Challenge Complete: Craving For Cozies

Lori at Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book's Craving for Cozies Challenge goes right along with Yvonne's cozy challenge--so I always sign up for both. And...finish them both at the same time. Again--there will probably be more cozy mysteries served up here on the Block, but I've met my challenge commitment.

Thanks to Lori for sponsoring each year!

Books read for the challenge:

1. The Winter Women Murders by David A Kaufelt (1/5/19)
2. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (1/12/19)
3. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (3/24/19)
4. A Knife in the Back by Bill Crider (4/2/19)
5. Murder at the Mardi Gras by Elisabet M. Stone (4/20/19)
6. Trixie Belden & the Mystery on the Mississippi by Kathryn Kenny (4/23/19)
7. Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/23/19)
8. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/28/19)
9. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (5/11/19)
10. Miss Agatha Doubles for Death by H.L.V. Fletcher (5/16/19)

Strong Poison (audio version)

Dorothy L. Sayers's Strong Poison (1930) is a perennial favorite. I could not possibly tell you how many times I have read her mysteries starring Lord Peter Wimsey and this one in particular. I love it for many reasons and I recount a number of them at the review linked above (and the previous review linked within that one). I have also, as frequent visitors to the blog may have noticed, been on an audio novel bing this spring. This audio novel read by the incomparable Ian Carmichael is the latest of the LPW books on CD that I've brought home and this review (like previous audio novel reviews) will focus on the audio version and not the story itself.

This was especially satisfying because my last Sayers audio novel was not read by Ian Carmichael and did not impress me much. Carmichael is quite adept at giving voice to the numerous characters which Sayers uses to tell her tale of Harriet Vane, who stands wrongly accused of the murder of her lover, and the efforts to bring the correct villain to justice. He represents both men and women with equal talent and manages to portray various classes and professions--from servants to the aristocrats and from lawyers to reformed burglars with charming ease. I spent several delightful hours listening to Carmichael tell this much loved story. Full marks for a grand performance. ★★★★★

Murder Must Advertise (audio version)

This review is for the particular audio novel version of Murder Must Advertise read by John Franklyn-Robbins and is not focused on the content of the Dorothy L. Sayers story. For my thoughts on the story itself, please see my previous review at the link above.

According to the notes on the back of this library audio edition, our narrator John Franklyn-Robbins has performed a wide variety of classic stage roles (from London to Broadway), made hundreds of appearances on BBC television, and has been the "Voice of English Poetry" on British radio. I can only hope that he brought more depth and feeling to those performances than he did to his narration of Sayers' mystery novel. Throughout a large portion of the recording Franklyn-Robbins does not appear to make any great effort to differentiate characters from one another save for making his voice slightly (but only slightly) higher for the female characters and trying to imbue Ginger Joe with a somewhat youthful tone. For the most part, Franklyn-Robbins reads his script as if he were hoping to lull the reader to sleep. In fact, if I were looking for an audio novel to help me drift off to slumber land, this would be an ideal choice. 

One wouldn't think that a story chock full of dangerous falls down staircases, men being run over by cars and trains, women having their throats cut (my, but Lord Peter seems to have gotten himself into some very nefarious doings this time....), drug running, and impersonations galore could possibly be so "yawn-making" as the notorious Dian de Momerie would say. But it is...at least in this particular audio edition. I will say that Franklyn-Robbin did seem to find his range in the latter portions of the novel and livened things up a bit. But still--I'm very glad that I checked this out of the library and didn't buy it. Ian Carmichael gives a much more lively (and varied vocal) performance. I wanted to see what another actor would do with the Lord Peter stories. I had hoped to be better pleased--perhaps I'll come across another version to try some day. ★★ --just. 

Previously read by fellow Just the Facts challenger, Kate @ Cross Examining Crime. 

Lord Peter Views the Body

Lord Peter Views the Body, is a delightful gathering of stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. The hard copy version has twelve stories while this particular audio version (read by Ian Carmichael) is missing three of the originals--including one of my favorites, "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head." I have put together a brief note on each of these fun stories. Not a lot of detail, but that's to be expected with short stories. Sayers does manage to pull the reader right in regardless. ★★★★--but, then, I am biased. I love all things Wimsey and I especially love all things Wimsey when read by Ian Carmichael.


"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers": A story of jealousy and a well-known sculptor's plan for revenge. Fortunately, Wimsey is on hand to prevent the artist from completing the second half of his masterpiece.  

"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag": A high-speed motorcyclist gets a nasty surprise when he opens a bag picked up from a cloak room.
 
"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker": Wimsey uses a lovely bit of sleight of hand to silence a blackmailer.
 
"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention": Wimsey delves into the mystery of the death coach--a ghostly coach pulled by headless white horses and driven by a headless coachman.
 
"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran": His lordship solves a murder by noticing which way the footsteps ran.
 
"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste": Will the real Lord Peter please stand up? Or at least correctly identify six varieties of wine. A story of not one, not two, but three Wimseys.
 
"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach": Great Uncle Joseph chooses an unusual hiding place for his wealth.
 
"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face": Wimsey solves a murder using clues provided in the discussion amongst his fellow train travelers.
 
"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba": Lord Peter is reported dead....and events that follow lead to the capture of a gang of criminals.




Deaths =  Five: two strangled; two drowned; one stabbed
First line (of the first short story): The Egotists' Club is one of the most genial places in London.

Trixie Belden & the Mystery on the Mississippi

Trixie Belden and the Mystery on the Mississippi (1965) by Kathryn Kenny finds the all but one of the Bob-Whites (Diana is vacationing with her parents) in St. Louis, Missouri. The friends are invited by Mr. Wheeler, Honey and Jim's dad, to travel with him as he takes a business trip. While they have every intention of having a good, old-fashioned vacation--visiting a space rocket exhibit and following in the footsteps of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, you know that wherever Trixie goes, she's sure to stumble across a mystery that just needs solving. In this adventure, she and Honey haven't even gotten settled into their hotel room before it starts.

A briefcase with papers was left behind in their room and a very rude man bursts in and snatches it--accusing the girls of trying to steal his property. After he leaves, Trixie discover more papers in the trash can--graph papers with odd drawings on them just like those in the briefcase. She and Honey become convinced that the man is a spy and the papers have something to do with the top-secret space program. When they keep seeing the man and his fancy car as they go about their vacation, Trixie is even more convinced that he's at the bottom of something nefarious. She doesn't know how right she is and soon she and Honey will face their most dangerous situation yet.

Trixie Belden is one of the many young detectives whose adventures I followed when I was young. I may not have been quite as dedicated in collecting her books as I was Nancy Drew--I have all of the original hardback Drews--but I was definitely on the hunt for Trixie stories when a new (to me) Nancy Drew mystery wasn't available. Trixie, whose first book was published in 1948 was in many ways a more realistic character for a middle-class girl to relate to. I might have wanted to be Nancy with her roadster and the ability to travel anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat, but it was far easier to see myself as Trixie--the tomboyish girl with a quick temper. I admired Trixie's determination to learn detecting as a skill so she and Honey will be able to open the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency when they are adults.

Rereading this particular story, I'm struck by how intense the danger really is. I didn't remember the villains in any of the Trixie stories being so particularly nasty, but this villain is discussing the ways in which he considers murdering the two girls. It is quite intense for a young adult/childrens story from the time period. Of course, since it is a story aimed at the pre-teen crowd, the girls are rescued and there are no murders, but the deaths he contemplates for them are very unpleasant. I was also struck by the way Honey disagrees with Trixie over whether another person is involved with the plot. It's my recollection that Honey is very loyal to Trixie and her hunches and instincts about people. This time, Honey's insistence that she knows "people pretty well, and I'd trust her with anything.  She's so motherly." leads the girls into the trap that comes near to ending their detective careers.

Still--this was a very entertaining read and it was fun to go back and revisit a book from my childhood. ★★★★


First entry for  the 1965 Club bookish meme.
Calendar = May: title with word beginning with "M"

Murder at the Mardi Gras

Murder at the Mardi Gras (1947) by Elisabet M. Stone

Maggie Slone, a reporter for New Orleans' leading afternoon daily newspaper, is assigned to cover the Mardi Gras festivities for the first carnival since the lifting of Prohibition. It is a wild night--even more so than usual with everyone toasting the end of the long dry spell. Hopping from one night spot to another, she finds herself at the famous Le Coq d'Or cafe and a witness to a grand dust-up among a group at an adjoining table. It is obvious that the trouble revolves around a femme fatale type. Gaston, the cafe's owner, has been sharing a drink with Maggie and he declares the woman to be a bad one.

No, I don't really know them. But I do know her kind. she is bad. Bad through and through. She is evil, M'selle. All evil.... [Maggie protests that the woman is lovely.] Lovely? Not at all, M'selle. To be sure she is of great beauty, but it is a cold hotness of beauty which puts into a man a devil which may drive him mad.

Next day, Maggie is sent out to cover a suicide by gas and Gaston is proven correct for one of the men, who had shown himself madly obsessed with love for Nita, is the dead man. Maggie sees a chance for a scoop and quickly writes up the story with an angle on Nita. Who is this mystery woman? And where has she disappeared to while her lover did away with himself? That last question is answered just a few hours later when Nita is found strangled to death. 

Maggie's nose for news tells her that there is a connection between the two deaths and she sets out to beat the police and rival reporters to the story. She is spurred to even greater efforts when a young girl--who had promised Maggie a secret about Nita's death--is attacked and hospitalized. The reporter's zeal for a good story and her ambition to show up the cops lead her straight into trouble and cause her to jump to a few unhealthy conclusions. Unlike many amateur detective novels, Maggie doesn't wind up showing the police how to do their jobs. She almost gets the right answer...but it's the police who get their man in the end.

Stone plays havoc with the amateur "girl detective" trope of the 30s and 40s. No nicely brought up young lady, she. She fights with her mother, is exasperated with her sisters, and regularly flouts the house rules. Maggie Slone may be a lone girl reporter in a sea of male newshounds, but she's no Beverly Gray*. She's foul-mouthed and fiery-tempered and it's a wonder she ever gets a story out of anyone. She apparently solved a murder in a previous novel--but here she digs up all sorts of clues and manages to put the wrong spin on them. So, she's definitely not infallible. 

I'm in two minds about this one. On the one hand, the mystery is well done. I totally missed a clue displayed for all the world to see early on. It's hidden in plain sight so nicely that I doubt many would catch on. But...I found Maggie to be a distraction as a lead character. Her personality is a little too much and it really detracts from the story itself--especially for the period in which it is set and was written. I don't necessarily want a mousy little girl detective--but Maggie seems to want to out-drink and out-swear the boys without any real reason given for her behavior. It's not as if the men around her are constantly telling her not to try and make it in a man's world. The only blow-back she gets is from her friends (and one man who'd like to be more than a friend) that she's putting herself in too much danger. Which--she is. ★★★ for a good, solid mystery.

*Beverly Gray is a standard girl detective cast in the mold of Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton and others. Middle to upper middle class and with a nice, solid family life. She starts out her detective career in college and later takes on a job as a reporter--solving mysteries along the way.



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All Challenges Fulfilled: Just the Facts, Mount TBR Challenge, Birth Year Challenge, Craving for Cozies, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, Cloak & Dagger, Print Only, Strictly Print Challenge, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, Medical Examiner, Charity Challenge
Deaths = 4 (one gassed/poisoned; one strangled; one stabbed; one shot)
Calendar = Other February Holiday (Mardi Gras was in February in 1934)

A Knife in the Back

One way to know that you are reading a cozy mystery is to use a handy-dandy checklist. If you can tick off a high percentage of the the boxes, you most likely have a cozy mystery in your hands. Here's a sample that applies to A Knife in the Back (2002) by Bill Crider:

Cozy Mystery Checklist
Plucky heroine/hero (hereafter known as PH) who is not a professional sleuth [✔]
Either an unsympathetic/antagonistic police officer (often not the sharpest knife in the drawer) who resents interference &/or thinks the PH did it OR a friendly/indulgent police officer who allows PH to investigate to their heart's content (who may or may not be the PH's significant other) [✔]
PH or PH's friend/loved one is initially thought to be the killer and PH must investigate to save the day [✔]
PH has frolicsome feline or cuddly canine [✔]
PH is involved in some sort of hobby/profession that mysteriously attracts dead bodies like they're going out of style (knitting/baking/stamp collecting/antique dealer/bookstore owner/etc) [  ]
PH has close-knit group of friends who help (to greater or lesser extent) the investigation [  ]
Takes place in a small town/village [✔]
Generally speaking little or no graphic violence (murders usually happen "off-stage") [✔] (although there is a bit more rough and tumble at one point in this book than usual)

So, yeah...we've got us a cozy mystery on our hands. And a fairly low-key one at that. Not that there aren't murders. There are. And not that there isn't some violence--see comment above. But our heroine, Dr. Sally Good definitely has a rather...um...haphazard method of investigation. 

Dr. Good is the Chair of the English Department at Hughes Community College. Up till now she's been a bit standoffish both professionally and romantically speaking--due to still being in recovery from losing her beloved husband. But. She has finally taken the plunge and agreed to a date with fellow professor Jack Neville. She's still wondering if going out with a colleague will be a good idea when word reaches her that a much despised college trustee, Ralph Bostic, has been murdered. And Jack is the prime suspect. But only because his hand-made knife was found plunged in Bostic's back. When Detective Weems seems pretty certain that the evidence points Jack's way, Sally naturally decides to jump into the investigation and prove that her would-be date is no killer. And how are we going to do that? By talking to all the campus gossips to find out who the other possible suspects are and then confronting each one until one of them decides to murderously confront Jack (with an eye to having him "kill himself" in remorse for his evil deeds). That's how we prove who the killer is.

This is a pretty middle-of-the-road academic mystery. It's not too taxing (no intricate puzzle plot to figure out) and is mildly entertaining for a quick read. I can't say that the plot was strewn with clues, so if you figure out whodunit it won't be because your detective's eye spotted all the pointers. But it was a decent story--especially when you consider how rare it is for a male author to write a female protagonist...and to do so in a convincing manner (see one of my early 2019 reviews, The Winter Women Murders for an example of how NOT to do it). ★★★


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All Challenges Fulfilled: Craving for Cozies, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, Mount TBR Challenge, Calendar of Crime, Alphabet Soup, PopSugar, Monthly Motif, Cloak & Dagger, Challenge Throwback, Print Only, Strictly Print Challenge, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, Mystery Reporter, Medical Examiner

Calendar of Crime: July = author's birth month
Medical Examiner: 2 deaths = one stabbed; one hit on the head

Whose Body? Audio CD Edition

I know what you're going to say. Bev, haven't you read Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers like a couple hundred times? Well...maybe. But I like to have audio novels to listen to when I run around in the car and it's helpful if they're stories that I've already read. 'Cause my middle-aged brain doesn't hold on to new stories so well when I just listen to them. Especially if I'm not in a position to take careful notes (that doesn't work so well when driving....). Also--up till now the only person I've listened to reading the Lord Peter stories has been Ian Carmichael and I thought I'd give this version with David Case a shot when I saw this version on my library's shelf. So--this review is of the audio novel performance and NOT a review of Sayers's work. My review of the story may be found HERE.

I have to say that Ian Carmichael spoiled me. He was the first Lord Peter I ever heard on CD and he was the first Lord Peter I saw on screen. I love his performances in both media. I dearly wish that he had been able to convince someone to do the Sayers stories when he first brought it up (and was young enough to really be appropriate for the earlier stories). His experience playing Bertie Wooster would have made him perfect as a screen version of Lord Peter in Whose Body? (an episode that never got televised btw). He manages a perfectly splendid Bunter and Parker in the audio novels too. 

I'm afraid that David Case had a very tough act to follow and he did a poor job as LPW. His snobbish, superior tones are perfect for Sir Julian Freke who seems to think he is above everybody and everything. But he gives Lord Peter, Bunter, and Parker none of the humanity that makes them people that their fans would want to know. Lord Peter, though his tones are differentiated from Freke's, still has an air of looking down his nose on folks--even his good friend Inspector Parker.

One positive note on the performance--whenever my son was in the car with me and I had it playing, he was endlessly amused. Though, whether it was just from the comic episodes he wandered into (such as the Dowager Duchess conversing with the American railway tycoon Milligan) or enjoyment at the audio novel performance in general, I'm not entirely sure. But the audio novel definitely entertained my son. I never did quite settle down with Case's voice, but I did enjoy the chance to visit with Lord Peter again--even if he didn't sound quite right.  ★★

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All Challenges Fulfilled: Virtual Mount TBR, Just the Facts, PopSugar Challenge, Craving for Cozies, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, World at War, Cloak & Dagger, Brit Crime Classics, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, Medical Examiner

Clouds of Witness: Review

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ~Hebrews 12:1

Clouds of Witness (1926) by Dorothy L Sayers (read by Ian Carmichael) is an old favorite. The Lord Peter Wimsey stories are comfort reads for me. I have read them many times since I first discovered them in my late teens. When I found this audio version at the library, I could not resist. I own several of the audio novels read by Ian Carmichael, but this is not one of them and I wanted to hear him read this early story in the Wimsey mysteries. He does a fantastic job giving each character their own voice and it's quite lovely to hear him as Lord Peter again.

On this particular round of Clouds of Witness, I was quite taken with the trial scene at the House of Lords--all the pomp and circumstance and Sir Impy Biggs for the defense. It is all quite theatrical and impressive. And it made me wish I had kept the "trial/courtroom scene" square on the Just the Facts Detective Notebook. It's not everyday that one reads about the trial of a peer of the realm. Another delightful part of the story is the friendship of Lord Peter and Parker. Their interactions while detecting in the grounds of Riddlesdale Lodge are great fun and Carmichael does justice to the humor and good feeling between the two. Overall, another wonderful visit to the world of Lord Peter Wimsey. ★★★★


For more on the story itself, please see my previous REVIEW from 2011 when I reread the Wimsey stories in their entirety.


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All Challenges Fulfilled: Just the Facts, Virtual Mount TBR, Calendar of Crime, Cloak & Dagger, Alphabet Soup Authors, Alphabet Soup, PopSugar Challenge, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, Craving for Cozies, Century of Books, European Reading Challenge, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books, Mystery Reporter, Medical Examiner; Brit Crime Classics

The Winter Women Murders: Slightly Spoilerish Review

The Winter Women Murders by David A. Kaufelt (1995): [from the back of the book] For nearly fifty years, the Waggs Neck Harbor Annual Literary Arts Symposium (ALAS) had been dedicated to the cultural enrichment of the winter women, the upper middle-class ladies who lived in the resort town year round. But when the founder and chair of ALAS took a fatal tumble into the next world, the group took a radical turn. Against her better judgment, real-estate lawyer and reluctant sleuth Wyn Lewis is volunteered to tend to one of the featured speakers, Keny Blue--a bestselling author of feminist romance novels expounding a brave new world of sexual freedom. When Wyn found Keny dead in bed wearing nothing but a wire around her neck, there were several suspects. Dickie ffrench, the interior designer who had moonlighted as Keny's ghost writer, took exception when Keny cut him off from that lucrative sideline. Peter Robaliniski--incoming director of ALAS and a seasoned "gentleman in waiting"--feared that Keny might expose the secret life they once shared. Even Keny's arch rival and fellow Symposium speaker, feminist Sondra Mercy Confrit, was not above suspicion.

All in all, Wyn would prefer to be at home with some take-out Chinese, an old movie, and her boyfriend Tommy. But the murder investigation just won't go away--and she's learning that in peaceful Waggs Neck if something sinful can happen, it most likely will....

My Take:
Pro Tip for guys writing books with lead female protagonists (especially when writing about their love life): The average woman is not nearly as enthralled with the awesome "beauty" of your "private member" (his word, not mine) as you are. Yes, there are women who are exceptions. And, yes, even average women may have moments that are exceptions. But--generally speaking, we're far more impressed with what you can do with it (with our enthusiastic participation) than we are with how it looks. In fact, quite often we think it looks more like this:

So, don't write love scenes that have the lady there in bed admiring the general awesomeness before her (and giving us her thoughts on the matter) for what, in book time, seems like eons. She's more likely wondering why he's doesn't come to bed and suit the action to the moment rather than posing like a model in Playgirl. Especially if you're writing what purports to be a cozy mystery and not soft porn.

As you might suspect from that opener on my thoughts, this book was not nearly as good as hoped for. When I picked it up at the Friends of the Library used bookstore, it looked like it would be a nice cozy mystery. But it has very rough edges. Nastier murder scenes than usual in cozies and I think Kaufelt would do better to focus on male lead characters. He just doesn't do women's characters well on the whole (and, again, there are exceptions)--most of them sound like men in disguise. And the romance for Wyn Lewis? That sudden resolution several months later is a bit odd....just saying. 

I think it's telling that most of the "rave" reviews quoted on the cover and the intro pages are from male reviewers. The characters are probably behaving just like they expect women to (or wish women would). To give him his due, he did create at least one very believable and interesting female character. Sophie Comfort Noble. Unfortunately, he killed her off before we could enjoy her properly. This isn't nearly as spoilerish as you might think--she's gone in the first chapter. But her brief moment onstage was a good one and she absolutely could have carried the show. Wyn is also a fairly good representation that just misses being very good--if he hadn't insisted on dragging her love-life into the story, that would have helped matters.

The mystery starts out fairly well, but it didn't stay mysterious very long and I even saw the extra twist coming. This is one I'm glad to have done and to take off the stacks taking over my house. ★★



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Complete list of challenges fulfilled: Mount TBR Challenge, Calendar of Crime, Monthly Key Word, Alphabet Soup Authors, Alphabet Soup, Craving for Cozies, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, Century of Books, Book Challenge, Cloak & Dagger, Print Only, Outdo Yourself, How Many Books,

Craving for Cozies: My Sign-Up

Lori at Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book is once again hosting her Craving for Cozies Challenge. If you like cozy mysteries, follow the link to read the details and sign up. I will be signing up for the first level: Feeling Peckish (1-25 Cozy Mysteries) to go along with my sign-up for another cozy mystery challenge.

Books read for the challenge:

1. The Winter Women Murders by David A Kaufelt (1/5/19)
2. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (1/12/19)
3. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (3/24/19)
4. A Knife in the Back by Bill Crider (4/2/19)
5. Murder at the Mardi Gras by Elisabet M. Stone (4/20/19)
6. Trixie Belden & the Mystery on the Mississippi by Kathryn Kenny (4/23/19)
7. Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/23/19)
8. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (4/28/19)
9. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (5/11/19)
10. Miss Agatha Doubles for Death by H.L.V. Fletcher (5/16/19)

Challenge Complete: Craving for Cozies

As with the Cruisin' Thru the Cozies challenge, I chose to go with the lowest level on Dollycas's Craving for Cozies Challenge--I was just feeling a little peckish. I've completed my 10 and as I read more mysteries this year, I will add any more cozies that come along.

Peckish – 1 – 10 Cozy Mysteries 

My List:

1. Lament for a Lady Laird by Margot Arnold (2/3/18)

2. Another Woman's House by Mignon G. Eberhart (2/10/18)

3. Beverly Gray's Secret by Clair Blank (2/13/18)

4. With Blood & Kisses by Richard Shattuck (2/23/18)

5. Payoff for the Banker by Frances & Richard Lockridge (3/15/18)

6. Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (3/24/18)

7. Murder Out of Turn by Frances & Richard Lockridge (3/27/18)

8. Death of a Hoosier Schoolmaster by Marlis Day (4/10/18)

9. A Vow of Penance by Veronica Black (4/11/18)

10. Mrs. Malory & the Lilies That Fester by Hazel Holt (4/13/18)

Challenge Complete! (still reading)

Untidy Murder: Review

In Untidy Murder (1947) by Frances & Richard Lockridge, Pam and Jerry North must use all their intuition and sometimes goofy logic to help their friend Lt. Bill Weigand solve the murder of art director Paul Wilming and find Bill's wife--who has been snatched by two sinister yet hopelessly misguided thugs.

Dorian Hunt (aka Mrs. Bill Weigand) is invited to the snazzy offices of Esprit magazine to deliver examples of her fashion drawings. She has high hopes of selling her work to the art director, Paul Wilming, once he has a chance to see what she can do. He never gets that chance. Just moments before Dorian is shown to his office, he is on his way out the very high window of his office. The first policemen on the scene assume he jumped--though why he'd choose to do so right before an important appointment is anybody's guess--and they handle the case as a suicide, soon sending Dorian on her way home.

But when Lt. Bill Weigand arrives home, she's not there. He immediately back tracks over her day...landing at the offices of Esprit magazine and the tail-end of the "suicide" investigation. As soon as Pam North hears about it, she's certain that Dorian must have seen or heard something and the murderer has grabbed Dorian to prevent her from sharing her knowledge with the police. The rest of the story is race against time as Bill gathers evidence that points to murder in the hopes that it will lead him to his wife. The point of view moves back and forth between Bill & the Norths and Dorian & her captors until it leads to a surprising climax which explains exactly who did what with what and to whom.

The vast portions of shifted point of view are a departure for the Lockridges. Other stories find brief passages (usually when Pam finds herself in danger because she's jumped without looking), but this book follows Dorian vs. her captors for much longer periods of time. It really was very nice to get more of her point of view since she so often plays a very minor supporting role to her husband and the Norths.

The Lockridge books--not only the North series, but Heimrich and the others as well--are some of my comfort reading. I pick them up when I want light entertainment and an enjoyable read. Sometimes a very clever twist or plot point is included, but that's definitely not the point of these books for me. If I want clever plots that might mystify me, I'll turn to Christie or Carr...or others. But the Lockridges provide me with comfortable reads with old friends. ★★★ and 1/2.

[Finished on 5/9/18]

Mrs. Malory & the Lilies that Fester: Review

In Mrs. Malory & the Lilies that Fester (2001), Hazel Holt dishes up a cozy British village mystery featuring that expert on 19th-Century novelist and sometime amateur detective Sheila Malory. Sheila finds herself most personally involved when the unsavory Gordon Masefield is murdered in his law office. Gordon was a womanizer and wasn't about putting the moves on any woman who came into his scope--whether she was attached elsewhere or not.

Thea Wyatt is also an attorney in the law office. She had recently returned to Taviscombe to take the job on offer and met Sheila's son Michael. Sheila can sense Cupid at work and is delighted when Michael and Thea announce their engagement. But not too long after this happy event, Thea comes rushing to Sheila's house, quite disturbed. It seems that Gordon Masefield had been particularly offensive in  his latest efforts to seduce the newest member of the law team and when Thea pushed him away, he stumbled off-balance and stunned himself himself against the desk.  

But when Sheila calls the office to let her friend Hugh know that Thea won't be returning for the day, she finds the police in possession of the office and Gordon Masefield dead from a blunt instrument to the head. Since Thea was observed fleeing the building, the police naturally suspect her of the deed even though she swears Gordon was still alive and nowhere near fatally injured when she ran from the building. Sheila obviously believes her future daughter-in-law to be innocent and sets out to discover the real culprit. There are many suspects to sift through--from all the other employees in the law office to Gordon's family. The man was a real charmer and attracted enmity the way light attracts moths. It would probably be simpler for Sheila to determine who didn't have a motive to kill the offensive womanizer.

It doesn't take Sheila and Michael long to dig up evidence that clears Thea, but after her ordeal at the hands of the police, Thea doesn't want to go ahead with the wedding plans until the real culprit is behind bars. Sheila is even more determined to investigate than ever and through chance conversations and planned encounters, she is able to discern the answer to the mystery. But bringing the killer to justice may not be as easy as she thought.

This is a comfortable murder mystery in a very comfortable cozy series. The plots are not intricate and it doesn't require a lot of heavy deductions on the part of the reader. Placid village life is interrupted by murder; everyone is suitably appalled; Sheila Malory makes her way through the gossip of the town; and, eventually, the crime is unraveled. Little fuss and no muss...and sometimes that just what the doctor ordered.  I appreciate having series like Mrs. Malory to go to when I want a simple murder mystery in a pleasant setting with friendly, uncomplicated characters. Fine reading for a lazy evening.  ★★★

[Finished on 4/13/18]

A Vow of Penance: Review

A Vow of Penance (1994) by Veronica Black is the fifth in this convent-based series starring Sister Joan. In this particular installment, Sister Joan is struggling during the Lenten season with her her far from Christian dislike of two new personalities within the order. There is the grim Sister Jerome who seems intent on making the season of Penance even more arduous than necessary and the newly ordained, very joyless Father Timothy who has come to fill in while their beloved Father Malone takes a much deserved sabbatical.

When she discusses the arrival of the two newcomers with the rectory housekeeper, Mrs. Fairly is sure that she's heard the name Sister Jerome somewhere before but cannot recall the circumstances. "I'll recall where I heard that name if I don't consciously think about it." Later that evening Sister Joan receives a puzzling (and far-from-complete due to a bad connection) phone call from Mrs. Fairly asking her to meet her in town at a cafe because "New lay--remembered where--not willing to trouble Father with--ten tomorrow." But when the nun arrives at the cafe she is joined at her table not by the bustling housekeeper but by Detective Sergeant Mill who informs her that Mrs. Fairly is dead--an apparent suicide.

Sister Joan refuses to believe that. She insists that the housekeeper was not the type and that even if she's wrong about that Mrs. Fairly would never had made an appointment to meet her if she planned on killing herself. She prods Mill into looking more closely into the death and does a little discreet detecting on her own. She's even given subtle encouragement to do so when Mother Dorothy assigns her to serve as housekeeper for the the priests until a full-time replacement can be found. Unfortunately, there will be two more victims and a bloody ax will appear on the chapel altar before Mills and Sister Joan can get to the bottom of the mystery. There are other puzzles as well. Why have the convent's trees been vandalized? Is there a connection similar vandalism that happened many years ago? And what was so important about Mrs. Fairly's purse?

This is an entertaining cozy mystery with just a hint of more gore than may be usual for the genre. Sister Joan is a spunky nun with an interesting relationship with Detective Mill. It is refreshing to see a relationship that doesn't depend on romance or sexual tension. Fully developed characters with realistic dialogue give a good foundation to the story. The culprit may not be well-hidden (after all, we aren't exactly given a great number to choose from), but figuring out the motive is a bit more difficult. Veronica Black weaves a convincing story that depends on the past to explain the present. ★★★


[Finished on 4/11/18]