Death Rides a Sorrel Horse

 Death Rides a Sorrel Horse (1946) by A. B. Cunningham

The folks at Friendly House knew something was wrong the moment Zeb, the big sorrel horse, came running home like demons were chasing him and his saddle was empty. It wasn't long before a search revealed that Camille Lang, one of the girls of Friendly House (a sort of girls' finishing school for midwesterners--learning to cook and sew and keep house in a small town), had been tossed from the horse. It looked like the horse had dragged her a ways to where her battered and lifeless body was found in the deep grass along the road.

Carl Quick, the city marshal, would be ready to call it an unfortunate accident if it weren't for one thing...a note tossed onto the porch of Friendly House that murder was suspected:

Theys more to her death than appears on the surface. Better ax Jess Roden to come over from Deer Lick and look into it.

Of course, there's always people looking to stir things up and he'd even be willing to put it down to a notoriety-grabber if that note hadn't appeared so quick after Camille was found. Word hadn't gotten around yet. So, if someone said they knew something, then they probably did. He decides that it probably would be a good idea to call in Roden, the sheriff of Deer Lick county. Roden has experience with suspicious deaths, but this time he's up against something new. A death that looks for all the world like an accident...until he looks closer. Once he finds the fresh cut on Zeb's leg, the evidence that Camille's foot had been tied to her stirrup, and the wound on her head that couldn't have been caused by hitting the ground, he knows that murder has been done. But proving it will be another matter.

This was a quick, easily read little mystery--perfect for when you want a one-sitting book. Roden is a good, ol' country sheriff with a quick eye and a quick wit for discerning what's really going on. I did suspect the "who"--but I missed the big clue that pointed to him/her and then got distracted by a very red herring. A nice, tidy little plot. ★★★ 

Quotes:

First line: The big sorrel plunged with the headlong recklessness of a horse gone mad with fright.

Last line: "Let's git goin'," Roden interrupted him.

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Deaths = one hit on head

When Gods Die

 When Gods Die (2006) C. S. Harris

When Gods Die is the second in the Sebastian St. Cyr (Lord Devlin) mystery series. At the end of the debut novel, Sir Henry Lovejoy, impressed at Devlin's abilities in ferreting out the murderer, asks if he'd like to take on investigative work among the upper classes whenever future delicate cases might arise. Sebastian turns him down flat, but then immediately finds himself embroiled in another delicate mystery in this latest outing. 

The Prince Regent is holding a party at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. All goes well until the Prince enters his Yellow Cabinet, anticipating a romantic conquest, only to find the young Marchioness of Anglessey dead with a knife in her back. Rumors already swirl around his family--rumors that the madness of his father, George III, runs amok in all of the Hanovers. And now the rumors will fly that he is as violent as his brother Cumberland, who killed his valet (though officially that was ruled a suicide). When a beautiful necklace that was last seen around the neck of Sebastian's mother on the day she perished in a boating acciedent is found around the dead woman's neck, the Prince's confidante Lord Jarvis is empowered to pressure Devlin into investigating the matter. The sooner the real killer is found, the sooner the pressure will be off the Prince.

But nothing is ever that simple and Sebastian will have to make his way through a maze of lies, political intrigue, and startling discoveries about his own past before he can get to to the bottom of the mystery. A plot against the House of Hanover is tangled with personal retribution, but discovering who might want revenge against a beautiful young woman isn't as easy as looking at the Marquis's nephew. The nephew was the heir apparent until he learns that his elderly uncle was an expectant father. Fitting Bevan Ellsworth up as the murderer would be satisfying, both to Sebastian who never liked the man and to the Marquis who desperately wants someone else to inherit. But Sebastian has standards and won't accuse Ellsworth without proof. Proofs soon come (after a few too many more deaths)...but they lead to a very unexpected answer.

Once again Harris sweeps the reader back to Regency England. Sebastian is a good, solid character with a fine streak of decency running through him. He doesn't want to tidy up the murders with the least fuss for those of his class. He wants the right killer found and brought to justice for what they did--whether high born or not. He also cares deeply about Tom, the young boy he has rescued from the streets and who now serves as his tiger (to care for and mind his horses when out and about), and feels the injustices that face children like Tom who have to make their own way in the world. Sebastian is someone you definitely want on your side when you're up against it--just, intelligent, and a good man in a fight. 

It is also interesting how Harris weaves Sebastian's back story into the mystery plots--just enough to keep a running thread in the various books, but not so overbearing that it completely dominates nor so much as to make the connections unbelievable. It will be interesting to see where this takes us in future books. Another good historical mystery. ★★★★

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Deaths = 10 (two poisoned; one fell from height; four stabbed; two drowned; one hit on head)

The Christie Curse

 The Christie Curse (2013) by Victoria Abbott (Victoria & Mary Jane Maffini)

Jordan Bingham is in need of a job--she owes money on grad school loans and on a credit card that a good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend maxed out before she knew what was happening. She'd like a job that fits with her interests, but who wants a literary woman with a specialty in languages? Vera Van Alst--the most hated woman in Harrison Falls...that's who. 

Vera is a rabid book/manuscript collector and she has advertised for an assistant to help her track down a rumored long-lost play by Agatha Christie. A play that's never been produced or published and supposedly written while Dame Agatha went missing for eleven days in 1926. Vera had an assistant, but he, most annoyingly, got run over by a subway before he could track the manuscript down. Jordan is desperate for a job and decides that she'll try and run the gauntlet of Vera's irritable ways. Because, other than her employer's personality, everything seems perfect--getting paid to do research? Awesome. Hobnobbing with rare books people? Cool. Living in a fantastic little attic apartment? Sweet. Finding out your predecessor was probably murdered? Now wait a minute....Before she knows it, Jordan isn't just looking for the missing Christie. She's also trying to figure out who killed Alexander Fine before whoever they are decides Jordan Bingham needs bumping off as well.

The Christie Curse is definitely a cozy mystery. The only death takes place off-stage (well before we come along) and the attempted second is very light on violence. We also have the amateur sleuth getting herself into trouble with both the bad guys and the police while she tries to make sense of the clues left for her. The plot is a little murky at times (I'm wondering just how X got involved in the first place, for one), but this type of mystery isn't meant to be intricate and in need of high-voltage brain power. It's just a lot of fun to read. 

Jordan is a very likable protagonist--I immediately had a fondness for her from my work with graduate students in real life. And I loved the way she handled her difficult employer. Their interactions made for for some highly enjoyable moments, as did her life with her disreputable uncles. Overall, a fun, light mystery with an interesting tie-in for Christie fans. The next one has connections to Dorothy L. Sayers and I'll be interested to see how that plays out. ★★★ and a half.

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Deaths = one hit by subway

The A.B.C. Murders

 The A.B.C. Murders (1936) by Agatha Christie

Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions. [Poirot]

A serial killer takes on Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells--sending taunting letters to announce their murders. The first letter tells Poirot to keep his eye on Andover on the 21st of the month. When the 21st arrives, Mrs. Ascher is is found bludgeoned to death in her tobacco shop. The next letter predicts a murder in Bexhill-on-sea...and Betty Barnard is found strangled to death on the beach. Each letter is signed A.B.C. and an ABC railway guide is found on or near the bodies. How far will the killer get through the alphabet before Poirot can bring his man to justice?

Relatives of the victims band together to form The Special Legion and offer their services to Poirot in an effort to help find the killer quicker. They have no faith in the police and, especially, in the rather arrogant Inspector Crome who seems to think he knows everything about everything. They gather together in Poirot's apartment to share what little information they have and to ask him to give them assignments to find out more.

The difficulty is that there are very few clues--other than a nagging feeling that Poirot has that there's something not right about the letters themselves. And then a possible villain--with the fateful initials A. B. C. is caught with numerous pieces of evidence on his person and in his room at a boarding house. But, again, Poirot believes there is something not quite right about the culprit they've been presented with. He has to go back to the beginning and discern just what it is about those letters that isn't right. 

I enjoyed having Hastings come back from South American to go "hunting once more" (as Poirot puts it) with his old friend. The Poirot stories are so much better when he has his "Watson" by his side. Their exchanges were just humorous enough to prevent a serial killer mystery from getting too dark. It was also good to see Poirot show up the young, very-full-of-himself Inspector Crome who seems to think the elder detective is past it. 

Christie tries something a little different with this one--switching periodically from Hasting's viewpoint to that of our possible villain. In fact, the whole thing has just a bit of difference--from the impersonal serial killings to the multiple viewpoints to Poirot working with The Special Legion. There are red herrings, but not quite in the way of things in a standard closed-circle mystery plot. It's really quite interesting and enjoyable. ★★★★

First line: It was in June of 1935 that I came home from my ranch in South America for a stay of about six months.

Last line: So, Hastings--we went hunting once more, did we not? Vive le sport.

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Deaths = 4 (two hit on head; one strangled; one stabbed)

The Ampersand Papers: Revisited

The Ampersand Papers (1978) by Michael Innes 

Sir John Appleby, retired from Scotland Yard, is on his way to visit friends. He discovers that he's going to be very early and decides to make a break in his journey by taking a walk along a convenient bit of beach. It's nice and deserted and it'll be a restful, solitary walk. That is, it will be until Dr. Ambrose Sutch drops in on him--quite literally--from above. Dr. Sutch has been commissioned by the Lord Skillet of Treskinnick Castle to sort through the family papers in a quest to find evidence that Adrian Digitt (one of the family ancestors) hobnobbed with the likes of Shelley and Byron and other literary lights. Because, after all, collectors are paying tidy sums for unknown scribblings and letters from such people--and the Digitts are a bit hard up. They've been selling what they can to help keep the ancestral pile going. There's also rumors of hidden treasure from a Spanish galleon sunk off the coast and just maybe there are references to that somewhere.

But...back to Dr. Sutch. So, the hoards of papers have been stashed in the tippy-top of the North Tower of the castle, which is only reached by ascending a very rickety staircase erected by a previous Digitt. That rickety staircase has elected to collapse and, thus, Dr. Sutch has plunged to his death right before Sir John's eyes. There are indications that staircase didn't just fall down all by itself and since one the Yard's most famous ex-investigators happened to be on the spot the Chief Constable asks Sir John if he will help out unofficially. The investigation leads to hidden caverns under the castle, a secret hiding place in the castle, the finding and losing of Adrian Digitt's papers, and a surprising wrap up of the mystery of the falling staircase.

I originally read The Ampersand Papers in 2011 before I devised my Mount TBR reading challenge. At that time I rated it as a solid outing, though not one of Innes's best. I'm still of that mind. I think it takes too long to get Sir John involved and I much prefer the stories where he's brought on stage early in the book. The Digitts are amusing (if sometimes annoying) characters and I particularly like Lady Ampersand who may not be clever in a standard way, but certainly knows more about what's going on in the castle than her husband. ★★★ 

Quotes

First Line: Who knows what may be buried in his back garden?

The Diggits, however, produced (like the Coleridges, and numerous other respectable families) an occasional black sheep. Some had even dabbled in poetry-- (p. 9)

...from time to time other Digitts, although not themselves creative, had been inclined to take up with literary, and even positively artistic people. Nobody much minded; the morals of these eccentrics had no doubt been impaired by keeping such company; but it wasn't like gaming in a big way, or wrecklessly (sic) debauching young women in good society... (p. 9)

Last Line: "So much," Appleby said, soberly, "for the remains of Adrian Digitt."

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Deaths = one fall from height

The Arsenic Labyrinth

The Arsenic Labyrinth (2007) by Martin Edwards

When Emma Bestwick disappeared ten years ago without a trace, the senior detective on the investigating team determined that it was simply a matter of someone who wanted to disappear. No foul play involved. But Hannah Scarlett, a young policewoman--now a DCI, had her doubts. Why would a woman who had just started a business that she seemed to enjoy and who had just come into a large amount of (unexplained) money decide to chuck it all and fade out? 

On the anniversary of Emma's disappearance, reporter Tony Di Venuto publishes a retrospective article that asks "What Happened to Emma Bestwick?" DCI Scarlett, now on the Cold Case team, doesn't like being maneuvered into reopening the case by the press but can't really say she's upset when an anonymous caller contacts Tony to tell the reporter that he knows that Emma won't be coming home. Scarlett's boss, always on the lookout for good press for the police, insists that the case be reopened and Scarlett and her team begin making the rounds of the previous suspects--jogging memories and digging up a past that some would like to keep buried.

Then the anonymous caller strikes again--this time telling Tony that he knows where the body is; that the police need to look below the Arsenic Labyrinth. Scarlett's team gets to work searching the long-abandoned arsenic mines and are rewarded with no one body, but two--hidden in the Labyrinth about fifty years apart. Is there any connection besides the convenient hiding place? That's what the police will need to find out. And then body number three shows up.

This is the third book in Edwards' Lake District Mysteries featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. In this one, Daniel takes more of a backseat--contributing very little to the more recent murders, but he is able, while doing research on a book about John Ruskin, to track down the details of of the fifty-year-old murder. The reader will need to swallow a heaping helping of coincidence to accept the method by which he comes across his information, but it does make for interesting reading.

The plot is well done and if I had paid attention to certain clues and comments dropped along the way, I might have been able to figure it out--but I didn't. So, well done, Martin, for keeping me distracted with other things. One thing I wasn't too keen on was being inside the head of the "anonymous" caller (anonymous to the report and the police, but not the reader) who had his share of the guilt (though not all of it). I'd rather be in the position of figuring it all out than to know who the villain (or one of the villains) is up front. No a fan of inverted mysteries or even partially inverted. But that's a personal preference. Edwards does a fine job with it and manages to have a final twist that left this reader surprised.  ★★★ and 1/2.

First Line: Who shall I be today?

Last Line: Wanting to go home, yet not sure why, she broke into a run.

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Deaths = 4 (two hit on head; one stabbed; one burned to death

Death in Berlin

Death in Berlin (1955)  by M. M. Kaye

Miranda Brand is returning to Germany with her cousin Robert, his wife Stella, and their daughter. Miranda will be on a month's holiday and Robert is being stationed in the British half of the recently partitioned country. She doesn't remember much of Germany--having escaped from the country early in World War II after her parents were killed in an accident. While on the journey to Germany, they meet Brigadier Brindley who tells his fellow travelers an incredible story of runaway Nazis and a missing fortune in diamonds--a story that the young Miranda apparently took part in unknowingly. The entire party is fascinated by the tale...but someone has more interest than they let on.

The Germany-bound group (12 in all) board a train en route to Berlin and during the night, the Brigadier is stabbed to death. He had made it known that he didn't sleep well on trains without medication and so the killer knew Brindley would put up no resistance. Miranda and all of her traveling companions are suspects....but Miranda, who discovered the body when she inadvertently entered the wrong compartment, is the one who has blood on her hands.

Simon Lang, a soft-spoken British policeman stationed in Berlin, is also on the train and winds up commanding the investigation. Miranda is sure that he's fixed upon her as the primary suspect, but there's plenty of suspicion to go around--especially after more murders occur. 

Though this is the second of Kaye's mysteries, it is the last one that I needed to read to complete the series. The others were much easier to find for some reason. Overall, I was pleased with the story. Kaye gives us an excellent view of Germany in the post-WWII era before the Berlin Wall was erected. Since her husband was posted there during this time period, she was able to give us the benefit of her first-hand experience. She has always been very good at getting place and atmosphere right and Death in Berlin is no exception.

The primary mystery is also interesting with its ties to Nazi Germany and the motives behind the initial killing are quite sound. I do have a couple of minor quibbles (see spoiler portion of the review if you're curious), but did enjoy watching Simon Lang unravel all the threads. I did pick up on some of the solution (Kaye hits us over the head a bit with one particular clue...), but missed how other bits featured in the pattern. I blame that on the second part of my quibbles below.  I'm definitely glad I finally found this and was able to finish the series. I do wish I had been able to read them in order because I think her mystery plots improve over time and my expectations might not have been as high for this one. ★★★

 

***********Spoilers Ahead. Read at your own risk************

I have two primary complaints about Kaye's book, one is the amount of coincidence in the story. The Brigadier just happens along and tells his story--to the very group of people that has not one, but two participants in it. Miranda (who had long forgotten the details of her escape from Germany) and the killer (who most certainly had not forgotten). Then another of the group of suspects just happens to run into their long-lost relative and that throws a few red herrings about which interfere with the smooth investigation of the crimes.

My other quibble is that we have two murderers. The motives loosely tie together, but not in a satisfactory way. If the primary concern was the Brigadier and his diamond story (as it seems to me it is), then I think it would have been better to stick to that motive for the murders. The other story line could well have served as a red herring, but adding in a second murderer seems to be a bit of....wait for it....overkill.

First Line: With nightfall the uneasy wind that had sighed all day through the grass and the gorse bushes at the cliff edge died away, and a cold fog crawled in from the sea, obliterating the darkening coastline and muting the drag of waves on shingle to a rhythmic murmur barely louder than the unrelenting and monotonous mutter of gunfire to the west.

Last Line: She shrugged her shoulders tolerantly and went downstairs to explain to her cook in what she confidently imagined to be German, that der Herr Polizisten Captain Lang would be remaining to luncheon.

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[Finished on 7/31/20] 

Deaths = 4 (two stabbed; one drowned; one shot)

The Mysterious Mr. Quin

The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930) by Agatha Christie is a collection of short stories that feature Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Harley Quin. Satterthwaite is an elderly gentleman in his sixties with the means to travel where he likes and indulge his artistic and epicurean tastes. He also has a love of drama--no, not necessarily on stage but real-life human dramas as they are played out all around him. Throughout his life, he has been an audience of one, watching and studying human nature at its best and often at its worst. When Quin first enters his life, he knows right away that some intriguing drama will follow. Quin will not be the central character, but he will be the catalyst that puts it all in motion. And he's right. Twelve times he is right.

Quin is a mysterious man who appears on the scene as if from nowhere. He has a knack of encouraging the actors in the human dramas to see and understand things in ways they were unable to before. This helps (in these stories) primarily to sort out old tragedies, to help bring justice where needed or just relief of suffering. He also encourages Satterthwaite to get up off the sidelines and get involved in the dramas himself. At first this disconcerts Sattherthwaite, but he soon learns to enjoy the ways his friend uses him to clarify mysteries.

Since these are short stories, the mysteries are not given in great detail but they do have a depth of human emotion and interest. There is also an otherworldly, supernatural feel to the stories. We get a sense that Quin is an agent from beyond the normal human realm and he is described several times as a "speaker for the dead." His ability to appear and disappear from the scene--as if by magic--is but one of his supernatural qualities. In at least two of the stories, there is literally nowhere for him to go without injuring himself and yet go he does.

These are enjoyable little vignettes that allowed Christie to play with the mystery story while adding a dash of the unknown. I think she must have had a great deal of fun putting these together. ★★★ and 1/2.

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Deaths = 9 (four shot; one poisoned; one drowned; one heart failure; one strangled; one fell from height)

Blotto, Twinks, & the Ex-King's Daughter

Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter (2009) by Simon Brett

The Ex-King of Mitteleuropa and his entourage has come to stay at the country estate of the duke of Tawcester (pronounced Taster) for rest, relaxation, and to experience the English hunt. The group includes the Ex-King's trusted confidante Captain Schtoltz, twin body guards Bogdan and Zoltan Grittelhoff, various courtly hangers-on, the Ex-Queen, and the beautiful Ex-Princess Ethelinde. The Duchess of Tawcester is pleased to host the exiled royals--it gives her a whole group of new people to be condescending to. But she is less than delighted when her butler Grimshaw informs her that one of her guests has died in the library. She uses her social standing to put pressure on the Chief Constable to sweep the matter under the rug, but she doesn't reckon with her headstrong (and very brainy) daughter, Twinks (aka Lady Honoria Lyminster).

Twinks is jolly good at detecting and she enlists the aide of her less intellectually endowed brother Blotto (aka the Right Honorable Devereaux Lyminster) to provide any brawn needed in the adventure. From a few flakes of cigar ash, a whiff of cologne, white paint on a button, and a piece of wool, she easily pieces together the events that led to Captain Schtoltz's death. She's even sure who the culprit is. But Blotto (who was slightly blotto after drinking several Mitteleuropian toasts with his guests) manages to fall asleep in a cozy, out-of-the-way corner only to awaken to the sound of a whispered conversation. He may not be swiftest horse in the hunt, but he does pick up the gist of the conversation--namely that a plot is afoot to kidnap the lovely Ethelinde. 

Despite the best-laid plans of Twinks, the evil-doer manages to get away with the plot and the Duchess herself sends Blotto, his chauffeur Corky Froggett, and a mysterious Mitteleuropian interpreter Klaus Schiffleich off to Mitteleuropa to restore the family honor...oh and rescue the Princess as well. A few surprises are in store for our happy band of rescuers and Blotto just might find himself king of a foreign country and married to the Princess if he's not careful. Where's Twinks when he needs her?

My take: First of all just let me say, if I had had to read one more "Toad-in-the-Hole!" exclamation or "Twinks, me old muffin" or "Rodents!" (as an expletive, apparently) from Blotto I may have thrown this book out the window. I'm all for a good parody (with a definite stress on good), but there is, as you may know, such a thing as too much of a good thing. Brett really stretches the limit on muchness. Absolutely everything about this is just a shade too much. Too much period slang. Too many repetitions of the same period slang. Too much English self-centrism (as Blotto says, "If only you lot all played cricket, you wouldn't feel so foreign"). Too many WAY over the top caricatures. This could have been a delightfully fun send up of the Golden Age mystery--if only Brett had wielded his pen with a less heavy hand. A disappointing read--I felt like I could have liked these characters a lot, had I been given a chance to do so. One bright spot (thus earning all the stars given) was the exciting ending. I do like a nice wrap-up. ★★

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Deaths = 2 (one poisoned; one stabbed)

The Clocks

The Clocks (1963) by Agatha Christie

~Read by Robin Bailey

Sheila Webb, a typist for the Cavendish Secretarial and Typewriting Bureau, is sent on assignment to the home of Miss Millicent Pebmarsh in Wilbraham Crescent. A phone call requesting a typist particularly asked for Sheila Webb and gave instructions that if Miss Pebmarsh were not yet home that Sheila enter the house and wait in the sitting room. Sheila arrives early and does as instructed. At first she's simply intrigued by the fact that Miss Pebmarsh keeps six clocks in the same room and four of them register 4:13--nearly an hour later than the actual time. But then she's horrified to realize that there's a dead man behind the sofa. Miss Pebmarsh, who Shelia immediately realizes is blind, nearly steps on the body when she comes home and the horror of the situation sends Shelia screaming out of the house....

 ...Straight into the arms of Colin Lamb--who is not nearly as innocent as his name would suggest. Colin, who works for Special Branch, is scanning the addresses in the crescent in search of Number 61 (which just possibly may be of interest to those who are hunting communist sympathizers). He immediately becomes interested in the murder once he realizes that Miss Pebmarsh's house is situated so its back garden connects with the house he's looking for. Is it too much to hope that the mysterious dead man may have something to do with his own business?

Inspector Hardcastle takes up the case and every clue (what few there are) seems to lead to a dead end. Colin finally takes the problem to his friend Hercule Poirot who has often boasted that one need not run and to and fro gathering clues or examining with a magnifying glass. One can just be given all the facts, sit back and let the little grey cells do their thing, and, voila, the solution becomes apparent. That almost works--Poirot doesn't run to and fro, but he does have Colin to do that (and to relay any tidbits that Hardcastle discovers since Colin and the Inspector are old friends). It is interesting that Poirot does not actually interview anybody in the case and successfully identifies the culprit.

I picked out this audio version of Christie's mystery to take along with me for my trip back home last week. I don't do a lot of audio novels--because I like to review my books here on the blog and it's more difficult for me to get details when I listen rather than read. So, generally when I do listen to audio novels I try to choose stories that I'm already familiar with. It had been quite some time since I read The Clocks, so while Christie's writing was familiar I was still able to enjoy the mystery. I immediately fastened onto the correct culprit, though I didn't get the motive right. 

In my defense, Christie has a lot going on in this one. We've got the central murder of the unknown man and the mystery of who he is, why he was found in Miss Pebmarsh's house, and why Sheila Webb was deliberately brought there to discover him. But we've also got the side-story with Colin Lamb and his hunt for a communist spy headquarters. It's no wonder I was a bit confused about who might be responsible for what. It's an interesting little mystery, but I do think there were a few too many coincidences for this to be one of Christie's best work. 

Robin Bailey does an excellent job with the reading. He manages to juggle voices for a dozen or so different characters--giving them all different intonations and enabling the listener to keep them all straight. My one slight quibble with his performance comes with his rendition of Poirot. Perhaps it is because I tend to have David Suchet's voice in my head--but it seems to me that Bailey's Poirot is too deep and brusque. But that is minor. Overall, the reading is highly entertaining and kept me in thrall the entire time I was in the car. ★★★ for the story itself. ★★★★  for the audio performance.

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Deaths = Three (two stabbed; one strangled)

The Gimmel Flask

The Gimmel Flask (1977) by Douglas Clark

When the senior partner of Hardy, Williams and Lamont--auctioneers and estate agents in a small Anglian town, is poisoned with a rare, virtually unobtainable poison that goes by the name of croton oil, the local police have quite a mystery on their hands. Somebody who knew Fred Hardy's habit of mixing his own oil and vinegar salad dressing at table substituted the oily poison for harmless kitchen oil. And then made a second trip to his house to retrieve the suspect container...and old-fashioned, two-necked bottle called a gimmel flask. 

Superintendent Masters and Inspector Green are sent by the Yard to help out the local police force who have hunted high and low, but found no source for the poison and have about the same success coming up with motives for the auctioneer's murder. At one time in the 19th Century, the oil was used in diluted form as a purge for humans and animals, but it has long since been removed from pharmacies as too dangerous even when diluted. It's up to the team from the Yard to not only discover who wanted Hardy dead, but also the source of such a hard-to-get means of dispatch.

This is the ninth entry in the Masters and Green series and it is, I believe, the very first one I ever read (long before blogging). The men have finally reached the point where they can work together without getting on one another's nerves (well...mostly). They've begun to realize that their differences are part of what makes their team so successful. It also seems that their initial antagonism served to spur each of them to try and outdo the other--in a way that was productive for the team's detective work. Masters has even deliberately requested Green stay on and recommended him for an upgrade in rank. 

The interesting murder method and the way the team works together is what hooked me on this series initially and I find myself enjoying it even more in this reread--especially after seeing the incredible antagonism between Masters and Green in the early installments. We learn quite a bit about the ins and outs of the auction room and how regular bidders operate. There is an added complication of an auction "ring"--a group of professionals (antique dealers and the like) who manage a system that allows them to buy cheap and edge out competition, The team from the Yard must determine whether the sharp dealings of the ring had anything to do with Hardy's murder. It all makes for an intricate investigation and, of course, Masters and company navigate the complexities to arrive at the solution in record time. ★★★★ and 1/2.

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Deaths = one poisoned

4 Feet in the Grave

I have no excuse to offer for our having consented to such an unheard-of proposition, except that writers generally do screwy things. (p. 16)
4 Feet in the Grave (1941) by Amelia Reynolds Long

Katherine "Peter" Piper, mystery writer by trade and amateur detective by inclination, is invited to Ghost Walk, the home of a fellow author, for a little Halloween get-together of their writing circle. She and her close friend Althea Raeburn head to Philadelphia for what was intended to be an ordinary Halloween party with "Materialization and other psychic phenomena guaranteed." But as Peter says to us

...if I could have known then about the ghostly lights in the mausoleum and the corpse that appeared and disappeared, to say nothing of the pistol that shot and killed a man in full view of eight witnesses, yet without being touched by human hand, I wonder whether I would have been so quick to sit down and write my acceptance....I say I wonder--and know darned well that I would.

There you have it in a nutshell. Well almost. She leaves out the mystery woman who gives them a lift when their car gets stuck in the mud and who insists on joining their party as Althea's "sister-in-law" when she finds out where they're headed. And the murder of the previous owner of the house. And the ominous warning from the tarot cards She also leaves out the "ghost" who appears in front of the bookshelf and the puzzle of the three wills--all apparently perfectly legitimate. 

Well, that was a delightful little surprise. I'd never read anything by Amelia Reynolds Long before and really didn't know what to expect. In fact, I'd never heard of her before acquiring this Bart House edition several years ago. She started out as a science fiction writer in the 1930s and then turned to mysteries--producing 31 novels under her own name and several pseudonyms. If this effort is anything to go by, she excelled at characterization, dialogue, and plotting (roughly in that order). She makes a good effort to produce a baffling impossible crime and I thought it interesting that, rather than leading with that particular murder, the impossible crime is the final death in the criminal's game. I'm not entirely sure that the solution works, nor that it is a novel one but I did enjoy how she employed it.

I also enjoyed the interactions between Peter Piper, our intrepid amateur sleuth, and Edward Trelawney, with "connections" to the district attorney's office, as they try to work out who was killed when and how the final murder was committed at all. It is difficult to find much information on her or her books (see link on her name above), so I'm not sure if this detective duo appears in any of her other mysteries--I would hope so and would also hope that I'll be lucky enough to find them. I have to say that I had my suspicions about the villain of the piece, but I certainly didn't pick up all the clues--particularly those that would have helped in the solution of the final murder. A fun read. ★★★★


Quotes
I know what I saw, and it was a dead man. The fact that somebody came and carried him away while I was phoning for you, wasn't my fault. After all, you couldn't expect me to sit on his chest to keep him until you got here. (Katherine "Peter" Piper; p. 88)

"Oh, what's one corpse more or less in my life?" I retorted with a brazenness I was far from feeling. "I'm used to them by this time." (Peter Piper; p. 109)

"Read," he replied irritably. "Hell, no! All this house seems to contain in the line of reading material is a lot of damned detective stories; and after living in one for the past couple days, I break out in a nervous rash at the very thought of them." (Bill Blake; p. 135)

Bill's ideas about women and their ability to take care of themselves are a little narrow; and he probably had come to feel during the past few days that they had been more than justified. (p. 159)

"Well," I barked at him, "it's about time you got here. A person could be murdered two or three times waiting for you." (Peter Piper; p.179)

Circumstantial evidence may be misleading; even direct testimony may be mistaken or deliberately false. But once all the factors have been taken into careful consideration, psychological evidence never lies. (Edward Trelawney; p. 183)

Of course, psychological evidence alone is not enough. It must be combined with proven motive and opportunity. And even then these must be backed up by a certain amount of material evidence, and rightly so; since the average juryman is not a trained psychologist. (Trelawney; 183)

I seem to have the knack of solving mysteries without realizing it. I can't decide whether it's a sign of intelligence or the opposite. (Peter Piper; 185-6)

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Deaths = three shot
Calendar of Crime: October (set at Halloween)

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

I'm going to need to reread this one at some point...I really wasn't in the proper frame of mind to go through the details of how her notes differed (or didn't) from the final versions of the novels and short stories. I powered my way through simply because I had it down for several challenges but I can't say that I've taken in much of the information or that what I have taken in has interested me much.

The most interesting portion for me in this initial reading was the inclusion of the two unpublished stories: "The Capture of Cerberus" and "The Incident of the Dog's Ball." Each of these were later reworked--the first as a short story and the second transformed into the novel Dumb Witness.

Since I feel like my timing is off on reading this and I plan to reread at another time, I'm not going to assign a rating. It wouldn't be fair.

Golden Rain

Golden Rain* (1980) by Douglas Clark

When Miss Holland, the attractive and forceful headmistress of the Bramthorpe College for Girls, is found dead from poisoning, the investigating office assumes it must be suicide or accident. The doors and windows were all locked and there was no signs of anyone else having been around. Of course, Detective Lovegrove also didn't look very hard. Suicide or accident would definitely be a nice and easy verdict and he's all for nice and easy. Except...his boss Chief Superintendent Hildridge and Sir Thomas Kenny both knew Miss Holland rather well. Their girls go to Bramthorpe and Sir Thomas is on the board of directors. And neither one of them believes Miss Holland committed suicide. After the autopsy report shows that she died of Laburnum poisoning (the seeds are sometimes mistaken for dried peas and other foodstuffs), Sir Thomas is even more adamant. Miss Holland was a botanist--other people might mistake Laburnum for something edible, but not a botanist. The men decide to bring in the Yard and Superintendent Masters and his team are sent in.

They have quite a job ahead of them though. Lovegrove is the liaison with the the coroner and he fixed up an immediate inquest before he knew the Yard was coming. And Mr. Gilchrist, the coroner, isn't the type to postpone an inquest without good reason. Unless Masters, Green, and company can produce some good hard facts to throw an accidental death ruling in doubt, they aren't even going to get a chance to investigate the case properly. They get busy immediately and conduct enough interviews to seriously suspect murder--but they're still a bit short on solid facts. Masters manage to pull off a quite tidy little legal maneuver that allows him to convince the coroner to give an open verdict.

Once they start digging, the evidence seems to point towards a girlish school prank gone wrong and the Bramthorpe folks start closing ranks. But Masters suspects that there's more behind a few substituted seasonings than just school girl hi-jinks and he engineers a cozy get-together where all can be revealed. 

The thirteenth entry in the Masters and Green series finds the two lead detectives much more at ease with one another. They've gotten used to each other's quirks and, while, they may take a little jab now and then, it's more in fun than with malice aforethought. Each uses his strengths to good advantage to track down evidence and get unsuspecting members of the community to divulge what they know. It was a definite bonus for me that this had an academic connection--given my fondness for academic mysteries. One of my favorites of the series. ★★★★

*Golden rain is another name for Laburnum...from the appearance of the flowers: 

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Vintage Mystery Extravaganza: Silver [Rule #18: Accident/Suicide]
Deaths = one (poisoned)

Deadly Pattern

Deadly Pattern (1970) by Douglas Clark
Third in the Masters & Green series

Detective Chief Inspector George Masters and his team are winding up the case of the murdered vicar in Rooksby and looking forward to a little time at home when the Yard informs them that they've got another case to handle. Five middle-aged, middle class married women have gone missing from two neighboring towns on the northeast coast. Four of their bodies have been found buried in the sand dunes of Finstoft, but the last one to disappear is still missing. Neither of the towns' detective forces have much experience in murder and they'll be glad of help from those who do.

Masters, Green, and company go back over the ground already covered by the locals--re-interviewing family members and asking many questions that no else thought to ask. It soon becomes apparent that they are dealing with a neurotic serial killer who must have been familiar with the area. Recent (in 1970) information on these types of disorders indicate that these killers work to a pattern--perhaps a pattern that makes sense only to them, but a pattern nonetheless. Masters makes it his job to figure out the pattern...if he can do so, he's sure he'll be able to find the last missing woman. He realizes that there must be some common point of contact between these five women--something must connect them beyond their age and social standing. Also on his team's plate is discovering how someone could strangle five women without any of them leaving the standard traces of having fought back. Because no one is going just placidly stand there while someone tries to kill them.

I enjoyed this entry in the series more than the first two. The antagonism between Masters and Green is still an underlying theme, but Clark handles it better here. It doesn't seem to be quite as dominant as in the previous two novels. It was interesting to follow the team as they deal with their first (in recorded stories) serial killer. And--if I recall correctly--it's the only one they come up against in the series novels I've read. Masters' investigation is thorough and, for the most part, logical. He does hold a few cards close to his chest and if I hadn't already spotted the killer through other means, I might cry "foul" at his hoarding clues. 

That is one flaw in this particular plot--Clark didn't seem to be trying all that hard to hide the culprit. Recently, I read an online piece talking about Christie and her timeless appeal. Several things were mentioned as contributing to that appeal--readability and her way with misdirection being two of them. For me, Clark follows in Christie's footsteps for readability. Once I read my first Masters and Green novel, I was hooked and set out on a quest to find and read them all. They are quick, interesting stories that I just plain enjoy reading (whether I quibble with his handling of personalities or not). Sometimes he does just as well with misdirection, fooling me completely. But not here. It seemed to me that once our culprit walked on stage s/he was lit up in a spotlight and there didn't seem to be much of an effort to focus attention on any suspects at all. This didn't really affect my enjoyment of the book (though I did wonder why the identity seemed to be such a mystery to our intrepid police force). I think perhaps that Clark was fascinated with the idea of the serial killer and the practices of such murderers and wanted to focus more on the details of the pattern than worry about disguising the culprit. And that was okay with me since these novels are police procedural in nature. Overall, a very good entry in the series. ★★★  and  1/2


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Deaths = 5 (strangled)
Vintage Mystery Extravaganza: Silver (Rule #8: All clues must be fairly disclosed)
Calendar of Crime: February (Primary Action)

The Good Friday Murder

The Good Friday Murder (1992) by Lee Harris (Syrell Leahy)

This is the debut novel in Harris's series featuring ex-nun Christiine Bennett. She has just recently left the convent and is settling into her new life as a homeowner and member of the community in Oakwood. Her cousin Gene lives at Greenwillow, a living facility for the mentally disabled, and, after the death of her aunt, she is now Gene's custodial relative. The director of Greenwillow makes an appeal to Christine for help. The facility has the opportunity to move to Oakwood, but various members of the community oppose their application for a variance on the intended building. 

Robert Talley, a recent addition to the residents, is one of two savant twins who were implicated (but never tried and convicted) of the death of their mother in 1950. The citizens of Oakwood don't want a possible killer moving into town and Mrs. McAlpin would like Christine to add her voice to those who speak on behalf of Greenwillow at the next meeting. Christine is happy to do so, but when the meeting is over, she finds herself committed to investigating the 40-year old murder. The committee has agreed that if she can discover that Robert and his brother James were not responsible for their mother's death, then they will allow the building permit to go forward.

She's never investigated anything before, but her curiosity and research skills (gained while earning a master's degree) stand her in good stead. Digging through old newspaper reports, she finds that she needs to see the police file. This leads her to Sergeant Jack Brooks who will make quite a difference--in more ways than one. Using information he's able to give her from the file and following up various threads, she becomes convinced that someone else was in the house on April 7th, 1950. Someone was...and that someone is willing to kill again if need be.

It's been a long time since I read the very first of the Chris Bennett novels--but digging through my bins of books, I was tempted to read it again. This is a good introduction to Chris's world and her involvement in old murders. Her interest in the particular case is quite logical as she has a vested interest in helping Greenwillow move to Oakwood where Gene will be closer to his remaining relative. However, I had forgotten how horrible this particular murder was. Not only is the stabbing of Mrs. Talley fairly gruesome--the resulting effects on the twins are pretty disturbing as well. Certainly not your standard cozy mystery fare. Nonetheless, this has an absorbing plot--I finished it in one sitting and enjoyed it very much. ★★★ and 1/2.


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Calendar of Crime: April (Primary Action)
Deaths = 3 (one strangled; one heart attack; one natural causes)

The Dreadful Lemon Sky

The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1974) by John D. MacDonald

Travis McGee is awakened by an intruder on his boat, The Busted Flush. He grabs for his trusty gun, but instead of someone out for his blood it is one of his lady friends--Carrie Milligan. He hasn't seen Carrie for quite some time...not since she got married to Ben. She's no longer married and she's desperate for a friend she can trust with no questions asked. You see...she's got a package with a little over a hundred thousand dollars in it and she wants Travis to stash it for her for about two weeks. If she doesn't come back for it by then...well, then, she's not coming back for it and he's to deliver all but $10,000 of it to her sister. The $10,000 is his fee for babysitting her package. Of course, Travis has questions, but he agrees to stash the money without getting any answers.

You know what's coming. Carrie doesn't come back. Carrie is hit by a truck on a lonely stretch of road and Travis isn't ready to believe it was an accident. So, he and his buddy Meyer decide to head for the northern coast of Florida and investigate in the little town where Carrie died. The dig up an amateur marijuana smuggling operation, a slick young lawyer who likes to prey on the ladies and who seems to have more ready cash than a man just establishing his practice ought to, and a missing partner in the company where Carrie worked. Soon Travis and Meyer have all the threads in their hands, but just when they've used them to fashion a noose for one of the suspects they realize that it could just as easily fit someone else too. 

This is the sixteenth installment in MacDonald's Travis McGee series and it's the second McGee novel I've ever read. I enjoyed it every bit as much as the first one* even if the body count is a bit higher. I said at the time that on the face of it, this series is SO not my kind of thing. I'm not really into this kind of private eye, er "Salvage Consultant" thing. But Travis isn't really your usual gritty, hard-boiled investigator. He ventures into philosophy every now and then. Like

Guilt is the most merciless disease of man. It stains all the other areas of living. It darkens all skies.

And [on reasons for lovemaking]

The biggest and most important reason in the world is to be together in a way that makes life a little less bleak and solitary and lonesome. To exchange the I for We. In the biggest sense of the word, it's cold outside. And kindness and affection and gentleness build a nice warm fire inside.

Travis makes his way into a lot of ladies' beds (or gets them into his), but he puts more feeling into it than a lot of hardboiled private eyes. And he knows when to say no to a pair of beckoning eyes. [As with Carrie in the beginning of the book.]

As I said in my previous review, MacDonald can write. Imagery? You got it. Philosophical commentary? You got it. Social commentary on the world of the early 1970s? You got it. Interesting side-kick and peripheral characters? You got those too. I particularly like the character of Captain Harry Max Scorf (a local investigator). He's a man with a sense of justice that won't quit and runs into a moral conflict when the people who will see that he gets his pension want him to drop the case. He's also a man who can read Travis pretty good and knows when our hero is holding out on him. It was interesting to see those two play off one another. 

A really good entry in the series. It's still not the type of book that I'll rush to get every book in the series...but I do have Nightmare in Pink waiting on one of the TBR mountains around here. I can definitely recommend Travis McGee--especially to those who like private investigators from the 1960s and 70s. ★★★ and 1/2.


(*Dress Her in Indigo--which I read about ten years ago; has it really been that long?!)

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Deaths = 6 (one hit by truck; one explosive; one hit with heavy bag; one strangled;  one intense allergic reaction; one shot)
Vintage Mystery Extravaganza Silver #16 [More than one culprit]
Calendar of Crime: May [Primary Action]

Death After Evensong

Death After Evensong (1969) by Douglas Clark is the second book in his Masters and Green series. The Yard is called in quickly when the vicar of Rooksby-le-Soken in East Anglia is found shot to death in a locked basement classroom in the old school. In fact, Inspector George Masters is a bit surprised at the quick call and even more surprised when he finds out the body is still in the classroom. But Nicholson, the local Detective Superintendent, explains that he knew he had to when he saw the body. Herbert Parlsoe had been shot at close range and the exit wound proves that the bullet is no longer in the body. But there's no evidence of it anywhere. To all appearances, the man was shot while up against a wall joist, but though there's blood on the joist, there's no bullet hole. 

After a search confirms that no bullet can be found and the local Doctor (actually one of two--a father and son who share the practice) confirms Masters' observation that the missile is unusually shaped, the Yard man seems to lose interest in the method of death and starts hunting for motive. And motive there is--in abundance. The vicar was a very unpleasant and Masters and his team cannot find a single soul in the village to put in a good word for him. He was a skinflint and worked every way he could to either pay as little as possible for services rendered or to avoid paying at all. He had had run-ins with everyone from the owner of the local pub and his Italian wife to the doctor and his seemingly surly son to a carpenter he got fired to the schoolmaster he done out of a job at the new school. The vicar even treated his own daughters poorly and Masters wouldn't put it past the darkly beautiful Pamela to go in for a bit of patricide if it would keep dear old dad out of her affairs.

When all is said and done though, it does come back around to how. Because until he and his team can prove how it was done, they will have a difficult time proving who. Masters is sure there was something in the classroom that he saw but didn't understand the first time they were there and a second visit gives him the answer he needs.

I'm a bit torn on this one. The locked room and murder method were quite interesting--I had a glimmering of an idea of how it might have been done, but not the specifics. And, like Masters, once I had an idea about how I narrowed it down to a couple of suspects. I didn't guess right between them--but I was pleased that I spotted it. The characters were all quite good too and I liked the care that Masters took about Parsloe's younger daughter (who is a bit disadvantaged). But--

The antagonism between Masters and Green is really too much (as mentioned in my review of the first novel, Nobody's Perfect). They are definitely getting on my last nerve throughout most of this one and I can state without a doubt that if I had read these in order and didn't know the relationship improves at some point I would have chucked this series after this one. There are a couple of comments at the end that give me hope that number three will be better--but only because I know it will be better eventually. So, this is one series that I can say that I'm really, really glad that the first four books eluded me for so long. ★★★  --all for plot and method.



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Calendar of Crime = September (Primary Action)
Deaths = 2 (one shot; one poisoned)
Pick Your Poison = Seconds (Second Book by an Author)

The Bar Mitzvah Murder

The Bar Mitzvah Murder (2004) by Lee Harris

Christine Bennett's best friend Melanie Gross calls with exciting news. She and her whole family are headed to the Holy Land to celebrate her cousin's bar mitzvah. He's in his 30's or 40's, but had never been very religious until very recently so he didn't feel like he had done it right and wants to do it right and do it BIG now. Gabe is very wealthy and can afford to take his family and pay for what amounts to a fabulous vacation for about forty people. Chris is very excited for her friend and thinks how nice it would be to visit Israel some day. Little does she know...

Chris's husband Jack has recently been promoted (after passing both the bar exam and the lieutenant's exam) and after serving an obligatory stint at a precinct before a final appointment can be made. At the end of that stint he's recalled to the main police offices at One Police Plaza where he'll have an office in the Legal Bureau. He's barely moved in before he receives a summons from the Deputy Commissioner to take on a special assignment in....c'mon, you've guessed it...Israel. US police officers are going to work with the Israeli police to set up a computer database to track criminals wanted by both countries. And it just so happens that the trip will take place at the same time as Melanie and her family will be there. Jack has been given permission to bring Chris and their young son, Eddie along for the trip--and his parents book separately so they can spend time with their grandson. It's going to be a fantastic trip.

But (it's a mystery series and murder's in the title, so you know what's coming)...after the bar mitzvah ceremony Gabe is found unconscious in the hotel's garden/park area during the celebratory party back at the hotel. A member of the family who is a doctor says that someone should call an ambulance and in short order it appears on the scene. The attendants whisk Gabe into the vehicle and take off--refusing to let his wife get in with him. It isn't until they're gone that everyone realizes that no one knows what hospital Gabe is headed for. A quick check with the hotel reveals that no one called for an ambulance and phone calls to a few of the hospitals result in no answer. That's when Melanie calls on her secret weapon--Chris.

Once they get the story sorted, Jack calls his Israeli liaison who takes over the job of finding out where Gabe has been taken. The news isn't good--no hospital had an ambulance run to that particular hotel that night. Gabe is missing and no one knows why or who might have taken him. Mel asks Chris to do what she can to investigate, but our heroine barely has time to start when the worst happens. Gabe's body is found beaten to death in a less desirable part of the city. It's up to Chris to figure out who wanted Gabe dead and why.

The best part of this one is the look at Israel in the early 2000's when air travel was still fairly easy. We get a good look at various parts of the country--and Jerusalem in particular--and we get to meet various citizens of the country. The mystery plot is good--though it's a little more riddled with coincidence than some of the others. The death was a little brutal and given the circumstances, I was surprised that Harris didn't have one of the suspects show a little more feeling about what happened...especially since things went a little farther than intended. The last time I read this (pre-blogging days), I gave it four stars, but I think this time around it's really a ★★★ outing.

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Deaths =  one beaten to death
Calendar of Crime: November (Primary action)