Challenge Complete: Bookish TBR

Challenge: TBR Pile
Dates: Jan 1, 2014 - Dec 31, 2014. 
Hosted by: Bookish
For more information and to sign up click here

Basic Requirements: Read the unread books already on your shelf. Nothing from 2014. No ARCs. Any format, any length.

 

There were six levels to this TBR Challenge, and I'm signed up for . . . Married with Children . . . and planned to read 50+ books.  I have just finished the 51st book from my TBR stacks and met my commitment. Since I've got my own Mount TBR Challenge to meet (100 books), there will be more coming from the stacks--but for now I can check this one off as done.

 

 

 Books Read:

1. The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [on TBR since 8/11/12] (1/2/14)
2. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell [on TBR since 11/3/11] (1/5/14)
3. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak [on TBR since 1980s] (1/6/14)
4. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson [on TBR since 6/27/12] (1/8/14)
5. Dangerous Visions #3 by Harlan Ellison, ed [on TBR since 5/13/13] (1/11/14)
6. Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown [on TBR since 11/3/11] (1/12/14)
7. Triumph by Philip Wylie [on TBR since 5/16/13] (1/18/14)
8. Seven Footprints to Satan by A. Merritt [on TBR since 5/16/13] (1/22/14)
9. The Winter Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine [on TBR since 10/12/13] (1/23/14)
10. Death on the Aisle by Frances & Richard Lockridge [on TBR since 10/13/12] (1/24/14)
11. The Adventure of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons by James Francis Thierry [on TBR since 10/3/13] (1/26/14)
12. Other Times, Other Worlds by John D. MacDonald [on TBR since 1/19/93] (1/26/14)
13. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton [on TBR since 10/4/13] (1/27/14)
14. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick [on TBR since 12/30/11] (1/29/14)
15. Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White [on TBR since 12/31/12] (1/30/14)
16. Exit Actors, Dying by Margot Arnold [on TBR since 6/23/09] (2/4/14)
17. Shelf Life by Douglas Clark [on TBR since 12/31/11] (2/6/14)
18. Gambit by Rex Stout [on TBR since 9/27/09] (2/8/14)
19. Death Walks on Cat Feet [on TBR since 4/13/13] (2/12/14)
20. Made Up to Kill by Kelley Roos [on TBR since 10/12/12] (2/18/14)
21. Ellery Queen's 20th Anniversary Annual by Ellery Queen, ed [on TBR since 1/19/13] (2/22/14)
22. The Purple Parrot by Clyde Clason [on TBR since 10/4/13] (2/25/14)
23. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick [on TBR since late 80s] (2/27/14)
24. The Darker the Night by Herbert Brean [on TBR since 5/16/13] (3/3/14)
25. India's Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope [on TBR since 6/12/89] (3/4/14)
26. Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Lewis [on TBR since 10/3/13] (3/5/14)
27. Vicious Circle by Douglas Clark [on TBR since 12/31/11] (3/11/14) 
28. Harlan Ellison's 7 Against Chaos by Harlan Ellison [on TBR since 12/25/13] (3/17/14)
29. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout [on TBR since 3/23/13] (3/23/14)
30. Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train [on TBR since 8/18/11] (3/24/14)
31. Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm [on TBR since 12/12/09] (3/28/14)
32. The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart [on TBR since 1/5/13] (3/31/14)
33. The Coral Princess Murders by Frances Crane [on TBR since 10/4/13] (4/5/14)
34. A Hangman's Dozen by Alfred Hitchcock, ed [on TBR since 12/31/10] (4/7/14)
35. Naked Is the Best Disguise by Samuel Rosenberg [on TBR since 11/14/09] (4/8/14)
36. Gale Warning by Hammond Innes [on TBR since 2/16/13] (4/15/14)
37. Murder at the Museum of Natural History by Michael Jahn [on TBR since 7/12/14] (4/18/14)
38. My Antonia by Willa Cather [on TBR since 3/5/11] (4/20/14)
39. Dorothy Dixon & the Double Cousin by Dorothy Wayne [on TBR since 9/29/10] (4/26/14)
40. For Old Crime's Sake (aka Lucky Jane) by Delano Ames [on TBR since 6/29/12] (4/29/14)
41. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain [on TBR since 9/28/11] (4/30/14)
42. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer [on TBR since 12/18/11] (5/1/14)
43. Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell [on TBR since 7/30/11] (5/16/14)
44. Bed-Knob & Broomstick by Mary Norton [on TBR since 12/17/11] (5/16/14)
45. Mind Fields: The Art of Jacek Yerka/The Fiction of Harlan Ellison by Yerka & Ellison [on TBR since 12/25/14] (5/22/14)
46. By the Watchman's Clock by Leslie Ford [on TBR since 2/8/13] (5/23/14)
47. Red Herring by Edward Acheson [on TBR since 6/1/13] (5/25/14)
48. Beyond Uhura: Star Trek & Other Memories by Nichelle Nichols [on TBR since 12/25/14] (5/29/14)
49. Invisible Green by John Sladek [on TBR since 6/26/12] (6/2/14)
50. Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell [on TBR since at least 2011--but I know it was longer, just didn't log the date on this one for some reason] (6/5/14)
51.The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo [on TBR since 3/29/12] (6/8/14)

 

The Laughing Policeman: Reviw

A cold rainy November night in Stockholm finds every available on-duty policeman facing off with a mob of anti-Vietnam protestors. The crime underworld and the riffraff of the city take advantage of the force's preoccupation to carry out plans of their own as well as random vandalism. And one unknown man climbs aboard a late-night double-decker bus and shoots nine people. Eight people, including the bus driver and a member of the force's detective squad, are killed instantly....one man's life hang's by a thread and Martin Beck and his fellow officers hope he'll live long enough to give them a clue to the killer's identity. Because other clues are rather thin on the ground.

The press and their superior officers are ready to call this the work of a psychotic mass-murderer--despite that being more typical elsewhere than in Sweden--but the longer the investigation goes on, the more convinced Beck and Lennart Kollberg become that an unusual amount of planning went into this murder spree. As they take a closer look at each of the victims, searching for a possible key target, they keep asking themselves:

Why was Åke Stenström, a young detective in Beck's squad, on that double-decker bus? 

That question leads them to an unsolved murder and when they find the answer to that, then the pieces begin to fall into place on this more recent crime.

This novel, a 1971 Edgar award-winner (originally written 1968), is a knock-out police procedural and a fine example of Swedish crime fiction from the late 1960s. The books are advertised as the Martin Beck series, but this novel focuses more on Kollberg than on anyone. Kollberg is the one who gets to know Stenström's girlfriend and really begins to put together the clues that will lead to the solution. The investigation is definitely a team effort--many others are out gathering clues, but Kollberg takes the lead. It was good to get a closer look at Kollberg and his home life and to understand a bit better what makes him tick.

The writing is spare and clean, yet very gripping. Even though there is a lot of waiting and sifting through false leads in this story, the reader is never bored. It is easy to see why this novel was an award-winner. I thoroughly enjoyed another visit with Beck's crime team.
★★★★

This fulfills the "Man in the Title" category on the Silver Vintage Bingo card. Changed my mind (since I've claimed no Silver Bingos, I can do this)--This now fulfills the "Made Into a Movie" category on the Silver Bingo card.  The movie was released in 1973 and transported the action to San Franicisco. Starring Walter Mathau, Louis Gossett, Jr., Cathy Lee Crosby, and others.

Thus Was Adonis Murdered: Review

COVER NOTES:  DEATH IN VENICE. For young barrister Julia Larwood, it was to be a vacation in pursuit of eros, in flight from the tax man .... An Art Lover's Holiday to Italy. Reduced to near penury by the Inland Revenue, Julia could hardly afford such a luxury, but she'd be in hock to the Revenue either way, so why not have a holiday? Poor, hapless, incurably sentimental Julia. How could she know that the ravishing young Art Lover for whom she conceived a fatal passion was himself an employee of Inland Revenue Or that her hard-won night of passion would end in murder-with her inscribed copy of this year's Finance Act lying a few feet from the corpse...
(©Dell Publishing)

Julia's intrepid friends--consisting of her colleagues in chambers as well as Oxford don and sometime sleuth Hilary Tamar are the recipients of Julia's letters from abroad and soon learn that she is suspect number one in the murder of the beautiful Ned Watson. They determine to track down clues and haunt the fellow Art Lovers until proof can be found to persuade the Italian authorities of Julia's innocence. Somehow just the fact that the murder was too tidy for Julia to be responsible is just not as convincing to the Italian police.

Thus Was Adonis Murdered reads like a cross between Jane Austen, British drawing room comedy, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest written as a murder mystery. There are so many scenes that make up this upper-crust-sounding, yet slightly slap-dash amateur investigation so much fun to read. From the letters written by Julia that give us a firm idea of her intellectually sound but common sense starved self as well as the background for the murder to the barristers' shameless pumping of art aficionado Benjamin Dobble to Cantrip's interview with Major Linnaker, a shady art and antiques dealer, there are delights all along the way.

I really must share this tidbit from Cantrip (about the interview):

Was it really only two hours? It seemed much longer than that. Much longer. Much, much longer. The Major's known a lot of women. English women. Italian women. Arab women. Serbo-Croatian women. The right sort of women, the wrong sort of women. Women who would, women who wouldn't, women who might have. He told me about them all. Are you sure it was only two hours?

The light touch and light banter between the barristers make for a quick and entertaining read. I thoroughly enjoyed the dry British wit and sarcastic humor. There are also several very apt descriptions of the academic life and mind. Very appealing, fun, and interesting.

Back in 2011 when I read The Shortest Way to Hades, I made mention of the fact that nowhere in the story do we learn whether Hilary Tamar be male or female (and that I didn't really notice this until John at Pretty Sinister Books pointed it out). I had assumed that Hilary was a woman because Hilary is generally a feminine name in the US.  And certain ways in which the other characters addressed our law-type scholar made me think s/he was female as well. This particular reading makes me think that Hilary is a man. There's something about the way s/he addresses fellow characters. Darn it. Caudwell is pretty good at this keeping a secret and mystifying the reader business. Now I'm curious to see which way I lean in book number three.

I love the Edward Gorey covers on these....one of the main reasons I first grabbed them up. I'm so glad that the stories live up to the covers. ★★★★

Quotes:
Julia's unhappy relationship with the Inland Revenue was due to her omission, during four years of modestly successful practice at the Bar, to pay any income tax. The truth is, I think, that she did not, in her heart of hearts, really believe in income tax. It was a subject which she had studied for examinations and on which she had thereafter advised a number of clients: she naturally did not suppose, in these circumstances, that it had anything to do with real life. 

On my first day in London I made an early start. Reaching the Public Record Office not much after ten, I soon secured the papers I needed for my research and settled in my place. I became, as is the way of the scholar, so deeply absorbed as to lose all consciousness of my surroundings or of the passage of time. When at last I came to myself, it was almost eleven and I was quite exhausted: I knew I could not prudently continue without refreshment.

Julia did very well,' said Selena, 'not to fall into the lagoon. How beastly of that woman to suggest she'd had too much to drink.'
'Most uncharitable,' said Ragwort. 'Julia, as we all know, needs no assistance from alcohol to make her trip over things.

I had already established, as you know, that it was logically impossible for Kenneth to be distressed by anything that might occur between Ned and myself; but Kenneth, being an artist, has perhaps not studied logic and is unaware of the impossibility. (p. 139)

 I would think it odd, he said, that he had never married. I did not, in fact, think it at all odd--the statistical chances against any woman being prepared to endure both the hairiness of his legs and the tedium of his conversation seemed to be negligible. I did not express this view, but said sympathetically that the military life must be difficult to combine with the domestic. (p. 142)

I now realize that to see the Major when he isn't really there must at least be preferable to seeing him when he really is there. (p. 157)

One doesn't like to appear vulgarly inquisitive. But if everyone one knows has suddenly started murdering everyone else, it would be terribly nice to know about it. (Benjamin Dobble; p. 206)

Eleanor was charming. That is to say, her manner seemed designed to merit that description: she displayed towards us a sort of girlish archness, such as a doting father might have found captivating in an only daughter at the age of eight. The effect was as of attempting to camouflage an armored tank by icing it with pink sugar: stratagem doomed to failure. (p. 220)

If you're going to go and buy a load of stolen goods, you can't take a whole crowd of friends with you. The presence of third parties reduces the prospective seller to a clamlike condition. (p. 230)

This fulfills the Lawyer/Courtroom square on the Vintage Silver Bingo card.

Invisible Green: Review

For years up till World War II the Seven Unravellers, a loosely-knit club of mystery fans and crime hounds, had lived for the perfect crime. Each of them had their favorite type of mystery from the military man who dabbled in espionage to the policeman who preferred his detectives hard-boiled to the lawyer who was primarily interested in the facts of the case to the only female member who had a liking for the fairly-clued, but suitably obscure, sometimes filled with witty play on words classic crime. But each secretly thought they could solve one with the best of them if just given the chance. The club has long been defunct when they finally get their opportunity--but it may not be as amusing as they imagined. Because the victims in their personal mystery are the Unravellers themselves.

Dorothea Pharoah has decided after thirty years that it may be time for a reunion of the group. She has no sooner mailed the invitations than Major Stokes contacts her to say that he mustn't attend--the spies are on to him and  their leader, the mysterious Mr. Green, is out to eliminate him at any moment. She doesn't take him seriously as regards the spies, but she does sense that he is genuinely frightened so she asked Thackery Phin, a rather flamboyant private detective, to look into the matter. Phin settles down to keep an eye on the Major and his house...and the old boy dies right under his nose. The police are happy to call it natural causes--but Phin is not convinced. And when the other members start receiving strange clues in a spectrum of colors and then two more are killed, Phin is convinced that there is a conspiracy of sorts behind it--not international spies, but someone out to permanently unravel the Unravellers.

Invisible Green is an interesting take on the locked room or impossible crime novel. As our intrepid private detective, Thackery Phin tells us in his grand wrap-up scene, we have not one...not two...but three variations of the impossible crime.  The first is pretty standard--Major Stokes is found dead from apparent natural causes in a house that is locked up tighter than the crown jewels. The only access to the man was through a vary small window that would allow admittance to no one. Next up is a man who is murdered while all the suspects are milling about outside his home--but one door is locked and all other doors and windows are under observation. And, as a twist on the locked room/house, our last victim is killed while all the suspects are virtually "locked up in another house, miles away at the time of the crime."
 
It's a shame that John Sladek thought he needed to abandon the mystery genre for science fiction. In addition to this novel, he wrote only one other (The Black Aura) and two short stories before changing genres.  This was an entertaining tribute to the Golden Age that managed to pull off the classic crime feel in the 1970s. The wrap-up at the end is a bit long and convoluted--but overall a fun read and Sladek makes a decent effort at John Dickson Carr's locked room territory.  ★★★ and 1/2.

For more insight into Sladek's novel, be sure to visit Tipping My Fedora--Sergio reviewed this one as well back in 2012. 

This fulfills the Locked Room square on the Silver Vintage Bingo card.

Beyond Uhura: Review

In Beyond Uhura, Nichelle Nichols tells her story from the beginnings growing up in a socially progressive family through her teen years as a young singer/dancer who had already been praised by Josephine Baker and worked with Duke Ellington. She got her first job at the age of fourteen working in a cast at the Sherman House Hotel which portrayed many of the tremendous acts which had been staged at the Sherman House's College Inn supper club in the twenties: Fred and Adele Astaire, Duke Ellington, Al Jolson, Irving Berlin and others. Ms. Nichols helped re-create the appearance of Katherine Dunham and her troupe. From those early years, she went on to travel solo as a singer/dancer and finally worked her way to her first television screen appearance in a new show by a new producer--The Lieutenant by Gene Roddenberry.

Little did she know what working with Roddenberry on that first series would lead to. Nichelle is, as far as I'm concerned, the first lady of Star Trek. (Yes, I know that title is most often given to Majel Barrett as Gene's wife.) She is beautiful, a great actress, and an even better singer. She had a tremendous effect on the entry of women and minorities into the space program. Yes, her autobiography is just a little self-indulgent--but she's earned it. (Show me someone in the entertainment world who isn't. Most are even more so.) And..she manages through each of the negative incidents in her life--from being not only a woman in Hollywood, but a black woman in Hollywood--to remain very positive throughout. 

A fascinating (to quote Mr. Spock) read.  I have always enjoyed her as Uhura. I enjoyed this book and its look at her life before and outside of Star Trek.  ★★★★

Red Herring: Review

Red Herring by Edward Acheson is an inverted mystery. After a rather robust lead-in, Acheson gives us our perpetrator and we follow him as he plans, commits, and then watches another man put on trial for his crime. We begin with our"hero"--Daniel F. Farnham, 30-a something journalist who is despairing of ever making his way in the newspaper world. He has become a crime reporter and good friends with Sergeant Ryan. Ryan encourages him to use his familiarity with crime (and a brilliant idea that Ryan just happens to have) to write a "hum-dinger" of a crime novel--and inadvertently sets Farnham on his life of crime.

It all begins with Farnham trying out methods in real life--just to see if his fictional criminal would be able to get away with all he's plotted. He devises a plan to rob a bank and methodically goes about making a duplicate key to the bank door, managing to hang about and obtain the combination to the safe. Farnham sends off his first novel (not the "hum-dinger" just yet) in hopes of an initial sale--but when his story is rejected, it suddenly occurs to him that he just might be able to rob the bank for real and then he'd have plenty of money to go off for some peace and quiet and some real writing time (instead of trying to write and work at the paper). He finds that unlike his story, he can't plan for every little possibility and his plan goes horribly wrong when the night watchman shows up (off-schedule!). He only intends to knock the fellow out, but at the end of the evening Farnham is more than a bank robber...he's also a murderer.

He manages to avoid suspicion and fix up a fall guy (according to his fictional plan)...but will he really be able to escape justice? That's the only mystery at all to Acheson's tale. And I won't tell...you'll just have to read it for yourself.

I have to admit up front that I'm not a huge fan of the inverted mystery. I like to pit my wits against the detective and see if I can pick up all the clues before the crime is solved and the culprit nabbed. Knowing whodunnit up front kind of takes the oomph out of the story for me. But Acheson does a competent job with his task and it really is a surprise to see how it all ends for Farnham--I changed my mind several times when trying to decide if he'd finally be found out or not. A decent story...and those who enjoy this type of mystery will probably rate it higher. ★★★

This fulfills the "Animal in the Title" square on the Golden Vintage Bingo card and also gives me my second Bingo.  Just need two on the Silver card to fulfill my commitment.

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. ★★★★★

Bed-Knob & Broomstick: Review

My edition of Bed-Knob and Broomstick is the 1957 version which combines both of Mary Norton's works (The Magic Bed-Knob or How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons AND Broomsticks and Bonfires) in a single volume. The first section of the book (equivalent to The Magic Bed-Knob) reveals how Carey, Charles and  Paul Wilson came to know Miss Eglantine Price and the adventures they had as a result. The children are sent to the country to stay with their Aunt in Bedfordshire.  One morning when they go out early in the morning to hunt mushrooms they find Miss Price in crumpled and torn clothes and with an injured ankle. She is pretty evasive when they try to find out what happened to her, but Paul (the youngest) calmly supposes that she must have fallen from her broomstick.

So, Miss Price confides to the children (I'm guessing she's been longing to share her secret with someone) that she's been studying to be a witch, but she's not so very good at it yet. It takes an enormous amount of concentration and uninterrupted time--especially if one wants to be a proper wicked witch. She no sooner reveals her secret when she immediately regrets her indiscretion and (in good wicked witch form) starts thinking of some way of shutting the children up. Carey suggests an alternative--what if Miss Price gives them something magical and puts a spell on it so if the children reveal her secret then the magic will no longer work?

The bargain is made and Miss Price enchants a bed-knob that Paul has unscrewed from his bed. If he screws it on half-way and makes a wish, the bed will take them anywhere they'd like to go--past or present. The children take it on a test run back to London--because Paul is missing his mother and get into all kinds of trouble with the police in the war-time black-out. They decide that their next adventure may need a little more (magical) insurance and invite Miss Price to join them on a visit to a South Seas Island. Their goal is to investigate the coral, but they wind up back in trouble...this time with cannibals. By the time Miss Price can get them out of harm's way and safely back to Paul's bedroom, they have no time left to clean up the sand and salty water before their aunt discovers the mess.  She naturally doesn't believe their explanation of how it happened and packs them up and ships them back to their mother. End of part one.

The second section (equivalent to Broomsticks and Bonfires) takes place two years later. Carey and Charles have systematically worked to convince Paul (and themselves) that their adventures with Miss Price were just dreams--all in an effort to prevent Paul from blurting out something strange at an inconvenient moment. Just when they've almost done the job, an advertisement from Miss Price appears in the newspaper saying that she would gladly take in children for the summer for a small fee. The children manage to persuade their mother that a summer in the country with their friend Miss Price is just what they need and off they go--ready for more adventures. (They are well-prepared because Paul left his aunt's house with the magic bed-knob in his pocket.) 

But when they arrive at Miss Price's they find that she has given up her studies. No more magic. Ever. She has bought the bed from the children's aunt--but they won't be allowed to travel on it. In fact, she unpacks their things for them and the bed-knob disappears. But then one morning, the bed, Miss Price, and Paul are gone and Carey and Charles are put out that Miss Price and their brother went traveling without them. After they reappear, Carey convinces Miss Price that it isn't fair that she and Charles didn't get one more chance and if Miss Price will let them travel into the past "just once" (because, after all, they didn't get to try that part out yet), then they could all be done with magic forever. So, the children travel back to the 1600s, meet a "real" necromancer, bring him back to the 20th Century, and that's when a new set of problems arise....

Previous to finding this book in a stack of books to be thrown out in the hallway at work (don't even get me started on that particular horrifying moment), my only exposure to the story of Miss Price, the apprentice witch, and the Wilson children (renamed Rawlings by Disney & co.), Carey, Charles, and Paul, was the Disney film starring Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson. I thoroughly enjoyed Disney's animated/live-action treat but it was very interesting to read the original stories and see how much had been changed--as Disney always did. One thing I do like about the Disney film is that it brings the themes of World War II very much to the center of the story. 

The book(s) by Norton touches upon the war--with references to the black-out and the children wondering if it would be fair to use magic in war-time. What if all the soldiers were turned into white mice? But, unlike the movie, Miss Price is not studying magic to aid the war effort--she simply wants to become a witch. And apparently a wicked one at that--though her actions belie any real wickedness in her nature. I enjoyed this venture into the book behind the Disney film more than Mary Poppins (for my take on that please see my review)--there wasn't quite the difference between the book and the movie in the character of Miss Price as there was with Mary. 

This was a fun read. One that I know I would have enjoyed even more had I read it when I was a child. ★★★★

Challenges Fulfilled: Mount TBR Challenge, Bookish TBR, Monthly Key Word, Century of Books, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, 100 Plus Challenge, Back to the Classics, Women Challenge, Literary Exploration, A-Z Reading Challenge, Semi-Charmed

Death at the Medical Board: Review

It is wartime in Britain and Ursula Finton is eager to join a branch of the women's services to do her part for her country. Her family most definitely disapproves--ever since Ursula had a bout of scarlet fever she has been prone to attacks of heart trouble when excited or stressed. Her devoted family fear that she will bring on a fatal attack if she gets herself involved in the war effort.

But Ursula doesn't believe she has heart trouble--the attacks only occur when she's at home--so she goes to a London specialist for a thorough examination. He provides her with a clean bill of health and a certificate for her to give the medical board stating that there was nothing wrong with her heart. The military doctors reach the same verdict when they examine her and are fully prepared to admit her to service. So why did she succumb to an apparent fatal heart attack in the dressing room as she prepared to leave?

Dr. Rachel Williams, a member of the medical board, can't believe that three eminent doctors (including herself) could have misjudged Ursula's health and calls on Dr. David Wintringham to investigate. Wintringham is currently involved in war work of his own and has pretty much given up his dabbling in crime, but when a certain clue comes to light which leads him to believe that Ursula's death may tie in with his current "hush-hush" assignment he willingly begins to dig further.  His investigations lead him to the Finton's country home where motives are thick on the ground. If her death is not related to the mysterious "PH" gang that Wintringham is trying to trace, then it may well be one of her "loving" relatives--eager to inherit the property she currently is heir to. Or perhaps dear old Nanny would prefer that her favorite--Ursula's cousin--were master of the house and land rather than beholden to Ursula for his livelihood.Wintringham and Inspector Staines follow up the clues...to a solution that is far more complicated than they imagined.

Josephine Bell's Death at the Medical Board is a typical Golden Age mystery with plenty of red herrings and mysterious-acting potential suspects. It does offer up an interesting method of murder--who would have thought of death by lipstick? [No spoilers here--you find that out quite early.] Her characters are interesting and realistic--the local inspector takes some time to warm up to the "interfering" outsider and the interactions between Staines and Wintringham reflect that. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one until the end--it's a bit unbelievable and it takes one of Christie's famous twists and adds in the mysterious "hush-hush" gang for flavor and makes it more unbelievable still. Would that the ending were more satisfying...but all in all a fun read and well worth it.  ★★★ and 1/2 stars

This fulfills the "Features a Doctor or Nurse" square on the Golden Vintage Bingo car.

Challenges Fulfilled: Vintage Mystery Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, Bookish TBR, Monthly Key Word, Monthly Motif, Century of Books, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, My Kind of Mystery, 100 Plus Challenge, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Women Challenge, Semi-Charmed, Book Bingo

Faro's Daugher: Review

Poor Lady Mablethorpe is having a bout of the vapors. Her innocent, young, soon-to-be wealthy son has announced his intention to marry the beautiful twenty-five-year-old Deborah Grantham. The only difficulty? Miss Grantham is the niece of Lady Bellingham, the owner of a gambling establishment. And, even worse, Miss Grantham actually presides over the gaming tables--flirting with the gentlemen and playing them off one another in the hopes of driving them to leave even more of their wealth behind.

The distraught mama enlists the aid of her nephew, Max Ravenscar, to, at best, persuade young Lord Mablethorpe of his folly and put an end to the love affair or, if necessary (heavens she hopes not as she reaches for her vinaigrette), to buy off the shameless hussy at any cost. Mablethorpe is thoroughly besotted and there is no hope of changing his mind, so Ravenscar meets with Miss Grantham to try and make a deal. But--inexplicably--Deb Grantham refuses the more than handsome offer of 20,000 pounds and is thoroughly insulted by the insinuation that she would take advantage of an innocent. She determines to make Ravenscar pay for his injustices to her....and she and Ravenscar are plunged headlong into a battle of wits and wills to see who will get the better of whom.

Georgette Heyer was the queen of the Regency Romance. She did her research well and the reader is completely immersed in the age from the first sentence to the last. The conversations are pitch perfect and the descriptions of the gaming house, Vauxhall, and the Park (where everyone who's anyone goes to be seen) are delightfully on target. Despite the fact that historical romances tend to run in a somewhat formulaic manner to brooding, pompous, I'm-going-to-be-a bachelor-forever-so-there Heroes and strong-willed, feisty Heroines and even though the two declare throughout the book how much they despise each other, so we all know what will inevitably happen--despite all that, Heyer writes fantastic stories with characters that keep you reading for the fun of it. Her books have it all: witty dialogue, the life and doings of the ton, creditable characters that are some sometimes a bit larger-than-life (but not too, too much larger), a great concern with social standing which always, always puts a twist on the romance in question. She's my go-to author for historical romances and I love reading her books. ★★★★

Dorothy Dixon & the Double Cousin: Review

Dorothy Dixon is just your typical girl sleuth--you know, the kind of girl who can fly planes, pilot motor boats, throw a knife with deadly accuracy, and take the place of an almost-identical twin cousin at the drop of a hat (without ever having met the cousin before and, therefore, without having the first clue how said cousin behaves in day-to-day situations). Dorothy is a mere sixteen years old, but by the time Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin takes place, she already has three mysteries under her belt and the local Secret Service agent trusts her enough to take her into his confidence over top secret plans for a super spiffy, super dangerous formula for a brand new explosive.

Dorothy's cousin Janet Johnson is in deep trouble with her daddy and the secret organization he belongs to. Janet sleepwalks and she managed to sleepwalk herself into a room where the organization was going to hold its top-secret meeting. She awakens behind a screen and hopes that she won't be discovered...but, of course, she is and the members find it hard to believe that the girl didn't overhear all their nefarious plans. Enter Dorothy....she bumps into Janet's finance (who mistakes her for Janet....just how well does he know his girl, anyway?) and finds out that Janet has been locked in her room until the organization can figure out whether she really was still sleepwalking or whether she overheard everything and is a threat to their plans. Howard is afraid that Janet is in danger and Dorothy promises to help him rescue her.

She enlists the advice of her beau Bill Bolton (who, by the way, is the star of his own mystery/adventure series) as well as the local Secret Service agent who they both happen to be chums with. It winds up that the organization in question is already on the agent's radar and he enlists Dorothy's help in rounding up these crooks who have their eye on Doctor Winn's newest invention "Winnite"--a dangerous, explosive gas that must not fall into the wrong hands. 

The group manages to slip Dorothy into Janet's room where she has all of about 15 minutes to study her cousin (under stressful circumstances) while they exchange clothes and Janet sneaks out the window into Howard's loving arms. It's now up to Dorothy to pull the wool over Janet's father's eyes (as well as the gang members) as she's virtually kidnapped and hustled off to a house in the country where the two leading crooks have their eye on Dr. Winn and his precious formula. The rest of the story consists of the butler/incognito secret service man warning Dorothy not to drink the lemonade, giving her instructions on how to copy the formula before the crooks can get their hands on it, and the secret service agent/butler getting conked on the head by the female half of the crooked duo so Dorothy can be the heroine who saves the day.  Much adventurous hi-jinks ensue and it all ends well...as readers of these Girl Super Sleuth adventures know it will.

This was a fun, quick read and I'm sure I would have devoured it (and the other three books in the series) right along with the Nancy Drew books had I discovered it when I was younger. It was pleasant to settle back and enjoy a girl's adventure story from yesteryear. No deep mysteries here--no complicated plot.  Just good, clean fun.  ★★★

This novel by Dorothy Wayne (1933) fulfills the "Crime Other than Murder" [theft/kidnapping] square on the Golden Vintage Bingo card.

 

My Ántonia: Review

My Ántonia by Willa Cather is the final book of her "pioneer trilogy" of novels...and I must confess that I haven't read the other two. The novel consists, primarily, of Jim Burden's memories of life on the Nebraska prairie and his interactions with Ántonia and her Bohemian family. Jim's parents have died and he travels by train to Nebraska where he will live with his grandparents. On the same train are the Shimerdas--the Bohemian family who have come over from the old country to take possession of land which they have bought sight unseen. Jim and Ántonia form a strong bond somewhere between friendship and siblings and first love--later in the book Jim will admit that he loves Ántonia, but she will not accept his declaration. The novel is divided into five books that roughly follow the stages of Ántonia and Jim's lives and ends with Jim's return to Nebraska to visit Ántonia one more time.

The introductory notes to my edition make a fairly big deal of the possessive "my" in the title. "Is the emphasis in the novel's title on the pronoun or the noun, or, to put it differently, is this Ántonia's story or Jim's?" Quite honestly, I don't think that's the point at all. I would say that the title, as a whole, comes from Ántonia's father's plea to Jim's grandmother: "Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my Ántonia!" Ántonia will become the Bohemian family's ambassador to their English speaking neighbors and the family's interpreter. Without Ántonia, they would have to depend on their rather unreliable (if not down-right dishonest) distant relative--the one who "helped" them pay too much for land and a house. So--maybe in that sense--it is Ántonia's story and not Jim's. And certainly Ántonia never truly belongs to Jim, except perhaps in friendship, so the possessive should not be emphasized by him.

In some ways Cather writes beautifully. The descriptions of the Nebraska prairie are lovely and her characterization of  Ántonia and her family are compelling. Jim, on the other hand, is rather lackluster. His narrative is pretty lifeless and I found myself wishing that Ántonia had told her own story. Given her rendition of the flight from the wolves and the hobo who threw himself in the threshing machine, she is a lively storyteller and would, I think, make a better narrator.
★★★

Quotes
I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally sleep. (p. 17)

Gaston Cleric introduced me to the world of ideas; when one first enters that world everything else fades for a time, and all that went before is as if it had not been. (p. 139)

If there were no girls like them in the world, there would be no poetry.

I was thinking, as I watched her, how little it mattered –about her teeth for instance. I know so many women who have kept all the things she had lost, *but whose inner glow has faded*. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of life. 

I'd have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister--anything a woman can be to a man. The idea of you is part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don't realize it. You really are a part of me.

Murder at the Museum of Natural History: Review

I started the Bill Donovan series by Michael Jahn in mid-stream, as it were, with Murder on Theatre Row (#4) back in 2011.  I've since been grabbing up the books as I find them at book sales and what-not and when Charlie updated her What's in a Name? Challenge to include a "read a book with 
a school subject in the title" category I decided to step backwards in the series to read Murder at the Museum of Natural History (#3). 

By the time Donovan is investigating the murder in Theatre Row, he has established himself as an expert on crimes with unusual weapons. In Museum, we see part of the reason for his reputation. It's Donovan's birthday and he's getting some major presents. His friends and colleagues manage to surprise him with a new set of home exercise equipment (to replace the rusty weight bench he's had since forever). The Commissioner stops by his birthday celebration to not only surprise him with the news that he's been recommended for a captaincy but also that the Commissioner is unable to attend the gala opening of the new Silk Road exhibit at the Museum of Natural History--an event that Donovan, a widely-read man with varying interests (including history), would give his eye teeth to attend. 

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a priceless one-thousand-year-old dagger which Marco Polo carried along the Silk Road as a gift from the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII to Kublai Khan. During the media circus surrounding the opening, someone steals the dagger and plants it in the chest of Paolo Lucca--the man who has made the exhibit possible. Not only does Donovan have to figure out how the killer got their hands on the ancient dagger, but he also has to make his way through the minefield of famous people and touchy diplomats. The suspects are all high-powered individuals--from Lucca's beautiful model wife to the provincial terrorists--er--diplomats to the Russian mafiosi--and if Donovan wants to make captain he'll have to be careful whose toes he steps on.

As with Theatre Row, I really enjoy the character of Bill Donovan. He's just the right mix of tough-guy cop and intelligent, widely read man--he makes it easy to believe that he just might know something about everything or if he doesn't that he'll soon be reading up on it and have a mastery of the subject. The supporting characters are also good and Bill has excellent interactions with them all. Jahn also tells an interesting, fast-paced story that is fun to read. The main problem--and for some it might be too big--is that a major key to the mystery is blatantly telegraphed and there really isn't much of a mystery to solve. Fortunately, the characters and the pacing make up for that and it is still an enjoyable read. 

★★★

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