Short Story Wednesday: "One Morning They'll Hang Him" by Margery Allingham

 

I have long been a fan of Margery Allingham's novels. I read most of the books in the Albert Campion series when I was much younger, and once I started blogging in 2012, I began rereading them in order (mostly) starting with Death of a Ghost. 

Today I am sharing my thoughts on one of her short stories.

"One Morning They'll Hang Him"

This is an Albert Campion short story. Chief Inspector Kenny is visiting Mr. Campion in his home, asking for his help in solving a murder. He is very sure he has the murderer in custody but he does not have a crucial piece of evidence in order to take the case to trial.

Campion asks for more information about the case. Kenny describes the victim, an elderly rich woman who lives in a big house on Barraclough road with her companion / housekeeper. Her only living relative is her nephew, who visited her often in his childhood. He returned from the war with mental problems following an injury when a bridge blew up with him on it. He has returned to London with his wife of  six weeks and has a job. They need a place to live, and the nephew and his aunt have an argument when he asks her if they can live in a couple of her rooms upstairs. The couple were having dinner at the aunt's house when they argued, and they left shortly afterwards. The nephew is accused of returning to the house and shooting her with his gun; he was seen in the neighborhood shortly after she was shot.

The problem with Inspector Kenny's case is that he cannot find the gun and that is a necessary part of the evidence. The police have searched all areas where it could have been left behind or hidden. Inspector Kenny wants Campion to find the gun.

I will admit that this is not my favorite type of mystery short story, because the focus is on the puzzle. But I enjoyed it very much, and it was the combination of Margery Allingham's writing and Campion's character that made it work well for me.

"One Morning They'll Hang Him" was originally published in the August 1950 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, but I encountered the story when I started reading the short story anthology Mysterious Pleasures, A Celebration of the Crime Writers' Association 50th Anniversary, published in 2003. I have many more stories to read in that anthology. 

See this article at Martin Edwards website for a description of how he assembled that anthology. It also lists the other stories and authors included in the book.

Books Read in June 2024

 

I read eleven books in June and that was many more books than I expected to read, considering that I had cataract surgery in the middle of the month. I ended up having more time to read and not much energy or motivation for anything else, including blogging. Nine of the books read in June were from my 20 Books of Summer list. Unfortunately I am very late in posting about my reading for June but I hope to catch up more in the next few weeks.

Graphic memoir

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) by Marjane Satrapi; Mattias Ripa (Translator)

This graphic memoir tells the story of the author's life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, from the point when the Shah is overthrown through the war with Iraq. Reading about those times from the viewpoint of a child is interesting and entertaining. The story is continued in a second volume, and I will be reading that too.

Fiction

The Lonely Hearts Book Club (2023) by Lucy Gilmore

This story has a book club theme, and it also has romance, dysfunctional families, and lonely people making friends. See my thoughts here.

Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) by Anne Tyler

Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit; he wants everyday to be the same. He has been with his girlfriend for three years. Two new events happen in his life that shake up his normal life. I liked the story a lot, the length was perfect at under 200 pages, and I want to read more of Anne Tyler's books.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014) by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is centered around a bookstore and of course books are discussed throughout. This was a lovely story with a little bit of romance and a lot about relationships, friends, and community. See my review.

Fantasy, Time Travel

Tales from the Café (2017) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This is the second 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.  There are four connected stories in this book. The stories of the people who run the café are just as interesting as the time travel stories. The first book in the series is Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Crime Fiction

Skeleton-in-Waiting (1989) by Peter Dickinson

Peter Dickinson is one of my favorite authors. I prefer his mysteries, but he also wrote children's books and fantasies. This is the second book in a duology, set in an alternate Britain with a very alternate royal family. The first book is King and Joker, and in that book the two main characters (Prince Albert and Princess Louise) are teenagers. This book takes place over ten years later and both Albert and Louise have married and have children. This was a reread, and this time around I was more impressed with the story and enjoyed it very much. 

Nearly Nero (2017) by Loren D. Estleman

Between 2008 and 2016, Estleman wrote nine humorous short stories about Claudius Lyon, a man who is obsessed with emulating Nero Wolfe in all ways, and his assistant, Arnie Woodbine. Most of these stories were published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This book includes all of the stories. I reviewed the stories here and here.

Family Business (2021) by S.J. Rozan

S.J. Rozan won the 2022 Shamus Award for this novel, her 14th book starring New York City private eyes Lydia Chin and Bill Smith. When the powerful Chinatown crime boss Big Brother Choi dies, he leaves the Tong headquarters building to his niece, Mel, who hires Lydia and Bill to accompany her to inspect it. They discover the body of another Tong member in Choi's living quarters. I will be reading the latest book in the series, The Mayors of New York, very soon.

In the Midst of Death (1976) by Lawrence Block

This is an early book in the Matthew Scudder series.  Scudder is an ex-cop who works as an unlicensed private detective. In this case he is helping out an old friend on the police force who is accused of murdering a prostitute.  I liked the book but it was very dark, especially the ending. 

The Cipher Garden (2005) by Martin Edwards

The books in this series are set in Cumbria, England's Lake District, and feature Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind. DCI Scarlett heads the cold case division. Here, an old cold case involving the death of a gardener is reopened because of poison pen letters sent to the police and to people involved in the crime. I like the mystery plot but could do without the romantic subplot.

A Caribbean Mystery (1964) by Agatha Christie

This is the 9th book in Christie's Jane Marple series. It is not set in Miss Marple's village of St. Mary Mead and I missed that setting. On the other hand it has a nice depiction of a Caribbean island vacation spot and any Miss Marple story is going to be entertaining. Another elderly visitor to St. Honoré, Major Palgrave, has been monopolizing Miss Marple's time, telling stories of his adventures during his travels. At one point he tells her about a murderer he met, starts to show her a picture, then gets interrupted. Shortly after that Major Palgrave dies, seemingly of natural causes. We just watched the film adaptation starring Helen Hayes tonight, and saw another adaptation with Joan Hickson a couple of weeks ago. Both were good.

Currently reading

I have just started reading A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny, the 12th book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. The story begins with Gamache taking on a new job and the discovery of an old intricate map. 

The subject of the photos at the top and bottom of this post is our cat, Rosie. At the top, Rosie is helping me read. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

January and February Reading, 2024

 

It used to be that most of the books I read were published before 1975; I also read many books published from 1976 to 2000. A smaller percentage of the books I read were published after 2000. As I looked back on my reading in the first two months of this year, I realized that 10 out of the 12 books that I read were published after 2000.  Since I enjoyed almost every book I have read this year, I don't think that is a bad thing. I am just wondering why and when my tastes changed and whether that will continue. I did read two books published in the 1950s, one by Graham Greene and one by Seichō Matsumoto, and both were excellent books.

So here are the book I read...

Nonfiction / Nature

Vesper Flights (2020) by Helen Macdonald

This is a collection of Macdonald's essays, mostly about nature, but sometimes delving into her personal life. Many of the essays focus on birds (which is what I was looking for) but not all. The book was educational, in a fun way. Some of the essays that I especially I enjoyed: "Field Guides," about the evolution of field guides;  "High Rise," about bird watching on the top of the Empire State building, at night; "Ants," about the mating flight of queen ants and drones; "Swan Upping," about mute swans on the River Thames.

Nonfiction / Memoir

Wait for Me! (2010) by Deborah Mitford

I found this book to be a fantastic read, but maybe that is because I enjoy reading about the Mitford sisters so much. The author has a gift of telling short interesting anecdotes. The two other books I have read about the family were biographies and they focused mainly on Nancy (16 years older than Deborah) and Diana (10 years older). Because Deborah was the youngest child (of seven), her view of the family came from a different perspective. The book is divided between her childhood and young adult years with her family and her life as the Duchess of Devonshire. Both were equally of interest to me.  

Fiction

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is about two young people who create video games. The story starts when Sam Mazur and Sadie Green are about 12 years old and covers the next 30 years in their lives. It does focus on video gaming and the process of creating them, but it is about many other things: relationships, families, judgement and misunderstandings, and ambition. I liked the writing, and I was caught up in the story. My one complaint is that the book is too long at 400 plus pages.  

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (2010) by Satoshi Yagisawa

I read this book for the Japanese Literary Challenge and for the Bookish Books Challenge. A young woman goes to work in a bookshop owned by her uncle after a romantic relationship ends abruptly. The book is definitely not a romance; there is a lot of emphasis on human relationships, in addition to books and reading. See my review.

A Man Called Ove (2012) by Fredrik Backman

Ove is an older man, nearing sixty, who has fixed ideas about life and often doesn't fit in with societal norms. He often seems cranky or rude. His wife has recently died. Their relationship had its ups and downs, but they were a devoted couple, and she was undoubtedly the most important thing in his life. He has decided that he does not want to go on living without her. This story alternates between very funny episodes and very sad episodes, but it does lean toward the sadder ones. Some chapters tell about the three weeks after his new neighbors move in next door; others describe key times in his earlier life: his childhood, meeting his wife, and his work. I liked the structure and the way the author gradually reveals more and more about Ove and his life. It was a great read and I will be looking for more books by this author.

Crime Fiction

Chilled to the Bone (2013) by Quentin Bates

This is the third book in a police procedural series set in Iceland. The main character is a female policewoman working in the Serious Crime Unit in Reykjavík.  See my review.

Tokyo Express (1958) by Seichō Matsumoto

This was another book I read for the Japanese Literature Challenge. It was Matsumoto's first novel, published in 1958, and was first published in English translation as Points and Lines. See my review.

A Darkness Absolute (2017) by Kelley Armstrong

This is the second book in the Rockton series, and it was just as appealing as the first, City of the Lost, which I read about 3 years ago. Rockton is a small town in the Yukon wilderness, so isolated that most modern conveniences are lacking. Most of the residents are hiding from something in their past. See my review.

Wanting Sheila Dead (2010) by Jane Haddam

Book 25 in the Gregor Demarkian series. The main character is a retired FBI profiler who sometimes does consulting jobs for various police departments. This book is mostly set in the Philadelphia area where Demarkian lives. A reality show is being filmed in the very elaborate home that his wife Bennis grew up in. When a body is found at the house he agrees to check into it. See my review.

Gallows Court (2018) by Martin Edwards

This is the first book in the Rachel Savernake series. It is a departure for Edwards, both a historical mystery (set in the 1930s in London) and a thriller. I did end up liking the book, but it took me 150 pages of 350 pages to get into it, which is not ideal. I liked the way it ended and I thought it was a brilliant mystery, but I wasn't really enjoying it too much as I read it. I also wonder where the next book, Mortmain Hall, will take the main character, so I will definitely be reading it, maybe later in the year.

Judas 62 (2021) by Charles Cumming

This is the second book in the BOX 88 espionage series. BOX 88 is a covert spy agency that is not officially attached to the CIA or MI6, but has contacts in both groups that Box 88 agents can work with. In JUDAS 62, Lachlan Kite is assigned to extract a Russian chemical weapons scientist defector. He goes to the city of Voronezh in Russia as an English Language teacher. That section of the book is set in 1993. The second section is set in 2020 in Dubai. I loved the first book, BOX 88; this one was very good also. 

The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene

I have been wanting to read more by Graham Greene and this was a great choice. This book was published in 1955 and the events in this book took place in the early 1950s. The story is set in Saigon, Vietnam and surrounding areas when the French Army and the Viet Minh guerrillas are fighting each other. See my review.

Status of challenges

Back in November 2023, I joined the Wanderlust Bingo Challenge at Fiction Fan's Book Reviews. Five or six of the books I read since the first of the year could work for that challenge, but I still have to work out which squares they would fit best.

I read two books for the Japanese Literature Challenge at Dolce Bellezza, which ran January - February. I will continue reading books translated from Japanese throughout the year. 

I have now formally joined the Bookish Books Reading Challenge at Bloggin' 'bout Books and have completed one book so far. 

The only other challenge I have joined is the Mount TBR Reading Challenge on Goodreads. Every book I have read this year so far (15) counts toward my goal of 48 books so I may have no problem meeting that goal.

Currently reading

I just finished Your Republic is Calling You by Young-ha Kim last night. Published in 2006, the setting is South Korea. It was a different kind of spy fiction and I liked it very much.

Next I will be reading A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn. The blurb on the book describes it as a "darkly romantic crime novel set in 1950s apartheid South Africa, featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper." It has been on my shelves for 6 years. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken at the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show that we attended last week. See the previous post for more photos. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Optimist's Daughter to Wave Me Goodbye

 

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. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point. Last month she did not supply a title and asked us to start with the last book on our previous Six Degrees post. So for me, the starting book will be The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty.

The Optimist's Daughter was published in 1972 and won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Laurel McKelva Hand is a widow, living and working in Chicago. Laurel returns to her hometown in Mississippi for her father's funeral. The story explores her relationship with her father, her mother who died when she was younger, and her new stepmother who is much younger than her father and has inherited the house that Laurel grew up in. It also focuses on her memories of losing her husband during World War II, not very long after they were married. There is a lot of depth to the novel, which is only 180 pages long.

1st degree:

I chose the first book in my chain, Kissing the Gunner's Daughter, because of the title, the mention of a daughter. It is a perfect link, because there are two daughters that figure in the story. This is the 15th book in the Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford series. A family is attacked at dinner time and a famous author and her daughter and son-in-law are killed. Only the teenage granddaughter lives through the attack. And while Wexford is investigating this horrible crime, he is worried about his daughter Sheila, who is in a relationship he disapproves of. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter is a dark story of psychological suspense.

2nd degree:

My next book, Henrietta Who?, is also a police procedural mystery which features a daughter. Grace Jenkins has been killed in a hit and run accident. When her daughter is called home from college, Henrietta learns that she cannot be Grace's daughter because the woman has never had a child. This is not only the search for a murderer but also the story of a very young woman coming to terms with questions about her parents and her origins.

3rd degree:

My next book in the chain takes me to The Hollow by Agatha Christie, which features another character named Henrietta. This is the 25th book in the Hercule Poirot series although as I remember it, there is not much of Poirot in the book. The story is built around a country house weekend; the characters are interesting, somewhat quirky, and all seem to be hiding something. Henrietta Savernake is a successful sculptor who is in love with Dr. John Christow, who has a wife and children.

4th degree:

Gallows Court is the first book in a relatively new series by Martin Edwards featuring Rachel Savernake, the daughter of a hanging judge, and an amateur sleuth. The setting is London in the 1930s. I have not read this book but the series is doing well and I am eager to try it soon.

5th degree:

My next link is to Perfect Gallows by Peter Dickinson. This book is about a murder that occurs in 1944 in the UK, on an estate occupied by US forces preparing for the invasion of France. It is primarily set during World War II, with a framing story set in 1988. Peter Dickinson was a wonderful writer who has written many books in the mystery and fantasy genres.

6th degree:

Using World War II as a link, my next book is Wave Me Goodbye: Stories of the Second World War. The book is comprised of short stories that take place during the war or the years immediately afterward; the authors are all women and all but one story was written during that time. The stories are mostly home front stories. I have read only a few stories in that book so far.

My chain starts out in Mississippi in the US but moves to the UK after that. Was there any connection between the first book and the last? Only the tenuous connection to World War II because the death of Laurel's husband was connected to that conflict.

Have you read any of these books? And where did your list take you, if you participated in this month's Six Degrees meme?

The next Six Degrees will be on March 2, 2024, and the starting book will be Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.

Short Story Wednesday – Murder by the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles

This week I finished reading Murder by the Book, a short story anthology edited by Martin Edwards. It is a part of the British Library Crime Classics series, published in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. 

In early March, I read and reviewed the first six stories in this book. In that post I listed all the stories and authors.

I liked most of the remaining 11 stories in the book. The introductions that precede each story were excellent, providing some titles the author has written and other interesting facts related to the story or the author.

I have two favorites in the most recent batch of stories I read. Both of them would be easy to spoil so I am keeping the description of each brief.

"A Question of Character" by Victor Canning

(published in 1960)

Victor Canning is one of my favorite authors. He wrote a lot of books, some general fiction, some children's fiction and some spy fiction. I have stuck with the spy fiction so far, but I want to try some of his general fiction too. 

In Canning's story, a man and his wife are both authors. The husband wants a divorce, but he decides to kill his wife instead because she has become a more successful writer than he is.

"A Book of Honour" by John Creasey

(published in 1965)

John Creasey has written even more books than Victor Canning and written under many pseudonyms. I read some of his fiction when I was much younger and enjoyed it, but haven't read any recently. 

"A Book of Honour" is the story of an English bookseller in India who becomes friends with an Indian man who sells books on a much smaller scale. There is no murder, but a serious crime is involved, and the story is more about the friendship of the two men. I enjoyed Creasey's short story so much I will be seeking out more of his books to read.

This book also fits into the Bookish Books Reading Challenge at Bloggin' 'bout Books.

 

Short Story Wednesday: Murder by the Book

I recently started reading short stories from Murder by the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles, edited by Martin Edwards. It is a part of the British Library Crime Classics series, published in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. 

There are 16 stories in the book, and I have now read 6 of them. So far, I have enjoyed them all. Each story has a brief introduction of the author and the story, which were especially interesting to me for the authors that I had not read before.

"A Lesson in Crime" by G.D.H and M. Cole

The first story is a clever inverted mystery, which I always enjoy. Some other reviewers noted that this was a lesser story in the book, and maybe that was because the reader already knows who did the crime. The crime takes place on a train and the victim is a best-selling author.

"Trent and the Ministering Angel" by E.C. Bentley

E.C. Bentley is best known (to me at least) as the author of Trent's Last Case (which I have not yet read). Philip Trent, amateur detective, is featured in this story, and he solves a mystery for a lawyer who has suspicions related to his client's death and his will. This was a fine story, including both a rock garden and the dead man's library.

"A Slice of Bad Luck" by Nicholas Blake

I enjoyed this mostly because the main character is Nigel Strangeways, who featured in sixteen books by Blake. Strangeways solves a baffling puzzle of the death of an author at a meeting of the Assassins, a club similar to the real-life Detection Club. Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym used by the poet Cecil Day-Lewis. 

"The Strange Case of the Megatherium Thefts" by S.C. Roberts

S.C. Roberts was entirely new to me. He was a noted Sherlockian and a president of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. This story is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and the first one I have ever read. 

A member of the Megatherium club brings a problem to Holmes. A large number of  books in the circulating library of the Megatherium Club have disappeared and assumed to have been stolen. This was my least favorite story of the ones I have read, but it fits the requirements of this anthology perfectly, as it centers on books and a library.

"Malice Domestic" by Phillip MacDonald

This one centers on an author, not a best-selling author but his books are critically acclaimed, who begins having serious digestive problems, always after eating at home with his wife. I thought the ending was a bit obvious but nevertheless, it was a good picture of a marital relationship suffering difficulties. Very well written. I am motivated to read something by this author, either a novel or more short stories.

"A Savage Game" by A.A. Milne

The author of the Winnie the Pooh books wrote one detective novel, The Red House Mystery, which I enjoyed very much. This short story was published in The Evening Standard Detective Book in 1950. 

So far this is my favorite story from this book, and a very clever one. A mystery author bets his policeman friend that any creative writer could come up with the solution to a crime because all one has to do is invent a creative story to fit the facts. So the Chief Constable, Colonel Saxe, challenges him to do just that, supplying the puzzling details about the latest murder in a small town in his district. A brief story at only 10 pages, but very entertaining.

I am including a list of the titles and authors so you can see if any of the others interest you.

• "A Lesson in Crime" by G.D.H and M. Cole
• "Trent and the Ministering Angel" by E.C. Bentley
• "A Slice of Bad Luck" by Nicholas Blake
• "The Strange Case of the Megatherium Thefts" by S.C. Roberts
• "Malice Domestic" by Phillip MacDonald
• "A Savage Game" by A.A. Milne
• "The Clue in the Book" by Julian Symons
• "The Manuscript" by Gladys Mitchell
• "A Man and his Mother-in-Law" by Roy Vickers
• "Grey’s Ghost" by Michael Innes
• "Dear Mr. Editor…" by Christianna Brand 
• "Murder in Advance" by Marjorie Bremner
• "A Question of Character" by Victor Canning
• "The Book of Honour" by John Creasey
• "We Know You’re Busy Writing…" by Edmund Crispin
• "Chapter and Verse" by Ngaio Marsh

Short Story Wednesday: "The Carol Singers" by Josephine Bell

This is my second post on stories from Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards. This anthology of vintage crime stories was published by the British Library in 2016.

I have now read all the stories in the book. For the most part they were all entertaining, with some better than others. 

The last story in Crimson Snow is "The Carol Singers" by Josephine Bell. This was my first experience reading anything by Bell, and I was encouraged to try more of her writing.

It is a dark, sad story of an elderly woman spending Christmas alone because her daughter's children have chicken pox. On Christmas Eve, two sets of carolers visit her home after dark, and she has misgivings about opening the door to them. As it turns out, with good reason.

This story isn't really a mystery to the reader because we know what has occurred and who perpetrated the crime. It is more focused on how the investigation is carried out with very little evidence. The story begins before Christmas and it take several days to solve the crime.

This is one of the longer stories in the book, at 40 pages. The length is put to good use with more character development than usual, and more depth of plot. 

See my earlier post about two other stories in the book here. See George Kelley's review for additonal comments on the stories and a list of all the stories.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Poisoned Pen Press, 2016 (orig. pub. by The British Library Publishing Division, 2016)
Editor:        Martin Edwards
Length:       311 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Genre:       Mysteries, short story collection
Source:      Borrowed from my husband.

Short Story Wednesday: Two Stories from Crimson Snow

 

Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards, is an anthology of vintage crime stories published by the British Library in 2016. I have only read a few of the stories so far but I am sure I will read all of them before Christmas. Both of the stories I have selected for today's post are set at Christmas.

"The Chopham Affair" by Edgar Wallace 

Edgar Wallace was a very prolific writer and his books were very popular in his day, but I never thought that his stories or novels would appeal to me. Looking back to my review of Silent Nights, another anthology of Christmas short stories edited by Martin Edwards, I was surprised to see that my favorite story in that collection, "Stuffing," was also by Edgar Wallace. (Although Martin Edwards erroneously states in his Introduction that Margery Allingham was the only author featured in both Silent Nights and Crimson Snow.) 

"The Chopham Affair" deals with the fate of a man who makes his living by blackmailing women on a long term basis. The setup is well done and the story has a nice twist. It was very entertaining and I liked the writing style. I guess I should be seeking out more stories by Edgar Wallace.

Per Project Gutenberg Australia, the story was first published as "The Chobham Affair" in The Strand Magazine in 1930 and was collected as "The Chopham Affair" in The Woman from the East, 1934.

"The Man with the Sack" by Margery Allingham

I am a big fan of Margery Allingham's novels but haven't read many of her short stories. 

This is an Albert Campion story. Campion receives two invitations to spend Christmas at Pharaoh's Court with the Turretts. The first is from Lady Turrett, who makes it fairly plain that she is only inviting him to be an unpaid private detective while a wealthy family with expensive jewelry are visiting. Campion plans to decline the invitation. Lady Turrett's daughter Sheila also invites him for Christmas, and describes it as "poisonous," primarily due to the wealthy visitors and her mother's antagonism toward her boyfriend. Albert relents, and joins them on Christmas Eve. There is a party for the village children at Pharaoh's court, with a Santa giving out gifts. The ending is not surprising, but the story is fun.

Monthly Reading in February 2019

In February, I read ten books. Four of the books were not crime fiction, although one was a reference book about classic crime ficton. And I read six crime fiction books, published between 1941 and 2015.

Mystery reference

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books (2017) by Martin Edwards

From the introduction by Martin Edwards: "This book tells the story of crime fiction published during the first half of the twentieth century. I see it as a tale of the unexpected. The diversity of this much-loved genre is breathtaking, and so much greater than many critics have suggested. To illustrate this, I have chosen one hundred examples of books which highlight the achievements, and sometimes the limitations, of popular fiction of that era." 

The book is comprised of chapters discussing various types of Golden Age mysteries, with several examples of each type examined in detail. My favorite part was the introduction to each group of books, where many other books and authors are briefly discussed.

Nonfiction

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (2015) by Erik Larson

In telling this story of the events leading to the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, Erik Larson focuses on the Lusitania, the U-boat that attacked the ship, and governmental groups in the US and the UK. This was a very entertaining book and I raced through it. Of course, I knew the basic story, but there was so much I did not know, so there were many surprises.

Graphic novel

Descender, Vol. 1, Tin Stars (2015) by Jeff Lemire (Writer),  Dustin Nguyen (Artist)

One of my reading goals in 2019 is to read more of the graphic novels I have. In this science fiction story, TIM-21 is a robot designed to be a companion to a child. He wakes up from a 10-year long sleep to find that everyone on his world is dead and robots have sort of been outlawed. I will be continuing with this series; this was an intriguing start to the story.

Fiction

The Tin Flute (1945) by Gabrielle Roy

This is a classic Canadian novel, first published in French as Bonheur d'occasion. The book tells the story of the Lacasse family in the St. Henri area in Montreal, during World War II. They are poor, and only the oldest daughter, Florentine, is working. Eugene, the oldest brother, has joined the military. The father, Azarius, is usually unemployed, a dreamer, always leaving one job for a "better" opportunity. It took me a while to get into the story, but about halfway into the book it gripped me and I could not stop reading.

Crime Fiction

Murder in Mykonos (2010) by Jeffrey Siger

This is the first book that features Inspector Andreas Kaldis. In this book he is Police Chief on the island of Mykonos, but in later books he works in other parts of Greece. I am looking forward to reading more of the series. Reviewed here.

A Chill Rain in January (1990) by L.R. Wright

This is the third book in the Karl Alberg series by L. R. Wright. Alberg is a Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The novel is set in Sechelt, which is on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada. I have read books 1 and 2 and will be continuing on with the series. Reviewed here.

A Killing in Quail County (1996) by Jameson Cole

This is a perfect story of growing up in the 1950's in rural Oklahoma. Fifteen-year-old Mark Stoddart lives with his older brother Jess, a deputy sheriff in the small town of Bob White. Mark plans to spend his summer looking for evidence of a local bootlegger, to help out his brother. This turns out to be very complicated and more dangerous than he expected. The teenage characters are depicted especially well.

Evil Under the Sun (1941) by Agatha Christie

A while ago we purchased a set of three films based on mystery novels by Agatha Christie, and one of them was Evil Under the Sun. So I skipped ahead to read this book in the Hercule Poirot series out of order. The setting is the Jolly Rogers Hotel, on Smugglers’ Island, off the coast of Devon. A beautiful woman is killed and the murderer must be one of the guests on the island. As usual for an Agatha Christie novel, this is a clever and entertaining story.

The Shanghai Factor (2013) by Charles McCarry

Charles McCarry is one of my favorite writers of spy fiction and this novel did not disappoint. It is narrated by a young male American spy, working as a sleeper agent for an unnamed US agency, who is living in Shanghai to learn Mandarin. Many of the spy novels I have read have an underlying theme of betrayal and mistrust, and this one is no different.  Reviewed here.

All the Old Knives (2015) by Olen Steinhauer

Olen Steinhauer is another of my favorite authors of spy fiction. This book has an unusual format, taking place during a dinner between two people who used to work together at the CIA station in Vienna. Henry is following up on an investigation into the hijacking of an airliner that occurred when Henry and Carol worked together. During the dinner they both think back to that event and we gradually learn how it turned out. 

All the Lonely People: Martin Edwards

All the Lonely People was Martin Edward's debut crime novel, set in Liverpool and published in 1991. All the titles in the series of eight books are taken from hit songs in the 1960s.

Harry Devlin is a lawyer whose estranged wife, Liz, returns to his apartment for a short stay. She needs a place to stay for a few days because she is afraid of the man she has been living with for two years. She hints at a new lover but won't name him. Later she is found dead in an alley and Harry is the obvious suspect.

Harry is still besotted with Liz. When she shows up in his apartment, he has brief fantasies of getting back with her.

He drank in the sight of her. The black hair—in the past never less than shoulder-length—was now cut fashionably short . Nothing else about her had changed:  not the lavish use of mascara, nor the mischief lurking in her dark green eyes. All she wore was a pair of Levis and a tee shirt of his that she must have found in the bedroom. She had tossed her jersey and boots on to the floor. On the table by her side stood a tumbler and a half-empty bottle of Johnnie Walker.

This book is a great introduction to Harry Devlin. The reader follows along as he searches for the truth behind his wife's death and discovers some unsavory facts about her. His investigations take him into the seedier neighborhoods in Liverpool. Harry may not be the best person to follow up on Liz's murder; he clearly wants to prove that the murderer is the man who Liz left him for, Mick Coghlan. Along the way he does come up with other suspects but is loath to let go of his suspicions of Coghlan.

The story has good pacing, with a straightforward plot. I loved getting to know Harry, who isn't perfect, but is a nice guy with no overwhelming flaws. Harry's partner Jim Crusoe is another well developed character, who cares for Harry and has never been susceptible to Liz's charms. I did not come close to guessing who the culprit was and the ending surprised me. I look forward to reading more books about this character.

See more reviews at In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel and Chess, Comics, Crosswords, Books, Music, Cinema

Check out Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books post at Pattinase this Friday. Martin Edwards is definitely not a forgotten author, but he is better known for his latest series set in the Lake District. He has also  edited many anthologies of short stories, both by Golden Age authors and contemporary authors and written a notable mystery reference book, The Golden Age of Murder, which has won many awards.

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Publisher:  Arcturus Publishing, 2012 (orig. publ. 1991)
Length:     255 pages
Format:    Trade paperback
Series:     Harry Devlin #1
Setting:    UK
Genre:     Mystery
Source:    I purchased my copy

Reading in October 2016

I cannot believe I read 10 books in October. That many books in one month is almost unheard of for me and I wasn't even trying.  And in addition to that I read two graphic novels, although one was a reread.

One of the graphic novels was The Secret Service: Kingsman by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. I had read it early in the year, then watched the movie. I keep hoping to review it so gave it another read. It is pretty short and a fast read. Entertaining but lightweight.

The second graphic novel was Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Longer and not at all lightweight. I have been reading Superman comics now and then since I was a kid, so it was very nostalgic.

The problem is that of the ten books I read I have done a post on only one. I will blog about all of them eventually but for now I will give brief notes or descriptions. I was trying for one sentence summaries but apparently I am not capable of that.



The books I read in October:

The Coffin Dancer by Jeffery Deaver
(This is the second book in the Lincoln Rhyme series about a quadriplegic who is skilled at forensic investigations, usually working as a consultant to the police department. A thriller about finding an assassin who is targeting witnesses to a killing. Plot twists abound.)

Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
(A reread. This is the sixth book in the Peter Wimsey series and the one that introduces Harriet Vane. I wasn't sure how it would hold up on this reread, but I enjoyed this very much. It has much to offer: a budding romance, Miss Climpson investigating...)

All the Lonely People by Martin Edwards
(Martin Edward's debut crime novel, published in 1991. Harry Devlin is a lawyer whose estranged wife returns to his apartment for a short stay. Soon she is dead and he is the obvious suspect. All the titles in the series are taken from hit songs in the 1960s.)

Boobytrap by Bill Pronzini
(The 25th book in the Nameless Detective series about a private detective. The series began in 1971; over the years the character has aged, matured, and changed his lifestyle. In this book, Nameless is on a solo fishing trip, using a cabin on a river loaned to him by a friend. He just happens to be there at the same time a bomber is seeking vengeance on the people who sent him to jail.)

B-Very Flat by Margot Kinberg
(An academic mystery set at Tilton University in Pennsylvania. Serena Brinkman, a talented violin major in the music department, dies unexpectedly a few hours after winning a major competition. Joel Williams, a former policeman on the faculty, gets involved with the case.)

Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
(Book 1 in the Myron Bolitar series. Sports agent Myron Bolitar is about to get a big break when his client Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback, is offered a very big deal. Unfortunately at the same time a tragedy in Christian's past comes back to haunt both of them.)

The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price
(The first book in a series of spy novels featuring Dr. David Audley, a British Intelligence analyst. Published in 1970. A Dakota aircraft assumed lost at sea after World War II ended has recently been discovered in a lake bed. The Russians are also very interested in this aircraft, and Audley must discover why.)

The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer
(This is the first book in the Hildegarde Withers series, published in 1931. Miss Withers is a schoolteacher who helps Detective Oscar Piper with his investigations. I was VERY surprised at the ending of this one.)

Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman
(Kala Stonechild, a First Nations police officer with a troubled background, arrives in Ottawa for a new job just a few days before Christmas. She has no time to find a place to live in a new city before she is working on an important and puzzling case. And as an aboriginal woman she encounters racism on many levels. First of four books in a series.)

Sleeping Dogs by Ed Gorman
(The first in a series of five novels about Dev Conrad, a political consultant. In this novel, the reelection campaign of an Illinois Senator  runs into major problems with dirty tricks, blackmail and murder. Reviewed HERE.)

Every one of these books was a great read and I will be reading more books by these authors. The only one I am not eager to read more of immediately is the series by Jeffery Deaver. I think I need to take those books at a slow pace, due to the subject matter and the thriller aspects. But still a good, fast, and mesmerizing read.

Until I put this all together I had not realized that six of the ten books I read were first books in a series. This was good for discovering new series but bad since I don't need more books to read. And, without even realizing it, I added one more mystery onto my USA Fiction Challenge. Sleeping Dogs by Ed Gorman is set in Illinois.

Note that Margot Kinberg, of the Confessions of a Mystery Novelist... blog, has written a third book featuring Joel Williams, Past Tense, which was just recently released and is available in print or e-book version. I will be reading that one soon.


From Margot's web site:

Past and present meet on the quiet campus of Tilton University when construction workers unearth a set of unidentified bones.

For former police detective-turned-professor Joel Williams, it’s a typical Final Exams week – until a set of bones is discovered on a construction site…