The Mystery Woman: Review

The Mystery Woman (1929) by John Ulrich Giesy & Junius B. Smith

"The Mystery Woman" is the name given to a woman who is found dead in small country town. It appears at first that she is the victim of a "machine" accident (as the characters in the book repeatedly refer to automobiles) and the only question is whether Dr. Arthur Nixon is the one who ran her down and is now trying to cover up his complicity or if, as he and his companion (a nurse who seems to be on a bit more than a professional footing with him) state, he found her along the road and merely brought her to the Hospital as any good Samaritan would. Inspector James Kirk* arrives on the scene ready to mark it down as an accident, but both Dr. Nixon and the hospital surgeon believe there is more to it than meets the eye. The wound on the woman's head is inconsistent with a motoring accident and it is soon proven that she was struck down before being run over--and it wasn't the doctor's car who drove over her body. With very little to go on--just a few burdock thorns, bits of grass and leaves, and an instinct for the irregular, Kirk convinces Gordon, one of the local newspaper men to play up the story to create interest in and mystery around the victim. When she dies from her injuries, it becomes a murder case and Kirk is even more determined to find the person who left her to die. He discovers that she had traveled from Iowa in a search of someone. Did she find that person? And was that person so unwilling to be found that she or he struck down the pursuer to protect themselves? Kirk builds his case piece by piece until he can prove who "The Mystery Woman" came to see...and who it was that was responsible for her death.

This is a fairly good American mystery from the 1920s with an interesting plot revolving around the police procedures of the time. The clues are fairly displayed--the reader learns everything that the inspector learns as the information is found. There is perhaps a bit of melodrama surrounding the "Mystery Woman's" story and her reasons for coming to a strange town, but it's not over-the-top and, given the period the story was written, the motives are perfectly sound.

The primary complaint that I have with the writing is the amount of time we spend following the detective's thoughts. It's one thing to let the reader in on the detective's thought processes. It's another to be beaten over the head with them. He is told various details by experts or witnesses and then we follow him (repeatedly) thinking over these details and musing over what they mean. We don't just get new theories, but he goes through the whole thing again. Short example: tiny bits of vegetation are found on the victims clothes and each time he thinks about these clues we are told again: "the nurse thought those were burdock-spines and I thought the grass was wild. They are burdock-spines; the grass is wild. Therefore, the woman was hit over the head somewhere else and put in the road. Hmmmm. What could that mean?" Insert new theory. Rinse and repeat for each phase of the investigation. 

However, beyond the overly introspective interludes, the characters are solid and I definitely enjoyed the interactions between Kirk and Gordon. They make a good team and it's a shame that there weren't more books featuring them. Given time, I think they could have been developed into a solid series. It was also interesting to see the attitudes of midwesterners/easterners (location not quite definite) towards those new-fangled "machines" invading the roadways and causing accidents right and left. A decent mystery and a nice step into an earlier time period. ★★ ★


*Did anyone who knows my background as a Classic Trek fan suppose that I could resist an Inspector by the name of James Kirk?

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This counts for the "Green Object" (her shirt) on the Golden Vintage Scavenger Hunt card as well as my first offering in the 1929 edition of Rich's Crimes of Century over at Past Offenses. If you have any 1929 crime fiction hanging out on your shelves, then come join us!

A Is for Arsenic: Mini-Review

A Is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup is a very good read for anyonewith an interest in poisons-- whether scientifically or because you're plotting your very own Golden Age style mystery--and/or Agatha Christie. Harkup gives the reader an A through V (Arsenic through Veronal) look at the poisons the Queen of Crime used in her stories. Each chapter features a new poison with a historical look at its development/discovery, actual murders committed using the poison, and the most pertinent Christie novel to incorporate the concoction in a crime. A handy list in the appendix gives a more detailed look at all the stories and the murder methods employed. For most of the chapters she manages to explain the poisonous substances and their use by Christie without spoilers and in cases where spoilers are unavoidable she gives fair warning so no one need fear having an unread Christie (is there such a thing?) ruined.

She also gives a great deal of detail on Christie's extensive knowledge of poisons and medications which the author gained through her work as a nurse and apothecary's assistant during the First World War and as a dispenser at the University College Hospital during World War II. While, Christie did make some errors in her stories, she was correct most of the time with a high percentage of her scientific errors being due to a lack of information about the drugs at the time she wrote. And many doctors and critics of the time praised her for getting her details right.

The most tedious portions of this book were the sections within each chapter that gave all the scientific details of each poison--chemical makeup, how to distill it (if distilling is necessary), how many different compounds were related, all the gory details of how the poison acts on the human body (details about the copious vomiting, extreme muscle spasms, etc. that Dame Agatha spares her readers), etc. I was far more interested in the relationship between Christie's knowledge and her usage in the books and the connections between her fictional murders and any real-life murders that occurred either before her books were written (and which may have influenced her stories) or the murders that occurred after publication (and which some critics tried to say might not have happened if Christie hadn't highlighted such-and-such poison).

Overall, a thoroughly researched book that, for the most part, presents the subject matter in an engaging format. The scientific explanations, while a bit tedious to me, were not so technical that they went over my head and are written in language that the average reader should understand. It is particularly engaging for the Christie enthusiast who is looking for insight on her crimes. ★★ ★★

The Tuesday Night Bloggers: Academic Mysteries Suggested Reading List

School may be getting out for the summer, but the Tuesday Night Bloggers are donning their academic robes and enrolling in a month of sinister summer school. Throughout the month of June our group of Golden Age Detective aficionados will be taking our examinations and writing papers on the dastardly deeds of academe. Academic mysteries are one of my favorite sub-genres of the field and so I will be collecting the papers here at the Block. If you'd like to join us for a month of academic mysteries, please stop by every Tuesday for group discussion and I'll add your posts to the list. We focus on the Golden Age of crime fiction--generally accepted as published between the World Wars, but everyone seems to have a slightly different definition and we're pretty flexible.

This week's Star Pupils and their essays:

Moira @ Clothes in Books: "Tuesday Night Club: School Mysteries"
Kate  @ Cross Examining Crime: "How to Stay Safe at School, College, & University--According to Detective Fiction"
JJ @ The Invisible Event: "Educatin' the Pupils in Robert O. Saber's The Black Dark Murders (1949)"
Brad @ ahsweetmysteryblog: "Murder on the Blackboard: Hildegarde Withers on Page & Screen"
John @ Pretty Sinister Books: "The May Day Mystery - Octavus Ray Cohen"
Curtis @ The Passing Tramp: "A Certain Keen Prof at Cornell"

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Fellow academicians, as we begin our investigations into the nefarious doings that masquerade under the flowing robes of the scholar and villains that lurk among the buildings of universities, colleges, and schools, I would like to provide a suggested reading list for current or future research. But first I should perhaps explain my criteria for an "academic" mystery. I realize that my definition may not precisely coincide with a more accepted or expected definition. For my purposes an academic mystery must have one or more of the following: a professor or teacher acting as the primary (amateur) detective; a professor or teacher as the victim, culprit or essential main character; and/or a school or university setting. My love for this sort of mystery has loaded my shelves with all sorts of unlikely looking specimens. Sometimes I wind up with a real gem and sometimes I shake my head over what I have bought just because the back cover mentions Professor So-and-So or Whatsit University. I have wound up with books from Michael Innes to Agatha Christie and Edmund Crispin.

Please know that my personal cut-off for vintage (as opposed to strict Golden Age) crime novels is 1960. That's arbitrary as all get out, but it's what I came up to fit my reading tastes. This list follows my vintage guidelines and represent books that I have either read or currently own. All links below are to my reviews for books read since I began blogging.

Suggested Readings:

Isaac Asimov: A Whiff of Death (1958)
Dwight V. Babcock: The Gorgeous Ghoul Murder Case (1941)

Josephine Bell: Death at Half-Term (aka Curtain Call for a Corpse, 1939); The Summer School Mystery (1950) 

Lionel Black: Death Has Green Fingers (1971)

Nicholas Blake: A Question of Proof (1935)

Leo Bruce: At Death's Door (1955); Dead for a Ducat (1956); Death of a Cold (1956); Dead Man's Shoes (1958); A Louse for the Hangman (1958); Our Jubiliee is Death (1959) 

R. T. Campbell: Unholy Dying (1945); Bodies in a Bookshop (1946) and four more that are nearly impossible to find

Edward Candy: Which Doctor (1954)

Agatha Christie: Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)

Clyde B. Clason: The Fifth Tumbler (1936); The Purple Parrot (1937); Poison Jasmine (1940); and seven more 

Edmund Crispin: The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944); Holy Disorders (1945); Swan Song (1947); and six more plus two short story collections
Glyn Daniel: The Cambridge Murders (1945); Welcome Death (1954)
Katharine Farrer: The Missing Link (1952); The Cretan Counterfeit (1954); Gownsman's Gallows (1957)

Leslie Ford: By the Watchman's Clock (1932) 
David Frome: Mr. Pinkerton Finds a Body (1934)

Timothy Fuller: Harvard Has a Homicide (1936); Reunion with Murder (1937); Three Thirds of a Ghost (1941); This Is Murder, Mr. Jones (1943); Keep Cool, Mr. Jones (1950) 
Wells Hastings & Brian Hooker: The Professor's Mystery (1911)
Mavis Doriel Hay: Death on the Cherwell (1935)
James Hilton: Was It Murder? (1931)

Kenneth Hopkins: She Died Because... (1957)

Michael Innes: Seven Suspects (aka Death at the President's Lodging, 1936) ; The Weight of the Evidence (1944); From London Far (1946) The Paper Thunderbolt (1951); Old Hall, New Hall (1956)

Mary Kelly: Dead Man's Riddle (1957) 
Lange Lewis: Juliet Dies Twice (1943)

Frances & Richard Lockridge: Murder Within Murder (1946); Accent on Murder (1958) 
J. C. Masterman: An Oxford Tragedy (1933)
Helen McCloy: Through a Glass, Darkly (1950)
John Mersereau: Murder Loves Company (1940)

Gladys Mitchell: Spotted Hemlock (1958) 

Dermott Morrah: The Mummy Case (1933)
Lenore Glen Offord: Skeleton Key (1943)

Stuart Palmer: The Penguin Pool Murder (1931); Murder on the Blackboard (1932); The Puzzle of the Silver Persian (1934) plus ten more pre-1960 and two pre-1960 short story collections

Q. Patrick: Murder at Cambridge (1933); Death Goes to School (1936)
Robert Robinson: Landscape with Dead Dons (1956) 
Kelly Roos: Murder in Any Language (1950)

Dorothy L Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935) 
T. S. Stribling: The Clues of the Caribees (1929)
Josephine Tey: Miss Pym Disposes (1946)

Alice Tilton (Phoebe Atwood Taylor): Beginning with a Bash (1937) [this just happens to be my very first review on the blog]; The Hollow Chest (1941) and six more
Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing (1952)

Ethel Lina White: The Spiral Staircase (aka Some Must Watch 1933)

T. H. White: Death at Pemberley (1932)
Victor L. Whitechurch: Murder at the College (1932)

Philip Wylie: Corpses at Indian Stones (1943)


And...if your researches take you into more modern territory:

Margot Arnold: Exit Actors, Dying (1979) and eleven more

Robert Barnard: Death of an Old Goat (1974); Blood Brotherhood (1977) The Case of the Missing Bronte (1983)

Robert Bernard: Death Takes a Sabbatical (1967); Deadly Meeting (1970) 

Nicholas Blake: The Morning after Death (1966)

Leo Bruce: seventeen more Carolus Deene novels

Gwendoline Butler: Dine & Be Dead (1960)

Edward Candy: Words for Murder Perhaps (1971)

Sarah Caudwell: Thus Was Adonis Murdered (1981); The Shortest Way to Hades (1984); The Sirens Sang of Murder (1989); The Sybil in Her Grave (2000)

V. C. Clinton-Baddeley: Death's Bright Dart (1967); My Foe Outstretch'd Beneath the Tree (1968); Only a Matter of Time (1969); No Case for the Police (1970); To Study a Long Silence (1972) [Two reviews are from before blogging & therefore short]

Amanda Cross: In the Last Analysis (1964) and thirteen more

Ellis Dillon: Death in the Quadrangle (1986)
Ruth Dudley Edwards: The English School of Murder (1990); Matricide at St. Martha's (1995); Carnage on the Committee (2004)

E. X. (Elizabeth) Ferrars: eight novels from Something Wicked (1983) --The Crime & the Crystal (1985) -- A Choice of Evils (1995)

Michael Gilbert: The Family Tomb (1969); The Night of the Twelfth (1976)
Charles Goodrum: Dewey Decimated (1977) 
Batya Gur: Literary Murder  Review Part II (1993)

Conrad Haynes: Bishop's Gambit, Declined (1987); Perpetual Check (1988); Sacrifice Play (1991)

Kenneth Hopkins: Dead Against My Principles (1960); Body Blow (1962)
J. R. Hulland: An Educated Murder (1986)

Michael Innes: The Open House (1971)

M. D. Lake: Amends for Murder (1989); Grave Choices (1995); Once Upon a Crime (1995) and seven more 
Jane Langton: The Transcendental Murder (aka The Minuteman Murder, 1964) plus seventeen more

Elizabeth Lemarchand: Death of an Old Girl (1967)
Richard Lockridge: With Option to Die (1967); Twice Retired (1970)

Simon Nash: Dead of a Counterplot (1962); Killed by Scandal (1962); Death over Deep Water (1964); Dead Woman's Ditch (1964); Unhallowed Murder (1966) 

Bernadette Pajer: A Spark of Death (2011); Fatal Induction (2012); Capacity for Murder (2013): The Edison Effect (2014)

Stuart Palmer: People vs Withers & Malone (1963 w/Craig Rice); Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene (1969, finished by Fletcher Flora) 

Robert B. Parker: The Godwulf Manuscript (1973) 
Christine Poulson: Dead Letters (aka Murder Is Academic, 2004); Stage Fright (2005); Footfall (2006)

Gillian Roberts: Caught Dead in Philadelphia (1987) and thirteen more
Maggie Ryan: Audition for Murder (1985) and seven more

Emily Thorn: Aaron's Serpent (1962)

25th Wedding Anniversary Book-Binge

For our 25th Wedding Anniversary, my husband & I took another (short) trip on Route 66 in Illinois. Brad, who doesn't understand my need to buy enough books to stock a library, indulges me and told me that for our anniversary I could have a blank check to use at my favorite used bookstore, Books on the Square, in Virden, Illinois. I came home with 34 books (well 29 from Books on the Square and 5 from various antique malls that we stopped at). After all the modern 25th Anniversary is Books, right? Actually...for me...every year is Books.

Here's a run-down of the books that came home with me:

Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentely [Pocket Books, pocket-size]

The Gloved Hand by Leigh Bryson [Handi-Book, digest-size]

Trixie Belden & the Gate House Mystery by Julie Campbell [hardback; 1954 edition]
The Emperor's Snuff-Box by John Dickson Carr [Pocket Books, pocket-size]
The Mad Hatter Mystery by John Dickson Carr [Popular Library, pocket-size]

You Can't Keep the Change by Peter Cheyney [Avon, pocket-size]
Only the Good by Mary Collins [Bantam, pocket-size]

Murder for Two by George Harmon Coxe [Dell Mapback]
Dead Little Rich Girl by Norbert Davis [Handi-Book, digest-size]

Fair Warning by Mignon G. Eberhart [hardback w/dust jacket]
Pattern of Murder by Mignon G. Eberhart [Popular Library, pocket-size]
Unidentified Woman by Mignon G. Eberhart [hardback w/dust jacket]

Give 'Em the Axe by A. A. Fair [Dell Mapback]
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing [Bantam, pocket-size]

All for the Love of a Lady by Leslie Ford [Bantam, pocket-size; a near-fine copy to replace a rather battered one]
The Lady Regrets by James M. Fox [Dell Mapback]

Blood on Biscayne Bay by Brett Halliday [Dell Mapback]
San Francisco Murders by Henry Joseph Jackson [Bantam, pocket-size]
A Halo for Nobody by Henry Kane [Dell Mapback]

The Mystery at the Ski Jump by Carolyn Keene [tweed cover edition]
The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene [tweed cover edition]
Here Come the Dead by Robert Potner Koehler [Bleak House, pocket-size]

Let Dead Enough Alone by Frances & Richard Lockridge [hardback w/dust jacket]
The Psychiatric Murders by M. Scott Michel [Black Knight, pocket-size]
The Glass Mask by Lenore Glen Offord [Dell Mapback]

The Ship Without a Crew by Howard Pease [Scholastic, pocket-size]
The 24th Horse by Hugh Pentecost [Popular Library, pocket-size]

The Visitor by Carl Randau [Dell Mapback]
The Silver Leopard by Helen Reilly [Dell Mapback]

Staircase 4 by Helen Reilly [Dell Mapback]
Where There's Smoke by Stewart Sterling [Dell Mapback]
Green for a Grave by Manning Lee Stokes [Black Knight, pocket-size]

The Squealer by Edgar Wallace [Avon, pocket-size]

Challenge Complete: Color Coded

My challenge for myself and other readers each year in the Color Coded Challenge  is to read nine with various color connections. After several years of the challenge, I wasn't sure that I would be able to do another round (especially "brown" and "white"--those are my two most difficult ones, primarily because I prefer the colors to be in the titles rather than just the color of the cover). But--I managed it again! 

Here's my list of books read:

1. A book with "Blue" or any shade of Blue (Turquoise, Aquamarine, Navy, etc) in the title/on the cover.

The Indigo Necklace by Frances Crane (4/12/16)

 

2. A book with "Red" or any shade of Red (Scarlet, Crimson, Burgandy, etc) in the title/on the cover.

Red for Murder by Harold Kemp (1/13/16)

3. A book with "Yellow" or any shade of Yellow (Gold, Lemon, Maize, etc.) in the title/on the cover.

The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde by Erle Stanley Gardner (4/12/16)

4. A book with "Green" or any shade of Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade, etc) in the title/on the cover.

The Jade Venus by George Harmon Coxe (4/7/16)

5. A book with "Brown" or any shade of Brown (Tan, Chocolate, Beige, etc) in the title/on the cover.

The Cinnamon Murder by Frances Crane (6/6/16)

6. A book with "Black" or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title/on the cover.

The Doberman Wore Black by Barbara Moore (2/9/16)

7. A book with "White" or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title/on the cover.

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (4/21/16) [cover is also mostly white]

8. A book with any other color in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magneta, etc.).
The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel (1/2/16)

The Silver Anniversary Murder by Lee Harris (2/17/16) 

9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).

The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham (2/5/16)

The Cinnamon Murder: Review

The woman was as natural as earth. She said what she thought, and since you yourself had had thoughts not too different from hers, you weren't shocked in the least. But I doubted if Lieutenant Dorn would agree with that. [Jean Abbot about Elizabeth Ashbrook]

In The Cinnamon Murder (1946) by Frances Crane, Pat & Jean Abbot, aided by the earnings from the oil recently found on Pat's Oklahoma property, are back in New York for another vacation--and (surprise, surprise) another murder! They were in their hotel lobby getting ready to purchase their return tickets when they first saw Brenda Davis, the stunning, wealthy widow with the silver-ash hair.  Brenda invites them to a cocktail party that afternoon. Jean wants to say no because she's just a little bit jealous of Brenda. She hasn't missed that Pat just can't seem to keep his eyes off her. But he soon stopped Jean's imaginings with his reply: "Offhand, I'd say you've got more sex appeal in your little finger than she has all over, my amber-eyed, sooty-lashed wench!" Besides, Pat has noticed that the beautiful widow is scared to death.

As usual, the Abbots can't help getting involved. Brenda is frightened, not only for herself, but for her young daughter who ultimately inherits the Davison fortune. The girl has already been mysteriously ill, the doctor who treated her is now dead from an apparent suicide, and Brenda tries to keep her safe in a lofty penthouse, protected by a jagged-topped fence. Who could possibly wish this soft-voiced beauty and her daughter dead? Could it be one of the Davison family who will only be able to access the money if the heiress is gone? Or maybe it's the mysterious Count who has an interest in both Brenda and her sister-in-law Elizabeth? What about the lawyer who holds the purse strings? 

These books are fun and frothy--far more frothy than the Mr. & Mrs. North books by the Lockridges, in fact, which is a bit surprising since Pat Abbott is a detective by trade and the Norths are both amateurs. It may be that the froth is more obvious here because Jean Abbott has none of the intuitive acumen of Pam North. Pam's thought processes are bit off-center and she seems to jump around, but she does notice things and help to put Bill Weigand on the right trail. Jean seems to miss all the clues--even those that should, by nature, be more apparent to her feminine (and fashion-conscious) eye. It seems odd that Jean, after spending the entire book going on about her expensive, fashionable hat and comparing it to other hats, should miss the clues in another woman's attire and fingernail polish. But she does. She's too busy worrying about her hat, being jealous of Pat's interest in Brenda, and worrying about a ubiquitous cab driver who she is sure must be a hit man or some such thing.

Despite the distraction of Jean and her behavior, this was a fun and interesting book and there are plenty of red herrings to lead the unsuspecting astray. No heavy thinking required, just sit back and enjoy the ride and try not to let Jean's babbling about hats and hit men bother you. And, if you can tune her out, you just might spot the killer before Pat Abbott does. ★★★


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This counts for the "Hat" category on the Golden Vintage Scavenger Hunt card.

Challenge Commitment Complete: What an Animal

I actually completed the What an Animal Reading Challenge IX back on May 9th, but forgot to post a wrap-up.  I know that there will probably be more animal covers or animals in titles or stories in the near future, so I'm still reading. We'll see what level I make it to....

1. Hunt with the Hounds by Mignon G. Eberhart (1/3/16)
2. Red for Murder by Harold Kemp (1/13/16) [heifer on cover; heifers play important role]
3. The Platypus of Doom & Other Nihilists by Arthur Byron Cover (1/23/16)
4. The Doberman Wore Black by Barbara Moore (2/9/16)
5. The April Robin Murders by Craig Rice & Ed McBain (2/17/16)
6. Dead Man's Riddle by Mary Kelly (5/9/16) [boar's head on cover; boar and fox masks play an important role]

Challenge Complete!

May Wrap-Up & P.O.M. Award

And--once again I'm slightly behind on my monthly wrap-up post. I blame it (this time) on vacation because I do enjoy tracking my reading progress and statistics for all things bookish on the Block. I also have a contribution for Kerrie's Crime Fiction Pick of the Month. Now, what happened here on the Block in May....

Total Books Read: 10
Total Pages:  2,370 
Average Rating: 3.53 stars  
Top Rating: 4 stars 
Percentage by Female Authors: 50%
Percentage by US Authors: 420%
Percentage by non-US/non-British Authors:  10%
Percentage Mystery:  90% 
Percentage Fiction: 100%
Percentage written 2000+: 10%
Percentage of Rereads: 0%
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: 15 (48%)


AND, as mentioned above, Kerrie had us all set up for another year of Crime Fiction Favorites. What she was looking for is our Top Mystery Read for each month. May was another big month for mysteries with 90% coming from that field--for a total of  nine crime novels. Here are the books read:

Dead Man's Riddle by Mary Kelly (3.5 stars) 
The Family Tomb by Michael Gilbert (4 stars) 
Running Blind by Desmond Bagley (3.5 stars) 
The Bobbsey Twins at London Tower by Laura Lee Hope (3 stars) 
Gownsman's Gallows by Katharine Farrer (3 stars) 
Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (3 stars) 
The Litmore Snatch by Henry Wade (4 stars) 
Good Blood by Aaron Elkins (4 stars) 
The Paper Thunderbolt by Michael Innes (3.75 stars)
 

This month saw a small crop of four-star winners. There was The Family Tomb by Michael Gilbert where British expatriate Robert Broke finds himself in the middle of a far-reaching web of intrigue which has at its center the eccentric Professor Bronzini and Estrucan art. There was also The Litmore Snatch by Henry Wade which centers on the kidnapping of Herbert Litmore's young son. The Yard's Chief Inspector Vine sets to work on the cold trail and with the aid of the local officers he soon has the perpetrator in his sights. But finding the necessary evidence may be a bit tricky. Fortunately, Vine has a trick or two up his sleeve that will suit the purpose. And finally Aaron Elkin's Good Blood, another kidnapping mystery, with the Skeleton Detective, Gideon Oliver, called upon to use his expertise while on vacation in Italy when a skeleton is discovered after the Padrone Vincenzo de Grazia's only son is kidnapped in a violent undertaking that leaves the family's chauffeur and one of the kidnappers dead. Oliver will discover that the modern kidnapping has ties to the skeleton's past.

All three of these novels were highly entertaining--which makes choosing this month's P.O.M. Award Winner rather difficult. But we can only have one winner and so (drum roll, please), our May P.O.M. goes to....

The real delight in this book is the characters--particularly the women. There is Miss Plant, who is "in every sense of the word, the leading lady of the English colony in Florence." She is a throwback to an earlier era, when ladies went about with retinues who smoothed the way and saw that every need was met and every wish anticipated. There is also Robert Broke's sister, Felicia who arrives on the scene to provide funds for a proper defense, having already arranged things with the Governor of the Bank of England--"Five minutes talk and the thing was fixed. I have found that men of intelligence usually see my points quite quickly."  And then there's Tina, who isn't about to let a couple Mafia-backed thugs get in her way when it comes to helping Signore Roberto and avenging her father. When she and Mercurio, Professor Bronzini's adopted son, are confronted by the men in a diner, she leaps into the battle with a pool cue. She "swung it carefully, like a golfer addressing a drive, and hit the stout man very hard on the back of the head, just above the point where his neck joined his skull." She is fearless and willing to do whatever necessary to free Broke and get to the bottom of the plot that killed her father. Gilbert has loaded this book with strong female characters who don't need a man to get things done. Not that Mercurio didn't hold his own in that fight--but it was not a case of him saving the damsel in distress. The strength of the characters and the Italian setting really drive the star rating up to ★★★★ that would have been five if the plot had been just a little less obvious.

Midnight in Londesome Hollow: Review

Midnight in Lonesome Hollow is an entry in the American Girl Mystery series which features Margaret Mildred Kittredge who goes by Kit. Kit is visiting her Aunt Millie in the Appalachian area of Kentucky during the Great Depression (1934). She is interested in the folkways of the Appalachian inhabitants she meets and has been keeping a scrapbook of phrases, home remedies, traditions, and other interesting and unfamiliar tidbits. When a college professor comes to stay and study the basket-weaving traditions, Kit is fascinated. And when Professor Lucy Vanderpool is shown Kit's scrapbook, she is impressed and asks Kit if she'd like to take the place of her student assistant who is sick with influenza and couldn't make the trip. The budding young journalist is thrilled at the chance to do some real research and the two set out to interview local basket-weavers.

But somebody is not thrilled with the "outsiders" who have invaded their Hollow. After one successful interview, most of the basket-weavers refuse to meet with the professor and while they are talking with one of the few who agree to meet with them someone wrecks Professor Vanderpool's photo plates and ruins the pictures she planned to use in her book. Who would be mean enough to damage the equipment? Kit has her suspicions and isn't afraid to go out into the Hollow at night to find out if she's right.

As one might expect with a middle-grade mystery, this one isn't too complicated and there is very little violence (except to inanimate objects). There is a very real problem that drives the culprit to damage equipment and disrupt the research and it gives Kit a chance to learn a few lessons about the best way to help people. The focus of the book is really on the Appalachian people and the area during depression. Readers learn a great deal about folk traditions and also about the hardships brought about by depression and pull-out of several coal mining companies which severely affected so many families. It didn't just mean a loss of jobs, but it also shut down many schools (which were sponsored by the mining companies), limiting the educational opportunities for many children. The book also highlights the way so many outsiders insulted the Appalachian people by considering their folk traditions backward or "quaint." A very nice historical novel for young people. ★★★

June Read It Again, Sam Reviews

June Mount TBR Reviews

June Vintage Scavenger Hunt Reviews

Murder in Amsterdam: Review

You see, the actual fact, the crime, is now more than the act. There's always a chain of events that lead up to the crime. That chain is started somewhere, a seed is planted. And when you start looking for that beginning, you'll find, sooner or later, a point at which somebody, either because of love, or the lack of it, out of hate, or an excess of it, for profit, or whatever, somebody, somewhere, at some time, shirked his responsibility toward his fellow man. Either consciously or subconsciously, it doesn't matter. But there you'll find the originator of the crime, the person morally responsible. (DeKok to Vledder; DeKok & the Sunday Strangler; p. 28)

Murder in Amsterdam (1981) is the book that started A. J. Baantjer's popular Inspector DeKok series. It brings together two novellas, DeKok & the Sunday Strangler (1965) and DeKok & the Corpse on Christmas Eve (1975). DeKok is an older detective, almost a relic of the past in contrast to the new breed of younger detectives, but he knows Amsterdam well and has a keen knowledge of its inhabitants. The younger men don't understand him, but are in awe of his formidable reputation for solving crimes. Each of these stories force DeKok back to work during a holiday. In Sunday Strangler, DeKok has been enjoying a vacation in the provinces with his wife and his old dog, Flip. He receives a telegram calling him away from the sunny skies and peaceful beaches to return to the cloud-covered, rainy city. Someone has strangled Fat Sonja, an Amsterdam prostitute who Dekok knew well. The killer has left behind no clues and the few leads that the police could find have led to dead ends.

DeKok is surprised to find that Vedder, one of the young detectives, specifically requested that he be called in to take over the investigation.

"Yes," he answered, "it was my idea. We weren't getting anywhere fast. We'd reached a dead end. In short, we're stuck. Then I phoned the Commissaris to get you involved. You have a lot of experience in this sort of cases."

DeKok isn't pleased, he just wants to be left alone to finish out his career. But when he realizes that Vedder is sincere in his admiration, he relents and becomes interested in the case. Then a second prostitute, Pale Goldie, is killed and DeKok begins to see a pattern. After questioning several people who knew the women--from a barman to other working girls to a pastor who was known to help prostitutes looking to leave the game, he thinks he knows who the killer is and lays a trap. But a miscalculation nearly costs the life of a third prostitute he knows well before the killer is caught.

The Corpse on Christmas Eve find Vedder on case, again--initially--without DeKok. This time a young woman is fished out of the Canal  and Vedder thinks she's just another holiday suicide until the doctor on duty unwraps the scarf around her neck to reveal that she was strangled before going into the water. Vedder feels that he is out of his depth and summons DeKok for help--taking the older detective away from his Christmas holidays. It is soon revealed that the young woman recently broke off her engagement to a soldier, was pregnant at the time of her death, and may have been seeing another man while her (then) fiance was on active duty for a month. Her purse is also missing, so--was she killed for her money? Did her boyfriend resent the break-up and resort to violence? Or did Mr. X tire of her and end the relationship in the most final of ways. The emotional and hot-headed Vedder is all set to arrest the soldier, but DeKok insists that they are missing a vital clue--and he is willing to use the most unorthodox methods to find it.

This introductory book gives us a DeKok who seems far more disgruntled with his lot as detective and, yet, at the same time, far more philosophical about the job. He often gives "lectures" much like the opening quote above--musings on the way of things in the detecting business. Baantjer provides plenty of insight into what makes his lead detective tick as well as providing good descriptions of Amsterdam in the mid-60s and mid-70s. The stories are quick reads and enjoyable, entertaining stories with fairly straight-forward mystery plots. Baantjer could possibly have done a bit better in playing fair with the reader (DeKok makes a couple of leaps that I don't think are properly clued), but overall, good solid mysteries. ★★★ and a half.

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This counts for the "Town Scene" category on the Silver Vintage Scavenger Hunt card.