Challenge Complete: Antonym Challenge

January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Last year Tasha at Book Obsessed asked: Are you ready to take the challenge!?!

And I said: She's kidding right? Me, not take a challenge? That's like Star Trek not boldly going. Or Holmes not detecting. Of course, I'm ready for the challenge. This one and that one and those over there too. And this one sounded particularly fun.

The goal was to read books by matching antonyms in the titles. And I went for the top level:

Doctorate: 32+ books (listed below):

1. Bland Beginning by Julian Symons (4/12/12)
2. A Finer End by Deborah Crombie (4/14/12)

3. The School of Night by Louis Bayard (11/12/12)
4. The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake (5/14/12)

5. The Future on Ice by Orson Scott Card, ed. (2/15/12)
6. The Fire Engine that Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (4/9/12)

7. The Devil to Pay by Ellery Queen (5/6/12)
8. Death of a God by S. T. Haymon (5/1/12)

9. Such Friends Are Dangerous by Walter Tyrer (5/19/12)
10. A Stranger in My Grave by Margaret Millar (9/10/12)

11. Silver and Guilt by Cynthia Smith (4/9/12)
12. The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (8/25/12)

13. Murder with a Past by Ellery Queen (4/27/12)
14. Future Crime by Cynthia Mason & Charles Ardai, eds. (1/23/12)

15. A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell (10/8/12)
16. O' Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor (6/20/12)

17. The Last Escape by E. C. R. Lorac (5/14/12)
18. Catch as Catch Can by Frances & Richard Lockridge (11/26/12)

19. The Case of the Blind Barber by John Dickson Carr (9/22/12)
20. The Confession & Sight Unseen by Mary Roberts Rinehart (10/10/12)

21. Death's Pale Horse by James Sherburne (8/27/12)
22. She Woke to Darkness by Brett Halliday (10/29/12)

23.The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur W. Upfield (11/16/12)
24. Not in the Flesh by Ruth Rendell (11/10/12)

25. The Nine Wrong Answers by John Dickson Carr (7/7/12)
26. A Question of Time by Helen McCloy (10/15/12)

27. Slowly, Slowly in the Wind by Patricia Highsmith (11/30/12)
28. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch (9/1/12)
 
29. New Graves at Great Norne by Henry Wade (5/31/12)
30. Death of an Old Girl by Elizabeth LeMarchand (11/21/12)

31. Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas (10/27/12)
32. Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly (2/18/12)
33. Something to Kill For by Susan Holtzer (6/1/12)

Slowly, Slowly in the Wind: Review

Slowly, Slowly in the Wind by Patricia Highsmith is a collection of short stories that is full of oddly disturbing tales.  From the pond that comes to life and takes the life of a woman and her son to the psychopath who becomes a little too involved with a wax museum full of murderers, the world in Highsmith's stories is just a little claustrophobic and irrational.  Highsmith tackles the themes of believability and guilt; justice and injustice.  There is the man who writes a life's worth of novels in his head and the man who exacts revenge on his neighbor for slights real and imagined.  The oddest story of all is the last one--a strange, cautionary tale about ecological damage and the revenge that nature might take on humanity if we go too far.  More science fiction thriller than mystery, it reminds me of Harlan Ellison at his weakest.  I think perhaps Highsmith should have stuck to things mysterious rather than venture into things science fictional.  The theme of revenge is a good one--just a little too fantastic in this last story.

Overall, a very good collection.  Thrilling, memorable and just a bit on the creepy side.  Four stars.

Catch as Catch Can: Review

It started with little things, with things of no real significance.  

And so opens Catch as Catch Can by Frances & Richard Lockridge.  The whole mystery starts with the little things....Linda Parks comes home to the apartment she shares with Joyce Holbrook expecting to share a dinner of pork chops and salad with her roommate.  She finds the door unlocked (expected) and the apartment empty (not).  She's not too concerned at first--after all the women have a rule that if something else comes up (like a casting call or a man), then "something else" comes first, and so she believes that something else must have come along.  But then she finds the note.  A note addressed to "Lindy," a name that no one has ever used for her--ever.  A note which makes a big deal about Joyce going away for the weekend with Nicholses, a couple that Joyce emphatically believes Linda remembers.  Only she doesn't--she doesn't believe she's ever met anybody by the name of Nichols.  And it seems that Joyce has packed her autumn suit for a weekend away during a summer heat wave.  And Joyce has grabbed Linda's robe by mistake, a robe that couldn't possibly fit the taller, bigger boned woman.  As more and more little things add up, Linda becomes very uneasy about her missing roommate and decides to consult someone unofficially.  

She decides to lay all her little things before Geoffrey Bowen, a young man who works in the District Attorney's Office and whom Linda definitely does remember meeting at a party.  She contacts Bowen and, after overcoming his reluctance to get involved (he's afraid that this will be one of "those" situations), they arrange to meet at the train station so she can ride out to the country with him and tell the story on the way.  That's when the real fun begins--because somebody does not want Linda to talk to Bowen and that somebody will go to a great deal of trouble to make sure she doesn't.  What happened to Joyce?  Why did a Fuller Brush man stop by their apartment and only their apartment?  Who is the man masquerading as Linda's father?  And why does he think Joyce told Linda something before she disappeared?  These are all questions that must be answered before the mystery is solved.

This is one of the few non-series mysteries of the more suspenseful type written by the husband and wife team.  Most of the stand-alone titles were written by Richard after Frances passed away in 1963.  This, I think, is also one of the best stand-alone titles with the Lockridge name on it.  Richard tended to write the stand-alones with a lot more of a thriller flavor once he was writing on his own.  While Catch as Catch Can does have a bit of the thriller feel to it, it is still owes quite a bit to the cozy.  I really like Linda Parks as the heroine, particularly in the last half of the book.  Not to spoil anything, but Geoffrey comes to her rescue only to find that (for a 1950s kind of girl) Linda is perfectly capable of helping rescue him when needed.  

A light, fun, very engaging read.  Easily managed in one sitting.  And I enjoyed every minute.  Four stars.


Quotes:
It started with little things, with things of no real significance. (p. 7)

When Geoffrey Bowen, lawyer, an assistant attorney among many, had first become a commuter the previous May he had treated commuters' trains with the respect due trains--had arrived at stations with time to spare.  But now a train was not really a train. (p. 27)

There was no point in letting the same thing happen twice. Having let it happen once had not increased his popularity. He was a man who liked to be popular. (p. 44)

Because you can't walk out on people. Not if you know things--even things that form a cobweb only--which nobody else knows. (pp. 45-6)

He was thus to become bait--live bait, it was to be hoped....They had killed once already, if Stringer was right. Why would they hesitate to kill again? Or even, if it came to that, a third time. That was a pleasant thought. Bait--live bait--may lead to a catch, but the bait had to be swallowed first. (p. 100)

Death of an Old Girl: Review

Death of an Old Girl is the first book in Elizabeth Lemarchand's series featuring Chief Detective Inspector Tom Pollard and Sergeant Toye.  It is set at the Meldon School for girls.  At the end of year Festival, Beatrice Baynes, one of the "old girls" who attended the school back in the day, does what she does best--stir up trouble.  She is an interfering, overbearing, spiteful snoop who can't stand the changes that have been made to the school since her day.  She's particularly displeased with the Head Mistress Helen Renshaw who has brought about the changes and the new art teacher Ann Cartmell who encourages the girls to paint all sorts of sordid pictures (bare backs, for goodness sake!).  She creates quite a stir at the festival's assembly--criticizing Miss Cartmell, the new curriculum, other new staff members, and suggestion that money from the Old Meldonian's Society funds be used to help buy new "modern" pictures for the school.  


There are others who displease her as well....her nephew who can't seem to hold down a job to save his life and who seems to depend too much on her good will as well as his expectations in her will; her god-daughter who can't seem to do anything right--according to Miss Baynes; and the gardener who has let the precious school's grounds go to wrack and ruin. Not to mention the Old Meldonians and new girls who aren't part of her "stick to the old ways" posse.  So, it's no surprise that none of them seem terribly upset when Beatrice Baynes is found dead in the art studio--stuffed in a large puppet theater--after the Old Meldonian Society Festival is over.  Sure, they're a bit upset that a murder has happened at all...for what will the parents of the girls and the public think?  But there isn't much feeling for the victim.


Inspector Pollard has a job ahead of him and no mistake.  Lots of suspects--folks who had their run-ins with the lady, but few with a real motive that would seem to warrant murder.  And those with the strongest motive all seem to have an alibi.  After several false starts and clearing out all the red herrings, Pollard finally sees the outline of the real motive.  Lemarchand has crafted an excellent mystery.  The clues are all there...not that I think you'll catch them all or see them for what they are if you do.  I've read other (later) Pollard and Toye books and it was very nice to see their beginnings.  Even in this first book, their characters are well-defined and a real treat to read about.  I thoroughly enjoyed this "old school" academic mystery--three and a half stars.

Quotes:

CSC: What do you consider the most striking feature of the murder?
CDIP: It's unpremeditated character, sir.
CSC: Quite. That adds to your difficulties, too, doesn't it?  No nice trail of poison-buying  under false names, or secondhand typewriters acquired in disguise.  Just a handy paper-weight picked up on the spur of the moment.  You needn't necessarily have a motive in the ordinary sense of the word.
~Chief Superintendent Crowe; Chief Detective Inspector Pollard (p. 109)

He's the kind of man who weighs up asking you to bed with him with the possible effect on his reputation if it gets out.  Never mind yours. [Mrs. Pollarard; p. 112] 

The Bone Is Pointed: Review

The Bone Is Pointed is the sixth novel in Arthur W. Upfield's detective series featuring Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte.  It is the second of the these novels which I have read.  In this outing Bony is called to the bush country where a man went missing five months ago.  Few people really care what happened to Jack Anderson.  He was a cruel man with a nasty temper...a man who wasn't afraid to use his whip on those who crossed him.  Have the bush men exacted revenge for his beating of one of their own?  Has his rival in love disposed of him?  Or has something else happened to him.  Bony must follow the clues along a trail long gone cold--but he is half aboriginal himself and knows the ways of the back country.  And....he has never left a case unsolved yet.  

But it looks like he might have to.  As his sharp eyes pick out small signs along the missing man's last known trail, there are those who are worried.  And they're not afraid to use bush country magic to curse this outsider who seems to have magic of his own when it comes to unearthing secrets they would prefer to stay buried.  Can Bony fight the "boning" magic that most back country men believe can kill?  He'll have to if he's to get to the bottom of the disappearance of Anderson.

This is a solid mystery novel.  Upfield's writing is, as it was in his other novel (An Author Bites the Dust), full of intelligent prose and fine detail.  He gives us plenty of information about the beliefs and practices of the Australian aborigines of the early 20th C.  The descriptions of the bush country and the rabbit migration in particular are quite spectacular.  Unfortunately, the mystery itself and Bony's investigation were not quite as compelling in this one.  I found myself a bit exasperated with the inspector's feeling of inferiority which drives him to his perfect record.  He can't leave the case unsolved no matter how cold the trail, how few the clues, or how sick the "boning" makes him.  Not because he wants to see justice done, but because his pride won't stand it.  The theme gets a little old after a while, and I'm glad that it did not make such an emphatic appearance in Author....or I might not be willing to try any more of the series.

I did appreciate Bony's very humane way of wrapping up the case and I enjoyed the story overall.  A solid three star mystery.

The School of Night: Review

The School of Night by Louis Bayard has a really interesting premise.  He starts with a secret society made up of Sir Walter Raleigh (oops, Ralegh--don't ask me why we've decided to ditch the "I"), Christopher "Kit" Marlowe, Thomas Harriot and others....the School of Night.  A group of men who dare to think about such forbidden topics as alchemy and paganism, who question the existence of God and the meaning of life.  In modern times, a page of a letter from Raleigh to Harriot comes to light and with it the promise of a hidden treasure.  

Raleigh scholar and ousted academic, Henry Cavendish is drawn into the treasure hunt by his former friend and confidante, Alonzo Wax.  Cavendish, Wax, and a mysterious woman named Clarissa work together to decipher Harriot's coded treasure map on the back of the letter....they're in a race against time and against the letter's alleged owner.  A man with a load of wealth and a couple of heavy-duty thugs to back him up when push comes to shove.  What treasure lies buried in the spot marked X on the map....and who will wind up with it?  Those are the questions in Bayard's book.

As I said, an interesting premise.  The synopsis grabbed me and made me want to read the book.  But the book didn't live up to the promise.  I really didn't find myself invested in the characters.  Cavendish is a bit of a loser.  And he didn't win me over as the underdog who will make good--the man down-on-his-luck who deserves better, so cheer him on!  I really didn't care if he and his friends decoded the map and found the treasure or not.  And....when they finally do decode the map...well, let me just say that it's all a bit of a let-down.  

There is also the disjointed juggling of the current day treasure hunt story and the flashbacks to the days of Harriot.  That didn't work so well either.  Clarissa supposedly has visions (or nightmares or visitations or some such thing) where she "sees" what's going on back in Harriot's day.  And, other than being the only way Bayard seemed to be able to think of to tell us all that historical stuff, it was all kind of pointless. The flashbacks didn't help Cavendish & company find the treasure, decode the map or anything.  They were just there.  Not very effective.  But the funny thing is, Bayard's writing is so compelling that I had to finish the darn thing anyway.  I couldn't NOT read it.  Now I'm going to have to try another of his books just to see if he can write a better story.  'Cause a better story with his compelling writing style would be pretty awesome indeed.  Two and a half stars for this one.  Just.

Not in the Flesh: Review

Just to start off....I've seriously got to do something about my end-of-year reading habits.  It should not take me five days to read a Ruth Rendell mystery.  It just shouldn't.  

But for some reason, it did indeed take me five days to turn the last page on Rendell's Not in the Flesh.  In this story, a truffle-hunting dog unearths an unusual find....a human hand instead of the underground mushrooms its owner wants to dig up and sell.  Its up to Chief Inspector Wexford and his team to try and identify the remains and see if they can solve the ten year old mystery.  During the investigation, another body is discovered in the area and they must determine if they are dealing with two mysteries or only one.  There are lots of of long-buried secrets--some buried deeper than the bodies of the murdered men.  And there will be an attempt to silence Wexford himself before it's all over.

I'm not sure exactly why this book took so long to finish.  It's true that life in the Fall tends to get a bit more hectic, but it wasn't just a sense of having too much too do and too little time to read.  Rendell is her usual competent mystery-writing self, but the story just didn't engross me the way hers usually do.  Her writing was as engaging as ever, but the mystery wasn't.  It didn't help that I identified the motive (which led me to the central who) early on.  It also didn't help that she thrust a "social commentary" issue into the story with no real reason at all--other than she must have wanted a soap box on which to rant about female circumcision. It's not that I don't agree that this is a horrific and abhorrent practice.  I do.  It is.  But there was no reason at all to bring it up in the story.  You want to make a point about the practice?  Fine, then let's have a murder plot that actually takes place within the community in which this type of mutilation is the norm.  Not the murders of two white males who seem to have connections to 1) fruit pickers OR 2) writers OR 3) landed gentry OR 4) anything else but the aforementioned community.

The best part of the mystery is the characterizations.  As always, Rendell gives us interesting and finely drawn characters.  The relationship between Wexford and Burden is nice, comfortable one after the many years of stories.  Reading this one was like reading about the adventures of old friends....I just wish that their adventures had been a bit more exciting this time.  Three stars.

She Woke to Darkness: Review

Here I go venturing into the hard boiled realm again with She Woke to Darkness by Brett Halliday.  Halliday actually writes a more mystery-oriented hard boiled story.  And this one is a real treat--one I wasn't expecting.  I picked this up simply because it was one of my beloved little pocket size editions. And the blurb on the back didn't really indicate that this was anything beyond the typical P.I. story:

Who is this girl?
Loves good times and parties. After third martini has habit of giving her key to the nearest man, walking out with another. Natural enemy of all wives.

Who is this man?
Takes fun where he finds it, and finds plenty. His little black book covers territory from Greenwich Village to Yorkville. His goal is usually fun. This time it was murder.

Mike Shayne in a tense, violent, deadly game tries to out-guess a sinister combo and plays hide-and-seek with murder.

 See?  No hint at all that what we have here is the author himself appearing front and center and all lined up as the prime suspect.  Halliday attends the 1953 Edgar Allen Poe Awards in New York City.  While there he has to put up with arrogant young writers who look on him as an old-timer who has over-stayed his welcome in the writing world and who needs to step aside and make room for their up and coming brilliance.  He's getting a little disgruntled with the world, when Elsie Murray is introduced to him.  Elsie is every male author's dream--a lovely young woman who adores his books, can actually talk intelligently about them, and apparently is intent on making it with her idol.

They have a few drinks at the MWA bar and then decide to take the conversation back to her place for more drinks....and whatever else they might decide to do.  But...Elsie isn't just a crime story fan-girl.  She's got an unfinished manuscript of her own that she'd like Halliday to take a look at (isn't that always the way....everybody's got an angle).  She tells him that the novel is based on actual events.  She knows what actually happened up to a point, but she's had to figure out the ending (and she claims to have come up with a doozy) and is having trouble figuring out how to get from point A to point B.  She's hoping Halliday will be able to give her some pointers on how to fill in the middle section of the book.

Before they can discuss things much further, Elsie receives a phone call that obviously puts her in a panic.  She hands Halliday the manuscript and shoves him out the door.  He agrees to read the draft and call her to arrange a meeting of the minds later.  He heads straight to his hotel, reads the thing straight through, and decides to call her right back and give her his initial thoughts. Only it isn't Elsie who answers the phone.  It's a rather official, policeman-sounding kind of guy.  Which seems to Halliday to be kind of ominous.  He's quite sure that something has happened to Elsie and gets a true-crime writer friend of his to scope things out with the cops.  Unfortunately, he's right.  Elsie's been strangled and guess who's going to be number one on the suspect list.  That's right, the fella who took her home from the party.  

Halliday calls up his good friend and detective, Mike Shayne, and asks him to come to NYC as quickly as possible.  By the time Shayne arrives, Halliday has disappeared and the cops are sure that he's on the lam.  It's up to Shayne to decipher the clues in the unfinished manuscript and hunt down the real villain before Halliday becomes another body in the morgue.

This is a lovely little romp through New York in the 1950s.  As an added bonus, Halliday spends the first part of the book dropping prominent names from the mystery field like nobody's business. The reader finds herself rubbing elbows with Helen McCloy, Helen Reilly, Clayton Rawson, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee with near misses with John Dickson Carr and George Harmon Coxe.  There have been other authors who have dropped themselves down into the narrative, but it doesn't always work out as successfully as this does with Halliday.  He gives the reader a good mystery to chew on and manages to make his participation in the story very realistic.  I thoroughly enjoyed this "soft" hard boiled mystery.  Three and a half stars.

Some Danger Involved: Review

Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas is one of the most engaging historical mysteries set in Victorian England that I have read in a long time.  Very atmospheric and informative--informative without being pedantic.  The story begins with Thomas Llewelyn, a down-on-his-luck ex-Oxford man and ex-prisoner.  Llewelyn has found it very difficult to get employment after spending time in Oxford prison for a very small crime.  He is nearly ready to end his suffering--permanently--when he sees an advertisement in The Times:

Assistant to prominent enquiry agent. Typing and shorthand required. Some danger involved in performance of duties. Salary commensurate with ability. 7 Craig's Court.

He goes to Craig's Court on the first day, but the line is so long he quickly gives up the wait.  When the advertisement is still running for a fourth day, he decides to give it one more try...and if he doesn't get this job, then he will be seeking out the river.

Fortunately for him, Cyrus Barker, the enquiry agent in question, sees something in this downtrodden man that makes him give Llewelyn a chance.  The Welshman has barely had time to settle in to his new establishment--which serves as home as well as work--when Barker is called in by prominent men in the Jewish community to investigate the horrible murder of a young scholar in the Jewish quarter.  It is Barker's job to determine if this was a private feud or if this represents a violent outbreak of the unrest which is sweeping England with the influx of Jewish refugees. Neither Barker nor Lord Rothschild and Sir Moses Montefiore want to see an English version of the pogroms. The trail takes Barker and Llewelyn from the meanest streets of the Jewish ghetto to the lair of the early Italian mafia to the churches of London. There will be another murder and Llewelyn will come close to being a third victim before he and his employer can close the case.

Thomas gives us a new look at the Holmes and Watson/Wolfe and Goodwin detective team.  Lots more action than most of the Holmes stories and Barker is far more mobile and physically involved than Nero Wolfe generally is.  I thoroughly enjoyed this new addition to the ranks.  The characters are interesting and I particularly like the interaction between Barker and Llewelyn.  They have the chemistry necessary to create a duo to follow in such auspicious footsteps.  We learn a lot about Llewelyn background, but there is still plenty to be revealed about his employer.  The other members of Barker's staff from Mac the butler and general factotum to Dummolard, his French chef, are also well-drawn.  And I hope to see more of Inspector Poole of the C.I.D.   I also enjoyed the historical information that Thomas works into the narrative.  I appreciate learning something when I pick up a historical novel without being beaten over the head with scholarship.  Thomas weaves knowledge about the Jewish population in England into the story without overburdening it.  He gives us enough to know why this was such a hot topic without sounding like a text book.

This is an interesting and entertaining beginning to a fairly new historical mystery series.  I look forward to future installments.  Five stars.

A Question of Time; Review

Lisa is 13 years old and an orphan in 1960.  She comes to America to live with her father's family the Hollands.  Her father was an heir to a fortune and her mother was an Italian princess.  But she has been raised in a Catholic orphanage and doesn't feel privileged...and she certainly doesn't feel at home in her Boston surroundings.  Her greatest shock comes in the house's large ballroom.  For no reason she can name, the room makes her deathly afraid....and even though she has never been to America before, she has a feeling of deja vu when she enters the room.  She knows that something terrible will happen to her.  But it doesn't....at least not then.  

Her Italian grandparents come forward a year later and wish their only granddaughter to live with them.  The Holland family has several members and unwillingly let Lisa go back to Italy--where she stays for ten years.  In 1970, Lisa's grandparents are dead and she returns to Boston.  She immediately falls in love with her cousin Roly...but she and Roly have little time to develop their relationship before she once again enters the ballroom and is killed by a falling painting (that's one huge, heavy painting!).  What looks at first to be an unfortunate accident on the heels of a practical joke is soon proved to be premeditated murder.  Who could have wanted this beautiful young women to die? 

There are things that I like about this story--atmosphere and the characters of Sue and Roly (Lisa's cousins) are two.  There are things I don't like about this story....the whole hashing and rehashing of deja vu and the meaning of time and do we really "know" the future but repress it thing gets really old.  I wish Helen McCloy had spent more effort fleshing out all of the characters and their interactions and less on the question of time in A Question of Time.  Lisa's American grandmother seems like a formidable and interesting lady...more of her would have been a really good thing.

The murder itself is a bit contrived, but the motive is an interesting one.  And even though I spotted the who before the wrap-scene, I still thoroughly enjoyed the ending.  All-in-all a decent read--a nice middle-of-the road three star-outing.


Quotes:
Her mother had taught her, long ago, to behave as if everything were all right when everything was all wrong. It was lesson women of her generation rarely forgot. (p. 11)

It is a neo-Freudian myth that the best way to learn a foreign language is in bed. Whatever the origin of human speech, it was not sexual, for making love is one of the few social situations where words are totally unnecessary. (48)

Hugh, darling, you know we can no more change the ebb and flow of time and fate than plankton floating on the surface of the sea can change the tides. (Amelia Everett, p. 64)

Civilization is a fiction which becomes a fact only as long as everyone can believe in it. It is the cynic, rather than the rebel who pulls down the whole flimsy structure periodically throughout history. (p. 75)

Wasn't there any way to make them understand that she was no longer looking for happiness? She was looking only for comfort now, and she was completely resigned to the knowledge that this was the beginning of old age. (p. 92)

The figure I saw was not just faceless. It was voiceless too. Without face or voice, there is no identity, and that's frightening, because people without identity are capable of anything. (Sue Everett, p. 194)

The Confession & Sight Unseen: Review

"The Confession" is the first of two novellas published in a single volume by Mary Roberts Rinehart. In it we have elderly Miss Emily Benton, the last of a venerable family, who has offered her home to Agnes Blakison and her servant Maggie as a summer retreat.  But the retreat becomes more a place of fear as a curious air of terror and suspense takes over.  There are late night phone calls with no one on the line.  Miss Agnes finds evidence of someone prowling about the house at night, but no real proof of who it might be.  There are hoof prints in the garden.  And Miss Emily seems to want Miss Agnes to discover something....but what?  Then Maggie brings Miss Agnes a paper she found beneath the telephone stand.  A paper that contains Miss Emily's confession to murder!  Is it the ramblings of an elderly woman who was kept too much to herself?  Or did Miss Emily really kill someone--and if so, who?  Or perhaps she's shielding someone else.  Miss Agnes won't rest until she knows the truth, but the once-friendly townsfolk seem determined to block her every question.  And what of the nightly intruder?  Is he determined to keep Miss Agnes from doing any more investigating?

I see a lot of the The Bat in this story.  Middle-aged woman and servant take on a summer home.  There is much mystery and nightly goings-on.  Servant gets all nervous, threatens to leave, but doesn't.  But, while The Bat was great fun in the tradition of cliffhangers with plenty of action, this one doesn't quite pull it off.  Miss Agnes talks a lot about the atmosphere and how the feeling of terror and nervous tension takes her over, but I never really felt involved in the story the way I did with The Bat. I hung in there to see what the final solution was (I should have caught on, but I didn't), but I didn't feel satisfied at the end.  Two stars.


Quotes:

There are some things so incredible that the brain automatically rejects them. I looked at the paper. I read it with my eyes. But I did not grasp it. (p. 49)

The calmer and more placid the daily life, the more apt is the secret inner one, in such a circumstance, to be a thriller! (Martin Sprague; p. 58)

There are a good many things  that can't be reasoned out with any logic we have, but that are true, nevertheless. We call it intuition, but it's really subconscious intelligence. (Martin Sprague; p. 94)


In "Sight Unseen" a group of friends who call themselves the "Neighborhood Club."  Each Monday night they get together for a little entertainment--everything from nights discussing literature and drama to civic reform.  And then Mrs. Dane, the most eclectic of the club members, suggests an investigation into the spirit world....a seance.  What starts out as a light-hearted effort to prove or disprove psychic phenomena turns serious when the medium in question taps into an unexpected death among their other neighbors.

Arthur Wells is found dead from a gunshot wound and the police and the coroner are prepared to find it suicide.  But The Neighborhood Club know a few things the officials don't and Horace Johnson and Dr. Sperry begin an investigation of their own to see just how right the medium was in her other-worldly visions.  Did the seance really bring them information--not only from beyond the grave but from the house down the street?

I enjoyed this one more than "The Confession"--although I did think that Horace Johnson got just a little too wound up in all the "spooky atmosphere." At times he came across like he was trying out for the part of the damsel in distress in a Gothic or Had-I-But-Known Thriller.  It also would have been nice if he'd actually told his wife what he and Sperry was up to--maybe she wouldn't have been so jealous.  But, overall, a fun little romp into the world of spritualism and a decent mystery novella.  Three stars.  So, two and a half stars for the volume.

Quotes:

There come days, now and then, that bring with them a strange sort of mental excitement. I have never analyzed them....There are days when the world is a place for love and play and laughter. And then there are sinister days, when the earth is a hideous place, when even the thought of immortality is unbearable, and life itself a burden; when all that is riotous and unlawful comes forth and bares itself to the light. (pp. 122-3)

Since that time I knew there is a madness of courage, born of terror. Nothing could be more intolerable than to sit there and wait. It is the same insanity that drove men out of trenches to the charge and almost certain death, rather than sit and wait for what might come. (pp. 180-1)

You and I, Horace, live our orderly lives. We eat, and sleep, and talk, and even labor. We think we are living. But for the last day or two I have been seeing visions--you and I and the rest of us, living on the surface, and underneath, carefully kept down so it will not make us uncomfortable, a world of passion and crime and violence and suffering. (Mrs. Dane; p. 195)

It has been my experience that the most innocent action may, under certain circumstances, assume an appearance of extreme guilt.... (p. 196)

Almost all women, I have found, although not over conscious themselves of the charm and attraction of their husbands, are of the conviction that these husbands exert a dangerous fascination over other women, and that this charm, which does not reveal itself in the home circle, is used abroad with occasionally disastrous effect. (218)

A Sleeping Life: Review

A Sleeping Life is Ruth Rendell's tenth mystery featuring Chief Inspector Wexford and Inspector Burden. The story begins with what seems to be a very simple murder.  A lonely, middle-aged woman stabbed to death on a path running between the bus stop and her father's home. Her body is discovered by a small boy on his way home with his dad. But when Wexford and Burden arrive, they find that things are more mysterious than they seem.  The woman has no identification on her--the only items in her purse are a set of keys and a wallet with money.  Once she has been identified as Rhoda Comfrey things remain a mystery.  No one in the village where she grew up knows where she's been living.  And every lead the police manage to find takes them nowhere. Finally, the wallet provides a connection to Grenville West, a writer whose works are based upon Elizabethan-era plays.  But even that seems to be a dead end--West is abroad in France on a holiday and his secretary has a postcard to prove it.  There are many questions and few answers....and Wexford learns that a sleeping life can hide many secrets.

Rendell is a masterful storyteller--so much so that it did not matter that I knew long before Wexford where to find Grenville West and what the connection between him and the dead woman was.  She weaves her tale with such skill that I was swept along, following Wexford and Burden down every blind alley until they knew what I knew.  Her characters are lively, interesting, and believable and the murder rings true for its time.  Readers should remember that they are visiting the world of the late 70s...times have changed a bit since then.  Three and half stars.

Quote:

Maybe being married is talking to oneself with one's other self listening. [Inspector Wexford; p. 164]

The Case of the Blind Barber: Review

 I love John Dickson Carr. I love his sometimes complicated, totally mystifying, seemingly impossible crimes.  I love Dr. Gideon Fell and his laughing and chortling when the other protagonists can't figure out the clues.  I love the humor and wit.  But, I'm afraid, I did not love The Case of the Blind Barber.  It is supposedly one of Carr's finest detective comedies, but it just seemed to me that there it was overly slapstick and mad-dash. It's okay--but definitely not my favorite Carr.

What we have is Henry Morgan, spy novelist and featured character in an earlier novel The Eight of Swords, traveling from New York to Southampton aboard the Queen Victoria.  Along the way he gets involved with Curtis Warren, nephew of a Very Important Person; Warren's girl, Peggy Glenn; and Capt. Thomassen Valvick (Ret.)--of the very heavy accent of apparent Swedish origin.  Warren has managed to get himself robbed of more than half of a can of film that will prove very embarrassing to Uncle V.I.P. if it falls into the wrong hands.  This happy band sets out to try and recover the film and along the way wind up bashing Captain Whistler (commander of the ship) over the head a few times, finding and losing an injured (and, quite possibly murdered) woman, stealing and losing and finding again an incredibly valuable emerald elephant....oh, and crossing paths with the Blind Barber, a rather nasty, murdering, thievin' sort of bloke who's in disguise.  They spend their time sneaking in and out of compartments, dashing about the decks, and trying to unobtrusively hunt for the missing film, missing emerald, and missing girl.  They, of course, have no luck and Morgan comes buzzing to see Gideon Fell before the Queen Victoria gets properly docked--in the hopes that Fell can see some sort of solution to the jolly mess.  And, of course, he can.

There are some good scenes--especially at the beginning.  I do like the foursome running around madly after Warren has bashed Captain Whistler a good one in the attempt to convince him that they were running to the rescue.  And Captain Whistler is rather nice--when ranting he reminds me of Carr's other protagonist, Henry Merrivale, right down to the "Burn me's."  But, in the end, the action just seems too over-the-top and silly to me.  In fact, it kind of reminds me of a Scooby Doo episode with all the dashing about....and it even ends with the culprit blaming it all on "those meddling kids."  And, there's not nearly enough of Fell.  We have him at the beginning when Morgan begins his story, in the middle for an intermission, and then the wrap up.  I much prefer the stories where Fell is more involved throughout.

Fairly decent mystery.  Too much farce.  Two stars.

Quote:
His views were based on the forthright principle that, the more respectable they looked, the more likely they were to turn out dastardly murderers. (p. 87)

A Stranger in My Grave: Review

We've all had those time when we're searching for something lost...car keys, our glasses, etc.  But have you ever gone looking for a day?  That's what Daisy Harker is doing in Margaret Millar's A Stranger in My Grave.  Well.  Not literally, of course.  But Daisy has had a dream, a very disturbing dream.  She dreams that she has died and she is faced with her tombstone. The date of death reads December 2, 1955--four years before the present day.  The dream is so vivid and haunting that she almost feels like it (or something equally traumatic) has really happened  When she tells her dream to her mother and her husband, they both tell her she's overreacting.  That's it's just a dream.  Nothing to worry about.

Daisy is determined to find out if anything really did happen four years ago and she hires private detective Steve Pinata to help her reconstruct December 2, 1955.  At first, he thinks she's just a bored little housewife with too much time on her hands.  And maybe just a little bit crazy.  But the deeper they dig the more apparent it becomes that something really did happen...and it was traumatic enough that Daisy has forgotten it.  Her estranged father keeps appearing and disappearing.  There's a young woman named Juanita whose name keeps popping up.  And Daisy's mother and husband both seem to be keeping things from her. They say they're protecting her or keeping her from worrying about things she needn't.  But she's not so sure. Whom can she trust?  And who will tell her the truth?

I hate to disagree with my friends John (Pretty Sinister Books) and Sergio (Tipping My Fedora), but this one just wasn't quite the knock-it-out-of-the-park that I expected.  It was very good, but my favorite is still Beast in View.  Millar, as usual, does a really good job building the suspense and keeping us guessing about what's really going on--and pulls a rather nifty twist at the end just keep us thoroughly off-balance.  I didn't plug into the themes of "childlessness, orphans, and parenting styles" the way John did when he read this one earlier this year. But I did get a lot of oppressive, smothering vibes from Daisy's mother (and to some extent her husband).  Going on about how close she and Daisy always were and "why won't you talk to me now, Daisy?"  Wanting to know everything about why Daisy feels the way she does and, yet, trying to keep Daisy from knowing anything that might explain the feelings.  Keeping important knowledge about her father from her as well as important information about her childless state. 

The suspense builds steadily throughout the book and it's a credit to Millar's skill that she can keep the tension at such a high pitch without feeling the need to break it with unnecessary humor.  And she deftly uses the prejudices of the time period to help set up the grand finale.  A book about relationships and deceit that makes the reader wonder how well we really know those we think we know the best.  Three and a half stars.

Quotes:
My ex-wife was always telling me I had no ego, in a reproachful way, as if an ego was something like a hat or a pair of gloves which I'd carelessly lost or misplaced. [Mr. Fielding; p. 39]

I didn't lose the day. It's not lost. It's still around someplace, here or there, wherever used days and old years go. They don't simply vanish into nothing They're still available--hiding, yes, but not lost. [Daisy Harker; p. 49]

Pinata looked surprised and somewhat annoyed, as if a pet parrot, which he had taught to speak a few simple phrases, had suddenly started explaining the techniques of nuclear fission. [p. 50]

When we don't know what's important, anything can be. [Stevens Pinata, p. 76]

DH: Camilla, it's a very pretty name. What does it mean, a camellia?
SP: No, it means a stretcher, a little bed.
DH: Oh. It doesn't sound so pretty when you know what it means.
SP: That's true of a lot of things.
[Daisy Harker; Stevens Pinata; p. 87]

People, alas, are more impressed by statistics than they are by ideas. [Charles Alston, p. 132]

The Fleet Street Murders: Review

The Fleet Street Murders is the third novel in Charles Finch's  series of Victorian-era mysteries starring gentleman detective Charles Lenox. The story begins on Christmas in 1866.  It's a pleasant day for Lenox who is still basking in the glow of having recently become engaged to his long-time friend and love of his life, Lady Jane Grey.  But the day is not a pleasant one for two journalists across town.  Within minutes of each other, Winston Carruthers and Simon Pierce are stabbed and shot (respectively).  The police quickly track down suspects, but Lenox and his assistant Dallington believe there must be more to the story than what the police have found so far.  Soon, one of the suspects is dead by hanging--meant to appear a suicide, but proved to be murder--and then the investigating officer is killed as well.  Lenox becomes convinced that someone is directing the action from behind the scenes--someone with a bigger motive than just removing two bothersome journalists.

The investigation is made difficult for Lenox by several "distractions" in his life.  Worries about his betrothal, Lady Jane repeatedly assures him that she does want to marry him--but needs time.  Time for what?  Worries about his friend Thomas and his wife Toto who have recently lost their unborn child.  And worries about his run for Parliament in the northern town of Stirrington.  He's got a lot on his mind--and feels guilty taking time for any of his obligations in lieu of any of the others.

And the distractions tell a bit.  This story doesn't seem to run quite as smoothly as the first two and it's definitely not as good as the second novel in the series. Finch does have a very firm grasp of characterization and he gives every character from Lenox down to the pub owner in Stirrington their due.  You definitely feel like these folks are real people.  It makes it a lot easier to overlook the flaws in the mystery plot.  Not obvious holes--just the lack of smoothness (with all the rushing about from London to Stirrington and around Stirrington and then back to London) and the slightly disjointed method of story-telling.  But an interesting mystery and a good, solid three star outing.

Death's Pale Horse: Review

I don't have a lot to say about this one. I expected Death's Pale Horse by James Sherburne to have all the elements I look for in a good historical mystery.  Setting: late 1800s (one of my favorite time periods) among the Saratoga horse racing scene.  Interesting and somewhat unsual protagonist: sportswriter Paddy Moretti.  Story revolves around Moretti trying to clear the first black jockey to ever ride at Saratoga of the murder charge--sounded like an exciting hook for the reader.  But I just could not get into the story.  It was very slow moving even though Paddy is scurrying hither and yon looking for a story that will get his editor off his back and secure his job.  Bodies appear (one in the dumbwaiter at the hotel!) and Paddy tries to solve the murders while he also tries to avoid thugs who are on his heels and the police who are angry that he has spilled the beans about the murders at the racetrack (we don't want to scare off anyone who might drop some cash in the town).  The denouement isn't all that exciting and I knew who the culprit was early on.  One star for a fairly disappointing read.

The Innocence of Father Brown: Review

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about G. K. Chesterton's The Innocence of Father Brown.  Part of that may be due to the fact that I feel just plain icky at the moment because of either a summer cold or allergies; it's a bit hard to think when one's head is all congested.  But, if a review is to be done, then it must be done while the reading is fresh.....  

Chesterton can certainly weave an interesting and mystifying tale.  Of course, part of the reason most of the short stories in this collection are mystifying is because they are so improbable.  And the clues aren't necessarily all on display in the way a fan of Golden Age crime would like.  It would be difficult--at least it was for me--for the reader to anticipate the solutions before the priest unravels the mystery.  But Father Brown is an endearing character and Chesterton uses such marvelous descriptions of place and weather and people that I didn't mind...too much.  Another sign that I really appreciated Chesterton's writing is the number of interesting and insightful quotes I managed to pick up for my collection (see below).

As a mystery collection, it is very solid--offering entertainment and improbable crimes, and even one locked garden mystery a la Carr.  Enjoyable, but not off the charts--so three stars.

Quotes:

That woman's over-driven; that's the kind of woman that does her duty for twenty years, and then does something dreadful. [Father Brown] (p. 137; "The Wrong Shape")

You are my only friend in the world, and I want to talk to you. Or, perhaps, be silent with you. [Father Brown] (p. 145, "The Wrong Shape")

The modern mind always mixes up two different ideas: mystery in the sense of what is marvellous, and mystery in the sense of what is complicated. That is half its difficulty about miracles. A miracle is startling; but it is simple. It is simple because it is a miracle. [Ibid.]

The people who wrote the medieval ballads knew more about fairies than you do. It isn't only nice things that happen in fairyland. [Father Brown] (p. 152; "The Sins of Prince Saradine")

I never said it was always wrong to enter fairyland. I only said it was always dangerous. [Father Brown] (p. 153; "The Sins of Prince Saradine")

...one can sometimes do good by being the right person in the wrong place. [Father Brown] (p. 156; "The Sins of Prince Saradine")

Very few reputations are gained by unsullied virtue. [Flambeau] (p. 159; "The Sins of Prince Saradine")

First there is what everybody knows; and then there is what I know. Now, what everybody knows is short and plain enough. It is also entirely wrong. [Father Brown] (p. 214; "The Sign of the Broken Sword")

What is the good of a man being honest in his worship of dishonesty? [Father Brown] (p. 226; "The Sign of the Broken Sword")

There is so much good and evil in breaking secrets....  [Father Brown] (p. 231; "The Sign of the Broken Sword")

A window in Merton's mind let in that strange light of surprise in which we see for the first time things we have known all along. (p. 235; "The Three Tools of Death")

If I ever murdered somebody, I dare say it might be an Optimist. [Father Brown] (p. 236; "The Three Tools of Death")

Mysterious Incidents at Lone Rock: Review

"A murder--it is like a math problem, you see." ~Chinni Roy

In Mysterious Incidents at Lone Rock by Rajendra Pillai, Chinni Roy, a visiting scholar and former police detective from India, gets the chance to prove his theories about murder.  He and his host, Professor Rich Harrison, are invited to spend a "relaxing" weekend in the country at the home of the university's Dean, Roberta Glasson.  Roberta is a long-time friend of Harrison's and has arranged a house party at her estate, Lone Rock.  Included in the party are other friends of Roberta's as well as Sir Melvin and Lady Martha Ellington--British diplomats.  Sir Melvin is a strongly (and adversely) opinionated man whose colonial outlook and abrasive comments soon manage to offend just about everyone in the house party.  

A snow storm hits and before the first night is over, Lady Martha will confide to Rich and Roy that she believes her husband is trying to poison her.  Later that same night, a gunshot rings out.  Sir Melvin is dead and Lady Martha is standing over him with the gun in her hand.  Did she shoot in self-defense?  Or should they believe her story of an intruder who thrust the gun into her hand as she stood dazed?  The police are called in and Chinni begins constructing his math problem--lining up the facts and the variables in neat, orderly algebraic formulas.  But can a detective really solve for Y and come up with Mr. or Ms. X?  And what if there are too many variables to allow for a sensible solution?

Pillai's book is quite a mix--a Christian cozy with academic overtones.  No violence onstage and no strong language or gore.  The setting and the set-up show strong influences from Agatha Christie--from the snowbound house party to the foreign detective insisting on order and method.  Not quite emphasizing the working of the "little grey cells," but the echoes are definitely there.  And Harrison most assuredly plays the part of Captain Hastings or Watson to the detective.  Never quite seeing all there is to be seen and offering up solutions of his own that aren't quite right.  There are plenty of red herrings and twist and turns to satisfy the fans of Golden-Age-style mysteries.  It looks (from my brief researches on the internet) that this book (pub. 2008) is the author's only foray into the mystery genre.  That's a shame.  This is a good solid outing and the character of Chinni has great promise.  I would have enjoyed seeing a series and the development of the detective.  Three stars for a very nice debut mystery.

The Nine Wrong Answers: Review

I'm going to blame the heat.  I'm feeling quite lethargic and am having to force myself to read what I know are quite fantastic books (after all, most of them have spent years on my TBR pile--I must have put them there for very good reasons at some point, right?).  And right now I am feeling very grumpy and disgruntled and haven't much enjoyed my latest excursion into the very tricky world of John Dickson Carr.  

Generally speaking, I adore Carr and his alter ego Carter Dickson and devour his books like they might disappear out of my hands before I finish.  I like his impossible crimes and his effortless way of playing fair with the reader and still making you come up with the wrong answer.  And I have a very clear memory of being astounded and delighted by The Nine Wrong Answers when I discovered it at the tiny little public library in Spencer, IN twenty-some years ago. [That place was a gold mine of vintage mysteries...but I digress.]  I hunted high and low in used bookstores between then and 2009 before I found a copy of my own.  I put it on the TBR pile for a reread at some suitable moment and, when I decided to do a Vintage Challenge Theme called Murder by the Numbers, decided that this year was the moment.  Perhaps July in the middle of a heat wave wasn't quite the moment.

So, here's the scoop: Bill Dawson goes for a visit to a lawyer who has advertised for him.  It seems his grandma has passed away and left him a hundred pounds.  This is good news for Bill who had left England after a failed romance and managed to not do so very well in the States.  While he waits to see the lawyer, he overhears part of Larry Hurst's story, another man due for an inheritance--if he can carry out the undesirable instructions that will make him eligible.  Hurst, who is also in the States, is being given $10,000 and the requirement that he must return to England and visit his uncle every week for a period of six months in order to be named as his uncle's heir.  Hurst does not want to go.  He claims that his uncle terrorized him as a child and there is no way he can face the man now.  

It is discovered that Dawson is in the outer room and has heard most of the conversation.  He has a preliminary discussion with Amberley (the lawyer) and is told to return the next day.   When he leaves, Hurst comes rushing after him and offers him the $10,000 if Dawson will impersonate him and take his place in visiting the dreaded uncle.  After a bit of wavering and interference from Hurst's fiancee, Joy Tenant (who is definitely against the idea), the deal is struck and identification is exchanged.  The three of them go out to a bar to discuss details, but before the night is over Hurst is struck down--apparently poisoned.  Joy disappears and Dawson flees the scene as well.  He is worried about the situation until a newspaper clipping shoved under the hotel door reveals that someone must have removed Dawson's passport, etc. from Hurst's pockets.  The victim in the paper is referred to as an "unknown." So it appears safe for Dawson to go ahead with the impersonation--which he feels honor-bound to do, having promised Hurst in those final moments in the bar that he would "settle with him, Larry.  So help me, I'll settle with him."

So, Dawson takes off for England to do just that. Along the way he encounters romance and adventure and, of course, the evil tricks of the so-called uncle (what uncle would treat a nephew like that) and his man-servant Hatto.  And, of course there are the nine answers.  These are represented in the footnotes which Carr provides at various points throughout the novel.  Ostensibly to clear up any misconceptions the reader has and to "help" the reader to the correct solution.  But readers should be very careful about how they interpret the "help" they're given.

I am quite sure that Carr really has played fair with us--and that is certainly the impression I came away with twenty years ago.  However, I can only go by my reading of the novel this time--and this time I feel thoroughly bamboozled.  I even had to go back and double-check a few of the footnotes just to make sure I hadn't been.  I hadn't.  But that's the way I feel and it has colored my reading of the novel.  I am also thoroughly unimpressed with Dawson and his lady-love--she who was part of the broken romance of before and who has popped up again in his life (shall I go on about the coincidences that I noticed big as life this time? Okay, I won't--'cause like I said I think I'm mostly just too hot to read and concentrate properly....).  I have no idea why these two people want to stay together....all they do is argue.  And keep going on about how they won't be jealous this time.  

Not my best reading of one of the classic mystery field's finest--Carr deserves better.  That's why I'm giving him him a straight three stars for this outing and allowing the four star rating from my previous reading to stand on Goodreads.  I do suggest you read this one--just wait for cool weather and a clear head to do so.