Saturday Snapshot: Firebugs

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. All you have to do is "post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mr. Linky on [her] blog. Photos can be old or new, and be of anything as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give is up to you." All she asks is that you don't just post random photos that you find online. (Click pictures for close-up).

 

Here is a photo of my son, Troop 148's former Fire Master, with his apprentice.  It was taken on our last High Adventure trip with the troop--a canoeing and camping adventure in the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada.  Although Kyle enjoyed many things about scouting, his favorite was fire-building.  It wasn't a REAL camp-out if there was no fire.  And a drenching rain would not stop him (sassafras will burn in a downpour...just ask him). 



[Picture also posted for the Orange You Glad It's Friday meme sponsored by Hood Photo Blog.]

Orange You Glad It's Friday

It's time for another round of Orange You Glad It's Friday.  This photo meme is sponsored by Hood Photo Blog.  The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to post a picture that you have taken or have permission to use with a little or a lot of orange, share your link at the site, visit others, and leave  comments if you wish.  Here's my bit of orange for the week:

 

Here is a photo of my son, Troop 148's former Fire Master, with his apprentice.  It was taken on our last High Adventure trip with the troop--a canoeing and camping adventure in the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada.  Although Kyle enjoyed many things about scouting, his favorite was fire-building.  It wasn't a REAL camp-out if there was no fire.  And a drenching rain would not stop him (sassafras will burn in a downpour...just ask him). 

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme now sponsored by Rose City Reader (who originally inspired the meme). Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Gilion's place.

Here's mine from The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes:

Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and wilfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you'll believe a word of it....It is all true.

[I positively love this beginning.  There was no way I could not keep reading.]

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.

Here's mine from The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes:

A string quartet were plucking their way through some baroque sonata or other but were all drowned out by the babble of conversation, the tinkle of polite laughter, the chink and clink of glasses, the sounds of insincerity.

Vincent Price: The Art of Fear

So...while I was browsing through the library's online catalog in search of Vincent Price films to watch for my R.I.P. Screening entries (VP mini-marathon), I came across the book Vincent Price: The Art of Fear by Denis Meikle.  Meikle has put together an exhaustive chronicle featuring all of Price's work in the horror/thriller field from his work in The Invisible Man Returns and the Tower of London in 1939 to his final appearance in Edward Scissorhands (1989).  Price began his career as handsome character actor and sometimes leading man, but soon found himself playing sympathetic villains in the horror movies that were becoming popular.  He took center stage at a time before special effects and the proliferation of blood and gore became the driving force of the genre--a time when skillful acting was primary and lighting, setting, and atmosphere were the supports.

Meikle's book contains plenty of anecdotes and background information--lots of interesting details for the Vincent Price fan.  He also incorporates insightful comments from collaborators like Roger Corman and Richard Matheson.  There are scores of pictures--many rare and previously unpublished stills.  Given all that, this book should be a delight for Price and horror fans alike.  However, much as I enjoyed learning about Price's films, I get the feeling that Meikle doesn't like Price's work much. Very few of the films earn any sort of praise, many of them are praised with faint damns, and only a couple merit any sort of real praise at all.  Meikle seems to take great exception to the campy, over-the-top nature of so many of the horror films (and those of the 50s in particular).  He doesn't seem to understand 1) the time period in which those films were made or 2) that the campy thrills and chills are part of the appeal for those of us who look back on these movies.  And, yet, one of the films that receives a great deal of attention and praise is Theatre of Blood--a most over-the-top performance indeed.  How much more over the top can one get than a Shakespearean actor overplaying the lines while murdering his "enemies" according to Shakespeare's plays?

I recommend the book for the facts, anecdotes, rarely seen pictures, and the commentary from Corman and Matheson.  I suggest that Meikle's point of view be taken with a grain of salt.  Three stars.

BBAW Day 3: What Blogging Means to Me

Day Three of BBAW has given us the following prompt:  What Does Book Blogging Mean to You?

Well...that's a nice, broad question.  Book blogging means community. New friends.  New books--new territory.  It means a book log for me, challenges, and memes, It means giveaways and review requests.  And so much more.

In the beginning, blogging was the ideal place for me to keep track of all my books.  A place for me to write up my thoughts on everything I read.  There were too many times that I had read a book, but there was no way I could possibly discuss it with anyone because I really couldn't remember all that much about it.  Writing up my reactions to the books I read has helped me hold on to them a lot better.  

What I didn't expect was to find such a wonderful, vibrant community.  The most important thing about blogging to me now is that I have found so many book lovers to virtually chat with.  You would think, working in an English Department, that I'd be able to have book discussions right and left.  But it doesn't quite work that way.  Blogging brings all of you delightful people into my home--to talk about the books I've read, to recommend similar books, and to point me in the direction of books I might never have considered if I hadn't plunged into the wonderful world of blogging.  I have met so many terrific folks out here on the internet--some of whom were mentioned in my first BBAW post, but I would need all night to list you all.  It has been a fun three years and I can't remember what I did before blogging came into my life.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter Q

I have signed up for a second year of The Alphabet in Crime Fiction, a community meme sponsored by Mysteries in Paradise. Each week she'll be expecting participants to produce a post featuring a mystery/crime novel or novelist related to that week's letter.

Keeping up with the Crime Alphabet tour group, I'm all set to tell you about my choice for the Letter Q.  Q is for Question.  Or more specifically, A Question of Time by Helen McCloy--which is on the docket to be read for several challenges before the year is up.  I haven't read many of her novels yet, but I can tell you that I have enjoyed each one I have read.  McCloy is the pen name for Helen Clarkson, an American mystery writer whose recurring detective is Dr. Basil Willling.  He is a psychiatrist who believes that "every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints, and he can't wear gloves to hide them."  Willing was the central character for 13 of McCloy's 29 novels.

A Question of Time is one of McCloy's non-series books. The detective here is Dr. Alfred Neroni who is a medical doctor.   Since it is still hanging out on my teetering TBR pile and I can't give you my own synopsis, let me share what Art Bourgeau, author of the The Mystery Lover's Companion, has to say:  An ingenious murderer uses a surprising and original mechanism to dispose of a young heiress. Although it seems at first a gothic suspense novel and turns out to be a straightforward murder mystery, this book is well worth reading for its clever and scrupulously fair plot. 

And also, the blurb from the back of the book:  They told Lisa she was the daughter of an American aristocrat and an Italian princess, both of whom had died shortly after Lisa's birth. They told Lisa she was heiress to a vast Boston fortune, and that her American family cherished her all wanted her to stay with them. They told Lisa that the handsome, charming young man who was so attentive to her was an ideal choice for a lover and a husband. At first Lisa tried to believe it all. Then she the separate the truth from the lies. But finally she know only one thing for sure...

...someone or something was out to destroy her.... [cue spooky music]

Teaser Tuesdays

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.*Open to a random page.
*Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! You don't want to ruin the book for others.

*Share the title and author too, so other TT participants can add it to their TBR lists if they like your teaser.

Here's mine from Sweet Adelaide by Julian Symons (p. 224):  If they were studying books, why were the curtains sometimes pulled together and then pinned, so that nobody could see in, and what was she doing with her head on the reverend gentleman's knee, bold as brass, not even bothering to move when Alice went in?

BBAW Day 2: Interviews

Day Two of BBAW is all about interviews.  I zoned out this year and didn't get on board till late, so I am taking my cue from Man of La Book and Freda's Voice (the first two to show up on my blogroll) and interviewing that blogger I know so well....me.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite read­ing snack?
I can't say that I always snack when I read.  But when I do it's usually sunflower seeds or grapes.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writ­ing in books hor­rify you?
Given that I've been spending my week watching horror films for the R.eader's I.mbibing P.eril event, I can't say that the feelings I have about marking up a book quite equals horror....but it's close.

How do you keep your place while read­ing a book? Book­mark? Dog-ears? Lay­ing the book flat open?
Absolutely with a bookmark.  There is always a piece of paper somewhere.

Fic­tion, Non-fiction, or both?
I do both....the highest percentage is fiction, though.

Hard copy or audio­books?
Hard copy 90-some percent of the time.  Occasionally do audiobooks when I'm on a long car trip.

Are you a per­son who tends to read to the end of chap­ters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
I am able to put the book down at any point. But I prefer to read to a suitable stopping place. And I hate to put the book down when I'm just "at the good part."  Ask my husband about that story some day.

If you come across an unfa­mil­iar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
I generally look words up unless there's no way to do so.

What are you cur­rently read­ing?
Sweet Adelaide by Julian Symons and Vincent Price: The Art of Fear by Denis Meikle (one fiction and one non-fiction)

What is the last book you bought?
The White Forest by Adam McOmber: a hauntingly original debut novel about a young woman whose peculiar abilities help her infiltrate a mysterious secret society.  [paid for, but just shipped today] AND a book by one of the graduates of the MFA Creative Writing program in the English Department where I work.  Go Adam!

Are you the type of per­son that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
Mostly a one book at a time girl.  Occasionally will have more than one going--If I do then it's like now: one fiction and one non-fiction.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
Not really.  I will read anywhere, anytime.  Give me a place to plop myself and a book and I'm good.

Do you pre­fer series books or stand alone books?
Either way is fine by me, how­ever, like Man of la Book, when read­ing a series I do pre­fer to read in order.

Is there a spe­cific book or author that you find your­self rec­om­mend­ing over and over?
Dorothy L. Sayers, Kerry Greenwood, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, David Lodge, Julian Barnes (I could go on for hours, you know)

How do you orga­nize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
By genre and then by author's last name within the genre.  Except for my pocket size editions....they're all grouped together.

You can go here to check out more great inter­views.  Be sure to leave me a link so I can read yours.

R.I.P. Screening V: House of Wax

For my fifth R.I.P. Screening...and Vincent Price Marathon...I've gone back to horror that's a little more my speed.  I can remember watching House of Wax on the weekend with my parents sometime in the late 70s.  Although people who know my dad now probably wouldn't think it, he was something of a classic horror movie fan....or maybe it was just those classic movies, period.  Westerns, horror, comedy, we watched them all on the Saturday and Sunday afternoon movies.  For you youngsters, that's before the American Movie Classics channel and the like was born.  If we wanted to watch movies on television, we had to wait for "The Movie of the Week" during weeknights or stations to run classic movies on the weekends.  And no Netflix or on demand--we took what was on offer and couldn't decide, "Hey, I'd like to see House of Wax--I think I'll order that up on Netflix."

But...back from my trip down memory lane...on with the show.  House of Wax (1953) was the first 3-D color feature film to come from a major studio (Warner Bros).  It was also a major film for Price.  At the time he was also offered a role in a Broadway play by the name of My Three Angels.  Remembering what great fun he had in an earlier film, The Invisible Man Returns, he opted for the role of Professor Henry Jarrod in the 3D horror picture.  He told Cinfantastique in 1989, "I would love to have done the play, but the people who did the play--it didn't mean anything to them at all. It was a great hit but it didn't help them in their careers, whereas House of Wax changed my life." (Meikle, p. 26)

In House of Wax, Price plays Professor Jarrod--a very talented sculptor who has created very artistic and life-like figures for a wax museum in New York City of the early 1900s.  Jarrod prefers to display figures with real artistic and historical value, but his partner Matthew Burke is only interested in profits.  It's thrills and chills the public wants, not a history lesson.  When Jarrod refuses to cater to the sensation-loving public (a la Madame Tussaud's) and a buy-out option isn't possible for several months, Burke takes matters into his own hands by setting fire to the museum in order to collect the insurance. He leaves Jarrod for dead in the burning building. But Jarrod's body is never found--it is assumed that the high heat from the fire completely destroyed it.

Some time later, after the insurance company is finally persuaded to stop being fussy about the fact that Burke's partner was never properly identified as dead, Burke collects the money and is all set to head to Niagara Falls with a lovely young lady.  A mysterious, horribly disfigured man kills him and makes his death look like suicide.  There is a rash of murders followed by the disappearance of the corpses--including Burke's young lady, Cathy Gray.  Cathy's roommate, Sue Allen discovers the body and sees the man.  From then on, she is stalked and we know it's only a matter of time before she will be in mortal danger herself.  

Meanwhile, Jarrod has been resurrected from the dead.  His face and most of his body seem to have escaped the flames, but his hands are of no use to a sculptor and he has been confined to a wheelchair.  He has several protégés who now do the sculpting for him and he is planning on opening a new museum called the House of Wax.  This time he plans to give the public what it wants and includes a Chamber of Horrors as well as the historical pieces.  When the museum opens, once again the figures are very lifelike--and a great number of them seem to have famiiar faces.  Sue is particularly drawn to the figure of Joan of Arc because of its resemblance to Cathy.  She becomes more and more convinced that this is Cathy's body--even though when she touches the figure, it seems apparent that it is made of wax.

It all comes down to a final scene at the museum.  Sue's beau Scott Andrews, Jarrod's newest protégé, is sent on an errand so he will miss her when she comes to meet him at the museum.  The rooms are dark and spooky and the appropriate creepy music plays as Sue searches through the museum for Scott.  There is plenty of tension as Sue awaits her fate and the police must break through several doors to get to her and the Professor.  Will they be in time?  Well....maybe you should order it up on Netflix and see.

There are a great many things that I like about this film.  I love the period setting--turn of the century is one of my favorites.  I like the fact that Jarrod wasn't an evil man through and through--yes, he was a bit odd at the beginning, talking about his figures as if they were alive, but it isn't until Burke destroys them and tries to kill him that he's pushed over the edge.  There's a bit of sympathy for the man who lost everything that meant anything to him.  A very enjoyable R.I.P. afternoon matinee.

Quotes:
I'm afraid that the visit of a such distinguished critic may cause my children to become conceited. To you they are wax, but to me their creator, they live and breathe.  [Professor Henry Jarrod]

They always want a body!  [Bruce Allison]

I'm moving up honey, no girl ever hits the jackpot till after she passes 14th street. [Cathy Gray]

I'm going to give the people what they want--sensation, horror, shock. Send them out into the streets to tell their friends how wonderful it is to be scared to death. [Jarrod]

It's sort of a shock to see your head detached that way.  [Sue Allen]

That's a copy of her face alright, but she didn't look that way the night we saw her at Ma Flannigan's rooming house. [Sgt. Jim Shane looking at the wax figure of Joan Of Arc who resembles Cathy Gray]
Not so composed, huh. [Lt. Tom Brennan]

That look of horror spoils your lovely face--what if it should show, even through the wax?  [Jarrod]


{All factual information courtesy of Wikipedia and Vincent Price: The Art of Fear by Denis Meikle}

R.I.P. Screening IV: Theatre of Blood

from Wikipedia

With my latest R.I.P. Screening I'm really getting down to the nitty gritty of the bloody horror film--as you can tell by the title: Theatre of Blood.  This 1973 film stars Vincent Price as Edward Lionheart, a stage actor who believes he has been slighted once too often by the theatre critics.  He has spent his career building himself up (if only in his own mind) as the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day.  He fully expects to be handed the Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor and is humiliated when it is given to a much younger man.  He bursts in on the critics as they are enjoying an after-ceremony drink and apparently commits suicide.

Two years later, the critics begin dying--one by one.  Each death is patterned after a play in Lionheart's final year of stage work.  The deaths range from the Duke of Clarence's ill-fated date with a butt of wine (Richard III) to Julius Caesar's death to Hector's demise at the hands of Achilles (Troilus & Cressida).  It would seem that Lionheart survived his plunge from a balcony into the sea and is exacting his revenge in Shakespearean fashion.  He even has the audacity to rewrite the bard's Merchant of Venice....by really, truly requiring a pound of flesh from one of the critics.

I have to admit that this one is a bit outside my usual range for horror. I much prefer the black & white classics that depend on atmosphere and organ music for their chills and thrills.  Blood and gore abounds--stabbing by spear, multiple stabbings for the Caesar scene, a beheading--if it weren't for the great bits where Price recites sections of Shakespeare while preparing his victims for their fate or after he has disposed of them, I'm not sure I could take it. [And, yes, I realize that this is nothing compared to later slasher films.  But I'm a weenie when it comes to horror.]  Price is priceless in this film.  Is there overacting?   You betcha--but only because the part demands it.  I thoroughly enjoyed him as the Shakespearean actor out to wreak havoc on the critic's circle--in return for all the actors lives they had ruined with their poisoned pens.

Quotes:
George Maxwell: That damn editor cut my review! 
Mrs. Maxwell: So I saw, dear, you really ought to have a word. 
Maxwell: My most provocative comment too. When I said the lead actress grabbed the role with both hands, and throttled it to death.

Inspector Boot: Saw him once. A very, uh, vigorous actor.
Peregrine Devlin: That's a good description. 

Devlin: You begin to resent an actor if you always have to give him bad notices. 

Chloe Moon: Take me home, I think I'm going to be ill. 
Meredith Merrydew: Oh my God! [looks at his dogs] I think Georgina's going to faint! 

Edward Lionhart: I always admired you as a critic, Snipe. Your clever use of analogy and metaphor, plus you always strived to be complimentary. But not always complimentary.  
Hector Snipe: Critics make mistakes, Lionheart. We're only human. 
Lionhart:  An opinion I find myself incapable of sharing.

Lionhart: I wonder if he'll travel well? [after sealing Larding's corpse in a wine barrel] 

Edwina Lionhart: I'm busy, Devlin. 
Devlin: Edwina, four of my collegues have been murdered. And their deaths relate directly to your father's last season. 
Edwina: If you were as imaginative in your reviews, Devlin, you'd be a better critic. 

Inspector Boot: Look, Devlin, when two people have the same motive to murder and one of them is still alive, who would you arrest?

Devlin: It's him all right. Only Lionheart would have the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare! 

Lionhart: [as Butch to Chloe Moon] Oh, I wish you'd let me do something camp with the colour, darling. Like flame with ash highlights. 

Devlin: You did kill Larding and the others didn't you? 
Lionhart: How many actors have you destroyed as you destroyed me? How many talented lives have you cut down with your glib attacks? What do you know of the blood, sweat and toil of a theatrical production? Of the dedication of the men and the women in the noblest profession of them all? How could you know you talentless fools who spew vitriol on the creative efforts of others because because you lack the ability to create yourselves! No Devlin, no! I did not kill Larding and the others. PUNISHED them my dear boy, punished them. Just as you shall have to be punished. 
Devlin: Well get it over with then, just so you don't have to make me listen to that demented rubbish of yours. Go on, kill me then!

BBAW1: Appreciation

It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week! This week is all about the people who make this community work – book bloggers! It was (according to the BBAW site) "started by Amy Riley of My Friend Amy in an effort to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading.” Each day will have its own featured topic, and today we're out to recognize fellow bloggers who have influenced us and made this whole web-writing, book-loving experience so wonderful for us. If you check out the blogs I follow, I could literally list a hundred or so.

But before I list my favorites, I have a confession to make.  Several of these lovely people have listed my blog as one of their favorites--for which I am very thankful and very humbled.  Particularly humbled because this year I have felt pretty unplugged from my previous blogging habits.  I haven't visited you all nearly as much as I intended to and I haven't even kept up with the participants in my reading challenges the way I like to.  But you all have stuck with me and keep coming back and saying nice things about me.  So, thank you very much to all of you wonderful bloggers who follow, comment, just read and appreciate what I do here, and participate in the challenges I sponsor.  If I'm following you, then I love what you do.  I may not say so as often as I should--but I do.

And, now, a list of the best of the best ('cause you're all great!):

Cheryl at CMash Loves to Read. Cheryl is an awesome blogger. She's one of the first blogging friends I made out here in the blogosphere. A lovely lady with a wonderful sense of humor who encourages us all. And she reads the books I'm too scared to read (all those thriller-type books). And keeps me in line over my classics and vintage mysteries. If I read something too recent, she mother hens me and wants to take my temperature. :-)  And--if all that weren't enough to keep her busy, she's now the CEO of Partners in Crime Tours and its sister book tour business Providence Book Promotions.  She's one busy lady, but always has time to check in and see how I'm doing.

And Adam at Roof Beam Reader. Adam keeps me in touch with the Classics. He and I don't always agree on the classics we read (*cough* Hemingway *cough* for instance). But he has an absolutely awesome blog and always has interesting things to say.  He's also a very nice guy and terrifically supportive fellow blogger.

And Amanda at Dead White Guys who often has me snorting at my desk and making my co-workers wonder what I'm up to. She has the most hilarious, yet in-depth reviews for all those classics I love.

And John at Pretty Sinister Books. One of the most awesome sites for vintage mysteries (and supernatural and adventure stories) around. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of vintage books.  I said last year that I've made it my mission in life to find a vintage mystery author that he hasn't already got the goods on. And I also said that it's going to be a long mission....Yep, still working on that. He's also a pretty fabulous guy.

And Sergio at Tipping My Fedora.  Another blogger who is incredibly knowledgeable about those vintage mysteries I adore.  His reviews are insightful, indepth, and incredible.  

And Yvette at in so many words. Her blog is gorgeous. She loves the vintage mysteries like I do.  In fact, she posts lists about them that makes me add tons to my already too big TBR list--that's not a bad thing for a book blogger, by the way. And she's a marvelously supportive fellow blogger. 

And Ryan at Wordsmithonia.  Who--if he has done nothing else (and he's done plenty else)--has taught me to love Mary Roberts Rinehart.  He also writes very thoughtful, indepth reviews of those Rinehart books (and all the other things he reads).  He's a wonderful fellow blogger and I'm so very glad that my Vintage Mystery Challenge brought him my way.  And...he plays a mean game of Words With Friends on Facebook.  

And Red at What Red Read.  One of the more eclectic readers that I follow.  I never know if Red will be posting about Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest or the classic detective novel The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins or The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.  What I do know is the reviews will be well done and there will be a lot of humor.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

 

Books Read (click on titles for review):

The Edgar Winners: 33rd Annual Anthology of the Mystery Writers of America by Bill Pronzini, ed
The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin
A Stranger in My Grave by Margaret Millar

Currently Reading:

Sweet Adelaide by Julian Symons: All her life Adelaide craved freedom: freedom from poverty, freedom from the ignorance and shame her birth condemned her to, and, most of all, freedom from the husband who repelled her. And Adelaide Bartlett knew just how to get what she wanted.... [based on a notorious unsolved 19th C murder]

 

 

Books that spark my interest:

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime by Michael Sims (ed) 

Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart

Star Trek & Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant by Jason T Eberl & Kevin S Decker (eds)

History of the Millennium (so Far) by Dave Barry

Murder at the MLA by D J H Jones

 

A Stranger in My Grave: Review

We've all had those time when we're searching for something lost...car keys, our glasses, etc.  But have you ever gone looking for a day?  That's what Daisy Harker is doing in Margaret Millar's A Stranger in My Grave.  Well.  Not literally, of course.  But Daisy has had a dream, a very disturbing dream.  She dreams that she has died and she is faced with her tombstone. The date of death reads December 2, 1955--four years before the present day.  The dream is so vivid and haunting that she almost feels like it (or something equally traumatic) has really happened  When she tells her dream to her mother and her husband, they both tell her she's overreacting.  That's it's just a dream.  Nothing to worry about.

Daisy is determined to find out if anything really did happen four years ago and she hires private detective Steve Pinata to help her reconstruct December 2, 1955.  At first, he thinks she's just a bored little housewife with too much time on her hands.  And maybe just a little bit crazy.  But the deeper they dig the more apparent it becomes that something really did happen...and it was traumatic enough that Daisy has forgotten it.  Her estranged father keeps appearing and disappearing.  There's a young woman named Juanita whose name keeps popping up.  And Daisy's mother and husband both seem to be keeping things from her. They say they're protecting her or keeping her from worrying about things she needn't.  But she's not so sure. Whom can she trust?  And who will tell her the truth?

I hate to disagree with my friends John (Pretty Sinister Books) and Sergio (Tipping My Fedora), but this one just wasn't quite the knock-it-out-of-the-park that I expected.  It was very good, but my favorite is still Beast in View.  Millar, as usual, does a really good job building the suspense and keeping us guessing about what's really going on--and pulls a rather nifty twist at the end just keep us thoroughly off-balance.  I didn't plug into the themes of "childlessness, orphans, and parenting styles" the way John did when he read this one earlier this year. But I did get a lot of oppressive, smothering vibes from Daisy's mother (and to some extent her husband).  Going on about how close she and Daisy always were and "why won't you talk to me now, Daisy?"  Wanting to know everything about why Daisy feels the way she does and, yet, trying to keep Daisy from knowing anything that might explain the feelings.  Keeping important knowledge about her father from her as well as important information about her childless state. 

The suspense builds steadily throughout the book and it's a credit to Millar's skill that she can keep the tension at such a high pitch without feeling the need to break it with unnecessary humor.  And she deftly uses the prejudices of the time period to help set up the grand finale.  A book about relationships and deceit that makes the reader wonder how well we really know those we think we know the best.  Three and a half stars.

Quotes:
My ex-wife was always telling me I had no ego, in a reproachful way, as if an ego was something like a hat or a pair of gloves which I'd carelessly lost or misplaced. [Mr. Fielding; p. 39]

I didn't lose the day. It's not lost. It's still around someplace, here or there, wherever used days and old years go. They don't simply vanish into nothing They're still available--hiding, yes, but not lost. [Daisy Harker; p. 49]

Pinata looked surprised and somewhat annoyed, as if a pet parrot, which he had taught to speak a few simple phrases, had suddenly started explaining the techniques of nuclear fission. [p. 50]

When we don't know what's important, anything can be. [Stevens Pinata, p. 76]

DH: Camilla, it's a very pretty name. What does it mean, a camellia?
SP: No, it means a stretcher, a little bed.
DH: Oh. It doesn't sound so pretty when you know what it means.
SP: That's true of a lot of things.
[Daisy Harker; Stevens Pinata; p. 87]

People, alas, are more impressed by statistics than they are by ideas. [Charles Alston, p. 132]

Saturday Snapshot: Tiger Lilies!

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. All you have to do is "post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mr. Linky on [her] blog. Photos can be old or new, and be of anything as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give is up to you." All she asks is that you don't just post random photos that you find online. (Click pictures for close-up).

These beauties are tiger lilies that my mom gave me to plant in my garden about 10 years ago. This picture is from June 2009--unfortunately, due to the drought, there were no blooms this year.


[Picture also posted for the Orange You Glad It's Friday meme sponsored by Hood Photo Blog.]

The Necropolis Railway: Review

The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin is first book in a series starring railway man Jim Stringer.  It is billed on its cover as "an ingenious and atmospheric thriller" (Daily Express, London) and "a masterful novel about a mad, clanking fog-bound world (Simon Winchester, author of The Professor & the Madman), but quite honestly ingenious, thriller and masterful aren't the words that come to mind. Atmosphere....now I will admit that it's got plenty of that.  There are bits where the atmosphere is perfect--the reader is plopped down in Edwardian England and it feels right.  But then there's that dream-like, misty-edged, through-the-looking-glass atmosphere that makes the reader stop and flip back through several pages, look up, and say to oneself, "What the heck just happened there?"  It doesn't help that all sorts of unfamiliar terms (mostly railway, but not all) are thrown about like everyone knows an encyclopedia's worth of railway jargon.

The story is, on the surface, an interesting and inventive one.  It's 1903 and Jim Stringer, a butcher's son from Yorkshire, dreams of being an express driver--he do love him some speed.  His dad would prefer that he follow in his footsteps, but sees the trains in his son's eyes and agrees to railway work...as a porter.  But Stringer meets Rowland Smith, a man with connections to the London and South Western company, and it looks like he's on his way to fulfilling his dream.

He heads to London where he meets nothing but trouble.  He isn't assigned to the section of the railway he expects.  Instead, he's going to be serving on engines that transports coffins along the "graveyard line."  And his railway mates aren't--matey, that is.  He's not sure if they just don't like him because he seems to have an "in" with the bosses or if they think he's there to spy on them or because he's come from the country and doesn't fit in with their ways.  And then he discovers that his predecessor just disappeared....and there seem to be an unusual amount of railway deaths related to the Necropolis Railway.  The more he hears about his predecessor, the more he wants to find out what happened to him....and his questions and investigations soon put his life in danger.  Will he find out the truth before he receives his own one-way ticket on the graveyard train?

When I saw this book at the Friends of the Library Bookstore and I read the synopsis, I was instantly intrigued.  I wish I could say that the book lived up to its promise--but it didn't.  The best parts were the atmosphere (the good, historical atmosphere) and the last-minute twist at the end.  And the few good quotes I was able to glean.  The negatives: 1) Jim Stringer really isn't a character that I ever got terribly interested in.  I kept reading because I wanted to finish the book, not because I just had to know what happened.  2) I hate ambiguous endings.  Yes, we find out who did it.  But will justice be served?  Who knows.  What's in store for Stringer?  Beats me.  3) Railway jargon out the wazoo.  Unfamiliar terms are okay as long as they're explained--either overtly or through context--and the reader's not inundated with them.  

Overall: Decent mystery buried in the weird, dream-like atmosphere and excessive railway terms.  Okay, but not terrific for two and a half stars.



Quotes:
I would soon learn that in London they are never happy to just do a thing once. (p. 4)

As we pulled away, I leant out of the cab and watched the Bug [a train] disappearing into the complications of the down-main with a great sense of desolation in me; of being a very small person in a very great city, where everything hurtled at too great a rate, and people moved from station to station, life to death, all in the blinking of an eye, with nobody to notice or care, or say that the world had been lost to madness, because the madness had by degrees become the normal thing. (p. 68)

I could've carried on stumbling all day: one direction is just as good as another when everybody about you is dead. (p. 111)