The Pale Horse: Review

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... (Revelation 6:8)

It seems rather hard to believe that I had never read Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse (1961) before. After all, Dame Agatha is one of my favorites and I spent a great deal of time reading her books when I was younger--but I did not have this one logged and I did not own a copy until I picked up one of my beloved pocket-size editions in May of 2012, so I'm just going to accept that I somehow missed this one.

Christie's only novel in which Ariadne Oliver makes an appearance without Hercule Poirot is a twist on the plot device used by Philip MacDonald in The List of Adrian Messenger two years previously. The story begins with Father Gorman, a Catholic priest called to the deathbed of a woman apparently dying of flu. She tells him that there is "Wickedness...such wickedness...Stopped...It must be stopped...You will..." And the priest assures her that he will do what is necessary. But before he can do anything about what he has heard, he is murdered on his way home. The police find a list of names in his shoe--a list of names of people who seem to have nothing in common. Except when historian Mark Easterbrook is brought into the investigation through the passing of his godmother (whose name, incidentally, appears on the list), he discovers that the names do have something in common....death.

Christie also dabbles in a bit of apparent black magic in this one. The Pale Horse of the title is an old inn, now inhabited by three women who have a reputation for witchcraft. Seances and secret rituals involving white cocks and modern death rays are rumored to occur. Easterbrook, being a modern man, scoffs at the idea of voo-doo or death-wishes, but as each name on the list winds up dead he begins to wonder if there isn't really such a thing as murder by remote control....

This is one of the better Christie stand-alone novels. There is a fine sense of atmosphere from the coffee shops of Chelsea to the country village and mystic Pale Horse. She does her usual excellent job of misdirection--making me completely misidentify the culprit. I should have know better, I really should have--but like Mark Easterbrook I was thoroughly taken in. Mrs. Oliver makes cameo appearances, adding just the right amount of her general dottiness...and helping Easterbrook spot the method of murder even if he does make a mistake in fingering the villain. The romance is also a nice touch--given enough limelight to make events believable, but not too much attention to distract from the business of tracking down the murder. Good classic Christie fun. ★★★★

This fulfills the "Animal in the Title" square on the Silver Vintage Bingo card.

Mind Fields: Review

Any project that involves Harlan Ellison really is a mine field...of explosive ideas, earth-shaking revelations, and mental confrontations that are not for the faint of heart. Link him up with the provocative artwork of Jacek Yerka and you wind up with something very special indeed. Mind Fields: The Art of Jacek Yerka/The Fiction of Harlan Ellison does just that. An extraordinary
collection of 30 images by Yerka with short pieces by Ellison which tell his story about Yerka's artwork. As Ellison says, "...after you've read my interpretation, you can come back to Mr. Yerka's art time after time and invent a new story each visit."

As one might expect from Ellison, his interpretations are generally rather dark and nightmarish--but beautifully written and exquisitely detailed nightmares direct from the author's fertile imagination. Ellison may have an extraordinarily different point of view--but one thing is certain. The man can write. My favorites in this collection were among the shortest pieces ("The Silence," "Darkness Falls on the River," and "Paradise") with "Between Heaven and Hell" and "To Each His Own" closely following. ★★★★★

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse: Review

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse is an epic title. That would be why this book jumped off the shelf at the library, into my hand, and insisted that I needed to take it home with me. Which I did. Sadly, the book did not quite live up to its epic title. The book is good. The book is funny--as I expected it to be. But it's not that good. And it's not that funny. There are places in it where I am sure there are jokes and I'd get that feeling that I was supposed to laugh--like Robert Rankin had paused expectantly waiting for the audience to provide the laugh track. But then I'd be like Sherman in the Mr. Peabody & Sherman movie (which we just saw at the drive-in last Saturday) and I'd look up and think to myself I don't get it.

Rankin has created an interesting premise. A young man named Jack is on his way to the big city to seek his fortune--he's heard stories that that's where all the fortunes to be made are made. But when he gets there, all is not as glamorous as he's been given to believe. First off, the "big city" is really Toy City (aka Toy Town). Everybody is a toy except for the rich and famous nursery rhyme characters like Little Miss Muffet and Little Tommy Tucker and Ole King Cole, etc. And there is a serial killer loose who is knocking off the Mother Goose celebrities one by one in rather gruesome methods based on their rhymes. The Toy City police are stumped and Bill Winkie, a Private Eye who has starred in his own series of crime novels, has mysteriously vanished.

Jack runs into Winkie's sidekick, Eddie Bear, and Eddie convinces him to partner with him to solve the murders and collect a fabulous reward. Because you know, Eddie was the real sawdust--er, brains behind the P.I. business. Eddie leads Jack into underage drinking, high-speed car chases, in and out of jail, and into encounters with mysterious spider women. There will be quite a few more deaths and some high-tension drama before Eddie and Jack can find out who's really behind the nursery rhyme murders.

The book is a fantasy-style riff on the noir genre and private eyes in general. It is very self-aware and that is part of the fun. Jack and Eddie discuss how "if this were one of Bill Winkie's private eye books" then "we'd have met all the important characters by now" or "we'd have gotten hold of the MacGuffin by now." They also talk about whether or not the decisions they make along the way would be what a true detective in a crime novel would do. Lots of in jokes (and, as discussed, plenty that go right over my head) and plays off of the nursery rhymes. Excellent premise that manages to fall just short of being a fantastic story. Good solid entertainment, but not extraordinary. ★★★

Quotes:

It's a wise man who knows where he is. And if he knows where he is, he should stay there, don't you agree? (p. 22)

Things really could be worse. You'll be okay. I can direct you to the hospital if you think you need your head bandaged. Or I'll stagger with you, if you want. Or you can carry me upside down and I'll sing you drunken songs. I know some really rude ones. They're all about pigs and penguins. (~Eddie [Bill Winkie's bear], p. 27

It is a fact well known to those who know it well that we can only know what we personally experience. Above and beyond that, it's all just guesswork and conjecture. (p 72)

Gale Warning: Review

Gale Warning, originally published as Maddon's Rock in Britain, by Hammond Innes is a little outside my usual mystery fare. Primarily a high action thriller set on the high seas, this book--like much of Innes's work--would normally appeal to those who like their books full of adventure and masculine adventures. The story is told by Corporal Jim Vardy. Vardy and his mates, Gunner Bert Cook and Private Sills, are waiting repatriation to England at the end of World War II. Orders come for them to join Warrant Officer Rankin (as commanding officer) on special detail aboard the S. S. Trikkala, a freighter that will take them and a load of mysterious cargo back to England in a convoy of other boats.

The men are ordered to guard cases marked "Hurricane Engines for Replacement" round-the-clock during the journey. Also aboard the vessel is Captain Halsey, a Shakespeare-spouting captain rumored to be mixed up in piracy, several of his loyal crew (having followed him from a previous ship), and a young woman released from a prison camp, Jennifer Sorrell. Vardy, an army man who would have been better suited to the navy, overhears several conversations and observes some odd behavior that make him suspicious of Halsey and Rankin's true purpose.

When the Trikkala encounters a severe ocean storm (thus the title Gale Warning), Vardy and his mates are ordered into their designated life-boat. A boat that they had previously discovered to not be sea-worthy. Vardy refuses to board the boat--requesting to take one of the "less dependable" rafts instead. Halsey and Rankin deny his request and he defies orders, taking Bert Cook and Jenniferr Sorrell with him. They believe that the Trikkala has gone down and when they are picked up by one of the other ships, it seems that they are the only survivors from the doomed ship. But nearly a month later, Halsey, Rankin, the three crewmen loyal to Halsey are also found floating in the arctic waters.

Charges of mutiny are brought against Vary and Cook and despite their story of the unsafe boat, they are found guilty and sent to Dartmoor for three years. Word reaches them that the five other survivors are planning a trip to salvage the cargo of the Trikkala--which has been revealed to be a fortune in silver bouillon. Our heroes decide to escape from prison and try to beat Halsey and company to the ship with hopes of bringing back proof of their innocence. The real mystery of Gale Warning is whether Vardy will be successful and the revelation of the real story behind the sinking of the freighter.

There are no spoilers in my synopsis. My copy of the book has a brief blurb that pretty much covers everything I've told you--and the few bits I've been able to find on the interwebs tell just about as much. The kernel of mystery, as noted, surrounds Vardy's trip back to the Norwegian sea to find the silver. Bert Cook joins him--as does Jenny. Jenny is a sailor as well and it is her boat that is used to make the journey. The adventure and suspense of the final chapters more than make up for the lack of mystery through the first half of the book. These stories may have been primarily attractive to men during the war years and those immediately following, but I find Innes's prose compelling and interesting.  He's a good story-teller in an action-packed genre. Three and 1/2 stars.

★★★ 1/2

This fulfills the "More Than One Title" square on the Golden Vintage Bingo card.

Challenges Fulfilled: Vintage Mystery Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, Bookish TBR, Around the World, Century of Books, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, My Kind of Mystery, 100 Plus Challenge, What's in a Name, European Reading Challenge, Book Monopoly

Challenge Complete: Book Monopoly

Thanks to the challenge temptress, Joanne at Littlequeen Rules, I signed up for one of what seems like thousands of challenges hosted at Goodreads at goodreads @ CrazyChallengeConnection.   Since the Monopoly Challenge is an on-going challenge, my yearly commitment was to read at least 10 books each year that fulfill a move in the game.  I have now completed my 10 moves for 2014 and declare my commitment complete. Here is the lists of moves:

GO - Everyone starts here....Let the game begin!

1st Move: Rolled a 3 and moved to Baltic Avenue. [Book set in/near water]: Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton (1/27/14)

2nd Move: Rolled a 1 and moved to Income Tax [Go to GoodReads TBR list and read one of first 10 books listed]: Exit Actors, Dying by Margot Arnold (2/4/14)

3rd Move: Rolled a 3 and moved to Chance [Read a book recommended by Friend/Family/Co-worker]: Gambit by Rex Stout [rec by Les @ Classic Mysteries] (2/8/14)

4th Move: Rolled a 6 and moved to States Avenue [Mostly Black Cover]: Ellery Queen's 20th Anniversary Annual by Ellery Queen, ed (2/22/14)

5th Move: Rolled a 1 and moved to Virginia Avenue [starts with V ]: Vicious Circle by Douglas Clark (3/11/14)

6th Move: Rolled a 2 and moved to St. James Place [Starts with J]: John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars by Roland Hughes (3/17/14) 

7th Move: Rolled a 3 and moved to New York Avenue [large city]: India Black & the Gentleman Thief by Carol K. Carr (3/19/14) [London]

8th Move: Rolled a 1 and moved to Free Parking [any book]: A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan (3/21/14)

9th Move: Rolled a 5 and moved to B & O Railroad [set 50+ years ago/New York]: Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train (1923/New York City) [3/25/14)

10th Move: Rolled a 5 and moved to Go to Jail.  Rolled a 6 and moved backwards to Illinois Avenue [mostly red cover]: Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (3/28/14)

Challenge Commitment Complete! But I'm still reading!

Grimms' Fairy Tales: Review

This particular edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales was published in 1945 and was translated by E.V. Lucas, Lucy Crane, and Marian Edwardes.  It also contains fine illustrations (both color and line drawings) by Fritz Kredel. Between the covers are 55 of the 211 tales that the Brothers Grimm have been credited with. Although these tales were originally called Children's and Household Tales--these are not your sweet little, bedtime story fairy tales. The original tales contained subject matter (primarily sexual references) that were thought unsuitable for children and later editions (including this one) removed those references while increasing the violence done to the wicked in the stories. 

This volume includes such recognizable favorites as "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White," "Rapunzel," "Rumpelstiltskin," "The Elves and the Shoemaker," and "Cinderella." But there are far more new and unfamiliar tales. Most of the stories that were unfamiliar to me ran along similar themes--young men or young women who had to fulfill certain tasks before gaining a "prize" (whether that be gold and riches or a beautiful/handsome spouse). One story in particular caught my attention, however. That was called "Karl Katz" and would seem to be a precursor to Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle." I was very interested to find that there was an earlier version than Irving's tale of the man who fell asleep and woke up hundreds of years later.

I had read several of these stories when I was young, but it was very nice to revisit them and to read all of the new (to me) tales as well. Three stars for a good solid read.

Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt: Review

Mr. Ephraim Tutt is a kindly old lawyer who uses his position to do good. He has a twinkle in his eye and a penchant for taking on the underdog as his clients. He wears a stovepipe hat and an old frock coat, but Arthur Train would have the reader believe it to be a suit of armor in disguise. This is a highly romanticized, early 20th Century collection, that is none-the-less quite entertaining. The book contains eight stories about Mr. Tutt that originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. The stories were so popular that Ephraim Tutt became known as the "best known lawyer in America." In this volume Mr. Tutt is up to his ancient neck in all sorts of devious legal battles in an effort to bring justice to the innocent and deserving. But we know that with Tutt on the trail, crime and skullduggery simply have no chance at all. Three and a half stars.

The stories included here are:

"The Bloodhound": In which Mr. Tutt lays a trap for his rival, the dishonest prosecutor "Bloodhound" O'Brien who thinks he has successfully framed an innocent man.
 
"Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt": In which Mr. Tutt gets the better of a "new money" society matron who thinks she can railroad anyone she sees as her inferior.

"The Liberty of the Jail": In which Mr. Tutt uses his knowledge of human nature to earn his client a rightful settlement
 
"Hocus-Pocus": A little slight of hand allows Mr. Tutt to help a deserving young woman get her inheritance.
 
"Saving His Face": Mr. Tutt teaches a self-important man a little humility with the help of a determined notary and a little-known bit of law.
 
"In Witness Whereof": It pays to be sure who a lawyer's client really is....and you better be sure that you are Mr. Tutt's client if that wily lawyer is involved in your case.

"The Twelve Little Husbands": Despite what looks like an open & shut case against his client, Mr. Tutt proves that sometimes a poisoner isn't a poisoner.

"The Cloak of St. Martin": Will Mr. Tutt's "cloak" keep his clerk out of trouble?


This fulfills the book with a Lawyer, Courtroom, etc. Golden Vintage Bingo Square.

A Tale of Two Biddies: Review

A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan is the second in the League of Literary Ladies series set on South Bass Island (one of Ohio's islands in Lake Erie). The group was originated when a judge required them to form a book club and work out their differences after they had appeared before him once too often. They had just settled themselves down in that task in the first book, when the owner of a local restaurant (The Orient Express) was murdered--and naturally they had to help solve that crime.

This time out, a rather unlikeable young man named Richie is murdered during the inaugural Bastille Day--a local festival celebrating the Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities. He had already complained to Hank, the local police officer, that someone had tried to kill him by shoving him into the lake earlier that week. But given his tendency to complain and dramatize, his story was discounted. When he winds up full of poison in the corner of the bar, it looks like the dunking in the lake was more than an accident. There are a lot of motives floating around--from the man who lost everything because of Richie's "little mistake" to the owner of a million-dollar home that was blown sky-high because Richie forgot to turn off the gas to the lead singer of Guillotine (a rock band playing at the festival) who had a heated discussion with Richie despite claiming that he never met the man before in his life. While Hank follows the official routes, Bea Cartwright and her literary ladies follow up with casual questioning.

This was a fun, quick read. Definitely a cozy mystery--small town, quirky characters, no blood & gore, very little official police work, and an amateur sleuth who doesn't take herself too seriously. The references to Dickens' work throughout the book fit very nicely and add to the fun. The only drawback? The culprit was as plain as plain could be--if you pick up on the right references and notice the spoiler on the cover of the book. Fortunately, getting to know the characters and enjoying their interactions made for so much fun that having a puzzle to solve wasn't as necessary as usual in the mysteries I read.  Three stars for good, solid fun.

India Black & the Gentleman Thief: Review

If one must chase villains, one should do so in style. (p. 247)

India Black is at it again in India Black & the Gentleman Thief...rounding up the bad guys with style and flair. She and French have barely recovered from their latest adventure--saving London from bomb-happy anarchists--when danger comes knocking. Literally. Just as India is trying to worm information out of French about her ancestry, a messenger arrives at the door with an envelope from one of her customers. Colonel Francis Mayhew wants her to hold the missive until he comes to collect it. Opening other people's mail is by no means taboo when one hasn't volunteered for the job of postmistress and India promptly slits the envelope open--only to find an ordinary shipping bill. As she and French ponder the meaning behind it, another knock brings a different sort of messenger--in the guise of three burly thugs who beat up our intrepid heroes and make off with the bill of lading.

Of course, our Madam of Espionage isn't about to take that lying down...well at least not once she's recovered from the trouncing...and she and French head out to track down Mayhew and find out why he deposited such a dangerous document at Lotus House. Unfortunately, the Colonel is in no condition to explain anything. Someone has reached him first and sent him out of this world in the most horrible way possible. India and French will follow a trail that leads from the dockyards of London to the War Office and armaments supply to a lonely farmhouse in the countryside where an arms trafficker lurks. Along the way, India discovers that she has an acquaintance with one of the chief suspects...an acquaintanceship she'd rather not confess to French.

As if India's life is not complicated enough, the Dowager Marchioness of Tullibardine shows up with enough boxes and trunks to stay for months and creates general havoc in Lotus House--from running off anti-Scottish customers to allowing her dogs the run of the house (and have puppies while they're at it). The only redeeming factor is that the Marchioness is finally willing to tell India what she knows about her background. But what is India to do with the information? If she can just find time between hunting down blood-thirsty killers, escaping a nasty death at the bottom of the ocean, and tracking down arms dealers, then she might give it some thought.

This is a whirlwind of a book. The story moves at full throttle and keeps the reader on the edge of her seat waiting to see what will happen next--whether it's the next step in the mystery plot or where the relationship between India and French is headed or what India plans to do about the hereditary information she gets from the Marchioness. There is a lot going on and Carol K. Carr handles it all superbly. The India Black series is wonderful and just keeps getting better. If you love a good adventure mystery set in Victorian times with a bit of romance for flavor and haven't started reading these yet, then what's keeping you? Five stars!

Virtual Tour: John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

Publisher: Logikal Solutions, May 30, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1-939732-00-2
Category: Dystopian, Science Fiction
Tour Dates: March, 2014
Available in: Print, ebook & Audio, 272 pages

Synopsis: What if the Mayans got the start of the end correct because they had survived it once before? What if our written history was just as accurate as the old tale about three blind men describing an elephant? What if classic science fiction writing and television shows each got a piece of it correct, would you know which ones? If your eyes can only see a tiny portion of a collage do you know it is a collage?

"John Smith" ties together Atlantis, cell phones, the Mayans, God, the Egyptians, and the outcome of the terrorist attack yet to come all in the form of an interview between the last known survivor of the war and a reporter for the largest newspaper of its day, serving 5000 people twice monthly. There are both blatant and subtle nods are made to such works as "1984", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Peter Pan", "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one), "Star Trek TNG", and "Babylon 5." 

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

My take: This is a difficult review for me. I almost always can give high marks to the review request books and virtual tour books that I read because I carefully screen the books I agree to review. The synopsis really grabbed me. Roland Hughes has developed a fantastic premise. I liked the idea of tying in all kinds of SF writing and television shows into a fantastic piece of fiction. I had great expectations....

But, I have to be honest (and I only do honest reviews), this book was not, ultimately, for me. The interview format really got on my nerves. The entire book is all tell and no show. No action--none.  Even when John Smith is describing what happened it has little effect because it's all dialogue and he sounds like he's giving one long lecture about absolutely everything from what a computer is to why the Hebrews had dietary laws to where the Atlantians went to how the Druids and Mayans figure in to finally answering the question his interviewer came to ask in the first place--what happened in the Microsoft Wars. And he does it all in such a condescending manner.

I also did not care for the antagonistic tone against the sexes. The reporter obviously doesn't care for men although her comments are few and far between and John Smith repeatedly makes incredibly misogynistic remarks about women throughout the book. My "favorites":

The longest lifespan known, or at least told to me, was roughly 250 clock years for a man and 325 clock years for a woman. The stress of living with a woman really does kill a man. That much has remained universal throughout all cycles. (p.133)

Women can't resist making things up for no reason at all and being mad about them for years but that isn't the story we are telling here. (p. 150) [So, your point in saying this is?]

The tone is bad enough...but it might be useful and understandable if Hughes explained why these people are like this.  What motivates them?  But he doesn't--we're supposed to accept this, apparently, just because that's the way it is.

There are also great inconsistencies...for instance, the reporter supposedly lives in a society that has developed after the Microsoft Wars. Everything has been destroyed.  Pretty much all knowledge of what came before is gone--Smith has to explain what computers, dvds, satellites, submarines, etc. and ad nauseum are--even hard copy encyclopedias and maps--and yet the woman knows what socialism is? Seriously? Her people have retained no memory whatsoever of tangible physical objects and yet she understands an obsolete abstract concept. 

If you like unusual story-telling formats, then this book is for you. If you like incredible amounts of dialogue, then this book is for you. If you are interested in conspiracy theories and an explanation of what happened to Atlantis and the "truth" behind every UFO siting ever....then this book is for you. 

I really am sorry that I cannot give this book a stellar review. But it just did not live up to my expectations and, overall, I just didn't become engaged with the characters. I'm giving it two stars--all for fantastic concept.