The Satan Sampler: Victor Canning

This is the 6th book in a loose series called the Birdcage books. They were published between 1971 and 1985. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. The officials and the agents attached to the Birdcage group are generally amoral, although they believe that their mission is important to the welfare of the country.

Since this is a very difficult book to summarize, I am using the description on the dust jacket: 

On the death of his elder brother, Richard Seyton inherits the Seyton estate, which had been in the family since the fourteenth century. But the great Seyton Hall–showpiece of the estate–has been leased to an international charitable organization, the Felbeck Foundation for the Preservation of the Christian Heritage, which is not all that it seems to be. Determined to find a way to break the lease, Seyton is slowly enmeshed in a dangerous web of intrigue and underground politics, especially when the sinister intelligence organization know as Birdcage intrudes upon his affairs.

 

This story isn't quite as good as the earlier books. Some of the characterizations have less depth, and the spy story is very similar to the previous book. The evil practices and deceptions of the group are just as nefarious as ever, though. The story does feature several of the Birdcage characters from the previous two books, and I liked that. And the emphasis on the beauty of the countryside, the descriptions of the birds and animals, is still there. I loved the setting, the atmosphere, the use of nature. 

The Birdcage novels are usually somewhat of a downer in the end, which is realistic for spy fiction, but this one had a more upbeat ending than usual.

This quote is from the back flyleaf of the dust jacket of the first US hardback edition:

"For years now, Victor Canning has been moving into new directions with the suspense story. The spy thriller has become a novel of character with him. The doomsday book of fate intertwined with old family histories has moved into fresh insights of human foibles. The chase genre has been brought to three-dimensional life by the astute use of settings, where every bird and leaf become a part of the narrative." (Ed Hutshing, Book Editor, San Diego Union)

There are only two more books in the series, and I am looking forward to both of them.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   William Morrow and Co., 1980 (orig. pub. 1979)
Length:       233 pages
Format:      Hardcover
Series:       Birdcage books #6
Setting:      UK
Genre:       Espionage fiction
Source:      Purchased in December, 2024.

Short Story Wednesday: Short Stories from Christmas Stalkings

 

The subtitle for this book of Christmas short stories is "Tales of Yuletide Murder." Based on the cover, you might think the stories are all cozy, but one reviewer of the book described the stories as mostly dark. In the small sample I have read so far, one is on the cozy side, and two are definitely darker. Christmas Stalkings was published in 1991, and all of the stories in the book appeared in print for the first time in this book.

 

"The Santa Claus Caper" by Bill Crider

Bill Crider is one of my favorite authors. I have read nine books in his Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and I plan to read all of the Dan Rhodes mysteries. Another mystery series by Crider features Carl Burns, a professor of English Literature at a small college in Texas. (Crider was the chairman of the English Department at Alvin Community College in Alvin, Texas.) 

"The Santa Claus Caper" introduced me to the characters in the Carl Burns series, including R. M. “Boss” Napier, Chief of the Pecan City, Texas, police. Carl Burns has talked Napier into playing a part in a "reader's theater" version of A Christmas Carol. In turn, Chief Napier wants Burns to go undercover as a department store Santa Claus, because the store was having high losses due to shoplifting. Neither one of them is happy playing their new role.

"Family Christmas" by Patricia Moyes

I like Patricia Moyes' mysteries and I have read all nineteen books in her Inspector Henry Tibbett series. The short story in this book does not feature her series characters.

"Family Christmas" is a clever and poignant story. Robert Runfold and his wife, Mary, live a comfortable life with lots of money. They have two married daughters, who are coming home for Christmas. Robert is curmudgeonly and suspicious. He thinks that both of his daughter's husbands would gladly kill him for the money that their wives would inherit after his death. So he has changed his will so that they will not inherit any money until both daughters are over forty. I had no idea how this story would end.

"Miss Melville Rejoices" by Evelyn E. Smith

Evelyn E. Smith is new to me. Early in her career, she wrote science fiction and fantasy, both short stories and novels. In 1986, she started a five book series featuring Miss Melville, a middle-aged assassin. The story in this book, published in 1991, was her first short story featuring Miss Melville.

This story begins on Christmas Eve, with Miss Melville breaking into the Melville Foundation for Anthropological Research, where later in the evening there would be a party in honor of the deposed dictator of Mazigaziland, the infamous Matthew Zimwi, the man for whom Time magazine had established the category of Monster of the Year. Miss Melville is planning to assassinate Matthew Zimwi during the party. The story is very complicated and I enjoyed the outcome very much. 

I will definitely be reading the first novel in the Miss Melville series, Miss Melville Regrets.

Following is a list of the authors and short stories in this book:

• Charlotte MacLeod: Counterfeit Christmas 
• Reginald Hill: The Running of the Deer 
• Elizabeth Peters: Liz Peters, PI 
• Medora Sale: Angels 
• John Malcolm: The Only True Unraveller 
• Dorothy Cannell: The January Sale Stowaway 
• Bill Crider: The Santa Claus Caper 
• Patricia Moyes: Family Christmas 
• Evelyn E. Smith: Miss Melville Rejoices 
• Eric Wright: Two in the Bush 
• Mickey Friedman: The Fabulous Nick 
• Robert Barnard: A Political Necessity 
• Margaret Maron: Fruitcake, Mercy, and Black-Eyed Peas

Six Degrees of Separation: From Seascraper to Tokyo Express

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Usually Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, which was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. The protagonist is a young man living with his mother in Longferry, a town on the English coast. He supports both of them by scraping fish off the sea shore, although his real goal is to be a successful folk musician. 

1st degree:

Using the title of the starting book, and the setting, I am starting my chain with The Seaside: England's Love Affair by Madeleine Bunting.  This is a nonfiction book about the seaside towns and resorts set on the coastline of England. For this book, the author traveled around the edges of England, staying in forty resorts in various types of accommodations. This is my husband's book, which he read in 2023 and gave a 5 star rating. I hope to read it someday.

2nd degree:

In The Seaside, Madeleine Bunting mentions a novel that is set in Bognor, a seaside resort town. The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff was published in 1931. I haven't read that book either, but I do have a copy to read, soon I hope.

From the French flap of the paperback edition I own:

Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their annual holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued every September since. They follow the same carefully honed schedule – now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie. 

Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It's a bit shabbier than it once was – the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana (with a balcony!) and in their rediscovery of familiar beloved sights.

3rd degree:

I will continue in the beach theme for this next book in the chain: The Mask of Memory by Victor Canning. Canning is the author of one of my favorite espionage series, about a covert security group in the UK. The secret wife of one of the most experienced operatives in the group lives in North Devon and often walks on the beach, enjoying the scenery and the birds in the area. One of my favorite parts of the books in this series is the beautiful descriptions of the countryside and the wildlife, especially birds, in each of the locations.

4th degree:

And now I am linking to a mystery novel with a beach setting in Argentina. Where There's Love, There's Hate, published in 1946, was written by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Argentine writers who were married to each other.

Dr. Humberto Huberman is visiting the seaside at Bosque del Mar, Argentina. He is staying at a hotel owned by relatives. It is a small hotel and not many guests. On the first evening after his arrival, one of the guests dies, by poison. Dr. Huberman appoints himself the investigator, but of course the real policemen arrive soon enough. 

5th degree:

Fall from Grace by L.R. Wright, published in 1991, is a another mystery where a dead body is found on a beach. Sechelt is a real-life seaside community on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, northwest of Vancouver. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Karl Alberg is out sailing with his lover Cassandra when they see the body of a man on the beach. It turns out that he had fallen from a cliff above. The dead man was Steven Grayson, who grew up in Sechelt but has been living in Vancouver for the last ten years. The story is told from multiple perspectives (Karl Alberg's, Cassandra's, the various members of the community that are affected by the death).

6th degree:

The last book in this chain is also a mystery; two bodies are found on a beach, and the setting is Japan. In Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto, published in 1958, two detectives in different cities in Japan investigate the same crime and collaborate, sharing their thoughts and discoveries. A man and a woman are found dead on a beach in Kashii, and the police assume that it is a double suicide. Inspector Torigai in Kashii is first assigned to the case, and he has no reason to disagree with that determination, but he does notice some puzzling aspects and continues to have nagging questions. Later Inspector Mihara from Tokyo comes to discuss the case with Torigai.  Mihara thinks the deaths are related to a bribery scandal in the government. This novel was first published in English translation as Points and Lines.

My Six Degrees started out in England, then went on to stops in Argentina, Canada, and Japan. Have you read any of these books? 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on January 3, 2026. Kate has decided that the starting book will be a wildcard. Those participating in Six Degrees can either start with the last book in the December 2025 chain or, if you did not play in December, begin with the last book you read.

Short Story Wednesday: Two Christmas Stories by Lorrie Moore

 

In May 2024, I read several stories in Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. The first few stories were confusing to me, and it took me a while to adjust to Moore's style of writing. 

Here are some general themes I noted when reading the stories in Birds of America. 

• First of all, each story features birds in some way. Sometimes just one offhand sentence, sometimes a brief scene. I liked that. 
• The stories usually focused on relationships and the people tended to be quirky. 
• Most of the stories, maybe all, were somewhat depressing, sometimes sad. But in most of them, there was also humor.

There were two stories in Birds of America set at Christmas, and I left those to read in December. I did not get around to reading them until this year. 

"Charades" is set on Christmas Day. The family has gathered at their parents' home. Therese is the oldest and has gotten an appointment as a circuit court judge; Ann is ten years younger and in law school; Andrew is the middle child, and an electrical engineer. Therese and Andrew both have spouses, and Ann is getting married soon to Tad. Their parents are in their seventies. They are playing charades. Therese has a plane to catch at 4:30; Ann is irritated because her sister did not schedule a later flight and spend more time with the family. Mostly the grown children just seem to bicker with each other. That seems like a fairly normal Christmas atmosphere for a family of only adults (there is just one very young grandchild). My description makes the story sound really dreary, but it left me with a good feeling nevertheless.

"Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens" is more a cat story than a Christmas story, but it ends on a happier note than "Charades" did. It begins in November and ends on Christmas Day.

Bert, Aileen's cat, died on Veterans Day. Aileen is deeply affected, and begins drinking heavily. She has a loving husband and a beautiful child, and neither her friends or her family understand the level of grief she is feeling after Bert's death.

Her husband eventually convinces Aileen to see a therapist. She finds a therapist who guarantees she will be cured by Christmas. 

Favorite quote:  Jack, Aileen's husband, says...

"Life is a long journey across a wide country... Sometimes the weather's good. Sometimes it's bad. Sometimes it's so bad, your car goes off the road."

I still have three stories left to read in Birds of America. They are longer stories, each about 35-40 pages. 

At the Table of Wolves: Kay Kenyon

 

For the 52 Book Club Challenge, I asked my son to suggest a genre for me to read (Prompt 37: Genre Chosen for you by someone else). He chose Alternate History as the genre, and suggested a fantasy to fit that category. So I ended up reading a very entertaining cross-genre novel with a strong female character in the lead role.

Description provided by the publisher:

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets Agent Carter meets X-Men in a classic British espionage story. A young woman must go undercover and use her superpowers to discover a secret Nazi plot and stop an invasion of England.

In 1936, there are paranormal abilities that have slowly seeped into the world, brought to the surface by the suffering of the Great War. The research to weaponize these abilities in England has lagged behind Germany, but now it's underway at an ultra-secret site called Monkton Hall.

This description of the book, especially the first paragraph, is misleading in my opinion. It sounds like the novel is an over-the-top spy story. The novel is a very good spy story, but it is more of an adventure than the quiet, somber stories written by John le Carré. It is set in an alternative version of the UK and Germany in the years leading up to World War II. Within the British government, there is strong support for an alliance between the UK and Germany and many think that a cooperative relationship between the two countries can be successful; some citizens support that view, others don't trust the German government. 

There are people with fantastical paranormal abilities in both countries; these powers started showing up after World War II. For the most part, the "superpowers" are not very obvious and people have to be trained to use them. 

The heroine of the story, Kim Tavistock, has such an ability, called the "spill." She is capable of influencing other people to reveal secrets to her. Her supervisor/trainer at Monkton Hall requests that she go undercover to a country house weekend party. There will be highly placed Germans at the party. She will try to get some information on what the Germans are planning. Kim and her supervisor are doing this on their own, with no backing, which puts her in danger at times. 

My thoughts:

I like the central female character. She has no training in espionage and her supervisor is not sufficiently knowledgeable in that area to guide her, but she is determined to be successful at her mission and willing to take chances. She is living with her father in England after having spent the previous ten years living with her mother in the US. Thus there is a strained relationship between her and her father, and they are keeping secrets from each other.

I liked the setting, both in time and place. Especially at the beginning, the action takes place in both England and Germany. I thought the depiction of the time period was very well done and convincing. Germany takes the new powers more seriously and invests heavily in experiments to test the ability to use them to take over other countries. 

I love reading espionage stories, realistic or not. This book has enough grounding in the history of the years prior to World War II and a story that moves at a swift pace, so I think it would appeal to a wider audience. And the paranormal parts are very well done without seeming over the top. 

This book is the first in a trilogy. However, the book does not end in a cliffhanger and has a satisfactory conclusion. I will be getting a copy of the 2nd book soon.

Short Story Wednesday: Thrilling Tales

 

Early this week, I started reading stories in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon. I was a little bit confused by the introduction, which seemed to be describing what kind of stories would be in the book, but did not help me at all. The title indicates that the stories would be thrilling, but the four stories I read were not in any way thrilling. That description makes it sound like I did not like the stories, but I did, for the most part. 

My favorite story was "Chuck’s Bucket" by Chris Offutt. That story was all over the place, with time travel and a ghost and alternate universes. Plus the main character was Chris Offutt himself, writing about his difficulties in writing the story. Because he thinks that there is a ghost in his apartment, he goes to visit a university professor to ask for help. Instead his professor decides to use Chris as the subject for a time travel experiment. I liked that story very much; it was original and fun.

In "Blood Doesn't Come Out" by Michael Crichton, a private investigator's day starts off badly. He proves that an employee was stealing from his store, but it turns out that the guilty employee was the employer's lover, and the employer is very unhappy with the result. Then the PI's girlfriend walks out on him. From there, things go from bad to worse. The story was good and the ending was unexpected. 

"Private Grave 9" by Karen Joy Fowler was more of a supernatural story. It is set at an archaeological dig in Mesopotamia, around the same time as Howard Carter's dig. Those at the dig are unhappy because they are not finding anything as important as Howard Carter was finding at Tutankhamen's tomb. Finally they find the royal tomb of a princess. The narrator of the story is a photographer and takes photos of all the finds. On the photo of the princess, a face was superimposed over the skull. It was an interesting story because of the setting, and I like Fowler's writing, but it did not seem to go anywhere.

The last story I read, Aimee Bender’s "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers," was closest to a mystery puzzle. A married couple is found dead in a room, the wife poisoned, the husband stabbed. The strange thing is that they have a collection of salt and pepper shakers. The police detective who narrates the story wonders if they killed each other. The end of the story is inconclusive. It was a decent story but not really satisfying. 

I will continue reading the stories in this book. The full list of authors and stories is below: 

• Jim Shepard’s "Tedford and the Megalodon"
• Glen David Gold’s "The Tears of Squonk, and What Happened Thereafter"
• Dan Chaon’s "The Bees"
• Kelly Link’s "Catskin"
• Elmore Leonard’s "How Carlos Webster Changed His Name to Carl and Became a Famous Oklahoma Lawman"
• Carol Emshwiller’s "The General"
• Neil Gaiman’s "Closing Time"
• Nick Hornby’s "Otherwise Pandemonium"
• Stephen King’s "The Tale of Gray Dick"
• Michael Crichton’s "Blood Doesn’t Come Out"
• Laurie King’s "Weaving the Dark"
• Chris Offutt’s "Chuck’s Bucket"
• Dave Eggers’s "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"
• Michael Moorcock’s "The Case of the Nazi Canary"
• Aimee Bender’s "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers"
• Sherman Alexie’s "Ghost Dance"
• Harlan Ellison’s "Goodbye to All That"
• Karen Joy Fowler’s "Private Grave 9"
• Rick Moody’s "The Albertine Notes"
• Michael Chabon’s "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance"