Murder of a Lady: Anthony Wynne

 

Description from the back of the book:

Duchlan Castle is a gloomy, forbidding place in the Scottish Highlands. Late one night the body of Mary Gregor, sister of the laird of Duchlan, is found in the castle. She has been stabbed to death in her bedroom -- but the room is locked from within and the windows are barred. The only tiny clue to the culprit is a silver fish's scale, left on the floor next to Mary's body. Inspector Dundas is dispatched to Duchlan to investigate the case. The Gregor family and their servants are quick -- perhaps too quick -- to explain that Mary was a kind and charitable woman.

An amateur sleuth, Dr. Eustace Hailey, is visiting in the area, and because of his reputation with solving crimes, was called in before Inspector Dundas arrived to check out the body and the scene of the crime. Dundas is not happy with that situation and does not wish to work on the crime with anyone else. Yet he doesn't make much progress with his investigation, and irritates the family and the people who live in the surrounding area. Eventually he changes his mind and asks Dr. Hailey for his help. 

From the first, the victim is presented as a saintly woman who was always trying to help people and was loved by all. Eventually this is debunked as the depth of the toxic family relationship between the laird of Duchlan and his sister Mary, and the younger members of the family, the Laird's son, his wife, and their young son, is revealed bit by bit.

Most of the book focuses on the locked-room aspect,  which is one of the problems I have with some locked-room stories. The search for the answer to who could have done the crime and who had the motivation, plus how the murderer could get into and out of the locked room, seemed very repetitive.

Although I had a negative attitude about reading this book when I found out that it was a locked-room mystery, I did not regret reading it. I would even read another in the Aubrey Heiling series if I could find one. There were some good points. I enjoyed the setting in a castle in Scotland in the early 1930s. The solution at the end was a big surprise to me and there was more variety than I realized because of the contrasting of the varied approaches and the skills used by the sleuths, both from the police and the amateur sleuth. Also, it has a gorgeous cover.

Short Story Wednesday: More Short Stories by the Lockridges

 

I read the first few stories in Flair for Murder by Francis & Richard Lockridge in January 2025. Now, over a year later, I have finished the remaining 10 stories in the book. My earlier post from January 2025 provides more information about the short story collection and all the series that the two authors wrote together.

All of the stories in the book are relatively short. Of the stories I recently read, the lengths of the stories were between 6 - 10 pages, and they feature Captain M.L. Heimrich of the New York State Police. The stories take place in Westchester County, usually in rural areas. I have fond memories of reading some of the Captain Heimrich novels years ago, so it was fun to revisit that character.  This was the perfect set of stories for me, since they are in a subgenre I like, police procedurals.

With the briefness of these stories, the solution had to be quickly resolved and not dependent on long investigations or interviews with many suspects. In many cases, the culprit seems to be obvious, but soon new evidence comes to light and / or Heimrich has an "aha" moment when some event he sees or experiences how the death could really have happened. Several of the stories revolved around deaths caused by automobile accidents. The last two stories were related to gardening which I especially enjoyed. 

I actually liked every story in this book, which is unusual. Probably because I like how the Lockridges tell a story, very conversational and matter of fact, and I think it suits short stories especially. Also, I think Captain Heimrich is a great character. Now I want to go read some of the books featuring that character. I have several in eBook format that I can try.

Spin #43 for the Classics Club, February 2026

 

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. To join in, I choose twenty unread books from my classics list and list them in a post before Sunday, February 8th, 2026.  On Sunday, the Classics Club will generate a random number between 1 through 20 and post it at the website. Then I will read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by March 29th, 2026.

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. Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
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. J. D. Salinger – Catcher in the Rye (1951)
13. Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958) 
14. Lewis Carroll – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
15. Dashiell Hammett – Red Harvest (1929)   
16. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre (1847)
17. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Sign of the Four (1892)
18. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
19. Edna Ferber – Giant (1952)
20. Edna Ferber – Show Boat (1926)

The four books I would most like to read for this spin are A Wrinkle in Time, The Talented Mr.Ripley, Jane Eyre, or Our Man in Havana. But, really, any of the books on my list would be fine.  

Books Read in January 2026

I am always excited to start a new year of reading. This year I would like to read one each of the following every month:

• A vintage mystery
• A mystery published between 1970 and now
• A book in any other genre, including nonfiction
• A book in eBook format
• A graphic novel or graphic nonfiction
• One classic, preferably from my Classics Club list
• One Canadian book
• One short story book

Some of these categories can overlap, so it is not as hard as it sounds (to me, at least). 

This month I read seven books and the only categories I missed are: a short story book, an eBook, and a classic. I started reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, which is on my Classics Club list, in eBook format, but I haven't finished it yet.

So, here are the books I read:

Nonfiction / Nature

The Backyard Bird Chronicles (2024) by Amy Tam

I always like to read about birds in fiction or nonfiction. I was expecting to enjoy this book because of the format, similar to a diary, and the illustrations, which were a mix of rough sketches and very polished, detailed bird portraits. Amy Tan did all of the illustrations herself. The text was very informal; Tan took drawing lessons and she delighted in discovering birds that were new to her and drawing them so that she could identify them later. She talked a lot about mating behavior and which birds mate for life. I loved her enthusiasm for the subject. The book covered part of 2017 through 2022. It was the perfect book for me. 

Graphic Nonfiction

What I Hate: From A to Z  (2011) by Roz Chast

This is a very short book, 64 pages, about twice the length of the average children's picture book and in the same format. Chast has illustrated twenty six of the things she hates (or is very anxious about), one for each letter of the alphabet. It is the first book by Chast that I have read, although I have admired her cartoons in the New Yorker for years. What we hate or are anxious about is very personal. So, although some of the things that cause anxiety in Roz Chast seemed silly to me, who am I to judge? The book is fun and funny.

Fiction

I See You Called in Dead (2025) John Kenney

I borrowed this book from my husband, before he had even read it. The protagonist works for a newspaper writing obituaries. He likes his job, but his life changes for the worse when his wife divorces him. He loses any zest for life that he had, starts drinking to excess, and ends up writing his own obituary. And publishes it. He is immediately suspended, but he is still getting paid, so he has plenty of time to wallow in self-pity. Fortunately he has caring friends and meets some new ones. These characters are the ones who make this book so satisfying. This book is described as humorous, and it has plenty of humor, but I would say it tends more towards sadness than humor. Just a warning. I thoroughly enjoyed it but parts of it are heartbreakingly sad. 

Historical Fiction

Old Filth (2004) by Jane Gardam

I could not decide whether to call this Historical Fiction or not. It begins and ends in the early years of the 21st century, but most of the story is about the years between World War I and through World War II. It is the first book in a trilogy by Jane Gardam and I will be reading book 2 for sure. See my thoughts on the book.

Crime Fiction

Hidden Agenda (1985) by Anna Porter

This is mystery by a Canadian author, set in Toronto, New York, and London. The main protagonist is Judith Hayes, a single mother and journalist based in Toronto who has ties to various publishing houses. The story starts with the death of a man run over by a subway car. Inspector Parr talks to Judith Hayes, who had a meeting with the man, an editor in a publishing house, just hours before he died. The police tend to think it was suicide. Judith says he gave no indication in the meeting that he would commit suicide. Then more deaths occur in publishing houses, all seemingly connected to a missing manuscript. The stakes keep escalating and it seemed to be a  cross between spy fiction and a political conspiracy plot. I admit that it strained my ability to suspend disbelief, but I liked the characters and the international locations and the look at the publishing industry. The author was a publisher for many years in Canada. 

The Murder at the End of the World (2024) by Stuart Turton

This book is a dystopian mystery. The story is very convoluted. There are two sets of characters on an island that has been isolated by an event in the past. The island is run by three elders, who have lived very long lives (over 100 years) and all have scientific or engineering backgrounds. The larger group on the island function to serve them, and all have lives limited to 60 years. One day, one of the elders is killed and this leads to the whole island being threatened by a poisonous atmosphere that will kill them all if they don't solve the murder. I was confused most of the time, and I think that was intentional. In the end it all came together and made sense. The book has two elements I love in a mystery: a lovely map of the island on the endpapers of the book and a list of characters.

Death of a Busybody (1942) by George Bellairs

When I sat down to write my thoughts on this book, I was dismayed to realize that I don't remember much about the plot of this story. Yet I do remember that I enjoyed reading the book and I plan to keep reading this series. Basically, the title describes the major plot element. A busybody, Miss Tither, who lives in a very small village, Hillary Magna, is killed. She has no friends. She snoops on people, offers her advice, and interferes in their lives. When she is killed, the local police are unable to handle the investigation and Inspector Littlejohn is called in to help. The procedure of tracking down the clues and suspects is not exciting, but the way the police work together and the relationships within the village are interesting, and there is subtle humor throughout. The final solution was much more complex than I expected, but it was very satisfying. The Inspector Littlejohn series has at least 50 novels in it, and many are available at affordable prices as eBooks.

The photos at the bottom and top of the post are of plants we purchased in early Summer of 2025. They were sitting on the patio waiting to be repotted. The photos were taken and processed by my husband. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

 

Short Story Wednesday: USA Noir

 

I have had a copy of USA Noir for nearly 10 years, and this is the first time I have read any stories from the book. It contains stories selected from 37 USA-based original noir anthologies published by Akashic. The series started in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. I do recognize a large percentage of the authors with stories in this book, but there are some that I don't recognize. Today I stuck with authors I have read before. 

There are Six Sections. Some of them sound pretty dark and unwelcoming, others are ambiguous.

• True Grit
• American Values
• Road Rage
• Homeland Security
• Under the Influence
• Street Justice  

I liked all three of the stories that I read and they are all different. They illustrate the variety of stories found in the Akashic Noir anthologies.

From the Road Rage section:

"Our Eyes Couldn’t Stop Opening" by Megan Abbott is a suspense-filled story about high school girls wanting to escape their boundaries. It is told in first person by a member of a clique; the setting is Grosse Pointe in Detroit, where the author grew up. The narrator follows around a former friend who is getting wilder and wilder in her behavior. It is beautifully written and very dark.

First published in Detroit Noir, in 2007. Megan Abbott has written twelve crime fiction novels, all of them standalone thrillers. 

From the Under the Influence section:

"Lighthouse" by S.J. Rozan is about a thief who is troubled by voices in his head. The voices urge him to rob various locations to get money to buy drugs. He thinks of the voices as aliens who have taken residence in his brain. I have read lots of stories by Rozan and most of them are lighter than this one. Very sad, although the ending is not a total downer.

First published in Staten Island Noir in 2012. S.J. Rozan writes the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith mystery series, mostly set in New York City's Chinatown.

From the Homeland Security section:

"Loot" by Julie Smith is set in the Garden District of New Orleans.  It is a very convoluted story about the devastation in New Orleans after Katrina and the looting that resulted. Smith packed a lot of story into 11 pages. It did not seem very noir to me; for such a serious subject, it was surprisingly light and in some ways uplifting.

First published in New Orleans Noir in 2007. Julie Smith was also the editor of that anthology. She has written two mystery series, the Skip Langdon series set in New Orleans and the Rebecca Schwartz series set in San Francisco.