Just the Facts Checkpoint Winner!

After finally unwinding from a busy day at work, I dragged out the Custom Random Number Generator, fed in the fourteen entries and our winner is Link #7, Joel with his Death by Drowning! Congratulations, Joel! I'll be contacting you shortly with a prize list and instruction for claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who checked in and to those who are busy scribbling in their notebooks and missed the checkpoint. See you all in a few more months!

Mount TBR Checkpoint Winner!

After finally unwinding from a busy day at work, I dragged out the Custom Random Number Generator, fed in the nine entries (including comments) and our winner is Link #7, Gilda Felt! Congratulations, Gilda! I'll be contacting you shortly with a prize list and instruction for claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who checked in and to those who are busy climbing and missed the checkpoint. See you all in a few more months!

Murder Out of Turn: Review

Bill Weigand finds himself on a busman's holiday in Murder Out of Turn (1941) by Frances & Richard Lockridge, the second in the series featuring Pam and Jerry North as well as their favorite policeman. Having met the Norths in The Norths Meet Murder, Weigand has become friends with the couple and accepted an invitation to join them at their lake cottage cabin on the banks of Lone Lake for a bit of well-deserved R&R. The setting is picturesque, the autumn leaves are colorful and lovely, and the evening hours around the lake are serene and peaceful. He has just gotten introduced to the folks in the neighboring cabins, including the beautiful Dorian Hunt who has a mysterious aversion to policemen (or, as she refers to them, hunters) and attended his first party with them all when he goes out for a bit of fresh air and stumbles upon the body of one of the charming and popular young women.

Helen Wilson has been viciously killed with a knife to the neck and at first it is difficult to see why anyone would have wanted to murder the charming woman. When the State Police arrive--in the person of Lieutenant Merton Heimrich (and crew)--the two policemen beginning digging and discover that there are many people who may have wanted Helen dead--from those who benefit under a will to which she would have been the primary legatee to the beautiful Dorian Hunt whose father was hunted by policeman and was convicted in part by the testimony of his secretary....Helen Wilson. But then a second female camper is killed by a booby-trapped fire and it becomes difficult to decide who should have died first. Did the unpleasant Jean Corbin witness something connected to Helen's death...thus leading to her own fiery death? Or did Helen see somebody setting up the booby trap and have to be eliminated before she could realize the importance of what she saw? In other words, was somebody murdered out of turn?

This a particularly good entry in the North series for a number of reasons. Most importantly, because it introduces both Lt. Heimrich and Dorian Hunt. Heimrich would later feature in his own series with his first book coming out in 1947. It's difficult to decide whether the Lockridges intended for him to become a series character or not in this first outing. I tend to think not--he is most definitely overshadowed by Weigand here, even though Bill is clearly out of his jurisdiction. Heimrich tends to follow the city policeman's lead and Heimrich's characteristic methods of investigation are definitely not on display. I think it a good bet that once the Lockridges had set several mysteries (ten or so) in New York City, they found that it might be good to shake things up with some murder and mayhem in the rural areas.

The book also provides the moment for Bill Weigand to meet his future wife, Dorian. Not a very encouraging introduction to be sure--to find that a young woman pretty much hates the sight of policemen when one just happens to be a policeman. But Bill and Dorian work their way towards a more friendly footing as the book comes to a close and it's easy to see (even for those who don't know a wedding is in the cards) that they will be seeing more of each other in the future.

More things to like about the book: The plot itself. Clues are laid down and the observant reader has every chance to solve it along with Weigand and Heimrich. The characters are interesting and drawn well--even if some of them are more sketches than full portraits. And there's a quite exciting denouement waiting at the end. The biggest drawback--how slow our good lieutenants are to figure out that it just might not be a good idea to hold interviews beside an open window. Just how many times do you need proof that "X" must have overheard your interviews with "A" and "B" and....before you stop providing opportunities for "X" to do that? 

But, overall, a highly entertaining mystery and the Norths do well with their characters out of their natural NYC habitat. ★★★★★

[Finished on 3/27/18]

******************
Quotes
We meet everyday people who appear, from the outside, to be irrational. It may merely mean that their minds are quicker than ours--that they jump steps, in speech and in action. Inside, to themselves, they are completely rational. we meet emotional people who do things on impulse, and they are usually fine people--people we like, interesting people. And then, if you are a policeman, you meet other people who look much the same, and act on impulses--and when they have an impulse to kill somebody, or set fire to a tenement, they act on that impulse, too. ~Bill Weigand

We talk about motives for murder, but there are no rational motives for murder. The hazard is always greater than any goal, unless you are immediately defending your life. Murder becomes possible only when a motive--and advantage to be gained, that is--swells up irrationally in the mind. Gets out of perspective. When the possible gain swells so that you cannot perceive the risk. You needn't be insane for it to do that, or much more emotionally--well, swept--than the average. It may merely catch you when your resources are weak. ~Bill Weigand

Book Scavenger: Review

Book Scavenger (2015) by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman is a book that I would have LOVED as a young reader. It has a premise that I could wish as an adult were true. What if there were a secret online world of book scavengers? Book lovers who who hunt for books and win points and prizes for finding them? Who can hide books and leave clues for others to find. How awesome would that be? I mean, hunting for long-desired books in used book stores is great fun. It's one reason why I don't like to do my book-shopping online. I like the the thrill of the hunt. It would be an added bonus if that hunt could be part of a shared book-scavenging community.

In the book, that's exactly what we've got. Garrison Griswold has created the online scavenger hunt for readers called Book Scavenger. There's the usual hiding and finding of books by participants, but every once in a while Griswold does something big, something spectacular and special for his friends in the Book Scavenger world. He has been putting the finishing touches on his latest game and is preparing to do a big announcement when he is mugged at the BART (subway) station. He has just time enough to hide his special edition of Poe's The Gold Bug which was to be part of the promo.

Enter twelve-year-old Emily who has just moved to San Francisco (her parents have this weird goal to live in every single one of the 50 states and uproot the family all the freaking time to do this....). Emily has just made her first friend--James--who shares her passion for word games and reading and who has never heard of Book Scavenger. She gets to introduce him big-time when they accidentally find the hidden Gold Bug. With Emily's Book Scavenger savvy and James's cipher-smarts, the two are able to plunge full-throttle into the ultimate scavenger hunt--one that Griswold himself designed and No One Else in the Book Scavenger world knows about yet.

Or do they? Somebody is stalking them online and following their every move. Could Griswold's prize be that fabulous? 

This is a fantastic adventure book for middle graders. Shoot, it's a pretty fantastic for those of us far, far beyond the middle grade years who still crave a chance for a great bookish adventure. I liked the way Emily's older brother chose to help her and James when they needed it most--instead of treating them like little kids. I also enjoyed watching Emily start to learn what it means to have a friend and be a friend. Some have labeled her selfish--but, honestly, it's her parents who have been selfish, uprooting the kids whenever the whim to head to a new state hits them. How on earth was Emily supposed to learn how to connect and think about others when she hasn't been allowed to connect with anyone outside her family for any length time? 

A really fun read. ★★★★


[Finished on  3/34/18]

TNB: The Great Detectives (Medical Mayhem)

Word has passed among The Tuesday Night Bloggers that a book called The 100 Greatest Literary Detectives, edited by Eric Sandberg and including contributions from various writers – including our own Kate Jackson is coming out to educate the unsuspecting about some of the best detectives in the business. As we sat and munched on toasted crumpets and sipped our tea, we decided to revive our weekly meetings and discuss the detectives we think ought to be included in any list of the "Greatest" detectives. We also wanted to include some of the really good detectives who don't get as much press as say a Sherlock Holmes or a Miss Jane Marple or (ahem) Hercule Poirot [more press clippings for our Belgian sleuth may found over at Brad's place Ah Sweet Mystery Blog aka "The Shrine To Agatha Christie"].

As Moira mentions over at Clothes in Books, some of us have decided to divide our detectives up into categories. This week's feature here at the Block is on Medical Mayhem with the spotlight focused on Mignon G. Eberhart's Nurse Sarah Keate and Dr. Hugh Westlake in a series by Jonathan Stagge
(aka Richard Webb & Hugh Wheeler). Sarah Keate was most likely the very first nurse I was introduced to in detective fiction. The book was The Mystery of Hunting's End and it was also my first taste of a locked room/impossible crime.

It is a mystery that revolves around a weekend party at Hunting’s End, a lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Matil Kingery has invited a strange collection of guests to join her on the outing—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She knows that her father was murdered and intends to find out which of the guests is the guilty party.  She has to find out....she's in love with one of the young men and wants his name cleared.

Added to the guest list is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary who is posing as an

acquaintance of Matil's and O'Leary has, as he often does, requested Keate to use her position as a nurse to help him sort out a mystery. In this case, he wants to know who was responsible for the death of Matil Kingery's father at the lodge some five years ago. If one of the requirements for detective greatness is the impact the character has on the reader, then Nurse Keate definitely qualifies. I reread Hunting's End countless times when I was young and every time I enjoyed watching Nurse Keate take on the assignment of the care of Aunt Lucy at the hunting lodge featured in the title. The nurse's eagle eyes, strong nerves, and knowledge of human nature all serve her well in spotting the clues that lead O'Leary to the solution of the murder. Without her assistance, Matil would never know which of the "friends" gathered at the hunting lodge had killed her father...and would be responsible for another death as well.
Such was Nurse Keate's personality and impact in the story, that I could relate whole scenes of the book which featured her for years after reading it--even during the years when the book was lost (see my review linked above) and I had no access to it. Given my sieve-like memory for books read pre-blogging, that's saying something. I could tell you about Sarah and her knitting needles and Sarah's descriptions of Aunt Lucy as a huge spider, for example.


Dr. Hugh Westlake is a more recent acquaintance. I discovered him in 2010--just as I was launching my blogging career--in Death's Sweet Song. Westlake is a small town practitioner and a widower with a precocious daughter. He often finds his medical practice leading him into situations where he feels impelled to act as an amateur detective. He's not a brilliant amateur à la Philo Vance, but his medical acumen gives him insights that allow him to spot clues not obvious to others. He's not infallible by any means, but the way he works his way through the twists and turns of the mysteries he becomes involved in is very realistic. I find him to be a very relatable character. 

Westlake leaves an impression on me because he represents the kind of every day individual who might get involved in mysteries and behaves in ways that real people might. The books I've read so far feature nicely-plotted mysteries with enough intricacy to please and puzzle. There is also a bit of the macabre and odd throughout the series that might titillate. I think it adds to the oddness to have such an ordinary amateur detective working his way through the clues. 

His investigation into fear and how it is used in the persecution of an actress is the foundation of the mystery in The Three Fears and uses the oddness of the human mind as the backdrop. Westlake is invited by his wartime friend, Dr. Macdonald "Don" Lockwood, and his wife Tansy to spend a month at their home in the Massachusetts resort of Bittern Bay. There will even be entertainment on hand in the form of two rival  acresses--Daphne Winters, with her "five sweet symphonies", budding actresses to whom she gives summer tutelage, and Lucy Millken, ""America's Most Beloved Actress"", one time understudy to the Divine Daphne, now her bitter rival. They expect fireworks and maybe even a cat fight or two, but no one expects murderous attempts to made on Daphne. 

Someone very clever is using the atmosphere to make attempt after attempt on Daphne's life and sanity--using knowledge of her three fears: fear of poison, fear of being closed in, and fear of fire against her. The culprit is relentless and doesn't even seem to mind that innocent victims are collected along the way. Two of Daphne's Symphonies are caught in the killer's web. The first intercepts a poisoned capsule meant for Daphne while they are at tea at the Milliken's house and the second dies in a fire in the summerhouse. Westlake, having previous experience with murders, joins the police in the search for the murderer, but they run into blank wall after blank wall. It isn't until one of the Symphonies makes an urgent phone call to Westlake that he begins to see the intricate plot behind it all. 

Although I have less of an acquaintance with Westlake (than with Keate), I can definitely say that he is a detective that I'm eager to read more of and hope to find more of the novels featuring him. So--if another feature of a great detective is to make readers want more of him, then Westlake definitely has that going for him.

April Follow the Clues Reviews

April Mount TBR Reviews

Mount TBR: Checkpoint #1

Wow!  Three months into the year already. Well, you know what that means...Your mountaineering guide is calling for the first quarterly check-in post. Let's see how our challengers are doing. Made it a couple of miles? Camping out in a cave 1/3 of the way up the mountain face? Taking refuge in a mountain hut along the way? Let us know how you're doing. For those who would like to participate in this checkpoint post, I'd like you to do two things:
 

1. Tell us how many miles you've made it up your mountain (# of books read).  If you're really ambitious, you can do some intricate math and figure out how the number of books you've read correlates to actual miles up Pike's Peak, Mt. Ararat, etc. And feel free to tell us about any particularly exciting adventures you've had along the way.

 

~I have read 30 of my pledged 100 books for Mt. Everest...which means I'm slightly off-track to plant that flag on the peak. [And I'm a bit behind on my pace for last year too...]

 

2. Complete ONE (or more if you like) of the following:

 A. Post a picture of your favorite cover so far.  

 

Here's mine (one of my beloved pocket-size books from the pulp era):

 B. Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like.

 

Mine: I'm actually going to choose the detective from The Odor of Violets (pictured above). Captain Duncan Maclain is a blind detective who lost his eyesight due to gassing in World War I. His heightened abilities (other senses) are much more believable than those of Max Carrados (a blind detective who first appeared in 1914). Where Carrados's ability to smell spirit gum and to read newsprint by touch seem more like parlor tricks, Maclain's abilities are explained through careful training.

 

 C. Have any of the books you read surprised you--if so, in what way (not as good as anticipated? unexpected ending? Best thing you've read ever? Etc.)

The Best of Science Fiction & Fantasy 8th Series edited by Anthony Boucher was a huge surprise, but not in a good way. I respect Boucher's opinion in both SF/Fantasy and mysteries and I was surprised to find how many of the stories he selected for this collection were sub-par.

 

 D. Title Scrabble: See if you can spell a word using the first letter of the first word in the titles of some/all of the books you have read so far. Feel free to consider "A," "An," or "The" as the first word or not as it helps you with your word hunt.

 

My word: Compact

 

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

Odor of Violets by Baynard Kendrick

Murder Out of Turn by Frances & Richard Lockridge

Payoff for the Banker by Frances & Richard Lockridge

About the Murder of Geraldine Foster by Anthony Abbot

Cuckoo's Calling, (The) by Robert Galbraith

The Sign of the Book by John Dunning

And what do you get for all that hard work (and distraction from the actual climb)? The link will close at 11:59 pm on Sunday, April 8.  On Monday, April 9,  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). Just think, if you win a book you can start up a pile for next year's Mount TBR Challenge. 

Even if you're not in the mood for a prize or if you've only got one leg of the journey under your belt, I'd love to have you check in and tell us how your climb is going!

***Please note--the linky is for Checkpoint posts only.  The link must be to a specific Checkpoint post (not your blog's home page in general). Links that are not Checkpoint-specific will be removed--to make it easier for me to track a winner.

April Just the Facts Reviews

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Just the Facts, Ma'am Check Point (aka Prize Opportunity)

Calling all cars, calling all cars...Detectives are asked to check in with Headquarters. Please report progress. Headquarters out.

It's hard to believe that a quarter of the reading year is over. Which means, of course, that it's time to see how our detective challengers are doing with their notebooks. Back in the fall when I put together the latest version of the Vintage Mystery Challenge, I randomly selected items from the notebooks for our checkpoints. Here are the categories for our first round (January - March, no books from April):

WHO: An amateur detective
WHAT: Book published under more than one title
WHEN: During a weather event
WHERE: At a school
HOW: Death by Drowning
WHY: Out of your comfort zone

You may enter once for every item checked off in your notebooks. Both Golden & Silver cards count. Please use the linky below and enter your items under the following "Name":

Your name (Category) Card 
 ~Example: Bev (More than one title) Silver

If you do not have a blog or other way to link up below, then you may use the above format for all of your items and list them in the comments below. You will also earn one entry for every item.

The linky will be open until midnight on Sunday, April 8. Sometime on Monday, I will pull out the Custom Random Number Generator and select a winner. Good luck!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Challenge Complete: Book Challenge by Erin 8.0

This was the first time I joined in with Erin on her Book Challenge by Erin 8.0 which runs from JANUARY 1, 2018 to APRIL 30, 2018. Most of the action has been happening on Facebook where we link up our reviews and report progress. But I've got to keep track here on the blog too. I'm happy to report that I've finished all fo the categories for the original challenge. There is a bonus round, but I think I'm going to bow out now. Thanks for hosting, Erin!

·      5 points:  Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages

         A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh [284 pages] (1/7/18)

·      10 points:  Read a book that starts with the letter “L”

         Lament for a Lady Laird by Margot Arnold [224 pages] (2/3/18)

·      10 points:  Read a book that has a (mostly) red cover [345 pages]
        Red Warning by Virgil Markham (1/25/18)

         

·     15 points:  Read a book with a character’s name in the title (i.e. Jane Eyre, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, We Need to Talk about Kevin, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Harry Potter books, etc.)
       About the Murder of Geraldine Foster by Anthony Abbot [280 pages] (3/22/18)

·         
     20 points:  Read a book from this list: Book Riot’s 100 Must-Read Books with Plot Twists https://bookriot.com/2017/04/11/100-books-with-plot-twists/ (who doesn’t love a good plot twist??)
      The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) [455 pages] (2/28/18)
     20 points:  Read a book with the words “house” or “home” in the title

       Another Woman's House by Mignon G. Eberhart [215 pages] (2/10/18)
     25 points:  Read a book by an author whose first and last name begins with the same letter (i.e. Cassandra Clare, Melina Marchetta, Ransom Riggs, Chris Cleave, etc.)

       The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Ripper Legacy by David Stuart Davies [224 pages] (2/16/18)
     30 points:  Read a book that was originally published in a different language than your own (submitted by Kirsten)

       Dog Will Have His Day by Fred Vargas (French) [256 pages] (3/4/18)
     30 points:  Read a book where most of the action takes place on a form of transportation i.e. bus, boat, car, plane, etc. (submitted by Bev)

       LIfe on the Mississippi by Mark Twain [447 pages] (3/10/18)
    35 points:  Read a book with a character that suffers from a debilitating physical illness  (submitted by Amber C.)

       The Odor of Violets by Bayard Kendrick [238 pages; lead detective was blinded by gas in World War I] (2/27/18)