Reading in July 2016

In July, I read seven books... all of them crime fiction. Four of them were published before 1960, and three of them were published after 1999. That includes more current crime fiction than usual for me, but the majority of my reading this month was still early crime fiction.

This is the list of books I read in July:

Fire Will Freeze by Margaret Millar
Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac (originally published as D'entre les Morts in 1954)
Shot in Detroit by Patricia Abbott
She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Dead Lions by Mick Herron
Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason

The two books that I read this month that had the most impact on me were Patricia Abbott's Shot in Detroit and Delano Ames' She Shall Have Murder. The subject matter and style of the books were poles apart but they both engaged me 100% while I was reading them.  And the fact that both of them were favorites illustrates one of things I love about crime fiction: it has so much variety to offer.

She Shall Have Murder is a Golden Age mystery, published in 1948, set in London. Post-war London, with rationing, feeding the gasmeters, etc. is one of my favorite settings. At the beginning of this book, Jane Hamish is writing a mystery story and Dagobert, her lover, is giving her ideas for the plot. Dagobert is unemployed; Jane works in a lawyer's office. Although at first I found Dagobert very annoying, he grew on me as the book moved along and Jane Hamish and Dagobert Brown quickly became my favorite detecting couple in Golden Age fiction. I read some of this series in my youth and I was glad that this one did not disappoint.

Shot in Detroit is a novel of psychological suspense, set in 2007 Detroit. It does not paint a pretty picture of that area or the struggle to survive financially in that environment. The story centers on a female photographer who is working on a project to photograph black men who have died much too young. The subject matter is sometimes unsettling and the story is dark. My full review is here.

The rest of the books I read in July were also very high quality and great reads. I had a wonderful reading month.

I am reading from a list of books for the 20 Books of Summer challenge (which covers the dates June 1 - September 5th). I took this on because I had a list of books I wanted to read and I thought the challenge would keep on that path. So far my only deviation has been a book for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences.


Still, at the end of July I have only 36 days to read another nine books and I probably won't accomplish that. An average month for me is 6 books. I have been happy with all the books with my list of books so far. Only one of the remaining books (a Smiley book by John le Carré) is exceptionally long, so wish me luck.

True Grit: Charles Portis

In early April, my husband and I decided to get a copy of the 2010 film adaptation of True Grit, directed (and written, produced and edited) by the Coen brothers, I decided I wanted to read the book prior to watching the film. I had never seen the adaptation starring John Wayne and Kim Darby. So I quickly acquired a copy of the book and read it almost as soon as it arrived.

If you are not familiar with the story, this is from the summary on the back of my edition:

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.

I really did not know what to expect when I read the book. I did not know much about the author, Charles Portis. I was aware of the book and the movie, but just vaguely and not as something I thought I would be interested in.  I won't say I avoided reading the book but there were just a lot of other books I wanted to read more at various times in my life. Before I decided to buy the book, I had read enough reviews to know I should have tried it before and that almost everyone who reads the book has a great affection for it. But still I was surprised.

As most reviewers will say, the best thing about the book is the main character, Mattie Ross, and how she tells the story. She is 14 years old at the time of the story and on a mission to avenge her father's death. She is stubborn and she will manipulate people to get what she wants. She doesn't let her youth, the fact that she is female, or what other people think of her get in her way. She doesn't even seem to realize that her youth and sex are any reason to keep her from making the journey to avenge her father's death.

We do know from the beginning that the story is told by Mattie years after the story takes place. It is not clear until the end how many years later that is and what has happened in the meantime. But it does establish that the story is told from memory and may not be exactly as it happened. Not that it matters.

Here is a sample where Mattie tells the reader about Yarnell, a black man who had worked for her family.

Before Papa left for Fort Smith he arranged for a colored man named Yarnell Poindexter to feed the stock and look in on Mama and us every day. Yarnell and his family lived just below us on some land he rented from the bank. He was born of free parents in Illinois but a man named Bloodworth kidnapped him in Missouri and brought him down to Arkansas just before the war. Yarnell was a good man, thrifty and industrious, and he later became a prosperous house painter in Memphis, Tennessee. We exchanged letters every Christmas until he passed away in the flu epidemic of 1918. To this day I have never met anybody else names Yarnell, white or black. I attended the funeral and visited in Memphis with my brother, Little Frank, and his family.

Yarnell takes the train with Mattie to Fort Smith to claim her father's body. Once they are in Fort Smith, they see a hanging of three men, two white men and an Indian man. After the hanging, Mattie says...

Perhaps you can imagine how painful it was for us to go directly from that appalling scene to the undertaker’s where my father lay dead. Nevertheless it had to be done. I have never been one to flinch or crawfish when faced with an unpleasant task.

When scanning through I noticed that use of "crawfish," which I was not familiar with. It means to "retreat from a position."

At this point in the story, Yarnell tries to talk Mattie into going back to her family. She refuses, and she begins her quest to find a man with "true grit" who will help her avenge her father's death.

This is just a great story. There is humor, but not at the expense of taking the story or the characters seriously. And I enjoyed the setting: the American West in the years following the Civil War, the early 1870s. I don't know much about that period and haven't read many Westerns. I will try more Westerns, and I will try more books by Charles Portis.

Since the 2010 remake of True Grit by the Coen brothers was my impetus to read the book, I will comment on my take on the film. I am a fan of the Coen brothers films, and I was not disappointed. I also like the actors who played the main male roles, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. I expected that they would do a good job with the roles and they did. Hailee Steinfeld did a great job of portraying Mattie. I thought she would be too pretty for the part but she plays it perfectly and is totally believable in all of the adventurous, scary parts. I won't say the movie stuck to the book line by line but it was very close.

Before buying this book, I had purchased an anthology of short fiction and nonfiction by Charles Portis, titled Escape Velocity. I found that book on the half price table at my local independent bookstore; I thought it would all be interesting but I was primarily motivated to read the pieces that report on the civil rights movement for the New York Herald Tribune, including protests in Birmingham (my home town), and Alabama governor George Wallace’s stand to prevent admission to African American students at the University of Alabama. I was in Alabama during all of these events, although my memory of George Wallaces' stand at the University is much clearer. Here is a good review of Escape Velocity at The New York Times.


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Publisher:   The Overlook Press, 2016 (orig. pub. 1968)
Length:       224 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:       Arkansas, Indian territory
Genre:        Historical fiction
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Shot in Detroit: Patricia Abbott

This is Patricia Abbott's description of her book, from a post at Temporary Knucksline:

Shot in Detroit is the story of Violet Hart, a photographer, nearing forty, and eager to find artistic success. Through her relationship with a mortician, she comes up with the idea of photographing young black men who have died in Detroit over a six-month period. The novel takes place entirely in Detroit and its near suburbs. Violet Hart is ambitious, a loner, a pest in getting what she wants. She's an artist in other words.

Violet's lover, Bill Fontenel, is a black man who owns a funeral home. He is proud of being a mortician and he cares about preparing the bodies for the funeral. Where appropriate, he dresses the bodies in fine clothing he has found in high-end resale shops. The first young man that Violet photographs is at Bill's request. The family wants a photo sent to them in England because they cannot attend the funeral.  In this case the body is dressed in a rugby uniform, per the family's request. This gives Violet the idea of photographing bodies at the mortuary as an art project.

Violet is the center of this story. She has family issues; her father deserted her family and her sister died when she was young. She has trouble making ends meet and wants very much to succeed in artistic photography, although she supports herself with weddings and bar mitzvahs. She is not a very likable person, willing to use people to get what she wants, always pushing her agenda first. Her eventual obsession with getting enough photographs for an exhibition offends many people, and at time drives Bill away from her, although he is her only access to the bodies. He cares about Violet and knows that the project is important to her but cannot truly understand her artistic ambitions.

Violet is the kind of character that the reader shouts at, exhorting her to stop making bad decisions, to go in a different direction. I too cared about Violet and I wanted her life to improve. Even though she is a loner, she has people who care about her. Her close friend Diogenes Cortes is gay, Filipino, and head chef at a Detroit restaurant. He is supportive in many of her ventures, even as he counsels her that she is making mistakes.

While reading this at times I felt uneasy, unsettled. I did not find Violet's desire to photograph corpses a problem; it seemed reasonable to me, under the circumstances. I was bothered by her pushiness, and her willingness to stretch the truth and mislead people. But she was not a bad person, just obsessed with an idea and a goal. But although I sometimes felt creeped out by the subject of this book, I found it a satisfying and compelling read and at no time considered abandoning it. I had to know where Violet was going to end up and how her choices worked for her. And in the end, I loved this book. There is no happy ending tying it all up, but I was happy with the resolution. I loved that she found some answers about her father and why he abandoned her family. It all came together very well for me.

Is this a crime novel? The book is described as a novel of psychological suspense on the back cover, and I think that is a good description. Some of the deaths of the young men in Violet's photographs are accidental, some are murders; but they are not covered in detail. There are two other unrelated murders in this story. Both occur on Belle Isle and both are disturbing, although there is no violence depicted. These deaths lead to Violet's involvement in police investigations. Here again she makes poor choices which lead to her being a "person of interest." But her  relationship with the main investigator of these deaths is one of my favorite parts of this book. They develop a friendship of sorts.

The setting of Detroit is important. The author is telling a story about Detroit of 2011 through Violet's odyssey to find artistic success and appreciation. In the acknowledgments at the end of the book, Abbott explains her goals in writing the book.

I will end with the closing lines from Bill Crider's review:

Shot in Detroit has scope and ambition.  It's one of those books that will stick with you long after you close the covers.  Check it out.

See other reviews at:  Joe Barone's Blog, Crime Time, and Do Some Damage,


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Publisher:   Polis Books, June 2016
Length:      302 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:      Detroit, Michigan
Genre:        Psychological suspense
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Diamonds Are Forever: Ian Fleming

I am working my way slowly through the James Bond books by Ian Fleming. And enjoying watching the associated films for each book. Although I remember reading a few of Ian Fleming's spy novels years ago, I was surprised when I started reading them again. I read Casino Royale in 2007 shortly after I watched the film starring Daniel Craig; I found the book to be gritty and action oriented, and enjoyable.  I expected the rest of the books to be about the same. After Casino Royale, the books have seemed to be more of an adventure story and have had unreal and fantastical elements.

Summary from the MJF Books edition:

Somehow, African diamonds are being smuggled into the United States via London. The British Secret Service sends Bond to infiltrate the smugglers' organization and if possible, destroy it. Bond journeys through New York City's diamond market, the race tracks and mud baths at Saratoga Springs, and the gambling places of Las Vegas, to finally penetrate the very heart of the Mob. Along the way he meets the beautiful Tiffany Case, and is assisted by his American friend Felix Leiter. From the deserts of Afrca to the deserts of Nevada, follow Bond into the scorpion's nest.

So, another book set primarily in the US. I like the settings in Diamonds Are Forever, but it is surprising to have American gangsters as the villains. And they don't make much of an impression.

In this book, it seemed like Bond was making poor decisions. His goal is to find a way to continue to be used as a courier for stolen diamonds, to work undercover to identify the forces behind the diamond smuggling. Instead he seems to go out of his way to antagonize the gangsters. He doesn't like working undercover, so he just ignores instructions. The decision to help Felix Leiter seemed irresponsible to me. Sure, they are friends and Felix has left the CIA due to injuries in a previous story, but still it is unprofessional to risk an important mission to do a favor for a friend.  At least this does show his human, fallible side (which doesn't show up much in the movies). I did enjoy the parts of the story set at the racetrack. And Felix has a Studillac, which is a Studebaker equipped with a Cadillac engine. So that part of the story has its good points.

The best part of this novel is Tiffany Case. For the most part, she can hold her own with Bond. Bond's behavior toward her is sexist and condescending, but he does appreciate her abilities and grows fond of her. This is one way that the books differ from the movies. In the movies, Bond may be intrigued  by the main Bond girl but he is not committed to her. In the books, at least so far as I have read, he grows very fond of and sometimes wants to commit to a relationship with the woman he has been adventuring with. The reader may eventually figure out that this will really never happen, but Bond is serious about it at the time. In Tiffany's case, even though they work well together, he finally realizes that they want different things in life.

All in all, this is not my favorite book in the series so far. It just seemed too complex and meandering. But it was still a lot of fun and a fast read. You just have to stifle any irritation with the views of the time towards women, ethnic groups, anyone who is different.

The Adaptation Starring Sean Connery

As usual the movie is very different from the book. A good bit of the movie is set in the US, as in the movie, but most of the time in the US is spent in Las Vegas; Saratoga and the race track is skipped entirely. The villain becomes Blofeld instead of American gangsters. That at least makes a bit of sense, to stay more on track with the movies.

I was excited to finally be reading a book where James Bond would be played by Sean Connery, but this was the last official Bond movie that featured Connery and doesn't compare well to the others that he starred in. This may be due to a switch to a very camp approach to the story, which continues in the Roger Moore films. Connery seemed much older to me here, but he was only 41 in 1971 when the movie came out.

However, I have found all the Bond films I have watched so far to be entertaining, and Sean Connery will always be my favorite. All I am saying is that this one was not in the same league as From Russia With Love and Goldfinger.

Other resources:

See these posts on Diamonds Are Forever (the novel):
at Vintage Pop Fictions; at Clothes in Books; and At the Scene of the Crime.

Also interesting are these posts on Diamonds Are Forever and Saratoga Springs:
at Literary 007 and Fleming's Bond.

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Publisher:   MJF Books, 1993 (orig. pub. 1956) 
Length:       217 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       James Bond, #4
Setting:      Africa, US
Genre:        Spy thriller
Source:      I purchased this book.

Fire Will Freeze: Margaret Millar

First things first. I do love the cover of this book. It is not an accurate depiction of the story.  There is a woman in a sable coat, she is on a bus, and it does get stranded on a country road. There is even a rifle in the story somewhere. But she never holds the rifle, nor does she come off as that belligerent. Nevertheless, it is a very nice cover.

The woman in the sable coat is Miss Isobel Seton, a 35 year old woman who thinks a lot about marriage but has no prospects. She is on a bus with a group of people headed for a skiing lodge and is getting so fed up that she is composing a letter of complaint (mentally) to Abercrombie & Fitch:

Because one of your irresponsible clerks did not prevent me from buying a pair of skis, I am sitting here in what these damned Canadians call a Sno-bus, which means a bus that meets a Sno-train and conveys one to a Sno-lodge. I am marooned in the wilds of Quebec in a raging Sno-storm. My nose is red. I am thirty-five, which not an age for adjustments. I am hungry.

[Keep in mind that Margarer Millar was born, raised, and educated in Canada.]

Within the first chapter, the bus has become stranded and the bus driver has left the bus to find help. Soon, the travelers leave the bus to follow in the footsteps of the bus driver, who has failed to return. They come upon an isolated house; they are shot at as they walk up to the house but they seek shelter anyway. It is a large house but with only two residents, an insane woman and her female caretaker. Neither one is thrilled to have company in the house, and the group from the bus is allowed to stay only under duress.

In the one night  that the group spends in the house, there are three deaths and numerous strange occurrences.

So what did I like about the book?

I liked the characters as they developed throughout the book. At first I found almost all of them either irritating or boring and silly. The first chapter reveals more about Isobel Seton than any other character and we mostly see the others through her eyes. As the story continues, each one reveals more about themselves and becomes a more interesting person, for good or bad. And this is the way it would happen in real life if you were on a bus with a group of strangers. At first you would only see the surface and then various facets would be revealed.

The "stranded in a snowed-in mansion" story is not one that I am overly familiar with, so this did not feel tired to me. I liked the comic aspects and the humor broke up the tension of being stuck in an enclosed space with some genuinely nutty people and not knowing who to trust. The women in this story were much braver than I; I would hide under the bedclothes until help arrived.

What did I dislike?

Nothing. I enjoyed reading the book; the story and the characters engaged me. Isobel is the most well defined character, but we learn more and more about the others in the group. The mystery plot is not very strong, but so far that has been my experience with the books I have read by Millar, and I don't find fault with that.

This is not considered one of Millar's better novels. However, of the ones I have read, I enjoyed it the most. If the reader is looking for a good puzzle mystery, this is not the best book to choose, although there are clues, all of which I missed. A warning: An animal is killed in this book.

This book is my submission for 1944 for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences.

Margaret Millar wrote some books set in Canada, where she was born, and some set in Southern California, where she lived most of her adult life. I have read and reviewed Wall of Eyes (1943), also set in Canada, and Ask For Me Tomorrow (1976), set in California and Mexico.

See other reviews here:

• At the Scene of the Crime 
• Tipping My Fedora
• The Dusty Bookcase

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Publisher:   International Polygonics, 1987 (orig. pub. 1944)
Length:      158 pages
Format:      Paperback
Setting:      Québec countryside,  Canada
Genre:        Mystery
Source:      Purchased at the Planned Parenthood book sale, 2014.

USA Fiction Challenge Update

In October 2013, I joined a challenge to read books for all 50 states in the USA, plus the District of Columbia. I did not keep up with how many states I had completed over time, so now I am doing that.

The challenge is hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. The challenge is ongoing, not limited to a timeframe. If you are interested you can read about the challenge at the USA Fiction Challenge site.

In order to identify the states I looked through all blog entries after October 2013. It amazes me that I read so many mysteries that are set outside of the United States. I haven't kept stats at all but as I look at books reviewed for each month, the great majority of books are set in the UK. I also read a good number of books set in Canada. Plus a lot of European countries, some Asian countries,and some Central and South American countries. And even when I read books set in the US, a large number are set in California or New York.

I have now read novels for nearly one third of the states (plus the District of Columbia). I initially decided to stick with crime fiction novels that are set in the state. If I have trouble getting to the total of 51 books I may eventually start adding novels from outside the crime fiction genre.

Below is the list of states and the books I have read so far. Later, I may include multiples if the books are really good examples of the setting.

1. ALABAMA
2. ALASKA
3. ARIZONA
4. ARKANSAS
5. CALIFORNIA:  Jasmine Trade by Denise Hamilton
6. COLORADO
7. CONNECTICUT
8. DELAWARE
9. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Cast a Yellow Shadow by Ross Thomas
10. FLORIDA:  Don’t Lose Her by Jonathan King
11. GEORGIA
12. HAWAII
13. IDAHO
14. ILLINOIS:  Sleeping Dogs by Ed Gorman 
15. INDIANA
16. IOWA:  Eleven Days by Donald Harstad
17. KANSAS:  The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips
18. KENTUCKY
19. LOUISIANA:  The Indigo Necklace by Frances Crane
20. MAINE
21. MARYLAND
22. MASSACHUSETTS:  The Hanging Judge by Michael Ponsor
23. MICHIGAN:  Motor City Blue by Loren D. Estelman
24. MINNESOTA
25. MISSISSIPPI:  The Last Clinic by Gary Cusick  
26. MISSOURI
27. MONTANA
28. NEBRASKA
29. NEVADA
30. NEW HAMPSHIRE
31. NEW JERSEY
32. NEW MEXICO:  Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes
33. NEW YORK:  Death of a Butterfly by Margaret Maron
34. NORTH CAROLINA:  Time’s Witness by Michael Malone
35. NORTH DAKOTA:  See Also Murder by Larry D. Sweazy
36. OHIO
37. OKLAHOMA
38. OREGON
39. PENNSYLVANIA:  Concrete Angel by Patricia Abbott
40. RHODE ISLAND
41. SOUTH CAROLINA:  In the Heat of the Night by John Ball
42. SOUTH DAKOTA
43. TENNESSEE
44. TEXAS:  Too Late to Die by Bill Crider
45. UTAH
46. VERMONT
47. VIRGINIA
48. WASHINGTON
49. WEST VIRGINIA
50. WISCONSIN
51. WYOMING

Some Buried Caesar: Rex Stout

I am a biased reader of the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I love them all, and if there are flaws, I forgive them easily.  I have read each of them several times, thus my experience will never be the same as a first time reader. So I can only tell you what I love about each book.

Just in case you are not familiar with the Nero Wolfe series, I like to start with an overview.

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 41 novellas about the private detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. Nero Wolfe is a genius, a lover of orchids and fine food, who supports himself (and his household) as a private detective. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. They live in a New York brownstone and share the house with Theodore, the plant expert, and Felix, Wolfe's cook. The series began in 1934 with Fer-de-Lance; the last book in the series, A Family Affair, was published in 1975, shortly before Stout's death. Over the forty plus years this series was published, the protagonists did not age at all, but they were always placed within the context of the time that the book was written.

There are several traits that Nero Wolfe is well known for, and one of them is his extreme distaste of leaving his home. According to The Wolfe Pack site, Wolfe leaves his home in 34 of the 74 Nero Wolfe stories; some of those excursions are brief and he stays within New York City. Some Buried Caesar is one of two novels that I can remember where Wolfe and Archie are away from the brownstone from the beginning to the end of the book. (The other is Too Many Cooks.) Thus while Nero and Archie are away from home, we don't get the interactions with Fritz and Theodore, and he and Archie are on their own, without help from the freelance private eyes they frequently call on. I like that aspect of this book because of the variation from the norm and because it brings Archie and Nero into an environment that they know little about.

Another problem Wolfe has is he is afraid of riding in cars. He doesn't trust any driver other than Archie, and he sits in the back seat and hangs on for dear life even when Archie is driving. This book begins with a car accident while Archie is driving Wolfe to an exposition where Wolfe will display some of his prize orchids. The car has run off the road due to a flat tire at 55 mph, so the results are quite damaging to the car, although both Archie and Wolfe escape shaken but not harmed. The ensuing comments from Wolfe and Archie are quite humorous, and the events that follow lead Wolfe to his next case.

At this point, Archie and Wolfe are stranded on a country road, far from New York City, and still 18 miles from Crowfield, the city hosting the North Atlantic Exposition. They decide to walk to a ranch house nearby, across a fenced-in field that they belatedly discover is holding a bull. Wolfe gets stuck on a boulder to avoid the bull, while Archie goes looking for help. Eventually they arrive at the house of a millionaire, Tom Pratt, who owns a restaurant chain. It turns out that Pratt has purchased the bull, Hickory Caesar Grindon, for $45,000, so that the bull can be barbecued and served to Pratt's guests at a party, as a publicity stunt for his restaurant chain. The members of the National Guernsey League are outraged. There are also strained relations between Pratt's family members and those on a neighboring ranch.

Wolfe volunteers Archie to help guard the bull so that they can stay at Pratt's luxurious home rather than in crowded motel quarters in Crowfield, and there is a murder nearby where Archie is guarding the bull. As usual, Wolfe does not jump in to investigate the murder, but eventually he is dragged into the investigation by circumstances.

I love so many things about Some Buried Caesar. It is the book that introduces Lily Rowan. The other characters and their relationships are developed well.  I love the scenes at the eatery at the exhibition. Archie is arrested and spends a night in the local jail; the scenes there are wonderful.

This sample provides an interaction with Lily Rowan and revolves around food, which plays a big part in almost any Nero Wolfe mystery. Archie is going to meet Lily for lunch at the "Methodist grub-tent":

Believe it or not, she was there, at a table against the canvas wall toward the rear. I pranced across the sawdust, concealing my amazement. Dressed in a light tan jersey thing, with a blue scarf and a little blue hat, among those hearty country folk she looked like an antelope in a herd of Guernseys. I sat down across the table from her and told her so. She yawned and said that what she had seen of antelopes' legs made it seem necessary to return the compliment for repairs, and before I could arrange a comeback we were interrupted by a Methodist lady in white apron who wanted to know what we would have. 

 Lily Rowan said, "Two chicken fricassee with dumplings." 

"Wait a minute," I protested. "It says there they have beef pot roast and veal--"  

"No." Lily was firm. “The fricassee with dumplings is made by a Mrs. Miller whose husband has left her four times on account of her disposition and returned four times on account of her cooking and is still there. So I was told yesterday by Jimmy Pratt.”

Archie later brings Wolfe to the tent to taste the chicken dumplings and they return at least one more time during the exhibition. Lily Rowan and Archie have a long-term relationship with no strings attached, as Lily is a very independent and wealthy woman. For some reason, perhaps because I like Archie's relationship with Lily so much, I thought she featured in many more of the stories than she does. I am on a mission to document which stories she shows up in, even if only briefly.

This is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe stories, and is highly regarded by many other readers also, but it is not a typical Nero Wolfe mystery. Wolfe and Archie are out of their element in the rural setting and mingling with ranchers and cattle breeders.


See other thoughts on this book at Dear Author, Vintage Pop Fictions, My Reader's Block, and A Hot Cup of Pleasure.

Source: I have six paperback editions but this is the one I read this time:

Publisher: Pyramid, 1963 (orig. publ. 1939)
Length:    190 pages
Format:    Paperback
Series:     Nero Wolfe #6
Setting:    Rural New York
Genre:     Mystery

Reading in June 2016

In June, I read six books, all of them crime fiction.

• The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré
• The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
• Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout
• A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
• Murder Among Friends by Elizabeth Ferrars
• An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer

There is no way I could pick a favorite book this month. I read three books that I regarded as excellent books: A Perfect Spy, Some Buried Caesar, and An American Spy. The authors of those books, John le Carré, Rex Stout, and Olen Steinhauer respectively, are among my favorite authors. The other three books were also very enjoyable reads. I rarely consider a book I have read to be a clunker, but sometimes there are books that just are not my thing. Not this month. A wonderful month of reading.

I continue to read mostly spy fiction. The Honourable Schoolboy by le Carré is one of the Smiley novels. A Perfect Spy and The American Spy are both obviously spy novels, and The Seven Dials Mystery is a lighter version of the espionage fiction genre.

An American Spy is the third book in a trilogy by Olen Steinhauer, and I waited nearly two years to finish this series. Milo Weaver works for the CIA, in the Department of Tourism. "Tourists" are described as undercover agents with no identity and no home. Milo is not the James Bond type, although there are plenty of thrilling escapades and violence. But we see the other side of this spy's life, the family he wishes he could spend more time with. I did enjoy picking up on Milo Weaver's adventures again. The first book in the trilogy is The Tourist, the second is The Nearest Exit.