Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme now sponsored by Rose City Reader (who originally inspired the meme). Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Gilion's place.

Here's the first few lines from The Devil's Stronghold by Leslie Ford:

The yellow match book was lying on the seat of the taxicab. I saw it as the doorman at Garfinckel's bowed me in with a punctilio worthy of the wife of the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.

 

Here's a few lines from The Devil's Stronghold by Leslie Ford: 

It seemed to me that there was trouble ahead. I could smell it the way a sleeping dog can smell a pound of hamburger when the butcher boy opens the kitchen door.

The Mountains Have a Secret: Review

The Mountains Have a Secret is my third go-round with Arthur W. Upfield and his Detective Inspector Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte mystery series.  I absolutely loved the first one I came across, An Author Bites the Dust, and The Bone Is Pointed was a solid entry as well.  Mountains falls somewhere in between.

The upshot of the story is this:  Two pretty girls set out on a hiking tour near the Grampian Mountains.  They spend a couple of nights at a pub called the Baden Park Hotel and when they leave the pub on the road to Hall's Gap they are never seen again.  A couple of weeks after the search is called off, a police officer who had experience with the mountains follows their route and is found shot to death in his car 25 miles from where the girls were last seen.  Most of the officers in the area believe the death and the disappearance are unrelated....but Superintendent Bolt isn't so sure.  

Enter Bony....the Detective Inspector has a reputation for a perfect record in his investigations and the Superintendent wants him to take on the case and find out what happened to the girls and whether his office died because of the investigation or for other reasons.  Bony assumes the persona of a sheep rancher on holiday and takes a room at the Baden Park Hotel.  He befriends the father of the owner--who seems frightened of his son and who is generally kept from fraternizing with the guests.  It isn't long before Bony's questions draw the attention of the pub's owner and an American ex-serviceman who works at the pub.  

Bony will be assaulted by a couple of thugs and a professional wrestler and will take to the hills to conduct surveillance on the pub and a nearby sheep ranch that is protected by military-like sentinels and a high-security fence.  James Simpson, the pub's proprietor, spends an awful lot of time behind that high-security fence--ostensibly entertaining his friends, the Bensons, with his musical skills on the piano and organ.  But Bony suspects that more is going on behind the fence than a friendly concert.  He finds an ally in the American and the two of them take on a highly-organized group with German ties....but in the end Bony's perfect record remains intact and he tracks down the girls and solves not one, but two murders.

I really enjoyed Bony's interactions with both Simpson's father, Joseph, and Glen Shannon, the ex-serviceman from Texas.  The characterizations were strong and interesting where Upfield could have made them caricatures--the old drunk and the good ol' boy from the southern US.  Like The Bone Is Pointed, Bony goes undercover in the back country...spending days on his own and out of touch with police back up.  But I found this situation much more realistic, probably because it didn't involve any native "magic" working on our hero.  The descriptions of the mountains and the countryside are once again a major plus in Upfield's writing and the mystery is quite entertaining.  3.75 stars (rounded to 4 on Goodreads).



Spoiler Alert!******** Do not read if you don't want a major clue to the ending. 


This novel was first published in 1948--three years after the end of World War II.  I'm curious to know if this was the first instance of an author speculating that Hitler's remains (although not specifically named--heavily insinuated) were removed from Germany.  In this scenario, the remains have been carefully preserved in some sort of special coffin and have apparently been kept in "Trust" by devoted followers.  For what purpose, we're not quite sure. 

I was totally buying into the idea that the two girls stumbled onto some secret and either had to be silenced or kidnapped to prevent them spilling the beans.  But that doesn't wind up being the case and I don't think Upfield properly explains why the girls were snatched and forced into service on the ranch.  As Bony points out, the Bensons could have advertized for live-in help--if they had properly vetted those who showed up for the job (to be sure there wasn't family/friends who would have expected them to visit or check in) then nobody would have been snooping around in the area.  That little quibble deducts from the star rating.


Challenges: 150 Plus Reading Challenge, Vintage Mystery Challenge, Monthly Key Word, Mount TBR Challenge, Book Bingo, Outdo Yourself, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Mystery and Crime Challenge, A-Z Mystery Author, Off the Shelf, Embarrassment of Riches

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

 

Grrrr! Back to three books behind!  I don't think I'm ever going to get where I need to be to finish all the challenges this year...

Books Read (click on titles for review): 

In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff
The Ivy League Chronicles: 9 Squares by E. K. Prescott
The Frozen Shroud by Martin Edwards

Currently Reading: 
The Mountains Have a Secret by Arthur W. Upfield: One October two young girls set out for a walk in the Grampian Mountains of Australia. They are never seen again, and the policeman who is sent to investigate is murdered. Now it is March, and Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte attempts to solve the mystery.

   

Books that spark my interest:

The Hollow Chest by Alice Tilton

A Private History of Awe by Scott Sanders 

Finding Camlann by Sean Pidgeon

Alphabet Crime: Letter B

Here we are kicking off another year of the Alphabet in Crime Fiction hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.  Each week she expects participants to produce a post featuring a mystery/crime novel, mystery novelist, or crime fiction topic related to that week's letter.  In the past I have pretty much stuck to titles or authors, but this year I'm going to try and produce posts on various crime and mystery topics.  

After this weekend's experience, I've decided to do B...as in Bookstore.  More specifically, used Bookstores.  And even more specifically, used Bookstores that carry vintage mysteries.  There aren't as many of those around as there used to be.  So many of the ones I've found over the years have sold up, closed out, and disappeared.  I've mentioned Mason's Rare & Used Books here on the blog before.  Mason's is where I fed my Nancy Drew habit and found all the other mysteries that Nancy led me to.  Mr. Mason started in my hometown of Wabash and I haunted his shop from the time I was about seven until I graduated from high school.  At about that time, Mr. Mason sold his shop to some of his employees and headed east....in search of rare books that never made it to the Midwest.  He stayed away for nearly ten years and then moved back to Indiana and opened up another incarnation of Mason's near Indianapolis.  And for a few more years I had the pleasure of handing over my extra money to Mr. Mason for those delightful things...used books.  Until he retired and closed up shop for good.  

And, over the years, there have been far too many used bookshops that have closed.  There was that nice little shop in Brownsburg (called most originally, "The Used Bookshop") that I only got to visit once before it disappeared.  And the tiny little shop (that I can't remember the name of) on the way to Vincennes where I found my first 1st edition Dorothy L. Sayers twenty years ago.  And Partners & Crime in New York City that closed the year after I visited.  And the

And now....well, Bloomington used to have four used bookshops (non-academic).  Being a college town, there always seemed to be plenty of support to keep the stores going.  Each of them had their own personality and I visited them all fairly regularly.  After April 30, we'll be down to one.  This weekend I discovered that The Book Rack was going out of business.  All books are 50% off. Which is nice--but I'd rather keep the store.  Here's hoping that the Caveat Emptor stays open for a good long time.

Now, I realize that there's this invention called the internet and it's so very easy to go online and search for that long-sought-after, hard-to-find classic mystery.  But that takes away from the thrill of the hunt for me.  Clicking a few buttons on the computer just can't compare to browsing the shelves in a brick and mortar store; meandering one's way along the aisle and then....can it be? A Dell Map Back edition? A find like that makes me pounce (quite literally) and grab the book from the shelf before someone lurking in the shadows can snatch it from under my nose.  You just can't pounce at a book on a computer screen.  I had that kind of an experience Saturday--for probably the last time in The Book Rack.  There sitting innocently on the shelf was Murders in Volume 2 by Elizabeth Daly.  Not a first edition, unfortunately--not even close--but one of the few Daly titles that I've never read and have never been able to find while on my bookstore hunts.  I pounced....and brought it home.  

My husband and I found a used bookshop that nearly matches my memories of the first Mason's when we were on our Route 66 trip last year.  As anyone who read my write-up of the trip knows, there was lots of pouncing and I came home with a treasure trove of Map Back editions and pocket size editions.  We're planning another trip in June--let's hope that Books on the Square is still loaded with stacks of vintage mysteries just waiting for the hunter.

The Frozen Shroud: Review

DK: He was dying, and it mattered little to him whether the story came out in five years or fifty. He settled for leaving it to be dug up by a researcher who shared his academic interests and had the time and inclination to wade through his journals.
HS: It's taken a long time.
DK: Unravelling secrets of history often does.
~Daniel Kind, Hannah Scarlett (p. 257)

The Frozen Shroud is the sixth book in Martin Edwards' Lake District mystery series.  And it's good enough to me wonder what I was doing with myself when the other five came out.  Fortunately, although it might have been useful to have the back story on our leading characters--Daniel Kind and DCI Hannah Scarlett--it's not absolutely necessary to have read the previous five to enjoy this entry.

This time out, we're taken to Ravenbank, a secluded community in England's Lake District. Ravenbank, originally called Satan's Head, has been home to murder twice on Halloween.  Just before World War I, a young, beautiful housemaid said to have been involved with the master of Ravenbank Hall was found dead with her face battered and a cloth shroud frozen to her wounds.  Locals talk of her ghost, known as the Faceless Woman, walking restlessly through Ravenbank on the night of her death...searching for justice.  Just five years ago, another beautiful young woman, Shenagh Moss, was beaten to death and left with a cloth covering her injuries.  Her death was blamed on a jealous ex-lover who conveniently died before he can be questioned.

Daniel Kind and his sister Louise are invited to a Halloween party by the current owner of Ravenbank.  Kind is a former television celebrity and a specialist in the history murder.  He is told the story of the Faceless Woman and about the more recent murder and becomes interested--wondering whether the most obvious suspects, the unbalanced wife of the lord of the manor in the original and the jealous ex-lover in the most recent case, were truly to blame.  But on the night of the Halloween party a third beautiful young woman dies--once again beaten and shrouded--and this one falls close to home.  

The victim, Terri Poynton, was the best friend of DCI Hannah Scarlett, a police officer who has crossed Daniel's path on several occasions.  Although not officially allowed on the case because of her connections to the victim, Hannah and Daniel manage to follow up clues that will lead to the resolution of not one murder....but three.

This is a well-plotted mystery with lots of red herrings and plenty of suspects.  I've got to give Edwards credit--he had me changing my mind about the culprit with nearly every turn of the page.  I should have stuck with my first thought....but that my own fault.  The descriptions of the Lake District are lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions of all the characters.  I look forward to turning to the beginning of the the series and seeing how the relationship between Daniel and Hannah has come about.  In this novel they are just figuring out that what their friends have been saying to them just might be true--they're suited for each other.  But I can tell there's a lot of water under those bridges and I want to find out where it came from.  An excellent entry in what seems to be a very fine series.  Four stars.

Attention: Vintage Mystery Challengers!

 

Our love for the Vintage Mystery has not gone unnoticed.  Sarah from the Bello imprint of Pan Macmillan has an offer for all participants in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge except for those of us in the United States.  Here's a brief message from Sarah:

Bello is a small UK imprint of publisher Pan Macmillan, established to revive classic and out of print titles as both large format paperbacks and e-books.  Bello is delighted to bring back into print a number of vintage mystery titles, many of which would fit in really well with the various categories of The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge.

Bello would love to kindly offer all participants in the challenge a review copy of a book of their choice, in either e-book or print format. Unfortunately, due to rights, Bello is available worldwide except for within the United States.

Bello’s full catalogue can be found here:

http://www.panmacmillan.com/devpanmacmillan/media/panmacmillan/Trade/Downloads/23828-Bello-Catalogue-3rd-edition-v4.pdf

Eligible participants may contact Sarah at Sarah.Biddlecombe AT fourcolmangetty.com for more details.  She has also sent me a spreadsheet with titles currently available which seem most suited for our challenge.  If you would like the spreadsheet, you may email Sarah or myself (at phryne1969 AT gmail.com).

Those of you in the United States who are looking for titles to fulfill the challenge may want to take a look at the site anyway and see what's available and whether the price is right...who knows, you might find just the book to round out your list and finish the categories!





***Disclaimer: Sarah contacted me with this offer.  I have received no payment of any kind and have no affiliation whatsoever with Bello or Pan Macmillan.

Spoonful of Winnings!

Synopsis:

Brenda Ashford is the quintessential British nanny. Prim and proper, gentle and kind, she seems to have stepped straight out of Mary Poppins. For more than six decades Nanny Brenda swaddled, diapered, dressed, played with, sang to, cooked for, and looked after more than one hundred children. From the pampered sons and daughters of lords ensconced in their grand estates to the children of tough war evacuees in London’s East End, Brenda has taught countless little ones to be happy, healthy, and thoroughly well bred. In this delightful memoir, Brenda shares her endearing, amusing, and sometimes downright bizarre experiences turning generations of children into successful adults.  

For my full review, please see A Spoonful of Sugar.


Thanks to the team at Doubleday, Ms. Ashford and Providence Book Promotions I had one copy of Brenda Ashford's marvelous memoir to give away to a US or Canadian participant.  Seven hopeful readers entered the Give Away and I have now cranked up my handy-dandy CNRG Machine (Custom Random Number Generator) and asked it to provide me with a winner.  After feeding in all the entries and allowing it time to think, sputter, pop out a number, it has given me......Entry #1.  Which means that Jean P of Howling Frog Books is the lucky recipient of her very own copy of Brenda Ashford's excellent memoir.  Let's have a round of applause and much fanfare for our winner!  Jean, I will be contacting you shortly to confirm your prize.  Thanks to everyone for stopping by and entering the Give Away.

 

The Ivy League Chronicles: 9 Squares (Review)

I picked up The Ivy League Chronicles: 9 Squares for two reasons. First, it is set at Yale University and features a former Scotland Yard detective now professor (academic mystery!).  Second, it fulfills the "Book Published in 2013" category for the Book Bingo Challenge.  The premise intrigued me and I was interested in the character of Richard Wikki, the former detective who is now teaching for Yale's law school.  The time period--the 1920s--was also a big draw. 

Wikki becomes friends with Maize Judson, daughter of a local newspaperman and a young woman preparing for her freshman year at Yale.  Maize dreams of becoming an investigative reporter and following in her father's footsteps.
Things get interesting when Maize and her friend Leslie have a picnic at the beach that results in the discovery of a long-buried skeleton with a strange amulet in its hand.  Her father consults Wikki in his efforts to report the news, but Maize is the one who works with Wikki to solve the mystery.  Their search takes them to various historical sites in Connecticut--site connected to witches and the occult.  It seems that there are mysterious forces at work--forces that may have been responsible for the death of the man whose skeleton was found on the beach as well as responsible for disrupting lives in the present.

Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations. The writing varies from stilted to jumpy.  Prescott begins telling the reader about Richard Wikki's tragic background and then just stops--leaving the reader hanging.  She jumps from character to character, telling bits and pieces about them in a way that I imagine she thinks will keep the reader wanting more.  Well, kindof, but not in a "oh, this is so great; you must give me more" way.  More of a "could you please just get on with telling us about these people" kind of way....And then there are the historical bits and pieces that just get shoved in willy-nilly--the local Pastor gives a tidy little history of the church at dinner, a member of a secret society references his membership in the Elihu Society at Yale and, darn, if we don't have to give a full run-down of when it was founded and by whom and why he came to America and whatnot.   The novel tends to run in this pattern: introduce characters, historical info-dump, a bit of action, historical info-dump, a bit more action, oooh look another historical info-dump, and so on.  Good writers work their research into the story in a convincing way that actually moves the plot along....poor writers produce lectures that are awkwardly inserted throughout the novel.

The manuscript could definitely have used a lot more editorial attention than what it seems to have received.  Many, many unfortunate word choices sprinkled throughout-- instances of just plain not the right word.  One doesn't recline to another room--although one might recline once one got there; if one is speaking cheerfully and enthusiastically to a guest, then one most certainly is not lamenting to them;  and so on. [And, by the way, lamented is apparently Prescott's favorite word--it appears (sometimes used properly, sometimes not) repeatedly throughout the story.]  There is also the tiny little matter of a former British subject sounding WAY too American and possibly too American of the 1960s or later.  Would an Englishman really say "Cool....just like in the movies" (in the 1920s????).  And is it just me or does it seem a bit strange to have someone in the 1920s talking about a "database"?

If it's possible to write in a monotone, then Prescott has managed it.  The story is flat.  When the girls discover the skeleton there is no real emotion. Even though Prescott tells me that Leslie was startled, there isn't anything in the description that makes me believe it. I don't feel like Maize and Leslie are shocked or repulsed or, well, anything.  They just found it.  Eek.  Oh no.  What shall we do?  Despite the fact that someone is following the detective around throughout the second half of the book and someone actually gets killed while trying to warn the detective, there is no sense of urgency or emotion.  None of the events that should produce a response in the reader do.  Things just happen, and then we move on.  Then there's the habit of beating the reader over the head with a clue (for goodness sake, pay attention will you?  This right here is a CLUE with a capital "C" and blinky, neon lights and everything).  The reader isn't just presented with evidence--we're told in no certain terms that this piece of evidence is a BREAKTHROUGH.  By golly, the detective from Scotland Yard is so dazzled with it that he reacts more strongly than a girl finding a skeleton in the sand.  And yet...it still reads like it's written in monotone.

There are so many things wrong with this novel....the plot jumps around and is unrealistic. The reader is dropped into scenes and various characters just sort of pop up out of nowhere and we're supposed to believe it all--apparently because the plot involves "Chaos Theory" and witches and amulets and such.  That would be fine if Prescott had managed to lay a reasonable foundation to get us to believe such things--but she doesn't.  What's worse, she makes her lead detective--Lord/Professor/Detective Wikki (pick which one you want, 'cause she can't make up her mind and sometimes uses them all at once herself) willing to believe such things.  And him a former Scotland Yard Detective.  [snort]  That said--at no point does Richard Wikki convince me that he was ever a Detective for Scotland Yard.  His investigative procedures leave a lot to be desired and he relies very heavily on a just-graduated high school girl for an awful lot of his information.  At its most unbelievable, the story has him go randomly driving out in the country and he just happens to stumble upon a huge house that he thinks of as the "Victorian Manor." And, by golly, there are people in that house who knew he was coming, impart mystical knowledge (sortof) to him, and what do you suppose they call the place?  Why, the "Victorian Manor," of course.

Last but not least, virtually none of the threads of this mystery are tied up.  We don't learn who the mysterious HE is (and don't even get me started about the annoying passages where HE is introduced); we only learn the truth of what happened to the skeleton through a convenient afterward; nobody seems to care who the young man was who was trying to warn Wikki and died for his efforts--and we don't learn if HE was responsible or if that was someone else.  We have a modern murder that Wikki just might be able to solve and that's just completely swept away and forgotten.  We are, I imagine, supposed to assume that the mysterious shadow group is responsible for the death and a fire and everything else--but Wikki doesn't really seem all that concerned.  The book ends with Richard Wikki musing that it was "crystal clear to [him] that his investigation was just beginning"--but given his investigative progress in this book, that's not really going to draw me into a sequel. Almost 300 pages and we haven't solved much of anything.

Overall--a very annoying and disappointing read.  There were many instances where I had to go back a few pages to see if I had missed something because all of a sudden the characters were talking about something OR to someone that/who wasn't in the conversation just a minute ago.  There's a lot to be said for transitions and the proper use thereof.  No rhythm to the narrative.  I kept reading mainly because I wanted to count this book for a couple of challenges and I was really hoping to have more answers at the end.  One star.


*************
I rarely write such a completely negative review, but I just can't help myself this time.    Even if you are writing about situations that would be unbelievable in the real world, it can work if you make it believable within your own story and can make the reader believe that the characters within the story should believe.  This novel fails on that count.  I don't believe it and I don't believe in a Scotland Yard Detective who apparently believes it.

Challenge Complete: Criminal Plots III

This was my second year for participation in Criminal Plots III challenge sponsored by Jen. She required us to read six books from six specific categories. I've plowed my way through all the categories and here are the books conquered in the process:

1. Novel with an animal in the title: The Puzzle of the Silver Persian by Stuart Palmer (1/15/13)

2. Two short stories written by two different authors who are new to you:
"The Guilty Secret" by Paul de Kock
"Out of Exile" by Wilbur Daniel Steele
"The Knightsbridge Mystery" by Charles Reade
"Silence" by Leonid Andreiev
"The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield
"The Bamboozling of Mr. Gascoigne" by E. Phillips Oppenheim

**All new authors to me and all in The World's 100 Best Short Stories Vol. III: Mystery by Grant Overton, ed (2/24/13)

3. Book written by more than one person: The Man Who Went up in Smoke is the second novel by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (1/8/13)

4. A YA crime novel:  Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams (3/19/13)

5. A book from a series optioned for television: The Case of the Negligent Nymph by Erle Stanley Gardner [TV Episode 12/7/57] (1/24/13)

6. A novel that's been nominated for an Edgar® in the last five years: In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Best First Novel of 2010) [I'm so pleased that I actually have one sitting on my TBR pile for this one! I don't generally buy a lot of modern mysteries.] (4/9/13)

The Shadow of Gotham: Review

When I started looking for a final book for the Criminal Plots III Reading Challenge (Read a novel that's been nominated for and Edgar in the last five years), I was relieved to find In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff sitting on my shelves since I'm trying really hard to read more from my own stacks.  I'm not much for reading more recent books, but I had picked this one up last May while browsing in our Friends of the Library used book store.  It was purely a whim--based on the cover, the blurb on the back of the book, and the fact that it's a historical mystery set during one of my favorite time periods--early 20th C.  Not only was Shadow nominated for an Edgar, but it was the winner of Award for Best First Novel in 2010.

The book introduces us to Detective Simon Ziele, a man trying to recover from the tragedy of losing his fiancée in a terrible disaster aboard the ferry General Slocum.  Ziele has left his position in New York City's police force and is now working as a detective in Dobson, New York.  He hopes to escape the brutality of the big city, but just months after he begins his new post, he finds himself faced with the horrific murder of a female mathematics graduate student.  

Sarah Wingate had come to her aunt's home hoping for a little tranquility of her own--telling her aunt that she needed somewhere quiet to work on her graduate thesis; somewhere removed from Columbia University.  What she found instead was an untimely end.  Ziele is called to the wealthy home in the middle of the afternoon to investigate a murder that ranks with some of Jack the Ripper's slightly less gruesome efforts.  Sarah's throat has been cut and then the killer beat and slashed her repeatedly while taking one of her golden braids as a souvenir.  

It looks like the work of a pyschopath...and Columbine University criminologist Alistair Sinclair believes he knows the identity of the murderer.  Sinclair has been studying Michael Fromley, younger son of one of New York City's elite families, in the hopes of rehabilitating the man and curing him of his violent behavior.  Michael had fantasized about committing such atrocious acts, but now it looked like he had crossed the line from fantasy to make his violent dreams a reality.  Sinclair and his team of researches join forces with Ziele to find Michael and try and prevent further deaths.

The investigation takes Ziele from the gambling dens and brothels of the Tenderloin are of the City to the houses of the elite.  The more he learns about Michael, the more confused the case becomes.  Ziele begins to doubt that Fromley is behind the crime--or if he is that he has acted alone.  And somehow the killer manages to stay one step ahead of Ziele and the researchers all along the way.  Does this mean that the culprit is really closer to Ziele than he'd like to believe?


In some ways, this is indeed an impressive first novel.  The plotting is well-done for the most part and portions of the research are as well.  I really like the character of Ziele--although I must agree with another reviewer on GoodReads that despite many utterances of "I don't trust him," Ziele seems to be a very trusting sort.  He has never heard of Alistair Sinclair and his researchers before the murder and yet he's willing to bring them all into the investigation as equals and reveal every bit of evidence to them.  I, too, was immediately struck by a certain character's behavior (and others' reaction to him/her) upon introduction and was certain that s/he was involved.  Kudos to Pintoff for putting a deft spin on that bit of information so I wound up not being completely right....but still the clues were a bit heavy-handed for that early in the book.

The research allowed Pintoff to give us a flavor of turn-of-the-century New York (last century, that is).  But it feels like she did the research rather haphazardly.  Others have pointed out historical problems--the naming of one of Columbia's halls, for example--and I noted a few blunders with historical word use.  The word "overkill" doesn't come into usage until the 1950s and yet Sinclair tells Ziele that the excessive violence of the murder, may be "what you would call over-kill."  Actually, no, Ziele wouldn't.  Not in 1905.  

Despite the sometimes obvious anachronisms, this is a highly enjoyable first novel.  It was a quick read and I regretted each time I had to put it down and do such non-essential tasks, such as working and sleeping.  I look forward to reading the next two in the series and hope to find out more about Ziele's past and the death of Sinclair's son.  Just over three stars.

 
Challenges: 150 Plus Reading Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, Off the Shelf, Outdo Yourself, Criminal Plots, Mystery and Suspense Challenge 2012, Monthly Key Word, Book Bingo, 52 in 52 Weeks, Embarrassment of Riches

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

Only one book behind!  Now to catch up....

Books Read (click on titles for review): 

A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny's Story by Brenda Ashford
Black Widow by Patrick Quentin  

The African Queen by C. S. Forester

Currently Reading: 
In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff: The wreck of the steamship General Slocum in 1904 cost Det. Simon Ziele of the New York City police both his fiance and the full use of his right arm. In response to those losses, Ziele has abandoned big-city policing for the quiet dullness of Dobson, a town in Westchester County, but a brutal murder interrupts his retreat from the world. Someone slashes and bludgeons to death Sarah Wingate, a Columbia mathematics graduate student whose brilliance evoked jealousy in her peers, in her home under circumstances that resemble the notorious murders of Lizzie Borden's parents. Ziele's investigation is soon co-opted by Alistair Sinclair, a student of criminology who's convinced he knows the culprit's identity.

   

Books that spark my interest:

The Hollow Chest by Alice Tilton

A Private History of Awe by Scott Sanders 

The Second Woman by Kenneth Cameron 

Alphabet Crime: Letter A

Here we are kicking off another year of the The Alphabet in Crime Fiction hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.  Each week she expects participants to produce a post featuring a mystery/crime novel, mystery novelist, or crime fiction topic related to that week's letter.  In the past I have pretty much stuck to titles or authors, but this year I'm going to try and produce posts on various crime and mystery topics. 

There are various sub-genres of this field that we all love--everything from Vintage/Golden Age mysteries to recently written stories with historical settings; suspense thrillers to serial killers; police procedurals to comfortable cozies. One of my more recent favorites is the Academic Mystery. Now, my definition may not precisely coincide with a more accepted or expected definition. For my purposes an academic mystery must have one or more of the following: a professor or teacher acting as the primary (amateur) detective; a professor or teacher as the victim, culprit or essential main character; and/or a school or university setting. My love for this sort of mystery has loaded my shelves with all sorts of unlikely looking specimens. Sometimes I wind up with a real gem and sometimes I shake my head over what I have bought just because the back cover mentions Professor So-and-So or Whatsit Univeristy.

And within the sub-genre of academic mystery there is everything from the series with a university setting to stand-alone novels that have professors sprinkled in the mix. Some of my favorite academic series are Amanda Cross' series starring Kate Fansler, M. D. Lake's campus cop Peggy O'Neill, Edmund Crispin's eccentric Oxford don Gervase Fen, and Charlotte MacLeod's very funny Peter Shandy series. Kate Fansler is a witty, smart, feminist professor who finds herself mixed up in mysteries that often give her creator Amanda Cross (Carolyn Heilbrun, a professor herself) a chance to air her own views on women in the academy. Never preachy, the stories bring to life what it was like for women in the 1960s (and beyond) to make their way in a male-dominated world. This series also highlights Kate's relationship with her husband, Reed. It is one of those true partnerships that one would hope all couples aspire to. Campus cop Peggy O'Neill is more of a blue collar, hardworking policewoman trying to make her way through the mysteries of the ivory tower. She also finds herself in the middle between the academics and the city police. The tension of Peggy's position makes for an interesting story line. Gervase Fen is an eccentric and sometimes absent-minded Oxford don whose adventures are complex and fantastic with sometimes unbelievable solutions, but always fun and funny. I read the Crispin novels for pure enjoyment. The same is true of the Peter Shandy series. These mysteries are not for the who-dunnit fans who must have every I dotted and every T crossed; they are for students of life who want to see their professors as the human and sometimes humorous people they are.

My all-time favorite stand-alone novel is Dorothy L Sayers' Gaudy Night. Focused on a poison pen loose in a women's college, there is no murder in this one, but it is a story of human emotion and what crimes can be done to love and in the name of love. I would probably credit my interest in academic crime to this story of Lord Peter Wimsey and his lady-love, Harriet Vane. That and the fact that I work for a university. It is very interesting to me to read mysteries with an academic setting and see how many types I recognize. There are often characters that read exactly like professors in my own English Department. Other very good stand-alone academic mysteries include Seven Suspects (aka Death at the President's Lodge) and The Open House--both by Michael Innes and Corpses at Indian Stones by Philip Wylie.

Although the two Innes books share the same detective, Inspector, later Sir, John Appleby, there is no other connection between the two. In Seven Suspects, Inspector Appleby is on the grounds of St. Anthony's College and he must confront academic intrigues, scholarly scandals and one clever killer. And it is not a nice quite, intellectual murder. It is a vulgar and ungentlemanly crime with bones scattered about the room, a grotesque drawing of grinning death's-heads scrawled on the wall, and President Umpleby's head wrapped up in an academic robe. Then in The Open House Sir John's car breaks down on a deserted road. He wanders up a drive in search of assistance. What he finds at the end of the drive is a large house with all the lights blazing merrily away. Candles are lit, champagne is on ice, and dinner is waiting in the dining room. But there is no one to be found to answer his calls for help. In this adventure he faces an absent-minded professor, a mysterious lady in white, South American conspirators, several murders and their victims.

Philip Wylie's book, Corpses at Indian Stones, is a more recent read.  A gift from my good friend John over at Pretty Sinister Books, I just finished this one in February.  This delightful novel starring Agamemnon ("Aggie") Telemachus Plum--professor of anthropology, archaeologist, and hobbyist in vertebrate paleontology....and crack amateur detective. Aggie takes on the mystery of who killed Jim Calder--a man with plenty of enemies--up at Indian Stones, a summer resort that his aunt visits annually.  There's a lot to like in this one, including a rather nifty locked room mystery.

On the docket for this year's reading, are two more academic mysteries:

 Murder at Cambridge by Q. Patrick and Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White. Both of these are vintage mysteries written in the 1930s and I look forward to seeing how Patrick and White incorporate the academic life into their novels.

The African Queen: Review

It seemed absurd that there was nothing two people with a boat full of explosives could do to an enemy in whose midst they found themselves, and yet so it appeared. (pp. 22-3)


 In 1935 C. S. Forester published his World War I adventure story, The African Queen.  It begins with missionaries, Samuel and Rose Sayer (brother & sister), deep in Central Africa (Tanzania).  They have been working diligently with the African people for ten years when WWI begins and the Germans come and conscript the villagers.  Samuel's spirit is broken and he dies--leaving Rose alone.  Charlie Allnut, a Cockney who runs the steam launch The African Queen for a Belgian mining company, arrives to check on the village. After burying Samuel, he and Rose go down-river to hide behind an island and determine their future course.

Rose is full of patriotic fervor and a desire to revenge her brother and decides that she and Charlie must head down river to Lake Wittelsbach where the German gunboat reigns supreme.  Allnutt initially agrees just to humor her--but after a drunken rebellion and a round of the silent treatment, the two set out in earnest.  They face thunderstorms, fire from a German-held outpost on the river, raging rapids, and near-death on the rocks.  They overcome buzzing hordes of flies and mosquitoes, blood-thirsty leeches, a twisted shaft and broken propeller.  They steer and paddle, prod and push....and eventually carry the steam launch down the river to the reedy edge of the lake.  There they prepare oxygen canisters to serve as torpedoes and make ready for a night-time assault on the Königin Luise.

Classic movie buffs should all know the basic story of The African Queen.  Set during WWI, Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart set out down the supposedly impassable Ulanga River on a mission, devised by Hepburn's character Rose, to blow up the Germans' gunboat Königin Luise (aka the Louisa) and allow the British to move into Central Africa. True to Hollywood form, Hepburn and Bogart conquer all odds and even when it looks like they have failed, the heroes come out on top.  It makes for an exciting classic adventure film--and it's one of my all-time favorites.  Hepburn is perfect as the proper British Missionary Rose Sayer thrown into contact with Bogart's pragmatic, down-to-earth mechanic-cum-riverman, Charlie Allnutt.  And both Rosie and Charlie go through transformations on their journey down the river that might seem rushed in the hands of lesser actors.  The book allows for more time and description of the events and interactions that bring about the transformations--the film, of course, has to keep the action moving.

And over all, the film follows the book pretty closely--except for the ending.  There are things to like about both versions ( I like the German Captain's sense of honor in the book)--but if I have to choose, I think Hollywood did it better. The book's ending is fairly anti-climactic.  And after following Rosie and Charlie all the way down the river and joining them in all their brave adventures, it hardly seems fair to the intrepid couple.

I thoroughly enjoyed Forester's adventure novel and appreciated the characters of Rosie and Charlie.  Their interactions and development are spot on and I thought their romance very believable given the circumstances.  It was definitely nice to see Rose blossom once she was out from under the overbearing influence of her brother. Watching the film again was just an added pleasure--I have watched it many times and always enjoy the characters as played by Hepburn and Bogart.  I do like the line in the movie by German Captain when he is asked by Charlie to marry them before he hangs them: "By the authority vested in me by Kaiser William II, I pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution."

Four stars for the book and five stars for the movie.

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme now sponsored by Rose City Reader (who originally inspired the meme). Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Gilion's place.

Here's the first few lines from The African Queen by C. S. Forester:

Although she herself was ill enough to justify being in bed had she been a person weak-minded enough to give up, Rose Sayer could see that her brother, the Reverend Samuel Sayer, was far more ill.

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.

 

Here's the first few lines from The African Queen by C. S. Forester:

Rose had already learned to recognize the ugly V-shaped ripple on the surface caused by a snag just below, and the choppy appearance which indicated shallows, and she understood now the useful point that the African Queen's draught was such that if an underwater danger was so deep as to make no alteration in the appearance of the surface, she could be relied upon to go over it without damage.