Belles-Lettres: Brilliant, Blue-Ribbon Books 2013

Biggest Surprise of the Year -  I Loved This Book! 

So Big by Edna Ferber; published in 1924

Top Three Non-Fiction Books That Were Entire Educations in Themselves: 

At Home by Bill Bryson; How to Live, Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell; The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey

Top Three Fiction Books (not mysteries): 

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; Equilateral by Ken Kalfus; Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.

Author Most Read: 

Donald Westlake - Six of his Dortmunder capers

Most Delightful Reread: 

Counting My Chickens... by The Duchess of Devonshire

Brothers I Would Most Like to Meet: 

Reggie and Nigel Heath of The Baker Street Letters, The Brothers of Baker Street, and The Baker Street Translation by Michael Robertson

Best Foreign Location: 

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and West With the Night by Beryl Markham

Most Laugh-Out-Loud Dysfunctional Family: 

The Spellman Files and The Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

Dreamiest Tale: 

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys

Best Road Trip: 

The Lost Continent - Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson

Mystery Writer I Am So Glad I Found: 

Peter Lovesey - The Last Detective, Diamond Solitaire, The Summons, and Bloodhounds. 

As If I Needed More Reasons Not To Go On A Cruise: 

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace.

Proof That The South Shall Rise Again: 

Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White.

Authors I Have Met and Their Books I Read This Year: 

Duffy Brown (Killer in Crinolines), William Zinsser (The Writer Who Stayed), and George S. McGovern (Abraham Lincoln)

The Baker Street Translation by Michael Robertson

I am happy to report that the Brothers of Baker Street - Nigel and Reggie Heath - are in good form in solving their latest mystery The Baker Street Translation (2013).

This third in the series by Michael Robertson has Reggie and Nigel involved with a kidnapping, a plastic duck that recites nursery rhymes, two murders, a birthday party for a minor Royal, the sewer system that services Buckingham Palace, the fortune of a wealthy Texas woman, and, of course, letters to Sherlock Holmes.

For you see, if you are not familiar with this series which I have written about here and here, Reggie Heath Q.C. has his law offices at 221B Baker Street. Letters of appeal come to Sherlock Holmes and part of the lease agreement stipulates that all correspondence must be read and acknowledged. 

Therein lies the fun. This time not only has a Texas widow left her considerable estate to Mr. Holmes but a Chinese translator of toy instructions - to his peril - has come to London to appeal in person to the great detective. 

Reggie and his lovely Laura, the actress, have to deal with kidnappers, private security teams in armored Range Rovers, and a short-handed Scotland Yard in order to save the day. 

I think Mr. Robertson has hit his stride with this caper and I look forward to his next one. 

The Brothers of Baker Street by Michael Robertson

The Brothers of Baker Street is the second mystery by Michael Robertson. It concerns the barrister brothers Nigel and Reggie Heath whose chambers happen to share the same address as the fictional Sherlock Holmes - 221b Baker Street.

The first in the series, The Baker Street Letters,  (and there is a third book scheduled to come out in April 2013) had the brothers flying to Los Angeles in response to a cry for help to Mr. Holmes from a young woman who wants the detective to help her find her father. 

This next tale takes place in London and involves robberies and eventually a murder by a Black Cab driver. It all has to do with revenge, GPS equipment, and therapy groups. Just as in the first book, a letter written to Sherlock Holmes plays a big part in the mystery. 

It is all quite a romp and Mr. Robertson seemed to write with a lighter touch this time. Although I will warn you that for some reason, in the first few pages, he gives away the identity of the murderer in the first book. That is why I feel compelled to read a mystery series in order of publication. I don't want any spoiled surprises.

Anyway, as a bonus, I learned what taxi drivers have to go through to get their license to drive a Black Cab. It is quite a strenuous and expensive path. All drivers must pass a test - known as the Knowledge - as to the locations of the streets and places of interest within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross in central London. This means learning 320 routes, 25,000 streets, and 20,000 landmarks. It can take from two to four years to pass the Knowledge.

Pretty cool, eh? London's taxi drivers  are very proud of their expertise and reputation for safety. This is why with a criminal cabbie running amok in the city, everyone from other cab drivers to Scotland Yard to the press and especially the Heath Brothers are up-in-arms and bent on catching the killer. 

Brothers of Baker Street and Montaigne

Knowing that I have two new books to read for the weekend gives me the same flutter of happiness as does knowing that I have mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer.

From the library, I downloaded to my Kindle How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. I was tipped off about this title in a post by Jenny at Shelf Love. It is 400 pages long and I hope I can finish it before it will disappear in two weeks from my e-reader.

Also from the library, I brought home The Brothers of Baker Street, the second mystery by Michael Robertson that follows the investigations of Nigel and Reggie Heath, two London solicitors. 

I am set for the weekend.

The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson

This is a brief musing on the recently read The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson.

The plot revolves around brothers, Nigel and Reggie, both London solicitors, who happen to have offices on Baker Street. Part of the lease agreement requires that letters written to that most famous resident of 221b Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes, be answered. A form letter will suffice. But Nigel finds one written two decades earlier by an 8-year-old girl asking for Mr. Holmes's help in finding her father. And then there are two more recent follow-up letters.

Against the terms of the lease which state that under no circumstances is personal contact to be made with any letter writer, Nigel, the looser cannon of the two brothers, heads to Los Angeles to see what he can find out about this lady in distress. In the meantime, a body is found in Nigel's office, and off goes brother Reggie to L.A. to find Nigel. 

I was thinking the mystery was going to take place in London, but if it had to be somewhere else at least it was in a location I knew about. The murders and the mystery all boil down to money, of course. There is a nice twist at the end and the futures of the two brothers are left up in the air. Nigel opts to stay in the U.S. while Reggie goes dutifully back to Baker Street.

Because I am familiar with the places and street names in the area of L.A. that the brothers found themselves (Reggie checks into the lovely Bonaventure Hotel) it made for a fun read. There were a few holes - would a cab driver wait for 20 minutes while Reggie finds a dead body and runs through the park chased by joggers who think he is the murderer? Would someone who suffered serious injuries in an explosion, be able to get out of his hospital bed and wander freely about the hospital?

Oh, well, that's why it is called crime fiction.

One annoying bit: no one in the story ever left a room or a car or a restaurant - they exited. 

There is another character, Laura the actress, who is Reggie's girlfriend only she used to be Nigel's. She also winds up in L.A. and is on the case with Reggie. She seems to have more sense than both of the men put together. (No surprise there!)

There is a second book in the series, The Brothers of Baker Street. It appears that the action in this one takes place in London. I have added it to my reserve list at the library. I will be interested to see in what sticky wicket the brothers find themselves this time.

Mysterious Letters and Diaries

Two new mysteries in the offing for me this week. One I picked up at the library on a snowy Saturday. The second one was the Kindle Deal of the Day ($1.99) and though I don't often purchase mystery books, this one intrigued me.

The Baker Street Letters (2009) by Michael Robertson concerns Nigel and Reggie, two London lawyers who have offices on Baker Street. Part of the lease agreement requires that letters addressed to Mr. Sherlock Holmes be responded to. Most of the responses are quickly dispatched with a simple form letter, but one plea for help received from California intrigues Nigel and off he flies to the United States. Ah, yes. Trouble is afoot.

This is the first in a series starring the squabbling siblings and it looks to be quite entertaining. 

Today's Kindle Deal is House of Evidence (1998) by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson. The action takes place in 1973 in Iceland with the shooting death of Jacob Kieler. There is also the unsolved murder of Kieler's father thirty years before, a stately home in Reykjavik, a police detective who is an expert in forensics, and diaries kept by the father, who brought the first railroad to Iceland, that will perhaps help solve the mystery.

I can only hope it is not too grisly. I read the first page or two and it looks to be pretty straightforward and well-written.