The Wonder Chamber: Review

Despite the fact that my library has The Wonder Chamber by Mary Malloy shelved on the mystery "New Arrivals" shelf....a real mystery it is not.  In fact, for a good long while (try 214 pages out of 265 total) there isn't a terribly good indication that there's going to be a mystery at all--beyond the mystery of a missing Michelangelo candlestick.  But certainly not the kind of mystery that crime fiction fans are used to.  And when the mystery shows up it doesn't take anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention much brainpower to figure out A. who the mummy really is; B. who killed the person who became the mummy; and C. who turned the victim into a mummy.  But...I get ahead of myself.

So...what we have here is Professor Lizzie Manning, professor of St. Patrick's College in Boston, who has just landed the assignment of a lifetime.  She will have full access to an art and cabinet of curiosities ("Wonder Chamber") belonging to family related to the college founder.  This is a collection dating back to the Renaissance which holds everything from natural treasures ("unicorn" horns and "dragons") to a beautifully preserved Egyptian sarcophagus.  Professor Manning has already written a book about the college founder and now the college president and the family want her to oversee the organization of a special display of the family treasures in time for the centennial celebration.

She goes to Italy to survey and catalogue the proposed exhibit pieces and becomes interested in the Gonzaga family's history--particularly in Maggie, wife of Lorenzo Gonzaga and daughter of the college founder.  Her interest takes her through the turbulent years of World War II and she becomes aware of events that will require a modern day explanation.  For when she examines the sarcophagus, instead of an empty coffin she finds a very real mummy.  But the mummy is not as old as its container.  Who is it? And how long has it been hidden in the sarcophagus?


As I mentioned above...as a mystery, this story falls short of a mystery lover's expectations.  It take forever to get to the real puzzle.  And when you get there, there isn't much of a puzzle.  There's no real build-up; there's no real conflict; and the denouement leaves a bit to be desired.  If this had been billed as a straight fiction story (with a bit of mystery flavor), then it would rate higher.  There is a lot of interesting historical information about Italy during the Second World War.  There are some fascinating passages about curiosity collections.  There are some fine character interactions between Lizzie Manning and the modern day members of the Gonzaga family.  For the most part I like Lizzie and the descriptions of her researches are well done.  I do find it difficult to believe that someone as smart as she is would not have seen the implications of the monologue (for lack of a better description without giving away what little mystery there is) which she recorded and the effect it might have on the person who translated it.  There's no way she could be that obtuse.  Given that I was expecting a mystery--and an academic mystery at that!--I'm afraid that The Wonder Chamber rates a less-than-wonderous two stars--an okay read that could have been much better.



Challenges Met:  100 Plus Challenge, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, A-Z Reading Challenge, Book Bingo, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, Eclectic Reader, How Many Books, Library Books Challenge, Million Pages, Outdo Yourself, Women Challenge, European Reading Challenge, 

Bout of Books Wrap-Up

So....how did I do with the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon? Not too well with the daily participation--I took part in only two of the mini-challenges and didn't get a single update entered.  Boo!  I did (almost) manage to complete all five books as planned--if I hadn't had to go to sleep last night so I could go to work today then I would have finished the Rendell book.  So--Books Read? A  Participation D+  I'll have to work on that next time around.  But--I'm still glad to have joined in...it kept me motivated and on-track as I start out a new year of reading.

1. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak (done! Hope they're all that easy! 1/6/14)

2. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)

3. Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell (90% finished 1/12/14--completed today)

4. Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown (1/12/14)

5. Dangerous Visions 3 by Harlan Ellison, ed (1/11/14)

Shake Hands Forever: Review

Despite the fact that neither Robert Hathall nor his wife Angela seemed particularly likeable...and that each appeared to outsiders to be as paranoid and "nervy" as all get out, no one seemed to dispute the fact that they were very much in love with each other.  There's not much money rolling about--Robert has been married before and his extra cash is destined for alimony and child support.  So...no jealousy motive, no money motive, and a poor showing of a burglary motive...why was Angela Hathall strangled to death in her own home and found dead in the bedroom by her mother-in-law?  From the beginning Inspector Reginald Wexford suspects the husband.  But Robert has an iron-clad alibi that puts him in London at the time Angela was being murdered in Kingsmarkham.

There's not a shred of proof to point to the husband (or anyone else for that matter) and Wexford's Chief Constable tells him to back off of Robert after the man complains that Wexford is persecuting him.  With no official backing...and even his subordinate Mike Burden wondering if the chief inspector doesn't just have a bee in his bonnet about the husband, Wexford uses up some of his leave time, employs an out of work acquaintance to "tail" Hathall, and even convinces his nephew, a police superintendent in London, to lend him a hand.  Has Wexford gotten obsessed with a single idea?  Is he over-reacting as his Chief Constable believes?  Or are they up against a murder more ingenious than anyone else can believe?

Shake Hands Forever employs a rather nice twist that readers with less crime fiction experience will definitely find surprising.  Even those of us who have been reading mysteries for thirty-some years can appreciate the way Ruth Rendell turns things upside down and forces you to look at the evidence from an entirely different point of view. And those of us with aging memories can even manage to be surprised while rereading.  I first read this about twenty years ago--I still managed to get tangled in the twist.  Not an incredible amount of action--the solution is more slow and steady wins the race than the hurly burly of a dramatic chase and slam-bang finish.  Lots of red herrings and it's fun to watch Inspector Wexford vamped by a beautiful witness.  Highly enjoyable read at 3.5 stars.


This book fulfills the "Set in England" square for the Silver Vintage Mystery Card:

Angels & Spaceships: Review

Fredric Brown was a master of the science fiction short story form...and even more so of the short short form.  Angels and Spaceships is a fantastic collection of stories--over half of which were published in Astounding & Unknown between 1941 and 1949.  The book starts out with an absolute stunner--a work of supreme science fiction irony that does its magic in a page and a half.  Brown does more with that page and a half than a lot of writers could do with an entire novel.  He goes on to tell us about the linotype machine (a printing line casting machine used until the 60s/70s) that comes alive and makes a slave of the printer. And how the earth was surrounded by aliens that fed off of electricity and forced everyone to go back to the horse and buggy and steam-powered engines.  And the little boy who defeated Satan with a water pistol--and some very special water.  And the spaceman who kills an alien and finds that the death sentence isn't quite as bad as he first thought. Oh...and the heavenly typesetter who missed a typo or two and made things difficult for Charlie Wills.  All this and more in one place!


The stories range from screwball fantasy to hardball science fiction and everything in between.  Brown's writing is delightfully straightforward until the clever curve ball that he manages to throw at the end of every story.  A fun and intriguing collection.  Four stars.

Book Bingo: Two More Squares

Racking up those Bingo squares right and left.  Four down...21 more to go for a full card and making progress toward my declared goal of two Bingos.

Squares Conquered:

TBR Column Two Books:
1. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)
2. Dangerous Visions #3 by Harlan Ellison, ed (1/11/14)

Genres:
Free Square (Science Fiction): Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak (1/6/14)
 

Dangerous Visions #3: Review

Harlan Ellison is an author who likes to shakes things up.  He is well-known for his own dangerous visions and his skill at twisting the everyday and making it thought-provoking. And just when you think you've figured out what kind of writer he is...science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, black comedy, psychological...he throws you a curve ball and does something completely different.  Those qualities made him the perfect person to collect and edit the Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions collections back in the 1960s.

Dangerous Visions #3 is the paperback version of one-third of the stories which appeared in the original hardback collection, Dangerous Visions. In it you will find stories by SF greats such as Theodore Sturgeon, Roger Zelazny, Norman Spinrad, J. G. Ballard and Samuel R. Delaney.  You will also find names that may not be quite as well-known to you (this was at least the case with me): Kris Neville, Jonathan Brand, Sonya Dorman.... A total of fourteen stories which are every bit as disturbing and thought-provoking as when Ellison first tossed them out to the reading public in 1967.

My personal favorites:

"Judas" by John Brunner: where a man thinks he's defying and dismantling the mechanical "god" of his times...only to find that he's playing right into the myth.

"Test to Destruction" by Keith Laumer: A rebel leader is tested to the limit--both by his opponent and by alien forces.  He manages to use one against the other...but at what cost to his own humanity?

"Encounter with a Hick" by Jonathan Brand: A young man's explanation to the court about why an elderly man dropped dead in a hotel bar.  Some people just can't take the demolition of their cherished beliefs. 

The stories are a mixture of styles and subject matter...as well as producing a mixture of reactions.  There were a generous portion that I enjoyed and found interesting and through-provoking as well as those that just didn't touch a chord with me.  And one that I just sat and thought "What?" the entire time I was reading it.  Good solid science fiction selected by a master...three stars.


Challenges Fulfilled:  100 Plus Challenge, A-Z Reading Challenge, Book Bingo, Bookish TBR, Eclectic Reader, How Many Books, Million Pages, Mount TBR Challenge, Outdo Yourself, Science Fiction Experience, Vintage SF Month, Out of This World, 

The Skeleton in the Clock: Review

The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (John Dickson Carr) is the eighteenth mystery starring Sir Henry Merrivale and it features murder past and present.  Twenty years ago Sir George Fleet took a tumble off the roof of Fleet House while watching the local hunt. When witnesses with binoculars and a telescope swore that no one came near him before the fall and no one was on the roof after, Sir George's death is put down as an accident.  More recently, three postcards are delivered to the notice of Sir Henry Merrivale and Chief Inspector Masters that suggest that perhaps someone got away with murder.  They are directed to investigate the skeleton in the clock, to figure out what the "flash of pink" on the roof was, and to find the evidence of the murder that is still there.

They arrive on the scene just at the time that Martin Drake has made a bet with Stannard, a middle-aged lawyer, about spending the night in the execution chambers of Pentecost Prison.  The two men--along with Ruth Callice who likes Martin but is liked more by Stannard--have been discussing psychic phenomena and supernatural influences and have come up with the execution chamber as the most likely spot for spirits with unfinished business to hang out.  As soon as they have fulfilled the terms of the bet and spent the night at the prison, a young girl is found murdered below the "long drop" and Drake is the victim of a murderous attack.  An attack that fails only because of H. M.'s foresight.  By the end of the story, H. M. will have found the skeleton in the clock and discovered its secrets; he'll solve the mystery of the pink flash; and will run the murderer to earth in the middle of a house of mirrors.  All while holding an ongoing duel with Lady Brayle, the domineering and commanding friend of the Fleet family and grandmother to Drake's lady love--it's worth the price of admission to watch the three-act mini-drama between H.M. and "Sophie."

There's a good deal of the usual Merrivale antics and humor--this time all in good fun and fairly enjoyable  There are clues to be had, although the solution to the rooftop mystery is almost too much to swallow.  I can just accept it--with the right amount of suspension of disbelief.  The thing that keeps this one from being one of Dickson's (Carr's best)--for me, anyway--is that I spotted the culprit as soon as s/he showed up.  And not for any of the reasons H.M. gives.  But....

****SPOILER---I have finished my sentence below in a light color if you don't want a clue that will narrow the field down for you.  If you don't mind reading it, then just highlight the section below and it will magically appear--just like "disappearing ink.******
 
Because, knowing how Dickson (Carr) loves to throw in the romance....I knew it just had to be her/him so the path of true love could run straight.

Overall, a light fun read coming in at three stars.


This fulfills the "Set in England" square for the Golden Vintage Mystery Card. 

2013 Mount TBR Final Check Point Winner!

Well.  This is it.  The Mount TBR Reading Challenge for 2013 has come to an end.  And I've cranked up the CRNG Machine (Custom Random Number Generator) to give us our final Check Point Winner of 2012.  After much clanking and whirring, the CRNG finally produced.....Number 11.  And our 11th entry is MarjR at Marj's Mysteries !  Congratulations, Marj! (round of applause)  I'll be contacting you shortly about claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who came along on the mountain-climbing journey this year.  It's been fun and I hope to see you all over at the 2014 Mount TBR Challenge.

2013 Color Coded Wrap-up Winner!

And...the 2013 Color Coded Reading Challenge for 2013 has come to an official end. I've cranked up the CRNG Machine (Custom Random Number Generator) to give us our Wrap-Up Winner.  After much clanking and whirring, the CRNG finally produced.....Number 11.  And our 11th entry is Abbhi  from So It Begins!  Congratulations, Abbhi! (round of applause)  I'll be contacting you shortly about claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who joined up for another round of Color Coded Reading.  It's been fun and I hope to see you all over at the 2014 Color Challenge.

2013 Vintage Mystery Challenge Winner!

Well.  This is it.  The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge for 2013 has come to an official end.  And I've cranked up the CRNG Machine (Custom Random Number Generator) to give us our Wrap-Up Winner.  After much clanking and whirring, the CRNG finally produced.....Number 6.  And our 6th entry is MaryR from bibliographic manifestations!  Congratulations, MaryR! (round of applause)  I'll be contacting you shortly about claiming a prize.

Thanks to everyone who joined up for a round of Vintage Scattergories.  It's been fun and I hope to see you all over at the 2014 Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge.

Bout of Books: Book Spree

Rachella at Bookish Comforts is offering up a $100 Book Spree to Bout of Books participants.  Our mission...to go to the Book Depository and shop for up to $100 in books.  We post about our wish list and enter her give-away (and cross our fingers and hope she picks us! Here's my list:

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe  $8.95
Murder in Montparnasse by Kerry Greenwood  $14.11
The Pere-Lachaise Mystery by Claude Izner  $12.59
Wycliffe and the Dunes Mystery by W. J. Burley  $8.99
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus W. Hume  $12.33
The Listerdale Mystery by Agatha Christe  $11.43
Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner  $13.13
Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood  $13.27

Total: $94.80

Bout of Books: Challenge

  

Our first mini-challenge of the Bout of Books 9.0!  Cheap Thrills has given us a list of words to grab from book titles to make a Mad Lib story.  Here's the list with my choices:

Character Name: Beverly of Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon
Adjective 1: Dangerous Visions 3 by Harlan Ellison
Adjective 2: The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel
Item: The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson
Occupation: The Professor's Mystery by Wells Hastings & Brian Hooker
Act of Violence: Murder by Latitude by Rufus King
Adjective 3: A Silent Witness by R. Austin Freeman
Noun 1: Bedknobs and Broomsticks by Mary Norton
Noun 2: The Body in the Bookcase by Katherine Hall Page

And my story with the words above inserted:

I just read the greatest book!

This guy Beverly ends up in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. Turns out his ancestors were pirates, and he might be the key to finding the Purple Clock. It’s a mythic artifact that disappeared centuries ago, and now a shadowy group of professors are looking for it. No one knows what uncovering it might do, but these guys are willing to murder for it.

I won’t say anything else. But believe me, if you like silent stories with broomsticks and a bookcase, you have to read this one.

Bout of Books Starting Line

Ooops. I was so into my reading today that I completely forgot to get my starting post up.  So..here we go.  I'd really like to read at least four more books this week.  More would be better--but four will do it for me.  I say four more because I've already got one under my belt today.  Here's the plan:

1. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak (done! Hope they're all that easy! 1/6/14)

2. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)

3. Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell (90% finished 1/12/14--completed today)

4. Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown (1/12/14)

5. Dangerous Visions 3 by Harlan Ellison, ed (1/11/14)

Other possibles:

6. Nemesis by Isaac Asimov

7. Triumph by Philip Wylie

8. Other Times, Other Worlds by John D. MacDonald

Haven't heard of Bout of Books? Looking for a read-a-thon to get your reading year off to a good start? Check out the info from the Bout of Books gals...But do it quick...the linky closes on January 7!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Shakespeare's Planet: Review

Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak is one very weird book.  It opens with a very simple premise...Carter Horton and three other crew members were sent into space on a sleeper ship a thousand years or so ago.  The ship is a human/machine hybrid (with three human brains as part of its operating system--this supposedly makes sense...it didn't to me) and the mission?  To seek out a planet suitable for human life. The goal? Once a planet was found they were supposed to return to earth so colonization could begin.  Except it wasn't supposed to take a thousand or more years to find one.  And three of the four crew members weren't supposed to die in transit.

So...when a somewhat suitable planet is found, Carter is awakened and he explores the planet with a sidekick robot--Nicodemus.  Ship has told Carter that there's no sense in heading back to earth...by the time they get there he will be two thousands years behind--an outcast from the past.  Carter's not quite sure what the purpose of his exploration (or his life, for that matter) is since the mission seems to have gone awry, but he gets distracted from these musings when he discovers another living being, Carnivore, on the planet.  Although Carnivore is obviously an alien (see the tusked, red-eared, tentacle-handed creature on the cover), Carter is amazed to find that he speaks his language.  All is explained when Carnivore tells Carter that there is a space "tunnel" that has allowed travel to the planet and when he (Carnivore) arrived there was a human named Shakespeare already in residence.

And why, you may ask, didn't Shakespeare and Carnivore leave the planet by the space tunnel? Because it doesn't work for leaving--only for arriving.  It seems to be broken.  Shakespeare is now dead (Carnivore ate him even though he was his friend....don't ask) and Carnivore is SO happy to have new friends who just might be able to help him figure out how to fix the space tunnel so he can leave this "no good planet."  But fixing the space tunnel isn't as easy as all that and there is the "god-hour" to worry about and the stinky creature who lives in the pond and a few other mysteries to clear up before everybody can leave the planet.  Well, everyone except Carnivore--but I can't explain that because that would be a major spoiler.

And...for all that...not a whole heaping bunch really actually happens in this book.  There are long drawn-out parts where the three brains that make up Ship argue with each other and there are philosophical bits where Carter thinks about time and earth and death and whatnot.  There's a big action scene at the end (part of that spoiler I can't talk about)--but nothing is really explained.  The tunnel suddenly works; we don't know for sure why it didn't (though there are answers suggested); we don't know who created the tunnels; and nothing is really resolved satisfactorily. And we're left wondering who the heck Shakespeare really was and why did he come to the planet in the first place?  Oh...and coincidentally, in the middle of everything, another human shows up (three humans on this out-of-the-way planet almost all at once....yep, totally believing that)...and she just happens to show up with no shirt on.  Bet that wasn't gratuitous.  Nope.

There's a bit of interesting commentary on humans and life and death and the purpose of life and even friendship. That and the bit of action at the end make this an okay read and a two-star effort--but definitely not more than that.


Quotes:
Old wives' tales or not, it is best to be ruled by local custom until one is sure. ~Nicodemus, p.25

We are lost because we lost the earth.  We are lost because we do not know where we are. We are lost because we can't find the way back home. There now is no place for us. We walk strange roads in stranger lands and along the way, there is nothing that makes sense. Once we knew some answers because we knew the questions to be asked, but now we can find no answers because we do not know the questions. ~dream version of Shakespeare, p. 146


Our prehistoric ancestors...knew what to be afraid of and that, at the bottom of it, is what any species must have if it is to survive. What to be afraid of, what to walk around, what to leave alone. ~dream version of Shakespeare, p. 147

Challenges Met: Mount TBR Challenge, Bookish TBR, Century of Books, Outdo Yourself, Adam's TBR Challenge, Million Pages, How Many Books, 100 Plus Challenge, Vintage SF Month, Science Fiction Experience, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Book Bingo, Literary Exploration, A-Z Reading Challenge (Alphabet Soup), Out of This World

Last Call: 2013 Challenge Reviews and Wrap-up Posts

Deadline ahead is closer than you think!  All final Wrap-Up and Review Posts for the Vintage Mystery, Color-Coded, and Mount TBR Challenges must be entered by midnight tomorr  ow.  This is especially important for wrap-up posts if you want to be considered for prize drawings. Don't miss out! To make it easy--here are all the post links in one place:

Click for Vintage Mystery Challenge

And Vintage Mystery Challengers--Remember...I posted at the beginning of the challenge that there would be a special "Scavenger Hunt" related to the reading challenge.  Keep your eye on this blog at the beginning of January!

Click for Mount TBR Challenge

Click for Color Coded Challenge