Three Books --- One Post

Well, it just has been too hard to get to a computer lately. I wish I could say that I was touring the Denali National Park or something to that effect, but it just wouldn't be true. Nevertheless, here's what I've been reading:

"Strawberry Shortcake Murder" is the second of the Hannah Swensen cooking mystery series. I've read a couple of other books by JoAnne Fluke as well. This one involves Hannah's sister a bit more. Again, there is nothing earth-shattering here, but it is a nice, pleasant little read. Hannah is becoming more involved with Mike, the new detective in town, and Norm, a local dentist.






"Defend and Betray" is the third book in Anne Perry's Inspector Monk series. Once again, I'm longing for more of Monk! This particular tome further develops the character and dynamics between Hester Latterly, private nurse, Monk, now a private enquiry agent and Oliver Rathbone, a lawyer known to both. The part of the book further exploring Hester and lawyer's relationship is good, and we do get to see a bit more of Monk as he continues to struggle with amnesia. The very best part of the book is the last extended episode in which Rathbone extracts a confession of sorts as well as an explanation for the murder. It is great Perry Mason type of stuff. All in all, I did enjoy this book better than the previous one.




Finally, I just finished a most delightful read, Elizabeth Peter's "Crocodile on the Sandbank." This is a first in a series following "spinster" amateur archaeologist and classicist Amelia Peabody. I absolutely adore Amelia, and I'm sure most people would. Her frankness, audacity, boldness, courage and phenomenal mastery of the English language are simply wonderful. Although I had figured out the mystery well before the end of the book, I didn't care! I loved the entire Peabody experience. I would write more of the plot, but suffice to say a mummy is involved, a love triangle --- a second love story with no triangle and great Egyptian scenery. What a blast!

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Ned Parker, a New Amateur Sleuth

This book is the first of a planned series featuring Ned Parker, a hansom cab driver in 1870s London. Ned has inherited his business from his father, who also made a living selling information to the police, or so Ned believes.

Ned is known for being "nosy" and has insatiable curiosity. He finds himself entangled in a murder mystery supposedly committed by another cab driver. Ned pledges to help his work associate whom he is convinced is blameless. This leads Ned into a series of adventures and ever-deepening mysteries revolving around silver candlesticks, sunken Spanish treasure, the newly-built London Underground and even his own dad's dealings.

I really like Ned as a character. King has sketched Ned as a warm figure, and frankly it's impossible not to like him. The author has a great knowledge of London at this time including both historic personalities, class differences, and geography. King weaves together a fun story, and it is an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to more.

My only complaint is that the editing could have been a little tighter. There were several fragments and misplaced punctuation marks. Was it rushed to press? These are easily forgiven because the plot and character development is so good.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

True Detective Investigates Victorian Murder

Kate Summerscale's "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective" is a marvelous book. Meticulously researched with copious notes and recommendations, this is non-fiction crime writing at its best!

Summerscale relates the vicious murder of Saville Kent, age 4, at the hands of some relative or staff member within his own home. The author is able to present the story of the murder itself along with the outrage of Victorian English society and the rise and fall of English detectives of Scotland Yard by intertwining both the official reports of the case, reports in magazines and from the comments of literary men and the judicial magistrates of the time. Even though it is a complex story, it reads wonderfully well due to the author's skill at pacing and revealing only what we need to know when we need to know it.

Although the murder crime itself is fascinating reading, the author's theme of the rise of the London detective, specifically Mr. Jonathan (a.k.a., Jack) Whicher, is what really pulls you into the story. Chronicling the fascination of Victorian society with detectives and their methods while also drawing out the opposing revulsion of the invasion of privacy and the tearing down of long-held tents of family life, Summerscale demonstrates both the admiration and contempt that these pioneer detectives faced. We hear from Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, early progenitors of the mystery novel, and we see how society embraces the detective yet at the same time is repulsed by him. A wonderful parallel, not voiced in the book, is our modern media obsession with forensics and crime scene investigators. It all started in the mid-eighteen hundreds with the formulation of this group of detectives at Scotland Yard.

Without spoiling Summerscale's (and Whicher's) suspicions and conclusions on the guilty party, let me just say that her case is strongly presented and well-documented.

This one is certainly worth the read!

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Dimity Is a Dear

I just finished Nancy Atherton's first "mystery" in the Dimity series entitled "Aunt Dimity's Death." I enclose the word mystery in quotation marks because I'm not sure this is a mystery in the truest sense.

Lori Shepherd is the heroine who is struggling with a divorce, the death of her mother and a lack of purpose and stability in her life. She finds herself summoned to a curiously Dickensian attorney's office in Boston. She discovers there that the person of Aunt Dimity, a character is some stories her mother told her as a child is not, in fact, a fictional protagonist. Aunt Dimity is indeed a real person, and Lori is to complete a review and write an introduction to a children's book about Aunt Dimity for a small sum of money.

While on this pilgrimage in England, Lori finds out more about her mother and the mysterious Dimity. During the course of this rather benign adventure, Lori falls in love with one of the attorneys. Blending a touch of the supernatural (Dimity can speak to her through a journal) with history and a cozy setting, Atherton has created a unique heroine and sweet story.

While there wasn't much suspense in this novel, and no real Agatha Christie-type of mystery, the book was still an entertaining read.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Just Take a Pass

After reading Sharon Kay Penman's "Sunne in Splendour" and raving about in here in my blog, I fancied that the recent "The Other Boleyn Girl" might be an equally wonderful historical fiction of the Boleyn family and King Henry VIII's court.

Boy, was I wrong.

This is just not a good book. While I am sure that it might be good, bawdy reading for those unfamiliar with the court and just want an HBO/Cinemax/Showtime version of the period, this was just fiction. I wouldn't even call it historical fiction. There are some portions of it that are just way off base.

I would take a pass on this book. I cannot recommend it.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Dangerous Mourning Puts Me in Mourning

OK. I'm disappointed. If this is an "Inspector Monk" novel, then why is someone else solving the cases?

I was REALLY excited to read the second of the Inspector Monk novels by Anne Perry. The first novel, "The Face of a Stranger," was wonderful. I had anticipated that our intrepid Inspector Monk would continue his journey through his amnesiac episode and that we would learn more and more about him. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In a plot line too similar to the second of the Inspector Pitt series, a nurse friend of Monk's takes up residence within the aristocratic household to ferret out information and discern who might have murdered one of the daughters of the household. The story begins to revolve completely around nurse Hester Latterly. And, just as in the first book, one of the family members is the guilty party.

All in all, this book was a bitter let down. I'm hoping for better in the third book, but if that one doesn't knock my socks off, I may have to beg off this series.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable!

Murder in an Upscale Square

Anne Perry's second mystery following Charlotte Pitt and her husband Inspector Thomas Pitt focuses on the discovery of two dead babies buried in a fashionable London square. Charlotte's sister, a member of the upper-crust, helps Charlotte out by weaving in and out of society and reporting the gossip the ladies discuss at their afternoon callings for tea.

While this is a good mystery, I was certainly hoping to see and learn more of Inspector Pitt. Charlotte is such a likable character, but I want to know more of Pitt and his background. There is a good cast of characters and suspects, and Perry's treatment of General Balantyne is quite wonderful. He is a true Victorian gentleman, and apparently the only honest one of the bunch.

We see a lot more of the unseemly side of Victorian England in this novel, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one, Cater Street Hangman. All in all, an OK read, but something was missing for me.

Face of a Stranger

I picked up the first book of Anne Perry's other Victorian mystery series entitled "The Face of a Stranger." This book shows a bit more maturity in writing, and it is a bit more introspective in that we get to know the main character William Monk in a more personal and intimate way than we do Inspector Pitt in "Cater Street Hangman."

The story begins with Monk waking in a hospital suffering from a head injury. This sounds trite, but Perry really pulls it off. We get to watch Monk go through the process of recovering his memory while attempting to hide it from his superiors and his other associates. We watch Monk struggle to find out what kind of man he was/is, and not liking what he discerns and learns. We also cheer when his intuition and abilities surface, as he instinctively navigates through the maze of Victorian culture.

This story is replete with plot twists and great characters. I really enjoyed reading it, and I'm looking forward to see what else Monk does in the future. The ending was satisfying, but there are plenty of loose ends to make future developments quite interesting.

All in all, this one is another winner!

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Victorian Mystery Theme Continues

I just finished another Victorian-era mystery. This one is the first in a series about Inspector Pitt published in 1979 by Anne Perry. It's called "The Cater Street Hangman."

This book is finely nuanced. While Will Thomas hits you with fast-action, witty, sly commentary and rather exotic characters, Tyler's book mirrors Victorian restraint. The characters are well-developed, and the plot moves along nicely with the requisite twists, turns and surprises. I would have liked to know more about Pitt, but I know more will information will follow. I am anxious to see how the romance between Pitt and the privleged Charlotte comes along. I believe those would be my only "wishes" for this book. I truly enjoyed it, stayed up way too late reading it and can't wait for the next installment!

On a sidenote, Anne Perry has a rather interesting background and childhood. She and a girlfriend murdered the girlfriend's mother back in the early 1950s. You can read more about it here. Ms. Perry herself has a website with wonderful information on her books and her style as well.

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

"Limehouse Text" Great Read

I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that I have now made it through all four of Will Thomas' Barker and Llewelyn mysteries. I devoured these books. They are SO GOOD! I want more!

This third in the series (I started with the fourth and then went from first through third) ties up some loose ends. In this one we get to learn a little more about the mysterious woman coming to groom Harm, Barker's Pekingese dog. We also watch Barker and his sublimely witty assistant solve the murder of Barker's previous assistant, Quong. This is a tour de force of Victorian England's China Town (Limehouse) replete with underground kingpins, bruisers, cops on the take, etc.

I can't say enough about this series. I can't wait for the next one.



Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.

Some Danger Involved Great Debut

After reading Will Thomas' most recent novel, I decided to go back and start from the beginning of his series. "Some Danger Involved" is the first of the Barker and Llewelyn mysteries.

We get to meet Thomas Llewelyn, downtrodden and despairing. He answers an advertisement for a private enquiry agent's assistant. I think the chapter detailing his interview is one of the best meeting of what becomes a partner and his assistant ever written! Here comes another Holmes and Watson.

Thomas has a great knack for description of both characters and setting. His research is meticulous, and it shows through his crisp writing.

This plot of the book revolves around Llewelyn's coming of age and experience in his travails as Barker's assistant. The case which they are hired to investigate is the crucifixion of a immigrant Jew and the subsequent stoning of another Jewess. Is there a pogrom fomenting through the machinations of eugenic ministers and academics, or is this the act of some deranged lunatic?

I'm really enjoying this series, and I've already started on the next one!

May your reading be both pleasurable and profitable!

Historical Mystery Is a Hit

"The Hellfire Conspiracy" is a gem of a book. It is the fourth in a series of mysteries by Will Thomas set in Victorian England, ca 1885.

Thomas Llewelyn is an assistant to private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker. After a young girl is kidnapped and subsequently ravaged and murdered, the two take on the case of finding and stopping what is a serial killer in the East End of London.

Llewelyn is a former Oxford student who has lost his wife and has previously run afoul of the law. Barker is a former captain plying the Chinese trade routes. Their relationship is a neat fit, similar to that of Watson and Holmes.

The author has done a marvelous job of incorporating real-life personalities into his book including W.H. Stead, Amy Levy, Beatrice Potter and others. His knowledge and depiction of London at this time is equally admirable. Not since Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" have I read such a wonderfully accurate and well-researched historical suspense and mystery.

I think I will try to read Thomas' previous books. My interest is piqued!

Until next time, may your reading be both pleasurable and profitable.