2014 Vintage Bingo Prize Winners

Just a quick post to let my 2014 Vintage Mystery Bingo Wrap-Up posters know that I will be sending emails regarding prizes on Saturday (Jan. 10). Work this week has been crazy and with so many participants earning automatic prizes (and then some bonus winners as well), I've got a bit of logistics to work out. I need my best thinking cap for that....and it's getting used up in the office these days. Be watching for that email from your Bingo Hall hostess....

I did go ahead and plug in the Custom Random Number Generator for those who had completed the minimum one Bingo and after chugging a bit (I may have to have a specialist look at it) it spit out another two (those who have been paying attention to the prize offerings from my other challenges will note that the CRNG seems to love the #2 this year). And the owner of Link #2 is Major from "Major Yammerton." Congratulations, Major! I will be contacting you on Saturday as well.

Thanks to everyone for playing Bingo with me last year. Hope to see you in the Bingo Hall during 2015.

2014 Read It Again, Sam Winner

And...the 2014 Read It Again, Sam Challenge has come to an official end. I've cranked up the CRNG Machine (Custom Random Number Generator) to give us our Wrap-Up Winner.  After much clanking and whirring, the CRNG finally produced.....Number 2. (If you played along in the Color Coded Challenge this year, you will notice that the CRNG seems to have a thing for the number "2" tonight...)  And our 2nd link-up entry is Julie @ Smiling Shelves!  Congratulations, Julie! Let's give her a nice round ouf applause.  I'll be contacting you shortly about claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who joined up for the first round of Read It Again Reading.  It's been fun and I hope to see you all over at the 2015 Challenge.

 

2014 Color Coded Challenge Winner

And...the 2014 Color Coded Reading Challenge has come to an official end. I've cranked up the CRNG Machine (Custom Random Number Generator) to give us our Wrap-Up Winner.  After much clanking and whirring, the CRNG finally produced.....Number 2.  And our 2nd link-up entry is Star from "drifiting drifting"!  Congratulations,Star! (round of applause)  I'll be contacting you shortly about claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who joined up for another round of Color Coded Reading.  It's been fun and I hope to see you all over at the 2015 Color Challenge.

The Case of the Painted Girl: Review

It was a strange, incomprehensible business. A recently murdered man. A painted nymph, unconscious by his side. And brooding silence in the house except for that persistent bell ringing without human intervention. (p. 10)

And so the adventure begins for Jimmy Harrison in The Case of the Painted Girl by Frank King (1931). Harrison is on his way to Scotland for a well-deserved holiday when his radiator runs out of water along a bit of deserted English countryside. He heads out into the night in search of water for his ailing car and walks right into a murder mystery. Seeing a building through the trees, he hopes to find some sort of container to dip water from a handy stream. As he approaches, a dark figure runs from the house and a shrill bell starts ringing through the night...and won't stop. Harrison, not wanting to get mixed up in something dangerous, is about to head back to his car when he hears a frightened woman's scream. He can't ignore the need for help and finds a way into the locked building...to discover a man with a knife in his chest and beside the man, the huddled body of a girl, clad only in a loose robe with her face thickly painted with make-up. And there are slim, girlish fingerprints on the dagger's handle.

They have just managed to convince each other of their innocence in the matter when a man claiming to be the police starts pounding on the door. Harrison, suspicious, spends time trying to establish the man's credentials and when the two men go upstairs, Harrison is knocked unconscious (it seems his suspicions were justified). When he awakens, he finds the girl gone and the authentic police on the scene. That's when his real troubles begin. There is no evidence to back up his story...and the dagger now has his prints all over it. It's up to him to prove to his innocence once the Scotland Yard man, Inspector Gloom, arrives.

Chief Inspector Gloom...looked as much like a corpse as any man could do while alive. (p. 62)

And what a police inspector he is.

"I don't suppose you really know anything about it," continued Gloom, his voice lifeless as his appearance. "It wouldn't be my luck to have my hands on the murderer to begin with. I'm a very unlucky man, Mr. Harrison. Things usually seem to go the wrong way for me. I don't suppose I'll ever get to the bottom of this case. But I like it. I like dealing with criminals who dig dead men from their graves. Things like that amuse me. I'm sure we're going to be friends, Mr. Harrison. I'm sure we're going to get lots of fun out of this case, even if we never solve it." [talk about a Gloomy Gus!]

But Harrison suspects that Gloom isn't quite as pessimistic as he pretends--even though Gloom seems a rather pessimistic and inefficient fellow, Harrison suspects the manner to be assumed, "a pose assiduously cultivated to fit in with his name and his physique." We'll have to see if he's right. We'll also have to see if he and Gloom can find Myra Livingsone (the missing girl) and find the answers to a few questions..like why an unknown shop girl should be carried off, painted up, dressed in so little, and left in a deserted house on the moor? Why was she found beside the freshly stabbed body of a man who supposedly died with his face in a fire a few days earlier? Who dug up the body of the man buried in his place? Why does somebody keep stealing corpses as fast as Gloom and Harrison find them? And who has been hiding in the empty loft at the village inn....and are they the same people who have been camping out in the hut on the moor? Harrison and Gloom must find the answers to these questions and defeat the evil genius behind it all if they want to save Myra from a terrible fate.

This book was the most fun I've had in a long time. Not fairly clued at all--but it reminds me of one of the serials that used play at the theaters. Just when you think the heroes have discovered an answer and are getting close to capturing the criminals, up pops another little mystery and they're off on another adventure. King's story is a quick read with plenty of action, more than a few coincidences and improbabilities, and great characters. It's worth the price of admission just to meet Inspector Gloom and watch him try to live up to his name. ★★★★


This fulfills the "Author Never Read Before" square on the Golden Vintage Bingo Card.

More Quotes:
Both Jimmy and Myra were in high spirits. Dangers might threaten, the police might have absurd suspicions, but youth would not be denied. They had passed through a trying time together and been separated. They had come together again strangely and unexpectedly. Neither of them was inclined to quibble at the dictates of Fate. (p. 70)


JH: He didn't show up very well last night...to be bluffed by a girl.
IG: It doesn't matter much to a man who is killed by a bullet whether that bullet was fired by a male or a female. A frightened girl with an automatic can do a great deal of damage--more than I should care to face, Mr. Harrison. (Jimmy Harrison, Inspector Gloom; p. 70)


It's hardly considered the best behaviour to dig up a dead man from his grave, is it? Don't be annoyed, Mr. Harrison. I'm not suggesting that this is one of your hobbies. (Gloom; p. 71)


I hadn't much doubt about the matter, but I do like to be sure whenever possible. Unfortunately, it's so rarely possible. (Gloom; p. 76)

I believe you'll be terribly disappointed, Inspector, if we ever do discover anything, won't you? (Myra Livingstone; p. 82)

G: More fun. The fingerprints of the man with the burned face have been identified. He is on our records at Scotland Yard as Black Ferguson.
H: The news seems to please you.
G: It does, Mr. Harrison. It lends such a charming anticipation to the outlook. Our recent information about Black Ferguson was that he had joined forces with the most mysterious and elusive personality in London crookdom---" (Gloom, Harrison; p. 91)

M: Why don't you arrest him?
G: Impulsive youth. So charming--and so reckless. I don't arrest him for two reasons; first, I've nothing against him except my guess; second, if I give him rope he may hang himself. (Myra, Gloom; p. 107) 

All challenges met: Vintage Mystery Challenge, How Many Books, Mount TBR Challenge, 100 Plus Challenge, Color Coded Challenge, A-Z Reading Challenge, Genre Decades Challenge, Cloak & Dagger, European Reading Challenge, Mystery Reporter,Monthly Key Word

2014 Mount TBR Final Checkpoint Winner

It has been an absolutely crazy day at work (it's graduate student admission season at the university), and I almost forgot that it was time to find a winner for the Final Checkpoint prize.  So....without further ado, I will just plug in the random number generator and enter in the parameters....and the lights flash and webpage whirs and we get  (drum roll, please).....Link #6!  That means that Sarah @ Barmy for Books is our winner!  Congratulations, Sarah!  I'll be contacting you soon with the prize list.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the final check-in.  I enjoy seeing your progress and the way you fit the titles to the prompts (for those who did). Thanks as well to all climbers for joining me in scaling those Mount TBR heights in 2014.  Hope to see you on more mountains this year!

Ride the Pink Horse: Review

Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes is the very first Clue book for my Super Book Password Challenge. It helps fulfill many other challenges as well, but I did want to draw attention to my first entry in the Password Challenge. Participants will notice the word in bold. That's your first clue to my choice for "Famous Person." Chew on that one for a while, folks. Next clue coming the second full week of January. Stay tuned. Now for the review.

This particular Hughes book is well out of my usual mystery fare. Very firmly from the hard-boiled and noir schools of detective fiction. It follows Sailor, ex-secretary (and sometimes-muscle man) for Senator Willis Douglass, on a journey to New Mexico to make his former boss pay up for services rendered. He plans on cashing in and then heading for the easy life over the border in Mexico. Also in town is McIntyre, Chicago detective who wants to know who really killed the Senator's wife and is determined to find out. There is very much the sense of the watchers and the hunters being watched and hunted themselves.

Not really a whodunnit--there's no question very early on about what happened to the Senator's wife and who was really responsible for her death. The story is very much about Sailor and the choices he has made...and the choices he still has before him. There are several points in the story where Sailor could choose to change and follow the right path for a change. But are there certain choices that set us irrevocably on a course from which there is no return? McIntyre seems to think that there's still hope for Sailor, but will the Senator's gunman change his ways?

There were sections of the book that I really liked--the conversations between Sailor and McIntyre were very good as the copper tries to influence the crook. It also contains terrific descriptions of the Santa Fe area in the midst of Fiesta--representing the local people and their own struggles--Indians versus Spanish descendents versus white Americans. It is a good snapshot of Southwest American in the 40s.  ★★★

This fulfills the "Out of My Comfort Zone" square on the Golden Vintage Bingo card.

All Challenges Fulfilled: Password Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, Vintage Mystery Challenge, How Many Books, 100 Plus Challenge, Color Coded Challenge, What An Animal, A-Z Reading Challenge, Monthly Motif, Cloak & Dagger, Reading Road Trip, Mystery Reader Challenge: Reporter's Challenge

Mystery Reader's Challenge: Reporter Challenge

MYSTERY READER'S CHALLENGE 2015 
Sponsored by Dead Herring 

REPORTER CHALLENGE:  
Who? What? Where? When? How? 
Why? – because it’s fun to read! 

Levels 
Cub reporter: 5 books (1 from each category)
Columnist:   10 books (2 from each category)
News Anchor: 15 books (3 from each category)
Editor: 20 books (4 from each category)
Newspaper Mogul: 25 books 

WHO 
Protagonist is a librarian 
Protagonist is a government agent
Protagonist is a ghost
Protagonist works with animals (vet, dog walker, zoo, etc)
Protagonist is a crook 

WHAT 
Holiday in the title
Animal in the title
Weather in the title
Poison in the title
Title starts with the same letter as your last name 

WHERE 
Set in England
NOT set on land (cruise ship, boat, airplane, spaceship, etc)
Set on an Island
Set on foreign soil (not America or England)
Historical novel 

WHEN 
One book set during any holiday
One that centers around a convention or conference
One Dark & Stormy night – bad weather plays big role in story
One where the protagonist has to beat the clock (time is crucial to solving mystery)
One set during a vacation 

HOW 
(Method of Murder) 
Poison is murder weapon
Knife/stabbing is murder weapon
Gun/shooting is murder weapon
Blunt object is murder weapon
Rope/strangulation is murder weapon

  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * 

Sign up for this challenge on GoodReads

 (In The Challenge Factory under yearly challenges) 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I'm joining at the Cub Reporter level. May work my way up...but commitment will be complete once I do one category under each. For full details check out the challenge at Dead Herring or on Good Reads. [My sign-up at GoodReads]

Cub Reporter (1st set)

WHO: Protagonist is a crook: Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes (1/3/15)
WHAT: Poison in the title: Poison Jasmine by Clyde B. Clason (4/5/15)
WHERE:Set in England: The Case of the Painted Girl by Frank King (1/6/15) 
WHEN: Dark & Stormy Night: Panic by Helen Mccloy (2/22/15) 
HOW: Gun/shooting: A Dead Man in Istanbul by Michael Pearce (1/14/15) 

Columnist (2nd set + Cub Reporter)
WHO: Protagonist is a government agent: Murder in the Wind by John D. MacDonald (4/13/15) 
WHAT: Animal in the title: Dead Lion by John & Emery Bonett (5/13/15)

WHERE: On Foreign Soil: A Dead Man in Trieste by Michael Pearce (1/27/15) 
WHEN: During Vacation: Safari by Parnell Hall (4/21/15)
HOW: Blunt Instrument: Death of a Dwarf by Harold Kemp (1/25/15) 

News Anchor (3rd Set + first two) 
WHO: Protagonist is a librarian: Murder Past Due by Miranda James (7/13/15)
WHAT:Title starts with first letter of last name: [The] Humphrey Bogart Murder Case by George Baxt (6/26/15)
WHERE: Not on land [cruise ship]: Death Over Deep Water by Simon Nash (2/8/15)  
WHEN: Beat the Clock [Nannies racing to beat the bad guys to the top secret info] The Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest (5/15/15)
HOW: Knife: Death & Mr. Prettyman by Kenneth Giles (3/6/15) 

Editor (4th Set + first three)
WHO: Protagonist is a Ghost (one of them): The Ghost Writer by John Harwood (10/16/15)
WHAT:Weather in the Title: In Spite of Thunder by John Dickson Carr (11/7/15)
WHERE: Set on island [San Fernando Island {aka Trinidad}]: The Wilberforce Legacy by Josephine Bell (4/19/15)
WHEN: Set during any Holiday [Chrstimas]: The Crime & the Crystal by Elizabeth Ferrars (7/9/15)
HOW: Strangulation: Night Train to Paris by Manning Coles (3/14/15)

Newspaper Mogul (5th Set + first four)
WHO: Works with Animals: The Cashmere Kid by B. (Barbara) Comfort [goat-herding] (12/31/15)
WHAT: Holiday in Title: The Labor Day Murder by Lee Harris (12/30/15)
WHERE: Historical Novel: Gods of Gold by Chris Nickson [1890s England] (5/23/15)
WHEN: Convention/Conference: The Bookfair Murders by Anna Porter (7/29/15)
How: Poison: The Case of Colonel Marchand by E. C. R. Lorac (4/27/15)

Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home: Review

Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home (1973) was James Tiptree, Jr's (Alice Sheldon) first published book. As a first short story collection, it contains some quite brilliant work as well as a few weaker entries. But overall, Sheldon exhibits an imagination and dark humor that rivals Harlan Ellison's. Her stories reflect her interests as a psychologist--ranging from the alien among us (whether an actual alien or a human who feels out of place among his peers) to women's roles to love, death, and humanity's place among the stars.

The best stories are also the most poignant and include "The Man Who Walked Home" and "Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket." Each of these deal with time travel and, unfortunately, neither has what the reader might call a happy ending. But they are all the more powerful for that. There are also two complementary stories, "Mama Come Home" and "Help" (aka "Pupa Knows Best"), that give us a slightly different take on humanity's first contact with an alien race. Laced with humor, Sheldon questions how our fairly primitive (on a universal scale) society might behave when faced with the unknown. Especially an unknown that looks an awful lot like us.

This volume of stories has been sitting on my TBR shelves since 1988--back when I was in the midst of my heavy-duty SF phase. My first contact with Sheldon's work was her very beautiful novel Brightness Falls from the Air. I adored that novel as a teenager and snatched up this book of short stories when I found it....and then ignored it for about thirty years. Shame on me.

A good introduction to Sheldon's work. If you enjoy her best stories here, then I would definitely suggest moving on to Brightness. ★★★ and 1/2.

New (to me anyway) Crime Authors

The New (to me anyway) Meme is sponsored by Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise. Here's what she's looking for....

Just write a post about the best new-to-you crime fiction authors (or all) you've read in the period of October to December 2014, put a link to her meme in your post (click above), and even use the logo if you like. The books don't necessarily need to be newly published. After writing your post, then link up over at Kerrie's place and visit the links posted by other participants in the meme to discover even more books to read. 'Cause there are never enough books to hunt down and read.

 

Here are the books by authors I hadn't tried before:

 

Death by Hitchcock by Elissa D. Grodin (10/6/14) 

Murder on Mike by H. Paul Jeffers (10/15/14)

Too Many Doctors by Holly Roth (10/22/14) 

The Mind-Murders by Janwillem van de Wetering (10/30/14) 

Copper Gold by Pauline Glen Winslow (11/1/14)

Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier (11/12/14)

The Dark Ring of Murder by Misa Yamamura (11/19/14) 

Mayhem in B-Flat by Elliot Paul (12/4/14) 

The Secret of the Gondola by David Alan Brown (12/7/14)

 

And as far as new experiences go, there was about an equal amount of good and bad. I can't say that I would recommend Too Many Doctors, The Mind-Murders, Copper Gold or The Secret of the Gondola--a borderline mystery at best.  Death by Hitchcock (brand-new in 2014), Murder on Mike (1984), Trick or Treat Murder (1997) and The Dark Ring of Murder (1998) were all enjoyable and earned in the three-star or just over range. The best of the new authors was Elliot Paul with Mayhem in B-Flat. First published in 1940, it is set in Paris between the two World Wars. It stars Homer Evans, American in Paris, and his pistol packing lady, Miriam Leonard. Miriam is more at home on the prairie, wrestling steers into submission--but adjusts well to the French countryside which seems to be littered with rival gang members. Homer and Miriam have planned an excursion to Normandy to allow Homer to investigate his Gallic roots. But their quiet vacation plans are interrupted when they encounter a gang member known as the Singe--someone they've come across before. Homer doesn't know what skulduggery may be afoot, but that there will be skulduggery he is certain.

 

Super Book Password Headquarters

Welcome to the Super Book Password Headquarters. For the full challenge rules, please see the original post at the link below. For those who are ready to participate, the links for each clue will go up weekly at the appropriate blog post.  Each Password round will provide a space for Clues as well as for those who wish to guess. Everyone is welcome to make a guess on posted Clues. Please use the form provided at the current round.


Original Challenge Post

January/February: Famous Person 
March/April: Historic Event 
May/June: Movie Title
July/August: Musical Group
September/October: A Vacation Destination 
November/December: Sports Team

Super Book Password: January/February - Famous Person

Here we go folks...the first round of Super Book Book Password is ready to go. I've got my first book (clue) all lined up. Anybody going to join me? Each week I will post a link for another clue--up to eight weeks of clues. Eight clues are not required, but participants are asked to provide as many clues as possible with their reading schedules.Remember that points can be claimed for each clue until the next clue from that particular participant goes up. So--if I post my first clue this week, but don't post my second clue until the last week of January, then participants will have three weeks to ponder my Famous Person and try to claim the full points. If I post the second clue next week, then first clue points will only be available until next week.  

When you post your clues, please use the following format: 

Bev's Clue #1 (book title) 

and link to your blog or other review site (Goodreads, etc). If you do not have a blog and would like to post clues, then please use the format above and submit your clues in the comments. Don't forget to email me (phryne1959 AT gmail DOT com) your chosen password. This is my maiden voyage with this challenge and system...let's hope there aren't too many bumps. And most important--let's have fun!

***Just as a point of clarification: If only part of your title is the clue, please indicate which word or words are relevant--put that portion in quotes for the link up. My clues are also in bold at my review site. 

We have a winner for Bev's First Password (I was afraid #4 might do it...): Ryan has correctly guessed William Shatner and earned 10 points for guessing on Clue #4! I may have to try and devise another Famous Person for February....Congrats, Ryan! And--I've started another Famous Person...













And....Ryan has once again nailed it on my second Famous Person Password. The correct answer? Dick Van Dyke. And I was all set with two more books with "Chimney" and "Sweep" in the titles. Ah, well. Now to see if anybody can guess Ryan and Debbie's Passwords...we've still got a bit more time left.

For participants who would like to guess--Google forms seems to have the best format and I've posted it below for you to use. But, again, this is a new experience for me, so let me know if anything isn't clear.

Read It Again Sam, Headquarters: Reviews & More

I like my "Headquarters" style of challenge management so well that I'm going to continue it in 2015. Here you will find the link to the original challenge post.  Also, each month I will enable a Monthly Review Link where posts for that month can be linked up.  The link will be open a few days into the next month.  If you miss posting a review to its particular month, then feel free to add it to the next. The Final Wrap-Up Link will go live towards the end of the year. Please hold all wrap-ups until that time. Thanks!

Good luck and Happy Reading!

Original Challenge Post

January Reviews

February Reviews

March Reviews

April Reviews 

May Reviews

June Reviews

July Reviews

August Reviews

September Reviews
October Reviews

November Reviews

December Reviews

Final Wrap-up