Challenge Complete: Charity Reading Challenge

Charity Reading Challenge
Host: Becky's Book Reviews (sign up here)
Duration: January-December 2019
# of books: You decide: I'm going for 12 
Read for a good cause! Buy books at a charity shop, or, even a friends of the library book sale, or, donate a certain percentage of money for each book you read for the challenge. You can choose your own goal of how many books to read, what charity you'll be donating money towards, how much money, etc. (For example, you might want to donate $1 for each paperback you read, or, $3 for every hardback you read. You can work out the details yourself.) For full details click on link above.

I have completed my challenge commitment to reading 12 books bought from charity sources. I am still keeping a running total on charity books purchased this year, so I'll check in again towards the end of the year to see how much I give to charity in exchange for good books.

Books Read:
1. Tales of Terror & Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (1/23/19)
2. The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes by June Thomson [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (1/25/19)
3. Blind Corner by Dornford Yates [Historical Society Community Rummage Sale] (1/27/19)
4. A Wreath for Rivera by Ngaio Marsh [FOL] (3/11/19)
5. Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal [FOL] (3/23/19)
6. Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh [FOL] (4/4/19)
7. Murder at the Mardi Gras by Elisabet M. Stone [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (4/20/19)
8. The March Hare Murders by Elizabeth Ferrars [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (4/23/19)
9. The Lover by Laura Wilson [FOL] (5/17/19)
10. The Cream of Crime edited by Jeanne F. Bernkopf [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (6/1/19)
11. The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur W. Upfield [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (6/1/19)
12. Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (6/16/19)

 

Scales of Justice

Scales of Justice (1955) is one of Ngaio Marsh's most classically British mysteries. In fact, despite its 1955 printing date, it has a very pre-WWII feel to it. It is set in the standard small charming village with all the familiar figures--former British military types (Colonel Carterette, the murderee, and Commander Syce, an inebriate ex-navy man); the local landed gentry represented by Lady Lacklander and her son (recently elevated to Sir George Lacklander after the death of his father); the nosy middle-aged woman (this time Nurse Kettle,the county nurse), the romantic young couple (Dr. Mark Lacklander--George's son--and Rose Carteretts--the Colonel's daughter; and the Outsider in the form of Colonel Carterette's second (much younger) wife. There's a nice, healthy on-going feud between Carterette and his neighbor Mr. Octavius Danberry-Phinn over fishing rights and the attempt to catch the Old Un (a rather spectacular trout).

Then Carterette manages to alienate his friends the Lacklanders when Sir Harold (while on his deathbed) commissions the colonel with taking charge of and seeing to the publication of his memoirs. That wouldn't be so bad, but Sir Harold had made some alterations and confessions that the family would rather not see the light of day.  Sir George has a huge row with Carterette and tells him that any understanding between their children is now off. This is followed by another loud disagreement with Danberry-Phinn over the Old Un...and then later that evening, Nurse Kettle stumbles across the Colonel's body with the disputed fish lying beside it.

Lady Lacklander doesn't want the local bobby mucking up the investigation, so she calls in favors at Scotland Yard and asks that Inspector Alleyn take up the case. Because he is a gentleman. And..because she knew him when he was young and it appears that she thinks she may be able to manipulate him into hushing things up. She and her family also think they can keep Sir Harold's skeletons firmly in the closet. She and her family would be wrong. As they soon learn, Alleyn may be a gentleman but he is also a dedicated copper and will follow up every lead, no matter how fishy* until he has identified the murderer.

This really is quite good. There is a lot of humor in the book. Marsh pokes fun at the class distinctions--particularly the Lacklanders--without making them into caricatures. The country village setting is well done and we're given a nice overview of the landscape and social set-up in the opening with Nurse Kettle. Marsh lays a good trail of clues with a nice batch of red herrings mixed in (mixed better than my metaphors, I'm happy to add). Though I show on my reading list that I'd read this one, I had no memory of having done so and little more of the production with Patrick Malahide as Alleyn, so Marsh was able to lead me up the garden path for quite a bit of the book. I did manage to untangle the clues before Alleyn explained it all, but not long before. Overall, a satisfying read. ★★★★

*forgive me, I couldn't resist

[Finished on 6/16/19]
Calendar of Crime = May (Military figure)

The Cream of Crime

The Cream of Crime: More Tales from Boucher's Choicest (1969) edited by Jeanne. F. Bernkopf gives us what purports to be some of the best selections from Anthony Boucher's annual Best Detective Stories of the Year. Just as a point of clarification:"detective stories" implies, to me, that a certain amount of detective work (mystery-solving, tracking down criminals, etc.) will be done by a protagonist who at least loosely fits the "detective" role--whether that be a professional (private eye, policeman, etc) or amateur detective. A number of the stories in this collection do not fit that description--some of them don't even contain what could be called (except in the loosest possible terms) a crime. A few of these could fall into the category of moral crime--but there would be difficulty ever bringing the perpetrator to justice. This makes rating the collection a bit difficult. If I were to rate it purely on whether the product were as advertised, then I would have to give it a very weak three stars. If I rate it purely on story quality (regardless of what genre the stories ought to be listed as), then I would definitely be handing out at least four stars and quite possibly four and a half.

All but two of the twelve stories included here are very fine stories, indeed. I didn't care at all for the parody-pastiche of Sherlock Holmes by Robert L. Fish ("The Adventure the Double-Bogey Man"). I found it neither "hilarious" (as promised) nor a particularly good rendering of Holmes in pastiche. I was also promised that William Wiser "writes like an angel," but if this is the case I certainly didn't hear any harp strings or glad tidings of great joy in his "A Soliloquy in Tongues." Perhaps he writes more like a fallen angel...

In my opinion, the creamiest of the Cream presented are "A Case for the UN" by Miriam Allen deFord, "The Opposite Number" by Jacob Hay (a truly good pastiche of espionage novels), "The Oblong Room" by Edward D. Hoch, and "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson. Only two of these (by deFord and Hoch) are strictly speaking detective/crime fiction, but all four are extraordinarily good short stories. DeFord presents a murder committed in full view of a plane full of witnesses, but such a way that it looks like the murderer can never be prosecuted--because no particular country has jurisdiction. There is a famous lawyer among the witnesses. Will he be able to find the loophole that will bring the killer to justice? As mentioned, Hay's story is a very good pastiche--it pokes gentle fun at the spy story and is quietly funny in a way that is much more effective than the blatant attempt at humor in the Fish story. Hoch's "The Oblong Room" was the 1967 winner of the annual Edgar Allan Poe award for best crime short story and it is apparent why. Hoch's story evokes the best of Poe's short stories and provides a simple plot full of atmosphere and a shocking finale. There is also a nice bit of detection included. "The Possibility of Evile" is Jackson doing what she does best--taking the ordinary village life and revealing the evil undercurrents with realistic flair. And the bit of karma that is served up to our "villain" is right on point.

Final verdict, after averaging both methods of rating the collection: ★★★ and 3/4. 


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Finished  5/26/19
Deaths: 7 shot; 1 poisoned; 1 hit on head; 1 stabbed

The Lover (Spoilerific Review)

The Lover (2004) by Laura Wilson is a historical mystery set in England during World War II and based on the true story of the "Blackout Ripper." Like his predecessor, Jack, the Blackout Ripper set his sights on women who were known or rumored to be prostitutes. He got his name because he worked at night during the blackout years of the war in London. The actual murderer, Gordon Cummins was accused of murdering four women, found guilty and hanged for the murder of one of them, and suspected of killing two more. Wilson's book fictionalizes the story--crediting her murderer with three described deaths and implying more. However, one of the murders is laid at the feet of the man who had been living off the earnings of the prostitute and the book's end seems to imply that the actual killer escapes formal justice, but is missing--presumed dead in the war. A very unsatisfactory ending for those of us who like to see the killer get his just desserts in the final chapter.

This book is a mess. It changes point of view in every chapter. Sometimes that works, but more often than not, it doesn't. And it definitely doesn't here. The reader has little chance to become comfortable with the characters and have much connection to them because as soon as you start to settle down with a character, Wilson bounces us over to somebody else. The sole exception, is the kindly prostitute Rene Tate...which is unfortunate because, of course, she doesn't survive. Poor Rene who looked like she might have found an understanding man with whom she could settle down and get herself off of the game.

The descriptions of the murders are much more violent than I expected from this sort of historical mystery. Very off-putting and it made me skim more of the book than I should have liked--but when the killer showed such glee at what he was able to do with a poker and a can opener....Well, I just couldn't do it. 

Not a book that I feel like spending a great deal of effort on reviewing and definitely not one that I can recommend. ★


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Finished: 5/17/19
Three deaths (unless in skimming I missed something) = two strangled, one stabbed (and all mutilated after the fact. Ick.)

Death on a Warm Wind

Death on a Warm Wind (1968) by Douglas Warner was, in some ways, a disappointment. It was found in the middle of the "Mystery" section at my local library's fall clearance sale a few years ago. It shows up on various library sites (I did a search to check) under "Detective & Mystery Stories." But it isn't truly a mystery story. The only real crime involved is a crime against humanity (as if that were a mere trifle)--but it's not a specific crime like the murder of an individual or the theft of valuable jewelry or even the work of a mass murderer and I wouldn't really categorize it as a crime novel. It is speculative fiction.

The "crime" involved is an act by an arrogant man who thinks he knows best about what it might be good for the public to know and believe. In fact, Sir Guy Rayenham (British minister) reminds me of all the climate change deniers who are helping steer humanity towards a very bleak future if drastic measures aren't taken very soon.* So many of these people don't even read the science that backs up the verdict on climate change--and Sir Guy doesn't read the "rubbish" that Robert Colston presented as a way to predict earthquakes. A method which allowed him to predict an earthquake that killed 95,000 people, including Sir Guy's son. But that didn't phase Sir Guy a bit and when indications are such that it looks like London will be hit by a similar quake he isn't willing to use his position to warn Londoners in time to save lives.

When Colston (who has been declared dead twice already) is gunned down** in front of his office, Ian Curtis, editor of a London evening newspaper and--incidentally--very antagonistic to Sir Guy, finds himself on a mission to discover the truth behind Colston's earthquake predictions. Were they really that unfounded and was the first prediction just a fluke? Or was Colston's research sound? Colston's investigations (and that of the reporters under him) find proof that Sir Guy arranged for Colston's paper on earthquake prevention to be gutted and when read before a conference of leading scientists it came across as nonsense. Colston was discredited and his reputation ruined. And people died as a result.

"You silly old fool!" I said, beside myself. "You won't listen. You've made up your mind that Colston is a crank and you won't budge. You won't read the evidence....you 'prove' your case by the reaction of scientists to a document you yourself destroyed....You're acting like the racist who keeps the black man in poverty, disease and terror and then 'proves' he is a savage when he revolts." 

Will Curtis be able to convince someone in government of the validity of Colston's findings before it's too late for London?

This is a fairly entertaining story (though the science behind the predictions is a bit iffy) that I probably would have enjoyed more if I hadn't been expecting a mystery. I realize that's not the author's fault--but when one is expecting a mystery/detective novel and it doesn't happen it is a bit of a let-down. I enjoyed watching Curtis and his reporters dig into the story and find the proofs to back Colston's predictions. And the story serves to highlight the mentality of those in authority--those who "know best" what should be done, regardless of facts. It is a sad commentary on government officials in general (and our current government in particular). 

In one way, I was pleased with the ending (much too spoilerish to be more explicit), but it did seem a bit abrupt. I am curious to know more about the aftermath of the earthquake. But I suppose Warner is leaving that to our imagination. ★★★

*Please pardon my soapbox moment....
**One might think that this is the "mystery" which results in the book being categorized as "Detective & Mystery"--but Colston's death really isn't the focus of the story at all and it's no mystery who killed him. That is known right away, as is the motive. The man who kills Colston does so in revenge for his wife's death in an earthquake that Colston tried to warn people about. 

Murder at the 42nd Street Library

Murder at the 42nd Street Library (2016) by Con Lehane 

[from the back cover]
This first book in an irresistible new series introduces librarian and reluctant sleuth Raymond Ambler, a doggedly curious fellow who uncovers murderous secrets hidden behind the majestic marble façade of New York City’s landmark 42nd Street Library.

Murder at the 42nd Street Library follows Ambler and his partners in crime-solving as they track down a killer, shining a light on the dark deeds and secret relationships that are hidden deep inside the famous flagship building at the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.

In their search for the reasons behind the murder, Ambler and his crew uncover sinister, and profoundly disturbing, relationships among the scholars studying in the iconic library. Included among the players are a celebrated mystery writer who has donated his papers to the library’s crime fiction collection; that writer’s long-missing daughter, a prominent New York society woman with a hidden past, and more than one of Ambler’s colleagues at the library. Shocking revelations lead inexorably to the traumatic events that follow―the reading room will never be the same.

[My take:]
Okay....Well. I can't say that this is "irresistible." In fact, I pushed myself to finish the thing simply because I wanted to find out how many deaths I could rack up for Rick's Medical Examiner Challenge. Otherwise, I probably would have ditched it as a "Did Not Finish." I was extremely disappointed in what seemed to me to be a great-sounding story. Celebrated mystery writer. A research library with a crime fiction collection. People with hidden pasts. Shocking revelations and traumatic events. A nosy crime fiction research librarian to play amateur detective. What's not to like? Well...the nosy crime fiction research librarian for one. All the coincidences that happen for another. The messy plot. The REALLY big coincidence at the end. The endless side stories that seem to be intended as red herrings that somehow tie together because coincidences. (Did I mention there were all these coincidences?) An attempt by the author to combine all sorts of crime genres into one. We start out with what seems to be a cozy atmosphere and take a detour through an attempt at sleazy (near-porn) pulp. Then we wander around with a police procedural for a bit and throw in a bit of romantic mystery for good measure. 

To say this was a disappointing read would be an understatement. It might have helped if we had spent any sort of time at the library mentioned in the title. All the people who work at said library? Well, they don't actually seem to--work, that is. They spend a great deal of time talking to one another when they are there and then spend the rest of the time taking lunch breaks or wandering off to have drinks.  ★--maybe.

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Deaths = five (gunshot) I think I caught them all--but seriously, I was skimming there for quite a bit and may have missed somebody's death. I don't think it would have helped the story any if I had noticed more deaths.....
April = pub date

The March Hare Murders

The March Hare Murders (1949) by Elizabeth Ferrars

Murder strikes the sleepy, seaside village of Wellford. David Obeney has come to his sisster's home in Wellford to recuperate from a mental breakdown--brought on by his experiences in the war. He doesn't expect to find one of his least favorite people in the world, Professor Verinder, whom he regards as responsible for the death of the girl he loved.

When Verinder is found murdered with David's own service revolver and the only witness is left injured without being able to identify the killer, David is the obvious and (from the village's point of view) most desirable suspect. After all--he had a known grudge against the man and he's an outsider, so they wouldn't have to worry about it being "one of us." The circumstantial evidence piles up against him and it begins to look black for David, but Inspector Upjohn from Scotland Yard isn't ready to accept the easy answer; particularly since it appears to have been contrived to point towards Obeney.

And it's not like there aren't other reasons that someone might have wanted the professor out of the way. He's revealed to be an unfaithful husband and to have been involved in smuggling rare first editions out of the country. There's a hint of blackmail in the offing too.  

Most of the mysteries I've read by Ferrars were written in the 1970s with my favorites featuring Andrew Basnett, retired professor of botany. This particular novel seems to play more to the suspense crowd than the straight mystery. In fact, David Obeney reminds me of the young heroines from Mignon G. Eberhart novels--nearly always in stressful circumstances and generally regarded as the prime suspect by their contemporaries. The net keeps pulling tighter round them until the hero (or in this case the inspector) finds a way to prove our suspect innocent. 

The suspense here falls a little flat. It's quite obvious that David isn't going to prove to be the villain in the case and it's not too difficult to figure out who it is. A little too cut and dried with one small surprise at the end. ★★ and a half.

Deaths = 3 (one shot; one shoved off a cliff; one poisoned)

Mr. Churchill's Secretary: Review

Mr. Churchill's Secretary (2012) by Susan Elia MacNeal follows the war-time adventures of Maggie Hope who has just landed a job as a typist at 10 Downing Street under the brand-new Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Maggie is a British girl--but spent most of her life in the United States with her aunt after her parents were killed in an automobile accident. Her aunt, also British, had accepted an academic position in the States and taken the young Margaret with her. Maggie, all grown up with a mathematics degree under her belt, returned to England to sell the aunt's house and when she found it impossible to sell in the current market she decided to stay in England. 

She had hopes of doing more important war work than just typing--after all, with her degree she felt she could manage a high-level private secretarial position just as well as her good friend David who works at Downing Street. But she found that door closed--tightly shut as an all-boys club. David convinces her to take the typist's position when her predecessor is murdered--stabbed in what is officially being called a mugging, but there are rumors that it may have been more serious. It isn't long before Maggie's flair for intricate problems and remarkable code-breaking ability plunges her into more difficult situations than typing fast enough to keep up with Churchill. She finds herself in the middle of a plot that involves her very much alive father, a threat to the Prime Minister, and bomb hidden somewhere in St. Paul's Cathedral. She has some very important war work to do after all.

This is a nice introduction to a new series. MacNeal has invested a lot in historical research and it definitely shows--although there are moments when Maggie uses certain phrases that sound very 2012-ish rather than 1940-ish. Not often enough to really jar, but momentarily distracting. I enjoyed getting to know Maggie and her friends very much and felt that this book was really a "getting-to-know-you" effort rather than a total immersion in Maggie's world. I look forward to Maggie finding her feet and settling down to her work in future installments. And perhaps when she is more settled, the reader will be as well.

Overall, the story is absorbing and highlighted the fact that the Irish unrest was more of a factor during the war years than I realized. I didn't know how much damage was done on the home front by the Irish radicals even during the time that the Blitz was going on. That thread gave the plot an extra depth and a slight twist at the end. A good read for a Saturday afternoon. ★★★

A Wreath for Rivera: Review

A Wreath for Rivera (1st pub as Swing Brother Swing; 1949) by Ngaio Marsh finds Lord Pastern & Bagott, the very model of eccentric British aristocracy taking up jazz drumming (or becoming a tympanist, according to Marsh). His eccentric nature has reminded Curtis at the Passing Tramp of real-life eccentric Lord Berners and he (Curtis) makes a good case for Marsh using Lord Berners as a model*. Lord Pastern--to use the abbreviated form--has in the past been involved with Indian yogis, VooDoo, and nudism to name a few of his eclectic pursuits. He has forced his wife to share her home with members of an esoteric Central European sect. She has, by turns, indulged him (initially), threatened to divorce him, generally lived separately, and more recently reunited with him. She found that once the Central Europeans vacated Duke's Gate (where she had lived apart from Lord Pastern) that she could not endure the quiet. So, when her husband decided to bang away at drums, she welcomed the noise and him to Duke's Gate.

His latest passion is to perform with an actual jazz band and he convinces Breezy Bellairs to let him join Breezy Bellairs' Boys for a feature number at the Metronome club. He's even written a little song and devised a pretty little skit to go along with the number. He'll bang away at the drums and then Carlos Rivera, Breezy's star piano-accordionist, will come out and get shot (with blanks). It will be a real show stopper. Of course, Rivera is a quite unsuitable young man who has gotten entangled with Lord Pastern's step-daughter Félicité  (Fée)and Lady Pastern wants the relationship quashed at all costs. When somebody loads the gun with something more deadly than blanks, she gets her wish. In spades.

Naturally, it winds up that all sorts of people might have wanted Rivera out of the way. He was putting pressure on Breezy. Other members of the band were a bit fed up with him. He flirted incessantly with Lord Pastern's niece Carlisle much to Félicité's annoyance (intended) as well as to Ned (Edward) Manx's--who has just discovered that he loves Lisle. But who hated or feared him enough to kill? 

Luckily, Inspector Roderick Alleyn is in the audience when Lord Pastern's "Hot Guy" number produces one very cold corpse. He and Fox will have to wade through musicians' jealousies, a traces of drug-dealing, a hint of blackmail, and a side-issue of the real identity of a famous agony columnist before they collar the murderer.

I think what I enjoyed most about this was the eccentricity. It may seem a bit over-the-top viewing it from today--but Lord Pastern's mad fads, Lady Pastern's holding on to her aristocratic roots in the post-war era, the silliness of the "Hot Guy" number (as proposed--not how it transpired) all create a certain atmosphere that could only take place in this book. I was glad that despite the fact that I know I must have read this back in the mists of time (when I was making my through every Marsh book my hometown library had on offer), I remembered nothing of the plot. So--although I spotted one portion of the solution (hidden in the apparent empty space that follows--highlight if curious)--the use of the duplicate gun--I couldn't quite see how it all had been managed. 

One out-of-the-way thing that struck me--particularly because I've been listening to Sayers' Whose Body on audio while roaming about in the car--is that calling one's friends and colleagues by odd little endearments must have been quite a thing in Golden Age/classic mysteries. At one point, when Fox says this case may be like the "Purloined Letter," Alleyn responds with: "Fox, my cabbage, my rare edition, my objet d'art, my own special bit of bijouterie, be damned if I don't think you've caught an idea." Lord Peter throws such things about when addressing Parker and Bunter at various points. Now, if I can remember, I'm going to have to pay attention when I read others and see if this is a pattern beyond Alleyn and Wimsey.... ★★★


When I finished reading the hard copy, I noticed that the library had a book on CD read by James Saxon. I thought it would be interesting to see how he did reading the Marsh novel. Saxon does an excellent job with all the voices and it made running around in the car a fun experience. I generally prefer listening to audio novels that I've already read--that way I'm not likely to miss important details. So...I have now "read" this twice within a short period. Audio novel version counts for Virtual Mount TBR.



*For a more in-depth look at Lord Pastern & Bagott's relationship to Lord Berners (as well as a very smart review of Marsh's book in general), please visit Curtis over at The Passing Tramp.


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All Challenges Fulfilled: Brit Crime Classics, Century of Books, Cloak & Dagger, Just the Facts, Medical Examiner, Mount TBR Challenge, Ngaio Marsh Challenge, Outdo Yourself, Print Only, Six Shooter, Strictly Print Challenge, Charity Challenge, Virtual Mount TBR

Blind Corner: Review

Blind Corner (1927) by Dornford Yates (Cecil William Mercer) is more adventure/thriller than classic golden age mystery. Richard Chandos is on holiday in France when he manages to witness a murder. Does he report it to the authorities? Of course not. Instead he runs up to the dying man, breathing the fire of the righteous, to tell the man that he will hunt the blighter down and get him. But the man tells him not to bother--he just wants Richard to take care of his dog. And--since Richard admits that he overheard talk of a treasure--he tells him that if he looks in the dog's collar, he'll find that "she can pay for her keep." Then he dies.

Richard heads back to England where he hooks up with Jonathan Mansell and George Hanby. They discover a paper hidden in the dog's collar that gives instructions on how to find a great treasure. A treasure hidden on the grounds of an Austrian castle. Mansell is a great one for planning and soon the young men are kitted out with supplies and trusty servants and they take off for the continent. But they aren't the only ones in the hunt. The murderer in France has joined up with the villain  "Rose" Noble and his gang--and they are determined to have the treasure even if they have to kill six men to get it.

Yates plays fast and loose with the "Boys Own Adventure" rules--Mansell and company have no problem with killing in a good cause and certainly don't mind running off with a treasure that doesn't really belong to them. They resort to dirty tricks (draining the other side's auto's oil pan, for one) in order to outwit their opponents and their cars have secret compartments for getting the loot past the customs officials. But it's all in the name of adventure--and, of course, having the good guys win out over the baddies. So, settle back, buckle up, and get ready for an adventurous ride. Not much mystery going on here and crime detection is out the window, but if you're in the mood for adventure, treasure-hunting, and a simple world where the good guys always win (regardless of method) then this is great fun. ★★★

[Finished on 1/27/19]


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All Challenges Fulfilled: Mount TBR Challenge, Just the Facts, Calendar of Crime, Alphabet Soup Authors, Alphabet Soup, Book Challenge, World at War, Cloak & Dagger, Print Only, Strictly Print Challenge, European Reading Challenge, Brit Crime Classics, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, Medical Examiner, Charity Challenge, Mystery Reporter

Calendar of Crime = May (events take place)

The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes

The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes (1990) by June Thomson is another collection of Holmes stories purporting to be from that battered tin dispatch case mentioned by Watson in "The Problem of Thor Bridge." Just imagine how big that case must have been (or how many separate pieces of that case there were)...given all the "discovered" stories that have appeared over the years. Thomson takes on the task of providing the world with the details behind Mr. James Phillimore's strange disappearance upon going back into his house for an umbrella; the secrets of the Amateur Mendicants; the case of Isadora Persano and the remarkable worm; and the real activities of the Notorious Canary Trainer...among others. Thomson gets a great many things right with these short stories--the relationship between Holmes and Watson, historical detail, and Watson's voice as narrator being the most notable. She does come up a bit short on story delivery in about half of these, however. Out of seven stories, one isn't solved at all and two are only half-solved. Not a great percentage for one of the greatest detectives of all time. And quite honestly there are only two solutions that I agree were necessary for Watson to keep quiet about--and only one due to national security. Given the great air secrecy shrouding these stories in the Canon, one can be forgiven for feeling a bit disappointed when the reasons for the delayed publication don't quite meet the level of caution implied in Watson's original accounts.

This was an amusing read, but not quite the knock-out Holmes pastiche that I expected. I had read enthusiastic reviews of her work featuring Holmes and looked forward to strong stories. It looks like this was her first collection of Holmes stories--perhaps her later collections are stronger. ★★★

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All Challenges Fulfilled: Mount TBR Challenge, Calendar of Crime, Historical Fiction, Alphabet Soup Authors, Alphabet Soup, Century of Books, Cloak & Dagger, Book Challenge, Print Only, Strictly Print Challenge, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, 52 in 52 Weeks, Charity Challenge

Charity Reading Challenge 2019

Charity Reading Challenge
Host: Becky's Book Reviews (sign up here)
Duration: January-December 2019
# of books: You decide: I'm going for 12 
Read for a good cause! Buy books at a charity shop, or, even a friends of the library book sale, or, donate a certain percentage of money for each book you read for the challenge. You can choose your own goal of how many books to read, what charity you'll be donating money towards, how much money, etc. (For example, you might want to donate $1 for each paperback you read, or, $3 for every hardback you read. You can work out the details yourself.) For full details click on link above.

Last year I read much more than 12 from my Friends of the Library (FOL) and charity sale books, but given the number of challenges I've signed up for (and I could have sworn that I already signed up for this one for 2019), I'm just going to commit to 12 again. In addition to reading books that I had already bought in support of the library or charity, I also spent $169.39 on new books from those sources--most of that went towards the Hoosier Hills Food Bank community book sale. Let's see how much I give to charity this year in exchange for good books.

Books Read:
1. Tales of Terror & Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (1/23/19)
2. The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes by June Thomson [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (1/25/19)
3. Blind Corner by Dornford Yates [Historical Society Community Rummage Sale] (1/27/19)
4. A Wreath for Rivera by Ngaio Marsh [FOL] (3/11/19)
5. Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal [FOL] (3/23/19)
6. Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh [FOL] (4/4/19)
7. Murder at the Mardi Gras by Elisabet M. Stone [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (4/20/19)
8. The March Hare Murders by Elizabeth Ferrars [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (4/23/19)
9. The Lover by Laura Wilson [FOL] (5/17/19)
10. The Cream of Crime edited by Jeanne F. Bernkopf [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (6/1/19)
11. The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur W. Upfield [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (6/1/19)
12. Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh [Hoosier Hills Foodbank Book Sale] (6/16/19)

Tales of Terror & Mystery: Review

Tales of Terror and Mystery (1922; 1977) contains stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that were first published separately during a period from 1908 to 1921. The original publication does not appear to have included the very last story--and that was a very good thing. As with most story collections, the stories here are mixed in their strength and power to amuse. But that final story is a very weak offering indeed. My favorites ("The New Catacomb," "The Man With the Watches," and "The Brazilian Cat") lean more towards the detective genre than the supernatural. The few of these tales which I assume were supposed to terrify do not hold quite the power to shock that they may have done when first published. Nevertheless, Doyle has given us an entertaining selection and I did enjoy them. ★★★

"The Horror of the Heights": In the early years of aviation, Doyle gives us a story that speculates on the unseen dangers that await pilots who keep venturing higher and higher in the earth's atmosphere.

"The Leather Funnel": A man learns that to sleep with an object may bring dreams of its past. The leather funnel has a very unpleasant past indeed.

"The New Catacomb": A tale of revenge...brought about through the use of Roman catacombs. A very clever intellectual revenge, indeed.

"The Case of Lady Sannox": Another tale of revenge...and even more diabolical than the last.

"Terror of Blue John Gap": Dr. James Hardcastle takes on the unknown creature that lives in the depths of Blue John Gap. But will anyone believe his tale?

"The Brazilian Cat": A man plans to do away with the heir that stands between himself and a fortune. The plot involves a very unusual murder method--but will it succeed?

"The Lost Special": As Mr. Bland the Superintendent of the Central L. & W. Railway Company says in the story, "Does a train vanish into thin air in England in broad daylight? The thing is preposterous. An engine, a tender, two carriages, a van, five human beings--and all lost on a straight line of railway." And yet, it does happen.

"The Beetle Hunter": Dr. Hamilton, who has yet to go into practice, is coming to the end of his resources when he spots an advertisement in the paper. The job requires someone who is a doctor with a strong physique as well as strong nerves and who has an interest in entomology (beetles, to be precise). Once he's got the job, he's in for a very interesting night at the home of Sir Thomas Rossiter the well-known entomologist....

"The Man With the Watches": Three people on a train disappear from two compartments while an unidentified dead man (with six expensive watches in his pockets) appears in one of the abandoned first-class sections. The police are baffled until a letter arrives from one of the missing men.

"The Japanned Box": After a man's beloved wife dies, his friends and servants fear that he has returned to his carousing and womanizing ways...especially when a woman's voice is heard coming from his rooms late into the night. The private tutor for the man's sons learns the secret after falling asleep in the library one evening....

"The Black Doctor": A surprise witness saves a hotheaded young man from a verdict of guilty in a murder case.

"The Jew's Breastplate": The museum's new curator and his friend (our narrator) hide in the attic's lumber room to catch the midnight visitor who has been vandalizing a priceless relic. The culprit is not who they were expecting....

"The Nightmare Room": A siren of a woman holds the fate of two men in her hands...her husband and his friend. And then....a disappointing, anti-climatic end.

The Yellow Fairy Book: Review

I grew up with a copy of Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book. I loved that hardback edition of fairy tales. I read it and reread it and reread it. At that time, I had no idea that there were a whole set of color fairy tales to be had.  But I had such fond memories of it that when I spied a modern edition of The Yellow Fairy Book at our Friends of the Library Book Shop in 2015, I just had to bring it home with me. I have to admit that it wasn't as spellbinding to my adult self as that first fairy tale collection was to my younger self.

There is something very magical about fairy tales for children. The simple phrase "Once upon a time..." sets the stage for all sorts of wonderful adventures. Adventures that feature girls no bigger than your thumb, a boy who can turn into a wolf, and a talking stove as well as the traditional princes, princesses, giants, witches, elves, and giants. In fact I was already familiar with a number of the stories collected here--including "Thumbelina," "The Six Swans," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Glass Mountain," and "The Nightingale." These are also some of the best tales in the book and I did still enjoy the visit to fairy land...with a few reservations.

[pardon me a moment as I step onto one of my soap boxes...]
I didn't realize when I picked up the book that Andrew Lang's collection had been "edited" by Brian Alderson. Edited here means that Brian made whatever alterations he thought necessary to make these more palatable to a modern audience. I'm not going to argue the pros and cons of those decisions--what I will do is give my opinion that if Mr. Alderson wanted to put together a "more acceptable" collection of fairy tales, then he should have done so with his own book. He shouldn't have been given Andrew Lang's collection and then been given free rein to decide whether the versions Lang included were appropriate or the most "readable" or whatever. Part of the charm of the Blue Fairy Book (as I recall) was that I knew (even as a youngster in the late 1970s) that I was stepping into a different time period--an era that believed in fairies and magic and dragons, etc. and a time period that may have thought other things that were no longer true as well. I knew that this time period didn't represent my time period and I didn't expect it to. 

But setting aside the rightness of whether he should have made the choices at all, I also have trouble with some of the choices themselves--he tells us that he has gotten rid of some of Lang's selections because they weren't interesting, but then he keeps variations of stories that are virtually the same. For example, we have multiple variations of the simpleton (or the least favored or what-have-you) winning the day through virtue of having made the right friends--gluttons who can eat everything, men who can make things cold or can see great distances; friends who can help him perform the impossible tasks required of him. If the point is to have a better offering of stories all around, then I would think variety would be a good standard to meet as well.

Overall--still a good selection of fairy tales that should appeal to young readers and I did enjoy them. Just not quite as much as expected. ★★★

[Finished on 7/25/18]

Murder at Midnight: Mini-Review

Murder at Midnight (2014) by C. S. Challinor provides mystery lovers with a good ol' murder at a country house isolated by a winter storm. Barrister Rex Graves has invited his friends, neighbors, and fiancée to a New Year's Eve dinner party at Gleneagle Lodge--his home in the Scottish Highlands. The treacherous weather has kept a few folks home, but he still has a good turn-out. Things get interesting when Ken and Catriona Fraser announce that they've recently brought the neighboring castle back into their family (there had been a dispute over inheritance rights) and that there may be buried Jacobite treasure there. Graves is concerned that a treasure hunt in the area will disrupt the peace and quiet of his Highland get-away, but a bigger disruption is in store. As the winter storm rages outside and clock rings in the New Year, the power goes out and the Frasers are found dead--apparently poisoned. The police are called in, but it may be a long wait till the officials can make it through the weather...so the barrister once again dons his amateur detective hat and tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. Were the Frasers killed because of the treasure? Or had they made enemies of another sort among their fellow guests? The suspects include a real estate agent, a paramedic, a professor, an art college student, an interior designer, and a mysterious South American beauty.

This is the seventh book in the Rex Graves series and my first foray into the Scottish barrister's world. Challinor gives us a pretty solid mystery fashioned in the classic mode. We have a variety of suspects all cooped up in an isolated country house. Even those who ought to be innocent have a secretive air about them, providing red herrings to be eliminated (or not....). It's a fun, escapist read that requires little effort on the part of the reader (no intricate puzzles to solve). It is a shame that the motive is so very weak for the culprit....if it had been stronger, the rating would have been higher. As it is...★★★

[Finished on 7/23/18]

The Babes in the Wood: Mini-Review

The Babes in the Wood (2002) by Ruth Rendell

Synopsis According to Kirkus Reviews:

Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford’s stellar 19th case hinges on the disappearance of a pair of teenagers and their babysitter. Torrential rains have swelled the Kingsbrook beyond its banks, and all over Kingsmarkham the waters are rising. As Dora Wexford worries whether their garden and house will escape the flood, her husband is called to the home of Roger and Katrina Dade, who awoke the morning after they’d returned from a weekend away to find that Giles, 15, and Sophie, 13, weren’t asleep in their beds, and Katrina’s friend Joanna Troy, whom they’d left in charge of the children, had vanished as well. Have they all drowned, or do a T-shirt of Giles’s and a dental crown that might be Joanna’s point to a still darker fate? Roger’s missing car is discovered a week later with a corpse inside, but, in a cruelly comical twist, Peter Buxton, the rising media tycoon who finds it, neglects to report it to the authorities. So Wexford and Inspector Mike Burden (Harm Done, 1999, etc.) start digging into the backgrounds of Katrina and the Dades, and their discoveries give a new spin to the term “family values.” Long before the final stunning (and unguessable) surprise, Wexford’s had to face the likelihood that whatever became of Giles and Sophie, they were anything but babes in the wood. Sex, drugs, religious mania, dysfunctional families—and not even Wexford’s own domestic circle is safe this time.

My Take: Stellar??  Unguessable? Kirkus must have been asleep at the wheel when reading this one. This is a slightly less than average effort by Rendell. It's pretty obvious "whodunnit" and the investigation is way more meandering than necessary. Other than providing the hysterical mother of the missing kids  something be hysterical about (Oh, no! The floods! The kids have drowned....I just know it!) there's no point to the whole flood story in the book. The hysterical mother could have been just as hysterical without the rising river...and maybe the plot would have been a bit more on point. And, honestly, I get a little tired of the "repressive religious" people who so often get thrown in as suspects whether they actually did it or not. (Did they? I'm not telling.) The rendering of Joanna's character is interesting--not a standard female type. And Rendell's writing itself is still very good at this stage--I just wish the story had been a little more straight-forward--more true red-herring sidelines and less flooding and family drama for the Wexfords (will Wexford's daughters ever have a happy life?) would go a long way. ★★ and 3/4.

[Finished on 7/22/18] 
 

Nothing Venture: Mini-Review

Synopsis from the back of the book: Diabolical...that was the best word for rich Uncle Ambrose's will. If Jervis Weare did not marry within three months, King's Weare, the huge seaside estate, and all the money would go to his fiancée, Rosamund. Then, just two days before the wedding and the expiration of the deadline, Rosamund threw him over. Jervis's only hope, and his attorney reluctantly concurred, was to marry someone else.

But who was this strange girl named Nan Forsythe? She was his lawyer's secretary, and after he met with her employer, it was she who had run after Jervis. All the rest about her was a mystery. And why now, after they were married and alone together at King's Weare, was she insisting that someone was trying to murder him....

Nothing Venture (1932) by Patricia Wentworth has several things going for it that should make me love it. Most importantly a plucky heroine who repeatedly saves the rather dense love of her life (yay for Girl Power!) and lots of atmosphere from a gloomy, isolated country house to a dank underground cave where our heroine's love is held captive near the end of the book. But it just doesn't take me beyond the "middle-of-the-road," "this is an okay story" point. I like Nan Forsyth (our plucky heroine) and I'm always glad to see a strong female character. It's just a shame that Jervis Weare (the love of life) is so darn dense. I mean, you'd think that after a few near-misses he'd start believing Nan when she tells him someone's trying to kill him. But nooo, that bridge that collapsed practically under their feet...that was just old and rickety. The taxi that nearly ran him down--that was an accident too. 

Yvette over at In So Many Words has reviewed this from the opposite side of the fence saying that this is basically a very silly book (it is), but that doesn't stop her from loving it. In fact, she makes such a great case for the book that you should probably wander over there and read her review and maybe you'll be convinced to read it and love it as well. Her review persuades me that I must have read the book when I was feeling grumpy and not at all in the mood to suffer fools (Jervis!) gladly. I'll need to give this one another try at some point--but for now ★★★ for my middle-of-the-road reading.

[Finished on 7/19/18]