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"

My Books from the 2025 Book Sale

Every year we look forward to the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, which was held between September 12 – 21, 2025. We go to the sale five times, and the last day the books are half price. So, two months after the book sale, I am listing seven of the many books that I purchased at the sale. I have not read any of these yet, but I will read the first one on the list before the end of the year.

These are listed in no particular order, although I started with books that were not mysteries, and ended with mysteries.

Tell Me Everything (2024) by Elizabeth Strout

Why did I buy this book? It was on my list of books to look for at the sale. I just finished reading Oh, William! by the same author in October. I will be reading Lucy by the Sea this month (November). And I want to read Tell Me Everything by the end of 2025. All of those novels have some of the same characters. So I was happy to find a copy.

I don't know much about Tell Me Everything (and I don't want to at this point), but it is set in the fictional town of Crosby, Maine, and features several characters from previous books by Strout: Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess, Olive Kitteridge and more.

Pearly Everlasting (2024) by Tammy Armstrong

Why did I buy this book? It was another book on my list that I had hoped to find. The author is Canadian and the setting is New Brunswick during the Great Depression. If I hadn't found a copy I would have been buying a copy soon, probably for much more than I spent at the sale. 

I don't know much about this story. The Goodreads description notes that it is about a cook in a logging camp who rescues an orphaned bear and brings it home. The bear lives with him and his wife and daughter. Years later the bear is sold and the teenaged daughter goes to rescue it. I have seen Pearly Everlasting classified as a fantasy. I don't think it fits well into my definition of a fantasy, but I think the basic story of a bear bonding with a girl is not based on realistic bear behavior. So it sounds more like a folktale to me. See Susan's review at The Cue Card. In that same post, Susan also reviews Tell Me Everything (above).

The Grammarians (2019) by Cathleen Schine

Why did I buy this book? I saw the cover, read the description, and was intrigued by the book. The author is new to me. I don't focus on grammar so much but I love words, so it sounded good.

From the dust jacket on the book:

The grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but, lo and behold, this love, which has always bound them together, begins to push them apart.

Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017) by Kathleen Rooney

Why did I buy this book? It was pretty much the cover that decided me. I had heard of the author vaguely but had seen this cover here and there. The description sounded good, AND the book has a map of New York on the end papers.

From the dust jacket of the book:

Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now―her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl―but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak...

The Spy Coast (2023) by Tess Gerritsen

Why did I buy this book? I like espionage books, and this one is by an author who I am familiar with. The ratings are good. I have read five books in the Rizzoli and Isles series. 

From the back of the book:

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her.

Invisible Helix (2021) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray

Why did I buy this book? My husband introduced me to this author and I have read as many books by him as we can find. This is the fifth book in the Detective Galileo series that has been translated to English, and I have read the four previous books.

From the description at Goodreads:

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in a case where hidden history, and impossible crime, are linked by nearly invisible threads in surprising ways.

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident-Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found.

To Fetch a Thief (2010) by Spencer Quinn

Why did I buy this book? This was another one I bought for the cover. I have read the first book in the Chet and Bernie series and enjoyed it. I like books about the circus, although I haven't read that many. It was too good to pass up.

The books in the Chet and Bernie series are narrated by a dog named Chet. Chet is not a superdog; he flunked out of K-9 training, but still has the heart of a detective. His owner, private investigator Bernie Little, is not perfect either but never gives up on the case. The setting seems to be Arizona.

Short Story Wednesday: The Grantchester Mysteries

 

The Grantchester Mysteries consists of six short story collections by James Runcie. The short stories are all connected and follow the investigations of Sidney Chambers, a vicar in Grantchester. This first story is set in 1953, the coronation year of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Years ago, I read several reviews of the stories in the Grantchester TV series and some reviewers said that the TV episodes were better than the short stories. So for a while I avoided reading the stories. I still haven't seen the TV series, but now I have read the first story in Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death and I enjoyed it very much. 

"The Shadow of Death"

First paragraph:

Canon Sidney Chambers had never intended to become a detective. Indeed, it came about quite by chance, after a funeral, when a handsome woman of indeterminate age voiced her suspicion that the recent death of a Cambridge solicitor was not suicide, as had been widely reported, but murder.

The death is a suicide and the lover of the dead man, Pamela Morton, is the woman who asks Sidney to look into it. She doesn't believe that he would commit suicide. Sidney is a vicar, and although he doesn't see himself as suited to investigating such an issue, he agrees to talk to various people who knew the dead man. 

It helps that he has a good friend, Inspector Keating, who worked on the investigation of the man's death. However, his friend is somewhat irritated by Sidney's interest, and doesn't see that there is evidence that points to murder.

Other characters are:

• the wife of the dead man;
• the dead man's secretary;
• and his business partner, who is married to the dead man's lover.

I liked this first story very much. I enjoyed meeting the protagonist, Canon Sidney Sheldon. I liked Sidney's musings on his faith, and his misgivings on getting himself involved in investigating a possible crime. I thought the mystery was put together well, and I liked the depictions of the various characters. 

This first story is 80 pages long, so it is basically a novella. The other five stories in the book range from 50 to 70 pages in length. 

Books Read in August 2025

As you can see, I am more than a bit behind with my monthly reading summaries. August's reading was a bit unusual for me. I only read five books, partly because one of them was a nonfiction book, and I usually read them more slowly. I only read two mysteries, but the nonfiction book focused on mystery plots and narration in both novels and film, so it was related to mysteries. 

Nonfiction

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland (2002) by Jim Defede

When the terrorist attacks in the US occurred on September 11. 2001, US airspace was shut down indefinitely. Airplanes that needed to land there were diverted to other airports outside the US.  Thirty eight commercial airplanes were instructed to land at the Gander International Airport in Newfoundland. This book describes the stories of the men, women, and families who were on the planes that had to land there and the logistics of getting the planes on the ground and finding places for all the passengers and flight crews to stay. Many of the people in Gander and surrounding towns donated their time to support the many people who were temporarily housed there. This book did a great job of covering that situation, at least from my perspective. The writing style was not perfect, and the organization of the various stories about the visitors and the townspeople was sometimes haphazard, but I was so interested in reading about it all that I did not really care.

Perplexing Plots (2023) by David Bordwell  

The subtitle of this book is "Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder." Bordwell was an influential film scholar; this book, the last one he published, focuses on crime fiction and films in the 1900s up to more recent times. He discusses the development of crime fiction plots and narratives and notes the same developments in plays and film of that time. See my review.

Fantasy / Time Travel

Before Your Memory Fades (2018) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This is the third in a series of five books about time travel that takes place in a café in Tokyo which has been serving a special coffee for more than one hundred years. When people sit at a particular table, drinking a cup of that coffee allows them to travel in time, but just for a short time. There are four connected stories in this book; each is novella length. The stories of the people who run the café are just as interesting as the time travel stories. In this book, some of the people who run the café in Tokyo visit a second time travel café in another city. You might think that the stories get to be repetitive, but I have found new approaches and ideas in each of the books I have read. The first book in the series is Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Crime Fiction

The Killing of the Tinkers (2002) Ken Bruen

This is a very noir, but also relatively short, crime fiction book, the 2nd book in a series featuring Jack Taylor, a sort of private investigator in Galway, Ireland. Ken Bruen writes beautifully, and the main character is constantly talking about the books he is reading or the music he is listening to, but it is a really dark book. I have the third book in the series and I will read that one for sure, and if I had time, I would read all of them. I have also read the first three books in Bruen's Inspector Brant series, which I prefer.

Pesticide (2023) by Kim Hays

This book is the first in the Linder and Donatelli series. It is a police procedural set in Bern, Switzerland. Detective Giuliana Linder is an experienced homicide detective; she has worked with Investigator Renzo Donatelli before but this time they start out on different cases in very different locations. The author has dual Swiss/American citizenship, and has lived in Bern with her husband for 37 years. See my review.

Recently finished

At the Table of Wolves by Kay Kenyon is an alternate history with elements of espionage and fantasy; some characters have paranormal powers. It is set in 1936 in England and Germany; I thought the depiction of the time period was very well done and convincing.  

Currently reading

Actually I will start reading this nonfiction book tonight. Eight Days in May is about the eight days following Hitler's death on April 30, 1945. The author, Volker Ullrich, is a German historian; the book was translated from German by Jefferson Chase. 

And, more cat pictures...

London has now been with us three months. Per some pet behavior specialists, this is an important milestone in a new pet's adjustment. We are still adjusting to London and he to us. He is fun and so big compared to our previous cats. He is beginning to show more affection and easily accept it from us. All of the photos were taken by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Perplexing Plots: David Bordwell

 

The subtitle of this book is "Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder." Bordwell was an influential film scholar; this book, the last one he published, focuses on crime fiction and films in the 1900s up to more recent times. He discusses the development of crime fiction plots and narratives and notes the same developments in plays and film of that time. In the book, he proposes that crime fiction exposed audiences to new forms of storytelling and increased their familiarity and acceptance of more complex plots. 

But I am not knowledgeable about films and film theory, so I will also include this description from Columbia University Press, the publisher of the book:

In Perplexing Plots, David Bordwell reveals how crime fiction, plays, and films made unconventional narrative mainstream. He shows that since the nineteenth century, detective stories and suspense thrillers have allowed ambitious storytellers to experiment with narrative. Tales of crime and mystery became a training ground where audiences learned to appreciate artifice. These genres demand a sophisticated awareness of storytelling conventions: they play games with narrative form and toy with audience expectations.

I was motivated to read this book for Bordwell's in-depth discussion of crime fiction authors. He was a big fan of Rex Stout (as am I). One chapter is devoted to Stout's Nero Wolfe series and Erle Stanley Gardner's mysteries. Two other chapters I particularly enjoyed were "Viewpoints, Narrow and Expansive: Patricia Highsmith and Ed McBain" and "Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine." Raymond Chandler's books were also covered in depth.

This book was very dense, sometimes over my head, but I enjoyed it. The content was academic; not dry but challenging.

My husband read Bordwell's previous book, Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling. I will be reading that book, maybe next year.

There is an excellent review at George Kelley's blog; George lists all the chapter titles, which is very useful.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Columbia University Press, 2023 
Length:       412 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Genre:        Nonfiction
Source:       I purchased this book in 2023.

Short Story Wednesday: Two Hercule Poirot Short Stories

Recently I read two short stories from Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie. The collection has 867 pages and was published in 1999; it consists of 51 short stories.

 

"The Adventures of the Clapham Cook"

First published in The Sketch in November 1923. Later published in the US collection The Under Dog and Other Stories in 1951, and then in a UK collection in 1974, Poirot’s Early Cases.

One thing I like in the Hercule Poirot short stories is that they are often told in first person by Captain Hastings; I also find the conversations between Hastings and Poirot very entertaining. This story fit that model, and I enjoyed it. 

These are the opening lines of the story:

At the time that I was sharing rooms with my friend Hercule Poirot, it was my custom to read aloud to him the headlines in the morning newspaper, the Daily Blare.

The Daily Blare was a paper that made the most of any opportunity for sensationalism. Robberies and murders did not lurk obscurely in its back pages. Instead they hit you in the eye in large type on the front page.

ABSCONDING BANK CLERK DISAPPEARS WITH FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS’ WORTH OF NECOTIABLE SECURITIES, I read.

HUSBAND PUTS HIS HEAD IN GAS OVEN. UNHAPPY HOME LIFE. MISSING TYPIST. PRETTY GIRL OF TWENTY-ONE. WHERE IS EDNA FIELD?

"There you are Poirot, plenty to choose from an absconding bank clerk, a mysterious suicide, a missing typist--which will you have?"

None of these headlines interest Poirot. He prefers to spend his day at home, taking care of personal issues, such as trimming his mustache.

But shortly after this discussion, they have a visitor, a woman who wants Poirot to find her cook. He does not take her seriously, and she accuses him of being a snob. Poirot gives in and investigates the case, uncovering a diabolical plot related to another crime at the same time.

"Murder in the Mews" 

This story is novella length. First published in the US in Redbook Magazine, September/October 1936. It was published in the short story collection, Murder in the Mews and Other Stories, in 1937.

In this story, Captain Hastings does not show up at all and the story is told in third person viewpoint. However, Poirot is working with another favorite character, Inspector Japp. 

One morning, Inspector Japp calls Hercule Poirot to tell him that a death had occurred in Bardsley Gardens Mews the night before. That night, Japp and Poirot had been walking through the Mews after leaving a bonfire on Guy Fawkes night, and they are discussed how all the fireworks could cover the sounds of gunfire. 

Poirot joins Inspector Japp at the woman's residence where the death occurred. At first the assumption is suicide; very soon after the police arrive, they determine that it was a murder set up to look like suicide. And thus begins an investigation into the friends of the dead woman. She was living with another woman, a friend, and was engaged to Charles Laverton-West, an "M.P. for some place in Hampshire.” The resolution is unusual and Poirot is clever as expected.

"Murder in the Mews" was the best mystery of these two stories. I think the novella length provides more time for development and depth in the story. The characters in "The Adventures of the Clapham Cook" were more interesting, but the story felt more rushed, and some parts of the ending were not resolved for me. Both stories had their high points, and the character of Hercule Poirot is always entertaining to read about.

Both of these stories were adapted for Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet, and the adaptations were very well done.

Annual Book Sale 2025: My Husband's Books

 

Every year in September we attend the Planned Parenthood book sale, which lasts ten days. This time we visited five times, as usual. My husband's special interests at the sale are photography, architecture, and performing arts; books about history; and fiction, including mysteries and science fiction.

These are seven of the books my husband found at the book sale this year.

Dr. Johnson's Apple Orchard: The Story of America's First Pet Cemetery by Edward C. Martin, Jr.

Published in 1997, this 120-page, coffee-table size book features over 200 photographs of the historic Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, established in 1896 by a New York veterinarian.

Description from the dust jacket: 

What was once the summer retreat of a famous Manhattan veterinarian has been the home of America's first pet cemetery for over one hundred years. The Hartsdale Canine Cemetery is now the resting place for pets of every description, from parakeets to a lion cub, from the loyal dog of a blind newsman to the pampered pets of famous celebrities and a former vice president of the United States. Its carefully tended trees and crystal-clear stream have made it a community treasure in the small hamlet of Hartsdale, just north of New York City. Over the years it has grown like a stream around a boulder. In this 100-year Centennial tribute, Co-Director Ed Martin captures the dignity and compassion that has marked the cemetery's famous history. Through magnificent photography and personal reflection, he has created a feast for the eyes as well as the heart. Within its pages, you will discover stories of simple devotion, outrageous eccentricity and remarkable heroism. 

Ghost of a Smile: Stories by Deborah Boliver Boehm

From the description at Goodreads:

Ghost of a Smile is a funny, erotic, scary collection of stories set in modern-day Tokyo and incorporating elements from Japanese ghost stories. Author Deborah Boehm turns modern Tokyo into a shadow world where life and death are simply matters of perspective, and where love, longing and sexual desire last beyond the grave. In this supernaturally enhanced city, the ordinary boundaries of identity—country, gender, even whether one is human or a spirit—are blurred. Ghosts can seduce, trick and even love mortals, and so the familiar problems related to dating and falling in love may be compounded by the discovery that a partner isn't human at all.

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt

This book is based on the podcast titled 99% Invisible. Based on reviews I have read, a lot of the content is from the podcast, but for those who have never listened to it, this sounds like a very interesting book.

From the description at Goodreads:

A beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast

Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean?

Or stopped to consider why you don't see metal fire escapes on new buildings?

Or pondered the story behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships?

99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.

Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and coauthor Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout,

The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments, and the unsung marvels of the world around them.

The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak

From the description at Goodreads:

The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule.

Brunhild was a Spanish princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet—in the 6th-century Merovingian Empire, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport—these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms for decades, changing the face of Europe.

The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a years-long civil war—against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne’s empire. Yet after Brunhild and Fredegund’s deaths—one gentle, the other horrific—their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.

In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture’s stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.

Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison by Ben Macintyre

My husband read this book soon after he purchased it at the book sale in mid-September. As with all the books he has read by Macintyre, he enjoyed the book and gave it a high rating.

From the description at Goodreads:

In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend.

But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape. Its population represented a society in miniature, full of heroes and traitors, class conflicts and secret alliances, and the full range of human joy and despair. In Macintyre’s telling, Colditz’s most famous names—like the indomitable Pat Reid—share glory with lesser known but equally remarkable characters like Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar whose ill treatment, hunger strike, and eventual escape read like fiction; Florimond Duke, America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture covert escape aids for POWs.

 

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz

My husband is currently reading this book. He discovered that he previously had a copy and never read it, and then bought another copy at the book sale. The only other book he has read by Tony Horwitz is Confederates in the Attic.

From the description at Goodreads:

On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he's mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus’s sail in 1492 to Jamestown's founding in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America.

An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs — these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers.

Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek — from Florida's Fountain of Youth to Plymouth's sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to subarctic sweat lodges, Tony Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.

You Can Never Die: A Graphic Memoir by Harry Bliss

This is another book that Glen has read since he got it at the book sale. It is actually a book that we co-own since we both like the author's writing and the drawings. He liked this one very much.

From the description at Goodreads:

A poignant and witty graphic memoir from New Yorker cover artist, internationally syndicated cartoonist, and New York Times bestselling author Harry Bliss capturing his reflections on life and his relationship with Penny, his beloved dog.

... As Harry grieves Penny’s loss, he reflects on his parents in their later years, his love for his wife and home, and the colorful artists, friends, and mentors who have shaped him.

With humor and gut-wrenching honesty, You Can Never Die is an intimate portrayal of a man making sense of the beautiful and painful world around him. This singular memoir integrates sharply crafted, witty stories with hundreds of gorgeous cartoons and never-seen-before sketches from Bliss’s career.

Spin #42 for the Classics Club, October 2025

 

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I choose twenty books from my classics list. On Sunday, October 19th, the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The goal is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by December 21st, 2025.

I created a list for Spin #41, but I have not yet read the book that was picked (which was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark). I debated whether to join in on this one, but I decided I would take the optimistic approach and hope that I have time to read both books before the end of the year.

So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin...

1. Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
2. Madeleine L'Engle – A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
3. Graham Greene – Our Man in Havana (1958)   
4. Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
5. Ray Bradbury – The Martian Chronicles (1950)
6. Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
7. Charlotte Brontë – Jane Eyre (1847)
8. Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five  (1955)
9. John Steinbeck – Cannery Row (1945)
10. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein (1818)
11. Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
12. Virginia Woolf – Flush (1933)
13. J. D. Salinger – Catcher in the Rye (1951)
14. Anne Brontë – Agnes Grey (1847) 
15. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958) 
16. Dashiell Hammett – Red Harvest (1929)   
17. Christopher Isherwood – Goodbye to Berlin (1939)   
18. Albert Camus – The Stranger (1942)
19. Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
20. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) 

The three books I would most like to read for this spin are A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Highsmith, or Our Man in Havana by Greene. However, any of the books on my list would be fine. 

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea: Rebecca Thorne

 

I first saw this book when my son purchased it at the book sale. The copy he got was especially nice, with sprayed edges (in a nice turquoise color), and a lovely map. I was interested in the book shop theme and the description: "a cozy fantasy steeped with love." And since I love tea, "tea" in the title of the book pulled me in too. I wanted to read it immediately and my son let me read it first.

The story is about a lesbian couple who want to leave their current lives behind and open a bookstore in a remote location where no one can find them. The problem is that Reyna is a private guard to a powerful and cruel queen, and Kianthe is a powerful mage. Somehow they both manage to leave their responsibilities behind and move to a small town far from their previous lives to set up a book shop. 

Reyna and Kianthe have never had any extended time together before, and they use this time to adjust to their differences and see if they can make a life together. 

My Thoughts on the Book:

What is a cozy fantasy? I had not been aware previously that there was a subgenre of fantasy that is described as cozy fantasy.  I don't often read cozy mysteries, but like any other genre or subgenre, there is a wide range of books within the mystery genre categorized as cozy. Online there are many different descriptions of cozy fantasies, emphasizing community or familial relationships, and focusing on comfort and a sense of belonging.

This book had griffons and dragons. Griffons are new to me. Dragons are not, but I did begin to notice how differently dragons are described and used in various fantasy series. In the last ten years, I think the only dragons I have encountered in fiction were in the Dragonriders of Pern series. In the Tomes & Tea series dragons are monsters, the enemy that can burn down towns (at least at this point). I am currently reading Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, a Discworld book, and dragons are summoned by evil forces and are attacking the city of Ankh-Morpork. The approach to dragons in the Discworld series seems entirely different.

The story was good and held my interest; it is a light-hearted tale, not too demanding, focused on community, sharing, being open to ideas. It has enough conflict to make it interesting.

I enjoyed the depiction of all the characters in the story, even the evil ones. The evil queen doesn't really get much time in the book until close to the end, but even in that case, her character is very well defined.

This book is not perfect. It was the author's first novel and in some ways it shows. Some behaviors and scenarios are used over and over. That may be realistic but in fiction it can get annoying. But I liked the story and the characters a lot and I am willing to try more books in the series to see how it develops.

Short Story Wednesday: The Literary Ghost, ed. Larry Dark

 

Last week for Short Story Wednesday, I wrote about the first three stories in one of my husband's  ghost story anthologies, The Literary Ghost: Great Contemporary Ghost Stories, edited by Larry Dark. 

This is the description of this book at Goodreads:

"It takes a certain amount of daring for a literary writer to employ a device as powerful and obvious as a ghost, and a great deal of talent and self-assurance to pull it off. The fact that these stories are so different from one another and that no two ghosts in them are alike is a testament to the power of the individual imagination to appropriate established myths without assuming the associated clichés."

So writes Larry Dark in the introduction to this anthology of expertly crafted ghost stories by such luminaries as Donald Barthelme, Paul Bowles, A. S. Byatt, Robertson Davies, M. F. K. Fisher, John Gardner, Nadine Gordimer, Graham Greene, Patrick McGrath, R. K. Narayan, Tim O'Brien, V. S. Pritchett, Anne Sexton, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Fay Weldon.

Today I read a few more stories in that book. Several of these were very short so I don't want to say too much about them.

"The Others" by Joyce Carol Oates

A man begins to see people on the street that he recognizes from his past. He knows that some of them are dead. His wife makes light of it. He begins to see more and more people like that. 

This story was five or six pages long, and I thought it was pretty good, although what was going on was not explicit and not very scary. It was atmospheric.

"A Story of Don Juan" by V.S. Pritchett

First sentence: "One night of his life Don Juan slept alone."

Don Juan must stay at the house of a man whose wife died one year earlier, on their wedding night. He is still mourning her. He allows Don Juan to sleep in the room that he shared with his wife when she was alive.

I am not sure how this story fits into the description "contemporary ghost stories" since it was first published in 1941. However I enjoyed it anyway. It definitely had a ghost, although maybe an unusual one.

"Up North" by Mavis Gallant

This one was also 6 pages and I really liked it. I now want to find out more about Gallant and her writing. 

The story is set on a train. A woman and her young son are traveling from Montreal to a more northern part of Canada. She is from England and has come to join her Canadian husband, whom she met during World War II. Ghosts are discussed and the boy thinks he sees ghosts outside of the train. 

"The Warden" by John Gardner

This was a longer story, about 30 pages long, with chapters. I found it very confusing and did not understand what was going on at all. 

A man is running a prison, but he has no real authority. The warden is useless and will give him no instructions so he is left to make his own decisions. At the point the story begins, he never sees the warden, he just hears him pacing in his office and never comes out at all. 

I tried to find more information about the story, but was not successful. If anyone reading this post knows more about this story, I would love to know more about it. 

Below is a list of all stories in the book. The book is about 360 pages long and has 28 short stories.

• "The Lost, Strayed, Stolen," M.F.K. Fisher
• "The Portobello Road," Muriel Spark
• "The Ghost Who Vanished by Degrees," Robertson Davies
• "The Others," Joyce Carol Oates
• "A Story of Don Juan," V.S. Pritchett
• "Up North," Mavis Gallant
• "The Warden," John Gardner
• "The Death of Edward Lear," Donald Barthelme
• "The Circular Valley," Paul Bowles
• "The Third Voice," William Ferguson
• "Marmilion," Patrick McGrath
• "Spirit Seizures," Melissa Pritchard
• "Revenant as Typewriter," Penelope Lively
• "Ghostly Populations," Jack Matthews
• "The Ghost Soldiers," Tim O'Brien
• "Family," Lance Olsen
• "Letter from a Dogfighter's Aunt, Deceased," Padgett Powell
• "The Ghost," Anne Sexton
• "Angel, All Innocence," Fay Weldon
• "Jack's Girl," Cynthia Kadohata
• "The Next Room," A.S. Byatt
• "Grass," Barry Yourgrau
• "Eisenheim the Illusionist," Steven Millhauser
• "Ghost and Flesh, Water and Dirt," William Goyen
• "Letter from His Father," Nadine Gordimer
• "Old Man of the Temple," R.K. Narayan
• "A Little Place Off the Edgware Road," Graham Greene
• "A Crown of Feathers," Isaac Bashevis Singer