A Very Bookish Christmas...OR Bev Was a Very Good Girl This Year

It was a very bookish Christmas at the Reader's Block house this year. Between them, my own set of personal Santas (hubby, son, and parents) managed--through the wonders of internet shopping and my husband's inability to pass up an Ebay auction--to add 56 new-to-me books to my vintage reading family.



First up, books from Mom and Dad:
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham
One Touch of Blood by Samm Sinclair Baker
Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
Terror in Times Square by Alan Handley
Stone Cold Blond by Adam Knight
The Moving Target by Ross MacDonald
   (writing as John MacDonald)
The Corpse and the Three Ex-Husbands by Sue MacVeigh

The Whip by Sara Elizabeth Mason
The Mirabilis Diamond by Jerome Odlum 
As Tough as They Come by Will Oursler
There Was an Old Woman by Ellery Queen



And several installments from the Hubby and Son:

A couple of bundles of Mercury Mystery book digests (some complete works and some abridged):

Look Your Last by John Stephen Strange; Fish & Kill by MacDonald Hastings; He Fell Down Dead by Virginia Perdue; A Grave Case of Murder by Roger Bax; Trial by Terror by Frances & Richard Lockridge; With Blood & Kisses by Richard Shattuck; The Black Rustle by Constance & Gwenyth Little; The Golden Swan Murder by Dorothy Cameron Disney

The Ticking Clock by Frances & Richard Lockridge; And Hope to Die by Richard Powell; When Last I Died by Gladys Mitchell; 13 at Dinner by Agatha Christie; The Party Was the Pay-Off by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding; The Girl Who Kept Knocking Them Dead by Hampton Stone; Too Good to Be True by J. F. Hutton; And Dangerous to Know by Elizabeth Daly

More Mercury Mysteries and then a boatload of Dell Pocket Size Editions (and one Avon SF title that somehow got thrown in with the mysteries--not that I mind):

Killer in the Straw by Frances & Richard Lockridge; Terror in the Town by Edward Ronns; The Christmas Murder by Cyril Hare; Cocktails and the Killer by Petery Cheyney; Keep Cool, Mr. Jones by Timothy Fuller; The Opening Door by Helen Reilly; Hardly a Man Is Now Alive by Herbert Brean; The Pigskin Bag by Bruno Fischer; To Wake the Dead by John Dickson Carr

Mr. & Mrs. North and the Poisoned Playboy by Frances & Richard Lockridge; The Case of the Untidy Murder by the Lockridges; The Dishonest Murderer by the Lockridges; Mr. & Mrs. North and A Key to Death by the Lockridges; Murder Is Served by the Lockridges; Invitation to Murder by Rex Stout; A Holiday for Murder by Agatha Christie; Murder in Three Acts by Agatha Christie; Murder Begins at Home by Delano Ames; At Last, Mr. Tolliver by William Wiegand [observant followers will notice that Mrs. North is wearing a nearly identical outfit and reaching for an identical phone with a nearly identical corpse--different tie--in the background on two of the covers]

Man Missing by Mignon G. Eberhart: The April Robin Murders by Craig Rice & Ed McBain; The Broken Vase by Rex Stout; The Tiger in Smoke by Margery Allingham; Dead Men's Plans by Mignon G. Eberhart; Run to Death by Patrick Quentin; The Corpse in the Wax Works by John Dickson Carr; The Follower by Patrick Quentin; The Evil of Time by by Evelyn Berckman; Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

Which all adds up to a very happy (and thankful) Bev! I'm thankful that my husband loves to see my face light up every time I open a package full of books.

Challenge Complete: 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014

Hosted by Robin at My Two Blessings

I actually finished this one before Christmas, but with all the holidaying going on around here, I hadn't been able to put together my wrap-up post. I'm always grateful to Robin for hosting this one--I know I'll always get at least one book done every week, so this is my slam-dunk challenge for the year. She's got next year's challenge all ready to go...and I'll be in for another round!

 

Here's my list for 2014:

1. The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1/2/14)
2. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak (1/6/14)
3. The Wonder Chamber by Mary Malloy (1/15/14) 
4. Seven Footprints to Satan by A. Merritt (1/22/14) 
5. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton (1/27/14)
6. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo (2/5/14) 
7. Death Walks on Cat Feet by D. B. Olsen (2/13/14) 
8. Made Up to Kill by Kelley Roos (2/18/14) 
9. The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie (2/25/14) 
10. Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Lewis (3/5/14) 
11. Vicious Circle by Douglas Clark (3/11/14) 
12. India Black & the Gentleman Thief by Carol K. Carr (3/19/14) 
13. Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train (3/25/14) 
14. The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart (3/31/14) 
15. A Hangman's Dozen by Alfred Hitchcock, ed. (Robert Arthur) (4/7/14) 
16. The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Denis O. Smith (4/13/14)
17. Death by the Book by Julianna Deering (4/21/14)
18. For Old Crime's Sake by Delano Ames (4/29/14) 
19. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (5/9/14)
20. Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell (5/16/14) 
21. Sinners & the Sea by Rebecca Kanner (5/21/14) 
22. Beyond Uhura: Star Trek & Other Memories by Nichelle Nichols (5/29/14)
23. Invisible Green by John Sladek (6/2/14) 
24. Plain Sailing by Douglas Clark (6/11/14)
25. A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell (6/15/14)
26. This Private Plot by Alan Beechey (6/26/14)
27. A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott (7/3/14) 
28. On the Beach by Nevil Shute (7/7/14)
29. The Tattooed Man by Howard Pease (7/17/14)
30. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (7/21/14)
31. Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (7/30/14)
32. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera by Sam Siciliano (8/4/14)
33. Button, Button by Marion Bramhall (8/13/14)
34. Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card (8/19/14)
35. The Bigger They Come by A. A. Fair (8/28/14)
36. Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh (9/6/14)
37. The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie (9/12/14)
38. Death Takes a Sabbatical by Robert Bernard (9/16/14)
39.The Footprints on the Ceiling by Clayton Rawson (9/25/14)
40. Bleeding Maize & Blue by Susan Holtzer (9/30/14)
41. The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie (10/11/14)
42. Murder on Mike by H. Paul Jeffers (10/15/14)
43. Madman's Bend by Arthur W. Upfield (10/24/14) 
44. Head of a Traveller by Nicholas Blake (10/29/14) 
45. The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart (11/4/14)
46. The Final Deduction by Rex Stout (11/10/14)
47. Oxford Knot by Veronica Stallwood (11/20/14)
48. Lament for the Bride by Helen Reilly (11/24/14)
49. Mayhem in B-Flat by Elliot Paul (12/4/14)
50. The Secret of the Gondola by David Alan Brown (12/7/14)
51. The White Dress by Mignon G. Eberhart (12/15/14)
52. The Night Before Christmas Profusely Illustrated by Clement Moore, et al (12/24/14)

 

Star Wreck III: Time Warped...Mini-Review

Yes, another mini-review. In fact, to help me squeeze in enough books to make my "Outdo Yourself" Challenge goal, I'm probably going to be mini-reviewing my way through to the end of 2014.

"Space. We need more of it.

These are the voyages of the Starship Endocrine. Its mission: to cruise around the universe looking for novel predicaments to get into. To sear the outskirts of the galaxy for areas with less crowding, lower tax rates, and better schools.

To boldly go where nobody wanted to go before!"

Star Wreck III: Time Warped is the third in a series of Star Trek parodies by Leah Rewolinski. I'm a sucker for a good parody and when the parody is about Star Trek I definitely can't resist. The stories feature both Classic Trek and Next Generation crews and this installment pokes fun at Trek's fondness for time travel stories as well as sneaking in a few zingers on the ways and mores of Trek fandom and conventions. The two crews are off on a mission to track down a videotape that slipped through a time warp and wound up in the hands of a teenager who spawned the "Wrekkie" fanbase--a bizarre cult of U.S.S. Endocrine crew wanna-bes. They blunder their way through the past and the present--making mistakes and affecting such minor events as the Civil War and World War II. But will they be able to get the video tape back before the fans view more about their private lives than they want known?

Parodies are great fun when done well and Rewolinski handles the Trek universe well. I will say that I think it's a good thing that I've spaced these out...I don't believe the parodies would read as well if read back-to-back. A little humor goes a long way. ★★★  for a fun, quick read.

The Night Before Christmas Profusely Illustrated: Mini-Review

The Night Before Christmas Profusely Illustrated is a collection of stories and poems for and about children. It includes Moore's "The Night Before Christmas" and lesser known Christmas-themed works by others as well as non-holiday stories and poems about childhood. It is designed along the lines of the MacGuffey Readers that were used as school primers long ago and far away (I have a couple of those around here somewhere as well). The stories and poems beyond the famous Moore poem are obviously intended to teach and remind children of strong moral values such as friendship, family, giving, studying, and helping. The works are charming in their old-world flavor and a nice peek at the world of yesteryear.   ★★★

A Crossworder's Holiday

A Crossworder's Holiday by Nero Blanc (pseudonym for co-authors--and husband & wife--Cordelia Frances Biddle and Steve Zettler) is as light and frothy as a cup of peppermint hot chocolate. It is a perfect book for the end of the year and a quick read between holiday preparations and parties--nothing indepth, no intense crime puzzles and no assembly [of clues] required. If you can do the crosswords--or if that's not your gift, then taking a quick peek at the solutions thoughtfully provided at the back of the book will do--then you've got your answers. 

What the book really consists of are quick snapshots in the life of the protagonists, crossword editor Belle Graham and her husband P.I. Rosco Polycrates. The stories and the characters are charming in this collection of five Christmas-themed tales, each with its own crossword puzzle. Unfortunately, like that cup of hot chocolate, the stories are so light and frothy that they are easily forgotten--enjoyable while they last, but without a lasting impression. ★★★  for a decent cozy read. Read in one sitting--but not one that I would go back to again.

52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015

Hosted by Robin at My Two Blessings

 And she says:

Are you ready for another round of Reading 52 books in 52 Weeks? (I am!) The rules are very simple. The goal is to read one book (at least) a week for 52 weeks. Make the year easy and casual or kick it up by exploring new to you authors and genres. Challenge yourself to read at least some classics or delve into that chunkster (more than 500 pages) you always wanted to tackle. Do you have books gathering dust on the shelves just waiting to be read? Then now is the time. The goal is to read 52 books. How you get there is up to you. 

This will be my fourth year joining in.  I generally have no problem reading at least one book a week...so this is one of my slam dunk challenges.  I will list my books below as I read them.  If you'd like to join as well, just click on the link below the picture.

1. Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home by James Tiptree, Jr. (1/2/15)
2. Police Procedurals by Martin H. Greenberg & Bill Pronzini, eds (1/9/15)
3. A Dead Man in Istanbul by Michael Pearce (1/14/15)
4. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (1/22/15)
5. The Golden Slipper & Other Problems for Violet Strange by Anna Katharine Green (1/26/15)
6. One Touch of Blood by Samm Sinclair Baker (2/5/15)
7. Caught Dead in Philadelphia by Gillian Roberts (2/11/15)
8. A Stitch in Time by Emma Lathen (2/17/15)
9. The World's Best 100 Detective Stories Vol. 1 by Eugene Thwing, ed (2/26/15) 
10. Death & Mr. Prettyman by Kenneth Giles (3/6/15)
11. Night Train to Paris by Manning Coles (3/14/15)
12. Playground of Death by John Buxton Hilton (3/18/15)
13. Malice Domestic by Sara Woods (3/26/15)
14. The False Inspector Dew by Peter Lovesey (4/1/15)
15. The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey by John Dickson Carr (4/8/15) 
16. RFK His Life & Death by Editors of American Heritage (4/15/15) 
17. The Smiler with the Knife by Nicholas Blake (4/21/15)
18. The Case of Colonel Marchand by E. C. R. Lorac (4/27/15)
19. The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards (5/5/15)
20. Dead Lion by John & Emery Bonett (5/13/15)
21. Strange Wine by Harlan Ellison (5/21/15)
22. Bones in the Barrow by Josephine Bell (5/29/15)
23. Double Cross Purposes by Ronald A. Knox (6/3/15)
24. Falling Star by Patricia Moyes (6/12/15)
25. The Diamond-Studded Typewriter by Carlton Keith (6/14/15)
26. The Riddle of the Traveling Skull by Harry Stephen Keeler (6/21/15)
27. The Summer School Mystery by Josephine Bell (6/29/15)
28. The Crime & the Crystal by Elizabeth Ferrars (7/9/15)
29. Resorting to Murder by Martin Edwards, ed (7/18/15)
30. Two & Two Make Twenty-Two by Gwen Bristow & Bruce Manning (7/23/15)
31. The Penny Murders by Lionel Black (7/31/15)
32. Conundrums for the Long Week-End: England, Dorothy L. Sayers, & Lord Peter Wimsey by Robert Kuhn McGregor & Ethan Lewis (8/7/15)
33. The Cases of Susan Dare by Mignon G. Eberhart (8/10/15)
34. Ringworld by Larry Niven (8/20/15)
35. Death in Kashmir by M. M. Kaye (8/25/15)
36. The Fourteen Dilemma by Hugh Pentecost (9/3/15)
37. The Bat Flies Low by Sax Rohmer (9/10/15)
38. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (9/14/15)
39. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (9/28/15)
40. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie (10/6/15)
41. The Ghost Writer by John Harwood (10/16/15)
42. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (10/20/15)
43. Murder on Cue by Jane Dentinger (10/27/15)
44. Murder in the Hellfire Club by Donald Zochert (11/3/15)
45. The Red Redmaynes by Eden Phillpotts (11/14/115)
46. Call for the Dead by John le Carré (11/18/15)
47. Chef Maurice & a Spot of Truffle by J. A. Lang (11/24/15)
48. The Corpse & 3 Ex-Husbands by Sue McVeigh (12/5/15)
49. The Monday Theory by Douglas Clark (12/7/15)
50. Game Without Rules by Michael Gilbert (12/14/15)
51. Body of Opinion by Susannah Stacey (12/26/15)
52. Three Doors to Death by Rex Stout (12/26/15)

Sick to Death: Review

Sick to Death (1971) is the fifth book in Douglas Clark's Masters and Green series of police procedurals. It takes me back to the earlier days of the working relationship Detective Chief Inspector George Masters and Detective Bill Green--well before the two men become friends. The team (including their assistants, Hill and Brant) is still settling in with one another. Green doesn't quite trust Masters' apparent ease with forensic specialists and his seemingly random methods of questioning suspects and following up leads. Masters thinks Green trusts police routine a little too much. They haven't quite figured out how well they complement each other even as their methods seem to be in competition. As the opening says:

Detective Chief Inspector Masters and Detective Inspector Green were not on speaking terms. They rarely were. The pleasure each one took in his job was soured by the knowledge that in all major cases it was now accepted that they were paired to work in tandem. Paradoxically, they were a successful team. Know-alls, speculating on their success, attributed it to the fact that each set out to beat the other at every turn. Inevitably, it was said, they were both kept so much on their toes by this exercise that they exerted maximum effort at all times: the basic ingredient of success.

This case takes them to Gloucester to investigate the death of Sally Bowker, a pretty young woman who was apparently admired and loved by all, and, yet, someone hastened her death through the effects of her diabetes. Sally died from a diabetic coma after trying to counteract the symptoms with what proved to be a useless bottle of insulin. But how does a killer make a bottle of insulin a means of murder without adding poison? Masters and Green will have to learn a great deal about insulin dependency and the life-style of a young diabetic before they can answer that question. And they will have to discover which admiring face masks the mark of a murderer.

Despite the opening and the general feel of unease between Master and Green, it's easy (especially for those of us who are reading the series in a totally random order) to see the seeds of the friendship and comfortable relationship that will develop. Green tries very hard in later books to maintain his prickly exterior, but we all know that he respects his Chief. 

The murder was a particularly interesting one for me--my husband is diabetic and I grew up watching my grandpa deal with diabetes--in a manner very like that described in this book from the 70s. Things have changed a bit since then, but not in any way vital to the plot. Being familiar with diabetic treatment certainly helps the reader to solve the mystery themselves, but it's not strictly necessary. The clues are there and Clark plays pretty fair. An interesting case in a series that I thoroughly enjoy.  ★★★ and a half.

++Also posted for the 1971 Crime Classics at Past Offences 

Read It Again, Sam Wrap-Up Post

It's time to start thinking about the end of the 2014 reading year. Wrap-up posts for the challenge will be accepted through January 6, 2015 .In each case the url you enter should be a direct link to your wrap-up post. A winner will be chosen and awarded during the following week. I will offer a prize from my prize vault of gently used books. Please link up below.

Color Coded Challenge Wrap-up

It's time to start thinking about the end of the 2014 reading year. Wrap-up posts for the challenge will be accepted through January 6, 2015 .In each case the url you enter should be a direct link to your wrap-up post. A winner will be chosen and awarded during the following week. I will offer a prize from my prize vault of gently used books. Please link up below.

Mount TBR 2014 Final Checkpoint

Wow. We're almost done with 2014 and it's time to get ready for the Final Mountaineering Checkpoint. Where does the time go? I'm ready to hear how all our mountain-climbing team members have done out there on Pike's Peak, Mt. Ararat, Mt. Everest....whichever peak you've chosen. Checkpoint participation is absolutely voluntary and is not considered necessary for challenge completion.

For those who would like to participate in this checkpoint post, I'd like you to at least complete the first of these two things.  And if you feel particularly inspired (or generous about humoring me during the holiday season), then please do both.

1. Tell us how many miles you made it up your mountain (# of books read). If you've planted your flag on the peak, then tell us and celebrate (and wave!).  Even if you were especially athletic and have been sitting atop your mountain for months, please check back in and remind us how quickly you sprinted up that trail. And feel free to tell us about any particularly exciting book adventures you've had along the way.

2. The Year in Review According to Mount TBR: Using the titles of the books you read this year, please associate as many statements as you can with a book read on your journey up the Mountain.  I have given my titles as examples.

Describe yourself: The Lady in Black
Describe where you currently live: Madman's Bend
If you could go anywhere where would you go?: The Kingdom by the Sea
 
Every Monday morning I look/feel like: A Hangman's Dozen
The last time I went to the doctor/therapist was because: I ate too much Red Herring
The last meal I ate was: Roast Eggs
When a creepy guy/girl asks me for my phone number, I: know it would be a Date With Danger
Ignorant politicians make me: Sick to Death (review coming soon)
Some people need to spend more time: learning The Secret of the Gondola
My memoir could be titled: Only a Matter of Time
If I could, I would tell my teenage self: You Can Write a Mystery but It's Not All Flowers & Sausages

I've always wondered: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?



And what do you get for all that hard work? The Checkpoint will close at 11:59 pm on Sunday, January 4. On Monday I will crank up the Custom Random Number Generator and pick a winning climber. He or she will have the chance to add to their TBR stack via my gently-used book vault (prize list will be sent). This prize is the only book given to you in 2015 that may count towards a 2015 TBR climb.

Even if you're not in the mood for a prize or if you got distracted by pretty scenery or side trails (library books, ARCs, what-have-you), I'd love to have you check in and tell us how your 2015 mountain climb went!

***Please note--Links are for Checkpoint posts only. Links that are not Checkpoint-specific will be removed--to make it easier for me to track a winner.

Challenge Complete: Monthly Key Word

January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014

Kimberly hosted the 2nd Annual Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge in 2014. For this challenge she chose six key words associated with each month in 2014. Our task was to read one book each month whose title includes one or more of the key words for that month. I finished my last word ("White') yesterday for a complete year of Key Words. Now to wait to begin the 2015 version!

MONTHLY KEY WORDS:
JAN- Angel, Secret, Clock, Black, Day, Wild
FEB- Her, Life, Night, Red, Dark, Island
MAR- Forever, Inside, Storm, Sky, Flower, Stay
APR- Star, Light, Never, Princess, Break, Clear
MAY- Dawn, Death, End, Lost, Beautiful, And
JUN- Color, Beyond, Day, Place, Grave, Road
JUL- Beautiful, Ship, Prince, Whisper, Sun, Of
AUG- Forgotten, Down, True, Run, Danger, Me
SEP- Number, Take, Shadow, Ice, Who, After
OCT- Ocean, Blood, Still, Out, The, Fate
NOV- Into, Sound, Blue, House, My, Last
DEC- Kiss, Fire, Ruin, White, Promise, Infinity

Here are my chosen books:

JAN: The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)
JAN: Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown (1/12/14)
FEB: Shelf Life by Douglas Clark (2/6/14)
MAR: It's Not All Flowers & Sausages by Jennifer Scoggin (3/10/14) 
APR: The Coral Princess by Frances Crane (4/5/14)
MAY: Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell (5/16/14)
MAY: Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton (5/16/14) 
MAY: Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner (5/21/14)
JUN: A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell (6/15/14)
JUL: Who Guards a Prince? by Reginald Hill (7/23/14)
AUG: Date With Danger by Roy Vickers (8/11/14)
SEP: Death Takes a Sabbatical by Robert Bernard (9/16/14)
OCT: Blood on the Stars by Brett Halliday (10/4/14)
OCT: The Mind-Murders by Janwillem van de Wetering (10/30/14)
NOV: Guest in the House by Philip MacDonald (11/2/14)
DEC: The White Dress by Mignon G. Eberhart (12/15/14)

 

Words for Murder Perhaps: Review

I had been looking for Edward Candy's (Barbara Alison Boodson Neville, 1925-1993) Words for Murder Perhaps (1971) in used bookshops for a long time before finally giving in and finding it online for my hubby to get me on a gift-giving occasion. It was added to the TBF (To Be Found) list as soon as I read Bones of Contention (back in the mists of time before I kept a good reading log, so I don't really remember it much). When I discovered that she had an academically-inclined book, I knew I just had to have it.

Words is set at Bantwhich University. Gregory Roberts is a mild-mannered academic who teaches in the "Extra-Mural" (aka "adult education") department. He's middle-aged, living with his mother after his marriage dissolved and puttering along teaching little old ladies all about literature. The old dears love his new class, "Crime Fiction, Past and Present," and little realize that a crime wave is about to hit the university.

It all starts when Greg's ex-wife's current husband, who incidentally used to be his friend, disappears and the ex receives an anonymous typewritten note in the mail which seems to be an excerpt from a poetic elegy. She immediately thinks of Greg and assumes he sent it to her. She reports the disappearance to the police as well as her speculations about the note and soon Greg has an Inspector hanging about to see if Roberts is involved in his "rival's" vanishing act. Then a distinguished professor of Egyptology is poisoned and another obscure bit of poetry, an uncomfortably appropriate elegy, is found. More murders follow and the police are sure they are looking for a literary villain...Gregory Roberts just might do for the part. And, if not him, then perhaps the missing man--who also happens to be a bookish sort.

There is also an embryonic romance for Greg--one of the younger members of his class has fallen for the teacher. But will the police arrest him before he has a chance to pursue a relationship? Or will there  be a more sinister ending for Greg?

Candy, to use her pen name, had me guessing--in part because, she didn't quite play fair with the readers, but also because I got it into my head that she had chosen a rather unorthodox villain. But then I changed my mind and couldn't decide who it might really be. Was I right about the unorthodox murderer? Well, you'll have to read it for yourself to find out. The mystery is decent and the characterization is fair. It wasn't quite as interesting as an academic mystery as I anticipated. If you're looking for a light, quick read then this could fit the bill. Not too taxing and I was able to finish it in a day. ★★★






++Also posted for the 1971 Crime Classics at Past Offences

*It occurs to me that it appears that I may be damning the book with faint praise. I'm afraid I'm just not as enthusiastic about it as I'd hoped to be--mostly because I had such high hopes for the academic-leanings.

The White Dress: Review

The White Dress is one of the most romantic-thriller-esque examples in Mignon Eberhart's work--at least of those I've read so far. The reader knows exactly what's in store from page one when Marny Sanderson steps off the plane in Miami.

She faced an unexpected and obscurely frightening thought; it was nonsense and yet it had a certain authority strong enough for Marny to pause a second, her hand on the railing, caught by an absurd compulsion to retreat, to turn around, re-enter the plane, go back to New York, go anywhere, but go. It was exactly as if she were afraid of something, as if some vague and unaccountable uneasiness, unrealized or, at least, certainly not acknowledged, had crystallized that moment and become fear.

Her feeling of uneasiness grows when at a secluded pool on her employer's luxurious Biscayne Bay island estate, she finds herself in the arms of a handsome stranger and then being kissed by the handsome and charming Andre Durant. It changes to terror verging on hysteria when she encounters an unknown woman who proves to be Durant's estranged wife. Her sense of foreboding is proved right when all events lead to a single conclusion--murder! Her well-ordered life--the life of the perfect secretary, devoted to her her job--is turned upside down...she learns about love and lust, horror and fear. And she learns that behind one of the familiar faces on the small island lurks the heart of a killer.

I generally like Mignon Eberhart--but I prefer the stories with her recurring characters Sarah Keate & Lance O'Leary or Susan Dare to her stand-alone romantic thrillers. Not that the thrillers are bad; they're just not my particular cup of tea. This one is a good example of the type--plenty of romantic tension, lots of suspicion to go around, and an effort to put our heroine on the spot and frame her up for murder. A decent read for me at ★★★ and I'd bet that those who like their mysteries with a romantic-suspense twist would rate it higher.

Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge

As Kristin at the Geeky Zoo Girl says: "One of my favourite challenges to take part in during 2012 and 2013 was The Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge, which was hosted by Reading with Tequila but seems to have since disappeared." It's true--I thoroughly enjoyed that one as well. It helped take me out of my mystery reading comfort zone.

She goes on to say: 'In case you don’t know, the challenge was simple: book bloggers nominated their favourite books, and then a list was made, with books nominated the most often at the top.  To take part in the challenge, you picked a level and read a specified number of recommended books from the list. I think it’s a really great challenge, because you get to discover books other bloggers loved and share your own favourites (and isn’t that kind of the point of book blogging?).  I put out a call for book recommendations, and have had some great feedback already, so I’m going to try hosting it for 2015.  I’m still putting the list together but there will be at least 100 titles to choose from – if I’m a few short, I’ll be using people’s end of the year favourites lists or something to make sure we hit that." 

The rules are crazy simple:

1. The challenge runs from January 1st 2014 to December 31st 2015
2. There are five levels to choose from. You can increase your goal as many times as you want, or (because we all know real life happens!) you can decrease your goal once at any point throughout the year.
3. The full list of books to choose from will go up on New Year’s Eve: Click HERE
4. You don’t have to commit in advance to your choices, though of course you can plan them if you want to.

The Levels

Bronze – 3 books
Silver – 5 books
Gold – 10 books
Platinum – 25 books
Diamond – 50 books +

I plan on going for the Bronze level. If I read more than that, then I will level up--but my challenge will be complete for 2015 once I grab the Bronze. Now I just have to wait for the list....Click on the link above to join in.

My books:

1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (9/19/15)

2. The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum (3/22/15)

3. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters (9/28/15)