Plum Pudding Murder: Review

Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke is the twelfth book in the Hannah Swenson baking mysteries.  It's also the first one that I've read.  Fortunately, one really doesn't need to have read earlier books to slip into this one (although there are some relationships to work out that are probably explained as you go along if you read them in order).

Hannah Swenson is the owner of the Cookie Jar pastry shop in Lake Eden, Minnesota.  She's the queen of baking in the small town and a pretty dab hand at solving a mystery or two.  It's Christmas time in this particular outing and business is booming with everyone putting in orders for extra cookies, pastries and other deserts for their holiday gatherings.  "Lunatic Larry" Jaeger, the owner of the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot is no exception.  He's been selling Hannah's creations in his Elf Treat shop and the cookies are flying out of there faster than Santa's reindeer.  He asks Hannah to whip up a special dessert that will make even more customers flood into his tree lot and she obliges with some Minnesota Plum Pudding.  She takes a sample to Jaeger to try, but before he can tell her whether he thinks it will fit the bill someone decides that he has sold his last Christmas tree.

When Hannah gets curious about who might have wanted Jaeger to join the ghosts of Christmas present, she finds that there are more people on the list than she anticipated--from the Mayor who was Jaeger's partner (and who may have found himself swindled by the fast-talking tree salesman) to his ex-wife to his current fiancee to connections from his rather murky business past.  It seems that Jaeger was on more than just Santa's naughty list.  Hannah and her helpers (her mother, her boyfriend the dentist, her pastry shop assistant, and her boyfriend the police officer--yes, two boyfriends) will have to work fast to find the killer before the killer decides to put an end to Hannah's cookie business...permanently.

This book has a lot of fluff....and I'm not just talking about the marshmallow creme in some of the recipes (yes, there are recipes included--and they sound yummy).  I realize that this is a cozy mystery and on the whole I'm a fan of cozy mysteries...but this one leaves a lot to be desired.  It starts out with a bang (literally) and Jaeger immediately becomes a Christmas corpse.  But then Fluke takes us back in time--One. Whole. Day.  That takes up more than One. Half. of the Book.  Just to give us the background and lead us back to the point where Jaeger's body is discovered.  That's because we have to take all these little detours through "what the heck is Hannah's mom's best friend up to and why is she so secretive???" to "the multiple adventures of Hannah's cat and the first-ever Christmas tree that he has to deal with"--not to mention working in all the recipes that we then pad the story with.  Not that the recipes don't sound good.  They do.  But, honestly....28 recipes in one book?  Is this a cozy mystery with a bit of cooking theme or a cook book with a murder thrown in for spice?  

The book is plugged in the synopsis as "a clever whodunit with pastry recipe dividends."  I'm afraid not.  It's not all that clever.  I spotted the murderer as soon as s/he was introduced in a meaningful way.  I think the characters could be very interesting if we had as much attention given to them as we do to the minute details of every recipe (which recipes are given with multiple helpful hints "from" various characters in the book).  Two stars--just.

Challenge Complete: Fall Into Reading 2012

  
Fall into Reading
September 22-December 21
Hosted by Katrina at callapidder days
 
Katrina has once again been hosting her low-pressure challenge. The only real requirement was to make a list. Just figure out what books you'd like to read this fall and sign up and read them. That's it.

Last year I followed the lead of Book Dragon's Lair. Her plan for the challenge was to set up two lists. One list for the rest of the year and a shorter list just for the Fall Into Reading Challenge.  That worked really well for me, so that was the plan for Fall 2012.  I have completed the short list (and then some!)--I have about three books left on the long list and I'll have all the challenges complete for 2012--Woo Hoo!

Fall Into Reading Challenge List:
Finish The Case of the Blind Barber by John Dickson Carr (9/22/12)
Murder at the Library of Congress by Margaret Truman (9/24/12)
History of the Millennium (so Far) by Dave Barry (9/30/12)
The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor (9/30/12) 
11/22/63 by Stephen King (10/8/12)

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime by Michael Sims (ed) [11/5/12]

Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart (10/14/12)

Star Trek & Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant by Jason T Eberl & Kevin S Decker (eds) [12/1/12]

Murder at the MLA by D J H Jones (10/3/12) 
Sherlock Holmes & the Treasure Train by Frank Thomas (10/6/12)

The Bone Is Pointed by Arthur W. Upfield (11/16/12)
The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas  (12/15/12)
The Confession & Sight Unseen by Mary Roberts Rinehart (10/10/12)
A Question of Time by Helen McCloy (10/15/12) 
The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man by Daniel Stashower (10/16/12) 
The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Haining, ed (10/21/12) 
Murder Most Puzzling by Lillian S. Robinson (10/23/12)
A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell (10/8/12)  
Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas (10/27/12) 
The Foods of North Italy by Luigi Veronelle (10/27/12)
She Woke to Darkness by Brett Halliday (10/29/12) 
Not in the Flesh by Ruth Rendell (11/10/12) 
The School of Night by Louis Bayard (11/12/12) 
Death of an Old Girl by Elizabeth Lemarchand (11/21/12) 
Death in the Memorial Garden by Kathie Deviny (11/23/12) 
Catch as Catch Can by Frances & Richard Lockridge (11/26/12) 
Slowly, Slowly in the Wind by Patricia Highsmith (11/30/12) 
Dancing with Death by Joan Coggin (12/5/12) 
Cover-Up by Anthony Oliver (12/6/12) 
Murder for Christmas by Agatha Christie (12/8/12) 

 

Murder for Christmas: Review

Just in time for the holidays!  Murder for Christmas (aka Hercule Poirot's Christmas or A Holiday for Murder) by Agatha Christie gives us a good old-fashioned English country Christmas.  Well...okay, not really.  But it does give us a good old-fashioned English country Christmas murder complete with the typical nasty patriarch ticking off as many family members as possible, threatening to change his will, and getting himself bumped off for his efforts.

Simeon Lee is an overbearing man who has invited his far-flung brood home for the holidays.  Ostensibly because he is getting old and just wants his family around him for Christmas.  In reality, he wants to give them all a good shake-up.  On the guest list are all his sons and their wives.  Alfred, the good boy who has stayed home and allowed himself to be kept under father's thumb; George, the "respectable" one--a member of parliament and in need of a generous supply of cash to support the life-style...and his rather expensive spouse; David, the one who resents his father most...primarily because of the way dear old dad treated his mum; and Harry, the black sheep of the family who left home after certain unmentionable events and is ready to be welcomed back to the bosom of his loved ones.  Surprise guests include Pilar, Simeon's granddaughter by his only daughter--who ran off with a Spaniard--and Stephen Farr, son of Simeon's partner from the old days in South Africa.

Simeon spreads the good cheer among his offspring liberally for the holidays--first by making it clear that Harry is more than welcome back at home (to the extreme displeasure of Alfred) and that granddaughter Pilar is fast moving up the ranks in his affections and second by announcing that he has plans to make substantial changes to his will.  There are other minor skirmishes, but those are the biggies.  It's no surprise that the evening after relaying the news about the will Simeon is found murdered--with his throat cut after what appears to be a violent struggle.  It is a surprise for the murderer that Hercule Poirot is staying with the Chief Constable and is soon on the spot to get to the bottom of it all.

As Poirot proves in the final wrap-up, they all had motives and they all could have done it--even the ones who were apparently alibied.  There are red herrings and clues a-plenty and an astute reader should be able to reach the proper answer.  That's not to say that you will--I didn't--but it's there for the taking if you can grab onto all the correct clues.  

It is always a delight to return to Dame Agatha, particularly after not reading anything by her for a while.  Tight plotting and interesting twists are par for the course in a good Christie novel--and this is definitely one of that rank.  Four stars

Quotes:

I'm old-fashioned, I daresay, but why not have peace and good will at Christmas time? (Hilda Lee, p. 25)

I believe the present matters--not the past! The past must go.  If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it. We see it in exaggerated terms--a false perspective. (Hilda Lee, p. 26)

Pilar--remember--nothing is so boring as devotion. (Simeon Lee, p. 48)

Do you mean to tell me, Superintendent, that this is one of those damned cases you get in detective stories where a man is killed in a locked room by some apparently supernatural agency? (Colonel Johnson, p. 88)

Her eyes met Poirot's. They were eyes that kept their own secrets. They did not waver. (p. 106)

Mon cher, everyone lies--in parts like the egg of the English curate. (p. 142)

[about a triangular piece of pink rubber and a small wooden peg picked up at the scene of the murder]
HP: Yes. What was it that the senorita picked up?
SS: I could give you three hundred guesses! I'll show it to you. It's the sort of thing that solves the whole mystery in detective stories! If you can make anything out of it, I'll retire from the police force! (Hercule Poirot, Superintendent Sugden; p. 165)

When one suffers some great hurt physically, it causes shock and pain, but it slowly mends, the flesh heals, the bone knits. There may be, perhaps a little weakness, a slight scar, but nothing more. My husband, Mr. Poirot, suffered a great hurt mentally at his most susceptible age.  He adored his mother and he saw her die. He believed that his father was morally responsible for that death. From that shock he has never quite recovered. (Hilda Lee, p. 178)

Cover-Up: Review

Cover-Up by Anthony Oliver (1987)

And just what are we covering up?  Art world skulduggery? Drug smuggling? Murder most foul?  Lizzie Thomas, housewife and queen of the art of gossip, and John Webber, retired police inspector turned private investigator, are on the case and ready to find out.

Joseph Greenwood takes a hefty sum of money with him on a quiet drive to English countryside.  He's heard that a valuable unknown painting by Stanley Spencer may be hanging in the Flaxfield hide-away of one-time actress Victoria Varley.  Greenwood barely has time to look the painting over before he's dead and the cash has disappeared.  Not long after, the actress has done a disappearing act of her own.  There are American art "dealers" looking for the painting, Greenwood's wife looking for the missing cash, a fellow policeman suspecting drugs smuggled in frames, and Lizze & John looking for answers to all the niggling questions that surround what looks at first to be a simple death by natural causes.  

This is a fairly middle-of-the-road mystery.  Oliver's strong suit is his characters.  John and Lizzie are well-defined, interesting, and, most importantly, believable people.  Lizzie is, as mentioned about, the queen of the art of gossip.  And we know this because Oliver makes it plain in her interactions with the other characters.  I've read mysteries before where a certain character supposedly just had this "quality" that made others confide all sorts of secrets to them...but I never got a real feel for why that was.  I certainly never thought that I'd be spilling the beans myself.  With Lizzie, it's different.  I could see her plopping a cup of tea and some biscuits down if front of me and in no time at all she'd know everything I had to tell. I thoroughly enjoy the way Lizzie and John interact and form a team.

The weakest part of Oliver's story is the continuity.  If I flip back through the story, he doesn't really jump around all that much....but it certainly feels that way.  There's a bumpy, erratic feel to the storyline which makes it just a little difficult to stay the course.  Fortunately the mystery itself and the characters are interesting enough to keep reader going till the end. A solid three-star outing.

Quote:

An amateur would have pursued an opening like that but Mrs. Thomas was not an amateur. Gossip, that casual exchange of unproven fact, was a pleasant pastime she had raised to the level of a fine art. Honed in the professional school of the Welsh valleys, in the unsophisticated Suffolk she was like an Olympic gold-medallist unfairly competing at village sports. (p. 31)

Dancing with Death: Review

Dancing with Death by Joan Coggin is the last of her four 1940s British mysteries starring Lady Lupin.  Lady Lupin ("Loops" to her friends) is asked to come to the aid of her friend Dorothy "Dud' Lethbridge.  Duds and her husband Tommy had decided to host a good old-fashioned Christmas houseparty for their friends and relatives--in the hopes that they could bring some good cheer to those suffering from post-World War II ration books and shortages.  But they find they're going to need way more holiday spirit than St. Nick may have in his bag.  Twin sisters, who Duds remembers fondly as beautiful girls devoted to one another, are barely speaking. Their cousin is behaving like a cross between Scrooge and the Grinch with a hefty dose of the town drunk thrown in for good measure.  (It certainly doesn't look like the meager alcohol supply will last through the New Year).  And then there's Dorothy's old flame, complete with a bore of a wife who speaks non-stop about anything, everything....and nothing.  

It shouldn't be a surprise that nerves are a bit frayed and that some folks might be wishing other folks dead.  But there is surprise that one of the twins chooses to commit suicide in the wee hours of the New Year.  Duds summons Lady Lupin to come offer moral support, but Loops offers more than that.  She comes to believe that the girl was murdered.  It all leads to a mad-dash chase along English country roads to stop the murderer from leaving the country.  Will Loops, Duds and Tommy be in time?

This is a very nice little trip back to the post-War era.  Even though the characters are faced with ration books and shortages, it is a trip to a less complicated era.  There are still things that "aren't done" and everyone dresses for dinner.  The mystery isn't complicated--and uses a trope that may seem old hat to the 21st century reader--but it is great fun, nonetheless.  Loops, like her name would suggest, is one of those scatterbrained women who seems to have a knack for getting at the truth--albeit by some very circuitous routes.  Like the Dowager Duchess in Dorothy L. Sayers's Wimsey books, I love trying to follow her thought processes.   Three and a half stars (rounded to four on GoodReads).

Star Trek & Philosophy: Review

Star Trek & Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant is a collection of essays edited by Jason T. Eberl and Kevin S. Decker.  These essays use episodes and moments from Star Trek's various incarnations and feature films to explore philosophical issues ranging from the nature of communication between very disparate species to logical development of Vulcans to the ethical dilemmas found in Deep Space Nine.  The essays use one of the icons of fictional space exploration to explore the philosophies of the human race.

The collection opens with an examination of one of my favorite Next Generation episodes, "Darmok."  It discusses the essence of truly alien communication and commends the popular television show for addressing the difficulties in a very real way.  Most science fiction novels and programs represent the universe as being full of very human-like creatures who all, magically, either speak English or have a language that translates very nicely into English when run through a universal translator.  But philosophers have posited that a truly alien species would probably have points of reference so very different from ours that there may not be the common ground to allow such easy translation.  "Darmok" reflects this idea while keeping it grounded in just familiar enough territory for the average viewer to understand.

Next up are two essays on the nature of Vulcans. One explaining the logic of Vulcan by giving a brief overview of the civilization of Vulcan and its dependence on the teachings and philosophy of Surak.  The second compares Data's wish to be human to Spock's efforts to completely control his human side.  It also discusses the relative merits of being able to control one's emotions versus the complete absence of them.

Other topics covered include revenge (courtesy of The Wrath of Khan) and whether it has a part in a meaningful life--and, ultimately, just what a meaningful life is; issues of morality and how it relates to the Q; the ethics of cloning and genetic manipulation (courtesy of Dr. Bashir and "The Masterpiece Society"; rational moral autonomy vs. full moral autonomy (Star Trek: Insurrection); the consequences and effects of collaboration (Nazi Germany  via the Cardassians and Odo & the Bajorans); Business Ethics 101--can the Ferengi teach us anything?; human nature and individuality (vis-à-vis the Borg); the idea of recognition and importance of each individual (the entire philosophy of Star Trek); fantasy versus reality and the merits of the holodeck; the nature of time; the foundations of faith, and the nuts & bolts of life, death and immortality.

This is a very interesting, but very dense book.  For someone who doesn't have a hefty philosophical background it gets a bit deep at times, but never so deep that I felt like I was drowning.  Thoroughly enjoyable and well worth the time.  My favorite essay?  The one on "Darmok" and language. Four stars.

Slowly, Slowly in the Wind: Review

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

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

Catch as Catch Can: Review

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Death in the Memorial Garden Blog Tour

TITLE:  Death in the Memorial Garden
AUTHOR:  Kathie Deviny
PUBLISHED BY:  Camel Press
PUBLICATION DATE:  October 15, 2012
 
ISBN-10: 1603818995
ISBN-13: 978-1603818995
 
GENRE:  Cozy Mystery
 
SYNOPSIS:  Just as the sexton is about to inter the ashes of one of Grace Church’s last wealthy patronesses in the Memorial Garden, he unearths a wine crate containing thashes of an unknown. Next to the ashes is a distinctive pair of shoes. Not only are the woman’s relatives furious at the interruption, but they soon have grounds for a lawsuit: yet another piece of the church’s tower comes crashing to the ground.
 
With their congregation dwindling and their world literally falling in around them, Father Robert Vickers and his colorful staff members and volunteers put their heads together to solve the mystery of the anonymous ashes and find the means to save Grace Church from the developers … all in time for the Bishop’s visit.
 
AUTHOR BIO:  After retiring from a career as a “government bureaucrat” serving primarily in the criminal justice system, Kathie Deviny studied creative writing. Essays focusing on her treatment for breast cancer and life as the spouse of an Episcopal priest have beenpublished in the Seattle Times, Episcopal Life, Cure magazine, and Faith, Hope and Healing by Bernie Siegel.
 
Kathie was Features Editor of her high school newspaper and originally planned a career in journalism. After realizing she was too shy to chase after stories, she followed her mother’s career path and earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work, attending UC Berkeley and the University of Washington. She nurtured her journalistic ambitions by developing a program at the Monroe, WA, prison which produced a magazine in cooperation with community volunteers.  Death in the Memorial Garden, her first work of fiction, reflects her love of the cozy-style mystery. Her other loves are gardening, choral singing, and locating bargains at her church’s thrift shop, where she volunteers. Kathie lives with her now-retired husband, Paul; they divide their time between California and Western Washington.
 
AUTHOR SITES:   Website    Facebook

PICT TOUR PAGE: Death in the Memorial Garden Tour
  
My Take: This is a quite nice cozy mystery.  I especially like Kathie's way with characters.  She does an excellent job in her first work of fiction giving every character their own distinctive voice and mannerisms...not always an easy task for first-time writers.  Father Robert is wonderful as a very human man of God trying to do his best for his aging congregation and to save his aging church from closure or commercial development.  It is also enjoyable to watch the entire community surrounding Grace Church come together to solve the mystery and try to save the church.  The mystery itself is an interesting one and it was quite refreshing to read a currently-written mystery with no blood, no gore, no high-level pyschological suspense and no objectional language.  I do hate wading through f-bombs right and left.  This is the perfect book to grab when you want a quiet, comfy afternoon of fictional sleuthing.  The ending feels just a bit rushed...but overall, a lovely read.  Three and a half stars. 

AND: We are hosting a giveaway of one ebook of Death in the Memorial Garden in the reader's choice of format (PDF, ePub, or mobi).  Please enter in the linky below by Wednesday, November 28 and I'll rev up the CRNG (Custom Random Number Generator) on Thursday to select a winner!

Death of an Old Girl: Review

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


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


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

Quotes:

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

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

The Bone Is Pointed: Review

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

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

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

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

The School of Night: Review

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

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

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

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

Not in the Flesh: Review

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

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

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

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

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime: Review

It is very difficult for me to rate The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime (edited by Michael Sims).  The stories represent a  nice selection of early detective fiction--particularly those that feature female protagonists.  They are all interesting and well-written.  And I certainly recommend the anthology to anyone interested in this era of detective fiction.  My difficulty?  Well, Michael Sims makes a point of saying that he has made an effort to include stories that have not been reprinted--or that have not been reprinted as much as other stories by the same authors.  It's odd then that of the eleven stories here, only four are new to me--I don't count the excerpt from Anna Katherine Green's longer work.  And I've read all of the others within the last two years.  I was looking forward to some fresh stories and I guess the disappointment of that expectation has somewhat colored my response to this anthology.  If you haven't read much of the early works of detective fiction, then you're in for a treat.  As for me, I'm giving the collection a solid three star rating.

Here's a run-down of the stories:

"The Mysterious Countess" (1864, possibly 1861) by W. S. Hayward.  This is the first story to feature a female professional detective--Mrs. Paschal.  She is adept at putting herself into any role requested.  In this one she poses as a servant so she might discover the source of the Countess of Vervaine's seemingly endless supply of money....despite the lack of visible signs of support.  Mrs. Paschal braves underground tunnels and has to track her quarry down in a distant village before she gets to the bottom of the mystery.

"The Unknown Weapon" (1864) by Andrew Forrester. It is about the death of the son of a miserly old man who is killed while apparently in the the process of breaking into his own father's house. He has been stabbed with a weapon that no seems to be able to identify. This story has the honor of being quite probably the first novel about the Metropolitan Police (formed in 1829) , the first modern detective novel, and the first novel featuring a professional female detective. She is absolutely unnamed in this particular outing, but in other stories by Forrester, she is referred to as Mrs. G---- of the Metropolitan Police. She makes reference to herself and another female officer as constables...and I find it interesting to have references to female constables at this early date. Mrs. G---- is a thoroughly scientific detective, reminding the reader of Holmes. Had she the advantages of his training at university, I'm sure she would have examined her own bits of fluff under the microscope rather than sending them off in a tin box and directing "it to the gentleman who is good enough to control these kind of investigations." She faithfully takes up every piece of evidence, giving it a more thorough going-over than the local constable, looks over the scene of the crime, and thinks the problem through with logic that Holmes could not fault. There is no "feminine intuition" at work; it is a thoughtful, orderly investigation. The grand finale is a bit of a let-down--but over all a very good early detective story.

"Drawn Daggers" by C. L. Pirkis (1893).   Starring Loveday Brooke--the first known female detective created by a female author. Miss Brooke is presented as not only an intelligent and independent young woman, but as a woman who has taken up the profession because she is good at it. She's not supporting a sister or a disabled husband. She's not ultra-feminine to make up for her brains. She's just a good detective.   I have long had The Experiences of Loveday Brooks, Lady Detective on my list of books to look for. "Daggers Drawn" pays homage to Sherlock Holmes and I find Miss Brooks' way of keeping clues to herself very much in the Holmes style. Very feminist characterization for the time period.

"The Long Arm" by Mary Wilkins (1895).  Not really a female detective.  Sarah Fairbanks finds herself suspected of her father's murder--because her father disapproved of the man she loved.  There are other suspects--and several clues, like where are her father's overalls and where did the yellow ribbon come from?

The Affair Next Door, Ch. 1 (1897) by Anna Katherine Green. I'm a bit disappointed with this one--not in the writing itself, but that our editor chose to include a chapter of a longer work.  It doesn't really give us a feel for Amelia Butterworth and since it's not a self-contained story, it leaves me unsatisfied.

"The Man with the Wild Eyes" by George Robert Sims (1897). Starring Dorcas Dene, a former actress who seems adept at assuming any role.  In this one she masquerades as a private nurse in order to find out why a man's daughter claims to have had a fainting fit when it's obvious she's been attacked--and nearly strangled at that.

"The Adventure of the Cantankerous Old Lady" by Grant Allen (1899). This one features Lois Cayley, a recent graduate of Girton College, and down to her last two pence.  She agrees to be the companion to a rather cantankerous old lady--saving the lady's jewelry in the process.  Not a strict mystery, but a lovely period piece showing the "New Woman" of the late Victorian era--and one of the few stories I hadn't encountered before.

"How He Cut His Stick" by M. McDonnell Bodkin (1900). Starring Dora Myrl, a glamorous professional detective known at the time her stories came out as "A Sherlock Holmes in petticoats."  She is no-nonsense and definitely know how the stick got cut in this tale of the missing 5,000 British pounds.  

"The Man Who Cut Off My Hair" by Richard Marsh [aka Richard Bernard Heldmann] (1912).  Judith Lee is a young girl who has the gift of reading lips.  This gift and her fierce anger when the man cuts off her hair allow her to help the police bring a gang of jewel and precious metal thieves to justice.

"The Man With Nine Lives' by Hugh C. Weir (1914). Madelyn Mack, an "ordinary working detective" who is very Holmes-like--complete with a faithful Watson in the form of a female reporter and an addiction of her own (to a cola stimulant that helps her go without sleep and almost without food while on a case).  A man sends a letter to Miss Mack claiming that eight attempts have been made on his life and he fears that a ninth will be made--successfully.  He begs her to hurry to aid him.  She does, but too late, and finds herself searching for an apparent madman as the culprit.


"The Second Bullet" by Anna Katherine Green (1915).  This one features Green's other female detective, Violet Strange.  Miss Strange is the most upper-crust of all the detectives in this anthology.  She is a society girl for the most part who takes on cases that suit her so she can earn money to help a sister who was unjustly disinherited.  "The Second Bullet" is the most tragic of the stories included...Miss Strange must prove that a woman's husband did not commit suicide--a death that resulted in the loss of her child as well.  To do so, she must discover what happened to the second bullet.

She Woke to Darkness: Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Danger Involved: Review

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

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

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

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

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

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