Today's Post Is Brought to You by the Letter....

Simon over at Stuck in a Book has thrown out a small challenge to fellow bloggers.  A chain-meme revolving around the letters of the alphabet.  Here's what Simon has to say:

Here's something that should be fun - and do get involved in the comment section! - I'm going to kick off a meme where we say our favourite book, author, song, film, and object beginning with a particular letter. And that letter will be randomly assigned to you by me, via random.org. If you'd like to join in, comment in the comment section and I'll tell you your letter! (And then, of course, the chain can keep going on your blog.)  

He kicked things off with his post on the letter M.  And has now given me my letter

And here are my choices.


Favorite Book:
Bodies in a Bookshop by R. T. Campbell. At the time I first discovered this book, I'd never heard of R. T. Campbell and the Dover edition that the public library carried was new to me too. I'd never seen these slim reprints anywhere else. But how could I resist a mystery with a title like that? A mystery and a bookshop? I was sold even before I read the synopsis.

Favorite Author:

Oooh. This is difficult.  With "B" we've got Ray Bradbury, Julian Barnes, Josephine Bell, Nicholas Blake, Christianna Brand, Leo Bruce, and Octavia Butler...good writers all. But...if I must choose one, then I'm going to go with Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was one of my earliest loves in science fiction. I love Bradbury's use of language and his way of using SF situations to describe the emotions of now. Whether that "now" be when the stories were actually written or the now of 2014. He absolutely captures the human condition whether he's showing the future humans on Earth or humans on Mars or humans in space.

image credit

 Favorite Song:

"Best of My Love" by the Eagles (love me some Eagles music)

Favorite Film:

 Another difficult one...hmmm.  Do I want to go comedy (Bringing Up Baby) or more serious (The Bridge on the River Kwai) or maybe a little Hitchcock (The Birds).  I'm feeling like a comedy today...so, let's say Bringing Up Baby. I love the mad, comic combination of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

Favorite Object:

This one is so easy....I have to wonder whether this is a trick question.  My favorite object that starts with a B?  I wonder....

Books!  Books! Glorious books!  I know--way too easy.  And we've already done favorite book.  But I don't care.  Books are still my favorite.

But if I have to choose just one book to represent them all....then I'll go with this one,  Thomas Moore's Complete Poetical Works:

It was published in 1895, so it's really old, and it's got this interesting, puffy, off-white cover that just called my name every time I stepped into the used bookstore. When I finally got my hands on it, I didn't really go through it page-by-page but I I did try to read it. Well, let's just say it's flowery, 19th-C poetry at its best (or worst, depending on your point of view) and I never made it past about 20 pages or so. Not the all-time best book as far as content. But one of my closest friends gave it to me and....it led to my very own Believe It or Not Moment two years ago (click for my post on the subject).

Now...if you'd like to play along, just comment below and I'll give you a letter through a random letter generator....Or feel free to go visit Simon and have him give you a letter (visit him anyway!). 

Challenge Goal Complete: A Century of Books

Last fall I signed up for the Century of Books Challenge.  The Goal? To read one book for every year of the 20th Century. My original commitment was to read at least 50 this year and the remainder in 2015.  I have just completed my 50th book, so my challenge goal for 2014 is complete. Almost half a year to go...maybe I'll make the century before 2015 rolls around. If you'd like to see the book I've read so far, please go to my Sign Up Post.

Challenge Complete: 100+ Book Challenge

I just finished my 101st book for the year, so I have officially made it to 100+ range for  Freda's 100+ Book Challenge.  Thanks for hosting, Freda.  You know I can't resist a good challenge. You also know that I'll still be reading--so more coming.  But the challenge goal has been met.

Books Read:
1. The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1/2/14)
2. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell (1/5/14)
3. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak(1/6/14)
4. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)
5. Dangerous Visions #3 by Harlan Ellison, ed (1/11/14)
6. Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown (1/12/14) 
7. Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell (1/13/14)
8. The Wonder Chamber by Mary Malloy (1/15/14)
9. Triumph by Philip Wylie (1/18/14)
10. The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton (1/18/14)
11. The Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux (1/20/14)
12. Seven Footprints to Satan by A. Merritt (1/22/14)
13. The Winter Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine (1/23/14) 
14. Death on the Aisle by Frances & Richard Lockridge (1/24/14)
15. The Adventure of the Eleven Cuff-Buttons by James Francis Thierry (1/26/14)
16. Other Times, Other Worlds by John D. MacDonald (1/26/14)
17. Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton (1/27/14)
18. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1/29/14) 
19. Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White (1/30/14) 
20. Death by Chick Lit by Lynn Harris (2/1/14) 
21. Exit Actors, Dying by Margot Arnold (2/4/14)
22. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares & Silvina Ocampo (2/5/14)
23. Shelf Life by Douglas Clark (2/6/14) 
24. Gambit by Rex Stout (2/8/14) 
25. You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts (2/9/14) 
26. Dandy Gilver & the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains by Catriona McPherson (2/12/14) 
27. Death Walks on Cat Feet by D. B. Olsen (2/13/14) 
28. Cursed in the Act by Raymond Buckland (2/16/14) 
29. Made Up to Kill by Kelley Roos (2/18/14) 
30. XCIA's Street Art Project by Hank O'Neal (2/20/14) 
31. Ellery Queen's 20th Anniversary Annual by Ellery Queen, ed (2/22/14) 
32. The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie (2/25/14) 
33. The Purple Parrot by Clyde Clason (2/25/14) 
34. To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas (2/26/14) 
35. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick (2/27/14) 
36. The Darker the Night by Herbert Brean (3/3/14) 
37. India's Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope (3/4/14)
38. Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Lewis (3/5/14)
39. The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd (3/8/14) 
40. It's Not All Flowers & Sausages by Jennifer Scoggin (3/10/14) 
41. Vicious Circle by Douglas Clark (3/11/14)
42. A Girl Walks Into a Bar by Helena S. Paige (3/12/14) 
43. Endless Night by Agatha Christie (3/13/14) 
44. John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars by Roland Hughes (3/17/14) 
45. Harlan Ellison's 7 Against Chaos by Harlan Ellison (3/17/14)
46. India Black & the Gentleman Thief by Carol K. Carr (3/19/14) 
47. A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan (3/21/14) 
48. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout (3/23/14) 
49. Tut, Tut! Mr. Tutt by Arthur Train (3/25/14) 
50. Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm (3/28/14) 
51. The Clue of the Leather Noose by Donald Bayne Hobart (3/31/14) 
52. The Coral Princess Murders by Frances Crane (4/5/14)
53. Decoded by Mai Jia (4/5/14)
54. After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman (4/6/14) 
55. A Hangman's Dozen by Alfred Hitchcock, ed (4/7/14) 
56. Naked Is the Best Disguise by Samuel Rosenberg (4/8/14) 
57. The Mammoth Book of the Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes by Denis O. Smith (4/13/14) 
58. Gale Warning by Hammond Innes (4/15/14)
59. Murder at the Museum of Natural History by Michael Jahn (4/18/14) 
60. My Antonia by Willa Cather (4/20/14) 
61. Death by the Book by Julianna Deering (4/21/14) 
62. The Lady of Sorrows by Anne Zouroudi (4/26/14)
63. Dorothy Dixon & the Double Cousin by Dorothy Wayne (4/26/14) 
64. For Old Crime's Sake (aka Lucky Jane) by Delano Ames (4/29/14)
65. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain (4/29/14)
66. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer (5/1/14)
67. Ships of the Line by Doug Drexler & Margaret Clark (eds) [5/1/14]
68. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin (5/6/14) 
69. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw (5/9/14)
70. Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell (5/16/14)
71. Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton (5/16/14) 
72. Sinners & the Sea by Rebecca Kanner (5/21/14)
73. Whispers of Vivaldi by Beverle Graves Myers (5/21/14) 
74. Mind Fields: The Art of Jacek Yerka/The Fiction of Harlan Ellison by Yerka & Ellison (5/22/14) 
75. By the Watchman's Clock by Leslie Ford (5/23/14) 
76. Red Herring by Edward Acheson (5/25/14) 
77. Beyond Uhura: Star Trek & Other Memories by Nichelle Nichols (5/29/14)
78. Steampunk Poe by Edgar Allan Poe; illustrated by Zdenko Basic & Manuel Numberac (5/30/14) 
79. Invisible Green by John Sladek (6/2/14)
80. Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (6/5/14)
81. 12.21 by Dustin Thomason (6/6/14)
82. The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo (6/8/14)
83. Plain Sailing by Douglas Clark (6/11/14)
84. The Corsican Caper by Peter Mayle (6/11/14)
85. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein (6/12/14)
86. Total Harmonic Distortion by Charles Rodrigues (6/12/14)
87. A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell (6/15/14) 
88. Undead & Unpopular by MaryJanice Davidson (6/17/14)
89. The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (6/19/14)
90. No. 9 Belmont Square by Margaret Erskine (6/21/14) 
91. The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (6/23/14)
92. This Private Plot by Alan Beechey (6/26/14)
93. DeKok & Murder in Ecstasy by A. C. Baantjer (6/27/14)
94. The 7 Professors of the Far North by John Fardell (6/29/14)
95. The Day They Kidnapped Queen Victoria by H. K. Fleming (7/2/14)
96. A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott (7/3/14)
97. The Chief Inspector's Daughter by Sheila Radley (7/5/14)
98. On the Beach by Nevil Shute (7/7/14)
99. Selections from the Essays of Montaigne by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (trans & ed by Donald M. Frame) [7/7/14]
100. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (7/8/14)
101. The Forgotten War by William R. Forstchen (7/9/14)

The Forgotten War: Review

Over 200 years before Captain Picard's time, Starfleet Captain Lucien Murat, legendary Starfleet officer and contemporary of Christopher Pike, disappeared during the war with reptilian alien species, the Tarn. A cease-fire was called long since, but it is an uneasy peace that exists between the Tarn and the Federation. In the effort to speed diplomatic negotiations, Picard takes on Commander Karish of the Tarn as an exchange officer. While Karish is aboard, the Enterprise discovers descendants of both Murat and his crew as well as survivors from a Tarn ship on a planet in the No-Entry Zone between Federation and Tarn space. These castaways are still fighting the battle begun two centuries ago...and the Tarn have just perfected fission bombs. Unless Picard can convince both sides that the war is over, the humans will face certain destruction. Officials from both sides have forbidden Picard and his Tarn counterpart Admiral Jord from assisting their own people. Picard must devise a clever plan that will both conform to his orders and yet save the survivors from both sides. If he can't, the war with the Tarn may spread once again into space.

It's been a long time since I read a Star Trek novel. Back in the day--before the Classic Trek films and The Next Generation kicked off a series of spin-offs--all we had was Classic Trek in syndication. I, and most Trek fans, were always hungry for more stories about our favorite starship crew, so when the novels started coming out I grabbed them up as fast as Pocket Books could produce them. And managed to keep up with production. But once the Next Gen went on the air and there were now two series novels to keep up with I managed to fall behind.  That didn't keep me from buying every one that I could get my hands on--I just didn't get them all read. Then my attention wandered back to mysteries and I stopped reading Trek altogether. I thought it about time that I move some of these Star Trek novels off the TBR mountain....

The Forgotten War (STNG #57) by William R. Forstchen is a decent Trek novel.  It offers commentary on  the reasons for war and the results of an ongoing battle between two enemies who are equally matched and are neither prepared to look for an alternate solution to the generations of bloodshed. Trek has always examined huge social and historical issues of just this nature, so Forstchen sticks to canon in that way. There are small indicators that he doesn't quite have his characters down, however. Phrasing that just doesn't ring true for Picard. Referring to Riker as "Will" in about 90% of the situations--it should generally be Riker when narrating and unless in relaxed circumstances his colleagues should call him "Number One" (the captain) or "Commander." Small quibbles--but details do matter. And...as another Goodreads reviewer (Jimyanni) noted--this race is awful reminiscent of the Gorn.  If there had been such a big conflict with the Tarn (another lizard-like race) during the time of Pike (not so very long before Kirk), then you would, indeed, expect that it might have been mentioned. Again--small quibble.  Overall--a good read. Quick-paced and full of action.  I do like how Picard and Admiral Jord work together to get their respective peoples to stand down from a final battle that will surely destroy all those on the planet.  ★★★

A Long Way Down: Review

Synopsis (from the book flap): Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year's Eve: a former TV talk-show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Toppers' House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives.

In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells the story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance and their own mortality. Intense, hilarious, provocative, emotional, A Long Way Down is a novel that asks big questions: about life and death, strangers and friendship, love and pain, and what it takes to make through a long, dark night of the soul.

********
My Take: So....I'm guessing that somewhere in the 333 pages I read that there's a story full of deep meaning.  I mean it says so in the synopsis, right? And a whole bunch of people on Goodreads gave it good ratings and talk about how wonderful it is...and by the way it's funny. Hilarious even. Um. Right. I suppose if you find pages and pages sprinkled with the f-bomb all over the place while four people are dealing with suicidal thoughts funny, then, yeah, it's a riot. You see....I couldn't manage to pay attention to the story much because I was studiously trying to avoid all the swearing. It was like maneuvering through a mine field and there was no possible way I was going to pick up on any deep meaning when I was too busy being annoyed by all the four-letter words. Seriously--a couple of these folks are supposed to be fairly well educated and they couldn't possibly come up with any other way to express themselves anywhere in the entire book? Not a single conversation without f--- or various spicy little British swears? And don't tell me that everybody talks that way. No. Not everybody. There are plenty of people that I know who don't. And people who may use that sort of language--but not all the live-long day every day.

If Hornby has such an awesome story to tell, then it would be nice to be able to enjoy it.  I couldn't. And, I have to say that much as I adore Pierce Brosnan--if his character (and the others) speak that way throughout the movie that's being released on July 11 (so sayeth Google), then I'll be giving it a miss.  

Oh...and you might be wondering why I bothered to slog my way through this. That heroic effort was all for the Semi-Charmed Summer Reading Challenge which requires us to read a book that has been or is being made into a movie in 2014--and the synopsis struck me as interesting when I was hunting for a suitable entry. A good read? No. Challenges met? Yes! So a win for me even if I can't recommend the book.  Your mileage may vary.

No rating because I don't want to be mean.

Selections from the Essays of Montaigne: Review

I have to say that Monsieur Montaigne doesn't do a whole lot for me.  It may be the translation, but he comes across as rather pompous, full of himself, and long-winded. I think the most irritating thing is that he spends one whole essay ("Of the Education of Children") telling us how tutors/teachers shouldn't just teach children to regurgitate facts or spout the learned words of  the great men who come before them, but should be taught to reason and understand what the great men's words meant and embrace and make the thoughts their own. Then...Montaigne spends the rest of the book (and even this essay) dropping quotations from Homer and Horace and Dante and (you name the great classic thinker) here, there, and yon like a non sequitur looking for a connection. About one out of every five or six he'll incorporate properly into his discussion (properly according to his stated "rules"), not exactly practicing what he preaches. So, apparently, when it comes to quotations it is do as I say and not as I do.

I will admit that his theory on educating children does strike home a bit when you think of America's modern tendency to "teach to the test." As Montaigne says (oooh, I'm throwing in a quote!) "They slap them into our memory with all their feathers on, like oracles in which the letters and syllables are the substance of the matter. To know by heart is not to know; it is to retain what we have given our memory to keep....Sad competence, a purely bookish competence!" But, overall, Montaigne's philosophies as presented were a slog to work my way through and they did not provoke a thoughtful engagement as I expected. 

I will refrain from giving a rating. Given the overall response on Goodreads and the references to Montaigne that I have seen repeatedly in my academic life, I'm sure I'm missing something.

On the Beach: Review

Some games are fun even when you lose. Even when you know you're going to lose before you start. It's fun just playing them. (p. 65)

On the Beach by Nevil Shute (1957) is my second apocalyptic read this year to focus on Australia. Philip Wylie's Triumph (click for review) gave us a world where nuclear war had wiped out nearly everyone in the northern hemisphere, but Australia and most of the southern hemisphere had escaped nuclear fallout through wind currents that seemed to stay on their respective sides of the equator. This makes rebuilding possible--and man rises from the ashes of his folly. Shute provides a much darker vision. Though the nuclear war in his novel is a short one--lasting only 37 days--the overall destruction is much greater and the seismic records from the war show that about 4,700 bombs were dropped. Again, most of the damage occurs in the northern hemisphere, but this time the wind currents cannot save those living south of the equator... the radiation makes its way slowly towards the few remaining survivors in southern Australia.

In Melbourne, the largest of Australia's southernmost cities, Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes of the Australian navy is appointed as a liaison to the U.S.S. Scorpion, one of the last two nuclear submarines belonging to the U.S. navy. There have been weak Morse code signals coming in from Seattle and the submarine, currently following orders from Australia, is ordered to travel north and investigate. The mission is two-fold: to find the source of the transmissions and to discover if a scientist's theory that the further away from the equator the lower the radiation. Unfortunately, the mission brings back bad news all around--the Morse code has resulted from an unsteady window frame knocking against the transmission key as it teeters in the wind and the radiation samples prove that the fallout is spreading steadily towards all regions on earth. From the time the book starts, those in Australia have six months or less left.

A classic that has held up for over fifty years. Shute's novel is a sobering and harrowing look at how ordinary people might deal withe ultimate nightmare. Most of them choose to conduct themselves as if everything were normal and life would go on after the six month deadline they've been given. Holmes and his wife plan a garden, the father of their friend Moira mends fences and continues prepping his farm for the next season's planting, Commander Towers of the Scorpion buys presents for the family waiting for him back in the States. Some, like scientist John Osborne who buys and races the fast car he always longed for, decide to live life to the fullest--doing things they always wanted to do but kept putting off. Underlying each conversation is the acceptance that the end is coming and there's nothing to be done about it 

It is rather horrifying to think that, as T. S. Eliot wrote, the world may end "not with a bang but a whimper." Each one quietly accepting the end of life as they know it--slowly succumbing to radiation sickness or avoiding the messy ending by taking the suicide pills offered by the Australian government. And it is equally horrifying to realize that most of those who die had absolutely nothing to do with the the decisions made to launch the bombs that destroy everyone. A heart-breaking story--and a different take on the apocalyptic tale. One that focuses on the everyday rather than the major events. ★★★★


Quotes:
You've always known you were going to die some time. Well, now you know when. That's all. Just make the most of what you've got left. (John Osborne, p. 88)

It's not the end of the world at all. It's only the end of us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us. (Osborne, p. 89)

Some kinds of silliness you just can't stop. I mean, if a couple of hundred million people all decide that their national honor requires them to drop cobalt bombs upon their neighbour, well, there's not much that you or I can do about it. The only possible hope would have been to educate them out of their silliness. (Peter Holmes, p. 301)

Mount TBR June Checkpoint Winner!!

Thanks so much to everyone who checked in--kudos on your progress so far and good luck with the next quarter.  Now it's time for me to warm up the CRNG and see what it makes of our entries....Feeding the numbers in....Lights are flashing....wheels are turning...and gears are whirring.  And...........our winner is Link # 9: TracyK@Bitter Tea And Mystery!! Congratulations TracyK! I'll be contacting you soon so you can claim your prize.

Happy Reading!

The Chief Inspector's Daughter: Review

The Chief Inspector's Daughter by Sheila Radley (1980) looks to be a typical British police procedural set in a small English market town. The well-loved romance novelist Jasmine Woods, beloved by her readers--including Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill's wife and daughter--was evidently not universally loved among her relatives and neighbors. She is found beaten to death one morning in a particularly brutal crime that has every evidence of a robbery gone wrong. After all, Jasmine's exquisite collection of jade and netsuke has disappeared. But the severity of the wounds leads Quantrill and his Detective Sergeant Tait to believe that hate may have been the driving force behind Jasmine's death. The one small twist that makes this an atypical British police procedural is that the one person who could shed some light on Jasmine's life before the murder is Quantrill's own daughter Alison. Unfortunately, Alison has disappeared and is unavailable for questioning.

Alison came home from London after a love affair gone wrong. In need of employment, she meets Jasmine and has the good fortune to become the novelist's secretary...and, eventually, friend. It is Alison who finds Jasmine's beaten body and, initially, she is too shaken and shocked to be questioned. Her emotional reaction is so strong that she leaves home and goes into hiding rather than be questioned by her father and his team. Her last known whereabouts put her in the vicinity of one of Quantrill's primary suspects and he has to face his fears for her safety as well as deal with his official displeasure that a witness has done a runner.

Without his daughter to help him learn about the novelist's life, he must use the knowledge that he and his sergeant picked up at a party Jasmine put on several weeks before her death. A party where it seemed that the main activity for the guests was to find ways to subtly (and sometimes not-so-subtly) insult their hostess. Everyone from her brother-in-law and cousin, both of whom resent her success and wealth, to the antiques dealer who resents the value of her oriental collection--some of the pieces which he sold to her far too cheaply--to her neighbor who covets her body and resents that he cannot have it. For more background, Quantrill turns to Jasmine's previous secretary, Anne. But everything he learns seems to provide more suspects rather than narrowing the field. If only Alison would turn up and tell him what she knows....

As I mentioned in my review of A Quiet Road to Death, Sheila Radley (pen-name of Sheila Mary Robinson) writes a decent British mystery. This one has a few more suspects, so it wasn't as easy to spot the killer here as it was in my previous read. There is plenty of suspicion to go around and it is a pleasure to watch Quantrill and Tait work their way through the questioning. There are clues...hard to spot (I didn't), but available if you happen to pick up on them. By the end of the novel, I had decided on just about everyone at one time or another...except the actual culprit. Well done, on misdirection. The motive is also stronger in this one--particularly for the time period (there's a tiny little pointer for you). And Alison is the one who provides the information necessary to really understand the motive. 

One quibble I have--is Tait's reaction to Alison at the end. I cannot explain this without spoiling the motive (and pointing the way to the culprit), so I'll just have to say that it's rather offensive that he thinks he can fix everything just by being the wonderful man that he is. 

Overall, a solid, British mystery--coming in at ★★★ . I will certainly keep reading the Quantrill series as they come my way.

This fulfills the "Woman in the Title" square on the Silver Vintage Bingo card.

June Wrap Up and P.O.M. Award

Once again in 2014 I will be combining my monthly wrap-up post with Kerrie's Crime Fiction Pick of the Month over at Mysteries in Paradise.  And...I'm falling behind on my GoodReads progress. Instead of being ahead, as I had been for several months, I am now running "on track."  If I'm not careful, I'm going to get behind.... Here are the stats:

Total Books Read: 16
Total Pages: 3458 Average Rating: 3.23 stars Top Rating: 4 stars 
Percentage by Female Authors: 35%
Percentage by US Authors: 31%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors: 19%
Percentage Mystery: 81% 
Percentage Fiction: 94%
Percentage written 2000+: 31%
Percentage of Rereads: 6%
Percentage Read for Challenges: 100% {It's easy to have every book count for a challenge when you sign up for as many as I do.}   Number of Challenges fulfilled so far: 16 (39%)




AND, as mentioned above, Kerrie has started us up for another of Crime Fiction Favorites. What she's looking for is our Top Mystery Read for each month. In June, I read 13 books that qualify as mysteries.  




Invisible Green by John Sladek (3.5 stars)
Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (4 stars)
12.21 by Dustin Thomason (3.5 stars)
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo (4 stars)
Plain Sailing by Douglas Clark (3.75 stars)
The Corsican Caper by Peter Mayle (3 stars)
A Hearse on May-Day by Gladys Mitchell (3 stars)
The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker (3.5 stars)
No. 9 Belmont Square by Margaret Erskine (3.5 stars)
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (4 stars)
This Private Plot by Alan Beechey (3 stars)
DeKok & Murder in Ecstasy by A. C. Baantjer (3.5 stars)
The 7 Professors of the Far North by John Fardell (3 stars)


As you can see, I handed out 4 stars to three of the mysteries for the month: Thus Was Adonis Murdered, an academic-themed mystery with barristers accused of murder in Italy; The Laughing Policeman, a more serious police procedural from Sweden; and The Pale Horse, a classic mystery from the pen of Dame Agatha Christie. When I have a tie, I like to give the P.O.M. Award to an author I haven't featured before. That's not going to work this time because I've given an award to each of these authors in months past. So...that means I've got to make a decision. And the winner is......

 

The writing is spare and clean, yet very gripping. Even though there is a lot of waiting and sifting through false leads in this story, the reader is never bored. It is easy to see why this novel was an award-winner. I thoroughly enjoyed another visit with Martin Beck's crime team.

A Long Fatal Love Chase: Review

The grandmother of stalker stories with roots in obsession. A Long Fatal Love Chase is a story about the dark side of love and a passionate persistence that drives a man to hound the woman he claims to adore to her death. Louisa May Alcott originally wrote the story for magazine serialization under the name of A. M. Barnard and it wasn't published as a complete novel until 1995 because the tale was considered too sensational to be published during Alcott's lifetime.

The impetuous, head-strong young Rosamond Vivian has felt like a captive in her grandfather's house since her parents died. His indifference makes her believe that he does not care for her at all and she longs to escape to a life of freedom and adventure. But she despairs of ever fulfilling her dream. Then, a stranger who resembles Mephistopheles himself comes to her remote island home and she finds herself spellbound and ready to confide in the mysterious Philip Tempest. She tells him that she would "do anything get out of [her] prison." And he takes her at his word. He wins her hand from the grandfather in a game of cards and promises to marry her when he takes her away.

She spends a short glorious time enjoying her new found freedom and learns to love her dark, brooding husband. But all is not as it seems--and soon Tempest destroys her idyllic illusions and she finds that she now lives in the midst of lies, cruelty, and unbearable heartbreak. What she discovers about the man who swears to love her makes her flee from him. She hides under assumed names--in France, Italy, and Germany. She takes refuge in the homes of friends and even in a nunnery, but wherever she goes he pursues her until finally he must follow her to grave if he is to continue his pursuit.

Alcott's story is quite advanced for her time. She writes about an independent and spirited heroine whose story wrestles with such themes as women's right  to be free, strong female friendships, the dynamics of abusive and twisted relationships, divorce, bigamy, murder, and celibacy. While on some levels, Rosamond is the classic Gothic heroine swept away by the handsome, brooding mysterious man, she is no shrinking violet. It isn't unusual for the heroine to discover that the brooding man is really Prince Charming in disguise and everyone lives happily every after. Not so here. Tempest is really quite nasty and he doesn't mind what anguish he causes as long as he can bend his spirited love to his will--the very fire of spirit and independence that first draws him to her is the flame he must quench if he really will possess her again.  It really is amazing that Alcott wrote such a dark tale at a young age--a story so different from the well-known Little Women.

A Long Fatal Love Chase lacks a bit of polish and there are portions that seem somewhat over-the-top with melodrama--perhaps if the story had been published as a novel in Alcott's lifetime it would have been edited. As it stands, the work is a good examination of the obsessive nature and the bargains we all make for our freedom and independence. A good, solid story.  ★★★

July Read It Again, Sam Reviews

 

Please post your reviews below.

 

July Mount TBR Reviews

Please post your reviews below.

July Vintage Mystery Reviews

Please post your reviews below.

The Day They Kidnapped Queen Victoria: Review

Fenian revolutionaries take control of Queen Victoria's private train as she sets off to make the journey from Balmoral Castle to Ayrshire where another statue of her beloved Albert is due to be unveiled. The Prince of Wales is also at risk because the Queen has insisted that he attend and to ensure his faithful attention she had arranged for his train to be attached to hers. The fanatics who have taken her and her royal entourage captive (including the Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson and the Queen's favorite John Brown), have stashed a quarter of a ton of gunpowder just next to the Queen's compartment and they are not afraid to blow her (and themselves) to kingdom come if anyone interferes with their plans. Tennyson, at the Queen's behest, attempts a daring plan to allow their safe escape--but a traitor among the Queen's retinue prevents the plan from being carried out and Tennyson is tossed from the train.  It will be up to Prime Minister Disraeli, Sir John Cowley, Lord Hartington, Lord Stanley, the Prince's special lady friend Skittles Walters, and an eccentric clergyman by the name of Charles Anderson to devise a plan that will save the Queen.

This book has a great deal of promise. It is all the rage these days to have historical figures detecting or directly involved in crimes--everyone from Jane Austen to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Oscar Wilde to Teddy Roosevelt are getting in on the act. The Day They Kidnapped Queen Victoria (first published 1969) is an earlier attempt at this genre. H. K. Fleming brings in a large cast of 19th Century historical figures and does a decent job at writing the historical novel without anachronisms. There are high-speed train chases and Tennyson's daring escape attempt. The final rescue solution is ingenious and plausible--as is the hijacking itself.  And yet...the story lacks a certain oomph, a certain amount of excitement and suspense that one would expect when the reigning monarch has been kidnapped and is virtually sitting atop a quarter ton of explosives with jumpy revolutionaries holding lit matches at the ready. It's a decently told tale, but not nearly as gripping as expected. There was no urgency on my part to get to the end and see how they saved her, and, despite being told that Disraeli and company were urgently trying to devise a rescue plan, I did not get a real sense of that urgency in the story. ★★ and a half.

This fulfills the "Crime Other Than Murder" square on the Silver Vintage Bingo card.