On Weather and Being Under the Weather

Le frégate
Henri Matisse

Oh, my. My computer and I were both blindsided by viruses at the same time. While my laptop languished for a week at the techie hospital, I languished on the chaise lounge. 

The Polar Ice Caps that seem to be hovering over the region and the blowing snow didn't help my frame of mind. I did manage to push though and fulfill a couple of commitments but keeping up an entry a day on 'Belle, Book, and Candle' fell by the wayside.

I wish I could report that I read many books this past week, but sadly that has not been the case. I did finish Once Upon a Timepiece by Starr Wood which I really enjoyed and will write about another time.

I managed to read a chapter or two in The Bully Pulpit about Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Said chapters are quite long and so filled with information that after finishing one I feel as if I have read a book.

There were a couple of free mysteries on my Kindle which once begun were quickly abandoned as they didn't hold my interest. So, I returned to the tried and true detective adventures of Peter Diamond in Upon a Dark Night. Author Peter Lovesey never fails to sweep me away with his tales of Bath, England and the criminal goings-on there.

My laptop is back where it belongs...on my lap. I am slowly coming back to life myself and hope to get in the swing of things shortly. If you, dear reader, have left me a comment I plan on catching up with you over this weekend.

Postmark Paris: A Story in Stamps by Leslie Jonath

It's funny how similar themes seem to arise from books that one is reading. 

Recently I read Hit Man (here) by Lawrence Block in which the main character, a killer for hire, takes up his childhood passion for stamp collecting. 

Right now I am engrossed in Bloodhounds, the fourth Peter Diamond mystery by Peter Lovesey. It concerns the brazen theft of a valuable Penny Black postage stamp from a Bath museum. The Penny Black, featuring the profile of the reigning Queen Victoria, was the world's first adhesive postage stamp. It was issued in Great Britain in 1840.

And then, just Sunday past, I plucked off a shelf in the travel section of Robie Books, a pristine copy of a little book Postmark Paris: A Story in Stamps (2005) by Leslie Jonath. It is the author's tale of her experiences living in Paris for a year when she was nine years old.

The book is really written for children and is quite a delight. One page features text in which Ms. Jonath recalls a particular memory of the City of Light - attending school, riding the Metro, visiting the Tuilleries, attending a ballet at the Paris Opera House, viewing exhibits at the Louvre, and even rescuing her brother when he is grabbed by a monkey at the zoo!

On the opposite page is an image of a French postage stamp that in some way relates to that adventure. So when Leslie learns that the French for cock-a-doodle-do is cocorico, three stamps featuring colorful roosters accompany the text. 

It is in Paris that the young Leslie becomes enamored with the world of postage stamps and soon she befriends the owner of  the dimly lit shop in her neighborhood that sells les timbres, as well as old maps and dusty gray books. 

The stamps she buys are lovely and colorful and many depict the art and artists that we have come to know so well: Monet, Picasso, Renoir. 

I can imagine that the young Leslie had a wonderful time collecting these little masterpieces and hope that she is still finding her way in the world through les timbres.

The Summons by Peter Lovesey

Peter Diamond is back in The Summons (1995), the third in the series about this hefty detective who, in the first book (The Last Detective), resigned in a fit of pique from the Bath police department and moved with his wife to London.

Now, he has been called back to Bath to assist the CID and finds himself working alongside officers that he used to be in charge of. Seems a certain John Mountjoy, convicted murderer, has escaped from prison and has kidnapped Assistant Chief Constable Tott's daughter, Samantha, and is holding her hostage.  The ransom demand is that Diamond find out who was really the killer.

Mountjoy has always claimed he was innocent of the murder of a journalist four years ago and it was Diamond's investigation that led to Mountjoy's conviction.

The opening sequence, recounting Mountjoy's escape from prison, is brilliantly played. The action moves along even more quickly from there as Diamond works with the assistance of Inspector Julie Hargreaves to follow the cold trail of clues.

Diamond, who has been taking odd jobs in London - security guard, Santa Claus, supermarket trolley collector - finds he is thrilled to be back on the chase - even as a civilian. He parlays his knowledge of Mountjoy and his new-found usefulness to the police bigwigs into a bid to get his old job back. 

I am so glad that Diamond is back in Bath. Buskers, a funeral for a horse, and a chase through a dilapidated old hotel are just a few of the people and places the reader encounters here. There is even a squad of squatters who have been living in a house thought to have once been occupied by Jane Austen. 

I feel as if Peter Lovesey hit his stride with Diamond in this procedural. It was all very entertaining and I was totally surprised at the identity of the killer. Quite thrilling!

Diamond Solitaire by Peter Lovesey

Peter Diamond becomes quite the jet-setter in Diamond Solitaire (1992), the second book featuring the 48-year-old, 252-pound detective. Diamond, the creation of author Peter Lovesey, has left the police department and his home in Bath. He and his wife Stephanie are now living in London. He is working as a security guard in Harrods. Working, that is, until a young Japanese girl is found late one night curled up on a sofa in the furniture department on Diamond's watch.

Now unemployed, he decides to take on finding out about this young girl when he learns that after weeks no one has stepped forward to claim her. 

To complicate matters, the young girl, known as Naomi, is autistic and offers no clues as to where she came from or where she belongs. When she is kidnapped from the group home where she has been living, Diamond's search for her takes him from London to New York City and eventually to Tokyo. 

In the meantime he makes the acquaintance of a famous Japanese sumo wrestler, bullies and befriends the detectives in the NYC police department, has a run in with Big Pharma, and almost drowns in the East River after getting beaten up by thugs.

He is unstoppable. 

It is all great fun, really. Diamond bluffs his way into all sorts of places using his British passport and his British accent. "One useful thing Diamond had learned in the police is that anyone with an air of authority can get admitted anywhere, with the possible exception of 10 Downing Street."

The author brings in all sorts of characters to assist in the investigation and to move things along: A woman at the airport who Diamond waylays to follow a car full of suspects; a translator; a secretary with access to computer files. They are never heard from again. But, it doesn't matter. 

Although some of the twists and turns are a bit unbelievable, this is entertaining and witty detective fiction. I would advise you to suspend any disbelief and just enjoy jetting around the world with Peter Diamond. He is sparkling company.