Bodies from the Library 1 (MbD’s Deal-me-in Challenge)

Rather than create a separate post for each short story, I’m appending them under the anthology title as I read them. Older short stores will be behind the ‘read more’.

Bodies from the Library 1
by Tony Medawar (editor)
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780008289225
Publication Date: January 1, 2018
Pages: 324
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Collins Crime Club

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922.
At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world’s cleverest and most popular storytellers.

Each of these 16 forgotten tales have either been published only once before – perhaps in a newspaper or rare magazine – or have never before appeared in print. From a previously unpublished 1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah’s blind detective Max Carrados, to early 1950s crime stories written for London’s Evening Standard by Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of writing by masters of the Golden Age.

Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her ‘Grand Tour’ of the British Empire.

With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science – when murder was a complex business.

The Inverness Cape by Leo Bruce: ✭✭✭½ (12 March, 2023)

I’ve read at least one other full-length Leo Bruce novel (Death on Allhallowe’en) and liked it quite a bit. This short story was clever, although not complex. Told as a memory of a past case, but still structured as a mystery (the guilty party isn’t named until the end). I liked the subtle tip-o-the-hat to Doyle and Holmes. Well, maybe it’s not subtle, but it’s a tip-o-the-hat to his existence and eminence, and perhaps it’s done in a sly sort of way. As I said, it’s not a complicated mystery, but it’s a short-short story and it’s done well for the few pages it occupies.

Continue reading Bodies from the Library 1 (MbD’s Deal-me-in Challenge)

The Murder of Mr. Wickham

The Murder of Mr. Wickham
by Claudia Gray
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9780593313817
Publication Date: May 2, 2022
Pages: 382
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Vintage Books

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. The unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.

I’m conflicted about this book. On the one hand, the mystery was very good (although the ending was somewhat predictable, not because of bad plotting at all, but because of who the suspects are). On the other hand, Gray is trying to write Austen’s characters, which for some of them, I can’t say she succeeded overmuch.

Gray was smart; she wrote the book from the POV of all the characters, so she never has to spend too much time with any of Austen’s creations. This keeps her from straying too far outside the lines of their personalities as written by JA. The MCs, on the other hand, are the offspring of the Darcys and the Tilneys (the Tilneys are the only ones that do not appear in the book; instead they are represented by their daughter). This leaves Gray free to develop these characters while remaining true to Austen’s generation.

But, when she does spend time with those characters, she takes some liberties that I’m not entirely comfortable with. She makes Fanny and Edmund so holier than thou – although they are sincere, I’ll give her that. She also takes a HUGE liberty with Fanny’s brother William, in an effort, I suppose, to make the book more socially relevant to today’s audience. It gives Fanny a weakness that can be exploited by Wickham, sure, but its execution is entirely implausible. View Spoiler »

Overall, it’s an excellent mystery and probably an enjoyable read for anyone who hasn’t read Austen’s books more than once. For those of us who have, the same caveats apply to this book as any other work that uses classic characters and reimagines them.

In the Shadow of Agatha Christie (MbD’s Deal-me-in Challenge)

In the Shadow of Agatha Christie
by Leslie S. Klinger (editor)
isbn: 9781681776309
Publication Date: January 1, 2018
Pages: 328
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Pegasus Crime

Before Agatha Christie became the world's Queen of Crime, she stood on the talented shoulders of the female crime authors who came before her. This splendid new anthology by Leslie S. Klinger brings these exceptional writers out of her shadow and back into the spotlight they deserve. Agatha Christie is undoubtedly the world's best-selling mystery author, hailed as the "Queen of Crime", with worldwide sales in the billions. Christie burst onto the literary scene in 1920, with The Mysterious Affair at Styles; her last novel was published in 1976, a career longer than even Conan Doyle's forty-year span. The truth is that it was due to the success of writers like Anna Katherine Green in America; L. T. Meade, C. L. Pirkis, the Baroness Orczy and Elizabeth Corbett in England; and Mary Fortune in Australia that the doors were finally opened for women crime-writers. Authors who followed them, such as Patricia Wentworth, Dorothy Sayers and, of course, Agatha Christie would not have thrived without the bold, fearless work of their predecessors and the genre would be much poorer for their absence.

So while Agatha Christie may still reign supreme, it is important to remember that she did not ascend that throne except on the shoulders of the women who came before her and inspired her and who are now removed from her shadow once and for all by this superb new anthology by Leslie S. Klinger.

I read these stories as part of my 2023 short story challenge. I am also going to append all my short story/individual reviews for this specific anthology to this post (in the order they’re read) so that upon completion it will serve as a review of the whole of the book.

March 12, 2023

The Blood-red Necklace by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace ✭✭✭½:

A mystery, sort of, but definitely a complete story about a string of incredibly valuable pearls, an upcoming wedding and a Moriarity-like villainess of crime. The method was diabolical, but the doe-like innocence of the bride to be was too child-like, and she was constantly referred to as a child, so that the whole thing just felt tainted by fumes of pedophilia. She was of an age of consent, but still, the fact that I had to keep reminding myself of that kept me from fully enjoying what was a really well written story.

Previously posted comments about other stories are behind the break.

Continue reading In the Shadow of Agatha Christie (MbD’s Deal-me-in Challenge)

Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self

Magnificent Rebels
by Andrea Wulf
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9780525657118
Publication Date: September 13, 2022
Pages: 494
Genre: History
Publisher: Knopf

When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, How can I be free?

It all began in a quiet university town in Germany in the 1790s, when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, their writing, and their lives. This brilliant circle included the famous poets Goethe, Schiller, and Novalis; the visionary philosophers Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; the contentious Schlegel brothers; and, in a wonderful cameo, Alexander von Humboldt. And at the heart of this group was the formidable Caroline Schlegel, who sparked their dazzling conversations about the self, nature, identity, and freedom.

The French revolutionaries may have changed the political landscape of Europe, but the young Romantics incited a revolution of the mind that transformed our world forever. We are still empowered by their daring leap into the self, and by their radical notions of the creative potential of the individual, the highest aspirations of art and science, the unity of nature, and the true meaning of freedom. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfillment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our responsibilities toward our community and future generations. At the heart of this inspiring book is the extremely modern tension between the dangers of selfishness and the thrilling possibilities of free will.

What a ride that was, and, with a few exceptions, what a bunch of self-absorbed prima donnas. I guess you’d have to be self absorbed to be the vanguard of the invention of self, but still, I liked almost none of these people. If their first name was Friedrich, chances were good I didn’t like them. (Spoiler alert: almost everybody was named Friedrich.) My like list of these people is pretty much limited to those with the Humboldt and Goethe surnames. Schiller was ok – I suspect his poor health made him a more complicated man than he had to be. I also suspect Novalis – the melodramatic proto-goth man-child – would have turned out to have grown up into quite a distinguished gentleman, had he lived a full life. Signs of maturity were apparent before he was struck down by illness. As for the rest of them, I just wanted to box their ears. Friedrich Schlegel was an out right selfish ass, and remained that way the rest of his life.

Yet these are the people who launched a revolution in philosophy with the idea of the inner-self and that self’s freedom in spite of the circumstances it is contained in. I have a niggling argument about whether they truly ‘invented’ the idea of self, as the founding fathers of the United States were big on self-determination, which requires an acknowledgement of the inner self’s freedom, a full quarter of a century earlier, and the French revolution was certainly fuelled by a desire by the people to break away from the established monarch in order to find liberty and equality, neither of which is really possible without some awareness of self. Still, the Jena set were unarguably the first to codify the philosophical implications of the self and how it fits in the whole of the natural world.

So why did I rate the book so highly? Because Andrea Wulf’s writing was superb. I mean, I liked almost none of these people, and yet, I kept reading with avid interest. Only a talented writer can do that. She brought everyone to life – for better or for worse – and placed them into the context of the times they lived in, giving the reader a very real sense of what Jena was like from 1794 through to the battle of Jena in 1806. So highly do I think of Wulf’s writing, that I recently checked out the audiobook of another of her works, Chasing Venus about the race to measure the heavens, something about which I could not care less about. Space holds no interest for me, but I am certain Wulf will make me care about the race to measure it, and the individuals who believed it was worth doing.

I read this as a buddy read with BrokenTune, Jaylia Reads and Lillelara. I posted reading updates on our group site, which I’m appending below, under the ‘read more’ break.

Continue reading Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self

Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-nine (Stephanie Plum, #29)

Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-nine
by Janet Evanovich
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781035401932
Series: Stephanie Plum #29
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
Pages: 324
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Headline Review

Monday mornings aren't supposed to be fun, but they should be predictable. However, on this particular Monday, Stephanie Plum knows that something is amiss when she turns up for work at Vinnie's Bail Bonds to find that longtime office manager Connie Rosolli, who is as reliable as the tides in Atlantic City, hasn't shown up.

Stephanie's worst fears are confirmed when she gets a call from Connie's abductor. He says he will only release her in exchange for a mysterious coin that a recently murdered man left as collateral for his bail. Unfortunately, this coin, which should be in the office - just like Connie -is nowhere to be found.

The quest to discover the coin, learn its value, and save Connie will require the help of Stephanie's Grandma Mazur, her best pal Lula, her boyfriend Morelli, and hunky security expert Ranger. As they get closer to unravelling the reasons behind Connie's kidnapping, Connie's captor grows more threatening, and soon Stephanie has no choice but to throw caution to the wind, follow her instincts, and go rogue. She is more shocked by the results than anyone.

I think just about everyone who might possibly read this has read Evanovich’s Plum series, and everyone knows they are the literary equivalent of slapstick comedy, and they can often be hit or miss. I’ve stuck with the series this long because at least once a year I need slapstick in my life, and because I also appreciate Evanovich’s interesting decision to embrace the status quo when it comes to Plum’s romantic life. This is a rare case of what I wouldn’t be able to abide in real life, I can enjoy in the fictional one, especially as it’s all above board.

Anyway, this one was a hit for me. The plot was good, the tension was sharp, and the humor was laugh-out-loud in several spots. At one point, MT looked over at me and asked it I was going to be ok, because I was gasping with laughter. For many Lulu is what makes them laugh (and she had at least one moment in this one), but for me it’s the oldies the bring tears of laughter to my eyes. Evanovich has a way with the oldies, and I can only imagine what her family dinners must be like.

I hope these last two books are a sign of things to come, because it feels like Plum and company (and their author) have found their stride, and I’m already looking forward to #30.

Magic Tides (Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years #1)

Magic Tides
by Illona Andrews
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 978164197529
Series: Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years #1
Publication Date: January 17, 2023
Pages: 146
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: NYLA Publishing

Kate, Curran and their son, Conlan have left Atlanta, vowing to keep a low profile, and are settling into a new city and new house…but some things never change! Magical mayhem is about to erupt when Kate undertakes the rescue of a kidnapped youth, while Curran guards the homefront.

It should be a simple retrieval, but with monsters on land and sea, Kate’s got her work cut out for her. Still, she's never let her blade dull or her purpose falter. And that low profile? It’s about to wash away with the raging tides!

Just when I thought Kate Daniels was through and I was reduced to catching glimpses or mentions of her through Andrews’ other same-universe series, out comes this little novella, re-whetting my appetite for Kate and Curran adventures.

It was almost perfect. I understand moving Kate and Curran to another city allows for a fresh set of adventures with new fiends to fight and friends/alliances to make, but I still knocked .5 a star off because I miss the old friends, dammit! Not all of them, but I’d have really liked Barabas and Christopher to stick around.

Even without them, the story was excellent. Very tightly written (and well edited!) with a plot that’s constantly moving forward, a lot of action, and a fair number of bad guys dying, with the humorous dialog that always make these books fun to read, even when the content gets a bit dark.

In my last review of an Andrews’ work, I bemoaned their decision to break completely from traditional publishing and stated a number of reasons why I thought it was less than ideal; I’ll add another (purely selfish) reason: with no traditional publishing contract, it’s anyone’s guess as to when – or even if – they’ll get around to writing another Wilmington Years story. It’s hard enough to wait for a favourite series when you know it’s scheduled; it’s excruciating when you’re left at the whim of the author. Still, fingers crossed, because it’s obvious Kate and Curran aren’t ready to be retired just yet.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
by Sangu Mandanna
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9781399709866
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
Pages: 318
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon has lived her life by three rules: hide your magic, keep your head down, and stay away from other witches. An orphan raised by strangers from a young age, Mika is good at being alone, and she doesn't mind it . . . mostly.
But then an unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches, and Mika jumps at the chance for a different life.
Nowhere House is nothing like she expects, and she's quickly tangled up in the lives and secrets of its quirky, caring inhabitants . . . and Jamie, the handsome, prickly librarian who would do anything to protect his charges, and who sees Mika's arrival as a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika finds her feet, the thought of belonging somewhere starts to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and soon Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect the found family she didn't know she was looking for . . .

This was just what I needed after a run of mediocre reads. It’s cute, but not cutesy or twee – it definitely has a cozy vibe going on, as nothing about the story is dark. There is a lot of dysfunction though, and a lot of magic, and at least 1 overly-precocious 8 year old who talks like a sassy and hilarious 30 year old. I enjoyed the little twist at the end that I probably should have seen coming, but I was too relaxed in the story to pay all that much attention to care about what was coming next.

A well-written, fun read.

Clarke

Clarke
by Holly Throsby
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9781760878740
Publication Date: November 1, 2022
Pages: 406
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

On a hot morning in 1991 in the regional town of Clarke, Barney Clarke (no relation) is woken by the unexpected arrival of many policemen: they are going to search his backyard for the body of a missing woman.

Next door, Leonie Wallace and little Joe watch the police cars through their kitchen window. Leonie has been waiting six years for this day. She is certain that her friend Ginny Lawson is buried in that backyard.

But the fate of Ginny Lawson is not the only mystery in Clarke. Barney lives alone in a rented house with a ring on his finger, but where is Barney's wife? Leonie lives with four-year-old Joe, but where is Joe's mother?

Clarke is a story of family and violence, of identity and longing, of unlikely connections and the comedy of everyday life. At its centre stands Leonie Wallace, a travel agent who has never travelled, a warm woman full of love and hope and grief, who would do anything in the world for Joe.

This is Throsby’s third book, and, I think, the … not weakest, but least complicated, in terms of story. It’s also probably the most accessible in terms of vernacular; a few things were purely Aussie, but understandable in context. I didn’t need my handy-dandy MT-dictionary to decipher cultural references or some of the more obscure slang.

Unlike in the previous books, that where the stories were more centred on the community, Clarke focuses on two people, neighbours but strangers, both of whom are deeply damaged people after suffering significant tragedies. When the police show up to Barney’s newly rented home with a warrant to search for the body of a missing woman who lived there 6 years previous, Barney is forced out of his shell, and he begins to interact with his neighbours Leonie.

Throsby weaves the memories of each of their tragedies throughout the narrative, so that the real stories behind each unfurl every so slowly, as the search for Ginny Lawson’s body continues on. It’s a bit maddening, but worthwhile at the end as she brings everything together. It’s not a story with a happy ending, but it at least ends on a hopeful note. Throsby does something a little different, too, as she leaves the reader with more information than the characters have, and I think it works.

The tag line on the cover isn’t really good marketing; this really isn’t a mystery. But it is a very good story, that just happens to center on the search for a body.

Murder at the Serpentine Bridge (Wrexford & Sloane Mystery, #6)

Murder at the Serpentine Bridge
by Andrea Penrose
Rating: ★★★
isbn: 9781496732538
Series: Wrexford & Sloane #6
Publication Date: September 27, 2022
Pages: 361
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Kensington

Charlotte, now the Countess of Wrexford, would like nothing more than a summer of peace and quiet with her new husband and their unconventional family and friends. Still, some social obligations must be honored, especially with the grand Peace Celebrations unfolding throughout London to honor victory over Napoleon.

But when Wrexford and their two young wards, Raven and Hawk, discover a body floating in Hyde Park’s famous lake, that newfound peace looks to be at risk. The late Jeremiah Willis was the engineering genius behind a new design for a top-secret weapon, and the prototype is missing from the Royal Armory’s laboratory. Wrexford is tasked with retrieving it before it falls into the wrong hands. But there are unsettling complications to the case—including a family connection.

Soon, old secrets are tangling with new betrayals, and as Charlotte and Wrexford spin through a web of international intrigue and sumptuous parties, they must race against time to save their loved ones from harm—and keep the weapon from igniting a new war . . .

Is platitudinal a word? My spell checker thinks it is, but when I ask it to define it, I get the definition for latitudinal.

Anyway, this book is platitudinal, as in full of the platitudes. All about love, and family, and friendship, which is all very nice, but not why I read mysteries. Still, this book was better than the last one, which just about put me off the series entirely. This one featured a plot of international intrigue entering around the London Peace Celebrations that took place after the Napoleonic war ended. Penrose was clever; she wrote the story in such a way that I was sure it was transparent and I was going to be annoyed … but while I did figure out one part of the solution, I was totally wrong about the other. There was also some double crossing and double dealing going on that made the whole thing more complicated than it looked. Overall, it was a decent story, but not as compelling as the earliest entries.

At the end the author includes a note that clearly delineates what is historically factual and what she made up (which was actually not as much as I’d have guessed).

Cat Lady

Cat Lady
by Dawn O'Porter
Rating: ★★½
isbn: 9780008385408
Publication Date: November 3, 2022
Pages: 342
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins

CAT LADY [n.]
Single, independent, crazy, aloof, on-the-shelf, lives alone . . .

It’s safer for Mia to play the part that people expect. She’s a good wife to her husband Tristan, a doting stepmother, she slips on her suit for work each morning like a new skin.

But beneath the surface, there’s another woman just clawing to get out . . .

When a shocking event shatters the conventional life she’s been so careful to build, Mia is faced with a choice. Does she live for a society that’s all too quick to judge, or does she live for herself?

And if that’s as an independent woman with a cat, then the world better get ready . . .

When am I going to learn about impulse buying? Anyone who knows me knows why I grabbed this book – how could I possibly walk away from a book called the Cat Lady?

I should have. I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but this was the most gratuitously vulgar book I’ve read in memory and I mean gratuitously, graphically vulgar in that way that British writers can excel at and make it sound like that’s just the way everybody talks. I realise everybody grows more conservative as they age, but I’d have found this as over the top offensive 30 years ago as I do now.

I really wanted to DNF it after chapter 3, the first time the author wallows in the vulgarity, but I really hoped it was a one-off thing, the way so many author’s will have that one, obligatory explicit sex scene. In the space between chapter 3 and the next spree of vulgarity there was a compelling and touching story, so I committed myself to the end.

If this book had been written without all the how-disgustingly-explicit-can-I-get; if the author had left all that crap out – this would have possibly been a 4.5, maybe even 5 star read. One that required a box of tissues by one’s side. Because the parts in between are lovely, touching, and so often on-point about how much love and acceptance pets bring to our lives and how important they can become to us.

There’s a character in this book that’s described as a genuinely kind, loving, grieving man who hide his true self behind a wall of angry tattoos that cover his body. This story is exactly that – a genuinely lovely story hidden behind an almost impenetrable wall of graphic vulgarity.