Mt. TBR Challenge Quarterly Checkpoint

This quarter I have read only six books that count toward my goal of 25 books for the 2012 Mt. TBR Reading Challenge. (Actually, I have read 11 books from my TBR stacks, boxes, and bookcases, but I did not start the challenge until February 26th and thus am only counting those I read this month.)

Since my goal is 25 books from my TBR stacks, I still am on track to reach my goal. Every year I say I will read more books from my stacks and buy less, and every year I have a hard time doing that. And I really think joining this challenge has been a motivator to accomplish this goal.

Books I have read (with links to reviews):

1. Do One Thing Different by Bill O'Hanlon
2. Winter by Len Deighton 
3. The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson
4. Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand 
5. Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
6. Bluffing Mr. Churchill by John Lawton

In progress:  Second Violin by John Lawton

My goal this year (until September) is to limit my fiction purchases to books written by authors that I have read previously. Preferably, don't buy books in series that I have not started, even if I have read the authors. Even though that still leaves a lot of books I could buy, my preference is to work down the TBR piles. In September I go to a yearly book sale where I can get books really cheap and it benefits a charity, and I don't plan to limit myself there.

Based on my records (not complete), of that set of books, I have had The Company of Strangers the longest, about five and a half years, and bought the copy at the book sale in 2006.  It is the first book by Robert Wilson that I have read and I really enjoyed it. Which is a good thing, since I have six other books that he wrote in my TBR stacks.

Of these six books, the one I enjoyed the most was Bluffing Mr. Churchill, the fourth book in the Inspector Troy series. It was also my favorite book in the series.  Partly because of the subject matter (events in World War II) and setting (London), but really because it kept me interested the whole time and I cared about the characters and the outcomes.

Two More Challenges: New Authors and WWI

Two more reading challenges have grabbed me. I can't resist. They won't be easy to finish with what I already have planned ... but I plan to try:

 

For the new author challenge.

1. The challenge runs from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.
2. Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels.  Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.
3. You can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors.  It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be. 

I am setting my goal at 15 new authors.

I have at least 50 books by authors I have not read before. I always try to read books that I already own by as many new authors as possible before I go to a large book sale in late September, so I can buy more books by those authors if I like them. So it would be no problem to complete the challenge if I did not also have a lot of books by other authors I have read that are also beckoning to me, and other challenges going on.

I am tracking my list of books by authors new to me HERE.

A World War I reading challenge

1. This challenge is hosted by War Through the Generations. The challenge runs from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.
2. This year you have options when reading your fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, etc. with the WWI as the primary or secondary theme. Books can take place before, during, or after the war, so long as the conflicts that led to the war or the war itself are important to the story. Books from other challenges count so long as they meet the above criteria.

Dip: Read 1-3 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Wade: Read 4-10 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Swim: Read 11 or more books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Additionally, we’ve decided that since there are so many great movies out there about WWI, you can substitute or add a movie or two to your list this year and have it count toward your totals.

I am setting my goal at Wade: 4-10 books about WWI. (because of the option to include movies)

My favorite topic of the moment is World War II, but as you read more about World War II, you often end up going back to World War I to understand the history of Europe and the rest of the world leading up to World War I. Just this month I read Winter by Len Deighton, which covers the history of a family in Germany from 1900 - 1945 and the parts related to World War I were very interesting.

I have two series by Charles Todd, one in progress and one that I have not started yet, that fit the criteria. I have one unwatched movie set in World War I (The Fighting 69th (1940) starring James Cagney) and another I would love to see again (Paths of Glory (1957) starring Kirk Douglas). So I am sure I can complete at least 4 books or movies by the end of the year.

I am tracking my list of books or films related to World War I HERE. 

Green for Danger: Christianna Brand

Description from Goodreads:  "Set in a military hospital during the blitz, this novel is one of Brand's most intricately plotted detection puzzles, executed with her characteristic cleverness and gusto."

I recently finished reading and reviewing Heads You Lose, the first novel in the Inspector Cockrill series by Christianna Brand. I was disappointed in that book, but I expected to like this one much more and I did.

Per the bibliography at Fantastic Fiction, this was the 3rd book she published and it was published three years after Head You Lose. In that time, it appears that Brand developed her writing abilities a great deal, and the book has much more character development.  

As in Heads You Lose, Inspector Cockrill has a limited set of suspects who could have committed the murder. And again all of the suspects seem to be fine, upstanding members of society (in this case, working at a military hospital during the war, many of them volunteering for the assignment). Granted, some have their flaws or secrets, but not any that point towards the inclination towards murder.  In this book, however, I found the suspects more fleshed out and more interesting. The plot moves more slowly, but there is more depth.

One thing of interest... The character of Inspector Cockrill is not developed in detail. You get a description, you get hints of what he is like, but very little back story. In both of the books I have read, he knows some of the suspects (which would seem to be a problem), but that is about all we know. The emphasis is on the suspects and what they are going through. This is not necessarily a negative. In other reviews I have read, there are indications that you can read the books in any order, so I can concentrate on the ones I can find and not worry about getting them in order. (This is an obsession with me in most cases.) On the other hand, most mystery writers of this time that I like a lot do have detectives (amateur or otherwise) that are more developed, more interesting. Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers.

Another plus for me is the time period and setting.  This novel was set in World War II in England, during the Blitz, near London. I enjoy mysteries set in the period leading up, including and following World War II. Since this one was written during the period, it is from the point of someone actually living the experience.

My copy of this book (cover shown above), a paperback published by Carroll & Graf in 1989, has four illustrations, which was a pleasant surprise and did help in picturing the characters. I tried to find out some background on the illustrations, to no avail.

There is a very good movie based on this book, also titled Green for Danger. I did see it a while back, but want to watch it again now that I have read the book. We like old movies and this one was very enjoyable.

I like to include other reviews that I have enjoyed:
I have recently enjoyed many reviews at In So Many Words. Also includes a link to her post about the movie.
At a blog new to me: A Work in Progress.  She also had a post on cozy mysteries that I enjoyed.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Vintage Mystery Challenge
Cruisin' Thru the Cozies Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge

Heads You Lose: Christianna Brand

About Christianna Brand. From the author description at Goodreads.

"She was born Mary Christianna Milne in 1907 in Malaya and spent her early years in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess.

Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was written while Brand was working as a salesgirl. In 1941, one of her best-loved characters, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in the book Heads You Lose. The character would go on to appear in seven of her novels. Green for Danger is Brand’s most famous novel. The whodunit, set in a World War 2 hospital, was adapted for film by Eagle-Lion Films in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector. She dropped the series in the late 1950s and concentrated on various genres as well as short stories."


I was surprised to find out that Christianna Brand had only written seven mysteries featuring Inspector Cockrill. With that few, I could easily read them all. But after reading this one, I am not so sure I want to.  I have read some of her novels in the distant past I am sure, but it is long enough ago that I don't remember which ones.

Most of the action takes place in a mansion outside a small village. The owner of Pigeonsford Estate has five friends currently visiting when the murder takes place. Inspector Cockrill has known most of this group for years. It appears that one of them must be the murderer but he can't believe it is any of them.

What are my issues with this book? I am not sure. I felt the pacing was good, and read the book in less than two days ... fast for me. I did not have to force myself to finish it. I love the country house mystery sub-genre. But I think the characters were a bit shallow for me and I could not get to like them.

The revelation of the culprit was also a disappointment. I had considered that this character was the most likely suspect, but the explanation left me cold.  On the other hand, I know that mystery writer's essentially are creating fantasy situations that the reader must accept. Had I enjoyed the journey to the end more, I would have ignored my disappointment.

This is the first book in the series, and only the second novel published by Brand. I have read that Green for Danger, the second book in the series, is much better, and I am reading that next. I hope to find that I like it. I have seen the movie based on the book (also titled Green for Danger), and enjoyed it a lot. I know that the movie is a bit different, and I have (conveniently) forgotten the ending, so that won't be a problem.

Other reviews:
At a lovely site featuring Vintage Penguin paperbacks: A Penguin a week

Full of information: at the Golden Age of Detection Wiki

In-depth, and with great comments: at Mystery*File

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Vintage Mystery Challenge
Cruisin' Thru the Cozies Challenge
1st in a Series Challenge
Merely Mystery Reading Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge

The Company of Strangers: Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson's description of The Company of Strangers in an article at the Crime Time website:

"The Company of Strangers is a spy thriller / love story which is set primarily in Lisbon in the July of 1944, has its continuation in East Berlin of early 1971 and a denouement in England in the early 1990s." 

A quote: 

     Cardew's conversation drifted toward work.

     "Yes, the fifties were terrific once we go rid of bugger boys Burgess and Maclean. Thought we were right on top of the game, only to find it was a complete bloody farce…

Khrushchev said to Kennedy once that we should give each other a list of all our spies and we'd probably find they read the same. Too bloody right."

There are two main protagonists, Karl Voss, a young intelligence officer in the German Army and Andrea Aspinall, who becomes a spy for the British during World War II in Lisbon at a very young age. The complications of their family relationships and their affair mold the rest of the story.

It is a love story, but I would not call it romantic. It is more about the harsh realities of life. It is about families, and relationships, and maturing. It seems like a lot of books I have read lately have had a theme of family relationships and how they affect us. Or maybe I am just focused on that topic right now.

Did I like this book? Yes, very much. I enjoyed the author’s storytelling and the characterizations. It did take me a long time to read. It was a big thick book but I don’t think that was the problem. There was a section in the middle where it slowed down and I would have like more explanation of that period of Andrea’s life, but then it would have been even longer. At the end, I felt that the author had set the stage well for the final events. 

This book also appealed to me because of the time period and subject matter. World War II and spy intrigue. And then it transitions into a Cold War novel and double agents. Was the depiction of spies and their double crosses and cynicism realistic? I don’t know, but I was convinced. It was real for me.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Chunkster Challenge
European Challenge
Merely Mystery Reading Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge

A Challenge Full of Cozies

This challenge, Cruisin' thru the Cozies, is also hosted by Socrates Book Reviews. (I also signed up for her Finishing a Series Challenge.) Between a quarter to a third of my reading in a year is often Cozy mysteries, because I like vintage mysteries and I read a lot of contemporary authors who are considered cozy authors.

A Summary of the Guidelines

(There are others, go here to check them out.)

 1) Cozy mysteries qualify. Check out Cozy-Mystery.com for definition and suggestions.
2) The qualification period is January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012.
 
There are three levels. I am joining at the Investigator Level - Read 7-12 books. I figure I can complete that easily because I am also in the Vintage Book Challenge, and many of those will be cozy mysteries.

I will list the books I read here... with links to reviews.

1.  Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand
2.  Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
3.  A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd
4.  A Fall from Grace by Robert Barnard
5.  Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
6.  With a Bare Bodkin by Cyril Hare
7.  An English Murder by Cyril Hare 
8.  Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear
9.  Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
10. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
11. Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb
12. Zombies of the Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb
13. The Affair of the Mutilated Mink by James Anderson
14. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
15. The Property of a Lady by Anthony Oliver
16. Lament for the Bride by Helen Reilly
17. The Cape Cod Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor
  
Completion of Challenge: I completed this challenge on July 5, 2012, when I finished reading An English Murder by Cyril Hare. I will continue recording cozy novels I have read this year on this post. I may reach 12 or even more.