Off the Bookshelf

While waiting for Tana French's second Dublin Murder Squad book to become available at the library, I read Death on Demand by Carolyn Hart. 

Annie Laurance is the owner of Death on Demand, the mystery bookshop located on the fictional Broward's Rock Island off the coast of South Carolina. Annie runs the bookshop left to her by her Uncle Melrose and she hosts a group of the island's mystery writers that meets on Sunday nights at the shop. One of the writers has been making pronouncements about how he is going to be divulging secrets about each of the other members of the group. Before the big reveal, though, he ends up dead. The rest of the book finds Annie and her friend/old flame Max trying to prove that it wasn't Annie who killed the guy with a poisoned dart. Nice shot, though, whoever did it.

The best part of the book is that it is one long reading list for mysteries both classic and contemporary. That is really the fun part of the tale. I highlighted all sorts of new titles and authors to add to my own list of ones to explore.

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Even though during my recovery from knee surgery I wasn't reading, that didn't stop me from buying two books while I lounged about. Well, why would it?

The first was The Art of Expressive Collage by Crystal Neubauer. I like that the artist uses found materials in her collages - vintage papers, junk mail, packaging materials, sewing patterns, sheet music, and fabric. She has a simple style using neutral colors. Her examples and explanations of techniques and processes are clearly explained. These are not the collages of slick magazine images but contain a multitude of layers, textures, and abstract shapes. Very inspiring. And calming.

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My other purchase was A Book That Takes Its Time by the editors of Flow magazine. I have written about the delights of Flow magazine before (here) and this book is filled with journals, postcards, stickers, decorative papers, and lists (we love lists!) to play with. There are articles on taking time to reflect, create, slow down, and even a poem and a recipe or two. 

It is a creative workshop between hardcovers. Slowly. Slowly.

Murders in Volume 2 by Elizabeth Daly

I read somewhere recently that American mystery writer Elizabeth Daly was one of Agatha Christie's favorites. Ms. Daly published sixteen books starring amateur sleuth Henry Gamadge between 1940 and 1951.

What makes Henry Gamadge such an attractive character is that he is an expert in rare books and manuscripts. He lives in a multi-storied house in New York City, has a cook and a butler, and is helped in his investigations by his shy assistant. Gamadge is in his mid-30s and has Old World sensibilities. I liked him.

Murders in Volume 2 was my introduction to him. Because I have never been good at reading between the lines, I must admit I had a little trouble following some of the dialogue - which may have been due to birthday cake overdose - but by the end I felt that it was a good solid story. The plot has to do with a family inheritance, a missing volume of Lord Byron's poetry, spiritualists, theater folk, an impostor, and murder. 

Of course, murder.

Because I am a sucker for descriptions of desks and workspaces, this passage caught my eye:

This seemed to be Miss Vauregard's workroom. A small, curly desk which Gamadge thought must be the first and only one she had ever had was littered with bills, address books, laundry lists and canceled checks. There was a little ancient typewriter on a table in front of a window, with telephone directories piled on the floor beside it. 

And these lines, describing a friend of Gamadge's, made me laugh out loud:

The young man seemed more disheveled than he actually was. He was a type whose lumbering bigness requires continual valeting.

This was the third book in the series. I like to read a series in order to watch the characters develop, but this was the first one that was available in my library's ebook collection. Based on this example, I think there will be more Henry Gamadge mysteries in my future.

Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer

All of a sudden, my library added all twelve of Georgette Heyer's mysteries to its ebook collection. I started my own collection of the paperback editions with their delightful covers a few years ago and currently have six. I have read several of them and was happy to be able to download one I didn't have - Death in the Stocks. 

This is the first in a series of mysteries, set in the 1930s, starring Superintendent Hannasyde from New Scotland Yard. He has his work cut out for him. The suspects don't appear to want to help prove their innocence, but rather add to the confusion by coming up with their own motives and guilty parties or fudging on their own alibis. 

After the dead body of Arnold Vereker is found imprisoned in the stocks on Ashleigh Green with a knife in his back, suspects abound. There is Kenneth who stands to inherit his half-brother's fortune. Kenneth's fiancée, Violet, is a bit of a gold-digger so she certainly had motive. Or perhaps the murderer is Kenneth's sister Antonia who was in the village the night of the murder and had a bone to pick with Arnold. Another suspect is Antonia's fiancé Rudolph Mesurier who was chief accountant for the dead man's firm and was caught 'borrowing' funds. 

But then again, one can't discount Arnold's brother Roger who was presumed dead but shows up just in time to collect his inheritance thereby shoving aside Kenneth who was first in line for the loot. 

After a second murder (I love a second murder - it sweetens the pot!), the truth comes out and the case ends up being solved by Giles Carrington, solicitor for the dead man. Giles is in love with Antonia so he has a vested interest in keeping her out of jail and helping to find the real murderer.

One really can't go wrong with Georgette Heyer mysteries. The stories are deftly plotted, the characters are amusing, and the conversations sparkle. Plus, the book covers are gorgeous.

Perfect bedtime reading.

Our Winter Shelf

Just in time for the Winter Solstice on December 21, here are the books you suggested for Our Winter Shelf.

Many of you chimed in with The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, especially The Long Winter, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Both perfect choices.

Here are more:

Joyce F:
An entire shelf of cozy mystery suggestions - M.C. Beaton (Agatha Raisin, Hamish MacBeth), Mary Daheim (Alpine series), Jeanne M. Dams (Dorothy Martin or Hilda Johannson books), Diane Mott (Goldy Bear caterer), and Jo Dereske (Miss Zukas).

Lark:
Winter Solstice or any other by Rosamund Pilcher.
Nine Coaches Waiting and Thornyhold by Mary Stewart.
Jane Austen - take your pick.

Penny:
The Agatha Raisin books - here's one appropriate title, Kissing Christmas Goodbye.

Agatha Christie  - I found these two titles that fit our theme - Hercule Poirot's Christmas and The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (short story mysteries).

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.

From the irrepressible Tullik:

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys (I wrote about this splendid book here).

Winter: Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik - a series of lectures given on the impact of winter on art, culture, polar exploration, etc.

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann - Tullik suggests that if nothing else, read the chapter 'Snow'.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf for the frozen Thames chapter.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens for its chapter 'Christmas at Dingley Dell'.

Christmas Day - tongue in cheek poem by Irish poet Paul Durcan.

The Ice Palace - a short novel by Tarjei Vesass who was Norwegian and should know something about winter. I found an Amazon Kindle edition for 99 cents.

My thought for the Winter Shelf was for it to hold books I already owned and wanted to reread. That way, I wouldn't have to leave my house and brave the snow and ice and cold to get to the library or bookstore.

So here are my choices, many of which I have written about before on Belle, Book, and Candle and I have included links to those posts.

I had Little Women in mind when I started thinking about this list and have an edition (see the photo at the top of the post) that is inscribed in my grandmother's handwriting to my mother - Christmas 1932.

The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink - just in case I want to spend a little time in the Florida sun (here).

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas - my parents gave me this little book with woodcut illustrations and I reread it every year.

Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols - I'll save this one for the approach of spring to get me in the mood to think about the garden.

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg - I read this suspense novel a long time ago and remember that Smilla, a Greenlander now living in Copenhagen, surely knows her way around snow and ice.

Essays by E.B. White - almost anything written by him brings me comfort.

Endangered Pleasures by Barbara Holland - its subtitle says it all - In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences (here).

And finally,

Simple Pleasures: Little Things That Make Life Worth Living - a collection of essays by various British writers published by The National Trust (here).

So there you have it. Plump up the pillows in your reading chair, gather a warm, soft throw and your favorite cup of tea, and settle in for a long winter's read. Enjoy!

The Night She Died and How to Murder a Millionaire

I hunkered down recently and read the first books in two new-to-me mystery series. They have served as my bedtime reading.

The Night She Died by Dorothy Simpson

Here we first meet Detective Inspector Luke Thanet. The crime to solve? Julie Holmes, still wearing her tweed overcoat, is found stabbed in the hallway of her home on quiet Gladstone Road. Her husband claims he found her dead when he returned home from class. Can he be trusted? Or perhaps the killer was one of the other men in Julie's life? A former boyfriend from London? Her boss? Or was it someone from her childhood? 

I liked Inspector Thanet. He has a wife and two children and in this outing, at least, has a tendency to overthink things and jump to conclusions. But then he is mature enough to acknowledge his own shortcomings. A promising start.

This was published in 1981 and Ms. Simpson has 14 more mysteries featuring Luke Thanet the last of which came out in 1999.

How to Murder a Millionaire by Nancy Martin

This one is just pure fun. Nora Blackbird is from old Philadelphia money. Unfortunately the money is all gone, but she and her sisters Libby and Emma still mingle with high society. Nora has taken a job as society columnist for a Philadelphia paper. She attends a cocktail party hosted by the paper's owner, millionaire art collector and family friend Rory Pendergrast, and discovers his dead body. That will put the end to any party!  

Nora's sleuthing uncovers all sorts of secrets and I had a delightful time amateur-detecting with her. Looking forward to reading more about the Blackbird sisters and their high society high jinks.

What's new on your bedside table?

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree is as Southern as sweet tea. It is a mystery full of flowers, food, and friendship.

The time is May 1930. The place is Darling, Alabama. The ladies of the town's garden club, The Darling Dahlias, have just inherited a new clubhouse upon the death of the club's founder Mrs. Dahlia Blackstone who died at the age of 82.

There is Miss Elizabeth Lacy the club's president who works for an attorney and writes a gardening column for the weekly newspaper. Eternal optimist Ophelia Snow is the wife of the mayor. Verna Tidwell is the clerk in the probate office, is naturally suspicious, and makes a splendid sleuth. Myra May is the phone operator which makes her privy to all sorts of information. Beulah Trivette is owner of the Beauty Bower, a hair and nail salon where much gossip and news is discussed.

Next to gardening, the Dahlia's love to eat. Here's a typical Sunday dinner: fried chicken with new potato salad, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with dill, and green beans and okra cooked up with onions and bacon. For dessert there might be ribbon cake with peach filling or thumbprint cookies filled with raspberry jam. All served up with cold rosemary lemonade. 

Are you hungry yet?

Author Susan Wittig Albert writes evocatively of the South, the attitudes of the time, and the close friendships of the women. And, she throws in lots of intriguing historic details. But know this, there is plenty of mystery here — was the death of Bunny Scott an accident or foul play? What about the convict who has escaped from the prison farm? And, who is that digging at night behind the garden club house?

Well, all will be revealed, including, I hope, the relevance of the cucumber tree. 

I am quite happy to spend time with the Dahlias in pleasant Darling, Alabama where white kitchen curtains are crisply starched, rockers on wide front porches gently squeak, and fireflies light up the warm Southern nights. 

Quick! Someone pour me a glass of sweet tea. And where are my pearls?

I, the Jury versus The Cereal Murders

You won't meet two more opposite protagonists than Mike Hammer and Goldy Bear. One carries a gun, the other a spatula. One is a professional hard-boiled detective, the other is an amateur detective who sometimes hard boils eggs. One is a cynical lone wolf, the other a resourceful woman with friends and family all around her. One lives in a seedy, urban world, the other in a self-contained, small town.

These were the detectives in the books I read over the past two weeks for the History of Mystery class I am attending. The Mike Hammer book is I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane. The Goldy Bear title is The Cereal Murders by Diane Mott Davidson.

The writing style in I, the Jury is terse and gritty as befits the personality of Mr. Hammer. (At first I found it entertaining but after a hundred pages, it began to wear thin.) He charges around the city chasing down clues and suspects in the murder of a friend who at one time saved his life.  He has sex or thinks about having sex with just about every woman he meets. He falls in love at the drop of his felt hat. A bottle of beer (more like a 12-pack) and many smokes help him think about the case. The story, set against the background of human trafficking, prostitution, and heroin addiction, not to mention multiple murders, seems oddly modern and is reflected in today's headlines. 

On the other hand, the writing style in The Cereal Murders, the third in a series starring caterer Goldy Bear, is almost florid. Way too many adjectives and adverbs to my taste. There were a couple of witty lines but not enough to keep me reading this 335-page mystery. I didn't particularly care for any of the characters - living or dead - and after a hundred pages jumped to the end to see who the murderer was. Even then I didn't care. For me, the whole thing fell as flat as one of Goldy's failed souffles.

It seems that the cozy mystery with its amateur detective, usually a woman with an interesting but not too stressful job or avocation that allows her to eavesdrop, is a genre that has exploded in the past 30 years or so. Perhaps as an antidote to the earlier hard-boiled, violent mysteries. Or, it was noted, as perhaps an updating of the Golden Age mysteries.

Unlike the up close and personal murder in the hard-boiled detective story, in the cozy mysteries, the violence is usually off-stage, there is little profanity and no graphic sex, and no harm ever comes to a cat.

The discussions about these two books was lively. The class was especially divided over the Diane Mott Davidson book - some found it frustrating and others loved it and raved about the entire series (of which there are to this date seventeen.)

I would like to read or reread some of the classic hard-boiled detective stories of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. And there are many, many cozy mysteries on the bookstore shelves that probably would appeal to me if I can only find them. Some of the ones I have started are way to cute. 

Next week's discussion will be on the Dark and Dangerous genre typified by Elizabeth George, Val McDermid, Tana French, and others. I read long ago the book suggested for the class written by Ms. George, A Great Deliverance, and dark and dangerous it is. I stopped at this first book in the series that introduced her Inspector Lynley.

So where do you fall in your reading tastes? Are you a Mike Hammer or a Goldy Bear? Or maybe somewhere in between?