My Reading in September 2022

I had a nice month of reading in September. Only fiction and mostly crime fiction. I did read one cross-genre book, the first one on my list below.

I noted that most of the books I read were published after 1999; the same thing happened last month. I seem to be tending in that direction lately. Not sure why.

And these are the books I read:

Science Fiction / Mystery

Head On (2018) by John Scalzi

This book qualifies as both science fiction and mystery and in this case the mystery actually supersedes the science fiction, in my opinion. It is the second book in a two-book series set in the near future. The story begins about 20 years after the world-wide epidemic of a virus which causes Lock In syndrome. Technological breakthroughs have been developed to the point where the victims of the disease can use a robotic device to move around, talk, and function in society while their bodies are lying in a bed elsewhere. See my thoughts on the book here.

Crime Fiction

The Tenderness of Wolves (2006) by Stef Penney

I read this for my Canadian Reading Challenge. Set in 1867, primarily in a small settlement in the Northern Territory. There are treks into even more remote areas to search for a murderer. This is a historical mystery, but the crime and the investigation are not primary to the story.  The focus is even more on the setting, the prominence of the Hudson Bay Company, and the treatment of Native American trappers. There are a lot of characters to keep up with. I loved it and the ending worked well for me.

Crazybone (2000) by Bill Pronzini

I have been reading the Nameless Detective series by Pronzini since the mid-1970s. I introduced my husband to them in the early 80s after we got married, and he became a bigger fan than I am. He has read all 41 books in the series. I have only read the books up to and including Crazybone, and I still have 15 books left to read. They are short and quick reads; serious stories and sometimes dark. There is humor along the way and the main character ages and develops. Getting back to reading this series seems like meeting an old friend that I haven't seen for years.

The Sanctuary Sparrow (1983) by Ellis Peters

This is the fourth Brother Cadfael book that I have read, but it is the seventh book in the series. The setting for the books in the series is between 1135 and 1145 in England and Wales, primarily. Brother Cadfael takes care of the plants for the monastery and is an herbalist. If this book is typical of the series, it seems like they can be read in any order. However, I plan to get back to reading them in order when possible.  

A Killer in King's Cove (2016) by Iona Whishaw

This is a historical mystery set in British Columbia, Canada right after World War II. The heroine, Lane Winslow, has just moved to Canada from the UK, following World War II, and lives in a small town in a home she purchased. After Lane has settled down in King's Cove, a stranger is found dead in the creek that feeds water to her property. Eventually the death is determined to be murder and Lane Winslow appears to have a connection to this man. Another book which was read for the Canadian Reading Challenge. See my review here.

Spycatcher (2011) by Matthew Dunn

I purchased this book at the book sale in September, knowing nothing about it other than it was the first book in an espionage series. It was a fast-paced, action packed story, one you can imagine being turned into a film. A bit too much like the James Bond movies for me, but in the end I enjoyed it and plan to give the second book in the series a try. My main complaint was that the first two or three chapters introducing the protagonist and his handlers were awkward and unconvincing. But I am a sucker for any type of spy fiction, and the rest of the book was much better and held my interest. I have purchased the second book in the series.

Currently reading

Last night, I finished reading The Listening House by Mabel Seeley, a mystery published in 1938, set in a boarding house, one of my favorite settings in fiction, along with hotels and trains. I chose to read it in October because the eerie atmosphere would fit the mood of the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril event. I haven't picked my next read yet.

I am still reading Anna Karenina, and I doubt I will finish that book before the end of October. 

We have started walking in various areas around Santa Barbara a few days a week. This week we went to Stow House, a historic site in Goleta. My husband took the photos at the top and bottom of this post on our walk. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday: Book Sale purchases

 

Last Friday, September 16, was the first day of the Planned Parenthood book sale and it will continue through Sunday, September 25. We went to the book sale on both Friday and Saturday. (And we will go back again tomorrow, and Saturday and Sunday.) 

My goal this year was to cut back on short story book purchases, since I have so many, both in print editions and on the Kindle. Yet I went ahead and purchased these three books for various reasons. I have not sampled any of them yet. So, here they are.

MASH UP: Stories Inspired by Famous First Lines

Gardner Dozois  (Editor)

This is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories. The subtitle describes the theme. Each author picked a first line of a favorite classic and use it as a first line in a short story. There are thirteen stories in the 400 page book, and each one is around 30 pages in length. My son found this book for me, and I am glad he did.

Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction: Third Series

Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg (Editors)

This anthology is 633 pages, with 20 short stories and novellas by various authors from 1943-1944. Each story is preceded by short introduction by Asimov and Greenberg.

In this case the authors are not listed on the cover, so I will include a list of the stories, from the Goodreads summary:

• The Cave by P. Schuyler Miller
• The Halfling by Leigh Brackett
• Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore [as Lewis Padgett]
• Q.U.R. by Anthony Boucher
• Clash by Night by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore [as Lawrence O'Donnell]
• Exile by Edmond Hamilton
• Daymare by Fredric Brown
• Doorway into Time by C. L. Moore
• The Storm by A.E. van Vogt
• The Proud Robot by Henry Kuttner [as Lewis Padgett]
• Symbiotica by Eric Frank Russell
• The Veil of Astellar by Leigh Brackett
• City by Clifford D. Simak
• Arena by Frederic Brown
• Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak
• Kindness by Lester Del Rey
• Desertion by Clifford D. Simak
• When the Bough Breaks by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore [as Lewis Padgett]
• Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon
• No Woman Born by C.L. Moore

A Rare Benedictine

by Ellis Peters, Clifford Harper  (Illustrator)

This last book contains only three short stories, from the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. I already had a copy of this in paperback, but I jumped at the opportunity to get this hardback copy, mainly for greater ease of reading. It also is enhanced by lovely illustrations, so I am doubly happy to have it. My husband found this book for me; I am very grateful that he did.

Reading Summary for March 2022

 

I read seven books this month and every one of them was very good. Five books of crime fiction, one historical fiction, one general fiction. Two books published between 2000 and 2020, three books published between 1960 and 2000, and two books published in the 1950s. Five books by women, two by men.

General Fiction

Watermelon (1995) by Marian Keyes

Claire found out that her husband wanted a divorce on the day her first child was born. Claire had no clue that her husband was unhappy with the marriage and was having an affair with a woman that they both know. Her reaction is to leave London, where she works and lives with her husband, and go to Dublin and stay with her parents for a few months. My review here.

Historical Fiction

The Spies of Shilling Lane (2019) by Jennifer Ryan

This is historical fiction set during World War II. However, I was not sure how to categorize it because there are elements of spy fiction in the book; some of the characters are intelligence agents for the government. There is a mystery, and many characters who may or may not be who they seem. The main character is a middle aged woman divorced by her husband, who goes looking for her daughter living in London, and gets mixed up with Fascist spies. I did not find that part of it terribly realistic, but I still liked it. 

Crime Fiction

A Most Contagious Game (1967) by Catherine Aird

This was Aird's only standalone novel. Thomas Harding and his wife Dora have moved from London to a manor house in Easterbrook. Harding retired early because his health was bad, and he doesn't like the quiet life he is leading... until he finds a skeleton in a hidden room in his house (which turns out to be a priest hole that had been plastered over). This mystery was not a police procedural like Aird's Inspector Sloane series, but there is a death in the village about the same time. The story of Harding's research into the skeleton's origins and his settling into the small town with his wife was excellent. 

Death Likes It Hot (1954) by Edgar Box

Edgar Box is a pseudonym of Gore Vidal. Vidal used it at a time when he was having a hard time getting books published. This book is the third of three books featuring Peter Sargeant, a publicist and amateur sleuth. This one is set in the Hamptons. I have an omnibus edition published in 2010 with introductions for each book by Gore Vidal. I loved the book.

Monk's Hood (1980) by Ellis Peters

This is the third book in the Brother Cadfael series. The setting for the books in the series is between 1135 and 1145 in England and Wales, primarily. I love this series; Brother Cadfael is a wonderful character. My review here.

Once a Crooked Man (2016) by David McCallum

This book by actor David McCallum was published in 2016 and is a thriller. A crime family decides to go straight but first they have a few people they want to silence so they won't be going to jail for past crimes. An actor who survives on small parts in TV episodes and movies and stage plays overhears what they are plotting and get mixed up in all the mayhem, mainly because he wanted to do a good deed and warn one of the victims. This was the perfect read for me at this time, and I enjoyed it a lot. There are a lot of very short chapters and they move from character to character, which some readers might find distracting. I like this style of writing so it worked well for me. It kept the tension level up. Nicely paced with a lot of humor.

The Gazebo (1955) by Patricia Wentworth

Patricia Wentworth's books are my go-to comfort read. The Gazebo, the 7th book in the Miss Silver series, was published in 1955 and is a story about a woman who had to drop her plans to marry her fiancé to take care of her invalid mother for five years. Now he is back in the village and they are going to find a way to get around her controlling mother and get married. Then the mother is murdered and the fiancé seems to be the obvious culprit. The plot is complex, there was more romance in the story than usual, and I enjoyed it. And there are some really bad guys, which is sort of unusual for the Miss Silver series.

Status of my reading:

Most of my reading in March was based on spur of the moment decisions, not much planning. Watermelon was read for the Reading Ireland event at 746 Books, which always takes place in March. Death Likes It Hot was read for the 1954 Club run by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. The other five books were just for fun, and I enjoyed that.

In April I have read three books at this point, and all of them are for a challenge or similar blogging event. I read another book for the 1954 Club (Go, Lovely Rose by Jean Potts)and I finally read a book for the TBR Pile Challenge (Dog On It by Spencer Quinn). I read my book for the Classics Club Spin, Beast in View by Margaret Millar.

The photo at the top of the post shows a succulent among overgrown Santa Barbara daisies. The two plant photos immediately above are geraniums and an overgrown Dusty Miller. The photo of the Dusty Miller looks like a black and white photo, but it is just that the plant is all white. If you look closely you can sent tints of light green here and there. All of the plant photos were taken in early April in the front garden beds that I have been working on cleaning up.  As usual, my husband took those photos. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

Ellis Peters: Monk's Hood

From a summary at Goodreads:

Christmas 1138. Gervase Bonel is a guest of Shrewsbury Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul when he suddenly takes ill. Luckily, the abbey boasts the services of the clever and kindly Brother Cadfael, a skilled herbalist. Cadfael hurries to the man’s bedside, only to be confronted with two surprises: In Master Bonel’s wife, the good monk recognizes Richildis, whom he loved before he took his vows—and Master Bonel has been fatally poisoned by monk’s-hood oil from Cadfael’s stores.

The sheriff is convinced that the murderer is Richildis’s son, Edwin, who hated his stepfather. But Cadfael, guided in part by his concern for a woman to whom he was once betrothed, is certain of her son’s innocence. Using his knowledge of both herbs and the human heart, Cadfael deciphers a deadly recipe for murder.

Monk's Hood is the third book in the Brother Cadfael series, consisting of 20 books. I am enamored of this series and both this book and the previous book (One Corpse Too Many) were fantastic reads. 

Sometimes it is daunting to start a new series when it has a large number of books , but in this case I am excited. The books are a good length, easy to read and keep me turning the pages. Plus it is the first time I have read about this period of time. This one is set in 1138 and that time in history is totally new to me.

One of the reasons I think this series is so successful is the character of Brother Cadfael. He is very believable as an amateur sleuth; not only is he intelligent and clever, but he is able to work well with people, those in his order and the people of the town. He entered the cloister later in life, after being a soldier and a sailor. He is a herbalist and cares for the garden.  

I also love reading about details of life at that time and about the religious community and the politics within that group. A good portion of this book is set in Wales, and I am beginning to get a better picture of the geography of that part of Great Britain. The differences in the legal systems of England and Wales were very interesting and were important to this story and the solution of the crime.

In the editions I have read so far, each book begins with a map of the area. In this case the map shows details of the Shrewsbury Abbey and parts of the town of Shrewsbury, including the location the house that Master Bonel and his household are living in. 

Rick Robinson of Tip the Wink recently sent me a copy of The Cadfael Companion, a reference book about the series. It is very cool, has lots of information about important persons of the time, locations, historical background, characters in the books, and I am learning a lot. It also has various maps of the area – I love maps. 

I will end with a quote from the beginning of the book:

  On this particular morning at the beginning of December, in the year 1138, Brother Cadfael came to chapter in tranquillity of mind, prepared to be tolerant even towards the dull, pedestrian reading of Brother Francis, and long-winded legal haverings of Brother Benedict the sacristan. Men were variable, fallible, and to be humoured. And the year, so stormy in its earlier months, convulsed with siege and slaughter and disruptions, bade fair to end in calm and comparative plenty. The tide of civil war between King Stephen and the partisans of the Empress Maud had receded into the south-western borders, leaving Shrewsbury to recover cautiously from having backed the weaker side and paid a bloody price for it. And for all the hindrances to good husbandry, after a splendid summer the harvest had been successfully gathered in, the barns were full, the mills were busy, sheep and cattle thrived on pastures still green and lush, and the weather continued surprisingly mild, with only a hint of frost in the early mornings. No one was wilting with cold yet, no one yet was going hungry. It could not last much longer, but every day counted as blessing.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Fawcett Crest, 1987 (first published 1980)
Length:       222 pages
Format:      Paperback

Series:       Brother Cadfael #3
Setting:      UK, Shrewsbury, Wales
Genre:       Historical Mystery
Source:      Purchased at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, 2006.

Reading Summary for February 2022

This is my idea of a good mix of reading for the month. A majority of the books were mysteries. One nonfiction book and two general fiction books. The only improvement would have been if I had read at least one vintage mystery. 

Nonfiction

Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001) by Diane McWhorter

This book won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. From the Pulitzer site:

"A major work of history, investigative journalism that breaks new ground, and personal memoir, Carry Me Home is a dramatic account of the civil rights era's climactic battle in Birmingham, as the movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr., brought down the institutions of segregation."

I started reading this book one year ago, took about a long break in the middle, and took about a month to finish the last 300 pages (of 600). 

General Fiction

Convenience Store Woman (2016) by Sayaka Murata

Translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori 

This is an interesting story about a woman who does not fit in. Keiko is a 36-year-old woman who has been a part-time convenience store worker in Tokyo for 18 years. The novel is short, about 160 pages, and very strange, but I loved it.  Reviewed here.

Strange Weather in Tokyo (2001) by Hiromi Kawakami

Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell 

Another book set in Tokyo. The style of this book was unusual. It seemed to be made up of vignettes of the friendship between a woman and a male teacher who had been her teacher in school. Then it pulls together and has more focus, and I liked the ending a lot. Reviewed here.

Crime Fiction

Nemesis (2002) by Jo Nesbø

Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett

Nemesis is the fourth novel in the Harry Hole series, which is mostly set in Norway. I did not enjoy reading this novel, but I recognize the high level of Nesbø's writing. Reviewed here.

Dressed for Death (1994) by Donna Leon

This is the third book in the Commissario Brunetti series, set in Italy; it has been over ten years since I read the first two  books in the series. Brunetti has to go to Mestre to handle a case because the Commissarios there are all unavailable. The dead body of a man, badly beaten, is found near a slaughterhouse; the face is so mutilated that identification of the body is difficult. I liked this book and I am glad I got back to reading this series.

The Thursday Murder Club (2020) by Richard Osman

A quartet of men and women in their seventies or eighties form a club called the Thursday Murder Club. They start out investigating cold cases, whose case files they inherited from a former member who had access to police files. Then they have the opportunity to investigate a real crime, when a part owner of their retirement complex is killed. I found a lot to like about this book and plan to read the second book in the series as soon as possible.

One Corpse Too Many (1979) by Ellis Peters

The best thing about the books in the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael series is the setting. I learn so much about the times reading these books. Per Goodreads, the books in the series are "set between about 1135 and about 1145, during 'The Anarchy', the destructive contest for the crown of England between King Stephen and Empress Maud." This is the third book in the series and I have many more left to read.

The Postscript Murders (2020) by Elly Griffiths

This novel features Harbinder Kaur, who was also a character in an earlier book by Griffiths (The Stranger Diaries). Harbinder is a closeted gay Sikh Detective Sergeant in the police in Shoreham, West Sussex. She is the principle investigator into the death of an elderly woman, Peggy Smith, in a apartment complex for senior citizens, although initially she is not convinced it was murder. Peggy's carer, Natalka, is the one who is convinced that Peggy's death was murder, and she and two of her friends who knew Peggy also investigate. I liked this book very much, although it is quite different from The Stranger Diaries. 

Status of my challenges:

• I have read three novels for the European Reading Challenge, but only reviewed one of them so far.
• I have read and reviewed three novels for the Japanese Literary Challenge. That challenge will end on March 31, 2022. 
• I have read at least two books that fit categories for the Bingo Challenge. I will go into more detail on that when I have more read for that challenge.
• Back to the Classics Challenge: Nothing so far.
• The TBR Pile Challenge at Roof Beam Reader: Nothing so far.
• I recently joined the Mount TBR Challenge, run by Bev Hankins, via Goodreads. So far this year I have read 13 books from my TBR for that challenge.
• Reading Ireland is going on for the month of March at 746 Books, and I have read one book for that event. I hope to read another this month.

The photo at the top of the post shows a gorgeous cactus in front of a business in downtown Santa Barbara. The photo immediately above is of a stonework fence in the Mission Canyon area near the Santa Barbara Mission. My husband took both photos. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday: "The Frustration Dream" by Ellis Peters

 

"The Frustration Dream" starts with the narrator describing a type of dream he has sometimes, the frustration dream.

The frustration dream comes in several variations. The most frequent, perhaps, is of setting out to go somewhere, and finding that roads shrivel into narrow lanes before you, and narrow lanes into paths blocked by bushes and briars, rocks, stones, fetid puddles and even nastier obstacles.

... And the really absolute law that applies to all of these dreams is that they never have any ending, never a solution.

He moves on to describing an experience he once had that seemed like a frustration dream, but it was real. Initially the story he is telling seems like a dream, then like a nightmare, and then it is a story of a crime. Except that in the end it is not so straightforward as that. 

At first I did not think I liked the story; it wasn't my type of thing. But then, after I finished it, I kept thinking about it, and that is always a good sign. All in all, I found this to be a very well-done and somewhat creepy story.

I found this story in 2nd Culprit: A Crime Writers' Annual, published in 1993.  Later. it was included in a collection of Ellis Peters' short stories, The Trinity Cat and Other Mysteries, published by Crippen & Landru.

Using the name Ellis Peters, Edith Pargeter wrote two series of mysteries, the Cadfael Mysteries set in the twelfth century and the George Felse series. Under her own name she wrote historical fiction and non-fiction.

A Morbid Taste for Bones: Ellis Peters

 This is the first book in the Brother Cadfael mystery series, set in Medieval times, and I think this is the earliest time period I have read about in a historical mystery. This particular book is set in 1137. 

A group of men from Brother Cadfael's religious order have been sent to Gwytherin, a small parish in Wales, to acquire the bones of a saint and bring them back to Shrewsbury Abbey in England.  Cadfael is included because he is Welsh and can translate for them. The people of Gwytherin must agree to let the bones of the saint be moved, but then a prominent man in the village is killed. The murder must be resolved before the parish will release the bones. 

Quote from the first paragraph of the book:

On the fine, bright morning in early May when the whole sensational affair of the Gwytherin relics may properly be considered to have begun, Brother Cadfael had been up long before Prime, pricking out cabbage seedlings before the day was aired, and his thoughts were all on birth, growth and fertility, not at all on graves and reliquaries and violent deaths, whether of saints, sinners or ordinary decent, fallible men like himself. Nothing troubled his peace but the necessity to take himself indoors for Mass, and the succeeding half-hour of chapter, which was always liable to stray over by an extra ten minutes. He grudged the time from his more congenial labours out here among the vegetables, but there was no evading his duty. He had, after all, chosen this cloistered life with his eyes open ...

I surprised myself by enjoying this book so much. For years I had avoided the series because of the period (1135 - 1145) and I could not picture a monk as a sleuth. You would think I would learn to ignore my prejudices, at least in the area of mystery novels. My enjoyment of a book more often depends on the skill of the author's writing and plotting rather than the subject matter.

Brother Cadfael is a wonderful character. He entered the cloister later in life, after being a soldier and a sailor. He is a herbalist and cares for the garden. I found him believable as an amateur sleuth due primarily to his intelligence and ingenuity. The book has a slow pace, but that worked well for me because I enjoyed reading about details of life at that time and about the religious community and the politics within that group. 

This was a very educational and fun read for me, and I will continue reading the series. 

See reviews at Read-warbler and Mysteries Ahoy!

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Fawcett Crest, 1985 (first published 1977)
Length:       256 pages
Format:      Paperback

Series:       Brother Cadfael #1
Setting:      UK, Shrewsbury, Wales
Genre:       Historical Mystery
Source:      Purchased at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, 2006.

The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries

Two years ago I purchased a copy of The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, edited and with an introduction by Otto Penzler. It is one of those huge books– around 650 pages with two columns per page, and 60 stories. I don't really like reading large books like that, too awkward, but every year now I pull it out and read a few of the stories.

A quote from Penzler's introduction:

Mystery fiction set during the Christmas season has been with us for a long time, and it is astonishing how many authors have turned their pens and wicked thoughts to this time of year. Perhaps this is because violence seems so out of character, so inappropriate, for this time of year that it takes on extra weight. Think of how often terrible events have been recounted with the sad or angry exclamation, "and at Christmas time!"

These are the stories I read and enjoyed this year.

“Dead on Christmas Street” by John D. MacDonald

A police detective investigates a murder with his girlfriend, who just happens to be the DA's secretary, in the days leading up to Christmas. A clever and entertaining story. Not Christmassy but with descriptions of decorations on the streets, which I enjoyed.

A woman who worked in an office 17 stories up has just fallen to the pavement, into the rush of Christmas shoppers...

Some of the spectators, laden with tinsel- and evergreen-decorated packages, turned away, suppressing a nameless guilt. 

But the curious stayed on. Across the street, in the window of a department store, a vast mechanical Santa rocked back and forth, slapping a mechanical hand against a padded thigh, roaring forever, “Whawhaw ho ho ho. Whawhaw ho ho ho.” The slapping hand had worn the red plush from the padded thigh. 

The ambulance arrived... Wet snow fell into the city. And there was nothing else to see. The corner Santa, a leathery man with a pinched, blue nose, began to ring his hand bell again.

“Dead on Christmas Street” was first published in the December 20, 1952, issue of Collier's. The story is featured at The Trap of Solid Gold, Steve Scott's blog devoted to celebrating the works of John D MacDonald. The post has an illustration from the story as published in Collier's.

"A Reversible Santa Claus" by Meredith Nicholson

This was a new discovery for me, a story from 1917. The story begins...

Mr. William B. Aikins, alias "Softy" Hubbard, alias Billy The Hopper, paused for breath behind a hedge that bordered a quiet lane and peered out into the highway at a roadster whose tail light advertised its presence to his felonious gaze. It was Christmas Eve, and after a day of unseasonable warmth a slow, drizzling rain was whimsically changing to snow. 

The Hopper was blowing from two hours' hard travel over rough country. He had stumbled through woodlands, flattened himself in fence corners to avoid the eyes of curious motorists speeding homeward or flying about distributing Christmas gifts, and he was now bent upon committing himself to an inter-urban trolley line that would afford comfortable transportation for the remainder of his journey. Twenty miles, he estimated, still lay between him and his domicile.

This is a long short story, really novelette length. Billy the Hopper is a retired thief who has settled down on a chicken farm with his wife (a retired shoplifter) and another retired criminal who has expertise in the care and feeding of poultry. One night he succumbs to an ill-advised impulse, and takes a roadster parked in front of a cottage. He soon discovers that the unattended car contained a small child, a 2 year old boy. Now Billy has to figure out how to return the child to his family without going back to prison. This is a fun, old-fashioned story.

Per the preface to the story:

ALONG WITH BOOTH TARKINGTON , George Ade, and the poet James Whitcomb Riley, Meredith Nicholson was part of what was regarded as the Golden Age of literature in Indiana in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Although not an author whose works have stood the test of time well, he was a bestseller in his day whose fiction was governed by the invariable triumph of love and by insistence on the virtues of wholesome, bourgeois life, always told with good-natured humor. “A Reversible Santa Claus” was first published as a slim, illustrated book of that title (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1917).

“Death on Christmas Eve” by Stanley Ellin

This story was not my favorite but it certainly is atmospheric. It is the formidable and harsh story of a brother whose wife has died and the sister he lives with. It was first published in the January 1950 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Moira at Clothes in Books has also covered this story.

This year I read two stories that featured cats.

In "The Trinity Cat" by Ellis Peters, a lop-eared church cat helps a detective in his investigations.

Using the name Ellis Peters, Edith Pargeter wrote two series of mysteries, the Cadfael Mysteries set in the twelfth century and the George Felse series. This story was first published in Winter's Crimes #8 (London, Macmillan, 1976).

"The Christmas Kitten" by Ed Gorman is another long story with chapter divisions featuring characters from Gorman's series about lawyer Sam McCain and Judge Eleanor Whitney, and set in the 1950's. Each title in the series is the title of a song from that time.

The kitten is incidental to the story and does not solve the crime, but is a very nice touch. I enjoyed revisiting these characters, if only briefly, and must get back to reading the series. “The Christmas Kitten” was first published in the January 1997 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Last year I noted several Christmas stories I read in this book in this post.