July 30-comparing two favorite characters

This month I read both a mystery by J.D. Robb and a novel by Jacqueline Winspear, two of the series that I have discovered recently and I’m trying to catch up on.  Although they are completely different types of stories I have a good time comparing Maisie Dobbs with Eve Dallas-in some ways the antithesis of each other and yet some similarities at the core.  Both had difficult childhoods and both have suffered a traumatic experience with which they have to deal.  Both investigate mysteries:  Maisie as a private investigator and psychologist who has incredible intuition and an ability to read people; and Eve as a homicide detective for the New York City police.  Both are passionate about their jobs, Maisie with not only solving the “mystery” but helping all concerned deal with the aftermath and Eve with standing as Justice for the victim making sure the perpetrator pays for the crime.  Both are strong females that work at managing their vulnerability.    I like both of these characters and, especially in the J.D. Robb series, it s one of the main reasons that I keep going back to the series.

Unfortunately, I may never meet anyone who reads both so I can discuss this idea-unless I can convince Mary to read the Maisie Dobbs series.  I’m amazed that she likes the Eve Dallas series; I think she might like Maisie even better.  Diana doesn’t like Eve and I suspect Melinda wouldn’t, either-too gritty, and too futuristic-but they both like Maisie.

Winspear’s series is clearly better literature with each one being well crafted and historically researched.  So far there are five books in the series.  I found book five in hardcover on a sale table at B&N last week so sometime in the next few weeks I will be caught up and anxiously awaiting another installment.  Robb churns out her series at the rate of two a year in addition to all the books she cranks out under the Nora Roberts name.  I’ve read the first twelve plus two others out of order; in November she will publish number 27.  It will take me quite a while to catch up.  One thing that helps with the catching up is that these are very fast reads, a maximum of two easy nights reading assuming I’m smart and go to bed on time and don’t stay up to finish it! Let’s face it.  I like the Eve Dallas series because it’s chick fantasy!   Much of the attraction of the Maisie Dobbs series is its historical accuracy as well as appealing continuing characters you care about.

July 31-2008 goals and plans for the blog

I’ve been so busy trying to set up my new book blog that I’ve only had time to make one daily note-which may be defeating the purpose of the blog, which is to share my thoughts on reading.   In fact, I found I was also neglecting my reading.  I had set a goal of trying to read a minimum of six books a month for this year and I had to stay up late tonight to finish my 6^th book for July.  However, I’m still well ahead for the year since in the first six months I averaged nearly 9 books a month-53 books completed by the end of June.

My goal for the second six months is to read at least one classic book every month as well as to continue reading at least six books each month.  Luckily, in July my classic book was a short one.  If I decide to tackle Anna Karenina this year I may be glad I’m so far ahead in my total book tally!  In addition to having had a desire for many years to read that novel, it has the added bonus of giving me a big boost toward my goal of 10,000 pages from my personal library in 2008.  I have just a little over 2,000 pages more to reach my goal and Anna would be about half of the amount I have left.  Since all my classics will be from my personal library this year I have a good chance to exceed that goal, also.

However, first I must finish setting up the blog.  I planned to have the blog “start” with January of this year as I can draw from this journal to fill in the first six months.  I think I have May, June and the rest of July to catch up.  When reading I often make connections to other books I’ve read so I may go back to previous journals when I find a relationship between a current book and one I’ve read previously.  I also tend to read “series” books-especially mysteries-so I will use the earlier journals to fill in there, also.  One important thing I must learn next is how to make internal links when I want to refer to a book I’ve already read so the reader of the blog can just click a link to go to than review.

Crane, Stephen:  The Red Badge of Courage

I’m not sure how I managed to miss reading this for so many years because it is one of the most well known American classics about the Civil War.  It was never a reading assignment for me in school for which I am now glad because I’m sure I enjoyed it more as an adult than I would have as a student.

This is an “interior” novel that emphasizes the thoughts and emotions of a young, idealistic boy who enlists in the Union army against his mother’s advice and prayers.  He goes off with ideas of the glory of battle after reading such classic accounts of war for which the ancient Greeks were renowned.  He quickly learns that the reality is nothing like the ideal of the classic wars.  Crane does a good job of giving us the ups and downs of the daily life of a foot soldier and excellent descriptions of battles.  However, the focus of the novel is Henry Fielding’s (often referred to merely as “the youth”) adolescent perceptions and reactions to the daily grind of the soldier and to his concerns about how he appears to the other soldiers.   This is a coming of age novel that takes place in the hellish conditions of armed conflict.  It deserves its classic designation but if it is assigned to students it should be read and discussed in small doses.  There is essentially no plot to keep a young person’s interest but it could make a great discussion book about dealing with the ups and downs of adolescent emotions.

While reading this book I also started reading a book of Walt Whitman’s Complete Poems.  I know he had written poems about the Civil War so I looked up some of them.  After reading this very realistic novel most of them seemed to me to be a too romanticized look at the war.  However, one of them captured well the feel of a scene described by Crane early in the book.  I know Crane never witnessed anything of the civil War; I wonder if Whitman did.

CALVALRY CROSSING A FORD

A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,

They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun-

hark to the musical clank,

Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering

stop to drink,

Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a

picture, the negligent rest on the saddles,

Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering

the ford-while,

Scarlet and blue and snowy white,

The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind.

(Walt Whitman)

Winspear, Jacqueline:  Messenger of Truth

I’m having a dilemma and so is my public library system about how to classify the Maisie Dobbs series.  Some of the local libraries, including mine, are putting these novels in the adult fiction area while others are classifying them as adult mystery (at least there is no doubt that they are “adult”).   Although I filed the previous reviews I’ve done on this series under mysteries, I have decided that they really do belong in general fiction.  The plots are more complex than most mysteries and involve more than one plot thread; although sometimes these threads overlap, they are not neatly tied into a tidy package at the end and usually there are things to ponder when the last page is read.  The “mystery” in each novel is not a puzzle to be solved but a story to be unraveled so that one or more characters can go on with his/her life.  There is character development within each story and not only with continuing series characters. One of the chief delights of the series is how Winspear takes us back to an historical time, the period between to two World Wars of the 20^th century in England.  We get to see the effects of this period across the entire social strata from the poor struggling to survive to the “last hurrah” of the peers of the realm who have no clue what is happening in the lower levels of society.

This entry in the series concerns the death of a famous artist on the eve of the opening of his largest exhibition.  While working on how he will exhibit his largest masterpiece, which no one has ever seen nor knows what it consists of, he accidentally falls to his death from the scaffold on which he is working.   His twin sister is not satisfied with the explanation of the police about his death and goes to Maisie Dobbs to have her investigate not only the death but what happened to the missing masterpiece.  Because the artist was a “war artist” there are memories of the war revived, in addition to a portrait of a once wealthy landed family dealing with not only artistic temperament but also how to cope with straitened circumstances.  Both Maisie and her aide, Billy, also have problems with which Maisie must deal.  This is a very satisfying if somewhat sobering story.  I highly recommend this series.

To me an interesting connection between this story and The Red Badge of Courage, which I also read this month, is that both novels have a scene where a cease fire is called so that the warring armies can go out on the battlefield to remove their wounded and bury their dead.  In Winspear’s novel there is poignant description of a meeting between soldiers from opposite sides who accidentally meet face to face amid the carnage and hug each other as they shed tears for their dead comrades.   This is followed by a horrifying account of what happens to one of the soldiers when he returns behind his own army’s line.

Brand, Christianna:  Green for Danger

Last month as one of my Book Challenge selections I read the short story collection English Country House Murders edited by Thomas Godfrey. (See Review in June) The story by Christianna Brand caught my attention and the blurb at the beginning mentioned that she had been a contemporary of the Golden Age of mystery writers (e.g. Christie, Marsh, Tey, and Sayers), had written several mystery novels featuring a detective named Cockrell, and was still very popular in England and on the continent. He suggested Green for Danger as her best one. This is definitely a classic mystery although in the way she develops her characters and handles her plot I think her style resembles Josephine Tey more than Agatha Christie. The setting is during the Blitz in a military hospital in a heavily bombed area that is forced to take in civilian casualties. Although it takes place in a hospital it still has the feel of a Country House Mystery because besides the victims we are only concerned with the six suspects, three doctors and three nurses, and the detective, Cockrell. The environs are the hospital, the grounds and the lodge house where the three women reside when not on duty. The motive for 2 of the murders is part of the mystery, for the characters as well as the reader. This mystery has interesting characters, gives an historically accurate picture of what was happening in England during the blitz and also a great description of medical practices at that time, some very suspenseful moments that are psychologically created rather than “chase related”and a very clever puzzle which keeps you guessing.

There were two things that made this book particularly appealing to me. I found the historical part of the book interesting because this was written in 1944 when the WWII era would have been fresh in Brand’s mind, up close and personal. I enjoyed comparing her descriptions with Jaqueline Winspear’s account in Maisie Dobbs, which is a 21^st century novel cum mystery set during and after the WWI era. I was especially tickled to spot a reference to the feathers that are the crux of Winspear’s second Maisie Dobbs novel, Birds of a Feather. I wonder if they did the same thing during WWII as they did in WWI or is it merely an anomaly. I will have to research that again. The other appealing aspect of this novel is that Brand fooled me in her solution to the mystery while completely playing fair. This does not happen to me very often. How much fun I had remembering the important clues that I had noticed but ignored because she hid them in plain sight so well. Classic mystry buffs should love this book!

Spencer-Fleming, Julia:  A Fountain Filled with Blood

Spencer-Fleming’s second cozy-cum-thriller to feature the Reverend Clare Fergusson, an ex-army helicopter pilot turned Anglican priest, is every bit as riveting as her first, In the Bleak Midwinter (2002). A series of gay bashings, the discovery of PCBs in a local elementary school playground and a brutal murder has Millers Kill, N.Y. in a turmoil that ends in murder. Clare, rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, and the married police Chief Russ Van Alstyne, have spent the last six months avoiding each other in hopes of dispelling their mutual attraction. Now they find themselves working together on a murder investigation. The reflections of Clare and Russ as they examine their own hearts and struggle with their feelings never detract from the crime solving.  We see Clare as a unique person, whether daring to drive a sports car instead of a safer four-wheel-drive vehicle or claming herself by donning her vestments to perform an  unscheduled evening service of Compline in an empty church lit with candles.

I enjoyed this second novel in the series featuring Reverend Clare Fergusson, an ex-army helicopter pilot turned Anglican priest and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne, but this one left me with mixed feelings-not surprisingly the reviews I read on Amazon.com were very mixed, also.  Claire pulls a very reckless and dangerous stunt when she gets intoxicated at a party-which made me question how mature she is supposed to be.  I did enjoy the action of the helicopter episode (which some of the reviewers didn’t like, but I thought fit her character well)-but I had already guessed what would happen.  In this instance I was surprised that neither Russ nor Claire was suspicious enough of the circumstances to be more alert.  I thought the Gay issue in the plot was handled well.  Although S-F and I are at opposite ends of the political spectrum I liked the low keyed way she developed her theme of tolerance and made her characters 3 dimensional-not stereo-types.  The tension between Claire and Russ is increasing and in this book we meet Russ’s mother.  She is delightful.   I’m looking forward to reading the next book to how the soap opera unfolds. Luckily I got a late start on this series so I won’t have to wait long to continue it.

Buzbee, Lewis:  The Yellow Lighted Bookshop

Buzbee talks about his life with books as a book seller in independent bookstores, mainly in the Bay Area of Northern California, as a book rep for publishers and as one who lusts after books and unique bookstores.  Along the way he sprinkles in various tidbits of the history of books and book selling from ancient times to the 21^st century both in Eastern and Western cultures.  His book is charming and fun, although I didn’t find is as compelling or interesting as the best Nicholas Basbanes or Alberto Manguel books.  However as I mentioned in my journal he taught me something about myself, that I am a “book snoop”.

This is a book I enjoyed but I’m not sorry I borrowed it rather than bought it.  He calls it a memoir/history but it often reads more like listening to a person talk informally about his love for books and bookstores.  Some of his topics would have been more interesting and more memorable if he had taken the time to dig a little deeper and write an Anne Fadiman type personal essay developing his topic around a theme.  However, it was a great book to relax with just before bedtime-it was very conducive to going to sleep.  (That is not meant as a criticism, rather just an observation.)

Cleaning out my bookshelves I ran across the collection of Nero Wolfe mysteries I had collected over several years in either used paper back editions or reprint compilations in hard cover.  I discovered the I own nearly all of the and it has been a long time since I read any so I decided it would be fun to read them in order over the next couple of years.  At the least if will give me something to reach for when I don’t now what to read next!  I actually don’t own the first one so I got it from the library.

Fer-de-Lance (1-1934)

This is the first Nero Wolfe novel Stout wrote and, although enjoyable, it lacks many of the signature touches of the later ones.  The most obvious is that there is no “charade” staged at the dénouement.   The story revolves around the murder of a prominent College president by means of a devious device engineered into a golf club driver-on impact with the ball a needle smeared with poison is ejected into the golfer’s stomach.  It doesn’t take long for the reader to decide the wrong person was killed and as soon as the intended victim is identified the culprit is obvious.  The problem is knowing and proving are two separate events and the person who may have the proof, although she likes Wolfe and Archie (especially Archie) refuses to even admit she has the evidence-or what it may be.  The rest of the story involves a charade that Wolfe devises but Archie has to carry out because it has to be done outdoors with the aid of Wolfe’s other operatives and lots of activity.  As to these other operatives, Orrie and Saul do not even resemble the Orrie and Saul of later novels although Fred is pretty much himself-but I can’t remember if we ever again hearing about his Italian wife.  There is a newspaper crony of Archie’s, but his name is Harry Foster and the Lon in the book doesn’t have the last name of Cohen and he’s a former client who feels a lifelong debt to Wolfe for saving his young son in a kidnapping case several years ago.  Purley Stebbins works for the DA’s office and there is no Inspector Cramer.  The schedule for the orchids is the same in this novel and Nero, Fritz and Theodore are at least recognizable. Archie is definitely Archie; any changes that may seem to occur to him in later stories can be attributed to growth, maturity, and character development.  Perhaps Archie was Rex’s alter ego.  I own the 2^nd Wolfe-The League of Frightened Men-and I think I’ll read that this month just to see how the characters develop.

Three Witnesses (27-1956)

This was in the collection ROYAL FLUSH which I got from the library because I wanted to read Fer-de-Lance so I decided to read it out of order since I don”t own it.  (The other novel in the collection was Murder by the Book-which I own so I’ll read it in order.)  I prefer either full length mysteries or short stories to novellas.  Full length novels give time for character development or analysis and background information, description and more scope for hiding clues.  Good mystery short stories present a puzzle to solve where you must pay close attention-but for a rather short time.  Novellas often use too much filler to get the length without adding anything satisfying in terms of personalities of the characters or ingenious ways of hiding clues.   These three stories were okay but I had the solution to each mystery figured out by at least the halfway point.

“The Next Witness” has Nero and Archie walking out on a trial for which they have received subpoenas to testify because Wolfe thinks they are trying the wrong man.  The plot revolves around a telephone answering service and Wolfe’s trick of getting the solution of the murder to the right people without being arrested for contempt of court was ingenious and the biggest surprise in the story.

“When a Man Murders…” is about a man who is declared dead as a war casualty and then returns three years later after his estate has been settled and his wife remarried.   He is murdered within a few days after returning just when his wife and her erstwhile new husband, after trying to contact him to solve the marriage problem and losing their nerve, go to Nero Wolfe to ask him to handle the matter with the husband.  This one was the easiest to solve.

“Die Like a Dog” gets Wolfe involved in a case when Archie goes to exchange a raincoat that was mistakenly left at the brownstone when a visitor left in anger taking Archie’s coat instead of his own.  When Archie gets to the apartment where the man lives the police are there and he decides to not go in.  A dog follows him home.  The dog becomes linked to the murder and Wolfe wants to keep the dog.  Again the solution to the mystery was pretty obvious.

The League of Frightened Men (2-1935)

The second Nero Wolfe novel has a better story relying more on psychology rather than gimmicks and winding up with one of Wolfe’s signature charades in the office for the dénouement.        Inspector Cramer is in this one, although he’s not nearly as feisty as he becomes in later novels (maybe Wolfe hasn’t diddled him so many times yet!) and he smokes a pipe.  There is a large cast of characters and many weren’t well delineated so I had to keep going back to the “master list” which Wolfe was given that had the names and occupations of the “clients.”  The other operatives are still not too well defined although Saul Panzer seems to be coming to the forefront.  When a doctor is needed Dr. Volmer, Wolfe’s neighbor, is called.  Rex Stout is working to make this a series that will involve good puzzles with psychological implications and he’s beginning to be more subtle in hiding his clues.  He still isn’t keeping the solution really as well hidden until the “reveal” by Wolfe as he does in later works.  The characters may be fooled but the reader isn’t.

The Rubber Band (3-1936) 

In the third Nero Wolfe novel you can see Rex Stout hitting his stride.  Although I spotted the culprit very early on, catching the same clue that Wolfe did, this was a better “puzzle” than the two earlier novels and the characters for this story were better delineated so there was no problem keeping them straight.  His continuing characters are starting to settle into their recognizable selves that will appear in the later novels.  Saul Panzer has risen definitely to be the leading detective in Wolfe’s arsenal and Fred Durkin makes a typical Durkin mistake by thinking instead of calling in for instructions.  However, although Orrrie Cather is mentioned the roll he plays in later novels seems to be filed by Johnny Keems in this novel.  Inspector Cramer is becoming feistier and he now chews his cigar instead of smoking a pipe; Purley Stebbins is with homicide squad but not yet Cramer’s aide.  I didn’t realize that Lt. Rowcliff appeared so early in the series, but he leads a team with a search warrant for Wolfe’s residence looking for Wolfe’s client.  I love the ingenious way they hide her in the plant room.   Dr. Volmer has become Doc Volmer but the lawyer that Wolfe uses is called Henry H. Barber rather than Nathanial Parker.  It’s fun reading the earlier novels to see how Stout developed his series.

Stout, Rex:  The Red Box

The Red Box was entertaining if a little contrived. A model for a famous clothes designer is murdered by eating a piece of candy from a box she “swiped” from someone’s desk. First there is a question of who poisoned the candy and was the victim really the intended victim. When the clothes designer dies in Wolf’s office after taking one of the headache pills he has been taking regularly ever since his model had been murdered, we know the answer to the second question. Unfortunately he died before he could tell Wolf the location of the Red Box that contains the answer to the first question. Becaus th evidence iss out of reach Wolfe gets to the answer during one of his charades in the office.  Entertaining with a few surprises but not one of his best.

Haddon, Mark:  the curious incident of the dog in the night

This is an unusual but compelling story told through the viewpoint of the protagonist, an autistic teenager.  It is presented as a book that he has written and we get good idea of what goes on inside the head of a person with this condition.  He is extremely smart, especially in math and puzzles but finds it difficult to function-even to think-when his system is overloaded with too much stimuli.  The basic idea is that he has decided to try to detect who killed the neighbor’s dog with a pitchfork in the middle of the night.  He finds out more than he wants to which leads to a somewhat frightening adventure.  This is a great story well told-no wonder it was so popular.  This is a novel that would appeal to young adults as well as older readers.  It also gives the reader some insight into the difficulties that face people with autism and the people who love them.

Cowan, James:  A Mapmaker’s Dream

I find it difficult to describe this quirky little novel.  It essentially has no plot although you could argue that there is some character development as the one recurring character, Fra Mauro, seems to grow and develop as he processes the information that is brought to him.  The sub-title is “The Meditations of Fra Mauro, cartographer to the Court of Venice.”  The basis of the story is that Fr Mauro lives in a cloistered monastery on an island near Venice and he wants to draw a completely accurate map of the world including not just the boundaries and geographic features of the lands but also all the inhabitants, creatures, culture-in short, everything about each country.  Since he cannot and does not wish to leave his sanctuary travelers of all sorts come to him and describe what they have gleaned from their voyages.  Each chapter is the story a traveler tells and Fra Mauro’s impressions about what he has heard.  At first I found the book rather irritating-a mishmash of unrelated and often seemingly outlandish ideas.  I found, however, if I slowed down and read only one or two chapters at a time and tried to put myself into the time period of Fra Mauro-very early explorations and the making of the trade routes-that this was really fascinating.  Some stories were fantastic-but don’t travelers often have fantastic ideas when they see strange things?  Some resonated with me as ways in which I sometimes perceive the world.  Fra Mauro tried to keep an open mind when receiving all these ideas and images-and I did, too.  One of the thoughts that occurred to me is that in today’s information age we often feel bombarded with more ideas and images that we can process-much as Mauro must have felt.  We, too, are surrounded with a myriad of ideas and world views that need to be considered.   This is a book to expand your mind and to consider other ways of viewing the world-there is enough variety in these approximately 150 pages that every reader should find as least one idea that gives you that “aha!” moment.  There is also enough to disagree with that this would make a good discussion book-as long as your group can vehemently disagree about ideas without getting personal or having it affect your relationships.  Caveat:  if you prefer to read only ideas that support your own world view this is not the book for you.  If you enjoy expanding your mind to consider ideas foreign to you without feeling threatened by them, this is a delightful book-just take it in small doses.

Below are a few passages that caught my eye:

[spoken by a traveler who was exiled from his homeland] “Quitting the place that we loved means we are condemned to inhabit our loss forever.” (p. 27)

[this resonates with me because it summarizes how I felt-and in some ways still feel-about leaving Savannah.]

“…thoughts on the value of experience as being an important guide in our quest.  ‘A man knows the truth only when he has tried it himself and has not gained it by way of hearsay or reading.’  He was suggesting that we are obliged to make mistakes if we wish to attain any degree of knowledge.  Conceivably he wanted us to accept that every error we make is one more brick fired in the kiln of grace.”  (p. 53)

[I underlined this because it agrees well with what I have experienced in my life-but as I was thinking about this I was struck by a disquieting thought:  since each man's experience is different does this idea negate the idea of a universal truth? Not that we can ever know universal truth-but is the concept impossible?]

[Fra Mauro commenting on his visitors:]  “I was struck by the thought that their observations were not independent at all.  Rather, they were affected by sentiments that each of them held to be an expression of himself.   In the end, the world they presented me was reflected through them.”  (p. 59-60)

“It is true, sometimes men in harness to grace are more powerful than an army whose allegiance is suspect.” (p. 101)

“Who but someone who has quit home and journeyed to distant lands would understand?  ….They now know that it is impossible to find elsewhere a place consistent with their own inner world.”   (p. 133)

Wiesel, Elie:  Night

It is difficult to understand how something this horrendous could have happened in my lifetime.  No wonder the people of Sighet couldn’t believe Moishe the Beadle when he tried to warn them about what happened to him when he was taken by the Gestapo.  If he had escaped, could it have been that bad, people reasoned.  While reading this book I had a hard time coming to terms that these events actually happened and not to just a few but to millions of people.  The mind can hardly grasp evil on that magnitude.  Yet, we must be aware that this can happen and that today similar atrocities are occurring.  It is important that we never forget what can happen if good people turn a blind eye and deaf ear to acts of oppression just because it doesn’t affect us.  Everyone should read this book as painful as it is.  Wiesel kept his account of that terrible year (spring of 1944 to April 10, 1945) short–if he could live it we at least can read about it.

Godfrey, Thomas ed.: English Country House Murders

Published in 1989, this is a wonderful collection of stories in a special sub genre of classic mysteries. The country house mystery was one of the most popular types of mystery from late Victorian Era until around the time of the post WWII era. The first story is a Sherlock Holmes classic and the last story is a Sherlock Holmes written by James Miles—probably the best homage to this famous series I have ever read. I love this story because it centers on a famous English composer who was active in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. In between these two gems Godfrey has included most of the best mystery authors of that period including a novella length entry by Wilke Collins and all the giants of the Golden Age of women mystery writers. There are also a couple of writers with whom I was not familiar. The scariest story is by Ethel Lina White who was also the author of the novel on which Hitchcock based his classic movie “The Lady Vanishes.” I’d love to find that book. Christianna Brand is another author that I had never read although she is still popular in England according to Godfrey. I plan to find her most famous book, Green for Danger, to see how she holds up in a novel length work. I was pleased to find Anthony Gethryn, the detective in Philip MacDonald’s The List of Adrian Messenger, represented here and the two penultimate selections are by two of the best women mystery writers of the mid to later 20^th century, Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. In spite of the title, not all the stories involve a murder and many of the stories are as much psychological studies as they are puzzles to be solved. Godfrey’s excellent introduction to the book and the informative blurbs he writes before each story contribute to the enjoyment and enlightenment of the reader. I highly recommend this as an outstanding anthology of this type of mystery.

Marsh, Ngaio:  False Scent

I guess you could classify this one as one of Marsh’s “theater” novels even though we never get to the theater.  The story revolves around the death of a famous, but now somewhat “over the hill” comedic actress at her birthday party.  The characters are all theater people (except the police, of course) even though the setting is more “country house.”  The house is actually in a square in London but we never get any further than next door so it seems more isolated.  It’s a good yarn but before the end I had guessed “who” and at least partially had a handle on “why” and “how” but the timetable Alleyn elucidated in the end was cleverly worked out.  My conclusions, although correct, couldn’t have been proved without that timetable.  It wa amusing, but not one of her best.

Kaye, M.M.:  Death in Cyprus
In the ‘60’s and 70’s I read a lot of romantic suspense novels mainly by Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt (pseudonym of Jean Plaidy) but somehow I never came across MM Kaye, even though she published her first novel of this type a few years before Mary Stewart and almost a decade before Jean Plaidy created Victoria Holt as the name under which she would publish her novels in this genre.  It’s been quite awhile since I’ve read a novel in the “damsel in distress in an exotic locale” style but Death in Cyprus appeared on an Amazon list of best mysteries of the 20^th century so I decided to give it a try.  It was much better than I had expected and actually better than I remember the Mary Stewart’s novels being.  MM Kaye seemed to me to develop her characters more in depth and her descriptions of the locale were superb. The heroine, 21 year old Amanda Darrington, has just come into her inheritance so decides to leave the trip she is on with her guardian and take a side-trip to Cyprus.  Even before she arrives there is a murder on board ship and danger seems to be stalking her everywhere in Cyprus.  Although the villain was not difficult to spot there were enough interesting characters - especially some really “bitchy” women characters that were fun. I also loved the elderly and eccentric Mrs. Moon, with whom Amanda is staying, who chooses the color of her clothing according to what day it is and is highly observant in spite of seeming to be a bit scatter-brained. Persis, the American romance novel author also is quite an interesting character.  I found it refreshing to read a G rated romantic novel-very difficult to find these in this day and age unless you stick the “Christian fiction.”  This was a delightful two evenings of bedtime reading.

June 13-Friday

[note:  When I wrote this I didn't have a blog.  It was my difficulty being active in the challenge that prompted me start the blog.]

I’m really falling down on the job for journaling.  I’ve been struggling trying to get active in the Classics challenge I plan to do the last 6 months of this year.  Because I don’t have a blog site I’m experiencing a little difficulty getting my post on.  Also, I’ve discovered that they do not plan to actually discuss the books we are reading but just record them and get credit for them.  I’m disappointed about that because I thought this would be a chance to “talk” about books.  This was the post I left to answer a questionnaire they posted (I’m hoping it made the list):

My favorite classic?

Wow!  What a decision!  I probably have one for every day of the week.  The 2 classics I have reread the most are Pride and Prejudice (1st read in 8th grade and reread it probably every couple of years) and Lord of the Rings trilogy (1^st read during Easter vacation the 1st year I was married and have reread at least a dozen times–most recently in 2006 when I led a seminar at my church about it).

The classic I most wish to reread?

The Brother Karamazov: I read it in both HS and college (not assigned–I just wanted to) and loved it.  I would like to see how I would react now.

Classic I had the toughest time finishing?

The Three Musketeers–tried it several years ago and couldn’t get into it; tried it again this year and had the same problem.  Maybe I should read it for the challenge.

Recommendations for those who are concerned about classics:

There are lots of children’s and YA classics that are worth reading and go quickly-The Secret Garden by Burnett and A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle come to mind.

I am not a fan of horror novels but there are three 19^th century classic horror novels that I have read and loved that are short–quick reads if you are concerned about getting bogged down.  This will give you another genre and also 3 countries are represented:

THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James (American): Eerie and has an open ended dénouement.  This is thought provoking and the scariest of the three in my opinion.  Don’t read it if you demand closure; read it at the same time as a friend and you can have great discussions about it.  I read this in college just before the movie came out-now I’m motivated to read it again and see how it “wears.”

FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley (Great Britain/ England):–wife of the poet and written when she was about 19 years old-forget the movies; this is a great short novel.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson (Great Britain/Scotland):  After seeing the musical a couple of years ago I wanted to read the original. Yesterday I finally did it so I could include it on this list. This is another one to forget any dramatized versions-this is classic good vs. evil.  I only wish I could have read it before I knew the secret.  That’s pretty hard to do now but the story still holds your interest especially as a psychological thriller of the 19^th century-pre-Freud.  It is short-more of a novella-but a great story.

If you want to read a longer 19^th century horror story I highly recommend DRACULLA by Bram Stoker.  I have avoided vampire stories all my life-definitely “not my thing!”  When THE HISTORIAN by Kostova came out a couple of years ago I had several people insist I read it so I decided I had better read “the original” Dracula novel first.  I was astounded at how much I liked Stoker’s novel-essentially a classic tale of good vs. evil told in a very riveting way.  (If you like WOMAN IN WHITE I think you would like this, also.)  I liked Stoker’s novel much more than I did Kostova’s.  One of my sons suggested I should have read them in the opposite order and I might have enjoyed Kostova’s more-it just seemed pale after DRACULA.

Robb, J.D.:  Judgment in Death

In an uptown high class strip joint, a cop is found bludgeoned to death. Roarke owns the place and it looks like this cop who was working a part time job off duty was a dirty cop.  But things aren’t always what they seem. This is another Robb where you end up having sympathy for the perpetrator and some of the victims seem to get what they deserve-but of course vigilante justice is not something Eve would condone.  These books are still holding my interest. I usually lose interest in a series after six or seven, but even though I know these aren’t books I’ll ever reread I certainly enjoying them as a light fast read.

Skom, Edith:  The Mark Twain Murders

I’d better write this review fast-before I forget this book that I finished this afternoon.   I was very excited about this book because I usually really enjoy “literary” mysteries that somehow connect to classic authors I love.  The story takes place at “Midwestern University” in Illinois and concerns thefts of rare or somewhat rare books from the university library and murders that take place in the library.  The FBI is called in and of course the agent is attracted to the young female professor of literature who is trying to find out about a plagiarized essay.  The first murder victim submitted it to a contest which she won.  We get lots of information about the professors in the English department and views of the rivalries that are going on.  It should have been right up my alley.  I kept thinking I had read this before, but I hadn’t-only others like it. It’s an “okay but run of the mill” mystery.   There are at least 2 others in the series (this is the first) and I own the second one.  I can’t decide if I want to read it-maybe someday when I have to flu and can’t concentrate.  It’s possible that this author will improve with practice but right now my verdict is that this book makes J.D. Robb look like literature!  If you want a really great literary mystery try The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl.

Pearl, Matthew:  The Dante Club

I read this in 2007 and highly recommend it for those who like “literary” mysteries.

This was an immensely satisfying, if at times gruesome, read.  Pearl gives us a good look at historical Boston, Harvard, and some great literary figures of the day while also providing a mystery that also gives a fair “romp” through Dante’s Inferno.  The Dante Club, centered on Longfellow when he was translating Dante as a way to cope with his wife’s death, was a fact and Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields, the publisher, were members of the club that met every Wednesday night to discuss the translation.  The murders are fictional but the author says, “…they reflect a very real, new sense of violence that had to be confronted at all levels of American Culture [immediately following the Civil War, which is when the novel is set].   Nicholas Rey, as the first Afro-American policeman in Boston, is also fictional, but Pearl states that Rey’s situation comes from Pearl’s research into the historical circumstances of non-white police in the 19^th century.   This is a wonderful historical novel and may become a “classic.”  Therefore, I listed it in “fiction” rather than “mysteries.”

Greene, Douglas G. & Robert C.S. Adey, editors:  Death Locked In (An Anthology of Locked Room Stories

This is a wonderful collection of 24 locked room mysteries from the 19th and 20th centuries including stories by Ngaio Marsh, Conan Doyle (not a Sherlock Holmes story), Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu and of course John Dickson Carr–to mention just a few of the “greats” in this genre. The last story even involves a “time machine!”  My favorite stories were a pair written by May Futrelle and her husband Jaques Futrelle in which the stories are connected.  This tome is a real treat for classic mystery buffs.

James, P.D.:  An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

I really liked this story and the detective, Cordelia Gray.  A famous scientist, a peer of the realm, hires Gray to find out why his son quit college and then committed suicide.  The characters are interesting and the story compelling.  Of course it was murder and I figured out much of the mystery before the end but it was fun to read.  I want to read the other Cordelia Gray mystery, The Skull Beneath the Skin, now.   If it is as good as this one I will be sorry James only used this protagonist twice.  Cordelia reminds me a little of Maisie Dobbs