduc on Getty images

Fortunately, the person who snatched them in the night wasn't so great at the "hiding" part of hide-and-seek and the bones are rediscovered fairly quickly. The Wights, however, immediately use their influence to try and railroad the D.A. into calling the death an "unfortunate accident to John Doe." But as soon as Doc Miller gets a good look at the bones, he isn't having any. He recognizes healed bones representing injuries that he treated himself and declares that the bones belong to Nate Wight, the black sheep of the family who supposedly slunk off to New York City a few years ago. All clues seem to point directly to the Wights--no wonder they wanted things hushed up. And one of them will go to any length to keep the secrets of the past unseen. Now Doc Miller with Ben acting as his leg man must race to identify Nate's murderer before more people are hurt...or killed.

Lots of action--from a chase through the swamps to a midnight rescue from the stand pipe to blazing (literally) grand finale. Ben Wayne endures some very pulpy private eye encounters--all in the dark, so we don't know who the villain is till the end. Doc Miller spends a fair amount of time tending to Ben's injuries and you have to sympathize with Marian who is afraid that her husband won't survive the next go-round with the culprit. There is also a good amount of good old fashioned deduction on Doc Miller's part, making for a good detective story on top of the pulp action. The characters are great from the interactions between the good doctor and Ben, the good doctor and all the Wights. I especially enjoyed the two younger Wights--Peg and Lightning. They made good sleuthing sidekicks for Ben.

There are a few drawbacks--like the overall motivation of the killer. The initial murder and cover-up I get. But the follow-ups are bit tenuous--especially if the Wights and their entourage stick together as they've always done. It might have helped if there had been a bit more attention to the background of the characters (delightful as most of them are, we don't learn a lot about them). And I don't see the point of the fire at the end--not even with the murderer explaining it. But the pluses outweigh the minuses and I thoroughly enjoyed Petersen's story. I'll definitely pick up the first two in the Doc Miller series if I come across them.  ★★★★

First line: I had spent most of today in the city; a business demand had been satisfied, and I had managed to call on my tailor too.

Last line: What became of the cat?"
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Deaths = 5 (one natural; one hit on head; one shot; two burned to death)

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with--or shall we say not absolutely confident I know the exact meaning of, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word of the Day is cuckoo-pint (noun). Arum maculatum, commonly known as cuckoopint, jack-in-the-pulpit and other names, is a woodland flowering plant species in the family Araceae. It is native across most of Europe, as well as Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus.

...he says there's no harm in it [picking wild plants for tea]. I don't feel at all sure myself, for she is hardly responsible for her actions and may easily pick something poisonous, cuckoo-pint, for instance, which I have seen growing in several places. (~Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers)

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with--or shall we say not absolutely confident I know the exact meaning of, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word (phrase) of the Day is Mazeppa's horses. From a famous legend, popularized by Lord Byron's poem, where the historical Ukrainian figure Ivan Mazepa was punished for an affair by being tied naked to a wild horse and left to race across the steppe, often depicted in art with the horse surrounded by other horses or in dramatic flight. The horse eventually carried him to safety.

...Freddy asked me to lunch the other day. I wasn't keen , and if I'd known beforehand what Papa Borth was like, all Mazeppa's horses wouldn't have got me there. (~Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers)

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with--or shall we say not absolutely confident I know the exact meaning of, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word of the Day is Amanullah (proper noun). Ghazi Amanullah Khan Barakzai (1 June 1892 – 26 April 1960) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1926, and then King of Afghanistan from 1926 until his abdication in 1929. His rule was marked by dramatic political and social change, including attempts to modernize Afghanistan along Western lines.

My campaign for euthanasia wasn't like that, I admit I was a bit green to go at it as I did, something like Amanullah experimenting in westernization. (from Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers)

Shadows Before

 Shadows Before (1939) by Dorothy Bowers

Professor Matthew Weir escaped the gallows in 1937 by the skin of teeth. In Scotland, the verdict would likely have been brought in as "Not Proven." His highly abrasive, interfering sister-in-law had died from arsenical poisoning and the Weir's equally poisonous housekeeper had done her darnedest to see that her employer wound up with a noose around his neck. Weir university had stood by him during the entire ordeal (perhaps a point in his favor with the jury...), but he felt impelled to give up his post and flee to the country where he and his family lived in a small Tudor manor house near Oxford for two years without incident. Unless you count the slight mental decline of his wife.

It's thought wise to bring in a companion for Kate Weir--especially to accompany her on walks where she's apt to pick wild herb and whatnot to brew up her special teas. The doctor, who is instrumental in hiring Miss Brett (the companion), insists that the teas are harmless. But...Mrs. Weir had been experiencing gastric distress before Miss Brett was hired. Is that linked to the teas? Or, as the housekeeper (yes, the same one) points out, the illnesses seemed to follow hard on visits that Kate Weir made to Alice Gretton, one of the few local women with whom Mrs. Weir has made friends--could Alice have been giving Kate something to make her sick? It's interesting that the episodes stop as soon as Alice Weir disappears from her cottage.

But then Miss Brett arrives and Mrs. Weir has another, final bout of illness. And when the autopsy is done arsenic is once again the culprit. Was Matthew Weir erroneously acquitted and has he struck again? If so, he must be hoping that his wife's niece is also no longer among the living--because if Joyce Murray is alive and well in Australia, then she'll inherit everything except 6,000 pounds. But if she's dead....well, Matthew's inheritance will be much bigger. When Scotland Yard arrives in the persons of Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe and Detective Sergeant Salt, they'll have a job to find the guilty party--whether the obvious or not. Also cluttering up the possible suspects are Matthew's niece and nephew (who could benefit indirectly), an old gypsy woman who seemed to take a sudden dislike to Mrs. Weir after a brief friendship, and Matthew's brother, Augustus, who also could benefit from a brother with more ready cash. When a vehicle suffers a mysterious "accident" and the gypsy disappears, Pardoe realizes he'll need to work quickly to prevent more deaths.

This one gets off to a slow start with the lead up to the hiring of Miss Brett and her train journey to Steeple Cloudy--although I did love Miss Flora Hickey, a schoolteacher from Indiana (!), and her observations of her fellow passengers. I was disappointed that she didn't play a bigger part throughout the story (hoping for a sortof a mild version of Miss Marple and her keen people skills). But she does come through towards the end, giving Pardoe a vital clue. And speaking of Queens of Crime (Christie), I found the final letter in this partial epistolary story to be quite Sayers-like. "Mew," the mother of one of the supporting characters, reminds me of the Dowager Duchess in several of her turns of phrase. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of her (or her letters) either.

Once the second murder happens and Pardoe and Salt arrive, things pick up nicely. A good mixture of close questioning of the suspects and action and the clues are displayed fairly (though I missed a few). I noticed an early one and then promptly forgot it once other items drew my attention and was a bit surprised by the ending. If I'd been paying proper attention, I shouldn't have been. A very good outing with Pardoe and Salt. ★★★★

First line (prologue): So, it's all over, Mew, or nearly.

First line (1st chapter): Five months after the death of her employer, Aurelia Brett walked up from Castlebury Station in search of Dr. Smollett's house.

"By all accounts, piecing this, that, and the other together, taking off a slice here and supplying a bit there, she [Miss Leah Bunting] was one of the most difficult, though not most uncommon, types of maiden lady, given over at the same time to good works and to the exercises of an uncharitable tongue. In short, it seemed as if the good works had wrung all the goodness out of her." (Inspector Pardoe; p. 52)

The villagers might, for all he knew, be the heartless scandal-mongers he [the rector] made them out, but when you had a murder (and presumably a murderer) plopped down in your midst, you ought to be permitted a little mongering. (p. 149)

"'He travels fastest who travels alone,'" murmured the A.C. "Play a lone hand when next you do a murder, Sergeant." (p. 186)

Last line: And you will certainly come to me before you go and see Mussolini--Zoe, Nick, and Dinah too, please, and that poor little Freddy if the ogre will let him (I don't mean Mussolini, of course, but the other one). Your loving, Mew

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Deaths = 11 (four poisoned;three natural; two car accident; one train accident; one hit on head)

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with--or shall we say not absolutely confident I know the exact meaning of, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word of the Day is bole (noun): main woody trunk of a tree--from its base up to the first branches.

Between the boles bordering the main walk the earth was dry and flaky with the leaf-mold of centuries. (Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers)

From the context, I was expecting it to be a type of tree (other types had been named previously), not what I consider to just be the the trunk of the tree.

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with--or shall we say not absolutely confident I know the exact meaning of, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word of the Day is Abstruse (adj): difficult to understand; obscure

"...in his case it's especially idiotic because he edits a very abstruse quarterly and ought to welcome intellect wherever he can find it."

GAD Word of the Day

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word of the Day is impresario (noun), a promoter, manager, and/or organizer of entertainment.

She tried, with something less than her usual zest, to place him. Probably an impresario, she concluded. Surely not British, hardly American, possibly Russian. (from Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers)

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word (phrase) of the Day is ashtrakhan collar. A luxurious fur collar made from the tightly curled, lustrous pelts of very young Karakul sheep (also known as Persian lamb), prized for its unique, grooved texture and warmth.

An enormous coat with an ashtrakhan collar hung open nearly to his ankles, exaggerating height and bulk. ~from Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers.

Now, have I ever heard of an ashtrakhan collar before? Well, yes. And I had an idea of what it might be from context clues. But I've never really known what precisely it was...and never bothered to find out till now.

The Division Bell Mystery

 The Division Bell Mystery (1932) by Ellen Wilkinson

Ellen Wilkinson was one of England's first female MPs and gives readers an intimate look at the hallowed halls of Parliament in this, her first...and only detective novel. Her debut novel introduces Robert West, private secretary to the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, who finds himself playing amateur detective when a violent death happens during his Chief's private dinner with reclusive American financier Georges Oissel. 

Initially, the death of Oissel looks like suicide. The Home Secretary (who seems to be nameless...unless I missed it somehow) had to leave his guest a bit before the division bell (a signal to Members that a vote is about to be taken). The room is virtually sealed--all windows locked and the only door under observation of a waiter preparing to bring coffee for the Home Secretary's return as well as West and his own guest who are just coming down the hallway--when a shot is heard. The three men rush to the room and find Oissel shot through the heart and a revolver on the floor nearby.

The House officers quickly arrive and a search is made, but there is no one out of the ordinary to be found. Inspector Blackitt of Scotland Yard is called in and also seems to favor suicide--at first. But Oissel's granddaughter insists that her grandfather would never kill himself. And then the Oissel's apartment is burgled and the Home Secretary's own man who had been serving as a kind of body guard is killed. And then...the evidence (lack of scorching of any sort) supports the theory of murder. But if it is murder, how did the murderer get away? West and Blackitt will have to solve the impossible crime if they're going to nab the killer.

Wilkinson does an excellent job of setting the scene. Even this Yank began to feel at home in the House of Commons--it was so well-described. It was fun to see the inner workings of the 1930s Parliament--the machinations and tricks and deals to get things done. And to realize that "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Her characters are vivid and well-defined and I think it's a shame she didn't write more mysteries, especially if they would have featured Lord Dalbreattie and West investigating again. Inspector Blackitt is given the short end of the stick, though. After showing how it couldn't be suicide and beginning to investigate, he sort of fades into the background. 

She doesn't do too badly with the impossible crime either--especially given that this was her first attempt at a detective novel. One one real complaint is that I can't remember a particular thing being mentioned about the room where Oissel was killed. It's kind of important to solving the mystery. I just went back and reread all the scenes I could remember that took place in Room J (as it's known) and I couldn't find mention of it at all. So, I don't see how the reader could possibly have figured out how it was done.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read. ★★★★

First line: No matter how exciting the day, the House of Commons loses all interest between the hours of 7 am and 9 pm.

The public was not quite sure of him [the Prime Minister] because he, elusive, incalculable, was never quite sure of himself....to some degree he reflected the lack of purpose of his period. It was counted to him for a virtue that he could answer any question and leave the questioner soothed, but completely in the dark as to what he meant. (p. 159)

"Flossie" [the Home Secretary] was priceless. He had committed the most unpardonable piece of folly, he had outraged every official British tradition. If the facts were suspected not only the Government, but the Party were irretrievably ruined, and there he sat, a pillar of the Established Church and the Established Everything Else, shocked at the wickedness of the the unknown burglars. (p. 167)

Robert felt like he ought to apologize for the poor old Parliament that had insisted on having a mystery although it ought to have known that Lord Dalbeattie didn't like them. (p. 175)

"The police are no match for a really highly trained servant, especially one accustomed to holding his or her tongue in a place like the House of Commons. I learned that fact in a very costly way when I was trying to get a divorce. My wife knew it, and I paid for the lesson. (Lord Dalbeattie; p. 179)

"But it is no use trying to unravel a mystery like this unless you are prepared to face every possibility, and keep your own emotions out of it. Find the truth, and then let your feelings dictate what you should do with it. That seems to me to be the only common-sense way." (Lord Dalbeattie; p 182)

Last line: "The police forgot the river."
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Deaths = two shot

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 

My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word (phrase) of the Day is division bell. Taken from my most recent read, The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson, a division bell (noun) is a bell rung in or around parliament in commonwealth realms to signal a division (vote) to members so they may participate. May also be used to indicate the start or end of parliamentary proceedings.

Well...really rather straightforward. But being on the opposite side of the pond from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, I hadn't come across the term before and, although the explanation comes pretty quickly when reading, I have to say I had no idea what a division bell was when I picked up the book.

~Oh...and about that "word of the day" thing...I may have been a bit optimistic about the frequency of unfamiliar words. That first GAD mystery (Don Among the Dead Men) was chock full of them. My second read of the year wasn't a Golden Age Mystery (and didn't really introduce any unfamiliar words, anyway). And the Wilkinson book has yielded only a few.

2026 Alphabet Soup Author Edition

 

The Alphabet Soup Challenge--Author Edition is a companion challenge for Lori's Alphabet Soup Challenge. The goal is to read books by authors whose first, middle, or last name will allow us to read one book for every letter of the alphabet. If you'd like to join in, please click on the link above for full details. X & Z keep getting trickier for me--especially since I'm trying to read primarily from my own shelves. So--my declared personal goal is 13 books (half the alphabet). I will try to do all 26, but if I meet 13, I can count the challenge complete on my challenge tracker page.

A:
B: Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers (1/18/26)
C: A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie (1/24/26)
D: Aristotle, Detective by Margaret Doody
E:
F
G:
H:
I:
J:
K: High Marks for Murder by Rebecca Kent (1/22/26)
L:
M:
N:
O:
P: Old Bones by Herman Petersen (1/20/26)
Q:
R:
S: Death on the Slopes by Norma Schier (1/9/26)
T:
U:
V: Don Among the Dead Men by C. E. Vulliamy (1/7/26)
W: The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson (1/12/26)
X:
Y:
Z:

2026 Alphabet Soup Challenge

 

The Alphabet Soup Challenge means that by December 31, 2026 our bowls must be filled with one book (title) for each letter of the Alphabet. Each letter = one spoonful. Basic details: you can sign up any time. Each letter should begin the book title--except for those pesky Q, X, and Z letters. The word that begins with the challenge letter may appear anywhere in the title. For full details and to sign up, click above. X & Z keep getting trickier for me--especially since I'm trying to read primarily from my own shelves. So--my declared personal goal is 13 books (half the alphabet). I will try to do all 26, but if I meet 13, I can count the challenge complete on my challenge tracker page.

A: Aristotle, Detective by Margaret Doody

B:

C:

D: Don Among the Dead Men by C. E. Vulliamy (1/7/26)

E:

F:

G:

H: High Marks for Murder by Recca Kent (1/22/26)

I:

J:

K:
L:
M:
N:
O: Old Bones by Herman Petersen (1/20/26)
P: (A) Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
Q:
R:
S: Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers (1/18/26)
T:
U:
V:
W:
X
Y:
Z:

Death on the Slopes

 Death on the Slopes (1978) by Norma Schier

Jason Ryder has been trying to recover from the death of his wife in a tragic car accident when two things happen. Valerie Mayne, a woman who says she was friend of his wife in college, shows up at his door and attaches herself, limpet-like, to him. He just can't seem to get her to get a job and an apartment and out of his hair. And he receives a letter from his cousin asking if he'd like a change from the high-powered world of New York publishing to the mountain slopes of Colorado. His cousin, who teaches at a small college in Aspen, is going to Italy to teach and there's an open position. Jason decides the change is just what he needs...and it's a chance to get rid of Valerie gracefully.

Except...

"But Jason, that's too good to be true! I'm dying to go to Aspen!"

And the limpet tags right along to Colorado. Where she immediately stirs up trouble, making everyone think that Jason has a live-in girlfriend. So...when Valerie winds up stabbed with a ski pole and Jason was last person known to be her...well what is the detective in charge of the case to think?

But...Aspen's newest female D.A., Kay Barth, doesn't think the police have enough evidence to make a charge stick and demands that the officers dig a little deeper into Valerie's past. Except...it's evident that's going to be a challenge. Despite making the national news and calls for information, no one comes forward as family or friends to help the police or claim the body. Could there be something in Valerie's past that finally caught up with her on the ski slopes? New evidence is found that there were other men in Valerie's life and that she had history of using what she knew about people to get what she wanted. Whose position did she threaten the most?

This is one of the better mysteries in the Zebra Puzzler series, though one could have hoped for more clues to the motive. On the plus side, there are plenty of suspects to choose from and there are several clues that could point more than one way. So the book is true to the series name--providing a puzzle for the reader. With the set-up, one did know that Jason would be cleared even though it looked quite black for him even at moments towards the end. And this series just isn't the type to turn things absolutely on its head by making the apparently guilty from the beginning suspect the actual villain after all. A fun, quick read that I enjoyed. ★★★★

First line: Margaret Watterson was new to skiing.

Last lines: "You can keep the scotch," she called out. The front door slammed behind her.
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Deaths = 4 (one auto accident; one stabbed; two airplane crash)